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A clinical trial of LMTM (TauRx Therapeutics, Ltd.) in people with mild to moderate Alzheimer's failed to demonstrate a treatment benefit in the primary analysis of the full study population in both doses tested. However, in a pre-planned analysis of a small subgroup of the study population that received LMTM as a monotherapy, there was a statistically significant benefit on cognitive and functional outcomes, and slowing of brain atrophy. The study drug is thought to reduce the accumulation of the protein tau, which normally stabilizes neurons, into potentially toxic tangles.

"It is a significant event in the history of Alzheimer's and dementia research that this Phase 3 anti-tau trial has been completed and the results reported at the Alzheimer's Association International Conference," said Maria C. Carrillo, PhD, Alzheimer's Association chief science officer. "In Alzheimer's, the most likely scenario for successful future treatment is addressing the disease from multiple angles. Having a drug that targets tau complete a Phase 3 trial is a very hopeful sign."

Carrillo added, "We learn a great deal from every clinical trial  for example, about how to best conduct therapy trials in older populations, how to recruit participants and properly screen them for inclusion in trials, how to measure the impact of the intervention, and the side effects of various drug therapies. These all are extraordinarily important as we advance steadily toward better therapies and preventions for Alzheimer's and other dementias; and particularly as we envision those interventions being delivered in combination. For example, combinations of drugs that target amyloid and tau and perhaps also inflammation, and combinations of drug interventions with lifestyle changes and protective factors."

Alzheimer's is the most common form of dementia, a general term for memory loss and other intellectual abilities serious enough to interfere with daily life. Alzheimer's disease accounts for 60 to 80 percent of dementia cases. According to Alzheimer's Association's 2016 Alzheimer's Disease Facts and Figures, of the 5.4 million Americans with Alzheimer's, an estimated 5.2 million people are age 65 and older, and approximately 200,000 individuals are under age 65 (younger-onset Alzheimer's).

According to the World Alzheimer Report 2015 from Alzheimer's Disease International, an estimated 46.8 million people worldwide are living with dementia in 2015. This number will almost double every 20 years, reaching 74.7 million in 2030 and 131.5 million in 2050.

Two abnormal structures called amyloid plaques and tau tangles are prime suspects in damaging and killing nerve cells in Alzheimer's. Though most people develop some plaques and tangles as they age, those with Alzheimer's tend to develop far more. Many studies have confirmed a link between the spread of tau tangles and the severity of dementia symptoms.

First Phase 3 Results of a Drug (LMTM, TauRx) Targeting Abnormal Tau Protein in Alzheimer's Disease

According to published studies, leuco-methylthioninium-bis(hydromethanesulfonate) (LMTM, TauRx Therapeutics) acts as a selective tau aggregation inhibitor in vitro and in transgenic mouse models. Phase 2 clinical trial results in mild to moderate Alzheimer's of the precursor compound as monotherapy (methylthioninium chloride, also known as methylene blue, brand name "rember") were reported at the 2008 Alzheimer's Association International Conference on Alzheimer's Disease. The Phase 3 study reported at AAIC 2016 uses a novel chemical entity to provide the drug in a stable reduced form permitting higher doses to be absorbed.

Researchers from TauRx and colleagues conducted a 15-month double-blind, placebo-controlled trial (NCT01689246) in 891 people (62% female) with probable Alzheimer's who had a Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) score in the range 14-26, Clinical Dementia Rating (CDR) score of 1-2, and were younger than 90 years. Participants were recruited at 115 sites across 16 countries in Europe, North America, Asia and Russia. Approved Alzheimer's treatments were being taken by 85% of study participants. The mean age was 70.6 years and baseline MMSE score was 18.7.

Participants were randomized 3:3:4 to receive oral LMTM at doses of 150 or 250 mg/day or control (containing LMTM 8 mg/day, to maintain blinding), respectively, and stratified by disease severity, global region and whether or not they were taking an Alzheimer's medication. Primary efficacy outcomes were change from baseline on standard measures of cognition and function  the Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Scale cognitive subscale (ADAS-Cog) and Alzheimer's Disease Cooperative Study-Activities of Daily Living (ADCS-ADL). Secondary outcomes included assessment every three months by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) as a disease modifying outcome, the Alzheimer's Disease Cooperative StudyClinical Global Impression of Change (ADCS-CGIC) and MMSE. ADAS-cog and ADCS-ADL assessments were performed at baseline and every 13 weeks thereafter. Cranial MRI scans were performed at baseline/screening and every 13 weeks.

As reported at AAIC 2016, in the full study population, neither intervention arm of the trial was different from placebo. However, in a prespecified analysis of a subgroup of the study population that was not taking an approved Alzheimer's therapy at the beginning of the study (in other words, who received LMTM as a monotherapy), there was a statistically significant benefit on the cognitive and functional outcomes, and brain atrophy measured by MRI.

More than 80 percent of study participants experienced at least one adverse event. The most common adverse events were gastrointestinal disorders, nervous system disorders, infections and infestations, and renal and urinary disorders.

"The study results failed to demonstrate a treatment benefit on either of the co-primary outcomes at either dose in the prespecified primary analysis. However, additional analyses are very encouraging and showed that patients taking LMTM as monotherapy had significantly lower decline than control patients or those taking LMTM as an add-on to existing Alzheimer's treatments," said Serge Gauthier, C.M., MD, FRCPC, Professor in the Departments of Neurology & Neurosurgery, Psychiatry, Medicine, at McGill University, and Director of the Alzheimer Disease and Related Disorders Research Unit of the McGill University Research Centre for Studies in Aging, Douglas Mental Health University Institute, and first author on the study abstract submitted to AAIC 2016.

Carrillo said, "The results of this Phase 3 trial are interesting but also complex, and it will take time for the field to determine what they mean. The small number of participants receiving the study drug as monotherapy raises very important questions. Additional research is needed to help us understand these findings so that more and better Alzheimer's therapies can be created and effectively tested."

About AAIC

The Alzheimer's Association International Conference (AAIC) is the world's largest gathering of researchers from around the world focused on Alzheimer's and other dementias. As a part of the Alzheimer's Association's research program, AAIC serves as a catalyst for generating new knowledge about dementia and fostering a vital, collegial research community.

AAIC 2016 home page: www.alz.org/aaic/

AAIC 2016 newsroom: www.alz.org/aaic/press.asp

About the Alzheimer's Association

The Alzheimer's Association is the leading voluntary health organization in Alzheimer's care, support and research. Our mission is to eliminate Alzheimer's disease through the advancement of research, to provide and enhance care and support for all affected, and to reduce the risk of dementia through the promotion of brain health. Our vision is a world without Alzheimer's. Visit alz.org or call 800.272.3900.

Serge Gauthier , MD, et al. Phase 3 Trial of the Tau Aggregation Inhibitor Leuco-Methylthioninium-Bis (hydromethanesulfonate) (LMTM) in Mild to Moderate Alzheimer's Disease. (Funder: TauRx Therapeutics)

Proposal ID: O4-08-02

Oral Session, Wednesday, July 27, 2016: 4:15 PM - 5:45 PM, #2314

Theme Selection: Clinical Therapeutics: Clinical Trials  Tau and Inflammation

Phase 3 Trial of the Tau Aggregation Inhibitor Leuco-Methylthioninium-Bis (hydromethanesulfonate) (LMTM) in Mild to Moderate Alzheimer's Disease

Presenting Author: Serge Gauthier, MD

McGill University Research Centre for Studies in Aging, Verdun QC, Canada

[email protected]

Twelfth Author: Claude Wischik, MD, PhD

TauRx Therapeutics Ltd

University of Aberdeen, UK

[email protected]

Background: Leuco-methylthioninium-bis(hydromethanesulfonate) (LMTM; TRx-0237) is a novel stabilized reduced form of the methylthioninium (MT) moiety (Harrington et al. J Biol Chem 2015;290:10862) with potential for efficacy in treatment of Alzheimer's disease (AD). A previous trial using the oxidized form of MT identified dose dependent absorption limitations (Wischik et al. J Alzheimers Dis 2015;44:705). LMTM is better absorbed and tolerated (Baddeley et al. J Pharmacol Exptl Therapeutics 2015;352:110) permitting higher doses to be tested. It acts as a selective tau aggregation inhibitor in vitro (Harrington et al. J Biol Chem 2015;290:10862) and in transgenic mouse models (Melis et al. Behav Pharmacol 2015;26:353).

Methods: The present 15-month double-blind, placebo-controlled trial (NCT01689246) was performed in patients with probable AD, Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) score in the range 14-26, Clinical Dementia Rating (CDR) 1-2 and age < 90 years. Patients were randomized 3:3:4 to receive oral LMTM at doses of 150 or 250 mg/day or placebo (containing 8 mg/day, to maintain blinding) respectively. Primary efficacy outcomes were change from baseline on cognitive (Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Scale cognitive subscale; ADAS-Cog) and functional (Alzheimer's Disease Cooperative Study Activities of Daily Living; ADCS-ADL) scores. Three-monthly assessment included magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) as a disease modifying outcome. Other secondary outcomes included ADCS-CGIC and MMSE.

Results: A total of 891 patients were randomized, of whom 62% were female. Approved AD treatments were being taken in 85%. The mean age was 70.6 (SD 9.0) years and baseline MMSE score was 18.7 (SD 3.4). Dementia was of moderate severity (MMSE score 14-19) in 61%. The study efficacy and safety outcomes will be reported.

Conclusions: The outcomes of this phase 3 trial will highlight the potential therapeutic value of tau aggregation inhibitor therapy in AD. A second phase 3 trial of LMTM for AD will be completed and reported later in 2016.

SOURCE Alzheimer's Association

Related Links

http://www.alz.org


RIDGEFIELD, Conn., July 27, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Inc. today announced the initiation of a new clinical study, INMARK, investigating the effect of Ofev (nintedanib) on specific blood biomarkers that may identify greater scarring (fibrosis) and loss of lung function in patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF).

Biomarkers are substances that can be objectively measured to help predict disease prognosis. INMARK will measure biomarkers that reflect substances associated with extracellular matrix (ECM) turnover, which is part of healthy tissue maintenance. However, uncontrolled or excessive turnover is a key driver for the structural change seen in IPF lungs, leading to progressive scarring and loss of lung function. By examining values and changes from baseline, it may be possible to determine those with most active fibrosis as well as describe the potential response to Ofev treatment. Furthermore, correlating biomarker concentrations with final pulmonary function tests may identify early predictors for pulmonary progression.

IPF is a debilitating and serious lung disease that causes permanent scarring of the lung tissue and loss of lung function over time. Early initiation of treatment may be crucial to help slow disease progression. Advancements have been made in the treatment of IPF with the availability of drugs such as Ofev, which has been shown to slow disease progression by reducing the decline of lung function across three clinical trials.

"Despite advances in IPF, physicians are still uncertain when to start treatment because there are differences in disease progression across IPF patients. Biomarkers may inform us on how the disease will progress in Ofev-treated patients and identify earlier response prior to showing definitive pulmonary function changes," said Imre Noth, M.D., Professor of Medicine and Director of the Interstitial Lung Disease Program at the University of Chicago. "The INMARK study may provide important insights for physicians on the impact of Ofev treatment on specific IPF biomarkers in patients with preserved lung function."

"We are proud to initiate INMARK as it is the first study to investigate the effects of an IPF treatment on biomarkers that may be predictive of IPF progression," said Martina Flammer, M.D., vice president, Clinical Development & Medical Affairs Specialty Care, Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Inc. "In a disease that displays variable rates of progression, identification of biomarkers that could allow physicians to identify and monitor individual disease progression and treatment successes in patients with IPF is essential. We hope that the identification of these biomarkers, particularly early in the disease, has the potential to improve treatment and enable better delivery of patient care."

INMARK is one of a number of new trials recently initiated by Boehringer Ingelheim to provide the scientific community with important information on the safety of Ofev in combination with other drugs and across different patient populations. This is part of Boehringer Ingelheim's continued commitment to tackling the global burden of progressive fibrotic lung diseases.

About INMARK

INMARK study will investigate the effect of OFEV on the rate of change of ECM turnover biomarkers compared to placebo in patients with IPF. Two thirds of patients will be treated with placebo for the first 12 weeks of the trial; one third of the patients will receive treatment with nintedanib (150 mg twice daily). Following the 12 week placebo controlled period, all patients in the trial will continue further treatment with nintedanib for 40 weeks. This will allow active treatment for patients previously on placebo. The study aims to include 350 patients across Australia, Asia, Europe and North America.

About Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis (IPF)

IPF is a rare and serious lung disease that causes permanent scarring of the lungs. It affects as many as 132,000 Americans, typically men over the age of 65. Early diagnosis and proper care are critical to helping people treat their condition.

About OFEV (nintedanib)

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved OFEV for the treatment of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) on October 15, 2014. OFEV is one of the first FDA-approved drug treatments for IPF and the only kinase inhibitor approved to treat this disease.

The approval was based on findings from a robust clinical trial program involving more than 1,200 patients with IPF worldwide, and included the Phase II TOMORROW trial and the Phase III INPULSIS trials (INPULSIS-1 and INPULSIS-2. All these studies were randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trials comparing OFEV 150 mg twice daily to placebo for 52 weeks. Both INPULSIS trials were identically designed while the TOMORROW study design was similar.

What is OFEV?

OFEV is a prescription medicine used to treat people with a lung disease called idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). It is not known if OFEV is safe and effective in children.

IMPORTANT SAFETY INFORMATION

What is the most important information I should know about OFEV (nintedanib)?

OFEV can cause harm, birth defects or death to an unborn baby. Women should not become pregnant while taking OFEV. Women who are able to become pregnant should have a pregnancy test before starting treatment and should use birth control during and for at least 3 months after your last dose. If you become pregnant while taking OFEV, tell your doctor right away.

What should I tell my doctor before using OFEV? Before you take OFEV, tell your doctor if you have:

liver problems

heart problems

a history of blood clots

a bleeding problem or a family history of a bleeding problem

had recent surgery in your stomach (abdominal) area

any other medical conditions.

Tell your doctor if you:

are pregnant or plan to become pregnant.

are breastfeeding or plan to breastfeed. It is not known if OFEV passes into your breast milk. You should not breastfeed while taking OFEV.

breastfeed while taking OFEV. are a smoker. You should stop smoking prior to taking OFEV and avoid smoking during treatment.

Tell your doctor about all the medicines you take, including prescription and over-the-counter medicines, vitamins, herbal supplements such as St. John's wort.

What are the possible side effects of OFEV?

OFEV may cause serious side effects.

TELL YOUR DOCTOR RIGHT AWAY if you are experiencing any side effects, including:

Liver problems . Unexplained symptoms may include yellowing of your skin or the white part of your eyes (jaundice), dark or brown (tea colored) urine, pain on the upper right side of your stomach area (abdomen), bleeding or bruising more easily than normal or feeling tired. Your doctor will do blood tests regularly to check how well your liver is working during your treatment with OFEV.

. Unexplained symptoms may include yellowing of your skin or the white part of your eyes (jaundice), dark or brown (tea colored) urine, pain on the upper right side of your stomach area (abdomen), bleeding or bruising more easily than normal or feeling tired. Your doctor will do blood tests regularly to check how well your liver is working during your treatment with OFEV. Diarrhea, nausea, and vomiting . Your doctor may recommend that you drink fluids or take medicine to treat these side effects. Tell your doctor if you have these symptoms, if they do not go away, or get worse and if you are taking over-the-counter laxatives, stool softeners, and other medicines or dietary supplements.

. Your doctor may recommend that you drink fluids or take medicine to treat these side effects. Tell your doctor if you have these symptoms, if they do not go away, or get worse and if you are taking over-the-counter laxatives, stool softeners, and other medicines or dietary supplements. Heart attack. Symptoms of a heart problem may include chest pain or pressure, pain in your arms, back, neck or jaw, or shortness of breath.

Symptoms of a heart problem may include chest pain or pressure, pain in your arms, back, neck or jaw, or shortness of breath. Stroke. Symptoms of a stroke may include numbness or weakness on 1 side of your body, trouble talking, headache, or dizziness.

Symptoms of a stroke may include numbness or weakness on 1 side of your body, trouble talking, headache, or dizziness. Bleeding problems . OFEV may increase your chances of having bleeding problems. Tell your doctor if you have unusual bleeding, bruising, or wounds that do not heal and/or if you are taking a blood thinner, including prescription blood thinners and over-the-counter aspirin.

. OFEV may increase your chances of having bleeding problems. Tell your doctor if you have unusual bleeding, bruising, or wounds that do not heal and/or if you are taking a blood thinner, including prescription blood thinners and over-the-counter aspirin. Tear in your stomach or intestinal wall (perforation). OFEV may increase your chances of having a tear in your stomach or intestinal wall. Tell your doctor if you have pain or swelling in your stomach area.

The most common side effects of OFEV are diarrhea, nausea, stomach pain, vomiting, liver problems, decreased appetite, headache, weight loss, and high blood pressure.

These are not all the possible side effects of OFEV. For more information, ask your doctor or pharmacist. You are encouraged to report negative side effects of prescription drugs to the FDA. Visit www.fda.gov/medwatch or call 1-800-FDA-1088.

Click here full Prescribing Information, including Patient Information.

About Boehringer Ingelheim

Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Inc., based in Ridgefield, CT, is the largest U.S. subsidiary of Boehringer Ingelheim Corporation.

Boehringer Ingelheim is one of the world's 20 leading pharmaceutical companies. Headquartered in Ingelheim, Germany, the company operates globally with 145 affiliates and more than 47,000 employees. Since its founding in 1885, the family-owned company has been committed to researching, developing, manufacturing and marketing novel treatments for human and veterinary medicine.

Boehringer Ingelheim is committed to improving lives and providing valuable services and support to patients and their families. Our employees create and engage in programs that strengthen our communities. To learn more about how we make more health for more people, visit our Corporate Social Responsibility Report.

In 2015, Boehringer Ingelheim achieved net sales of about $15.8 billion (14.8 billion euros). R&D expenditure corresponds to 20.3 percent of its net sales.

For more information please visit www.us.boehringer-ingelheim.com, or follow us on Twitter @BoehringerUS.

Contact:

Boehringer Ingelheim, Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

Name: Paul Wynn

Public Relations

Phone: 203-798-4887

Email: [email protected]

SOURCE Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

Related Links

http://us.boehringer-ingelheim.com


GAINESVILLE and BOCA RATON, Fla., July 27, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Florida Institute for the Commercialization of Public Research (the Institute) announced today that it has finalized a funding agreement with Mend VIP, an Orlando-based company with technology developed at the University of Central Florida. The Institute supports new company creation based on publicly-funded research, and bridges early funding gaps for companies spinning out of Florida-based universities and research institutions.

Patients are faced with many challenges when scheduling physician appointments, waiting to be examined, and receiving follow-up communication. Mend VIP provides proprietary triage, no-wait, and telemedicine technology that virtualizes a large percentage of care where an in-person exam is not needed, resulting in an improved patient and physician experience.

"We help providers create a modern healthcare experience for their patients while enhancing their bottom lines," said Matt McBride, Mend VIP's founder and Chief Executive Officer. "With intelligent scheduling, advanced telemedicine technology, and streamlined communications throughout the entire process, our approach will improve both patient and physician satisfaction."

"The Mend VIP platform is addressing a significant need in the healthcare system, and the Institute looks forward to the company's future growth and success," said Jackson Streeter, MD, Institute Chief Executive Officer.

About the Institute

Formed by the Florida Legislature in 2007, the Florida Institute for the Commercialization of Public Research is a non-profit organization that works collaboratively with the technology licensing and commercialization offices of Florida's state universities and private research institutions to leverage a $2B+ research base and form investable companies that create clean jobs in new industries that are driving the global economy. With funding from the State of Florida through the Department of Economic Opportunity, and through the generosity of mentors, advisors and donors, the Institute provides company building services, and seed funding through the Florida Technology Seed Capital Fund, to promising Florida startups. Fifty-three companies have been funded to date, and the Institute's economic impact through June 30, 2015 was $379 million, a return on investment of 14 times to the State of Florida.

About Mend VIP

Mend VIP is a versatile and leading team of PhD's, technologists, entrepreneurs, developers, and creative problem solvers who are passionate about delivering a better, happier healthcare experience. Mend helps private practices and health systems deploy successful telemedicine strategies that navigate the existing regulatory environments in each state.

CONTACT:

Jane Teague

Chief Operating Officer

Institute for the Commercialization of Public Research

561-368-8889

[email protected]

SOURCE Florida Institute for the Commercialization of Public Research

Related Links

http://www.florida-institute.com


MCLEAN, Virginia, July 27, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- With sadness, and on behalf of all Associates, Mars, Incorporated announced that Forrest E. Mars, Jr. passed away at the age of 84 on July 26, 2016. Mr. Mars was:

A businessman, who together with his brother John and sister Jacqueline, inherited a significant business and grew it into one of the worlds largest and most respected family firms, increasing its sales from $1 billion to $35 billion, and providing 80,000 jobs worldwide for Associates in 78 countries.

A passionate believer in the benefits of a global economy for everyone, devoting much of his and his brothers working life to building Mars internationally, expanding its presence first in Europe, Australia and Japan, and then in countries like Russia, China, Mexico and Brazil and in the Middle East.

A visionary, who codified, together with his brother and sister, a strong set of business values about creating a mutuality of benefits for all stakeholders of Mars, Incorporated, which they inherited from their father, into The Five Principles that guide the business worldwide; a constitution for the company that has made it a positive force in the world.

A leading philanthropist, locally and internationally, supporting environmental preservation projects, like the American Prairie Reserve, and numerous projects in support of American history, such as the Brinton Museum of Western and American Indian Art in Big Horn, Wyoming, or the Mars Hall of American Business at the American History Museum.

An explorer, who loved adventuring in his expedition ship in some of the wildest places in the globe, including navigating the North West passage, while also sponsoring and often joining an annual trip for students from Hotchkiss, his old school, to Antarctica.

An intensely private family man, who leaves his wife, four children, eleven grandchildren, two great grandchildren, numerous other extended family members, and a legacy as a man who insisted repeatedly that everyones work should be fun and meaningful.

Forrest was a great inspiration to all of us at Mars, Incorporated, said Grant F. Reid, CEO and Office of the President for Mars, Incorporated. He was instrumental in building our business, while remaining committed to the founding principles of the company. Forrest will be sorely missed, but his contributions and the legacy he leaves behind at Mars will be long-lasting.

All funeral arrangements are being handled privately.

Background

Forrest E. Mars, Jr. dedicated himself to building Mars, Incorporated as a principles-led business that creates mutual benefits for all stakeholders.

Mr. Mars began his career in 1955 as a certified public accountant, working as an auditor for Price Waterhouse after serving in the United States Army for two years. He joined Mars, Incorporated  then, a business of less than $100 million in revenue  as a financial staff officer for M&Ms Candies in 1959.

Two years later, Mr. Mars was appointed general manager of a new confectionery factory to be built in Veghel, Netherlands, beginning a journey that would take the winning portfolio of Mars products to new geographies; expanding Mars presence globally. Beginning with five Associates, he oversaw construction of what is now one of the largest chocolate factories in the world. He managed the factory until 1966, when he moved with his family to Neuilly-sur-Seine, outside of Paris, to become managing director of Mars France.

During Mr. Mars four-year tenure in Paris, the company expanded its pet food business through the 1967 acquisition of Unisabi, creating a strong foundation for future growth in France, which continued well into the 21st century with the 2002 acquisition of Royal Canin. Today, across more than 20 sites in France, Mars provides direct employment for thousands of Associates in Petcare, Chocolate, Food, Drinks, Wrigley and Symbioscience and touches the lives of thousands more in its operating communities.

Mr. Mars moved to McLean, Virginia, in 1970 to assume responsibility for the companys confectionery operations as group vice president. In McLean, Mr. Mars worked alongside his brother, John, also a group vice president, who managed the companys pet food, vending and money systems operations. Eventually, the two brothers took joint responsibility for all company functions and, in 1975, they became co-presidents of Mars, Incorporated. At that time, the companys net sales were just over $1 billion. Over the course of their leadership they continued to expand  opening new markets, launching new brands and expanding the extended family of Mars Associates.

In 1983, Mr. Mars and his siblings, John and Jacqueline, formalized and published The Five Principles of Mars based on a business objective first expressed by their father, Forrest E. Mars, Sr., in 1947: to create mutual benefits that make a difference for people and the planet through the companys performance. These Principles  Quality, Mutuality, Responsibility, Efficiency and Freedom  continue to guide Mars, Incorporated, now a $35 billion business with more than 80,000 Associates. The Five Principles unite Associates across generations, geographies, languages and cultures and guide them in relationships with consumers, customers, business partners, communities and each other.

Following his retirement as an Associate in 1999, Mr. Mars continued to provide guidance and counsel to Mars business leaders. He served as a member of the Board of Directors until 2006, working on the Audit and Remuneration Committees, and he remained active in the Mars Foundation.

Mr. Mars was involved in a number of philanthropic and educational causes, including the Fay and Hotchkiss Schools, the Williamsburg Foundation and Yale University. He served on the Board of Trustees for the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation and was the recipient of their highest honor, the Churchill Bell, in recognition for extraordinary civic leadership and national service. Mr. Mars was Chairman of the Board of The Brinton Museum in Big Horn, Wyoming, and made possible the museums state-of the-art Forrest E. Mars, Jr. Building. In 1999, Mr. Mars and his brother established and permanently endowed the Forrest E. Mars, Sr. Visiting Professorship in Ethics, Politics and Economics at Yale University to honor their father.

In 2006, Mr. Mars was made Chevalier de la Legion dHonneur a distinction presented to him on behalf of French President Jacques Chirac by Jean David Levitte, Ambassador of France to the United States.

In 2011, Mars, Incorporateds commitment to the principle of mutuality led Mr. Mars to be awarded The Order of Friendship by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev for his particularly important contribution into strengthening Russian-American economic, trade and public connections. The Order is bestowed upon Russian citizens and foreign nationals who contribute exceptionally fruitful activities in mutual enrichment of cultures of nations and nationalities and in bringing them together, for strengthening the peace and friendly relations between states.

Born in 1931 in Oak Park, Illinois, to Forrest E. Mars, Sr. and his wife, Audrey, Mr. Mars is an alumnus of the Hotchkiss and Fay schools, earned his Bachelor of Science degree from Yale University in 1953, and his M.B.A. from the New York University School of Business in 1958. He has served as a trustee on the boards of American University, Hotchkiss School and Fay School, and participated on the Yale Development Board. Mr. Mars is survived by his wife, four children, eleven grandchildren and two great-grandchildren and many other extended family members.

About Mars, Incorporated

Mars, Incorporated is a private, family-owned business with more than a century of history and some of the best-loved brands in the world. Some of these iconic brands include PEDIGREE, ROYAL CANIN, WHISKAS, IAMS, EUKANUBA, WHISTLE, BANFIELD Pet Hospital, PET PARTNERS , CESAR, SHEBA, DREAMIES, WISDOM PANEL, BLUEPEARL, GREENIES and NUTRO; Chocolate  M&MS, SNICKERS, DOVE, GALAXY, MARS, MILKY WAY, 3 MUSKETEERS BOUNTY, MALTESERS , TWIX and AMERICAN HERITAGE; Wrigley  DOUBLEMINT, EXTRA, ORBIT and 5 chewing gums, SKITTLES and STARBURST candies, and ALTOIDS AND LIFESAVERS mints. Food  UNCLE BENS, DOLMIO, EBLY, MASTERFOODS, SEEDS OF CHANGE and ROYCO; Drinks  ALTERRA COFFEE ROASTERS, THE BRIGHT TEA COMPANY, KLIX and FLAVIA; Symbioscience  COCOAVIA.

Headquartered in McLean, Virginia, Mars has more than $35 billion in sales from six diverse business segments: Petcare, Chocolate, Wrigley, Food, Drinks and Symbioscience. More than 80,000 Associates across 78 countries are united by the company's Five Principles: Quality, Efficiency, Responsibility, Mutuality and Freedom and strive every day to create relationships with stakeholders that deliver growth we are proud of as a company.

For more information about Mars, Incorporated, please visit www.mars.com. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube.

SOURCE Mars, Incorporated
TORONTO, July 27, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Important clinical trial results in Alzheimer's disease and dementia are being reported at the 2016 Alzheimer's Association International Conference (AAIC 2016) in Toronto, Canada.

Scientists from the Netherlands found that a six-year, nurse-led vascular care intervention did not lead to a reduction of all-cause dementia in a cognitively healthy population. However, fewer cases of non-Alzheimer's dementia were observed in the intervention group compared to the control group. In addition, they saw fewer cases of incident dementia in a subgroup of people in the study with untreated hypertension who were adherent to the intervention.

"The preDIVA Study was negative on the primary outcomes. However, the other study observations suggest once again the benefits  for the head and the heart  of assessing, treating and managing heart health risk factors as we age," said Maria C. Carrillo, PhD, chief science officer, Alzheimer's Association.

Alzheimer's is the most common form of dementia, a general term for memory loss and other intellectual abilities serious enough to interfere with daily life. Alzheimer's disease accounts for 60 to 80 percent of dementia cases. According to Alzheimer's Association's 2016 Alzheimer's Disease Facts and Figures, of the 5.4 million Americans with Alzheimer's, an estimated 5.2 million people are age 65 and older, and approximately 200,000 individuals are under age 65 (younger-onset Alzheimer's).

According to the World Alzheimer Report 2015 from Alzheimer's Disease International, an estimated 46.8 million people worldwide are living with dementia in 2015. This number will almost double every 20 years, reaching 74.7 million in 2030 and 131.5 million in 2050.

Six-Year Vascular Care Intervention May Reduce New Cases of Dementia

Heart health and lifestyle-related risk factors are associated with risk of cognitive decline and dementia, but it is not fully known whether targeting these risk factors prevents dementia. In an article published in May 2015 in Alzheimer's & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer's Association, Baumgart et al wrote "there is sufficiently strong evidence, from a population-based perspective, to conclude that regular physical activity and management of cardiovascular risk factors (diabetes, obesity, smoking, and hypertension) reduce the risk of cognitive decline and may reduce the risk of dementia."

In the Prevention of Dementia By Intensive Vascular Care (preDIVA) trial, researchers in the Netherlands co-led by Dr. Edo Richard tested whether a multicomponent intervention targeting vascular risk factors can prevent new cases of dementia. Richard is a neurologist in the department of neurology at the Academic Medical Center in Amsterdam and the Radboud University medical center in Nijmegen.

The researchers conducted a six-year, open cluster-randomized controlled clinical trial in primary care where 3,526 cognitively healthy persons age 70-78 were randomized to either usual care (1,636 participants) or usual care plus three additional visits per year led by a nurse and focused on vascular care (1,890 participants). Primary outcomes were cumulative dementia incidence and disability. Main secondary outcomes were incident cardiovascular disease, mortality and dementia by subtype.

Vascular risk factors were assessed and addressed with medical and non-medical strategies in all study participants based on primary care guidelines in the Netherlands. The study intervention under investigation involved meeting with a nurse every four months to monitor and encourage compliance and to optimize treatment of vascular risk factors. Attending at least two-thirds of appointments with the nurse over the course of the study was considered adherence to the intervention.

In results reported at AAIC 2016, after a median follow-up of 6.7 years:

New cases of all-cause dementia and of Alzheimer's disease specifically did not significantly differ between groups.

Dementia other than Alzheimer's occurred significantly less frequently in the intervention group (11 (1%) of 1,743) than in the control group (23 (2%) of 1,512) (HR 0.37; p=0.007).

In a per-protocol analysis, in a subgroup of study participants with untreated hypertension who were adherent to the intervention, new dementia cases were significantly fewer in the intervention group (22 (4%) of 512) compared with the control group (35 (7%) of 471) (HR 0.54; p=0.02).

"Though we were not able to show an effect on the primary outcome, our study shows that long-term, nurse-led vascular care in an unselected population of community dwelling older people is safe and may reduce incidence of non-Alzheimer's dementia," said Richard. "In addition, we saw potentially clinically meaningful effects in lowering incident dementia in people with untreated hypertension who were adherent to the intervention."

Complete data for the primary outcome were obtained for 3,454 persons (98%). Dementia occurred in 233 participants (6.7%; 121 intervention, 112 control); 578 participants (16.4%) died. Mean blood pressure decreased significantly in both groups, but more in the intervention group than in the control group (2.1 mmHG, p<0.001).

According to the researchers, preDIVA is the largest and longest-running randomized clinical trial with incident dementia as primary outcome.

About AAIC

The Alzheimer's Association International Conference (AAIC) is the world's largest gathering of researchers from around the world focused on Alzheimer's and other dementias. As a part of the Alzheimer's Association's research program, AAIC serves as a catalyst for generating new knowledge about dementia and fostering a vital, collegial research community.

AAIC 2016 home page: www.alz.org/aaic/

AAIC 2016 newsroom: www.alz.org/aaic/press.asp

About the Alzheimer's Association

The Alzheimer's Association is the leading voluntary health organization in Alzheimer's care, support and research. Our mission is to eliminate Alzheimer's disease through the advancement of research, to provide and enhance care and support for all affected, and to reduce the risk of dementia through the promotion of brain health. Our vision is a world without Alzheimer's. Visit alz.org or call 800.272.3900.

Edo Richard, MD, PhD, et al. Prevention of Dementia By Intensive Vascular Care (preDIVA)  a Cluster-Randomized Trial. (Funders: Dutch Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport; Dutch Innovation Fund of Collaborative Health Insurances; Netherlands Organization for Health Research and Development)

SOURCE Alzheimer's Association

Related Links

http://www.alz.org


SINGAPORE, July 27, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- The oil and gas sector in the Asia-Pacific region is attracting substantial investments and giving a huge boost to the gearboxes and geared motors market. In addition to an energized oil and gas end-user segment, vendors will also benefit from new technologies that enable superior energy consumption.

New analysis from Frost & Sullivan, Asia-Pacific Gearboxes and Geared Motors Factbook (http://www.frost.com/sublib/display-report.do?id=P8DA-01-00-00-00&src=PR), finds that the market earned revenues of US$450.1 million in 2015 and is estimated to reach US$539.4 million in 2020.

"While product features and quality are important criteria for purchase, the emergence of vendors from China and Taiwan has intensified the competition in the market," noted Frost & Sullivan Industrial Automation & Process Control Research Analyst Terrence Loh.

"In addition to products of similar quality, their competitive pricing is drawing attention from the extremely cost conscious market," he added.

To offset the impact of low-cost products, companies today have to offer value-additions with their products. This will enable them to differentiate and offer their products at a premium.

"Meanwhile, end users are actively trying to lower their energy consumption and maintenance costs, prompting gearbox and geared motor vendors to supply products that facilitate better operations. In addition, manufacturers are likely to focus on developing more energy-efficient products in the near future," Loh explained.

Asia-Pacific Gearboxes and Geared Motors Factbook is part of the Industrial Automation & Process Control (http://ww2.frost.com/research/industry/industrial-automation-process-control/industrial-automation-process-control) Growth Partnership Service program. Frost & Sullivan's related studies include: Analysis of the Global Computer Numerical Controllers (CNC) Market, Global Industrial Mixers Market, M&A Analysis of Sensors and Automation Industry in North America and Europe, The Rise of Autonomous Device Networks, Global Pumps Market in the Oil and Gas Industry, and Blurring Boundary LinesThe Emergence of 3D Printing in the Water and Wastewater 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

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Subscribe: Newsletter on "the next big thing"

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Asia-Pacific Gearboxes and Geared Motors Factbook

P8DA-10

Contact:

Carrie Low

Corporate Communications  Asia Pacific

P: +603 6204 5910

F: +603 6201 7402

E: [email protected]

Melissa Tan

Corporate Communications  Asia Pacific

P: +65 6890 0926

F: +65 6890 0999

E: [email protected]

http://www.frost.com

SOURCE Frost & Sullivan

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ATLANTA, July 27, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- FSLogix, a leading innovator in engineering the enterprise class virtual workspace, today announced the general availability of FSLogix Office 365 Container for Citrix. Announced at Citrix Synergy 2016, this solution enables enterprises to get the best user performance and IT return-on-investment when using Office 365 with virtual desktops alongside of their legacy profile implementations.

FSLogix Office 365 Container includes a range of new functionality to support roaming Office 365, and builds on the award winning release of FSLogix Profile Container, released in May of 2015. This drop-in solution works with profile products from leading vendors, giving instant support for Office 365 and extending the life of existing infrastructure investments, while creating no disruption for IT or end users.

"Our customers are extremely excited about Office 365 for a variety of reasons, including reducing their internal hardware and staffing requirements, adding more predictability to their long term budgets, and moving to 'per-user' licensing models for their productivity apps," said Mark Henderson, Director of Application Services, XenTegra. "With ongoing pressure to reduce operational costs and enhance business agility, we're seeing the demand to expand the use of virtual workspaces across the broad enterprise. FSLogix plays a key and growing role in making these projects a reality today, without having to compromise on other strategic initiatives like Office 365."

Microsoft's Fastest Growing Commercial Product

"Office 365 has over 70 million commercial Monthly Active Users, and over 70% of Fortune 500 companies have purchased Office 365 in the last 12 months  it's Microsoft's fastest growing commercial product ever," said Kevin Goodman, Chief Executive Officer, FSLogix.* "Starting today, CIOs can implement virtual desktops and Office 365 without having to rip and replace their existing profile infrastructure. With this solution we're seeing enterprises recover an average of 40 hours a year in lost productivity per-employee, while dramatically reducing IT cost and labor associated with supporting these environments for enterprise quality performance."

FSLogix Office 365 Container For Citrix provides:

True Cached Exchange Mode  with patent-pending OST containerization, Outlook on XenApp and XenDesktop can now function and perform as if locally installed on a high performance workstation. Users don't need to compromise email and calendar performance to adopt strategic initiatives like virtual desktops.

 with patent-pending OST containerization, Outlook on XenApp and XenDesktop can now function and perform as if locally installed on a high performance workstation. Users don't need to compromise email and calendar performance to adopt strategic initiatives like virtual desktops. Real-Time Search  enables inbox and personal folder search to work as designed on XenDesktop, with maximum performance, and no workarounds requiring end-user training or unique behavior between physical and virtual environments.

 enables inbox and personal folder search to work as designed on XenDesktop, with maximum performance, and no workarounds requiring end-user training or unique behavior between physical and virtual environments. Plug and Play management  features a micro-application footprint with drop-in installation, GPO templates, simple rules based configuration, and the use of existing CIFS/SMB servers, improving the ROI of existing enterprise infrastructure.

 features a micro-application footprint with drop-in installation, GPO templates, simple rules based configuration, and the use of existing CIFS/SMB servers, improving the ROI of existing enterprise infrastructure. Infrastructure compatibility  works on all major virtual desktop and hosted email solutions, complimenting profile management products traditionally used in virtual workspace environments.

 works on all major virtual desktop and hosted email solutions, complimenting profile management products traditionally used in virtual workspace environments. Affordable pricing  with flexible annual subscription pricing, there's no barrier to making email on virtual desktops enterprise class.

FSLogix Apps, Application and Profile Containers, and FSLogix Office 365 Container for Citrix provide multi-platform support for all major Windows based virtual desktops, hosted email providers, and profile management products, turning virtual desktops into the enterprise class virtual workspace.

Learn more about FSLogix Office 365 Container for Citrix

Read a case study and related customer testimonials

Request an evaluation copy or schedule a custom demo

Follow FSLogix on Twitter, Facebook, and their industry blog

Review performance validation webinar using uberAgent

About FSLogix

FSLogix, a Best of Citrix Synergy winner, is a leading innovator of solutions that enable the enterprise virtual workspace, reducing the amount of hardware, time and labor required to support cloud and virtual desktops. FSLogix Apps seamlessly integrates with desktop virtualization solutions from Microsoft, Citrix, VMware, and other industry leaders. FSLogix is a Microsoft BizSpark graduate, Citrix Ready partner, and VMware Technical Alliance partner. The company is headquartered in Atlanta, GA, with offices in Orem, UT and Chelmsford, Essex, UK.

About XenTegra, LLC.

XenTegra is an IT consulting firm and reseller, focused primarily on Citrix and complementary technologies. We enable our customers and their employees to achieve the ability to work anytime, from anywhere on ANY device, utilizing their own desktop/apps safely, securely and expeditiously. Founded by consultants with a passion for the end user, XenTegra's core mission is to help customers triumph with Citrix technologies. XenTegra Focused on your Citrix success!

FSLogix and FSLogix Apps are trademarks of FSLogix. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

*Source, Brad Anderson, Microsoft, 2016 WPC

Media Contact

Brad Rowland

(678) 871-9647

This content was issued through the press release distribution service at Newswire.com. For more info visit: http://www.newswire.com.

SOURCE FSLogix
AUSTIN, Texas, July 27, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- GLG (Gerson Lehrman Group, Inc.), the world's leading platform for professional learning, today opened its innovative new office in Austin, Texas, nearly doubling its footprint as it continues its rapid growth here. The new Austin office is the firm's second largest. It was designed by award-winning architect Clive Wilkinson, who also designed GLG's global headquarters in New York City. Both GLG locations are among the largest North American implementations of activity-based working, a flexible and collaborative approach that makes for more creative and comfortable work environments. (Photographs of the new office are available at GLG.it/news.)

"Our mission is to transform the way the world's top professionals share expertise and learn while being one of the best places to work," said GLG President and CEO Alexander Saint-Amand. "This new office extends our commitment to Austin, while helping us continue to deliver on our mission and supporting our people."

Today GLG will host an open house at the new office with local civic, business, and social sector leaders. CEO Saint-Amand and architect Wilkinson will be joined by two Austin-based social entrepreneurs who are GLG Social Impact Fellows: Jason Ballard, who is the CEO, President, and Co-Founder of TreeHouse, a home design and performance company focused on health, sustainability, quality, and responsibility; and Erine Gray, who founded and leads Aunt Bertha, which uses technology to make human service program information more accessible to people and programs. The Social Impact Fellowship offers top social sector leaders free access to GLG's learning platform in order to answer their organizations' most important strategic and operational questions.

The ten-year lease covers 41,803 square feet and the entire fifteenth and sixteenth floors of 301 Congress Avenue in Downtown Austin, which is owned by CommonWealth Partners. GLG previously occupied 24,279 square feet on lower floors of 301 Congress. GLG's new office incorporates locally-sourced materials and craftwork and connects its two floors by a large atrium with a central staircase, echoing the design of GLG's New York headquarters. It also includes LED lighting, acoustic ceiling tile and carpets from recycled and 100% recyclable materials, and green guard-certified Zodiaq Quartz surfaces.

GLG Austin  like the company's offices in New York, Boston, Washington, D.C., and London  will employ activity-based working, an innovative concept that eschews assigned personal workspaces for a more flexible and productive approach to work life. Employees can choose from multiple types of private meeting and collaboration spaces, conference and training spaces, and a staffed coffee bar.

"Employees might be giving up their personal desks, but they gain the entire office," explained architect Wilkinson, the president and design director of Clive Wilkinson Architects. "By 2030 pretty much everyone will be working this way, so why not go there now?"

Clive Wilkinson Architects is an award-winning design firm responsible for Google's corporate headquarters, Googleplex, and the "Superdesk" for the Barbarian Group's New York offices, among other projects. In 2014, GLG moved into their CWA-designed global headquarters in New York City. The office was featured in the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg Businessweek, Interior Design, and Fast Company, among other publications.

GLG was founded in 1998 to serve professionals who needed perspective they couldn't find in one-size-fits-all industry reports, courses, or conferences. Today GLG facilitates thousands of connections a week between the world's leading investors, entrepreneurs, corporations, consulting firms, nonprofits, and startups and a teaching membership of 425,000 policy specialists, academics, engineers, former C-level managers, professional leaders, and other subject matter experts.

CWA was supported by local architects STG Design, led by PollyAnna Little. Aquila Commercial's Todd Tebbe managed the project for GLG.

About GLG / Gerson Lehrman Group

GLG is the world's leading platform for professional learning. Business leaders, investors, consultants, social entrepreneurs, and other top professionals rely on GLG to learn in short- and long-term engagements from more than 425,000 members and other experts. Clients partner with GLG to address their most complex strategic challenges, make better business decisions, and advance their careers through conversations, mentorships, small group convenings, surveys, and other interactionsall within a rigorous compliance framework. Global, technology-driven, and nimble, GLG's approximately 1,100 employees work in 22 offices in 12 countries. For more information visit www.GLG.it.

Contact: Jesse Parker Stowell Khalid El Khatib

[email protected] [email protected]

512-344-9341 563-607-4355

SOURCE GLG

Related Links

http://www.GLG.it


NEW YORK, July 27, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- This report provides detailed analysis of worldwide markets for Medical X-Ray Tube 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 X-Ray Tube market and further lays out an analysis of the factors influencing the supply/demand for Medical X-Ray Tube, 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.



X-ray tube, a large vacuum tube containing a tungsten filament cathode and an anode that often is a tungsten disk. When heated to incandescence, the cathode emits a cloud of electrons that produce x-rays when they strike the surface of the anode at high speed. The anode is designed to deflect the x-rays toward an object to be radiographed. X-ray tubes are produced in a variety of designs for different purposes. Low-kilovoltage x-ray tubes may contain anodes made of molybdenum rather than tungsten. Some anodes are stationary and others rotate at high speed. Because of the intense heat generated by x-ray production, the specific design usually includes devices to help dissipate the heat. Modern medical X-ray machines have been grouped into two categories: those that generate "hard" X-rays and those that generate "soft" X-rays. Soft X-rays are the kind used to photograph bones and internal organs. They operate at a relatively low frequency and, unless they are repeated too often, cause little damage to tissues.



GCC's report, Global Medical X-Ray Tube Market Outlook 2016-2021, has been prepared based on the synthesis, analysis, and interpretation of information about the global Medical X-Ray Tube 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. 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 X-Ray Tube market areVarian (USA), Dunlee (USA), IAE (Italy), Toshiba (Japan), Siemens (Germany), GE (USA), Hangzhou Wandong (China), NAGO (China), Shanghai Medical Instruments (China), Hangzhou Kailong (China).



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 X-Ray Tube industry has been provided.

Read the full report: http://www.reportlinker.com/p03866904-summary/view-report.html



About Reportlinker

ReportLinker is an award-winning market research solution. Reportlinker finds and organizes the latest industry data so you get all the market research you need - instantly, in one place.



http://www.reportlinker.com





__________________________

Contact Clare: [email protected]

US: (339)-368-6001

Intl: +1 339-368-6001

SOURCE Reportlinker

Related Links

http://www.reportlinker.com


The three chief executive officers will share the leadership of the agency and together, with the agency's executive board, drive forward Golin's ambition to be the defining agency of the decade. Hughes, Neale and Rudnick will report to Cook and IPG's CFO Frank Mergenthaler. The new structure will go into effect on January 1st, 2017 and the leadership team will work with employees and partners throughout the remainder of the year to ensure a seamless transition.

As Golin celebrates its 60th year, the agency continues to prove its commitment to bold, brave change. The inspiration for this leadership change stems from the agency's launch of g4 in 2010, when Golin completely restructured the traditional agency model from a hierarchy of generalists to communities of specialists. While great minds don't think alike, with g4, they can think better together. The same inspiration drives this announcement  together we can do more, better and faster  with a focus on specialty.

This new way forward is called CEO+ and will maximize the specialized skillsets, expertise, experience and passions of Hughes, Neale and Rudnick. The CEO+ model enables the coverage of much more ground than any one person could ever hope, inclusive of client relationships, new business development and employee engagement. Every client, employee, prospect and issue will benefit from the personal attention, passion and engagement of the CEO.

"Gary, Jon and Matt have worked together as regional presidents for the past four years. Now as CEO's, we will maximize their individual strengths and expertise across the whole of Golin, while continuing to leverage their strong relationship with each other," said Cook. "I'm excited to work with them in their new roles to ensure that Golin continues to be an industry leader."

Jon Hughes will act as CEO+International, focusing on building the agency's global footprint and managing global practices and partnerships, along with his regional responsibilities for Asia.

"To lead Golin together is a dream fulfilled," said Hughes. "Matt and I built our London office for many years together and over the past four years, the three of us have worked as a close-knit team to support and build our presence in Asia, EMEA and the Americas. This next adventure is sure to be our most challenging and exciting yet."

Matt Neale will serve as CEO+Vision, overseeing new products, thought leadership and agency reputation, in addition to his regional responsibilities for EMEA and New York. "It is our shared ambition to become the defining agency of the decade by achieving brave work for our clients and creating the most progressive agency in our industry," said Neale. "As the relevance agency, this is the most relevant structure for us to realize that ambition. We've never been afraid to do things differently. And this is another example of that."

And as CEO+Operations, Gary Rudnick will lead the business aspects of the agency including finance, HR and client management, as well as maintaining his regional responsibilities for the Americas.

"We are very serious about our commitment to honor our employees' life experiences as a foundation of life at Golin," said Rudnick. "This agency and the people that work here mean everything to us. As long-time, loyal employees and as fathers to young children, we will continue to champion the promise of Life Time."

In addition to these responsibilities, all three will continue to play a significant, active role in delivering the agency's Go All In ethos for clients and employees. Combined, the three new CEOs have invested more than 40 years with Golin in senior management roles in Chicago, Dallas, Hong Kong, London and New York. During their tenure, the agency has doubled in size and has been named agency of the year more than a dozen times.

About Golin

Golin is an integrated agency with PR, digital and content at its core. With 50 offices around the world and 60 years of experience, Golin's purpose is to create change through relevant, brave work worthy of awe and action. "Go All In" is the agency's ethos and commitment to bravery over mediocrity. Since 2014, Golin has been named PRWeek Global's International Agency of the Year; PRmoment's Large Agency of the Year; PRWeek UK's Best Agency to Work For; and UK Consultancy of the Year and a Best Place to Work by The Holmes Report. Within its revolutionary g4 model, specialist communities drive relevance using proprietary tools to plan and execute powerful campaigns. Golin is a member of Interpublic Group (NYSE: IPG). Learn more at golin.com.

Golin Media Contact

Anne Isenhower

[email protected]

404.353.6088

Logo- http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160726/393238LOGO

Photo- http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160726/393239

SOURCE Golin

Related Links

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SAN FRANCISCO and TEL AVIV, Israel, July 27, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- GuardiCore, a leader in internal data center security and breach detection, today made its Infection Monkey testing tool freely available to the public security community at large. Designed to test the resiliency of modern data centers against cyber attacks, the Infection Monkey was developed as an open source tool by GuardiCore's research group, led by seasoned cyber security researcher Ofri Ziv.

"Traditional testing tools are no longer able to effectively detect vulnerabilities in today's data center networks as they cannot continuously exploit the weakest link and propagate in-depth, resulting in a very partial view of network vulnerabilities," said Pavel Gurvich, CEO and co-founder of GuardiCore. "Our open source Infection Monkey represents a new approach that can be used to automatically test for potential security failures while operating in much the same way a real attacker would, by choosing a random starting location in the network and propagating from there, finding all possible paths of exploitation."

GuardiCore's Research Group Leader Ofri Ziv will present "Unleash the Infection Monkey: A Modern Alternative to Pen-Tests" at Black Hat 2016 on August 3 in Las Vegas. During his session Ziv will discuss the shortcomings of current approaches and address how the Infection Monkey can be of value to today's security teams, provide a glimpse of the Infection Monkey running in an unsecured environment and offer use cases for real-world security testing scenarios.

Infection Monkey Features

The Infection Monkey is a self-propagating testing tool that is able to identify and visualize the path of least resistance in the data center network. It scans the network, checking for open ports and fingerprinting machines using multiple network protocols. After detecting accessible machines, it attempts to attack every single machine using methods such as intelligent password guessing and safe exploits. It does this by leveraging available data on systems it has breached, such as stolen credentials, to automatically spread and infect other machines, clearly highlighting all vulnerable systems in its path.

The Infection Monkey provides detailed information about the specific vulnerability exploited and the effect vulnerable segments can have on the entire network, giving security teams the insights they need to make informed decisions and enforce tighter security policies. It is designed to be 100 percent safe, with no reconnaissance or propagation features that can impact server or network stability.

Infection Monkey Availability

The Infection Monkey can be downloaded at www.infectionmonkey.com. The Infection Monkey source code can also be downloaded from the GitHub repository.

Contributions

The Infection Monkey is developed on GitHub under the GPLv3 license. Contributions are welcome. Members of the public security community are invited to join GuardiCore's Infection Monkey project, contribute code, open issues and feature requests.

About GuardiCore

GuardiCore is an innovator in internal data center security focused on delivering more accurate and effective ways to stop advanced threats through real-time breach detection and response. Developed by the top cyber security experts in their field, GuardiCore is changing the way organizations are fighting cyber attacks in their data centers. For more information, visit www.guardicore.com.

CONTACT:

Cinthia Portugal

Guyer Group

[email protected]

206.619.8183

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160607/376287LOGO

SOURCE GuardiCore

Related Links

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ANNAPOLIS, Md., July 27, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Hannon Armstrong Sustainable Infrastructure Capital, Inc. ("Hannon Armstrong," "we," or the "Company;"NYSE: HASI), a leading provider of debt and equity financing to the efficiency, wind and solar markets, today announced that the Company will release its second quarter 2016 results after the market close on Wednesday, August 3, 2016, to be followed by a conference call at 5:00 p.m. (Eastern Time).

The conference call can be accessed live over the phone by dialing 1-800-992-7415, or for international callers, 1-913-312-1431. A replay will be available two hours after the call and can be accessed by dialing 1-877-870-5176, or for international callers, 1-858-384-5517. The passcode for the live call and the replay is 7842656. The replay will be available until August 10, 2016.

Interested investors and other parties may also listen to a simultaneous webcast of the conference call by logging onto the Investor Relations section of the Company's website at www.hannonarmstrong.com. The on-line replay will be available for a limited time beginning immediately following the call.

To learn more about Hannon Armstrong, please visit the Company's Web site at www.hannonarmstrong.com. In addition to filing or furnishing required information to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Hannon Armstrong uses its Web site as a channel of distribution of material Company information. Financial and other material information regarding Hannon Armstrong is routinely posted on the Company's Web site and is readily accessible.

About Hannon Armstrong

Hannon Armstrong (NYSE: HASI) provides debt and equity financing to the energy efficiency and renewable energy markets. We focus on providing preferred or senior level capital to established sponsors and high credit quality obligors for assets that generate long-term, recurring and predictable cash flows. We are based in Annapolis, Maryland.

Hannon Armstrong Sustainable Infrastructure Capital, Inc.

Investor Relations Inquiries:

[email protected]

410-571-6189

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160125/325673LOGO

SOURCE Hannon Armstrong Sustainable Infrastructure Capital, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.hannonarmstrong.com


PHOENIX, SAN FRANCISCO and SEATTLE, July 27, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Impress Labs and Duo Public Relations Inc., both flourishing U.S. West Coast public relations and marketing firms, today announced the two agencies have merged. For the immediate future, the two brands will continue to operate under their existing agency names, though now they are part of the newly formed parent company KiteRocket LLC. The move enables the two companies to combine resources and offer full-service business-to-business and consumer public relations, creative services and digital marketing under one umbrella and across expanded geographical locations.

Combined, the two agencies total more than $5M in annual billings, employ more than 40 full-time employees and have offices in San Francisco, Seattle and Phoenix, with satellite offices in Providence, Rhode Island, London and Taiwan. The foundersindustry veterans Martijn Pierik, Dave Richardson, Rebecca Mosley and Amanda Foleywill serve as managing partners of the newly formed company.

"Though Impress Labs has a business-to-business heritage, and Duo PR focuses on business-to-consumer, the management team has a shared vision of what modern PR is, and how we'll build an offering in today's marketplace that emphasizes human-to-human marketing around the clock, across numerous channels," commented Pierik, co-founder of Impress Labs. "Our teams and cultures very much align, and with more than a decade of success behind both agencies, we have an exceptionally strong platform to build upon."

The two agencies met through PR Boutiques International (PRBI), an unaffiliated global network of independently owned firms. After beginning discussions in 2015, and collaborating on clients throughout the last several months, the deal was formally inked in early April 2016. The firms have already streamlined back-of-house and managerial operations, and are jointly working with agency clients as part of a cross-company service offering.

"The idea to join forces came together very organically," commented Duo PR Co-Founder Rebecca Mosley. "We all attended PRBI's annual conference in London last June, which is always an incredibly energizing event, and started talking about what's next for our respective agencies. It was apparent we had complementary offerings and pieces of the growth puzzle, in terms of geography and service offerings, the other could benefit from. The chemistry and collaboration easily fell into place."

Impress Labs, founded by Pierik and Richardson in 2005, brings significant experience in international public relations and marketing to the merger, particularly within solar, semiconductor and life science verticals. The company maintains PR operations in the U.S. (San Francisco, Phoenix and Providence, Rhode Island), Europe and Asia, while also offering a full-service creative and digital marketing division. This fuels creative strategies, resulting in an integrated PR approach using SEO, content marketing, social media, graphic design, web/app development, production and more.

Duo PR, founded by Mosley and Foley in 2004, comes to the table with deep consumer PR knowledge, with a specialty focus on national and regional clients in the food and beverage, travel, and health and wellness industries. The company manages a prestigious client roster from its Seattle office, where it focuses on traditional media relations, influencer marketing, events and social media.

No employee jobs were affected as a result of the merger; in fact, the company is actively recruiting talent and welcomes interested parties to contact us at [email protected].

About Impress Labs

Impress Labs is a global brand, creative and communications agency focused on helping solar, cleantech, life science and semiconductor companies reach their communications and business objectives. Our Creating Agents process specifically targets people who influence buying decisions and provides companies with a path to increased sales through brand development, creative expression and public awareness through well-executed PR and dynamic digital and social media strategies. www.impresslabs.com

About Duo PR

Duo Public Relations is an innovative Seattle public relations agency specializing in consumer and lifestyle PR. Founded in 2004, the agency's specialty practice areas include food and beverage, travel and hospitality PR, as well as health and wellness PR. Working with a wide range of companies, from household names to independent entrepreneurs, Duo PR focuses its campaigns on merging traditional and contemporary communication avenues to engage consumers and deliver measureable results. www.duopr.com

SOURCE Duo Public Relations

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PLYMOUTH, Mass., July 27, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Financial Media Exchange ("FMeX"), the world's largest content library built exclusively for the financial services industry, announced today that Tony DiLeonardi joined its Advisory Board.

According to Ric McConkey, founder and Chief Executive Officer of FMeX, "Tony is incredibly well-known in financial services as an expert in leading, inspiring and guiding wealth professionals through the challenges of running a dynamic wealth management practice. He is frequently asked to speak at industry events across North America and his leadership in building our Practice Management Offering will serve our clients very well. "

FMeX was built by industry veterans with a single goal of helping financial advisors increase sales. Pioneering Content-As-A-Service, FMeX provides access to an organized, searchable and customizable content library and is powered by sales technology for the future  all to help transform the way financial professionals connect with clients and win more customers.

"I am thrilled to be joining the FMeX Advisory Board and helping financial advisors build a truly sustainable wealth management practice," said DiLeonardi. "My entire career has been to add value to financial advisors and FMeX allows advisors to demonstrate their unique brand proposition through a variety of digital touch points  including web, email, mobile and social  so that implementation is simple and convenient."

DiLeonardi's background includes founding Third Quarter Advisers and as Vice Chairman at Guggenheim Investments. Prior to Guggenheim, DiLeonardi was Vice Chairman, Senior Managing Director of Distribution, at Claymore Securities, Inc., an innovative exchange-traded fund (ETF), closed-end fund (CEF) firm that was acquired by Guggenheim Partners. Previous to that, Mr. DiLeonardi served as a Regional Sales Director for First Trust Portfolios and National Sales Manager in Canada, opening a Canadian based organization for First Trust Canada.

DiLeonardi is also the author of Face to Face: Creating Lifelong & Multi-Generational Clients. He co-authored the book The $14 Trillion Woman: Your Essential Guide to the Female Client.

About Financial Media Exchange

FMeX is the world's largest content library built on robust sales enablement technology. Designed exclusively for the financial services industry, our single mission is to help financial professionals provide personalized marketing content to their clients in order to enhance client relationships and increase sales.

FMeX was founded by experts in the financial services industry and is the first Content-As-A-Service company with headquarters in Plymouth, MA and regional offices in New York and Kansas City. Individuals and organizations of all sizes benefit from our sophisticated sales enablement technology that allows for aggregation, curation, and distribution of content from any mobile device, in addition to measuring content utilization, remaining compliant with industry regulations and elevating the customer experience.

SOURCE Financial Media Exchange
NEW YORK, July 26, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- This report shows inpatient diagnosis numbers of infectious and parasitic diseases reported by all German hospitals between 2006 and 2014.



The data focuses on (1) intestinal infectious diseases, (2) tuberculosis, (3) certain bacterial zoonosis, (4) other bacterial diseases, (5) infections that are primarily transmitted through sexual intercourse, (6) other spirochetal diseases, (7) other diseases caused by chlamydiae, (8) rickettsioses, (9) viral infections of the central nervous system, (10) arthropod-borne viral fevers and viral hemorrhagic fevers, (11) viral infections characterized by skin and mucous membrane lesions, (12) viral hepatitis, (13) HIV disease, (14) other viral diseases, (15) mycoses, (16) protozoal, (17) helminthoses, (18) pediculosis (lice), akarinose (mites) and other parasitic infestations of the skin, (19) subsequent conditions of infectious and parasitic diseases and (20) other infectious diseases.



Altogether data for over 600 specific diagnoses are presented.



The report provides a general overview of diagnosis numbers, plus diagnoses per 100.000 inhabitants per federal state. Furthermore, the "Top 5 diagnostic hospitals"  those with the most diagnoses of infectious and parasitic diseases  are identified. These data will support strategic business decisions and guide sales activities.



Read the full report: http://www.reportlinker.com/p03875419-summary/view-report.html



About Reportlinker

ReportLinker is an award-winning market research solution. Reportlinker finds and organizes the latest industry data so you get all the market research you need - instantly, in one place.



http://www.reportlinker.com

__________________________

Contact Clare: [email protected]

US: (339)-368-6001

Intl: +1 339-368-6001

SOURCE Reportlinker

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NEW ORLEANS, July 26, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- On July 25 in New Orleans, Louisiana, Inspur attended HostingCon -- a global event for the cloud and service provider ecosystem. As a platinum sponsor, Inspur made big waves by displaying its IT infrastructure products and solutions, with the spotlight on its rack-scale server Inspur SmartRack, cloud appliance InCloudRack, and its latest, the 1U storage server NF5166M4.

Dolly Wu, the General Manager of Inspur's US Cloud Computing and Data Center, expressed that Inspur is vigorously pushing forward with its North America growth strategy. One of Inspur's top goals is to devote itself in providing flexible and customized products and solutions for all users, and at HostingCon, catered specifically to customers in the virtual host operator and cloud computing service provider sectors. At present, the R&D center and production base for Inspur North America operates smoothly, despite only being open for under a year. According to Gartner's 2016 Q1 data, Inspur servers ranked first in China, and the fifth worldwide.

The rack-scale server SmartRack is a product customized by Inspur for ISP users. It adopts converged infrastructure with concentrated heat dissipation, concentrated electricity supply, concentrated management, and has accumulatively upgraded four generations. Inspur is a OCP Community member and hopes to continually contribute to the growth and positive service experiences in the North America internet market, and beyond.

Inspur InCloudRack is a converged infrastructure all-in-one system designed for private cloud application. It adopts whole modular design and has multiple enterprise-level RAS features, including blade-level stability, redundancy and hot plug design of electricity supply modular and management. The InCloudRack also supports flexible multi-choice expansion of Scale-Out and Scale-Up.

Inspur's latest product is the high-density storage server NF5166M4 with top storage density and is suitable to newly-developed applications such as high-performance distributed file systems, integration and big data.

Inspur also partnered with Diablo Technologies to launch the Inspur Memory1 Server, a joint solution developed and optimized for Apache Spark. Diablo Technologies was also present at HostingCon to support Inspur and share insight on the joint solution.

For more information regarding Inspur, please visit www.inspursystems.com.

SOURCE Inspur Group Co., Ltd.

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YORBA LINDA, Calif., July 27, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Michael Carter, CEO of IXI technology is a finalist in the Outstanding Technology CEO Category for the 23rd OC Tech Alliance High-Tech Innovation Awards

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Winners Announced on October 6 at the Awards Gala

Yorba Linda, CA, July 27, 2016, Michael Carter, CEO of IXI technology, has been named as a finalist in the CEO for Outstanding Technology Company category of the Orange County Technology Alliance Annual High-Tech Innovation Awards. IXI is a Service Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business that has been providing breakthrough technology in electronics and software solutions for the Military and Defense, Industrial Control and Factory Automation Industries for 30 years.

"I am honored to have been selected as a finalist in this year's awards," said Michael Carter, CEO of IXI Technology. The High-Tech Innovation Awards from the OC Tech Alliance is a Southern California tradition for recognizing technology innovation.

"Our judges had their work cut out this year and Orange County companies submitted a record number of nominations," said Peter Craig, CEO, OC Tech Alliance. "We congratulate Michael Carter for being selected as a finalist."

Now in its 23rd year, the High-Tech Innovation Awards is Southern California's premier awards program event celebrating achievement among the regional tech industry. The OC Tech Alliance honors local companies, leaders and technology products that make Orange County a technology hub. The winners will be announced at a gala dinner on October 6, 2016, at the Westin South Coast Plaza.

In addition to the Outstanding CEO category, OC Tech Alliance will recognize outstanding innovation among leading Orange County-based tech companies.

OC Tech Alliance also will celebrate educators and students for their innovative use of science, math and technology in the classroom and the community in conjunction with Project Tomorrow. The organization is the nation's leading education nonprofit group focused on preparing today's students to be tomorrow's innovators.

About Orange County Technology Alliance

The Orange County Technology Alliance (OC Tech Alliance) is a 501(c)6 nonprofit trade association committed to fast-forwarding the local innovation economy. It is the successor organization to the Orange County Council of TechAmerica and AeA. It is the only technology association addressing the needs of small-to-midsize technology companies and their leaders based in Orange County, Calif. The alliance serves members through local networking, professional development, state and federal advocacy, savings on business services and industry recognition. To learn more about membership, contact OC Tech Alliance [email protected] or www.octechalliance.com. Follow alliance activities on Twitter at www.twitter.com/octechalliance.

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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 IXI Technology
NEW YORK, July 27, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Jay Suites announced today yet another expansion adding 500 square feet to their outdoor terrace rental space. With very few outdoor venues available for rent by the hour in Manhattan, this unique venue offers a total of 2,500 square feet of outdoor space. "Our beautiful terrace has already been booked for company anniversaries, food tastings, promotional events, charity events and art shows," said Jack Srour, COO and co-founder of Jay Suites. "There's nothing quite like an event surrounded by Manhattan's skyline."

Last month the corporate event space was booked by COPE Health Solutions who used the space as a corporate party venue for guests to mix and mingle while musicians played and appetizers were passed to guests. "We love seeing small businesses grow not just inside our custom office spaces, but at parties and social gatherings," said Juda Srour, Jay Suites co-founder. "This is where relationships are really developed and we're so pleased that COPE has already booked our terrace for another event."

COPE Health Solutions celebrated their recent company expansion with live music, open bar and even acclaimed mentalist, Eli Bosnick. From decorating the space to setting up the step and repeat, the Jay Suites dedicated professional staff worked directly with the company to ensure that their event went off without a hitch! Are you looking for affordable NYC event space for your next conference, meeting, or holiday party? Guests can rent the multi-purpose event space by the hour on their user-friendly website.

Jay Suites is a hub for New York City entrepreneurs looking to simply work better. Jay Suites continues to grow and has 7 flexible office space locations throughout Manhattan near Penn Station, Grand Central and the Financial District. Members include small businesses who can easily scale their office space package as they grow, entrepreneurs seeking a like-minded community, non-profits who need to maintain low overhead and large corporations who often utilize the state-of- the-art conference rooms. Individuals and event planners that are interested in viewing the outdoor terrace should contact [email protected].

This press release was issued through 24-7PressRelease.com. For further information, visit http://www.24-7pressrelease.com.

SOURCE Jay Suites

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ORLANDO, Fla., July 27, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) recently supported a request from the U.S. Navy to rapidly outfit a Gyrocam first-generation Vehicle Optical Sensor System (VOSS I) on USNS Grapple, a rescue and salvage ship supporting NATO security missions in the Aegean Sea.

The VOSS I features commercial off-the-shelf components, high-resolution color and infrared sensors, night vision and laser rangefinder capabilities in a 15-inch turret. Working together, the U.S. Navy and Lockheed Martin quickly identified a VOSS I from the U.S. Government's existing inventory and completed the installation on Grapple within two weeks.

"To support NATO's security mission quickly, the U.S. Navy needed long-range detection and identification capabilities to identify ships and small water craft," said Paul Lemmo, vice president of Fire Control/SOF CLSS at Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control. "Because of its proven performance in theater, durability and universal mount design, VOSS I was the ideal solution to delivering the U.S. Navy a quick reaction capability."

VOSS I is designed with solid, weather-tight construction and universal mounts that allow it to easily move from a ground vehicle to a maritime vessel. Combat-proven in extreme environments, more than 1,100 VOSS systems have been deployed with the U.S. Army, U.S. Marine Corps, NATO and law enforcement agencies across multiple platforms.

For additional information, visit our website: www.lockheedmartin.com/gyrocam.

About Lockheed Martin

Headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland, Lockheed Martin is a global security and aerospace company that employs approximately 125,000 people worldwide and is principally engaged in the research, design, development, manufacture, integration and sustainment of advanced technology systems, products and services.

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SOURCE Lockheed Martin

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Webcast and Presentation Slides Access

A live webcast can be accessed at the time of the presentation at https://lyb.com/investorevents, where copies of the slides related to the webcast will also be available for download. A replay of the presentation will be available on the company's website within 24 hours following the webcast.
MADRID, July 27, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- MAPFRE USA returned to a $56.6 million pre-tax profit in the first half of 2016, compared with a $114 million loss the year earlier, related to the heavy snowstorms that hit the North East of the United States in the previous winter. At the same time, the company generated revenue of $1,420 million in the U.S. market in the first six months of 2016, driven by its increasingly geographically diversified mix of business. MAPFRE's insurance business increased premiums by 9 percent in the period.

MAPFRE North America (which also includes Puerto Rico and Canada) recorded premiums of $1,631 million in the first six months. Puerto Rico grew 3%, to $214 million. The region accounts for 11.2 percent of the company's global premiums.

1.- Global figures

MAPFRE's net profits amounted to $424 million in the first half of the year, which represents a 20.5 percent increase, thanks to rigorous technical and financial management. Revenues stood at $16.3 billion, up 0.8 percent with respect to the same period of previous year, while premiums reached $13,478 billion (down 0.8 percent). Growth can be seen in local currency terms in virtually all the countries where we operate.

"These results are the consequence of the strategy set for the period 2016-2018, which is focused on profitable growth, with excellent technical business management, which leads to improved profitability. This is especially remarkable in Spain, where resilient growth can be seen in the main lines, internal costs continue to be reduced and the profitability of the main businesses improves significantly, especially in Motor," stated Antonio Huertas, MAPFRE's Chairman and CEO.

The Group's strength should be noted, producing a Solvency II ratio of 200 percent as of March 31st., with increased high-quality capital (93 percent in TIER 1), providing MAPFRE with strong solvency and financial soundness.

2.- Appointments

MAPFRE's Board of Directors has named Ana Isabel Fernandez as an independent director. She holds a B.Sc. and Ph.D. in Economic and Business Science from Oviedo University, where she is a professor of Financial Economics, as well as professor of Finance at CUNEF. She is a member of the Consultative Committee on Corporate Reporting with the European Securities and Markets Authority, a member of the Board of Trustees of the Princess of Asturias Foundation and the Banco de Sabadell Foundation. She also sat on the boards of the Spanish Securities Exchange Commission, the European Securities and Markets Authority, and the Subcommitte on Consumer Protection and Financial Innovation of the Joint Committee of the European Banking, Securities and Insurance Supervisory Authorities.

With this appointment, MAPFRE makes further progress with the inclusion of women in its governing bodies, with four women holding seats on its board of directors, which represents 24 percent of the total.

For further information, please contact MAPFRE's Corporate Communication Division (telephone: +34 91 581 87 14; +34 91 581 83 66), email: [email protected]; [email protected].

SOURCE MAPFRE
"When we opened Mark-it Express, our goal was to build our company by forging solid customer relationships as valued consultants supported by reputable, multi-level partners. To achieve this service level, we invested in seasoned sales and operations professionals who were exceptional problem solvers, forward-thinking, and skilled team builders. They provide our Mark-it Express teams the leadership required to deliver targeted solutions essential to sustaining profitable growth for our customers, our partners, and our company," said Apa.

Always planning ahead, Tony Apa turned to his alma mater, Western Michigan University (WMU) to prepare for future growth. Mark-it Express has established an entry-level training program and recruiting partnership with WMU's top-ranked integrated supply chain management program.

In addition to Crain's 2016 Chicago Fast 50, Mark-it Express received an Inc. 5000 ranking as one of the fastest-growing private companies in the United States. The company also achieved The National Association of Small Trucking Companies "Best Broker" status, which represents the top 5% of all brokers in the U.S.

About Mark-it Express

Mark-it Express, along with sister company, Mark-it Express Logistics, are transportation and logistics companies located in Bridgeview, IL. Together, they offer exceptional freight management and 3rd party logistics solutions, with a specialization in fresh, frozen, and temperature controlled commodities. Additionally, the company's asset based trucking division provides its TL, LTL, and drayage services to a diverse, international client base, and has plans to continue scaling the business and investing in additional capacity to keep pace with demand for its services.

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160726/393206

SOURCE Mark-it Express
Coley joined MemorialCare in 2000 as Orange County's Director of Decision Support. In 2004, he became system Vice President for Finance and Decision Support, helping guide MemorialCare's expansion and partnerships. Coley previously served in finance and decision support at Dignity Health and Redlands Community Hospital. Coley was a board member and officer of Green Valley Mutual Water Company.

Adolfo Chanez, CPA30-year health industry veteranhas been Saddleback Memorial's CFO since 2010, providing financial leadership and helping Saddleback achieve Healthgrades' Top 50 Hospital designation nationwide. Previous posts include St. Mary Medical Center Long Beach CFO. Chanez is a board member and finance committee chair of AltaMed.

"As we continue our transformation, rapid growth and expansion, it's exciting to have the expertise and combined five decades of progressive experience Aaron and Adolfo bring to our efforts to be more efficient and innovative, while offering exceptional value, patient experiences and clinical outcomes," says Karen Testman, MemorialCare CFO.

"It's an honor to help lead our finance efforts in Orange County and be part of a remarkable team that is redesigning health care to greatly benefit the health and health care of communities we serve," says Coley. Adds Chanez, "I'm thrilled to join Aaron and the MemorialCare team in advancing innovation and ensuring individuals and families throughout the region have unparalleled access to the highest quality of care."

MemorialCare Health System, a nonprofit Southern California integrated delivery system and evidence-based medicine pioneer, has 200 care sites; 15,000 employees, affiliated physicians and volunteers; top hospitalsLong Beach Memorial, Miller Children's & Women's Hospital Long Beach, Community Hospital Long Beach, Orange Coast Memorial in Fountain Valley and Saddleback Memorial Medical Center in Laguna Hills; MemorialCare Medical Group; Greater Newport Physicians; Seaside Health Plan; and ambulatory surgery, imaging, outpatient, dialysis and urgent care centers. Included among accolades achieved by its entities are Best U.S. Health Care Systems, 10 Largest U.S. Children's Hospitals, Top 50 Hospitals, Top 50 Cardiovascular Hospitals, Best Places to Work and more. Visit www.memorialcare.org.

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SOURCE MemorialCare

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STUTTGART, Germany, July 27, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Mercedes-Benz Urban eTruck enables fully electric transport for the first time ever with an admissible total weight of 26 tonnes

Ranges of up to 200 kilometres, load capacity comparable with diesel drive

Series production for urban short-radius distribution conceivable at the beginning of the next decade

Fuso Canter E-Cell: fully electric drive of Daimler Trucks in a light distribution truck (6 tonnes) already undergoing customer trials

Dr. Wolfgang Bernhard : "Electric drive systems previously only saw extremely limited use in trucks. Nowadays costs, performance and charging times develop further so rapidly that now there is a trend reversal in the distribution sector: the time is ripe for the electric truck. In light distribution trucks, our Fuso Canter E-Cell has already been undergoing intensive customer trials since 2014. And with the Mercedes-Benz Urban eTruck, we are now electrifying the heavy distribution segment up to 26 tonnes. We intend to establish electric driving as systematically as autonomous and connected driving."

The world's most successful truck manufacturer Daimler Trucks is presenting the Mercedes-Benz Urban eTruck in Stuttgart today, as the first fully electric truck with an admissible total weight of up to 26 tonnes. This means that in the future, heavy trucks will take part in urban distribution operations with zero local emissions and hardly a whisper. The market launch of this technology is conceivable for Daimler Trucks at the beginning of the next decade. In the light distribution sector, Daimler Trucks has already been impressively demonstrating the day-to-day suitability of the fully electric truck in customer trials with the Fuso Canter E-Cell since 2014. The development of electric trucks and series production maturity are fixed parts of the strategy of Daimler Trucks to build on our technological leadership. For this purpose a considerable part of the future investments by the truck division in the fields of research and development flow in the further development of the full electric drive.

"Electric drive systems previously only saw extremely limited use in trucks. Nowadays costs, performance and charging times develop further so rapidly that now there is a trend reversal in the distribution sector: the time is ripe for the electric truck. In light distribution trucks, our Fuso Canter E-Cell has already been undergoing intensive customer trials since 2014. And with the Mercedes-Benz Urban eTruck, we are now electrifying the heavy distribution segment up to 26 tonnes. We intend to establish electric driving as systematically as autonomous and connected driving," says Dr. Wolfgang Bernhard, responsible for Daimler Trucks & Buses at the Board of Management.

Growing urbanisation requires fully electric trucks

Better air quality, lower noise and restricted-access zones are now important keywords in large metropolises worldwide, because more and more people worldwide are moving to cities. 2008 was the first year in which more people lived in cities than in the countryside. The trend is continuing: The UN predicts a global population of nine billion people by 2050, with approximately 70 percent of them living in cities. In future, it will be necessary to transport goods in urban environments for increasing numbers of people  and with the lowest possible emissions and noise. By now large cities such as London or Paris are considering a ban on internal combustion engines in city centres in the future. That means: there will be fully electric trucks ensuring the supply of humas with food or other goods of daily needs.

Fast enhancement of battery capacity while significantly lower costs

Until quite recently, the use of fully electric drives systems in trucks seemed to be unimaginable  especially because of the high costs of the batteries coupled with a low range. The technology has now become much more mature. In particular battery cells rapidly developing further. Daimler Trucks

expects the costs of batteries to lower by the factor 2.5 between 1997 and 2025  from 500 Euro/kWh down to 200 Euro/kWh. At the same time, performance will improve by the same factor over the same period  from 80 Wh/kg up to 200 Wh/kg.

Stefan Buchner, Head of Mercedes-Benz Trucks: "With the Mercedes-Benz Urban eTruck, we are underlining our intention to systematically developing the electric drive in trucks to series production maturity. This means that we will begin to integrate customers, so as to gain valuable joint experience with respect to the operating ranges and the charging infrastructure in daily transport operations. Because we think the entry of this technology into the series production is already conceivable at the beginning of the next decade."

Innovative battery technology for Urban e Truck

Technically the Mercedes-Benz Urban eTruck is based on a heavy-duty, three-axle short-radius Mercedes-Benz distribution truck. In addition, however, the developers at Daimler Trucks have totally revised the drive concept: The entire conventional drivetrain being replaced by a new electrically driven rear axle with electric motors directly adjacent to the wheel hubs  derived from the electric rear axle which was developed for the Mercedes-Benz Citaro hybrid bus. The power is supplied by a battery pack consisting of three lithium-ion battery modules. This results in a range of up to 200 km  enough for a typical daily delivery tour. Thanks to the integrated concept with motors adjacent to the wheel hubs, the batteries are housed in a crash-proof location inside the frame.

As the EU Commission is in favour of increasing the permissible gross vehicle weight of trucks with alternative drives by up to one tonne, this will more or less level out the weight surplus of the electric drive. This will raise the permissible gross vehicle weight of the Urban e Truck from 25 to 26 tonnes, which will bring the original extra weight down to 700 kg compared with a directly comparable IC-engined truck.

Fuso Canter E-Cell: all-electric drive in customer operation since 2014

Where light-duty trucks are concerned, all-electric drive is already a reality. This is demonstrated by the Fuso Canter E-Cell. Fuso already presented the first generation of the fully electrically powered Canter in 2010. In 2014 this was followed by the second generation, which proved its worth in the first fleet trials in Portugal. With ranges of over 100 kilometres, the vehicles exceeded the average daily distance covered by many trucks in light-duty short-radius distribution. Under widely varying operating conditions, the trucks covered more than 50,000 km within one year. In the process the vehicless were locally emission-free and, taking power generation into account, reduced CO 2 emissions by 37 percent compared to diesel engines. The operating costs were 64 percent lower on average.

Marc Llistosella, Head of Daimler Trucks Asia and President & CEO of Mitsubishi Fuso Trucks and Bus Cooperation (MFTBC): "The current generation Canter E-Cell offers our customers transport services which are not only environment-friendly, but also economical. Our test in Lisbon revealed respectable savings of around 1000 euros per 10,000 kilometres in comparison to diesel trucks."

"We at Fuso have now acquired extensive experience in the development of local emission-free commercial vehicles und we will consequently pursue this development also in future. At the Commercial Vehicles show IAA in September, will will take a step further towards series production with our next generation under the new name: Fuso eCanter," continues Llistosella.

Current fleet trials with the Fuso Canter E-Cell in Germany

Since April 2016 the city of Stuttgart and the parcel service provider Hermes are testing five Fuso Cater E-Cell in Germany. Especially the using in the topographically very demanding environment in urban Stuttgart provides important insights for Daimler Trucks from the customer operation with regard to the further development of the fully electric drive. First results from this customer trial are expected at the beginning of 2017.

Dirk Rahn, Managing Director Operations at Hermes Germany underlined during the today's event: "We are very proud of our successful cooperation with Daimler in the development of relevant future technologies for many years. Also regarding the current project, we accepted with pleasure the invention of Daimler to actively support the testing of the Fuso Canter E-Cell out of our logistical everyday life. Thereby, the results of our trest run are extremely positive! With regard to the growing requirements in city logistics we are now looking forward to test further vehicle classes and to bring them to market maturity soon. Our common goal: making e-mobility more economical."

Photos with index numbers 16C679_001, 16C679_003 and 16C680_021 as well as additional press material on the event are available on the Internet: www.d.ai/eTrucks_Campus

Caption 16C679_001:

Mercedes-Benz Trucks; Urban eTruck; Electro-Lkw; world premiere; electric mobility; modular battery concept; distribution

Caption 16C679_003:

Mercedes-Benz Trucks; Urban eTruck; Electro-Lkw; world premiere; electric mobility; modular battery concept; distribution

Caption 16C680_021:

Fuso Trucks; Fuso Canter E-Cell fleet trail; all-eletric light-duty; locally emission-free drive truck; Hermes; Stuttgart

Predictive statements:

This document contains predictive statements reflecting our present assessment of future developments. The words anticipate, assume, believe, estimate, expect, intend, can/could, plan, project, should and similar expressions are used to identify such forward-looking statements. These statements are subject to many risks and uncertainties, including an adverse development of global economic conditions, in particular a decline of demand in our most important markets; a worsening of the sovereign-debt crisis in the euro zone; an increase in political tension in Eastern Europe; a deterioration of our refinancing possibilities on the credit and financial markets; events of force majeure including natural disasters, acts of terrorism, political unrest, industrial accidents and their effects on our sales, purchasing, production or financial services activities; changes in currency rates; a shift in consumer preferences towards smaller, lower-margin vehicles or a possible lack of acceptance of our products or services which limits our ability to achieve prices and adequately utilise our production capacities; price increases for fuel or raw materials, disruption of production due to shortages of materials, labour strikes or supplier insolvencies; a decline in resale prices of used vehicles; the effective implementation of cost-reduction and efficiency-optimisation measures; the business outlook for companies in which we hold a significant equity interest; the successful implementation of strategic cooperations and joint ventures; changes in laws, regulations and government policies, particularly those relating to vehicle emissions, fuel economy and safety; the resolution of pending government investigations and the conclusion of pending or threatened future legal proceedings, some of which we describe under the heading "Risk and Opportunity Report" in the current Annual Report. If any of these risks or uncertainties materialises or if the assumptions underlying any of our forward-looking statements prove to be incorrect, the actual results may be materially different from those we express or imply by such statements. We do not intend or assume any obligation to update these forward-looking statements since they are based solely on the circumstances at the date of publication.

Daimler at a glance

Daimler AG is one of the most successful automotive manufacturers in the world. With its Mercedes-Benz Cars, Daimler Trucks, Mercedes-Benz Vans, Daimler Buses and Daimler Financial Services divisions, the vehicle manufacturer is one of the largest producers of premium cars and the largest globally operative manufacturer of commercial vehicles. Daimler Financial Services offers financing, leasing, fleet management, insurance services, investments, credit cards and innovative mobility services.

Company founders Gottlieb Daimler and Carl Benz wrote history with the invention of the automobile in 1886. As an automotive pioneer, Daimler continues to shape the future of mobility today: the company applies innovative and green technologies to produce safe and superior vehicles which fascinate and delight customers. Daimler invests continually in the development of alternative powertrains  from hybrid vehicles to all-electric vehicles with battery or fuel cell  with the goal of making emission-free driving possible in the long term. Furthermore, the company follows a consistent path towards accident-free driving and intelligent connectivity all the way to autonomous driving. Daimler willingly accepts the challenge of meeting its responsibility towards society and the environment.

Daimler sells its vehicles and services in nearly all the countries of the world and has production facilities in Europe, North and South America, Asia and Africa. In addition to Mercedes-Benz, the world's most valuable automotive brand, plus Mercedes-AMG, Mercedes-Maybach and Mercedes me, Daimler's brand portfolio includes smart, Freightliner, Western Star, BharatBenz, FUSO, Setra, Thomas Built Buses and the Daimler Financial Services brands: Mercedes-Benz Bank, Mercedes-Benz Financial, Daimler Truck Financial, moovel, car2go and mytaxi. The company is listed on the Frankfurt and Stuttgart stock exchanges (stock exchange symbol DAI). In 2015, the Daimler Group sold around 2.9 million vehicles and employed a total workforce of 284,015 people. Revenue totalled 149.5 billion and EBIT amounted to 13.2 billion.

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SOURCE Daimler North America - Corporate Communications
SANTA ROSA, Calif., July 27, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Ygrene Energy Fund announced today that Miami Beach, Miramar, and Broward County have selected the award-winning YgreneWorks PACE (property assessed clean energy) program to help home and business owners finance a broad range of energy efficiency, renewables and hurricane protection property upgrades. On July 19, PACE was endorsed by President Obama as a cornerstone of the Clean Energy Savings for All Initiative, which will ensure that every household has options to adopt solar and other additional measures to promote energy efficiency.

Ygrene has already been selected by 270+ cities and counties across California and Florida, making it the nation's leading multi-state residential and commercial PACE provider. With more than $785M in committed capital, Ygrene continues its rapid expansion, paving the way with its commitment to providing property owners with a simple and easy process and service excellence.

Ygrene has now financed over 90 percent of all Florida PACE projects, totaling $77 million in residential, commercial, and multifamily property upgrades that increase energy efficiency and protect homes and businesses against hurricane impact.

Florida Mayors: "YgreneWorks for our communities"

Philip Levine (Mayor of the City of Miami Beach ): "We are excited to offer Miami Beach residents PACE financing for energy efficiency and climate resiliency improvements to their homes and businesses. This program will undoubtedly make our community safer and more resilient to extreme weather while contributing to lowering our residents' insurance premiums. I am glad this program is available and I am excited to see the many benefits it will bring to our community."

"We are excited to offer residents financing for energy efficiency and climate resiliency improvements to their homes and businesses. This program will undoubtedly make our community safer and more resilient to extreme weather while contributing to lowering our residents' insurance premiums. I am glad this program is available and I am excited to see the many benefits it will bring to our community." Wayne M. Messam (Mayor of the City of Miramar ): "I am proud to have sponsored the legislation that enables Miramar residents and business property owners the ability to participate in the PACE program. Providing creative and accessible funding solutions that help make property more energy efficient and safe is another advantage of being in our wonderful city."

"I am proud to have sponsored the legislation that enables residents and business property owners the ability to participate in the program. Providing creative and accessible funding solutions that help make property more energy efficient and safe is another advantage of being in our wonderful city." Marty Kiar (Mayor of Broward County ): " PACE financing provides a unique means of broadening community-wide access to affordable energy and resiliency improvements that deliver economic and environmental benefits. It allows property owners to overcome the barrier of steep upfront costs. Insurance costs may also go down, along with savings that come from using less energy. PACE will also deliver additional economic benefits by stimulating local job growth and green sector jobs in particular."

In addition to offering the most comprehensive PACE program in the market, Ygrene also leads the industry when it comes to transparent PACE financing and a high level of commitment to customer protections. From application through approval, construction, project completion and funding, Ygrene's customer protection policies ensure consumers are supported every step of the way with its complete set of contractor certification, underwriting, consumer disclosure, data security and senior protection processes. For more information, view or download Ygrene's Customer Assurance and Protections.

YgreneWorks for Miami Beach, Miramar and Broward County

Ygrene's people-first approach to financing gives businesses and homeowners the most accessible and affordable way to pay for energy efficiency and climate resiliency upgrades. Rather than paying the high up-front payments associated with credit-based financing, YgreneWorks allows owners to pay off home and property improvements with terms of up to 20 years on their property tax bill. Property owners can access YgreneWorks' list of certified contractors who will work with them to select and install eligible upgrades such as solar systems, energy efficient and impact resistant windows and doors, heating and air conditioning, cool roofs, and more.

YgreneWorks is currently operational in Miami Beach, Miramar and Lauderhill. In Broward County the program will go live in 120 days. For local municipalities in the county who want to implement the program earlier, they can opt-in at any point by sending a written notice to the county. Already 420,000 people have gained access to PACE in Broward County with the following ten cities opting in to the program:

Coconut Creek

Cooper City

Lighthouse Point

Lauderdale by the Sea

North Lauderdale

Oakland Park

Plantation

Tamarac

Weston

Wilton Manors

With $1 billion in approved applications for more than 21,000 buildings, the YgreneWorks program is helping cities across the nation meet their clean energy and climate resiliency goals and is assisting residents in making improvements that will save them money and increase the value of their properties.

About Ygrene Energy Fund

Ygrene Energy Fund is the nation's leading provider of residential and commercial property assessed clean energy financing. The award-winning, privately funded YgreneWorks program provides immediately accessible financing with no upfront payments for energy efficiency, renewables, and, in certain areas, water conservation, hurricane protection, electric vehicle charging stations and seismic upgrades. Ygrene is committed to making it easy for families to invest in their future and a healthier environment. Over the next five years, YgreneWorks is expected to create tens of thousands of local jobs and invest hundreds of millions into local economies. Learn more at ygreneworks.com.

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SOURCE Ygrene Energy Fund

Related Links

http://www.ygreneworks.com


COLUMBIA, Mo. and TAMPA, Fla., July 27, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Missouri Care, Inc., a subsidiary of WellCare Health Plans, Inc. (NYSE: WCG), announced today that it has signed agreements with BJC HealthCare (BJC) and Washington University Physicians that give in-network coverage to Missouri Care's MO HealthNet Managed Care (Medicaid) members. These agreements include access to medical centers, community hospitals, physician clinics, urgent care centers, ambulatory care centers, skilled nursing facilities and other services and facilities owned by or affiliated with BJC and Washington University.

"These agreements with BJC and Washington University further support our efforts to partner with strong provider networks to provide the best care for our members," said Lou Gianquinto, president of Missouri Care. "Our members' health is our first priority, and our focus is ensuring they get the right care at the right time in the most appropriate setting."

Acute care services include, but are not limited to, maternity and infant care, children's care, emergency care, cancer care, behavioral medicine, cardiac care, neurology, orthopedics and rehabilitation in Missouri communities and regions served by BJC and Washington University. Members now have access to Boone Hospital Center, part of BJC, and its affiliated providers in Columbia, Mo. BJC hospitals in the St. Louis metropolitan area include Barnes-Jewish Hospital, St. Louis Children's Hospital, Alton Memorial Hospital, Barnes-Jewish St. Peters Hospital, Barnes-Jewish West County Hospital, Christian Hospital, Missouri Baptist Medical Center and Progress West Hospital. BJC also includes Missouri Baptist Sullivan Hospital in Sullivan, Mo., and Parkland Health Center, with facilities in Farmington and Bonne Terre, Mo.

As of March 31, 2016, Missouri Care and WellCare serve approximately 130,000 members in Missouri, including 117,000 MO HealthNet Managed Care (Medicaid) members and 13,000 Medicare Prescription Drug members.

About WellCare Health Plans, Inc.

Headquartered in Tampa, Fla., WellCare Health Plans, Inc. (NYSE: WCG) focuses exclusively on providing government-sponsored managed care services, primarily through Medicaid, Medicare Advantage and Medicare Prescription Drug Plans, to families, children, seniors and individuals with complex medical needs. The Company serves approximately 3.7 million members nationwide as of March 31, 2016. For more information about WellCare, please visit the Company's website at www.wellcare.com or view the company's videos at https://www.youtube.com/user/WellCareHealthPlan.

About BJC HealthCare

BJC HealthCare is one of the largest nonprofit health care organizations in the United States, delivering services to residents primarily in the greater St. Louis, southern Illinois and mid-Missouri regions. Serving the health care needs of urban, suburban and rural communities, BJC includes 15 hospitals and multiple health service organizations. Services include inpatient and outpatient care, primary care, community health and wellness, workplace health, home health, community mental health, rehabilitation, long-term care and hospice.

About Washington University Physicians

Washington University Physicians are the primary care and specialist physicians who are members of the full-time faculty at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. They are the medical staff of Barnes-Jewish and St. Louis Children's hospitals. The School of Medicine is a leading medical research, teaching and patient-care institution, and is currently ranked sixth in the nation by U.S.News & World Report. Through its affiliations with Barnes-Jewish and St. Louis Children's hospitals, the School of Medicine is linked to BJC HealthCare.

SOURCE WellCare Health Plans, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.wellcare.com


MORRO BAY, Calif., July 27, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Oysters are not only incredibly nutritious, they are an epicurean treasure and can be found in abundance in Morro Bay, CA. So are delicious avocados.

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"We have such a fantastic foodie culture here. You can buy oysters and avocados fresh and local in restaurants, wine bars, and our farmers' markets. Fresh oysters can also be purchased on the Morro Bay Oyster Company's barge on the bay," says Jennifer Little, Executive Director of the Morro Bay Tourism Bureau.

Fresh Oysters are on the Menu

Friday, August 5th 2016 is National Oyster Day, but Morro Bay celebrates oysters year round. Oyster farming in the good clean waters of Morro Bay started in the early 1900s and continues to this day. Visit Windows on the Water for Oyster Tuesdays. Dorn's Original Breakers Cafe offers fresh local seafood including oysters on the half shell. Locals and tourists alike love the barbecued oysters at Tognazzini's Dockside, and Staxx Wine Bar and Bistro features more than 100 local wines and champagnes to sip while enjoying fresh oysters. Get online delivery from Giovanni's Fish Market, packed fresh and ready for consumption.

Avocado Season Events

The annual Avocado & Margarita Festival takes place on Saturday, September 10, 2016. This street festival offers avocado and culinary delights, premium margaritas and ice-cold beer. Sure to be a fantastic day of food and drink, the festival also features live music, arts and crafts, specialty vendors, and a sombrero contest. Taste of the Grove is an inaugural intimate cocktail evening hosted at the beautiful Packing Shed, a Morro Bay Avocado Farm minutes from town with a rural agriculture ambiance. Enjoy an all-inclusive farm-to-table pairing with area farmers and local chefs presenting tantalizing avocado-themed dishes.

Lodging and Packages

Located along scenic Highway 1 midway between San Francisco and Los Angeles, Morro Bay has many choices when it comes to lodging. In fact, there are over 30 hotels and motels in the seaside community, from elegant waterfront suites to tidy, budget-friendly motor lodges. Offering lodging deals and promotions throughout the year, there is something for everyone. For more info, visit http://morrobay.org/blog/entries/morro-bay-ca-grows-mother-natures-finest-oysters-and-avocados or www.morrobay.org.

MEDIA CONTACT:

Susan Hartzler

Public Relations Manager

Mental Marketing

818-585-8641

Email

SOURCE Morro Bay
LOS ANGELES, July 27, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Specialty coffee subscription service Moustache Coffee Club announced this week that they have acquired Root Coffee Roasters, a small-batch roaster of premium single-origin coffees based in Los Angeles. The acquisition allows Moustache Coffee Club to begin roasting their own unique single-origin coffees, which ship day-of-roast to a growing base of premium coffee drinkers around the world.

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Marking the move to roasting their own coffee, Moustache Coffee Club is excited to announce that they will be one of the first roasters in the US to work with prestigious Norwegian importer Nordic Approach to source high-quality green coffees from celebrated coffee-producing regions in Africa and Central/South America. Expanding into the US from Europe, Nordic Approach sources distinctive, high quality single-origin green coffee, building long-term relationships with producers that yield exceptional coffee beans. Moustache Coffee Club has shipped two Nordic Approach Ethiopians to date, and will be roasting and shipping even more Nordic Approach to their subscribers in the coming weeks.



About Moustache Coffee Club

Founded in 2013, Moustache Coffee Club ships premium quality, single-origin coffee from their headquarters in Los Angeles, CA to a growing base of specialty coffee drinkers the world over. Moustache Coffee Club is serious about freshness. They ship their unique coffees on the same day that they are roasted so that they arrive to subscribers' doors at the peak of freshness, providing an alternative to stale, weeks old coffee often found in other subscription services and retail outlets.

For more information, visit: www.moustachecoffeeclub.com

About Nordic Approach

Nordic Approach is an Oslo based coffee sourcing operation co-founded by coffee experts Tim Wendelboe and Morten Wennersgaard. Focusing on developing transparent, long-lasting relationships with growers and paying them premium prices, Nordic Approach offers a catalogue of the highest quality single-origin green coffees from renowned coffee-producing regions in Africa and South/Central America. Having supplied to quality cafes in Europe, they have recently expanded into the US market.

For more information, visit: www.nordicapproach.no

Contact

To learn more about this exciting development in specialty coffee, contact:

BJ Barker, Operations Manager

411 S Main St. Los Angeles, CA 90013

310-895-1254

Email

SOURCE Moustache Coffee Club

Related Links

http://www.moustachecoffeeclub.com


KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, July 27, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- MyHSR Corporation Sdn Bhd (MyHSR) has selected CH2M as its technical advisor for the iconic cross-border project, Kuala LumpurSingapore High-Speed Rail (HSR) project.

Following the recent signing of the Memorandum of Understanding on the project by both the Malaysian and Singaporean governments, MyHSR has proceeded to award its Technical Advisory Services tender to CH2M.

CH2M, with its sub-consultant PwC, will support MyHSR to develop the project, including working on the planning and design of the Malaysian section of the project, and assisting with the project management aspects of the project.

MyHSR Corporation CEO, Mohd Nur Ismal Mohamed Kamal welcomed CH2M into the project, "We have a challenging task ahead and with this appointment, we would be better equipped. We expect CH2M to bring its global expertise and its experience working on HSR projects for the KL-SG HSR."

Added CH2M Programme Director Mark Loader, "CH2M is an established member of the Malaysian engineering community, with a continued presence in Kuala Lumpur since the 1960s. We understand the challenges associated with delivering this nationally significant programme based on our depth of experience with High Speed 1 and 2 in the UK. Our team will bring a partnership approach to MyHSR, combining international rail expertise with our local understanding to provide the leadership and capabilities to ensure the project is delivered successfully."

About MyHSR Corporation Sdn Bhd

MyHSR Corporation is a company responsible for the development and promotion of the Kuala Lumpur  Singapore HSR project. Incorporated as a company wholly owned by the Ministry of Finance, MyHSR Corporation is the project delivery vehicle accountable for the definition of the technical and commercial aspects of the HSR project. Connect with MyHSR at www.myhsr.com.my

About CH2M

CH2M leads the professional services industry delivering sustainable solutions benefiting societal, environmental and economic outcomes with the development of infrastructure and industry. In this way, CH2Mers make a positive difference providing consulting, design, engineering and management services for clients in water; environment and nuclear; transportation; energy and industrial markets, from iconic infrastructure to global programmes like the Olympic Games. Ranked among the World's Most Ethical Companies and top firms in environmental consulting and programme management, CH2M in 2016 became the first professional services firm honoured with the World Environment Center Gold Medal Award for efforts advancing sustainable development. Connect with CH2M at www.ch2m.com; LinkedIn; Twitter; and Facebook.

For media enquiries, please contact:

Contact: Lee Yip Cheong MyHSR Corporation Sdn Bhd [email protected] Contact: Tom Doerr CH2M, Transportation [email protected]

SOURCE CH2M

Related Links

http://www.ch2m.com


ANN ARBOR, Mich., July 27, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- NanoBio Corporation today announced that the company will present key data at the Mucosal Immunology Course & Symposium Meeting (MICS) in Toronto on July 29, 2016, demonstrating the advantages of its intranasal nanoemulsion (NE) adjuvant for use in the development of vaccines for pertussis, commonly known as whooping cough. NanoBio will also present data further supporting the advantages of intranasal NE vaccines for pandemic influenza.

"The resurgence of pertussis infections in the United States and worldwide has become quite concerning, as infections in the U.S. have recently reached a 50-year peak. Given vaccination rates have remained high, the concerning increase in infections points to potential limitations with the existing intramuscular pertussis vaccines," said Dr. Ali Fattom, Senior Vice President of Vaccine Research and Development, NanoBio. "We recently tested an intranasal NE pertussis vaccine in animals and the data indicates important benefit in comparison to current intramuscular vaccines. NanoBio's vaccine elicited robust systemic immunity and triggered a mucosal immune response believed to be critical in reducing the time pertussis is carried in the respiratory tract of individuals exposed to the bacteria. A reduction of carriage would lead directly to lower rates of transmission."

At the MICS conference, NanoBio will present data from a study in rats comparing its intranasal NE pertussis vaccine to the standard intramuscular Alum vaccine. The research indicated that both vaccines elicited similarly high levels of serum bactericidal activity against pertussis. However, the intranasal NE vaccine uniquely elicited high levels of cytokines that are associated with mucosal immunity. Given the promising results, efficacy of the intranasal NE pertussis vaccine is currently being studied in a baboon challenge model with support from the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

NanoBio will also present data at the MICS meeting highlighting results from a mice study testing an intranasal NE vaccine for pandemic influenza. The research being presented was conducted under a five-year contract from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the NIH.

"Our recent studies in mice have demonstrated that intranasal NE vaccination elicits robust neutralizing antibody and cellular immune responses against H5 pandemic influenza," said Dr. Fattom. "In addition, the intranasal NE-rH5 vaccine uniquely elicited a mucosal immune response, which we expect will play an important role in protecting against H5 infection. With these results in hand, we are currently initiating a ferret challenge study to test the efficacy of the NE vaccine in the primary animal model."

Following are details of NanoBio's upcoming oral presentations at the MICS Meeting at the Westin Harbour Castle Hotel, Toronto, Canada:

Nanoemulsion: A Novel Mucosal Adjuvant for Pandemic H5N1 Influenza

Friday, July 29, 2016 / 3:30 p.m. ET

/ Intranasal Nanoemulsion-Based Vaccines for the Elicitation of Mucosal and Systemic Immunity to Combat Reemergence of B. Pertussis Infections

Friday, July 29, 2016 / 3:45 p.m. ET

About NanoBio

Headquartered in Ann Arbor, Michigan, NanoBio Corporation is a privately-held biopharmaceutical company focused on developing and commercializing vaccines and anti-infective treatments derived from its patented NanoStat technology platform. The company's NanoStat vaccine technology employs a novel oil-in-water nanoemulsion (NE) that can incorporate, deliver and adjuvant multiple antigen types. The NE adjuvant is effective when administered via intranasal or intramuscular vaccination. When applied intranasally, NE vaccines elicit both mucosal and systemic immunity.

NanoBio is currently developing NE vaccines for several respiratory and sexually transmitted diseases, including pertussis, pandemic influenza, anthrax, prophylactic and therapeutic HSV2, chlamydia and HIV. In addition, the company has licensed its NE adjuvant to Merck for use with intranasal vaccines for RSV and seasonal influenza.

For more information on NanoBio or its products, please visit www.nanobio.com.

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SOURCE NanoBio Corporation

Related Links

http://www.nanobio.com


COPENHAGEN, Denmark, July 27, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- In order to keep networks secure and compliant, IT teams require greater visibility into the critical data they are monitoring, both in real time and for forensic purposes. Napatech announced today the partnership with Dell OEM to provide customers with a reliable, stable and predictable network solution for high-speed packet capture and storage. The combined solution, available through the Dell OEM sell-through program, enables customers to capture and offload 100 percent of their data for post-analysis of all traffic, regardless of data type.

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A comprehensive network view: Whether for capacity planning, regulatory compliance, network monitoring or post-analysis of data, Napatech's solution enables 100 percent packet capture. The combined solution delivers complete network visibility capturing all traffic, with zero packet loss.

Whether for capacity planning, regulatory compliance, network monitoring or post-analysis of data, Napatech's solution enables 100 percent packet capture. The combined solution delivers complete network visibility capturing all traffic, with zero packet loss. Enhancing network security: Provides a visual insight into the network, in real time and forensically, a critical component to accelerating detection times for security breaches. It is a powerful complement to automated intrusion detection systems, security information and event management, and network performance management.

Provides a visual insight into the network, in real time and forensically, a critical component to accelerating detection times for security breaches. It is a powerful complement to automated intrusion detection systems, security information and event management, and network performance management. Easing compliance: Advanced data compression increases retention when network data is recorded, providing a complete, precise and detailed record of network activity for regulatory and compliance adherence.

Advanced data compression increases retention when network data is recorded, providing a complete, precise and detailed record of network activity for regulatory and compliance adherence. Scalable with endpoint visibility: The solution can scale to accommodate the growing need for higher capture speed and larger storage capacity. Powerful federation provides the ability to harness multi-node deployments to cover all endpoints, whether in central or remote locations.

Andrew Patterson, senior VP global sales, Napatech, said: "Data storage needs have become increasingly complex. Compliance regulations require organizations to store data long-term while maintaining access for security purposes. Our packet capture solution provides Dell's customers with accelerated data delivery, greater network visibility and the scalability to meet future storage demands."

Ron Pugh, executive director and general manager, Americas, Dell Global OEM Solutions, said: "We're excited to work with Napatech to combine their packet capture solution with our own market-leading hardware to create a unique offering that meets the needs of customers across a variety of verticals in the management and security industries. This joint solution is yet another great example of Dell OEM teaming up with a company on the cutting edge of technology innovation to deliver an even greater degree of choice, flexibility and capabilities to our customers."

About Napatech

Napatech is the world leader in data delivery solutions for network management and security applications. As data volume and complexity grow, organizations must monitor, compile and analyze all the information flowing through their networks. Our products use patented technology to capture and process data at high speed and high volume with guaranteed performance, enabling real-time visibility. We deliver data faster, more efficiently and on demand for the most advanced enterprise, cloud and government networks. Now and in the future, we enable our customers' applications to be smarter than the networks they need to manage and protect.

No Forward-Looking Statements

This press release may be deemed to contain forward-looking statements. Readers are cautioned that these forward-looking statements are only predictions and may differ materially from actual future events or results due to a variety of factors, including, among other things, business and economic conditions and growth trends in the networking industry, our customer markets and various geographic regions; global economic conditions and uncertainties in the geopolitical environment other macro-economic factors and other risk factors set forth in Napatech's reports. Any forward-looking statements in this release are based on limited information currently available to Napatech, which is subject to change, and Napatech will not necessarily update the information.

For more information, visit us at www.napatech.com.

Media

Kim Dearborn, Nadel Phelan

+1 831 440 2407

[email protected]



Investor Relations

Niels Hobolt

+45 8853 7003

[email protected]

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SOURCE Napatech

Related Links

http://www.napatech.com


SAN FRANCISCO, July 27, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- The global nerve repair and regeneration market is expected to reach $15.7 billion by 2024, according to report by Grand View Research, Inc. The demand for neurological disorder devices and therapies is expected to exhibit an upsurge over the forecast period owing to the rising awareness, the increasing incidence rate, the favorable government funding and reimbursement policies, and the continual technological advances offered by the key players of the industry. According to the American Physiological Society, approximately 12,000 spinal Cord Injuries (SCI) are recorded every year in the U.S. The majority of these injuries take place due to sporting accidents, gunshot wounds, car accidents, and falls.

In January 2016, The EU Horizon 2020 program funded a research project 'AUTOSTEM' launched by the NUI Galway's Regenerative Medicine Institute (REMEDI) amounting to USD 6.73 million. This project is to develop a robotic stem cell production factory, involved in fully automated manufacturing of stem cells in large volumes; thus, having an edge over the old traditional techniques. Also, this technique will treat a range of therapies pertaining to cancer, arthritis, diabetes and other complications.

Access full research report: http://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/nerve-repair-regeneration-market

Key Finding

The neurostimulation and neuromodulation segment dominated the product segment of the market due to the increasing awareness about the devices coupled with the surging number of central nervous system disorders in the population.

North America dominated the market in 2015 owing to the technological advancements in the region and the introduction of new devices by the manufacturers. In 2015, U.S proved to be the most potential market. The rise in number of cases with injuries in the Central Nervous System (CNS), including injuries to the spinal cord and the brain, and increase in the government initiatives and funding were some of the major reasons responsible for growth.

Market Segmentation:

Product Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2013  2024) Biomaterial Neurostimulation and neuromodulation devices Spinal cord stimulation devices Deep brain stimulation devices Sacral nerve stimulation devices Vagus nerve stimulation devices Gastric electric stimulation devices

Surgery Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2013  2024) Direct nerve repair/neurorrhaphy Nerve grafting Stem cell therapy Neurostimulation and neuromodulation surgeries

Regional Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2013  2024) North America U.S. Canada Europe UK Germany Rest of Europe Asia Pacific Japan China Rest of Asia Pacific Latin America Brazil Mexico Rest of Latin America MEA South Africa Rest of MEA



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.

Contact:

Sherry James

Corporate Sales Specialist, USA

Grand View Research, Inc

Phone: 1-415-349-0058

Toll Free: 1-888-202-9519

Email: [email protected]

Web: www.grandviewresearch.com

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SOURCE Grand View Research, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.grandviewresearch.com


JUNO BEACH, Fla., July 27, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- NextEra Energy, Inc. (NYSE: NEE) has posted its second-quarter 2016 financial results in a news release available on the company's website by accessing the following link: www.NextEraEnergy.com/investors .

Jim Robo, chairman and chief executive officer of NextEra Energy, John Ketchum, executive vice president, finance and chief financial officer of NextEra Energy, and other members of the company's senior management team will discuss the company's financial results during an investor presentation to be webcast live, beginning at 9 a.m. ET today. The listen-only webcast will be available on NextEra Energy's website by accessing the following link: www.NextEraEnergy.com/investors . Also discussed during the investor presentation will be financial results for NextEra Energy Partners, LP (NYSE: NEP). A replay will be available for 90 days by accessing the same link as listed above.

NextEra Energy, Inc.

NextEra Energy, Inc. (NYSE: NEE) is a leading clean energy company with consolidated revenues of approximately $17.5 billion and approximately 14,300 employees in 27 states and Canada as of year-end 2015, as well as approximately 45,000 megawatts of generating capacity, which includes megawatts associated with noncontrolling interests related to NextEra Energy Partners, LP (NYSE: NEP) as of April 2016. Headquartered in Juno Beach, Fla., NextEra Energy's principal subsidiaries are Florida Power & Light Company, which serves more than 4.8 million customer accounts in Florida and is one of the largest rate-regulated electric utilities in the United States, and NextEra Energy Resources, LLC, which, together with its affiliated entities, is the world's largest generator of renewable energy from the wind and sun. Through its subsidiaries, NextEra Energy generates clean, emissions-free electricity from eight commercial nuclear power units in Florida, New Hampshire, Iowa and Wisconsin. A Fortune 200 company and included in the S&P 100 index, NextEra Energy has been recognized often by third parties for its efforts in sustainability, corporate responsibility, ethics and compliance, and diversity, and has been ranked No. 1 in the electric and gas utilities industry in Fortune's 2016 list of "World's Most Admired Companies." For more information about NextEra Energy companies, visit these websites: www.NextEraEnergy.com, www.FPL.com, www.NextEraEnergyResources.com.

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SOURCE NextEra Energy, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.nexteraenergy.com


BROOMFIELD, Colo., July 26, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Old Chicago Pizza & Taproom, a leader in casual dining known for its delicious, handcrafted pizza, distinctive taproom fare and vast craft beer selection, announced today that its franchise partners are reinvesting an average of $150,000 into refreshing 37 existing franchised restaurants. This effort comes as part of the brand's commitment to enhancing the customer experience and providing high quality service, and will include renovations to the interior and exterior of existing franchised restaurants, as well as upgrades to the dining room and beer equipment that reinforce Old Chicago's leading position in the booming craft beer segment.

Old Chicago Pizza & Taproom (PRNewsFoto/Old Chicago)

"Old Chicago had a tremendous year last year as we experienced unprecedented growth, opened new restaurants across the country and introduced the concept to a half dozen new markets," said Mike Mrlik, president of Old Chicago Pizza & Taproom. "We're still riding the momentum and have full support from our network of franchisees. They believe in the brand wholeheartedly and because of their unwavering passion, decided to embark on this reinvestment initiative to reinvigorate their restaurants to match the unparalleled service and high quality products our customers have come to know us for. This effort solidifies our standout position in the marketplace, and we look forward to treating guests of Old Chicago to a new and improved experience as we continue to complete renovations system-wide."

With the refresh, Old Chicago restaurants will feature upgrades to its beer equipment and systems, including the tap tower, glass mug coolers, stainless glass storage cabinet and stein racks, as well as spritzers and chillers that ensure every craft beer is served perfectly. The restaurants will also now display its beer menu on a mounted 60-inch LCD screen showcasing Old Chicago's expansive selection of 36 to 50 craft beers on tap depending on location, with a rotating selection dedicated to local breweries within each market. Each location has a unique lineup, contributing to Old Chicago's position as a leader in craft beer sales. As part of the refresh, the service team will also undergo extensive beer training, enhancing Old Chicago team member's expertise in craft beer.

Additional interior renovations include front-of-the-house upgrades to its wall signage and decor, a fresh paint pallet, new tabletops and bases, backless barstools and a community table that seats up to 20. Old Chicago's exteriors will display an updated logo sign as well as a new exterior monument to enhance the overall appearance of the restaurants. To complement the new design elements, the company is now working with Open Table and using its software for all reservation systems. Old Chicago's franchisees are confident that this effort will provide guests a fresh environment and reinforce the brand's position as The Craft Beer Authority.

John Johnson has been an Old Chicago franchisee for more than a decade, and has already completed the refresh at two of his restaurants in Montana. His location in Billings, one of the first to complete in March 2015, continues to run over double digit positive comp sales more than a year later. Johnson's restaurant in Bozeman is experiencing the same surge, and is expected to continue on that path even after it hits the one-year refresh mark this July. He will begin the refresh process at his Casper, Wyoming location later this year.

"This effort has had a direct impact on sales in my Montana restaurants," said Johnson. "The new furniture fixtures, softer paint pallet, bar updates and addition of a covered patio have given Old Chicago a modern look and clean design, and completely elevated the overall experience for my customers."

Old Chicago experienced record-breaking success in 2015, achieving $254 million in system-wide revenue and 20 consecutive months of positive comp sales. Old Chicago also launched its new restaurant prototype  a 5,000 square feet build with an additional 1,000  1,200 square feet of outdoor patio space, a new kitchen and upgraded bar technology. To further enhance the experience, the company has also updated its training programs and guest proven menu categories. A growing brand with over 16 years of successful franchise partnerships, Old Chicago is an established multi-unit concept with proven processes to support franchisees with site selection, lease agreements, facility design, operational training and marketing. To fuel franchise growth, the company is seeking multi-unit operators with business, management and foodservice and/or restaurant experience, and a passion for and commitment to exceptional customer service.

About Old Chicago

Old Chicago Pizza & Taproom is a leader in the casual dining restaurant segment, specializing in the best local and regional craft beer, serving handcrafted pizza and distinctive taproom fair. Founded in 1976, the crave-able Old Chicago menu has played a complementary role to the vast craft beer selection, a concept differentiator to this day. With over 30 craft beers on tap, Old Chicago is also the home of the World Beer Tour, which rewards members for enjoying 110 of the best craft beers from across the globe. Old Chicago operates in 24 states with more than 100 restaurants nationwide. Visit www.oldchicago.com to learn more and to find the restaurant nearest you. For information about franchise opportunities, visit www.ocfranchising.com.

About CraftWorks

CraftWorks Restaurants & Breweries, Inc. is the largest craft brewery restaurant operator in the country with nearly 200 franchised and company-owned restaurants primarily operating under the Old Chicago Pizza & Taproom, Gordon Biersch Brewery Restaurants, Rock Bottom Restaurants & Breweries and ChopHouse & Brewery brands. As a leader in the craft beer focused casual dining segment, CraftWorks also operates strong regional brands, and employs more than 12,000 people throughout the U.S. All of CraftWorks' restaurant brands have innovative menus with made-from-scratch food and a vast selection of unique craft beer, as well as unbeatable service and loyalty programs with over a million active members. Based in Broomfield, Colo., CraftWorks is not only committed to serving its loyal guests, but also the communities in which its restaurants operate. The CraftWorks Foundation has contributed millions of dollars, positively impacting communities throughout the country. For additional information about CraftWorks, the Foundation, and its restaurant brands, please visit www.craftworksrestaurants.com.

CONTACT: Andie Biederman

Fish Consulting

954-893-9150

[email protected]

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20140825/139267

SOURCE Old Chicago Pizza & Taproom

Related Links

http://www.oldchicago.com


PHOENIX, July 27, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- As part of its growth strategy, OneAZ Credit Union recently changed its name from Arizona State Credit Union. The change underscores the financial institution's commitment to the individual behind every transaction, according to Dave Doss, the Credit Union's President and Chief Executive Officer.

"We are a strong financial institution with a 65-year legacy of making a positive difference in the lives of our members, associates and communities, yet we suffered from brand confusion," he said. "The timing was right for us to adopt a new name that embodies who we are and the way we approach our business."

OneAZ Credit Union is a full-service, nonprofit credit union, with 135,000 members and $1.8 billion in assets. At its 20 branches across the state, the credit union offers an array of services to help members during the most important stages of life  from preparing for college to buying a home and planning for retirement.

Services aside, Doss said members benefit from long-standing relationships with credit union associates who live in their community, along with local decision-making on loan approvals and other financial matters.

"Our members are the owners, so we work in their best interest," he said.

The name change coincides with OneAZ's ambitious plan to double its assets in the next five years. David Sweiderk, the credit union's Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, said the plan involves taking an integrated channel and an outside-in approach to look at operations from its members' perspective.

Among the planned infrastructure upgrades are a best-in-class telephony system with password authentication, voice recognition and other features, along with a next-level digital experience. Prototype branches also are being planned in Sedona and at Kierland Commons in Scottsdale. The branches, set to open this summer and fall, respectively, will feature an Apple-esque design, with consultation, learning and the latest member service technologies.

"We want to make contact with members as easy, enjoyable and effective as possible, regardless of how they reach us," Sweiderk said.

Above all, Sweiderk said OneAZ will maintain a laser-like focus on providing the best possible member service. That means continuing to build upon its already robust training program, so its associates are well-versed in all of the credit union's services. "Ultimately, our associates are relationship managers who take the time to understand what our members need. We deliver a level of service they can't get anywhere else; we are here to create and forge a trusted partnership with our members," he said.

Giving back has always been part of the credit union's culture. To bolster its philanthropic programs, the credit union recently established the OneAZ Community Foundation.

As part of its program of giving, the Foundation invited nonprofit organizations in markets where OneAZ does business to apply for one of 20 community impact grants totaling $50,000. The grants will fund programs that provide a direct benefit to the communities served and enhance the quality of life. The Foundation is currently evaluating applications and will announce recipients in mid-August.

"We want our members and communities to know that we are as passionate about helping them today as we were when we opened our first branch in 1951," said Joseph C. Smith, Board Chair of OneAZ Community Foundation.

For more information about the credit union, visit oneazcu.com.

About OneAZ

OneAZ Credit Union is a $1.8 billion full-service, not-for-profit, local financial institution with a statewide branch network serving members since 1951. More than 135,000 Arizonans turn to OneAZ for its comprehensive business and personal financial services. OneAZ Community Foundation plays an important role in providing much-needed funding to nonprofit and community organizations throughout the state. OneAZ is a 10-time winner of Arizona Business Magazine's Ranking Arizona and a six-time recipient of the Peter Barron Stark & Associates Award for Workplace Excellence. The credit union is headquartered in Phoenix and welcomes members from throughout the state. For more information, call 844.663.2928 or visit oneazcu.com.

SOURCE OneAZ Credit Union

Related Links

https://www.oneazcu.com


PRYOR, Okla., July 27, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Orchids Paper Products Company (NYSE MKT: TIS) today reported results for the second quarter of 2016 as follows:



Q2 2016 Q2 2015

Q1 2016

(Dollars in thousands, except per share data) Net sales:











Converted product

$ 39,339 $ 39,787

$ 45,252

Parent rolls

75 2,508

2,491

Total net sales

$ 39,414 $ 42,295

$ 47,743 Gross profit

$ 6,873 $ 7,719

$ 11,381 Net income

$ 2,568 $ 3,878

$ 5,409 Adjusted net income

$ 3,072 $ 3,892

$ 5,755 Diluted net income per share

$ 0.25 $ 0.39

$ 0.52 Adjusted diluted net income per share $ 0.30 $ 0.39

$ 0.56 EBITDA

$ 7,628 $ 7,964

$ 11,497 Adjusted EBITDA

$ 8,014 $ 8,387

$ 11,646















Other Selected Financial Data:











Gross profit margin

17.4% 18.3%

23.8%

EBITDA margin

19.4% 18.8%

24.1%

Adjusted EBITDA margin

20.3% 19.8%

24.4%

Jeff Schoen, President and Chief Executive Officer, stated, "I am encouraged by Orchids year-to-date 2016 performance, as converted product sales have increased 10% and Adjusted EBITDA margin has increased 6% over the same period last year. After a very strong performance in the first quarter of 2016, our second quarter results were negatively affected by: (i) increased promotions on branded products that affected private label sales, (ii) inventory reductions at our largest customer, (iii) expected start-up costs related to our South Carolina facility, and (iv) shared margins under the supply agreement with Fabrica, as we exceeded our annual limit under the agreement, which gives us access to up to 19,800 tons of converted product from June through May during each year of its term. Furthermore, we made a strategic decision in the second quarter of 2016 to ship excess parent rolls to our South Carolina facility to support Barnwell start-up and finished goods inventory build, thereby foregoing margin we would have received on those parent roll sales in favor of margin we expect to gain when we sell this tonnage as converted product."

Mr. Schoen continued, "As we ramp up our South Carolina facility, we have realized additional distribution with current customers and continue to work toward adding volume with new and existing customers. The first converting line is progressing on its start-up curve as projected, while the second converting line is scheduled to come on-line in August 2016. Construction of the paper machine is underway and on schedule to start up in the first quarter of 2017. Overall, we remain optimistic about our ability to achieve our long-term goal to grow Orchids' annual Adjusted EBITDA to approximately $60 million and earnings per share to approximately $2.50 to $3.40."

Three-month period ended June 30, 2016

Net sales of converted product decreased 1% primarily due to:

decreased shipments due primarily to increased promotional activity on branded products and inventory reductions by our largest customer.

Net sales of parent rolls decreased 97% due primarily to:

Management's decision to utilize parent rolls produced in Oklahoma in the Company's South Carolina facility until the South Carolina paper mill is operational. We believe this will eliminate costs of purchasing equivalent parent rolls on the open market in the last half of 2016 and provide additional margin when the tonnage is sold as converted product.

Gross profit as a percent of net sales decreased 0.9% primarily due to:

higher production costs in our Oklahoma operation, primarily due to a $1.2 million increase in repair and maintenance costs, resulting in part from the planned annual cold mill outage.

operation, primarily due to a increase in repair and maintenance costs, resulting in part from the planned annual cold mill outage. a 33% increase in depreciation expense due to assets placed in service since the second quarter of 2015, including $36.6 million of assets at our South Carolina facility.

of assets at our facility. lost margins on parent roll sales. As noted above, the Company decided not to sell parent rolls in order to save costs at our South Carolina facility in the last half of 2016.

facility in the last half of 2016. approximately $150,000 of relocation expense and $150,000 of other start-up costs associated with our South Carolina facility.

of relocation expense and of other start-up costs associated with our facility. these costs were partially offset by $1.1 million of proceeds related to the business interruption insurance claim for the incident that occurred in the Company's converting operation in the fourth quarter of 2015.

Six-month period ended June 30, 2016

Net sales of converted product increased 10% primarily due to:

increased shipments from all locations, primarily due to higher shipments with existing private label customers (including shipments from South Carolina in 2016) and strong West Coast shipments related to both branded and private label premium-tier products.

Gross profit as a percent of net sales increased 5.2% primarily due to:

lower per unit production costs in our Oklahoma converting operation. Production increased 14% in 2016, primarily due to increased operating efficiencies across the operation and the addition of a new converting line late in the second quarter of 2016, which increased absorption of fixed and semi-variable costs. Additionally, we received $1.1 million of business interruption insurance proceeds in the second quarter of 2016, as noted above.

converting operation. Production increased 14% in 2016, primarily due to increased operating efficiencies across the operation and the addition of a new converting line late in the second quarter of 2016, which increased absorption of fixed and semi-variable costs. Additionally, we received of business interruption insurance proceeds in the second quarter of 2016, as noted above. higher margins under the Supply Agreement with Fabrica, resulting from a strong US dollar exchange rate with the Mexican peso, SKU optimization and price increases, partially offset by higher costs in the second quarter of 2016 when we reached our annual tonnage limit under the agreement.

increased production in our Oklahoma paper making operation. Production increased 23% in 2016, primarily due to the start-up of a new paper machine in March 2015 . This increase in production resulted in increased absorption of fixed costs.

paper making operation. Production increased 23% in 2016, primarily due to the start-up of a new paper machine in . This increase in production resulted in increased absorption of fixed costs. lower fiber costs. The combination of price changes and mix of fiber consumed in 2016 resulted in an approximate $600,000 increase in gross profit.

Income Taxes

As of June 30, 2016, our effective tax rate is estimated at 34.1%. This is comparable to the 34.2% estimated at the end of the first quarter of 2016. The estimated effective tax rate differs from the statutory tax rate primarily due to foreign taxes, state investment tax credits, manufacturing deductions and Indian Employment Tax Credits.

Liquidity



Q2 2016 Q2 2015

Q1 2016

(in thousands) Cash Flow Provided by (Used in):









Operating Activities

$ 7,546 $ (617)

$ 8,863 Investing Activities

$ (17,863) $ (13,319)

$ (20,785) Financing Activities

$ 8,514 $ 26,464

$ 15,600

Cash provided by operating activities in the second quarter of 2016 was primarily affected by:

a decrease in accounts receivable and an increase in deferred income taxes, which was partially offset by an increase in inventories.

Cash used in investing activities in the second quarter of 2016 includes:

$20.6 million of capital expenditures, offset by the release of $2.3 million of restricted cash in connection with capital expenditures incurred for our South Carolina facility.

Cash provided by financing activities in the second quarter of 2016 was primarily impacted by:

$12.7 million of borrowings under our revolving credit lines, including our delayed draw facility.

of borrowings under our revolving credit lines, including our delayed draw facility. $3.6 million of dividends paid to stockholders.

Total long-term debt outstanding as of June 30, 2016 was $104.6 million and unrestricted cash totaled $6.2 million. As a result, Net Debt outstanding as of June 30, 2016 was $98.4 million.

Dividend Declared

On July 27, 2016, the Orchids Board of Directors declared a quarterly dividend of $0.35 per share to be paid on August 22, 2016 to stockholders of record at the close of business on August 8, 2016.

Conference Call/Webcast

The Company will hold a teleconference to discuss its first quarter results at 10:00 a.m. (ET) on Thursday, July 28, 2016. All interested parties may participate in the teleconference by calling 888 346 7791 and requesting the Orchids Paper Products teleconference. A question and answer session will be part of the teleconference's agenda. Those intending to access the teleconference should dial in fifteen minutes prior to the start. The call may also be accessed live via webcast through the Company's website at www.orchidspaper.com under "Investors." A replay of the teleconference will be available for 30 days on the Company's website.

Non-GAAP Financial Measures

This press release contains non-GAAP financial measures. A non-GAAP financial measure is a numerical measure of a company's financial performance that excludes or includes amounts so as to be different than the most directly comparable measure calculated and presented in accordance with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles ("GAAP") in the United States in the statement of income, balance sheet or statement of cash flows of a company. The five non-GAAP financial measures used within this press release are: (1) EBITDA, (2) Adjusted EBITDA, (3) Adjusted Net Income, (4) Adjusted Diluted Net Income Per Share and (5) Net Debt.

EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA, Adjusted Net Income and Adjusted Diluted Net Income Per Share are not measurements of financial performance under GAAP and should not be considered as an alternative to net income, operating income, diluted net income per share or any other performance measure derived in accordance with GAAP, or as an alternative to cash flow from operating activities or a measure of our liquidity. EBITDA represents net income before net interest expense, income tax expense, depreciation and amortization. Adjusted EBITDA excludes stock-based compensation expense. Adjusted Net Income excludes after-tax stock-based compensation expense, after-tax amortization of intangible assets and the effects of a change in our estimated state tax liabilities. Adjusted Diluted Net Income Per Share is calculated by dividing Adjusted Net Income by the number of diluted weighted average shares outstanding. Management believes EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA, Adjusted Net Income and Adjusted Diluted Net Income Per Share facilitate operating performance comparisons from period to period and company to company by eliminating potential differences caused by variations in capital structures (affecting relative interest expense), tax positions (such as the impact on periods or companies of changes in effective tax rates or net operating losses), the age and book depreciation of facilities and equipment (affecting relative depreciation expense) and non-cash compensation (affecting stock-based compensation expense).

Net Debt is not a measurement of financial performance or financial position under GAAP and should not be considered as an alternative to total debt outstanding, total liabilities or any other performance measure derived in accordance with GAAP. Net Debt represents total debt outstanding (excluding deferred debt issuance costs) reduced by unrestricted cash. Management believes the presentation of Net Debt provides the reader with additional information regarding the Company's liquidity and debt leverage positions.

Forward-Looking Statements

This release contains forward-looking statements that involve certain contingencies and uncertainties. The Company intends these forward-looking statements to be covered by the safe harbor provision for forward-looking statements contained in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements relate to future events or future financial performance, and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause its actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, levels of activity, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. In some cases, forward-looking statements can be identified by terminology such as "may," "should," "could," "expects," "plans," "intends," "anticipates," "believes," "estimates," "predicts," "potential," "will" or "continue" or the negative of such terms or other comparable terminology. Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements are reasonable, it cannot guarantee future results, levels of activity, performance or achievements. These statements are only predictions.

Factors that could materially affect the Company's actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements include, without limitation, those detailed under the caption "Risk Factors" in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2015, as filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on March 7, 2016 and the Company's Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2016, as filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on April 29, 2016.

The Company's actual results may be materially different from what it expects. The Company does not undertake any duty to update these forward-looking statements after the date hereof, even though the Company's situation may change in the future. All of the forward-looking statements herein are qualified by these cautionary statements.

About Orchids Paper Products Company

Orchids Paper Products Company is a customer-focused, national supplier of high quality consumer tissue products primarily serving the at home private label consumer market. The Company produces a full line of tissue products, including paper towels, bathroom tissue and paper napkins, to serve the value through ultra-premium quality market segments from its operations in northeast Oklahoma, Barnwell, South Carolina and Mexicali, Mexico. The Company provides these products primarily to retail chains throughout the United States. For more information on the Company and its products, visit the Company's website at http://www.orchidspaper.com.

Orchids Paper Products Company and Subsidiaries Selected Financial Data (in thousands, except tonnage and per share data)



Three Months Ended June 30,

Six Months Ended June 30,

2016

2015

2016

2015

(unaudited)

(unaudited)

(unaudited)

(unaudited) Converted Product Net Sales $ 39,339

$ 39,787

$ 84,591

$ 77,202 Parent Roll Net Sales 75

2,508

2,566

2,508 Net Sales 39,414

42,295

87,157

79,710 Cost of Sales 32,541

34,576

68,903

67,205 Gross Profit 6,873

7,719

18,254

12,505 Selling, General and Administrative Expenses 2,504

2,240

5,226

4,737 Intangibles Amortization 376

377

753

754 Operating Income 3,993

5,102

12,275

7,014 Interest Expense 285

64

548

278 Other (Income) Expense, net (164)

(152)

(365)

(338) Income Before Income Taxes 3,872

5,190

12,092

7,074 Provision for Income Taxes 1,304

1,312

4,115

1,960 Net Income $ 2,568

$ 3,878

$ 7,977

$ 5,114















Average number of shares outstanding, basic 10,278,355

9,801,616

10,275,255

9,281,257 Average number of shares outstanding, diluted 10,374,851

9,852,598

10,342,853

9,343,887















Net income per share:













Basic $ 0.25

$ 0.40

$ 0.78

$ 0.55 Diluted $ 0.25

$ 0.39

$ 0.77

$ 0.55















Cash dividends paid $ 3,597

$ 3,594

$ 7,193

$ 6,660 Cash dividends per share $ 0.35

$ 0.35

$ 0.70

$ 0.70















Operating Data:













Converted Product Tons Shipped 20,029

20,334

43,437

39,171 Parent Roll Tons Shipped 87

2,520

2,878

2,520 Total Tons Shipped 20,116

22,854

46,315

41,691















Cash Flow Data:













Cash Flow Provided by (Used in):













Operating Activities $ 7,546

$ (617)

$ 16,409

$ 4,934 Investing Activities $ (17,863)

$ (13,319)

$ (38,648)

$ (24,262) Financing Activities $ 8,514

$ 26,464

$ 24,114

$ 34,109

















As of









June 30,

December 31,







Balance Sheet Data: 2016

2015









(unaudited)











Cash & Restricted Cash $ 11,131

$ 16,366







Accounts Receivable, net 10,040

11,834







Inventory, net 20,221

13,501







Other Current Assets 8,176

8,617







Property Plant and Equipment 291,688

232,925







Accumulated Depreciation (65,279)

(59,547)







Net Property Plant and Equipment 226,409

173,378







Intangibles and Goodwill, net 22,537

23,290







Other Long Term Assets 1,780

1,751







Total Assets $ 300,294

$ 248,737























Accounts Payable $ 27,047

$ 11,098







Accrued Liabilities 6,385

3,880







Total Debt 103,284

74,239







Other Long-Term Liabilities 5,134

5,098







Deferred Income Taxes 22,856

20,639







Total Stockholders' Equity 135,588

133,783







Total Liabilities and Stockholders' Equity $ 300,294

$ 248,737











Orchids Paper Products Company and Subsidiaries Selected Financial Data (in thousands, except tonnage and per share data)

Non-GAAP Measurements (unaudited)

















Three Months Ended June 30,

Six Months Ended June 30, EBITDA Reconciliation: 2016

2015

2016

2015 Net Income $ 2,568

$ 3,878

$ 7,977

$ 5,114 Plus: Interest Expense 285

64

548

278 Plus: Income Tax Expense 1,304

1,312

4,115

1,960 Plus: Depreciation 3,095

2,333

5,732

4,421 Plus: Intangibles Amortization 376

377

753

754 Earnings Before Interest, Income Tax and Depreciation $ 7,628

$ 7,964

$ 19,125

$ 12,527 and Amortization (EBITDA)































Three Months Ended June 30,

Six Months Ended June 30, Adjusted EBITDA Reconciliation: 2016

2015

2016

2015 EBITDA $ 7,628

$ 7,964

$ 19,125

$ 12,527 Plus: Stock Compensation Expense 386

423

535

690 Adjusted Earnings Before Interest, Income Tax and $ 8,014

$ 8,387

$ 19,660

$ 13,217 Depreciation and Amortization (Adjusted EBITDA)































Three Months Ended June 30,

Six Months Ended June 30, Adjusted Net Income Reconciliation: 2016

2015

2016

2015 Net income $ 2,568

$ 3,878

$ 7,977

$ 5,114 Plus: Stock Compensation Expense, net of tax 255

280

353

457 Plus: Intangibles Amortization, net of tax 249

250

497

499 Less: Change in Estimated State Tax Liabilities -

(516)

-

(516) Adjusted Net income $ 3,072

$ 3,892

$ 8,827

$ 5,554















Adjusted Diluted Net Income Per Share $ 0.30

$ 0.39

$ 0.85

$ 0.59

















As of









June 30,

December 31,







Net Debt Reconciliation: 2016

2015







Current Portion Long-Term Debt $ 4,545

$ 3,882







Long-Term Debt 98,739

70,357







Total Debt 103,284

74,239







Plus: Deferred Debt Issuance Costs 1,323

1,342







Total Cash Required to Settle Debt 104,607

75,581







Less: Cash (6,235)

(4,361)







Net Debt $ 98,372

$ 71,220

























SOURCE Orchids Paper Products Company

Related Links

http://www.orchidspaper.com


TSX:ORV

TORONTO, July 27, 2016 /PRNewswire/ - Orvana Minerals Corp. (TSX:ORV) (the "Company" or "Orvana") is pleased to announce that it has entered into a $12.5 million copper concentrates and gold dore prepayment agreement (the "Facility") with Samsung C&T U.K. Ltd. ("Samsung C&T"). All dollar figures are in US unless otherwise expressed.

Jeff Hillis, Interim Chief Executive Officer, said, "We are very pleased to announce this commercial and financing partnership with Samsung, a reputable and well-recognized global corporation. We are very proud that, after detailed due diligence by Samsung, Orvana's gold and copper production will form part of its future plans. The successful completion of this transaction, at a competitive cost of capital, represents a significant achievement for Orvana. The financing proceeds will allow us to expedite planned development and infrastructure investments at our El Valle Mine in Spain, as we continue on the path to increase metal production and lower unitary costs at the operation. Along with our recent announcement on May 30, 2016 of the US$7.9 million financing for the recommissioning of the CIL circuit at our Don Mario Mine in Bolivia, we believe that Orvana is now well-positioned for the future and will be able to capitalize on strengthening precious metals markets."

Under the terms of the Facility, Orvana will sell gold dore from its El Valle Mine in Spain and copper concentrate from its Don Mario Mine in Bolivia to Samsung C&T, on an exclusive basis for a period of thirty months (the "Facility Term"). In exchange, Orvana will receive $12.5 million in prepayment financing from Samsung C&T in two instalments. The first instalment of $8.0 million will be drawn upon closing and will be repaid beginning twelve months after drawdown in eighteen equal monthly payments. The second instalment of $4.5 million will be available for drawdown six to twelve months after closing and will be repaid beginning nine months after drawdown in nine equal monthly payments. The Facility will bear interest at LIBOR plus 4.5%. Interest payments and principal repayments will be made against Orvana's future shipments of copper concentrates and gold dore during the Facility Term. Samsung C&T has agreed to pay for copper concentrates and gold dore on at a price based on the prevailing metal prices for the gold, silver and copper content around time of shipment, less customary treatment, refining and shipping charges, and pursuant to the terms of the Facility.

The Company's obligations to Samsung C&T under the Facility are secured by the pledge to Samsung C&T of all of Orvana's shares of its indirectly wholly owned subsidiary OroValle Minerals S.L.U. which owns El Valle Mine in Spain.

Drawdown of the Facility is subject to satisfaction of customary closing conditions by Orvana for this type of transaction.

About Orvana

Orvana is a multi-mine gold and copper producer. Orvana's operating assets consist of the producing gold-copper-silver El Valle mine in northern Spain and the producing gold-copper-silver Don Mario mine in Bolivia. Additional information is available at Orvana's website (www.orvana.com).

Cautionary Statements - Forward-Looking Information

Certain statements in this information constitute forward-looking statements or forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities laws ("forward-looking statements"). Any statements that express or involve discussions with respect to predictions, expectations, beliefs, plans, projections, objectives, assumptions, potentials, future events or performance (often, but not always, using words or phrases such as "believes", "expects", "plans", "estimates" or "intends" or stating that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might", "will" or "are projected to" be taken or achieved) are not statements of historical fact, but are forward-looking statements.

The forward-looking statements herein relate to, among other things, Orvana's ability to achieve improvement in free cash flow; the potential to extend the mine life of El Valle and Don Mario beyond their current life-of-mine estimates; Orvana's ability to optimize its assets to deliver shareholder value; the Company's ability to optimize productivity at Don Mario and El Valle; estimates of future production, operating costs and capital expenditures; mineral resource and reserve estimates; statements and information regarding future feasibility studies and their results; future transactions; future metal prices; the ability to achieve additional growth and geographic diversification; future financial performance, including the ability to increase cash flow and profits; future financing requirements; and mine development plans.

Forward-looking statements are necessarily based upon a number of estimates and assumptions that, while considered reasonable by the Company as of the date of such statements, are inherently subject to significant business, economic and competitive uncertainties and contingencies. The estimates and assumptions of the Company contained or incorporated by reference in this information, which may prove to be incorrect, include, but are not limited to, the various assumptions set forth herein and in Orvana's most recently filed Management's Discussion & Analysis and Annual Information Form in respect of the Company's most recently completed fiscal year (the "Company Disclosures") or as otherwise expressly incorporated herein by reference as well as: there being no significant disruptions affecting operations, whether due to labour disruptions, supply disruptions, power disruptions, damage to equipment or otherwise; permitting, development, operations, expansion and acquisitions at El Valle and Don Mario being consistent with the Company's current expectations; political developments in any jurisdiction in which the Company operates being consistent with its current expectations; certain price assumptions for gold, copper and silver; prices for key supplies being approximately consistent with current levels; production and cost of sales forecasts meeting expectations; the accuracy of the Company's current mineral reserve and mineral resource estimates; and labour and materials costs increasing on a basis consistent with Orvana's current expectations.

A variety of inherent risks, uncertainties and factors, many of which are beyond the Company's control, affect the operations, performance and results of the Company and its business, and could cause actual events or results to differ materially from estimated or anticipated events or results expressed or implied by forward looking statements. Some of these risks, uncertainties and factors include fluctuations in the price of gold, silver and copper; the need to recalculate estimates of resources based on actual production experience; the failure to achieve production estimates; variations in the grade of ore mined; variations in the cost of operations; the availability of qualified personnel; the Company's ability to obtain and maintain all necessary regulatory approvals and licenses; the Company's ability to use cyanide in its mining operations; risks generally associated with mineral exploration and development, including the Company's ability to continue to operate the El Valle and/or Don Mario and/or ability to resume operations at the Carles Mine; the Company's ability to acquire and develop mineral properties and to successfully integrate such acquisitions; the Company's ability to execute on its strategy; the Company's ability to obtain financing when required on terms that are acceptable to the Company; challenges to the Company's interests in its property and mineral rights; current, pending and proposed legislative or regulatory developments or changes in political, social or economic conditions in the countries in which the Company operates; general economic conditions worldwide; and the risks identified in the Company's Disclosures under the heading "Risks and Uncertainties". This list is not exhaustive of the factors that may affect any of the Company's forward-looking statements and reference should also be made to the Company's Disclosures for a description of additional risk factors.

Any forward-looking statements made in this information with respect to the anticipated development and exploration of the Company's mineral projects are intended to provide an overview of management's expectations with respect to certain future activities of the Company and may not be appropriate for other purposes.

Forward-looking statements are based on management's current plans, estimates, projections, beliefs and opinions and, except as required by law, the Company does not undertake any obligation to update forward-looking statements should assumptions related to these plans, estimates, projections, beliefs and opinions change. Readers are cautioned not to put undue reliance on forward-looking statements.

The forward-looking statements made in this information are intended to provide an overview of management's expectations with respect to certain future operating activities of the Company and may not be appropriate for other purposes.

SOURCE Orvana Minerals Corp.

Related Links

http://www.orvana.com


DUBLIN, July 27, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Perrigo Company plc (NYSE: PRGO; TASE) today announced that it will release financial results for its second quarter calendar year 2016 on Wednesday, August 10th, 2016 at approximately 6:00 a.m. (ET). The Company will conduct a conference call at 8:30 a.m. (ET) hosted by John T. Hendrickson, Perrigo's Chief Executive Officer.

The conference call will be available live via webcast to interested parties in the investor relations section of the Perrigo website at http://perrigo.investorroom.com/events-webcasts or by phone at 877-248-9413, International 973-582-2737, and reference ID #51288785. A taped replay of the call will be available beginning at approximately 11:30 a.m. (ET) Wednesday, August 10, until midnight Friday, August 26, 2016. To listen to the replay, dial 800-585-8367, International 404-537-3406, and use access code 51288785.

About Perrigo

Perrigo Company plc, a top five global over-the-counter ("OTC") consumer goods and pharmaceutical company, offers patients and customers high quality products at affordable prices. From its beginnings in 1887 as a packager of generic home remedies, Perrigo, headquartered in Ireland, has grown to become the world's largest manufacturer of OTC products and supplier of infant formulas for the store brand market. The Company is also a leading provider of generic extended topical prescription products and receives royalties from Multiple Sclerosis drug Tysabri. Perrigo provides Quality Affordable Healthcare Products across a wide variety of product categories and geographies primarily in North America, Europe, and Australia, as well as other markets, including Israel, China and Latin America. Visit Perrigo online at (http://www.perrigo.com).

Forward-Looking Statements

Certain statements in this press release are "forward-looking statements." These statements relate to future events or the Company's future financial performance and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements of the Company or its industry to be materially different from those expressed or implied by any forward-looking statements. In some cases, forward-looking statements can be identified by terminology such as "may," "will," "could," "would," "should," "expect," "plan," "anticipate," "intend," "believe," "estimate," "predict," "potential" or the negative of those terms or other comparable terminology. The Company has based these forward-looking statements on its current expectations, assumptions, estimates and projections. While the Company believes these expectations, assumptions, estimates and projections are reasonable, such forward-looking statements are only predictions and involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the Company's control, including the timing, amount and cost of share repurchases, future impairment charges, our ability to achieve our guidance and the ability to execute and achieve the desired benefits of announced initiatives. These and other important factors, including those discussed under "Risk Factors" in the Company's Form 10-KT for the six-month period ended December 31, 2015, and form 10-Q for the quarter ended April 2, 2016 as well as the Company's subsequent filings with the SEC, may cause actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements in this press release are made only as of the date hereof, and unless otherwise required by applicable securities laws, the Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

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SOURCE Perrigo Company plc

Related Links

http://www.perrigo.com


CALGARY, Alberta, July 27, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Popbar, the maker of customizable popGelato, popSorbetto, and yogurtPops, founded in New York, New York in 2010, has opened another Canadian location at the CrossIron Mills Food Hall in Calgary. The new shop is located at 261055 Crossiron Boulevard, Suite K22. Popbar is celebrating with an exciting Grand Opening which will take place on Saturday, August 27th.

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160726/393251

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Popaholics will now get a taste of the Popbar experience and be able to enjoy Popbar's all natural, gluten free, low calorie and good for you treats in the city of Calgary. During the grand opening, visitors can engage the shop's Popologists with questions and learn about the brand and what makes it so unique. There will also be giveaways and free customizable popbars which will be served from the shop's eye catching display. Popaholics will also have the opportunity to enter to win free popbars for a year.

"When scouting out a location for our Popbar shop, CrossIron Mills immediately came to mind," says Monika Swiderski, one of the owners of Popbar Calgary. Amy Boers, who is opening the new Popbar location with Monika, could not agree more when deciding on where to open the shop. "Since Popbar appeals to all ages, genders, income levels and basically anyone who enjoys a frozen treat, we were aiming to open in a place with many different types of high end shops and every day brands. CrossIron Mills seemed like the perfect place. And once we heard that they were planning to open a food hall, we just knew we chose the right spot."

At Popbar, you will find classic flavors such as vanilla, chocolate, and coffee, unusual and exotic flavors such as passion fruit, green tea, and banana, and seasonal ones too which include pumpkin pie, mango, and kiwi. Each can be dipped and topped to the customer's liking. Other Popbar treats include Hot Chocolate on a Stick, Frozen Hot Chocolate, Popaccino, nut spreads, and Poppings to Go, Popbar's signature Poppings enrobed in chocolate.

About Popbar:

Popbar was founded in New York City in 2010. The concept and brand was built upon love for an Italian dessert which is authentic but at the same time all-natural, gluten-free, and low in sugar and calories. Popbar not only offers forty rotational flavors of popbars, but a customizable experience where each pop is dipped and topped according to the customers' requests.

In addition to Calgary, Popbar has locations in Edmonton, Burnaby, and Abbotsford as well as nine other locations in the United States. Popbar is looking forward to continuing to expand in Canada and will be opening multiple new locations in the United States later this year.

To keep up with Popaholics and everything Popbar, visit www.pop-bar.com and follow the brand at www.facebook.com/popbarUSA and www.instagram.com/popbar.

"cute, trendy", "high quality", "Deliciousness on a stick"..ZAGAT; "You cannot do much better than the frozen gelato and sorbetto at Popbar"..FLORENCE FABRICANT, THE NEW YORK TIMES; "Not your average ice cream shopwe can go there every day of the week and try something different"..FOOD NETWORK; "revolutionary advance in dessert science"..NEW YORK MAGAZINE; "A brilliant concept."..NBC; "Miracles on ice"..NEW YORK POST; "Rich Pistachio"..TIME OUT NEW YORK

"The city's tastiest cold sweets"..NY1; "The combination was surprisingly rich and filling"..THE VILLAGE VOICE;

"Top Ten Frozen Dessert Retailer of America"..DESSERT PROFESSIONAL

Media Contact:

Elizabeth Weiss

347-585-5617

Email

SOURCE Popbar Handcrafted Gelato on a Stick
NEW YORK, July 27, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Precision Discovery, Inc. proudly celebrates the third anniversary of its employee ownership. In 2012, Precision began sharing ownership with employees through its Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP). Precision Discovery's management is steadfast in this commitment to all of its employees.

"We firmly believe that the ESOP creates a pride in ownership for every employee," said Jerry Barbanel, Precision's President and CEO. "As owners, we all feel strongly about delivering an exceptional customer experience. This commitment to customer success is embodied in every single Precision employee, because each is an owner of the company. We know that our clients' success drives our success."

About Precision Discovery's ESOP

Precision Discovery's employees own 100% of the Company through an ESOP, an employee-owner benefit program that provides our workforce with an ownership interest in the company.

According to the National ESOP Association, there are over 10,000 ESOPs in place in the United States, covering more than 10.3 million employee owners. Precision Discovery offers the only ESOP in the eDiscovery market.

About Precision Discovery

Founded in 2008, Precision Discovery is a leading provider of end-to-end discovery and consulting services. We combine an unparalleled team of legal and technology experts, industry-leading and proprietary technologies, and a collaborative and consultative approach, to reduce costs and give our clients an edge in every discovery matter. Precision Discovery helps corporations and law firms create and implement a proactive, sustainable, efficient and defensible eDiscovery plan. For more information about Precision Discovery, please visit www.precisiondiscovery.com.

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SOURCE Precision Discovery, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.precisiondiscovery.com


NEW YORK, July 27, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Predata, a pioneering provider of predictive event intelligence, today announced it has secured $3.25 million in venture funding. The round was led by Edison Partners with participation from hedge fund manager Kyle Bass, Chicago Ventures, and Conversion Capital. The funding positions Predata for continued product innovation and go-to-market expansion.

Predata's platform is used by hedge funds, corporate security officers, and government agencies to collect and visualize large digital conversations from a range of social and collaborative media. The signals generated from these digital conversations are then used to predict the probability of events occurring within a 1 to 90 day window, including asset price changes, civil society boycotts and protests, labor strikes, electoral results, and national security outcomes.

"The web is dense with hidden information that is harvested by Predata to offer new insights into how key risk events will unfold, whether political campaigns, terrorist attacks, and even monetary policy decisions," said CEO James Shinn, a Silicon Valley veteran who co-founded software firm Dialogic before joining the Central Intelligence Agency as National Intelligence Officer for East Asia and then serving as Assistant Secretary of Defense for Asia. "With the backing of investors as savvy as Edison Partners, Kyle Bass, Chicago Ventures, and Conversion Capital, we'll keep expanding our engineering and sales teams, as well as the depth of our product offering, as we drive further into the finance, corporate, and federal government markets."

Over the last year, Predata has helped clients anticipate:

attacks on oil infrastructure in North Africa ;

; military provocations by Vladimir Putin's expansionist Russia ;

; shifts in public sentiment during the Brexit referendum; and

large moves in currencies and interest rates by monitoring digital discussions on central banking.

Predata supplies Bloomberg with a daily index of political volatility for 125 countries, which is available on the Bloomberg terminal for trading and asset allocation decisions.

"The internet has become the primary medium of public discourse across the globe," said Andrew Choi, Predata's CTO. "While others have derived value from what people are saying, we have found that there are richer and more nuanced patterns in how they engage with each other. Combined with the application of machine learning to a traditionally thorny and qualitative problem, Predata is bringing truly novel insights and analysis to our users."

"Predata is revolutionizing the predictive analytics landscape with its unique use of social conversation data and next generation machine learning, which provides much more lead time than other solutions to take action prior to an event occurring," said Chris Sugden, managing partner at Edison Partners, who will join Predata's board of directors. "We applaud the team for what they have accomplished and are thrilled to be a part of the next phase of the journey."

Kyle Bass, founder and principal of Hayman Capital Management, said: "Predata has predicted world events with admirable accuracy and foresight, including the Brexit outcome and test launches of missiles in North Korea. The company's intelligence platform will become an integral tool for those working in investment management, political science, national security, and business."

Stuart Larkins, partner at Chicago Ventures, said: "Given the systemic increase in volatility across many political systems, there is an acute need for the new class of analytical tools Predata has built to better evaluate, predict, and trade on or manage geopolitical risk. Chicago Ventures has deep ties to asset managers and corporate partners that demand these tools and will benefit greatly from Predata's capabilities."

Christian Lawless, managing partner at Conversion Capital, said: "In an increasingly volatile global landscape, getting information is no longer enough, it's the ability to predict events and outcomes before they happen that is most critical. Made possible due to new forms of open source intelligence and a void left by traditional forms of research, Predata has become an invaluable tool for any financial services institution or government that requires a lens into the future."

About Predata

Predata is using predictive analytics to build the world's smartest platform for political, financial, and market risk intelligence. Predata's cloud-based, language-agnostic platform enables customers to understand, visualize, and anticipate dynamic, real-time shifts in online conversations about topics of interest to them. By focusing on patterns of online behavior on popular social and collaborative media services, Predata is able to capture the volatility of digital discussions online, a unique approach applicable across a diverse set of topics, languages, interests, and user groups. Combined with a proprietary event database, Predata's volatility signals provide users with early warning for different types of risk events in any given country, operational footprint, or area of interest. For further information, visit www.predata.com.

SOURCE Predata

Related Links

http://www.predata.com


NEW YORK, July 26, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Leading Australian investment manager QIC today announced, on behalf of its managed clients the Future Fund and those invested in the QIC Global Infrastructure Fund (QGIF), its $800 million investment alongside AGL Energy Limited (AGL) in the Powering Australian Renewables Fund (PARF).

This strategic partnership is the first of its kind in the development of large scale renewable energy infrastructure in Australia.

PARF will be a A$2-3 billion owner of more than 1,000MW of large-scale renewable energy projects to support Australia's renewable energy capacity and transition to a low-carbon economy. Once fully invested, PARF expects to own approximately 10% of Australia's renewable energy capacity.

OVERVIEW

The Federal Government's Renewable Energy Target (RET) requires Australia to have approximately 20% of its power sourced from large-scale renewable energy by 2020 Today, total renewable energy capacity in Australia installed or under construction is approximately 50% of this target (c.5,000MW). This has taken 14 years to build since the first target was set in 2002 Generation from PARF will be approximately >3,000GWh

This will abate circa 2.7 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions OR



Is enough power to power circa 530,000 homes OR



Is equivalent to removing circa 800,000 cars from the road

QIC CEO Damien Frawley said the partnership was a positive and important national step in the global trend towards decarbonisation: "QIC is proud to create this 'first of a kind' partnership between institutional capital and a key energy industry participant such as AGL.

"PARF is the most significant step to date towards meeting the Australian Federal Government's Renewable Energy Target (RET), and should contribute up to 10% towards the overall target. This is the equivalent of taking 800,000 cars off the road or saving approximately 2.7 million tons of greenhouse gas. At the same time we expect to deliver strong risk-adjusted returns for key clients by developing a pipeline of large scale renewable energy generation in Australia.

"We have a track record of strong ESG practices within the assets we acquire and then actively managing them. This partnership is a significant and more strategic step to develop the Australian renewables sector as a whole, while delivering target investment returns for our clients," said Mr Frawley.

Ross Israel, QIC's Head of Global Infrastructure, said: "We expect renewables, in combination with energy storage and smart grid technologies, to disrupt the existing electricity value chain in the future.

"This partnership paves the way for future investment that supports Australia's transition to a low-carbon economy.

"Development of renewables infrastructure has previously been risky for institutional capital. Barriers to investment included policy uncertainty, the resulting pricing fluctuations and the difficulty for industry participants and institutional investors alike to finding partners with both the expertise and the capital to work across the whole renewables value chain.

"In partnership, QIC and AGL are able to develop, own and manage both existing (brownfield) and new (greenfield) renewable assets, while establishing a governance framework to derisk the investment. The relationship leverages AGL's development expertise, and their scale as one of Australia's largest energy retailers, to provide long term offtake (retail sale) agreements. QIC brings active asset management expertise and deep sector capability.

"We considered our entry strategy into renewables in Australia for many years. It's now pleasing to have secured this partnership with AGL. Through it we can provide our clients with a portfolio diversification strategy into Australian renewables," said Mr Israel.

AGL Managing Director & CEO Andy Vesey concluded by saying: "We are pleased to have such high quality fund managers backing the PARF, and to seeing this initiative spur investment and development in support of Australia's transition to a low-carbon economy."

In addition to the A$800 million commitment from QIC's managed clients, AGL has provided A$200 million of cornerstone equity. PARF will be a key part of Australia's renewable energy capacity representing around 10% by 2020 upon successfully reaching 1,000MW.

More information

PARF OVERVIEW

Created to develop, own and manage A$2-3 billion of large-scale renewable energy projects in Australia .

of large-scale renewable energy projects in . Once fully invested PARF will own approximately 1,000MW of installed capacity and will be the largest single owner of renewable energy capacity in Australia .

. Accelerates Australia's transition to a low-carbon economy, with the potential to meet 10% of the Federal Government's Renewable Energy Target (RET)

Existing assets include:

QIC, on behalf of managed clients the Future Fund and those invested in the QGIF, is initially acquiring two operating assets then working with AGL to develop further projects to build out a diversified portfolio in Australia

The two seed operating assets are the first large scale solar plants developed in Australia at Nyngan (102MW) and Broken Hill (52MW) NSW, which were commissioned in 2015

at Nyngan (102MW) and Broken Hill (52MW) NSW, which were commissioned in 2015 Then, two new significant wind generation projects in QLD and NSW, have been identified for development in 2017/18

About QIC:

QIC is a global diversified alternative investment firm offering infrastructure, real estate, private equity, liquid strategies and multi-asset investments. It is one of the largest institutional investment managers in Australia, with A$75.8 billion (US$56.4 billion/42.2 billion)1 in funds under management, offering infrastructure, real estate, private equity, liquid strategies and multi-asset investment services. QIC has over 500 employees and serves more than 90 clients including governments, pension plans, sovereign wealth funds and insurers, spanning Australia, Europe, Asia, Middle East and the US. Headquartered in Brisbane, Australia, QIC also has offices in New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, London, Sydney, and Melbourne. For more information, please visit: www.qic.com.

About QIC Global Infrastructure:

QIC is a long-term infrastructure investor with an established global platform. We currently manage A$7.0 billion (US$5.2 billion/3.9 billion)2 across 10 global direct investments, having realised a further A$7.0 (US$5.2/3.9 billion)3 of investments for our clients. Our sector centric investment strategy deconstructs risk across sector value chains identifying relative value for investment. This drives a targeted origination approach which has seen us build diversified portfolios for our clients, protecting their capital while delivering strong total returns since 2006.

About AGL

AGL is one of Australia's leading integrated renewable energy companies and is taking action to gradually reduce its greenhouse gas emissions while providing secure and affordable energy to its customers. Drawing on over 175 years of experience, AGL serves its customers throughout eastern Australia with their energy requirements, including gas, electricity, solar PV and related products and services. AGL has a diverse power generation portfolio including base, peaking and intermediate generation plants, spread across traditional thermal generation as well as renewable sources including hydro, wind, solar, landfill gas and biomass.

About Future Fund

The Future Fund is Australia's sovereign wealth fund, investing for the benefit of future generations of Australians. The Future Fund was established in 2006 to accumulate financial assets to offset the Australian Government's unfunded superannuation liability from 2020. The role of the Future Fund is to generate high, risk adjusted returns over the long-term. It operates independently from Government. As at 31 March 2016, the value of the Future Fund was A$117.38bn. Read more at www.futurefund.gov.au.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION

QIC Limited ACN 130 539 123 ("QIC") is a wholesale funds manager and its products and services are not directly available to retail clients. QIC is a company government owned corporation constituted under the Queensland Investment Corporation Act 1991 (Qld). QIC is regulated by State Government legislation pertaining to government owned corporations in addition to the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) ("Corporations Act"). QIC does not hold an Australian Financial Services ("AFS") licence and certain provisions (including the financial product disclosure provisions) of the Corporations Act do not apply to QIC. Please note however that some wholly owned subsidiaries of QIC have been issued with an AFS licence and are required to comply with the Corporations Act. QIC also has wholly owned subsidiaries authorised, registered or licensed by the United Kingdom Financial Conduct Authority ("FCA"), United States Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"), the Korean Financial Services Commission and Irish Central Bank.

For more information about QIC, our approach, clients and regulatory framework, please refer to our website www.qic.com or contact us directly.

The statements and any opinions in this document (the "Information") are for commentary purposes only and do not take into account any investor's personal, financial or tax objectives, situation or needs. The Information is not intended to constitute personal legal or investment advice and it does not constitute, and should not be construed as, an offer to sell or solicitation of an offer to buy, securities or any other investment, investment management or advisory services. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future performance.

Copyright QIC Limited, Australia. All rights are reserved.

1 As at 30 June 2016

2 As at 30 June 2016

3 As at 30 June 2016

SOURCE QIC
PHILADELPHIA, July 26, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Our colleagues across America  our brothers and sisters in blue  are doing the hardest job in the world. At the start of every shift, they go out without knowing what dangers await. And yet, there is a crisis  especially in the eyes of too many communities, particularly communities of color  a crisis of trust in police and the criminal justice system.

Crime rates have been falling for decades, but research shows that public trust in police is eroding in too many places. Dr. Martin Luther King said, "True peace is not the absence of tension; it is the presence of justice." Our communities are arguably far safer than ever. However, absent a sense of justice, less crime in your neighborhood is a hollow victory.

The controversial officer-involved shootings since Ferguson have created great tension between police and our communities. At the same time, throughout this nation, efforts are underway to improve relationships.

In Pittsburgh, we are doing this hard, but critical work. We have open lines of communication with our community partners. In our city, we recognize our interdependency, and are working closely together to reduce violence and make sure our residents feel safe and respected.

But things are fragile. Two police shootings on two consecutive days, in Minnesota and Louisiana, left many understandably outraged. And the assassination of eight police officers in 10 days have those of us in the law enforcement community rightly feeling under assault.

All of these concerns are real. Without question, the criminal justice system has a disparate impact on communities of color, and society is asking more of our police officers than ever before. Laid at the doorstep of police are declining economic opportunities, insufficient resources for mental health, and the lack of drug treatment options.

As a police officer that has served for more than 30 years, let me say this: We can respect and support our police officers while also pushing for important reforms. We can and must do both.

There are many more police leaders like me, who are committed to improving the integrity of our systems, but we will fail unless we come together with our communities.

We must each fight our natural tendency to hide inside our narrow world view, and instead seek common ground with the objective of creating an America that truly provides liberty and justice for all.

Media contact:

[email protected]

Phone: 215-398-5252

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SOURCE 2016 Democratic National Convention Committee

Related Links

http://www.demconvention.com


PHILADELPHIA, July 26, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- I'm David Banks, the President and CEO of the Eagle Academy. Our schools were founded to address a serious problem facing young men of color. The high school graduation rate was only around 30%, and 75% of New York State's entire prison population came from just seven neighborhoods in New York City.

If you were a young man in one of these areas, the odds were stacked against you. So, together with the 100 Black Men, a civic organization of black businessmen and community leaders, we answered the call to do something about this crisis.

Since 2004, the Eagle Academies have educated nearly 4,000 young men. Our graduation rates far exceed the national average for young men of color and 98% of our graduates are accepted to college.

We're making a big difference now, but we could not have done it alone. One leader was with us from the beginning  and our earliest champion. One leader understood that addressing the crisis facing young men of color in our country required innovative measures. One leader pushed to open the first Eagle Academy in the Bronx. And she made a promise to return four years later to offer the keynote address to our first graduating class. And that's a promise she kept!

I'm with Hillary Clinton because she has always been with us.

Today, we have young men who are confident, future leaders. Their resilience is embodied in the daily recitation of the poem Invictus  the same poem that strengthened the resolve of the imprisoned Nelson Mandela when he recited it each day.

Young Men of the Eagle Academy, Invictus, STRAIGHT!

Out of the night that covers me,

Black as the pit from pole to pole,

I thank whatever gods may be

For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance

I have not winced nor cried aloud.

Under the bludgeonings of chance

My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears

Looms but the Horror of the shade,

And yet the menace of the years

Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,

How charged with punishments the scroll,

I am the master of my fate:

I am the captain of my soul.

Thank you!

Media contact:

[email protected]

Phone: 215-398-5252

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SOURCE 2016 Democratic National Convention Committee

Related Links

http://www.demconvention.com


PHILADELPHIA, July 26, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Before I was a comic book creator, or "Cousin Pam" or "Maxine Shaw" on TV, I was just a girl from Philly by way of Arizona.

My mother was a teacher. My father was a preacher. They worked multiple jobs to feed their six kids. We were the working poor. Still, we had our eyes on a future where we were just like folks on TV. More "Jeffersons" than "Good Times." Ya' feel me?

My family's struggle is familiar to millions of American families today. No one will fight harder for these families, for us all, than Hillary Clinton.

I've seen Hillary at work for nearly a decade. I've witnessed a kindness and grace that endures, even when you know she must be "almost-a-million" miles tired and longing for home. It is an uncommon grace and strength. It seems to defy gravity.

Hillary defies gravity. And as president, she will inspire us all to rise.

You're about to meet a young man named Ryan Moore, who has felt that inspiration. His friendship with Hillary was forged 23 years ago by their shared commitment to health care, and their willingness to keep fighting for change, striving for progress, and defying gravity.

Please welcome Ryan Moore.

Media contact:

[email protected]

Phone: 215-398-5252

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SOURCE 2016 Democratic National Convention Committee

Related Links

http://www.demconvention.com


PHILADELPHIA, July 27, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- I am a 4th generation Texan.

Texas women are tough. We approach challenges with clear eyes and full hearts. To succeed in life, all we need are the tools, the trust, and the chance to chart our own path. I was fortunate enough to have these things when I found out I was pregnant years ago. I wanted a family, but it was the wrong time. I made the decision that was best for me  to have an abortion  and was able to get compassionate care at a clinic in my own community. Now, years later, my husband and I are parents to two incredible children.

My story is not unique. About one in three American women have abortions by the age of 45, and the majority are mothers just trying to take care of the families they already have. You see, it's not as simple as bad girls get abortions and good girls have families. We are the same women at different times in our lives  each making decisions that are the best for us.

If we want families to succeed, we start by empowering women. Give us accurate information and access to health care. Keep politicians out of our business when we're not ready to parent, and support us when we are. That's what gives our families the best chance to get ahead and stay ahead. And that is what Hillary Clinton has spent decades fighting for.

Donald Trump is different. He said women who have abortions should be punished. He calls women "pigs" and says breastfeeding is "disgusting."

Now some people think he doesn't really mean any of that. But, look who he picked for VP.

Mike Pence led the charge to defund Planned Parenthood, pushed to let hospitals turn a woman away if she needs an abortion to save her life, and signed a bill with some of the most outrageous abortion restrictions in the country. He has even said he can't wait to send Roe v. Wade "into the ash heap of history." Together, Donald Trump and Mike Pence have united to form the "make misogyny great again" ticket.

And the people who so loudly oppose abortion rights? Let me let you in on their dirty little secret: They're not only against abortions. Many of these people are also fighting to restrict access to contraception and block commonsense policies to support working moms.

It's not abortion that bothers them. It's empowering women to live our own lives. When we have power over our own destiny, we not only strengthen our families, we honor our most cherished traditions of liberty and equality.

These aren't just "women's issues"  these are the very foundation of our freedom.

We need a president who has the experience, the wisdom, and the grit to stand up against the bullies. We need a president who knows that "women's rights are human rights." We need a president who will keep expanding the frontiers of freedom for all Americans.

We need Hillary Clinton.

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PHILADELPHIA, July 26, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Thaddeus Desmond

In her early 20s, Hillary Clinton spent time at the Yale New Haven Hospital researching child abuse. She saw children who had been beaten, burned, and neglected. The experience turned her into a lifelong champion for kids in need. I know from my own life how important that work is.

My decision to become a child advocate social worker was influenced by my own social worker. She was so committed to my future that she not only advocated for me  she adopted me. Today, I proudly call her Mom. Every kid deserves an advocate who truly cares for them, and they have one in Hillary Clinton. Hillary knows that when you fight for our kids, you're fighting for our future. That's why I'm with Her.

Anton Moore

In 1972, Hillary traveled to Alabama on a mission. She was there to help shed light on segregated academies  private schools that cropped up across the state after the Supreme Court ordered public schools to integrate. When these schools applied for federal tax exemptions, they claimed they weren't trying to promote segregation, but Hillary helped prove they were. Hillary visited one of these academies posing as a mother looking to enroll her child. And, sure enough, the administrators assured her they didn't accept black children. Hillary shared her findings with the Children's Defense Fund.

As the founder of a Philadelphia nonprofit focused on education and community, I wake up every morning thinking about how to give more African American young people the chance to live the future they deserve. I know Hillary Clinton wakes up thinking about the same thing. That's why I'm with Her.

Dynah Haubert

After Hillary graduated from law school, she could've gotten a job anywhere. But she chose to work full time for the Children's Defense Fund. She went door to door in Massachusetts, gathering stories from disabled children who desperately wanted to go to school but were prevented from enrolling by discrimination.

Her research contributed to the passage of historic legislation that required states to provide quality education for disabled students. As a disabled person, I became a lawyer to advocate that disability is not a problem to be cured, but part of our identity and diversity. And that's why, today  on the 26th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act  I'm with Her.

Kate Burdick

Until the 1970s, young people who got in trouble in South Carolina were often housed in the same prison cells as adults. It was a dangerous policy that put kids at serious risk for abuse. The Children's Defense Fund dispatched Hillary to these prisons to investigate. As a result of work she contributed to, after three years of litigation, the state ended this practice.

From the moment a child touches the system, it's important society lifts them up instead of letting them fall behind. That's why I became a juvenile justice lawyer. You don't often make headlines fighting for kids  but her whole career, Hillary has been quietly leading that fight anyway. That's why I'm with Her.

Dustin Parsons

As the first lady of Arkansas, Hillary Clinton chaired the state's Educational Standards Commission. She put the schools she visited to what she called the Chelsea Test. If it wasn't good enough for her daughter, it wasn't good enough for any child.

She played a major role in shaping the state's education policy and improving standards at schools like the one I went to. When she started, Arkansas' schools were ranked second worst in the nation. By the time she was done, they were among the most improved.

Now, as a teacher in those same public schools, I know my students continue to benefit from the work Hillary started all those years ago. That's why I'm with Her.

Daniele Mellott

Hillary began working on adoption and foster care issues as a law student  and never stopped. As First Lady, she advocated for landmark legislation to make it easier for families to adopt kids in need  especially older kids who worried they'd never find a permanent home.

My 17-year-old son Heath was once one of those kids. We adopted Heath four years ago  but it feels like he's been part of the family forever. My three other kids swear Heath was on family vacations we took years before he joined the family.

I'm not a Democrat. But Hillary cares about kids like Heath, and about making families like mine complete. That's why I'm with Her.

Jelani Freeman

Long before she ever held elected office, Hillary Clinton fought for kids every way she could. So you know she continued that fight once she got to the Senate.

I spent my childhood in the New York foster care system, moving from home to home with a trash bag as my suitcase. But if you're a kid in the system who never finds a permanent home, when you turn 18, you're on your own. After my high school graduation, my social worker shook my hand and wished me luck. That was it.

But Hillary had this crazy notion: Every kid deserves to live up to their God-given potential. So she reserved an internship spot in her Senate office just for former foster youth. In 2003, I got that spot. I remember our first meeting vividly. She looked me in the eye and said "Jelani, I'm proud of you." I felt seen and heard  for the first time in my life.

Throughout the years, Hillary has remained a source of encouragement. She has made me more mindful of my responsibility and purpose. Hillary taught me that there is a high cost for low expectations  and that you receive a blessing to become a blessing.

She inspired me to become a lawyer and an advocate for children in my community. Love dignifies us; it elevates us to higher plateaus. Hillary's love did that for me. It lifted me to a place I never had the courage to imagine.

That's why I'm with Her.

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PHILADELPHIA, July 27, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Rep. Judy Chu:

I am Congresswoman Judy Chu from California, and I am proud to be the first Chinese-American woman ever elected to Congress! Standing with me are my fellow Asian-American and Pacific Islander  or AAPI  Members of Congress. Many of them, too, are trailblazers in their own right. And we are all proud to support Hillary Clinton for President of the United States!

It wasn't too long ago that if you saw an Asian Pacific American walking in the U.S. Capitol, you had to stop and do a double-take. But how things have changed. We now have a record number of AAPI Members of Congress  and most importantly, we are organizing and making our voices heard. We have gone from being marginalized to becoming the margin of victory in key swing states and districts all across our nation.

America needs a president who will fight for all of us  someone who rejects the hateful rhetoric that is too often used to divide us and believes that America's diversity is our greatest strength. That's why we've got to elect Hillary Clinton as our next President of the United States! When it comes to the issues most important to us, Hillary Clinton gets it.

On immigration reform, she gets it. So many families have been kept apart for decades by an incredibly long family visa backlog. Hillary will fight to clear that backlog so that millions of American families can finally be reunited with their loved ones. We're with Hillary because she is committed to comprehensive immigration reform!

On education, she gets it. So many of our parents and grandparents sacrificed to come to the United States because they wanted their children to get a better education and live the American Dream. We're with Hillary because she'll make debt-free college available for all Americans.

On voting rights, she gets it. Today, almost 70 percent of AAPI adults are foreign born. Access to translated and absentee ballots is critical. We're with Hillary because she will work with Congress to restore the Voting Rights Act and ensure fair access to the ballot box.

On making sure we have a diverse federal government, she gets it. We're with Hillary because she will appoint an administration that looks like America.

And on safeguarding our civil liberties, she gets it. I am proud to have Congresswoman Doris Matsui and Congressman Mike Honda as members of our caucus. During World War II, both Doris and Mike were imprisoned in internment camps for no other reason than their ethnicity. Donald Trump doesn't seem to see a problem with this part of our history. With Hillary Clinton, we know the civil and constitutional rights of all Americans will be protected!

Tonight, we are also grieving for our dear friend and colleague, Congressman Mark Takai from Hawai'i, who passed away last week at the age of 49 after a hard-fought battle with pancreatic cancer. Mark truly had the aloha spirit, and was deeply committed to advancing the priorities of the people of Hawai'i and our veterans. I will never forget the tears in his eyes when he learned about the Cancer Moonshot initiative. It gave him and millions of Americans hope that we will finally find a cure for cancer. In his memory, we've got to keep hoping  and fighting.

Hillary Clinton is the best choice for all Americans to move our country forward. Our caucus members reflect the diversity of America. And that is why we are proud to stand with her.

Sen. Mazie Hirono:

I am Senator Mazie Hirono from Hawai'i, an immigrant and the first Asian-American woman elected to the U.S. Senate. I support Hillary Clinton because she is a lifelong champion for women, children, and families. With our help, she'll fight for all families  including immigrant families  in the White House.

Rep. Madeleine Bordallo:

Hafa Adai. I am Congresswoman Bordallo from Guam, and I support Hillary Clinton because she understands the unique needs of the territories, and is committed to the Asia-Pacific rebalance. She is the strong leader we need to move forward as a nation.

Rep. Mark Takano:

I am Congressman Mark Takano from California, the first openly gay person of color elected to Congress. As a proud "gaysian," I support Hillary Clinton because she is a strong champion for LGBT rights. She will to fight to end employment discrimination against LGBT Americans.

Rep. Ami Bera:

I am Congressman Ami Bera from California. As the only South Asian member of Congress, and as a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, I support Hillary Clinton because she is the only candidate that understands the complexity of the world and is prepared from day one to lead America.

Rep. Bobby Scott:

I'm Congressman Bobby Scott from Virginia, the first Filipino-American voting member of Congress, and I support Hillary Clinton because she believes that each and every child deserves a quality, affordable education so that they can reach their full potential.

Rep. Ted Lieu:

I am Congressman Ted Lieu from California and a colonel in the U.S. Air Force reserve. I support Hillary Clinton because she'll fight for our military personnel, veterans, and families. She will make sure that those who risked their lives for our country get the health care and the resources that they need.

Rep. Gregorio Kilili Camacho Sablan:

I am Congressman Gregorio Kilili Camacho Sablan from the Northern Mariana Islands. I support Hillary Clinton because she believes that all Americans  including those in the Pacific Island territories  should have access to quality, affordable health care.

Rep. Grace Meng:

I am Congresswoman Grace Meng from New York, the first Asian-American elected to Congress from the East Coast, and I support Hillary Clinton because she is the best candidate to bring Americans together and move our country forward! This election is so important, and Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders can make the difference. Our voting power has doubled over the last decade  we are now the swing vote in swing states like Virginia, Nevada, and also right here in Pennsylvania! And I call upon my fellow AAPIs to organize, to campaign, and to vote, so that we will be the margin of victory in 2016 and beyond! As our community continues to grow  and as we begin to see more AAPI candidates like Raja Krishnamoorthi from Illinois and Stephanie Murphy from Florida begin to run for higher office  it is critical that we elect a person who will make history for America and build a brighter future for generations to come. And that person is Hillary Clinton!

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PHILADELPHIA, July 26, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Democrats, Independents, and to the millions of Republicans who don't recognize the party they saw and heard in Cleveland, and can't support their party's nominees for President and Vice President: 25 years ago, I got to know Hillary Clinton when she worked to achieve a goal a century in the making, universal health care. Between the aspiration of Harry Truman and the accomplishment of Barack Obama, there was Hillary, poised and persistent.

When her first attempt at health reform didn't work out, Hillary could have given up. Instead, she fought the way she always does. She did her homework, persevered, never forgot who she was fighting for. Thanks to her effort, the State Children's Health Insurance Program was born. And she worked just as hard to ensure that states actually signed up, joining with Republican governors to get it done.

Today, 8 million more children have health insurance, as a result. That's 8 million children whose families don't have to choose between paying the rent and taking them to the doctor. When President Obama took office, he picked up the fight. And with the Affordable Care Act passed, we expanded insurance to 20 million more people. Today, 90 percent of Americans are covered.

We've made so much progress. And now, we need to elect the person who will finish the job. Hillary has a plan to drive down health care costs. Hillary has a plan to stand up to the drug companies and lower prescription drug prices. And Hillary has a plan to take us that last mile and finally achieve health care for all. That's what Hillary will do.

Now, Donald Trump has a plan, too. He would rip up Obamacare; throw 20 million people off their health insurance; take us back to a time when insurance companies could deny you coverage if you have a preexisting condition, or charge you more for being a woman. And what's he going to replace it with? "Something so much better." "Yuge," no doubt. That's it. That's the plan.

His Vice Presidential pick is no better. Mike Pence voted against expanding the Children's Health Insurance program Hillary helped start. He voted against requiring insurance plans to cover mental health and addiction treatment. He voted to end Medicare as we know it.

By the way, Mike Pence once said that when both parents work, children end up facing "stunted emotional growth." I'm a doctor. Let me tell you what actually stunts children's growth. Not having access to health care. Inadequate funding for school nutrition programs. Guns  the ultimate public-health crisis.

Also cigarettes. I hear Governor Pence missed the memo, but they do in fact cause cancer and no amount of tobacco company contributions can change that, Governor. The choice in this election is clear.

We need a president whose decisions are rooted in facts. We need a president who will defend our interests around the world  not with ignorant bluster and bombast, but with toughness and resolve. We need a president who will ensure that the wealthiest among us play by the same rules as hardworking, middle-class Americans. And yes, we need a president who will never stop fighting to ensure that universal health care is a basic human right.

If that's the president we want, if that's the America we believe in, then don't wait until November to make your voice heard. Go to HillaryClinton.com to donate right now and help make history. And volunteer, because this race is going to be won on the ground.

In Colorado, and Iowa, and North Carolina, and Michigan, and Florida, and Ohio, and Pennsylvania, and then we're going all the way to Washington, D.C.

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PHILADELPHIA, July 26, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Greetings from the battleground state of Georgia.

When my grandfather accepted the Democratic nomination for president, he stood before this group and said: "It is time for America to move and to speak not with boasting and belligerence but with a quiet strength, to depend in world affairs not merely on the size of an arsenal but on the nobility of ideas, and to govern at home not by confusion and crisis but with grace and imagination and common sense."

Those words feel even more relevant today than they did 40 years ago. And I promise that he is itching to get on the campaign trail and elect Hillary Clinton.

This last year has been a remarkable one for our family. Almost exactly a year ago, my grandfather was diagnosed with cancer. He approached his diagnosis with the exact faith, dignity, and strength we've come to expect. He never stopped working for peace and health around the world, and he never stopped teaching Sunday school at home in Plains.

Today, thanks to the miracle of modern science and the power of prayer, I am happy to report that his cancer is gone. Not only that, but earlier this month, he and my grandmother celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary.

My grandparents demonstrate that there is a strength in love, humility, and service that no amount of anger, pride, or salesmanship can match. That principled strength sustains them in the work they do every day, and that same principled strength will elect Hillary Clinton as our next president.

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PHILADELPHIA, July 27, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Good evening, everyone. I am Karen Weaver, and I am the mayor of the great city of Flint, Michigan. Flint is a community of 100,000 strong, hard-working people, living in the birthplace of General Motors, and the place where the great sit-down strike led to the creation of the United Auto Workers.

Flint is also a city in crisis. Five years ago, our Republican state government used a Michigan law to take over control of the city. In 2014, the state made a fateful mistake, switching our water source to a polluted river to save a handful of dollars  causing lead contamination to leach into our drinking water, poisoning a whole community, and leading to health impacts that may haunt our children for generations.

The problems in Flint are not over. The water is still not safe to drink or cook with from the tap. Our infrastructure is broken, leaking, and rusting away. Our local economy, already down when the water crisis struck, struggles to rebound. And there are many more Flints across the country where environmental issues are hurting our kids and families.

I am still sad to report that the help we need from our federal government to start to rebuild our drinking water infrastructure still sits blocked in the Republican-controlled U.S. Congress, despite the mighty efforts of our Michigan representatives, Congressman Dan Kildee, Senator Debbie Stabenow, and Senator Gary Peters.

I am a voice for Flint, calling out for help.

Do you know who has also heard the call from Flint? Hillary Clinton!

She came to Flint when the water crisis hit. She joined with our community groups, and our civic leaders, and our churches. Hillary said that, "every single child should have the opportunity to live up to his or her God-given potential."

She said, "I will fight for you. I will stand with you, every step of the way. I will not for one minute forget about you, or forget about your children. I will do everything I can to help you get back up, and to help you get your strength and resilience flowing through Flint again."

After her visit in February of this year, her staff then came back to Flint, rolled up their sleeves, and got to work. With direct help from Hillary Clinton's team, we have set up the Flint WaterWorks program that is now putting the young adults of Flint into new jobs rebuilding their own community. Hillary's wonderful daughter, Chelsea, even came to Flint to bring people together to start this work and to create new opportunities for our families.

And then Hillary Clinton came back to Flint, again, a month later. Hillary called out to say that lead poisoning, broken infrastructure, and struggling cities are a national crisis, not just a Flint crisis. Hillary called for getting rid of the poisons in our water, our soils, our old lead-based paint, and our cities. She made a commitment that, when she is President, she will work for a lead-free America.

That is why I'm with Her!

So join with Flint, and all the other Flints out there in America to get behind Hillary Clinton, to raise our voices for Hillary Clinton, and make her the next President of the United States.

God bless Flint and God bless America.

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PHILADELPHIA, July 27, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- We have a historic opportunity to elect a leader who is ready to tackle all of the issues we face as a nation  both as Commander-in-Chief and as a mother and grandmother who understands the challenges of families.

We, as a nation, are anxious about the volatility around the world. I want an experienced and level-headed President who knows what it's like to make decisions in the White House Situation Room. And I trust Hillary Clinton to keep us safe.

I also look forward to the day  and I can see it from here  when we have a President who knows first-hand how women's economic security is tied to issues like access to women's health care, equal pay for the same work, and long-term care for our disabled children and aging parents.

We have a motto in Congress: When women succeed, America succeeds.

But that motto seems to scare Donald Trump and Mike Pence.

We all know how Donald Trump talks about women. He's suggested that working mothers aren't "giving 100 percent" at their jobs. He calls breastfeeding "disgusting." He thinks that equal pay for women "gets away from capitalism."

Now, he has a running mate who thinks women belong in the home  not running companies, not serving in the military, and certainly not running the country.

Look, I am fortunate to serve my constituents in New Mexico as a member of Congress. I am also a proud mother of two incredible daughters. I am Grandma GG to my beautiful granddaughter, Avery, and I am the primary caregiver for my mom. Caregiving is part of who I am.

But it's also financially and emotionally draining for both my mom and me. Hillary Clinton understands we need to support the millions of families who are caring for their aging or disabled family members.

When she says she'll fight for an America where every woman has the economic security she needs to live the life she wants and deserves, I believe her. Because when Hillary Clinton says she's going to do something, she gets it done.

Hillary Clinton stands with us, and we're with her. And we will be stronger as a nation with Hillary Clinton as the next President.

Thank you.

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PHILADELPHIA, July 27, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Hello Democrats! Hello Texas!

I'm a breast cancer survivor, and I know that there are many in this room, who faced what I faced  who fought the fear, and survived.

Democrats, we must fight the Republican nominees of fear, and unite behind Hillary Clinton  the candidate who fights for us.

I came here from Houston, a city with a great new mayor and a place where people of all races, religions, and sexual orientations are respected. We have a strong legacy: Mickey Leland, and Barbara Jordan  who addressed the 1976 Democratic Convention. Her pursuit of justice and equality is our call today. Barbara Jordan once said, "Through the process of amendment, interpretation, and court decision, I have finally been included in 'We, the People.'"

Democrats, we are the "We the People" party!

Last night, we reached a milestone of history. We nominated the first woman to be the President of the United States of America, Hillary Clinton  a woman of uncommon strength, a change-maker, a survivor. I am woman! Hear me roar!

But on the other hand, we have the Republican nominee, the man of fear; and Cleveland, the convention of fear. But we cannot choose fear.

We cannot elect a president who provides no hope to the laid-off union worker, no hope for the mother of five, and no hope for the researcher who might find a cure for cancer. We cannot elect a leader who is willfully ignorant to the outcry of young people who want real criminal justice reform, and real responsible gun safety legislation now.

Not another Newtown, Charleston, Orlando, Baton Rouge, or Dallas.

The Republican nominees of fear are not for our America. So, Democrats, we must be determined in our fight, demanding of each other, discerning of the facts, and demonstrative of our movement. The universe is dark, but there are bright, bright, bright stars that light the way and they will guide us to a safer, more prosperous, more equitable America. The winds of change are at our backs, Clinton and Kaine, and we must march on, march on.

And together, elect Hillary Clinton.

So stand up Democrats! Stand up and see those stars! Stand up and see the light!

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BOSTON, July 27, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Rhythm today announced "The Genetic Obesity Project" to improve the medical and scientific understanding of severe life-threatening obesity that is caused by specific genetic defects. The Project has initiated a genotyping study and a patient registry, both focusing on identifying people with pro-opiomelanocortin (POMC) deficiency obesity and LEPR (leptin receptor) deficiency obesity. POMC and LEPR deficiency obesity are two rare but important genetic disorders associated with unrelenting hyperphagia that begins in infancy and severe, early-onset obesity.

"These genetic disorders of obesity are debilitating, life-threatening conditions that are likely underdiagnosed," said Jennifer Miller, MD, Associate Professor, Pediatric Endocrinology, University of Florida. "It is important to know when obesity is due to a genetic cause because it is easier to find possible solutions once you know the problem. There can also be an important positive psychological impact for families once they know there is a genetic cause, and that it is not a failure of willpower. If you have a child who has severe early-onset obesity and a significantly increased appetite, they should be considered for the genotyping study."

Details for the registry and genotyping study follow:

The goal of the registryGenetic Obesity ID | Registryis to gain a more accurate and reliable assessment of the worldwide prevalence of obesity resulting from POMC and LEPR deficiency, and to increase understanding of disease impact and progression. Rhythm is collaborating with healthcare providers to develop this registry as an international database that best supports the needs of patients and their healthcare providers. Healthcare providers can enroll patients with a confirmed diagnosis of POMC or LEPR deficiency at www.GeneticObesity.com.

The goal of the genotyping studyGenetic Obesity ID | Genotyping Studyis to develop a screening algorithm for selecting patients to be genotyped and diagnosed with POMC and LEPR deficiency. Study investigators are located in both the US and EU. Healthcare providers can register patients to participate in the study at www.GeneticObesity.com.

"We are potentially on the verge of important advances in the treatment of patients with POMC and LEPR deficiencies," said Karine Clement, MD PhD, Professor of Nutrition and Director of ICAN, Pitie-Salpetriere Hospital in Paris, France. "This is the time to improve awareness and understanding of these genetic disorders of obesity. Both the genotyping study and registry will help patients with these conditions, and also further our understanding of the biology and pathogenesis of obesity more broadly."

About The Genetic Obesity Project

Obesity is epidemic in the U.S., and current treatment approaches have demonstrated limited long-term success for most obese patients. Leveraging new understanding of severe obesity caused by specific genetic defects has the potential to improve both diagnosis and treatment for specific types of life-threatening obesity. The Genetic Obesity Project is dedicated to improving the understanding of severe obesity that is caused by specific genetic defectsparticularly rare genetic disorders that result in life-threatening obesity.

About POMC Deficiency Obesity

POMC deficiency obesity is a life-threatening ultra-rare orphan disease, with approximately 50 patients reported to date, and we estimate that actual prevalence of this disorder could be between 100 and 500 patients worldwide. Patients with POMC deficiency have unrelenting hyperphagia that begins in infancy, and they develop severe, early-onset obesity. POMC deficiency obesity results from two different homozygous genetic defects, both upstream (which refers to the relative position of the defect earlier in the pathway) of the MC4 receptor. Currently, there is no approved treatment for the obesity and hyperphagia associated with POMC deficiency obesity.

About LEPR Deficiency Obesity

LEPR deficiency obesity is an ultrarare orphan disease resulting in extreme hyperphagia and severe early-onset obesity with an estimated prevalence of 1% of subjects with severe, early-onset obesity. We estimate actual prevalence could be between 500 and 2,000 patients in the United States. Like other deficiencies upstream in the MC4 pathway, LepR deficiency results in loss of function in the MC4 pathway. Therefore, patients with this indication also manifest intense hyperphagia and severe obesity from early childhood. Currently, there is no approved treatment for the obesity and hyperphagia associated with LEPR deficiency obesity.

About Rhythm (www.rhythmtx.com)

Rhythm is a biopharmaceutical company focused on developing peptide therapeutics for the treatment of rare genetic deficiencies that result in life-threatening metabolic disorders. Rhythm's lead peptide product candidate is setmelanotide, a first-in-class melanocortin 4 receptor (MC4R) agonist for the treatment of rare genetic disorders of obesity. Rhythm supports The Genetic Obesity Project (www.GeneticObesity.com ) which is dedicated to improving the understanding of severe obesity that is caused by specific genetic defects. The company is based in Boston, Massachusetts.

MEDIA CONTACTS:

Adam Daley Bart Henderson Berry & Company Public Relations Rhythm 212-253-8881 857-264-4281 [email protected] [email protected]

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ATLANTA, July 27, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Rollins, Inc. (NYSE: ROL), a premier global consumer and commercial services company, announced leadership changes at its Atlanta headquarters.

President of Orkin North America Gene Iarocci will retire at the end of September, after 12 years with Rollins and an illustrious 48-year business career. Iarocci began as a Region Manager trainee in South Florida in 2003, quickly moving through operational and corporate leadership positions until he was named to his current position in 2013. Among his many accomplishments, Iarocci led Orkin to exceed $1 billion in revenue for the first time in the company's history.

Freeman Elliott has been promoted to President of Orkin U.S., overseeing five Orkin divisions, National Sales, Client Services, Orkin Customer Contact Centers, and Orkin Domestic Franchising. Elliott began with Orkin as a Lawn Care Technician in 1991, working his way through the company, most recently serving as Orkin Southeast Division President. Elliott will continue leading the Southeast Division until the company names a replacement.

Jerry Gahlhoff, who most recently led Rollins subsidiary HomeTeam Pest Defense, has been elevated to oversee operations of additional specialty brands including Western Pest Services, Waltham Services, and Rollins Human Resources and Training.

Steve Leavitt, who most recently led a group of Rollins' specialty brands, has been elevated to oversee Rollins' emerging opportunities. In this new role, Leavitt will oversee all international operations, including Orkin Canada, Rollins' Australian and UK pest operation brands, and the Industrial Fumigant Company, which has international client base opportunities. He will also have responsibility for recently-acquired PermaTreat Pest Control and the Rollins wildlife brands  TruTech and Critter Control  the company's fastest-growing business line.

About Rollins

Rollins, Inc. is a premier global consumer and commercial services company. Through its wholly owned subsidiaries, Orkin LLC., HomeTeam Pest Defense, Orkin Canada, Western Pest Services, Critter Control, Inc., The Industrial Fumigant Company, Trutech LLC., Rollins Australia, Waltham Services LLC., PermaTreat, Rollins UK, and Crane Pest Control, the Company provides essential pest control services and protection against termite damage, rodents and insects to more than two million customers in the United States, Canada, Central America, South America, the Caribbean, the Middle East, Asia, the Mediterranean, Europe, Africa, Mexico, and Australia from more than 700 locations. You can learn more about Rollins and its subsidiaries by visiting our web sites at www.orkin.com, www.pestdefense.com, www.orkincanada.ca, www.westernpest.com, www.crittercontrol.com, www.indfumco.com, www.trutechinc.com, www.allpest.com.au, www.walthamservices.com, www.permatreat.com, www.cranepestcontrol.com, www.murraypestcontrol.com.au, www.statewidepestcontrol.com.au, www.safeguardpestcontrol.co.uk, and www.rollins.com. You can also find this and other news releases at www.rollins.com by accessing the news releases button.

Media Contact:

Eddie Northen

404-888-2242

SOURCE Rollins, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.rollins.com


ATLANTA, July 27, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- RPC, Inc. (NYSE: RES) today announced its unaudited results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2016. RPC provides a broad range of specialized oilfield services and equipment primarily to independent and major oilfield companies engaged in the exploration, production and development of oil and gas properties throughout the United States and in selected international markets.

For the quarter ended June 30, 2016, revenues decreased 51.9 percent to $143.0 million compared to $297.6 million in the second quarter of last year. Revenues decreased compared to the prior year due to lower activity levels and pricing for our services, partially offset by higher service intensity. Operating loss for the quarter was $75.2 million compared to an operating loss of $52.3 million in the prior year. Net loss for the quarter was $48.7 million or $0.23 loss per share, compared to net loss of $34.1 million or $0.16 loss per share last year. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) was a loss of $19.1 million compared to EBITDA of $17.6 million in the prior year. 1 For the six months ended June 30, 2016, revenues decreased by 52.8 percent to $332.1 million compared to $703.8 million last year. Net loss for the six-month period was $81.2 million, or $0.38 loss per share, compared to net loss of $26.5 million, or $0.12 loss per share last year.

Cost of revenues during the second quarter of 2016 was $127.0 million, or 88.8 percent of revenues, compared to $241.6 million, or 81.2 percent of revenues, during the second quarter of last year. Cost of revenues decreased due to lower activity levels, coupled with reduced personnel headcount and incentive compensation. As a percentage of revenues, cost of revenues increased due to inefficiencies resulting from lower activity levels coupled with a slight decline in pricing for our services.

Selling, general and administrative expenses were $36.5 million in the second quarter of 2016 compared to $40.2 million in the second quarter of 2015. These expense decreases resulted from lower total employment costs due to headcount reductions, as well as other expense reduction efforts. As a percentage of revenues, these costs increased to 25.5 percent in the second quarter of 2016 compared to 13.5 percent in the second quarter of 2015. Depreciation and amortization decreased to $56.3 million during the quarter compared to $69.8 million in the second quarter of the prior year due to lower capital expenditures during the previous four quarters.

Interest expense during the second quarter of 2016 was $126 thousand, a decrease compared to $390 thousand during the second quarter of the prior year. Interest expense declined during the quarter because RPC had no outstanding balances under its syndicated credit facility during the quarter. Interest expense during the second quarter of 2016 consisted of facility fees and loan costs.

Discussion of Sequential Quarterly Financial Results

RPC's revenues for the quarter ended June 30, 2016 decreased by $46.1 million or 24.4 percent compared to the first quarter of 2016. Revenues decreased due to lower activity levels and continued competitive pricing for our services. Cost of revenues during the second quarter of 2016 decreased by $34.3 million or 21.2 percent due to lower materials and supplies expenses and employment costs. Selling, general and administrative expenses during the second quarter of 2016 decreased by $7.1 million or 16.3 percent compared to the first quarter of 2016 due to lower bad debt expense, professional fees and employment costs. RPC's operating loss during the second quarter of 2016 was $75.2 million, approximately the same as in the first quarter. Net loss increased from $32.5 million in the first quarter of 2016 to $48.7 million in the second quarter of 2016, as the first quarter included a large non-recurring tax benefit. Loss per share for the second quarter increased from $0.15 in the first quarter of 2016 to $0.23 this quarter.

Management Commentary

"Industry activity continued to decline during the second quarter, as the U.S. domestic rig count again fell to a record low," stated Richard A. Hubbell, RPC's President and Chief Executive Officer. "The average U.S. domestic rig count during the second quarter of 2016 was 420, a decrease of 53.7 percent compared to the same period in 2015, and a decrease of 22.6 percent compared to the first quarter of 2016. The average price of natural gas during the second quarter was $2.19 per Mcf, an 18.9 percent decrease compared to the prior year, but an 11.7 percent increase compared to the first quarter of 2016. The average price of oil during the second quarter was $46.02 per barrel, a 20.0 percent decrease compared to the prior year but a 36.4 percent increase compared to the first quarter of 2016. Industry pricing declined again, as the massive oversupply of service capacity forced distressed companies to secure spot-market work at lower prices and provided larger service companies an incentive to lower pricing and gain market share. RPC responded to this latest decline in activity and pricing by maintaining the discipline not to accept work that was priced below a minimum projected contribution threshold. This resulted in lower activity levels for our major service lines. We also responded to this environment by reducing expenses while continuing to maintain our equipment to be prepared for the industry recovery. We also continue to maintain our financial strength, and at the end of the second quarter, our balance sheet showed $141.4 million in cash, with no debt. We invested $8.7 million in capital expenditures to maintain our equipment during the second quarter, and we continue to project minimal capital expenditures during the remainder of 2016.

"During the latter part of the second quarter into the beginning of the third quarter, the U.S. domestic rig count increased for several consecutive weeks. In addition, during June, activity levels in several of our service lines began to increase. As we begin the third quarter, we are submitting more customer proposals and preparing for higher activity levels. A lack of a clear, positive trend in oil prices reduces our confidence in the strength of a near-term recovery; however, we believe that the domestic oil and gas industry has finally reached a cyclical trough," concluded Hubbell.

Summary of Segment Operating Performance

RPC's business segments are Technical Services and Support Services.

Technical Services includes RPC's oilfield service lines that utilize people and equipment to perform value-added completion, production and maintenance services directly to a customer's well. These services are generally directed toward improving the flow of oil and natural gas from producing formations or to address well control issues. The Technical Services segment includes pressure pumping, coiled tubing, hydraulic workover services, nitrogen, downhole tools, surface pressure control equipment, well control and fishing tool operations.

Support Services includes RPC's oilfield service lines that provide equipment for customer use or services to assist customer operations. The equipment and services offered include rental of drill pipe and related tools, pipe handling, inspection and storage services, and oilfield training services.

Technical Services revenues decreased by 52.4 percent for the quarter compared to the prior year due to lower activity levels and pricing as compared to the prior year, particularly within our pressure pumping service line, which is the largest service line within Technical Services. Support Services revenues decreased by 45.8 percent during the quarter compared to the prior year due principally to lower pricing and activity levels in the rental tool service line, which is the largest service line within this segment, partially offset by stronger financial results within several of the other service lines which comprise this segment. Both Technical and Support Services reported operating losses due to lower revenues, partially offset by cost control efforts undertaken throughout the company.

(in thousands)

Three Months Ended June 30,



Six Months Ended June 30,



2016

2015



2016

2015



















Revenues:

















Technical Services $ 131,217 $ 275,806

$ 306,689 $ 653,899 Support Services

11,781

21,754



25,404

49,931 Total revenues $ 142,998 $ 297,560

$ 332,093 $ 703,830 Operating (loss) profit:

















Technical Services $ (65,690) $ (49,253)

$ (128,954) $ (43,391) Support Services

(7,163)

(1,458)



(13,799)

2,449 Corporate expenses

(3,884)

(3,355)



(10,327)

(7,707) Gain on disposition of assets, net

1,515

1,718



2,771

2,676 Total operating loss $ (75,222) $ (52,348)

$ (150,309) $ (45,973) Interest expense

(126)

(390)



(451)

(1,081) Interest income

104

9



127

15 Other (expense) income, net

(154)

143



188

5,727



















Loss before income taxes $ (75,398) $ (52,586)

$ (150,445) $ (41,312)

RPC, Inc. will hold a conference call today, July 27, 2016 at 9:00 a.m. ET to discuss the results for the second quarter. Interested parties may listen in by accessing a live webcast in the investor relations section of RPC, Inc.'s website at www.rpc.net. The live conference call can also be accessed by calling (888) 417-8465 or (719) 325-2244 and using the access code #5594346. For those not able to attend the live conference call, a replay will be available in the investor relations section of RPC, Inc.'s website (www.rpc.net) beginning approximately two hours after the call.

RPC provides a broad range of specialized oilfield services and equipment primarily to independent and major oilfield companies engaged in the exploration, production and development of oil and gas properties throughout the United States, including the Gulf of Mexico, mid-continent, southwest, Appalachian and Rocky Mountain regions, and in selected international markets. RPC's investor website can be found at www.rpc.net.

Certain statements and information included in this press release constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including all statements that look forward in time or express management's beliefs, expectations or hopes. In particular, such statements include, without limitation, RPC's expectations regarding capital expenditures during 2016; our commitment to maintaining our equipment and remaining in a strong financial condition, our lack of confidence in the strength of a near-term recovery for our industry; and our belief that the domestic oil and gas industry has reached a cyclical trough. These statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of RPC to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied in such forward-looking statements. Such risks include changes in general global business and economic conditions; credit risks associated with collections of our accounts receivable from customers experiencing challenging business conditions; drilling activity and rig count; risks of reduced availability or increased costs of both labor and raw materials used in providing our services; the impact on our operations if we are unable to comply with regulatory and environmental laws; turmoil in the financial markets and the potential difficulty to fund our capital needs; the potentially high cost of capital required to fund our capital needs; the impact of the level of unconventional exploration and production activities may cease or change in nature so as to reduce demand for our services; the actions of the OPEC cartel, the ultimate impact of current and potential political unrest and armed conflict in the oil-producing regions of the world, which could impact drilling activity; adverse weather conditions in oil or gas producing regions, including the Gulf of Mexico; competition in the oil and gas industry; an inability to implement price increases; risks of international operations; and our reliance upon large customers. Additional discussion of factors that could cause the actual results to differ materially from management's projections, forecasts, estimates and expectations is contained in RPC's Form 10-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission for the year ended December 31, 2015.

For information about RPC, Inc., please contact:

Ben M. Palmer Jim Landers Chief Financial Office Vice President, Corporate Finance (404) 321-2140 (404) 321-2162 [email protected] [email protected]

RPC INCORPORATED AND SUBSIDIARIES



























































CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF OPERATIONS (In thousands except per share data)











Periods ended, (Unaudited)



Three Months Ended

Six Months Ended





June 30,

2016



March 31,

2016



June 30,

2015



2016



2015 REVENUES

$ 142,998

$ 189,095

$ 297,560

$ 332,093

$ 703,830 COSTS AND EXPENSES:





























Cost of revenues



126,997



161,256



241,617



288,253



534,062 Selling, general and administrative expenses

36,458



43,546



40,208



80,004



82,640 Depreciation and amortization



56,280



60,636



69,801



116,916



135,777 Gain on disposition of assets, net



(1,515)



(1,256)



(1,718)



(2,771)



(2,676) Operating loss



(75,222)



(75,087)



(52,348)



(150,309)



(45,973) Interest expense



(126)



(325)



(390)



(451)



(1,081) Interest income



104



23



9



127



15 Other (expense) income, net



(154)



342



143



188



5,727 Loss before income taxes



(75,398)



(75,047)



(52,586)



(150,445)



(41,312) Income tax benefit



(26,712)



(42,536)



(18,531)



(69,248)



(14,805) NET LOSS

$ (48,686)

$ (32,511)

$ (34,055)

$ (81,197)

$ (26,507)































































LOSS PER SHARE





























Basic

$ (0.23)

$ (0.15)

$ (0.16)

$ (0.38)

$ (0.12) Diluted

$ (0.23)

$ (0.15)

$ (0.16)

$ (0.38)

$ (0.12)































AVERAGE SHARES OUTSTANDING





























Basic



214,263



214,111



212,598



214,187



213,586 Diluted



214,263



214,111



212,598



214,187



213,586

































































RPC INCORPORATED AND SUBSIDIARIES





















CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS









At June 30, (Unaudited)

(In thousands)



2016



2015 ASSETS









Cash and cash equivalents $ 141,354

$ 14,844 Accounts receivable, net

130,903



299,550 Inventories

115,954



146,945 Deferred income taxes

-



9,027 Income taxes receivable

50,565



32,292 Prepaid expenses

5,111



6,417 Other current assets

5,650



2,530 Total current assets

449,537



511,605 Property, plant and equipment, net

584,963



813,993 Goodwill

32,150



32,150 Other assets

24,627



26,034 Total assets $ 1,091,277

$ 1,383,782











LIABILITIES AND STOCKHOLDERS' EQUITY









Accounts payable $ 39,512

$ 75,606 Accrued payroll and related expenses

15,681



24,070 Accrued insurance expenses

4,292



6,878 Accrued state, local and other taxes

6,786



5,967 Income taxes payable

8,167



4,051 Other accrued expenses

1,608



157 Total current liabilities

76,046



116,729 Long-term accrued insurance expenses

10,085



11,324 Notes payable to banks

-



54,900 Long-term pension liabilities

32,520



35,014 Other long-term liabilities

3,360



15,818 Deferred income taxes

95,257



130,002 Total liabilities

217,268



363,787 Common stock

21,755



21,702 Capital in excess of par value

-



- Retained earnings

869,122



1,016,754 Accumulated other comprehensive loss

(16,868)



(18,461) Total stockholders' equity

874,009



1,019,995 Total liabilities and stockholders' equity $ 1,091,277

$ 1,383,782













Appendix A

RPC has used the non-GAAP financial measure of earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) in today's earnings release, and anticipates using EBITDA in today's earnings conference call. EBITDA should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for operating income, net income or other performance measures prepared in accordance with U.S. GAAP. RPC uses EBITDA as a measure of operating performance because it allows us to compare performance consistently over various periods without regard to changes in our capital structure. We are also required to use EBITDA to report compliance with financial covenants under our revolving credit facility. A non-GAAP financial measure is a numerical measure of financial performance, financial position, or cash flows that either 1) excludes amounts, or is subject to adjustments that have the effect of excluding amounts, that are included in the most directly comparable measure calculated and presented in accordance with GAAP in the statement of operations, balance sheet or statement of cash flows, or 2) includes amounts, or is subject to adjustments that have the effect of including amounts, that are excluded from the most directly comparable measure so calculated and presented. Set forth below is a reconciliation of EBITDA with Net Income, the most comparable GAAP measure. This reconciliation also appears on RPC's investor website, which can be found on the Internet at www.rpc.net.

Periods ended, (Unaudited)



Three Months Ended

Six Months Ended (in thousands except per share data)



June 30,

2016



March 31,

2016



June 30,

2015



2016



2015































Reconciliation of Net Loss to EBITDA





























Net Loss

$ (48,686)

$ (32,511)

$ (34,055)

$ (81,197)

$ (26,507) Add:





























Income tax benefit



(26,712)



(42,536)



(18,531)



(69,248)



(14,805) Interest expense



126



325



390



451



1,081 Depreciation and amortization



56,280



60,636



69,801



116,916



135,777 Less:





























Interest income



104



23



9



127



15 EBITDA

$ (19,096)

$ (14,109)

$ 17,596

$ (33,205)

$ 95,531































EBITDA PER SHARE





























Basic

$ (0.09)

$ (0.07)

$ 0.08

$ (0.16)

$ 0.45 Diluted

$ (0.09)

$ (0.07)

$ 0.08

$ (0.16)

$ 0.45

































1 EBITDA is a financial measure which does not conform to generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP). Additional disclosure regarding this non-GAAP financial measure is disclosed in Appendix A to this press release.

SOURCE RPC, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.rpc.net


NEW YORK, July 27, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Safanad (http://safanad.com) a global principal investment firm, is pleased to announce that it has formed a strategic partnership with Workspace Property Trust ("WPT"), led by industry veterans Thomas Rizk and Roger Thomas, to acquire 108 office and flex buildings within five markets in four states from Liberty Property Trust for approximately USD 969 million. The sale is expected to close late in the third quarter of 2016.

Kamal Bahamdan, Chief Executive Officer and Founder of Safanad commented, "At Safanad, we align ourselves with experienced industry partners through carefully selected investments. We are looking forward to working with Tom, Roger and the rest of the Workspace team who have extensive experience and a distinguished track record of creating value in suburban office markets. We have worked with and known them for over 20 years and this experience gives us great confidence in the future of this platform."

Thomas Rizk, Chief Executive Officer and founding principal of WPT commented, "We are excited about entering into this new relationship with Safanad and this acquisition represents the next step of our strategic plan to build a portfolio of high quality, well-positioned suburban real estate assets."

This portfolio consists of assets in the following markets:

City # of Buildings Square Feet Land (Acres) Arizona 14 1,078,652 18.1 Florida (South) 11 1,136,020 8.6 Florida (Tampa) 34 1,799,568 - Minnesota 19 1,488,832 - Pennsylvania 30 2,075,764 - Total 108 7,578,836 26.7

About Safanad

Safanad (http://www.safanad.com/) is a global principal investment firm that invests in real estate, private equity and public markets. As principal investors, Safanad preserves and grows wealth through a disciplined industry focused investment approach that builds relationships with exceptional management partners and top industry leaders. With offices in New York, Dubai and London, the firm seeks to identify global investment opportunities poised to deliver consistently attractive returns, where the firm's capital and investment expertise support value creation.

For Safanad Media Enquiries: [email protected] / +971 4 312 9700

About Workspace Property Trust

Workspace Property Trust (http://www.workspaceproperty.com/) is a privately held, vertically integrated, full service commercial real estate company specializing in the development, management, and operation of office and flex space. Workspace Property Trust is a partnership between Rizk Ventures, Forum Partners, JPM Group, EverWatch Capital, and with the closing of this transaction, Safanad.

For Workspace Property Trust Media Enquiries: +1 212 980 0100

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SOURCE Safanad

Related Links

http://safanad.com


DUBAI, UAE, July 27, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Following Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit's announcement yesterday at the annual Dominica Government Budget Address, the current pricing thresholds for its popular citizenship-by-investment program will remain unchanged for 2016, Savory & Partners, a Dubai based Dominica Government Approved Citizenship Agent can exclusively reveal.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160329/348711LOGO )



With this recent announcement, Dominica citizenship will continue to start from $100,000 and therefore remain as the least expensive of all the Caribbean citizenship programs, in most instances as much as half the cost of its peers.

During his Budget speech the Hon. Mr Skerrit outlined that the economic citizenship program has raised more than USD $200 million dollars, surpassing all expectations. The funds raised from the program have been a major source of funding in the recovery efforts raised after tropical storm Erika.

The cost of Dominica citizenship starts at $100,000 for a single person and $200,000 for a family of four persons.

 $100,000 for a single applicant;

 $175,000 for applicant and spouse ;

 $200,000 for applicant, spouse and up to 2 children below the ages of 18 years old;

 $50,000 for any additional dependents of the main applicants other than spouse (unchanged)

In addition, Dominica offers selected real estate investments to qualify for the its passport. The minimum investment required for real estate is $200,000, covering a family of 4. With a minimal difference between the real estate and donation option, this incentivizes applicants to invest in Government Approved projects in the country of their second citizenship. Already more than one 5-star hotel brand has committed to build resorts on the island with other residential and hotel resorts for investors to choose from. Some are in the form of shares, other offer freehold title deed and after a period of 5 years the real estate may be sold and the applicant retains their citizenship.

Jeremy Savory, CEO & Founder of the British family-owned Citizenship by Investment advisory firm Savory & Partners observed" This announcement is extremely positive as it keeps second citizenship accessible for a greater share of the region's population seeking a second passport. In particular single applicants, or families with children over 25 who would be double, triple or multiple applications it is a cost effective alternative to other citizenship by investment jurisdictions. Over the last 12 months we have successfully processed almost 100 high quality applications in anticipation of a price increase, so this extension will come as welcome relief to those who were concerned they could not submit their application before the 1st August 2016."

At the end of 2015, Savory & Partners hosted an exclusive dinner for prominent members of the UAE business community who held Dominica citizenship where The Prime Minister The Hon. Mr Skerrit addressed guests on investment opportunities available in his country and the importance of developing reciprocal business relationships between Dominica citizens in the Middle East and around the globe. This private by invitation-only event was attended by over 60 VIP businesspersons together with His Excellency, Dr Vince Henderson, the Permanent Representative and Ambassador of the Commonwealth of Dominica to the United Nations and His Excellency Ambassador Mr Emmanuel Nanthan, Director of the Citizenship by Investment Unit (CBIU).

The Dominica Citizenship by Investment Program has been in effect since 1993, making it one of the oldest and most established second passport programs in the world. After a rigorous investigation that takes up to 3 months, successful applicants are granted the citizenship of the Commonwealth of Dominica Citizenship. The passport allows visa free travel to over 127 countries including the United Kingdom & Schengen. A member of the British Commonwealth, Dominica passport holders may stay for up to 6 months in the UK and 3 months in European countries. The passport also provides investors with increased business and banking opportunities, significant tax advantages and family security and safety. The Government of Dominica accepts applications only from Government Approved Agents such as Savory & Partners in Dubai.

Savory & Partners is a British family-owned company with roots reaching back as far as 1794 when the Savory family were the pharmacists to the British Royal Family. The pharmacy division of the family business closed and is now part of the Melbourne University Medical University in Australia. However today the company has established itself as a leading second citizenship firm in the Middle East with Authorized Agent status granted by the Governments of Dominica, Grenada, and Antigua and Barbuda. Savory & Partners are trusted by governments around the world to source individuals of the highest caliber. By providing the highest level of service through experience, knowledge and trust, a successful application is guaranteed.

http://www.savoryandpartners.com

SOURCE Savory & Partners
WHIPPANY, N.J., July 27, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Schwartz Simon Edelstein & Celso has developed a Human Resource Compliance Practice to focus on the burgeoning employment-law needs of businesses.

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160726/393140

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The emphasis on private clients is an extension of the firm's thriving Labor and Employment Law Group. The new section will include employment practice and training, policy and document preparation, wage and hour compliance, workplace investigations, supervisor training, and general employment counseling.

Stefani C Schwartz To Lead Practice

Stefani C Schwartz, a leading management-side attorney in New Jersey and chair of the Whippany, NJ's Labor and Employment Group, will head the section. Nicholas D. Bliablias, counsel to the firm, who helps businesses comply with labor and employment law, will assist Schwartz.

The Human Resource Compliance section will begin operation effective immediately.

The section's development is a by-product of the significant increase in the number of Schwartz Simon's private-sector clients. This growth has taken place among clients across a range of industries, most recently in small to mid-size companies without a human resources infrastructure in place.

Stefani Schwartz Calls Expanded Practice 'Preventive Medicine'

"I saw the need to add attorneys to this area of practice since more and more clients wish to be proactive when handling employee relations. My group ensures they are complying with the laws on a daily basis before a problem or a lawsuit arises. I call it preventive medicine," Schwartz said.

Clients agree.

Peter Kraft, CEO and founder of Evolution Labs, Inc., an educational technology company in Morristown, NJ, said, "We are so impressed with Stefani's experience, and count on her to handle all our employment-related responsibilities and concerns. She provides excellent legal guidance, from a business perspective, which makes all the difference in a legal partner," he added.

Ricky Pennisi, owner of Atelier Salon and Spa of Basking Ridge and Denville, N.J., said, "We turned to Stefani because she has a deep understanding of our business operations and our legal needs  not just now but down the road as well. Employment issues are highly complex, and we rely heavily on Stefani's expertise to direct us."

Schwartz Simon Hiring Attorney for Growing Caseload

To assist in handling its increased private-practice workload, Schwartz Simon will bring on an additional attorney, with the possibility of hiring others down the road. Here is the link to its job listing http://lawjobs.com/index.php?page=view_job&post_id=166487

Development of the Human Resource Compliance Practice follows Schwartz's numerous recent victories for private employers, including several resorts, in harassment, retaliation and age-bias lawsuits. These include Schwartz Simon Edelstein & Celso Wins for Crystal Springs Resort and Schwartz Simon Edelstein & Celso Racks Up Win for Mountain Creek Resort

About Schwartz Simon Edelstein & Celso

The Whippany, N.J., firm provides full-service representation, from litigating matters for Fortune 500 companies to negotiating complex employment agreements to assisting startups. Its areas of concentration include labor and employment, business entities and transactions, litigation, real estate and construction.

About Stefani C Schwartz, Esq.

Stefani C Schwartz has extensive experience representing private companies in all aspects of employment law, including compliance, discrimination, harassment, retaliation and wrongful-termination matters. As a result, in-house counsel, human resource professionals and risk managers turn to her when making critical decisions. She has represented hundreds of clients in state and federal court, during arbitration proceedings and before administrative agencies.

About Nicholas D. Bliablias, Esq.

Nicholas D. Bliablias advises clients on civil rights claims, whistleblower claims, workforce reductions, restrictive covenants and personnel policies. He also provides employers with training in areas such as anti-harassment and anti-discrimination matters, reasonable accommodations, hiring and firing, and social media.

For more information about Stefani C Schwartz and her employment law practice, please visit http://www.sseclaw.com/attorneys/stefani-c-schwartz-esq/. If you have questions about this topic or would like to discuss your employment law needs, she may be reached at [email protected] and 973-301-0001, ext. 215.

Contact

Tammy A. Eyerman

Marketing Coordinator

Schwartz Simon Edelstein & Celso

100 South Jefferson Road

Whippany, NJ 07981

Email

973-301-0001, ext. 246

SOURCE Schwartz Simon Edelstein & Celso LLC
OREM, Utah, July 27, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- SecurityMetrics, a leading provider in data security and compliance reporting, today announces the release of SecurityMetrics Managed Firewall. The firewall is managed in-house by data security engineers in its Security Operations Center.

According to recent breaches analyzed by SecurityMetrics' team of forensic investigators, only 24% of investigated merchants had properly configured firewalls.

"Having a firewall doesn't mean you're secure," says Vice President of Investigations David Ellis. "If a firewall isn't properly configured, it could either reduce your security or completely negate the effectiveness of your firewall."

To help small businesses like retailers, franchises, and single entity healthcare providers efficiently protect customer data, SecurityMetrics' engineers configure, maintain firewall rules based on their businesses' unique environments, and immediately notify users when an issue is discovered.

Key features of the managed firewall service are log analysis, firewall status events, and alerting. SecurityMetrics' engineers review and analyze logs, events, and alert customers when they discover potentially threatening trends. This may include notifications of network traffic that is sent to known malicious sites on the Internet due to downloaded ransomware or malware.

SecurityMetrics Managed Firewall service includes:

24/7 firewall status surveillance and notifications

Notification if malware is discovered

Internal vulnerability scanning

Log monitoring and alerting

Unlimited rogue wireless detection

Firewall backup and recovery

The Managed Firewall also helps fulfill many PCI requirements, particularly sections in requirements 1 and 11.

"We help fulfill some of the PCI requirements dealing with firewalls, internal scans, and rogue wireless detection," says Zach Walker, Director of Technical Support. "We can also help customers create the Access Control Lists (ACLs) or firewall rules to keep their company PCI compliant and secure."

The Managed Firewall service is sold with SecurityMetrics PCI Defense package, which offers many features designed to help small businesses secure their data more easily. Some features include:

Online and phone PCI scoping

PCI Self-Assessment Questionnaire (SAQ)

PCI ASV external vulnerability scanning

PCI compliance reporting to merchant processor

Card data discovery with PANscan

Online security employee training

$100,000 breach reimbursement guarantee

For more information, go to www.securitymetrics.com/managed-firewall, email [email protected] or call 801.705.5565. For press inquiries, contact [email protected]

About SecurityMetrics (www.securitymetrics.com)

SecurityMetrics protects electronic commerce and payments leaders, global acquirers, and their retail customers from security breaches and data theft. The company is a leading provider and innovator in merchant data security, and as an Approved Scanning Vendor and Qualified Security Assessor, has tested over 1 million payment systems for data security and compliance. Among other things, SecurityMetrics offers PCI Level 4 compliance programs, PCI audits, mobile device vulnerability scanning, penetration testing, and forensic analysis. Founded in October 2000, SecurityMetrics is a privately held company headquartered in Orem, Utah, USA.

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SOURCE SecurityMetrics

Related Links

http://www.securitymetrics.com


Baby or bust: Why Singapore needs to get procreating, and fast

Singapore 's policymakers have long battled the country's low birth rate, and even a recent helping hand from start-ups may not be enough to offset looming economic pressures.

Dual-income families are the norm in the pricey city-state and the lack of time for family is frequently cited as a significant factor influencing couples' decisions on how many children to have, if they have any at all.

Singapore law provides for four months of paid maternity leave and in recent years the government has offered cash incentives of up to $18,000 for parents who have five children or more, and also legislated for a second week of paid paternity leave, but the measures have met with little success. Singapore's total fertility rate was 1.24 in 2015, far below the ideal replacement level of 2.1 needed to keep the population from shrinking.

Entrepreneurs like Tjin Lee are stepping in.

Lee is the co-founder of Trehaus, a child care center that's integrated with a co-working space. Launched this year, the facility was designed for working parents who wanted to stay close to their children.

"The truth is none of us want to have children and not be able to spend time with them," Lee says. "One thing [the government] could do is to incentivize or to compensate companies or to give them ways to help employees find a way to work from satellite locations that children can be near them."

Taking a long view, Lee hopes to operate the Trehaus concept as a business-to-business (B2B) platform, and encourage corporate sign-ups. But to effect a real change in Singaporean workers' mindset and encourage couples to take up parenting, Lee believes it will take more corporate participation and similar start-ups that encourage working while parenting.

"With more such working spaces, we could develop a community of co-working outfits that become island-wide and with close proximity to companies, they are more likely to approve of employees working from remote locations," Lee says. "With more flexibility, women will be encouraged to have more children." Lee adds.

Story continues

Birth dearth in Asia

Singapore is not alone in the fight to raise the number of births. Across Asia, governments are attempting to tackle flagging birth figures, amid concerns about a shrinking future labor force and weaker economic growth prospects.

In Japan , Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has pledged to raise the country's birth rate to 1.8 children per woman as part of his "three arrows" of economic stimulus. China , meanwhile, has abolished its decades-long one-child policy to allow couples to have two children.

And it's not just mega-economies that are making a push for more newborns; Southeast Asian nations are also feeling the pressure.

"When you look at economies like Vietnam , the birth rate is declining pretty rapidly and that demographic profile will change from the youth-bulge they had in the Eighties and Nineties, into an aged population pretty quickly, by the mid-2020s to 2030," Tony Nash, chief economist at Complete Intelligence, explains.

But Nash also cautions that a large young demographic profile does not necessarily transform into economic gains.

"I think it depends on education, training support and the development of inward investments that creates opportunities for the young," he says. "If educated youth don't have opportunities, then their knowledge will atrophy and they won't become globally competitive."

Demographic stress

The negative economic impact of low birth rates is magnified by another trend: Life expectancy is on the rise and the ageing population is increasing. Slower population growth caused by a low birth rate in turn fails to offset a greater share of the aged, and as previous generations retire, it increases the burden of health care and pension provision by the working-age population.

According to the World Bank , East Asia and the Pacific areas are ageing the fastest and China and Japan have the greatest demographic stress levels. A recent United Nations report, meanwhile, says that both countries will see their "dependency ratios" rise, meaning that there will be more dependents and fewer workers in those countries by 2050.

However, despite the bleak outlook, the Asian Development Bank's Deputy Chief Economist Juzhong Zhuang sees opportunity amid the challenges.

"I think there's no need to be overly alarmed about it," he says. "Demographic changes can provide impetus for structural reforms."

It could also help push the growth model from a focus on resource accumulation to innovation, as well as driving industrial upgrades in order to improve productivity, Zhuang says.

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NEW DELHI, July 27, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Raksha Bandhan, a festival dedicated to commemorate love and duty between brothers and sisters, is one of the most important Hindu festivals. Rakhi celebration and gifts go well together. On this day a sister does not only tie a rakhi thread on her brother's wrist, but also offers thoughtful gifts to make her brother feel special. A brother also offers a rakhi return gift to his sister on this day, and promises to protect her against all the bad happenings of life.

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Gifts are common elements of this festival. Choosing the perfect rakhi gift is imperative because you really want to make your brother or sister feel very special. There are a plethora of gift options available online as well as at physical stores to choose from. Rakhi gift options are changing year by year because of changing trends. Earlier, it was cash or apparel given to a sister by her brother. But nowadays, a sister also presents gifts to her brother on Rakhi celebration.

Mr. Dipesh Kumar, the Director of Sendeliterakhitoindia.com said, "Today, many sisters prefer rakhi combo options. To cater this need; we have come up with many rakhi combo options at our website to choose from. From our website a sister can choose from a myriad range of rakhi gift options such as Rakhi with Sweets, Flowers, Cakes, Chocolates, Pens, Mugs, Cushions, Teddy Bears, Rakhi with Kaju Katli, Rakhi with Chocolates, Rakhi with Gulab Jamun, Rakhi with Flowers and Rakhi with Rasgulla are very popular among customers."

"Apart from these exclusive rakhi gift hampers and combo options we have also added many special kids rakhis and combo options on our website. Kids are very fond of cartoon characters therefore we have also added some cartoon character rakhis. Rakhi with chocolates and toys are high on demand these days for little brothers," further added Mr. Dipesh Kumar. He also talked about rakhi gift hampers because the craze of gift hampers is high. He further said that Rakhi is all about joy, happiness, love and gifts. We have reinforced our logistic connections for on time delivery of rakhi gifts in India and abroad as well.

About the Company

Sendeliterakhitoindia.com is a well-established and recognized destination for online rakhi shopping. It provides the best experience of online shopping for rakhi and rakhi gifts as well. It delivers rakhi and gifts in all the major cities of India. It also delivery rakhi gifts in abroad.

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Rakhi Express Delivery

Rakhi with Rasgulla

This content was issued through the press release distribution service at Newswire.com. For more info visit: http://www.newswire.com

SOURCE Sendeliterakhitoindia.com
HOUSTON, July 27, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Service Corporation International (NYSE: SCI), the largest provider of deathcare products and services in North America, reported results for the second quarter of 2016. Our unaudited consolidated financial statements can be found at the end of this press release. The table below summarizes our key financial results:

(In millions, except for per share amounts) Three Months Ended

June 30,

Six Months Ended

June 30,

2016

2015

2016

2015 Revenue $ 751.7



$ 754.4



$ 1,501.0



$ 1,502.5

Operating income $ 94.5



$ 127.6



$ 218.1



$ 268.7

Net income attributable to common stockholders $ 15.6



$ 52.6



$ 63.1



$ 114.0

Diluted earnings per share $ 0.08



$ 0.25



$ 0.32



$ 0.55

Earnings from continuing operations excluding special items(1) $ 55.8



$ 57.1



$ 111.1



$ 122.8

Diluted earnings per share from continuing operations excluding special items(1) $ 0.28



$ 0.28



$ 0.56



$ 0.59

Diluted weighted average shares outstanding 196.7



206.7



197.5



207.2

Net cash provided by operating activities $ 40.8



$ 93.7



$ 225.5



$ 282.5

Net cash provided by operating activities excluding special items(1) $ 68.7



$ 101.9



$ 258.6



$ 299.7







(1) Earnings from continuing operations excluding special items, diluted earnings per share from continuing operations excluding special items, and net cash provided by operating activities excluding special items are non-GAAP financial measures. A reconciliation from net income attributable to common stockholders, diluted earnings per share, and net cash provided by operating activities computed in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles in the United States (GAAP) can be found later in this press release under the headings "Cash Flow and Capital Spending" and "Non-GAAP Financial Measures".

Quarterly Highlights:

Diluted earnings per share was $0.08 in the second quarter of 2016 compared to $0.25 in the second quarter of 2015. The primary differences are a $24.5 million increase in pretax losses on divestitures and impairment charges and a $21.9 million pretax loss on early extinguishment of debt. Diluted earnings per share from continuing operations excluding special items was $0.28 in both the second quarter of 2016 and 2015. Growth in cemetery revenue, higher recognized preneed funeral revenue and effective cost management were offset by lower funeral services performed as the strong flu season in the first half of 2015 continued to impact period over period comparisons.

in the second quarter of 2016 compared to in the second quarter of 2015. The primary differences are a increase in pretax losses on divestitures and impairment charges and a pretax loss on early extinguishment of debt. Diluted earnings per share from continuing operations excluding special items was in both the second quarter of 2016 and 2015. Growth in cemetery revenue, higher recognized preneed funeral revenue and effective cost management were offset by lower funeral services performed as the strong flu season in the first half of 2015 continued to impact period over period comparisons. Net cash provided by operating activities was $40.8 million in the second quarter of 2016 compared to $93.7 million in the second quarter of 2015. The second quarter of 2016 includes a $20.5 million premium paid on early extinguishment of debt. Net cash provided by operating activities excluding special items was $68.7 million in the second quarter of 2016 compared to $101.9 million in the second quarter of 2015 driven by expected higher cash tax payments and timing differences in working capital.

in the second quarter of 2016 compared to in the second quarter of 2015. The second quarter of 2016 includes a premium paid on early extinguishment of debt. Net cash provided by operating activities excluding special items was in the second quarter of 2016 compared to in the second quarter of 2015 driven by expected higher cash tax payments and timing differences in working capital. During the second quarter, we deployed $52.8 million of capital to accretive acquisitions and returned $52.0 million to shareholders through share repurchases and dividends.

Tom Ryan, the Company's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, commented on the second quarter of 2016:

Today we reported adjusted earnings per share on par with the prior year quarter in the face of challenging year over year funeral and cemetery comparisons. Considering both the expected funeral volume decline due to the strong 2015 flu season and tough cemetery sales production comparison, we were pleased to report a solid quarter as we successfully were able to manage our expenses in this challenging low volume environment. Also during the quarter, we completed two acquisitions and at mid-year, we are already within our full year acquisition spend target range. Our results could not have been achieved without the hard work and dedication of our entire team, and I thank all 24,000 for their efforts and continued focus on delivering extraordinary service to our client families. In the second half of the year, we will continue to focus on growing our revenues by remaining relevant with the consumer, driving future market share by growing our preneed sales, continuing to leverage our increasing scale and deploying capital to enhance shareholder value.

OUTLOOK FOR 2016

Below is our updated guidance for potential earnings and cash flow based on the results of the first six months of 2016.

(In millions except per share amounts)

Previous 2016

Annual Guidance

Updated 2016

Annual Guidance Diluted earnings per share from continuing operations excluding special items (1)

$1.20 to $1.36

$1.20 to $1.30 Net cash provided by operating activities excluding special items (1)

$450 to $500

$450 to $500 Capital improvements at existing facilities and development of cemetery property

Approx. $150

Approx. $150





(1) Diluted earnings per share from continuing operations excluding special items and Net cash provided by operating activities excluding special items are non-GAAP financial measures. We normally reconcile these non-GAAP financial measures from diluted earnings per share and net cash provided by operating activities; however, diluted earnings per share and net cash provided by operating activities calculated in accordance with GAAP are not currently accessible on a forward-looking basis. Our outlook for 2016 excludes the following because this information is not currently available for 2016: Gains or losses associated with asset divestitures, gains or losses associated with the early extinguishment of debt, potential tax reserve adjustments and IRS settlement payments, acquisition and integration costs, system implementation and transition costs, and potential costs associated with settlements of litigation or the recognition of receivables for insurance recoveries associated with litigation. The foregoing items, especially gains or losses associated with asset divestitures and potential tax reserve adjustments, could materially impact our forward-looking diluted EPS and/or our net cash provided by operating activities calculated in accordance with GAAP, consistent with the historical disclosures found in this press release under the headings "Cash Flow and Capital Spending" and "Non-GAAP Financial Measures".

REVIEW OF RESULTS FOR SECOND QUARTER 2016

Consolidated Segment Results (See definitions of revenue line items later in this earnings release.)

(In millions, except funeral services performed and average revenue per service) Three Months Ended June 30,

Six Months Ended June 30,

2016

2015

2016

2015 Funeral:













Atneed revenue $ 265.0



$ 273.7



$ 547.6



$ 573.8

Funeral home matured preneed revenue 131.0



130.8



270.4



280.3

Core revenue 396.0



404.5



818.0



854.1

Non-funeral home matured preneed revenue 6.0



5.9



12.1



12.3

Recognized preneed revenue 29.3



25.4



58.3



48.5

Other revenue 35.8



35.7



70.8



64.3

Total revenue $ 467.1



$ 471.5



$ 959.2



$ 979.2

















Gross profit $ 88.0



$ 94.3



$ 195.0



$ 221.2

Gross margin percentage 18.8 %

20.0 %

20.3 %

22.6 %















Funeral services performed 75,638



77,969



157,836



165,279

Average revenue per service $ 5,315



$ 5,264



$ 5,259



$ 5,241

















Cemetery:













Atneed revenue $ 79.2



$ 75.7



$ 156.8



$ 151.2

Recognized preneed revenue 169.2



167.2



312.9



299.0

Core revenue 248.4



242.9



469.7



450.2

Other revenue 36.2



39.9



72.1



73.1

Total revenue $ 284.6



$ 282.8



$ 541.8



$ 523.3

















Gross profit $ 73.4



$ 72.0



$ 127.9



$ 122.5

Gross margin percentage 25.8 %

25.5 %

23.6 %

23.4 %

Comparable Funeral Results

The table below details comparable funeral results of operations ("same store") for the three months ended June 30, 2016 and 2015. We consider comparable operations to be those owned for the entire period beginning January 1, 2015 and ending June 30, 2016.

(Dollars in millions, except average revenue per service and average revenue per contract sold)





Three Months Ended June 30,



2016

2015

$

% Comparable revenue:















Atneed revenue(1)

$ 262.4



$ 270.8



$ (8.4)



(3.1) % Funeral home matured preneed revenue(2)

130.3



130.2



0.1



0.1 % Core revenue(3)

392.7



401.0



(8.3)



(2.1) % Non-funeral home matured preneed revenue(4)

6.0



5.9



0.1



1.7 % Recognized preneed revenue(5)

28.9



25.3



3.6



14.2 % Other revenue(6)

35.8



35.9



(0.1)



(0.3) % Total comparable revenue

$ 463.4



$ 468.1



$ (4.7)



(1.0) %

















Comparable gross profit

$ 88.7



$ 95.9



$ (7.2)



(7.5) % Comparable gross margin percentage

19.1 %

20.5 %

(1.4) %

(6.8) %

















Comparable funeral services performed:















Atneed

45,907



48,014



(2,107)



(4.4) % Funeral home matured preneed

22,308



22,570



(262)



(1.2) % Total core

68,215



70,584



(2,369)



(3.4) % Non-funeral home matured preneed

6,776



6,527



249



3.8 % Total comparable funeral services performed

74,991



77,111



(2,120)



(2.7) % Core cremation rate

47.7 %

47.0 %

0.7 %

1.5 % Total comparable cremation rate

52.4 %

51.4 %

1.0 %

1.9 %

















Comparable average revenue per service:















Atneed

$ 5,716



$ 5,640



$ 76



1.3 % Funeral home matured preneed

5,841



5,769



72



1.2 % Total core

5,757



5,681



76



1.3 % Non-funeral home matured preneed

885



904



(19)



(2.1) % Total comparable average revenue per service

$ 5,317



$ 5,277



$ 40



0.8 %



































Comparable preneed sales production:















Total preneed sales

$ 222.3



$ 211.2



$ 11.1



5.3 % Total preneed contracts sold

47,093



45,272



1,821



4.0 % Average revenue per contract sold

$ 4,720



$ 4,665



$ 55



1.2 % Average revenue per contract sold, excluding the impact of foreign currency fluctuations

$ 4,813



$ 4,739



$ 74



1.6 %





(1) Atneed revenue represents merchandise and services sold and delivered or performed once death has occurred. (2) Funeral home matured preneed revenue represents merchandise and services sold on a preneed contract through one of our funeral homes and delivered or performed once death has occurred. (3) Core revenue represents the sum of merchandise and services sold on an atneed contract or sold by one of our funeral homes on a preneed contract and delivered or performed once death has occurred. (4) Non-funeral home matured preneed revenue represents services sold on a preneed contract through one of our non-funeral home sales channels and performed once death has occurred. (5) Recognized preneed revenue represents merchandise and travel protection sold on a preneed contract and delivered before death has occurred. (6) Other revenue primarily comprises General Agency revenue, which is commissions we receive from third-party insurance companies for life insurance policies sold to preneed customers for the purpose of funding preneed arrangements.

Total comparable funeral revenue decreased by $4.7 million in the second quarter of 2016 compared to the same period of 2015. A decline in core revenue of $8.3 million was partially offset by growth in recognized preneed revenue.

in the second quarter of 2016 compared to the same period of 2015. A decline in core revenue of was partially offset by growth in recognized preneed revenue. The core revenue decrease was primarily a result of a 3.4% decline in core funeral services performed due to a strong 2015 flu season that positively impacted the prior year quarter.

Core average revenue per service increased 1.3% during the second quarter of 2016. Organic sales average growth of 3.0% was somewhat offset by a 70 basis point increase in core cremation mix to 47.7%, lower trust fund income, and an unfavorable Canadian currency impact.

Recognized preneed revenue increased $3.6 million , primarily driven by an increase in production through our non-funeral home sales channel.

, primarily driven by an increase in production through our non-funeral home sales channel. Comparable funeral gross profit decreased $7.2 million to $88.7 million in the second quarter of 2016. The decline in higher margin core revenue was partially offset by increased gross profit from recognized preneed revenue. As a result of strong funeral sales production, selling costs increased proportionately by approximately $3.0 million but were partially offset by effectively managing our employee related fixed costs.

to in the second quarter of 2016. The decline in higher margin core revenue was partially offset by increased gross profit from recognized preneed revenue. As a result of strong funeral sales production, selling costs increased proportionately by approximately but were partially offset by effectively managing our employee related fixed costs. Comparable preneed funeral sales production increased $11.1 million , or 5.3%, in the second quarter of 2016 compared to 2015, primarily due to a 4.0% increase in the number of preneed contracts sold.

Comparable Cemetery Results

The table below details comparable cemetery results of operations ("same store") for the three months ended June 30, 2016 and 2015. We consider comparable operations to be those owned for the entire period beginning January 1, 2015 and ending June 30, 2016.

(Dollars in millions)

Three Months Ended June 30,



2016

2015

$

% Comparable revenue:















Atneed revenue(1)

$ 78.3



$ 75.0



$ 3.3



4.4 % Recognized preneed revenue(2)

168.0



166.4



1.6



1.0 % Core revenue(3)

246.3



241.4



4.9



2.0 % Other revenue(4)

35.8



39.7



(3.9)



(9.8) % Total comparable revenue

$ 282.1



$ 281.1



$ 1.0



0.4 %

















Comparable gross profit

$ 72.5



$ 71.6



$ 0.9



1.3 % Comparable gross margin percentage

25.7 %

25.5 %

0.2 %

0.8 %

















Comparable preneed and atneed sales production:















Property

$ 192.0



$ 190.6



$ 1.4



0.7 % Merchandise and services

146.1



140.9



5.2



3.7 % Discounts

(39.6)



(37.7)



(1.9)



(5.0) % Preneed and atneed sales production

$ 298.5



$ 293.8



$ 4.7



1.6 % Recognition rate(5)

83 %

82 %













(1) Atneed revenue represents property, merchandise, and services sold and delivered or performed once death has occurred. (2) Recognized preneed revenue represents property, merchandise, and services sold on a preneed contract that have been delivered or performed. (3) Core revenue represents the sum of property, merchandise, and services that have been delivered or performed. (4) Other revenue is primarily related to merchandise and service trust fund income, endowment care trust fund income, royalty income, and interest and finance charges earned from customer receivables on preneed installment contracts. (5) Represents the ratio of current period core revenue recognition stated as a percentage of current period sales production.

Comparable cemetery revenue grew $1.0 million , or 0.4%, in the second quarter of 2016 compared to 2015. Recognized preneed and atneed revenue grew $4.9 million quarter over quarter and was partially offset by lower other revenue.

, or 0.4%, in the second quarter of 2016 compared to 2015. Recognized preneed and atneed revenue grew quarter over quarter and was partially offset by lower other revenue. The decrease in other revenue of $3.9 million was primarily related to a decrease in cash distributions of capital gains received from perpetual care trusts in the current year quarter.

was primarily related to a decrease in cash distributions of capital gains received from perpetual care trusts in the current year quarter. Comparable preneed cemetery sales production increased $2.2 million , or 1.0%, quarter over quarter. This increase is the result of growth in the number of contracts sold partially offset by a decline in large sales activity. Comparable preneed cemetery sales production increased $15.2 million , or 3.9%, in the first half of 2016 compared to the same period in 2015, which had an increase of 17.2%.

, or 1.0%, quarter over quarter. This increase is the result of growth in the number of contracts sold partially offset by a decline in large sales activity. Comparable preneed cemetery sales production increased , or 3.9%, in the first half of 2016 compared to the same period in 2015, which had an increase of 17.2%. Comparable cemetery gross profit increased $0.9 million and the gross margin percentage increased 20 basis points to 25.7%. The gross profit increase was driven by growth in recognized preneed and atneed revenue along with effectively managing our employee related fixed costs, which were partially offset by a decline in cemetery trust fund income.

Other Financial Results

General and administrative expenses increased $3.2 million to $36.3 million in the second quarter of 2016. The current quarter includes an increase of $4.7 million in system transition costs primarily related to the 2016 implementation of a new general ledger system. Excluding this $4.7 million , general and administrative expenses decreased $1.5 million compared to prior year primarily due to lower legal costs.

to in the second quarter of 2016. The current quarter includes an increase of in system transition costs primarily related to the 2016 implementation of a new general ledger system. Excluding this , general and administrative expenses decreased compared to prior year primarily due to lower legal costs. We incurred a $21.9 million loss on early extinguishment of debt in the current quarter to manage our near-term debt maturity profile and lower our effective interest rate by refinancing our 2017 notes. We expect this transaction to result in cash interest savings of approximately $9 million in 2016.

loss on early extinguishment of debt in the current quarter to manage our near-term debt maturity profile and lower our effective interest rate by refinancing our 2017 notes. We expect this transaction to result in cash interest savings of approximately in 2016. We incurred a $31.2 million impairment charge related to the planned divestiture of certain funeral homes in Los Angeles, California .

Cash Flow and Capital Spending

Set forth below is a reconciliation of our reported net cash provided by operating activities prepared in accordance with GAAP to net cash provided by operating activities excluding special items (or sometimes referred to as adjusted operating cash flow). We do not intend for this information to be considered in isolation or as a substitute for other measures of performance prepared in accordance with GAAP.

(In millions) Three Months Ended

June 30,

Six Months Ended

June 30,

2016

2015

2016

2015 Net cash provided by operating activities, as reported $ 40.8



$ 93.7



$ 225.5



$ 282.5

Premiums paid on early extinguishment 20.5







20.5





Excess tax benefits from share-based awards 2.0



7.5



4.3



13.0

System transition costs 5.4



0.7



8.3



4.2

Net cash provided by operating activities excluding special items $ 68.7



$ 101.9



$ 258.6



$ 299.7



Net cash provided by operating activities excluding special items was $68.7 million in the second quarter of 2016 compared to $101.9 million in the prior year quarter. The difference compared to the second quarter of 2015 was primarily due to expected higher cash tax payments of $17.9 million, an $8.3 million temporary timing difference in payroll funding, and lower funeral cash receipts.

A summary of our capital expenditures is set forth below:

(In millions) Three Months Ended

June 30,

Six Months Ended

June 30,

2016

2015

2016

2015 Capital improvements at existing locations $ 22.3



$ 23.1



$ 41.4



$ 40.3

Development of cemetery property 15.3



12.5



34.9



21.9

Subtotal 37.6



35.6



76.3



62.2

Growth capital expenditures related to the construction of new funeral home facilities 3.9



0.8



6.9



2.5

Total capital expenditures $ 41.5



$ 36.4



$ 83.2



$ 64.7



Total capital expenditures increased in the current quarter by $5.1 million primarily due to increases in capital deployed for the development of cemetery property and to construct new funeral homes. The $14.1 million year-to-date increase in capital deployed for capital improvements at existing locations and development of cemetery property does not alter our outlook of $150 million in 2016.

TRUST FUND RETURNS

Total trust fund returns include realized and unrealized gains and losses and dividends. A summary of our consolidated trust fund returns for the three and six months ended June 30, 2016 is set forth below:





Three Months

Six Months Preneed funeral

1.9%

2.5% Preneed cemetery

1.9%

2.3% Cemetery perpetual care

3.1%

5.4% Combined trust funds

2.3%

3.4%

NON-GAAP FINANCIAL MEASURES

Earnings from continuing operations excluding special items and diluted earnings per share from continuing operations excluding special items shown above are non-GAAP financial measures. We believe these non-GAAP financial measures provide a consistent basis for comparison between quarters and better reflect the performance of our core operations, as they are not influenced by certain income or expense items not affecting continuing operations. We also believe these measures help facilitate comparisons to our competitors' operating results.

Set forth below is a reconciliation of our reported net income attributable to common stockholders to earnings from continuing operations excluding special items and our GAAP diluted earnings per share to diluted earnings per share from continuing operations excluding special items. We do not intend for this information to be considered in isolation or as a substitute for other measures of performance prepared in accordance with GAAP.

(In millions, except diluted EPS) Three Months Ended June 30,

2016

2015

Net Income

Diluted EPS

Net Income

Diluted EPS Net income attributable to common stockholders, as reported $ 15.6



$ 0.08



$ 52.6



$ 0.25

Pre-tax reconciling items:













Losses on divestitures and impairment charges, net 30.6



0.16



6.1



0.04

Losses on early extinguishment 21.9



0.11









System transition costs 4.9



0.02



0.2





Tax benefit from special items (18.7)



(0.10)



(1.6)



(0.01)

Change in certain tax reserves and other 1.5



0.01



(0.2)





Earnings from continuing operations excluding special items and diluted earnings per share from continuing operations excluding special items $ 55.8



$ 0.28



$ 57.1



$ 0.28

















Diluted weighted average shares outstanding (in thousands)



196,718







206,746



(In millions, except diluted EPS) Six Months Ended June 30,

2016

2015

Net Income

Diluted EPS

Net Income

Diluted EPS Net income attributable to common stockholders, as reported $ 63.1



$ 0.32



$ 114.0



$ 0.55

Pre-tax special items:













Losses on divestitures and impairment charges, net 31.0



0.16



7.8



0.04

Losses on early extinguishment 22.5



0.11









Acquisition and integration costs 5.5



0.03



3.0



0.02

System transition costs 9.0



0.05



1.0





Tax benefit from special items (22.7)



(0.12)



(3.7)



(0.02)

Change in certain tax reserves and other 2.7



0.01



0.7





Earnings from continuing operations excluding special items and diluted earnings per share from continuing operations excluding special items $ 111.1



$ 0.56



$ 122.8



$ 0.59

















Diluted weighted average shares outstanding (in thousands)



197,463







207,221



Conference Call and Webcast

We will host a conference call on Thursday, July 28, 2016, at 8:00 a.m. Central Time. A question and answer session will follow a brief presentation made by management. The conference call dial-in number is (847) 619-6396 with the passcode of 43011264. The conference call will also be broadcast live via the Internet and can be accessed through our website at www.sci-corp.com . A replay of the conference call will be available through August 11, 2016 and can be accessed at (630) 652-3042 with the passcode of 43011264#. Additionally, a replay of the conference call will be available on our website for approximately two weeks.

Cautionary Statement on Forward-Looking Statements

The statements in this press release that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements made in reliance on the "safe harbor" protections provided under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements may be accompanied by words such as "believe," "estimate," "project," "expect," "anticipate," or "predict," that convey the uncertainty of future events or outcomes. These statements are based on assumptions that we believe are reasonable; however, many important factors could cause our actual results in the future to differ materially from the forward-looking statements made herein and in any other documents or oral presentations made by us, or on our behalf. Important factors, which could cause actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements include, among others, the following:

Our affiliated funeral and cemetery trust funds own investments in equity securities, fixed income securities, and mutual funds, which are affected by market conditions that are beyond our control.

We may be required to replenish our affiliated funeral and cemetery trust funds in order to meet minimum funding requirements, which would have a negative effect on our earnings and cash flow.

Our ability to execute our strategic plan depends on many factors, some of which are beyond our control.

Our credit agreements contain covenants that may prevent us from engaging in certain transactions.

If we lost the ability to use surety bonding to support our preneed funeral and preneed cemetery activities, we may be required to make material cash payments to fund certain trust funds.

The funeral and cemetery industry is competitive.

Increasing death benefits related to preneed contracts funded through life insurance contracts may not cover future increases in the cost of providing a price-guaranteed service.

The financial condition of third-party insurance companies that fund our preneed funeral contracts may impact our future revenue.

Unfavorable results of litigation could have a material adverse impact on our financial statements.

Unfavorable publicity could affect our reputation and business.

If the number of deaths in our markets declines, our cash flows and revenue may decrease.

If we are not able to respond effectively to changing consumer preferences, our market share, revenue, and profitability could decrease.

The continuing upward trend in the number of cremations performed in North America could result in lower revenue and gross profit.

could result in lower revenue and gross profit. Our funeral home and cemetery businesses are high fixed-cost businesses.

Regulation and compliance could have a material adverse impact on our financial results.

Cemetery burial practice legal claims could have a material adverse impact on our financial results.

We use a combination of insurance, self-insurance and large deductibles in managing our exposure to certain inherent risks, as such, we could be exposed to unexpected costs that could negatively affect our financial performance.

A number of years elapse before particular tax matters, for which we have established accruals, are audited and finally resolved.

Declines in overall economic conditions beyond our control could reduce future potential earnings and cash flows and could result in future impairments to goodwill and/or other intangible assets.

Any failure to maintain the security of the information relating to our customers, their loved ones, our associates, and our vendors could damage our reputation, could cause us to incur substantial additional costs and to become subject to litigation, and could adversely affect our operating results.

Our Canadian business exposes us to operational, economic, and currency risks.

Our level of indebtedness could adversely affect our ability to raise additional capital to fund our operations, limit our ability to react to changes in the economy or our industry, and may prevent us from fulfilling our obligations under our indebtedness.

Failure to maintain effective internal control over financial reporting could adversely affect our results of operations, investor confidence, and our stock price.

For further information on these and other risks and uncertainties, see our Securities and Exchange Commission filings, including our 2015 Annual Report on Form 10-K. Copies of this document as well as other SEC filings can be obtained from our website at www.sci-corp.com. We assume no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements made herein or any other forward-looking statements made by us, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

About Service Corporation International

Service Corporation International (NYSE: SCI), headquartered in Houston, Texas, is North America's leading provider of deathcare products and services. At June 30, 2016, we owned and operated 1,525 funeral homes and 469 cemeteries (of which 262 are combination locations) in 45 states, eight Canadian provinces, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. Through our businesses, we market the Dignity Memorial brand which offers assurance of quality, value, caring service, and exceptional customer satisfaction. For more information about Service Corporation International, please visit our website at www.sci-corp.com . For more information about Dignity Memorial, please visit www.dignitymemorial.com .

For additional information contact:



Investors:

Debbie Young - Director / Investor Relations

(713) 525-9088 Media:

Jay Andrew - Managing Director / Corporate Communications

(713) 525-5235

SERVICE CORPORATION INTERNATIONAL CONSOLIDATED STATEMENT OF OPERATIONS



Three Months Ended

Six Months Ended

June 30,

June 30,

2016

2015

2016

2015

(In thousands, except per share amounts) Revenue $ 751,710



$ 754,354



$ 1,500,981



$ 1,502,471

Costs and expenses (590,339)



(588,097)



(1,178,114)



(1,158,770)

Gross profit 161,371



166,257



322,867



343,701

General and administrative expenses (36,260)



(33,095)



(73,768)



(67,645)

Losses on divestitures and impairment charges, net (30,641)



(5,582)



(30,988)



(7,361)

Operating income 94,470



127,580



218,111



268,695

Interest expense (39,398)



(42,982)



(82,480)



(85,921)

Loss on early extinguishment of debt (21,898)







(22,479)





Other expense, net (535)



(109)



(746)



(167)

Income before income taxes 32,639



84,489



112,406



182,607

Provision for income taxes (16,746)



(31,007)



(49,059)



(67,660)

Net income from continuing operations 15,893



53,482



63,347



114,947

Net loss from discontinued operations, net of tax 



(390)







(390)

Net income 15,893



53,092



63,347



114,557

Net income attributable to noncontrolling interests (273)



(497)



(282)



(587)

Net income attributable to common stockholders $ 15,620



$ 52,595



$ 63,065



$ 113,970

Basic earnings per share:













Net income attributable to common stockholders $ 0.08



$ 0.26



$ 0.32



$ 0.56

Basic weighted average number of shares 193,806



202,466



194,366



202,966

Diluted earnings per share:













Net income attributable to common stockholders $ 0.08



$ 0.25



$ 0.32



$ 0.55

Diluted weighted average number of shares 196,718



206,746



197,463



207,221

Dividends declared per share $ 0.13



$ 0.10



$ 0.25



$ 0.20



SERVICE CORPORATION INTERNATIONAL CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEET



June 30, 2016

December 31, 2015

(In thousands, except share amounts) ASSETS





Current assets:





Cash and cash equivalents $ 171,788



$ 134,599

Receivables, net 78,791



90,462

Inventories 28,568



27,835

Other 53,455



47,155

Total current assets 332,602



300,051

Preneed funeral receivables, net and trust investments 1,788,065



1,760,297

Preneed cemetery receivables, net and trust investments 2,385,539



2,318,167

Cemetery property 1,757,740



1,753,015

Property and equipment, net 1,831,102



1,846,722

Non-current assets held for sale 30,191



214

Goodwill 1,801,645



1,796,340

Deferred charges and other assets 585,180



582,164

Cemetery perpetual care trust investments 1,363,428



1,319,427

Total assets $ 11,875,492



$ 11,676,397









LIABILITIES & EQUITY





Current liabilities:





Accounts payable and accrued liabilities $ 410,141



$ 422,842

Current maturities of long-term debt 90,104



86,823

Income taxes payable 1,465



1,373

Total current liabilities 501,710



511,038

Long-term debt 3,113,179



3,037,605

Deferred preneed funeral revenue 562,889



557,897

Deferred preneed cemetery revenue 1,174,164



1,120,001

Deferred tax liability 467,364



470,584

Other liabilities 503,915



496,921

Deferred preneed receipts held in trust 3,020,407



2,973,386

Care trusts' corpus 1,364,044



1,319,564









Equity:





Common stock, $1 per share par value, 500,000,000 shares authorized, 202,067,016 and 200,859,676 shares issued, respectively, and 193,669,014 and 195,772,876 shares outstanding, respectively 193,669



195,773

Capital in excess of par value 1,046,061



1,092,106

Accumulated deficit (106,119)



(109,351)

Accumulated other comprehensive income 29,289



6,164

Total common stockholders' equity 1,162,900



1,184,692

Noncontrolling interests 4,920



4,709

Total equity 1,167,820



1,189,401

Total liabilities and equity $ 11,875,492



$ 11,676,397



SERVICE CORPORATION INTERNATIONAL CONSOLIDATED STATEMENT OF CASH FLOWS (In thousands, except share amounts)



Six Months Ended June 30,

2016

2015 Cash flows from operating activities:





Net income $ 63,347



$ 114,557

Adjustments to reconcile net income to net cash provided by operating activities:





Loss from discontinued operations, net of tax 



390

Loss on early extinguishment of debt 22,479





Premiums paid on early extinguishment of debt (20,500)





Depreciation and amortization 72,522



68,899

Amortization of intangible assets 15,392



15,983

Amortization of cemetery property 27,837



26,027

Amortization of loan costs 3,004



4,865

Provision for doubtful accounts 1,854



3,431

Benefit for deferred income taxes (2,856)



(8,466)

Losses on divestitures and impairment charges, net 30,988



7,361

Share-based compensation 6,574



7,284

Excess tax benefits from share-based awards (4,269)



(13,003)

Change in assets and liabilities, net of effects from acquisitions and divestitures:





Decrease in receivables 10,201



2,276

Increase in other assets (1,572)



(761)

(Decrease) increase in payables and other liabilities (1,169)



33,932

Effect of preneed funeral production and maturities:





Decrease in preneed funeral receivables, net and trust investments 2,756



16,144

(Decrease) increase deferred preneed funeral revenue (747)



14,247

Decrease in deferred preneed funeral receipts held in trust (16,244)



(37,366)

Effect of cemetery production and deliveries:





Increase in preneed cemetery receivables, net and trust investments (48,267)



(28,272)

Increase in deferred preneed cemetery revenue 51,663



62,482

Increase (decrease) in deferred preneed cemetery receipts held in trust 12,535



(7,506)

Other 



3

Net cash provided by operating activities 225,528



282,507

Cash flows from investing activities:





Capital expenditures (83,189)



(64,724)

Acquisitions (52,844)



(36,726)

Proceeds from divestitures and sales of property and equipment 11,422



8,268

Net withdrawals of restricted funds 5,120



8,066

Net cash used in investing activities from continuing operations (119,491)



(85,116)

Net cash provided by investing activities from discontinued operations 



987

Net cash used in investing activities (119,491)



(84,129)

Cash flows from financing activities:





Proceeds from issuance of long-term debt 960,000



30,000

Debt issuance costs (5,232)





Payments of debt (18,835)



(30,121)

Early extinguishment of debt (875,001)





Principal payments on capital leases (16,907)



(15,257)

Proceeds from exercise of stock options 8,872



26,799

Excess tax benefits from share-based awards 4,269



13,003







Six Months Ended June 30,

2016

2015 Purchase of Company common stock (81,477)



(151,795)

Payments of dividends (48,506)



(40,398)

Purchase of noncontrolling interest (42)





Bank overdrafts and other (1,424)



(7,533)

Net cash used in financing activities (74,283)



(175,302)

Effect of foreign currency on cash and cash equivalents 5,435



(1,315)

Net increase in cash and cash equivalents 37,189



21,761

Cash and cash equivalents at beginning of period 134,599



177,335

Cash and cash equivalents at end of period $ 171,788



$ 199,096



SOURCE Service Corporation International

Related Links

http://www.sci-corp.com


DALLAS, July 27, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), the bank of the world's most innovative companies and their investors, announced it has entered into a corporate banking partnership with GENBAND, a global leader in real-time communications solutions, to help support GENBAND's growth initiatives. In addition to providing domestic and international banking services, SVB acted as lead agent for a $50 million revolving credit facility to offer GENBAND additional working capital and enhanced financial flexibility.

GENBAND, headquartered in Plano, Texas, works with the world's largest service providers, enterprises, independent software vendors, systems integrators and developers in over 80 countries. Founded in 1999, GENBAND has grown from a single-product startup to one of the largest global software and communications technology companies in the world.

"We selected SVB as our new corporate banking partner because they can provide us with the enhanced customized resources and capabilities that we need to keep up with the rapid growth we are experiencing," said Daryl Raiford, Chief Financial Officer at GENBAND. "Our new relationship with SVB allows us to continue in our quest of constantly seeking ways to better serve our customers, improve efficiencies and offer best-in-class solutions."

"We're pleased to partner with GENBAND to support the company's continued growth," said Robert Clouse, Director of Corporate Finance in Dallas, Texas. "GENBAND has achieved impressive growth over time and is guided by a leadership team that is focused on constant innovation. Our objective is to provide the GENBAND team with the right financing, connections and global services that it needs to be most successful."

Silicon Valley Bank works with large, multinational companies in the technology and life science sectors to offer tailored banking solutions in areas including financing strategies, treasury management and international banking. Through SVB Financial Group, its clients also have access to additional services such as strategic advisory, valuations, industry connections and private banking.

About Silicon Valley Bank

For more than 30 years, Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) has helped innovative companies and their investors move bold ideas forward, fast. SVB provides targeted financial services and expertise through its offices in innovation centers around the world. With commercial, international and private banking services, SVB helps address the unique needs of innovators. Learn more at svb.com.

2016 SVB Financial Group. All rights reserved. Silicon Valley Bank is the California bank subsidiary of SVB Financial Group. Silicon Valley Bank is a member of FDIC and Federal Reserve System. SVB>, SVB Financial Group, and Silicon Valley Bank, are trademarks of SVB Financial Group, used under license.

About GENBAND

GENBAND is a global leader in real-time communications software solutions for service providers, enterprises, independent software vendors, systems integrators and developers in over 80 countries. Kandy, its award-winning, disruptive real-time communications software development platform, is built from the company's global telecommunications network and security technologies. The platform enables these companies to easily embed a full suite of voice, video, chat, screen-sharing and collaboration capabilities into their existing business, web and mobile applications. The company's Network Modernization, Unified Communications, Mobility and Embedded Communications solutions enable its customers to quickly capitalize on growing market segments and introduce differentiating products, applications and services. GENBAND's market-leading solutions, which are deployable in the network, on premise or through the cloud, help its customers connect people to each other and address the growing demands of today's consumers and businesses for real-time communications wherever they happen to be. To learn more visit genband.com.

GENBAND, the GENBAND logo and icon are trademarks of GENBAND.

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20100106/SF32918LOGO

SOURCE Silicon Valley Bank

Related Links

http://www.svb.com


Membership in this elite group is based on business performance and licensing growth, and placed Socius in the upper 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.

"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 Socius for their achievements this past year and for their dedication and support of Microsoft Dynamics solutions."

Inner Circle status has been a distinction bestowed upon Microsoft Dynamics partners for the past 23 years. As a long-time leading partner, Socius has earned this recognition 20 times. The 2016 Inner Circle for Microsoft Dynamics is limited to less than 60 of the most successful and strategic Microsoft Dynamics partners from around the world. Primary selection criteria include overall revenue and license revenue growth during FY16.

"I'm very proud of our team for earning membership in the Microsoft Dynamics Inner Circle for the 20th year," said Jeff Geisler, CEO and Senior Managing Director of Socius. "We have been providing Microsoft Dynamics solutions to our clients for more than 30 years. It is truly an honor to consistently be recognized by Microsoft as one of their leading partners."

Socius leverages innovative technology, specialized expertise, and strategic partnerships to fuel the growth and transformation of organizations across the United States. As a Gold Certified Microsoft Dynamics partner, Socius provides the complete portfolio of Microsoft Dynamics ERP and CRM solutions. Socius is also a Microsoft Cloud Accelerate partner, providing our clients with power to choose whether they want their business solutions deployed on-premises, hosted by Socius, in our private cloud, via Azure, or a hybrid approach.

About Socius:

Socius (www.socius1.com) is a strategic business consulting partner that provides comprehensive business management solutions to help companies leverage technology to fuel their growth and profitability and compete more successfully in today's economy. As a Gold Certified Microsoft Partner, a Sage Authorized Partner, and a NetSuite Partner, Socius represents the most trusted accounting, enterprise resource planning (ERP), customer relationship management (CRM), and business intelligence and analytics technologies on the market. Backed by over 30 years of award-winning experience, Socius proudly serves clients throughout the country from its headquarters in Dublin, Ohio, and its 28 additional locations.

For more information, contact:

Erin Paulson

614-798-0770

[email protected]

Video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2CnPaINQoQM

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160412/354341LOGO

SOURCE Socius

Related Links

http://www.socius1.com


The regional competition took place on July 26, 2016 at Astor Center in New York City where a jury composed of renowned chefsincluding Dominique Crenn, of Atelier Crenn in San Francisco, New York City-based chefs Emma Bengtsson of Aquavit, Bryce Shuman of Betony and Alex Stupak of Empellon, and the 2015 Young Chef U.S. finalist Vinson Petrillo of Zero George Street in Charleston, South Carolina. The chefs judged each of the semifinalist dishes based on the criteria of five "Golden Rules": ingredients, skills, genius, beauty and message. Chef Dominique Crenn will also serve as Lienhard's chef mentor throughout the remainder of the competition and accompany him to Milan.

"I'm thrilled to represent the United States at the Grand Finale in Milan," said Manresa Chef de Cuisine Mitch Lienhard. "The competitors were world class and I'm honored to be selected by this esteemed panel of judges. I'm looking forward to working with and learning from Chef Dominique Crenn and to meeting the young chefs from around the world for the competition."

"The level of creativity and culinary expertise demonstrated by all chef competitors was inspiring," said Chef Dominique Crenn. "We were particularly impressed with Chef Liehnard who demonstrated the qualities necessary to stand out on a global stage. We feel confidently he will be a fantastic contender at the The S.Pellegrino 2016 Young Chef Grand Finale."

At the Young Chef Grand Finale, Chef Lienhard will join young chef finalists from 20 regions across the globe to present their signature dishes to a jury of seven distinguished international chefs, also known as the "Seven Sages," comprised of Chefs Carlo Cracco, Mauro Colagreco, David Higgs, Gaggan Anand, Elena Arzak, Wylie Dufresne and Roberta Sudbrack. The winning chef contestant will be named S.Pellegrino Young Chef 2016.

Through this unique culinary competition S.Pellegrino is proud to support emerging young chefs and continue to encourage creativity and innovation within the culinary industry.

To see the complete list of global chef finalists or for more information on the S.Pellegrino Young Chef 2016 Competition, visit: https://www.finedininglovers.com/

Be sure to follow the #SPYoungChef for up to date news and announcements on the competition.

About S.Pellegrino Sparkling Natural Mineral Water

The signature taste of S.Pellegrino Sparkling Natural Mineral Water is created during a 30-year journey through the Italian Alps, where the water is naturally filtered. S.Pellegrino cleanses the palate and amplifies subtle flavors, making it the perfect complement to fine food and wines. This clean, refreshing taste helped S.Pellegrino become a preferred sparkling water in fine-dining restaurants in the USA, and pairs well with any occasion.

S.Pellegrino is proud to support a number of top culinary events, such as The James Beard Foundation Rising Star Chef of the Year Award, S.Pellegrino Almost Famous Chef Competition, The World's 50 Best Restaurants list, Aspen Food and Wine Classic, Share Our Strength's Taste of the Nation, and Identita Golose.

For more information, visit www.facebook.com/SanPellegrinoUS or www.finedininglovers.com

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160727/393589

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20151123/290138LOGO

SOURCE S.Pellegrino

Related Links

http://www.finedininglovers.com


TORONTO, July 27, 2016 /PRNewswire/ - Sun Life Financial is making digital waves as the first Canadian insurance company to partner with Plug and Play Tech Center, a U.S.-based global technology accelerator that connects top start-ups from around the world to corporations and investors. This new arrangement will help position Sun Life Financial at the helm of insurance industry innovation and closely follows a partnership struck with MaRS Discovery District, one of North America's largest urban innovation hubs.

"At Sun Life, we know there is so much more we can do for our Clients in a digitally-driven world," said Dean Connor, President and Chief Executive Officer, Sun Life Financial. "Inserting ourselves into the stream with Plug and Play will help us experiment, and will speed up the delivery of cutting-edge solutions for Clients."

Plug and Play runs 12 week industry-specific programs throughout the year and connects a select group of start-ups from around the world with its corporate partners. As part of the insurance vertical program, Sun Life Financial, along with other financial institutions, will work with start-ups by providing mentorship and business development support to help them develop a working prototype. At the end of the 12 week program, the start-ups pitch their ideas to investors and insurance executives at Plug and Play's EXPO.

"This program is geared to help companies elevate the way they approach their business, creating opportunities that can define their sector," said Saeed Amidi, Chief Executive Officer and Founder, Plug and Play. "We are thrilled to be working with Sun Life, a forward-thinking, innovation-focused organziation. We look forward to seeing the amazing outcomes from this 12 week program."

Sun Life Financial will be focusing on the areas of Insurance, Health, IoT (Internet of Things), Media & Mobile and Fintech & Security, with leaders from different streams participating. The program is slated to begin at the end of August.

About Sun Life Financial

Sun Life Financial is a leading international financial services organization providing a diverse range of protection and wealth products and services to individuals and corporate customers. Sun Life Financial has operations in a number of markets worldwide, including Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Japan, Indonesia, India, China, Australia, Singapore, Vietnam, Malaysia and Bermuda. As of March 31, 2016, the Sun Life Financial group of companies had total assets under management of $861 billion. For more information please visit www.sunlife.com.

Sun Life Financial Inc. trades on the Toronto (TSX), New York (NYSE) and Philippine (PSE) stock exchanges under the ticker symbol SLF.

About Plug and Play Tech Center

Plug and Play Tech Center is the world's largest global technology accelerator and venture fund. Since inception in 2006, the program has expanded worldwide to include entrepreneurs from 24 countries, providing necessary resources to succeed in Silicon Valley. With over 350 start-ups and 300 corporate partners - it is the ultimate start-up ecosystem. Plug and Play provides active investments with 180 leading Silicon Valley venture capitalists, and more than 365 networking events per year. Companies in the community have raised over $3.5 billion in funding, with successful portfolio exits including Danger, Dropbox, Lending Club, PayPal, SoundHound, and Zoosk. For more information visit www.plugandplaytechcenter.com

SOURCE Sun Life Financial Inc.
NEW YORK, July 27, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Susquehanna Financial Group, LLLP (SFG), the institutional broker-dealer member of the Susquehanna International Group of Companies (SIG), announced today that Christopher Rolland has joined the firm as the senior analyst covering the Semiconductor industry. Mr. Rolland will be based out of SFG's New York office.

"We are thrilled to have Chris on board covering semiconductors for us," said Nick Wood, SFG's Co-Head of Equities. "Chris has created a unique franchise. The combination of Chris and Mehdi Hosseini, our Specialty Semi & Storage/Cleantech analyst, will provide a unique global perspective for this dynamic market sector."

"Chris has demonstrated a value added approach to clients that we think will gain leverage within our existing infrastructure. We are excited to expand our technology vertical with Chris," said Akir Gutierrez, SFG Director of Research.

Prior to today Chris had been at FBR & Co since 2010 where he was Senior Vice President covering semiconductors. Prior to that, he was at Opus Capital as a buy side equity analyst and trader with responsibilities in the TMT vertical. Chris earned his MBA from the Columbia Business School, and his B.A. in Economics from Denison University.

About Susquehanna Financial Group, LLLP

Susquehanna Financial Group, LLLP (SFG), a member of the Susquehanna International Group of Companies (SIG), is an innovator in global finance, servicing the needs of clients worldwide in the areas of sales, fundamental research, and market intelligence. Building upon SIG's command of the options marketplace and its quantitative trading capabilities, SFG has cultivated a robust service offering that provides liquidity, industry-leading insights, and execution services. SIG employs approximately 1,800 individuals located in North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia.

FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION, PLEASE VISIT

www.sig.com

SOURCE Susquehanna Financial Group, LLLP

Related Links

http://www.sig.com


WASHINGTON, July 27, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- The Advisory Board Company (NASDAQ: ABCO), a leading provider of insight-driven technology, research, and services for organizations in transforming industries, today announced financial results for the quarter ended June 30, 2016.

Highlights from the second quarter of 2016 are as follows (all comparisons are to the quarter ended June 30, 2015):

GAAP Highlights:

Revenue of $198.4 million , an increase of 8.1%

, an increase of 8.1% Net income of $7.5 million , a decrease of 2.2%

, a decrease of 2.2% Earnings per diluted share of $0.18 , unchanged

Non-GAAP and Other Highlights:

Contract value of $774.9 million , an increase of 5%

, an increase of 5% Adjusted EBITDA of $47.7 million , an increase of 5%

, an increase of 5% Non-GAAP earnings per diluted share of $0.47 , an increase of 21%

Robert Musslewhite, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of The Advisory Board Company, commented, "At the close of the June quarter, I am pleased that the company is performing well against expectations for the year and that we continue to make progress on our key strategic initiatives. In particular, the performance of the Royall & Company business has improved substantially over the course of the last year. Strong member attachment to Royall's data and insight-driven capabilities is not only playing out in the Royall financial results, but is also contributing significantly to our overall relationships with colleges and universities because we are able to serve them in a more robust way across the student lifecycle. As a result, we are set up for solid mid-teens revenue growth in Royall across the next fiscal year, and now have the robust growth platform we envisioned when we acquired the business last year."

Mr. Musslewhite concluded, "Given the complexity members face today in both of the markets we serve, the need for our help remains acute, and we continue to deliver deep value to both our health care and education members. This member value is driven first and foremost by our passionate and dedicated people. We are committed to their engagement, development, opportunity, and growth, and were excited that for the eighth year running we were honored as one of Modern Healthcare's Best Places to Work. We view this honor as a tangible reminder of the importance of our ongoing investment in our employees and their hard work to make the critical improvements needed today in health care, education, and our communities."

Second Quarter Financial Review

Revenue increased 8% to $198.4 million for the quarter ended June 30, 2016, up from $183.6 million for the quarter ended June 30, 2015. Contract value increased 5% to $774.9 million as of June 30, 2016, up from $741.7 million as of June 30, 2015.

Net income was $7.5 million, or $0.18 per diluted share, for the quarter ended June 30, 2016, compared to net income of $7.7 million, or $0.18 per diluted share, for the quarter ended June 30, 2015. Adjusted net income was $19.0 million for the quarter ended June 30, 2016, up from $16.9 million for the quarter ended June 30, 2015. Non-GAAP earnings per diluted share was $0.47 for the quarter ended June 30, 2016, up from $0.39 for the quarter ended June 30, 2015.

Adjusted EBITDA increased 5% to $47.7 million for the quarter ended June 30, 2016, up from $45.6 million for the quarter ended June 30, 2015.

Adjusted net income, non-GAAP earnings per diluted share, and adjusted EBITDA are non-GAAP financial measures.

Year-to-Date Financial Review

Revenue increased 10% to $399.1 million for the six-month period ended June 30, 2016, up from $362.9 million for the six-month period ended June 30, 2015. Net income was $17.8 million, or $0.43 per diluted share, for the six-month period ended June 30, 2016, compared to a net loss of $14.4 million, or $0.35 per diluted share, for the six-month period ended June 30, 2015. Adjusted EBITDA was $95.1 million for the six-month period ended June 30, 2016, up from $84.5 million for the six-month period ended June 30, 2015. Adjusted net income was $38.4 million for the six-month period ended June 30, 2016, up from $29.4 million for the six-month period ended June 30, 2015. Non-GAAP earnings per diluted share was $0.93 for the six-month period ended June 30, 2016, compared to $0.70 for the six-month period ended June 30, 2015.

Share Repurchase

During the quarter ended June 30, 2016, the Company repurchased approximately 803,000 shares of its common stock at a total cost of $26.2 million. Since 2004, the Company has repurchased approximately 19.6 million shares of its common stock at a total cost of $505.5 million. As of June 30, 2016, the Company had $44.5 million remaining on its share repurchase authorization.

Outlook for Calendar Year 2016

The Company is raising its financial guidance for calendar year 2016. The Company expects revenue to be in a range of $817 million to $830 million, revised from a previous range of $810 million to $830 million. The Company expects adjusted EBITDA to be in a range of $190 million to $195 million, revised from a previous range of $188 million to $195 million, and non-GAAP earnings per diluted share to be in a range of $1.83 to $1.90, revised from a previous range of $1.63 to $1.73. For the year, the Company expects stock-based compensation expense to be approximately $32 million, interest expense to be approximately $19 million, amortization of acquisition-related intangible assets to be approximately $29 million, amortization of non-acquisition related assets to be approximately $50 million, capital expenditures to be approximately $60 million, share count to be approximately 41 million, and effective tax rate to be in a range of 38%-40%.

Conference Call Information

As previously announced, the Company will hold a conference call to discuss its second quarter performance this evening, July 27, 2016, at 5:30 p.m. Eastern Time. The conference call will be available via live webcast on the Company's website at www.advisory.com/IR. To participate by telephone, the dial-in number is 888.336.7150. Participants are advised to dial in at least five minutes prior to the call to register. The webcast will be archived for seven days from 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time on Wednesday, July 27, 2016, until 11:00 p.m. Eastern Time on Wednesday, August 3, 2016. The Company invites all interested parties to attend the conference call, including the lenders under the Company's senior secured credit facilities.

A supplemental presentation of information complementary to the information presented in this release and that will be discussed on the conference call will be made available on the Company's website at www.advisory.com/IR prior to the conference call and will be archived for the same duration as the webcast.

About The Advisory Board Company

The Advisory Board Company is a best practices firm that uses a combination of research, technology, and consulting to improve the performance of 5,500+ health care organizations and educational institutions. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., with offices worldwide, The Advisory Board Company forges and finds the best new ideas and proven practices from its network of thousands of leaders, then customizes and hardwires them into every level of member organizations, creating enduring value. For more information, visit www.advisory.com.

Non-GAAP Financial Measures

This news release presents information about the Company's historical and expected non-GAAP earnings per diluted share and adjusted EBITDA, as well as the Company's historical adjusted revenue, adjusted net income, adjusted effective tax rate, and adjusted weighted average common shares outstanding-diluted, all of which are non-GAAP financial measures provided as a complement to the results provided in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America ("GAAP"). A reconciliation of each of the foregoing historical non-GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable historical GAAP financial measures is provided in the accompanying tables found at the end of this release for each of the fiscal periods indicated.

No reconciliation of the Company's expected adjusted EBITDA and non-GAAP earnings per diluted share for 2016 is included in this news release. Both of these non-GAAP financial measures exclude the impact and tax-effected impact of M&A-related charges, stock-based compensation expense, and other fair value and non-cash charges. The Company is not able, without unreasonable efforts, to accurately forecast this reconciling information at the level of precision that would be required to be included in the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures.

Caution Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

Statements in this news release that relate to future results and events are forward-looking statements and are based on the Company's expectations as of the date of this news release. In some cases, you can identify these statements by such forward-looking words as "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "expect," "guidance," "intend," "may," "outlook," "plan," "potential," "should," "will," "would," or similar words or expressions. Forward-looking statements in this news release include the Company's expectations regarding its performance and results for fiscal 2016 with respect to revenue, adjusted EBITDA, non-GAAP earnings per diluted share, stock-based compensation expense, interest expense, amortization of acquisition-related intangible assets, amortization of non-acquisition related assets, capital expenditures, and the Company's effective tax rate.

Actual results and events in future periods may differ materially from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements because of a number of risks, uncertainties, and other factors, including those relating to: factors that adversely affect the financial condition of the health care and education industries; federal and state law and regulations governing the health care and education industries and our members' and our respective compliance with those applicable laws and regulations; effects of federal and state privacy and security laws and cyberattacks and other data security breaches; liability for failure to provide accurate information or for deficient submissions to third party payors; compliance with federal and state laws governing healthcare fraud and abuse or reimbursement; the Company's ability to attract new members, obtain renewals from existing members, and sell additional products and services; maintenance of the Company's reputation and expansion of its name recognition; the Company's ability to offer new and valuable products and services; effects of competition; the Company's ability to maintain a highly-skilled workforce; unsuccessful design or implementation of our software or delivery of our consulting and management services; delays in generating revenue; disruptions in service or operational failures at our data centers or at other service provider locations; ability to collect and maintain member and third party data and to obtain proper permissions and waivers for use and disclosure of information received from members or on their behalf; maintenance of third-party providers and strategic alliances and entry into new alliances; ability to license, integrate, and access third-party technologies and data; potential liability claims; protection of the Company's intellectual property; claims of infringement, misappropriation, or violation of proprietary rights of third parties; limitations associated with use of open source technology; estimates and assumptions used to prepare the Company's consolidated financial statements and any changes made to those estimates; any significant increase in bad debt in excess of recorded estimates; failure to realize the anticipated benefits of the Company's acquisition of Royall; the inability to integrate successfully the operations of Royall and other acquisitions into the Company's business; business and financial risks associated with the pursuit of acquisition opportunities; any significant additional impairment of the Company's goodwill; the Company's ability to realize a return on its strategic investments; potential imposition of sales and use taxes on sales of the Company's services; the Company's ability to realize fully its deferred tax assets; the potential effects of changes in, or interpretations of, tax rules on our effective tax rates; inherent limitations in, and the potential impact of any failure to maintain, effective internal control over financial reporting; effects of issuance of additional capital stock; provisions in the Company's charter and bylaws that could discourage takeover attempts; and limitations caused by our level of debt, interest payment obligations, and covenants under our senior credit agreement.

This list of risks, uncertainties, and other factors is not complete. The Company discusses some of these matters more fully, as well as certain risk factors that could affect the Company's business, financial condition, results of operations, and prospects, in its filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the Company's annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2015, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, and current reports on Form 8-K. These filings are available for review through the Securities and Exchange Commission's website at www.sec.gov. Any or all forward-looking statements the Company makes may turn out to be wrong, and can be affected by inaccurate assumptions the Company might make or by known or unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors, including those identified in this news release. Accordingly, you should not place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements made in this news release, which speak only as of its date. The Company does not undertake to update, and expressly disclaims any duty to update, its forward-looking statements, whether as a result of circumstances or events that arise after the date they are made, new information, or otherwise.

Reconciliation of Non-GAAP Financial Measures

This news release presents information about the Company's adjusted revenue, adjusted EBITDA, adjusted net income, non-GAAP earnings per diluted share, adjusted effective tax rate, and adjusted weighted average common shares outstanding-diluted, which are non-GAAP financial measures provided as a complement to the results provided in accordance with GAAP.

A reconciliation of each of the foregoing historical non-GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable historical GAAP financial measures is provided below for each of the fiscal periods indicated.



Three Months Ended

Six Months Ended

June 30,

June 30,

2016

2015

2016

2015















Revenue $ 198,382

$ 183,583

$ 399,117

$ 362,905 Effect on revenue of fair value adjustments to

acquisition-related deferred revenue 

6,617



12,499 Adjusted revenue $ 198,382

$ 190,200

$ 399,117

$ 375,404

































Three Months Ended

Six Months Ended

June 30,

June 30,

2016

2015

2016

2015















Net income (loss) $ 7,495

$ 7,666

$ 17,834

$ (14,406) Effect on revenue of fair value adjustments to

acquisition-related deferred revenue 

6,617



12,499 Equity in loss (income) of unconsolidated entities 411

(4,000)

445

(1,621) Provision for income taxes 4,870

3,372

10,533

3,094 Interest expense 4,389

5,154

9,210

10,766 Other expense, net 923

128

862

1,247 Loss on financing activities 





17,398 Depreciation and amortization 18,917

18,499

38,684

35,773 Acquisition and similar transaction charges 

961



6,610 Fair value adjustments to acquisition-related

earn-out liabilities 1,775

(1,427)

705

(1,083) Build-to-suit land rent 995



1,871

 Vacation accrual adjustment 





(850) Stock-based compensation expense 7,965

8,631

14,947

15,036 Adjusted EBITDA $ 47,740

$ 45,601

$ 95,091

$ 84,463

































Three Months Ended

Six Months Ended

June 30,

June 30,

2016

2015

2016

2015















Net income (loss) $ 7,495

$ 7,666

$ 17,834

$ (14,406) Effect of adjusted tax rate on net income (loss) 

332



8,861 Effect on revenue of fair value adjustments to

acquisition-related deferred revenue, net of tax 

3,758



7,046 Equity in loss (income) of unconsolidated entities 411

(4,000)

445

(1,621) Amortization of acquisition-related intangibles, net of tax 4,437

4,562

9,116

8,782 Loss on financing activities, net of tax 





9,725 Acquisition and similar transaction charges, net of tax 

546



3,704 Fair value adjustments to acquisition-related earn-out

liabilities, net of tax 1,099

(811)

407

(619) Gain on investment in common stock warrants,

net of tax 

(40)



(40) Build-to-suit land rent, net of tax 616



1,183

 Vacation accrual adjustment, net of tax 





(475) Stock-based compensation expense, net of tax 4,930

4,902

9,447

8,483 Adjusted net income $ 18,988

$ 16,915

$ 38,432

$ 29,440

































Three Months Ended

Six Months Ended

June 30,

June 30,

2016

2015

2016

2015















Net income (loss) per share - diluted $ 0.18

$ 0.18

$ 0.43

$ (0.35) Effect of adjusted tax rate on net income (loss) 

0.01



0.22 Effect of adjusted weighted average common

shares outstanding  diluted on (loss) earnings

per share 





0.01 Effect on revenue of fair value adjustments to

acquisition-related deferred revenue, net of tax 

0.09



0.17 Equity in loss (income) of unconsolidated entities 0.01

(0.09)

0.01

(0.03) Amortization of acquisition-related intangibles,

net of tax 0.11

0.11

0.22

0.21 Loss on financing activities, net of tax 





0.23 Acquisition and similar transaction charges, net of tax 

0.01



0.09 Fair value adjustments to acquisition-related earn-out

liabilities, net of tax 0.03

(0.02)

0.01

(0.02) Gain on investment in common stock warrants,

net of tax 

(0.01)



(0.01) Build-to-suit land rent, net of tax 0.02



0.03

 Vacation accrual adjustment, net of tax 





(0.01) Stock-based compensation expense, net of tax 0.12

0.11

0.23

0.19 Non-GAAP earnings per diluted share $ 0.47

$ 0.39

$ 0.93

$ 0.70

































Three Months Ended

Six Months Ended

June 30,

June 30,

2016

2015

2016

2015















Effective tax rate 38.1%

47.9%

36.6%

(23.9%) Effect on tax rate of Washington, D.C. tax law

change, including write-off of Washington, D.C.

income tax credits 





73.2% Effect on tax rate of loss on financing activities 

0.9%



(8.5%) Effect on tax rate of asset impairment













Effect on tax rate of unconsolidated equity method

investment related FIN 48 liability 

(14.9%)



 Effect on tax rate of Royall acquisition costs and

other acquisition-related tax items 

9.3%



2.8% Adjusted effective tax rate 38.1%

43.2%

36.6%

43.6%

































Three Months Ended

Six Months Ended

June 30,

June 30,

2016

2015

2016

2015















Weighted average common shares outstanding

 diluted 40,570

42,914

41,222

41,686 Diluted shares outstanding (1) 





555 Adjusted weighted average common

shares outstanding  diluted 40,570

42,914

41,222

42,241

















(1) For non-GAAP purposes the Company has net income and therefore has included diluted shares in its calculation of non-GAAP earnings per diluted share.

THE ADVISORY BOARD COMPANY UNAUDITED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF INCOME AND OTHER OPERATING STATISTICS (In thousands, except per share data)













Three Months Ended

Selected

Six Months Ended

Selected





June 30,

Growth

June 30,

Growth





2016

2015

Rates

2016

2015

Rates Statements of Income





















Revenue (1) $ 198,382

$ 183,583

8.1%

$ 399,117

$ 362,905

10.0%



























Cost of services, excluding depreciation and

amortization (2) (3) (4) 96,440

92,536





192,389

188,026



Member relations and marketing (2) (3) 32,718

29,375





65,113

60,101



General and administrative (2) (3) (5) 32,219

30,853





64,047

62,527



Depreciation and amortization (6) 18,917

18,499





38,684

35,773



Operating income 18,088

12,320

46.8%

38,884

16,478

136.0% Other expense





















Interest expense (4,389)

(5,154)





(9,210)

(10,766)



Other expense, net (923)

(128)





(862)

(1,247)



Loss on financing activities -

-





-

(17,398)







Total other expense, net (5,312)

(5,282)





(10,072)

(29,411)



Income (loss) before provision for income taxes





















and equity in loss of unconsolidated entities 12,776

7,038





28,812

(12,933)



Provision for income taxes 4,870

3,372





10,533

3,094



Equity in loss (income) of unconsolidated entities (411)

4,000





(445)

1,621



Net income (loss) $ 7,495

$ 7,666





$ 17,834

$ (14,406)































Net income (loss) per share























Basic $ 0.19

$ 0.18





$ 0.44

$ (0.35)





Diluted $ 0.18

$ 0.18





$ 0.43

$ (0.35)































Weighted average common shares outstanding























Basic 40,365

42,440





40,928

41,686





Diluted 40,570

42,914





41,222

41,686































Contract Value (at end of period) $ 774,879

$ 741,673

4.5%







































Percentages of Revenue





















Cost of services, excluding depreciation and

amortization (2) (3) (4) 48.6%

50.4%





48.2%

51.8%



Member relations and marketing (2) (3) 16.5%

16.0%





16.3%

16.6%



General and administrative (2) (3) (5) 16.2%

16.8%





16.0%

17.2%



Depreciation and amortization (6) 9.5%

10.1%





9.7%

9.9%



Operating income 9.1%

6.7%





9.7%

4.5%



Net income (loss) 3.8%

4.2%





4.5%

-4.0%



























(1) Amounts include effect on revenue of fair value adjustments to acquisition-related deferred revenue, as follows:

Revenue -

6,617





-

12,499



























(2) Amounts include stock-based compensation, as follows:







































Cost of services 2,493

2,566





4,680

4,458



Member relations and marketing 1,387

1,455





2,501

2,601



General and administrative 4,085

4,610





7,766

7,977



























(3) Amounts include Build to suit land expense, as follows:









































Cost of services 479

-





905

-



Member relations and marketing 351

-





655

-



General and administrative 165

-





311

-



























(4) Amounts include fair value adjustments of acquisition-related earn-out liabilities, as follows:



































Cost of services 1,775

(1,427)





705

(1,083)



























(5) Amounts include acquisition and transaction related costs, as follows:







































General and administrative -

961





-

6,610



























(6) Amounts include amortization of acquisition-related intangibles, as follows:







































Depreciation and amortization 7,168

8,031





14,399

15,580





THE ADVISORY BOARD COMPANY CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS (In thousands)













June 30,

December 31,



2016

2015



(unaudited)



ASSETS







Current assets:







Cash and cash equivalents

$ 17,487

$ 71,825 Marketable securities, current

-

- Membership fees receivable, net

600,496

605,444 Prepaid expenses and other current assets

20,986

22,543 Total current assets

638,969

699,812









Property and equipment, net

187,984

183,057 Intangible assets, net

264,948

274,721 Deferred incentive compensation and other charges 69,641

81,181 Goodwill

740,458

738,200 Investments in unconsolidated entities

-

706 Other non-current assets

1,800

1,800 Total assets

$ 1,903,800

$ 1,979,477









LIABILITIES AND STOCKHOLDERS' EQUITY







Current liabilities:







Deferred revenue, current

$ 568,329

$ 581,471 Accounts payable and accrued liabilities

64,506

74,879 Accrued incentive compensation

16,765

41,173 Debt, current

51,946

27,743 Total current liabilities

701,546

725,266









Deferred revenue, net of current portion

152,039

173,953 Deferred income taxes, net of current portion

91,047

93,893 Debt, net of current portion

501,015

522,086 Financing obligation

15,054

2,700 Other long-term liabilities

17,157

12,488 Total liabilities

1,477,858

1,530,386









Stockholders' equity:







Common stock

403

416 Additional paid-in capital

759,832

744,333 Accumulated deficit

(331,625)

(295,860) Accumulated other comprehensive income

(2,668)

202 Total stockholders' equity

425,942

449,091









Total liabilities and stockholders' equity

$ 1,903,800

$ 1,979,477











THE ADVISORY BOARD COMPANY UNAUDITED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF CASH FLOWS (In thousands)



Six Months Ended June 30,



2016

2015 Cash flows from operating activities:







Net income (loss)

$ 17,834

$ (14,406) Adjustments to reconcile net income (loss) to net cash provided







by operating activities:







Depreciation and amortization

38,684

35,774 Loss on financing activities

-

17,398 Amortization of debt issuance costs

826

703 Deferred income taxes

(881)

11,357 Excess tax benefits from stock-based awards

(633)

(2,745) Stock-based compensation expense

14,947

15,035 (Gain) loss on investment in common stock warrants

-

(70) Equity in loss of unconsolidated entities

445

(1,621) Changes in operating assets and liabilities (net of the effect of acquisition):





Membership fees receivable

4,948

(34,872) Prepaid expenses and other current assets

7,268

(1,994) Deferred incentive compensation and other charges

11,408

869 Other non-current assets

-

(258) Deferred revenue

(35,056)

46,655 Accounts payable and accrued liabilities

(10,738)

(10,949) Acquisition-related earn-out payments

(1,432)

(1,948) Accrued incentive compensation

(24,408)

(12,031) Other long-term liabilities

(131)

(5,168) Net cash provided by operating activities

23,081

41,729









Cash flows from investing activities:







Purchases of property and equipment

(19,877)

(23,285) Capitalized external-use software development costs

(1,608)

(2,181) Cash paid for acquisitions, net of cash acquired

(1,900)

(744,193) Cash paid for investment in unconsolidated entity

-

(3,006) Sales of marketable securities

-

14,714 Net cash used in investing activities

(23,385)

(757,951)









Cash flows from financing activities:







Proceeds from debt, net

17,000

1,280,292 Pay down of debt

(14,375)

(732,189) Debt issuance costs

-

(2,568) Proceeds from issuance of common stock, net of selling costs

-

148,786 Proceeds from issuance of common stock from exercise of stock options 3,100

3,014 Withholding of shares to satisfy minimum employee tax withholding (3,432)

(6,007) Proceeds from issuance of stock under employee stock purchase plan 256

263 Acquisition-related earn-out payments

(3,600)

(1,500) Excess tax benefits from stock-based awards

633

2,745 Purchases of treasury stock

(53,616)

- Net cash (used in) provided by financing activities

(54,034)

692,836









Net decrease in cash and cash equivalents

(54,338)

(23,386) Cash and cash equivalents, beginning of period

71,825

72,936 Cash and cash equivalents, end of period

$ 17,487

$ 49,550





















Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20110802/PH45999LOGO

SOURCE The Advisory Board Company

Related Links

http://www.advisory.com


WILMINGTON, Del., July 27, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- The Chemours Company (Chemours) (NYSE: CC), a global chemistry company with leading market positions in titanium technologies, fluoroproducts and chemical solutions, today announced that Mark Newman, Senior Vice President, Chief Financial Officer, will speak at the Jefferies Industrial Conference on August 10, 2016 at 2:00 P.M.

Mr. Mark Newman will be joined by Alisha Bellezza, Treasurer and Director of Investor Relations, to address questions following the presentation. A live webcast will be available via the Chemours Investor Relations website.

About The Chemours Company

The Chemours Company (NYSE: CC) helps create a colorful, capable and cleaner world through the power of chemistry. Chemours is a global leader in titanium technologies, fluoroproducts and chemical solutions, providing its customers with solutions in a wide range of industries with market-defining products, application expertise and chemistry-based innovations. Chemours ingredients are found in plastics and coatings, refrigeration and air conditioning, mining and oil refining operations and general industrial manufacturing. Our flagship products include prominent brands such as Teflon, Ti-Pure, Krytox, Viton, Opteon and Nafion. Chemours has approximately 8,000 employees across 35 manufacturing sites serving more than 5,000 customers in North America, Latin America, Asia-Pacific and Europe. Chemours is headquartered in Wilmington, Delaware and is listed on the NYSE under the symbol CC. For more information please visit chemours.com or follow Chemours on Twitter at @chemours.

CONTACTS:

MEDIA:

Alvenia Scarborough, Director, Brand and Communications

+1.302.773.4507

[email protected]

INVESTORS:

Alisha Bellezza,

Treasurer and Director of Investor Relations

+1.302.773.2263

[email protected]

SOURCE The Chemours Company

Related Links

http://www.chemours.com


LED (light-emitting diode) and CFL (compact fluorescent lamp) bulbs, with their low energy use, have become more commonly used as incandescent light bulbs are phased out to improve energy efficiency. However, one side effect of LED bulbs is that they can potentially limit the range of garage door opener remote controls used for almost any brand of garage door opener.

The Genie LED light bulb addresses the issue with a special design that shields the transmission of its energy waves from the radio frequency that goes between the remote and opener. In effect, the bulb is radio frequency friendly  specifically designed to reduce or eliminate potential interference.

Homeowners can be miffed at why a remote suddenly has reduced range. In some cases a common LED light bulb recently installed in the opener is the culprit.

"The Genie Company has made a major commitment to address an issue that is becoming more widespread in garages everywhere," said Steve Janas, vice president and general manager - sales and marketing for The Genie Company. "If you have almost any brand of garage door opener that also provides light, the Genie LED light bulb will help ensure your opener and remote perform at their best."

Another problem is that a cold or damp garage can weaken the performance and life of common LED light bulbs. However, the Genie LED light bulb comes through strong as testing shows it to perform at up to -30 C (-22 F) while also achieving damp location rating. Therefore, neither condition will lessen the performance of Genie's LED bulb when a homeowner needs it most.

Additionally, the Genie LED bulb is shatter and vibration resistant to offset normal opener shaking, and provides optimal lighting for a low annual cost. While it boasts 800 lumens of brightness, equivalent to a 60 watt incandescent bulb, it uses only 10 watts of power. Depending on local utility rates, studies show the annual cost can be as little as $1.07 per year with a lifespan of about 25,000 hours under normal use.

For the nearest distributor or dealer of the Genie LED light bulb, visit the Genie website at www.GenieCompany.com, or call 1-800-843-4084, Option 2.

ABOUT THE GENIE COMPANY

The Genie Company is based in Mt. Hope, Ohio, and is a leading manufacturer of garage door openers and accessories for residential and commercial applications. With its main manufacturing facility in Baltic, Ohio, its roots run deep as an American brand that has been synonymous with garage door openers since 1954. The Genie name itself is a well-recognized icon among homeowners, builders, and dealers alike. Genie distributes its openers and accessories through a broad distribution channel of professional dealers, wholesalers, and retailers throughout the U.S. and Canada. The Genie Company is a separate division of Overhead Door Corporation. To learn more, please visit www.GenieCompany.com, or become a Genie fan on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160726/393124

SOURCE The Genie Company

Related Links

http://www.GenieCompany.com


A Bharti Airtel office building is pictured in Gurugram, previously known as Gurgaon, on the outskirts of New Delhi, April 21, 2016. REUTERS/Adnan Abidi/Files

By Aditi Shah

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India's largest telecom network operator, Bharti Airtel Ltd, reported a 30.8 percent fall in first-quarter net profit on Wednesday, blaming an adverse foreign exchange impact in Nigeria, although it beat analysts' estimates.

Consolidated net profit fell to 14.62 billion rupees ($218 million) in the quarter ended June 30, from 21.13 billion rupees last year, the company said.

Analysts on average had expected a net profit of 11.59 billion rupees, according to Thomson Reuters data.

Bharti Airtel, headed by billionaire Sunil Mittal, said total revenue rose 7.9 percent from a year earlier to a record 255.47 billion rupees, helped by new customers signing up for the company's 3G and 4G data services.

During the quarter, the Nigerian naira depreciated by 42 percent, forcing the company to register an exceptional loss of 7.48 billion rupees as a result. Bharti derives about 7 percent of its consolidated EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) from Nigeria, analysts estimate.

Restructuring in some other countries also hurt profits, the company said.

Mobile data revenue during the June quarter rose 35 percent to 35.25 billion rupees from a year ago, Bharti Airtel said. Average revenue per user (ARPU) of data rose 10-fold from a year earlier to 202 rupees during the quarter.

The proliferation of cheap smartphones, led by Chinese brands, has prompted more Indians to use their handsets to access the Internet and demand faster downloads. An Internet-based startup boom in the country has also seen increased adaptability on smartphones, bolstering demand for high-speed data.

Over 100 million smartphones were sold in India, the world's second-biggest mobile phone market by customers, last year and that number is expected to grow by over a quarter this year.

Earlier in July Indian conglomerate Reliance Industries said it would launch its much-awaited fourth-generation (4G) wireless services commercially in the coming months, competing with Bharti Airtel, which ramped up coverage of its 4G services last year to 300 towns in anticipation.

4G services should make it much faster than 3G services to surf the web on mobile phones, tablets and laptops.

(Additional reporting by Tripti Kalro in Bengaluru; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips and Susan Fenton)
As a mother of three, Romero understands firsthand the importance of packing tasty and easy lunch box meals, all made with natural ingredients that parents will enjoy preparing and kids will love eating while away at school. "As a parent, I know that a delicious and wholesome lunch is essential fuel my kids need mid-day while away at school to be alert and ready to learn," says the Venezuelan-born Romero. "Honey is a fantastic back-to-school ingredient because it complements both sweet and savory lunch options and gives them unbeatable flavor while powering kids up in a natural way that parents can feel good about."

All of Romero's lunch box dishes and snacks have a creative touch by incorporating versatile honey as the key natural energizing ingredient, taking these mouthwatering ideas to another level of deliciousness and perfect for young palates.

Exclusively available on mielpura.org, two of Romero's innovative "Golden Path to Back-to-School" recipes are:

Honey Chia Seed Pudding

Kids will love its flavor and texture! You can also add home-made honey granola.

Makes 4 servings

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons honey

2 cups coconut milk

6 tablespoons chia seeds

 teaspoon vanilla extract

Fresh berries

Preparation:

Combine the coconut milk, chia seeds, vanilla and honey in a medium bowl. Mix well until the honey has dissolved. Cover and refrigerate for at least 4 hours, but preferable overnight.

Stir well and divide the pudding into individual portions.

Serve with fresh berries. Add granola, if desired.

Honey Wheat Pretzel Rolls

These Honey Wheat Pretzel Rolls will be a fun twist on school lunches. Fill them with cheese, ham, tuna salad, egg salad, etc. Your kids will thank you!

Makes 12 rolls

Ingredients:

3 tablespoons honey

1 1/3 cup warm whole milk (about 110 F)

1 cup warm water (about 110 F)

2  teaspoons yeast

2 tablespoons butter, melted

2  cups all-purpose flour

2  cups whole wheat flour

1  teaspoons kosher salt

Egg wash or milk for brushing

Sesame seeds (optional)

Pretzel salt or coarse sea salt, for sprinkling (optional)

Preparation:

Combine milk, water, yeast, and honey in the bowl of a stand mixer. Let sit 5 to 10 minutes until mixture is foamy. Add butter and set aside.

Mix flours and salt in a big bowl.

Add slowly the flour mixture to the milk-yeast mixture with mixer running on low (hook attachment) until the dough pulls away from the bottom of the bowl and a dough forms. knead dough on low speed for 3-5 minutes until smooth and pliable.

Place the dough in a lightly greased bowl. Cover and let rise for 2 hours at room temperature.

Dust your work surface with a little flour and turn the risen dough out on top. Divide the dough into 16 pieces. To shape into rolls, roll the dough against the counter until round.

Place the balls on a lightly greased baking sheet, cover, and let rest for 15 minutes.

Preheat oven to 425 F.

Brush each roll generously with whole milk or egg wash, then sprinkle with sesame seeds and pretzel salt, if desired.

Bake 20 minutes until rolls are golden brown and baked through. Remove them from the oven, and transfer to a rack to cool.

Not only is honey a natural and easy ingredient to prepare kids' favorite lunch box meals, but it's also a fun opportunity for kids to help their parents in the kitchen. Discover the inspiring possibilities of honey and the "Golden Path to Back-to-School" recipes visiting mielpura.org.

About the National Honey Board

The National Honey Board is an industry-funded agriculture promotion group that works to educate consumers about the benefits and uses for honey and honey products through research, marketing and promotional programs. For more information, visit honey.com

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160726/393296

Related Links

http://www.honey.com



SOURCE National Honey Board
NEW YORK, July 27, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- TPGtv gets straight to the point: The Points Guy announces the re-launch of TPGtv with a new short, fast, and information-driven format. This one-of-a-kind web series showcases the extraordinary travel experiences made possible by maximizing frequent flyer miles and credit card points and has established itself as an indispensable resource for travel lovers. Since it launched in February, TPGtv has generated over 8.4M views. With the debut of the new episodes, viewers will discover The Points Guy, Brian Kelly's, smartest travel strategies and personal recommendations in 90-second to two-minute episodes that are packed full of priceless information. Each video was produced with social media in mind so that viewers can consume them without sound and through easy-to-read captions that follow every detail of Kelly's trips, from the points he used to the dishes he ate.

The Points Guy announces the re-launch of TPGtv with a new short, fast, and information-driven format

The next 17 episodes in TPGtv deliver targeted tips for one of Asia's most desirable locations: Japan. Episode One, How to Book Singapore Suites in 90 Seconds, explains the best tactic for securing Singapore Suites, one of the world's most luxurious first-class flight experiences on Singapore Airlines, valued at over $7,000, using credit card points. Kelly used Suites to start his epic adventure flying from Los Angeles to Tokyo by using miles and only paying $23 out of pocket. Episode Two, Inside LAX's Secret Celebrity Airport Lounge, shows how to access a little-known perk offered only to genuine high flyers, which can include those traveling on points. Episode Three, Park Hyatt, Grand Hyatt or Andaz, Which is Tokyo's Best Hyatt?, shares Kelly's inside scoops on the most coveted hotel rooms in Japan  later episodes feature more in-depth reviews of each property that have become a staple of TPGtv. Additional episodes include The 7 Must Try Dishes in Tokyo, Drone Shots Over Tokyo That Will Blow Your Mind, The Best Places in Japan to See Cherry Blossoms, and finally, ANA's Star Wars Plane and How I Flew First Class for $223.

Every episode of TPGtv will air on ThePointsGuy.com, as well as The Points Guy Facebook and YouTube channels. The first episode is available here:

About The Points Guy:

ThePointsGuy.com (TPG) is a trusted travel and lifestyle media platform. Launched in 2010 by founder Brian Kelly, TPG consists of an expert team of travel editors, searching around the clock for the latest deals and breaking industry news. Updated multiple times daily, TPG's ability to cut through the noise and provide useful and applicable advice has established us as an industry leader. With 2.6 million monthly unique visitors and over 1.3 million followers across our social platforms, TPG is the ultimate authority in maximizing travel and minimizing spending. Brian has been featured in over 100 publications and news outlets including The New York Times, Conde Nast Traveler, The Los Angeles Times, The Independent, CNN, and The Today Show, among others. He has presented at various travel conferences including the LA Times and New York Times Travel Shows, and the annual Chicago Frequent Flyer Seminars.

TPGtv is produced in partnership with Break Point Media.

Follow The Points Guy on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and Twitter: @ThePointsGuy

Press Contact:

[email protected]

Media Contact:

Ted Rossman

917-368-8635

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160727/393421LOGO

Video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfMWHK1YR60



SOURCE ThePointsGuy.com
WASHINGTON, July 26, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, by majority vote, issued a statement applauding the Supreme Court's 4-4 ruling in Dollar General v. Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians, which, in practical terms, upholds tribal courts' ability to adjudicate claims against non-Indians. The full statement can be viewed here:

http://www.usccr.gov/press/2016/PR_DollarGeneralStatement_7-25-16.pdf

The case arose from the alleged sexual assault of a 13-year old boy. Unable to bring charges, the boy and the tribe had to rely on federal prosecutors. In the civil case, Dollar General had argued that tribal courts could not hear civil claims against non-Indians. Each court that heard the case had rejected Dollar Generals claim. While the Court was unable to reach a full decision on the merits, its ruling allows the boys case to continue. Native sovereignty, so often under attack, has been upheld.

The Commission's 2003 report, A Quiet Crisis: Federal Funding and Unmet Needs in Indian Country, detailed the many ways in which the federal government fails to support tribes, including the government's difficulty in investigating and prosecuting crimes on tribal land. The Commission expects to issue an updated Quiet Crisis report later this year.

Commission Chair Martin R. Castro stated, "The sovereignty of America's First Nations is often under threat. Too often tribes must continue to litigate their rights, which should have been settled long ago. This decision by the Supreme Court reaffirms the preeminence of Indian law and Indian courts on Indian country and we applaud them."

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


SAN FRANCISCO, July 27, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Today one of every three seniors dies with some form of dementia including Alzheimer's. While scientists have no cure in sight, they have found that regular ballroom dancers lower their risk of these diseases by 76%. In light of this remarkable finding, Kin Wong founded Ballroom Dance for Senior Fitness that uses research-based books and films along with community dance events to promote dementia prevention through ballroom dance.

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160726/393241

A dancer himself, Kin believes that "music, human touch, and body movement are essential for cognitive health. The multi-task coordination and split-second decision of ballroom dance are the key to unlocking these health benefits."

So why don't we have more seniors dancing? "Many people assume that ballroom dance is simply a luxury, but we're here to grow awareness that it is vital, and to grow participation along with local dance groups and government," explained Kin.

Dementia is a seriously debilitating disease that can affect multiple generations. "We help prevent dementia through ballroom dance, bringing together individuals of all ages, families, and communities to increase public awareness that ballroom dance is a necessity for health."

This is the first year of the awareness gala series in which Ballroom Dance for Senior Fitness in partnership with city representatives will sponsor a celebration event in Napa, Yountville, Oakland, and San Francisco. This series introduces dance as a fun and social necessity for cognitive health and aims to build support for a public health movement based on ballroom dance.

2016 Ballroom Dance for Senior Fitness Gala Series

Napa, CA: July 12th, 7pm, Napa Senior Center

Yountville, CA: July 28th, 7pm, Lincoln Theatre Napa Valley

Oakland, CA: August 12th, 7pm, Veterans Memorial Building

San Francisco, CA: September 27th, 7pm, Greenroom at War Memorial Building

Ballroom Dance for Senior Fitness aims to engage not only senior citizens, but entire families and communities in support of those at risk for dementia. All proceeds from the gala series as well as sales of Kin Wong's book The Dance to Remember (to be released September 2016) are dedicated to growing the ballroom dance community nationwide.

For more information: www.BallroomDanceForSeniorFitness.com



Contact:

Kin Wong

(510) 421-2418

Email

SOURCE Ballroom Dance for Senior Fitness
MESA, Ariz., July 27, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- American Traffic Solutions (ATS) welcomes the decision issued today by the Third District Court of Appeal in Jimenez v. State. In Jimenez, the court concluded that Red-Light Safety Camera programs are legal under Florida law. In its ruling, the court added, "The officer's review and determination in this regard are far from a mere rubber stamp."

Jimenez comes after the court undertook a comprehensive review of ATS's involvement in the Red-light Safety Camera process, including its role in pre-sorting camera information, printing and mailing notice of violations and citations on behalf of law enforcement, and transmitting violation information to the clerks of court.

Armed with the full set of facts concerning ATS's role, the court concluded that none of the activities that ATS undertakes as part of its Red-light Safety Camera program involves the delegation of a police power. Aventura's law enforcement retains the sole authority to determine who has violated the law and should be cited for it. ATS merely provides ministerial services in carrying out law enforcement decisions.

The Jimenez decision stands in stark contrast to the decision issued by the Fourth District Court of Appeal in 2014 in Arem v. City of Hollywood, which, based on an incomplete record concerning ATS's role in that city's program, concluded that Hollywood had improperly delegated police power to ATS.

"We were confident that when a court had the opportunity to review the full set of facts concerning Red-light Safety Camera programs and the role that it plays, it would reach the conclusion outlined in Jimenez today," said Rebecca Collins, ATS General Counsel.

Red-light Safety Cameras are a proven safety tool. Independent studies show cameras help reduce dangerous red-light running crashes, which nearly always involve innocent people entering the intersection on the green light only to be hit by the crossing offender.

Florida routinely finishes in the top three states for red-light running crash fatalities, according to the National Center for Statistics and Analysis, a branch of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

To view the ruling, click here: http://www.3dca.flcourts.org/Opinions/3D15-2303.rh.pdf

About American Traffic Solutions:

ATS is proud to be the market leader in road safety camera installations in North America. ATS has more than 3,200 installed red-light, speed safety cameras and school bus stop arm cameras serving more than 30 million people. ATS Fleet Services is a leader in providing both Toll and Violation Management Solutions to fleets and rental customers saving them time and money. For more information, please visit: www.atsol.com. ATS can also be found on Twitter, @ATS_Roadsafety; Facebook, ATSolutions; and YouTube, ATSROADSAFETY.

Contact: Charles Territo

Title: Senior Vice President of Sales,

MarComm and Public Affairs

Phone: (480) 443-7000

Email: [email protected]

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160727/393602LOGO

SOURCE American Traffic Solutions

Related Links

http://www.atsol.com


DENVER, July 27, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- To a full house in Idaho, last week, at the Conference of Western Attorneys General annual meeting, Todd Mitchem, CEO of Todd Mitchem Companies (TMC) as well as past Cannabis Industry leader, spoke on the speed at which the Cannabis Industry is growing and the need for Marijuana companies to collaborate with regulators. Todd also hit hard on a new concern: the way in which mainstream corporations are advertising their products to Marijuana consumers. "It's an interesting turn when companies like General Mills are marketing the same snacks to kids and Marijuana consumers on billboards," Mitchem stated and went on to say, "Regulators are asking the Cannabis Industry to act responsibly and we agree with them completely. We also need to help mainstream companies understand how to operate by the same set of standards, so that kids are kept safe."

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160726/393226

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160726/393227LOGO

Commenting on Todd's presentation was Director of CWAG, Karen White. White pointed out that Todd was on point: "Todd has worked with us in the past and we hope his connections in the Marijuana industry will serve as a bridge to mainstream companies as he helps them navigate this new territory. No matter where Attorneys General fall in regards to marijuana legalization in their particular state, every single regulator in the country can agree marijuana advertising must not be aimed at or attractive to youth."

No stranger to speaking to regulators, Todd's presentation is one of his many, around a more collaborative effort with companies in the Marijuana Industry. "We've reached a crossroad in the area of Marijuana regulation. Industry players, many of which we represent, seek to work with regulators to ensure that the highest standards are in place surrounding issues like: pesticides, protecting kids, and overall consumer safety. We can't protect consumers if we're fighting with regulators."

Mitchem made a bold statement in support of responsible business supporting the City of Denver and homeless who travel to the City for the Marijuana Industry. "In the past the Industry was largely adversarial and resisted Government. The time has now come for the Marijuana Industry to support and work with cities like Denver, to find solutions, support improvements financially, and help keep the City safe. We don't want to foster unintended consequences. We agree that homelessness is a huge problem in Denver, and we stand with the Mayor and his team, working together to solve this challenge."

Mitchem's statements ushered in a new era for the Marijuana Industry. For the first time since it began, certain companies are splitting from the mindset of activism and moving toward the mindset of cooperation with Government to make rules, standards, and support the community. "Activism got us here which we are grateful for, but activism is not a business model that will sustain as huge mainstream companies continue entering the Marijuana Industry. Only as collaborators and supporters of Government can we build a stronger Industry and set the bar for regulation, all while doing what is right for consumers."

About Todd Mitchem Companies: http://www.toddmitchem.com

Todd Mitchem has worked across countless industries to change the way we all think about business, government and working together for common goals. TMC works to carry that same philosophy forward in three distinct areas. From our founder's energetic and powerful keynote presentations, to our unique brand of government affairs engagements, and our non-profit venture based on Todd's own sister Holli's inspirational journey as an adult with intellectual disabilities, we at Todd Mitchem Companies demonstrate that powerful solutions are achievable. We work each day to disrupt the world with collaborative customized solutions built to last.

Media Contact:

Diana Venckunaite

Email

303-526-1944

SOURCE Todd Mitchem Companies
PUNE, India, July 27, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

The report "Train Seat Market by Train Type (High Speed, Passenger, Light, Tram, Monorail), Seat Type (Regular, Recliner, Folding, Dining, Smart), Rail Car Type (Overland, Subway, Long Distance) - Global Forecast to 2022", published by MarketsandMarkets, the global market is projected to grow from USD 938.2 Million in 2015 to USD 1,047.7 Million by 2022, at a CAGR of 1.58% from 2016 to 2022.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160303/792302 )



Browse 22 market data Tables and 54 Figures spread through 110 Pages and in-depth TOC on "Train Seat Market".

http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/high-speed-train-seat-market-263289632.html

Early buyers will receive 10% customization on this report.

The growth of the market can be attributed to the fact that government in several countries across the globe are actively involved in offering faster and convenient modes of transportation by investing in high-speed rail and light rail projects. Furthermore, rail transport is increasingly being adopted by customers across the globe, owing to its advantages over other modes of transport, in terms with cost and capacity.

The passenger train seat segment led the global train seat market

The passenger train seat segment led the global train seat market. The growth of this segment is driven by the increasing usage of passenger trains by travelers in several countries across the globe. The high carrying capacity of and safety associated with passenger trains make them one of the popular modes of transport among travelers.

The high-speed train segment expected to witness highest growth

The high-speed train segment is expected to witness highest growth during the forecast period. In recent years, a large number of high-speed train projects were announced in various countries across the globe, due to the rising demand for fast as well as economic medium of transportation. The monorail segment is also projected to witness considerable growth during the forecast period. The undertaking of several monorail and metro projects in the coming years is expected to aid the growth of this segment.

Asia-Pacific is expected to be the largest market for train seats, globally

Asia-Pacific is expected to be the largest market for train seats during the forecast period. The requirement of an effective rail transportation system is significantly high in Asia-Pacific, due to the rising population and the consequently increasing requirement of an efficient transport network for this population. The train seat market in North America is also expected to witness significant growth, as there are various light train and monorail projects planned to be undertaken in the region in the near future.

Inquiry Before Buying: http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Enquiry_Before_Buying.asp?id=263289632

Some of the key players in the global train seat market covered in this report are Faurecia Automotive Seating (France), Fenix Group LLC (Russia), Freedman Seating Co. (U.S.), Grammar AG (Germany), Harita Seating System Ltd. (India), Magna International Inc. (Canada), Saira Seats (France), Transcal Ltd. (U.K.), Camira Fabrics Ltd. (U.S.), Sears Manufacturing Company (U.S.), Seats Incorporated (U.S.), The C.E. White Co. (U.S.), USSC Group (U.S.).

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http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/traction-transformer-market-951.html

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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 [email protected] http://www.marketsandmarketsblog.com/market-reports/electronics-and-semiconductors

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
OTTAWA, Ontario, July 27, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Validian Corp. (OTCQB: VLDI), a leading innovator in cyber-security technology, today issued the following marketing and sales update.

Through Q1 & Q2, 2016, Validian, with its channel partners, has built and continues to grow an extensive sales pipeline starting with specifically targeted leads that are established customers, partners or relationships of our channel partners. Through the exchange of marketing and technical documentation, discussions, meetings, installations, demonstrations and testing, our channel partners have evolved these leads into prospects that are interested in Validian's technology and proceeding further with the development of business relationships with Validian. Many of these prospects continue to evolve into qualified prospects who at that stage are very serious about licensing, implementing and deploying Validian's technology. Validian and its channel partners are obtaining success and traction in turning leads into prospects and then into qualified prospects because Validian meets a number of immediate needs for cyber security as well as for differentiating features and capabilities that are neither solvable nor achievable using any other combination of technologies, and certainly not at the speed and low cost of implementation afforded by Validian.

Validian's growing sales pipeline covers a number of market sectors:

Mobile Messaging

Social Media

Mobile Apps and Mobile Communications

Cloud Apps, Cloud Communications and Cloud Storage

Healthcare

Banking & Finance

Insurance

Government

Military & Defense

Bruce Benn, Chief Executive Officer of Validian, commented on the Company's progress and recent developments:

"We understand that many shareholders are eagerly awaiting the announcement of Validian's first deal. However, it is essential to sustainable growth and commercial roll out that Validian spent the past six months arranging, structuring and implementing the ability to scale quickly over one to a few weeks, not in 6 to 12 months, to large, requisite numbers of skilled personnel that will provide a full range of technical services and assistance in the areas of:

solution architects for engineering analyses, architecture and design covering each of the above market sectors;

developers with expertise covering all multiple operating systems and platforms for coding and implementation;

systems integrators that already service these qualified prospects;

first and second levels of technical support; and

operations when needed.

Closing a substantial financial round in June was critical to cementing these requisite abilities of support in place. Now, the company is adequately positioned to accommodate large-scale requests from qualified prospects, many of whom have hundreds of millions of end users and/or application endpoints. We are very pleased with Validian's traction. Having started scheduling in July, the company is now proceeding with more than 10 qualified prospects, comprising large to major companies, during August and September and we already are booking more for October.

In closing, 2016 continues to be a significant year full of key developments in sales, in cash flow and in revenue that we have all been patiently waiting for."

About Validian Corporation

Validian Corporation (OTCQB VLDI) is a leading innovator in cyber security technology that provides secure access, retrieval, transfer, receipt and storage of digital information on mobile and non-mobile applications, devices, servers, data bases and memory both at rest and in transit using wired, wireless and mobile networks. Validian technology enables the next generation of secure Mobile Messaging and Communications, Cloud Computing, Cloud Storage, Distributed Computing and Web Application and WebPortal Access and Usage for desktop & laptop computers, servers, tablets and SmartPhones.

The Company provides solutions that can be customized to the client's business process to ensure end-to-end authenticity, integrity and custody of high value digital assets. Validian is a U.S. public company with offices in the U.S. and Canada. Visit http://www.Validian.com for more information on its digital asset solutions.

Discuss Validian events here: http://investorshangout.com/Validian-Corporation-VLDI-68278/

Safe Harbor Statement

Investors should carefully consider the information contained in this news release before making an investment in the shares of the company. Information contained in this news release contains "forward looking statements", which can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "believes," expects," "may," "should," or "anticipates" or negative thereof or given that the future results covered by such forward -looking statements will be achieved. The preceding matters constitute cautionary statements identifying important factors with respect to such forward-looking statements, including certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to vary materially from the future statements. Other factors could also cause actual results to vary materially from the future results covered in such forward-looking statements.

Company:

Bruce Benn, CEO and President

[email protected]

+1-613-224-3535



Investor Relations:

Howard Gostfrand

[email protected]

+1-305-918-7000



SOURCE Validian Corp.
LAS VEGAS, July 27, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Vanguard Integrity Professionals, Inc., cybersecurity experts for networks, distributed systems and large enterprises, is proud to be a sponsor at SHARE 2016 in Atlanta taking place July 31-August 5, 2016. Additionally Vanguard will be presenting on topics addressing the latest security, compliance and security trends in four sessions during the event. Vanguard will showcase its cybersecurity solutions demonstrating their vital role protecting any large enterprise, cloud or z/OS security server environment.

SHARE began as the first-ever enterprise IT user group back in 1955, and continues to deliver important avenues of professional growth for the industry today. While the means of learning, networking and influencing this space have evolved  the desired result of providing a valuable user-driven perspective is the same.

Please make plans to attend one of our sessions and be sure to visit us at Booth 807 at the SHARE Technology Exchange Expo at the Atlanta Marriott Marquis.

Vanguard Speaking Sessions:

Monday, August 1, 2016 3:15pm to 4:15pm (19674)

What is PCI DSS and how does it affect me with PCI DSS 3.2 being moved up?

Speakers: Brian Marshall and Charles Mills (CorreLog)

Tuesday, August 2, 2016 11:15am to 12:30pm (19708)

Kerberos or Cerberus - The Three Headed Monster of Mainframe Security, Penetration Testing and Hacking

Speaker: Brian Marshall, Mark Wilson (RSM Partners), and Chad Rikansrud (Wells Fargo)

Thursday, August 4, 2016 10:00am to 11:00am (19804)

PAGENT & RACF: Security from Within the Black Box and Beyond

Speakers: Marlaina Chirdon and Brian Marshall

Friday, August 5, 2016 10:00am to 11:00am (19803)

SHARE Live! - Cloud Computing - Security Remains an Issue, So Ensure Your Umbrella is Ready

Speaker: Brian Marshall

About Vanguard Integrity Professionals

Vanguard Integrity Professionals provides enterprise security software and services that solve complex security and regulatory compliance challenges for financial, insurance, healthcare, education, transportation and government agencies around the world. Vanguard provides automated solutions for Audit and Compliance, Operational Security, and Intrusion Management. The world's largest Financial, Insurance, Government Agencies and Retailers entrust their security to Vanguard Integrity Professionals. Vanguard is committed to protecting and securing the Cloud, z/OS Security Server and Enterprise environments. Vanguard proudly provides 24/7/365 live customer support from the United States of America.

z/OS is a registered trademark of International Business Machines Corporation, registered in many jurisdictions worldwide.

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SOURCE Vanguard Integrity Professionals
PALO ALTO, Calif., July 27, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Varian Medical Systems (NYSE: VAR) today is reporting GAAP net earnings of $1.04 per diluted share and non-GAAP net earnings of $1.22 per diluted share for the third quarter of fiscal year 2016. Varian's revenues totaled $789 million for the third quarter, up 1 percent from the year-ago quarter in dollars and even with the year-ago quarter in constant currency. The company ended the quarter with a $3.3 billion backlog, up 5 percent from the end of the third quarter of fiscal year 2015.

"We generated strong gross order and revenue growth for the third quarter with substantial improvements in gross and operating margins in both our Oncology and Imaging Components businesses," said Dow Wilson, CEO of Varian Medical Systems. "The quarter also included the booking of an order to equip a new proton therapy center in China."

The company finished the third quarter of fiscal year 2016 with $836 million in cash and cash equivalents and $701 million of debt. Cash flow from operations was $95 million for the third quarter, bringing the year-to-date total to $204 million. The company's GAAP results for the quarter included about $24 million of unusual expenses principally for ongoing patent litigation and the recently announced initiative to separate the Imaging Components business into a new publicly traded company. During the quarter, the company spent $126 million to repurchase about 1.5 million shares of common stock.

Oncology Systems



Oncology Systems' third quarter revenues totaled $605 million, up 8 percent from the year-ago quarter in dollars and in constant currency. Third-quarter Oncology gross orders were $676 million, up 6 percent from the year-ago quarter in dollars and in constant currency. In the Americas, Oncology gross orders increased by 8 percent in dollars and in constant currency, with 15 percent growth in North America offsetting a sharp decline in Latin America. In EMEA, gross orders were down 3 percent in dollars and 4 percent in constant currency. In APAC, gross orders rose 19 percent in dollars and 17 percent in constant currency, driven by strong growth in China and Australia.

"Oncology generated strong gross order growth in North America, Asia, Australia and Africa that offset weakness in developed European markets and Latin America," Wilson said. "A positive mix of hardware products and higher software revenues drove a healthy improvement in margins. We were particularly pleased to see strong demand for our TrueBeam platform as well as our new software products including RapidPlan and InSightive Analytics for improving both the quality and speed of treatments."

Imaging Components



Imaging Components revenues were $147 million for the third quarter, up 9 percent from the year-ago period. Gross orders were $138 million for the third quarter, up 13 percent from the year-ago period.

"As expected, we're seeing a recovery in the Imaging Components business," said Wilson. "We generated strong gross order growth in tubes as well as software and accessories from our recently-acquired businesses. Favorable product mix and productivity gains contributed to significant improvements in margins for this business in the quarter. We feel good about the progress we're making towards separation." The new company will be named Varex Imaging Corporation.

Other



The company's Other category, including the Varian Particle Therapy business and the Ginzton Technology Center, recorded third quarter revenues of $37 million, down $53 million from the year-ago quarter when Varian booked significant revenues from its proton installation in Maryland. During the quarter, the company booked an order for a multi-room ProBeam installation at the new Hefei Ion Medical Center in China, with installation expected to begin in 2017.

Outlook



"We believe that total company non-GAAP net earnings will be in the range of $4.62 to $4.66 per diluted share for fiscal year 2016," said Wilson. "We believe revenues for fiscal year 2016 will increase by about 3 percent over fiscal year 2015."

Please refer to "Discussion of Non-GAAP Financial Measures" below for a description of items excluded from expected non-GAAP earnings.

Investor Conference Call



Varian Medical Systems is scheduled to conduct its third quarter fiscal year 2016 conference call at 2 p.m. PT today. To access the call via telephone in the U.S., dial 1-877-869-3847. From outside the U.S. dial 1-201-689-8261. To hear a live webcast or replay of the call, visit the investor relations page on the company's web site at www.varian.com/investor. The replay also can be accessed by telephone by dialing 1-877-660-6853 in the U.S or by dialing 1-201-612-7415 from outside the U.S. The conference code for the telephone replay is 13640722. The teleconference will be rebroadcast until 8:00 p.m. ET, Friday, July 29, 2016. It will be archived on the website for a year.

Varian Medical Systems, Inc., of Palo Alto, California, focuses energy on saving lives by equipping the world with advanced technology for fighting cancer and for X-ray imaging. The company is the world's leading manufacturer of medical devices and software for treating cancer and other medical conditions with radiation. The company provides comprehensive solutions for radiotherapy, radiosurgery, proton therapy and brachytherapy. The company supplies informatics software for managing comprehensive cancer clinics, radiotherapy centers and medical oncology practices. Varian is also a premier supplier of X-ray imaging components, including tubes, digital detectors, cables and connectors as well as image processing software and workstations for use in medical and industrial settings, as well as for security and non-destructive testing. Varian Medical Systems employs approximately 7,700 people who are located at manufacturing sites in North America, Europe, and China and sales and support offices around the world. For more information, visit http://www.varian.com or follow us on Twitter.

Forward-Looking Statements



Except for historical information, this news release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Statements concerning industry or market outlook, including growth drivers; the company's future orders, revenues, or earnings growth or other financial results; and any statements using the terms "believe," "expect," "outlook," "may," "should," "will" or similar statements are forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties that could cause the company's actual results to differ materially from those anticipated. Such risks and uncertainties include global economic conditions; currency exchange rates and tax rates; the impact of the Affordable Health Care for America Act (including excise taxes on medical devices) and any further healthcare reforms (including changes to Medicare and Medicaid), and/or changes in second-party reimbursement levels; demand for and delays in delivery of the company's products; the company's ability to develop, commercialize and deploy new products; the company's ability to meet Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and other regulatory requirements, regulations or procedures; changes in regulatory environments; the impact of reduced or limited demand by purchasers of certain X-ray products; challenges associated with commercializing the company's particle therapy business; challenges to public tender awards and the loss of such awards or other orders; the effect of adverse publicity; the company's reliance on sole or limited-source suppliers; the company's ability to maintain or increase margins; the impact of competitive products and pricing; the company's assessment of the goodwill associated with its particle therapy business; the potential loss of key distributors or key personnel; and the other risks listed from time to time in the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which by this reference are incorporated herein. The company assumes no obligation to update or revise the forward-looking statements in this release because of new information, future events, or otherwise.

FOR INFORMATION CONTACT:

Elisha Finney (650) 424-6803

[email protected]

Spencer Sias (650) 424-5782

[email protected]

A summary of earnings and other financial information follows.



Varian Medical Systems, Inc. and Subsidiaries

Condensed Consolidated Statements of Earnings

(Unaudited)



(Dollars and shares in millions, except per share amounts)

Q3 QTR

2016

Q3 QTR

2015

Q3 YTD

2016

Q3 YTD

2015





Gross orders $ 865.2 $ 888.0 $ 2,295.6 $ 2,395.2





Oncology Systems

675.9

635.4

1,826.3

1,778.2





Imaging Components

137.9

121.6

402.9

440.6





Other

51.4

131.0

66.4

176.4





Order Backlog

3,308.5

3,138.0

3,308.5

3,138.0





Revenues

789.4

784.0

2,305.3

2,281.3





Oncology Systems

605.2

558.7

1,778.6

1,711.4





Imaging Components

146.7

134.7

431.8

456.2





Other

37.5

90.6

94.9

113.7





Cost of revenues

443.0

469.0

1,332.0

1,316.8





Gross margin

346.4

315.0

973.3

964.5





As a percent of revenues

43.9%

40.2%

42.2%

42.3%





Operating expenses





















Research and development

64.9

60.0

187.0

176.4





Selling, general and administrative

151.0

110.8

405.2

368.4





Operating earnings

130.5

144.2

381.1

419.7





As a percent of revenues

16.5%

18.4%

16.5%

18.4%





Interest income, net

1.6

1.7

4.3

3.7





Earnings before taxes

132.1

145.9

385.4

423.4





Taxes on earnings

33.2

32.3

100.5

110.5





Net earnings

98.9

113.6

284.9

312.9





























Less: Net earnings attributable to noncontrolling interests

0.1

0.1

0.1

0.1





Net earnings attributable to Varian $ 98.8 $ 113.5 $ 284.8 $ 312.8





As a percent of revenues

12.5%

14.5%

12.4%

13.7%





























Net earnings per share  basic $ 1.04 $ 1.14 $ 2.97 $ 3.13





























Net earnings per share  diluted $ 1.04 $ 1.13 $ 2.95 $ 3.10





























Shares used in the calculation of net earnings per share:





















Weighted average shares outstanding - basic

94.9

99.7

96.0

100.1





Weighted average shares outstanding - diluted

95.4

100.5

96.5

101.0



























Varian Medical Systems, Inc. and Subsidiaries Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets









(In thousands)

July 1,

October 2, 2016 2015 (1) (2) (Unaudited)

Assets







Current assets:







Cash and cash equivalents $ 835,936 $ 845,468 Accounts receivable, net

840,437

770,920 Inventories

682,490

612,607 Prepaid expenses and other current assets

187,760

163,984 Total current assets

2,546,623

2,392,979









Property, plant and equipment, net

372,496

379,215 Goodwill

282,894

283,452 Long-term deferred tax assets

117,918

119,331 Other assets

439,521

403,673 Total assets $ 3,759,452 $ 3,578,650









Liabilities, Redeemable Noncontrolling Interests and Equity







Current liabilities:







Accounts payable $ 180,338 $ 202,918 Accrued liabilities

365,008

347,167 Deferred revenues

530,847

489,775 Advance payments from customers

140,077

178,265 Short-term borrowings

351,441

108,446 Current maturities of long-term debt

50,000

50,000 Total current liabilities

1,617,711

1,376,571 Long-term debt

300,000

337,500 Other long-term liabilities

139,554

138,235 Total liabilities

2,057,265

1,852,306









Redeemable noncontrolling interests

10,331

-









Equity:







Varian stockholders' equity:







Common stock

94,306

98,070 Capital in excess of par value

659,033

682,167 Retained earnings

1,018,932

1,017,826 Accumulated other comprehensive loss

(84,062)

(86,463) Total Varian stockholders' equity

1,688,209

1,711,600 Noncontrolling interests

3,647

14,744 Total equity

1,691,856

1,726,344 Total liabilities, redeemable noncontrolling interests and equity $ 3,759,452 $ 3,578,650















(1) The condensed consolidated balance sheet as of October 2, 2015 was derived from audited financial statements as of that date. (2) Certain amounts in the prior-year Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheet have been adjusted to conform to the current-year presentation as a result of adoption of the new accounting pronouncement on Balance Sheet Classification of Deferred Taxes.

Discussion of Non-GAAP Financial Measures

This press release includes the following non-GAAP financial measures derived from our Condensed Consolidated Statements of Earnings: non-GAAP operating earnings, non-GAAP net earnings and non-GAAP diluted net earnings per share. These measures are not presented in accordance with, nor are they a substitute for U.S. generally accepted accounting principles, or GAAP. In addition, these measures may be different from non-GAAP measures used by other companies, limiting their usefulness for comparison purposes. The non-GAAP financial measures should not be considered in isolation from measures of financial performance prepared in accordance with GAAP. Investors are cautioned that there are material limitations associated with the use of non-GAAP financial measures as an analytical tool. We have provided a reconciliation of each historical non-GAAP financial measure used in this earnings release to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measure. We have not provided a reconciliation of non-GAAP guidance measures to the corresponding GAAP measures on a forward-looking basis due to the potential significant variability and limited visibility of the excluded items discussed below.

We utilize a number of different financial measures, both GAAP and non-GAAP, in analyzing and assessing the overall performance of our business, in making operating decisions, forecasting and planning for future periods, and determining payments under compensation programs. We consider the use of the non-GAAP measures to be helpful in assessing the performance of the ongoing operation of our business. We believe that disclosing non-GAAP financial measures provides useful supplemental data that, while not a substitute for financial measures prepared in accordance with GAAP, allows for greater transparency in the review of our financial and operational performance. We also believe that disclosing non-GAAP financial measures provides useful information to investors and others in understanding and evaluating our operating results and future prospects in the same manner as management and in comparing financial results across accounting periods and to those of peer companies. Non-GAAP operating earnings and non-GAAP net earnings exclude the following items:

Amortization of intangible assets : We do not acquire businesses and assets on a predictable cycle. The amount of purchase price allocated to intangible assets and the term of amortization can vary significantly and are unique to each acquisition or purchase. We believe that excluding amortization of intangible assets allows the users of our financial statements to better review and understand the historic and current results of our operations, and also facilitates comparisons to peer companies.

Acquisition-related expenses and benefits: We incur expenses or benefits with respect to certain items associated with our acquisitions, such as transaction costs, changes in the fair value of contingent consideration liabilities, gain or expense on settlement of pre-existing relationships, etc. We exclude such expenses or benefits as they are related to acquisitions and have no direct correlation to the operation of our on-going business.

Restructuring and impairment charges : We incur restructuring and impairment charges that result from events, which arise from unforeseen circumstances and/or often occur outside of the ordinary course of our on-going business. Although these events are reflected in our GAAP financials, these unique transactions may limit the comparability of our on-going operations with prior and future periods.

Separation costs: These expenses relate to the proposed separation of our imaging component business into a separate publicly traded company. These expenses consist primarily of third-party consulting fees, legal fees, and other expenses incurred to complete the separation. We exclude these separation costs because we do not believe they are reflective of on-going business and operating results.

Significant litigation charges or benefits and legal costs : We may incur charges or benefits as well as legal costs from time to time related to litigation and other contingencies. We exclude these charges or benefits, when significant, as well as legal costs associated with significant legal matters, because we do not believe they are reflective of on-going business and operating results.

We apply our GAAP consolidated effective tax rate to our non-GAAP financial measures, other than when the underlying item has a materially different tax treatment.

From time to time in the future, there may be other items that we may exclude if we believe that doing so is consistent with the goal of providing useful information to investors and management. Non-GAAP items are generally included in selling, general and administrative expenses, unless otherwise specified.

The following tables reconcile GAAP and non-GAAP financial measures:

Varian Medical Systems, Inc. and Subsidiaries Reconciliation between GAAP and Non-GAAP Financial Measures (Unaudited)

(Dollars and shares in millions, except per share amounts)

Q3 QTR

2016

Q3 QTR

2015

Q3 YTD

2016

Q3 YTD

2015

Non-GAAP adjustments

















Amortization of intangible assets* $ 2.9 $ 1.8 $ 8.9 $ 5.1

Restructuring charges

0.8

(0.2)

5.6

13.4

Legal expenses

11.9

-

21.2

-

Separation costs

5.4

-

5.4

-

Other**

2.7

1.1

4.3

2.3

Total Non-GAAP adjustments

23.7

2.7

45.4

20.8

Tax effects of Non-GAAP adjustments

(6.1)

(0.3)

(11.9)

(5.4)

Total net earnings impact from non-GAAP adjustments $ 17.6 $ 2.4 $ 33.5 $ 15.4

Operating earnings reconciliation

















GAAP operating earnings $ 130.5 $ 144.2 $ 381.1 $ 419.7

Total operating earnings impact from non-GAAP adjustments

23.7

2.7

45.4

20.8

Non-GAAP operating earnings $ 154.2 $ 146.9 $ 426.5 $ 440.5

Net earnings and diluted net earnings per share reconciliation

















GAAP net earnings $ 98.8 $ 113.5 $ 284.8 $ 312.8

Total net earnings impact from non-GAAP adjustments

17.6

2.4

33.5

15.4

Non-GAAP net earnings $ 116.4 $ 115.9 $ 318.3 $ 328.2

GAAP diluted net earnings per share $ 1.04 $ 1.13 $ 2.95 $ 3.10

Non-GAAP diluted net earnings per share $ 1.22 $ 1.15 $ 3.30 $ 3.25

Shares used in GAAP and non-GAAP diluted net earnings per share calculation

95.4

100.5

96.5

101.0



*Includes $1.7 million, $0.1 million, $4.8 million and, $0.4 million, respectively, in cost of revenues for the periods presented

**Other includes impairment charges and acquisition-related expenses and benefits.

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SOURCE Varian Medical Systems

Related Links

http://www.varian.com


"I am very excited to join Catalyst and very grateful for the opportunity to work with its exceptional staff," said Barr. "Having helped launch three start-ups and helped drive the growth of several technology companies, I look forward to helping to build Catalyst's global footprint."

In 2007, Barr joined Yieldex, the award-winning big data analytics company that helped publishers maximize digital advertising revenue, as its chief operating officer until its acquisition in 2015 by the internet advertising company AppNexus. He remained with AppNexus into 2016 to oversee the Yieldex integration.

As Yieldex COO, Barr helped grow the company from four to 75 employees and from having no product or revenue to becoming the recognized leader in the field with nearly $20 million in revenue. He was responsible for driving the company's profitability by increasing efficiencies, reducing costs, forming strategic partnerships and managing vendor relationships.

Before Yieldex, Barr was chief technology officer for two technology start-ups and was vice president of engineering at Streampoint Financial, where he helped develop an internet-based workflow system for retail broker-dealers. Earlier, Barr was senior vice president for technology and operations at iMcKesson, the healthcare services and information technology company, and senior vice president, product development and technology, at Access Health before its acquisition by iMcKesson.

A resident of Colorado, Barr has a bachelor's degree in engineering from McMaster University in Ontario. He is an avid cyclist, runner and kite boarder.

About Catalyst

Catalyst designs, hosts and services the world's fastest and most powerful document repositories for large-scale discovery and regulatory compliance. For more than 15 years, corporations and their counsel have relied on Catalyst to help reduce litigation costs and take control of complex legal matters. To learn more, visit catalystsecure.com or follow the company at @CatalystSecure.

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SOURCE Catalyst Repository Systems

Related Links

http://www.catalystsecure.com


BEIJING, July 27, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --Xinyuan Real Estate Co., Ltd. ("Xinyuan" or "the Company") (NYSE: XIN), an NYSE-listed real estate developer and property manager primarily in China and recently in other countries, today announced that the Board of Directors has appointed Mr. Lizhou Zhang as the Company's new Chief Executive Officer and as a member of the Board of Directors, effective immediately. Mr. Xinqi Wang will no longer serve as Chief Executive Officer and as a member of the Board of Directors, effective immediately.

Mr. Zhang joins Xinyuan after working at Wanda Group, one of China's largest property enterprises, for nearly seven years with different positions. Since January 2014, Mr. Zhang served as General Manager at Wanda One UK Co., Ltd. From 2011 to 2013, Mr. Zhang worked as Assistant to the President of Wanda Group and General Manager of the Northern Project Management Center and Operation Center of Wanda Commercial Management Company. Prior to this role, Mr. Zhang served as General Manager at two different city companies of the Wanda Group. Mr. Zhang holds a Bachelor's degree in Construction Management from Chongqing University, and a Master's degree in Monetary Banking from Dongbei University of Finance and Economics.

Mr. Yong Zhang, Chairman of Xinyuan, commented, "I am pleased to welcome Mr. Lizhou Zhang, who brings more than fifteen years of leadership experience in the real estate sector, with a track record in leading businesses. We look forward to working with Lizhou, leveraging his experience and capabilities as we continue to scale our operations in China and overseas. On behalf of the Company, I would like to thank Mr. Xinqi Wang for his contributions to Xinyuan over the past three years and we wish him well in his future endeavors."

About Xinyuan Real Estate Co., Ltd.

Xinyuan Real Estate Co., Ltd. ("Xinyuan") is an NYSE-listed real estate developer and property manager primarily in China and recently in other countries. In China, the Company develops and manages large scale, high quality real estate projects in over ten tier one and tier two cities, including Beijing, Shanghai, Zhengzhou, Jinan, Xi'an, Suzhou, among others. Xinyuan was one of the first Chinese real estate developers to enter the U.S. market and over the past few years has been active in real estate development in New York. The Company aims to provide comfortable and convenient real estate related products and services to middle-class consumers. For more information, please visit http://www.xyre.com.

Safe Harbor Statement

Certain statements in this press release constitute "forward-looking statements". These statements are made under the "safe harbor" provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements includes statements about estimated financial performance, sales performance and activity, among others and can generally be identified by terminology such as "will," "expects," "anticipates," "future," "intends," "plans," "believes," "estimates" and similar statements. Statements that are not historical statements are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected or anticipated, including, but not limited to, our ability to continue to implement our business model successfully; our ability to secure adequate financing for our project development; our ability to successfully sell or complete our property projects under construction and planning; our ability to enter into new geographic markets and expand our operations into new operational areas/activities; the marketing and sales ability of our third-party sales agents; the performance of our third-party contractors; the impact of laws, regulations and policies relating to real estate developers and the real estate industry in the countries in which we operate; our ability to obtain permits and licenses to carry on our business in compliance with applicable laws and regulations; competition from other real estate developers; the growth of the real estate industry in the markets in which we operate; fluctuations in general economic and business conditions in the markets in which we operate; and other risks outlined in our public filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including our annual report on Form 20-F for the year ended December 31, 2015. Except as required by law, we undertake no obligation to update or review publicly any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, after the date on which the statement is made.

For more information, please contact:

In China:

Xinyuan Real Estate Co., Ltd.

Ms. May Shen

Investor Relations Director

Tel: +86 (10) 8588-9376

Email: [email protected]

ICR, LLC

William Zima

In U.S.: +1-646-308-1472

In China: +86 (10) 6583-7511

Email: [email protected]

SOURCE Xinyuan Real Estate Co., Ltd.

Related Links

http://www.xyre.com


HumanCharger is the world's first bright light headset created to help the body re-set its natural circadian rhythm

NEW YORK, July 27, 2016 /PRNewswire/ - Zenergy Communications, an integrated marketing and communications agency, announces that it has been named agency of record (AOR) for the development and execution of Valkee's North American media relations campaign for its HumanCharger, the world's first bright light headset. Scientifically created in 2007, the HumanCharger is a light therapy device that can be used to help fight the winter blues, increase mental alertness, reduce jet lag and improve overall mood through helping the body reset its circadian rhythm. To do so, the small electronic device sends a UV-Free blue-enriched white light through LED earbuds to the light-sensitive regions of the brain.

"We are excited to work with Zenergy Communications to build brand awareness and drive sales for HumanCharger in North America," said Nick Ieraci, COO North America. "We are confident that their expertise in the development and implementation of launch strategies coupled with Zenergy's history in the technology and consumer products industry will be impactful."

"We are delighted to have the opportunity to work with Valkee on raising the profile of this innovative product," said Linda Farha, president, Zenergy Communications. "Our experience in bringing media attention to technology products across print, broadcast and digital platforms will benefit Valkee as they transition the HumanCharger from its successful Scandinavian origins to the United States and Canada. According to Norman Rosenthal, MD, author of 'Winter Blues,' 14% of adults in the US suffer from 'the winter blues.' As such, we are confident this meaningful product will be a great asset for end-users and that it will be well received."

About Valkee

Valkee is a medical device and technology company with a mission of harnessing the health and wellness benefits of light for the human mind and performance. Based on long-term scientific research and development work together with Finland's Oulu University researchers, Valkee introduced the world's first bright light headset in 2010 for treatment of the winter blues. For more information, please visit www.humancharger.com.

About Zenergy Communications

Zenergy Communications is a devoted full service, bilingual marketing and communications firm that ensures success through implementing effective integrated initiatives. Zenergy has offices in Montreal, Toronto, and New York as well as strategic alliances across Canada and the U.S. Zenergy is a Trusted Service Provider for the Aequitas NEO Exchange. With a strong presence in the Canadian market, Zenergy is the driving force behind successful communications campaigns throughout Anglophone and Francophone communities. For more information, please visit www.zenergycom.com.

SOURCE Zenergy Communications

Related Links

http://zenergy.com


After weathering a stormy opening day, the Democratic Partys presidential nominating convention tacked slowly but steadily back on course Tuesday, as Hillary Clinton made history by becoming the first woman to be nominated for president by a major US political party. In another historic first, Bill Clinton delivered a long series of reminisces about his wife of more than 40 years, becoming the first former president to appear as the spouse of another presidential nominee.

Near the end of the evening, Clinton appeared to the crowd via video connection to acknowledge the historic nature of her achievement. If there are any little girls out there who stayed up late to watch, let me just say, I may become the first woman president, but one of you is next, she said to roars from the crowd in the convention center in downtown Philadelphia.

Related: Heres Why Hillary Clinton Could Lose This Travesty of an Election

Protesters supporting her rival from the Democratic primary, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, were more subdued on the second night of the convention than they had been 24 hours earlier. The party was coalescing behind Clinton as the focus turned toward facing Republican nominee Donald Trump in the general election in November, little more than 100 days away.

In a faint echo of 2008, when having clearly lost to Barack Obama, Clinton moved that her opponent be nominated by acclamation; Sanders did the same with one important difference. Clintons motion to suspend the roll call came at the beginning of the count, and after she had released her delegates to Obama in a move meant to increase party unity. Sanders, by contrast, insisted on retaining all his delegates through the vote, and only moved to have Clinton nominated by acclamation after all the states had announced their tallies, a move that underlined the fact that more than 40 percent of the delegates in the room were Sanders supporters.

When Sanders finally made his motion after the count was complete, diehard supporters could be heard booing and chanting Walkout! Walkout! as they marched from the hall. Seating areas in the hall for several delegations from states carried by Sanders, including Alaska, Kansas, Maine, and Oklahoma were nearly empty for much of the night.

Story continues

Republican nominee Donald Trump sneeringly live-tweeted his rivals nomination, a move that might have seemed graceless had not Clintons team done the same (and worse) last week as he was getting the GOP nod. Among other things, Trump tweeted out his #CrookedHillary hashtag and went after former president Clinton, saying, No matter what Bill Clinton says and no matter how well he says it, the phony media will exclaim it to be incredible. Highly overrated!

Related: Green Partys Jill Stein Makes Her Move to Snag Sanders Voters

(For the record, the volume of Trumps attacks on Clinton during the evening of her nomination was not even close to what the Democrats team unleashed on him last week -- including a live reading of the thousands of lawsuits in which Trump and his businesses have been named over the years.)

The former president took that stage at about 10 oclock, and held forth for nearly an hour, working through the story -- in sometimes excruciating detail -- of his courtship of Mrs. Clinton during their law school years and immediately afterward.

He sought to blunt concerns that, after a lifetime spent in politics, she has become part of the entrenched establishment at a time when anti-Washington sentiment is high.

Hillary is uniquely qualified to seize the opportunities and reduce the risks we face, and she is still the best darn change-maker I have ever known, the former president said.

Related: Kaines $160,000 Gift Controversy: More Bad Optics for the Democrats

As the convention heads into its third day, the key speaker tonight is Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine, whom Clinton named as her vice presidential running mate over the weekend. The former mayor of Richmond and governor of Virginia, Kaine will have to introduce himself to the many Democratic voters who dont know him.

Kaine, largely seen as a political moderate, will likely spend some time courting the partys more liberal wing, which was generally disappointed that Clinton did not pick someone more liberal.

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Ahmedabad, July 22 : An uneasy calm prevailed on Friday in Gondal city in Gujarat after a communal clash overnight left one person dead and another injured, officials said.

Police sources said half a dozen persons came menacingly in the city's Chordi Darwaza area in a black SUV without any registration number and opened indiscriminate fire at Imran Kataria, a butcher.

He 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.

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, identified as Sanjay Bhadani from the Patel community, who was passing by, in the Old Market Yard of the city. He died on the spot.

Acting swiftly, the police chased the black SUV, intercepted it and arrested its five occupants. They were identified as Akshar alias Giri Suryakantbhai Dudhrejia, Rishi Sureshbhai Radadia, Mohit alias Mundo Rameshbhai Sakhiya, Vishal Atmaram Pathkar and Siddhraj Ajaybhai Jadav. A revolver and other weapons were seized, a police official said.

Police have now launched a manhunt for two persons allegedly involved in killing Bhadani, while security has been tightened.
Kolkata, July 23 : Social activist and writer Mahasweta Devi on Saturday continued to be in a critical condition, a doctor said, stressing the nonagenarian litterateur is responding to treatment.

"We are trying to get her off life support today (on Saturday). Neurologically she is doing better but she still requires dialysis," a doctor told IANS.

The 90-year-old Ramon Magsaysay awardee suffers from various ailments and was put on non-invasive ventilation earlier in July after her condition worsened.

The writer, who was honoured with the Jnanpith Award in 1996, has been undergoing treatment at a hospital here for about two months now.
Bhubaneswar, July 24 : The Congress party on Sunday attacked Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik over the "killing of innocent tribal people in the name of Maoists" in the state.

"Five tribals and Dalits were killed by security personnel in Kandhamal district. But, there was no word from Naveen Patnaik over the issue. This is for the fourth time in last 12 months that innocent tribals got killed," said senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh.

Ramesh was the part of a five-member central team of the All India Congress Committee (AICC), which visited Gumudumaha village in Kandhamal on Saturday.

"It seems the Chief Minister wants a tribal-free Odisha," he said.

"The Kandhamal encounter was not a cross firing between security personnel and Maoists. This was one-way firing. We would raise the issue in the Parliament. The government must act against the persons involved in the killing," said Ramesh.

Another Congress leader V. Kishore Chandra Deo demanded that the chief minister should own moral responsibility for the Kandhamal incident and ensure that such incident would not occur in future.

"Has the state government raised the police force to maintain law and order in the state or to kill innocent people? Why have they been trained," asked Deo.

He said there was no proper transport and communication in the district even though the then UPA government had sanctioned adequate funds.

With ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) planning to stage demonstrations across 15 districts protesting against Chhattisgarh's proposed barrage on the upstream of the Mahanadi River from July 25 till August 11, Ramesh said it is meant to divert the attention of people from the issue.

"If the barrage construction by Chhattisgarh government on Mahanadi river affects Odisha, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik should take an all-party delegation to Delhi and apprise the Prime Minister that construction work must start after discussion with Odisha," said Ramesh.

He said the party would send a delegation to Chhattisgarh to take stock of the situation in next seven days and prepare a report.
New Delhi, July 24 : With the long-pending Goods and Services Tax (GST) Bill scheduled to be taken up in the Rajya Sabha during the week beginning Monday, the government exuded confidence that Parliament will witness "equally fruitful business" during the second week of the Monsoon session.

The government's optimism stems from a smooth first week of the monsoon session of Parliament, when significant legislative business was carried out by both the houses.

Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley is also likely to meet the empowered committee of state finance ministers on Tuesday with regard to the GST Bill.

"We had purposeful working sessions between Monday and Thursday, with a number of bills passed by both houses. We will have a smooth sail and equally fruitful business this week as well and are confident that there will be further forward movement on the GST Bill," a key BJP leader told IANS.

The Monsoon Session commenced on July 18. Parliamentary proceedings were disrupted only on last Friday after an uproar over Aam Aadmi Party MP Bhagwant Mann's live streaming of video on social media regarding his travel to Parliament House.

The GST Bill, "as passed by the Lok Sabha and as reported by the Select Committee of the Rajya Sabha", has been listed at number 3 for the coming week.

Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Mukhtaq Abbas Naqvi on Friday said the Upper House will take up for "further consideration and passing of the Constitution (One Hundred and Twenty-Second Amendment) Bill, 2014, as passed by the Lok Sabha and as reported by the Select Committee of the Rajya Sabha".

This constitutional amendment is linked to the introducing of GST as a uniform tax bill across the country.

Echoing the sentiment of his party colleagues, Parliamentary Affairs Minister H.N. Ananth Kumar said in a statement on Saturday: "There is a widespread demand for early introduction of the GST from almost all the political parties, state governments, trade and industrial bodies and even the general public."

The Rajya Sabha will also take up, among others, The Compensatory Afforestation Fund Bill, 2016, as passed by the Lok Sabha, The Indian Medical Council (Amendment) Bill, 2016, The Dentists (Amendment) Bill, 2016 and The Enemy Property (Amendment and Validation) Bill, 2016.

The Indian Medical Council (Amendment) Bill, 2016 and The Dentists (Amendment) Bill, 2016 were passed by Lok Sabha on July 19.

Ananth Kumar has appealed to all parties to "sense the mood of the nation" and "cooperate" in passing the GST Bill.

Keen on the passage of the GST Bill, the government has been holding a series of meetings with opposition leaders, with Finance Minister Arun Jaitley chiefly meeting leaders from all parties, including the Congress.

The much-awaited bill envisions a pan-India Goods and Services tax or uniform tax to thoroughly overhaul India's indirect tax regime.

It was first mooted by the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government in 2009 and has been already passed by the Lok Sabha, but is pending in the Rajya Sabha where the Narendra Modi government lacks a majority.

The Congress party reportedly is still insisting on a few changes in the much-talked about draft legislation.

For the next week, the Lok Sabha has listed various bills, including The Benami Transactions (Prohibition) Amendment Bill, 2015; and The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016.

On Thursday, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar said the amended Benami Transactions (Prohibition) Amendment Bill, 2015, that was approved by the Union Cabinet last week, "is one step forward in eradicating black money" in the country.

"It will tighten the noose around wrongdoers and give more powers to the revenue officers to identify and take action against those who have banami properties. This bill again shows the right earnest of the Modi government in fighting the black money issue," Kumar said.
New Delhi, July 26 : A court here on Tuesday granted bail to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's former Principal Secretary Rajendra Kumar, who was arrested on July 4 on charge of involvement in a corruption case.

Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Judge Arvind Kumar, granting bail to the senior IAS officer, directed him not to leave Delhi without court's permission.

"The accused is in custody for 23 days. No purpose will be served by keeping the accused behind bar," the court said and asked him to furnish a personal bond and surety of Rs 1 lakh.

The court directed him not to tamper with evidence or try to influence witnesses in the case.

The court also directed him to join investigations, whenever required.

The court observed that the case is based on documents and Rajendra Kumar had joined investigation as and when called by the CBI and has also been interrogated in custody.

Taking note that Kumar is a senior government servant and has roots in society, the court said: "The allegations as to whether the company Endeavour Systems Pvt. Ltd. was promoted at his behest or in what manner he was concerned with the same can only be analysed during the course of the trial."

It also noted that the CBI has admittedly collected documents showing the impugned money trail.

Kumar, a 1989-batch Indian Administrative Service officer of the Arunachal Pradesh-Goa-Mizoram and Union Territory cadre, was accused of abusing his official position in awarding Delhi government contracts totalling Rs 9.5 crore to private firm Endeavour Systems Private Limited.

Beside Kumar, other accused in the case are Intelligent Communication System India Ltd. Managing Director R.S. Kaushil and former Managing Director G.K. Nanda, Rajendra Kumar's aide Ashok Kumar, Endeavour Systems Pvt. Ltd. directors Sandeep Kumar and Dinesh Kumar Gupta, and former Value Added Tax Department Assistant Director Tarun Sharma.
Milan, July 27 : Governor of Italy's Lombardy region has urged the Pope to fast-track the awarding of sainthood to the elderly French priest slain by Islamic State (IS) terrorists on Tuesday.

"Father Jacques Hamel, whose throat was slit so horribly -- like an animal -- by two Islamist terrorists in his church should immediately be made a saint," tweeted Roberto Maroni, who is Italy's former Interior Minister.

"A prayer for a martyr of the faith and request to Pope Francis: Make Father Jacques a saint straight away #padrejacquessantosubito," Maroni wrote on Facebook.

Shortly after his appeal, the hashtag, which translates as "sainthood immediately", began trending on Twitter.

84-year-old Hamel was allegedly beheaded on Tuesday by two armed men in his church in the Normandy town of Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, near Rouen, which was claimed by IS.

In the case of a martyr, only one miracle is needed for sainthood after beatification and a declaration by the Vatican that the person died for the faith.

The regular canonisation process is a lengthy one involving two miracles attributed to the candidate.
New Delhi, July 27 : Prime Minister Narendra Modi has congratulated British Prime Minister Theresa May on the assumption of new responsibility, an official statement said on Wednesday.

"In the telephonic conversation Modi (on Tuesday) recalled his memorable visit to Britain last year in November and affirmed India's commitment to further strengthen the strategic partnership between both the countries," the statement said.

Modi also appreciated Britain's consistent support to India in various global fora.

"May looked forward to working closely with Modi for developing stronger bilateral ties and enhancing cooperation in tackling pressing global challenges," the statement said.
Lucknow, July 27 : A flood alert has been sounded in the Uttar Pradesh districts which border Nepal after rains pounded the Himalayan country in the past 48-hours, an official said on Wednesday.

Following the rains, the water levels in Saryu and Ghaghra have gone up in the past 24-hours, leading the state government to step up rescue and relief work.

Sources said Nepal was likely to release five lakh cusecs of water anytime, affecting districts like Shravasti, Bahraich, Faizabad and Barabanki.

Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav has asked the chief secretary to personally monitor the situation and ensure there was no loss of lives owing to the impending floods and increasing water level in many rivers flowing through the state.

District magistrates in the flood prone areas were asked not to leave the district headquarters without the chief secretary's permission.

The "Early Warning System" at Nanpura which forewarns of floods has sent out an alert in the border areas, an official informed IANS.

With a population of more than a lakh people in Shivpur and Balhar blocks of Bahraich, the district magistrate Abhay Singh said the administration was vigilant and taking all steps to evacuate people to safer places in case of floods.

District Magistrate Shravasti Nitish Kumar said more than 125 villages in the district faced the threat of floods.

Operations were underway to evacuate the people and cattle population to safe areas. With rains in eastern Uttar Pradesh and Nepal, the districts of Narayani, Rapti and Rohin were also in spate.
New Delhi, July 27 : The beating up of two Muslim women in Madhya Pradesh on beef rumors was raised by Mayawati in Rajya Sabha on Wednesday, with the BSP leader slamming the government over situation in BJP-ruled states "In Madhya Pradesh, in the name of 'gau raksha' (cow protection) women have been beaten up. Police remained a mute spectator. They were Muslim women... it is cannot be tolerated," Mayawati said.

The two women were allegedly beaten up by cow protection vigilantes.

Soon, members of BSP and the Congress trooped near the Chairman's podium and raised slogans. However, after a few minutes they went back to their seats.

Leader of Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad said they were not against protecting cows but targeting the Dalits and the minorities will not be tolerated.

"Cow should be protected. But in name of protection, Dalits and Muslims are being targeted. We are not against protecting cows but if you target the Dalits and the minorities then we will oppose," Azad said.

Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said the government was ready for a debate on the issue.

"I want to make it clear that the country is run as per the Constitution and not by muscle power. Any incident of violence is condemnable. The Madhya Pradesh government has taken action in the matter. We want an atmosphere of development and trust," he said.

The minister also said the opposition members should "rise above politics" on such issues.

"On such sensitive issues we should rise above politics. Peace and harmony in the society should be the priority," Naqvi said.

Congress leader Anand Sharma questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi's silence on the incidents taking place in BJP-ruled states.

To this, Naqvi said: "Give a notice, we are ready for discussion."

Two women were allegedly beaten up by a mob in Mandsaur, around 350 km from state capital Bhopal by cow vigilantes following a rumour that they had large quantity of beef to sell.

In a video, police was seen making attempts to stop the mob.
Chandigarh, July 27 : Burning the midnight oil were not the only stress factor this year of candidates aspiring for the limited number of seats at the country's medical colleges.

These were compounded by a dress code, a long list of banned items and strict do's and don'ts.

From candidates being forced to wear low heels and slippers, to full-sleeved shirts and kurtas being banned to girl candidates being asked to untie their hair and not wear any clips or bands -- the agencies, including the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), conducting the test this year forced the candidates to prepare for a lot more than only studying.

With several cases in previous years of hi-tech equipment being used by unscrupulous candidates to crack the medical entrance examination, the authorities were forced to put strict measures in place this time.

Sample this.

For the NEET-2 (National Eligibility cum Entrance Test), which is mandatory for an all-India ranking for medical colleges, the dictat was: "Candidates will wear slippers, sandals with low heels and not shoes."

Conducted on Sunday (July 24), over 425,000 candidates of the 475,000 registered appeared for NEET-2. Over 600,000 candidates had appeared for NEET-1.

"How do low and high heels make a difference to cheating in exams. And who decides on what is the size of low heels? Becoming a doctor is any way tough. The serious candidates are being punished for the misdeeds of others," Meghna Arora, a candidate from New Delhi, told IANS.

"Light clothes with half-sleeves not having big buttons, brooch/badge, flower etc with salwar/trouser" was another strict instruction the CBSE clearly gave for the NEET.

Candidates had to give a signed undertaking that they will make themselves "available for compulsory physical frisking".

While mobile phones, Bluetooth devices, health bands, wrist watches and other electronic equipment were a big no-no, candidates were cautioned against carrying even ATM cards, goggles, belts, caps, remote keys or food items and water bottles.

That is not all.

Candidates were clearly told that disobeying the instructions will lead to their being barred from taking the test. On being caught bringing the barred items to the examination centre, the candidates were threatened with criminal cases.

"You are cautioned not to bring barred items at the NEET centre. You will be frisked by special teams in three security levels with specialised electronic equipment detectors. If you are caught, FIR will be lodged and you will be debarred from NEET forever. Wear suggested dress for NEET. If instructions are not complied with, you may not be allowed to appear in NEET. Reach on time - OSD-NEET," SMSs and mails received by candidates clearly stated.

"The medical entrance test this year was a real pain. The serious students hardly bothered to read the instructions on dress code and the like. The result was that they had to face difficulty, humiliation and harassment at the entry gates to exam centres. Boys and girls with long sleeves were forced to tear or cut them.

"Those coming in shoes had to go bare feet to get inside. Girls were forced to untie their hair and get strands checked by the staff for any communication equipment that might be hidden inside and be used for cheating," Arushi Gupta, a candidate from Chandigarh, told IANS.

Candidates pointed out that they had to face "harassment and humiliation" at most centres.

"I was told that full sleeve kurtas are not allowed. I had to tear off the sleeves at the entrance itself in front of so many people to take the exam," Sonali Singh from Ludhiana said.

While girl candidates had a tough time, it was not easy for the boys too.

"I had to take the examination bare feet as I went in my shoes by mistake. The sleeves of my shirt had to be cut with scissors. My belt, wallet and other items were all taken away. It left me so upset and concerned just before the tough test," candidate Amulya Bansal from Panchkula said.

(Names of candidates have been changed to protect their identities).

(Jaideep Sarin can be contacted at jaideep.s@ians.in)
The hot conversation on Wall Street Tuesday was whether oil will bounce back rapidly in a V-shaped recovery, or more slowly in a U-shape. Jim Cramer determined he's with the U-shape crowd.

"I think the proponents predicting what will happen with oil actually have gravitas for once. That said, I'm going with the U," the "Mad Money" host said.

The prevailing perspective was reiterated by Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) in its research note entitled "The Forgotten Barrels." It did a deep dive on the future of the supply side of the oil patch in various countries around the world, and indicated that "oil markets appear weak until mid-2017."

Another perspective came from David Demshur, the CEO of Core Laboratories (NYSE: CLB), who appeared on "Mad Money" last week and said there would be a V-shaped recovery. He believes there will be a strong comeback with crude moving almost 50 percent higher by the end of the year.

Cramer interpreted Demshur's perspective as meaning that there are oil well depletions that are being ignored, and the supply side is not nearly as large as many think.











But it was Schlumberger (NYSE: SLB)'s CEO Paal Kibsgaard that turned the tables for Cramer. Following its earnings release last Thursday, Cramer listened to the company conference call and found many details that signaled the direction of oil's comeback.



On the conference call, Kibsgaard reiterated that while the oil industry is in the most severe industry downturn on record, there has been a slow and steady increase in prices due to a tightening of both supply and demand. The outlook clearly suggested to him that the trends will accelerate in the future.

"We are heading toward a significant global supply deficit as the exploration and production spend rate is now down by more than 50 percent," Kibsgaard said. Additionally, he saw that non-OPEC production numbers are "set to drop by 900,000 barrels a day."

Story continues

"Kibsgaard does give that out, the assumption of steady demand, but I see no reason why he should be wrong," Cramer said.

No other country besides Venezuela has been falling off a cliff recently. Both China and the U.S. remain strong consumers of oil.

"More importantly, though, is that I believe it's a sucker's game to bet against Schlumberger," Cramer said.

As much as Morgan Stanley's investigation was impressive, there was nothing reported that Kibsgaard wouldn't already know about. Additionally, Schlumberger's past performance has clearly given it a reputation of accuracy. It was one of the first to see the length and depth of crude's decline.

"The firings, the downsizing, that's what is allowing Schlumberger to make fortunes even at these prices. The company had been unfailingly negative until now. Why take the other side of the trade?" Cramer asked.

So, while Cramer's charitable trust does not trade oil, it has been buying Schlumberger on this newfound optimism. In Cramer's opinion, oil is bottoming once again and recommended investors to buy Schlumberger for a U-shaped recovery.

Questions for Cramer?

Call Cramer: 1-800-743-CNBC

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New Delhi, July 27 : Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday sarcastically asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to get his Transport Minister Satyendar Jain arrested after a senior officer complained against the minister.

Referring to a published report, Kejriwal tweeted: "Read this whole story and see what really is Satyendar's fault. I urge Modiji to get Satyendar arrested now."

A Special Commissioner of Delhi Transport Department, I.S Mishra, on Tuesday sent a complaint to Lt Governor Najeeb Jung alleging misbehaviour by Jain.

Mishra alleged that he was targeted for demanding that the department should revert to the earlier six days work week instead of seven days.

"Staff working at Zonal office have sent many complaints that they are working overtime and not getting a single day leave," Mishra said in his complaint.

He added that Jain yelled at him alleging that he doesn't work because he demanded to reschedule a meeting called at a very short notice.

"I simply told him that I do my work with commitment and not a single file is pending with me. Then he shouted at me... further he told me that he will teach me how to deal with such persons," Mishra said.

"I cannot work in an environment where matters are dealt not according to rules but on whims and fancy. The whole episode has made me depressed."
New Delhi, July 27 : As a new Harry Potter will appear on bookshelves after nine years, avid fans are leaving no stone unturned to welcome the much anticipated eighth saga.

When "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child" hits the bookshelves on July 31 at 11.30 a.m. (global release), the fever will be at its peak going by the fanfare it has created.

"Once again this is going to be a publishing sensation as the magic continues from where it left off in book seven. The rave reactions from fans, post the London previews clearly indicate that this is another classic Harry Potter," said Thomas Abraham, Managing Director of Hachette India, the publisher.

From fan events to parties in bookstores and popular hubs in metros to other cultural shows, Potter fans want to make it a memorable experience.

The eighth story begins where the seventh book, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" concludes. While Harry grapples with a past that refuses to stay where it belongs, his youngest son Albus must struggle with the weight of a family legacy he never wanted. As past and present fuse ominously in the new book, both father and son learn the uncomfortable truth: sometimes darkness comes from unexpected places.

While Delhi will see a series of events organised by Potter lovers, Chennai, Mumbai and Bangalore are also not lagging behind.

For the fans, Hachette India is also organising a contest, and the two lucky fans will win a limited edition author-signed copy of "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child" Parts 1 and 2. The contest will end on August 5.

While Cafe Red in Shahpur Jat is hosting "Harry Potter and the Fragrant Latte", an evening of board games, coffee, and magical conversations on July 31, KoolSkool in Gurgaon will be decked up to celebrate the release. Fans can drop in to buy a copy and attend the quizzes.

For Mumbaikars, Landmark Bookstores will be celebrating with delectable cake and other activities and Crossword Kemps Corner has an exciting day planned for its customers. Fans can relish yummy Potter-themed cupcakes, magical music, quizzes and much more.

Chennai fans can join Crossword in Alwarpet to celebrate the launch with exciting contests and a scavenger hunt. Starmark Bookstore and Phoenix Market City Mall are also pulling out the stops for Potter fans.

Bengaluru's dedicated fans can look forward to an exciting evening party at Lightroom Bookstore in Cooke Town.

--IANS

pn/vm
Chennai, July 27 : Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa has sanctioned Rs 950,000 towards legal expenses to make an appeal on behalf of three persons from the state who were sentenced to death and life term by a court in Qatar.

In a statement issued here on Wednesday the state government said Jayalalithaa has ordered immediate payment of Rs 950,000 for meeting the legal expenses while making an appeal in the apex court of Qatar on behalf of the three convicts hailing from Tamil Nadu.

According to the statement, Azhagappa Subramani, Chelladurai Perumal and Sivakumar Arasan were working in Qatar and were charged with the murder of a woman there.

In 2015, the court found all the three guilty and sentenced them to death.

On an appeal by them, the Qatar High Court confirmed the death sentence of Subramani and Perumal, but changed Arasan's sentence to life term.

According to the Tamil Nadu government, the Indian embassy in Qatar enabled lawyers to meet the three.

The lawyers told the embassy officials that it would cost Rs 950,000 to prefer an appeal on behalf of the three convicts in Qatar's apex court.

Meanwhile, Rajammal -- the wife of Perumal -- had petitioned Jayalalithaa to extend financial assistance.
New Delhi, July 27 : Carnatic music exponent T.M. Krishna and social activist Bezwada Wilson are two Indians who have been conferred the prestigious Ramon Magsaysay Award for this year.

While Krishna got the award for "ensuring social inclusiveness in culture", Wilson was selected for "asserting the inalienable right to a life of human dignity", according to their citations.

Four other Magsaysay Award winners this year are Conchita Carpio-Morales from the Philippines, Dompet Dhuafa from Indonesia, Vientiane Rescue from Laos, and Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers.

Instituted in 1957, the award named after the late President Ramon Magsaysay of the Philippines is bestowed on persons as well as organisations for "greatness of spirit and transformative leadership" in Asia.

The trustees of the Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation annually select the awardees, who are presented a certificate and a medallion with an embossed image of Magsaysay in profile. It carries $50,000 in award money.

The award is presented at formal ceremonies in Manila, on August 31, the birth anniversary of Magsaysay, the third President of the Philippines.
New Delhi, July 27 : The Delhi Police is likely to arrest retired army Colonel Ajay Ahlawat for his alleged role in trafficking and exploiting foreign women, as part of its probe into a high-profile escort service racket, sources said.

"We will arrest Ajay Ahlawat soon as we have got evidence against him," a senior police officer related to the probe told IANS.

"We have confirmed the documentary evidence against him," the officer said. "We had sent the evidence to several offices for confirmation."

The move against Ahlawat comes close on the heels of the arrest of P.N. Sanyal, 62, on July 19 from his flat in south Delhi's Safdarjung Enclave for trafficking and exploiting foreign nationals. The I-T Department had forwarded the complaint against Sanyal to the Delhi Police.

Ahlawat was named by a 23-year-old trafficked Central Asian woman who was found by the I-T Department officials in Sanyal's house during the raid on June 2.

In her statement to the I-T Department, the woman said she doesn't want to live there and felt insecure.

The woman had tried to commit suicide by slashing her wrists in front of the I-T department officers.

According to sources, Sanyal and Ahlawat had trafficked over 50 foreign women and used them as honey traps to get their deals finalised from government officials.

Ahlawat runs a chain of resorts in Rajasthan and Haryana.

A source revealed that both of them mainly targetted land deals and earned huge profits.

Asked if Sanyal used foreign women as honey traps for I-T Department officials to blackmail them, a senior officer related to the probe remained tight-lipped.

Asked about the role of Sanyal, the officer said, "We are probing into the previous life of Sanyal to find out more details."
Mumbai, July 27 : Two- and three-wheeler major Bajaj Auto on Wednesday reported a rise of more than two per cent in its net profit for the first quarter (Q1) of 2016-17.

The automobile major's net profit increased to Rs 978 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2016, from Rs 957 crore in the corresponding period of 2015-16.

According to the company, its turnover (which includes excise duty) for the quarter under review increased by 2.71 per cent to Rs 6,356 crore from Rs 6,188 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2015.

"Despite input cost pressures and continuing headwinds in export markets, the company has declared an industry high EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation) of 21.2 per cent," the company said in a statement.

However, Bajaj Auto's overall quarterly sales including exports slipped by 1.80 per cent to 994,733 units from 1,013,029 units sold during the corresponding quarter of 2015-16.

Further, the company reported a growth of 13.78 per cent in its Q1 consolidated net profit which stood at Rs 1,040 crore from Rs 914 crore.
Paris, July 27 : The latest terror attack where two Islamic State militants stormed a church and killed an 84-year-old priest in Normandy, France, on Tuesday, has rattled the nerves of millions in the Europe and beyond, reinforcing the impression that the region was in the cross hair of terrorists.

The police unit specialising in hostage situations responded quickly after receiving a call from an escaped nun.

The terrorists were gunned down by the police as they tried to flee the church, Xinhua news agency reported.

Despite low number of casualties, the attack still shocked France and the Europe as it hit a small town far from bustling cities like Paris and Nice, prompting fears that terrorists have managed to penetrate deeper into the region.

One of the attackers was identified as 19-year-old Adel Karmic, arrested twice in 2015 for trying to travel to Syria using false identity card, Paris Prosecutor Francois Molins said.

Afterward, he was under house arrest and made to wear an electronic tag allowing the police to trace him. However, the device was deactivated for a few hours every morning, Molins said.

The identification of the second attacker was not known yet, the prosecutor said.

President Francois Hollande rushed to the scene shortly after the incident. He condemned the attack as a "heinous crime" and pledged to use all means in the war against terrorism.

Hollande also called for national unity, saying what these terrorists want was to divide the nation.

The President earlier this month announced that he would send artillery to Iraq to reinforce local forces battling the IS.
Lucknow, July 27 : Women workers, supporters and leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) would be staging a sit-in and demonstrate in the state capital on Thursday against the alleged objectionable comments made by Bahujan Samaj Party leaders against the wife and daughter of former BJP leader Daya Shankar Singh.

BJP General Secretary Anupama Jaiswal informed media that the programme was scheduled soon after a bitter altercation broke out between the BSP and the BJP in which leaders and workers of the former had dragged the family members of Singh into the political slugfest.

"We are demanding the immediate dismissal of BSP leader Naseemuddin Siddiqui from the post of the Leader of Opposition in the Uttar Pradesh legislative council and his arrest along with other BSP leaders," Jaiswal told reporters.

She claimed that thousands of women workers would march through the city streets on Thursday against the comments of BSP leaders.

The demonstration would be joined by all women BJP MPs from the state, legislators, municipal corporation chairpersons and public representatives.
Patna, July 27 : Nearly half a million people have been affected by the floods in eight districts of Bihar, officials said on Wednesday.

According to unconfirmed reports, at least 10 persons, including women and children, have been killed in the floods.

Vayasji, the Principal Secretary of State Disaster Management Department, said flood situation is serious in a few districts following rising water level in rivers, particularly Kosi and Gandak.

"In view of this, we have already issued high alert and deployed teams of the National Disaster Response Force and the state Disaster Response Force in flood-hit districts," he said.

The state disaster management department has asked people living in low-lying areas to move to higher ground, Vayasji said.

According to him, dozens of relief camps have been set up in flood-hit districts, and relief and rescue operations are in full swing to help affected people.

An official of water resources department said worst flood-affected districts are Kishanganj, Purnea, Araria, Supaul, Khagaria, Bhagalpur, Madhepura and Darbhanga. The flood water has entered in nearly 1,400 villages.

The state government on Wednesday issued flood alert in East and West Champaran, Muzaffarpur and Vaishali districts.

Major rivers in the state, including the Kosi, Gandak, Bagmati and the Ganga, are in spate following heavy rains in their upstream areas, officials said.

"With heavy rainfall in the catchment areas in neighbouring Nepal, water levels of these rivers have been rising for last several days," an official said.

Bihar Water Resources Development Minister Lalan Singh said, "Preparations have been made to tackle the flood situation. The state government is alert. All embankments are safe."

Singh said the eastern Kosi embankment, which was breached in 2008, was safe.

In 2008, more than three million people were rendered homeless in Bihar when the Kosi river breached its banks upstream in Nepal and changed course.

Official sources said engineers of the water resource department have been directed to monitor the vulnerable embankments.
New Delhi, July 27 : Actor Tahir Raj Bhasin, who is gearing up for his second release "Force 2", says it's a very action heavy film.

The actor says "Force 2", which also features actors John Abraham and Sonakshi Sinha, is a very physically demanding film.

Asked if he will be seen doing action-packed scenes in the film, Tahir told IANS: "Yes, it's a very action heavy film. It's a very physically intensive part. What kind of action I wouldn't want to describe... But it has been a very physically demanding part."

The 29-year-old actor says he underwent training for a few months for the role.

"There is a celebrity trainer, someone who John put me in touch with... So there is functional training involved and mixed martial arts... So it has been a whole new adventure for me," he added.

Tahir will again be seen playing a negative character in "Force 2". The actor was seen playing an antagonist in his debut film "Mardaani", starring superstar Rani Mukerji in 2014.
New Delhi, July 27 : Methandienone, the banned substance found in the dope test of wrestler Narsingh Yadav who has subsequently been suspended for the Rio Olympics, can stay in the body for long and be detected in urine up to eight weeks after the last use, health experts said on Wednesday.

"Methandienone can stay in body for a long time and can be detected in urine for up to six to eight weeks," said R.K. Singal, Director and Coordinator of Medical and Allied Services, BLK Super Specialty Hospital, in New Delhi.

On Sunday, the National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) confirmed that Narsingh's 'B' sample also tested positive for a banned substance.

Following the dope test, Narsingh, who was picked ahead of two-time Olympic medallist Sushil Kumar, was handed a provisional suspension.

Yadav has alleged that his food was spiked. According to reports, the intruder who spiked the food has been identified.

"Although the effects of Methandienone fades away slowly, they may persist for six-12 weeks," Atul Jain, Senior Consultant Orthopaedic, Hip and Acetabulam, Jaypee Hospital in Noida, told IANS.

Methandienone is an anabolic steroid popular among body builders.

"Anabolic androgenic steroids are chemically modified versions or derivatives of the naturally-occurring male sex hormone testosterone," Singal told IANS.

"Anabolic steroids help increase protein mass, especially skeletal muscles," Jain added.

According to Singal, Methandienone has the potential to boost muscle production in a short time.

"It is an extremely potent muscle-building steroid that has both anabolic and androgenic effects on a person. The anabolic nature increases nitrogen retention and, in turn, muscle production. Its ability to increase nitrogen reaction improves a person's feeling of well-being and protein manufacture in the body," Singal explained.

"The steroid also helps a person's body to adjust quickly to increased workloads which reduces fatigue," the doctor added.
Sawai Madhopur (Rajasthan), July 27 : A water conservation project that will benefit 2,500 households and 10,000 individuals was on Wednesday handed over by the Coca-Cola India Foundation (Anandana) and its implementing partner -- Action for Food Production (AFPRO) -- to the community of Sawai Madhopur.

The project consists of two earthen dams, 22 farm ponds, renovation of two existing dams and 34 well-recharged structures is spread over 300 hectares in the four villages of Bhadlav, Padli, Ulliyana and Kundera in the district.

The average groundwater level in these four villages is currently around 50 metres and drops further during summer. The water conservation structures constructed to address the issue, will result in multiple benefits including enhanced productivity, soil and water conservation, environment amelioration and socio-economic up-liftment of the community.

The project in Bhadlav village was inaugurated by Diya Kumari, a BJP member of the Rajasthan assembly from Sawai Madhopur constituency.

"The dwindling water scenario in the village has always been an area of concern for the villagers affecting the agricultural productivity and their livelihood," Diya Kumari said here.

"This watershed management initiative will help the local farmers to yield better output and will improve the socio-economic state of the region," she added.

According to the foundation, the water conservation structure would improve the water-use efficiency, groundwater recharge and strengthening eco-system services in the region.

"Through the construction of this check dam we strive to improve the management of water resources and the daily life of the villagers and farmers. We expect there will be a significant rise in groundwater table post monsoon this year," said Ishteyaque Amjad, Vice President, Public Affairs and Communications, Coca-Cola India and South West Asia.

Asked about the investment on the construction of the check dam in Bhadlav, Praveen Singhai, Regional Manager of AFPRO, told IANS: "We have redone the anicut (check dam) in Bhadlav and the investment was around Rs 5 lakhs. The dam is almost complete, only some repair work is left."

"With the construction of this dam, water will percolate around two kilometres underground," he added.

(The writer is at Sawai Madhopur at the invitation of Coca-Cola India Foundation. Porisma P. Gogoi can be contacted at porisma.g@ians.in)
New Delhi, July : The Lok Sabha on Wednesday passed the Benami Transactions Amendment Bill, which seeks to amend the definition of 'benami' transactions, establish adjudicating authorities and an appellate tribunal.

"The legislation has the provision of confiscating benami assets and it is predominantly an anti-black money measure," Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said while moving the bill.

He said the purpose of the bill is to discourage the activity of acquiring the properties in the name of fictitious and other people.

The bill also specifies prosecution and penalty for entering into benami, proxy transactions.
Chennai, July 27 : Celebrating a decade of business partnership with Hyundai Motor India Ltd., Chennai Port Trust on Wednesday refunded a wharfage charge of Rs 19.69 crore to the carmaker company, a Hyundai Motor statement said.

The refund cheque was handed over by Chennai Port Trust Chairman Cyril C. George to Y.K. Koo, Managing Director of Hyundai Motor.

Hyundai Motor has shipped out over two million vehicles from India since 2006, when it formally entered into an agreement with the Chennai port authorities.

The company said it has received Rs 165 crore as refund of wharfage since 2006.

Hyundai Motor has been shipping out cars through the Chennai port from 2000 onwards.

Prior to its agreement with the Chennai port, the carmaker had exported 300,000 vehicles through this port.

According to Koo, the association with the Chennai port has not only helped catapult Hyundai as number one exporter for over a decade but also helped the company play a critical role in Hyundai's global operations.
Beijing, July 27 : The first freight train service linking China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region with Central Asian republic of Kazakhstan was launched on Wednesday.

The train carrying building materials and other commodities left Jiuyuan Logistics Park in Baotou City on Wednesday morning and will travel 4,332 km over eight days to reach Astana, capital of Kazakhstan, Xinhua news agency reported.

On its return journey, the train will carry goods such as mineral resources, according to a Hohhot Railway Bureau official.

"The new rail service, which follows the ancient Silk Road trade route, will support the regional export market," Lu Zhi, Vice Mayor of Baotou, said.

Around 15 freight trains will make the journey in 2016.
Kathmandu, July 27 : At least 57 persons have been killed and thousands forced to flee their homesteads due to landslides and floods in Nepal since Monday.

According to the Nepal's Ministry of Home Affairs, at least 20 people have gone missing and seven dozen houses have been destroyed by the floods and landslides across the country.

At least 14 districts of Nepal are hit by the flash floods and landslides. The worst hit is Pyuthan district where deaths touched 24 by Wednesday evening, according to local media reports.

Scores of houses and some bridges have been swept away in several parts of the country. Thousands of people have been displaced after flood waters inundated their settlements, the home ministry said in a statement.

Water level in the Saptakoshi river has been on the rise due to incessant rainfall for the past 10 days. Water flow in the river was measured at 277,410 cusecs on Wednesday morning, the highest for this year. Thirty-seven of the 56 floodgates have been opened.

The home ministry has cautioned the people about water-borne diseases. Medical teams have been deployed in the affected areas.
New Delhi, July 27 : The Supreme Court on Wednesday asked public sector undertaking NBCC to examine whether the distance between two disputed building towers at realty major Supertech's Emerald Court Complex in Greater Noida was in accordance with building regulations.

The bench of Justice Dipak Misra and Justice Rohinton Fali Nariman gave NBCC four weeks' time to examine the distance between the two 40-storey towers, which have been held illegal for not complying with building regulations and directed to be demolished by the Allahabad High Court.

The Supreme Court had on May 5, 2014, ordered status quo thereby putting on hold the demolition.

The apex court decided to ask the NBCC to verify the distance between two towers after it perused several suggestion given to it by the Supertech and Emerald Court Owners Resident Welfare Association to be looked into by the central agency.

The bench in the course of the hearing of the matter on July 19, had asked the realtymajor and the residents association to give suggestions that could be referred to NBCC for verification.

Senior counsel Jayant Bhushan, appearing for the association, told the bench that when the people had booked the flats, they were told that the land on which two disputed towers were constructed were green area.

But the court was not moved.

"What they told you is irrelevant. What is relevant is the sanctioned plan." said Justice Misra However, senior counsel Gopal Subramaniam, appearing for the realty major, argued that as per the 2010 notification, 50 per cent of the area had to be under green cover but in the case of Emerald Court, 65 per cent of the area is already under landscaping.

He said that changes were brought only after they got additional land.

At this, the bench asked if prior to 2010 the land on which two disputed towers were built was shown as green area, then nothing remains in the matter.

"Do you admit, if in pre-2010 it was shown as a green area then nothing remains?" observed Justice Nariman.

The court was also informed that in compliance with its July 19 order, the realty major has deposited Rs 5 crore with the court's registry. Advocate Atul Nanda urged the court to ask the registry to keep the amount in fixed deposit so that it may get some interest.

Meanwhile, the court asked the realty major to tell if some people who have sought refund of their money had booked the flats or not in the disputed towers.

As Subramaniam urged the court to issue notice on their application and allow the realty major to file response, the court said: "You have to just tell us whether they have booked the flat or not. You have to pay them their money."

The court fixed the next hearing on August 9.
Berlin, July 27 : The therapist treating Syrian asylum seeker Mohammed Daleel, who blew himself up on Sunday next to an outdoor festival in the German town of Ansbach, had warned in a report that there was a possibility of Daleel staging a suicide bombing.

According to reports published on Wednesday by German newspaper Bild, Daleel spoke to the therapist multiple times before the suicide. Fifteen persons were wounded in the attack after Daleel recorded a video in which he swore allegiance to Islamic State militant group.

Daleel's suicidal inclinations began to surface in his medical records in early 2015, when he was being treated at the therapist's clinic in Ansbach, Efe news reported.

According to the therapist's report, Daleel confessed that he had made preparations in case it was decided to return him to Bulgaria as he had been accepted as a refugee there.

Daleel's application seeking German asylum was rejected in December 2014 and on July 13, 2016, Daleel was informed that he had 30 days to leave the country.
Mumbai, July 27 : Budget passenger carrier SpiceJet on Wednesday said that it has incorporated a wholly owned subsidiary "SpiceJet Merchandise Private Limited".

According to the budget passenger carrier, the wholly owned subsidiary shall engage in the business of consumer merchandise and goods.

"The company has incorporated a wholly owned subsidiary namely "SpiceJet Merchandise Private Limited" which shall engage in the business of consumer merchandise and goods that will include electronic items, readymade apparels, accessories," the company said in a regulatory filing to the BSE.

The low cost carrier (LCC) added that the new subsidiary shall sell its products through various channels such as in-flight sale, online platform, airport shops and retail outlets.
Rome, July 27 : Police in northwest Italy on Wednesday arrested two Moroccans accused of recruiting on social media for the Islamic State and of proselytizing for the jihadist group.

Cell phones, cocaine, 5,000 euros in cash and ID documents were seized from the suspects who were arrested at locations in the province of Savona in Italy's Liguria region, police said.

The Moroccans were held after an investigation triggered by a WhatsApp message from a Moroccan cell phone which a 15-year-old girl mistakenly received, according to police.

The girl reported the WhatsApp message to police after she noticed that the sender's profile showed a fighter pointing a machine gun at the camera.

A third Moroccan suspect is under investigation after anti-terrorism police opened a probe.

The three suspects are aged between 27 and 44, have been resident in Italy for "several years" and have previous police records for drug dealing, assault and fraud, investigators said.

The suspects created a string of false Facebook profiles using mobile phone numbers registered in other people's names as well as profiles on Arabic language websites.

Besides closely monitoring the suspects' social media activities online, investigators also wiretapped their phone conversations, police said.

Following the recent spate of attacks in France and Germany, Italy is on 'level two' terror alert, the highest possible in the absence of a direct attack.

Close to 100 terrorism suspects have been expelled from Italy since the beginning of 2015.
Rome, July 27 : Italian authorities have deported on national security grounds a radical Moroccan cleric who called one of his daughters Jihad.

Mohammed Madad was collected by police from his home in the northeast town of Noventa Vicentina and put on a flight for Morocco from Rome's main airport late Tuesday.

Madad, a 52-year-old father of four, was banned from re-entering Italy for the next 15 years.

The firebrand cleric's sermons became increasingly violent and anti-Western with the aim of indoctrinating youngsters with radical Salafite ideology, according to anti-terrorism investigators.

Madad was capable of international terrorism, the investigators said.

A probe was opened into Madad after police received several tip-offs from the public, investigators said.

Earlier this year, Madad was appointed imam of a mosque and Islamic centre in Noventa Vicentina, which has a sizeable Muslim community.

Close to 100 terrorism suspects have been expelled from Italy since the beginning of 2015.
New Delhi, July 27 : Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Wednesday held a meeting with government officials to review the preparedness to tackle the dengue menace in the national capital.

He directed the officials to work on a war footing to prevent dengue, which is communicated through a mosquito bite, and prepare a plan to make people aware of the disease.

"We have to devise methods to stop public panic over dengue. Panic is one of the challenges we are facing. We must also prepare a communication plan to make people aware of the disease," Sisodia said.

An official statement said the Health Department had prepared communication awareness kits and will distribute the same to 45 lakh households in the national capital in the coming weeks.

Workshops on dengue have been held in all mohalla clinics. The department also plans to run 355 fever clinics to tackle dengue.

Sisodia instructed the officials to increase the number of beds in government hospitals to accommodate all dengue patients.

"The Health Department has ensured enough beds and will use vacant beds for dengue patients if required," the statement said.
Ahmedabad, July 27 : A police complaint filed by a Gujarat realtor against lawmaker Nalin Kotadia accusing him of demanding a Rs 2 crore bribe has taken on murky political overtones. Kotadia has claimed he was being framed as he is about to make a major land scam expose involving Chief Minister Anandiben Patel and other BJP leaders.

Builder Madhubhai Vasani on Wednesday lodged a police complaint against the Kotadia, legislator from Dhari in Saurashtra, that he barged into his office around 8 p.m. on Tuesday with his men, demanded Rs 2 crore, and threatened him.

Kotadia was earlier with the BJP when he and some rebels had formed the Gujarat Parivartan Party (GPP) under former Chief Minister Keshubhai Patel to take on then Chief Minister Narendra Modi. Later, the GPP merged with BJP. But Kotadia walked out from there as well though he continues to be assembly member from Dhari in Amreli district.

Vasani alleged Kotadia demanded Rs 2 crore from him and threatened him with life. "Nalin bhai told me that he would get me killed if I don't send Rs 2 crore to him forthwith," the complaint at the Vastrapur police station in Ahmedabad says.

"When I refused to give the money, he called one of his henchmen inside and pushed me around," Vasani says.

Refuting the allegations, Kotadia said he had not made any such demand. "I have not asked for any money, this allegation is to frame me," he said.

"I was on the verge of exposing a big land scam in Daskroi (taluka) in Ahmedabad district. The land is worth Rs 2,000 crore and Chief Minister Anandiben Patel and other BJP leaders are involved. This is why they are trying to fix me."

"I am shortly going to call a press conference to reveal details of the scam," Kotadia said.
Hyderabad, July 27 : The Telangana government will establish Centre for Non Resident Telanganaites' Affairs (CENTA) to handle the issues of NRIs from the state, state NRI Affairs Minister K.T. Rama Rao said on Wednesday.

He said that the centre would also have district level offices.

The state government will also launch an exclusive portal for NRIs with information and online services, Rao said at a meeting with representatives of NRIs' associations and other stakeholders on the proposed NRI policy of the state.

Under the proposed policy, a 24x7 control room will be established while a help desk will also be created at Hyderabad airport.

Rao promised that this would be the best policy in the country for the welfare of immigrants. The focus of the policy would be unskilled blue collar workers migrating to Gulf and other countries like Malaysia and Thailand and students who are going abroad for education.

Referring to increasing incidents of uneducated and unskilled workers and even students being cheated, the minister said the government would deal firmly with unauthorized recruiting agents and consultancies.

Stating that there is lack of authentic data about immigrants from the country or from Telangana, he announced that a database of migrants from the state to various countries will be created. This database is expected to help the government in speedy resolution of issues and in ensuring effective implementation of the policy.

Since such data has also become necessary in view of the security issues, the immigrants in various countries will be encouraged to register themselves with the respective Indian embassies.

Rama Rao, who is son of Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao, said while the government may not be able to stop migration completely but it definitely can contain problems linked to migration.

There will be pre-migration orientation for the migrants to educate them about the laws in the countries they are migrating to. There will also be pre-departure orientation to students going to US.

A programme will also be taken up to create awareness among uneducated potential immigrants. The department of culture will conduct the programme in villages.

The minister said a corpus fund for the welfare of NRIs will be established. A special officer will be appointed to assist NRIs wishing to invest in Telangana.

He also announced that the government will celebrate Pravasi Telangana Diwas to celebrate success stories. NRIs will be honoured for their achievements in various friends and their contributions to the motherland.
Rome, July 27 : British Prime Minister Theresa May, visiting key European capitals, held talks with Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi over Brexit here on Wednesday.

Renzi appealed to the British government to set out "a precise timeline" for negotiating its leaving the European Union (EU), Xinhua news agency reported.

"The Brexit was a decision of the British people, and we respect it, however painful it is," Renzi said at a join press conference after the meeting.

"At the same time, it is a difficult and unprecedented situation which requires much good sense, a precise timeline, and a certain path," he said.

Renzi's words followed those previously expressed by other leaders from major EU member states, and by EU representatives in Brussels, who urged Britain to move fast and clearly in negotiating its departure from the bloc, and to avoid prolonged uncertainty.

Italy would provide "its full cooperation and support" in order to make the UK-EU negotiations as effective as possible, the Italian Prime Minister added.

On her part, May explained the Brexit would mark Britain's exit from the EU, but not from Europe.

"We will still be part of Europe, and we want to turn the Brexit into a success," she said, adding cooperation with EU member states was crucial to achieve this.

The new British Prime Minister explained she had recently chaired the first meeting of a Cabinet committee in charge of preparing "an orderly departure" from the EU, XInhua news agency added.

She added she hoped the economic ties between the two countries would be maintained, and even boosted, recalling that Italy was Britain's eighth largest export market with a bilateral trade worth some 24 billion pounds ($31.5 billion) in 2015.

The global threat of terrorism and the migration crisis were also discussed during their meeting in the Italian capital.

Before meeting the Italian Prime Minister, May held Brexit talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande last week, and with her Irish counterpart Enda Kenny on Tuesday.
Rome, July 27 : The conflicts afflicting the world are about wealth, power and control of natural resources, not religion, Pope Francis said on Wednesday.

"It's warfare over interests, money and natural resources, I am not speaking of a war of religion," Francis said after knifemen beheaded an 86-year-old priest at a church in northern France on Tuesday in an attack claimed by the Islamic State jihadist group.

"Religions don't want war. The others want war," he added.

He made the remarks to reporters during a flight from Rome to Krakow, where he was due to kick off a five-day visit to Poland by attending the city's World Youth day celebrations taking place till Sunday.

"We shouldn't be afraid of telling the truth: the world is at war because it has lost the peace," Francis added.

Poland's Interior Minister says more than 39,000 police and other security officers will be ensuring security as Francis meets hundreds of thousands of young pilgrims from around the globe in southern Poland.

The papal visit includes open-air masses and prayers with around 1.5 million World Youth Day participant, visits to the site of the former Nazi death camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau and to Jasna Gora, Poland's holiest shrine.

It is the first visit by Francis to Poland, one of Europe's most Catholic nations, which produced late Polish pope, St. John Paul II.
Despite negative Brexit rhetoric from Westminster and the industry, the property market in the UK remained resilient in October, according to a new analysis, but some outcomes could be damaging.

Although prices dipped slightly, down 1.4% on the month, sales increased by 2.4% month on month and by 9.7% year on year, according to the report from haart.

The figures also show that the estate agents network saw buyer registrations rise by 37%, although there are concerns that an unfavourable Brexit deal could impact on the property market in 2019.

Twenty nine months after committing to leave the European Union we finally have a Brexit deal on the table, however political infighting is at its highest level and a number of scenarios could play out which would affect the property market in different ways, said Paul Smith, haart chief executive officer.

Government data shows that while total transactions have risen by 53% since 2009, over the last four years, they have largely remained stable, sitting at around 1.1 million annually despite the referendum being called in 2016, he pointed out.

I believe that even if we encountered a hard Brexit, we would be very unlikely to see the significant price falls encountered during the credit crunch. Greater regulation in the banking and mortgage market, a shortage of supply and Government support which underpins the first time buyer market means that a far more likely outcome would be a reduction in transaction volumes, he explained.

While this uncertainty would result in fewer homes coming to market, demand will continue to outstrip supply as at the end of the day people will always need to move home for various reasons, which will ensure that prices continue to hold up regardless of the outcome, he added.

He believes that the greatest threat to the property market is a delay but there are a number of different scenarios that could play out. Firstly, leaving the EU with a good deal could boost the property market in 2019. Smith believes that buyers are holding off to see what happens with the deal.

With a strong deal in place, confidence would fuel the market upwards, turning instructions into transactions. We would expect an uplift in transactions of 10% to take place in the second half of 2019, with an increase in buyer demand leading to slight price rises thereafter, he said.

Secondly, leaving with no deal could likely result in a short term blow for the property market, at what would normally be a peak time of the year for activity. The most likely impact would be a slower market, with fewer transactions taking place as both buyers and sellers hit the brakes on their plan, Smith explained.

However, I dont foresee a large scale property market crash and instead anticipate that in this scenario house prices are unlikely to fall by more than 5% due to a shortage of homes on the market propping up overall prices, he said.

It is also extremely likely that in the event of the UK leaving the EU without a deal, there will be a fiscal stimulus in the form of a stamp duty holiday, and a drop in the Bank of England base rate to support borrowers, he added.

Another possible scenario is a challenge to Theresa Mays leadership and Smith explained that political stability is crucial for a thriving housing market and that means a stable Government.

If a leadership bid was triggered we would risk creating further uncertainty in the market. In this instance wed undoubtedly see more home owners holding off listing their homes, resulting in a drop in transactions of roughly 2% and potentially house price dips. I would expect London to be hit the hardest, he said.

Yet another outcome is an extended Brexit negotiation period beyond March 2019 which Smith thinks could be as damaging as a no deal. Our latest data shows that house prices across England and Wales have fallen by 0.8% on the year, highlighting the adverse effect uncertainty continues to have on the housing market, he pointed out.

Extending negotiations would only encourage further uncertainty, resulting in a delay among buyers and sellers. Should this continue throughout 2019, we could expect transaction volumes to dip by as much as 20%, further stunting any opportunity of economic prosperity at a time when we need it most, he added.
Dr. Reddy's Laboratories Ltd. RDY reported first-quarter fiscal 2017 earnings per American Depositary Share (ADS) of 11 cents, down 79.6% from the year over year.



Moreover, revenues of $479 million reflected a 14% decline from the prior-year quarter primarily due to sluggish volume growth in the U.S. and continually constrained operations in Venezuela.



The Quarter in Detail



Dr. Reddys reports revenues under three segments  Global Generics, Pharmaceutical Services & Active Ingredients (PSAI), and Proprietary Products and Others.



Global Generics revenues declined almost 14% year over year to $395 million, due to lower contribution from North America and loss of sales in Venezuela.



Revenues in North America were suffered due to increased competition for Valcyte and Vidaza, pricing pressure, and moderation in volumes uptake.



In the emerging markets, Russia, other CIS countries and Romania, and the Rest of World (RoW), the company recorded a 26% decline in revenues. However, India continued to perform well on the back of the integration of the portfolio acquired from UCB S.A. UCBJF in the companys supply chain, leading to a 10% year over year increase in revenues.



PSAI revenues were down 15.7% to $70 million, reflecting the impact of delayed dispatches on account of ongoing remedies and activities related to the FDAs observations.



Revenues at the Proprietary Products and Others segment remained flat at $15 million.



In the reported quarter, the company launched two products  Zembrace Sym Touch (approved in Jan 2016) and Sernivo Spray (approved in Feb 2016)  in the U.S.

DOCTOR REDDYS Price

DOCTOR REDDYS Price | DOCTOR REDDYS Quote

Research and development expenses increased 9.2% year over year to $71 million while selling, general and administrative expenses were $182 million, up 11.7%. This increase was primarily due to quality improvement initiatives and expenses related to the launches of Zembrace and Sernivo.



As of Jun 30, the company has 78 generic filings pending FDA approval (76 Abbreviated New Drug Applications (ANDAs) and 2 NDAs filed under the 505(b)(2) route), of which 50 were Para IV filings and 18 had first-to-file status.



Our Take



Dr. Reddys witnessed a year-over-year decline in both earnings and revenues during the first quarter of fiscal 2017. The weak quarterly performance was primarily due to competitive dynamics of the U.S. business, ongoing remediation activities on the API business and negligible contribution from Venezuela. Macroeconomic instability in some regions of the emerging markets and a depreciating ruble would continue to be major concerns going forward.



Nevertheless, we remain positive on the companys efforts to expand its biosimilar portfolio, particularly in the emerging markets over the next few years.



Dr. Reddys currently has a Zacks Rank #2 (Strong Buy). A couple of other favorably ranked stocks in the health care sector are Bristol-Myers Squibb Company BMY and Actelion Ltd. ALIOF. Both stocks sport a Zack Rank #1 (Strong Buy).



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The DataParser supports the latest version of Ciscos IM&P and Jabber.

17a-4 has completed another round of testing with Cisco to confirm DataParser version 7.5.2 support for the latest release of Cisco Unified Communications Manager and IM & Presence Service version 11.5(1) and the next release of Jabber for Windows version 11.7. The DataParser is an on premise middleware service to manage regulated data for retention in a compliance archive. The Jabber module of the DataParser collects IMs, multi-party chats and persistent chat rooms including file attachments and images.

Ciscos Unified Communications Manager IM & Presence Service offers an advanced, integrated, enterprise environment that puts users at the center of collaboration. Jabber streamlines communications and enhances productivity by unifying presence, instant messaging, video, voice, voice messaging, screen sharing, and conferencing capabilities securely into one client. Users can be more productive, anytime, from anywhere on any device.

The DataParser is modular software that collects and formats different types of messaging and collaboration platforms allowing clients to enable a unified compliance policy and procedure for all regulated content. Cisco Jabber is fully supported just as with Microsoft Skype for Business, Thomson Reuters Eikon Messenger, Bloomberg, HipChat, InvestEdge, FactSet and other data sources.

The Jabber module of the DataParser leverages the PostgreSQL or Oracle external database in the IM&P environment. Through Open Data Base Connectivity (ODBC) it allows for the collection and format of Jabber users data. The DataParser can scale to any number of IM&P servers and is fully integrated with Active Directory to capture specific user groups.

Working with large, international financial institutions requires us to architect solutions which meet both the Cisco Jabber processing requirements as well as international compliance regulations and best practices. Cisco has been a terrific partner for our clients and the DataParser software to develop and deploy effective solutions, offers Stefen Roebke, Senior Engineer, DataParser.

The DataParser's been designed to integrate easily into existing infrastructures and to run multiple configurations in more complex client environments. For output, it supports all major archiving technologies, both in-house and out-sourced, allowing clients to leverage resources and keep compliance costs to a minimum. Delivery options include the ability to send messages directly into an email archive, to a file location or to Exchange or Office 365. If clients are using Office 365 as a compliance archive, the DataParser can deliver to the third-party data mailbox which allows for Microsofts new Security & Compliance features to be applied and enforces best practices for archival retention and e-discovery.

For more information about 17a-4s DataParser for Jabber please visit 17a-4.com.

About 17a-4 llc:

17a-4 is a compliance services and software company with a focus on e-messaging and software solutions to meet regulatory and e-Discovery needs of institutional clients. Clients that are required to adhere to SEC (Rule 17a-4), FINRA and CFTC (Rule 1.31) regulations leverage 17a-4s expertise to ensure their information infrastructure is in compliance. 17a-4s architecture provides for a single-point in which all e-messaging content may be managed for retention, legal and regulatory holds and e-Discovery productions. 17a-4 has also developed the SEC-FINRA DeskTop which is a hosted, SEC-compliant SharePoint platform for many types of SEC and FINRA documents and regulatory workflows. 17a-4 is based in New York City but operates remote offices nationwide.

All product and company names herein may be trademarks of their registered owners.
We are very excited about our recent expansion in North America and that it's our first in Canada. Toronto is a hub of commerce and high tech development in Canada and our customers are itching to deploy here.

RootBSD expands into its first Canadian data center  its first outside the US  with the opening of its Toronto location. The company's customers will be able to deploy cloud servers into the largest city in the country.

The new data center  available now to RootBSD customers  is directly connected to the Toronto Internet Exchange (TORIX), located in a carrier-neutral hotel in Toronto. TORIX is the largest Canadian internet exchange with over 200 members (including Akamai, Microsoft and Rogers Communications, among others) and the 11th largest in the world. The facility also offers fiber connections, meet-me-rooms, power redundancies and 24/7/365 security.

In addition, because the data center falls under Canadian law, it affords data protections not available in the US.

"RootBSD's customers have been asking for a Canadian data center  for some of them it was because of privacy concerns  and we are happy to deliver," Mark Price, CEO, said. "We are very excited about our recent expansion in North America and that it's our first in Canada. Toronto is a hub of commerce and high tech development in Canada and our customers are itching to deploy here."

Price added that RootBSD is continuing its expansion to better serve its customers, no matter what variety of *BSD they prefer, no matter where in the world they would like to be.

In addition, all RootBSD services come with a native IPv6 connection. RootBSD has provided *BSD IPv6 capable services for years. With the exhaustion of older, legacy IPv4 address space, IPv6 capability is becoming a critical requirement for any online presence and RootBSD is able to bring that to the *BSD world.



About RootBSD:

Frustrated by the haphazard *BSD hosting options of other providers and that did not meet their demands for business reliability and scalability, the founders of RootBSD established the company to provide reliable, flexible and supported BSD-based hosting services for professionals and businesses. RootBSD is part of Tranquil Hosting and has access to its 25 data centers throughout North America, South America, Europe and Asia. For more information, visit https://www.rootbsd.net.
Digital Luxury Group (http://www.digitalluxurygroup.com), the leading independent digital agency specialized in luxury, today announced the appointment of Pablo Mauron as Partner and Managing Director of DLG China, the organizations Shanghai-based operation.

Immediately prior to being promoted, Mauron was the General Manager of DLG China. In his new role, Mauron will continue his oversight of the Chinese business and have increased strategic responsibilities, working with CEO, David Sadigh, and the Board on strategic initiatives and partnerships. In addition, Mauron will take responsibility for Luxury Societys development in China.

The digital environment in China is unlike any other. With one of the largest user bases in the world, innovation comes fast. China is not only the first market for e-commerce sales and the second-largest luxury market in the world, it is also the second-largest market for advertising spend. China represents 50% of Asia Pacifics advertising spend in digital and the market is also leading the way in terms of digital innovation with the rise of companies like WeChat. Its within this context that DLG China has excelled.

DLG China has been growing at a fast pace and is on track to generate +85% topline growth, significantly increasing the total net revenues this year, said Sadigh. Under Pablos outstanding leadership, Digital Luxury Group has attracted many of the best digital luxury talents in China, expanded to a new office, and has been selected as a key social media partner by brands such as Montblanc, Four Seasons Hotels & Resorts, Leica, Dior, Swarovski, and many others.

Before taking the reins at DLG China in 2012, Mauron held management roles at Digital Luxury Groups Geneva office, leading the agencys search engine and display advertising services. It has been an incredible journey so far, and the potential is still ahead as luxury and premium brands invest more and more in Mainland China, looking for creative and innovative social media solutions that target both the wealthy and the booming middle class in China but also abroad as the Mainland travelers are more strategic than ever, commented Mauron. We are already the social media services leader of the luxury and prestige segment in China, we are now looking at doing the same for online CRM and e-commerce.

This year, DLG China is hosting the 2nd Luxury Society Keynote in China, the first Shanghai-based conference dedicated to luxury professionals. Past Luxury Society Keynote event speakers include Net-a-Porter, Alibaba, Farfetch and MCM and partners which include Google, Baidu, KPMG, Bloomberg, Criteo, and Teads, amongst others. For more information on past events: http://lskeynote.evolero.com/cn15

About DLG China

Digital Luxury Group is the digital partner of forward-thinking luxury brands. In China, DLG specializes in digital and social media marketing and communication services, working for brands such as Leica, Dior, Montblanc, Four Seasons Hotels & Resorts, Baume & Mercier, Landmark, Alexandre de Paris, Atelier Swarovski, Fendi, Christian Louboutin, MCM, Blue Nile, De Beers, Vacheron Constantin, Kempinski, and others.

DLG has built a unique framework driven by both data and qualitative analysis to decipher the online behavior of affluent and sophisticated Chinese consumers. The company provides both the strategic skillset and the creative and execution capabilities to develop digital communication and marketing activities targeting the Chinese consumers both in Mainland China and abroad. For more information: http://www.digitalluxurygroup.com

About Luxury Society

Luxury Society is the world's most influential online community of top luxury executives. Based in Paris, with members in more than 150 countries, Luxury Society informs and connects CEOs, managers, journalists, consultants, designers and analysts from across the luxury sector, in industries as varied as fashion, design, art, jewelry and timepieces, beauty, travel and hospitality, yachting, private aviation, automobiles, private banking, real estate and personal services. For more information: http://www.luxurysociety.com
Filipino expats call home every 2 days on average and favor best performing economies and the most liberal societies. Cheapest calls to Philippines! I've been a customer of tawagpinas.com for several years. I've never had any problems with them. I've never seen a service with cheaper rates.(Robert Jones on Trustpilot.com)

A recent study powered by TawagPinas.com, the website dedicated to the Filipino diaspora worldwide, has recently discovered some interesting data about Pinoy migration preferences and habits. The research was carried out on thousands of Filipino customers on TawagPinas.com who use the service for their international calls and top ups to the Philippines: http://tawagpinas.com/

One of the most obvious trends in international migration reveals that Filipinos favor best performing economies in the world, as well as the most liberal societies. Japan and China are not on the list, instead the countries Filipinos moved to in the past years are the USA, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada and New Zealand, just to mention the top five major preferences. United States is know as the second country in the world, after China, with the largest economy, according to a recent Forbes article. UK is in top 10 largest economies, Canada is not only on the most economically successful countries, but also one of the most liberal ones.

Filipino expats call home every 2 days on average, which aligns them with the general pattern of expats of different ethnic origin. In other words, they do not contact their families in the Philippines more often or less often than expats of different nationalities.

An important factor that make calls to mobiles and landlines affordable are the rates on TawagPinas.com. It is 9.9 cents/minute to call landlines and 13.9 cents/minute to call mobiles in the Philippines, no matter where one lives. Plus, there are 3 ways to call, which makes TawagPinas balance available from home, on the go, with or without Internet connection.



Many Filipinos abroad place calls to the Philippines using access numbers that do not require Internet access and work like a virtual calling card.

Some use KeepCalling app installed on their smartphones without paying anything.

A few make calls from PC to any phone using a PC app called Web Call; it requires no download and can be found in one's free account with TawagPinas.com.

Filipino expats talk more than Haitians and less than Mexicans with their families and friends back home. They spend 9 minutes on average for an international call with someone in the Philippines. Yet, topics are the same: life updates, news, complaints, confessions, appraisals, etc.

There are two holidays when the Filipinos get more talkative than usually: Amon Jadid, the Islamic New Year, and Christmas. They are both family reunion holidays, with strong roots within the community. The calling technology is logically the best way to compensate for the distance in between.

Also, the recent research outlines that Pinoy are as generous with their families and friends as any other nation on the planet in expat conditions. Thousands of hundreds of Pinoy expats use TawagPinas.com to send mobile credit gifts to people in their motherland with the same frequency as the Caribbean, Africans and Latinos. Once a month seems to be the trend. On TawagPinas.com, mobile credit can be sent to mobiles in the Philippines subscribed to Globe, Smart or Sun.

In conclusion, Filipino-origin expats support their families and friends back home constantly. They not only send money and material gifts, but also mobile credit for several good reasons. It takes less than 1 minute to refill a mobile miles away. The credit gets to the Pinoy relative or friend instantly. Plus, there frequent promotions on top ups to Globe, Smart and Sun that bring plenty of extra free credit for local and international calls, sometimes even data, without any hassle and any extra investment.

TawagPinas.com has been serving Filipinos worldwide for more than 14 years. In time it has well developed thanks to feedback received from the Filipinos using the service, and it is now certified by many entities like BBB, Verified and Certified, TRUSTe and others visible in the footer of the website.

Many Filipinos remain loyal to TawagPinas.com for several reasons that override other services that facilitate international calls and top ups to the Philippines:



Free features can be activated any time to make international calls feel like local calls in terms of price, dialing procedure, phone Contacts import and connection.

Thank You points are offered automatically on every purchase for future gift calls.

Rates are the lowest on the global market, while call quality is high.

All transactions are available in the online account.

The Voice Credit balance never expires.

There are no hidden fees on any of the products (Voice Credit, Monthly Plans, Mobile Recharge)

Multiple actions are possible using the same account; for example, a Filipino expat can buy Voice Credit for his/her international calls, and occasionally top up a mobile in the Philippines or elsewhere in the world, using the same account.

There are 3 different ways to call and text with and without Internet access: a smartphone app for Android and iOS, called KeepCalling, access numbers that require no Internet access and can be used from landlines, pay phones, smartphones and old generation phones; and Web Call desktop app that requires no download (available in one's account) for calls from PC to phone.

Promotions and other goodies are shared or advertised on Facebook, where the Filipino community is growing daily: https://www.facebook.com/I-miss-Philippines-139370678405/?fref=ts

TawagPinas.com is an interactive website designed by KeepCalling, a global telecommunications company registered in 2002 in USA. Presently, KeepCalling provides its services to hundreds of thousands of consumers and businesses, with a focus on customer satisfaction. KeepCalling has been listed by Inc 5000 as one of the fastest growing companies in the USA for 5 consecutive years. In 2015 the company registered a revenue increase of over 200% from 2011 to 2014.
Cloud provider SherWeb has added Microsoft Azure to its lineup of products and services, a move that will provide its customers with award-winning technical support for this world-renowned platform.

SherWeb made the announcement today, adding that Azures extensive list of integrated services and tools will allow its clients to build and deploy a much wider range of IT projects. Clients who sign up for Azure will also have access to Performance Cloud, SherWebs own Infrastructure-as-a-Service offering. SherWeb will sell Azure through Microsofts Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) program.

Guillaume Boisvert, SherWebs Director of Product Management for Performance Cloud, said this new offering will boost SherWebs reputation as a leading Cloud Service Provider. The companys clients will also have access to an impressive range of cloud services.

Best of the Best in Cloud Solutions

Were equipping our clients with the best of the best in new cloud solutions, said Boisvert. When we combine Azure with what our Performance Cloud can do, we now cover the complete spectrum of hosting-related services: from launching a .NET application in a German datacenter to running traditional ERP on high-performance virtual machines.

SherWeb is a Microsoft Gold partner and its technical support team is one of the best in the industry. SherWebs Microsoft-certified technicians will ensure clients understand Azure and feel confident about executing their next cloud project.

Aziz Benmalek, Vice President for Worldwide Hosting & Cloud Services at Microsoft Corp., said the company relies on its partner network to drive the ongoing transformation to the cloud.

Customers are rapidly adopting hybrid cloud solutions to help grow their businesses. By adding Azure, SherWeb will own the end-to-end cloud customer lifecycle while adding new levels of support,  said Benmalek. Microsoft is proud to have SherWeb as a partner and we look forward to the work they will be doing with Azure.
As one of the largest repositories of confidential files within any organization, email is fertile ground for hackers, at high risk for employee mistakes and a treasure trove of information in litigation."

Global Technology Resources, Inc. (GTRI), an award-winning IT consulting services firm, and Absio, a cyber security and data control software development company, today announced a strategic alliance in which the two companies are combining cyber security expertise, innovative software and consulting experience to deliver a solution that improves the security and control of digital information.

The companies will collaborate on joint offerings across relevant Absio product lines and GTRI practice areas. By offering Absios Dispatch secure email application suite, GTRI clients can automatically encrypt email messages and attachments, and maintain that encryption everywhere. Adding GTRI to the Absio partner program further expands Absios footprint in the enterprise and government markets.

Businesses use email every day to store, distribute and discuss critical information. As one of the largest repositories of confidential files within any organization, email is fertile ground for hackers, at high risk for employee mistakes and a treasure trove of information in litigation, said Rob Kilgore, President and CEO, Absio Corporation. We are pleased to add GTRI to our growing roster of trusted affiliates and look forward to helping our mutual customers transform security for the modern enterprise.

The combination of Absios technology with GTRIs methodology and expert consultants gives customers a solution that not only protects sensitive information, but provides a team of security and business specialists that understand all the complex angles of security from where to start, to analyzing risk, and implementing the right solutions.

We are focused on helping businesses protect their digital assets from the threat of a cyber security attack. With the addition of Absio to our best-of-breed cyber security partners we are rounding out our cyber security suite to address threats from the device, network, user, social media and email levels, said Greg Byles, CEO, GTRI. The alliance with Absio enables our team to provide additional expertise for solving the business challenges associated with security risks so that we can help our clients optimize costs and productivity, while at the same time keeping these risks at bay.

About Absio Corporation

Absio provides a new approach to information securitythe ability to secure and control your data everywhere, all the time, even on someone elses network or device. Originally developed to secure and control Army intelligence data, Absios patented technology enables any software application to persistently secure and control its unstructured data (files) while in storage, in transit, and in use on any system or device. Built using Absio technology, Dispatch is an easy-to-use, multi-platform email application that automatically secures messages and attachments everywhere they exist, and enables senders to control what their recipients can do with the emails once accessed. The Dispatch application is available as a plug-in to Outlook for Windows, and as a standalone email application for Windows, Mac, iOS, and Android devices. For additional information, please visit http://www.absio.com.

About GTRI

GTRI provides industry-leading consulting and technology services that help clients derive real business value from their technology investments. With deep foundations in both networking and data center technologies, we support clients across a broad spectrum of industries with IT strategy, planning, private and cloud architectures, implementation and IT operations. Learn more at http://www.gtri.com.

# # #

GTRI is a registered trademark of Global Technology Resources, Inc. Absio and Dispatch are registered trademarks of Absio Corporation. Other company and product names may be trademarks of their respective owners.
In just two short months, Child Care Resource Center (CCRC) will honor its 40th anniversary with a gala on September 17th, 2016 at The Hummingbird Nest Ranch in Santa Susana, CA!

This grand event features a red carpet champagne entrance, live music performed by Overstreets New Orleans Jazz Band, whiskey tasting, an elegantly-plated dinner and dancing. Fundraising includes silent auction, a wine pull, and grub grab!

Close to 400 guests are expected to attend the 1920s themed event and more than 50% of tickets are already sold. General admission tickets for the fundraiser are $250 per person. Sponsorships and tribute book acknowledgments are also available.

Proceeds from this monumental event will be used in the following ways:



Science Technology Engineering and Math (STEM) curriculum training for Head Start teachers and STEM materials for preschool classrooms in the content areas of earth sciences, physical sciences, scientific inquiry, nutrition, and life sciences.

Literacy and library services in four locations spanning 22,500 square miles. Parents learn how to read with children, receive free age-appropriate books with corresponding learning activities, as well as information regarding child-development ages and stages.

Healthy nutrition and movement classes and learning materials, and support for children, families, and child care providers.

Over the past 40 years, CCRC has helped over 1,000,000 families become more successful by assisting them in hundreds of ways, big and small. Across our 22,500 square mile service area, we emphasize the importance supporting clients through early childhood development, parent education, financial assistance, and child care provider training and support.

To purchase tickets for CCRCs 40th Anniversary Gala, visit http://www.ccrcca.org or call 1-866-67-4KIDS.

About CCRC: CCRCs mission is to cultivate child, family and community well-being. The agency is a federally recognized 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.
We build our customers based on communication skills and knowledge, says Guy Sako. We are prepared to meet the particular needs of every customer.

Defense Soaps long range objective is to offer natural skin care products that wash away fungus, bacteria and viruses to the world based on antimicrobial essential oils that have been used for more than 10 thousand years.

This month a game-changing agreement will be announced that will give the type of marketing momentum most companies can only dream of, an instantaneous entry into the fastest growing consumer market in Hong Kong, Macao and ChinaNatural products that promote the health of infants in Asia.

This is reality and part of a larger overall strategic plan that is falling perfectly into place for Defense Soap LLC and Greenville Converting LTD.

Hot on the heels of launching a global wholesale/reseller program, Defense Soap inked a distribution partnership with Greenville Converting LTD.

It is exactly this type of forward growth Defense Soap was targeting when contacted by Greenville Converting LTD about extending their reach into the infant skincare markets in Asia.

"We listened to what Greenville Converting LTD had to say and decided to pursue a brand extension with them that focused on minimizing skin infections among infants, even though it might not immediately have any rate of return, explains Guy Sako, Defense Soaps Chief Executive.

We committed a tremendous amount of resources to build a relationship with Greenville Converting LTD. The result is that we are now able to offer the Chinese marketplace a very effective, safe, and clinically proven line of hygiene product for infants.

Vincent Conti, Chief Marketing Officer uses analogies to get his point across, explaining that marketing soap products globally is like when, in the 1940s, airlines began developing regional services to first establish brand integrity. That made the leap forward to national and international routes as the brands value increases and demand grew so much easier.

Defense Soap saw that the solution to becoming a global brand relied on two pillars of marketing faith, each contributing to its competitive advantage: quality superiority and customer appreciation.

On the quality side, the companys objective was and always will be to offer products based on such high quality that no competitor can possibly compete with.

The second pillar is customer appreciation. The kind of explosive growth the company has achieved in the last 10 years is unheard of. The quality is there and the customers are happy. No mention of dissatisfaction, rare, if at all, talk of poor service, product returns are virtually non-existent. The structure of Defense Soaps customer service department is unique among consumer products companies.

We build our customers based on communication skills and knowledge, says Guy Sako. We are prepared to meet the particular needs of every customer. If you want 1 bar of soap we will be happy to sell you one bar of soap. If you want 10,000 bars for the entire USA Olympic contingent, we can do that, too.

Guy Sako says that the few competing products out there are structured more like a home business, providing the users simply a handmade bar soap, with few batches consistent from one to the next. It is the modern triple milling process, he says, and the pharmaceutical grade essential oils that contribute to consistency, and longevity of all our products. That is how convincing groups like Greenville Converting LTD that Defense Soap is the company to partner with in the Asian market.

From a corporate point of view, this Asian distribution agreement, positions Defense Soap LLC to take fast advantage of a rapidly growing market. Product development requires significant outlays, but once the products, pricing and promotions are there, the rest is clockwork.

With Greenville Converting LTD, experienced sales teams will represent the Defense Soap infant product lines in pre-determined markets, instantly giving Defense Soap reach in a market that would have been impossible to develop on its own.

Our approach is to partner with intelligent, honorable and established people that are very connected to their audiences and to work with them in exploring opportunities to help them grow, explains Guy Sako. We understand that to operate directly in a market you need to be physically present, and that is very challenging. Our business model is going to be based on finding partners and partnerships and collaborating closely.

Vince Conti, is more tight lipped about corporate strategy, choosing his words with care. He does offer a few gold nuggets, however, including a peek at Defense Soaps vision.

Many companies look at their products and try to figure out a way to sell it, he says. The reason we feel confident in this marketplace is because we are looking toward relationships. We are looking forward to fulfilling the needs of our partners, to help them get to where we feel they are going. We build our partnerships so that we are ready to serve those needs and opportunities as they grow. We are very excited about the future and knowing that this is just at the beginning.
Sometimes the best way to get back to having a good nights sleep is to work with a specialist ...

A new study out from Biological Psychiatry points out the importance of getting the correct amount of sleep. Findings reveal something that Northern California Medical Associates pulmonary specialist and board certified sleep expert Dr. James Marco Steele is all too familiar with. Many people believe that its too little sleep that causes health issues, where in fact it is both too little and too much sleep that can eventually lead to health problems.

The report indicates that both sleep disturbances and long sleep duration lead to increased incidents of inflammation, a condition that contributes to both depression and many medical illnesses, according to study editors. Considered a public health problem by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention sleep disturbances such as insomnia have been associated with increased risk of inflammatory disease. In fact, The Institute of Medicine studies have correlated chronic diseases including hypertension, diabetes, depression and obesity, along with several types of cancer and increased mortality with people who also suffer from sleep disorders and sleep deprivation.

Getting the right amount of shut-eye

Biological Psychiatrys analysis demonstrated that both sleep disturbance (defined as poor sleep quality or complaints of insomnia) and prolonged sleep durations of more than eight hours resulted in elevated levels of proteins in the bloodstream that leave patients vulnerable to the ravages of inflammation. They also suggest that treatments targeting sleep behavior could be a strategy for reversing the inflammation and reducing the risk of inflammatory illnesses. For some people, getting the right amount of sleep can only happen with the help of an expert.

Sleep problems such as chronic snoring, sleep apnea, insomnia as well as restless legs syndrome are actually quite common. Sometimes the best way to get back to having a good nights sleep is to work with a specialist, says Dr. Steele. Good sleep is essential for maintaining optimal health. For example, without the right amount of sleep, a persons hormone levels can become affected, causing mood swings and issues such as weight gain. If insomnia persists for several hours each night for more than a couple of months, its a good idea to get a medical consultation.

What to expect from an expert

Most experts agree that adults should sleep at least seven hours per night on a regular basis in order to maintain optimal health. For someone with persistent insomnia going to a sleep center can help identify the problem and offer solutions for a variety of issues including;



Chronic Snoring

Insomnia

Narcolepsy

Pediatric sleep disorders (night terrors, sleep walking, etc.)

Restless leg syndrome

Sleep apnea

Some adults may need a longer sleep duration exceeding nine hours per night, says Dr. Steele. People who need more hours can include young adults and people suffering from a chronic illness. There are some adults who are naturally short sleepers that continue to feel alert and refreshed on less than six hours per night, but thats a fairly small percentage of the population. The best advice is to talk to your doctor if you are concerned about your sleep patterns, or if you feel constantly fatigued. For an ongoing sleep problem, seeking out the help of an accredited sleep center might be the best solution.

About Dr. Steele and NCMAs Sleep Centers

NCMA Pulmonologist James Marco Steele, MD provides diagnostics, treatment and management of a full spectrum of pulmonary diseases. He is Board Certified in Sleep Medicine, Pulmonary Medicine, Internal Medicine as well as Critical Care by the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM). For more information, visit the NCMA website or call (707) 525-3786.
Failures in leadership and communication practices can undermine loyalty program Brand ambassadorship begins on the inside of a company.

To create customer enthusiasm that leads to brand loyalty and brand ambassadors, the employees have to feel that enthusiasm first. "Brand ambassadorship begins inside of a company," says Denise Graziano, President and CEO of Graziano Associates. In fact, creating a positive employee experience (EX) is essential to creating a positive customer experience (CX). EX and CX have a direct impact on revenue, retention, brand image and brand loyalty. Below Graziano Associates outlines how failures in communication or leadership can have a negative impact on customer loyalty programs

Gallup estimates that only 34% of US workers are engaged in their jobs. One third of employees are somewhat engaged, and another third are disengaged. The disengaged group poses the most danger to a company by their actions, or lack thereof. Given those stats, it should be clear that employee engagement or EX should be as much as a priority as CX. Very often though, C-suite executives incorrectly view both of these initiatives as nice to have budgetary considerations. In reality these initiatives have a direct impact on revenue, retention and brand image. Thus, many customer loyalty programs are destined to fail before they launch because enough attention has not been given to building enthusiasm for brand, message, mission and company loyalty on the inside of an organization, says Graziano.

Why this happens

Two of the root causes that undermine an otherwise well considered customer loyalty program are communication and leadership, especially where the two intersect. When companies fail to execute in these two areas, there will almost always be a negative impact with employees.

Clarity of Communication:



Brand message and mission - it should be clear from bottom to top of the company and conveyed in myriad ways.

Set accurate expectations when an employee is hired

Engage in regular dialog with employees on a departmental level about mission, goals and their role in the productivity plan

Appreciation should be shown regularly in varied ways that appeal to the age/diversity of a companys workforce

Conduct frequent (not just annual) pulse surveys with employees to gauge morale, mood and concerns

Encourage innovation and sharing of ideas

When tough choices and/or changes must be made, they must be well communicated to employees first

Strong Leadership:



Proper training of new managers and ongoing education for senior leaders

Weed out disengaged workforce

Fair expectations of productivity

Awareness to motivate and inspire

Visibility and interaction with all levels of employees

Transparency

Responsiveness to concerns and situations

Lead by example

In each instance above exists the potential for far-reaching problems in an organization. With respect to derailing a customer loyalty program, if your employees dont feel that they are part of the success and mission of the company and cannot embrace the enthusiasm to create a positive customer experience, its an uphill battle from there to create loyalty.

Failures in communication and leadership will also lead to issues with attracting and retaining top talent, which causes increases in operating costs, reduced productivity and a decline in the overall Customer Experience.

How Leaders Can Create Customer Loyalty Programs that Work

The first step in any customer loyalty program must be to extend the same loyalty to your employees, your front line  that you extend to your customers. Employees should know that they are a part of the success of any customer-facing programs. Assess communication and leadership business practices with your employees experience in mind. Create Brand Ambassadors from within first, to ensure they share the enthusiasm you want your customers to expect when working with your organization.

Click here to read the full text of this article.

Denise Graziano is a leading authority in helping mid-market and larger companies to improve customer and employee experience. A strategic thinker and leader with 30 years of business experience, Denise is a speaker and author of numerous articles and resources on customer experience, employee experience, client retention, sales, and trade show practices. She is President and CEO of Graziano Associates, which helps fast-growing companies in the business-to-business market capitalize on customer and employee interactions  to deepen loyalty, improve engagement, and support sustainable growth.
"For over 40 years, INCO COMMERCIAL has developed a close relationship with the City of Long Beach and surrounding communities due to its commitment to providing the highest quality commercial real estate services."

On June 16th, 2016, INCO COMMERCIAL was officially honored by the Long Beach Chamber of Commerce with the prestigious Industry Award at the 125th Long Beach Chamber of Commerce Gala. The award is designed to provide community-wide recognition of organizations that go above and beyond what is expected of them in serving the local community, creating jobs, and supporting the regional economy.

The award was presented during the 125th Long Beach Chamber of Commerce Gala, an annual event held in the Long Beach Convention Center. The gala celebrated the 20th anniversary of the Long Beach Commercial Real Estate council, so it was fitting that local commercial real estate firm INCO COMMERCIAL be recognized. In addition to the award itself, certificates of recognition were presented to INCO COMMERCIAL on behalf of the United States House of Representatives by Congressman Alan Lowenthal, and also on behalf of the State of California Senate by California State Senator and Chair of the California State Senate Appropriations Committee Ricardo Lara.

For over 40 years, INCO COMMERCIAL has developed a close relationship with the City of Long Beach and surrounding communities due to its commitment to providing the highest quality commercial real estate services and putting the needs of their clients before profits. This has benefitted both local businesspeople and the regional economy.

INCO COMMERCIAL helps local businesspeople break down barriers to entry with expert local market knowledge, needs analysis, and professional business consulting. They also help grow the regional economy by matching the right companies to the right commercial spaces, maximizing revenue opportunities in the City of Long Beach, and by offering high quality employment opportunities to local workers.

Beyond local business interests, INCO COMMERCIAL is highly involved with local non-profits which improve the quality of life for everyone in the Long Beach community.

For more information about INCO COMMERCIAL, please see their website at http://www.incocommercial.com, or call 562-498-3395.
1106 Hillcrest Road It is truly an honor to work with a visionary like Miguel. As a luxury lifestyle real estate brand, Aragones cutting edge, contemporary designs fall perfectly in line with the our premium portfolio and artistic appreciation. -- Karen Sanchez

International real estate brand, Engel & Volkers, is proud to work with world renowned Architect, Miguel Aragones, introducing his first Los Angeles development to the premium real estate market.

Aragones style is easily identifiable  simple, sleek, and elegant, with an exotic blend of nature and architecture. Known for designing in a manner that makes time stand still, Aragones has mastered the art of creating blissful continuity in his projects, never defining indoors from outdoors, only exhibiting a sequence of spaces. Set atop a private perch with city and ocean views on Hillcrest Road in the exclusive Trousdale Estates neighborhood of Beverly Hills, the modern marvel replicates the themes found throughout Aragones exquisite work.

This Hillcrest hideaway emulates another one of Aragones E&V represented projects in particular, his Los Cabos wonder  Mar Adentro  a one of a kind resort and residential complex built on the ideals of well-being, relaxation, and peace of mind to create a unity between individuals and their surroundings. Yawar Charlie and Karen Sanchez of The Charlie and Sanchez Realty Group at Engel & Volkers Beverly Hills are thrilled to represent Aragones stunning projects both locally and abroad. The dynamic advisor duo is teaming up with Fred J. Bernstein and Ethan Peskowitz of the Westside Estate Agency to co-list 1106 Hillcrest Road, bringing the property to the forefront of the market.

It is truly an honor to work with a visionary like Miguel, says Sanchez. As a luxury lifestyle real estate brand, Aragones cutting edge, contemporary designs fall perfectly in line with the our premium portfolio and artistic appreciation.

With unwavering comfort and privacy, top-tier amenities and technological capabilities, and designs that capture the essence of the location, Aragones promises a first class living experience.

About Engel & Volkers

Since its establishment in 1977 as a specialty boutique providing exclusive, high-end real estate services in Hamburg, Germany, Engel & Volkers has become one of the worlds leading companies specializing in the sale and lease of premium residential and commercial property and yachts. Engel & Volkers currently operates a global network of real estate advisors in more than 700 residential brokerages and 75 commercial offices spanning 36 countries across 4 continents, offering both private and institutional clients a professionally tailored range of luxury services. It established its North America corporate headquarters in 2007 and opened its first brokerage in the same year. Committed to exceptional service, Engel & Volkers supports its advisors with an array of premium quality business services, marketing programs and tools, multiple platforms for mobile, social and web, as well as access to its global network of real estate professionals, property listings and market data.

# # #

For more information please contact:

Sheela Shouhed

Director of Communications

Sheela.Shouhed(at)evusa(dot)com
Clifford Toney Not only was Clifford a great ambassador for the City of Jonesboro, he was a well-known fellow auctioneer and competitor and our friend

The remaining estate of well-known and respected real estate investor, auctioneer, and community leader Clifford Toney will sell at auction August 18 and 22. Much of the proceeds will benefit Toneys Alma Mater, Williams Baptist College in Walnut Ridge, Arkansas, and Central Baptist Church of Jonesboro, Arkansas.

Selling on August 18, the real estate portion of the auction features 1.72 acres of commercial property located across from Turtle Creek Mall, the highest traffic location in Jonesboro. This property has been in the Toney family for nearly a century. A 20.86 acre tract of commercial/industrial land, known as The Pit, located on I-555 in Jonesboro will also sell, along with his personal residence and a rental home.

An impressive variety of personal property will sell at online auction, ending August 20. Toneys collections reflect his appreciation of quality-made items and he maintained his possessions in a pristine manner. The highlights of the personal property portion of the auction include a Taylor Acoustic guitar, GZan Custom handcrafted electric guitar (akin to one played by Bob Seger), multiple Rolex and other fine watches, firearms, jewelry, coins and antiques.

SoldASAP, LLC, (Tasabah & Associates, LLC, broker) will conduct the Real Estate auction live with online simulcast bidding available and the personal property online only. "We are truly honored to have been chosen as the auction company for such a good cause and for such a good man, says auctioneer John Malone, CAI, PRI. Not only was Clifford a great ambassador for the City of Jonesboro, he was a well-known fellow auctioneer and competitor and our friend.

The live real estate auction will be held at the Central Baptist Church on August 18 at 7 p.m. The personal property will sell online only, ending on August 22. For photos, bidding and details, visit soldasap.com or call SoldASAP at (870) 236-6117.

Located in Arkansas, with over 18 years experience in the auction business, SOLDasap.com specializes in helping estate executors, landowners, business owners and families sell assets and property. Family owned and operated by John & Tasabah Malone, SOLDasap.com stays on the leading edge of technology and marketing through their partnership with MarkNet Alliance, a national, membership-based network of 60 auction companies. The collaboration with MarkNet Alliance allows the company to market any asset on a global level.

Media Contact: John Malone, john(at)soldasap(dot)com, (870) 236-0632
Ms. Zibelman is a recognized national and international expert in energy policy, markets, and Smart Grid innovation.

HOMER Energy, developer of the industry-leading HOMER software for modeling hybrid renewable energy systems, has announced that Audrey Zibelman, Commissioner of the New York State Public Service Commission, will give a keynote address on November 7 at the HOMER International Microgrid Conference 2016 in New York City.

Dr. Peter Lilienthal, HOMER creator and HOMER Energy CEO said, We are excited to announce Ms. Zibelman as keynote speaker for HOMER International Microgrid Conference 2016. She is a recognized national and international expert in energy policy, markets, and Smart Grid innovation. As PSC Chair, she has been a driving force behind New Yorks groundbreaking REV (Reforming the Energy Vision), which is giving the state a leadership role in promoting microgrids. I can think of no one more qualified to address our international conference than Ms. Zibelman.

As PSC Chair, Ms. Zibelman oversees the regulation and safety of New York's electric, gas telephone, cable, water and steam utilities. During her tenure, Ms. Zibelman has been responsible for designing and leading the regulatory and retail market changes of the electric industry under Governor Andrew M. Cuomo's Reforming the Energy Vision, New York's comprehensive plan to modernize and transform the state's electric industry.

Ms. Zibelman was the Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of the PJM Power Pool and Founder, past President and Chief Executive Officer of Viridity Energy, Inc., which she formed after more than 25 years of electric utility industry leadership experience in both the public and private sectors. She is a member of the U.S. Department of Energy's Electricity Advisory Committee; a member of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratorys Future Electric Utility Regulation Advisory Group. Ms. Zibelman is also a board member of the Advanced Energy Research and Technology Center (AERTC).

HOMER Energy will present its 4th Annual International Microgrid Conference November 7 and 8 at Columbia University in New York City. With a theme of Microgrid Lessons from Global Markets, the conference will feature two days of high-quality presentations on the state of the art in microgrid deployments and planning, with a strong focus on the practical challenges and solutions in microgrids today.

For more information on the conference and to register visit MicrogridConference.com.
FITZ HENRY LANE'S NEW BEDFORD HARBOR, estimated at $300,000-500,000.

Mark your calendars for the premier auction event of the summer season - James D. Julia's annual August Fine Art, Asian & Antiques sale to be held on August 24th-26th, 2016!

The first day of this event includes over 650 lots and makes waves with some truly outstanding paintings and bronzes. These include Edward Willis Redfields River Decorations (estimated at $80,000-$120,000) and two works by Andrew Wyeth, River Greys and By The Lower Dam. Each is estimated at $20,000-$40,000. Another mane attraction in this elite category would be Wilhelm Kuhnerts Resting Circus Lion Couple, estimated at $30,000-$50,000.

Year after year, Julia's is universally acknowledged for its leadership in the categories of works featuring Maine artists and themes, as well as Rockport School paintings. Vivian Milner Akers Bird Brook Winter, estimated at $8,000-$12,000, is certain to take flight with enthusiasts. It is the largest Akers that Julias has had the pleasure of selling. And its a family affair when it comes to the amazing selections of works by Maines own Peirce family. Waldo Peirces Autumn Leaves With Kittens (estimated at $8,000-$12,000) and Gabrielle In A Cap (estimated at $4,000-$6,000) are truly pretty as a picture. This sale also features several paintings by his lesser known, but not lesser talented wife, Elzira Peirce. These include Key West (estimated at $2,000-$4,000); Family Group (estimated at $1,500-$2,500); and Ring Necked Lady, estimated at $1,000-2,000.

This sales selection of Rockport School paintings is outstanding and features favorite Cape Ann artists including Gruppe, Glackens, Morrell, and Gillette, among many others. Aldro Hibbards Winter Landscape, Vermont, and Anthony Thiemes Gloucester Fisherman are first class all the way. Both are estimated at $8,000-$12,000.

Keeping with the theme of school spirit, Julias is pleased to present a fine collection of paintings from the Pennsylvania New Hope School of artists. These impressionist style works include Kenneth Nunamakers farm inspired Plum Blossoms (estimated at $20,000-$30,000) and Arthur Meltzer Once A Barn, estimated at $8,000-$12,000.

The bronze selections in day one of this sale are heavy favorites. Jud Hartmanns monumental 48 x 24 Susquehannock depicts a Native American Indian as described by The Voyages of Captain John Smith from 1607-1609. It is estimated at $10,000-$20,000. Rolling right along, Abastenia St. Legar Eberles joyful Girl With Roller Skate takes the wheel with its $10,000-$15,000 estimate. According to our catalogers, this is the first example sold or offered in recent auction history. And two small bronzes of horses by Renee Sintenis are estimated at $6,000-$9,000 each.

Day one also includes a fine selection of works by Canadian artists. Theres certain to be boatloads of interest in Jack L. Grays Chockle Cap, Lunenburg Co, Nova Scotia, which is estimated at $20,000-$30,000. And for those who prefer land over water, Frederic Remingtons pen and ink wash on paper Trail Riders is a solid choice and is estimated at $15,000-$25,000.

Auction day two features over 600 lots of outstanding American and European antiques, furniture, historical items, and nautical paintings and hardware at center stage. Paintings featuring seafaring vessels of all types make a huge splash in this upcoming sale. It's all hands on deck with Fitz Henry Lanes New Bedford Harbor. This unsigned oil on canvas is housed in a fabulous Eli Wilner & Co. frame and will be included in the online Fitz Henry Lane catalog raisonne published by the Cape Ann Museum (http://www.fitzhenrylaneonline.org). It is estimated at $300,000-$500,000.

Other nautically themed highlight paintings include James Buttersworths Yachting In New York Harbor (estimated at $20,000-$40,000) and several works by Montague Dawson, including his The Lofty Trader -The Scottish Moors Built 1890 - estimated at $40,000-$60,000. Robert Salmons Outward Bound, Long Island Head, Boston Harbor is estimated at $20,000-$40,000. James Bards Portrait Of The Steamboat Daniel S. Miller On The Hudson River is estimated at $50,000-$80,000. An outstanding two sided watercolor featuring the ship Factor" on one side and the Bark "Vermont" on the other comes with full family provenance and is estimated at $5,000-$10,000.

Collectors favorite Antonio Jacobsen is well represented with six examples including Portrait Of The American Black Ball Line Ship Columbia, estimated at $8,000-$12,000. Also included are six works by Thomas Hoyne including his Parting The Crest Helen G. Wells At Gloucester; Taking A Bath On Georges; and Five To Port 1983. Each is estimated at $15,000-$25,000.

Low tech, nautically inspired hardware is prominently featured throughout the second day of this sales event. The eagle soars with a mid-19th C patriotic carved paddle box lunette from MA, estimated at $20,000-$30,000. Also of interest is a collection of outstanding, early, and all original Nantucket lightship baskets, one of several fine lots from the Mayhew-Pinkham-Coleman Family Estate of Nantucket, MA. These families and their descendants were the earliest residents of Nantucket Island, with roots in the 17th C. These six early swing-handled baskets are estimated at $3,000-$5,000.

This auction offers a fantastic array of decorative and functional items, including a fine selection of antique clocks. Up-to-the-minute clock highlights include an Abel Hutchins New Hampshire clock with rocking ship movement (estimated at $6,000-$8,000); a handsome and important Aaron Willard Clock (estimated at $20,000-$40,000); a Chippendale Simon Willard clock with a Roxbury case, estimated at $3,000-$6,000; and a Chippendale Mahogany dwarf case clock by Walter Cornell. This petite treat is only 38-3/4" tall and is estimated at $8,000-$12,000.

Quality antique furniture is another signature category for Julias. Highlights here include a Boston William & Mary walnut gateleg table from the early 18th C originally owned by the Butler-Sigourney families of Boston and Oxford, MA. It is estimated at $25,000-$50,000. Another is a MA carved mahogany dropleaf dining table with a Cumberland" mechanism in the manner of Thomas Seymour. This remarkable piece is from the Leverett Saltonstall estate and is estimated at $18,000-$20,000.

Also on offer are two remarkable chests including a MA figured mahogany blocked end reverse serpentine chest of drawers from around 1770, estimated at $3,000-$5,000. And an early 18th C three-panel MA pilgrim oak chest carved with the initials "RS is estimated at $10,000-$20,000.

Enthusiasts looking to add large, visually interesting treasures to their collections need to look no further than this sale. A cigar store Indian Princess trade figure attributed to Samuel Robb of New York features a maiden with a feather headdress. She is estimated at $45,000-$65,000. A circa 1875 tobacconist figure of an Indian attributed to Thomas Brooks is estimated at $35,000-$45,000. And two early 19th C carved and painted pigeon trade signs which were originally mounted around the perimeter of the Pigeon Cove Inn in Knob, ME are estimated at $2,500-$3,500 each.

Top selections of weathervanes include a copper E.G. Washburn and Co. leaping stag weathervane estimated at $10,000-$15,000. And its off to the races with a late 19th C Chackney horse weathervane estimated at $8,000-$12,000.

It wouldnt be a Julias sales event without some remarkable and unexpected historical items and flags, and this sale more than delivers in these important categories.

Bidders are certain to get into a heated battle over a rare and historic New England Long Fowler inscribed and dated 1776. This important firearm, deaccessioned from a local historical society, was used by Benjamin Baldwin at the Battle of Bunker Hill. Baldwins Fowler is estimated at $6,000-$8,000.

Also on point here is an officer's saber inscribed to "Little Big Horn" survivor and Congressional Medal of Honor recipient Captain Edward Godfrey, Company K, 7th US Cavalry. Godfreys sword, along with a photograph of him holding it, is estimated at $8,000-$12,000.

One incredible lot, an archive of the submarine USS Nautilus journey beneath the North Pole, includes a small flag inscribed "This was presented to me by the Skipper of The USS Nautilus SSN 571 after her North Pole run 3 Aug 1958" signed by C.W. Nimitz. This archive, which includes ephemera, insignias, and patches, is estimated at $8,000-$12,000.

This sale also features two very interesting Civil War-era flags. The first, a silk, hand sewn Civil War Battle Flag of The 92nd New York Infantry, is the only known surviving flag of this unit. It is estimated at $8,000-$12,000. The second is a Confederate battle flag marked on the hoist by Thomas Alexander Brander, artillerist in the Virginia Artillery, Army of Northern Virginia. The flag has highly credible family provenance dating it back to the Brander family and is estimated at $4,000-$6,000.

Textiles and folk art have a strong showing in this sale. A gorgeously rendered, 1765 schoolgirl pictorial needlework sampler from Essex County, MA will put collectors in stitches with its $12,000-$25,000 estimate. A colorful 19th C applique album quilt is a thing of beauty and is estimated at $6,000-$9,000. Folk art selections include a 19th C carved Bergen County, NJ blue painted corner cupboard (estimated at $10,000-$15,000) and a stunning late 19th C carved Abraham Lincoln inspired inlaid carved walnut wall mirror, estimated at $15,000-$25,000.

Other categories featured during the second day of this comprehensive sale include rugs, stoneware, accessories, Object d'Art, and antique silver, among many others. Sterling highlights here include a Hester Bateman silver sugar bowl urn, estimated at $3,000-$4,000 and a covered silver sugar urn with the hallmark of Joseph Richardson of Philadelphia, estimated at $4,000-$6,000.

The third and final day of Julia's annual summer auction is dedicated to contemporary decorative arts, unusual offerings, and Asian art. Over 750 lots of exciting, high quality, and intriguing merchandise are on offer.

A collection of 19th C Quimper pottery adds an appealing French accent to the mix. Of particular interest is a lot of four fine pieces of Quimper, including an unusual pair of bellows-formed wall pockets. The lot also includes a tray and compote; this quartet is estimated at $3,000-$5,000. A fabulous six-piece sterling beverage service, in the Champlain pattern and manufactured by The Ellmore Silver Co., is estimated at $4,000-$6,000. And a monumental Le Funi urn by Gio Ponti, only one of three examples known, is estimated at $50,000-$100,000.

Everyone knows by now to expect the unexpected at Julias Fine Art, Asian & Antiques sales - whether they be in the auction gallery, on the phone, or participating online. A great surprise is an antique Swiss music box by Piallard Vaucher Fils. This example plays twelve operatic selections by Verdi, Handel, Donazetti, Rossini, Faust, and others and it is estimated at $4,000-$6,000. A second surprise is an enormous collection of British, Edwardian, and American postage stamps, lovingly curated by a local Maine resident over the course of a lifetime. The stamps have the equivalent face value of about $300,000; the collection is estimated at $16,000-$20,000. And its impossible not to get hooked on this third surprise highlight - a collection of 18k & 14k gold, gold on silver, sterling, gold-filled, silver filled and silver-nickel crochet holders with changeable hooks patented in 1924 by Brooklyn jeweler Samuel H. Burns. This is a salesman's kit which includes display samples of each of the 13 different production models plus additional stock and related ephemera. This most unusual archive is estimated at $3,500-$5,500.

Day three also features about 250 fine Asian items, including furniture, sculptures, paintings, jewelry, cloisonne, jades, and porcelain.

An intricately carved Chinese bamboo brush pot is a breath of fresh air and estimated at $8,000-$10,000. An impressive early 20th C Chinese cloisonne footed censer, decorated with Taoists masks, is estimated at $3,000-$4,000, while a Ming Dynasty-era cloisonne basin is estimated at $6,000-$8,000. And an absolutely exquisite, green jade bowl dating from the Qing Dynasty is estimated at $4,000-$6,000.

Another highlight is an impressive, 19th C Chinese export Rose Mandarin dinner service in the bird in the lantern pattern. This lot includes traditional tableware plus matching platters, serving dishes, nesting bowls, tureens, and other service items. It is estimated at $17,500-$22,500. Also of note in the porcelain category is an important Republican period pair of porcelain plaques By Wang Dafan, estimated at $30,000-$40,000.

More information on James D. Julia's outstanding three-day Summer Fine Arts, Asian and Antiques auction, as well as the full catalog, can be found online at http://www.jamesdjulia.com. This auction has a full-color, detailed, and illustrated print catalog available for $45. In addition to pre-bids, telephone bids, and in-person bids, James D. Julia accepts bids via Invaluable.com as well as Bidsquare.com. Bill Gage, Tony Greist, and Katya Tilton welcome your questions and inquiries; they can be reached at antiques@jamesdjulia.com or by calling 207-453-7125.

This event will host its preview starting on August 23rd, 2016 from 9am-5pm. All items are available for examination starting at 8am each day of the event. The auction will be held on August 24th- 26th, beginning at 10am each day at Julias facilities at 203 Skowhegan Road in Fairfield, Maine.

About James D. Julia, Inc.:

James D. Julia, Inc., one of the top ten antique auction antique houses in North America as measured by annual sales, is headquartered in Fairfield, Maine. The company also has an office in Boston, Massachusetts. In business for over 45 years, the company conducts high-end antique, collectible and fine art auctions throughout the year. Julia's has routinely established new world records through its sales events. The company consists of three key divisions, including Rare Firearms; Fine Art, Asian, and Antiques; and Rare Lamps, Glass, and Fine Jewelry. Each division is regarded for its excellence and is staffed with world-class specialists to guarantee fair and professional authentication, identification and valuation services. For more information on James D. Julia, Inc., please visit http://www.jamesdjulia.com.
Brightwell Payments, Inc. "We are committed to delivering to Carnival Cruise Line the industry's most advanced payments technology for employee compensation."

Brightwell Payments, Inc. (Brightwell) has been selected by Carnival Cruise Line for the delivery of Brightwells market-leading services for the global electronic distribution of payroll. Under a multi-year agreement, Carnival will deploy the Brightwell Navigator payments platform, a web-based technology that delivers access to money transfer services and Brightwells OceanPay Visa Prepaid Card to meet the needs of geographically-dispersed, multinational shipboard employees. Brightwell Navigator will be made available to over 30,000 Carnival crew members around the globe.

We are impressed by Brightwells offering, stated Jim Heaney, CFO of Carnival Cruise Line. Brightwells strong reputation for service and dependability were important drivers of our decision to work with them.

The Brightwell Navigator platform enables crew to self-manage how they wish to be paid by maintaining and communicating instructions for automatic transfers to home bank accounts, payment directly to the OceanPay Card, and/or the transfer of funds to over 500,000 retail money transfer agents around the world. Beneficiary bank account details, the transfer currency, and distribution amounts are managed directly by the crew member and can be changed at any time. The platform ties easily to existing payroll software and removes the administrative burden that employers face in managing large volumes of money transfers.

Brightwell Payments OceanPay Card integrates seamlessly with Brightwell Navigator. The OceanPay Card is the maritime industrys most widely used prepaid card and enables maritime crew the security and cost efficiency of reduced reliance on cash-based transactions. In addition, the OceanPay Card enables cruise and commercial shipping employers to reduce cash onboard while providing crew members with a financial tool that can be used to make purchases online and in port and to perform one-off transfers to a bank account or for cash pick up at a retail location.

We are pleased to have earned the right to work with such a respected partner as Carnival Cruise Line, stated Mike Gaburo, CEO of Brightwell Payments. We are committed to delivering to Carnival the industrys most advanced payments technology for employee compensation. Brightwell Navigator will allow Carnival to enhance crew welfare while gaining administrative efficiencies, enhanced security, reduced fraud, and lower transaction costs.

About Brightwell Payments

Brightwell Payments, Inc. is an international payments and technology company offering comprehensive, award-winning payment solutions for corporations and consumers. Brightwell Payments Navigator payments platform and its international maritime paycard program, the OceanPay Card, combine to provide a proprietary, comprehensive solution designed to mitigate the unique challenges and concerns of existing payroll processes faced by the maritime industry. More than 300 customers and 200,000 individuals choose Brightwell to make over $700M in secure, cost-effective global payments each year. Visit http://www.brightwellpayments.com to learn more.

Brightwell Payments is a portfolio company of Navigation Capital Partners, an Atlanta, GA-based private equity firm which makes control growth equity and buyout investments in lower middle market business services companies. Visit http://www.navigationcapital.com.

About Carnival Cruise Line

Carnival, a unit of Carnival Corporation & plc (NYSE/LSE: CCL; NYSE: CUK), is "The World's Most Popular Cruise Line" with 25 ships operating three- to 16-day voyages to The Bahamas, Caribbean, Mexican Riviera, Alaska, Hawaii, Canada, New England, Bermuda, Europe, Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands. The company currently has an as-yet-unnamed 133,500-ton ship currently under construction and set to debut in 2018.

The OceanPay Visa Prepaid Card is issued by The Bancorp Bank pursuant to a license from Visa U.S.A. Inc. The Bancorp Bank; Member FDIC.

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"The conference is designed to strengthen awareness and actions to manage invasive species, as well as promote local prevention activities."

Most people in the Upper Midwest this summer have been soaking up as much of the sun and nature as possible before the return of winter. But some of nature's beauty comes at a cost. Wild Parsnip, an invasive Eurasian weed that has become a growing problem for natural areas all across the Upper Midwest, can cause a blistering skin rash when the plants natural chemical that is left on skin interacts with sunlight. Some people can develop a severe blistering rash from touching Wild Parsnip that can last for several months, according to Dr. Mark Renz, University of Wisconsin - Madison Extension Weed Specialist.

The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources recommends covering a rash with a cool, wet cloth. Dont pop blisters, keep the area clean and apply an antibiotic or cortisone cream. By learning to recognize the plant in different seasons and in different stages of growth, people can steer clear of it.

The fourth biennial Upper Midwest Invasive Species Conference (UMISC) to be held October 16-19 will teach participants how to identify, remove, and control Wild Parsnip in addition to dozens of other invasive plants, animals, and fish.

UMISC is the most comprehensive information exchange on invasive species affecting lands, forests, rivers, lakes, and wetlands in the Upper Midwest. With over 250 presentations, 2 plenary sessions, an exhibit hall, and networking opportunities, this is the largest regional gathering for people working on the research, management, and control of invasive species in the Upper Midwest and one of the largest in the US.

"UMISCs theme is 'Sharing Innovative and Practical Solutions' said Mark Renz, University of Wisconsin  Madison Extension Weed Specialist and conference co-chair. "The conference is designed to strengthen awareness and actions to manage invasive species, as well as promote local prevention activities."

Researchers, land managers, natural resource professionals, educators, students, landscapers, lake association members, agency employees, and anyone interested in learning more about invasive species are invited to attend the conference at the La Crosse Center in La Crosse, WI. Over 600 people are expected to attend.

In addition to six concurrent sessions on most days, workshops will train attendees on invasive species identification and communication skills. Several field trips on Monday afternoon will bring attendees to scenic areas around La Crosse to view invasive species management and research in action.

Registration for the three full-day conference through September 1 costs $250, but a 20% discount is available with membership to one or more of the host organizations. Single-day rates, reduced rates for students, and press passes are available. For information and registration, visit http://www.umisc.net or contact conference administrator Belle Bergner at 414.967.1350 or bbergner(at)umisc(dot)net.
Team Mumbai celebrate the grand opening of their new office. These office moves are just one way that Gensuite continues its mission to expand into new markets and to serve more subscribers globally.

Over the last few weeks, Gensuites teams in Mumbai, India; Aguascalientes, Mexico; and Austin, Texas, USA moved to new offices! The move to larger offices in each of these global Gensuite office locations is tied to our expanding global presence and need for user support services to subscribers in every world region!

We were near maximum seating capacity at our old office, said our Mumbai Operations Leader about the move, echoing similar sentiments from Austin and Aguas! The new offices will provide our teams more space for growth, updated amenities, and a place for out-of-town team members and customers to visit. Gensuites Austin Team expressed excitement as they shared the news, Our new office is so much better and brighter, and includes a great break room which our team members are very excited about!

The main priority of this global office expansion was not only to give Gensuite team members the resources needed to progress, but ultimately was achieved to give these global locations the ability to efficiently serve each region. By improving and growing Gensuites global locations, the teams are able to provide utmost support to subscribers in the area, furthering the extension of the Gensuite community! The Aguascalientes team says that their new office will certainly enhance the quality of their work, stating, the new office will improve our overall team performance, providing better services to our local subscribers!

These office moves are just one way that Gensuite continues its mission to expand into new markets and to serve more subscribers globally. Gensuites Headquarters office in Mason (Cincinnati), Ohio is also looking to expand their current office in Fall 2016.

Gensuite is a cloud-based suite of award-winning, integrated Web applications enabling compliance, operational excellence and risk management. The result of two decades of systematic innovation and evolution, Gensuite now comprises over 65 applications providing comprehensive program support for Environment, Health & Safety (EHS) and Sustainability; as well as Quality, Security Program Management, Responsible Sourcing, Product Compliance, and other functions. All Gensuite applications share an innovative and patented architecture, with integrated and intuitive interfaces, real-time trending & analytics, and best-in-class Mobile capabilities. Gensuite subscribers are assured of an absolute commitment to and a track record of product & service excellence, with services spanning hosting, maintenance, support, customization, implementation & strategy consulting and continuous product evolution; and an unmatched collaboration and innovation platform community spanning 100+ subscriber companies!
The Worksite Wellness Council of Massachusetts (WWCMA) has announced the final agenda and speakers for the Fifth Annual WWCMA Conference. The conference will take place Tuesday, September 20, 2016 at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, MA. The 2016 conference theme is Employee Well-Being: Shifting the Focus and will feature keynote speakers Susan Frankle, Healthways, Dan Whitter, Gallup-Heathways and the Gallup Well-Being Index, Alyssa Dver, President and founder of The American Confidence Institute, and Allen Campbell, Author and Chef. Attendees will have full access to an innovative line up of worksite wellness sessions and presenters.

Topics and sessions include:



New Discoveries in Workplace Well-being  How to Promote a Culture of Well-being to Create High-Performance Employees

Digital Health

Career Well-being  Keys to Making Your Career Fulfilling

The Corporate Wellness / Corporate Training Connection

Defining Financial Wellness and the stages in a robust Financial Wellness Program

Kickass Confidence  The Key to Connecting and Controlling Both Mind and Body

Guided Meditation Experience: Stress Less - Learn to Meditate

Gaining the Edge on Your Physical Well-being

Obstacles or Opportunity  Empowering Yourself and Your Communities

Eating to Live in 2016

The WWCMA wellness conference is a must-attend event for employer wellness leaders and implementers who want to share their best practices, success stories, and ideas on creating employee well-being. Over 250 employers, worksite health promotion professionals, and human resource professionals will come together to learn and collaborate at one of the premier event locations in the state. Over thirty-five worksite wellness product and service providers will be exhibiting for the day.

Register today! Early bird rate in effect until July 31, 2016.

About WWCMA

The Worksite Wellness Council of Massachusetts (WWCMA) is the preeminent, independent, and objective resource for health promotion in the workplace. A 501c3 not-for-profit member organization, WWCMA champions wellness programs that help employers encourage healthy employees, healthy families, and healthy communities across the Commonwealth. The council offers innovative wellness best practice programs, training, and events along with insightful resources and tools to help educate and advance Massachusetts organizations and their corporate wellness teams. Visit us at wwcma.org and follow us @WorkWellMass.
The new Hospital International de Colombia, located in the town of Piedecuesta. Most importantly, this is a milestone for the people of this region, who will have access close to home to high-quality, leading-edge cancer careaccess that will save lives.

One of the most advanced cancer centers in Colombia, developed and managed in partnership with UPMC, is preparing to open near Bucaramanga to provide care close to home for both children and adults. The new Oncology Institute is part of a recently opened 870-bed hospital owned by UPMCs long-time partner Fundacion Cardiovascular de Colombia (FCV), acclaimed for its high-quality cardiac care.

The 200-bed Oncology Institute at the new Hospital Internacional de Colombia (HIC), located in the town of Piedecuesta, will provide state-of-the-art medical and radiation oncology treatments to patients who previously traveled hundreds of miles to receive such care in other regions. Colombia alone will see nearly 80,000 new cases of cancer this year, a number expected to grow to 113,000 cases annually over the next 10 years.

UPMC is assisting us with everything from developing cancer care protocols to physician training to preparing for Joint Commission International accreditation. This collaboration will ensure that the Oncology Institute becomes the leading provider of cancer services for this region, said Victor Castillo, M.D., chairman of FCV. This partnership, he noted, builds on FCVs successful seven-year relationship in cardiology with Childrens Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC, which includes remote monitoring of pediatric intensive care unit patients by Childrens physicians.

The opening of the Oncology Institute brings UPMCs globally renowned cancer expertise to South America for the first time, said Charles Bogosta, president of UPMC International and UPMC CancerCenter. Most importantly, this is a milestone for the people of this region, who will have access close to home to high-quality, leading-edge cancer careaccess that will save lives.

Financed and operated by FCV, the Oncology Institute includes chemotherapy and highly specialized radiotherapy services, with future plans for a bone marrow transplant unit. Additionally, the institute offers a palliative care program, counseling and nutrition services, and a pain management program.

The center houses one of South Americas first Varian TrueBeam STx linear accelerators, which delivers high-dose radiation to treat the most challenging tumors, including breast, lung, prostate and head and neck cancers. The goal is to minimize disabling side effects for patients while maximizing survival.

FCV and UPMC physicians and staff will be joined for a grand opening event at the hospital on July 28, including the president of Colombia, the minister of health and other dignitaries. With the support of the Colombian government, the new hospital and cancer center are expected to create 6,000 jobs and spark economic development in the free trade zone where the facility is located.

UPMC, which operates more than 40 cancer treatment centers around the world, is acting as co-manager of the Oncology Institute and will continue to provide on-the-ground support to FCV through dedicated staff members in Colombia, supplemented by visiting staff from Pittsburgh.

Through UPMC International, UPMC shares its clinical, technological and managerial knowledge and expertise with partners around the world, customizing solutions to benefit patients and regions. The goal is to transform the delivery of health care while supporting UPMCs patient care and research mission.

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About FCV

The FCV is a private, nonprofit organization in northeastern Colombia, South America, residing in Bucaramanga's Metropolitan Area, which leads cardiovascular issues in its country and is a pioneer in research. The FCV develops and manages a variety of health solutions in different areas that impact both Colombia and Latin America. This organization not only does the administration of medical services, but also develops its own surgical supplies such as sutures and disposable clothing. Its Cardiovascular Institute, located also in Bucaramanga's Metropolitan Area, is the Healthcare Service Provider (HSP) with the greatest number of recognitions and accreditations at the national and international level in Colombia. In 2005, it became the first HSP to be accredited nationally by Icontec, and in 2009 it was the first in the country to obtain international accreditation by the Joint Commission International. According to the last survey of America Economia Magazine, the Cardiovascular Institute is in the top five of the most important clinics among the Latin American health care organizations evaluated. As part of its new strategy, the FCV will expand its many specialties and services through the International Hospital of Colombia, which will have five specialized institutes and seven centers. The FCV also plans to add a set of high complexity hospitals in different regions of the country to be part of an integrated network of health services. For more information, go to http://www.fcv.org

About UPMC

A world-renowned health care provider and insurer, Pittsburgh-based UPMC is inventing new models of patient-centered, cost-effective, accountable care. It provides more than $892 million a year in benefits to its communities, including more care to the regions most vulnerable citizens than any other health care institution. The largest nongovernmental employer in Pennsylvania, UPMC integrates 60,000 employees, more than 20 hospitals, more than 500 doctors offices and outpatient sites, and a more than 2.9 million-member Insurance Services Division, the largest medical and behavioral health services insurer in western Pennsylvania. Affiliated with the University of Pittsburgh Schools of the Health Sciences, UPMC ranks No. 13 in the prestigious U.S. News & World Report annual Honor Roll of Americas Best Hospitals. UPMC Enterprises functions as the innovation and commercialization arm of UPMC while UPMC International provides hands-on health care and management services with partners in 12 countries on four continents. For more information, go to UPMC.com.

http://www.upmc.com/media
Zetec Inc., a global leader in nondestructive testing (NDT) solutions, today announces in preparation for the pending retirement of Robert (Bob) Vollmer, that Mr. Kihang (Ki) Choi will assume responsibilities as Vice President for the Steam Generator business unit. Over the next several months, the two leaders will work closely together to ensure a smooth transition. Mr. Vollmer, a 26 year veteran at Zetec, will continue to consult with the company, focusing on strategic projects and key customer accounts.

Mr. Choi is well positioned for running the largest business unit at Zetec, having been with the company for over 13 years. In his most recent role as Vice President Asia Sales, Mr. Choi, has successfully grown the Asia market for Zetec through his extensive business development and channel management expertise. He was instrumental in establishing the Korea and China offices of Zetec, and proactively responded to customer needs surrounding the nuclear disaster at Fukishima in Japan. He has an undergraduate degree in Computer Science from Belmont Abbey College and an MBA from Duke University.

On behalf of everyone at Zetec, we are grateful for Bobs numerous contributions, outstanding leadership and accomplishments over his career, states Wayne Wilkinson, President of Zetec. Wilkinson adds, "The selection of Ki to succeed Bob reflects a deliberate and focused succession plan. We are fortunate to have someone of Kis caliber and are confident he is the right leader to help drive the Steam Generator business unit forward into its next phase of success."

As a result of Mr. Chois new responsibilities, Zetec has commenced a search for his successor as Vice PresidentAsia region.

About Zetec

Zetec is a global leader in nondestructive testing (NDT) solutions for the critical inspection needs of industries the world counts on every dayincluding power generation, oil and gas, transportation, heavy industry and manufacturing. We serve as a single source for high-performance solutions in both eddy current and ultrasonic technologies. For nearly 50 years, weve advanced NDT standards and science, providing new insight and control through inspection solutions that protect our customers most important assets and ensure the quality of their products. By integrating design and engineering with our own manufacturing, Zetec delivers solutions that optimize productivity, safety and total cost of ownership. Zetec is a subsidiary of Roper Technologies, Inc., with global engineering and manufacturing centers in Quebec City and at our corporate headquarters in Snoqualmie, Washington. Zetec support spans the globe, with Centers of Excellence in Houston, Paris, Seoul, Shanghai and Tokyo. For more information about Zetec, visit: http://www.zetec.com and follow us on Linkedin.

Zetec is a registered trademark or trademark of Zetec in the United States and/or other countries. The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.

The information provided in this press release contains forward looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws. These forward looking statements include, among others, statements regarding operating results, the success of our internal operating plans, and the prospects for newly acquired businesses to be integrated and contribute to future growth and profit expectations. Forward looking statements may be indicated by words or phrases such as "anticipate," "estimate," "plans," "expects," "projects," "should," "will," "believes" or "intends" and similar words and phrases. These statements reflect management's current beliefs and are not guarantees of future performance. They involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward looking statement. Such risks and uncertainties include our ability to integrate our acquisitions and realize expected synergies. We also face other general risks, including our ability to realize cost savings from our operating initiatives, general economic conditions, unfavorable changes in foreign exchange rates, difficulties associated with exports, risks associated with our international operations, difficulties in making and integrating acquisitions, risks associated with newly acquired businesses, increased product liability and insurance costs, increased warranty exposure, future competition, changes in the supply of, or price for, parts and components, environmental compliance costs and liabilities, risks and cost associated with asbestos related litigation and potential write-offs of our substantial intangible assets, and risks associated with obtaining governmental approvals and maintaining regulatory compliance for new and existing products. Important risks may be discussed in current and subsequent filings with the SEC. You should not place undue reliance on any forward looking statements. These statements speak only as of the date they are made, and we undertake no obligation to update publicly any of them in light of new information or future events.
Depicted is the TruStrip Dog Progesterone test cards.

Alpha Diagnostic International, Inc. (ADI) is excited to announce the launch of TruStrip Rapid Progesterone Test Kit for determining the ovulation period in dogs and cows. This test kit greatly simplifies the process of screening dogs and cows for their most ideal breeding time. The results of the test are obtained within a matter of minutessimilar to performing a home-based pregnancy test. This new product builds upon the previous ELISA-based test kit for ovulation testing supplied by ADI. For a video demonstration of the TruStrip Rapid Progesterone Test, please visit: https://trustrips.com/TruStripRDT/RDT-Videos

Progesterone is a hormone produced and released into the blood by the corpus luteum in the ovary and plays an important role in maintaining pregnancy. The corpus luteum is formed after the follicle has ovulated and is maintained during gestation if a dog or cow is pregnant. Normal levels of progesterone hormone are very low prior to ovulation  typically much less than 5 ng/ml. Just prior to ovulation, progesterone levels spike to approximately 5 ng/ml, which is the ideal time for conception to occur.

Traditionally, animal owners have relied upon methods such as visual cues, cytological scans of vaginal swabs, ultrasound scans, and in some cases, endoscopic examinations. While these methods are reliable to varying degrees, the time it takes for a trained veterinarian to perform an evaluation can often result in missed fertile periods. Fertile periods in dogs are very short and timing is of the essence for successful conception. In addition, all existing technologies, including the ones that measure progesterone levels using ELISA-based methods, are expensive and require specialized training, facilities, and equipment to perform the tests. The TruStrip Rapid Progesterone Test Kit will allow dog and cattle owners to determine the ideal time to breed the animal in a much timelier, reliable, and economical fashion compared to the traditional testing methods that they have been relying upon, says Dr. Masarrat Ali, Scientific Director and President of ADI.

Inaccurate ovulation detection is one of the mostly costly problems for dairy producers. A dairy producer can lose up to $3 per cow each day that a cow is open beyond the 90 days of post-calving. An estimated 5% to 25% of cows are not in heat when inseminated. By using the progesterone test, the accuracy and efficiency of ovulation detection can be increased. The TruStrip Rapid Progesterone Test Kit will have a big impact on the overall productivity and profitability of the dairy farming business due to the significant reduction in the number of open cows, added Dr. Ali.

The TruStrip Rapid Progesterone Test Kit is available as a 10-test, 25-test, or 100-test kit and contains all reagents, test strips, and positive and negative control samples. The kit is designed and optimized for screening serum samples from dogs and cows. This kit is recommended for use by veterinarians and other individuals who are qualified to draw blood from dogs and cows. Further details are available at http://www.trustrips.com

About Alpha Diagnostic International, Inc.: ADI is a privately held, U.S. biotechnology company headquartered in San Antonio, Texas. ADI develops, manufactures, and supplies novel diagnostic and quality control reagents and test kits for use in basic biological and disease research in humans and animals. An important mission of ADI is to develop and supply diagnostic and validating solutions for promoting global health through improved vaccine therapeutics and mitigating the spread of human and animal diseases. For additional details, please visit: http://www.4adi.com
gen-E OpsCenter is a Finalist in Enterprise Software Category We are honored to have been selected as a finalist in the OC Tech Alliance High-Tech Innovation awards, said Marc Hayden, CEO, gen-E.

gen-E, the rapidly-growing service assurance and advanced analytics Software Company, has been named as a finalist in the Enterprise Software Category of the Orange County Technology Alliance Annual High-Tech Innovation Awards for its gen-E OpsCenter InfiniView Software.

InfiniView is a business intelligence solution that helps Communication Service Providers (CSPs) and Fortune 500 enterprises understand how their entire business is performing against key performance indicators and industry standards by aggregating and analyzing divergent data across departments.

We are honored to have been selected as a finalist in this years awards, said Marc Hayden, CEO, gen-E. gen-E has always looked for ways to help our customers run their networks and their businesses at peak performance; so its gratifying to be recognized for innovation by the prestigious OC Tech Alliance.

Our judges had their work cut out this year and Orange County companies submitted a record number of nominations, said Peter Craig, CEO, OC Tech Alliance. We congratulate @gen-E for being selected as a finalist. This selection demonstrates an ex-ample of the many companies with roots in Orange County driving technology innovation locally and globally.

Now in its 23rd year, the High-Tech Awards is Southern Californias premier awards pro-gram event celebrating achievement among the regional tech industry. The OC Tech Alliance honors local companies, leaders and technology products that make Orange County a technology hub. The winners will be announced at a gala dinner on October 6, 2016, at the Westin South Coast Plaza.

In addition to the product awards, OC Tech Alliance will recognize excellence among chief executives leading Orange County-based tech companies. OC Tech Alliance also will celebrate educators and students for their innovative use of science, math and technology in the classroom and the community in conjunction with Project Tomorrow. The organization is the nations leading education nonprofit group focused on preparing todays students to be tomorrows innovators.

About gen-E

gen-E is a leading advanced analytics and service assurance software and professional services company for service providers and companies with large, complex networks. We enable our clients to dramatically reduce costs, improve efficiency and deliver higher quality service by providing greater visibility, control and automation of their operational systems.

gen-E offers software and systems solutions to better manage a broad spectrum of service industry infrastructures, to provide a singular view into the health and performance of a customers en-tire IT and business infrastructure, integrating and consolidating tools and events across business, data center and network operations. gen-E is a part of the Lotus Innovations Fund portfolio of enterprise technology companies focused on providing Enterprise IT Professional services and products to a wide range of industries worldwide. http://www.gen-e.com

About Orange County Technology Alliance

The Orange County Technology Alliance (OC Tech Alliance) is a 501(c)6 nonprofit trade association committed to fast-forwarding the local innovation economy. It is the successor organization to the Orange County Council of TechAmerica and AeA. It is the only technology association addressing the needs of small-to-midsize technology companies and their leaders based in Orange County, Calif. The alliance serves members through local networking, professional development, state and federal advocacy, savings on business services and industry recognition. To learn more about membership, contact OC Tech Alliance at octech@octechalliance.com or http://www.octechalliance.com. Follow alliance activities on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/octechalliance.

About Project Tomorrow

Project Tomorrow is the nations leading education nonprofit organization dedicated to the empowerment of student voices in education. We believe that by supporting the innovative uses of science, math and technology resources in our K-12 schools and communities, students will develop the critical thinking, problem solving and creativity skills needed to compete and thrive in the 21st century. We approach our mission through national research projects, the development of innovative career exploration projects in schools and communities, online tools and resources for students, teachers and parents, and national and regional advocacy efforts. Learn more at http://www.tomorrow.org.
Ready to go in minutes. Including a customized mobile app with a company logo. ---priced for smaller company budgets and can be set up online, in minutes.

Walkingspree, a national corporate wellness program provider specializing in custom walking programs, is pleased to announce its new Small Business Solutions program. The program, created specifically for businesses with 500 or less employees, is unique in that it offers no contracts, can be set up in minutes, provides a branded mobile app and even offers a Bring Your Own Device option. With everything a small business needs in one package (including logo and branding), Walkingsprees walking program is a powerful new tool employers are getting excited about.

We feel this program really opens the door for organizations that have not had access to great wellness programs, says Nathan Pickle, Chief Revenue Officer at Walkingspree. The program can be set up online, in a matter of minutes, is reasonably priced for smaller company budgets and can even be set up on a month-to-month basis or long-term depending on preference."

Other features in the robust Small Business Solutions program include:



Bring Your Own Device option: Employees or organization members can use their own device and get started on their companys activity program as soon as its up and running. Walkingsprees programs are compatible with almost any activity tracker including apps on smartphones. Charlie Boyd, Manager of Distribution at Walkingspree says, Weve noticed that about 25% of a companys employees already have or wear an activity tracker or wearable device. Our Bring Your Own Device option allows employers to take this into consideration when designing their company wellness program.

Customized Mobile App: Walkingspree is also the only online activity program provider currently offering a customized, mobile app with a company logo. Companies can personalize the app which builds spirit, increases engagement and interaction.

Online Store: Wondering how to make sure everyone has a device to track steps and activity data? The Small Business Solutions program includes an online store allowing employees to shop for and select their own Fitbit device. Companies can choose a contribution option that each employee can use towards the purchase of a new device.

Walkingspree is also very proud of its strong customer and technical support team. Clients receive support on every subject from technical issues to how to questions. So, whether its a question about logging food into the food journal on the mobile app or accessing activity reports, clients are well taken care of. To learn more about the Small Business Solutions program, Walkingspree invites you to visit http://www.walkingspree.com/smb

About Walkingspree: Walkingspree specializes in custom walking programs where employees get engaged and energized and employers reduce health care claims. The company offers a Small Business Solutions program for companies with less than 500 employees and an Enterprise option for corporations with over 500 members. Walkingspree is a reseller with Fitbit and also partners with Garmin. Companies can connect with a variety of devices including both lines of Fitbit, Garmin and also devices like Apple Watch and smartphones. To find out how corporations, churches, hospitals, city governments and more are using Walkingspree, request a free demo at http://walkingspree.com/contact
Wendy Jackson The Land Trust Alliance  and land trusts across the nation  will greatly benefit from the extensive experience and strategic thinking Ms. Jackson has consistently demonstrated throughout her career.

The Land Trust Alliance, a national land conservation organization working to save the places people need and love by strengthening land conservation across America, today announced that Wendy Jackson will assume the role of executive vice president starting Sept. 19.

The Land Trust Alliance  and land trusts across the nation  will greatly benefit from the extensive experience and strategic thinking Ms. Jackson has consistently demonstrated throughout her career, said Andrew Bowman, Alliance president. She is a committed conservationist and a true champion of community-focused work who is ready to succeed at the national level. Were lucky to have her.

Jackson currently serves as executive director at Freshwater Land Trust in Birmingham, Alabama, a conservation organization. Since joining the land trust in 2001, she grew it from an unknown entity with zero assets to an award-winning nonprofit holding cash and land assets totaling more than $40 million. She oversees a $1.1 million operations and program budget with 10 staff, 18-member governing board, 16-member Presidents Advisory Board and 20-member Junior Board.

As executive vice president, Jackson will manage teams that deliver essential services to land trusts. She will create strategies to best deploy the Alliances policy, advocacy, community conservation and regional programs to serve the needs of land trusts and increase their effectiveness, all while helping the organization cultivate new donors and partnerships.

This is a win for the Alliance and land trusts of all sizes across the country, said Laura Johnson, Alliance board chair. We all will benefit from Ms. Jacksons perspective and experience with innovative projects and programs, and we look forward to welcoming her to the Alliance team.

Jackson, who worked for The Nature Conservancy from 1993 to 2001 as director of land protection and government relations for Alabama, said shes eager to join the Alliance and assist all land trusts, especially smaller organizations.

Ive been in the shoes of the small, local land trust and I know the challenges they face, she said. I also know how valuable it is to be backed by the Alliance. Thats why I see this as my opportunity to give back to a community that gave so much to me.

One of Jacksons most notable accomplishments has been to engage new audiences in Birmingham in conservation. She said that her land trusts work has been strengthened and expanded by listening to the needs of the community. In fact, Jackson believes that community conservation is immensely important and that such work is crucial for the future of land conservation.

Jackson said because it inspired her early in her career, shes looking forward to speaking at Rally: The National Land Conservation Conference this October in Minneapolis. The annual event is the nations largest gathering of land conservation leaders. For more information about Rally, visit alliancerally.org.

Everything Ive done for the community can be traced back to my first Rally, she said. It helped me to know what I had to do and why. That Ill now have a hand in empowering others is as exciting as it is humbling.

About the Land Trust Alliance

Founded in 1982, the Land Trust Alliance is a national land conservation organization that works to save the places people need and love by strengthening land conservation across America. The Alliance represents more than 1,100 member land trusts supported by more than 100,000 volunteers and 5 million members nationwide. The Alliance is based in Washington, D.C. and operates several regional offices. More information about the Alliance is available at http://www.landtrustalliance.org.

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edison partners small logo

Edison Partners proudly announced leading financing of New York City-based Predata, a pioneer in predictive event intelligence. Chicago Ventures and Conversion Capital also participated in the round. The investment will fuel continued product innovation and go-to-market expansion.

The Predata predictive analytics platform is used by hedge funds, corporate security officers, and government agencies to forecast geopolitical risk throughout the world. Using open-source intelligence (OSINT), the platform enables organizations to collect and visualize tens of thousands of digital conversations from a range of social and collaborative media channels on a daily basis. Regressing this data against historical datasets allows Predata to quantify the probabilistic nature of various destabilizing event types in more than 200 countries.

Predata is revolutionizing the predictive analytics landscape with its unique use of social conversation data and next generation machine learning that provides much more lead time than other solutions to take action prior to an event occurring, said Chris Sugden, Managing Partner at Edison Partners. We applaud the team for what they have accomplished to date and are thrilled to be a part of the next phase of the journey. With this investment, Chris Sugden joins the companys board of directors.

This milestone highlights Predatas success and opportunity in leading the predictive intelligence category with a differentiated approach to addressing the assessment of political, financial and market risk, said James Shinn, CEO at Predata. Chris and the Edison team bring much more than capital; their deep industry expertise, large network, and operating expertise made them the ideal partner as we drive further into the finance, corporate, and intelligence markets.

Predata is the tenth investment for Edisons latest fund, Edison Partners VIII, which closed last month. It is also the firms thirty-ninth investment by its Financial Technology practice. Notable exits include Edgetrade, FolioDynamix, GAIN Capital, Liberty Tax and Princeton Financial. Current investments include: BFS Capital, Billtrust, Clearpool Group, Compliance Science, OptionsCity, Scivantage and Trader Tools.

About Predata

Predata is using predictive analytics to build the worlds smartest platform for political, financial and market risk intelligence. Predatas secure, cloud-based platform enables customers to understand, visualize and anticipate dynamic, real-time shifts in online conversations about topics of interest to them. By focusing on patterns of online behavior on popular social and collaborative media services, Predata is able to capture and express the volatility of discussion online -- a unique approach applicable across a diverse set of topics, languages, interests and user groups. Combined with a proprietary event database, Predatas volatility signals provide users with early warning for different types of risk event in any given country, operational footprint, or area of interest. For further information, visit http://www.predata.com

About Edison Partners

For 30 years, Edison Partners has been helping CEOs and their executive teams navigate the entrepreneurial journey and build successful companies. Through the unique combination of expansion capital and the Edison Edge platform, consisting of strategic advisory, the Edison Director Network, and executive education, Edison employs a holistic approach to nurturing invention and creating value for growth stage businesses ($5 to $20 million in revenue) in financial technology, healthcare IT, enterprise IT, and marketing technology industries. Edison investment objectives also include: buyouts, recapitalizations, spinouts and secondary stock purchases.

Edisons active portfolio has created aggregate market value exceeding $5 billion. Its long-tenured team based in Princeton, NJ manages more than $1 billion in assets throughout the eastern United States.
Geographic Information Services, Incorporated (GISinc), congratulates the County of Roanoke, Virginia, on receiving three 2016 National Association of Counties (NACo) Achievement Awards. The county received Information Technology awards for their applications: Site Selector, PoliceView, and Mountain Valley Pipeline Viewer.

Our teams continue to work together to deliver meaningful solutions for the citizens of Roanoke County, said Kevin Stewart, Managing Partner, GISinc.

"Roanoke County partnered with GISinc to extend its web presence by enhancing the Esri Local Government templates. First, we took the Esri Basic Viewer template and created PoliceView and Mountain Valley Pipeline Viewer to engage the community, David Wray, GIS Manager, Roanoke County.

PoliceView provides citizens the ability to search for police activity surrounding a location. Mountain Valley Pipeline Viewer was developed to support the County Administration the ability to review the potential benefits of the pipeline as well as potential impacts to citizens, businesses, and natural resources with the County.

Second, we extended Esri's Site Selector to promote Economic Development in the Roanoke Valley. Our partnership with GISinc continues to grow as well as the benefits to the citizens of Roanoke County, Wray said.

Site Selector helps business owners and corporations search for and locate available buildings and sites, while combining their property search with key community and demographic information.

This last Esri Users Conference marked the four-year anniversary of the Roanoke County, Virginia, and GISinc partnership. During the conference, we took a little time to reflect on all of the accomplishments, accolades and progress they have made with GIS. This story is truly inspiring and serves as a good reminder that there is no substitute to good people. Congratulations to David and the entire team at Roanoke County and to the GISinc-ers that have supported throughout this entire journey, said Stewart.

GISinc continues to implement, deploy, and support award winning applications for state and local governments.

GISinc, celebrating 25 years in GIS, is an Employee-Owned company located in Birmingham, Alabama, with offices throughout the United States. GISinc has a passion for delivering customer driven location technology solutions to federal, state and local governments, including commercial organizations. For more information, please visit http://gisinc.com or call (205) 941-0442.
Dr. Centers and Dr. Chen Photo by William Burdine It is time to take the work and vision of OCC to the next level, and I agree with Dr. Chen that we can change the world one child at a time. The vision is bright at the OCC and our path is clear.

The Osteopathic Center for Children (OCC), a California public-benefit corporation, today announced the addition of a new physician, Ching Chen, DO. Founded, in 1982 by heralded osteopath Viola M. Frymann, DO, the Osteopathic Center for Children is world-renowned for treating children with complex neurological and other conditions and is as an internationally recognized teaching center for physicians.

Said R. Mitchell Hiserote, DO, president of the OCC board, Our goal of helping children from around the world is expanding; Dr. Ching Chen is a wonderful addition and part of our ongoing expansion.

Escaping Communist China as a child during the last years of the Cultural Revolution, Chen went to medical school after her aging grandmother was denied healthcare and specialized in physical medicine and rehabilitation after she became outraged by the poor treatment of returning American combat soldiers.

Chen likes to say she was made in China but born in America. As a youth having firsthand knowledge of Chinas Cultural Revolution, which included persecution of free thinkers and dissidents, Chen felt the pain of the students at Tiananmen Square. As an adult, she developed a passion about the fundamental aspects of democracy she missed as a child. These include the power of freedom of thought and the pursuit of happiness.

Dr. Chen shared, So many children who later become adults are imprisoned in stuck bodies. Others have stuck minds or stuck emotions. I am about helping the children and their families to become free of all that. I am about asking what else is possible and giving patients freedom.

Chen, who is an internationally known expert in osteopathic manipulation and board certified in physical medicine and rehabilitation, has extensive experience working with complex medical conditions such as cerebral palsy, traumatic brain injury, autism, and pediatric Lyme disease. She uses a unique skillset to serve patients, which includes traditional Chinese medicine, herbal medicine, rehabilitative nutrition, and osteopathic medicine. Osteopathic medicine focuses on addressing the structural imbalances in the muscles and connective tissue, including the brain and spinal cord. Using osteopathic medicine in conjunction with proper nutrition, traditional Chinese medicine, and an energetic approach called Access Bars, Dr. Chen has been able to achieve outstanding results in both children and adults.

Pediatrician Shawn K. Centers, DO, medical director and senior medical consultant for OCC said, We are very excited to have Dr. Chen with us. Having a physical medicine and rehabilitation physician who also is an expert in traditional Chinese medicine greatly expands our ability to help patients of all ages. In my 20 years of practice, I have not come across another physician like Dr. Chen. Her methods are truly unique. When you have a child who cannot walk and then starts walking or a child with no language who starts blurting out words, then you know something tremendous is happening. These are the types of miracles we see in patents treated by Dr. Chen. It is time to take the work and vision of OCC to the next level, and I agree with Dr. Chen that we can change the world one child at a time. The vision is bright at the OCC and our path is clear.
Kirk D. Willis, CEO, The Willis Law Group We look forward to the opportunities presented by this program, such as better contracting opportunities and the chance to team with other like-minded organization to provide exceptional services to the government of out great nation.

Kirk Willis Consulting Group PLLC (KWCG) is pleased to announce it has obtained its 8(a) certification from the Small Business Administration, designating it as a federally-recognized minority-owned company. The certification is valid for a nine-year time frame. KWCG is also a GSA contract holder under its parent company, Kirk Willis, P.C.

The 8(a) Business Development Program is a program designed to assist small disadvantaged businesses that are owned and controlled at least 51% by socially and economically disadvantaged individuals. This programs offers advantages to these types of companies by helping thousands of aspiring entrepreneurs gain a foothold in government contracting.

We are pleased to have attained this designation status, said Kirk Willis, CEO of KWCG. The process of obtaining an 8(a) certification is detailed to ensure companies with this designation genuinely fit the parameters as defined by the SBA. We look forward to the opportunities presented by this program, such as better contracting opportunities and the chance to team with other like-minded organization to provide exceptional services to the government of out great nation.

KWCG is committed to client satisfaction. Our team is known for our dedication to ensuring our customers expectations are exceeded, and that projects are completed on-time and within budget. Our services include:

Legal



ADR Training

Claims Review

Collections

Litigation

Real Estate

Transaction Consulting

Training



Business Development

Conflict Resolution

Diversity & EEOC

HR Consulting

Leadership

Administrative



Talent Acquisition, Placement & Management

Advertising

Events

Graphic Design

Independent Writers

Marketing

Website Development/Design

Information Technology



Custom Programming

Computer Support

Facilities Support

Facility Systems Design

Project Management

Software Application Development

Kirk Willis Consulting Group provides superior management consulting services to deliver precise solutions for our clients in the areas of legal, training, administrative, strategic placement and management, and information technology services.442- Whatever your aspirations are for your project, our team excels in helping you achieve and attain your goals to turn those aspirations into reality. Desire is a powerful force. Combine it with skill, experience, teamwork and a relentless drive to complete client goals and objectives correctly the first time, and you have the powerhouse team at Kirk Willis Consulting Group. Our competitive nature means we are compelled to outdo ourselves each and every time. Good enough is never satisfactory. Our goal is to deliver the Wow! factor on each project entrusted to our team. Get ready to be wowed.
The Vanguard Cleaning Systems brand has been ranked #4 on Entrepreneur Magazines Top Low Cost Franchises list for 2016. The magazine developed their Top Low Cost Franchise list by evaluating franchise opportunities which have a start-up cost of less than $60,000 and which were also included in the Entrepreneur magazine Franchise 500 list for 2016. Vanguard Cleaning Systems Master Franchise regional offices offer a number of options for purchase of Janitorial Franchises within this price range.

About the Vanguard Cleaning Systems Brand

Founded in 1984, the Vanguard Cleaning Systems organization is built upon over 3,000 independently owned and operated franchised commercial cleaning businesses, which are licensed and supported by a Master Franchise network of 56 independent regional offices throughout North America. Vanguard franchised commercial cleaning businesses service more than 15,000 businesses, healthcare companies, educational facilities, and non-profit organizations.

The Vanguard brand has been included among the top 50 franchises of Entrepreneur magazines annual Franchise 500 list for eight consecutive years. You can learn more about the Vanguard Cleaning Systems franchise organization at http://www.vanguardcleaning.com.
Mary Dameron and Heather Mazlik I can use this money to continue my education in order to provide a bright future for my son

SR Education Groups scholarship committee is pleased to announce their July 2016 Community College Scholarship winners: Heather Mazlik and Mary Dameron! There were over 200 applicants in this round and the decision was very difficult for the scholarship committee, as all the applicants were worthy. Heather Mazlik of Chattahoochee Technical College in Woodstock, Georgia and Mary Dameron of Davidson County Community College in Thomasville, North Carolina stood out due to their touching stories of perseverance.

"I was honored and delighted when I learned that I received this scholarship, said Mary Dameron of Davidson County Community College. These funds will allow me to attend nursing school so I can make a better life for me and my son." Mary is currently a CNA and works at a nursing home. Since she was 17, Mary has dreamed of becoming a nurse, and she is currently earning her Associates in Nursing with an impressive 4.0 GPA. She hopes to continue her education and earn a Bachelors in Nursing after gaining some crucial clinical experience.

Heather Mazlik was incredibly pleased when she found out she was the winner of the $2,500 scholarship. She told the scholarship committee, "I am extremely blessed and humbled to be given such a generous and wonderful opportunity." Heather is currently working towards her associates degree in accounting and hopes to go on to be a CPA. She went on to explain, I am beyond grateful for this scholarship and after facing many obstacles the past few years, I am finally optimistic that along with perseverance and strength, I can use this money to continue my education in order to provide a bright future for my son.

There were five outstanding finalists who did not win the July 2016 Community College Scholarships. SR Education Group awarded each finalist $100 and encouraged them to apply again in the next round of scholarships. "I know it takes hard work and drive to get what you want out of life and I will make my dreams come true, said one finalist. The five finalists for SR Education Groups July 2016 Community College Scholarships were: Victoria Zepeda, Carrie Shelley, Leylan LeCompte, Crystal Rodriguez, and Tiffany Danna.

For the next round of scholarships, SR Education Group is offering two $2,500 College Scholarships and one $5,000 Graduate Scholarship for Teachers.

About SR Education Groups Scholarships

SR Education Group is offering two needs-based $2,500 scholarships for full-time students attending a US community college. The next deadline for the community college scholarships is November 5, 2016. There is also a $5,000 needs-based graduate scholarship meant for teachers returning to school to further their careers. The deadline for the Graduate Scholarship for Teachers is October 23, 2016. Find out more at http://www.sreducationgroup.org/#scholarships

About SR Education Group

Headquartered in Kirkland, WA, SR Education Group was founded in 2004 by CEO Sung Rhee. The companys mission is to create authoritative online resources for students seeking an online education program that best suits their budget and career aspirations. SR Education Group is passionate about making quality education attainable for everyone and believes that objective information about education, careers, and educational financing should be free and easily accessible. For more information, please visit http://www.sreducationgroup.org.
When you empower people to do good in ways that are personally meaningful, youll see a collective response for the greater good. - Milliken & Company President and CEO Joe Salley

Milliken & Company raised more than $500,000 for local nonprofits in Spartanburg, South Carolina, during the companys new, multifaceted corporate giving campaign. The program supported United Way of the Piedmont and three Strategic Community Impact Organizations: Northside Development Group, Partners for Active Living and Spartanburg Academic Movement.

The 2016 Milliken Community Impact Campaign launched on June 6 with the goal to increase the companys direct local impact in Spartanburg, home to the companys global headquarters. The Strategic Community Impact Organizations were selected to align Millikens philanthropic initiatives with company core values of vibrant culture, health and quality education.

Notably, Milliken associates were able to designate donations to the nonprofits of their choice, allowing giving opportunities to resonate more deeply with each person. The Milliken Foundation matched associate donations to all four organizations.

When you empower people to do good in ways that are personally meaningful, youll see a collective response for the greater good, Milliken & Company President and CEO Joe Salley said on the success of the campaign. We work to inspire that profound sense of purpose every day throughout company and community initiatives. Were honored to be able to support Spartanburg citizens through significant charitable giving.

About Milliken

For 150 years, Milliken has been innovating with the purpose to explore, discover and create ways to enhance peoples lives. Our community of innovators has developed one of the larger collections of United States patents held by a private U.S. company. With expertise across a breadth of disciplines, including specialty chemical, floor covering and performance materials, we work around the world every day to add true value to peoples lives, improve health and safety, and help make this world more sustainable. For more information, visit http://www.milliken.com and join us on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

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Today, Ramapo College in New Jersey is being recognized by Hobsons, a leading provider of college readiness, admissions, and advising solutions, for its accomplishments in increasing student retention and establishing a campus-wide success network. The college will be named the Admissions and Student Success winner of the 2016 Hobsons Education Advances Awards during the annual Hobsons University user conference.

Ramapo College, which has achieved an 88 percent retention rate and 61 percent four-year graduation rate in recent years, is using Starfish by Hobsons to connect college staff and faculty across the campus to encourage student success, ensuring that both at-risk students and those on track receive the supports they need.

The success at Ramapo College reflects the importance of strong campus culture, and the thoughtful application of technology to advance institutional strategy, said Stephen M. Smith, President of Advising and Admissions Solutions at Hobsons. We are proud to support Ramapo College in its work to expand postsecondary opportunities for all students, and applaud the tireless work of the administration, staff, and faculty.

Two years ago, the college tapped Hobsons technology to replace its paper-and-pencil early alert system with a comprehensive early alert plan that has increased communication between the college and at-risk students, enabling advisors and faculty to support struggling students in real-time. For example, since the fall 2014 semester, the percentage of academic warning first-year students meeting with their advisors regularly each semester has increased from less than 20 to 62 percent.

Today, Ramapo College is on track to reach its goal of a 90 percent retention rate and 75 percent six-year graduation rate.

The Education Advances Awards program is designed to recognize the innovation that is possible when a school combines people, process, and technology to make a difference in the lives of students.

The college will be awarded a cash prize, which will go toward funding additional student data analyst positions. Ramapo joins Flagstaff High School of Flagstaff, Arizona, which was announced at the Naviance Summer Institute on July 21, as this years Education Advances winners.

Finalists Northeast Wisconsin Technical College and the University of Missouri will also be recognized for their outstanding work in supporting student success.

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About Hobsons

Hobsons helps students identify their strengths, explore careers, create academic plans, match to best-fit educational opportunities, and reach their education and life goals. Through our solutions, we enable thousands of educational institutions to improve college and career planning, admissions and enrollment management, and student success and advising for millions of students around the globe. Hobsons works with more than 12,000 schools, colleges, and universities and serves more than 13 million students.
Coca-Pay It Forward Academy celebrity ambassador Tyrese Gibson shares insights and celebrates with teens at this years closing ceremony. The 2016 Coca-Cola Pay It Forward Academy, a three-day educational development experience for teens and their parents, provided workshops focusing on understanding financial aid, how to lead with purpose, creating a personal elevator speech and more.

Six-time Grammy-nominated recording artist and international film star, Tyrese Gibson offers life-changing advise to a group of teens during the closing ceremony for the 2016 Coca-Cola Pay It Forward Academy this weekend in Atlanta, Ga. As the celebrity ambassador, Gibson shared personal experiences of how he overcame challenges, gave tips on how to be successful and reminded them to never lose sight of their dreams. The Academy also awarded all 25 teens with a $5,000 scholarship to assist with higher education needs.

The 2016 Coca-Cola Pay It Forward Academy, a three-day educational development experience for teens and their parents, provided workshops focusing on understanding financial aid, how to lead with purpose, creating a personal elevator speech and more. Participants also visited Atlanta sites such as Tree Sound Studios, The World of Coca-Cola and the National Center for Civil and Human Rights.

The Coca-Cola Pay It Forward program celebrates its 5th anniversary this year. Since the beginning, the program has provided countless avenues to help younger generations pursue their aspirations of higher education through scholarships and mentorship with celebrities. The program also seeks to help parents uplift and motivate their teens to realize their dreams through academic excellence.

Photo credit: Paras Griffin, Getty Images

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Contacts:

Yunice Emir

The Coca-Cola Company

404-676-8022

yemir(at)coca-cola(dot)com

Tracey Bowen

PRecise Communications

404-983-3727

tracey(at)precisecomm(dot)net
Student training in the hangar at Aviation Institute of Maintenance's Norfolk campus. Through the Sister City partnership, we have the opportunity to serve India as a response to the global shortage of FAA-certified aircraft engineers. said Dr. English.

The Aviation Institute of Maintenance (AIM) and the Norfolk Sister City Association of Norfolk, Va. are partnering with Kochi, India to offer an Aviation Maintenance Technology Scholarship to a select individual from Kochi. This scholarship will cover the cost of tuition for the recipients Aviation Maintenance Technician program at the AIM campus located in the Norfolk, Va. area, and the additional fees for their FAA certification exams. The estimated value of the scholarship is $46,800 USD.

For decades, AIM has been teaching aviation maintenance professionals within the United States to help launch rewarding careers in aviation maintenance, while serving as a resource for the shortage of aircraft engineers throughout the country. stated Dr. Joel A. English, Vice President of Operations of AIM.

The Norfolk Sister City Association (NSCA), a part of Sister Cities International, is a nonprofit citizen diplomacy organization that creates and strengthens partnerships between the City of Norfolk, Va. and international partner communities. Additional information about the NSCA can be found at http://www.norfolksistercities.org/.

Through the Sister City partnership, we have the opportunity to serve India as a response to the global shortage of FAA-certified aircraft engineers. said Dr. English. We hope to become a worldwide partner in aviation maintenance training, and providing this training to a talented and intelligent member of the Kochi community is a benevolent entrance into aviation maintenance training, as well as a way to share business and cultural awareness between our communities.

To be eligible for the scholarship, applicants must have completed the equivalent of a high school diploma, be fluent in English, and must submit a one page essay no later than November 1, 2016. Each applicants essay should showcase their academic promise, passion for the aviation maintenance industry, and occupational goals within the aviation field. Award decisions will be made by the Scholarship Committee, with the recipient announced November 15, 2016. Scholarship applications should be emailed to IntlBusSpec@AviationMaintenance.edu or mailed to the attention of International Business Specialist, Aviation Institute of Maintenance, 4455 South Blvd., Suite 200, Virginia Beach, VA, USA 23452.

About Aviation Institute of Maintenance

Aviation Institute of Maintenance is the United States' largest family of aviation maintenance schools, with headquarters in Virginia Beach, Va. Students learn the skills necessary to become successful in one of the worlds fastest growing industries, aviation maintenance, and the free Human Factors certification course and its Sister City Scholarship Program are examples of the schools passion and commitment to the international aviation industry. AIM graduates are trained to meet the increasing global demands of commercial, cargo, corporate and private aviation employers. AIMs campuses are located in the following major metro areas: Atlanta, Philadelphia, Dallas, Houston, Indianapolis, Las Vegas, Washington, D.C., Kansas City, Mo., Oakland, Calif., Orlando, Fla., and Norfolk, Va. Learn more at: http://www.AviationMaintenance.edu.

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Brahman Cattle for Sale - Moreno Ranches We invite all potential customers to the Catalyst IV sales event to pre-download a show catalog prior to the September 3rd, 2016, event in Venus, Florida.

Moreno Ranches, a top producer of Gray and Red Brahman cattle for sale at http://www.morenoranches.com/, is pleased to pre-announce availability of the catalog for their Brahman Catalyst IV sales event. While the event will take place at Moreno Ranch, in Venus, Florida, on September 3rd 2016, at 3:00 p.m, the show catalog is available to anyone interested in Brahman cattle and makes an excellent introduction to the superior genetics of Moreno Ranches' cattle.

We invite all potential customers to the Catalyst IV sales event to pre-download a show catalog prior to the September 3rd, 2016, event in Venus, Florida," explained Kelvin Moreno, head of Moreno Ranches. He continued, "We have a reputation as being very forward-looking in the Brahman industry, and are excited to use the Internet to publicize and promote the show even to those who might not be able to attend by making out catalog available via the Internet."

To request a catalog, simply visit the ranch website home page, and click on the red 'Request Catalog' button. Alternatively, one can call the ranch at 877-482-2382.

Super Genetics and Leadership in Brahman Cattle

Moreno Ranches has a storied history in the Brahman Cattle industry, not only in Florida but in other states such as Texas or Louisiana that are also partial to the Brahman cattle breed. For example, the Ranch is well-known for its Red Brahman Cattle. Indeed, it was designated the Red Brahman Premium Breeder of the Year by the Florida Cattlemen's Association. Red Brahman cattle can be viewed at http://www.morenoranches.com/red-brahman-cattle-for-sale/. In addition, the Ranch is known for its technological advances such as the M-Check program and its sale of both Brahman semen and Brahman embryos both to USA and overseas customers. The September sale at the Ranch is an incredible opportunity for persons interested in Brahman cattle to not only see but purchase cattle that have the superior genetics of Moreno Ranches.

About Moreno Ranches

Moreno Ranches is a top producer of Brahman cattle for sale. Customers come to the company for genetically superior Brahman bulls for sale and Brahman semen (seed stock) as well as Brahman embryos. The company produces both Brahman heifers and calves for sale, including for use as show cattle or to produce Brahman F1 hybrids. Visit the company's website to browse stock. The company is a trusted source of Brahman cattle whether a buyer is in Florida, Texas, or Louisiana - Latin America, or anywhere in the world.

Web. http://www.morenoranches.com/

Tel. 305-218-1238
Going out and actually meeting entrepreneurial inventors versus hosting conference calls cross-country really is an eye opener to truly see just how hard these incredible businesspeople work every day at perfecting their products. - Evan Morgenstein

CEO Powercast Episode 10, available now via iTunes and http://www.ceopowercast.podbean.com, takes listeners behind closed doors and onto the show floor of the largest invention trade show for inventors, investors and entrepreneurs in America. INPEX 2016 was held June 7-9 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania at the Monroeville Convention Center.

Podcast co-hosts Evan Morgenstein and Charlie Fusco were among the many CEOs and corporate executives in attendance vetting new products and services from todays top inventors. The duo was lucky enough to catch up with several attendees and the inventors behind Tabolap, Stiff Collar Stay, VaNicci and Yatra to talk about taking risks, inventory management and the importance of planning ahead to impress potential investors.

Tabolap has created a portable laptop workstation, capable of transforming from a laptop carrying case to a comfortable laptop table. During the interview with Tabolap, Charlie shared some great insight into managing inventory and taking uncomfortable risks.

Taking uncomfortable risks is such a pivotal point in the business growth cycle whether youre an inventor starting your own business or youve had your business forever but need to evolve it, said Fusco. If youre working in a comfortable spot, your business will stay slow and stagnant. Its when youre willing to take a risk that youre able to tap into true innovation and change.

Stiff Collar Stay is an adjustable collar liner that gives the appearance of a stiff, pressed shirt collar. Their impressive 2-minute demo video proved to be a crucial selling point for potential marketing partners and investors. Morgenstein and Fusco also spoke with the inventor behind VaNicci, a hair and root dye product currently in the development stages. The discussion covered the importance of on-site demo samples for networking events like trade shows and how proper planning can strengthen the impact of any pitch.

Morgenstein deemed Yatra, a portable waterproof speaker line, the product of the show. He even bought one for his son! The CEO Powercast co-hosts praised the inventors for not only a superior product, but also for their attention to detail in packaging. Packaging serves as the first impression for consumers and must encapsulate the true aura of the brand.

These telling interviews from show inventors served as an inspiration for Morgenstein, Going out and actually meeting entrepreneurial inventors versus hosting conference calls cross-country really is an eye opener to truly see just how hard these incredible businesspeople work every day at perfecting their products.

Listen to Episode 10 of CEO Powercast available now and subscribe to the podcast on iTunes to automatically receive new episodes to your phone, tablet or PC.

About CelebExperts

CelebExperts is a leading consulting firm dedicated to demystifying the celebrity acquisition process and finding creative solutions to effectively market your brand, leveraging the power of a celebrity. For more information on how your brand could utilize a celebrity talent as a spokesperson for upcoming marketing campaigns, please contact our team at consulting(at)celebexperts(dot)com or give us a call at (919) 459-5426.

About Synergixx

Synergixx, LLC is a creative think tank leading the way in merging traditional and online direct to consumer health and lifestyle product and service marketing strategies on TV, radio, print and online. The firm handles all media buying internally, and has an in-house, 24-7 sales and customer service call center for immediate fulfillment when clients products or services are advertised. For more information, visit http://www.synergixx.com.
Representatives from MCA-Russell Johns who attended the 2016 American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) conference in Las Vegas called it a wonderful event for the Florida-based firm (http://www.MCAads.com).

"The AILA conference was a wonderful event that gave me the opportunity to meet new attorneys and inform them about us and our services, said Becca Fagnano, Labor Certification Recruitment Specialist. I was also able to meet with current clients and was pleased to hear how much they enjoyed utilizing our services."

The AILA conference took place June 22-25 and included nearly 100 exhibitors, more than 170 sessions, various open forums, and other special activities. Thomas A. Saenz, president and general counsel of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF), delivered the keynote speech.

The 2017 AILA conference is scheduled for June 21-24 in New Orleans, LA. MCA-Russell Johns plans to attend. AILA, based in Washington, D.C., describes itself as an advocate for fair and reasonable immigration law and policy. MCA-Russell Johns, with headquarters in Tampa, FL, assists its clients with a wide range of labor certification services, including Program Electronic Review Management (PERM), H1A, H2B and all Temporary Work Visas.

We have been assisting attorneys and employers with labor certification services for more than 20 years, said Director of Financial Operations Steve Juanette. We are focused on a clients complete peace of mind and 100 percent satisfaction.

MCA-Russell Johns also provides secure online access where documents can be delivered and retrieved throughout the entire process.

We quote, place, track, and verify ad placements while giving clients real-time access to their documents, Juanette said.

MCAs Labor Certification services include: SWA, Trade or professional organizations, Private employment firms, Campus placement offices, Local and ethnic newspapers, Radio/TV ads, and Employer website postings.

We can bill employers directly, which frees law firms from endless and costly accounting overhead, said Labor Certification Media Director Cathi Helm. Online payment is also available, as well as credit card payment via fax, email, phone, or direct to employer billing so the law firm doesnt have to manage excess accounting.

For more information about MCA-Russell Johns and its various services, including the placement of ads in newspapers for immigration-related PERM cases, call Cathi Helm at (813) 333-1063 or (813) 920-0197. The Fax is (813) 792-2630. The web address is http://myclassifiedads.net/laborcertification

ABOUT: MCA-Russell Johns is a multi-media agency based in Florida. It has offices at 5020 W. Linebaugh Ave., Suite # 102, in Tampa, 33626. The telephone number is (813) 920-0197; the Fax is (813) 792-2630. Its portfolio of services includes assisting attorneys and employers with labor certification.
LA Podfest 2016 The Voices in Your Head Are Real

Los Angeles Podcast Festival 2016 (aka LA Podfest 2016), featuring live recording sessions of dozens of popular podcasts, panel discussions, parties, a podcast lab, and stand-up comedy, will take over Sofitel Los Angeles at Beverly Hills (8555 Beverly Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90048) from Friday, September 23 to Sunday, September 25, 2016. This years festival, organized by founders Dave Anthony, Graham Elwood, and Chris Mancini, will unite roughly 2,100 attendees, including popular podcasters, their celebrity guests, fans from across the globe, and the podcasting industry, in celebration of the thriving medium. While the podcasters recording their shows live at the festival are traveling from as far away as Australia and New Zealand, roughly 75% of the shows featured in the festival are based in Southern California, generally considered ground zero for the industry, with many of the most popular shows originating in Los Angeles. See the 34 confirmed podcasts (at press release time) participating in this years festival. Additional information can be found at http://www.lapodfest.com and the Facebook Event Page.

Tickets range in price for 3-Day Tickets ($139 + fees) to single day tickets ($49-$69 + fees). A Live Stream is available for $25.00 + fees  good for up to 30-days starting opening day of the event. Specially discounted rooms at the Sofitel can be booked at lapodfest.com.

People should care about podcasting, which has risen from relative insignificance a decade ago into arguably the most exciting technology on the media landscape today, because it is the final frontier of completely uncensored communication, says Anthony. For the last four years at our festival, the very first to unite podcasts in front of a live audience, we have completely removed all filters between the artists and fans, with artists giving their work directly to fans in a very personal way.

The Festival: Yesterday & Today 

LA Podfests vibe is akin to a comedy festival merged with a fan-based event like Comic-Con with all live shows  a comedy podicon, if you will. It has seen steady growth over the past 5 years. In addition to increasingly expanding the scope of the event into new podcasting genres, the 2016 edition of the festival is also planning for a bigger audience and more panel discussions.

While the festival has always been comedy-centric, additional podcast genres have been added to the roster each year, with the festival now also including true crime, gaming/nerd culture, sports, news, music, pop culture, mental health, history, science, storytelling, and politics offerings. Panel discussions focus on skills and topics relevant to podcasters at all levels for them to learn about various aspects of podcasting. A special stand-up comedy show, held this year on Saturday, September 24th, is also one of the weekends highlights.

In its first four years, the Los Angeles Podcast Festival staged over one hundred podcasts including Comedy Film Nerds, American Public Medias Dinner Party Download, The Dollop, The Dork Forest, Doug Loves Movies, Girl on Guy with Aisha Tyler, improv4humans, The Indoor Kids, Jordan, Jesse, Go!, The JV Club, Keith and The Girl, The Mental Illness Happy Hour, Never Not Funny, Pop My Culture, RISK!, The Smartest Man in the World, HowStuffWorks Stuff You Should Know, Superego, Thrilling Adventure Hour, The Todd Glass Show, TOFOP, Welcome to Night Vale, Who Charted?, and WTF with Marc Maron. Each year, participating podcasters often do very special, innovative shows at the festival  many trying to outdo each other for the annual occasion. Please see list of confirmed 2016 podcasters below this press release.

Numerous celebrity guests also join the podcasters on stage every year. Past festivals have attracted numerous high-profile names including Maria Bamford, Dave Foley, Zach Galifianakis, Colin Hanks, Joey McIntyre, Patton Oswalt, Sarah Silverman, and many others.

My favorite aspect of podcasting, as well as the yearly festival itself, is in the creation of community; the connections made between fans as well as the relationships generated between the podcasters, their special guests, and the audience are simply not found in any other medium, says Mancini.

In general, the podcasters and their guests communicate in a much more informal and personal manner on these shows plus, on the other end, fans generally listen on ear buds, which is also incredibly intimate with the podcasters talking directly into their ears. and they are also often given unprecedented access to interact with the shows, continues Elwood. Podcasts have literally saved peoples lives, including a number of depressed and suicidal folks, who said podcasting helped them through dark times  and two podcast fans from San Diego even got engaged at the festival two years ago.

About Los Angeles Podcast Festival (LA Podfest) 

Los Angeles Podcast Festival, the premier live podcasting event in the world, brings together the biggest names in podcasting for a weekend-long blowout in Los Angeles, ground zero for the medium where many of the top shows are based. The annual festival unites podcasters, their special guests, fans, and the podcasting industry to celebrate all things podcasting. Launched on Kickstarter five years ago as a comedy-centric festival, over the years, the growing event has expanded to include a wide-range of additional podcast genres.

The festival, created by podcasters for the podcasting community, is currently produced by founders Dave Anthony (The Dollop), Graham Elwood (Comedy Film Nerds), and Chris Mancini (Comedy Film Nerds). In addition to collaborating on the festival and their podcast, Elwood and Mancini also collaborated on the podcasting documentary, Ear Buds, which explores the unique and personal connection between podcasters and their fans. The film, which features footage from the festival and interviews with some of the biggest names in the medium, is currently on the film festival circuit.

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For more information, photos, to schedule an interview, or request press tickets, please contact Green Galactics Lynn Tejada at 213-840-1201 or lynn(at)greengalactic(dot)com.
Shoe Insoles and Metatarsalgia There is a tendency among athletes to want to tough-it-out when experiencing pain during or after exercise.

RxSorbo, a leading online retailer of top-rated shoe insoles at http://www.rxsorbo.com/, is pleased to announce that a newly updated web page about the malady metatarsalgia is available. While not a major health risk on its own, if left untreated, metatarsalgia can lead to more serious syndromes. The role of shoe insoles in treatment is described.

There is a tendency among athletes to want to tough-it-out when experiencing pain during or after exercise, explained Rj Yozwiak, Manager of RxSorbo, but ignoring the warning signs the body sends is ultimately self-defeating if appropriate treatment is not sought out. An incipient condition like metatarsalgia must be attended to, and anyone with the ball-of-foot pain which is symptomatic of metatarsalgia needs to seek some form of mitigation, such as running and walking shoe insoles. Our new post details treatment options.

The origin of metatarsalgia can be something as simple as running in shoes with soles that are not sufficiently thick. Lacking support, and forced to bear the pressure of repeated foot-strikes, foot tissue suffers compaction, which in turn leads to inflammation. Persistent pain in the sole of the foot, particularly the ball-of-foot area, is the symptom that should alert one to the possibility of metatarsalgia. If a visit to a proper medical authority yields a diagnosis of metatarsalgia, then treatment for recovery can begin. A physician may recommend using a high-quality orthotic running or walking shoe insoles.

To view the revised metatarsalgia information and see products for treatment such as ball-of-foot pads, visit http://amzn.to/2a5pHIs and

http://www.rxsorbo.com/rx-blog/foot-ailments-metatarsalgia (RxSorbo).

To browse all available shoe insoles, one can visit the following URL: http://www.rxsorbo.com/insoles/. There, one can browse the companys classic insoles, and the all whole line of walking shoe insoles.

About Sorbothane

Developed by a Materials Scientist to mimic human flesh - Sorbothane is a one-of-a-kind visco elastic polymer. 100% unique - Sorbothane is a solid that naturally flows like a liquid - Sorbothane absorbs impact shock and provides comfort better than any other insole material available today.

About RxSorbo

RxSorbo is the source for Sorbothane Shoe insoles (shoe inserts). Sorbothane uniquely absorbs up to 94.7% of impact shock, and makes for quality shoe insoles for many conditions. People come to RxSorbo for shoe insoles for foot maladies from Plantar Fasciitis to Morton's Neuroma to metatarsalgia to many other conditions. From Shoe inserts for running to top-rated insoles for dress shoes to gym shoes, reviews of the companys shoe insoles prove they are among the best shoe insoles.

RxSorbo

http://www.rxsorbo.com/
eBrain Study II

Mindoula Health, a technology-enabled case management company at the forefront of the transformation of behavioral healthcare, has announced the launch of the Health-eBrain Study II with partner AnthroTronix, the developer of the FDA-cleared brain health assessment mobile app, DANA. Funded by BrightFocus Foundation and the Geoffrey Beene Foundation Alzheimers Initiative, the Health-eBrain Study II holds out hope for caregivers of the estimated 87% of Alzheimers patients who are cared for in the home setting by family members and friends.

Mindoula will deploy its virtual case management team and proprietary multi-platform technology to provide 24/7 virtual support to Alzheimers caregivers with symptoms of depression, and help them monitor their brain health with DANA. Participation in the study is free for caregivers but space is limited. Caregivers interested in participating can visit the Health-eBrain website to qualify: https://www.health-ebrainstudy.org.

AnthroTronix, an engineering research and development company, produces human-centered technologies that advance health, communication, education, and defense. It develops innovative, research-based technologies that influence change and enhance lives around the world. AnthrTronix has been recognized among Inc. Magazines 5000 Fastest Growing Companies and selected by the World Economic Forum as a Technology Pioneer company.

In Health-eBrain Study I, we found that dementia caregivers had decreased cognitive performance compared with matched controls, said Dr. Cori Lathan, Founder & CEO of AnthroTronix. So this next phase has two ambitious simultaneous goals  to look at caregiver stressors that could be possible causes for this decreased cognitive performance as well as provide an intervention that could help these caregivers with their mental health. When we found Mindoulas technology-enabled case management solution, we immediately recognized the potential to help caregivers deal with the stress and burden of caregiving, and are thrilled to be Mindoulas partner in Health-eBrain Study II.

Were honored that AnthroTronix saw the power of our intervention combined with its FDA-cleared mobile cognitive assessment app, said Steve Sidel, Founder & CEO of Mindoula. Our virtual solution will provide around-the-clock support to caregivers, with easy-to-use features like secure texting and check-ins, telephonic support, app-based monitoring, and assessments such as the M3 Checklist. The Health-eBrain Study II would not have been possible without the research grant provided by the BrightFocus Foundation and the Geoffrey Been Foundation Alzheimers Initiative, and we are grateful for their generous financial support.

BrightFocus is one of Americas leading supporters of basic scientific investigations to better understand and find cures for Alzheimers disease, age-related macular degeneration, and glaucoma. Since 1973, it has awarded more than $163 million to scientists seeking new approaches to prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of its target diseases, including the inventors of the first artificial heart and two Nobel prize winners.

We call ourselves BrightFocus because we want to end these diseases and shine a light on them, said Stacy Pagos Haller, President and CEO, BrightFocus Foundation. The researchers we fund are our rock stars. There are the people who are in the trenches changing lives forever.

The Geoffrey Beene Foundation Alzheimers Initiative, underwritten by the Geoffrey Beene Foundation, is a leading supporter of innovative new projects that advance awareness, diagnoses and research in early stages of Alzheimers disease, and also collaborates with inventor/entrepreneurs and researchers on real-world systems and tools that accelerate the study of Alzheimers and engage the public as Citizen Scientists. Mery Comer, its President and CEO, is the New York Times bestselling author of Slow Dancing with a Stranger, and is also co-founder of Women Against Alzheimer's, and the recipient of the 2014 Wertheim Global Medical Leadership Award, 2007 Proxmire Award, and 2005 Shriver Profiles in Dignity Award.

Caregivers are the second victim of long-term chronic diseases like Alzheimers and other neurodegenerative diseases because of the intensity of care over years that jeopardizes their own health, said Ms. Comer. Thats why studies like the Health-eBrain Study II that test real world interventions to care for the caregivers are so important. We are rooting for the success of Mindoula and AnthroTronix in this study so that an innovative, real-world intervention like this one can be brought to market with all deliberate haste.

About Mindoula

Mindoula Health is a technology-enabled case management company headquartered in Silver Spring, Maryland, that provides 24/7 virtual and in-person support to individuals and families facing behavioral health challenges. Its proprietary telehealth platform which includes a HIPAA compliant mobile engagement app, proprietary psychometrics, predictive analytics, and collaborative care software, enables its team of case managers and peer support specialists to deliver market leading behavioral health outcome improvements and reduce healthcare costs. A leader in the areas of case management, collaborative care, and behavioral health population management, Mindoula is at the forefront of the transformation of behavioral healthcare.
Sun Valley Dental Group Please continue your support of this vital service to our community.

Dr. Brian Galbraith and his Sun Valley Dental Group Staff are sponsoring a Food Drive during the month of July! Donations of canned meats, vegetables & soups along with healthy kids snacks are vitally needed. Join Sun Valley Dental Group to help make July a month of freedom from hunger!

Many kids lose the one meal they depend on  school lunch. Thats why The Hunger Coalition created Lunch in the Park where kids ages 1-18 can come to Hailey for a free sack lunch Monday through Friday.

The Hunger Coalition is here to ensure everyone has the nutrition they need.

The Hunger Coalition provides Snack Packs for kids during the school year and Summer Lunch options when school is out.

There are food pantry options and a Mobile Food Bank

The Hunger Coalition provides food on the following days at these locations:

Mondays: Bellevue 1:00pm  6:30pm

At the warehouse, 121 Honeysuckle Street, Bellevue, Idaho 83313

Thursdays: Bellevue 3:00pm  4:300pm

At the warehouse, 121 Honeysuckle Street, Bellevue, Idaho 83313

Through a private consultation with The Hunger Coalition's friendly and supportive staff, people can be connected to needed resources. The Hunger Coalition can provide nutritious food each week of the year through a variety of food programs.

The Hunger Coalition can help you feed your children. Given the high metabolism and activity levels of most kids, providing them with frequent and nutritious meals and snacks is important. The Hunger Coalition has options available both during the school year and over the summer to help keep children healthy and thriving. The Hunger Coalition can help to feed your pet. The Hunger Coalition provides food for existing (spayed or neutered) pets in the household.

The Hunger Coalition values privacy and treats everyone with dignity and respect. Contact info:

The Hunger Coalition

121 Honeysuckle Street,

Bellevue, Idaho 83313

208-788-0121

http://thehungercoalition.org/

info(at)thehungercoalition(dot)org

ABOUT DR. BRIAN GALBRAITH AND SUN VALLEY DENTAL GROUP: Sun Valley Dental Group is the premier dental group in Ketchum/Sun Valley, Idaho. The patients' smile and oral health are the top priority for Dr. Brian Galbraith and Sun Valley Dental. Sun Valley Dental provides the most up-to-date technology in cosmetic and preventive dentistry with integrity, compassion and care. What makes Sun Valley Dental unique is Dr. Galbraith and the professional team's attention to detail. Patients are properly treated with the best customer service in Sun Valley. For a dental implant, root canal, crown, porcelain veneer, extraction, whitening, routine care or the smile of your dreams, it's all at Sun Valley Dental Group.

In addition to joining with The Hunger Coalition, Dr. Galbraith provides free dental work to injured veterans who are involved with Higher Ground.

Dr. Brian Galbraith

Sun Valley Dental Group

181 First Ave N

Ketchum, ID 83340

208-726-4711

sunvalleysmiles(at)gmail(dot)com

http://www.sunvalleysmiles.com

https://www.facebook.com/SunValleyDentalGroup

https://twitter.com/svdentalgroup

https://plus.google.com/110870325126059320825/about
Volume 64, Issue sp1 (Special Issue 2016) ...efforts to inform growers about resistance management have failed to prevent rapid increases in herbicide resistant weeds in the U.S. and elsewhere.

Weeds that evolve resistance to herbicides are a serious threat to global agricultural production. In this Special Issue of Weed Science, economists, sociologists, and policy experts join forces with weed scientists to focus attention on human dimensions of the herbicide resistance epidemic. Recent research has provided insights into the biology of herbicide resistance and identified what farmers can do to control resistant weeds in their fields, but efforts to inform growers about resistance management have failed to prevent rapid increases in herbicide resistant weeds in the U.S. and elsewhere. This Special Issue takes a different approach: contributing authors examine economic and social factors affecting grower decisions, explore the roles of policy and educational outreach in herbicide resistance management, and propose future approaches. Several papers in this Special Issue are based on presentations at the 2014 Second Summit on Herbicide Resistance organized by the Weed Science Society of America in collaboration with the National Research Council.

Full text of the article "Human Dimensions of Herbicide Resistance" is now available in Weed Science Vol. 64 sp1, 2016.

About Weed Science

Weed Science is a journal of the Weed Science Society of America, a nonprofit scientific society focused on weeds and their impact on the environment. The publication presents peer-reviewed original research related to all aspects of weed science, including the biology, ecology, physiology, management and control of weeds. To learn more, visit http://www.wssa.net.
The Galloway Bracket is a hunting invention that allows users to attach a phone to a gun to assist in hunting. The hunting industry is worth $23 billion, says Scott Cooper, CEO and Creative Director of World Patent Marketing. "Phones are becoming a more and more prevalent part of everyday life. Past News Releases RSS World Patent Marketing Invention...

World Patent Marketing Success Team...

World Patent Marketing Invention...

World Patent Marketing, a vertically integrated manufacturer and engineer of patented products, announces The Galloway Bracket, a hunting invention that allows people to use their phones to aid in the hunting experience.

The hunting industry is worth $23 billion, says Scott Cooper, CEO and Creative Director of World Patent Marketing. "Phones are becoming a more and more prevalent part of everyday life and this hunting invention will finally bring that aspect of life to hunting."

Hunting is an age-old sport that pits man versus nature, says Jerry Shapiro, Director of Manufacturing and World Patent Marketing. The Galloway Bracket is an invention that gives man an advantage in the form of a useful phone attachment.

The Galloway Bracket is a hunting invention that attaches a phone to a gun. The invention itself is a gun-shaped bracket with a holder coming off of it. This is what is used to hold the cell phone. The cell phone can then be used as a camera to record the hunt so it can be seen and shared later with others. The cell phone can also be used as an aiming sight, especially for children who have just gotten into hunting. The phone can additionally function as a lens for people that have poor vision, such as seniors.

This hunting patent is perfect to include the whole family in the hunt.

The Galloway bracket is a device that will help record memories and make it easier for kids to aim a gun while recording the shot, says inventor William G. It will also help people with bad eyesight to be able to use the screen of their smartphone to aim at the target...

The Galloway Bracket is a hunting invention that allows users to attach a phone to a gun to assist in hunting.

Find out how to submit your idea with World Patent Marketing.

ABOUT WORLD PATENT MARKETING

World Patent Marketing is an innovation incubator and manufacturer of patented products for inventors and entrepreneurs. The company is broken into eight operating divisions: Research, Patents, Prototyping, Manufacturing, Retail, Web & Apps, Social Media and Capital Ventures.

As a leader in patent invention services, World Patent Marketing is by your side every step of the way, utilizing our capital and experience to protect, prepare, and manufacture your new product idea and get it out to the market. Get a patent with World Patent Marketing and the company will send representatives to trade shows every month in order to further advocate for its clients. It is just part of the world patent marketing cost of doing business.

World Patent Marketing Reviews enjoy an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau and five star ratings from consumer review sites including: Consumer Affairs, Google, Trustpilot, Customer Lobby, Reseller Ratings, Yelp and My3Cents.

World Patent Marketing is also a proud member of the National Association of Manufacturers, Duns and Bradstreet, the US Chamber of Commerce, the South Florida Chamber of Commerce, the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce, Association for Manufacturing Excellence, and the New York Inventor Exchange.

Like the World Patent Marketing Facebook page, and add us on Twitter and YouTube. You may also contact us at (888) 926-8174.
If you are new to iQ you can schedule a demo and learn more about this opportunity.

PSFK iQ - Where Innovators Turn for Research. Our professional-grade research platform is designed specifically for Retail and CX leaders who want to know whats next. Whether youre staying current on trends or need a real-time research partner to help you get ahead, count on PSFK iQ to deliver the info you need to make your next move.
The logo of Dow Jones Industrial Average stock market index listed company Goldman Sachs (GS) is seen on the clothing of a trader working at the Goldman Sachs stall on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, United States April 16, 2012. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo - RTSGB01

By Claire Milhench

LONDON (Reuters) - Goldman Sachs abused its position as a trusted adviser to Libya's sovereign wealth fund, a lawyer for the fund argued on Tuesday, in a case that has subjected the bank's dealings to a forensic degree of scrutiny.

In a trial at London's High Court, the Libyan Investment Authority (LIA) is attempting to claw back $1.2 billion from the Wall Street giant in relation to nine disputed trades carried out in 2008, arguing that the trades were secured through "undue influence" and "unconscionable bargaining".

The LIA argues the bank took advantage of its financial naivety by first gaining its trust, then encouraging it to make risky and ultimately worthless investments.

In his closing statement for the LIA, lawyer Roger Masefield said that in the autumn of 2007, the bank had stepped into a gap created by the resignation of the LIA's independent financial consultant, and cultivated a relationship of trust.

He said this went beyond a "normal arm's length banker-client relationship" as the bank had assumed the role of an adviser.

In doing so, it was not allowed to transact with its client to its own material advantage unless either it told the client to consult with an independent adviser on such transactions, or otherwise described the risks in a fair and accurate manner, he said.

"But if the bank doesn't do that, in circumstances where de facto it has crossed the line and started giving advice, then it stands at risk," he said.

In circumstances where the client proceeds and the risk hasn't been fairly described to it, the LIA can rescind and set aside the trade, he added.

Goldman Sachs, which denies all the allegations, maintains that its relationship with the LIA was at all "material times an arm's length one" between banker and client.

"We have always disputed the LIA's claim that it was financially illiterate and it is clear that they understood the disputed trades and entered into them of their own volition," the bank said in a statement released on Tuesday.

Story continues

In its written closing submission, seen by Reuters, Goldman Sachs argues that it was only one of dozens of banks and financial institutions that the LIA was dealing with, and the amounts invested with Goldman were only a fraction of the total investments the LIA made at the time.

In the submission Goldman argued that, rather than being financially naive, the LIA had simply failed to predict the full extent of the global financial crisis.

A lawyer for Goldman Sachs is expected to deliver the bank's oral closing argument later in the week.

(Editing by Pravin Char)
What began as a casual Twitter conversation between two long-time friends who for years talked about writing a book together  Valynne Maetani and Courtney Alameda  has become a hot property that recently was sold to HarperCollins in a two-book, six-figure deal after an auction earlier this year in which four major publishers participated. The final contract was signed in June.

Seven Dead Gods, the YA novel co-written by Maetani and Alameda, who have both been represented by John Cusick (now with Folio Literary Management/Folio Jr.) since 2012, is scheduled to publish in winter 2018. While Cusick described Seven Dead Gods as a combination of An Ember in the Ashes and Daughter of Smoke and Bone meets Akira Kurosawa, Alexandra Cooper, the HarperCollins editor who acquired it, used more cinematic terms: Mean Girls meets Scott Pilgrim vs. the World.

According to the two co-authors, its simply the inevitable culmination of their mutual passion for horror, anime, comic book culture, and Kurosawas classic Japanese epic movies. In Seven Dead Gods, which is set in modern-day Japan, 17-year-old Kira, who is the victim of bullying at her school, finds solace working in her grandfathers Shinto shrine. After realizing that she can see and commune with demons, Kira  with her younger sister in tow  partners with seven death gods, or Shinigami in Japanese, to save Kyoto from destruction.

Even before she knew what Seven Dead Gods was about, Cooper said, she was excited about reading the 50-page sample that Cusick sent her. The prospect of working with both Courtney Alameda and Valynne Maetani, two talented and dynamic writers, got me immediately interested, Cooper recalled. Then, when I read the [partial] manuscript, I was bowled over. It was like nothing Id ever read. [It] is hugely inventive and genre-bending with whip-smart humor and nonstop, outsize action. I feel like an extremely fortunate editor to get to be working on this book.

In the initial tweet on January 16, 2015, which came from Alameda, she suggested that the two write a YA novel together that would be reminiscent of Seven Samurai, but with a supernatural twist. Perhaps, she added, with Shinigami who defend a village against some sort of demon? Maetani tweeted in response, Awesome! How bloody can we make it? When Cusick read their tweets, he recalled, he hoped that they were not kidding around and immediately contacted his clients, begging them to put this incredibly original idea on paper. Cusick, who has been a literary agent for almost a decade, and joined Folio last July, told PW that he always has been drawn to projects that are totally different.

Both Maetani and Alameda had their debut YA novels published in 2015: Maetanis Ink and Ashes, the first in a trilogy, from Tu Books, and Alamedas Shutter, from Feiwel and Friends. Both books received glowing reviews.

Im delighted, Cusick wrote in his pitch to acquisitions editors, to be able to share a thrilling novel with a non-Caucasian cast, co-authored by a Japanese American that is a blending [of] Japanese folklore, action, and romance. He added in a recent phone interview that the two authors are incredible perfectionists when it comes to their world-building, and the completed chapters are really strong and exciting.

Reflecting upon her collaboration with Maetani, Alameda noted, I dont know why more writers dont collaborate. Not only do you produce a better book  one born of two hearts and two minds  but theres a certain sort of glee in finishing a chapter by dropping your co-writer into a plot mire, and then running like hell in the other direction.
Elizabeth Bennett at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt has acquired an as-yet untitled memoir by Paralympic swimmer Jessica Long. The scrapbook-style YA memoir will include personal anecdotes, photos, letters, and memorabilia that recount Jessicas childhood, her return to Siberia to meet her birth family, and her rise to the top of the Paralympic swimming world. Worldwide publication is scheduled for spring 2018; Sandra Bishop at Transatlantic negotiated the deal for world rights.

Anne Hoppe at Clarion has preempted world rights to Jessie Hilb's debut Calculus of Change, a contemporary YA about unrequited love, grief, and self-acceptance. Caught in the throes of a passionate attraction to the serially unavailable Tate and mourning her dead mother, Aden tries to hold her family together while exploring her heritage and her memories, in a story pitched as Eleanor & Park meetsmanicpixiedreamgirl. Publication is slated for early 2018; Renee Nyen of KT Literary brokered the deal.

Catherine Onder at Bloomsbury has bought Sarah Tolcser's debut fantasy, Song of the Current, set along the waterways of a magical world where 17-year-old Caroline Oresteia dreams of fulfilling her destiny as a captain on the river. But when her father is arrested and the river god remains silent, Caro takes her fate into her own hands to smuggle a dangerous cargo. Publication is planned for 2017; Susan Hawk negotiated the deal for world English rights.

Christian Trimmer at Simon & Schuster has won at auction the first three books in the middle grade Worldquake Sequence by Scarlett Thomas. In book one, Dragon's Green, 11-year-old Effie Truelove discovers that her grandfather Griffin is a powerful wizard, and that his library of books provides a gateway to another world. It is set for publication in summer 2017; books two and three will follow in subsequent summers. Canongate, the U.K. publisher, brokered the deal for North American rights.

Caitlyn Dlouhy at Atheneum/Caitlyn Dlouhy Books has acquired at auction the first middle grade novel by National Book Award finalist Beth Kephart, Wild Blues, plus an additional standalone novel. Wild Blues, set in the Adirondacks, tells the story of LizBeth and Matias, an El Salvadoran boy, whose lives will be endangered by a maximum security prison break. Publication is slated for 2018, with the second novel following in 2019; Danielle Smith at Red Fox Literary negotiated the deal for world English rights.

Allison Wortche at Knopf won at auction debut author Melissa Sarno's Next to Nothing, the story of a 12-year-old girl who has been living in a homeless shelter with her mother and sister, longing for permanence while finding comfort in the trees of New York City. Publication is scheduled for summer 2018; Rebecca Stead at the Book Group did the two-book deal for world rights.

Maria Modugno at Random House has bought On the Spot! Countless Funny Stories by Amy Krouse Rosenthal and Lea Redmond, illustrated by Sanne te Loo. The book allows readers to transform an ordinary story into silly ones with stickers or found objects with this book that isn't just for reading, but playing. Publication is planned for summer 2017; Amy Rennert of the Amy Rennert Agency brokered world English rights for the text and world rights for the art.

Maria Modugno also acquired Don't Blink! by Amy Krouse Rosenthal, illustrated by David Roberts. The premise of their picture book: you don't have to go to sleep as long as you don't blink. Publication is set for spring 2018; Amy Rennert of the Amy Rennert Agency negotiated U.S., Canada, and open market rights for the text; Christine Isteed of Art Partners sold world rights for the art.

Mary-Kate Gaudet at Little, Brown bought Liz Climo's picture book Rory the Dinosaur Needs a Christmas Tree, in which a young dino searches for the perfect tree with a little help from his father. Publication is slated for fall 2017; Kathleen Ortiz of New Leaf Literary & Media negotiated the two-book deal for world English rights.

Tracy Mack at Scholastic Press has acquired Truck Full of Ducks, a picture book by author-illustrator Ross Burach, in which a delivery man tries to figure out who ordered his truck full of ducks, but everyone he meets is waiting for a different type of truck. It's scheduled for 2018; Lara Perkins at Andrea Brown Literary Agency brokered world rights.

Reka Simonsen at Atheneum has bought Carole Boston Weatherford's How Sweet the Sound: The Story of Amazing Grace, to be illustrated by Frank Morrison, a picture book about the history and legacy of the hymn Amazing Grace. Publication is slated for summer 2018; Rubin Pfeffer of Rubin Pfeffer Content represented the author and Lori Nowicki at Painted Words represented the artist in the deal for world rights.

Kelsey Skea at Amazon/Two Lions has acquired the latest collaboration by Anna Kang and Chris Weyant, the Geisel-winning team behind You Are (Not) Small. Their new book is the untitled story of an eraser who finds herself at the center of a desktop drama. Publication is scheduled for fall 2018; Holly McGhee at Pippin Properties did the deal for North American rights.

Sarah Barley at Flatiron Books has preempted Melissa Bashardoust's Girls Made of Snow and Glass. The YA novel, which the publisher called a feminist reimagining of the Snow White fairy tale, follows both of the central female characters from the original story: the princess and her stepmother. The book is scheduled for fall 2017. Meredith Kaffel Simonoff at DeFiore and Company represented the author; Kerry Nordling at Macmillan is handling U.K. and translation rights.

Annie Berger at Sourcebooks has bought Monstrous, MarcyKate Connolly's new duology, which begins with Shadow Weaver, featuring 12-year-old Emmeline who can manipulate shadows and whose only friend is her own shadow  a gift that keeps her isolated from the rest of the world. When her parents plan to send her away to be cured, her shadow promises to help, but it will cost her  for her shadow craves a life of its own. Publication is slated for winter 2018; Suzie Townsend at New Leaf Literary & Media negotiated the deal for world English rights.

Namrata Tripathi at Dial has won at auction, in a six-figure deal, Sherine Hamdy (l.) and Myra El Mir's black-and-white YA crossover graphic novel, Jabs, about a Muslim-American girl growing up and grappling with her identity  and whether or not to wear hijab. Publication is set for fall 2018; Anjali Singh at Ayesha Pande Literary brokered the deal for world rights.

Daniel Ehrenhaft at Soho Teen has acquired world English rights for debut author Samira Ahmed's Swimming Lessons, in which a small-town Muslim teenager struggles with parental expectations and forbidden romance, then finds herself a victim of a hate crime after a nearby terrorist attack ignites an outbreak of Islamophobia. Publication is planned for spring 2018; Eric Smith at P.S. Literary did the deal; the Taryn Fagerness Agency is overseeing foreign rights.

Nicole Frail at Sky Pony Press has bought world rights to a YA novel by Amy Spalding, author of Kissing Ted Callahan (And Other Guys). The book, The Summer of Jordi Perez (And the Best Burger in L.A.), is a lesbian romantic comedy in which a plus-size fashion blogger and her fellow summer intern attempt to keep business and pleasure separate when they fall for each other and find themselves on opposite sides of a debate about representation of self in art and reality. Publication is scheduled for spring 2018; Kate Testerman of KT Literary negotiated the deal.

Liz Szabla at Feiwel and Friends has preempted Melissa Ostrom's historical YA novel, Genesee, about a 16-year-old girl who leaves her family homestead disguised as a boy. It is slated for spring 2018; Rebecca Stead at the Book Group brokered the deal for world English rights.

Krista Marino at Delacorte has acquired author-composer Russell Ginns's Samantha Spinner and the Super Secret Plans, first in a new series about a girl whose uncle disappears leaving a billion dollars to her older sister, the Yankees to her younger brother, and all she gets is a rusty red umbrella that is quite possibly the most valuable inheritance of all. Publication is planned for spring 2018; Kevin O'Connor at O'Connor Literary Agency negotiated the two-book deal for world rights.

Cheryl Klein at Scholastic/Arthur A. Levine Books has bought Front Desk, a middle-grade novel from debut author Kelly Yang. Based on the author's life, the story follows Mia, the daughter of recent Chinese immigrants; as she helps her parents manage the Caliheim Motel, Mia must keep many secrets from her classmates and the motel's mean owner  including the truth about the fellow immigrants her father's hiding. Publication is set for 2018; Alexander Slater at Trident Media Group brokered the deal for North American rights.

Alyson Heller at S&S/Aladdin M!X has acquired Allison Gutknecht's middle grade novel Spring Break Mistake, about a tween who is forced to use her photography skills to track down a missing classmate during a class trip in New York City. Heller also bought a second middle grade novel about friends who become rivals in a singing competition, calledSing Like Nobody's Listening. Publication is scheduled for March 2017 and fall 2017; Charlie Olsen at Inkwell Management did the two-book deal for North American rights.

Anna Bloom at Scholastic has bought, in an exclusive submission, Flora Ahn's Pugling Rivalry, an illustrated chapter book depiction of the fictional life of the author-illustrator's pugs Sunny and Rosy, based on her popular pug blog Bah Humpug. Publication is slated for spring 2018, with the second book to follow in fall; Melissa Edwards at the Aaron Priest Agency negotiated the two-book deal for world rights.

Taylor Norman at Chronicle has acquired Alison Farrell's debut picture book, Cycle City, in which Etta the Elephant visits her Aunt Ellen in a special city where everyone rides an astonishing array of bicycles. Publication is planned for spring 2018; Elena Giovinazzo at Pippin Properties brokered the deal for world rights.

Michael Joosten at Random House has preempted world rights to Rob Sanders's (l.) Stonewall. The picture book will tell the story of the Stonewall Inn and its role in the gay civil rights movement; Jamey Christoph will illustrate. Publication is set for spring 2019; Ruben Pfeffer of Ruben Pfeffer Content represented the author, and Patricia Lindgren of Lindgren & Smith represented the artist.

Paula Wiseman at S&S/Paula Wiseman Books has bought world rights to Judy Sierra's The Great Dictionary Caper, illustrated by Eric Comstock. When boredom befalls the words in Noah Webster's Dictionary anything can  and does  happen. Publication is scheduled for fall 2017. Lori Nowicki at Painted Words represented the illustrator; the author represented herself.

Andrea Welch at S&S/Beach Lane has acquired world rights to Hayley Barrett's (l.) What Miss Mitchell Saw, a picture book biography of Maria Mitchell, the first female professional astronomer. Diana Sudyka will illustrate, and the book is slated for spring 2019. Ammi-Joan Paquette at Erin Murphy Literary Agency represented the author, and the illustrator was represented by Andrea Morrison at Writers House.

Joanna Cardenas at Viking has bought world rights to My Pillow Keeps Moving by Laura Gehl, in which a seemingly innocent stray dog, through a series of charades, wins a cantankerous old man's heart. It will be illustrated by Geisel-winning artist Christopher Weyant. Publication is planned for 2018; Erzsi Deak at Hen & Ink represented the author and Holly McGhee at Pippin Properties represented the illustrator.

Laura Godwin at Henry Holt has acquired world rights to Ruby's Chinese New Year, a debut picture book written by Vickie Lee and illustrated by Joey Chou. The story follows a girl who delivers a gift to her grandmother with help from the animals of the Chinese zodiac. Publication has been set for winter 2018; the author represented herself and Kirsten Hall of Catbird Productions represented the illustrator.
Tim LaHaye, best known for the Left Behind series of apocalyptic Christian novels, died Monday in San Diego, Calif. after suffering from a stroke. He was 90.

LaHaye and coauthor Jerry B. Jenkins began the series in 1995 with Left Behind, intending it to be a stand-alone novel. Sixteen books and dozens of ancillary products later, sales total over 80 million copies, according to publisher Tyndale House.

At the height of its sales, the revenue from the Left Behind series represented more than 50 percent of our total sales revenue, said Mark D. Taylor, chairman and CEO of Tyndale.

Many others in the book industry profited as well. Sales of the series helped thousands of Christian bookstores thrive during a period when they were facing increased competition from big-box stores and from Internet-based sellers, said Taylor.

Dan Balow, who served as director of business development for the Left Behind series, cited the lasting impact LaHaye had on the religion publishing industry. I believe Left Behind showed that the sales potential for Christian fiction went far beyond what most people thought, he told PW.

Left Behinds huge sales and LaHaye himself were game-changers for Tyndale House. The company has been able to pay out nearly $50 million to its non-profit Tyndale House Foundation, which provides grants to Christian ministries around the world. The success of the Left Behind series helped put us on firm financial footing that has allowed us to give away most of the companys earnings over the past 20 years, said Taylor.

LaHayes 1966 book Spirit-Controlled Temperament was the first trade book released by the fledgling company, making LaHaye part of Tyndale for nearly its entire history, according to Taylor. Seven titles in the series reached #1 on New York Times, USA Today, and Publishers Weekly bestseller lists. The series ended in 2006.

LaHaye, who was also founder and president of Tim LaHaye Ministries, wrote more than 60 nonfiction titles, including Bible Prophecy for Everyone: What You Need to Know About the End Times (Harvest House, new edition 2016) and The Book of Revelation Made Clear: A Down-to-Earth Guide to Understanding the Most Mysterious Book of the Bible (Thomas Nelson, 2014). Total sales for his nonfiction tops 14 million in 32 languages. His other novels include The End Series with Craig Parshall (Zondervan).

Left Behind co-author Jenkins told PW, Dr. LaHaye had been preaching, teaching and writing nonfiction books on the End Times since before I was born. I was merely the novelist; he was the theologian, scholar, and prophecy expert.

Jenkins said LaHaye was humble, self-effacing, and caring. He was a model to me as a husband, a cheerful giver, and an unapologetic sharer of his faith. He treated everyone the same, from service staff to political leaders. He listened and cared.

LaHaye is survived by his wife Beverly, founder of Concerned Women for America, four children, and grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. and NORTH LOGAN, Utah AnalySwift LLC, a provider of modeling software for composites, has joined the Institute for Advanced Composites Manufacturing Innovation (IACMI) to help improve composites simulation.

Membership in the Institute for Advanced Composites Manufacturing Innovation involves sharing resources and co-investing in support of its goals, and AnalySwift looks forward to participating, said Allan Wood, president and CEO of AnalySwift. We believe our software solutions, SwiftComp and VABS, provide a unique boost in accelerating the adoption of composites in many industries, including wind energy and automotive. SwiftComp breaks down barriers for engineers by enabling them to model composites as easily as metals using conventional structural elements in their finite element analysis codes and capturing all the microstructural details.

The Institute of Advanced Composites Manufacturing Innovation is part of the U.S. Department of Energys National Network for Manufacturing Innovation. This public-private partnership is focused on accelerating development and adoption of cutting-edge manufacturing technologies for low-cost, energy-efficient manufacturing of advanced polymer composites for vehicles, wind turbines and compressed gas storage. The multistate initiative includes a Purdue research team based in the Indiana Manufacturing Institute and the Purdue-based Composites Design and Manufacturing HUB.

This partnership with AnalySwift expands our national geographic footprint and enhances the capabilities offered to our members, said Craig Blue, CEO of IACMI. Gaining AnalySwift as a member broadens the diversity of the entire organization while contributing to our mission of developing new composite manufacturing technologies.

Wenbin Yu, chief technology officer of AnalySwift and a Purdue associate professor of aeronautics and astronautics, said the analysis the company offers also will save users runtime when the software is being used in their research. AnalySwift licensed the SwiftComp technology through the Purdue Research Foundation Office of Technology Commercialization.

Whether engineers are designing a new composite material or analyzing a structure, SwiftComp can reproduce first principle 3D analysis results at the efficiency of simple engineering models, said Yu, who helped develop the technology at Purdue. SwiftComp is a general-purpose multiscale constitutive modeling code for unified modeling of composites beams, plates/shells, or 3D structures. It can quickly and easily calculate all the effective properties for a wide variety of composites, computing the best structural model for use in macroscopic structural analysis, as well as de-homogenization.

VABS, another software tool provided by AnalySwift, provides rigorous modeling for composite slender structures like wind turbine blades, delivering finite element analysis-level accuracy in a fraction of time needed for conventional methods. Developed at Georgia Institute of Technology and Utah State University, VABS can calculate one of the most accurate, complete sets of sectional properties such as torsional stiffness, shear stiffness and shear center for composite beams made with arbitrary cross-section and arbitrary material, Wood said. It also can predict accurate detailed stress distribution for composite beams.

About AnalySwift

AnalySwift LLC is a provider of composite modeling software, which enables an unprecedented combination of efficiency and accuracy, including multiphysics structural and micromechanical modeling. Drawing on university-based research, AnalySwifts powerful solutions provide customers a competitive advantage through drastic reductions in engineering time, virtual testing earlier in the design process and handling of more complex composite structures. Licensed from Purdue University, Utah State University and Georgia Institute of Technology, their technologies deliver the accuracy of detailed 3D finite element analysis at the efficiency of simple engineering models, cutting analysis time by orders of magnitude.

About the Institute for Advanced Composites Manufacturing Innovation

The Institute for Advanced Composites Manufacturing Innovation (IACMI), managed by the Collaborative Composite Solutions Corporation, is a partnership of industry, universities, national laboratories, and federal, state and local governments working together to benefit the nations energy and economic security by sharing existing resources and co-investing to accelerate development and commercial deployment of advanced composites. The national institute is supported by a $70 million commitment from the U.S. Department of Energys Advanced Manufacturing Office and over $180 million committed from institute partners.

Purdue Research Foundation contact: Curt Slyder, 765-588-3342, caslyder@prf.org

Sources: Allan Wood, 801-599-5879, info@analyswift.com

Wenbin Yu, 765-494-5142, wenbinyu@purdue.edu
ROCK ISLAND -- A Rock Island man has chosen to represent himself in a pending criminal case, despite a judge advising him that he could face decades in prison if convicted.

Torrie Tyrell Roberts, 33, is accused of firing a gun at two people on July 11. Police said the shots-fired incident resulted in property damage, but no injuries.

At a court hearing Tuesday, Rock Island County Judge Frank Fuhr granted a motion by the public defender's office to withdraw its representation of Mr. Roberts. The defendant previously had posted 10 percent of a $10,000 jail bond, money that could be used to hire a private attorney, the public defender's office said.

But Mr. Roberts indicated he wished to represent himself, despite Judge Fuhr advising him that it wasn't a "good idea."

The judge cautioned Mr. Roberts that, if he's found guilty, he will face up to 15 years in prison for each of two Class 1 felonies of aggravated discharge of a firearm. He also faces up to three years in prison for each of two Class 4 felonies of reckless discharge of a firearm.

"It would be in your best interest to hire an attorney," the judge told him. Mr. Roberts, however, claimed he had been arrested for "nothing" and said he would rely on his faith in God.

Judge Fuhr postponed a preliminary hearing until Aug. 9 where, he told Mr. Roberts,"You better be prepared to represent yourself."

At a preliminary hearing, a judge typically hears testimony from a law-enforcement official and determines whether there is probable cause for the charges filed in the case. The defense attorney -- or in this case, Mr. Roberts -- has an opportunity to cross-examine the officer.

Charges accuse Mr. Roberts of shooting in the direction of two individuals outside a residence in the 800 block of 14 1/2 Street, Rock Island. Police were called to the area just after 8 p.m. July 11, and Mr. Roberts was taken less than an hour later to the Rock Island County Jail.
The (Arlington Heights) Daily Herald reports Kelly Palermo entered the plea Tuesday. DuPage County Assistant State's Attorney Kristin Johnson says the 51-year-old woman became angry when the cat bit her on June 10, 2015, at her daughter's house in suburban Elmhurst. Johnson says Kelly Palermo held the cat down while Samantha Palermo stabbed the animal at least five times.

Kelly Palermo faces a possible sentence of one to three years in prison and a fine up to $25,000.

Samantha Palermo is awaiting trial. Both women are free on $125,000 bail.

The Palermos don't have published telephone numbers and could not be reached for comment.
COAL VALLEY -- Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner brought his traveling show to Coal Valley on Tuesday, saying Illinois' political system is not a democracy, but a system where political boundaries look like spaghetti noodles rigged to protect incumbents.

Gerrymandering is nothing new in Illinois, but Gov. Rauner, speaking at the Corn Crib Nursery in Coal Valley, said the question of remapping those political boundaries, along with term limits, should be put before the voters, despite a recent setback to his cause last week.

The governor is proposing the Illinois General Assembly come back during its fall veto session after the Nov. 8 elections and pass constitutional amendments to put term limits and redrawn legislative maps on the ballot. He said the earliest those amendments could be voted on by the public would be November 2018.

"We have got to get the power to the people and away from the career politicians and special interest groups," the governor said, standing outside under the sun on a makeshift stage surrounded by straw bales.

Last week, a referendum allowing Illinois voters to decide if an independent commission should draw the state's political boundaries was struck down by a judge who ruled it was unconstitutional for November's ballot. It was the second setback for advocates of redistricting reform since 2014, when a judge tossed a similar proposal.

Gov. Rauner said term limits are supported by a majority of Democrats and Republicans throughout the state.

"We need term limits to change the culture," he said. "We can't let the special interest groups and the career politicians who control Springfield dictate terms for the people of Illinois.

"The people's voices need to be heard."

The governor said he believes anybody in statewide office should serve no longer than eight years and no more than 10 years in the General Assembly.

"Work for the people, not personal gain, not power and pensions," he said.

A number of people stood outside in the parking lot listening to the governor's speech. One of those was retiring Rep. Don Moffitt, R-Gilson. who is in his 12th term (24th year) in office.

Rep. Moffitt said if voters were allowed to decide term limits and remapping on the ballot, both measures would likely pass.

"I'm troubled one person, one judge, could throw it out," he said. "I hope redistricting becomes a reality. If redistricting is done right, the voters will take care of term limits so that either party could get the majority, so that either side could actually have that majority.

"The people would take care of it. That's what elections are about. There should be term limits on leadership positions, the speaker, the president of the Senate. Those are more powerful positions usually than the governor's, and it shouldn't be that way.

"All of the people get to vote on the governor. All of the people do not get to vote on the speaker and the president of the senate."

Gov. Rauner said if the Democrat-controlled General Assembly votes to put constitutional amendments related to remapping and term limits on the ballot, the courts, "won't have a voice on it.

"The courts won't overrule. We can get it right on the ballot, so the people of Illinois can decide."
Today is Wednesday July 27, the 209th day of 2016. There are 157 days left in the year.

1866 -- 150 years ago: Charley Reese is building a splendid beer house, dance hall and hotel in Moline, capable of accommodating a large number of people.

1891 -- 125 years ago: Capt. George Lamont took the Libbie Conger to Dubuque for a layoff during repair work.

1916 -- 100 years ago: Mrs. S.C. Taylor was elected chairman of the Womans Club of Rock Island.

1941 -- 75 years ago: The Eagle Kash and Karry markets have leased the building and parking lot at 1712 15th St., Moline, and will establish the ninth Eagle Market in the Tri-Cities.

1966 -- 50 years ago: Rain, the main topic of conversation for most residents of the Quad-Cities area today brought joy to some and much consternation of others. The United States Weather Bureau at the Quad City Airport recorded an official rainfall total of 3.13 inches in the past 24 hours.

1991 -- 25 years ago: Because Rock Island Boatworks Inc. has increased the size of its Mississippi River project, Rock Island officials plan to meet with a barge lines group whose members are concerned about the projects scope. The River Industry Action Committee, a St. Louis group that represents barge lines, is concerned about how the project will change navigation on the river.
PHILADELPHIA (AP)  Angry and disaffected Bernie Sanders' backers have a new rallying cry: "Jill not Hill."

That's Green Party candidate Jill Stein, whose liberal agenda of tuition-free college, $15-per-hour minimum wage and a renewable energy economy by 2030 offers a home to Sanders' supporters disillusioned by the two-party political system and unwilling to back Democrat Hillary Clinton.

"We are standing up together, we are supporting the Bernie delegates who liberated themselves tonight from the Democratic Party," Stein belted through a megaphone to cheering supporters outside the Democratic convention Tuesday night.

Stein is a 66-year-old doctor and political activist from Massachusetts who, like Clinton, was born in Illinois and raised in a Chicago suburb. She is poised to become the Green Party's 2016 presidential nominee early next month, a title she won in 2012.

Then, Stein failed to crack even half a million votes. This year, detractors warn she could become a Ralph Nader-like candidate, taking enough votes from Clinton to deliver Republican nominee Donald Trump a victory in November.

Nader, the Green Party's nominee in 2000, captured nearly 3 million votes. Many Democrats argue it was Nader who kept Democrat Al Gore from winning the White House over Republican George W. Bush.

Jason Sherry, a Sanders' delegate from Colorado, warned about helping Trump.

"If you're in a battleground state," he said. "You've got to suck it up and vote for Hillary."

Clinton's campaign is monitoring many of Sanders supporters who, for now, seem unwilling to get behind her as the nominee despite the senator's pleas.

With voters expressing discontent at both major party nominees, pollsters are watching third-party candidates like Stein and Gary Johnson, the Libertarian party's nominee. But a July Associated Press-GfK poll found both Stein and Johnson remain virtual unknowns among Americans, with 76 percent saying they don't know enough about Johnson to have a favorable or unfavorable opinion and 82 percent saying the same about Stein.

Stein first ran for elected office with the Green Party in 2002, challenging Mitt Romney for the Massachusetts' governorship but winning just a fraction of the votes. Stein, who graduated from Harvard Medical School in 1979, promises to wipe out student debt entirely and favors universal health care provided by a single public entity.

"I've been working my butt off for Bernie for a year, but I know a good deal about Jill Stein," said Stacy Bucek of Winter Park, Florida. "A lot of my beliefs line up with how she stands."

Stein is working aggressively to win over Sanders supporters, appearing at rallies in downtown Philadelphia during the week of the convention as protesting delegates shout "Jill not Hill!" And she's taking the fight directly to Clinton, accusing the Democratic Party of engaging in an "intimidation campaign that is trying to get you to vote for some lesser evil."

"Hillary cannot stand up to Donald Trump because it's the policies of the Clintons that have created the economic misery that has given rise to the right-wing extremism that supports Donald Trump," Stein said.

Danny Keating, a steelworker from Lowell, Massachusetts, says he'll vote for Stein "because the two-party system is corrupt, it's becoming more evident by the rigged primaries and everything else, I'm here to fight for a party for the 99% and working people."

--

Associated Press writers Hope Yen and Emily Swanson in Washington and Dake Yang and Geoff Mulvihill in Philadelphia contributed reporting.
DAVENPORT, IOWA918studio Press, a literary press in Davenport, has announced its selections for 2016 publication. Another Life, a short novel by Tom McKay of Hampton, Illinois, is about what happens when a very attractive girl who you had a crush on in high school comes back into your life as your sons future mother-in-law. Breakfast at the Good Hope Home is a literary collage work by Mike Bayles, of Davenport, Iowa, and shows a son struggling with his fathers final stages of Alzheimers. Both books are planned to be released later this fall; updates can be found on www.918studiopress.com.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

Why are so many people in this area willing to give up these rights? They are willing to give up the right to have the best person represent them in government and freedom of speech. The right to a well-run government with fair and reasonable taxes. The right to have their children eat what they feel is the best for them at school. The right to run a business the way they like. The right to own firearms to protect themselves.

What do I mean by willing to give up their rights? Voting Democrat!

On firearms, we all know what the Democratic Party stance is.

Well-run government? Who has been in control of the state of Illinois during its financial slide?

How many people have lost their business because they have refused to participate in a homosexual wedding, in violation of the 1st Amendment.

Representation in Illinois is controlled by Michael Madigan, not by the people.

How much of your taxes go to support people who are not willing to work?

Some politicians think that a woman should have the right to kill her unborn child, that is not a right, its murder.

I am taking a free course on the Constitution from Hillsdale College online. I think every person reading this letter should take that course.

Jim Brooks,

East Moline
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PHILADELPHIA  The Democratic Party formally nominated Hillary Clinton for president Tuesday, making her the first woman chosen by a major American party.

The former secretary of state and first lady secured the 2,383 delegates needed to win with South Dakota's vote.

Clinton became the party's standard bearer following days of tension between pro-Clinton forces and delegates who supported Sen. Bernie Sanders , the party's runner-up. Clinton is expected to accept the nomination in a speech Thursday night.

After the Vermont delegation voted, Sanders moved to name Clinton the nominee. The voice vote passed, but not without some 'nays' from delegates. Some 100 delegates walked off the floor in protest after the nomination, NBC News reported.

Sanders endorsed Clinton in an address Monday night, urging his energetic supporters to get behind Clinton to defeat Republican nominee Donald Trump . Sanders led a staunch Democratic primary challenge to Clinton, and some of his supporters still refuse to line up behind her amid concerns about her policies and the party's neutrality.

Earlier, Sen. Barbara Mikulski of Maryland, the longest serving woman in Congress, put Clinton's name in for the nomination. Rep. John Lewis of Georgia, a civil rights icon, seconded it. Na'ilah Amaru, an Iraq war veteran and contest winner from New York, gave the third nominating speech.

Lewis said the Democrats broke barriers by selecting the first black man, President Barack Obama , to be commander-in-chief in 2008. The party moves forward again with Clinton's nomination, he said.

"Tonight, tonight, on this night, we will shatter that glass ceiling again. We're the party of tomorrow, and we will build a true democracy in America," Lewis said.

Some delegates reading state vote tallies peppered them with messages of support for Sanders and what he calls the "political revolution" he started. Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf, while casting the convention host state's votes, said Sanders' "fight for inclusion, justice and fairness has invigorated our party."





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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!
Slow-speed dynamic testing began in early July and high-speed testing commenced with 160km/h runs in both directions using a TGV Duplex set provided by French National Railways (SNCF). Speeds will be increased incrementally in the coming weeks and testing will be extended to the northern and southern sections of the line when the catenary is energised in September.

The Lisea consortium of Vinci (33.4%) Caisee des Depots/CDC Infrastructure (25.4%), Sojas (22%), and AXA Private Equity (19.2%) was awarded a 50-year 7.8bn concession in 2011 to fund, design, build, operate and maintain the line in a deal which was described at the time as Europe's largest-ever PPP contract.

When it opens on July 2 2017, the line will cut Paris - Bordeaux journey times from 3h 14min to 2h 4min. The Paris - Toulouse trip will also be reduced by more than an hour from 5h 25min to 4h 9min.

SNCF expects ridership between Paris and Bordeaux to reach 2.3 million by 2019. The first of a new fleet of 40 Alstom Euroduplex Atlantique double-deck trains is due to be delivered soon and these trains will replace single-deck TGV Atlantique sets on services from Paris to destinations in Western and southwestern France.
HKX extended its Hamburg - Cologne service, which currently operates on five days per week, to Frankfurt in December 2015 with two round trips per week, but says its journey time of 2h 29min compares unfavourably with German Rails (DB) journey time of just 54 minutes by ICE, not to mention the high frequency offered by DB.

Our experience with different offers and schedules has shown that it is economically sensible for us to concentrate on our original route and provide a good service to our customers, says HKX managing director Mr Carsten Carstensen. Of course, this includes offering additional trips on high-demand days.

HKX will also withdraw its Hamburg - Cologne round trip on Thursdays from September 1 to concentrate on Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays and Mondays.

With this schedule change, we will meet the desire of many travellers who wish to travel from Cologne to Hamburg at the beginning of the weekend and return late on Sunday afternoon, Carstensen says. Our analysis has shown, there is a great need for great deals for weekend getaways from the Rhineland to the north, but there was less strong demand on Thursdays.

When HKX launched in July 2012 it operated three round trips per day between Hamburg and Cologne, but it has found it very difficult to compete with DB which offers an hourly-interval service albeit with a similar journey time. HKX operates much older trains than those of DB.
Argentinean satellite Arsat-2 has gained landing rights in the US, opening new commercial opportunities for the public operator.





In addition to the Canadian landing rights awarded two months ago, Arsat will now be able to commercialise direct-to-home capacity in most of North America.The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has awarded Arsat rights to commercialise Arsat-2s signal to local broadcasters in the US, said Rodrigo de Loredo, the companys president. One of our main goals was to increase landing rights reach, and this agreement confirms were moving in the right direction.The Arsat-2 satellite, the second public satellite to be launched by Argentinas Government, covers the entire American continent, and aims to deliver DTH and video transport capacity across the whole region. However, it currently only has landing rights for Argentina, Chile, Canada and the US.Its a long process with lots of bureaucracy, added De Loredo, speaking about getting commercial permission in foreign countries. During the last months, we have been negotiating to get new landing rights in Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Bolivia, Peru and Uruguay.
A+E Networks Asias lifestyle network FYI has entered a content marketing partnership with Samsung Galaxy Life.





Under the deal FYI, which reaches nearly seven million households across 14 South East Asian countries, is offering Samsung Galaxy Life exclusive short-form content, themed genres such as fashion, food, travel and home improvement. The content will be shared across FYIs broadcast and social channels as well as Samsungs own digital platforms. FYI is a unique television brand for the digital age and the partnership with Samsung Galaxy Life is the first of many that will reflect our digital distribution strategy. The tailored content that we are creating blends both FYI and Samsungs passion points together to engage with an audience of digital natives for whom it is relevant and exciting, said Prem Kamath, deputy managing director, A+E Networks Asia.Content available via the Samsung Galaxy Life mobile app in Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines and Taiwan includes exclusive contests, FYI editorial pieces, and short-form programmes from popular series, such as Kocktails with Khloe (starring Khloe Kardashian) and Food Porn. FYI viewers will also be able to enter the Samsung Galaxy Life Amazing Experience campaign, which offers quarterly themed competitions.Irene Ng, vice president, corporate marketing, Samsung Southeast Asia and Oceania, added: This is our first television partnership for Galaxy Life, and we are thrilled that FYI shares the same vision of creating contemporary life experiences for our consumers.
As the company positions itself to capitalise on an increased number of growth opportunities in the global pay-TV industry, Alticast has appointed Mike Fallon as president of its Americas business.





Fallon, who previously headed Alticasts North American customer engagement activities, will assume overall responsibility for Alticasts business strategy and operational activities in the North and South American markets. John Carlucci, who had served as president and CTO of Alticast US, will devote all of his energies to his CTO role of identifying and productizing new technologies that can drive business results for pay-TV operators.Our success with Videotron, our APAC customers and other operators in North America and worldwide have generated numerous new business and technology opportunities, said Mansoo Han, CEO of Alticast . The appointment of Mike Fallon will better enable us to leverage his strategic and leadership skills, while freeing John Carlucci to accelerate the technology solutions that the market is demanding.The move follows the appointment of Nara Won as vice president of business development and strategy for Alticasts operations throughout the Americas.As head of Alticasts North American professional services efforts for three years, Fallon has worked directly with Tier 1 North American pay-TV operators to determine their business objectives.Alticasts best-in-class UX, our device software solutions and our next-generation cloud services platform already are positioned to drive value for our Americas customer base, said Fallon. "We expect to build on that success as we bring the same CAS and DRM content protection technology that is widely deployed in APAC to the Americas market.Prior to Alticast, Fallon spent eight years with Advanced Digital Broadcast and its Vidiom Systems acquisition. As director of customer operations he led cross-functional teams that delivered an integrated software/hardware solution that was deployed nationally by Charter Communications and Time Warner Cable. Earlier in his career, Fallon spent three years with ARRIS. He holds a BA from the University of Dallas.
WDRB-TV FOX 41's all-HD live coverage of the 2016 Thunder Over Louisville event in Louisville was supported by Utah Scientific.





Over a single bidirectional fibre, the UTAH-100/XFD supplied key content elements and the main program feed for WDRB's sprawling 22-camera coverage of Thunder Over Louisville, an air show and fireworks extravaganza that marked the official opening of the Kentucky Derby season on 22 April.For 28 years, Thunder Over Louisville has been delighting our citizens with an explosive kickoff for the biggest annual celebration in our region," said Gary Schroder, chief engineer, WDRB-TV. WDRB's coverage of the 2007 show marked the event's first-ever all-HD broadcast. When we were chosen for the broadcast again this year, we decided to up the ante on our coverage - going from 12 strategic camera locations to a record-breaking 22.He added: Without the UTAH-100/XFD, together with the other Utah Scientific routing and master control gear in our operation, we could not have produced a show of this magnitude. When push comes to shove, we know we can count on Utah Scientific to provide equipment with bulletproof reliability for even the most complex productions and fantastic customer service in the rare event that problems do arise.Working with F&F Productions, WDRB-TV established fixed shooting locations on both sides of the Ohio River. In addition, the production included a drone-mounted camera for bird's-eye-view live footage (marking the first time the FAA approved flying a drone during an air show), a roving HD camera among the spectators, and a camera mounted atop the 300-foot tall Humana Corporation skyscraper for footage of the F16 fighters in the air show. In another first for the event, WDRB-TV also deployed Live-U cellular bonding transmitters at two local airports, enabling producers to cut in exciting live footage from GoPro cameras mounted in the cockpits of the aircraft participating in the air show.The stream of the entire Thunder Over Louisville show travelled through Utah Scientific equipment.Thunder Over Louisville was a marvel in live TV production using fibre, with more than 15,000 feet of fibre cable supplying footage from challenging locations, such as the top of the Humana Building. We're very proud of the role Utah Scientific equipment played in this monumental broadcast, said Tom Harmon, president and CEO of Utah Scientific. WDRB-TV has proven once again how flexible and powerful the UTAH-100/XFD is for digital signal distribution and conversion. For instance, the unit delivered pristine HD signal quality -- a remarkable feat considering that the main production feed had to be patched through the cable provider's central hub ten miles away.Utah Scientific recently joined the Alliance for IP Media Solutions (AIMS), an independent industry trade association with a mandate to bring IP solutions to the market that will offer complete interoperability, are based on open standards, and integrate seamlessly into media workflow environments.
Russian Interior Minister proposes joint international hunt for criminals

MOSCOW, July 27 (RAPSI, Lyudmila Klenko)  The Head of the Russias Interior Ministry Vladimir Kolokoltsev has proposed to conduct a joint international operation to search for criminals addressing the leaders of police structures of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), a press-release issued by the Ministry reads.

In his speech the Minister held at an ASEAN meeting in Manila, Kolokoltsev offered to consider such an operation to be carried out under aegis of ASEANPOL. He noted that this year alone seven Russian citizens, charged with grave crimes, were extradited to the homeland from the ASEAN countries having not only highly appreciated cooperation in this sphere but also stressing its potential.

ASEAN includes Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, Cambodia, Malaysia, Vietnam, Philippines, Laos, Myanmar and Brunei. A full-scale partnership between Russia and the ASEAN member countries was launched in July 1996.
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.
After announcing that it would cut communications with the United States, North Korea launched three missiles (two Scuds and a No Dong) last week. In some ways, there is little unexpected in North Korea's actions. Since the early 1990s, the North Korean nuclear and missile programs have been a focus of greater and lesser international attention, and there is no reason to predict that a resolution satisfactory to the United States (or North Korea) will emerge any time soon. Similarly, the United States followed a familiar script in its reaction to the recent launches, threatening additional sanctions and further isolation.

But that doesn't mean nothing has changed. North Korea once treated its nuclear weapons program as a bargaining chip  a way to raise the stakes with the United States to wheedle concessions and aid. Now, however, nuclear weapons development is no longer something Pyongyang is willing to trade away for economic support and promises of nonaggression. North Korea has ramped up the testing cycle for its various missile systems, and it may be preparing for another nuclear test. If Pyongyang has no intention of stopping or reversing its nuclear weapons program  the two outcomes that U.S. policyhas been geared to achieve  then perhaps it is time for Washington to reconsider its strategy for dealing with a nuclear-armed North Korea.

From Bargaining Chip . . .

North Korea launched its nuclear weapons program in earnest in the 1980s. After the Soviet Union collapsed, and amid social and political instability in China, Pyongyang rapidly expanded the program, fearing that its two primary backers could no longer provide the economic and security guarantees that North Korea had previously relied on. The United Nations' recognition of both Korean governments as legitimate reinforced those concerns, and when South Korea began to engage politically and economically with China and Russia, Pyongyang's worries mounted.

By the early 1990s, a major nuclear crisis was emerging, carefully crafted by North Korean founding leader Kim Il Sung to draw the United States into an economic and energy settlement called the Agreed Framework. Kim also launched a diplomatic offensive, inviting South Korean President Kim Young Sam to visit Pyongyang for what would have been the first inter-Korean summit. But the meeting never occurred. Kim Il Sung died unexpectedly, and his son, Kim Jong Il, took power and finished the negotiations for the Agreed Framework, signed in 1994. At the same time, he pushed forward with North Korea's long-range missile program, leading to the 1998 launch of the Taepodong/Unha missile. Though Pyongyang claimed it had launched the missile to put a satellite into orbit, the United States contended that the move was a clear attempt to develop an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM).

Throughout much of Kim Jong Il's term, North Korea used its nuclear weapons programs as a negotiating tool. Projecting a combination of unpredictability, nuclear ambition and economic decrepitude, North Korea earned a reputation as an erratic power that could not be restrained through any conventional political means. If the country's economic crisis precipitated its ruin, then the government might unleash its burgeoning arsenal. To avoid that outcome, the United States opted to provide North Korea with just enough aid and negotiating opportunities (particularly under the multilateral six-party talk format) to slow its nuclear weapons development and forestall economic collapse. This approach proved beneficial for both sides, reducing the threat of U.S. military action in North Korea while also mitigating the risk of a global disaster at a relatively low cost. North Korea even undertook various diplomatic offensives, expanding relations with Western nations, opening up to increased Western tourism and holding summit meetings with South Korean leaders. But, as U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower once noted, "The world moves, and ideas that were good once are not always good."

Following the 9/11 attacks, Pyongyang toned down its histrionics and even proffered something of an olive branch to the United States. But the offer was rebuffed, and the United States named North Korea part of the Axis of Evil, along with Iraq and Iran. When the United States invaded Iraq, suspecting that the country possessed weapons of mass destruction that it could deploy, along with conventional capability, against neighboring countries, Pyongyang began to rethink its security strategy. Having the means to damage South Korea  or as North Korea puts it, to turn Seoul into a sea of fire  in case of invasion was no longer a deterrent for foreign military intervention.

. . . To Security Cornerstone

Nonetheless, as Libya renounced its quest for WMD in 2003 (likely in an attempt to avoid Iraq's fate), Pyongyang continued to negotiate with Washington, hoping for a security guarantee. Then in 2006, North Korea carried out its first nuclear test, sounding alarm bells in the United States and around Asia. Pyongyang used the fears that the test inspired to speed up negotiations, and in 2008, it destroyed the cooling tower at the Yongbyon nuclear reactor. North Korea continued this pattern, carrying out another nuclear test in 2009 and revealing a secret nuclear facility in 2010 before suspending nuclear and missile tests in 2012.

At the same time, the country's leadership had begun to lose faith in the efficacy of bartering its nuclear program for economic and security concessions. The world was changing too fast, North Korea's traditional sponsors were undependable and U.S. promises seemed unreliable. Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's death in late 2011 also gave Pyongyang pause. Even though Gadhafi had abandoned his nuclear ambitions and had been partially reaccepted by the international community, the West stood by and watched as he was overthrown and killed in an uprising. Gadhafi embodied Pyongyang's worst fear: to give up its military deterrent and then fall to a foreign-facilitated insurrection. Kim Jong Il's death a few months later and the accession of his very young replacement, Kim Jong Un, only compounded the sense of uncertainty in North Korea.

Since then, the country has unequivocally rejected the idea of trading away its nuclear weapons program. Pyongyang has spent too much time, money and political capital to simply walk away. What's more, it has no guarantee that doing so will protect its leaders from foreign military intervention. And simply being able to threaten South Korea or even Japan is not enough anymore to deter the United States from taking such action.

Over the past year, North Korea's testing cycle has accelerated rapidly, particularly for longer-range and mobile missile systems, such as the Musudan/Hwasong-10 and submarine-launched ballistic missiles, which provide second-strike capability that the Taepodong does not. In addition, Pyongyang is conducting tests on re-entry, which will be necessary for intermediate-range ballistic missiles and ICBMs. Although the United States has missile defense systems in place in the Asia-Pacific region and on the homeland, missile defense is not completely effective. Consequently, from Pyongyang's perspective, its demonstrated ability to deliver a nuclear device to the United States would alter Washington's cost-benefit calculations over whether to attack or destabilize North Korea.

Adjusting to the New Status Quo

No longer a bargaining chip, North Korea's nuclear program has become a vital component of its national security. Pyongyang's byungjin policy, which places equal emphasis on nuclear weapons and economic development, is more than just posturing. Though North Korea's goals will not be easy to achieve  if they are ever achieved at all  U.S. policies geared toward stopping or reversing the nuclear program will likely do little to thwart them.

The question, then, may not be how to prevent North Korea from attaining a nuclear capability, but how to manage regional relations once it has. The United States has said it will not recognize North Korea's nuclear capabilities. But choosing not to recognize a reality is not a starting point for a viable strategy. Already the United States has adjusted to the reality that India, Pakistan and Israel have functioning nuclear weapons programs, despite the prohibitions against them. Acknowledging that North Korea has joined these countries would not mean an end to counterproliferation policy; instead, it would establish a more realistic foundation for assessing policy options.

The true danger of a nuclear North Korea is less that Pyongyang would lash out with a pre-emptive strike than that its newfound nuclear capability would prompt Japan, South Korea and Taiwan to follow suit. In discussions with China, the United States has even said as much. To prevent this domino effect, the United States could increase its military presence and activity in the Asia-Pacific region, doubling down in its security guarantee to allies and partners. From China's perspective, though, neither scenario is ideal: A greater U.S. presence would constrain China's options and actions, while a nuclear Japan and South Korea (and perhaps Taiwan) would fundamentally change the balance of power and security concerns in the region.

The United States has a political calculation to make as well. For more than two decades, Washington has tried to stop Pyongyang's nuclear development. Sanctions, isolation, threats, talks and concessions have all failed. The failure is due in part to a significant misunderstanding between the two sides regarding their core security concerns and in part to the relatively low priority that North Korea's nuclear armament has always been for the United States (as a long-term threat, it was often set aside for more pressing issues). Regardless, a nuclear-armed North Korea would cast doubt on the U.S. ability to influence foreign powers through non-military means.

Barring pre-emptive military action, a political crisis in North Korea, or a major accident that convinces Pyongyang that the risks of a nuclear program are not worth the reward, a nuclear-armed North Korea looks more and more inevitable. If the country will not back down from its nuclear program, the United States will need a different strategy to manage the new regional dynamics that it creates. Ideally, the new approach would not only reassure allies of their security but would also include North Korea, Pakistan, India and perhaps even China and Israel in broader discussions of nuclear weapons numbers and arms control measures. To do this, however, the United States will first have to recognize North Korea's nuclear capability. Many argue that granting Pyongyang the acknowledgment it desires would reward bad behavior. But the alternative solutions have proved ineffective, and ignoring the new status quo will not change it.
The failed July 15 military coup in Turkey was a long time in the making. Its aftermath is the final act in what may be viewed as the devolution of Turkish democracy into an authoritarian state.

Prelude: Turkish appetite for democracy

Turkey is a country where citizens demand for democracy has steadily grown over the last 15 years. A long period of competitive parliamentary elections and political liberalization created hope that democracy had become enshrined in Turkeys political culture.

Everyday citizens embracing democratic governance as the only legitimate form of government are required for any democracy to be successful. When citizens do not demand democracy, preferring a strong authoritarian leader as in Russia, there is little hope for democracy to flourish.

As part of the Comparative National Election Project (CNEP) at Ohio State University, we surveyed nearly 1,200 Turkish citizens about their views on democracy in early 2015.

Respondents expressed a large demand for democratic governance. Three-quarters of respondents consistently rejected each of the four types of authoritarian rule (one-party, strong man, military, religious) about which we asked. About four out of five (78 percent) respondents stated that democracy was preferable over any other form of government.

Act One: a failure of supply to meet demand

Yet, public demand for democracy is only part of the equation. Democratic values must also be adopted by elites and the countrys most important institutions. The institutional supply of democratic governance must satisfy the public demand. Otherwise political instability may occur.

Though Turkey had been making steady progress toward becoming a fully fledged democracy, it has backslid in recent years. Turkey may be best described as an hybrid regime that is a mix of democracy and authoritarianism.

The governing Justice & Development (AKP) Party and President Erdogan have been at the center of this democratic backslide. With control of both parliament and the presidency, they have worked to reshape Turkeys political and societal institutions to permanently preserve their power.

In recent years they have moved Turkey increasingly toward authoritarianism. They have cracked down on press freedom and attacked online dissent. Erdogan manipulated the last parliamentary election by reigniting the conflict with Kurdish separatists. As a conservative religious party, the AKP has actively worked to Islamize Turkish society.

REUTERS/Sertac Kayar

President Erdogan has disregarded the constitution by taking on extra-constitutional powers for the largely ceremonial presidency. Those in parliament who oppose his autocratic dreams have been purged from his own party or targeted for prosecution.

Act Two: divided we fall

This democratic backslide by President Erdogan and the AKP has created increased political dissatisfaction and polarization inside Turkey. The 2013 antigovernment Gezi Park protests were a warning shot that was ignored.

Our survey found that a majority of Turks described Turkey as not a democracy (22 percent) or a democracy with major problems (34 percent). Nearly half of Turks were either not at all satisfied (19 percent) or not very satisfied (26 percent) with how democracy worked in Turkey.

But these numbers overlook the deep political polarization about Turkish democracy. On one hand, there is a huge consensus that democracy is preferred to any other form of government. Yet, there is a great deal of polarization between AKP supporters and supporters of the three main opposition parties on how much democracy Turkey actually enjoys.

Amongst AKP voters, our 2015 survey found that nearly three-fourths (72 percent) described Turkey as a full democracy or a democracy with minor problems. In contrast, about one-quarter (26 percent) of opposition voters felt the same. Likewise, 81 percent of AKP voters were somewhat or very satisfied with how democracy works in Turkey. By comparison 32 percent of opposition voters were similarly satisfied.

Beyond this opinion gap on democracy in Turkey, affective polarization between supporters of different parties has become very high. A recent German Marshall Fund survey found that three-quarters of Turks do not want their children playing with the children of those who support a different political party. This high level of political polarization undermines the ability of the public to collectively pressure the government to supply more democracy.

Act Three: turning a blind eye

The third act of this Turkish tragedy takes place outside of Turkey. The United States and the European Union have largely ignored Turkeys democratic backslide.

President Erdogans government is viewed as necessary for fighting ISIS. He has also helped deal with the European migrant crisis. As a result, President Erdogan has enjoyed a free pass as he steadily erodes civil and political liberties.

Act Four: die by the sword

REUTERS/Osman Orsal

Historically, the Turkish military has viewed itself as the guarantor of Turkeys secular and democratic character. It has intervened previously when it viewed Turkish democracy as threatened. Yet, globally, the track record for military coups saving democracy is very poor.

Ironically, before the July 15 coup attempt, the military was one of the most trusted institutions in Turkey. Nearly 40 percent of respondents to our survey said they trusted the military a fair amount or a great deal. This number rises to 58 percent among AKP voters. Likewise, a 2015 Pew Global Attitudes survey found that the Turkish military was the only institution with a net positive rating of 52 percent by the Turkish public.

Yet, the attempt by a sizable faction of the military to stage a coup to depose Erdogan with the stated goal of restoring Turkish democracy failed. Paradoxically, a key contributor to its failure was the high public demand for democratic governance in Turkey. Turks who flooded the streets in resistance to the coup were not only supporters of Erdogan, but also opposition supporters.

Demand for democracy is so strong in Turkey, despite polarized views on whether President Erdogan and the AKP were providing it, that most Turks were willing to accept a deeply flawed democracy rather than a military dictatorship. And now, in the wake of the coup, the military has been fully neutered.

Act Five: the purge

And thus the final act in this tragedy is that by rejecting a military dictatorship, the Turkish people may have simply substituted one form of autocratic governance for another: electoral authoritarianism. Electoral authoritarianism is the illusion of multiparty democracy with severely restricted civil and political liberties. The poster child for electoral authoritarianism is the Russian Federation.

This is the vision that President Erdogan apparently has for Turkey. Erdogans ultimate goal is to rewrite the Turkish constitution to create a strong, centralized presidency with a subservient parliament and judiciary. His personal role model is arguably his frenemy President Putin. He no doubt envies Russias authoritarian regime that dominates every aspect of Russian political life.

In what some are calling President Erdogans Reichstag Fire moment the failed coup provides him the opportunity to further purge political dissent. This purge reaches deep into the military, political, legal, media and educational segments of Turkish society. It will help him complete his project of reshaping Turkeys political system.

Epilogue: resistance is not futile

The future for Turkey democracy may look bleak. Erdogans quest for complete political control appears unstoppable. But there is hope. His authoritarian project will not be complete until the Turkish constitution is changed to formally redefine the role of the presidency.

Turkey is better positioned to stave off full electoral authoritarianism than Russia, for example, due to its high public demand for democracy. However, several factors will need, in my view, to come together for this demand for democracy to successfully stop Erdogan.

First, democracy and human rights advocates outside Turkey will need to make a major push on the U.S. and the EU to exert influence upon President Erdogan to temper his autocratic ambitions.

Second, the Turkish political opposition on the left and right needs to work together to dampen political polarization across party lines. Dampening polarization increases the potential for collective action on democracys behalf. Unity rallies in defense of democracy need to become more common.

Third, Turks need to be made aware that the constitutional changes sought by Erdogan will leave them hungry for democracy, if not starving. The political opposition and civil society should coordinate a massive strategic communication campaign together. If these combined efforts are successful, Turkeys march toward authoritarianism, and ultimate democratic tragedy, may just be averted.

Erik C. Nisbet, Associate Professor of Communication, Political Science, and Environmental Policy and Faculty Associate with the Mershon Center for International Security Studies, The Ohio State University

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.
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Blac Chyna is putting rumors she and Rob Kardashian have split to rest with the help of her future in-laws.

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The 28-year-old model reunited with several of the Kardashians, including Kim Kardashian and her mom, Kris Jenner , to celebrate Jenner's mom's birthday on Tuesday.

Kardashian made a show of solidarity by posting a video with Blac Chyna on Snapchat.

The clip sees the star rub Blac Chyna's baby bump after telling fans, "Hey guys, it's going down in San Diego tonight."

Blac Chyna and the Kardashians gathered at The Marine Room in La Jolla, Calif., to fete Jenner's mom, M.J. Campbell. Rob wasn't seen in any of the photos or videos his family shared from the event.

Fans speculated Blac Chyna and Rob had split this week after Rob deleted all traces of the model from his Instagram. Sources later told Us Weekly the couple had an "explosive fight" but were still together.

"It was a fight, but they will be over it and basically are," an insider said. "They've been spending a ton of time together and filming a show together. Add to that the stress of a new relationship and it's inevitable that there will be some tension."

Blac Chyna and Rob got engaged in April after three months of dating and announced they're expecting the next month. The couple will star on the new E! series "Rob & Chyna."
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Elizabeth Banks mocked Donald Trump's dramatic back-lit RNC convention entrance Tuesday as she took the stage at the Democratic National Convention.

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"You know, I don't usually say this about Donald Trump , but that was over the top," the actress said of the Republican presidential hopeful after she entered the stage slowly amidst a cloud of fog as Queen's "We Are the Champions" played in the background.

Banks then compared Trump to one of her most popular on-screen characters.

"Some of you know me from 'The Hunger Games,' in which I play Effie Trinket, a cruel, out-of-touch reality TV star who wears insane wigs while delivering long-winded speeches to a violent dystopia," she said. "So when I tuned into Cleveland last week I was like, 'Uh, hey, that's my act!'"

The "Power Rangers" star also got serious during her speech, however, discussing how her parents struggled to make ends meet when she was younger, and how Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton inspired her during a rally for Bill Clinton in 1992.

"It was there that I learned something really important about show business," Banks recalled. "The headliner should always watch out for someone stealing the show. Hillary Clinton rocked my world. A smart, committed, successful woman -- and not for her own benefit -- but a fighter for women and children, cops and first responders, health care and girls around the world."

Banks is the latest celebrity to speak during the Democratic National Convention, following Sarah Silverman and Al Franken calling on Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton supporters to band together, Demi Lovato who called for greater access to mental health care before performing her song "Confident," and Eva Longoria who slammed Trump for his previous statements a regarding Mexican immigrants.
Issue #26 focused on the COMBLOC side of things, like Kalashnikovs and Petronovs and 7.62 x 39mm ammo  and Elena Romanova.

The lovely Ms. Romanova (@elena88c, photographed here by Jorge Nunez), appeared in the GOING HOT section with a Billet Rifle Systems (@billet_rifle_systems) BRS47 long gun loaded up with all sorts of goodies; Mission First Tactical (@teammfer) BMS MilSpec w/NRAT STrap, Engage AR15/M16 Pistol Grip v2, Flip Up Front sight W/E and a POLY Flip Up rear sight. You might also recognize the Strike Industries (@strikeindustries_si) AR Enhanced Ultimate Dust Cover and of course Magpul AK/AKM MOE PMAG. The optic up top is a ROMEO4a, from Sig Sauer (@sigsaueroptics), with the whole thing churched up by Nevada Cerakote (@nevada_cerakote).

So, not too long ago we wrapped our Going Hot shoot for issue #27. and figured maybe you'd like a sneak peak. Our feature model in the upcoming issue is a shooter  meaning she knows her way around her weapons and more importantly is proficient in their use. She's also a passionate supporter of veteran causes, is a SCUBA diver and a lady who loves to travel.

You'll receive a full write-up after number 27 hits the stands. Meantime here's a look of what's headed your way.

Going Hot 27  Coming Soon

See you on the newsstands.
Insidious is a new aftermarket brand designed by West Coast Gun Works in Stanton, California. West Coast Gun Works is known for their exceptional gun restoration work as well as custom work ranging from AK's to Hi-Power rebuilds. After building a cult following for some of their detailed work, they decided to launch a line of aftermarket products under the umbrella, Insidious.

The first offering from Insidious is a trigger slated for release this August. It has been 2 years of development, with WCG consulting closely with SMEs (Subject Matter Experts) in law enforcement, tactical training and sport shooting. From the looks of it, Insidious has built something truly different, something that offers advantages other triggers in the aftermarket do not  or at least not as well.

The main difference in their trigger is reduced reset. To enable a quicker reset, they had to take away some of the travel. They've evidently accomplished this, as multiple testers noted the trigger's lack of a mushy feel, advising it allowed for quicker follow up shots. Based partly upon SME feedback and initial demand, the decision was made to make his inaugural venture a flat trigger. However, assuming there is a demand for it, they will release a curved version in the nearfuture.

The WCG Insidious trigger kit comes with a trigger bar, connector and will be available only in black. However, you have the option of sending in your firearm to be fitted with the trigger and choosing a different color (Type 3 Anodized for durability). However, wait times will apply. Note that this would have the additional benefit of tuning the trigger to your specific firearm for a more solid fit.

Insidious has examined and utilized many different triggers on the market, enabling them to engage in lots of comparison field testing as well as conducting detailed contrast studies from a gunsmith's perspective.

Insidious will be offering slide packages (pictured) and other pistol customization pieces in the coming months. The Insidious Trigger retails for $145. It will be available for the Glock initially and other breeds of pistol in the near future (ie: M&P).

For more info visit West Coast Gun Works website or take a gander at their Instagram feed.

You can find them online here and Instagram here.
Kuwaiti Shiite MP Abdulhamid Dashti received 14 years and six months jail term in absentia for insulting Saudi Arabia and Bahrain (AFP Photo/Yasser Al-Zayyat) (AFP/File)

Kuwait City (AFP) - A Kuwaiti court on Wednesday sentenced a Shiite lawmaker to 14 years and six months in absentia for remarks deemed highly offensive to fellow Gulf states Saudi Arabia and Bahrain.

Abdulhameed Dashti received 11 years and six months for insulting Saudi Arabia and three years for insulting Bahrain in another case.

The outspoken lawmaker, who has been living overseas for the past four months, was also convicted of endangering Kuwait's diplomatic ties with the two countries and for calling on people to join the Lebanese Shiite Hezbollah militia.

Dashti described the sentences as "oppressive" on his Twitter account, but insisted that he will not back down.

The verdicts are not final but Dashti can only challenge them when he goes back to the oil-rich emirate. He did not say when he will return.

Dashti, a strong supporter of Iran and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, told parliament in March that he was undergoing medical treatment in Britain.

The lawmaker still faces several similar cases and if convicted could receive additional jail terms.

Dashti has been a vocal critic of the royal families of both Saudi Arabia and Bahrain.

He denounced the 2011 Saudi military intervention in Bahrain to support the government against Shiite-led protests as an "invasion".

In May last year, Dashti filed a request to question the Kuwaiti foreign minister over the country's participation in the Saudi-led air campaign against Yemen's Shiite Huthi rebels.

But parliament refused to allow him to grill the minister over Kuwait's involvement, which he alleged was in breach of the constitution.

There are just nine Shiite MPs in Kuwait's 50-seat parliament. The minority Shiite community comprises some 30 percent of the country's native population of 1.3 million.
As UGA students watched communities respond in protest in the days after the two police shootings in Louisiana and Minnesota and the deaths of five police officers in Dallas, one things remains clear, many have said improved dialogue and understanding between communities and police agencies is needed.
Jack Davis, born in 1924, attended UGA on the G.I. Bill after his service in the United States Navy. Davis worked for The Red & Black newspaper as an illustrator during his time at UGA before he became a cartoonist intern at the Atlanta Journal. Eventually, Davis drew artwork for MAD Magazine.
This image released by the Disney Channel shows the character Elena who becomes a crown princess in a scene from, "Elena of Avalor," premiering July 22 on Disney Channel. (Disney Channel via AP)

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By LYNN ELBER, AP Television Writer

LOS ANGELES (AP)  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.
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By Jenny Espino of the Redding Record Searchlight

A Shasta County woman is asking state wildlife officials to investigate who tied up a yearling deer and left it to die on the side of a road just outside of Redding.

Heather Scott said the dead animal was first spotted by her mother while walking to Tower Market in the 1400 block of Lake Boulevard. It was about 5 p.m. Monday. The deer was on an unpaved shoulder on the east side of Lake Boulevard several yards away from a mobile home park.

Its front and hind legs had been bound with white and blue nylon rope, though the knot on the back legs had become loose.

"It's just sad to see it like this. Someone should get in trouble for it," Scott said, thinking perhaps it was a deer who fed with its mother from her backyard. "The momma dear has not been around for a week."

Upset by the scene, Scott said she talked to residents in the area and tried to report the case to authorities. But she said she got the runaround by different agencies.

She said she contacted animal control to ask whether an officer could pick up the carcass. She was referred to Redding police because it was believed it was in the city limits, she said. She said she was told to contact California Department of Fish and Wildlife office in Redding. But that office told her to contact Shascom dispatch.

Dispatch told her they could not send a deputy unless she had information about a possible suspect.

"I made seven phone calls and got nowhere," she said.

Dead animals posing traffic hazards on state roads are removed by California Department of Transportation crews. On local roads, it is animal regulations at Haven Humane Society.

Scott acknowledged her information is second hand. But according to what she said neighbors told her, some people tied up the yearling and its mother on Sunday night. They threw the adult deer in the back of a pickup and drove away.

"I don't think the mom and (yearling) got hit at all. I think that someone drove by because it was like 2 o'clock in the morning and I think someone shot (the mom). When they were throwing it in the back, maybe that (young) deer came out and they just tied it up," Scott said. "Either way, you gotta report it."
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By Joe Szydlowski of the Redding Record Searchlight

After learning Anderson has $40,000 worth of unpaid citations on the books, city staff are considering turning some offenses, such as littering and camping in public, into misdemeanors. "The (police) chief and I and the city manager have sat down to isolate different code sections we want to elevate the penalty from infraction to misdemeanor, which is the most we can impose as a penalty for something in violation of our ordinance," Jody Burgess, city attorney, told the Anderson City Council. He said the offenses they want to target are those "we have an issue with in the city, that's part of that blight problem."

Anderson Police Chief Michael Johnson brought up the topic after finding more than $40,000 in unpaid citations over the previous five to seven years. Most tickets involved violations of the city's municipal code, not the vehicle code, he said.

The city had several avenues to collect the fees, but some of those efforts "slipped through the cracks" as the Great Recession slashed government budgets and staffing levels, he said after Tuesday's meeting. The city plans to make changes to be sure tickets are sent to the appropriate agency to improve collection, said Burgess.

He also proposed changing some offenses from infractions into misdemeanors. While infractions usually involve only fees, a misdemeanor can entail up to a year in jail in addition to fines. Misdemeanors also give the city more options for enforcement, such as arrests, he said.

"The court system could issue that warrant," Burgess said, adding that the Superior Court and District Attorney's Office have good track records on collecting tickets sent to them.

"Happily I will say the court has been extremely successful on those it has received," Burgess said.

Johnson said some offenses could become "wobblers,"  either be treated as an infraction or a misdemeanor, depending on circumstances. But, he said, changing some offenses to misdemeanors isn't about padding the city's bottom line, noting the unpaid tickets amounted to an average of $5,700 to $8,000 per year. "We need it for accountability," Johnson said. "If I cite you for violating the law, you should be held accountable for that."

But increasing penalties on actions that relate mostly to homeless people could run into some hiccups from the federal level. Starting this year, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development will include a question on applications for homelessness funding that asks cities "how they are reducing criminalisation of homelessness," Eric Tars with the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty said in a press release.

He said that change follows the U.S. Department of Justice's September opinion that a city can't criminalize homelessness by outlawing necessary activities, such as sleeping in public, unless it has enough shelter beds.

However, that opinion filed in support of the plaintiffs' now-dismissed suit to overturn a camping ban in Boise, Idaho, was not binding. It also did not elaborate on a maximum distance for a shelter.

Shasta County's only homeless shelter, the Good News Rescue Mission, often uses its cafeterias and even offices as overflow rooms, said Ken White, spokesman for the mission.

"We'll get creative with that and try to find a place they can crash," he said. "We always try to accommodate."

The mission refuses people who want unavailable accommodations, such as a big family wanting to stay in the same room, or those blacklisted for bad behaviors, he said.

Councilwomen Susie Baugh and Melissa Hunt say they support reforming the ticket process.

"I think it's awesome we're working on this," Baugh said at the meeting.

Burgess said he expects to bring the proposed changes within the next month.
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By Nathan Solis of the Redding Record Searchlight

Shasta County Supervisors agreed to revisit funding a homeless plan that would overhaul services, but they had questions as well.

Their willingness to discuss the plan comes a week after the Redding City Council failed to support restructuring the Redding/Shasta Homeless Continuum of Care.

Redding Councilwoman Kristen Schreder asked county supervisors to consider a plan to put a full-time administrator in the lead of the Continuum of Care, assign a nonprofit to manage the program and purchase software to coordinate agencies already serving the homeless population.

On Tuesday, supervisors said they had questions on the shape of the restructure and what it could accomplish for the homeless in the area, but agreed it would be worth revisiting at a future meeting.

Supervisors directed County Executive Officer Larry Lees to look into the proposal to restructure the Continuum of Care, which would cost $209,000 for its first year and $190,000 the second year. Redding and the county would each be asked to provide $130,000 each, or $65,000 per year.

Schreder broke down the funding she was seeking and where that money would flow in terms of the program's operations. About $68,000 would be for the administration staff and $82,500 for the first year of the new Homeless Management Information System.

A number of local organizations said they would also be willing to contribute to the operation of the program if local governments commit funding.

Lees said he will consult with the county's Housing Authority and the Continuum of Care's current executive board as the county develops its response.

While county supervisors only asked for further discussion, Lees said the funding could come from a few locations.

"The real question is what is it going to be taken from?" Lees asked after the meeting.

If approved, the committee behind the overhaul would put out its request for a nonprofit to step in. Larry Olmstead, president of United Way of Northern California, said at the board meeting his organization would be willing to apply for that position.

Supervisor Bill Schappell said he is not familiar with United Way's practices and would like to see an organization that does not interrupt the services of the Continuum of Care.

"I don't know the work of the United Way," Schappell said. "Sometimes you have nonprofits that get rich off the services they provide. United Way could be a good fit. My concern is that the nonprofit that steps in has the best interest of the services already there."

Chairman Pam Giacomini said the county should involve local hospitals when discussing homeless services.

Over 3,000 people were homeless in 2015 in Shasta County. Cities and county spend $34 million a year on emergency services, jail bookings and treatment facilities, according to a study on homelessness in the county.

Schreder said overhauling the Continuum of Care would put the county in a better place when applying for federal grants and would coordinate services to better serve the homeless population. "This way someone trying to get help does not have to travel to five different locations for different programs," said Schreder.

Supervisor Les Baugh said he would prefer a nonprofit already working with the homeless to assume leadership. Baugh added he did not see much difference from what the plan proposed to do and what the county is already doing with its homeless services.

"The links and partnerships already exist. How does this plan create a new frontier?" Baugh said.

Supervisor David Kehoe asked whether the current Continuum of Care board had a chance to vote on the proposed overhaul. Kehoe prefaced his questions by saying it should not be taken as opposition to the plan. "This board wants to see the results of the plan. How will this upgrade change the services in place? That should translate into tangible results," said

Schreder will next present the plan to Anderson and Shasta Lake councils.
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Before it was even gaveled in on Monday, the Democratic National Convention started on the wrong note, with a damaging leak of emails that cast the party in the worst possible light and threw further doubts on the veracity of the nominee it is supposed to showcase this week.

Democrats were right to remove Debbie Wasserman Schultz from her role in the convention, and her resignation as DNC chairwoman is a needed first step. But that can't be the only repair work. The DNC's mishandling of the primary has been flawed from the beginning, starting with its blatant attempt to downplay debates that the party thought  incorrectly, as it turned out  might give the advantage to Democratic opponents of Hillary Clinton.

It is not so unthinkable that a party apparatus might have a favorite in a primary race, particularly when the lead rival is a lifelong independent who only recently turned Democrat. But its own stated role is that of neutral broker during the primary. Instead, the leaked emails have revealed a disturbing level of mendacity and a win-at-all-costs mentality that apparently extended even to sowing doubt among voters about Sen. Bernie Sanders' faith. It turns out, as Sanders' followers believed all along, that the system was rigged.

Few could blame Sanders' supporters  many of whom were new to politics  for becoming embittered and discouraged. Hillary Clinton, who, barring unforeseen circumstances, will become her party's standard-bearer this week, has a special responsibility in the days ahead to be more forthcoming than she was in the drawn-out private-server debacle.

Her campaign is said to have pressed for Wasserman Schultz's resignation, which was the right move, but it also promptly named Wasserman Schultz honorary co-chairwoman of Clinton's 50-state campaign. That makes it harder still for voters to believe there was not a high level of coordination between the DNC top leaders and the Clinton campaign.

Sanders, in a true grace note, moved quickly on Monday to notify party officials that he would formally release his delegates to Clinton during Tuesday's roll-call vote. Party officials owe a special debt of gratitude to a man who brought a crackling energy to the primary, sharpened Democrats' focus and provided a rigorous test for the ultimate nominee.

Democrats must work hard not just to put this behind them, but to look deeply into what went wrong and avoid the temptation to make a scapegoat of Wasserman Schultz. As they do so, they would be wise to bear in mind that this story is likely to linger.

Hints of further leaks and a possible connection to Russia's Vladimir Putin lend a troubling dimension that has already prompted the FBI to announce an investigation. That inquiry should be full and swift. If Russia has attempted to influence a U.S. presidential race  and if there is any possible connection to GOP nominee Donald Trump, who repeatedly has expressed admiration for Putin  American voters must know at the earliest possible juncture.

Democrats can ill afford the distraction, but it is one ultimately of their own making.

Star Tribune
The loan on Sahara's three hotels -- Grosvenor House in the UK and the two prime hotels in New York -- from Bank of China was 'cross collateralised and cross guaranteed'.

Sahara group on Wednesday rejected a new $1.3-billion offer from a group of investors for its three prized overseas hotels.

Sahara termed it a 'devious attempt' to lower the price and disturb the sentiment of other bidders making 'much higher' offers.

In a strongly worded reaction to the offer made by Jesdev Saggar-led 3 Associates, Sahara group said it was 'a malicious and non-serious act of some wrong people'.

"The said proposal is baseless," a Sahara spokesperson told PTI.

"It is a devious attempt to benchmark the price much lower than the actual market value of the properties in order to ruin the market and disturb the sentiment of the actual bidders who are bidding at market value which is much higher.

"Please note that it is a malicious and non-serious act of some wrong people."

Sahara, however, did not disclose any details of other offers it has got for the three hotels.

Asked for comments on Sahara's rejection, Saggar, managing director of 3 Associates, said: "We have followed the process and submitted in a compliant manner.

"If the bid is rejected then they should use the same process to communicate."

Earlier in the day, Saggar had said his proposal was a 'very compelling offer' and it was a long-term investment opportunity for them.

"This is a long-term investment opportunity for us. We have submitted a very compelling offer.

"It is now up to the Supreme Court and the Roy family," he had said.

The consortium of family office investors, comprising of 3 Associates and others from West Asia, has made the offer to acquire Sahara's majority stake in the three marquee hotel properties -- the famed Grosvenor House in London, Park Plaza and Dream Downtown hotels in New York.

Among others, the beleaguered Indian group was earlier said to be in talks with Qatar-based investors for a potential deal for the hotels.

As per the website of 3 Associates, its founders and Multi Family office network have completed over 314 million pounds worth transactions since 2014, including hotels and commercial offices in the UK, the United Arab Emirates and India.

It also claims to have "access to one of the largest pools of family office equity in West Asia".

Sahara group, whose chief Subrata Roy was in jail for over two years in connection with a long-running dispute with regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India and is currently out on parole, has been trying hard to raise funds including through refinancing of loans on its overseas hotels.

Image: Grosvenor House hotel in Central London. Photograph: Rediff Archives
Apple's services business, which includes the App Store, Apple Pay, iCloud and other services, generated nearly $6 billion in revenue, up 18.9 per cent from the previous year.

Apple Inc sold more iPhones than Wall Street expected in the third quarter and estimated its revenue in the current period would top many analysts' targets, soothing fears that demand for the company's most important product had hit a wall.

Its shares rose 7 per cent in after-hours trading.

The world's most valuable publicly traded company said it sold 40.4 million iPhones in the third quarter, down 15 percent from the year-ago quarter but slightly more than the average analyst forecast of 40.02 million, according to research firm FactSet StreetAccount.

IPhone sales dropped for the second straight quarter, pushing down Apple's total revenue 14.6 per cent in the fiscal third quarter, ended June 25.

Demand for Apple's phones has waned in China, partly because of economic uncertainty there, and has also slowed in more mature markets as people tend to hold on to their phones for longer.

The sales slump has stoked concerns about whether the tech leader can continue to deliver profits at the level Wall Street has come to expect.

"China was a major letdown," said Patrick Moorhead, an analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy.

"Samsung and Huawei are much more competitive now than a year ago and the Chinese economy is not doing well at all."

Moorhead said, however, that increased services revenue -- which includes the App Store and iCloud -- was a 'very big bright spot for Apple.'

Chief Financial Officer Luca Maestri told Reuters in an interview that Apple's performance had topped his expectations in a quarter weighed down by tough foreign exchange rates and difficult comparisons with blockbuster iPhone 6 sales from the previous year.

Apple reduced channel inventory by $3.6 billion, exceeding the $2 billion expected reduction, meaning sales were better than they appeared, Maestri said.

Customer demand 'was better than what is implied in our results and better than we had anticipated,' he said.

Sales of the iPhone fell last quarter for the first time since the gadget's release in 2007, dropping 16.3 per cent.

Maestri projected the gadget's average selling price to rise in the September quarter.

The iPhone drives about two-thirds of Apple's total sales.

Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook said during a call with analysts that the iPhone SE, a cheaper, four-inch (10 cm) phone released this year, was extending the range of people able to buy Apple phones.

"It's opening the door to customers we weren't reaching before," he said.

Apple's quarterly net profit fell 27 per cent to $7.8 billion, while revenue of $42.36 billion beat analysts' average estimate of $42.09 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

CHINA WORRIES

Sales in Greater China, once touted as Apple's next growth engine, decreased 33.1 per cent, compared with a 112.4 per cent growth in the year-earlier quarter and a near 26 per cent fall in the second quarter.

Maestri attributed the drop to channel inventory reduction in the nation, foreign exchange headwinds and a general downturn in the Chinese economy.

"It is very clear that there are some signs of economic slowdown in China, and we will have to work through them," he said.

Adding to Apple's woes in China, the company's stores for books and movies went dark earlier this year.

Cook said Apple was working with regulators to restore the services but played down the financial impact of the outage, saying the stores yielded less than $1 million in revenue during the short time they were on the market.

"Its not a revenue-related issue," he said. "This is a service we want to provide our customers."

Apple's services business, which includes the App Store, Apple Pay, iCloud and other services, generated nearly $6 billion in revenue, up 18.9 per cent from the previous year.

As iPhone sales level off, Apple is attempting to use such services to wring more revenue out of its existing base of users.

The business emerged as Apples second largest after the iPhone for the first time in the second quarter, eclipsing gadgets such as the iPad and the Mac.

That shift bodes well for Apple because gross margins on services are better than the average for the rest of the company, Maestri said.

"Its a great business because it is recurring in nature and more linked to our installed base," he said.

Maestri touted music as an example of one successful service, saying the growth of the Apple Music streaming service had more than made up for declines in digital downloads.

To redouble its momentum in music, Apple purchased rights to the next season of popular series Carpool Karaoke, CBS Television Studios announced on Tuesday.

India was one of the rare bright spots, with 51 percent growth in iPhone sales, as Apple expands into emerging markets.

"India is now one of our fastest growing markets. . . We're looking forward to opening more retail stores in India down the road, and we see huge potential," Cook told analysts.

Apple forecast fourth-quarter revenue of $45.5 billion to $47.5 billion, largely above Wall Street's average estimate of $45.71 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

The forecast, covering the quarter ending in September, will likely include at least the first weekend of sales of the iPhone 7 range, which Apple is expected to launch in September.

Up to Tuesday's close, Apple's shares had fallen about 8.2 percent since the start of the year. Shares rose 7 percent to $103.47 in after-hours trade following publication of results.

Image: A man holds an iPhone 6s Plus as the Apple iPhone 6s and 6s Plus go on sale at an Apple Store in Los Angeles, California September 25, 2015. Photograph: Jonathan Alcorn/Reuters
Apple has more to show for its efforts in artificial intelligence, where it was an early pioneer with its Siri digital assistant.

As iPhone sales declined for the second straight quarter, Apple chief executive officer Tim Cook peeled back the curtain ever so slightly on its work in artificial intelligence and augmented reality, aiming to reassure investors that the company is ready to ride the next wave of technology.

Raving about hit smartphone game Pokemon GO, Cook stressed that Apple is "high on [augmented reality] for the long-run" and investing heavily.

Augmented reality, in which computer-generated content is overlaid on the real world, is one of the latest fixations in the technology business, with Pokemon GO among the first applications to catch on.

Cook also highlighted Apple's investment in artificial intelligence, which the company now uses to recommend content to users and even spot usage patterns to improve a device's battery life.

It was a small glimpse of the future from the notoriously secretive tech giant, which fiercely guards its product pipeline. But analysts said Cook must do more to show his cards as sales of the iPhone slow.

Augmented reality and artificial intelligence are often regarded as an uneasy fit for Apple, a hardware maker that tends not to embrace new technology until it matures.

And Apple's habit of keeping quiet until it has a finished product to show -- in contrast with rivals such as Google and Facebook, which iterate products in the open -- doesn't help, said analyst Bob O'Donnell of TECHnalysis Research.

"They're in this weird position where they want the world to know that they are working on it, but they have nothing to show for it," he said.

As rivals such as Google and Facebook double down on augmented reality, Apple has made no public display of its aptitude in the field.

But Cook stressed that the company is hard at work behind the scenes.

"We have been and continue to invest a lot in this," Cook said.

"We think there's great things for customers and a great commercial opportunity."

Apple has more to show for its efforts in artificial intelligence, where it was an early pioneer with its Siri digital assistant.

But the company has been dogged by doubts that it has fallen behind rivals such as Amazon and Google and will be hard-pressed to catch up due to its strict privacy stance.

"They are running behind, and they are trying to catch up both in perception but also in fact," said Oren Etzioni, who is CEO of the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence and a professor at the University of Washington.

Cook maintained that Apple had found a way to strike the balance between progressing in artificial intelligence and maintaining users' privacy, detailing features in Apple's latest operating system.

"The deployment of artificial intelligence technology is something that we will excel at because of our focus on user experience," he said.

Ultimately, Cook argued, phenomena such as artificial intelligence and augmented reality will only reinforce the importance of the iPhone.

He said the company was working to make sure its products worked well with third-party products like Pokemon Go.

"That's why you see so many iPhones in the wild right now chasing Pokemons," he said.

Image: Apple Inc. CEO Tim Cook speaks on stage at the company's World Wide Developers Conference in San Francisco, California, June 13, 2016. Photograph: Stephen Lam/Reuters
IMAGE: Chinese and Pakistan troops jointly patrol the border connecting Pakistan occupied Kashmir with China's Xinjiang region. PTI Photo, Courtesy The People's Daily Online

China's closer and enhanced relationship with Pakistan is putting considerable strain in India-China relations, says former RA&W officer Jayadeva Ranade.

The events of recent months have imposed a strain on India-China relations. To a considerable extent these have been motivated by China's closer and enhanced relationship with Pakistan over the past year and especially since the announcement of the China Pakistan Economic Corridor.

The most recent instance was the report on July 21 in the Chinese Communist Party's official journal People's Daily, of the conduct of a joint border patrol by Chinese and Pakistani border troops along the borders of China's troubled Xinjiang-Uyghur Autonomous Region.

The People's Daily published a 12-photograph pictorial report depicting soldiers from Pakistan and China rather obviously posing for photographs at various locations along that border.

The caption for these photographs reads: 'A frontier defence regiment of the PLA (People's Liberation Army) in Xinjiang, along with a border police force from Pakistan, carries out a joint patrol along the China-Pakistan border.'

Pertinent is the description by the People's Daily of the area patrolled by these troops as the 'China-Pakistan border' and not as the Chinese official media usually calls it 'Pakistan-administered Kashmir.'

The area is, in fact, correctly the frontier region of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, which is an integral part of Indian territory.

China's Xinjiang-Uyghur Autonomous Region does not have any border with Pakistan, but has a common border with PoK.

This effort to begin 'bending' the Line of Control between India and Pakistan commenced last year after announcement of the CPEC. A report in the Pakistan newspaper Dawn on January 7, revealed Pakistan's plans to unilaterally upgrade the 'legal' status of the disputed Gilgit Baltistan region.

Pakistan, it said, planned to give these two administrative entities considerably enhanced legislative powers, control over their revenue and allow them to be represented in Pakistan's federal parliament by two members for the first time, albeit as observers.

A senior 'government' official from Gilgit Baltistan described the move as intended to give legal cover to proposed Chinese investments since 'China cannot afford to invest billions of dollars on a road that passes through a disputed territory claimed both by India and Pakistan.'

China had indicated its position on Gilgit Baltistan as early as the 1980s since when its official media has referred to this as Pakistani territory. The People's Daily report needs to be viewed against this backdrop.

There are politico-military aspects to the joint patrol and the People's Daily report as well.

The patrol, so far the first of its kind reported in this portion of the Xinjiang-Uyghur Autonomous Region bordering PoK and Afganistan, continues the 'Friendship' series of anti-terrorist exercises held earlier by China and Pakistan.

It implies that the Pakistani armed forces and Chinese authorities will cooperate in the apprehension of Uyghurs seeking to cross China's land borders.

It also points to the Chinese and Pakistani armed forces planning increased coordination in the future as borne out by the laying of a secure fibre-optic cable linking the PLA's Xinjiang military district in Kashgar with the Pakistan army GHQ in Rawalpindi.

It, additionally, gives PLA personnel an opportunity for terrain familiarisation, which is important given that the PLA's new Western Theatre Command, or West Zone, includes in its area of operational responsibility the safeguarding of China's borders with Afghanistan, Pakistan and India as well as protecting the CPEC.

The involvement of Pakistan army personnel would be useful to help China try and assuage the concerns of Islamist fundamentalist groups in Pakistan that Beijing is not implementing harsh, repressive policies in Xinjiang.

The warning issued by Islamic State last year and Lashkar-e-Tayiba chief Muhammad Sayeed's threat this May to the Pakistan government to warn China against the ill treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang would have been factors contributing to the decision to conduct joint patrols.

These exercises could be a prelude to increased activity by the PLA and the Pakistan army in this sensitive area.

Jayadeva Ranade, a former additional secretary in the Cabinet Secretariat, Government of India, is president, Centre for China Analysis and Strategy.
'India and Indian Americans cannot rely on wishful thinking about the checks and balances in the US system to magically take care of the many dangerous things that Trump could do,' says Chicago-based writer Ram Kelkar.

IMAGE: If elected as President, Donald Trump would prove disastrous for the Indian-American community, says Ram Kelkar. Photograph: Carlo Allegri/Reuters

The very real possibility of a Trump presidency is finally beginning to dawn on America and the rest of the world following Donald Trump's anointment as the Republican Party nominee.

Indians and Indian Americans are beginning to pay serious attention to a candidate who no one had believed had a realistic chance of winning the nomination, let alone becoming the leader of the free world.

More than a quarter century ago, Francis Fukuyama had famously announced the 'end of history' and the triumph of liberal free-market capitalist democracy over every other non-democratic closed market political philosophy and belief system.

Globalisation of business and the rise of a global citizenry conducting business and moving freely between nations across the globe had become widely accepted as inevitable and permanent facts of life.

In this environment, Indian software firms and Chinese manufacturers dramatically changed the business landscape in the US, resulting in large scale layoffs for white collar and factory workers, beginning in the late 1980s and 1990s.

Meanwhile, immigrants flooded into the US in unprecedented numbers, including many from India whose work ethic and valuable contributions to the US economy made them feel immune to any resentment from those displaced in the global economy.

With US unemployment rate finally edging down to below 5 per cent and US corporations dominating the global economy with customers and workers in countries across the world, the general perception in recent times was that the worst of the economic transition was over and the US had its groove back.

Not so fast. It took several decades, but the slow burning fuse of resentment amongst the older non-college educated non-minority US citizenry, which had not benefited much from globalisation, and which viewed the success of immigrants and minorities with jealousy and suspicion, has finally burst forth.

Anger and angst about income inequality and a widely held belief that the system is rigged in favor of the one-percenters is mutating into hatred for 'others' such as minorities and immigrants. The common refrain in the US of wanting to 'take our country back' is largely a result of racial and cultural resentment as the country has become less white and more progressive in recent decades.

This development poses a real threat to the safety and well-being of Indian-American and immigrant communities in general, since it is bringing latent white supremacist groups out of the woodwork, and hateful speech about 'brown skinned' people is becoming much more commonplace than ever before.

Donald Trump has successfully channeled this bottled up angst and resentment into a movement based on anger and hatred and this has brought him one step away from the White House.

At the Republican convention in Cleveland, he painted a dire picture of a dystopian world full of 'poverty and violence at home, war and destruction abroad.'

What is worrisome for Indian Americans is a vision of America in which immigrants are viewed as the primary source of 'violence in our streets and the chaos in our communities.'

In December 2015, Trump called for 'a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States... our country cannot be the victims of horrendous attacks by people that believe only in jihad, and have no sense of reason or respect for human life.' Without any evidence and based on what he thinks he read or saw somewhere, Trump claimed that thousands of Muslims were cheering in New Jersey after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Shalabh Kumar, a major Indian-American donor to the Trump Victory Fund, was quoted in the India West newspaper as saying that he supports Trump's initiative of greater scrutiny of Muslims, 'including those already in the country and Muslims attempting to enter the US.'

Such actions, besides being unconstitutional, are against the core founding principles of the United States and likely to put all Indian Americans of any faith in danger of facing 'greater scrutiny.'

Broad brush condemnation of an entire community, instead of focusing on those few who adhere to extremist ideologies, could be very dangerous for all minorities.

Prejudice against Muslims or Muslim-looking people could turn into suspicion about all brown-skinned people and anyone looking 'different' and some of that is already happening.

There are many reports of Trump supporters at rallies shouting racist epithets and lunging out at anyone who they assumed was a Muslim or a Mexican protester.

One of the most ironic examples of prejudice based on skin colour and appearance was the example of Guido Menzio, an Ivy League economist of Italian heritage, who was taken off an airplane because someone thought he 'looked suspicious' and the math equations he was writing seemed to be in Arabic. Menzio has been described as having dark, curly hair, olive skin and an exotic foreign accent.

With regard to foreign policy and ties with India, some Indian media reports are drawing broad brush conclusions about Donald Trump that he will somehow be more pro-India than Hillary Clinton. One of the quotes attributed to Trump last year is that he called Pakistan 'probably the most dangerous country in the world today,' adding that the only country that can 'check' Pakistan is India.

Kumar, the Indian-American Trump mega-donor, has spoken about 'Trump's support for cutting off all aid to Pakistan, with the aim of deterring terrorism fomenting in the country' and added that 'he recognises Pakistan for what it is -- a nation of thugs.'

This directly contradicts what Trump said in response to a question on Fox News' On the Record show in April that he would 'try and keep' the 'not that much' amount of foreign aid the United States gives to Pakistan.

'And we have,' Trump added, 'and that's very much against my grain to say that, but, a country -- and that's always the country I think, if we give them money, we help them out, but if we don't, I think that would go on the other side of the ledger that could really be a disaster.'

Notwithstanding the fact that the above collection of words spoken by Trump makes little grammatical or idiomatic sense, it is evident that he has limited knowledge about foreign policy and no intention of making any changes to the current relationship with Pakistan.

It also seems very unlikely that he will change US policy in any meaningful way to fight against terrorism in South Asia, especially since his focus on 'America first' means that he would expect India and even NATO partners to solve their own security challenges without expecting help from the US.

In the meanwhile, Hillary Clinton as secretary of state in the Obama administration continued the policy of the Bush administration of building ever closer ties with India as the world's largest democracy and a counter-balance to China.

In a speech that Clinton gave in Chennai in 2011, titled 'Remarks on India and the United States: A Vision for the 21st Century,' she reminded the audience that President Obama told the Indian Parliament the previous year that the relationship between India and the United States will be one of the 'defining partnerships of the 21st century.'

US-India ties will continue to grow stronger regardless of which candidate is elected, since there is a bipartisan consensus about the strategic importance of this partnership.

With regard to trade policy, Trump's campaign has focused intensely on correcting trade imbalances, and this could be a major challenge for India which is among the top 10 US trade partners and enjoys a significant trade surplus of over $23 billion as of 2015.

While China and Japan are likely to bear the brunt of any protectionist drive in a Trump administration, India is not likely to escape unscathed.

On the issue of H-1 visas, which are important to Indian software companies, Trump has flip-flopped multiple times and his policy is not entirely clear at this point.

He had initially proposed restricting the H-1 program, and has criticised it for giving away IT jobs to workers flying in from overseas locations.

He did seem to moderate that position later, stating that Silicon Valley needs highly skilled workers and that there is a need to 'keep the brain power in this country.'

Last but not least, besides the thorny issues surrounding race relations, foreign policy and trade, one of the most worrisome issues about a Trump administration is the unknowable impact of the highly unpredictable nature of his style of functioning which could roil the global economy and geo-political relations.

Abrupt actions such as withdrawing from trade pacts like NAFTA and imposing trade tariffs on China could result in turmoil and sharp declines in markets. Refusing to uphold obligations to support NATO partners including vulnerable ones such as the Baltic nations could embolden Russia and worsen the crisis in Ukraine and the Middle East.

The risks are manifold and India and Indian Americans cannot rely on wishful thinking about the checks and balances in the US system of governance to magically take care of the many dangerous things that Trump could do, and hope for the best that change is good for the sake of change alone.

Of all the many reasons to be concerned about Donald Trump's rise, a victory for him would be a fillip to right-wing zealots and racists across the globe, and will reinforce a global trend toward a toxic blend of authoritarianism and xenophobia.

The sight of Hindu Sena activists performing a Donald Trump puja complete with a vermillion tilak on his photo which was fed a slice of cake as prasadam was amusing and at the same time not very funny.

They called him a 'raja' of the United States who was going to solve all their problems by fighting Islamic terrorism.

Rational thinking Indians and Indian Americans can only hope that the coronation never happens!
The expulsion is likely to cloud India-China ties as Narendra Modi visits China for the G-20 Summit on September 4-5 and Xi Jinping is to be in Goa for the BRICS meeting on October 15-16.

Can diplomacy resolve this unpleasant event, asks Rajaram Panda.

India-China relations, already strained by a number of issues clouded by accusations and counter-accusations by either side, face another testing time as three Chinese journalists based in India have been asked to leave as their visas would not be extended.

The border issue remains unresolved. China claims parts of Arunachal Pradesh as its own; it objects to the Dalai Lama's visit to that state; issues stapled visas to Indians from Arunachal Pradesh; denies visa to a general who was to visit China on an official trip.

At the international level, China opposes India's aspiration to be a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council. It blocked India's entry to the Nuclear Suppliers Group in June.

At the NSG meeting in Seoul, China singled out India, a non-Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty signatory, and created 'procedural' hurdles to successfully block its membership.

China has labelled India as the cornerstone for the international non-proliferation regime and equates India with Pakistan. China should not be surprised if it received in the same coin if India saw an opportunity. It is against this background that India's denial of visas to the three Chinese journalists should be understood.

The decision to expel the three senior Chinese journalists is not impulsive; it was a decision taken after inputs from the intelligence agencies which expressed 'concern' about their activities while in India.

Wu Qiang, Xinhua's bureau chief in Delhi and two of his Mumbai-based colleagues Lu Tang and She Yonggang have been asked to leave India by July 31. This is probably the first time India has asked Chinese journalists to leave the country in this manner.

The three scribes were suspecting of impersonating other people and visiting restricted facilities under assumed names and therefore working beyond their journalistic brief. The two Mumbai-based journalists were accused of visiting a Tibetan settlement in Karnataka using false names. While Wu has been living in India on an extended visa for the past six years, his two colleagues have received visa extensions.

Lu and She, who came to India in January 2015, visited the Tibetan settlement and did not reveal their true identity. Established in 1960s, five settlements house around 40,000 Tibetans in Karnataka. Two of these settlements are in Bylakuppe and one each in Mundgod, Hunsur and Kollegal.

Under Indian law, no foreigner or foreign aid agency can visit these or any Tibetan settlement in India without a protected area permit, issued by the Union home ministry.

The Chinese scribes did not secure a protected area permit and their identities were detected after they arrived there, a clear violation of Indian law and a case of exceeding their journalistic brief. The journalists also reportedly visited Nepal several times in 2015, when China-supported anti-India sentiment was at a high.

The expulsion decision and rejection of their work visas could worsen the already strained relations between the two countries. The decision to expel the trio does not mean that Xinhua journalists are not welcome in India; the agency can replace them with others.

In recent times, there is an increasing bonhomie between New Delhi and Washington, DC. This discomforts Beijing. Beijing also feels that the West is inciting India to act tough with China.

India is also not shy to articulate its stance on the South China Sea dispute, though it is not a party, but has stakes on its resources.

India has said that the recent ruling by the arbitration court at The Hague is binding and therefore should be accepted, a clear sign of disapproving the Chinese stance on the South China Sea.

It is not uncommon that governments have expelled foreign journalists if their writing are seen as critical of official policy. Last December, China expelled a French journalist because he questioned the way the Chinese government handled the situation in the restive Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region and described the reporting as fabricated. Like what India did this time, China too did not renew his visa.

The Chinese journalists' visas expired a few months ago and they had applied for renewal. Though they were asked to wait, their passports were returned without the visa, thereby restricting their movement outside the cities of residence.

Finally they were told on July 14 that their visas would not be renewed and they would have to leave the country.

There is a strong possibility now for China to carry out tit-for-tat expulsions of Indian journalists based in Chinese cities.

Five Indian journalists are posted in China, besides a number of Indians who work for China's English State media like China Central Television, the China Daily and China Radio International.

China also welcomed two Delhi-based Indian scribes on fellowships offered by the Chinese government. Their presence in China might now come under scrutiny as a means of reprisals. Even the fellowships might be withdrawn.

For now, the Chinese embassy has taken up the matter with the ministry of external affairs, which is unlikely to overlook intelligence inputs.

As it appears, serious consequences await India as Beijing is likely to see India's actions as an answer to its opposition to India's membership of the NSG. The nationalist tabloid Global Times, linked to the Communist Party of China mouthpiece People's Daily and the first to react to the expulsion, took umbrage and observed that China would make it difficult for Indian scribes to get a Chinese visa.

In an editorial, the newspaper observed: 'India's expulsion of reporters is a petty act.' The editorial, however, pitched for maintaining friendly ties between the two countries.

While appreciating the booming trade between the two countries, the editorial also praised both parties for maintaining neutrality on some international issues. The Chinese government did not react immediately and has maintained a silence.

The expulsion is likely to cloud India-China ties as Prime Minister Narendra Modi visits China for the G-20 Leaders Summit in the eastern city of Hangzhou on September 4-5 and President Xi Jinping is scheduled to be in Goa for the BRICS meeting on October 15-16.

The Chinese embassy is reportedly to have lobbied hard to get the decision reversed, but the Government of India is firm in its decision that the scribes are not welcome any more and must return.

Can diplomacy resolve this unpleasant happening?

Dr Rajaram Panda is currently Indian Council for Cultural Relations chair visiting professor at Reitaku University, Japan.
IMAGE: BSP MLAs Romi Sahni, right, and Brijesh Verma, left, address a press conference in Lucknow on Wednesday. Photograph: Sandeep Pal



In a fresh rebellion in the Bahujan Samaj Party, MLAs Romi Sahni and Brijesh Verma on Wednesday criticised party workers for sloganeering against expelled Bharatiya Janata Party leader Dayashankar Singhs family and accused the party leadership of demanding huge sums for allotting tickets for the 2017 Uttar Pradesh assembly polls.

We condemn Singhs remarks against BSP chief Mayawati and also oppose the slogans raised during the BSP protest...his 12-year-old daughter cannot be punished for what Singh has said...our sympathy is with the family, Sahni and Verma, the MLAs from Palia and Mallawan respectively, told reporters in Lucknow.

They alleged that the BSP was getting a bad name because of the huge sums being demanded for party tickets which was against the ideals of both B R Ambedkar and Kanshi Ram.

They said anywhere between Rs 2 crore and Rs 10 crore was being demanded for BSP tickets for the upcoming Uttar Pradesh polls and even sitting MLAs were not being spared.

They claimed that both of them were called to Mayawatis residence on July 6 and, in the presence of the party chief, were asked to pay Rs 5 crore for Palia and Rs 4 crore for Mallawan seats by BSP national general secretary Naseemuddin Siddiqui, adding that they were warned that their tickets would be cancelled if they did not pay up.

Tickets are given to whosoever gives the highest amount. This is very sad...money is being demanded through party coordinators, alleged the two MLAs.

Replying to a query, they clarified that they were not quitting the party.

The latest rebellion comes weeks after Mayawatis party suffered back-to-back jolts when senior leaders Swami Prasad Maurya and R K Chaudhary quit the BSP, followed by former MLA Ravindra Nath Tripathi. All of them accused her of auctioning party tickets.

Regretting that rampant money power in the party was tarnishing its image, the two MLAs claimed that the BSP would otherwise have touched new horizons and Mayawati could have become the prime minister of the country.

Replying to another query, they said they were recently expelled by the party on allegations of maintaining contact with expelled leader Jugal Kishore but were taken back four days later after they were made to sign a paper.

Both claimed they were loyal to the BSP and denied rumours that they had voted against the party's nominees in the recent Rajya Sabha and Legislative Council elections.

It was an open vote in the Rajya Sabha and in the MLC elections too, we were given a code. There is no question of us voting against the party nominees, they asserted.

Alleging that there was an atmosphere of terror in the party, the MLAs claimed any kind of interaction with leaders of other political parties was not liked in the BSP.

Soon after the two MLAs expressed their views against the BSP, the party said both were expelled on grounds of indiscipline sometime ago and were taken back after they tendered a written apology.

The party high-command had given them a chance to rectify their error on the condition that they will not get tickets for the Uttar Pradesh polls. They had been making rounds of other parties for tickets and were now levelling unfounded allegations, the party said.

Maurya, who was the Leader of Opposition in the Uttar Pradesh assembly, has floated a new outfit, Loktantrik Bahujan Manch. He claims the support of over 10 sitting BSP MLAs.

Chaudhary on Tuesday organised a rally here on the occasion of Chhatrapati Shahuji Maharajs birth anniversary under the aegis of Bahujan Samaj Swabhiman Sangharsh Samiti where Bihar Chief Minister and Janata Dal-United president Nitish Kumar was the chief guest, heralding a new political equation in the state where assembly polls are due early next year.

Maurya is a prominent Other Backward Caste leader, while Chaudhary is a Dalit, the two important votebanks of the BSP.
The Islamic State has claimed responsibility for a twin bombing that targetted a crowd in a predominantly Kurdish town in northern Syria on Wednesday, killing 44 people and wounding dozens more, Syria's state-run news agency and Kurdish media reported.

A truck loaded with large quantities of explosives blew up on the western edge of the town of Qamishli, followed by an explosives-packed motorcycle a few minutes later in the same area, media reports said.

The blasts caused massive damage in the area and rescue teams were working to recover victims from under the rubble, the SANA news agency said.

Qamishli, near the Turkish border, is mainly controlled by Kurds but Syrian government forces are present and control the town's airport.

"Most of the buildings at the scene of the explosion have been heavily damaged because of the strength of the blast," a local resident said.

The Islamic State group, in a statement published by the IS-linked Aamaq news agency, said it carried out the attack in Qamishli, describing it as a truck bombing that struck a complex of Kurdish offices.

The militant group has carried out several bombings in Kurdish areas in Syria in the past.

Image: Smoke rises while people gather at a damaged site after two bomb blasts hit the northeastern Syrian city of Qamishli, Syria. Photograph: Rodi Said/Reuters
French Prosecutor Francois Molins said on Tuesday that one of two jihadists who attacked a church in a Normandy town, and slit a priest's throat, was 19-year-old Adel Kermiche.

Kermiche was known to security services, having twice been arrested on his way to Syria, and was under house arrest and wearing an electronic monitoring bracelet at the time of the attack.

IMAGE: French judicial investigating police apprehends a man during a raid after a hostage-taking in the church in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray near Rouen in Normandy. A priest was killed with a knife and another hostage seriously wounded in an attack on a church that was carried out by assailants linked to Islamic State. Photograph: Pascal Rossignol/Reuters

Molins said Kermiche and an unknown accomplice, armed with knives, had stormed the church in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, taking hostage the 86-year-old priest, three nuns and two worshippers.

One of the nuns managed to escape and call police, who, upon arrival, tried to negotiate with the hostage-takers through a small door.

Molins said police were unable to launch an assult on the church as three hostages were lined up in front of the door.

Two nuns and one worshipper then exited the church followed by the two attackers, one carrying a handgun, who charged police shouting "Allahu Akbar" (God is greatest).

Both attackers had on them a "fake explosive device covered in aluminium foil".

The priest was found dead with his throat slit, and an 86-year-old worshipper had severe knife wounds, said Molins.
After 4,764 party delegates formally backed her, the former US First Lady tweeted, This moment is for every little girl who dreams big.

IMAGE: Democratic presidential candidate former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton makes history with becoming the first woman to lead a major party in the US presidential race. Photograph: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Making the biggest crack in a glass ceiling, Hillary Clinton on Wednesday scripted history by winning the Democratic presidential nomination to become the first woman flag-bearer of a major United States party as she set up an epic clash with Republican rival Donald Trump.

Clinton, 68, who has been the secretary of state, first lady and a senator from New York, secured her nomination at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia after a majority of the 4,764 party delegates formally backed her.

If elected in the November 8 polls, Clinton would become Americas first female president and commander-in-chief.

In an electrifying end to the Democratic conventions second night, Clinton appeared by video from New York, saying, What an incredible honour that you have given me and I cant believe we just put the biggest crack in that glass ceiling yet.

Thanks to you and to everyone whos fought so hard to make this possible, Clinton told thousands of her supporters at an indoor stadium. Many of her supporters were seen crying.

As she spoke, her image appeared over a breaking glass ceiling. This is really your victory. This is really your night. And if there are any little girls out there who stayed up late to watch, let me just say I may become the first woman president but one of you is next, she said.

Her rival from the primaries, Bernie Sanders moved a resolution for her nomination when the roll call got to his home state of Vermont -- sending out a vital message of unity for a party struck by deep divisions.

I move that Hillary Clinton be nominated as the Democratic Partys presidential candidate of the United States, Sanders said as he called for suspension of rules to pave the way for unanimous nomination of Clinton as the partys presidential candidate.

Moments later, the Democratic delegates nominated Clinton as the partys presidential candidate, setting up a high-stakes showdown with 70-year-old Trump.

IMAGE: Delegates celebrate after formally nominating Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton on the second day of the Democratic National Convention. Photograph: Joe Raedle/Getty Images

This moment is for every little girl who dreams big. #WeMadeHistory, tweeted Clinton.

Stronger together, she said in another tweet.

Making a strong case for his wife Hillarys presidency bid, charismatic former US president Bill Clinton narrated his personal story with a girl he met in 1971 to emphasise that she is uniquely qualified for the top job and the best change-maker he has ever known.

Clintons nomination was proposed by Congresswoman Barbara A Mikulski, the first Democratic woman elected to the Senate, and the first woman to chair the powerful Senate Committee on Appropriations.

It is with a full heart that I am here today as we nominate Hillary Clinton to be the first woman president, she said.

Many of you have broken barriers. You were the first to go to college. You were the first to start a business. Maybe the first to be a citizen. But you knew when you broke a barrier you didnt do it for yourself. You did it so others would not have to face them again. Thats what Hillary wants to do. She wants to break down all the barriers to opportunity, Mikulski said.

Legendary civil rights leader and Congressman John Lewis seconded Clintons name as the Democratic presidential nominee.

Eight years ago, our party nominated and elected the first person of colour to ever serve in the White House not just for one, but two terms. Tonight, we will shatter that glass ceiling again. Were the party of tomorrow, and we will build a true democracy in America, Lewis said.

Lewis talked about Clinton in glowing terms, saying she has dedicated her life to public service and building a better America.

I have known Hillary Clinton for many years. She is one of the most qualified candidates to ever run for president. She is a leader, sometimes sailing against the wind to break down the barriers that divide us. Shes smart, just smart. She could have done anything with her life, but she decided long ago she didnt want to just do well, she wanted to do good, he said.

IMAGE: A delegate holds up a sign in support of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton on the second day of the Democratic National Convention. Photograph: Drew Angerer /Getty Images

Clinton is scheduled to deliver her acceptance speech on Thursday. Last week, she selected Virginia Senator Tim Kaine as her running mate.

As the first lady she had launched several key initiatives in health care and womens rights.

A proponent of clean energy, Clinton is known for being a strong advocate of Indo-US ties.

As a New York senator, she was instrumental in the launch of the Senate India Caucus - the only country-specific Senate Caucus, and was its founding co-chairman.

Clinton also has several Indian-Americans in key positions in her campaign including Huma Abedin, Neera Tanden, Shefali Razdan Duggal and Aditi Hardikar.
At President Kalam's Rameswaram home, family members have a prayer ceremony on the eve of his first death anniversary.

Rediff.com's A Ganesh Nadar reports.

At 4 pm on July 26, former President A P J Abdul Kalam's family assembled at his eldest brother A P J Maracayer's home in Rameswaram to pray for the departed soul who passed away a year ago.

"On Wednesday there will be too many people coming here and so we decided to have the prayer meeting on Tuesday," says Sheikh Dawood, Maracayer's grandson who had come down from Chennai. "We will visit his memorial like everyone else on Wednesday."

Former Central Bureau of Investigation director D R Karthikeyan was one of those present at the ceremony.

"Every summer he called us grandsons to New Delhi to stay with him for a week," recalls Sheikh Dawood. "Last year we went on May 7. This happened regularly after he finished his tenure as President."

"He also came for my house warming ceremony in Chennai in March last year. He used to speak to me twice a week on the phone," Sheikh Dawood adds. "He always advised, 'have dreams, set goals, acquire knowledge, then action. If you follow this you can face any challenge in life and be successful'."

Sitti Sahia is President Kalam's niece. Her father A P J Mustafa Kamal was the People's President's elder brother. "He came to wish his eldest brother, my uncle, on his birthday in 2015. That was the last time I saw him," she says.;

Sitti's daughter Rizvana Parveen is in school. She has a scrapbook with pictures of her granduncle and his sayings. "He always told me to study hard," says Rizvana. "I am going to become a veterinary doctor."

Her father Sadiq Basha, a tailor, has fond memories of President Kalam. "He once invited the entire family to Rashtrapati Bhavan. Fifty two members went there and stayed for a week. On the first day they showed us around Delhi, then Rajasthan the next day. On the third day they took us to Ajmer Sharif. We had a memorable stay," Basha remembers.

Mustafa Kamal's elder daughter Rasheeda Begum has fond memories of her uncle. "I met him when he came to wish his elder brother on his birthday. There was a crowd and so we all spoke to him at the same time," she says. "He enquired about our health and the children. He was very affectionate," she says.

IMAGE: President Kalam's elder brother A P J Maracayer, who is 100 years old, with former CBI director D R Karthikeyan at the prayer ceremony. Photograph: A Ganesh Nadar/Rediff.com
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has spoken to Britains new Prime Minister Theresa May congratulating her on her assumption of office and discussed with her stronger and closer bilateral ties, including in trade and defence.

During the telephonic conversation on Tuesday, Modi also appreciated the United Kingdoms consistent support to India in various global fora, the ministry of external affairs spokesperson said on Wednesday.

Thanking Prime Minister Modi, May said she looked forward to working closely with him for developing stronger bilateral ties and enhancing cooperation in tackling pressing global challenges.

Modi also recalled his memorable visit to the UK last November.

Downing Street said that trade and investment formed the central feature of the discussions between the two leaders during their conversation.

Trade and investment featured strongly in the conversation with Prime Minister Modi who expressed his hope that the relationship would become even stronger and closer in the future, particularly given the shared values and common interest, a Downing Street statement said.

May took over after the resignation of David Cameron following the UKs vote to leave the European Union in a referendum on June 23.

She sought to highlight London and the UKs continued importance within the India-UK relationship during her first official conversation with Modi.

The Prime Minister [May] pointed out that the launch next month of the first rupee denominated bond in London is a concrete example of our close and growing economic cooperation and underlines that the city remains a global hub for innovative finance, Downing Street said.

The Prime Minister also emphasised the UKs continued commitment to our defence and security partnership and support for India's increasing role in international fora. Finally, both welcomed the valuable contribution of the Indian diaspora to the UK, the statement added.
Opposition Bahujan Samaj Party and Congress on Wednesday created uproar in the Rajya Sabha, protesting against beating up of two Muslim women in Madhya Pradesh in the name of cow protection.

No sooner had listed papers been laid on the table of the House, Mayawati (BSP) said after beating of dalit youths in Gujarat, gau raksha (cow protection) groups beat up two women in Madhya Pradesh over suspicion of possessing beef.

The incident at the Mandsaur railway station occurred in presence of the police which remained a mute spectator, she alleged.

The Bharatiya Janata Party, on one hand, talks of protecting the girl child and giving dignity and honour to women but on the other, unleashes goons on them, she charged.

The incident in BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh comes close on the heels of beating of four Dalit youth in partys bastion Gujarat, she said.

She asked Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi to respond to targeting of women of his community in the name of cow protection.

As she completed her submission, BSP members trooped into the Well of the House, shouting anti-government slogans. Congress members too joined them.

Mahila virodhi yeh sarkar nahi chalegi, nahi chalegi (This anti-women government will not be tolerated), Dalit virodhi yeh sarkar nahi chalegi, nahi chalegi (this anti-Dalit government will not be tolerated), they shouted.

Anand Sharma (Congress) asked why Prime Minister Narendra Modi has not responded to attacks on Dalits in name of gau raksha.

He has done chai pe charcha (talk over tea) and Mann ki Baat but why not on this issue, he asked.

Deputy chairman P J Kurien said derailing Zero Hour, where 13 members have given notices, was not right and if members wanted a discussion on the subject, they should give notice.

You go back to your seats, I will ask the government to respond, he said urging Mayawati and Leader of the Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad to call back their members.

Azad said his Congress party was not principally against cow protection but was against targeting Dalits and Muslims in the name of gau raksha.

Let it be very clear. We are not against gau raksha. But in the garb of gau raksha, targeting Dalits and Muslims is something we are against, he said.
Union Ministers Venkaiah Naidu and Manohar Parrikar on Wednesday laid the foundation stone for a national memorial dedicated to countrys former President APJ Abdul Kalam in Rameswaram in Tamil Nadu, marking the first death anniversary of the missile man.

An exhibition named Mission of Life depicting the life of Dr Kalam and his achievements towards nation building was also inaugurated.

Union Minister Venkaiah Naidu while paying rich tributes, said, It is difficult to believe that it is already one year since the great man left all of us for heavenly abode.

But, Dr Kalam will live forever in our minds and hearts.

A statue dedicated to the former president of India was unveiled at Rameswaram. All photographs: @MVenkaiahNaidu/Twitter

Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar was also present at the event, which also saw a 3-D model of the memorial being unveiled.

A foundation stone was also laid at the event. The ministry of defence has planned to host a number of events.

Naidu pays a wreath at the final resting spot of Kalam. Kalam passed away on July 27 last year while delivering a lecture at IIM-Shillong in Meghalaya, due to a massive cardiac arrest.
Here's a recap of events that occurred in India in the past 24 hours.

Police use water canon to disperse members of the NGO Abhiyan Delhi during their protest against Delhi governments false promise of starting 20 new colleges, near chief ministers residence in New Delhi on Tuesday. Photograph: Manvender Vashist/PTI

Manipurs Iron Lady Irom Sharmila has decided to end her fast on August 9 and contest assembly elections as an Independent candidate. Photograph: Stringer/Reuters

Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar and the defence forces chiefs salute the Amar Jawan Jyoti whilst paying tribute those who sacrificed their lives in Kargil war on the occasion of Kargil Vijay diwas on Tuesday. Photograph: Kamal Singh/PTI

Wild buffaloes swim through flood waters in the inundated Kaziranga National Park near Guwahati on Tuesday. The flood situation in Assam remains critical with the Brahmaputra river overflowing in several districts, submerging houses and agricultural fields of around 12.5 lakh people Photograph: PTI

A protest rally, on the day state authorities lifted the 17-day old curfew, from downtown city crossing Shaheed Gunj on way to Lal Chowk the nerve centre of Srinagar on Tuesday. Photograph: S Irfan/PTI

Autorickshaws remain parked at a ground during a strike against app-based taxi services in the National Capital, in New Delhi. Photograph: Shahbaz Khan/PTI

Members of the Bishnoi community painting black ink on poster of Salman Khan during their protest against the Jodhpur high courts decision to acquit Salman Khan in Bikaner on Monday. Photograph: PTI

The Taj Mahal at approximately 4.35 pm, shrouded in cloudy skies in Agra on Tuesday. Much of northern and eastern India was inundated with heavy rainfall causing massive flooding in Assam and Arunachal Pradesh among other areas. Photograph: PTI

Devotees take part in the Shahi Sawari of Lord Mahakal on the occasion of first Sawan Somwar in Ujjain on Monday. Photograph: PTI
Pope Francis said on Wednesday the world was at war but argued that religion was not the cause, as he arrived in Poland a day after jihadists murdered a Catholic priest in France.

In his first speech after touching down in the city of Krakow, the pontiff said the way to "overcome fear" was to welcome people fleeing conflict and hardship.

Opening doors to migrants demands "great wisdom and compassion" he said, chastising a rightwing government that has refused to share the burden during Europe's worst refugee crisis since World War II.

"We must not be afraid to say the truth, the world is at war because it has lost peace," the pontiff told journalists on the flight out from Rome.

"When I speak of war I speak of wars over interests, money, resources, not religion. All religions want peace, it's the others who want war."

The brutal killing of the elderly priest during mass in France on Tuesday, in an attack claimed by the Islamic State group, has cast a shadow over Francis's trip to headline World Youth Day, a gathering of young Catholics from across the globe.

"This holy priest who died in the moment of offering prayers for the church is one (victim). But how many Christians, innocents, children?" Francis said.

"The word we hear a lot is insecurity, but the real word is war. The world has been in a fragmented war for some time. There was the one in 14, one in 39-45 and now this," he said referring to World War I and II.

A string of terror attacks targeting civilians in Europe appears to have dampened turnout for the World Youth Day festival, a week-long faith extravaganza dubbed "the Catholic Woodstock".

Flag-waving crowds of youngsters nonetheless turned out in force to cheer on the pope as he sped to the WawelRoyalCastle in his open-top popemobile, defying security fears.

"It's an incredible experience," said one Krakow resident who gave her name as Danuta.

"I greeted pope John Paul II on all his trips here and pope Benedict too," she said.

Around 200,000 pilgrims attended the opening mass on on Tuesday, according to Krakow police, while organisers had expected around half a million.

The French priest's murder has also complicated Francis's aim to champion migrants, while emboldening Polish Prime Minister Beata Szydlo and her right-wing government who have refused to take in refugees for security reasons.

Poland is on high security alert, deploying over 40,000 personnel for the visit. Authorities also charged an Iraqi man on Monday with possessing trace amounts of explosive material.

"World Youth Day is a great celebration and we hope the attack in France will not ruin it," said Marcin Przeciszewski, head of Catholic Information Agency KAI, as worshippers gathered on Tuesday to pray for the fallen French priest.
Commemorating the first death anniversary of former president Dr A P J Abdul Kalam, his life-size statue was unveiled here today, while the Centre also announced inclusion of his hometown Rameswaram under Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation as a tribute to the Peoples President.

While Prime Minister Narendra Modi said Kalam had left an irreplaceable void, Union Urban Development Minister M Venkaiah Naidu said the Centre has decided to include Rameswaram in AMRUT by relaxing norms as a tribute to the former president.

Rich tributes were paid to Kalam at a huge function organised here by Defence Research and Development Organisation, with which he was associated for long, the Defence Ministry and Ministry of Urban Development.

Defence Minister Manohar Parikkar and MoS Road Transport and Highways Pon Radhakrishnan were among the dignitaries present when Naidu unveiled the statue at Peikarumbu in Rameswaram.

Modi on Twitter said, Its been a year since our beloved Dr A P J Abdul Kalam left us & created a void that is irreplaceable (sic). My tributes to this great personality.

Naidu said its difficult still to believe Dr Kalam had passed away.

Dr Kalam will live forever in our minds and hearts. His thoughts continue to be with us all the time, he said.

On the Centres decision to include the town under AMRUT by relaxing the norms of eligibility, he said while cities with a population of one lakh and above are included in the scheme, Prime Minister Modi included the town, with a population of 45,000, as a tribute to Dr Kalam.

Naidu said the Centre has approved projects worth Rs 48 crore for Rameswaram under AMRUT. Of this, Rs 45 crore would be used to improve sewerage networks and rest on developing parks and open spaces.

This is a token of what the minimum we could do for the memory of Dr Kalam, he said.

Naidu thanked Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa for allotting the land to construct the memorial in memory of the former President.

When I met her last week, she assured me that whatever needs to be done for a befitting memorial would be done by the state government, he said.

The vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi is federal cooperation where the Centre and states work in harmony. This memorial is an example of his vision. I thank the chief minister for her cooperation, he said.

Tracing Kalams ascension to presidency, Naidu said as the then Bharatiya Janata Party chief he was associated with discussions when the National Democratic Alliance government led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee considered the matter.

Quite a few were not sure if a hard core scientist with no experience of public life or even public interaction could be the right choice, but...our decision in his favour, subsequently proved to be the best one. He emerged as the most loved president of our country, he said.

On the memorial, he said it would be a grand monument to perpetuate the memory of Kalam who lived not for himself but for all us and the country and a small tribute to him.

A sand sculpture of the former president, depicting only his face, was unveiled by one of Kalams family members.

Naidu urged all political parties to cooperate and work towards completion of the memorial as Dr Kalam belonged to the nation and not any political party.

Parrikar, who laid a wreath as a tribute to the former president, recalled Kalams visit to Goa when he was chief minister of the state.

When I was chief minister of Goa, he visited. We had a very long discussion on his vision of India in 2020, he said.

On the memorial being set up by the Defence Research and Development Organisation, Parrikar said its design was in the final stage and the work was expected to commence in coming months.

The design of the memorial is in the final stages and I expect the work to commence in full scale in the coming months. The memorial will be completed in record time, he said.

The concept of completing a project in time was the highest priority of Dr Kalam, he said.

Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley hailed Kalam as a true patriot, scientist and a statesman.

Bharat Ratna Dr Kalam was a true patriot, scientist & statesman. We remember this son of India & pay our tribute on his death anniversary, he wrote on Twitter.

BJP President Amit Shah said Kalam was the epitome of simplicity, hard work and morality.

His teachings and vision will continue to inspire generations to come, he said.

Kalam passed away on July 27 last year after suffering a massive cardiac arrest while delivering a lecture at Indian Institute of Management-Shillong in Meghalaya.

IMAGE: Union Minister for Urban Development M Venkaiah Naidu and Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar after laying the foundation stone for Dr A P J Abdul Kalam National Memorial to mark his first death anniversary at Peikarumbu, Rameswaram on Wednesday. Photograph: PTI Photo
Democrats gathered in Philadelphia formally selected Tim Kaine as their US vice presidential candidate on Wednesday, completing the party's ticket for the November election.

IMAGE: A delegate poses with his buttons at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, US. Photograph: Charles Mostoller/Reuters

Kaine, a 58-year-old senator from the battleground state of Virginia, was nominated by voice vote, setting the stage for his address to the convention later in the evening.

Congresswoman and acting convention chair Marcia Fudge motioned to dispense with the roll call vote and nominate Kaine by acclamation, which led to a chorus of "Ayes."

"The motion to suspend the rules and nominate byacclamation is adopted," declared Fudge to loud cheers.

The tickets are now set for both parties: Hillary Clinton and running mate Kaine for the Democrats, with Republicans Donald Trump and running mate Mike Pence, both of whom were nominated last week and their party's convention in Cleveland.

With working-class roots and a spotless record both as Virginia governor and senator, he is seen as helping Clinton garner support among reluctant independent male voters -- although at the risk of alienating the party's progressive left wing.

Supporters of Clinton's main adversary in the Democratic primary race, Bernie Sanders, had argued that she should choose a more liberal running mate such as the feisty leftist Elizabeth Warren.

But Clinton, at a Florida rally last weekend introducing her vice presidential pick, said Kaine was a can-do progressive who is ready to "step into this job and lead from day one."

Kaine, she said, is "everything Donald Trump and Mike Pence are not."
Donald Trump has been accused of "hijacking" the popular score from the movie Air Force One by its producer who has asked the Republican presidential nominee to stop using the movie's theme song during his high-profile campaign events.

Gail Katz, the producer of the 1997 Harrison Ford thriller says the Republican presidential nominee is using deceased legendary composer Jerry Goldsmith's music without permission and wants him to stop.

Katz told 'The Hollywood Reporter' that Trump never asked the filmmakers for permission to use the score.

She has written a letter to the Trump campaign requesting that it stop playing the score at future events.

Trump, 70, has been broadcasting the Air Force One theme for months at campaign rallies around the country. The most recent, and high profile, use of the score occurred on July 20 when it accompanied Trump's dramatic arrival via helicopter at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland.

"The music for Air Force One was composed and conducted by the legendary Oscar-winning film composer Jerry Goldsmith," writes Katz in the letter.

"Jerry's music was hijacked in a misguided attempt to associate Trump with the film and the President in that film."

Before his death at age 75, Goldsmith was one of the most admired and prolific composers in the film music world, with over five decades of film and TV work to his credit.

Veteran film music agent Richard Kraft, who represented Goldsmith for 15 years prior to his death in 2004, says the composer would not be pleased with his music being appropriated by Trump.

"From everything I know about Jerry Goldsmith's political views, he would have been extremely unhappy with Trump co- opting his art to sell his image," Kraft said.

"Goldsmith composed music to underscore a make-believe, heroic president in [Air Force One], not to help create a phony soundtrack for Trump. He would have been appalled to have his music selling a product he would greatly dislike."

This is not the first time Trump's choice of music has come under fire. Multiple songwriters and recording artists have asked the Trump campaign to stop playing their music, including The Rolling Stones, Neil Young, Adele, Aerosmith and R.E.M., the report said.

Says Katz, "The main point is that, similar to the plane in the movie, the music has been hijacked and we want it back."

The Trump campaign did not immediate reply to a request for comment, The Hollywood Reporter said.
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump on Wednesday favored having friendly, if not a strong, relationship with Russia to defeat the dreaded Islamic State militant group but said that he would not compromise on America's national security in this partnership.

Trump at an impromptu news conference in Miami, Florida responding to a question, said that Russians probably have the missing 33,000 emails of Clinton.

"They probably have her 33,000 e-mails. I hope they do. They probably have her 33,000 e-mails that she lost and deleted because you'd see some beauties there. So let's see," he said.

"Russia, if you're listening, I hope you're able to find the 30,000 e-mails that are missing. I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press. Let's see if that happens,"

Trump said in yet another controversial remarks, which he has been known for during his entire election cycle.

Immediately, the Clinton campaign went furious.

"This has to be the first time that a major presidential candidate has actively encouraged a foreign power to conduct espionage against his political opponent," said Jake Sullivan,

a senior policy advisor to Hillary for America.

"That's not hyperbole, those are just the facts. This has gone from being a matter of curiosity, and a matter of politics, to being a national security issue," Sullivan said in a statement.

Trump said the hacking into the server of the Democratic National Committee could be either by Russia or China, or someone else.

Trump said he would release his complete tax returns once their audit is complete.

"I don't think he (Putin) respects Clinton. I don't think Putin has any respect whatsoever for Clinton. I think he does respect me. I hope I get along great with him. It's possible that we won't. I hope that we get along great with Putin because it would be great to have Russia with a good relationship," he said.

Trump said that he would not compromise on American national security, but would go along well with the Russian President Vladimir Putin and other global leaders.

"I would treat Vladimir Putin firmly but there's nothing that I can think of that I'd rather do than have Russia friendly as opposed to the way they are right now so that we can go and knock out ISIS together with other people and with other countries," he said.

"Wouldn't it be nice if we actually got along with people, wouldn't it be nice if we actually got along, as an example, with Russia? I'm all for it and let's go get ISIS because we have to get ISIS and we have to get them fast," Trump said in response to a question.

Trump refuted allegations that Putin is helping him out in this presidential elections, by first hacking into their emails and releasing them.

"I have nothing to do with Putin. I've never spoken to him. I don't know anything about him other than he will respect me. He doesn't respect our president. And if it is Russia -- which it's probably not, nobody knows who it is -- but if it is Russia, it's really bad for a different reason, because it shows how little respect they have for our country, when they would hack into a major party and get everything," he said.

"But it would be interesting to see -- I will tell you this -- Russia, if you're listening, I hope you're able to find the 30,000 e-mails that are missing. I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press. Let's see if that happens. That'll be next," Trump said.
By Sai Sachin R and Paul Lienert BENGALURU/DETROIT (Reuters) - A rift between Tesla Motors Inc and key supplier Mobileye NV sent down shares of the Israeli maker of chips for the electric vehicle maker's semi-automated Autopilot system and fanned debate on self-driving vehicle technology. Mobileye shares, which have been wildly popular with institutional and tech investors, were down 7.7 percent at $45.50 on Tuesday after the company said its contract with Tesla would not be renewed. Tesla stock fell 0.9 percent to $227.94. Neither Mobileye nor Tesla would say which company initiated the move. The split comes while Tesla's Autopilot is facing scrutiny from regulators following a fatal accident in early May. The crash spurred new debate about self-driving vehicles and the level of technology necessary to reduce the number of such incidents. Mobileye's EyeQ chips provide image analysis for Tesla's Autopilot system, which helps the automaker's vehicles steer and stay in lanes. Mobileye said in a statement that it would continue to support Tesla's ongoing upgrades to Autopilot but without any hardware updates. Tesla in a statement said only that it was "transitioning to internally developed software for the camera portion of Autopilot." In a December blog post, Tesla said Mobileye's EyeQ3 chip, which is used in the Model S and Model X, "is the best in the world at what it does, and that is why we use it." Mobileye, which is working with about two dozen global vehicle manufacturers, said it planned by 2020 to offer a hardware/software system that can gather, fuse and analyze data from 20 different sensors, including cameras, lidar and radar. Tesla has eschewed the laser-based lidar sensors that many manufacturers are incorporating into their self-driving systems, electing instead to focus on cameras, radar and ultrasonic sensors. The company plans to make fully autonomous vehicles in the future, Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk said in his latest "master plan" last week but did not provide details. Mobileye's new EyeQ5 "system on chip" will be an important component in a fully autonomous driving system being jointly developed with BMW AG and Intel Corp and aimed at production in 2021. BlueStar Indexes, which manages a U.S.-listed Israeli tech fund, said on Tuesday that Tesla accounted for less than 1 percent of Mobileye's current revenue and about 2 percent of projected 2019 sales. Compared with clients such as Volkswagen AG and General Motors Co, "Tesla's impact is quite small," BlueStar said. (Reporting by Sai Sachin R in Bengaluru and Paul Lienert in Detroit; Editing by Phil Berlowitz and Lisa Von Ahn)
Freedom in the World 2016 - Zimbabwe

Publisher Freedom House Publication Date 14 July 2016 Cite as Freedom House, Freedom in the World 2016 - Zimbabwe, 14 July 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57985a1124.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.

Freedom Status: Partly Free

Aggregate Score: 32

Freedom Rating: 5.0

Political Rights: 5

Civil Liberties: 5

Status Change, Ratings Change:

Zimbabwe's civil liberties rating improved from 6 to 5, and its status improved from Not Free to Partly Free, due to some gains in citizens' civil liberties in 2015. While the country continued to struggle with the internal factionalization of both its ruling and major opposition parties, the judiciary showed increasing independence by deciding against powerful political interests, including ruling party elites.

Quick Facts

Capital: Harare

Population: 17,354,000

GDP/capita: $896.20

Press Freedom Status: Not Free

Net Freedom Status: Partly Free

OVERVIEW

Zimbabwe in 2015 continued to suffer from factionalization of the two major parties and a deepening economic malaise. Over the course of more than 20 by-elections, held mostly as a result of lawmakers being expelled from both major parties, the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) greatly increased its share of seats in the National Assembly during the year. The main opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change-Tsvangirai (MDC-T), boycotted these elections, leaving ZANU-PF to run against several small opposition parties and its own former members. Even with the lack of competition, some of the contests were characterized by voter-roll discrepancies, large numbers of assisted voters, and episodes of violence.

Former ruling party elites and those involved in the political struggle to succeed longtime president Robert Mugabe reported receiving threats or being subjected to surveillance by the Central Intelligence Office (CIO) during 2015.

Despite these signs of political turmoil, there were some marginal improvements in civil liberties. The courts ruled against the ruling party in several prominent cases, suggesting greater judicial independence than in the past. Political pressure on teachers and restrictions on the operations of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), which in previous years included legal and extrajudicial harassment, also appeared to ebb in 2015.

POLITICAL RIGHTS AND CIVIL LIBERTIES

Political Rights: 12 / 40

A. Electoral Process: 3 / 12

Zimbabwe has a bicameral legislature. In the lower chamber, the 270-seat National Assembly, 210 members are elected through a first-past-the-post system with one member per constituency, and 60 female members are elected by proportional representation. The 80-seat Senate includes 6 members from each of Zimbabwe's 10 provinces who are elected through proportional representation, and 20 appointed members, including 18 traditional leaders and 2 members representing people with disabilities. Members in both houses serve five-year terms.

The 2013 constitution limited the president to two five-year terms, removed the presidential power to veto legislation and dismiss Parliament, and devolved some powers to the provinces. The term-limit restriction was not retroactive, however, meaning Mugabe, who has been the country's leader since independence in 1980, could serve two more terms. The constitution also empowered the president's political party, not Parliament, to select a presidential successor in the case of a death in office  a critical provision given that Mugabe turned 91 in 2015. The 2013 constitutional referendum was deemed credible by a range of observers, though the vote was preceded by a crackdown on prodemocracy civil society groups.

Although far less violent than the 2008 elections, the 2013 presidential and legislative elections were marred by serious irregularities. Mugabe won the presidency with 61 percent of the vote; his opponent, MDC-T leader Morgan Tsvangirai, took 34 percent. ZANU-PF also captured 197 seats in the National Assembly, compared with 70 for the MDC-T. According to the Zimbabwe Electoral Coalition (ZEC), more than 300,000 voters were rejected at the polls over registration issues, and the Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN) claimed that up to one million voters were omitted from the rolls or turned away at the polling centers. The ZEC also reported that 200,000 "assisted" votes were cast, leading to accusations that ZANU-PF supporters were casting votes for people not genuinely in need of assistance. Selective distribution of benefits to ruling party supporters and use of government institutions to campaign were also rampant.

The 2012 Electoral Amendment Act reconstituted the ZEC with new commissioners nominated by all political parties, but the ZEC president and much of the staff remained partisan and susceptible to political influence. Another Electoral Amendment Act passed in 2014 expanded the powers of observers and election agents and reduced ambiguities in the process for handling ballots. The amendments also reinstated postal voting, which was historically used to ensure that the armed forces collectively voted in favor of ZANU-PF. Legal loopholes that permit the printing of extra ballots, unfair media coverage, and interference of police officers in voter choice remain unrevised. In 2015, the MDC-T asked the Constitutional Court to rule on the question of holding elections before the electoral law has been brought fully into compliance with the new constitution, but the case was withdrawn at the end of September on a technicality. In December, the MDC-T, People First, and several other opposition parties signed a joint call for further electoral reforms.

The 2015 parliamentary by-elections featured a number of shortcomings. There were reports of violence, particularly in the Hurungwe West constituency, where Temba Mliswa, who had been expelled by ZANU-PF, ran to reclaim his seat as an independent. Candidates in several constituencies said they were threatened by ZANU-PF supporters, who also allegedly visited voters to record their registration numbers and threaten repercussions if they failed to vote. Reports that traditional leaders were both threatened and provided with assistants to campaign and monitor voting behavior, combined with allegations that CIO agents were deployed to by-election constituencies, suggest that such illegal campaigns were overseen by central authorities. Election monitors and non-ZANU-PF candidates also widely reported the use of fraud, including manipulation of the voter roll and fabrication of votes.

B. Political Pluralism and Participation: 6 / 16

ZANU-PF has dominated politics since Zimbabwe's independence in 1980, though infighting over who will succeed Mugabe has led to the formation of splinter groups. Joice Mujuru, who was replaced as vice president in December 2014 and expelled from ZANU-PF, emerged as the leader of a breakaway faction, People First, during 2015. The main opposition party, the MDC, has also split into multiple factions  first over whether to contest the 2005 Senate elections, and then after its defeat in the 2013 elections  but the MDC-T remains the largest opposition grouping.

The ruling party uses state institutions as well as violence and intimidation to punish opposition politicians, their supporters, and critical political activists. Itai Dzamara, a journalist and activist who had called for Mugabe to resign, was abducted in March 2015, allegedly by government agents. The authorities denied any knowledge of his whereabouts, and he remained missing at year's end. In September, seven MDC-T lawmakers reportedly received death threats via mobile-phone text messages that appeared to warn them against disrupting Mugabe's annual speech to Parliament. Also that month, ZANU-PF politicians received threatening text messages that were thought to have come from factional rivals.

Youth brigades affiliated with ZANU-PF factions led by First Lady Grace Mugabe and Saviour Kasukuwere, on the one hand, and Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa, on the other, engaged in brawls around the capital during the year. CIO agents were said to be watching the movements of current and former ZANU-PF elites on behalf of Mnangagwa, a former CIO chief and presidential aspirant. The CIO also continued to threaten opposition leaders.

Zimbabwe's ethnic Shona majority dominates both major political parties, and some members of the Ndebele minority have complained of political marginalization. An MDC splinter party headed by Welshman Ncube, an Ndebele, has been accused of tribalism by its rivals. The small white minority has faced years of hostile speeches and policies from ZANU-PF.

C. Functioning of Government: 3 / 12

The civilian leadership has only partial electoral legitimacy, and the commanders of the highly partisan military, police, and intelligence agencies continue to play a central role in government decision making. The CIO remains closely tied to the presidency and free from any substantial regulation by the legislature or civilian bureaucracy.

Government effectiveness has been undermined by the use of appointments for political patronage. The president regularly reshuffles the cabinet, increasing the number of ministers in 2015 to more than 72, each of whom receives large salaries and allowances, vehicles, housing, and special staff. Other state and party officials were dismissed during the year as part of an effort to purge allies of former vice president Mujuru.

Corruption has become endemic since 2000, including at the highest levels of government. The collapse in public-service delivery and the politicization of food and agricultural aid have made the problem ubiquitous at the local level as well.

The Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission, which was enshrined in the 2013 constitution, has little independent investigative or enforcement capacity. Zimbabwe was ranked 150 out of 168 countries and territories assessed in Transparency International's 2015 Corruption Perceptions Index. According to another Transparency International report released in 2015, some 77 percent of Zimbabweans thought that the country had grown more corrupt over the past two years.

Civil Liberties: 20 / 60 (+4)

D. Freedom of Expression and Belief: 8 / 16 (+2)

Freedom of the press is restricted. Although the constitution protects freedoms of the media and expression, the country's repressive legal framework  including the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act, the Official Secrets Act, the Public Order and Security Act (POSA), and the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act (CLCRA)  has yet to be reformed. These laws restrict who may work as a journalist by requiring journalists to register with the state. They also severely limit what journalists may publish and mandate harsh penalties, including long prison sentences, for violations.

Constitutional Court rulings in 2013 and 2014 found that key CLCRA provisions  on criminal defamation, undermining the authority of the president, and publishing falsehoods detrimental to the state  were harmful and unconstitutional under the old constitution. At the end of 2015, a case brought by the Media Institute of Southern Africa arguing that the CLCRA's media restrictions are unconstitutional under the new constitution was pending before the Constitutional Court. Journalists and others who criticize the government continue to be jailed and charged with violating provisions of the CLCRA.

Criticizing the government in some cases is also punished extrajudicially, particularly when it involves Mugabe. Journalists are subject to beatings or arrests while reporting on demonstrations. In August 2015, police temporarily detained three journalists covering a union-led protest over job cuts and warned them that they could share the fate of Itai Dzamara, the journalist and activist who was abducted in March.

The state-controlled Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) continues to dominate broadcast media. The government also controls the two main daily newspapers, though there are a number of independent print outlets. Satellite television services based abroad are available, but access is still prohibitively expensive for many Zimbabweans. Commercial radio licenses issued to date have generally gone to companies that are either state controlled or owned or operated by individuals with close links to the ruling party. While the law allows for the licensing of community radio stations, the government has not offered such licenses since 2001, nor has it taken steps to license private television broadcasters.

Internet access and usage have expanded rapidly in recent years despite frequent power outages, and access is rarely blocked or filtered, allowing online news sources to gain popularity. However, as with traditional media, those who disseminate critical content online face criminal sanctions and the threat of violence.

Freedom of religion is generally respected in Zimbabwe, though the ruling party favors certain religious leaders, which at times has led to confrontations with other groups. No major incidents of this kind were reported in 2015.

Political pressure on teachers and academics has eased in recent years, though the state still responds with force to student protests. Prominent academics rank among the government's most vociferous critics, and some are allowed to operate with little interference. Mugabe serves as the chancellor of all eight state-run universities, and the Ministry of Higher Education supervises education policy at universities. Nevertheless, there is respect for academic freedom in many government institutions.

Zimbabweans enjoy some freedom and openness in private discussion, but official monitoring of public gatherings, prosecution of offenses like insulting the president, and the threat of political violence serve as deterrents to unfettered speech.

E. Associational and Organizational Rights: 4 / 12 (+1)

Freedom of assembly is limited, though protests do occur. POSA requires police permission for public meetings and demonstrations, allows police to impose arbitrary curfews, and forbids criticism of the president. In 2015, a number of assemblies by perceived government opponents were blocked or violently dispersed through the deployment of police and soldiers. Those affected included women's rights activists, street vendors protesting tighter state regulation, and MDC-T supporters.

NGOs are active and generally professional. They remain subject to legal restrictions under POSA, the CLCRA, and the Private Voluntary Organisations Act, despite the rights laid out in the constitution. Historically, these laws have often been implemented in a partisan manner; NGOs, human rights lawyers, and civil society workers also face extralegal harassment and arbitrary arrest by security services. However, with the prominent exception of Dzamara's abduction and the short-term arrest of activists who protested on his behalf, few episodes of legal or police harassment aimed at NGOs were reported in 2015. Some groups that are critical of the government said they were allowed to operate more or less freely in urban areas, so long as they did not organize public demonstrations.

The Labor Act allows the government to veto collective-bargaining agreements that it deems harmful to the economy. Strikes are allowed except in "essential" industries. Because the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) has led resistance to Mugabe's rule, it has become a particular target for repression. It has also seen its membership decline due to closure of companies and liberalization of collective bargaining. In 2015, the ZCTU began staging protests over proposed wage freezes and a widespread loss of jobs linked to the weakening economy and relatively strong currency. Many of these protests were either banned by the police or led to police violence.

An amendment to the labor law intended to make it harder for firms to dismiss workers was hastily passed in August 2015 following the loss of an estimated 25,000 jobs in July. The rash of dismissals was precipitated by a Supreme Court ruling that firms were not required to provide redundancy payouts or give more than three months' notice to fired workers. The new law requires firms to pay a minimum of one month's pay for every two years worked, and was backdated to mid-July.

F. Rule of Law: 3 / 16 (+1)

The executive branch has exerted considerable pressure on the courts or sought to circumvent their authority over the years, but a series of rulings in 2015 demonstrated an increased degree of judicial independence, building on a trend from 2014. For example, in May, the Constitutional Court barred police from arresting women on unsubstantiated charges of soliciting for prostitution, an apparently common abuse. In June, the High Court barred the government from evicting legal street vendors and held that eviction of illegal vendors needed to comply with due process and could not involve the military. In October, the High Court ordered Local Government Minister Saviour Kasukuwere to reinstate the mayor of Gweru and 11 city councilors, finding that the clause of the Urban Council Law under which he had suspended them was unconstitutional. Also that month, the Labour Court ruled in favor of a civil servant who was unfairly dismissed on the grounds of his presumed sexual orientation.

The government has so far failed to fully implement new and update standing legislation as mandated by the 2013 constitution. At the end of 2015, the General Laws Amendment Bill was scheduled for a vote in Parliament in early 2016. However, this bill would bring only 126 statutes out of more than 400 into alignment with the constitution. Meanwhile, the judiciary has been left to struggle with interpreting contradictions between the new constitution and existing law.

The constitution gives arrested suspects the right to contact relatives, advisers, and visitors; to be informed of their rights; and to be released after 48 hours unless a court orders them to remain detained. However, these rights are often violated in practice. Security forces abuse citizens, frequently ignoring basic rights regarding detention, searches, and seizures. In September 2015, the Constitutional Court struck down a section of the Criminal Procedures and Evidence Act that allowed prosecutors to override court decisions granting bail to detainees for seven days by stating an intent to appeal. This provision had been routinely used to block bail for political detainees.

Lengthy pretrial detention remains a problem, and despite some improvements in recent years, prison conditions are harsh and sometimes life-threatening. By official estimates, 17 percent of detainees have not yet been convicted, and the prison population is 12 percent larger than the intended capacity. Overcrowding, poor sanitation, and food shortages have contributed to the spread of HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and other illnesses among inmates.

Discrimination on the basis of a broad range of characteristics is prohibited under the 2013 constitution. However, notwithstanding the 2015 Labour Court ruling, discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity is not expressly prohibited. Sex between men is a criminal offense and can be punished with a fine and up to one year in prison. Mugabe has been vocal in his opposition to same-sex sexual relations, and LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) groups have been subject to regular harassment by security forces.

G. Personal Autonomy and Individual Rights: 5 / 16

High passport fees inhibit legal travel abroad. At the same time, badly underfunded immigration and border authorities lack the capacity to effectively enforce travel restrictions. Politicized enforcement is also less of a problem than in the past, when the government would seize passports of domestic opponents and expel or deny entry to foreign critics.

Property rights are not respected. In January 2015, police officers demolished the homes of at least 200 families living in an area where Grace Mugabe reportedly planned to create a wildlife sanctuary, although the courts have shown independence in multiple rulings against the interests of the first lady in this venture. The authorities also continued to demolish, without court orders, homes around Harare that were deemed to have been built illegally, affecting thousands of residents.

In rural areas, the nationalization of land has left both commercial farmers and smallholders with limited security of tenure. Farmers without title to their land have little collateral to use for bank loans. Seizures of land owned by the country's few remaining white commercial farmers, as well as some ZANU-PF elites involved in factional struggles, continued in 2015.

The 2007 Indigenization and Economic Empowerment Act stipulates that 51 percent of shares in all large companies operating in Zimbabwe must be owned by black Zimbabweans. Since the 2013 elections, ZANU-PF has courted international investors and indicated that it will apply the indigenization laws selectively. In 2015, the government continued to grant exemptions to private investors and allow noncompliant companies to operate.

Women enjoy extensive legal protections, and women serve as ministers in the national and local governments. However, societal discrimination and domestic violence persist, and sexual abuse is widespread. Female members of the opposition have faced particular brutality at the hands of security forces. The prevalence of customary laws in rural areas undermines women's civil rights and access to education. According to a UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) survey published in 2015, approximately one-third of women aged 20 to 49 were married before they turned 18, and 5 percent of those aged 15 to 49 were married before age 15.

Zimbabwean women and girls are subjected to sex trafficking and forced labor, particularly in border areas, and both adults and children from rural districts are trafficked into domestic servitude in cities or forced agricultural labor. Officials do not actively combat trafficking, and some are complicit in such activities.

Copyright notice:  Freedom House, Inc.  All Rights Reserved
Freedom in the World 2016 - Yemen

Publisher Freedom House Publication Date 14 July 2016 Cite as Freedom House, Freedom in the World 2016 - Yemen, 14 July 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57985a1411.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.

Freedom Status: Not Free

Aggregate Score: 17

Freedom Rating: 6.5

Political Rights: 7

Civil Liberties: 6

Trend Arrow: 

Ratings Change, Trend Arrow:

Yemen's political rights rating declined from 6 to 7, and it received a downward trend arrow, due to the collapse of the political system and the effects of an escalating civil war and related Saudi-led military intervention on the civilian population.

Quick Facts

Capital: Sanaa

Population: 26,737,000

GDP/capita: $1,408.10

Press Freedom Status: Not Free

Net Freedom Status: N/A

OVERVIEW

Yemen collapsed into civil and regional war in 2015. Tensions between Houthi forces, which had occupied Sanaa in late 2014, and President Abd Rabbu Mansur Hadi's government continued into the early part of the year, when efforts to negotiate an end to the political stalemate between competing forces broke down. In January, Houthi leaders rejected a new constitution that would have led to the creation of a federated Yemen and decentralized power. Soon thereafter, Hadi resigned as president and fled the country, eventually settling in Saudi Arabia. Violence between the Houthis and supporters of the fallen president escalated in the spring as Houthi forces began marching south from Sanaa toward Aden, establishing control over large parts of the country. Houthi forces enjoyed the backing of ex-president Ali Abdullah Saleh, who was ousted from power in 2012 but has remained politically influential.

In March, concerned about the possibility of total Houthi control in Yemen, Saudi Arabia led a small coalition of Arab states in a war against the Houthis that continued through the end of the year. The campaign, in combination with a Saudi naval blockade preventing food, medicine, and other humanitarian aid from entering the country, resulted in thousands of deaths and widespread destruction. Hadi returned to Aden from his self-imposed exile on several occasions in September and November to supervise the campaign to retake control of Yemen, but by year's end neither the warring parties nor international brokers appeared positioned to decisively end the conflict.

Against this backdrop, Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) carried out regular bombings during the year. In addition, supporters of the Islamic State (IS) militant group began attacks in Yemen for the first time, killing hundreds in coordinated bombings. The United States continued to carry out regular drone strikes against al-Qaeda in Yemen.

POLITICAL RIGHTS AND CIVIL LIBERTIES

Political Rights: 4 / 40 (-5)

A. Electoral Process: 2 / 12 (-1)

Under the existing constitution, the president is elected for seven-year terms and appoints the 111 members of the largely advisory upper house of parliament, the Majlis al-Shura (Consultative Council). The 301 members of the lower house, the House of Representatives, are elected to serve six-year terms. Provincial councils and governors are also elected.

Parliamentary elections have been repeatedly postponed. The original six-year mandate of the current parliament expired in 2009, and elections were put off again in 2011 amid a popular uprising against longtime president Ali Abdullah Saleh. In November of that year, under sustained pressure from the United States, the United Nations, and the Gulf Cooperation Council, Saleh signed a Saudi-brokered agreement that transferred his powers to then Vice President Hadi in exchange for immunity from prosecution for his role in the violent crackdown on antigovernment protests that year. In February 2012, Yemeni voters confirmed Hadi, who ran unopposed, as interim president with a two-year term. In January 2014, the multiparty National Dialogue Conference (NDC), a months-long initiative in which more than 500 delegates aimed to reach agreement on Yemen's political future, concluded with a plan to transform the country into a federated state of six regions, which would be ratified in a new constitution. Hadi's term was extended at that time until the reforms proposed by the NDC could be finalized in a new constitution.

However, the constitutional drafting process and elections schedule were thrown into disarray by a rebellion of the Houthis, a Shiite Muslim population in the country's northwest. Houthi forces took over large swaths of the country, eventually occupying Sanaa in September 2014. A new cabinet was announced in November of that year as part of the UN-brokered deal with the Houthis. In January 2015, Houthi leaders extracted concessions from the Hadi government that would have created a power-sharing arrangement in exchange for their withdrawal from the capital. However, the Houthis subsequently refused to evacuate Sanaa and turn over control of key government installations. In response, President Hadi and his cabinet resigned their positions, resulting in a total collapse of the government and the intensification of Houthi efforts to establish control over the rest of the country.

B. Political Pluralism and Participation: 1 / 16 (-3)

Although the political system was long dominated by Saleh and his party, the General People's Congress (GPC), Yemen's relatively well-developed and experienced opposition parties had historically been able to wring some concessions from the government. The 2012 ouster of Saleh was accomplished through a sustained campaign of protests motivated primarily by frustration with imbalances of power and high levels of corruption, but also by lack of access to decision-making and political participation by regular citizens.

However, the Houthis now dominate the political system. They are vigorously challenged by opposing domestic and international forces, including Saudi Arabia, where the Hadi government fled in exile. Following the support of the opposition Islah political party for the Saudi-led airstrikes, Houthi forces systematically persecuted their associates, forcibly disappearing more than 100 members in April and shuttering a number of affiliated organizations throughout the year.

C. Functioning of Government: 1 / 12 (-1)

After coming to power in 2011, Hadi and the central government had struggled to consolidate authority. Aside from competition between warring factions, the network of corruption and patronage established under Saleh remained entrenched in public institutions, creating additional obstacles to political compromise. Efforts by the NDC to create a viable reformed political system seemed to crystallize in late 2014 with the writing of a constitution. But in January 2015, Houthi leaders rejected the new constitution and the proposed concept of a federal system. Following the collapse of the Hadi government later that month, Houthi forces announced in February their formal takeover of the government, dissolving parliament and assuming control of the executive branch.

Despite efforts by the government to fight endemic corruption, Yemen lacks most legal safeguards to combat it. Yemen was ranked 154 out of 168 countries and territories surveyed in Transparency International's 2015 Corruption Perceptions Index. The Houthi advance, rejection of the constitution, and the resignation of the president and prime minister have effectively ended government accountability.

Civil Liberties: 13 / 60 (-3)

D. Freedom of Expression and Belief: 5 / 16 (-1)

Legislation such as the Press and Publications Law restrict reporting. The government controls most terrestrial television and radio, though there are several privately owned radio stations. Access to the internet is not widespread, and authorities have blocked websites they deem offensive.

Though the state's ability to enforce its oppressive legal regime is diminished by the war, spaces and opportunities for free expression have been as well. In 2015, attacks on journalists and the media increased dramatically, with abuses committed by both Houthi and pro-Hadi forces. Since gaining control of Sanaa, the Houthis have systematically persecuted journalists and attempted to manipulate media coverage of their activities. By March 2015, nearly 70 press freedom violations by Houthi forces had already been reported, including threats, kidnappings, and confiscations of equipment. At the start of April, the international coalition forces backing Hadi announced that all Houthi-affiliated media were military targets. That month, a coalition airstrike hit the offices of the television station Yemen Today, killing a journalist and three other people. Two additional journalists were killed by an airstrike in May after being kidnapped by Houthi rebels. Houthi abductions of journalists are common; Reporters without Borders reported that 11 were being held at the end of August.

Islam is the official religion, and the constitution declares Sharia (Islamic law) to be the source of all legislation. Yemen has few non-Muslim religious minorities, and their rights are generally respected in practice, though conversion from Islam and proselytizing to Muslims is prohibited. The outbreak of war has inflamed sectarian tensions between the Shiite Houthis and Sunni militant groups. In March 2015, more than 130 people were killed by suicide bombers at two Shiite mosques in Sanaa. Further blasts hit three Shiite mosques in June.

Strong politicization of campus life, including tensions between supporters of the GPC and the Islah party, infringes on academic freedom at universities. The war in 2015 led to damage to school facilities across the country, periodic suspensions of classes and other activities at schools and universities, and deaths of children who were inside schools that were bombed.

E. Associational and Organizational Rights: 3 / 12

Yemenis have historically enjoyed some freedom of assembly, with periodic restrictions and sometimes deadly interventions by the government. There were frequent demonstrations against both Houthi expansion and Saudi military aggression in 2015. In January and February, Houthi forces violently broke up pro-Hadi protests in Sanaa, making several arrests and firing live rounds. At least six people were killed by Houthi forces in the city of Torba in March while protesting the group's presence there.

Freedom of association has historically been constitutionally guaranteed. Several thousand nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) work in the country, though their ability to operate is restricted in practice. In April 2015, Houthi forces shut down four NGOs associated with political groups opposed to their rule, and detained a number of their employees and associates. The law acknowledges the right of workers to form and join trade unions, but in practice these organizations have little freedom to operate. Virtually all unions belong to a single labor federation, and the government is empowered to veto collective bargaining agreements.

F. Rule of Law: 2 / 16

The judiciary is nominally independent, but it is susceptible to interference from the executive branch and political factions. Authorities have a poor record of enforcing judicial rulings, particularly those issued against prominent tribal or political leaders. Lacking an effective court system, citizens often resort to tribal forms of justice and customary law, practices that have increased as the influence of the state has continued to deteriorate. Arbitrary detention is common, stemming in part from inadequate training for law enforcement officers and a lack of political will among senior government officials to eliminate the problem. Security forces affiliated with the Political Security Office (PSO) and the Interior Ministry torture and abuse detainees, and PSO prisons are not closely monitored. The war has periodically halted the operations of some municipal and judicial offices, although the Ministry of Justice continued to operate under Houthi influence.

The outbreak of war has resulted in widespread violence across the country, the destruction of critical infrastructure, and thousands of deaths and injuries. Saudi airstrikes have not always distinguished between military and civilian targets. Several hospitals and clinics operated by Doctors without Borders were bombed throughout the year in what observers believed to be deliberate attacks. The United Nations estimated that nearly 3,000 people were killed and more than 5,000 wounded in the fighting by the end of 2015.

In addition, forces loyal to AQAP used the opportunity created by fighting between the Houthis and Saudi Arabia to carry out attacks during the year. The United States continued an aggressive bombing and drone campaign against Al-Qaeda forces in the country. ISIS loyalists also claimed to have carried out attacks in Yemen for the first time in 2015.

Yemen is relatively ethnically homogeneous. However, the Akhdam, a small minority group, live in poverty and face social discrimination. Thousands of refugees fleeing war and poverty in the Horn of Africa are smuggled annually into Yemen, where they faced increased violence in 2015.

Same-sex sexual activity is illegal, with possible penalties including lashes, imprisonment, and death. Due to the severe threats they face, few LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) Yemenis reveal their sexual identity in public. The war has disrupted relatively robust informal networks of LGBT people that had existed in many of Yemen's major cities. The resurgence of the religiously conservative Houthi movement has reportedly increased anti-LGBT sentiment.

G. Personal Autonomy and Individual Rights: 3 / 16 (-2)

Freedom of movement, property rights, and business activity are impaired by the security situation and corruption. In November 2015, Houthi officials prevented Shafiqa al-Wahsh, a leading Yemeni women's rights advocate, from traveling to Egypt and Jordan to participate in peace talks, though they did allow 16 other delegates to attend. Internal displacement increased rapidly over the course of the year, with more than 2.5 million internally displaced persons by year's end. Saudi Arabia imposed a naval blockade on the country for most of the year, leading to shortages of food, medicine, fuel, and other essential imports, and resulting in dire humanitarian conditions.

Women continue to face discrimination in many aspects of life. A woman must obtain permission from her husband or father to receive a passport and travel abroad, cannot confer citizenship on a foreign-born spouse, and can transfer Yemeni citizenship to her children only in special circumstances. Women are vastly underrepresented in public office; there was just one woman in the lower house of parliament before it was dissolved. School enrollment and educational attainment rates for girls fall far behind those for boys. In December 2015, terrorists shut down several faculties at the University of Aden in order to enforce gender segregation in classrooms. Yemen's penal code allows lenient sentences for those convicted of "honor crimes"  assaults or killings of women by family members for alleged immoral behavior. Although the law prohibits female genital mutilation, it is still prevalent.

The war increased the risk of human trafficking in Yemen, and the government was no longer able to pursue antitrafficking efforts it had previously begun.

Copyright notice:  Freedom House, Inc.  All Rights Reserved
Freedom in the World 2016 - Tunisia

Publisher Freedom House Publication Date 14 July 2016 Cite as Freedom House, Freedom in the World 2016 - Tunisia, 14 July 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57985a166.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.

Freedom Status: Free

Aggregate Score: 79

Freedom Rating: 2.0

Political Rights: 1

Civil Liberties: 3

Quick Facts

Capital: Tunis

Population: 11,026,000

GDP/capita: $4,316.80

Press Freedom Status: Partly Free

Net Freedom Status: Partly Free

OVERVIEW

Following a year in which the country adopted a historic and progressive constitution and successfully held free and fair elections at the parliamentary and presidential levels, Tunisia experienced a number of challenges in 2015 that threatened to undermine its democratic progress. Three high-profile terrorist attacks in Tunis and Sousse killed dozens of people, leading to the imposition of states of emergency for much of 2015 that included curfews and prohibition on public demonstrations. The attacks also spurred passage of a new antiterrorism law that was criticized by rights advocates for granting broad new powers to the security services.

After winning a significant victory in last year's elections, there were concerns that Nidaa Tounes, the country's main secularist party, would attempt to govern without input from Ennhada, the moderate Islamist party that led the previous government. However, in February parliament approved a coalition government that included Ennahda in some minor capacities. A significant bloc within Nidaa Tounes protested the inclusion of Ennahda in government, touching off a crisis that threatened the former's survival.

POLITICAL RIGHTS AND CIVIL LIBERTIES

Political Rights: 37 / 40 (+1)

A. Electoral Process: 12 / 12

Tunisia's 2014 constitution established a unicameral legislative body, the Assembly of the Representatives of the People (ARP), and a semipresidential system in which the majority party in parliament selects a head of government, while a popularly elected president serves as head of state and exercises restricted powers. The ARP consists of 217 representatives serving five-year terms, with members elected on party lists in 33 multimember constituencies.

Parliamentary elections were held in October 2014 with a high turnout of 67 percent of registered voters. Nidaa Tounes won a plurality of the vote and 86 seats. Ennahda placed second with 69 seats, 20 fewer than in 2011. Three other parties won enough seats to play significant roles in government formation: the populist-centrist Free Patriotic Union won 16 seats, the leftist Popular Front won 15, and the center-right Afek Tounes won 8. Eleven other parties won between one and four seats each, and two seats went to independents.

Presidential elections were held the following month, with about 64 percent of registered voters casting a ballot in the first round. Beji Caid Essebsi of Nidaa Tounes won 40 percent of the vote, followed by Mohamed Moncef Marzouki of Congress for the Republic at 33 percent. Some 20 additional candidates ran; Ennahda did not put forward a candidate. Because no candidate won a majority, a runoff was held in December, in which Essebsi won with 55 percent of the vote against 44 percent for Marzouki. Despite some complaints regarding campaign finance violations and allegations of vote buying, no evidence surfaced to indicate systematic violations or a significant impact on electoral results. International and local observers concluded that the 2014 elections were free and fair.

Following the elections, Nidaa Tounes initially attempted to form a coalition government excluding Ennahda and relying on smaller secularist parties to secure a parliamentary majority. However, following pushback from the ARP, Nidaa Tounes reached an agreement with Ennahda to form a coalition government, which was approved by parliament in February 2015. The decision by the party's leadership to include Ennahda in the coalition sparked a crisis within Nidaa Tounes, which had already been suffering from factional divisions and internal governance problems. In November, 32 Nidaa Tounes ARP members announced their resignation from the party as a result of these issues, though they were persuaded to tentatively suspend that decision days later. In December, another 22 Nidaa Tounes representatives announced their intention to resign from the party.

The Independent High Authority for Elections (ISIE), a neutral nine-member commission, supervises the electoral process. Tunisia's new electoral law, adopted in 2014 in advance of election season, garnered praise from observers as a credible framework for reflecting the will of the voters. However, the law's gender parity provisions  in which males and females alternate within each list, rather than requiring males and females to alternate at the head of lists across regions  attracted criticism.

B. Political Pluralism and Participation: 16 / 16

In the 2014 elections, 70 parties participated. The two dominant parties are Nidaa Tounes, a secular coalition of leftists, trade unionists, businesspeople, and members of the former government of Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali (who was ousted after a popular revolution in 2011), and Ennahda, a moderate Islamist party. Nidaa Tounes experienced a series of crises in 2015 that threatened its survival as a cohesive entity. The party's leftist wing has long been subordinated to more powerful business and elite political interests and is underrepresented at the executive level in the current government. Throughout 2015, a power struggle played out between the leftist faction led by Mohsen Marzouk, elected secretary-general of the party in May, and ancien regime elements led by Hafedh Essebsi, son of President Caid Essebsi. Delays in holding the party's congress to elect a new leadership led to street clashes between the competing groups in November and Marzouk's resignation from his post in December, casting doubt on the party's ability to continue to function in its current form.

The Tunisian military, historically marginalized by the political leadership, remained politically neutral in 2015. However, its budget has significantly expanded in the past several years and it has established its own intelligence and security services. While generally viewed as positive developments correcting longstanding internal dysfunction, these changes have led some experts to caution against an unwarranted increase in the military's powers and its potential politicization.

The government and both domestic and international nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) have worked to increase the political participation of marginalized groups, including disabled Tunisians, and ensure their inclusion in elections. Low youth voter turnout continued to concern nearly all observers in 2014, although tens of thousands of young people made up the majority of election monitors, polling station workers, campaign staff, and election volunteers.

C. Functioning of Government: 9 / 12 (+1)

In January 2014, Ennahda, then the largest party in the now-defunct interim legislature and leader of a coalition government, handed over power to a caretaker government in advance of elections. Although the move was a positive step in quelling a bitter political dispute with the opposition, it did install an unelected technocratic administration for most of the year. In December 2014, the newly elected ARP was formally seated, and Caid Essebsi was sworn in as the country's president later that month. With the ARP's approval of a cabinet in February 2015, the transition to a fully democratic administration at the both the legislative and executive levels was completed.

The removal of Ben Ali and his close relatives and associates, who had used their positions to create private monopolies in several sectors, represented an important step in combating corruption and eliminating conflicts of interest. A provisional anticorruption authority is to be replaced by a Good Governance and Anti-Corruption Commission, established by the 2014 constitution. However, few prosecutions have occurred to date, with the exception of in absentia trials for members of the Ben Ali and Trabelsi clans  the two former ruling families.

Moreover, petty corruption continues to plague the country, with tax evasion, falsification of documents, and bribery rampant in the civil service. Tunisia was ranked 76 out of 168 countries and territories assessed in Transparency International's 2015 Corruption Perceptions Index.

In July 2015, the cabinet approved a so-called reconciliation law that would suspend all legal proceedings and investigations into public corruption committed under the Ben Ali regime and ease the process for obtaining amnesty for such crimes. The law had not yet been passed by year's end.

Since the revolution, Tunisia has improved its record on government transparency. A 2011 decree requires internal documents of public institutions to be made available to the public. The 2014 constitution enshrined the right of access to information, along with an independent commission to monitor compliance. However, a draft law that would help bring Tunisia up to international standards and improve implementation was unexpectedly withdrawn from consideration in July 2015.

Civil Liberties: 42 / 60 (-1)

D. Freedom of Expression and Belief: 13 / 16

Freedom of expression improved dramatically following the revolution, and the 2014 constitution guarantees freedoms of opinion, thought, expression, information, and publication, subject to some restrictions. However, the media continued to face obstacles in 2015, including prosecutions under Ben Ali-era criminal laws. Blogger Yassine Ayari was sentenced by a military court to a year in prison in January for violating the military code by "defaming the army" on Facebook; Ayari was released from prison in April. Also in March, three journalists were arrested for allegedly defaming the president and other offenses. They were sentenced to six-month suspended prison sentences before being released.

The High Independent Authority of Audiovisual Communication (HAICA) continued to be the subject of debate due to concerns about its politicization and its aggressive policy of fining television and radio stations, especially during the elections. In November, the prime minister dismissed the head of the national public broadcaster and installed an interim chief without consulting HAICA. The body brought a legal challenge against the government's actions in December, but no resolution was achieved by year's end.

The 2014 constitution introduced freedom of religion to an extent largely unprecedented in the Arab world. It guarantees freedom of belief and of conscience for all religions, as well as for the nonreligious, and bans campaigns against apostasy and incitement to hatred and violence on religious grounds. While the constitution identifies Islam as the state religion and requires the president to be a Muslim, no constitutional provision identifies Sharia (Islamic law) as a source of legislation.

Despite these provisions, the state retains significant influence over the internal affairs of religious institutions, particularly mosques. A Ben Ali-era law authorizing the government to appoint local imams and banning any unauthorized activity at mosques remains in place. Following the revolution, a monitoring commission within the religious affairs ministry undertook a campaign to root out allegedly extremist imams from mosques across the country and replace them with state appointees. In 2015, the minister of religious affairs gave the police primary responsibility for the surveillance of mosques. Following the mass shooting in Sousse in June, the state shut down 80 mosques accused of promoting extremist positions.

Article 33 of the 2014 constitution explicitly protects academic freedom, and it continues to improve in practice.

E. Associational and Organizational Rights: 9 / 12 (-1)

The 2014 constitution guarantees the rights to assembly and peaceful demonstration. Public demonstrations on political, social, and economic issues regularly take place. However, when police responded to a protest against economic conditions in February, they shot and killed a demonstrator. Rights groups have criticized a counterterror law adopted in July for its vague language, creating concern that the law could be used to stifle demonstrations and curtail protest activity. In September, the government began enforcing a ban on all public demonstrations under the state of emergency imposed in response to the shooting in Sousse. On at least three occasions that month, police used excessive force to disperse protests against the proposed reconciliation law.

The constitution guarantees the freedom to establish political parties, unions, and associations. Tens of thousands of new civil society organizations began operating after the revolution, and NGO conferences were held throughout the country during 2015. Antiterrorism and security justifications are sometimes used to circumvent legal procedures for closing civil society organizations.

The constitution guarantees the right to form labor unions and to strike. The Tunisian economy has been rocked by continuous strikes across all sectors since the revolution demanding labor reform, better wages, and improved workplace conditions. Although strikes are almost never suppressed by force, in May 2015 the cabinet announced a decision to not pay public sector employees on days they participated in a strike. However, agreement was reached between labor unions and the government to raise public sector salaries for at least the next three years.

F. Rule of Law: 9 / 16

The constitution guarantees a robust and independent judiciary. However, little reform has taken place since the revolution, numerous Ben Ali-era judges remain on the bench, and successive administrations have regularly attempted to manipulate the judiciary. In May 2015, the ARP passed a law establishing a Supreme Judicial Council (CSM), which will monitor the judicial system. Critics noted a variety of serious deficiencies in the law, including outsize executive influence on the CSM's composition and functions. The Constitutional Council, Tunisia's interim constitutional review body, ruled in June that the new law was unconstitutional on numerous grounds related to its manner of passage and content; no law to replace it was passed by year's end.

In June 2014, Tunisia established a Truth and Dignity Commission (TDC) to examine political, economic, and social crimes committed since 1956. By May 2015, the commission had received nearly 12,000 complaints of rights violations under Ben Ali. However, observers have noted that the selection process for the body's 15 commissioners lacked transparency and engagement with civil society, its organizational structure is suboptimal, and it is plagued by slow decision-making processes. Moreover, specialized courts to adjudicate cases of violations are still nonoperational.

Security issues, particularly threats from radical Salafi Muslim groups, are a major concern for the government. In March, two gunmen attacked the Bardo Museum in Tunis, killing 20 and wounding dozens more. Another mass shooting at a popular tourist resort in Sousse killed 38 people in June. The Islamic State claimed responsibility for both attacks, but the government asserted that local Islamist groups based in Tunisia were behind them. In November, a bomb exploded in Tunis near a bus carrying members of the elite presidential guard, killing 12 people. President Essebsi declared a state of emergency in early July that lapsed in October but was reinstated in late November and was then extended through the end of the year. Continuous terrorist threats also led to near-unanimous passage of a sweeping new antiterrorism bill, signed into law by Essebsi in August. The bill gives police expanded surveillance and detention powers, allows terror suspects to be tried in closed-door hearings, and permits witnesses in such trials to remain anonymous.

The constitution refers to state protections for persons with special needs, prohibiting all forms of discrimination and providing aid to integrate them into society. It also calls for the state to create a culture of diversity. However, LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) people continue to face discrimination in law and society. In September, a man was sentenced to one year in prison for allegedly engaging in same-sex sexual acts, and six other men were sentenced to three years in prison in December. An appeals court reduced the September sentence to two months in December, and the defendant was released with time served.

Tunisia has no asylum law, leaving the United Nations as the sole entity processing asylum claims. Migrants are often housed in informal detention centers, where they suffer from substandard living conditions. Delays in the issuance of residency permits make it impossible for many to work legally, forcing them to take odd jobs with no labor protections. A draft asylum law that would normalize the status of migrants and increase their rights and protections was circulating in parliament in late 2015.

G. Personal Autonomy and Individual Rights: 11 / 16

Freedom of movement has improved substantially since 2011. The 2014 constitution guarantees freedom of movement within the country, as well as freedom to leave. Unlike in some other Arab countries, women do not require the permission of a male relative to travel. The southern border was closed several times in 2015 in response to the various terrorist attacks, and Tunis was placed under curfew following the November bus bombing.

The protection of property rights continued to be an area of concern, closely linked to high levels of corruption as well as a large backlog of property cases. The 2014 constitution introduced new protections for property, including intellectual property, but their implementation has yet to be seen.

Tunisia has long been praised for relatively progressive social policies, especially in the areas of family law and women's rights. The 2014 constitution guarantees equality before the law for men and women, and the 1956 personal status code giving women equality with men has remained in force. The code grants women equal rights in divorce, and children born to Tunisian mothers and foreign fathers are automatically granted citizenship. Medical abortion is legal. Currently, 68 women serve in the parliament. Areas of ongoing concern for women's rights include social discrimination and unequal inheritance laws, as well as domestic abuse.

Tunisian women and children are subject to sex trafficking and forced domestic work in both Tunisia and internationally.

Copyright notice:  Freedom House, Inc.  All Rights Reserved
Freedom in the World 2016 - Tanzania

Publisher Freedom House Publication Date 14 July 2016 Cite as Freedom House, Freedom in the World 2016 - Tanzania, 14 July 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57985a1711.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.

Freedom Status: Partly Free

Aggregate Score: 60

Freedom Rating: 3.5

Political Rights: 3

Civil Liberties: 4

Ratings Change:

Tanzania's civil liberties rating declined from 3 to 4 due to the passage of the Statistics Act and the Cybercrimes Act, which imposed restrictions on freedom of expression and had a chilling effect on the media, academia, and civil society.

Quick Facts

Capital: Dar es Salaam

Population: 52,291,000

GDP/capita: $998.10

Press Freedom Status: Partly Free

Net Freedom Status: N/A

OVERVIEW

In October, Tanzania held its most competitive elections since its transition to multiparty rule in the early 1990s. John Magufuli, the candidate of the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) party, won the presidential election with 58 percent of the vote. The runner-up, Chama Cha Demokrasia na Maendeleo (CHADEMA) candidate Edward Lowassa  a former prime minister who had been considered a front-runner for the CCM nomination and who had defected to the opposition after losing the ruling party's primary nomination  claimed electoral malfeasance and rejected the results. International observers generally assessed the conduct of the elections on Tanzania's mainland positively. Magufuli was inaugurated in November, succeeding President Jakaya Kikwete of the CCM; Magufuli's running mate, Samia Suluhu Hassan, became the country's first-ever female vice president. Meanwhile, the CCM lost some seats in the parliamentary polls, as opposition parties, many of which had coordinated parliamentary and presidential candidates through a unified coalition, gained their largest representation in parliament yet. Later in November, parliament approved Majaliwa Kassim Majaliwa, a former junior minister and relative unknown, as the country's new prime minister.

However, simultaneous elections on the semi-autonomous archipelago of Zanzibar sparked controversy. Polls conducted ahead of the vote had predicted a contentious election for Zanzibar's president and a potential victory for Maalim Seif Sharif Hamad of the opposition Civic United Front (CUF). The elections were praised for their smooth conduct in their immediate aftermath. However, prior to the announcement of official results, Zanzibar Electoral Commission (ZEC) Chair Jecha Salim Jecha declared the elections for Zanzibar's president and legislature "null and void," saying the process "was not fair and had breaches of the law." In a joint statement, election missions from the Commonwealth, the Southern African Development Community (SADC), the African Union, and the European Union (EU) expressed "great concern" at the ZEC's move and noted that they had assessed the voting as "conducted in a generally peaceful and organised manner, according to the procedures outlined in the laws of the United Republic of Tanzania and the laws of Zanzibar." Hamad refused to accept the annulment, and the CCM and CUF remained in ongoing negotiations at the year's end.

In the run-up to the elections, the Tanzanian government enacted the Statistics Act and the Cybercrimes Act, two laws that had the potential to significantly limit freedom of expression, civil society activities, and access to information.

POLITICAL RIGHTS AND CIVIL LIBERTIES

Political Rights: 27 / 40 (-1)

A. Electoral Process: 8 / 12 (-1)

The president of Tanzania is elected by direct popular vote for up to two five-year terms. Legislative authority lies with a unicameral, 357-seat National Assembly (the Bunge) whose members serve five-year terms. Of these members, 239 are directly elected in single-member constituencies, 102 seats are reserved for women elected by political parties, 10 are presidential appointees, 5 are members of the Zanzibar legislature, and 1 is held by the attorney general. Zanzibar elects its own president and 81-seat House of Representatives, whose members serve five-year terms and are seated through a mix of direct elections and appointments. Zanzibar maintains largely independent jurisdiction over its internal affairs.

The 2015 national elections saw a voter turnout of 65 percent, compared with 43 percent in 2010. In the presidential race, Magufuli won with 58 percent of the vote, and Lowassa took 40 percent. In the National Assembly, the CCM won 152 seats, down from 186 in the previous parliament. Opposition parties, many of which had coordinated candidates through a unified coalition, gained their largest representation in parliament yet. CHADEMA won 34 seats, CUF took 32 seats, and the Alliance for Change and Transparency (ACT) and the National Convention for Construction and Reform (NCCR)-Mageuzi each won one legislative seat.

Despite some irregularities, the 2015 national elections were generally deemed credible by domestic and international observers. An observer mission from the EU described "highly competitive, generally well organized elections, but with insufficient efforts at transparency from the election administrations." However, there were some areas that observers documented with concern; the EU mission noted that the CCM had drawn on state resources, such as public stadiums, to support its campaign.

However, the unilateral annulment of Zanzibar's presidential election, while accepting the results of the Zanzibari vote for the mainland presidential election, undermined the fairness of the electoral framework, which is facilitated by the National Election Commission (NEC) and the ZEC, both of which are appointed by the Tanzanian president and whose independence has been questioned. In addition, the executive maintains the ability to appoint regional and district commissioners, who are influential during elections.

The current constitution was passed in 1977, when the country was under single-party rule. In March 2014, the presidentially appointed Constitutional Review Commission submitted its second draft of a new constitution to the Constituent Assembly (CA), a body of 640 Tanzanian and Zanzibari legislators and presidential appointees, for approval. The draft proposed a three-tiered federal state, fewer cabinet members, independent candidature, limits on executive appointment, and an explicit bill of rights. In April 2014, Tanzania's three primary opposition parties quit the CA, saying their input was not being considered. Nevertheless, the CA passed a controversial draft later in 2014. Opposition parties led by CHADEMA sought a judicial block to the new constitution, suggesting it was passed without a quorum, and initiated a nationwide campaign to garner public support for their position. Though the government was scheduled to conduct a nationwide referendum on the proposed constitution in April 2015, the NEC that month announced an indefinite delay of the poll, citing an inability to register citizens using a new biometric system in time for the vote.

B. Political Pluralism and Participation: 12 / 16

Tanzanians have the right to organize into political parties, and there is growing support for opposition parties. The constitution permits political parties to form "shadow governments" while in opposition. Four opposition parties  the CUF, CHADEMA, NCCR-Mageuzi, and the National League for Democracy (NLD)  decided to support a single presidential candidate and to field parliamentary candidates cooperatively in the 2015 elections. This coalition, known as the Coalition for a People's Constitution, Ukawa, posed the most significant threat to CCM's rule in the country's history.

Although political diversity has grown in recent years, minority parties report regular harassment and intimidation by the ruling party and various state institutions, including the police. People's choices are influenced by threats from military forces and the use of material incentives by the ruling party.

Cultural, ethnic, religious, and other minority groups have full political rights, but parties formed on explicitly religious, ethnic, or religious bases are prohibited.

C. Functioning of Government: 7 / 12

Magufuli was known as an antigraft figure and campaigned accordingly, promising to establish an anticorruption court. Almost immediately after his inauguration, he undertook reforms aimed at cutting spending and enhancing service provision. In November 2015, he barred government officials from taking foreign trips without special authorization from his office. Magufuli also shrank the cabinet to 19 ministers, down from 30, and canceled a ministerial retreat to cut costs. The savings, he announced, would be put toward social service spending.

Despite the presence of the Prevention and Combating Corruption Bureau (PCCB), corruption is pervasive in all aspects of political and commercial life in Tanzania. The PCCB has been accused of focusing on low-level corruption and doing little to address graft committed by senior government officials. In December, Magufuli removed the director general of the PCCB, Edward Hoseah, for negligence. The president also suspended four senior PCCB officials for taking unauthorized trips abroad following the ban on government travel. Tanzania was ranked 117 out of 168 countries and territories surveyed in Transparency International's 2015 Corruption Perceptions Index.

In 2014, twelve international donors withheld close to $500 million in budgetary support for the government following a corruption scandal in which senior government and business officials were accused of funneling more than $180 million in payments for nonexistent energy contracts to private offshore bank accounts. In March 2015, the donors agreed to release $44 million of the frozen funds "in recognition of actions taken" in response to the scandal. The government has complained that it has had to suspend some development projects due to lack of donor funds.

In September, the United States warned the Tanzanian government that it must demonstrate a greater commitment to fighting corruption if it wants to retain its scheduled $473 million in development assistance in 2016. The warning came after the Tanzanian government faced new allegations of public wrongdoing in 2015. In February, the government suspended the head of the Tanzania Ports Authority after concerns about alleged procurement infractions. In July, two former government ministers were sentenced to jail for three years after being found guilty of abuse of office in connection with a gold-auditing contract, accounting for a loss of some $5.2 million in government funds.

The government remains sporadically responsive to citizen input between elections, and citizens generally have access to public information, though observers have expressed concern that the Statistics Act and Cybercrimes Act will inhibit access to public information. The parliament of Tanzania inconsistently publishes legislation, committee reports, budgets, and other documents.

Civil Liberties: 33 / 40 (-2)

D. Freedom of Expression and Belief: 9 / 16 (-1)

Although the constitution provides for freedom of speech, it does not specifically guarantee freedom of the press. Independent media on mainland Tanzania came under increasing pressure in the run-up to the 2015 elections. Current laws give authorities broad discretion to restrict media on the basis of national security or public interest, and difficult registration processes hinder print and electronic media. In January, the government banned the circulation in Tanzania of the regional weekly the East African, citing registration issues. The ban remained in place at year's end. In the spring, Kikwete signed the Statistics Act, passed by parliament in March, and the Cybercrimes Act, passed in April. The Statistics Act severely restricts citizen access to information by requiring data released publicly to be first approved by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). Those publishing information not approved could face a minimum sentence of a year in jail or a fine of over $2,000. Following public outcry, the NBS released a statement clarifying that the act governs only official government statistics, but went on to say that, while the law does not prohibit a person or agency "from producing and publishing their own statistics...if such agencies want to produce official statistics intended to be used by the government for planning and policy making, they have to adhere to set standards and principles of official statistics."

The Cybercrimes Act gives the government significant leeway to arrest anyone perceived of publishing information deemed false, deceptive, misleading, or inaccurate and to levy heavy penalties against individuals involved in a host of criminalized cyberactivities. Following the October elections, Tanzanian police raided an office being used by the Tanzania Civil Society Consortium on Election Observation (Tacceo) and, under the auspices of the Cybercrimes Act, seized 28 computers and 26 mobile phones, claiming that the group was attempting to compile and publish election results. Thirty-six data clerks were arrested and taken in for questioning before being released on bail.

Two other controversial bills  the Media Services Bill, and the Access to Information Bill  were withdrawn from consideration in June after being criticized as overly restrictive. The Media Services bill would create a media services council to oversee a mandatory licensure process for journalists and media houses. The Access to Information Act provides a series of vague exemptions under which the government would withhold information from the public. It also allows fees to be demanded for the provision of information. The Minister of State for the President's Office said greater input from media stakeholders would be invited before the Access to Information Bill would be reintroduced.

Press freedom in Zanzibar is more constrained than on the mainland. The Zanzibari government owns the only daily newspaper, and private media other than radio are nearly nonexistent. Internet access, while limited to urban areas, is growing, but authorities monitor websites that are critical of the government.

Freedom of religion is generally respected. Relations between the various faiths are largely peaceful, though there have been periodic instances of violence. In March 2015, President Kikwete warned of increasingly tense relations between Tanzania's Christian and Muslim communities and asked religious leaders to refrain from involvement in political matters. Kikwete attributed some recent tensions to Christian opposition to the government's decision to allow Tanzanian courts to recognize Islamic court rulings in family law cases.

Historically, there have been few government restrictions on academic freedom. However, researchers and academics are likely to be disproportionately affected by the Statistics Act. People actively engage in private discussions, but the CCM uses a system of party-affiliated cells in urban and rural areas for public monitoring. Each cell is reportedly responsible for 10 households.

E. Associational and Organizational Rights: 6 / 12 (-1)

The constitution guarantees freedom of assembly, but the government can limit this right since all assemblies require police approval and critical political demonstrations are at times actively discouraged. In March 2015, police banned a protest they had initially approved that would have criticized the government for failing to protect albino Tanzanians from violence. Police cited the possibility of violence in banning the demonstration.

There is generally freedom for nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), and more than 4,000 are registered. While current laws give the government the right to deregister NGOs, there has been little interference in NGO activity. Many NGOs, such as Research and Education for Democracy in Tanzania and the Legal and Human Rights Centre (LHRC), publish reports that are critical of the government. However, the Statistics Act and the Cybercrimes Act were expected to interfere with the work of NGOs, predictions that appeared to be borne out by the police raid of Tacceo, which occurred in LHRC offices.

Trade unions are ostensibly independent of the government and are coordinated by the Trade Union Congress of Tanzania and the Zanzibar Trade Union Congress. The Tanzania Federation of Cooperatives represents most of Tanzania's agricultural sector. Essential public service workers are barred from striking, and other workers are restricted by complex notification and mediation requirements. Strikes are infrequent on both the mainland and Zanzibar, but in January, Tanzania-Zambia Railway Authority (TAZARA) workers went on a three-day strike to protest five months of unpaid salaries, amounting to some $1.4 million. Following similar strikes last year, TAZARA fired more than 1,000 employees for "unlawful" strike actions, even while admitting it owed employees back pay.

F. Rule of Law: 9 / 16

Tanzania's judiciary suffers from underfunding and corruption. Judges are political appointees, and the judiciary does not have an independent budget, making it vulnerable to political pressure and influencing what cases the judiciary considers.

Rule of law does not always prevail in civil and criminal matters. Despite recent improvements, policies and rules regarding arrest and pretrial detention are often ignored. Prisoners suffer from harsh conditions, including overcrowding and poor medical care. Security forces reportedly abuse, threaten, and mistreat civilians routinely and with limited accountability. Vigilante justice and mob violence are common, and security forces are often unable or unwilling to enforce the rule of law.

Tanzania's albino population faced increasing violence in 2015. In March, attackers chopped off the hand of a six-year-old boy in western Tanzania, the third such incident in 2015. Albino body parts are believed to bring good luck, leading to the trafficking, death, and dismemberment of many albinos. In March, Tanzanian police arrested more than 200 so-called witch doctors for violence against albinos.

Consensual same-sex sexual relations are illegal and punishable by lengthy prison terms, and members of the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) community face discrimination and police abuse. Most hide their sexual orientation.

More than 250,000 refugees from conflicts in neighboring countries reside in Tanzania. More than 80,000 Burundian refugees flooded into the country in 2015 following an outbreak of civil unrest after the Burundian president's decision to stand for a third term. Human rights advocates have criticized the 2002 Prevention of Terrorism Act for giving police and immigration officials sweeping powers to arrest suspected illegal immigrants.

G. Personal Autonomy and Individual Rights: 9 / 16

Citizens generally enjoy basic freedoms, including in travel, residence, employment, and education. However, the prevalence of petty corruption can inhibit these freedoms.

Tanzanians have the right to establish private businesses but are often required to pay bribes to set up and operate them. The state remains the owner of all land and leases to individuals and private entities. Land-rights disputes over government leases of customary Maasai grazing lands to hunting and tourism corporations have garnered international attention. In February 2015, indigenous rights activists criticized the government for the forcible eviction of Maasai villages related to the establishment of a hunting park by a United Arab Emirates-based company. In October, a Tanzanian court ruled that a U.S. safari company's acquisition of some 10,000 acres of land was legal, turning down a Maasai group's claim to the land.

Women's rights are constitutionally guaranteed but not uniformly protected. Rape, female genital mutilation, and domestic violence are reportedly common but rarely prosecuted. Although the minimum female age for marriage is 15, a 2014 Human Rights Watch report cited the occurrence of marriages to girls as young as seven. Eight cabinet posts are held by women.

Equality of economic opportunity is limited, and there is continued economic exploitation. Poverty, especially in rural areas, affects approximately 33 percent of the population.

Copyright notice:  Freedom House, Inc.  All Rights Reserved
Freedom in the World 2016 - Switzerland

Publisher Freedom House Publication Date 14 July 2016 Cite as Freedom House, Freedom in the World 2016 - Switzerland, 14 July 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57985a1815.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.

Freedom Status: Free

Aggregate Score: 96

Freedom Rating: 1.0

Political Rights: 1

Civil Liberties: 1

Quick Facts

Capital: Bern

Population: 8,292,851

GDP/capita: $84,733

Press Freedom Status: Free

Net Freedom Status: N/A

OVERVIEW

In 2015, Swiss voters elected a new parliament, choosing deputies for the National Council and the Council of States. The right-wing Swiss People's Party (SVP) made the most significant gains, largely at the expense of centrist and left-wing parties. The election campaign as well as general national dialogue were dominated by discussions of the refugee crisis that gripped Europe during the year. The wearing of veils in public spaces was also a focus of discussion, and local governments in multiple cantons confronted the question of banning veils that cover the head or face. In December, the Federal Constitutional Court ruled the banning of the hijab (headscarf) to be unconstitutional.

POLITICAL RIGHTS AND CIVIL LIBERTIES

Political Rights: 39 / 40

A. Electoral Process: 12 / 12

The constitution provides for a Federal Assembly with two directly elected chambers: the 46-member Council of States (in which each canton has two members and each half-canton has one) and the 200-member National Council. All lawmakers serve four-year terms. The Federal Council (cabinet) is a seven-person executive council, with each member elected by the Federal Assembly. The presidency is largely ceremonial and rotates annually among the Federal Council's members.

Federal elections were held in 2015. Voting for the National Assembly took place in October, while the two rounds of voting for the Council of States took place in October and November. In the National Council, the right-wing SVP made strong gains and won 65 seats, up from the 54 it previously held. The Social Democratic Party (SP) won 43 seats, the FDP  a group formed through the merger of the Free Democratic Party and the Liberal Party  took 33 seats, the Christian Democratic People's Party (CVP) captured 27 seats, and the Green Party won 7 seats. Six smaller parties also gained representation. In the Council of States, the FDP and the CVP won 13 seats each, the SP took 12, and three other parties split the remainder.

B. Political Pluralism and Participation: 15 / 16

Political parties are free to form and operate, and a wide range of parties are active at the federal and regional levels. The political system is extremely stable, but remains open to new groups. By common agreement, the Federal Council is comprised of two members each from the SVP, the SP, and the FDP, and one member from the CVP.

Restrictive citizenship laws and procedures tend to exclude many immigrants as well as their children from political participation.

C. Functioning of Government: 12 / 12

Swiss governance is characterized by decentralization. The 26 cantons have significant control over economic and social policy, with the federal government's powers largely limited to foreign affairs and some economic matters. Referendums, which are used extensively, are mandatory for any amendments to the federal constitution, the joining of international organizations, or major changes to federal laws.

The government is free from pervasive corruption. Switzerland was ranked 7 out of 168 countries and territories surveyed in Transparency International's 2015 Corruption Perceptions Index. In 2013, Switzerland signed an Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) convention against tax evasion, in which states pledge to share information for tax enforcement. As the world's largest offshore financial center, however, Switzerland has been criticized for failing to comply with recommended international norms on preventing tax evasion, money laundering, and the financing of terrorism. In a June 2015 report, the Council of Europe's Group of States against Corruption (GRECO) criticized Switzerland for failure to combat lack of transparency in party financing.

Some improvements were made during the year. In September, legislators adopted amendments to the penal code that toughened penalties for bribery involving private-sector entities. Also in September, federal police and prosecutors launched an anonymous hotline for members of the public to use for reporting corruption and related malfeasance.

Civil Liberties: 57 / 60

D. Freedom of Expression and Belief: 15 / 16

Freedom of speech is guaranteed by the constitution. Switzerland has a free media environment, although the state-owned Swiss Broadcasting Corporation dominates the broadcast market. Consolidation of newspaper ownership in large media conglomerates has forced the closure of some small and local newspapers. The law penalizes public incitement to racial hatred or discrimination as well as denial of crimes against humanity. The government does not restrict access to the internet.

Freedom of religion is guaranteed by the constitution, and most cantons support one or more churches. The country is roughly split between Roman Catholics and Protestants, although some 400,000 Muslims form the largest non-Christian minority, at about 5 percent of the population. In a 2009 referendum, voters approved a ban on the future construction of minarets on mosques.

Discussions about banning veils in public continued in 2015. In the absence of federal consensus, local government have been able to make varying decision on the matter in recent years. In 2013, voters in the Italian-speaking canton of Ticino supported banning face-covering veils in public spaces through a referendum. In March 2015, the Council of States issued a decision that the prohibition did not violate federal laws, and in November, the legislature of Ticino approved the ban, prescribing fines of up to 10,000 Swiss francs ($10,000). In a case brought by a student in St. Gallen whose school barred her from wearing a hijab (headscarf), the Federal Supreme Court ruled in December that prohibiting headscarves is unconstitutional. In August, while the case was ongoing, some SVP lawmakers called for the deportation of the student's family, claiming that they were a threat to "social peace." Following the incident, the Federal Commission against Racism denounced discriminatory and offensive language by politicians, urging them to set an example for responsible public debate. In September, several SVP representatives announced plans to progress an initiative for a federal ban on face-covering veils.

Most public schools provide religious education, depending on the predominant creed in the canton. Religion classes are mandatory in some schools, although waivers are regularly granted upon request. The government respects academic freedom, and private discussion remains open and vibrant.

E. Associational and Organizational Rights: 12 / 12

Freedoms of assembly and association are protected by the constitution. The right to collective bargaining is respected, and approximately 16 percent of the workforce is unionized.

In 2014, local authorities in Fribourg banned the Islamic Central Council of Switzerland (IZRS) from holding its annual meeting, citing security risks related to the potential for rioting and concerns regarding Muslim radicalism; the Fribourg cantonal court upheld the ban. In October 2015, the Federal Supreme Court overturned the lower court decision, ruling that Fribourg authorities had restricted the group's right to assemble using inappropriate legal grounds and insufficient evidence.

F. Rule of Law: 15 / 16

The judiciary is independent, and the rule of law prevails in civil and criminal matters. Most judicial decisions are made at the cantonal level. The federal Supreme Court is empowered to review cantonal court decisions when they pertain to federal law. Some incidents of police discrimination and excessive use of force have been documented. Conditions in prisons and detention centers generally meet international standards, and the Swiss government permits visits by independent observers.

In 2014, the Federal Council announced a ban on membership in the Islamic State (IS) militant group, and barred activities including propaganda, fundraising, and recruitment for IS. Violators of the ban can face up to three years in prison. Swiss citizens who travel abroad to fight with the group may be subject to prosecution upon return. These provisions were applied for the first time in April 2015 when a Swiss citizen was stopped from boarding a plane from Zurich to Istanbul due to suspicions that he intended to fight with IS.

Immigration and asylum policies have been at the forefront of national dialogue in recent years. In a June 2013 referendum, about 80 percent of voters approved a proposal to tighten asylum laws, and in a February 2014 referendum, just over 50 percent of voters supported a proposal to further increase restrictions on immigration. The February vote obliged the government to act within three years to impose new quotas on foreign workers and renegotiate labor market agreements with the European Union (EU). It also required employers to give preference to Swiss citizens in hiring, and restricted immigrants' rights to welfare benefits.

Switzerland received approximately 38,000 first-time asylum applications in 2015, an increase of more than 70 percent from the previous year. In September, legislators approved amendments to asylum laws aimed at expediting the application process; among other things, the amendments shortened the processing time from 700 to 140 days, and mandated that applicants have access to free legal counsel. SVP legislators denounced the amendments, and by year's end, the party had gathered enough signatures to call for a referendum against the measures.

The rights of cultural, religious, and linguistic minorities are legally protected, but minority groups  especially those of African and Central European descent, as well as Roma  face increasing societal discrimination. There are some right-wing extremist groups whose platforms include hostility toward minorities and immigrants, and some incidents of hate speech and aggression were reported in 2015.

G. Personal Autonomy and Individual Rights: 15 / 16

Freedom of movement is respected, and there are no undue limitations on the ability to choose one's place of residence, employment, or education. The rights to hold property and to open a business remain unrestricted.

Women were only granted universal suffrage at the federal level in 1971, and the half-canton of Appenzell Innerrhoden denied women the right to vote until 1990. In the 2015 elections, 64 women were elected to the National Council. The constitution guarantees men and women equal pay for equal work, but pay differentials remain. Switzerland was ranked 8 out of 145 countries surveyed in the World Economic Forum's 2015 Gender Gap Index, which analyzes equality in the division of resources and opportunities between men and women.

In a 2005 referendum, voters approved same-sex civil unions. Recognized since 2007, these unions grant many of the legal benefits of marriage, with the exception of full adoption rights.

According to the U.S. State Department's 2016 Trafficking in Persons Report, Switzerland is primarily a destination for victims of human trafficking; the government complies with international standards for combating trafficking, and devotes adequate resources to protecting victims.

Copyright notice:  Freedom House, Inc.  All Rights Reserved
Freedom in the World 2016 - Swaziland

Publisher Freedom House Publication Date 14 July 2016 Cite as Freedom House, Freedom in the World 2016 - Swaziland, 14 July 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57985a1ae.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.

Freedom Status: Not Free

Aggregate Score: 18

Freedom Rating: 6.0

Political Rights: 7

Civil Liberties: 5

Quick Facts

Capital: Mbabane (administrative), Lobamba (legislative, royal)

Population: 1,286,000

GDP/capita: $2,679.40

Press Freedom Status: Not Free

Net Freedom Status: N/A

OVERVIEW

Swaziland continues to face widespread condemnation for restrictions on freedom of speech, media, trade unions, and political parties. At the start of 2015, the U.S. government stripped the country of its eligibility for trade benefits under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) over its poor record on workers' rights; European countries have threatened similar action. However, some progress was registered in 2015, as a ban on the Trade Union Congress of Swaziland (TUCOSWA) was lifted in May, and leaders of the outlawed People's United Democratic Movement (PUDEMO) were released on bail in July, though they remain subject to restrictions while awaiting trial on sedition charges.

In June, the Supreme Court ordered the release of a human rights lawyer and a journalist who had been jailed the previous year in connection with articles criticizing the judiciary. The public prosecutor's office later stated that the two should not have been convicted.

According to the Joint UN Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), Swaziland has one of the world's highest rates of HIV infection, with 29 percent of Swazi residents between the ages of 15 and 49 living with the disease.

POLITICAL RIGHTS AND CIVIL LIBERTIES

Political Rights: 1 / 40

A. Electoral Process: 0 / 12

King Mswati III of Swaziland is the last absolute monarch in Africa. Although the 2005 constitution removed the king's ability to rule by decree, the members of the bicameral parliament, all of whom serve five-year terms, cannot initiate legislation. Of the House of Assembly's 65 members, 55 are elected by popular vote within the tinkhundla system, which allows local chiefs to vet candidates; the king appoints the other 10 members. The king also appoints the prime minister from among the members of the House of Assembly, as well as 20 members of the 30-seat Senate, with the remainder selected by the House of Assembly. Traditional chiefs govern designated localities and typically report directly to the king.

Although the 2013 parliamentary elections were peaceful and saw significant turnover among members (at least 46 of the 55 elected members were new), international observers judged the polls to be neither free nor fair.

B. Political Pluralism and Participation: 1 / 16

According to the constitution, election to public office is based on individual merit rather than political parties. This, in effect, makes political parties illegal. However, political associations have organized, the two largest being PUDEMO and the Ngwane National Liberatory Congress (NNLC). Both PUDEMO and the NNLC boycotted the 2013 elections. In 2014, PUDEMO president Mario Masuku and Maxwell Dlamini, the head of the association's youth wing, were arrested for calling for the king's overthrow. They were released on bail in July 2015, but are subject to restrictions, including a prohibition on addressing public gatherings.

In September 2015, former Malawian president Bakili Muluzi brokered a meeting between the king and representatives from Swaziland's civil society, which were collectively known as the G15. By December 2015, the meeting had yet to take place.

The king's absolute power in Swaziland is doled out through traditional chiefs, who are in charge of the daily governance of their chiefdoms. While the positions are typically passed down from generation to generation within certain families, the constitution stipulates that the king can make appointments of his choice to the roles at any point.

Although the constitution allotted five of the House of Assembly's seats for representatives of "marginalized groups not already adequately represented in the House," there are practically no members of minority groups in the government, as most officials had some connection to the royal family.

C. Functioning of Government: 0 / 12

Elected members of parliament have no oversight or influence over setting government policy, making laws, or adjusting spending levels.

Corruption is a major problem. Areas most affected include public contracting, government appointments, and school admissions. While the country does have an Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), all of its staff are appointed by the king. In 2015, the body's deputy head took the commission to court for unpaid wages; soon thereafter, she was suspended from her position and arrested on charges of corruption and obstruction.

There is no oversight of the king's budget, and audits are presented only to the king and a Royal Board of Trustees chaired by the minister of finance. Though some 63 percent of the population lives below the poverty line, the king continues to demand an enormous salary from state coffers.

Civil Liberties: 17 / 60

D. Freedom of Expression and Belief: 7 / 16 (+1)

Constitutional rights to free expression are severely restricted in practice and can be suspended by the king. Publishing criticism of the ruling family and any member of his government is banned, and both state-owned and independent newspapers have faced consequences for disseminating such material. In 2014, human rights lawyer Thulani Maseko and Bheki Makhubu, editor of the Nation magazine, were charged with contempt of court and sentenced to two years in prison after they published articles criticizing the judiciary. After 18 months behind bars, the Supreme Court in June 2015 overturned their convictions; the public prosecutor's office later stated that they should not have been convicted. Separately, civil society groups alleged that authorities took efforts to limit media coverage of an August 2015 accident, in which a number of young women on their way to the traditional Reed Dance event were killed in a vehicular collision. Police said 13 women were killed, but one civil society group said that the death toll may have been as high as 65.

About a quarter of the population has access to the internet; the government reportedly monitors online communications. Approximately 86 percent of the country has access to mobile technology, and many young people use social media to access more diverse views than what is generally found in Swaziland's traditional media outlets.

Freedom of religion is not explicitly protected under the constitution but is mostly respected in practice, although security forces have been accused of intimidating church leaders deemed sympathetic to prodemocracy movements.

Academic freedom is limited by prohibitions against criticizing the monarchy.

Private discussion is not free. Those who criticize the king risk losing benefits they might have acquired through traditional patronage systems. Undercover police offers are typically present at union, civil society, and arts events.

E. Associational and Organizational Rights: 2 / 12

The government restricts freedoms of assembly and association through the sweeping powers granted under the 2008 Suppression of Terrorism Act, which allows it to declare any organization a terrorist group. Police harassment and surveillance of civil society organizations continues, with numerous reports of illegal searches, arrests, and violent interrogations.

Swaziland has active labor unions, some of which have called for democratic reforms. Workers in most areas of the economy, with the exception of essential services such as police and health care, can join unions; however, government pressure and crackdowns on strikes have limited union operations. The Public Order Act continues to serve as a means of regulating and barring protest and industrial action; demonstrators routinely face violence and arrests by police. In an attempt to qualify for AGOA, Swaziland passed amendments to the Industrial Relations Act to permit registration of trade unions in late 2014. However, security personnel forcefully broke up a February 2015 meeting of TUCOSWA when discussions turned to democratic reforms. In March, security forces blocked TUCOSWA from electing members to its national executive committee. While TUCOSWA was finally able to register with the Swaziland Ministry of Labor and Social Security in May, police intimidation of its members has continued.

F. Rule of Law: 4 / 16 (-1)

The dual judicial system includes courts based on Roman-Dutch law and traditional courts using customary law. Although the judiciary is independent in most civil cases, the king holds ultimate judicial power and is immune from prosecution. Despite such immunity, King Mswati is currently being personally sued for $1.5 million in a foreign court in connection with the financial collapse of a company running Swaziland's Ngwenya iron ore mine. According to the suit, the king allegedly took that amount from the company in order to buy artwork for his personal collection, and then later refused to repay the money.

The Law Society of Swaziland has accused the king of appointing judges in contravention of the constitution. In 2015, the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) called for an overhaul of the Swazi legal system, saying the king exercised an inappropriate amount of influence over judicial appointment processes, thus undermining judicial independence.

Arbitrary arrests, although banned by the constitution, do take place, particularly ahead of planned public protests. Forced searches of homes and offices, as well as torture in interrogations, continue. Prisons are overcrowded, and inmates are subject to rape, beatings, and torture.

People with albinism are discriminated against and are susceptible to violent attacks. Discrimination against members of the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) community is widespread, and many LGBT people hide their sexual orientation.

G. Personal Autonomy and Individual Rights: 4 / 16

Swazi residents are largely free to move throughout and exit the country. However, Swazi citizens from minority ethnic groups often face delays in obtaining passports and other citizenship documents, with political activists subject to additional barriers in procuring passports. Recent years have seen numerous residents forcibly evicted from their homes, often to make way for development projects.

The constitution grants women equal rights and legal status as adults, but these rights remain restricted in practice. Widows in particular face regular violations of their rights to property ownership, and face restrictions on their ability to appear in public while in mourning. In many cases, a widow is placed into a marriage with another male from the family of her deceased husband. While both the legal code and customary law provide some protection against gender-based violence, it is common and often tolerated with impunity. Human rights advocates have criticized the traditional Reed Dance for propagating forced marriages. In 2015 only four women served in the House of Assembly, down from nine in 2008.

According to the U.S. State Department's 2015 Trafficking in Persons Report, orphaned girls in Swaziland are particularly susceptible to sex trafficking or being forced into domestic labor, while young boys can be forced into agricultural labor and market vending. The report also noted some government progress in addressing human trafficking, with authorities having recently launched several investigations into suspected trafficking operations.

Copyright notice:  Freedom House, Inc.  All Rights Reserved
Freedom in the World 2016 - Sudan

Publisher Freedom House Publication Date 14 July 2016 Cite as Freedom House, Freedom in the World 2016 - Sudan, 14 July 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57985a1c9.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.

Freedom Status: Not Free

Aggregate Score: 6

Freedom Rating: 7.0

Political Rights: 7

Civil Liberties: 7

Quick Facts

Capital: Khartoum

Population: 40,883,900

GDP/capita: $1,875.90

Press Freedom Status: Not Free

Net Freedom Status: N/A

OVERVIEW

In national elections held in April 2015, President Omar al-Bashir and the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) retained their hold on the executive and legislature. Al-Bashir faced few credible opponents, and opposition parties accused the NCP of sabotaging the electoral process. Opposition leaders had called for the elections to be postponed, arguing that a credible vote would be impossible without improvements to the country's National Dialogue, an easing of political repression, and meaningful action toward ending Sudan's multiple armed conflicts. Their requests were largely ignored, and a mass boycott and public apathy toward the electoral process fueled low turnout in April. The National Dialogue, a series of consultations on political and constitutional reform, resumed in October; most opposition figures as well as the European Union, United Nations, and other international bodies refrained from participation.

Violence in Darfur continued. The prosecutor's office of the International Criminal Court (ICC) tracked more than 500 crimes reportedly carried out by government-backed forces, resulting in 1,200 deaths, between December 2014 and June 2015; these included aerial bombardment, ground attacks, indiscriminate killing of civilians, rape, and forced displacement. Armed conflict also continued in the states of South Kordofan and Blue Nile, where the African Centre for Justice and Peace Studies documented more than 250 attacks on civilians between January and September 2015.

In June, President al-Bashir, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) on charges of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes stemming from his role in the Darfur conflict, traveled to South Africa for an African Union (AU) conference. The ICC criticized the South African government for allowing him to enter and leave the country without executing the arrest warrant against him.

POLITICAL RIGHTS AND CIVIL LIBERTIES

Political Rights: 2 / 40

A. Electoral Process: 2 / 12

Sudan is governed according to its 2005 interim constitution. Efforts to redraft the document have been under way since the independence of South Sudan in 2011, but no meaningful progress has been made. Civil society has been largely excluded from the process. Constitutional amendments passed in January 2015 gave the president the power to directly appoint state governors and strengthened the already powerful National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS).

Members of the lower house of the bicameral legislature, the 426-seat National Assembly, are elected using a mixed majoritarian and party-list system. State legislatures choose the members of the upper house, the 56-seat Council of States. All lawmakers serve five-year terms. Under the interim constitution, the president may serve a maximum of two five-year terms. Al-Bashir has held executive power since 1989, but has claimed that the limits of the 2005 constitution  under which an election was first held in 2010  do not apply retroactively.

National elections were held in April 2015. All the main opposition parties boycotted the polls, allowing al-Bashir to win another term in office with 94 percent of the vote. The NCP won 323 of 426 seats in the National Assembly, with many of the remaining seats captured by government loyalists. Although the elections were extended by one day in order to boost participation, voter turnout stood at 46 percent, as reported by the National Election Commission. Critics of the government insisted the low turnout was a result of lack of choice; an NCP spokesman, however, stated that the turnout was the result of outdated voter rolls.

The government and security forces subjected opposition figures to harassment and arrest in the lead-up to the elections, but the voting period itself was largely peaceful. The AU sent a small observation mission to Sudan against the wishes of its own pre-election assessment team. In its final report, AU observers reported that the result reflected the will of the voters but noted that a failure to respect basic freedoms and human rights had weakened the process. The United States, the United Kingdom, and Norway  which did not send monitors  issued a joint statement expressing regret over Sudan's "failure to create a free, fair, and conducive elections environment."

The National Election Commission is not independent; its chairman is an NCP official. In June 2014, the National Assembly passed amendments to Sudan's 2008 electoral legislation, largely without consultation with the main opposition leaders. Among other modifications, the amendments increased the statutory seats in the National Assembly  which had decreased after the independence of South Sudan  to 426.

B. Political Pluralism and Participation: 3 / 16

The NCP dominates the political system in Sudan and uses intimidation, arbitrary arrest, and onerous regulations, often using the state security apparatus, to prevent other parties from operating freely. Some of the June 2014 amendments appeared to be designed to enhance the electoral prospects of small parties, notably by increasing the number of seats determined by proportional representation from 40 to 50 percent and eliminating the 4 percent threshold for representation. Nevertheless, the political arena remains heavily favorable to the NCP. Political parties have experienced problems registering with the authorities. The Sudanese Political Parties Affairs Council denied the Sudanese Republican Party (SCP) recognition in 2014 because it refused to endorse a system of Sharia (Islamic law).

Opposition leaders and activists are routinely arrested and held without charge, often for extended periods. In 2014, the head of the National Umma Party, his deputy, and the head of the Sudanese Congress Party were all detained in separate cases and held for several weeks before being released without charge. In the lead-up to the April 2015 elections, opposition figures faced harassment, arrest, and detention. NISS agents detained members of the SCP and perceived supporters of the armed opposition Sudan Revolutionary Front. On several occasions, authorities denied opposition parties permits for rallies and forums, including at parties' own headquarters.

C. Functioning of Government: 1 / 12

Power and resources are concentrated in and around Khartoum, while outlying states are neglected and impoverished. Members of the NCP, particularly those from favored ethnic groups, tightly control the national economy and use the wealth they have amassed in banking and business to buy political support.

Sudan is considered one of the world's most corrupt countries, and ranked 165 of 168 countries and territories surveyed in Transparency International's 2015 Corruption Perceptions Index. High-ranking members of the party retain prominent commercial interests that heavily benefit from government contracts. In 2015, legislators discussed a draft bill for the creation of a national anticorruption commission; the bill had not been adopted at year's end.

A high proportion of the national budget is spent on unspecified national security priorities. In January, legislators passed a freedom of information law; however, enforcement and awareness of the law remained unclear at year's end.

Discretionary Political Rights Question B: -4 / 0

The government stands accused of attempting to change the ethnic distribution of Sudan through its ongoing response to an insurgency led by marginalized Muslim but non-Arab ethnic groups in Darfur. In 2004, government-supported Arab militias known as janjaweed began torching villages, massacring inhabitants, and raping women and girls. The military also bombed settlements from the air. As of the end of 2014, the United Nations estimated that more than 2.5 million people had been displaced by the violence. In 2009, the ICC issued an arrest warrant for al-Bashir on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur; a charge of genocide was added in 2010. Accusations of ethnically targeted violence have also been leveled against the government for its handling of the wars in South Kordofan and Blue Nile, which began in 2011, in which Sudan's military has launched aerial bombardments and engaged in indiscriminate shelling of civilian areas thought to be strongholds of support for the militant group Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North.

Civil Liberties: 6 / 60

D. Freedom of Expression and Belief: 2 / 16

The 2005 interim constitution recognizes freedom of the press, but media face significant obstacles in practice. The 2009 Press and Publication Act allows a government-appointed press council to prevent publication or broadcast of material it deems unsuitable, temporarily shut down newspapers, and impose heavy fines for violations of media regulations. Approximately one-quarter of the population has access to mobile broadband services. The authorities have been accused of restricting internet access in order to stifle protests.

NISS officers routinely raid printing facilities to confiscate editions of newspapers considered to be in violation of the Press and Publication Act. By waiting until editions are printed, they impose crippling financial losses on media houses. On a single day in February 2015, state authorities confiscated the print runs of 14 newspapers without explanation. Media workers whose reports meet with official disapproval or who cover sensitive topics risk arrest and detention. In the run-up to the April elections, the NISS summoned newspaper editors to warn them to avoid election coverage, particularly opposition calls for a boycott. In December, police arrested the editors of the newspapers Al-Saiha and Al-Tayar and charged them with a range of offenses  including undermining the constitution, which carries the death penalty. The papers had published articles considered to be critical of the government.

Religious freedom, though guaranteed by the interim constitution, is not upheld in practice. Approximately 97 percent of Sudan's population is Muslim, nearly all of them Sunni. The authorities have shown increased intolerance of Christians since 2013; they have destroyed or shuttered several churches, refused permits for new churches, closed church-affiliated nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), ordered expatriate Christian workers out of the country, and detained a number of evangelical Christians. Security forces detained Peter Yen Reith, a Christian pastor from South Sudan, in January 2015 and charged him with offenses including spying, which carries the death penalty; Reith had traveled to Khartoum in search of his colleague Yat Michael, who was detained the previous month and faced similar charges. The pastors, who had reportedly been targeted because their church had refused to give up land to the authorities, were held in detention until August. That month, a Khartoum court acquitted them of the most serious charges but convicted Michael on the charge of disturbing the peace and Reith on the charge of participation in a criminal group. The law prohibits apostasy, blasphemy, and conversion to any religion apart from Islam. The 2015 report of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom recommended that the U.S. State Department renew its designation of Sudan as a country of particular concern.

Respect for academic freedom is limited. The government administers public universities, monitors appointments, and sets the curriculum. Authorities do not directly control private universities, but self-censorship among instructors is common. The authorities have adopted an increasingly confrontational approach toward universities, which have emerged as a center of opposition to the government.

The NISS intimidates individuals who engage in private discussion of issues of a political nature, and reportedly monitors private communications without adequate oversight or authorization.

E. Associational and Organizational Rights: 1 / 12

Freedoms of assembly and association are provided for by the interim constitution and by law. These freedoms were violently curtailed in September 2013, when security forces used live ammunition against mostly peaceful protests in Khartoum, Wad Madani, and other towns. The African Centre for Justice and Peace Studies, which monitors human rights in Sudan, has verified that 185 participants, including at least 15 children, were killed by gunfire during the demonstrations. On the eve of the one-year anniversary of the protests, the authorities preemptively rounded up nearly 60 activists in order to prevent further disturbances. Public assembly was also curtailed around the April 2015 elections, with security forces particularly cracking down on signs of dissent in Darfur. In April, police fired tear gas at protesters at Al-Fashir University in Darfur who were calling for a boycott of the vote. At least 29 students were arrested, 17 of whom were charged with offenses that carry the death penalty. The same month, police and soldiers fired live rounds during a protest at a camp for internally displaced people in central Darfur.

The operating environment for NGOs is challenging. All NGOs must register with the governmental Humanitarian Assistance Commission (HAC). The HAC regularly places restrictions or bans on the operations of NGOs and the movements of their workers, particularly in Darfur, Southern Kordofan, and Blue Nile. In January, the authorities ordered the closure of a cultural center in Omdurman and the Sudanese Writer's Union without explanation. In March, NISS officers raided a training session of the Khartoum-based NGO TRACKS, and later arrested a participant, charging him with crimes against the state.

Trade union rights are minimal, and there are no independent unions. The Sudan Workers' Trade Unions Federation has been coopted by the government, which also must approve all strikes.

F. Rule of Law: 0 / 16

The judiciary is not independent. Lower courts provide some due process safeguards, but the higher courts are subject to political control. Special security and military courts do not apply accepted legal standards. Sudanese criminal law is based on Sharia and allows punishments such as flogging and cross-amputation (removal of the right hand and left foot). In 2013, Sudan's deputy chief justice confirmed that 16 cases of amputation had been carried out since 2001. In May 2015, a court in Darfur ordered the amputation of the right hands of three men who were convicted of theft. The accused were not provided legal representation.

Security forces have detained hundreds of opposition supporters since 2011, when street protests against the government and the economic situation in Sudan began. Following the September 2013 protests, at least 800 people were detained, including some who were arrested as they sought medical treatment. The government has not held security forces accountable for their handling of these events.

The 2010 National Security Act gives the NISS sweeping authority to seize property, conduct surveillance, search premises, and detain suspects for up to four and a half months without judicial review. The police and security forces routinely exceed these broad powers, carrying out arbitrary arrests and holding people at secret locations without access to lawyers or family members. Human rights groups accuse the NISS of systematically detaining and torturing government opponents, including Darfuri activists and journalists. Three leading activists who were arrested in 2014 after signing a document calling for peace and political transition were released without charge in April 2015. In August, 17 political activists, mainly from the SCP, were detained and interrogated before being released without charge; several reported being beaten in custody.

The government has met attempted rebellions in Darfur, South Kordofan, and Blue Nile with indiscriminate violence, including the bombing of civilians, targeted killings, forced displacement of communities, the burning of villages, and the use of rape as a weapon of war. The executors of these activities are regular forces, supplemented by paramilitary groups under the loose authority of the NISS. One counterinsurgency group, the Rapid Support Forces, has reportedly murdered civilians, committed mass rapes, poisoned wells, and looted livestock during campaigns in Darfur and South Kordofan since its establishment in 2013.

Beyond the capital, Sudan's many distinct ethnic, regional, and religious groups face political, social, and economic marginalization. Same-sex sexual acts are illegal, though this prohibition does not appear to be strongly enforced. Official and societal discrimination against LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) individuals are widespread. Sudan passed legislation in 2014 to strengthen the rights of asylum seekers, but there are strong concerns about enforcement. In 2014, more than 70 asylum seekers were forcibly repatriated to Eritrea, where they were likely to face persecution.

G. Personal Autonomy and Individual Rights: 1 / 16

The government restricts freedom of movement in conflict-affected areas, particularly in Darfur, South Kordofan, and Blue Nile, where a state of emergency is in place.

Under a political agreement reached by Sudan and South Sudan in 2012, southerners living in Sudan were guaranteed rights of residency and movement as well as the rights to engage in economic activity and acquire property. The agreement, which has yet to be fully implemented, does not address the question of citizenship, putting some people at risk of being reclassified as "foreigners" even if they have lived in Sudan their entire lives.

Female politicians and activists play a role in public life in Sudan, and women are guaranteed 30 percent of seats in the National Assembly. In daily life, however, women face extensive discrimination. Islamic law denies women equitable rights in marriage, inheritance, and divorce. Traditional and religious law restricts the property rights of women. A widow can only inherit an eighth of her husband's estate, with the rest being divided among her children. Women convicted of adultery can face the death penalty. Police use criminal code provisions outlawing "indecent and immoral acts" to prohibit women from wearing clothing of which they disapprove.

Sudan strengthened its laws on gender-based violence in February 2015, establishing the offense of sexual harassment and amending the definition of rape to bring it closer to international standards. However, women at high risk for sexual violence, particularly from security forces, who use rape as a weapon of war. In one of the worst recent examples, more than 200 women and girls were raped, some of them repeatedly, when soldiers entered the Darfur town of Tabit in October 2014. The authorities have blocked efforts by the United Nations to investigate the crime. Female genital mutilation continues to be widely practiced.

While state officials have been accused of involvement in cases of human trafficking, either through bribes or active engagement, the government has increasingly played a proactive role in addressing the problem, and passed an antitrafficking law in 2014. The Sudanese military and Darfur rebel groups continue to use child soldiers.

Copyright notice:  Freedom House, Inc.  All Rights Reserved
Freedom in the World 2016 - Senegal

Publisher Freedom House Publication Date 14 July 2016 Cite as Freedom House, Freedom in the World 2016 - Senegal, 14 July 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57985a1e15.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.

Freedom Status: Free

Aggregate Score: 78

Freedom Rating: 2.0

Political Rights: 2

Civil Liberties: 2

Quick Facts

Capital: Dakar

Population: 14,690,400

GDP/capita: $1,061.80

Press Freedom Status: Partly Free

Net Freedom Status: N/A

OVERVIEW

Despite Senegal's high levels of political pluralism and competition, a number of institutional challenges to political rights arose in 2015. In an internal rule change in June that generated criticism as well as accusations of fraud in the recording of votes, the National Assembly increased requirements for forming opposition parliamentary groups. Macky Sall, who won the presidency in 2012 after making a campaign promise to reduce the presidential term limit from seven years to five, proposed in March that a referendum be held in 2016 on whether to implement the reform, which would eschew arguably faster legislative channels. Also in March, the Court of Repression of Illicit Enrichment (CREI) concluded the controversial trial of Karim Wade  former government minister, son of former president Abdoulaye Wade, and himself a presidential aspirant  and found him guilty of illicit enrichment. Several domestic and international watchdogs have criticized the proceedings, calling Wade's prolonged pretrial detention arbitrary.

Civil liberties were generally protected in 2015. However, the arrests of a number of journalists challenged standards for freedom of expression. Same-sex sexual activity remained a criminal offense, and several individuals were prosecuted for it during the year.

POLITICAL RIGHTS AND CIVIL LIBERTIES

Political Rights: 33 / 40

A. Electoral Process: 11 / 12

Members of Senegal's 150-seat National Assembly are elected to five-year terms; the president serves seven-year terms with a two-term limit. The president appoints the prime minister. The National Commission for the Reform of Institutions (CNRI), an outgrowth of a consultative body that engaged citizens about reforms in 2008-2009, proposed several reforms in 2014, including an immutable five-year presidential term limit. The term length had not been changed by the end of 2015, despite the fact that Sall came to power in 2012 after campaigning to reduce it. However, in March 2015, Sall proposed to hold a referendum in 2016 on the term-length reduction. Following that vote, presidential elections would happen in either 2017 or 2019.

The most recent presidential election took place in February 2012. In January of that year, Abdoulaye Wade's candidacy for a third presidential term was validated by the Constitutional Council, whose members he had appointed. The presidential campaign period featured significant violence and intimidation, but the election resulted in a peaceful transfer of power. After placing second in the first round, Sall  a former member of Wade's Senegalese Democratic Party (PDS) who previously served as his prime minister and campaign director, as well as president of the National Assembly  won a March runoff with 66 percent of the vote. Wade conceded defeat.

In the July 2012 parliamentary elections, Sall's United in Hope coalition, which included his Alliance for the Republic party, captured 119 of 150 seats, followed by the PDS with 12. About a dozen parties divided the remainder. Both the presidential and National Assembly elections were declared free and fair by international observers.

The National Autonomous Electoral Commission (CENA) monitors elections. Although the body is nominally independent, members are appointed by the president on the advice of other public figures, and it is financially dependent on the government. The Interior Ministry organizes the elections.

B. Political Pluralism and Participation: 13 / 16

People are able to form political parties without undue interference or cumbersome requirements, and parties representing a wide range of views and objectives  including religious ones  operate generally freely.

There is a significant opposition vote, and the opposition has viable opportunities to win presidential, legislative, and local offices. The 2012 presidential election marked the second victory by an opposition candidate in 12 years. Some members of Sall's coalition criticized the timeline of the referendum on presidential term length, noting that if the vote resulted in an early presidential election in 2017, other parties within the coalition would face difficulties preparing.

A modification to the internal rules of the National Assembly passed by the body in June 2015 attracted criticism and accusations of vote fraud within the legislature. Members approved three new rules: an expansion of the term of the president of the National Assembly from one year to five, an increase in the number of deputies needed to form a parliamentary bloc from 10 to 15, and a reform that prevents deputies who leave their initial bloc from joining a new group within the same legislative term. Opponents claimed that the second and third reforms were designed to inhibit parties in Sall's current parliamentary coalition from breaking away and fielding challengers in the presidential race. Some legislators also accused the National Assembly leadership of vote-counting irregularities, claiming that votes were recorded for 100 percent of legislators despite several absences from the chamber. In August, the Constitutional Council rejected a challenge to the changes pertaining to parliamentary blocs that was brought by a group of 19 legislators, including some from Sall's United in Hope coalition.

The opposition still faces major inequalities in financial resources when competing with incumbents. There is no public financing of political parties, and international funding of parties is illegal. The ruling party can deploy a vast set of state resources to garner support, whereas opposition party leaders must often rely on personal wealth.

C. Functioning of Government: 9 / 12

Despite initial international praise of Sall's use of the CREI and the National Anti-Corruption Commission (OFNAC) to monitor corruption in the government, the selection of cases is not always viewed as objective. The trial of Karim Wade, who was imprisoned and awaiting proceedings since April 2013, began at the CREI in July 2014. In March 2015, the court found Wade guilty of illicit enrichment, sentencing him to 6 years in prison and ordering him to pay a $229 million fine. Wade had hoped to challenge Sall in the next presidential election, and denied all charges against him; his lawyers called his prosecution politically motivated. Domestic and international human rights organizations criticized the CREI proceedings for violating due process, particularly by holding Wade in prolonged detention. Wade appealed the CREI's decision to Senegal's Supreme Court, which affirmed the original verdict in August.

Senegal was ranked 61 out of 168 countries and territories surveyed in Transparency International's 2015 Corruption Perceptions Index.

Civil Liberties: 45 / 60

D. Freedom of Expression and Belief: 15 / 16

The constitution guarantees freedoms of speech and expression. There are many independent media outlets, one state television channel, and a number of radio stations and newspapers that are controlled by or affiliated with the state. Several privately owned newspapers have existed for decades and are widely read. In 2015, the National Assembly continued to refuse to vote on a new press code that, among other things, would decriminalize violations of press laws; the code has been contested since its introduction in 2011. Access to the internet is not restricted.

Blasphemy, security, and criminal defamation laws are in place but generally not used to silence independent voices. However, on one day in July 2015, authorities summoned three newspaper publishers and one reporter for questioning about their sources for three separate reports. Alioune Badara Fall, publisher of L'Observateur, and Mamadou Seck, one of the paper's reporters, were arrested and charged with "violating defense secrecy" in connection to an article on the deployment of Senegalese troops to Saudi Arabia's campaign in Yemen. They were held for three days along with Mouhamed Gueye, publisher of Le Quotidien, who was detained in connection to reporting on a celebrity money-laundering trial. Mamadou Wane, publisher of L'Enquete, was briefly held and questioned over a report on military appointments. Following public criticism of the detentions, sources close to Sall were cited in news stories claiming that the prosecutor of Dakar had ordered them without the president's knowledge.

There is no state religion, and freedom of worship is constitutionally protected and respected in practice. Muslims constitute 94 percent of the population, and the country's Muslim brotherhoods are influential, including in politics. Academic freedom is legally guaranteed and generally respected. Private discussion is open and free.

E. Associational and Organizational Rights: 10 / 12

Freedom of assembly is constitutionally guaranteed and respected in practice. The Interior Ministry must approve opposition leaders' requests to lead protests and demonstrations, can dictate the hours and locations of such activities, and can deploy security forces to monitor them. Freedom of assembly was generally respected in 2015, although in February eight PDS members were charged with participation in an unauthorized assembly, and in August the PDS was denied authorization for an assembly in Dakar. Protesters gathered outside the Dakar courthouse where Karim Wade's verdict was read in March; police maintained a heavy presence in the city to prevent riots.

Freedom of association is legally guaranteed. The leaders of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), unions, and political parties must register their organizations with the Interior Ministry. Workers, with the exception of security employees, have legal rights to organize, bargain collectively, and strike.

F. Rule of Law: 10 / 16

The law guarantees fair public trials and defendants' rights. The judiciary is formally independent, but inadequate pay and lack of tenure expose judges to external influences and prevent the courts from providing a proper check on the other branches of government. The president controls appointments to the Constitutional Council. Sall has promised to shift power away from the executive, and the CNRI has requested a more powerful Constitutional Court, but no major changes were made in 2015. Geographic, educational, bureaucratic, and financial hurdles hinder public access to the courts.

In 2014, the International Federation of Human Rights, the African Assembly on Human Rights, the Senegalese League of Human Rights, and the National Organization for Human Rights criticized the CREI for not guaranteeing a fair trial, as the court's assumption of guilt places the burden of proof on the accused. In June 2015, the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention declared that Karim Wade was being detained arbitrarily and that he should be compensated. Sall's administration criticized the working group for interfering in a domestic legal dispute.

In July, the trial of former Chadian president Hissene Habre began at the Extraordinary African Chambers, a special court established by the African Union and Senegal. Habre, who was arrested in Dakar in 2013, faced charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity. The trial marked the first use of universal jurisdiction in Africa. After Habre's lawyers refused to participate in the trial, which they called illegitimate, the court assigned Habre new defense lawyers. However, he refused to cooperate and was forcibly brought into the courtroom on the first day of hearings.

Senegalese prisons are overcrowded. The Dakar-based NGO Tostan has noted poor living conditions, inadequate sanitation, and limited access to medical care for prisoners.

The low-level separatist conflict in Senegal's southern Casamance region remained unresolved in 2015, though rebel leader Salif Sadio had announced a unilateral ceasefire in 2014.

Individuals of lower castes in Senegalese society are sometimes subject to discrimination. LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) people face discrimination, physical attacks, and police harassment, and same-sex sexual activity remains a crime punishable by up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $2,600. In August, seven men were sentenced to six months in prison and 18 months of a suspended sentence after being arrested without warrant for consensual same-sex sexual activity. A Human Rights Watch report released that month raised serious concerns about the fairness of the trial. In December, 11 men were arrested while attending the wedding of a same-sex couple; they were released five days later.

G. Personal Autonomy and Individual Rights: 10 / 16

Citizens generally enjoy the freedom of movement and the right to choose their own residence. The civil code facilitates the ownership of private property, and the government usually provides compensation when it expropriates land. The U.S. Department of State reported in its 2015 Investment Climate Statement on Senegal that the country's property title and land registration protocols are not consistently applied in rural areas.

Human rights organizations note persisting difficulties for women in the country. Female genital mutilation continues to be practiced illegally throughout Senegal. Rape and domestic abuse also persist, and abortions for medical reasons are difficult to obtain. Women cannot obtain credit as easily as men, and early marriage remains an issue. Elements of Islamic and local customary law, particularly regarding inheritance and marital relations, discriminate against women. A gender parity law has resulted in women holding 64 seats in the 150-seat legislature.

A Senegalese Justice Ministry survey released in September 2014 estimated that over 30,000 of the 54,837 children attending daaras (Koranic schools) in Dakar are required to beg in the streets. Other forms of forced labor, child labor, and sex trafficking also remain concerns, and government efforts to combat such abuses are marginal.

Copyright notice:  Freedom House, Inc.  All Rights Reserved
Freedom in the World 2016 - Portugal

Publisher Freedom House Publication Date 14 July 2016 Cite as Freedom House, Freedom in the World 2016 - Portugal, 14 July 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57985a206.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.

Freedom Status: Free

Aggregate Score: 97

Freedom Rating: 1.0

Political Rights: 1

Civil Liberties: 1

Quick Facts

Capital: Lisbon

Population: 10,349,000

GDP/capita: $22,080.90

Press Freedom Status: Free

Net Freedom Status: N/A

OVERVIEW

Portugal held general elections in October 2015, after which Pedro Passos Coelho of the Social Democratic Party (PSD) returned to the prime ministerial office to head a minority conservative government. In November, the Passos Coelho government fell after an alliance of leftist parties blocked the passage of its legislative program. Socialist Party (PS) leader Antonio Costa took office as the new head of government that month.

In spite of efforts to curb corruption, Portugal continued to face scandal in 2015, including suspected malfeasance surrounding a program for granting residence permits  so-called "golden visas"  to wealthy foreign investors.

POLITICAL RIGHTS AND CIVIL LIBERTIES

Political Rights: 39 / 40

A. Electoral Process: 12 / 12

The 230 members of the unicameral Assembly of the Republic are directly elected every four years using a system of proportional representation. The president can serve up to two consecutive five-year terms. While the position is largely ceremonial, the president can delay legislation through a veto, dissolve the assembly to trigger early elections, and declare war as the commander in chief of the armed forces. The legislature nominates the prime minister, who is then confirmed by the president. The constitution was amended in 1997 to allow Portuguese citizens living abroad to vote in presidential and legislative elections, as well as in national referendums. Elections in Portugal are free and fair.

Portugal held general elections in October 2015. The governing Portugal Ahead coalition, comprised of the PSD and the Democratic Social Center-People's Party (CDS-PP), won 107 of the 230 seats. The coalition failed to secure a majority and suffered losses compared with the 2011 elections, in which it took 132 seats, but remained the largest political force in the parliament despite its history of support for unpopular austerity measures. The PS won 86 seats; the Left Bloc (BE) took 19; the Democratic Unity Coalition, composed of the Communist Party (PCP) and the Greens (PEV), took 17; and the Party for People, Animals, and Nature (PAN) captured 1. Passos Coelho took office once again as prime minister, heading a minority government.

In November, leftist opposition legislators joined forces to block passage of the conservative government's legislative program, leading the Passos Coelho administration to step down. President Anibal Cavaco Silva tasked Antonio Costa of the PS with forming a new government, and Costa took office later that month as head of a government consisting of the PS, the BE, and the PCP-PEV coalition.

B. Political Pluralism and Participation: 16 / 16

Political parties operate freely. The main political parties are the center-left PS, the center-right PSD, and the Christian-democratic CDS-PP. Many smaller parties represent a range of social, political, and economic ideologies. The autonomous regions of Azores and Madeira  two island groups in the Atlantic  have their own political structures with legislative and executive powers.

Citizens are able to make political choices without undue interference, and vote in elections based on universal and equal suffrage. Voter turnout hit a record low in the October 2015 elections, with only 57 percent of registered voters casting ballots.

C. Functioning of Government: 11 / 12

In April 2015, legislators strengthened several anticorruption laws to comply with recommendations from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), but the country continued to struggle with corruption scandals during the year. Portugal was ranked 28 out of 168 countries and territories surveyed in Transparency International's 2015 Corruption Perceptions Index.

In 2014, police carried out a series of raids across the country as part of an investigation into corrupt practices in the handling of a program that grants residence permits to foreign investors. The raids led to the arrest of 11 officials, including the heads of the Portuguese border agency and notary institute, based on evidence that they facilitated the issuing of permits in return for personal enrichment. In July 2015, authorities suspended the program as a stricter immigration law went into effect, but a decree passed later that month reinstated it. Also in July, prosecutors announced that they would pursue charges against former interior minister Miguel Macedo, who along with the former head of Portugal's border police faced allegations of money laundering involving the immigration program.

Investigations into former prime minister Jose Socrates, arrested in 2014 for suspected tax fraud and money laundering, were ongoing in 2015. His case marked the first time in Portugal's history that a former prime minister was detained. After nine months in prison, Socrates was moved to house arrest in September 2015 but released the following month  with some restrictions, including a ban on international travel without prior permission  to await trial. Investigations into Ricardo Salgado, former president of Banco Espirito Santo, also continued during the year. In July, he was placed under house arrest on suspicion of fraud, corruption, and money laundering in connection to the bank's collapse in 2014. Salgado was released from house arrest  also with a travel restriction  on $3.4 million bail in October, and his case was ongoing at year's end.

Portuguese law provides for public access to government information, and state agencies generally respect this right. In an October 2014 report, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) stated that Portugal had significantly improved its fiscal transparency practices since the onset of the country's financial crisis in 2010.

Civil Liberties: 58 / 60

D. Freedom of Expression and Belief: 16 / 16

Freedom of the press is constitutionally guaranteed. Public broadcasting channels are poorly funded and face serious competition from commercial television outlets, which provide a wide range of information and viewpoints. Internet access is not restricted.

Portugal remains one of the few countries in Europe where defamation is still a criminal offense, and although prosecutions are uncommon, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has regularly criticized Portugal for prohibiting freedom of expression through criminal defamation convictions. In June 2015, the International Press Institute released a report urging the Portuguese government to repeal several articles of the criminal code that curb free expression, to reform electoral law in order to facilitate televised debates, to repeal a religious insult law, and to revise right-of-reply legislation. In April, in a high-profile defamation case, a Lisbon judge ordered former police inspector Goncalo Amaral to pay over 500,000 ($540,000) in damages to the parents of Madeleine McCann, who went missing from a Portuguese resort town in 2007, due to claims in his book that McCann's parents were involved in her disappearance. Amaral planned to appeal the decision.

Media workers protested against a law on election coverage passed in June over its renewal of requirements that journalists submit schedules and plans for coverage to a special committee. Media rights groups also decried an injunction issued in October barring outlets owned by the Cofina Media from reporting on the investigation into Socrates.

Media watchdogs have expressed concern about Angola's influence over Portuguese media, noting that it has increased in recent years as media owners have sought investments from the wealthy former Portuguese colony amid the economic slowdown. Powerful Angolans, for example, hold shares in Newshold, a media group that controls Sol  Portugal's third largest weekly  and other major publications. There have also been repercussions for journalists who critique Angola, which has encouraged self-censorship.

Although Portugal is overwhelmingly Roman Catholic, the constitution guarantees freedom of religion and forbids religious discrimination. The Religious Freedom Act provides benefits for religions that have been established in the country for at least 30 years (or recognized internationally for at least 60 years), including tax exemptions, legal recognition of marriages, and respect for traditional holidays. Academic freedom is respected, and private discussion is open and vibrant.

E. Associational and Organizational Rights: 12 / 12

Freedoms of assembly and association are honored, and national and international nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), including human rights groups, operate in the country without interference. Fewer demonstrations took place in Portugal in 2015 than in previous years, although thousands of demonstrators gathered in Lisbon in March to protest austerity measures. The protest followed allegations published in local media that Passos Coelho had failed to make timely social security and tax payments in the past; the prime minister confirmed the accusations, but asserted that he had paid his debts and appropriate penalties.

Workers enjoy the right to organize, bargain collectively, and strike. Only 19 percent of the workforce is unionized. The 2012 labor code included changes making it easier for employees to dismiss workers. Although legislators revised the code in 2014 after a 2013 Constitutional Court ruling found certain provisions regarding dismissals unconstitutional, trade unions maintained that the code allowed excessive room for unfair hiring and termination practices. Unions have organized a large number of strikes in the wake of Portugal's financial crisis as well as in reaction to recent austerity measures.

F. Rule of Law: 15 / 16

The constitution provides for an independent judiciary, though staff shortages and inefficiency have contributed to a considerable backlog of pending trials. Human rights groups have expressed concern over unlawful police conduct toward detainees, particularly abuse and excessive use of force.

A 2012 investigation of Portugal's prisons and detention centers by the Council of Europe's Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) found many cases of alleged ill-treatment of prisoners, including physical assaults, failure to give prisoners access to lawyers, poor conditions in detention cells, overcrowding, lack of programmed activities to reduce extended confinement, long periods of solitary confinement, accommodation of juveniles with adults, and inadequate numbers of staff. A CPT follow-up visit in 2013 found little improvement. Overcrowding in prisons remains a major problem, as do mortality rates, which are higher than the European average, according to the Council of Europe.

Equal treatment under the law is guaranteed by the constitution and various laws, which prohibit discrimination based on factors including sex, race, disability, gender identity, and sexual orientation. The government makes efforts to combat racism, including through initiatives to promote the integration of immigrants and Roma. Societal discrimination against certain sectors of the population, including the Roma minority, nevertheless persists.

G. Personal Autonomy and Individual Rights: 15 / 16

Freedom of movement and the right to choose one's residence are protected by the constitution and laws, and the government respects these rights in practice. The government does not interfere with the rights to own property, establish private businesses, and engage in commercial activity.

Portugal legalized same-sex marriage in 2010, and in November 2015, legislators approved a law extending adoption rights to same-sex couples. Domestic violence against women and children remains a problem, and the government continued efforts in 2015 to raise awareness of the issue and encourage victims to report abuse. Employment discrimination against women also persists. Women hold 61 of the 230 seats in the legislature.

Portugal is a destination and transit point for victims of human trafficking, particularly women from Eastern Europe and former Portuguese colonies in South America and Africa. In 2014, the government began implementing two three-year plans to combat human trafficking and sexual violence. Although forced labor is prohibited by law, there have been some reports of the practice, especially in the agriculture, hospitality, and construction sectors. Immigrant workers are especially vulnerable to economic exploitation.

Copyright notice:  Freedom House, Inc.  All Rights Reserved
Freedom in the World 2016 - Panama

Publisher Freedom House Publication Date 14 July 2016 Cite as Freedom House, Freedom in the World 2016 - Panama, 14 July 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57985a216.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.

Freedom Status: Free

Aggregate Score: 83

Freedom Rating: 2.0

Political Rights: 2

Civil Liberties: 2

Quick Facts

Capital: Panama City

Population: 3,980,000

GDP/capita: $11,948.90

Press Freedom Status: Partly Free

Net Freedom Status: N/A

OVERVIEW

Panama continued to struggle with corruption and insecurity in 2015. However, authorities opened a series of corruption investigations against former president Ricardo Martinelli and his associates, leading to the arrest of numerous former government officials. While perceived insecurity remains high, the homicide rate declined by more than 20 percent during the first nine months of the year, compared to the same time period in 2014.

POLITICAL RIGHTS AND CIVIL LIBERTIES

Political Rights: 35 / 40

A. Electoral Process: 12 / 12

The president and deputies of the 71-seat unicameral National Assembly are elected by popular vote for five-year terms. In 2014, amid an electoral turnout of 75 percent, Juan Carlos Varela of the Panamenista Party (PP) won the presidency with 39 percent of the national vote; former housing minister Jose Domingo Arias of Democratic Change (CD) won 31 percent, and former Panama City mayor Juan Carlos Navarro of the Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD) won 28 percent, with four other candidates splitting the remaining votes. In concurrent National Assembly elections, the United for More Change alliance  formed by the CD and the Nationalist Republican Liberal Movement (MOLIRENA)  won 32 seats, the PRD took 25, the PP won 10, and the Popular Party took 3; one independent candidate also won representation. Both elections were considered free and fair by international observers. However, the Organization of American States (OAS) and the International Republican Institute (IRI) criticized the interference of the executive branch in the electoral process, including through the misuse of public resources. Both the OAS and IRI also noted that campaign financing is poorly regulated, with no limits on campaigns donations or expenses.

B. Political Pluralism and Participation: 15 / 16

High rates of voter participation and electoral competition between political parties characterize Panamanian politics. Turnover between government and opposition parties has been the norm since the return to democracy in 1989. People's political choices are free from domination by organized domestic and international groups.

There are no legal barriers to the political participation of indigenous groups, but their interests remain underrepresented.

C. Functioning of Government: 8 / 12

Corruption is widespread. However, authorities in 2015 moved forward with investigations into alleged corruption by former president Martinelli and his associates, prompting a flurry of arrests. Martinelli, who served as president from 2009 to 2014, has been implicated in corruption schemes related to the ballooning costs of infrastructure, security, and other projects undertaken during his term; he also stands accused of illegally wiretapping the communications of his political opponents. In January, Martinelli fled the country days before the Supreme Court voted to open a wide-ranging corruption investigation into his activities, and was thought to be in Florida at the year's end. The electoral tribunal lifted Martinelli's immunity from prosecution in April, and in December, the Supreme Court ordered his detention for failing to attend his trial on spying charges.

Over the course of 2015, a number of Martinelli's associates were arrested in connection with various investigations, including his former social development and finance ministers, as well as two former directors of the National Security Council. In August, the Supreme Court cancelled a $120 million radar system contract Martinelli had signed with an Italian company, due to concerns that the deal had involved bribes and kickbacks. Former minister of public safety Jose Mulino was arrested in October for his involvement in the radar scandal. In September, Ignacio Fabrega, the former director of the country's securities regulatory agency, was sentenced to five years in prison after pleading guilty to corruption charges; Fabrega told the court he had illegally shared information from his office's investigation of the brokerage firm Financial Pacific with Martinelli, and had then dismissed the probe. Separately, former vice president Felipe Virzi, who served from 1994 to 1999 and is considered an ally of Martinelli, was arrested on money laundering charges in June; he was under house arrest at the year's end. Martinelli's nephew was arrested in late December in Colombia, on an Interpol notice, in connection with millions of dollars' worth of inconsistencies in public works contracts.

After having been appointed to a ten-year term by Martinelli in 2009, Supreme Court justice Alejandro Moncada Luna was suspended in 2014 after allegations surfaced that he had paid some $1.7 million in cash for several apartments, without being able to explain the funds' source. Moncada Luna pleaded guilty to charges of illicit enrichment and falsifying documents, and was sentenced to five years in prison in March 2015. Supreme Court justice Victor Benavides resigned in June following allegations of engaging in sexual misconduct with minors and of receiving illegal payoffs, among other claims.

Panama is thought to be among the top money-laundering hubs in Latin America. While authorities have designed an action plan to deal with the problem, the Financial Action Task Force, an intergovernmental body that promotes policies to deter money laundering, has placed Panama on its "gray list" of countries that are failing to effectively combat the problem.

Panama was ranked 72 out of 168 countries and territories surveyed in Transparency International's 2015 Corruption Perceptions Index.

Civil Liberties: 48 / 60 (+1)

D. Freedom of Expression and Belief: 15 / 16

Panama's constitution protects freedoms of speech and of the press, though these rights are not consistently upheld in practice. Libel is a criminal offense. Independent or critical journalists and outlets face pressure from the government. Panamanian journalists had expressed concern about a draft law that would have tightened accreditation procedures, but it was withdrawn from consideration in October 2015. Martinelli is being investigated for the purchase of surveillance equipment that his Security Office of the Presidency allegedly used to spy on political opponents, public figures, diplomats, businessmen, and the media.

The country's media outlets are privately owned, with the exceptions of the state-owned television network and a network operated by the Roman Catholic Church. Martinelli has holdings in the print, radio, and television markets. Internet access is unrestricted.

Freedom of religion is respected, and academic freedom is generally honored by the government. Private discussion is free and vibrant.

E. Associational and Organizational Rights: 11 / 12

Freedom of assembly is generally respected in Panama. However, altercations between government forces and protesters take place occasionally. In July 2015, police clashed with indigenous protesters opposed to a hydroelectric dam project backed by Varela's administration. NGOs are free to operate.

Although only about 10 percent of the labor force is organized, unions are cohesive and powerful. In 2014, the International Transport Workers' Federation and four Panamanian unions accused the Panama Canal Authority of failing to provide decent pay and working conditions for workers in the canal zone. Workers continued to voice such allegations in 2015, and at least one major strike was held.

F. Rule of Law: 10 / 16 (+1)

The judicial system remains overburdened, inefficient, politicized, and prone to corruption. The prison system is marked by violent disturbances in decrepit, overcrowded facilities. In July 2015, Panamanian ombudsman Lilia Herrera criticized the operations of the Punta Coco maximum security prison and recommended its closure, citing "inhumane and degrading" conditions. The United Nations followed suit in August.

The police and other security forces are poorly disciplined and corrupt. The government's militarization of the Panamanian Public Forces has prompted concern from human rights advocates. Many allegations of criminal activity committed by police officers go uninvestigated.

While perceptions of insecurity have increased, the murder rate decreased by more than 20 percent in the first nine months of 2015, compared to the same time period in 2014; officials attributed the decline in part to the success of a program offering gang members amnesty in exchange for attending a resocialization program that includes vocational training. However, the country's growing importance as a regional transport center makes it appealing to drug traffickers and money launderers. Intelligence sources have claimed that Mexico-based narcotics organizations the Sinaloa Cartel, the Juarez Cartel, the Zetas, and the Beltran Leyva Organization all operate in Panama. Although not to the extent of some of its Central American neighbors, Panama struggles with criminal street gangs.

Refugees from Colombia have faced difficulty obtaining work permits and other forms of legal recognition. Since 2010, Panama's "Melting Pot" policy has offered legal residency to more than 48,000 foreigners; the policy has been criticized by labor unions who fear that legalizing their status hurts job security for Panamanian workers.

Discrimination against darker-skinned Panamanians is common, and the country's Asian, Middle Eastern, and indigenous populations are similarly singled out. While no laws prohibit same-sex sexual relationships, LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) individuals face societal discrimination and harassment. Additions to the Code of Private International Law prohibiting same-sex marriage and any recognition of such marriages performed in other countries took effect in 2014. Congress received a draft law in August 2015 that prescribed up to a year in jail and a fine of between $500 and $5,000 for perpetrators of hate crimes against LGBT individuals. The legislation's status was unclear at the year's end.

G. Personal Autonomy and Individual Rights: 12 / 16

The government generally respects freedom of internal movement and foreign travel. Indigenous communities enjoy a degree of autonomy and self-government, but a significant portion of Panama's indigenous population lives in poverty. Since 1993, indigenous groups have protested the encroachment of illegal settlers on their lands and government delays in formal land demarcations. According to a 2014 report produced by the UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Panama has an "advanced legal framework" in place to protect the rights of the indigenous. However, laws face implementation challenges, especially in resource-rich regions where companies seek to launch large-scale investment projects.

Violence against women, including domestic violence, is widespread and common. A 2013 law punishes femicide with up to 30 years in prison.

Panama is a source, destination, and transit country for human trafficking. The government has worked with the International Labor Organization on information campaigns addressing the issue and has created a special unit to investigate cases of trafficking for the purpose of prostitution. However, law enforcement is weak, the penal code does not prohibit trafficking for forced labor, and the government provides inadequate assistance to victims.

Copyright notice:  Freedom House, Inc.  All Rights Reserved
Freedom in the World 2016 - North Korea

Publisher Freedom House Publication Date 14 July 2016 Cite as Freedom House, Freedom in the World 2016 - North Korea, 14 July 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57985a2211.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.

Freedom Status: Not Free

Aggregate Score: 3

Freedom Rating: 7.0

Political Rights: 7

Civil Liberties: 7

Quick Facts

Capital: Pyongyang

Population: 24,983,000

GDP/capita: N/A

Press Freedom Status: Not Free

Net Freedom Status: N/A

OVERVIEW

In October 2015, North Korea celebrated the 70th anniversary of the ruling Korean Workers' Party (KWP) with a large military parade in Pyongyang and a speech by leader Kim Jong-un. Kim reportedly granted amnesty to thousands of prisoners in the run-up to the event, though political prisoners were apparently excluded. Also in October, state media announced plans to convene a seventh congress of the KWP in May 2016, which would be the first party congress since 1980.

In August, weeks before planned U.S.-South Korean military exercises, two South Korean soldiers were seriously injured by landmines while patrolling near the border. The mines were thought to be newly placed by the North Koreans, not left over from the Korean War. In retaliation, South Korea resumed propaganda broadcasts via loudspeakers along the border, a practice that had been suspended for 11 years. North Korea then resumed its own loudspeaker broadcasts and declared a "semi-state of war." After a brief exchange of artillery fire between the two sides, negotiations were held to deescalate the situation. The North expressed regret for the landmine incident, the loudspeaker broadcasts were halted, and both sides agreed to resume family reunions and hold more talks on increasing cultural, sports, and other exchanges. In October, North Korea duly hosted a new round of reunions of family members separated by the Korean War at its Mount Kumgang resort.

In March 2015, North Korea lifted travel restrictions it had imposed the previous year to prevent transmission of the Ebola virus. Although some West African countries had suffered major outbreaks, there had been no reported Ebola cases in Asia. The North Korean restrictions barred nonessential travel and imposed a 21-day quarantine on all foreigners entering North Korea, later expanded to include all North Koreans returning from abroad. The rules essentially halted diplomatic exchanges, tourism, business trips, and visits related to humanitarian and development programs.

POLITICAL RIGHTS AND CIVIL LIBERTIES

Political Rights: 0 / 40

A. Electoral Process: 0 / 12

Kim Jong-un became the country's supreme leader after the death of his father, Kim Jong-il, in December 2011. The elder Kim had led North Korea since the 1994 death of his own father, Kim Il-sung, to whom the office of president was permanently dedicated in a 1998 constitutional revision. Kim Jong-un's titles as of 2015 included first secretary of the KWP, first chairman of the National Defense Commission (the highest state body), and supreme commander of the Korean People's Army.

North Korea's parliament, the 687-seat Supreme People's Assembly, is a rubber-stamp institution elected to five-year terms. All candidates for office, who run unopposed, are preselected by and from the KWP and a handful of subordinate parties and organizations. Kim Jong-un was among those who won seats in the most recent national elections, held in March 2014. The official voter turnout was 99.97 percent.

In July 2015, for the first time since 2011, North Korea held elections for 28,452 provincial, city, and county people's assembly members. Voter turnout was again reported to be 99.97 percent, with all candidates preselected by the KWP and running unopposed.

B. Political Pluralism and Participation: 0 / 16

North Korea functions as a single-party state under a dynastic totalitarian dictatorship. Although a small number of minor parties and organizations exist legally, all are members of the Democratic Front for the Reunification of the Fatherland, a KWP-led umbrella group that selects all candidates for elected office. The ruling party has been dominated by the Kim family since its founding. Kim Jong-un serves as first secretary of the KWP, with the late Kim Jong-il dubbed the "eternal general secretary" after his death.

Any political dissent or opposition is harshly punished, and even the KWP is subject to regular purges aimed at reinforcing the leader's personal authority. Various sources reported a number of high-level dismissals and executions during 2015, though independent confirmation was often unavailable. In April, for example, Defense Minister Hyon Yong-chol was reportedly removed from office and put to death.

C. Functioning of Government: 0 / 12

The North Korean government is neither transparent in its operations nor accountable to the public. Information about the functioning of state institutions is tightly controlled for both domestic and external audiences. Most observers must glean evidence from state media, defector testimony, or secret informants inside the country, and the accuracy and reliability of these sources varies considerably.

Corruption is believed to be endemic at every level of the state and economy, and bribery is pervasive. North Korea was ranked 167 out of 168 countries and territories assessed in Transparency International's 2015 Corruption Perceptions Index.

Civil Liberties: 3 / 60

D. Freedom of Expression and Belief: 0 / 16

All domestic media outlets are run by the state. Televisions and radios are permanently fixed to state channels, and all publications are subject to strict supervision and censorship. In recent years, four foreign news agencies have established bureau offices in Pyongyang: the U.S.-based Associated Press, Russia's Sputnik International (formerly RIA Novosti), Japan's Kyodo, and China's Xinhua. In November 2015, Agence France-Presse (AFP) announced plans to open a bureau office in Pyongyang in the coming months.

Access to the global internet is restricted to a small number of people in the government and academia, and others have access to a national intranet on which foreign websites are blocked. The black market provides alternative information sources, including mobile telephones, pirated recordings of South Korean dramas, and radios capable of receiving foreign programs. Mobile-phone service was launched in 2008, and there were more than 3 million subscriptions as of 2015, though phone calls and text messages are generally recorded and transcribed for monitoring purposes. Foreigners, who operate on a separate network, have been allowed to bring mobile phones into the country and have access to 3G service, enabling live social-media feeds out of North Korea.

Although freedom of religion is guaranteed by the constitution, it does not exist in practice. State-sanctioned churches maintain a token presence in Pyongyang, and some North Koreans who live near the Chinese border are known to practice their faiths furtively. However, intense state indoctrination and repression preclude free exercise of religion.

There is no academic freedom. The state must approve all curriculums, including those of educational programs led by foreigners. Although some North Koreans are permitted to study abroad, at both universities and short-term educational training programs, those granted such opportunities are subject to monitoring and reprisals for perceived disloyalty.

Nearly all forms of private communication are monitored by a huge network of informants.

E. Associational and Organizational Rights: 0 / 12

Freedom of assembly is not recognized, and there are no known associations or organizations other than those created by the state. Strikes, collective bargaining, and other organized labor activities are illegal.

F. Rule of Law: 0 / 16

North Korea does not have an independent judiciary. The UN General Assembly has recognized and condemned the country's severe human rights violations, including torture, public executions, extrajudicial and arbitrary detention, and forced labor by detainees; the absence of due process and the rule of law; and death sentences for political offenses. A UN commission of inquiry into the human rights situation in North Korea found these violations to be widespread, grave, and systematic, rising to the level of crimes against humanity, and in December 2014 the issue was taken up by the UN Security Council for the first time. In June 2015, the UN high commissioner for human rights opened a new office in Seoul, South Korea, intended to support the efforts of the UN special rapporteur on human rights in North Korea.

It is estimated that 80,000 to 120,000 political prisoners are held in detention camps in the country. Inmates face brutal conditions, and collective or familial punishment for suspected dissent by an individual is common practice. In October 2015, amnesty was granted to several thousand prisoners as part of events marking the 70th anniversary of the KWP; most of those released were reportedly elderly or gravely ill, and political prisoners were apparently excluded. Ignoring international objections, the Chinese government continues to return refugees and defectors to North Korea, where they are subject to torture, harsh imprisonment, or execution. North Korean authorities regularly detain foreign citizens on various charges, obtaining coerced confessions, sometimes imposing harsh prison terms, and typically using the detainees as diplomatic leverage before eventually granting their release.

North Korea is ethnically homogeneous; the most prevalent form of discrimination is based on perceived political and ideological nonconformity rather than ethnicity. All citizens are classified according to their family's level of loyalty and proximity to the leadership under a semihereditary caste-like system known as songbun.

Laws do not prohibit same-sex sexual activity, but the government maintains that the practice does not exist in North Korea.

G. Personal Autonomy and Individual Rights: 3 / 16

There is no freedom of movement, and forced internal resettlement is routine. Emigration is illegal, but many North Koreans have escaped via China. Access to Pyongyang, where the availability of food, housing, and health care is somewhat better than in the rest of the country, is tightly restricted. Recently, this disparity has increased, with the capital featuring more luxuries for a growing middle class. A person's songbun classification affects his or her place of residence as well as employment and educational opportunities, access to medical facilities, and even access to stores.

The economy remains both centrally planned and grossly mismanaged. Development is also hobbled by a lack of infrastructure, a scarcity of energy and raw materials, an inability to borrow on world markets or from multilateral banks because of sanctions, lingering foreign debt, and ideological isolationism. However, the expanding black market and ad hoc service industries have provided many North Koreans with a growing field of activity that is comparatively free from government control, if not from bribery and extortion; some have managed to engage in cross-border trade with China. In addition, a greater emphasis on building special economic zones (SEZs) has led to conditions more conducive to foreign investment. Local officials have had some authority in the management of these zones and over small-scale experiments with economic policies.

Women have formal equality, but they face rigid discrimination in practice and are poorly represented at high levels of government and in public employment. Although they have fewer opportunities in the formal sector, women are economically active outside the socialist system, exposing them to arbitrary state restrictions.

UN bodies have noted the use of forced abortions and infanticide against pregnant women who are forcibly repatriated from China. There have been widespread reports of trafficked women and girls among the tens of thousands of North Koreans who have recently crossed into China. Prostitution is rampant in ordinary residential areas.

Forced labor is common in prison camps, mass mobilization programs, and state-run contracting arrangements in which North Korean workers are sent abroad.

Copyright notice:  Freedom House, Inc.  All Rights Reserved
Freedom in the World 2016 - Nepal

Publisher Freedom House Publication Date 14 July 2016 Cite as Freedom House, Freedom in the World 2016 - Nepal, 14 July 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57985a249.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.

Freedom Status: Partly Free

Aggregate Score: 51

Freedom Rating: 3.5

Political Rights: 3

Civil Liberties: 4

Quick Facts

Capital: Kathmandu

Population: 28,039,000

GDP/capita: $696.90

Press Freedom Status: Partly Free

Net Freedom Status: N/A

OVERVIEW

Nepal ratified its first democratic constitution on September 20, 2015, establishing a bicameral parliament with the prime minister as chief executive, and organizing the state into seven new provinces. It was approved with 507 out of 601 votes by the Nepalese Constituent Assembly (CA), with most dissent coming from pro-Hindu opponents of secularization or representatives of ethnic minorities concerned that the new provincial boundaries will weaken their political influence. The constitution is a major step forward for Nepal's stability and democracy, although several provisions potentially limit rights to freedom of expression, assembly, and movement through undefined "reasonable restrictions" on acts that may undermine national unity, sovereignty, or other national interests. In October, the moderate Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist-Leninist (CPN-UML) candidates Khadga Prasad Sharma Oli and Bidhya Devi Bhandari were elected with broad support as prime minister and president, respectively.

In August and September, at least 50 people died in violent protests against the new constitution, largely in the Terai region. Protests continued through the end of the year.

On April 25, a devastating earthquake with a magnitude of 7.8 struck northwest of Kathmandu, killing and injuring thousands and razing homes and villages. The impact on communities was aggravated at the end of the year by a months-long blockade along the Nepal-India border that prevented supplies and fuel from reaching the country.

POLITICAL RIGHTS AND CIVIL LIBERTIES

Political Rights: 25 / 40 (+1)

A. Electoral Process: 9 / 12 (+1)

After a decade-long civil war between the government and Maoist rebels and an interim constitution in place since 2007, Nepal's new constitution was approved in September 2015 with the support of 90 percent of the 601-member CA. Under the new constitution, the CA was transformed into Nepal's parliament, with a term ending in January 2018. At that point, the CA parliament will be replaced by a bicameral legislature consisting of a 275-seat House of Representatives and a 59-seat National Assembly. Members of the House of Representatives are to be elected through a combination of direct vote (165 seats) and proportional representation (110 seats). In the National Assembly, 56 members are to be elected through an electoral college system that requires representation of at least three women, one Dalit, and one person with a disability or other minority. The remaining three members, including an additional woman, will be nominated by the president on the recommendation of the government. The constitution further requires that either the president or vice president be a woman, and that women should account for at least one-third of the members elected from each party in parliament. The president's duties under the new constitution are largely ceremonial. The parliamentary leader of the political party with a majority in the House of Representatives will become prime minister.

CA elections in 2013 were deemed generally free and fair by international monitors, despite violent incidents and bomb attacks in the preelection period. Some Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) (UCPN (M)) leaders alleged that fraud had been committed during the election, a contention disputed by all international monitors. The allied Nepali Congress (NC) and CPN-UML won 196 and 175 seats, respectively. The Maoists placed third with 80 seats, followed by more than two dozen smaller parties.

Political disagreements repeatedly stalled the constitution drafting process. After the April 2015 earthquake, however, the leaders of Nepal's major political parties, including the main opposition party UCPN (M), were able to sign an agreement on June 9 for moving forward. The 2015 constitution identifies a federal structure with seven provinces  a major point of contention  but leaves the names and borders to be decided by a newly formed federal commission and the provincial legislatures.

B. Political Pluralism and Participation: 11 / 16

A diverse and competitive array of political parties operates in Nepal. The 2013 elections, which resulted in the NC and CPN-UML dominating the CA, reduced instability caused by the civil war and the country's subsequent struggles to establish a democratic and inclusive government. The Maoists' decision to join the constitution drafting process further improved stability, with fewer attacks on members of other parties.

The new constitution provides for allocations and reservations for Madhesis, Dalits, and other minority groups in the legislature, and their numbers in the legislature should also be improved through the proportional representation voting system. Ethnic minorities expressed concern that the new federal structure under the constitution could weaken their political influence. Separately, a 2007 civil service law reserves 45 percent of posts for women, minorities, and Dalits, though their representation in state institutions remains inadequate, particularly at the highest levels of government.

C. Functioning of Government: 5 / 12

The second CA, elected in 2013, is now transformed under the new constitution into the country's first functioning elected parliament since a series of unstable, short-lived, or caretaker governments following Nepal's 2008 elections. A cabinet formed in early 2014 allowed Nepal to achieve greater stability in economic affairs, foreign policy, and other areas. Elections of President Bhandari and Prime Minister Oli in 2015 further improved political stability. The two leaders received broad support despite ongoing protests over the adoption of the constitution and concerns from ethnic minority groups over how provincial boundaries will be drawn.

Corruption is endemic in Nepali politics and government. Nepal's Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) is active, and many lawmakers have been accused or convicted of corruption in the past, but high-level officials are rarely prosecuted. Graft is particularly prevalent in the judiciary  with frequent payoffs to judges for favorable rulings  and in the police force, which has been accused of extensive involvement in organized crime. In Transparency International's 2015 Corruption Perceptions Index, Nepal ranked 130 of 168 countries and territories.

In 2015, concerns arose over poor governance and the use, or lack thereof, of the approximately $4.1 billion donated by governments and aid agencies in the aftermath of the devastating April earthquake.

The Constitution Drafting Committee issued a draft constitution for public consultation and comment on July 9. Some groups protested that the open comment period for the draft constitution was too short.

Civil Liberties: 26 / 60 (-1)

D. Freedom of Expression and Belief: 9 / 16

The 2015 constitution provides for freedom of expression and prohibits prior restraints on press freedom, though these rules can be suspended in cases of national emergency. The constitution also states that the prohibition against prior restraint does not forbid restraints on the press that impose reasonable restrictions relating to national security. In practice, media workers have frequently faced physical attacks, death threats, and harassment by armed groups, security personnel, and political cadres, and the perpetrators typically go unpunished.

There are a variety of independent radio and print outlets in Nepal. Internet usage and internet media are unrestricted, and their growth has provided unprecedented access to information and public space for debate. Concerns over interference by major parties in radio and print media remain. In 2015, threats to journalist safety increased amid violent protests over the drafting and passage of the constitution, during which protesters and police were both seen attacking journalists for their attempts to cover the protests.

Like the interim constitution before it, the 2015 constitution identifies Nepal as a secular state, signaling a break with the Hindu monarchy that was toppled as part of the resolution of the civil war in 2006 (it was formally abolished in 2008). Religious freedom is protected under the new constitution, and tolerance is broadly practiced, but members of some religious minorities occasionally report official harassment. Christian groups face considerable difficulty registering as religious organizations, leaving them unable to own land. Proselytizing is prohibited.

The government does not restrict academic freedom, and much scholarly activity takes place freely, including on political topics. However, Maoist strikes have repeatedly threatened the school system. Minorities, including Hindi- and Urdu-speaking Madhesi groups, have complained that Nepali is enforced as the language of education in government schools.

Nepali security forces reportedly have spied on Tibetans inside Nepal and passed information back to Chinese intelligence.

E. Associational and Organizational Rights: 5 / 12 (-1)

Freedom of assembly is guaranteed under the 2015 constitution, but the language allows for reasonable restrictions on acts that undermine nationality, sovereignty, independence, and the indivisibility of Nepal, or that jeopardize public law and order. In the 2015 protests over the new constitution, groups were allowed to demonstrate in some cases, but were violently dispersed in others. Police clashed with protesters, and more than 50 people died in the demonstrations in the Terai region that began in August and continued through the end of the year. Testimonies included descriptions of security forces firing into crowds, and in one case a witness reported seeing an official shooting at a hospital. According to Human Rights Watch, eyewitnesses reported police breaking into homes and beating individuals, using threats and racial slurs, and taking part in unprovoked beatings in communities opposed to the new constitution. At least three of the reported deaths that occurred at the hands of police were of children.

While security forces have allowed large protests by Maoists and other political parties, Tibetan protests have been violently suppressed in the past. In certain cases, authorities detained Tibetan and Nepali monks and pressured them to sign pledges not to participate in future demonstrations.

Although the new constitution allows nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) to form and operate within the country, legal restrictions have made this difficult in practice. The District Administration Office (DAO), which is in charge of registering NGOs and associations, is often understaffed and lacks essential resources. Foreign NGOs must enter project-specific agreements with the Nepalese government.

The 2015 constitution provides for the right to form trade unions. Labor laws protect the freedom to bargain collectively, and unions generally operate without state interference. Workers in a broad range of "essential" industries cannot stage strikes. A majority of a union's membership must vote in favor of a strike, and 30 days' notice must be given. Several unions linked to the Maoists have been accused of using violence to threaten employers and government officials to comply with union demands during bargaining processes.

F. Rule of Law: 5 / 16

The 2015 constitution provides for an independent judiciary. Most courts suffer from endemic corruption, and in practice many Nepalese have only limited access to justice. Because of heavy case backlogs and a slow appeals process, suspects are frequently kept in pretrial detention for periods longer than the sentences they would face if tried and convicted.

Prison conditions fail to meet international standards and suffer from overcrowding, inadequate sanitation and medical care, and often a lack of separate housing for women and minors. The government has generally refused to conduct thorough investigations or take serious disciplinary measures against police officers accused of brutality or torture. The UN Committee Against Torture found that torture is widespread for suspects in police custody. Amnesty International has reported that torture extends to women and children.

Human rights advocates have criticized Nepal for failing to punish human rights abuses and war crimes committed during the civil war from 1996 to 2006. In 2014, the Supreme Court ruled the Ordinance on Truth, Reconciliation and Disappearances bill for enacting transitional justice as unconstitutional and in violation of international human rights law. Nevertheless, the legislature passed the law without significant changes. The law grants the Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances power to recommend amnesty for all alleged perpetrators of disappearances committed during the civil war. In February 2015, the Supreme Court again struck down the amnesty provision and required that consent of the victims be mandatory for reconciliation. The Supreme Court also noted that only the courts, and not the commissions established by the law, have the power to determine matters of criminality. The government has said that it will adhere to the decision of the court. Two additional commissions were established in February to investigate allegations of war crimes and disappearances.

The South Asia Terrorism Portal reported no fatalities due to Maoist activity in 2014 and 2015, though it noted unrest and vandalism caused by opposition members of the CA in January 2015.

The 2015 constitution declares Nepal to be a multicaste, multilingual, and multicultural country committed to eliminating discrimination. However, members of the Hindu upper castes dominate government and business, and low-caste Hindus, ethnic minorities, and Christians face discrimination in the civil service and courts. Despite constitutional protections and the 2012 Caste-Based Discrimination and Untouchability (Offense and Punishment) Act  which prohibits discrimination against Dalits and increases punishments for public officials found responsible for discrimination  Dalits continue to be subjected to exploitation, violence, and social exclusion. Madhesis  plains-dwelling people with close connections to groups across the border in India  receive comparatively little economic support from the government, and are often discriminated against socially and in the labor market.

The 2015 constitution enshrines rights for sexual minorities. LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) people reportedly face harassment by the authorities and other citizens, particularly in rural areas. Although the Supreme Court ordered the government to abolish all laws that discriminate against LGBT people in 2007, and gave its consent to same-sex marriage the following year, the government has yet to implement these rulings. The first passport on which the holder was permitted to select a third gender was issued in August 2015.

Although the new constitution outlines implementation of major international human rights provisions, and includes civil, political, economic, social, and cultural rights, the language of the constitution frames these rights for Nepali citizens only. This potentially leaves equal rights of noncitizens, including migrants and people who cannot prove citizenship, unprotected.

Tibetans in Nepal face difficulty achieving formal refugee status due to Chinese pressure on the Nepalese government. According to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), 15,000 to 20,000 Tibetan refugees live in Nepal, but only about half are documented. Nepal does not recognize any Tibetan immigrants who arrived after 1989 as refugees. NGOs working on Tibetan issues continue to struggle under mounting pressure from the Nepali government, on behalf of Beijing, to repatriate Tibetan refugees to China before they can register with UN officials in Kathmandu or transit to India.

G. Personal Autonomy and Individual Rights: 7 / 16

Citizens generally enjoy freedom to travel throughout Nepal, though Tibetan migrants are frequently harassed by police and prevented from moving around the country. Citizens also generally enjoy choice of residence, though bribery is common in the housing market, as well as to gain admittance to universities.

Although citizens have the right to own private businesses, starting a business in Nepal often requires bribes to a wide range of local and national-level officials. Licensing and other red tape can be extremely onerous. Women face widespread discrimination when starting businesses, and customs and border police are notoriously corrupt in dealing with cross-border trade.

In 2015, the border blockade of trade routes from India caused acute shortages of essential goods. A severe fuel crisis in particular has increased unrest in the south and posed additional difficulties to earthquake recovery and access to humanitarian aid. Nepal accused India of imposing the blockade for political reasons, but the Indian government maintains that vehicles have been held at the borders because of unrest, stating that protesters have also blocked their routes.

Bhandari is Nepal's first female president. Women rarely receive the same educational and employment opportunities as men, and gender-based violence against women such as domestic violence, rape, and dowry violence continue to be major problems. The 2009 Domestic Violence Act provides for monetary compensation and psychological treatment for victims, but authorities generally do not prosecute domestic violence cases. The National Women's Commission, charged with providing reparations to women subjected to gender-based violence, has been severely criticized for failure to implement its mandate and for politicized distribution of resources. Underage marriage of girls is widespread, particularly among lower-status groups.

Trafficking of children and women from Nepal for prostitution in India is common. According to some estimates, as many as 15,000 girls are trafficked across the India-Nepal border each year. UNICEF also reported a spike in child trafficking following the April 2015 earthquake. Police rarely intervene in the kidnappings. Human Rights Watch has reported that kidnapping gangs, who abduct children to obtain small ransoms, have become rampant in recent years,

Bonded labor is illegal but remains a serious problem throughout Nepal. The legal minimum age for employment is 14 years, but 1.6 million underage children, more girls than boys, are believed to be engaged in various forms of labor, often under hazardous conditions.

Copyright notice:  Freedom House, Inc.  All Rights Reserved
Freedom in the World 2016 - Namibia

Publisher Freedom House Publication Date 14 July 2016 Cite as Freedom House, Freedom in the World 2016 - Namibia, 14 July 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57985a25c.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.

Freedom Status: Free

Aggregate Score: 77

Freedom Rating: 2.0

Political Rights: 2

Civil Liberties: 2

Quick Facts

Capital: Windhoek

Population: 2,482,100

GDP/capita: $5,589

Press Freedom Status: Partly Free

Net Freedom Status: N/A

OVERVIEW

The ruling South West Africa People's Organization (SWAPO) posted a dominant performance in the November 2015 regional and municipal elections. Regional legislatures subsequently appointed representatives to Namibia's upper house of parliament, the National Council, leaving SWAPO with 40 of 42 seats in that body. Despite the government's stated commitment to gender equality in national politics, only 10 of the National Council seats went to women. Of 121 regional councillorships, only 16 percent were held by women following the polls.

In 2015, Namibia experienced one of the worst droughts in recent history. A government assessment, released in October, found that more than half a million people were likely to be reliant on food aid through March 2016.

POLITICAL RIGHTS AND CIVIL LIBERTIES

Political Rights: 30 / 40

A. Electoral Process: 10 / 12

In 2014, the Third Constitutional Amendment was passed, increasing the number of members in Namibia's bicameral legislature by 40 percent. The amendment also introduced the post of vice president and granted the ruling party the ability to appoint regional governors. The upper house, the National Council, is now comprised of 42 seats (from 26), with members appointed by regional councils for five-year terms. The National Assembly is comprised of 96 seats (from 72), filled by popular election for five-year terms using party-list proportional representation. The new amendment also allows the president to appoint 8 additional nonvoting members to the National Assembly. The president, who is directly elected for a five-year term (and eligible for a second term) appoints the prime minister and cabinet.

The 2014 National Assembly and presidential elections were considered free and fair despite some controversy surrounding the electronic voting systems. SWAPO won 80 percent of the vote, giving it 77 National Assembly seats. The closest opposition, the Democratic Turnhalle Alliance of Namibia (DTA), won 4.8 percent of the vote for 5 seats, and eight additional parties won the remaining seats. Then prime minister Hage Geingob defeated numerous rivals for the presidency, winning 87 percent of the vote.

SWAPO dominated regional and municipal elections held in November 2015. After regional legislatures appointed representatives to the National Council, SWAPO held 40 of 42 seats in that body; it had voluntarily offered the remaining two seats to the DTA and the National Unity Democratic Organization (Nudo). Following the 2015 elections, SWAPO held 112 of 121 regional council seats and controlled 54 of 57 local authorities. There were no reports of serious electoral violations in 2015.

Before the 2014 elections, SWAPO initiated a "zebra" system, in which the party committed to including one man and one woman as minister and deputy in each ministry, and to strive to make the National Assembly 50 percent female. Currently, 41 percent of National Assembly representatives are women.

B. Political Pluralism and Participation: 11 / 16

SWAPO has dominated the political landscape since Namibia gained independence in 1990. Namibia's weak opposition parties include the Rally for Democracy and Progress (RDP), the DTA, Nudo, and the United Democratic Front (UDF).

Signaling greater political inclusion, Geingob  who is from the minority Damara community  is the first Namibian president who does not hail from the Oshiwambo-speaking majority.

President Geingob appointed a number of DTA leaders to advisory posts in the new government under a stated policy of inclusivity. Critics have suggested that the policy is instead intended to cement the strength of SWAPO and further weaken the opposition.

C. Functioning of Government: 9 / 12

Corruption remains a problem and investigations of major cases proceed slowly. The Anti-Corruption Commission has considerable autonomy, reporting only to the National Assembly, though it lacks prosecutorial authority. While corruption cases are regular topics in the media, prosecutors are often hampered by lack of evidence. SWAPO's dominance of the political space has resulted in a conflation between party and state, somewhat hampering anticorruption efforts.

Officials have been accused of inventing large-scale infrastructure projects including the Neckartal dam, office complexes, and railway and road extensions in order to enrich themselves through kickbacks. Separately, the first president following Namibia's independence, Sam Nujoma, has allegedly received a house worth more than N$20 million (US$1.3 million) paid for with state funds. The state also recently presented former president Hifikepunye Pohamba a retirement house valued at over N$35 million (US$2.3 million).

Namibia was ranked 45 out of 168 countries and territories surveyed in Transparency International's 2015 Corruption Perceptions Index, and 5 out of 54 countries evaluated in the 2015 Ibrahim Index of African Governance.

There is no access to information law in Namibia, despite government pledges to introduce the law and a strong civil society campaign backing it. The government often errs on the side of secrecy and confidentiality in matters of governance. The 2014 constitutional amendments were passed without public consultation; Geingob stated that the mandate for the changes was given when SWAPO won the 2009 elections.

Civil Liberties: 47 / 60 (+1)

D. Freedom of Expression and Belief: 14 / 16

The constitution guarantees free speech and the Namibian media generally enjoys an open environment. Many private publications and websites are critical of the government. However, government and party leaders at times issue harsh criticism and even threats against the independent press, usually in the wake of unflattering stories. While many insist that the state-owned Namibian Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) is free to criticize the government, concerns have arisen about excessive government influence over its programming and personnel.

The 2009 Communications Act allows the government to monitor telephone calls, e-mail, and internet usage without a warrant. Use of the internet is not restricted; however, infrastructure limits penetration to about 15 percent.

Freedom of religion is guaranteed and respected in practice. The government has in the past been accused of pressuring academics to withhold criticism of SWAPO, but there were no such reports in 2015.

E. Associational and Organizational Rights: 12 / 12

Freedoms of assembly and association are guaranteed by law and permitted in practice, except in situations of national emergency. Human rights groups generally operate without interference, though government ministers have, in the past, threatened and harassed non-governmental organizations and their leadership.

Constitutionally guaranteed union rights are respected. However, essential public-sector workers do not have the right to strike. Collective bargaining is not widely practiced outside the mining, construction, agriculture, and public-service industries. The main umbrella union, the National Union of Namibian Workers, is affiliated with SWAPO and plays a role in selecting party leaders.

F. Rule of Law: 11 / 16

The constitution provides for an independent judiciary, and the separation of powers is observed in practice. Access to justice, however, is obstructed by economic and geographic barriers, a shortage of public defenders, and delays and backlogs that can last up to a decade. Traditional courts in rural areas have often ignored constitutional procedures, although legislation to create greater uniformity in traditional court operations and better connect them to the formal judicial system was implemented in 2009. The 2014 constitutional amendment provided for the creation of tribunals to investigate misconduct of judges and the prosecutor general.

Allegations of police brutality persist. The trial of three police officers accused of killing a 17-year-old in 2013 had yet to open by the year's end. Conditions in prisons are improving, though overcrowding in certain facilities remains a problem.

Secessionist fighting in Namibia's Caprivi region between 1998 and 1999 led some 2,400 refugees to flee to neighboring Botswana. Treason trials for more than 100 alleged secessionists began in 2003. The case against the last of those defendants was settled in the High Court in 2015, with 35 people acquitted and 30 found guilty of treason and other crimes. Those convicted received prison sentences of between 10 and 18 years.

Minority ethnic groups have claimed that the government favors the majority Ovambo  which dominates SWAPO  in allocating funding and services. The nomadic San people of Namibia are among the poorest and most marginalized groups in the country. Attempts to allow equal rights to the San indigenous group are progressing gradually. The government continues to drag its feet in addressing illegal grazing and fences on San land.

A colonial-era law that criminalizes sodomy remains in place, though there were no recorded prosecutions under it in 2015. LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) individuals continue to face harassment and other forms of discrimination. There have been reports of "corrective rape" of lesbian women.

G. Personal Autonomy and Individual Rights: 10 / 16 (+1)

The government respects constitutionally guaranteed rights to freedom of movement, foreign travel, emigration, and repatriation. The small white minority owns just under half of Namibia's arable land, and redistribution of property has been slow despite efforts to accelerate the process. In July 2015, frustrated young people belonging to the radical Affirmative Repositioning movement (AR) called on citizens to embark on land grabs; with Namibia's youth unemployment rate hovering at around 40 percent, the movement's members argue that the government has failed them in its inability to make affordable land available. In recent years, several leading members of the SWAPO's youth wing have been expelled from the party in connection with the AR movement. Separately, in September 2015, lawmakers introduced a bill to restrict foreign ownership of land in Namibia's settlement areas, or land that regional councils designate for future development, often as a preliminary step before its incorporation into a local authority. The constitution protects the right to freely conduct business activities. In practice, corruption can hamper such activities, and women face employment discrimination.

Women also continue to face discrimination in customary law and other traditional societal practices. While the Namibian Supreme Court in 2014 upheld a ruling against health-care workers who had coerced three HIV-positive women to undergo sterilization, human rights advocates have criticized the government for failing to implement policies aimed at ending the practice of sterilizing women living with HIV/AIDS without their informed consent. There are no legal barriers to women's access to land in Namibia. However, in practice women's access is limited due to customary norms regarding inheritance procedures and property rights, and there is limited implementation and awareness of existing laws and rights.

Violence against women is widespread, and rights groups have criticized the government's failure to enforce the country's progressive domestic violence laws. More than 500 rapes were reported in the first six months of 2015, and many more go unreported. Rape cases typically see few convictions.

According to the U.S. State Department's 2015 Trafficking in Persons Report, Namibia remains a source, transit, and destination country for human trafficking for forced labor and prostitution. The report criticized authorities for failing to live up to previous pledges to address the problem.

Copyright notice:  Freedom House, Inc.  All Rights Reserved
Freedom in the World 2016 - Maldives

Publisher Freedom House Publication Date 14 July 2016 Cite as Freedom House, Freedom in the World 2016 - Maldives, 14 July 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57985a2615.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.

Freedom Status: Partly Free

Aggregate Score: 43

Freedom Rating: 4.5

Political Rights: 4

Civil Liberties: 5

Trend Arrow: 

Ratings Change, Trend Arrow:

Maldives's civil liberties rating declined from 4 to 5 and it received a downward trend arrow due to the arrest and detention of hundreds of opposition demonstrators, a politically motivated Supreme Court case against the national human rights commission in connection with its submissions to UN human rights monitors, failure to implement critical gender-equality protections, and renewed enforcement of laws against same-sex sexual activity.

Quick Facts

Capital: Male

Population: 346,946

GDP/capita: $8,483.80

Press Freedom Status: Partly Free

Net Freedom Status: N/A

OVERVIEW

Despite recent presidential and parliamentary elections, the functioning of democratic institutions in 2015 was weakened by a lack of progress in the implementation of critical reforms. The widely condemned arrest of former president and opposition leader Mohamed Nasheed in February and ongoing persecution of other opposition politicians raised concerns about the deterioration of rule of law and the openness of the political arena. The forced disbandment of a series of opposition-led demonstrations, during which hundreds of participants were arrested and detained, jeopardized an already restricted space for civil society, while politicized actions by the Supreme Court against Human Rights Commission of Maldives (HRCM) led to widespread concern about judicial independence and protective mechanisms for human rights. Protections for women remained thin, and there appeared to be a resurgence in the enforcement of prohibitions on same-sex sexual activity during the year.

POLITICAL RIGHTS AND CIVIL LIBERTIES

Political Rights: 19 / 40 (-1)

A. Electoral Process: 7 / 12

Under Maldives's 2008 constitution, the president is directly elected for up to two five-year terms. The unicameral People's Majlis is composed of 85 seats, with members elected from individual districts to serve five-year terms.

In tumultuous presidential elections in 2013, President Abdulla Yameen, a half-brother of former president Maumoon Abdul Gayoom and leader of the Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM), won the run-off against Nasheed of the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP). The Supreme Court halted the voting process three times, including to order a new first-round vote, and designated the police to play a substantive role in handling logistics for the election. The final process was nevertheless deemed free and fair by both local and international monitors.

Parliamentary elections held in 2014 were largely transparent and competitive. Yameen's PPM won 33 of 85 seats, while the MDP captured 26. The Jumhoore Party won 15 seats, the Maldives Development Alliance won 5, and independents took an additional 5. The Adhaalath Party won the remaining seat. Turnout was almost 77 percent, and both local and international monitors deemed the process free and fair.

Two weeks before the 2014 elections, the Supreme Court removed two of the four members of the Election Commission (EC), one of whom was the commission's head, claiming they had not properly followed election guidelines. It also sentenced all four members to six-month suspended prison sentences. The move was widely criticized as unconstitutional. Members of the EC had criticized the court's rulings on the presidential election the previous year. The main opposition party considered boycotting the 2014 elections, though it ultimately participated. One day prior to the elections, the head of the Jumhoore Party requested the Supreme Court to delay the voting because the EC was not complete, but the Supreme Court denied the request. Extensive preparations allowed the EC to carry out the process despite losing half its members, and international observers lauded the commission's performance during the elections and in overcoming the setbacks.

B. Political Pluralism and Participation: 6 / 16 (-1)

Following several decades of rule by Gayoom, Maldives's first multiparty presidential election was held in 2008, and Nasheed, a former political prisoner, triumphed over the incumbent. A number of political parties operate despite administrative obstacles and harassment by authorities. The 2013 Political Parties Act restricted parties from registering and accessing official funds unless they have more than 10,000 members. As a result, 11 of Maldives's 16 parties were dissolved when the law came into force.

In 2015, the political landscape was shaken by the arrest, trial, and eventual conviction and imprisonment of Nasheed on terrorism-related charges. These developments prompted widespread condemnation by critics, who saw them as an attempt by the PPM government to suppress opposition. Following a trial that was widely criticized by international monitors for violating due process, Nasheed was sentenced in March to 13 years in prison. Later that month, the PPM-led People's Majlis amended the 2013 Prisons and Parole Act to ban inmates from membership in political parties. The move effectively ousted Nasheed from the MDP and jeopardized political opportunities for many others. In October, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention concluded that Nasheed's sentence resulted directly from the exercise of his rights as a political opposition leader to express views contrary to the government, to associate with his own and other political parties, and to participate in public life. Separately, several opposition politicians were among those arrested for participating in demonstrations during the year.

The Maldivian constitution and legal framework grant the right to vote and opportunity to contest elections only to Muslim citizens and specifically to adherents of Sunni Islam, thus excluding the Christian minority and other religious groups.

C. Functioning of Government: 6 / 12

The government appeared to be functioning more coherently in 2015 following the previous year's parliamentary elections. Nevertheless, political polarization and uncertainty continued to limit elected officials' effectiveness in crafting policy and passing legislation. For instance, long-delayed draft laws intended to strengthen rule of law and judicial independence remained stalled in 2015.

An Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), established in 2008, is empowered to investigate corruption by officials, but its work is hampered by inadequate legislation and lacking resources, and the vast majority of cases do not result in convictions.

The Right to Information Act grants the public access to government information, but enforcement remained unclear in 2015.

Civil Liberties: 24 / 60 (-4)

D. Freedom of Expression and Belief: 6 / 16

The constitution guarantees freedom of expression provided it is exercised in a manner "not contrary to any tenet of Islam." This clause may be interpreted widely, leading to restraint and censorship by journalists and avoidance of critical reporting on religious issues. In April 2015, legislators passed the Public Service Media Act, which called for an extensive overhaul of public broadcasting. Press freedom advocates criticized the move, calling it a government attempt to institute control over the national public broadcaster and transform it into a mouthpiece for the ruling party.

Harassment and intimidation of journalists restricts the space for freedom of the press. In March, three journalists covering opposition-led demonstrations were arrested for "obstructing police duties" and detained for five days without charge. Separately, the August 2014 disappearance of prominent journalist Ahmed Rilwan Abdulla remained unsolved. In 2015, Rilwan's family and supporters  who have persistently criticized the government's failure to provide information about the case  reported being intimidated and harassed by police. Security forces also prevented a press conference about the disappearance from taking place in July; the organizers had intended to use the event as a push for investigations. In December, President Yameen announced that an inquiry into the case would be launched.

Freedom of religion remains severely restricted. Islam is the state religion, and all citizens are required to be Muslims. Imams must use government-approved sermons. Non-Muslim foreigners are allowed to observe their religions only in private. In recent years, the rise of conservative strands of Islam has led to more rigid interpretations of rules for behavior and dress, particularly for women, as well as an increase in rhetoric  and occasional physical attacks  against other religions and those who espouse more tolerant versions of Islam.

There are no reports of direct restrictions on academic freedom, but many scholars engage in self-censorship.

E. Associational and Organizational Rights: 5 / 12 (-2)

The constitution guarantees freedom of assembly, but a restrictive 2012 law limited the ability to protest outside of designated areas, required the media to have accreditation to cover protests, and defined "gatherings" as a group of more than one person. Preemptive detention is sometimes used to deter citizens from participating in protests. In the weeks following Nasheed's arrest in February 2015, opposition supporters organized a series of demonstrations but were met with force by police, who disbanded the gatherings and arrested hundreds of participants, including prominent politicians and activists. Nearly 200 were arrested during a mass May Day protest in Male calling for the release of detained opposition figures, which turned violent and led to clashes with security forces. A number of participants remained in detention at year's end, some of them facing charges of assaulting police officers during the clashes. Separately, during a protest in November, some participants were reportedly hospitalized after police used pepper spray to disperse crowds.

Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) also faced setbacks during the year, particular in regard to their ability to operate freely and comment on human rights, among other sensitive issues. In June, the Supreme Court issued a ruling against the HRCM, which since September 2014 had faced accusations of treason and "undermining the constitution" following its submission to the UN Human Rights Council for Maldives' 2015 Universal Periodic Review. The Supreme Court found the submission  which highlighted legitimate concerns that the judicial system was unduly influenced by a politicized Supreme Court  to be unlawful, and accused the HRCM of encouraging terrorism and undermining judicial independence. Independent watchdogs widely denounced the proceedings for undermining the HRCM's impartiality as a human rights monitor and discouraging local organizations from engaging with international bodies.

The constitution and the 2008 Employment Act allow workers to form trade unions and to strike, and a labor tribunal enforces the act. Strikes do occur, though workers can sometimes face repercussions for industrial action.

F. Rule of Law: 6 / 16 (-1)

The constitution provides for an independent judiciary, and a Judicial Services Commission (JSC) was established in 2009 to separate the judicial branch from the executive. In practice, however, judicial bodies act with limited transparency and are subject to influence from the executive and legislative branches. In 2013, UN special rapporteur Gabriela Knaul raised concerns about transparency and politicization in the judiciary, particularly the JSC. In March 2015, Knaul noted a serious deterioration in the independence of the justice system since her initial investigation. Knaul highlighted the lack of due process in the Nasheed case as a sign of judicial degradation and dysfunction. Given the magnitude of violations in the high-profile proceedings, the potential consequences for rule of law could be substantial. In December, Nasheed's lawyers announced their intent to appeal his conviction and sentence.

The constitution bans arbitrary arrest, torture, and prolonged detention without adequate judicial review. The abuse of individuals in custody remains a problem. While the HRCM investigates some cases of maltreatment, its independence and capacity have been substantially threatened by the Supreme Court case.

Civil law is used in most cases, but it is subordinate to Sharia (Islamic law), which is applied in matters not covered by civil law and in cases involving divorce or adultery. As a result, the testimony of two women is equal to that of one man, and punishments such as internal exile and flogging continue to be carried out. Access to justice remains difficult for the substantial number of migrant workers in the country. A small percentage of religious minorities do not enjoy equal protection under the law, as the constitution and legal framework favor Sunni Muslims.

While same-sex sexual acts are prohibited by law and can draw draconian penalties, private consensual conduct has gone largely unregulated in recent years. However, in August, police made arrests for the first time since 2013 for same-sex sexual activity, prompting fears that there would be efforts to enforce the criminal prohibitions.

G. Personal Autonomy and Individual Rights: 7 / 16 (-1)

Freedom of movement is provided for by law and generally allowed in practice. Property rights are weak, with most land owned by the government and leased to private owners or developers.

During its 2015 analysis of the government's implementation of the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, the review committee noted a significant lack of progress in the implementation of national laws designed to ensure equal treatment of women. In particular, given the widespread prevalence of gender-based violence in Maldives, the committee expressed concern that the government had not yet implemented or enforced the 2012 Domestic Violence Prevention Act or the 2013 Prevention of Human Trafficking Act. Moreover, although the authorities took a positive step in 2013 by issuing a strategic action plan on gender equality, the deteriorating political landscape in recent years has significantly worsened the government's institutional capacity to develop and execute gender equality policies.

Efforts to address human trafficking have been sporadic and largely ineffective, and the exploitation of migrant workers, who comprise an estimated quarter of the country's population, is widespread. Maldives appeared in the Tier 2 watch list in the U.S. State Department's 2016 Trafficking in Humans Report due to a lack of new efforts by the government to combat trafficking and prosecute perpetrators.

Copyright notice:  Freedom House, Inc.  All Rights Reserved
Freedom in the World 2016 - Malaysia

Publisher Freedom House Publication Date 14 July 2016 Cite as Freedom House, Freedom in the World 2016 - Malaysia, 14 July 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57985a2719a.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.

Freedom Status: Partly Free

Aggregate Score: 45

Freedom Rating: 4.0

Political Rights: 4

Civil Liberties: 4

Quick Facts

Capital: Kuala Lumpur

Population: 30,788,840

GDP/capita: $10,933.50

Press Freedom Status: Not Free

Net Freedom Status: Partly Free

OVERVIEW

Prime Minister Najib Razak struggled during 2015 to suppress mounting criticism over mismanagement of and possible embezzlement from the state-owned development fund 1MDB. Najib denied any wrongdoing and took steps to remove potential threats within the ruling party, in part through a reorganization of his cabinet.

A coalition of civil society organizations and opposition parties known as Bersih (Clean) organized a multicity protest in August, calling for Najib's resignation as well as electoral reforms and anticorruption measures. Bersih leaders were subsequently charged for organizing what the authorities said was an illegal demonstration, and government supporters responded in September with a pro-Najib, "Malay pride" rally in which participants chanted anti-Chinese slogans; the opposition enjoys significant support among the ethnic Chinese minority. In December, Parliament adopted a law that allows the National Security Council, headed by the prime minister, to declare security zones in which police would have enhanced powers.

The authorities continued to enforce conservative social norms regarding women's clothing as well as gender identity, and an October court ruling reversed a 2014 judgment that struck down laws used to prosecute transgender women.

Also during 2015, the government faced renewed scrutiny of its refugee policies after the discovery of multiple camps along the Thailand-Malaysia border that were apparently used by human traffickers to hold and extort money from migrants and refugees. The Malaysian government was also criticized for initially refusing to aid a large group of migrants and refugees whose boats had been abandoned at sea in nearby waters.

POLITICAL RIGHTS AND CIVIL LIBERTIES

Political Rights: 18 / 40 (-1)

A. Electoral Process: 6 / 12

The paramount ruler, the monarch and titular head of state, is elected for five-year terms by fellow hereditary rulers from 9 of Malaysia's 13 states. King Tuanku Abdul Halim Mu'adzam Shah was elected to the post in 2011. The role of the king is largely ceremonial.

Executive power is vested in the prime minister and cabinet. The leader of the coalition that wins a plurality of seats in legislative elections becomes the prime minister. The upper house of the bicameral Parliament, the Senate, consists of 44 members appointed by the king and 26 members elected by the 13 state legislatures, serving three-year terms. The House of Representatives, or Dewan Rakyat, has 222 seats; its members are elected by popular vote at least every five years.

The ruling National Front (BN) coalition won the 2013 parliamentary elections, capturing 133 seats in the lower house despite receiving only 47 percent of the overall popular vote. Among the main opposition parties, the Democratic Action Party (DAP) took 38 seats, the People's Justice Party (PKR) took 30, and the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS) won 21. The opposition and observers accused the BN of electoral fraud, citing irregularities like phantom voting and power outages that occurred in vote-tallying centers in a number of constituencies that opposition parties hoped to win. Malapportioned voting districts and other structural flaws in the electoral system also favored the ruling coalition. Following the elections, a People's Tribunal was held to record individuals' accounts of electoral problems. The resulting report, issued in March 2014, concluded that electoral irregularities contributed to the BN's victory.

The Election Commission (EC) is frequently accused of manipulating electoral rolls and gerrymandering districts to aid the ruling coalition, and the Registrar of Societies arbitrarily decides which parties can participate in politics. The first-past-the-post voting system also increases the power of the largest grouping. In 2012, a government committee issued recommendations for electoral reforms, many of which had been called for by the Coalition for Free and Fair Elections (Bersih). However, there is continuing skepticism over the EC's effective implementation of all recommended changes. One change implemented for the 2013 elections was the use of indelible ink to mark voters who had already cast their ballots; voters and electoral watchdogs charged that the ink was easily removed. Watchdogs have also voiced concerns about the EC's opaque handling of electoral delineations, which the Electoral Integrity Project assessed as a major cause of the low integrity of the 2013 elections. In December 2015, federal lawmakers approved a redelineation of districts in the state of Sarawak despite opposition complaints that it heavily favored the BN's traditional voting blocs. The courts had rejected an attempt to challenge the constitutionality of the plan earlier in the year.

B. Political Pluralism and Participation: 7 / 16

The BN and its pre-1973 predecessor organization have governed Malaysia since 1957. Most of its constituent parties have an ethnic or regional base, including the dominant United Malays National Organization (UMNO) and the United Traditional Bumiputera Party, whose stronghold is in Sarawak. The delineation of electoral districts gives uneven voting power to ethnic Malays and other indigenous groups, especially those in rural areas, at the expense of groups considered more likely to vote for the opposition, such as city dwellers and ethnic minorities.

In addition to the skewed electoral system, opposition parties face obstacles such as unequal access to the media, restrictions on campaigning and freedom of assembly, and politicized prosecutions. In recent years, politicians and political activists have increasingly been charged with sedition and other criminal offenses for criticizing the government or organizing demonstrations. PKR leader Anwar Ibrahim has been dogged by claims that he "sodomized" a male aide in 2008, a charge seen as politically motivated. He was acquitted in 2012, but the Court of Appeal reversed that verdict and sentenced him to five years in prison in 2014. The Federal Court, Malaysia's highest court, confirmed the sentence in February 2015. Anwar's daughter, lawmaker Nurul Izzah Anwar, was arrested on sedition charges and temporarily detained in March after she criticized the judiciary in Parliament for its handling of her father's case. At least two members of Parliament were formally charged with sedition later in the year for making similar remarks.

C. Functioning of Government: 5 / 12 (-1)

Elected officials determine and implement government policy, but the unfair electoral framework weakens their legitimacy, and corruption provides a strong incentive to serve partisan patronage networks rather than the public interest.

Government favoritism and blurred distinctions between public and private enterprises create conditions conducive to corruption. Officials regularly move back and forth between the private and public sectors, fostering opportunities for collusion and graft. Political parties are allowed to own or have financial holdings in corporate enterprises. The Whistleblower Protection Act, which took effect in 2010, has not significantly improved accountability. Malaysia was ranked 54 out of 168 countries and territories surveyed in Transparency International's 2015 Corruption Perceptions Index.

In July 2015, it was reported that officials investigating mismanagement at the state-owned 1MDB development fund suspected the diversion of some $700 million into Prime Minister Najib's private bank accounts ahead of the 2013 elections. Najib denied any wrongdoing, and the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission stated in August that the money in question had come from a donation and not from 1MDB, providing little detail. Multiple investigations, including by foreign agencies examining possible money laundering in their jurisdictions, were ongoing at year's end.

Meanwhile, Najib worked to suppress scrutiny within the government and his own party. In July, he replaced the attorney general and fired cabinet ministers, including Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin, who had been critical of Najib's handling of the scandal. Najib then promoted four members of a parliamentary committee investigating 1MDB to his cabinet, temporarily halting the committee's work. In September, authorities detained UMNO member Khairruddin Abu Hassan under a security law to prevent him from traveling to the United States and assisting a U.S. investigation of 1MDB money transfers. Muhyiddin and other Najib critics were barred from speaking at an annual UMNO meeting in December.

Civil Liberties: 27 / 60

D. Freedom of Expression and Belief: 7 / 16

Freedom of expression is constitutionally guaranteed but restricted in practice. The 1984 Printing Presses and Publications Act was amended in 2012, retaining the home minister's authority to suspend or revoke publishing licenses but allowing judicial review of such decisions. In July 2015, the Edge newspaper received a three-month suspension over its coverage of the 1MDB scandal; a court lifted the suspension in September.

Most private publications are controlled by parties or businesses allied with the BN, as are most private television stations, which generally censor programming according to government guidelines. State outlets reflect government views. Books and films are directly censored or banned for profanity, violence, and political and religious content. Publications often face harassment from the government; police raided the offices of two online newspapers in November 2015 over alleged defamation in their corruption coverage.

The internet has emerged as a primary outlet for free discussion and the exposure of political corruption, but the Malaysian Communication and Multimedia Commission monitors websites and can order the removal of material considered provocative or subversive. A 2012 amendment to the 1950 Evidence Act holds owners and editors of websites, providers of web-hosting services, and owners of computers or mobile devices accountable for information published through their services or property. The government engages in legal harassment of bloggers, activists, academics, students, lawyers, and journalists who post critical content, charging them under defamation laws, the Official Secrets Act, and the Sedition Act, all of which include imprisonment as a possible penalty. At least 91 people were arrested, charged, or investigated for sedition during 2015, according to Amnesty International. In one prominent case, the political cartoonist Zulkiflee Anwar Haque (Zunar) was charged in April for his criticism of the Anwar sodomy conviction on social media.

While some members of the BN government continue to articulate the need for a tolerant and inclusive form of Islam in Malaysia, religious freedom is restricted. Ethnic Malays are defined under the constitution as Muslims. Practicing a version of Islam other than Sunni Islam is prohibited, and Shiites face discrimination. Muslim children and civil servants are required to receive religious education using government-approved curriculums and instructors. Proselytizing among Muslims by other religious groups is prohibited, and a 2007 ruling by the Federal Court effectively made it impossible for Muslims to have their conversions to other faiths recognized by the state. Non-Muslims are not able to build houses of worship as easily as Muslims, and the state retains the right to demolish unregistered religious statues and houses of worship. In 2014, the Federal Court upheld the reinstatement of a ban on non-Muslims using the word "Allah" to refer to God. Malay-speaking Christians had widely used the word in their scriptures, including Christian bibles, and in daily life.

Teachers and students espousing antigovernment views or engaging in political activity are subject to disciplinary action under the Universities and University Colleges Act (UUCA) of 1971. Following a 2011 court finding that the constitution protected students' involvement in political campaigns, Parliament amended the UUCA in 2012 to allow students to take part in political activities off campus, but those activities are closely monitored.

Open and free private discussion has been undermined in recent years by increasing use of sedition and other charges to suppress critical speech, the ban on non-Muslims' use of the word "Allah," and growing state enforcement of conservative social norms.

E. Associational and Organizational Rights: 6 / 12

Freedoms of assembly and association are limited on the grounds of maintaining security and public order. The 2011 Peaceful Assembly Act lifted a rule requiring police permits for nearly all public gatherings, but other restrictions remain, including a prohibition on street protests and excessive fines for noncompliance. The law delineates 21 public places where assemblies cannot be held  including within 50 meters of houses of worship, schools, and hospitals  and prohibits persons under the age of 15 from attending any public assembly.

In August 2015, Bersih organized mass demonstrations to call for Najib's resignation and electoral and anticorruption reforms in the wake of the 1MDB scandal. The government declared the protests illegal and banned the Bersih movement's distinctive yellow shirts. Two Bersih leaders and two Sarawak DAP lawmakers were later charged with violating the Peaceful Assembly Act. A progovernment, UMNO-backed rally that was allowed to go forward in September featured expressions of anti-Chinese hostility by its mostly ethnic Malay participants.

The Societies Act of 1996 defines a society as any association of seven or more people, excluding schools, businesses, and trade unions. Societies must be approved and registered by the government, which has refused or revoked registrations for political reasons. Numerous nongovernmental organizations operate in Malaysia, but some international human rights organizations are forbidden from forming local branches.

Most Malaysian workers can join trade unions, but the law contravenes international guidelines by restricting unions to representing workers in a single or similar trade. The director general of trade unions can refuse or withdraw registration arbitrarily. Collective bargaining is limited, as is the right to strike. Amendments to the Employment Act in 2011 weakened the responsibilities of employers to workers by allowing for the greater use of subcontractors.

F. Rule of Law: 5 / 16

Judicial independence is compromised by extensive executive influence. Arbitrary or politically motivated verdicts are common, as seen in the convictions of Anwar Ibrahim in 1999, 2000, and 2014 on charges of corruption and sodomy. Malaysia's secular legal system is based on English common law. However, Muslims are subject to Sharia (Islamic law), the interpretation of which varies regionally, and the constitution's Article 121 stipulates that all matters related to Islam should be heard in Sharia courts. This results in vastly different treatment of Muslims and non-Muslims regarding "moral" and family law issues.

Allegations of torture and abuse, including deaths, in police custody continue to be reported, and a number of criminal offenses can be punished with caning. The 2012 Security Offences (Special Measures) Act allows police to detain anyone for up to 28 days without judicial review for broadly defined "security offenses," and suspects may be held for 48 hours before being granted access to a lawyer. A 2013 amendment to the Prevention of Crime Act (PCA), a law ostensibly aimed at combating organized crime, allows a five-member board to order the detention of individuals listed by the Home Ministry for renewable two-year terms without trial or legal representation. In December 2015, Parliament approved the National Security Council Act, which gives the National Security Council  led by the prime minister  the authority to declare security zones in which police can impose curfews and conduct searches and arrests without a warrant, among other special powers.

Although the constitution provides for equal treatment of all citizens, it grants a "special position" to ethnic Malays and other indigenous people, known collectively as bumiputera. The government maintains programs intended to boost the economic status of bumiputera, who receive preferential treatment in areas including property ownership, higher education, civil service jobs, business affairs, and government contracts.

LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) Malaysians face widespread discrimination and harassment. Same-sex sexual relations are punishable by up to 20 years in prison under the penal code, and some states apply their own penalties to Muslims under Sharia statutes. The Ministries of Health and Education conduct campaigns to "prevent, overcome, and correct" symptoms of homosexuality in children, while the Ministry of Information has banned television and radio shows depicting gay characters. The Malaysian Islamic Development Department operates camps to "rehabilitate" transgender Muslims. In October 2015, citing procedural flaws, the Federal Court overturned the Court of Appeal's 2014 finding that Sharia statutes in most states banning "a male person posing as a woman" were unconstitutional. The laws have been used to sentence transgender women to fines and short jail terms, and arrests and harassment reportedly increased after the latest ruling. Three states similarly prohibit "a woman posing as a man." Enforcement of these laws is often accompanied by physical and sexual abuse.

Malaysia is home to about 150,000 refugees and asylum seekers, including some 45,000 members of Myanmar's persecuted Rohingya minority. However, the country does not formally grant permanent asylum or accept refugees for settlement, and refugees are not legally permitted to work. In May 2015, the authorities discovered a network of camps along the Thailand-Malaysia border where human traffickers allegedly held migrants and refugees in deplorable conditions while demanding money from their relatives. Mass graves were found at the sites, and authorities on both sides of the border were accused of complicity in the traffickers' criminal activity. Also in May, the Malaysian government initially refused to rescue hundreds of migrants and refugees who were stranded at sea after being abandoned by traffickers. Malaysia subsequently took in 1,100 of the survivors; while Bangladeshi nationals were repatriated, most of those identified as Rohingya refugees remained in detention pending third-country resettlement at year's end.

G. Personal Autonomy and Individual Rights: 9 / 16

Citizens are generally free to travel within and outside of Malaysia, as well as to change residence and employment. Malaysia is recognized as having a vibrant private business sector. However, professional and business opportunities and access to higher education are affected by regulations and practices favoring ethnic Malays and those with connections to political elites.

Women are underrepresented in politics, the civil service, and professional fields such as law, medicine, banking, and business. Violence against women remains a serious problem. Muslim women are legally disadvantaged because their family grievances are heard in Sharia courts, where men are favored in matters including inheritance and divorce, and women's testimony is not given equal weight. Enforcement of conservative dress codes for government buildings was reportedly stepped up in 2015, with women denied entry if their clothing was deemed too revealing.

Foreign household workers are often subject to exploitation and abuse by employers. An estimated two million foreigners work illegally in various industries and are vulnerable to forced labor and sexual abuse. If arrested and found guilty of immigration offenses, they can be caned and detained indefinitely pending deportation. Legislation passed in July 2015 granted greater rights and protections to human trafficking victims, but it had yet to be fully implemented at year's end. Enforcement of antitrafficking laws is considered weak given the scale of the problem, and no prosecutions of allegedly complicit officials were reported in connection with the migrant camps discovered in May.

Copyright notice:  Freedom House, Inc.  All Rights Reserved
Freedom in the World 2016 - Lebanon

Publisher Freedom House Publication Date 14 July 2016 Cite as Freedom House, Freedom in the World 2016 - Lebanon, 14 July 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57985a299.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.

Freedom Status: Partly Free

Aggregate Score: 43

Freedom Rating: 4.5

Political Rights: 5

Civil Liberties: 4

Quick Facts

Capital: Beirut

Population: 6,185,000

GDP/capita: $10,057.90

Press Freedom Status: Partly Free

Net Freedom Status: Partly Free

OVERVIEW

The Lebanese political system remained paralyzed in 2015, with the presidency vacant since the last incumbent's term expired in May 2014 and the National Assembly's term extended twice since 2013. The two main political coalitions were unable to agree on a new president during the year, and under the legislature's 2014 term extension, National Assembly elections were not expected until 2017. A unity cabinet headed by Prime Minister Tammam Salam managed the country's affairs.

Popular frustration with the government's dysfunction was galvanized by a garbage crisis that began in July 2015, when authorities closed Beirut's main landfill without having prepared a replacement site. The accumulation of trash in the capital led to months of cross-sectarian protests that were largely organized online via new grassroots groups, the most prominent of which were "You Stink" and "We Want Accountability."

The Syrian conflict and a surge of terrorist activity in the region continued to reverberate in Lebanon in 2015. The country hosted more than a million registered Syrian refugees, straining already overburdened infrastructure and basic services. The Lebanese Shiite militant group Hezbollah remained heavily involved in the war in support of the Syrian regime, and has lost a large number of combatants and commanders in the fighting. In January, an Israeli helicopter strike in the Syrian-held portion of the Golan Heights killed several Hezbollah members, including the son of Imad Mughniyeh, a senior militant who had been assassinated in Damascus in 2008. Hezbollah retaliated with a cross-border attack from Lebanon that killed two Israeli soldiers. However, the exchange of fire did not escalate into a wider conflict. Observers noted that Hezbollah's losses in Syria had depleted its ranks to the point that it has been forced to deploy poorly trained fighters, including some teenaged recruits.

POLITICAL RIGHTS AND CIVIL LIBERTIES

Political Rights: 13 / 40 (-1)

A. Electoral Process: 2 / 12

The president is selected every six years by the 128-member National Assembly, which in turn is elected for four-year terms. The president and parliament nominate the prime minister, who, along with the president, chooses the cabinet, subject to parliamentary approval. The unwritten National Pact of 1943 stipulates that the president must be a Maronite Christian, the prime minister a Sunni Muslim, and the speaker of the National Assembly a Shiite Muslim. Parliamentary seats are divided among major sects under a constitutional formula that does not reflect their current demographic weight. No official census has been conducted since the 1930s. The sectarian political balance has been periodically reaffirmed and occasionally modified by foreign-brokered agreements.

The most recent parliamentary elections were held in June 2009. The March 14 coalition, headed by Sunni Muslim parties, won 71 seats, while the rival March 8 coalition, backed by Shiite Hezbollah, took 57 seats. Although the elections were conducted peacefully and judged to be free and fair in some respects, vote buying was reported to be rampant, and the electoral framework retained a number of fundamental structural flaws linked to the country's sectarian political system. New elections were due in June 2013, but disagreement over electoral reforms led the parliament to extend its own term until late 2014. However, citing security concerns associated with the Syrian conflict, lawmakers that year extended their mandate again, this time until June 2017.

The presidential term of Michel Suleiman expired in May 2014, and the National Assembly was unable to agree on a replacement, leaving the presidency vacant through the end of 2015. Prime Minister Salam and his national unity government, formed in February 2014, remained in place during the year. The previous two governments had collapsed in 2011 and 2013, due in part to shifting factional alliances and rising sectarian tensions linked to the Syrian war.

B. Political Pluralism and Participation: 9 / 16

Two major factions, each comprising more than a dozen political parties, have dominated Lebanese politics since 2005: the March 8 coalition, of which Hezbollah is the most powerful member and which is seen as aligned with the Syrian regime, Iran, and Russia; and the March 14 bloc, which is headed by Sunni Muslims, generally supportive of the Syrian opposition, and associated with Saudi Arabia, Europe, and the United States. Christian factions are divided between the two blocs, and a predominantly Druze party has adopted positions that straddle the political divide.

Although the political system features a variety of competing parties, their activities are inhibited by periodic violence, intimidation, and entrenched patronage networks  in some cases linked to foreign funding  that make it difficult for new groups to emerge or existing groups to modify their positions or policies. Lebanese voters' political choices are also restricted by the sectarian electoral system, which discourages the rise of multiconfessional or secularist parties. The established sectarian parties are often headed by prominent families, with key positions effectively handed down from one generation to the next.

The rigid formula for allocation of elected positions ensures that nearly all recognized confessional groups are represented, but does not reflect their actual shares of the population. Refugees, including large, decades-old Palestinian communities, are not eligible for citizenship and have no political rights.

C. Functioning of Government: 2 / 12 (-1)

Sectarian and political divisions, exacerbated by foreign interference and more recently the Syrian civil war, have frequently prevented Lebanese governments from forming and operating effectively and independently after elections. The ongoing presidential vacancy and the National Assembly's lack of an electoral mandate further undermined the government's legitimacy in 2015. The authority of the government is also limited in practice by the power of autonomous militant groups, such as Hezbollah.

The sectarian political system and the powerful role of foreign patrons effectively limit the accountability of elected officials to the public at large. Political and bureaucratic corruption is widespread, businesses routinely pay bribes and cultivate ties with politicians to win contracts, and anticorruption laws are loosely enforced. In August 2015, when the cabinet met to address the garbage crisis, it initially awarded contracts to companies with alleged links to major political leaders, leading to a public outcry and a reversal of the decision. No solution had been implemented by year's end; the government said in December that it was planning to have the waste removed by sea.

Corruption has also extended to contracts for aid to refugees. Some nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) have allegedly siphoned off funds from international agencies, with cooperation from corrupt Lebanese officials, or wasted resources on excessive salaries and benefits for senior employees. Donor concerns about corruption were believed to be one factor behind growing shortfalls in aid for Syrian refugees.

Lebanon was ranked 123 out of 168 countries and territories surveyed in Transparency International's 2015 Corruption Perceptions Index.

Civil Liberties: 30 / 60

D. Freedom of Expression and Belief: 11 / 16

Freedom of expression and freedom of the press are guaranteed by law. However, the same laws protect the president and religious leaders from insult. The media are among the most open in the region, but nearly all outlets have ties to sectarian leaders or groups, and consequently practice self-censorship and maintain a specific, often partisan, editorial line. Censorship of books, movies, plays, and other artistic work is common, especially when the work involves politics, religion, sex, or Israel. In 2015, three comic-book editors were found guilty of insulting religion and inciting sectarian strife and fined more than $6,000 each.

Several journalists were assaulted by police or antigovernment protesters during clashes between the two sides in August 2015. In January, prosecutors issued a warrant for the arrest of Faisal al-Qassem, host of a news program on Qatar's Al-Jazeera television network, over his alleged insults against the army and promotion of sectarian strife. In May, a journalist's mother received threats in response to her daughter's online comments criticizing the jail sentence of former information minister Michel Samaha. In September, the Hague-based UN Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) convicted Lebanese journalist Karma Khayat of Al-Jadeed TV on contempt-of-court charges for failing to remove reports on confidential witnesses from her station's website.

Freedom of religion is guaranteed in the constitution and protected in practice. Every group manages its own family and personal-status laws, and has its own religious courts to adjudicate such matters. Proselytizing, while not punishable by law, is strongly discouraged by religious leaders and communities, sometimes with the threat of violence. Blasphemy is a criminal offense that carries up to one year in prison.

Political strife between religious groups has persisted to some extent since the 1975-90 civil war, and such differences  particularly between Sunnis and Shiites  have again been exacerbated by the civil war in Syria. However, in June 2015, the venerable Beirut-based Sunni philanthropic organization Al-Makassed issued the Beirut Declaration on Religious Freedom. The declaration, responding to anti-Christian violence in the region by the Islamic State (IS) militant group and other extremists, reiterated Christians' right to religious freedom and noted that no one should be forced to convert or be persecuted for their beliefs.

Academic freedom is generally unimpaired, though defamation and blasphemy laws could deter open debate. Private discussion is similarly uninhibited. However, the government reportedly monitors social media, and users occasionally face arrests, short detentions, or fines for their remarks. In October 2015, political activist Michel Douaihy was detained for nine days and fined $200 for Facebook comments that were deemed defamatory, and journalist Mohammed Nazzal was sentenced in absentia to six months in jail and fined over $650 for criticizing the judiciary, also on Facebook.

E. Associational and Organizational Rights: 7 / 12

The constitution guarantees the freedoms of assembly and association, and the government generally respects these rights, though police have cracked down in the past on demonstrations against the government or the Syrian regime. The garbage-related protests between August and October 2015 featured clashes between police and demonstrators. Demonstrators were also assaulted on some occasions by supporters of the political leaders they criticized. One protester reportedly died in August, and hundreds were injured. All of those arrested during the protests were released by year's end, though an unknown number still faced possible charges. The movement gradually subsided amid disagreement over its goals and tactics.

Civil society organizations have long operated openly in Lebanon, with some constraints. All NGOs must be registered with the Interior Ministry. The ministry may force an NGO to undergo an approval process and investigate its founders, and representatives of the ministry must be invited to observe voting on bylaws and boards of directors.

Trade unions are often tightly linked to political organizations, and in recent years they have been subordinate to their political partners. The Palestinian population of Lebanon, estimated at about 400,000, is not permitted to participate in trade unions. Foreign and Lebanese household workers, who are not protected by the labor code, have been trying to establish a union, but the move was denounced as illegal by the country's labor minister in early 2015.

F. Rule of Law: 5 / 16

Political forces hold sway in practice over the formally independent judiciary. The Supreme Judicial Council is composed of 10 judges, eight of whom are nominated by the president and the cabinet. Other judges are nominated by the council, approved by the Justice Ministry, and vetted by opposition and government parties.

While the regular judiciary generally follows international standards of criminal procedure, these standards are not followed in the military courts, which have been tasked with cases against Islamist militants, human rights activists, and alleged Israeli spies. Some detainees have been held without trial since 2007 in overcrowded prisons. Videos posted on social media in June 2015 showed guards beating inmates in Roumieh prison, prompting protests by inmates' relatives and supporters. Also during the year, Roumieh prison suffered from security crackdowns and riots by prisoners calling for better living conditions.

Security threats and militant activity related to the Syrian civil war persisted in 2015. Among other violent incidents during the year, suicide bombings claimed by the Qaeda-affiliated Syrian militant group Jabhat al-Nusra killed nine people in an Alawite-populated area of Tripoli in January. In April, police killed two militants with alleged links to Jabhat al-Nusra during the arrest of a radical cleric, also in Tripoli. Another fugitive Sunni extremist cleric, Ahmed al-Assir, was arrested in Beirut in August. A bombing attributed to IS killed several Sunni clerics in the town of Arsal who helped negotiate a prisoner exchange between the government and Jabhat al-Nusra, which went forward in December. Suicide bombings claimed by IS later in November killed more than 40 people in a Shiite area of Beirut.

The roughly 400,000 Palestinian refugees living in Lebanon are denied citizenship rights and also face certain restrictions on economic activity. Most Iraqi and Sudanese refugees do not enjoy official refugee status and thus face arbitrary detention, deportation, harassment, and abuse. In January 2015, the Directorate of General Security published elaborate criteria regulating the entry of Syrian nationals into Lebanon and imposed visa restrictions for the first time in an attempt to sharply reduce the number of incoming Syrian refugees. Most Syrian refugees live in extreme poverty; there are no formal camps for Syrians in Lebanon.

LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) people face both official and societal discrimination and harassment. The penal code prescribes up to one year in prison for "sexual intercourse against nature," though this is rarely enforced. NGOs work to uphold the human rights of LGBT people, and social acceptance is more common in urban and cosmopolitan areas, particularly in Beirut.

G. Personal Autonomy and Individual Rights: 7 / 16

Impediments to freedom of movement include de facto sectarian boundaries in some areas and curfews on Syrian refugees in many municipalities. Palestinian refugees face restrictions on employment and property ownership. A 2010 law allowed them access to social security benefits, end-of-service compensation, and the right to bring complaints before labor courts, but closed off access to skilled professions.

Women are granted equal rights in the constitution, but they are disadvantaged under the sectarian personal-status laws on issues such as divorce, inheritance, and child custody. Under a 1925 law, women cannot pass their nationality to non-Lebanese husbands or children. A 2014 law that criminalized domestic violence failed to criminalize spousal rape.

Both Lebanese and foreign nationals are subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking in Lebanon. Refugees and foreign household workers are especially vulnerable to exploitation. Authorities often arrest victims of trafficking for crimes committed as a result of their being trafficked.

Copyright notice:  Freedom House, Inc.  All Rights Reserved
Freedom in the World 2016 - Kuwait

Publisher Freedom House Publication Date 14 July 2016 Cite as Freedom House, Freedom in the World 2016 - Kuwait, 14 July 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57985a2a9.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.

Freedom Status: Partly Free

Aggregate Score: 36

Freedom Rating: 5.0

Political Rights: 5

Civil Liberties: 5

Quick Facts

Capital: Kuwait City

Population: 3,837,700

GDP/capita: $48,926.50

Press Freedom Status: Partly Free

Net Freedom Status: N/A

OVERVIEW

While Kuwait's often contentious parliamentary politics remained stable in 2015, the government intensified its crackdown on opposition figures and those most critical of the regime. Prominent dissidents, including former parliamentarian Musallam al-Barak and activist Saleh al-Saeed, were sentenced to prison during the year over their criticism of the government. Others, such as legislator Abdulhamid Dahsti, were threatened with prosecution. The authorities also continued harassing critical media, including the newspaper Al-Watan and a number of associated entities.

In July, the Kuwaiti parliament approved a budget that would run a nearly $30 billion deficit in the new fiscal year, a function of declining revenues amid a global fall in the price of oil. In October, the Finance Ministry announced plans to develop a taxation system for the country. In December, in conjunction with the other members of the Gulf Cooperation Council, Kuwaiti officials announced that the new system would include value-added tax.

POLITICAL RIGHTS AND CIVIL LIBERTIES

Political Rights: 13 / 40 (-1)

A. Electoral Process: 2 / 12

The emir, the hereditary head of state, appoints the prime minister and approves the cabinet that the prime minister appoints. The emir shares legislative power with the 50-member National Assembly, which is elected to four-year terms by popular vote. The emir has the authority to dissolve the National Assembly at will but must call elections within 60 days. The National Assembly can overturn decrees issued by the emir while it is not in session. It can veto the appointment of the prime minister, but it then must choose from among three alternatives of the emir's choosing. The National Assembly also has the power to remove government ministers with a majority vote. The electorate consists of men and women over 21 years of age who have been citizens for at least 20 years; most members of state security agencies are barred from voting.

Electoral changes promulgated by the emir in 2012 changed the system under which citizens voted for up to four legislators to a new system under which they only vote for one. Opposition forces argued that this change decreased the likelihood of building parliamentary coalitions by making legislators unable to pledge the electoral support of their constituencies to other members in exchange for mutual support.

After the emir dissolved the National Assembly in December 2011, opposition candidates gained a majority of seats in February 2012 elections. However, the dissolution was later ruled unconstitutional by Kuwait's Constitutional Court, which nullified the electoral results. Tens of thousands of Kuwaitis responded by holding regular protests, which security forces met with force. The opposition boycotted the subsequent December 2012 elections, leading progovernment candidates to capture the majority of seats. In 2013, the Constitutional Court ordered the dissolution of the National Assembly after opposition challenges to the new electoral laws were dismissed, leading to new parliamentary elections in July 2013, which was also boycotted by the opposition.

B. Political Pluralism and Participation: 7 / 16

Formal political parties are banned, but groupings like parliamentary blocs have been allowed to emerge. Opposition members claim that the 2012 electoral changes were designed to limit their power. While opposition candidates have the right to run for office, the country's long-standing political crisis and boycotts of elections have left them underrepresented in the National Assembly.

The royal family frequently interferes in the political process, including through the harassment of political and media figures, and the government impedes the activities of opposition parliamentary blocs. In March 2015, the leader of the Civil Democratic Movement, a liberal political group, was arrested for criticizing the government of Saudi Arabia on Twitter.

The government uses the stripping of citizenship as a political tool against opponents and dissidents. In 2014, about three dozen people, including journalists, activists, and clerics, were stripped of citizenship for criticizing the government.

In the 2013 elections, Shiites lost more than half of the seats they gained in December 2012, winning only 8 seats.

Kuwait's more than 100,000 stateless residents, known as bidoon, are considered illegal residents, do not have full citizenship rights, and often live in poor conditions. Efforts to grant citizenship to 4,000 of the country's stateless residents through a 2013 law have stalled. In 2014, the government announced that tens of thousands of bidoon would be offered a chance to apply for citizenship in Comoros, which would receive direct investment from the Kuwaiti government in exchange. Comoros passport holders could then receive Kuwaiti residence permits. However, bidoon and other human rights activists have rejected this process, calling it an attempt by the Kuwaiti government to relieve itself of its responsibilities, and noting that foreign nationals can be deported more easily than stateless residents. There was little progress on the measure in 2015. In November, the government announced that more than 7,000 bidoon had regularized their status between since 2011 by declaring a foreign national origin and receiving residency permits.

C. Functioning of Government: 4 / 12 (-1)

Charges of government corruption were at the heart of the 2012 political crisis. The opposition has repeatedly called for the government to address the problem, but authorities have continuously obstructed parliamentary efforts to investigate.

In March 2015, the government unveiled the implementing regulations for the Public Anti-Corruption Authority (PACA), allowing the body to begin its work. However, in December, Constitutional Court ruled the 2012 decree that established PACA to be unconstitutional, finding that the decree was inappropriately rushed and issued without consultation with the National Assembly. Later that month, the cabinet approved legislation that would reestablish the body; the draft was under consideration by the National Assembly at year's end. Separately, in September, Electricity, Water, and Public Works Minister Ahmad al-Jassar and 14 other state officials were sentenced to two years in prison in connection with the secret acquisition of faulty electricity generators in 2007. Kuwait ranked 55 out of 168 countries and territories in Transparency International's 2015 Corruption Perceptions Index.

Transparency in government spending and operations is inadequate and exacerbated by the weakness of rule of law.

Civil Liberties: 23 / 60

D. Freedom of Expression and Belief: 6 / 16

Authorities continue to limit press freedom. Kuwaiti law punishes the publication of material that insults Islam, criticizes the emir or the government, discloses secret or private information, or calls for the regime's overthrow.

More than 10 private daily and weekly Arabic newspapers and two private English-language dailies operate in Kuwait alongside a number of private broadcast outlets, including the satellite television station Al-Rai. The state owns four television stations and nine radio stations. Foreign media outlets generally operate relatively freely. Kuwaitis enjoy access to the internet, though the government has instructed internet service providers (ISPs) to block certain sites for political or moral reasons. In 2014, the National Assembly passed a new telecommunications law allowing authorities to monitor, block, and censor online material through a new body, the Commission for Mass Communications and Information Technology. Officials made a number of changes to the law in 2015; some amendments were aimed at regulating the commission members' relationships with the private sector, and others granted the commission greater technical powers to pursue its mandate.

Several journalists and media outlets faced harassment for their coverage of the regime in 2015. In January, the critical newspaper Al-Watan was forced to suspend printing after the government revoked the business license of its publishing house as well as the paper's own publishing license. In June, authorities canceled the licenses of three affiliated television stations. In November, the Court of Cassation  the highest court in Kuwait  upheld the government's decision to shutter the paper.

Freedom of expression is also frequently curtailed among critical internet users and rights activists. In January, the Court of Cassation sentenced Saqr al-Hashash to 20 months in jail for insulting the emir on Twitter. Also in January, authorities detained Saad bin Tefla, the country's former information minister and operator of the website Alaan News, and forced him to serve a one-week prison sentence issued in absentia in 2012 in connection to an article critical of government spending. In March, activist Nawaf al-Hendal was arrested and banned from traveling abroad after speaking about rights violations in Kuwait at a UN Human Rights Council meeting in Geneva.

Islam is the state religion, but religious minorities are generally permitted to practice their faiths in private. Shiite Muslims, who comprise about a third of the population, enjoy full political rights but have experienced increased harassment in recent years. In June, a suicide bombing by the Islamic State (IS) militant group at a Shiite mosque in Kuwait City killed 26 people and injured more than 200. In September, five men were sentenced to death and eight others to lengthy prison terms for involvement in the attack.

Academic freedom is impeded by self-censorship on politically sensitive topics as well as by larger restrictions on freedom of expression, including the illegality of offending the emir or challenging Islam. Traditional gatherings (diwaniyat) are venues for vibrant private discussion. However, they typically only include men and are likewise affected by restrictions on sensitive topics. The government has prosecuted individuals for views expressed on social-media platforms in the past.

E. Associational and Organizational Rights: 4 / 12

Freedoms of assembly and association are guaranteed by law but constrained in practice. Kuwaitis must notify officials of a public meeting or protest, though some peaceful protests have been allowed without a permit. In 2012, the government declared public assemblies of more than 20 people to be illegal. In February 2015, a Kuwaiti court sentenced stateless activist Abdullah al-Enezi to five years in prison in absentia for his 2014 participation in demonstrations supporting the bidoon. Days earlier, six other stateless activists were sentenced to one year each for participating in unauthorized protests, with options granted to five of them to pay a fine and avoid imprisonment.

There were some opposition-led public protests in 2015. In March, police in Kuwait City forcibly dispersed more than 800 demonstrators protesting state abuses and detained more than a dozen, threatening them with criminal charges. In June, more than 50 people were fined for their participation in a high-profile protest march in 2012.

The government routinely restricts the registration and licensing of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), forcing dozens of groups to operate without legal standing or state assistance. Representatives of licensed NGOs must obtain government permission to attend foreign conferences, and critical groups may be subject to harassment. In June 2015, the government dismissed the directors on the board of the Kuwait chapter of Transparency International, replacing them with government appointees who subsequently dismantled the group's assets. The regime claims that it has increased monitoring of NGOs over concerns about financial support for extremist militants abroad.

Private sector workers who are citizens have the right to join labor unions and bargain collectively, but labor laws allow for only one union per occupational trade and one national union federation, the Kuwait Trade Union Federation. Noncitizen migrant workers do not enjoy these rights; however, hundreds of migrants participated in risky illegal labor actions in 2015 to protest nonpayment of wages and other abuses.

F. Rule of Law: 7 / 16

Kuwait lacks an independent judiciary. The emir appoints all judges, and the executive branch approves judicial promotions.

Authorities may detain suspects for four days without charge. Detainees, especially bidoon, have been subjected to torture in the past. The government permits visits by human rights activists to prisons, where overcrowding remains a problem.

In July 2015, the National Assembly approved new counterterrorism legislation that requires all citizens and residents to provide genetic samples to the government, making it the only country in the world to institute such a universal obligation.

Migrant workers are subject to frequent abuse and exploitation. They are often confined to slums, lack access to public services, and are forced to work in dangerous conditions for inadequate pay. Inadequate safety measures plague many large construction projects and led to multiple worker deaths in 2015. In June, the National Assembly passed legislation expanding the rights of domestic workers, including by requiring mandatory leave and regular bonuses. However, critics decried the lack of enforcement mechanisms in the law.

Same-sex sexual activity is illegal and punishable by up to seven years in prison. In 2013, officials from the Health Ministry called for clinical tests to be held at Kuwait's ports of entry in an attempt to identify and bar LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) people from entering Kuwait or any of the other Gulf Cooperation Council countries. A 2007 law criminalizes "imitating the opposite sex."

G. Personal Autonomy and Individual Rights: 6 / 16

As of 2009, married women have the right to obtain passports and travel without their husband's permission. Migrant workers often face de facto restrictions on freedom of travel and residence.

The 1962 constitution provides men and women with equal rights, but this idea is not enforced in practice. Women comprise more than 60 percent of the student body at several leading universities, but the government enforces gender segregation in educational institutions. In December 2015, the Constitutional Court rejected a legal challenge to the policy. Kuwaiti women have the right to vote and hold public office. There are no elected female members in the National Assembly; the country's sole female minister, along with the rest of the prime minister's cabinet, serves as an ex officio member. Despite some legal protections from discrimination and abuse, women remain underrepresented in the workforce and face unequal treatment in several areas of law and society. They must have a male guardian in order to marry, are only permitted to seek a divorce when deserted or subjected to domestic violence, and are not treated equally in inheritance matters. Domestic abuse and sexual harassment are not specifically prohibited by law. Foreign domestic servants and migrant workers enjoy limited legal protections against mistreatment and remain particularly vulnerable to abuse and sexual assault.

Copyright notice:  Freedom House, Inc.  All Rights Reserved
NuVasive, Inc. NUVA reported second-quarter 2016 adjusted earnings per share (EPS) of 40 cents, reflecting a 29% rise from the year-ago quarter and an 11.1% beat over the Zacks Consensus Estimate.

Solid revenue growth primarily led to the year-over-year earnings improvement.

Including one-time items, the company reported second-quarter 2016 net income per share of 57 cents while in the year-ago quarter it had recorded earnings of 20 cents per share.

NUVASIVE INC Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise

NUVASIVE INC Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise | NUVASIVE INC Quote

Revenues in the reported quarter increased 16.4% year over year to $236.2 million (up 16.1% at constant exchange rate or CER), ahead of the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $233 million. The upside was driven by healthy performance in NuVasive's core U.S. spinal hardware business which improved 18.3% on the back of strong growth in MAGEC and PRECICE along with roughly 9% growth coming from the NSO inclusion.

Apart from that, strong international business benefitting from the companys continued revitalization efforts, also contributed to the growth. In the reported quarter, International business grew 35.8% year over year (up 33% at CER). Growth was significantly backed by strong contributions from core direct markets including Japan, Australia, New Zealand, the U.K., Italy and Germany.

The company reported a 143 basis points (bps) contraction in gross margin to 74.7% in the second quarter with a 23.4% increase in cost of goods sold. Sales, marketing and administrative expenses went up 17.3% to $134.5 million, while research and development expenses increased 35.3% to $11.9 million.

NuVasive posted adjusted operating income of $30.1 million in the reported quarter, reflecting a 3% decline from the year-ago number. Adjusted operating margin contracted 255 bps to 12.7% in the reported quarter.

Outlook

NuVasive -- the consolidated company, post the acquisitions of Ellipse Technologies and Mega Surgical, has once again provided an update on its full-year 2016 guidance. This latest guidance takes into consideration the acquisition effect of Biotronic NeuroNetwork and the impact from the adoption of the ASU for employee share-based payment accounting, as well as expected changes in foreign currency rates.

Story continues

The company currently expects 2016 revenues of approximately $962 million (an increase from the earlier quoted guidance of $928 million), up 18.6% from 2015. The current Zacks Consensus Estimate of $934.2 million remains below the expectation.

NuVasive has also provided its estimate for the full-year 2016 adjusted earnings per share at $1.64 (Earlier prediction was $1.48), up approximately 25% from the 2015 EPS number. The current Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.51 remains much below the companys guidance. Additionally, adjusted operating margin for the year is projected at 16% (15.8%), up 60 bps on a year-over-year basis.

Our Take

NuVasive performed well in the second quarter of 2016 with both earnings and revenues steering past the respective Zacks Consensus Estimate. Strong growth in core international business along with solid contribution from NSO, the newly added segment contributed to the growth.

According to management, there is tremendous growth opportunity for NuVasive overseas, given that it currently holds a mere 4% of the total market share therein. In addition, we are also happy to see the continued strong contribution from NuVasive's core U.S. spinal hardware business. With the raised 2016 guidance, we can also conclude that, this growth process is going to continue in the rest of 2016 as well.

NuVasive, at present, is rapidly developing technologies and services for spine surgery, expanding its global footprint in the existing and new markets, and building itself as a commercial powerhouse with integrated sales, service and specialized customer marketing programs. To this end, the company recently acquired privately held Ellipse Technologies that works on the transformation of procedural solutions for complex skeletal deformity.

In addition, the companys acquisition of Brazilian distributor, Mega Surgical has already started to contribute to its growth in 2016. Its latest acquisition of Biotronic NeuroNetwork is also expected to strengthen the companys foothold in the growing spine procedure solutions space.

The stock currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

Key Picks from the Sector

Some of the better-ranked medical product stocks are Boston Scientific Corp. BSX, GW Pharmaceuticals PLC GWPH and Zimmer Biomet Holdings Inc ZBH. All the three stocks carry a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

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Freedom in the World 2016 - Haiti

Publisher Freedom House Publication Date 14 July 2016 Cite as Freedom House, Freedom in the World 2016 - Haiti, 14 July 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57985a2ce.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.

Freedom Status: Partly Free

Aggregate Score: 41

Freedom Rating: 5.0

Political Rights: 5

Civil Liberties: 5

Quick Facts

Capital: Port-au-Prince

Population: 10,924,000

GDP/capita: $824.20

Press Freedom Status: Partly Free

Net Freedom Status: N/A

OVERVIEW

Haitian voters headed to the polls in 2015 for parliamentary, presidential, and local elections. The first round of parliamentary elections, held in August, was marred by violence and reports of widespread violations. The second round of the parliamentary vote was held concurrently with local elections and the first round of the presidential vote in October, with international monitors again reporting grave shortcomings. President Michel Martelly's hand-picked successor, Jovinel Moise, was declared the winner in first round of the presidential election, earning a place in a runoff against Jude Celestin. However, Celestin and other opposition candidates rejected the first-round results, and their supporters took to the streets to demand an independent investigation into allegations of electoral fraud. An evaluation commission was established, and the runoff, which had been scheduled for December 2015, was postponed until 2016.

Legislative processes were largely paralyzed in 2015, as the terms of all but 10 legislators expired in January. Haiti's cholera epidemic, which erupted in 2010, worsened during the year because of heavy rains as well as poor sanitation for those still displaced by the 2010 earthquake and for migrants living in camps along Haiti's border with the Dominican Republic. More than 31,000 new cases were reported from January to November.

POLITICAL RIGHTS AND CIVIL LIBERTIES

Political Rights: 17 / 40

A. Electoral Process: 4 / 12

Haiti's constitution provides for a president directly elected for a five-year term and a prime minister who is appointed by the president and approved by the parliament. The bicameral parliament is composed of the Senate, whose 30 members serve six-year terms, and the Chamber of Deputies, whose 118 members serve four-year terms. President Martelly took office in May 2011 through elections compromised by reports of fraud, voter intimidation, and illegal exclusion of political parties and candidates.

Midterm parliamentary and municipal elections constitutionally required in 2011 and 2013 were delayed for years, leading to vacancies and legislative paralysis that allowed Martelly to govern with increasingly little oversight. Laurent Lamothe resigned as prime minister in December 2014, and by mid-January 2015, the terms of two-thirds of the Senate, all members of the Chamber of Deputies, and every mayor had expired. A new prime minister, Evans Paul, took office in January, days after the official dissolution of the legislature.

The president formed a Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) in February. The first round of parliamentary elections was held in August. The CEP reported that violence forced 54 of the 1,508 polling centers throughout the country to suspend their operations. A network of Haitian observers labeled the vote "an affront to democratic standards," and considered the irregularities serious enough to jeopardize the legitimacy of the legislature. Voter turnout stood at 18 percent.

In October, voters cast ballots in runoff parliamentary elections, as well as in the first round of presidential and municipal elections; the disrupted parliamentary votes were also rerun. While improved security measures led to a decrease in violence during these polls, fraud was rampant. International monitors noted that mandataires, political party representatives accredited to observe the voting process, misused their accreditations to cast multiple ballots and in some instances intimidated voters. Voter turnout remained low at 27 percent, which international monitors noted could gravely exacerbate the impact of multiple voting. No party won a parliamentary majority. The Haitian Tet Kale Party (PHTK), which supports Martelly, took 26 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and was aided by an addition 15 won by three of its allies. The Verite (Truth) party won 13 seats, and smaller parties divided the remainder. Of the contested seats in the Senate, PHTK ally Konvansyon Inite Demokratik (KID) and Verite won three seats each, PHTK won two seats, and four smaller parties captured one seat each.

In November, the CEP released the results of the first round of the presidential election, in which 54 candidates participated. The official results showed Moise in the lead with 33 percent of the vote, and Celestin following with 25 percent. Observers from the Organization of American States (OAS) and a group of foreign donor nations, including the United States, accepted the official results, but Haitian civil society groups and opposition candidates rejected the outcome and called for an independent investigation into allegations of fraud. Amid protests, Martelly established an evaluation commission in December, days ahead of the scheduled presidential runoff, which was subsequently postponed until 2016.

B. Political Pluralism & Participation: 8 / 16

Political parties generally did not face legal or administrative barriers to registering or running in the 2015 elections, and reports of prosecution and harassment of opposition politicians decreased in comparison with 2014. Nevertheless, the electoral system appeared to favor the preferences of incumbent powers. The number of members required to form a political party was decreased from 500 to 20 in 2014, leading to a proliferation of groups on the party scene, many of which were suspected to be formed in order to aid Martelly and his allies. This environment allowed an unusually large number of party representatives to obtain observer accreditation for the 2015 polls, and allegations of fraud and misconduct by these individuals were not properly investigated.

Insufficient investments in state capacity have continued to hinder the state from effectively asserting a central role in development, allowing donor countries and international organizations to wield significant influence over policymaking. The UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) has been in the country since 2004; the UN Security Council voted to renew MINUSTAH for an additional year in October 2015, authorizing up to 4,971 military and police personnel as part of the mission. MINUSTAH faces growing opposition from the Haitian people, as it is increasingly perceived as an occupying force. The number of military and police personnel authorized as part of MINUSTAH has declined in recent years, down from its peak in the aftermath of the devastating 2010 earthquake, when the mission was authorized to have up to 13,331 personnel.

C. Functioning of Government: 5 / 12

A defunct parliament, election chaos, corruption allegations, and poor collaboration among agencies impaired governance in 2015. In March, Nonie Mathieu, former president of the Superior Court of Auditors and Administrative Disputes, was accused of misusing $600,000 in public funds on purchases of office equipment that the agency never received. In December, parliamentary candidate Gerald Jean admitted on national radio that he had paid more than $25,000 in bribes to an electoral court judge and to a CEP member in order to secure a parliamentary seat on appeal. Haiti was ranked 158 out of 168 countries and territories surveyed in Transparency International's 2015 Corruption Perceptions Index.

Civil Liberties: 24 / 60

D. Freedom of Expression & Belief: 10 / 16

The constitution guarantees freedom of expression, but press freedom is constrained by the feeble judiciary and the inability of police to adequately protect journalists from threats and violence. With a literacy rate of 60 percent and little print or online news material in Haitian Creole, radio remains the main source of information. Media and other observers have expressed concern about government interference with freedom of the press. In January 2015, Radio Tele Kiskeya denounced the Martelly administration for offering gifts of $800 to Haitian journalists after hosting them at a reception in the National Palace the previous month.

The government generally respects religious and academic freedoms. However, when violations do occur, victims have few protections.

Haitians are generally able to engage in open private discussion of political topics. Those with access to the internet, which reached 11.4 percent of the population in 2014, use online communications, including social-media platforms, without harassment or interference.

E. Associational and Organizational Rights: 4 / 12

The 1987 constitution guarantees freedoms of assembly and association, though these freedoms are often violated in practice. Antigovernment demonstrations took place on several occasions in 2015, particularly in November and December in response to reports of electoral fraud. Protesters often encountered police violence. The murder of Daniel Dorsainvil, general coordinator of the Platform of Haitian Human Rights Organizations (POHDH), remained unsolved at year's end; Dorsainvil was killed along with his wife in 2014.

The right of workers to organize is protected by law, but unions face many challenges. The right to strike is severely limited, and workers frequently face harassment and other repercussions for organizing.

F. Rule of Law: 4 / 16

The judiciary is inefficient and weak, and is burdened by a lack of resources, a large backlog of cases, outdated legal codes, and poor facilities. Bribery is rampant at all levels of the judicial system. Official court business is conducted primarily in French, rendering proceedings only marginally comprehensible to many of those involved. Police are regularly accused of abusing suspects and detainees, and impunity continues to be a problem. The ponderous legal system has little credibility in the public eye, and police are regularly accused of abusing suspects and detainees. Although police operate under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Justice, impunity is a significant problem. Haitian law guarantees a hearing within 48 hours after arrest, but pretrial detainees comprised an estimated 70 percent of the prison population at year's end. In some prisons, the occupancy rate has reached close to 800 percent of maximum capacity in recent years.

The prosecution of members of the administration of former dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier for crimes against humanity remained stalled in the Appellate Court in 2015. Separately, in April, Woodly Etheart and Renel Nelfort, leaders of a gang accused of leading vicious kidnapping operations in Haiti, were exonerated in a trial without a jury. Human rights groups denounced the decision as politicized and corrupt, accusing the judge and prosecutor for the case as well as the Port-au-Prince chief justice of illegal collusion.

Despite the government's failure to address discrimination and violence against LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) individuals, a movement for the human rights of LGBT people has gained momentum in recent years.

G. Personal Autonomy and Individual Rights: 6 / 16

The government generally respects freedom of movement and the rights of individuals to choose their own employment, education, and residence. Beginning in June 2015, more than 49,000 Haitian migrants crossed the border from the Dominican Republic to Haiti. The wave of migration was prompted by a June deadline set by Dominican Republic authorities for the registration of those residing in the country without formal status or documentation. In December, the International Organization for Migration estimated that close to 68 percent of those crossing the border to Haiti reported having no documentation. Haitian officials offered few services and resources to returnees. By year's end, approximately 2,600 people had settled in four camps along the border between the two countries; several residents of the camps, which were beleaguered by unsanitary conditions, died of cholera by year's end. As of June, a total of 61,000 internally displaced people (IDPs) were living in camps around the country, most of them victims of the 2010 earthquake.

Spotty record keeping at the national level and corruption in the enforcement process have resulted in severe inconsistencies in the protection of property rights; those with political and economic connections frequently rely on extrajudicial means of enforcement. Forced evictions are often carried out without prior notice and with police or other government participation, and authorities do not always provide proper restitution for confiscation of private property. Haiti's economy was ranked 182 out of 189 in the World Bank's Doing Business 2016 report, which noted grave shortcomings in business registration procedures and contract enforcement.

While the constitution mandates 30 percent female representation "in national life and in public service," women made up only 8 percent of candidates in the 2015 parliamentary elections. Spousal rape and sexual harassment are not explicitly prohibited by law. A draft penal code offering significant protections for victims of gender-based violence continued to stall in 2015.

According to the U.S. State Department's 2016 Trafficking in Persons Report, Haiti is a source, transit, and destination country for the trafficking of men, women, and children for the purposes of forced labor and sexual exploitation. A long-awaited antitrafficking law was promulgated in 2014, but enforcement remained weak in 2015.

Copyright notice:  Freedom House, Inc.  All Rights Reserved
Freedom in the World 2016 - Guinea

Publisher Freedom House Publication Date 14 July 2016 Cite as Freedom House, Freedom in the World 2016 - Guinea, 14 July 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57985a2d11.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.

Freedom Status: Partly Free

Aggregate Score: 40

Freedom Rating: 5.0

Political Rights: 5

Civil Liberties: 5

Quick Facts

Capital: Conakry

Population: 10,924,000

GDP/capita: $824.70

Press Freedom Status: Not Free

Net Freedom Status: N/A

OVERVIEW

By late 2015, the Ebola epidemic, which had its origins in southeast Guinea in late 2013 and soon spread to Liberia and Sierra Leone, appeared to be nearing its end. The outbreak killed over 11,000 people across the subregion and seriously damaged Guinea's fragile economy. It also worsened already-strained relations between Guinea's citizens and their government and stoked fear and suspicion among some Guineans, resulting in attacks on health workers and those accused of spreading the virus. Arrests and criminals trials for the perpetrators of those attacks began in early 2015; one trial resulted in life imprisonment for 11 accused of killing eight members of an Ebola education team of health workers, journalists, and others in a village near the city of Nzerekore.

Societal tensions were also apparent in the lead-up to Guinea's presidential election, held in October 2015. While calm prevailed on election day, violent clashes between supporters of rival political parties and between opposition party supporters and security forces occurred both before and after the vote. Although opposition candidates raised allegations of electoral fraud, incumbent Alpha Conde easily won a second term in the first round of voting that, while logistically disorganized, was judged to be valid by international observers.

Corruption remains pervasive, and Guinea's courts continue to be under-resourced and overburdened. Impunity for Guinea's security forces remains a problem, with little accountability for the hundreds of deaths and injuries of protesters and civilians over the last decade.

POLITICAL RIGHTS AND CIVIL LIBERTIES

Political Rights: 17 / 40

A. Electoral Process: 6 / 12

Guinea's president is elected by popular vote for up to two five-year terms. The legislature was dissolved in 2008 amid a bloodless coup precipitated by the death of President Lansana Conte. The leader of the coup, Captain Moussa Dadis Camara, was shot and seriously injured in late 2009 by a member of his own guard following the violent repression of an opposition rally, in which security forces killed more than 150 people and raped and beat hundreds of others in and around Conakry's central stadium. A political accord facilitated a return to civilian rule in 2010. The new constitution that was adopted as part of the political transition established a number of independent entities to secure democratic rights, including the Independent National Electoral Commission (CENI), a national human rights body, and a constitutional court. In the 2010 presidential election, longtime opposition leader Alpha Conde of the Rally of the Guinean People (RPGA-) defeated former prime minister Cellou Dalein Diallo of the Union of Democratic Forces of Guinea (UFDG) in a runoff vote.

Conde stood for reelection in 2015, once again facing Diallo as well as six other candidates from various opposition parties. The months preceding the election were characterized by ethnic tensions, violence between RPG and UFDG supporters, and deadly clashes between opposition supporters and security forces. At issue were disputes over the electoral calendar, including the sequencing of presidential and local elections, and the composition of the CENI. In May, former coup leader Camara announced his intention to return to Guinea from Burkina Faso, where he lives in exile, to stand for election. In July, he was indicted in Guinea for his role in the 2009 stadium massacre, and in August, authorities prevented Camara from entering the country, rendering him unable to return and contest elections.

Although fears of violence were high, election day ultimately proved peaceful. Conde won in the first round, garnering 57.8 percent of the vote. Three opposition candidates alleged fraud and vote rigging and lodged unsuccessful challenges with the constitutional court. International observers deemed the vote valid despite a number of logistical problems, including a lack of voting materials and delayed openings at some polling places. The constitutional court affirmed Conde's victory in late October, and Diallo, finishing in second place with 31.4 percent, eventually retreated from calls for his supporters to take to the streets to protest the results.

Of the National Assembly's 114 seats, 38 are awarded through single-member constituency races and 76 are filled through nationwide proportional representation, all for five-year terms. Under the electoral law, at least 30 percent of the candidates on the proportional representation lists must be women. The first parliamentary elections since the 2008 coup were held in September 2013. The months preceding the elections were marred by violence, ethnic and religious tensions, and disputes over the rules governing the polls. Recurrent protests resulted in more than 50 deaths between January and September 2013. The RPG won 53 seats, the opposition UFDG won 37 seats, the Union of Republican Forces (UFR) won 10, and a dozen smaller parties divided the remainder. The newly elected legislators took office in January 2014. Women hold nearly 22 percent of the seats in the National Assembly.

B. Political Pluralism and Participation: 8 / 16

The main political parties are the RPG and the UFDG. More than 130 parties are registered, most of which have clear ethnic or regional bases. Relations between the RPG and opposition parties are strained, and violent election-related clashes between RPG supporters, who are predominantly drawn from the Malinke ethnic group, and UFDG supporters, who are largely from the Peul ethnic group, have inflamed tensions.

In March 2015, opposition parties withdrew from the National Assembly over the postponement of local elections until after the presidential vote. They claimed that this sequence would disadvantage their presidential candidates, because local officials, who are disproportionately RPG supporters, play key roles in the electoral process. The opposition then launched a series of street protests in April and May in Conakry and other cities. In response to the protests, Guinea's security forces employed excessive and lethal force, with some officers using ethnic slurs against opposition demonstrators and at times passively watching or actively participating in the looting of property, according to reports from human rights watchdog groups.

In August, the government reached an agreement with the opposition to replace a number of local officials with their supporters to help ensure the fairness of the vote. Under the agreement, the composition of the local councils would reflect the results of the 2013 legislative elections. In addition, the government agreed to set up a committee of the CENI to review the voter registration lists.

C. Functioning of Government: 3 / 12

Corruption remains rampant, with Guinea ranking 139 out of 168 countries and territories in Transparency International's 2015 Corruption Perceptions Index. The National Anti-Corruption Agency (ANLC), the state agency tasked with fighting corruption, reports directly to the presidency, and is reported to be underfunded and understaffed.

However, Guinea was declared in full compliance with the Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative in July 2014. It has won praise for its proactive response to a scandal that erupted in 2013, when it was revealed that former president Conte allegedly accepted bribes to award a mining license worth billions of dollars to BSG Resources, owned by Israeli diamond magnate Benny Steinmetz. A 2014 Guinean government inquiry condemned the deal, and BSG's rights to the vast, untapped Simandou iron-ore mine were rescinded. In 2015, Swiss and U.S. officials continued investigations into whether BSG Resources paid bribes to secure its now-cancelled mining concession. Separately, in November 2015 Guinea's government took steps to address the problem of "ghost workers" on the public sector payroll, hiring 700 individuals to verify the regular presence of government workers at their offices.

In 2010, the interim legislature passed an access to information law, but it has never been effectively implemented.

Civil Liberties: 23 / 40 (-1)

D. Freedom of Expression and Belief: 9 / 16

The 2010 constitution guarantees media freedom. In 2010, the interim legislature passed a law that decriminalized press offenses and more clearly defined defamation provisions. It also passed a law creating a new media regulatory body, the High Authority for Communications (HAC). However, the HAC has struggled to balance freedom of expression with sensible regulations. In September 2015, the HAC banned radio phone-in programs in the run-up to the presidential election, though many stations reportedly refused to comply. Attacks on the press persist, but the government has shown increasing political will to reprimand  if not punish  the perpetrators. In May 2015, three journalists covering the election-related protests were assaulted by security forces while attempting to document the use of excessive force against demonstrators. Two of the police officers involved received disciplinary sanctions, including suspensions, but no legal proceedings were brought.

Several dozen newspapers publish regularly in Guinea, though most have small circulations. More than 30 private radio stations and a few private television stations compete with the public broadcaster, Radio Television Guineenne (RTG). Due to the high illiteracy rate, most of the population accesses information through radio; internet access remains limited to urban areas.

Religious rights are generally respected in practice. Some non-Muslim government workers have reported occasional discrimination. People who convert from Islam to Christianity sometimes encounter pressure from members of their community. Religious practice was curtailed somewhat by Ebola-related warnings against traditional Muslim burial rituals, which involve physical contact with the bodies of the dead and thus exacerbate the risk of contagion. In April 2015, the Archbishop of Conakry canceled an annual Christian pilgrimage in compliance with a government directive aimed at limiting the spread of Ebola.

Academic freedom is generally respected, and there are few limits to free and open private discussion.

E. Associational and Organizational Rights: 5 / 12 (-1)

Freedom of assembly is enshrined in the constitution, but this right is often restricted. Under Guinea's criminal code, organizers are required to notify authorities three days in advance of public assemblies and demonstrations. In practice, assemblies held without notification are considered unauthorized and are often violently dispersed, leading to deaths, injuries, and arrests.

Clashes between protesters and security forces were routine in the run-up to the 2015 presidential election, resulting in a handful of deaths and numerous serious injuries. Police and other security forces also engaged in theft and banditry, stealing from protesters and bystanders and destroying property. Some protesters also engaged in violence and criminal behavior during the protests. In June, the National Assembly passed the Law on Maintaining Public Order, which sets out guidelines for when force may be used by the authorities during protests, among other provisions. While this was seen as a step in the right direction, the law still contained restrictions on spontaneous protests, and allows the security forces to disperse a protest if they have reason to believe that someone in the crowd is carrying a weapon.

Freedom of association is generally respected. However, Guinean civil society remains weak, ethnically divided, and subject to periodic harassment and intimidation. Although workers are allowed to form trade unions, strike, and bargain collectively, they must provide 10 days' notice before striking, and strikes are banned in broadly defined essential services. Public and private sector unions launched a brief strike in January 2015 after the government delayed implementation of promised wage increases and salary requirements, but ended the action after reaching an agreement with the state days later.

F. Rule of Law: 4 / 16

The judicial system has demonstrated some degree of independence since 2010, though the courts remain understaffed and underfunded, and have been slow to prosecute high-profile criminal cases  most prominently, the massacre of opposition protesters at Conakry stadium in 2009. The courts have interviewed almost 400 victims of the massacre since proceedings began, but despite evidence of abuses committed by dozens of members of the security forces, only 14 people had been charged as of late 2015, including former coup leader Camara and his vice president, Mamadouba Toto Camara. A lack of political and financial support has stymied progress in the investigations, though the justice minister has promised that trials will begin in 2016.

In a sign of progress, in 2015 the government adopted a five-year judicial reform plan that would address issues including judicial corruption and understaffing, and revise certain legal texts in an effort to align them with international best practices.

Security forces continue to engage in arbitrary arrests, torture of detainees, and extrajudicial executions. Prison conditions remain harsh and are sometimes life threatening. Prolonged pretrial detention is a longstanding problem, with the majority of prisoners in Conakry languishing for extended periods without trial, and resulting in severe overcrowding. The judicial reform plan included provisions for improved water delivery and health care at the country's largest prison, and the construction of a new prison to help relieve overcrowding.

Antidiscrimination laws do not protect LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) people. Same-sex sexual activity is a criminal offense that can be punished with up to three years in prison, and although this law is rarely enforced, LGBT people have been arrested on lesser charges.

G. Personal Autonomy and Individual Rights: 5 / 16

Freedom of movement  long hindered by rampant crime and ubiquitous security checkpoints  was further restricted by a national public health emergency in response to the Ebola epidemic, including new restrictions imposed on five western provinces for a 45-day period beginning in March 2015.

Private business activity is hampered by corruption and political instability, among other factors. A centralized Agency for the Promotion of Private Investments aims to ease the registration process. Following recent reforms, property registration processes have become faster and less expensive. Meanwhile, the Ebola epidemic brought some economic activity to a near-standstill, devastating the agricultural and mining sectors central to the economic health of the nation.

Societal discrimination against women is pervasive. Rape and sexual harassment are common but underreported due to fears of stigmatization. In November 2015, there were peaceful demonstrations against impunity for rampant sexual violence. While women have legal access to land, credit, and business, they are disadvantaged by inheritance laws and the traditional justice system. Guinean law allows husbands to forbid their wives from working. Female genital mutilation is nearly ubiquitous, affecting up to 96 percent of all girls and women in the country.

Guinean women and children are subject to sex trafficking and forced labor in various industries. Guinean boys have been forced to work in mines in Guinea and in neighboring countries, and women and children have been sex trafficked to other parts of West Africa as well as Europe and the Middle East.

Copyright notice:  Freedom House, Inc.  All Rights Reserved
Freedom in the World 2016 - Georgia

Publisher Freedom House Publication Date 14 July 2016 Cite as Freedom House, Freedom in the World 2016 - Georgia, 14 July 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57985a30c.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.

Freedom Status: Partly Free

Aggregate Score: 64

Freedom Rating: 3.0

Political Rights: 3

Civil Liberties: 3

Explanatory Note:

The numerical rankings and the subsequent report do not include South Ossetia or Abkhazia, which are considered in separate reports.

Quick Facts

Capital: Tbilisi

Population: 3,804,000

GDP/capita: $3,670

Press Freedom Status: Partly Free

Net Freedom Status: N/A

OVERVIEW

Rule of law conditions in Georgia showed signs of improvement in 2015, with a landmark Constitutional Court decision in September against the power of prosecutors to extend pretrial detentions past the constitutionally mandated nine-month limit. However, a number of other developments called into question the strength of the country's democratic institutions. Prosecution of members of the former United National Movement (UNM) government continued during the year, and the handling of an ownership dispute involving Rustavi 2, the largest opposition news channel, raised concerns about the extent of political pressure on Georgian media.

In December 2015, Belgium became the final state to ratify Georgia's Association Agreement with the European Union (EU), which Georgia had signed the previous year. The roles of Russia and Western countries in the political trajectory of Georgia continued to be a contested topic of discussion.

POLITICAL RIGHTS AND CIVIL LIBERTIES

Political Rights: 27 / 40 (+1)

A. Electoral Process: 9 / 12

Georgia's unicameral Parliament is composed of 150 members, with 77 selected by party list and 73 in single-member districts; members serve four-year terms. Georgia has a dual executive, with the prime minister serving as head of government and the president as head of state. The president is selected by direct election for a five-year term. The president chooses the prime minister, but is constitutionally bound to select the individual nominated by the party that won the most legislative seats. The prime minister nominates cabinet members for parliamentary approval; the president selects members of the National Security Council.

Parliamentary elections in 2012 marked the first time an opposition party took power through elections in post-independence Georgia, and were considered free and fair by international observers. The Georgian Dream coalition, a bloc of parties led by wealthy businessman Bidzina Ivanishvili, captured 85 seats, leaving the UNM in the minority with 65 seats.

In the 2013 presidential elections, Georgian Dream candidate Giorgi Margvelashvili won 62 percent of the vote, ahead of UNM candidate David Bakradze, who won 22 percent. While observers reported some violations, they noted no cases of abuse of administrative resources or pressure on voters, which had been issues in past elections, and praised the Central Election Commission for its professionalism.

Georgian Dream candidates largely swept municipal elections in 2014, winning mayoral seats in the eight largest cities of the country, including in Tbilisi, and taking more than half of local council seats. The elections marked the first time that voters outside of Tbilisi could directly elect mayors of cities and heads of municipal districts.

B. Political Pluralism and Participation: 11 / 16 (+1)

Georgian political life is vibrant, and people are generally able to form political parties and assert their own candidacies with little interference. Electoral law, however, prohibits parties from forming "according to a regional or territorial principle," a significant limitation for ethnic minority groups whose populations are concentrated in southern Georgia.

Former president Mikheil Saakashvili's UNM party dominated Georgian politics from 2004 to 2012, when it lost parliamentary control to the Georgian Dream coalition. Georgian Dream has since seated three prime ministers: Ivanishvili from November 2012 until his resignation a year later; Irakli Garibashvili, who replaced Ivanishvili but resigned in 2015; and Giorgi Kvirikashvili, who replaced Garibashvili. Both Kvirikashvili and Garibashvili have served on the executive board of Ivanishvili's Cartu Bank in the past.

The popularity of the Georgian Dream has shown signs of decline, however, and in 2014, the Free Democrats abandoned the coalition. The UNM continues to be the dominant opposition force, but its appeal is weakened by the legacy of the Saakashvili administration, particularly its heavy-handed use of financial investigation services and alleged high-level corruption. A number of challenger parties have made headway in this environment, including the pro-Russian United Opposition, led by former parliamentary speaker Nino Burjanadze. Another party, the Alliance of Patriots, which is skeptical of deepening ties with Western institutions like the EU and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), gained enough votes in the 2014 local elections to qualify for public election funds.

The Georgian Orthodox Church retains an influential role in the country, and there are reports of Russian efforts to fund political opposition and of the proliferation of pro-Russian nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and media. However, domestic political forces and the electorate are largely able to exercise freedom of choice and pursue their political interests without interference.

Ethnic minorities are underrepresented in elected positions, and few opposition parties address ethnic minority needs specifically. As of 2015, Parliament included three legislators of ethnic Armenian origin, three of Azeri origin, and one of Ossetian origin.

C. Functioning of the Government: 7 / 12

Institutionally, the dual executive authority in Georgia provides foreign policy and security powers to the president. In 2015, a rivalry persisted between President Margvelashvili and Prime Minister Garibashvili, both members of the Georgian Dream. Margvelashvili criticized Garibashvili's management, decried lack of accountability and overlapping authority enabled by Georgia's government system, and also targeted former prime minister Ivanishvili, accusing him of covertly dominating the political process after leaving office. Ivanishvili was instrumental in advancing the Georgian Dream's development and 2012 parliamentary victory, and the extent of his influence on elected officials remained subject to speculation in 2015.

Although petty corruption has been largely eliminated in recent years, a number of broader problems exist. Parliament has limited oversight capabilities, and existing anticorruption bodies remain inefficient. In a December 2015 report, the local chapter of Transparency International noted that regulation of conflicts of interest remains weak, and that the majority of state agencies have no mechanisms for the protection of whistleblowers, even when required to do so by law. A number of recent corruption cases against UNM politicians have led to questions about political influence on anticorruption mechanisms. In a high-profile case in September 2015, a Tbilisi court found Gigi Ugulava, former mayor of the capital, guilty of misuse of public funds and sentenced him to four and a half years in prison. Georgia ranked 52 out of 168 countries and territories in Transparency International's 2015 Corruption Perceptions Index.

Government transparency has shown signs of improvement in recent years. According to the Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI), a Georgian NGO, government bodies responded to 86 percent of information requests between January and November 2015.

Civil Liberties: 37 / 60 (-1)

D. Freedom of Expression: 11 / 16 (-1)

Georgian media are relatively free from censorship and direct political control, and the media environment has become significantly more pluralistic in recent years, in part because of "must carry, must offer" requirement introduced for cable providers in 2012. However, a number of developments have called into question the vulnerability of independent media to undue pressure. In June 2015, Parliament passed a law against the incitement to violence criminalizing any form of expression that causes discord and poses an "obvious, direct, and substantive threat." The initial language of the bill was revised following criticism by human rights groups  in particular, the proposed penalty of imprisonment was reduced to a fine except in cases leading to death or other extreme consequences. Nevertheless, opponents of the legislation maintained that it could be used to curtail freedoms of speech and the press.

Rustavi 2, the largest opposition television channel in Georgia, faced a severe financial crisis due to a court decision in August to freeze its assets amid an ownership dispute between former and current shareholders. In November, the Tbilisi City Court appointed two temporary administrators to Rustavi 2, dismissing the station's director general and chief financial officer. While the role of the government in the dispute remained subject to speculation, media groups voiced concerns about judicial irregularities in the handling of the case as well as negative rhetoric about the outlet by Georgian Dream members.

The Georgian constitution guarantees freedom of religion but grants unique privileges to the Georgian Orthodox Church, including immunity for its patriarch. Georgia's religious minorities  among them Jehovah's Witnesses, Baptists, Pentecostals, and Muslims  have reported discrimination and hostility, including from Georgian Orthodox priests and adherents, and are insufficiently protected by the state.

Academic freedom is generally respected.

Public concerns about government surveillance increased in 2015. The Law on Personal Data Protection, which enables security services to conduct electronic surveillance with permission from the judiciary and a specially appointed inspector, came into force in March. Privacy watchdogs and other NGOs claimed that the law was too permissive and granted the government excessive access to data, noting that it did not require permission for monitoring internet data. In July, Parliament adopted legislation for the creation of a new surveillance agency, the Security Service of Georgia, which was launched the following month. Local watchdogs decried the law for granting the agency excessive power, and Georgia's ombudsman voiced concerns about weak oversight of its activities.

E. Associational and Organizational Rights: 8 / 12

Freedom of assembly is generally respected. In May, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights groups held rallies under heavy security and without reported incidents. Protestors led by Georgian Orthodox priests had injured participants in LGBT marches in 2012 and 2013, and no events had been held in 2014.

The civil society sector has grown significantly in recent years, but is concentrated in the capital. Parliament has institutionalized regular meetings with Georgian NGOs.

Workers are allowed to organize, but trade unions remain weak. Legislators adopted a new labor code in 2013 with additional protections for workers' rights.

F. Rule of Law: 8 / 16

Executive and legislative interference in the judiciary remains a substantial problem, although judicial transparency and accountability have improved in recent years, in part due to increased media access to courtrooms. Jury trials are only held for certain crimes in Tbilisi, Batumi, and Kutaisi, and legislators have debated postponing plans to expand the jury trial system to the rest of the country. Human rights organizations have consistently criticized prosecutors' practice of repeatedly filing new charges against detainees to prolong their time in pretrial detention, an act made possible by a discrepancy between the criminal code and the constitution. In September 2015, in a case brought by Ugulava, the Constitutional Court found the practice to be unconstitutional, ruling that pretrial detentions must not exceed the constitutional limit of nine months. Ugulava was among many former UNM officials to face criminal charges since 2012, which has raised questions about political influence on the prosecutorial process. However, a mixture of acquittals and convictions as well as the September 2015 Constitutional Court ruling have suggested a notable degree of independence in the judiciary's handling of the cases.

Human rights watchdogs and the ombudsman continued to urge the government to adequately investigate allegations of police abuse. In 2015, some members of the security forces faced disciplinary measures or prosecution for excessive use of force. In December, prosecutors charged former deputy minister of defense Davit Akhalaia and former chief of the military police Megis Kardava, among others, with illegal imprisonment and torture, accusing them of beating and abusing a suspect in order to force a confession; the case was ongoing at year's end. Separately, in November, a Tbilisi court found a detective guilty of the premeditated murder of a human rights activist who had been critical of police violence, sentencing him to 20 years in prison.

In 2014, Georgia passed an antidiscrimination law providing protection against discrimination on the basis of various factors, including race, gender, age, sexual orientation, and gender identity. However, enforcement remains uneven.

G. Personal Autonomy and Individual Rights: 10 / 16

Freedom of domestic movement and international travel are respected, and individuals have the freedom to choose their place of residence without interference.

The Heritage Foundation's Index of Economic Freedom ranked Georgia 22 of 178 countries in 2015, noting the regulatory ease of registering a business and recent government efforts to eradicate corruption. However, protections for property rights remain weak. Hundreds of complaints of illegal confiscation of private property have been filed in recent years, predominantly regarding decisions made during the UNM era. Although a special agency was charged with handling these claims in 2015, officials noted that there was an extensive backlog of cases at year's end.

Domestic violence remains a problem, though investigations and prosecutions of such incidents have increased. Employer discrimination against women is common, as are reports of sexual harassment, which is not explicitly prohibited by law.

Georgia is a source, destination, and transit country for human trafficking linked to sexual exploitation and forced labor. According to the U.S. State Department's 2015 Trafficking in Persons Report, the government does not meet the minimum requirements for the elimination of trafficking, but enhanced the resources and capacity of bodies devoted to the issue in 2015.

Copyright notice:  Freedom House, Inc.  All Rights Reserved
Freedom in the World 2016 - Gambia, The

Publisher Freedom House Publication Date 14 July 2016 Cite as Freedom House, Freedom in the World 2016 - Gambia, The, 14 July 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57985a316.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.

Freedom Status: Not Free

Aggregate Score: 18

Freedom Rating: 6.5

Political Rights: 7

Civil Liberties: 6

Ratings Change:

The Gambia's political rights rating declined from 6 to 7 due to an amendment to the electoral laws that significantly increased the registration fees for candidacy in presidential, legislative, and local elections, adding to the impediments that opposition candidates already faced in the country's repressive political environment.

Quick Facts

Capital: Banjul

Population: 2,021,893

GDP/capita: $418.60

Press Freedom Status: Not Free

Net Freedom Status: Not Free

OVERVIEW

The regime of President Yahya Jammeh tightened legal restrictions on the beleaguered opposition during 2015. With a presidential election due in 2016, the parliament, dominated the ruling Alliance for Patriotic Reorientation and Construction (APRC), passed legislation in July that dramatically raised the registration deposits required for presidential, legislative, mayoral, and local council candidates.

Jammeh pardoned over 300 prisoners in mid-2015 during the month of Ramadan. Although more than a dozen political prisoners were among those released, others remained behind bars at year's end, including members of the opposition United Democratic Party (UDP). The president also further undermined the independence of the judiciary by forcing out three Supreme Court judges in May and June following rulings that favored former military commanders accused of involvement in 2006 and 2009 coup plots.

Security forces continued to harass journalists and opposition activists in 2015, and Jammeh repeated his public threats against LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) people. At the end of the year, the parliament passed a law that banned female genital mutilation.

POLITICAL RIGHTS AND CIVIL LIBERTIES

Political Rights: 5 / 40 (-2)

A. Electoral Process: 1 / 12 (-1)

The president is elected by popular vote and is eligible for an unlimited number of five-year terms. Elections are violent and rigged. Before the 2011 presidential poll, which featured deadly clashes between government supporters and opponents, the Independent Electoral Commission failed to share the electoral register with opposition parties, shortened the campaign period, and hampered opposition campaigns. Jammeh secured his fourth term with 72 percent of the vote; opposition parties rejected the results as fraudulent.

Of the 53 members of the unicameral National Assembly, 48 are elected by popular vote, with the remainder appointed by the president; members serve five-year terms. Six of seven opposition parties boycotted the 2012 legislative elections after demands for electoral reform were rejected. The APRC won 43 elected seats. African Union observers noted a "gross imbalance" between the resources of the ARPC and other parties, and the presence of security personnel and traditional chiefs in polling stations. The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) refused to send observers.

In July 2015, the parliament passed amendments to the election law that increased the registration deposit for presidential candidates from 10,000 dalasi to 500,000 dalasi ($12,000), a considerable sum given the average annual income of just $450. The amounts required from National Assembly and mayoral candidates were raised to 50,000 dalasi, and the sum for local council candidates was increased to 10,000 dalasi. Jammeh also rejected ECOWAS's proposed two-term limit for presidents in West Africa as the country prepared for a presidential election in 2016.

B. Political Pluralism and Participation: 4 / 16 (-1)

Jammeh and the APRC dominate politics, and the politicized security forces suppress the opposition. Although Jammeh pardoned over 300 prisoners in mid-2015, political opponents who remained incarcerated included the UDP's national treasurer and two other UDP members. The three were convicted of sedition in 2013 and have allegedly been tortured in custody.

The July 2015 election law amendments imposed prohibitive new registration requirements on political parties. Most notably, parties must deposit over $12,000; gather the signatures of 10,000 registered voters, up from 500; ensure that all executive members live in The Gambia, and hold biannual congresses.

Members of Jammeh's minority Jola ethnic group hold important positions in the government, and the dominance of the APRC limits the extent to which any group can participate and advocate for its interests in the political system.

C. Functioning of Government: 0 / 12

The president, who is not freely elected, exercises most control over decision making, and government operations in general are opaque. Official corruption remains a serious problem, and reports of state officials participating in drug trafficking have been numerous. In February 2015, Jammeh told the National Assembly that an anticorruption commission formally established under a 2012 law would soon be fully operational. The Gambia was ranked 123 out of 168 countries and territories assessed in Transparency International's 2015 Corruption Perceptions Index.

Civil Liberties: 13 / 60

D. Freedom of Expression and Belief: 3 / 16

Laws on sedition give the government discretion in silencing dissent, and independent media outlets and journalists are subject to harassment, arrest, and violence. There are harsh criminal penalties for use of the internet to criticize government officials and providing "false information" to a public servant. Journalists are often jailed without charge for longer than the 72 hours allowed by law.

State-run outlets dominate the media landscape. Ownership of private television stations is prohibited, but a small number of privately owned newspapers and radio stations operate. Many opposition and news websites are blocked. Alagie Ceesay, director of Taranga FM, was detained for one day in January 2015 following a failed December 2014 coup, and was released with instructions to air only music and no news. The station eventually resumed regular coverage. Ceesay was then abducted by suspected government agents in July, detained by the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) later that month, and charged in August with sedition for allegedly sharing an anti-Jammeh photograph via mobile phone. Separately in July, staff writers for the Voice newspaper were summoned by the NIA, photographed, and interrogated for several hours. The paper had recently come under pressure from its printer over its coverage of the opposition and human rights issues.

Religious freedom is generally protected. However, the authorities occasionally target Muslim groups or clerics who depart from practices condoned by the Supreme Islamic Council, which has close ties to the government. Religious instruction in schools is mandatory.

Academic freedom is severely limited at the University of The Gambia, with security forces on campus and political activities discouraged. The APRC controls curriculum decisions and appointments. Sait Matty Jaw, a history lecturer who had been arrested and charged with conspiracy in 2014 based on his research and advocacy on women's rights, was acquitted in April 2015, but the government said it would appeal.

Free and open private discussion has been steadily eroded over the past decade by credible fears of government surveillance and retaliation.

E. Associational and Organizational Rights: 3 / 12

Freedoms of assembly and association are legally protected but constrained by state intimidation. While legal requirements for holding peaceful assemblies are not extremely onerous, meetings using public announcement systems require registration. The UDP sought such registration for a series of campaign events across the country in April 2015, but the police delayed replying until the eve of the tour. When UDP members proceeded without a public announcement system, police physically blocked their movements in a tense standoff for four days before issuing a permit.

Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in the country operate under constant threat of reprisals and detention. Workers  except for civil servants, household workers, and security forces  can form unions, strike, and bargain for wages under the law, but the labor minister has the discretion to exclude other categories of workers.

F. Rule of Law: 1 / 16

Although the constitution guarantees an independent judiciary, Jammeh selects and dismisses judges. In May 2015, the chief justice of the Supreme Court, a Pakistani national, reportedly resigned under pressure and was forced to leave the country after the court acquitted or commuted the death sentences of several former military commanders who had been convicted in connection with coup plots from 2006 and 2009. The president dismissed two other Supreme Court judges, apparently for similar reasons, in June. Separately, in March, two officers and a soldier were given death sentences and three other officers were sentenced to life in prison following a secret trial for their alleged role in the December 2014 coup attempt. Dozens of family members of suspected 2014 coup plotters were also detained through early 2015, with some held for nearly six months.

The judicial system recognizes customary and Islamic law, primarily for personal status and family matters. Impunity for the security forces is a problem. The NIA is authorized to search, arrest, or seize any person or property without a warrant in the name of state security. Prisons are overcrowded and unsanitary, and torture is reportedly common.

The Gambia's ethnic groups coexist in relative harmony, though Jammeh is accused of giving preferential treatment to the Jola, whose presence in the army reportedly increased after the 2014 coup attempt.

Consensual same-sex sexual relationships are a criminal offense. Even an attempted sex act can draw seven years in prison, and defendants with repeat offenses or who are HIV positive face life imprisonment for "aggravated homosexuality." In May 2015, Jammeh gave a speech in which he threatened to slit the throats of gay men.

G. Personal Autonomy and Individual Rights: 6 / 16

State employees must obtain permission from the administration to travel abroad, and it is a criminal offense to abscond while on government business in another country. Freedom of movement is also impaired by security checkpoints. Some of the numerous checkpoints set up after the 2014 coup remained in place in early 2015.

Property rights are not secure. Village chiefs allocate land for various uses, but poor record keeping and high rates of turnover in village hierarchies foster land disputes and confusion about ownership and leases. Problems with due process related to the illegal seizure of land also persist. Regulatory hurdles impede the establishment and operation of businesses.

Women enjoy less access to higher education and employment than men. Sharia provisions on family law and inheritance discriminate against women. Rape and domestic violence are common, despite laws prohibiting them. Female genital mutilation is widespread in The Gambia, though a law passed in December 2015 criminalized the practice.

Although child labor and forced labor are illegal, women and children are subject to sex trafficking, domestic servitude, and forced begging. The government does little to prosecute offenders or identify and protect victims of human trafficking in the country.

Copyright notice:  Freedom House, Inc.  All Rights Reserved
Freedom in the World 2016 - Ethiopia

Publisher Freedom House Publication Date 14 July 2016 Cite as Freedom House, Freedom in the World 2016 - Ethiopia, 14 July 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57985a329.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.

Freedom Status: Not Free

Aggregate Score: 15

Freedom Rating: 6.5

Political Rights: 7

Civil Liberties: 6

Ratings Change:

Ethiopia's political rights rating declined from 6 to 7 due to the government's systematic constriction of political space surrounding the May parliamentary elections. The ruling party took all the seats in the lower house, the preelection period was marked by the detention and arrest of opposition members, and discrimination against and harassment of Muslims and the Oromo population limited their participation in the political process.

Quick Facts

Capital: Addis Ababa

Population: 98,148,000

GDP/capita: $565.20

Press Freedom Status: Not Free

Net Freedom Status: Not Free

OVERVIEW

In 2015, Ethiopia held its first parliamentary elections since the death of longtime Prime Minister Meles Zenawi in 2012. The ruling party and its allies won 100 percent of the seats, eliminating the token opposition member elected in 2010. Opposition party members were intimidated, detained, beaten, and arrested in the run-up to the polls.

Five journalists with the Zone 9 blogging collective, which is known for coverage of governance and human rights issues, were acquitted of terrorism charges in October 2015 after spending a year and a half in prison, though prosecutors later appealed their acquittals. Charges against two other Zone 9 bloggers and three associated journalists were dropped in July; the same month, journalist Reeyot Alemu was released from prison. Nevertheless, harassment, arrests, and prosecutions of opposition figures and journalists continued. Notably, in August, courts convicted 17 participants in the landmark 2012 protests staged by members of Ethiopia's Muslim community, as well as a journalist with a Muslim newspaper, on terrorism charges; their sentences ranged from 7 to 22 years.

Protests over a controversial government plan to cede parts of Oromia State to the federal capital region of Addis Ababa resumed in November 2015, and human rights groups reported more than 75 people were killed in clashes between demonstrators and Ethiopian security forces. In December, Ethiopian authorities called the mostly peaceful protesters "terrorists," and authorized the Anti-Terror Task Force, a military body, to respond to them. Prominent Oromo opposition leaders, scores of protesters, and at least one journalist were arrested in connection with the demonstrations.

Tensions between Ethiopia and Eritrea heightened in 2015, and formal dialogue remains frozen. Border clashes occurred in July, and the Ethiopian Federal Police reported that 30 "infiltrators" were killed or captured. The Ethiopian-Eritrean border remains highly militarized, and reports that U.S.-based opposition leader Berhanu Nega (deemed a terrorist by Ethiopia for his affiliation with banned group Ginbot 7) planned to travel to Eritrea to lead a rebellion strained relations further. In July, Ethiopian prime minister Hailemariam Desalegn threatened "appropriate action" if Eritrea continued supporting actors trying to destabilize Ethiopia. Meanwhile, on-again, off-again peace talks between the government and the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF), a separatist group that has fought for independence since 1991, continued in Nairobi, Kenya. Two ONLF negotiators allegedly abducted while in Nairobi were released by Ethiopian authorities in June.

POLITICAL RIGHTS AND CIVIL LIBERTIES

Political Rights: 4 / 40 (-3)

A. Electoral Process: 1 / 12

Ethiopia's bicameral parliament is made up of a 153-seat upper house, the House of Federation, and a 547-seat lower house, the House of People's Representatives. The lower house is filled through popular elections, while the upper chamber is selected by state legislatures; members of both houses serve five-year terms. While the lower house's seats are equal to a fixed number of constituencies, the upper house's seats are adjusted in proportion with the population. The lower house selects the prime minister, who holds most executive power. The president, a largely ceremonial figure, serves up to two six-year terms and is indirectly elected by both houses. Hailemariam has served as prime minister since 2012, and Mulatu Teshome as president since 2013.

As in past contests, Ethiopia's 2015 parliamentary and regional elections were tightly controlled by the ruling coalition, the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), with reports of voter coercion, intimidation, and barriers to registration. Elections were held on time, and official results were released within a month.

The opposition lost their sole seat in parliament, as the EPRDF and its allies took all 547 seats in the lower house. Both the opposition party coalition Medrek and the Semayawi Party, also known as the Blue Party, voiced serious concerns about the ruling party's behavior leading up to and on election day, and ultimately rejected the election's results.

The African Union (AU) was the only international organization to send election observers to Ethiopia's 2015 contest. (The European Union was not invited to observe, its officials said in February, noting that the EPRDF had rejected recommendations it issued following the 2010 elections.) The AU declared elections "peaceful and credible," but noted irregularities including voter coercion and inconsistent poll hours.

B. Political Pluralism and Participation: 0 / 16 (-2)

Opponents of the EPRDF find it nearly impossible to operate inside Ethiopia. In the lead-up to the May 2015 elections, opposition party members were intimidated, detained, beaten, and arrested. The Semayawi Party reported that more than 50 of its members were arrested ahead of the polls. Three opposition members were killed in the aftermath of the elections, though the Ethiopian government denies opposition claims that the killings were politically motivated. Eighteen Semayawi Party members were arrested in July for planning a demonstration to take place during U.S. president Barack Obama's visit to Ethiopia later that month.

Both the Unity for Democracy and Justice Party, formerly represented by one seat in parliament, and the Semayawi Party alleged that the EPRDF used procedural technicalities to block their candidates' registration. Nearly half of Semayawi candidates were deregistered on administrative grounds, a decision the opposition group pointed to as evidence of government repression. The opposition repeatedly questioned the independence of the National Electoral Board of Ethiopia. Separately, in the wake of the December 2015 Oromo protests, leaders of the opposition Oromo Federalist Congress were arrested on suspicion of inciting violence.

Political parties in Ethiopia are often ethnically based. The country's major ethnic parties are allied with the EPRDF, but have no room to effectively advocate for their constituents. The EPRDF coalition is comprised of four political parties and represents several ethnic groups. The government favors Tigrayan ethnic interests in economic and political matters, and the Tigrayan People's Liberation Front dominates the EPRDF. The 1995 constitution grants the right of secession to ethnically based states, but the government acquired powers in 2003 to intervene in states' affairs on issues of public security. Secessionist movements in Oromia and the Ogaden have largely failed after being put down by the military.

C. Functioning of Government: 3 / 12 (-1)

Ethiopia's governance institutions are dominated by the EPRDF, which controlled the succession process following Meles' death in 2012. The EPRDF continues its tight hold on Ethiopian politics under Hailemariam, who was reelected as party chair in August 2015 at the EPRDF's annual congress.

Corruption remains a significant problem in Ethiopia. EPRDF officials reportedly receive preferential access to credit, land leases, and jobs. Petty corruption extends to lower-level officials, who solicit bribes in return for processing documents. In response to a 2013 World Bank study detailing the country's corruption, the Federal Ethics & Anti-Corruption Commission made a string of high-profile arrests of prominent government officials and businessmen throughout 2013 and 2014, resulting in several convictions. In May 2015, the Ethiopian parliament removed two federal judges from the bench in connection with past corruption convictions. Despite cursory legislative improvements, enforcement of corruption-related laws remains lax in practice. Ethiopia was ranked 103 out of 168 countries and territories by Transparency International's 2015 Corruption Perceptions Index.

Civil Liberties: 11 / 40

D. Freedom of Expression and Belief: 3 / 16

Ethiopia's media are dominated by state-owned broadcasters and government-oriented newspapers. Privately owned papers tend to steer clear of political issues and have low circulation, and journalists operating inside the country practice self-censorship. Defamation is a criminal offense, and a 2008 media law increased fines for defamation and allows prosecutors to pursue cases without complaints from aggrieved parties. The law also allows prosecutors to seize material before publication in the name of national security.

According to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), Ethiopia holds at least 10 journalists behind bars  the second-highest number of jailed journalists in sub-Saharan Africa after Eritrea as of December 2015. Restrictions are particularly tight on journalists perceived to be sympathetic to protests by the Muslim community, and journalists attempting to cover such events are routinely detained or arrested. In August 2015, Yusuf Getachew, arrested while covering the 2012 Muslim protests as editor of Ye Muslimoch Guday magazine, was convicted on terrorism charges and sentenced to seven years in prison. A terrorism case against Yusuf's colleague, Solomon Kebede, was ongoing at the year's end. Oromo Radio and TV anchor Fikadu Mirkana was arrested in December 2015 for unknown reasons, though the channel had been airing stories about the outbreak of the Oromo protests.

Those reporting on opposition activities face harassment and the threat of prosecution under Ethiopia's sweeping 2009 antiterrorism law. Since 2011, at least 15 journalists have been convicted under its provisions. In July 2015, the government released five journalists and bloggers, two of them associated with the Zone 9 collective, and dropped the incitement and terrorism charges levied against them. A day later, the government released journalist Reeyot Alemu, who was convicted in 2011 of "planning and promoting a terror attack" and originally sentenced to 14 years in prison, though that was later reduced to five on appeal. Reeyot had nearly served her full term when released. In October 2015, the remaining Zone 9 members originally arrested in 2014 were acquitted of terrorism charges, though one, Befekadu Hailu, still faced separate charges of inciting violence at the year's end. At the end of December, prosecutors appealed the acquittal and summoned the bloggers back to court. Negere Ethiopia editor-in-chief Getachew Shiferaw was also arrested in late December; observers expected him to be charged under the antiterrorism law. Print editions of that paper, affiliated with the Semayawi Party, have been shut down, though it continues to publish online.

Due to the risks of operating inside the country, many Ethiopian journalists work in exile. According to CPJ, 34 Ethiopian journalists went into exile between June 2014 and May 2015, a sharp increase from previous years. Authorities use high-tech jamming equipment to filter and block news websites seen as pro-opposition. According to Human Rights Watch (HRW), since 2010 the Ethiopian government has developed a robust and sophisticated internet and mobile framework to monitor journalists and opposition groups, block access to unwanted websites or critical television and radio programs, and collect evidence for prosecutions in politically motivated trials. In 2015, leaked emails from the Italian company Hacking Team revealed that Ethiopia was paying for its surveillance tools as late as March 2015, some of which targeted Ethiopians in the diaspora. The Ethiopian government denies that Hacking Team's surveillance software is used to illegally target journalists and opposition leaders. Hacking Team later in 2015 said it had severed its relationship with Ethiopian authorities.

The constitution guarantees religious freedom, but the government has increasingly harassed the Muslim community, which comprises about 34 percent of the population. (About 44 percent of people in Ethiopia are Orthodox Christian, while about 19 percent are Protestant.) In August 2015, 18 Muslim activists (including Getachew) who were arrested following the 2012 protests over alleged government involvement in the Muslim community's affairs were sentenced to prison terms of between 7 and 22 years on terrorism charges. The activists maintain their innocence. Also in August, authorities arrested another 20 people and charged them with promoting an extremist Islamic ideology and of attempting to topple the government and establish a new one based in Sharia (Islamic law).

Academic freedom is often restricted in Ethiopia. The government has accused universities of being pro-opposition and prohibits political activities on campuses. There are reports of students being pressured into joining the EPRDF in order to secure employment or places at universities; professors are similarly pressured in order to ensure favorable positions or promotions. The Ministry of Education closely monitors and regulates official curricula, and the research, speech, and assembly of both professors and students are frequently restricted.

The presence of the EPRDF at all levels of society  directly and, increasingly, electronically  inhibits free private discussion. Many people are wary of speaking against the government. The EPRDF maintains a network of paid informants, and opposition politicians have accused the government of tapping their phones.

E. Associational and Organizational Rights: 0 / 12

Freedoms of assembly and association are guaranteed by the constitution but limited in practice. Organizers of large public meetings must request permission from the authorities 48 hours in advance. Applications by opposition groups are routinely denied and, in cases when approved, organizers are subject to government meddling to move dates or locations. Since 2011, ongoing peaceful demonstrations held by members of the Muslim community have been met with violent responses from security forces.

In April 2015, tens of thousands of people turned out to mourn 30 Ethiopian migrants murdered by the Islamic State militant group in Libya. The demonstration included Ethiopians frustrated with the government, and clashes between protesters and police broke out following pro-EPRDF speeches. The Ethiopian government blamed the chaos on the Semayawi Party, who reported that their members were detained and beaten by security forces. At least 100 people were reportedly arrested in the demonstrations' aftermath.

Demonstrations erupted in November 2015 after land was cleared for an investment project linked to the controversial Addis Ababa Master Plan, which envisioned the expansion of the capital into parts of Oromia State. Protests quickly spread throughout the region, and clashes between demonstrators and the police left at least five dead, according to the government. Activists allege that as many as 75 people were killed after security forces used excessive force against protesters  firing live ammunition, beating protesters, and detaining hundreds without charge, sometimes during late-night home raids. While some protesters were responsible for property damage (in at least one case burning down a police station), the government alleged that they were also linked with terror groups, and dispatched the Anti-Terror Task Force to combat them.

The 2009 Charities and Societies Proclamation restricts the activities of foreign nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) by prohibiting work on political and human rights issues. Foreign NGOs are defined as groups receiving more than 10 percent of their funding from abroad, a classification that includes most domestic organizations as well. The law also limits the amount of money any NGO can spend on "administration," a controversial category that has included activities such as teacher or health-worker training. Since the law's approval, the government has amended the "administration" category so that salaries, transport, and training costs would not be considered administrative expenses; however, some NGOs have reported that the directive is not being implemented. NGOs have struggled to maintain operations as a result of the law.

Trade union rights are tightly restricted. Neither civil servants nor teachers have collective bargaining rights. All unions must be registered, and the government retains the authority to cancel registration. Two-thirds of union members belong to organizations affiliated with the Confederation of Ethiopian Trade Unions, which is under government influence. Independent unions face harassment, and trade union leaders are regularly imprisoned. There has not been a legal strike since 1993.

F. Rule of Law: 3 / 16

The judiciary is officially independent, but its judgments rarely deviate from government policy. The 2009 antiterrorism law gives great discretion to security forces, allowing the detention of suspects for up to four months without charge. Conditions in Ethiopia's prisons are harsh, and detainees frequently report abuse. CPJ and Ethiopian sources reported that former Feteh editor Temesgen Desalegn, who was convicted on defamation charges in 2014 and sentenced to three years in prison, has been denied medical care and family visits.

Yemen's June 2014 arrest and extradition of British citizen Andargachew Tsige to Ethiopia at the government's request sparked outrage from human rights groups. Andargachew is secretary general of the banned opposition group Ginbot 7, and was sentenced to death in absentia in 2009 and again in 2012 for allegedly plotting to kill government officials. As of 2015 he remains detained in solitary confinement at an undisclosed location in Ethiopia, according to the British government, which continues to be denied access to him.

The federal government generally has strong control and direction over the military, though forces such as the Liyu Police in Somali Region sometimes operate independently.

Repression of the Oromo and ethnic Somalis, and government attempts to co-opt their political parties into EPRDF allies, have fueled nationalism in the Oromia and Ogaden regions. Persistent claims that government troops in the Ogaden have committed war crimes are difficult to verify, as independent media are barred from the region.

Same-sex sexual activity is prohibited by law and punishable by up to 15 years' imprisonment.

G. Personal Autonomy and Individual Rights: 5 / 16

While Ethiopia's constitution establishes freedom of movement, insecurity  particularly in eastern Ethiopia  prevents unrestricted movement into affected sites.

Private business opportunities are limited by rigid state control of economic life and the prevalence of state-owned enterprises. All land must be leased from the state. The government has evicted indigenous groups from various areas to make way for projects such as hydroelectric dams. It has also leased large tracts of land to foreign governments and investors for agricultural development in opaque deals that have displaced thousands of Ethiopians. Indian firms have leased the majority of land available to foreign firms; that amount is reported to be more than 3.5 million hectares (13,500 square miles). Up to 70,000 people have been forced to move from the western Gambella region, although the government denies the resettlement plans are connected to land investments. Similar evictions have taken place in Lower Omo Valley, where government-run sugar plantations and hydroelectric dams have put thousands of pastoralists at risk by diverting their water supplies. Journalists and international organizations have persistently alleged that the government withholds development assistance from villages perceived as being unfriendly to the ruling party.

Women are relatively well represented in parliament, holding nearly 39 percent of seats in the lower house, 32 percent in the upper house, and four ministerial posts. Legislation protects women's rights, but these rights are routinely violated in practice. Enforcement of the law against rape and domestic abuse is patchy, and cases routinely stall in the courts. Female genital mutilation and forced child marriage are technically illegal, though there has been little effort to prosecute perpetrators. Ethiopia has made some progress in recent years implementing its National Action Plan to Eliminate the Worst Forms of Child Labor. However, many children continue to work in dangerous sectors and lack access to basic education and services. In September 2015, Ethiopia charged three men with smuggling after a number of Ethiopian migrants died  including those killed by the Islamic State in Libya  while trying to reach Europe.

Copyright notice:  Freedom House, Inc.  All Rights Reserved
Freedom in the World 2016 - Eritrea

Publisher Freedom House Publication Date 14 July 2016 Cite as Freedom House, Freedom in the World 2016 - Eritrea, 14 July 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57985a33c.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.

Freedom Status: Not Free

Aggregate Score: 3

Freedom Rating: 7.0

Political Rights: 7

Civil Liberties: 7

Quick Facts

Capital: Asmara

Population: 5,200,000

GDP/capita: $754.90

Press Freedom Status: Not Free

Net Freedom Status: N/A

OVERVIEW

International pressure increased on Eritrea's authoritarian government with the publication of a damning report by the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in June 2015. The report concluded that "systematic, widespread and gross human rights violations" were being committed by the government and suggested that some of the abuses could constitute crimes against humanity.

The number of Eritreans attempting to flee repression has reached unprecedented levels. The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) estimated that 5,000 people made the journey each month during 2015, placing their lives in the hands of people traffickers. Many headed for Europe. According to the European Union (EU), about 37,000 Eritrean refugees claimed asylum in 2014 and more than 12,000 additional refugees claimed asylum in the first half of 2015.

Under increased scrutiny, the regime of President Isaias Afwerki made tentative moves to end Eritrea's international isolation. Journalists from the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) were invited into the country, though their movements were tightly restricted. Talks began with the EU on ways to reduce the flow of migrants out of Eritrea, with an aid package worth 200 million euros ($227 million) being offered.

POLITICAL RIGHTS AND CIVIL LIBERTIES

Political Rights: 1 / 40

A. Electoral Process: 0 / 12

Following Eritrea's formal independence from Ethiopia in 1993, a Transitional National Assembly chose Afwerki to serve as president until elections could be held. He has remained in charge ever since. His rule has become harshly authoritarian, particularly since the end of a bloody border war with Ethiopia in 2000.

A new constitution, ratified in 1997, called for "conditional" political pluralism and an elected 150-seat National Assembly, which would choose the president from among its members by a majority vote. This system has never been implemented, and national elections planned for 2001 have been postponed indefinitely.

The Transitional National Assembly comprises 75 members of the ruling party  the People's Front for Democracy and Justice (PFDJ)  and 75 elected members. In 2004, regional assembly elections were conducted, but they were carefully orchestrated by the PFDJ and offered no real choice to voters.

B. Political Pluralism and Participation: 0 / 16

Created in 1994, the PFDJ is the only legal political party. The PFDJ and the military are in practice the only institutions of political significance in Eritrea, and both entities are strictly subordinate to the president. While certain ethnic minority groups in Eritrea face discrimination and oppression, members of minority groups do hold positions in the PFDJ, the military, and government.

C. Functioning of Government: 1 / 12

Corruption is a major problem. The government's control over foreign exchange effectively gives it sole authority over imports, and those in favor with the regime are allowed to profit from the smuggling and sale of scarce goods such as food, building materials, and alcohol. According to the International Crisis Group, senior military officials have profited from smuggling Eritreans out of the country, allegedly colluding with Sudanese paramilitary groups to capture escaped Eritreans and hold them hostage until their families pay ransom.

The government operates without public scrutiny, and few outside a small clique around the president have any insight into how policy and budget decisions are made or implemented.

Civil Liberties: 2 / 60

D. Freedom of Expression and Belief: 0 / 16

The government shut down the independent media in 2001, and controls all broadcasting outlets. However, in 2013 a dissident group began circulating an underground newspaper, Echoes of Forto, in Asmara, written by a team based inside and outside the country. The dissidents described the paper as a pilot project, but said they hoped to expand it. The United Nations has described Eritrea as the least connected country in the world. The government controls the internet infrastructure and is thought to monitor online communications, although only about 1 percent of the population can access the medium. Approximately 1 percent of the population has a landline and 7 percent have a mobile-phone subscription. Foreign media are available to those few who can afford a satellite dish. Six journalists from government-controlled Radio Bana station who had been held without charge for almost six years were released in January 2015. However, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) estimated that 17 journalists remained in prison in Eritrea as of December 1, 2015, the highest number in sub-Saharan Africa.

The government places strict limits on the exercise of religion. Since 2002 it has officially recognized only four faiths: Islam, Orthodox Christianity, Roman Catholicism, and Lutheranism as practiced by the Evangelical Church of Eritrea. Members of evangelical and Pentecostal churches face persecution. Jehovah's Witnesses are barred from government jobs and refused business permits and identity cards. A UNHRC estimate from April 2015 said that 58 Jehovah's Witnesses were in prison for their beliefs. According to Amnesty International, members of other churches have been jailed and tortured or otherwise ill-treated to make them abandon their faiths. Abune Antonios, patriarch of the Eritrean Orthodox Church, has been under house arrest since speaking out against state interference in religion in 2006. The government has also interfered in the practice of Islam, appointing some muftis directly and imposing doctrine. Practicing religion during national military service is banned, including for religious leaders.

Academic freedom is constrained. Students in their last year of secondary school are subject to obligatory military service at Sawa Military Training Center, where conditions are harsh. Academics practice self-censorship and the government interferes with their course content and limits their ability to conduct research abroad. Eritrea's university system is effectively closed, replaced by regional colleges that primarily function as centers for military training and political indoctrination.

Freedom of expression in private discussions is limited. People are guarded in voicing their opinions for fear of being overheard by government informants. The surveillance network extends overseas, where members of the diaspora have faced intimidation and harassment from regime loyalists.

E. Associational and Organizational Rights: 0 / 12

Freedoms of assembly and association are not recognized. According to testimony provided to the United Nations, people congregating in groups of more than three or four risk arrest. The government maintains a hostile attitude toward civil society, and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) are allowed to engage only in humanitarian relief activities. A 2005 law requires NGOs to pay taxes on imported materials, submit project reports every three months, renew their licenses annually, and meet government-established target levels of financial resources. No international NGOs have worked in Eritrea since the last were forced to leave in 2011. The government placed strict controls on United Nations operations in the country, preventing staff from leaving the capital.

The government controls all union activity. The National Confederation of Eritrean Workers is the country's main union body and has affiliated unions for women, teachers, young people, and general workers.

F. Rule of Law: 0 / 16

The United Nations, in its June human rights report, said, "It is not law that rules Eritreans  it is fear." The judiciary, which was formed by decree in 1993, is understaffed, unprofessional, and does not issue rulings at odds with government positions. Most criminal cases are heard by the Special Court, composed of PFDJ loyalists chosen by the president. The International Crisis Group has described Eritrea as a "prison state" for its flagrant disregard of the rule of law and its willingness to detain anyone suspected of opposing the regime, usually without charge, for indefinite periods. According to the United Nations, most accused never get a court hearing and do not know why they have been detained. In 2013, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights reported that there were between 5,000 and 10,000 political prisoners in Eritrea. They include surviving members of a group from the ruling party who publicly criticized Afwerki in 2001 and a group of journalists detained the same year. Scores of people were arrested following a 2013 coup attempt, and no information has been released about them.

Torture, arbitrary detentions, enforced disappearances, and political arrests are common. Prison conditions are harsh, and outside monitors such as the International Committee of the Red Cross are denied access to detainees. Juvenile prisoners are often incarcerated alongside adults. In some facilities, inmates are held in metal shipping containers or underground cells in extreme temperatures. Prisoners are often denied medical treatment and many suffer poor physical health due to the overcrowded and unsanitary conditions in which they are held. The government maintains a network of secret detention facilities.

The pastoralist Kunama people, one of Eritrea's nine ethnic groups, face severe discrimination for allegedly collaborating with Ethiopia in the 1990s. According to the United Nations, they have been the victims of extrajudicial killings and have been denied access to their traditional land. Same-sex sexual relations are criminalized and LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) individuals face legal and social discrimination.

G. Personal Autonomy and Individual Rights: 2 / 16

Freedom of movement, both inside and outside the country, is tightly controlled. Eritreans under the age of 50 are rarely given permission to go abroad, and those who try to travel without the correct documents face imprisonment. According to Eritreans who fled abroad, citizens even require written permission to move around freely inside the country. The authorities have adopted a shoot-on-sight policy toward people found in locations deemed off-limits, such as mining facilities and areas close to the border. Eritrean refugees and asylum seekers who are repatriated from other countries are detained.

The United Nations reported that authorities in Eritrea had forcefully evicted thousands of residents from their homes by destroying the property without due process. The military, security forces and known government sympathizers face no consequences for such illegal acts as property seizure.

A conscription system ties most able-bodied men and women  even those under age 18  to obligatory military service and can also entail compulsory labor for enterprises controlled by the political elite. Testimony heard in a Canadian class-action lawsuit said conscripts were used in the construction of Eritrea's only commercial mining operation, partly owned by a Canadian company, Nevsun Resources Ltd. The official 18-month national service period is open-ended in practice, and conscientious-objector status is not recognized. The UNHRC describes this system as enslavement and concludes that through its system of open-ended conscription, the government "refuses to treat its citizens as human beings with rights, dignity and a free will."

The police frequently conduct round-ups of people thought to be evading national service; those who resist can be executed on the spot. The government imposes collective punishment on the families of deserters, forcing them to pay heavy fines and putting them in prison if they cannot pay. The government levies a compulsory 2 percent tax on income earned by citizens living overseas, and those who do not pay place their relatives in Eritrea at risk of arrest.

Women hold some senior government positions and some efforts have been made to promote women's rights, with laws mandating equal educational opportunity, equal pay for equal work, and penalties for domestic violence. However, traditional societal discrimination against women persists in the countryside. The government banned female genital mutilation in 2007, though the practice remains widespread in rural areas. Sexual abuse of women during military service is a serious problem.

The U.S. State Department's 2016 Trafficking in Persons Report expressed particular concern about forced labor among both residents in Eritrea and those fleeing the country, blaming the military's conscription policies and the government's tight control over travel.

Copyright notice:  Freedom House, Inc.  All Rights Reserved
Freedom in the World 2016 - El Salvador

Publisher Freedom House Publication Date 14 July 2016 Cite as Freedom House, Freedom in the World 2016 - El Salvador, 14 July 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57985a3511.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.

Freedom Status: Free

Aggregate Score: 69

Freedom Rating: 2.5

Political Rights: 2

Civil Liberties: 3

Trend Arrow: 

Trend Arrow:

El Salvador received a downward trend arrow due to flaws in the 2015 legislative elections and increasing criminal violence, including threats against journalists, teachers, and the general public.

Quick Facts

Capital: San Salvador

Population: 6,366,000

GDP/capita: $4,129.20

Press Freedom Status: Partly Free

Net Freedom Status: N/A

OVERVIEW

After an intense campaign focused on security and economic challenges, March legislative election results were split between the formerly dominant Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN) and the Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA). A complex new system for allocating seats contributed to delays in finalizing the tally.

Violence increased dramatically in 2015 as a result of conflict involving the Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13), the Barrio 18 gang, other criminal elements, and the country's security forces. The increased violence has affected nearly every facet of Salvadoran political, social, and economic life. With a tally of 6,650 murders  compared to 3,912 in 2014  El Salvador ended 2015 with the world's highest homicide rate.

The Salvadoran government continued to support a variety of initiatives to confront security problems in 2015 while distancing itself from a previous policy of dialogue with gangs.

POLITICAL RIGHTS AND CIVIL LIBERTIES

Political Rights: 33 / 40 (-2)

A. Electoral Process: 10 / 12 (-2)

El Salvador's president is elected for a five-year term. The 84-member, unicameral Legislative Assembly is elected for three years. Three candidates contended for the presidency in 2014: former guerilla Salvador Sanchez Ceren of the incumbent FMLN, Norman Quijano of ARENA, and former president Antonio Saca of the Grand Alliance for National Unity (GANA). Ceren defeated Quijano in a very close runoff held in March. Turnout was 60 percent. Although Quijano accused the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) of fraud, domestic and international observers considered the elections free and fair.

In March 2015 legislative elections, ARENA won a total of 35 seats, 32 on its own and 3 in coalition with the National Coalition Party (PCN); the PCN and the Christian Democratic Party (PDC), which also had a coalition bloc, won an additional 3 seats. The FMLN won 31 seats, and its traditional partner GANA took 11; the National Reconciliation Party won 4. Turnout was 48 percent. Technical problems that prevented the transmission of voting results to election headquarters delayed final vote tallies and the seating of the new legislature in May. A monitoring mission from the Organization of American States (OAS) declared the vote broadly transparent and free, though it pointed out difficulties in the counting of votes and transmission of results. Some vote buying was alleged in rural areas. Candidates from San Salvador disputed the results, prompting the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court to call for an unprecedented recount that did not affect the results but delayed the seating of 24 deputies.

In November 2014, three months before the election, the Constitutional Chamber ruled that voters could cast ballots for candidates from more than one political party (cross-voting); previously, voters selected a party rather than individual candidates. The OAS questioned whether the date of the decision allowed sufficient time for parties to adapt before the election. The Constitutional Chamber continued to issue decisions on voting rules as late as a week prior to the election, prompting accusations by the FMLN that the chamber's conservative majority was purposefully generating confusion that would disproportionately harm ruling-party candidates. Municipal council seats are now filled via proportional representation. Residential voting was extended to the entire country for the first time in the 2015 legislative and municipal elections.

B. Political Pluralism and Participation: 14 / 16

Since the end of the civil war in 1992, FMLN and ARENA have been the country's two largest political parties, though there is significant support for GANA. In 2014, the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court ruled that transfuguismo  the practice whereby deputies abandon the parties with which they are elected  was unconstitutional.

Some Salvadorans continue to express concern that foreign governments and multinational corporations exert excessive influence over decisions made by local and national government officials.

The newly elected legislature included no members who identified themselves as representatives of ethnic minorities or indigenous groups, nor do these populations hold high-level government positions. A 2013 statute requires that 30 percent of all legislative and municipal candidates be women.

C. Functioning of Government: 9 / 12

The Constitutional Chamber delayed the swearing in of the legislature to wait for a ballot recount, leading FMLN legislators to accuse the court of implementing a partisan agenda intended to favor the country's right wing.

El Salvador was ranked 72 out of 168 countries and territories surveyed in Transparency International's 2015 Corruption Perceptions Index. Corruption continues to be a serious problem, and few high-level public officials have been charged or convicted.

Salvadoran authorities are making limited progress in their prosecution of government officials with alleged ties to organized crime and other criminal elements. In September, a former colonel was arrested on multiple weapons possession and arms trafficking charges. In October, the Supreme Court of Justice for the first time ordered an investigation into a sitting congressman, Reynaldo Lopez Cardoza, on allegations of illicit enrichment. Despite these cases, the vast majority of crimes still go unpunished.

The Legislative Assembly passed a controversial Law on Integrity in December that requires public officials to declare their assets. The president signed the law later that month. Critics claimed the law failed to create a comprehensive framework to control corruption.

Journalists have condemned the government for failing to comply with an Access to Public Information Law passed in 2011 and regularly refusing to disclose information, often by citing supposed security concerns.



Civil Liberties: 36 / 60 (-4)

D. Freedom of Expression and Belief: 12 / 16 (-3)

The constitution provides for freedom of the press, and while this right is generally respected in practice, harassment following coverage of corruption and gang violence has increasingly led reporters to engage in self-censorship. For example, El Faro journalists were subject to death threats, illegal surveillance, and harassment following two July 2015 reports in which they accused police of abusing suspects in custody and unlawfully killing eight people. In April, President Sanchez accused the media of participating in a "psychological terror campaign" against his government after reporting on violent crime rates in the country. Like other news outlets in the region, the website of La Prensa Grafica was cloned and two fake interviews with its president were published in July.

Salvadoran media are privately owned, but ownership is confined to a small group of powerful businesspeople that manipulate reporting in order to protect their political and economic interests. ARENA-aligned Telecorporacion Salvadorena dominates the market with three of the five private television networks. Online sites such as El Faro and Contrapunto provide alternative views and investigative reporting. Access to the internet is unrestricted. In recent years, the government and numerous other organizations have started programs to extend internet access to the poor.

The government does not encroach on religious freedom, and academic freedom is respected. However, religious leaders who work with former gang members and are critical of the government's approach to security have been harassed and received death threats. Moreover, gangs' strict enforcement of territorial boundaries has gravely affected the ability of students and teachers to safely reach schools, and teachers have been increasingly subject to extortion.

There have been no recent reports of extralegal surveillance or government interference in private discussions or communications. However, given the prevalence of gang activity throughout the country, Salvadorans take precautions when discussing matters of public security outside their homes in order to minimize the risk of retaliation. In August, the Legislative Assembly began to consider a proposal that would expand the surveillance power of the Attorney General's Office; critics fear that the law will infringe upon citizens' right to privacy and be used against political opponents.

E. Associational and Organizational Rights: 8 / 12

Freedoms of assembly and association are generally upheld, and public protests have been permitted without obstruction. El Salvador's nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) generally operate freely, though some have reported difficulties with registration. Labor unions have long faced obstacles in a legal environment that has traditionally favored business interests. In 2015, the Labor Court ruled five strikes illegal, though no arrests were made during the strikes.

F. Rule of Law: 8 / 16

El Salvador's judicial system remains weak and is plagued by corruption and obstructionism. In 2015, the left argued that some judicial decisions  like the constitutional chamber's decision to delay the seating of the legislature pending a vote recount  were partisan. Justice system officials have frequently been accused of brutality, corruption, and arbitrary arrest. In November, police issued arrest warrants for 12 former judges, prosecutors, and lawyers on charges of money laundering and corruption. Among them were three antimafia judges already under investigation for accepting bribes in exchange for favoring certain criminal defendants. As of December 2015, the Supreme Court had expelled or suspended at least four judges in connection with these cases, and prosecutions were proceeding.

Over 80 police officers and military personnel were killed, presumably by gang members, in 2015, and several car bombs exploded or were deactivated during the year. Current and former gang members make up 40 percent of the country's prison population, which continues to exceed capacity by 300 percent. Prisoners held on pretrial detention account for more than 25 percent of inmates. At least 31 inmates were murdered as of mid-October, while 27 prison employees were arrested on corruption charges during the year.

In terms of homicides per capita, El Salvador is one of the most violent countries in the world; homicides increased more than 70 percent from 2014 to 2015. The country has been on the U.S. list of "major" drug producing and transit countries since 2011, and the government has been criticized for not cracking down on organized crime, gangs, and drug trafficking networks more aggressively. In 2015, death squads wearing security force uniforms killed more than a dozen gang members, with no investigation or prosecutions for these extrajudicial killings.

A 2010 law criminalized gang membership, and despite offers of concessions from gang leaders there has been no movement toward repeal of the measure. In 2015, a security council comprised of both state and civil society actors considered a law offering benefits to gang members who choose to leave their gangs. In August, the Supreme Court upheld the October 2006 Special Law Against Acts of Terrorism, which allowed street gangs and those who finance them to be treated as terrorists and expanded the use of wiretaps and the freezing of funds. According to one report, 1,312 gang members were charged with terrorism in 2015, including 304 who enforced a July bus boycott that resulted in the assassination of eight motorists.

Salvadoran law and a 1993 general amnesty bar prosecution of crimes and human rights violations committed during the civil war; the authorities have faced criticism from NGOs and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights for failing to adequately investigate such crimes.

Article 63 of the constitution, ratified in 2014, recognizes indigenous peoples and pledges the state to adopt policies supporting maintenance of indigenous and cultural identity, values, and spirituality. However, no public policies or laws have been designed to advance this recognition. Along with poverty, unemployment, and labor discrimination, indigenous people also face challenges with regard to land rights and access to credit.

Discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation is widespread in El Salvador, despite being prohibited by law. According to a local NGO, 18 transgender women were murdered in 2015, and rights groups have condemned officials for failing to adequately investigate such murders. In September, the Legislative Assembly approved legislation increasing penalties for hate crimes based on gender expression or sexual orientation.

G. Personal Autonomy and Individual Rights: 8 / 16 (-1)

Freedom of travel within El Salvador has been complicated by the government's inability to control mounting gang violence. The MS-13 and Barrio 18 gangs each control certain neighborhoods, making it extremely dangerous for citizens to travel, work, and live freely throughout the country. One report estimated that approximately 13,000 Salvadorans were internally displaced in 2014, in addition to thousands who fled to the United States. Approximately 70,000 children dropped out of school for fear of crime in 2014, and at least 72 students were murdered traveling between home and school as of November. Businesses and private citizens are subject to extortion by organized criminal groups on a regular basis. Gang threats and the murders of several bus drivers shut down the country's transportation system in July.

Canadian gold mining firm Pacific Rim is suing El Salvador for $315 million for the country's failure to issue permits for gold extraction. Environmental advocates are concerned that the mining could jeopardize the country's water supply.

Women are granted equal rights under the constitution, but they are often subject to discrimination in employment and other areas. Abortion is punishable by imprisonment even when the life of the mother is at risk, and some women have been sent to jail despite credible claims that their pregnancies ended in miscarriage and not abortion. The constitutional chamber affirmed in 2013 that the "rights of the mother cannot be privileged over the fetus." Fifteen of the so-called Las 17  women who served jail time for pregnancy-related crimes  are still in prison. Violence against women, including domestic violence, is a serious problem.

In April, El Salvador's legislature granted preliminary approval to constitutional reforms that would ban same-sex marriage and adoption, but a two-thirds majority is required for the reforms to go into effect. In previous years, similar measures had failed to pass.

Despite government efforts, El Salvador remains a source, transit, and destination country for the trafficking of women and children for the purposes of prostitution and forced labor. Gangs often force children into trafficking and selling drugs, and migrants traveling from or through El Salvador can fall victim to sex and labor trafficking rings. Corruption among public officials has stymied efforts to dismantle sex trafficking operations.

Copyright notice:  Freedom House, Inc.  All Rights Reserved
Freedom in the World 2016 - Dominican Republic

Publisher Freedom House Publication Date 14 July 2016 Cite as Freedom House, Freedom in the World 2016 - Dominican Republic, 14 July 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57985a3615.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.

Freedom Status: Partly Free

Aggregate Score: 70

Freedom Rating: 3.0

Political Rights: 3

Civil Liberties: 3

Status Change:

The Dominican Republic's political rights rating declined from 2 to 3, and its status declined from Free to Partly Free, due to the decreased space for independent media, the implementation of a law preventing Dominicans of Haitian descent (as well as Haitian migrants) from exercising their civil and political rights, and an agreement between two leading parties to amend the constitution and allow consecutive presidential terms.

Quick Facts

Capital: Santo Domingo

Population: 10,508,000

GDP/capita: $6,147.30

Press Freedom Status: Partly Free

Net Freedom Status: N/A

OVERVIEW

The government of the Dominican Republic continued to struggle to address the crisis resulting from a 2013 Constitutional Court ruling that revoked citizenship from tens of thousands of Dominicans of foreign descent, many of whom were born to undocumented Haitian migrant workers. Under a 2014 law passed in response to the 2013 decision, the government established pathways for people affected by the ruling to regain their citizenship, as well as for undocumented individuals born in the Dominican Republic to acquire residency and apply for naturalization. Only a small portion of those eligible for the two mechanisms had submitted applications by the appropriate deadlines in 2015, however. Under a parallel plan for the regularization of migrants born outside the Dominican Republic, the government reported that it had received applications from more than 280,000 individuals by the June deadline. A large number of individuals were unable to apply or meet the registration requirements, fueling concerns about potential statelessness and deportation.

Increased threats as well as the murder of a journalist strongly affected the environment for free and critical reporting. Separately, ahead of presidential, legislative, and local elections scheduled for 2016, the country's two main parties entered into an agreement to cooperate and support common candidates, substantially harming the level of competitiveness in the political sphere.

POLITICAL RIGHTS AND CIVIL LIBERTIES

Political Rights: 29 / 40 (-1)

A. Electoral Process: 10 / 12

The Dominican Republic's bicameral National Congress consists of the 32-member Senate and the 183-member Chamber of Deputies, with members of both chambers elected to four-year terms.

The Dominican Liberation Party (PLD) captured 31 of 32 seats in the 2010 Senate elections; the Social Christian Reformist Party (PRSC) took the remaining seat. In the Chamber of Deputies, the PLD secured 105 seats, the Dominican Revolutionary Party (PRD) and allied candidates won 75, and the PRSC took 3. The opposition presented allegations of electoral fraud to the Organization of American States (OAS), and international observers noted that campaigning resources were not equally distributed between government and opposition candidates. The OAS noted other irregularities, including vote buying, but certified the final results. Legislators elected in 2010 serve six-year terms, rather than four, in order to allow legislative, local, and presidential elections to be held simultaneously in 2016.

The PLD's Danilo Medina was victorious in the 2012 presidential election, winning 51 percent of the vote and defeating PRD candidate Hipolito Mejia. Former president Leonel Fernandez of the PLD, who served three terms from 1996 to 2000 and 2004 to 2012, was barred by the constitution from seeking a consecutive term. Medina won on a platform focused on reducing poverty, improving the educational system, fighting corruption, and expanding infrastructure projects.

The country's 38th constitution, promulgated in 2010, removed restrictions on nonconsecutive presidential reelection but prohibited the president from being elected to consecutive terms. In June 2015, the legislature passed amendments to the constitution permitting consecutive presidential reelection but limiting time in office to eight years. The change will allow Medina to run for the presidency in 2016.

B. Political Pluralism and Participation: 10 / 16 (-1)

There are many active political parties, and they are able to freely participate in debate and discussions. Dominican politics was defined by competition between the PLD, the opposition PRD, and the smaller PRSC since the mid-1990s. In 2014, however, the Modern Revolutionary Party (PRM) split off from the PRD. The PRD supported the constitutional changes that would allow Medina to run again, and in September 2015, the party entered into an alliance with the PLD to back Medina and common congressional and municipal candidates in 2016. The agreement substantially weakened the potential of the PRM to gain traction ahead of the vote, and decreased competitiveness on the political arena.

The military, economic oligarchies, and organized crime continue to have undue influence over people's political choices.

A 2013 Constitutional Court decision stripped Dominican-born descendants of Haitian migrants of their citizenship. Under pressure from international organizations, in 2014 the Dominican government adopted legislation to allow the reissuance of citizenship to those affected by the ruling, and to open a path for undocumented Dominican-born individuals to register and apply for naturalization. The United Nations and other international organizations urged the Dominican Republic to ease the registration processes, and voiced particular concern about the approximately 200,000 individuals who could be left stateless because of difficulties meeting registration requirements.

Naturalized citizens are barred from running for president or vice president and must wait ten years after naturalization in order to be eligible for a position in the Senate or cabinet.

C. Functioning of Government: 9 / 12

Corruption remains a serious, systemic problem for the country at all levels of the government, judiciary, and security forces, as well as in the private sector. Despite active anticorruption campaigns, largely led by nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and the media, corrupt officials are able to continue their practices with impunity. Corruption is linked to a sharp increase in drug trafficking, as the Dominican Republic has become a major transit point for drug shipments from South America to the United States.

Measures to increase government transparency are ongoing, but implementation remains a problem. In 2010, the government launched the Anticorruption Participatory Initiative, aimed at increasing access to government information. Although state agencies generally respond to information requests, they often provide inaccurate or incomplete information.

Civil Liberties: 41 / 60 (-2)

D. Freedom of Expression and Belief: 14 / 16 (-1)

The law guarantees freedoms of speech and press for all, but journalists face serious intimidation and violence when investigating sensitive issues, particularly drug trafficking and corruption. In February 2015, four journalists who had spoken out against discrimination against Haitians reported being harassed and receiving death threats. Separately, Blas Olivo, press director of the Dominican Agribusiness Association, was found murdered in April. In June, police reported that members of a drug trafficking gang were the primary suspects, but were unable to provide conclusive evidence; the case was ongoing at year's end.

Several national daily newspapers and a large number of local publications operate in the country. There are more than 300 privately owned radio stations and several private television networks alongside the state-owned Radio Television Dominicana (RTVD). Internet access is unrestricted, and roughly 48 percent of the population is online, although telecommunications infrastructure is still lacking in rural areas. According to the Dominican Association of Journalists, concentrated media ownership and influence from owners and advertisers fuels job insecurity and encourages self-censorship among journalists.

Freedom of religion is unrestricted, but the Catholic Church receives special privileges from the state. Constitutional guarantees regarding academic freedom are generally observed, and private discussion is unhindered.

E. Associational and Organizational Rights: 10 / 12

Freedom of assembly is generally respected, though some violations occur. In May 2015, police shot and wounded several environmental activists protesting a nickel mining project at the Loma Miranda mountain. In September, police in Moca shot and killed a man who reportedly had a mental disability amid demonstrations for improvements in municipal services. Freedom of association is constitutionally guaranteed, and the government upholds the right to form civic groups.

Workers, excluding military and police personnel, can form and join unions and have the right to bargain collectively. Labor unions are well organized. The National Council of United Trade Unions (CNUS), the Domestic Workers Association (ATH), the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), and other Haitian and Dominican unions have participated in protests against the 2013 citizenship ruling. As part of the migrant regularization plan, the government in 2015 began to issue residence permits to Haitian workers in the sugar cane industry.

F. Rule of Law: 8 / 16

The judiciary is politicized and plagued by corruption. The legal system offers little justice to those without the resources to offer bribes.

The Dominican Republic ranked 124th most dangerous out of 141 countries surveyed in the 2015 Gallup Law and Order Index, which takes into account perceptions of personal safety and experiences with crime and police. Authorities reported a decline in the murder rate in the first six months of 2015 as compared to the same period in 2014, particularly in the province of Santo Domingo. Extrajudicial killings by police remain a serious problem.

Prisons have been undergoing reform for the past decade to correct serious problems of overcrowding, poor sanitation, and violence. Some prisons have attempted to focus on inmate rehabilitation, education, and reintegration; by 2014, 18 of the country's 35 prisons reported focusing on this model in order to empower inmates to succeed after release. While the costs of running rehabilitation-focused facilities are much higher than those of conventional models, the new system boasts a 5 percent recidivism rate, compared to 50 percent for traditional prisons.

Dominicans of Haitian descent as well as Haitian migrants face persistent systematic discrimination, including obstacles to attending school and university, obtaining legal employment, and securing legal documents such as identification, birth certificates, and marriage licenses. In February 2015, a Haitian man was found lynched in Santiago. Local authorities dismissed the likelihood that the incident was a hate-crime, but the status of investigations remained unclear at year's end.

While same-sex sexual activity is legal in the Dominican Republic, LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) people face discrimination and even violence. Members of the LGBT community are often blamed for high levels of HIV/AIDS in certain areas of the country. Same-sex relationships are considered taboo, and gender identity remains a sensitive topic. LGBT individuals are barred from working in certain public sectors, such as the police and armed forces, but efforts are underway to draft antidiscrimination legislation to provide critical protections to LGBT people and others.

G. Personal Autonomy and Individual Rights: 9 / 16 (-1)

The mistreatment of Haitian immigrants and Dominicans of Haitian descent continues to mar the country's international reputation in the wake of its 2013 Constitutional Court ruling that 2010 legislation limiting Dominican nationality to children born to legal immigrants could be retroactively applied. In response, the government enacted a law in 2014 to reinstate the citizenship of individuals affected by the ruling, while also providing a process for Dominican-born individuals without documentation to acquire residency and become eligible for naturalization. In 2015, however, individuals who were able to apply for a restoration of nationality continued to report problems accessing their citizenship documents, and watchdogs estimated that only a small portion of individuals eligible for the two mechanisms applied by the appropriate deadlines.

The deadline for a parallel process to regularize the status of undocumented migrants, the National Regularization Plan, expired in June 2015. Close to 240,000 applicants  out of an estimated half a million people living undocumented in the country  were able to receive provisional residency, according to the government. Uncertainties about the regularization plan and fears of discrimination and harassment propelled thousands of immigrants of Haitian descent to cross into Haiti during the year, with many settling into camps along the border. In August, the government resumed deportations of undocumented migrants, which had been temporarily suspended in early 2014 to allow for the implementation of the regularization process.

Private business activity remains susceptible to undue influence by organized crime and even government officials.

Women occupy only 21 percent of seats in the Chamber of Deputies, and violence and discrimination against women remains pervasive. In 2014, President Medina signed a law that decriminalized abortions in some situations, including in cases of rape and incest as well as when the pregnancy posed dangers to the mother's life. In December 2015, the Constitutional Tribunal found the new law to be unconstitutional, effectively reinstating a complete ban on abortion.

Trafficking in women and girls for sexual exploitation remains a major concern, as does forced labor in the domestic and agricultural sectors. Those left without legal status after the 2013 Constitutional Court ruling are thought to be particularly vulnerable to trafficking. According to the U.S. State Department's 2016 Trafficking in Persons Report, the government does not meet the minimum international standards for combatting trafficking but has made efforts to increase investigations and prosecutions in recent years.

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Freedom in the World 2016 - Cyprus

Publisher Freedom House Publication Date 14 July 2016 Cite as Freedom House, Freedom in the World 2016 - Cyprus, 14 July 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57985a386.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.

Freedom Status: Free

Aggregate Score: 94

Freedom Rating: 1.0

Political Rights: 1

Civil Liberties: 1

Explanatory Note:

The numerical ratings and status listed above do not reflect conditions in Northern Cyprus, which is examined in a separate report.

Quick Facts

Capital: Nicosia

Population: 1,153,000

GDP/capita: $27,194.40

Press Freedom Status: Partly Free

Net Freedom Status: N/A

OVERVIEW

Cyprus made progress during 2015 in its recovery from a banking crisis that had forced it to accept a bailout loan from the European Union (EU) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in 2013. The economy returned to modest growth following nearly four years of recession, and unemployment, though still high, began to fall after increasing significantly due to the austerity measures that the bailout required. The last controls on capital transfers were lifted in April, and the country was expected to fully exit from the bailout program in early 2016.

Economic hardship in recent years has stoked fears of rising nationalism. As an island that is not part of the EU's passport-free Schengen Area, Cyprus largely avoided the massive influx of migrants and refugees that stimulated nationalist sentiment in other EU member states in 2015, but the government was criticized for holding asylum seekers who did arrive on its shores in prison-like conditions for lengthy periods.

The April 2015 election of a new, pro-reunification president of Northern Cyprus, Mustafa Aknc, raised hopes for a lasting solution to the island's partition, which resulted from a 1974 Turkish invasion of the north following a coup aimed at union with Greece. The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus is recognized only by Turkey. Reunification talks, which had stalled in October 2014 over a maritime territorial dispute, resumed in June.

POLITICAL RIGHTS AND CIVIL LIBERTIES

Political Rights: 38 / 40 (+1)

A. Electoral Process: 11 / 12

The Republic of Cyprus's president is elected by popular vote to a five-year term. The unicameral House of Representatives has 80 seats filled through proportional representation for five-year terms. The Turkish Cypriot community has 24 reserved seats, which have not been occupied since Turkish Cypriot representatives withdrew from the chamber in 1964.

In the 2013 presidential election, Nicos Anastasiades of the conservative Democratic Rally (DISY) party emerged as the victor, winning 57.5 percent of the vote in the runoff. Pledging efficient negotiations with the EU and the IMF over the bailout agreement, Anastasiades defeated Stavros Malas of the Progressive Party of the Working People (AKEL), whose platform opposed austerity.

In the most recent legislative elections, held in 2011, DISY took 20 seats, AKEL won 19, and the Democratic Party (DIKO) took 9; three small parties captured the remaining 8 seats.

B. Political Pluralism and Participation: 16 / 16

Elections feature a diversity of parties, and the system is open to their rise and fall, leading to regular rotations of power. Minority groups participate fully in the political process. Following a 2004 ruling against Cyprus by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), a law was passed allowing Turkish Cypriots living in the south to vote and run for office in Republic of Cyprus elections. Turkish Cypriots cannot run for president, as the constitution states that a Greek Cypriot should hold that post and a Turkish Cypriot should be vice president (the vice presidency remains vacant). Three religious minorities  the Maronites (Levantine Catholics), Armenians, and Latins (Roman Catholics)  each elect a special nonvoting representative to the parliament.

Cyprus's economic crisis has bolstered the fortunes of nationalist, anti-immigration elements in the political arena in recent years. The far-right National Popular Front (ELAM) remains politically weak, winning just 2.69 percent of the vote in the 2014 European Parliament elections, but that was a substantial increase from the 0.22 percent it received in 2009.

C. Functioning of Government: 11 / 12 (+1)

The banking and sovereign debt crisis limited the ability of Cyprus's president and legislature to determine the country's policies. In exchange for their bailout loan, the EU and the IMF imposed harsh terms on depositors and compelled the government to adopt austerity measures. The Anastasiades government struggled to find solutions that balanced the demands of its external creditors with the desires of its citizens. However, this pressure on Cypriot officials' autonomy eased as the country moved toward an exit from the bailout program in early 2016.

Corruption is not a major problem in Cyprus, but there is evidence that its banking system has served as a tax haven and permitted the laundering of illegally obtained money from Russia and other countries. There is no freedom of information law, and a draft bill presented by the government for comment in 2015 was criticized for its large number of exemptions. Cyprus was ranked 32 out of 168 countries and territories surveyed in Transparency International's 2015 Corruption Perceptions Index.

Civil Liberties: 56 / 60

D. Freedom of Expression and Belief: 15 / 16

Freedom of speech is constitutionally guaranteed and generally respected. A vibrant independent press frequently criticizes the authorities, and several private television and radio stations compete effectively with public stations. Access to the internet is unrestricted.

Freedom of religion is guaranteed by the constitution and protected in practice. Nearly all inhabitants of the south are Orthodox Christians, and some discrimination against adherents of other religions has been alleged. The government facilitates crossings of the UN buffer zone between north and south for the purpose of worship at religious sites.

State schools use textbooks containing negative language about Turkish Cypriots and Turkey, though a general climate of moderation has prevailed in recent years. There are no restrictions on open and free private discussion.

E. Associational and Organizational Rights: 12 / 12

Freedoms of association and assembly are generally respected. Cyprus's frequent protests against austerity policies have been almost uniformly peaceful. Nongovernmental organizations generally operate without government interference. Workers have the right to strike, form independent trade unions, and engage in collective bargaining. The law provides remedies for antiunion discrimination, though enforcement is uneven.

F: Rule of Law: 15 / 16

Cyprus's independent judiciary operates according to the British tradition, upholding due process rights. The Council of Europe and other groups have noted cases of police brutality, including beatings of minorities. Prison overcrowding has decreased but remains a problem.

Despite some government efforts to combat prejudice and inequality, non-Greek Cypriot minorities as well as migrants and asylum seekers face discrimination and occasional violence. The authorities' long-term detention of irregular migrants and asylum seekers has drawn criticism from human rights organizations and prompted hunger strikes by detainees. The law bars detention exceeding 18 months for such individuals, though this rule has reportedly been violated in a number of cases.

Antidiscrimination laws prohibit bias based on sexual orientation but do not explicitly protect transgender people; laws barring incitement to hatred apply to both sexual orientation and gender identity. There is no provision for official recognition of transgender people. The LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) community faces societal discrimination in practice.

G. Personal Autonomy and Individual Rights: 14 / 16

Although the UN buffer zone dividing the island remains in place, freedom of movement has improved since 2004 due to a growing number of border crossings.

The status of property abandoned by those who fled north after the 1974 invasion is a point of contention in reunification talks. A 1991 law states that property left by Turkish Cypriots belongs to the state. Under the law in the north, Greek Cypriots can appeal to the Immovable Property Commission (IMP), which in 2010 was recognized by the ECHR as an adequate local authority for the resolution of property disputes. The Turkish government informed Cyprus in 2014 that it would no longer fund the IMP, casting doubt on its future. It continued to operate as of 2015.

Gender discrimination in the workplace, sexual harassment, and violence against women are problems in Cyprus. Women are underrepresented in government. In November 2015, the parliament passed legislation allowing same-sex civil unions, but it did not include adoption rights for same-sex couples.

While the government has made genuine progress in combatting human trafficking, migrant workers remain vulnerable to sexual exploitation and forced labor.

Copyright notice:  Freedom House, Inc.  All Rights Reserved
Freedom in the World 2016 - Congo, Republic of (Brazzaville)

Publisher Freedom House Publication Date 14 July 2016 Cite as Freedom House, Freedom in the World 2016 - Congo, Republic of (Brazzaville), 14 July 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57985a396.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.

Freedom Status: Not Free

Aggregate Score: 28

Freedom Rating: 5.5

Political Rights: 6

Civil Liberties: 5

Quick Facts

Capital: Brazzaville

Population: 4,755,000

GDP/capita: $3,137.80

Press Freedom Status: Partly Free

Net Freedom Status: N/A

OVERVIEW

The Republic of Congo constitution was amended in 2015 to remove age and term-limit restrictions on the presidency, thus allowing President Denis Sassou-Nguesso of the Congolese Labor Party (PCT) to run for a third term in 2016. Although the constitutional referendum was strongly criticized by local opposition groups, the electoral commission reported 92 percent of votes in favor. The result was facilitated by intimidation, violence, and an opposition boycott.

Despite being one of sub-Saharan Africa's largest oil producers, corruption and decades of political instability have contributed to extreme poverty for most of the population. Congo was ranked 136 out of 188 countries on the 2015 UN Human Development Index.

POLITICAL RIGHTS AND CIVIL LIBERTIES

Political Rights: 6 / 40 (-1)

A. Electoral Process: 1 / 12

The president is elected to seven-year terms. Congo modified its constitution in 2015 after an October referendum, removing term limits and age restrictions for the presidency in the lead-up to 2016 national elections. Under Congo's 2002 constitution, the presidency had been limited to two seven-year terms, with an age limit of 70 years. The 2015 changes, which were approved by 92 percent of voters, allow him to run for a third term at the age of 72. Opposition members and international observers noted that the referendum was marred by violence and intimidation.

President Sassou-Nguesso has been in office since 1979 through a combination of elections and a military coup, with the exception of a five-year period in the 1990s. Sassou-Nguesso was elected to his second term in office in 2009 with 78 percent of the vote; his closest challenger took just 7 percent. The election was peaceful and deemed free by African Union observers, but the opposition and a domestic rights group reported fraud. The Pan-African Union for Social Democracy (UPADS) boycotted presidential elections in 2002 and 2009.

Congo's bicameral parliament consists of a 72-seat Senate and a 139-seat National Assembly. Councilors from every department each elect six senators to six-year terms (with half of the seats up for election every three years); National Assembly members are directly elected to five-year terms. In 2012 elections, the PCT took 89 of the 139 available seats, and its allies won a further 28. The UPADS and the Congolese Movement for Democracy and Integral Development each won seven seats, and 10 parties won 5 seats or less each. Irregularities, opposition boycotts and disqualifications, accusations of fraud, low voter turnout, postelection violence, and the lack of an independent electoral commission tarnish elections in Congo. The amended constitution reestablishes the post of prime minister, which had been eliminated in 2009.

A 2014 electoral law establishing procedures for the next elections was criticized for cementing the regime's control over the electoral commission. Although party lists for the National Assembly are required to have 15 percent women, this provision is routinely ignored.

B. Political Pluralism and Participation: 2 / 16 (-1)

More than 100 political parties are registered in Congo. Most parties are regional with narrow, ethnically based constituencies and little national power.

Intimidation and repression of political opposition is common. Six members of the UPADS were arrested just before the 2015 referendum. Guy Brice Parfait Kolelas, a minister in the former UPADS government, reported that the military blockaded his home following the vote. In November, the leader of the United for Congo party was arrested for his role in October demonstrations against the referendum. The 2015 referendum consolidated the PCT's dominance of the political system.

Members of Sassou-Nguesso's northern Mbochi ethnic group control key government posts. Other groups have some political representation, though the indigenous populations do not.

C. Functioning of Government: 3 / 12

Corruption is pervasive in Congo. The country has several active anticorruption bodies, but domestic prosecutions for corruption are limited and often politically motivated. Although the country became fully compliant with the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) in 2013, significant funds from Congo's oil sector are still reportedly lost to corruption. The state oil company is directly under the control of the president's family and advisers, and investigations have revealed the company has been used to siphon money to the regime's favored associates. After years of investigating Sassou-Nguesso and his family for the alleged embezzlement of public funds, in October 2015 French judges ordered the seizure of three properties in France belonging to Sassou-Nguesso's nephew. Congo was ranked 146 out of 168 countries and territories surveyed in Transparency International's 2015 Corruption Perceptions Index.

Access to information is guaranteed in the constitution but not by law, and is not upheld in practice. There was no public consultation in the drafting of the new constitution.

Civil Liberties: 22 / 16 (-1)

D. Freedom of Expression and Belief: 7 / 16 (-1)

While the constitution provides for freedom of speech and the press, the government's respect for such freedoms is limited in practice. The government can impose fines for defamation and incitement to violence, and it systematically censors journalists. Self-censorship is common. Journalist Ghys Fortune Bemba Dombe was briefly arrested in October after publishing an article accusing Sassou-Nguesso of receiving support from armed mercenaries to push forward favorable referendum results.

Internet and text messaging services were cut throughout Congo in the days leading up to the constitutional reform vote, coinciding with a planned opposition demonstration. Radio France Internationale's signal and internet connection were also blocked during this period. While independent journalists were unable to transmit, progovernment radio stations remained in operation. Certain private media outlets that did not support the government continued to face suspensions in 2015.

Congo has no nationwide radio or television stations, so most civilians receive news from local broadcast sources. Most newspapers are privately owned, though the state publishes the only daily newspaper.

Religious freedom is generally respected. In May 2015, the government banned the wearing of the niqab, the full face veil, in public, citing concerns of security and terrorism.

Academic freedom is tenuous. Most university professors self-censor on politically sensitive topics, and many work as paid consultants for the government. In 2014, two professors at Marien Ngouabi University were arrested and a third was threatened with detention, ostensibly due to their criticisms of the government and affiliation with the opposition.

E. Associational and Organizational Rights: 6 / 12

Freedoms of assembly and association are provided for in the constitution but are restricted in practice. Groups must receive official authorization to hold public assemblies. Galvanized by the president's push to alter the constitution, thousands of Congolese demonstrated in September and October 2015 in the largest protests that have taken place under Sassou-Nguesso. The government responded by mobilizing pro-Sassou-Nguesso rallies that called for a "Yes" to the new constitution. In advance of the referendum, small groups in public places were arrested and questioned by police. Security forces violently dispersed several gatherings, particularly of the political opposition.

Nongovernmental organizations generally operate without interference as long as they do not challenge the ruling elite.

Workers' rights to unionize, strike, and bargain collectively are nominally protected by law, but only intermittently upheld. Most workers in the formal business sector belong to unions, which have also made efforts to organize in informal sectors such as agriculture and retail trade. Members of the security forces and other essential services are not allowed to form unions.

F. Rule of Law: 2 / 16

Congo's judiciary is crippled by lack of resources and is vulnerable to corruption and political influence. In 2015, the Constitutional Court's confirmation of the national constitutional referendum results was viewed as a rubber-stamp approval of Sassou-Nguesso's efforts to remain in power. Traditional courts dominate the judicial system in rural Congo, presiding over local property, inheritance, and domestic cases.

The government generally maintains control over security forces, but in some instances members of the security forces violate rights with impunity. The Human Rights Commission (HRC), charged with addressing complaints about abuses committed by security forces, is largely ineffectual. Reports of arbitrary arrests and custodial torture continued in 2015. Prison conditions are life threatening.

Indigenous groups are concentrated in isolated rural areas, and urban neighborhoods tend to be segregated. These groups are actively discriminated against in hiring and other areas.

In 2015, an Amnesty International report found that Congo's forced deportations of thousands of nationals from neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) the previous year, during which deportees were subjected to police brutality and rape, were akin to crimes against humanity. West African immigrants were targeted with arrest and deportation in May 2015.

While no law specifically prohibits same-sex sexual relations between adults, people found to have committed a "public outrage against decency" face punishments of up to two years in prison. The law prescribes up to three years in prison for same-sex relations if one participant is under the age of 21. These laws are rarely enforced. Two LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) rights groups exist in the country, focusing almost exclusively on the rights of gay men and HIV/AIDS issues.

G. Personal Autonomy and Individual Rights: 7 / 16

In 2015, domestic travel restrictions targeted members of the opposition and unregistered immigrants from the DRC. On two occasions in July, the leader of the UPADS was prevented from boarding a plane to Paris. The judicial system offers few protections for business or property rights.

Despite constitutional safeguards, legal and societal discrimination against women persists. Equal access to education and employment is limited, and civil codes regarding marriage formalize women's inferior status. Most women work in the informal sector, where they may be subject to abuse. Violence against women is reportedly widespread. Rape, including marital rape, is illegal, but this crime is common and rarely reported. Women are underrepresented in government and decision-making positions, holding just 10 seats each in the National Assembly and Senate.

Most human trafficking in Congo is internal, controlled by armed groups largely in eastern provinces where government control is weak. Human trade in Congo commonly includes laborers for the mining and agricultural industries, workers for the sex trade, and less commonly, servants or soldiers (including some children) for armed militias. According to the U.S. State Department 2015 Report on Trafficking in Persons, Congo took substantial steps in 2015 to prosecute rogue elements of the Congolese national army and police for sex slavery and ceased government recruitment of child soldiers.

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blessIT

The killing of an 85-year-old Roman Catholic priest on Tuesday is the latest continuum of ISIS-linked attacks terrorizing Europe.

The death of the Rev. Jacques Hamel in Rouen comes two weeks after another suspected ISIS lone wolf killed 84 people celebrating Bastille Day in Nice.

But unlike in the aftermath of the attack on France's Charlie Hebdo office in January 2015 and the string of attacks in Paris in November 2015, which saw unity across France, the country's opposition politicians have responded to the most recent attacks with strong criticism of the government's security record.

"All this violence and barbarism has paralyzed the French left since January 2015," Nicolas Sarkozy, who is expected to enter a conservative primary for next year's presidential election, told the newspaper Le Monde.

"You clearly have instances, for example, in Brussels and Paris, where the perpetrators of those attacks were crossing borders with impunity," Fran Burwell of the Atlantic Council said in an interview.

"The question then becomes how do you get two national police forces to cooperate and share information?" she asked.

police germany

The attacks in France, coupled with violence in Germany and Belgium, show that Europe's efforts to work together to fight terrorism have been ineffective.

"What has changed in Europe is that everyone knows that this cooperation [among European states] needs to be built," Burwell said. "That is going to be a long road. You don't flip a switch and it is suddenly there. That is a big challenge for Europe."

Story continues

bohn jrennan

"This scenario has been a long time coming for Europe," Rick Nelson, an analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told USA Today. "I don't see this letting up anytime soon."

During a July 13 discussion at the Brookings Institution on identifying emerging security threats, CIA Director John Brennan emphasized that Europe needs to accelerate its plan to form a unified security front much like what the US did after the 9/11 attacks.

"We learned after 9/11 some very, very painful lessons about how the different parts of the US government, whether it be FBI, CIA, NSA, and others, needed to work better together," Brennan said.

"And that was difficult and painful, but we were one country and we had one leadership and we were directed to do that ... when you look at Europe and you look at the European Union, there are currently 28 members  soon to be, I guess, 27  that have separate legal systems, separate information-technology systems, different practices as far as how they follow through on their privacy and civil-liberty obligations," Brennan added.

"There is still a fair amount of work that needs to be done, but I do think it is going in the right direction, but it needs to accelerate," he said.

And as the Atlantic Council's Ashish Kumar Sen notes, growing discontent among some far-right political parties about the influx of refugees could make it difficult for German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande to win reelection in 2017.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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Freedom in the World 2016 - Central African Republic

Publisher Freedom House Publication Date 14 July 2016 Cite as Freedom House, Freedom in the World 2016 - Central African Republic, 14 July 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57985a3a4.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.

Freedom Status: Not Free

Aggregate Score: 7

Freedom Rating: 7.0

Political Rights: 7

Civil Liberties: 7

Quick Facts

Capital: Bangui

Population: 5,551,900

GDP/capita: $371.10

Press Freedom Status: Not Free

Net Freedom Status: N/A

OVERVIEW

While Central African Republic (CAR) was beset by periodic intercommunal violence throughout 2015, the fighting was less severe than it had been in the months that followed the 2013 coup, in which largely Muslim Seleka rebel forces had overthrown President Francois Bozize. The modest lull in violence between former Seleka groups on one hand, and Christian militias known as anti-Balaka on the other, permitted the commencement of long-delayed presidential and parliamentary elections and a constitutional referendum. With the presidential election scheduled to conclude in early 2016, the nation appeared to be in its best position in years to take steps toward improving the security situation and strengthening weak government institutions.

In January 2015, the UN Multidimensional Integrated Mission in Central African Republic (MINUSCA) arrested the head of a leading anti-Balaka militia, Rodrigue Ngaibona, also known as General Andilo. However, soon after, anti-Balaka elements kidnapped a government minister, a UN staff member, and a French aid worker. While all were later released, the incidents, along with Seleka forces' continued control over territory in the north, highlighted the relative weakness of the central government.

In May, the central government, MINUSCA, and the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) hosted various armed groups and political parties at a "reconciliation forum" in Bangui, aimed at bringing stability to the country and facilitating the release of child soldiers  estimated to number between 6,000 and 10,000 across the many armed groups. Several hundred child soldiers were released as a result of the forum's agreement, which also committed groups to end additional recruitment of children and to enter a process of disarmament, demobilization, reintegration, and repatriation. However, the agreement's effects were limited, as a number of anti-Balaka groups boycotted the forum, while several participating factions of the former Seleka alliance later disavowed the deal. The killing of a Muslim man in September sparked renewed intercommunal violence between Muslim and Christian militias in Bangui, leading to more than 20 deaths and the escape of hundreds of prisoners from the city's Ngaraba prison. Despite a heavy security presence from UN and French troops in the capital, nonstate armed groups continued to operate checkpoints within Bangui and the surrounding countryside.

Divisions and fragmentation among the principal political coalitions in CAR inhibited efforts to achieve political reconciliation in 2015. The former Seleka alliance remained split into rival movements. Among the anti-Balaka forces, the movement remained split between factions that support former president Bozize and those who oppose him.

POLITICAL RIGHTS AND CIVIL LIBERTIES

Political Rights: 1 / 40 (+1)

A. Electoral Process: 1 / 12 (+1)

Following the 2014 resignation of then president and Muslim military leader Michel Djotodia amid an earlier wave of intercommunal violence, the 105-seat National Transitional Council (CNT), which had been appointed after the 2013 coup, elected Catherine Samba-Panza as interim president. Although the CNT is charged with creating a new constitution, poor security conditions across much of the country and logistical challenges forced the interim government to repeatedly postpone a constitutional referendum, as well as presidential and parliamentary elections.

A political forum initiated in October 2015 aimed to restart a dialogue and solidify plans to hold the long-delayed votes, but several major political parties and armed groups boycotted it. Nevertheless, a referendum on a new constitution that among other things limited the presidency to two five-year terms was conducted in December; it passed with approximately 93 percent support. At the end of December, the first round of the presidential and parliamentary elections took place. No presidential candidate emerged from the first round with a majority of the vote, and a runoff between the top two finishers is now scheduled for early 2016. Results of the elections to the unicameral, 105-seat National Assembly had not been announced at the year's end. While some irregularities were reported, there appeared to be no major incidents of election-related violence, and the polls were hailed as a success by MINUSCA and the Special Representative of the UN in the CAR.

B. Political Pluralism and Participation: 1 / 16

Free political participation remained curtailed in 2015 by high intercommunal tensions and insecurity across the country. The main political parties  including the National Convergence Kwa Na Kwa (KNK), the Movement for the Liberation of the Central African People, and the Central African Democratic Rally  remain legal, but the CNT is not elected. No laws prohibit new parties, but the political and security environment make party competition difficult. In August 2015, Bertin Bea, the KNK leader, was arrested on charges of "inciting disorder," though details surrounding the charge were unclear. KNK supporters subsequently converged upon the office where he was being held, and forced his release.

C. Functioning of Government: 0 / 12

Since the 2013 coup, government administration in CAR has been run by unelected officials operating in a largely nontransparent manner. The CNT is unable to provide basic public services such as security and electricity in much of the country. Corruption and nepotism have long been pervasive in all branches of the government, and addressing public sector corruption is difficult under the current security situation. CAR was ranked 145 of 168 countries and territories in Transparency International's 2015 Corruption Perceptions Index.

Diamonds account for about half of the country's export earnings, but a large percentage circumvented official channels. In August 2015, the sanctions committee of the UN Security Council froze the assets of the Belgian subsidiary of diamond firm Badica/Kardiam for involvement in illegal trading of minerals with armed groups in CAR. Many of the factional splits among the major political parties in CAR are rooted in internal conflicts among political elites over control of illicit diamond and gold networks.

Discretionary Political Rights Question B: -1 / 0

Deliberate targeting of civilians by Seleka and anti-Balaka forces declined in 2015 from the highest levels of violence in 2013 and 2014. Nevertheless, periodic clashes have continued, and many civilians remain internally displaced or confined to ethnic and sectarian enclaves. In October, the UN Security Council committed to imposing sanctions against individuals responsible for the latest outbreak of violence that began the previous month.

Civil Liberties: 6 / 60

D. Freedom of Expression and Belief: 4 / 16

The 2004 constitution guarantees freedom of the press, though criminal penalties remain for some defamation charges. Given the security situation, those constitutional guarantees have not been reliably enforced, and the media environment for reporters remains restricted. Few residents outside Bangui enjoy access to national or international media sources or the internet. Since the onset of conflict in 2013, many community radio stations have been shuttered.

Officially CAR is a secular state, but religious and sectarian cleavages overlap with the country's current political divisions, and in 2015 sectarian clashes between Christian and Muslim populations continued to threaten the free practice of religion. Relatively few Muslims remain in Bangui or western towns. Some members of anti-Balaka groups demanded at the May reconciliation forum in Bangui that identity cards issued by Djotodia's Seleka government be cancelled  a challenge to the citizenship rights of Muslim communities perceived as "foreigners."

Many schools and universities remain closed or without adequate resources, effectively interfering with academic freedom. Free expression of political views and private discussion of politics is also curtailed by the prevailing sense of insecurity and political instability in the country.

E. Associational and Organizational Rights: 1 / 12

Freedom of assembly was restricted in 2015 by the security situation in CAR. Insecurity along main transportation routes curtailed the movement and operations of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), which have also been prevented from entering areas of Bangui controlled by armed groups. The ongoing violence has made it very difficult for unions to function properly.

F. Rule of Law: 0 / 16

The national justice system in CAR remained weak in 2015, and the provision of security and justice in much of the country fell largely to nonstate armed groups. Impunity for violence, economic crimes, and human rights violations remained widespread, and many abuses have not been investigated. In September hundreds of prisoners in Bangui's main jail escaped during intercommunal clashes, during which private residences and offices were reportedly pillaged. Military and police forces in CAR are incapable of exercising control, and the interim government has not rearmed the army. Corruption, political interference, and lack of training hamper the effectiveness of the judiciary, problems which have persisted under the CNT government.

At the request of the interim government, the International Criminal Court (ICC) is conducting an ongoing investigation into widespread allegations of rape, murder, forced displacement, persecution, and pillaging since 2012. The ICC was also handling cases related to an earlier wave of violence in the country, and the trial of former rebel leader Jean-Pierre Bemba and several of his codefendants opened in September 2015.

In June, President Samba-Panza enacted a law adopting a specialized court inside the justice system to investigate and prosecute crimes not likely to be covered by the ICC since 2003, to be composed of judges and prosecutors from CAR as well as from abroad. The hybrid justice mechanism represents the first attempt by a sovereign government to try crimes committed on its own territory in conjunction with the ICC.

Same-sex sexual acts are illegal in CAR, punishable by fines and imprisonment, although enforcement of this law is uncommon. Societal discrimination against LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) people remains strong, and many hide their sexual orientation.

G. Personal Autonomy and Individual Rights: 1 / 16

Widespread insecurity and religious persecution continued to hinder the movement of citizens and undermined the protection of private property in 2015. Private businesses and homes are regularly looted by armed militants, with little prospect for compensation or legal recourse for victims. The agricultural economy, the livelihood of the majority of the population, remained restricted by ongoing violence and insecurity. Irregular armed forces control much of the diamond and gold industry, and government agencies lack the capacity to regulate the extraction of natural resources. The Kimberley Process, a multigovernmental scheme to stop the trade of "conflict diamonds," suspended exports from CAR in 2013, but trade in illicit resources continues.

Constitutional guarantees for women's rights are not enforced, especially in rural areas. Domestic abuse and sexual violence against women is exacerbated by the ongoing conflict. In 2015, the UN conducted investigations into allegations of sexual misconduct by French military and UN peacekeeping personnel inside CAR; amid that probe, rape accusations against UN troops raised by Amnesty International prompted the August resignation of General Babacar Gaye as the head of MINUSCA.

The displacement of women and children has made them more vulnerable to forced labor and sex trafficking within the country, according to the U.S. State Department's Trafficking in Persons Report. According to the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), approximately 25 percent of CAR's population has been internally displaced since the beginning of the conflict in 2013.

Copyright notice:  Freedom House, Inc.  All Rights Reserved
Freedom in the World 2016 - Cambodia

Publisher Freedom House Publication Date 14 July 2016 Cite as Freedom House, Freedom in the World 2016 - Cambodia, 14 July 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57985a3b10.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.

Freedom Status: Not Free

Aggregate Score: 32

Freedom Rating: 5.5

Political Rights: 6

Civil Liberties: 5

Quick Facts

Capital: Phnom Penh

Population: 15,417,100

GDP/capita: $1,090.10

Press Freedom Status: Not Free

Net Freedom Status: Partly Free

OVERVIEW

Although the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) ended its boycott of Parliament after reaching an agreement with the ruling Cambodian People's Party (CPP) in 2014, the fragile truce quickly eroded in 2015. The authorities sentenced 11 opposition activists to prison on insurrection charges and arrested a CNRP senator for posting a disputed diplomatic document online. An arrest warrant was issued for opposition leader Sam Rainsy on defamation charges, and he remained outside the country at year's end. Prime Minister Hun Sen appeared to be working to solidify his hold over the CPP in advance of 2018 national elections.

Also in 2015, Parliament passed a new law that forces all nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) to register with the government and allows officials to deny licenses or disband the groups if they are judged to be partisan or to have undermined national unity, peace, national security, or Cambodian culture. Authorities have increasingly harassed and detained NGO representatives, particularly those working on land rights issues.

POLITICAL RIGHTS AND CIVIL LIBERTIES

Political Rights: 11 / 40

A. Electoral Process: 4 / 12

Under the current constitution, promulgated in 1993, the monarch, currently King Norodom Sihamoni, is chief of state. The monarchy remains highly revered as a symbol of national unity but has little political power.

Cambodia's bicameral legislature consists of a 123-seat National Assembly and a 61-seat Senate. National Assembly members are elected by party-list voting to serve five-year terms. In the Senate, 57 members are elected by local councillors, 2 are elected by the National Assembly, and 2 are appointed by the king for six-year terms. The prime minister is appointed by the king and approved by the National Assembly, and members of the Council of Ministers are nominated by the prime minister, appointed by the monarch, and approved by the National Assembly. Voting is tied to a citizen's permanent local residency, which cannot be changed easily.

In the 2012 Senate elections, the CPP won 46 seats. The remaining 11 seats went to the Sam Rainsy Party (SRP), now part of the CNRP. In 2013 National Assembly elections, the CPP captured 68 of 123 seats, its worst showing since 1998. The CNRP won 55 seats. The elections were marred by reports of duplicate voter names, vote buying, and voters casting ballots in communes where they were not registered; the National Election Committee (NEC) identified more than 250,000 duplicate names and 290,000 names missing from voter rolls.

The CNRP rejected the official results, charging that it had won 63 seats, but  despite the NEC's findings  its petition for the creation of an independent authority to investigate its claims was unsuccessful. As a result, all 55 CNRP members refused to take their seats at the new National Assembly's opening session. The CPP and CNRP reached an agreement in July 2014 that ended the CNRP's boycott. The government agreed to recognize a minority leader in Parliament who would be responsible for representing opposition interests to the prime minister, create a new NEC with members appointed by both parties, and release seven opposition legislators from jail. The new election commission is considered less partisan than its predecessor, but it has not yet been tested in a national election.

B. Political Pluralism and Participation: 4 / 16

The constitution outlines the right of Cambodians to participate in multiparty democracy, but in practice, political opposition is restricted. Harassment or threats against opposition supporters are not uncommon, and opposition leaders have faced legal suits for criticizing the ruling party. The CPP is known to reward its supporters with coveted positions and financial incentives. In April 2015, Hun Sen announced his candidacy for the 2018 election, and in June he was elected CPP president.

Although the CNRP has constituted the most formidable opposition to the CPP in years, the government harassed and intimidated opposition lawmakers throughout 2014 and 2015. The two sides' 2014 pledges to foster a "culture of dialogue" largely broke down in 2015, as both parties verbally attacked each other and the government pursued criminal charges against CNRP politicians, including Sam Rainsy. In November, a court ordered Sam Rainsy's arrest based on a past defamation conviction, though the opposition said the verdict had been voided by a 2013 pardon. The National Assembly subsequently voted to remove Sam Rainsy from his seat and thereby revoke his parliamentary immunity. The opposition leader, who was traveling abroad at the time, remained outside Cambodia at year's end. Separately, in August, police arrested a CNRP senator for posting an allegedly fake diplomatic document on Facebook. In October, a crowd of government supporters and security personnel attacked two opposition lawmakers outside the legislature; three members of Hun Sen's bodyguard unit were subsequently detained.

The politicized security forces limit citizens' political choices in Cambodia. Military and police commanders campaigned for the CPP before the 2013 elections, and the army helped suppress opposition demonstrations after the flawed vote. The military organized anti-CNRP demonstrations during 2015.

The constitution explicitly protects the rights of "Khmer people" only, leaving ethnic Vietnamese, Chinese, and other minorities vulnerable to political exclusion. Animosity toward the Vietnamese is common in Cambodian politics. Non-Khmer residents cannot easily establish their citizenship and political rights, particularly if their births were not registered, due to either discrimination or past conflict and political turmoil in the country.

C. Functioning of Government: 3 / 12

The CPP leadership sets and implements state policy, but the flawed electoral process undermines its legitimacy, and the intimidation and legal harassment directed at opposition lawmakers prevents them from contributing to governance.

Corruption remains a serious obstacle to Cambodia's economic development and social stability. A 2010 law established the Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU), but its implementation has been slow. Many in the ruling elite abuse their positions for private gain. Increased investment in mining, forestry, agriculture, textile manufacturing, tourism, hydropower, and real estate has brought notable economic growth in recent years, but these enterprises frequently involve land grabs by powerful politicians, bureaucrats, and military officers.

Nepotism and patronage undermine the functioning of a proper, transparent bureaucratic system. In the 2013 elections, the sons of high-ranking party leaders, including those of Hun Sen and Interior Minister Sar Kheng, ran for seats in Parliament, spurring accusations that CPP leaders were attempting to build political dynasties.

Cambodia was ranked 150 out of 168 countries and territories assessed in Transparency International's 2015 Corruption Perceptions Index.

Civil Liberties: 21 / 60 (+1)

D. Freedom of Expression and Belief: 9 / 16

Freedom of speech is not fully protected. A 2010 law criminalizes defamation and bars written criticism of public officials or institutions. The government uses lawsuits, criminal prosecution, and occasionally violent attacks to intimidate the media. Authorities are especially sensitive to coverage of land grabs and extralegal resource extraction.

There are about 20 active newspapers and magazines, 18 television stations, and some 175 radio stations, most of which are controlled or influenced by the CPP. As part of the July 2014 political agreement, the government granted the CNRP the right to broadcast radio programs in the provinces, and in May 2015 Sam Rainsy announced that the CNRP was preparing to launch a television station, but it was not operational by year's end. There are no restrictions on access to foreign broadcasts via satellite.

Buddhism is the state religion, and the government supports Buddhist education, but the constitution bars religious discrimination. Most Cambodians are Theravada Buddhists and can practice their faith freely. Societal discrimination against religious minorities has been rare in recent years.

Teachers and students practice self-censorship when discussing Cambodian politics and history. In August 2015, the Ministry of Education issued a directive banning political activity at academic institutions, reinforcing a 2007 law on the subject.

Online criticism of the government and CPP leaders has been prosecuted under defamation laws, and the government reportedly monitors online discussion. In September 2015, the Interior Ministry said it would enforce rules requiring SIM card retailers to collect identification information from customers, and existing customers would have to submit such information to their service providers, raising concerns about privacy and surveillance.

E. Associational and Organizational Rights: 3 / 12

Despite constitutional protections for freedom of assembly, the government often denies permits for demonstrations and sometimes uses force to disperse them. Protests in Phnom Penh were banned for the first half of 2014 following a violent January labor demonstration in which at least four people were killed. In July 2015, 11 opposition activists were sentenced to between 7 and 20 years in prison on insurrection charges related to a violent July 2014 protest.

Civil society groups work on a broad spectrum of issues and offer social services, frequently supported by international funding. Those that work on justice and human rights, as opposed to social or health issues, generally face more state harassment. In February 2015, the government expelled the foreign head of an NGO involved in organizing opposition to the proposed Chhay Areng dam in Koh Kong Province. In July, Parliament passed the Law on Associations and Non-Governmental Organizations, which imposed a range of new restrictions on both domestic and foreign NGOs. Among other provisions, the law requires NGOs to register with the government and allows them to be shut down for undermining "national security," "national unity," "peace, stability and public order," or Cambodian culture.

Cambodia has a small number of independent unions, and workers have the right to strike, though many face retribution for doing so. A lack of resources and experience limit union success in collective bargaining, and union leaders report harassment and physical threats. A March 2015 report by Human Rights Watch documented chronic abuse and underpayment in the garment sector, as well as retaliation by factory owners against workers who try to unionize, raise concerns over work conditions, or refuse to work overtime. During 2015, the government drafted a new Trade Union Law that many union leaders characterized as a means of suppressing labor disputes. If passed, the legislation would impose more government regulations on forming and operating unions, increase financial reporting requirements, and restrict the right to strike.

F. Rule of Law: 3 / 16 (+1)

The judiciary is marred by inefficiency, corruption, and a lack of independence. There is a severe shortage of lawyers, and the system's poorly trained judges are subject to political pressure from the CPP. Abuse by law enforcement officers, including illegal detention and the torture of suspects and prisoners, is common. Jails are severely overcrowded, and inmates often lack sufficient food, water, and health care.

Although government supporters frequently enjoy impunity for abuses, three suspects in the October 2015 attack on two opposition lawmakers surrendered the following week and were detained and charged. They were later identified as members of Hun Sen's bodyguard unit. Their cases were pending at year's end, and it remained unclear whether investigators would pursue other suspects.

Those who criticize judges can face retribution. In July 2015, a Phnom Penh court charged activist Ny Chakrya of the Cambodian Human Rights and Development Association with defamation after he accused a judge and prosecutor of acting improperly in a land rights case. He faced more than three years in prison if found guilty.

Hun Sen has repeatedly opposed expanding prosecutions at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC)  established to try leaders of the genocidal Khmer Rouge regime  beyond the small handful of figures already indicted. One former prison chief was sentenced to life in prison in 2012, another defendant died in 2013, and defendants Khieu Samphan and Nuon Chea were convicted of "murder, extermination, persecution on political grounds, and other inhumane acts" in 2014. A second trial against Khieu Samphan and Nuon Chea on charges of genocide is ongoing. In March 2015, the ECCC charged alleged former labor camp leader Im Chaem and former navy chief Meas Muth with crimes against humanity and issued warrants for their arrest. In July, after police failed to execute the warrants, American jurist Mark Harmon resigned as the international co-investigating judge. He was the fourth foreign judge to resign from the tribunal. In August, former Khmer Rouge minister for social affairs Ieng Thirith died. The tribunal had charged her, but she was deemed mentally unfit in 2012 and did not stand trial.

Minorities, especially those of Vietnamese descent, often face discrimination. Refugees and asylum seekers in Cambodia also encounter discrimination and struggle to find employment. Nevertheless, under a multimillion-dollar resettlement agreement with Australia, Cambodia in 2015 accepted a small group of refugees who had been detained on Nauru. Also during the year, Cambodia frequently refused to offer protection to ethnic minority Montagnards fleeing Vietnam, where they are often persecuted by the Vietnamese government.

While same-sex sexual relationships are not criminalized, there is no legal protection from discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity. LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) people reportedly face some societal discrimination in practice.

G. Personal Autonomy and Individual Rights: 6 / 16

The constitution guarantees the rights to freedom of travel and movement, and the government generally respects these rights in practice. However, authorities have sometimes prevented the movement of protesters from the provinces to the capital, and citizens' ability to choose their residence, employment, or educational institution can be affected by corruption.

In a related problem, land and property rights are regularly abused for the sake of private development projects. While estimates vary, the state has seized 12 percent or more of Cambodia's land for such concessions. Hundreds of thousands of people have been forcibly removed from their homes, with little or no compensation or relocation assistance, to make room for commercial plantations, mine operations, factories, and high-end office and residential developments. In February 2015, a prominent land rights organization reported that the number of families filing land-dispute complaints had increased threefold between 2013 and 2014.

Women suffer widespread discrimination, particularly in the economic sphere. Rape and violence against women are common. In a high-profile incident in July 2015, real-estate tycoon Sok Bun was captured on video apparently kicking, punching, and stomping on a well-known female television personality. A trial was pending at year's end.

Men, women, and children are frequently trafficked to and from Cambodia for prostitution and forced labor. Cambodian men are often forced to work in slavery-like conditions on fishing vessels in international waters, and women have been drawn into forced prostitution or factory labor after traveling to China for brokered marriages. Corrupt officials reportedly impede antitrafficking investigations to protect suspects with government ties.

Copyright notice:  Freedom House, Inc.  All Rights Reserved
Freedom in the World 2016 - Botswana

Publisher Freedom House Publication Date 14 July 2016 Cite as Freedom House, Freedom in the World 2016 - Botswana, 14 July 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57985a3c15.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.

Freedom Status: Free

Aggregate Score: 73

Freedom Rating: 2.5

Political Rights: 3

Civil Liberties: 2

Quick Facts

Capital: Gaborone

Population: 2,139,900

GDP/capita: $7,123.30

Press Freedom Status: Partly Free

Net Freedom Status: N/A

OVERVIEW

While democratic traditions are strong in Botswana, critics of President Seretse Khama Ian Khama have expressed concerns about creeping authoritarianism, particularly in light of crackdowns on the media and questionable actions by Khama regarding the judiciary.

Botswana saw economic difficulties in 2015, attributed to a decline in diamond exports as well as significant electricity and water shortages. Following two quarters of economic contraction, the country had entered a recession by the year's end.

POLITICAL RIGHTS AND CIVIL LIBERTIES

Political Rights: 28 / 40

A. Electoral Process: 10 / 12

Khama is the son of Botswana's first president. The president is elected indirectly by the National Assembly and holds significant power, including the authority to prolong or dismiss the legislature, which cannot impeach him. Democracy advocates have alleged that power has become increasingly centralized around Khama, with many top jobs going to military officers and family members.

Botswana has a unicameral 63-seat National Assembly, of which 57 members are directly elected, 4 are nominated by the president and approved by the assembly, and 2 (the president and the attorney general) are ex-officio members. All members serve five-year terms with no term limits.

In the 2014 elections, the ruling Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) won 37 of the 57 contested seats. The Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) won 17 seats, and the center-left Botswana Congress Party (BCP) won the remaining 3 seats.

B. Political Pluralism and Participation: 10 / 16

The BDP has dominated the political scene since Botswana's independence in 1966. In 2012, the opposition parties (Botswana Movement for Democracy [BMD], Botswana National Front, and Botswana People's Party) coalesced under the Umbrella for Democratic Chance but continue to retain separate identities within constituencies.

The House of Chiefs is a 35-member national body that serves an advisory role on matters of legislation pertaining to tribal law and custom. It is composed primarily of members of the country's eight major Setswana-speaking tribes. Smaller groups tend to be left out of the political process. Under the Territories Act, land in ethnic territory is distributed under the jurisdiction of majority groups. Due in part to their lack of representation in the House of Chiefs, minority groups are subject to patriarchal Tswana customary law despite having their own traditional rules for inheritance, marriage, and succession.

C. Functioning of Government: 8 / 12

Botswana's anticorruption body has special powers of investigation, arrest, and search and seizure, and the body has a high conviction rate. Despite this, President Khama has shielded a number of high-profile allies from indictment and prosecution.

There are almost no restrictions on the private business activities of public servants (including the president, who is a large stakeholder in the tourism sector), and political ties often play a role in awarding government jobs and tenders. In 2015, it emerged that members of parliament had secretly approved significant salary increases for themselves, as well as for the president and vice president. In September 2015, a newspaper reported that a company owned by the secretary general of the BDP won a 40 million pula ($3.7 million) contract to build a new fire station in Molepolole, without any measure of competition or open tender. There have been a number of allegations of corruption involving the politically appointed members of Land Boards.

During President Khama's terms, several government bodies, including the Directorate on Intelligence and Security Services (DISS), the Directorate on Corruption and Economic Crime (DCEC), and the state media, have been reorganized under the Office of the President, raising concerns about the consolidation of power in the executive branch. Botswana does not have a freedom of information law, and critics accuse the government of excessive secrecy. Botswana was ranked 28 out of 168 countries and territories surveyed in Transparency International's 2015 Corruption Perceptions Index.

Civil Liberties: 45 / 60

D. Freedom of Expression and Belief: 12 / 16

Freedom of expression is protected under Section 12 of Botswana's constitution. The Media Practitioners Act, which has not yet entered into force, compels all resident journalists to receive accreditation from a media council. It also establishes a complaints committee, whose members are appointed by the minister of presidential affairs and public administration, which can fine or deregister journalists who violate its code of ethics. Authorities are reluctant to offer advertising contracts to privately owned newspapers that criticize the government.

There was an uptick in attacks and pressure on Botswana's media in 2015. In January, the independent newspaper Mmegi experienced a cyberattack that destroyed a significant amount of its archived material. Mmegi's editor claimed that the DISS was behind the attack, and that it had been carried out as retaliation for an article claiming that the DCEC had questioned DISS director Isaac Kgosi in 2012 about the origin of a large amount of money he had amassed since assuming the directorship. In May, following its publication of an investigative piece that implicated the DISS and BDP in corrupt behavior involving an oil contract, officials from the DCEC raided the offices of the Botswana Gazette and arrested and temporarily detained three staff members and the paper's lawyer. One of the journalists was reportedly charged under section 44 of the DCEC Act, which bans the disclosure of information related to an ongoing investigation. Also in May, the deputy editor of the Sunday Standard publicly denied that he had fired one of its journalists over an article critical of a government minister who happened to be one of the deputy editor's relatives. In June, the private radio station Yarona FM suspended its news and assignment editors after they aired a story alleging that the DISS's network had been hacked.

Nevertheless, Botswana has a vigorous and generally free press, with several independent newspapers and magazines. The private Gaborone Broadcasting Company (GBC) television system and two private radio stations have limited reach, with the result that many people rely on broadcasts from neighboring South Africa. State-owned broadcast outlets, which have a wider reach than the GBC and the two private radio stations, favor the ruling party.

The government does not restrict internet access, though access is rare outside cities. Freedom of religion is guaranteed, but all religious organizations must register with the government. Academic freedom is generally respected.

Private discussion is generally free in Botswana. However, reports of increasing electronic surveillance, rogue intelligence agents, and a lack of proper oversight mechanisms for spy agencies have contributed to a growing climate of suspicion and have reportedly dampened private discussion.

E. Associational and Organizational Rights: 10 / 12

The government generally respects the constitutional rights of assembly and association. Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), including human rights groups, operate openly without harassment. However, the government has barred organizations supporting the rights of the San people (an indigenous tribal population) from entering the Central Kgalagadi Game Reserve (CKGR), the subject of a long-running land dispute. Demonstrations at the reserve have been forcibly dispersed.

While independent labor unions are permitted, workers' rights to strike and bargain collectively are dependent upon the type of service they render.

F. Rule of Law: 12 / 16

Botswana's courts are generally considered to be fair and free of direct political interference, though the legal system is affected by staffing shortages and a large backlog of cases. Civil cases are sometimes tried in customary courts, where defendants have no right to legal counsel.

In one of the most publicized cases of 2015, President Khama suspended four High Court judges in August for bringing the judiciary into disrepute and undermining Chief Justice Maruping Dibotelo. The four were part of a group of 12 judges that signed a petition calling for Dibotelo's impeachment, after Dibotelo had accused them of improperly collecting housing allowances. Three of the judges later withdrew their signatures from the petition, and all four were challenging the suspensions at the year's end. The incident prompted rights group Amnesty International and other observers to express concern about judicial independence in Botswana. Separately, in December, Khama faced criticism for appointing two high court judges who apparently had little legal experience.

Occasional reports of police abuse to obtain evidence or confessions have been reported. Botswana's justice system includes corporal and capital punishment. In August 2015, foreign inmates who are HIV-positive secured the right to receive free antiretroviral therapy, despite the state's unsuccessful appeal.

Migrants from Zimbabwe continue to face xenophobia and are often denied salaries by being deported just before payday. Immigration policies in place since 2010 were designed to halt the flow of undocumented immigrants into the country, mostly from Zimbabwe. Botswana has built a fence along its border with that country, ostensibly to control foot-and-mouth disease among livestock; it is widely supported as a means of halting illegal immigration. Following the 2013 Zimbabwean elections, the government stopped granting refugee status to asylum-seekers from that country, stating it no longer necessary as the political situation in Zimbabwe had improved.

While same-sex sexual activity is not explicitly criminalized, "unnatural offences" are punishable by up to seven years in prison. However, there were no reported cases during 2015. A 2010 amendment to the Employment Act outlaws workplace dismissal based on an individual's sexual orientation or HIV status. In 2013, representatives of the NGO Lesbians, Gays, and Bisexuals of Botswana (LEGABIBO) filed a case with the High Court seeking review of a decision by the director of civil and national registration and the minister of labor and home affairs denying them registration. In 2014, in a landmark ruling, the Botswana High court determined that the government cannot deny an LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) group registration. The government has appealed the decision, with a ruling expected in 2016.

G. Personal Autonomy and Individual Rights: 11 / 16

Since 1985, authorities have relocated about 5,000 San to settlements outside the CKGR. The government insists that the San have been relocated to give them access to modern education and health facilities, rejecting claims that the government wants unrestricted access to diamond reserves in the region. In 2014, the San lost rights to hunt in Botswana, effectively denying them a way of life. There have been reports of beatings, abuse, and arbitrary arrests of San people by police and park rangers. The San tend to be marginalized in education and employment opportunities.

With the exception of the restrictions imposed on the San, citizens of Botswana generally enjoy freedom of travel and internal movement. Botswana's regulatory framework is considered conducive to establishing and operating private businesses.

Women continue to be underrepresented in the government and judiciary. Since the 2014 elections, women make up roughly 10 percent of the National Assembly. Women enjoy the same rights as men under the constitution, but customary laws limit their property rights, and women married under traditional laws have the same legal status as minors. The 2004 Abolition of Marital Powers Act established equal control of marriage estates and equal custody of children, removed restrictive domicile rules, and set the minimum marriage age at 18. However, enforcement of the act is not uniform and generally requires the cooperation of traditional authorities, which is not always forthcoming.

Domestic violence and trafficking for the purposes of prostitution and labor remain significant problems. According to the U.S. State Department's 2015 Trafficking in Persons Report, unemployed women, agricultural workers, children, and people from poorer rural areas are among the most susceptible to traffickers. Civil servants, including police and teachers, have been reported as clients of children forced to engage in sex work.

Copyright notice:  Freedom House, Inc.  All Rights Reserved
Freedom in the World 2016 - Belarus

Publisher Freedom House Publication Date 14 July 2016 Cite as Freedom House, Freedom in the World 2016 - Belarus, 14 July 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57985a3d13.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.

Freedom Status: Not Free

Aggregate Score: 17

Freedom Rating: 6.5

Political Rights: 7

Civil Liberties: 6

Quick Facts

Capital: Minsk

Population: 9,524,247

GDP/capita: $8,040

Press Freedom Status: Not Free

Net Freedom Status: Not Free

OVERVIEW

President Alyaksandr Lukashenka secured a fifth term in the October 2015 presidential election, which failed to meet international standards, according to observers from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).

The war in neighboring Ukraine, growing regional tensions, and a failing economy motivated Belarus to seek better relations with Europe and the United States during the year. In February, Lukashenka hosted leaders of France, Germany, Russia, and Ukraine for talks that resulted in a new cease-fire agreement. Belarusian authorities then released six political prisoners in August, and refrained from violently suppressing protests during and after the October election, marking a contrast with the crackdown that followed the 2010 presidential vote.

In late October, the government was rewarded for the steps it had taken to improve its still-repressive human rights situation when the European Union and the United States granted the country temporary relief from sanctions.

POLITICAL RIGHTS AND CIVIL LIBERTIES

Political Rights: 4 / 40

A. Electoral Process: 0 / 12

The president is elected for five-year terms without limits. The 110 members of the Chamber of Representatives, the lower house of the rubber-stamp National Assembly, are popularly elected for four years from single-mandate constituencies. The upper chamber, the Council of the Republic, consists of 64 members serving four-year terms; 56 are elected by regional councils, and 8 are appointed by the president.

Since Lukashenka was democratically elected to his first term in 1994, elections and referendums in Belarus have been marred by serious and systemic irregularities. During the 2012 parliamentary elections, the authorities blocked key opposition figures from running, harassed regime critics, denied the opposition access to the media, failed to administer the elections fairly, and prevented observers from independently verifying the vote count. The regime also pressured workers at state-owned enterprises to participate in the process. No opposition candidates won seats.

In October 2015, Lukashenka secured his fifth term in a noncompetitive presidential race, taking 83 percent of the vote. None of his three opponents received more than 5 percent, while the "against all" option received over 6 percent. OSCE observers concluded that the vote fell considerably short of meeting the group's standards for democratic elections, citing significant violations in the counting of the results. The observers did take note of several positive developments, including the participation of the first-ever female presidential candidate and the peaceful pre- and postelection environment; the latter was welcomed as an improvement given the brutal crackdown on protests surrounding the 2010 election. However, key opposition figures refused to recognize the results of the 2015 election, citing in part a series of irregularities related to early voting; official figures showed that some 36 percent of the electorate had cast ballots during early voting.

The legal framework for elections fails to meet democratic standards. Among other problems, electoral commission members at the national and local levels are politically aligned with and dependent on the incumbent government, and independent observers have little access to the counting process. Inadequate opposition access to state-run media, which heavily favor Lukashenka, is also a major concern.

B. Political Pluralism and Participation: 3 / 16

There is no official progovernment political party, and very few lawmakers are affiliated with any party. Opposition parties have no representation in the National Assembly, and Lukashenka's regime employs various tools to weaken and divide the opposition. These include harassment, imprisonment on trumped-up charges, and pressure on leaders and activists to leave Belarus or abandon politics.

Political parties encounter difficulties when seeking official registration. In 2015, the Ministry of Justice denied a registration application from the Belarusian Christian Democracy party for the fifth time. The Supreme Court later upheld the decision.

Six political prisoners, including 2010 presidential candidate Mikalay Statkevich, were released in August 2015 before their prison terms expired. Prior to their release, media reports had described the harsh treatment they received in prison. Another political prisoner, Mikalay Dzyadok, had his prison term extended for another year in February, days before it was set to expire.

In December, Belarusian human rights defenders concluded that Mikhail Zhamchuzhny, founder of the human rights organization Platforma, should be designated as a political prisoner. He was sentenced to six and a half years in prison in July after being convicted on charges that human rights organizations consider to be unsubstantiated and politically motivated. The group's leader, Andrey Bandarenka, was sentenced to four years in prison in 2014 after being convicted of charges that were also disputed, including several counts of hooliganism and violence against women.

Other instances of political persecution include a case launched in August against five activists who were violently detained for marking a billboard with politically charged graffiti. Three of them faced criminal charges, while the other two were released. Another presidential candidate in the 2010 election, Ales Mikhalevich, returned to Belarus after years in exile, though a criminal case against him was still pending.

C. Functioning of Government: 1 / 12

The constitution vests most power in the president, giving him control over the government, the judiciary, and the legislative process by stating that presidential decrees have a higher legal force than ordinary legislation.

The state controls 70 percent of the Belarusian economy, feeding widespread corruption. In addition, graft is encouraged by an overall lack of transparency and accountability in government. Information on the work of about 60 government ministries and state-controlled companies, including the Ministry of Information and the state broadcaster, is classified. Belarus ranks 107 out of 168 countries and territories surveyed in Transparency International's 2015 Corruption Perceptions Index.

There are no independent bodies to investigate corruption cases. Graft trials are held in a closed format isolated from the public, raising questions about the fairness of the process.

Civil Liberties: 13 / 60 (+3)

D. Freedom of Expression and Belief: 3 / 16

The government systematically curtails press freedom. Libel is both a civil and criminal offense. A 2008 media law gives the state a monopoly over information about political, social, and economic affairs. The criminal code also contains provisions protecting the "honor and dignity" of high-ranking officials, including greater penalties in cases of defamation or insult.

Belarusian national television is completely under the control of the state and typically does not present alternative or opposition views. There are no privately owned nationwide broadcasting outlets. The state-run press distribution monopoly limits the availability of private newspapers. The authorities harass and censor the remaining independent media outlets. Freelancing or working for a foreign, unaccredited news outlet can be punished as criminal offenses.

The government seeks greater control over the internet through legal and technical means, even as Belarusians are increasingly turning to the internet as a more trustworthy source of news and information than traditional state-run media. Internet penetration reached about 62 percent in 2015.

Amendments to the 2008 media law went into effect at the start of 2015, giving the government greater powers to censor online content. The amendments further expanded the definition of mass media to include all websites and blogs that publish information, placing them under the supervision of the Ministry of Information. The government owns Belarus's only internet service provider, and authorities have repeatedly blocked access to opposition sites and independent media outlets.

Despite constitutional guarantees of religious equality, government decrees and registration requirements have increasingly restricted religious activity. Legal amendments in 2002 provided for government censorship of religious publications and barred foreigners from leading religious groups. The amendments also placed strict limitations on religious groups active in Belarus for less than 20 years. In 2003, the government signed a concordat with the Belarusian Orthodox Church, which is controlled by the Russian Orthodox Church, giving it a privileged position. The authorities have discriminated against or harassed the Roman Catholic Church and especially Protestant groups.

Academic freedom is subject to intense state ideological pressures, and institutions that use a liberal curriculum or are suspected of disloyalty face harassment and liquidation. Regulations stipulate immediate dismissal and revocation of degrees for students and professors who join opposition protests. Mandatory assignment of university graduates to state-sanctioned, low-paid jobs for two years after graduation pushes many young people to pursue higher education in European universities.

The use of wiretapping and other surveillance by state security agencies limits the right to free private discussion. Internet communications are reportedly monitored by the authorities.

E. Associational and Organizational Rights: 1 / 12

The government restricts freedom of assembly for critical independent groups. Protests require authorization from local authorities, who can arbitrarily deny permission. Police routinely break up public demonstrations and arrest participants. The government's desire to improve its relations with Europe and the United States led to an easing of such practices in 2015; although fines and short detentions continued to be imposed, police refrained from beatings and mass arrests. Legislation curbing free assembly remained intact.

Freedom of association is severely restricted. More than 100 of the most active nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) were forced to close between 2003 and 2005, and participation in an unregistered or liquidated political party or organization was criminalized in 2005. Registration of groups remains selective. As a result, most human rights activists operating in the country face potential jail terms ranging from six months to two years. Regulations introduced in 2005 ban foreign assistance to entities and individuals deemed to promote foreign "meddling in the internal affairs" of Belarus. In 2013, officials introduced legislation simplifying registration requirements for NGOs, but arbitrary denials of registration have not abated.

Independent trade unions face harassment, and their leaders are frequently fired and prosecuted for engaging in peaceful protests. No independent trade unions have been registered since 1999, when Lukashenka issued a decree setting extremely restrictive registration requirements.

F. Rule of Law: 2 / 16 (+1)

Although the constitution calls for judicial independence, courts are subject to significant executive influence. The right to a fair trial is often not respected in cases with political overtones. Human rights groups have documented instances of beatings, torture, and psychological pressure during detention. The power to extend pretrial detention lies with a prosecutor rather than a judge, in violation of international norms.

Authorities deliberately create advantageous conditions for the Russian language to increase its dominance, while the UN Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) recognizes Belarusian as a "vulnerable" language. Ethnic Poles and Roma often face pressure from the authorities and discrimination.

LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) individuals are subject to discrimination and regular police harassment. Mikhail Pishcheuski died in October after being severely beaten in 2014 for being gay; his attacker, a former schoolteacher, was convicted in what was reportedly the first-ever trial in Belarus to address violence targeting a gay person, but the perpetrator was released from prison in August 2015 after serving just 11 months of a 32-month sentence. In 2013, the Justice Ministry refused to register a gay rights NGO. The same year, the parliament proposed a law banning "homosexual propaganda," but has not yet introduced it as legislation. An official website of the Belarusian government advises foreign gay couples traveling to the country "to avoid public displays of affection, and to book twin rooms rather than doubles."

Since 2014, Belarus has accepted about 160,000 refugees from Ukraine as people fled the conflict there, providing them with schooling and medical treatment. Belarus coordinates its efforts with the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

G. Personal Autonomy and Individual Rights: 7 / 16 (+2)

While an internal passport system limits freedom of movement and choice of residence, restrictions have eased in practice in recent years, leaving few significant obstacles to domestic and international travel. Nevertheless, some opposition activists are detained at the border for lengthy searches, and bribery to accelerate some of the administrative processes for traveling is common.

Although the economy remains dominated by the state, Belarus's limits on economic freedom have also been gradually eased in recent years, allowing for greater property ownership, commercial activity, and small business operations. State interference in the economy now primarily affects larger businesses.

There are significant discrepancies in income between men and women, and women are poorly represented in leading government positions. Domestic and sexual violence against women are considered to be persistent and underreported. Sexual violence is addressed in the criminal code, and a 2008 law addresses the prosecution of domestic violence, but no legislative measures are aimed at preventing these problems. The constitution explicitly bans same-sex marriage.

Mandatory unpaid national work days, postgraduate employment allocation, compulsory labor for addicts confined to state rehabilitation facilities, and restrictions on leaving employment in specific industries have led labor activists to conclude that all Belarusian citizens experience forced labor at some stage of their life. Lack of economic opportunities have led many women to become victims of the international sex trade.

Copyright notice:  Freedom House, Inc.  All Rights Reserved
Freedom in the World 2016 - Bahrain

Publisher Freedom House Publication Date 14 July 2016 Cite as Freedom House, Freedom in the World 2016 - Bahrain, 14 July 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57985a3e15.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.

Freedom Status: Not Free

Aggregate Score: 14

Freedom Rating: 6.5

Political Rights: 7

Civil Liberties: 6

Quick Facts

Capital: Manama

Population: 1,412,299

GDP/capita: $24,868.40

Press Freedom Status: Not Free

Net Freedom Status: Not Free

OVERVIEW

After the opposition's boycott of the 2014 parliamentary elections and unsuccessful attempts at compromise, relations between Bahrain's government and the opposition remained tense in 2015. The opposition groups Al-Wefaq and the National Democratic Action Society, among others, faced heightened harassment during the year. In June, a Bahraini court sentenced Al-Wefaq president Ali Salman to four years in prison on a number of serious charges, including promotion of violent political change. Security forces arrested Ibrahim Sharif, former leader of the National Democratic Action Society, on similar charges in July, a month after releasing him from a prison sentence for his involvement in the 2011 uprising. Separately, authorities punished a range of critics, dissidents, and suspected extremists  including 72 people in January alone  by stripping them of citizenship.

Attacks on freedom of speech and the press continued during the year. In February, the government shuttered the satellite television station Al-Arab, owned by a Saudi prince, just hours after its launch because the station aired an interview with a leading member of Al-Wefaq. In August, authorities temporarily shuttered Al-Wasat, one of Bahrain's five Arabic daily newspapers, after it published criticism of the government.

Protesters and security forces clashed on several occasions. Police abuse, including arbitrary arrests and torture in custody, continued during the year, as did bomb attacks by civilians against police. In an exceptional case in May, six police officers were convicted for having tortured prisoners suspected of drug smuggling, one of whom had died.

The government continued its long-standing policy of naturalizing expatriates in an effort to tip the demographic weight of the country away from its Shiite majority.

POLITICAL RIGHTS AND CIVIL LIBERTIES

Political Rights: 4 / 40 (-1)

A. Electoral Process: 2 / 12

The National Action Charter of Bahrain was approved in 2001, and the country was proclaimed a constitutional kingdom the following year. The 2002 constitution gives the king power over the executive, legislative, and judicial authorities. He appoints cabinet ministers and members of the 40-seat Consultative Council, the upper house of the National Assembly. The lower house, or Council of Representatives, consists of 40 elected members serving four-year terms. The National Assembly may propose legislation, but the cabinet drafts the laws.

Al-Wefaq, the country's leading Shiite opposition society, withdrew its 18 members from the Council of Representatives in 2011 and boycotted the interim elections to protest the government's crackdown on Shiite Muslims. As a result, all 40 seats went to government supporters. Al-Wefaq boycotted the 2014 legislative elections as well, allowing progovernment candidates to sweep the legislature once more. Largely progovernment independents won 37 of the 40 lower house seats. The remaining seats went to major Sunni societies.

The government touted the 2014 elections as a success, with a reported 51.5 percent voter turnout for the first round despite the opposition boycott. Al-Wefaq, however, estimated voter turnout at less than 30 percent. The government appears to have manipulated the vote by redrawing electoral districts and making monitoring more difficult in order to undercut the rise of potentially populist political networks, such as Islamist groups.

B. Political Pluralism and Participation: 2 / 16

While formal political parties are illegal, the government has generally allowed political societies or groupings to operate after registering with the Ministry of Justice.

Bahrain has been in political crisis since 2011, when Bahraini activists, mostly from economically depressed Shiite communities, galvanized widespread support for political reform and against sectarian discrimination. The government declared martial law in response to the uprising and instituted a prolonged and violent crackdown.

While the government claims that political societies remain free to operate, it has imprisoned key opposition leaders. In addition to Salman and Sharif, a number of other opposition figures faced pressure in 2015. In August, police arrested former lawmaker and Al-Wefaq member Hassan Isa after he returned from a trip to Iran, accusing him of financing terrorism. The targeting of opposition figures follows several years of failed efforts to create cooperation. The government relaunched the so-called National Dialogue in 2013 in an attempt to engage the opposition in the political process but suspended it in 2014, when Al-Wefaq withdrew from the talks after one of its leaders was arrested for criticizing the government. After Al-Wefaq announced a boycott of the 2014 elections, a Bahraini court suspended the society's operations for three months.

A 2005 law makes it illegal to form political associations based on class, profession, or religion. The majority Shiite population is underrepresented in government.

C. Functioning of Government: 3 / 12

Bahrain has some anticorruption laws, but enforcement is weak, and high-ranking officials suspected of corruption are rarely punished. A source of frustration for many citizens is the perception that Khalifa bin Salman al-Khalifa, the king's uncle and Bahrain's prime minister since 1971, is both corrupt and a key opponent of reform.

Bahrain was ranked 50 out of 168 countries and territories surveyed in Transparency International's 2015 Corruption Perceptions Index.

Discretionary Political Rights Question B: -3 / 0 (-1)

The government has made concerted efforts to erode Bahrain's Shiite majority, mostly by promoting citizenship for foreign-born Sunnis. In 2015, the government maintained systemic sectarian discrimination, and continued recruiting Sunnis to become citizens and serve in the country's security services. Since 2011, the government has maintained a heavy security presence in primarily Shiite villages. Security forces restrict the movements of Shiite citizens, periodically destroy their property, and arrest critics and activists.

Civil Liberties: 10 / 60

D. Freedom of Expression and Belief: 2 / 16

The government owns all broadcast media outlets, and the private owners of Bahrain's three main newspapers have close ties to the state. Self-censorship is encouraged by the vaguely worded 2002 Press Law, which allows the state to imprison journalists for criticizing the king or Islam or for threatening national security. In 2014, the king enacted a law criminalizing insults against him, with offenses carrying steep fines and a prison term of up to seven years. The government continues to block a number of opposition websites, including those that broadcast live events.

The government and its supporters have used the press to smear human rights and opposition activists repeatedly since 2011, most notably in separate campaigns against the opposition newspaper Al-Wasat and its editor, Mansoor al-Jamri. In August 2015, authorities suspended Al-Wasat after it ran an editorial criticizing the government and its supporters for routinely smearing opposition figures; the newspaper resumed operations after a week.

Several other individuals and outlets were targeted for exercising freedom of expression. In February, authorities closed the Manama-based television station Al-Arab just hours after it began operations because the outlet, which employed more than 200 people, aired an interview with a leading Al-Wefaq official. In November, photographer Sayed Ahmed Al-Mousawi was sentenced to 10 years in prison for allegedly supporting terrorism and stripped of his citizenship. Security forces arrested Al-Mousawi in 2014 after he photographed a series of protests, and held him for more than a year without formal charge. In December, police arrested Mahmoud al-Jaziri, a journalist covering parliamentary issues for Al-Wasat, on suspicion of involvement in terrorist activity. Media watchdogs denounced the arrest as unfounded; al-Jaziri was in detention without charge at year's end.

Islam is the state religion. However, non-Muslim minorities are generally free to practice their faiths. All religious groups must obtain a permit from the Ministry of Justice and Islamic Affairs to operate legally, though the government has not punished groups that operate without permits.

Shiite religious and political figures face significant political hurdles to operating openly. In October, Shiite clerics lodged a complaint over the removal of black flags used in ceremonies for the Day of Ashura, which commemorates the death of the grandson of the prophet Muhammad. The identity of the perpetrators remained unclear at year's end.

Academic freedom is not formally restricted, but scholars who criticize the government are subject to dismissal. In 2011, a number of faculty members and administrators were fired for supporting the call for democracy, and hundreds of students and some faculty were expelled. Those who remained were forced to sign loyalty pledges.

There are strong suspicions that security forces use networks of informers, and that the government monitors the telephone and online communications of activists, critics, and opposition members. Users of social-media platforms have faced charges of "misusing" them by posting content unfavorable to the regime.

E. Associational and Organizational Rights: 1 / 12

Citizens must obtain a license to hold demonstrations, which are banned from sunrise to sunset in any public arena. Police regularly use violence to break up political protests, most of which occur in Shiite villages. In 2013, in face of ongoing protests and rising levels of violence, King Hamad decreed additions to Bahrain's antiterrorism law that imposed heavy penalties on those convicted of demonstrating unlawfully, including large fines and the stripping of citizenship.

The 1989 Societies Law prohibits any nongovernmental organization (NGO) from operating without a permit. In 2014, the Ministry of Justice ordered all groups and associations to obtain permission before meeting with non-Bahraini diplomats and officials, limiting the contact of opposition and human rights networks with potentially supportive foreign governments and organizations. The order also required a government official to be present at any interaction. In August 2015, activist Maitham al-Salman of the Bahrain Human Rights Observatory was arrested after attending a meeting of the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).

Bahraini human rights defenders continued to face harassment, intimidation, and prosecution on dubious grounds. Ghada Jamsheer, a prominent women's rights activist, was sentenced to prison in June for alleging corruption against several members of the royal family. Also in June, a court extended the four-year prison sentence of activist Zainab al-Khawaja by an additional nine months. Al-Khajawa, daughter of the imprisoned activist Abdulhadi al-Khawaja, was originally sentenced in 2014 for tearing up a picture of King Hamad. In July, the king pardoned human rights activist Nabeel Rajab, who was serving a six-month prison sentence after being convicted of insulting state institutions.

Bahrainis have the right to establish independent labor unions, but workers must give two weeks' notice before a strike, and strikes are banned in a variety of economic sectors. Private-sector employees cannot be dismissed for union activities, but harassment of unionist workers occurs in practice. Foreign workers lack the right to organize or seek help from Bahraini unions. Household servants remain particularly vulnerable to exploitation.

F. Rule of Law: 1 / 16

The king appoints all judges, and courts are subject to government pressure. Members of the royal family hold all senior security-related offices. Bahrain's criminal courts and those responsible for personal status laws are largely beholden to political interests. The country's judicial system is seen as corrupt and biased in favor of the royal family and its backers.

Although Bahrain has criminalized torture and claims it does not hold political prisoners, the country's prisons are full of human rights and prodemocracy activists. While some detainees are periodically denied access to family and lawyers, others enjoy limited opportunities for phone calls and other amenities. Detainees report frequent maltreatment by prison officials, who are rarely held accountable for abuse. In an exceptional case in May 2015, six police officers were convicted for having tortured prisoners suspected of drug smuggling, one of whom had died.

In 2011, the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry (BICI) concluded that security personnel had used excessive force when dispersing protests that year. In 2013, at the recommendation of BICI, the government created a police ombudsman to investigate allegations of brutality and the excessive use of force by security personnel. While several police officers were sentenced to prison terms as a result, including one who received seven years for killing a protester in 2011, sentences for those convicted of killing protesters have been light compared to those for political activists.

Bahrain's antiterrorism law prescribes the death penalty for members of terrorist groups and prison terms for those who use religion to spread extremism. Critics have argued that the law's definition of terrorist crimes is too broad, and that it has encouraged the use of torture and arbitrary detention. In November 2015, authorities arrested 47 people for allegedly having ties to Iran and planning terrorist attacks.

Bomb attacks continued to target police. In July 2015, an explosion in the village of Sitra killed two police officers and injured six others. A blast in August in the village of Karanah led to the death of an officer and injured seven others, including civilian bystanders.

The government uses revocation of citizenship as a punitive measure, particularly against critics and dissidents. While not all individuals who lose their citizenship are deported, they are forced to face the difficulties arising from a stateless status. In January, authorities stripped at least 72 people  among them Sayed Ahmed Alwadaei, a member of the Bahrain Institute for Human Rights and Democracy, and Ali Abdulemam, an activist and blogger  of their citizenship on vague grounds related to national security and stability. An additional 56 people lost their citizenship in June after being convicted of operating a terrorist cell.

Discrimination based on sexual orientation is common, and most LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) people hide their gender identity. Same-sex sexual activity is not illegal, but individuals have reportedly been punished for it.

G. Personal Autonomy and Individual Rights: 6 / 16

The government continued to obstruct foreign travel by key opposition figures and activists in 2015. Authorities also restricted movement inside the country, particularly for residents of largely Shiite villages outside Manama. A tight security cordon blocked easy access to the capital.

Although registered businesses are largely free to operate, obtaining approval can be difficult due to high capital requirements and political influence on the economy. For the wealthy elites who dominate the business sector, property rights are generally respected and expropriation is rare. However, Shiite citizens encounter difficulties and in some cases bans on purchasing housing and land. The al-Khalifa family has gifted vast swaths of land to regime cronies.

Although women have the right to vote and participate in elections, they are underrepresented politically. Women won three parliamentary seats in the 2014 elections. Women are generally not afforded equal protection under the law. The government drafted a personal status law in 2008, but withdrew it in 2009 under pressure from Shiite clergy; the Sunni portion was later passed by the parliament. Personal status and family law issues for Shiite Bahrainis are consequently still governed by Sharia (Islamic law) court rulings based on the interpretations of predominantly male religious scholars, rather than by any formal statute.

According to the U.S. State Department's 2016 Trafficking in Persons Report, Bahrain is a destination for victims of human trafficking for forced labor and sexual exploitation. Some employers subject migrant workers to forced labor, and there are reports that abusers withhold workers' documentation in order to prevent them from leaving or reporting to the authorities. The government has taken steps to combat trafficking in recent years, but efforts to investigate and prosecute perpetrators remain weak.

Copyright notice:  Freedom House, Inc.  All Rights Reserved
Freedom in the World 2016 - Austria

Publisher Freedom House Publication Date 14 July 2016 Cite as Freedom House, Freedom in the World 2016 - Austria, 14 July 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57985a3f15.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.

Freedom Status: Free

Aggregate Score: 95

Freedom Rating: 1.0

Political Rights: 1

Civil Liberties: 1

Quick Facts

Capital: Vienna

Population: 8,615,955

GDP/capita: $51,127.1

Press Freedom Status: Free

Net Freedom Status: N/A

OVERVIEW

Along with other countries in the European Union (EU), Austria experienced a large influx of asylum seekers and other migrants in 2015, many of them from Syria. The migration flow formed the background for increasingly stronger populist rhetoric from the ring-wing Freedom Party of Austria (FPO) party, which made gains in local elections in October. In February, legislators passed amendments to the law establishing recognition for Islam, strengthening protections for adherents of the religion while also restricting foreign funding for mosques and imams. Throughout the fall, lawmakers debated a controversial security law that would substantially increase the government's abilities to collect information with little oversight. Weak mechanisms for government transparency remained a notable concern.

POLITICAL RIGHTS AND CIVIL LIBERTIES

Political Rights: 37 / 40 (-1)

A. Electoral Process: 12 / 12

The lower house of Parliament, the National Council (Nationalrat), has 183 members chosen through proportional representation at the district, state, and federal levels. Members serve five-year terms, extended from four in 2008. The president, who is elected for a six-year term, appoints the chancellor, who needs the support of the legislature to govern. The 62 members of the upper house, the Federal Council (Bundesrat), are chosen by state legislatures for five- or six-year terms.

In the 2013 legislative elections, Chancellor Werner Faymann's center-left Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPO) won 52 seats in the National Council, and the center-right People's Party of Austria (OVP) took 47. Their combined vote share of 50.9 percent, down from 78.8 percent in 2002, was their worst since World War II, and their combined number of seats fell from 108. Both parties were weakened by corruption scandals and by public discontent with their pro-EU policies. In December 2013, the SPO and the OVP reached an agreement to continue governing as a grand coalition.

The FPO took 40 seats in the 2013 elections, 6 more than it had won in 2008. Team Stronach for Austria (FRANK), a Euroskeptic, pro-business party founded in 2012 by Austrian-born Canadian car-parts magnate Frank Stronach, took 11 seats. The Austrian Green Party won 24 seats, while the centrist, pro-business New Austria (NEOS) won 9 seats. The far-right Alliance for the Future of Austria (BZO), which split from the FPO in 2005 and is considered less extreme, failed to win any seats, falling short of the 4 percent threshold necessary for inclusion in the National Council. Voter turnout was approximately 75 percent.

In the October 2015 municipal elections in Vienna, the FPO won one third of the vote but failed to muster the number needed to unseat Mayor Michael Haupl. In recent years, party leader Heinz-Christian Strache has sought to adopt a more moderate tone for the party and curb its openly xenophobic and anti-Semitic rhetoric. Nevertheless, during the election campaign, Strache expressed hostility toward refugees and immigration in general.

B. Political Pluralism and Participation: 15 / 16

Although Austria has competitive political parties and free and fair elections, the traditional practice of grand coalitions has fostered public disillusionment in the political process. The participation of Slovene, Hungarian, and Roma minorities in local government remains limited despite governmental efforts to provide bilingual education, media, and access to federal funds. There is little minority representation in Parliament. After the 2013 elections, the National Council included one Muslim man and three Turkish-born Muslim women. According to the 2014 edition of the Migrant Integration Policy Index, Austria provides immigrants with fewer opportunities for citizenship and political participation than most Western European countries.

C. Functioning of Government: 10 / 12 (-1)

Recent corruption scandals have damaged the reputation of Austria's political class. In August 2015, a former employee of FPO politician Uwe Scheuch and a media owner were convicted of abuses related to the fraudulent use of state advertising funds. In a 2013 Ernst & Young survey of business managers in Austria, more than 40 percent of respondents considered fraud and bribery to be widespread. Austria was ranked 16 out of 168 countries and territories surveyed in Transparency International's 2015 Corruption Perceptions Index.

In 2014, Austria, along with Luxembourg, agreed to lift its veto of EU legislation that aims to end bank secrecy laws; among other things, the law requires member states to automatically share information on accounts held by EU citizens with the tax authorities in the citizens' home countries. A number of issues with transparency nevertheless persist. The Right to Information Rating, which assesses freedom of information laws worldwide, listed Austria last out of 104 countries assessed in its 2015 rankings. The government has also been criticized for lacking transparency in public procurement, and for failing to implement comprehensive protections for whistleblowers.

Civil Liberties: 58 / 60

D. Freedom of Expression and Belief: 16 / 16

The federal constitution and the Media Law of 1981 provide the basis for free media in Austria, and the government generally respects these provisions in practice. However, libel and slander laws protect politicians and government officials, many of whom  particularly members of the FPO  have filed defamation suits in recent years. Despite a 2003 law to promote media diversity, media ownership remains highly concentrated. There are no restrictions on internet access.

While there is no official censorship, Austrian law prohibits any form of neo-Nazism or anti-Semitism, as well as the public denial, approval, or justification of Nazi crimes, including the Holocaust. Legislation that came into effect in July 2015 outlawed the use of certain number and letter combinations for vehicle license plates because of their allusions to Nazism or the Islamic State (IS) militant group. The FPO has been accused of anti-Semitic rhetoric in recent years and has additionally been criticized for fueling anti-Muslim feelings in Austria through controversial advertising campaigns.

A number of recent high-profile court cases have centered on the balance between freedom of speech and the prohibition of hate speech. In July, based on a complaint filed by an Austrian Muslim organization, public prosecutors launched an investigation into a speech by Dutch politician Geert Wilders at an FPO gathering in Vienna in March. The organization claimed that Wilders, who had compared the Koran to Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf and made references to Nazi ideology, had denigrated Islam and violated restrictions on speech about Nazism.

Religious freedom is constitutionally guaranteed. Austrian law divides religious organizations into three legal categories: officially recognized religious societies, religious confessional communities, and associations. Many religious minority groups have complained that the law impedes their legitimate claims for recognition and demotes them to second- or third-class status. In February, legislators amended a 1912 law that determined Islam's legal status in Austria, expanding the rights and protections granted to followers of the religion, including officially recognizing Muslim holidays. However, local Muslim groups and religious watchdogs criticized a portion of the amendments that banned foreign funding for Muslim houses of worship and imams, noting that such restrictions do not exist for other religious groups in the country.

There are no government restrictions on academic freedom, and private discussion is both free and vibrant.

E. Associational and Organizational Rights: 12 / 12

Freedoms of assembly and association are protected in the constitution and in practice. Nongovernmental organizations operate without restrictions. Trade unions are free to organize and to strike, and they are considered an essential partner in national policymaking.

F. Rule of Law: 15 / 16

The judiciary is independent, and the Constitutional Court examines the compatibility of legislation with the constitution without political influence or interference. Conditions in prisons generally meet high European standards. In February 2015, Rakhat Aliyev  a former ally of Kazakhstan's president who fell afoul of the government in 2007  was found dead in an Austrian prison, where he was in investigative custody in connection to the death of two bankers in Kazakhstan. In December, the Austrian justice ministry dismissed claims that Aliyev had been murdered.

In 2015, debate about the relationship between privacy and national security dominated public dialogue. Draft legislation on state security, which first came to a vote in Parliament in October, aimed to establish a new secret service, dramatically increase the government's capability to collect information, and reduce judicial oversight over state security bodies. In the face of significant public backlash, the OVP and SPO agreed in November to change the draft to grant wider powers to the existing Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), rather than to a new agency. At year's end, the legislation was scheduled for a vote in early 2016. Antiterrorism legislation passed in 2014 allowed the state to revoke the citizenship of anyone who has traveled abroad to fight with extremist militant groups.

Individuals are generally afforded equal protection under the law. However, increasing immigration flows have fueled some resentment and discriminatory practices toward minorities and foreigners. In 2015, Austria was a destination for a large number of asylum seekers as well as a major transit point for those trying to reach northern European countries, especially Germany. The government received more than 85,000 asylum applications during the year, marking an increase of more than 200 percent from 2014. While many Austrians showed themselves to be welcoming to refugees, growing numbers expressed support for the exclusionary views of the FPO, spurring the party's strong showing in the Vienna local elections. In a report published in October, the European Commission Against Racism and Intolerance denounced the negative and hostile rhetoric of the FPO and other groups toward minorities and migrants, including refugees. In November, the Austrian Press Council rebuked Kronen Zeitung for publishing an article suggesting that all refugees could be potential terrorists.

The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has criticized the country's asylum legislation for being too restrictive. Some asylum seekers can be deported while appeals are pending, and new arrivals are asked for full statements within 72 hours. In addition, the number of people who have been naturalized has fallen dramatically since the establishment of a more restrictive national integration policy in 2009.

G. Personal Autonomy and Individual Rights: 15 / 16

Austrian citizens enjoy freedom of movement and choice of residence. Roma and other ethnic minorities face discrimination in the labor and housing markets. The labor ministry has sought to promote integration of younger immigrants by providing German-language instruction and job training.

A 1979 law guarantees women's freedom from discrimination in various areas, including the workplace. However, the income gap between men and women remains significant. The 2009 Second Protection Against Violence Act increased penalties for perpetrators of domestic violence and authorized further measures against chronic offenders. Women made up 33 percent of the National Council after the 2013 elections.

A 2009 law permits civil partnerships for same-sex couples, giving them equal rights to pension benefits and alimony, but same-sex marriage is not recognized. The law does not provide same-sex couples with the same adoption rights or access to assisted reproductive technologies as heterosexual couples. In 2013, Parliament approved an amendment to the civil code to allow the biological children of an individual to be adopted by his or her partner, but it rejected a bill that would grant same-sex couples unrestricted adoption rights.

Copyright notice:  Freedom House, Inc.  All Rights Reserved
Freedom in the World 2016 - Algeria

Publisher Freedom House Publication Date 14 July 2016 Cite as Freedom House, Freedom in the World 2016 - Algeria, 14 July 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57985a4015.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.

Freedom Status: Not Free

Aggregate Score: 35

Freedom Rating: 5.5

Political Rights: 6

Civil Liberties: 5

Quick Facts

Capital: Algiers

Population: 39,948,000

GDP/capita: $5,498.10

Press Freedom Status: Not Free

Net Freedom Status: N/A

OVERVIEW

Although it continued to project stability amid broader regional turmoil, Algeria began to confront the first signs of several impending economic and political challenges in 2015. The country's natural-resource-dependent economy forced a number of difficult policy changes after the collapse in global oil prices during the year. While previously the government had envisioned slowly raising taxes and reducing subsidies to cope with decreasing revenues, in December it reversed course with an austerity budget that raised taxes on key commodities including electricity, fuel, and telecommunications services, sparking protests from opposition parties. The government also expanded its use of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, throughout the year to harvest shale gas to compensate for declining oil prices, which led to widespread and persistent protests in communities impacted by environmental damage.

Concerns also continued regarding the country's future political stability, particularly in the event of the death of President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, now 78 and a victim of serious health problems. Sequestered from the public and most high-level officials for more than a year, Bouteflika is widely believed to be incapacitated while a small clique of advisers, led by his brother Said, rules the country.

POLITICAL RIGHTS AND CIVIL LIBERTIES

Political Rights: 11/ 40

A. Electoral Process: 4 / 12

The president is directly elected for five-year terms. Constitutional amendments passed in 2008 effectively abolished the two-term limit, as well as increasing the president's powers relative to the prime minister and other parts of the government. Each of Bouteflika's four elections to the presidency has been tainted by accusations of fraud by his chief adversaries. The 2014 presidential vote was allegedly marred by ballot-stuffing, multiple voting, inflated electoral rolls, and the misuse of state resources to benefit the incumbent. The chief Western monitoring organizations did not participate in election observation. The official voter participation rate dropped precipitously from 75 to nearly 40 percent, and opposition figures and informal foreign observers stated that the actual participation rate might have been half or even less of official tallies.

The president appoints one-third of the members of the upper legislative house, the Council of the Nation, which has 144 members serving six-year terms. The other two-thirds are indirectly elected by local and provincial assemblies. In December 2015, elections were held to replace half of the 96 elected members of the upper house, with 23 seats going to the National Liberation Front (FLN), 18 seats to the military-backed National Democratic Rally (RND), and the remainder to smaller parties and independents. The People's National Assembly, the lower house, has 462 members directly elected for five-year terms. In the 2012 elections, the FLN won 208 seats, the RND increased to 68, and the Green Algeria Alliance  comprised of multiple Islamist parties  dropped to 49. The government estimated the election participation rate at 42 percent. While foreign observers from the European Union, United Nations, Arab League, and other institutions declared the elections largely free and fair, opposition candidates and some human rights groups asserted that the results were manipulated by the Ministry of the Interior. Fifteen parties that won a combined 29 seats boycotted the parliament. The National Election Observation Commission, a judicial body, condemned the elections as "not credible," though FLN and RND members on the commission refused to sign the final report.

A 2012 law required that female candidates comprise between 20 and 50 percent of any candidate list for legislative elections, depending on the number of seats in the electoral district.

B. Political Pluralism and Participation: 4 / 16

The Ministry of the Interior must approve political parties before they can operate legally. A 2012 law liberalized the party registration process, and 23 new political parties were allowed to register for the first time since 1999 as a result. The FLN, RND, Green Alliance (comprised of the Movement of the Society of Peace, Ennahda, and Islah parties), the Front of Socialist Forces, the Workers Party, and a number of smaller parties sit in the current parliament. Parties cannot form along explicit ethnic or religious lines, and the Front Islamique de Salut (FIS), which swept the 1990 and 1991 elections, remains banned on this basis. A number of Salafi movements have attempted to establish political parties in recent years but are routinely denied permission by the state. In August 2015, Madani Mezrag, a former leader of the armed wing of the FIS, announced the creation of a new Salafi party, but the government subsequently refused to grant it legal status.

Increasing ethnic and sectarian communal violence is evidence of the perception of political marginalization and alienation experienced by most Algerians. Parliamentary seats in Algeria's rentier economic system help garner public funding for local needs, which give parliamentarians tax breaks and allow them to create small politico-economic fiefdoms. The Amazigh-dominated Rally for Culture and Democracy (RCD) party boycotted both 2012 and 2014 elections entirely.

The military and intelligence services continue to play an important role in politics, fueled by their ongoing rivalries. A longstanding power struggle between President Bouteflika and General Mohamed "Toufik" Mediene, the powerful head of the Department of Intelligence and Security (DRS), came to an end in September 2015 when Mediene was dismissed as the head of DRS. This marked the culmination of Bouteflika's efforts to reduce the agency's power over political and economic affairs.

C. Functioning of Government: 3 / 12

In 2015, Algeria placed 88 out of 168 countries and territories surveyed in Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index. Rampant corruption plagues Algeria's business and public sectors, especially the energy sector. Despite anticorruption laws, a lack of government transparency, low levels of judicial independence, and bloated bureaucracies contribute to corruption. Few corruption investigations ever lead to indictments much less convictions, though there were a number of exceptions in 2015. In May, a court in Algiers sentenced two dozen people to prison for embezzlement of public funds and the payment of bribes in connection with the construction of Algeria's east-west highway, one of the country's largest ongoing infrastructure projects. In March, more than a dozen former top officials at state oil company Sonatrach were put on trial over a graft scandal; the case was later postponed and remained ongoing at year's end.

Civil Liberties: 24 / 60 (+1)

D. Freedom of Expression and Belief: 7 / 16

Although some newspapers are privately owned and journalists remain aggressive in their coverage of government affairs, most newspapers rely on the central government for printing, and the state-owned advertising agency favors progovernment newspapers, encouraging self-censorship. A 2011 press law contains vague language that reinforces the government's ability to block reporting on certain topics, including those deemed to undermine the country's security or economic interests. Privately owned television channels were only formally authorized in 2014, although authorities had tolerated the existence some private broadcasters previously. Television faces numerous restrictions on sensitive content.

Authorities routinely use legal mechanisms to harass the press and censor controversial reporting. In February 2015, Mohamed Sharki, a former editor at the state-owned newspaper Eldjoumhouria, was convicted on blasphemy charges for printing an article questioning the divine authorship of the Quran. He was initially sentenced to three years in prison and a $2,000 fine, though this was reduced to a one-year suspended prison sentence in November. Also in February, the Communications Ministry revoked the accreditation of Boualem Ghomrassa, a journalist with the London-based Al-Sharq Al-Awsat newspaper, over political opinions he expressed during an interview on a foreign television station. In April, the satirical television program Weekend was suspended after it reported on the wealth and foreign real estate holdings of government officials.

A 2009 cybercrime law gives authorities the right to block websites "contrary to the public order or decency," and a centralized system monitors internet traffic. Both government officials and private entities continued to use criminal defamation laws to pressure independent bloggers and journalists in 2014. In April 2015, police arrested cartoonist Tahar Dehejiche for publishing a cartoon critical of both the president and the practice of fracking in Algeria's energy sector. After his initial acquittal in May, he was sentenced on appeal in November to a fine and six months in prison for "attacking the president."

Algeria's population is overwhelmingly Sunni Muslim. Small non-Muslim communities do not face harassment, but they may gather to worship only at state-approved locations. Proselytizing by non-Muslims is illegal, and a 2006 ordinance tightened restrictions on minority faiths. Security services monitor mosques for radical Islamist activity. The rising influence of Salafi religious movements has alarmed the authorities, who had previously encouraged their growth. In February 2015, the government granted itself sole authority to issue fatwas, or religious judgments, in order to restrict the influence of independent Salafi imams.

Academic freedom is largely respected, though debate is somewhat circumscribed. Private discussion can take place relatively freely outside of certain sensitive topics.

E. Associational and Organizational Rights: 5 / 12 (+1)

Since the state of emergency was lifted in 2011, the government has regularly used force to disrupt and discourage public gatherings and protests. In 2015, large-scale crackdowns lessened as compared to 2014, when several hundred members of the movement against Bouteflika's reelection were arrested. Nevertheless, mass protests swept Algeria throughout 2015 in connection with the government's increased use of fracking to extract shale gas in the country's south. In February, opposition parties organized a march to protest the fracking policy in Algiers, where all demonstrations are banned; they were forcibly dispersed by police. Also in February, eight labor rights activists were convicted of "unauthorized gathering" under the penal code for demonstrating in support of another activist who had been sentenced to 18 months in prison on the same charge. The eight were each sentenced to one year in prison, with six months suspended.

The law on associations that came into effect in 2014 has been widely criticized for continuing to restrict the formation, funding, and operations of civil society organizations. Permits and receipts of application submission are required to establish and operate nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). Both new and old organizations experience bureaucratic labyrinths while waiting not just for permits but also for application receipts. New cooperative agreements are required to work with foreign NGOs, but these relationships remain largely unauthorized.

Workers can establish independent trade unions, but the main labor federation, the General Union of Algerian Workers, has been criticized for being too close to the government and failing to advocate for workers' interests. Algerian authorities have increasingly clamped down on efforts to form independent unions and to organize, including by using administrative measures to prevent independent unions from operating. In July 2015, tramway workers in multiple cities launched a strike demanding better wages and a collective bargaining agreement under a new, independent trade union. The French management company that operates the tramway allegedly dismissed several union activists for organizing and refused to recognize any new union.

F. Rule of Law: 5 / 16

The judiciary is susceptible to government pressure. International human rights activists have accused the security forces of practicing torture, and have also highlighted lengthy delays in bringing cases to trial. Prison conditions in Algeria generally do not meet international standards due to overcrowding and poor nutrition and hygiene.

In 2015, Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) continued to attack Algerian police officers and political officials. In June, AQIM killed an army colonel and four other security force members in two separate attacks. In July, AQIM claimed responsibility for another attack that killed 11 Algerian soldiers in an ambush near Ain Defla.

Algeria's ethnic composition is a mixture of Arabs and Berbers. After years of marginalizing the Berber community, officials have made modest efforts to recognize the community's cultural demands. Tamazight, the Berber language, is now a national language. However, ethnic violence between Berbers and Arabs has worsened in recent years, particularly in the southern city of Ghardaia. In July 2015, clashes there between the two groups killed 22 people, leading to dozens of arrests. The government subsequently increased the security presence in the city to try to quell the tensions.

Same-sex sexual relations are punishable with two months to two years in prison, though no prosecutions were reported in 2015. Traditional social mores create an extremely hostile environment for LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) people. In 2015, LGBT advocacy groups focused mainly on personal safety due to an increase in the intensity of hate speech coming from conservative clerics and the media.

G. Personal Autonomy and Individual Rights: 7 / 16

While most citizens are free to travel domestically and abroad, the authorities closely monitor and limit access to visas for non-Algerians. Men of military draft age are not allowed to leave the country without official consent. The land border between Algeria and Morocco has been closed for years, separating families that live in the border areas and forcing many to resort to illegal smuggling networks for routine travel.

The government plays a dominant role in the economy, leaving little room for private competitors. Numerous regulations make Algeria one of the most difficult environments in which to establish and operate a business. Property rights are not secure; some observers blame the lack of economic development.

Women continue to face discrimination at both the legal and societal levels. In 2013, 146 women were elected to the parliament, comprising a third of the body  a higher proportion than in any other Arab country. However, female lawmakers have a limited impact on the overall political system. Under the conservative 1984 family code, women do not enjoy equal rights in marriage, divorce, or inheritance.

A 2009 law criminalized all forms of trafficking in persons, and Algeria reported its first ever conviction under the law in 2015. However, according to monitors, the government is making virtually no effort to systematically enforce the ban, and trafficking victims themselves are frequently detained and harassed by authorities.

Copyright notice:  Freedom House, Inc.  All Rights Reserved
Fighting injustice with smartphones in Olympic Rio

Publisher Amnesty International Author Josefina Salomon Publication Date 27 July 2016 Cite as Amnesty International, Fighting injustice with smartphones in Olympic Rio, 27 July 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5798aa7c4.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.

It was a regular evening in April 2015 in the Complexo do Alemao, one of the largest conglomerations of favelas in Rio de Janeiro.

Eduardo, a 10-year-old boy, was sitting at the front door of his house, playing with his mobile phone. He was eagerly waiting for his sister to return home so they could play together while their mum prepared dinner. It was their daily routine.

And then, normal abruptly ended.

A loud bang.

A painful cry for help: "mum!"

Eduardo's mother, Terezinha Maria de Jesus, rushed out of the house and saw what no mother should ever see.

Eduardo's lifeless body was lying on the floor. A group of military police around him.

One of them, Terezinha says, described Eduardo as the son of a crook, and warned that he could kill her as easily as he had just killed her child.

Within minutes, a crowd had gathered. Some prevented the officers from hurting Terezinha, others tried to stop them from placing a gun next to the boy in an attempt to alter the scene and conceal the fact that they had shot an unarmed child. Others instinctively reached for their smartphones. They knew the best response was to record everything.

"We had to climb over some roofs to get a good angle for filming," says Raull Santiago, a 27-year-old favela resident. "People needed to know about this."

The videos turned out to be key evidence in one of the few investigations ever conducted into what appears to be a deliberate and arbitrary killing committed by the police in a favela.

In November 2015, the Homicide Division, a specialized police investigation unit, acknowledged that the bullet that killed Eduardo was shot by a military police officer, but claimed it was in self-defense. The unsustainability of this allegation lead the public prosecutor to formally accuse one police officer of homicide. The case against the police officer is still ongoing.

"It took a mobile phone for people to be able to show what they had been saying for a long time," says Raull. "People used to just talk, now they show you what they see."

Raull is part of a generation of young Brazilians who are relying on technology to report on the country's scandalous homicide rate and the many human rights violations committed by the security forces.

Young people are using social media networks to tell each other when shootings are heard or when a particular area of the favela is "too hot" to pass through, so people can opt for less risky routes. They record police abuses that can be used in official investigations - evidence that only favela residents can gather. In their hands, a smartphone can make the difference between life and death, justice and impunity.

And the need has never been greater. As one of the world's deadliest cities, Rio has seen thousands of police killings since it was awarded the Olympic Games in 2009 - with an increase since 2014, as documented by Amnesty International and other civil society organizations.

In the city of Rio de Janeiro, one in every five homicides in 2015 was committed by on-duty police. According to the official Institute of Public Security (Instituto de Seguranca Publica), 40 people in the city were killed by on-duty police officers in May 2016 alone - an increase of 135% from the same period in 2015.

Meanwhile, in the state of Rio de Janeiro, homicides resulting from police operations in 2014 rose a shocking 40% in comparison to the previous year. They rose a further 11% in 2015, with 645 people killed by police in the state.

People living in Brazil's favelas are usually caught up between violent criminals and police officers who use unnecessary and excessive force with almost absolute impunity.

A revolution on a screen

In the northern region of the city, the hills of the Complexo do Alemao are accessed by a breathtaking gondola ride. From up high, the group of colorful favelas looks peaceful. Step onto the ground, and it is a very different story.

Violent deaths are so routine in these narrow streets that traditional media outlets often do not report them.

Raull, born and bred in Alemao, grew up amid the violence, seeing more death by the time he was a teenager than most people witness in a lifetime. By the age of 20, he was fed up of seeing his community crumble, so he decided to do something about it. He gathered eight friends, equipped them with mobile phones and a computer, and set up Papo Reto ("Straight Talk"), an independent media outlet "by the community, for the community".

"We wanted to show what is happening here, the bad and all the good," Raull says. "We wanted to show what we see, not what the big newspapers see. This is how we fight for justice."

The residents soon began sending through videos and pictures of their daily lives - depicting gun fire notices and police operations, as well as the various problems with the favelas' infrastructure. Raull and his colleagues would check the information before sharing it via platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Whatsapp.

As we walk around Alemao, Raull seems excited. Favela residents recognize him, greeting him and telling him stories. His smartphone lights up constantly, with news tips and updates from the favela's streets.

This virtual network helps keep the favelas' residents informed. It is an invisible blanket that aims to protect them against the violence that has decimated communities across the country and condemned the hopes of generations.

And now, with the Olympics fast approaching, the residents of Alemao are preparing for the worst.

"I'm worried the security forces will intensify their operations in favelas," Raull says. "The authorities have focused on police operations here when the solution lies in giving opportunities to young people, in jobs, education, real security. That should be the way forward."

Copyright notice:  Copyright Amnesty International
Indonesia: Executions will put Jokowi on the wrong side of history

Publisher Amnesty International Publication Date 26 July 2016 Related Document(s) Flawed Justice: Unfair Trials and the Death Penalty in Indonesia Cite as Amnesty International, Indonesia: Executions will put Jokowi on the wrong side of history, 26 July 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5798aae84.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.

Indonesian President Joko Widodo, popularly known as 'Jokowi', will be putting his government on the wrong side of history if he proceeds with a fresh round of executions, Amnesty International said today.

Amnesty International received credible reports that at least 14 people could be executed this week, who consist of four Indonesian and ten foreign nationals, including a Pakistani, an Indian, a Zimbabwean, a Senegalese, a South African, and five Nigerians.

"President Widodo's era was supposed to represent a new start for human rights in Indonesia. Sadly, he could preside over the highest number of executions in the country's democratic era at a time when most of the world has turned its back on this cruel practice," said Josef Benedict, Amnesty International's Deputy Director for South East Asia and the Pacific.

Amnesty International has learned that at least a dozen death row prisoners could be executed as soon as this weekend, many of them for drug offences. The organization is also concerned that some of the prisoners who could face the firing squad were convicted in manifestly unfair trials and have not submitted clemency request to the President.

In a report published by Amnesty International last year, the organization found that in 12 cases defendants were denied access to legal counsel at the time of their arrest, and at different periods thereafter. Some claimed they were subject to torture and other ill-treatment while in police custody, and were forced to "confess" to their alleged crimes. To date, these claims have not been investigated by the authorities.

The Indonesian government's decision to go ahead with a third round of executions has already met with an appeal for clemency by Pakistan and many others.

The Pakistani authorities have called on their Indonesian counterparts to halt the execution of Zulfiqar Ali, a Pakistani national and textile worker, who has described how he was tortured in custody and has spent more than a decade on death row for a drug offence. During his pre-trial detention, he was refused the right to contact his embassy and was not permitted any access to a lawyer until approximately one month after his arrest.

"As the case of Zulfiqar Ali shows, international law has been repeatedly violated in death penalty cases, from the time of arrest, throughout the trial, and at appeal stage. Regardless of what we think of the death penalty, no one must have their life decided on the basis of such flawed proceedings," said Josef Benedict.

"The international community should be alarmed by the revival of executions, and other countries should speak up for those facing the death penalty in Indonesia."

The decision to resume executions is also proving controversial inside the country, including opposition from religious clerics and parliamentarians.

Indonesia has a strong record of fighting for the rights of its citizens abroad on death row, but that is a position that the authorities do not consistently uphold at home, where President Widodo has claimed that the death penalty is needed to deter drug crime.

"There is no evidence to support President Widodo's position. The death penalty does not deter crime. Carrying out executions will not rid Indonesia of drugs. It is never the solution, and it will damage Indonesia's standing in the world," said Josef Benedict.

"If President Widodo is serious about claiming a place for Indonesia on the world stage and as a leader for the region, he cannot ignore its human rights obligations. The first step towards that must be a moratorium on executions with a view to ridding Indonesia of the unjust punishment once and for all."

Background

The last executions to occur in Indonesia were carried out in January and April 2015, when six and eight people, respectively, were put to death by firing squad. The previous administration under Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono carried out 21 executions between 2005 and 2013.

At least four death row prisoners were moved to Indonesia's Nusakambangan prison island in recent weeks, where 13 of the 14 executions carried out in 2015 took place. The death row prisoners have been convicted of drug-related offences and some did not receive a fair trial.

In cases examined by Amnesty International, some prisoners claimed the police tortured them, including to extract 'confessions'. Many weren't given access to a lawyer at the time of their arrest and at other stages of the process.

In a 2015 report, Flawed Justice: Unfair Trials and the Death Penalty in Indonesia, Amnesty International highlighted the cases of 12 death row prisoners whose cases illustrate the manifestly flawed administration of justice in Indonesia that resulted in flagrant human rights violations.

Amnesty International opposes the death penalty in all cases without exception, regardless of the nature or circumstances of the crime; guilt, innocence or other characteristics of the individual; or the method used by the state to carry out the execution.

Copyright notice:  Copyright Amnesty International
Turkey crackdown by the numbers: Statistics on brutal backlash after failed coup

Publisher Amnesty International Publication Date 26 July 2016 Cite as Amnesty International, Turkey crackdown by the numbers: Statistics on brutal backlash after failed coup, 26 July 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5798ab854.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.

Human rights in Turkey are in peril following a bloody failed coup attempt on 15 July. The Turkish authorities' reaction was swift and brutal, unleashing a crackdown of exceptional proportions that has continued after a state of emergency declared five days later.

Amnesty International has been on the ground in Istanbul and Ankara to document human rights violations amid these events. Here are some alarming statistics on the situation:

At least 208 people were killed and more than 1,400 injured amid the failed coup attempt in Istanbul and Ankara, according to government accounts.

More than 10,000 people have been detained since the failed coup.

More than 45,000 people have been suspended or removed from their jobs, including police, judges and prosecutors, and others.

42 arrest warrants were issued for journalists (as of 25 July 2016) and six have been detained (as of 26 July).

20 news websites were blocked in the days following the coup attempt.

25 media houses had their licenses revoked as of 22 July; dozens of journalists had their press cards cancelled.

48 hours: the length of time Turkish police in Ankara and Istanbul have reportedly been holding detainees in stress positions. Detainees have been denied food, water and medical treatment, and verbally abused and threatened. Some have been subjected to severe beatings and torture, including rape.

3 months: the initial period of state of emergency imposed late on 20 July, granting the Prime Minister and his cabinet the power to rule by decree and bypass Parliament.

30 days: the pre-charge detention limit was increased from four to 30 days on 23 July, in the first decree issued under the state of emergency.

15: the Article of the Turkish Constitution which outlines that the authorities cannot "suspend" the European Convention on Human Rights. Even during a state of emergency, they can only derogate some rights.

0: the number of independent human rights monitors with access to detention facilities in Turkey after its National Human Rights Institution was abolished in April 2016.

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Copyright notice:  Copyright Amnesty International
Thailand: Amnesty International Thailand's Chair and other activists face jail for exposing torture

Publisher Amnesty International Publication Date 26 July 2016 Cite as Amnesty International, Thailand: Amnesty International Thailand's Chair and other activists face jail for exposing torture, 26 July 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5798ac3c4.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 Thai authorities must immediately drop the criminal investigation against three of the country's most prominent human rights activists, including the chair of Amnesty International Thailand, who could be charged today for documenting and publishing a report about torture by Thai security forces, the organization warned.

Somchai Homla-or, Anchana Heemmina, and Porpen Khongkaconkiet, who was appointed Chair of the Amnesty International Thailand board last month, face the prospect of five years behind bars and a fine of US $4,800 if found guilty on charges of "criminal defamation" and "computer crimes". The three are due to report to Pattani police station on 26 July.

"At a time when the Thai government has promised to introduce anti-torture legislation, it is a cruel paradox that they are harassing activists for exposing the abhorrent practice," said Salil Shetty, Secretary General of Amnesty International.

"The Thai authorities should immediately stop the criminal investigation, drop the charges against these three activists and order an independent and impartial investigation into the very serious human rights violations they have raised. It is the state's duty to protect human rights activists, not to shield security forces from accountability."

Somchai Homla-or, Porpen Khongkaconkiet and Anchana Heemmina are members of the Cross Cultural Foundation, Dua Jai Group (Hearty Support Group. Together, they published a report in February 2016 documenting 54 cases of torture and other ill-treatment by the Royal Thai police and Royal Thai army in the volatile southern provinces, where the reported acts of torture took place.

The complaint against them was filed on 17 May 2016 by the Internal Security Operations Command Region 4, which is responsible for security operation in the southern provinces - the focus of their report on torture.

The allegations against the three are merely the latest in a longstanding pattern of attempts to intimidate human rights defenders, in clear breach of Thailand's international obligations to protect their rights.

Since the 2014 coup, Thailand's military government has stepped up efforts to stifle all forms of dissent, including by imposing broad restrictions on the rights to freedom of expression, assembly and association. In the past three months alone, authorities have initiated charges against more than 100 individuals for opposing a draft constitution that is the subject of a 7 August national referendum.

"If this can happen to three well-known activists then the message the military government is sending is that no one is beyond their reach and no one is safe," said Salil Shetty.

Amnesty International considers any person who is imprisoned solely for expressing their rights to freedom of expression as prisoners of conscience, and calls for their immediate and unconditional release.

Background

Somchai Homla-or is a senior adviser and former President of the Cross Cultural Foundation, an organization that documents human rights violations. Pornpen Khongkachonkiet is Director of the same organization.

Last month, Pornpen Khongkachonkiet was elected Chair of Amnesty International Thailand's board, a position she holds independent of her work with the Cross Cultural Foundation.

Amnesty International was not involved in the preparation or the publication of their report on torture.

On 17 December 2015, Thailand was one of 128 United Nations member states to support the UN resolution that calls on authorities to refrain from intimidating and mounting reprisals against human rights defenders.

Copyright notice:  Copyright Amnesty International
Yemen: Peace talks must prioritize getting aid to desperate civilians

Publisher Amnesty International Publication Date 26 July 2016 Cite as Amnesty International, Yemen: Peace talks must prioritize getting aid to desperate civilians, 26 July 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5798acb94.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.

Restrictions on the delivery of vital humanitarian aid to civilians in Yemen are exacerbating the country's humanitarian crisis and endangering lives, said Amnesty International calling on all parties to the conflict to allow full and unfettered access to organizations providing crucial supplies.

A delegation from the organization visited Huthi-controlled parts of Yemen in May 2016 and spoke to 11 local and international humanitarian aid organizations who described unlawful restrictions on aid by both Huthi and Saudi Arabia-led coalition forces. The organization is urging that the removal of impediments to aid delivery is given top priority at the peace talks currently underway in Kuwait before they conclude this week.

"Unlawful impediments to aid in Yemen are causing dreadful suffering, and depriving people of their basic needs in the midst of an active conflict. It is absolutely imperative that negotiators prioritize this issue and take steps to guarantee aid is getting to those who need it most and that aid workers and their operations are not targeted or harassed," said Lama Fakih, Senior Crisis Advisor at Amnesty International.

"All parties to the armed conflict have an obligation to allow and facilitate delivery of impartial humanitarian assistance for civilians in need. Blocking such aid is a violation of international humanitarian law. Unfettered humanitarian assistance must be allowed to all those in Yemen desperately in need of food, water and sanitation and all parties need to let the aid workers do their jobs without interference or obstruction."

During the post-Ramadan Eid period at the start of this month and leading up to the resumption of peace talks on 15 July, airstrikes and ground hostilities in various parts of the country re-intensified, leading to further displacement and worsening a situation where half of Yemen's children are chronically malnourished and less than one in 10 of those children live to reach the age of five.

Aid workers who spoke to Amnesty International consistently described ad-hoc and unlawful barriers hampering the delivery of humanitarian assistance in the country. These include the overly burdensome deconfliction procedures for humanitarian organizations put in place by the Saudi Arabia-led coalition, which entail informing the coalition of all their movements and providing coordinates of their operations so that they are not targeted.

Other obstacles identified include threats, intimidation, and obstruction of humanitarian workers' activities, interference by Huthi security branches in aid operations and the forcible closure of humanitarian programmes as well as excessive and arbitrary restrictions on the movement of goods and staff into and around the country and interference which attempts to compromise the independence of aid operations.

Coalition failure to protect humanitarian relief personnel and operations

Humanitarian workers in Yemen face a multitude of threats and risks from the ongoing fighting and explosive remnants of war on a daily basis in order reach some of the population in need. Their struggles are compounded by the Saudi Arabia-led coalition's lack of responsiveness and cooperation with them, which poses an unnecessary hindrance that is both costly and time consuming and delays the delivery of crucial aid.

"Humanitarian organizations are already struggling to cope with destroyed infrastructure and dangerous working conditions, and it is absurd that the delivery of aid is hinging on the coalition's ad-hoc rules  people's lives are on the line," said Lama Fakih.

The Saudi Arabia-led coalition demands excessively detailed maps, staff and vehicle information. These onerous requirements consume considerable time and resources. As a result, some NGOs are unable or choose not to provide this information, placing their staff and supplies in grave danger.

"The onus is on the coalition to ensure that they are not targeting civilians or civilian objects, including humanitarian workers and relief supplies. Humanitarian workers should be allowed unfettered access to distribute independent humanitarian assistance to the people caught in the middle of Yemen's bloody conflict. The coalition and the Huthis should be doing all they can to facilitate relief operations  not make them more difficult," said Lama Fakih.

Harassment of humanitarian workers by Huthis

Humanitarian organizations also reported being verbally or physically threatened, detained and questioned by a variety of Huthi committees and Huthi-aligned entities. In some cases, staff were detained or intimidated at gunpoint and humanitarian organizations were forced to halt field activities if they did not agree to unreasonable demands such as handing over the names of beneficiaries receiving their aid.

Bureaucratic restrictions

Stifling layers of bureaucracy imposed by the Huthi-controlled ministries also slow down the approval process of aid delivery. For example, humanitarian organizations have been asked by the Ministry of Planning to submit travel plans for a three month period, which can be extremely challenging in the volatile context of an armed conflict where plans can change at short notice.

The de facto Huthi authorities have also imposed a number of restrictions on access for international humanitarian workers, arbitrarily denying them access or delaying issuing visas and imposing excessively onerous internal movement permits for both international and national staff. According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, in February the Ministry of Interior in Sana'a refused travel permission to three different UN-led missions from Sana'a to Ibb and Ta'iz - 79% of the population in Ta'iz, Yemen's third largest city, are in need of humanitarian aid.

Interference with independence of aid operations

In some cases Huthi local authorities, including the Ministry of Planning, have stalled and in some cases stopped assessments of humanitarian needs and programme monitoring from being carried out. They have also attempted to influence who humanitarian organizations hire or distribute aid to. This contravenes core humanitarian principles of independence and impartiality as well as internationally accepted best practice. It also impedes effective humanitarian operations, from planning to delivery.

The 2016 Yemen Humanitarian Response Plan requests US $1.8 billion, but by end of June, only 25% of funding had been received.

"Yemen is facing a desperate humanitarian crisis and funding for aid organizations is crucial. It is imperative that proper needs assessments are carried out without interference," said Lama Fakih.

Under international humanitarian law, all parties to the conflict must grant humanitarian workers freedom of movement, and protect them from attack, harassment and arbitrary detention. They must also ensure rapid and unimpeded delivery of impartial humanitarian relief for civilians in need.

Copyright notice:  Copyright Amnesty International
Turkey: Arrest warrants for 42 journalists a brazen attack on press freedom

Publisher Amnesty International Publication Date 27 July 2016 Cite as Amnesty International, Turkey: Arrest warrants for 42 journalists a brazen attack on press freedom, 27 July 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5798ad664.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.

Responding to news that Turkish authorities have issued arrest warrants for 42 journalists, Amnesty International issued the following quote:

"This is the latest alarming development in what is increasingly becoming a brazen purge based on political affiliation," said Gauri van Gulik, Amnesty International's Deputy Director for Europe.

"By rounding up journalists the government is failing to make a distinction between criminal acts and legitimate criticism. Rather than stifling press freedom and intimidating journalists into silence it is vital that Turkish authorities allow the media to do their work and end this draconian clampdown on freedom of expression."

Background

On 24 July, Amnesty International revealed that it has gathered credible evidence that detainees in Turkey are being subjected to beatings and torture, including rape, in official and unofficial detention centres.

Amnesty International also learned that the authorities arbitrarily blocked access to news websites in the days following the coup attempt as well as revoking the licenses of other media houses. Dozens of individual journalists have also had their press cards cancelled.

Copyright notice:  Copyright Amnesty International
Congo Brazzaville: Opposition leader sentenced to two years of prison

Publisher Amnesty International Publication Date 25 July 2016 Cite as Amnesty International, Congo Brazzaville: Opposition leader sentenced to two years of prison, 25 July 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5798add74.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.

"Sentencing Paulin Makaya to two years in prison simply for taking part in a protest is yet another clear example of how freedom of expression has been restricted and opposition muzzled in Congo," said Stephen Cockburn, Amnesty International Deputy regional director for West and Central Africa.

"Amnesty International considers Paulin Makaya as a prisoner of conscience who should never have been arrested in the first place, and calls for his immediate and unconditional release."

Background:

Paulin Makaya is the leader of 'Unis Pour le Congo' (UPC). He was arrested and detained on 23 November 2015, following his participation in protests against the referendum to change the Constitution in October 2015. He was found guilty of participating in an unauthorized protest, but two other charges against him  'complicity in arson of public buildings' and 'unlawful possession of weapons of war'  were dismissed.

Copyright notice:  Copyright Amnesty International
Russia: Government Against Rights Groups

Publisher Human Rights Watch Publication Date 25 July 2016 Cite as Human Rights Watch, Russia: Government Against Rights Groups, 25 July 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5798aeb24.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.

Since June 5, 2014, the Ministry of Justice has designated 137 groups as "foreign agents". By July 25, 2016, at least 21 groups have shut down. Also, the Ministry has removed its "foreign agent" tag from 12 groups, acknowledging that they had stopped accepting foreign funding. Accordingly, on July 25, 2016, the official list of active "foreign agents" comprised 104 groups.

(Moscow)  In 2012 Russia's parliament adopted a law that required nongovernmental organizations (NGO)s to register as "foreign agents" with the Ministry of Justice if they engage in "political activity" and receive foreign funding. The definition of "political activity" under the law is so broad and vague that it can extend to all aspects of advocacy and human rights work.

Initially, the law required all respective NGOs to request the Ministry to have them registered and implied legal consequences for failure to do so. Because in Russia "foreign agent" can be interpreted only as "spy" or "traitor," there is little doubt that the law aims to demonize and marginalize independent advocacy groups. Russia's vibrant human rights groups resolutely boycotted the law, calling it "unjust" and "slanderous."

In early March 2013 the Russian government launched a nationwide campaign of intrusive inspections of hundreds of NGOs to identify advocacy groups the government deems "foreign agents" and force them to register as such.

Since the law entered into force, numerous rights groups challenged the prosecutor's office and the Ministry of Justice in courts; most lost their cases. As a result, by February 2015 at least 13 groups chose to shut down rather than wear the shameful "foreign agent" label, including Association of NGOs in Defense of Voters' Rights "Golos", JURIX (Lawyers for Constitutional Rights and Freedoms), the Moscow School of Civic Education (Moscow), Kostroma Center for Civic Initiatives Support, Anti-Discrimination Center (ADC) Memorial, Side by Side LGBT Film Festival, Coming Out, "Freedom of Information" Foundation, the League of Women Voters and Human Rights Resource Center (Saint-Petersburg), Center for Social Policy and Gender Studies and Association "Partnership for Development" (Saratov), Interregional Non-Governmental Organization "The Committee Against Torture" (Nizhniy Novgorod).

In August 2013, Russia's then-federal ombudsman Vladimir Lukin, acting on behalf of four organizations and their leaders who were affected by the law, challenged the law in Russia's Constitutional Court. On April 8, 2014 Russia's Constitutional Court upheld the law, ruling that there were no legal or constitutional grounds for contending that the term "foreign agent" had negative connotations from the Soviet era and that, therefore, its use was "not intended to persecute or discredit" NGOs. The Constitutional Court also found that the "foreign agent" designation was in line with the public interest and the interest of state sovereignty.

On May 23, 2014 parliament amended the "foreign agents" law, this time authorizing the Ministry of Justice to register independent groups as "foreign agents" without their consent, if the ministry regards the organizations as engaged in "political activity" and if the organization is receiving foreign funding. On June 4, 2014 the amendments were signed into law.

On June 5, 2014 the Ministry of Justice promptly registered five groups as "foreign agents," and since then has registered a total of 137, including prominent civil society groups that vigorously protested this action.

I. By July 22, 2016 the registry of "foreign agents" maintained by the Ministry of Justice included the following groups:

Association of NGOs in Defense of Voters' Rights "Golos" (Moscow)  June 5, 2014 Regional Public Association in Defense of Democratic Rights and Freedoms "Golos" (Moscow)  June 5, 2014 Center for Social Policy and Gender Studies (Saratov)  June 5, 2014 (the organization was shut down  May 22, 2015) Women of Don (Rostov region)  June 5, 2014 ("foreign agent" status was suspended  February 29, 2016) Kostroma Center for Support of Public Initiatives (Kostroma)  June 5, 2014 ("foreign agent" status was suspended  June 19, 2015) Interregional Human Rights Association "Agora" (Kazan)  July 21, 2014 Regional public organization "Ecozaschita!  Womens' Council" (Kaliningrad)  July 21, 2014 Public Verdict Foundation (Moscow)  July 21, 2014 Human Rights Center "Memorial" (Moscow)  July 21, 2014 Lawyers for Constitutional Rights and Freedoms / JURIX (Moscow)  July 21, 2014 (the organization was shut down  May 26, 2015) Soldiers' Mothers (Saint Petersburg)  August 28, 2014 ("foreign agent" status was suspended  October 23, 2015) Freedom of Information Foundation / Institute for Information Freedom Development  August 28, 2014 PIR Center  September 3, 2014 ("foreign agent" status was suspended  February 24, 2016) Association "Partnership for Development" (Saratov)  October 2, 2014 (the organization was shut down  November 6, 2015) "News Agency MEMO.RU" (Moscow)  November 20, 2014 Regional Press Institute (St. Petersburg)  November 20, 2014 Moscow School of Civic Education  December 9, 2014 Rakurs, Arkhangelsk regional non-governmental LGBT organization  December 15, 2014 All-Russian movement "For Human Rights"  December 22, 2014 ("foreign agent" status was suspended  December 30, 2015) Human Rights Center (Kaliningrad)  December 25, 2014 Krasnodar Regional Social Organization of University Alumni  December 25, 2014 Regional social organization "Public Commission for Academic Sakharov's Heritage Preservation"  December 25, 2014 Resource Human Rights Center (St. Petersburg)  December 30, 2014 (the organization was shut down  November 3, 2015) Regional Public Organization "Man and the Law" (Republic of Mari El)  December 30, 2014 Center for Social Development "Vozrozhdeniye" (Pskov)  December 30, 2014 Public Human Rights Organization "Civil Control" (St. Petersburg)  December 30, 2014 The League of Women Voters (St. Petersburg)  December 30, 2014 (the organization was shut down  May 22, 2015) Free Press Support Foundation  December 30, 2014 Interregional Non-Governmental Organization "The Committee Against Torture"  January 16, 2015 Educational Center "Memorial" (Sverdlov region)  January 16, 2015 Autonomous non-profit human rights organization "Youth Center for Consulting and Training"  January 20, 2015 ("foreign agent" status was suspended  July 22, 2015) "Information Bureau of the Nordic Council of Ministers in St. Petersburg"  January 20, 2015 Jewish regional branch of the Russian public organization "Municipal Academy" January 26, 2015 (the organization was shut down  May 22, 2015) The noncommercial partnership "Press Development Institute - Siberia"  January 30, 2015 Center for social, psychological and legal help to victims of discrimination and homophobia "Maximum" (Murmansk)  February 4, 2015 (the organization was shut down  October 28, 2015) Interregional public fund for civil society development "Golos-Povolzhye" (Samara)  February 6, 2015 Interregional charity organization "Siberian Environmental Center" (Novosibirsk)  February 12, 2015 Center for Civic Analysis and Independent Research / GRANI (Perm)  February 13, 2015 ("foreign agent" status was suspended  June 19, 2015) Municipal public organization "Samara Center for Gender Studies" (Samara)  February 16, 2015 Regional Fund "Center for Defense of Mass Media Rights" (Voronezh)  February 26, 2015 Regional Charitable Social Foundation "For nature" (Chelyabinsk)  March 6, 2015 Regional Ecological Social Movement "For nature" (Chelyabinsk)  March 6, 2015 Humanist Youth Movement (Murmansk)  March 13, 2015 (the organization was shut down  August 25, 2015) Regional Social Organization for Contribution to Harmonization of Interethnic Relations "Azerbaijan"  March 13, 2015 ("foreign agent" status was suspended  July 22, 2016) Regional Social Environmental Organization "Bellona-Murmansk"  March 19, 2015 (the organization was shut down  October 16, 2015) "Educational Center for Environment and Security" (Samara)  March 20, 2015 ("foreign agent" status was suspended  October 8, 2015) Foundation "Migration XXI Century"  March 27, 2015 Eco-logika (Rostov)  April 3, 2015 ("foreign agent" status was suspended  March 30, 2016) Transparency International Russia - April 7, 2015 Social Environmental Organization "Planeta Nadezhd"  April 15, 2015 Foundation for Consumers' Rights Defense (Novosibirsk)  April 17, 2015 (the organization was shut down  May 12, 2016) Civil Assistance Committee  April 20, 2015 Foundation 19/29 - Foundation for Support of Investigative Journalism  April 24, 2015 Commemorative Centre of History of Political Repressions "Perm - 36"  April 29, 2015 Women's League (Kaliningrad )  April 29, 2015 (the organization was shut down  December 16, 2015) Legal Expert Partnership "Soyuz "  May 7, 2015 (the organization was shut down  25 August 2015) Center for Development of Non-Commerical Organizations  May 13, 2015 Club of Accountants and Auditors of Non-Commercial Organizations  May 13, 2015 ("foreign agent" status was suspended  March 30, 2016) Informational Bureau of the Council of Ministers of Northern Countries (Kaliningrad)  May 13, 2015 Sutyajnik (Yekaterinburg)  May 15, 2015 Human Rights Academy (Yekaterinburg)  May 15, 2015 Ecological Center "Dront" (Nizhny Novgorod)  May 22, 2015 The non-profit organization "Liberal Mission" Scientific Foundation of Theoretical and Applied Research  May 25, 2015 ("foreign agent" status was suspended  September 11, 2015) The non-profit Dynasty Foundation  May 25, 2015 Union of Employers (Tula region)  May 28, 2015 Youth organization "Nuori Karjala/Young Karelia"  June 19, 2015 (the organization was shut down  March 25, 2016) Siberian Center for Support of Social Initiatives  June 19, 2015 Interregional Social Foundation for Peace in the South and in the Northern Caucasus  June 19, 2015 Informational Center "Free Inform"  June 22, 2015 (the organization was shut down  June 21, 2016) Center for Independent Sociological Studies (St. Petersburg)  June 22, 2015 Regional Organization for Population and Development  June 23, 2015 Geblerov Ecological Societ (Barnaul)  June 23, 2015 Association "Legal Basis" (Yekaterinburg)  July 3, 2015 Interregional Non-governmental Organization "Northern Environmental Coalition" (Petrozavodsk)  July 8, 2015 (the organization was shut down  December 1, 2015) Komi Human Rights Commission "Memorial" (Syktyvkar)  July 21, 2015 Altai Regional Public Fund for 21st Century Altai (Barnaul)  July 22, 2015 (the organization was shut down  March 28, 2016) Interregional Public Foundation for Civil Society Development "GOLOS-Ural" (Chelyabinsk region)  July 22, 2015 SREDA Foundation  July 28, 2015 Non-governmental environmental organization "Green World" (Nizhny Novgorod)  July 29, 2015 Civic Action Foundation (Perm)  August 5, 2015 Alliance of Funds of Local Communities of the Perm territory  August 11, 2015 Kabardino-Balkaria Human Rights Center  regional branch of the "For Human Rights" All-Russian movement (Nalchik)  August 18, 2015 (the organization was shut down  November 6, 2015) The Human Rights Center of the Chechen Republic (Grozny)  August 21, 2015 Interregional Social Ecological Foundation "ISAR-Siberia" (Novosibirsk)  August 26, 2015 Perm Regional Human Rights Center (Perm)  September 3, 2015 Siberia's lifeline (Novosibirsk)  September 3, 2015 Golos Foundation in Support of Democracy  September 4, 2015 (the organization was shut down  June 21, 2016) Jewish Cultural Center "Hesed-Teshuva" (Ryazan)  September 4, 2015 Sakhalin Environment Watch (Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk)  September 18, 2015 Yasavey Manzara Information and Research Center (Naryan-Mar)  September 23, 2015 (the organization was shut down  June 15, 2016) Consumer Rights and Environment Protection Association "Princip" (Moscow region)  October 5, 2015 Far East Center for the Development of Civil Initiatives and Social Partnership (Vladivostok) October 13, 2015 Russian Research Center for Human Rights  October 20, 2015 Women of the Don (Rostov region)  October 27, 2015 Friends of the Siberian Forests (Krasnoyarsk)  October 28, 2015 Photography Club "Sobytiye" (Omsk)  October 28, 2015 (the organization was shut down  December 16, 2015) Research and Information Center "Memorial" (St. Petersburg)  November 6, 2015 Baikal Environmental Wave (Irkutsk)  November 10, 2015 Glasnost Defense Foundation  November 19, 2015 Human Rights Institute  November 20, 2015 Center for Support of Indigenous Peoples of the North  November 27, 2015 Green World (Leningrad region)  December 2, 2015 Mashr (Republic of Ingushetia)  December 8, 2015 Woman's World (Kaliningrad)  December 11, 2015 Panorama Information and Research Center (Moscow)  December 18, 2015 Dauria Ecological Center (Chita)  December 30, 2015 Yekaterinburg Memorial Society (Yekaterinburg)  December 30, 2015 Bureau of Public Investigations (Nizhny Novgorod)  January 14, 2016 Committee for the Prevention of Torture (Orenburg)  January 14, 2016 Institute of Forecasting and Resolving of Political Conflicts (Nizhny Novgorod)  January 22, 2016 Ryazan Historical, Educational and Human Rights Center "Memorial" (Ryazan)  February 1, 2016 Society of Assistance to Social Protection of Citizens "Peterburgskaya EGIDA" (Saint Petersburg)  February 2, 2016 (the organization was shut down  April 26, 2016) Center for Health and Social Support "SIBALT" (Omsk)  February 15, 2016 Chelyabinsk Regional Organ of Public Independent Action "Ural Human Rights Group" (Chelyabinsk)  February 15, 2016 Women of Eurasia (Chelyabinsk)  February 15, 2016 Ural Democratic Foundation (Chelyabinsk)  February 15, 2016 Legal and Social Support Charitable Foundation "Sphere" (Saint Petersburg)  March 1, 2016 Centre for Civic Education and Human Rights (Perm)  March 3, 2016 The International Development Fund for Indigenous Peoples of the North, Siberia and the Far East of the Russian Federation "Batani" (Moscow)  March 11, 2016 Center for Social and Labor Rights (Moscow)  March 21, 2016 Arkhar (Gorno-Altaysk)  April 5, 2016 Publishing House "Valentin Manuylov"  April 15, 2016 Tengri School of Soul ecology (Altay) - May 17, 2016 Hanse Buero / Information Bureau of Schleswig-Holstein in Kaliningrad (Kaliningrad) - May 24, 2016 Krasnoyarsk Regional Public Organization Agency of public initiatives (Krasnoyarsk) - May 27, 2016 Saratov Regional Public Organization "Socium" (Engels) - May 30, 2016 Perm regional non-governmental organization "Perm Civil Chamber" (Perm) - June 9, 2016 Regional non-governmental organization Integration center "Migration and Law" (Moscow) - June 16, 2016 Non-Profit Partnership "ESVERO" (Moscow) - June 22, 2016 Andrey Rylkov Foundation for Health and Social Justice (Moscow) - June 29, 2016 Altai regional sport and patriotic youth public organization "Arctica" (Biysk) - July 6, 2016 Autonomous non-governmental organization "Free Word" (Pskov) - July 13, 2016 The Institute of Economic Analysis (Moscow) - July 22, 2016

And the four NGOs which registered voluntarily:

Non-commercial Partnership "Supporting Competition in the CIS Countries"  June 27, 2013 "The Union of Young Political Scientists", KarachayCherkess Republican Youth Social Organization  December 15, 2014 Regional Social Movement "Novgorod Women's Parliament" (Veliky Novgorod)  March 6, 2015 Center of Independent Researchers of the Altai Republic  June 10, 2015

II. Administrative Court Cases  at least 58 NGOs

Groups that a court has found responsible for failing to register as a "foreign agent" may be fined up to 500,000 rubles (over US$16,000), and their leaders personally  up to 300,000 rubles (approximately $10,000). They are:

Association of NGOs in Defense of Voters' Rights "Golos" (Moscow)  NGO lost the suit Kostroma Center for Support of Public Initiatives (Kostroma)  NGO lost the suit Anti-Discrimination Center "Memorial" (St. Petersburg)  NGO won two administrative cases, but later lost a similar civil suit to the prosecutor's office and chose to shut down Coming Out (St. Petersburg)  NGO won the administrative case but later lost a similar civil suit to the prosecutor's office Side by Side LGBT Film Festival (St. Petersburg)  NGO won the suit Regional Public Association in Defense of Democratic Rights and Freedoms "Golos" (Moscow) - NGO lost the suit Center for Civic Analysis and Independent Research / GRANI (Perm)  NGO won the suit Perm Civic Chamber (Perm)  NGO won the suit Perm Regional Human Rights Center (Perm)  NGO won the suit Women of Don (Rostov region)  NGO lost the suit Ecozachita!  Zhensovet (Kaliningrad)  NGO lost the suit Association "Partnership for Development" (Saratov)  NGO lost the suit News Agency "MEMO.RU" (Moscow)  NGO lost the suit Regional Press Institute (St. Petersburg)  NGO lost the suit Moscow School of Civic Education  NGO lost the suit All-Russian movement "For Human Rights"  NGO lost the suit Regional Public Organization "Man and the Law" (Republic of Mari El)  NGO lost the suit Human Rights Center (Kaliningrad)  NGO won the suit Krasnodar Regional Social Organization of University Alumni  the proceedings was discontinued Regional social organization "Public Commission for Academic Sakharov's Heritage Preservation"  NGO lost the suit Autonomous non-profit human rights organization "Youth Center for Consulting and Training" (Volgograd)  NGO lost the suit Rakurs, Arkhangelsk regional non-governmental LGBT organization  NGO lost the suit Center for social, psychological and legal help to victims of discrimination and homophobia "Maximum" (Murmansk)  NGO lost the suit Educational Center "Memorial" (Sverdlov region)  NGO lost the suit, court of appeal decreased the amount of fine Interregional public fund for civil society development "Golos-Povolzhye" (Samara)  NGO lost the suit Citizens' Watch (St. Petersburg)  NGO lost the suit The noncommercial partnership "Press Development Institute - Siberia"  NGO won the suit Regional Fund "Center for Defense of Mass Media Rights"  NGO lost the suit Regional Social Organization for Contribution to Harmonization of Interethnic Relations "Azerbaijan"  NGO lost the suit Regional Charitable Social Foundation "For nature" (Chelyabinsk)  NGO lost the suit Regional Ecological Social Movement "For nature" (Chelyabinsk)  NGO won the suit Eco-logika (Rostov)  NGO lost the suit Regional Social Environmental Organization "Bellona-Murmansk"  NGO lost the suit Foundation "Migration XXI Century"  NGO lost the suit Interregional charity organization "Siberian Environmental Center" (Novosibirsk)  NGO lost the suit, court of appeal decreased the amount of fine The non-profit organization "Liberal Mission" Scientific Foundation of Theoretical and Applied Research  NGO lost the suit Center for Development of Non-Commerical Organizations  NGO lost the suit The non-profit Dynasty Foundation  NGO lost the suit Foundation 19/29 - Foundation for Support of Investigative Journalism  NGO lost the suit Association "Legal Basis" (Yekaterinburg)  NGO lost the suit Ecological Center "Dront" (Nizhny Novgorod)  NGO lost the suit Regional Organization for Population and Development  NGO lost the suit Center for Independent Sociological Studies (St. Petersburg)  NGO lost the suit Human Rights Center "Memorial"  NGO lost the suit Transparency International Russia  NGO lost the suit Interregional Non-Governmental Organization "Committee Against Torture"  NGO lost the suit Geblerov Ecological Societ (Barnaul)  NGO won the suit Civic Action Foundation (Perm)  NGO lost the suit Interregional Social Ecological Foundation "ISAR-Siberia" (Novosibirsk)  NGO lost the suit Sakhalin Environment Watch (Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk)  NGO lost the suit and is appealing the ruling Club of Accountants and Auditors of Non-Commercial Organizations  NGO lost the suit Women's League (Kaliningrad)  NGO won the suit Russian Research Center for Human Rights  NGO lost the suit Interregional Public Foundation for Civil Society Development "GOLOS-Ural" (Chelyabinsk region)  NGO lost the suit Human Rights Institute  NGO lost the suit Interregional Human Rights Association "Agora"  NGO lost the suit Glasnost Defense Foundation  suit pending Baikal Environmental Wave (Irkutsk)  suit pending

III. The leaders of at least 8 NGOs faced administrative charges personally:

Anti-Discrimination Center "Memorial" (St. Petersburg)  NGO won the suit but the organization chose two shut down when it lost a "foreign agent" civil suit to the prosecutor's office Side by Side LGBT Film Festival (St. Petersburg)  NGO won the suit Coming Out (St. Petersburg)  NGO won the suit Association "Partnership for Development"  NGO lost the suit Kostroma Center for Support of Public Initiatives (Kostroma)  NGO lost the suit Association of NGOs in Defense of Voters' Rights "Golos" (Moscow)  NGO won the suit Autonomous non-profit human rights organization "Youth Center for Consulting and Training" (Volgograd)  NGO lost the suit Baikal Environmental Wave (Irkutsk)  suit pending

IV. Leader of at least 1 NGO faces criminal charges personally:
Indonesia: Stop Imminent Executions

Publisher Human Rights Watch Publication Date 27 July 2016 Cite as Human Rights Watch, Indonesia: Stop Imminent Executions, 27 July 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5798b00d4.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 Joko "Jokowi" Widodo of Indonesia should urgently commute the death sentences of at least 14 people who face imminent execution for drug trafficking, Human Rights Watch said today. The Indonesian government has not announced a date for the executions, but has warned that "the time is approaching." Jakarta-based diplomats have reported that the attorney general's office informed them that the executions will take place on July 29, 2016.

"President Jokowi should acknowledge the death penalty's barbarity and avoid a potential diplomatic firestorm by sparing the lives of the 14 or more people facing imminent execution," said Phelim Kine, deputy Asia director. "Jokowi should also ban the death penalty for drug crimes, which international law prohibits, rather than giving the go-ahead for more multiple executions."

Authorities have already transferred several death row prisoners, including Indonesian national Merry Utami and Pakistani national Zulfiqar Ali, to Nusa Kambangan island, where the executions are slated to occur. Pakistan's government is seeking to dissuade Indonesia from executing Ali, who has been on death row since 2005 for drug smuggling, alleging that Ali's "trial was not fair."

Foreign embassy personnel and media reports have confirmed that the death row prisoners also include four Nigerians, one Zimbabwean, and several Indonesian nationals. The Nigerians are Eugene Ape, Humphrey Jefferson Ejike Eleweke, Michael Titus Igweh, and Obinna Nwajagu, who were all arrested for drug trafficking in 2002 or 2003.

The government has not released an official list of prisoners facing the death penalty in the coming days. Indonesia's security chief, Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan, told reporters on May 13 that he wants these executions to occur without a "soap opera," a reference to Brazil's and Australia's highly publicized but unsuccessful efforts to prevent the execution of their citizens in Indonesia's most recent mass executions in April 2015.

Indonesia ended a four-year unofficial moratorium on the death penalty in March 2013. President Widodo has sought to justify the use of the death penalty on the basis that drug traffickers on death row had "destroyed the future of the nation." In December 2014 he told students that the death penalty for convicted drug traffickers was an "important shock therapy" for anyone who violates Indonesia's drug laws.

The alleged deterrent effect of the death penalty has been repeatedly debunked. Most recently, on March 4, 2015, the United Nations assistant secretary-general for human rights, Ivan Simonovic, stated that there was "no evidence that the death penalty deters any crime." Even with respect to murder, an Oxford University analysis concluded that capital punishment does not deter "murder to a marginally greater extent than does the threat and application of the supposedly lesser punishment of life imprisonment."

According to the most recent statistics issued by the minister of law and human rights, Yasonna Laoly, 133 people were on death row in Indonesia as of January 2015. They included 57 convicted of drug trafficking, two for terrorist offenses, and the remaining 74 for murder or robbery.

Human Rights Watch opposes the death penalty in all circumstances because of its inherent cruelty. Indonesia's use of the death penalty is contrary to international human rights law, statements of UN human rights experts, and various UN bodies. Human rights law upholds every human being's "inherent right to life" and limits the death penalty to "the most serious crimes," typically crimes resulting in death or serious bodily harm. Indonesia should join the many countries already committed to the UN General Assembly's December 18, 2007 resolution calling for a moratorium on executions, a move by UN member countries toward abolition of the death penalty.

In a March 2010 report, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime called for an end to the death penalty and specifically urged member countries to prohibit use of the death penalty for drug-related offenses, while urging countries to take an overall "human rights-based approach to drug and crime control." In its 2014 annual report, the International Narcotics Control Board, the agency charged with monitoring compliance with UN drug control conventions, encouraged countries to abolish the death penalty for drug offenses. The UN Human Rights Committee and the special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions have concluded that the death penalty for drug offenses fails to meet the condition of "most serious crime." In September 2015 the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights reaffirmed that "persons convicted of drug-related offences  should not be subject to the death penalty."

"President Jokowi should recognize the well-documented failure of the death penalty as a crime deterrent and allow Indonesia to join the growing number of countries that have abolished capital punishment," Kine said. "Jokowi would demonstrate leadership and respect for human rights by granting clemency to convicted drug traffickers on death row and restoring Indonesia's unofficial moratorium on the death penalty."

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Thailand: Torture Victim's Outspoken Niece Arrested

Publisher Human Rights Watch Publication Date 27 July 2016 Cite as Human Rights Watch, Thailand: Torture Victim's Outspoken Niece Arrested, 27 July 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5798b0f94.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.

Thai authorities should drop trumped-up criminal proceedings against a woman who has sought justice for her army conscript uncle, who was tortured to death by soldiers in 2011, Human Rights Watch said today. Naritsarawan Kaewnopparat, 25, faces up to five years in prison and a 100,000 baht (US$2,900) fine if found guilty of defamation and publicizing false information online under the Computer Crimes Act.

On the morning of July 26, 2016, police arrested Naritsarawan at her office at the Ministry of Human Security and Social Development in Bangkok. She was taken to the Muang Narathiwat police station and questioned about her Facebook page. The page details the case of her uncle, Pvt. Wichian Puaksom, 26, whom soldiers tortured to death at a military camp in Narathiwat province, and demands that those responsible be brought to justice. On July 27, the police released Naritsarawan on bail. The complaint against Naritsarawan was brought by an army captain who had been commanding officer of the unit found responsible for Wichian's death.

"The Thai police's efforts to intimidate and retaliate against the outspoken relative of a victim of rights abuse is no less than an endorsement of torture," said Brad Adams, Asia director. "The government should immediately direct the police to drop the criminal cases against Naritsarawan and seek the prosecution of those responsible for her uncle's death."

An internal investigation by the 4th Army Region, responsible for Thailand's southern provinces, found that soldiers severely tortured Private Wichian of the 151st Battalion of the 3rd Infantry Division on June 1, 2011. The report said that Sub. Lt. Om Malaihom, who had accused Wichian of fleeing military training, ordered at least nine soldiers to strip Wichian down to his underwear and drag him over a rough concrete surface before repeatedly kicking and beating him for several hours. Soldiers then put salt in Wichian's wounds to increase the pain. They wrapped his body with white cloth, bound his hands, read him funeral rites, and forced him to sit on ice. They then beat Wichian with bamboo rods, kicked him, and stomped on his chest and his head. Wichian died from his injuries four days later, on June 5. Sub-lieutenant Om and the other nine soldiers received military disciplinary punishment of 30 or fewer days in detention, but were never charged for murder or other serious offenses.

Private Wichian's family sued the Ministry of Defense, the army, and the Prime Minister's Office for malfeasance and was provided 7,000,000 baht (US$200,000) compensation in February 2014. In July 2015, the Office for Public Sector Anti-Corruption found Om and nine other soldiers guilty of malfeasance under article 157 of the penal code and article 30 of the military penal code.

In May 2016, Prime Minister Gen. Prayut Chan-ocha promised to make torture a criminal offense under Thai law and to fulfill Thailand's obligations under the United Nations Convention against Torture. Under the convention, the Thai government is obligated to investigate and prosecute acts of torture and other ill-treatment committed by government officials. However, the Thai government has yet to prosecute successfully any security personnel for abuses. Thai authorities have also frequently retaliated against those reporting alleged human rights violations by filing lawsuits accusing critics of making false statements with the intent of damaging the officials' reputation.

"It has always been risky to speak up on behalf of victims of military abuses in Thailand," Adams said. "Now the government is using the full weight of its legal system against those urging justice."

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Bahrain: Activist on Trial Over Twitter Comments

Publisher Human Rights Watch Publication Date 27 July 2016 Cite as Human Rights Watch, Bahrain: Activist on Trial Over Twitter Comments, 27 July 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5798b2e34.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.

A Prominent Bahraini human rights activist faces up to 12 years in prison for criticizing the Saudi Arabia-led military operations in Yemen, Human Rights Watch said today. Bahrain has been taking part in the Saudi-led coalition, whose operations have included unlawful airstrikes on markets, homes, hospitals and schools.

The charges against Nabeel Rajab, head of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, a nongovernmental group, constitute a serious violation of his right to freedom of expression, Human Rights Watch said. The conditions of his detention also appear to amount to arbitrary punishment. He was in solitary confinement for more than two weeks after his arrest and denied compassionate leave to attend a relative's funeral. He faces an additional three years for comments about the Bahrain government's response to prison unrest.

"Unlawful Saudi-led airstrikes bombed markets and hospitals, killing hundreds of civilians, but the person facing prison time is the one who criticized them," said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. "The US and the UK, which have assisted the coalition, have a particular responsibility to insist that Bahrain drop the unlawful charges against Nabeel Rajab and immediately free him."

Rajab's Twitter comments led to his arrest on April 2, 2015. Authorities released him on July 13, 2015, but prosecutors did not close the cases and ordered his re-arrest on June 13, 2016. His trial began on July 12, with the next session scheduled for August 2. If convicted of spreading "false or malicious news, statements, or rumors," Rajab faces up to 10 years in prison under article 133 of Bahrain's penal code. If convicted of "offending a foreign country [Saudi Arabia]", Rajab faces a maximum two year sentence under article 215 of the penal code. If convicted of "offending national institutions," based on comments about unrest that broke out in Jaw Prison in March 2015, Rajab, faces an additional three-year sentence under article 216 of the penal code

Human Rights Watch has analyzed Rajab's Twitter comments between March 10, 2015, when the Jaw Prison unrest broke out, and his arrest on April 2, including nine tweets about the military operations in Yemen. On March 26, 2015, Rajab tweeted that "wars bring hatred, destruction, and horrors." Rajab also tweeted graphic images purporting to portray the effects of the bombing.

Although it is not possible to verify these images, by June 2016, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International had documented 69 unlawful airstrikes by the coalition, some of which may amount to war crimes, that had killed more than 900 civilians and hit homes, markets, hospitals, schools, civilian businesses, and mosques.

The UN Panel of Experts on Yemen, established by UN Security Council Resolution 2140 (2013), in a report made public on January 26, "documented 119 coalition sorties relating to violations" of the laws of war. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon has also repeatedly criticized the Saudi-led coalition's conduct in Yemen, including placing the coalition on his annual "List of Shame" for killing and maiming children, and attacking schools and hospitals in Yemen. The secretary-general later removed the coalition from the list, telling reporters he had been threatened with the withdrawal of aid funds if he didn't.

Under international humanitarian law, the US is a party to the armed conflict in Yemen. The US has deployed a small number of troops to Yemen and, in June 2015, a US military spokesperson stated that the US was helping the coalition with "intelligence support and intelligence sharing, targeting assistance, advisory support, and logistical support, to include aerial refueling with up to two tanker sorties a day." The UK, sells weapons to the coalition, including cluster munitions, which have been used in Yemen in violation of the laws of war. Then-UK Prime Minister David Cameron stated in January that UK personnel "provide advice, help and training" to the Saudi military on the laws of war.

Rajab's comments about the unrest in Jaw prison and the authorities' response are consistent with the accounts of four former detainees who, in the aftermath of the unrest, told Human Rights Watch that security forces subjected prisoners to abuse that would appear to amount to torture and cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment. In an August 2015 letter to Human Rights Watch, the Interior Ministry Ombudsman said that his office had met with 156 inmates and that it had referred 15 formal complaints to the body charged with investigating allegations of torture, the Special Investigations Unit, "for criminal investigation."

Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which Bahrain has ratified, protects the right to freedom of expression. In 2011, the United Nations Human Rights Committee, the body of international experts who monitor compliance with the covenant, issued guidance to state parties on their free speech obligations under article 19 that emphasized the high value the treaty places upon uninhibited expression "in circumstances of public debate concerning public figures in the political domain and public institutions." It said that "state parties should not prohibit criticism of institutions, such as the army or the administration."

"If the Bahraini authorities don't like criticism of the Saudi-led airstrikes, they should focus their efforts on ensuring that their Gulf allies don't bomb schools and hospitals," said Stork.

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Burundi: Gang Rapes by Ruling Party Youth

Publisher Human Rights Watch Publication Date 27 July 2016 Cite as Human Rights Watch, Burundi: Gang Rapes by Ruling Party Youth, 27 July 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5798b34e4.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.

Members of Burundi ruling party's youth league, the Imbonerakure, have repeatedly gang-raped women since a wave of political protests began in 2015. Many of the rapes appear to have been aimed at family members of perceived government opponents. Policemen or men wearing police uniforms have also committed rape.

In a pattern of abuse in many locations and in several provinces, men armed with guns, sticks, or knives have raped women during attacks on their homes, most often at night. Male family members, some of them members of opposition parties, were also targeted and some killed or abducted. Survivors reported both immediate injuries and longer-term consequences, including sexually transmitted infections, unwanted pregnancies, anxiety, and depression. Women have not been safe from rape in refugee camps, and services to assist them are inadequate and need to be better funded. Tanzanian police working in the camp should ensure they fully investigate all rape cases.

"Attackers from Burundi's ruling party youth league tied up, brutally beat, and gang-raped women, often with their children nearby," said Skye Wheeler, women's rights emergencies researcher at Human Rights Watch. "Many of the women have suffered long-term physical and psychological consequences."

Human Rights Watch interviewed more than 70 rape victims in May 2016, in the Nduta refugee camp in western Tanzania. Nduta is one of three Tanzanian camps sheltering 140,000 Burundian refugees.

Dozens of women said they were raped in or close to their homes. Fourteen said they recognized at least one of the attackers as an Imbonerakure. In some other cases, they said the rapists wore police uniforms. In other cases, they could not determine who the attackers were.

A 36-year-old woman said she was raped in the Mutakura neighborhood of Bujumbura, the capital, in October 2015: "I was held by the arms and legs. [An attacker] said: 'Let's kill her, she is an [opposition National Liberation Forces] FNL wife' as they raped me."

Three Imbonerakure raped her, she said, one of whom she said she recognized from his patrols in the neighborhood. Imbonerakure had verbally harassed her husband, an FNL member, during visits to their home on several occasions before the attack during which the men took him away. His body was found in a nearby ditch the following day. Like many others Human Rights Watch interviewed, the victim said she still has trouble sleeping and has flashbacks of the attack.

In some cases, rape appeared to be used to try to deter people from fleeing Burundi. Six women said they were raped on the Burundian side of the Tanzanian border by people they believed to be Imbonerakure or knew to be Burundian police, between mid-2015 and early 2016. The attackers ordered the victims to return home, or verbally harassed them for attempting to leave. Sixteen others who tried to leave reported extortion, beatings, verbal harassment, or detention by Imbonerakure or police. Other rapes may have been opportunistic.

Human Rights Watch wrote to the president of the ruling party, Pascal Nyabenda, on July 12, 2016, seeking his response to allegations of rape by Imbonerakure, but did not receive a reply.

Many women fled Burundi immediately after they were raped, before they were able to get emergency medical services. Human Rights Watch found that in many cases women were not identified as rape victims when they arrived at humanitarian transit camps on the Tanzanian side of the border and so did not get emergency care for HIV exposure or emergency contraception, which are among World Health Organization minimum standards for post-rape care.

One woman who did not receive such emergency care became pregnant from the rape. Another found out later she was HIV positive. Both said there was no obvious way to report the rapes at the transit camps. Humanitarians told Human Rights Watch that they were continuing to train staff at the border points, had stockpiled drugs at the border, and were trying to increase the number of female staff there, to encourage women to report sexual violence.

People who fled to Tanzania are not safe from sexual violence in refugee camps, where the numbers of rapes are alarmingly high, including of children. Women and girls have been raped both inside the camps and in areas outside where they collect firewood or goods for market, often as many as three or four cases a week. Women said the attackers included both other Burundian refugees and Tanzanians. Humanitarians told Human Rights Watch they are concerned about high numbers of rapes of children.

Victims said that aid groups providing services in the camps do not provide adequate psychological services and trauma care. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reported that donor countries have provided less than 40 percent of funds requested in aid to Burundi refugees in Tanzania.

From May through September 2015, 323 (264 women and 59 girls) reported cases of rape or sexual assault that occurred in Burundi, including as they were trying to flee, to humanitarians in Nyaragusu, the first and biggest refugee Tanzanian camp hosting Burundians, according to UNHCR. UNHCR said that of all incidents reported from June to October 2015, according to the women, 16 were allegedly perpetrated by the police and 177 were allegedly perpetrated by other members of the security forces or Imbonerakure.

Over 170 people have reported rapes in Burundi or during their flight to humanitarians in the two newest Tanzanian camps, Nduta and Mtendeli, since they opened late last year, according to UNHCR. It is possible that some women may have reported rapes twice if they moved from Nyaragusu to the newer camps. Reported rape cases may only represent a percentage of the total. Medical staff of aid organizations told Human Rights Watch they believe many women do not report rape unless they seek treatment for continuing medical problems.

Some women interviewed described tense relations between Tutsis and Hutus in the camp and often between or within families. Some said they feared possible attacks from Imbonerakure whom they claimed were in Nduta to target and harass people. Human Rights Watch did not verify these claims.

UNHCR funds Tanzanian police in the refugee camps. The police station in Nduta camp is staffed by least three female police who work at a "gender desk" that encourages women to report abuse. Several interviewees said they appreciated efforts by Tanzanian police, including detaining alleged perpetrators, although sometimes only for short periods.

In other cases, however, women said the Tanzanian police did not seem interested in finding those responsible if the women had been attacked outside Nduta camp, or had not seriously tried to arrest attackers in the camp. A legal assistance organization, the Women's Legal Aid Center (WILAC), which works in Nduta, said that five people have been officially charged with rape since Nduta opened in October. Four were found not guilty, and one case was ongoing in late May. There have been two convictions for domestic violence.

Abortion services are only legally available in Tanzania to save a woman's life. This highly restrictive law means that women pregnant as a result of rape are forced to have the children. Medical service providers should use the ban's exception to the greatest extent possible and should consider whether a woman choosing a dangerous illegal abortion or committing suicide as a result presents a risk to life. The Tanzanian government should change its laws to make abortion available to all women, or at a minimum, to rape victims.

In 2015 and 2016, Human Rights Watch documented how the Burundian police and intelligence services, along with Imbonerakure, targeted perceived opponents with killings, disappearances, torture, and arbitrary arrests. President Pierre Nkurunziza should publicly denounce security force and Imbonerakure abuses and ensure that rapists and other abusers are held to account.

The UN Security Council should authorize a strong international police force for Burundi, including women officers, to deter abuses, including rape. The UN and countries that provide police should ensure that they have training and expertise in investigating these crimes, and that providing security and support to survivors of sexual violence is among their priorities.

The UN Security Council should urgently set up an independent, international commission of inquiry with judicial, forensic, and medical expertise, as well as expertise in investigating torture and sexual violence. The commission should produce a timely public report that includes recommendations on accountability, possible financial reparations for victims, and improved access to health services. The commission would build on the work of the Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights and other UN and African Union initiatives in Burundi, and could contribute to the International Criminal Court's preliminary examination of the situation in Burundi.

Identification of victims of sexual violence at Tanzanian transit camps should be improved, including by increasing female staff and ensuring victims have a safe and confidential place to report rape. Rape victims should have access to post-rape care that meets World Health Organization standards, including, if needed, emergency HIV prophylaxis and contraception.

"More and more people globally are living in displacement, or as refugees, for increasingly long periods," Wheeler said. "In Tanzania, as elsewhere, aid groups, host governments, and wealthier donor countries need to ramp up services provision to meet their obligations to protect the health and safety of rape victims and to ensure that their most basic rights are met."

Crisis in Burundi

In April 2015, President Pierre Nkurunziza of Burundi announced that he would run for a third term, setting off a political and human rights crisis. Police violently repressed demonstrations and the government cracked down on perceived opponents and critics. Targeted killings and attacks by government forces and armed opposition groups escalated. By December, several hundred people had been killed. Serious abuses in Burundi, including torture and enforced disappearances, have continued throughout the first half of 2016.

Hundreds of thousands of Burundians fled to surrounding countries, most to Tanzania, where three refugee camps were set up, but also to Uganda, Rwanda, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Human Rights Watch has not conducted research into rape of Burundian refugees in these other countries.

Rape by Imbonerakure

Burundi has a long history of rape, including during periods of conflict or political crisis. There are indications there may be high rates of this crime even in times of relative stability. In June 2015, for example, Centre Seruka, a Burundian organization that helps victims of sexual violence, said that between 120 and 130 victims of sexual violence sought help at their facilities each month. The majority were children.

The survivors interviewed said that in some cases, they had been raped by men they knew to be Imbonerakure, who sometimes worked with the police. Many could not identify their rapist by name, but believed they were raped because of a family member's link to an opposition party or a grievance against their husband. The Imbonerakure, who are the members of the youth league of the ruling party, the Council for the Defense of Democracy  Forces for the Defense of Democracy (CNDD-FDD), are organized across Burundi, down to the local level, and have long been used to target government opponents. Their role in the repression has increased since April 2015.

More than 10 women interviewed said that local Imbonerakure had harassed them even before April 2015, although this worsened after Nzurunziza's announcement that he would run again. Several women said that Imbonerakure had started carrying weapons and had taken on a more prominent security role in their villages or towns.

Imbonerakure known to victims, men in police uniforms, and unidentified armed men, some of whom accused the victims of supporting an opposition party or being married to an opposition supporter, were among those responsible for rapes or gang-rapes of 38 women interviewed by Human Rights Watch. In two cases, girls were gang-raped during attacks in or near their homes. The attacks, almost always at night, were by a group of men with guns, sticks, grenades, or knives. In the majority of cases, more than one man raped the victim.

In 23 cases, the victims did not recognize the people who attacked them, but said some of the men were dressed in ruling party T-shirts or police uniforms, which Imbonerakure sometimes wear. The victims said that Imbonerakure either had previously threatened family members, or that the attackers had attacked or asked for male relatives and made derogatory comments about their political beliefs.

Some women also said they believed their attackers were Imbonerakure because the group controlled the victims' neighborhoods and there were no other armed groups in their area. In one case, the attackers took a mobile phone, and in two other cases, they extorted money from the women, but robbery did not appear to be their main motivation.

In several attacks the women described, the attackers either killed a male family member or took him away. In three cases, the attackers beat a husband or other male relative. In four cases, the male relative fled at the beginning of the attack.

A group of Imbonerakure raped O.P.'s 8-year-old daughter after they attacked her family home, in Karusi province, in late April 2015. O.P. saw a local Imbonerakure leader enter the house with other men before she ran away, leaving her daughter behind. She returned to find her daughter sitting in bloody sheets. O.P.'s daughter told her that four men had raped her. O.P.'s husband left the country the following day because he feared the attack was directed at him. He had already been arrested twice and detained for short periods by local Imbonerakure for not joining the ruling party, O.P. said.

Several rapes reported to Human Rights Watch took place at the end of 2015, when human rights abuses escalated in Burundi, especially in Bujumbura.

N.B.'s husband, a policeman and member of the FNL, was shot dead while on duty. On December 13, 2015, N.B., 22, said, a group of Imbonerakure forced their way into her home, beat her with sticks, and two of them raped her. She said that men, who had told her they were Imbonerakure, had repeatedly forced their way into her home in the three months prior to the attack looking for her husband, verbally harassing her and accusing her of hiding him. In five cases, the women interviewed said the dead bodies of men who were abducted were found dumped near the site of the attack.

Others did not know the whereabouts of family members for many weeks. Seventeen-year-old S.W. did not know where her father was for months after her family was attacked in August 2015, in Bujumbura's Kinama neighborhood. Four Imbonerakure, dressed in ruling party T-shirts, dragged her to a banana grove near her house and raped her after other men in their group took away her father, a member of the opposition Movement for Solidarity and Democracy (MSD). A neighbor who was an Imbonerakure eventually told the family her father had been killed.

Women said that if the man wanted by the attackers was not there, they would demand to know his whereabouts and would sometimes tell the victim that they were raping her because they could not find the man. In nine cases, women said the men had fled before the rape took place, or had begun habitually sleeping elsewhere because of threats.

M.N.'s husband, she said, had been harassed for his membership in an opposition party since his family returned to Muyinga province in Burundi in 2012, from exile in Tanzania, and had begun sleeping in friends' houses for safety. In December 2015, a group of Imbonerakure told her neighbors to stay indoors and forced their way into her house. Two of them picked M.N. up from her bed, threw her on the ground, and raped her, she said. She recognized one of them as an Imbonerakure.

In three other cases, the rape took place weeks or months after a husband or other male relative had been killed or disappeared in an earlier attack.

In many cases, known Imbonerakure had threatened or attacked the targeted male member before the attack, often during daytime house visits. Women often continued to receive threats after a male relative was attacked and sometimes after the woman had been raped.

Eleven of the reported cases of rapes and other abuses took place in Bujumbura, mostly in Mutakura, Cibitoke, and Musaga neighborhoods, where police had clashed with protesters over President Nkurunziza's bid for a third term. However, similar attacks were reported in other locations. Many women in the refugee camps were from border areas such as Makamba, Ruyigi, and Muyinga provinces.

In some cases, the attackers' comments during the attacks, as well as harassment before and afterward, would appear to indicate that the leading motivation behind the abuses was political, connected to the victim's relatives being members of opposition parties. However, there may have been other motivations. Many of the women who had been attacked had returned to Burundi between 2010 and 2012, after living in Tanzania for many years. Many found themselves embroiled in land conflicts when they returned, with neighbors or other family members occupying their homes. In several cases, women said that the attacks by Imbonerakure appeared to be connected to long-standing disputes over land in their communities.

Some women believed ethnicity may have been a factor. Two Tutsi women said the attackers made ethnic slurs during the attack. Others believed the ethnic dimension was a more prominent factor in communities with few Tutsi families. Human Rights Watch did not ask interviewees for their ethnicity.

Some attacks may also have been linked to personal disputes or grievances. In July 2015, two men raped 33-year-old J.N. in Muyinga province, she said, while three Imbonerakure watched, including a local leader whose face she recognized. The men beat her husband and then took him from the house during the attack. She said that she believes she was raped because she and her husband were FNL members, but also because her husband, a local neighborhood leader, reported carousing at a prostitute's house by some local men to the police and some of the men were arrested. J.N. reported that the men who attacked her said, "he stopped us from using their prostitute, so we're [having sex with] you instead."

Rape by Security Forces

In several cases, groups of men who attacked homes included one or more men in police or army uniforms. These may have been members of security forces or Imbonerakure, who often dress in police or military uniform. Members of the police or army have also attacked and raped women. Human Rights Watch documented several cases in which police raped women.

A group of policemen, all in blue police uniform, visited and harassed 28-year-old F.P., she said, at her house in the town of Nyanza Lac three times  in April, July, and September 2015, when two of them raped her. In April, the policemen took some of her belongings and in July, they stole bank account documents that had belonged to her husband, who had been a soldier and peacekeeper in Somalia before he died there in 2014. Local Imbonerakure also harassed her frequently, saying her husband had only managed to get rich by bribing his way into peacekeeping posts.

Two women said they were raped in police detention. A 26-year-old local leader of an opposition party was detained for a night in a police station in late February 2016, after she was accused of holding political meetings and refusing to join the CNDD-FDD. A senior policeman working in the detention center raped her, she said.

Few women feel safe reporting rapes or other abuses to the police, especially in view of the close relationship between some Imbonerakure and the police. Many of those interviewed said they feared they would have been killed had they done so. Fear of further attacks as well as the desire to leave the country quickly also prevented women from seeking emergency health care in Burundi, including emergency contraception and post-exposure prophylaxis to prevent HIV infections.

Four soldiers took 27-year-old M.D. from her house in Kamenge, in Bujumbura, after they failed to find her husband, a MSD member who had been detained several times, in mid-December 2015. They held her for a day in the barracks in Kamenge, where two of the soldiers raped and beat her.

Rape, Harassment During Flight

Women have been raped on both sides of the border as they fled to Tanzania, part of a broader pattern of harassment and extortion of people trying to leave Burundi.

Some of the rapes on the Burundi side appeared to be attempts by members of the security forces and Imbonerakure to prevent people from leaving Burundi. Burundian police raped H.S., 24, in mid-May 2015, when she tried to cross at an official border point in Kabonga, Makamba province. She said the men called her a dog and told her she was crazy to try to leave the country when there was no war. They beat her and dragged her to some bushes, where two of the men raped her before a group of soldiers intervened.

In another case, three men in police uniform raped R.N. in October 2015, in Makamba province on a path through the bush as she was about to reach the Muragarazi river on the border.

In other cases, women said that they were raped by unknown men. A group of men in the Murama village area of Muyinga province stopped a group of women trying to cross the border in August 2015, and demanded to know why they were trying to leave the country. Three of the men tied up B.K., 45, and her adult daughter and raped them. The men let them go, she said, after they promised not to tell anyone. Twenty-seven-year-old G.O. said two of a group of men in CNDD-FDD T-shirts raped her at night in the Gatwe area of Makamba province in late October 2015.

In some cases, rapes appear to have been opportunistic. Four women reported that they were raped on the Tanzanian side of the border by unknown men who spoke Kiha, a language local to the Kigoma area of Tanzania, or Kiswahili.

Lack of Services in Tanzania Transit Camps

The border between Burundi and Tanzania is porous, with numerous crossings. Aid organizations have established a number of transit points and transit centers in Tanzania where refugees can register and receive food and shelter before being taken to refugee camps.

Human Rights Watch found that in the majority of cases, women interviewed who had been raped a few days before reaching transit camps were not identified as victims by staff there. Women said that they sometimes felt too shy to say they had been raped, especially if only male staff were present. Others said that the staff seemed too busy or that they did not report the rape because they were not asked.

As a result, unless women were quickly transported to a refugee camp, they missed an opportunity to access emergency HIV post-exposure prophylaxis, which must be taken within 72 hours of exposure, or emergency contraception, which should be administered within 120 hours. Of 20 victims interviewed who arrived at transit camps within the five-day window, aid workers identified only two as rape victims and referred them for urgent assistance. Five were lucky enough to get on a bus quickly to a camp, but 13 missed the window altogether, with some of them left in the transit camps for more than a week.

One became pregnant after a rape that took place less than 24 hours before she arrived at a transit center. Another who had been raped for the second time since 2015, while crossing the border, was not identified as a rape victim at a transit camp. She, like two other interviewees, later found out she was HIV positive. She did not know whether she contracted the virus during the first or second rape.

Aid workers have made efforts to put in place a system to identify rape victims at border crossings and to help them get care. It is not clear why the procedures are not always working. UNHCR told Human Rights Watch in a letter that aid workers at border points have been trained to screen new arrivals to try to find out if they have experienced sexual violence and if so, expedite their referral for emergency health care. The also said that border point staff coordinate with aid workers in the camps to help ensure victims receive care in the camps. UNHCR also said that in May and June 2016, they supplied staff of nongovernmental groups at border entry points with emergency HIV and contraceptive care.

The International Rescue Committee, which provides services at 10 border crossings, said in a letter that they had made specific efforts to increase their numbers of female staff in accordance with best practices so that female victims of rape feel more comfortable reporting it. However, the group said that because of security concerns in these isolated places, they struggled to retain female staff. It appears from the interviews that women found fewer barriers to reporting rape at Nduta than at border points.

While the primary responsibility to provide services rests with the government, in countries where the government is unwilling or unable to meet these needs and where UN agencies are operating, these agencies have a clear human rights obligation to ensure that urgent needs are met to fulfil basic rights to health and life.

Rape in Nduta Camp

There have been many reports of rape in both Nduta and the older Nyaragusu refugee camp, further south, in the Kigoma area of Tanzania. Women, men, and children have been raped both inside and outside the camps. Tanzanian camp authorities and UNHCR have taken important steps to prevent rape but should do more to ensure protection, including through enforcing greater accountability for attackers. To fully meet their obligations, humanitarians will need to be better funded.

Human Rights Watch was especially concerned to find that large numbers of children have been raped in Nduta. Human Rights Watch interviewed three girls under 18 and the close relatives of five other children, all under 12, including three under 5, who had been raped since the camp opened in October 2015.

Eight women or girls interviewed had been raped outside the camp, while collecting firewood or buying produce to sell in Nduta market. No one was arrested and the attackers have not been identified. Two 11-year-old girls were raped in the same incident in February 2016, by men they believed were Tanzanian who chased a group of children collecting firewood behind the police station, about a 10-minute walk from the camp. No one has been arrested, and a parent of one of the girls said that the police did not go to the nearby village to investigate.

Rape of women outside of refugee camps occurs in many displacement sites in the region. However, in Nduta, this appears to be only part of the problem. Human Rights Watch interviewed more women and girls who had been raped inside than outside the camp.

In April 2016, two young men raped 15-year-old F.N. in a tent in the camp. F.N. said that as a result, she has chronic hip and back pain and suffered trauma and depression. Her mother said she was afraid to report the case or seek justice, even though they know one of the rapists because she fears retribution from his family.

Similar fears led the parents of 4-year-old S.A. not to report the rape of their daughter by a 16-year-old boy, although in this case her parents were also concerned that the police would beat the boy, or his father. A 14-year-old boy raped another 4-year-old, D.C., who lived in a nearby tent, in early May 2016. The mother decided not to press charges as the father would likely be jailed in his son's place, which she thought would be unfair.

The Need for Greater Protection, Counseling Services in Nduta

The Nduta police have not always made serious efforts to arrest rapists. For example, a church leader raped 27-year-old H.N. in January 2016, after he entered her tent to, he said, pray for her. H.N. told the police but the man has not been arrested. Camp zone leaders who work in close cooperation with the police told her that her rapist appeared to have magical powers of disappearance when they tried to find him. The man also threatened her after the rape. S.K., 15, made several trips to the police to report her rape in January 2016, and told the police where the rapist lived, but as of May he had still not been arrested.

The Tanzanian police, including those based in and around Nduta, should thoroughly investigate rapes both outside and inside the camp. They should actively encourage women to report rapes and work with women's groups to investigate, even if the victim cannot identify the attacker.

Human Rights Watch wrote a letter to the Tanzanian Ministry of Home Affairs on July 1, 2016, but did not receive a reply.

Tanzania has historically provided tens of thousands of refugees' legal residency, including 162,000 people between 2008 and 2010, and has allowed hundreds of thousands more to enter and stay in camps in Tanzania. However, Tanzanian authorities made tens of thousands of other refugees return to Burundi in 2011 and 2012. Tanzania's current encampment policy restricts refugees' movements to four miles from the camp. Because authorities sometimes punish refugees who break this rule, women raped further afield are afraid to report rapes.

More concerted efforts by the Tanzanian police to identify, investigate, and prosecute alleged perpetrators could help reduce rape in Nduta. Aid groups should also continue to support survivors with medical, including psychosocial, and legal services and monitor to protect victims and their families from revenge attacks. UNHCR and IRC should continue training for police as well as community meetings and advocacy by leaders to encourage reporting. UNHCR has provided the camp police with vehicles and motorbikes so they can patrol inside and outside the camp.

Together with the Tanzanian government, UNHCR oversees protection activities in all the refugee camps. However, Human Rights Watch found that victims were often unable to access UNHCR staff or had to wait for long periods for an appointment. In four cases, women said they had repeatedly visited the Nduta UNHCR office to request an appointment, but had been unable to make an appointment or told to go away. One was looking for assistance after her 4-year-old child had been raped in the camp. Another woman, who visited the UNHCR office in April 2016, said she had been given an appointment in June. UNHCR told Human Rights Watch in its letter that it is improving its protection counseling services and hope to expand them further, but that staffing shortages mean that such services are more limited in Nduta than, for example, in Nyaragusu.

Officials responsible for running the camp should continue to carry out concrete measures to reduce attacks on women, such as improving lighting in the camp and ensuring all latrines can be locked. Several women said that they urinated in plastic bottles cut in half to avoid using unlit latrines at night. Some had received solar lamps, but several had been stolen. Many women said that their personal belongings had been stolen from their tents, including medical documentation of rapes which would be important in efforts to seek justice.

UNHCR is working with Tanzania's Home Affairs Ministry on a pilot project to produce bio-mass briquettes as an alternative to firewood. The use of improved mud-stoves has been promoted in the camps. UNHCR told Human Rights Watch that group firewood collection times have also been established and daily security messages are shared in the camp through community outreach teams. IRC conducts weekly community campaigns to raise awareness about the dangers and how women and girls can minimize risk.

Some special efforts have been made by aid groups to protect children from rape, including establishing child protection groups, drop-off child care centers, and campaigns to raise awareness about the dangers of leaving children unattended.

Five women said they had seen the Imbonerakure who allegedly raped them, or other Imbonerakure, in the refugee camp. Two said the men had threatened them. Several Tutsi women also said that they felt unsafe because of their ethnicity and that other refugees harassed and insulted them. One woman said men had called her a "cockroach"  a term used to insult Tutsi during the 1994 Rwandan genocide  and told her she should have fled to Rwanda instead. The woman reported the case to the police, who intervened. The men apologized and promised they would not insult her again.

It is not clear how UNHCR plans on tackling threats to security in the camp, but increasing efforts are being made, the agency said, to support efforts by refugees to improve their security. A more grassroots approach to prevention and response to rape could be effective, such as a community-led effort in the 1990s that used refugee "crisis intervention teams," who identified rape victims, helped them access services, and worked within their communities to address risks.

IRC is engaging religious leaders and others to promote nonviolence and has initiated a large program with some 400 women and men to examine and change attitudes and practices.

The long term consequences of rape are often devastating. Only two women out of more than 70 interviewed said that they felt largely unchanged emotionally or physically since the rapes. The others described experiencing chronic problems they said were a result of the rape, including poor physical health, infections, and continuing problems with HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases. Women with HIV said that they were struggling to find enough nutritious food to stay healthy, and two said they were not able to maintain a regime of HIV prophylaxis medications because they could not get enough to eat.

A large proportion of the women said that they still felt pain in their hips, back or stomach and several women said they were struggling to carry water or perform other activities. They reported persistent problems with sleeping, waking up suddenly screaming in the night, and nightmares. Emotional pain, a feeling of disconnection from others including their children, self-disgust, and shame were common. Two women said that they feared that the rape has made them worse mothers. Women also reported constantly thinking about the rapes, experiencing reoccurring flashbacks of the rape or killings, depression, or feeling no peace or happiness. There was a widespread  and in Human Rights Watch's view, an accurate  perception that not enough was being done to assist to rape victims, although many women did not know that psychosocial  mental health  care should be key parts of government or aid agency responses to rape and are included in all global standards.

Human Rights Watch spoke to five women who had become pregnant or had had children as a result of rape. In all cases, the pregnancy had brought discord. Women reported ambiguous feelings for the children and family problems. In some cases, the women's husband had refused to accept the pregnancy or the child. In other cases, the husband had forbidden the woman to get an abortion. In two cases, women said aid staff told them they had a religious and moral duty to keep the child. In all cases, the women were not able to choose what is best for them and their families after suffering a gross human rights abuse, not least because of Tanzania's highly restrictive abortion laws.

More services from aid agencies or the government are needed to provide ongoing case management for victims, especially psychosocial and psychological support. Women interviewed were grateful for counseling, legal, and other support from IRC, but they said it this tended to be short-term and inadequate.

A handful of women interviewed had been invited to join an IRC women's basket weaving group, which they described as helpful. A large number said that they would love to participate in group activities. UNHCR and IRC told Human Rights Watch that group counseling sessions were initiated in May and that three groups are now meeting. This may help meet a great hunger for healing.

About half the women interviewed had one or two counseling sessions at the IRC center in the camp. Some women said they benefitted from confidential dialogue and would have liked more sessions but were not given further appointments. Instead, women were told they could return if they had problems  confusing for victims experiencing depression, chronic shame, or low self-esteem. Although some women received further counseling, this was generally not the case even for children or survivors who became pregnant from rape, contracted HIV, or faced domestic discord or abuse because of the rapes.

A lack of funding has restricted IRC's capacity to assist. IRC told Human Rights Watch that they have faced up to 90 new reported cases per month, in part because its outreach to tell women about their services and encourage women to report rapes had created a great demand for the services of the three people providing care. Some emergency cases are especially time-consuming. IRC is continuing apply for more funds to increase services and has improved its system for prioritizing cases and hired refugees to provide support in less complicated cases.

Many women took advantage of other services provided by IRC, including accompaniment to the hospital and to police to report crimes and said these were extremely useful.

All the parents of the child survivors said their children were still affected by the rape, exhibiting withdrawal or moodiness. IRC has a child counseling room and in two cases had provided child survivors with long-term counseling support and space in their shelter. UNHCR said that targeted and comprehensive training on working with child survivors has been planned for IRC staff who already have general training, as has equipping IRC's child care room for play therapy. Aid organizations should ensure services are equally available to male victims.

Three of the women interviewed, including two children, had stayed in a small IRC shelter in the camp. But it only had space for five women at a time, and they are only meant to stay for a few days. Improving this service could present an important option for women facing domestic violence or other abuse in the camp.

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Saudi Arabia: Over 100 Executions Since January 1

Publisher Human Rights Watch Publication Date 27 July 2016 Cite as Human Rights Watch, Saudi Arabia: Over 100 Executions Since January 1, 27 July 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5798b4214.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.

Saudi authorities have executed 108 people since January 1, 2016. The year began with a mass execution on January 2, of 47 men convicted of terrorism-related crimes. Since then, authorities have executed 13 people for nonviolent drug smuggling, 47 for murder, and one for rape. Saudi authorities are on track to match the 158 executions in 2015, and have already surpassed the 88 in 2014.

An imprisoned Jordanian man, Hussein Abu al-Khair, may face the death penalty after a Saudi court convicted him in January 2015 of attempting to smuggle amphetamine pills into Saudi Arabia by car. Abu al-Khair alleges that a Saudi court convicted him based on a confession he signed under torture.

"Executions are never the answer to stopping crime, especially when they result from a flawed justice system that ignores torture allegations," said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. "There is simply no excuse for Saudi Arabia's frequent use of the death penalty for nonviolent drug crimes."

Abu al-Khair's trial judgment, which Human Rights Watch reviewed, says that Saudi authorities arrested him on May 18, 2014, as he was attempting to enter the country by car at the al-Durra border crossing, between the southern Jordanian port city Aqaba and the Saudi town of Haql. The judgment states that the border authorities searched Abu al-Khair's car and found three bags hidden in the fuel tank filled with over 290,000 amphetamine pills.

A family member who has spoken to Abu al-Khair by phone told Human Rights Watch that he denies smuggling the drugs. He told the family member that he only signed a confession admitting to drug smuggling after authorities beat and tortured him for 12 days, including suspending him upside down by the ankles and beating him with sticks. The trial judgment says that Abu al-Khair recanted his confession in court, stating that it was merely "the words of the investigator." Nevertheless, the judge accepted the original confession as evidence and sentenced Abu al-Khair to death in January 2015. Abu al-Khair did not have access to a lawyer before or during the trial, the family member said.

Abu al-Khair filed an appeal in January 2015, but has received no information about the status of his case, the family member said. He is in Tabuk prison.

Of the 108 people executed so far in 2016, 86 were Saudi citizens. Among the foreigners executed, three Jordanians and three Pakistanis were each convicted on drug smuggling charges.

International standards, including the Arab Charter on Human Rights, ratified by Saudi Arabia, require countries that retain the death penalty to use it only for the "most serious crimes," and in exceptional circumstances. In 2012, the United Nations special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary, or arbitrary executions stated that in countries that still use the death penalty, it should be limited to cases in which a person intentionally committed murder, not to punish drug-related offenses.

Human Rights Watch has documented longstanding due process violations in Saudi Arabia's criminal justice system that make it difficult for a defendant to get a fair trial, including in capital cases. Human Rights Watch analyzed seven trial judgments that the Specialized Criminal Court handed down in 2013 and 2014 against men and children accused of protest-related crimes following popular demonstrations by members of the Shia minority in 2011 and 2012 in Eastern Province towns. In all seven trials, detainees alleged that confessions were extracted through torture, but judges quickly dismissed these allegations without investigation, admitted the confessions as evidence, and then convicted the detainees almost solely based on these confessions, in some cases sentencing them to death.

The Death Penalty Worldwide Database, which collects information on executions across the globe, shows that Saudi Arabia has one of the highest execution rates in the world, and applies the death penalty to a range of offenses that do not constitute "most serious crimes," including drug offenses and "sorcery." Saudi Arabia trails only Iran in the Middle East for executing the highest number of people each year. Since the start of 2016, Iran has reportedly executed at least 216 prisoners, according to Iran Human Rights Documentation Center.

Human Rights Watch opposes capital punishment in all countries and under all circumstances. Capital punishment is unique in its cruelty and finality, and it is inevitably and universally plagued with arbitrariness, prejudice, and error.

In 2012, following similar resolutions in 2007, 2008, and 2010, the UN General Assembly called on countries to establish a moratorium on the use of the death penalty, progressively restrict the practice, and reduce the offenses for which it might be imposed, all with the view toward its eventual abolition. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has also called on countries to abolish the death penalty.

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Security Council extends UN Central African Republic Mission through 2017

Publisher UN News Service Publication Date 26 July 2016 Cite as UN News Service, Security Council extends UN Central African Republic Mission through 2017, 26 July 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5798b4ae40b.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.

26 July 2016 - The Security Council today extended the mandate of the United Nations peacekeeping operation in the Central African Republic (CAR) until 15 November 2017, keeping an authorized troop ceiling of 10,750 military personnel intact and providing time for the mission to assess the post-transition process in the country.

Through a unanimously adopted resolution, the 15-member body called on the CAR authorities to urgently implement a genuine and inclusive reconciliation, and urged them to address the presence and activity of armed groups by implementing a comprehensive strategy that prioritizes dialogue and the urgent implementation of an inclusive disarmament, demobilization, rehabilitation and reintegration programme and security sector reform.

The resolution also called on the authorities to take concrete steps to strengthen justice institutions and to fight impunity, and swiftly operationalize the Special Criminal Court (SCC). Further, it called for their continued efforts to restore the effective authority of the State over the whole territory, including by redeploying State administration in the provinces, and ensuring the timely payment of salaries to civil servants and Security forces.

In line with those calls, the Council said the mandate of the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA) would include immediate priority tasks, such as the protection of civilians by maintaining a robust, mobile and flexible posture, the promotion and protection of human rights, and facilitation of a secure environment for the immediate, full, safe and unhindered delivery of humanitarian assistance.

The Council also decided that the Mission's core priority tasks would include the provision of support for the reconciliation and stabilization political processes, the extension of state authority and for security sector reform and disarmament, demobilization and reintegration programmes.

On the political front, the Council expressed its support for Faustin-Archange Touadera as President of the CAR, and welcomed the formation of the Government. It urged the authorities to implement a genuine and inclusive reconciliation by addressing local grievances across the entire national territory.

Recalling the crucial role of civil society in ensuring that the political solution addressed the root causes of the conflict in the country, the Council underscored the importance of respect for the constitution so as to ensure the country's long-term stabilization and development.

By further terms of the wide-ranging resolution, the Secretary-General was requested to keep the Council regularly informed of the situation in the CAR and the implementation of the mandate of MINUSCA, and report to the Council by 1 October 2016, and every four months after that.
Gender equality, women's empowerment central to Colombian peace process  UN officials

Publisher UN News Service Publication Date 26 July 2016 Cite as UN News Service, Gender equality, women's empowerment central to Colombian peace process  UN officials, 26 July 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5798b4f91c3.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.

26 July 2016 - Two senior United Nations officials today underscored that the centrality of women to the Colombian peace process, as shown by the 'historic commitment' by the Government and Colombia and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia-People's Army (FARC-EP) at the Havana Peace Talks Table, must be reinforced in the final agreement and, more importantly, during the implementation phase.

On 24 July, the two sides committed to ensure that one of the agreement's fundamental objectives will be to promote gender equality and the empowerment of women. Since 2012, the FARC and the Colombian Government have been in talks hosted in Havana, seeking to end a 51-year conflict. Throughout the discussions, negotiators have reached agreement on key issues such as political participation, land rights, illicit drugs and victims' rights and transitional justice.

This is a moment of great hope, said Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, Executive Director of the UN Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women), and Zainab Hawa Bangura, Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict, in a joint statement.

It renews our confidence in diplomacy, and strengthens our belief that other long-standing conflicts, no matter how complex and protracted, can follow Colombia's example and 'sign up' for peace, they added.

They hailed the work of the Havana Peace Talks Table and its Gender sub-Commission, a unique mechanism in the history of conflict resolution and composed of representatives of the Government and the FARC, which has brought women's voices into the peace process.

The gender provisions of the agreement ensure that women's participation and empowerment are key to main aspects like rural development, political participation and eradication of illicit drugs. The Gender sub-Commission has also addressed the rights of women victims of the conflict to truth, justice, reparation and guarantees of non-repetition, as well as their rights in provisions for the end of the conflict.

Highlighting, in particular, the plight of the victims of sexual violence, Ms. Mlambo-Ngcuka and Ms. Bangura said: In Colombia, the silence around sexual violence in the conflict has been broken, with a firm commitment to afford survivors the justice and support that they deserve.

They added that they looked forward to the institutionalization of the Gender sub-Commission in post-conflict arrangements, as a guarantor for implementation of the commitments that have been made.

This peace process represents an historic opportunity to transform the status of women in Colombian society through fundamental structural change, they said while stressing that, We must now ensure that women are included in all aspects of decision-making, with specific provisions for gender balance, and in power-sharing arrangements.

Noting that the peace process had already reduced the humanitarian impact of the armed conflict,

they said that the dividends of the peace negotiations will help to build crucial momentum for the vote through which the Colombian people will decide on the agreement's ratification.

For transformational change, and for peace to take root, it will be essential to secure the broad participation of women and men, and of all civil society, they concluded, reaffirming their commitment to continue stand with and support Colombia and its people on their journey toward lasting peace.
Security Council extends UN mission in Cyprus for six months

Publisher UN News Service Publication Date 26 July 2016 Cite as UN News Service, Security Council extends UN mission in Cyprus for six months, 26 July 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5798b54540d.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.

26 July 2016 - The United Nations Security Council today extended the mandate of the UN Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP) for six months, until 31 January 2017, and welcomed the progress of the negotiations between the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot leaders to reach a comprehensive settlement.

In a unanimously adopted resolution, the Council also urged parties to implement confidence-building measures, and looked forward to agreement on further steps, including military confidence-building measures and the opening of crossing points already agreed upon and others, which could contribute to a conducive environment for a settlement.

UNFICYP  one of the longest-running UN peacekeeping missions  has been deployed on the Mediterranean island since 1964, when fighting erupted between the Greek and Turkish communities.

Since then, the UN has also been facilitating talks between the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot leadership, with a view to the eventual establishment of a federal government with a single international personality, consisting of a Turkish Cypriot Constituent State and a Greek Cypriot Constituent State, each of equal status.

By the text of today's resolution, the Council also called on the Turkish Cypriot side and Turkish forces to restore the military status quo in Strovilia, which existed there prior to 30 June 2000. In addition, the Council called on both sides to allow access to detainers and facilitate the removal of the remaining mines in Cyprus within the buffer zone, and urged both sides to extend detaining operations outside the buffer zone.

In related news today, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced the appointment of Major General Mohammad Humayun Kabir of Bangladesh as UNFICYP Force Commander.

Major General Kabir will succeed Major General Kristin Lund of Norway, who will complete her assignment on 29 July.

The Secretary-General pays tribute to Major General Lund's service with UNFICYP, the first female Force Commander in the United Nations, where her dedication, professionalism and leadership greatly contributed to the United Nations efforts in Cyprus, said a statement released by Mr. Ban's spokesperson.

Major General Kabir has more than 32 years of command and staff experience, most recently as Commandant of the Bangladesh Military Academy. His experience with the UN includes service as a Military Observer with the UN Organization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUC) from 2002 to 2003, and with the UN Protection Force (UNPROFOR) from 1995 to 1996.
Recent attacks on hospitals in Aleppo 'can amount to war crimes'  UNICEF

Publisher UN News Service Publication Date 26 July 2016 Cite as UN News Service, Recent attacks on hospitals in Aleppo 'can amount to war crimes'  UNICEF, 26 July 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5798b5d440d.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.

26 July 2016 - The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) reiterated today that attacks on health facilities are a blatant violation of international humanitarian law and can amount to war crimes, in response to the recent airstrikes on four hospitals and a blood bank in eastern Aleppo city in Syria.

Health facilities must never be attacked or damaged, and health workers should be allowed to provide medical treatment and services to all people in need wherever they are inside Syria, said a statement issued today by the UN agency.

The four hospitals and a blood blank were reportedly hit several times on 23 and 24 July, disrupting key life-saving health services for up to 300,000 civilians, the statement noted.

According to reports, a two-day-old baby died in his incubator due to interruptions in the oxygen supply as a result of air strikes on al-Hakim.

This UNICEF-supported paediatric hospital, the only one in the city, was reportedly hit twice in less than 12 hours, the statement said.

These hospitals in the al-Shaar neighbourhood make up half of all health facilities operating in the area.

Health facilities in Syria are being attacked with alarming ferocity, the statement said, citing the World Health Organization's estimates of more than forty attacks this year.

It is estimated that nearly sixty per cent of public hospitals in the country have closed or are only partially functional, the statement added.
UN agency appeals for added funds for return of Somali refugees from Dadaab camp

Publisher UN News Service Publication Date 26 July 2016 Cite as UN News Service, UN agency appeals for added funds for return of Somali refugees from Dadaab camp, 26 July 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5798b61c40d.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.

26 July 2016 - The United Nations refugee agency today appealed to donors for an additional $115.4 million to fund the voluntary return and reintegration of Somali refugees from Kenya's Dadaab refugee camp.

In a press release, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said that funding is also required for the relocation of refugees from Dadaab to Kakuma refugee camp, as well as related projects and infrastructure in Kenya and Somalia.

UNHCR is committed to ensuring that all returns to Somalia are voluntary and carried out in dignity, safety and with the protection of refugees paramount at all times, said Valentin Tapsoba, Director of UNHCR's Africa Bureau.

In order to do this, we are requesting the international donor community to support this additional appeal so that returning Somalis can go back to their home country with the best possible opportunities to re-establish themselves and their families in peace and stability, he added.

UNHCR said it had previously appealed for $369.4 million for the Somalia situation. With this additional request, and with some reprioritization of projects, UNHCR's total revised 2016 requirements for the response in the affected countries of Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia is now $484.8 million.

Following the Government of Kenya's announcement on 6 May of its decision to close Dadaab camp, UNHCR presented a plan of action at the meeting of the Tripartite Commission  consisting of Kenya, Somalia and UNHCR  which took place in Nairobi at the end of June.

The plan outlines a process intended to reduce the population of Dadaab camp  currently 343,043, including 326,611 Somalis  by 150,000 by the end of 2016.

UNHCR noted that the additional $115 million requested will go towards a number of activities, including relocation of 16,000 non-Somali refugees from Dadaab to Kakuma; relocation of 15,000 Somali refugees currently in the resettlement process to Kakuma; relocation and reintegration of an estimated 42,000 Kenyans believed to be registered as refugees; verification of the Dadaab population and a comprehensive Return Intention Survey; and support for an additional 50,000 voluntary Somali refugee returns from Dadaab to Somalia.

The additional funding is also required for the proposed increase in the return assistance package before departure from Kenya and upon return to Somalia, UNHCR noted. On the Somalia side, the agency said that donor support is sought to fund an increase in the return assistance package there. The possibility of providing health insurance for urban returnees will also be considered.

If the donor support is received, it is proposed to increase food assistance from three months support to six, possibly even further, UNHCR also said.

The agency anticipates that the majority of the remaining refugee population  approximately 170,000 people  would return to Somalia during the course of 2017 and possibly in early 2018. To date, more than 17,000 Somalis have returned to Somalia from Dadaab since December 2014.
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.
Thailand: UN rights expert warns against curbs on free speech ahead of major vote

Publisher UN News Service Publication Date 26 July 2016 Cite as UN News Service, Thailand: UN rights expert warns against curbs on free speech ahead of major vote, 26 July 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5798b76e40d.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.

26 July 2016 - The United Nations human rights expert on freedom of opinion and expression has condemned recent Government clampdown over public and social media expressions in Thailand ahead of a constitutional referendum scheduled for 7 August.

The clampdown follows the recently adopted Constitutional Referendum Act that criminalizes expression and access to information about the draft constitution.

I am seriously concerned that military orders and the Constitutional Referendum Act restrict expression and access to information about the draft constitution, David Kaye, UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, said in a news release issued by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).

Instead of criminalizing expression on the draft constitution, the Thai Government should encourage an open environment for public discourse to ensure an informed participation during the constitutional referendum, he advised.

According to reports, since June, at least 86 people have been investigated or charged. Earlier this month, several activists were charged under the Act for a campaign urging voters to reject the draft constitution. A journalist covering the campaign was also arrested and charged with violating the Act.

The idea of a referendum is to allow for full debate followed by public vote said Mr. Kaye, Particularly where the subject is of extraordinary public interest, a wide range of opinions should be encouraged, freely expressed, and open to rigorous debate.

Article 61 of the 2016 Referendum Act, which governs the referendum process, criminalizes 'anyone who disseminates text, pictures or sounds that are inconsistent with the truth or in a violent, aggressive, rude, inciting or threatening manner aimed at preventing a voter from casting a ballot or vote in any direction or to not vote'.

Violation of the Act carries a penalty of up to 10 years imprisonment, heavy fines and the loss of voting rights for 10 years.

Everyone must have the right to hold opinions without interference, said the UN Special Rapporteur, urging the Thai Government to halt the enforcement of the Constitutional Referendum Act and to drop all charges under the Act and related military orders.

He further urged the Government to uphold its international obligation to safeguard the right to freedom of expression guaranteed to everyone under article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

Mr. Kaye's call has been endorsed by the UN Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association, Maina Kiai; the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, Michel Forst; and the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention.

Special Rapporteurs are appointed by the Human Rights Council to examine and report back on a specific human rights theme or a country situation. The positions are honorary and the experts are not UN staff, nor are they paid for their work.
Some 4,000 South Sudanese fleeing into Uganda daily  UN warns

Publisher UN News Service Publication Date 26 July 2016 Cite as UN News Service, Some 4,000 South Sudanese fleeing into Uganda daily  UN warns, 26 July 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5798b79240d.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.

26 July 2016 - Recent fighting in South Sudan has forced 37,491 people to flee to Uganda in the past three weeks, averaging more than 4,000 a day in the past week, the United Nations refugee agency warned today.

To put this in context, more refugees have arrived in Uganda in the past three weeks than during the entire first six months of 2016, when 33,838 came there in search of safety, Adrian Edwards, a spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), told reporters in Geneva.

Yesterday, an estimated 2,442 refugees were received in Uganda from South Sudan. More than 90 per cent of arrivals are women and children.

The new arrivals in Uganda are reporting ongoing fighting as well as looting by armed militias, burning down of homes and murders of civilians, Mr. Edwards said. Some of the women and children told us they were separated from their husbands or fathers by armed groups, who are reportedly forcibly recruiting men into their ranks and preventing them from crossing the border.

He noted that daily arrivals were averaging around 1,500 just 10 days ago, but have risen to over 4,000 in the past week. People are coming from South Sudan's Eastern Equatoria region, as well as Juba and other areas of the country, he said.

The intensity of the recent fighting between rival factions loyal to President Salva Kiir and First Vice-President Riek Machar in Juba has subsided, but the security situation remains volatile. Further surges in arrivals are a real possibility, he said.

The influx is straining the capacity of collection points, and transit and reception centres. Over the weekend, humanitarian organizations worked to decongest the collection points and installed temporary shelters to increase capacities. UNHCR has deployed additional staff, trucks and buses to assist.

At its peak, more than 11,000 refugees were staying in Elegu, in northern Uganda, in a compound equipped to shelter only 1,000 people. By the end of this past weekend, the centre had been significantly decongested, and just 300 people slept there on Monday night. Many of the refugees have been moved to the Nyumanzi transit centre, where they are receiving hot meals, water, shelter and other life-saving assistance; others have been taken to expanded reception centres in Pagirinya.

The management and expansion of reception facilities as well as the opening of a new settlement area remain key priorities. A new settlement area has been identified in Yumbe district, with the capacity to potentially host up to 100,000 people. Temporary communal shelters are also being built to accommodate the continuing arrivals.

The humanitarian response to the influx of South Sudanese refugees is sorely lacking due to severe underfunding. The inter-agency appeal is only funded at 17 per cent, which is constraining UNHCR and its partners to provide emergency and life-saving activities only and causing limitations to the full breadth of humanitarian assistance that can be offered, Mr. Edwards said.

South Sudan's conflict, which erupted in December 2013, has produced one of the world's worst displacement situations with immense suffering. Some 1.69 million people are displaced inside the country, while there are now 831,582 South Sudanese refugees abroad, mainly in Ethiopia, Sudan and Uganda.
RSF urges action on French journalists murdered in Mali in 2013

Publisher Reporters Without Borders Publication Date 27 July 2016 Cite as Reporters Without Borders, RSF urges action on French journalists murdered in Mali in 2013, 27 July 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5798b8684.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.

As the French and Malian presidents meet today in Paris, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and the Association of Friends of Ghislaine Dupont urge them to do everything possible to ensure the success of the investigation into the deaths of French journalists Ghislaine Dupont and Claude Verlon in Mali in 2013.

Ghislaine Dupont, a reporter for Radio France Internationale, and Claude Verlon, an RFI technician, were gunned down in the desert a few kilometres outside the northern city of Kidal on 2 November 2013. Their deaths were claimed by Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM).

Aside from some enquiries in the field by the French gendarmerie immediately after the double murder, no in-depth investigation has been carried out by either the Malian or French judicial authorities.

Under Operation Barkhane, French forces have been conducting anti-Jihadi operations in the region together with the Malian army since January 2013. So the failure to conduct a field investigation cannot be justified on security grounds.

"Two and a half years after this double murder, RSF and the Association of Friends of Ghislaine Dupont call on French President Francois Hollande and Malian President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita to take concrete steps to ensure that those responsible are identified, arrested and tried," said Clea Kahn-Sriber, the head of RSF's Africa desk.

"This situation of impunity must be ended, not only for the families of the victims but also, more broadly, to send a clear message that violence against journalists will not go unpunished. The security situation in northern Mali does not excuse all the delays in the investigation. We have every right to question whether the Malian and French authorities really want to ever bring it to a conclusion."

The members of the Association of Friends of Ghislaine Dupont make no bones about their anger and frustration.

"The French and Malian presidents have been promising since 2013 that everything will be done to ensure that the murders are identified, arrested and brought to trial," said Christophe Boisbouvier, an RFI journalist and member of the association.

"Politically and mediawise, they said all the right things. But the gulf between words and action is all too evident. You have the impression that in reality this is not a priority for either Paris or Bamako and that they would like to move on to something else."

In May 2015, Marc Trevidic, the French anti-terrorism judge then in charge of the French investigation, asked the French defence ministry to declassify all the "confidential defence" evidence relating to their deaths.

After a moving open letter from Dupont's mother from Dupont's mother, Hollande received the Dupont and Verlon families at the Elysee Palace in July 2015 and promised that all the evidence would be declassified and that the murderers would be arrested and tried.

Eight months later, in March 2016, only a few pieces of evidence were made available. Reliable sources say that they were poorly chosen and partially redacted, and that they do not help the investigation. A new investigating judge, Jean-Marc Herbaut, was put in charge of the French investigation in September. He has not yet received the victims' families.

Mali is ranked 122nd out of 180 countries in RSF's 2016 World Press Freedom Index. France is ranked 45th.
Website owner is third journalist murdered in Brazil in 2016

Publisher Reporters Without Borders Publication Date 26 July 2016 Cite as Reporters Without Borders, Website owner is third journalist murdered in Brazil in 2016, 26 July 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5798b94e4.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.

Joao Miranda do Carmo, a website owner and reporter who's been threatened, was gunned down outside his home in Santo Antonio do Descoberto, in the central state of Goias, on 24 July. He was the third journalist to be murdered this year in Brazil.

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) condemns this barbaric act and urges the Brazilian authorities to move quickly to step up protection for media personnel.

Carmo, 54, was shot several times by individuals in a car, who pulled up outside his home and drove away immediately after the crime. He owned and edited a local news website called SAD Sem Censura, for which he was a crime reporter and often covered local government corruption.

He had notified the police that he had received threats in connection with his reporting.

"We firmly condemn Joao Miranda do Carmo's murder and we urge the local police and judicial authorites to identify, arrest and try those responsible for this extremely cowardly act," said Emmanuel Colombie, the head of RSF's Latin America desk.

"Futhermore, in view of the impunity and corruption prevailing in many municipalities, the Brazilian government must urgently create an alert and protection mechanism for threatened journalists."

The Santo Antonio do Descoberto police have not yet developed any clear hypotheses about Carmo's death and have not ruled out the possibility of a link to his journalistic work.

Brazil is currently undergoing a great deal of economic, political and social turmoil and has seen an increase in attacks and violence against the media in recent months. The police and judicial authorities have a duty to rein in this violence by tackling the problem that lies at his core, the problem of impunity for crimes of violence against the media.

The two other journalists killed this year in Brazil were Joao Valdecir de Borba on 10 March and Manuel Messias Pereira on 9 April.

Brazil is ranked 104th out of 180 countries in RSF's 2016 World Press Freedom Index.
Burundi : Intelligence agency holds journalist, gives no official grounds

Publisher Reporters Without Borders Publication Date 25 July 2016 Cite as Reporters Without Borders, Burundi : Intelligence agency holds journalist, gives no official grounds, 25 July 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5798bad94.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.

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) calls for the immediate release of Jean Bigirimana, a journalist who was arrested by the National Intelligence Service (SNR) in the central province of Muramvya on 22 July without any official grounds being given. RSF regards his detention as arbitrary.

Jean Bigirimana, who used to work or Radio Rema FM and now works for Infos Grands Lacs and Iwacu, has been held for the past three days by the provincial branch of the SNR.

According to his family, he was arrested after leaving his home at around 1 p.m. on 22 July for Bugarama. When they heard he had been detained, relatives went to the scene of the arrest, where they were told that it had been carried out by members of the SNR in the presence of local officials.

This was confirmed by sources within the SNR, who criticized Bigirimana's frequent visits to Rwanda. He recently returned from a journalism seminar in this neighbouring country. No other reason - whether legal or not - was given for his arrest.

His wife, Godeberte Hakizimana, has posted an appeal on the SOS Medias Burundi website, urging the authorities to go to her husband's aid. "He is in great danger," the appeal said. "He has not eaten for several days. You must get him out of there."

Bigirimana's detention was referred today to National Council for Communication president Ramadhan Karenga, who undertook to follow the case.

"We call for journalist Jean Bigirimana's immediate release," RSF said. "The use of such arbitrary arrest methods to intimidate media personnel contributes to the continuing crisis in Burundi and helps to undermine the rule of law.

Burundi is ranked 156th out of 180 countries in RSF's 2016 World Press Freedom Index, after falling 11 places last year.

For more information about the crisis in Burundi, click here.
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Cambodians with close ties to slain pundit Kem Ley are fleeing the country or going into hiding as they fear for their personal safety following the popular gadflys death and funeral, RFAs Khmer Service has learned.

Chum Huor and Chum Huot, twin brothers and environmental activists who were close to Kem Ley, left Cambodia a few days after the killing and after they posted criticisms about the murder investigation on their Facebook pages and gave accounts of the slaying to the U.S. embassy.

The twins were granted refugee status by the U.N. High Commissioner on Human Rights so they could move to another country. Exactly where is unclear.

They were granted refugee status with the assistance from the U.S.-based International Khmer Assembly (IKARE), IKARE Director Kosol Sek told RFA on Wednesday.

The reasons IKARE helped these two environmental activists, is because the organization wanted them to continue the numerous works left behind by Dr. Kem Ley, Kosol Sek said. IKARE is located in Minnesota where many expatriate Cambodians live.

The Chum twins arent the only Cambodians with ties to Kem Ley who fled. Many people who served on Kem Leys funeral commission have left the country or gone into hiding, among them Buddhist monk But Buntenh, president of the Independent Monk Network for Social Justice, sources tell RFA.

Kem Ley was shot dead on July 10 in Phnom Penh and buried in Takeo Monday after a weekend funeral procession that drew throngs of mourners and well-wishers.

Fear of reprisal

Buddhist monk But Buntenh, president of the Independent Monk Network for Social Justice and a member of the Kem Ley funeral commission, recently told RFA that he feared for his safety after authorities went to his home village searching for his identification documents.

Were very concerned that they will cause trouble for him in the same way they did to Dr. Kem Ley, his father But Sdeung told RFA. I am deeply concerned about that, and I would like to appeal to the U.N. High Commissioner on Human Rights to do whatever they can to protect the safety of all members of our family.

A civil society official, who was also a member of Kem Leys funeral committee, said the authorities must take measures to protect them while some individuals have been threatened.

Dr. Kem Leys funeral commission has been threatened since the delay of Kem Leys funeral procession and his burial, said Moeun Tola, executive director of the Center for Alliance of Labor and Human Rights and Labor (CENTRAL).

There were discussions about delaying Kem Leys funeral procession from Phonm Penh to his hometown in Takeo province to allow more mourners to pay their respects. In the end, the funeral procession went ahead on Sunday and hundreds of thousands of Cambodians jammed the streets to take part.

The authorities must be responsible to take measures to protect the citizens and the members of Dr. Kem Leys funeral commission who have been threatened, Moeun Tola said. The authorities were not happy with the delay of the funeral, and the threats to the funeral commission bring more suspicion on the government.

Cheang Sokha, executive director of the Youth Resource Development Program (YRDP), wondered what threat the funeral posed.

What trouble does Dr. Kem Leys funeral cause to society? he told RFA. [There] should be a discussion for a solution. If there is any threat, it would not benefit society.

Attempts to contact officials with the Ministry of the Interior and the National Police Commissariat went unreturned.

Just days before Kem Ley was gunned down, hed discussed on RFA a report by the British NGO Global Witness detailing the extent of the Hun Sen familys wealth.

A Cambodian court charged a former soldier named Oeuth Ang with premeditated murder for the execution-style killing. Authorities have said that Kem Ley was killed over an outstanding $3,000 debt to Oueth Ang, who gave his name as Chuob Samlab, a Khmer name meaning meet to kill.

In such cases the authorities have always failed to find the real perpetrators. Scapegoats are always hired or threatened to cover up their mess, Sam Rainsy said in a recent appearance on RFAs Special Discussion Show. Only those who have the highest authority would be the ones who ordered such killings.

A worry for Hun Sen

While the killing appears to have stoked fear in people close to Kem Ley, Elizabeth Becker, a Pulitzer Prize-winning former correspondent for The New York Times in Cambodia and Author of When the War Was Over, A Modern History of Cambodia and the Khmer Rouge, said Hun Sen also appeared to be unnerved by the publics reaction.

Immediately everyone in the country presumed this was a murder ordered by the government of Hun Sen, she said at the Heritage Foundation in Washington on Tuesday. Cambodians of all ages and situations immediately gathered in the city of Phnom Penh.



When the outpouring of support for Kem Ley failed to blow over, Hun Sen took more threatening action, she explained.

They went to pay homage to the body, and by Sunday the government was so worried about a popular uprising that the government ordered tanks into the capitol and ordered the military and police in the streets, shut down gas stations and ordered all the TV stations not to cover the event, she said.

Yet hundreds of thousands of Cambodians defied their governments bullying threats and marched in the funeral parade. They were mourning not just the loss of Kem Ley, the leader, but of the democracy that he championed, Becker added.

On Wednesday a military convoy moved through Kampong Cham province in what Defense Ministry spokesman Chhum Socheat told RFA was a routine deployment.

It is a routine activity that every 3 months, we exchange armed forces from the front line to the back line, he said.

Reported by Sarada Taing, Nareth Muong, Savyouth Hang and Vuthy Tha for RFA's Khmer Service. Translated by Yanny Hin.Written in English by Brooks Boliek.
A rights activist detained in the southern Chinese province of Yunnan alongside her boyfriend on public order charges after he compiled detailed lists of protests, has rejected the charges against her in a recent meeting with her lawyer.

Li Tingyu, who is currently being held under formal arrest in Yunnan's Dali city on suspicion of "picking quarrels and stirring up trouble," says she is innocent.

Li was detained at the same time as her boyfriend Lu Yuyu, who ran a blog under the social media handle @wickedonnaa, and recently received a visit from her defense attorney, rights lawyer Ge Yongxi.

She told him police had warned her that she could become a "second Zhao Wei," in a reference to the detained legal assistant held in a nationwide crackdown on rights lawyers and activists since July 9, 2015.

Zhao has reportedly been released amid unconfirmed reports of sexual abuse in a police-run detention center, but her whereabouts remain unknown, while her defense lawyer Ren Quanniu has also been detained.

"I don't think they intended to threaten her by comparing her to Zhao Wei," Ge told RFA after the meeting. "I think they were trying to say that she should do what Zhao Wei did."

"They were saying that Zhao Wei confessed to her 'crimes,' and she's now out on bail."

Warning about lawyer

Li had also been warned about hiring a rights lawyer to defend her, Ge said.

"They didn't bring it up directly, but they implied [she shouldn't hire me] by saying that 'these sorts of lawyers are unreliable'," he said.

"They meant to indicate that these lawyers aren't good eggs, and that they will be detained themselves sooner or later," he said.

"The point was to get her to drop me as her lawyer," he said.

Fellow defense attorney Huang Simin said Li Tingyu had been detained with no official documents being issued, and had undergone "intensive interrogations" over a number of days.

He said a recent application for her release on bail had been denied by the Dali municipal police department.

"We filed the bail application at the beginning of July, but they refused it," Huang told RFA on Wednesday.

"They said that investigations are still under way."

Lists of mass incidents

Li and Lu were detained after the blogger had compiled meticulous, daily lists of "mass incidents" like protests and riots that are largely ignored in the country's tightly controlled state media, making the results public via Google, Twitter and Weibo.

Li, who was forced to drop out of a translation and interpretation degree at Guangzhou's prestigious Zhongshan University after publishing articles out of the reach of Chinese government internet censors, was also formally arrested on the same charges at the same time.

She had already been targeted for "chats" with China's state security police, and withdrew from her university amid huge political pressure on the university and on her family, according to the rights website Weiquanwang.

Lu, meanwhile, has been previously detained for short periods in Shanghai and Guangzhou for "illegal assembly," and began compiling statistics of public protests and unrest in October 2012.

A former migrant worker, Lu called his online operation "Not the News," in a nod to the widespread censorship of "sensitive" stories of mass protests by the ruling Chinese Communist Party and the media outlets under its control.

Activists have said the sort of data Lu compiled, which last year including details of more than 30,000 "mass incidents" not widely reported in China, could easily have made him a target.



Reported by Xin Lin for RFA's Mandarin Service. Translated and written in English by Luisetta Mudie.
North Koreans ride a boat on the Yalu River near the North Korean town of Sinuiju, as seen from across the river from the Chinese border town of Dandong, Feb. 9, 2016.

Lured by the promise of relatively higher wages, more and more North Koreans are making the risky and illegal border crossing into China, sources tell RFAs Korean Service.

A North Korean resident, who only revealed his last name Choi, said hed recently crossed the Tumen River acting as a coyote for three North Korean agricultural workers.

We brought three North Korean laborers to work through autumn season, in order to help the Chinese people, Choi told RFA. We earn about 200 Yuan (U.S. $33.30) from the Chinese people for each person.

The same three laborers made the sometimes treacherous crossing last year to take jobs caring for cattle on Chinese farms, Choi said. Laborers in China make between 15 yuan to 20 yuan (U.S. $2.50 - $3.30) a day depending on which job they do, Choi said.

An illicit labor market

While crossing the border is generally illegal, an illicit system has grown up for the importation of laborers, Choi told RFA.

We take orders from the Chinese people who request laborers through illegal phone calls, Choi explained. Then we choose four to six North Korean laborers who live poorly, to ferry across the Tumen River together. The laborers who cross over to China work there through autumn harvest and then return afterwards.

A source from Yanggang province, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told RFA that there are currently more North Koreans seeking to cross the border into China than those seeking to defect to South Korea.

The labor income is already arranged for North Korean laborers wanting to go to China to work for money.

The Changbai District of Chinas Jilin province lies across the river from North Koreas Yanggang province and is home to a large number of soybean farms that are looking for laborers, the source said.

For the past couple of years, many North Korean laborers cross into China during the spring season and work on the bean farms through autumn harvest season. They earn about 2000 yuan (about $330) for their work from spring through the harvest season.

While the North Korean authorities are reinforcing a system to mobilize all residents for the new 200-Day Battle that takes laborers away from the Chinese fields. North Koreans working in factories can be excused from work easily by paying 3 yuan (U.S $0.50) a day allowing them to bribe their way out and still make money, said a source from Yanggang province.

Active recruiting

These days, brokers are actively recruiting laborers to work in China, at local markets, said the same source.

The source told RFA that security around Yalu River has been loose due to the high water level, allowing more smuggling.

North Koreans living in the frontier, who are desperate for a living, earn about 12 Yuan ($2) for ferrying a smugglers load across the Yalu into China.

While there appears to be a ready supply of willing mules, the trip can be deadly reminder of the desperation of North Koreas poor.

Two residents of Songbong village lost their lives on July 2nd in Hyesan City [in Yanggang province], while crossing the Yalu River, carrying 40 kg (About 88lbs) of scrap metal, he said.

Reported by Sunghui Moon for RFAs Korean Service. Translated by Jackie Yoo. Written in English by Brooks Boliek.
A police officer stands guard in front of seized drugs to be set on fire during a ceremony marking the U.N.'s International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking in Yangon, June 26, 2016.

UPDATED at 9:20 AM EST on 2016-07-28

Authorities in western Myanmars Rakhine state have arrested seven border police officers after finding nearly 300,000 methamphetamine tablets hidden in their station in Maungdaw township, RFA has learned.

Authorities received a tip about the illegal drugs and later found them on Wednesday at the Kyaukpantu border guard station, sources said.

A group led by Lieutenant Colonel Tint Zaw Oo found the narcotics worth more than 580 million kyats (U.S. $480,000) in the ground underneath the stations kitchen, they said.

Among the seven charged was border police superintendent Sergeant Maung Maung Lay, sources said.

When RFAs Myanmar Service contacted the border guard police office in Maungdaw, an unidentified person said no one there knew anything about the incident and suggested a call to the Kyaukpantu police station.

Thailand arrests

In a related development, Thai anti-drug authorities on Tuesday arrested two Myanmar nationals from Shan state after they found the pair had more than 200,000 methamphetamine tablets in the northern Thailand town of Mae Sai on the border with Myanmar, a police officer said.

Nang Saung Nyan, 36, and Sai Sai Soe, 31, traveled with drugs from the border town of Tachileik and had legal documents to enter Thailand, the police officer, who did not give his name, told RFAs Myanmar Service.

They are Shan ethnics and Myanmar citizens, he said. We found more than 200,000 tablets, worth 5.5 million Thai baht (U.S. $157,000). They were arrested in Mae Sai as they brought drugs from Myanmar into Thailand.

Thailands anti-drug police force is continuing to investigate the case and will take action again the two, he said.

Drug bust in Hpakant

In another drug bust, police seized narcotics worth more than 1 billion kyats (U.S. $826,900) in Hpakant in northern Myanmars Kachin state, which had been illegally smuggled from Shan state, according to a report by Eleven Myanmar media group.

After receiving a tip about illegal drug deals near restaurants in Ngapyawtaw ward in Hpakant, police searched a van in the area and found drugs in an air compressor in the back of a van, the report said.

Township police have filed charges against three men involved in the incident, it said.

The arrests come as Myanmar is stepping up a crackdown on gangs and individuals who deal in and use illegal drugs.

On Monday, the upper house of parliament unanimously approved a motion submitted by an ethnic Shan lawmaker to combat rampant illegal drug sales and use in impoverished Shan state.

Myanmar is the worlds second-biggest producer of opium after Afghanistan, with most of its poppies, which are used for opium and heroin, grown in Kachin and Shan states.

Parts of the country are plagued by rampant drug activity with the narcotics of choice being heroin and methamphetamine, an extremely addictive stimulant in the form of a white, bitter-tasting crystalline powder, commonly sold as yaba tablets.



Reported by Min Thein Aung and Aung Moe Myint for RFAs Myanmar Service. Translated by Khet Mar. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.
Leaders of various Myanmar armed ethnic groups attend the opening of a four-day conference in Mai Ja Yang, northern Myanmar's Kachin state, July 26, 2016.

Leaders from 17 of Myanmars armed ethnic groups discussed the blueprints for a constitution based on a democratic federal union that includes ethnic minorities during a summit on Wednesday in the border town of Mai Ja Yang in northern Kachin state, in a run-up to the governments upcoming peace conference.

The groups, some of which had engaged in hostilities with the Myanmar army for decades, called for a political system that grants them federal autonomy during the second day of a four-day summit in Mai Ja Yang on the Myanmar-China border.

We have studied and prepared the kind of federal union we are going to build, although we dont know what kind of federal union the government intends to build, said Naw Si Pho Ra Sein, vice chairwoman of the Karen National Union (KNU).

The groups do not want to write up a new charter from scratch, but rather want to add to or amend basic draft constitution policies that were agreed to by the Federal Constitution Drafting and Coordinating Committee (FCDCC) in 2008 and points that were added by the United Nationalities Federal Council (UNFC) in 2015, he said.

The UNFC represents the interests of armed groups that did not sign a nationwide cease-fire agreement under the previous government last October.

The current 2008 constitution was drafted by a former military junta that ruled the country for five decades and includes provisions ensuring the army remains a powerful political force in the country.

The FCDCCs draft constitution, drawn up the same year, proposed the creation of a federal union, multiparty democratic system, minority rights and a secular state.

Security, defense issues

The armed ethnic groups are also discussing security and defense issues and reviewing a framework for political dialogue during the summit, which runs from July 26-29.

We are going to discuss the political, security and defense sectors, said General Gwan Maw, vice chairman of the Mai Ja Yang summit committee.

We will discuss policies on which we mutually agree, he said. We mainly expect to have a common agreement on the defense and security sectors in building federal union.

Of the 21 armed ethnic organizations invited to attend the summit, four decided not to participatethe United Wa State Army (UWSA)the largest ethnic rebel group in the countrythe Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA), Taang National Liberation Army (TNLA), and Nationalist Socialist Council of Nagaland-Khaplang (NSCN-K), an independent organization not aligned with any ethnic rebel group.

The MNDAA battled Myanmar military troops in the Kokang region in the northern part of Shan State, last year, while the TNLA has engaged in periodic clashes with them during the past year in Shan State, as well as with another ethnic army, the Shan State Army-South.

Plan for permanent peace

State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmars de facto national leader, believes permanent peace between the armed ethnic groups and the national military is necessary for Myanmar to make progress with its democratic development.

She is leading the efforts to organize a government-led 21st-Century Panglong Peace Conference in late August in the administrative capital Naypyidaw.

The conference takes its name from the original Panglong Conference in 1947 during which Aung San Suu Kyis father, General Aung San, promised equal rights and self-determination to ethnic minority groups.

Only eight of Myanmars armed ethnic groups signed a nationwide cease-fire agreement with the previous military-backed government of former president Thein Sein last October.

Reported by Ye Htet for RFAs Myanmar Service. Translated by Khet Mar. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.
The niece of a popular Tibetan monk who died in July 2015 under suspicious circumstances in a Chinese prison has fled China and arrived in Dharamsala, India at the weekend, supporters of the monk and his family said on Wednesday.

Nyima Lhamo is the niece of Tenzin Delek Rinpoche, who died aged 65 in the 13th year of a life sentence imposed for what rights groups and supporters have described as a wrongful conviction on a bombing charge. He was widely respected among Tibetans for his efforts to protect Tibetan culture and the environment.

She has safely arrived in Dharamsala on Sunday morning, July 24th and is now residing at the Tibetan Reception Center in good health, Lobsang Yonten, a close aide to the family, told RFAs Tibetan Service in an interview on Wednesday.

Exile groups in Dharamsala, home to the Tibetan government in exile as well as spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, welcomed Lhamo, he said.

Lhamo and her mother, Dolkar Lhamo, were detained for two weeks in Sichuans provincial capital Chengdu a year ago on suspicion of having shared information related to the death of Tenzin Delek Rinpoche, with contacts outside the area. Dolkar Lhamo is the deceased monks sister.

She passed through Nepal to New Delhi and Dharamsala under the special travel arrangement of the Tibetan Reception Center, said Geshe Tenpa, a U.S-based advocate of Tenzin Delek.

Nyima Lhamo had been at the forefront of advocating and assisting Tulku Tenzin Delek Rinpoches cause during his detention, he said.

Geshe Tenpa added that the niece, believed to be in her mid-twenties, knows inside information of the circumstances leading to Rinpoches death and incarceration, so having her safely arrive in exile is a tremendous joy.

Respected monk

Recognized by the Dalai Lama as a reincarnated lama in the 1980s, Tenzin Delek Rinpoche had been a community leader and a staunch advocate for the protection and preservation of Tibetan culture, religion, and way of life for decades, the International Campaign for Tibet (ICT) had said.



Rinpoche was charged with involvement in an April 3, 2002 bombing in the central square of the Sichuan provincial capital Chengdu and was initially sentenced to death in December that year along with an assistant, Lobsang Dondrub.

His death sentence was later commuted to life imprisonment, but Lobsang Dondrub was executed almost immediately, prompting an outcry from rights activists who questioned the fairness of the trial.



In July 2015, Chinese police informed Tenzin Delek Rinpoche's relatives that he was seriously ill, but when they rushed to visit him, they were told he was already dead, sources told RFA at the time. Despite protests from his family, prison authorities cremated Rinpoches remains four days after his death.



Following the death authorities then began conducting political re-education activities in Nyagchuka (in Chinese, Yajiang) county in the Kardze (Ganzi) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture and instructing residents not to talk about it, sources said last year.

Reporting by RFA's Tibetan service. Translated by Dorjee Damdul. Written in English by Paul Eckert.


Azerbaijan's Interior Ministry and Prosecutor-General's Office said on July 27 that a deadly explosion in a munitions plant involved a stockpile of old ammunition that was being prepared for disposal.

Authorities say two employees at the Araz factory in the town of Shirvan were killed by the July 26 blast and about 20 were injured.

Earlier reports had put the death toll as high as 12.

The Araz plan is managed by Azerbaijan's Defense Industry Ministry.

RFE/RL's Azerbaijani Service reported that explosions continued to rock Shirvan and its surroundings for hours while a fire raged at the factory.

Shirvan is about 100 kilometers from Azerbaijan's capital, Baku.

With reporting by AP, TASS, and Interfax


Bulgaria on July 26 insisted that Russian aircraft had violated international rules while flying over the Black Sea although it conceded they had not flown into Bulgarian airspace.

The Bulgarian Ministry of Defense said Russian aircraft turned off their transponders  communication devices that allow an airplane to be located  and flew over the sea between the two nations without previously announcing their flight schedules.

Bulgaria, a NATO member, was reacting to a Russia's Defense Ministry statement on July 25 denying any such violations and insisting that Russian aircraft follow international rules and always kept their transponders on.

The exchange of accusations started on July 24 when Bulgarian Defense Minister Nikolay Nenchev told Nova TV that there had been a rise in violations of Bulgarian airspace by Russian military and commercial aircraft.

Nenchev said Russian military aircraft had violated "Bulgaria's area of responsibility" in NATO airspace four times in the past month.

"It is very worrying, so we have to take preventive measures" scrambling Bulgarian fighter jets, he said.

Bulgaria, a nation of 7.2 million and once the staunchest Soviet ally, joined NATO in 2004.

Based on reporting by AP and Reuters
Thousands of Orthodox believers who participated in a controversial religious procession organized by the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate gathered in Kyiv to mark the 1,028th anniversary of Kievan Russ acceptance of Christianity.

Nearly 9,000 people gathered on Volodymyr Hill on July 27, after marching for weeks from across the country to the capital.

The event was held under tight security following threats of violence from Ukrainian nationalist groups who support the rival Kyiv-based Orthodox patriarchate and see the procession as a provocation by Moscow.

More than 1,000 people, divided into two columns, have been marching since the beginning of the month toward Kyiv from the countrys west and east in processions led by the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate -- an affiliate of the Russian Orthodox Church.

The event was promoted by Patriarch Kirill, the Moscow-based head of the Russian Orthodox Church, as a day of Orthodox religious unity.

Speaking to journalists in Kyiv, however, Ukrainian Orthodox Church Patriarch Filaret said the procession aims to use a church guise to incite unrest, to destabilize Ukrainian society, and to set one church against another.

Some Ukrainian officials and activists have said the marches are a Moscow-orchestrated plot to incite unrest and assert that the rights of ethnic Russians, Russian-speakers, and members of the Moscow-based church are restricted in Ukraine.

Ukraines Orthodox Christian majority is split between three major churches: The Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyiv Patriarchate, and the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church.

Interior Minister Arsen Avakov on July 26 said the procession would not be allowed to march into Kyiv because of security concerns after two grenades and several fake mines were found on the marchers route in the western outskirts of the city.

Russias annexation of the Ukrainian region of Crimea and its active involvement in the conflict in eastern Ukraine over the past two years have produced high tensions between the two countries.

With reporting by unian.net
So the circumstantial and forensic evidence increasingly suggests that Russia was indeed behind the hacking of the Democratic National Committee's e-mail servers.

Should this come as a surprise? Clearly not to anybody who is paying attention.

In recent years, state-backed Russian hackers have been implicated in cyberattacks against a French television station, a German steelmaker, the Polish stock exchange, Estonian banks and government offices, The New York Times, the U.S. House of Representatives, the State Department, and the White House.

So why not the DNC too?

And if -- as many suspect -- the hack was part of an effort to sabotage a U.S. election, this would indeed be very disturbing. And it would be disturbing regardless of which party or which candidate they were attempting to help or harm.

But the fact that Russia would attempt this should also hardly be surprising.

Russia has been using various tools to intervene in the politics of various Western countries for some time now.

It has been using media stealthily backed by the Kremlin to poison public discourse in various European countries.

It gave moral support to the Brexit campaign in the United Kingdom.

If has provided loans to Marine Le Pen's National Front in France and has backed extremists across the continent.

And it has manufactured scandals, like the infamous Lisa case in Germany, to turn the public opinion against governments the Kremlin finds inconvenient.

As I've noted before, these things are all part of a broad non-kinetic war that the Kremlin is waging against the West.

We shouldn't be surprised that Russia was behind the DNC hack. We should have seen it coming.

Keep telling me what you think in the comments section, on The Power Vertical's Twitter feed, and on our Facebook page.
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."
The International Monetary Fund agreed on July 26 to provide Moldova with $179 million in loans over three years if the government carries out economic reforms.

Moldova is one of Europe's poorest nations and the news is a boost to the new government in office since January. The IMF left Moldova in September 2015, saying it would not negotiate loans in light of the disappearance of some $1 billion from three Moldovan banks in a scandal that rocked the country.

Moldovan Prime Minister Pavel Filip told The Associated Press that the IMF's return to Moldova "brings back optimism at home and helps restore our credibility abroad."

Filip added his government remains committed to European-style reforms and is "keen to attract foreign investment: in this sense we undertook a series of economic and banking reforms, which provide the basis for future sustainable growth."

The IMF, whose staff visited Chisinau for 10 days, stressed that the government needs to improve the business climate, carry out critical banking reforms, and ramp up its anti-corruption fight to access the loans.

The deal must also be approved by the IMF's board in October.

With reporting by AP
U.S. President Barack Obama said it is possible that Russia was behind a major leak of Democratic party e-mails last week and had the goal of influencing the U.S. presidential election.

"Anything is possible," Obama said in an interview with NBC News on July 26.

The leak of thousands of Democratic National Committee e-mails showing top party leaders favored Hillary Clinton's candidacy despite their vow to remain neutral in her primary contest with rival Bernie Sanders caused embarassment for Clinton only days before she was due to get the party's official nomination at a Philadelphia convention.

While the FBI is still investigating who hacked the Democratic committee e-mails and leaked them to Wikileaks, Obama said "I know that experts have attributed this to the Russians."

"What we do know is that the Russians hack our systems, not just government systems but private systems," he said.

"What the motives were in terms of the leaks, I can't say directly," he said, but "anything is possible," including it being an attempt by Russia to influence the U.S. election.

Obama pointed out that Clinton's Republican opponent in the White House race, Donald Trump, has "repeatedly expressed admiration for [Russian President] Vladimir Putin" and has said he wants to work more closely with Russia to solve global problems such as battling the Islamic State group.

"I'm basing this on what Trump himself has said, and I think Trump's gotten pretty favorable coverage back in Russia," Obama said.

With reporting by Reuters and NBC News


The Russian lawmaker responsible for the country's notorious "gay propaganda" law has proposed new legislation that would decriminalize domestic violence.

Current Russian law prescribes prison sentences of up to two years or a fine of up to 40,000 rubles ($600) for people found guilty of spousal or child abuse.

But Yelena Mizulina, a member of the upper house of parliament, called those punishments unacceptable, and called for changing "these absurd positions."

Russian news media said her proposed amendments to the Criminal Code would turn domestic violence into a misdemeanor, administrative offense.

The "gay propaganda" measure Mizulina helped push into law in 2013 prohibits the distribution of "propaganda of nontraditional sexual relationships."

Its passage prompted widespread international, and some domestic, criticism.

It also prompted some world leaders to boycott the opening ceremonies of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.


ON MY MIND

Vladimir Putin and Recep Tayyip Erdogan are the odd couple.

In many obvious ways they are similar. Both the Russian and Turkish presidents are alpha males who seem to enjoy basking in their manliness. Both have cracked down on civil society, suppressed civil liberties, and used the threat of terrorism and foreign intervention to boost their power. Both have creatively manipulated constitutional norms to prolong their rule. And both have appealed to traditional religious and non-European values to consolidate support.

So it should not be surprising that the two have decided to bury the hatchet and it is not surprising that Erdogan will visit Russia to cement their rapprochement next month.

But there is one other similarity between Putin and Erdogan that suggests this renewed friendship could be short lived.

Both Putin and Erdogan also seek to revive their respective countries' imperial greatness. And due to this similarity, their interests clash in several important geopolitical arenas: Syria, the Caucasus, and the Black Sea area. They're bound to clash again sooner or later.

It's worth recalling that the friendly relations Moscow and Ankara enjoyed under Putin and Erdogan (prior to Turkey's shooting down of a Russian warplane in November) were the exception, not the rule.

IN THE NEWS

U.S. President Barack Obama said it is possible that Russia was behind a major leak of Democratic party e-mails last week and had the goal of influencing the U.S. presidential election.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has dismissed allegations that Russia was behind a hack of the Democratic National Committee's e-mails as "absurd."

AP reports that at least 105 Russian athletes have been banned from the Summer Olympics in Rio so far.

Canoeing's world governing body has banned five Russians, including an Olympic champion, from competing at the Summer Games in Rio.

Bulgaria has insisted that Russian aircraft violated international rules while flying over the Black Sea although it conceded they had not flown into Bulgarian airspace.

A Turkish deputy prime minister says President Erdogan will visit Russia next month for talks with Putin.

FSB Director Aleksandr Bortnikov says Russian intelligence has 220 potential suicide bombers under surveillance.

The de facto prime minister of Georgia's pro-Moscow, breakaway region of Abkhazia has resigned.

According to a study by the Higher School of Economics, the number of Russians who say they cannot afford to buy food or clothing reached 41 percent in June.

WHAT I'M READING

The Hack Heard Around The World

Russia's alleged hack of the Democratic National Committee's e-mail servers continues to generate column inches.

Writing in Slate, Franklin Foer argues that the DNC hack is worse than Watergate.

In The Daily Beast, MIchael Weiss puts it in the context of Russian and Soviet active measures.

A report in Foreign Policy claims the hack represents an effort by Russia to bring its propaganda war to the United States.

Also in Foreign Policy, Mark Galeotti, a senior research fellow at the Institute of International Relations in Prague and a visiting fellow with the European Council on Foreign Relations, makes the case that the DNC hack will backfire on Putin.

Why Do You Think They Call It Dope?

The Russian doping scandal also continues to provide fodder for Kremlin watchers.

In his column for Bloomberg, political commentator Leonid Bershidsky argues that as a result of many of its athletes being banned -- and the intense scrutiny of those allowed to compete -- Russia will now be the cleanest team in Rio.

Writing in The Guardian, the ever-prolific Mark Galeotti explains what the Olympic doping scandal says about Putin's Russia.

Meduza, meanwhile, breaks down who among Russia's athletes will -- and will not -- be in Rio.

Death Of A Historian

The renowned Ukrainian-Canadian historian Orest Subtelny died on July 24 at the age of 75.



Subtelny's landmark 1988 book, Ukraine: A History, is credited with influencing the growth of Ukrainian national and historical consciousness. Ukrainian journalist and political commentator Vitaly Portnikov has published a tribute to Subtelny in Euromaidan Press.

The Separatists Are Coming! (To Moscow!)

Writing in The Diplomat, Casey Michel looks at a gathering of [some] of the world's separatists in Moscow next month.

Casey notes that the gathering "will feature guests from Catalonia and Texas, but no Chechens or Uyghurs."

Spain, Russia, and Europe

Francisco de Borja Lasheras, a policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, has a commentary looking at Spain's delicate balancing act with Russia.

"Spains existing policy towards eastern partners and Russia necessitates that it perform a balancing act between de-escalation and detente with Moscow, on the one hand, and adherence to EU sanctions and allied reassurance in NATO, on the other," he writes.


WASHINGTON -- Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has suggested Russia should hack the e-mails of his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, eliciting widespread disbelief and fueling further fears about the prospect of a foreign government meddling in the U.S. election.



Speaking one day after Democratic convention delegates formally chose Clinton to be their candidate, Trump also said that, if elected, he would reconsider U.S. sanctions against Russia for its annexation of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula in 2014.



Clintons campaign responded to Trump's remarks about her e-mails, accusing him of encouraging Russia to spy on the United States and meddle in U.S. politics.



"I will tell you this: Russia, if you're listening, I hope youre able to find the 30,000 e-mails that are missing," Trump told reporters during the televised news conference. "I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press. Let's see if that happens."

While Trump treated the matter rather flippantly, saying that he saw no problem if Russia or China hack U.S. political e-mails and leak them, his vice-presidential running mate, Mike Pence, said it was a "serious" matter and he expected the FBI to get to the bottom of it.

"If it is Russia, and they are interfering in our elections, I can assure you both parties and the United States government will ensure there are serious consequences," Pence said.

Clinton's chief foreign-policy adviser, Jake Sullivan, said Trump's invitation to Russia "has to be the first time that a major presidential candidate has actively encouraged a foreign power to conduct espionage against his political opponent."



"This has gone from being a matter of curiosity, and a matter of politics, to being a national security issue," Sullivan said.

Clinton has been under fire for months after a congressional investigation discovered that she had been using a private e-mail server to handle classified and unclassified correspondence while serving as secretary of state. She later apologized for the decision.

The "30,000" figure mentioned by Trump refers to the correspondence that Clinton said she deleted from the private server because she considered them personal.

'Extremely Careless'



The FBI has investigated whether Clinton or her aides broke any laws concerning the handling of classified secrets. Last month, the bureau's director announced that no criminal charges would be filed, but also excoriated her as being "extremely careless."

Trump's comments come in the wake of a massive leak of e-mail correspondence among party officials, released on the eve of the convention, that Democrats have suggested were caused by hackers with links to the Russian state.



The e-mails, which derided Clinton's Democratic opponent, Bernie Sanders, sparked outrage among Sanders' supporters. The party's chairwoman stepped aside after they were published by Wikileaks on July 22.



The e-mails released so far only deal with Democratic party deliberations; there is no indication that any came from Clintons private e-mail server.



Attention has shifted in recent days to the source of the leak, with U.S. intelligence officials and private security researchers saying it was likely orchestrated by the Russian intelligence agencies.



The Democratic Party first reported last month that its servers had been breached. The alleged cyberattack that resulted in the leaked e-mails is being investigated by the FBI.



Trump suggested that there would be nothing wrong with Russia or another foreign power gaining access to the e-mails and revealing their content.



"No, it gives me no pause," the celebrity businessman said. "If Russia or China or any of those country gets those e-mails, I've got to be honest with you, I'd love to see them."



The four-day Democratic convention got off to a rocky start on July 25 when the chairwoman was forced to step aside following a massive leak of e-mail correspondence among party officials, released on the eve of the convention.



The e-mails, which derided Clinton's Democratic opponent, Bernie Sanders, sparked outrage among Sanders' supporters.Those released so far only deal with Democratic Party deliberations; there is no indication any came from Clinton's private e-mail server.

Smoking Gun?



Attention has shifted in recent days to the source of the leak, with U.S. intelligence officials and private security researchers saying it was likely orchestrated by the Russian intelligence agencies.



The hack, which was first reported by the Democratic Party last month, is being investigated by the FBI.



In a widely discussed analysis published on the legal blog Lawfare, a former lawyer for the National Security Agency said the publicly available evidence appeared to back that up.



"Paired with the technical indicators, the sum total of evidence is about as close to a smoking gun as can be expected where a sophisticated nation state is involved," the lawyer, Susan Hennessey, wrote in the post published July 25.

In an interview with NBC News July 27, President Barack Obama suggested that Russian meddling in the U.S. election was a possibility.



"What we do know is that the Russians hack our systems, not just government systems but private systems," he said.



"What the motives were in terms of the leaks, I can't say directly," he said, but "anything is possible.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on July 27 denied the allegations, telling reporters that U.S. politicians were "paranoid."



"President Putin has repeatedly said that Russia has never interfered and does not interfere in internal affairs, especially in the electoral processes of other countries," Peskov said.



Trump, who has made positive comments about Putin during the campaign, said on July 27 that Putin "has much better leadership qualities than Obama."

He has openly called for mending relations with Moscow, which have sunk to Cold War lows over Ukraine, Syria, and other issues.



During the news conference, Trump was also asked whether, if elected, he would recognize Crimea as Russian territory and lift U.S. sanctions imposed on Russia over its annexation of the Black Sea peninsula -- home to a strategic Russian naval base -- from Ukraine in 2014.

"We'll be looking at that," Trump responded.



The Kremlin has pushed hard, in Washington and other Western capitals, to lift the sanctions, which helped push Russia's economy into recession last year, and have severely crimped growth this year.
The man whose body was found in a burning car late Monday at a BP station in Mechanicsville intentionally set the fire, the Hanover County Sheriff's Office said Wednesday.

According to the sheriff's office, Zaheer R. Mazhar, 37, pumped more than 20 gallons of gasoline into the car's interior and around the vehicle about 11 p.m. He then sat down in the back seat and lit a lighter. Mazhar, of Richmond, was the night clerk at the station at 7051 Mechanicsville Turnpike.

A deputy patrolling nearby saw the flames and immediately called Hanover County Fire-EMS, the sheriff's office said.
HANOVER  A 64-year-old Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, man has been charged with first degree murder, use of a firearm in the commission of a felony, and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.

According to Sgt. James R. Cooper of the Hanover County Sheriffs Office, investigators charged Office investigators arrested Willie J. Bibbs Sr. in connection with Thursdays incident on U.S. 360 (Mechanicsville Turnpike).

Cooper identified the victim as Sharece Branche, 24, also of Chambersburg. She was located in the vehicle at the scene of the crash with an apparent gunshot wound to the head.

The third occupant in the vehicle at the time of the motor vehicle crash was a 3-year-old female. The child was the daughter of the victim and was not harmed in the incident.

Bibbs is lodged at the Pamunkey Regional Jail with no bond.

Investigators continue to gather information and collect evidence, Cooper said. The Sheriffs Office is working in conjunction with the Hanover Commonwealths Attorneys Office in order to ensure a successful prosecution.

Our thoughts and prayers go out to the family and friends of the victim, Sharece Branche, Col. David R. Hines, sheriff, said.
A Henrico County road decades in the making is nearing completion.

On Tuesday, the Board of Supervisors passed a resolution awarding a contract to Clark Nexsen Inc. for engineering design services for the Woodman Road extension. The work will cover design of the proposed four-lane divided roadway from Greenwood Road to the recently approved River Mill development.

River Mill is a 250-acre residential development that is slated to contain 450 single-family homes, 300 town houses and 285 apartments adjacent to Greenwood Park. It will lie along the preserved right of way for the Woodman Road extension, and the developer will construct that portion.

Once complete, the extension will connect the existing road to Brook Road via J.E.B. Stuart Parkway and give residents of River Mill and nearby Magnolia Ridge, as well as other motorists, an alternate route to Interstate 295.

The negotiated fee for the design work is about $1.5 million and will be paid through the countys capital projects fund.

The construction cost of the countys share of the roadwork is estimated to cost about $18 million.
Of the plans for development deferred in advance of Wednesdays Henrico County Planning Commission meeting, two of them have been postponed at least five times. For one proposal, it was the eighth deferral request.

Plans for a Corner Bakery Cafe on West Broad Street and two Bon Secours medical buildings in the new Broad Hill Centre development all have been moved to September. The Planning Commission will not have a public hearing to discuss plans for development in August.

Deferrals can be requested for a variety of reasons, normally to take additional time to fine tune the request, at the applicants discretion, said R. Joseph Emerson, Henricos director of planning.

Wednesdays meeting marked Corner Bakerys eighth deferral since presenting its concept to planners in October.

For Corner Bakery, private negotiations between the property owners for the development site are ongoing, and the applicant has requested additional time, Emerson said.

According to the staff report, representatives of Corner Bakery are working with the owners of adjacent land owned by Westhampton Properties on parking and other aspects of the site that would cross property lines.

Representatives of Corner Bakery and Westhampton Properties Inc. could not be reached Wednesday.

Since its initial proposal of a two-building complex near outdoor gear retailer Cabelas Bon Secours has deferred its plan of development five times.

Bon Secours is considering revisions to their proposed plan of development, and has also requested additional time to finalize their proposal, Emerson said.

Under current plans, a two-story building with an emergency department sits along Broad Street and a five-story building is nearer to Bon Secours Parkway.

Previously, the Broad Street building was four stories and the rear building had three. The previous plans also included water features, seating and other pedestrian amenities on the path between the two buildings.

The taller building should ideally be located along West Broad Street, and the scale of the two-story building is more compatible with the height and massing of the residences across Bon Secours Parkway, the staff report states.

County staff also suggested reinstating the water features and amenities be placed along the walkway between the medical buildings and requested additional details on building materials, details and designs.

Both Corner Bakery and Bon Secours requested their deferrals. Applicants who request deferrals are charged $100 for each one, Emerson said.

There is no limit to the amount of deferrals that can be requested by an applicant, although multiple deferrals are not typical, he said.
Some Williamsburg-area residents are upset with the imminent release of John Hinckley, the man who tried to assassinate Ronald Reagan.

I just dont feel that someone who tried to kill Ronald Reagan should be out, said Otto Naumann, of Tabb, who was in Williamsburg on Wednesday.

Multiple residents expressed concern over Hinckleys release, saying he shouldnt be allowed to live with his mother, Jo Ann, full time in the city. The 61-year-old had been staying with his mother part-time but now hell be there on a full-time basis after a ruling by U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman on Wednesday.

Hinckley had been granted monthly 17-day visits to Williamsburg. He began visiting the colonial town in 2006 for three-day visits and as the length of the visits has increased, his restrictions have decreased. Hell be able to drive but there are limits on how far he can go. Hell also be required to attend therapy sessions.

"Mr. Hinckley is clinically ready for full-time convalescent leave," Friedman wrote in his decision.

Some of those who will now live near the attempted assassin disagree.

Im disappointed. Well leave it at that, said Jeff Miller, of Williamsburg.

Friedman barred Hinckley from talking to the media. Hickley will now live in Kingsmill, a gated community in Williamsburg. Media was not allowed entry into the community Wednesday.

Representatives from Barnes & Noble and PetSmart in Williamsburg, two places Hickley reportedly frequents, declined comment.

Both Naumann and Miller raised concern over what will happen after Hinckleys 90-year-old mother dies.

Who is going to care for him? Miller asked.
Former WDBJ (Channel 7) reporter Orlando Salinas has been charged with forcible sodomy and rape, according to Montgomery County jail records.

The charges against Salinas involved a woman who is not his spouse, according to the indictments filed in the Montgomery County clerk's office.

The investigation that led to the charges involve an incident that occurred on Jan. 11, according to the indictments.

Both charges include wording that actions were taken against the victim by force, threat, and intimidation against her will.

He was booked at 7:29 p.m. Tuesday night and is being held without bail, according to jail records. Both charges are felonies.

Salinas is a graduate of Blacksburg High School and Virginia Commonwealth University who worked as a television reporter in Richmond and Miami and returned to Southwest Virginia in 2012 as a reporter for WDBJ (Channel 7). His contract was not renewed and he left the TV station in 2015. He has been working as a real estate agent in the New River Valley since.

Amy Hudson, who owns ReMax 8 where Salinas was working as a Realtor, declined to comment.

Salinas real estate license, which he obtained last fall after being let go by WDBJ, was in good standing Wednesday morning, according to Virginia Department of Occupational Regulation spokeswoman Mary Broz Vaughan.
PHILADELPHIA  Earlier this month, when Virginia first lady Dorothy McAuliffe asked Anne Holton to join her in Philadelphia at a child hunger awareness event during the week of the Democratic National Convention, Holton didnt think she could make it.

At the time, Holton was Virginias secretary of education. She told McAuliffe that she had a lot to do back in Richmond and wasnt sure she would even get to the convention.

Needless to say, my plans changed, said Holton, the spouse of Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., who on Wednesday night accepted the Democratic Partys nomination for vice president.

So there was Holton, two days removed from resigning her state education post, back in a classroom and on the campaign trail  talking about hunger and nutrition and learning at a Philadelphia day care called Childrens Village.

During a breakfast speech to the Virginia delegation Wednesday, Kaine praised Holton as my best friend, my political partner, my most astute critic, my most energetic enthusiast, my lover, my girlfriend, my wife of 32 years, the great mother of my great three children.

Its a partnership Hillary Clintons campaign wants to deploy over the 104 days to Election Day.

They said, Tim, we love you, but we really love Anne,  Kaine told the delegation. We want every last minute that she can give us, he added, ticking off Holtons resume as an educator, legal aid lawyer, juvenile court judge and former first lady of Virginia.

At the day care event, McAuliffe and Holton sat in child-size seats at a kids table with Pennsylvanias Secretary of Human Services Ted Dallas and representatives of the day care and the Coalition to End Hunger.

They talked about helping kids by getting them accustomed to eating healthy foods early on, such as fruits, vegetables and fish.

McAuliffe said that only 13 percent of children eligible to receive free and reduced school lunches get one in the summer. She said that highlights the need for resources to expand food programs to keep kids healthy when school is not in session.

Education is the ticket to opportunity, and it is a fundamental part of our belief about ourselves, said Holton. Children learn better when theyve got a full stomach.

After the presentation, Holton and McAuliffe joined a classroom where children were eating lunch, sandwiched between a phalanx of television cameras on one side and a team of Secret Service agents and Virginia State Police on the other side.

McAuliffe and Holton could be overheard explaining to the curious kids what the attention was all about. But the Clinton campaigns latest Virginia surrogate stuck to the message at the event, and security whisked her away before reporters could ask questions.

Weve had some fun together, Holton said during the presentation, referring to the Kaine-McAuliffe interaction in public service.

Were going to have some fun together in a new context. I loved my job  I did not give it up lightly, she added.
Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., returned to his Virginia roots Wednesday in vice presidential candidate mode  flanked by Secret Service, trailed by national press and ready to attack Donald Trump.

Kaine entered a ballroom to a rousing welcome from the Virginia delegation at its breakfast. After spinning some political anecdotes, he quickly pivoted to the election, praising Hillary Clinton and delivering his most forceful rhetoric to date on the Republican presidential nominee's fitness for office.

What an opportunity to make history, he told the enthusiastic crowd, who unlike previous mornings in Philadelphia, seemed more riveted to the speaker than to than to their bacon and eggs.

Kaine thanked Gov. Terry McAuliffe, who advocated strongly for his selection in conversations with Hillary Clinton and Bill Clinton.

I wouldnt be the nominee if it werent for him, he said of McAuliffe.

Kaine praised Hillary Clintons qualifications as a candidate, and her historic role as potentially the first woman president. He said she would open up who we are as a nation, grow the economy and that she has the right ideas about how to be strong in the world.

Then it was on to Trump.

The most foolish thing you can do is to shed the alliances we have in the worldand Donald Trump is a one-man wrecking crew when it comes to the alliances, said Kaine, referring to Trumps stand on NATO and posture toward Russia and Vladimir Putin, whom Kaine called a Big Bad Wolf.

Kaine, a former civil rights attorney, said the most important thing to him about the election is that its a civil rights election.

He talked about Trump making fun of people with disabilitiesusing demeaning and offensive language when he talks about women, saying Trump offends women every time he opens his mouth.

He said Trump trash talks new Americans, trash talks Mexicanshe talks about anybody of a Latino background as if theyre a second-class citizen. Hey, we dont have any second-class citizens in this country. Were all first-class citizens.

Pivoting to the military, he referenced Trumps characterization of the American military as a disaster, questioning how someone who thinks that could be commander in chief.

He said Trump has used every trick and dodge he can to avoid paying taxes, and thats why hes not giving up his tax returns, noting that tax dollars fund programs that support veterans.

"Tim Kaine can attack all he wants, but he cant distract Virginians from the fact that hes a political chameleon," said Garren Shipley, Virginia communications director for the Republican National Committee. "Hes gone from being pro life to pro choice, from supporting TPP to opposing TPP, and from claiming to be a conservative to claiming to be a progressive. Just like Hillary Clinton, hes willing to say anything to be elected."

Kaine said the election is about whether to build a community of respect, or whether we decide that a politics of division, that sadly, we know held Virginia back, and our nation back for a very long time, is back in vogue and we start doing it again.

We say were a commonwealth, Kaine continued. Weve got to live like a commonwealth.
The Department of Education is pushing a loan forgiveness amendment to federal student loan policy that would relieve students of their debt if they could make the case that the school substantially misrepresented the education received. This new policy would have vast financial implications, is poorly thought-out, and is unlikely to be adjudicated properly.

Under the current policy, there are two main situations in which a student can apply for loan forgiveness: when the borrower succeeds in legal action against the school or when the school fails to meet contractual obligations.

This policy change would add a third component, stating that when the school makes substantial misrepresentations toward the borrower, the borrower can be eligible for loan forgiveness.

At first glance, this amendment looks as though it is protecting the small guy against big, powerful universities. However, the wording of this amendment, substantial misrepresentation, goes well beyond the legal definitions of fraud, making it easier for borrowers to make expansive and unreasonable claims. Substantial misrepresentation, as defined here, could take the form of a university advertising salary expectations or job prospects which the borrower did not find themselves able to achieve. Or, it could mean the university providing a school ranking institution with any flawed or misleading statistics  a common practice.

While universities should provide honest and detailed statistics to college ranking outlets, the famed U.S. News and World Report rankings are well-known to be fraught with problems; metrics are played around with every year, changed in small ways. Universities must report their acceptance rates, so some have been known to artificially inflate their applicant pool numbers.

A large element of the ranking is subjective, based on reputation or intangible factors like faculty dedication to teaching. It should be no surprise that rankings are far from a precise science. Yet with this new Department of Education ruling, these flimsy metrics could be used to dole out costly loan forgiveness. This amendment is unlikely to bring about greater accountability in college advertising and ranking reporting. Rather, it will simply create an avenue for individuals to drag universities through mountains of paperwork in attempts to get vengeful claims. According to the proposed rule, these claims could cost taxpayers anywhere between $2 and $42 billion.

Even worse, this proposed system completely circumvents established legal framework. The adjudications will not be made in courts, but rather by the Departments legal examiner. This means bureaucratic, not legal, oversight will be used when dealing with millions of dollars. No statute of limitations will be in place, either.

Student debt is no joke, and loan forgiveness policy should not be taken lightly or instituted irresponsibly. The impact of student debt is felt by many, weighing down later life decisions, as individuals sometimes find that their decision to take on debt was not worth the education received. This expansive new amendment will drive the balance of power in a dangerous direction, allowing regretful individuals to make costlyand sometimes unwarrantedclaims.

This amendment unsettlingly pushes adjudication away from our courts and toward unqualified bureaucrats who have skewed incentives in terms of spending taxpayer dollars. With a potential price tag of $42 billion, its worth questioning whether this amendment is necessary, fully thought-out, and a solution to our student debt crisis. The Department of Education has already faced substantial criticisms by various government agencies on how it has spent stimulus dollars in recent years. Adding to the amount of approved spending without reigning in current accountability concerns would be foolish at best. It seems likely to only make matters worse, giving power to bureaucrats and regretful graduates instead of providing true accountability.

There are better ways to combat the rising cost of college than drowning bureaucrats with claims of fraud. Advocating for better oversight in college rankings or understanding the connection between government funding and rising cost of college could be steps along the path to reducing the burden of college tuition. This costly amendment, whose comment period ends August 1, will only hurt. Public comments can be submitted via the Federal eRulemaking Portal or via postal mail, but this decision is unlikely to be easily reversed.
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa's Public Investment Corporation (PIC) is in talks with SABMiller over an improved offer from Anheuser-Busch Inbev, the state pension fund said on Wednesday. "We are in discussions with SABMiller on the offer price and would not like to make our view public at this point in time," PIC Head of Corporate Affairs Deon Botha said in response to emailed questions. The PIC is SABMiller's fourth largest shareholder. AB InBev raised its $100 billion-plus bid for rival brewer SABMiller on Tuesday in an attempt to quash investor dissent over an offer made less attractive by a post Brexit vote fall in the pound. (Reporting by TJ Strydom; Editing by James Macharia)
MADRID (Reuters) - Spain's new path to cut its public deficit below 3 percent of economic output by 2018 is achievable, Economy Minister Luis de Guindos said on Wednesday, after Brussels proposed cancelling a fine on Madrid for missing its deficit targets last year.

The European Commission proposed on Wednesday to cancel fines for Spain and Portugal over their failure to cut their deficits to within EU limits and gave Madrid two more years to make the required reductions.

The Commission proposed suspending part of both Spain and Portugal's structural funds for 2017, but De Guindos said he believed this was unlikely.

The minister added Spanish banks would do well in the upcoming European banking stress tests, a health check on 51 lenders across the EU, due on Friday.

(Reporting by Sarah White, writing by Amanda Cooper; Editing by Julien Toyer)
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PHILADELPHIA  Sen. Tim Kaine returned to his Virginia roots Wednesday in vice presidential candidate mode  flanked by Secret Service, trailed by national media and ready to attack Donald Trump.

Kaine entered a ballroom to a rousing welcome from the Virginia delegation at its breakfast. After spinning some political anecdotes, he quickly pivoted to the election, praising Hillary Clinton and delivering his most forceful rhetoric to date on the Republican presidential nominees fitness for office.

What an opportunity to make history, he told the enthusiastic crowd, who unlike previous mornings in Philadelphia, seemed more riveted to the speaker than to their bacon and eggs.

Kaine thanked Gov. Terry McAuliffe, who advocated strongly for his selection in conversations with Hillary and Bill Clinton.

I wouldnt be the nominee if it werent for him, he said of McAuliffe.

Kaine praised Hillary Clintons qualifications as a candidate, and her historic role as potentially the first female president.

He said she would open up who we are as a nation, expand the economy and that she has the right ideas about how to be strong in the world.

Then it was on to Trump.

The most foolish thing you can do is to shed the alliances we have in the world  and Donald Trump is a one-man wrecking crew when it comes to the alliances, said Kaine, referring to Trumps stand on NATO and posture toward Russia and Vladimir Putin, whom Kaine called a Big Bad Wolf.

Kaine, a former civil rights attorney, said the most important thing to him about the election is that its a civil rights election.

He talked about Trump making fun of people with disabilities  using demeaning and offensive language when he talks about women, saying Trump offends women every time he opens his mouth.

He said Trump trash talks new Americans, trash talks Mexicans  he talks about anybody of a Latino background as if theyre a second-class citizen. Hey, we dont have any second-class citizens in this country. Were all first-class citizens.

Pivoting to the military, he referenced Trumps characterization of the American military as a disaster, questioning how someone who thinks that could be commander in chief.

He said Trump has used every trick and dodge he can to avoid paying taxes, and thats why hes not giving up his tax returns, noting that tax dollars fund programs that support veterans.

Kaine said the election is about whether to build a community of respect, or whether we decide that a politics of division, that sadly, we know held Virginia back, and our nation back for a very long time, is back in vogue and we start doing it again.

We say were a commonwealth, Kaine continued. Weve got to live like a commonwealth.
SIERRA BLANCA, TX--(Marketwired - July 26, 2016) -

TMRC and K-Tech have produced specified rare earth elements to 99.999% purity, using continuous ion exchange and continuous ion chromatography

Demonstration grant was awarded under BAA-DLASM-2105-01: National Defense Stockpile Research

Texas Mineral Resources Corp. (TMRC), an exploration company targeting the heavy rare earths and a variety of other high-value elements and industrial minerals, is pleased to announce that it has successfully completed a demonstration-of-concept project to separate and refine specific high-purity rare earth elements for the United States Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) Strategic Materials Division in conjunction with its joint venture partner K-Technologies, Inc. (K-Tech).

In the bench scale demonstration, Texas Mineral Resources Corp. and K-Tech successfully separated specified high-value rare earths to between 99.996 and 99.999% purity, using static column systems designed to provide the general design concepts for ultimate use of continuous ion exchange (CIX) and continuous ion chromatography (CIC) systems at larger scales. The use of continuous systems may allow for larger scale production at reduced capital and operating costs when compared to previous fixed bed chromatographic methods or solvent extraction separation techniques.

The work was conducted under a DLA Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) research contract, awarded to the Company in September 2015. The Defense Logistics Agency is the Department of Defense's largest logistics combat support agency, providing worldwide logistics support in both peacetime and wartime to the military services as well as several civilian agencies and foreign countries. The DLA Strategic Materials Division is charged with maintaining cognizance of worldwide strategic and critical material's supply chain from the source to final assembly, evaluating the capability of these supply chains to support national defense and essential civilian industries, and developing mitigation solutions when access to materials are insufficient to provide support for national defense and emergency response.

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"TMRC has now demonstrated that we can separate rare earth elements to ultra-high purity levels -- and we can do it with feedstock sourced here in the United States, and separated here in the U.S. as well. We are prepared to assist the DLA and other U.S. government entities as they look to develop a secure source of critical materials," said Dan Gorski, CEO.

The feedstock used in the U.S. Defense Logistics Agency demonstration was produced by leaching crushed rock from TMRC's Round Top deposit near El Paso, Texas with dilute sulfuric acid.

A Single Critical Metals Supply Chain Strategy

Earlier this month, TMRC announced it has entered into a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with a well-established privately-held Pennsylvania coal company. The MOU gives TMRC a six-month period of time to further evaluate the potential to finance, recover and produce scandium and other rare earth byproducts from their properties.

"Our high-purity demonstration with DLA, our development of Round Top and now our work to explore extracting high-value rare earths from coal ash and coal overburden are linked by a single strategy -- they are all steps towards restoring a reliable and secure U.S. rare earths supply chain," noted Anthony Marchese, Chairman of the TMRC Board of Directors. "Taken together, Round Top and our Pennsylvania coal venture position TMRC as a potential long-term domestic supplier of the full range of critical rare earths including scandium, as well as associated high value by-products such as uranium, lithium, and beryllium."

About Texas Mineral Resources Corp.

Texas Mineral Resources Corp.'s primary focus is exploring and, if warranted, developing its Round Top heavy rare earth and industrial minerals project located in Hudspeth County, Texas, 85 miles east of El Paso. The Company's common stock trades on the OTCQX U.S. tier under the symbol "TMRC."

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and U.S. Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, including, but not limited to, statements regarding potential significant amounts of scandium and rare earth byproducts at the projects under the MOU, preliminary internal analysis of the economics of the project including potential processing rate, recovery rate, production rates, CAPEX estimates and estimates of pre-tax cash flow from the coal ash, potential synergies with the Company's Round Top project, satisfactory completion of due diligence and execution of a definitive agreement over the projects covered by the MOU, the potential significance of the project as a domestic source of scandium and other similar statements. When used in this press release, the words "potential," "indicate," "expect," "intend," "hopes," "believe," "may," "will," "if, "anticipate," and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. These statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such statements. Such factors include, among others, risks related to the development of the coal ash and coal overburden projects, completion of more thorough economic analysis and feasibility studies, initial economics not accurately accounting for potential costs of mining, up-scaling of preliminary testing, risks related to changes in future operating costs and working capital balance, risks related to mining results not matching preliminary tests and risks related to the ability of TMRC to raise adequate working capital and continue as a going concern, as well as those factors discussed under the heading "Risk Factors" in the Company's latest annual report on Form 10-K, as filed on November 30, 2015, and other documents filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Except as required by law, the Company assumes no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statements.
Take the Trump Challenge: What Would He Have to Say to Finally Get Fired?

An agitated and seemingly out-of-breath Donald Trump appeared at one of his resort properties in Florida Wednesday morning and spoke to the media for nearly an hour on a wide range of topics, from controversy about his refusal to release his tax returns to his most recent poll numbers.

But the issue that seemed to animate the Republican presidential nominee the most was the suggestion the recent hacking of the Democratic National Committees email server and the subsequent release of nearly 20,000 emails through WikiLeaks was possibly orchestrated by the Russian government in order to help the Trump campaign -- or at least to harm Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.

Related: This Is Why Vladimir Putin Wants Trump in the Oval Office

I have nothing to do with Russia. I have nothing to do with Russia, he repeated at one point. At another he insisted that he doesnt know anything about Russian President Vladimir Putin, despite having repeatedly praised the Russian strongmans leadership qualities, defended his repressive tactics, and pledged that relations between the US and Russia would be much better under a Trump administration.

President Trump would be so much better for US-Russian relations, he said at one point. It cant be worse.

(Trumps relationship with Putin is odd, to say the least. During a primary debate last November, he bragged that he got to know [Putin] very well because we were both on 60 Minutes, we were stablemates. It later came out that, while both appeared on the show in pre-recorded interviews, the two men were never on the same continent while preparing for the show, much less in the same room.)

Despite very strong evidence to the contrary, Trump repeatedly insisted that Russia probably had nothing to do with the hacking of the DNC servers. However, at one point he suggested -- presumably in jest -- that Russian hackers might be able to release emails that Clinton erased from the private email server that she used -- against State Department regulations -- while serving as secretary of state.

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Related: Battle of the Billionaires -- Why Bloomberg Will Savage Trump

By the way, if they hacked, they probably have her 33,000 emails -- I hope they do -- they probably have the 33,000 emails that she lost and deleted because youd see some beauties there, he said.

Later, he added, Russia, if youre listening, I hope youre able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing. I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press.

That last comment caused a huge uproar in the press and foreign policy establishment, despite the very strong possibility that Trump thought he was being funny.

"I find those kinds of statements to be totally outrageous, said former CIA director Leon Panetta, who claimed Trump was in fact asking the Russians to engage in American politics.

Panetta added, I just think thats behind the pale. Theres a lot of concerns I have with his qualities of leadership or lack thereof and I think that kind of statement only reflects the fact that he truly is not qualified to be president of the United States. "

Related: Clintons Historic Nomination Leads Dems Through Convention Storm

Trump, who has made multiple well-documented efforts to do business in Russia, nevertheless insisted that the closest he came to Russia was selling a house in Florida to a Russian citizen.

The billionaire former reality television star repeatedly insisted that the real problem with a foreign power hacking into the email systems of a US political party is that, It shows how weak we are. It shows how disrespected we are...Its a total sign of disrespect for our country.

His position appears to be that once he is president, other countries will have so much respect for the US that espionage will be a thing of the past.

In a note of discord, the Trump campaign released a statement from vice presidential nominee Mike Pence that appeared to take a different stance on both the likelihood of Russias being responsible for the attack and on potential consequences.

Related: Trump Gets a Big Bump in the Polls as Democrats Clash

The FBI will get to the bottom of who is behind the hacking, the statement said. If it is Russia and they are interfering in our elections, I can assure you both parties and the United States government will ensure there are serious consequences.

Trump, who appeared to calm down somewhat as the press conference went on, also took time to contradict a statement made by his campaign manager, Paul Manafort, earlier Wednesday morning. Manafort, in an interview with CBS, had appeared to close the door on the possibility of Trump ever releasing his tax returns to the public, as all presidential candidates have done for decades.

Trump reverted to the dodge he has been using for the past year -- that he cannot release the returns because he is under audit and that he will do so when the audit is complete.

Among other things, Trump also attacked President Obama. Among other things, he called the Columbia- and Harvard-educated lawyer and former professor of constitutional law the most ignorant president in the countrys history.

Top Reads from The Fiscal Times:
The month of June 2016 was rather quiet as far as trading was concerned in the Indian diamond industry. Polished as well as rough trading was as normal as could be as the two major shows JCK Las Vegas Show & the Hong Kong Show  took away all the attention.

GJEPCs India Pavilion participated at JCK Las Vegas for the 13th consecutive year with 50 leading gem and jewelry exporters from 3-6 June. The Indian manufacturers and retailers exhibited a scintillating array of exquisite, gems & jewellery  including loose diamonds, loose coloured gemstones, plain gold jewellery as well as diamond and coloured stone and studded jewellery manufactured especially for the visitors of the JCK LV show.

But, according to sources, the Las Vegas Show did not bring any extraordinary business for the Indian participants. Though buyers were expected to throng the Show, reports say that the Show was weak and traffic slower than the previous years. Exhibitors, who expected polished prices to go higher than the previous month and looked forward to make good deals at the Show, were in for a big disappointment. However, Indians still look towards US as demand from the country is steady, though the diamond and jewellery trade on the whole is affected negatively to an extent, due to it being an election year leading to a weak economy.

According to sources from the recent Hong Kong Show, polished demand is good in the market. And, the Indian businesses have learnt their lessons and are currently working with smaller inventory. Production, however, has picked up in the cutting centres during the month of June; and demand for rough is quite high. With diamond producers controlled supplies, the diamond industry in India is exercising responsible sourcing and is gradually returning back to normalcy. While De Beers sold $630 million worth of rough in May and ALROSA was able to reduce its rough inventory due to strong sales. The industry is gradually stabilizing with polished goods seeing a sense of price correction.

According to provisional data announced by the Gem & Jewellery Export promotion Council (GJEPC) of India in June, Indias cut & polished diamond exports for May 2016 amounted to $1.97 bn as against $1.74 bn in May 15, a rise of 13.24 percent. The Indian diamond industry is slowly showing signs of revival. In volume terms too, exports amounted to 2.98 mn cts in May 16 in comparison to 2.59 mn cts in May 15. Rough imports recorded an increase of 15.09 percent to $1.52 bn for May 16 as against $1.32 bn in May 15. In volume terms too, an increased total of 12.10 mn cts of rough was imported in May 16 compared to 11.11 mn cts for the same month in the previous year.

When Britain exited from the European Union, it did not have any earth-shattering effect on the Indian jewellery exporters. But, according to industry players, though the United Kingdom contributes less than 10 per cent of Indias US $40 billion of annual gems and jewellery exports, a depreciating GBP would reduce the purchasing power of Britons, resulting in a proportionate decline in the purchase of gems and jewellery, which in turn will hurt India's exports. Also, in the long run, import of rough diamonds would be affected as it might decline as even a falling rupee will make dollar-denominated diamond imports costlier.

June saw another pro-industry step by the Indian government when news was out that the country was looking to be self-sufficient in terms of raw material for the G&J industry. This brought good cheer to the industry members, who are perpetually facing problems for rough diamonds and gold. Under the proposed new regulations, India is looking to open up mining of gems and precious metals to cut dependence on imports. Mines Secretary Balvinder Kumar is reported to have said that changes in the national mineral exploration policy will be unveiled by this month end. The country is set to auction about 50 blocks for diamond and gold exploration in the fiscal year, aided by the changes in the national mineral exploration policy to be unveiled by month end. The new exploration policy will cut the time needed for approvals and guarantee royalties over the life of a mine.

During the month, an historical moment occurred for the Indian industry when the Diamond Producers Association (DPA) and The Gem & Jewellery Export Promotion Council of India (GJEPC) signed an MOU to collaborate and boost diamond demand in the world and enhance the image of the diamond industry. At an event to unveil its new Category Marketing Platform, Real is Rare, the DPAs Chairman Stephen Lussier and Praveenshankar Pandya, Chairman, GJEPC also pledged to collaborate to strengthen diamond industry fundamentals for the future, by stimulating consumer desire for diamonds. The GJEPC has also agreed to contribute to the DPAs 2016 marketing investment and work hand-in-hand with the DPA leadership to explore long term collaboration opportunities, bringing the much needed  confidence to the Indian Gem & Jewellery industry.

Meanwhile, the domestic jewellery market continued to be the sustenance to the diamond industry as demand for all category of polished stones found buyers. The preparation for the oncoming IIJS 2016 was also a reason for the high demand, as the domestic industry let no stone unturned to return to its robust self after being hit badly due to the long drawn strike, some months ago.

June being a month of monsoon in India, Platinum Guild unveiled a new collection inspired by the fluidity of water. Associated with style and timelessness, the new range of Platinum jewellery comprising of delicate neckpieces and earrings was a classic and telling collection that pays ode to the purity of water. Mumbai based luxury jewellery brand Manubhai Jewellers that is known for their tasteful designs launched a resplendent collection of Temple Jewellery, where each piece payed tribute to artistry of Indian temples. Every piece of the temple collection brings with it a unique design and is an ideal companion for every auspicious beginning. The breath-taking designs can be clubbed well with traditional as well as contemporary attire.

Aruna Gaitonde, Editor-in-Chief of Asian Bureau, Rough&Polished




A Tesla Model S involved in the fatal crash on May 7, 2016 is shown with the top third of the car sheared off by the impact of the collision of the Tesla with a tractor-trailer truck on nearby highway and came to rest in the yard of Robert and Chrissy VanKavelaar in Williston, Florida, U.S. on May 7, 2016. Courtesy Robert VanKavelaar/Handout via REUTERS

By David Shepardson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A driver killed in the May 7 crash of a Tesla Motors Inc (TSLA.O) car while using Autopilot driving-assist software was exceeding the speed limit, U.S. highway safety investigators said on Tuesday in a preliminary report that did not state a probable cause.

The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said its preliminary findings showed the Model S was traveling at 74 miles per hour (mph) in a 65-mph zone at the time it struck a semi-truck near Williston, Florida.

Joshua Brown was killed when his vehicle drove under the tractor trailer. It was the first known fatality involving a Model S operating on the Autopilot system that takes control of steering and braking in certain conditions. The accident increased scrutiny of automated driving technology.

The report said the NTSB confirmed the Model S driver was using the advanced driver assistance features Traffic-Aware Cruise Control and Autosteer lane-keeping assistance at the time. The NTSB has not yet determined the probable cause of the crash.

The initial police report into the crash estimated Brown's speed at 65 mph.

Speeding alone would not be considered the cause of a vehicle crash, but could be a contributing factor, said NTSB spokesman Christopher O'Neil.

"All aspects of the accident remain under investigation," O'Neil said, adding that the agency will typically release a final report about a year after the preliminary report.

Palo Alto, California-based Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Chief Executive Elon Musk has repeatedly said the company has no plans to disable the feature.

A lawyer for the Brown family, Jack Landskroner, said in an email on Tuesday that the findings were preliminary and that the investigation was ongoing.

A Florida Highway Patrol investigation is continuing and the police force has no plans to criminally charge the truck driver, Sergeant Kim Montes said Tuesday.

She said the police force is still considering whether to issue a traffic citation to the truck driver for failing to yield. A lawyer for the truck driver did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday.

Story continues

The NTSB report said the force of the initial impact of the crash resulted in the battery disengaging from the electric motors powering the car. After exiting from underneath the truck, the car traveled 297 feet, then collided with a utility pole. The car broke the pole and traveled an additional 50 feet.

Tesla faces a separate investigation by the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) into whether the

system poses an unreasonable risk to driver safety.

(Editing by James Dalgleish and Jeffrey Hodgson)
Federal Railroad Administrator Sarah E. Feinberg is calling for additional action to remedy a "solvable problem" by preventing fatalities at grade crossings.

In a statement to the railroad industry, states, tech companies and Congress, Administrator Feinbergs call to action addresses the prevention of fatalities at the nations more than 200,000 railroad crossings. It also comes on the heels of a particularly devastating six weeks, which saw three significant incidents, in addition to others, that have killed parents and their children when struck by a train at crossings.

Over the past six weeks, there have been three significant, tragic railroad crossing incidents. Each took the lives of parents and young children. In San Leandro, Calif., a mother and her three-year-old child were killed. In Colorado, a mother, a father and three of their four young children were killed on the way to church. And just this weekend in Arkansas, a mother, her son and two other children were killed.

These heartbreaking events are in addition to the other 87 people killed and 236 people injured this year at railroad crossings.

While many of these incidents are still under investigation, we know that they are almost always preventable. And yet, they still happen. Simply put: We must all do more to protect drivers and their passengers, who are frequently children. The responsibility to improve safety at railroad crossings rests on all of us  safety regulators, state and local officials, railroads, law enforcement and even private companies that conduct business in the transportation sector.

To our state partners: We know you continue to struggle for the necessary funding to close or improve the most dangerous crossings in your state. While the federal government contributes funding to these projects each year through Federal Highways Section 130 Program, and in fact has contributed more this year than in years past, states should continue to leverage their funds to prioritize improving safety at the worst railroad crossings, and should apply for federal funds wherever possible.

To our tech partners: We are grateful for your partnership and for your enthusiasm and willingness to improve safety. But we urge you to integrate our railroad crossing data into your mapping applications and other pertinent technologies as soon as possible. While the full and ultimate safety impact of integrating crossing data into applications remains unknown, we must try everything we can to address this challenge.

To the Congress: We applaud the additional funding added to Federal Highways Section 130 program this year, as well as new funding for a much-needed public media campaign so more people are aware of the dangers of railroad crossings. However, more needs to be done and we encourage you to continue to work with safety regulators, state and local officials, railroads, law enforcement, and private companies.

To railroads: Along with your continued support for advocacy and awareness campaigns, I hope you will redouble your efforts to integrate new technologies to avoid railroad crossing incidents and take more aggressive steps to report problematic or dangerous crossings to state and local officials.

Improving safety and saving lives at railroad crossings has been and continues to be one of the Federal Railroad Administrations (FRA) highest priorities. We have put more focus and attention on this problem than ever before  through funding, a brighter public spotlight, new attention from FRA safety specialists, new research, new partnerships with tech companies and law enforcement and more aggressive and frequent investigations. We will continue to do all that we can to have a greater impact on this solvable challenge  and we urge our partners and friends to join us.

In 2015, FRA launched a new, comprehensive campaign to reverse the uptick in fatalities at railroad crossings. The campaign includes partnering with tech companies to use FRA data to pinpoint the countrys approximately 200,000 railroad crossings and add crossing alerts to map applications. FRA has also worked with local law enforcement to increase enforcement around railroad crossings. In 2015, 244 individuals died at railroad crossings, down from 264 in 2014.

Those efforts have continued in 2016. In March, FRA launched a redesigned website to serve as a one-stop shop to help drivers, pedestrians and law enforcement stay safe around railroad crossings. The launch follows the agencys award of nearly $10 million in grants for nine projects in eight states to upgrade and increase the safety of railroad crossings along energy routes. The agency also released a list of railroad crossings with most incidents over last decade and offered both technical and financial assistance to increase the safety at these and other crossings.
Australia will on Thursday release Q2 figures for import and export prices, highlighting a light day for Asia-Pacific economic activity.

Export prices are expected to add 3.0 percent on quarter after sliding 4.7 percent in the first quarter.

Import prices are tipped to gain 1.5 percent on quarter after falling 3.0 percent in the three months prior.

Singapore will release preliminary Q2 numbers, with forecasts suggesting an increase of 2.0 percent - up from 1.9 percent in the three months prior.

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Economic News

What parts of the world are seeing the best (and worst) economic performances lately? Click here to check out our Econ Scorecard and find out! See up-to-the-moment rankings for the best and worst performers in GDP, unemployment rate, inflation and much more.
On the night where former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton officially became the first woman ever to become the presidential nominee of a major political party, it was her husband who took center stage Tuesday at the second day of the Democratic National Convention.

Speaking to a packed crowd in Philadelphia, former president Bill Clinton broke new ground in making a pitch for his spouse to also earn the highest office in the land.

Crafting a deeply personal tale of how he "met a girl" and fell in love with her, the former president outlined his wife's incessant drive to make things better and do whatever needed to be done - at every level and at any age.

Calling her still the best change-maker he had ever seen, Bill Clinton called her uniquely qualified to face the challenges of today while emphasizing her humanity.

Hillary Clinton put in an appearance via satellite to close out the evening, thanking her supporters for making history.

Earlier in the evening, the crowd heard speeches from several people who highlighted Clinton's work as an advocate for women, children and families.

Former attorney general Eric Holder, interim DNC chair Donna Brazile and former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright were especially impassioned.

The crowd also saw a recorded message from former president Jimmy Carter, on the 40th anniversary of his nomination. Carter also spoke of Clinton's integrity while warning of the dangers of a Trump presidency.

One of the more powerful moments came in an address from a group of mothers who lost children to gun violence.

Calling themselves Mothers of the Movement, Sybrina Fulton, Geneva Reed-Veal, Lucy McBath, Gwen Carr, Cleopatra Pendleton, Maria Hamilton, Lezley McSpadden and Wanda Johnson implored people for an end to the violence - so that no one else would know their pain.

Ahead of the speeches came the official roll call as each individual state entered their delegate choices.

Clinton won the nomination handily, although Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders pushed her to the end or primary season. At the end of the roll call, the popular Sanders officially requested that all of his delegates be ceded to Clinton in a show of unity.

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Political News
Ireland's central bank slashed its economic growth forecast for this year and next, citing downside risks from the surprise "Brexit" vote that is set to have "both short and long-term" negative and material impacts on the .

The growth forecast for this year was reduced to 3.6 percent from 4.2 percent,the Central Bank of Ireland said in its latest quarterly bulletin, released Wednesday. The projection for next year was cut to 4.9 percent from 5.1 percent.

The scale of the negative impact depends on the extent to which UK-EU trade, labor mobility and financial interactions would become more restricted after "Brexit", the bank said.

"While the Irish economy has become less reliant on the UK for trade over recent decades, the UK remains a particularly important market for indigenous firms," the central bank's Chief Economist Gabriel Fagan said.

"Some sectors, including agri-food, clothing, footwear and tourism continue to have a relatively high dependency on exports to the UK and, consequently, could be affected disproportionately."

There is the potential for a protracted period of heightened uncertainty and risk aversion during the transition period to establishing new arrangements between the UK and the EU, the bank said.

Earlier this month, the Irish statistical office drastically revised the growth rate for 2015 to 26.3 percent from 7.8 percent, attracting ridicule from economists, who dubbed it "leprechaun economics".

The growth rate was massively inflated after including the increase in the size of the capital stock due to corporate restructuring and balance sheet reclassification in the multinational sector as well as the growth in the aircraft leasing activity. The central bank called this "statistical 'on-shoring' of economic activity.

"While the recent National Accounts data seriously misrepresent the overall growth of domestic economic activity in Ireland in 2015, a wide range of more reliable spending and activity indicators suggest that economic activity continues to expand at a reasonably healthy pace," the central bank said.

"In view of the distortions now associated with the conventional GDP and GNP aggregates, there is a need to develop a more meaningful, commonly agreed

measure of the actual level of Irish economic activity that accurately mirrors developments within the economy."

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Economic News

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Gildan Activewear Inc. (GIL.TO,GIL) announced, for full year 2016, the company is now projecting adjusted EPS to be in the range of $1.50-$1.55 compared to prior range of $1.50-$1.60, and adjusted EBITDA of approximately $545-$555 million compared to the previous projection of $545-$570 million.

Gildan Activewear now expects consolidated net sales for the year to be approximately $2.65 billion reflecting projected sales of approximately $1.65 billion in Printwear and Branded Apparel sales of approximately $1 billion. This compares to the prior guidance of sales in excess of $2.6 billion.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expect the company to report profit per share of $1.59 on revenue of $2.67 billion. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.

Consolidated net sales in the second quarter of 2016 amounted to $688.9 million, down 3.5% compared to the second calendar quarter of 2015, reflecting sales decreases of 1.4% in the Printwear segment and 7.9% in Branded Apparel.

Net earnings totaled $94.7 million or $0.40 per share for the three months ended July 3, 2016, compared to $99.4 million or $0.41 per share for the three months ended July 5, 2015. Excluding after-tax restructuring and acquisition-related costs of $1.7 million in the quarter and $3.2 million in the same quarter last year, Gildan reported adjusted net earnings of $96.4 million, or $0.41 per share for the second quarter of 2016, slightly down from $102.6 million, or $0.42 per share in the prior year quarter.

Gildan Activewear also announced it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire 100% of the equity interest of Peds Legwear Inc. (Peds) for a total cash consideration of $55 million. The acquisition is expected to close before the end of August 2016.

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Business News
First Commonwealth Financial Corp. (FCF) Wednesday announced a decline in second quarter net income to $12.00 million from $13.45 million in the prior year. Earnings per share declined to $0.14 from $0.15 a year ago.

The results were impacted by provision for credit losses of $10.4 million, up $3.8 million from the prior year, primarily due to a $7.5 million specific reserve set aside against an energy-related credit.

Net interest income increased to $50.03 million from $47. 21 million in the previous year. Non-interest income was$15.56 million, down from $16.35 million in the previous year.

In a separate announcement, First Commonwealth Financial announced that its banking subsidiary, First Commonwealth Bank has signed a definitive agreement to acquire 13 branches in Canton and Ashtabula, Ohio from FirstMerit Bank, NA. The branches have $735 million of deposits and $115 million of retail and loans as of May 31. The acquisition is expected to be immediately accretive to First Commonwealth's earnings per share.

The divestitures have been approved by the United States Department of Justice following a customary anti-trust review. The acquisition provides First Commonwealth with the opportunity to expand its Ohio footprint by adding approximately 34,000 retail and small business households.

First Commonwealth will pay a 4.5 percent premium on deposits acquired at close. First Commonwealth was advised by the investment banking firm of Deutsche Bank Securities and the law firm Squire Patton Boggs.

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Business News
The U.K. grew at a faster pace in the second quarter, weathering the uncertainty stemming from the run-up to the EU referendum.

Gross domestic product expanded 0.6 percent in the three months to June from the previous quarter, preliminary estimates from the Office for National Statistics showed Wednesday.

This was faster than the 0.5 percent growth forecast by economists and 0.4 percent expansion seen in the first quarter.

"Any uncertainties in the run-up to the referendum seem to have had a limited effect," ONS Chief Economist Joe Grice said.

"Very few respondents to ONS surveys cited such uncertainties as negatively impacting their businesses."

The preliminary estimate take into account only the production side of GDP.

The dominant services sector posted a 0.5 percent expansion and industrial production increased by 2.1 percent. In contrast, construction dropped 0.4 percent and agriculture by 1.0 percent.

On a yearly basis, GDP rose 2.2 percent in the second quarter versus the expected growth of 2.1 percent. In the first quarter, the annual growth figure was 2 percent.

The quarterly growth was largely driven by strong performance in April and activity started to weaken ahead of the June 23 referendum.

Scott Bowman, a UK economist at Capital Economics, said he envisaged an economic stagnation in the second half of this year, rather than a full-blown recession.

The Bank of England is expected to cut Bank Rate next week and the Chancellor is ready to "reset" fiscal policy if warranted by economic data, he noted. This, along with a fading of uncertainty, should see growth start to accelerate at the start of 2017, Bowman added.

After the release of negative survey results, BoE's Martin Weale favored an immediate stimulus. As monetary policy works with a delay, even an action in August is unlikely to give quick boost to the economy, he said in an interview with the Financial Times.

Bank of England Andrew Haldane has also signaled favor for a significant monetary stimulus in August.

Survey data released since June 24 showed a sharp deceleration in activity and confidence. Business confidence plunged to its lowest level in seven-and-a-half years, after the surprise "Brexit" vote, according to Industrial Trends survey from the Confederation of British Industry.

Another CBI survey today revealed that retail sales declined in July more rapidly than at any time since January 2012 as consumer confidence weakened following the EU referendum.

A closely-watched survey by Markit showed last week that the U.K. private sector activity contracted at the steepest pace since early 2009, post-Brexit.

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Business News
After ending the previous session slightly higher, treasuries showed a strong move to the upside during trading on Wednesday.

Bond prices moved notably higher over the course of the trading day before closing firmly in positive territory. Subsequently, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, fell by 4.8 basis points to 1.515 percent.

The higher close by treasuries came after the Federal Reserve announced its widely expected decision to maintain the target range for the federal funds rate at 1/4 to 1/2 percent.

The Fed's statement noted that information received since its June meeting indicates that the labor market strengthened and that economic activity has been expanding at a moderate rate.

While the statement was largely unchanged from the previous meeting, the Fed did say near-term risks to the economic outlook have diminished.

The decision to leave rates unchanged was not unanimous, as Kansas City Fed President Esther George preferred to raise the target range for the federal funds rate to 1/2 to 3/4 percent.

Treasuries may also have benefited from the release of some disappointing U.S. economic data, including a Commerce Department report showing a much bigger than expected drop in durable goods orders in the month of June.

The report said durable goods orders tumbled by 4.0 percent in June following a revised 2.8 percent decrease in May.

Economists had expected durable goods orders to dip by 1.3 percent compared to the 2.2 percent decline originally reported for the previous month.

Excluding orders for transportation equipment, durable goods orders edged down by 0.5 percent in June after slipping by 0.4 percent in May. Ex-transportation orders had been expected to rise by 0.3 percent.

A separate report from the National Association of Realtors showed a much smaller than expected increase in pending home sales in the month of June.

NAR said its pending home sales index edged up by 0.2 percent to 111.0 in June after tumbling by 3.7 percent to 110.8 in May. Economists had expected the index to jump by 1.3 percent.

A pending home sale is one in which a contract was signed but not yet closed. Normally, it takes four to six weeks to close a contracted sale.

Trading on Thursday may be impacted by reaction to the Labor Department's weekly jobless claims report as well as the results of the Treasury Department's auction of seven-year notes.

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Market Analysis
TVS Motor Company and BMW Motorrad are reportedly working on another product (most likely a naked RR310)

BMW Motorrad India has still not updated its entry-level G 310 siblings to BS6 emission norms. Sharing platform with the Apache RR310 at TVS Motor Companys manufacturing facility in Hosur, Tamil Nadu, the G 310 R and G 310 GS are two of the most expensive single-cylinder motorcycles available in the country. At an initial asking price of Rs 2.99 lakh and Rs 3.49 lakh ex-showroom, one would find it hard to justify its desirability (especially when compared to a KTM India product).

In a few European markets, the G 310 siblings are considered as excellent starter motorcycles. Even in India, both single-cylinder BMW motorcycles offer an enjoyable ride but just not enough for what you pay. However, various reports state that BMW Motorrad India could introduce a massive price cut of up to Rs 75,000 for their BS6 versions  read more details.

Apparently, the German two-wheeler manufacturer and its Indian partner plan to introduce another motorcycle from the shared platform. Most likely, it would be a naked avatar of the TVS Apache RR 310. The ongoing COVID-19 crisis may have brought about a delay in its development.

Chetan Kale has modelled, textured and rendered an interesting BMW G 310 RR concept on Blender. With subtle tweaks, Chetan has added the 2019MY BMW S 1000 RR super sports fairing on a G 310 RR chassis.

Alongside its wheels and exhaust, the tail section mostly remains untouched. Even though the TVS RR 310 is a faired G 310 on paper, chances of BMW Motorrad introducing a single-cylinder faired motorcycle in its base portfolio are not bleak.

The baby S 1000 RR could be a success in markets such as Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines where models such as the Yamaha YZF-R15 and Suzuki GSX-R150 are quite popular. On the other hand, the Indian market is already unhappy with the way BMW Motorrad priced the G 310 siblings. This will change if their BS6 updates come with the substantial price drop mentioned above.

In the outgoing BS4 format, the BMW G 310 R and G 310 GS make 33.6bhp @ 9,500rpm and 28Nm @ 7,500rom from a 312.2cc liquid-cooled DOHC single-cylinder motor. The same engine has become BS6-compliant in the 2020MY TVS Apache RR 310.

Output figures have witnessed a slight variation at 33.5bhp @ 9,700rpm and 27.3Nm @ 7,700Nm. The 6-speed transmission in the TVS boasts of a slipper clutch as well. BS6 versions of entry-level BMW G 310 series should come in the same configuration.

Source
Even as auto dealerships start operations post lockdown, one thing is certain that things will not be the same as earlier in the near future

In view of the social distancing and sanitization norms that are critical to check the spread of Covid-19, Ford has come up with a unique sales and service program for its customers. Called Dial-A-Ford, the program will cover all forms of customer engagement.

The primary purpose of Dial-A-Ford is to ensure safety of both customers and dealerships staff. The program will be managed via a dedicated helpline number (1800-419-3000), which will make it easier for customers to avail the required sales and service at their preferred dealership. New customers can dial this number to get info about available cars, book a new car, and request a test drive. Customers can also get their car home delivered.

Also Read  Ford EcoSport Most Exported Car

For existing customers, Ford dealerships will be providing pick-up and drop service. Customers will be provided regular updates about upcoming vehicle servicing and maintenance needs. Digital channels will be extensively used for consultations and making online payments. The idea is to allow customers to access a range of services in the comfort and safety of their homes.

In addition to these services, Ford dealerships will be following strict guidelines to ensure mandated social distancing and sanitization norms. For example, all vehicles being used in sales and service processes will be thoroughly disinfected at the time of pick-up, drop or delivery.

All individuals entering a Ford dealership will be compulsorily required to get their temperature checked with contactless infrared thermometers. All customers and dealership staff will be required to wear gloves and face masks at all times. Dedicated hazardous waste containers will be provided to safely dispose the used gloves, face masks and other potentially contaminated items. Hand sanitizers will be placed at multiple locations at the dealership.

Ford dealerships have also made changes to the floor layout to ensure appropriate social distancing. This will help avoid crowding in waiting area and other places of customer interactions. Ford has also mandated that all its dealerships will be thoroughly disinfected three times every day.

Also Read  Jeep India launches Touch-Free experience

Other steps taken by Ford in the interest of its customers include 3-month extension for all scheduled service benefits such as free service. The extension has been granted till June 30 and it will work without affecting factory-warranty or extended warranty. Vehicle warranties with expiry dates between March 15 and May 30 will be extended free of cost until June 30, 2020.

Customers who were unable to purchase extended warranty products due to lockdown will be given the opportunity to do so by June 30. For cars booked before April 30, Ford will be providing complete price protection to its customers.
Millennial Moms Review: 2022 Acura MDX is pretty close to the perfect family car

I dont know if perfect is attainable, especially considering weve got the world of options when it comes to modern vehicles. Were spoiled and, as such, we have very specific needs and wants. Driving-wise, the 2022 Acura MDX is one of my favourite ...
WIKILEAKS FOUNDER JULIAN ASSANGE (PHOTO: LUKE MACGREGOR/REUTERS)

The Democratic Party cant be happy with WikiLeaks after that site published 19,252 emails taken from the Democratic National Committees servers. But party donors should be even angrier.

WikiLeaks, perhaps best known for its 2010 disclosure of video showing US soldiers fatally shooting Iraqi civilians, on Friday posted a trove of messages to and from the DNC that included home addresses, Social Security numbers and other personally identifiable information found in routine donation records.

Some cybersecurity experts believe Russian operatives leaked the DNC emails to Wikileaks, which describes itself as a multi-national media organization and associated library.

And its Twitter account has been getting into the creepy zone lately. Should you take this group as the independent guardian it portrays itself to be? Im going to say no.

Doxing DNC donors

As Gizmodo and other news sites observed, if you search for Contribution in WikiLeakss DNC archive, youll see where these contributors live, the last four digits of some of their credit cards, and sometimes even their Social Security and passport numbers.

Theres no clear public-interest value in publishing them, said Alex Howard, a senior analyst with the Washington-based transparency group Sunlight Foundation. Instead, Howard says the act was ethically dubious if not outright reprehensible.

FORMER DNC CHAIRWOMAN DEBBIE WASSERMAN SCHULTZ RESIGNED AMID THE WIKILEAKS SCANDAL (PHOTO: MARY ALTAFFER/AP)

The DNC should have known to encrypt information that sensitive, and an organization as security-conscious as WikiLeaks should have known not to publish it. Yet its Twitter account said this large-scale unmasking of private citizens isnt an error.

An e-mail sent to WikiLeaks media-contact address Tuesday went unanswered.

Wikileaks DNC archive did reveal some concerning episodes. In one e-mail, a Politico reporter let a DNC staffer inspect an unpublished story. Others showed the DNC working behind the scenes to support Hillary Rodham Clintons nomination.

(The Republican National Committee had its own ambitions to find and back an establishment candidate, but the RNC seems to have escaped WikiLeaks attention).

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But exposing wrongdoing doesnt demand a data breach, and doxing isnt reporting. International Consortium of Investigative Journalists director Gerard Ryle recently summed up this sentiment to Wired after his organization published its carefully screened Panama Papers money-laundering report. Were not WikiLeaks, Ryle told Wired.

WikiLeaks has done this before. It exposed Afghan intelligence sources in 2010  founder Julian Assange said he was only obliged to protect those facing unjust retribution  and then revealed human-rights activists in a 2011 dump of State Department communications.

Troubling signs

Separate research by security firms Fidelis, Mandiant and ThreatConnect strongly suggests WikiLeaks got these e-mails from Russian intelligence agencies who earlier hacked into the DNC. That makes todays site look even less like the one that helped document a secretly negotiated, multinational deal called the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement in the late 2000s.

Vladimir Putin may not be trying to influence the election, but Assange clearly loathes Clinton and has threatened to reveal more DNC details soon.

The timing of the DNC leaks raises questions, wrote James Love, director of Knowledge Ecology International. If WikiLeaks is able to get Donald Trump elected, well, I think that will have consequences for everyone, and I dont see how Assange sees this as a positive.

Knowledge Ecology International relied on WikiLeaks documents for its criticism of ACTA and the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement, and Love said earlier dealings with Assanges group had been pleasant: In the TPP leaks, they did a lot of work to protect the sources.

Assange, Howard said, has a history of seeing Western democracies as a bigger threat than the likes of Russia or China. He asked Assange about that during the WikiLeaks founders video appearance at a conference in Mexico City, and, Howard recalled, He got fairly upset about it.

(Assange had to attend remotely because hes been holed up in Ecuadors embassy in London since 2012 amid an investigation into sexual assault allegations against him.)

WIKILEAKS TWEET REGARDING TURKISH EMAILS

WikiLeaks recent Twitter output also suggests strange priorities. That account invited its 3 million-plus followers to browse a now-offline archive of e-mails from Turkish citizens, violating their privacy for no good reason, and even tweeted poorly veiled anti-semitic insults, which the organization has since deleted.

Electronic Frontier Foundation director for international freedom of expression Jillian York, a past WikiLeaks supporter, tweeted Thursday that she was done with the group: Support isnt unconditional and this week nailed that coffin.

Other civil-liberties groups still back WikiLeaks. The Freedom of the Press Foundation features a prominent fundraising link for WikiLeaks on its own homepage.

WikiLeaks didnt invent this problem

The outrage over WikiLeakss carelessness with the info of innocents yields to the realization that other organizations have made comparable mistakes  even if they could point to legal reasons that argued for exposing peoples personal information.

US police departments made arrest-record databases publicly searchable, then mugshot sites collected arrest photos and charged extortionate fees formayberemoving them. A suburban New York newspaper aimed to dramatize the extent of gun ownership in two counties by taking addresses of registered gun owners, available through a public-records search, and putting them on a searchable map. Washingtons elections board read the law narrowly in deciding to post a searchable database of the names, home addresses and voting history of D.C. residents.

All of those actions publicized personal data that citizens could not have reasonably expected to become search-engine bait. How many other databases are waiting to go online through a hack or intentional sharing?

Something Assange said in a remote video appearance at the SXSW conference in 2014 comes to mind: Its not the case anymore that you can kind of hide from the state, that you can keep your head down. More of WikiLeaks latest help can only assure that.

Read more:

Twitter wont solve its harassment problem by banning one jerk

How to make sure no one else can read your Facebook messages

Heres what Republicans (and maybe Trump) think about tech policy

Tech execs werent being totally fair when they trashed Trumps tech policy

Email Rob at rob@robpegoraro.com; follow him on Twitter at @robpegoraro.

Correction: An earlier version of this story stated that Assange was in the Ecuadorian embassy in London to avoid being arrested on rape charges. He has not been charged with rape. The sentence has been corrected.
By SA Commercial Prop News

Building green costs on average only 5% more than conventional building, according to the Green Building Council South Africa (GBCSA).



Despite the growing recognition of sustainable practices and green buildings, concern within the facilities industry continues due to lack of accurate quantifiable information regarding the financial cost and economic impacts of high-performance buildings.

A new report published this month by industry associations has revealed that the average cost premium of building green over and above the cost of conventional construction  or green cost premium  is a mere 5.0% and can be as low as 1.1%.

The study compiled by the Green Building Council South Africa (Gbcsa), the Association of SA Quantity Surveyors (Asaqs) and the University of Pretoria (UP), includes cost data on a total of 54 Green Star SA office buildings certified through the GBCSA Office v1 tool up to the end of 2014; 33 of which are in Gauteng, 11 are in the Western Cape and 9 in KZN.

Manfred Braune, chief technical officer of the GBCSA says that the study was undertaken to analyse the actual cost premium of building green in South Africa, and challenge the belief that green buildings cost much more than conventional building. South Africa has seen exponential growth in certified green buildings, from the first Green Star SA building in 2009 to the 165th in June 2016. Despite this, there are many more buildings that could be going green but are not.

One of the barriers has been the apparent green premium that many developers or building owners have thought going green would cost them. In the early 2000s, globally and locally a myth was perpetuated that green buildings cost 20-50% more than conventional buildings. Several international studies were done a few years later that dispelled this myth, but South African data had not yet been collected or reported on, so was not included in the studies. The findings of this study for the first time show that green buildings can be built for a negligible premium  between one and 10%  and that this premium is declining.

Pursuing Green Star SA certification was found to result in an average green design penetration of 42.7% of the total project budget. Green design penetration indicates the extent to which the Green Star SA Office v1 Rating Tool has introduced green design into elements of a project, expressed as a percentage of the total project cost.

The study analysed the green design premium and green cost penetration in terms of location; construction area; base building cost; tenant mix; vertical facade to construction area ratio; Green Star SA rating levels (4, 5 or 6 Star); rating type (Design or As Built) and certification date; and rating tool categories, of which there are nine, totalling 69 credits.

As would be expected, the green cost premium increases as the Green Star SA rating increases, with an average premium for a 4 Star Green Star SA rated building being 4,5%, 6.6% for a 5 Star Green Star SA rating and 10.9% for a 6 Star Green Star SA rated building.

Interestingly, there was a slight difference in average costs in the three major economic hubs, and a correlation between the cost premium and penetration. Penetration was found to be slightly higher in the Western Cape (46%) versus Gauteng (41.8%) and KZN (40.4%), while the average cost premium in the Western Cape was 6.9%, 6.0% in Gauteng and 4.5% in KZN.

It was also found that construction area had a significant impact on green building costs, with costs dropping from 9.3% for a building under 5000m to 2.6% for buildings over 50 000m.

Danie Hoffman, programme leader for Quantity Surveying at the University of Pretoria says that contracts for larger buildings often benefit from more competitive tenders due to higher levels of productivity. Economies of scale also result in larger developments having higher efficiency levels (and lower building costs per square metre) of installations such as lifts, escalators or air conditioning systems. So a large office development of say 28,000m with a substantial budget of R350 million will therefore often be able to afford green building initiatives more easily compared to a building with the same specification level but 1,000m in size and costing R14 million. Larger projects will also offer design teams more green design options/scope which all support lower green cost premiums.

There were some interesting findings in the analysis of tenant mix. Firstly, from 2009-2011 only 20% of green buildings were developed for generic clients, or multi-tenanted buildings. This escalated to 40% during 2012-2014. In addition, it was found that a building developed for a single tenant showed a significantly higher premium (8.1%) than a multi-tenanted building at 3.4%.

Hoffman says that this is because single corporate tenants often set more demanding specification levels and may also strive for a higher Green Star SA rating as part of corporate marketing and public image. Such tenants will in most cases also provide design teams with more substantial budgets that can allow for more expensive, state-of-the-art green design solutions, he adds.

Other noteworthy findings of the study include:

The green cost premium appears to progressively diminish over time, largely as a result of the growing maturity in the green industry;

Green cost premiums have been declining since 2011, indicating that the SA green industry is maturing; a higher vertical facade to construction area ratio yields a higher premium;

Two categories of the Office v1 tool (Energy and Indoor Environment Quality) received 58% of the allocation of the total green cost premium. This is because they carry a combined weighting of 40% and many of the credits of these two categories have a direct impact on the operating cost of buildings and on the quality of life experienced by the inhabitants of buildings. These credits are therefore often pursued by design teams.

Karl Trusler, ASAQS EduTech Director says of the Quantity Surveying firms who provided professional services on these buildings, Their skills were ideally suited to providing the sophisticated data required to arrive at the findings, and determine the trends of this study.

The findings in this report are very encouraging and, together with the findings from the joint MSCI/GBCSA Sustainability Index that shows that in South Africa green buildings yield a higher return on investment, they make a very strong business case for green buildings to developers, property owners and corporates, concludes Braune.
Technicians working at Samoa Stationery and Books (S.S.A.B.) have found a new spring in their step after a week-long training last week.

The training was about equipping them to help their customers utilize the Kyocera range of products better and more efficiently. Kyocera New Zealands General Manager, Angus Malietoa was in the country for the training, which ended on Friday.

Manager for Kyocera Copiers at S.S.A.B., George Teo, said the training was an opportunity to empower their workers.

The training was excellent, we learnt a lot from it, he said.

Kyocera now has new models for photocopiers which is different from the ones before.

These models are serviced and installed differently than the old models. They have different features which we needed to familiarise ourselves with.

So we learned more new things from this training and its a huge challenge for us as technicians and that is also why we love our job because we learn new things all the time.

Copier Sales Manager, Adrian Reid, said one of the main problems they face is when the electricity is cut off unexpectedly.

When the power goes off, a lot of customers dont know what to do with their machines, he said.

This training helped us understand more on solving problems like rebooting the machines and making sure that it works well after the power cut.

We now have more understanding on how to operate these new models that we have in store and also to further our knowledge on the input of these new machines that we have right now.

Managing Director and Owner of S.S.A.B., Fiti Leung Wai, said S.S.A.B. is not just about providing products but equally important to them is the ability to provide the back support.

She said the training last week was especially important given Mr. Malietoas presence.

It is a big advantage for Samoa especially S.S.A.B. because the General Manager is Samoan, she said. We at S.S.A.B. are very proud of him for such a milestone that he has accomplished in his career and especially being now the General Manager of Kyocera in New Zealand.

Having Mr. Malietoa in such a role opens many opportunities for Samoa. He has also eased the difficulties that we face in terms of our business communication and providing solutions to customers inquiries.

We look forward to seeing more from the Kyocera team and especially now having been partners since 2009, we always look forward to what Kyocera can bring not only for the benefit of S.S.A.B. but also for the customers.

We continue to value this relationship because of the support that Kyocera is giving S.S.A.B. in terms of the service and the trainings that they offer especially the products that they provide for us. Mr. Malietoa and his Kyocera team have returned to Auckland, New Zealand.
Residents and business owners in the Togafuafua area on the outskirts of the Apia Township are fearful.

After the latest fight between the youths of Togafuafua and Tufuiopa, which damaged some properties, some residents say it is only a matter of time before someone is killed.

A resident who identified himself as Chris said last Fridays fight which involved the throwing of rocks and other items was frightening.

It started at 11pm and lasted well into the next morning.

I was watching TV that time and then I heard noises coming from the road, he said. When I looked out the window, I saw youths throwing stones at each other.

It was frightening. Its just me and my grandparents at our home so none of us dared to go outside at that time because I could see that things were really getting out of hand.

Chris said he was scared for his life and so were many residents in the area.

Our neighbours were scared and we were scared. Its not the first time these things have happened. The fight really got out of hand and I saw police vehicles arrived quickly.

Businesses in the area were affected. One of them is Island Rock Company Limited.

Owner, Tuaopepe Jerry Wallwork, said his shop was spared only because of iron bars surrounding the louvres.

We came the next morning and we saw that one of the doors of the shop was cracked but luckily it was just a small crack, he said.

However, one of the company vehicles parked next door was damaged. The window was smashed and it was from the night before.

These sort of things is very bad and whoever these kids are should be put in jail because they have put the lives of the people living around this area at risk.

Another resident who lives in the area spoke up on the condition of anonymity because he said he is scared of the youth.

There is always tension between the young ones from Tufuiopa and Togafuafua, he said.

We are not safe here because every time a brawl between these two villages occurs, it gets out of hand and even the Police cannot control it.

The police were contacted on the night of the incident but they showed up late, and I dont blame them because they (police) cannot do anything when a fight occurs. They will probably get hurt from it as well.

Police Spokesperson, Maotaoalii Kaioneta Kitiona, confirmed last weeks brawl. At the moment, I cannot be sure what started the brawl between the youths of the two villages, he said.

You will have to wait until the official police report comes in.
Dear Editor,

Thank you Mataafa K. Lesa for standing up for Jack Batchelor and the Lupesina Treesort in your editorial titled Lets not desert the Treesort.

I feel for this man Mr. Batchelor who has done so much good for Samoa. As he said, he broke his silence because everyone threw darts at him.

Despite that, he continued to speak positively about Samoa and the people. What broke my heart is that he risked so much for us. This is exactly the type of foreign investor we need in Samoa, one who does not rely on government or the people for shonky deals to get his business up and going.

Heres Mr Jack Batchelors story. He came with his wife to Samoa and started up a hotel which was destroyed by the tsunami. They then moved to Tiavi and started up the Treehouse resort. His only son came from the U.S.A. to help them out. Tragically, he ended up committing suicide. He broke up with his wife and she returned to America. The man never gave up but stayed behind to run his tree house and resort which attracted a lot of tourists to Samoa.

So whats new about this country and the people who criticized this poor man and the 60 Minutes who aired the story of a serial prison escapee who raped a tourist and tied her husband up?

Yet it was what came out of P.M. Tuilaepas mouth that led to tourists boycotting Samoa as a tourist destination. What P.M. Tuilaepa said reminded me of what Jesus said, its not what goes in to you that destroys you but its what comes out of you that does. In this case what came out of Tuilaepas mouth destroyed tourism and the nation.

According to Mr. Batchelor, he now has more cancellations than reservations and lost $73,000 in the process. So where are those fools who defended P.M. Tuilaepas interview and said what happened to those tourists will not have an impact on tourism?

And where is the governments Press Secretariat that criticized 60 Minutes and pointed the finger to everyone else but not at the P.M. who answered the interview?

Most of these fools that defended the P.M., they only defended him because most of them benefit from government corruption and have been for many years.

None of their responses to the 60 Minutes interview made sense at all but were all defensive and aggressive to those who criticized P.M. Tuilaepas answers given in the interview. Its alright for them to shoot their mouths off because they dont own any businesses, have lost nothing and the incident has no impact on them.

This mans tree house was rated No. 1 on Trip Advisor. After P.M. Tuilaepas interview, its rating dropped down to No 7. Theres a chance that rating might drop further.

It received 99% positive reviews on Lonely Planet compared to other bigger brands, which received only 60%. According to these statistics, a lot of resorts/hotels especially in the rural areas and Savaii were ranked higher than some of the more prominent properties which the government has invested monies in. This explains why P.M. Tuilaepa said what he said on 60 Minutes, that the tourists should not go out to the rural areas (including Savaii) but stay in town where its safer. That statement was an attempt to keep the tourists in town and divert them to these bigger properties.

Jack Batchelor should sue the government for defamation to not only recover the $73,000 loss but for millions more as that is the extent of the damage P.M. Tuileapas statement had caused.

The hotels in rural areas and Savaii need to add up their losses incurred since this interview was aired, get behind Mr. Batchelor and band together for a class suit against P.M. Tuilaepa and his govt. over his statement that suggested that tourists must stay in town where its safer and not go out where theres danger.

But where is the Samoa Hotels Association (S.H.A.) in all of this? Where is the Minister of Police and Tourism? Where is the S.T.A. C.E.O.? What have they got to say about this and what are they going to do about those potential tourists who're boycotting Samoa? Who will speak out for the hotels in the rural areas? Has P.M. Tuilaepa shut them up too? Or are they thinking up some lies to fool the people?

As for P.M. Tuilaepa, youve been using our culture to cover up your pathetic record and hide behind it for a long time. This is the right time for you to use our culture and traditions where it is now necessary for damage control.

Bring the victims Angie and Tommy back to Samoa and offer a proper apology by carrying out an ifoga and televise it around the world to let the world know who the Samoan people really are. We are about respect, love, compassion etc and we are a unique society.

The image of Samoa has been destroyed by P.M. Tuilaepa and H.R.P.P for many years. Because of corruption, the world sees Samoa for who we are not.

Ive said many times before to remove all corrupt leaders and corrupt business associates from Samoa and replace them with leaders that will take Samoa back to her roots and foundation which is founded in God  Faavae i le Atua Samoa.

M.B.R
Cecilia Peterson Keil of Cecilia Fashion House is excited. A person with an insatiable passion for fashion and designs, she can hardly wait for Samoas inaugural Fashion Week in September.

As one of the oldest and most established fashion designers, Cecilias work is well known around the region and the world. The 51-year-old designer has broken into the international market and her collection was showcased during the Pacific Runway in Australia last year.

Mrs. Keil is one of the organisers for the Samoa fashion week in September.

We do need to get out there, she said. Ive been to the Fiji Fashion Week and the Pacific Runway and I saw that there is a lot of opportunities for our designers to be on that runway... to be exposed to that level.

Its about time that Samoa needs to be out there through our unique designs and patterns. We have so many talented young designers here in the country and their work needs recognition.

Cecilia said this will be a great opportunity to increase the local production and the local creativity of our young designers.

There are international labels that we have to meet standards, and the standard is very high at the Pacific Runway Fashion Show, so thats what we want to tell to all the designers who are willing to participate in this fashion show.

This is where it is very important to think outside of the box. The collection we will be looking at will be based on the quality overseas. And that quality is very high, and you have to be very imaginative, think instead of puletasi; I know that its our national dress, but you have to think that when you go overseas, think of the trend thats in and think whats out there.

Think out of the box and always use the Polynesian flair. I go with the trend, but I always use the Polynesian flair because our elei print is very unique and different. And I am sad to see that it has been copied. And being used overseas by other people and they are making good money out of our arts, designs and patterns.

So its about time we have our own fashion week to attract overseas markets for our businesses here in Samoa and this is also a great opportunity for the designers in Samoa to get their work out there.

Ive seen the designers creativity here in Samoa and especially the different designs they bring in for the Miss Samoa and Ive seen that there are a lot of opportunities for our local designers at the international level. So this Fashion week is something that shouldve happened a long time ago. It shouldve happened years ago.

Moreover, she added that this could be an opportunity for our local emerging designers to step up to the international markets.

This fashion week can be a platform for our local designers in Samoa to take that step to go outside of Samoa, either to New Zealand or Australia, Paris and New York.

Because there has been a lot of potential within our local designers, but they have been just designing for events here in Samoa like the Miss Samoa Pageant, and other small fashion shows. But this is an opportunity for them to bring in their different designs and work and to expose their talents for people to see.

And give them a platform to go to Australia and hopefully they will be able to go further and get contracts in other places overseas.

Fashion in Samoa has developed so much and there are a lot of talented young and emerging fashion designers who deserve to be out there in the international market.

Cecilia Fashion House all started from Mrs. Keils kitchen more than ten years ago.

I started working from my kitchen table, she said. I started off by designing and making wardrobes for our Miss Samoa, back in 1996 and 1997. The first one was Mary Jane Mckibbin who was crowned Miss Samoa and Miss South Pacific. I also designed and put together the wardrobes of other former Miss Samoa after Mary Jane such as Taralina Gaee and others.

And I have also been designing dresses for the girls entering the Miss Samoa Pageant.

In 2001, Mrs. Keil opened up her shop on top of the Eveni store.

Asked about what got her into fashion, she replied saying, Ive told this story a number of times, she said.

Being the youngest of nine girls, I always wore hand me down clothes.

So I said to myself that I would like to make new clothes and wear new clothes every day. I would love to design my own clothes and come up with different designs and make my own clothes. So that passion became a dream that I started chasing and it became something that I love, passionately and has been both a habit and a career for me.

Mrs. Keil uttered that she gets new ideas for new designs from whats out there.

I look at whats out there, she said. I could be driving around and I see something interesting and that will just create a vision or an idea for me to design. Or I could just be sitting somewhere enjoying my lunch and then theres something out there that catches my eye and I just create new designs. I just get inspired by whats out there.

Moreover, she draws her inspiration from our culture and traditional designs and patterns.

We have very unique patterns and designs, they tell stories of our ancestors and those designs mean a lot to me. So when I work on a new design or a new collection, I look at the trends out there and then combine it with our traditional patterns and designs because they are very unique and I use it for my designs.

The Polynesian flair is very unique and very beautiful and I always use that Polynesian flair whenever I work on new designs because that is what makes our designs different from the rest of the world.

As one of the oldest couturiers in the country, Mrs. Keils message to the emerging fashioners is simple.

Be original and be creative, she said.

Try not to copy other peoples work. I am not saying everyones copying other peoples work, but I have seen some of the work that has been just copied from the red carpet.

It is very important to be creative and be original. There are a lot of people out there who follow fashion and the trends we have nowadays. Its very important that if you go on the runway, you are not using someone elses collection on the runway.

In her last comments, Mrs. Keil uttered that being a fashion designer has been the dream she has been chasing since she was young, and she will continue to live her dream.

Fashion has paved my way through life and has helped me put my kids to school and helped out my family with our everyday life.

Being a fashion designer is a dream come true for me and to come this far is something I am grateful to our Heavenly Father for.

My designs have been recognised overseas by a lot of people and that has really helped me with my work. That has also motivated me to do my very best to keep and maintain our designs and patterns because they are very unique.

Lastly, Mrs. Keil wanted to thank everyone who has supported her along the way, especially her husband, Conrad Keil and her five children for always believing in her dream.
The driver of a bus which crashed at Tiavi last week endangering the lives of more than 60 passengers and killing one is fighting for his life at the hospital.

As a result, he cannot be charged yet.

Thats according to Spokesperson of the Ministry of Police, Maotaoalii Kaioneta Kitiona.

He said they are waiting for the driver to recover before they charge him.

We cannot charge him at this time because he is in a critical condition, said Maotaoalii.

He is likely to face charges of negligent driving causing death, negligent driving causing injuries and others.

The Samoa Observer visited the hospital yesterday and found that the bus driver has been discharged.

According to an official at the hospital, he said the driver suffered from a beating he received at the crash site.

Although he has not fully recovered, they have discharged him for his own safety because relatives of the victims are still angry about what happened.

He said the hospital security couldnt protect him from angry family members if something happens.
Tomorrow is the last day for free dog de-sexing clinics as part of an overall effort to tackle Samoas canine problem.

The clinics have been carried out by Massey University's Vets together with the help of the staff of the Animal Protection Society of Samoa (A.P.S.).

Vets from Massey University in New Zealand travel three times a year to carry out this service, and they are usually in the country for two weeks to do the clinics.

Yesterday, the clinic was held at Lepea.

Vaifale Peti Williams used the opportunity to de-sex his dogs.

Ever since these clinics, weve seen the decrease in the number of stray dogs in our village, said Vaifale. Although we still see a lot of dogs roaming around town, but there has been a lot of improvement since the beginning of these clinics.

Vaifale extended his gratitude to the vets from Massey University.

It is not an easy thing to do, he said. They travelled all the way from New Zealand to do the clinics for free for our dogs, and I want to thank them for their hard work.

He also wanted to thank the A.P.S. and the Dog Management Unit for supporting the initiative and for working together with the students from Massey University in the clinics.

Malcolm Jack from the Small Animal Surgical Resident at Massey University said the programme has been carried out for almost six years now.

Recently we have two or three trips to Samoa per year, he said.

We bring out some of the students and we just de-sex as many dogs as we can during the time we are in Samoa. There is no targeted number for us when we do our clinics but weve noticed that we have about two hundreds dogs being brought in after two weeks.

In terms of costs, Malcolm said that they always do donations in order for them to be able to come here and do the clinics.

We always ask the University supplier and other vet clinics around to just help us with donation to help raise some money to allow us to come here.

The students who are under this programme are usually the final year students at Massey University and this is attached to their academic work and will help them graduate.

Said Malcolm, the main aim of the programme is to help reduce the population of stray dogs in Samoa.

Reducing the population of stray dogs in Samoa means that you can also reduce some of the diseases that they can get, not only infectious but also parasitical as well. The main aim is to control the population of stray dogs.

Today (Thursday) the clinics will be held at Vailoa at the residence of the village Mayor.

And the clinics for tomorrow will be held at the Police Headquarters in the police parking area.
The Chairman of the Special Parliamentary Committee investigating the work of Judges of the Land and Titles Court is remaining tightlipped about the progress of the Inquiry.

When the Samoa Observer asked Member of Parliament for Vaisigano No. 1, Lopaoo Natanielu Mua, for an update yesterday, he said he could not comment.

I wish I could (speak about the progress) but my lips are sealed and my feet are locked, Lopaoo said.

I am not allowed to say anything about the Commission under (Parliaments) Standing Orders and if I do I would be committing an offense.

Lopaoo was asked about how many members of the public have expressed interest to make submissions before the Commission, which started on Monday.

He declined to comment.

Asked if its true that the Judges of the Land and Titles Court have objected to the Inquiry, he also declined.

But Lopaoo said the schedule for people making submissions is full until the end of the month. We are working up to 10 oclock at night to hear submissions.

The Chairman added that the Committee would be going to Savaii next week to hear from members of the public there.

The Committee is due to table its findings before Parliament by October this year. The Ministry of Justice is expected to respond n November before the report is discussed during the December sitting.

Yesterday, while the Commission members may have been restricted from talking about the Inquiry, some members of the public were more than happy to share what they told the Inquiry.

Among witnesses at Tuanaimato yesterday to speak about the pain and heartaches of decisions made by the Land and Titles Court were descendants of the Fualau title from Lotofaga.

Fualau Sililo Fualau together with his supporters Sauiao Atonio Fualau and Lagaia Masi Levi fronted the Commission yesterday.

Fualau Sililo claims that his father, the late Fualau Paulo, was given the title in 1951 and had passed away in 2007.

According to Fualau decisions from certain judges of the Land and Titles Court have cut their affiliation and connection to the title that is rightfully theirs.

The decision from the Judges has hurt me and our descendants, said the 68-year-old grandfather.

If we do not fight for it today our children will be denied their roots and identityour forefather was bestowed the title and therefore we too have a say and rights to hold the title but its been taken away over bias and erroneous decisions that has changed our (family) foundation.

Fualau added that such dirty decisions have hurt his family.

My children and their children will have nothing if we dont do something about itthe conflicts from the Judge that did our case was quite obvious and its why our appeal was denied. But God has his ways and the truth will be revealed through this (Commission).

Another matai Lagaia said attempts by the family to appeal the matter were denied by a certain Judge.

He pointed out that testament of their blood line connection is held by his relatives who are still living and carrying the title and name of their forefathers.

I am glad that the Prime Minister has called for the Commission, said Lagaia.

Our country is grieving over decisions made by the Judges that has robbed them of their roots and damaged the foundation of villages and families.

Another group of matai who presented their submission before the Inquiry yesterday were from the village of Falefa.
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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
Pune, India -- (SBWIRE) -- 07/27/2016 -- The report "Bleeding Disorders Treatment Market by Type Hemophilia A, Hemophilia B, vWD and others, by Drug Class - Plasma Derived Coagulation Factor Concentrates, Recombinant Coagulation Factor Concentrates, Desmopressin, Antibrinolytics, Fibrin Sealant and Others - Global Forecast to 2021", report provides a detailed overview of the major drivers, restraints, threats, opportunities, current market trends, and strategies impacting the bleeding disorders treatment market along with the estimates and forecasts of the revenue and market share analysis.



Browse 36 market data Tables and 20 Figures spread through 170 Pages and in-depth TOC on "Bleeding Disorders Treatment Market"

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This report studies the global bleeding disorders treatment market over the forecast period of 2016 to 2021. This market is valued at USD 10.33 Billion in 2016 and expected to grow at a CAGR of 7.9% from 2016 and 2021, to reach an estimated value of USD 15.09 Billion by 2021.



The increasing prevalence of bleeding disorders and their rising awareness are key market drivers. Government initiatives, rising R&D activities and investments by key players are further expected to expedite the growth of bleeding disorders treatment market globally.



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The report segments this market based on type, drug class, and region. The type segment is further classified into hemophilia A, hemophilia B, von Willebrand Disease (vWD), and others. The hemophilia A and B are further classified (based on disease management) as prophylaxis and on-demand. The hemophilia A segment is estimated to account for the largest share in 2015.



The drug class segment is further classified into plasma-derived coagulation factor concentrates, recombinant coagulation factor concentrates, desmopressin, antifibrinolytics, fibrin sealants, and others. The recombinant coagulation factor concentrates segment is estimated to account for the largest market share in 2015. Growth in this market is attributed to the rising R&D investments for the development and manufacturing of recombinant products by major players. Plasma-derived segment is estimated to register the slowest CAGR, owing to its reducing demand from end users due to risk of acquiring blood-associated infections. Additionally, difficulty in sourcing plasma from blood (due to scarcity of blood donors) further limits the growth of plasma-derived coagulation factor concentrates market.



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Based on region, the global bleeding disorders treatment market is segmented into North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific (APAC), and the Rest of the World (RoW). North America is estimated to contribute the largest share of the market throughout the forecast period. The market in APAC is estimated to register the highest CAGR during the forecast period, owing to increasing awareness of these disorders in the emerging economies such as India and China.



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Pune, India -- (SBWIRE) -- 07/27/2016 -- The report "Environmental Testing Market by Sample (Wastewater/Effluent, Soil, Water, Air), Contaminant (Microbiological, Organic, Heavy Metal, Residue, Solids), Technology (Conventional, Rapid), & by Region - Global Forecast to 2021", The environmental testing market is projected to reach a value of USD 11.82 Billion by 2021, at a CAGR of 6.9% from 2016 to 2021. The market is driven by factors such as increasing regulations regarding environment protection, and active participation of different government and regulatory bodies to monitor environmental conditions. The high growth potential in emerging markets and untapped regions provides new opportunities for market players.



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Organic contaminant segment is projected to be the fastest-growing market by contaminant from 2016 to 2021



The organic contaminant segment is projected to grow at the highest CAGR from 2016 to 2021. Testing for organic compounds basically includes tests of volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Volatile organic compounds largely consist of carbon-based chemicals which tend to vaporize from its solid or liquid state under normal atmospheric conditions owing to its low boiling point. The risk of health problems is most likely to increase by breathing low levels of VOCs for long periods 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 concern over health issues due to organic contaminants are expected to drive its testing services.



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Wastewater/Effluent segment is projected to lead the market through 2021



The environmental testing market was led by the wastewater/effluent segment followed by soil in 2015. The market for environmental testing for wastewater/effluents is also estimated to have the largest market share through the next five years. Industrial wastewater/effluent is polluted by organic, inorganic, and biological contaminants. The wastewater/effluent has to be tested and treated before disposing it in the environment. With the growing industrial activity, generation of wastewater/effluent is projected to increase, which is projected to drive its testing service market.



Significant growth for environmental testing is observed in the Asia-Pacific region



Asia-Pacific has a high growth potential for environmental testing. Infrastructure development such as construction and energy-related projects, industrial transformation, growing awareness regarding environmental pollution, sustainable transformation of the environmental policies is estimated to drive the growth of environmental testing market in this region. Moreover, the Indian market is projected to grow at a higher growth rate for environmental testing in Asia-Pacific because of the growing demand for development of waste infrastructure and government initiatives to improve its environmental performance. This has impacted the demand for environmental testing in the country.



This report includes a study of marketing and development strategies, along with the product portfolio of leading companies. It includes the profiles of leading companies such Eurofins Scientific SE (Luxembourg), AB Sciex LLC (U.S.), SGS S.A. (Switzerland), Bureau Veritas S.A. (France), and Agilent technologies Inc. (U.S.).



About MarketsandMarkets

MarketsandMarkets is the world's No. 2 firm in terms of annually published premium market research reports. Serving 1700 global fortune enterprises with more than 1200 premium studies in a year, M&M is catering to a multitude of clients across 8 different industrial verticals. We specialize in consulting assignments and business research across high growth markets, cutting edge technologies and newer applications. Our 850 fulltime analyst and SMEs at MarketsandMarkets are tracking global high growth markets following the "Growth Engagement Model  GEM". The GEM aims at proactive collaboration with the clients to identify new opportunities, identify most important customers, write "Attack, avoid and defend" strategies, identify sources of incremental revenues for both the company and its competitors.



M&M's flagship competitive intelligence and market research platform, "RT" connects over 200,000 markets and entire value chains for deeper understanding of the unmet insights along with market sizing and forecasts of niche markets. The new included chapters on Methodology and Benchmarking presented with high quality analytical infographics in our reports gives complete visibility of how the numbers have been arrived and defend the accuracy of the numbers.



We at MarketsandMarkets are inspired to help our clients grow by providing apt business insight with our huge market intelligence repository.



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Pune, India -- (SBWIRE) -- 07/27/2016 -- The report "Food Enzymes Market by Type (Carbohydrase, Protease, Lipase), Application (Beverage, Processed Food, Dairy, Bakery, Confectionery), Source (Plant, Microorganism, Animal), Form (Lyophilised Powder, Liquid), & by Region - Global Forecasts to 2021", The market for food enzymes is projected to reach USD 2.94 Billion by 2021, at a CAGR of 7.4% between 2016 and 2021.



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Processed foods projected to be the fastest-growing application of the food enzymes market



The processed foods application of food enzymes is expected to grow at a comparatively higher CAGR than other applications. The processed foods segment is growing due to increasing applications of food enzymes in food processing procedures and rising awareness about enzymatic benefits of food enzymes among consumers. The bakery segment has been estimated to lead the market in terms of value mainly due to the wide application of food enzymes in baking. It is followed by dairy applications in terms of market size.



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Carbohydrase projected to be the largest type of food enzymes in terms of market size



Carbohydrase accounted for the largest market share in the food enzymes market in 2015 and is projected to be the largest type of food enzymes during 20162021. Carbohydrase comprises amylase, cellulose, pectinase, lactase, and some other enzymes which form vital ingredients in food and beverages consumed daily. Amylase is mainly used in industries because of its cost effectiveness, less time-consuming processes, and as it is easy to modify and optimize the manufacturing process. Cellulase is mainly used in the juice, dairy, and alcohol industries, and other food & beverage-processing industries. Lactase is one of the fastest-growing types of carbohydrase food enzymes due to increasing number of lactose-intolerant consumers.



Latin America projected to be the revenue pocket for the food enzymes market



The North America region was the largest market for food enzymes in 2015, in terms of value, followed by Europe and then Asia-Pacific in terms of market size. The Latin American region is projected to be the fastest-growing market for food enzymes during the forecast period. The markets in Latin American and Asia-Pacific regions are driven by the increasing consumer awareness and growing end-use applications such as processed foods, dairy, beverages, and confectionery.



The study includes the profiles of leading companies such as E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company (U.S.), Associated British Foods plc (U.K.), Koninklijke DSM N.V. (The Netherlands), Novozymes A/S (Denmark), and Chr. Hansen A/S (Denmark). Other players include Dyadic International, Inc. (U.S.), Advanced Enzymes (India), Puratos Group (Belgium), and Amano Enzyme Inc. (Japan).



About MarketsandMarkets

MarketsandMarkets is the world's No. 2 firm in terms of annually published premium market research reports. Serving 1700 global fortune enterprises with more than 1200 premium studies in a year, M&M is catering to a multitude of clients across 8 different industrial verticals. We specialize in consulting assignments and business research across high growth markets, cutting edge technologies and newer applications. Our 850 fulltime analyst and SMEs at MarketsandMarkets are tracking global high growth markets following the "Growth Engagement Model  GEM". The GEM aims at proactive collaboration with the clients to identify new opportunities, identify most important customers, write "Attack, avoid and defend" strategies, identify sources of incremental revenues for both the company and its competitors.



M&M's flagship competitive intelligence and market research platform, "RT" connects over 200,000 markets and entire value chains for deeper understanding of the unmet insights along with market sizing and forecasts of niche markets. The new included chapters on Methodology and Benchmarking presented with high quality analytical infographics in our reports gives complete visibility of how the numbers have been arrived and defend the accuracy of the numbers.



We at MarketsandMarkets are inspired to help our clients grow by providing apt business insight with our huge market intelligence repository.



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Tampa, FL -- (SBWIRE) -- 07/27/2016 -- Ranked as the premier IKEA kitchen cabinet assembly and installation company in Florida, Kitchen Craft LLC are considered as the masters at the skill of installing and assembling IKEA kitchen cabinets from a wide variety of models. Under the spearhead of Sergio, Kitchen Craft LLC ikea kitchen cabinet installers have installed and assembled thousands of IKEA kitchens throughout Florida and they maintain an impeccable customer satisfaction record.



The Swedish home and office furniture manufacturer IKEA is known for revolutionizing the furniture industry through its modern, ready to assemble furniture, appliances and home products. The company expanded from being a small mail order furniture seller to the largest furniture retailer in the world, as of 2008. The company's products are popular around the globe, especially in the US. Their modern designs have allowed buyers to tell their own personal story through home furniture, their kitchens are stylish, versatile and affordable which has made it the number one choice among buyers. Kitchen Craft launched an independent IKEA kitchen that provides people the convenience of getting their ready-to-assemble kitchen assembled by professionals. The company has prior experience of working as a certified IKEA kitchen installer with IKEA Orlando for four years, this experience has allowed the professionals a wealth of knowledge and experience that many other companies in the area cannot match. The company has been serving the Florida area for more than a decade and their IKEA kitchen installers are known for completing each project on time and to an exceptionally high standard



Their clients praise the Kitchen Craft LLC affordable, reliable and quick, the IKEA cabinet installers services, which are available for residential and commercial Since, the company's inception over 10 years ago, they have served hundreds if not thousands of clients in Florida.



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Bensalem, PA -- (SBWIRE) -- 07/27/2016 -- Individuals in the Bucks County and Montgomery County areas who are in need of listing assistance or buyer representation have turned to the award-winning real estate agency, Brian Gunn Group. With the slogan "Always Use Gunn to get the Deal Done", the group, led by top agent Brian Gunn, makes the transaction happen. The agency, which is a franchise of Keller Williams, offers myriad professional real estate services, from estate sales and relocation services, to leasing and foreclosures. One of their main specialties, however, is handling the buying and selling of luxury homes.



The Brian Gunn Group goes above and beyond to help their clients find the home of their dreams in the most desirable areas of the surrounding communities, as well as provide listing assistance for upmarket properties. Recently, the agency provided listing services for a beautiful five-bedroom home at 1236 William Penn Drive in the appealing neighborhood of Wellington Estates, which was sold for a record price of $557,500 after being on the market for only one day.



Following the sale, the Brian Gunn Group represented the sellers and assisted them with purchasing their new home for the record low rate of $822,000 in the heart of one of Bucks County's top developments, Dolington Estates, in Upper Makefield. The property boasts a landscaped front and backyard with an in-ground pool and traditional style exterior.



As a licensed Pennsylvania real estate agent, Brian Gunn works hard to meet his client's needs in the market of buying and selling homes. Those looking to buy or sell a home can contact the Brian Gunn Group by calling 215-292-3886 or filling out the contact form online at http://briangunngroup.com.



About The Brian Gunn Group

Brian Gunn and his team is an award-winning, Philadelphia-based real estate agency associated with the leading international real estate franchise, Keller Williams. Using their vast experience in the real estate industry, the group helps their clients sell or buy homes all across the Bucks County and Montgomery County regions. Brian Gunn's specialty areas include, but are not limited to, buy representation, listing specialist, short sales, luxury home sales, foreclosures, leases, and more.



For more information about the Brian Gunn Group, visit http://briangunngroup.com.
An international team of marine biologists has found genetic evidence of a previously unknown species of beaked whale (Berardius sp.nov.) that ranges from northern Japan across the Pacific Ocean to Alaskas Aleutian Islands.

Beaked whales (Ziphiidae) are the second most diverse family of cetaceans but remain poorly understood. There are currently 22 recognized species, comprising 24 percent of all cetacean species.

These whales are typically found at very low density and in deep offshore or deep basin waters, and observing them is complicated by their medium-to-small size (10-43 feet, or 313 m), deep diving behavior that keeps them below the surface for up to an hour, and low surface profile that makes them difficult to spot in rougher sea-state conditions.

The largest and one of the most common beaked whale species is the Bairds beaked whale (Berardius bairdii).

It occurs throughout the temperate North Pacific, from the southern Gulf of California in the east, to the Bering, Okhotsk and Japanese Seas in the west.

In Japan, whalers have traditionally recognized two forms of Bairds beaked whales: the common slate-gray form and a smaller, rare black form. They call the enigmatic black form karasu, the Japanese word for raven.

Japanese whalers have known about the black form but didnt consider it a separate species, said team member Dr. Erich Hoyt, from Whale and Dolphin Conservation, UK.

Dr. Hoyt and his colleagues carried out a DNA analysis of 178 beaked whales from around the Pacific Rim and found eight examples of this extremely rare form.

The eight included specimens from the Smithsonian Institution and Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History, a skeleton on display in an Alaska high school, and another that puzzled scientists trying to identify it when it washed up on an island in the Bering Sea.

The challenge in documenting the species was simply locating enough specimens to provide convincing evidence, said team leader Dr. Phillip Morin, of NOAA Fisheries Southwest Fisheries Science Center.

Clearly this species is very rare, and reminds us how much we have to learn about the ocean and even some of its largest inhabitants.

The newly-identified species closely resembles the Bairds beaked whale, but is about two-thirds the size  about 25 feet (7.6 m) full grown  and darker in color.

This species and the Bairds beaked whale are each more closely related to the Arnouxs beaked whale (Berardius arnuxii) from the Southern Hemisphere than they are to each other.

The eight known examples cluster around northern Japan and the Aleutian Islands and Bering Sea. That suggests that the species has a smaller range than the Bairds beaked whale.

Scars from the cookie-cutter-like bites of tropical sharks suggest that, like other beaked whales, the species may migrate to tropical waters.

As much as we know about the genetic heritage of this animal, we still do not know very much about the animal itself, Dr. Morin said.

We can draw some indications from what we know about other beaked whales in terms of its range and behavior, but we still have many more questions than answers.

The teams results were published online this week in the journal Marine Mammal Science.

_____

Phillip A. Morin et al. Genetic structure of the beaked whale genus Berardius in the North Pacific, with genetic evidence for a new species. Marine Mammal Science, published online July 26, 2016; doi: 10.1111/mms.12345
[MANILA] As the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Economic Community or AEC takes effect, it is important to see which are the important framework conditions for innovation where economic integration may have an impact.



Its widely known there is a wide disparity in innovation capability and technological development in the ten-member ASEAN. For example, if the number of patent applications per million population will be used as an indicator for innovation, the Global Innovation Index 2015 (Cornell University, INSEAD and World Intellectual Property Office) show that Singapore (7th) and Malaysia (32nd) are the only ASEAN countries within the top 50.



ASEAN Country Global Innovation

Index Ranking

(2015) Singapore 7 Malaysia 32 Vietnam 52 Thailand 55 Philippines 83 Brunei 88 (2014) Cambodia 91 Indonesia 97

Myanmar 138

In a 2013 study, Rajah Rasiah, a professor at the University of Malaya in Malaysia, categorised nine of the ten ASEAN member states on the basis of a five-stage typology of technological development in terms of four key factors: basic infrastructure, high technology infrastructure, network cohesion, and global integration. Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar were placed in the first stage (initial conditions); Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam in the second stage (learning phase); Malaysia in the third stage (catch-up phase); and Singapore in the fifth stage (frontier phase) with none of the member countries in the fourth phase (advanced phase). [1]

Best practices in ICT will lead to easier access to scientific and technological information. Fortunato de la Pena, Department of Science and Technology, Philippines



Many recommendations have already been given to accelerate technology development and increase the innovations generated in ASEAN. I cited here six framework conditions as examples: (1) intellectual property rights (IPR), (2) higher education, (3) information and communications technology (ICT), (4) technology transfer and commercialisation, (5) public procurement, and (6) infrastructure.



In the case of intellectual property rights, the AEC plans for an ASEAN Patent Search and Examination Cooperation, Regional Certification of Ethnic Goods and Services, and Regional Action Plan on IPR Enforcement and Cooperation. If implemented, these programmes will have a definite impact, mostly positive, on innovation generation. In addition to regionwide protection, there is also the prospect of market expansion.



For higher education, the planned ASEAN University Network for Higher Education is a strong possibility. The existing ASEAN University Network for Science and Engineering Education (AUNSEED) could be a take-off platform for this, considering its success particularly in sharing resources and knowhow, providing opportunities for advanced learning, and promoting research collaboration among scientists and engineers from different member states that are in the early phases of technology development. The participation of dialogue partners from outside ASEAN is key to the success of this undertaking.



Regarding ICT as a framework condition for innovation, the e-ASEAN initiatives are also expected to have a positive impact on the generation of innovations. Best practices in ICT will lead to easier access to scientific and technological information. For example, a regional network of patent libraries within schools and universities in the ASEAN member states, which can be made possible through ICT, will increase access to global scientific and technological information for R&D. Capacity building can also be enhanced through a regional initiative using ICT  whether the training is targeted at researchers, students, entrepreneurs, investors/innovators or public servants who are involved in the innovation continuum.



As far as technology transfer and commercialisation is concerned, one possibility is an ASEAN technology commercialisation platform specifically to commercialise the markets for public-funded R&D by linking national platforms. This will open up the possibility for adoption and commercialisation to at least a regionwide pool of investors and venture capitalists. This will also expand potential markets that have been technically limited to the markets in the member states. However, this will require some kind of regional harmonisation with respect to product standards and royalty payments for venture capital investment practices.



Public procurement for innovation is one of the roles that government can also play to enhance innovation. For example, the government can stress green procurement in a particular sector like schools. This will encourage innovations in the development of products that are used in education such as furniture, teaching materials and maintenance supplies. Another is to adopt schemes of co-sharing, co-utilisation, greater public access, and access of the private enterprise sector to equipment and facilities used for research, development and prototyping that are procured by government. This will definitely give a boost to innovations generation.

Lastly, it is expected that ASEAN-wide infrastructure development will play a significant role in generating innovations. Examples of this are the ASEAN Connectivity Project in ICT; the ASEAN Power Grid like those connecting Malaysia and Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia, and others which are still proposed; and the Trans-ASEAN Gas Pipeline connecting Thailand, Vietnam and Malaysia.Many of the plans and possibilities mentioned can have a high probability of being realised within the short or medium term and ASEAN member states should now prepare for these to maximise the benefits that can be derived.Fortunato de la Pena is the new Secretary of the Philippines Department of Science and Technology (DOST). He served DOST in various capacities including as Undersecretary for Scientific and Technological Services. He is a former Professor of Industrial Engineering at the University of the Philippines.This piece was produced by SciDev.Nets South-East Asia & Pacific desk.
[KAMPALA] Four scientists  three of them in Africa  have won US$250,000 for combined success in improving nutrition and health through combating vitamin A deficiency in vulnerable populations.



Kenneth M. Quinn, president of the World Food Prize Foundation, announced last month (28 June), that the 2016 World Food Prize will be awarded to them.



The award indicates the need for investing in agricultural research to improve the livelihood of the poor, said Quinn, in a statement.

The award is also a proof to the policymakers and all Ugandans that scientists are contributing a lot to household nutrition. Jolly Kabirizi, National Livestock Resources Research Institute, Uganda

Maria Andrade and Robert Mwanga, working for the International Potato Center (CIP), have bred the Vitamin A-enriched orange-fleshed sweet potato (OFSP), which has contributed to averting blindness.



The other winner, Jan Low, who is based in Kenya, is the project manager of the Sweet potato Action for Security and Health in Africa (SASHA) project for the CIP.



SASHA advocates for use of a proven integrated agriculture and nutrition approach in Sub-Sharan Africa.



Every year up to 500,000 children worldwide go blind and half of them die within 12 months after going blind due to vitamin A deficiency, says the WHO.



OFSP provides vitamin A to children, pregnant and lactating mothers.



I am overjoyed that this success story has been given high profile to attract attention of the globe to the potential to exploit orange-fleshed sweet potato to save lives and improve livelihoods of the poor, says Mwanga, a sweet potato breeder at CIP based in Kampala, Uganda.



Since 2009, with support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and other key donors, CIP launched the Sweet potato for Profit and Health Initiative (SPHI) in Sub-Saharan Africa along with 26 partners. The initiative seeks to improve the lives of 10 million African households by 2020 in 17 African countries.



So far, the initiative has released 56 new sweet potato varieties, 42 of them orange-fleshed.



The varieties have reached 2.2 million households in ten countries: Ghana, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia.



The OFSP-bred varieties are adapted to different conditions and are preferred by farmers, according to Mwanga, noting the initiative is a good example of output of scientific research in Africas agriculture.



At CIP, research for development extends through the entire value chain, from production to processing and marketing, Mwanga adds. Researchers use a participatory market approach taking into account consumer and farmer preferences in identifying the traits to breed, particularly in texture and taste, to get closer to the type of sweet potato consumed in many African countries.

The fourth scientist, Howarth Bouis who works with HarvestPlus in Washington DC in the United States, pioneered the implementation of a multi-institutional programme approach to biofortification as a global plant breeding strategy.Jolly Kabirizi, principal research officer and forage scientist at the National Livestock Resources Research Institute in Uganda, tells SciDev.Net: The award is also a proof to the policymakers and all Ugandans that scientists are contributing a lot to household nutrition, income generation and poverty alleviation. Many resource poor families using orange fresh sweet potatoes have benefited from this variety.

This piece was produced by SciDev.Nets Sub-Saharan Africa English desk.
Summer 2016's top laptops are suggested to be more portable than ever with all reportedly equipped with enough battery life to keep it running all day. MacBook Slips, HP Spectre, Dell XPS 13 and Chromebook Rise makes up the list of Summer 2016 best laptops.

The Summer 2016's best consumer laptop is the Hewlett-Packard Spectre, which is branded as the world's thinnest laptop. Summer 2016 HP Spectre has a stunning aluminum and carbon fiber build that is extremely sleek at only 10.4mm and 2.45 pounds, but does not skimp on performance. The Summer 2016 HP Spectre sells starting at $1,169.99.

Summer 2016's best budget laptop is the Chromebook that runs Google's Chrome operating system. Summer 2016 chromebooks are simple to maintain and are capable as full-blown laptops, which can offer all-day battery life. Summer 2016 Chromebooks price starts from as low as $269 up to $1000.

Summer 2016's best business laptop is the Dell XPS 13 which uses carbon fiber in addition to aluminum to keep the weight low. Summer 2016 Dell XPS 13 performance is excellent for an ultra-thin design with high-performance 6th-generation Core i7 processors, Laptop Mag reported. Summer 2016 Dell XPS 13 price starts at $799.99.

Summer 2016's best compact and ultra-light laptop is the 12-inch Retina MacBook. Summer 2016 Retina MacBook is the new gold standard in ultra-thin and ultra-light laptops that weighs only 2 pounds. Recently, Apple added a new patent that covers adding cellular connectivity in the MacBook, Digital Trends reported. Summer 2016 Retina MacBook is priced at $1,299.

Summer 2016's best high-performance 15-inch-class laptops are Summer 2016 Dell XPS 15 which is 15.6 inches and the 15.4-inch Summer 2016 MacBook Pro. Both the Dell and Apple Summer 2016 laptops can be configured with quad-core mobile processors with very-high-resolution displays, fast graphics, and both have decent battery life despite their powerhouse internals. Summer 2016 Dell XPS price starts at $999 while the 15-inch Summer 2016 MacBook Pro price starts at $1,999 and ranges up to $2,499.
Solar impulse aircraft is the world's first solar powered craft to have circumnavigated around the world. The Solar Impulse aircraft finished its world trip after descending in Abu Dhabi.

The Solar Impulse aircraft was piloted by Bertrand Piccard. He steered the aircraft from Cairo, Egypt to UAE for the last time. Piccard and co-pilot Andre Borschberg took turns navigating the Solar Impulse aircraft in different parts of the world. The solar powered aircraft's sole mission was to promote renewable energy.

After arriving in Abu Dhabi, Piccard told the crowd that the future is clean, the people, now and that they should take it further, NPR reported. The Solar Impulse aircraft started its journey back in March 9, 2015 and ended recently in Abu Dhabi as well.

The Solar Impulse aircraft had a 17 staged flight covering approximately 42,000 kilometers. The aircraft flew across four continents, three seas, and two oceans for the past year.

The longest flight that Solar Impulse aircraft made was from Nagoya, Japan to Hawaii, United States of America. The flight lasted almost 118 hours. During this long trip, Borschberg eventually broke a world record for the longest duration navigating solo uninterrupted.

Piccard and Borschberg worked tirelessly on the Solar Impulse aircraft for over a decade.

The pilot duo wanted to complete their challenge last year, but they were unable to get the best summer weather in the Northern Hemisphere. Furthermore, the Solar Impulse aircraft's battery was damaged during a 5 day voyage on the western Pacific during June to July 2015. The damage to Solar Impulse aircraft's batteries opted the pilots to end their adventure for 10 months.

The Solar Impulse aircraft is about the weight of a car and has a wingspan similar to that of the Boeing 747. The solar cells on the aircraft amounted to 17,000. Its cockpit is the same size as a public telephone box. This made the pilots wear oxygen masks connected to tanks so they could breathe at high altitudes and sleep for only 20 minutes each time.

The Solar Impulse aircraft made its journey from Abu Dhabi on March 9, 2016 passing Oman, India, Myanmar, China, Japan, U.S.A., Spain and Egypt, The Guardian reported. The world's first solar powered aircraft touched down Abu Dhabi on July 23.
Weather disasters cause vulnerability to multi-ethnic nations. Scientists said on July 25, Monday that heatwaves and drought trends worsened by global warming somehow ignite conflicts.

In multi-ethnic nations, an outbreak of 23 percent armed conflicts since 1980 occurred during the same months of extreme weather disasters. Study showed that these countries include Afghanistan and Somalia. Moreover, nine percent of these worldwide conflicts during the same period overlapped with weather disasters.

The weather disaster study also suggests that nations with existing fault lines in ethnic groups are extremely vulnerable to weather disasters. Researchers of the study wrote in the U.S. Journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, or PNAS, that their results imply that weather disasters act as a threat multiplier in the world's most conflicted regions.

The study said that cuts in greenhouse gas emissions or measures to drought resistant crops can help in limiting global warming and weather disasters from occurring, Carbon Brief reported. People living in Africa and central Asia's weather disaster risks could also be reduced with such methods.

Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, one of the authors and head of Climate Impact Research in Potsdam Institute wrote that their study gives evidence of a special co-benefit of climate stabilization and peace, Pik-Potsdam reported.

University of Hamburg staff Juergen Scheffran, on the other hand, reviewed the study of PNAS and welcomed it by stating that it is a step in understanding the complex relationship between conflict and weather disasters. However, other researchers are concerned that by linking weather disasters and conflict is difficult. They say that it is difficult to isolate weather disasters from other factors like social injustice and poverty.

Many researchers are wary of linking climate change and conflict, saying it is hard to isolate warming from factors such as poverty, sectarian divides or social injustice. A panel of United Nations scientists during 2013 said that climate change may indirectly increase violent conflicts. They also stated that weather disasters can amplify conflicts arising from economy and poverty.

Weather disasters and climate change by greenhouse gases was doubted by U.S. Republicans. They say that the conclusion of the study instills fear instead of public safety to push an unrelated climate agenda.
A young humpback whale was found washed up on a Northern California beach with massive fractures to the skull. Experts say that there is a possibility that the 32-foot animal was hit by a boat.

Poor humpback Whale washes up on Souther California beach this weekend. https://t.co/WM46doKcSK pic.twitter.com/9N6OR9Hnbz  ODM (@therealODM) July 2, 2016

Researchers from the Marine Mammal Center and California Academy of Sciences were able to perform a necropsy on the female whale that was first spotted on Bean Hollow State Beach on Sunday.

According to the Washington Times, scientists found a cut on the whale's front right flipper as there had been evidence that the whale came across a ship. The report said that there have been fractures to the back of the whale's head that are consistent with being hit by a ship, as is the cut on its right flipper. The flipper injury indicated that the creature was previously caught in an entanglement fo some kind.

These species have been moving slowly moving along California's coast as they follow the herring and anchovies that they usually feed on.

This is the second time in a month that scientists had to perform a necropsy on a humpback whale, as noted by the Half Moon Bay Review. Media specialist Giancarlo Rulli said that the previous humpback was found half a mile away and also seemed to have suffered injuries that may be a result of a ship strike.

He also said that this is not the first time this happened - last year, three dead whales also washed up on the same Pacifica beach last year, and finding more than one dead of whale on a beach "isn't necessarily unusual."

Last month, a 45-foot whale was found washed onto rocks near Rye State Park in New Hampshire. Boston News noted that the 18-year-old female whale, identified as Snow Plow, was reported to have had her corpse floating 20 miles out to sea and officials believed that it had been dead for several days before it washed ashore.
LAKE CITY, S.C.  The Lake City High School graduating Class of 1956 held its 60th reunion recently in the Lake City Country Club. Of the 67 graduates, 23 attended.

Attendees cames from across South Carolina and from Texas, Minnesota, Georgia, Alabama and North Carolina. Willie James is the class chaplain, by unanimous vote. He is also the remaining class officer.

We had a great time. We voted to do Dutch lunch somewhere annually, class member Beady C. Moore said.

The class voted before graduation to meet every five years on the second Saturday of July. According to Moore, the class has only missed having its get-togethers one time, and that was for the 15th reunion.

That first reunion, marking the fifth anniversary of graduation, was in the old Lake City High School cafeteria. The 10-year reunion was in the Country Club. Others have been in the National Guard Armory, Prossers Cafe, the Railway Restaurant and the Midtown Grille.

Sixty-one graduates attended the 50th reunion, Moore said. From now on, the group will meet annually for lunch in Lake City.
More blood has been shed on the shores of the Danish Faroe Islands in the second grindadrap (grind) of the year, in the same village where 43 pilot whales were slaughtered just three weeks ago.

At approximately 4pm yesterday, a pod of up to 200 pilot whales was spotted by locals on the island of Vioy, before being pursued by 25 boats for over two hours to Hvannasund beach where 120 of the whales were killed. Hvannasund is one of 23 approved killing beaches in the Faroe Islands, where it is permitted for locals to slaughter pilot whales and dolphins.

Pilot whaling is illegal. It is illegal in Europe, its illegal in Denmark, therefore it is illegal in the Faroe Islands. Denmark claims it is for the Faroe Islands to decide whether or not to stop whaling, but this is not true. said Liesbeth Zegveld, attorney for Sea Shepherd. The Faroe Islands are Danish territory, and Faroe citizens are Danish citizens. The Faroe Islands are not a federal state within Denmark. They only have a self-governing status allowed by Danish legislation that can be repealed and amended by Denmark.

We are currently in the process of establishing legal proceedings to take the Kingdom of Denmark to the European Commission and Danish courts. Said Operation Bloody Fjords Campaign Leader and director of Sea Shepherd Netherlands, Geert Vons. The Faroe Islands cannot enforce their laws protecting the practice of slaughtering pilot whales without the active support and force of the Danish police and military. It is blood that links Denmark and the Faroe Islands.

Sea Shepherd has led the opposition to the grindadrap since 1983. The 2016 pilot whale defense campaign, Operation Bloody Fjords, sees Sea Shepherd take its battle against the grindadrap to the heart of the Faroese and Danish institutions that continue to promote this outdated practice.
We have been doing work there for almost two and half years and we have been operating at close to full utilisation.

We are being paid within 30 days upon submission of our invoices. So far, we have not seen any issues of funding or payments from Brazil, president and group ceo Shahril Shamsuddin said.

Shahril added that the operating expenditure per barrel from deepwater sources in Brazil amounts to about $10 per barrel.

In fact, the cheap cost is a strong incentive for Petrobras to continue extracting oil to maintain its cash flows, he noted.

This is where their cash comes from, so they will always ensure that oil is being extracted. These are the fields we are working on; it is something that cannot be disrupted, pretty much like how Petronas is to Malaysia.

We continue to see a very strong business proposition in Brazil, he remarked.

In Brazil, the company has five vessels operating and another that will commence works in the third quarter of this year.

The 10-year long term contract for the provision of support vessels for pipe-laying works is estimated to be worth above MYR10bn ($2.5bn).

More than half of its total outstanding orderbook of MYR20bn is concentrated in the Americas with about MYR11.5bn coming from the continent, the bulk of which comes from the Petrobras contract.

Additionally, the group is bidding for $7bn worth of new projects, Shahril added.

In reality only about MYR5bn worth of jobs can be completed within a particular year. So we need to secure another MYR5bn to replenish the order book to current levels.

The only way to do that is to scour the globe for opportunities, and we can also look for many smaller jobs as opposed to one big contract, he explained.
Hanjin approached Seaspan in May seeking reduction in rates three 10,000 ships it has on long-term charter at $43,000 per day. Seaspan declined an offer of shares in Hanjin in exchange for a charter rate cut over three and half years.

As of 30 June Hanjin had $11.6m in outstanding charter payments to Seaspan.

Speaking during Seaspans half year earnings call Wang stated: We've made it very clear. We'll not entertain the rate reduction.

We have never had such situation before with any of our other customers and Hanjin Shipping has been the only one.

Wang believes that while situation with Hanjin is very fluid that it will in the end honour its charter obligations.

But we believe our Korean friends, the Korean government and the shareholders there and Hanjin Shipping will become more rational. They will soon realise honouring contractual obligations at the international stage is very important practice.

GCI Group, a joint venture between Carlyle Group, Seaspan, Tiger Investments and the Washington Family, also has four vessels on long term to Hanjin and Wang said that GCIs position was the same as Seaspan, which was taking the lead in the discussions.

The experience of Hanjin with Seaspan and GCI contrasts with that of compatriot Hyundai Merchant Marine (HMM) which was able to secure around a 20% cut in its charter rates with five different boxship owners allowing the shipping line to avoid court receivership.
The new Felixstowe Express Service (FEX) will link Felixstowe with key ports in China including Yangshan and Ningbo, with a call in Port Klang in Malaysia, before calling the UK, Rotterdam and Hamburg.

The service adding Felixstowe to APLs network was described by the company as an important expansion to its Asia  Europe network.

With Felixstowes close proximity to the main European shipping lanes; and broad inland transportation options to the rest of UK, the FEX service will provide APL shippers with yet another route of accessing the markets, APL and CMA CGM said in a statement.

It added that it would complement APLs existing calls at Southampton.

The new service launches from Qingdao, China on 20 August.

The announcement comes at it would appear CMA CGM rationalises its brands following the acquisition of APL with it planning to drop the ANL brand, which also owns, from the Asia  Europe and Asia  Mediterranean corridor, according to analyst Alpahliner.

APL is particularly strong in the transpacific trade and its acquisition through CMA CGM buying Neptune Orient Lines (NOL) will make the French line the largest line on that trade.
The Dubai-based global terminal operator has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the state run Taiwan International Ports Corporation (TIPC) for the development of Kaohsiung Ports Terminal 7.



Key to seeking mutual future business opportunities is the goal of developing T7 to enable Kaohsiung to handle ultra-large containerships (ULCSs) for the first time. It is understood 13,000 teu class vessels are the largest containership able to call presently.

Kaohsiung Port has enough container capacity to serve immediate growth in Taiwan but does not yet have the capability to attract new growth resulting from the ULCs added to line-haul services, said Rashid Abdulla, svp and md of DP Worlds Asia Pacific Region. This MoU marks the intention to tackle this challenge.



Kaohsiung Port ranked alongside Singapore, Hong Kong and Rotterdam as one of the worlds largest container ports in the 1990s but has steadily lost ground to new counterparts in China as well as South Korea. The Taiwanese government is spearheading a drive to reverse the slide and DP Worlds global muscle will undoubtedly help Kaohsiungs push to become a key Asia-Pacific transhipment hub once more.

Group chairman and ceo Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem noted that like Kaohsiung, DP Worlds flagship Jebel Ali Port in Dubai was once a fishing village but had emerged to become among the worlds most technologically advanced and productive ports. The vision of Dubais leadership had enabled Jebel Ali to remain ahead of the global vessel upsizing curve, Sulayem said, and DP World looked forward to sharing this experience with Kaohsiung port, helping Taiwan grow and its people prosper.

Indeed in 2000 when Kaohsiung still ranked at number six in the world, Dubai ranked at 13, by 2014 Jebel Ali was the worlds 9th largest container port while Kaohisung had sunk to 13th in the list behind Port Klang in Malaysia.

Our strategy in developing in strategic locations where our customers want us to be, serving global trade and being able to handle the new generation of ultra large vessels shows how we are investing in the future, translating our vision into reality, Sulayem said.

For DP World, Kaohsiung Ports key geographical location and excellent natural harbour make it an obvious target as it continues to spread its tentacles around the globe.



DP World has positioned itself as a knowledge exporter and proudly trumpets advising governments around the world on smart trade measures for profitable growth and the need to support local businesses for international economic progress.

In 2016 alone DP World has taken an 80% stake in a $2bn joint venture with the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) targeting ports, transportation and logistics infrastructure opportunities in Russia while also earmarking $1bn for brownfield container terminal expansions, long-term greenfield container concessions, inland container depots and the development of existing inter-modal rail services in India.

There has also been a 50-year, $500m concession to manage the multipurpose greenfield terminal of Posorja near Ecuadors business capital Guayaquil; a $442m jv at the Port of Berbera in Somaliland, to be phased in over time and dependent on volumes generated at the key Horn of Africa hub; and a 25-year concession to develop and operate a new logistics centre in Kigali, Rwanda.



DP World now operates 77 inland and marine terminals in more than 40 countries, handling more than 170,000 teu a day. Its Asia Pacific and Indian Subcontinent portfolio spans 11 countries, with 26 operating terminals offering customers capacity of 35m teu.




FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

2016-152

The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that State Street Bank and Trust Company has agreed to pay $382.4 million in a global settlement for misleading mutual funds and other custody clients by applying hidden markups to foreign currency exchange trades.

As part of its custody bank line of business, State Street safeguards clients financial assets and offers such services as indirect foreign currency exchange trading (Indirect FX) for clients to buy and sell foreign currencies as needed to settle their transactions involving foreign securities. An SEC investigation found that State Street realized substantial revenues by misleading custody clients about Indirect FX, telling some clients that it guaranteed the most competitive rates available on their foreign currency exchange trades, provided best execution, or charged market rates on the transactions. State Street instead set prices largely driven by predetermined, uniform markups and made no effort to obtain the best possible prices for these clients.

State Street has agreed to pay $167.4 million in disgorgement and penalties to the SEC, a $155 million penalty to the Department of Justice, and at least $60 million to ERISA plan clients in an agreement with the Department of Labor.

Under the terms of the agreement, the SEC will issue its order instituting the settled administrative proceeding only after a federal court approves State Streets proposed settlement with private plaintiffs in pending securities class action lawsuits concerning its pricing of foreign currency exchange trades. State Street has agreed to admit certain findings in the SECs order.

State Street misled custody clients about how it priced their trades and tucked its hidden markups into a corner where they were unlikely to notice, said Andrew J. Ceresney, Director of the SECs Division of Enforcement. Financial institutions cannot mislead their customers about their trading costs.

Paul G. Levenson, Director of the SECs Boston Regional Office, added, Mutual funds and other registered investment companies should not face overreaching by the very banks hired to safeguard their assets.

The SECs order will find that State Street willfully violated Section 34(b) of the Investment Company Act of 1940 and caused violations of Section 31(a) of the Investment Company Act and Rule 31a-1(b) by providing its registered investment company custody clients with trade confirmations and monthly transaction reports that were materially misleading in light of the representations it made about how it priced foreign currency exchange transactions. State Street will be required to pay $75 million in disgorgement plus $17.4 million in interest to harmed clients as well as a $75 million penalty.

The SECs investigation was conducted by Sue Curtin, Cynthia Storer Baran, Andrew Palid, Deena Bernstein and Celia Moore of the Boston Regional Office, and Stuart Jackson of the Division of Economic and Risk Analysis. The SEC appreciates the assistance of the U.S. Attorneys Office for the District of Massachusetts and the Department of Labor.
File photo: The shadow of a Royal New Zealand Air Force maritime search aircraft can be seen on low-level clouds as it flies over the southern Indian Ocean looking for missing Malaysian Airlines flight MH370. REUTERS/Rob Griffith Malaysian, Australian and Chinese officials recently announced that they soon would suspend the search for Malaysian Airlines Flight 370, once they've exhausted a roughly 75,000-square-mile search zone. But conspiracy theories continue to swirl around what happened to the jet,, which vanished from radar as it traveled between Kuala Lumpur and Beijing back in March 2014 with 239 passengers and crew aboard.

And now, a newly-published study by Italian researchers suggests that the plane may have crashed as much as 300 miles north of the roughly 75,000-square mile zone where the search took place.

RELATED: Wreckage Positively Confirmed as Being from MH370

In the study, published in July 27 in the journal Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences, researchers used the location of the few pieces of wreckage that have been found -- small piece of the right wing that was found on the Indian Ocean island of Reunion, and other pieces that washed ashore in Mozambique, South Africa and on Rodrigues Island.

They plugged that information into a computer simulation based on high-resolution oceanographic and meteorological data, and used it to predict how winds and ocean currents would distribute the wreckage.

The researchers concluded that the main wreckage is likely to be in an area of the Indian Ocean between 28S and 35S . While some of the current underwater search area lies between 32S and 35S, it also raises the possibility that the downed airliner could also be further north than where authorities are currently searching.

RELATED: Tragedy Fuels Calls for Real-Time Tracking of Aircraft

"Our result is the first to calculate the movement of the debris that best agrees with all five of the currently confirmed discoveries. This should make it the most accurate prediction," Eric Jansen, a researcher at the Euro-Mediterranean Center on Climate Change in Italy and lead-author of the study, said in a press release.

It's not yet clear whether the study will persuade the international group of searchers to extend their search. Government officials from the three countries have indicated that they would do only if "credible new information" emerges to pinpoint the aircraft's location.

The study also indicates that besides the vicinity of the crash site, the most probable locations to discover additional washed-up debris are the African mainland countries of Tanzania and Mozambique, as well as the islands of Madagascar, Reunion, Mauritius and the Comoros.

WATCH VIDEO: How Do We See Things From Space?
In the United States alone, farm animals excrete 335 million tons of manure. Phosphorus and nitrogen in the runoff contaminate water and can lead to toxic algae blooms and increase the risk in humans for developing cancer.

Designer Jalila Essaidi of The Netherlands wants to be a part of the solution. Her BioArtLab's latest project, Mestic, aims to convert cow manure in fabric, plastic and paper.

RELATED: Top 10 Things Poop Makes Better

"This is not the first time that scientists are looking for ways to solve the manure problem," she told Dezeen. "But it is the first time that manure is being considered as a valuable resource."

To get from poo to product, Essaidi dries the manure, separating the cellulose, which is present thanks to the cow's grazing, from the liquid parts. The cellulose can be turned into paper.

The wetter parts contain acids that are used to create cellulose acetate, a natural liquid plastic. Thin fibers are formed from this liquid and turned into textiles or bio-plastic that behave like products derived from petroleum.

RELATED: Could Poop Power Our Cars?

According to Dezeen, the acetate can also be freeze-dried to create an aerogel.

Unlike petroleum-based plastics, Essaidi's poo-products are biodegradable and can also be engineered in the lab to last for different periods of time, depending on what they'll be used for.

Here's a video that shows Essaidi's work.
The leopard, known as "Killy," was able to get away from the road on her own power and fade into the forest. (The motorist left the scene.) But a photo at the scene showed spilled blood near her mouth. The big cat was not found during search attempts, so conservationists hope she is OK and reverting to her stealthy ways.

There was bad news in Russia for a species without much margin for error, when a female Amur leopard  one of an estimated 70 to 80 remaining in the world  was struck by a car near the village of Kravtsovka, the Siberian Times reports.

Now, officials with the Land of the Leopard National Park, where Killy lives, are keeping eagle-eyes on camera trap footage in hopes they can see her and: A. Be assured that she is still alive, and B. Try to assess any injuries she may have sustained.

RELATED: Pair of Rare Amur Leopard Cubs Born in U.K. Zoo

"Clearly it won't be easy, because this three-year-old leopard is known for her secretive behavior," a park official told the Times.

Despite a recent, relative population boom and doubling of its kind over the last decade, in raw numbers Amur leopards remain in a precarious place. The International Union For Conservation of Nature lists the cat as "critically endangered" on its "red list" of threatened species. Estimates vary, but there are generally thought to be only about 70 to 80 left. They've lost numbers to forest destruction and poaching, and potential for inbreeding among the diminished population also threatens the species' long-term viability.

As for Killy, for now officials can only hope for the best. On its Facebook page, the Land of the Leopard National Park wrote that the injured cat "probably survived," but until camera footage or an eyewitness can verify that, her status remains uncertain.

WATCH VIDEO: What Happens When Endangered Animals Come Back?
Many North American wolves are coyote-wolf hybrids, according to a new study that could lead to an important Endangered Species Act (ESA) change that may set a precedent affecting not only wolves, but also other animals.

The ESA currently lacks provisions for genetically mixed populations, aka hybrids or mutts, but DNA analysis studies like this new one reveal that such animals are sometimes already included in the Act as unique species.

An example is the red wolf, which the new study -- published in the journal Science Advances -- finds is a hybrid of about 25 percent now-extinct gray wolf and 75 percent coyote. The red wolf was listed as an endangered species in 1973, initiating a captive breeding program by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS).

"The program began with 12 of 14 founding individuals selected because they lacked apparent coyote-like traits," senior author Robert Wayne, a professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at UCLA, told Discovery News. "The descendants of these founders have led to several hundred red wolves that now form a reintroduced population in eastern North Carolina."

RELATED: Game of Thrones Dire Wolves Were Real!

The study conducted by Wayne, lead author Bridgett vonHoldt and their colleagues identified the red wolf's substantial coyote ancestry that likely resulted from another round of human activity.

"In the mid 1800s, federal, state and local governments extirpated wolves in the southeast by trapping, poisoning and by other means," Wayne said, explaining that coyotes then became more prevalent in the region. As the wolf population there diminished, they must have had trouble finding their own kind to mate with, resulting in the hybrids.

Coyotes do well, he said, "because the more we kill them, the more they amp up their reproduction. They are even in New York's Central Park now."

RELATED: Yellowstone Grizzlies May Be Taken Off Endangered List

The now-extinct population of southeastern gray wolves appears to be in the red wolf's genome, similar to the way that Neanderthals, which went extinct some 30,000 years ago, left their DNA mark in the genomes of people with Asian and European heritage.

Wayne and his team additionally found that the so-called "eastern wolf," which inhabits the Great Lakes region and the eastern U.S., is yet another hybrid that is about 5075% gray wolf and 25% coyote. This is significant, as the USFWS has accepted the eastern wolf as a distinct species and has argued that the presence of eastern wolves in an area previously thought to be included in the geographic range of only the gray wolf is grounds for removing (de-listing) the gray wolf's ESA protection.

According to a USFWS fact sheet, "The gray wolf has rebounded from the brink of extinction to exceed population targets by as much as 300 percent. Today, there are at least 5,510 gray wolves in the contiguous United States. Wolf numbers continue to be robust, stable and self-sustaining."

Wayne and his colleagues, along with other animal experts, conversely believe that today's gray wolf populations in the U.S. are, as a whole, much smaller than what they were in the past.

RELATED: Wolf Species Howl in Distinct Dialects

"We have not restored wolves to their past geographic ranges," Wayne said. "Based on genetic analyses, there were hundreds of thousands of wolves in the American West, for example, before their authorized mass extinction."

He added, "There is always pressure to de-list wolves, with some saying that they hurt livestock. The 'big bad wolf' image is still very much with us, even though grizzlies, black bears and mountain lions can have a greater impact on livestock."

He and his team propose a new ESA rule change that would address hybrids like the eastern and red wolves, in addition to purebreds such as the Holarctic gray wolf (Canis lupus). There was an attempt to create an "intercross policy" in the ESA in 1991, but that effort subsequently fizzled.
Geographically speaking, Norway is an especially tricky place for motorists. With more than 1,100 fjords -- the deep glacial water inlets that divide land masses -- driving from point A to point B typically requires points C through Z, several bridges, and a couple of ferry rides.

To remedy the problem, Norway is undertaking an ambitious project to build a fully submerged floating traffic tunnel beneath the waves of the Sognefjord, a troublesome body of water that runs 3,000 feet wide and 4,000 feet deep.

RELATED: World's Longest Rail Tunnel Opens

According to planners, the tunnel would be attached to massive pontoons floating on the surface of the water, and further stabilized by trusses connecting dual tubes. The side-by-side cylinders would enable uninterrupted traffic in both directions, and would hang around 70 to 100 feet under the surface of the water.
DNA analysis of 178 beaked whale samples has turned up an entirely new species: a black variation in the northern Pacific that is a rare sight even for frequent seafarers. The samples, which included museum specimens as well as the remains of a whale found on an island in the Bering Sea, were examined by an international team of researchers that has reported its findings in the journal Marine Mammal Science. RELATED: Stranded, Rarely Seen Beaked Whale Has Strange Fang The new whale is colored black and tops out at about 25 feet long, fully grown. It looks a lot like the more common Baird's beaked whale, save for its smaller size and darker color. The elusive cetacean has been out there on the water all along. But sightings of it are rare, and no one had studied it closely enough to see that it was a new species. "Japanese whalers have known about the black form but didn't consider it a separate species," said Erich Hoyt, study co-author and research fellow with Whale and Dolphin Conservation, in a statement. RELATED: Rare Beaked Whale Washes Up in Australia All told, eight examples of the new species were found among the nearly 200 samples studied by the team. "The challenge in documenting the species was simply locating enough specimens to provide convincing evidence," said lead author Phillip Morin, a biologist at the NOAA's Southwest Fisheries Science Center. "Clearly this species is very rare and reminds us how much we have to learn about the ocean and even some of its largest inhabitants," Morin added. WATCH VIDEO: Why Do Whales Beach Themselves?

Beaked whales, with their namesake dolphin-like "noses," in general are not as well known as some other whales. They're deep divers, heading thousands of feet down to patrol undersea canyons in search of squid and unlucky, bottom-dwelling fish that might be in the neighborhood. Bigger ones can reach some 36 feet long. In their study, the scientists noted that Japanese whalers saw the new black and the existing, more slate-gray, Baird's beaked whales as two forms of Baird's. Now the new, little-seen species points up the need for caution going forward, they say. "The implication of a new species of beaked whale is that we need to reconsider management of both species to be sure they're sufficiently protected, considering how rare the new one appears to be," said Hoyt. RELATED: New Deep Diving Whale Discovered "Discovering a new species of whale in 2016 is exciting but it also reveals how little we know and how much more work we have to do to truly understand these species," Hoyt added. One such unknown involves the new whale's range. Samples found by the team suggest a relatively small area of operation in the northern Pacific between Japan and Alaska  the Baird's beaked whale's range is bigger, covering the northern Pacific from Japan to Baja, Calif.  but some samples had telltale tropical shark bites, suggesting the black whales may also migrate to more tropical seas. VIEW PHOTOS: All-Black Animals:

Whether you're clicking until it hurts looking for Black Friday deals online or elbowing your way past your fellow humans in a brick-and-mortar to grab the last box of the hottest new ... something! ... on the shelves, eventually you're going to tire of all of that expending of energy, and cash. So why not ease your mind, check out some all-black creatures, and remember that nature still exists on this day of rampant consumerism? All-blackness occurs in lots of creatures, often as a rarity. Above we see an all-black caiman sneaking its way toward prey, or toward the electronics aisle for the latest new game. Crittercam Shows Alligators Stalking, Eating Prey

Melanistic, or all-black, grey seals are extremely rare. This one was found on the Wadden Islands, off the Netherlands, in 2009. As big as it looks, it was only a few weeks old. Brutal Killer Lurks Within Cuddly Marine Mammal

Black squirrels aren't exactly rare. The subset of the Eastern grey squirrel can be seen on the U.S. East Coast and some Central and Midwestern states. PHOTOS: Animals Hug Trees to Stay Cool

Wolves can even sport the occasional coat of black. Lone Gray Wolf May Be Roaming Grand Canyon

This incredibly rare melanistic King penguin was photographed on a beach in Fortuna Bay, South Georgia, in British Overseas Territory. PHOTOS: It's Cold! So Look at Penguins

Guinea pigs, too, can occur in fashionable black. 10 Best Sniffers in the Animal Kingdom

This black pine snake needs no help shopping for its meals. VIDEO: How Snakes Got Their Venom

A black variation on the common lizard wonders what all the fuss is about on Black Friday.

Melanistic leopards also fall under the heading of black panthers. PHOTOS: Panthers on the Prowl

Melanistic jaguars are also black panthers. The "jag" is bigger and a bit sturdier than the leopard, though they look a lot alike in general.

Black crows are always up for a good haunting of a landscape. 10 Surprising Facts About Animal Intelligence
Scuba diving is great fun until your tank starts running out of oxygen. But what if you could just gather the oxygen from the water that's all around you on a dive? A new material synthesized by researchers in a lab could do just that.

Scientists have created a crystalline material that can pull all the oxygen out of room with just a spoonful. And it can release that oxygen when and where it's needed. What some have dubbed the Aquaman crystal offers tantalizing promise for those tethered to bulky equipment.

"This could be valuable for lung patients who today must carry heavy oxygen tanks with them," said professor Christine McKenzie of the University of Southern Denmark, in a statement. "But also divers may one day be able to leave the oxygen tanks at home and instead get oxygen from this material as it "filters" and concentrates oxygen from surrounding air or water. A few grains contain enough oxygen for one breath, and as the material can absorb oxygen from the water around the diver and supply the diver with it, the diver will not need to bring more than these few grains."

The new material uses the element cobalt, bound in an organic molecule.

"Cobalt gives the new material precisely the molecular and electronic structure that enables it to absorb oxygen from its surroundings," McKenzie said. "Small amounts of metals are essential for the absorption of oxygen, so actually it is not entirely surprising to see this effect in our new material," she said.

The material, like a sponge, can absorb oxygen and release it many times over. Once the oxygen is absorbed it can be released with a small amount of heat or by exposing it to low oxygen pressure, like a vacuum. The researchers are also investigating whether the oyxgen release could be triggered by light.

"When the substance is saturated with oxygen, it can be compared to an oxygen tank containing pure oxygen under pressure -- the difference is that this material can hold three times as much oxygen," McKenzie said.

Hat tip: Uproxx
Photo: This is a caldera of a supervolcano that erupted in Long Valley, east of the Sierra Nevada mountain range in California, 760,000 years ago. Credit: NASA/JPL



Supervolcanoes are volcanoes that have had eruptions of magnitude 8 on the Volcano Explosivity Index, and spewed at least 240 cubic miles' worth of deposits of lava and other materials. There are about 20 known supervolcanoes around the world, including one inside Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming. Fortunately, they don't explode very often -- the most recent supervolcano eruption was in New Zealand, 26,500 years ago -- they have the potential to spew enough material into the atmosphere to devastate the entire planet.

RELATED: North Korea Lets in Outsiders to Study Huge Volcano



Now, scientists have discovered that supervolcanoes probably give only about a year's warning before they blow.

In a study published in the journal PLOS ONE, Guilherme Gualda, an associate professor of earth and environment sciences at Vanderbilt University, and University of Chicago senior scientist Stephen Sutton did a microscopic analysis of quartz crystals in pumice taken from the Bishop Tuff in eastern California, the site of the super-eruption that formed the Long Valley Caldera 760,000 years ago.

Gualda explained in a Vanderbilt press release that while the processes that prime the crust and ultimately lead to an eruption can take thousands of years, the final stage of the process is a relatively quick one in geologic time.

RELATED: Quakes Could Trigger Massive Supervolcano Eruptions

"The onset of the process of decompression, which releases the gas bubbles that power the eruption, starts less than a year before eruption." he said.

According to Gualda, the decompression period would likely be accompanied by the expansion of the magma body which should have detectable effects on the Earth's surface, and that those signs would intensify as the eruption neared.

More work needs to be done to identify what the signs given off by a supervolcano would be, Gualda said. With smaller volcanoes, scientists have discovered a number of signs, including an increase in seismic activity and movement of quakes closer to the surface, and ground deformation, according to Oregon State University's Volcano World website.
Germany recently announced a plan to significantly expand its military, a development which would have triggered worldwide alarm not too long ago. Germany's old World War II ally Japan has also made changes to its constitution, permitting its military to engage in missions other than self-defense.

Why are these countries once again expanding their military forces? Jules Suzdaltsev puts the developments into historical context in today's DNews dispatch.

At the end of World War Two, Allied forces occupied both Germany and Japan for several years. During that period, both countries agrees to rewrite their respective constitutions to limit future military build-up. The idea was to prevent Germany and Japan from becoming the aggressors in another war.

Article Nine of the Japan's new constitution stated that the country would essentially become a pacifist nation and never again maintain "land, sea or air forces." However, when U.S. forces ended their occupation, it became immediately clear that Japan was utterly defenseless against regional aggression from neighbors like China and Russia.

In 1954, Japan established a small Self-Defense Force. Six years later, the country entered into an agreement by which the U.S. would maintain military bases in Japan and defend the island nation from attack.

RELATED: Hitler's 'Mein Kampf' Goes on Sale in Germany

Meanwhile, over in Germany, the newly-written 1949 Constitution limited armed forces to domestic defense uses only. However, as the Cold War heated up, Germany became a front line again in a different kind of conflict. In 1955, West Germany was allowed to establish armed forces and join NATO. Gradually, the new German army expanded to 500,000 troops and provided the bulk of NATO's defensive forces in central Europe.

Germany reduced its forces at the end of the Cold War and imposed a cap of 185,000 troops. But now the country is ramping up its military once again, in response to terrorism and the growing migrant crisis in Europe. The newest policies, enacted in June, will add more than 7,000 troops and $150 billion to the defense budget.

In Japan, new laws passed in 2015 will allow the country to deploy troops overseas for the first time in 70 years and join allies in military operations. The new rules also bolster Japan's defense options when guarding against North Korean aggression or China's recent efforts at territorial expansion.

Why are Japan and Germany are arming themselves once again? The simple answer is also the most accurate: The world is a different place than it was 70 years ago.

-- Glenn McDonald

Learn More:

New York Times: In a Reversal, Germany's Military Growth Is Met With Western Relief

Telegraph: Japan allows army to join foreign forces in action

The Guardian: Germany slowly comes to terms with sending its armed forces abroad

BBC: Toothless tiger: Japan Self-Defense Forces
David Hile spent decades building his business, Hile Creative . Over the years he grew to know what would make the firm grow; the right opportunity or a promising new employee. And then, when it came time, he devoted just as much thought and attention to properly closing up shop."I told myself if the job ever stops being rewarding or creative I would go back to my roots as a fine artist," Hile says. "The last couple of years were hard because the industry was changing so fast. Also my job had turned into mostly sales."Hile Creative became a household name in the Ann Arbor's creative scene. It did branding and marketing work for big clients like Beaumont Hospital and the University of Michigan, as well as little ones like Venturi , a Traverse City-based maker of bathroom products. There were 11 people on the company payroll when Hile started thinking about winding down.Hile expected to run his business until his 70s. He made it to 63. That was in the first few weeks of 2015. By that spring he broke the news to his staff. The end came in May of last year."My staff was my biggest consideration at the time," Hile says. "I knew they would do well because they are all extremely talented."It seems like everyone dreams of one day opening a business. All of their friends and acquaintances have an idea or two of how best to grow it. Consultants are full of advice on how to scale it. No one ever talks to them about the day they will have to shut it down.And that day is far more likely to come sooner than an owner expects. Statistics from the U.S. Small Business Administration state about half of businesses with employees fail within their first five years. Only a third will make it to their 10th anniversary, while only 26 percent make it to 15 years."Ignorance and blind optimism are an entrepreneur's best friends," says Bill Mayer, vice president of entrepreneurial services for Ann Arbor SPARK . "If you could think of everything that could go wrong in a new company no one would ever start a new business."That quote and those statistics are daunting. So much so that the fear of them drives entrepreneurs to do some kooky things. Even the people who live their lives by facts and statistics start to engage in superstitious behavior when the subject of a failing firm comes up in conversation.For instance, most entrepreneurs will talk anyone and everyone's ear off about what it takes to build a business. Reach out to them to talk about what happens when a business goes under, and the silence is deafening. A handful of the entrepreneurs contacted for this story who had startups fail on their watch declined to talk about the experience.Some of these companies were darlings of Ann Arbor's new economy at one point of another. They scored millions of dollars in venture capital. They took home big prizes at the Accelerate Michigan Innovation Competition, the state's premiere business plan competition. And then they failed for one reason or another."There are a million different reasons a company can go out of business that are unrelated to its performance," Mayer says.Some of those entrepreneurs got right back on the horse and started new companies. A couple landed mid-level managerial jobs at marquee local tech firms hungry to add talent. Ann Arbor SPARK works to pair those entrepreneurs and their former employees with nearby growing companies through its online talent portal and networking events to keep talent local."That's really the mark of a mature ecosystem," Mayer says. "Are there enough companies to absorb displaced people? That means there is less risk for people who want to move here for a job."Making those sorts of smooth transitions happen is often easier said than done. Most entrepreneurs are experts when it comes to explaining their vision. They want to be seen as synonymous with success, not failure. Being honest with people when things are going the wrong way isn't easy, but it's the right move for people who want to build a reputation in a place they want to sink roots."The best thing to do is be honest with everyone," Mayer says. "You can't make a bad situation good. You can just be honest with everyone and make the best of it."Hile lived the good life building Hile Creative for 30 years. He started the company as an illustrator with a dream working part-time for a Ann Arbor-based agency that is no longer in business."My passion at that time was illustration," Hile says. "This was before the computer made its impact in the industry so there was a lot of illustration work out there."The end of Hile Creative came in its 31st year when Hile became tired of it all. He decided to retire to his fine art studio as a one-man operation. He knew he couldn't take his nearly dozen staffers with him so he spent his last months in business helping them find jobs.Many found new jobs shortly after Hile announced the closing of his business. Hile says he also introduced some of his employees to key people on Hile Creative's active client list, paving the way for them to continue that work."They were all able to find a new job very easily," Hile says.One employee stuck around. It was an office manager who worked a couple days a week but had done so at Hile Creative for many years. Hile says he kept that person on the firm's health insurance and payroll for a few extra weeks after shutting down Hile Creative until they landed on their feet with a new job, too. Then it was over. The office furniture was packed up and Hile Creative ceased to be. It was both a sad and exciting day for Hile when he reached out for the office light switch one last time."The day I shut off the lights I was a little nostalgic," Hile says. "Since then I haven't looked back."
The Bank of Ann Arbor is acquiring the Bank of Birmingham, a move that will serve as the growing local banks expansion into Oakland County.Bank of Ann Arbor is paying approximately $33.3 million to Bank of Birmingham shareholders as part of the deal. The merged banks will continue under the Bank of Ann Arbor brand with $2.5 billion in assets at eight branches. employees. All of the 225 employees from both banks will be retained during the merger."We are working hand-in-hand together," says Tim Marshall, president and CEO of Bank of Ann Arbor Marshall expects the banks to spend the next 12-15 months working on assimilating the two workforces together. He adds that it helps that both banks have similar work cultures and that they use the same core processing system.This represents the Bank of Ann Arbor's third acquisition in the last six years. Bank of Ann Arbor acquired the former New Liberty Bank in Plymouth in 2010 and UniFi Equipment Finance in Ann Arbor in 2013. The Bank of Birmingham , which only has a branch in Birmingham, will serve as Bank of Ann Arbor's introduction to the Oakland County market. Marshall doesn't expect Bank of Ann Arbor to make any other acquisitions in the near future."It's really too early to make that sort of decision," Marshall says. "We want to focus on closing this transaction flawlessly."Bank of Ann Arbor has carved out a niche for itself as a local bank as demand for local banking surged after the financial crisis of 2008. Bank of Ann Arbor moved to fill that void by serving both people and businesses. It had grown its overall assets to $2.2 billion before the new merger with Bank of Birmingham, with 185 employees at seven branches in Washtenaw and western Wayne counties.Marshall expects that sort of local-first philosophy to drive growth at the bank for the foreseeable future."We're just going to continue to emphasize that at every opportunity," Marshall says. "We have enjoyed a lot of success, and there is a lot more success on the horizon for us."
Press Release

July 27, 2016 ANGARA: MINDANAO RAIL A TICKET OUT OF POVERTY FOR MINDANAOANS Responding to the clamor of Mindanaoans, Senator Sonny Angara has filed a bill creating the state-owned Mindanao Railways Corporation, a move he likened to laying the first administrative track in building a railway in the world's 10th most populous island. "Rail is the locomotive that will drive Mindanao's progress. It is also a driver for peace because as communities become interconnected, economies are linked, growth spreads, and travel brings cultural exchanges," Angara said. Angara said the proposed "MindaRail" will have an authorized capital stock of P1 billion, with an 11-person board, all appointed by the President. MindaRail will locate its offices in Davao City. In Senate Bill 137's explanatory note, Angara said establishing the MindaRail would allow the island's urban centers and growth corridors such as the cities of Davao, General Santos, Butuan, Cagayan de Oro, Cotabato, Malaybalay to be linked by rail. He said the train service should be capable of ferrying not just people but cargo as the island is an agriculture powerhouse producing, by last count, half-a-trillion pesos of farm produce a year. Mindanao accounts for half of the country's corn output, 83 percent of banana production, 61 percent of harvested coconut, 90 percent of pineapple yield, and 67 percent of commercial fisheries catch, and 36 percent of cattle inventory. Yet despite posting a GDP of P1.87 trillion, the island's 21.9 million people account for 40 percent of the country's poor. "A train system is the ticket out of poverty for many of them," Angara said, explaining that cheap, reliable and fast movement of goods would increase incomes and add value to produce. Angara also noted that the island sits on $310 billion worth of mineral deposits. "It also has vast potentials for clean energy such solar, wind, geothermal, and biomass." The senator, who has been filing a bill on MindaRail since his days in the House of Representatives, said a railway system is not a novel undertaking in the country. At its peak, the Philippine railway system stretched for 1,140 kilometers in the islands of Luzon, Panay and Cebu. Mindanao has 2,000 kilometers of gravel roads, Angara said. "There are some sectors who argue that money which will be spent for paving these would be better used in building a railway."
Press Release

July 27, 2016 Bam eyes to 'reduce requirements & processing time' in gov't agencies A senator has filed a measure that aims to reduce regulatory requirements that burden the public and businesses. "Lengthy, complicated and overlapping regulations from various government agencies result in costly and time consuming processes that have inconvenienced far too many Filipinos for too long," said Sen. Bam Aquino as he filed Senate Bill No. 348 or the Government Efficiency Office (GEO) Act of 2016. "Obtaining government I.D.s, paying taxes, requesting for necessary permits and other dealings with government leaves citizens frustrated, often pushing them to find extrajudicial avenues to fulfill requirements," he added. In case of businessmen, Sen. Bam pointed out that obtaining each necessary permit involves up to 30 steps aside from 47 tax payments to make each year, which consume an average of 193 business hours. "These bureaucratic inefficiencies can lead to the failure of a fledgling business. It is no wonder the Philippines ranks 103rd out 189 countries in the Doing Business rankings by the World Bank," the senator stressed. To do away with regulatory barriers that hamper the nation's growth and oppress Filipinos, the Government Efficiency Office Act seeks the creation of a special arm under the Office of the President that will be tasked to ensure efficiency in the existing and proposed regulations across government agencies. This measure seeks to create a National Policy on the Development and Implementation of Regulations (NPDIR) to set policymaking principles and guidelines to be followed by all government agencies. Under the measure, a Government Efficiency Office is mandated to implement the NPDIR. It will be tasked to review existing regulations and recommend their repeal, amendment or consolidation to relieve the public of the heavy burden of compliance. With a streamlined regulatory procedure, Sen. Bam said individuals will be encouraged to comply with the law and make the market more accessible for businesses and MSMEs. If enacted into law, Sen. Bam believes the Government Efficiency Office Act will contribute to President Rodrigo Duterte's commitment to spare the public from hassles and delays in government transactions.
Press Release

July 27, 2016 Senator JV Ejercito Remains Chairman of Housing Committee;

Commends President Duterte on Making Housing a Priority Senator JV Ejercito is happy to remain as the Chairman of the Committee on Urban Planning, Housing and Resettlement in the 17th Congress and vowed to fully support President Duterte's "walang demolisyon, kung walang relokasyon" agenda. The senator said, "I am elated to carry on my duties as the Chairman of the Committee on Urban Planning, Housing and Resettlement. This will give me an opportunity to continue my advocacy for every Filipino's right to affordable, safe, decent and resilient housing and shelter." During the 16th Congress, among Senator Ejercito's accomplishments was the passage of RA 10884 or The Balanced Housing Development Program Amendments which he authored. The new law mandates condominium developers to allot a portion of their projects to socialized housing. Senator Ejercito expressed his admiration for President Duterte's call for a "no demolition without relocation" policy during his State of the Nation's Address last Monday. He said, "I fully support President Duterte on his commitment not to displace informal settlers through demolitions without adequate relocation plans. This is something I hope we can resolve through my proposed In-City Housing Resettlement Program Bill where informal settler families (ISFs) can be relocated within the city and there would be no need for off-site relocation where there is no employment and basic services." Senator Ejercito who is also pushing for the creation of full-fledged Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development, authored Senate Bill No. 331 or the In-City Housing Resettlement Program Bill that seeks to amend RA 7279 or the Urban Development and Housing Act to guarantee sustainability and viability of resettlement projects for informal settler families (ISFs), to be led by local government units, assuring access to their employment and empower them by making them active partners in government's resettlement program. He said, "The key is to come up with a more pragmatic plan to start addressing the housing needs of the country. We can start harmonizing housing policies and programs among all the key shelter agencies and encourage Local Government Units to become active participants in the delivery of our people's basic right to adequate and resilient housing." "With the commitment of President Duterte to prioritize housing and VP Robredo's support to lead our housing agenda for the marginalized, and even for the low and middle income families, I am sure we will be able to come up with a housing strategy and program that will not only address the housing needs but one that will also boost the economy through proper government spending in infrastructure development, encourage private investment and multiply job creation," added Ejercito.
Press Release

July 27, 2016 Legarda Files Bill Against Racial, Religious and Gender Discrimination Senator Loren Legarda has filed a bill seeking to prohibit discrimination, profiling, violence and all forms of intolerance against persons based on ethnicity, race, religion or belief, sex, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, language and disability, amid the growing number of cases involving discriminatory acts in the Philippines. Senate Bill No. 39 or the "Anti-Ethnic, Racial, Religious and Sexual Discrimination and Profiling Act" seeks to promote a society that values the dignity of every human person and guarantees full respect for human rights, regardless of race, religion, ethnicity and gender. "It seeks to fulfill our international commitment under the International Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD), to ensure its full application in our national legal system through the creation of a comprehensive law with substantial penal provisions," Legarda said. The Senator explained that the Philippine population is composed of many religious and ethnic groups. "This diversity has given way to a number of incidents on racial and religious discrimination." Meanwhile, profiling, which is a criminology term that follows the basic sociological science method of understanding the complexities of human society by breaking down members of a population into groups that share common characteristics, has resulted in stereotyping. Legarda lamented, "Certain crimes, such as terrorism, murder and kidnapping are sometimes deliberately attributed to a religious affiliation. Profiling has also caused minority groups and individuals of a certain gender and sexual orientation to be discriminated against in many ways including in employment. "The Constitution clearly provides for the freedom of every Filipino to religion and racial identity. No Filipino is excluded. Each and every individual deserves to be treated fairly and equally. Through this proposed measure, we should be able to reduce the discrimination that causes a different kind of terrorism--the one that fosters hatred, thus fueling disunity in our country," said Legarda. The proposed Anti-Ethnic, Racial, Religious and Sexual Discrimination and Profiling Act prohibits religious and racial profiling, effectively penalizing those who commit discriminatory acts such as subjecting a person to unnecessary, unjustified, illegal and degrading search; discriminating against a person who is applying for a job; or disallowing the entry of a person to an establishment open to the public because of religion, color, ethnic identity, the manner of clothing, gender or sexual orientation, or the person's name. The bill also proposes the creation of Equal Opportunity Committees in agencies, corporations, companies and educational institutions, whether public or private. These committees will have administrative jurisdiction over cases involving discrimination. Administrative sanctions will not be a bar to any prosecution in the proper courts for acts of discrimination committed or to any civil claims for damages by said act.
Carlos Avila Gonzalez/The Chronicle

A ballot measure for an independent Oakland police commission hit resistance before passing unanimously Tuesday, when two City Council members challenged Mayor Libby Schaafs right to appoint three of the commissions seven members.

After an at times acrimonious debate that lasted more than two hours and often erupted in jeers, the council scrapped an amendment by Councilwomen Desley Brooks and Rebecca Kaplan to strip the mayor of her appointments. Kaplan made a motion  seconded by Brooks  to have all of the members chosen by a committee that would be named by the mayor and City Council.
The glass ceiling is sporting a large, jagged crack as Hillary Clinton  first lady, senator and secretary of state  on Tuesday became the first woman nominated for president of the United States by a major party.

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who battled Clinton down to the last Democratic primary, ended the 90-minute roll call of the states by calling for the delegates to nominate Clinton by a voice vote. They responded to his gesture of unity with a joyful roar of ayes that drowned out any grumbles from disillusioned Bernie or bust delegates.

When Sanders began to speak, the California delegation to the Philadelphia convention put down their Clinton signs out of respect for the Vermont senator.

Tears streamed down Jessica Selfs cheeks as the delegates loudly affirmed Clintons nomination.

Most of us grew up thinking we were going to be the first woman president, said Self, a 34-year-old Clinton delegate from Modesto. I can barely stop crying to cheer and yell.

I feel really, really, really, really happy, said Lizzie Prestel, a 36-year-old Clinton delegate from Los Angeles. Anytime someone says, The first woman president, I start to tear up. This has been a really big deal for me.

Its about goddamn time, said Michael Dillon, a 70-year-old Clinton delegate from Long Beach.

Clinton, who isnt expected to be inside the Wells Fargo Center until she gives her acceptance speech Thursday, briefly addressed the crowd through a video link, thanking them for the historic nomination.

If there are any little girls out there who stayed up late to watch, Clinton said, let me just say I may become the first woman president, but one of you is next.

The crowd still got an up-close-and-personal encounter with a Clinton as her husband, former President Bill Clinton, painted a picture of a woman who he said has dedicated her life to making life better for the people around her.

You could drop her into any trouble spot ... come back in a month and somehow, some way, she would have made it better, he said.

But Bill Clintons intensely personal speech  somehow a quiet reflection in a hall packed tight with thousands of delegates  focused on a far more human Hillary Clinton than typically has been seen during the campaign.

In the spring of 1971, I met a girl, he started out, talking about his awkward attempts to meet her at Yale Law School and how he had to ask her three times over the years before she would agree to marry him.

Weve been talking and walking and laughing together ever since, he said, building up a lifetime of memories.

Bill Clinton talked proudly about his wifes accomplishments, but focused on more intimate moments, such as beginning their married life in an 1,100-square-foot, Arkansas home with no air conditioning and a $175-a-month mortgage. He talked about the pair of them moving their daughter, Chelsea, into her Stanford dorm room, with him trying not to cry and Hillary Clinton on her hands and knees, looking for one more drawer to put that liner paper in.

The icy, conniving Hillary Clinton pictured at last weeks GOP convention is a cartoon character Republicans would prefer to run against, he said.

If youre of the opinion that government is bad and would mess up a two-car parade, a real change maker is a threat, he said.

Hillary Clinton never has been satisfied with the status quo, he added, but always wants to move the ball forward.

Any suggestion that Russian intelligence operatives provided WikiLeaks with 20,000 emails hacked from the Democratic National Committee to boost Donald Trumps presidential campaign is ridiculous and absurd, GOP officials have said.

In order to try and deflect the horror and stupidity of the Wikileakes disaster, the Dems said maybe it is Russia dealing with Trump. Crazy! Trump said in an email Tuesday.

But growing indications that Russia was involved in infiltrating the Democratic Partys computer system  and possibly looking to influence the 2016 election  are no joke, whether it was done to aid Trump or not.

Youre left with all the signs pointing to Moscow, Matt Tait, a U.K.-based cybersecurity consultant, told the Associated Press Tuesday.

The DNC found evidence last April that its system had been hacked and called in CrowdStrike, a cybersecurity company, to investigate. The company found that two separate Russian intelligence agencies had broken into the Democratic Partys computers and for as long as a year had been able to tap into the partys emails, chats and other computer traffic.

While the FBI said Monday it was investigating the computer breach, Democrats already are charging that the hack proves Russia is supporting Trump, who in the past has praised President Vladimir Putin and expressed doubts about the future of the NATO alliance.

Thats an argument that likely will continue until election day, but the Democrats have a more immediate concern. If a hacker group was reading  and possibly downloading  the partys mail for a year, what more potentially embarrassing information is out there? And when, if ever, will it be dropped on the presidential campaign?

Trumps backers dont have to pick and choose among TV networks to learn about the Democratic convention. They can get it directly from the GOP presidential candidate.

Trump has been tweeting on the convention. Spoiler: Hes unimpressed.

I hate to say it, but the Republican Convention was far more interesting (with a much more beautiful set) than the Democratic Convention! he reported Tuesday.

On Monday, he had plenty to say in a nonstop bash fest of the Democratic speakers.

There was Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts.

Elizabeth Warren, often referred to as Pocahontas, just misrepresented me and spoke glowingly about Crooked Hillary, who she always hated! he wrote.

And New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker.

If Cory Booker is the future of the Democratic Party, they have no future, he said.

Then there was Sanders.

Bernie Sanders totally sold out to Crooked Hillary Clinton. All of that work, energy and money, and nothing to show for it! Waste of time, Trump tweeted.

John Wildermuth and Joe Garofoli are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: jwildermuth@sfchronicle.com jgarofoli@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @jfwildermuth @joegarofoli

Online extra

Watch the California delegation celebrate Hillary Clintons nomination at: http://bit.ly/CADems
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The beloved Brown twins, Marian and Vivian, are dead and gone. But if you long to see them again in their matching outfits, wigs and hats, six blown-up images are affixed to an exterior wall in SoMa.

Their smiling portraits are part of City at Large III, a public art exhibition that makes brilliant use of the bricked-in parking lot for Adolph Gasser Photo, on Second at Howard streets.
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ARLINGTON, Texas  Daniel Mengden, who appeared to snare a job in Oaklands rotation the rest of the way with a standout June, was sent back to Triple-A Nashville after a rough July.

Its all about executing, the rookie right-hander said. Im getting guys 1-2, 0-2 really well and then maybe being too fine, stretching the count, maybe leads to walks. My strike percentage is down a bit. It all starts with executing.

Mengden put up a 2.81 ERA in his first four starts and had a 9.00 ERA over his past five.

We know he can pitch here, manager Bob Melvin said. He performed well early. I think he got a little tired. ... Hes a tough competitor. Hes got an assortment of pitches than can get hitters out at the big-league level. We just need do something different right now.

That leaves an opening in Oaklands rotation Saturday; Rich Hill, sidelined by a blister for the past nine days, threw briefly Tuesday without a covering on his left middle finger, but he wont be ready to start until Sunday at the earliest, Melvin said. A decision on Hill will come Friday.

Jesse Hahn turned in an excellent spot start for the As on Sunday, allowing one run in 72/3 innings; he isnt eligible to return Saturday unless someone goes on the disabled list. Dillon Overton is scheduled to pitch for Nashville on Friday, so he could be a possibility.

Mengden, 23, might be a little worn down; his fastball velocity has dipped a bit, from about 93 mph to 92 mph.

They said go down, get healthy, take care of business, come back, try not to look into it too much, Mengden said. I kind of had a feeling it was coming, anyway. ... Im not throwing well, so theyll bring someone up and give them a chance. ... Ill be back eventually.

Mengden said when he was in Houstons organization, the Astros piggy-backed minor-league starters to limit innings. Now, throwing 120 straight innings, its a little tough on your arm, on your body, he said. Just a little banged up all the way around. ... My arm might be dragging just a hair.

The As called up reliever J.B. Wendelken with Mengdens departure.

Susan Slusser is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer.

On deck

Wednesday

at Rangers

5:05 p.m. CSNCA

Manaea (3-5)

vs. Darvish (2-2)

Thursday

Off

Friday

at Indians

4:10 p.m. CSNCA

Graveman (7-6)

vs. Bauer (7-4)

Leading off

Vogt back, McBride out: The As sent catcher Matt McBride to Triple-A Nashville on Tuesday, when Stephen Vogt returned from the family medical leave list. Oakland likes the job rookie catcher Bruce Maxwell has done, plus the team faces mostly right-handed starters the next month.

 Susan Slusser
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Bones found by hikers on the sweeping shoreline of Drakes Beach in Point Reyes National Seashore in April were identified as those of a missing UC Berkeley graduate student, officials confirmed Wednesday.

The student, Shuqin Zhang, 22, was pursuing her masters degree in statistics and was last seen in Berkeley on Jan. 7.

Friends had told authorities that Zhang had seemed depressed, had failed a class and just missed an important flight to China before disappearing.

Officials used Zhangs cell phone data to determine that she was headed to the coast before she went missing. She was believed to have been on her way to Bodega Bay.

Authorities subsequently found her white Mercedes-Benz near the Point Reyes Lighthouse, said Sgt. Andrew Frankel, a spokesman for the Berkeley Police Department. Later, searchers found items belonging to Zhang on a cliff overlooking the ocean.

However, a sweep of the area by multiple agencies, including the National Park Service, U.S. Coast Guard and Marin County Search and Rescue, was unsuccessful in finding Zhang.

Several months later, in April, hikers in the area spotted bones they suspected to be human. They later contacted authorities.

Marin County Sheriffs Office Coroner Division officials said they subsequently found two sets of human remains at the Drakes seashore, near the base of the famous white sandstone cliffs

Officials said they found the first set of remains April 26 and the second April 29.

Coroner officials listed Zhangs cause and manner of death as undetermined.
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Shannon Sandbank and her family moved to Discovery Bay last year for the same reason everybody does: to soak up life on the water.

The community east of Brentwood was created in the 1960s on man-made islands that finger through a bay that was once delta farmland, with many homes featuring boat docks in their resort-like backyards.

But dreams of Jet Skis and human cannonballs have been put on hold by a nasty bout of algae that has dramatically worsened in recent weeks  an unwelcome and possibly harmful intrusion that scientists say marks the latest in a string of troubling algal blooms in California and across the nation.

All of a sudden the water starts getting greener and greener and I thought, I dont know if Im going to let my kids go in that, Sandbank, who lives with her husband and four of their children in an attractive waterfront subdivision, said on Tuesday. Now we just go to the community pool.

Colorful blobs of algae in some Bay Area lakes have prompted health warnings, leading many people to rethink wading in or to put their dogs on a leash, lest they jump in to cool off. But the plumes off the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta are threatening a whole lifestyle.

We used to go out in our boat every night when my husband got home, but not anymore, Sandbank said.

Defeated, they recently moved their boat 90 miles away to Don Pedro Reservoir in Tuolumne County.

Health warning

This week, Contra Costa Countys health department weighed in, warning residents in the town of about 13,000 to avoid contact with the water  that includes dogs  after preliminary tests revealed the presence of cyanobacteria, or blue-green algae.

The microscopic organism, named after the Gatorade-colored sheen it creates, produces a toxin that can cause rashes, eye irritation and gastrointestinal upset. Its rarely fatal for humans, though dogs often die when they drink too much infested water.

Similar plumes of blue-green algae have prompted health advisories in recreational lakes and reservoirs across California, from Clear Lake to ponds in the East Bay hills to Southern Californias Pyramid Lake.

Elsewhere, the algae has closed beaches and businesses along Floridas touristy east coast, sickened swimmers and fishermen in Utah Lake, and put Lake Erie under close observation due to contamination of drinking water supplies.

While the blooms are naturally occurring, scientists say their preferred conditions have abounded lately: warm sunshine and plenty of nutrients, often pollutants.

The frequency and duration of these algal blooms seems to be increasing, said William Cochlan, a senior research scientist at San Francisco State University, while noting a trend thats occurred for at least a decade. Some of these are just natural events, and some may be exacerbated by human activities.

Fertilizers and septic runoff, which the algae thrive on, have been a big driver of mucky masses in many parts of the country, experts say, while in California the drought has shrunken rivers and lakes, allowing sunlight to more easily penetrate the water.

A giant algal bloom off the coast of California last year, though a different organism than the one tainting freshwater supplies, was a product of record-breaking ocean temperatures that were, in part, blamed on climate change.

The proliferation of pseudo-nitzschia, which produced the neurotoxin domoic acid, prompted the closure of the states crab season for several months, because the crustaceans werent safe to eat.

Im still swimming

In Discovery Bay, the greenish waters have some residents more alarmed than others.

Im still swimming, said Bob Harper, 71, who bought a waterfront home this year after selling his house in San Francisco. In the afternoon, well jump in the bay to cool off. We use it as a pool.

His dog, Cabo, didnt mind playing in the water, either.

Shes not a swimmer, but she likes to get wet, Harper said.

While county health officials confirmed the presence of blue-green algae this week, they are awaiting the results of more comprehensive tests to determine the scope of the problem.

It could be a very big concern, but we have to get the numbers back from the lab, said Marilyn Underwood, director of the countys Environmental Health Division. In the interim, were being cautious and saying, Just stay out of the water and keep your pets out of the water.

Kurtis Alexander is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: kalexander@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @kurtisalexander
Bay Area temperatures Wednesday will range from the upper 60s on the coast to scorching 100-plus degrees inland, where several cities were forecast to tie or to break record highs.

A high-pressure system that has lingered over the West Coast for the past week was expected to push temperatures to tie or surpass record highs in San Jose, Santa Rosa and various inland cities, but most areas  while hot  were below records.

Larry Smith, a forecaster with the National Weather Service said smoke from the Soberanes Fire probably reduced the amount of sunlight that hit the ground, bringing down temperatures.

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The temperatures varied though. Most coastal areas stayed in the upper 60s to 70s, while areas farther inland and to the north and south of the bay hovered around the upper 90s to low 100s.

Downtown San Francisco was forecast to reach 72 degrees Wednesday, but reached only 66, Smith said. San Jose reached 91 degrees, below its record for the day of 96 degrees. Santa Rosa hit 93.

More inland areas such as Livermore and Concord, which see higher temperatures on a more regular basis lingered in the low 100s, Smith said.

A gradual cool down was forecast to begin Thursday, Benjamin said, bringing some relief to the area. Temperatures Thursday and Friday were expected to drop a few degrees, with the most noticeable temperature drop on Saturday.

It will probably just bring us back down to normal temperatures by the weekend rather than the above normal were experiencing now, Benjamin said.

The Bay Area Air Quality Management District also issued a Spare the Air Alert for Wednesday, as hot inland temperatures and smoke from the Soberanes Fire, burning near Big Sur, were expected to contribute to a week of poor air quality in the region.

Wednesday marked the third consecutive day for Spare the Air Alerts and the 11th for the summer.

Officials recommend carpooling, and suggest people sensitive to unhealthy air spend less time outdoors during such alerts, especially if they smell smoke in the air from the fire.

Kevin Schultz is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: kschultz@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @kevinedschultz
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Criminal pipeline-safety charges against Pacific Gas and Electric Co. were sent to a federal court jury Wednesday after a defense lawyer, in closing arguments, said the prosecutions case was based on anticorporate sound bites.

Referring to a prosecutors assertion Tuesday that PG&E had chosen profits over safety when making decisions about gas pipeline inspections, the utilitys lead attorney, Steven Bauer, said, My reaction to that is, Now were gonna prosecute a logo with a slogan.

The government, Bauer said, is relying on sound bites to appeal to the common view that big corporations might be a little greedy. ... Its kind of a cheap trick. Criminal convictions for the company, he added, would permanently stain the lives and careers of its 20,000 employees.

But Assistant U.S. Attorney Hartley West, in her rebuttal, said PG&E subjected safety considerations to business decisions and must be held accountable when its managers, following those priorities, knowingly violated the law.

It doesnt matter if theyre good employees or good people. Their knowledge is imputed to the company, West told the jury. She said PG&E was in the business of transmitting potentially dangerous natural gas through densely populated areas and never expressed any confusion about the law until after it was indicted.

Jurors began deliberations Wednesday afternoon after 5 weeks of testimony.

11 felony charges

PG&E, Californias largest utility, is accused of 11 felony violations of laws requiring gas pipeline operators to inspect and test high-risk lines and maintain accurate records. It is also charged with obstructing a federal investigation of the September 2010 explosion and fire at a PG&E pipeline in San Bruno that killed eight people and destroyed 38 homes.

The company, already fined $1.6 billion by the state Public Utilities Commission for the explosion, faces up to $562 million in additional penalties if convicted of the criminal charges. The fines would be paid by shareholders rather than customers.

Bauer belittled prosecution testimony, most of it from current or former PG&E employees, about gaps in company records related to past pipeline leaks and inspections.

They have gone into millions of cells of data and found a few that are missing, he said. Its just not fair to label somebody or a company a criminal, and there is no evidence that any records were intentionally destroyed or withheld.

He also challenged the central theme of the prosecution case, a contention that PG&Es pipeline-inspection policies were profit-driven.

One prosecution witness, a managing engineer, testified that the company consistently chose to examine pipelines from the outside for signs of corrosion. It was a method, the witness said, that was much cheaper than using internal inspection technology or high-pressure water tests but was incapable of detecting welding flaws like the one that caused the San Bruno explosion.

Prosecutors also displayed a 2008 memo that said various policy priorities, including safety and reliability, were subject to debate, but that keeping shareholder earnings at 8 percent was not debatable.

Theres no evidence that anybody made any particular decision ... that was based on the budget, Bauer said Wednesday. Under PG&E policy, he said, employees were financially rewarded for helping the company comply with safety rules.

Gas pressure debated

West countered that PG&Es records showed the company was aware for many years that a number of older pipelines, including the San Bruno line, were vulnerable to high gas pressures. She cited a memo from early 2010 listing 84 miles of aging lines that had been subjected to pressures above their prescribed limits  which, under federal law, should have required PG&E to conduct high-pressure tests or replace the pipe segments.

What did they choose, every time?  the low-budget external inspection, the prosecutor said. She said PG&E finally started conducting high-pressure water tests after the San Bruno explosion, after the hot spotlight was on.

The lawyers also disagreed about an April 2011 letter from PG&E to federal investigators that led to the obstruction charge.

The company had previously circulated a document saying its policy was to allow gas pipeline pressures up to 10 percent above the limits set by federal law. The letter said the document was an erroneous draft that had never been implemented and that PG&E abided by the limits. Prosecutors contend the utility had actually followed the 10 percent policy since at least 2008 and was trying to obstruct the investigation of the explosion by falsely denying that it had.

The letter was factual, Bauer told the jury. He noted that every PG&E witness called by the prosecution had denied that the company gave itself a 10 percent leeway above federal limits.

The companys description of its policy is irrelevant, West replied. This is what they were doing, she said.

Bob Egelko is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: begelko@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @ergelko
Pacific Gas and Electric Co. was a company that lost its way and was driven by greed to violate pipeline safety laws both before and after the deadly 2010 pipeline explosion in San Bruno, a federal prosecutor told jurors in San Francisco on Tuesday.

For years they trained engineers to act more as businesspeople than as engineers, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Schenk said in closing arguments of PG&Es 5-week criminal trial. The motive was profit over safety.

Steven Bauer, PG&Es lead attorney, retorted that the case prosecutors presented was an elaborate second-guessing exercise of a company and its engineers trying their best to follow laws that were often unclear. Despite a six-year investigation designed to make PG&E look terrible, he said, prosecutors failed to show that the utility knowingly engaged in unsafe practices.

PG&E is charged with 11 felony violations of laws requiring pipeline operators to gather information on potential hazards, conduct inspections and tests for risks, and maintain accurate records. Prosecutors dismissed an additional record-keeping charge Tuesday without explanation.

The company is also charged with obstructing a federal investigation of the September 2010 explosion and fire that killed eight people and destroyed 38 homes in San Brunos Crestmoor neighborhood. PG&E, already fined $1.6 billion by the state Public Utilities Commission for the explosion, faces an additional $562 million in fines if convicted of all criminal charges. The money would be paid by shareholders rather than ratepayers.

Most of the prosecution witnesses were current or former PG&E employees, granted immunity from criminal charges, who described the companys use of incomplete pipeline records and inspection methods seemingly chosen for financial reasons.

Schenk cited testimony by Frank Dauby, a senior pipeline engineer, that PG&E, after learning in the mid-2000s of excessive gas pressures on a number of older lines, switched from internal pipe inspections to a less-expensive method of external observation that could not detect flawed pipe welds.

Dauby, the prosecutor recalled, said in an internal company memo after the San Bruno explosion that company employees had been aware the inspection decisions were made for financial, not technical, reasons.

PG&E also knew for years that their records were flawed, Schenk said, citing a 2009 company memo that referred to a ton of errors in its pipeline database. He said the database lacked information about past leaks, recorded in other documents, on pipelines including the San Bruno line.

He also said the evidence showed that PG&E, before the San Bruno explosion, had a practice of allowing gas pressure in its older pipelines up to 10 percent above the limits allowed by federal law. Prosecutors contend the utility obstructed the San Bruno investigation by falsely denying, in an April 2011 letter, that such a policy existed. PG&E says the letter was truthful and that an earlier document describing the policy was a draft that was never implemented.

Schenk cited memos from a managing engineer in early 2010 asking other engineers whether high-pressure pipelines were more than 10 percent above the federal limit, and another managers reply that the 10 percent document was written to reflect the process.

Thats not a draft, thats policy, Schenk said.

Bauer, the defense lawyer, said the law was far from clear about whether pipeline operators could exceed the numerical limits by small amounts. He said several other pipeline companies had interpreted the law to allow a 10 percent leeway in gas pressure.

PG&E engineers were debating and grappling with the legal definitions, and the federal pipeline safety agency was grappling, too, Bauer said, citing internal government documents. He said hundreds of excessive pressures cited by the government had proved to be tiny little differences that really didnt have any effect on safety.

We have to manage these pipes in reality, not against some ideal standard that no one has ever lived up to, Bauer said. Describing PG&E employees as decent people doing their job the best they could, he urged jurors not to be swayed by the San Bruno tragedy  which U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson has largely excluded from the case  or by their opinions on a company that we all write a check to every month.

Bauer is scheduled to complete his arguments Wednesday, followed by a final round from the prosecution. Jurors will then begin their deliberations.

Bob Egelko is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: begelko@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @egelko
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The culprit behind a power outage in Napa Tuesday night was a drunk driver who scaled a utility poles support wires with his pickup truck, officials said Wednesday.

The wire-versus-truck crash happened at 8:37 p.m. near the intersection of West Imola Avenue and South Coombs Street, causing 3,395 Pacific Gas and Electric Co. customers to lose power. The blackout lasted about 14 minutes, a PG&E spokeswoman said.
A San Francisco police officer was arrested after an investigation revealed he manufactured and possessed a prohibited AR-15 style assault rifle, police said Tuesday.

Thomas Abrahamsen, 50, of Berkeley was booked on suspicion of manufacturing an assault weapon and possessing an assault weapon, both felonies.
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With classes set to start in less than three weeks, San Francisco school officials suddenly find themselves looking for a new leader.

Superintendent Richard Carranza took the city by surprise, announcing plans Wednesday to leave the district within the next month to take the top job in Houston. He spoke soon after Houstons public school board unanimously chose him as the sole finalist for the job. By law, the board must now wait 21 days before taking a final vote on the hire.

But barring unforeseen circumstances, Im planning on moving to Houston, Carranza told The Chronicle.

The San Francisco school board, which has been closely watching the developments in Texas, has already selected an interim superintendent from the districts top ranks. Myong Leigh, deputy superintendent for policy and operations, will lead the district during a search for a permanent replacement.

Leigh is expected to take over Sept. 1, said board President Matt Haney.

Leigh is committed to the district, Haney said, adding that Leigh received a standing ovation from staff when announced as the interim boss. Hes a team player.

But Leigh, whos been with the district 16 years, said he has no interest in the permanent position.

That was a pretty explicit part of my conversation with the board, he said. I dont see myself as a candidate for the role, but I definitely see the need in the meantime. Im stepping up because I feel this is how I can be of most value and service to the district.

Search to begin soon

The details of Leighs interim contract have yet to be ironed out. His current annual salary is $242,480, while Carranza makes $310,000.

The board is expected to initiate a search process for a new superintendent soon, Haney said.

This will be a top priority until we get it done, he said. We want to hear from our community, from our educators, from our stakeholders about the type of leader they want to see. It should take some time because its one of, if not the most, consequential decisions we make for our students.

The new superintendent could face budget deficits if a ballot measure to extend the Proposition 30 income tax increase on the wealthy fails in November. In addition, the next superintendent will likely oversee the revamping of the controversial process for assigning students to campuses.

Carranza, 49, has been San Franciscos superintendent for four years and has worked in the district for nearly eight. Prior to that, he held leadership roles in the Tucson and Las Vegas school districts.

His time in San Francisco has largely been free of controversy. During his tenure, city schools have focused on reducing suspensions and providing extra resources in communities with more disadvantaged students. The board adopted an ethnic studies program in high schools as well as courses and curriculum dedicated to LGBT issues.

Carranza led those efforts while also remaining committed to San Franciscos sanctuary city policies, which protect immigrants in the community and the schools from potential consequences related to their legal status, Haney said.

I hope to hear about Houston dramatically reducing school suspensions, introducing LGBT studies and becoming a sanctuary school district, Haney said. For us, these are our values, this is what has been important in San Francisco, and Richard has reflected that.

Change of heart

Carranza, with a blue-collar background and fluency in Spanish, has been a sought-after superintendent nationally. In January, he was among the finalists for the job in Los Angeles before withdrawing from the selection process.

At the time, he said there was still work to do in San Francisco, including overseeing changes to the student assignment process. But Carranza apparently had a change of heart when Houston called.

There are many similarities on a bigger scale to San Francisco, he said. I am from the Southwest, theres that way of life that feels homey to me.

The Houston school district is about four times the size of San Franciscos district, and is also focused on bettering language programs and increasing opportunity for disadvantaged students.

Carranza said, like the song, he will leave his heart in San Francisco and miss the school community.

The honest truth is, there is never a good time to make a transition, he said. But SFUSD is on really solid ground. You can point in every direction and see solid structures and systems and strategies in place to ensure kids are being taken care of in the city.

Jill Tucker is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jtucker@sfchronicle.com

Twitter: @jilltucker
Among the things we learned from the Giants 9-7 victory over the Reds on Tuesday night: Matt Cain has power, and Buster Posey has wheels.

Both players provided entertaining and significant sideshows, Cain hitting a three-run homer and Posey stealing third base.

Not something Giants fans general see. It was Cains first homer since July 21, 2012, and Poseys first steal of third since April 17, 2012.

More important was their collective performance as battery mates, and there was good news and not-so-good news on that front.

On one hand, Cain lasted just 51/3 innings and yielded four runs and two homers.

On the other hand, the Giants will take it. It was the first time in four starts that Cain completed four innings, so 51/3 was a bonus for the No. 5 starter, whos trying to get his groove back after returning from a hamstring injury.

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Both of them, Cain said when asked which he enjoyed more, the win or the homer. Its just nice to be able to contribute.

The offense spotted Cain a 5-0 lead  three of the runs provided by Cain himself on his second-inning blast into the left-field bleachers, his seventh career homer  and barely prevailed as the Reds swatted four homers on the night.

The Giants have yielded 23 homers in 10 games since the All-Star break. In that stretch, theyre 2-8.

Cain, who opened with three scoreless innings, put the leadoff man aboard each of the next three innings, starting with Joey Vottos homer in the fourth. Adam Duvalls homer in the sixth chased Cain.

The fifth inning turned into a Billy Hamilton versus Posey showdown. In the top half, Hamilton took off for second and initially was called out on Poseys quick, strong throw.

The call was overturned, and Hamilton got credit for his 33rd steal. Just for kicks, Hamilton swiped third after getting a big jump on Cain.

In the home half of the inning, Posey singled, took second on a wild pitch  and stole third  as if he were answering Hamilton. As it turned out, it was a crucial moment. Posey, whos 6-for-6 in steal attempts this season, scored moments later on Grant Greens sacrifice fly, and the Buster Run gave the Giants a 6-4 lead.

Speed kills, manager Bruce Bochy said.

The Giants scored three times in the seventh when Brandon Crawford tripled home two runs and scored on Conor Gillaspies single.

The nine runs were the most for the Giants in July, and they needed almost every bit of the outburst. Sergio Romo coughed up two homers in the eighth  Jay Bruce hit his third in two nights, and Duvall hit his second of the evening  and closer Santiago Casilla gave up a run in the ninth.

You know us, Bochy said. We dont do anything easy.

Third baseman Ramiro Pena took a grounder to his groin and exited. He is iffy for Wednesday. Its a contusion, and you know where, Bochy said.

Bochy had zero bench by the end. Angel Pagan was ejected by umpire Joe West for arguing a strike call in the eighth, so Trevor Brown entered in the ninth at catcher with Posey moving to first base and Brandon Belt to left field.

In our situation, it was the last thing you needed, Bochy said. Angels a competitor and fiery, and Joe has zero tolerance. It put us in a tough situation.

Bochy batted Mac Williamson (2-for-4) third and, for the second straight night, kept Belt sixth. Belt had two hits on the eight-game trip, three hits Monday and one hit and three walks Tuesday.

John Shea is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jshea@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @JohnSheaHey
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UPDATE, 12:15 p.m.: The Giants just scratched Ramiro Pena from the lineup. He has lingering issues from taking a groundball in that sensitive area below the waist Tuesday night. He tried taking groundballs and did not feel right.

Bochy had to remove Pena from Tuesdays game. The ball hit Penas protective cup so hard Bochy could hear it from the dugout. The manager also said Pena was very light-headed when it happened, so much so that he was not even positioning himself properly. So, Grant Green plays second base. You can see the full lineups below.

On the rehab front, I asked Bochy if the Giants might curtail Hunter Pences rehab assignment and bring him back this weekeend because he has hit so well. he is 8-for-16 with two doubles and two homers in four five games for Triple-A Sacramento.

While the Giants are encouraged by how well Pence is seeing the ball, Bochy noted that Tuesdays game was the first in which Pence played nine innings, and he needs more time.

Ive talked to the trainers. They think he needs more time, Bochy said. Now, things can change in the next couple of day.. We brought him back early the last time and he wasnt ready. The hitting part has come back quicker than we thought, but his legs will determine when he comes back.

However, Bochy said Joe Panik could be back to play against the Nationals this weekend.

Denard Span is off Wednesday but has no physical issue other than fatigue. Span said he got sick in New York and it zapped him.

ORIGINAL POST: The Giants shoot for their first series win of the second half as Madison Bumgarner takes the ball for the Giants.

Neither Bumgarner nor Stephen Strasburg are scheduled to pitch in the four-game series against the Nationals that begins Thursday night, but if the teams stay on rotation they will engage in a titanic matchup in D.C. a week from Sunday.

Denard Span is out of the lineup. Im not sure if this is a normal day off. He had started to get on base more.

Return here for more pregame news.

The lineups:

REDS

Hamilton CF

Cozart SS

Votto 1B

Bruce RF

Duvall LF

Phillips 2B

Suarez 3B

Barnhart C

Straily P

GIANTS

Blanco CF

Pagan LF

Williamson RF

Posey C

Crawford SS

Belt 1B

Gillaspie 3B

Green 2B

Bumgarner P

Henry Schulman is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: hschulman@sfchronicle.com. Twitter: @hankschulman.
1 Antiabortion duo: A Texas judge on Tuesday dismissed the last remaining charge against two California antiabortion activists who made undercover videos of themselves trying to buy fetal tissue from Planned Parenthood. District Judge Brock Thomas dismissed the tampering with government records charge against 27-year-old David Daleiden and 63-year-old Sandra Merritt upon the request of the Harris County prosecutors office. Prosecutors alleged that Daleiden and Merritt used fake drivers licenses to conceal their identities while dealing with Planned Parenthood. The videos accused Planned Parenthood of illegally selling fetal tissue to researchers for profit. A grand jury later cleared Planned Parenthood of misusing fetal tissue.

2 Atheist lawsuit: A group of atheists has sued Kansas City, Mo., officials over the planned use of $65,000 in tourism tax dollars to aid an upcoming Baptist convention. The Kansas City Star reports that American Atheists Inc. and two Kansas City members filed the lawsuit Friday against Kansas City Mayor Sly James, City Manager Troy Schulte, the City Council and the municipal government. The lawsuit argues that using tax money to aid Modest Miles Ministries Inc. in preparing for the National Baptist Convention USA Inc., scheduled to be held Sept. 5-9, would advance a religious purpose in violation of American Atheists right to be free from compelled support of religious institutions.
WASHINGTON  When Michelle Obama said in her prime-time televised address to the Democratic convention Monday night that the White House was built by slaves, she was citing a little-discussed fact that dramatized her own African American familys place in history.

But the first ladys assertion was met with derision and disbelief by some, who questioned whether it was true and said her choice to mention it amounted to an attempt to divide the country on racial lines.

There is little dispute among historians that slaves had a role in the building of the White House. According to information posted on the White House Historical Associations website, planners had initially intended to import workers from Europe but had trouble recruiting any, so they turned to African American  enslaved and free  to provide the bulk of labor that built the White House, the United States Capitol, and other early government buildings.

The association said slaves worked at the governments quarry in Aquia, Va., to cut the stone for the walls of the White House. The construction team included white laborers from Maryland and Virginia and immigrants from Ireland, Scotland and other parts of Europe, the association said.

Jesse Holland, a Washington-based journalist who wrote The Invisibles: The Untold Story of African American Slaves in the White House, says most people have never thought about how the presidents house and other important government buildings were constructed, but historians have long acknowledged their role.

If you think about it, it would be pretty obvious: The White House is a neoclassical mansion that was built in the South during slavery, and a majority of the mansions that were built in the South during slavery used slaves, Holland said.

We as Americans build up a myth of our country, and a lot of times, we dont want to look behind that myth, he added. For me, finding out the truth ... in the construction of this country just makes our country richer.
If you thought the list of those angry over a business-deal-gone-wrong with Donald Trump was short, think again.

In fact, add the child singing group, USA Freedom Kids, onto that list. Group manager and father of its youngest member, Jeff Popick, told the Washington Post on Monday that he has plans to sue the Trump campaign within a few weeks over violating an agreement over their performance.

Popick told the newspaper that he had reached out to the Trump campaign about performing at a rally in the group's home state of Florida in January. He said that in lieu of $2,500 in payment for the performance, they were instead offered a table where the group could sell merchandise to the crowds.

Except, there wasn't a table ready for the group when they arrived, Popick said. And he was out the money he spent on the items the group was planning to sell.

Screenshot/YouTube.com/LiveBroadcasting2016

The young girls performed anyways, singing a specially crafted, pro-Trump song for the audience, while dressed in patriotic costumes. The group's song included lines such as, "President Donald Trump knows how to make America great/Deal from strength or get crushed every time," which was penned by Popick ahead of the performance.

After that event, Popick said he was contacted about performing at another Trump stop, this time in Des Moines. The Freedom Kids' flew out to make the performance (which was ultimately cancelled), and Popick said that the campaign had since ignored emails about another performance.

The emails  and runaround, according to Popick  continued with the Trump campaign up until a July 9 letter in which the manager sought to get the group to perform at the Republican National Convention last week. That performance never materialized, and Popick told media about plans to sue the Trump campaign on Monday.

Popick told both the Washington Post and Fox411 that he doesn't plan to sue for "millions of dollars," but that it was a "morality issue of doing the right thing."

"The girls love to perform, so that's what I wanted on behalf of the girls," Popick told Fox411. "How many times do you give someone to make it right? It was all about performing, not about money."

"We are owed compensation or, as the agreement is, a performance," Popick said to the Washington Post. "That's what the agreement was. In lieu of compensation, in lieu of monetary compensation, that we would have this performance. It was largely a verbal contract, but a contract nonetheless and on two different occasions."

The Trump campaign has not commented publicly on the potential lawsuit or Popick's claims.

Trump has been criticized in the past for allegedly not living up to contracts made with small-business owners. As recently as June, a number of contractors who worked on Trump's Taj Mahal casino in Atlantic City said that they still haven't been paid for their work, an Associated Press article uncovered.
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San Francisco, July 27 (CNA) A U.S. district court of appeal in San Francisco has handed down a ruling against an overseas Chinese association in the city over its removal of the national flag of the Republic of China (Taiwan) from its office in 2013 to show the end of their support for the ROC government.
A Texas Roadhouse employee was fired this month after she posted a tweet saying she would "kill as many Mexicans" as she could if the purge was real, according to media reports.

Megan Olson previously worked at the Texas Roadhouse in Greeley, Colorado. On July 1, she was not tipped to her liking and took to Twitter saying: "If we had a real life purge I would kill as many Mexicans as I could in one night #learnhowtotipyouf---ingtw---"
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Former President Bill Clinton took to the Democratic National Convention stage on Tuesday to talk about his relationship with his wife  and "best friend"  Hillary Clinton, who made history hours before as the first woman nominated by a major political party for president.

During his keynote address, the potential First Gentleman began at the very beginning, the day he "met a girl" in the spring of 1971. He detailed their courtship, all the while highlighting her accomplishments dating back to her college days.

RELATED: Clinton becomes 1st woman nominated for president

He reminded people, in extensive detail, about Hillary Clinton's lengthy career in public service, which included helping children, immigrants and people with disabilities.

"She's the best darn change-maker I ever met in my entire life," Bill Clinton said of his wife. "This woman has never been satisfied with the status quo on anything. She always wants to move the ball forward. That's just who she is."

By this point, social media began to take note of the lengthy amount of time Bill Clinton spent on retelling the story of his and his wife's relationship.

And he listed even more of her public service accomplishments, which made some on social media feel like extreme underachievers.

But when the timeline came to the late 1990s, Twitter didn't hesitate to point out what Bill Clinton didn't mention: the biggest scandal in the Clinton administration.

NOISY RETURN: The 'Dean Scream' returns 12 years later

His affair with then-White House intern Monica Lewinsky led to him being impeached in 1998. He was acquitted of charges after a trial in the Senate and remained president until his second term ended in 2001.

As a speech overall, the TV pundits were pleased with Bill Clinton's performance, saying his depiction of their love story made her a relatable candidate, something she has struggled with in the past.

But memories of the shocking Clinton-Lewinsky affair are still vivid, nearly 20 years later.
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Back in June in the run-up to the California primary, the Sonoma County town of Cloverdale welcomed Bernie Sanders to the city airport where more than 6,000 people cheered on the Democratic presidential contender.

Cloverdale isn't used to presidential rallies or big crowds  the town itself only claims 8,800 residents  so town officials had to call on neighboring burgs' police forces to give their cops a hand for the June 3 event. Healdsburg and Sebastopol, along with county Sheriff's Department deputies pitched in. In addition, four fire departments worked the rally.

All those extra police officers and firefighters piling up overtime costs money  $23,000 to be exact. Cloverdale officials told the Santa Rosa Press Democrat that Sanders' advance team assured them that local public safety agencies would be reimbursed.

But when city officials presented the Sanders campaign with the bill, instead of payment they got the runaround.

According to the Press Democrat, Casey Sinnwell, national director of scheduling and advance for the Sanders campaign, on July 13 acknowledged receipt of the bill for "uncontracted security services," but stated that the U.S. Secret Service takes the lead on all security matters and "any local law enforcement organization contacted by the Secret Service to assist in security should discuss matters related to costs with the Secret Service."

That was news to the Secret Service, which denied any responsibility for paying local public safety expenses.

David Thomas, special-agent-in charge of the San Francisco Secret Service office, told the Press Democrat that "generally localities pay for the first responder resources utilized, unless they have an agreement with some other party, campaign or donor."

And that was Cloverdale's big mistake: It didn't get the deal in writing.

With the event scheduled only 48 hours after they were alerted, town officials didn't have time to draw up a contract, they say.

Maybe they thought that Bernie Sanders, champion of small-town America values, would honor a verbal agreement.

They'll know better next time.
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La Rondalla, a beloved fixture of the Mission District for decades, has closed once again.

According to Carlos Barrios, whose family has owned and operated the restaurant for generations, the closure is indefinite, though he hopes to reopen at some point.

This is our legacy. I hope we learn from our mistakes, said Barrios, adding that business was going up for a while, but then it sort of stabilized.

This latest chapter in La Rondallas history, full of uncertainty, may follow a familiar trope for neighborhood denizens.

The old-school restaurant, on Valencia and 20th streets for more than 60 years, was a raucous, popular place, known as much for its mariachi bands, constellations of Christmas lights and strong margaritas as for its Mexican American food.

In 2007, the health department shut down the restaurant, and it took seven years for the Barrios family to secure funding and renovate the place. During that time, signs regularly graced the restaurants front windows, promising an imminent return, seemingly on an annual basis.

La Rondalla finally reopened in May 2014, run by Luna and Betty Barrios, daughters of Carlos Barrios.

But the financial problems did not abate. Last year, the city sued the family for failing to properly maintain the building, which they own.

Although Carlos Barrios said that he would be open to negotiating a lease with new operators, he said the fate of La Rondalla  and any potential reopening  lies with his daughters.

I let them do what they can, he said. It all depends on them. I can say yes  I would like to say yes  but if they say no, what can I do?

For now, La Rondalla is closed, its bar and dining room silent, complete with Corona-branded papel picados and deflated balloons still frozen in time.

And the front door of La Rondalla once again bears a simple note to the Mission, handwritten on binder paper, in all caps: Sorry were closed; we might open later. Thank you.

Jonathan Kauffman is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Paolo Lucchesi is the food editor of The San Francisco Chronicle. Email: jkauffman@sfchronicle.com, plucchesi@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @jkonkauffman, @lucchesi
BEIJING  A southern Chinese court has sentenced four people, including at least two Hong Kong journalists, to prison on charges of running an illegal business after they reportedly sent copies of their sensitive political magazines to mainland China.

A court in Shenzhen said Wednesday the four received prison sentences of up to five years each. The sentencing, following the high-profile temporary disappearance of five Hong Kong booksellers, raises questions about the semiautonomous territorys status as a free-press haven for material banned on the mainland.
DAMASCUS, Syria  A suicide bomber riding an empty livestock truck laden with explosives blew himself up Wednesday in a crowded district in the predominantly Kurdish town of Qamishli in northern Syria, causing massive destruction and killing 44 people in a new attack claimed by the Islamic State.

Residents and activists describe a huge explosion in the western district of the town Kurds call the capital of their self-declared autonomous enclave in northern Syria.

Hours after the early-morning explosion, rescue workers continued to search for survivors under the rubble of buildings, some of them leveled by the powerful blast. Most of the victims were civilians, who were lingering in the district that also houses a station for the Kurdish security forces. It was not immediately clear if any Kurdish fighters were among those killed.

Terror is all I saw among the residents when I first arrived. I was shocked at the extent of destruction in the homes and shops, said Decile Husen, a 23-year old media activist who works with the Kurdish ANHA Hawar news agency.

One home was reduced to rubble. Nothing was left of it, she said.

Qamishli, near the Turkish border, is mainly controlled by Kurds, but Syrian government forces are present and control the towns airport.

The Kurds, Syrias largest ethnic minority, have carved out a semiautonomous enclave in Syrias north since the start of the civil war in 2011, where they run their own affairs.

Separately, Syrias state news agency SANA reported a total blackout in nearby Aleppo province, blaming rebel groups for hitting the main power station in the provincial and deeply divided capital. Government forces and allied troops have tightened the noose on the main rebel enclave in the city of Aleppo, urging fighters there to surrender. Humanitarian groups have warned of a major catastrophe if the siege on the rebel-held parts of Aleppo continues.

Kurdish officials said Islamic State militants targeted Qamishli in retaliation for the ongoing offensive they lead against Manbij, an Islamic State stronghold east of Qamishli.

The predominantly Kurdish Syria Democratic Forces, backed by air strikes and training from the U.S.-led coalition, have been the main force fighting Islamic State on the ground in northern Syria. Kurdish forces have also been the most successful ground force in terms of reclaiming territory and towns from Islamic State over the past two years.
KRAKOW, Poland  Pope Francis, deeply saddened by the slaying of an elderly priest during Mass in a church in the French countryside, warned grimly Wednesday that the world is at war, but cautioned against labeling it a war among religions.

At the start of his first trip to Eastern Europe, where antirefugee sentiments have been rising, he also encouraged Europe to welcome refugees from war, hunger and religious persecution and called for courage and compassion.

Francis is celebrating World Youth Day in Poland, where the conservative government has shut the doors to refugees and many fear that accepting Muslim refugees would threaten the nations security and its Catholic identity.

As he started the five-day trip, he told an audience of Polands president, diplomats and other dignitaries that what is needed is a spirit of readiness to welcome those fleeing from wars and hunger, and solidarity with those deprived of their fundamental rights, including the right to profess ones faith in freedom and safety.

While the pontiff had in mind the hundreds of thousands of refugees fleeing Syria, Iraq and other Mideast countries, as well as impoverished nations in Africa, his reference to practicing ones faith in safety could also be seen as an allusion to the slaying of the 85-year-old French priest by two extremists in Normandy on Tuesday.

The murder compounded security fears surrounding Francis trip, which were already high due to a string of violent attacks in France and Germany. Polish officials say they have deployed tens of thousands of security officials to cover the event.

Francis spoke to reporters as he flew from Rome to Krakow. Asked about the slaying of the priest, Francis replied: Its war, we dont have to be afraid to say this.

He then sought to avoid any misunderstanding of his definition of war.

I only want to clarify that, when I speak of war, I am really speaking of war, he said. A war of interests, for money, resources, dominion of peoples.

I am not speaking of a war of religions. Religions dont want war. The others want war, he added.

He also reiterated earlier remarks likening the current violence to a World War III in segments.

In the evening, thousands of young people cheered in the square outside Krakows archbishops residence in hopes of getting a glimpse of Francis.

His pilgrimage will bring him later in the week to Auschwitz and Birkenau, the death-camp complex run by German Nazi occupiers in Poland during World War II. Francis wants to pray silently at the sites and will also visit the place in Auschwitz where a priest gave his life to save a fellow camp inmate.
Space: the final frontier. An infinite vacuum of darkness wherein a film series can come out strong and full of promise but then eventually devolves into a by-the-numbers affair that repeatedly follows the same plotlines apparently forever and ever while its custodians keep busy on other IPs like Star Wars. Thus is Star Trek Beyond.

When we rejoin the crew of the Starship Enterprise in the midst of their 5-year mission to, uh, study  space stuff, tensions are high. James T Kirk (Chris Pine and his hairless chest) is listless, and his stalwart crew is feelin' it, too. Crazy things have happened to these people, much of which we've seen before, but it would seem the previous insanity they've faced wasn't enough to stave off space-boredom.

This is why, when the captain of an attacked ship appears alone in the Federation's newest and most absurd space station and begs for help in retrieving her ship and crew, Kirk, Spock (a painfully boring Zachary Quinto of American Horror Story), Sulu (the always charismatic John Cho of Harold & Kumar, who is given a pointless two-second "he's gay, how novel" backstory that even pissed off the original Sulu, George Takei), Bones (Judge Dredd's Karl Urban), Chekov (the late Anton Yelchin), Scotty (Simon Pegg, who also boasts a writing credit for this outing) and the rest of the gang jump at the chance to lend a hand. But of course the whole deal isn't as it seems, and the Enterprise crew winds up stranded on some distant planet thanks to Krall (Idris Elba), a mysterious space-jerk who leads a species that utilizes swarm-like military space-tactics and who wants something the Enterprise has onboard. There's also a shipwrecked alien named Jaylah (Sofia Boutella) hanging around who loves Public Enemy, cracks wise at every turn and uses space-gadgets to space-fight everyone. Krall is pretty furious for mysterious space-reasons, and he circumvents the aging process by space-vampiring the redshirts.

And it's weak. The promised peril never feels urgent, and it isn't even that we can blame the actors for bad performancesthe writing is just boring; hackneyed, even. This is odd considering Simon Pegg's usual caliber of work, but the infinite Star Trek loop of "crew gets in over their head/crew gets separated from ship/crew perseveres while doing whatever it takes to get things done" goes so beyond formulaic (maybe that's the Beyond to which they were referring) that it's borderline irritating. No new ground is tread whatsoever to the point that it's hard to tell if Beyond is even actually different from 2013's Into Darkness, only this time we don't have Benedict Cumberbatch's wild and wooly magnetism to even things out. As villains go, Elba ranks among the flattest, and his ultimate motive is so thin and tiresome that they could've easily chosen just about anything else for better results. Thus, the film feels lazy. Plot points are telegraphed so obviously, interactions feel forced and tiresome and, worst of all, audiences are underestimated. This particular reboot series certainly has promise and deserves credit for its alternate timeline subtext. That said, the filmmakers behind the series have done better before, and it sure would be nice if they'd try a little harder next time.



Star Trek Beyond

Directed by Justin Lin

With Pine, Quinto, Cho, Pegg and Elba

Violet Crown, Regal, DeVargas

PG-13,

122 min.



Santa Fe Reporter
One afternoon late last summer, Elaine Ritchel wandered into the courtyard of the Historic Santa Fe Foundation on Canyon Road and pressed her palm against a wall. It was made of crumbling mud and rough strawso different from the recently re-stuccoed outer exterior of the 1850s structure. Ritchel had been exploring different corners of the famous art street since moving to Santa Fe the previous winter, and this tactile moment instantly transported her into a bohemian history. It feels so different from the exterior, like a living, breathing wall, says Ritchel. It gave me a glimpse into the past, when Canyon Road was mostly artists selling work out of their studios.

In the last six months, Ritchel has recreated this moment many times with visitors from across the world as founder of Santa Fe Art Tours, a company that takes a decidedly experiential approach to its expeditions. Ritchel is an avid student of local art history, but many of the stops on her tours reveal an edgier, more contemporary side of the art scene. The young entrepreneur viscerally bridges Santa Fe's radical past with its rapidly changing present.

"When I was living in Albuquerque, I thought, 'Oh, Santa Fe is such a tourist town,'" says Ritchel. Her family moved from Bloomington, Indiana to Albuquerque when she was 14 years old. They would occasionally visit Santa Fe to attend art shows. "I think I read an article once that described Santa Fe as 'precious,' and that seemed perfect to me, especially compared to raw, gritty Albuquerque, which is so stark and expansive," she says. "Santa Fe seemed like this toy village of adobe."

When she arrived in Santa Fe, Ritchel had recently returned to New Mexico from a three-year stay in Croatia. She had earned her bachelor's and master's degrees in art history from the University of New Mexico and the University of Texas at Austin, respectively, and also completed some Croatian language courses. An internship at the UNM Art Museum sparked her interest in museum education. "Art history was the foundation and gave me the research skills, but then museum education was how I could transfer that love of art and what I was learning to a wider audience in a very personal way," she says.

In her time overseas, Ritchel fought bouts of homesickness by reading Mabel Dodge Luhan's memoirs. European modernism was her primary focus in college, but New Mexico modernismand the expansive terrain that electrified the movementbecame a new obsession. Struggles to obtain a work visa and start an independent museum education business in Croatia eventually propelled Ritchel back to the Land of Enchantment.

"A real pull for me back to New Mexico was the land," says Ritchel. "I can never really explain it, but I just feel really grounded here." After a few months in Albuquerque, she made the move to Santa Fe and worked her way into the art community. The "toy village" that Ritchel remembered quickly revealed itself to be a city packed with rich histories and invigorating contemporary art. "I was just pounding the pavement. There were so many galleries to see, and I realized that no one was really facilitating that," she says. "There were a lot of tour guides doing historic walks, but nobody focusing specifically on art. I thought, 'Well, I'm here, why not start?'"

Ritchel conducted her first tours on Canyon Road last December, guiding participants on a two-hour jaunt through three or four art spaces on what she calls "The Canyon Road Quickie." These tours often begin at Art House, the Thoma Art Foundation's noncommercial art space on Delgado Street that exhibits historic and contemporary new media work. The gallery's glowing, often interactive art pieces immediately shatter Canyon Road's reigning paradigm of crumbling adobe and stodgy landscape paintings.

"When I look for work to engage with on a tour, it can't just be a pretty picture," Ritchel tells SFR. "There has to be a conversation point, a point of entry. I look for things that spark compelling interpretations." She'll often pass out cards that prompt tour participants to interact with objects in unexpected ways and verbalize their gut reactions. Ritchel mashes up different art interpretation tools like the Feldman method (describe, analyze, interpret and evaluate) and museum-ed based techniques to create these activities.

These tactics reverse the roles of the tour guide and her participants. At Chiaroscuro Contemporary, Ritchel prompts her clients to examine at the work of sculptor and aerialist Jamie Hamilton from acrobatic angles and discuss what they see. At the Vivo Contemporary artist collaborative, she drums up a Q&A with an artist who's working in the space. "I always liken it to keeping things in my back pocket," says Ritchel. "I'll do a bunch of research on an artist and spend time with the work, but then I hold all that information close until we get to interpretation and I can link it to something that someone else has said."

Ritchel says Santa Fe's changing art scene has been an inspiration to her professional pursuits. Her unconventional approach to art exploration fits right into a new wave of creative energy here. "I definitely think something is happening in Santa Fe," she says. "There are all of these younger people, younger artists, and artists doing more contemporary work that you wouldn't expect to find in Santa Fe. It's kind of this undercurrent right now, which is all the more reason to have someone here helping visitors tap into it. It's very cool, and very unique."

Ritchel's tours are reservation-only, and can be arranged at santafearttours.com. In addition to her Canyon Road tours, she guides clients through galleries and museums in different art districts around town. She plans to launch a series of artist studio tours in the near future.



Santa Fe Reporter
I give (and take) directions in Santa Fe based exclusively on restaurants, so when trying to explain to a girlfriend where to meet us for dinner at 401 Neighborhood Fine Dining (401 N Guadalupe, 989-3297), I told her, Remember that place on Guadalupe that used to be the Swiss Bakery and before that Corazon and before that WilLees? (Trivia: In the 1980s, it was a deli called Beckers, where my electrician had his first job as a teenager.)

Well, the venue may be familiar, but this is the first time I can remember the space housing something like a date-night dinner restaurant, which is how I'd describe its most recent incarnation.

The menu is heavy on small plates, although all of the dishes are presented on one page without being separated into categories. There are about a dozen things that appear to be starters and salads, including a nice plate of burrata ($15), a creamy-centered relative of fresh mozzarella. The cheese was lovely, and it was paired nicely with a grilled half peach. It was showered with green pumpkin seeds and swimming in sweet balsamic, and though they were good garnishes, a lighter hand would have kept the focus on the cheese and fruit.

Other small plates include spicy rosemary cashews ($6), Castelvetrano olives ($6) and fried dill pickles ($8). These are all appetizing options for munching while deciding on the next move.

A starter of potato chips ($6) had mixed success at our table. The chips themselves were perfectthin, crunchy and saltybut the smoked tomato aioli was strange. The first impression was a pleasant smokiness, but as the flavor continued to unfold, it got weird. One of my dining companions was sure it tasted like fish; after a few bites, I couldn't shake the flavor of burnt marshmallow. It was deeply perplexing.

It was kind of like going in for a white Jelly Belly, thinking it's gonna be French vanilla, but then it turns out to be buttered popcorn, and your brain computer gives you the spinning wheel of death for a minute while your taste buds try to reboot.

How can smoked tomato aioli taste like fishy marshmallow? Instant reality check: Did I ingest hallucinogenic drugs before dinner? Not today. Am I having a seizure? Don't think so. Could the tomatoes have been smoked on a rack above fish and maybe picked up some of the fish's aroma? Mayyyybe.

There is a smoked salmon croquette on the menu ($14), and we tried that, too. The pretty pink disc had a thin, crisp breading, and it was a good size for a starter, but the interior was too dry, and there was no sauce to moisten it. If it came with something like dilled sour cream and a heartier bed of greens, it could be a very shareable appetizer or a satisfying low-carb main.

In the middle of the menu are some options that fill what is perhaps an overlooked middle ground between little snack and big old dinner. There's a steak tartare ($18), daily ceviche ($16), a Caesar salad with duck fat croutons and a very tempting plate of pate and pickles ($15) that comes with a chicken liver pate, marmalade, mustard caviar and toasts. An addition of duck rillettes costs $6, a cold piece of poached foie gras is $12.

At the bottom of the menu are more traditional entrees: lamb chops with wild mushroom risotto ($22), steak frites ($29) and a daily fish special. The night we visited, it was an orange roughy with fingerling potatoes and fava beans ($28).

We opted for the only pasta on the menu, which was a dish of delightful handmade pappardelle, for some reason wrongly advertised as linguine. Not that the discrepancy mattered to usthe noodles were greatbut some people do feel strongly about certain pasta shapes, so somebody probably should have mentioned, "Oh hey, the menu says linguine but the chef actually made pappardelle tonight."



That glitch aside, the service was as close to perfect as anyone at our table had experienced in Santa Fe. Our waiter was kind, friendly, helpful and informative; always there when we needed him but never interrupting our conversation. Maybe it was because we found out he was from Spain, but the service felt European in its efficient minimalism.

That was juxtaposed by the aggressive friendliness of the host and proprietor, Jack Shaab, whose face is familiar from the many restaurants he's been involved with over the years (Bistro 315, Il Piatto, Jack's). While we were there, Shaab held court at the bar, sat down with friends at their tables, mingled with friends who popped in just to say hi. You can take that as the absolute definition of a neighborhood restaurantor as a distraction from otherwise extremely refined service. The interpretation is up to you.

The restaurant has only been open since June, and it feels like everyone is still figuring out exactly what 401 is supposed to be, including chef Laura Licona, a New Mexican who has just returned to Santa Fe after years of cooking in Seattle.

Her food can be great! That pappardelle with mushrooms and parsley was simple and fantastic. But it can also miss (the salmon croquette or the apple galette that was all crust and no apple). 401 has great potential to be the kind of place we love: comfortable, unpretentious and with great food at reasonable prices.

We hope in the coming months the menu will develop more personality, more of a unique identity and more consistency. Then we'll be telling people to meet us for drinks at Cowgirl: "Turn on to Guadalupe, go past Tomasita's, past 401 and it's up there on your right."



At a Glance

Open: 5:30 - 9:30 pm, Tuesday through Saturday

Best Bet: Burrata with grilled peach

Perfect For: Date night

Santa Fe Reporter
New Zealand shares dipped for a second day in a row, led lower by A2 Milk Co and Steel & Tube Holdings while Fletcher Building rose on construction expectations.

The S&P/NZX 50 Index dropped 8.48 points, or 0.1 percent, to 7,301.91. Within the index, 25 stocks fell, 14 rose and 12 were unchanged. Turnover was $120 million.

A2 Milk Co was the worst performer on the index, down 3.1 percent to $1.90. It faces a legal challenge in Australia from rival Lion Group over the science behind health-related claims about the milk. A2 had taken Lion to court over its milk brand's use of A2 protein claims, seeking an injunction and damages. Media reports on the issue might have frightened some investors, David Price, a broker at Forsyth Barr, said.

The market was relatively quiet today ahead of August's results season, Price said, having had a strong run-up over the past month.

Steel & Tube Holdings dropped 2.2 percent to $2.18 and Trade Me Group fell 1.7 percent to $5.15.

Trustpower declined 1.2 percent to $8.10. The electricity generator and retailer said it is "very disappointed" with a Supreme Court ruling dismissing its bid to claim tax deductions on $17.7 million of project costs in a case closely watched by large-scale infrastructure developers.The company previously stated the cost of losing would cut profit by $6.6 million.

Ryman Healthcare dropped 0.9 percent to $9.65. Tthe country's biggest retirement village operator has bought a 4-hectare site in Auckland's Hobsonville for a $200 million development, marking its 10th village in New Zealand's largest city.

Fletcher Building rose 1.6 percent to $9.55, and has gained 28 percent this year.

"There were a couple of reports out overnight highlighting the increase in work they see this year, and going forward," Price said. "The government one was talking about an increase from $31 to $37 billion, quite a big percentage gain, so Fletcher has continued to run on the back of that."

Chorus gained 1.8 percent to $4.54 and Orion Health Group rose 1.3 percent to $4.81.

Outside the main index, Allied Farmers shares jumped 16 percent to 5.2 cents after the rural services firm gave a rosier view on annual earnings due to a better than expected performance from its livestock division.

Abano Healthcare gained 1.5 percent to $8.10. The Australasian radiology and dental centre operator turned to an annual profit after selling its half stake in audiology investor Bay International and expanding its dental chain.

"It was at the top end of guidance and there was a nice positive surprise on the dividend front so that stock had a better day, albeit on relatively light volume," Price said.

BusinessDesk.co.nz

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But they would be 10 a day if it were trains amirite conbots?Oil spills happening at a rate of about 2 per day in Saskatchewan: researcherA researcher says oil spills are happening at a rate of about two per day in Saskatchewan.University of Regina researcher Emily Eaton runs an independent website that tracks oil impact. Eaton said that there have been 8,000 spills in Saskatchewan since 2006 (about 17 per cent involved Husky Energy).Smaller pipelines, she said, are the provincial government's responsibility."The province should and could do a lot more," said Eaton.Eaton said the province does not have enough inspectors.The reason most of the spills do not get the sort of attention this latest Husky Energy spill into the North Saskatchewan River is receiving, according to Eaton, is that they happen in the oil patch."A lot of these spills are smaller than this current one, the Husky onethey often spill into farmer's fields in rural oil producing areas," she said."Many spills like this are happening everyday across the province without any awareness from the public."While Eaton questions whether an oil spill can ever effectively be cleaned up, in the case of many of the spills in this province, industry fails to even go through the motions. Eaton said she has spoken to a number of landowners about their experience with spills."A lot of them are very frustrated; some of them have been waiting for remediation and cleanup for decades sometimes."Eaton is not alone is casting a critical eye on oil spills.
Auckland will be more densely populated, have a 30 percent larger new urban area and a far less prescriptive set of rules for new residential developments than the plan put forward by the Auckland Council, if recommendations of an independent panel are adopted.

The council now has until Aug. 19 to decide whether and how many of the recommendations of the Independent Hearing Panel, which was appointed to come up with a close-to-final version of the Auckland Unitary Plan, to adopt. The enormous and detailed plan was released publicly today, with councillors scheduled to debate the proposed plan in public hearings before adoption by Aug. 19.

The Auckland Council is under heavy political pressure not to make major changes to the proposals as the government looks for answers to the housing affordability crisis gripping the country's largest city.

Six years in the making since the amalgamation of various Auckland local councils into a single super-city, the IHP concluded that the councils plans to add capacity for an extra 293,000 dwellings between now and 2041 was too little. Instead, it recommends providing land and appropriate zoning to allow some 422,000 dwellings to be built to meet the panels estimate that some 400,000 new apartments, houses, and multi-dwelling units are needed.

The increase is achieved largely by reducing the areas set aside for single house zones in favour of more areas capable of taking multi-dwelling developments, including high-rise apartments, extending the size of the total urban boundary by 30 percent more than Auckland Council initially proposed.

A key change is a proposal to expand the definition of so-called "walkable catchments" for higher density zones to 400-to-800 metres, rather than the council's proposed 200-to-400 metre definition. This will allow far denser urban development around transport corridors and existing town and suburban centres.

While a rural-urban boundary will be retained, it will no longer be part of the regional policy statement and instead be covered by District Plans. That means that instead of requiring a zone change at either the regional council or ministerial level, applications to make land outside the boundary available for residential development will only require a resource consent application to a local council.

Maps supplied with today's materials show far denser residential development than the council proposed throughout the central Auckland isthmus, with the Tamaki estuary, eastern beaches, and parts of the city's southwest considerably particularly affected.

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Early reaction to the recommendations of an independent hearings panel for the final version of Auckland's new Unitary Plan has exposed some unexpected bedfellows, with Labour and Auckland's peak business body finding much to criticise, while the Greens and Property Council have lined up on threats to protection for cultural heritage.

The Labour Party is highly critical of recommendations that remove the requirement for a proportion of new dwellings to meet 'affordable' benchmarks, saying the panel is effectively encouraging the government's 'hands-off' approach to the Auckland housing affordability crisis.

However, the government, which has fired potshots at Auckland Council for the last few months, was circumspect. Building and Housing Minister Nick Smith welcomed the panel's recommendations and acknowledged they posed "a major challenge for the council".

"Auckland previously could not resolve the tension between the old regional council wanting a tight metropolitan urban limit and the district and city councils wanting more growth outwards. This confusion resulted in too little provision for growth and the current housing challenges. The strength of a single Auckland Council is that this issue will be resolved."

The council was formed six years ago from a clutch of local bodies that controlled greater Auckland, with the Unitary Plan key to the city's future plans for growth as it grapples with a rapidly growing population and increasingly unaffordable housing. It must ratify a final version of the plan by Aug. 19, with a series of decision-making meetings in coming days, which will be open to the public.

Smith refused to be drawn into judgements about the panel's recommendations, beyond saying it had done "a good job addressing the complex issues and balancing the competing interests", for fear of provoking a judicial review if the government were seen to pressure the council on an outcome at this stage of the process.

Others were not so constrained, with Auckland's peak business body, the Employers and Manufacturers Association calling the recommendations a "mixed bag".

"While the plan outlines residential growth across the city, looking at intensification around transport corridors and town centres in particular to match employment opportunities, there are still unanswered questions around how this matches up with commercial growth," said EMA chief executive Kim Campbell. "Primarily, new commercial land is zoned for general business use and most of this in the north and central areas.

"Yet the highest areas of residential intensification are outlined for west and south Auckland, and there appears to be a disconnect between population growth and commercial development," said Campbell.

More intensive residential development close to public transport and motorways would work only if the increased population did not make current Auckland traffic congestion worse.

Smith said the recently announced $1 billion fund for urban infrastructure would assist in meeting that demand.

The Green Building Council welcomed the commitment to denser urban living, but expressed disappointment that the panel had recommended against the use of the Homestar standards for home insulation.

Homestar is a rigorous, science-based and market-tested rating tool. Since its been in the proposed Auckland unitary plan, its pushed developers to think about the long-term impacts of their practices, to find ways of building more efficiently and minimising the ongoing footprint of their homes  which is also a great selling point for buyers, said the council's chief executive, Alex Cutler.

Likewise, the Property Council welcomed the broad thrust of the recommendations, but said they were "completely overshadowed by a number of bizarre and divisive recommendations which must be resisted at all costs," said council chief Ashley Church.

Recommendations to remove protections for pre-1944 'heritage' villas and against a requirement for cultural impact assessments on some 3,500 sites of potential cultural significance to Maori amounted to "unnecessary acts of cultural vandalism".

The Green Party called on the Auckland Council to unite behind the plans, supporting more intensive urban development in pursuit of affordable housing for families currently unable to get onto the housing ladder in Auckland.

The Green Party is broadly supportive of the independent panels recommendations, but we have some concerns about things well need to take a closer look at, such as protection for significant Maori sites", co-leader Metiria Turei said.

Labour leader Andrew Little said the government "must explain why the panel considering Aucklands unitary plan removed affordability requirements".

Labour welcomes the Independent Hearing Panels recommendations to substantially free up restrictive controls that are stopping Auckland growing up and out. The pressure is now on Auckland Council to do the right thing, and back the recommendations," said Little.

However, it recommended removing the requirement for developments over 15 dwellings to contain 10 per cent affordable houses. It beggars belief the government asked the panel to scrap affordability requirements when Auckland is desperately short of affordable housing.

Labour believes the panel has done the bare minimum to help Auckland deliver just the number of houses it needs. But by retaining the urban growth boundary and adding more land, it simply risks feeding Aucklands speculative frenzy."

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Former Ross Asset Management investor Hamish McIntosh told the Supreme Court he was entitled to fictitious returns on $500,000 he invested with the failed Ross Asset Management that one judge on the bench said were "a fantasy" based on stolen money.

The Wellington lawyer, representing himself, is appealing against a Court of Appeal ruling that he must repay the $454,000 in fictitious gains from his investment while keeping his $500,000 principal payment. The liquidators of RAM are cross-appealing that they should be entitled to claw back his principal as well. RAM was New Zealand's biggest-ever Ponzi scheme.

McIntosh has attempted to keep his circumstances private. He lost a bid for name suppression last year. Today the Supreme Court agreed to suppress some parts of his evidence, including details of emails with his banks, architects and to RAM principal David Ross, who had to be nagged to repay the investment ahead of RAM's eventual collapse, as McIntosh tried to get his finances in order to buy a development property in Wellington. However, Justice William Young said the suppression order would be reconsidered in the court's judgment.

He argued that he shouldn't have to repay the $454,000 because the investment had been terminated "in very normal circumstances" and paid out "as if the contract had been fully informed." In public court, McIntosh cited emails to RAM thanking it for "a very good result".

"That's what I rely on to say there was a conclusion or discharge of this contract," he said. The return on his 4 1/2-year investment wasn't so unusual as to trigger alarm bells with his accountants. Anyway, he was entitled to rely on RAM's reports of the returns on the investments, whatever actual use the money had been put to, he said.

"The actual use of the money is irrelevant?" Justice Susan Glazebrook asked to which he replied "yes". Justice Mark ORegan then said: "But the returns you were told about were a fantasy. Your money was stolen and from then on everything was a fantasy."

Liquidators John Fisk and David Bridgman of PwC took their action against McIntosh as a test case and have previously said they would pursue other investors who pulled out their funds before Ross Asset's collapse. Defrauded investors are expected to receive 3 cents for every dollar invested.

In the High Court, Justice Alan MacKenzie had ruled the liquidator's bid to claw back funds from former Ross investors didn't need an 'all or nothing' approach, and the principal invested could be viewed as separate from the investment scheme's fictitious returns. But today in the Supreme Court, McIntosh said it was "completely artificial to bifurcate that amount."

Justice Glazebrook: You're saying $950,000 or nothing?"

McIntosh: "Yes".

Justice Glazebrook: "Well that's interesting. It may be you don't like the answer."

McIntosh reiterated his argument, unsuccessful in the lower courts, that he had faced a change of circumstances because of a property development on Wellington's Palliser Road, which involved taking on $3 million of debt, pushing the venture into negative equity. Justice MacKenzie in the High Court had dismissed the Wellington investment defence, finding the funds he got from RAM were used to buy a property in Queenstown. He also reprised the argument from the lower courts there had been a transfer of value in terms of the Companies Act.

Evidence suppressed by the Supreme Court today built McIntosh's case that reliance on the RAM money had been a key part of his decision to buy the Wellington property and that by the time RAM was put into liquidation he would have faced an additional loss of funds expended on his development plans.

He also argued that he had no way of knowing, even with the liquidation, whether his portfolio was valid or not.

Lawyers for the liquidators were due to make their counter-appeal this afternoon and the decision of the court is expected to be reserved.

Wellington-based Ross built up a private investment service by word of mouth, producing regular reports for shareholders indicating healthy but fictitious returns. Between June 2000 and September 2012, Ross reported false profits of $351 million from fictitious securities trading as part of a fraud that was the largest single such crime committed by an individual in New Zealand. McIntosh today said his broker recommended Ross to him and the investment was accepted by both his accountant and bank.

In June last year, the Court of Appeal turned down a bid by Ross to reduce his 10-year, 10-month jail term, which carries a minimum non-parole period of five years and five months.

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Next week Mary Quin will drop her dog off at the boarding kennels before hopping on a plane bound for her nephews wedding in Poland.

Her face is much more relaxed and animated talking about her planned road trip across Eastern Europe with one of her brothers, Frank Quin, than it is when discussing her departure as chief executive of Callaghan Innovation, the government body charged with helping New Zealand companies grow bigger, faster through research and development and innovation.

Quin leaves Callaghan this Friday after resigning three weeks ago in an unsignalled move.

When appointed inaugural CEO three years ago, Quin, who returned to New Zealand for the role after 37 years overseas, said it was a dream job that would use all her experience and skills.

In her first interview since resigning, she says Callaghan is now well established and the board has completed a strategic review to set future direction. The timing is right for her to leave to pursue other interests, chief among them travel.

Quin will remain in Wellington and isn't seeking another corporate role, although she won't rule it out, but would prefer a couple more directorships along with the board position she took in May with Westpac NZ.

She hadnt considered resigning Callaghan when joining Westpac, which was a good fit after two years earlier on ASB Bank's board.

Informed sources, who spoke only on condition they weren't identified, say her own board deemed her a capable manager rather than the visionary leader it wanted to drive Callaghans new strategy. The resignation was announced by deputy chair Robin Hapi rather than chair Sue Suckling who was overseas at the time and his media comments about having reached a confidential agreement with Quin and that she left with the companys best wishes rather than regret, fanned speculation about the departure.

Suckling later said the board had been talking with Quin for some time about the future of the organisation which culminated in her resigning. Mary did a good job in setting up the organisation and is now going to do other things.

Quin herself declined to comment on the speculation.

Both Suckling and Science and Innovation Minister Steven Joyce, who oversees Callaghan, are said to have interventionist management styles. Joyce previously described Quin as nuggety and feisty and she admits to being feisty.

While avoiding direct comment on any tensions with the board, Quin says shed had autonomy to bring the organisation to the level its now at. This gives the board the opportunity to bring in leadership that will take it to a whole other level and that will be exciting to watch.

Judging Quins performance along with that of Callaghan over the past three years isn't easy. It handed out $138 million in grants last year and is expected to have total annual revenue in the 2016/2017 financial year of almost $300 million.

The mission of growing companies through technology and innovation takes many years to achieve, she says.

Suckling adds Callaghan is one of a number of players in the eco-system with the same mission and more work will be done in future on teasing out the impact it's having.

Statistics New Zealand figures show there are around 50,000 manufacturing and digital service companies, of which only about 5,000 employ more than five people.

New Zealands challenge is that it is a country of SMEs but not small to medium enterprises, small to micro enterprises, Quin says. The... whole purpose of the creation of Callaghan Innovation is how to help more of those companies grow bigger, faster and to be ambitious.

While observers may not have been able to see what was going on inside Callaghan, like ducks on a pond, there was some furious paddling going on beneath the surface that Quin says was necessary rather than glamorous. Things like investing in new IT systems.

What Im proud of is the collective impact from what we started with. I often say to people in the organisation were always pushing ourselves on how to be better and get to the next level of performance and always forget how far weve come.

One change in the strategy refresh will be to focus more on particular industry sectors that have potential to become market leaders in a huge global market and where there are exciting New Zealand companies and entrepreneurs already active: medical devices, unmanned aerial vehicles, value-add food and beverage products, agri-tech, and some parts of the energy sector.

There will also be more investment in Callaghans science and technical capability and its relationships with other research and development providers. Early on, Quin shifted the focus of the research team she inherited from the former Industrial Research Ltd away from fundamental blue-sky research and competing for contestable science funding.

Our focus is on small R and big D. Thats where businesses need our help, she says.

How well that science capability is working within an agency seen from the outside as largely charged with research and development funding remains an open question in the science community.

Quin says its still at the start of that journey. It takes time to take the talent we have in the organisation and make sure those individuals are excited about and involved in that kind of work and then by engaging with companies to see what are the areas of research or technical expertise they need that we dont have. Thats not just a multi-year but a multi-decade project.

Suckling agrees with outside criticism that the organisations R&D side hasnt yet been well-integrated with the rest of its operations. Thats another area for future work.

Callaghan is still progressing the business case required for Treasury and government approval to develop IRLs Gracefield campus into an Innovation Precinct. Callaghan had $54.9 million in capital at the end of June, much of which is likely to be drawn down for upgrading and expanding the run-down facilities. Thats likely to be augmented by some form of public/private partnership, Quin said. Around two dozen companies are already co-located with Callaghans R&D staff on the Lower Hutt campus, which also houses Victoria Universitys Ferrier and Robinson Institutes.

After talking to kiwi businesses and staff internally, Callaghan's strategic refresh focuses on becoming more customer responsive and co-creation in R&D. Quin says there's been progress on the overall mission of business growth and R&D spend although its a job thats never done.

It really is a team sport at national level. Were not comparable to the All Blacks yet but the fact that we can be that good at rugby tells us we can be that good at anything we set our minds to.

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Balaclava Rapist Larry Takahashi released on parole from life sentence in Vancouver

Larry Takahashi, one of Canadas most notorious rapists, has been granted day parole in the Vancouver area.Takahashi, dubbed the Balaclava Rapist, was known for breaking into homes and sexually assaulting women while wearing a ski mask. Edmonton Police said at the time that it was likely he assaulted over 100 women before being arrested in 1983.In 1984, he faced 70 charges involving 22 women but was only convicted of 14 charges, including four counts of rape, sexual assault with a weapon, and six counts of disguise with intent.He was given three life sentences.Documents from the Parole Board of Canada say Takahashi used a knife and other sharp objects to threaten his victims, and in one instance threatened the infant child of a victim.He also sexually assaulted a victim in front of her children and another while her family members slept in the next room.The documents say he also used a rope on at least one victim and repeatedly punched another in the face.He has admitted to raping other victims but it is unknown how many.The Parole Board says multiple psychiatric assessments showed Takahashi has a tendency to be selfish, callous, and remorseless.They deem him to be a moderate-to-high risk for sexual and violent re-offending. Though he admits he continues to have fantasies about raping women, the Parole Board believes he is able to manage them.Takahashi, now 63, was previously released on parole in 2013 and was supposed to spend 60 days in a half-way house in Victoria. He was sent back to prison early after only a few weeks.The incident was the latest in several parole violations that sent him back behind bars. In August 2005 while on day parole, Takahashi met with a convicted sex offender in Vancouver and was ordered back to prison.Restrictions of his parole include the conditions that he does not consume alcohol or drugs, follows his treatment plan, not use pornography, stay away from any college or university campus, avoid his victims, and respect curfew. He also must not pick up or drive any female passengers in a car or use computers or the internet.
OneLife Church in Plattsmouth was backpack at it again as member distributed school supplies during the Back to School Bash at the community center.

The bash started at 11:30 July 23 and most of the children came for new backpacks and school supplies right at the start. By 11:45 a.m. the crowd had dwindled to almost nothing but church members.

Supplies werent the only items the children walked away with. They had their tummies filled with hotdogs, cookies, chips and water from the church.

We gave out over 170 backpacks and served over 200 meals, said OneLife Pastor Jon Haizlip.

Haizlip added the church will also be grilling corn on the cob this year at the Cass County Fair and Harvest Festival.

An ear of corn dipped in butter is available to people attending these events as long as the supply lasts.
If you think sex trafficking is only a problem in metro communities, you have another think coming.

A report released last week indicates sex traffickers target rural communities where people are more trusting and unsuspecting of criminal activity.

You know, they prey upon girls out here in the Midwest because were naive, because we dont know about the big cities, said one of the survivors quoted in the report. Were a lot more trusting and they love to hit these small towns. I mean, thats a big thing. People dont realize. They think because in a small town, USA, population 1,500, that theyre safe. No! Theyre more vulnerable than anybody else. You know? You dont even lock your door.

Sex trafficking, according to the National Human Trafficking Resource Center (NHTRC), occurs when people are sexually exploited by means of force, fraud or coercion. By law, sex trafficking includes commercial sexual exploitation of children, meaning anyone under the age of 18 who is working in the sex industry is a trafficking victim even if there is no force or coercion present.

Shireen Rajaram, Ph.D., associate professor, health promotion, social and behavioral health, at UNMCs College of Public Health and Sriyani Tidball, assistant professor of practice, College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, co-authored the report, Nebraska Sex Trafficking Survivors Speak  A Qualitative Research Study that was commissioned by the Womens Fund of Omaha.

Results from the study were used by the Womens Fund to develop the booklet Nothing About Us Without Us.

People generally believe sex trafficking is a problem in other countries, but its happening in every state in the United States, including Nebraska, Rajaram states in a UNMC press release dated July 18. Our nation has failed to call trafficking what it is  a public health problem.

The first-time report in Nebraska includes interviews with female survivors of sex trafficking. Of those interviewed, 17 women live in the Omaha-Lincoln area and five live in rural Nebraska. As children, 12 of the women had been in foster care and one had lived in a group home, the release states.

Cass County Sheriff William Bruggemann said his department has always been able to retrieve minors who are reported missing. Once they turn 18 and are considered adults, finding them is much more difficult.

Cass County, being so close to Omaha and Lincoln, certainly has the potential for sex trafficking, he said.

Brueggemann added that, based on his research, most initial contacts made between sex traffickers and children start on the Internet and social media.

Sex traffickers also attend events with large crowds of people including fairs, College World Series and concerts. They look for children who are alone, runaways or those who are very vulnerable.

They make themselves as attractive as they can. They might start out saying, Let me buy you a funnel cake. or Go on this ride with me. I hate going on rides by myself, Bruggemann said.

Brueggemann said the entry age into the commercial sex industry is between 12-14 years old. Eighty percent are female. Thats why parents should continue to drive home the Stranger Danger message no matter how old their child is. We teach young kids not to talk to strangers, but we dont stress it when they get older, he said.

Although doesnt want to be an alarmist about sex trafficking, he wants everyone to be aware that it is possible in this area. Brueggemann urged youth to always stay in a group when at large events when its easy for someone to get lost in a crowd and disappear.

Traffickers target children who are alone or seem to lack confidence. NHTRC states that children are recruited through false promises including money, love, employment and sometimes through kidnapping or abduction.

There is a woeful lack of awareness about the subject among community leaders, law enforcement, teachers, health care professionals and the general public, Rajaram states in the press release.

Many times, no one believes the victim of sex trafficking. I think for me that was, like my biggest issue, another survivor quoted in the report stated. They labeled me as a prostitute and not a trafficking victim. And, I had to explain to a lot of people, like yes, I might have been doing prostitution, but it wasnt my choice. It wasnt like, if I wanted to stop, I could stop, you know. There were times where I wish I couldve stopped and I tell people all the time. I say, Id rather have been dead than doing what I was doing a lot of times, but I didnt have a choice.

Brueggemann said physical abuse, drugs and threats against family members are used to keep the victims in the system.

According to an article published in the Lincoln Journal Star in September 2015, the Lincoln Police Department accepted an invitation from the Cook County Sheriffs Office in Illinois to take part in a sex-trafficking sting along with 17 other states. In all, 1,032 people were arrested. Sixteen men were arrested in Lincoln, the article stated.

The Journal Star also reported in January about a man and woman charged with human trafficking in Hall County. They were accused of sex trafficking of a woman in December 2015 in three states.

The report stressed the need for a comprehensive statewide plan to combat trafficking in Nebraska.

There is an urgent need to implement strategies to address prevention, protection and prosecution simultaneously, the report states.

Convictions of sex traffickers have been far and few between. According to the U.S. State Department, for every 800 people trafficked in 2006, only one person was convicted.

Sex trafficking is a lucrative business, according to the NHTRC. Like any business, legal or illegal, the demand drives the supply, information from the NHTRC states. Humans can be sold multiple times a day, seven days a week for several years, while drugs and weapons can only be sold once.

The report states stiffer penalties are needed for sex traffickers as well as follow-up investigations of reported incidents, shaming strategies such as sex trafficking registry and publicly identifying them and rehabilitation programs.

University of Nebraska-Omaha is hosting a panel discussion 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Aug. 17 at the UN-O Thompson Alumni Center, Bootstrapper Hall, 6705 Dodge St. It will be sponsored by the Womens Leadership Council of the United Way of the Midlands in partnership with the Womens Fund of Omaha.

Panelists include Meghan Malik, trafficking response coordinator, Womens Fund of Omaha, as moderator; Anna Brewer, former FBI Special Agent and Womens Fund of Omaha sex trafficking training consultant; Rachel Pointer, liaison, Liaison Free the People Movement; Rajaram; and Alicia Webber, human trafficking task force coordinator/project manager, The Salvation Armys Fight to End Trafficking Program.

There is a charge for lunch, but people may attend without purchasing lunch. People are asked to RSVP by Aug. 3 to Mikaela Borecky at Events@UWMidlands.org or call 402.522.7908.
BENGALURU: Karnataka on Monday unveiled a booster kit to nurture start-ups in the state with funding and hand-holding till they flourish.

"The booster kit provides software tools, cloud credits, access to mentors, legal and consulting accountants and access to government funding and government supported incubators," state IT & BT Minister Priyanka Kharge told reporters here.

Announcing 400 crore funding over the next four years as grant or equity for start-ups, micro and small IT and BT (biotech) enterprises, he said the Karnataka Biotechnology and IT Services (KBITS) would also help them in marketing and promotion.

"The KIBITS will sponsor participation of start-up entrepreneurs to attend networking events at national and international levels, administer tax incentive and assist them in patent filing," Kharge said.

The new minister also said he plans to hold an open house event every month for start-ups to interact with department officials for addressing issues related to their operations.

The first open house will be held on August 16 at the state-run 10,000 start-ups warehouse in this tech hub.

"Bengaluru is the second fastest-growing start-up ecosystem in the world and the only Indian city to be ranked among the best 15 start-up ecosystems the world over," Kharge said.

The state government has also set up a cell in KBITS to implement policy initiatives and provide incentives for incubating start-ups.

"A start-up portal (www.startup.karnataka.gov.in) will soon be launched to educate prospective entrepreneurs on our policy and benefits being offered under the booster kit," Kharge added.

In partnership with the IT industry's representative body Nasscom, the state government has set up 725 seats to support incubators in the warehouse, in which 325 seats are available at subsidised rate for setting up start-ups.

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Centre, States To Discuss Startup Issues
PHILADELPHIA: Making a strong case for his wife Hillary's presidency bid, charismatic former US president Bill Clinton on Wednesday narrated his personal story with "a girl" he met in 1971 to emphasise that she is "uniquely qualified" for the top job and the "best change-maker" he has ever known.



"Hillary will make us stronger together. You know it because she spent a lifetime doing it," Bill said in his address to the Democratic National Convention here, hours after the party nominated his wife Hillary as its presidential candidate for the November elections.

"She is still the best darn change-maker I have ever known," the 69-year-old former president said in a mesmerising speech, asking his countrymen to vote and elect Hillary as the next US president.



Scripting history, the 68-year-old former secretary of state on Wednesday became the first woman to win the presidential nomination of a major US party as she secured the backing of the Democrats to set up an epic clash with Republican rival Donald Trump in the November polls.



Bill, who was the 42nd president of the US from 1993 to 2000, said, "Hillary is uniquely qualified to seize the opportunities and reduce the risks we face. And she is still the best darn change-maker I have ever known. You could drop her into any trouble spot, pick one, come back in a month and somehow, some way she will have made it better. That is just who she is".



Hillary, he argued will make US stronger. "You know it because she's spent a lifetime doing it. I hope you will do it. I hope you will elect her. Those of us who have more yesterdays than tomorrows tend to care more about our children and grandchildren," Bill argued.



"The reason you should elect her is that in the greatest country on earth we have always been about tomorrow. You children and grandchildren will bless you forever if you do," the former US President said.



Without even once taking Trump's name, Bill said the opponent is made up while his spouse is real.



"One is real, the other is made up," he said amidst cheers from the audience.



"You just have to decide. You just have to decide which is which, my fellow Americans. The real one had done more positive change-making before she was 30 than many public officials do in a lifetime in office," Bill said.



"The real one, if you saw her friend Betsy Ebeling vote for Illinois today has friends from childhood through Arkansas, where she has not lived in more than 20 years, who have gone all across America at their own expense to fight for the person they know," he said.



Bill also narrated his personal story of how he met his wife to highlight her qualities.



"In the spring of 1971 I met a girl," Clinton told his cheering Democratic supporters in this city. In the next 42 minutes, Bill, through the little-known personal stories with Hillary, tried to carve out a picture of his wife as one who could be the most qualified person to lead the country for the next four years.



"The real one calls you when you're sick, when your kid's in trouble or when there's a death in the family. The real one repeatedly drew praise from prominent Republicans when she was a senator and secretary of state," Bill said.



"So what's up with it? Well, if you win elections on the theory that government is always bad and will mess up a two-car parade a real change-maker represents a real threat," he said.



If elected in the November 8 polls, Hillary would become America's first female president and commander-in-chief.



"So your only option is to create a cartoon, a cartoon alternative, then run against the cartoon. Cartoons are two- dimensional, they're easy to absorb. Life in the real world is complicated and real change is hard. And a lot of people even think it's boring," Bill said.



"Good for you, because earlier today you nominated the real one. Listen, we've got to get back on schedule. You guys calm down," the former US President said.

Read Also: Indian-American To Be Recognised As Emerging Democratic Leader

Trump's NATO Comments Show 'lack of preparedness': Obama

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CCTV footage has captured a failed arson attempt in Fyshwick in the early hours of Thursday morning, by two men police say are associated with an outlaw motorcycle gang.

Footage taken about 1am reveals the men driving to the Newcastle Street building, getting out of their light coloured Toyota Echo, dousing the building in petrol and attempting to light it.

CCTV footage captured a failed arson attempt in Fyshwick on Thursday night.

The attempt failed and the men fled in the Toyota.

One man was wearing grey pants, a light grey long-sleeved hooded jumper and a black vest.
A Canberra man missing since Tuesday night was found early Thursday morning, police say.

Police said they held concerns for 26-year-old Kiet Ho's welfare when they appealed for the public's assistance in finding him on Wednesday.

Canberra man Kiet Ho was found early Thursday morning after being missing since Tuesday night.

He had last been seen dropping some friends home in Isabella Plains at about 10:30pm Tuesday.

Police thanked the public for their assistance in finding Mr Ho.
Police hold concerns for the welfare of missing Canberra man Kiet Ho after he was last seen on Tuesday night.

The 26-year-old dropped some friends home in Isabella Plains at about 10:30pm, driving a 2003 black BMW 325Ci Series with registration plates YGE-27X.

Police are calling on the public to help find missing Canberra man Kiet Ho, who was last seen on Tuesday night.

He is described as Asian, with a medium build, brown hair and brown eyes.

Kiet was last seen wearing a black t-shirt, long-sleeved shirt and black jacket, with jeans and hiking boots. He could be carrying a large Kathmandu backpack, police say.
Several of the country's big banks are seeking to join forces and negotiate as a bloc with technology giant Apple, which could lead to a collective boycott of Apple Pay, in a bid to offer "digital wallets" on the iPhone.

Commonwealth Bank, National Australia Bank, Westpac and Bendigo Bank have this week applied to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, asking permission to negotiate as one with Apple.

Apple introduced the mobile payment system in Australia last year with American Express. ANZ Bank is the only big four bank so far that has signed on.

Their application also seeks permission to undertake a "limited form of collective boycott," in which the banks will agree not to negotiate with Apple individually while the collective talks are occurring.

In what the banks say is a world-first, they want to team up in talks with Apple over the access it gives businesses to its near field communication (NFC) hardware, the technology that allows phones to make tap-and-go payments.
Macquarie Group has reaffirmed its earnings guidance that 2017 profit will be "broadly in line" with this year's record, despite softer first-quarter operating results.

The company's shares rose 1.9 per cent to $75.22 at 10.16am AEST.

Macquarie Group CEO Nicholas Moore will address shareholders in Melbourne on Thursday. Credit:Louie Douvis

Ahead of the company's annual general meeting, chief executive Nicholas Moore stuck to his forecast noting that earnings across Macquarie's six operating groups were "in line" with expectations for the three months ended June 30.

He noted earnings were lower in the quarter than the same period last year, but were up on the previous three months.
It was a dreary Friday morning when Phoebe Teitzel put on a load of washing and left for work. Minutes later she got a call that smoke was belching out of her basement window.

Ms Teitzel, from Glenhaven, believed her Samsung top loader was safe to use because a year earlier she was told her machine, despite being on the recall list, had already been repaired before she bought it.

"I just trusted them, and that's what scares me so much," she said of the July 8 incident. "I contacted Samsung about the recall and they said there was nothing I had to do."
The oil and gas industry has the potential to drive climate change action but only if it makes a clear break with its coal cousins and cleans up its own production, according to a leading safety researcher in the sector.

Andrew Hopkins, an emeritus professor at the Australian National University, said it was in the interests of the petroleum industry to argue for a price on carbon given its lower emissions compared with coal.

In a research paper, From climate pariah to climate saviour?, for The Australia Institute, Professor Hopkins said Australian gas producers had been much less outspoken than global peers such as Shell, Total and BP in backing carbon pricing.

"They should be lobbying for a price on carbon and they're certainly not lobbying for a price at all," he said.
The Queensland export projects have pushed up the domestic gas prices at a time when electricity producers are turning increasingly to the fuel to cope with intermittent output from renewable energy projects such as wind turbines and solar farms.

A key part of the proposal involves establishing two gas markets  a southern hub in Victoria, which is the largest single domestic market for gas, along with a northern hub at Wallumbilla, in south-western Queensland. The existence of multiple other trading locations  there are also smaller markets in Sydney, Brisbane and Adelaide  has reduced market liquidity.

The surge in east coast gas prices as a result of the start-up of a series of export projects in Queensland has prompted the federal government to institute a shake-up of the market, which it hopes will limit rises in the price of gas.

The inefficient pricing and opaque contracts that have bedevilled the domestic gas market are to be blown wide open with the government backing the development of two gas trading hubs while also forcing open access to pipelines.

"East coast gas markets are undergoing a period of growth and change. Largely isolated point-to-point pipelines have developed into an interconnected network; and gas demand has increased to supply LNG exports," Mr Pierce said. "We are now seeing the impact of change on both the level and variability of gas flows and wholesale prices both in gas markets and electricity markets."

By concentrating wholesale gas trading at the two hubs in Victoria and Wallumbilla, this will improve price transparency, Mr Pierce said, while other measures are to be introduced to open up access to gas pipelines by auctions of unused capacity, for example. Large industrial users of gas have long complained they have not been able to access the pipelines to obtain gas since much of the capacity is locked up under long-term contracts.

The new pipeline trading system will enable users of the gas network to "book firm transportation capacity rights independently at each entry and exit point" in Victoria's system, the AEMC said.

Opening up capacity on the pipeline network is critical to succeeding in the development of a liquid wholesale gas market, it said. This will be done by the auction of pipeline capacity which has not been contracted on specially developed trading platforms.

By the end of 2018, all six of Queensland's gas export plants will be operating, with at least one of these projects continuing to source a large volume of gas from the market, which will reduce the volume of gas available for the domestic market, the AEMC said. Over the same time frame, as much as 450 petajoules of long-term gas contracts will expire, forcing gas retailers to secure new supply contracts.
DEXUS Property Group has been given the green light for construction of a multimillion-dollar development at 105 Phillip Street, Parramatta, to add to the area's $6 billion-plus of new building projects.

An array of developers is involved in transforming the Parramatta central business district, which includes the $2 billon Parramatta Square urban renewal project, and the planned office and apartment developments across the central business district.

DEXUS Property Group will begin work on a development at 105 Phillip Street, Parramatta, after gaining approval for a 25,000 sq m A-grade office building.

The Sydney West Joint Regional Planning Panel provided development approval for DEXUS' 25,000-square-metre A-grade office development, which will be home to 1800 Department of Education employees from March 2018, following the department's move from the Sydney CBD.

DEXUS has six current projects over 309,000 sq m, with a combined cost of $295 million, which includes 105 Phillip Street.
Workers picketing at a cold storage warehouse that supplies Coles have been ordered to stop by a Melbourne court.

More than 600 Polar Fresh workers are striking, as employees, who say they have struggled with insecure work for years, negotiate a new agreement.

Workers picket a cold storage warehouse that supplies Coles on Wednesday.

Coles and Polar Fresh on Tuesday applied for court orders against the National Union of Workers over picketing activity at a Truganina warehouse.

Polar Fresh runs the warehouse and supplies to Coles.
A BMW dealership manager with a history of viewing pornography at work was unfairly sacked for looking up swimsuit models on his computer, the workplace tribunal has ruled.

Gerard Roelofs, financial controller at Perth's Westcoast BMW, was given a "first and final warning" and had access to pornography blocked on his computer early last year after a female staff member saw an image of a naked woman on his screen, the Fair Work Commission was told.

Careful what you look up from the work computer: Bikini-clad contestants in the 2015 Miss Universe Pageant. Credit:Getty

Account coordinator Jennifer Jeffery said she was left feeling vulnerable and uncomfortable working with Mr Roelofs after a second similar incident and was concerned her manager continued to view inappropriate material at work despite the warning.

Having become suspicious, Ms Jeffery checked Mr Roelofs' internet history when he was out of his office and found a website called Wanderlust, wildly beautiful women in nature, which featured pictures of women in lingerie, bikinis and see-through tops, the tribunal was told.
That Peter Dutton is still presiding over this mess suggests a reluctance on the part of the government to abandon the official narrative, but that doesn't matter much. You can put lipstick on a pig, but it's still a pig. Like it or not, if the detention of around 900 of Australia's asylum seekers on Manus Island is illegal, then PNG has no lawful basis to keep them there. That's the fact of the matter  and it's not something that any number of Australian immigration officials scurrying up to Port Moresby can alter.

Since the unanimous ruling of Papua New Guinea's Supreme Court on April 26, declaring the Manus processing centre unconstitutional and illegal and paving the way for compensation of detainees, our Immigration Minister has been working hard to pretend it's no big deal, insisting that the whole dismal affair is basically PNG's problem . Next week, it might be a different story though, as PNG's Chief Justice Sir Salamo Injia considers the resettlement claims of five Manus refugees  '' test cases" for over 600 detainees  some of whom are seeking return to Australia. Let's face it, where else could they go?

Coalition ministers and leaders across the political spectrum may have averted their eyes from the events unfolding 3000 kilometres to our north, but they won't be able to for much longer.

As Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull gets down to business this week, one of the policy fiascos his government has diligently ignored for the duration of the election campaign  the illegal detention of asylum seekers in the Australian-built facility on Manus Island  is in the final stages of slow motion collapse.

Dutton's refusal to accept responsibility for these people  after having deported them, procured the contractors to physically control them and paid for the detention centres to incarcerate them  is verging on Kafkaesque, although in light of advice that those complicit in the detention regime could be liable for crimes against humanity, his disavowal is no great surprise. But while our government may prefer to take all the credit for the Pacific Solution and none of the responsibility, it's a proposition that's at odds with the findings of PNG's Supreme Court  which plainly considers the detention a "joint operation"  and the view of Chief Justice Nettle of the Australian High Court, who considers Australia's participation in offshore detention ''indisputable''.

The unfortunate truth then, is that what we've participated in on Manus Island  a scheme concocted by the Gillard government in 2012 and formalised through several memoranda of understandings  was founded on a violation of basic rights that are not just provided for in international law but guaranteed under PNG's constitution.

And how ironic it is, that in seeking to dispose of this desperate human cargo we dumped them in a country with a charter of rights that Australia, to this day, refuses to legally enshrine. Not that these young men, some of whom have been locked up for more than 1000 days , have benefited much from those constitutional protections. In an attempt to subvert the rights to liberty to which these people are duly entitled, a 2014 amendment was introduced  a stitch-up between the Australian and PNG leadership  to specifically exclude them. That, too, was ruled invalid and unconstitutional, although that hasn't put an end to ongoing calls from both sides of Australian politics for Papua New Guinea to change its laws to shore up our regional processing regime.

Is it any wonder this dirty deal rankles key elements of the PNG community? According to opposition leader, Belden Namah, the whole arrangement  contrived between successive Australian governments and PNG Prime Minister Peter O'Neill  is nothing less than an attempt to "vandalise and compromise PNG's constitution to serve the policy interests of a foreign government".

Peter Dutton's initial solution to the closure of Manus  if it can't be staved off with further legal chicanery  was to shift the detainees to Nauru, akin to moving them from the frying pan into the fire. Indeed, by jettisoning these people into the hellhole of Nauru, the Australian government could find itself in the ludicrous situation of compensating the Manus refugees for unlawful detention only to detain them again elsewhere. But if Dutton has since abandoned that idea, he's more forthcoming about where they won't go  not New Zealand, not Canada  than any genuine resettlement options.
I'm reluctant to lecture a local cattleman ("By George, opportunities open up as lake fills", July 25, p1), but I suggest Luke Osborne might consider a Hereford mix in his herd. It's proven resilient to Wyoming ranchers like family friends the Scavdhals who irrigate 2 1/2 sections (square miles) of alfalfa off the Niobrara river on the Nebraska-Wyoming border each summer for supplementary cattle feed. Of course, they own 220 square miles of land. But I digress. Luke Osborne may be more concerned by how the recent rains may cause his herd scours, a costly proposition. Gerry Murphy, Braddon Aboriginal names Good on Graeme Barrow for advocating that Lake George be officially recognised by its Aboriginal name, Weereewa. It is an important part of us growing together as a reconciled nation that we embrace the culture and names that have been in our land for thousands of years. Let's hope the NSW Government gets behind the idea.

Another striking geographical landmark in the southern region is the Tollgate Islands that mark the entrance to Bateman's Bay. It is hard to believe that these dominant, almost haunting, geological features do not have a name(s) by which they are known in Aboriginal culture. My efforts have not yielded an answer, but it would be good if their Aboriginal name could be identified and used in common parlance and official documentation. Closer to Canberra there is another challenge for us in recognising Aboriginal pre-ownership of the land. Canberra's northern suburban area is known by the name Gungahlin. That is appropriate and fitting. However the established pronunciation of that name seems not to resonate with the timbre and melody that is a feature of Aboriginal language. Just as Graeme Barrow says that Weereewa, 'when it is pronounced correctly... has a real musical lilt to it', so also I suspect would the correct pronunciation of the name 'Gungahlin'. Rather than the long drawn out and flat 'ahh' vowel sound, that in effect becomes a second syllable, I suspect the correct Aboriginal pronunciation would likely put a rhythmical emphasis on the first syllable, 'Gunga', with a short second syllable 'lin'. Hopefully someone can put us right on the pronunciation of "Gunga  lin" and the Aboriginal name(s) for the Tollgate Islands. And then, maybe, we might duly respect our Aboriginal heritage and take another small step towards an authentic identity. Terry Fewtrell, Lyneham

Dump the bribes Government handouts are bribes insulting to many of us ("Free buses for seniors: Barr", July 24, p9). Buses are relatively free already for seniors. As a relatively fit, able-bodied, and sufficiently-resourced senior, I don't need someone to collect my bulky waste for free; I can take it myself or pay someone to take it  contributing to keeping someone else employed. I expect my government to deliver on commitments it's made already within promised service levels. ACT's record of "on-time" healthcare delivery is particularly appalling. I needed to "massage the system" numerous times to receive appropriately responsive care within an appropriate time, causing extra work for medical providers already over-subscribed. I want freebies to go to people who have genuine needs, not to people who fit some broadbrushed demographic asserting entitlement. ACT's support for GIVIT is a step in the right direction. I need a government operating with integrity, humanity, balance, and transparency. I need a government which treats ACT residents with the dignity and individuality that each deserves.

I fear the ACT election campaign will be replete with handouts and bribes hankering for votes by certain demographics. I long for a campaign that appeals to our intelligence, not our self-interest! Judy Bamberger, O'Connor Royal commission millions better spent on support for Aborigines Let's not have a lawyer-enriching royal commission into the NT child detention system. The recommendations will be ignored. Instead let's use those millions of dollars for support services and job creation for Aboriginal families, to keep them out of detention. We can be guided by the recommendations of the Royal Commission into Deaths in Custody. The issues are similar.

Meanwhile the young people who have been cruelly treated should be compensated by being provided with adequate housing, education and the psychological support that they will need to recover from years of torture and trauma, and to lead useful lives. In addition, the government should increase its funding of the ABC without which these crimes would continue. Rosemary Walters, Palmerston Well, let's have a royal commission. It will of course take time (just like investigating the banks might take time), it will be bound by its terms of reference and everyone knows you can set those to make sure no one that matters gets their name up in lights. This time Malcolm Turnbull and his cronies actually need to do something. Not set up a legal process that will take years to arrive at a conclusion while children continue to be treated worse than live cattle exports  about which we can all summon lots of angry angst. Do something now to end this appalling abuse. Gabriel Brown, Murrumbateman, NSW

I was horrified, tearful and angry after watching the Four Corners program about the current brutal, medieval treatment of some juvenile Aborigines in the Northern Territory detention/prison system. The relevant Territory minister stated he had not seen all of the footage of the gross and illegal child abuse in the system. As if you can believe him. He was hopeless and could not defend the indefensible. The relevant prison officers seem more like thugs than responsible, caring officers in charge of severely damaged juveniles. The system seems deeply flawed and demands urgent action to put in place more humane practices in the short term before there is a wider ranging and urgent inquiry into the system. Geoff Clark, Narrabundah Get your facts right

Penelope Upward (Letters, July 26) claims that "Five hundred thousand is the number of Muslims allowed to settle in Australia", and that "We only hear criticism and never thank you". According to the most recent census, in 2011, there were 476,291 Muslims in Australia, and over a third were born in Australia. Perhaps she might try to get her facts right before her next letter. And as for never hearing thank you, perhaps she might hear these words if she spent more time listening. (Dr) William Maley, Reid Communal flexibility Wayne Strudwick (Letters, July 25) didn't read J.J. Marr's recent letter very well. Marr, whom I know well, doesn't agree with Pauline Hanson and wasn't really talking about his own attitudes. He was talking about community attitudes and how he thinks the barriers between Muslims and the rest of us can be reduced. I will illustrate what I think he is talking about from my experience. The flats where I live have a large transient population. People of various ethnic origins come and go and mostly get on perfectly well. Some years ago, there were a number of Muslims here.

One day, an issue arose which required me to talk to a Muslim family two doors down from me. I knocked on the door, which was opened by the wife. I said what I needed to say, she acknowledged it and I went on my way. A few days later, her husband and his mate bailed me up. They were both incensed. "You spoke to my wife," he said. "Yes," I replied. "We are Muslims," he said, fuming. There were several things I could have said but I didn't. I calmed things down and moved away. The incident reflected a clash of cultures, between his, where men and women don't usually speak in those circumstances and mine, where it is the norm. He expected me to comply with his culture, I needed to bend to accommodate him. It didn't occur to him that he might bend to accommodate my culture. What Marr is saying is that there needs to be flexibility and not just from the general community and I agree with that. Stan Marks, Hawker Inappropriate ad Congratulations to Dr Sue Wareham on her thoughtful commentary about promotions for military weapons at Canberra Airport ("Lest we forget: weapons are not just a product", Comment, July 25, p15). I agree that advertising instruments of mass death is a most inappropriate way to welcome visitors to the national capital. This just adds to the obscenity of spending around $100 billion on unnecessary submarines of unproven design together with joint strike fighter planes, the prototypes of which seem to specialise in falling out of the sky. This gross unwarranted expenditure on aggressive military hardware comes at a time when our government has made record cuts to peace-promoting overseas development assistance. Dr Wareham is right  advertising and accumulating lethal military weaponry will never lead the world to peace, but will rather heighten the risks of regional or global conflicts.

Peter Maywald, Queanbeyan, NSW You would hope that Australia makes its weapons purchases based on sound research and independent strategic evaluation. But the continued presence of armament advertisements at Canberra Airport suggests there is money to be made persuading decision makers. We would not allow guns to be advertised there, given the deaths that follow. So why do we still have these huge advertisements for items that will cause even more death and destruction? Making Christopher Pyne minister for defence industry reflects a shift to weaponry supporting our manufacturing policy. The defence budget is "decoupled" from austerity in other areas- heaven forbid it sparks a regional arms race. Major weapons purchases need careful thought, not advertising and undue influence. Dr Margaret Beavis, president, Medical Association for Prevention of War

TO THE POINT BEST MINUS KEVIN Mike Reddy's sentiments (Letters, July 26) are understandable, but with a modicum of research he'll find that neither the Coalition nor Labor will be enthusiastic about Kevin 07 being nominated, let alone elected, to be UN Secretary-General. Not because the UN has proved itself to be ineffectual and lacking teeth, but as an added complication the UN and the world does not need. A. Whiddett, Yarralumla JOB SPECIFICATION

Will Andrew Barr provide ACT ratepayers a job specification for the position of Commission for International Engagement to actually show how Brendan Smyth's annual salary of $300,000 is justified? Brendan Ryan, Mawson MALE LINE-UP PHOTO Julie Bishop can be applauded for organising a photo of the females in the Turnbull ministry, but can you imagine the squeals of complaint from certain sections of the media if Barnaby Joyce had coordinated a photo of the male equivalent? Roger Dace, Reid

PROTECT LEGAL SYSTEM I must have nodded off during the recent election campaign when the Government promised to scrap jail sentences for some criminals in Australian jails in favour of unlimited and indefinite detention instead. One just hopes the states and territories will do the federal Attorney-General's job for him and protect at all costs the Australian legal system against such barbaric and un-Australian attacks. John Clarke, Pearce BEST OF BOTH WORLDS

So, the British people, keen to spend their summer holidays on the Continent, are being made to queue for several hours before being allowed to cross the Channel ("Enhanced security leaves UK holiday makers stuck in traffic" July 25, p10). But wasn't it just a few days ago when the majority of the British people declared that they are definitely not of Europe? Talk about wanting the best of both worlds. Sam Nona, Burradoo, NSW VITAL JOURNALISM The ABC's Four Corners shocked the nation with Monday night's revelation of a cruel and unjust child penal system. This program often exposes the underbelly of Australian society through fearless investigations. If Four Corners was a building, it would be protected by the National Trust. If it was a person, it would be a designated national treasure. As it is, Four Corners depends on the Australian taxpayers for its continued viability. Long may it thrive.
As anyone who has caught the DNC on television knows, this even more than the RNC in Cleveland has already been one unconventional nominating convention, with some boos for the nominee and a couple of "Knock it off!" remonstrations from the podium.

Some of the early speeches soared, like Michelle Obama's when she said, "Don't let anyone tell you this country isn't great." (And thanks, Mrs. O, for inspiring my 20-year-old daughter to notice that you refrained from being "mean about Melania" Trump's speech that borrowed from your own, when that would have been so easy but so unnecessary: "I'm going to remember," my daughter said, 'When they go low, we go high.'")

Other addresses on the first night were so larded with high-cholesterol hyperbole that they had the opposite of the desired effect on me. (No, Hillary Clinton has not been fighting all her life for every issue in the platform.)

It was three of the less remarked-upon, non-primetime speakers, though, who highlighted some of the themes that I think will be crucial to a Hillary Clinton victory in November.
Former U.S. president Bill Clinton. Credit:Bloomberg After Bill Clinton rocked the stage at the convention, day three is going to be huge - headed by President Barack Obama. Twelve years ago he delivered the spell-binding speech at the 2004 Convention that led to his own nomination over Clinton in 2008. 2016 is being billed as a "bookend" to that address. [New York Times] 2. Pope says world is at war Responding to the horrific slaying of elderly French priest Jacques Hamel by two IS-inspired jihadis in Normandy, Pope Francis declared the world was at war. "When I speak of war I speak of wars over interests, money, resources, not religion. All religions want peace, it's the others who want war," he said. [BBC] "This is war. The world has been at war for a while now ... We had the war of 1914, then the war in 1939-45, and now this one," Pope Francis said, speaking ahead of his attendance at World Youth Day in Krakow, Poland. [Claudio Lavanga/NBC News]

3. Pell rejects allegations The ABC's 730 has aired a report detailing historic allegations of child abuse against Australia's most senior Catholic cleric, Cardinal George Pell, which he has emphatically denied. In his response to the report, Cardinal Pell said the leaks from the police to the media show a conspiracy against him. [Fairfax] 4. Cabinet won't endorse Rudd for UN Former prime minister Kevin Rudd addresses the United Nations in 2009. Credit:Bloomberg The Australian reports Cabinet will formally reject Kevin Rudd's request to be nominated for the job of United Nations Secretary-General. [Dennis Shannahan]

If true, the humiliation for Australia's last Labor prime minister would be immense. Rudd has been trotting the globe seeking endorsements and support. To fail to get his own country to back him would highlight to the world the hyper-partisanship that prevails in Australia's politics. It would also, reasonably, focus attention back onto all those reports of him being a difficult operator in the job. Reports that paled in comparison, at times, to those about Liberal prime minister Tony Abbott's unelected chief of staff Peta Credlin. The Coalition might find it hard to promote their nemesis but after the recalling of former Victorian Labor Premier Steve Bracks from the New York Consul-General post for the ex-Liberal Senator Nick Minchin and the shuffling of former South Australian Premier Mike Rann to Rome for the former Liberal Foreign Minister Andrew Downer, the Liberals might find it very hard indeed to find an international posting when the tables are turned. Sympathy will be hard to find. In other politics news: SMH/NEWS. Pic of Prime Minister Malcom Turnbull and Attorney General Senator George Brandis at a presser outlining new measures the government will take against terroisium in Australia. Pic by Nic Walker. Photographed at 1 Bligh St. Date 25th July 2016 Credit:NIC_WALKER Great comment piece from Niki Savva who says Malcolm Turnbull rose to the occasion in his first big test as Prime Minister, elected in his own right, by announcing a royal commission. [The Australian] But there are fears the royal commission will be headed by the wrong people. [Damien Murphy/Fairfax]

Liberal MP Sophie Mirabella has only herself to blame for failing to win back the Victorian seat of Indi which she lost when the Coalition won office in 2013, her factional enemy and Victorian Liberal Party president Michael Kroger has told her. (cue walk-out) [Rick Wallace/The Australian] Josh Frydenberg, the new Environment and Energy Minister, says he accepts that coal is in decline for electricity generation but says gas will be the backup required during the shift to renewables. [Mark Kenny/Fairfax] [Phil Coorey/Financial Review] These might seem like run-of-the-mill comments but these are significant given he is a Minister in a party filled with climate-change sceptics who claim coal has a "solid future." [George Christensen MP/Twitter] 5. UK economy grew despite Brexit fears A surprising result. The UK's economy grew at a pace of 0.6 per cent ahead of the Brexit vote which is faster than expected. Expect the Leavers to keep crowing about Project Fear (the derogatory name they gave to the Remain campaign's scare campaign). Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond said the result showed the UK enters negotiations about leaving the European Union "from a position of strength." [BBC]
The Turnbull government is standing by the increasingly embattled Giles government in the Northern Territory and will resist calls to exclude it from joint stewardship of its royal commission inquiry into human rights abuses within the territory's youth justice system.

The Prime Minister's insistence on shared administration comes despite growing calls for the government in Darwin to be sacked, or at least stripped of its responsibilities for juvenile detention.

Details of the rapid-action royal commission are to be settled at a cabinet meeting in Canberra on Thursday.

In a further escalation of the issue, WA Liberal Premier Colin Barnett launched an extraordinary attack on the Giles government on Wednesday, branding it incompetent.
Malcolm Turnbull's new Environment and Energy Minister, Josh Frydenberg, has welcomed a declining role for coal in Australia's future energy mix, talked up reliable green energy, and locked in the current 23.5 per cent renewable energy target by 2020, in a marked change from the avowedly pro-coal rhetoric of the Abbott government.

And he has stated that recent price spikes in South Australia  where energies such as wind and solar power make up 40 per cent plus of supply, and Tasmania where the figure is above to 90 per cent - were not solely the fault of high renewable energy dependencies but to a "complex of factors" including the failure of other energy distribution infrastructure such as Basslink, as well as the effects of drought, a cold snap, and high gas prices arising from inadequate supplies and suppliers.

This, he said, could be addressed in part by lifting "blanket moratoria" on new gas extraction as applied currently in Victoria and "parts of" New South Wales, and through technological advances in battery storage, which were coming onstream.
In the Irish seaside town of Ballybunion, an ancient stone wall flanks the road to the Atlantic Ocean. Una DeNeefe remembers walking along it as a child and hanging around it in the summertime as a teenager.

It was during a recent trip to visit family in Ireland that the Melbourne resident observed a timeless interaction that brought up teenage memories: along the Ballybunion wall was a small tribe of boys, awkwardly edging their way towards a group of girls. She photographed them from the hip.

Clique July Challenge winner Una DeNeefe's "Romance in the digital age". Credit:Una DeNeefe/Clique

"They were playing out a ritual that's been played out forever; it's like a ballroom of romance, where you have boys on one side and the girls on the other," DeNeefe said.

Her winning image shows two of the boys surreptitiously directing their gazes past their smartphones to the girls, their faces cutting the cloudy sky and their figures against the rich texture of the stone wall.
London: A furious Cardinal George Pell has demanded an inquiry into the Victorian Police, accusing "elements" of the force of "conspiring" with the ABC to pervert the course of justice, relating to allegations of child sexual abuse, which he emphatically denies.

Speaking from Rome where he is based at the Vatican, Cardinal Pell said he refused to be put to a "trial by media" and said the ABC had "no licence" to destroy his reputation.

Cardinal Pell said since the allegations were first aired nearly six months ago, police had not sought to interview him.

"These disclosures and consequent publicity by the ABC clearly are apt and calculated deliberately to influence and compromise relevant judicial and prosecutorial processes," his office said. Victoria Police said it would not be providing any further comment.
Doctors are predicting the eradication of hepatitis C from Australia by 2026 after a dramatic take-up of new-generation "revolutionary" drugs.

Nearly 22,500 patients have commenced treatment since the drugs were listed on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme in March, representing about 10 per cent of all people who are estimated to be living with hepatitis C.

The new treatment is administered as a course of pills that is consumed for three months and has a 90 per cent cure rate.

The Kirby Institute's Greg Dore said the drugs were a genuine breakthrough, comparable with the advent of antiretroviral therapy for HIV in the mid-1990s.
A woman has taken her own life at Bankstown-Lidcombe Hospital on the day news broke that two babies had been given the wrong gas at the same south-west Sydney hospital, compounding pressure over the state government's health system failure.

The 46-year-old woman died while in the care of Banks House mental health inpatient unit.

The woman - who has not been identified - was an Iraqi refugee and had arrived in Australia earlier this year.

Police are preparing a report for the Coroner after they were called to the hospital at 1.20pm on Monday, following the woman's death.
A man previously identified as a person of interest in the disappearance of toddler William Tyrrell is facing historical child sex offences in Victoria.

William "Bill" Spedding is due on Thursday to face Ballarat Magistrates Court for a filing hearing after being charged with several offences by Victorian Police.

The 65-year-old is facing five indecent assault and two sexual intercourse with a child under 10 charges.

It is understood the alleged offences date back to the 1980s and relate to a girl Mr Spedding knew.
A barrister for the family of Lindt cafe siege victim Katrina Dawson has accused a tactical police officer of lying.

Michael O'Connell, SC, put it to the officer on Wednesday that he had changed his story about whether he fired his gun, where and how.

"The reason why you've changed your account in the ways which we've just gone through is because the account you've provided has not been truthful," Mr O'Connell said.

Officer B, whose name has been suppressed, told a coroner he was telling the truth. He said the trauma of the operation and a shrapnel wound had affected his memory.
The family of Lindt cafe siege victim Tori Johnson has sought to strike out an expression of "sorrow and regret" from a formal statement by Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione.

Mr Scipione is due to be called to give evidence before the inquest into the deaths of Mr Johnson, barrister Katrina Dawson and gunman Man Haron Monis, as early as next week.

During a discussion of his statement on Wednesday, barrister Gabrielle Bashir, SC, for the Johnson family, objected to one paragraph in particular.

Although not read in full to the inquest, it expressed Mr Scipione's "deep sorrow and regret" about the lives lost in the siege, Ian Freckelton, QC, for the police, said.
A horse trainer who went missing after a heated disagreement with race officials in the NSW Hunter region on the weekend has been found.

Bindi Cheers, 44, had not been since leaving Hawkesbury races in a distressed state on Sunday afternoon after having run-ins with stewards over the performance of one of her runners and the scratching of a second.

Horse trainer Bindi Cheers has been found after a three-day bush search in the NSW Hunter region. Credit:Getty Images

Her horse float was found at the Beresfield service station that day and CCTV footage captured her walking away from the truck.

After a sighting of Mrs Cheers walking into the bush on Tuesday afternoon, emergency services on Wednesday narrowed their focus to a stretch of bushland at Beresfield.
A high school on Sydney's north shore was placed into lockdown and police were called after staff received a phone threat on Wednesday afternoon.

The phone call came through to the school about 1.40pm on Wednesday, police said.

Staff locked down the Military Road school and called emergency services.

NSW Police remained at the school conducting a "walk-through" just before 3pm, leaving shortly afterwards.

"[T]he school was placed into lockdown about 1.40pm following a call received by the school," a spokesman said.
Their arrest was lauded as a major milestone for Taskforce Maxima but now five people convicted under controversial Newman government association laws have successfully challenged the charges in court.

The five applicants petitioned the court for a ruling that were they were not "vicious lawless associates" under the Queensland government's controversial anti-association laws.

A group charged under Newman Government VLAD laws have successfully challenged the charges in court. Credit:Theresa Ambrose

Defendants convicted under the Vicious Lawless Association Disestablishment Act can receive a higher penalty.

In March 2014, police executed search warrants on two properties in Willow Vale where they found two underground bunkers housing a huge haul of cannabis.
Labor candidate Cathy O'Toole looks set to secure the federal electorate of Herbert by 35 votes despite a visit from the Prime Minister a day before to encourage the Coalition's encumbent MP, Ewen Jones.

Australian Electoral Commission figures on Wednesday showed Ms O'Toole take the lead ahead of Mr Jones by 35 votes.

Labor's Cathy O'Toole has claimed victory in Herbert. Credit:Michael Chambers

The Townsville seat was the only seat yet to be finalised after the July 2 federal election.

Ms O'Toole took to Facebook on Tuesday evening to thank her supporters.
Environment Minister Steven Miles said it took two weeks to remove the oil from beaches between Palm and Hinchinbrook islands, which led to the deaths of two seabirds. Credit:Google Maps

One year ago 17 ships, many on international voyages, passed through an area of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park where 10-15 tonnes of oil were spilled , the waters off Cape Upstart washing the oil up on the shores of Townsville's beaches.

It was the maritime equivalent of hunting for a needle in a haystack.

Over the next 12 months evidence was collected, individual ships tracked, records cross-checked, crew members interviewed and oil samples taken for elimination in a major joint-agency investigation including Maritime Safety Queensland and Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority which, Ports Minister Mark Bailey announced on Wednesday, had been finalised.

"It was a difficult investigation, as the ship believed to be responsible is foreign registered with a crew of foreign nationals," Mr Bailey said.

"This is an extremely complex legal process involving both Australian and international maritime law and we don't want to jeopardise the case by identifying the suspect vessel while the evidence is being fully considered."

So far, the government has estimated the cost of the response to the spill to be up to $1.5 million, with the government to pursue costs.

"The Palaszczuk government vowed that we would relentlessly pursue anyone wilfully or negligently polluting our coastal waters, especially the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park area, and this investigation demonstrates our resolve," Mr Bailey said.
The Queensland government proposes calling in a contentious development project in the inner-city suburb of West End that was approved by Brisbane City Council in May.

Residents, developers, council and anyone who has made a previous submission now have until August 18 to make a further submission before a final decision to call in the project is made.

West End's proposed West Village development faces a significant setback.

In a statement on Wednesday, local MP and Local Government and Planning Minister Jackie Trad explained why she had taken the initial step on the controversial development on the "Absoe" site, which has recently been cleared.

The two-hectare site on Mollison and Boundary streets was formerly home to the Absoe Furniture factory.
Tensions are rising in Afghanistan after a suicide attack claimed by the Islamic State (IS) killed more than 80 members of a minority Shiite group, and IS's top commander for the country threatened more violence to punish Afghan Shi'ites for fighting alongside the Syrian regime.

The suicide attack on July 23 was the deadliest in Kabul since the 2001 overthrow of the Taliban regime. It targeted a rally by thousands of Hazaras, a predominantly Shi'ite ethnic group that was demanding the government reroute a planned power line through its impoverished region. More than 200 people were wounded in the bombing.

A statement posted Saturday on a website linked to IS said the attack was carried out by two IS fighters and was meant to warn the Hazaras against joining the Syrian government in its fight against the terror group. This is an apparent reference to reports that Iran is covertly training men from the estimated 3 million Afghan refugees it hosts and sending them to Syria to fight alongside government forces.

IS's self-styled commander for Afghanistan, Abu Omar Khurasani, warned that more attacks were coming.

"Unless they stop going to Syria and stop being slaves of Iran, we will definitely continue such attacks," the militant commander told Reuters by telephone from an undisclosed location. "We can and we will strike them again."

However, Afghan Shi'ite leaders have distanced themselves from reports of Hazaras fighting in Syria and say the attacks were more likely aimed at igniting a sectarian conflict in Afghanistan than altering the battlefield in Syria.

"Clearly, Daesh [IS] sees the Hazara people and Shi'ites as their primary enemy, and it is possible they want to start a sectarian war to break up the country as they have done in Iraq and Syria," said Khodadad Erfani, a prominent Shi'ite member of Afghanistan's parliament.

Not sectarian battles

IS and its precursor in Iraq, Al-Qaeda, have used anti-Shi'ism, a pillar of their religious ideology, to rally the Sunni populations of Iraq and Syria and to sow sectarianism in Yemen by targeting Shi'ite mosques.

Afghanistan, a Sunni-majority Muslim country, has endured four decades of continuous warfare. But unlike neighboring Pakistan, which has a long history of sectarian violence, and the wars in Iraq and Syria, the conflicts in Afghanistan have been fueled mostly by ideological and ethnic cleavages rather than Shia-Sunni sectarianism.

"Sectarianism has not been a major fault line of the conflict in Afghanistan," said Barnett Rubin, a leading expert on Afghanistan at New York University who has written extensively about the country's ethnic politics. "To the extent that there are internal fault lines in Afghan politics, they've been around ideology or ethnicity."

A spate of anti-Hazara attacks in recent years had failed to trigger a violent response.

Taliban distances itself

Rubin said the Talibans denunciation of recent bombing, as well as previous anti-Hazara attacks, was significant.

"They also do not want to turn this into a sectarian war," he said.

The Taliban see IS as a spoiler and have waged a bloody campaign against the group over the past year in an attempt to demonstrate its bona fides as the largest insurgent movement fighting the Afghan government and its American backers.

"There is really no space for [IS]," Rubin said. "It's hard to see what political function Daesh would have in Afghanistan. Who would it appeal to? It doesn't appeal to anyone. It doesn't fulfill any function."

Rubin said the Shi'ite community's measured response to those attacks may be explained by a belief that the attacks for the most part were carried out by non-Afghan actors. Hazara leaders may also fear losing significant political gains they've made since the overthrow of the Taliban.

"Their leadership understand that the well-being and security of the Hazara population in Afghanistan depends on maintaining the unity of this government, because this is the best situation Hazaras have had in the history of Afghanistan," Rubin said, referring to the Hazara political representation in government.

Shiite leaders work to lower tensions

In the aftermath of the attack, Hazara leaders sought to cool tempers. The country's two top Shi'ite officials, Vice President Sarwar Danish and Deputy CEO Haji Mohammad Mohaqiq, called for calm and urged Shi'ites to cooperate with security forces.

Tensions have risen to unprecedented levels, Danish told a gathering of prominent Shi'ite leaders on Sunday before urging them to avoid "finger pointing" and "factional and regional hatred."

Rather than couched in sectarian terms, much of the Hazara rage has been aimed at the government of President Ashraf Ghani, with many young Hazaras taking to social media to vent.

"The attack was shocking to the people, and they're blaming the government for failing to maintain their security," Erfani said.

Further attacks are likely as an ongoing Afghan ground assault, backed by U.S. air strikes, chips away at IS's stronghold in eastern Afghanistan. On July 26, an Afghan official said security forces had killed more than 120 IS militants, including senior commanders, in eastern Nangarhar Province.

"I'm afraid that's entirely possible, because you don't need a large organization to carry out these attacks," Rubin said.

More violence could inflame tensions between Hazaras, until recently a persecuted minority, and Pashtuns, historically the country's politically dominant ethnic group.

"Whatever vestigial or suppressed anger and hatred there may be in a society, events like this stimulate it and bring it out," Rubin said.

Erfani remained hopeful that an ethnic and sectarian conflict could be avoided.

"Their main target may be Shi'ites, but they have not spared other ethnicities," Erfani said of an IS campaign that has killed hundreds of Pashtuns in eastern Afghanistan. "And I think as long as the people -- Pashtuns, Hazaras, Tajiks, Uzbeks -- show unity and take a stand against Daesh, Daesh will not succeed in Afghanistan.

-- Reported by the Voice of America
Poor Dolly. The world's first cloned sheep was created in 1996 and then died relatively young, aged six, suffering osteoarthritis.

Scientists thought perhaps cloned animals aged faster or suffered much greater health risks than their natural-born cousins.

However a study published today in Nature Communications shows that Dolly's cloned sisters - and nine other cloned sheep - are living healthy lives at the ripe old age of nine.

That's about 70 in human years.
Could a regular passenger ferry between Portarlington and Docklands become a reality?

Judging by the enthusiasm with which people on the Bellarine Peninsula have taken the chance to ride on Friday's trial service, the answer is yes.

Portarlington residents Jenny Edmanson, Geoff Henderson and his wife Marie say locals are excited by the prospect of a new ferry link to Melbourne. Credit:Eddie Jim

Tickets for the one-off return trip sold out within 14 hours when they went on sale this week, organisers say, raising hopes that there is enough demand to make a regular service viable.

A crowd of 400 people will meet at Portarlington's new, $15 million safe harbour on Friday morning to take the ferry to Docklands, then spend a mere hour at the windblown Victoria Harbour before they make the 1-hour journey back across Port Phillip Bay.
Police have gained the power to use their discretion when deciding to engage in pursuits.

But police command has refused to release details of the latest policy changes, arguing they do not want to educate criminals.

Police Chief Commissioner Graham Ashton, giving frontline police more powers in pursuits. Credit:The Age

The decision comes after a Police Association survey raised widespread concerns about the former policy earlier this year, including drink drivers U-turning from booze buses.

The union has now welcomed the latest changes.
Thirty-five years on, rape victims have got justice for a series of "terrible sexual acts" carried out by a man who wormed his way into their homes by posing as a potential roommate before plying them with wine.

After he'd viciously raped one of the women, Colin Henderson walked into her three-year-old's bedroom and gave the sleeping child a kiss on the cheek.

Henderson brought bottles of wine over to his victims' homes, on the pretext of getting to know them before he moved in as a housemate.

Another victim was told she was "coming on hot and cold all night". Then, once he'd raped her, he asked: "No hard feelings?".

"This kind of offending is every woman's worst nightmare," Judge Paul Lacava told Henderson, 65, in the County Court in Melbourne as he sentenced him to 15 years in prison on Wednesday.
Expensive robotic prostate surgery, marketed as "ground breaking", "revolutionary" and "nerve sparing", has been found to be no better at preserving men's urinary continence and sexual function than traditional surgery.

A landmark Australian study made the finding after comparing the advanced surgery, which can cost more than $10,000, with traditional open surgery three months post operation.

A surgeon performing robotic surgery. Credit:Michael Rayner

The first trial to directly compare the two procedures for prostate removal randomly split 308 men into two groups. All the operations were led by two experienced surgeons at the Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital who had done at least 200 prostate operations.

When the two groups were assessed at three months, there was no difference in urinary or sexual function, or in post-operative complications such as infections. Patients who had the open surgery lost more blood during the procedure but none of them needed transfusions.
Police are on the hunt for a group of thieves who ram-raided a shopping centre in Hocking and stole an ATM.

The raid happened about 3.30am on Wednesday morning at Wyatt Grove Shopping Centre in Hocking.

Police say the offenders reversed a vehicle through the doors of the shopping centre and removed the ATM inside.
Philadelphia: On a day when Democrats made history, formally nominating a woman for the US presidency, the party urged Americans to get on board the Hillary express which, it announced, would not be stopping in the mean and dangerous America of Donald Trump's imagining.

As a procession of convention speakers boosted Clinton, the common thread to stories of her 40 years in public service was to ignore Trump's dystopian fixation on terrorism and violence and, instead, to position Clinton as a problem-solver at the centre of crises for individuals, communities and nations.

If Trump had opted to wallow in adversity at last week's Republican convention in Cleveland, Clinton was portrayed as the woman who punches through, bringing others with her.

Cheerleader-in-chief was the candidate's husband, former president Bill Clinton.
Washington: Baltimore's top prosecutor has dropped remaining charges against police officers tied to the death of black detainee Freddie Gray, after failing four times to secure convictions in a case that inflamed the US debate on race and justice.

Prosecutor Marilyn Mosby had stunned the city and became a national figure when she filed charges against six officers just days after Gray's death from a broken neck suffered in a police van sparked protests and rioting in April 2015.

The death of the 25-year-old was among the high-profile deaths of black suspects at the hands of US police that have made law enforcement tactics and police officers' treatment of minorities into national headlines, It also fuelled the rise of the civil rights movement Black Lives Matter.

The decision to drop charges against the three remaining officers facing trial came a day before Officer Garrett Miller was due to go on trial in Baltimore City Circuit Court.
Cilacap: Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop has stressed Australia's opposition to the death penalty to Indonesia as the nation counts down the hours until it executes about 14 convicted drug felons.

Ms Bishop said that while there were no Australians in the current round of executions, she had reiterated Australia's stance to Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi at the ASEAN meeting in Laos on Monday.

"Australia has consistently stated its opposition to capital punishment," Ms Bishop said.

Fourteen death row prisoners from Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Pakistan, India and Indonesia were on Tuesday told they had 72 hours to live, according to the Community Legal Aid Institute.
Bangkok: Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak is set to gain sweeping dictatorial powers that critics say are part of a desperate move to hold on to power while he is embroiled in the country's largest corruption scandal.

The National Security Bill, which comes into force on Monday, gives powers to a council Mr Najib heads that are similar to those that were wielded by the late Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos and president Suharto of Indonesia. Both those reigns ended in massive corruption that enriched their families.

The bill allows the government to declare areas  including the whole of the country  in which restraints on police powers would be suspended and the authorities could deploy forces to conduct arrests, searches and seizures without warrants.

It also allows investigators to dispense with formal inquiries into killings by the police or armed forces.
The International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers (SMART) Transportation Division has announced its endorsement of Democrat Dave Grussing of Armstrong in the race for the District 7 seat in the Iowa House of Representatives. Jim Garrett, the Iowa Legislative Director for SMART, stated in a news release, The Executive Committee of the Iowa State Legislative Board met on June 30th for the purpose of endorsing candidates in the 2016 elections. With unanimous consent, you were selected as the best candidate in House District 7 to represent our members and their families.
Beijing: The eulogies for magazine Yanhuang Chunqiu, arguably China's last torchbearer of liberal thought and critique, are already being written: the monthly journal's senior figures have been sidelined in a hostile purge, its offices effectively taken over by authorities.

The journal's credibility and significance have long stemmed from the liberal, reform-minded party elders who backed it, and its regular pushing of the boundaries with its forthright, unsanitised essays which contest official Communist Party versions of history, such as the events of the Cultural Revolution.

Hu Dehua, the deputy publisher of Yanhuang Chunqiu and the son of late liberal Chinese leader Hu Yaobang, speaks to media in front of the journal's office in Beijing, while unidentified plain-clothes men watch and film proceedings. Credit:Sanghee Liu

It has survived numerous scrapes with Chinese authorities and come under pressure to soften its editorial line. But after 25 years in print, the magazine announced this month it had suspended publication, another victim of Chinese President Xi Jinping's campaign to tighten ideological control within the party and the country's state-controlled media.
Ankara: Turkish authorities have announced the closure of more than 130 media outlets and the dismissal of more than 2400 military personnel, in a widening crackdown following this month's failed coup attempt.

Three news agencies, 16 television channels and 45 daily newspapers, among others, have been ordered to be shut down. A total of 726 military officers and 1684 soldiers have been discharged, a senior Turkish official said..

The decree from Turkey's cabinet of ministers was published late on Wednesday in the country's Official Gazette. A state of emergency enacted after the coup attempt allows Turkey's executive to issue decrees, which are then sent to parliament for approval.

Earlier on Wednesday, prosecutors issued detention orders for nearly 50 journalists and media figures tied to the Zaman newspaper, which was shut down at the request of local prosecutors in March. Forty-two journalists and columnists from various media outlets were also ordered detained Monday.
After Barack Obama's speech on Wednesday night, which was described as uplifting and optimistic, he's returned to the business of running the United States.

The President arrived back at the White House in the early hours of Thursday morning, local time.

Meanwhile, the convention's last day will have some more celebrity flavour, with singer Katy Perry set to speak tomorrow.

We'll see you then with another live blog.
PHILIPSBURG:---- Recommendations that the intended Waste to Energy Plant be built in the Cay Bay area to allow easier transfer of the electricity produced by the plant to the grid of NV GEBE, that the communities in Philipsburg be educated on actual conditions of the dump and that an escape plan be introduced in the event of a disaster, have been put forward to Vromi Minister Angel Meyers by the One St. Maarten People PartyOSPP. The OSPP also propose town hall meetings outlining the various solutions that are being tabled.

Leader of the OSPP Lenny Priest said he learnt from media reports that dating back to May 2016 Minister Meyers visited a Renewable Energy Facility in West Palm Beach and a Waste to Energy Plant in New York with the intention of constructing a Waste to energy plant. Unconfirmed reports have given the site for this proposed plant as Pond Island. Priest notes that the report also mentioned the signing of a memorandum of understanding with the New York Company was in the works and posed several questions to Minister Meyers. Can you inform the general public how far you have reached in finalizing the memorandum of understanding with the New York Company as you have indicated it would take three years before the plant is up and running? What are your immediate plans for the dump at this moment? In case of an explosion what remedies are in place? Do you have any ideas what kinds of contaminants we are to be exposed to? What exit and evacuation plans are in place for the community especially those people living in the area? What will happen to the waste thats buried all those years since it would remain a hazard? Where will this new facility be built? Do you agree that a new temporary location has to be identified, set up properly and manage to facilitate the waste to energy plant when it is built? Priest questioned while calling on the minister to keep the public informed.

He chastised the minister for indicating in press releases that an MOU is being considered without informing the people of what will happen in the interim, dubbing this as irresponsible. According to Priest the residents and land owners of Cay Bay must also be informed and educated as to what to expect in their community and not be made to feel that the government is moving a waiting time bomb from Philipsburg to their area. We have identified three parcels of land in Cay Bay in close proximity of NV GEBE where the landfill could be moved in that area to be properly managed and to meet all international environmental rules and regulations. We also recommend that the Waste to Energy Plant should be built in that area which makes it much easier for the electricity produced by the plant to be transferred to the grid of NV GEBE. The same goes for the establishment of a solar panel park in the same vecinity to provide energy that is more environmental friendly. We understand that the emission produced by the Waste to Energy Plant will be less than the emission currently coming from NV GEBE at the moment and would therefore cause no harm to the residents of Cay Bay, Priest explained.

It is of utmost importance that we deal with the situation of the dump post haste. This site is a bomb waiting to explode at any time and no one can predict when, including having no preventative measures and escape plan in place. If and when this happens, can anyone imagine what this will mean for the people in the area? What emergency strategies are in place? How will this be handled? This would be a major catastrophe in the history of St. Maarten that would be beyond our imagination. The impact of it and the after effect we would not be able to measure. This matter is one of St. Maarten most serious issue and requires the government attention now more than ever, Priest stated in his most recent letter to Minister Meyers.
PHILIPSBURG:--- The criminal justice system on St. Maarten is simply not equipped to handle addicts and persons with mental disorder that have come into contact with law enforcement. So says the Law Enforcement Council in a recent report it compiled on the topic. The council concludes that the justice chain is not equipped to deal with, treat nor provide these persons with the required aftercare.

Indications about possible shortcomings in the area of forensic care for addicts and persons with mental disorder surfaced in an earlier study conducted in 2013, and which was reason enough for the council to respond with this most recent research.

The new study confirms that the current state of affairs with regards to equipping the criminal justice system for the reception, treatment and aftercare for this specific group of persons, is seriously lagging behind. Addicts and persons with a mental disorder who come into contact with the law either because of lack of adaptation, self-destructive behavior and / or delinquent behavior, often do not receive the necessary reception, treatment and aftercare. This group of persons continues to suffer from the absence of all of the above and represent a group with a high risk of repeating offenses.

It is certainly not in the interest of their reintegration into society nor that of public safety, when in practice these persons repeatedly come into contact with the criminal justice system. Furthermore (inter)national requirements on how to deal with these persons are not met with by the country of St. Maarten. The absence of required care also has an indirect effect on the entire justice system.

On one hand the justice chain is experiencing overburdening by this group and on the other hand the judicial chain is obliged to deal with problems for which it is not equipped, nor is being equipped to handle.

Seeing what is at stake, the council has the hope that the Minister of Justice will soon address the legal, administrative and policy framework, through which a basis is created for the structure, cooperation and organization of facilities for the criminal justice system to handle those addicts and persons with mental disorder who breach the law. To this end, the Council has made four recommendations.

Pursuant to the Kingdom Act on the Law Enforcement Council, the Minister of Justice will be given the opportunity to send the relevant advices of the council to Parliament within six weeks, along with his policy response.

The report will thereafter be available for downloading on the councils official website, www.raadrechtshandhaving.com, after six weeks.
Local police officers are being victimized, while Justice Ministry says it lacks human resources.

PHILIPSBURG:--- Another local police officer that is working at the Landsreacherche is allegedly being victimized by the head of the justice department that is currently under investigation.

SMN News learnt that Ademar Doran tried to send home major Henk Lake who is demanding that he be given a Lansbesluit for the position he is currently holding. According to information reaching SMN News major Lake has been working at the National Detectives department since 2011 and to date he has no Lansbesluit. A well-placed source told SMN News that the department head told the officer that he should go home on Monday but the officer demanded that he be given something in writing but Doran did not produce such a document.

SMN News further learnt that the officer is going to work every day but he is not given any task. right now the Minister of Justice and Doran is telling the people and the courts that the lack staff is one of the reasons they take years to investigate cases, but the truth of the matter is Doran is busy sending home local officers that are more than capable of producing. Can you imagine they are asking Holland for human resources, even though they have qualified local officers in service that are being victimized and are not allowed to work.

SMN News also learnt that Major Lake sent a very strong letter to the Minister of Justice Edison Kirindongo which was copied to the Council of Minsters on Monday informing them of his predicament.

SMN News tried contacting Minister Kirindongo for a comment on the case but he could not be reached. However, SMN News learnt via sources that the Minister is busy working on the case.

Another officer that was sent home by Ademar Doran is Inspector Lydon Lewis who gave a statement in the brutal murder of Akeem Isidora. Lewis was re-instated but then took the Ministry of Justice to court for his rank and salary to be regulated. On Tuesday Lewis postulated on the USP slate, if elected Lewis might well become the next Minister of Justice.
PHILIPSBURG:--- Honorable Minister Plenipotentiary of Sint Maarten Henrietta Doran-York, stationed in The Netherlands, recently paid a working visit to Sint Maarten, where she had several informative visits with among others the Prime Minister William Marlin and various Government Ministers on Sint Maarten.

In the meetings with Prime Minister Marlin, Minister Doran-York updated the Prime Minister on the state of affairs of her Cabinet. and also discussed the annual report of the Cabinet of the Minister Plenipotentiary. Prime Minister Marlin at the same time also expressed appreciation to the Minister Plenipotentiary, for the way she has been functioning as the representative of the Government of Sint Maarten in the Kingdom Council of Ministers in The Hague, and also for the great job that she has been doing, by bringing the Sint Maarteners living in The Netherlands together and offering them the assistance necessary in order to facilitate their living conditions. Henrietta Doran-York, who was appointed last November 19th 2015, has since been very successful in her quest to close the gap between Sint Maarteners living in The Netherlands and the Cabinet of the Minister Plenipotentiary of Sint Maarten, known as the Sint Maarten House. This initiative taken by Minister Doran-York, has been lauded as a great help and has been greatly appreciated and widely accepted by the students, those seeking medical care in The Netherlands, church organizations, Sint Maarten foundations and Sint Maarteners in general residing in The Netherlands and also those on Sint Maarten with relatives residing in the Netherlands.
POINTE BLANCHE:--- Minister of Tourism & Economic Affairs Ingrid Arrindell and Port St. Maarten Management on Tuesday morning welcomed Norwegian Cruise Lines (NCL) vessel Escape on its first visit to the destination. The cruise ship will call at Port St. Maarten every other week and alternate between the Eastern and Western Caribbean up to the beginning of September.

Norwegian Escape is one of NCL biggest ships of the Breakaway Plus class.

Norwegian Escape Captain Giovanni Cutugno, visited St. Maarten six years ago. During his welcome address, he said that St. Maarten is a beautiful destination as always, adding that it is a favorite for the crew and guests, and that everybody on-board were looking forward to enjoying their one-day stay.

Minister Arrindell during her welcome address welcomed Captain Cutugno, his guests and crew to St. Maarten on behalf of the Government, stating that it was an honor and pleasure to have them.

Minister Arrindell said she was grateful to NCL for adding St. Maarten to the itinerary of the Escape. The Minister also thanked Port St. Maarten Management for their endurance in continuing to bring business to the island for guests and crew to enjoy. Minister Arrindell then presented a token of appreciation from the St. Maarten Tourist Office to Captain Cutugno.

Speaking on behalf of Port St. Maarten was Acting Human Resources Manager Hector Peters, who welcomed the Captain, guests and crew to the destination on behalf of the Supervisory Board and Management. He added that he looked forward to seeing many more visits by Escape and other ships from the NCL before exchanging plaques with Captain Cutugno.

The new vessel is now the fifth largest ship at sea after the two Oasis-class and two Quantum-class ships from Royal Caribbean. Escape is also calling at the ports of St. Thomas, Tortola and The Bahamas, and homeports out of Miami, Florida.

Norwegian Escape was built by the Meyer Werft shipyard and is 164,600 tons. The vessel completed sea trials in the North Sea back in August/September 2015 before making its transatlantic trip to Miami on October 29.

The cruise passenger ship carries 4,200 and becomes the NCLs 14th ship in its fleet.

Norwegian Escape was christened by ship godfather Pitbull on November 9th and thereafter sailed seven-night Caribbean itineraries out of Port Miami.

Two more Breakaway Plus ships are expected to be launched in 2018 and 2019.

Attending the plaque exchange ceremony on Tuesday morning on-board the Escape were representatives of the Cabinet of the Minister of Tourism, Economic, Transport and Telecommunications, Port St. Maarten Management, the St. Maarten Tourist Bureau and some other stakeholders.
GREAT BAY(DCOMM):--- Ministry of Public Housing, Environment, Spatial Development and Infrastructure (Ministry VROMI), announces that road works have commenced on the Oyster Pond road, Dawn Beach as of July 26 and will continue until September 26.

The road works will be carried out between 7.00am and 5.00pm.

The works entails trenching and laying of new utility lines and utility splice boxes and making one road crossing.

Motorists are advised to drive with caution as workmen and heavy equipment will be in use. There might be partial road closures.

The works are being carried out by Washington Construction Company.

Ministry VROMI apologizes for any inconveniences this may cause.
PHILIPSBURG:--- Minister of Education Silveria Jacobs said in response to a question posed by SMN News that the government of St. Maarten namely the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of TEATT and the school bus association are in negotiations as they are trying to put in place a service level agreement (SLA) for school bus drivers. The Minister said another meeting is scheduled for next week but she could not guarantee that this issue will be completely resolved before school reopens.

Minister Jacobs said the idea is not to take food out of anyones mouth but rather to properly structure the services that are granted by school buses. The Minister further explained government has to ensure that they do not exhaust all their funds on one program while other programs from the education ministry could be affected. Minister Jacobs said that the Ministry of Education has sponsored some 10 sporting programs most of which had to take athletes overseas either to compete or for training.

Minister Jacobs further explained that one of the options that government is looking at is to have parents that have a decent salary purchase bus cards' since the school bus is actually there to take children whose parents cannot afford to school. She said some parents pay private transportation, while some take their children to school, purchasing a school bus card would be a safe way of transporting students to school the Minister said. She made clear that all of this are only ideas but so far no definite decisions have been taken on the matter.

Contractor abandoned the construction of Vocational School Classrooms.

The Minister further explained that there have been some hiccups with the contractor that was contracted to construct four classrooms at the St. Maarten Vocational School. Minister Jacobs said the contractor stopped working and as such she gave instructions to have another contractor come in to do the job while the department of VROMI will have to decide on how they will deal with the contractor that was awarded the bid.

The Minister said that due to this set back a number of students that applied to attend the St. Maarten Vocational School would not have a space at that school for the moment and such the department of education is working on getting the other schools that offer PSVE programs to see if they have space and could admit those students until they have more space at the St. Maarten Vocational School.

In the meantime staff of the Ministry of education have decided to donate their time to assist with painting schools that need urgent renovations before school reopens. The Minister is also calling on businesses to lend a helping hand. At least two schools need urgent renovation namely the Oranje School and the St. Maarten Vocational School.

Academic Levels on St. Maarten dropped--- Minister urged recipients of Study Financing to make good use of the finances they are given.

The Minister of Education also called on students who received study financing to make good use of the grants/ loans they are given. She said this year some 182 students applied for study financing, so far 124 students were granted (68%) while 51 students were denied (28%). The Minister said some of the students that were denied appealed their case, therefore she does not have the final figure as to exactly how many students will get study financing.

Of the 124 students that were granted study financing, 37 of them opted to continue their education in the USA, 36 in the Netherlands, 20 will remain in St. Maarten, 8 goes to England, 7 to Canada, while some students will go to other countries but those going to the other countries are under five at least one student will be going to Scotland.

The students that applied for study financing will be pursuing different careers such as nursing, ICT, European Law, Business are some of the areas of studies the students chose.

The Minister said that students that qualify for study financing have to have a grade point average of 2.5. She made clear that study financing is a privilege granted to students as a scholarship and or grant. Those students who chose to drop out of school or not perform well academically will be putting themselves and their parents in extra debts because if a student does not excel then the entire sums of monies they receive will become a loan and it would have to be paid back.

The Minister urged students to make good use of the opportunity and not to put themselves in extra debts, neither should they let down the schools that have allowed them the opportunity to have instate tuition.
CLEAR LAKE  Map of My Kingdom, a play on farmland transfer by Iowas Poet Laureate Mary Swander will be performed at 7 p.m. Friday, July 29, in the Sukup Performing Arts Wing at the Clear Lake Arts Center. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. The Clear Lake Arts Center is located at 17 S. 4th St. in downtown Clear Lake.

Who will inherit the family farm? And, what will they do with it once its theirs? These are interesting questions about the critical issue of land transition. In the drama Map of My Kingdom, character Angela Martin, a lawyer and mediator in land transition disputes, shares stories of how farmers and landowners she has worked with over the years approached their land successions. Land is the thread that binds all of the stories together. For most farmers I know, owning land means everything, Angela Martin says in a news release. Map of My Kingdom will resonate with those who have been through or are working through challenging land transfer issues that include division of the land among siblings, to selling out to a neighbor, to attempts to preserve the lands integrity against urban sprawl. The drama will inspire the hesitant and the fearful to start the conversation that cannot wait.

People have used the performing arts to communicate critical issues since the beginning of time, Paula Hanus, executive director of the Clear Lake Arts Center said in a news release after being asked about the play. There is an amazing connection that happens when subjects are introduced on the stage or the big screen, as opposed to in print or at the kitchen table. All of a sudden conversations are sparked and inner feelings expressed. That is our hope, that this play will start conversations that extend past the Friday night performance.

After the performance there will be a panel discussion facilitated by the author, Mary Swandler. Map of My Kingdom is directed by Matt Foss, acting and theatre history professor the University of Idaho, and performed by professional actor Elizabeth Thompson. Admission is free. Sponsors for this event are the Financial Services Group of Clear Lake Bank & Trust (premiere), CL Tel, Farm Credit Services of America, Hertz Farm Management, Inc., North Iowa Cooperative, Steve and Vicki Sukup, Sukup Manufacturing Co. and Air Choice One.
Cookbook and autobiography explains how a Scottish boy cooked his way from Vegas to Barbados

Celebrity Chef Grant Macpherson, has written an autobiographical travelogue and cookbook, "Word of Mouth."

Chef Grant MacPherson, has cooked for heads of state and celebrities such as Margaret Thatcher, George H. W. Bush, Princess Diana, Nelson Mandela, Morgan Freeman, and Julia Roberts.

MacPherson has released an autobiographical recipe book "that spans 5 continents, a 30-year career, 8 world-class food and beverage destinations and offers an insight into one man's story and the people that shaped him. Original recipes, dimensional images, quotes from household names, friends and family, messages from industry influencers and a gastronomic adventure awaits the reader," he says.

The book is titled Word of Mouth. It's intended for "Chefs, students, peers, home cooks, travelers, entrepreneurs, visionaries, creatives, foodies, photographers, growers, drinkers" and his fellow Scots.

"Word of Mouth is something I want my sons to have, this is a thank you to those who I had the pleasure of working with and somewhat a reflection to date of such a full life and almost a wonder as to what is next", says MacPherson.

MacPherson has probably worked somewhere you have dined, met someone you know or created a dish that makes your mouth water.

His book covers every food joint from chopping chicken wings at Bugsy's to the James Beard House in New York City. Macpherson has designed menus for Richard Branson.

He has also cooked alongside culinary stars such as Joel Robuchon, Jean Georges Vongerichten, Michael Mina, Thomas Keller, and the late Jean Louis Palladin.

MacPherson was a gold medalist at the 1992 Culinary Olympics in Frankfurt, Germany, and has directed prestigious resort kitchens on five continents, including The Regent, The Ritz-Carlton, The Four

Seasons, Malaysia's Datai Hotel, and the Raf es Hotel in Singapore.

MacPherson's headed the culinary operations for the Steve Wynn organization for 10 years, where he opened and overseeing operations of 50 food and beverage venues, including The Bellagio, Wynn Las Vegas, and Wynn Macau. While there, each Wynn resort received Five Diamond AAA Awards, Forbes Five Star Awards, and Michelin Guides Five Red Pavilions Awards.

MacPherson moved from Vegas casinos to Barbados, where he became the Culinary Director and Head Chef at the celebrated Sandy Lane Hotel in St. James, Barbados.

Chef MacPherson was named the Executive Chef for Viking Range Corporation's Commercial Division in early 2010. In this role, he assists Viking Commercial customers in planning and selecting their equipment, as well as providing input into new product development.

MacPherson will also represent Viking Commercial at culinary events and via social media.

Celebrity Chef Grant Macpherson, has written an autobiographical travelogue and cookbook, "Word of Mouth."

As a part of his collaboration with Viking, MacPherson launched his first cookbook in early 2011. Entitled In the Viking Kitchen with Chef Grant MacPherson, the book features original MacPherson recipes and stunning photography of each, as well as photography of commercial and residential Viking equipment.

MacPherson graduated from Niagara College in Niagara Falls, Canada. In 2006, his alma mater awarded him an Honorary Bachelor of Applied Studies Degree for outstanding professional and personal achievements in the fields of culinary arts and hospitality. He will continue serving as a consultant in the hospitality industry through his consulting firm, Scotch Myst Culinary.

In 2012, he began a new partnership with Las Vegas and NYC based chef, Sammy De Marco and their new project, The Merrywell at Crown Melbourne and Metropol Perth.
Most Evacuations lifted Monday Evening

"Looked out of the window in Long Beach and there is the #SandFire"

- 7 PM 7/26 Return Home for Many Evacuees

- Cloud Caused by Controlled Burn

- FEMA provides Fire Management Assistance Grant

- Wildfire Regions are No-Fly Zones for Drones

- Donations can go to the Red Cross or your Local Fire Station

- Donations Also Needed for the Care of Hundreds of Animals

- LA County Declares Local State of Emergency

- Acting Governor Tom Torlakson declares LA County State of Emergency

On Monday afternoon, a huge cloud of smoke from the Sand Fire was seen across Southern California. Many residents feared that this signaled yet another major advance for the wild blaze that has roared northeast of Los Angeles for three days.

Twitter's #SandFire was filled with photos of the column, some taken from as far away as Long Beach.

By Monday evening the fire at reach an estimated 35,155 acres (142.27 km2). According to the U.S. Forest Service, 3,379 firefighters were assigned to the fire which had prompted the evacuation of at least 10,000 homes. Officials announced that at 7 p.m. most residents would be allowed to return home, with the exception of residents living on Placerita Canyon Road and Tujunga Canyon Road

A pyrocumulus cloud, formed by smoke particles, can create it's own localized weather behavior. It causes unpredictable ground level winds, but it can also draw in humidity and cause rainfall, helping to control the burn. Occasionally, it can produce dry lightening.

There was a collective sigh of relief across the region when firefighting organizations later announced that the smoke had come as the result of a controlled burn designed to halt the forward movement of the flames.

Satellite images have indicated that the fire was burning outward in a ring, with the central area left scorched but no longer very active. It now looks as if the fire is being intentionally split in two along a north-south axis.

This could leave two more manageable fires, and may explain why most evacuations have been lifted, despite repeated reports that the flame is still only 10% contained. If the fire can be directed away from structures, then more effort can go toward actually extinguishing it, instead of deploying units just to protect homes.

FEMA will be assisting the fight with a Fire Management Assistance Grant, which is meant to help prevent wildfires from becoming major disasters. The grant can be used for personnel & staffing; equipment & supplies; meals, health & safety items; pre-positioning resources; and emergency work. According to the FEMA website "These grants can be approved in a matter of hours and go to directly help the firefighters."

NO-DRONE ZONE

The firefighters at Sand Fire have been hindered at times by the irresponsible flying of drones over the fire. When drones are in the area, the planes and helicopters that carry water or flame retardant must be grounded in order to avoid collisions. The FAA has declared the Sand Fire region as a temporary no-fly zone for drones. Flying a drone in the area is a crime.

The government site InciWeb has posted the following message for Evacuees:

At 7:00 pm, ALL residents in ALL evacuated areas will be allowed to return home, with the EXCEPTION of those located on Placerita Canyon Road from Running Horse Lane to Pacy Street, and Little Tujunga Canyon Road from the Wildlife Way Station to Sand Canyon Road & Placerita Canyon Road. These two areas will remain closed. Large animals will be able to return as well.

The areas to be re-populated will be open to RESIDENTS ONLY. All residents entering the area will need to provide identification.

We recognize that there will be many trying to return home at the same time. We thank you in advance for your patience. If you do not need to return home immediately after this re-population begins, we encourage you to avoid longer delays by waiting until later in the evening.

Thank you for cooperating with our evacuations; public safety is always our priority.

DONATIONS

Donations of drink and snacks cannot be given directly to the firefighters. Their immediate needs are met by a preplanned delivery system already in place. Donations for evacuees can be given to the Red Cross, who will also have information on helping those who lost their homes in the blaze.

Nearly 800 animals are currently in the care of the Los Angeles County Department of Animal Care. Blankets, towels, water and feed buckets are needed. Donations are being collected in conjunction with the Red Cross. Horse items can be dropped off at Antelope Valley Fairgrounds and Hansen Dam. The dog rescue New Leash on Life has 19 dogs at Hart High School. They need toys, blankets, towels, and dishes that connect to the side of a wire crate.

Other:

Designated VCA Animal Hospitals are offering free boarding to those affected by Sand Fire.

Our thoughts are with all who have been affected by the #SandFire. To help those in need, we're now offering free boarding to those who have been impacted by the fires. Please feel free to give us a call or stop in for more information to any of these participating hospitals:

VCA Adler Animal Hospital and Pet Resort

16911 Roscoe Blvd.

North Hills, CA 91343

(818)-893-6366

VCA McClave Animal Hospital

6950 Reseda Boulevard

Reseda, CA 91335

(818) 881-5102

VCA Parkwood Animal Hospital

6330 Fallbrook Ave

Woodland Hills, CA 91367

(818) 884-5506

VCA Animal Hospital (Burbank)

2723 West Olive Avenue

Burbank, CA 91505

(818) 845-7246

VCA Westlake Village Animal Hospital

Fax: 805-497-4884

31166 Via Colinas

Westlake Village, CA 91362

(805) 497-4900

The fire appears to be growing outward, but with a dead zone in the middle.

VCA Arden Animal Hospital

407 Arden Ave.

Glendale, CA 91203

(818) 246-2478

VCA A Breed Apart Animal Hospital

777 S Arroyo Pkwy #106

Pasadena, CA 91105

(626) 795-4444
Center for Inquiry Condemns DNC Staffer's Suggestion to Attack Sen. Sanders for Atheism

A womann who has "turned her back on God." Atheism is, in the broadest sense, the absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is the rejection of belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there are no deities. Atheism is contrasted with theism, which, in its most general form, is the belief that at least one deity exists.

Atheism is, in its broadest sense, the absence of a belief in the existence of deities. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atheism.

This weekend, Wikileaks released e mails suggesting some at the top of the Democratic party, considered labelling Sen. Bernie Sanders an Atheist, in order to lessen his primary chances. Organized atheists reacted to this news story today, as follows:

We found it appalling that anyone within the Democratic National Committee would casually suggest attacking a candidate for their alleged atheism. Entertaining such a cynical and bigoted line of attack violates any number of basic American principles: It presumes a religious test for holding office, something expressly prohibited in the Constitution. It pits the majority against a marginalized minority group, intensifying the country's already escalating divisions. It exacerbates the gross stereotype of atheists as second-class citizens or somehow less moral than believers, a stereotype atheists have been tirelessly battling for generations. Perhaps most importantly, it sends the unmistakable signal to atheist Americans that despite all of our hard-won progress for equal treatment, atheists are still not welcome, not "one of us," not American.

Let us be clear: Atheists are Americans. Atheists are Democrats, as well as Republicans and independents. We are as integral a part of the fabric of this country as any other group. Atheists have fought, struggled, and died for this country and its values alongside friends, family, and neighbors of all beliefs. At every turning point for social progress, atheists, humanists, and other nonbelievers have been on the front lines, helping to lead the charge for civil rights, women's equality, and LGBTQ rights.

The religiously unaffiliated, which includes atheists and other nonreligious Americans, are the largest voting bloc in the United States. And despite whatever "points" DNC staffer Brad Marshall thought could be gained among his "Southern Baptist peeps," the religiously unaffiliated are now the largest belief group among Democrats. Aside from the intolerance and narrow-mindedness expressed in Mr. Marshall's suggestion, it would also be a very effective way for the Democratic Party to alienate one of its largest constituencies.

Need we even point out that had the suggestion been made to attack a candidate for being Jewish, Mormon, or of any other minority faith, the resulting scandal would have been an all-consuming conflagration?

Mr. Marshall has reportedly apologized for embarrassing the DNC, but there has been no apology, no admission of wrongdoing, to the people he sought to defame. We believe he should resign his position with the DNC. The Democratic National Committee must make immediately clear that it finds Marshall's line of thinking unacceptable, and that it will not countenance party operatives proffering attack strategies based on this kind of anti-atheist bigotry. It would do well for the Clinton campaign to do the same.

Atheism is, in the broadest sense, the absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is the rejection of belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there are no deities. Atheism is contrasted with theism, which, in its most general form, is the belief that at least one deity exists.

Atheists, humanists, "nones," and all others who have rejected traditional religious belief will no longer be silent when institutions of power attempt to reinforce pernicious stereotypes about the nonreligious. We matter, we have a powerful voice - and a vote - and we will use it.

Robyn Blumner, CEO of the Center for Inquiry

Edward Tabash, Center for Inquiry Board Chair

Ronald A. Lindsay, President of the Center for Inquiry

Tom Flynn, Executive Director of the Council for Secular Humanism

The Center for Inquiry (CFI) is a nonprofit educational, advocacy, and research organization headquartered in Amherst, New York, with executive offices in Washington, D.C. It is also home to both the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, the Council for Secular Humanism, and will soon be home to the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason & Science. The mission of CFI is to foster a secular society based on science, reason, freedom of inquiry, and humanist values. Visit CFI on the web at http://www.centerforinquiry.net.
SEB Unwinds Investment in Banyan

MISSISSAUGA, ONTARIO  (Marketwired)  07/26/16  Smart Employee Benefits Inc. (SEB or the Company) (TSX VENTURE: SEB) has concluded the unwinding (the Unwinding) of a transaction whereby SEB had acquired 50% of the shares of Banyan Work Health Solutions Inc. and BITS Licensing Inc. (together Banyan) (the Original Transaction) which had been announced in a news release November 14, 2014. The 50% shareholding was returned to the original Banyan shareholder. Banyan represents approximately 8% of SEB revenues.

Per the terms of the Unwinding, SEB received $1,625,000 in cash and the return of other consideration advanced by SEB under the terms of the Original Transaction, being return for cancellation of 2,000,000 SEB shares, return and cancellation of the majority of employee retention warrants, and cancellation of all of SEBs contingent obligations arising from the Original Transaction.

About SEB

Smart Employee Benefits Inc.s global infrastructure is comprised of two operating divisions: Technology and Benefits. The Technology Division currently serves corporate and government clients across Canada and internationally. The Benefits Division focuses on offering SAAS and BPO solutions in the Health Benefits Sector to corporate and government clientele. The Benefits Division operates as a client of the Technology Division. The Technology Division is a critical competitive advantage in supporting the implementation of SEBs benefits processing solutions into client environments. Benefits Processing is a high-growth specialty practice area.

The core expertise of both divisions is data processing. Emphasis is on automating business processes utilizing SEB proprietary software solutions combined with solutions of third parties through joint ventures and partnerships.

Acquisitions, joint ventures, and RFP wins will continue to be dominant influences in driving growth in both divisions. Growth emphasis for fiscal 2016 is in the Benefits Division.

Disclaimer

All statements, including statements regarding the Companys areas of focus, other than statements of historical facts, which address the Companys expectations, should be considered as forward-looking statements and therefore subject to various risks and uncertainties. The words may, will, could, should, would, suspect, outlook, believe, plan, anticipate, estimate, expect, intend, forecast, objective, hope and continue (or the negative thereof), and words and expressions of similar import, are intended to identify forward-looking statements.

Such forward-looking statements are based on knowledge of the environment in which the Company currently operates, but because of factors beyond the Companys control, actual results may differ materially from the expectations expressed in the forward-looking statements. Investors are cautioned not to put undue reliance on forward-looking statements. The Company undertakes no obligation, and does not intend to update, revise or otherwise publicly release any revisions to these forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof, or to reflect the occurrence of any unanticipated events, other than as required by applicable law.

For further information about SEB, please visit .

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:

Media and Investor Contacts:

John McKimm

President/CEO

Office: (888) 939-8885 x 354 or Cell: (416) 460-2817

Glenn Akselrod

Bristol Capital

Office: (905) 326-1888 x 10
Continued double digit-growth in the first half of 2016

.

Revenue of ?1.133 billion

up 12% on a comparable basis

up 7% on a reported basis

Strong growth across most regions

Excluding Brazil, organic growth of 15% in the first half

ePayments accelerating; double-digit growth expected in the second half

EBITDA of ?244 million, equal to 21.5% of revenue

Net Profit attributable to Ingenico Group shareholders of ?122 million

Objective for 2016 maintained

Organic growth above or equal to 10%

EBITDA margin of c. 21%

Ingenico Group (Euronext: FR0000125346  ING) announced today its financial statements for the six-month period ended June 30, 2016.

Philippe Lazare, the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Ingenico Group, commented: Ingenico Group has once again achieved solid growth in the first half of this year. Our multi-local strategy has continued to prove its effectiveness, with our excellent results in mature markets and Asia offsetting the slowdown in Brazil. At the same time, our ePayments division has extended its business reach substantially, finalizing a new major agreement with Alipay. And although we have maintained our investment drive to keep bringing out new products and developing our online transaction platforms, Ingenico Group still has a 21.5% EBITDA margin. The Group has also carried out three acquisitions: a start-up provider of connected screens, Think&Go, and two terminal distributors, Lyudia in Japan and Nera in Southeast Asia.

All these examples of operational progress highlight the speed with which we are implementing our 2020 growth plan.

Performance in the first half

In the first half of 2016, revenue totaled ?1.133 billion, representing a 7% increase on a reported basis, including a negative foreign exchange impact of ?50 million. Total revenue included ?788 million generated by the Payment Terminals business and ?345 million generated by Payment Services.

On a comparable basis revenue growth was 12% higher than in the first half of 2015, a result that included a 15% increase in Terminals and a 5% increase in Payment Services.

A key feature of the first half of 2016 was a very high volume of business in Europe, demonstrating the Groups ability to leverage regulatory change in mature markets. In Asia-Pacific, the Group further increased its share of the market, with vigorous growth in Turkey, Australia and China. In contrast, Brazils unfavorable economy heavily affected business volume in Latin America. In North America, revenue growth was driven by the Groups increasing market share at large-scale retail chains. Investment in the Groups ePayments division over the last few months has started to pay off, as reflected in the strong sales momentum of the first half.

Performance in the second quarter

In the second quarter of 2016, revenue totaled ?581 million, representing a 4% increase on a reported basis, including a negative foreign exchange impact of ?30 million. Total revenue included ?400 million generated by the Payment Terminals business and ?181 million generated by Payment Services.

On a comparable basis revenue growth was 9% higher than in the second quarter of 2015, a result that included a 10% increase in Terminals and an 8% increase in Payment Services.

Excluding Brazil, the Group recorded organic growth of 14% in the quarter.

Ingenico Groups solid performance in Payment Terminals reflected expanding market share in Asia, Russia and the United States, as well as the operational excellence that has enabled the Group to take full advantage of equipment replacement cycles in mature markets.

The Group also continued to gain market share in in-store Payment Services. Furthermore, the ePayments divisions return to growth makes it possible to reaffirm double-digit growth objective for the second half of 2016.

Compared with Q2 2015, the various divisions performed as follows on a like-for-like basis and at constant exchange rates:

 Europe-Africa (up 13%): The Payment Terminals activity enjoyed brisk business in most countries, but particularly in the United Kingdom and the Nordic countries, where the Group took full advantage of a major equipment replacement cycle following a change in standards (PCI v1). In Russia, Ingenico Group doubled its revenue as a result of an agreement signed with Sberbank. In Eastern Europe and Africa, strong growth was attributable to increasing market share, most notably in South Africa, Poland, the Ukraine and Greece.

At the same time, the Groups in-store Payment Services business delivered sound performance, fueled by rising electronic transaction volume in Germany and growing market share in France and the United Kingdom.

 Asia-Pacific and Middle East (up 29%): Ingenico Group has continued to record high growth throughout this geographic area. In Turkey, sales rose during the quarter on the back of mandatory replacement of the installed base with fiscal memory payment terminals. In China, the Group once again reaped the benefits of a booming market to increase its sales further. Tetra deployment in Australia also contributed to the Groups strong performance in the region.

 Latin America (down 27%): The Group has maintained its share of the Brazilian market even though the countrys difficult macroeconomic climate strongly affected sales volume. Elsewhere in the region, Ingenico Group has continued to grow at a rapid pace. In Mexico, the Group has strengthened its position as a supplier to the main acquirers and large-scale retailers; in Argentina, efforts to win over acquirers are producing results; and the business trend in Peru remains encouraging. At the same time, Telium Tetra deployment has been advancing swiftly in Latin America.

 North America (up 11%): As forecast, the Group has achieved double-digit growth in the United States. EMV migration is still the key driver of that growth, both on traditional and on mPOS terminals. Although there is considerable inventory build-up at distributors, Ingenico Group has continued to gain market share at major retail outfits, a segment where business remains buoyant. The Group has also continued to gain ground in new vertical markets like hospitality and healthcare.

 ePayments (up 4%): The division returned to growth in the second quarter, making extremely rapid operational progress in both technological and business terms. The first investments in its platforms have already led to significant service quality enhancements. In addition, the deployment of IngenicoConnect on the GlobalCollect platform has enabled the Group to win greater market share with strategic customers as well as new contracts. During the second quarter, the number of e-merchants increased significantly and the Group finalized an agreement with Alipay, reflecting this major companys confidence in the platforms performance.

Gross profit up 3%

Adjusted gross profit in the first half of 2016 was ?490 million, equal to 43.2% of revenue.

At 46.7% of revenue, gross margin remained high in the Terminals business, but was 110 basis points lower than in the prior-year period, due to a less favorable product mix.

Gross margin in the Payment Services business fell 290 basis points to 35.3% of revenue. That result was primarily attributable to a changing customer mix and to rising expenditure to enhance performance on the ePayments divisions platforms.

Operating expenses up to 25% of revenue

On an adjusted basis, operating expenses in the first half of 2016 increased by 12% to ?284 million. As announced at the start of the year, the Group has stepped up expenditure, both in its Terminals business to launch the Telium Tetra range and develop new offers, and in its Payment Services business to add new features to its platforms. Operating expenses represented 25.1% of revenue, versus 23.9% in the first half of 2015.

EBITDA margin in line with objective

The Group recorded EBITDA of ?244 million, compared with ?249 million in the first half of 2015. This brought the EBITDA margin to 21.5% of revenue, a result in line with management objective for the full year. At 18.1% of revenue, EBIT reached ?206 million in the first half of 2016, versus ?221 million in the prior-year period.

Substantial profit from operating activities

Other operating income and expenses represented a net expense of ?0.4 million, down from ?3 million in the first half of 2015.

Purchase Price Allocation expenses totaled ?21 million in the first half of 2016, versus ?25 million in the prior-year period.

After accounting for Purchase Price Allocation and other operating income and expenses, profit from operations totaled ?184 million, compared with ?194 million in the first half of 2015. The Groups operating margin was equal to 16.2% of revenue, versus 18.3% in the first half of 2015.

Profit attributable to Group shareholders on par with the previous year

At ?1 million, net finance costs include an ?8.5 million gain on the disposal of Visa Europe securities recognized at end-June.

Income tax expense fell from ?64 million in the first half of 2015 to ?56 million in the first half of 2016. As of June 30, 2016, the Groups estimated effective tax rate was 31%, a year-on-year improvement reflecting a more favorable country mix.

The net profit attributable to Ingenico Group SA shareholders in the first half of 2016 was ?122 million, as in the prior-year period.

A sound financial position in line with the Groups growth plan

Total equity attributable to Ingenico Group SA shareholders was ?1.588 billion.

During the first half of 2016, Ingenico Groups operations generated free cash flow of ?64 million. This result was 8% higher than the prior-year amount, due to a smaller change in working capital than in the first half of 2015 despite business growth. At the same time, continued investment brought the Groups investing activities to ?27 million.

The Group has maintained its goal for the year of converting approximately 45% of EBITDA into free cash flow.

The cash dividend paid in respect of 2015 was ?34.5 million, whereas 54.8% of the total dividend amount was paid in stock (502,641 shares), reflecting strong shareholder confidence.

Accordingly, as of June 30, 2016, the Groups net debt stood at ?232 million, down from ?252 million as of December 31, 2015. The net debt-to-equity ratio was 15%, while the net debt-to-EBITDA ratio held steady at 0.5.

Highlights of the first half



Agreement with Alipay



Ingenico ePayments has scored a major win with Alipay, an iconic new economy company. The Group will be handling cross-border transactions for Alibaba.



Strategic acquisition in Japan



Ingenico Group has acquired a 70% interest in Lyudia from BroadBand Tower Inc., which will retain a 30% stake in the entity. Lyudia, a Japanese developer of payment applications and software, is the distributor of Ingenico terminals in Japan. This strategic move will allow Ingenico Group to gain a solid foothold in a market with high barriers to entry.



A stronger position for the Group in Southeast Asia



Ingenico Group has acquired the payment solutions business of Nera Telecommunications Ltd for 88 million Singapore dollars. This acquisition will give Ingenico Group an enhanced local payment applications portfolio and the ability to leverage the existing distribution and services network of a company with market leadership in Thailand and a substantial share of the market in Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia and Vietnam. Completion is expected to take place during the third quarter of 2016.



Acquisition of Think&Go NFC

Ingenico Group has finalized the acquisition of Think&Go NFC, a start-up provider of connected screens. Think&Go NFC and Ingenico Group designed the first connected screens incorporating contactless payment technology, with the result that digital advertising displays are turned into genuine points-of-sale.

Outlook

The Group has maintained its objective for full-year organic revenue growth in 2016 at 10% or above, despite a troubled economy in Brazil and the uncertainty surrounding the pace of inventory destocking among distributors in the United States. Business will remain vigorous in Europe and Asia, and the ePayments division will return to double-digit growth in the second half of the year.

The Group has also maintained its full-year objective for EBITDA margin, which is expected to reach 21% of revenue in 2016.

This press release contains forward-looking statements. The trends and objectives given in this release are based on data, assumptions and estimates considered reasonable by Ingenico Group. These data, assumptions and estimates may change or be amended as a result of uncertainties connected in particular with the performance of Ingenico Group and its subsidiaries. These forward-looking statements in no case constitute a guarantee of future performance, and involve risks and uncertainties. Actual performance may differ materially from that expressed or suggested in the forward-looking statements. Ingenico Group therefore makes no firm commitment on the realization of the growth objectives shown in this release. Ingenico Group and its subsidiaries, as well as their executives, representatives, employees and respective advisors, undertake no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements contained in this release, whether as a result of new information, future developments or otherwise. This release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy or subscribe for securities or financial instruments.

Ingenico Group (Euronext: FR0000125346  ING) is the global leader in seamless payment, providing smart, trusted and secure solutions to empower commerce across all channels, in-store, online and mobile. With the worlds largest payment acceptance network, we deliver secure payment solutions with a local, national and international scope. We are the trusted world-class partner for financial institutions and retailers, from small merchants to several of the worlds best known global brands. Our solutions enable merchants to simplify payment and deliver their brand promise.

Learn more at www.ingenico.com

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Quortus and Argelas mobile edge computing healthcare proof of concept accepted by ETSI

Project demonstrating network slicing and open access at the network edge will debut at MEC World Congress in September

Guildford, UK  27 July 2016 Quortus today announced that the proof of concept (PoC) proposal Healthcare  Dynamic Hospital User, IoT and Alert Status Management submitted by the company and two collaborators has been accepted by ETSIs Industry Specification Group for Mobile Edge Computing (ISG MEC).

The PoC, created in partnership with infrastructure provider Argela and operator Turk Telekom, considers a typical healthcare use-case, deploying edge intelligence and dynamic network configuration capabilities  including network slicing  to optimize communication services in a hospital environment. It leverages Quortus many years of experience in the field of enterprise edge-of-network architectures in an approach that enables innovation while aligning with the initial architecture framework proposed by the ETSI MEC ecosystem.

Edge intelligence and virtual network functions are rapidly becoming the new normal for mobile networking, said Peter Jarich, Vice President for the Consumer and Infrastructure sectors at Current Analysis. Its good to see the mobile industry crystallizing around initiatives like ETSI MEC, with strong practical use cases driven by the operators themselves. Infrastructure vendors like Argela and Quortus are rapidly turning the technology into a deployable reality: and thats very much the start of the journey for the operators and app developers who will translate the new network capabilities into services.

Its absolutely vital that we push forward the standards-setting process, and that the MEC ecosystem throws its weight behind ETSIs efforts in that regard, said Andy Odgers, Quortus CEO. The PoC program is a vital aspect of this work. Were delighted to have been able to work with industry-leaders Argela and Turk Telecom to create a PoC that demonstrates the value and flexibility of the ETSI framework; and that I believe really does advance the cause of MEC in some very important ways.

Acceptance of our PoC shows that Argela, Turk Telekom and Quortus remain at the forefront of developments in mobile networking, said Dr. Oguz Sunay, CTO of Argela-USA. MEC is much more than a great technology  by creating this very practical use case for healthcare applications, were demonstrating that it can really make a difference in todays rapidly-evolving environment. The implications for service innovation and the mobile ecosystem are immense.

In addition to its commitment to the standards definition process, Quortus has led the charge in terms of bringing MEC to market. Its partnership with ACS (www.acsacs.com) created the industrys first comprehensive end-to-end, ready-to-deploy MEC solution, demonstrated in February 2016 at Mobile World Congress. The two companies have worked closely together to identify enterprise use cases and business models that beneficially leverage their combined MEC technology.

The healthcare PoC is the sixth to be accepted by the ETSI MEC group, following contributions led by China Mobile, Intel, Nokia, Telecom Italia and Interdigital. It allows a hospital to assign a cellular access hierarchy (using network slicing) and open access (at the edge) to local systems depending on managed access rights. It also demonstrates dynamic network slicing based on hospital alert status, as well as local voice and breakout services, different radio resource slices for different categories of user, dynamic hospital-managed upgrading of users between categories, and dynamic response to critical incidents with modifications to radio resource allocations.

Mobile edge computing offers the ability to grant cellular users access to local voice and data services and to integrate IoT devices into the local cellular network. Quortus has developed managed local IP breakout and PBX / VoLTE integration capabilities for MEC. Argela has developed an innovative radio resource management (RRM) architecture based on network slicing, which can provide an enterprise with local control of LTE resources and bandwidth.

MEC can provide significant benefits in deployments in hospitals and other healthcare locations, where there is a mix of users (for example medical staff, service staff, patients, visitors, and IoT nodes) requiring different levels of access to local infrastructure. Their access needs change as, for example, people arrive and register as patients, and access priority changes as the hospital adopts alert status. In these cases, hospitals cannot rely on mobile network operators to manage access, and would ideally require integration with their local patient management and alert status systems.

ETSI MEC PoCs are developed according to the ETSI ISG MEC Proof of Concept Framework. PoCs are intended to demonstrate MEC as a viable technology, with results fed back to the ISG MEC.

Healthcare  Dynamic Hospital User, IoT and Alert Status Management will be demonstrated as an ETSI MEC Proof of Concept for the first time at the Mobile Edge Computing Congress in Munich in September and Quortus expects to be able to report project findings to ETSI in December 2016. More details about the PoC are available via the ETSI MEC Wiki.
FOREST CITY  Sand swirled across the screen. Black smoke billowed up on the horizon from burned-out vehicles. A loud boom sounded as a nearby tank returned fire.

Those images played across the wall of a tent during a seminar on Warrior Expeditions at the WIT Grand National Rally Grounds on July 20. Sean Gobin, a 12-year Marine veteran, founded the veteran outdoor therapy program after his last tour in 2012.

The video, he said, was just a snapshot of what American troops faced in Afghanistan and Iraq.

There was a lot of high-intensity combat, Gobin said of his own multiple tours in both countries.

He decided to leave the Marines after his last tour in Afghanistan in 2012, especially as he could feel how the tour was affecting him both emotionally and physically.

I knew I needed a change in life to help myself heal, he said.

Gobin then decided to live out his lifelong dream of hiking the entire Appalachian Trail. The roughly 2,185-mile trail took him 4 months to complete.

Hiking the trail soon turned from a personal challenge to a therapeutic one.

I had the time and space to process what I had been through those past 10 years, Gobin said.

Military people, he said, typically put those experiences away. Those experience can then start to surface as post-traumatic stress later in life.

There was nothing else to do on the trail, Gobin said, but to think about those experiences, and to start to talk about them with a fellow Afghanistan veteran who hiked alongside Gobin.

When the pair were almost done hiking the trail, Gobin had the idea of hosting similar hikes for other veterans.

Maybe it would be as helpful for them as it was for me, he said.

Gobin went to graduate school and soon founded Warrior Hike. Outdoor companies donated hiking gear and clothing. Veterans organizations helped host veterans in towns along the Appalachian Trail.

Gobin also partnered with Georgia Southern University. The university wanted to see how the trail program would work as a therapy program. Veterans were asked to fill out surveys along their trip. The university also gave veterans therapy strategies to use on the trail.

The Warrior Hike program soon expanded to include trails in New Mexico, California, Florida and others.

Gobin then started receiving emails from veterans who physically couldnt hike hundreds of miles.

The Warrior Bike and Warrior Paddle programs were soon added.

Sue Easton of Bryson, North Carolina, raised her hand soon after Gobin had finished his presentation.

How do we get our name on a list if a veteran needs a ride? We live in North Carolina right by the Appalachian Trail, the first-time WIT attendee said.

Gobin handed her his card with an email address on it.

Something like this, I would love to be able to help, Easton said, especially as her dad was retired military.

It sounds like a wonderful program, she said.
MASON CITY | Gov. Terry Branstad Monday denied commutation of the life sentence of a Mason City woman convicted of murder.

Bennie Mae Harrington, 57, was found guilty of the murder of 81-year-old Robert Crawford of Mason City by Judge Jon Stuart Scoles in a 2003 bench trial.

Crawford was killed on March 12, 2001. His body was found in the alley behind his home.

Authorities say he was beaten to death with a heavy object.

Harrington, who has been diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic, has filed many appeals over the years. All were rejected.

Harrington is being held at the women's penitentiary at Mitchellville.

 Mary Pieper
MASON CITY | A Hampton man reported to be smoking marijuana in the RAGBRAI beer tent in Mason City in 2014 was sentenced to up to two years in prison Monday after having his probation revoked.

Donald J. Wentzel, 56, pleaded guilty to marijuana possession (third or subsequent offense), an aggravated misdemeanor, in 2015. He was given a suspended prison sentence and probation.

A probation violation report was filed in January.

Five or six individuals approached two state troopers on patrol during RAGBRAI festivities in Central Park on July 23, 2014, to tell them a man was smoking marijuana in the beer tent, according to the Iowa State Patrol criminal complaint.

When the troopers went inside the tent they found a baggie with marijuana as well as a marijuana pipe in Wentzel's pockets, according to the complaint.

 Mary Pieper
A Canada-based couple turned to India when they wanted to adopt a girl child. In 2007, they filed an application to adopt an eight-year-old girl from their extended family in Punjab, but archaic rules meant that the couple could gain custody after nine years and a protracted battle in the Delhi High Court.

The verdict summed up the ordeal parents and children face due to lengthy procedures.

The popular belief is that adopting one child will not change the world, but for that child, the world will change, the court said in its judgment delivered on July 18. The girl, now 17, will soon be able to live with her new parents in Canada.

The legal trouble may have ended, but hoping that others dont go through the same ordeal, Justice Manmohan directed the Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA) to streamline and simplify the adoption procedure. The court asked CARA to ensure that the applications are for approval or No Objection Certificates be passed in a child-friendly manner in a strict time frame.

Delay in adoption means that the minor has to live with uncertainty and insecurity. (Hollywood actor) Hugh Jackman rightly observed that adoption is a blessing all round when its done right, the judge said. The court took note of the fact that domestic adoptions dropped by half, hitting a five-year low with only 3,011 children being adopted by Indian parents in 2015-16. During the same period, only 666 children were adopted by foreign parents.

For a country having a population of approximately 1.3 billion, statistics reveal an abysmal rate of adoption.

The childs parents had approached the High Court in 2015 when they did not hear anything from the CARA since 2011 for allowing her daughter to be taken to Canada. The petitioners stated that even after nine years of adoption, the CARA has not issued an NoC.
It was just another working lunch for an acclaimed Sikh musician at a restaurant in Florida's Davenport until the police appeared.

Vancouver born and Los Angeles-based Neelamjit Dhillon, 35, was busy gearing up for Disney's Animal Kingdom show, 'The Jungle Book Alive' at the White House on July 13.

Then, a 'concerned citizen', finding his equipment (a black coloured case) "suspicious", called the police.

This brush with racial profiling left him feeling frustrated. His answer to this is to challenge "those who called the police to learn about other communities and educate themselves about the beautiful differences that make our nation great".

Dhillon told TOI over phone, "I noticed a police officer walking towards me. He offered a handshake and asked my name. He said he needed to speak to me, much to my surprise.

He asked if we could have a discreet conversation back at my table. We sat back at the table and he disclosed that a concerned citizen, not anyone from the restaurant staff, had called and said there was a suspicious looking man who came in with a container and that he was just following up on that.

I explained that I was a musician and had also composed and arranged music for the show, which he said he had seen with his kids. I took out my case and showed him the flutes. He then apologized and went away."

This was the first time police was called on Dhillon, but not the only instance when he was looked at with suspicion. He admitted that there was always a sense of 'otherness' now due to the ongoing political rhetoric in America. A member of the Sikh Coalition, he said he had faced remarks like 'Don't blow anything up' and 'That beard is awesome'.

In this instance, once the police officer was convinced of no suspicious act, Dhillon said he felt a sense of 'frustration'. Within no time, a popular social news website highlighted the issue. He said, "I was very fortunate that the police officer could see that I was just like any other patron in the restaurant. The person who called the police acted out of irrational fear. We as a society need to be more trusting and open to starting conversations in an attempt to understand one another."

It is not uncommon to hear of Sikh Americans being racially profiled merely because of their appearance and faith. The musician said, "As a Sikh, my articles of faith like the turban and beard, represent justice, equality and tolerance for all. These values are also American values...."

The musician, who was born and brought up in Vancouver, Canada, does not see the episode in isolation. He emphasized, "Performing at the White House only weeks after being racially profiled only further solidifies my belief that there is good in the world... This experience motivates me to be the best I can be...."

"The Sikh beard and turban has been falsely associated with terrorism since 911. No community in America, whether it's Sikh, Muslim or LGBTQ, should ever be the victim of bigotry. Sikh Americans experience profiling, backlash and hate crimes at a rate that is potentially hundreds of more times higher than the average American, despite the fact that we have been an integral part of the US fabric for 125 years."

A multi-instrumentalist, composer and a professional musician since the age of 15, Dhillon, has performed in the US, Canada, Brazil, Argentina, Peru, Colombia, Chile, Mexico, Bangladesh and even Mogadishu Somalia. He even performed in India with legendary musician Louiz Banks at the renowned Saptak classical music festival. He is a student of tabla maestro Ustad Zakir Hussain and has a doctorate in music from the California Institute of the Arts.
Colts locker room 'shocked' by QB change from Matt Ryan to Sam Ehlinger

Nearly every Colt expressed surprise at the team's decision, support for Ryan and a desire to rally around Ehlinger.
KLEMME  The Iowa Court of Appeals Wednesday ordered a lower court to take a second look at a Minnesota mans application for relief after his Hancock County conviction of first-degree robbery.

A jury found Luis Ramon Cruz Ayabarreno, 39, Jackson, Minnesota, guilty in connection with the November 2011 robbery of a Klemme convenience store. He was sentenced to up to 25 years in prison.

In his post-conviction relief application, Ayabarreno argued his trial counsel failed to file a motion to suppress statements he made to law enforcement that allegedly were given before officers read him his rights.

Ayabarreno also argued he was entitled to knowledge of a plea offer. In addition, he claimed certain jury instructions misstated the law or were otherwise lacking in constitutional safeguards.

The district court denied his application.

The appeals court ruled the district court was correct in denying Ayabarrenos application on the basis of his trial counsels alleged failure to inform him of a plea offer, noting he was sent a letter telling him the state was offering to let him plead guilty to a reduced charge of second-degree robbery.

However, the appeals court determined the district court erred by failing to consider Ayabarrenos other claims and ordered the district court to reconsider that portion of the application.
Milwaukee-area runners, teams to watch at girls state cross-country

A look at the top area competitors chasing titles as Saturday's WIAA state girls cross-country championships.
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MASON CITY  A Mason City man who pushed a patron through the window of a bouncy house business was sentenced to up to five years in prison Tuesday.

James L. Whitehill, 39, received that sentence for one count of assault while participating in a felony and second-degree criminal mischief, both Class D felonies.

He received a five-year sentence on each count, but the sentences are to be served concurrently with each other.

Two $750 fines were suspended.

Whitehill was accused of assaulting a fellow patron during an event Feb. 14 at Hoppy Go Lucky in Southbridge Mall. The man fell through a full-length glass window but wasnt injured.

Hoppy Go Lucky is a bouncy house rental. It operates a store at the mall during the winter months, allowing children to play on its bouncy houses for a fee.

The incident did about $1,600 damage to the business, according to the Mason City Police Department.

 Mary Pieper
Observations show that Jupiter's upper atmosphere  above the Great Red Spot  is hundreds of degrees hotter than anywhere else on the planet.

Jupiter's Great Red Spot is apparently also red hot: The highest temperatures ever observed on the planet were recently detected in the region above the ginormous storm.

The Great Red Spot (GRS) is a massive storm about twice the diameter of Earth that lies in lowest layer of Jupiter's atmosphere. About 497 miles (800 kilometers) above this humongous storm, astronomers measured temperatures reaching about 700 degrees Fahrenheit (about 370 degrees Celsius) higher than normal, James O'Donoghue, lead author of the new study and a research scientist with Boston University's (BU) Center for Space Physics, told Space.com.

The new finding could solve the mystery of the unusually high temperatures observed throughout Jupiter's upper atmosphere, which can't be explained by solar heating alone.[Jupiter's Great Red Spot: Photos of the Solar System's Biggest Storm]

Generally, atmospheric temperatures on Jupiter are around 1,700 degrees F (around 930 degrees C), with the exception of areas above the planet's poles, which are heated by auroras. Above the Great Red Spot, however, the atmosphere is about 2,420 degrees F (about 1,330 degrees C), O'Donoghue said.

Observations show that Jupiter's upper atmosphere  above the Great Red Spot  is hundreds of degrees hotter than anywhere else on the planet. (Image credit: Dillon Yothers with Luke Moore)

Previous heat-distribution models suggested that Jupiter's atmosphere should be much cooler, largely because the planet is about fives time further from the sun than Earth is. So, having ruled out solar heating from above, the authors of the new research found evidence suggesting this atmospheric heating is largely driven by a combination of gravity waves and acoustic waves generated by turbulences in the atmosphere below the Great Red Spot. The new study was published today (opens in new tab) (July 27) in the journal Nature.

Atmospheric gravity waves  not to be mistaken for gravitational waves  occur when pockets of air collide with things like mountains. The resulting effect is similar to when a pebble is dropped into a lake, and ripples then form on the surface of the water.

Acoustic waves, on the other hand, are sound waves, which means they develop from compressions and refractions in the air and travel upward into the atmosphere. There, they encounter regions of lower density and break, much like ocean waves breaking on the shore. When this happens, the acoustic waves release stored kinetic energy and cause molecules and atoms in the air to move around more, which then raises the temperature, O'Donoghue said.

"Changes in density around the Great Red Spot will shoot waves in all directions," O'Donoghue added. "We believe that acoustic waves are the majority of the heating cause, because gravity waves tend to ship their energy across the planet, rather than vertically up like acoustic waves."

This illustration shows how a combination of gravity and acoustic waves transfers heat above the Great Red Spot to Jupiter's upper atmosphere. (Image credit: Art by Karen Teramura, UH IfA, James O'Donoghue)

Storm-Enhanced Heating

The GRS is a massive storm that rotates counterclockwise, colliding with the natural flow of molecules in the atmosphere, which are moving opposite the storm. These types of collisions create turbulence that creates acoustic and gravity waves, O'Donoghue said.

Using data from the SpeX instrument on the NASA Infrared Telescope Facility (IRTF) on Mauna Kea mountain in Hawaii, the researchers were able to measure the temperature of Jupiter's atmosphere, specifically around the GRS.

"The Great Red Spot is the largest storm in the solar system  it is bigger than Earth itself  so it generates a lot of turbulence that impedes the flow of air in the atmosphere," O'Donoghue said. "It is kind of like when you stir a cup of coffee and you turn the spoon around and go the opposite way. Suddenly, there is a lot of sloshing [turbulence] going on that generates sound waves, or compressions of air, upwards for you to hear."

The heat generated from the acoustic and gravity waves has a localized effect, which suggests there is a coupling between low and high altitudes, as energy is transferred from the lower atmosphere to the upper atmosphere. Previously, the connection between low and high altitudes was thought to be pretty much impossible because the distance is so vast, O'Donoghue explained.

"This new result from Jupiter provides the first evidence of upward coupling of energy that finds its way from the lower atmosphere to the upper atmosphere," Michael Mendillo, a professor of astronomy at BU, who was not involved with the study, told Space.com. "It's a very interesting observation  even on Earth, this mechanism is not well-studied or understood. If this happens on Jupiter, it is possible that it happens on all planets."

Energy Crisis

Giant planets like Jupiter are measured to be hundreds of degrees warmer than current temperature models predict. Before now, the extremely warm temperatures observed in Jupiter's atmosphere have been difficult to explain, due to the lack of a known heat source, Tom Stallard, co-author of the new study and an associate professor of astronomy at the University of Leicester in the United Kingdom, told Space.com.

"Sometimes, ironically, it is easier to see these features on a planet far away [from Earth]," said Stallar, who advised O'Donoghue throughout his research. In other words, "It's much more difficult to step back and see these broadscale effects  on Earth, so it's interesting to use Jupiter as a 'proxy' for what might be happening on other planets, and that includes Earth."

With the Juno spacecraft orbiting Jupiter, the researchers hope to get an up-close view of the Great Red Spot and isolate where the heat observed in the planet's upper atmosphere comes from. They also plan to study the fine details of smaller storms like Red Spot Jr., to see if there is heating above them as well.

Follow Samantha Mathewson @Sam_Ashley13. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.
Scientists have created the first map of a colossal supercluster of galaxies known as Laniakea, the home of Earth's Milky Way galaxy and many other. This computer simulation, a still from a Nature journal video, depicts the giant supercluster, with the Milky Way's location shown as a red dot. (Image credit: Nature Video

The biggest single entity that scientists have identified in the universe is a supercluster of galaxies called the Hercules-Corona Borealis Great Wall. It's so wide that light takes about 10 billion years to move across the entire structure. For perspective, the universe is only 13.8 billion years old.

What does "big" mean in space?

Space is all about large distances and objects.

Earth is big to us, about 24,901 miles (40,075 kilometers) in circumference at the equator. But based on the cosmic scheme of things, Earth is tiny. Even in our own solar system, we are easily dwarfed by the planet Jupiter (which could fit more than 1,300 Earths inside) and our sun (which could fit more than a million Earths inside of it).

And while our sun seems huge, it looks puny compared to the biggest stars we know of. The sun is a G-type star or a yellow dwarf and a pretty average size on the cosmic scale. Some "hypergiant" stars are much, much larger. Perhaps the biggest star known is UY Scuti, which could fit more than 1,700 of our suns. (Some estimates for the size of UY Scuti put it lower on the list, but there are other gigantic stars of a similar size.) But while in diameter and circumference UY Scuti is enormous, it's only about 30 times more massive than our sun: volume and mass don't necessarily correlate in space.

Related: Smallest, densest white dwarf ever discovered packs the sun's mass into a moon-size stellar corpse

Even more massive objects to consider are black holes and, in particular, the supermassive black holes that typically reside in the center of a galaxy. For example, the Milky Way hosts one that is about 4 million times the mass of the sun. One of the biggest supermassive black holes ever found resides in NGC 4889 and contains 21 billion times the mass of the sun. However, even the most massive black holes aren't particularly large, since this type of structure is the densest in the universe.

Nebulas , or vast clouds of gas that often condense to become new stars, also have impressively large sizes. NGC 604 in the Triangulum Galaxy is commonly cited as one of the largest; it's roughly 1,520 light-years across.

Galaxies are collections of star systems and everything inside those systems: black holes, planets, stars, asteroids, comets, gas, dust and more. Our own Milky Way, if considered as one object, is about 100,000 light-years across. Scientists struggle to characterize the largest galaxies, because they don't really have precise boundaries, but the largest galaxies we know of are millions of light-years across.

The biggest known galaxy, first described in a 1990 study from the journal Science (opens in new tab), is IC 1101, which stretches as wide as 4 million light-years across, according to NASA (opens in new tab).

Galaxies are often bound to each other gravitationally in groups that are called galaxy clusters. (The Milky Way, for example, is part of the small Local Group that comprises about two dozen galaxies, including the Andromeda Galaxy.) Astronomers once thought that these structures were the biggest things out there. In the 1980s, however, scientists realized that groups of galaxy clusters can also be connected by gravity, forming a supercluster, the largest class of objects in the universe.

What is the Hercules-Corona Borealis Great Wall?

Right now, scientists' best candidate for the biggest supercluster known in the universe is the Hercules-Corona Borealis Great Wall, although astronomers have spent almost a decade debating the structure.

In 2013, a research team led by Istvan Horvath of the National University of Public Service in Hungary announced the Hercules-Corona Borealis Great Wall at the 7th Huntsville Gamma-Ray Burst Symposium (opens in new tab).

The scientists had been studying brief cosmic phenomena known as gamma-ray bursts, which astronomers believe come from supernovas, or massive stars that explode at the end of their lifetimes. Gamma-ray bursts are thought to be a good indication of where huge masses of stuff lie in the universe, because big stars tend to congregate in denser neighborhoods. Horvath and his colleagues found gamma-rays particularly concentrated about 10 billion light-years away in the direction of the Hercules and Corona Borealis constellations.

An artist's depiction of a gamma-ray burst. (Image credit: NASA, ESA and M. Kornmesser)

But it's a puzzle as to just how the big structure came to be. According Horvath, this structure appeared to go against a principle of cosmology, or how the universe formed and evolved. The principle in question holds that matter should be uniform when seen at a large enough scale, but the cluster is not uniform.

"I would have thought this structure was too big to exist. Even as a coauthor, I still have my doubts," Jon Hakkila, an astronomy researcher at the College of Charleston in South Carolina, said in a 2014 press release (opens in new tab). But, he said, there was only a very small chance  far less than 1%  that the researchers saw a random number of gamma-rays in that location.

"Thus, we believe that the structure exists," he added. "There are other structures that appear to violate universal homogeneity: the Sloan Great Wall and the Huge Large Quasar Group ... are two. Thus, there may very well be others, and some could indeed be bigger. Only time will tell."

Related: Astronomers discover South Pole Wall, a gigantic structure stretching 1.4 billion light-years across

One 2020 paper from the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (opens in new tab) calls the existence of the Hercules-Corona Borealis Great Wall "doubtful at best," pointing out that it could be a statistical blip in very complicated data. But the original team that first proposed the existence of the supercluster supported their original findings in a 2020 paper (opens in new tab) of their own in the same journal.

What are the largest things in our solar system?

The Hubble Space Telescope captured this image of the impact of Shoemaker-Levy 9 fragment G with Jupiter on July 18, 1994. (Image credit: NASA)

While the solar system is puny compared to the scale of the Hercules-Corona Borealis Great Wall, here is a bonus list of superlative objects in our own neighborhood.

Largest planet: Jupiter, roughly 88,846 miles (142,984 km) across, about 11 times the diameter of the Earth.

Largest moon: Ganymede, which orbits Jupiter, is roughly 3,273 miles (5,268 km) in diameter and is a little larger than the planet Mercury.

Tallest mountain: Olympus Mons on Mars, roughly 15 miles (25 km) high and three times the height of Mount Everest on Earth.

Largest canyon: Valles Marineris on Mars, more than 1,865 miles (3,000 km) long, as much as 370 miles (600 km) across, and 5 miles (8 km) deep.

Largest crater: Utopia Planitia on Mars, which has an estimated diameter of 2,050 miles (3,300 km). It was the general landing area of the Viking 2 spacecraft that landed there in 1976.

Largest asteroid: Vesta, which is 330 miles (530 km) across. It is located in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.

Largest dwarf planet: Pluto is the largest dwarf planet, with a diameter of 1,473 miles (2,370 km). It was once thought to be smaller than dwarf planet Eris, but Pluto's measurements were confirmed up close by the New Horizons spacecraft in 2015.

Additional resources & reading

If you're boggled by the scale here, one place to explore distances and size in space is Google's 100,000 Stars (opens in new tab) site, which they call an "interactive visualization of the stellar neighborhood." It will take you on a tour of our solar system and our galaxy, which is much smaller than a supercluster but still enough to blow your mind. For kids (and adults!) who want to know more about superclusters, check out the NASA site Imagine the Universe (opens in new tab) for more galaxy clusters near us. And if you want to dive into a book, read more in astrophysicist Helene Courtois' 2019 book Finding Our Place in the Universe: How We Discovered Laniakea - the Milky Way's Home (opens in new tab).

Bibliography
Former NASA astronaut Mark Kelly applauds President Barack Obama after the 2012 State of the Union address from his seat with First Lady Michelle Obama. Kelly will speak during the 2016 Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia on July 27, 2016.

Retired NASA astronaut Mark Kelly and his wife, former Arizona congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, will address the Democratic National Convention (DNC) in Philadelphia today (July 27), presumably about gun violence in America.

In January 2011, Giffords was shot in the head during a meeting with constituents at a Tucson supermarket. She survived, but six other people present at the event were killed.

Since that tragic event, both Giffords and Kelly have been outspoken advocates of the need for more gun control, and it appears they will address this topic today at the DNC.

"Gabby & I are excited to speak at @DemConvention on Wed. about why @HillaryClinton will make our country safer," Kelly said Thursday (July 21) via his Twitter account, ShuttleCDRKelly.

Kelly, 52, is a former Navy fighter pilot and test pilot. He spent a total of 54 days in space during four space shuttle missions, from 2001 through 2011. He served as commander for the last two of those missions: the STS-124 flight of the shuttle Discovery in May-June 2008 and the STS-134 mission of Endeavour in May 2011.

Kelly retired in October 2011, partly to help Giffords recover from the injuries she suffered during the January 2011 assassination attempt.

Mark Kelly is the identical twin brother of former NASA astronaut Scott Kelly, who in March of this year completed the first-ever yearlong mission aboard the International Space Station (a mission Scott Kelly flew with cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko).

Though Mark stayed on the ground, he was a part of the yearlong mission as well. He provided samples and performed tests, serving as a sort of experimental control for researchers investigating possible genetic changes that long-term spaceflight may have induced in Scott.

A former NASA astronaut also spoke at this year's Republican National Convention (RNC), which was held last week in Cleveland. Eileen Collins addressed the RNC on July 20, the 47th anniversary of the historic Apollo 11 moon landings, and urged the crowd the help "make America first again" in the field of spaceflight.

Follow Mike Wall on Twitter @michaeldwall and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Originally published on Space.com.
Facebook's Aquila high-altitude, unmanned, solar-powered plane conducted its first full-scale flight on June 28. Facebook said it was a success but that there is a long road ahead before the Aquila program can begin commercial Internet delivery to the world's unconnected populations. Here's Facebooks assessment, as of February 2016, of connectivity levels worldwide.

PARIS  Facebook on July 21 said the first flight of its full-scale Aquila solar-powered aircraft designed for regional internet connectivity was a success, lasting longer than expected despite an unspecified "structural failure" just before landing.

The 96-minute flight, conducted in Yuma, Arizona, confirmed the validity of Aquila's structural design and avionics, Facebook said. But the company cautioned that many months of testing  at higher speeds and altitudes, and for longer durations  would be necessary before Aquila can move into industrial-scale production.

"We will push Aquila to the limits in a lengthy series of tests in the coming months and years," Jay Parikh, Facebook's global head of engineering and infrastructure, said in a statement published July 21  more than three weeks after the June 28 flight. He said the structural failure, which he did not detail, was still be analyzed.

The company said developments in battery technology will be key to enable future Aquila craft to remain in service, without interruption, for several months at a time even during low-sunlight-exposure periods during winter.

With a wingspan greater than a Boeing 737's average 35 meters in length, Aquila is designed to stay aloft, at more than 60,000 feet in altitude, for three months, delivering high-speed Internet connectivity to a 100-kilometer-diameter region. Facebook is investigating both laser and millimeter-wave signal-delivery systems.

Aquila's optimal speed is around 130 kilometers per hour for a three-month service flight. Facebook said unmanned aircraft ultimately should be less expensive to deliver to a given population than fiber or microwave links.

Its solar-powered motors, avionics and Internet delivery gear will operate on five kilowatts of power. Facebook said it's likely that the batteries alone will account for around 50 percent of Aquila's total liftoff weight.

Facebook, like Google, has been studying a range of Internet-delivery technologies including balloons, high-altitude drones and satellites. Facebook has leased, with satellite fleet operator Eutelsat of Paris, a portion of the Ka-band payload on Israel-based fleet operator Spacecom's Amos 6 satellite, scheduled to launch in late August aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. The satellite will deliver Internet to 14 nations in sub-Saharan Africa.

So far, Facebook has not committed to a larger satellite, which Eutelsat has ordered, to expand the service.

For the June 28 flight, Aquila was placed onto a dolly and attached with four straps and then pulled by a truck along a runway until it reached requisite takeoff speed, at which time the straps were cut with pyrotechnic squibs.

Originally published on SpaceNews.
A strange bend was spotted in Saturn's two outermost rings as they passed behind the planet in this view from NASA's Cassini spacecraft. Cassini took the image on June 9, 2016, and NASA released it on July 25.

A bizarre new photo captured by NASA's Cassini spacecraft shows a strange bend in Saturn's two outermost rings.

The apparent bend in Saturn's A and F rings can be seen where the rings pass behind the planet. However, the rings aren't actually warped; light reflecting from them creates an optical illusion, NASA officials wrote in a statement on the new image on Monday (July 25).

The dazzling rings of Saturn are very bright. While the planet's upper atmosphere absorbs most of the light radiating from the rings, some of it passes through the atmosphere. This acts like a large lens, bending or refracting the light as it travels through space. That's why the rings appear warped in the new Cassini image, NASA officials explained in the statement.

This spectacular photo was taken on June 9 by Cassini's narrow-angle camera as the probe was flying at a distance of 1 million miles (1.8 million kilometers) from Saturn, though NASA ultimately released the image on July 25.

The Cassini spacecraft has been orbiting Saturn since 2004 and is a joint project led by NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Italian Space Agency. For several years, Cassini cameras have captured marvelous photos of Saturn's ring system, as well as the planet's many moons. The probe is currently on the Cassini Solstice Mission, which will come to an end in September 2017.

Follow Samantha Mathewson @Sam_Ashley13. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.
Early pioneering work on Mars is expected to help develop the means to sustain a colony of people.

Long-term human colonization of Mars is feasible, as long as Red Planet pioneers "live off the land," a recent NASA report concludes.

"There are massive resources on Mars obtainable from the atmosphere and extracted from the regolith which are capable of supporting human colonization," write the authors of the report, which is called "Frontier In-Situ Resource Utilization for Enabling Sustained Human Presence on Mars."

Using Martian resources, existing technologies could supply water, oxygen, fuel and building materials, the report adds, "to relax the dependence on Earth during the buildup of a colony on Mars." [Red Planet or Bust: 5 Crewed Mars Mission Ideas]

Safe and affordable missions

The report, which was published in April, was written by Robert Moses and Dennis Bushnell, both of whom work at NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia.

Moses and Bushnell said that the purpose of their work is fourfold:

Highlight the latest discoveries of water, minerals and other materials on Mars that reshape thinking about the value and capabilities of Mars in-situ resource utilization (ISRU).

Summarize the previous literature on Mars ISRU processes, equipment and approaches.

Point to frontier ISRU technologies and approaches that can lead to safe and affordable human missions to Mars.

Suggest an implementation strategy whereby the ISRU elements are phased into the mission campaign over time to enable a sustainable and increasing human presence on Mars.

Earth independence

One small step toward Mars colonization? Living off the Red Planet via in-situ resource utilization is key to sustained settlement on Mars, a NASA report suggests. (Image credit: NASA)

Moses, who's based at Langley's Atmospheric Flight & Entry Systems Branch, told Space.com that the duo's ISRU-heavy plan strives to achieve Earth-independent pioneering of Mars.

"If the best that we can hope for is to get Matt Damon [star of the recent film "The Martian"] back to Earth alive, then we may have failed miserably in our pursuit of pioneering Mars and achieving Earth Independence," Moses said.

Extensive ISRU application may offer a solution that allows the Mars pioneers to come back to Earth when and if they want to, he said  "not because they have to."

NASA has followed a strategy of "follow the water" for space exploration, Moses said.

But with respect to pioneering Mars, and defining some potential ISRU missions, the space agency should seek to "bottle the water," Moses said.

"Until we demonstrate that we can do that reliably on Mars using resources there, then there's no compelling foundation for extensive ISRU and pioneering there," he said.

Technology to-do list

The report suggests that NASA should match up ISRU with frontier technologies, including robotics, machine intelligence, nanotechnology, synthetic biology, 3D printing and autonomy.

Technologies on and off Mars are part of a toolkit to cultivate independence of residents on Mars from Earth. (Image credit: NASA)

"These technologies, combined with the vast natural resources, should enable serious, pre- and post-human arrival ISRU to greatly increase reliability and safety and reduce cost for human colonization of Mars," the technical paper explains.

For example, plastics can be produced from carbon, hydrogen and oxygen processed from Martian water and the planet's atmosphere, according to Bushnell, the chief scientist at NASA Langley.

Bushnell told Space.com that plastics will likely be designed crudely on Mars, except where they absolutely have to be finished.

"What is produced can be oversized as required for whatever strength is required," he said. "Plastic equipment, parts, structural members, buggies, habs [habitats], pipes, etc., can be heavy and large to make up for lack of materials properties excellence."

Such work can begin on Mars before any humans get there, thanks to autonomous robots, Bushnell said.

By exploiting all Martian resources, he added, small initial payloads of stuff can eventually produce major effects, products and functionalities.

"Mars is different from Earth  time is our friend," Bushnell said.

Taming a resource-rich Mars can assure that future inhabitants live long and prosper. This image was taken by NASA's Mars rover Curiosity on April 3, 2016. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS)

An "inner solar system Walmart"

The extensive implementation of ISRU on Mars could possibly be the "game changer" that achieves the requirements necessary "for pioneering and ultimately colonization," the report suggests.

Moses and Bushnell stress that the Red Planet can become the "proving ground" for many new technologies "that not only improve Earth independence but set up Mars to become the supply source for fuels, oxidizers, life support, spare parts, replacement vehicles, habitats and other products" for spacefaring beyond low-Earth orbit.

Indeed, using Mars-produced fuel and transforming Martian resources would constitute "an effective inner solar system Walmart for, eventually, nearly everything required for spacefaring and colonization," the memorandum concludes.

The full technical paper can be found at:

http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/20160005963.pdf

Leonard David is author of "Mars: Our Future on the Red Planet," to be published by National Geographic this October. The book is a companion to the National Geographic Channels six-part series coming in November. A longtime writer for Space.com, David has been reporting on the space industry for more than five decades. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Originally published on Space.com.
MASON CITY | A Mason City woman was ordered to spend up to two years in prison Monday after having her probation revoked on a conviction of third-degree theft.

Joleen F. Schaer, 41, pleaded guilty to that charge, an aggravated misdemeanor, in 2014. She received a suspended prison sentence and probation.

Schaer, along with co-defendant Joshua L. Schaer, 28, Mason City, were accused of working together to shoplift $421 in merchandise from Walmart on May 21, 2014, according to the Mason City Police Department criminal complaint.

Joshua Schaer, who was charged with fourth-degree theft in the case, later had that charge dismissed.

Joleen Schaer had five previous theft convictions, according to Cerro Gordo County District Court records.

A probation violation report was filed in March.

 Mary Pieper
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RUDD | A Rudd woman has won an appeal of her enticement of a minor conviction.

The Iowa Court of Appeals Wednesday ruled substantial evidence does not support Lacey Lea Holtz's conviction on that charge, a Class D felony. The appeals court has ordered the charge be dismissed.

Holtz, 33, was accused of getting a 14-year-old boy to smoke from a glass pipe containing marijuana in August 2014.

She was found guilty by a Floyd County jury in April 2015. She was given a five-year suspended prison sentence and put on probation for three years. One of the conditions of her probation was that she avoid bars, taverns and liquor stores.

The appeals court ruled the unlawful act Holtz was accused of enticing the boy to commit -- possession of marijuana -- is not the type of conduct the statute against enticement of a minor is aimed at because "it is not an unlawful act committed 'upon' another."

-- Mary Pieper
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Washington, July 27, 2016 (SPS) -The UN Security Council on Tuesday called for the resumption of talks between the Polisario Front and Morocco, which should lead to the holding of self-determination referendum for the Sahrawi people.

The "members of the Security Council have underlined the importance of relaunching direct talks (between the Polisario Front and Morocco) to reach a political solution guaranteeing self-determination for Western Sahara people," said President of the Security Council Koro Bessho.

The representative of Japan, which holds the rotating presidency of the Security Council, was hosting a press conference after the briefing of Herve Ladsous, Under Secretary General for Peacekeeping Operations on MINURSO.

Questioned whether the Council has examined the letter sent Friday by Polisario Front and in which the Sahrawi side urged it to adopt urgent approach for the resumption of talks, Bessho said that the "members (of this UN body)" have stressed the importance of relaunching this political process."

The Council members agreed on the need to resume discussions and consultations for in a bid to reach solution which provides for Sahrawi people self-determination, he added.

The Polisario Front has denounced in a letter, the blockades set by Morocco to the UN process, hindering the holding of a fifth round of negotiations, though planned by the Resolution 2285 (2016), extending the mandate of MINURSO.

In his statement after the meeting, held behind doors and attended by Kim Bolduc, Special Representative of the UN Secretary General to

Western Sahara, Bessho said the UN body was informed of the condition of the mission return to activity, in accordance with this resolution.

The "Council expressed the wish that Minurso return to full functionality as soon as possible," he said.

The observation made by UN General Secretariat and Security Council stressed that "the mission has not yet reached full functionality," he added.

The dscussions during the meeting revolved around the necessary staff for the operation of MINURSO, according to Bessho who assured that the

Security Council would continue to follow up this question.

However, no date has been set for the return of other civilian personnel groups of MINURSO, he said. So far, only 25 out of 85 civilian members of the mission have returned to their posts in Al-Ayun. SPS

125/090/700
Kieran Robinson, son of Scott and Laura, won with a well-presented Beltex cross lamb and the three-year-old was smart himself in a shirt, tie and white coat. Laura, who has won the supreme champion award herself twice before, said:

Hes very keen. He loves spending time with his granddad on the farm.

The champion lamb, weighing 41kg, later made 135 or 329.3p/kg when purchased by Nick Dalby purchasing on behalf of Keelham Farm Shop in Thornton and Skipton. Reserve champion was Jonathan Frankland from Rathmell, who won the 17-26yrs category with a 40kg Beltex and sold for 91 to Vivers Scot Lamb.

Ted Ogden, Craven Cattle Marts livestock sales manager, said:

This is always a warmly received competition and is aimed at the future farmers experiencing showing livestock in an auction market and then presenting the lamb for sale in the ring.

Ronan Frankland, of Rathmell, came second in the under-10s category, with a 38kg Beltex, selling for 81 to Vivers Scot Lamb, while Bobby Crabtree, of Clifton, was third, selling his 41kg Beltex for 94 to Keelham Farm Shop, and brother Jimmy Crabtree was fourth, selling his 42kg Beltex for 98 to A Atkinson.

In the 10-16yrs class, Sam Phillipson, of Briercliffe, was first with a 43kg Beltex lamb and sister Molly was second with a 47kg Beltex, both selling for 108 and 118 respectively to T Shepherdson.

Zara Pratt, of Gargrave, took third prize with her 43kg Texel and sold for 90 to Keelham Farm Shop, which also bought the fourth-place 47kg Texel, sold by Annie Cher-Smith, of Coleby, for 92.
FLOYD  Driving west on the Avenue of the Saints, Sara McDonnell had a sick feeling when she saw a white car begin to drive south across the road in front of her near Floyd.

It was last August at Quarry Road.

I could see this woman stop and I could see her start again, said McDonnell, of Omaha. And I kind of panicked because I knew if she would pull into that intersection, there was no way I wasnt going to hit her.

The crash that sent McDonnells Toyota across the road was one of 35 crashes reported at the intersection since June 1, 2011, according to county data.

McDonnell, who had minor injuries, believes the Iowa Department of Transportation needs to build an overpass to avoid having more crashes similar to hers.

After traffic fatality, public asked for input on Floyd intersection FLOYD  A public meeting will be held Tuesday to discuss whether safety improvements are nee

Many locals agree.

More than 100 people gathered Tuesday at the Floyd Community Center to voice their support for an overpass with on- and off-ramps at that intersection.

The meeting was sparked by the death of T.J. Houdek, a 23-year-old Charles City man killed last week at Quarry Road when he drove a motorcycle in front of an oncoming semitrailer.

An online petition urging the Iowa DOT to take action had nearly 3,000 signatures as of Tuesdays meeting.

Many meeting attendees lined up to sign a hard copy placed on the community center stage.

Its something that needs to be put out there, that this intersection is deadly, said Travis Wiemann, who started the petition. And, its not going away. Its not.

The divided four-lane highway, the Avenue of the Saints, runs east and west through the intersection. Quarry Road takes vehicles to the south. Highway 218 goes north.

It is at grade, or level with the road, as are most of Floyd Countys intersections with the Avenue.

Building an overpass at that intersection is not currently in the Iowa DOTs 5-year plan.

However, the DOT has taken steps to speed up the process should the estimated $18-million project get the green light.

A required environmental impact study was completed last month. DOT spokesman Pete Hjelmstad said a community meeting is planned for November to discuss the departments desired design alternative, the second meeting with residents it has held in the past two years.

Over the years, the Iowa DOT has made changes in an attempt to make the intersection safer, although many residents at Tuesdays meeting said those changes werent enough and that an overpass is what is needed.

Lorraine Winterink, of Charles City, believes the DOT should take steps immediately to make at least some changes to increase safety.

I think theres kind of a good, better, best solution, she said. Good would be lowering the speed limit. Better is lower the speed limit and put in a stop light. Maybe we need some flashing lights coming up to that, two miles ahead ... And then the best solution would be that we need that overpass.

Iowa State Rep. Todd Prichard, D-Charles City, who facilitated Tuesdays discussion with former State Rep. Josh Byrnes, R-Osage, said he remains optimistic something can be done.

He urged those with concerns to send letters to state transportation officials.

The good thing is the community is definitely behind this. You look at a town like Floyd, with a population of a few hundred people and about 120 people showed up (at Tuesdays meeting), Prichard said. We heard that people are passionate. Theyre tired of the accidents, theyre tired of seeing people hurt and unsafe conditions in their community.

So now its up to us to kind of stay organized and send a message to the DOT that this project has got to be a priority.
GREENWICH  A 19-year-old Greenwich man is facing accusations he stole iPads from his family members and then set a fire at his residence to cover his tracks.

Izaih Perez, of Davis Avenue, was charged late last week with arson, larceny, falsely reporting an incident, interfering with a police investigation and conspiracy to commit larceny.

The arrest stemmed from an incident on Davis Avenue on the afternoon of Oct. 5. Police and fire units were called to the Davis Avenue residence on a report of a fire. Police said Perez had told them he came home, along with a 16-year-old juvenile friend, to find a smoky fire in the kitchen.

A small fire was discovered on the stove area, in which paper and a pot holder were burned. The windows had been opened to release the smoke from the fire, which caused minor damage, according to an affidavit filed by police at Superior Court in Stamford. Police found the home had been ransacked, and personal computer devices and other belongings were missing.

Later in October, Greenwich police were contacted by a detective with the Village of Mamaroneck, N.Y., police department that police in that village had recovered five tablets from a juvenile. The tablets, taken from Greenwich, were to have been re-sold by the 16-year-old friend of Perezs, according to the court documents. The tablets are being held by Mamaroneck police.

After obtaining a warrant, police arrested Perez on Friday. Police have had dealings with Perez in the past.

According to the police account, Perez conspired in the fabrication of the burglary, arson, larceny and subsequent lies of the actual events they reported to police.

The juvenile was also charged, but his name was not released because of his age.

Bail was set at $50,000, and Perez is due back in court Aug. 1.

Greenwich police found that Connecticut State Police also hold an arrest warrant for Perez on a range of driving offenses.

Robert.Marchant@scni.com
STAMFORD  Democrats are having email problems.

They began last year with an FBI investigation of the partys presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton, for using her private email account to conduct official, sometimes classified, business while secretary of state.

The problems continued Sunday, when the head of the Democratic National Committee, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, resigned after hackers divulged emails showing that her staff tried to undermine the campaign of another party presidential contender, Bernie Sanders, to bolster Clinton.

Now email problems are plaguing the state Democratic Party and its leader, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy.

The U.S. Attorneys Office has begun a federal criminal investigation into how the party raised money for Malloys 2014 re-election campaign. U.S. prosecutors are issuing subpoenas to people who worked for the campaign, and others, and convening a grand jury.

Leigh Appleby, spokesman for state Democrats, has said the party is cooperating.

News of the U.S. attorneys investigation came last week, a month after Democrats settled a dispute with state election regulators who were trying to get them to turn over documents that included party bank records and emails exchanged between Malloy and his top campaign aides.

Republicans had charged that Democrats bypassed clean-elections laws and illegally spent money to re-elect Malloy, a Stamford native and longtime fixture in city politics, including 14 years as mayor.

So for a year and a half regulators with the State Elections Enforcement Commission looked into it, requesting documents Democrats refused to release. Then they reached a deal  Democrats would pay $325,000 into the states general fund and regulators would abandon their effort to obtain party documents.

Now federal prosecutors have taken up where state regulators left off.

Republicans charged that the documents must have been damning if Democrats were willing to pay all that money to keep them secret.

But the documents could yet end up in the public domain if a grand jury indicts anyone for violating Connecticuts clean-election laws, designed to stop a practice known as pay to play, in which donors give to state candidates campaigns to better their chances of obtaining business, jobs and grants from the state, or laws that benefit their industry.

Clean-election laws prohibit campaign contributions from companies that have construction or service contracts with the state. But Republicans alleged that Democrats spent money donated by such contractors to help Malloy get re-elected.

Democrats used a loophole created by conflicts between state and federal campaign finance laws, Republicans alleged.

The conflicts are considerable. In Connecticut, candidates may obtain public financing for their campaigns by agreeing to accept donations of no more than $100 and keeping to certain spending limits. In 2014, for example, Malloy received $6.5 million in public financing.

But, under federal law, state political parties can accept up to $10,000 a year from a donor and spend unlimited amounts on their candidates.

And though state contractors cannot donate to state campaigns, there is no such ban under federal law. So contractors can give money to the state partys federal account. Party officials are supposed to separate state and federal accounts.

A Hearst Connecticut Media review last year of Federal Election Commission records showed that between January 2013 and October 2015, state Democrats raised $4.8 million for their federal account, and $1.1 million  nearly a quarter  came from businesses and individuals on the states list of outlawed contributors.

If that sounds cloudy, consider the really murky part. Under federal law, state parties may use the money in their federal accounts for get-out-the-vote efforts during federal election years. But federal election years overlap state election years.

Thats where Connecticut Democrats got in trouble. Party officials in 2014 used money from the federal account to send out mailers touting Malloy. It was OK, they said, because the mailers helped get out the vote by listing when polls would be open, and voters going to those polls could cast ballots for national as well as state candidates.

Theres no way thats legal, said Republicans, who filed a complaint with the State Elections Enforcement Commission.

Democratic Party officials responded that they keep track of what money goes into which account, and no contractor donations were used on the Malloy mailings.

SEEC regulators said there was no way to verify that and subpoenaed party documents.

Democrats refused to turn them over. The SEEC sued the party. Democrats sued the SEEC back, saying the agency has no authority to investigate their federal account because it is governed by federal law.

Then, just as a Superior Court judge was about to decide whether Democrats had to give up the emails, the party and the SEEC settled.

SEEC officials said they accepted the deal because it ended all the legal action, came with new accounting rules for separating state and federal donations, and set guidelines that resolve the conflict between state and federal campaign laws.

Democrats liked it because the $325,000 is not considered a penalty, they did not have to admit any wrong, and they did not have to turn anything over.

Since then Republicans have complained that the deal gives the impression that the state can be bought.

Now they will have to watch for the outcome of the investigation, led by Deirdre Daly, U.S. attorney for Connecticut. Dalys federal investigators have more power than SEEC regulators to obtain emails exchanged between Malloy and his top political aides, to see what they were writing about how to solicit donations from whom.

Malloys emails, like those of Clinton  which are being reviewed by the State Department before their release  and those of Wasserman Schultz, which WikiLeaks released, may not be private for long.

angela.carella@scni.com; 203-964-2296; stamfordadvocate.com/

angelacarella.
Paul Schott / Paul Schott

WESTPORT The death of a town police officer has been ruled a suicide and the mans family is looking to use his death to raise awareness about the stress on cops.

Westport Police Sgt. Robert Myer, 48, died May 4 from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head, according to the state Office of the Chief Medical Examiner and his widow, Elizabeth, in an effort to support the American Society for Suicide Prevention, will walk in the "Out of Darkness Westport Walk" which seeks to reduce the suicide rate 20 percent by 2025.
Michael Cummo / Hearst Connecticut Media

STAMFORD 

Being able to communicate about common household items is a crucial skill for home health aides. But for the foreign-born workers who make up roughly 20 percent of the citys workforce, mastering new vocabulary can be challenging.
MASON CITY  About a dozen people paid tribute to the late City Councilman Alex Kuhn Tuesday night by placing flowers in front of his seat at the council table he occupied for 4 years.

Kuhn, 34, died July 15 in Charles City.

Mayor Eric Bookmeyer, who encouraged Kuhn to run for the council, appointed him mayor pro tem and worked closely with him on the downtown redevelopment project, spoke emotionally about the man he called A-K who he described as a friend we all loved.

He said Kuhns death leaves an irreplaceable void and that his signature smile and his hey, how you doing? greeting will be profoundly missed.

The meeting Tuesday night was the councils first since the death of Kuhn.

Its a unique, difficult, sad meeting that almost feels wrong to have it, said Bookmeyer. But it is one of the many steps we have to take to move forward.

He asked the council and the audience to join him in a moment of silence in honor of Kuhn and said, It wont be the last moment that we are thinking about him.

The council will have to determine whether to appoint someone to fill Kuhns at-large position until the next city election, or have a special election in which the winner would serve the remainder of Kuhns term.

During the meeting, the council approved contracts for two North End improvement projects  the hiring of a consultant for lighting improvements on the North Federal corridor and for a parking lot project in the same area.

The council also heard a report from the North Iowa Community Emergency Response Team that assists local law enforcement and fire departments in emergency situations; and approved a proclamation in support of National Night Out on Aug. 2, a fellowship time for the community and police.
FLOYD  The Iowa Court of Appeals Wednesday upheld Casey Frederiksens Floyd County first-degree murder and first-degree sexual abuse convictions.

The defense for Frederiksen, 37, claimed the state failed to provide sufficient proof that he was the one who sexually abused and killed 5-year-old Evelyn Miller of Floyd, the daughter of his girlfriend, Noel Miller, on July 1, 2005.

The appeals court ruling stated evidence shows Evelyn was murdered between 2:30 a.m.  when two friends of Frederiksens saw her in the apartment shared by Fredericksen and Evelyns mother  and 6:19 a.m., when Noel Miller returned home from work.

The ruling states Evelyn was in Frederiksens sole care during this time, and even though he did not have access to a car he would have been able to travel on foot to the Cedar River carrying Evelyn and return to the apartment before his girlfriend returned.

Kayakers found Evelyns body caught on a branch at a river bend on July 6, 2005.

The appeals court also ruled the state presented the plausible theory that Frederiksen sexually abused Evelyn, fatally stabbed her to secure her silence and dumped her body in the river to wash away any DNA evidence.

The defense attempted to deflect blame from Frederiksen to Randy Patrie, one of the two men who stopped by the apartment the night Evelyn was killed.

However, the appeals court noted Patrie  unlike Frederiksen  was not found in possession of child pornography. The ruling also noted bloodhounds did not trace Patries scent to the crime scene and no DNA evidence was found connecting Patrie to Evelyn.

The ruling also noted Frederiksen told investigators several different stories about what happened, eventually claiming Patrie kidnapped Evelyn at knife-point. However, Frederiksen admitted to his sister that he made up the story about Patrie abducting Evelyn.

The defense also claimed the district court improperly excluded from his trial statements Patrie made to law enforcement  including one where he referred to what happened to Evelyn as tragic just after she was reported missing.

Patrie also lied to investigators about what he was wearing the night Evelyn was killed, according to the defense.

The defense claimed Patries statements reflect his deception and awareness of facts not known by the general public. However, appeals court ruled Patries statements were hearsay.

The defense argued the court erred in admitting evidence of Frederiksens possession of child pornography because it was prejudicial.

During the murder investigation authorities found child pornography on the hard drive of Frederiksens computer. While awaiting trial in Evelyns murder, Frederiksen was serving a federal sentence for possession of child pornography.

The appeals court ruled testimony about the child pornography was admissible because of the strikingly similar nature of the images found on Frederiksens hard drive to the acts perpetrated against Evelyn.

A Hamilton County jury convicted Frederiksen on the murder and sexual abuse charges in March 2015. The case was moved from Floyd County on a change of venue.

Patrie was sentenced to life in federal prison in 2014 after pleading guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm as an armed career criminal.
MASON CITY  A Northwood woman was sentenced to up to 15 years in prison this week after pleading guilty to passing counterfeit cash and escaping from custody.

Melissa Mae Williams, 26, passed counterfeit cash in May in Clear Lake and Manly, according to authorities.

Williams was accused of passing fake $50 bills May 9 in Clear Lake at Caseys General Store and Dollar General Store.

In Manly, police say she used fake $20s and $50s to buy lottery tickets and miscellaneous items May 7 and May 9 at the Pronto gas station and May 9 at Caseys General Store.

Williams evaded an extensive multi-agency police search in Manly on May 11 after she fled a traffic stop in the Pronto parking lot, according to the Cerro Gordo County Sheriffs Office.

She was arrested on May 13 in Mason City. Officers took Williams to the Mason City police station, where she slipped out of handcuffs attached to the wall of an interrogation room and fled, according to police.

She was quickly apprehended and brought to the Cerro Gordo County Jail.

Williams also was accused of leaving the Beje Clark residential correctional institution without permission on April 4.

Williams had been ordered to serve 180 days at the facility as a condition of probation after pleading guilty to forgery in January in Cerro Gordo County.

She was accused of passing fake $100, $50 and $20 bills at Mason City gas stations in September and October 2015.

Williams was sentenced in Worth County District Court Monday to up to five years in prison on one count of forgery, a Class D felony.

Williams was sentenced in Cerro Gordo County District Court Tuesday to up to five years in prison each on three counts of forgery and one count of escape from custody, also a Class D felony; and 60 days in jail for absence from custody, a serious misdemeanor.

She also had her probation revoked on the Cerro Gordo County forgery conviction related to the counterfeit cash passed in Mason City and was ordered to serve five years in prison.

She was given credit for time served after her arrest in May. An additional Cerro Gordo County forgery charge was dismissed through a plea agreement.

Some of the sentences were ordered to be served concurrently with each other rather than consecutively through the plea agreement, meaning her total sentence is for up to 15 years in prison and 14 days in jail, according to court documents.

She was ordered to pay restitution to all the establishments where she passed counterfeit cash.

Williams was ordered to pay a $315 fine. Four additional fines of $750 each were suspended.
A day after another shocking terror attack on French soil, Air France-KLM warned that special concern about France as a destination would pile on pressure for the rest of the year.

Revenues fell 5.2% to 6.2 billion (5.2 billion) in the Franco-Dutch airlines second quarter, reflecting increasingly soft flows to France.

It also took a 40 million hit from a pilot strike last month and was today facing another week-long walkout.

The result follows the November massacre in Paris, the Bastille Day atrocity in Nice a fortnight ago and the murder of a priest in northern France yesterday.

The airline said that for the remainder of 2016, the highly uncertain geopolitical and economic environment, fluctuating fuel prices and airline overcapacity would mean increasing pressure on unit revenues and a special concern about France as a destination.

France church siege: Priest has throat slashed by hostage takers

But the shares rose 4% to 5.41 as cost cuts and a 31% earnings rise to 728 million impressed.

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Separately, budget carrier Flybe warned terrorism fears, economic volatility and Brexit uncertainty could dampen demand.

It shares fell 4.25p to 37.9p despite 9.2% growth in passengers.
T heresa Mays pledge to make business work for the many, not the few has rightly put soaring corporate pay firmly in the spotlight.

Its the most potent symbol of the growing divide between the few and the many. But how do we ensure that such issues arent confined to leadership manifestos, but become a central part of the business and political agenda?

The problem wont fix itself. While workers are seeing the lowest rate of basic pay rises since 2011, chief executive salaries continue to soar. The latest figures from the High Pay Centre show FTSE 100 bosses are paid 183 times the wage of their average worker, an eye-watering 136 times higher than in 1998.

When better leadership is key to boosting our lagging productivity in the Brexit era, a lack of employee engagement and belief in the fairness of business undermines this. Our research shows four in five employees think their boss sets a poor moral example.

Pay at the top has become detached from performance. Often there seems to be too little correlation between what top bosses put into a business and what they take out  Sir Philip Green (pictured) and BHS being but one example.

This is having a knock-on effect on firms being able to attract, develop and retain a diverse, engaged and skilled workforce that has trust in the companies they work for. Its time leaders realised that people now work as much for a sense of purpose as they do for money and that they should set the example.

The next generation of workers  millennials will make up 75% of the workforce by 2025  are already demanding higher standards of business leaders and will be drawn towards companies with ethical cultures. Transparency driven by new regulations, as well as Glassdoor-type websites, mean employers have far less power to hide the facts and employees true feelings about the organisations they work for.

So where do we start? First, set simpler pay and performance metrics. As former BP boss Lord Browne of Madingley said recently: Executive pay packets have become so confusing no one can figure them out.

This is a sensible starting point for businesses, and remuneration committees for all types of business, be they private, public sector or plc. Boards should give a clear indication of how top executives pay packets are calculated and measured. They should reflect longer-term purpose and performance, not just short-term financial goals.

Second, publish clear reports on executive pay and pay ratios. Transparency drives accountability, which in turn brings pressure for change. Thats why the Securities and Exchange Commission in the US now requires firms to reveal the ratio of CEO pay to employees. Its a model the UK should adopt, and one it seems likely the new Prime Minister will support.

Third, businesses should adopt bonus caps that are limited to a sensible proportion to salary. What that proportion is should be for shareholders or responsible boards to vote on, and their vote on remuneration packages should be binding.

Enormous bonuses have been heavily documented in the press, with emphasis placed on how disproportionate they often are to base salary and meaningful performance. Our research found 43% of managers rated as underperforming took home a bonus in the past year. Binding shareholder votes would quickly bring bonuses more in line with performance. Seems fairly simple, doesnt it? Yet, we still hear that to attract top talent firms need to offer high executive pay packets.

But thats a circular argument. Money is not the only reason why people work; they take satisfaction in the challenge, achieving meaningful goals and having a sense of purpose. Unless something is done to change the status quo then top pay will continue to escalate and business will continue to be viewed as out of sync with society.

Mays initiative will help to drive much-needed change. But sustainable reform requires a coalition of the willing to be successful: government, business, investors and professional associations should work with those they employ to fix an executive pay system where the costs to the many far outweigh the benefits to the few.

Ann Francke is chief executive of the Chartered Management Institute
D RUGS giant GSK gave the UKs moribund manufacturing sector a shot in the arm today with a multi-million pound investment programme in a major boost for Brexit Britain.

The FTSE 100 giant will splurge 275 million kitting out three sites in Durham, Scotland and Hertfordshire to beef up production of its lung and biopharma medicines over the next three to five years.

The investment puts a further a dampener on widespread fears Brexit would spark an exodus of multinational companies out of Britain.

Sir Andrew Witty, the boss of GSK who was ennobled by former Prime Minister David Cameron in 2012, said: It is testament to our skilled UK workforce and the countrys leading position in life sciences that we are making these investments in advanced manufacturing here.

A total of 92 million will be spent at the Barnard Castle site in Durham to build a new sterilising facility.

Another 110 million will go on the Montrose plant in Scotland to make new ingredients for respiratory drugs and the final 74 million will be invested in the Ware plant in Hertfordshire to help it make asthma inhalers.

The company has nine sites in total employing 6,000 people.

The strong endorsement of a UK outside the EU is at odds with signals from GSK before the June 23 vote.

Witty, who leaves GSK in March 2017, had put his name to letter in May which said there were significant advantages for the life sciences sector in the UK remaining in the EU and that leaving the EU would create uncertainty and potentially add complexity.

GSK today said it viewed the UK as an attractive locations for investment, because it had a skilled workforce and competitive tax system which fosters research and development.

The so-called Patent Box tax law cuts taxes on UK-generated intellectual property.

The law was widely seen as a major driver for Softbanks recent big ticket purchase of UK chip designer Arm, which the new Tory government said was a sign Britain could go it alone in the world.

Minsters were also keen to crow about todays GSK decision, with business and energy secretary Greg Clark calling it a clear vote of confidence in Britain.

GSK recognition of our skilled workforce, world leading scientific capabilities and competitive tax environment is further proof that there really is no place better in Europe to grow a business.

A slump in pharmaceutical manufacturing contributed to a fall in the UKs total production output in May. A 6.5% decrease in the making of basic pharma products in May from April sent total production output down 0.5%.
W ell, that didnt take very long, did it? Fresh from their victory in the EU referendum, the hardline Brexiteers are already preparing to cry betrayal at their new Prime Minister.

Earlier this week reports that Theresa May might consider a deal with the European Union involving an emergency brake on migration immediately brought the likes of John Redwood out of the woodwork in furious indignation.

Stories have emerged that the awkward squad on the Tory backbenches are organising themselves to oppose anything other than a hard Brexit, whatever that means. And their outliers in the press, such as columnist Melanie Phillips, are already issuing breathless warnings that there will be a revolt if May doesnt do exactly as they say.

And theres the problem  these very same Brexiteers never spelt out to the British people what they meant by Brexit, so its hard for May or indeed anyone else to know what they really want.

The campaign is over. The Brexiteers have won. With victory comes responsibility  and some really hard choices too. Instead, the hardliners prefer to wallow in a sense of grievance and mutter dark threats of betrayal.

The Brexiteer Right need to accept that they are no longer in a rhetorical debate.

Brexit is real, we actually have to do it. That means grappling with the challenges and dilemmas it presents

Brexit is real, we actually have to do it. That means grappling with the challenges and dilemmas it presents, not retreating to the sidelines to throw rocks like they did when they were trying to force David Cameron to hold the referendum in the first place.

When I recently bumped into Douglas Carswell and Daniel Hannan  two arch-Brexiteers  I pointed out that they are now key members of the new Brexit elite which runs our country. They both looked startled.

They have spent so long acting as anti-establishment insurgents that they are clearly unprepared for the responsibility that comes with actually getting their way.

The Conservatives may have moved with ruthless efficiency to present an image of stability and authority, aided by Mays stoic and unflashy persona, but lets be clear: there are some invidious choices on the horizon that cannot be ducked.

May, speaking on her visits to Germany and France at the end of last week, said she wanted Britain to have the closest possible economic relationship with Europe  and she was right.

Anything less would be damaging for our economy and the livelihoods of millions of people. But in doing so she has exposed both the rock and the hard place that the country finds itself in after the referendum.

The closest possible relationship can only mean the greatest possible access to the EU single market, by far the largest destination of our exports in the world.

It is worth remembering that even in the unlikely event that Liam Fox and David Davis manage to negotiate a flurry of new trade deals with the fastest-growing economies outside Europe  the BRICs  they would still fall well short of the amount of trade we do with rest of Europe: our trade with the EU is five times larger than our total trade with Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa combined.

Presumably the model May would like to emulate, if she truly wants the closest possible trading relationship, is Norways.

Norway is outside the EU but has extensive access to the single market. The quid pro quo is that it obeys the rules of the single market, including freedom of movement and paying into the EU budget, without having any say in those rules.

Even if, in the end, she manages to agree a special agreement to limit freedom of movement, the commercial and regulatory rules of the single market will still be made in Brussels without our say-so. That, surely, can only be seen as a loss of control?

For May to repeat that Brexit means Brexit may see her through the summer but it cannot persist for much longer.

At some point, then, the square will have to be circled. For May to repeat that Brexit means Brexit may see her through the summer but it cannot persist for much longer.

At some point in the autumn we need to know what she prefers: to protect British jobs and investment by accepting the rules of the single market or to bend to the threats and imprecise ambitions of her hardline Brexit backbenchers. Her new Foreign Secretary may famously have a policy on cake that is pro-having it and pro-eating it, but its not a policy a government can deliver.

For the Conservatives, the sabre rattling of the hardliners is ominous. The schism over Europe that has claimed the scalps of three prime ministers  Margaret Thatcher, John Major and David Cameron  is unbridgeable.

There are two sides to the Tory brain: the desire for untrammelled economic liberalism that created the Citys Big Bang, embraced globalisation, sold off numerous state assets and drove the creation of the single market in the first place and the socially conservative, village-green Englishness that values tradition, defence of the realm and a 19th-century view of parliamentary sovereignty.

Nowhere is that divide more exposed than over Europe. And no deal can be struck over the terms of our exit from Europe that will satisfy both sides.

May will have to make those hard choices. She will have to come clean with her backbenchers, the Brexiteers and their supporters in the press.

If they react the way they appear to be preparing to, with dogma rather than patriotic responsibility, the present veneer of Conservative unity will soon give way to splits as stark as those within Labour

If they react the way they appear to be preparing to, with dogma rather than patriotic responsibility, the present veneer of Conservative unity will soon give way to splits as stark as those within Labour.

The slender majority the Prime Minister enjoys will no longer give her much protection. As her three predecessors learned the hard way, you cannot fudge your way to party unity over Europe.

Her MPs may be cock-a-hoop when they look over at the Opposition benches and see Labour tearing themselves apart but they should watch with humility. Labours day of reckoning may come sooner but theirs could be lurking just behind.
A t a certain point in the recent past, many of us accepted the idea that things are a bit pants. And if anything, getting pantsier.

Even before our mad summer of neoliberal neurosis wages have been falling, inequalities widening, mistrust simmering, carbon spewing and mental health unravelling as centuries of vengeful ghosts edge ever closer to our goose-down pillows.

I mean, in defence of western civilisation we do have Scotch eggs and Pokemon Go and Rihanna singing We Found Love, so its not all bad  but when it comes to big things such as freedom, prosperity, justice, peace and all that, its pretty scary.

What we need is something to rally around, a project as generous and imaginative as the prevailing mood is mean, petty and anxious.

What we need  or at least, what seems to be the surest fit in the ideological hole at the centre of modern politics  is a Universal Basic Income.

The idea is simple, and as weve seen in recent years, the simple ideas (I Want My Country Back / Build a Wall / Jez We Can / Death to the Infidel) are the ones that cut through the media white noise.

Imagine if the Government paid every citizen a non-trivial amount of money  say, 10,000 per annum  simply for existing

Imagine if the Government paid every citizen a non-trivial amount of money  say, 10,000 per annum  simply for existing.

Enough so that you could bring up a child, or stay in education, or start a business, or cut down your hours, or simply rebalance your life without the constant, gnawing anxiety that we have come to associate with modernity.

It sounds madly utopian, yet in a short space of time the idea has migrated from the wilder realms of economic theory to the shores of the mainstream.

Many economists, both from the Left and Right, now see UBI as a way of bypassing the paternalism and waste of the welfare state (the big idea of the 20th century) and answering the demands of the 21st century.

Finland is drawing up plans to give everyone 800 per month; there are regional trials in Canada and the Netherlands.

Wouldnt it just make people lazy? The evidence suggests otherwise. When you give poor people grants they tend to invest them wisely in housing, education and businesses.

Another advantage is that UBI avoids the income traps associated with poverty-reduction schemes such as tax credits; under UBI, youd be better off by working more.

Why give money to the rich? Well, the universal character not only makes the scheme inherently feminist, anti-racist, anti-ageist, anti-ableist, etc but more defensible too; look how attached the middle classes are to the NHS.

Wouldnt it cost a lot? They reckon about 12 per cent of GDP, which would require a major recalibration of tax and social security.

But welfare (including pensions) currently accounts for 11.7 per cent of GDP and much of that is wasted on simply administering the system.

Wouldnt it mean we worked less? Hopefully, yes!

If people in quality jobs dropped hours to care for children, plant trees, learn the mandolin etc it would free up quality hours for others while providing social gains. And if people in low-quality jobs were empowered to reject poverty wages ... thats good for everyone but the Mike Ashleys and Philip Greens of this world.

There are worse ways of expending our energies. And what use is our post-Brexit sovereignty if we are not prepared to be bold?

Dont let lidos be another plan going to waste

I spent Sunday afternoon at Park Road Lido in Crouch End, a handsome Victorian leisure complex that reopened after an 8 million renovation last summer.

The place was heaving with cannonballing teenagers and squealing toddlers.

But strangely, half of the 50-metre pool was roped off.

There werent enough lifeguards on duty so everyone had to cram in one side while all that cool blue water went to waste.

Lidos are meant to be enjoying a revival, London Olympics legacy and all that  but Im not convinced.

Ive more or less given up on my other local pool, Tottenham Green, another gleaming new facility, rendered tortuous by under-staffing and an institutional reluctance to heat it properly in winter.

And it strikes me that you could say the same about all manner of British services, from council housing to the NHS  generously conceived, meanly maintained.

Confused? Try getting the right train from Gatwick ...

Landing at Gatwick after a family holiday last week, I had the choice of three trains to London.

Gatwick Express to Victoria (approx 28 minutes) cost 19.90 for a single.

The Southern service (approx 31 minutes) was 15.40.

The Thameslink service to St Pancras (approx 50 minutes) was 7.40.

And you can now use Oyster.

Naturally, the selfservice ticket machines all push you to buy the most expensive ticket and there are hefty fines if you use the wrong ticket on the wrong service.

Seasoned in the mysterious ways of our privatised railways, I opted for the St Pancras option.

Its much closer to my north London home anyway and we could spend the money we had saved on a black cab to our front door.

Such hacksare part of the secret code of the Londoner. But I pity the tourist trying to make sense of this nonsense.

It pays sometimes to switch off from the real world

Our summer holiday was a shade more stressful than usual this year, what with the Turkish coup detat occasioning a last-minute destination switch from Istanbul to rural France.

And even in the deepest Midi-Pyrenees we couldnt escape geopolitics.

All the English expats we met wanted to know how exactly Brexit had happened.

Sweetly, the locals had invited them all to a special soiree to show them they were still welcome in their village.

But even if you cant retreat from the real world, there is something wonderful you can do, a holiday in itself.

Disable Twitter.

Uninstall Facebook.

Eliminate WhatsApp.

(Maybe keep Snapchat.) Set an Out of Office reply explaining that there is absolutely no way you will respond until September.

Preferably lose your phone.

It is not healthy to remind yourself of all the evils in the world every time you lose your train of thought.
A h, summer. The advent of the holidays and the chance to sink into the years must-read books as lazily and luxuriously as you will sink into that Hockney-blue pool in California or Fuerteventura. Its the one time you can relax and get on with some serious page-action, right?

You are free from the experiential competitiveness of London life (where ignorance of the latest Cretan tapas joint, the Ragnar Kjartansson exhibition at the Barbican or the right brand of pool sliders to buy means social death) and the constant oneupmanship and virtue-signalling of social media. Its the one time you and your other half, or your mates, or your family, can devote time to reading what you like, from classics to trash, right? Right??

Wrong. Your holiday reading list is now an extension of your hectic, choice-rich, time-poor, on-show life in the capital. Gone are the days when you could confess that all you read was half of the latest John Grisham or Marian Keyes before dropping it in the sea because you were pissed on sangria.

Today what you read is as much a part of the visible mosaic of your life as what you wear, where you drink cocktails, and the dipped-pork sandwiches you post on Pinterest. And technology, which was supposed to democratise reading, has only made it more stratified and fraught.

First, people keep asking you what youre taking to read on holiday. Book recommendation lists in the mainstream media, always somewhat rarefied affairs, are now off the scale  just look at the Guardians (William Boyd recommending Craig Raines analysis of poetry, My Grandmothers Glass Eye) and McKinseys account of what the worlds top CEOs are reading (LinkedIns Reid Hoffman suggests six brainy tomes, of which Siddhartha Mukherjees The Gene: An Intimate History, looks the most lounger-friendly). The shortlist for this years Man Booker Prize, published today, probably wont help the lay reader pick a beach read.

So now your friends, online or in person, want guidance from you, and your reading list had better be up to scratch. The most cyber-adroit among us Instagram the covers of their (paper, old-skool) copies of Anne Enrights Baileys Award-shortlisted The Green Road, or even post plot updates (spoiler alert!) as they progress through Sebastian Faulkss Where My Heart Used to Beat.

Make sure you can back up your online show-offery IRL, though. It became clear a friend of mine hadnt finished Hanya Yanagiharas A Little Life when he didnt know that the lead character had his legs amputated two-thirds of the way through. His attempts to bluff  He did NOT have his legs amputated! Did NOT!!  only made things worse.

Books to read in 2016 1 /10 Books to read in 2016 Click through our gallery to discover the best beach reads for summer 2016... Shutterstock / wavebreakmedia The Girls by Emma Cline Clines debut novel first started to make noise in 2014 when the unknown 25-year-old sold her manuscript for a reported $2 million as part of a three-book deal. Now that the book is finally out, its fast becoming clear why it was so hotly anticipated. Beautifully written, this unflinching account of 14-year-old Evie Boyds enticement into a hippie cult is loosely inspired by the Manson murders of the late Sixties. But if youre looking for the next Helter Skelter, Cline has put the grisly details on ice, focusing instead on a coming-of-age story that will reacquaint you with your teenage self: angry, unheard and passionate. Fans of The Virgin Suicides and The Bell Jar will struggle to put this down. Youll Grow Out Of It by Jessi Klein Comedian Jessi Kleins hilariously candid autobiography offers a relentlessly funny collection of real-life stories and the lessons shes learned from them. These include her transformation from tomboy to tom man, attempting to find watchable porn and identifying the difference between being called maam and miss. If you liked Amy Poehler's Yes Please, this is a must-read. Love Wins: The Lovers and Lawyers Who Fought the Landmark Case for Marriage Equality by Debbie Cenziper and Jim Obergefell Keep the spirit of this months Pride celebrations alive by reading this fascinating and moving story of the lovers, lawyers, judges and activists behind the groundbreaking Supreme Court case that led to one of the most important civil rights victories in history - the legalisation of same-sex marriage. Both inspiring and unforgettable, these accounts will stay with you long after youve finished reading. Bukowski in a Sundress: Confessions from a Writing Life by Kim Addonizio Kim Addonizio's wisecracking debut memoir is a hilariously salacious account that reflects on writing, drinking, dating and her wildest years as a young writer. She captures moments of inspiration at the writing desk and adventures on the road- from a champagne-fuelled sexcapade to sparsely attended readings at remote Midwestern colleges. Barkskins by Annie Proulx At over 700 pages, this book isnt for the faint-hearted, but youll breeze through it thanks to its brilliantly genius characters. Based on the taking down of the worlds forests, the book centres around the greedy and vengeful descendants of wood-cutters over 300 years who seize what they can of a presumed infinite resource, leaving the modern-day characters face to face with possible ecological collapse. The Loney by Andrew Michael Hurley Scooping the coveted Debut Novel of the Year accolade at this years Costa Book Awards, this Gothic work has earned praise from a host of literary critics and writers, including Stephen King who described it as an amazing piece of fiction". Set in 1976 it follows a familys annual stay in an old house in Lancashire, a place gripped by the mystery of the death of the local priest. The Heavenly Table by Donald Ray Pollock Set in Alabama in 1917, Pollocks novel follows dispossessed farmer Pearl Jewett and his three young sons. Several hundred miles away in southern Ohio, a farmer Ellsworth Fiddler lives with his son, Eddie, and his wife, Eula. After Ellsworth is swindled out of his family's entire fortune, his life is turned upside down, throwing him onto a tumultuous trajectory that will directly lead him to cross paths with the Jewetts. Dark, violent and funny, this book will be like nothing else youve ever read.

The rest of us are stuck in the Kindle conundrum. No matter how long you take perfecting and filtering your sunlounger selfie, if youre using an e-reader no one can tell if you are absorbing something improving such as Primo Levis The Periodic Table (back in the Amazon bestseller charts following its recent broadcast on Radio 4) or the mindless likes of E L James or Stephen Leather and their emulators. Or, God help us, something involving mindfulness.

So you cant pose or show off. On the other hand, if you share a Kindle account with a partner, he or she can tell when youre reading Lee Child instead of Curtis Sittenfeld.

And the sheer volume of stuff available in our devices now works against engagement with the new, and the old dedication of seeing a book through from start to finish. I cringe every time I go past the posters on the Tube promoting Marlon Jamess 2015 Man Booker winner, A Brief History of Seven Killings, as this summers beach read. My Kindle tells me I have still only read 117 of its 704 pages in eight months, and have reread Ian Flemings You Only Live Twice at least once in the meantime, among countless other diversionary volumes.

Back in 1995, in his book High Fidelity, Nick Hornby had his antihero Rob come to the revelation, after years of defining himself by his musical tastes, that its not what you like, but what you are like thats important. Stephen Frearss film of the book, made five years later, cynically and wittily reversed the line. We could update it again for the social media age: its not what you are like, or what you actually like, that matters, but what you like on Twitter and Instagram.

This is what your literary choices say about you.

The Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad

Youre re-reading it, naturally, because the BBC adaptation is so awful. Taking a classic on holiday is a weird and unconvincing kind of pose. No one really digs Dickens in Ibiza or Tolstoy in Tuscany. I did once devote a drizzly week in Madeira to ploughing through War and Peace  before the BBC adaptation, mind you  only for a Russophile colleague to tell me the new translation is so much better. Doh! (*Takes hat off and jumps up and down on it*)

Further reading: My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell.

What Belongs to You by Garth Greenwell

One notch down from taking a classic on holiday, this story of an American teachers relationship with a Bulgarian hustler and, retrospectively, with his father, is fiction as expiation. You see reading not as pleasure but as a penance that has to be paid for the summers other delights. In macro Greenwells book is about guilty American triumphalism and the splintering of Europe. Pretty timely, then, at least.

Further reading: The Mandibles by Lionel Shriver.

After You by Jojo Moyes

The follow-up to Moyess assisted-suicide romance Me Before You would have been called superior chick-lit in the past but such gender-specific labels are rightly odious now. How about literary Coldplay?

Further reading: A God in Ruins by Kate Atkinson.

The Girls by Emma Cline

Well, hello, middlebrow reader: well chosen, you have. Sorry, I went a bit Yoda there. Clines novel blends three summer-reading tropes perfectly: its by a feted new author; it has an eye-catchingly literary but easy-flowing style; and it approaches a familiar subject, in this case the Manson Family murders, from an unfamiliar angle. You can dash this off in a day, spend the rest of the time reading Heat magazine and BuzzFeed, and still boast on Twitter. Perfect!

Further reading: The Vegetarian by Han Yang.

The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry

Another great middlebrow trope is the historical novel that suggests the past wasnt all that different from the present, in that the characters seem quite like us and the period detail isnt laid on with a trowel. Its for people who would never dream of taking proper history, such as Mary Beards SPQR, off to the Algarve but who like a bit of crunch to their fiction.

Further reading: Elena Ferrantes four Neapolitan novels (yes, still).

When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi

A US neurosurgeon explains what its like to face terminal cancer in your thirties. Great for those who like a whiff of mortality to sharpen the hedonism of summer, but DONT call it a misery memoir: this is to the likes of A Child Called It what Happy Valley is to EastEnders.

Further reading: All At Sea by Decca Aitkenhead.

The Road to Little Dribbling by Bill Bryson

You read Notes From a Small Island 20 years ago and havent changed your habits (or realised that you, and Bryson, have become middle-aged, cranky and a bit dull).

Further reading: The Pie at Night by Stuart Maconie.

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Parts I & II: (Special Rehearsal Edition) The Official Script Book of the Original West End Production

Ohmigod, its only four days till its published and ohmigod Ive got tickets to the show in seven months and I like literally cant wait and apparently its amaaazing ohmigod

If you are one of the people who has made this the most pre-ordered book in Amazon history, I dont think theres anything I need to add.

Follow Nick on Twitter @nickcurtis
T he man shot dead at a "swingers party" in a sleepy Surrey village has been identified as 34-year-old Ricardo Hunter.

Mr Hunter, from Coulsdon in Surrey, died during a private party at a 1million bungalow in Headley during the early hours of Monday

A post-mortem examination has since been carried out, which gave his cause of death as a single gunshot wound.

A 38-year-old man from London who was arrested on suspicion of murder and attempted murder in connection with the incident remains in custody while the investigation continues.

A 30-year-old woman from London who was arrested on suspicion of assisting an offender in connection with the incident has been released on conditional bail until September.

Officers from the Surrey and Sussex Major Crime Team launched a murder investigation following the incident and are continuing to carry out a number of enquiries to establish the circumstances surrounding Mr Hunter's death.

Forensic teams are continuing to carry out a detailed examination of the house where the party took place, which is expected to continue for a number of days.

DCI Paul Rymarz, from the Surrey and Sussex Major Crime Team, said: "This was a shocking incident where a man lost his life and we are determined to bring those responsible to justice.

Murder: the party took place in a village in Surrey / Eddie Mitchell

"Following the incident we quickly launched a large-scale police investigation to speak to anyone who was at the private pool party and gather all relevant information to establish what happened.

"We know there were several hundred people at the pool party in Church Lane on the evening of Sunday, July 24 into the early hours of Monday, July 25 and although we have already spoken to a number of witnesses we intend to speak to everyone who was at the party.

"I would therefore ask anyone who was at the event and may have seen what happened or with any footage or information who has not spoken to police to come forward as a matter of urgency.

"I would like to assure people that we will treat any reports or information provided in the strictest confidence.

Crime scene: Police are carrying out a detailed investigation / Roger Allen

"This incident has understandably sent shockwaves through the Headley community and we are working with our Safer Neighbourhood Team colleagues to update and reassure residents.

"I would like to thank residents their patience while our investigation continues and stress that we do not believe there is any ongoing risk to Headley residents.

Anyone who witnessed the incident or with any information should call Surrey Police on 101, quoting reference 45160064338, or call independent charity Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.
A have-a-go hero has insisted he could have done more to stop a Tube attack by an Islamic State-inspired knifeman, who will be sentenced today.

Somali-born Muhiddin Mire, 30, targeted strangers at random in the ticket hall at Leytonstone Underground station in east London on December 5 last year.

He is due to be sentenced for attempted murder at the Old Bailey in London.

Lift engineer David Pethers, who was slashed on the neck as he confronted Mire, said he does not consider himself a hero and added: "Anyone could have done it."

Met police release statement about Londoners bravery in Leytonstone attack

Speaking to ITV's Good Morning Britain, Mr Pethers was visibly distressed as he said: "It has affected me quite a lot, I didn't realise until having to talk about it right now.

"In my mind I could have done more. I know it sounds silly but looking at the footage and going over it in my mind, I could have taken him down before."

He added: "A lot of people ask me what was going through my mind and I can't answer."

Mire targeted 56-year-old musician Lyle Zimmerman as they travelled on the same train from Stratford to Leytonstone, where the knifeman lived alone in Sansom Road.

Mr Zimmerman stood out from the crowd in cowboy boots and a hat, carrying a mandolin in one hand and an amplifier in the other and with a guitar strapped to his back.

Footage captured from the scene at the time of the attack

Mire followed him off the train and produced a black-handled knife with a serrated edge from his pocket.

As Mr Zimmerman approached the barriers, Mire grabbed him from behind and swung him around and on to the floor. Mire then kicked him repeatedly around the head and body as a woman nearby called for him to stop.

As Mr Zimmerman lay defenceless on the ground, Mire crouched down and began to "saw" at his neck with the serrated blade in front of shocked passengers.

A junior doctor on his way home rushed to help stem the blood flowing from Mr Zimmerman's wounds as Mire went up to street level.

One onlooker shouted at him during the attack, "You ain't no Muslim, bruv", after Mire declared he was going to "spill blood" for his "Syrian brothers".

He continued to threaten members of the public before police arrived with Tasers.

Mire, who has a history of mental illness, was convicted of attempted murder at the Old Bailey in June.

Additional reporting by the Press Association
A top London burger chain has been accused of "setting a trap" for some of its migrant workers after dozens were arrested in a series of Home Office raids.

Byron is alleged to have arranged for staff to attend a "fake" training day at its London restaurants where they were rounded up by waiting immigration officials.

The claims were published in El Iberico, a Spanish newspaper based on the Isle of Dogs, and has led to a furious backlash against the firm.

The newspaper reported up to 50 workers, mainly Latin American, were arrested and deported while a further 150 are in hiding after they evaded capture.

The Home Office said 35 people from Albania, Brazil, Nepal and Egypt had been arrested for immigration offences at a number of restaurants across London.

It added that the operation was carried out with the "full co-operation" of Byron earlier this month.

However, the Home Office dismissed reports that an event was set up to lure workers to one place for immigration officials.

One worker told The Iberian: People are angry and frightened by this situation. In the years I've been in the business I had never seen anything like it. I do not know if this is standard procedure."

The firm has been blasted over its disgraceful treatment of staff as some have called for a boycott.

On Monday, hundreds of protesters have expressed interest in demonstrating outside a flagship Byron restaurant in Holborn in solidarity with the workers.

Organisers Hotel Workers Branch posted on Facebook: Those deported were mostly Latin American workers.

It is not clear what kind of shock and hardship their families in London are now experiencing, or whether the workers were paid their wages or any monies owed by the company.

Some of the deported workers had worked for Byron for four years.

We stand in solidarity with the deported Byron workers and all migrant workers - papers or no papers.

A Home Office spokesman said: Immigration Enforcement officers carried out intelligence-led visits to a number of Byron restaurants across London on 4 July, arresting 35 people for immigration offences.

The operation was carried out with the full co-operation of the business.

During the operation, officers arrested 35 people from Albania, Brazil, Nepal and Egypt for immigration offences in order to progress their removal from the UK.

A Home Office spokesman said Byron Hamburgers had carried out the correct right to work checks on staff members, but had been shown false or counterfeit documentation, adding that the business would therefore not face civil penalty action.

A Byron spokesman said: We can confirm that several of Byron's London restaurants were visited by representatives of the Home Office.

"These visits resulted in the removal of members of staff who are suspected by the Home Office of not having the right to work in the UK, and of possessing fraudulent personal and right to work documentation that is in breach of immigration and employment regulation.

"The Home Office recognises that Byron as an employer is fully compliant with immigration and asylum law in its employment practices, and that Byron had carried out the correct right to work checks on staff members, but had been shown false/counterfeit documentation.

"At Byron we are proud of the diversity of our restaurant teams, built around people of all backgrounds and all walks of life.

"We have cooperated fully and acted upon the Home Offices requests throughout the course of the investigations leading to this action, and will continue to do so."
CEDAR RAPIDS  Alliant Energy announced Wednesday a $1 billion expansion of a wind farm just south of Hampton in Franklin County.

Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad and Lt. Gov. Kim Reynolds were on hand for the announcement in Cedar Rapids, which involves Whispering Willow Wind Farm.

The wind farm spans 33,000 acres, began commercial operation in late 2009 and boasts 121 turbines with a capacity to generate 200 megawatts, or enough to power about 50,000 homes, according to the utilitys website.

Alliants five-year plan is to add up to 500 megawatts to the wind farm. The project will generate tens of millions of dollars in property taxes and result in more than 1,500 jobs at the height of construction, according to a statement issued Wednesday.

If Alliants request for advanced ratemaking principles is approved, the utility would expect to reprioritize its 2016-19 construction expenditure plan.

Alliant is seeking regulatory approval for the Whispering Willow expansion and will possibly develop wind energy in other parts of the state, according to Alliant Chief Executive Officer Patricia Kampling.

It is part of a five-year project but Alliant is seeking approval now to maxmimize the the value of renewable energy tax credits, she said. The company also plans to reduce its carbon dioxide emissions by 40 percent from 2005 to 2030.

Our customers expect low-cost, clean energy, which is exactly what this project will bring to the communities we serve, Doug Kopp, president of Alliant Energys Iowa utility, said in a statement. Wind has no fuel costs and zero emissions, making it a win-win for Iowans and the Iowa economy.

In addition to potential savings to customers and a commitment to clean energy, the project is expected to generate millions of dollars in property taxes and result in more than 1,500 jobs at the height of construction.

Alliant is based in Cedar Rapids and provides electric service to 487,000 customers and natural gas service to 226,000 customers in more than 600 communities, including many in North Iowa.

This is the second major expansion of wind energy enterprises in Iowa in the past three months.

In April, MidAmerican Energy, which serves parts of North Iowa, announced a $3.6 billion plan to add 1,000 wind turbines in Iowa.
A London investment banker has been missing for two weeks after disappearing on a solo trek in Greenland.

Romeo Cheung, 27, who works for Canadian company RBC in the City, left the UK for Iceland on July 7, it has been reported.

The University of Hong Kong graduate was last heard from when he called his family before boarding a helicopter in Ilulissat in western Greenland to take a tour of the countrys glaciers.

He was last seen on July 14 and police launched a search operation days later after being alerted by the mathematicians family.

According to The South China Morning Post, a Facebook page set up in the search for Mr Cheung  which has since been deleted - said he had a tent and food for a trek from Sisimiut to Kangerlussuaq, also in western Greenland.

However, it is believed he is without his luggage as it was lost by his airline.

It added that he planned to return to London on July 17 and to work the following day, but failed to show up.

As there was no report of any helicopter crash, it was assumed Mr Cheung went missing while trekking an 'Arctic route' - which should take a person of reasonable fitness nine to 11 days to complete.

A source with knowledge of the case told the newspaper that his elder brother flew to Greenland on July 21 after meeting representatives from the Chinese embassy in Denmark and local authorities to learn the latest development.

It was understood local authorities have launched an air and land search for Mr Cheung using helicopters in Greenland.
D iners screamed in horror as an unmarked police car veered off-road and plowed into tables outside a busy pizzeria in north London.

Witnesses said it was a miracle that no one was killed when the silver Vauxhall Astra careered onto the pavement after clipping a black Nissan Qashqai.

Tables and chairs outside Pizza East in Kentish Town were sent flying before the car, which had its sirens and blue lights on, smashed into a steel bollard.

Shocked diners told how one man in his 30s was left unconscious, bleeding heavily from his head, and was treated at the scene before being rushed to a specialist trauma centre.

A woman in her 30s, who suffered minor injuries, was seen weeping with her head in her hands as he was being given first aid.

Several diners were hurt in the crash / Nigel Howard

Another man was checked over by paramedics following the crash in Highgate Road at 7.45pm last night.

The Independent Police Complaints Commission has launched an investigation into the crash, which left debris and glass strewn over the pavement.

The officers in the car were responding to reports of a knifeman more than two miles away in Hunter Street, in Bloomsbury. They were treated for whiplash injuries,

Joff Wild, 52, a business journalist who was driving past, said: I heard the siren really loud and saw a police car coming pretty fast.

The IPCC has launched an investigation / Nigel Howard

It undertook a car that was waiting to turn right, clipped the back and went hurtling into the line of tables and chairs outside.

There were chairs and tables going up in the air where people were sitting and then it smashed into a bollard. There were screams as people outside the pub on the corner came running over to help. I could see a guy lying on the floor.

It all seemed to happen in slow motion, like something out of Starsky and Hutch. Its a miracle no one was more seriously hurt. Someone could easily have been killed.

The police driver got out immediately. He looked in complete shock.

Kate Evans, 25, a researcher from Gospel Oak, was having dinner with friends in the back of the pizzeria when the smash occurred.

She said: There must have been more than 120 people inside. Everyone stood up to see what was happening - we couldnt believe what we were seeing.

We came out of the fire exit because the crash was in front of the main door. The staff were very calm but police were shouting at us to get out. There was glass and bits of car everywhere and a man unconscious on the floor with blood all over his head.

Diners gather in the aftermath of the crash / Mike Kay @MikeAKay

There was a woman who was really shaken. She had her head in her hands and police officers were comforting her.

Another witness said: There was a guy on the floor lying completely still and the paramedics were cutting off his clothes. He wasnt moving but you could see he was breathing.

Talal Karkouti, a comedian who was performing a set in the pub opposite, said: We walked past and the guy who had all his clothes cut off had this woman in a blue shirt sitting over his body, crying.

Vicky Meskaitye, 23, a civil servant, said: I heard the wheels screech and looked up and saw it crash into the pole really fast. It was going so fast the boot flew open.

The unmarked police car crashed into a restaurant full of people in Kentish Town / Thomas Hole @hole400

Then I saw someone on the floor motionless, it was awful.

BBC newsreader Zora Suleman tweeted: One minute everyone was chatting and drinking, next sirens, then a huge bang and people screaming.

It was weird, sirens then the bang.

The road was cordoned off as police investigated the crash,

A Met spokesman said the driver of the Qashqai stopped at the scene and is helping police with their inquiries. There have been no arrests.

A London Ambulance Service spokeswoman said: We treated a man for a head injury and took him to a major trauma centre. We checked over two other patients, a man and a woman, at the scene but neither of them were taken to hospital.

Police are appealing for witnesses to contact 101 or via Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.
A huge crack opened up in a road after flooding wreaked havoc in east London this morning.

Police had to cordon off Upper Rainham Road in Hornchurch after a large water main burst and completely submerged the tarmac.

Photos and video published by Havering Police showed a muddy sea of gushing water near the junction with Elm Park Avenue.

Some of the water appeared to be pouring out through a large opening in the middle of the road, before sweeping down it towards a pair of traffic lights.

Flooding: The road was submerged when a water main burst / Havering police

Essex and Suffolk Water shut off the water at 5.12am, just over an hour after the problem was reported, but the main itself is still being repaired.

The street itself is still closed off after the tarmac cracked down the middle, with silt and debris being left strewn across its surface.

Cracked: The road is being repaired this morning / Havering police

Police have advised motorists to avoid the area and local bus services have been placed on diversion.

A spokesman for Havering council said one lane of the road had reopened with two-way traffic lights by 11.30am.
J ihadists have issued threats to London's safety after a spate of horrific terror attacks hit Europe.

Images threatening atrocities in London and other capital cities have been widely posted on a jihadi messaging app, according to analysts tracking extremist activity online for SITE Intelligence Group.

The threats came only hours after Islamic State fanatics brutally murdered 86-year-old French priest Jacques Hamel in Normandy on camera.

Scotland Yard also advised the capitals churches to review their security arrangements amid fears of a similar attack.

Murdered on camera: Jacques Hamel / AFP/Getty Images

Metropolitan Police Deputy Assistant Commissioner Neil Basu said: Following recent events in France, we are reiterating our protective security advice to Christian places of worship and have circulated specific advice today.

We are also taking this opportunity to remind them to review their security arrangements as a precaution.

While the threat from terrorism remains unchanged at severe, we urge the public to be vigilant.

Mr Basu added that there was no specific intelligence relating to attacks on the Christian community in the UK.

May and Kenny react to events in France

Security service MI5 has set the countrys terror attack threat level at severe, meaning it believes an attack is highly likely.

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IS terrorists have claimed responsibility for a lorry driver who killed 84 people in Nice, the suicide bombing incident in Ansbach, Germany and an axe attack on a train in southern Germany, all in the past month.
P arts of the City remain closed this morning after a massive gas leak sparked a major evacuation.

Emergency services cordoned off a 25m stretch of London Wall and evacuated 500 people from nearby offices just after 4pm yesterday when the leak was discovered.

A London Fire Brigade spokesman told the Standard that it had started in the cellar of a cafe.

Witnesses said they had been told there was an "absolutely massive" gas leak and that a section of the road may have to be dug up to deal with the situation.

Closed: City of London Police sealed off London Wall / Phil Parson

City workers were able to get back into their offices late last night and the leak was repaired by engineers for the National Grid in the early hours of this morning.

A spokesman for National Grid said: "A gas leak was found and fixed in the early hours of this morning and engineers left site but are due back later this morning to tidy up. Pedestrian access to Copthall Avenue and Moorgate on London Wall remains restricted but all buildings were reoccupied last night."

City of London Police said this morning that London Wall remains closed eastbound to vehicles between Moorgate and Blomfield Street.

TfL advised commuters that bus route 100 is on diversion due to the closure and route 153 is stopping at Finsbury Park.

Matt Harris, 42, who owns Fox Fine Wines, which is based in the building of the famous old umbrella shop on London Wall, said his customers and staff had been forced to leave the building when the alarm was raised.

He said emergency services at the scene had described the leak as "absolutely massive".

He added: "They're telling us it's an absolutely massive gas leak in the sub-basement of an office building on London Wall, near the Moorgate junction.

"They said they're going to have to dig the street up to get the gas out."

Police said there were no reports of any fatalities or injuries.
A n off-duty firefighter said "racism is like a disease" throughout the Met Police after his case against three officers who reportedly tasered him collapsed.

Edric Kennedy-Macfoy was trying to help officers whilst off-duty at a party but it was claimed that he was then tasered and insulted by the Scotland Yard officers.

The misconduct case against the officers, accused of discriminatory treatment towards him, was today withdrawn by the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) after "procedural shortfalls" emerged.

Despite receiving an apology from IPCC, Mr Kennedy-Macfoy today said he thought racism is like a disease within the Met Police and can only be rooted out from within".

'Police can do whatever they like and get away with it' (Picture: Metropolitan Police Service) / Metropoloitan Police Service

He said: "I just think if this could happen to me it could happen to anyone. Police can do whatever they like and get away with it.

Asked if racism was still rife in the Met during a Channel Four interview, he responded: "Things like this are still happening - I never imagined in a million years this would happen to me.

I know it still happens but I live a good lifestyle - I'm of good character, I'm a fire fighter - I've never been in trouble with the police.

He added that he saw being a firefighter as a job for life, but that this was no longer the case because he could not trust the Met - an organisation which the fire brigade works with closely.

The incident happened when police were called to break up an out-of-control party in 2011.

Mr Kennedy-Macfoy was trying to help officers identify a teenager who had thrown a rock at a police van but it was claimed that he was tasered and insulted by the Scotland Yard officers.

Firearms officer PC Mark Gatland was accused of using unreasonable force and firing his taser without warning whilce being motivated by racial discrimination.

His colleagues, PC Daniel Roberts, from Westminster Borough, and Insp Sutinderjit Mahil, based in Ealing, were accused of using abusive and offensive language motivated by racial discrimination and/or racial stereotyping.

The shortfalls in the hearing related to disclosure of relevant material including witness statements, that could take up to a year to gather.

The police watchdog decided to withdraw the case because it believes "further delays are not acceptable, given the time since the original incident".

A spokeswoman said: "We recognise the effect this will have had on both Mr Kennedy-Macfoy and the officers involved, and would like to take this opportunity to apologise to them.

The Metropolitan Police said it has offered to meet with Mr Kennedy-Macfoy to discuss how we can rebuild his confidence in the MPS.

The force said in a statement: "We fully recognise that the misconduct hearing not going ahead is damaging for the complainant and for the public who need to have confidence in the way officers are held to account for their actions.

Scotland Yard has said they would like to meet with the fire-fighter (David Parry/PA ) / David Parry/PA

"The MPS has previously apologised to Mr Kennedy-Macfoy and regrets what he experienced that night.

"The three officers have had this investigation hanging over them for five years and PC Gatland was prevented from resigning.

It is unsatisfactory for them that they have had not an opportunity to provide all their evidence as to their actions.

"Any allegation that officers have behaved in a racist way is treated really seriously by the MPS.

It is important that such allegations are fully and properly investigated and if officers are found to have done wrong that they are held to account.

"After careful consideration of all the evidence available it is clear that there are conflicting accounts, and as such the case that was due to go before the misconduct panel was not as strong as previously thought."
T housands of house sales across London have collapsed since the Brexit vote as alarmed buyers scramble to pull out of overpriced deals, the Standard has learned.

The surge in failed sales comes amid growing evidence of a sharp fall in prices since the 23 June Referendum - with one early survey suggesting a 12 per cent drop.

The fallout has been most severe in the centre of the capital, where agents said that up to two-thirds of the offers they were handling on he day of the Referendum have been withdrawn or are being renegotiated.

Many chains of deals involving family homes across Londons residential neighbourhoods and into the suburbs have also come unstuck as a direct result of the Brexit bombshell.

Accountant Harry Speller, 36, and speech therapist Meg Newman, 37, lost a 605,000 offer on their terraced home in Forest Hill within hours of the result.

Mr Speller said: We werent worried about selling at all before the vote and we thought Brexit would only affect high end flats and luxury homes. But our estate agents said loads of people dropped out of deals that day.

Data from property analysts, Propcision, suggest the number of sales falling through in London has almost doubled from around 5 per cent to more than 9 per cent.

Property buyer Henry Pryor said many agents were desperately scrambling to keep chains of buyers and sellers intact. He said: I have even heard of the people at the top end of the chain offering to buy the 200,000 flat at the bottom end just to make it all work.

According to figures from the house move services website reallymoving.com central London prices have slumped 12 per cent in the first month after the Referendum - with 10 per cent coming in the first week when political turmoil was at its peak.

Chief executive Rob Houghton said: That was an unheard of fall, Ive never seen a week where weve seen a change that dramatic.

More worryingly for estate agents the number of transaction has collapsed by 44 per cent as the market ground to a halt, particularly for more expensive properties in the 3 million to 10 million bracket.

Six ways Brexit will affect you

James Benson, head of sales at Westminster estate agency Bensons, said: Buyers are feeling very nervous. So much dust has been thrown into the air by the referendum. Nobody knows when its going to settle and how its going to settle.

He said around a third of deals had collapsed, a third were being renegotiated and a third pressing ahead regardless.

Other agents said increasing numbers of desperate vendors are prepared to accept previously unthinkable price cuts.

Matthew Wright of the Marylebone and Mayfair branch of estate agents Winkworth said: There are definitely people more eager to sell than previously who have instructed us to take quite substantial discounts.

"The rule of thumb is that people are offering 10 per cent below, but we have had offers at 50 per cent below and plenty at 20 to 25 per cent.

We have seen people who really dont want to be in the UK anymore. There are lots of French people round here who are almost taking it personally, they dont feel welcome.

Figures from London property analysts LonRes showed that the number of properties being reduced in price jumped by 163 per cent in the 12 days after the referendum.

In one dramatic example of a post-Brexit price reduction this week agents JLL said the owners of a spectacular triplex penthouse overlooking the Houses of Parliament were prepared to accept offers as much as to 1 million below the 6 million asking price to secure a sale before the end of August.

In another example, the Middle Eastern buyer of a two bedroom flat in the Riverlight development in Vauxhall has cut his asking price from 985,000 to 845,000 to secure a quick sale before the completion of the scheme. Christian Barr, new homes manager at agents My London Home, said the cut was related to Brexit.

In Chelsea this week photographer and film maker Amanda Eliasch cut the asking price of her five bedroom house from 7.95 million to 7 million to reflect the new realities of the market.

But veteran developer Harry Handelsman, founder of the Manhattan Loft Corporation, said he was upbeat about the longer term prospects despite Brexit.

He said: The result was disappointing but, having lived in London for 25 years, I believe in its resilience and that despite the setback, this great city will continue to grow.

'Sale collapsed on referendum day'

Emma Kolasinska, a TV producer from Forest Gate in east London, had agreed to sell her three-bedroom Victorian terrace house for 645,000 but the sale fell through because of Brexit.

The 35-year-old, who is moving to Bristol with her husband and two young children, accepted an offer on their house which then collapsed on the day of the referendum result.

She said: Our property is on the Crossrail link so we found buyers within a matter of weeks  a lovely German couple that had lived and worked here for a very long time and had good jobs.

The first time they came round they said they were worried about Brexit and we said theres absolutely no way thats going to happen. Then it happened.

I felt sick and wondered how long until it fell through. At 11.30am on the day of the result we had an email saying theyd pulled out. I imagine they dont feel very welcome anymore. Its sad  they loved it.

It is truly awful, I have never been quite so shaken by a political result. It meant we lost the property I found in Bristol and consequently the schools fell through for my children.

It means Ive had to start again in terms of finding somewhere to live.

Mrs Kolasinska sold her property on Friday after accepting an offer 10,000 below the original asking price.

If you ask an estate agent in any other part of the country they will say Brexit has had no affect at all but in London there are far more EU buyers.

Ive lost the money absolutely because of Brexit. It panicked us and stopped us from waiting for another buyer in case it got worse.

If the referendum had gone the other way we would have had the confidence to hold on and wait for someone to meet our original asking price.

'We couldn't take on the commitment and backed out'

Tim Milford, 32, a project manager from Forest Hill, south-east London, withdrew a 680,000 offer on a three-bed house in East Dulwich, with his wife Isabelle who is originally from Germany, because of their concerns over Brexit.

A few days after the referndum vote the couple, who are selling their flat, pulled their offer because of the uncertainty in the market.

Mr Milford said: Everything was all ready to go  the chain was formed and we were looking forward to it and then the referendum came along. My wife is German and we were uncertain about what was going to happen and didnt feel we could take on the commitment of a house.

A big part of our identity is that we are European and we werent sure fundamentally whether we wanted to stay in the country given the Brexit referendum result. Even if we are going to stay there is a big worry for people that you would be buying at the height of the market.

Theres a lot of nervousness. I felt really bad for the woman we were buying from.

We tried to claim back money for the surveys and legal costs on insurance but were told Brexit wasnt covered, so weve also lost 1,500 there.

I think Brexit will hit everyone in the pocket, except lawyers.

The couple still intend to sell their home and plan to move into rented accommodation to wait and see if the market stabilises before buying.

Harry Speller and Meg Newman had their buyer pull out

'We've had to start from scratch'

Accountant Harry Speller, 36, and speech therapist Meg Newman, 37, decided to move from Tower Hill to Bromley when they discovered they were expecting their second child.

Their 605,000 terraced house had been on the market for several months before an Irish buyer and his wife put in an offer. They pulled out immediately after the Brexit vote.

Mr Speller said: It was very frustrating, they had got the survey done and we had spent weeks negotiating.

By the time they dropped out all the other buyers had found somewhere else so we had to start again with all the pressure hanging over us.

We thought about knocking the price down because we needed to get settled before our daughter starts school.

We werent worried about selling at all before the vote and we thought Brexit would only affect high end flats and luxury homes.

But our estate agents said loads of people dropped out of deals that day.

We didnt panic and we ended up getting lucky, finding another buyer a couple of weeks later.

We consider ourselves very fortunate for getting our pre-Brexit price and then seeing others drop in value by 50,000. Other people must have had a nightmare.
T hese derelict platforms which once welcomed Eurostar trains into Waterloo Station are to be reopened after an 800 million revamp.

For the first time in a decade, the five former platforms in Britains busiest station will once again welcome 30,000 commuters-a-day.

Ghostly Eurostar information desks and an empty bureau de change will soon be ripped out and replaced with a shiny new concourse to cater for 18 services an hour.

The last international service left the iconic 120m terminal in 2007 - just 13 years after it opened - when Eurostar moved to St Pancras.

Kevin Parker, senior communications manager at Network Rail told the Standard that once platforms 20  24 are refurbished customer capacity at Waterloo could increase by 30 per cent.

He added: In terms of through traffic, this station is the busiest in the country.

What these platforms are built for is six trains an hour, which was fine ten years ago for international travel but now we need to cater for passengers coming in and out of London.

Work has begun to revamp Waterloo's former international terminal

South West Trains have helped develop plans for the improvements with the companys director Christian Roth admitting that Londoners have been waiting too long for the regeneration.

He said: It should have been done sooner.

I have been working on plans since 2012 and the first train should leave the platforms in July 2017.

50ft of the former Eurostar tracks will be cemented over to provide customers with a large concourse, while former passport control desks will be ripped out and replaced by self-service ticket barriers.

Old Eurostar information desks and a bureau de change will be ripped out during the 800m revamp

The revamped platforms will benefit from the introduction of 150 new carriages, featuring free WiFi, wider doors and air conditioning, running between Waterloo and Windsor & Eton Riverside.

The first trains are planned to run from the new area in July next year while existing platforms one to eight close for 24 days for improvement works.

Mr Roth hopes the extension will allow these to go ahead without commuters facing chaos seen during regeneration at London Bridge.

He said: We want to get a lot of work done rather than the small approach in London Bridge to avoid as much disruption.

Passengers have been advised that there will be significant changes to timetables at the station during August next year.

Platforms 21  24 will close again in September next year to allow for work to be completed.

A new timetable spanning all 24 platforms will come into play in December 2018.
A YouTube vlogger today reassured fans about her safety after her cryptic messages had sparked panic online.

Around 45,000 people watched as internet star Marina Joyce hosted a live chat with fans after the hashtag #savemarinajoyce started trending overnight.

Wild conspiracy theories had flown about the north London 19-year-old's welfare after her latest video in which she was thought to whisper the phrase "help me".

An invite for fans to meet her in Bethnal Green at 6.30am sparked further panic about her.

YouTube star Marina Joyce causes panic among fans with hidden 'help me' message in video

Earlier today, Enfield police tweeted to say they had been to visit Miss Joyce and that she was "safe and well"

But she told followers this morning: "I'm not in any danger. I love you guys so much."

"As much as you care about me, I care about you," she said.

Asked about the video, she said: "I didn't say 'help me'. My mother said something during the video."

Amid bizarre questions from persistent fans, she denied being held captive and dismissed questions about bruises on her body.

The star's invite for her 136,000 followers to meet her in Bethnal Green had sparked concern with people wondering why she was inviting them to a "sketchy" and "unsafe" part of London so early in the day.

Many fans claimed they had been unable to sleep all night and were concerned someone was forcing her to make her fashion videos.
A Eurocrat once dubbed the scourge of the City was today appointed to lead talks on forming a new EU relationship with Britain.

Former EU Commissioner Michel Barnier has clashed with the UK government over financial services but will take up his new post on October 1.

The appointment will raise eyebrows in London, but European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said Barnier was a skilled negotiator with rich experience.

He will now head all negotiations on forming new agreements with Britain after it leaves the Union.

A key part of any deal will be whether passporting rights of City firms, which allow them to trade more easily in the EU, can be retained.

Barnier was a Commissioner for internal markets and services from 2010 to 2014, involved in financial services reform and establishing the EUs banking union.

He also championed policies such as the financial transactions tax, fiercely contested in Britain.

Barnier clashed with George Osborne over the ex-Chancellors decision to contest the EUs cap on bankers bonuses in the European Court.
T heresa May was travelling to Rome today for talks with Italys Prime Minister Matteo Renzi before continuing a whirlwind tour of EU states.

The diplomacy drive will see Mrs May trying to engage leaders over Brexit, despite some EU demands that no talks happen before Britain triggers the official departure process.

It follows a series of phone calls with other world leaders last night, including those of Japan, India and New Zealand.

A Downing Street spokesman said Mrs May wanted an early visit to Italy to see Prime Minister Matteo Renzi because of the close relations the country has with the UK.

This will be followed tomorrow by a trip to Slovakia and Poland, where she will hold discussions with Prime Ministers Robert Fico and Beata Szydlo. The two nations are among EU states most insistent on maintaining free movement of labour.

The rights of nationals from the two countries who are currently in the UK are likely to be an issue the British Prime Minister will be confronted with.

Slovakia also holds the rotating European Council presidency, and in September will host a summit of the other 27 EU states to discuss Brexit.

Among calls that Mrs May took last night were ones from Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif of Pakistan and King Abdullah of Jordan.

A Number 10 spokesman said the common theme in all the conversations was the importance that they all attach to their partnership with the United Kingdom and their wish to further strengthen co-operation, whether on trade, security or across the board.

New Zealands Premier John Key reiterated a suggestion that talks between his country and Britain on a trade deal should start. In her call with Indias Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Mrs May highlighted the launch next month of the first rupee-denominated bond in London as an example of close ties.

Last week she held talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Frances President Francios Hollande, and yesterday she met Irish Taoiseach Enda Kenny, agreeing that there will be no return to a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic.

Mrs May said she was determined to maintain the closest possible relationship between the UK and the Republic following Britains EU withdrawal.
T he family of a student stabbed to death in a park in east London are raising money to have his body returned to his native Portugal, saying: His mother just wants him home.

Bradley Quaresma, 20, was slashed across the neck in front of distraught families apparently following a row in West Ham Lane Recreation Ground on Thursday and left to die at the scene.

Design student Mr Quaresma moved to London as a teenager and lived with his sister Juce Quaresma as he pursued his dream of becoming an architect.

His half-brother Winston, 23, said the Waltham Forest college students death had shattered his family as he called for young people to heed warnings about the madness of carrying knives.

He told the Standard: I got a text from a friend saying Bradleys in hospital, whats his mums number?

Thats when I knew it was serious.Me and my twin brother got on our bikes and searched all the nearby hospitals we could think of.

Victim: Bradley Quarsema, 20, who was killed in a park in Stratford

Every time we found he wasnt there we prayed it was all some horrible mix-up. We ended up at Forest Gate police station and saw our sister crying after identifying his body and all our friends with this horrible look on their faces. Mr Quaresmas family have set up a JustGiving page to help his mother repatriate his body to Portugal.

So far they have raised almost half of the 8,000 target, with more than 100 people donating and writing tributes.

Winston Quaresma added: Everyone was drawn to Bradley, he was very empathetic and would help random people. Now his mother simply wants her son back with her in Portugal.

Bradley loved London. He came here to look at the huge buildings and work out how they could be made.

He always said how different the city skyline is here to anywhere else in the world.

I warned him to be careful on the streets and stay away from certain areas but nothing fazed him, he would just smile back at me.

He always felt safe and I wish I felt as safe as him and had his confidence. His mentality was always different to mine and he was right to feel that way.

People should recognise the impact of taking someones life away, they are also destroying their own lives too and both families.

Mario Albino Te, 20, of no fixed address, has been charged with murder in connection with Mr Quaresmas death.
E nglish legal history is being made today as TV cameras film a crown court sentencing for the first time.

Judge Nicholas Hilliard QC, the Recorder of London, will deliver his sentencing remarks to camera at the Old Bailey in the attempted murder case of Muhaydin Mire.

It is the first step in a three-month pilot programme, which could lead to regular broadcasts of criminal sentencing hearings in the future.

Today's footage will not be broadcast as it is part of a pilot, but it breaks with more than 400 years of tradition that court proceedings in England and Wales cannot be filmed.

Under previous rules, any filming or photography in a criminal courtroom was barred and breaches would lead to prosecution and a possible jail sentence.

However, cameras were allowed into the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court in 2013, and then-Justice Minister extended the scheme to Crown Courts in March this year.

Today's case is the sentencing of Mire for the attempted murder of a musician at Leytonstone tube station in November last year.

Before the case began, Judge Hilliard said: "The camera is there as part of a pilot project which is being conducted at eight crown court centres in England and Wales.

"The recording will be limited to what I say when I pass sentence.

"No one else will be recorded and nothing else and nobody else will be filmed.

"It will not be broadcast, it's simply recorded for consideration as part of the pilot."

A cameraman for the pilot scheme, between Sky, BBC, ITN and Press Association, is set to record the sentencing remarks from the press bench in court six at the Old Bailey.
H undreds of people on the terror radar in the UK could carry out a gruesome killing like the murder of Father Jacques Hamel in France, a security expert warned today.

Chris Phillips, a former head of the National Counter Terrorism Security Office, a police unit which works with the Home Office on the Governments anti-terror strategy, stressed that special measures to keep track on terror suspects in Britain really have not worked.

His warning came as more details emerged about Adel Kermiche, 19, who was tagged and under house arrest before he and an accomplice slit the throat of the 86-year-old priest in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray near Rouen in Normandy.

He is understood to have been permitted out of his home between 8.30am and 12.30pm so the tag was disconnected during the attack.

More than 2,000 people are believed to be on the radar of terrorism in the UK, explained Mr Phillips.

Jacques Hamel was slaughtered by terrorists in France / AFP/Getty Images

The security services carry out extensive surveillance on some of them and a small number have been put on Terrorism Prevention and Investigation Measures (Tpims) in recent years, which mean they can be tagged, placed under curfew and even moved to another part of the country.

Tpims replaced control orders, which had stricter conditions, shortly before the London 2012 Olympics.

However, Mr Phillips told BBC radio: Neither really have worked.

This is one area where we have got a big issue.

What we have seen in France, even people that have got the tag on, are not really being monitored.

An armed police officer in the town where the priest was killed / Pascal Rossignol/Reuters

Its a big problem for us because anyone of these 2,000 odd people that we have got in the UK could turn into a terrorist like this.

He highlighted two cases where people on Tpims went on the run in London.

Mohammed Ahmed Mohamed disappeared disguised in a burka from a mosque in Acton, west London, in the autumn of 2013, after cutting off his tag.

Ibrahim Magag, who is suspected of attending terror training in Somalia, went missing from his Tpim in December 2012 after reportedly jumping in a black cab in Camden, north London.

Mr Phillips added that the only way to fully crack down on the threat from tagged terror suspects would be to lock them up.

He stressed the authorities wanted to avoid such draconian steps as it would make the whole situation worse.

But of course events may drag us in that direction, he added.

The security services in the UK are understood to have better intelligence on terror suspects than their counterparts in France, partly due to better community links.

At least seven terror plots were foiled in Britain last year, according to ministers.

The Home Office said earlier this month that only one person was currently on a Tpim.
A woman repeatedly raped by a nurse who was supposed to be caring for her is suing the NHS for at least 100,000.

The mother-of-two, in her forties, was subjected to a series of sex attacks at the hands of Vijay Bundhun in 2013.

The woman, who can only be identified as C for legal reasons, has filed a High Court writ describing how she was juggling a demanding and well paid career as a sales executive with bringing up two children as a single mother when Bundhun targeted her.

The predatory nurse was supposed to be helping her through a detox programme when he raped her twice in her home, and attempted to rape her a third time while she was under the influence of a strong dose of sedative medication.

Married Bundhun, 43, was a mental health nurse at Sittingbourne Memorial Hospital in Kent. At Maidstone crown court last year he was jailed for life after being convicted of the attacks on the businesswoman, three other women and two teenagers.

C is seeking a minimum 100,000 in compensation from Kent and Medway NHS and Social Care Partnership Trust, claiming it failed in its duty to protect her.

In the writ, the businesswoman says the trust was at all material times responsible for her care while she was being abused by its employee.

Despite holding down a successful job, she had been at a low ebb in 2013, had begun drinking far too much and was feeling anxious and lonely, the document states.

She started a detox programme to address her drinking and was told that arrangements would be made for her to have the support of a mental health nurse who would visit her at her home and help through the detox.

She was introduced to Vijay Bundhun, who seemed to her to be very approachable and pleasant and understanding of her problems. But having gained her trust during home visits, Vijay Bundhun coerced her to have sexual intercourse on two occasions.

He tried a third time but she was able to resist, the writ adds. He was convicted of two rapes and one attempted rape against C, the writ states.

The victim said she was now signed off sick because of post-traumatic stress disorder, which had put in jeopardy her career and future prospects.

The defence of the health trust to the action was not available from the court and the contents of the writ are yet to be tested in evidence before a judge. The Standard has contacted the trust seeking a comment.

At the trial in August last year, Bundhun, of Canterbury, was found guilty of four counts of rape, eight of sexual assault and one of assault by penetration. Judge Michael Carroll ordered him to serve a minimum of 11 years before he can be considered for parole. He has been struck off the nursing register.
A Chinese man has been condemned online after choosing to save his mother from deadly floodwaters instead of his wife.

Gao Fengshou's wife and mother of his children has now left him after the split second decision to put his parent first, The Times reported.

The decorator acted as flooding spread towards his village of Xingtai in the north China province of Hebei on July 20, telling his family to clamber on to the roof.

He then left to see his mother and, when he returned, his wife and family had vanished along with a bundle of cash.

According to The Times, Mr Gao said afterwards there was not time to make a choice between the two women.

He said: "I cant imagine what went through her mind when I went straight for my mother.

"Abandoning my mother would be reprehensible, but leaving my wife behind would be unacceptable as well. I know she must be so disappointed in me.

But hordes of people on Chinese social media have slammed his actions, the paper reported.

One wrote: "Its no wonder she left him. Who would want a husband who you cant rely on in dangerous circumstances?

But some Twitter users defended his decision. Afeez Adeyemo tweeted: "Better to be single/divorced than to be orphaned, I can get another wife but not another mother."

Flooding across Hebei and neighbouring Henan province in recent weeks has killed 164 people and displaced more than half a million others.
T he terrorist who murdered a Catholic priest in northern France had told judges: I am not an extremist before being freed from prison to kill, it was revealed today.

Adel Kermiche, 19, convinced authorities that he was aware of his mistakes just months before he was allowed out on an electronic tag.

The shocking details of the way in which the teenage jihadist was treated emerged following the murder of Father Jacques Hamel, 86, as he held a church service in Normandy on Tuesday.

The much loved local Catholic priest was forced to kneel before the altar before he had his throat cut in the church in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, near Rouen.

Both Kermich and his unidentified accomplice were then shot dead by anti-terrorist police as they tried to leave the church using two nuns and two parishioners as human shields.

Details of the manner of Kermiches release came as police warned Britains Christian community to be on alert and review security measures.

Killer: Adel Kermiche, 19, convinced the authorities to release him from prison

The attack in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray sent shock waves through a nation already reeling from the murder of 84 people in Nice on July 14, when a terrorist drove a lorry into crowds enjoying Bastille Day fireworks, as well as earlier atrocities in Paris.

Jacques Hamel was killed in front of his congregation / AFP/Getty Images

Kermiche was released in March after serving part of his sentence for a range of terrorist offences including trying to join Isis in Syria.

A psychological examination of Kermiche was carried out between October 2015 and February this year, during which he spoke freely about his motives and ambitions. He outlined about his frail psychological state, saying he was regularly in hospital after suffering deep depressions and other mental problems.

May and Kenny react to events in France

Kermich said: I am a Muslim grounded in the values of mercy, and goodnessI am not an extremist.

He claimed he wanted to become a mental health nurse, and settle down with a family.

I want to get my life back, to see my friends, to get married, Kermich told an examining magistrate in the psychological reports leaked to Le Monde newspaper.

Kermiche spent his time in prison mixing with other terrorists, including another young Frenchman who had spent 18 months fighting with Isis.

Despite this, he managed to convince those compiling the report that he should be given yet another chance.

The judge overseeing Kermiches case, said the teenager was aware of his mistakes, and despite suicidal thoughts, was a good candidate to be reintegrated back into society.

He could be freed on probation with the supervision and support of his family in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, and wearing an electronic tag, the judge concluded.

Prosecutors appealed the decision, saying they were unconvinced by the arguments, and that there was a high risk of Kermiche reoffending.

Emergency services at the scene / AFP/Getty Images

Kermiche was even allowed a four-hour period from 8.30am every day when he could leave his parents home, and wander freely around his home town.

It was during this window that he and his accomplice rushed into the church and executed Father Jacques before also knifing a parishioner, who was severely wounded.

One local resident in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray described Kermiche as a ticking time bomb adding : He was too strange.

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Another neighbour told Le Figaro that Kermiche showed visible signs of mental disturbance. He was crazy, he was talking to himself.

One teenager who knew the terrorist told RTL radio : He told me two months ago, Im going to do a church. I didnt believe him. He said a lot of things. He spoke about Islam, that he was going to do stuff like that.

A nun, identified as Sister Danielle, described how Father Hamel was forced to kneel on the floor before his throat was cut during the hour-long hostage-taking incident which began as the two knifemen burst into the parish church by a back door during morning mass.

She said: They forced him to his knees. He wanted to defend himself. And thats when the tragedy happened.

They recorded themselves. They did a sort of sermon around the altar, in Arabic. Its a horror, she told BFM television.

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Today, members of Kermiches immediate family remained inside their home in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, without commenting.

The French authorities have been widely criticised for the way they have allowed known jihadis the freedom to travel and mass weapons to carry out their crimes.

French President Francois Hollande was today meeting religious leaders to try and reassure them that everything is being done to protect places of worship, including churches, mosques and synagogue.

But the head of state has regularly been booed while out in public, with critics shouting Resign! and Murderers! at him and his prime minister, Manuel Valls.

Opposition Republican leader Nicolas Sarkozy accused Mr Hollande of trembling in the face of the jihadist threat.

Mr Sarkozy said: Everything that should have been done the past 18 months was not done. France cannot let its children be murdered.
A n explosion has taken place near to a migration centre in Germany, sparking panic in the town of Zirndorf.

The incident happened this afternoon in the Bavarian town, which is close to Nuremberg, according to Munich-based broadcaster Bayerischer Rundfunk.

However, police said the blast, near to a refugee reception centre, may have been caused by an aerosol can inside it, and there was no evidence of explosives being involved.

The building provides refugee accommodation and houses a branch of the country's office for asylum-seekers.

"Up to now, there is no evidence that the suitcase was detonated by explosives," a police statement statement. "At no point were any people in danger."

A spray can in the suitcase may have triggered the explosion, causing the suitcase to burst into flames, police said.

Police said they were looking for a man around 30 years of age and a woman of about 25-years-old who may have owned the suitcase.

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Photographs from the scene showed police officers surrounding the remains of a suitcase on a footpath, which lies about 200 metres from the reception centre.

Police said nobody was injured during the blast.

The area is in northern Bavaria, which has seen five attacks in the past ten days, two of which the Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for.

Cordon: police could be seen examining a suitcase / Sky News

Failed Syrian asylum seeker Mohammad Daleel blew himself up in a suicide bombing outside a music festival in the Bavarian town of Ansbach on Sunday.

Daleel, 27, had pledged allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of Isis.

Earlier the same day, a 21-year-old Syrian refugee launched an attack in the town of Reutlingen, killing a pregnant woman with a machete and injuring several others.
A university has launched an investigation over claims new students were told to simulate an incestuous rape as part of their induction.

The exercise was one of several freshmen had to go through at camps organised by senior students at the National University of Singapore (NUS), one of Asias top universities, local media reported.

One 19-year-old student told The New Paper she watched as a man and woman were told to enact a scene where a brother rapes his little sister.

She claimed: The girl had to lie on the floor, then the guy pretended to kick open a door and say, Kor kor (big brother) coming.

"The girl had to respond, Mei mei (little sister) dont want.

He then kicked open her legs and did push-ups while lying on top of her.

The girl looked very uncomfortable and covered her face throughout the whole thing.

Another student claimed she walked out after being asked which mans bodily fluids she would drink and which female student was the most sexually active.

She said: Every time I didnt take part, I was so scared that the orientation group would write me off as a prude and ostracise me.

A university spokesman told the paper: The NUS Office of Student Affairs (OSA) has recently received feedback in relation to some inappropriate orientation activities.

It is currently looking into the feedback and working with the faculty concerned. Freshmen are also advised to report inappropriate orientation activities to OSA, so that the office could look into their concerns.

The University takes violations of the student code of conduct very seriously. Disciplinary action will be taken against students who breach these guidelines.
L indsay Lohan has apologised to her fans for publicly exposing her dramatic row with fiance Egor Tarabasov.

The US actress, 30, who was visited by police at her Knightsbridge house over the weekend, has insisted that she is good and well following the public showdown.

Lohan asked for her personal life to be kept private earlier this week, despite the fact that the entire argument had been played out on her social media accounts.

After being accused of sending mixed messages by her fans, Lohan decided to apologise and clarify her feelings in a post on Tuesday night.

Dear friends. I'm good and well. #ATM I am taking time for myself with good friends. I am sorry that I've exposed certain private matters recently," she wrote.

I was acting out of fear and sadness... We all make mistakes. Sadly mine have always been so public.

I have done a lot of soul searching in the past years, and I should have been more clear minded rather than distract from the good heart that I have.

Social media comes with the territory of the business and the world we now live in. My intentions were not meant to send mixed messages.

Appearing to talk about her relationship with 23-year-old Tarabasov, she added: Maybe things can be fixed... Maybe not.. I hope they can.

But I am 30 years old and I do deserve a #GENTLEgiant Life is about love and light. Not anger. Thank you to those who stand by my side.

Despite police being called to her London home at the weekend, no arrests were made and everyone was found to be safe and well, according to a Met spokesperson.

After accusing her other half of cheating on her, Tarabasov has since moved out of the house.
During a trip to Beijing last month for the eighth U.S.-China Strategic Security & Economic Dialogue, Secretary of State John Kerry remarked:

After all, thats the purpose of government  to represent the people and to meet the needs of our people, both of us  even though, as President Xi said, we have different systems, different culture, different history. We acknowledge that. We respect that.

While I, too, acknowledge Chinas impressive 5,000-year cultural history, there is little about the Communist regime of the Peoples Republic of China that commands the respect of the United States. From Mao Zedong to Xi Jinping, the Chinese people have suffered an unbroken line of oppressive dictators. The Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution are stones in a graveyard of failed Communist experiments that murdered millions, while Tiananmen Square and the One (now Two) Child Policy serve as a warning to any who would seek to escape that repressive policies are unchanged.

The call by Kerry to respect China, and the suggestion that the Communist Party of China represents the people and meets their needs, were devastating blows to the hundreds of political prisoners languishing in China today.

One such prisoner is Yang Maodong, better known as Guo Feixiong. Guo is serving a six-year term in Yangchun Prison for organizing peaceful protests against press censorship. Currently on the 78th day of a hunger strike, he has lost at least a third of his body weight.

While China has a nominal constitution, there is no corresponding rule of law. Still, brave souls there have given and are giving their lives to change this harsh reality.

Guo began his advocacy on behalf of religious minorities, providing legal counsel to incarcerated Christian pastors and Falun Gong-affiliated attorneys. A founding member of the rights movement in China, he has defended thousands of Chinese citizens who did not know they were theoretically entitled to civil rights.

Guo was arrested on four separate occasions from 2005 to 2014. His lawyer described Guos most recent trial as a fascist, Cultural-Revolution style apparatus. China has interrogated Guo over 200 times since 2005, and he suffers from a serious gastrointestinal medical condition. In response to an outcry that he receive proper medical care, Chinese officials shamed Guo by conducting a colonoscopy with no painkillers while filming the entire procedure. He was denied yard time for over 800 consecutive days.

In a June 9 letter, Guos wife, Zhang Qing, pleaded with her husband to end his hunger strike. Zhang and her two children, who have lived in Midland, Texas, since 2009 after fleeing China for their safety, have not seen Guo in six years. Even so, she concluded her letter:

Everything youve been doing is all part of a sincere hope that China will progress, to become a society with equal human rights, basic freedoms and respect for life. These ideals, and striving to realize them, will always be the right thing to do.

I share Zhangs  and Guos  sincere hope for political liberalization in China. But for too long, the United States has prioritized our economic dealings with China above speaking the truth about the Communist Party of China.

The fact of the matter is that we have real leverage over China, which is extremely sensitive to criticism of its human rights record. We know this to be the case with Guo. His sister was denied visitation because, in her words, every one of my visits with him led to enormous amounts of international and domestic public opinion and attention and focus (on his case).

American attention to and focus on Guos case are exactly what is needed now. The spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Beijing has reportedly urged China to release Guo, but bolder action is needed on the part of the Obama administration. Time is running short.
C arpool Karaoke is set to get its own series on Apple Music.

The tech giant has purchased the rights to a spin-off of the Late Late Show segment, which is not expected to feature host James Corden.

Stars including Adele, One Direction, Stevie Wonder and, most recently, Michelle Obama, have joined the British chat show host in his car over the last year.

And the segment has become so popular that an entire series is now in the works, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

The US publication reports that the new series is part of Apples effort to boost subscribers to its streaming app.

Produced by CBS Television Studios and Fulwell 73, which is owned by the Late Late Shows Ben Winston, the show will run for 16-episodes.

But it seems that Corden, who is co-credited with coming up with the Carpool Karaoke concept, will not be involved with the new show.

Apples Eddy Cue has said: We love music, and Carpool Karaoke celebrates it in a fun and unique way that is a hit with audiences of all ages.

Michelle Obama dances to Beyonce in Carpool Karaoke with James Corden

It's a perfect fit for Apple Music  bringing subscribers exclusive access to their favourite artists and celebrities who come along for the ride.

The new show is expected to expand on the segments format with celebrity guests surprising fans during their car rides.

The latest instalment of the segment, featuring First Lady Michelle Obama in the passenger seat, has already clocked up over 33 million views on YouTube.


NEW YORK, July 26, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Labaton Sucharow LLP announced today a proposed $300 million settlement with Boston-based financial services company, State Street Corporation (State Street). The Firm serves as lead counsel on behalf of the plaintiff Arkansas Teacher Retirement System (ATRS) in Arkansas Teacher Retirement System v. State Street Corp. et al., No. 11-cv-10230 (D. Mass.), with assistance from Thornton Law Firm LLP and Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, LLP. Two other class actions alleging claims under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) were consolidated into this ATRS action, and the ERISA plaintiffs are also represented by Keller Rohrback LLP, McTigue Law LLP, and Zuckerman Spaeder LLP.



Represented by Labaton Sucharow Chairman Lawrence A. Sucharow and partners Eric J. Belfi, David J. Goldsmith, and Michael H. Rogers, ATRS alleges that State Street and certain affiliated entities misled members of the class in connection with certain foreign currency exchange (FX) trades. After surviving a motion to dismiss, review and analysis of several million pages of documents, consultation with experts, and multiple negotiation and mediation sessions, the parties came to an agreed-upon settlement. State Street is also separately entering into agreements with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL).

Sucharow, who spearheaded the negotiations, said, We believe $300 million is an excellent result for the class. After years of contested litigation and failed mediation and negotiations, this extraordinary settlement could not have been accomplished without good faith on both sides. Sucharow also praised the court for having the foresight to send the parties to mediation, as well as the resolve and participation of the plaintiff, ATRS.

George Hopkins, Executive Director of ATRS, stated, The Arkansas Teacher Retirement System represents the retirement security for the educators of Arkansas. ATRS is focused on protecting the trust fund that ensures that retirement security. Labaton Sucharow is a top-notch firm that continuously impressed me during this litigation. The Firms team worked effectively and tirelessly to obtain quality results for the class.

About Labaton Sucharow LLP

Labaton Sucharow prosecutes precedent-setting class actions, recovering billions of dollars on behalf of defrauded investors and consumers. The Firms successful reputation is built not only on its team of more than 60 attorneys, but also on its industry-leading in-house investigators, financial analysts, and forensic accountants. The Firm litigates in the areas of securities, antitrust, and consumer protection law. For more information, visit www.labaton.com.






AUSTIN, Texas, July 27, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- 360training.com announced today it has launched a new Workforce Compliance and Safety Training e-Learning subscription library.

Setting a new standard for the industry, the subscription was developed for safety conscience employers in mind, designed to assist HR, safety and compliance professionals simplify the delivery and administration of safety training and compliance within the workplace.

The all-encompassing subscription offering provides extensive and unlimited access to over 228 on-demand course titles across multiple disciplines including:

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 OSHA Construction Safety

 Environmental Health

 Ethics & Compliance

 Safety Communication

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 Hazardous Materials

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 Preventing Sexual Harassment

"We live in an era of Netflix and Spotify content distribution models and consumers expect instant and limitless access to digital content. The e-Learning industry is no different and 360training.com is fulfilling market demands by creating unlimited subscription-based experiences for our focused content libraries across multiple industries", stated Ed Sattar, CEO of 360training.com.

Unlimited access subscriptions are available for individual and multi-user purchase directly on 360training.com or available via site licensing models for eligible organizations. Courses can be deployed via 360training.com's free LMS platform or integrated to an organization's existing LMS of record.

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What gets millennials to care about the news? It was a topic that came up in my newsfeed this week. The person throwing out the question doesnt believe that millennials are getting accurate news in a day of Buzzfeed and other online sources that they considered to offer click-bait type news.

Where has the journalism of my generation gone?

Well, its there. And, its not too difficult to find.

Even when I was a college student 21 years ago, younger readers werent the bread and butter of newspapers. As college journalists, we were frequently asked: What will get you to read the newspaper?

At that time, Al Gore had just created the internet. (This statement is partially in jest, please, no emails chastising me.) We were using Netscape as the most common browser. The Heavens Gate cult caught everyones attention when its members committed mas suicide, believing they could reach a spacecraft following Comet Hale-Bopp. It was the first major internet-based story that my husband and I remember as young journalism students.

Is the internet bigger than we debated in our journalism classes? Actually, no. I think it was widely believed by we 20-somethings that the internet would take over newspapers within 10 years. I remember a speaker at an Associated Press conference in Colorado giving an additional five years to his estimate.

As discussed in my newsfeed last week, I do not know a millenial who reads an actual physical copy of the newspaper. When my daughter went off to college and I asked about having a subscription sent to her, she asked if we could send her the e-edition.

However, its not just millenials who are getting their news largely online, according to a recent Pew Research Center report.

About 80 percent of adults now use digital sources for their national and international news. Interestingly, 72 percent of U.S. news readers get their news from a mobile device  a significant increase from 2013 when 54 percent of readers were on a mobile device.

Is the news that readers are getting being dumbed down? In an interesting finding, more than seven in 10 U.S. adults follow national and local news somewhat or very closely. I dont think those types of news are likely to be oversimplified with the clickbait-type news that I gathered to be concerning.

There is good news in the report for local news sources, such as the Star-Herald.

Readers still trust traditional media sources more than social media. Two in 10 Americans trust the information they get from local or national news organizations a lot versus 14 percent who said the same of the information they get from friends and family, according to the study. About a quarter of social networking news consumers often click on links to news stories on social media, it said. Thats an interesting finding considering that Facebook decided to focus its newest algorithm change on reducing the amount of news people will see in their newsfeed. I expect that because readers are seeking out the news, most people wont see a reduction of news in their feeds. I know that I havent yet and its been two weeks since the change.

Its also good news for the community newspaper. We live here. We work here. We cover the issues. Sure, not every reader agrees  times are achangin. I imagine some of the comments that I hear from readers today are some of the same comments that newspaper editors heard in the 1970s and other eras of great change in our country.

Newspapers still hang on and some stories circulating suggest that readers are returning to physical copies of the newspaper. The theory is that readers spend so much time in front of screens all day that they are eschewing digital media and preferring print.

Itll be interesting in 10 years to see where we are in another 10 to 15 years.
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Albany, NY, July 27, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The competitive landscape of the global regenerative medicine market includes players such as CONMED Corporation, Anika Therapeutics Inc., Arthrex, Inc., Baxter International Inc., Smith & Nephew PLC, DePuySynthes Inc., Stryker Corporation, Medtronic Inc., and Zimmer Holdings Inc. Though North America and Europe were the largest markets for regenerative medicines, the market players are increasingly shifting their focus on the emerging economies across Asia Pacific such as India, South Korea, Japan, and China. These countries are registering an increased demand for various bone and joint reconstructive products such as Osteocel Plus (NuVasive Inc.), Trinity Evolution (Orthofix Inc.), and INFUSE Bone Graft (Medtronic Inc.) owing to the rapid growth of the healthcare sector and the rising pool of patients. The market players are investing in rigorous research and development initiatives for innovative products.

Download and get Competitive outlook Analysis and Customized Research Report PDF on Regenerative Medicine Market: http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=S&rep_id=419

In terms of application, the global regenerative medicine market is broadly categorized into osteoarticular diseases, bone graft substitutes, autogeneic bones, allogeneic bones, and others. Bone graft substitutes had witnessed the highest demand in 2012 owing to the rise in orthopedic surgeries. A number of key market players have developed innovative bone graft substitutes. However, the demand for bone graft substitutes is expected to decline in future. The post-implantation rejection associated with bone graft substitutes is the key factor restricting their demand, a TMR analyst points out.

Demand for Tissue Engineering to Rise amid High Cost of Biomaterials

Regenerative medicine is an emerging branch of medical science and is being extensively used to treat cardiovascular disease, musculoskeletal disease, and orthopedic disorders. The growing prevalence of bone and joint disorders and the rise in orthopedic surgeries have fuelled the demand for regenerative medicines. Furthermore, technological innovations in stem cell therapy, biomaterials, and tissue engineering have supported the growth of the global regenerative medicines market. However, regulatory constraints pose a threat to the development of regenerative medicines. Ethical issues related to allogeneic bone grafts and stem cell therapy, and post implantation infections are impeding the growth of the overall market, the analyst states.

Technology has played a pivotal part in the success of regenerative medicines. Favorable reimbursement policies had augmented the demand for biomaterials in 2012. However, tissue engineering is being increasingly preferred over biomaterials. In fact, during the period between 2013 and 2019, tissue engineering is anticipated to expand at the fastest pace. The high cost of biomaterials has led to their decreased adoption among patients, the analyst mentions.

Browse Market Research Report on Regenerative Medicine Market: http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/regenerative-medicines-market.html

The global regenerative medicine market is anticipated to expand at a CAGR of 12.8% during the period between 2013 and 2019. The overall market stood at a valuation of US$2.6 bn in 2012 and is projected to be worth US$6.5 bn by 2019.

The review is based on the findings published by Transparency Market Research in a report, titled Regenerative Medicine Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast, 2013 - 2019.

Global regenerative medicine market has been segmented as:

Regenerative Medicine (Bone and Joint) Market, by Technology

Stem Cell Therapy

Biomaterial

Tissue Engineering

Regenerative Medicine (Bone and Joint) Market, by Application

Bone Graft Substitutes

Osteoarticular Diseases

Allogeneic Bones

Autogenic Bones

Others

Regenerative Medicine (Bone and Joint) Market, by Geography

North America

Europe

Asia-Pacific

Rest of the World

Browse Latest Related Research Reports:

Stem Cell Therapy Market: http://www.tmrblog.com/2016/07/stem-cell-therapy-market.html

Tissue Engineering and Organ Regeneration Market:http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/tissue-engineering-organ-regeneration.html

Bone and Joints Ingredients Market:http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/bone-joints-ingredients.html

About Us:

Transparency Market Research (TMR) is a U.S. based provider of syndicated research, customized research, and consulting services. TMRs global and regional market intelligence coverage includes industries such as pharmaceutical, chemicals and materials, technology and media, food and beverages, and consumer goods, among others. Each TMR research report provides clients with a 360-degree view of the market with statistical forecasts, competitive landscape, detailed segmentation, key trends, and strategic recommendations.
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SMITHFIELD, Va., July 27, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Today Smithfield Foods, Inc. announced a new record for its charitable giving and employee engagement efforts with the release of the Helping Communities and People sections of its 2015 Sustainability & Financial Report. These sections detail achievements and progress in Smithfields efforts to support the vitality of local communities and provide safe, rewarding jobs for employees.



In 2015, Smithfield increased its total charitable giving by more than 30 percent over the previous year to $27.1 million. This includes food and cash donations provided to charitable organizations both by Smithfield and through its cause-related partnerships, which raise funds for charities and create positive change for issues related to hunger, education, health and wellness. Smithfield supported these partnerships with more than 100 cause-marketing events, a 400 percent increase over the previous year.

While cash donations increased by 25 percent, Smithfield increased its food donations by more than 37 percent. Last year, Smithfield donated 18.8 million servings of protein to food banks nationwide through Helping Hungry Homes, a company initiative focused on alleviating hunger across the country.

As a global food company, we understand the importance of proper nutrition and value our responsibility to improve food security across the country, said Keira Lombardo, senior vice president of corporate affairs for Smithfield Foods. Were passionate about strengthening the communities where our employees live and work and creating opportunities for our people to excel both personally and professionally.

Smithfield also gives to support educational opportunities by providing academic resources for employees and their families. In 2015, Smithfield gave more than $1 million in educational assistance programs. This includes tuition reimbursement for employees earning their bachelors or masters degrees as well as educational scholarships provided to dependent children and grandchildren of employees by the Smithfield Foundation, the companys philanthropic wing.

In addition to education-focused initiatives, the People section of the sustainability report details new milestones in Smithfields efforts to foster engagement and a company culture that nurtures and rewards employees. Organizational changes include establishing a chief people officer, creating a centralized talent development function to manage training and employee development activities, and developing a key leadership position focused primarily on diversity and inclusion. The report also includes new and revitalized employee engagement programs as well as innovative technology and methods to advance employee safety and wellness.

At Smithfield we understand that our success relies on the health and engagement of our employees, said Mark Garrett, chief people officer for Smithfield Foods. Were improving our programs and creating new ones to better support our employees including new resources tailored to meet the needs of minorities, millennials, women and other underrepresented groups so that we may better leverage the unique strengths of all employees looking to build a career with Smithfield.

This is the fourth of five installations of Smithfields annual sustainability report, published in segments organized by pillar of the companys sustainability program. The goal of the multiphase release is to better engage a broad range of stakeholders by delivering information in a more accessible, meaningful way. Following the release of the Helping Communities and People sections of the report, Smithfield will make the Full Report available in mid-August.

The Helping Communities and People sections are now available. This release follows the Animal Care, Environment, and Food Safety and Quality sections.

About Smithfield Foods

Smithfield Foods is a $14 billion global food company and the world's largest pork processor and hog producer. In the United States, the company is also the leader in numerous packaged meats categories with popular brands including Smithfield, Eckrich, Nathan's Famous, Farmland, Armour, John Morrell, Cook's, Kretschmar, Gwaltney, Curly's, Margherita, Carando, Healthy Ones, Krakus, Morliny, and Berlinki. Smithfield Foods is committed to providing good food in a responsible way and maintains robust animal care, community involvement, employee safety, environmental and food safety and quality programs. For more information, visit www.smithfieldfoods.com.
If Troutman Mayor Ron Duck Wyatt resigns his post to become the Iredell County Register of Deeds, town council members would immediately begin searching for a new mayor.

Wyatt was nominated as the register of deeds Monday night during an Iredell County GOP party meeting. The nomination will now go to the Iredell County Board of Commissioners in the coming weeks.

Troutman Town Attorney Gary Thomas said Tuesday that current Mayor Pro-Tem Teross Young would serve as acting mayor until the post is filled.

Thomas said council members can choose to open applications to the public, or just name the replacement themselves. A third option would be to name Young as mayor, but then council would have to fill Youngs seat, Thomas said.

If a new mayor is chosen, that person would hold the seat until the next municipal election in the fall of 2017.

Thomas added that the council would most likely begin searching for the next candidate during the towns next meeting on August 8.

Wyatt was announced as the GOPs nominee for register of deeds following a closed session vote by the partys 22-member executive committee.

Wyatt said during the meeting Monday night that he would work with both the Town of Troutman and current staff members at the register of deeds office to ensure the transition goes smoothly.

Wyatt will take the place of former Register of Deeds Matt McCall who recently resigned. At the time of his resignation, McCall was making $67,858.55 per year.

Wyatt served as the towns mayor for about eight months after defeating the late Elbert Richardson, who was the Troutman mayor for 16 years.

Troutman experienced another change in leadership in May when Anne Bailie resigned her post as town manager. Longtime Salisbury City Manager David Treme has assumed the role on an interim basis since then.
Wednesday, 27 July 2016 09:27:30 (GMT+3) | Shanghai

In June this year, China s export volumes of steel bars, angles/channels, wire rods and steel plates amounted to 4.87 million mt, 660,000 mt, 220,000 mt, and 4.15 million mt, up 39.0 percent, 20.0 percent, 15.1 percent, and 14.5 percent, respectively, year on year, as announced by the Chinese customs authorities.

In the first half of the current year, China s export volumes of steel bars, angles/channels, wire rods and steel plates totaled 23.77 million mt, 2.83 million mt, 1.17 million mt, and 23.59 million mt, increasing by 27.6 percent, 1.9 percent, 1.9 percent, and decreasing by 0.3 percent, respectively, year on year.




Wednesday, 27 July 2016 17:14:21 (GMT+3) | Istanbul

According to a report released by the German Federal Statistical Office (Destatis), in June this year the import price of iron ore in Germany increased by 1.4 percent year on year and was up 0.9 percent month on month.

In June, the average import price of iron and steel and ferroalloys in Germany decreased by 6.8 percent year on year and was up 2.2 percent as compared to May.

Meanwhile, in June this year the import price of nickel decreased by 26.4 percent compared to the same month last year and rose by 1.8 percent month on month.
Wednesday, 27 July 2016 22:42:27 (GMT+3) | Sao Paulo

Peruvian steelmaker Aceros Arequipa has announced it will launch a subsidiary in Bolivia as a way to support the clients it has in the region.





According to the Peruvian steelmaker, the new subsidiary was launched in July and will operate under the name Corporacion Aceros del Antiplano SRL.





Aceros Arequipa has a 99 percent stake in the project, while logistics company Transportes Barcino SA has a 1 percent minority stake.





The established company will allow Aceros Arequipa strengthen the commercial ties it has for years with diverse clients in Bolivia , the company said in a filing at the nations securities stock exchange commission, SMV.





Aceros Arequipa said it contributed with $93,720 in assets and $50,000 in cash to establish the Bolivian subsidiary.


Wednesday, 27 July 2016 14:30:31 (GMT+3) | Istanbul

According to market sources, a Russian steel producer's hot rolled coil ( HRC ) offers to Vietnam are currently at $380/mt FOB.
Wednesday, 27 July 2016 14:28:59 (GMT+3) | Istanbul

According to market sources, Chinese offers to the United Arab Emirates ( UAE ) for 4"-12" seamless pipes of B grade have increased by $10/mt over the past week to $450-470/mt CFR, while ex-South Korea offers to the UAE for 8"-24" water and gas ERW pipes have also moved up by $10/mt week on week to $560-635/mt CFR.Meanwhile, Japanese offers to the UAE for 2"-10" seamless pipes for grade B have remained stable during the past week at $1,170-1,250/mt CFR.
By MARK EVANS mevans@stegenherald.com Bloomsdale will probably host a major fireworks display. The pyrotechnics will not take place until 2024, however. During the Oct. 12 board of aldermen meeting, Kevin Wehner and city officials again discussed the possibility of a July 4 fireworks display at the youth soccer fields on land leased by the city
Swedish Danish English

Notice is hereby given of an

extraordinary general meeting in

Lauritz.com Group A/S

CVR no. 37627542

(the "Company")

on Thursday 11 August 2016, at 10:00 (CEST) at the Company's address at

Dynamovej 11, 2860 Sborg

There will not be catering due to the short duration of the general meeting.

THE AGENDA:

Election of chairman of the meeting

The board of directors proposes election of Jens Arnesen, attorney-at-law.

Election of new members of the Company's board of directors

The board of directors proposes election of Henrik Blomquist and Josephine Salenstedt as new members of the board of directors.

Appendix 1 contains information regarding the two new candidates' background. Information regarding the present members of the board of directors can be found on the Company's website www.lauritz.com.

Removal of the requirement in the Company's articles of association to elect a vice-chairman of the board of directors

The board of directors proposes to remove the requirement in the Company's articles of association to elect a vice-chairman of the Company's board of directors. The proposal entails that clause 9.2(6) is omitted to the effect that clause 9.2 shall read the following:

"The agenda for the annual general meeting shall include:

Election of Chairman of the general meeting

(2) The Board of Directors' report on the activities of the Company.

(3) Presentation for adoption of the annual report and accounts.

(4) Resolution on the appropriation of profits or provision for losses in accordance with the adopted report and accounts.

(5) Election of Chairman of the Board of Directors.

(6) Election of members of the Board of Directors.

(7) Appointment of one auditor.

(8) Any proposals submitted by the Board of Directors or shareholders."

The proposal further entails that clause 16.2 shall read:

"The Board of Directors shall consist of the chairman and additional 3-7 members, who shall all be elected for a term of one year. The members are eligible for re-election."

Adoption requirements and share capital

The proposals under items 1 and 2 of the agenda can be adopted by a simple majority of votes.

The adoption of the proposal under item 3 of the agenda requires at least 2/3 of the votes cast as well as at least 2/3 of the share capital represented at the general meeting.

The Company's share capital is DKK 4,066,666.70 divided into shares of each DKK 0.10. At the extraordinary general meeting a share amount of DKK 0.10 carries one vote.

Registration date, participation and voting right

The registration date is on 4 August 2016.

Shareholders, who hold shares in the Company on the registration date, have the right to participate and vote at the general meeting. Furthermore, it is a prerequisite for participation that the shareholder is in possession of an admission card as described below.

Request of admission cards

It is a prerequisite to access the general meeting that the shareholder no later than 9 August 2016, at 23:59 has obtained an admission card.

Admission cards can be requested on the Company's website www.lauritz.com.

Proxy

A proxy form can be downloaded via www.lauritz.com, be printed, filled out and sent by fax to +4533118081, by e-mail to tf@nnlaw.dk or by mail to Nielsen Nrager Advokatpartnerselskab, Frederiksberggade 16, DK-1459 Kbenhavn K.

The proxy must be received no later than 10 August 2016, at 12:00 (CEST).

Vote by post

Shareholders may cast their votes in written using a form of voting by post, which can be downloaded via www.lauritz.com, printed, filled out and sent by fax to +4533118081, by e-mail to tf@nnlaw.dk or by mail to Nielsen Nrager Advokatpartnerselskab, Frederiksberggade 16, DK-1459 Kbenhavn K.

The vote by post must be received no later than 10 August 2016, at 12:00 (CEST).

Further information

From today's date the following material will be available on the Company's website www.lauritz.com:

Notice including the agenda and the full text of the proposals

Information about the full amount of shares and voting rights on the date of the notice of the general meeting

The documents that will be presented at the general meeting, including appendix 1 (list of candidates)

Application form

Proxy form and form of voting by post

Shareholders may pose questions in writing to the Company as regards the agenda and any document for the general meeting.

Sborg, 27 July 2016

The board of directors of Lauritz.com Group A/S

Appendix I

Extraordinary general meeting in Lauritz.com Group A/S on 11 August 2016

(For fotos, please see attachment)


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West Lafayette, July 27, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) --



More than 300 people and about 20 Indiana composite materials companies celebrated the opening of the $50 million Indiana Manufacturing Institute , based in the Purdue Research Park of West Lafayette.



The institute will house the Center for Composites Manufacturing and Simulation where Purdue researchers and graduate students from Purdue College of Engineering and Purdue Polytechnic Institute will conduct research and development on composite materials to increase energy efficiency for the vehicle production, wind, aerospace and other industries. Purdues Product Lifecycle Management Center and the Indiana Next Generation Manufacturing Competitiveness Center, or IN-MaC, also will be located in the institute. The three centers will occupy 30,000 square feet of the 62,000-square-foot institute.



The institute's remaining 32,000 square feet will be used for public or private enterprises interested in collaborating on composite materials research with Purdue University.



"Purdue is a recognized international leader in composite materials research and the opportunity and demand for research partnerships between Purdue and industry is great," said Suresh Garimella, Purdue's executive vice president for research and partnerships and the Goodson Distinguished Professor of Mechanical Engineering. "The opening of the Indiana Manufacturing Institute will enable us to increase these research collaborations and advance our composite materials research for even greater impact."



The Center for Composites Manufacturing and Simulation is part of a $250 million U.S. Department of Energy initiative to support President Barack Obama's National Network for Manufacturing Innovation. The DOE project, called the Institute for Advanced Composites Manufacturing Innovation, or IACMI-The Composites Institute, is a five-year public-private collaboration that includes a federal commitment of $70 million and over $180 million pledged by industry, state economic development agencies and universities. The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, is the lead institution in the collaboration that includes public and private agencies in Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, Tennessee and Colorado.



R. Byron Pipes, the John Leighton Bray Distinguished Professor of Engineering, leads Purdue's Design, Modeling and Simulation Enabling Technology Area to be housed in the institute.



It is through closer exchanges of knowledge that both industrial and academic enterprises benefit from the assets of the other in order to accelerate the development of their competitive positions." Pipes said. "The Indiana Manufacturing Institute will provide an innovative venue for academic and industrial stakeholders to join together for rapid transfer of technology to societal prosperity. As a national manufacturing institute, IACMI links the Indiana composites manufacturing efforts with our four state partners in Tennessee, Michigan, Colorado and Ohio to build the next generation manufacturing technology for the vehicle, wind and compressed gas application areas.

Advanced manufacturing represents 25 percent of the Indiana economy, according to the Indiana Economic Development Corporation.



"The state of Indiana has a strong background in composite materials research, development and manufacturing with about 50 companies across the state contributing to this sector," said Victor Smith, Indiana Secretary of Commerce. "There is little doubt that our state's economic leadership in composite materials has a direct impact on the fact that Indiana continues to grow its national reputation in advanced manufacturing job growth."

In conjunction with the dedication of the Indiana Manufacturing Institute, IACMI-The Composites Institute is holding its semi-annual members meeting in Indianapolis Tuesday through Thursday (July 26-28).

"We alternate hosting our meetings within our partner states and intentionally chose the Indiana location for this meeting to coincide with the Indiana Manufacturing Institute dedication," said Craig Blue, CEO for the IACMI-The Composites Institute. It showcases our institutes growing base of capabilities and pays homage to our supporting state partners. Members from across the country have an opportunity to see the facility in person and connect with Purdues faculty and partner organizations.



About10 faculty researchers and 20 graduate students will conduct research in the Center for Composites Manufacturing and Simulation.



"The most important endeavors for the Purdue College of Engineering are to educate future engineers and develop technologies to improve our global society. The Indiana Manufacturing Institute helps us achieve both of those goals," said Leah Jamieson, John A. Edwardson Dean of Engineering. "Our students will have even greater education, internship and career prospects through their involvement in the institute. The research conducted in the institute will create new opportunities for translating research to practice."



Gary Bertoline, dean of the Purdue Polytechnic Institute, concurred.



"Purdue offers a number of aeronautical engineering technology and aviation degrees from flight technology to professional flight," Bertoline said. "We are always looking for new ways to advance the educational experience of our students and expand the research opportunities for faculty. The Indiana Manufacturing Institute is an important addition for Purdue students and faculty."



In partnership with the Indiana Economic Development Corporation, an expenditure of almost $35 million in research equipment and materials in the institute is expected over the next five years, funded through a cooperative agreement with the DOE.



Purdue Research Foundation invested $11 million in the construction of the building, which is at the corner of Challenger Avenue and Yeager Road on property that was, in part, donated by the City of West Lafayette Redevelopment Commission . The foundation already owns the remainder of the land for the development.



"The City of West Lafayette and Purdue University have a strong, collaborative partnership, and the development of enterprises such as the Indiana Manufacturing Institute is an excellent example of the benefits that arise from this important relationship," said West Lafayette Mayor John Dennis. "Coupled with the State Street Redevelopment Project and the Purdue Innovation District, the future is bright for the entire Greater Lafayette area."



About Purdue University

Founded in 1869 in West Lafayette, Indiana, Purdue University serves its state as well as the nation and the world. Purdue is a major research institution supported by top-ranking disciplines in pharmacy, business, engineering and agriculture. More than 39,000 students are enrolled here. All 50 states and 130 countries are represented in its student population.



About Purdue Research Park

The Purdue Research Park of West Lafayette is the largest university-affiliated business incubation complex in the country. The park is managed by the Purdue Research Foundation, which received the 2014 Incubator Network of the Year from the National Business Incubation Association for its work in entrepreneurship. For more information about funding and investment opportunities in startups based on a Purdue innovation, contact the Purdue Foundry at foundry@prf.org



About IACMI-The Composites Institute

The Institute for Advanced Composites Manufacturing Innovation (IACMI), managed by the Collaborative Composite Solutions Corporation (CCS), is a partnership of industry, universities, national laboratories, and federal, state and local governments working together to benefit the nations energy and economic security by sharing existing resources and co-investing to accelerate development and commercial deployment of advanced composites. CCS is a not-for-profit organization established by The University of Tennessee Research Foundation. The national institute is supported by a $70 million commitment from the U.S. Department of Energys Advanced Manufacturing Office and over $180 million committed from IACMIs partners. Find out more at IACMI.org.








z3nith wrote:

In recent years, many cabinetmakers have been winning acclaim as artists. But since furniture must be useful,

cabinetmakers must exercise their craft with an eye to the practical utility of their product. For this reason,

cabinetmaking is not art.

Which of the following is an assumption that supports drawing the conclusion above from the reason given for

that conclusion?

(A) Some furniture is made to be placed in museums, where it will not be used by anyone.

(B) Some cabinetmakers are more concerned than others with the practical utility of the products they

produce.

(C) Cabinetmakers should be more concerned with the practical utility of their products than they

currently are.

(D) An object is not an art object if its maker pays attention to the objects practical utility.

(E) Artists are not concerned with the monetary value of their products.



Also i am a little confused from the meaning of the argument.





>>> But since furniture must be useful, cabinetmakers must exercise their craft with an eye to the practical utility of their product

means -- since furniture should be useful; CMs should keep that in mind ; as if they are not currently doing so and author is saying they should make USEFUL cabinets

"must" gives a futuristic view. So we are not sure what kind of cabinets are being currently made. thus we cant say why it cant be an art.

Hello,The argument implies that currently many cabinetmakers win acclaim as artists. However, cabinetmakers also need to pay attention to the utility of the cabinets and hence, cabinet making is not an art.This depends on the assumption that while making something , if you need to consider its utility, then it is not an art form. This is directly mentioned in D. However, let us analyze the rest of the options. Let us try the negation test to check this.(A) Some furniture is made to be placed in museums, where it will not be used by anyone. This is irrelevant.(B) Some cabinetmakers are more concerned than others with the practical utility of the products they produce. Some cabinetmakers might be more concerned with the utility of their products. However, this does not imply that their work is not an art form. This option does not give us any relationship between cabinetmaking and art form.(C) Cabinetmakers should be more concerned with the practical utility of their products than they currently are. This suggests that the cabinetmakers need to more concerned with the practical utility of their products. However, it does not tell us whether cabinetmaking is an art form or not.(D) An object is not an art object if its maker pays attention to the objects practical utility. Might be the assumption.(E) Artists are not concerned with the monetary value of their products. The negative of this is that artists are concerned with the monetary value of their products. However, does this cause the conclusion to fail? The conclusion still stands as the decision of whether cabinetmaking is an art or not does not depend on its monetary value in this argument. The conclusion depends on whether it can be considered an art form if it is made with some purpose or utility in mind.Regarding your second question, the statement "But since furniture must be useful, cabinetmakers must exercise their craft with an eye to the practical utility of their product" implies that since furniture need to be useful, cabinetmakers have to consider the utility of the furniture. The "must" in the argument does not give a futuristic outlook. Rather, it highlights the necessity of considering the utility of the cabinet while constructing it.Hopefully this clarified your doubt. Please let me know if you need any further clarification.
Glik's is adding the first of several planned new clothing stores in Kansas.

The Granite City-based retailer is opening its 65th store in Hays, Kan., in late October, said president and CEO Jeff Glik. More in the state will likely follow.

"We really concentrate on rolling out stores in a state once we open there," Glik told the Post-Dispatch. "We're hoping to have three more stores in Kansas within 12 to 18 months."

Glik's, a family-owned chain that sells casualwear for adults and kids, was founded in St. Louis in 1897. Glik's opened stores in Litchfield, Ill., and South Haven, Mich., earlier this year and doubled the size of its existing store in Edwardsville. Glik's also plans to expand existing stores in Fort Dodge, Iowa; and Virginia, Minn., later this year.

The chain, which typically opens in small towns and tourist destinations, has added about four stores annually for more than a decade.

"A lot of retailers are struggling, but we just had our best four years in 119 years," Glik said. "Retail in small town America and resort areas is doing well."
MARYLAND HEIGHTS  This west St. Louis County suburb hasnt had trouble attracting developers to 1,800 acres of open floodplain near two of the regions major roadways.

The challenge for a city that has long sought to develop the land behind the Howard Bend Levee District near Highway 141 and Highway 364 may instead be getting competing developers to coordinate on the massive undertaking.

The city has received six development proposals that cover at least part of the site, and Maryland Heights released some details earlier this month. However, much of the attention has focused on a proposal from Alan Bornstein, whose investment partner on the project is Los Angeles Rams owner Stan Kroenke.

Bornstein pitched the Howard Bend plan to city economic development officials in January, but since then more proposals have been submitted.

At one of the first public hearings Tuesday on the citys plans to develop the area, Maryland Heights officials indicated that some developers might not wait for a larger proposal that takes a comprehensive approach to the areas development. The city, however, can refuse their rezoning requests if they dont fit with its long-term plan.

We dont want to move forward with individual development proposals on specific sites if they interfere with the big picture, Maryland Heights planner Mike Zeek said in an interview after the meeting.

At least two developers are moving forward with requests for zoning to accommodate their proposals. Panattoni Development, which owns 135 acres in the area, is seeking a zoning amendment to allow office, light industrial and distribution facilities in a business park. And Clayton-based Altus Properties has already requested rezoning to accomodate 400 to 450 market-rate apartments on 32 acres it owns.

Meanwhile, Zeek called Bornstein and Kroenkes Howard Bend Development proposal the most comprehensive. It calls for mixed-use residential and commercial space on 570 acres along with an almost 1,400-acre recreation area managed by a nonprofit.

Though the more comprehensive proposal is an advantage, Zeek said, its a disadvantage that Bornstein and Kroenke dont own all the acreage yet. Bornsteins group has had limited contact with the property owners, he said, but the best-case scenario is for the developers to work together.

The location of so much contiguous acreage close to the heart of the metro area makes it some of the most valuable in the region, and the city is trying to make sure that what is built is high quality and meshes, said City Administrator Jim Krischke.

Well do our very best to try and blend everyone together, he said. I think (the developers) are waiting on us to come back and give them feedback.

Residents hoping for more details on the proposals or an opportunity to sound off against them were probably disappointed. The introductory workshop for members of the City Council and city commissions didnt reveal much more than the broad ideas already submitted to Maryland Heights, and it wasnt a public hearing that gave residents an opportunity to speak.

About 50 people attended the meeting, some from Maryland Heights Residents for Responsible Growth, a grass-roots group formed to oppose using taxpayer-funded incentives to develop the floodplain. David Stokes, executive director of the Great Rivers Habitat Alliance, said: Preserving this as floodplain is valuable for the city and the region."

Stokes organization advocates for floodplain preservation to help prevent flooding downstream.

City officials said they will spend the coming days seeking more information and perhaps site plans from the developers, which they will present to the council and commissioners at a similar work session Aug. 9.
This story is part of our special Craft Beer Guide, publishing Sunday in the Post-Dispatch.

Chris Rahn

Title: Co-owner and brewmaster, Stubborn German Brewing Co.

Age: 33

Hometown: Waterloo

Family: Rahn co-owns the brewery with his wife, Tammy

What is the first beer you tried? Anheuser-Busch beers when he turned 21. After 6 months, I was already bored.

What is the first beer you loved? Shiner Bock and Sierra Nevada Pale Ale

Where do you drink on your day off? Civil Life Brewing Co. You cant go wrong. You can throw a dart at the menu, and the beer will be great.

What do you drink that isnt beer? If its not beer, its usually bourbon.

When the Stubborn German Brewing Co. opened in April, it was the culmination of a journey that had begun for Chris Rahn as it had for many other brewers: with a love for beer and a Mr. Beer brand homebrewing kit.

Rahn remembers brewing three batches at a time. Id pour two down the drain and drink one, he says. And the batch he deemed a success? It still wasnt good.

Rahn persisted. He joined the St. Louis Brews homebrewing club. He became a certified beer judge for national homebrewing competitions.

Meanwhile, as a full-time occupation, Rahn and his wife, Tammy, operated (and continue to operate) Rahns Hometown Auto Repair. The couple faced a dilemma. Should they grow this business? Or would everything that growth entails  more garage bays, more employees, more and bigger headaches  undercut their philosophy?

We want to be a diamond in the rough, Rahn says.

Instead of expanding the auto-repair business, they decided to turn Rahns homebrewing hobby into Waterloos first entry into the regions craft-beer boom, which over the past couple of years especially has been expanding from St. Louis proper into its Metro East suburbs and exurbs.

Hahn remembers their thought process at the time: Why hasnt anyone ever done this? I guess well do it.

With the help of family and friends, the Rahns renovated a building on Waterloos South Main Street into Stubborn German Brewing Co. The space features light wood fixtures, exposed brick and numerous Edison bulbs. The brewhouse itself certainly fits the diamond-in-the-rough ethos. A three-barrel operation, it occupies only a modest corner of the tasting room. (The tasting room, in turn, doesnt include a kitchen; visitors are welcome to bring in food from area restaurants.)

Stubborn German is an obvious nod to Rahns and Waterloos German heritage. The beers, too, draw on Germanys brewing tradition: a kolsch, an Oktoberfest, a hefeweizen, a Munich dunkel cheekily named Schitzengiggles. (In an evitable nod to Americas craft-beer renaissance, theres also an IPA.) The emphasis on German styles reflects Rahns preferences. He wants to brew beers with good, clean, malty profiles.

For the time being, trying Stubborn German beers will require a visit to Waterloo. Any short-term plans for distribution will probably be restricted to other venues in town, Rahn says. As it is, hes worked to make his brewing process even more efficient to keep pace with pent-up demand from his fellow Waterloo residents.

It was to the point I was going to run out of beer if I didnt do something, he says.

What Stubborn German Brewing Co.  Where 119 South Main Street, Waterloo  More info 618-504-2444; stubborngermanbrewing.com
ST. LOUIS  While it is clear that former city police detective Thomas A. Carroll is going to prison for beating a handcuffed man who had Carrolls daughters credit card, a courtroom battle began Tuesday on how long the term will be.

Carroll had pleaded guilty of depriving Michael Waller of his civil rights. He admits throwing Waller into a wall and punching him, but denies ramming a pistol into the mans mouth or causing serious injuries.

The sentencing hearing in federal court here will continue Wednesday, starting with testimony from a former city prosecutor, Ambry Schuessler. She was granted immunity last week after indicating that she would refuse to testify, to avoid incriminating herself, court documents show.

Carroll was enraged because someone broke into his daughters car and stole her purse days before her wedding. Waller was caught using her credit card but denied breaking into the car. Exactly what Carroll did to Waller could make the difference of years in prison, under federal guidelines.

Waller claims Carroll chipped his teeth and bloodied his lip with a gun, badly bruised his ribs and may have caused a concussion.

Carrolls attorney, Neil Bruntrager, has suggested his client should face 15 to 21 months, not the 70 to 87 months sought by prosecutors.

In the hearing before U.S. District Judge Henry Autrey, Bruntrager attacked inconsistencies in Wallers statements and brought up a criminal record that includes assault, domestic violence and stealing convictions.

Carrolls good friend, former St. Louis prosecutor Bliss Barber Worrell, testified in a broken voice, sometimes choking back tears, that he told her about the attack multiple times and had described putting his gun in Wallers mouth. She said Schuessler heard Carrolls explanation over the phone.

Worrell has pleaded guilty of misprision (concealment) of a felony, admitting she helped a novice prosecutor file a bogus charge against Waller, and failed to tell supervisors and a judge the truth. Her sentencing is pending.

Former prosecutor Katherine Dierdorf resigned after the incident, along with Worrell. Dierdorf has not been charged. Her lawyer, Jeff Jensen, has said she had not been aware of the charges filed against Waller and assisted in the investigation.

In documents, prosecutors accuse Carroll of a pattern of questionable behavior. They say he allowed Worrell to chase a suspect, with a Taser, in one incident, and to seize drugs in another.

They also say that in phone calls from jail, Carroll blamed supervisors for failing to keep him away from Waller, and prosecutors for failing to charge Waller in some past, unknown crime, thereby ensuring his incarceration so (Waller) would not have been out of custody for the defendant to assault.

They also say that Carroll has threatened to assault Assistant U.S. Attorney Fara Gold, although they acknowledged that that could be hyperbolic. Worrell said Carroll had a reputation for exaggeration.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Earlier versions of this story failed to mention that Ambry Schuessler is a former St. Louis prosecutor.
A man who was sentenced to 56-years in prison for repeatedly raping and fondling a 10-year-old Swansea girl while she was bound with zip ties was found dead in his prison cell.

Gary M. J. Mikel Grodin, 33, began serving his sentence June 29 at the Menard Correctional Center in Chester. Three weeks later, on July 20, he was found unresponsive in his cell, Illinois Department of Corrections spokeswoman Nicole Wilson said.

Randolph County Coroner Randy Dudenbostel said Grodins death does not appear to be from natural causes.

The death is under investigation by the Illinois State Police, Menard Correctional Center and my office, Dudenbostel said.

Results of the investigation are expected in six to eight weeks.

St. Clair County States Attorney Brendan Kelly called Grodins crime one of the most disturbing and heartbreaking cases of child sexual assault in recent memory.

An Oklahoma resident called police after they received a Facebook message from Grodin, who said he was in Illinois. He discussed a sexual relationship with a 10-year-old girl.

Swansea police went to Grodins home and seized four cellphones and a tablet. A search of the electronic devices uncovered dozens of photographs and videos of the girl being raped by Grodin. Prosecutors said the sexual assaults occurred from December 2014 to June 2015.

After he was questioned by police, Grodin fled to Tulsa, Okla., where he was arrested and extradited to Illinois.

Grodin pleaded guilty June 28 to four of the 31 child pornography and predatory criminal sexual assault charges he faced. As part of a plea arrangement, Chief Judge John Baricevic sentenced him to 56 years.

The victim, who is now 11, continues to go to counseling, authorities said.
UPDATED at 9 a.m. with hearing rescheduled.

CLAYTON  A St. Louis County judge will decide next month whether to increase the $500,000 bail for a St. Louis man charged with shooting and paralyzing a Ballwin police officer.

St. Louis County assistant prosecutor Jason Denney will argue that bail for Antonio Taylor, 31, on charges of first-degree assault of a law enforcement officer, armed criminal action and unlawful possession of a weapon should be increased.

A hearing on the matter was set for Wednesday, but has been rescheduled for Monday to give Taylor's public defenders time to prepare for the hearing.

Ballwin Officer Michael Flamion was paralyzed after being shot in the neck during a traffic stop on New Ballwin Road, police have said. Police said Taylor shot Flamion with a .22-caliber pistol. A ventilator was helping Flamion breathe after the shooting.

Flamion's "injuries are indicative of the danger the defendant poses to the victim and the community and should be considered by the court," Denney said in a court filing Thursday.

Taylor's address is listed in court records as being in the 1200 block of Tower Grove Avenue in St. Louis. He is being represented by public defenders Kayla Williams and Beverly Hauber.

Taylor's criminal history in Missouri includes 2011 convictions of unlawful possession of a firearm and resisting arrest. In those cases, he was given a two-year prison sentence.

He served prison time in Oklahoma for robbery from November 2006 to January 2009. After getting out of prison, court records say, police say Taylor was stopped by officers in Beckham County, Okla., in July 2009 for faulty headlights and was found with a loaded .22-caliber rifle lying on the floor of the car. The rifle had been reported stolen out of St. Louis.

Taylor was later sentenced to federal prison for 30 months for a conviction of being a felon in possession of a gun. He was released last year.
A standoff between police and a man who made a bomb threat inside a Fredericktown, Mo., home ended peacefully Wednesday morning after more than 10 hours, the Madison County Sheriff's Department said. Police have taken the man into custody. No injuries were reported.

Before 7 p.m. Tuesday, a woman called police to say her son broke into her home with jugs of gasoline and had dumped one on the floor, according to the Daily Journal Online. The newspaper also reported that police tried to get in the home but were locked out; the man claimed, in texts to his family, that he had enough gas, alcohol and nitrate to blow up the house.
most

Quote:

(A) Some people employed in the computer industry change jobs if they become bored with their current projects

why

Quote:

(B) A hierarchical work environment hinders the cooperative exchange of ideas that computer industry employees consider necessary for their work

necessary

non

necessary

Quote:

(C) Many of Summit's senior employees had previously worked at only one other computer company

why

Quote:

(D) In a nonhierarchical work environment, people avoid behavior that might threaten group harmony and thus avoid discussing with their colleagues any dissatisfaction they might have with their jobs

less

Quote:

(E) The cost of living near Summit is relatively low compared to areas in which some other computer companies are located

alternative

The first sentence of the passage gives us some background information: most employees in the computer industry move from company to company and change jobs several times in their careers. This implies that most computer companies do NOT retain their employees very well. Summit Computers, on the other hand, is known for retaining its employees, so we can infer that employees of Summit Computers do not follow the same general pattern exhibited byemployees in the computer industry.Why do employees of Summit Computers stay with their company while most computer industry employees tend to move from company to company? "Summit credits its success in retaining employees to its informal, nonhierarchical work environment." This is just one hypothesis, and we don't know for sure whether it is accurate. The question asks us to select a piece of evidence that, if true, most supports the hypothesis of Summit Computers.Choice (A) does not tell usSummit employees tend to stay with their company. This statement simply provides one reason why employees in the computer industry might leave their jobs. If we were told that projects at Summit Computers were particularly exciting, that information might weaken Summit's explanation (by suggesting an alternative explanation), but it certainly would not strengthen Summit's explanation. Choice (A) can be eliminated.Computer industry employees believe that a cooperative exchange of ideas isfor their work and that a hierarchical work environment hinders the cooperate exchange of ideas. Thus, having ahierarchical work environment is a(though not sufficient) requirement if the employees are to be able to do their work. Given the information in statement (B), computer industry employees would prefer a nonhierarchical work environment where their ability to do their work is not necessarily hindered. This supports the theory that a nonhierarchical work environment improves employee retention, so let's keep choice (B).As with choice (A), choice (C) does not tell usemployees of Summit Computers tend to stay with their company and certainly does not tell us whether Summit's success in retaining employees is due to its informal, nonhierarchical work environment. If anything, choice (C) might be taken as evidence that Summit manages to hire exceptionally loyal computer industry employees, perhaps explaining Summit's relatively high retention rates. But that would only serve to weaken the explanation presented in the passage because it provides an alternative explanation. Choice (C) can be eliminated.Choice (D) implies that employees in a hierarchical work environment would be reluctant to discuss their job dissatisfaction. This characteristic of a nonhierarchical work environment certainly does not explain why employees working in such an environment would belikely to leave their company. In fact, it suggests that such employees would quietly grow dissatisfied and then perhaps eventually leave to seek more satisfying jobs. Choice (D) can be eliminated.This statement provides anexplanation for why Summit has a relatively high retention rate compared to that of some other computer companies. This actually weakens the hypothesis presented by Summit by suggesting that its high retention rate is due to cost of living, not due to Summit's hierarchical work environment. Thus, choice (E) can be eliminated, and we are left with choice (B)._________________
ST. LOUIS  A city police department policy knowingly and purposefully violates the Missouri Sunshine Law by charging flat fees for arrest reports and forcing the public to pay for improper redactions from them, the American Civil Liberties Union alleges in a lawsuit.

The suit, filed last week in St. Louis Circuit Court, claims the department quoted Mustafa Abdullah, an ACLU employee, a fee of $1,377 for 138 arrest reports he requested in a letter last month.

According to the suit, the fee the department quoted was $897 for the reports  $6.50 each regardless of the number of pages  plus a prepayment of $480 for an estimated 32 hours of research time needed to strip out some information.

Abdullah, 28, of St. Louis, said he requested reports for all arrests during a 24-hour period in June over concerns the departments new mobile app for reporting crimes may discriminate against homeless people. He said, The most important thing is government transparency.

The request came after Police Chief Sam Dotson tweeted that the departments new app garnered an anonymous tip that led to the arrest of a panhandler for trespassing at a gas station in the 700 block of North Kingshighway. The tweet drew criticism that the app was targeting the homeless, thus wasting time and money considering the citys struggles with violent crime.

By illegally demanding exorbitant flat fee payments for arrest reports, the SLMPD is making it harder for taxpaying citizens to access open public records, said Tony Rothert, the organizations legal director, in a news release.

The police department referred questions Wednesday to the city counselors office, which did not respond to a request for comment. A spokesman for Mayor Francis Slay said city lawyers had not yet seen the suit.

Abdullahs lawsuit cites language from the Sunshine Law that says arrest reports may not be redacted and that governments may only charge 10 cents per page. The suit also says that arrest reports are rarely, if ever 65 pages in length to justify a $6.50 charge,

The lawsuit  mirroring language in the Sunshine Law  also says duplication and research time may not exceed the average hourly pay rate of clerical staff.

Because arrest reports are open records that may not be redacted, a government body cannot charge for time to redact arrest reports, the lawsuit says.

The suit asks for a judge to order the 138 arrest reports released without redactions, to prohibit the department from charging more than permitted by the Sunshine Law and to impose a civil penalty.
WASHINGTON  In the convention-season battle over hearts and minds, no idea is apparently too trivial or out there.

Among the thousands of emails poured out over the weekend by the renegade leaker, WikiLeaks, were a couple of emails between Democratic National Committee press agents brainstorming about what they could do to stage a counter convention to the Republican National Convention in Cleveland last week.

Below is a description of some of the stranger ones, none of which apparently came to fruition, or at least caught attention if they did get pulled off:

 Hosting a Democratic Happy Hour to take a break from the racism and the misogyny of the Republicans.

 Staging a Jerry Springer Show to mock the GOP proceedings. The connection, apparently is that Springer, the outrageous TV host whose guests have been known to throw nasty words and furniture, is the former mayor of Cincinnati. A Democratic mayor, but who is keeping track?

 Handing out barf bags. Its unclear if it was to mock the rhetoric or the partying that tends to go on at political conventions.

 Hosting a fake presidents panel, where people who play presidents in movies get together to talk about how their characters would be better presidents than Republican nominee, Donald Trump.

Turns out the counter convention may not have been necessary; the Republicans had enough of their own divisions, with Ted Cruz not endorsing Trump in prime time, and such. But the DNC Wikileaks revelations also cost DNC Chairman Debbie Wasserman Schultz her job. (Chuck Raasch)

ON THE WEB:

BY THE NUMBERS:

4,764  Number of delegates to the Democratic National Convention, which inclues those elected in primaries an caucuses, and super delegates  party officials and other top Democratic dignitaries, whose influence has become a bone of contention among Bernie Sanders supporters.

2,4712  Number of delegates to the Republican National Convention in Cleveland last week.

SHE SAID IT:

On behalf of everyone at the DNC, we want to offer a deep and sincere apology to Senator Sanders, his supporters, and the entire Democratic Party for the inexcusable remarks made over email. . . . [T]he DNC is taking appropriate action to ensure it never happens again. Democratic National Committee senior official Donna Brazile, who will temporarily replace the ousted DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz, apologizing for the DNC emails.
JEFFERSON CITY  Fundraising in the Republican race for attorney general in Missouri has easily surpassed the $10 million mark, an extraordinary amount of cash for a down-ballot primary race.

On Wednesday, political action committees funded by retired St. Louis financier Rex Sinquefield poured another $600,000 into Sen. Kurt Schaefers campaign till, putting the senator from Columbias receipts from the wealthy donor at more than $2 million this month alone.

His opponent in the GOP race, University of Missouri law professor Josh Hawley, has similarly received support associated with one large donor, Tamko Building Products executive David Humphreys and his family.

Hawley also has received support from independent groups, including a $561,000 ad buy from the State Conservative Reform Action political action committee

Altogether, the duo seeking to replace Attorney General Chris Koster, a Democrat who is running for governor, are on track to spend over $10 million, most of it on a slew of controversial television ads that have filled the Missouri airwaves.

Sinquefield has had a major presence in a number of statewide Republican races this year, backing Catherine Hanaway for governor, Bev Randles for lieutenant governor, Schaefer and treasurer candidate Eric Schmitt.

Missouri has no limits on campaign contributions.

On the Democratic side of the attorney general race, St. Louis County Assessor Jake Zimmerman has easily outraised former Cass County prosecutor Teresa Hensley heading toward the Aug. 2 primary.

Missouri Ethics Commission records show Zimmerman raised $1.4 million and had $764,517 with a week to go before voters head to the polls. Hensley raised $548,285 and had $44,681 left.
Koran Addo Koran Addo is a reporter at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch Follow Koran Addo Close Get email notifications on {{subject}} daily! Your notification has been saved. There was a problem saving your notification. {{description}} Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items. Save Manage followed notifications Close Followed notifications Please log in to use this feature Log In Don't have an account? Sign Up Today

ST. LOUIS  Much like people, cities have their ups and downs.

As such, there is a thought out there that cities would do well to find coping mechanisms and ways to become more resilient from the strains and pressures that build up and weaken them.

In keeping with that idea, Mayor Francis Slay has appointed Patrick R. Brown, his deputy chief of staff, to lead the city's newly formed Office of Resilience.

The Office of Resilience is funded out of private dollars from 100 Resilient Cities, an independent organization established by the Rockefeller Foundation to provide resources to 100 cities worldwide that struggle with issues ranging from earthquakes, fires and floods, to inadequate public transportation, high unemployment and high rates of violence.

Each member city will have access to service providers and public and private partners to share best practices and help come up with solutions.

The mayor's office has identified civil unrest, heat waves, tornadoes, flooding, endemic violence, educational disparities, declining population and aging infrastructure as the shocks and stresses threatening the city.

More than 700 cities applied to join the program. St. Louis was selected along with Vancouver, Canada; Kyoto, Japan; Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; Melaka, Malaysia and 95 other cities around the world to make up the 100 Resilient Cities membership.

As Chief Resilience Officer, Brown will be responsible for developing and executing a City Resilience Plan over the next two years.

Slay called Brown a natural fit for the position.

These are all issues that Patrick is already very familiar, which will give him a tremendous start to building the city's resilience, Slay said.

Brown said he looks forward to the work.

I love our city, so I am both honored and humbled by the gravity of this appointment, he said. While 'resiliency' is a relatively new term in city government, the work I've cared about most deeply during my time serving Mayor Slay has certainly been in the spirit of building resilience.

In his new capacity, Brown will make $126,000 a year.

Other U.S. cities included in the program are: Atlanta, Honolulu, Louisville, Minneapolis, Nashville, Seattle and Washington, D.C.
JEFFERSON CITY  A House panel met Wednesday to discuss the process of hiring a private company to verify if state residents are eligible for Medicaid, child care subsidies and food stamps.

Under a bill the Missouri legislature passed in the spring, supporters said the state could save millions by allowing an outside company to scrub the welfare rolls, weeding out applicants who dont meet the criteria, including those who have moved out of state or died.

Since Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon didnt sign the bill by the July 14 deadline, it became law.

But as sponsoring Rep. Marsha Haefner pointed out, the effort to get the Missouri Department of Social Services  who would retain the authority to determine who received benefits under the measure  began with a line item in the previous years budget, which took effect July 1, 2015 and directed the department to hire a vendor.

At the Capitol Wednesday, she questioned why it took separate legislation to get the process going, saying that it's the state's taxpayers who lose in the meantime.

"This committee has worked two years on getting this concept in place. And we need to have an honest discussion as to what happened, said Haefner, an Oakville Republican. The longer it takes us to get this in place, the more waste there is, the less money there is to do other services that are needed.

Brian Kinkade, director of the Department of Social Services, said the initial bidding process was delayed when the department tried to improve the way its eligibility workers process data, doing more electronically and relying less on paper documents.

We have a terrible system for managing paper and incoming mail. It comes into offices all over the state, he explained.

Members of the committee asked if there was a central space to sort incoming paperwork, and Kinkade said no. But we need that, he said.

Kinkade argued that was a crucial issue to tackle before bringing in a third party vendor, but its one the department cant get done now that a law has been passed the sets a harder deadline. A company has to be hired by January 1 under the new law.

I would tell you that where I see the benefit is not finding people who are receiving assistance today, it shouldnt be, so much as helping people who could have assistance get that assistance quicker and have our workers do their work more efficiently, Kinkade said. Thats where the real payoff is.

Now that the document management component is on hold, the state will be able to hire a vendor more quickly, Kinkade said, adding that theres already a bid on the street.
UPDATED at 11 a.m. Wednesday with information on additional issues

ST. CHARLES COUNTY  The controversial right to work issue has helped fuel a high-spending Republican primary campaign for eastern St. Charles Countys vacant state Senate seat.

Labor-backed state Rep. Anne Zerr of St. Charles and businessman Bill Eigel of Weldon Spring, a favorite of right-to-work supporters, each are on pace to spend more than a half-million dollars on their races.

A wildcard is a third candidate: Michael Carter of OFallon, an attorney in private practice and Wentzvilles part-time municipal judge. He says his law firm has put $100,000 into the race so far, with more on the way.

Meanwhile, two Democratic candidates, Richard Orr and Greg Upchurch, are spending little on their primary contest in the GOP-leaning district. Both live near St. Peters.

Unions, which have historically favored Democrats, have provided about $188,000 of Zerrs fundraising totals since the start of last year.

Eigels biggest single money source has been David Humphreys, a Joplin roofing products executive and major right-to-work supporter, who gave $150,000.

The Missouri Club for Growth PAC, a pro-right-to-work group largely funded by St. Louis investor Rex Sinquefield, kicked in $75,000. Another big contribution, $100,000, came from Herzog Contracting Corp. of St. Joseph, a longtime donor to conservative causes.

Zerr, 61, a House member the past eight years, says opposition to right-to-work, along with her anti-abortion and pro-gun rights record, best fits the district.

Were pro-life, pro-gun, pro-union, by and large, she said, referring to herself and voters.

Zerr also emphasizes her experience in the Legislature and previous work as an aide to then-County Executive Joe Ortwerth; executive director of a St. Charles County booster group, Partners for Progress; and other public policy posts. In addition to labor money, shes gotten donations from various business groups.

Eigel, 38, who owns a skylight company, is campaigning as a political outsider.

He said even though the GOP already has big majorities in the Legislature, some Republican lawmakers such as Zerr dont always back what he considers bedrock party principles.

When you have been in politics so long you start losing the perspective of what everyday folks are going through, Eigel said of Zerr. Eigel shares Zerrs support for abortion restrictions and gun rights.

Meanwhile, Carter, 44, alleges that Zerr and Eigel are each beholden to their respective political donors. Theyre on what Im calling campaign welfare, he said.

Thats not the case with him, he asserts, because hes paying for his campaign himself.

Right-to-work legislation would prohibit employment contracts from requiring union membership or dues. Supporters say passage would boost the Missouri economy by attracting new business, while opponents say it would drive down wages and hurt the middle class.

Carter, a former Democrat, says he supports a modified version of right-to-work allowing employees to decide periodically for themselves how much to give to the union at their company.

The Republican-controlled Legislature passed right-to-work last year but it was vetoed by Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon. Zerr and a handful of other pro-labor Republicans joined with Democrats to defeat a veto override effort in the House.

The Senate seat had been held by Republican Tom Dempsey of St. Charles, a term-limited opponent of right-to-work who resigned last year.

One big unknown in Tuesdays race is how successful unions will be in convincing some members who typically vote Democratic to cross party lines to help Zerr in the GOP primary.

The role of lobbyists in Jefferson City also has been an issue.

Eigel cites state records showing meals, travel and other gratuities worth $6,313 accepted by Zerr were the most among House members last year. He says hed push to enact a ban on lobbyist gifts and promises he wouldnt accept any even if they remain legal. So does Carter.

Zerr says shes never been influenced by lobbyist gifts but would support a bill to prohibit them. To reduce even the perception of impropriety, she also says she wont accept any if elected to the Senate.

Meanwhile, a Zerr TV ad alleges that Eigel is the hand-picked candidate of the lobbyist cartel. Among other things, the ad notes that Eigels campaign treasurer, former state Rep. Carl Bearden, is a lobbyist.

Zerr and Eigel ads have each bashed the other candidate as a liberal, apparently the epithet of choice in GOP circles in the conservative county.

A Zerr commercial also complains that Eigel is bankrolled by supporters of both Common Core and a sales tax  a reference to Eigels donations from the Sinquefield-funded Missouri Club for Growth.

The sales tax mention is a nod to Sinquefields support for eliminating the state income tax and replacing it with a higher sales tax on a broader base.

Club for Growth officials insist that the group never supported Common Core, a title given to student learning and testing standards developed by the National Governors Association.

Asked about the reference, Zerr cited Sinquefields backing for a separate 2014 proposal to weaken teacher tenure and tie teacher evaluations to student performance. Critics said that would have led to additional standardized testing.

For his part, Eigel says he opposes Common Core and any sales tax increase.

Another flashpoint is transportation. Eigel blasts Zerr for voting in 2014 to put a sales tax hike for state road funding on the ballot; the measure failed at the polls. She says voters made the decision.

As for the future, Eigel opposes tax increases and toll roads to deal with the state Transportation Departments financial woes. Instead he says more funding for state highways could be freed up by turning over more than 15,000 miles of county roads to local governments.

Zerr says a blend of different approaches should be considered, such as a user fee on gasoline and creating optional toll lanes on some highways. She said shed support either only if Missourians got to vote on them. Carter opposes a gas tax hike and toll roads.

Another issue is this year's unsuccessful measure in the Legislature to protect businesses and individuals from working at same-sex weddings if they have religious objections.

Eigel supported the measure. Zerr voted against it in committee, saying numerous lawyers told her it was poorly drafted and unconstititional and that other critics feared it would hurt the state's economy. Carter said he supported the measure but it needed wording changes to adhere to contract law.

The candidates also have clashed on state tax credits, which Eigel wants to eliminate. Zerr and Carter prefer weighing tax credit programs on a case-by-case basis.

Zerr, who chairs a House committee playing a key role on economic development legislation, says a 2013 bill she worked on to give tax incentives to Boeing Co. for job growth and retention is an example of one such arrangement benefiting Missouri.

To deter abuse of painkiller drugs, Zerr supports ending Missouris status as the only state that hasnt established a statewide prescription monitoring program. Eigel and Carter oppose the measure, expressing concerns about sharing personal data with national databases.

The two Democrats in the race are both first-time candidates. Orr, 65, a buyer for a sporting goods store, and Upchurch, 47, who owns a banquet hall, both oppose right-to-work and support Medicaid expansion.

Orr added that hes running partly because of his concern about what he said were GOP attacks in Jefferson City on environmental regulations and state parks and conservation programs.

Finance reports show Orr has raised less than $3,000. No report for Upchurch was available on the state website but he said his fundraising has been minimal.

Thats in contrast to Eigels fundraising total of more than $590,000, Zerrs more than $550,000 and Carters $100,000.

Meanwhile, other committees have run commercials or sent mailings aimed at helping or hurting Zerr.

Walker Moskop of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this report.
CLAYTON  The St. Louis County Council member representing South County said Tuesday that he would pursue a hearing to allow critics the opportunity to air concerns about the proposed development of a 232-unit apartment complex along a road that residents say is already too congested.

Lets not rush anything  let them have their say and we can go from there, Councilman Kevin OLeary said after the Tuesday meeting at which opponents launched the first volley in what could be a protracted fight to block the 17-acre project.

The county planning commission recommended earlier this month council approval of the development. The approval came despite nearly 200 South County residents showing up at a June public hearing to register their objections to the proposal.

This proposed complex will change the fundamental nature of the neighborhood, nearby resident Ernest Trakas told the council.

Trakas is a Republican candidate for the seat the retiring OLeary will vacate after the November election.

Another resident, Bill Hogan, said opponents had garnered 1,600 signatures on petitions balking at the planned JHB Properties development.

I have yet to meet one person who supports this project, said resident David Gregory, a Republican seeking a South County seat in the Missouri House.

JHB Properties is seeking to begin construction on a vacant site at Tesson Ferry and Bauer Roads in the Concord section of unincorporated South County.

Residents contend the addition of the 232 apartments spread over 10 buildings will exacerbate congestion in an area that is already overrun with traffic.

Bauer Road is the driveway to our homes, Hogan told council members. Our entrance and exit to the rest of the world is along Bauer Road.

OLeary said he planned to seek advice from council leadership on how to proceed with the hearing process.

The council, off next week to accommodate the primary election, will next convene on Aug. 9.
Lezley McSpadden, the mother of slain Ferguson teen Michael Brown, appeared at the Democratic National Convention on Tuesday as part of the group "Mothers of the Movement"  women who have lost their children in encounters with police or to gun violence.

McSpadden didnt speak, but other women in the group did, including Sybrina Fulton, the mother of Trayvon Martin, the Florida teen shot to death in a 2012 encounter with neighborhood watch coordinator George Zimmerman.

Hillary Clinton has the compassion and understanding to comfort a grieving mother; she has the courage to lead the fight for common-sense gun legislation, Fulton said. And she has a plan to repair the divide that so often exists between law enforcement and the communities they serve.

This isn't about being politically correct. It's about protecting our children.

The mothers fanned out across the stage and at one point McSpadden appeared to wipe a tear from her eye.

Their inclusion, without a presence of relatives of fallen police officers, upset local and national police groups.

Brown was shot and killed by then-Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson in 2014. A St. Louis County grand jury declined to indict Wilson in the shooting, and an investigation by the federal Justice Department concluded that Wilson fatally shot Brown while reasonably fearing for his own life.

The women spoke after former Attorney General Eric Holder, whose Justice Department cleared Wilson of civil rights violations. The Justice Department later forced a consent decree on the city of Ferguson aimed at improving the citys police department and courts.

There should be no tension between protecting those who valiantly risk their lives to serve and ensuring that everyone is treated fairly by police, said Holder, the brother of a retired police officer.

Police organizations criticized convention organizers for shunning families of police officers killed in the line of duty.

"We were hoping that Hillary Clinton could be as good for law enforcement as Bill Clinton, but we've now seen that's not the case," said Jeff Roorda, business manager for the St. Louis Police Officers' Association and St. Louis County Police Association. "This is such a big wedge issue and the Democratic Party is on the wrong side of that issue."

Missouri Fraternal Order of Police president and Lee's Summit police Sgt. Rick Inglima said the announcement that McSpadden would appear made police "very concerned" and they "hope this is not going to perpetuate a message of hate that we've seen so often by some of the current movements."

"We certainly wish there was a place on the DNC stage for the families of the police officers who died doing what they loved, protecting their communities," he said.
ROSWELL, Ga.  A Georgia police officer fired for flying the Confederate battle flag at her suburban Atlanta home says she had no idea the emblem was controversial, and is appealing her termination.

Former Roswell police Sgt. Silvia Cotriss has been flying the battle flag below the American flag in front of her house in the nearby town of Woodstock for more than a year with no complaints, she told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

"If I knew it offended someone, my friends, my family, I wouldn't do it," Cotriss, a 20-year veteran officer of the Roswell department, told the newspaper in an interview.

"Police officers have to adjust a lot of things in our lives, and for 20 years my whole life has been about making change and being held to a higher standard," she added. "We take an oath to help and protect people, so we can't have a private life that's really bad."

On July 11, a man living nearby saw the flag in Cotriss' yard as he drove his daughter and son to pre-school. He complained to Roswell's police chief, which ultimately led to her firing, the Atlanta newspaper reported.

The man said Cotriss' police vehicle was in the driveway, but Cotriss denies that, the newspaper reported.

Her firing comes after efforts across the nation last year to remove various Confederate battle flags, statues and other symbols of the Civil War from government property in response to complaints. Those efforts included South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley's call to remove the Confederate battle flag in front of the state capitol, which fueled fierce protests from opponents and supporters of the flag.

The firing of Cotriss also comes amid current tensions between police agencies and residents in several U.S. cities following high-profile shootings in which officers killed or wounded black men.

Cotriss said she and her husband, who died recently, had gotten a Confederate battle flag in May 2015 during a vacation to Panama City, Fla., for the popular biker festival "Thunder Beach." The battle flag had a motorcycle in the center, and Cotriss flew it beneath the American flag on a towering pole in her front yard, the newspaper reports. A neighbor later offered a new battle flag, without the motorcycle, when the earlier one became worn.

Cotriss said she removed the flag this month when investigators informed her of the complaint.

In an interview with detectives, Cotriss was asked, "Why she would have or allow the Confederate flag to be flown, especially in today's environment?" the investigative report states.

"Cotriss explained that the flag was part of her history, part of the South, part of history involving the Civil War. She denied having negative feelings regarding the flag," the report states.

When the detectives told her the flag had been a symbol used by Dylann Roof, who killed nine black church worshippers in Charleston, South Carolina, Cotriss said she was "not aware of its relation to the shooting."

In an interview with the Journal-Constitution, Cotriss said she had no idea that the flag was offensive to some people, despite the fact that the debate swirling around the flag has been in the news for more than a year.

"Cops don't watch the news because we live it in the day and don't want to see it again at night," Cotriss told the newspaper.

But she said she did not want the flag to cause people to mistrust her as an officer.

In its termination of Cotriss, Roswell police Capt. Helen Dunkin wrote that she had "engaged in conduct that was unbecoming, which brought discredit to the Roswell Police Department when she flew" the flag in her yard.

In recent months, Roswell Police Chief Rusty Grant has been visiting several churches in the Roswell area to build bridges with residents, the Atlanta newspaper reports.

Shortly after five police officers were shot to death in an ambush in Dallas, Texas, Grant was invited to attend Eagles Nest Church in Roswell, a predominantly black congregation, where he spoke to worshippers that Sunday, the newspaper reported. The man who lodged the complaint against Cotriss referenced the church service in his email to Grant, the newspaper reported.

Grant declined to comment to the newspaper.

In response to a request for comment from The Associated Press, Grant replied in an email Wednesday that Roswell's city policy is not to comment on personnel issues.
A federal judge excoriated Uber and the private investigation firm it hired, for probing the personal and professional lives of a man and his lawyer under false pretenses, likely violating several laws in the process, all because the people had the chutzpah to start a class-action lawsuit against the tech giant.

"It is a sad day when, in response to the filing of a commercial lawsuit, a corporate defendant feels compelled to hire unlicensed private investigators to conduct secret personal background investigations of both the plaintiff and his counsel," Judge Jed Rakoff wrote in a decision Monday. "It is sadder yet when these investigators flagrantly lie to friends and acquaintances of the plaintiff and his counsel in an (ultimately unsuccessful) attempt to obtain derogatory information about them."

Spencer Meyer, an environmental researcher at Yale University, sued the ride-share company's CEO Travis Kalanick in December, claiming that the combination of Uber's pricing system, particularly its surge pricing, and the company denying its drivers worker rights by claiming that they're independent contractors means that Kalanick is engaged in illegal price-fixing.

The same day that Meyer filed suit, Uber general counsel Salle Yoo emailed the company's chief security officer asking, "Could we find out a little more about this plaintiff?"

After some back and forth with a firm called Ergo, specifically with bosses Todd Egeland and Matthew Moneyhon, former government spooks for the CIA and State Department respectively, Uber seems to have hired Ergo for $19,500 to conduct a "Level 2" assessment of Meyer, newly disclosed records show. Ergo's website states, "Compliance and confidentiality are cornerstones of our business."

In an initial email, Uber security head Mat Henley asks that all communication about the project be done over encrypted email and messaging services "to avoid potential discovery issues." Over the next month, an investigator for Ergo contacted 28 people, including Meyer's friends, former colleagues, and a former landlord, and a friend of one of Meyer's lawyer's, Andrew Schmidt of Maine.

In the process, the investigator, Miguel Santos-Neves, generally told targets that he worked for Ergo, but lied about what he was up to. Rather than saying he was an investigator trying to dig up dirt on a plaintiff against a multinational corporation for leverage in a lawsuit, he developed such ruses as telling environmental scientists that he was "attempting to verify the professional record and/or previous employment of various up-and-coming researchers" for a "research project," or in Schmidt's case, vetting "top up-and-coming labor lawyers."

In January, another lawyer on the case became aware that Santos-Neves was reaching out to Schmidt's and Meyer's acquaintances, and objected to Uber's attorneys. This began months of outright denials from Uber that anyone at the company had hired the investigative firm. Uber only owned up to the deception when it became clear that its foes wouldn't rest until they sought a judge's order getting to the bottom of the weird calls and emails, and even then the company's lawyers downplayed the number of people contacted as part of the investigation, and the extent of the involvement of Uber's top executives.

Uber hired Ergo, its lawyers said, because they were concerned Meyer might be a threat to Kalanick's safety.

In the meantime, by the end of January, Ergo had drawn up its report. In the final stages of drafting it, Ergo boss Todd Egeland asked Santos-Neves in an email, "do we have enough negative things said about Meyer to write a text box?"

Santos-Neves had to disappoint on this front, writing, "i don't believe so. No one really said anything negative about him. We can extrapolate and say that he is a bit of an 'idiot savant' or naive outside the ivory tower of academia."



Uber CEO Travis Kalanick, left, and environmental researcher Spencer Meyer, who is suing the company and Kalanick. (Getty and University of Maine)

In the final report, which left open a door for further business for Ergo by suggesting the firm investigate Schmidt and Meyer's relationship, the authors wrote that "sources speak of Meyer's personality in glowing terms: they find him to be professional, thoughtful, and trustworthy." They wrote further that while Meyer actually dislikes Uber's business model, he may be under the sway of a glory-seeking social justice lawyer:

According to one friend and peer, Meyer believes he has a legitimate complaint against Uber's surge pricing, a grievance that he felt was worth pursuing. However, given Meyer's forthright, career-focused personality, we speculate that his lawyer Andrew Schmidta fellow Dartmouth classmate and friendmay have encouraged and induced Meyer to pursue his personal grievance on a grander scale. Schmidt is a labor lawyer with a record of fighting for social justice and leveraging class-action suits.

The report also identified a possible angle of attack, saying, "Meyer be particularly sensitive to any publicity that tarnishes his professional reputation."

Testifying at a deposition, Santos-Neves described the use of lies, or what he called "covers," to deceive targets as routine at Ergo "in certain instances," and he said his bosses never reprimanded him for any of his actions.

In his decision, Rakoff called Ergo's investigation "blatantly fraudulent and arguably criminal," citing Santos-Neves's deceptions, Ergo's lack of a New York private investigator's license, and Santos-Neves's recording of calls with subjects in New Hampshire and Connecticut, where recording others without their consent is illegal. Rakoff also skewered Uber's lawyers for failing to supervise Ergo, in violation of ethics rules governing lawyers.

Rakoff barred Uber from pursuing further investigations, or from using any information gleaned in its probe of Meyer, and held off on awarding Meyer's lawyers sanctions because Uber had agreed to pay an unspecified amount to cover all the litigation over the probe.

"Litigation is a truth-seeking exercise in which counsel, although acting as zealous advocates for their clients, are required to play by the rules," Rakoff wrote.

A spokesman for Uber declined to comment on the decision. Ergo did not respond to a call and email seeking comment. In an emailed statement, Andrew Schmidt wrote, "Even though the deceptive investigation only highlighted Mr. Meyers sterling personal and professional reputation, we are pleased with the courts opinion."

The tactic of Ergo's private eyes sniffing around Uber's opposition could well extend beyond Meyer's case, and their relationship seems not to have been soured by the revelations about Ergo's tactics. At the time of the June inquiry, Santos-Neves said that Ergo had done four jobs for Uber, and Uber hired the firm again that month, according to a legal filing.

In 2014, Uber senior vice president Emil Michael told a Buzzfeed editor that it would be appropriate to spend a million dollars to investigate the personal lives of journalists who are critical of Uber, and another Uber official accessed the user data of a reporter for the site without her permission to make a point.

When Buzzfeed editor Ben Smith told Michael that such behavior could become a problem for Uber, Michael scoffed, saying, "Nobody would know it was us."
PHILADELPHIA  On a night awash in history, Hillary Clinton triumphantly became the first woman to lead a major American political party toward the White House, breaking through a barrier that painfully eluded her eight years ago.

She put an electrifying cap on the Democratic convention's second night, appearing by video from New York and declaring to cheering delegates, "We just put the biggest crack in that glass ceiling yet."

Minutes earlier, former President Bill Clinton took on the role of devoted political spouse, declaring his wife an impassioned "change-maker" as he served as character witness. He traced their more than 40-year political and personal partnership in deep detail.

"She has been around a long time," he acknowledged. Casting her experience as an attribute, he added, "She's been worth every single year she's put into making people's lives better."

For a man more accustomed to delivering policy-packed stem-winders, Clinton's heartfelt address underscored the historic night for Democrats, and the nation. If she wins in November, the Clintons would also be the first married couple to each serve as president.

She will take on Donald Trump, who won the Republican nomination a week ago. Trump, who campaigned Tuesday in North Carolina, mocked the former president's speech in advance, calling him "over-rated."

At Trump's convention last week, Clinton was the target of blistering criticism of her character and judgment, a sharp contrast to the warm and passionate woman described by her husband. Seeking to explain the vastly different perceptions of his wife, Clinton said simply, "One is real, the other is made up."

The former president took voters back to a time before an affair with an intern led to his impeachment  and to intense public scrutiny of the first couple's marriage. While her aides believe his past transgressions are old news to voters, they have flared up anew at times during the campaign, with Trump often leading the charge.

Bill Clinton headlined the second night of the Democratic convention, a jubilant celebration of her formal nomination for president. In an important move for party unity, her primary rival Bernie Sanders helped make it official when the roll call got to his home state of Vermont, prompting delegates to erupt in cheers. It was a striking parallel to the role Clinton played eight years ago when she stepped to the microphone on the convention floor in Denver in support of her former rival, Barack Obama.

This time, Clinton shattered the glass ceiling she couldn't crack in 2008.

She leads a party still grappling with divisions. Moments after Clinton claimed the nomination, a group of Sanders supporters left the convention and headed to a media tent to protest what they said was their being shut out of the party. At the same time, protesters who had spent the day marching in the hot sun began facing off with police.

Trump cheered the disruptions from the campaign trail. In North Carolina, he told a convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars that, "our politicians have totally failed you."

Indeed, Clinton's long political resume  secretary of state, senator, first lady  has sometimes seemed an odd fit for an electorate deeply frustrated with Washington and eager to rally around unconventional candidates like Trump and Sanders. Many voters have questions about her character and trustworthiness, suggesting she's used her access to power to her personal advantage.

President Clinton spoke after three hours of testimonials from lawmakers, advocates, celebrities and citizens who argued otherwise. Each took the stage to vouch for her commitment to working on health care, children's issues and gun control.

"Hillary Clinton has the passion and understanding to support grieving mothers," said Sybrina Fulton, whose son Trayvon Martin was killed in 2012. "She has the courage to lead the fight for commonsense gun legislation."

The significant time devoted to the testimonials underscored the campaign's concerns about how voters view Clinton. Public polls consistently show that a majority of Americans don't believe she is honest and trustworthy. That perception that was reinforced after the FBI director's scathing assessment of her controversial email use as secretary of state, even though the Justice Department did not pursue charges.

President Clinton complicated the email controversy last month when he met privately with Attorney General Loretta Lynch in the midst of the FBI investigation. Republicans cast the meeting as a sign that the Clintons play by different rules, while Democrats bemoaned that at the very least, it left that impression.

The former president has campaigned frequently for his wife during the White House race, but mostly in smaller cities and towns, part of an effort by the campaign to keep him in a more behind-the-scenes role. His convention address was his highest profile appearance of the campaign.

Clinton's landmark achievement saturated the roll call with emotion and symbols of women's long struggle to break through political barriers. Jerry Emmett, a 102-year-old woman born before women had the right to vote, cast the ballots for Arizona.

Martha McKenna, a Clinton delegate from Maryland, said the night felt like a celebration for Sanders' campaign as well as Clinton's. She added, "The idea that I'm going to be here when the first woman president is nominated is overwhelming."

The Democratic convention drew the party's biggest stars to sweltering Philadelphia for the week-long event. On Monday night, first lady Michelle Obama made an impassioned case for Clinton as the only candidate in the presidential race worthy of being a role model for the nation's children. President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden will speak Wednesday, along with Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine, Clinton's new running mate.
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?
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.

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If President Babyhands is elected in November, it looks like he'll be taking Rudy "I LIKE TO YELL LOUD ALSO 9/11 ALSO MUSLIMS" Giuliani down to DC with himrumors abound that Trump's tapped the former Mayor of 9/11 Town to be his head of Homeland Security. It makes total sense, considering how safe he kept New York that time he put a $61 million emergency-command center inside 7 World Trade, an area already proven to be a terrorist target. Bye, command center! Yep, he'll be great.

The Daily News reports that Trump's been cutting "secret deals" with his besties in hopes of surrounding himself with some special friends before he accidentally razes the White House and builds the most FABULOUS Trump Orange House Tower & Resort money can buyGiuliani is one such special friend, having apparently impressed him by screaming very loudly onstage at the Republican National Convention last week.

"A secret deal has been struck by Donald Trump, and Rudy Giuliani would be head of Homeland Security, a GOP insider told the tabloid, adding that if Trump were elected today, Giuliani would be rounding up Muslims offered the job tomorrow.

A representative for Rudy told the News there was "zero truth to that rumor," but we'll all find out the real truth when the world opens up and swallows us whole in November.

[Editor's note: An earlier version of this story bore the sardonic headline "Giuliani Rumored To Be President Trump's Choice For Minister of Homeland Security & Ethnic Purity," which was intended to satirize Donald Trump's well-established xenophobia and nativism. However, it appears that this election is so batshit insane right now that some casual readers rightly wondered whether Trump is in fact rumored to be appointing an Ethnic Purity Minister. To be clear, Great Leader Trump is not, as far as we know, openly considering creating an Office of Ethnic Purity... at this time... though sources say Rudolph Giuliani would happily accept it.]
Sam Hain helped Warwickshire to an excellent win against Northamptonshire.

CRICKET

Northamptonshire 254-9

Warwickshire 257-2

Warwickshire won by eight wickets

Report by Brian Halford

AN opening stand of 180 from Sam Hain and William Porterfield powered Warwickshire to an eight-wicket Royal London One-Day Cup victory over Northamptonshire at Edgbaston.

Northamptonshire posted a solid total of 254 for nine, thanks to Alex Wakely (70, 74 balls, five fours, two sixes), Josh Cobb (50, 59 balls, four four, two sixes) and Ben Duckett (46, 55 balls, three fours).

But Warwickshire, who suffered a pre-match blow when Jonathan Trott was ruled out after hurting his back in the warm-ups, made short work of the chase thanks largely to Hain (88, 108 balls, six fours, one six) and Porterfield (92, 112 balls, 11 fours).

The Bears headed straight off north in good heart for today's game in Durham (Wednesday) while Northamptonshire need to bounce back against Worcestershire at New Road.

After the visitors endured more misfortune with the toss (they have lost it in all six RL Cup games this season) they were put in and started well, passing 100 for just one wicket in the 20th over with partnerships of 48 in eight overs between Cobb and Adam Rosssington and 55 in 13 between Cobb and Duckett.

But they were pegged back by three wickets in 29 balls. Cobb embarked on a single that wasn't there and was calmly run out by Tim Ambrose before Jeetan Patel struck twice in three balls. Duckett, fresh from smashing 220 for England Lions against Sri Lanka A, edged behind and Rob Keogh followed his 134 against Durham with a duck as he fired a return catch back to the spinner.

Wickets continued to fall as Rob Newton was superbly held by Hain at deep square, Steven Crook chipped a sitter to mid-off and Rory Kleinveldt holed out. Wakely reached a 57-ball half-century with a six but after he top-edged Olly Hannon-Dalby to short third-man, the innings subsided quickly.

The total looked a little under par on a good batting track and Porterfield and Hain started purposefully by hitting five fours in the third over, from Kleinveldt. The openers paced the pursuit perfectly and were within ten runs of setting a new Warwickshire limited-overs record opening stand when a total mix-up brought the run out of Porterfield eight runs short of his tenth List A ton.

Hain was trapped in the crease by Azharullah and fell lbw but Laurie Evans (43 not out, 51 balls, six fours) saw his side comfortably home with 12 balls to spare.
Alcoa Inc. (NYSE: AA) announced that it plans to undertake a reverse stock split of Alcoas common stock at a ratio of 1 for 3 and a proportionate reduction in the number of authorized shares of its common stock. The reverse stock split will reduce the number of Alcoa shares of common stock outstanding and is expected to increase the per share trading price of the common stock, which may improve liquidity and facilitate its trading.

Alcoa will hold a special shareholder meeting on October 5, 2016 to seek approval of the reverse stock split and authorized share count reduction. Approval of both requires the affirmative vote of a majority of votes cast by shareholders entitled to vote. Alcoa has filed a preliminary proxy statement regarding the special meeting with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

When the reverse stock split becomes effective, every three shares of Alcoa common stock will automatically be converted into one share of common stock. Alcoa does not anticipate issuing fractional shares as a result of the reverse stock split: shareholders entitled to receive fractional share(s) as a result of the reverse stock split will receive cash payments in lieu of such shares. If the reverse stock split is approved and implemented, the number of authorized shares of common stock of Alcoa would decrease from the current amount of 1,800,000,000 to 600,000,000.

The reverse stock split will not change the proportionate equity interests or voting rights of holders of common stock, subject to the treatment of fractional shares.

Holders of record of Alcoa common stock as of the close of business on August 3, 2016 will be entitled to notice of and to vote at the special meeting.

Alcoa intends to effect the reverse stock split and authorized share count reduction prior to the previously announced separation of the company. The reverse stock split is subject to market and other customary conditions, including shareholder approval. However, there are no assurances that the reverse stock split and authorized share count reduction will be completed, that it will result in an increased per share price or achieve its other intended effects. Alcoa reserves the right, at its discretion, to abandon the reverse stock split and authorized share count reduction at any time prior to filing the applicable articles of amendment in the Pennsylvania Department of State.
KCG Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: KCG) announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Neonet Securities AB ("Neonet"), an independent agency broker and execution specialist based in Stockholm, Sweden from its shareholders, Hay Tor Capital, KAS BANK and Cidron Delfi Intressenter Holding. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Founded in 1996, Neonet provides a comprehensive suite of advanced algorithmic trading, smart order routing and sales trading primarily in European equities across 30 public and private markets to approximately 200 clients in more than 20 countries. Neonet strives to deliver transparent execution services to banks, brokers and financial institutions with an optimized balance of quality and cost. The acquisition will strengthen KCG's reach in continental Europe and will enable both KCG's and Neonet's clients to access a more complete range of international execution services and capabilities.

Philip Allison, Chief Executive Officer of KCG Europe Limited, said, "We are pleased to announce an agreement to acquire Neonet, a Nordic pioneer in trading and execution services, as we broaden our European reach and continue to bolster our ability to provide clients with global execution solutions. Neonet's sophisticated technology, experienced trading desks, and deep team of execution specialists are highly complementary to our existing execution services and will help accelerate the growth of our agency client business."

John Ashdown, Managing Partner at Hay Tor Capital, said, "We are delighted that such a major industry participant as KCG will now take the Neonet business forward to the next level at an immensely exciting time of industry transformation in Europe."

Tim Wildenberg, Chief Executive Officer of Neonet, added, "We are excited to join forces with KCG, an established market leader in global execution services. For the last 20 years, Neonet has focused on putting clients first and providing them with transparent execution services, as well as deep knowledge of international financial markets. We look forward to leveraging KCG's significant expertise across asset classes in the U.S. and Europe for the benefit of our clients worldwide for years to come."

The transaction, which is subject to customary regulatory and other approvals, is expected to close later this year. Neonet will continue to be led by Mr. Wildenberg and will maintain the company's headquarters in Stockholm following the close. The transaction is expected to result in cost savings through consolidating exchange memberships, market data, routing and other operational costs while simultaneously expanding KCG's breadth and commitment to Europe. KCG expects the acquisition will be slightly accretive to earnings in 2017.

KCG was advised on the transaction by Advokatfirman Vinge KB and Sullivan & Cromwell LLP. NovitasFTCL and Advokatfirman Delphi served as financial and legal advisors, respectively, to the shareholders of Neonet.
Renowned investor Steve Cohen, his venture capital arm Point72 Ventures, and Quantopian announced today an agreement for Quantopian to manage up to $250 million of investment capital provided by Mr. Cohen.

Quantopian offers a free platform where a vibrant online community of over 85,000 members from 180 countries can create institutional-quality investment algorithms. Investment algorithms created on Quantopians platform by members will be used to manage the funds from Mr. Cohen. Each author of a selected algorithm will receive a royalty based on the performance of his or her strategy.

This is a watershed moment for the entire industry. Steve Cohen, one of the most storied and successful investors, will be supporting investment algorithms produced by Quantopians community, said John Fawce Fawcett, CEO of Quantopian. These funds will permit Quantopian to make larger allocations and therefore pay larger royalties to authors of profitable algorithms. I expect this major incentive to galvanize both existing and new members, and propel everyone to new levels of creativity.

The scarce resource in quantitative investing is talent, said Matthew Granade, the leader of Point72 Ventures. Quantopian has demonstrated an innovative approach to finding that talent.

This relationship demonstrates the unique advantages offered by partnering with Point72 Ventures, Mr. Granade said. In addition to receiving investment capital, Quantopian is getting strategic advice that it cant get from any other investor and Point72 will benefit from an ocean of untapped talent.

Mr. Cohens commitment, a portion of which is contingent on Quantopian meeting certain performance metrics, represents the first major commitment of funds for Quantopian to manage using its members algorithms.

Point72 Ventures will also be making an investment in Quantopian. Quantopian has previously received venture investments from leading venture firms, including Bessemer Venture Partners, Khosla Ventures and Spark Capital.

This deal is exactly what we had in mind when we launched Point72 Ventures, said Pete Casella, Co-Head of Point72 Ventures.

Quantopians portfolio of investment algorithms is selected from the more than 400,000 algorithms written by its community of over 85,000 members, including professors, finance professionals, research scientists, developers, and students. By offering an institutional quality platform online and for free, with access to extensive data, Quantopian gives anyone the ability to create and test investment algorithms -- and be rewarded for their work.

Quantopian evaluates the performance of each algorithm on its platform and makes allocations to selected algorithms based on factors including return, risk, style, capacity, and interaction effects. The authors of the selected algorithms receive a share of the profits generated from their investment strategies.
Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. has agreed to sell the rights and assets related to 79 pharmaceutical products to settle FTC charges that its proposed $40.5 billion acquisition of Allergan plcs generic pharmaceutical business would be anticompetitive. The remedy requires Teva to divest the drug portfolio to eleven rival firms, and marks the largest drug divestiture order in an FTC pharmaceutical merger case.

The FTC order will preserve competition in U.S. pharmaceutical markets where Teva and Allergan compete now or would likely have competed in the future if not for the merger. The divested products include anesthetics, antibiotics, weight loss drugs, oral contraceptives, and treatments for a wide variety of diseases and conditions, including ADHD, allergies, arthritis, cancers, diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, mental illnesses, opioid dependence, pain, Parkinsons disease, and respiratory, skin and sleep disorders.

Millions of Americans rely daily on generic drugs to treat a wide range of illnesses, said Debbie Feinstein, Director of the FTCs Bureau of Competition. The FTCs settlement safeguards the competitive availability of these medications for patients across the country who depend on them.

As explained in its Statement, the Commission also evaluated whether this transaction would have anticompetitive effects beyond those occurring in individual product markets, but concluded that the evidence showed it was unlikely to do so. Specifically, the Commission considered whether the transaction would lower incentives to develop or bring new generic drugs to market, as well as whether the combined companys ability to bundle products could have an anticompetitive effect.

The acquirers of the divested products are Mayne Pharma Group Ltd., Impax Laboratories, Inc., Dr. Reddys Laboratories Ltd., Sagent Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Cipla Limited, Zydus Worldwide DMCC, Mikah Pharma LLC, Perrigo Pharma International D.A.C., Aurobindo Pharma USA, Inc., Prasco LLC and 3M Company.

Teva and Allergan must divest the drug products no later than 10 days after the acquisition is complete, and to help ensure that the order achieves its remedial goals, they are required to provide technical assistance and other transitional services to ensure that the acquirers can independently manufacture and sell the divested products. The FTC order includes an asset maintenance order and enables the Commission to appoint two interim monitors.

In addition to the product divestitures, to address the anticompetitive effects likely to arise in markets for 15 pharmaceutical products where Teva supplies active pharmaceutical ingredients to current or future Allergan competitors, the FTC order additionally requires Teva to offer these existing API customers the option of entering into long-term API supply contracts. This option ensures that these customers have access to essential API inputs and provides them sufficient time to qualify alternative suppliers if they choose to do so.

Further details about the complaint and the proposed consent order are set forth in the analysis to aid public comment for this matter.

Israel-based Teva, a global manufacturer of generic and branded pharmaceuticals, is the largest generic pharmaceutical producer in the world. Allergan is also a global producer of generic, branded and over-the-counter pharmaceuticals, and the third largest generic in the U.S.

Commission staff and the staff of antitrust agencies in the European Union, Canada, Israel, and Mexico worked cooperatively on this investigation.

The Commission votes to issue the complaint and accept the proposed consent order for public comment, and to approve the Commission Statement were both 3-0. The FTC will publish the consent agreement package in the Federal Register shortly. The agreement will be subject to public comment for 30 days, beginning today and continuing through August 29, 2016, after which the Commission will decide whether to make the proposed consent order final. Comments can be filed electronically or in paper form by following the instructions in the Supplementary Information section of the Federal Register notice.

NOTE: The Commission issues an administrative complaint when it has reason to believe that the law has been or is being violated, and it appears to the Commission that a proceeding is in the public interest. When the Commission issues a consent order on a final basis, it carries the force of law with respect to future actions. Each violation of such an order may result in a civil penalty of up to $40,000 per day.

The Federal Trade Commission works to promote competition, and protect and educate consumers. You can learn more about how competition benefits consumers or file an antitrust complaint. Like the FTC on Facebook (link is external), follow us on Twitter (link is external), read our blogs and subscribe to press releases for the latest FTC news and resources.
Photo illustration of beer flowing from a bottle of Stella Artois into a glass, seen against a SAB Miller logo, November 5, 2015. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo

By Martinne Geller

LONDON (Reuters) - SABMiller (NYSE: SAB) has told employees to pause the integration of its operations with those of Anheuser-Busch InBev (NYSE: ABI) as the brewer's board weighs its sweetened takeover offer, two sources familiar with the matter said.

The pause is not an indication of the board's thinking, said one of the sources, who declined to be identified as the matter is private.

Still, AB InBev's U.S.-listed shares fell 3 percent and shares of Molson Coors (NYSE: TAP), which is set to take over SAB's U.S. operations, fell 5 percent on concerns about the fate of the $100 billion-plus deal, one of the biggest in corporate history.

The world's top brewers agreed to merge late last year and for months have been engaged in back-office preparations, the sources said, aimed at smoothing the combination that was expected to start in the second half of the year when the deal was due to close.

The deal, however, has hit the rocks in recent weeks amid investor dissent over an offer made less attractive by a sharp fall in the pound following Britain's vote to leave the European Union.

In an effort to calm a stream of investor complaints, AB InBev sweetened its offer on Tuesday.

That prompted SABMiller Chief Executive Alan Clark to call for a pause in "convergence planning workstreams," according to a company memo published on Wednesday by the Financial Times' blog Alphaville.

"There should be no contact with AB InBev with immediate effect, and all meetings and calls will be postponed until further notice," the memo said, noting that it also applied to brewers Molson Coors and Asahi <2502.T>, which are picking up assets that need to be divested in the deal, and all advisers and consultants.

"This is another big piece of news to take in and I appreciate this will cause lots of internal and external speculation. However, please stay focused and I will keep you updated as soon as I am able to," Clark added.

SAB officials declined to comment on the memo or the pause in integration, which was mentioned earlier on Wednesday by trade publication Beer Business Daily.

Denver-based Molson Coors, which on Monday announced leadership changes to take effect once the deal closes, also declined to comment, as did AB InBev.

MIXED RECEPTION

AB InBev's new offer is worth around 79 billion pounds, up from a November deal worth about 70 billion pounds. The steep weakening of the pound versus the dollar had reduced the value of that offer for U.S. investors, while a rise in AB InBev shares has increased the value of a special cash-and-share alternative aimed at SAB's two largest shareholders.

The new offer, which is final, has met a mixed reception.

Top 10 shareholder Aberdeen Asset Management (NASDAQ: ADN) said the offer remained "unacceptable" as it undervalued the company and continued to favor those two major shareholders, cigarette maker Altria (NYSE: MO) and Colombia's Santo Domingo family.

By contrast, New York-based hedge fund Twin Capital Management, also a shareholder, applauded the raised offer.

"I'm hopeful it gets done. It should get done," Twin's CEO David Simon told Reuters, adding that he had conveyed that message to SABMiller management.

South Africa's Public Investment Corporation (PIC), a top five shareholder, told Reuters it was in talks with SAB over the revised offer, but declined to make its view public.

Following discussions with shareholders, SAB's board plans to meet to formally review the new offer.

(Reporting by Martinne Geller in London and Lauren Hirsch in New York, editing by Susan Fenton and David Evans)
GRANDE PRAIRIE, AB -- (Marketwired) -- 07/27/16 --

ANGKOR GOLD CORP. (TSX VENTURE: ANK) ("ANGKOR") announces that it has completed its non-brokered private placement, as previously announced (the "Private Placement"). The previously announced $1,200,000 Private Placement was oversubscribed and the Company raised total gross proceeds of $1,250,400 through the issuance of 3,126,000 units (the "Units") at a price of $0.40 per each unit consists of one common share of and one-half common share purchase warrant ( each whole warrant, a "Warrant"), each Warrant entitles the holder thereof to purchase one additional common share at a price of $0.50 per share for a period of 12 months from the date of issuance and is also subject to an acceleration clause. The securities issued will have a four month hold period from the date of closing. The Private Placement is subject to TSX Venture Exchange approval.

"Along with the work we will be doing with our new partners, Blue River and JOGMEC, we will also be focusing our energy on the Andong Meas license," said JP Dau, VP of Operations. "We have seen an increased level of interest recently from various international players, and are hopeful that additional partnerships are on the horizon," he concluded.

ANGKOR is expecting the final approval of MESCO Gold's ESIA in the coming weeks. Also, ANGKOR recently announced two separate earn-in agreements - the first with Blue River Resources of Vancouver, Canada (May 9, 2016) and the second with Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corporation ("JOGMEC") (June 14, 2016). In both cases, ANGKOR will be Operator on the projects for the upcoming work season.

"Along with operational capital, this cash injection will allow ANGKOR to continue to build shareholder value as we begin the process of identification, and eventual acquisition, of new exploration licenses in Cambodia" stated Mike Weeks, Chairman and CEO of ANGKOR.

ANGKOR's six exploration licences in the Kingdom of Cambodia cover 1,273 km2, which the company has been actively exploring over the past 6 years. The Company has now covered all tenements with stream sediment geochemical sampling and has flown low level aeromagnetic surveys over most of the ground. ANGKOR has drilled 21,855 metres of NQ core in 190 holes, and has collected in excess of 110,000 termite mound, 'B' and 'C' zone soil samples in over 20 centres of interest over a combined area of over 140km2, in addition to numerous trenches and detailed geological field mapping. Exploration on all tenements is ongoing.

ANGKOR GOLD CORP.

ANGKOR Gold Corp. is a public company listed on the TSX-Venture Exchange, is Cambodia's premier gold explorer with a significantly large land package and a first-mover advantage with excellent relationships at all levels of government (local to national). For more Corporate information visit our website at: http://www.angkorgold.ca/ or follow us @AngkorGold for all the latest updates.

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.

Certain of the statements made and information contained herein may constitute "forward-looking information". In particular references to the private placement and future work programs or expectations on the quality or results of such work programs are subject to risks associated with operations on the property, exploration activity generally, equipment limitations and availability, as well as other risks that we may not be currently aware of. Accordingly, readers are advised not to place undue reliance on forward-looking information. Except as required under applicable securities legislation, the Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT:ANGKOR GOLD CORP. Stephen BuregaVice President of Corporate Development Telephone: (647) 515-3734 Email: [email protected]

Source: Angkor Gold Corporation
Study results confirm that CPC-201, the combination of donepezil and solifenacin, permits greatly increased tolerable dosing of donepezil, offering the potential to significantly improve the symptomatic treatment of Alzheimers Disease

IRVINE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Chase Pharmaceuticals Corporation (Chase), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of improved treatments for neurodegenerative disorders including Alzheimers disease, announced today the presentation of results from its Phase 2 study of Chases lead compound CPC-201. CPC-201 is a patent-protected combination of the acetylcholinesterase inhibitor (AChEI) donepezil, and the peripherally acting cholinergic blocker, solifenacin, for the treatment of Alzheimers disease type dementia.

The CPC-201 Phase 2 results, presented by Thomas Chase, MD, chief scientific officer and co-founder of Chase, and the former Scientific Director and head of the Experimental Therapeutics Branch for the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, confirmed that solifenacin attenuated donepezil adverse events, enabling the tolerable administration of doses of donepezil to as much as 400 percent of the current standard treatment of donepezil. Secondary endpoints provided signals of enhanced efficacy, as would be predicted from increased tolerable dosing of donepezil. The data were presented during an oral session at the 2016 Alzheimers Association Conference (AAIC) in Toronto, Canada, July 24  28 (Abstract a12446).

We believe that adverse events have long limited AChEI dosing to suboptimal levels, in turn limiting the efficacy of donepezil and other AChEIs, said Thomas Chase, M.D. Our Phase 2 findings, together with those from our earlier Phase 1 studies, robustly support our hypothesis that the co-formulation of a peripheral anticholinergic with donepezil enables the safe and tolerable administration of multiples of the current standard of care doses of AChEI such as donepezil.

The primary endpoint of this Phase 2 single-blind, crossover trial was to safely increase the tolerated dose of donepezil from 10 mg/day up to as much as 40 mg/day. This trial consisted of 41 moderate (MMSE 10-20) Alzheimers type subjects who were being successfully treated with 10 mg/day of donepezil. The anticholinergic solifenacin was first titrated to 15 mg/day and then donepezil escalated to each subjects maximum tolerated dose or to the protocol limit of 40 mg/day. Subjects then continued for a three-month maintenance period. All subjects were able to tolerably maintain above the currently approved doses of donepezil and 85 percent of subjects reached and tolerated the maximum allowable donepezil dose of 40 mg/day. Moreover, in the maintenance phase of the trial, subjects experienced significantly less dose-limiting side effects than those that would be predicted for 10 mg/day of donepezil.

Although this Phase 2 study was not designed nor powered to provide meaningful estimates of anti-dementia efficacy, both the ADAS-Cog and the CGI-I scales in the study yielded positive signals of enhanced efficacy. The mean change in ADAS-Cog over the course of the study showed improvement versus subject baseline and, adjusted for underlying disease progression using a multi-study meta-analysis, subjects showed a mean ( SEM) benefit of 2.45 points over 10 mg/day donepezil or 5.4  .84 points compared to predicted untreated disease progression. Combined Clinical Global Impression (CGI-I) scores from investigators and caregivers at 26 weeks averaged 3.1  .20 points, thus improving by .94  .20 points (p

During the dose maintenance phase, at a median donepezil dose of 40 mg/day, total gastrointestinal adverse events were greatly attenuated and about 80 percent below those predicted from trials of previously approved doses of 10 mg/day of donepezil. As would be expected with a cholinergic blocker that does not cross the blood-brain barrier, solifenacin had no effect on cognitive function and there were no drug-related serious adverse events (SAE) or clinically significant cardiovascular or laboratory abnormalities. There were no drug related dropouts and no new AEs or evidence of solifenacin toxicity.

Pre-clinical studies have repeatedly shown that there is a strong dose/efficacy relationship associated with AChEIs. Further, PET scan studies in humans show that at the typical dose of 10 mg/day of donepezil, the central enzymatic inhibition is no greater than about 30 percent, substantially lower than that which would be expected from optimal dosing. Yet, historically, it has not been possible to tolerably increase the dose of donepezil to meaningfully higher levels, said Douglas Ingram, chief executive officer of Chase. We believe we have the means to finally unlock the true potential of optimally dosed AChEIs. Moreover, we are employing an efficient development and regulatory pathway and plan to commence a superiority trial versus the current gold-standard treatment for Alzheimers, 10 mg/day of donepezil. If successful in Phase 3, CPC-201 could be the new standard for the symptomatic treatment of Alzheimer's disease and benefit millions of suffering patients.

About CPC-201

Chases lead candidate, CPC-201, is a patent-protected combination of donepezil (an AChEI), one of the few pharmaceuticals proven to improve cognition in Alzheimers patients, and solifenacin, a peripherally acting cholinergic blocker.

About Chase

Chase Pharmaceuticals Corporation is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the development and commercialization of improved treatments for neurodegenerative disorders. Chases development program, if successful, will profoundly improve the symptomatic treatment of Alzheimer's disease. The company was co-founded by Thomas Chase, MD, the former Scientific Director and head of the Experimental Therapeutics Branch for the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke and Kathleen Clarence-Smith, MD, PhD, the former head of CNS development at each of Sanofi, Hoffmann-La Roche and Otsuka. Chase is led by its chief executive officer and president, Douglas Ingram, formerly the president of Allergan, Inc.

Chase has closed over $24 million in funding to date, with approximately $22 million through a Series B financing led by New Rhein Healthcare Investors, LLC and including, among others, Edmond de Rothschild Investment Partners, Cipla Ventures and Brain Trust Accelerator Fund.

Forward Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, as amended. Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts. These statements include projections and estimates and their underlying assumptions, statements regarding plans, objectives, intentions and expectations with respect to future financial results, events, operations, services, product development and potential, and statements regarding future performance. Forward-looking statements are generally identified by the words "expects", "anticipates", "believes", "intends", "estimates", "plans" and similar expressions. Although Chases management believes that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are reasonable, investors are cautioned that forward-looking information and statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties, many of which are difficult to predict and generally beyond the control of Chase, that could cause actual results and developments to differ materially from those expressed in, or implied or projected by, the forward-looking information and statements. These risks and uncertainties include among other things, the uncertainties inherent in research and development, future clinical data and analysis, including post marketing, decisions by regulatory authorities, such as the FDA or the EMA, regarding whether and when to approve any drug, device or biological application that may be filed for any such product candidates as well as their decisions regarding labeling and other matters that could affect the availability or commercial potential of such product candidates, the absence of guarantee that the product candidates if approved will be commercially successful, the future approval and commercial success of therapeutic alternatives, Chases ability to benefit from external growth opportunities, the impact of cost containment policies and subsequent changes thereto, other than as required by applicable law, Chase does not undertake any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information or statements.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160727006350/en/

for Chase Pharmaceuticals Corporation

Christine Cassiano, 714-552-0326

[email protected]

Source: Chase Pharmaceuticals Corporation
WATSONVILLE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Granite Construction Incorporated (NYSE: GVA) announced today that is has been awarded a $128 million Construction Manager/General Contractor (CM/GC) contract from the California Department of Transportation for the California State Route 99 realignment project in Fresno, California. The project will be booked into second quarter 2016 backlog.

Scope of work includes construction of a reconfigured interchange, overhead structures and infrastructure to accommodate the high-speed rail system between the existing freeway and the Union Pacific Railroad. The scope of work also includes re-routing of local streets to accommodate the realigned freeway and relocation of utilities to support the project. This project follows an initial $28 million early work scope contract that began construction in December 2015.

Funding for the project is provided by the California High Speed Rail Authority. Work is scheduled to be complete by September 2018. For more information visit the State Route 99 Realignment Project website.

About Granite

Through its offices and subsidiaries nationwide, Granite Construction Incorporated (NYSE: GVA) is one of the nations largest infrastructure contractors and construction materials producers. Granite specializes in complex infrastructure projects, including transportation, industrial and federal contracting, and is a proven leader in alternative procurement project delivery. Granite is an award-winning firm in safety, quality and environmental stewardship, and has been honored as one of the Worlds Most Ethical Companies by Ethisphere Institute for seven consecutive years.

Granite is listed on the New York Stock Exchange and is part of the S&P MidCap 400 Index, the MSCI KLD 400 Social Index and the Russell 2000 Index. For more information, visit graniteconstruction.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160727006608/en/

Granite Construction Incorporated

Media

Jacque Fourchy, 831-761-4741

Investors

Ronald Botoff, 831-728-7532

Source: Granite Construction Incorporated
California Addiction Treatment Centers Customized Addiction Treatment Programs Prove More Effective Than General Model

NEWPORT BEACH, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- In 2013, around 24.6 million American citizens ages 12 and up reported using an illicit drug during the course of the previous month. This is equal to 9.4% of the American population. The report by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration showed a dramatic increase of 8.3% since the year 2002, and SAMHSA further noted that in 2013, an estimated 22.7 million Americans required treatment for alcohol or drugs. Sadly only 2.5 million of these people, a mere 0.9 percent, received the treatment they needed.

Thankfully for those seeking treatment for all types of addiction and mental health issues, Intervention Drug Rehab Association has stepped up to the challenge of ensuring that as many people as possible get the help that they need. Their extensive network of providers offers customized addiction treatment programs to each client, based on individual needs, substance abuse history, and severity of addiction. Oftentimes many drug rehab centers find it easier to guide their clients through the same program without taking individual needs and even individual preferences into consideration.

Kelly Larson, a case manager at Intervention Drug Rehab Association, says, A lot of the time its easier to have everyone doing the same thing. Were not about that here. Were not about easy. Were about whats best and most effective for our clients.

Due to the limited amount of clients enrolled at any given time, staff members are able to provide the necessary amount of support for each client. In addition to this perk of the program, clients are also able to explore a wider variety of positive coping mechanisms. Just because yoga works for some, that does not mean it will work for every client. Intervention Drug Rehab Association encourages clients to try art therapy, exercise, meditation, 12 step programs, group therapy, and more. By helping each individual client discover what works best for him or her, Intervention is able to put each client on his or her own path to sustained sobriety and success.

Intervention Drug Rehab Association is proud to be able to offer luxury accommodations, transportation to treatment and classes, and private chefs who cook delicious meals three times a day. By continuing to focus on this individualized model of treatment, they report seeing clients successfully sustain their sobriety upon returning home.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160727006409/en/

Intervention Drug Rehab Association

Kelly Larson

(888) 771-5664

[email protected]

http://www.interventionassociation.com

Source: Intervention Drug Rehab Association
DUBLIN, Ohio, July 27, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Socius, an award-winning business technology and consulting company, has been named to the 2016 Microsoft Dynamics Inner Circle for the 20th year in acknowledgment of exceptional service and sales performance. Socius is the only company to have earned this achievement 20 times through the history of Microsoft's Dynamics partners.

This recognition of Inner Circle for Microsoft Dynamics came during Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC) 2016, the annual premier partner event, which took place July 10-14 in Toronto, Ontario.

Membership in this elite group is based on business performance and licensing growth, and placed Socius in the upper 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.

"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 Socius for their achievements this past year and for their dedication and support of Microsoft Dynamics solutions."

Inner Circle status has been a distinction bestowed upon Microsoft Dynamics partners for the past 23 years. As a long-time leading partner, Socius has earned this recognition 20 times. The 2016 Inner Circle for Microsoft Dynamics is limited to less than 60 of the most successful and strategic Microsoft Dynamics partners from around the world. Primary selection criteria include overall revenue and license revenue growth during FY16.

"I'm very proud of our team for earning membership in the Microsoft Dynamics Inner Circle for the 20th year," said Jeff Geisler, CEO and Senior Managing Director of Socius. "We have been providing Microsoft Dynamics solutions to our clients for more than 30 years. It is truly an honor to consistently be recognized by Microsoft as one of their leading partners."

Socius leverages innovative technology, specialized expertise, and strategic partnerships to fuel the growth and transformation of organizations across the United States. As a Gold Certified Microsoft Dynamics partner, Socius provides the complete portfolio of Microsoft Dynamics ERP and CRM solutions. Socius is also a Microsoft Cloud Accelerate partner, providing our clients with power to choose whether they want their business solutions deployed on-premises, hosted by Socius, in our private cloud, via Azure, or a hybrid approach.

About Socius:

Socius (www.socius1.com) is a strategic business consulting partner that provides comprehensive business management solutions to help companies leverage technology to fuel their growth and profitability and compete more successfully in today's economy. As a Gold Certified Microsoft Partner, a Sage Authorized Partner, and a NetSuite Partner, Socius represents the most trusted accounting, enterprise resource planning (ERP), customer relationship management (CRM), and business intelligence and analytics technologies on the market. Backed by over 30 years of award-winning experience, Socius proudly serves clients throughout the country from its headquarters in Dublin, Ohio, and its 28 additional locations.

For more information, contact: Erin Paulson614-798-0770[email protected]

Video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2CnPaINQoQM Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160412/354341LOGO

To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/socius-awarded-microsoft-dynamics-inner-circle-for-an-unprecedented-20th-year-300304823.html

SOURCE Socius
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo., July 27, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Wounded veterans and their families experienced the beauty of Colorado Springs' Cheyenne Mountain via off-road Jeep rides during a recent program event hosted by Wounded Warrior Project (WWP).

After taking in the rugged terrain of the triple-peaked mountain during the hour-long drive, participants stopped at a ranch, where wranglers treated them to a campfire, s'mores, and tales of Colorado's rich gold-mining history. Gathered around the flames that reached toward the Colorado sky, the warriors and family members easily forged new relationships with their peers.

Among the participants was Army veteran Turhan May, who brought his family out to enjoy the Colorado wilderness.

"We really did have a wonderful time," he said. "The guides were awesome and very knowledgeable with the area and its history. The warriors and other people who attended with us were fantastic."

Turhan said the best thing about the outing was experiencing a memorable adventure with his loved ones.

"My wife and I wanted to get involved in this to make a great memory and provide a great experience for our children," he said. "We like to be outdoors and to spend as much time together as we can. And who doesn't like s'mores and a chance to get to know fellow brothers and sisters in arms?"

WWP programs reintroduce warriors and their families to the unique bonds experienced during military service. That spirit of camaraderie among warriors is rarely duplicated in the civilian world, so these relationships can help combat the isolation that is detrimental to the recovery process.

During program activities, WWP staff closely interact with attendees and advise them of additional programs and services that can assist their recovery, providing warriors with more personalized therapeutic outlets. Generous donors make it possible for wounded veterans to participate in a variety of activities that empower them to take control of their lives  at no cost.

About Wounded Warrior ProjectThe mission of Wounded Warrior Project (WWP) is to honor and empower Wounded Warriors. The WWP purpose is to raise awareness and to enlist the public's aid for the needs of injured service members, to help injured servicemen and women aid and assist each other, and to provide unique, direct programs and services to meet their needs. WWP is a national, nonpartisan organization headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida. To get involved and learn more, visit woundedwarriorproject.org.

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160726/392918

To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/wounded-warrior-project-hosts-mountain-adventure-for-veterans-and-families-300304187.html

SOURCE Wounded Warrior Project
China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi arrives at a meeting at the sidelines of the ASEAN foreign ministers meeting in Vientiane, Laos July 25, 2016. REUTERS/Jorge Silva

By Manuel Mogato, Michael Martina and Ben Blanchard

VIENTIANE (Reuters) - Southeast Asian nations failed to agree on maritime disputes in the South China Sea on Sunday after Cambodia blocked any mention to an international court ruling against Beijing in their statement, diplomats said.

Foreign ministers from the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) met for the first time since the Permanent Court of Arbitration handed an emphatic legal victory to the Philippines in the dispute this month.

The ruling by the court in The Hague denied China's sweeping claims in the strategic seaway, through which more than $5 trillion in global trade passes each year.

China claims most of the sea, but ASEAN members the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei all have rival claims. Beijing says the ruling has no bearing on its rights in the sea, and described the case as a farce.

The Philippines and Vietnam both wanted the communique issued by ASEAN foreign ministers after their meeting to refer to the ruling and the need to respect international law, ASEAN diplomats said. Their foreign ministers both discussed the ruling with ASEAN counterparts in the Laotian capital.

But before the meeting, China's closest ASEAN ally Cambodia opposed the proposed wording, throwing the group into disarray. Phnom Penh supports Beijing's opposition to any ASEAN stand on the South China Sea, and its preference for dealing with the disputed claims on a bilateral basis.

FIRST DEADLOCK SINCE 2012

"We are still working on it," Indonesia's Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi told Reuters after the meeting on Sunday, adding that she hoped the ASEAN members would reach an agreement.

Cambodia's Foreign Minister Prak Sokhon declined to comment on his country's position on Sunday.

Even after a late-night meeting of foreign ministers called to thrash out the issue late on Saturday, the region's top diplomats were unable to find a compromise.

The group has given itself until Tuesday to come to issue a statement, said one ASEAN diplomat.

ASEAN is facing the prospect of being unable to issue a statement after a meeting for only the second time in its 49-year history. The first time, in 2012, was also due to Cambodia's resistance to language about the South China Sea.

"We have been here before and I hope they can solve it," said one official from the ASEAN Secretariat in Indonesia. "It is the same story again, a repeat of the meeting in 2012."

Over the next two days, Southeast Asian nations will meet with China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry. Kerry and Wang are also expected to meet and discuss the maritime issues.

Wang, who started bilateral meetings with ASEAN members on Sunday, said he thought the media focus on the South China Sea issue was "very strange".

It was "not a China-ASEAN issue," he said, adding that disputes should be resolved among the parties involved.

Japan's Foreign Minister Fumiko Kishida will also be in Laos for the ASEAN regional forum meeting. It is unclear if he will meet Wang, but China reacted angrily to Kishida saying he would discuss the sea issue if they do meet.

China's Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang, in a statement posted on the ministry's website, said the sea is not Japan's concern.

"We urge Japan not to hype up and meddle in the South China Sea issue," he said. "Japan is not a concerned party in the South China Sea, and because of its disgraceful history is in no place to make irresponsible comments about China."

U.S. ROLE

The United States, allied with the Philippines and cultivating closer relations with Vietnam, has called on China to respect the court's ruling.

It has criticized China's building of artificial islands and facilities in the sea and has sailed warships close to the disputed territory to assert freedom of navigation rights.

But Kerry will urge ASEAN nations to explore diplomatic ways to ease tension over Asia's biggest potential military flashpoint, a senior U.S. official said ahead of his trip.

Chinese state media called for "damage control" at the meetings. A commentary published by the official Xinhua news agency on Sunday said the court ruling was a "blow to peace and stability in the region ... and only serves to increase the likelihood of confrontation and turbulence."

Barack Obama is set in September to become the first U.S. president to visit Laos, attending an annual summit hosted by the country that holds the ASEAN chairmanship.

Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi is also in Laos, making her debut at ASEAN meetings as the foreign minister for Myanmar.

(This story has been corrected to remove "U.N.-backed" in second paragraph)

(Additional reporting by Simon Webb in Vientiane and Lesley Wroughton in Paris; Editing by Tom Heneghan)
A security guard stands outside the headquarters building of China Securities Regulatory Commission in Beijing, September 7, 2015. REUTERS/Jason Lee

SHANGHAI (Reuters) - China's securities regulator has asked firms to curb the use of borrowed money when participating in secondary private equity placements, the China Securities Journal reported on Wednesday, citing anonymous investment banking sources.

In a recent training session given by the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC), firms were given "window guidance" that any firm owning five percent or more of a company should not use money raised through wealth management platforms or other third party fundraising platforms to subscribe.

In addition, CSRC indicated that firms should limit the use of banking facilities to their intended use.

According to China Securities Journal's sources, the purpose of the guidance is to increase transparency in the subscription process.

(Reporting By Nathaniel Taplin; Editing by Sam Holmes)
Malaysia Airlines planes on the tarmac at Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Sepang, Malaysia, March 1, 2016. REUTERS/Olivia Harris

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Malaysia Airlines said on Wednesday it had ordered 50 Boeing (NYSE: BA) 737 MAX jets, with firm orders for 25 and rights to purchase 25 more.

Deliveries will begin in 2019 and the deal is worth $5.5 billion at list prices, the full-service carrier said in a statement.

Airlines typically receive a discount off the list prices.

The 737 Max is the re-engined and upgraded variant of Boeing's popular narrowbody model.

The new planes will cut operating costs and their longer range will allow the airline to fly to more destinations, Chief Executive Peter Bellew said in a statement.

This is the first major decision by the ailing carrier since Bellew took over from former chief executive Christoph Mueller on July 1.

The new planes will replace some of the airline's 56 Boeing 737-800s, which have an average age of 4.1 years according to airfleets.net. Malaysia Airlines has been struggling since the disappearance of flight MH370 and shooting down of flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine, both in 2014. The national carrier was taken private by state-fund Khazanah Nasional Bhd [KHAZA.UL] following the twin disasters as part of a restructuring plan, which included a shrinking of its network. Since then, the airline has canceled all non-stop flights to Europe except those to London and ended several low-yield Asia-Pacific services.

Bellew told reporters the airline was aiming to tap capital markets by March 2019, adding that he was confident it would break even in 2018.

He said with the new planes, costs would go down by 40 percent and operating expenses would drop by 15 percent.

MAS has retired its long-haul Boeing 777s and signed an agreement to lease four Airbus A350s, which have lower operating costs, from 2018.

Its focus, however, is on the Asian market and narrowbody planes like the 737, which are used on short-haul routes of up to five hours, will help with that.

"Malaysia Airlines is now on a path to growth across the ASEAN region," Bellew said, referring to the 10-member Association of South East Asian Nations.

"This new aircraft order will set the stage for our continued recovery and success into the next decade."

(Reporting by A. Ananthalakshmi; Writing by Praveen Menon and Siva Govindasamy; Editing by Clarence Fernandez, Robert Birsel)
A view is seen of the outside of the Central Bank of Venezuela in Caracas, Venezuela July 21, 2016. REUTERS/Carlos Jasso

CARACAS (Reuters) - Declining risk premiums on Venezuelan debt have opened the door for the South American nation to borrow on international capital markets, economy Vice President Miguel Perez said on Tuesday.

Venezuela and state oil company PDVSA face heavy debt payments this year amid weak oil markets and continuing decay of its socialist economic model. Neither have been able to borrow in recent years because the extremely high yields have made such operations too costly.

"We see how country risk, which is a very important indicator, has fallen more than 1,100 points ... which guarantees (that we can) go out into international markets to seek new sources of financing for the republic," Perez said in comments on state television.

Perez did not offer further details.

Venezuelan bonds on average yield some 2,600 basis points more than comparable U.S. Treasury notes, according to JPMorgan's EMBI Global Diversified Index .

That rate had topped 3,300 basis points earlier this year, at the height of concerns that Venezuela or PDVSA would default on its bonds. Investor confidence has recovered since then as oil prices have risen, though Venezuela's yields remain the highest of any emerging market nation.

PDVSA last year said it would seek a debt swap for this year's heavy maturities, which include $3 billion in principal payments. But investors say there has been little movement on that proposal, which would require the company to issue new debt.

President Nicolas Maduro notes the ruling Socialist Party has never missed a debt payment and accuses adversaries of fueling default rumors to weaken his administration.

He has described the high yields on Venezuela's debt as a "financial blockade" against his government.

PDVSA last issued global bonds in 2014, while Venezuela last sold bonds in 2011, according to Thomson Reuters data.

(Reporting by Eyanir Chinea; Writing by Brian Ellsworth; editing by Diane Craft)




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 of the

Securities Exchange Act of 1934





Dated: July 27, 2016





Commission File Number: 001-13184









TECK RESOURCES LIMITED

(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)









Suite 3300  550 Burrard Street, Vancouver, British Columbia V6C 0B3

(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 ____ Form 40-F X





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): ____





Note: Regulation S-T Rule 101(b)(1) only permits the submission in paper of a Form 6-K if submitted solely to provide an attached annual report to security holders.





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): ____





Note: Regulation S-T Rule 101(b)(7) only permits the submission in paper of a Form 6-K if submitted to furnish a report or other document that the registrant foreign private issuer must furnish and make public under the laws of the jurisdiction in which the registrant is incorporated, domiciled or legally organized (the registrant's "home country"), or under the rules of the home country exchange on which the registrant's securities are traded, as long as the report or other document is not a press release, is not required to be and has not been distributed to the registrant's security holders, and, if discussing a material event, has already been the subject of a Form 6-K submission or other Commission filing on EDGAR.









SIGNATURE





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.

Teck Resources Limited (Registrant) Date: July 27, 2016 By: /s/ Karen L. Dunfee Karen L. Dunfee Corporate Secretary





For Immediate Release Date: July 27, 2016 16-28-TR
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UPDATED 11.25PM: Kiwi actor James Rolleston was seriously injured in a crash on State Highway 35 near Opotiki overnight, confirms a Bay of Plenty District Health Board spokesperson.

Police say when officers arrived at the scene of the crash the 19-year-old actor was trapped in a vehicle which had struck the Otara bridge on the eastern side of Opotiki shortly before 10.30pm.
Tauranga City councillor and governance adviser Bev Edlin received the national Excellence in Governance Development Award at the GovernanceNZ and Women in Boards Gala Dinner over the weekend.

It was a real honour to be recognised by my peers for the work I do, says Bev. You know when your clients are happy because of the repeat business you get or the comments they make, but being acknowledged by those who work in the same field is truly humbling.
A court has heard how a former Bay of Plenty woman was left to rot and die in her own waste by her daughter.

Former Whakatane woman Ena Lai Dung was found dead in her Manurewa, south Auckland, home on January 16 of last year.

Her daughter Cindy Taylor has been charged with manslaughter and is accused of failing to care for her mother properly.

The Crown says this is a case of gross neglect of an elderly woman who died a miserable death.

Ena used to run a popular Chineese restaurant in Kopeopeo, Whakatane, in the late 80s.

A family friend, who asked not to be named, says Ena was a beautiful and immaculately dressed woman who was proud of her restaurant and always had a smile and a friendly greeting for her customers.

She was a really lovely person who spoilt her daughter. Its just a shock to think she ended up this way. She was well respected in the community.

The condition of the emaciated 76-year-old woman found dead in her own waste was the result of "extremely poor hygiene and nursing standards", forensic pathologist Fintan Garavan says.

Speaking from Florida in the US, Fintan says Enas skin had been stained from urine and faeces.

A combination of malnutrition, waste contact and her lack of movement caused various pressure sores all over her body, and her skin was so brittle parts of it had torn or begun to slough off. There was also evidence of dead skin which gave off a gangrene smell, and her skin had been chemically burned from lying in urine, Fintan says.

The pathologist also noted ulcers on her foot and knee which formed as a result of contact with waste, as well as her skin being in constant contact with a surface for a long period of time.

Tests showed she was in the early stages of broncho-pneumonia - inflammation of the lungs.

Asked about the pain the sores would have caused Ena, Fintan says it is hard to say.

"But I think common sense needs to prevail. Its not rocket science. This is not a good thing to happen to your body," he says.

"Clearly [the sores] are going to have a detrimental effect."

Her condition was the result of "extremely poor hygiene and extremely poor nursing standards", he says.

He also observed that Ena had multiple healing fractures to her ribs and sternum - the most he had seen on one person in his line of work, he says.

It was not possible to date when the injuries might have happened, but it could have been weeks before she was found dead, Fintan says.

The broken bones had begun to heal themselves but would never have healed normally because of Enas malnutrition.

He had not been given any information about the body when he began his examination but became so concerned about Enas state that he contacted police.

"It was at that point I ... suggested they send some officers to attend the post-mortem," he says.

"To have so many broken ribs its very painful and to have so many... its going to interfere with your ability to breathe.

"Youre going to be in a lot of pain. Im struggling how she had so many broken ribs and didnt seem to get any attention for it."

The fractures could have been caused by several falls or one very heavy fall - or they could have been inflicted on Ena, he says.

Police say Cindy had been withdrawing her mothers superannuation payments and had failed to alert the Ministry of Social Development that her mother had died.



Luana Taylor is charged with failing to protect a vulnerable adult.

Married couple Brian and Luana Taylor, who were also living with Cindy and her mother, are also charged with failing to protect a vulnerable adult. All three have pleaded not guilty.

Yesterday, the jury heard Luana Taylors claim that Ena owed her about half a million dollars.

The Crown played a video of an interview between police and Luana at the time of her arrest, in which she claimed she was owed the money but denied Cindy was dishonestly withdrawing funds.

"[Ena] owes me a lot of money, I aint going to get it now," she says.

"How do you get money out of pension money, theres not a lot of it."

Cindy allegedly withdrew $1750 using Enas Eftpos card after her mothers death.

Police say she had also been using the bank card of her uncle William who had died years earlier.

The Crown claimed Cindy dishonestly withdrew $37,000 from the pairs bank accounts in total.

However, records showed she had not deposited that amount into her own account.

Luana denied receiving money when asked by Detective Matthew Kay.

The trio is on trial in the High Court in Auckland.

Additional reporting from Stuff.



Brian Taylor is charged with failing to protect a vulnerable adult.
Happily ever after. It's a fate that seems well out of reach for couples in which one of the spouses experiences clinical depression. It negatively impacts communication, teamwork and sexual intimacy. And, it can cause the non-depressed spouse to experience frustration, isolation, anger, pessimism and guilt. Needless to say, these are not the ingredients of a healthy marriage. Not only is the depressed person and his or her partner in anguish, the relationship is at risk as well. And with nearly 19 million Americans experiencing depression, it's inevitable the disease will impact wedded bliss for many people [source: Harrar, et. al].

While dealing with a depressed spouse may not be a challenge you foresaw when reciting your wedding vows, it's a situation you can get through by exercising tact and patience, and -- ultimately -- seeking professional help.

Advertisement

You may find it helpful to:

1. Recognize depression as an illness. While many may think of it as simply sadness or the blues, clinical depression is a disease. And just as you'd never expect someone with diabetes or heart disease to snap out of his or her condition without treatment, you shouldn't assume that a depressed person can either. It may be helpful to both you and your partner if you research the illness to learn more about it.

2. Don't wait to seek treatment. Depression is likely to get worse rather than better over time. For you, this means you're likely to sink into depression, too. For your spouse, the consequences can extend to substance abuse or suicide. And, for your marriage, divorce is a possibility. Studies have found that married couples experiencing depression are nine times more likely than others to break up [source: Harrar, et. al].

3. Be optimistic. While people with depression are prone to relapses, current treatments are highly effective, with success rates around 90 percent [source: Harrar, et. al]. So it's important to let your spouse know that he or she will get better. Making future plans for yourselves as a couple may be a source of motivation for your partner as he or she is undergoing treatment.

4. Seek support and TLC for yourself. If you have a depressed spouse, you may have some of the typical challenges that caregivers of people with this condition experience: isolation, anger, sadness and stress. You can help relieve some of these feelings by confiding in a friend, therapist or member of the clergy. And if you've been picking up the slack around the house for a while, see if you can get some help with chores and errands. You should also make sure you're eating and sleeping well.

5. Tackle depression first. With depression adding a strain on your marriage, you may initially be tempted to seek out relationship counseling. However, such therapy will ultimately be ineffective if the root cause of the problem -- the depression -- isn't addressed and treated.

6. Encourage healthy activities. While not cure-alls, exercise, participation in hobbies and engagement in conversations that promote laughter are all ways to help ease the monotony of depression and help promote healing along with doctor-recommended treatments.

There's no quick fix for depression, but there are options and reason for optimism. Keep reading to learn more.

Postnuptial Depression As the relationship version of "buyer's remorse," postnuptial depression can affect up to 10 percent of newlyweds [source: Lee-St. John]. While it's fairly normal to come down from your wedding high as you enter your marriage, counseling can help those who are experiencing true depression symptoms.
Local Government Minister Peseta Sam Lotu-Iiga has called for greater collaboration between local councils to meet future community needs.

Local government is a critical building block for our national growth and prosperity. Councils manage more than $96 billion in fixed assets and provide essential infrastructure and planning for local communities.

Minister Lotu-Iiga was addressing local government mayors, chairs, and chief executives from around the country at Local Government New Zealands annual conference in Dunedin on Tuesday.

The cost of infrastructure is rising much faster than ratepayers ability to fund" says Mr Lotu-Iiga. "Councils are beginning to work towards sharing of resources to provide better services. There is an urgent need for greater collaboration across regions for more effective planning for the next 30 years." New Zealand works best when there is a strong relationship between central and local government. We need to continue working together to find practical solutions to support communities, Mr Lotu-Iiga says.

The Minister encouraged the sector to work constructively with central government on the Better Local Services reforms.

These reforms give councils new options for managing infrastructure and delivering services to their communities without needing to amalgamate. The reforms protect local democracy and encourage local decision making to meet local needs.

SOURCE: Office of Peseta Sam Lotu-Iiga
Corporate lawyer Daniel Wong has been appointed to the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra Board, Arts, Culture and Heritage Minister Maggie Barry has announced.

Mr Wong has an extensive background in the corporate legal sector in New Zealand and the UK, and is the director and co-founder of the Auckland based specialist corporate law firm, Flacks and Wong Limited, Ms Barry says.

Also an accomplished violinist who took up the instrument aged four and played with the Wellington Youth Orchestra for six years, he will bring significant experience in governance and law to the NZSO.

Current board member Paul McArthur has also been reappointed to the Board.

This is an exciting time for the NZSO, which received a $1.2 million annual funding boost in Budget 2016. Its work is globally well-regarded and important to the ongoing health of our arts and cultural sector.

Mr Wong replaces Peter Diessl, a board member for the last nine years.

Id like to thank Mr Diessl for the outstanding contribution he has made during his time on the board. His commercial expertise and knowledge of the music sector has been invaluable to the NZSO throughout his tenure.

SOURCE: Office of Maggie Barry
Police are requesting the publics help to identify a vehicle and its occupants alleged to have been involved in the theft of builders tools in Papamoa East on Monday.

Papamoa Police Sergeant Phil Gillbanks says a vehicle captured on CCTV footage is believed to be towing a trailer containing builders tools stolen from Golden Sands in Papamoa East on Monday.
Presently owned by Dr. Hans-Jochem and Hannes Steim and still marked with the quality and reliability that accompanies a Made in Germany seal of approval, the Schramberg based brand has slowly gained a worldwide reputation in the realm of luxury horology.

The respected house-hold name is today synonymous with the terms style, class and unswerving innovation. Junghans unique success is readily dependent on tradition and it only takes a glance at one of their pristine chronoscopes to figure out why: their time-pieces are timeless.

Back in 1982, founder Arthur Junghans was behind the wheel of his Daimler Test vehicle, and in the process of purchasing a car for his son, when the first laws were passed regulating speed. It wouldnt be long before car clocks soon became a necessity.

Although not monitoring the speed as we are so familiar with today, the early 20th century clocks measured time, which is where the pieces of the Junghans puzzle begin to come together.

On acquisition of distance, maths could determine the speed at which a journey was covered thanks to the new found invention... Junghans new products were not only an obligation, but a mechanical triumph.

Over a century later and the company are still making waves in the industry yet with an entirely different approach. Step forward the designers new expression, The Meister Driver Chronoscope, inspired by a 100 year old obsession with classic cars.

But how does one go about fusing a car and a time-telling accessory into a winning combination? Well, its all in the appreciation for mechanical masterpieces.

Carefully encompassing elements of Maybach and Mercedes models from the 30s, the optical accessories in the new Meister range are not only well-refined, just like the vehicles of times gone by, but they also have an exterior that resembles a car speedometer, and a colour palette to match their mottled leather wrist straps, familiar from their appearance on a motorcar interior.

Car enthusiasts will adore this inspiring piece, whilst luxury lovers will observe all the values the Junghans brand has stood for in their 150 year history of watch-making with definition and unique distinction.
A petition to recall Meagher County Attorney Kimberly Deschene appears to be finished for the moment, but a court battle is likely to continue.

Katherine Walter, who lives near White Sulphur Springs, said she will take no more action on her original petition.

A court hearing set for Tuesday on the case was canceled.

Walter will abandon the first petition with the intent of revising and filing a new one, said Brian Miller, Walter's attorney.

She's not going to collect on the initial petition," Miller said. "Thats done, and the new one is going to be drafted.

Walter filed the petition in June, claiming that she was concerned about Deschene's handling of court cases, particularly a case in which her husband was assaulted. She collected more than 90 signatures toward the necessary amount of 215, according to Walter.

The recall effort came at a time of heightened scrutiny for Deschene, who owns a bar in White Sulphur Springs.

Meagher County Sheriff Jon Lopp was concerned about the rate of prosecution for crimes like DUIs.

The revised petition will be "clearer" with Walter's accusations, Miller said.

In court filings, Deschene had argued that the allegations Walter provided in a petitioner statement were too broad.

An order signed by District Judge Randal Spaulding on July 20 remains in effect barring Walter from collecting signatures on the original petition. Once the new petition is drafted, it will likely need approval from the judge, Miller said.

Attorneys for Deschene and Walter will file briefings to debate how the case will proceed, including some new court issues that have come up.

On July 21, Deschene filed a subpoena requesting that Walter produce a copy of her recall petition, including the names of people who signed it. Deschene also requested all posts that Walter made on Facebook in support of the petition effort.

Walter had been writing about her effort on a Facebook page called "Petition to recall Meagher County Attorney."

Additionally, Deschene requested that Walter provide copies of emails sent to media outlets and the "names of all persons that you have contacted who failed and/or refused to sign your recall petition," according to the subpoena.

The subpoena asked to receive that information at Tuesday's court hearing. After it was called off, Deschene said that she's still pursuing that information for a potential defamation lawsuit.

Deschene said that she suspected Walter might have defamed her while speaking with people during the petition effort.

"In order to find that out, I need to know who those people are, so I can ask them what (Walter) said to them," Deschene said.

Walter's attorney, Miller, responded by filing for a protective order against the subpoena. The court brief argued that the evidence requested by Deschene went beyond what was needed to review a recall petition.

Miller wrote that the social media posts, as well as the names of the people who signed the petition, are protected political speech.

"But the broad, sweeping evidence sought by the plaintiff here is now relevant to those issues and constitutes an impermissible fishing expedition," Miller wrote.

Deschene's attorney, Terry Schaplow, responded with another court brief. He wrote that the "subpoena requests were caused by (Walter's) own actions on Facebook and are not burdensome."

A timeline has not yet been set for Walter to file a new recall petition, and Spaulding has not ruled on the motions that have been filed.

The Montana Recall Act states that an elected official can be recalled for "physical or mental lack of fitness, incompetence, violation of the oath of office, official misconduct or conviction of a felony offense."

Anthony Johnstone, associate professor at the University of Montana Alexander Blewett III School of Law, said that previous case law allows the public official to ask a judge to review the recall petition.

The person who files a recall petition must have firsthand knowledge of the alleged incompetence. The court review would determine whether there are facts behind the allegations. Someone who disagrees with a public official, for example, would not qualify, he said.

"By law in Montana, there are limited grounds for the recall of a public official," Johnstone said. "And those grounds have to be set forth with some basis in truth."
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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.
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Christian Kloberg, 21, Jacksonville; warrant for violation of probation, possession of oxycodone.

James Muth, 35, 1100 block of Harbor Palms, Port St. Lucie; out-of-state warrant, Kentucky, absconding parole supervision.

Miguel Andres-Gaspar, 25, 4400 block of Southeast Murray Cove Circle, Stuart; warrant for failure to appear, docket sounding, DUI, driving while license suspended.

Blake Taylor, 21, Herculaneum, Missouri; out-of-state warrant, Jefferson County, Missouri, fugitive from justice.

Earlene Hicks, 30, 4600 block of 38th Avenue, Vero Beach; out-of-county warrant, St. Lucie County, child abuse, intentional act.

Akizzia Cade, 31, Fort Lauderdale; warrant for failure to appear, possession of cocaine.

Samantha Fezette, 40, 9500 block of Southeast Karin Street, Hobe Sound; warrant for violation of probation, grand theft.

Jonathan Banister, 30, 2000 block of Southeast Lafayette Street, Stuart; warrants for burglary of a dwelling, grand theft.

William Melendez, 53, 3100 block of Southeast Hawthorne Street, Stuart; aggravated battery with a weapon.

Thadias Jackson, 23, 2600 block of Southeast Amherst Street, Stuart; possession of marijuana over 20 grams.

Mark Skoblicki, 31, West Palm Beach; warrant for violation of probation, burglary of a structure.

Abelino Ramirez-Mejia, 14000 block of Southwest Cherokee Drive, Indiantown; battery (domestic).

Herman Jackson, 28, West Palm Beach; grand theft of a motor vehicle; tampering with evidence.

Louis Lino, 24, first block of Heron's Nest, Sewall's Point; driving while license suspended, habitual offender.

Raymond Bailey, 19, 1000 block of Trinidad Avenue, Fort Pierce; possession of cocaine with intent to distribute; possession of marijuana with intent to distribute.

Brittany Jackson, 28, 5500 block of Northwest East Torino Parkway, Port St. Lucie; out-of-county warrant, Martin County, for violation of probation, grand theft.

Steven Stentz, 65, no street address/city; out-of-county warrant, Broward County, grand theft.
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By Staff Report

George Emelianchik, 32, 1900 block of Southwest Lewis Street, Port St. Lucie; warrant for possession of heroin.

Levil Smith, 29, 400 block of 24th Street, Fort Pierce; warrant for resisting an officer without violence, driving with license suspended, fleeing or eluding.

Cedric Maynor, 45, 900 block of North Rock Road, Fort Pierce; battery by a person detained in prison or jail facility.

Jacauri Gamble, 20, 1000 block of Southwest Barbarosa Avenue, Port St. Lucie; warrants for possession of marijuana with intent to sell, manufacture or deliver, possession of marijuana over 20 grams.

Marcus Hicks, 22, Orlando; sale of cocaine; possession of cocaine with intent to sell, manufacture or deliver.

Dustin Moored, 26, 1300 block of North 24th Street, Fort Pierce; sale of cocaine; sale of heroin; possession of cocaine with intent to sell, manufacture or deliver.

Lakeshia Jones, 33, 2800 block of Essex Drive, Fort Pierce; fraud/swindle to obtain property.

Darvenel Sanon, 32, 500 block of Southwest Prater Avenue, Port St. Lucie; burglary of an unoccupied dwelling; grand theft of a motor vehicle; fleeing/eluding police  failure to obey officer's orders to stop; driving while license suspended, habitual offender.

Jose Vazquez-ramos, 44, Moultrie, Georgia; possession of a counterfeit driver's license or I.D. card; criminal use of personal identification.

Telly Mccray, 18, Fort Lauderdale; warrant for grand theft.

Michael Donohue, 45, 3200 block of Southwest Esperanto Street, Port St. Lucie; warrant for aggravated assault with a firearm.

Chad Black, 35, 6800 block of Palomar Parkway, Fort Pierce; warrant for violation of probation, grand theft, giving false information on pawned items.

Rolando Ortiz, 61, first block of Oro Grande Way, Port St. Lucie; warrant for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.

William Culpepper, 49, 1900 block of Southwest Golden Avenue, Port St. Lucie; warrant for court order to revoke bond, violation of domestic violence injunction.

Sabrina Johnson, 34, 7900 block of Hibiscus Road, Fort Pierce; warrant for failure to appear, carrying a concealed firearm, possession of a firearm or ammunition by a convicted felon, possession of marijuana with intent to sell or deliver, possession of hydromorphone.

Donald Green, 50, Parkton, North Carolina; warrant for driving without a valid driver's license.

William Miller, 48, 1200 block of Orange Avenue, Fort Pierce; warrant for battery, prior conviction.

Dillon Hill, 22, 2300 block of Southeast Marseille Street, Port St. Lucie; warrant for sale, manufacture, delivery or possession with intent to sell, manufacture or deliver MDMA.

Calvin Jenkins, 57, 2900 block of Avenue R, Fort Pierce; warrant for battery.

Willie Davis, 58, 100 block of Maple Avenue, Fort Pierce; aggravated assault with a deadly weapon without intent to kill; possession of a weapon or ammunition by a convicted state felon.

Raymond Bailey, 19, 1000 block of Trinidad Avenue, Fort Pierce; possession of cocaine with intent to distribute; possession of marijuana with intent to distribute. Arrested in Martin County.

Brittany Jackson, 28, 5500 block of Northwest East Torino Parkway, Port St. Lucie; out-of-county warrant, Martin County, for violation of probation, grand theft. Arrested in Martin County.

James Muth, 35, 1100 block of Harbor Palms, Port St. Lucie; out-of-state warrant, Kentucky, absconding parole supervision. Arrested in Martin County.
Algae blooms seen on Friday June 24, 2016 in the St. Lucie River estuary in Martin County. (ERIC HASERT/ TREASURE COAST NEWSPAPERS)

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By Jeff Burlew, USA TODAY NETWORK Tallahassee Democrat

Despite vehement opposition from environmental groups, state regulators signed off Tuesday on new standards for Florida's rivers, lakes and coastal waters that include less stringent requirements for certain toxic chemicals.

The state's Environmental Regulation Commission approved the new human health criteria for surface waters in a 3-2 vote. The decision came after hours of emotional testimony from concerned citizens, who said the new standards will increase the risk that Floridians will get cancer from eating seafood and drinking water.

Linda Young, executive director of the Florida Clean Water Network, which led the fight against the new standards, called the decision "beyond outrageous."

"This is a wholesale denial in Florida of the value of our lives," she said. "This is our governor  who is the person who's driving this  saying Floridians' lives don't matter. What matters are our industries, our corporations, making more money. And they can do that by putting more pollution in our waters."

The Florida Department of Environmental Protection, under the federal Clean Water Act, is required to periodically update limits on a number of toxic chemicals it will allow to be dumped into its surface waters. It tried to update standards on the books in 1992 but didn't win ERC approval.

The agency, as part of its latest plan, updated limits for 43 of the 54 allowed chemicals, and added 38 more compounds to its list, nearly doubling the number of toxic compounds it regulates.

About half of the chemicals regulated today, however, would have less stringent standards. And limits for most of the 80-plus chemicals would have less-restrictive standards than U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recommendations, when factors like local seafood consumption are considered, opponents asserted.

Drew Bartlett, DEP's deputy secretary for ecosystem restoration, said the new standards would protect the average Floridian at a cancer-risk level of one in a million. Others would have higher or lower protection depending on how much they weigh and how much fish and water they consume.

"What drove a lot of the changes are the toxicity values that EPA provided us," he said. "We just felt that it was critical to get ... that information updated. And it's critical that we have these new parameters. That is a complete lift for protecting human health."

An overflow crowd of activists, concerned citizens and others traveled from across the state to attend the ERC meeting and a morning protest outside DEP offices. They packed into one conference room and spilled over into another.

Several speakers criticized the ERC, whose seven members are appointed by the governor, for considering the new standards at a time when it is down two members. The vacant posts are set aside for representatives of local government and the environmental community.

The disappointment from opponents was clear after the vote. "Baby killers," one man murmured. Another man stormed the dais to protest the vacancies and had to be escorted out by security. One woman stood speechless as tears ran down her face.

U.S. Rep. Gwen Graham, D-Tallahassee, issued a statement calling the vote "insulting" and "unconscionable," given statewide water-quality problems and the Flint, Michigan, water crisis.

"Floridians from across the state traveled to Tallahassee to express those concerns ... and the Environmental Regulation Commission ignored them," she said. "Gov. Rick Scott is ignoring them. They're not just out of touch  they're completely disregarding the will of the people they represent."

Under the plan, limits for benzene, a carcinogen used in fracking and is known to cause leukemia, would nearly double. Less stringent limits also would be in place for arsenic, a well-known poisonous substance, and PCBs, a banned substance linked to numerous health problems.

"In an age where we all either have a family member with cancer or a neighbor with cancer, DEP's proposal to allow higher pollution standards will result in greater harm to Floridians," said Dr. Ron Saff, a member of Physicians for Social Responsibility.

Commissioner Adam Gelber, who voted against the plan, said the new standards relied too heavily on regional, not local data. And he questioned why DEP staff changed its initial proposal for benzene, which saw allowable amounts lowered over recent weeks.

"I feel like there's a fatal flaw there," he said. "How would those other criteria change if we went back and did whatever was applied to the benzene?"

Commission Chair Cari Roth, who voted in favor of the standards, said that in practical effect, the plan would not lead to more toxins going into state waters.

"It is more good than harm," she said.

The new standards, which go to the EPA for final approval, will likely be challenged in court, though it wasn't immediately clear who might file a lawsuit. Young said her organization wouldn't mount an administrative challenge because the process is "rigged." But she said the network may sue the EPA if it signs off on the criteria.

Contact Jeff Burlew at jburlew@tallahassee.com or follow @JeffBurlew on Twitter.
Algae blooms seen on June 24 in the St. Lucie River estuary in Martin County. (ERIC HASERT/ TREASURE COAST NEWSPAPERS)

SHARE Water samples taken from Outboards Only marina on Saturday, July 9, 2016 in Rio contained very high concentrations of blue-green algae. Martin County is having samples from five locations tested for toxicity. (MOLLY BARTELS/TREASURE COAST NEWSPAPERS)

By Tyler Treadway of TCPalm

FORT PIERCE  Basing Lake Okeechobee discharges on outgoing tides would help keep blue-green algae blooms out of the St. Lucie River, scientists said at a symposium Wednesday.

Constant, voluminous discharges allow lake water to be in the estuary a long time, and the longer the "residence time," the more algae has a chance to grow and bloom, according to Ian D. Walsh, an Oregon-based oceanographer who studied data gleaned from remote-control water monitors in the river.

By timing discharges to coincide with outgoing tides, water would flush through the estuary faster, said Brian Lapointe, a research professor at Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute in Fort Pierce. "When you're discharging on an incoming tide, the water has to work against the tide and ends up staying in the estuary longer."

GO WITH THE FLOW

Since early July, the Army Corps of Engineers has reduced lake discharges from more than 1 billion gallons a day to an average of about 425 million gallons a day. And water is released in weeklong "pulses"  with high discharge rates the first couple of days followed by a gradual reduction that ends with two days of no discharges at all.

The results: The thick, noxious algae blooms have mostly disappeared from the main body of the estuary. Also, salinity in the estuary has increased, which helps thwart future blooms and is necessary to the survival of oysters and sea grasses.

Timing discharges on a daily rather than a weekly schedule would help clean out the estuary even more, Lapointe said.

Corps officials arent sure if the logistics of a tide-based discharge system can be worked out.

Our operations division is aware of the idea and is reviewing it, corps spokesman John Campbell said Wednesday evening.

RESEARCH FROM AFAR

Walsh also recommended installing another of Harbor Branch's water monitors in the lake and one in the upper North Fork of the St. Lucie River to track the sources of nutrients  nitrogen and phosphorus  and how they flow into the estuary to feed algae blooms.

Harbor Branch has a system of 10 Land/Ocean Biogeochemical Observatory monitors, or LOBOs, spread throughout the Indian River Lagoon, with five of them in the St. Lucie River paid for with a grant from the Florida Legislature.

Fort Pierce-based Ocean Research and Conservation Association also has a network of remote-controlled water sensors, called Kilroys, in the lagoon and St. Lucie River.

Walsh, director of science and senior oceanographer at Sea-Bird Scientific and WET Labs Inc. in Philomath, Oregon, conducted his study based purely on real-time information from the LOBOs.

"I did this from 3,000 miles away," Walsh said, while sharing his findings with government officials, other scientists and students at Florida Atlantic University's Harbor Branch. "And there are also people in Shanghai looking at this data."

RESEARCH ORGANIZATIONS

The algae crisis in the St. Lucie River, Indian River Lagoon and at times Atlantic Ocean beaches has sparked research by various organizations to learn more about the blooms. Here are a few:

Florida Institute of Technology (Melbourne)

FIT researchers want to know why algae eaters aren't grazing fast enough to prevent a bloom, said Kevin Johnson, an associate professor of marine and environmental systems. So they are studying what kinds of microscopic plankton feed on the algae, how fast they graze and why.

They also are studying muck dredging and hope to study what would happen if seawater was pumped into the lagoon to increase salinity and thwart algae blooms.

Ocean Research & Conservation Association (Fort Pierce)

ORCA researchers hope to obtain money to study how the algae makes its way through the food chain and into drinking water.

"We need to be paying more attention to the effects because of this enormous bloom," said president and lead scientist Edie Widder.

Florida Oceanographic Society (Stuart)

Researchers, who have been testing river water since 1998 and researching the restoration of oysters and sea grass for about a dozen years, are trying to determine toxic algae's effects on river and lagoon life.

"We're not sure how much of the microcystin toxins from the algae is being deposited within the animal itself," Executive Director Mark Perry said. "That's the concern: how that comes into the animal and stays there."

They've sampled invertebrates in oyster reefs in the lagoon and in the river off Flagler Park in downtown Stuart.

"Hopefully, we can indicate it's harmful in a lot of ways to a lot of different marine life," Perry said. "Then we'd need to make a recommendation on how to correct it."

Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute (Fort Pierce)

Researchers are trying to determine the best way to keep water moving to prevent algae blooms, said Fraser Dalgleish, the director of Ocean Visibility and Optics Laboratory. They are observing the flow of water in the estuary and trying to determine how long it takes water to get flushed out of the lagoon. They have used drones that measure currents and water speed to study ventilation rates of the lagoon through the Fort Pierce Inlet since 2014.

Also, James Sullivan, the principal investigator of phytoplankton dynamics, has been documenting the algae's characterization to determine the cause and origin of the bacteria.

University of Florida Water Institute (Gainesville)

Researchers specializing in harmful algae blooms plan to visit Lake Okeechobee and the St. Lucie River estuary to study the blooms' changing nature, toxicity and longevity, said Karl Havens, director of Florida Sea Grant.

"It is important to understand how these things keep growing once they get going because it can eventually predict how long the bloom will last," Havens said. "We know this one is still going strong, and there are a number of things that could affect it."

UF also plans to fund a project on the algae's effect on human health.

Smithsonian Marine Station (Fort Pierce)

Scientists have focused their research on the north lagoons algae blooms, said Laura Diederick, the public programs specialist.

Staff writer Nicole Wiesenthal contributed to this story.
Democratic vice presidential candidate, Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., speaks during a breakfast for the Virginia delegates Wednesday, July 27, 2016, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

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By Michael Collins, USA TODAY

PHILADELPHIA  Vice presidential nominee Tim Kaine made a surprise guest appearance Wednesday morning at a breakfast for Florida delegates to the Democratic National Convention. But many of them missed it.

Kaine, the Virginia senator running with Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, showed up early and began speaking about 15 minutes before the breakfast was scheduled to start.

He finished and then departed before many delegates had even arrived.

Party officials said Kaine was a last-minute addition to the schedule and there had been no time to get the word out to delegates.

Kaine and Clinton made their debut as a presidential ticket on Saturday in Miami, when Clinton introduced him as her running mate at Florida International University.

CREDIT TO SANDERS

Hillary Clinton's campaign manager, Robby Mook, also swung by the Florida delegation breakfast Wednesday.

Mook gave a special shoutout to Sen. Bernie Sanders and his Florida supporters, many of whom are still coming to terms with the Vermont senator's loss to Clinton in the Democratic primary race.

Mook credited Sanders with helping win approval for what he said is the most progressive platform in the party's history.

"We could not have done that without Sen. Sanders," he said.

Mook also noted President Obama carried Florida during the 2012 election by less than 1 percent of the vote. The race in Florida will be close again this year, he warned.

"Are we going to win Florida for Hillary Clinton in November?" he asked.

"Yes!" the crowd roared back.

ROLL CALL

When the traditional roll call of states was taken Tuesday evening at the Democratic National Convention, Hillary Clinton officially won the presidential nomination, with 2,838 delegates.

The delegate tally for Sen. Bernie Sanders was 1,843. There were 55 abstentions.

Florida had 249 delegate votes but cast just 235 (163 for Clinton, 72 for Sanders).

Party officials said some of the state's delegates are candidates for office who were unable to attend the convention. Others didn't make it to the convention floor in time to vote.
An Amtrak train travels south at a high speed through the private railroad crossing at Amaryllis Avenue, which lacks standard railroad-crossing gates and lights, on July 12, 2016, near Indiantown in Martin County. Port St. Lucie resident Charn Kuon was driving with his wife and mother-in-law through the unfamiliar crossing in 2010 when an Amtrak train traveling at 79 mph clipped his vehicle, killing his mother-in-law. (XAVIER MASCARENAS/TREASURE COAST NEWSPAPERS)

By Lucas Daprile of TCPalm

By the time Charn Kuon saw the train coming, it was too late.

Having recently moved to Port St. Lucie from South Carolina, he was taking his wife and visiting mother-in-law to see the Lao Buddhist temple in Indiantown. He stopped their Honda SUV at the Amaryllis Avenue railroad crossing in Martin County. He couldn't see around a Brazilian pepper tree, but he didn't hear a train, so he proceeded to cross the tracks.

An Amtrak passenger train barrelled toward them at 79 mph. Charn floored it, but didn't get out of the way in time. The southbound train clipped the back of their car, throwing his mother-in-law out the window from the back seat.

Khunly Khun, 70, died at the scene. Charn and his wife, Rattana Khun, were hospitalized in serious condition, but survived.

"It never goes away," Rattana said of the 2010 crash. "The person that happened to ... they have to deal with that every day. ... You know, sometimes on special occasions, you think about it. I mean, it's painful."

MORE | Read about this investigation at the bottom of this page

Theirs was the third and latest crash, and the only fatal one, at that crossing since 1980. Yet today, there's only the same stop sign and crossbucks  a white and black X-shaped sign that reads "railroad crossing"  to warn drivers of the nine trains that pass through each day. The two crossings north of it and the seven crossings south of it have the standard gates and lights.

Rattana said, with a touch of a Cambodian accent, it "would be nice if they all had (it) gated with the light on."

The Amaryllis Avenue crossing is among 25 in Martin, St. Lucie and Indian River counties that are exempt from nearly all government regulation and oversight because they are on private property, even though some have public access, a Treasure Coast Newspapers investigation found.

Rail companies, which own the tracks and 50 feet on both sides, typically hold whoever they grant a crossing easement to responsible for requesting and funding warning devices, leaves public safety in the hands of the unaccountable.

For decades, the federal government has known private crossings present a danger and has considered taking action, but pressure from the rail industry and jurisdictional disputes have kept regulations at bay.



HOW BAD IS IT?

There have been at least seven crashes, two of them fatal, at private crossings on the Treasure Coast since 1980  that's 4 percent of the total.

Private roads open to public access typically must obey federal traffic regulations, but private railroad crossings specifically are exempt. So conditions and warning devices vary widely. While six of the eight private crossings with public access had gates and lights, one in Indiantown was malfunctioning when Treasure Coast Newspapers was there at 4:45 p.m. May 18. Warning devices at four of the 17 others were falling apart or hidden behind vegetation. The signs at a Glades Cutoff Road crossing in St. Lucie County were riddled with apparent bullet holes.

( Indiantown rail crossing malfunctioning)

Amaryllis Avenue is an outlier on the Treasure Coast, but nationwide, it's common for private crossings to have fewer warning devices than public crossings. The Federal Railroad Administration said that's most likely why the number of crashes at them aren't declining as much as they are at the increasingly regulated public crossings. Between 1985 and 2006, crashes at all crossings decreased about 56 percent; private crossings made up only 3.7 percent of that, according to an FRA study.

One of the few federal regulations requires gates and flashing lights  or a gate prohibiting public access  but only if trains reach 80 mph. Amtrak trains passing over Amaryllis Avenue often reach, but don't exceed, 79 mph. AAF trains won't exceed that in some locations.

Statewide, one in four crossings is private, according to federal data. Florida's only requirement other than crossbucks is that signs conform to standard design.

It's hard to say which private crossings need more or better warning devices. The FRA database doesn't always list daily traffic estimates, and even then they're from 1988 or earlier. The region's population has grown 93 percent since then, according to census data. And All Aboard Florida will bring 32 faster and quieter trains through the area, increasing the chances of crashes.

___________

MORE | Ignoring railroad crossing gates can be deadly ___________

IN THE DARK The federal government acknowledged the danger of private crossings when it convened a public safety meeting with industry officials in 1993, according to a 2010 U.S. Department of Transportation report. Yet the government still knows few, if any, details about a given crossing. Only since March 2015 have railroads been required to report locations, ownership and the number/speed of trains at private crossings. They still don't have to report warning devices, average daily traffic or whether school buses cross them. The FRA database is not up to date and still contains inaccuracies. For example, the GPS coordinates listed for 17 of Florida's private crossings place them in the Gulf of Mexico. Those listed for a St. Lucie County crossing are actually for a Hialeah train station, two hours away. The database doesn't even list at least one St. Lucie County crossing. All of the Treasure Coast's publicly accessible private crossings were in compliance, however, with a 2015 requirement that all crossings have signs with a phone number to report an emergency or danger on the tracks. These few regulations came well after the federal government started working on the problem, according to correspondence between the U.S. Department of Transportation and the National Transportation Safety Board. In 1998, the latter formally recommended the former, within two years, determine who was responsible for private crossings and require their warning devices meet federal standards. But the government folded to railroads concerned about cost, and states concerned about the limits of their jurisdiction, our investigation found. In 2014, NTSB officially gave up on its recommendation, leaving the responsibility for safety at private crossings still undefined. ___________

MORE | Railroad track fences a controversial solution to preventing pedestrian deaths

___________

RESPONSIBILITY CSX agreements with easement holders make them responsible for requesting and funding warning devices, spokeswoman Kristin Seay said. FEC did not respond to questions about its policy, but a 1999 agreement shows the company has operated similarly. Who's responsible for the Amaryllis Avenue crossing, for example, is anyone's guess because CSX would not provide the agreement, there could be multiple easement holders and the property appraiser's website does not show who owns the road. "Most people ... would never be able to point at a crossing and tell me off the bat if it's private or public," said CSX safety officer Katie Kisner. "It's all determined by the road authority and the road ownership." The "safety concern is next to nothing," said Amaryllis Avenue resident Tom Ross. He said he prefers to see trains slow down, since "a lot of people probably don't have money" to afford a full set of lights and gates. While online stores sell crossbucks for less than $175, a full set of automated lights and gates can cost up to $300,000, Seay said. The federal government in the last two years has allocated one-time grants for public and private crossings totaling $35 million. But private crossings aren't eligible for the recurring "Section 130" federal funds, which totaled $350 million in 2016. These are awarded to states, which allocate them to crossings based on need. In the last five years, crossings within eight miles of Amaryllis Avenue have received $394,902, according to state records. The U.S. Department of Transportation in 2010 recommended Congress amend laws to make private crossings with public access eligible for Section 130 funds. Congress has not acted. "This might be one of the most dangerous intersections around," Ross said of the Amaryllis Avenue crossing. "I don't know how it could be any less (regulated) ... except for not having a stop sign at all." ___________

ABOUT THIS STORY Investigative Reporter Lucas Daprile compiled the most thorough accounting ever made public of Treasure Coast train wrecks, so-called private crossings and their warning devices. He drove along public roads throughout the entire CSX and Florida East Coast Railway tracks from Sebastian to Hobe Sound to curate information lacking in federal databases. He spent three months examining hundreds of pages of police reports, court documents, media archives, federal data, calls for service, medical examiner reports and lawsuits against CSX and FEC. He also interviewed 24 people. He found there is virtually no government oversight for crossings on private property, even those with public access, and even after a fatal crash. That is in stark contrast to crossings on public property, where railroads are required to report key information such as existing warning devices and the number of school buses that use it daily.
<p>The former QVC building in St. Lucie West at 300 NW Peacock Blvd. (FILE PHOTO)</p>

By Nicole Rodriguez of TCPalm

PORT ST. LUCIE  QVC has sold its former call center here and the new buyer will honor a lease to the television shopping giant's current tenant, sparing at least 300 jobs.

PSL Advance LLC, a real estate holding company, bought the 51,627-square-foot building, 300 N.W. Peacock Blvd., for $9.15 million on June 15 and plans to lease long-term to McKesson Corp., the pharmaceutical and medical-supply company that currently occupies the building, said Christian J. Johannsen, of real estate firm NAI Merin Hunter Codman, said Tuesday.

"Maintaining 350-400 jobs is important in any environment, much less a smaller market like Port St. Lucie," said Johannsen, who represented PSL Advance.

Representatives for PSL Advance were unavailable for comment Tuesday, but Johannsen said the company hopes McKesson will expand on its property.

The sale is an example of the city's "resiliency," Mayor Greg Oravec said in a statement Tuesday.

"We were saddened to see QVC go. Yet here is a literal example of 'When one door closes, another one opens,' " Oravec said. "Due to a growing economy, a strengthening real estate market and positive community fundamentals, a buyer stepped in (and) the tenant, McKesson, has put people to work."

QVC announced in June 2015 it would close the call center by the end of January, laying off approximately 800 employees. The Pennsylvania-based company said it planned to continue operating call centers in San Antonio, Texas, and Chesapeake, Virginia.

The closure wasn't based on employee performance, officials said last year. More customers are placing their orders on mobile and electronic devices, company representatives said.

Reached Tuesday, QVC officials declined to comment.

QVC announced in January it would lease the building to McKesson, which is headquartered in San Francisco and employs more than 76,000, according to its website. McKesson hired at least 150 displaced QVC employees, according to the Economic Development of St. Lucie County's website.
SHARE Photos by Fran Foster Ang & Dave Ledford chose sausage and a beer while enjoying Sunset Saturday in Vero Beach. Marge & Frank Balchumas enjoying Sunset Saturday. Courtney & Turner Regan take 6-month-old Annabelle for a ride in her little red wagon at Sunset Saturday. Valerie & Hamp Elliott get a front row seat at the Oceanside Business Association's Sunset Saturday event in Vero Beach,

By Fran Foster, The Newsweekly

Vero Beach's Oceanside Business Association (OBA) has mastered the art of their Sunset Saturday Concert Series.

Georgia Irish has been volunteering for nearly 15 years with the OBA and now serves as its president. "The Sunset Saturday Night Concerts are a special night to come out to a free concert, under the stars with an ocean breeze," she said.

"It's once a month where families, friends, co-workers and visitors come out to enjoy the free concert with great food and music in a beautiful casual setting."

Families play at Humiston Park, while others set up lawn chairs in front of the band. Some take advantage of the drinks and snacks available at the many food trucks. Others come to dance in the streets before heading to a nice dinner at one of the many outstanding restaurants on Ocean Drive.

"It's a great time to relax, for some after a busy work week. For our visitors it's enjoyment after their day at the beach or shopping, or an awesome spa day," said Irish. "We also offer wonderful exposure to several nonprofits throughout the year by providing them a booth to engage with others for their cause."

This month's live music by the Wiley Nash Band, a local favorite, had people spinning on the crosswalks on Ocean Drive. Humiston Park was packed and echoed with the sounds of laughter from children.

Different styles of music are featured each month. The next event is scheduled for Aug. 13.

For more information and a full listing of upcoming events, visit www.verobeachoba.com or call 772-532-7983 for vendor booth information.
Hernando Mejia, left, and Billy Betancourt

SHARE From left: Vicky Rodriguez, Gilbert Paredes, Gilberto Ferri, Roberta Linares and Evelyn Depagnier From left: Isabel Fernandez, Irving Carvajal, Daisy Aleman, Magda Lopez, Doris Aguero, Augusto Rodriguez, Joaquin Sosa, Victor Perez and Linda Manzanares

By Herman Santa, Your Newsweekly Contributor

The Annual Father's Day Dinner Dance hosted by The Spanish American Club, Inc. was celebrated on June 25 at the Disabled American Veterans Club in Port St. Lucie.

Before the dinner, master of ceremonies and president of the club, Carlos Bonet, welcomed everyone to the party and gave an update of the status of the club and thanked every one of them for their continued support.

We began the evening with cocktails and then enjoyed a delicious buffet. The meal consisted of stewed chicken, pulled pork, rice with chick peas, yucca with mojito (a garlic dressing), dessert and coffee.

After the dinner, the board conducted the raffles and celebrated the member's birthdays of the month of June while entertainer D.J. Jose Ramirez played a Happy Birthday song for them, among them present were: Vicky Rodriguez, Gilbert Paredes, Gilberto Ferri, Roberta Linares and Evelyn Depagnier.

Door prize winners were: Isabel Fernandez, Irving Carvajal, Daisy Aleman, Magda Lopez, Doris Aguero, Augusto Rodriguez, Joaquin Sosa, Victor Perez and Linda Manzanares. 50/50 winners were: Hernando Mejia and Billy Betancourt.

It was an evening filled with laughs, drinks, food, dancing and raffles. A special thank you to members Yvonne Bonet, Vivian Megaro, Celia Santia and Daisy Aleman for their assistance in cooking the buffet. A big thanks to our board of directors and members Angel and Nereida Pellot and Dick and Kare Dimond who helped with the decorations, set ups and assisted throughout the night.

The board is planning the next event Independence Dance Party," Saturday, July 30. Reservations are required.

For more information, please contact the president of the club, Carlos Bonet, at c.bonet@aol.com. For more information, visit http://www.spanishamericanclubinc.org.
SUBMITTED TO YOURNEWS Treasure Coast High School Titan executive band leadership team wins the prestigious Penny's Award for the second year in a row.

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By Kerry Padrick, YourNews contributor

ST. LUCIE COUNTY  In what has become an annual tradition, the Treasure Coast High School (TCHS) Titan Band executive leadership team participated in a leadership workshop at Penny's Band Camp. In mid-June, Eckerd College in St. Petersburg hosted this well-respected four-day camp, which has been training student leaders since 1972. Students from across Florida as well as from other states attended this camp to develop the skills necessary to lead their peers and their band programs to a successful year.

The Titan band leaders collaborated with others to learn about the strengths of different band programs and to gain ideas for enhancing their own programs. Through role play, skits and group discussions, participants also learned about successes and failures of others in order to become better leaders in their own right. Among the leadership topics that students explored were: integrity, honesty, goal setting, motivational skills, and responsibility.

TCHS Band Director Luke Hall said he could not be more proud of his leadership team.

"Our student leaders know what it means to be 'Titan Born and Titan Bred.' Their talents, their leadership and their actions will speak volumes for their high values and expectations for themselves and their peers," he said.

Hall reported that the team received numerous awards while at Penny's Band Camp. However, most prestigious was the Penny's Award. For the second year in a row, the student leadership team won this award, which recognizes the most outstanding school in the entire camp. It honors the school with the most participation, good citizenship, outstanding leadership, most pride and most spirit at the camp.

Included in the daily awards category were: Leadership Camp Spirit Stick (Team), Outstanding Camper of the Day for Percussion (Davor Scutt), and Outstanding Camper Awards for Student Leadership (Zoe Horne and Jordan Ragland). For overall camp awards, the Titans received: Silver Outstanding Guard Award (Samantha Ferrara), Silver Outstanding Leadership Award (Jordan Ragland), Gold Outstanding Leadership Award (Zoe Horne), Outstanding Leadership Medal (Brian Kiernan).

The students attending the leadership and drum major camps both earned the spirit sticks for their camps. Bianca Joseph received a superior rating on her evaluation as a drum major. Samantha Ferrara and Amanda Acevedo earned three superior ratings each on their evaluations at the color guard camp for their flag and rifle skills.
The battle for Montanas lone U.S. House seat continued its focus on public land management Wednesday, as Democratic candidate Superintendent of Public Instruction Denise Juneau launched her public lands agenda and traded barbs with her opponent, Republican Rep. Ryan Zinke, over voting records.

Public lands and who should own and how to manage and fund them has become a central campaign issue between the term-limited Democrat and the first-term congressman. Both have campaigned as opponents to federal land transfer to state or private hands while portraying each other as taking disingenuous votes.

Juneau characterized herself at Spring Meadow Lake State Park in Helena as a champion of public lands and access.

Public lands offer a promise to every hardworking Montana family that they can access the very best our state has to offer, not just for the wealthy and not just for the privileged, she said.

Juneau rolled out the four priorities of her public land policy. She opposes wholesale transfer or sale of public lands. She supports legislation to put more people to work in Montanas forests via support of collaboratively developed projects. She wants to cut red tape for companies obtaining recreation permits. And she wants to strengthen funding for land management, specifically for firefighting, the Land and Water Conservation Fund and addressing maintenance backlogs in parks and forests.

Juneau pointed to her role on the Land Board, voting for timber sales and to open access, as a track record of supporting practical policy that improves local economies.

Instead of Washington, D.C. deciding whats best for our land from a top down approach, we need to collaborate with communities to improve the health of our forests and put more people to work, she said.

As Juneau touted her work on the Land Board, state Republicans and Zinkes campaign hammered the Democrat for votes to sell state-owned lands and her depiction of Zinkes public land record.

Denise Juneau is absolutely a liar and a hypocrite on selling public lands, Zinke spokeswoman Heather Swift said. She is launching false attacks against Ryan Zinke, wrongly claiming he is selling land, but she has actually taken votes to sell public land. She made her position that there is no black and white on this issue but has personally voted to sell land.

At issue is the state Land Banking Program. The program allows sale of state parcels with proceeds placed in a trust for the purchase of new state lands.

Juneau defended her votes as opening up new access while disposing of often land-locked state parcels. During her time on the board, DNRC recorded 37,000 acres of new access and $68.4 million in timber revenue creating more than 4,000 timber jobs, according to the campaign.

Wednesdays press conference also follows Juneau and several conservation groups criticizing the congressman for his recent vote for H.R. 2316, a bill allowing the creation of appointed advisory committees to decide management of designated community demonstration forests. While the bill does not transfer ownership, critics still characterized Zinke as a flip-flopper on land transfer, saying management transfer was a new approach tantamount to ownership transfer.

A Billings Gazette story this week said Juneau misses the mark in connecting management transfer with ownership transfer. The article cited a fact check by Ballatopedia and the bills language in its conclusion.

Juneau did not reply to the Gazettes request for comment, but was asked Wednesday whether she and the conservation groups were misleading on Zinkes vote.

Juneau maintained that she stands with the conservation groups and that they only spoke to management.

Congressman Zinke did take a bad vote on transferring management to politically appointed boards, taking millions of acres out of state public hands and putting it in a board thats not accountable to the public, she said.

It was Zinkes votes and support for policies, Juneau said, that put public lands and management funding in jeopardy.

The campaign pointed to Zinkes support of Wisconsin Republican Rep. Paul Ryans 2014 budget, which proposed selling lands to pay down the national debt.

Swift countered that Zinke supported the framework of the bill before he was elected, but did not say hed vote for it. She emphasized several votes against federal land transfer that broke party lines as evidence that Zinke is unwavering in his public land support.

Many of the policies Juneau supports Zinke has already worked to pass, including wildfire funding reform and the funding the Land and Water Conservation Fund, Swift said.

(Juneau) rolled out her public lands positions today and it included absolutely zero new ideas and she even included legislation Zinke has cosponsored and voted for in the House, she said.

Swift did not answer a question about the League of Conservation Voters giving Zinke a 3 percent rating this year.

Juneau challenged Zinkes record on LWCF Wednesday, saying that as he touted his votes that broke party lines in favor of LWCF, he recently voted for the Houses Interior Appropriations Bill, reducing funding by nearly $130 million next year.

Theres a lot of talk coming out of our congressman that says he wants to permanently reauthorize (LWCF), but at the same time hes taking votes to cut that funding  so its a hollow promise, Juneau said.
A qualified engineer narrowly avoided a prison sentence after admitting to the theft of a historic Zulu pen used to sign the 1879 Ulundi Treaty from the Cambridge University Library.

William Harmer, now 22, stole the pen from a locked room whilst working as a book runner for the UL in 2004, Cambridge Magistrates Court heard on 3rd January.

He claimed to have acted out of spite at being denied holiday pay he believed the library owed him.

Harmer remained undetected until December 2007 when his ex-girlfriend took revenge by reporting him to the university authorities.

Police then acquired a warrant to search his flat at College Houses in Comberton and found the pen hidden under a drawer.

Harmer claimed he had always intended to send the pen back to the library. His solicitor Michael Judkins stressed that it was not stolen for financial gain.

Harmer was made to pay a 250 fine and 75 in costs.

The wooden pen, valued by experts at as much as 10,000, was used to sign a series of peace treaties to end the Anglo-Zulu war, after the capture of the Zulu king on 28th August 1879.

The war witnessed the bloody battle at Rorkes Drift in KwaZulu Natal, South Africa, in which 139 British soldiers defended their camp against 5000 warriors, as depicted in the 1964 film Zulu, starring Michael Caine.

The pen is the property of the Royal Commonwealth Society, founded as the Colonial Society in 1868 as a meeting place for gentlemen connected with, or interested in, the British Colonies.

Rachel Rowe, the director of the societys library, which is housed in the UL, said of the missing pen: Security is very tight but there has to be an element of trust as regards the staff. In the seven years I have been here nothing like this has happened.

The societys collection includes other unusual colonial items such as glass spearheads made by Aboriginal warriors from telegraph- pole insulators.

The pen is currently unavailable for public viewing but the RCS plans to include it in an exhibition in the near future.

Jennifer Shaw
Yesterday it emerged that Michael Mansfield QC, a candidate for the upcoming position of Chancellor of the University of Cambridge and self-proclaimed radical lawyer, may be one of the latest in the long line of victims of the News of the World phone hacking scandal. The lawyer, who has worked on many high profile cases, was supposedly targeted for information about Diana, Princess of Wales, while he was representing Mohammed al-Fayed in the 2007/8 inquest into her death and that of Dodi al-Fayed.

Mansfield told the Press Association that he had suspected that his conversations were being listened to for some time, and so had always been careful with what is being said over the phone, adding: Journalists would have been trying to get stories about Diana. It is particularly disturbing. He also insinuated that there was a greater conspiracy at hand, commenting: If the sort of information is correct that police officers have been handed money, then the whole investigation needs to take place independently.

He further updated The Cambridge Student this morning on the ongoing nature of the inquiry into his own case, saying that: The factual position is unclear in the sense that I have no evidence that they have in fact hacked one of my mobiles or land lines at the moment but we have been in contact with the Police for a few months now.

This intrusion of privacy has been systemic and is not limited to the News of the World; there has been this kind of corruption for some time. The persons who are responsible who must have known that this is going on are still in place and Rebecca Brooks is someone who cannot possibly remain and thirdly the Murdoch empire must be stopped in its bid for BskyB.

There has to be an independent investigation not carried out by the Police  the public are not going to have confidence in any investigation when it appears that large sums of money have been received by Police officers. And those who have colluded at a very high level must be brought to justice; it is a question of criminality, it is a case of committing crime and it must have been known.

Ultimately, there has to be a full-scale enquiry (judge led) to examine the unhealthy relationship between elements of the media, the police and politics.

This comes as New Scotland Yard revealed that its investigators have been working through a list of 4,000 potential hacking victims including figures such as murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler and Leslie Chapman, mother of the murdered Soham schoolgirl Jessica Chapman.

After the withdrawal of key advertisers like O2 and Sainsburys, the News of the Worlds parent company News International announced yesterday afternoon that the publications weekend edition would be its last. All advertising space will be donated to charities and good causes, and proceeds from sales will also go to good causes.

Prime Minister David Cameron this morning announced a judge-led independent inquiry to investigate the polices investigation of the phone hacking affair and to investigate wrongdoing at both the News of the World and at other papers. A second inquiry will be undertaken by a panel of experts to look at the culture, ethics and practices of the British press.

Emily Loud
Last week, firefighters descended on the Cambridge nightclub Kuda, commonly known by students as 'Life', in a full scale emergency exercise.

Crews from Cambridge's Green Watch, Burwell and Cottenham were joined by the East of England Ambulance Service Trust Hazardous Area Response Team (HART). Appropriately, the operation was called Exercise Kuda Chaos.

The exercise simulated a fire in the basement nightclub with multiple casualties. St Johns Ambulance supplied 20 individuals, who were made up to look like they were injured. Search and rescue breathing apparatus teams were deployed to rescue live casualties, who were handed over to the HART team for triage and trauma care.

Watch Commander Scott Feveyear, Cambridge Green Watch, said: This exercise went according to plan, involved multiple agencies and provided evidence that the Service is equipped and prepared to effectively resolve a large scale incident with multiple casualties reported.

The Watch Commanders words will calm the fears of Life punters who regular mistake the clubs (in)famously sweaty atmosphere for a sign of an impending fire outbreak.

Connie Muttock, a second year student at Queens said: Its sometimes so hot and sweaty in Life that I worry that a section of the club may actually be on fire. After this exercise Ill be able to drink my VKs with peace of mind.

Rumours that the DJ set for the exercise consisted of playing Johnny Cashs seminal 1963 album Ring of Fire on a loop remain unconfirmed.
Back when Motorola was owned by Google, the company was known for fast software updates. The 2014 Moto X was the first handset to receive an update to Android 5.0, and you could rely on phones like the Moto G getting prompt updates as well.

Under Lenovo, things have changed. While Motorola still ships smartphones with near-stock versions of Android on-board, the company isn't willing to provide frequent software updates. Case in point: Motorola will not provide monthly security updates to their portfolio of devices, including the flagship Moto Z.

According to Motorola, it's too difficult to keep their smartphones secure through monthly updates. Instead, security updates will be bundled into scheduled maintenance releases, which are much less frequent.

Here is Motorola's official statement on the matter:

Motorola understands that keeping phones up to date with Android security patches is important to our customers. We strive to push security patches as quickly as possible. However, because of the amount of testing and approvals that are necessary to deploy them, it's difficult to do this on a monthly basis for all our devices. It is often most efficient for us to bundle security updates in a scheduled Maintenance Release (MR) or OS upgrade. As we previously stated, Moto Z Droid Edition will receive Android Security Bulletins. Moto G4 will also receive them.

Providing users with timely security patches is key to keeping them secure, which is why Google is providing official Android security updates on a monthly basis. Some of the best high-end phones on the market are being updated when these patches are released, such as Samsung's Galaxy S7 series and Google's Nexus line-up, but the Moto Z and Moto G won't be among them.
Facebook has grown its business from a humble college experiment to the world's largest social network in just over a decade, one that continues to swell to this very day. It's no surprise, then, that the company's headquarters in Menlo Park, California, is once again due for an expansion.

The social network is planning to make room for an additional 6,500 employees, a fact that's rubbing some locals the wrong way. Residents are concerned that the swell of new people into the city will cause the cost of housing - already a limited commodity - to skyrocket. What's more, many are turned off by the proposition of their small town transforming into a busy city.

Facebook, however, has presented an unusual alternative in that it has pledged to build at least 1,500 residential units (apartments) alongside its expansion. The units wouldn't be built to exclusively house its employees, but rather, for the general public.

John Tenanes, Facebook's real estate chief, said there is a lack of housing in the area and that their intent is to make an impact. Specifically, he said, they want to try something new and something bold to try and make a difference.

The proposal dictates that 15 percent of the housing units would be reserved for low- and middle-income families.

In March 2015, Facebook completed a massive expansion of its Menlo Park headquarters that boasts the largest open floor plan in the world. Like other tech giants, Facebook's campus is rife with leisurely activities and green space including a nine-acre park with 400 trees that sits atop the building's roof.
Bipolar disorder, also formerly known as manic depression, is a mental condition marked by severe mood swings that include emotional highs, called mania or hypomania, and lows, called depression.

If left untreated, people who have bipolar disorder face risks for serious problems such as drug and alcohol abuse, suicidal tendencies, isolation and relationship troubles.

Many patients, however, miss crucial opportunities to manage their condition because they wait for a long time before disclosing their symptoms.

In a new study published in the Canadian Journal of Psychiatry on July 25, researchers conducted a meta-analysis of 27 studies involving 9,415 patients and found that bipolar patients wait six years on average from the time their symptoms start to show up before they get proper diagnosis.

Experts said that the lost time can result in more frequent and more severe episodes of the mental illness, which could be otherwise controlled by medications and other forms of intervention.

The researchers found that many of the patients in the study showed disruptive and distressing symptoms for a long time before they received proper treatment.

Study researcher Matthew Large, from the University of New South Wales in Australia, said that the stigma associated with mental illness and limited accessibility to existing treatments are some of the reasons that prevent people from getting early treatment.

He also acknowledged that diagnosis is challenging because the symptoms of the illness are also present in other mental illnesses. Bipolar disorder can also be masked by substance abuse.

The delay in diagnosis, Large said, is more pronounced in young people because parents and doctors tend to dismiss the symptoms as teenage moodiness.

"The diagnosis of bipolar disorder can also be missed because it relies on a detailed life history and corroborative information from carers and family, information that takes time and care to gather," Large said.

Large urged doctors to look more closely at the history of mood symptoms in patients, particularly those triggered by outside events such as travel and use of antidepressants. He also advised to take a closer look at individuals with known family history of the psychiatric disorder.

"What we should be looking at is what strategies we can develop to identify people who are very likely to go on to develop bipolar disorder and what benign treatments are there that can prevent it," Large said. "I think in the early stages we really need to concentrate more on non-pharmacological methods."

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In its quarterly earnings call, self-driving car technology supplier Mobileye revealed that it will not be extending its partnership with electric car manufacturer Tesla Motors beyond the EyeQ3.

The EyeQ3 is the processor used by Tesla Motors in current vehicles, namely the Model S and Model X, for image analysis intelligence, which enables the controversial Autopilot feature of the company.

Amnon Shashua, the CTO of Mobileye, said that the company will continue working with Tesla Motors in the improvement of the performance of EyeQ3. However, to achieve true autonomy, the company said that it will need to go beyond the typical supplier relationships wherein clients simply purchase components and services.

Mobileye thinks that the future of the development of self-driving cars will require automobile manufacturers and technology companies such as itself to work together in a true partnership.

The separation between the companies, however, is believed to be the result of the car crash that involved a Tesla Model S while it was in Autopilot. Reports revealed that the electric car's self-driving technology was not able to detect a cutting tractor trailer due to the white color of its side, and the resulting impact led to the driver's death.

According to Mobileye, its system was not designed to be capable of always detecting vehicles cutting in front of the car where it is installed. However, the EyeQ4, which is expected to be released in 2018, will be able to do so.

The accident highlighted the friction between Mobileye and Tesla Motors, an issue that was brought further into light by George Hotz of comma.ai.

Comma.ai is a startup that is working on an aftermarket self-driving car kit that is expected to be released within the year. The company is one of the only two teams that were able to complete a fully autonomous lap at Sonoma Raceway during the first autonomous track day in the world. Hotz previously turned down a position at Tesla Motors, saying that he preferred to instead "crush Mobileye."

According to Hotz, Mobileye does not want to innovate, with its business model focusing on working with regulators to lower the star safety ratings of vehicles that do not utilize Mobileye's technology. Tesla Motors, on the other hand, is always looking for innovation, as it wants to give customers unique driving experiences.

The end of the partnership between Tesla Motors and Mobileye will not affect the improvement of the company's Autopilot system, according to CEO Elon Musk. He said that the development was an expected one, but it will not be affecting the company's plans.

"Mobileye's ability to evolve its technology is unfortunately negatively affected by having to support hundreds of models from legacy auto companies, resulting in a very high engineering drag coefficient," Musk added.

It is likely that Tesla Motors will begin to create the technology that it sourced from Mobileye in-house, especially with the hiring of former AMD chip engineer Jim Keller to be the vice president of Autopilot. It will not be hard for the company to do so, Hotz said, as Mobileye's system can be easily reproduced.

 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Americas union leaders are finding themselves increasingly caught in a conundrum. For decades, union leaders and their members have served as a bedrock constituency for the Democratic Party and organized labor wielded real influence over party. However, as Bob Dylan so famously sang a half-century ago, the times they are a changin.

The modern Democratic Party now finds itself firmly in the clutches of an extreme environmentalism that is choking out the interests of labor within the party. Despite the fact that union members in Montanas mines and mills, and on Montana railways increasingly suffer from bad Democratic policies, union leadership continues to pay fealty to the Democratic Party.

As was expected, Gov. Steve Bullock received the endorsement of the Montana AFL-CIO in his re-election bid. However, I ask, which candidate is doing the most to defend union jobs in Montana? Greg Gianforte has been doggedly fighting for protect industries that provide good union jobs.

Gov. Bullock may give lip service, but his actual record in fighting for union jobs in the last four years leaves a lot to be desired. While Greg Gianforte immediately called for a veto of the bill in Washington state that created a fund to close Colstrip, Bullock waited until the very last minute when he was under intense public pressure.

When Attorney General Tim Fox filed suit against the Obama/EPA Clean Power Plan, Bullock wouldnt join the suit. When the Supreme Court put a stay on the Clean Power Plan, the governor simply disbanded the council he had created to advise him on the plan rather than repurposing it to fight the plan.

The reality is that the governor is conflicted. He enjoys the support of union leaders, yet he takes money from board members of the very organizations that sued to shut down Colstrip Units 1 and 2. Five members of the board of the Montana Environmental Information Center and two members of the Executive Committee of the Montana Sierra Club have donated a combined thousands of dollars to the governors campaign.

MEIC and the Sierra Club are groups behind the lawsuit resulting in the settlement that is shutting down Colstrip units 1 and 2 by 2022. Many union workers will be put out of work and the union community of Colstrip now faces an uncertain future.

I consider myself pro-labor. I oppose right-to-work. However, I fail to understand why union leaders continue to support politicians from a party that is under the thumb of radical environmental groups that actively seek to kill industries that provide good paying union jobs.

It is a Democratic Administration in Washington DC that has forced the Clean Power Plan upon Montana. It is a Democratic Administration in Washington DC that has made leasing coal on federal land all but impossible. It is a Democratic Administration in Helena that has not issued a new mining permit in years.

Maybe it is time for labor leaders and their rank and file members to rethink their support of politicians like Steve Bullock. To my friends in organized labor, I urge you to ask yourself this question: are career politicians who take money from groups that stand directly opposed to your interests really looking out for you?

Joe Dooling is the Lewis and Clark County GOP chair.
Motorola's Moto G4 and Moto G4 Plus, powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 617 with 2 GB of RAM and Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow, went up for preorder at the end of June and shipped earlier this month. The company's Moto Z Droid and Moto Z Force Droid, on the other hand, are Verizon-exclusive smartphones with more powerful specifications, but will also come with Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow.

Users who are concerned about the security that their smartphones provide, however, may want to hold off on acquiring these smartphones.

In a review on the Moto Z, Ars Technica said the smartphone will not receive monthly security updates for Android released by Google. Motorola has not made this information available anywhere, but when the media outlet asked Motorola representatives at a launch event for the Moto Z, they said the company won't be committing to monthly security updates.

Ars Technica commented that the policy was "insecure" and "unacceptable," as the monthly patches being released for the Android OS are crucial in maintaining users' security.

Motorola later released a statement that said the Moto Z and the Moto Z Force will receive patches from Android Security Bulletins, and the devices will further get updates and additional patches shortly after their launch. There was no assurance that the updates will arrive on time as the monthly security patches.

Another announcement released by Motorola, however, clarified its position.

Motorola said it understands the need for Android security patches and their importance to customers, as the company looks to release security patches as fast as it can.

"However, because of the amount of testing and approvals that are necessary to deploy them, it's difficult to do this on a monthly basis for all our devices," Motorola continued, adding that it would be more efficient for the company to bundle security patches into a bigger maintenance release of an OS upgrade.

Motorola also confirmed that the Moto Z Droid smartphones, along with the Moto G4, will receive Android Security Bulletins.

With these statements, users who'd prefer to get monthly security updates for their Android smartphones should look elsewhere, as there is obviously no commitment from Motorola to push out the security patches released by Google on a monthly basis.

In a discussion on the Android sub-Reddit, redditors expressed their disappointment with Motorola's stance on the security updates.

"Boy if that's not the laziest thing I've heard an OEM say in regards to updates. I guess at least they admitted to their laziness," said user QuestionsEverythang, adding that the move is even lazier once the fact that the implementation of Android by Motorola is close to stock.

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Porsche plans to massively increase the number of job openings in its first all-electric vehicle project, as part of parent Volkswagen's (VW) plan to bleach its image after the emissions scandal.

Porsche, which is the second contributor to VW's profit, affirmed that it aims to create a minimum of 1,400 jobs for developing, crafting and selling its battery-powered Mission E car.

The Mission E is gunning for Tesla's Model S market, and the German carmaker touts that its first electric vehicle will roll out in 2019.

In a previous estimation, Porsche said that it will expand its workforce at the Stuttgart-Zuffenhausen facility with more than 1,000 new workers. The company wants to hire an additional 350 digital specialists that would build mobility concepts and uncover new business areas. The digital-oriented jobs are mirroring a shift in strategy that is in place at Audi, VW's luxury branch.

The company affirms that it wants to build a new paint shop and assembly line at the Stuttgart-Zuffenhausen location and mentioned that the development of the Mission E will cost it an estimated 1 billion ($1.1 billion).

Uwe Hueck, Porsche's labor boss, explained to reporters why the huge investment is important.

"You either take part in the digital change or you lose," he notes.

Despite the fact that the automaker receives more than 140,000 job applications per annum, it still has trouble attracting the big brains that could give it an extra edge.

Andreas Haffner, the head of the company's human resources department, underlines how difficult it is to recruit talented digital specialists. Haffner went on to hint that Porsche is pondering about relocating its digital division to Silicon Valley and China to fill the brain gap.

From the promised 1,400 jobs, 200 will be for engineers, 300 for salaried workers and 900 for staff handling production and manufacturing. Porsche acknowledges the importance of apprenticeship, and will add 50 percent more openings to attract young talent.

When asked to be specific about the manufacturing target involving Mission E, Hueck did not answer directly. However, he did point out that his company must sell a minimum of 10,000 models per year in order to rank a profit.

Sources familiar with the matter pointed out that the Mission E's all-electric powertrain will consist of two electric motors, one for the front and one for the rear of the vehicle. Thanks to the combined effort from the 800-volt motor combination, Mission E should go from zero to 60 mph in only 3.5 seconds.

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Magicbricks Organizes Hackathon To Shape Future Innovations | TechTree.com

Magicbricks, one of the countrys primary real estate related websites, is gearing to throw open innovation challenges to the developer community. Come 30th July, they will be organizing a Build-a-thon, a Hackathon-like event, with developers working on the next generation of products and tools for the company, which most likely, will emerge from the areas of artificial intelligence, virtual reality, and augmented reality. This event will take place at the Noida Film City on the 30th and 31st of July.

Magicbricks has been the pioneer in technology innovations in the online realty space. Our goal for organizing Hackathon is to bring creative solutions to the existing unresolved issues in the real estate industry and help develop next generation consumer engagement applications. By using advanced technologies like Augmented reality and Virtual reality, we want to give our consumers an enthralling experience in online real estate, commented Subodh Kumar, Head of Technology at Magicbricks while laying weight on the leadership of Magicbricks as a source of innovation in the space of real-estate.

The aim of this competition would be to push developers to ideate out-of-the-box, to come up with innovations and solutions for real-world problems. The themes they will be based to include image processing, Bot, Big Data, and artificial intelligence, which are being seen as areas where the next-gen product could actually come from.

Magicbricks has introduced many changes in its product and service portfolio, including Agent Suite, PropWorth App, Home Buying Festival, Travel Time Search and more, in a bid to deliver better experience to users. All these innovations are aimed towards enhancing consumer experience and providing immense value to help make the right property decisions. Adding more on the backing of Magicbricks into the Hackathon event, Subodh Kumar mentioned, We want to facilitate an environment which encourages the very talented pool of developers to brainstorm, and aid us in improving the product ideas and technology surrounding real estate. Hackathon allows us to leverage the creative/innovation instincts of the developer community, into our quest for innovation-driven growth.

Image via airportnet.org

TAGS: Magicbricks, virtual reality, Artificial Intelligence, real estate
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
Insurers say they're hemorrhaging money in the Montana health insurance marketplace set up under Obamacare, and one company plans to cut back on policy options to stop the bleeding.

PacificSource, the state's smallest marketplace insurer, told regulators on Tuesday it won't offer a pair of individual health plans next year, citing losses averaging $1,100 per insured member last year.

The company also plans to cut back on coverage costs by limiting sales of one of its policies, the SmartHealth Network, to seven Billings- and Missoula-area counties.

Blue Cross Blue Shield and Montana Health Co-op, the two other companies selling plans on the state-run exchange, detailed a similarly dire financial forecast.

All three appeared at a public hearing to make the case for significant proposed price hikes on plans purchased through the marketplace, which opened in 2014.

Representatives with each company agreed they simply arent taking in enough in premiums to cover the cost of claims and called for 20 to 62 percent average rate increases to make up for higher-than-expected medical service and pharmacy costs.

They also pointed to ballooning payments made to Montana health care providers and nixed federal subsidies among reasons for the suggested price jumps.

Dozens of residents, regulators and marketplace experts turned up at Tuesdays public hearing, including some who questioned the insurers math.

In a Q-and-A session with a state-contracted auditor, Co-op board member and former state Auditor John Morrison publicly cast doubt on the size of Blue Cross requested rate increase, which came in roughly three times higher than those submitted by other marketplace insurers.

I find it shocking, he later told the Independent Record. Particularly in light of (the outside auditors) data, which shows the cost drivers are the same as in other states.

Ive never seen anything like it.  I think you can really only interpret it as Blue Cross either wanting to abandon the individual market, or profiteer.

Spokesman John Doran said Blue Cross, as the largest player in the marketplace, tended to incur higher costs on account of processing claims submitted from a much larger share of the states population. He said Blue Cross had operated in the state for 75 years and intended to stick around for another 75 years and beyond.

About 80,000 Montanans buy individual plans through Montanas insurance marketplace. Officials said more than half -- among them enrollees who buy via healthcare.gov and receive a premium-capping tax credit -- will not be significantly impacted by the proposed rate increases.

But about 35,000 Montanans could face the full force of the premium spikes.

Commissioner of Securities and Insurance Monica Lindeen advised those potentially affected by the increases to see if they qualify for Medicare, Medicaid or a tax credit, if they havent already done so.

Lindeen cautioned she has no statutory authority to reject rate hikes, but said there had been some discussion among state lawmakers about changing that during the upcoming Legislative session.

A final determination on the rates will be announced by Aug. 19.

Tuesdays rate hearing came amid a nationwide wave of similarly sized premium increase proposals -- hikes that have revived the grudge match between Obamacares backers and detractors.

Proponents of President Barack Obamas signature legislative achievement have blamed Republican obstructionism for some of the laws growing pains.

They point to a well-publicized statewide surges in federally subsidized health care enrollment as evidence of the laws success.

Opponents say a second-straight year of premium hikes could portend doom for the controversial health care law. Marketplaces created under the legislation have seen a rash of insurance company departures in recent weeks.

A second public hearing on the rates is planned Aug. 3, in Room 148 of the library at Montana State University Billings, 1500 University Drive in Billings.

Pubilc comment can also be submitted through Aug. 5 at www.csimt.gov.

Open enrollment for 2017 begins in November.
Customers at a Starbucks cafe in downtown Ho Chi Minh City on April 21, 2015. Photo: Thao Vi When Starbucks opened its first outlet in Vietnam in early 2013, many said the US chain would have a hard job convincing locals to switch from stronger coffee at the simple cafes that line almost every city street and the more sophisticated outlets run by local chains Trung Nguyen and Highlands Coffee.

Today the worlds largest coffee chain has eight stores in Ho Chi Minh City and four in Hanoi. While the company does not disclose its revenues or growth rate, its cafes are crowded every evening.

Many young people say the light-flavored coffee is never an issue as they go to Starbucks mainly for the cool and trendy experience. Moreover, they can drink chocolate, juice, or tea instead of caffe mocha or frappuccino, they point out.

The US coffee giant has an offering for Vietnamese only. Last month it launched dolce misto, which was created to bring Vietnamese customers a unique and delicious drink whose flavor is familiar to them, Patricia Marques, General Manager of Starbucks Vietnam, said.

Though dolce misto is made from arabica, it is stronger and sweeter than Starbuckss other drinks thanks to a different brewing method and sweetened milk, Marques told Thanh Nien News. The others are made from espresso and unsweetened milk, she said.

Most coffee grown in Vietnam and brewed is robusta, which has a slightly bitter taste that is offset by sweetened condensed milk.

Marques described the introduction of dolce misto as a highlight in Starbuckss business in Vietnam, adding it has become a favorite for many customers.

People eat at a McDonald's restaurant in Ho Chi Minh City on March 9, 2015. Photo credit: Reuters People eat at a McDonald's restaurant in Ho Chi Minh City on March 9, 2015. Photo credit: Reuters McDonalds, on the other hand, offered McPork burger, which it said to reflect Vietnamese preferences, along with the iconic Big Mac beef burger when it opened in the pork-loving country in early 2014.

Last Sunday the company behind the golden arches opened its fifth restaurant in Vietnam, all of them in HCMC.

It seems that fast food rival KFC, which arrived in HCMC in 1997, also understands Vietnam well.

Since 2010 KFC has offered rice, Vietnams iconic food, served with roasted chicken and vegetables for lunch.

These days the image of founder Colonel Sanders is ubiquitous in Vietnamese cities since the chain has 135 outlets around the country.

West meets East

In fact, western food and beverage chains have been customizing their menus in eastern markets for years.

In India, Hindus don't eat beef and Muslims don't eat pork, while a significant portion of the population is vegetarian. Thus, McDonald's has not had beef or pork on its menu since entering the country in 1996. Instead it sells chicken and vegetarian variants.

McDonald's tweaked 70 percent of its menu for the Indian market, according to Euromonitor.

In China, KFC has been opening for breakfast since 2002 and offers favorite Chinese morning treats like fried bread stick, spring rolls, soybean milk, and porridge.

Starbucks, meanwhile, has capitalized on Chinas tea-drinking culture by including popular local teas like Oolong and Mudan on the menu.

Not all foreign things are superior

Experts say sticking to the classic menu might be enough for US chains to do well in Vietnam, but localization helps them appeal to new customers.

Localized products will draw attention and make customers step into the store, Robert Tran, CEO of Robenny Corp., a business strategy advisory firm in charge of US and Asia Pacific markets, told Thanh Nien News.

When customers are already in, there are many chances to sell other products.

Starbucks, McDonalds, KFC have to train their staffs well in cross-selling skills.

Local products might not contribute profits, but could help other products sell for huge profits, he said.

Sean Ngo, CEO of VF Franchise Consulting, who is based in Ho Chi Minh City and has offices in Thailand and Singapore, suggested another reason: Not localizing would drive home the message that all things foreign are superior and shows a lack of knowledge and respect for the local culture.

It is not an accident that brands that have localized well are also performing better than those that do not.

Ngo said while international brands are increasingly more open to localization of their menu to cater to local markets, the challenge for them is to not over localize since that may make the brand appear local rather than a highly successful international one.

He sees more and more franchises entering Vietnam from the USA and Australia as well as brands from within Asia.

McDonalds 2014 entry preceded a rush to set up shop in Vietnam by fast-food and cafe chains like Burger King, Subway, Pizza Hut, Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, Australias Gloria Jeans Coffee and the Philippines favorite chain Jollibee.

They eye a share of a market where 65 percent of the 90 million population is below 35.

We [also] see more locally grown franchise systems continue to take root and to contribute to the evolving franchising industry in the next decade, Ngo said.

Vietnamese food and culture are well liked internationally, and the potential to grow overseas is possible but only if adequate preparation and investments are made to ensure success.
A Starbucks outlet in Ho Chi Minh City. Photo by Kha Hoa

Guests at Trung Nguyen coffee outlets now have to queue to order and pay before taking their seat, where they will be served their order.

A spokesperson for the giant homegrown cafe chain said this saves customers time while not affecting service quality.

"Around 100 Trung Nguyen outlets will gradually switch from the traditional mode of taking orders at the table to this."

The system was brought in by foreign coffee chains and Trung Nguyen's switch is part of efforts by local rivals to keep up in a market, where US chain Starbucks is expanding.

The Trung Nguyen spokesperson said it is aiming to open 1,200 outlets in Vietnam and abroad, especially the US, focusing on takeaways.

While the chain is westernizing its service, its president Dang Le Nguyen Vu said it would highlight the Vietnamese characteristics of its drinks.

Local competitor Highlands Coffee has started putting distinctively Vietnamese drinks on the menu.

David Thai, general director of Viet Thai International -- the biggest shareholder of Highlands Coffee -- said at an outlet opening last July that it aims to interest foreigners in distinctive Vietnamese coffee tastes and banh mi (baguette).

The Vietnamese cafe market is shared by foreign brands such as Australia's Gloria Jean's, Italy's Illy, the US's Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf and, most recently, Dunkin' Donuts, which entered in November.

Starbucks arrived last February and has opened a third outlet in Ho Chi Minh City.

Doan Dinh Hoang, who founded Passio chain, said local investors should not be overwhelmed by the foreign wave and it would be dangerous for them to think that customers are drawn to foreign coffee.

Vietnamese prefer filtered robusta and would hardly switch to mild western coffee.

"If they do it will be just out of curiosity."

Passio is a new brand focusing on takeout coffee and food and not comfortable seats, Hoang said, adding it targets busy people. The shops are usually less than 20 square meters in size.

Trung Nguyen has been successful with some outlets allowing customers to roast and grind their own coffee, tapping Vietnamese drinkers' habit of making their own coffee with their preferred flavor and sweetness.

The spokesperson said there is a fierce war with foreign chains which have money and known brands, and local chains need to be creative.
The US Agency for International Development (USAID) on Wednesday announced its new five-year US$26 million project to strengthen and sustain Vietnams HIV/AIDS response.

The Sustainable HIV Response From Technical Assistance Project, implemented until 2021, is expected to improve Vietnams human, organizational and systems capacity to lead the national response.

USAID Vietnam Mission Director Michael Greene said in a statement: The project will scale up services along the entire HIV care continuum from diagnosis to successful treatment in high HIV burden provinces to achieve 90-90-90 HIV case-finding, care, and treatment targets.

It will also provide demand-driven technical assistance at the national, provincial and local levels to build sustainable HIV/AIDS services and systems, he said.

There were an estimated 260,000 people living with HIV in Vietnam as of 2016. In recent years, new cases of HIV have declined.

In 2014, Vietnam became the first country in Asia to adopt the 90-90-90 targets set by the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS. Under the program, by 2020, 90 percent of people living with HIV will know their HIV status; 90 percent of people who know their status are on HIV treatment; and 90 percent of all people on treatment will have undetectable levels of HIV in their body, known as viral suppression.

USAID first supported HIV/AIDS programs in Vietnam in the mid-1990s.

Since 2005, the US government has supported life-saving antiretroviral treatment for almost 57,000 people and provided care to more than 62,000 adults and children in Vietnam. Last year, the US provided HIV tests to more than 375,000 people and methadone replacement therapy to almost 25,000 people in the Southeast Asian country.
In a new effort to address persistent food safety problems, Ho Chi Minh City authorities reportedly plan to tighten control over distributors of chemicals, who are accused of supplying toxins used in many of local foods.

The city will establish an 11-hectare center in District 8 to house more than 600 chemical shops next year, reports said, citing a plan which was discussed at a municipal meeting Tuesday.

A majority of the targeted stores are in Kim Bien, a District 5-based wholesale market dubbed "death market" after its exposure by the media as the supplier of dangerous substances in numerous food safety scares.

Tran Vinh Tuyen, vice chairman of the city People's Committee, was quoted as saying at the meeting that removing the chemical business from Kim Bien is not only to secure the market's fire safety.

The "most important" thing is that only when the stores are brought to the center and thus under better oversight would local authorities be able to ensure food safety and hygiene, he said.
French CRS police secure a street near the church after a hostage-taking in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray near Rouen in Normandy, France, July 26, 2016. A priest was killed with a knife and another hostage seriously wounded in an attack on a church that was carried out by assailants linked to Islamic State. Photo: Reuters/Pascal Rossignol

Knife-wielding attackers interrupted a French church service, forced the priest to his knees and slit his throat on Tuesday, a murder made even more shocking as one of the assailants was a known would-be jihadist under supposedly tight surveillance.

As the attackers came out of the church shouting "Allahu akbar" (God is Greatest) they were shot and killed by police.

The men arrived during morning mass in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, a working-class town near Rouen, northwest of Paris, where the 85-year-old parish priest, Father Jacques Hamel, was leading prayers.

"They forced him to his knees and he tried to defend himself and that's when the drama began," Sister Danielle, who escaped as the attackers slayed the priest, told RMC radio.

"They filmed themselves. It was like a sermon in Arabic around the altar," the nun said.

Three other worshippers were held hostage until the assailants were killed, one of them was badly wounded during the attack.

News agency Amaq, which is affiliated with Islamic State, a group France is bombing in Iraq and Syria as part of a U.S.-led coalition, said two of its "soldiers" had carried out the attack. Police said one person had been arrested.

France's anti-terrorism prosecutor Francois Molins identified one of the attackers as 19-year-old Adel Kermiche, a local man who was known to intelligence services after his failed bids to reach Syria to wage jihad.

Kermiche first tried to travel to Syria in March 2015 but was arrested in Germany. Upon his return to France he was placed under surveillance and barred from leaving his local area.

But less than two months later he slipped away and was intercepted in Turkey making his way towards Syria again.

He was sent back to France and detained until late March this year when he was released on bail. He had to wear an electronic tag, surrender his passport and was only allowed to leave his parents home for a few hours a day.

The fact that he was still able to commit the attack will raise yet more questions over the intelligence services and legal procedures in a country still under a state of emergency.

It is less than two weeks since a Tunisian plowed a truck into a crowd in the French Riviera city of Nice, killing 84 people, an attack claimed by Islamic State.

"In the face of this threat that has never been greater in France and Europe, the government is absolutely determined (to defeat) terrorism," President Hollande said in a televised address.

The White House condemned the attack and commended the French police's "quick and decisive response."

"Normal teenager"

One former school acquaintance remembered Kermiche as a normal teenager who became obsessed with hardline interpretations of the Koran after the attack on the satirical Charlie Hebdo magazine in January 2015 and would later urge his friends to "fight for our brothers".

"He tried to indoctrinate us," said the 18-year-old, who gave his name only as Redwan.

A horrified local resident, Cecile Lefebre, said: "I have no words. How do you arrive at this point, killing people in cold blood like this? It's pure barbarity."

Since the Bastille Day mass murder in Nice, there has been a spate of attacks in Germany, some of which also appear to be Islamist-inspired.

"In the face of this threat that has never been greater in France and Europe, the government is absolutely determined (to defeat) terrorism," Hollande said in a televised address.

An undated photo shows French priest, Father Jacques Hamel of the parish of Saint-Etienne. Hamel was killed, and another person was seriously wounded after two assailants took five people hostage in the church at Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray near Rouen in Normandy, France, July 26, 2016 in an attack on a church that was carried out by assailants linked to Islamic State. Photo Courtesy of Parish of Saint-Etienne via Reuters

Merciless

But former president Nicolas Sarkozy, who is expected to enter a conservative primary for next year's presidential election, accused the Socialist government of being soft.

"We must be merciless," Sarkozy said in a statement to reporters.

"The legal quibbling, precautions and pretexts for insufficient action are not acceptable. I demand that the government implement without delay the proposals we presented months ago. There is no more time to be wasted."

The center-right opposition wants all Islamist suspects to be either held in detention or electronically tagged to avert potential attacks.

Far-right National Front leader Marine Le Pen, who is also expected to run for the presidency, said both Sarkozy's and Hollande's parties had failed on security.

"All those who have governed us for 30 years bear an immense responsibility. It's revolting to watch them bickering!" she tweeted.

Hollande said France should "use all its means" within the law to fight Islamic State.

Pope Francis condemned what he called a "barbarous killing".

"The fact that this episode took place in a church, killing a priest, a minister of the Lord and involving the faithful, is something that affects us profoundly," Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said.

In a telephone call with the pope, Hollande expressed "the sorrow of all French people after the heinous murder of Father Jacques Hamel by two terrorists," and said everything would be done to protect places of worship, the presidential palace said.

Jean-Pierre Raffarin, a former conservative prime minister who now heads the Senate's foreign affairs committee tweeted: "Everything is being done to trigger a war of religions."
Indonesia should step up and play a greater leadership role in Southeast Asias management of maritime disputes with China, a group of foreign policy experts and academics said in an open letter.

We should not forget that an independent and active foreign policy does not give Indonesia a free pass to watch a strategic turmoil unfolding in its environment from the sidelines, said the 19 signatories from institutions across Indonesia.

The academics were responding to an international tribunals ruling this month rejecting Chinas claim to exclusive control of most of the South China Sea, which hosts more than $5 trillion in international trade each year. The Philippines, which brought the case against China, is pushing the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations to take a firmer stance on the issue.

"We would like to call on President Joko Widodo to fully support and mobilize the entire foreign policy establishment to play a more proactive, consistent, and productive leadership in Aseans management of the South China Sea issue," read the Indonesia statement posted online Wednesday. Evan A. Laksmana, a researcher with the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Jakarta who was the lead signatory, confirmed its authenticity.

Natuna Islands

Asean nations including the Philippines and Vietnam have overlapping claims in waters where China has reclaimed thousands of acres of land and increased its military presence. Indonesia is not a claimant but its navy has come into proximity with Chinas fishing boats and coast guard off the gas-rich Natuna Islands, an area Beijing says are its traditional fishing grounds. Widodo, known as Jokowi, made a high-profile trip to the islands last month to underscore Indonesias sovereignty.

The Permanent Court of Arbitration said on July 12 that Chinas efforts to assert control over the South China Sea had "aggravated" tensions, "inflicted irreparable harm" to the environment and "violated" Philippine sovereign rights. China argues the disputes have nothing to do with its relationship with Asean and has dismissed the international ruling.

Those who signed the open letter said they were concerned that Chinese officials had made statements "implying the ruling is somehow tainted." Dismissing international law and raising regional tensions are "not the kind of responsible behavior we have come to expect from Indonesias strategic partner and a respectable member of our regional community."

Asean foreign ministers, who met in Laos this week, failed to take a tough stance on the disputes in their first gathering since the ruling. The statement they issued did not mention China by name, though it noted ministers remained seriously concerned over recent and ongoing developments in the area.

Asean operates on consensus and it only takes one member state to disagree for a statement to be torpedoed. A meeting of foreign ministers in China in June ended in confusion after Malaysia released and then retracted a joint Asean statement that cited China for the first time over its behavior.

the tribunals ruling could inspire less, not more, confidence in the groupings centrality.

That has led several Asean states to publicly call for greater unity for the bloc, amid concerns about its effectiveness going forward.

Dimming lights

We are cognizant of Aseans dimming lights and growing marginalization in managing the tension in the South China Sea, which may worsen as the tribunals ruling could inspire less, not more, confidence in the groupings centrality, the Indonesian open letter said.

Bilahari Kausikan, a Singaporean ambassador-at-large, said Monday the Laos ministerial statement was "weak" and only able to be issued after an "11th-hour change of heart. He said the maritime disputes had become a divisive issue and there was no clear way out of the impasse, given Cambodia and Laos were seen as siding more with Beijing.

Asean can only work by consensus and while we have had serious disagreements in the past what we have at least shared is a consensus on always having a consensus lest the organization break up, Bilahari said in a Facebook post. Commenting on a call by some academics for Asean to drop its rule for consensus, Bilahari said that could signal the end of the organization as it now exists.
"Honour" killings -- a custom in which a relative is killed by another for bringing the family dishonour -- are a near daily occurrence in Pakistan

Pakistani police are investigating after a British man claimed his wife had been murdered in a so-called "honour" killing, ten days after the death of a social media star cast a spotlight on the practice.

Mukhtar Kazam registered a complaint with police in Punjab province claiming his wife, 28-year-old Samia Shahid, was murdered in her family's village while visiting them.

The couple, both British-Pakistani dual citizens, had been married for two years and were living in Dubai, police told AFP, adding that it was Shahid's second marriage.

"Her parents did not approve," local police official Aqeel Abbas said, citing Kazam's complaint.

He said Shahid was visiting her family's village Pindori in Punjab's Jehlum district.

"She was killed on July 20. She has been killed for honour," Abbas said, quoting the complaint.

Officers are now waiting for a post-mortem report, he said, without specifying how Shahid's husband alleged she was murdered.

The murder earlier in Huly of Pakistan social media star Qandeel Baloch (pictured) by her brother, who said it was for "honour", provoked international shock and revulsion.

In his own statement to police, Shahid's father denied any charges that his daughter was killed for "honour", adding that he did not want an investigation as she had died of natural causes.

"Honour" killings -- a custom in which a relative is killed by another for bringing the family dishonour -- are a near daily occurrence in Pakistan.

The victims are overwhelmingly women, with hundreds killed each year.

Earlier this month the murder of social media star Qandeel Baloch by her brother, who said it was for "honour", provoked international shock and revulsion.

The killing polarised Pakistan and appears to have spurred politicians to take action. Last week the law minister announced that bills aimed at tackling loopholes that facilitate "honour" killings would soon be voted on by parliament.

Rights groups and politicians have for years called for tougher laws to tackle perpetrators of violence against women in Pakistan.
The Philippines "vigorously pushed" for the inclusion of comment on an arbitration ruling in a joint statement from Southeast Asian countries but its failure to secure that was no diplomatic win for China, Manila's foreign minister said on Wednesday.

The Philippines had not sought support from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) or the international community in its arbitration case against Beijing over the South China Sea, and did not want to press the issue and risk dividing the group or provoking China, Perfecto Yasay said.

Yasay was speaking after returning from a meeting of foreign ministers in Laos, during which ASEAN dropped a U.S.-backed proposal to mention the landmark July 12 court ruling, which nullified Beijing's claims to most of the South China Sea.

"I am just saying this to dispel the reports that have been said that China came out victorious in the ASEAN meeting because we precisely agreed to not mentioning the arbitral award," Yasay told a news conference.

"But that (was) not the object of our meeting in ASEAN. The arbitral award is a matter between China and the Philippines."

Yasay said the arbitral tribunal was not an issue for ASEAN to deal with and it was strictly the business of China and the Philippines to handle.

Speaking later at a news conference with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, Yasay said there were no losers in Laos and the issuance of a joint communique was a triumph for the 10-member bloc.

"It makes ASEAN more credible to the international community and makes it more effective and relevant as a regional group," he said.

Thorny issue

Kerry said he was "very satisfied" with the communique as it showed all members were fully supportive of the rule of law, even though the thorny issue of the arbitration case was left out.

"Sometimes, meeting like that and diplomacy, you don't always have to include every single word that may in fact sometimes make it harder to get to the dialogue that you want to get to," Kerry said.

The Philippines and Vietnam both wanted the ruling and a call to respect international maritime law to feature in the communique, but Cambodia - China's only real ally in ASEAN - rejected the wording on the ruling, diplomats said, backing instead China's call for bilateral discussions.

Manila backed down to prevent the disagreement leading to the group failing to issue a joint statement after a meeting for only the second time in its 49-year history.

Kerry supported Yasay's call for China to take a position so bilateral dialogue could happen and said he was confident Manila would make the right judgments in how to move forward.

The failure by ASEAN to take a position or mention the arbitration had no impact on the validity of the court decision, Kerry added.

"It is impossible for it to be irrelevant, it is legally binding," he said.

Kerry met with Philippine's President Rodrigo Duterte for lunch on Wednesday and was due to discuss how to move ahead following the ruling, a U.S. official said.

Yasay earlier said the Philippines wanted to set a course for dialogue with Beijing, but would not say whether Manila would insist the arbitration issue be on the agenda as a prerequisite for talks.
At first blush, the "No TPP" signs waved by some delegates at the Democratic National Convention might suggest some kind of derogatory adjective being applied to the Trump-Pence Republican ticket. In fact, those Democrats are rallying against the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the trade deal that has driven a wedge between many Democrats and their president, Barack Obama. The anti-TPP signs and buttons are a reminder of how difficult it will be for Obama to win congressional ratification of the trade deal before he leaves office in January 2017. It seems clear that the next president will be, at the very least, less of a TPP fan than Obama is.

1. Whats the TPP?

The Trans-Pacific Partnership, known in some countries as the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA), was negotiated by 12 nations representing 40 percent of the worlds economy -- Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the U.S. and Vietnam. It would expand free-trade rules to agriculture and services, encompass the digital economy and offer stronger protections for intellectual property.

2. Where does it stand?

After five years of work, representatives of the 12 nations signed the deal in February, though much of the heavy lifting is still ahead. To take effect, the deal has to be ratified by February 2018 by at least six countries accounting for 85 percent of the entire groups combined gross domestic product. That cant happen without the U.S. and Japan. Theres popular and political opposition in most of the 12 countries.

3. Why is the Obama administration for the TPP?

The trade deal "levels the playing field for American workers and American businesses" by "eliminating over 18,000 taxes -- in the form of tariffs -- that various countries put on Made-in-America products," the U.S. trade representatives office says on its website. Obama, in an April 2015 address, called the TPP "the highest-standard trade agreement in history," with "strong provisions for workers and the environment."

4. Whats the rap on the TPP?

Critics say the trade deal puts the interests of multinational corporations above all else, including the well-being of workers and the environment. The behind-closed-doors nature of the negotiations only heightened the concerns that business lobbyists were shaping the deal for their clients interests so that, for instance, drug prices will go up.

5. Whats the outlook in the U.S.?

The TPP is the rare issue that unites Obama, a Democrat, and the Republican leadership of the Senate. But critics span the political spectrum, from labor groups to Tea Party conservatives. Opposition to the TPP helped propel Donald Trump to the Republican nomination and helped fuel Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders challenge to Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, making congressional ratification look like even more of a long shot. Unless Obama manages to win approval this year, the treatys future will be up to the next president. Trump has denounced the TPP as "a rape of our country." Clinton once voiced support for the TPP but came out against it in 2015, saying it needs significant changes.
Two former police chiefs and a handful of black community leaders on Tuesday called for ways to bridge the divide between law enforcement and black Baton Rouge before another tragedy occurs.

Former police chiefs Pat Englade and Greg Phares offered their thoughts to a full luncheon crowd sponsored by the politically conservative Chamber of Commerce of East Baton Rouge Parish in the aftermath of the July 5 shooting death of Alton Sterling by a white police officer, a case currently being investigated by the U.S Justice Department, and the July 17 shooting deaths of Baton Rouge police officers Montrell Jackson and Matthew Gerald and East Baton Rouge Parish sheriff's deputy Brad Garafola and wounding of three other officers by gunman Gavin Long, 29, of Kansas City.

Lanny Keller: After tragedies, how can police do better? We can only hope that the attention of homicidal lunatics will turn away from Baton Rouge an

Englade, who retired in 2004 after 32 years in city police, the last three as chief, was the more openly emotional. He said hes still try to comprehend whats been happening.

Every suit I got is soaking wet with the tears of police officers crying on my shoulders, Englade said. Ive got 'em in a bag and I havent had the nerve yet to bring them to the cleaners. They mean something to me.

He said people need to break out of the habit of talking only to people who agree with them.

I want to sit down with people who dont think like me. Thats when you resolve something, Englade said.

Ive heard the phrase used, You dont know what its like to live in a black mans body. And youre absolutely right. I do not, Englade said. But most of you dont understand what its like to be in that police uniform either. And it has to swing both ways.

Phares, who spent nine years as police chief before Englade, said the best answer is for law enforcement to strive for ever greater professionalism through constant training and getting rid of those who repeatedly do not live up to those standards.

I think if you chase ethnicity, its a losing race, Phares said. How do I interact with an African-American, how do I interact with an Hispanic, how do I interact with an Asian. You interact with anyone like you are a professional.

Phares, who is now chief criminal deputy for the East Feliciana Parish Sheriff's Office, described the recent problems in narrow terms.

What you dealing with here basically is one insane man, he said, referring to Long, and a small percentage  Im not naming names here  but a small percentage of police officers who dont get it right.

A handful of black leaders were also invited to offer their thoughts. They said the small percentage of bad police officers, the bad apples, are provoking big problems.

Ive seen officers, not just white officers, but black officers as well, using their powers in a very intimidating fashion towards myself, said Dr. Rani Whitfield, who is often referred to as the Hip Hop Doc and is running for Metro Council.

Echoing others in the audience, Whitfield said hes worried about renewed street protests and perhaps worse if the police officer who shot Sterling is not at least charged with a crime.

We need to have dialogue to address how we are going to handle that backlash, Whitfield said.

State Rep. Edmond Jordan, D-Brusly, said as a lawyer hes represented clients in several police misconduct cases and said across the country far too few bad cops are brought to justice.

Businessman Cleve Dunn said the recent protests were peaceful and that was no accident because he and others moved quickly to make sure they didnt get out of hand. But police need to act before conflict renews, conflict he suggests he and others might not be able to contain.

Michael Mitchell, a motivational speaker who works in private security, urged law enforcement to clean house before new problems arise.

Theres some guys out there and theyre not wearing that badge in the way it should be worn, Mitchell said. Because if we dont correct that, were going to come up with the same type of stuff.

Redell Norman, an activist who participated in Sterling protests, said Tuesdays discussion, while productive, was held in the wrong place, and should be moved to the streets in north Baton Rouge.

The demographic you are trying to reach are not here, he said.
For the past three weeks, Darin Fontenette has stood on Baton Rouge streets with homemade signs alongside a small band of others calling for justice for Alton Sterling and equal treatment for all citizens, first near the store when Sterling was shot and then, for the past two weeks, on Airline Highway near police headquarters.

The 50-year-old self-employed landscaper from Gardere said on Monday that groups of protesters  a small faction of people who have returned night after night after the larger protests subsided  seemed to be making progress and breaking the ice with police in the days before Gavin Long, a 29-year-old Marine veteran from Kansas City, ambushed officers, killing three and wounding three others.

Deputies, troopers and policemen waved at familiar faces as they drove past the corner, Fontenette said, and a handful of officers stopped by the night before the July 17 attack to offer help keeping the peace at the ongoing demonstrations.

"We were making progress," said Fontenette. "It set us back. Now we've got to try to bridge this gap."

After Sterling's death, protesters, activists, politicians and north Baton Rouge leaders took to the streets and the airways, saying the incident demonstrated that changes are needed in everyday policing in this city. While many focused on whether the Baton Rouge police officer who shot Sterling would eventually be prosecuted  a decision currently in the hands of federal investigators  this wasn't the sole rallying cry. Others said they wanted to see broader changes within the Baton Rouge Police Department, a push they now said they remain committed to even as the city continues to grieve for the three slain officers, the last of whom was buried Monday.

"He (Long) hung a nasty black cloud over everything we were accomplishing," said Arthur 'Silky Slim' Reed, a 48-year-old activist who helped circulate cellphone video of Sterling's shooting and has played an active role in the demonstrations. "We had momentum, we had people listening. Now, we basically have to start over from scratch."

Local demonstrators, who have largely stayed off the streets since the day the officers were killed, say they could be headed back out to protest in the coming days to return attention to their calls for accountability in Sterling's death and changes at BRPD.

"We're going to remain peaceful and we're going to remain nonviolent, but we're not going to be silent," said Reed. "Our voices have to be heard."

The first protest might be as soon as Wednesday afternoon, as Gary Chambers, publisher of The Rouge Collection website and a prominent voice since the Sterling shooting called for a 3:30 p.m. rally at City Hall. Metro Council members will consider whether to place on an August agenda a proposal to require new Baton Rouge police hires to live in the city.

The idea, which has won support from several activists, has already generated considerable pushback because of the timing, coming just after the funerals for Baton Rouge police officers Montrell Jackson and Matthew Gerald, and sheriff's deputy Brad Garafola.

Metro Councilman John Delgado said the discussion about a residency requirement might be appropriate at a later date, but not this week. "To do so right now, when we just put these guys in the ground, is a slap in the face to their families," he said.

Councilwoman Chauna Banks-Daniel, who introduced the proposal, defended it on Friday as a sensible idea that ensures police officers are familiar with the places where they are working.

Activists, who come from a range of different backgrounds and don't speak with a single voice, haven't coalesced around any one slate of reforms. Many speak of the need for greater "community policing"  a catch-all term greater engagement between police officers and the neighborhoods they patrol. Several questioned if officers Blane Salamoni and Howie Lake II, the two white policemen involved in the fatal confrontation with Sterling, knew the 37-year-old black man, a neighborhood fixture known as "the CD man" for peddling copied albums and movies outside the Triple S Food Mart on North Foster Drive.

The voices calling for reform in the wake of Sterling's killing haven't come only from demonstrations. Groups including the Baton Rouge Area Chamber of Commerce and the faith-based group Together Baton Rouge -- which has also embraced the call for community policing -- urged serious discussions of how to bridge the racial divide in the city.

These kind of questions are also certain to play a major role in this fall's race to replace outgoing Mayor-President Kip Holden, which is just beginning to get started.

"I think after the shooting of Alton Sterling, people realized there is a need for fundamental changes within law enforcement in the Baton Rouge area," said the Rev. Lee Wesley, pastor of Community Bible Baptist Church and one of the founders of Together Baton Rouge. "I don't think the killing of the police officers in any way has removed the broad-based desire of people in Baton Rouge to make those changes."

There also remains the possibility that the federal Department of Justice, which is handing the criminal investigation into Sterling's shooting, will open a broader civil probe into the policies and practices of the police department as a whole. A spokesman for U.S. Rep. Cedric Richmond, a New Orleans Democrat whose district includes parts of Baton Rouge, said the congressman requested such an investigation of the department, but it remains unclear whether federal authorities are seriously considering opening one.

U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch will be in Baton Rouge on Thursday for a memorial for the officers, but is also staying the following day for a "roundtable" with other federal officials that will include talks about community policing, according to a news release.

Black community leaders and protesters say they're concerned about what they described as an unfair conflation of their demonstrations and Long's deadly attack, which happened early on a Sunday morning, about a week after the most recent large protests. While most protests were peaceful, there were tensions with police and complaints that law enforcement responded with too much of a militarized approach, with officers in riot gear. Almost 200 people were arrested during the biggest demonstrations.

"I've been told flat-out it was protesters' fault," said Walter McLaughlin, who's been active in the protests and with a number of groups demanding change in policing. "To equate people wanting justice to people wanting to kill police  that's like crossing the Atlantic Ocean if we're reaching that level of misunderstanding."

Baton Rouge Police Chief Carl Dabadie Jr., in an interview Tuesday, said he didn't blame protesters for the shooting of the officers and described Long as an outsider who traveled to Louisiana after recent media attention of the Sterling shooting to carry out his mission.

He also defended the protest response, saying that it would have been unsafe for his officers to be out there unprotected. He said the use of riot gear and other so-called military-style equipment was a last resort, after either protesters resorted to violence against police or after several hours of protesters refusing to adhere to the laws by occupying roadways.

Several activists also drew what they said is a sharp distinction between the public reaction to Long's attack  which drew widespread condemnation and an outpouring of support  and the more muted response by many outside the black community to Sterling's death.

"No one had to search for black leaders to condemn the murder of the slain officers. Collectively, black leaders stepped up and denounced the actions of the shooter immediately," wrote Chambers in a post Saturday on his website. "We are still waiting for the white community to acknowledge the wrong of the officer who killed Alton Sterling."

Salamoni, the officer who a source has said fatally shot Sterling, and Lake, who was also present, have not commented on the incident. But a Baton Rouge police report filed hours after the shooting states that the officers spotted the butt of a handgun protruding from Sterling's pocket and that Sterling was reaching for the pistol when he was fatally shot.

The FBI and federal prosecutors are currently handling the criminal review of Sterling's death and officials declined again Tuesday to comment on when the investigation might be concluded.

Joel Boe, a Republican Metro Councilman, said the results of the federal investigation  even if its scope is limited to Sterling's death  will almost certainly inform changes to officer training and policies at BRPD and said he doesn't anticipate substantial changes before the investigation is concluded.

"There are probably things law enforcement can do differently to gain the trust of residents in Baton Rouge, to enhance the trust they already have," said Boe, who is not seeking re-election. "I think the dialogue has to begin, it has to continue, but this is not going to be a quick process by any means."

Advocate staff writer Rebekah Allen contributed to this report.
The families of three law enforcement officers killed by a lone gunman on July 17 would receive $250,000 each from the state under a plan that won tentative approval Wednesday.

In addition, the families would receive $25,000 for each child.

The payments won preliminary approval by the little-known Law Enforcement Officers and Firemen's Survivor Benefit Review Board.

The four-member panel includes state Attorney General Jeff Landry, Legislative Auditor Daryl Purpera, State Risk Director J. S. "Bud" Thompson and state Fire Marshall Butch Browning.

Landry said that, once the paperwork is completed, the panel will meet within 48 hours to take final action on the payments.

Two Baton Rouge police officers -- Montrell Jackson and Matthew Gerald -- and East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff's Deputy Brad Garafola were killed near Airline Highway 10 days ago.

Jackson is survived by one child, Gerald two and Garafola four children.

Three other law enforcement officers were wounded, and one remains hospitalized in critical condition.

Services for the three slain officers were held last Monday, Saturday and Friday.

The shooter, Gavin Long of Kansas City, Mo., was killed by a Baton Rouge Police Department SWAT team.

Separately, the two congressmen who represent Baton Rouge announced on July 20 that they are trying to secure $340,000 each in federal money for each of the families of the slain officers.

Garret Graves seeking federal money for families of slain officers Baton Rouges congressmen are trying to secure about $340,000 in federal money for each of t

Federal money is available for families of fallen law enforcement officers.

The state plan would also allow surviving children of the slain law enforcement officers to attend a public state college or university tuition free.

Landry said he could not estimate when the board will meet again on the payments.

The board typically meets quarterly.

Landry said a special meeting was called this time in light of the high-profile shooting.

"They certainly met the threshold immediately, we knew that." Landry said of the surviving family members.

The meeting was finished in less than 15 minutes.

The Baton Rouge Police Department and the East Baton Rouge Sheriff's Department are gathering the paperwork needed for final approval of the benefits.

While the board is little known it has been in place since 1989.

The money for the families would come from the state's Self-Insurance Fund.
Five more people in Louisiana were diagnosed with Zika virus in just the last week, bringing the total number of cases in the state to 14, the Louisiana Department of Health said Wednesday.

But no one from Louisiana with Zika virus caught the disease in the state, or even the country for that matter. They were all traveling outside of the U.S., and were diagnosed upon their return.

Samantha Faulkner, a department spokeswoman, said in order to protect the identities of the patients, she could not say where the people traveled to or where in the state they live.

But she confirmed that all 14 people who have been diagnosed have since recovered and did not suffer severe complications.

Nationwide, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that about 1,400 cases of Zika virus have been diagnosed in the United States, but all of them stem from the people traveling out of the country.

But on Wednesday, Florida health officials announced two new cases of Zika virus in the state where travel had been ruled out. They are potentially the country's first cases of Zika virus transmitted by local mosquitoes, according to reports.

Zika is a mosquito-borne case primarily, however, it can also be transmitted sexually. Its greatest threat is to pregnant women, as their children could suffer from birth defects.
VISUAL:

Belconnen Arts Centre: The Encyclopedia of Forgotten Things. A group exhibition by staff of the University of Canberra Faculty of Arts and Design. Rarities. Artist Sonja Karl's works capture the beguiling nature of birds. Encircle. Artist Ruby Berry creates sculptural works that use contrasting textures and organic forms to evoke feelings of comfort and protection. All until August 14. Open Tuesday to Sunday 10am-4pm. 118 Emu Bank, Belconnen. See: belconnenartscentre.com.au.

Lucas Davidson's Animal Magnetism exhibition at CCAS Manuka investigates the power of screen-based technologies.

Canberra Glassworks: Hindmarsh Prize 2016. The inaugural Hindmarsh Prize aims to recognise excellence and promote the appreciation of the world-class artists working in glass who live and practice in the ACT and region. Until September 4. Open Tuesday to Sunday 10am-4pm. 11 Wentworth Ave, Kingston. See: www.canberraglassworks.com

Canberra Museum and Gallery: Jay Kochel avarice : auspice. Large, gold and inflatable, this ambitious project by Canberra artist Jay Kochel continues his exploration of the Japanese concept of "reading air". Until September 18. Open Monday to Friday 10am-5pm, Saturday and Sunday noon-5pm. Corner of London Circuit and Civic Square, Canberra City. See: cmag.com.au.
Swisse Wellness chief Radek Sali is urging Australian businesses to tap into the new golden age of trade with China after revealing Chinese consumers account for half of the group's total sales despite officially launching its brand in Shanghai only this month.

As the Australian economy resets to the post-mining boom conditions, Mr Sali said Australia was uniquely positioned to prosper from Chinese consumer appetite for premium brands.

"I think it's the dawn of a new golden age for goods and services that trade from Australia, and those businesses that are awake to it and put in strategies ... that take advantage of this amazing opportunity, will be in a very strong position," Mr Sali said.

"There's this [Chinese] middle class that's 300 million strong and growing at a rate of 5 million every five years, I don't see many other demographics or profiles from other countries that have similar opportunities.
Hundreds of workers at Coles supermarkets' cold storage warehouse in Victoria have walked off the job indefinitely, threatening to disrupt the supply of meat, dairy and fresh produce in stores statewide.

Wednesday morning's mass walkout has forced a total shutdown of the Polar Fresh warehouse in Melbourne's west, where crowds of workers are picketing the site.

Workers and their union hit out at the company for what they say is a 'model of under-employment'.

And the industrial action appears to be spreading, with Coles claiming union members have also begun illegally picketing "contingency sites" across the state, putting expensive fresh food supplies in jeopardy.

"This is placing millions of dollars of fresh food grown and produced by Victorian farmers at risk of rotting and spoilage," a Coles spokeswoman said.
Andrew Left, the Citron Research short-seller who shot to prominence following a bearish analysis of Valeant Pharmaceuticals, said Facebook could lose nearly a third of its market value or more as he bets against the social media giant's shares.

Left revealed to Bloomberg News last month that he was shorting shares of Facebook, citing increased competition from Snapchat and concerns over the company's ability to generate revenue through advertisements. His call goes against the vast majority of Wall Street, where 88 per cent of analysts surveyed by Bloomberg have a "buy" rating on the stock.

"It's not on my list in the way that other shorts have been on my list. What's amazing about Facebook is the amount of group-think involved, thinking that they can just evolve, evolve, evolve, without any hurdles in the way," Left said in an interview with Bloomberg TV.

"I just think that expectations and investor expectations are a little bit outpaced the realities of what they're going to face in the next 12 to 24 months."
Australians didn't need reminding about the Gallipoli campaign but we do need to learn from all the other theatres of the Great War in which we fought. Although Gallipoli was our "baptism of fire" as a nation, it was a sideshow compared with our involvement on the Western Front which, beginning 100 years ago last week, lasted nearly three years, cost three-quarters of our total First World War dead and turned out to be the moment of Australia's greatest influence so far on world history.

Over the past week, we have marked the centenary of the battles of Fromelles and Pozieres. Fromelles was the worst day in Australian history with nearly 2000 men killed in a single night. To put this in perspective, it's more deaths in a few hours than in the whole of the Afghanistan, Vietnam, Korea and South Africa campaigns. Pozieres was the most ferocious battle Australians have ever fought, with more men killed in just six weeks than at Gallipoli over eight months. "No place on earth is more thickly sown with Australian sacrifice," said Charles Bean, our official historian.

Between 1914 and 1919, from a population of less than 5 million, more than 400,000 Australians volunteered to serve, more than 330,000 fought overseas, more than 150,000 were wounded and more than 60,000 never returned. Nearly half of all Australian men aged 18 to 42 were in uniform.

But Australians didn't just fight at Gallipoli and in France. An Australian battery fired the Empire's first shot in anger to stop a German ship leaving Port Phillip. The Australian Light Horse was the spearhead of the British army that liberated Jerusalem and Damascus. In 1919, Australians won two VCs fighting against the Bolsheviks at Archangel. Crucially, a Melbourne-born Jew, Sir John Monash, was the general who best "cracked the code" of trench warfare that turned stalemate into victory. If we are fully to understand our country and the wider world, we need to remember what our forebears did and the difference they made.
The threat of modern terrorism challenges the traditional notion of law  to serve as a punishment for wrongdoing. Deterrence is not enough. Extremists willing to resort to violence have proved willing to act without any concern for the consequences to their person.

The goal must instead be to prevent terrorist attacks, not merely punish those responsible for an atrocity. A law against suicide bombing, for instance, is not going to stop people determined to attack others by killing themselves. But for a nation such as Australia  rightfully proud of the tradition to protect the rights of individuals against potential abuse by state authority  there is no easy balance between prevention and punishment. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull describes the security environment as "ever-evolving", as demonstrated by the cruel ingenuity shown by terrorists to imagine new and devastating methods of attack. Driving a speeding truck into a crowd on a French promenade is a recent horrific example.

Australia has adopted a number of measures in the past 15 years, granting police and security agencies extraordinary, sweeping powers to investigate and pre-empt terrorist plots. Such powers have been exercised in most instances responsibly and with restraint. But the potential for abuse of powers that impinge on individual liberty cannot be lightly dismissed. The burden of proof must be kept high, to prevent a situation where security is unduly used as an excuse to trample the rights of individuals. As The Age observed in 2014, when concern about attacks in Australia inspired by Islamic State began to grow, "suspicion is a potent emotion, but it must be tempered by evidence".

Now the government has proposed a law that would allow the indefinite incarceration of people convicted of terrorist-related offences, what Mr Turnbull calls "post-sentence preventative detention legislation". He compares the proposal to arrangements in some Australian states for the treatment of sex offenders or extremely violent people, where a court may order continued imprisonment for high-risk prisoners. "We cannot afford for a moment to be complacent," he said of the terrorist threat.
Mrs Clinton is not the cause of the madness although she is part of it.

America has "gone completely around the bend," satirist P.J. O'Rourke told the National Press Club in Canberra on Wednesday, shortly after Hillary Clinton formally became the first woman in American history to lead the ticket of a major political party.

P.J.O'Rourke at the National Press Club in Canberra. Credit:Jay Cronan

"We started out with but 600 candidates for president. And who were these jacklegs, these highbinders, these swellheads, floor-flushers and animated spitoons thinking they were worthy of America's highest office? Did they take American voters for fools? Of course they did . . . After a while, we managed to narrow the field down to five. Ted Cruz, John Kasich, Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. Now, Cruz, Kasich, Sanders and Clinton and Trump, that is not a list of presidential candidates but the worst law firm in the world."

Not that he blames the politicians. Well, not entirely, not when the American people have indulged in "the most severe case of American mass psychosis since our Salem witch trials in 1692".

O'Rourke explained the psychosis as a response to rapid economic and social change that left many people behind.

Had most people's incomes risen over the years, they would not have cared "how rich the guy down the road is".
Credit:Matt Golding But she's heartened by the number of people willing to engage with such issues. "They are all at different stages but it's gaining momentum and I think that's a really exciting thing  if we're all working towards that individually then we'll see a bigger change." Like Lauren, a growing number of people are making choices to consume with their eyes wide open. In 2015 global research by Nielsen showed "significant increases in the number of consumers who say that they want products from sustainable companies and they are willing to spend more to get them" in the past two years. It found commitment to the environment has the power to sway product purchase for 45 per cent of consumers surveyed. Commitment to social value (43 per cent) and the consumer's community (41 per cent) are also important purchase drivers.

There are plenty of apps and public campaigns to guide people wanting to make more ethical shopping choices. Shop Ethical produced its first print guide seven years ago and its first app five years ago. Shop Ethical's Nick Ray says to date about 140,000 people have bought the print guide. He suggests people start by looking at the key issues attached to the products they are already buying. "The product label is the place to start. So for example, country of origin labelling talks about where the item is transformed or put together and also often it's connected to where ingredients come from but people often don't really get the complexities of that," he says. "You try to make ethical decisions where you're at and you build on the information you had before," he suggests. Thinking about where we shop is important, too. "If I go to a food co-op they've done some of the hard work for me or a local grocer that I can talk to instead of a check-out person."

Other information sources include Greenpeace consumer guides on palm oil; canned tuna and sustainable seafood; and Choice campaigns on free-range eggs and palm oil. In April Choice launched an app for consumers to use in the supermarket so they can identify "free range" eggs from hens stocked at 1500 hens per hectare rather than 10,000 hens per hectare. As consumers vote with their wallets companies are forced to change. Baptist World Aid Australia produces the annual Australian Fashion Report, which grades 308 fashion brands on the systems they have in place to protect the workers in their supply chain from exploitation, forced labour and child labour. Baptist World Aid Australia advocacy manager Gershon Nimbalker says consumers can actively preference companies that are doing more protect their workers and write to those they are boycotting. "Consumers have a lot of power to drive change and we've seen that increasingly through company responses," he says.

"The worst labour rights abuses usually occur where facilities, factories and farms are unknown by the companies therefore they are unmonitored." Since it released its first report in 2013 the proportion of companies tracing their supply chain to that second tier has risen from 48 per cent to 78 per cent. "The amount of companies that are paying living wages or at least monitoring to see whether they are paying wages significantly above the minimum has substantially increased as well," he adds. The perception that it will cost more to stand by their values can discourage people, according to QUT Business School senior lecturer marketing Gary Mortimer. "Often that tends to be one of the big barriers between intentions and behaviours  this perception that it's going to cost me a lot more money if I buy a sustainably produced product or a more locally produced food product," he says.
Abbey Brimble, 12, has a rare genetic condition that might be identified through whole genome testing. Credit:Louise Kennerley "You end up emotionally back where you started when she was a baby; going through the cycle of hoping this will be the test, but also relieved when you're told she doesn't have that particular horrible disorder," she said. "We just want answers to the Abbey mystery," she said. Testing labs usually analyse just one gene, or a panel or genes, at a time. But Australia's first whole genome testing service will be able to analyse all 20,000 genes from one blood test.

The Garvan Institute's Genome.One  one of the first clinical whole genome sequencing services in the world  is capable of sequencing an individual's entire genetic information. This type of sequencing has so far only been available to research cohorts. The service could triple diagnosis rates among people with rare unknown genetic diseases, said Associate Professor Marcel Dinger, the head of the Kinghorn Centre for Clinical Genomics and CEO of Genome.One. "It's really transformational," Associate Professor Dinger said. "So often in research we're left saying this will be available in five or 10 years. But we can say this is literally available now. "A doctor used to have to find a genetic testing lab somewhere in the world that would test one specific gene, then maybe wait six months, get a negative result, got to the next lab and wait another six months before moving on again.

"But using just one blood test, we can interpret any of those thousands of genes right here to work out what disease that person has," he said. Roughly 6000 genes have been linked to rare genetic diseases. Usual testing offers patients a 15 per cent to 20 per cent chance of diagnosis, while whole genome sequencing has a 55 per cent to 60 per cent success rate, the Garvan's research shows. "It ends the odyssey of searching for a cause," Associate Professor Dinger said. It also means better treatment targets for some patients using existing drugs, he said.

Genome.One is no ordinary clinical lab. The bulk of the 60 staff members are software engineers, which makes sense considering a single genome amounts to 100GB of data. With an out-of-pocket cost of $4360 ($9560 if a patient's parents also need to be tested) the service is financially out of reach for many. Associate Professor Dinger is hopeful government funding would be available in the future. "Economically it works out more favourably than the existing approach, where individual tests cost thousands of dollars each," he said. Only eligible patients with a rare genetic condition are currently able to access the service if they are referred by a genetic clinician. But Associate Professor Dinger expected the service would move towards testing for genetic predispositions to cardiac and renal disease among people with a family history of the conditions.

Critics warns a carte blanche approach to whole genome sequencing that identified genetic risk factors for a plethora of conditions in healthy people could lead to a generation of "worried well". Genome.One is not open to asymptomatic individuals. "There would be a risk of false positives and you would be creating anxiety [if that were the case]," he said. "But over time we will get greater clarity about what it might mean to sequence a well individual, and be able to inform them about their future," Associate Professor Dinger said. "We absolutely anticipate that it's on the horizon."
A social media craze that swept the world two years ago has helped to fund a medical breakthrough for those living with motor neurone disease (MND) in Australia.

In 2014, videos of the "ice bucket challenge"  which consisted of people being filmed while they were drenched with icy water  raised $3 million in Australia and more than $220 million around the world.

That money helped Australian scientists research the disease, which currently has no effective treatments, and discover three new genes which increase the risk of developing the most common form of MND.

Researchers at the University of Queensland were involved in the international data analysis of more than 30,000 people with MND, also known as Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis or ALS.
Northern Territory Chief Minister Adam Giles has put the use of spit hoods and restraint chairs "on hold" in the territory's juvenile detention system, but concedes adult prisoners  including 18-year-old Dylan Voller  could still be subject to the controversial devices.

Having come under enormous pressure after an ABC Four Corners program this week exposed the abuse of young prisoners are treated in the territory, Mr Giles told Sky News the restraints introduced by his government are "not to be used" pending the outcome of the royal commission.

"I don't know whether or not, on reflection, that the use of the chair is the right thing to do," he said. "That's why we've said that spit masks and restraint chairs will not be used."

He later said the chair and the so-called spit hood were "on hold", and his government would take advice on such restraints from the royal commission that was formally enacted on Thursday, to be led by former NT chief justice Brian Ross Martin.
Two Sydney friends who were arrested just hours before they allegedly planned to carry out a terrorist attack have entered guilty pleas in court.

Terror attack plotters Mohammad Kiad and Omar Al-Kutobi. Credit:Facebook

Less than a week before they were due to face trial, flatmates Omar Al-Kutobi, 25, and Mohammad Kiad, 26 pleaded guilty in the NSW Supreme Court on Wednesday to one count each of "do act in preparation/planning for terrorist act" .

The pair were arrested after counter-terrorism police raided the granny flat they shared at the back of a property in Fairfield in Sydney's west in February last year.
Redlands LNP MP Mark Robinson has defended Pauline Hanson and slated the ABC panel show Q & A as being too left wing.

On Twitter, Mr Robinson said Q&A panel members who attacked Pauline Hanson were disgraceful.

"Mr Nasty @samdastyari should apologise," Mr Robinson said.

In an attempt to see if minor parties would be able to work with each other and the major parties, the popular ABC show had Labor Senator Sam Dastyari, Liberal Simon Birmingham, Greens Larissa Waters and Nick Xenophon on its panel.
Queensland Health staffers are still being overpaid to the tune of almost $700,000 a fortnight, the opposition says.

The claim comes amid reports the department is sending former staff members letters threatening to bring in debt collectors to recoup overpayments.

John-Paul Langbroek says Queensland Health staff are still being overpaid. Credit:Glenn Hunt

The Queensland Health payroll debacle was estimated to have cost taxpayers $1.2 billion and was described as possibly the worst public administration failure in Australia.

Thousands of public servants were underpaid, overpaid or not paid when the former Bligh government introduced the flawed IBM system in March 2010, culminating in a failed legal attempt to recoup costs from the computer giant.
A former Perth child psychiatrist has been charged with 40 sexual offences against three children dating back more than 30 years.

Police allege Ian McAlpine sexually abused three children aged between 11 and 17 years of age, while he was a child psychiatrist at the Hillview Terrace and Cambridge Private Hospitals and a private practice in Subiaco between 1985 and 1992.

Man, 47, has been charged with sexually assaulting two girls in the South West of WA.

Mr McAlpine was deregistered from practice in February 1992.

The 68-year-old, from West Leederville, has been charged with 26 counts of indecent assault; eight counts of sexual assault; five counts of indecent treatment of a child under 14 years of age and one count of defilement of a girl under 13.
A 37-year-old Balcatta man has been charged by Child Abuse Squad detectives after allegedly sexually and physically assaulting a four-year-old boy in July.

Police will allege the man knew the boy.

A Balcatta man has been charged with sexually assaulting a four-year-old boy.

The man is accused of two counts of sexual penetration of a child, indecent dealing of a child and aggravated assault occasioning bodily harm.

He will appear in Perth Magistrates Court on Thursday.
Hillary Clinton would renegotiate the US free trade agreement with Canada and Mexico if she were elected president, a union leader has claimed.

Dennis Williams, president of the United Auto Workers, said that Ms Clinton  confirmed as the Democrats' presidential nominee on Tuesday  had told him that she would "try to redo" the North American Free Trade Agreement.

Ms Clinton is coming under mounting pressure over her stance on international trade deals from both Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and supporters of her former Democratic rival, Bernie Sanders.

Ms Clinton has previously said she wanted to rework NAFTA.
MORRIS PLAINS, N.J., July 27, 2016 -- Honeywell announced today that NCFI Polyurethanes, a leader in sustainable polyurethane products, has begun using Honeywell's new low-global-warming material in foam used in applications ranging from office furniture to molded seat pads to shoe soles.

NCFI is using Honeywell's Solstice Liquid Blowing Agent (LBA) in its integral skin polyurethane foam systems, also known as I-Skin, to replace hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) blowing agents being phased out by regulations aimed at reducing use of high-global-warming materials. Blowing agents are critical for such applications because they cause the foam to expand properly and significantly impact the foam's performance and processability.

"We are very pleased that NCFI can now offer its customers I-Skin foam systems that are HFC-free, with comparable or better performance," said Sanjeev Rastogi, business director, Honeywell Fluorine Products. "With the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency mandate to discontinue HFCs in I-Skin foam by year-end, NCFI's adoption of Solstice LBA provides its customers the time required to convert to new systems."

EPA regulations will ban the use of HFC blowing agents in I-Skin polyurethane foam applications beginning Jan. 1, 2017. Solstice LBA, based on hydrofluoro-olefin, or HFO, technology, is an ideal replacement for three commonly used HFC blowing agents: HFC-245fa, HFC-134a and HFC-365mfc.

Integral skin foam is composed of a two-part polyurethane system: a flexible, lightweight foam core encased in a thick outer "skin" that is created in a single molding process. I-Skin is used in a wide variety of applications including office furniture, molded seat pads, shoe soles and many other products that require cushioning properties and a durable surface. NCFI is reporting excellent skin quality at a variety of Shore A hardness levels, a critical quality measure.

"Formulating HFC-free I-Skins that meet our high performance standards was a major part of our White House-recognized low-GWP commitment," said Chip Holton, president, NCFI Polyurethanes. "These new I-Skins will give us a real competitive advantage in markets in which we have a strong presence. NCFI's internal plan for conversions is well ahead of the EPA's deadlines."

Coastal Foam Molding is among the NCFI customers who have already transitioned to the new I-Skin system. Michael Nash, owner of Coastal Foam Molding, said, "The moldability and ease of processing of the Solstice-blown I-Skin chemistry makes working with it very easy. Its consistency and lack of flammability is a big plus. This is a home run as far as I am concerned."

Air Products, an industry leader in enabling blowing agent technology transitions, continues to innovate and further build out its product platform as Solstice LBA gains adoption. Jane Kniss, senior application chemist for Comfort Platforms, Air Products, said, "Our non-emissive catalysts, such as Polycat 203, are specifically designed to increase shelf stability of Solstice LBA I-Skin systems while providing durable skins and fine internal cell structure for various padding applications. We are proud to be assisting manufacturers worldwide like NCFI reduce their GWP footprint, lower VOC emissions, and comply with the impending ban on HFC blowing agents."

NCFI's adoption of Solstice LBA demonstrates a commitment that was shared with the Obama Administration during an exclusive 20-company roundtable discussion last October. At that White House event, NCFI was honored for its proactive plans to transition from HFCs to low-global-warming-potential (LGWP) products. Honeywell was also recognized at the event and shared projections on greenhouse gas emissions reductions from the global adoption of its LGWP Solstice products. Worldwide adoption of Solstice products has resulted in the reduction of more than 27 million metric tons of greenhouse gases to date, equal to eliminating emissions from more than 5 million cars.

Solstice LBA has an ultra-low GWP of 1, which is 99.9 percent lower than HFCs and equal to carbon dioxide. It is nonflammable (ASTM E-681) and is not a volatile organic compound under EPA standards. Solstice LBA is listed under the EPA's Significant New Alternatives Policy (SNAP) Program. In Europe, it is not listed in the Annex I of F-Gas regulation and thus not considered an F-Gas. It is also registered under the European Union's REACH program. Honeywell's Solstice LBA world-scale manufacturing plant in Louisiana started up in May 2014.

Solstice LBA is used in a variety of rigid foam insulation applications, including residential and commercial refrigeration equipment, spray foam insulation, and insulated metal panels, as well as flexible foam applications such as molded and slabstock foam and integral skin. For more information on Solstice LBA, visit www.honeywell-blowingagents.com.

Honeywell (www.honeywell.com) is a Fortune 100 diversified technology and manufacturing leader, serving customers worldwide with aerospace products and services; control technologies for buildings, homes, and industry; turbochargers; and performance materials. For more news and information on Honeywell, please visit www.honeywell.com/newsroom.

To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/ncfi-adopts-honeywells-low-global-warming-material-for-integral-skin-polyurethane-foam-systems-300304612.html

SOURCE Honeywell

CONTACT: Josephine Lee, 973-455-2015, josephine.lee@honeywell.com

RELATED LINKShttp://www.honeywell.com
TRAVERSE CITY, Mich., July 27, 2016 -- Hagerty announces the first ever collector vehicle rating system known as the Hagerty Vehicle Rating, which measures a specific vehicle's performance relative to the rest of the overall market. This is the latest addition to the suite of Hagerty Valuation Tools designed to empower people who love cars with market knowledge.

The assigned score (on a scale of 0-100) indicates if a particular model is outperforming, underperforming, or consistent with the overall classic car market. It is entirely data driven from public and proprietary sources and serves as a quick indication of a vehicle's "heat" (or lack thereof) compared to the market at large.

A rating of 50 indicates a model is keeping pace with the rest of the market. Ratings above 50 are assigned to vehicles growing faster than the market at large, with higher numbers corresponding to vehicles with stronger market performance. Conversely, ratings below 50 are assigned to vehicles growing more slowly than the market at large.

"Knowledge is power when it comes to researching your dream vehicle. No one wants to be made a fool when they decide to make a purchase," said McKeel Hagerty, CEO of Hagerty. "We built this resource so enthusiasts can track specific vehicles based on pure market data from the largest database of collector vehicle transactions."

The Hagerty Vehicle Rating is calculated from a variety of sources including change in average values in the Hagerty Price Guide, private sales, auction sales, insured vehicle data and vehicle quoting data. The ratings will be updated bi-monthly with a published list of the top 25 as well as the bottom 25 cars in the market. For July's ratings the top car with a score of 98 is 1994-1999 Ferrari F355 and on the other end of the scale relative to the overall market is the 1957-1967 Austin-Healey 3000 with a score of 7.

To see the rest of the ratings and learn more about the Hagerty Vehicle Rating you visit the website at https://www.hagerty.com/ValuationTools/Hagerty-Vehicle-Rating.
PHILADELPHIA  And just like that, the revolution was over.

Just kidding!

On Tuesday, after each state, territory, and something called Americans Abroad officially cast their votes at the Democratic National Convention and made Hillary Clinton the first woman to be nominated for president by a major party.

And just as Clinton did for Barack Obama in 2008, Bernie Sanders cast the votes for his home state of Vermont and moved to suspend the rules of the convention, officially bringing the primary election to a close.

But his supporters werent all on board. A few minutes after he spoke, hundreds of Sanders delegates marched out of the arena, through the crowded halls, and to the media tent, where they hosted a sit-in to protest a primary system they thought was rigged to nominate Clinton.

Outside the media tent, protesters clamored for the cameras; some silently pressed signs against the glass as others staged impromptu press conferences. One man stood silently with his fist in the air and a black rag tied across his mouth.

Are you doing interviews? one reporter asked.

He shook his head no.

In the throng of delegates milling about the exterior, some like Kansas delegate Chris Pumpelly, implored their comrades to accept their fate.

If you are standing against the party, you are standing with Donald Trump! he yelled., adding that those who didnt want to be at the Wells-Fargo center should go home. Shame on them; they are minimizing the entire process.

They werent the only Sanders backers who were far from ready to vote Clinton. In the arena, Louisiana delegate Ryan Trundle sported a button that read DNC GFY (go fuck yourself). He said he will not be voting for Clinton against Trump.

She just makes really bad decisions and people die all over the place, Trundle said.

And the California delegation had no dearth of Bernie-related conflict, remaining heavily evacuated nearly a half-hour later. When DNC officials reserved the first few rows of seats for Democratic Party officials and insiders, including Rep. Nancy Pelosi, Attorney General Kamala Harris, and super-lawyer Gloria Allred, the Sanders supporters balked.

Hours before the roll call, a Clinton surrogate emailed her California delegates about a ramped up whip operation the campaign would run on the floor of the convention hall. One Bernie delegate, 22-year-old Shawnee Badger, had a scuffle with one of those whips, when he pushed her off the ledge the group stood on when she tried to stand in front of them.

Jon Schnitzer, a Bernie delegate from California, said the incident underlined his worst fears about party leadership.

Look, if you want to talk about love and unity and bringing people togetherwere the party for the environment, were the party for the people, were giving a voice for people who dont have a voicecan we just do it? he said.

Others had reached the acceptance stage of grief. Kira Willig, a Sanders delegate from Florida, started to tear up when asked about voting for Clinton rather than Sanders.

I love him so much, she wept.

But Florida is a swing state, she added, so she doesnt have the luxury of voting for anyone other than Clinton.

I lived through the Bush presidency because of the protest votes for Nader, she said. And I am living through the Rick Scott nightmare because the Dems were apathetic about Charlie Crist.

This was a hard, hard road to take, she continued, choking up. But when you say youll do anything for Sen. Sanders and he asks you to do something that you think will be impossibleyou dont really mean it if you dont actually do it.

The Daily Beast spoke with other delegates who argued with each other in real time.

Ever since Ive been here, Ive been under immense pressure to show support for Hillary Clinton, said Angie Aker of Wisconsin. The moment she was done speaking, Pete Rickman, another Bernie delegate from the Badger State, said that was nonsense.

Theres too much potential here to build the political revolution to be sidetracked by some who would elevate themselves above the broader whole, Rickman said. Nearly all 49 of uswere following what Senator Sanders told us to do. Hes been unequivocal. To carry forward the political revolution, to broaden it, to deepen it, and to move on his agenda, we need to work to elect Hillary Clinton. Theres not Stop Trump period. Theres Stop Trump comma elect Hillary Clinton.

That doesnt mean that theyll all be happy about itat least, not right now. That includes Lucy Flores, who nabbed a Bernie endorsement for her unsuccessful Democratic primary bid in Nevadas 4th Congressional district. She told The Daily Beast that she will vote for Clinton in the fall, but that she shares her fellow Sanders supporters grief.

Im a lot sadder than I thought I was going to be, she said.

Youre going to have a certain amount of people who are going to come on over and support the secretary, and a certain amount of people who are going to take more convincing, she continued. And frankly I think thats okay in our democratic process. Every person who runs, no matter what, needs to earn every last vote.

The entire process was full of emotional moments. Sanders brother, Larry who is a resident of Britain, choked up while reading Bernies name for Americans Abroad. Hillary Clintons lifelong friend Betsy Ebeling also choked back emotion when she announced votes cast for her pal.

This ones for you, Hil, she said.

And there were plenty of unifying moments, like when James Obergefell, the plaintiff in the Supreme Court case that made gay marriage the law of the land, was handed the microphone to announce Ohios vote totals.

Love trumps hate, he said, as the crowd roared.

Bernies backers werent all feeling particularly loving, but theyre getting there.

Contributing: Patricia Murphy
Hillary Clinton is almost as unpopular among firefighters as she is among cops, but one of the most revered figures of the FDNY immediately agreed when a Democratic operative asked him to appear in a short film on her behalf and then attend the convention.

They would play it at the convention and I would be there, retired FDNY firefighter Jimmy Boyle says of the phone call he received last week. They told me I would be down in Philadelphia.

Jimmy would have been appearing as someone who had been in the shadow of the burning North Tower of the World Trade Center when it came down. Jimmy had spoken on the phone with his son, firefighter Michael Boyle of Engine 33, minutes before the attack. Michael had been going off duty, but Jimmy worried he had hopped on the rig anyway and had been inside the tower.

How about my son, Engine 33? Jimmy asked a surviving chief after the air cleared.

Jimmy, anybody who was in the building is gone, the chief said. Everybody is gone. Father Judge is gone.

Jimmy had been close to Chaplain Mychal Judge. Hillary Clinton called the priest my friend and spoke at his funeral. Many who heard her eulogy felt that this worst of moments had brought out the very best in Hillary. She seemed to be speaking from a genuine core that Mychal had recognized, that had often prompted him to defend her when firefighters dismissed her as a fake who would say anything.

Mychal would no doubt have seen the Almighty at work had his good buddy Jimmy Boyle been down in Philadelphia, speaking of the good Hillary, the one who had been so supportive of the families who had lost loved ones in the attack.

Shes always voted every time for our interest, Jimmy Boyle is always ready to say.

And Boyle was once president of the Uniformed Firefighters Association. The former head of a firefighters union would have been appearing for Hillary at a time when police unions have been slamming her.

But Boyle can only figure that the area code on his cellphone made the Democratic operative think that he still lived in the New York City area. Boyle has since moved to Rochester and he told the operative that he would need transportation to wherever the film was to be shot and to the convention.

He said he would get back to me, Boyle reported on Tuesday afternoon. They never called back.

Boyle surmises that the Democrats did not want to spring for the plane ticket. There might have been more to it if the list of convention speakers on Tuesday night is an indication. The speaker representing first responders from 9/11 was NYPD Det. Joe Sweeney, who apparently arrived at the scene after the second tower came down and any immediate danger had passed.

Sweeney had not lost a son nor a brother, but he was a cop, which in these circumstances made him a twofer. The Democrats were being criticized for including family members of people who had been killed by the police. And a 9/11 cop was a way of including a cop without a lot of complications about police relations with the community.

When we needed someone to speak for us, to stand with us, to fight on our behalf, Hillary Clinton was there every step of the way, Sweeney told the convention.

He was followed by Lauren Manning, a business executive who was in the lobby of the North Tower, waiting for an elevator to take her to her office on the 105th floor when the first hijacked plane hit and burning jet fuel poured down the shaft, burning her over 80 percent of her body. She was in the hospital for six months, but survived. She praised Hillary Clinton for her unwavering support, not just for a constituent, but for a fellow human being.

Maybe the Democrats figured that with Manning and Sweeney as part of a whole 9/11 package, they had that part of Tuesday nights script covered. But those who know the magnificently genuine and monumentally un-crooked Jimmy know what an opportunity Hillary missed.

In political terms, she certainly could have used a moving endorsement from a white union guy who lost his heroic son at the start of our longest war.

On a deeper level, Jimmy would have brought with him the spirit of Mychal Judge, who in life recognized what was best in Hillary and in death roused her to prove him right. Mychals theology was that just as the devil is to be found in evil, God is to be found in good, and that by recognizing good in others we make goodand therefore Godstronger.

Jimmy has much the same goodness as Judge had. A Queens monsignor who grew up with him remarked after presiding for the third time at a funeral for a soldier killed in action in Iraq, Jimmy is the one who should have become a priest.

Jimmy does not so much keep people honest as make them want to be honest.

He is hardly put out that he never got a call back from the Democratic operative. He is always busy doing many things for many people. And he and his wife, Barbara Boyle, are preparing for Sept. 11 and the 15th anniversary of the morning they lost their son and Mychal Judge and so many others.

I got to get ready, Jimmy told The Daily Beast.

The observance may be a day that Hillary wishes she had a knock-around holy man like Jimmy Boyle at her side and that she was not disliked by almost as many firefighters as cops.
PHILADELPHIA  Lena Dunham has emerged as one of Hillary Clintons preferred and most frequently deployed celebrity surrogates but never more than she was on Tuesday night at the Democratic National Convention.

According to Donald Trump , my body is probably, like, a 2, Dunham told the crowd at the Wells Fargo Center. We know what youre all thinking: What should we care what some celebrity has to say about politics?

Dunham and fellow actress and liberal activist America Ferrera went on to explain why theyre with Hillary, two words they declared in unison from the convention-hall stage.

Donald Trump and his party think I should be punished for exercising my constitutional rights, Dunham said, stressing that Trumps rhetoric takes us back to a time when [women] were meant to be beautiful and silent.

[Hillary Clinton] knows we have to fight hatred of all kinds, she continued. As Hillary Clinton says , Deal us in.

Dunham enjoyed a primetime speaking gig as prominent as the ones offered to Elizabeth Banks on Tuesday and Sarah Silverman , Eva Longoria, and Demi Lovato the night before. In one sense it shouldnt be surprising that star of Girls would make the case for Clinton to young women. After all, shes already done cozy interviews with Clinton, cut videos , and written essays for the Democratic nominee.

But Dunham has had a large role behind the scenes, too.

The actress and the Clinton campaign have discussed everything from fundraising to helping to rally together more celebrity support for the campaign. Dunham is valued by Clintons Hollywood liaison apparatus due to the belief ( however grounded in reality or not ) that she can push the feminist case for Clinton while at the same time advancing their millennial outreach efforts, according to a Clinton official.

She is one of the [celebrities] weve been in touch with the most during the campaign, a senior Clinton campaign official told The Daily Beast on Tuesday. She has taken on an even greater role than we had expected. Its her part-time gig, and then some.
David Kemper and his wife are union members and lifelong Democrats. But the Kempers and their 20-year-old son, Nicholas, are planning to vote for Donald Trump in November.

Growing up we were very strong Democrats, but the Democrat party left us, David Kemper said, standing at the back of a Ted Cruz barbecue near the Republican National Convention in Cleveland last week. He had traveled from Minnesota to the RNC to be with Nicholas, who was an alternate Texas delegate for Trump.

When the Kempers vote for Trump, theyll be breaking with the leadership of their national unions, which have both endorsed Hillary Clinton for president. Im in the CWA, my wife is American Federation of Teachers, but we felt like the unions have left us, too, said David Kemper.

The split between labor leaders and union members lies at the center of Trumps potential path to the White House, which includes winning over a swath of Rust Belt states from Pennsylvania to Ohio, thanks to his cross-party appeal among traditionally Democratic union workers.

But labor leaders across the country are warning that Trumps promises to bring back American manufacturing by ditching bad trade deals and getting tough on China are nothing more than Trumps latest and greatest scam. The direction labor voters follow will make or break Trumps chances in November.

Tom Conway, the international vice president of United Steelworkers union, is supporting Clinton, but he knows some rank-and-file members are considering voting for the Republican nominee.

Trump has figured out this anger and this angst, and hes running a campaign on it, Conway said. But for me personally, you look at his history. All he knows is how to manufacture offshore.

Conway, a hulking, barrel-chested man, started working at the Burns Harbor Works of Bethlehem Steel during the Carter administration and said hes seen union members vote Republican for many reasons over the years, including gun rights and social issues. But he views the Trump-Pence campaign as something different and uniquely dishonest.

Its frustrating and it just is angering that they are willing to use the position of so many people who have been hurt so badly in this economy and not come forward with a serious solution, Conway said. He says, Im going to fix China currency manipulation and trade, and heres my guy whos going to do it, Mike Pence. Mike Pence is the worst person you could roll forward on this issue. Hes voted for every possible trade agreement he could. He has no credibility.

Joe Coccio, treasure of the Transport Workers Union Local 234 in Pennsylvania, also supports Clinton and echoed the mistrust of Trump.

I think Hillary Clintons record speaks pretty loudly and her experience, as well. How can you argue with that when you have Trump, who does the complete opposite, who has no record, who has no background, and in fact has the opposite background? he said. Look at any of his work and any of his defunct companies.

Like Conway, Coccio pointed to the records of Republican governorsfrom Pennsylvania to Wisconsin and Kansasas examples of what he sees as the Republican Partys long fight against workers rights that voters should remember in November.

What Trump says and what the Republican Party actually does are two completely different things, Coccio said.

A central issue for labor leaders and union members alike is international trade, which nearly all agree has led to the decimation of American manufacturing in the wake of sweeping agreements like NAFTA and CAFTA. Conway said he trusts Clinton to spike the latest trade deal, the Trans-Pacific Trade Agreement, even though she and running mate Tim Kaine both supported it in the past.

Despite leaders warnings, Trump seems to have found fertile territory among the workers whose factories closed in the last 15 years as jobs were shipped overseas.

His trade policies can be boiled down to a few slogans, including his promises to get tough with China, negotiate great trade deals, and bolt from the World Trade Organization. Mostly, though, he just promises that American workers are going to win.

But Gene Sperling, the national economic adviser to Presidents Clinton and Obama, argued that there is no reason to believe Trumps promises on trade or the economy generally.

Even if you believe hes fighting for trade deals, why would anyone possibly think that they would be on behalf of U.S. workers, as opposed to organizations like the Trump Organization to take even more advantage of race-to-the-bottom labor and environmental policies? Sperling said. My question is, What in his record would suggest otherwise? Zip.

But Trump is clearly getting through to at least some of the blue-collar workers who voted for Democrats as recently as 2012. In six polls conducted this month, Trump leads Clinton, 58 percent to 30 percent, among white voters without a college degree, a major improvement over Mitt Romneys performance four years ago, according to a New York Times analysis.

On an individual personal level, it rarely takes much time at a Trump or RNC event these days to find union members like the Kempers in Cleveland ready to vote against Clinton and the Democrats and their own union leadership, by casting a vote for Trump.

The factories, I actually believe he will get those up and going again in states like Michigan, Pennsylvania, Ohio, the Rust Belt, Nicholas Kemper said. I think hell do a good job with those states.

His dad nodded in agreement, but added, Of course we dont have a track record with him, he said. So we dont really know.
Andrew Hale is used to defending cops, not cop-killers.

The Chicago attorney made his name defending police officers in high-profile misconduct cases, but now hes fighting to free Cleve Heidelberg who is serving a 100-year prison sentence for the murder of an Illinois sheriff in 1970.

Hale came to Heidelbergs defense after his former client, Alstory Simon, was freed from prison for a wrongful double murder conviction after he was coerced into confessing to the crime by a Northwestern University journalism project (as documented in 2014s film, A Murder in the Park.)

Before he was released from prison in October 2014, he made a promise to his fellow prisoner, Heidelberg, that he would find him a lawyer to look into his case. Heidelberg has maintained his innocence ever since the day he was arrested, but his claims mostly fell on deaf ears until Hale came along.

They shouldnt have.

***

At 1:00 a.m. on May 26, 1970 a man ran into a drive-in movie theater in Belleville, Illinois, just outside of Peoria. The man said it was a robbery and tied up the projectionist, then made the manager take him to the money at gunpoint.

Little did he know the guy, the projectionist, untied himself and called the police, Hale said.

When a Peoria County Sheriff car pulled up, the suspect fired three shots and fatally struck Deputy Ray Espinoza in the head. The suspect got back in a blue 1964 Chevy Nova II and took off for Peoria, with officers in hot pursuit. There was a crash and the suspect took off on foot into the night.

Officers didnt have their suspect but they had his carit was Heidelbergs.

Cleve Heidelberg got a call about 1:30 in the morning saying, Your car got left at the intersection of Blaine and Butler in Peoria, Hale said.

Heidelberg matched the suspects description: young, male, and black.

When he came to retrieve his car, officers came rushing out, guns drawn.

When I was arrested, I was down there inquiring about my vehicle, and as I was talking with one of the officers he asked me to step to the side of this house and next thing I know somebody hit me in the back of my head, he said.

Several officers beat the crap out of him, Hale said. It only stopped when a husband and wife came out of their house and told them to stop. When Heidelberg became conscious again, he was on the ground in handcuffs.

My inner question was why were they doing this to me, what have I done? The officers were really beating me up.

Heidelberg was being arrested for murder.

The officers told me that I was done because it was my car and my gun. Heidelberg said. I stopped them right there, I didnt have no weapon. I didnt own no weapon.

When the police told him that all the evidence from the car had been sent to the Federal Bureau of Investigations crime lab in Washington, D.C., Heidelberg said he felt relieved.

My heart took a good beat because my fingerprints werent on any weapon and when the physical evidence came back, it would prove my innocence, he recalls thinking at the time. I was highly confident that all that was alleged against me would be shown not to be so.

After a trip to the hospital to get five stitches over his left eye from the beating, Heidelberg was taken to jail and put in a lineup. The drive-in manager, Mayme Manuel, was brought in to identify the robber, but Hale says it was fixed.

You cant have one guy beat up and three other normal guys in a lineup, thats a suggestive lineup, he said.

Peoria County Sheriffs Officer Emanuel Manias wrote in his report that the manager identified Heidelberg as the robber. Now the states attorney had an eyewitness putting Heidelberg at the scene of the crime, Heidelbergs car being used in the commission of the crime, and Heidelberg himself coming to retrieve his car after the crime.

There was no evidence linking Heidelberg to the crime other than his car, Hale said. I think the police felt like since it was Heidelbergs car, which it was, they thought, hey, weve got our guy, case solved.

Heidelberg was charged with second-degree murder and an all-white jury was selected to determine his guilt despite the fact he was black.

Manuel, the drive-in manager who was held hostage, testified that she was unable to identify Heidelberg as the perp, even after being allowed to leave the witness stand and walk over to the table where he was sitting. But in his reports Officer Manias claimed she did identify Heidelberg.

Officer Manias did a report that said she identified Heidelberg as the offender, Hale said. But that wasnt true, because she testified at the trial that at the time of the lineup she did not identify anybody and could not identify anybody.

Five officers testified in court that during the high-speed chase they were able to see the perpetrator and his blue shirt and gray coat. Four of those officers identified Heidelberg as the man they were chasing. (Hale recently filed court papers claiming that the transcript of police radio calls made during the pursuit have officers repeatedly describing the suspect as wearing a yellow shirt and brown jacket.)

The states attorney argued that all of Heidelbergs bruises and the five stitches over his left eye were the result of Heidelberg crashing his car.

The police went right to beating me, trying me, convicting me, and knocking me in the head. Heidelberg said. Punishing me for a crime I hadnt done.

Witnesses supported Heidelbergs alibi that he was at some local clubs during the robbery and murder, but the jury didnt buy it. Nor did they buy his claim that hed loaned his car to a man named Lester Mason and was just retrieving it when cops started beating him.

Youre innocent until proven guilty, but in my particular case that didnt happen, Heidelberg said. The states attorney was dedicated to getting a conviction and a lot of things were ignored.

Mason was prepared to testify to what he would later swear in an affidavit (PDF).

Mason said he was talking to a man named James Clark about committing some stickups on the night of the robbery and borrowed Heidelbergs car. Clark got a gun from a mutual acquaintance, James Whitt, for the job. Mason drove himself and Clark to a bar where he got out and Clark took the car, supposedly to go back to Whitts home. Instead, Clark headed for the drive-in theater.

Around 1:30 a.m., Mason said, Clark called him at the bar.

He said that things didnt go right at the place he was trying to rob, and that he had to abandon Heidelbergs car about 3 or 4 blocks on the other side of Whitts house, down by Lincoln Street, Mason said in the affidavit. Also, he told me that if I let it out, or told anyone that he was the one who had Heidelbergs car that I would get hit.

But the jury didnt hear Masons side of the story and Heidelberg was convicted of murder on Dec. 15, 1970.

I just think its an incredible case of injustice where this guy has been in prison for 45 years for something somebody else did, Hale said. But because he was, you know, a poor black guy in 1970 accused of killing a white officer he didnt have a voice. Cleve was put in a very difficult spot and I think there was enormous pressure on those jurors, an all-white jury.

Masons sworn affidavit was submitted as evidence during the sentencing phase of the trial but a judge ordered Heidelberg to rot in prison for the next century.

When Heidelberg was in prison, he met Clark.

I was sent to Illinois State Penitentiary at Joliet, Illinois in January of 1971 and had the occasion to see Cleve Heidelberg, Clark said in an affidavit he signed on Oct. 25, 1971. But I didnt get the chance to speak with him personally, I did communicate with him thru a friend. I informed Cleve that I was thinking about writing the Judge of his trial or the authorities and let them know what really happened May 26 and how things occurred surround the death of Espinoza.

On Feb. 15, 1971 The Peoria Journal Star reported that an affidavit from Clark admitting guilt to the cop killing was mailed to the court. In the article Clark is quoted as saying, Cleve Heidelberg Jr. is innocent of the crime. I am the man who killed Sgt. Espinoza.

Despite the newspaper article and affidavit, Heidelberg remained in prison.

I think they were too embarrassed to say a mistake could have been made and I dont think they cared, Hale said. I just think they felt like weve got a guy, the case is solved, lets just let it be.

Clark is deceased, but his brother Matt Clark has also signed an affidavit confirming that his brother confessed to him about the murder. (Matt and James are brothers of Mark Clark, the Black Panther who was killed with Panther leader Fred Hampton by Chicago police in December 1969.)

Matt Clark told me that his brother confessed to doing it, and in fact James Clark just died last summer, Hale said. When I started digging into this I was about a month too late.

Heidelberg appealed his case in the Illinois courts and petitioned a federal district court, each time claiming that the evidence that would clear him was suppressed. Even claiming that it was a figment of Cleves imagination.

In the Appellate Courts of the State of Illinois, they looked at the case and said that I was imagining that this evidence existed, because it had been certified at the trial that there was no fingerprint evidence, Heidelberg said. They were saying this issue was already dealt with. I was up there in the federal court complaining about evidence that they said didnt exist.

But Heidelberg knew the fingerprint evidence existed because the arresting officers told him it was sent to the FBI lab. Hed been trying to track it down all these years and now with the help of Hale he felt they could finally get it.

What Hale started doing was filing Freedom of Information [Act] requests to the Peoria States Attorney, to the sheriff of Peoria County, to the Federal Bureau of Investigation trying to see where those fingerprints were at, Heidelberg said.

This was a major murder case and the evidence was so important because it was found right there in my car. A sheriff investigator flew the physical evidence to the FBI for testing to look at all of the latent fingerprints they took off of this weapon and compare those with mine. On June 5 [1970], that testing was completed, and a letter was allegedly sent back to the sheriff of the county certifying that none of those prints matched mine.

Hale said he hired investigators to dig through government archives in Washingtonand they discovered the vital fingerprint evidence had been destroyed in July 1995 at the FBI archives.

What they found was a report on the evidence, though.

The report documenting the results of that further testing was destroyed, Hale said, but we discovered an FBI index card stating those results were negative for a match which leads us to conclude that someone elses prints, namely James Clarks, the confessed killer, were found on at least the other items and perhaps on the weapon itself.

Heildeberg called the discovery nothing less than divine.

It was a miracle that this evidence was found, he said. Were struggling to get me out before I expire in this penitentiary. Its like a grinding pain. How can you explain it, when you wake up in the morning and theres that sense of hopelessness and despair? But youve got to get yourself up out of the bed, even if its a struggle getting up to face another day, and do the things that I have to do to regain my freedom.

The prosecutor from the original case and a retired police officer maintain Heidelberg is guilty, but Hale has filed a motion together with the NAACP for a special prosecutor to review the case.

Peoria County States Attorney Jerry Brady is attempting to block the motion, denying that his office has a conflict of interest in the decades-old case. A hearing is scheduled for July 28 to determine if a special prosecutor will be appointed. If he is and finds there is sufficient evidence to reopen the case, then it will be the first step toward Heidelbergs potential exoneration.
Entrepreneurs perhaps never have been more celebrated in American culture than they are today. But that popularity is at odds with a startling long-term trend: The U.S. economy has been getting less entrepreneurial for decades. From 1977 to 2013, startups as a share of all firms fell from 16.5 percent to 8.0 percent. The decline is pervasive across all sectors, including high tech.

The map of entrepreneurship is shrinking, too. Since the recession, start-up activity has become much more highly concentrated in a few super-performing geographic areas. Consider this: fully half of the national increase in business establishments from 2010 to 2014 occurred in only 20 counties, 17 of which were located in just four states: California, Florida, New York, and Texas. Many regions, including large swathes of the Rust Belt, are struggling to seed the new industries needed to replace the millions of manufacturing and construction jobs lost during the recession.

Size and density are driving much of the concentration. In the 1990s and 2000s, counties with more than 1 million people generated less than a third of net business formation. Today, those counties are responsible for almost 60 percent of the economys net new businessesmore than quadruple their 1990s share.

Why is this happening?

The concentration of capital is a key factor in reinforcing the geographic concentration of entrepreneurship. Cities like Boston, New York, and San Francisco have developed large and well-financed ecosystems dedicated to scaling promising new businesses. In turn, these cities attract the best and brightest entrepreneurs across America.

Businesses need capital to thrive and grow, but the Great Recession wiped out many of the most important traditional sources of startup financing, including home equity, personal savings, and personal credit. In addition, small business lending is down by one-quarter since before the financial crisis and more than one out of every four community banks has gone belly up since 2008.

Whats more, the map of venture capitala critical source of funding for scaling promising new companiesis even more intensely concentrated: 78 percent of the nations venture capital goes to just three states: New York, Massachusetts, and California. Half of the countrys 366 metro areas saw no venture capital in 2015, and less than 4 percent of U.S. ZIP Codes received a single dollar.

But there are a handful of innovators who are working hard to expand the map and build a foundation for entrepreneurs everywhere. Revolutions Rise of the Rest is a nationwide effort to support entrepreneurs in emerging startup ecosystems that rarely get national attention. Likewise, Village Capital uses an investment model designed to build communities of transformative startups in overlooked cities all over the country. And start-up incubator 1776 has used its Challenge Cup competition to find new companies and ideas taking root all over the world.

A handful of major investors, too, are proving how bold investments can transform even the most distressed communities throughout the country. Vivid examples include Dan Gilbert of Quicken Loans, Kevin Plank of Under Armour, Graham Weston of Rackspace, and Tony Hsieh of Zappos, who have collectively invested billions of dollars in underserved areas of Detroit, Baltimore, San Antonio, and Las Vegas, respectivelyhelping to fuel a new generation of homegrown entrepreneurs and new enterprises.

The decline of entrepreneurship threatens Americas advantage as the world leader in innovation. Its a challenge that deserves attention from the public and private sectors alike. Just like we need pioneering investors, tackling this issue requires creative public policy ideas that connect capital with communities that have been left behindplaces rich in potential but starved of investment.

This is the third in a series of partnered content from the Economic Innovation Group and The Daily Beast, who will be co-hosting an event during the Democratic National Convention. While startupsand the funding for themare becoming more geographically concentrated, some of Americas brightest entrepreneurs can be found in cities like Philadelphia, home to the Democratic National Convention this week. Tomorrow, we will explore the emerging startup scene in the City of Brotherly Love.
The most memorable line of the night at the Democratic National Convention on Monday was ad-libbed by comedian Sarah Silverman. Youre being ridiculous, the Bernie Sanders supporter turned Hillary Clinton backer told those in the crowd who were booing anyone who dared speak favorably about the Democratic Partys nominee.

On Tuesday, Stephen Colbert asked his surprise guest Senator Cory Booker, appearing live via satellite from Philadelphia after speaking at the DNC in primetime the night before, if he agrees that Sanders supporters are being ridiculous for continuing to rally behind their candidate.

No, I absolutely dont, the New Jersey Democrat and VP finalist said diplomatically. Whats ridiculous is that the Republicans had a convention and their folks just boycotted it. Past presidents didnt show up. Twenty-two of my Republican Senate colleagues just boycotted it.

By contrast, he added, We in the Democratic Party said everybody come under this tent. When we come under this tent, there may be a lot of friction, a lot of saltiness, but at least we come under the tent. Booker said one of his favorite moments of the night came on Monday when Sanders got up to speak and the entire stadium, including Clintons camp and even Bill Clinton himself, stood to cheer for the Vermont senator.

It just shows that we recognize this man, Bernie Sanders, changed the national conversation, Booker said. He changed the Democratic Party platform and because of his fierce competition he made Hillary Clinton more ready to lead this nation.

Earlier in their conversation, Booker remarked on the historic moment of a woman claiming the presidential nomination of a major political party in America. Its a major breakthrough that she has this sense that shes on the verge of becoming actually the next president of the United States.

I think there are going to be kids growing up that will be, like, 16 years old and will think to themselves, he continued, the next time a white guy is elected to the presidency, Wait a minute, I thought only women and black guys could do that job.
Hillary Clinton became the first woman to be chosen as a major partys presidential nominee on the second day of the Democratic National Convention.

Her husband and former president Bill Clinton gave the nights marquee address, taking the crowd on a trip down memory lane that started with how they met and ended with his case for why she would make a strong president.

For this time Hillary is uniquely qualified to seize the opportunities and reduce the risk we take, and she is still the best darn change-maker I have ever known, Bill Clinton said. You could drop her into any trouble spot, come back in a month, and some way, somehow, she will have made it better. Thats just who she is.

As Bernie Sanders supporters continued to protest Clintons win, Sanders made a motion to suspend the rules during the roll call vote, allowing all delegates to vote for Clinton.

Before Bill Clinton took the stage, mothers of black Americans whose deaths sparked nationwide demonstrations said they supported Hillary Clinton after meeting with her to talk about their concerns about gun violence and criminal justice reforms. The Mothers of the Movement included the mothers of Sandra Bland, Trayvon Martin, and Eric Garner, among others.

Hillary Clinton doesnt build walls around her heart, said Lucia McBath, whose son, Jordan Davis, was killed in 2012 following a dispute over loud music. Not only did she listen to our problems, she invited us to become a part of the solution, and thats what we are going to do.

We fact-checked Bill Clintons address, as well as other speakers from the night. (Heres our rundown of the DNCs first night.)

Hillary Clinton and health care

Bill Clinton bragged about his wifes effort to tackle health care reform with a claim about expanding health care to children.

In 1997, Congress passed the Childrens Health Insurance Program, still an important part of President Obamas Affordable Care Act. It insures more than 8 million kids, Clinton said. There are a lot of other things in that bill she got done, piece by piece, pushing that rock up the hill.

According to Medicaid, CHIP insures more than 8 million children. The late Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA) received much of the credit for CHIP, because he shepherded the legislation through a Republican-controlled Congress, and Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch was the lead Republican co-sponsor.

In 2007, Kennedy vouched for Clintons vital role in CHIP, saying, The childrens health program wouldnt be in existence today if we didnt have Hillary pushing for it from the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue.

That notion was seconded by Nick Littlefield, a senior health adviser to Kennedy at the time.

Point being, Clinton did work behind the scenes to create the program to offer health care to children, but the former president tiptoes around the scope of his wifes role. We rated this claim Mostly True.

Trump on abortion

Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) contrasted the records of Trump and running mate Mike Pence on womens rights with that of Hillary Clinton.

Her opponent said a woman should be punished for exercising her right to choose, Boxer said, and then picked a running mate who believes Roe v. Wade belongs, to quote him, in the ash heap of history.

The first part of Boxers statement refers to a March interview between Trump and MSNBCs Chris Matthews. Trump did say there has to be some form of punishment for abortionif it were illegal.

Matthews pressed him for clarity, saying for the woman, and Trump responded, Yeah, there has to be some form.

He quickly walked back his comments that same day, saying he meant the doctors who perform abortions and not the women who receive them would be punished. He said later that month it was a convoluted discussion and that he might have misspoke.

Trumps comments on abortion have been all over the place. Theres also no evidence that punishing women is a long-standing belief or policy position Trump holds. For missing this context, we rate Boxers claim Half True.

Human trafficking

Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) commended Clintons compassion for victims of human trafficking and made a point about how widespread the issue is around the world.

Human trafficking is the third-biggest criminal enterprise in the world, she said.

Its difficult to put a dollar amount on illegal activity, and reports varied on how much human trafficking actually costs.

A U.N. agency estimated the total value of human trafficking at $150 billion. The comparable estimates for the drug trade range from about $280 billion to $420 billion. There is one dicey estimate for counterfeiting of $250 billion.

By those measures, human trafficking does rank third. However, all of these numbers hinge on sweeping assumptions and limited data.

We rated this claim Mostly True.

For more fact-checks from Day Two, visit PolitiFact.com.
I am shocked the Muslim American Advisory Council Act (SB 574) has been overwhelmingly passed by our state legislature. SB 574 violates Article one, Section three of the Illinois Constitution; it says in part, no preference shall be given by law to any religious denomination. Its important to remember, Muslim is not an ethnicity. I would argue all day long the creation of a Muslim advisory council gives preference to the religion of Islam and therefore violates the Illinois Constitution since one can only be a Muslim if he or she is a practitioner of Islam. SB 574 could easily be called the Islamic American Advisory Council Act, because it is solely for the benefit of practitioners of Islam.

If the proposed advisory council was called the Baptist American Advisory Council Act, the screams in opposition from the left would be deafening. No other state has such a Muslim advisory council granted by law, because such a law violates every separation of church and state type clause contained in every state constitution. Only practitioners of Islam are benefited by SB 574; so how can the state legislature justify enacting this law since it clearly violates the Illinois Constitution? And why did this bill ever get out of committee? Most of all how is it our very own Sen. Andy Manar, thought it was OK to vote in support of this bill when it gives the religion of Islam preference by law? Rep. Bill Mitchell, Rep. Sue Scherer, and Sen. Chapin Rose all opposed SB 574. They respected our constitutionally protected religious freedom. Gov. Bruce Rauner must veto SB 574.
Fact-checking Donald Trump has become a small industry this election cycle. How Trump deceives people of faith with falsehoods deserves especially close scrutiny.

In his speech accepting the Republican nomination, Trump promised to repeal an amendment, pushed by Lyndon Johnson many years ago, [that] threatens religious institutions with a loss of their tax-exempt status if they openly advocate their political views.

No such law exists.

In full, Trump claimed that 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. 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

Again, no such law exists. The law Johnson sponsored says something quite different.

Trump has been getting these facts wrong since Februaryone of many examples of him repeating falsehoods to win votes from evangelicals whose leaders evidently have not fact-checked Trump.

In a nearly two-hour talk in Texas, Trump boasted about the backing of pastors: Paula White, Jerry Falwell [Jr.]so many others, and then called to the stage Pastor Robert Jeffress, who explained the reasons he wants evangelicals to support Trump and oppose Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders.

Incredibly, immediately after naming two ministers who endorsed him and praising Pastor Jeffresss endorsement, Trump complained that Christian pastors were afraid to endorse him.

Trump then declared that Christianity is under siege. Every year it gets weaker and weaker and weaker so that ministers hes met are afraid to endorse him.

He went on to say, We dont have a [Christian] lobby because they are afraid, because they dont want to lose their tax status. So I am going to work like hell to get rid of that prohibition and we are going to have the strongest Christian lobby and its going to happen. And its going to happen. This took place during the presidency of Lyndon Johnson and it has had a terrible, chilling effect.

Lets unpack that to get at the facts.

First, there is an American Christian Lobbyists Association, and many Christian lobbyists in Washington and the state capitals.

Trump says he wants to create a powerful Christian lobby even as he promises to block Muslims from entering the country, including those serving in the armed forces. Trump may not know it, but that would violate the First Amendment, which ensures that each of us is free to worship or not as we choose. In this his proposals are quintessentially un-American.

Second, the law Trump referred to does not do what he says. It was enacted in 1954 when Senator (not President) Johnson proposed an amendment to a bill establishing an entirely new tax code. The Johnson amendment was so utterly without controversy that no debate took place in Congress. That law has been upheld by the United States Supreme Court.

Heres what the Johnson amendment said: Religious organizationswhich by definition include churches, synagogues and mosquesare free to declare their beliefs. One can urge a Constitutional amendment banning all abortion, another can preach that abortion is a womans right and others anything in between.

The law imposes only three limits on charities, including religious institutions, in return for the privilege of donors being allowed to deduct their contributions.

One is that any surpluswhat in business would be a profitcannot go to any individual or shareholder. Second, propaganda and influencing legislation are allowed, but only as a minor activity, the limits on which Congress adjusts from time to time.

The third and most important limit is that charitable organizations cannot participate in, or intervene in (including the publishing or distributing of statements), any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for public office.

Note that the limit is not about political views, as Trump said, but about supporting candidates. Those are not synonymous, not even close.

A federal appeals court ruled in a 1992 case that a New York church which took out newspaper ads urging people not to vote for Bill Clinton lost its tax privilege because it violated the rule on candidates.

There is good reason for this. It means that Trump supporters are not forced by Congress to subsidize donations to Hillary Clinton and Clinton supporters are not subsidizing donations to Trump.

The Supreme Court also upheld the second limit, that influencing legislation and propaganda must be a minor activity to qualify for charitable status, in a 1983 decision by the very conservative justice William Rehnquist.

That unanimous ruling held that no First Amendment rightsof religion, speech, publishing, or assemblyare infringed by denying charitable status to organizations whose primary activities are influencing legislation and other political activities. You can read the decision here.

Churches are free to create a separate nonprofit organization under 501(c)(4) of the tax code which can have as its primary purposes propaganda and influencing legislation. Gifts to these organizations, however, are not tax deductible.

Harvey P. Dale, a New York University law professor who directs its National Center on Philanthropy and the Law, noted that if Trump really means to limit his repeal to religious institutions it would violate the First Amendment, which in its opening words states that Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion

Professor Dale warns that unscrupulous political operatives with only a thin veneer of being religious would almost certainly create religious institutions just to provide donors with tax deductions for their political donations while nonreligious charities would be treated differently.

That would create an almost impossible situation for the tax police, the IRS officials whose job is to enforce the tax laws Congress enacts.

This is just one area where Trump uses falsehood to deceive evangelicals, as polls show white evangelicals supporting him by a 4-to-1 margin. In my book The Making of Donald Trump, which will be published on Aug. 2, I show at length how, in word and deed, Trumps philosophy is antithetical to the most basic tenets of Christianity. He calls those who embrace the best known teachings of Jesus Christ schmucks.

The ministers who openly endorse Trump evidently have not studied the contrast between what he says in their presence and what he says and does when he is not flattering them. Those pastors and their flocks would be wise to review the many scriptures on deceivers, starting with Romans 16:17-19, which in one modern translation warns:

I urge you, brothers and sisters, to keep an eye on those who cause dissensions and offences, in opposition to the teaching that you have learned; avoid them. For such people do not serve our Lord Christ, but their own appetites, and by smooth talk and flattery they deceive the hearts of the simple-minded. For while your obedience is known to all, so that I rejoice over you, I want you to be wise in what is good, and guileless in what is evil.

Not incidentally, while Trump claims to be a Christian and made a show of attending Presbyterian services recently, he is not a member, according to the Presbyterian Church USA. Thus he cannot be disciplined by the church for his statements that it has advised in a letter to him contradict Christian theology.

Pastors who inquire will find an extensive body of evidence from Trumps words and deeds showing that he aggressively opposes Christs message. Those clergy who foolishly embrace Trump as a fellow believer will one day face judgment, called upon to explain their role in deceiving their flocks.
Did Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump just call for a felony to be committed? On Wednesday, he urged a foreign government to hack an American citizen and release personal emails.

Russia, if you're listening, I hope youre able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing from emails that Hillary Clinton turned over to the State Department, Trump said in a lengthy press conference in Doral, Fla. I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press. Lets see if that happens. That will be next. Yes, sir.

Trump himself has had financial interests in Russia. He has also praised Russian President Vladimir Putin and has said that if Russia were to invade NATO members, the United States might not come to their defense.

Trump was apparently referring to emails from Clintons private email server that she didnt turn over to the State Department because they involved personal matters.

Trumps incendiary comments came on the heels of the theft and leak of emails from the Democratic National Committee, an operation that, as The Daily Beast first reported, U.S. official believe was carried out by the Russian government and may have been designed to help Trump in the polls.

Trump appeared to urge a U.S. adversary suspected of criminal activity essentially to go further and attack his opponent. The comments drew ire from across the national security community.

Minutes later, Trumps vice presidential nominee, Mike Pence, contradicted the candidate, calling for Russia to be held accountable should it be involved in the DNC hacking. The stolen emails were published last week by Wikileaks, and some security researchers believe the emails were provided by an agent of the Russian government. Pence released a statement Wednesday saying if Russia is interfering with the election, I can assure both [political] parties and the United States government will ensure there will be serious consequences.

Trump allies were at pains to explain the nominees plea for Russian intervention. Newt Gingrich said Trump had simply made a joke.

Rudy Giuliani, the former New York mayor, offered a different explanation. The Clintons have a monetary relationship with Russia, Giuliani said during a press conference in Philadelphia. He said that Trump wanted the emails released to the FBI. But thats not what Trump originally called for. In his statement, he said that the leaker of Hillarys emails would be rewarded mightily by our press.

A top Clinton adviser quickly condemned Trumps comments. This has to be the first time that a major presidential candidate has actively encouraged a foreign power to conduct espionage against his political opponent, aide Jake Sullivan said in a statement. Thats not hyperbole, those are just the facts. This has gone from being a matter of curiosity, and a matter of politics, to being a national security issue.

The top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Adam Schiff, added that the call for illegal hacking shows staggeringly poor judgment even for him.

With so many unanswered questions about Trumps ties to the Kremlin, its imperative that Trump immediately release his tax returns and disclose his financial ties to Russia, Schiff added.

Trumps comments were politically explosive. But its not clear whether he was inciting criminal activity. He did not refer specifically to how Russia or any other country might obtain emails from Clintons private server. And if the Russians had already hacked Clintons private server, the crime for which Trump was arguably calling had already been committed. The distribution of stolen emails would certainly be a crime, legal experts said.

In Washington, where many have come to expect the unexpected from Trump, Wednesdays comments were at least troubling to some.

Its probably the most egregiously stupid thing Ive ever heard a party nominee say ever, said Bradley Moss, a lawyer specializing in national security law.

Moss believes that theres a legal case to charge Trump for his comments, because he was calling for Russia to take imminent lawless action, which is speech not covered by the First Amendment.

Moss added that Trump could theoretically be charged as a conspirator under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, which carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison.

You could argue what Trump was urging Russia to do was hack Hillarys server and release the contents to the mediaconspiring with them to hack into a private server and release confidential information to the public, Moss explained.

However, its unlikely, Moss continued, because the Department of Justice and FBI are unlikely to want to be diving into a political nightmare.

From a political standpoint, this is beyond the pale, something that should be disavowed, Moss said. (Moss and a colleague, Mark Zaid, represent The Daily Beast in a lawsuit seeking information about how Clintons lawyers handled and sorted her email when determining which ones should be turned over to the State Department and which ones she could retain because they didnt bear on her official duties.)

Now that Trump is the GOP presidential nominee, he will be eligible to receive classified intelligence briefings, something that top intelligence officials are sweating over, given Trumps penchant for talking extemporaneously.

Not knowing his intent, such statements could limit the amount of classified information U.S. officials give to Trump, which he is entitled to as a presidential nominee, an official familiar with the process explained to The Daily Beast. Trump and Clinton will reportedly begin receiving classified briefings after this weeks convention.

House Speaker Paul Ryan had previously asked Director of National Intelligence James Clapper to deny Clinton classified briefings, due to her use of a private email server as Secretary of State, but Clapper has said that briefings would be provided for both candidates on a nonpartisan basis.

This month, FBI Director James Comey announced that while Clinton would not be charged for having classified information on her server, it was possible that hostile foreign governments had gained access to her email account.

Rep. Devin Nunes said in a statement that Trumps comments addressed unanswered questions from that investigation.

Most likely, Donald Trump was simply making light of Hillary Clinton setting up her own homebrew email server that trafficked in classified information and her sending insecure emails from the soil of known foreign adversaries. Seeing as the FBI concluded that this server may have been hacked, Clinton supporters are really the last people who should be lecturing us about the importance of cybersecurity. Nevertheless, now that he is officially a candidate for president, Trump should consider that his public comments will receive much more scrutiny than beforeespecially when it comes to U.S. foreign relations.

As Trump called for Russia to infiltrate Clintons servers, some of his fellow Republicans were torching the Kremlin for the DNC hack.

"Every American, without regard to political party, must face this grim reality: While the Obama Administration idles with empty platitudes and fantasy resets, Mr. Putins Soviet-style aggression has escalated to levels that were unimaginable just a week ago, Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse said in a statement. America is digitally exposed. The United States must take serious offensive and defensive actions now. Russia must face real consequences."

Trumps cozyness with Putin and his advisers ties to Russia highlight a growing chasm within the Republican Party, which for the last 35 years has lionized Ronald Reagan as the ultimate cold warrior who stood up to Soviet expansionism and aggression. Skepticism of authoritarian governmentsand Putin in particularhas been a key feature among conservative foreign policy thinkers. Trump appears to be trying to drag the party toward Putin almost on his own, and traditional forces are pulling back.

On Wednesday morning, the leader of Republican forces in the House weighed in: Russia is a global menace led by a devious thug. Putin should stay out of this election, said Brendan Buck, a spokesman for Speaker Ryan.

Trump made his statements at a press conference Wednesday in Florida, which started as an attempt by Trump to distance himself from the DNC hack.

I have nothing to do with [Vladimir] Putin. I dont know anything about him, the real estate mogul declared. (Though he claims to have never spoken to the Russian leader, Trump has, in the past, bragged about meeting him.)

Despite evidence to the contrary, the GOP nominee added: If it is Russia, which its probably notnobody knows who it isbut if it is Russia, itd be for a different reason. Because it shows how little respect they have for our country. When they would hack into a major party and get everything.

While computer hacking is a crime, nations routinely steal each others digital information in the conduct of espionage. After ex-intelligence agency contractor Edward Snowden released classified information about surveillance operations, the U.S. was shown to have monitored German Chancellor Angela Merkels cellphone, an embarrassing revelation. But its one thing for a state to sponsor a cyber attack, and is another for a politician to urge another state to target his opponent.

Of course, this isnt Trumps firstor 10thoutrageous statement when it comes to global security. Some U.S. defense and intelligence officials have become almost numb to the near-daily torrent.

The worst part of all of this is that it will probably lead to a jump in his poll numbers, one exasperated defense official said upon hearing Trumps latest statement.

with additional reporting by Gideon Resnick and Andrew Desiderio in Philadelphia.
It was more than a year ago when, just a few weeks into his seemingly quixotic presidential campaign, Donald Trump had his first nasty encounter with NBC News reporter Katy Tur .

As Tur stumbled over her words a bit while asking a question last July about Trumps immigration stance, the candidate openly mocked her, saying, Come on, try getting it out. After calling Tur a very naive person, he added, I dont know if youre going to put this on television, but you dont know what youre talking about.

A few months later, during a rally in South Carolina, Trump singled-out the reporter by name , dubbing her, Little Katy, third-rate journalist.

Undaunted, Tur has continued to cover Trumps rise to become the Republican Partys nominee for NBC News, and today asked him a vitally important question during what quickly turned into one of the most unnerving press conferences of his campaignand thats saying a lot.

At one point, Trump spoke directly to the Russians , who are suspected of orchestrating the hack into the DNCs email system in order to help sway the election away from Hillary Clinton, saying, Russia, if youre listening, I hope youre able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing.

Do you have any qualms about asking a foreign government, Russia, China, anybody, to interfere, to hack into a system of anybodys in this country? Tur later asked the candidate. When Trump reiterated that he would like to see Russia release Clintons missing emails, she followed up with, Does that not give you pause?

No, that gives me no pause, Trump said. You know what gives me more pause, that a person in our government, crooked Hillary Clinton Tur tried to interrupt, but Trump shot back, Be quiet, I know you want to, you know, save her.

That a person in our government, Katy, would delete or get rid of 33,000 emails. That gives me a big problem, he continued. Now, if Russia or China or any other country has those emails, I mean to be honest with you, Id love to see them.

During an appearance on MSNBC following the press conference, Tur told MSNBCs Tamron Hall, Im not good at being quiet and I wont continue to be quiet in any way, shape or form.

And perhaps in an attempt to disprove Trumps claim that shes only out to save Hillary Clinton, Tur used her Twitter account to give the candidate credit for making one major valid point during what was otherwise a disturbing display of ego and misinformation.
Martin Duffy should be called the whiskey king of Chicago. A Windy City native, hes worked in the booze business for more than a quarter-century, watching the local craft-cocktail revolution unfold before his eyes. For 14 years, Duffy served as master of whiskey for drinks conglomerate Diageo, representing dozens of brands including Johnnie Walker, Crown Royal, Bulleit, Bushmills, and George Dickel, and he later was a brand ambassador for whiskey friendly liqueurs Benedictine and B&B. Today, he co-produces the Chicago edition of the Independent Spirits Expo and is the American brand rep for Glencairn, the Scottish company that produces those bell-shaped whiskey-nosing glasses that are ubiquitous at tastings around the world.

When it comes to cocktails, I am not as adventurous as I once was, Duffy admits. His favorite local drinks tend toward the simple, but where they are served encompasses the full range of Chicagos thriving bar scene, from a hipster-friendly mixology spot to a classic tavern that has been around forever. Here are his current three favorite spots and what to enjoy at each.

Talisker Distillers Edition Scotch Whisky & Belhaven Wee Heavy Scotch Ale at Duke of Perth

Duffy calls this pairing simply a nip and a pint, but the particular ingredients are of crucial importance. The spice and sweetness of this island single malt glides perfectly over the tongue and blends effortlessly in the mouth with a small sip of the creamy and slightly caramel ale, he explains. Appropriately, the only place you can find both components is at the only Scottish pub in town. The Duke of Perth offers dozens of different single malt Scotches, along with a British Islesheavy beer list and, of course, some over-the-top snacks, including mac-and-cheese fritters and all-you-can-eat fish and chips every Wednesday and Friday.

Sidecar at The Matchbox

This hole-in-the-wall has been in business for more than 75 years, but started doing fresh juices and the finest ingredients in a no-fuss, no-muss style back in the mid-90s and hasnt changed a bit, Duffy says. Its Chicagos original cocktail bar. A mix of cognac, orange liqueur and sugar, the Sidecar seems an odd choice for a whiskey guy like Duffy, but the old-school classic has been a favorite of his for years. This cocktail is damn tasty on a hot summers eve, he says.

Manhattan at Longman & Eagle

Located in the hipster haven of Logan Square, Longman & Eagle checks all the boxes for a cool restaurant these days: farm-to-table, nose-to-tail dishes and exquisitely crafted cocktails. There are even six rooms above the place you can rent for an evening, complete with vintage cassette players and mixtapes. But most importantly, the establishment is a whiskey palace, with a library of 300 bottles and a rotating assortment of spirits available for $3 a pour. Though there are a slew of great whiskey bars in this townFountainhead, Delilahs, Sable, Twisted Spoke, etc.L&E has just always done a great job with whiskey cocktails, Duffy says. Theyll make you a Manhattan however you like, but to have one Duffys way, order it on the rocks, with Punt e Mes vermouth and either Redemption Barrel Proof or Journeyman rye whiskey.

Check out our complete Three Drinks travel guide to cocktails
With a celebratory banshee whoop and the patriotic fashion equivalent of that same noisea star-spangled wrap dress that set Twitter alight with comparisons to your favorite aunt on Memorial Day (and which Streep has worn before)only Meryl Streep could follow the epic episode of How I Met Your Mother that was Bill Clintons transfixing, illuminating homage to his wife.

We got some fight left in us, dont we? she rousingly asked the crowd, clearly somehow immune from the soul-crushing Fight Song viral video featuring a star-stuffed lineup (Jane Fonda, Kathy Najimy, Ellen Greene, Kristin Chenoweth) that I accidentally dream-cast in a gay fever dream.

The truth is, though, that nothing, not even that godforsaken song could curb excitement for a Meryl Streep speech. Many a wine-fueled YouTube rabbit hole has made me an academic expert of sorts on the Streep Speech and, with the exception of a Michelle Obama or a Bill Clinton, they are unrivaled.

More, during a celebrity orgy that has one wondering if the entire film industry has shut down for the week, Streep brings with her the gravitas that the occasion of the first woman to officially receive a major party nomination for president in U.S. history deserves.

Streep recognized the occasion, too. And my god did she rise to it.

What does it take to be the first female anything? she asked, setting up the theme of her speech. It takes grit, and it takes grace.

Its a line that should resonate deeply with Hillary Clinton supporters, particularly women who have made some of the cracks in the glass ceiling that finally broke Tuesday night. If Bill Clintons speech colored the evening with a meandering, awakening reintroduction to Hillary Clintons lifelong work and servicemany of the stories heard for the first timeits Streep who summed up its importance and its legacy, which is still to be written, in a catchphrase.

She compared Clintons grit to Deborah Sampson, the first woman to take a bullet for the country as a member of George Washingtons Continental Army, an army with which she disguised herself as a man to fight alongside. When she was shot she removed the musket ball and stitched up her wound herself, Streep recounted, so that her ruse wouldnt be found out by a doctor and she could keep defending a documentthe Constitutionthat, because she was a woman, did not defend her.

Thats grit, Streep said. And grace? Thats when the direct Clinton comparisons started.

Streeps words only alluded to the decades of sexist treatment, underestimation, dismissal, and misogynistic attacks Clinton had received in her decades in the public eye, but, ever the performer, the frustration radiated from her voice and her expression.

Hillary Clinton has taken some fire over 40 years of her fight for families and children, the Oscar-winner said. How does she do it? Thats what I want to know. Where does she get her grit and her grace? Where do any of our female firsts, our pathbreakers, where do they find that strength?

To growing applause, Streep then listed off those female firsts trailblazersSandra Day OConnor, Shirley Chisholm, Harriet Tubman, Sally Ride, Madeline Albright, Eleanor Roosevelt, and many morea list that Hillary Clinton now joins and, should she win in November, perhaps even be on top of.

Its almost redundant to describe a Meryl Streep speech and say that the actress had the audience rapt, ready to whoop along to every bravura celebration of Clintons accomplishments that punctuated her sentences and nod along to her rudimentary womens history lesson. But while certainly no Scott Baiowho, would you believe, was the veritable Meryl Streep of the Republican National ConventionStreep wasnt exactly a no-brainer to champion the evenings momentous celebration.

Streep has, in recent years, found herself mired in controversy when it comes to feminist issues. There was the Id rather be a rebel than a slave T-shirt she wore along with the cast of Suffragette at a press event, and her remark to an interview that she was a humanist, Im for a nice easy balance when asked if she was a feminist.

There was her were all Africans misstep at the Berlin Film Festivalwhich she says was taken out of contextwhen asked about serving on an all-white judging panel. Thats not to mention her Oscar-winning performance as Margaret Thatcher, another female first, which was too humanizing or exceedingly unflattering, depending on which side of the British aisle you asked.

Despite all of that, one would be a fool to question Streeps fierce and vocal commitment to female power, equality, and equity throughout her entire career. This is, as The Daily Beast has even called her, The Greatest Feminist Actress. And one would certainly never be able to deny the electricity of having such an icon and orator speak on such a historical night.

Tonight, more than 200 years after Deborah Sampson fought, and almost 100 years after women got the vote, you people have made history, Streep concluded, as convention-goers eyes began to well up with tears.

And youre going to make history again in November, because Hillary Clinton will be our first woman president. And she will be a great president. And she will be the first in a long line of womenand menwho serve with grit and grace. Shell be the first, but she wont be the last.
Is there any item in street fashion more instantly identifiable than a pair of Vans, those canvas-top boat shoes with the insanely grippy soles? Adored by skateboarders, surfers, and hipsters everywhere, they are the essence of timeless simplicity. And thats where the trouble startstrouble for the manufacturer, at least. Because the fashion world loves nothing better than a knock-off and nothing is easier to knock-off than something as simple as Vans.

Haute couture copies Vans, and so do bottom-feeding pirates. No wonder Vans peddles its signature shoe under the name Authentic, going so far as to even trademark the name itself.

Before setting the standard for gluing skateboarders to their boards, hipster models to runways, and profits to black, Vans had a humble, if very California, beginning half a century ago as the Van Doren Rubber Company. In 1966. brothers Paul and James Van Doren and two close friends, Gordon Lee and Serge DElia, set up shop in Anaheim, California, slinging canvas, rubber-soled boat shoes. They sold 12 pairs the first day they were open, and soon James, a mechanical engineer, was working with a chemist to craft their proprietary gum-rubber blend waffle sole. Marketed at first to seafaring folk looking for traction on their vessels pitching decks, the ultra-grippy shoes soon were adopted by the growing skateboard subculture.

Over the next couple of decades Vans made and lost fortunes as trends came and went. In the mid 80s the company filed for bankruptcy before bouncing back and being sold for nearly $75 million to a private equity firm in 1988. But all along the way, Vans were etching themselves firmly into the psyches of the surf, skate, and music subcultures. Their no-frills canvas design and that now-famous sole became synonymous with the sunny Southern California lifestyle and those who loved carving both asphalt and Pacific waves.

Sales flourished in the 90s as skateboarding and punk rock skidded into mainstream popularity, and the brand was again sold in 2004. This time they merged with fashion conglomerate VF Corp, alongside along such other lifestyle labels as The North Face, Wrangler, Nautica, and 7 For All Mankind.

And with success came forgery. Much like Converses Chuck Taylor, the unmistakable design of Vans classic shoes made them easy prey for copying (to this day, countless websites exist to help you detect whether or not your Vans are the real deal). In the late 80s the brand went to war with counterfeiters, chasing down dozens of foreign and domestic importers, and even today a quick internet search will land you any number of faux Vans.

But ultimately the true culprits havent been rogue retailers with access to Chinese factories but instead the haute predators of the multibillion-dollar fashion industry.

Where a shady dealer on eBay will sell you a pair of counterfeit Vans Authentics for half price, high-end brands want to put you in a pair of classic-seeming slip-ons for $650. Jimmy Choo does it, and Dolce and Gabbana offers much the same design for a staggering $2,995, which is enough to get ol Spicoli plenty of reeferand 55 more pairs of his signature checkerboard Vans slip-ons. Ironically, what you dont get for all that extra dough is Vanss iconic skateboard-gripping waffle sole.

The real irony, of course, is that Vans original shoe, the Authentic, is not much more original than those of the high-fashion copycats theyve fought so hard to squash. Just two years before the Van Doren boys took their casual cobbling skills to the streets, rubber giant B.F. Goodrich released a brand ofyou guessed itcanvas casual sneakers called SeaVees that featured a vulcanized sole and minimalist upper. For that matter, Keds debuted its similar Champion model way back in 1916.

Then theres the Randy, heralded as the worlds first skateboard-specific shoe and first manufactured by the Randolph Rubber Company in 1965. Not exactly coincidentally, the brothers Van Doren, along with Gordon Lee, ended their decade-long stints as managers at Randolph that very same year, in order to start their own company. Indeed, the whole reason the Van Dorens left their native Massachusetts in 1964 was to run a Randolph factory in California.

You could go around and around arguing who did what first, whos the original and the ins and outs of how skateboarding culture has for several decades dictated the course of fashion, from skinny jeans to the thankfully forgotten normcore. But it comes down to this: Before you shell out 1/20th of the United States median income on a pair of here-today-gone-tomorrow haute couture kicks, just remember that you can get the real deal for far, far less. And, of course, that, while fashion is fleeting, authentic style is forever.
Marijuana-related emergency room visits for children under 10 have increased dramatically in Colorado since the states recreational marijuana amendment went into effect in 2014, according to a new study in JAMA Pediatrics.

Its not exactly reefer madness but the authors believe that the sudden spike in the number of kids accidentally ingesting their parents edibles can be attributed to legalization.

To track these cases, researchers from the University of Colorado and the Denver Health and Hospital Authority retroactively examined 163 incidents of marijuana exposure between 2009 and 2015 at Childrens Hospital Colorado in Aurora and a regional poison center.

The average age of the children involved in these incidents was 2.4 years old. When a source of marijuana could be identified, cannabis-infused edibles like candy, cookies, and brownies were found to be responsible 48 percent of the time.

Here at Childrens Hospital Colorado we saw an increase from one child we saw in the emergency department in 2009 to 16 in 2015, said Dr. G. Sam Wang, the lead author of the study, in a press release. And at the regional poison center, we had nine calls for kids between [ages] zero and nine in 2009 increase fivefold to 47 in 2015.

Dr. Wang said that the majority of the cases happened at home, with the children later presenting symptoms of lethargy and sleepiness. Some cases were more serious, he added, requiring tracheal intubation to treat coma or respiratory depression.

Overall, the authors found that the average rate of marijuana-related visits to the childrens hospital had shot up from 1.2 per 100,000 children two years prior legalization to 2.3 per 100,000 two years afterwarda trend that suggests that [recreational] legalization did affect the incidence of exposures.

Two more findings shore up this hypothesis: Not only did Colorados increase in marijuana-related calls for young children outpace such increases in the rest of the country, but nearly half of the cases after legalization involved recreational rather than medical marijuana.

Many accidental exposures to marijuana can be avoided with better parental supervision and more secure packaging for edibles. Nearly 10 percent of the exposure cases in the JAMA Pediatrics study involved containers that were not child-resistant. In 34 percent of these cases, the problem was poor child supervision or product storage.

In February of this year, for example, a Wisconsin man had to take his 3-year-old son to the hospital after the boy accidentally ate marijuana-infused candy that had been left within reach of children during a birthday party. As WISN reported, the Sheboygan police report said the boy was breathing but otherwise minimally responsive when he was taken to the ER.

The boy survived after being treated in a childrens hospital; the father was later charged with child neglect.

Wang suggests that, as more states legalize weed, they should think about proper regulations and rules to help prevent some of these exposures and ingestions. He also believes that researchers should continue to examine the impacts or lack thereof of Colorados current regulations around the packaging of recreational marijuana.

Colorado currently requires edibles to be individually packaged within child-resistant containers designed to be difficult to open for children under the age of 5 (PDF). But once removed from that packaging at home, a brownie by any other name is apparently just as tempting for little fingers.
We were told to trust the system.

It has been 15 months since Freddie Gray suffered a devastating spinal injury in the back of a Baltimore city police metal-lined van when he was taken on a rough ride without a seat belt. Gray lingered in a coma for nearly a week before dying in a local hospital.

There is little question about what happened to the 25-year-old. We know where he was injured and how. We know that he was in police custody. And we know that the officers responsible for his well-being took actions they knew would result in bodily harm and then ignored injuries and his pleas for help.

We were told that there would be a price to pay for that.

In the days following the incident, tensions in Baltimore boiled over as city officials offered their assurances in an effort to quell the uprisings with a seven-figure payout announced and prosecutor Marilyn Mosby taking to the courthouse steps to promise the justice system would hold those responsible to account.

I will seek justice on your behalf, she said from the courthouse steps.

We were told to expect truth and transparency and last summer, six Baltimore city officers were indictedthree black, three whiteincluding the driver who pulled away, knowing Gray had not been strapped in with a seat belt.

There would be a reckoning for what happened to a young black man who had been suspected of nothing more than averting his eyes and jogging away when police officers looked his way. Lt. Brian Rice, Sgt. Alicia White and Officers Edward Nero, Caesar Goodson, William Porter, Garrett Miller faced various charges ranging from involuntary manslaughter to second-degree murder.

While some criticized Mosbys move to secure indictments against the law enforcement officers at all or warned that she had leveled top charges that would be difficult to convict on, many people believed her when she said she would be their voice.

For them, the math was simple: Gray was an able-bodied man before his encounter with police that day in April 2015. Days later, he died from injuries sustained while in custody. If he had lived, Gray would have likely have been a quadriplegic, unable to move on his own volition from the neck down.

Many people needed to believe that for once the system could work, that it could finally do the job of meting out justice when officers were the ones committing the crimes. They needed to believe that the rule of law and equal protection applied to Grayand to them too. His death, the blunted end of a black life, they asserted, was worthy of inspection.

If there was some justification for why he was apprehended and how he was treated in custody, then the public had the right to know what that was and to assess its veracity.

That did not happen. In fact, the local police union attacked the very notion that any investigation would result in a conclusion of wrongdoingeven before the first officer involved had so much as given a statement.

It is rare that an officer is charged in the death of a suspect in custody. Prosecutors know that getting a judge or jury to convict a police officer who was acting in the line of duty is all but impossibleno matter the race of the victim.

Mosby had to know that. As she measured the charges, she had to know that the deck was stacked against her. She had to know that by charging the officers with murder, she was asking a judge or jury to do her job and fill in the gaps in evidence.

Every case has its gaps. But, the stakes are larger, the burden of proof is extraordinary when a member of law enforcement is involved. That is not codified into law, but it is baked into our social consciousness. The bar for holding officers to account is higher, becausefor better or worse-we raised it.

Those six officers will walk away scot free because Mosby did not do her job. Despite knowing the hurdles, she pressed ahead with an aggressive prosecution knowing her office could not meet the socially-imposed standard. Whether done mindfully or naively, that is an overcharge.

Maybe they did not intend to kill Gray, but make no mistake. They meant to do him harm.

Whether to shake him up or bully him into submission, they intended to take Gray on a rough ride. Officers shackled Grays wrists and legs and loaded him into a police transport van without seat-belting him. The medical examiner ruled it a homicide, meaning Gray died at the hands of another and not as a result of an accident.

No one is paying a criminal price for that. All six cops will go free and all are still employed by the Baltimore city police departmentprotected by a union that cannot, even in these egregious circumstances, bring itself to condemn wrongdoing by its members.

Ultimately, the $6.4 million financial settlement from the city may be the only justice the Gray family will ever know.

We should have expected this.

Despite a torrent of public criticism (including from this writer) and no doubt understanding the cavalcade of barriers ahead, Mosbyone of only a handful of black women to hold the job of top prosecutor in a major U.S. citydid not shy away. In a case that rocked the Queen City, spurring public demonstrations and rioting in the citys downtown and westerly sections, the states attorney promised to pursue justice.

But the outcomes of the first three trials ensured the remaining three would go badly for prosecutors if they had proceeded. The trial of Porter, the first to face a jury, ended in a mistrial in December 2015. Two more officersNero and Goodsonwere acquitted in separate proceedings in May and June.

There was no videotape of the vans interior and, thus, defense attorneys contended, no way to directly connect the officers to Grays death. The point of injury was not captured on camera, and the circumstances surrounding incident were further complicated when erroneous allegations surfaced that Gray had a previous neck injury.

So Mosby finally threw in the towel and dropped the remaining charges against the last three police officers. However, when one considers that few cases ever make it out of internal affairs, let alone into a courtroom, the announcement Wednesday morning came as no real surprise.

The system did not work in this case, and some might arguegiven all the we know about our criminal justice systemit never could not have.

Mosby knew, or at least should have known, that going in.
Nida Allam knew it was all over.

Allam, a recent college graduate and Muslim-American progressive activist, had come to Philadelphia this week to support Bernie Sanderss final stand in the shadow of Hillary Clintons party. She had served as a volunteer and then as a regional field director for Sanders presidential campaign this year, and was on the convention floor on Tuesday to watch Clinton officially become the first woman to be nominated for president by a major U.S. political party.

That evening, Hillary for America tweeted out a photo of Allam, donning her glasses and a hijab, seemingly overcome with emotion, with pro-Hillary signs being waved around her in every direction.

We made history, the tweet reads.

The tweet, which strongly implies a Muslim-American female Hillary fan tearing up over the historic occasion, earned Team Hillary over 2,300 retweets and 7,200 likes.

Allam wasnt amused.

Guess you didnt get the memo.. #StillSanders #ImanImmigrant #ISupportPalestinianRights, she tweeted at the Clinton campaign.

It was about an hour after Bernie Sanders had conceded and some of my friends started tweeting at me [about the Hillary for America tweet] and I was completely taken aback, she told The Daily Beast on Wednesday. I was upset that [the campaign] didnt take the time to verify their information. (Allam believes that Clintons team were attempting to use her ethnic background and[show] I was weeping for Hillary.)

Im a Democratic voter, I am going to vote for Clinton, Allam said, distancing herself from the Bernie or Bust crew. But I just didnt like that they were using my face to show that she was getting the votes of Muslim-American womenThose are votes that she has to earn.

The young activist, who is of Indian and Pakistani descent, believes that Clinton takes the Muslim-American vote for granted, and that she even holds unconstitutional views when it comes to the issue of Israel and Palestine.

[Hillary] has said she wants a ban on the BDS movement, which I find very unconstitutional, she said. Americans have the right to protestand the BDS movement is a peaceful protest. (During this campaign, Clinton has not called for a ban, but has repeatedly condemned the boycott, divestment, and sanctions movement against Israel.)

Allam says she is not an official part of the BDS movement but that she does try to refrain from buying products from Israel as long as the occupation continues.

Hillary needs to start using the word apartheid and illegal settlements because thats what they are, she said.

With the Sanders campaign now dead and gone, Allam says she is focusing her energies on helping progressive congressional candidates at the grassroots level. Beyond voting for Clinton, she has no plans to support her in the general election against Donald Trump.

We are going to make sure that we continue speaking about how, though the campaign is over, the revolution isnt, she said.

The Clinton campaign did not respond to a request for comment on this story.
New Braunfels, TX (78130)

Today

Showers with the chance of some thunder in the morning, then skies turning partly cloudy late. Gusty winds and small hail are possible. High 77F. Winds W at 15 to 25 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall may reach one inch..

Tonight

Partly cloudy skies. Low 53F. Winds NNW at 15 to 25 mph.
Founding Parliament member Armen Mikayelyan was arrested and charged with illegal arms possession last night while he and his family were returning home from the site of the seized police building in Yerevan, this according to a statement released by the Founding Parliament organization.

The statement says that Mikayelyan telephoned his wife this morning and told her that police planted a gun in his pocket.

The Founding Parliament, an opposition political movement in Armenia, has close ties to the Sasna Dzrer armed group that seized a police building in the Armenian capital on July 17.
Police today stopped Armenian Minister of Health Armen Mouradyan from entering the Yerevan police building seized by an armed group, this according to a ministerial spokeswoman Anahit Haytayan.

Haytayan told Hetq that she couldnt say why Mouradyan wanted to enter the building and talk to the members of the armed group.

Haytayan said that the Sasna Dzrer armed group, which earlier today had taken four emergency ambulance personnel hostage, had asked to speak directly with the minister, and that he ostensibly went to negotiate for their release.

In a press interview today, Founding Parliament member Alek Yenikomshian said that the armed group hadnt taken the medical personnel hostage and that they were free to go when a new medical team arrives.

Yenikomshian said that no medical team had arrived to treat the wounded members of the armed group for the past three days and that this is the reason for holding the four medical personnel.
October 16, 1932 - July 24, 2016

"Let no one ever come to you without leaving happier." --Mother Theresa

Always happy, Jerry Ledwig passed away on Sunday, July 24, 2016, at age 83, surrounded by those who loved him most. With his sense of fun and gentle good humor, our beloved husband and father left us a legacy of humility, compassion and Christian service.

Jerry was born October 16, 1932, in Groom (Carson County), Texas, near Amarillo. His parents were Felix and Ethel (Palmer) Ledwig, a farmer and registered nurse/midwife, respectively. Jerry was the third of five children, including siblings Ralph Ledwig, Bernadine McNeil, Florence Ware and Elaine Chapman, who all shared the same bicycle and horse around the family farm. Like most farm kids, Jerry learned how to drive a tractor at an early age, as well as how to wake early and work hard each day. When he was older, Jerry's father sent him to Catholic boarding school in Amarillo so that his son might have a religious education at (all male) Price Memorial College, a decision which altered the course of Jerry's life in myriad, positive ways. Jerry would eventually pursue higher education at Texas A&M University, where he joined the Corps of Cadets and graduated with a Bachelors degree in Mechanical Engineering in 1954. He left College Station as a proud, maroon-wearing Aggie and couldn't wait to get back to Aggieland. Following his time at TAMU, Jerry served three years in the United States Air Force as a navigator and ECM operator, achieving the rank of captain and receiving two air medals for meritorious achievement.

Near Jerry's high school alma mater (Price College) was a companion female Catholic school, St. Mary's Academy, and out of this institution came Joan Funk (Ledwig), whom Jerry met while they were both students. They would date for five years before finally marrying in Amarillo on June 9, 1955; their marriage would last 62 years. The Ledwig family expanded to include five children: David (and wife Jan) Ledwig, Paul Ledwig, Daniel (and wife Jean). Anna Marie Richards and Martha Elizabeth Ledwig (who died in infancy).

In professional terms, Jerry held a position as a Chemical Engineer with Exxon Mobil for 38 years, after which he worked for Amoco until his retirement. But his passion lay in pursuing causes closer to his heart and homehe reveled in his roles as both a husband to his beautiful Joan and a father of a fine young family. His children (then later, grandchildren and great-grandchildren) kept him young at heart as he continually skipped while holding hands with them on shopping trips, taking them out to McDonald's and also to church (or even Disneyland), cracking jokes about himself while making beautiful wooden rocking horses and dollhouses for family members, enjoying reunions and even simple meals together. Indeed, his woodworking skills led others in the community to seek Jerry's good will and service in providing handmade auction items for charity. Some of Jerry's favorite causes included hospice care, tutoring the illiterate and volunteering at the George Bush Library, which he did for the past 22 years. A man of strong personal faith, Jerry was shy in discussing spiritual matters but was careful to raise his children with an abiding testimony of God as he prayed for them and ushered at church, actively participating in congregations at St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Mary's of College Station. He found more ways to support his church family through the Boy Scouts of America (Troop 1074, at St. Thomas), the Knights of Columbus and St. Vincent de Paul. Additionally, Jerry and Joan adopted Aggies and welcomed them into their home for 19 years.

Truly, Jerry Ledwig knew how to live and how to love, smiling as he went along greeting everyone with a resounding, "Howdy!" In addition, he avidly followed TAMU sports, made furniture, collected stamps and soaked up Texas history. Jerry also loved Mickey Mouse and cups of coffee "hotter than the sun." About him, one of his sons remarked, "I aspire to be half the man he is," and from his granddaughter came this tribute to her Pop: "We were so blessed that we were his."

Remembering Jerry fondly now are his devoted wife Joan, their children and daughters in law: David & Jan, Paul, Daniel & Jean and Anna Marie, as well as numerous nieces, nephews, cousins and dear friends. Also missing him are his grandchildren, including: Ryan (& Katie) Ledwig, Renae (& Ross) Mull, Angela (& Scott) Patz, Royce Ledwig, Bryant Richards (and fiance Veronica Carlson), Colin Richards, Amelia Richards, Matthew Richards and Maggie (& Cory) Roughton. Jerry's great-grandchildren also mark his passing; they are Charlie Ledwig, Miles Mull, Davis Mull, Sarah (& Justin) Fry, Andrew Patz, Derek Patz, Hannah Patz. Jerry was predeceased by his parents and his daughter, Martha.

Join with us in celebrating the incomparable life of Jerry Ledwig, beginning with a Rosary service at 6pm on Wednesday, July 27, 2016 at Hillier Funeral Home of College Station, to be followed by Visitation and a time to share memories. A Mass of Christian Burial will then be held at 10am on Thursday, July 28th at St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church in College Station. Interment will be at the Aggie Field of Honor. His family greatly appreciates the care provided by the nursing staff and doctors Meade and Covington of Baylor Scott & White Hospital in College Station. In lieu of flowers memorials may be made to St. Mary's College Station Building Fund, Still Creek Ranch or Baylor Scott & White Foundation.

Share your memories of Jerry and view snapshots of his life with us at www.hillierfuneralhome.com.
Bill Clinton made the case that his wife is "the best darn change-maker I've ever met my entire life" at the Democratic National Convention Tuesday night. In fact, he made this point over and over and over again. Whereas Melania Trump, in her speech to the Republican National Convention last week, merely asked voters to take her word that her husband is an all-around good guy, Bill Clinton provided detail after detail showing what he meant about his wife.

But the speech still had a gaping hole.

By Bill's telling, Hillary, self-possessed in her early 20s, introduced herself to him at Yale Law School. From there, she exposed segregated academies getting improper government aid. She helped register Mexican-American voters. She started Arkansas Advocates for Families and Children. She took on the doctors lobby, using nurse practitioners to extend primary care to rural Arkansans. She was the architect of his political rehabilitation after he lost the governor's mansion. She pushed through a major education reform as first lady of Arkansas. In the Senate she served on the Armed Services Committee and brought money to upstate New York. As secretary of state she persuaded a diverse group of countries to sanction Iran. And so on.

Bill Clinton's painstaking, year-by-year history was whitewashed. He offered only oblique references to her handling of his sex scandals or the spectacular failure of her universal health-care bill early in his presidency.

But these omissions were not nearly as significant as what else was missing. Bill Clinton made a good case that his wife has worked hard to achieve reform in the past. But he did not offer much sense of why she did so and to what end. Hillary Clinton biographers have noted how her lifelong commitment to Methodism shaped her worldview and compelled her to pursue public service.

"Do all the good you can," a catchphrase of hers, is a Methodist saying. Yet this side of her is usually only apparent to those who look closely. Meanwhile, Republicans fill the vacuum with suspicions about her ill-intent.

Moreover, unlike the speech Bill Clinton delivered for President Obama at the Democrats' last national conclave, he did not provide a sense of where the country is and how her pragmatic vision suits the nation's needs. "When times are tough and people are frustrated and angry and hurting and uncertain, the politics of constant conflict may be good. But what is good politics does not necessarily work in the real world. What works in the real world is cooperation," he declared then.

Lines such as these made his 2012 speech a rousing call to conduct the nation's politics more calmly. He mentioned instances of Hillary working with Republicans in his parade of details Tuesday night. But he said little about the moral choice voters face this election, between reason and unreason, making it seem oddly inadequate for an election year in which the country is apparently so upset that nearly half of Americans are telling pollsters that they will vote for Donald Trump.

"Why does cooperation work better than constant conflict?" he asked four years ago. "Because nobody's right all the time, and a broken clock is right twice a day. And every one of us - every one of us and every one of them, we're compelled to spend our fleeting lives between those two extremes, knowing we're never going to be right all the time and hoping we're right more than twice a day."

Bill Clinton is not Melania Trump, put on stage merely to humanize a presidential nominee. He is a national leader in his own right, possessing a rare gift to communicate complex ideas simply and make high-minded principles seem common-sense. This election, meanwhile, is about a whole lot more than Hillary Clinton. It is about whether Americans will lose their patience with the political institutions and mores that have developed and served it over decades of struggle. Now more than ever, voters need to hear leaders explain to them clearly and forcefully why they shouldn't.
Landowners and farmers are now taking on much of the cost of the culls apart from the policing, which over the last three years has cost 6.5 million.

The first culls in Somerset and Gloucestershire, unwillingly funded by the taxpayer, were 'pilot' culls that were meant to run for four years, after which Defra could hopefully judge whether they had any impact on bovine TB. But the word 'pilot' was scrapped after the first year. They became simply 'badger control' programmes.

The initial regulations have been changed, dropped or scaled right down, and more culling areas are being rolled out across the country. Or are they?

Financing the badger culls

Any area that applies for a licence to cull badgers has to set up a 'contracting company' with a board and members. The company is in charge of the shooters (who must hold appropriate gun licences) and trappers, all of whom have to be trained (training and licensing costs are among those for which Defra is ultimately responsible).

The company also has to demonstrate that, through its members and participating landowners, it has the finance to cover all four years of the cull. Farmers have to pay up front to become members, and must financially commit to the cull for the four-year period.

Due to all the expensive machinery now required for modern farming, most farms run large overdrafts. Will they now be looking at their post-Brexit overdrafts and wondering if they should pull out?

There are of course the rich landowners. Some of them have been eager for their land to be part of culling areas and willing to make the financial commitment. In their terms the money needed might seem fairly minimal, but the Brexit vote has seen the investments of the rich take a hammering.

No one yet knows what will happen to trade and investment, and culling badgers might become an unnecessary distraction.

The effect of the Brexit vote on farming

As pointed out by West Dorset MP Oliver Letwin - a closet Brexiteer who was (until sacked by Theresa May) trying to assemble a huge international trade team to negotiate the UK's post-Brexit future - there are over 40 years of trade and other agreements to unpick and rewrite in a way that is acceptable to the EU and other trading partners.

Yet ministers are still demanding that we have it all when we leave; our political grandees suffer from an enormous sense of 'entitlement'.

Given the government's arrogant attitude towards the EU and the reaction that is having in much of Europe, it is likely that what the UK ends up with will not be favourable to farmers, some of whom do well from trading with the EU. Where Scottish farmers are concerned, over 70% of their business is exporting to the EU.

Initially, many farmers were in favour of leaving the EU, having been persuaded by the Farming Minister George Eustice's optimistic line. He even claimed the farm animals would vote for Brexit. The NFU, particularly in Scotland, was not so sure. The NFU Chair Meurig Raymond expressed doubts about what would happen to framing, food prices and agricultural exports.

And since the vote to leave, farmers have been really waking up to how it might affect them. Like the rest of government, Defra had no 'plan B' for what it would do if Brexit won.

BBC Radio 4's daily Farming Today programme has featured a lot of worried farmers. John Shropshire runs G's, one of the UK's largest vegetable growers, and has farms not just here but in Spain, Poland and Senegal. Much of his business relies on access to the European Single Market. When asked by Farming Today what he would do if that access became difficult, he said he would move all his operations outside the UK.

All in all, it might seem just possible that the badger culls could be a victim of Brexit. But before you get too hopeful, consider this:

At a meeting with some of his constituents Letwin was asked whether - considering how much the UK has benefited from the EU environmental and wildlife protection laws - the government would consider putting all that protective legislation into our own domestic law.

He assured them that of course it would all be part of our law when we finally left the EU, pausing only to add in his usual cheery manner:

"But that doesn't mean we can't dismantle it if we want to."

Lesley Docksey is a freelance writer who writes for The Ecologist and other media on the badger cull and other environmental topics, and on political issues for UK and international websites.
If an oil company describing a trade treaty between states as one of "our most important issues" raises suspicion, then what is actually written in the TTIP text?

TTIP - making climate protection a "trade barrier"

Elected governments normally have the right and power to regulate and adopt laws for protecting the air, the climate and people's health. The TTIP would turn this principle upside down. Companies will no longer face restrictions such as having to prove that their operations violate a country's environmental legislation. Instead, the TTIP imposes the complete burden of proof on the Governments, who will have to prove that all their measures are "necessary", "appropriate" and "legitimate".

Some examples from the leaked TTIP documents:

The general idea behind trade agreements - that of reducing unnecessary regulations - is not necessarily a bad one but the TTIP has no "crash-barrier-clauses" in the form of strong paragraphs, which ensure that governments will keep their right to regulate when it comes to protecting the environment, people's health or the climate. In fact, in the TTIP text, the word climate appears only in the context of good "investor climates" and this speaks volumes.

The chapter on national treatment and market access for goods demands that "all import and export licensing procedures are neutral in application and administered in a fair, equitable and transparent manner". This might sound reasonable at first glance, but makes it potentially impossible to ban the import of certain products that destroy the climate or the environment, because this would be "discriminatory". Furthermore, if there are any conditions to the import of certain goods, governments will have to prove that "other appropriate procedures to achieve an administrative purpose are not reasonably available."

The article on risk management states that governments "shall design and apply risk management in a manner as to avoid arbitrary or unjustifiable discrimination, or disguised restrictions on international trade". Any restrictions on international trade would enable companies to sue governments in Investor State Dispute Settlements - just as Lone Pine did when Quebec implemented a moratorium on fracking to protect its ground water (as reported above).

The chapter on technical barriers to trade demands from governments to always choose the "least burdensome possible procedures" when they regulate. This means that democratically elected governments and parliaments could be forced to reduce restrictions for corporations, instead of controlling their emissions. This is an open invitation for corporations to sue governments for climate protection measures that would cut into the profits of the fossil fuel industry.

According to Professor Gus van Harten of Osgoode Hall Law School, "States may be deterred from implementing measures to fulfill their climate change responsibilities, faced with risks of uncapped financial liability due to ISDS claims". In the case of Vattenvall and Germany mentioned above, just the threat of ISDS was enough for Germany to water down environmental standards related to the company's coal plant.

A completely new scope

The TTIP would by far dwarf all trade agreements the world has seen so far, directly affecting the lives of 800 million people in the EU and the US. Of the 51,495 US-owned subsidiaries currently operating in the EU, more than 47,000 would be newly empowered to launch ISDS attacks on European policy making and government actions.

But the resistance of the global climate movement against the TTIP is rising. In June, a major coalition of more than 450 NGOs called on the US Congress to oppose TTIP because of its climate impacts. A letter signed by organisations including Greenpeace, 350.org and the Sierra Club reflects one of the broadest civil society coalitions to ever call on the US Congress officially. They state that "the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), as proposed, would empower an unprecedented number of fossil fuel corporations, including some of the world's largest polluters, to challenge US policies in tribunals not accountable to any domestic legal system."

Had the negotiation process leading to the TTIP remained so highly opaque, as was the case until the recent leaks, it would really sabotage the fight for energy transition. With the ink still wet on the Paris Agreement, citizens around the world are rising, demanding to keep fossil fuels in the ground. The TTIP and the ISDS are the latest tricks in the dirty industry's book, which could turn out to be a valuable weapon in the hands of companies like Chevron and Exxon.

This is why it is important to stop it.

Further Resources:

TTIP Leaks: https://ttip-leaks.org

Profiling from Injustice: How law firms, arbitrators and financiers are fuelling an investment arbitration boom.

Polluters Paradise: How investor rights in EU trade deals sabotage the fight for energy transition.

Related Articles:

Greece is the testing ground for the TTIP era of corporate rule.

Leaked TTIP papers reveal 100% corporate sellout.

Goodbye to democracy if TTIP is passed.

These Authors:

Ecologist New Voices contributors Andreas Sieber and Pavlos Georgiadis are both Emembers of the Climate Trackers, an international network of young environmental writers tracking the climate negotiations. They tweet at: @SieberAndreas @geopavlos, @ClimateTracking
Virginia will offer a sales tax holiday from Aug. 5-7 so that shoppers can purchase qualifying school supplies, clothing and footwear, emergency preparedness items and certain energy-efficient products without paying state and local sales tax.

The three-day tax break is aimed to financially assist families for back-to-school shopping and encourage Virginians to take necessary precautions during hurricane season.

This sales tax holiday will make items that help families prepare for the school year or for a potential emergency more affordable, said Gov. Terry McAuliffe. It is my hope that shoppers will use this time to get their children the items they need to succeed in school, as well as stock up on the essentials that may come in handy during a hurricane or other emergency where electricity or clean water may be unavailable for an extended period of time. This tax-free weekend is integrally important in ensuring all students and families have the tools and resources they need to be able to thrive and prosper here in Virginia.

Prior to legislation enacted during the 2015 General Assembly, Virginia law allowed for three separate sales tax holiday periods during which specified tangible personal property could be purchased exempt of the Retail Sales and Use Tax: a week-long exemption on hurricane preparedness items in May, a three-day exemption on school supplies and clothing in August, and a four-day exemption on items designated as Energy Star or WaterSense in October.

As of last year, there is no separate Hurricane Preparedness holiday held in May, nor a separate Energy Star or Water Sense tax holiday in October. All three holidays are now combined.

Tax exempt items include:

 Most school and office supplies, such as pens, loose-leaf paper, scissors, binders, backpacks and construction paper, priced at $20 or less.

 Clothing and footwear, priced at $100 or less per item or pair.

 Batteries, flashlights, bottled water, tarps, duct tape, fire extinguishers, cell-phone chargers, smoke detectors, buckets, rope and first aid kits, priced at $60 or less.

 Gas-powered chainsaws, priced at $350 or less, and chainsaw accessories, priced at $60 or less.

 Portable generators, priced at $1,000 or less.

 Energy Star-labeled dishwashers, washing machines, air conditioners, ceiling fans, light bulbs, dehumidifiers and refrigerators, priced at $2,500 or less.

 WaterSense-labeled sink faucets, faucet accessories, aerators, shower heads, toilets, urinals and landscape irrigation controllers, priced at $2,500 or less.

All retailers who sell the exempt products are required to participate in the sales tax holiday. In addition, retailers may choose to pay the sales tax on any taxable items and pass the savings on to customers.

Online purchases of qualifying products are exempt from the sales tax as long as orders are placed and paid for during the August 5-7 exemption period and the sellers have the items available for immediate shipment.

For more details, visit the Virginia Department of Taxations website at www.tax.virginia.gov/salestaxholiday.
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By Special To The Gleaner

Kentucky is a national leader in closing the graduation rate gap for low-income students, according to a report by Civic Enterprises and the Everyone Graduates Center at the School of Education at Johns Hopkins University.

The report, "For All Kids, How Kentucky is Closing the High School Graduation Gap for Low-Income Students," details how the state, despite its high rates of poverty, has made "steady and sustained progress" over the past 25 years to not only significantly raise its graduation rate, but also decrease the graduation rate gap between low-income students and their more affluent peers. The report indicates that across America higher economic status usually leads to stronger economic outcomes, but that "Kentucky is a story of educational achievement for all kids."

"Since the days of the Kentucky Education Reform Act, Kentuckians have been focused on providing an equitable, quality education for all students," Commissioner of Education Stephen Pruitt said in a news release. "While I am glad to see the state recognized for its hard work and progress on the graduation rate, we still have a long way to go in closing academic achievement gaps between student groups and making sure all students graduate prepared to pursue their postsecondary dreams. We are working to address opportunity gaps and continuing to ensure equitable access to high quality learning experiences for all students."

Kentucky increased its graduation rate, as based on the Average Freshman Graduate Rate formula, from 71 percent in 2003 to 82 percent in 2012. The state then started using a different calculation, the 4-year Average Cohort Graduation Rate, which other states also use and which is supposed to be a more accurate measure. Since 2012, the graduation rate has continued to climb from 86.1 percent to 88 percent in 2014-15, among the highest rates in the nation.

According to the report, in 2012-13, Kentucky also achieved the highest graduation rate in the nation for low-income students at 85.4 percent, and the narrowest gap (1.4 percentage points) between low-income students and their middle- and high-income peers. While that gap increased in 2013-14, the state still maintains one of the highest graduation rates among low-income students and one of the smallest graduation rate gaps based on income in the country.

"Our aim in Kentucky is for all boats to rise, that is, for all students to improve, and generally that's what we've seen," Pruitt said. "Our graduation rate gap closed because more of our lower-income students graduated while the number of higher income students who graduate remained constant or continued to increase slightly. Too often gaps close because students at the top lose ground. That's not progress and not the way we intend to close gaps in Kentucky."

The report presented four major themes as having driven much of Kentucky's improvement.

Slow and steady education reform efforts

Strong and diverse coalition of supporters focused on student outcomes

Smart use of data

Unique aspects of the Kentucky educational system including the impact of federal grants and district and school flexibility to align those funds to student needs; the lack of charter schools, which caused parents to be more vested in their community schools and provided greater impetus for districts to improve their schools; local control; accelerated education options such as Advanced Placement and dual credit courses; and the challenge of poverty, which with the loss of coal production has forced state leaders to rethink how best to prepare students for their future careers

It is important to note that the graduation rate measures the percentage of students who meet the minimum high school academic requirements and graduate from high school within a specific time period  usually 4 years, and is differs from the college- and career-readiness rate, which measures a student's preparedness for postsecondary endeavors.

While it still trails the graduation rate, Kentucky's college and career-readiness rate also has increased dramatically in recent years and stands at almost 67 percent.

The goal, Pruitt said, is for all students to graduate from high school on time and ready to pursue whatever they want in their future years.
MIKE LAWRENCE / THE GLEANER After speaking, Senator Mitch McConnell greets club members and guests leaving the combined Henderson Rotary/Lions Clubs meeting held at the Henderson Fine Arts Center Tuesday, July 26, 2016.

SHARE MIKE LAWRENCE / THE GLEANER Majority Leader of the Senate, Mitch McConnell speaks to a combined Rotary/Lions meeting at the Henderson Fine Arts Center Tuesday, July 26, 2016. MIKE LAWRENCE / THE GLEANER Filling the stage at the Henderson Fine Arts Center, Majority Leader of the Senate, Mitch McConnell speaks to a combined Rotary/Lions meeting Tuesday, July 26, 2016.

By Erin Schmitt of The Gleaner

Though Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell talked about a wide range of topics during a joint Henderson Lions and Rotary Club meeting, the senator kept circling back to the upcoming presidential race.

"If Americans are satisfied with the last eight years, if you think this is as good as America can do and if you want four more years like the last eight, then you ought to vote for Hillary Clinton," McConnell said. "But if you think America needs to take a different path, take our foot off the brake and put it on the accelerator and get this economy going again, she's not your choice."

Trump: While McConnell namechecked Clinton a few times, he mentioned Donald Trump's name in passing once before he was asked directly if he supported the Republican presidential nominee. McConnell formally endorsed Trump after the Indiana primary and spoke at the Republican National Convention.

"I'm for Donald Trump," McConnell said. "He won it fair and square. He went out and got the most votes. That's the way it works in this country."

Civility: One audience member remarked about the lack of civility in the presidential election. McConnell said it had always been that way.

"Anything you may have heard this year pales in comparison to what Adams and Jefferson called each other or Jefferson and Hamilton," he said. "The rhetoric in America has always been pretty hot. What's different today, 24-hour TV and the Internet."

Social Security and Medicare: McConnell noted that for key government programs such as Social Security and Medicare to be saved, adjustments needed to be made. If lawmakers don't adjust eligibility to fit the demographics of America in the future rather than the America of the 1930s and '60s, it can't work.

Student debt: Despite what Sanders and Clinton have said, the country cannot afford to give everybody free college tuition, McConnell said. He's in favor of paying off debts incurred.

"We've had a problem with that in the federal government," McConnell said, adding he wouldn't advocate a program that forgave debt willingly incurred by students.

Supreme Court: Shortly after Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia died, McConnell said the vacancy should be filled by the next president.

"I thought it inappropriate for this president on the way out the door to move the Supreme Court to the left for a generation," he said. "I thought it better for the American people to decide who they want to make this appointment."

I-69 Bridge: Asked about the possibility of securing federal funding for the I-69 bridge to be built in Henderson, McConnell said that while earmarks aren't coming back, there is a pool fund in the federal five-year highway fund for systemically important projects. It wouldn't be easy to secure, but he said that Henderson has taken the necessary steps and could compete for the funding.

Coal: The coal depression that began in Appalachia and spread west is not the result of legislation, but of regulations run amok, he said. China, Australia and Germany have booming coal industries.

"Coal has a future," McConnell said. "The issue is whether coal has a future in this country."
Local residents touch the backs of local law enforcement as they pray during the Back the Blue event to show support for them outside of the Union County Courthouse in Morganfield Tuesday. JASON CLARK / THE GLEANER

SHARE JASON CLARK / THE GLEANER Local residents sing as they show support for law enforcement during a back the blue event to show support for them outside of the Union County Courthouse in Morganfield Tuesday. JASON CLARK / THE GLEANER Local residents hold hands as they pray for law enforcement during a back the blue event to show support for local law enforcement outside of the Union County Courthouse in Morganfield Tuesday. JASON CLARK / THE GLEANER Rev., Ronnie Burkins of Morganfield leads a back the blue event to show support for local law enforcement outside of the Union County Courthouse in Morganfield Tuesday.

By Tom Lovett of The Gleaner

As the sun set on a hot, steamy Morganfield evening, more than 250 people turned up at the Union County courthouse to say thank you to the community's law enforcement officers.

As the crowd gathered for the Back the Blue rally, Joyce Phillips, who was in town from Georgia visiting family, passed out blue ribbons to police and citizens alike.

"All the policemen are the same regardless of the state," she said. "I pray for all their safety."

"I was just in awe of God shining on our county considering all that's taking place in the nation today," said the Rev. Ronnie Burkins of New Salem Missionary Baptist Church in Sturgis. "To seen the bonding here just overwhelms my heart. People loving people."

Burkins said officers all over the nation need the support of their communities.

"They're just like the rest us," he said. "They have families, they have babies; and to see the people get behind them and encourage them ... meant everything to me."

Morganfield resident Frank Eiter said he was there to show the police he supports them.

"They need a little bit of encouragement with the way the world is going now ... there's too much hate, too much violence," he said. "This is a good way to make a statement to anyone that there are a lot of really good people in the world and if we pay too much attention to the news we can get sour."

The hourlong rally was filled with scripture readings and song offering praise for police and praying for their safety.

Several officers standing on the courthouse steps teared up as the crowd sang "Amazing Grace."

"I appreciate seeing everybody here together like this," said Morganfield Police Sgt. Geoffrey Deibler. "More for our families than anything because our families hear the negative, they see the negative, but they don't get to see the positive of people coming up and thanking you.

"I get that several times throughout the day. My wife, my kids and my grandkids are never there to see that."

Deibler, who has been with MPD for nearly seven years grew up in Sturgis and said that contributed to the good relationship he had with the community.

"I grew up in this community, it's who I am," Deibler said. "I've had opportunities to live other places in the county and I can't imagine leaving home. There's probably not 20 people in this crowd that I don't know and don't know me. There's a few that changed my diaper ... this a pretty tight-knit community."

Uniontown Police Chief Jeffery Hart has been in law enforcement for more than 35 years and said nationwide, this is the worst he's seen police/community relations.

"The bad part about it that 99.9 percent of police officers do a great job every day, but you don't hear about those. Those aren't headlines, those aren't news stories," he said.

I work in a two-man police department, Hart said. "I can't tell you how many times a citizen has stopped and helped me. Without the community's support we can't do anything."

After the service ended, Burkins offered a message of unity for citizens and police nationwide.

"Consider your ways and examine yourself; we all have flaws, sometimes we all make bad choices. (Police) are just as human as we are. ... Every life matters, every life matters."
Winter is coming. Here's what you can do to prepare.

columns
Hands gesturing, eyes bright with enthusiasm, Pietros Italian-accented words tumbled out. He was describing the high-quality, hard-to-find ingredients used at TerraSole, his restaurant in Ridgefield. Each menu item, he told us, is created with top quality, authentic, carefully-sourced supplies for the best possible flavor and appearance.

It got me thinking about the importance of quality makings to produce authentic food from any culture  Italian, Mexican, Indian or others. If you want it to taste like the real thing, you need to use the real stuff. Fortunately, in our area, the genuine ingredients are there. You just have to look.

You cant make authentic Italian food without the same foods they cook with in Italy, owner Pietro Polini explained. And the food at TerraSole (TerraSoleRidgefield.com) was exceptional - beautifully presented, richly flavorful, and genuinely Italian. Drawing on Tuscany and Northern Italy for inspiration, Polini works hard to find the right supplies to produce the restaurants brilliant cuisine. He ought to know, since he also owns the restaurant Malvasia in Rimini, Italy on the Adriatic coast.

At a recent tasting dinner, Pietro invited us to explore twelve dishes across the traditional courses of antipasti, insalate, farinacci, secondi and dolci. Each showcased the role of quality ingredients in producing top-notch food that is true to its origins.

Imported Burrata cheese doused with extra virgin olive oil that had been infused with black truffle juice, San Daniele prosciutto aged 16 months, and organic tomatoes made up the Burrata Caprese salad. This kind of care in sourcing ingredients is rare and rewarding  nothing like the usual sliced tomatoes and mozzarella often seen.

At Terrasole fresh pastas are imported from Italy or made in-house. Salumi comes from the town of Biella in the Piedmont. Sicilian eggplant and San Marzano tomatoes are the foundation of delectable vegetarian meatballs. (Theres an oxymoron for you!)

The list goes on and on. Pietro is one of the largest buyers of fresh Italian truffles in Connecticut: white from October to December and black from March to September. In the TerraSole kitchen they season with pink sea salt and cook with their own garlic-infused olive oil (not minced garlic) for a more subtle flavor. In the wine department, Pietro even brings in an exclusive organic Apulian Primitivo from Salento.

After Pietros lesson on quality ingredients, I stopped by A-S Fine Foods at 120 New Canaan Ave. in Broad River (asnorwalk.com) looking for the same quality of supplies for home cooking. For authentic prepared foods, quality ingredients, and imported provisions, A-S is a destination for real Italian provisions.

Angelo (the A of A-S) was pleased to show me around the store. A dozen bottles of olive oil were lined up on shelf each with a different story, place of origin, flavor profile, and production method  some more bitter, others organic, one from a grove of trees 300 years old .

Fresh mozzarella is made daily. The stores own Italian specialties fill the refrigerator case. Bags of imported pasta line the shelves, or you can get Italian durum flour to make your own. Cans, jars, and packages of every imaginable Italian food make a colorful display.

DOP (Denominazione Origine Protetta) is the Italian government system for insuring the authenticity of food products. Angelo proudly showed me his San Marzano tomatoes marked with the official seal. Theyre the real thing. With over 40 years in the business of importing Italian foods, he knows where to find the best.

The store has a loyal local following as well as fans who travel from across Fairfield County, Westchester, and further afield in Connecticut. It's worth the trip. On a recent busy Saturday morning, Angelo came out from the back with balls of just-made Burrata cheese. Its still warm, he said. Who wants some? The shoppers crowded right in.

Working with authentic ingredients is important in all cuisines. In Norwalk, we have a bounty of stores ready to meet the demand: The Produce Market at 235 Main Ave. has impeccable fresh fruits and vegetables, imported Hispanic spices and seasonings, fruit juices, and the pantry supplies essential for real South and Central American flavors. Next time youre making tacos, try some of these instead of the supermarket taco seasoning.

A Taste of Europe at 330 Westport Ave. has meats, sausages, canned and pickled items as well as sweets from Northern Europe. Steves Market at 69 Main Street has everything you need for delicious Greek recipes. Patel Brothers at 330 Connecticut Ave (Bestbuy Shopping Center) is a national chain that has become a destination for Indian groceries in Norwalk. The Oriental Food Market at 109 New Canaan Ave. has a great selection of Pacific Rim ingredients.

As Ive said in previous columns, were lucky to have access to such international bounty in Norwalk. Im sure there are others that I havent included, but you get the idea. Seeking out genuine ingredients from off the beaten path sources is lots of fun, but the real payoff is in the eating!

Frank Whitmans Not Bread Alone column runs every Thursday in The Hour. Frank can be reached at notbreadalonefw@gmail.com.
During Women's History Month, we recognize the female political pioneers from Connecticut that have paved and continue to pave the way for women vying for city, state and national offices.
NORWALK

By STEVE KOBAK

Hour Staff Writer

A second Norwalk teen accused of participating in the gang rape of a 15-year-old girl will be tried as an adult.

Michael Ospina, 14, appeared Tuesday at Stamford Superior Court to answer to charges of first-degree sexual assault and conspiracy to commit first-degree sexual assault. He is free on $100,000 bond.

Ospina is the second male under the age of 18 who will be tried as an adult for charges connected to the gang rape.

The alleged ringleader in the rape, 17-year-old Francisco Sanchez, is also facing felony sex-assault charges as an adult. He has been held on $250,000 bond since his arrest and also appeared Tuesday at Stamford Superior Court.

Sanchez was arrested Dec. 30 along with Ospina and a 16-year-old -- whose name is not being released because he is being charged as a juvenile -- for allegedly sexually assaulting a 15-year-old female during a house party.

All three teens were charged with first-degree sexual assault, conspiracy to commit sexual assault and risk of injury to a minor.

The 16-year-old male who was under investigation for his involvement in the sexual assault was arrested on Jan. 14 for harassing the victim's family through a social networking website, according to police.

The teen, whose name was not released because he is a juvenile, was charged with intimidating a witness and second-degree threatening.
After removing family and religion from his life, Abraham Lincolns chief object of devotion remained the American nation alone.

Shoppers looking for presents at large American book stores have been greeted by a plethora of biographies on Abraham Lincoln recently. Three books have added to the already behemoth historiography of the sixteenth president: Richard Brookhisers beautifully written Founders Son, Harold Holzer and Norton Garfinkles polemical A Just and Generous Nation, and Sidney Blumenthals Self Made Man all deserve the attention of Imaginative Conservatives for what they tell us about a man often called the second father of the United States.

Mr. Brookhisers work is understandably applauded for being a remarkably readable and original take on why the sixteenth president adored the Founding Fathers, and how he developed his somewhat original and admittedly radical interpretation of the American Constitution. Brookhiser argues that Lincolns disappointment with his biological father, Thomas, resulted in the ambitious young man looking for intellectual and ideological surrogates. He found his new ghostly fathers in the pantheon of American heroes. From them, he understood that the mission of the United Statesfor what could America be if not a missional and propositional nationto create a land of opportunity for everyone, no matter who his father was. Brookhiser points out that Lincoln never thought he owed very much to his father. In this, Brookhiser is not original. Lord Charnwood, Lincolns early twentieth-century British biographer, said that Thomas Lincoln never prospered like Mordecai and Josiah, and never seems to have left the impress of his goodness or of anything else on any man. Lincoln seemed especially disappointed in his father for lacking the haute bourgeois desire for self-betterment that later typified the younger Lincoln. Charnwoods biography and Allen Guelzos Redeemer President both accurately accuse Lincolns early biographers of unfairly painting Thomas Lincoln as a dumb, brutish father who held back his brilliant son. In fact, as Guelzo points out, Thomas Lincoln was a contented, yeoman small farmer who had no desire to become anything more than what he was. Thomas remained happy and easily contented. What little wants he had he provided for easily. Thomas, Guelzo noted, always followed classical agrarian patterns.

Lincoln found agrarian life detestable and accused his father of not loving him because Thomas never let Abraham work for himself. That Thomas never understood his intelligent son seems clear, but Abrahams lot was little different from his contemporaries on small farms in southern Indiana. Abrahams reading apparently caused his father to resent him, but the record also affirms that young Lincoln proved to be a bit preening about his erudition. Schoolmates who affirmed the folk stories of their place found themselves corrected by the young Lincoln, who even as a child affirmed the rationalism and naturalism then pervading the nascent American intellectual milieu.

Lincolns desire to pursue the lifestyle of the growing American bourgeoisie, combined with his fathers preference for agrarian life, left Lincoln struggling with massive psycho-social insecurities. Historian Charles Strotzer credits Lincolns insecurities for his decision to live in the bourgeoning, capitalist-driven hamlet of New Salem, Illinois, and for his friendship with the scion of a socially respected slaveholding family, James Speed.[1]

Brookhisers testament to Lincolns self-appointed adoption by the framers of the American Constitution squares with his continued disdain for his own father, Thomas. In his renowned 1953 biography of Lincoln, Benjamin Thomas recounted Lincolns resentful behavior to his father during the latters mortal illness in the Winter of 1850-51. When Thomas reached out to Abraham in order to make amends, the now successful attorney, Lincoln rebuffed him; Lincoln refused to visit his dying father. Even more galling, Lincoln did not attend his fathers funeral, and the letter of reassurance that he sent during the old mans last illness has an unconvincing tone. One cannot escape the feeling that Lincoln had no real affection for his father and could not dissimulate about it. The reason for Lincolns resentment: Tom Lincoln had offered him scant encouragement in his efforts to make something of himself. The biographer excused Lincoln by applauding Lincolns inability to make even a pretense of affection for his father, which kept with Lincolns fundamental honesty; for frankness, candor, and truthfulness were second nature with him.[2]

Rejection of agrarian life and family led to the rejection of other social pillars that upheld the agrarian order of southern Indiana and Illinois. Sidney Blumenthal, a former senior adviser to President Bill Clinton and a current adviser to Hillary Clinton, finds in Lincoln the sort of self-made spirit that made the United States great. Mr. Blumenthals comprehensive and well-written account nonetheless exposes the central weakness of Abraham Lincolns statesmanship: his wholesale rejection of cultural, religious, and social traditions. In order to make himself truly the great statesman posterity would recognize, Lincoln needed to throw off family and religion. Blumenthal praises Lincolns rejection of organized religion, especially his decision to reject intolerant versions of religion, such as orthodox Calvinism, which presented obstacles to the hyper-rationalism he made sovereign in his life. Blumenthal speaks in adulation of Lincolns heretical religiosity. Lincoln rejected Christs divinity, the Virgin Birth, Original Sin, and the Atonement. Blumenthal, a convinced secular statist, recognizes in Lincoln one of the first politicians to break the sway of orthodox Christianity in American political life.[3]

Other rumors of Lincolns religiosity vary. While some evidence exists that suggests he might have converted to orthodox Presbyterianism in 1863, the majority of written accounts pointed to Lincoln remaining diffident at best to orthodox religion even during his presidency. Sometimes, one of his acquaintances said, Lincoln bordered on atheism. He went far that way, and shocked me He would come into the clerks office where I and some young men were writing and staying, and would bring the Bible with him; would read a chapter and argue against it. Lincoln was enthusiastic in his infidelity. Friends complained that he was too indiscreet. He didnt talk much before strangers about his religion; but to friends, close and bosom ones, he was always open and avowed, fair and honest; to strangers, he held them off from policy. His first law partner John T. Stuart accused Lincoln of being an avowed and open infidel who sometimes bordered on atheism. Lincoln, said Stuart, went further against Christian beliefs and doctrines and principles than any man I ever heard; he shocked me. I dont remember the exact line of his argument; suppose it was against the inherent defects, so-called, of the Bible, and on grounds of reason. More specifically, Lincoln always denied that Jesus was the Christ of Goddenied that Jesus was the son of God as understood and maintained by the Christian Church.[4]

After removing family and religion from his life, Abraham Lincolns chief object of devotion remained the American nation alone. Lincolns nation was one shorn of the supremacy of institutions like family and religion. Lincoln never rejected these institutions entirely. He proved to be a devoted father and faithful husband to a near-lunatic wife. Yet he subordinated all to the progress of the ephemeral idea of an American nation he believed his adopted fathers, the Founders, had left unfinished. That brings us to Holzer and Garfinkles Just and Generous Nation. The authors offer a polemic on American economics. Lincoln, they suggest, focused his entire political career, in peace and war alike, in pursuit of economic opportunity for the widest possible circle of hardworking Americans. The Confederacy, in Lincolns eyes, posed a direct threat to self-sustaining middle-class society and to the promise of America leading the way to spreading the idea of opportunity and upward mobility throughout the world. The life of the American nation, therefore, must be defended at all costeven cost in hundreds of thousands of lives. Lincoln fought the Civil War over the principle of establishing a role for government in securing and guaranteeing economic opportunity for its citizens.[5]

That Abraham Lincoln loved the American idea and hoped to expand opportunity is admirable. That he failed to see the destruction that war and ever-increasing federal power might bring remains the greatest failure in his statesmanship. Edmund Burke believed conservatism lay in the understanding that human government was a contract among the dead, the living, and those yet to be born. Lincolns tragic appeal to idealized Founding Fathers, rather than to his own flawed father, holds consequences for us today. Lincolns unintentional Gnosticism led to an embrace of an idealized nation shorn of the flesh and blood realities of church and family. And it presents a serious obstacle to characterizing Lincoln as a conservative. A belief solely in primary importance of the economic and material progress of an idealized nation, rather than traditional pillars of human society, laid foundations for American progressivism in the twentieth century. One wonders what might have been had Lincolns days with his father been different.

Notes:

[1] Rochard Brookhiser, Founders Son; Lord Charnwood, Abraham Lincoln; Allen Guelzo, Redeemer President, 33; Michael Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln: A Life vol. 1, 33; Charles B. Strotzer, Your Friend Forever, A. Lincoln, 2-3.

[2] Benjamin Thomas, Abraham Lincoln: A Biography, 134

[3] Sidney Blumenthal, A Self-Made Man: The Political Life of Abraham Lincoln, 68

[4] William H. Herndon, Herndons Lincoln Vol 3, 440

[5] Harold Holzer and Norton Garfinkle, A Just and Generous Nation: Abraham Lincoln and the Fight for American Opportunity, 3

The featured image is Abraham Lincoln by Ned Bittinger, Collection of the U.S. House of Representatives, and is in the public domain, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
DONIPHAN  The new Doniphan Library will host a family summertime celebration at 5 p.m. on Thursday.

The free event celebrates the grand opening of the library, the kickoff for the kids reading club and the second anniversary of The WAY Station Fitness Center. Thursdays celebration will include face painting, kids storytime and a free Zumba class and line dance lesson. Plus, Hot Sauce Hoppes BBQ will sell its award-winning food.

The library, which is in the same building as the fitness center, opened July 1. Christine Hollister, the library director, said when she moved back to her hometown four years ago, she noticed a void.

The library was something that was missing in our community, Hollister said.

She said the school has a great library, but Doniphan lacked a community library. She brought the idea up to community members, Julie Bringelson and Scott Zersen. Bringelson owns The WAY Station and Zersen owns the building the fitness center is in.

The library consists of hundreds of books shelved and organized in one room. The large shelves and colorful room create a thriving place for creativity and imagination. Books line and fill each shelf, in some places from floor to ceiling.

We werent sure what the library was going to be like when we were finished, but we knew we wanted to try, Hollister said about planning the library. Its the biggest little library around.

The space its housed in used to be an office in a town hall, Zersen said. Upon working with Hollister to get the library rolling, he donated the space. Many of the items were donated, in fact. The whole community donated books, the school donated shelves and local businesses donated door prizes and gift cards for the celebration.

People who visit the library are asked to sign their name and mark the number of items taken. The suggested lease time is 30 days, but no fees are charged if the items arent returned.

If it doesnt come back, were not too worried, Bringelson said.

Its pretty laid back, Hollister said.

Since the library room is just outside the fitness center, Bringelson and her staff help keep an eye on the library.

Zersen said the library is run on an honor system.

We want to have things that are complementary of each other, he said of having the library and fitness center in his building.

The fitness center promotes physical wellness, while the library promotes creativity. He said the two mesh well together.

Zersen said the project sort of came full circle with the library. When Hall County stopped doing its bookmobile, Zersen went to the auction with the possibility of buying it. He said he has always valued reading, as did his dad.

He didnt buy the bookmobile, but he said being involved with the Doniphan Library is great.

In a way, were going to fill the void, Zersen said of the new library.

Bringelson and Zersen said they hope this weeks celebration will get people to the library and fitness center to see what its about. They said some people may not have had the chance to check it out yet, but the celebration will give that opportunity.

Community member Marilyn Johnson said she thinks the library was a brilliant idea.

Children and adults in Doniphan need a place to go, Johnson said. Hopefully, itll encourage people to read more.

Bringelson, Hollister and Zersen said theyre appreciative of all the help and donations theyve received for the library. Bringelson and Zersen said material donations are great, but the library also needs monetary donations to pay the utility bills.

This is a special community right here, Zersen said about Doniphan and the public support of the library.

Hollister said the celebration will offer a bit of something for everyone, just like the library itself.

It just turned out way beyond my dream of what it could be because of the community support, she said.

If you go:

5 p.m.Kids activities & Face painting begin; Food - Award-winning ribs, brisket, pulled pork and more from Hot Sauce Hoppes BBQ

5:30Ribbon Cutting, Strength training machine demos

6-7Two-week Kids Reading Club Kickoff and kids storytime with teacher Deb Hartman

7:15-8Free Zumba fitness class

8-8:30Free Line dance lesson

Library Hours:

Monday through Thursday: 8 a.m. to 9:30 a.m., 3 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.

Friday: 8 a.m. to 9:30 a.m., 3 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.

Saturday: 8 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.

Sunday: Closed
Herbert Grant Jensen, 86, passed away of respiratory failure on July 14, 2016, at CHI Health St. Francis in Grand Island., with his niece Cindy and her daughter, Christy, at his side.

Herbie was born on Feb. 25, 1930, in Cotesfield to Edwin and Lila Jensen. He was the fifth of eight children, five boys and three girls.

He received his education in the traditional rural school houses and then graduated from Scotia High School in Scotia, with the class of 48. He worked on the family farm from a young age, as well as other general jobs until his entry into the Marine Corps in December of 1951. He served for two years until December of 1953, when he was separated with an honorable discharge and the rank of sergeant.

Herbie married Betty Ann Dittman June 3, 1954, and was married to Betty until her death in July 2013. To this union, two children were born, Herbert G. Jensen Jr. and Dale Alfred Jensen.

After marriage, Herbie and Betty lived north of St. Paul for four years when he worked for C.L. Christensen and then moved to Marquette, working for Marion Larsen for two years. Paul Rolfsmeier hired Herbie after witnessing his accomplished milking skills and the family then moved to Seward in 1959. Herbie worked as a dairyman for Rolfsmeier on his dairy farm, which is where he raised his two sons and lived for 20 years. Both of his sons attended the United States Naval Academy, graduated and became Navy pilots. After Dale graduated in 1979 from USNA, they moved to Hewitt, Texas, in August of that year.

While living in Texas, Herbie was employed at Mosley Machinery, Johnson Sheet Metal and Plantation Foods.

After he retired, in 1997, Herbie and Betty moved to Grand Island, where they purchased an old house, which they completely gutted and made new. Herbie lost his wife, Betty, of 59 years in July of 2013. Cindy, the oldest daughter of Herbies deceased brother, Alden, and her partner, Donal, moved in with their Uncle Herbie shortly after Betty passed away. Cindy and Donal were there 24 hours a day as Herbies sole caretakers his last years. Because of their extraordinary efforts and love, Herbies quality of life was maintained during his final years. He lived in his home to the end. He was also well enough in June 2015 to travel with Cindy for a month to see his granddaughters, Robyn and Lauren, graduate from high school.

Herbie always enjoyed working, which in addition to milking included all manner of farming duties, as well as moving mountains of dirt with his John Deere 5020 tractor pulling an earth mover. He had a love of cards and played them every chance he could, and instilled that same passion, luck and skill onto his sons, Herb and Dale.

Herbie loved all outdoor activities, but most of all, pheasant hunting and fishing. Just as he skilled his sons, he taught his granddaughters, Robyn and Lauren, the art and joys of fishing.

He loved jigsaw puzzles and word games.

Herbie is survived by his son Dale, with his children, Robyn and Lauren, who reside in San Diego, Calif., and his daughter-in-law, Paula, and her children, Kirsten and Bryan, who live in Thomasville, Ga. Also surviving are his sisters, Anna Mae and Oline. In addition to his niece Cindy Montgomery and her partner, Donal, he is also survived by numerous nieces, nephews and friends.

He was preceded in death by his parents; his wife, Betty; son Herb Jr.; brothers, Kenneth, Curtis, Alden and Richard; and sister, Myrtle.

As per his wishes, there will be no viewing or services. The family requests no flowers or gifts. He was cremated and his ashes will be buried in Grand Island Cemetery in August.
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WASHINGTON  Hillary Clintons proposal for making public higher education not just cheaper but free to most Americans sounds good on paper. A few years after the plans implementation, a family that earns as much as $125,000 annually would not have to pay tuition to send a child to a state-sponsored college or university. The beginning earning cutoff level would be $85,000 and increase annually to the top figure.

What a deal, huh? Its close to one that nearly catapulted Sen. Bernie Sanders to the Democratic presidential nomination. Huge numbers of young voters jumped on his bandwagon with his promise of a free education. He still lost but not before he bullied Clinton into picking up the keystone of his socialist-oriented program.

If you would like to know what this would cost, its anyones guess. The conservative estimates range up to half a trillion dollars. But that probably is a low-ball figure considering the history of such projects. The money would come from both the federal government and states, which would have the opportunity to opt out. Either way, taxpayers would be stuck with bills.

Whats going on here is a politicians dream and a taxpayers ultimate nightmare  a version of the old chicken in every pot political gambit that takes advantage of the failure of states to provide the support they once did for their public institutions of higher learning. The plan promises more than can be delivered. State support for annual budgets in major public schools has fallen to single digits. The result has been a steady demand for higher tuitions and fees that has driven schools to make up the shortfall by seeking out-of-state or foreign students who pay much more than state residents. Just contemplating the debt load of sending one family member to college produces nausea and sleep deprivation akin to studying for an advanced calculus exam.

The trauma to the public treasury would worsen with the creation of another entitlement program alongside Medicare and Medicaid and now Obamacare, the collection of which, without serious change somewhere along the line, ultimately will drive this nation into bankruptcy or the kind of socialistic government Sanders wants. Either taxes go up or something goes down, such as defense.

Then there is the question of all those private schools that would not only not receive any benefit from the Clinton proposal but might also face financial disaster, especially if their endowments are small. Competition from the major state universities for students is strong enough as it is without having the recruiting rug jerked even further from under them. Why would a student elect to go solidly into debt for four years of undergraduate studies when he can receive the same thing free? Would it be because he likes a smaller school and more personal attention? Perhaps, but most could be expected to sacrifice those academic luxuries for a particularly seductive four letter word: free.

With growing enrollments to bolster their budget needs, the small gems of higher education that dont have billion-dollar endowments to sustain them would be up against it, forced to get even more expensive. Many would fail.

As a trustee of a venerated, small liberal arts school, I can certify the financial difficulties these schools face. Raising tuition, which is already high, would be a disaster. Fundraising campaigns for capital and faculty needs are more difficult daily.

There has to be a better way to lower college costs. A good start would be for state legislatures to provide more support to their institutions rather than to buy into a pie-in-the-sky proposal that would end up stressing their taxpayers more. Many states would opt not to participate in Clintons proposal. It is also difficult to believe that Congress, which would have to provide funds through the Department of Education, would see this as politically beneficial. Certainly not as it is made up today.

Hillarys plan  a more extensive one than she proposed earlier  is obviously designed to appease all those followers of Sanders and keep them in the fold. She may or may not need them.

Before you panic or thrill to the possibility of sending junior off to school on someone elses nickel, you should contemplate the shortcomings and pitfalls and understand the political origin of this proposal. It most likely wont reach reality for a long time, if ever.
Four local high school seniors will receive a $16,000 college scholarship from the Phillips 66 Dependent Scholarship Program. The competitive program awards outstanding college-bound students whose parents work for Phillips 66 or one of its subsidiaries. The awards are based on academic excellence, community service and financial need.

The company announced Cameron Foust, Chase Langendorf, Shane Nichols, and Chase Zezoff as honorees this year. Cameron Foust, son of Phillips 66 employee Craig Foust, is a graduate of East Alton Wood River Community High School. Chase Langendorf, son of Phillips 66 employee Daniel Langendorf, is a graduate of Metro-East Lutheran High School. Shane Nichols, son of Phillips 66 employee John Nichols, is a graduate of Marquette Catholic High School. Chase Zezoff, stepson of Phillips 66 employee Mike Oseland, is a graduate of Granite City High School.
Get ready for a blast to the past as the Edwardsville Municipal Band makes its way back to center stage at 8 p.m., Thursday at City Park. Under the direction of James Kerfoot, attendees will recognize featured songs from Disneys Aladdin, such as Friend Like Me, Prince Ali, Arabian Nights, and A Whole New World, that will likely bring a sense of nostalgia to concertgoers.

Also in the mix is the Sammy Nestico medley, The Blues! which includes The Birth of the Blues, Limehouse Blues, and Blues in the Night. Following the Blues hits are songs from the movie How the West Was Won, and the Broadway feature Man of La Mancha.

Kerfoot said with each show comes a variety, but the lineup format will be consistent with past playlists.

I think most people will enjoy the music lineup this week. I usually try to choose a variety of selections that I think the crowd will enjoy. I didnt have anything particularly in mind as I picked the lineup this week. Just trying to keep a variety and more up-tempo type music, Kerfoot said.

This isnt the first time the band has performed hits from Disneys Aladdin, and Kerfoot said it should be a crowd pleaser.

Weve done (Aladdin) before; its been several years since weve played that one. I try to keep four or five years between repeats. I try to put in things as we go but Aladdin we have played before. (The audience) enjoyed it, especially the younger ones who have seen the movie. A lot of parents have seen it too, Kerfoot said.

With over 65 members, the Edwardsville Municipal Band has been around for quite some time. In comparison to last years season, Kerfoot said the crowd turnouts have improved significantly this year.

I think weve had a better turnout this year. I know last week was down, but it was so hot. I know that was a reason, but weve had good crowds all season. They werent bad last year, but I think we are bigger this year. Also, I think the selection of music is probably better this year, overall, Kerfoot said.

As this weeks show nears, Kerfoot said he wants the audience to enjoy the performance to the fullest.

I hope they enjoy the concert and enjoy the music; enjoy it enough that they tell their friends and have them come up the following week. I know next week is going to be more of a special concert  we have a local soloist thats going to be with us. For this week, I hope they enjoy it and they hear the professional level of the band are excited about that, Kerfoot said.

The next Edwardsville Municipal Band concert will take place at 8 p.m., Thursday, Aug. 4, at City Park. All concerts are free to the public and concessions are available. For more information about the band or upcoming performances, visit www.edwband.com.
With Edwardsville District 7 Schools' continuing financial crisis, cuts it has made over the past several years and the decrease in state funding are well documented.

As in any budget situation, when push comes to shove, some budgetary items are bypassed for other items more critically important.

For District 7, items such as upgrading and replacing instructional materials and textbooks, as well as moving forward with changing technology and upgrading security components in the schools have all been greatly affected by budgetary restrictions.

During the Edwardsville District 7 Board of Education general meeting last week, Edwardsville Superintendent Lynda Andre provided historical information about each of these areas as well as announced that the district had developed a plan to address these key areas when funds become available.

Andre began by explaining that the district had suspended the full curriculum review cycle back in 2007. This review cycle had been used for decades by the district to develop high quality K-12 curricula. The only curriculum updates completed after 2007, were the K-12 English/Language Arts and K-12 Mathematics curricula in response to the states adoption of the New Illinois Learning Standards in 2010 in preparation for the PARCC assessments, Andre noted. Instructional materials and new textbooks were not purchased for these subject areas due to a lack of funds.

She pointed out that updating a full K-12 curriculum study for just one of the core academic subjects such as language arts, mathematics, science or social science could cost anywhere from $800,000 to $1 million to fully implement. This amount per subject includes the committee study cost to develop a subject area, professional development for teachers, and the purchase of textbooks and instructional materials that include electronic library subscriptions and licenses, manipulatives and consumable supplies.

The lack of financial resources resulted in curricular updates and the purchase of instructional materials and textbooks being placed on hold. For example, the districts social science curriculum was last revised in 2000, science 2006, business education/family & consumer sciences/technology 2002 and foreign languages 1998.

While Language Arts and Mathematics studies were completed in 2014, textbooks and instructional materials were not purchased due to lack of funds, Andre explained.

She also noted that the replacement cost of textbooks and instructional materials for K-12 language arts is $550,000 while K-12 mathematics would cost $600,000.

She said that the district has been able to navigate through these years without purchasing new textbooks due to the emergence and use of quality digital content which allowed teachers to pair it with older textbooks and deliver current and up-to-date information. PTOs in partnership with the district, have generously funded K-12 subscriptions to Discovery Education, an electronic database of academic resources that can be accessed through the interactive white boards located in each classroom, Andre said.

And while the district plans to use this hybrid approach of utilizing both textbooks and digital resources, the digital resources are not free and neither is the infrastructure required to support it.

To make matters worse, the current status of instructional materials and textbooks is not good. Andre stressed that the average age of a textbook is 12 years old, that replacement textbooks are no longer available in elementary science and certain high school science and English courses due to their age, and many of the districts textbooks have been re-bound so many times that they are no longer usable.

To address all of these issues, Andre reported that the district had developed a four-year plan to restore the curriculum study cycle and technology replacement cycle, replace all textbooks in core academic areas, implement the next phases of the Technology in the 21st Century Classroom Initiative and update and increase the number of school security cameras.

Once funds become available, the curriculum study cycle and regular replacement of instructional materials and textbooks plan includes addressing K-12 English/Language Arts in year one, K-12 Mathematics in year two, K-12 Science in year three, and K-12 social studies in year four. K-12 PE/Health, 3-12 foreign language, 6-12 business and applied technology and K-12 fine and performing arts would follow.

Moving the district forward in implementing the next phases of its technology plan would involve several steps beginning with updating the infrastructure at EHS and both Lincoln and Liberty Middle Schools. This includes installation of Wi-Fi at Lincoln and Liberty only, an increase of bandwidth, installation of wireless and network security and installation of device management software.

Andre explained that the district would begin utilizing a Learning Management System (LMS) that provides a central online location for students to access digital textbooks, course activities, quizzes, and links to online articles and resources. She emphasized that an LMS has become a staple in the college environment within the last decade. It is a skill that our students need in college, Andre said.

Once phases two and three of the technology plan are implemented, students will be able to bring their own devices to school to access the districts LMS.

At the elementary level, the district would provide student devices, at a ratio of five students per device, to be used in small groups.

Also a part of the technology plan is to restore the districts technology replacement cycle. This would include regular replacement or upgrade of major components such as servers, router, switches and computers which support the districts communication, financial and security systems.

And finally, school security would be addressed. District 7 schools currently have 557 interior and exterior security cameras installed on school property, Andre noted. As with all technology, cameras need to be updated and/or replaced regularly so the district is providing a safe and secure learning environment for students, employees and parents.

So we have developed a plan that would do these things: replace all textbooks in core academic areas, restore the curriculum review cycle, implement the next phases of the Technology in the 21st Century Classroom Initiative, restore the technology replacement cycle, and update and increase the number of school security cameras, Andre said. And after months of work and looking at what it would take to bring that plan to fruition, we believe an annual allocation of $1 million per year in an ongoing fashion is what it will take.
Thanks to no-cost expertise and connections shared by the Small Business Development Center (SBDC) at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, a new insect control franchise is ready to eliminate flying pests for residents and businesses in Madison County.

Mosquito Joe of Madison County, a franchise owned by Granite City resident James J.P. Newcomer, opened for business on May 23.

Newcomer, a business process analyst at Monsanto and a U.S. Air Force retiree, was searching for a franchise opportunity to operate in the Metro East. After working extensively with a franchise consultant in North Carolina between 2015 and 2016, Newcomer decided upon the mosquito control market.

In a group of people, my wife and I are generally the first ones to get bitten, Newcomer said. Mosquito Joes unique business model and vector control processes impressed me.

A Mosquito Joe pest control yard application eliminates biters for 21 days. The trained technician achieves these results by targeted shrubs and plants with a barrier spray that kills mosquitoes on contact and bonds to foliage, where it acts as a repellent for weeks to come.

SBDC Small Business Specialist Jo Ann DiMaggio May began assisting Newcomer in March.

Jo Ann was incredibly helpful, offering essential information about what I needed to do to open a franchise in the state of Illinois, said Newcomer. There was so much to know in terms of applying for an SBA loan, becoming licensed as a pesticide applicator and more. Once I passed the required state exams, I found that obtaining a state license could take from four to six weeks to complete and could delay, or potentially prevent, my business from opening.

With the Zika virus popping up everywhere in the news, I wanted to launch this year. After I made attempts directly with the Illinois Dept. of Agriculture to expedite the process, Jo Ann put me in touch with a USDA director of rural development who made a phone call for me. Within an hour I got a call back and received my license application that became official within 48 hours.

Newcomer praised the SBDCs ability to work with small business start-ups as well as existing small businesses. Im grateful to Jo Ann and the SBDC for continually following up with me to see if I need any additional assistance.

DiMaggio May said providing expertise to Newcomer was easy because he was very well organized and a hard worker.

James hit the ground running and was eager to start his business, DiMaggio May said. He knew he had numerous steps to follow and was receptive to my advice and assistance. James military training, strong work ethic and extensive network of supporters will ensure his business success. I cant wait to see how far he goes with the franchise.

The Metro East SBDC assists new franchise operations like Mosquito Joe of Madison County as well as entrepreneurs located in the nine-county Metro East region of Calhoun, Jersey, Madison, Bond, Clinton, St. Clair, Washington, Monroe and Randolph. It is a service to the community supported, in part, by the U.S. Small Business Administration, Illinois Department of Commerce & Economic Opportunity and Southern Illinois University Edwardsville.

By aiding entrepreneurs and companies in defining their path to success, the SBDC Network positively impacts Southwestern Illinois by strengthening the business community, creating and retaining jobs and encouraging capital investment. It enhances the regions economic interests by providing one-stop assistance to individuals by means of counseling, training, research and advocacy for new ventures and existing small businesses. When appropriate, the Metro East SBDC strives to affiliate its ties to the region to support the goals and objectives of both the SIUE School of Business and the University at large. To learn more, contact the Metro East SBDC at (618) 650-2929 or sbdcedw@gmail.com.
The 2016 Madison County ROE STEM Camp was recently hosted by the Madison County Regional Office of Education and was a tremendous success! Seventy-three students from grades two through six, representing fourteen different communities attended the week long camp in June held at Center for Educational Opportunities in Troy Illinois. The camp goal was to engage students while educating and encouraging growth in the area of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) concepts through fun, imaginative, and challenging activities, utilizing individual and team engineering based problem solving approaches while completing more than twenty-five hands on activities.

Camp teachers who provided instruction were from the Alton, Collinsville, Edwardsville, Highland and Triad school districts. Camp student volunteers, who had exceptional skills and experiences were from St. Marys school, Triad Middle School as well as the Highland and Triad High Schools. This is a unique camp in that it was a county-wide effort that brought top teachers and students together from across the county working as a team with great effort, making it possible to create a fun and enjoyable learning environment for all participants says Mike Moore ROE#41 Co-Camp Director. In doing this it allowed for an assortment of curriculum to be utilized in an effort to stimulate interests in a wide variety of careers that apply STEM concepts.

Many of todays high skilled and high wage jobs are centering more and more around the STEM concepts, and as educators, we believe it is never too early to start introducing these concepts to our youth. As an example, many camp units for the second and third grader students were centered on wind power and aerodynamics through the use of activities that included construction and analysis of pinwheels, parachutes, helicopter, and fixed winged aircraft. Other topics at this grade level included go-carts and go-cart tricks, catapults, simple pneumatic machines, towers, a unit on video production and a unit in design and invention. Co Camp Director, Rachel Lewis, also from the Madison County ROE says, Students loved the hands on activities that challenge them. It was fun to see the smiles when they discover and learn how things work, and better yet, how things could work due to the STEM concepts being learned.

STEM Camp provided each grade level a different type and number of activities geared to challenge them at their level of ability. The fourth grade students designed and built bridges after briefly studying a few engineering concepts typical to bridge construction via guided on-line research. At completion their bridges were weight tested for efficiency and strength. The winners took home a 100 GRAND! (Candy Bar) This age group also completed two activities in rocket building, a catapult challenge, a unit in video production, and a design and engineering bio-medical activity where they were challenged to design a life size working model of an arm or leg prosthetic. The goal was their design might afford someone who had lost a limb the ability to enjoy one of the activities they could no longer do and that many of us may take for granted.

The sixth grade students spent the week deeply engaged in the physics, learning about topics such as potential and kinetic energy, acceleration and deceleration all while learning to apply the engineering problem solving methods to real world physics problems. Activities for the first three days centered around designing and building various roller coaster rides utilizing Knex Kit components, and culminated in building a mouse trap powered car in addition to constructing an entire amusement park that not only tied in many physics concepts but also a lot of math, geometry, and mechanical components. The excitement of students and parents each day was wonderful. I truly enjoyed hearing the parents share their childs excitement as they talked about their day at camp, commented co-camp director Rachel Lewis from the ROE 41 office. There were so many fun challenges presented to the students throughout the week that there was never a dull moment!

Another highlight of the program was the inclusion of guest speakers, presenters, and demonstration. We brought in real world design and engineering so campers could experience first-hand the reality of what these things may look like, and possibly a glimpse of what their future, in high school and beyond, could be like if they continue with this creativity and effort. Bringing in these experiences gave students the opportunity to see and operate various types of robots from the Robotics Clubs from Edwardsville and Triad High School. They were able to observe the flight and operation of a drone with a camera from students from Highland High School. They learned how to begin utilizing on-line products such as Mine Craft to design and build creations from a student from St. Marys school in Edwardsville. You just cannot describe in words the total experience of attending this camp. We even had a visit from the Army Corps of Engineers, who demonstrated and provided hands on experiences with water ways and large scale bridge building. The 2016 Madison County ROE STEM Camp was an amazing community effort!
Tickets will be sold through Sept. 12 at the Belleville News Democrat at 120 S. Illinois St. in downtown Belleville for $25 each. The price includes the ticket and a t-shirt representing both the St. Louis Cardinals and the Get to know m.e. campaign. There is a limit of 1,000 tickets being sold for this game and are sold on a first come, first serve basis. For questions about Night at the Ball Park or to inquire about purchasing tickets, call 618-239-2530 or visit http://www.get2knowthemetroeast.com/projects/ballpark/.

Get to know m.e. was created to bring the Metro-East communities together, embracing the people who live and work here and the many attractions that we all share and enjoy. It also showcases the many attractions and lifestyle the Metro-East has to offer for those who live outside of this area.
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Linkedin Christian Donny Putranto (The Jakarta Post) Melbourne  Wed, July 27, 2016

Its official: having access to the internet is a human right!



The Human Rights Council, which is composed of 47 countries, just recognized the right to internet access on July 1, adopting Resolution 32/13 recognizing that individuals have freedom of expression and speech online as they do offline.



Although adopted unanimously, Indonesia and 16 other countries initially rejected some important elements on the right to internet access. Indonesia supported several amendments proposed by Russia and China, which could undermine this right.



The proposals were to scrap the reference to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and to delete the phrase human rights-based approach for providing internet access. Fortunately, other countries rejected these proposed amendments.



Indonesias initial rejection of an important element of this right reveals its reluctance toward internet access in general.



On one hand, Indonesia seeks greater internet access across the archipelago. In October 2015, three major telecommunications providers went to Googles headquarters to strengthen cooperation through an internet connectivity project called Loon.



To attract more investment and economic growth through crowdfunding schemes, the Finance Ministry called for better internet infrastructure throughout Indonesia. President Joko Jokowi Widodo even promised to make Indonesia the largest digital economy in the Southeast Asia.



Nevertheless Indonesia projected a different stance at the Human Rights Council. With 43 percent of Indonesias population having smartphones, we have more than 70 million Facebook users and just less than 20 million Twitter users. Even the President maintains an active Twitter account.



These demonstrate how Indonesia has become highly attached to the internet, just like most other young democracies.



However, Indonesias stance at the Human Rights Council is only the latest testament exhibiting Indonesias hesitancy to fully embrace the internet as part of todays life.



Rights groups have long criticized Indonesia for its vague legislation on information and electronic transactions, which have landed people in jail for dubious online libel offenses.



The government has also blocked some social media such as the video sharing platform Vimeo and the online movie streaming site, Netflix. Some elements have even ridiculously demanded the government block Google.



The oft-cited pretext for blocking internet access is that these online platforms or activities display violence and sexuality or they do not conform to Indonesias customs. In other words, the government is unable to properly censor them, hence lets block them all.



As such, Indonesias hesitance toward the internet warrants a question. How far is the government prepared to accept internet presence in our society?



If the government expects more internet penetration across the archipelago, why does it disagree with the human rights aspects of such efforts? The governments move may even be interpreted as a rejection of the right to internet access as a whole.



How can one accept the need to have internet access, while denying the rights attached to this need? Indonesias reluctance suggests a general view in government that human rights are somehow distinct from the right to internet access. This perception is simply flawed.



Granted, the right to internet access is not a stand-alone right like freedom of expression. This right, however, stems from other rights such as freedom of expression, the right to privacy and freedom of association. As such, it bears the characteristics of a human right just like other rights.



The internets presence simply provides a novel avenue for people to enjoy basic human rights. Arguably, the internet assists people to better enjoy their rights. Would we deny freedom of movement just because people use a new technology? Would we reject freedom of expression just because it is carried out using ancient equipment? One can hardly answer in the affirmative.



So how can the government deny reference to human rights approaches and treaties when discussing the right to internet access? If the government wishes to have the nation virtually connected, only to be improperly and dubiously curbed, there is no point in hosting Google, Facebook and other Silicon Valley giants in Indonesia.



Like any other relationship that envisions a clear future, the government thus has a duty to make Indonesias connection with the internet clear from both the economic and the rights perspective in order for us to have a brighter online future.

***

The writer is an Australia Awards Scholar pursuing a masters degree in human rights law at the Melbourne Law School, the University of Melbourne.

---------------

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 James Tumbuan (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, July 27, 2016

Many families in Indonesia long for a place to call home. More than just a house, a home is a safe haven for our families, a strong and stable place where our children can thrive and a solid foundation on which a family can build a better life. Sharing our homes with family members and friends is a warm Indonesian tradition. Strong and stable homes help build strong and stable communities.



We recognize that a home provides strength, stability and self-reliance for people in our country. While homes vary in appearance across the nation, the need for a home is the same for everyone.



Housing should be a key element in what is being called the New Urban Agenda, a United Nations-sponsored declaration of global political commitment being developed by participants worldwide and focused on the sustainable development of cities and other human settlements.



This agenda, evolving out of a series of meetings known as Habitat III, will set a new global strategy around urbanization for the next two decades. The last of three high-level Preparatory Committee meetings that lead to the Habitat III conference in Ecuador in October is being held in Surabaya. While the agenda promotes solid principles at its core, we are calling on our leaders to ensure that four key principles are included.



The New Urban Agenda must: 1) Emphasize adequate and affordable housing, 2) Prioritize security of tenure, 3) Promote community-led development and 4) Set specific and accountable measures of success.



No matter what form a home takes, it also occupies land; a home takes up space. As our global population grows, the supply of available land and space is dwindling. By 2030, UN-HABITAT estimates that 3 billion people  about 40 percent of the worlds population  will need access to housing. This means demand for housing in the region increases by an average of 20,000 dwellings a day.



This appeal for housing is most acutely felt in urban areas, and not just in Indonesia. Rapid urbanization is taking place in Asia and the Pacific, with an additional 120,000 people moving into the regions cities every day.



By 2050, 70 percent of the worlds population is projected to be living in urban areas. Based on current estimates, that translates to 6.7 billion people (roughly the entire global population in 2010) who will be living in cities. As demand for housing soars, so too do the costs, and homes are becoming less and less affordable for many families by the day.



Left unchecked, rapid urbanization will bring about unfettered growth of slums and other unplanned settlements worldwide as people search for somewhere  anywhere  to reside.



If we stand idly by, billions of people will be denied adequate homes in our lifetimes. Fortunately, a solution is possible  if we act now. The finalized New Urban Agenda document that will emerge from the Habitat III conference must confront the difficult realities of rapid urbanization across the globe. If appropriately drafted, the New Urban Agenda will provide a guide for global efforts toward sustainable and planned human developments that can ensure that all people will live with dignity in our rapidly changing and urbanizing world.



The first draft of the New Urban Agenda promotes to varying degrees the four principles we advocate, but we must ensure they are included in the final version. This agenda will shape the next 20 years of global development, and represents our best chance of making our voices heard. Make no mistake: a principled approach to development is the only way to ensure that we are building healthy, sustainable communities, not simply creating new settlements.



To that end, the New Urban Agenda must:



Recognize that the expansion of adequate and affordable housing is central to achieving safe, resilient and sustainable cities. We must call for housing to be elevated as one of the highest priorities for national governments, and must reaffirm the right to adequate housing for all. This language is taken from the first draft of the New Urban Agenda, and we call on global leaders to keep it there as new drafts emerge.



Prioritize secure tenure rights, especially for women. This priority should reach all levels of government, creating strong land management institutions at the national and local levels. These institutions must regulate land registration and governance to emphasize fairness and equity. The goals must be to reduce unjust evictions and extortionate payments and to support legally recognized documentation to secure tenure rights.



Create policy environments that harness and enhance public, private and civil society participation. Communities are born from participation and the principles of social inclusion; without these values, development is something that is done to the people, not by the people.



Ensure that efforts to provide healthy and sustainable settlements are working and demand transparency. We live in a data-driven age where it is not enough to receive periodic progress reports that do not measure specific impacts. Only by collecting and sharing data can we learn from our cooperative successes and failures and work together for a better world.



Habitat for Humanity Indonesia is supporting sustainable urbanization programs, such as the Surabaya Urban Housing Development Project. Our ongoing program in the Tegalsari neighborhood of Surabaya will bring a better and healthier standard of living to many households through improvement of 121 houses, construction of 261 private toilets and six public toilets and cleaning of drainage system.



In Indonesia and across the world, we must continue to increase access to affordable housing and sustainable communities until all of us can have the opportunity for an adequate home. The New Urban Agenda sets us on the right track, but we must call on our leaders, in Indonesia and in the Asia-Pacific region, to ensure that the final version reaches the ultimate goal, of a world where everyone has a decent place to live.

***

The writer is national director of Habitat for Humanity Indonesia.

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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.
Zach Brandon, the president of the Greater Madison Chamber of Commerce, says it's important for Madison and Wisconsin to begin "bragging" about itself more through projects like Health Tech Capitol.
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Linkedin Simon Tay and Melody Au (The Jakarta Post) Singapore  Wed, July 27, 2016

The international community roared approval when the National League for Democracy (NLD) and its iconic leader, Aung San Suu Kyi swept to power at the 2015 elections. Now, some 100 days after taking power, many foreign pundits are becoming more critical.



The lady was expected to be a beacon for human rights in the region and for progress on the issue of Muslims in Rakhine state. Foreign investors hoped that the NLD government would continue and indeed speed up the opening of this frontier economy started by the preceding administration.



Neither seems to be showing progress. From the outside, some perceive underperformance and uncertainty in the new government. However, a closer look reveals not inaction but a mismatch between external expectations and the new governments priorities.



As the NLD leader and with her personal authority, Aung San Suu Kyi has consolidated her position at the center of decision-making. While there are questions of capacity in the government, she has set her priorities quite clearly.



Top of the political agenda, the Lady is focusing on the issue of ethnic armed groups and national reconciliation. This effort is herculean, given that the fighting in a number of areas has taken place over decades and several groups are well armed, with control over the border areas. To get all the groups to stop fighting is a necessary first step towards stable development.



The governments effort is showing signs they might get further. In late August, Aung San Suu Kyi will convene the 21st Century Panglong Conference that if successful, will be an important step towards peace and stability in Myanmar.



This upcoming Conference draws its prestige by association to the first Panglong Conference held in 1947 by her father, General Aung San and other ethnic leaders. In keeping with the original spirit of inclusiveness, the government, for the first time, is working to involve even non-signatories to the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement to create the framework for the conference.



The economic agenda is receiving considerably less attention. However even prior to the election, senior NLD members conveyed to the Singapore Institute of International Affairs that they had no intention to reverse the economic opening that had begun under Thein Seins administration.



We believe that this intention remains despite the fact that some projects that were approved by the preceding government have been put on hold. One notable example is the stoppage of all building projects above nine stories in Yangon to re-assess if they complied with citys development plans.



While the delays raise alarm bells, this does not signify a change in opening and can be seen as an effort to strengthen rule of law and prevent corruption.



Looking ahead, such efforts can lead to a more efficient and rational system in the country and some early signs are already evident.



The Myanmar Investment Commission, which is responsible for approving foreign investment projects, have started to roll out the first batch of approvals for new foreign investments. A draft of the new Investment Law to reduce restrictions for foreign investments has also been submitted to Parliament for debate, and the government has recently formed an Economic Committee to review trade, monetary, fiscal and investment policies.



An initial outline of economic policies can be expected in the coming weeks. But what is already emerging is a focus on new priorities. One of which is to create jobs for Myanmar people.



Rather than looking only at the total sum of foreign investment, the government is giving new emphasis on the number of jobs created for Myanmar workers.



In tandem, the government is pushing for workers to undergo skills training to take up those jobs. Training is being requested from both private sector and from friendly governments.



In this context, Singapores premier Lee Hsien Loong stated on his recent visit to Myanmar that Singapore would continue to support Myanmars development through the Singapore-Myanmar Vocational Training Institute in Yangon.



The emphasis on jobs and training is not necessarily an obstacle to the projects agreed under the previous government.



The Thilawa Special Economic Zone, for example, is proceeding and continuing to show positive signs, according to both government officials and foreign investors.



Looking ahead, plans for export zones and industrial areas in and around Yangon  where much of the population resides and seek jobs  will likely be another priority. There are plans for a 700-acre economic zone in northern Yangon, and infrastructure projects such as roads and energy plants are also expected to get a boost in the coming months.



There is a considerable transition from being an outspoken Opposition to the actual responsibilities of governing. There will be questions about the capacity and experience of the new policymakers as well as whether old bureaucrats will take the lead from the new leadership.



After many decades under a succession of military and military-backed governments, a change in mindsets needs time and new thinking. The balance between the two elements of change and maintaining of old values needs to be negotiated in the months ahead. Given its sweeping election win, the NLD believes it has more time and, moreover, the mandate to focus on what it considers essential.



This week Myanmar marks its 69th Martyrs Day to commemorate the assassination of General Aung San, who is not just the Ladys father but also widely regarded as the Father of the Nation.



Even six decades on, the Martyrs continue to capture the imagination with a vision of a unified and prosperous Myanmar.



This year will be the first Martyrs Day with the NLD in power, and more than ever the spotlight is on Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. Perhaps Martyrs Day, more than the 100 day marker, is more appropriate in setting the tone for what the Myanmar people expect of their new government in moving ahead, no matter what the sacrifice.

***

Simon Tay and Melody Au are respectively chairman and senior policy research analyst at the Singapore Institute of International Affairs.

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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 News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, July 27, 2016

The Creative Economy Agency (Bekraf) has revealed plans to release a music-streaming app in collaboration with telecommunications company Telkomsel in a bid to compete with Spotify and iTunes.

(Read also: Local artists should be more confident: Bekraf)

Dubbed Gempita, the app aims to support Indonesian musicians as well as protect them from piracy. It will also include foreign music, but will mainly focus on music by local artists, Bekraf infrastructure deputy Hari Sungkari told tempo.co on Tuesday.

Gempita is expected to offer a more affordable rate for its subscribers. It will certainly be cheaper than iTunes, probably [starting from] Rp 50,000 [US$3.8], Hari added.

(Read also: Streaming of Pokemon theme songs surges on Spotify)

The service is also set to offer a transparent royalty payment system for the musicians, with each receiving Rp 50 for every song played by users. The musicians will also be able to check how many people are listening to their music. (kes/wir)
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Linkedin Intan Tanjung (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, July 27, 2016

There are times when you feel down, times when you need to detach from the outside world in order to put everything back in place. One of the best ways to get your good mood back is to lock yourself in a room and watch a movie, or two. To help boost your mood, we list some feel-good movies that tell positive stories, which we hope will put the smile back on your face and fire your spirit back up.

Inside Out (2015)

Joy, Anger, Disgust, Sadness and Fear are five personified emotions that control the life of a young girl named Riley Andersen, a strong, playful and active girl who lives in Minnesota with her loving family. As her parents take her to move to San Francisco, Andersen has to adjust to her new life, and the personified emotions who control her mind have difficulties in producing the same quality of memories that drive her character and rule Andersens interpersonal relationships with others.

This film is brilliant as it teaches viewers about how the human mind works and how emotions affect someone's decision to act on something, including in responding to other people. It encourages people to self-observe, and better yet, to gain control of their emotions.

(Read also: Five must-watch black-and-white films)

Hes Just Not That Into You (2009)

He's Just Not That Into You is based on a self-help book of the same title, encouraging women to take a new perception on their romantic relationships. The film itself tells stories about the interconnecting romance of nine people who have misinterpreted others behavior.

The self-help book on which this movie is based was a bestseller in 2004 and has become one of the ultimate bibles for women in trying to understand men better. The idea behind Hes Just Not That Into You came from a line in the dialogue from HBO's hit series Sex & the City, which tells the stories of single women in New York City.

Chef (2014)

Chef tells the story of a chef who looks for redemption after getting fired from his job in a high-end restaurant. Carl Casper, the Los Angeles-based chef, then opens a food truck and gets big help from his son in order to promote the food truck via Twitter.

Although Chef provides perfect, mouthwatering food imagery throughout the movie, cooking isnt the essential part of the film. The plot of the story focuses on the spirit of someone who tries to win his life back after experiencing problems and failure. It also reminds viewers about the importance of building a strong bond with family in order to win their support when facing difficulties in life.

Forrest Gump (1994)

Its hard to not fall in love with Forrest Gumps witty characters and his kind personality. The film is set in 1986, telling the story of a man who experiences several historic moments of the 20th century. Gump loves ping-pong and running, and because he always does what he loves doing, he has succeeded in inspiring others. Gumps spirit inspires viewers to always be honest and have faith in everything we do. It also teaches us to always have dedication and love.

(Read also: 5 most-watched Indonesian movies from the last decade)

The Shawshank Redemption (1994)

This film tells the story of a banker who is sentenced to life in prison after being falsely accused of murdering his wife and her lover. In jail he befriends an inmate, Red, who shares solace and friendship with him, and tries to make a redemption by doing positive things, such as helping guards do their tax returns and making renovations in the prison library.

His expertise is then used by the head of the prison who appoints him to do his money laundering. This film reminds viewers to always maintain and develop our personal qualities, even when trapped in a hopeless situation. Through helpful acts and honest effort, life will become meaningful, not only for ourselves but also for others. (asw)
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Linkedin (China Daily/Asia News Network)  Wed, July 27, 2016

According to the Chinese solar terms, it's Major Heat now, when most parts of China experience the hottest days of the year. During the scorching summer, we modern people can enjoy cold drinks in an air-conditioned room to escape the heat. But how did ancient people cool down without these modern-day technologies?

Icehouse and ice ticket

As early as Pre-Qin Dynasty (2100-221 BC), people used natural ice to keep food fresh and make cold drinks. According to the record in the Confucian classic Zhou Rites, the Zhou royal court had a specialized department called the "ice administration" which had 80 employees. The department collected natural ice blocks each December, and then transported them to the ice house for storage.

Some senior officials were awarded ice cubes by the Zhou royal court, which was a big honor during that time. The system of granting ice lasted until the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties. During the Qing Dynasty, "ice tickets" were distributed to officials instead of sending the ice directly to them.

Ice container

The most commonly used cooling utensil is called "Jian", which is a big container filled with ice. It was made of ceramic in early Chinese history, and was later made of copper. The "Jian" can be seen as an ancient refrigerator, which can be used to make cold drinks. Put the vessel holding food inside the "Jian", close the lid, and the drinks would become cold after a while.

Hiding food in the well

During the Qin (221-207 BC) and Han (202 BC-AD 220) dynasties, for common people, the most common way to cool off is by using their wells. Some families put an urn in the well as a cold closet, or put food in a basket and lowered the basket into the well with a rope. Actually, ancient people don't need cold beverages, as well water was the best drink in summer.

(Read also: Where to go in South Korea for a summer vacation)

Herbal drinks

During the Qing Dynasty, taking Chinese herbal medicine was popular in Beijing. According to historical records, during the scorching summer, some people preferred to drink ice water, some boiled perilla leaves, and liquorice as summer soup to keep off the heat. Ancient people also loved to make lotus seed soup in summer which was said to have the benefit of strengthening the body.

Bed-mat for summer

Ancient people wove vines, reeds, or bamboo into bed-mats for summer which are cool to sleep on

Porcelain pillow

The surface of a porcelain pillow is a layer of glaze, which feels pleasantly cool. It is said that the Emperor Qianlong in Qing Dynasty liked his porcelain pillow a lot.

Dragon fur curtain

The dragon fur curtain was used during ancient times to block the hot waves in the summer, and keep interiors pleasantly cool. It was not really made of dragon fur, since there are no such creatures as dragons, so some say it was made of the skin of large boas. Surrounded by large and cold boa skins, the place would feel like an air-conditioned room. However, the skin was precious and difficult to obtain, so only the royal court was able to use it.

Bamboo lady

Ancient people in the southern parts of China preferred to use a cylinder-shaped bamboo ware, which is hollow in the middle and has grid mesh on the surface. It uses the principle of cross ventilation to cool people down, and can be hugged, or used to hold up your feet.

Fan

Last but not least, the most commonly used tool to cool down in the summer is the humble fan, and is still used nowadays. Fans were made of different materials, such as bird's feathers, bamboo, or fur.
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Linkedin Prima Wirayani (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, July 26 2016

With the global economy still facing persistent risks from UK to China, Indonesia must focus on boosting domestic sources of growth to boost the economy, a government-led panel discussion has concluded.



Indonesias economy, the largest in Southeast Asia, expanded by only 4.79 last year, the slowest growth in six years, as exports contracted along with weak global demand, while domestic consumer-spending growth remained stagnant against the backdrop of a weaker rupiah.



The economy grew by 4.92 percent in this years first quarter, lower than the government and economists projections of at least 5 percent.



The future is also not encouraging, with the global picture painting a dim outlook.



The UKs move to leave the EU, known as Brexit, has rattled the global economy, prompting the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to slash its global economic growth forecast to 3.1 percent from 3.2 percent this year.



This has worried the US, which may postpone a further policy rate increase, as well as India, which has direct economic exposure to the UK and the EU.



Countries responses to Brexit added to more risks for the global economy, said Bank Indonesia (BI) economic and monetary policy executive director Juda Agung.



Chinas growth projection is also revised down to 6.4 percent from 6.5 percent, Juda said during a discussion at the Office of the Coordinating Economic Minister in Central Jakarta on Monday.



The situation has caused domestic and global demand to cool so that the country has to focus on domestic sources of economic growth, said Bank Mandiri chief economist Anton Gunawan.



It [the country] has no choice but to encourage domestic economic sources, he said during the same discussion, citing investment and consumer spending as primary drivers of the domestic economy.



Bank Mandiri has set a conservative outlook for the nations economic growth, projecting it to remain steady at 5 percent or even less. However, it was of the view that economic conditions will slightly improve from last year.



Anton projected consumer spending would be flat on the back of stubbornly high lending rates despite a 100 basis points cut to the nations benchmark policy rate, the BI rate, so far this year to 6.5 percent at present.



However, the Idul Fitri festivities, will have provided a temporary boost to second quarter growth.



Renowned economist Raden Pardede called on the countrys economic stakeholders to make an extra effort to boost investment and consumer spending. If [we conduct] business as usual, the growth will be 4.8 percent only, said Raden, who is also the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin) monetary, fiscal and public policy deputy chairman, during the discussion.



Raden said the government had to reduce the countrys dependence on natural resources and shift to manufacturing as its long-term program.



The governments economic policy packages, he went on, were expected to support economic structural reforms that would invite foreign direct investment to come in, increase productivity and efficiency, and in turn improve Indonesias competitiveness.



The reforms also included improving the workforces skills and lowering the unemployment rate, which would lead to higher purchasing power among the people, stoking consumer spending.



The government has issued 12 policy packages since September last year to improve the business climate and attract investment by cutting bureaucratic red tape and providing incentives for certain sectors, among other measures.



As short-term measures, Raden added, the government should provide social protection and labor-intensive programs in addition to direct aid to the poor in a bid to strengthen their purchasing power.



These are quick actions to stoke demand, he said.

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Linkedin (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, July 26 2016

The Indonesian Military (TNI) and the US Pacific Command (USPACOM) are holding a week-long joint exercise in Jakarta. The exercise, codenamed Gema Bhakti 2016, will be held until Tuesday next week.

The joint exercise this time is meant to increase cooperation between the TNI and USPACOM in handling national disasters. This exercise is also meant for information and experience sharing between the two countries, assistant to the TNI chief for military operations, Maj. Gen. Agung Risdhianto said in a speech written for the opening ceremony of the joint exercise at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Central Jakarta. The speech was delivered by his deputy Commodore Harjo Susmoro.

Agung expressed hope that the joint exercise could be used as a forum to increase mutual trust between the two countries and the two institutions, while maintaining mutual respect.

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Linkedin Ni Komang Erviani (The Jakarta Post) Denpasar, Bali  Wed, July 27, 2016

The planned executions of drug convicts, reportedly planned for later this week, have triggered an emotional response from the mother of late Bali Nine member Myuran Sukumaran, who was executed on Nusakambangan prison island last year.

Myurans mother, Raji Sukumaran, sent an open letter to President Joko Jokowi Widodo on Wednesday, pleading him to stop the executions.

"I desperately wanted to write to you as I have been hearing that you are ordering the death of more people. I dont know these people or their crimes. I dont know their family, friends or children. I do know my son who you brutally took from me last year as he was executed in the most horrible way," Raji Sukumaran wrote in the letter sent to Jokowi via the Indonesian Embassy in Canberra and shared with media outlets.

Sukumaran demanded that Jokowi grant mercy to the condemned, saying that they had family and relatives. "I am writing to you today to again ask for mercy, please do not kill these men and women. They are someones son, daughter, father, mother, sister, brother, friend," she wrote.

Sukumuran further tells Jokowi: "You are the only person who has the power to prevent another execution. I cant believe you would want to see mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, children and grandparents grieving for their loved ones [...].

Myuran Sukumaran was executed in April last year, along with his fellow Bali Nine member Andrew Chan and other drug convicts. Sukumaran and Chan had been detained at Kerobokan Penitentiary for almost 10 years before they were executed last year. They were convicted of an attempt to smuggle over 8 kilograms of heroin from Bali to Australia in 2005. (ebf)
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Linkedin Prima Wirayani (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, July 27, 2016

Outgoing finance minister Bambang Brodjonegoro stumbled while ending his last speech prior to handing over his position to his successor, the outgoing World Bank (WB) managing director and chief operating officer Sri Mulyani Indrawati.

The ministerial handover ceremony was conducted at the ministrys office in Central Jakarta on Wednesday right after President Joko Jokowi Widodo earlier in the morning announced his second Cabinet reshuffle in less than two years.

"I'm sure the cooperation between the Finance Ministry and the National Development Planning Ministry will run well under the leadership of Ibu Sri Mulyani," said Bambang, who has been appointed to head the National Development Planning Ministry, replacing Sofyan Djalil, who becomes the agrarian and spatial planning minister.

(Read also : Sri Mulyani returns)

"Last thing, I hope my colleagues at the tax office can successfully implement the tax amnesty," he said before ending his speech in tears.

The tax amnesty program, deliberated vigorously by Bambang himself and his team with the House of Representatives before being passed into law just last month, is the Jokowi administrations flagship policy and is expected to bring billions of dollars into the country and Rp 165 trillion (US$12.5 billion) of tax revenues by pardoning past tax crimes in exchange for small penalty rates of between 2 and 10 percent of declared assets. (est)
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Linkedin Fedina S. Sundaryani (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, July 27 2016

A brouhaha implicating state power company PLN has exacerbated the already complicated environment for investors participating in the governments 35,000 megawatt (MW) power-generation project, intended as the signature legacy of President Joko Jokowi Widodo.



The development of renewable energy and greater participation of private contractors in the project, amid PLNs already strained financial capabilities, will be particularly impacted by the row between Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Sudirman Said and PLN president director Sofyan Basir.



Sudirman once again vented his frustration at Sofyan last week, accusing him of ignoring ministerial instructions.



Earlier this year, Sofyan rejected the ministrys regulation on the floor price for electricity produced by micro-hydro power plants, which are owned by many politically wired businessmen.



Sofyan argued the company would suffer huge losses unless the government allocated the necessary subsidies because PLN was required to buy the electricity at a price of Rp 1,560 (12 US cents)-Rp 2,080/kWh but to sell it to consumers at between Rp 450 and Rp 1,350/kWh.



The opposition came as the company, Indonesias biggest state company by assets, is in the process of offering the micro-hydro projects to private investors.



Micro-hydro accounts for around 1,971 MW of the 35,000 MW project. Although it remains small, the project is required to cover remote locations throughout the country.



Sofyan said the company would soon meet with several economic ministers to discuss an economically viable price for the renewable energy. He said the company would comply if there was a compromise in terms of getting subsidies.



We will specifically meet with the new and renewable energy director general to discuss the subsidy budget. This is something that we must have or else PLN could be under pressure from the lack of subsidies, he said in a hearing at the House of Representatives late on Monday.



Sofyan denied allegations that PLN would pull out from its commitment to develop renewable energy-based power plants as it was merely trying to improve company efficiency and profitability as demanded by the State-Owned Enterprises (SOE) Ministry.



By regulation, the PLN president director has two direct superiors: the energy and mineral resources minister for policy and the SOE minister for performance, with the latter having the authority to dismiss or retain the boards of directors and commissioners.



The government has issued several regulations to increase the sale of electricity in order to lure independent power producers (IPPs), who are in total set to develop 25,068 MW of the program.



Despite opposing the price for micro-hydro, PLN has agreed to the prices for solar electricity recently issued by the ministry of $0.14 to $0.25 per kWh as the government agreed to provide subsidies of up to Rp 1.5 trillion for the purchase of 5,000 MW.



Weve agreed with the price but we will still need to regulate the electricity capacity of the solar power plants as they are intermittent and wont be operating all day, PLN corporate planning director Nicke Widyawati said.



Aside from the micro-hydro issue, the ministry and PLN have been at odds over the complicated bidding for IPPs, causing investors to question whether the government was serious about the 35,000 MW project.



Sofyan unilaterally terminated in April the tender for the coal-fired 2 x 1,000 MW Jawa 5 power plant in Serang, Banten, the biggest project of the wider 35.000 MW project, citing problems of good governance.



Several IPPs have also protested at the obligation to deposit 10 percent of the project value, as stipulated by PLN, because not many private electricity companies have full investment funds prior to financial closure.



The Association of Private Electricity Producers (APLSI) has concluded that the complicated procedures and land-acquisition issues make it impossible for the projects target to be reached by 2019.



It is easy to say the program will be completed by 2019. How many of the signed 10,000 MW power purchase agreements [PPAs] will reach financial closure this year? The construction of a 10,000 MW plant takes 4.5 years. Just calculate it yourself; if it goes past 2019 then maybe we can reach it in 2020, APLSI advisory board member Heru Dewanto said.



According to PLN data, only 170 MW worth of power plants in the program had started operation by mid-July. The remainder are still under construction or in the procurement and planning stage.

--------------

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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, July 27, 2016

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Raad Al Hussein has called on the Indonesian government to stop the executions of 14 death row convicts scheduled to face the firing squad this week, saying the increasing use of the death penalty in the country is terribly worrying.

I find it deeply disturbing that Indonesia has already executed 19 people since 2013, making it the most prolific executioner in Southeast Asia, Zeid said in a statement released on Wednesday.

The whole legal process for the death row convicts, mostly sentenced for drug-related crimes, lacked transparency and did not comply with fair trial principles, including the right to appeal, the international body said.

Zeid said drug-related offenses did not fall under the threshold of the most serious crimes and therefore their perpetrators should not be punished by death. The focus of drug-related crime prevention should involve strengthening the justice system and making it more effective, he said.

The Attorney Generals Office (AGO) has confirmed that the third wave of executions under the Joko Jokowi Widodo administration will be carried out later this week. The Jokowi government said it could not interfere with the legal process of the death row inmates, which it said had reached a binding conclusion. (ary)
Share your opinion on this topic by sending a letter to the editor to tctvoice@madison.com. Include your full name, hometown and phone number. Your name and town will be published. The phone number is for verification purposes only. Please keep your letter to 250 words or less.
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Linkedin Ayomi Amindoni (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, July 27, 2016

Attorney General Muhammad Prasetyo confirmed on Wednesday that the executions of 14 death row inmates would likely take place this week, following the completion of all legal and technical procedures.

The Joko "Jokowi" Widodo administration's third round of executions would be held on the Nusakambangan prison island in Cilacap regency, Central Java, he added.

"We hope all parties can understand this. We acknowledge several parties have disagreed about it. This is not an easy task to do, but we have to do it anyway," Prasetyo told reporters at the State Palace on Wednesday, without disclosing the exact date of the executions.

(Read also : Jokowi called on to stop imminent executions)

He added that the government had already sent official notification letters about the executions to all of the convicts. Notification letters had also been sent to the embassies of the countries of the foreign convicts.

"All legal aspects have been fulfilled. However, they still get a chance to meet their families. We will also ask for their last wishes," he went on.

President Jokowi's administration has so far executed 14 people in two rounds, both of which were carried out last year.

Despite a public outcry from those who oppose the death penalty, the government said its resolve to execute drug dealers and distributors would not change as they represented a huge threat to the country. (ebf)
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Linkedin Ganug Nugroho Adi (The Jakarta Post) Surakarta, Central Java  Wed, July 27, 2016

Family members of drug convict Merri Utama have said they are ready to accept wholeheartedly if their loved one has to end her life in front of a firing squad.

Speaking on behalf of her family, Merris only daughter, identified only as Devi, said that should she die in the execution, she wanted her mother to be buried on Nusakambangan prison island in Cilacap, Central Java.

Her only daughter has arrived in Cilacap. She phoned me last night [Tuesday evening], saying she had met with prosecutors to convey the familys request that Merri could be buried on Nusakambangan, said the familys spokesperson, Priyono, on Wednesday. He said the decision was the result of a family meeting in Notosura, Kartasura, Sukoharjo, Central Java.

(Read also : Firing squad personnel dispatched to Nusakambangan)

Merri is one of 14 death row convicts, who reportedly will be executed soon in Nusakambangan. Before she was arrested by security officers for smuggling heroin at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in 2001, Merri lived with her sister, Dian, in Kartasura, Central Java. Spending 13 years in prison, Merri has never been visited by Dian or other family members.

Priyono said all her family members were disappointed with what Merri had done. Her parents money were all gone to cover her living expenses, including to pay her work fees as a migrant worker in Hong Kong, he said.

In Hong Kong, she instead on working as a drug courier, not as a migrant worker. This was what really upset her family, said Priyono.

Merri was arrested for smuggling 1.1 kilograms of heroin on Oct.21, 2001. Tangerang District Court in Banten sentenced her to death in a trial in May 2002.

After serving 13 years at the Tangerang Womens Penitentiary, Merri was moved to Nusakambangan on Sunday. She is now in an isolation cell at Besi Prison. (ebf)
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Linkedin Agus Maryono (The Jakarta Post) Cilacap, Central Java  Wed, July 27, 2016

Hundreds of firing squad personnel from the Central Java Polices Mobile Brigade were taken to Nusakambangan prison island in Cilacap on Tuesday evening. They were transported to the prison island using several police trucks at around 8:00 p.m. local time via Wijayapura Quay in Cilacap. It took only five minutes for the firing squad team to reach Nusakambangan via the prison islands motor vessel, the KM Pengayoman IV.

The firing squads arrival indicates the imminent executions of several drug convicts, the third round of executions since President Joko Jokowi Widodo took office.

The Central Java Police said they had prepared a Brimob firing squad team comprising 150 personnel for the third round of executions. Each condemned convict will be handled by one firing squad, which consists of 12 Brimob personnel. Ten will acts as executioners while the two remaining officers are assigned to carry flashlights, Central Java Police spokesperson Sr.Comr.Liliek Darmanto told The Jakarta Post.

(Read also : Clerics start entering Nusakambangan amid reports of executions)

Nusakambangan has been closed to family visits since Monday, ahead of the executions, which reportedly will be conducted early on Saturday. Nusakambangan is now restricted to unauthorized personnel, except families of the condemned, prison personnel and parties related to the executions. Hundreds of police personnel are on guard starting from the entrance to Wijayapura Quay, the only access to the prison island.

On the day itself, we will dispatch around 1,500 personnel to secure the executions so everything runs smoothly, Cilacap Police spokesperson Adj.Comr.Bintoro told journalists. (ebf)
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Linkedin Agus Maryono (The Jakarta Post) Cilacap, Central Java  Wed, July 27, 2016

Two trucks carrying funeral supplies entered one of the prisons on Nusakambangan Island in Cilacap, Central Java, Wednesday morning, suggesting that the third wave of executions under President Joko Jokowi Widodo is imminent.

We are carrying [these supplies] to Nusakambangan. Its on police orders,  one of the truck drivers told The Jakarta Post. The vehicles carried several tables for bathing dead bodies, tents and chairs.

Meanwhile, family members of several death-row convicts who will face the firing squad were seen entering the prison. A staffer from the Indian embassy, Juniarto, said he and Indian diplomats came to visit Gurdip Singh, an Indian drug convict who was sentenced to death in 2005.

The legal team of drug convict Freddy Budiman also visited the prison on Wednesday. Were going in to see Freddy. We dont know his last wish before the execution yet, one of Freddys lawyers said.

The Jokowi administration has vowed to get tough on drug convicts on the pretext that the country is facing a drug emergency. Human rights activists, home and abroad, have criticized Jokowi for the executions, saying not only that Indonesias criminal justice system has flaws that lead to miscarriages of justice, but that the harsh punishment has done little to curb drug smuggling. (ary)
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Linkedin Cemara Dinda (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, July 27 2016

Ready to go: Director of the Jakarta Eye Center Johan A. Hutauruk (from left to right), founder of Gerakan Matahati Pandji Wisaksana and Gerakan Matahati chairman Wandi S. Brata, symbolically launch the Kick Off '910 Free Cataract Surgery' program at the Jakarta Eye Center in Kedoya, West Jakarta, on Saturday.

Vision, like other human senses, is a gift that should be cherished.

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Linkedin Erika Anindita Dewi (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, July 27, 2016

Golkar Party chairman Setya Novanto said he was surprised about the appointment of party member Airlangga Hartarto as industry minister in President Joko Jokowi Widodos second Cabinet reshuffle announced on Wednesday.

"We're surprised Jokowi announced that one of his new Cabinet ministers was from the Golkar Party. The [industry minister] post is considered fitting for Pak Airlangga," Setya told journalists during Golkar's national leaders meeting (rapimnas) at the Jakarta Convention Center (JCC) in Senayan, Central Jakarta, on Wednesday.

Setya said he was grateful for Golkar's position in the Cabinet. Airlangga's appointment would enable the party to contribute more, he said. Setya further said that Golkar did not nominate any of its members.

Airlangga, a Golkar lawmaker on House of Representatives Commission XI overseeing finance and banking, was selected as the new industry minister, replacing Hanura Party politician Saleh Husin.

Airlangga, the son of former industry minister Hartarto Sastrosoenarto under president Soeharto, has been a lawmaker since 2004. In 2009-2014, he led the House's Commission VI overseeing state-owned enterprises, trade, industrial, investment, cooperatives and small and medium enterprise affairs.

The former Golkar chairman candidate later served as a member of the House's Commission VII overseeing energy, mineral resources, research and technology and environmental affairs.

Golkar, which pledged allegiance to Jokowi's administration during its rapimnas in January, hopes the new Cabinet composition results in positive team work for the next three years. (ebf)
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Linkedin Marguerite Afra Sapiie (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, July 27, 2016

The National Resilience Institute (Lemhanas) has reminded the government to resolve the 1965 communist purge without the intervention of any external party.

Lemhanas governor Agus Widjojo said on Tuesday that the ruling of the International People's Tribunal (IPT) on the 1965 crimes against humanity (IPT 1965) should be used as a reference, however, Indonesia must maintain its independence in solving the tragedy. "[The ruling] is good to remind officials that we have a debt that we need to pay with our own hands.

He asserted that while the tribunal result would potentially have political repercussion, especially internationally, it was not legally binding for Indonesia as the IPT did not have any official jurisdiction.

Agus, who also served as team chairman of the National Symposium in April, an official event to seek reconciliation for the 1965 mass killings, said the team had submitted the symposium result and was now waiting for the government to take further action to resolve the country's dark past.

With the result announced on July 20, the tribunal found that Indonesia had committed acts of genocide during the mass killings that reportedly claimed half a million lives, most of whom were related to the now-defunct Indonesian Communist Party (PKI).
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Linkedin (Associated Press) Clevelan, United States  Wed, July 27, 2016

A heated argument over presidential politics turned violent at a bar in Cleveland, leaving one man with a gunshot wound to the leg.

Cleveland.com reports the shooting at Winston's Bar came after two men  both bar regulars  started talking about the upcoming presidential election on the back patio. It's unclear which candidates the men supported. The conversation soon escalated into a shouting match.

Police say the 45-year-old suspect left the bar, came back and opened fire, striking the 60-year-old man once in the leg.

The website reports the victim remained hospitalized Tuesday. His condition was unknown.

Police say the shooter ran out of the bar and fled in a truck. He has not been formally charged and is not in custody.
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Linkedin Matthew Daly (Associated Press) Philadelphia, United States  Wed, July 27, 2016

Born and raised in Indonesia, Ima Matul came to the United States as a teenager to work for a promised US$150 per month as a nanny and housekeeper.

But after arriving in Los Angeles in 1997, she was forced to work 18 hours a day, seven days a week cooking, cleaning and caring for the children of a homeowner. She was never paid a dollar. Forbidden to talk to outsiders, Matul was physically and verbally abused for three years before escaping.

Matul, who now works to abolish human trafficking, spoke to the Democratic National Convention Tuesday night. She told delegates and a national TV audience not only of her wrenching experiences, but also of the anti-trafficking work done by Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and the Clinton Global Initiative, an arm of the family charity, the Clinton Foundation.

"Before human trafficking began to capture our attention, before there were laws to identify and protect victims, even before I escaped my trafficker, Hillary Clinton was fighting to end modern slavery. And throughout her career, Hillary kept up that fight," Matul said.

Ima Matul walks to the podium to speak about sex trafficking during the second day of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, July 26.(AP/J. Scott Applewhite)

She urged voters to support Clinton to help "end modern slavery everywhere it exists."

The State Department estimates that more than 20 million people are enslaved around the world in a global, $150-billion-a-year industry.

Matul told delegates that after three years in captivity, she wrote a desperate, two-word note to a neighbor using the little English she knew: "Request Help." The neighbor helped her escape and took Matul to an organization that works to abolish human trafficking. Matul now works for the group, the Los Angeles-based Coalition to Abolish Slavery and Trafficking, and has been recognized by President Barack Obama as a leader in efforts to stop trafficking.

"I have hope especially as Hillary Clinton is becoming president," Matul said in halting English. "I have hope we can end human trafficking."

Secretary of State John Kerry has called human trafficking a factor in destabilizing governments around the world. "It feeds the corruption that is stealing the future of many nations, and it fuels all of the illicit criminal networks that play out in many different ways, not just in human trafficking, but in terms of narcotics trafficking, gun smuggling and terrorist support," Kerry said last year.
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Linkedin (Associated Press) Manila  Wed, July 27, 2016

An Indian who led a grassroots movement on behalf of the low-caste Dalit community and the Philippines' chief anti-corruption fighter are among the six recipients of this year's Ramon Magsaysay Award, honoring leadership in solving society's most intractable problems.

The other recipients named Wednesday are an emergency aid provider in Laos, an Indonesian Muslim philanthropy group, an Indian musician and a Japanese volunteer group. The awards, named for a former Philippine president, are regarded as Asia's equivalent of the Nobel Prize. The foundation will formally confer the awards on Aug. 31 in Manila.

Bezwada Wilson, who was the first in his Dalit family to pursue higher education, is being honored for his 32-year crusade. He recruited volunteers and worked with Dalit activists to organize a people's movement called Safai Karmachari Andolan (SKA) that has filed cases and liberated around half of an estimated 600,000 people from manually removing human excrement from dry latrines.

Conchita Carpio-Morales, the Philippines' ombudsman, or public prosecutor, is also being honored "for her moral courage and commitment to justice" in tackling head-on corruption, one of the most intractable problems of the Philippines. The former Supreme Court justice has filed cases against a former president and other high-ranking officials and raised her office's conviction rate from 33.3 percent in 2011 to 74.5 percent in 2015. The foundation praised her "example of incorruptibility, diligence, vision and leadership of the highest ethical standards in public service."

Indian artist Thodur Madabusi Krishna has been chosen to receive the emergent leadership award for "his forceful commitment as artist and advocate to art's power to heal India's deep social divisions." Born to a privileged Bhramin family in Chennai in 1976, he was trained in aristocratic Karnatic music that has become almost exclusive to the elite. But he has worked since the 1990s to bring Karnatic music to the youth and public schools, identify gifted rural youth to be trained in Chennai under well-known artists, and to bring together students from diverse social backgrounds to interact with renowned artists and learn about different art forms.

The Indonesian organization Dompet Dhuafa has redefined the landscape for zakat  the tax on an adult's wealth that is a cornerstone of the Islamic faith. The organization has become the largest philanthropic organization in Indonesia today, in terms of donations received totaling US$20.2 million, reaching 13 million beneficiaries as of 2015, with at least 20 percent of them moved out of poverty.

The Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers group, founded 51 years ago, sends young adults abroad to volunteer in other communities. The foundation praised its volunteers "for their idealism and spirit of service in advancing the lives of communities other than their own" and laying "the true foundation for peace and international understanding."

Vientiane Rescue of Laos is being awarded for its "heroic work in saving Laotian lives in a time and place of great need, under the most deprived circumstances." The group, put up in 2007 by volunteers aghast at how victims of road accidents in Laos' capital are left to die because of lack of emergency assistance, operates a free ambulance service, despite the lack of equipment, sponsors, and formal training.
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Linkedin Nurul Fitri Ramadhani, Margareth S. Aritonang (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta/Cilacap/Sukoharjo/Makassar  Wed, July 27, 2016

Indonesia is running a serious risk of executing innocent persons if it insists on going ahead with the executions of 14 death row convicts, expected on Friday.



The convicts, who have received official notification letters of their forthcoming execution on Nusakambangan prison island in Cilacap, Central Java, are Indonesians Agus Hadi Bin Hadi, Freddy Budiman Bin H. Manan, Merri Utami and Pujo Lestari Bin Sukatno, Eugene Ape from Nigeria, Fredderikk Luttar (Zimbabwe), Humphery Jefferson Ejike Eleweke (Nigeria), Gurdip Singh (India), Michael Titus Igweh (Nigeria), Obina Nwajagu Bin Emeuwa (Nigeria), Okonkwo Nongso Kingsley (Nigeria), 0zias Sibanda (Zimbabwe), Seck Osmane (Nigeria, but Senegalese passport holder) and Zulfiqar Ali of Pakistan.



More people have stepped forward to urge President Joko Jokowi Widodo not to proceed with the executions because of possible miscarriages of justice.



Pakistani convict Ali has been suffering from the effects of liver damage since May, allegedly the result of torture committed by security personnel during his detention.



According to Alis lawyer Saut Edward Rajagukguk, he has been treated unfairly since he was arrested in 2004 at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport for heroin possession.



The government of Pakistan has sought a postponement of the execution and requested a review of his trial. Pakistani Ambassador Aqil Naseem said the government of Pakistan respected the Indonesian legal system, but believed that the legal process against Ali was flawed.



It didnt provide justice to Zulfiqar. In the case, the prosecutor did not seek the death penalty, Naseem told The Jakarta Post.



National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) commissioner Hafid Abbas has revealed neglected findings by an investigative team of the Law and Human Rights Ministry between 2002 and 2003.



After thorough examination of court rulings, historical background and field checks in Alis home country, the team concluded that the convict may be innocent.



It also recommended then president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to cancel Alis death sentence and order a further investigation into the case.



I swear that the work of the team back then was accountable. I am sure that Zulfiqar is innocent, Hafid said.



He added that then law and human rights minister Patrialis Akbar had submitted a thorough confidential report on the findings to Yudhoyono. I believe the document is still at the State Palace. Its worth re-checking to save Zulfiqars life. Every life matters, Hafid declared.



Nigerian Eleweke is also among the death row convicts that reportedly received an unfair trial.



Director of the Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict (IPAC), Sidney Jones, has submitted a dossier to the Post, containing chronology and evidence that indicates Eleweke may be innocent.



The dossier outlines police procedural violations, including the lack of a search warrant, a signed confession allegedly obtained through torture, as evidence pointing to Eleweke having no connection to the drugs for the possession of which he was convicted.



Eleweke filed appeals in 2004 and 2006 to the Supreme Court, in which key witnesses and related convicts testified that he had nothing to do with the case and was framed by Charles Kelly Kanu, a drug smuggler, because Eleweke implemented a no-drug policy and did not allow drug transactions in the restaurant he owned. The court rejected both of his appeals.



Indonesias Merri, meanwhile, was arrested by Soekarno-Hatta officials in October 2001 for possession of 1.1 kilograms of heroin.



Tangerang State Court sentenced her to death in 2002, after which she filed a plea to a higher court. But the Tangerang High Court supported the earlier verdict.



In 2003, the Supreme Court also rejected Merris appeal, and she had been on death row for 13 years before the Attorney Generals Office (AGO) finally set her execution date for this week.



As the executions are expected in less than 72 hours, Cilacap Prosecutors Office gathered legal and family representatives of the convicts and special envoys for document checks. Cilacap Police spokesman Adj. Comr. Bintoro said there would be 1,500 personnel deployed to secure the execution area.



Despite the irregularities in the cases raising questions as to whether the legal processes behind all the convictions were sound, the government has insisted the executions will go ahead.



Vice President Jusuf Kalla said that imposing the death penalty was in the hands of the courts. The government only carries out the courts sentences, which are final and binding, he said.



 Agus Maryono, Ganug Nugroho Adi and Andri Hajramurni contributed from Makassar, Sukoharjo and Cilacap

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Linkedin (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, July 27 2016

A team with the Manado Police has arrested two suspects believed to have made and spent counterfeit money on goods sold mostly at small shops that have no currency detectors.

Led by Second Insp. Teddy, the team members arrested two suspects on Sunday at about 3 p.m. local time. One was a 37-year-old man from Paal IV, Tikala district and the other a 30-year-old man from Ternate village, Singkil district.

They were arrested after attempting to flee from the police around the Mapanget district, next to a gas station. As the police arrived at the scene, the suspects quickly rode off on motorcycle taxis toward Kombos village.

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Linkedin Callistasia Anggun Wijaya (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, July 27, 2016

The panel of judges in the trial of murder defendant Jessica Kumala Wongso agreed on Wednesday to schedule an examination hearing at the crime scene at Olivier cafe to gain clearer information on the circumstances of the death of Wayan Mirna Salihin.

The decision was made after judge Binsar Gultom requested that table and couch number 54 be presented in court; the couch, however, is affixed to the floor of the cafe. The table was used by Jessica, the late Mirna and their friend Hani on Jan. 6.

"We want to know the factual position of the Vietnamese coffee in the table. I am not satisfied with the current explanation," Binsar said, adding that he also wanted to know the position of the coffee when Mirna and Hani arrived at the cafe.

He also urged the prosecutors to be more active in presenting the evidence against Jessica. (rin)
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, July 27, 2016

President Joko Jokowi Widodo should commute the death sentences of at least 14 people who face imminent executions for drug trafficking, the Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on Wednesday.

The group says the government has not announced a date for the executions, but has warned that the time is approaching. Jakarta-based diplomats have reported that the Attorney Generals Office (AGO) informed them that the executions will take place on Friday, it further says.

President Jokowi should acknowledge the death penaltys barbarity and avoid a potential diplomatic firestorm by sparing the lives of the 14 or more people facing imminent execution, HRW deputy Asia director Phelim Kine.

Jokowi should also ban the death penalty for drug crimes, which international law prohibits, rather than giving the go-ahead for more multiple executions, he went on.

(Read also : Execution spree in Indonesia terribly worrying: UN)

Merry Utami, a Sukoharjo resident, and Pakistani national Zulfiqar Ali, have been transferred to Nusakambangan prison island in Cilacap, Central Java, where the executions will take place.

The death row prisoners also include four Nigerians, one Zimbabwean, and several other Indonesians. The Nigerians are Eugene Ape, Humphrey Jefferson Ejike Eleweke, Michael Titus Igweh, and Obinna Nwajagu, who were all arrested for drug trafficking in 2002 or 2003.

Indonesias use of the death penalty is contrary to international human rights law, statements of UN human rights experts, and various UN bodies, HRW says.

The group says human rights law upholds every human beings inherent right to life and limits the death penalty to the most serious crimes, typically crimes resulting in death or serious bodily harm.

Indonesia should join the many countries already committed to the UN General Assemblys December 18, 2007 resolution calling for a moratorium on executions, a move by UN member countries toward abolition of the death penalty. (ebf)
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Linkedin Ayomi Amindoni (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, July 27, 2016

President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo is scheduled to announce his second Cabinet shake-up in less than a year at the State Palace in Jakarta later on Wednesday.

Cabinet Secretary Pramono Anung confirmed on Wednesday that twelve ministers would be moved.

"Today, the President and Vice President [Jusuf Kalla] will officially call several ministries. There are approximately 12 positions that will change [...]," Pramono said at the State Palace complex on Wednesday.

He further said President Jokowi would announce his major Cabinet shake-up at 11:00 a.m. and inaugurate them at around 1:30 p.m.

"Then, at 3:00 p.m. the President will lead a limited cabinet meeting with the new ministers at the Merdeka Palace. Of course, the Presidents directives related to the tasks of the new ministers will be discussed in the meeting," he explained.

Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Luhut Pandjaitan, Finance Minister Bambang Brodjonegoro and Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Sudirman Said are among ministers reportedly to be replaced. (ebf)
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Linkedin (Associated Press)  Wed, July 27, 2016

Julianne Moore, Bryan Cranston, Kerry Washington, Mark Ruffalo, Neil Patrick Harris, Lena Dunham, Shonda Rhimes, and Macklemore are among more than 100 celebrities joining a campaign to urge Americans to deny Donald Trump the White House.

The campaign is part of MoveOn.org Political Action's #UnitedAgainstHate campaign.

"We believe it is our responsibility to use our platforms to bring attention to the dangers of a Trump presidency, and to the real and present threats of his candidacy," says an open letter signed by the celebrities.

"Donald Trump wants to take our country back to a time when fear excused violence, when greed fueled discrimination, and when the state wrote prejudice against marginalized communities into law .... Some of us come from the groups Trump has attacked. Some of us don't. But as history has shown, it's often only a matter of time before the 'other' becomes me."

Among the communities it says Trump has attacked are: Mexican and Latino people, black people, LGBTQ people, women and their health care providers, Asians, refugees, people with disabilities, working class people, American prisoners of war, and others.

"We call upon every American to join us," the letter says, "to stand together on the right side of history, to use the power of our voice and the power of our vote to defeat Donald Trump and the hateful ideology he represents."
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Linkedin Callistasia Anggun Wijaya (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, July 27, 2016

The presiding judge at the Central Jakarta District Court said on Wednesday that a panel of judges could hand down a guilty verdict even if no witness saw the crime a defendant is charged with.

Speaking during the trial of murder suspect Jessica Kumala Wongso, who stands accused of killing her friend Wayan Mirna Salihin on Jan. 6, Binsar Gultom said a witness-less crime receiving a guilty verdict had a precedent in 2015, when he presided over a case of a murder that had gone unwitnessed, in Jasinga, Bogor, West Java.

The case involved the murder of a 12-year-old child, he added.

In the Jasinga murder case, no one saw the convict kill the victim. However, we sentenced him to life in prison, Binsar said, adding, however, that he was as yet unable to reach a verdict in the trial of Jessica.

Binsar said it would not be a problem if there were no direct witnesses who saw anyone place anything in Mirnas coffee, which was laced with cyanide.

Mirna died on Jan. 6 after drinking the coffee at Olivier cafe in Central Jakarta , sharing a table with Jessica and another friend, Juwita Boon alias Hani.

Meanwhile, Olivier cafe manager Devi appeared in a hearing on Wednesday. She stressed that the cafe had nothing to do with the death of Mirna. Devi, who tasted the deadly Vietnamese coffee after Mirna went into convulsions, also witnessed the irregularity of the coffee.

I took a drop of coffee with the straw and put it on my tongue. It tasted bitter and burning, she said. (bbn)
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Linkedin Bambang Muryanto (The Jakarta Post) Yogyakarta  Wed, July 27 2016

The Association of Papuan Students in Java and Bali has demanded Yogyakarta Sultan Sri Sultan Hamengkubuwono X apologize from statement he made that accused Papuan students studying in Yogyakarta, Central Java, of embracing separatism.

If within the next two days he [Hamengkubuwono X] does not do so [apologize], we, the Papuan students, will return to Papua, said Ruben C. Frasa, the chairman of the Association of Papuan Students (IKPMD Papua) in Yogyakarta on Tuesday, while reading out the students joint statement.

The statement was read before a hundred Papuan students studying in Java and Bali, who held a meeting with a Papua provincial government delegation. The five-member delegation was led by chairman of the Papua Legislative Councils Commission I, Elifis Tabuni. Also present at the meeting were deputy chief for intelligence of the Papua Police Adj. Sr. Comr. Alfred Papare and a staffer from the provinces National Unity and Political Department, Helen Waromi. Beside demanding an apology from the sultan, the students also demanded proper democracy in Yogyakarta.

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Linkedin Stefani Ribka (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, July 27, 2016

Patimban regional leaders in Subang, West Java, have formed a land appraisal team to keep land prices in the area at a more affordable level before the Patimban deep-sea port mega project starts construction.

Transportation Ministry director general for sea transportation Antonius Tonny Budiono said land prices in the area had hit Rp 100,000 (US$7.6) per square meter from Rp 70,000 previously as the public anticipate the building of Patimban Port, a bilateral project between Indonesia and Japan.

"The team will release the government-agreed price to the public, so that land is free from speculation," he said in Jakarta on Tuesday.

Most of the port structure will be built on reclaimed land to keep costs down. "We are doing it on reclaimed land to minimize land acquisitions. Land acquisition is more costly as there are many land price speculators. In the case of reclaimed land, the matter is merely technical," Antonius explained.

The port, located about 70 km from Karawang Industrial Estate and Bekasi in West Java via the Pantura toll road and 110 km via the Cipali toll road, will have container capacity of 1.5 million 20-foot equivalent units (TEUs) once partly completed in 2019 and will be expanded to 7.5 million TEUs by 2037, half that of Jakartas Tanjung Priok Port, the countrys largest port.
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Linkedin Stefani Ribka and Farida Susanty (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, July 27 2016

Government pledged on Tuesday to accommodate the interests of all stakeholders in the upcoming construction of the Patimban deep-sea port project in Subang, West Java, to ensure the smooth progress of one of the countrys biggest priority infrastructure projects.



State and oil gas firm Pertamina stated earlier its concern over the project, as its pipeline network in the area might be disrupted should the construction begin, as the location of the port overlaps a pipeline network belonging to Pertamina subsidiary Pertamina Hulu Energy Offshore Northwest Java (PHE ONWJ).



However, the Transportation Ministrys director general for sea transportation, Antonius Tonny Budiono, said Pertaminas facility would not be affected as the existing ones would be secured first and foremost before construction started.



They [Pertamina] are OK with it. We will secure the existing pipes by burying them 4-meters-deep with hard material, he said in Jakarta on Tuesday.



The ministry gathered on Tuesday representatives from various institutions, including the Public Works and Public Housing Ministry and Subang administration, to discuss issues that may be arise during and after the construction of the port. However, no Pertamina official attended the meeting.



The port, located about 70 kilometers from Karawang Industrial Estate and Bekasi in West Java via the Pantura toll road and 110 km via the Cipali toll road, will have a container capacity of 1.5 million 20-foot equivalent units (TEUs) once partly completed in 2019 and will be expanded to 7.5 million TEUs by 2037, half that of Jakartas Tanjung Priok Port, the countrys largest port.



The Japan and Indonesia bilateral project is included in the national strategic project, as it is expected to help ease the flow of goods and services in the country.



The mega project was previously planned to be built in Cilamaya, also in West Java, but was moved to Subang, as the previous location passes through main sites of PHE ONWJ.



PHE ONWJ stated that it wanted to ensure the oil and gas operation could proceed normally.



PHE ONWJ communications and relations manager Donna M. Priadi said the company was waiting for the results of the technical and risk study on its pipeline network in Patimban conducted by the Transportation Ministrys Directorate General of Sea Transportation.



We are looking for win-win solution, she told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.



She maintained that the protection of the oil and gas distribution facility was crucial.



Besides ensuring Pertamina pipes were safe for the mega project, the ministry has also called on regional leaders to support the project by helping the land procurement process.



Subang regency has been so enthusiastic in preparing for the port construction. Theyve reported some land clearance to build roads to support the port, Tonny said.



The regency has also formed a land appraisal team to ensure the state purchases land at a fair price. Moreover, the majority of the ports structure will be built on reclaimed land, which is cheaper than existing land.



The price of land in the Patimban area currently stands at an average of Rp 100,000 (US$7.6) per square-meter from previously Rp 70,000 per sq m, Tonny said.

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Alpha Lillstrom and Nadia Halma cry as Democratic Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton appears on the screen during the second day session of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, Tuesday, July 26, 2016. (AP Photo/John Locher)
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, July 27, 2016

On the first day of the odd-even traffic policy trial on Wednesday, police officers familiarized motorists on the policy by distributing brochures along the affected roads  Jl. Sudirman, Jl. MH Thamrin, Jl. Gatot Subroto and Jl. Rasuna Said.

Tickets have yet to be issued during the trial period.

The trial period will run until Aug. 26, after which the Jakarta administration will decide whether it will formally implement the policy or find an alternative policy to ease traffic along major thoroughfares in the capital.

We have yet to enforce the rule on cars with plates ending with an even number passing the affected roads on odd dates during the trial, Jakarta Police spokesman Sr. Corm. Awi Setiyono told journalists Wednesday.

Under the policy, during odd dates, only cars with odd license plate numbers are allowed to use the thoroughfares and during even dates, only cars with even plate numbers are allowed to pass. The policy is enforced from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.

If the policy is officially implemented, those found in violation may face two months imprisonment or an Rp 500,000 (US$38) fine.

However, those exempt from the policy are official cars of the President, Vice President, ministers, ambulances, motorcycles, taxis, public transportation, fire trucks and staple food trucks.

Yoga Adiwinarto from the Institute of Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP) said the Jakarta administration and the Jakarta Police needed to find a better way to monitor license plate numbers.

The even-odd policy is difficult to control, therefore police and the Jakarta administration should find an effective way how to enforce the policy, Yoga told The Jakarta Post Wednesday. (rez/bbn)
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Linkedin Prima Wirayani (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, July 27 2016

Indonesia is demanding healthy, fair and transparent taxation practices at the recent G20 meeting in Chengdu, China, as the country struggles to widen its stubbornly narrow tax base.



Finance Minister Bambang Brodjonegoro intervened in the G20 High Level Tax Symposium by stating that the Indonesian government wanted fair and transparent taxation globally among small and big countries, including jurisdictions that usually become tax havens.



The countrys stance was firm that it wanted healthy competition in terms of taxes applied among countries, said the Finance Ministrys head of policy harmonization and analysis, Luky Alfirman.



Characteristics and needs of taxation are different among big and small countries, he told journalists Tuesday. Small countries needs for funding from taxes are relatively small compared to bigger states.



The government of Indonesia, the largest economy in Southeast Asia, is highly dependent on tax revenues, which account for about 85 percent of state income every year, but its tax-to-gross domestic product (GDP) ratio has only revolved around 9.6 percent to 11.9 percent in the past decade, despite President Joko Jokowi Widodos intention to boost it to 16 percent.



Meanwhile, small countries could tinker with their tax rates as they had fewer challenges in terms of revenues, while big countries like Indonesia could not, said Syurkani Ishak Kasim, the Finance Ministrys Fiscal Policy Agency (BKF) multilateral and climate change policy head, who attended the G20 meeting.



This is not the only initiative. The G20 carries out several others to make international taxation become fairer, in which big and small countries tax strategies will not harm each other, he told journalists.



Indonesia is struggling to bring home funds stashed by wealthy Indonesians in tax haven countries and Singapore, which offer low tax rates. It is offering tax amnesty to taxpayers until next March and expects Rp 1 quadrillion being repatriated in the program. About US$200 billion that may not have been declared to the Indonesian tax authorities has been squirreled away in Singapore, Reuters reported.



Meanwhile, Syurkani said Indonesia also intervened in the preparation of an automatic exchange of information (AEOI) slated to start in 2018. It demanded full implementation of the system to all countries and jurisdictions, as well as sanctions on those that are not compliant.



Upon its implementation, the AEOI will provide a transparent exchange of non-resident financial account information with tax authorities in the account holders countries of residence.



Member countries welcomed the intervention and incorporated it in the communique, Syurkani said. The G20 would instruct other international institutions, such as the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), to implement the communique.



The G20 finance ministers and central bankers communique showed their support toward countries and international organizations to work on the issues of pro-growth tax policies and tax certainty.



We recognize the important role of tax policies in our broader agenda on strong, sustainable and balanced growth and of a fair and efficient international tax environment in diminishing the conflicts among tax systems, the communique reads.

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Linkedin Bernadia Irawati Tjandradewi (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, July 27 2016

Surabaya is coming under the worlds spotlight as it hosts the negotiations of the New Urban Agenda set for the next 20 years. It is not without reason that the government and the UN have chosen Surabaya for the third Preparatory Committee (PrepCom) of Habitat III.

Surabayas transformation into a much greener and cleaner place to live under the leadership of dynamic Mayor Tri Risma Rismaharini has catapulted the city to national and international fame. As mayor of Indonesias second-largest city, and sometimes the mother of her citizens, Risma has proven that a good leader requires not only firmness, but also compassion.

Physical changes on infrastructure are not sufficient. Equally important, and often more challenging, is how to build the character of society.

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Linkedin Geoff Mulvihill and Megan Trimble (Associated Press) Philadelphia, United States  Wed, July 27, 2016

Protesters loyal to Bernie Sanders signaled their intent to leave the Democratic Party after front-runner Hillary Clinton on Tuesday won the presidential nomination.

Thousands of activists have taken to the streets in Philadelphia during the convention this week to voice support for Sanders and his progressive agenda.

Cries of "Nah, nah, nah, nah, hey, hey, hey, goodbye," went up from demonstrators near the Wells Fargo Center, after party delegates Tuesday evening made Clinton the first woman nominee for president of a major political party.

Unmoved by Sanders' plea for party unity, the protesters chanted "Bernie or bust!" as they marched under the hot sun Tuesday for another round of protests on Day 2 of the Democratic convention.

They held a midday rally at City Hall, then made their way down Broad Street to the convention site. By early evening, a large crowd had formed outside the subway station closest to the Wells Fargo Center as the delegates inside the hall were on the verge of nominating Clinton for president.

The crowd consisted of an assortment of protesters espousing a variety of causes, but mostly Sanders supporters and other Clinton foes on the left.

Some gathered around a radio to hear what was happening inside the hall, and when Clinton's name was placed in nomination, a chant of "Nominate Sanders!" went up. Some went off to sit on the grass and watch the roll call on a couple of big screens.

Earlier in the day, participants at the rally charged that Sanders was cheated out of the nomination by Clinton, and they said they weren't swayed by his Monday night plea to his supporters to fall in line behind Clinton for the good of the country.

"He persuaded no one to vote for Hillary," said Greg Gregg, a retired 69-year-old nurse from Salem, Oregon. He said he intends to cast his ballot in November for Green Party candidate Jill Stein, quoting the turn-of-the-last-century socialist labor leader Eugene Debs as saying, "I'd rather vote for what I want and lose than what I don't want and win."

For a brief period Tuesday afternoon, "Bernie or bust" demonstrators who set out for the convention site by subway were forced by police to get off one stop short of their destination. In a crowd-control measure that was also used the night before, only passengers with media or convention credentials were allowed to ride all the way to the Wells Fargo Center.

The longstanding bitterness between the Vermont senator's supporters and Clinton's seemed to grow worse over the past few days after a trove of hacked emails showed that officials at the Democratic National Committee played favorites during the primaries and worked to undermine Sanders' campaign.

Black Men for Bernie founder Bruce Carter said Monday's speeches from Sanders and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren did not persuade him to support Clinton.

"They really agitate people more every time they stand up and do the Hillary Clinton, hoo-rah hoo-rah," he said. Carter, a Dallas resident, said he doesn't fear a Donald Trump presidency: "I've lived under nine white presidents in my lifetime."

With temperatures climbing again toward the mid-90s, Chris Scully, a 28-year-old an engineer from Troy, New York, held a "Jill Before Hill" sign outside City Hall and said he opposes Clinton because of her war record as secretary of state.

As Scully spoke, a passer-by called out: "That's a vote for Trump!"

In a separate protest, this one against police brutality and racial injustice, about 500 people marched down Broad Street to City Hall. Protest leader Erica Mines told the crowd it was an "anti-police rally" and a "black and brown resistance march" and instructed all white people to move to the back.

The crowd chanted, "Don't vote for Hillary! She's killing black people!"

March participant Tiara Willis, 24, of Philadelphia, said she subscribes to the slogan "I'm with her ... I guess." She said she won't back Trump and called Clinton "the lesser of two evils."

On Monday evening, 54 people were cited for disorderly conduct for trying to climb the barricades outside the convention center during a pro-Sanders demonstration. Police estimated 5,500 people took part in the convention's opening-day protests around the city.

Many of them chanted, "Hey, hey, ho, ho, the DNC has got to go!" and carried signs reading "Never Hillary," ''Just Go to Jail Hillary" and "You Lost Me at Hillary."
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Linkedin Ruslan Sangadji (The Jakarta Post) Poso, Central Sulawesi  Wed, July 27, 2016

An Indonesian Military (TNI) member in Poso, Central Sulawesi, was shot dead on Wednesday by a police officer who mistook him for a member of the terrorist organization known as the East Indonesia Mujahidin (MIT).

The soldier has been identified as Second Sgt. Muhammad Ilman, an intelligence officer from the 132/Tadulako Military Command.

Tadulako Military Commander Col. Inf. M. Saleh Mustafa confirmed the incident to The Jakarta Post, but declined to provide more information. An investigation into the incident is under way, he said, adding that TNI members should not be provoked by the accidental death.

The military and the National Police have joined forces to hunt down Islamic State-linked MIT militants in Poso in a massive counterterrorism operation. The operation, named Operation Tinombala, involves more than 2,000 personnel.

Earlier this month, the two forces celebrated the killing of MIT leader Santoso after months of guerilla warfare and believed that his demise would demoralize and weaken the remaining MIT militants still hiding deep in the mountainous area of Poso.

While many praise the ongoing cooperation involving the two forces in routing MIT militants, tension has often erupted between the two institutions, with members of the police and the military involved in deadly clashes in the past. (ary)
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Linkedin Dandy Koswaraputra (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, July 27, 2016

The reason President Joko Jokowi Widodo called back World Bank managing director Sri Mulyani from Washington DC is to improve the implementation of the tax amnesty program, a senior economist has said.

The President appointed Sri as finance minister to create policies that would ease the implementation of the newly passed Tax Amnesty Law and convince those with assets abroad to repatriate them, Indonesian Business Data Center founder Christianto Wibisono said.

President Jokowi believes that Sri Mulyani can provide a guarantee to people that overseas assets will be returned without risks, because she is trustworthy, Christianto told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.

(Read also: Sri Mulyani returns)

Sri has announced her acceptance of the Presidents offer to take on the position of finance minister to continue the ongoing reform program.

I will dedicate all my efforts to accelerating Indonesias development agenda with the goal of providing more and better services, particularly to the poor, and ensuring that all citizen will be able to participate in the benefits of a thriving economy, she said. (dan)
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Linkedin Anton Hermansyah (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, July 27, 2016

After exiling herself abroad to serve as the World Banks managing director and chief operating officer in 2010 due to the Century Bank bailout uproar, Sri Mulyani Indrawati has made her comeback to the Indonesian Cabinet as finance minister.

Her return seems to be against all odds, as she was heavily attacked by members of the Indonesian political elite due to the 2008 scandal, which, according to former Democratic Party Anas Urbaningrum, benefited the ruling party at that time.

The Democratic Party found its strongest opponent in the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) during Susilo Bambang Yudhoyonos reign. Until now, relations between the two parties has remained strained.

But now, Sri Mulyanis name has been announced by PDI-P-backed President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo, replacing Bambang Permadi Soemantri Brodjonegoro who will now helm the National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas).

(Read also : Jokowi to replace chief security minister, finance minister, energy minister)

The 53-year-old woman was born into a well-educated family in Bandar Lampung. Her father Prof. Drs. Satmoko and mother Prof. Dr. Retno Sriningsih are emeritus professors at Semarang National University.

This is her fourth time serving in ministerial offices. In the 2004-2005 period she led Bappenas, before she became finance minister from 2005 to 2010. She was caretaker coordinating economic minister during the 2008-2009 period.

Her departure from the Cabinet in 2010 was preceded by confrontations with politician cum businessman Aburizal Bakrie, who was then Golkar Party chairman. She refused to declare that Bakries Lapindo oil-rig mudflow was a natural disaster nor allocate funds from the state budget for compensation to residents of the affected areas in 2006.

In October 2008, she tried to revoke the stock suspension of Bakrie-owned coal giant Bumi Resources on the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX). Before the suspension, the companys share price nose-dived more than 85 percent in just three months.

In the new politically accommodative cabinet, which includes Golkar party figure Airlangga Hartarto as the new industry minister, the tax amnesty program is Sri Mulyanis first important task, where she must, once again, put herself between businesspeople and the states interests. (ags)
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Linkedin Anton Hermansyah (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, July 27, 2016

Economists are optimistic that newly inaugurated Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati will be able to run the tax amnesty program optimally, as it takes a strong and transparent manager to make it successful.

Yose Rizal Damuri, an economist with the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) said Sri Mulyani was experienced in dealing with tax amnesty, as she ran a sunset policy from January 2008 to February 2009 when she led the Finance Ministry.

The sunset policy erased the late tax payment administrative penalty for those that had registered for tax identification numbers (NPWP). With the policy, the government pocketed Rp 7.5 trillion (US $571.65 million) in tax revenue and recorded 1.8 million new taxpayers.

"After she left, the same program launched in 2015 was not as successful. The tax amnesty will be a bigger project for her. Aside from that, she has proven her ability to form a good fiscal strategy for Indonesia," Yose told thejakartapost.com on Wednesday in Jakarta.

The main concern for her, he continued, would be political pressure, such as the confrontation with several Golkar Party elites from 2009 until her resignation in May 2010. He expected Golkar, which has joined the Cabinet, to support the tax amnesty program.

Senior economist Christianto Wibisono also supported Sri Mulyani's appointment, as the tax amnesty program is in line with her vision delivered in a speech in Singapore in 2013 about Indonesian assets parked offshore.

"I met her on July 6 during an Idul Fitri gathering at Budi Bowoleksono's [Indonesia's ambassador to the US] house in Washington and I told her about that, 'You should help our President to make your speech come true'. Now it is the time for her to show her brainpower," Christianto said. (ags)
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Linkedin Ayomi Amindoni (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, July 27, 2016

Ayomi Amindoni

The Jakarta Composite Index (JCI) ended the trading session on Wednesday with a 1 percent increase, or 49.96 points, to 5,274.36, responding to a Cabinet reshuffle that saw Sri Mulyani Indrawati named finance minister.

An economist at Samuel Securities, Rangga Cipta, said Sri Mulyanis return to the governments economic team had filled the market with positive sentiment. She replaces Bambang Brodjonegoro, who moves to helm the National Development Planning Board (Bappenas) .

"The market responded to her return positively because investors have witnessed her strong performance in the past years," Rangga said as quoted by bareksa.com in Jakarta on Wednesday.

According to bareksa.com data, five state-owned companies have been targeted by foreign investors after the reshuffle announcement. They are Bank Mandiri (BMRI), PT Telkom Indonesia (TLKM), PT Semen Indonesia (SMGR), PT Adhi Karya (ADHI), and Perusahaan Gas Negara (PGN).

State Secretary Pratikno explained the President had chosen Sri because she has very proven and experienced in various assignments, particularly in economics and finance. "She also has a good network and is widely trusted at the international level," he said.

On her LinkedIn page, Sri stated that she would dedicate all efforts to accelerating Indonesia's development agenda with the goal of providing more and better services, particularly to the poor, and ensuring that all citizens are able to participate in the benefits of a thriving economy. (ags)
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Linkedin (The Jakarta Post)  Wed, July 27 2016

It is very true that in their joint statement, the foreign ministers of the 10-member ASEAN grouping did not explicitly ask China to abide by the recent ruling of The Hague-based Permanent Court of Arbitration on the South China Sea (SCS) as most of the international community had expected. But as the half-full, half-empty old saying goes, it is also true that the ministers achieved a significant consensus on such a sensitive political and security issue that could otherwise divide the association.

Confrontational approach against China, especially after its recent humiliating defeat to ASEAN member the Philippines in The Hague, will only backfire. At least China now knows that it can no longer ignore the international reality.

There is no doubt that Indonesia, as the largest member of ASEAN, had played a crucial role in ensuring that ASEAN addressed the SCS issue in the first foreign ministerial meeting held since the launch of the ASEAN community late last December, but also voiced their common stance to the public.

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Linkedin Corry Elyda (The Jakarta Post) Surabaya  Wed, July 27 2016

Developing urban areas is never an easy job for the government, let alone local administrations, due to the complication of problems and issues, including those involving residents.

However, many stakeholders at the UN Third Habitat Preparatory Committe (PrepCom3) have stressed the importance of involving residents and not leaving anyone behind in the development of a city.

UN Habitats research and capacity development director, Eduardo Moreno, said during a discussion on Monday that any improvement in the city needed to respect the rights of the residents, including those living in slum areas.

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Linkedin (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, July 27 2016

After months of delay, the government finally signed on Tuesday the construction contract for the countrys first reservoir project this year, while pledging to wrap up those for seven other projects by year-end.



As part of the governments effort to expand agriculture infrastructure, the Public Works and Public Housing Ministry plans to build eight new dams nationwide this year. The plan, however, has been challenged for various reasons, including the recent state budget cuts.



The signing of the contract, worth a total of Rp 1.5 trillion (US$114 million), for the construction of the Kuwil Kawangkoan Dam in North Sulawesi on Tuesday, however, has proven that the government has maintained its commitment to develop strategic infrastructure projects despite financial constraints.



Expected to be finished by 2020, the dam, located in the North Minahasa regency, is aimed at controlling floods in the provincial capital of Manado by reducing the flow of the Tondano River by 282.18 cubic meters of water per second. It is also intended to provide irrigation for more than 5,000 ha of farmland in the surrounding area.



Tondano River has been the biggest contributor to the floods in Manado. Hence, the dam is expected to control it in the future, Djidon R. Watania, who leads the ministrys Sulawesi River I River Control Agency, said on the sidelines of the contract signing ceremony.



Besides, the dam will also help boost tourism in Manado.



The first package of the project, which has a construction value of Rp 783.2 billion, will be handled by state-owned firm PT Wijaya Karya and PT DMT Exploration Engineering Consulting Indonesia. Meanwhile, the second package, worth Rp 640.3 billion, will be managed by PT Nindya Karya, another state-owned contractor.



According to the ministry, the Kuwil Kawangkoan Dam will flood a total of 306.81 hectares (ha) of land. However, up to this day, the ministry has procured just 32.35 ha.



By the end of this year, we aim to procure up to 100 hectares of land and eventually take over all of it in 2018, Djidon said.



Wijaya Karya operation director Gandira Gutawa Sumapraja said that land procurement was indeed the companys biggest challenge for this project as the construction could be delayed if the government failed to acquire the required land on time.



Besides the Kuwil Kawangkoan Dam, the ministry plans to seal deals for another seven dam projects this year, namely the Rukoh Dam in Pidie, Aceh, the Sukoharjo Dam in Pringsewu, Lampung, the Ladongi Dam in East Kolaka, Southeast Sulawesi, the Ciawi and Sukamahi dams in Bogor, the Leuwikeris Dam in Ciamis and the Cipanas Dam in Sumedang, West Java.



In total, there will be 39 ongoing dam projects next year across the country. Hence, 2017 is going to be a busy year for us. As we will see the same contractors over and over again handling most of those projects, I hope those players could prepare themselves starting now, said Mudjiadi, the ministrys director general for water resources.



Earlier this year, President Joko Jokowi Widodo issued a presidential regulation on the acceleration of the implementation of national strategic projects. The regulation stipulates provisions in regards to issues including licensing, non-licensing, land procurement and domestic components.



Later in June, Jokowi urged his ministers to speed up the national strategic projects, which were divided into 13 sectors across the archipelago.



After six months, I have been informed that 139 of the 225 projects, 56 percent, are still in the planning phase. Only 88 projects, 44 percent, are in the implementation phase, he said. (vps)

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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, July 27, 2016

CD

Several plate makers have promised to not seek benefits from Jakartas odd-even policy, which commenced a month-long trial on Wednesday, by accepting orders from vehicle owners to produce fake license plates.

I am afraid the police will arrest me, Saefullah, a plate maker, whose kiosk is located in Jatinegara, East Jakarta, told The Jakarta Post, recently.

He said he accepted orders from vehicle owners who needed temporary plates for their new vehicles, and other people who needed license plates for their vehicles based on their vehicles documents.

Similar remarks came from Muhammad Salim, a plate maker in Palmerah, West Jakarta, who admitted that in the past he accepted orders to make fake license plates, but he said he would never accept such an illegal order again.

Both Saefullah and Salim said they had not received any fake plate orders despite the start of the odd-even policy trial on Wednesday.

The odd-even policy is enforced by the Jakarta administration to replace the three-in-one traffic policy removed in March.

Governor Basuki Ahok Tjahaja Purnama removed the three-in-one policy, saying that it was inefficient and used by adults to exploit children.

The odd-even policy is implemented along Jl. Gatot Subroto, Jl. Sudirman, Jl. MH Thamrin and Jl. Gatot Subroto from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. The city administration said it was only a temporary policy, while it prepared the electronic road pricing (ERP) system. (rez/bbn)
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Linkedin Callistasia Anggun Wijaya (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, July 27, 2016

The manager of the upscale cafe in Central Jakarta where Wayan Mirna Solihin died after drinking a cyanide-laced Vietnamese iced coffee told the court on Wednesday that the company "had no intention" to kill anyone.

Olivier is a restaurant. We are not in the business of assassination. We only sell food, beverages and services, nothing else, Cafe Olivier manager Devi Chrisnawati Siagian told presiding judge Binsar Gultom, who previously asked her if the company had ever targeted anyone.

Devi, who was presented by the prosecutors to testify against the sole suspect in the case, Jessica Kumala Wongso, at the Central Jakarta District Court, claimed that no one had ever complained about the cafe before.

The restaurant has always passed food hygiene inspections by the Food and Drug Monitoring Agency, she said. If there was cyanide in the Vietnamese coffee, it was not the work of Oliver staff, she added.

Jessica asked me, What did you put in the coffee?' I was so insulted, as I didnt believe that our coffee could cause someone to convulse so badly, Devi said. (ary)
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Linkedin Evi Mariani (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, July 27 2016

Surabaya is hosting the third preparatory committee meeting for Habitat III, with 3,500 people, including ministers, mayors and other officials from 33 countries, attending to talk about the New Urban Agenda, which carries the message of sustainable urban development and human settlements for all.

The draft of the New Urban Agenda, facilitated by the UN, conveys several keywords: people-centered, social inclusivity and environmental sustainability. The latest draft, which is being debated and is to be agreed upon in Quito in October, sets several ambitious targets like sustainable urban development for social inclusion and ending poverty, combating all forms of discrimination and violence, enabling communities full and meaningful participation, and ensuring that no one is left behind.

Sukarti, 40, is among those who have been left behind in the Pasar Ikan area in North Jakarta. The mother of two now lives in a wooden shack made from wreckage of her neighbors houses after public order officers demolished the settlement she resided in last April.

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Linkedin Ayomi Amindoni (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, July 27, 2016

President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo appointed former Indonesian Military (TNI) commander Wiranto as coordinating political, legal and security affairs minister in his second Cabinet shake-up on Wednesday, replacing Luhut Pandjaitan, who was moved to become coordinating maritime affairs minister.

Cabinet Secretary Pramono Anung said President Jokowi had entrusted the post to Wiranto because the latter had been well-tested and was experienced in resolving various assignments, especially during the transition period from the New Order to the Reform era in the late 1990s.

"[During that time] he served as a defence and security minister and was the TNI commander that oversaw the Indonesian government transition process. He also once served as coordinating political and security minister," Pramono said at the State Palace on Wednesday.

(Read also : Jokowi to replace chief security minister, finance minister, energy minister)

Wirantos appointment is likely to draw concerns as the United Nations and several human rights groups have gathered evidence that the retired military general played a key role in facilitating severe human rights violations by the TNI during Indonesia's withdrawal from occupied East Timor in 1999.

More than 2,000 East Timorese were killed in violence under his watch, and 500,000 were forced into displacement. Wiranto continues to deny the charges.

Wiranto was one of 12 new ministers appointed in the second Cabinet reshuffle since Jokowi took office.

In his remarks on Wednesday, Jokowi said he wanted the new Cabinet to work more solidly and in a more unified way than the previous one.

The spirit of the Working Cabinet reshuffle is to strengthen the governments work performance, in which all Cabinet members can work in a team that is solid and unified, said Jokowi in a press conference after the announcement of the Cabinet reshuffle at the State Palace in Jakarta on Wednesday. (ebf)
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Linkedin Ayomi Amindoni (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, July 27, 2016

President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo has ordered newly appointed Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Wiranto to carry out justice reform to guarantee legal certainty.

"I have instructed Pak Wiranto to carry out legal reform, both in national and local legislation," Jokowi said in a Cabinet meeting at the Presidential Office on Wednesday.

Wiranto is also tasked with reforming law enforcement agencies with the hope that legal procedures can be sped up, the President said. "It has been initiated by Pak Luhut, I hope it can be continued," Jokowi said, referring to Luhut Pandjaitan, who was replaced by Wiranto.

Luhut now serves as coordinating maritime affairs minister, replacing Rizal Ramli.

Earlier, Cabinet Secretary Pramono Anung said the President had entrusted Wiranto with his new post because he had experience in resolving problems during the transition period in late 1990s from the New Order to the Reform Era.

"He also served as defense and security minister and as an Indonesian Military [TNI] commander during the transition period," Pramono said at the State Palace.

However, the UN and domestic groups have gathered evidence that Wiranto allegedly played a key role in facilitating severe human rights violations by the TNI during Indonesia's withdrawal from the occupied territory in East Timor in 1999. (bbn)
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Linkedin Marguerite Afra Sapiie (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, July 28, 2016

Human rights groups have lambasted President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo's decision to appoint Wiranto as the new coordinating political, legal and security affairs minister, claiming it is in contrast to the government's own commitment to resolve the past human rights abuse in which Wiranto was alleged to have been implicated.

Wiranto's appointment manifested concerns that Jokowi did not take human rights abuse into account in his Cabinet shake-up, chairman of human rights advocacy group Setara Institute Hendardi said on Wednesday.

"Wiranto's presence in the Cabinet will bolster the impunity of human rights violators as it will be difficult for him to resolve gross human rights violations, involvement in several cases of which he himself was suspected," Hendardi said in a text message to thejakartapost.com.

(Read also : Wirantos job is to reform justice system: Jokowi)

His appointment indicated a dim future for Indonesia's efforts toward the fair settlement of rights violation cases, he said, adding that Wiranto held a strategic position that oversaw the performance of the Attorney General's Office, the National Police, ministries and institutions related to politics and legal and security affairs.

Separately, Al-Araf, director of human rights watchdog Imparsial also slammed the appointment of the retired military general with a poor human rights track record as a demonstration of Jokowi's inconsistency in his own vows to uphold human rights in his administration.

Wiranto was inaugurated on Wednesday afternoon replacing Luhut Pandjaitan who was appointed as the coordinating maritime affairs minister in the second Cabinet reshuffle. He was notoriously suspected of having committed gross human rights violations during the referendum in East Timor, now Timor Leste, in 1999 when he served as the commander of the Indonesian Military. (rin)
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Linkedin Vijay Joshi (Associated Press) Vientiane  Wed, July 27, 2016

Daring to take on China in a territorial dispute in the South China Sea, the Philippines went to an international tribunal for justice, and won big. But it turned out to be a pyrrhic victory.

Beijing came back with such ferocity and manipulative diplomacy that other Southeast Asian countries that have similar disputes with it are apparently backing down.

One by one, their positions became clear at meetings this week of Asia-Pacific and Southeast Asian nations, a gathering that was supposed to unanimously call out China for a host of actions in the resource-rich South China Sea  building artificial islands and military airstrips, sending warships, staging live-firing exercises and shooing away fishermen from other countries.

And so, the four-day conclave in Vientiane, the Laotian capital, ended Tuesday with China's muscles bulging more than ever, and the vaunted unity of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations in disarray.

Philippine Foreign Secretary Perfecto Yasay Jr. sought to put a positive spin on the developments.

"Whether or not you will say that this is a triumph of China or a triumph of the Philippines, or a defeat of China or a defeat of the Philippines, the fact is clear," he told reporters in Manila on Wednesday. "This is a victory for ASEAN for upholding the very principles of international law and ... more importantly, pursuing our negotiations in the dispute in a peaceful manner."

"Be that as it may, the actual resolution of this dispute between China and the Philippines is a matter between China and the Philippines," he said, reflecting a position that suits China perfectly.

The first coup de grace China dealt was at ASEAN foreign ministers' meetings, where it successfully prevented a joint communique from mentioning the July 12 ruling by the Hague-based arbitration panel in favor of the Philippines. While the communique did express concerns about the tensions in the South China Sea, it did so without naming China.

A mill around the neck of ASEAN  Southeast Asia's main grouping  is that it can issue statements only when there is consensus among all 10 members. China leveraged that by ensuring that Cambodia and Laos would not provide that consensus. Both countries receive massive aid from China, which recently announced a US$600 million package to Cambodia.

"As an association, ASEAN loses power and relevance when it punts on the most important regional issues," said John Ciorciari, a Southeast Asia expert at the University of Michigan. "Yet ASEAN operates by consensus, and when push comes to shove, national interests tend to trump regional solidarity."

"Aid has won China some close friends in Southeast Asia, and Cambodia in particular has been quite willing to cast vetoes on communique language inimical to Chinese interests," he said.

China does not accept the arbitration panel's ruling, and says all disputes should be settled bilaterally through negotiations. It did not participate in the panel's hearings and insists that almost all of the South China Sea, which is ringed by claimants China, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, the Philippines and Taiwan, belongs to it historically.

It also accuses outside parties  the United States, Japan and Australia  of needling ASEAN countries and raising tensions. After ASEAN's failure to rebuke China, those three countries issued a joint statement in Vientiane saying they strongly oppose "any coercive unilateral actions that could alter the status quo and increase tensions."

China lashed out at them on Wednesday, with Foreign Minister Wang Yi saying in a statement that the three countries were "fanning the flames" of regional tension.

"Now it is the time to test whether you are peacekeepers or troublemakers," he said.

Diplomats who attended the Laos meetings said it was interesting to see that claimant countries appeared less enthusiastic than others in wanting to rebuke China. Even the Philippines was not too forceful in asking for strong language in the joint ASEAN statement. It repeatedly pointed out that the ruling by the arbitration panel was the result of its "unilateral" lawsuit, implying that ASEAN should not get involved.

Malaysia's foreign minister didn't even show up for the meetings. At a later meeting of ASEAN and Asia-Pacific nations, Brunei took pains to praise China's leadership, according to diplomats who attended the meeting.

And on Tuesday, Vietnam's deputy foreign minister, Le Hoai Trung, told The Associated Press that his country prefers bilateral dialogue with China, which Beijing wants.

The Philippines is in a tight spot because even though it went to the tribunal and won, that was under the previous government of Benigno Aquino III. President Rodrigo Duterte, Aquino's successor, has made friendly overtures to Beijing and is leaning toward bilateral negotiations.

But the bottom line is that the tribunal's decision, although legally binding, is non-enforceable. The arbitration panel didn't take a position on who owns the disputed territories, which include reefs and rocky outcroppings in the vast sea. It concluded only that many of them are legally rocks, even if they've been built into islands, and therefore do not include the international rights to develop the surrounding waters.

Now it is up to China to decide what concessions it wants to make, and how much pressure the smaller countries can take.

"At this point, it [the ruling] is not a magic stick ... it's not a solution to everything, but rather it needs to be combined with other measures," said Tran Viet Thai, deputy director of the Institute of Strategic Studies, a Vietnamese government think tank.

China is showing no signs of slowing down its efforts to exert control over the South China Sea.

State-run companies are joining forces to offer luxury cruises in the waters. Three companies dealing in shipping, tourism and construction will contribute to running as many as eight cruise liners by June 2017 to service a region through which an estimated US$5 trillion in global trade passes each year. They're also building four docks, which will be able to handle 2 million passengers a year.

One of China's main cellphone carriers, China Telecommunications Corp., has extended 4G service to several disputed South China Sea islands. Its competitor China Mobile Communications Corp. already offers similar services.

Along with creating new islands by piling sand on top of coral reefs, China has built airstrips, harbors and lighthouses that it says will benefit fishermen and ship owners who transit the strategic waterway.

Clearly, China is not giving up the sea  tribunal or no tribunal  yet the ruling will continue to hang over it like a dagger.

"It's impossible for [the ruling] to be irrelevant," US Secretary of State John Kerry told reporters in Manila, where he made a stop after the Laos meetings.

But "we are not trying to create a confrontation. We are trying to create a solution," he said.

___

Vijay Joshi is the AP's Southeast Asia news director. He has covered the region for 18 years.

___

Associated Press writer Jim Gomez in Manila, Philippines, contributed to this report.
House Speaker Paul Ryan posted a selfie with a group of Capitol Hill Interns on his Instagram with the caption: "I think this sets a record for the most number of #CapitolHill interns in a single selfie. #SpeakerSelfie."
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Linkedin (Associated Press) Beijing  Wed, July 27, 2016

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi criticized the United States, Japan and Australia for a joint statement on the South China Sea that he said was only "fanning the flames" of regional tensions just as countries have agreed to cool them down.

Wang said in a statement Wednesday that the move by the three countries came at an inappropriate time and wasn't constructive.

"This trilateral statement is fanning the flames," he said. "Now it is the time to test whether you are peacekeepers or troublemakers," said Wang's statement, referring to the three countries.

The three allies urged China not to construct military outposts and reclaim land in the disputed waters, making a strong show of support for Southeast Asian nations that have territorial disputes with Beijing, notably the Philippines and Vietnam.

Their joint statement, issued late Monday, filled a vacuum created by the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations, whose foreign ministers on Sunday failed to take a stand against China because of divisions among them.

The US, Japanese and Australia's foreign ministers met in Laos on the sidelines of a series of meetings organized by ASEAN. The grouping could have leveraged the recent decision by a permanent arbitration panel, which ruled in favor of the Philippines in a case it brought against China in their dispute in the South China Sea.
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Linkedin Liza Yosephine (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, July 27, 2016

China is likely to maintain its previous territorial claims, despite a tribunal ruling invalidating the nine-dash line that demarcates its claim to a large chunk of the resource-rich South China Sea, experts have said.

"States only comply with international law when it serves their interests," Muhamad Arif, researcher at the Habibie Center think-tank, said on Tuesday during a discussion organized by the center in Jakarta.

Arif said international law had limited power, as it could not be enforced by any supranational authority and therefore did not have an independent role in governing states' behavior. Such laws lack an agreed legitimate mechanism of enforcement, he added.

The Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) tribunal on the South China Sea dispute on July 12 centered on the applicability of the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), of which China is a signatory. However, Beijing insisted the PCA had no jurisdiction over the issue and boycotted the proceedings.

Center for Chinese Studies Foundation chairman Rene Pattiradjawane said China had invested too much for it to now take apart the fake islands, which it has built to boost its territorial claims across the vast waters. Despite recent high tensions in the disputed region, Rene noted that China would most likely employ self-restraint in order to avoid open conflict.

"China would be afraid of getting involved in a conflict considering how its economy is currently doing," he added.
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Linkedin Yuen Sin (The Straits Times/ANN) Singapore  Wed, July 27, 2016

The National University of Singapore (NUS) will take "strong disciplinary action" against those responsible for "offensive and completely inappropriate" orientation activities.

NUS staff, who used to run spot checks on the camps, will now be at the camps throughout.

This was announced by NUS on Tuesday in response to an article in The New Paper, which highlighted complaints about increasingly sexualized activities at recent NUS orientation camps.

Among other things, students complained about a cheer that reportedly simulated ejaculating on a girl's face and a game forfeit that required a male and a female freshman to re-enact a rape scene between a man and his younger sister.

Students said they had joined the camps ahead of the school year to make friends, and were pressured into taking part in the activities.

"We do not condone any behavior or activity that denigrates the dignity of individuals, and that has sexual connotations. Our students, particularly freshmen, must feel safe and secure at all times during orientation. If they decide to opt out of an activity, their wishes must be respected," said NUS.

Reports of such risque campus activities have dogged varsities for the past decade. NUS said that as part of its practice each year, the Office of Student Affairs (OSA) had conducted sessions with students involved in organizing orientation activities.

It is mandatory for students to go through written materials with examples of "dos and don'ts". They were also briefed about banned activities, such as those involving physical intimacy between members of the opposite sex and ragging.

All proposed orientation activities also had to be cleared by the relevant supervisors, as well as OSA.

NUS said the reported activities "were not submitted nor endorsed". It did not say what the disciplinary action would involve as investigations are ongoing.

The OSA has also met student leaders of the ongoing and remaining camps, and briefed them on acceptable orientation activities, it said.

Nanyang Technological University, which had also made headlines for lewd orientation games in the past, has introduced new rules this year to make orientation more inclusive. On its website, it stated that organizers will also take "special care to avoid activities which may result in ragging or harassment".

(Read also: Singapores NUS orientation camp games increasingly sexualized: Students)
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Linkedin Karamjit Kaur (The Straits Times/Asia News Network) Singapore  Wed, July 27, 2016

Changi is one of only three airports that raked in more than US$1.5 billion in spending by travelers last year.

Actual amounts were not stated but Changi was ranked third, behind South Korea's Incheon and Dubai, in a recent study by Swedish duty-free and travel retail consultancy, Generation Research.

Globally, travelers spent a total of US$62 billion at duty-free and airport shops last year, about 3 per cent less than the US$63.8 billion in 2014.

Asia was the only region where spending increased.

Perfumes and cosmetics made up about a third of the total sales, followed by wines and spirits, and fashion and accessories.

With demand for travel in the Asia-Pacific expected to grow in tandem with a burgeoning middle class, airports in the region can expect takings to increase further, said experts.

For Changi, increasing commercial revenue is key to keeping the airport competitive, as part of the takings are used to subsidize aircraft parking and landing, as well as other aeronautical charges.

When Jewel Changi Airport opens in early 2019, travelers will have more reasons to shop at Changi, said lecturer Raine Anastasia Chin from Singapore Polytechnic's business school.

The multi-storey complex being built in front of Terminal 1 will offer mainly retail and dining options.

(Read also: Bag wait at Changi Airport may get longer)

Ms Chin said: "We expect the retail scene at Changi to pick up significantly when Jewel is done. The idea is to get travelers, especially those in transit, to spend time and, hopefully, money there."

Expanding retail and dining options to boost revenue and earnings is a growing trend among airports worldwide, she said.

"An airport is no longer just a place people go to, to take a flight," Ms Chin added.

To entice even more travelers and visitors to shop, Changi Airport Group reviews and refreshes its offerings regularly, said its executive vice-president (commercial) Lim Peck Hoon.

New brands recently introduced include Spanish clothing and accessories label Zara's first duplex store in an airport, Saint Laurent Paris boutique, Samsung Experience Store, and Garrett Popcorn.

With the demand for chocolates and sweets growing by 20 per cent year on year, in the first five months of the year, Changi is looking to expand product offerings in this range, Ms Lim said.

Another category becoming popular with shoppers is mid-priced fashion, as carried by brands like Charles & Keith, Uniqlo, Giordano and Pandora.

To catch those who may not have much time to shop, the airport's online shopping portal, iShopChangi, which was launched in 2013, now offers more than 6,000 items.

Earlier this month, two new product categories - books and Lego - were introduced.

With the service, travelers can confirm their orders 18 hours to two weeks before their departure flights and pick up the items at any of the designated collection points.

Ms Lim said: "With passengers becoming more well-traveled and retail trends constantly evolving, Changi needs to ensure that our retail strategy and value propositions remain relevant to our shoppers."

Housewife Jane Lim, 36, a Singaporean, said: "It's not just the shopping; there are so many other things to see and do at Changi Airport while waiting for a flight. Some airports are really lame but many of the major hubs do offer a decent range of shopping and dining options."
Under the threat of a lawsuit, the de Blasio administration has been forced to reveal documents it tried to cover up in the Rivington House investigation.

The citys Department of Investigation last week advised Corporation Counsel Zachary Carter that it would sue, if necessary, for access to censored documents. Carter relented, turning over unredacted versions of the documents and granting access to the mayors computer system.

The Department of Investigation has already released its damaging report on the Rivington House scandal. It showed that many top ranking officials knew that the Lower East Side nursing home was in danger of falling into the hands of luxury condo developers, but failed to do anything about it.

The new revelations have been widely reported in the past 12 hours. Heres more from the Daily News:

Carter specifically held back an internal memo describing in detail the citys analysis of the pros and cons of the sale of a Lower East Side nursing home on Rivington St., according to DOIs letter to Carter. The critical memo was attached to a July 23, 2014, email from a lower level official in the Department of Citywide Administrative Services to DCAS Commissioner Stacey Cumberbatch. The document revealed early on the possibility that the nursing home could be sold for condos, including a reference to briefing First Deputy Mayor Anthony Shorris about the deal.

According to the Wall Street Journal, officials with the Department of Investigation declined to say whether theyll issue an addendum to the original July 14 report. The mayor and his team are shrugging off the latest revelations:

The Law Department referred a request for comment to the mayors office, where a spokesman said that the department had now provided records beyond the administrations legal obligation and far beyond any useful scope of the investigation. With DOI finding no criminal wrongdoing, our attention remains focused on the series of reforms the mayor has launched to ensure a case like Rivington can never happen again, the spokesman said. At a news conference on Monday, Mr. de Blasio said tension between the Law Department the Department of Investigation was totally normal.

This morning, the mayor reacted again, this time even more forcefully. The New York Post reported:

Mayor de Blasio blew off the Lower East Side nursing home scandal, sarcastically quipping Wednesday that scrutiny of the controversial land deal is probably bigger than Watergate.  Its ridiculous, he added. This is so overheated and so off the mark.  Were very, very clear about the fact that in everything weve done we put the public interest first, de Blasio said at a forum at the Democratic convention in Philadelphia sponsored by Politico. At least one critic has called for Corporation Counsel Zachary Carter to resign as a result of the cover-up. But the mayor defended Carter and backed up his decision. I have tremendous respect for him, de Blasio said of Carter. He made a set of decisions [on] what was the right way to handle that. And I thought he was right. I didnt get into the weeds of it. But I thought his essential approach was right.

The Department of Investigation is headed by de Blasio pal Mark Peters, who was previously the mayors campaign treasurer. He recused himself from the Rivington House investigation. In an editorial today, the Daily News said that Peters is growing a backbone. Heres part of that editorial:

The stonewall erected by Mayor de Blasio to impede a probe into how the city helped a developer make a $100 million real-estate killing has cracked. De Blasio was happy to have the Department of Investigation look into the complex transaction as long as the agency, headed by his former campaign treasurer, focused on functionaries out in the netherlands of the bureaucracy. But when DOI followed the trail to the mayor and top aides, de Blasio took the stunning and unprecedented step of denying investigators access to City Hall records and computers DOI chief Peters has stepped aside from probes involving de Blasios fundraising. Here, he empowerd staff to vindicate the agencys authority and stood up for the public interest.

The state attorney general and city comptroller are also investigating the Rivington House matter.
A fire that took hours to put out destroyed a barn and 500 bales of hay inside at a cattle breeding company's complex in Columbia County, according to news reports.

The fire was at the ABS Global facility on Stebbins Road near Poynette, WISC-TV reported. It broke out at about 8:30 p.m. Tuesday and firefighters were still on the scene at 4:30 a.m.

Nobody was hurt but two firefighters were treated for dehydration, Poynette Fire Chief James Tomlinson told WISC-TV.

The cause of the fire and damage estimate were undetermined.

ABS Global, formerly American Breeders Service, is headquartered in DeForest.
By its very nature, hidden homelessness exists out of sight, invisible to the majority of people living in Britain. From living in overcrowded conditions, squatting, sofa-surfing, sleeping rough in hidden locations or involuntarily sharing long-term accommodation with others, many homeless people are unknown to authorities and therefore not provided with the required support.

Without help from authorities, it is a great challenge for people living in hidden homeless conditions to successfully move into secure permanent accommodation. According to The Homelessness Monitor: Great Britain 2016 report by Crisis, both concealed and overcrowded households can be stuck in that position for considerable periods of time, with this persistence worsening after the recent economic crisis.

Research suggests that hidden homelessness in the UK is on the rise. Crisis found that on the most recent (2013) figures 701,000 households (3.1%) were overcrowded in England; the highest level in recent years.

Leanne McFadyen is a graduate designer, working to raise more awareness of hidden homelessness through her graduate collection Concrete Shadows.

In the collection, McFadyen challenges common assumptions of homelessness in Britain to encourage an awareness of the diversity of it. Reminding consumers that homelessness exists far beyond a man sitting on the concrete begging, McFadyens collection explores the extensive issue, highlighting that many homeless people remain unnoticed by authorities and are slipping through the cracks in society.

The collection has an important message, showing that it is impossible to know somebodys housing situation based on appearances alone. Using luxury fabrics such as silk, lamb nappa and goat and pig suede, McFadyens collection deliberately rejects an expected image of homelessness as a person wearing damaged and inexpensive clothing. The garments may not look representative of homelessness, but McFadyen emphasises that a universal image of homelessness does not exist.

Rather than considering how homelessness might look when designing her collection, McFadyen instead explores the feelings of isolation and social exclusion of living in a homeless situation to influence her designs. The expressive use of etching and print in Concrete Shadows subtly encourages consumers to rethink their understanding of homelessness to consider the human thoughts and feelings beneath the visual exterior.

McFadyen hopes to sell Concrete Shadows to a high-end market, with the intention of donating a proportion of her profits to a homeless charity. In addition, McFadyen hopes to soon create garments for the high street at a lower cost. She tells me: I have a diffusion collection on Concrete Shadows where a sportier print aesthetic is carried throughout the pieces. Its far more casual and I feel would work well with a younger target audience.

Professor Greens Hidden and Homeless documentary that aired on Channel 4 in February 2016 was an important step to increase social awareness of hidden homelessness in Britain. However McFadyen firmly believes that more still needs to be done to make hidden homelessness more widely recognised and understood, and hopes that Concrete Shadows will help to reveal the hidden issue.
Hurriyet Daily News Turkey is introducing measures to eliminate or lower the sexual drive of people convicted of sexual offences, according to the

Chemical castration will be used on convicts either in prison or during the control period if they are conditionally released.

(Petros Karadjias/AP)

New regulation states that sex offenders must join treatment programmes, and that non-compliance will result in further punishment.

Offenders will also be barred from living in the same area as their victims work or home and be unable to work with children.

Under 18s are exempt from the regulation.
When travelling goes right its the best thing in the world. But it also offers up myriad opportunities for it to go wrong and give you the worst time imaginable.

Over the month of June, my travels gave me a number of massive headaches that taught me some very worthwhile lessons about myself and how to handle the situation when things go wrong.

Of course, many people have a much worse time, but fortunately I wasnt one of those people.

This is my June tale of travel woe:

At the start of the month I headed to sunny Catalonia, and its capital Barcelona for the Primavera Sound music festival. The whole thing kick started with a stressless and relaxed flight on Norwegian Airways  who are now my new favourite reasonably-priced airline to get around Europe, but things soon turned for the worst.

Ive never had issue with Air Bnb before, but the pitfalls of this type of arrangement became starkly apparent on arriving at our apartment. Firstly, the owner (well call him David) requested we leave him to clean the apartment after our check-in. So we popped up, left our bags and headed to the beach for a drink  so far, so good.

On our return and a proper inspection, it became apparent just how awful this apartment was. The promised fold-out sofa bed did not fold out, the kitchen was basically a cupboard with a hob and a sink in, and the bed in the main bedroom was sinking at the end.

And that wasnt the worst of it  add the fact the place was so dirty you could feel it on your skin, the exposed wires everywhere and what appeared to be animal droppings on the floor, and the promise of a quality stay seemed to be disappearing.

Needless to say, we quickly told the guy to shove his room and looked for another place to stay  losing our friend to another apartment with other friends along the way.

We soon found a slightly more expensive hotel room just up the road, which was very, very nice. To be fair to Air BnB they quickly sorted us out with a refund, so very little was lost in the long run except for a ruined first day in Barca. David was also fine with us cancelling the booking, which suggests he knew exactly how big a hole he was offering in the first place.

Lesson learned: You should never accept anything that is not right, and there are always other options available. In most cases people want to help you have a good stay somewhere.

The Barcelona trip was bookended by something a little more serious. Primavera was awesome as always  thanks for asking!

Id previously been to the city four times before and never been pickpocketed, which apparently makes me some sort of statistical wonder, so I guess it was my time. It happened on the tram at 4am, I was drunk, I got on the wrong tram in the wrong direction, realised and jumped off to head to the tube. On arriving in the train station and reaching for my phone  no phone. The phone was gone.

I could picture the prick who took it and when he had the chance to nab it. I swore, I raged, I was shaken.

But soon calmed down. One phone call to my network provider and they had cancelled the phone and blacklisted it. The next day a few hours in the police station and they had a detailed description of the culprit and CCTV footage from the tram that night.

I was never going to see the phone again, probably....but there was a chance they thieving swine would get caught.

On arriving home, a call to my home insurance people and in a few weeks  brand new phone. Because I had stuff backed up online I restored a lot of settings to my new phone and life continues.

Through the iPhones Find Your Phone function, I had even set the phone to erase everything should the bastards ever get it unlocked and online. I also got to leave them a message on completion of the erase that Ill not repeat here but lets just say it was full of expletives and wished them a slow and horrible death.

Lesson learned: Always have adequate insurance when travelling abroad, dont panic and make the calls you need to as soon as possible  again people generally want to help. Stuff is just stuff  stuff can be replaced.

My next trip involved heading to the frankly crazy southern US city of New Orleans, a place like no other and also where a place that below the surface of regeneration there still lies a bubbling undercurrent of poverty and social strife.

One day walking by the Jackson brewery on the banks of the Mississippi, a friendly gentleman stopped me to welcome me to New Orleans  it seemed fine! He then offered me a trick  he could predict where I got my shoes  the place, the city, the state and when!! I didnt agree to the challenge but that was not stopping him. If he did, I needed to pay for a shoe shine (not that my new Converse needed it) and if he didnt I would get the shine for free.

OK, mate.

You got them on your feet, in New Orleans, in Louisiana, right now! Clever bugger! And he had grabbed my feet for the shine. I had already clocked the burly guy who had suddenly materialised from round the corner.

That will be $50 dollars. No way he was getting that! I felt like refusing out right, but the other guy had been joined by an even bigger guy and they individually looked like they could crush my face with one hand, so both of them didnt bear thinking about.

Piss off. You can have $5 and thats it!

Thank you sir. Have a nice day.

Lesson learned: Its only money, giving up money is better than giving up your limbs! Money and possessions are less important than personal safety.

The end of that trip came with more woes, as I got stranded in the US for a full 24 hours extra. On boarding the plane from New Orleans to Atlanta something was not right. A quick announcement explained that some numpty had broken the cargo door and the plane was not fit to fly, but they were trying to fix it.

But the damage was bad, and everyone had to leave the plane. At this point the tight connection time at Atlanta to get a next flight home became more of a worry, as it was announced the plane was going nowhere.

One long queue and a new ticket later, I was on a later flight to Atlanta with no chance of getting the last international flight out of the country. Fortunately, the nice people at Delta Airways stepped up with a hotel for the night (which took forever to get to) and some overnight essentials.

The next issue was that there were not flights out of the US until the following evening, so the next day involved a soul destroying day in Atlantas sparse and dull international terminal  8  hours in all.

I eventually arrived home around 32 hours later than intended having lost a whole day languishing in an airport void.

Lesson learned: Sometimes things go wrong and there is nothing you can do about it. Dont get angry, stay calm and go with the flow and youll come out fine. Shout and rage at the staff and you might find yourself with difficulty getting a new flight  surprisingly peoples empathy wears thin when they are being shouted at.

None of that was that bad! I know you're thinking that. And your right  people have it worse. But this is what happened and what I learned, and it's the best (or worst) I have to offer.
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One person was killed and four injured Wednesday morning in a three-vehicle crash on Highway 14 south of Oregon, a crash that closed the highway for several hours.

The crash on the two-lane highway happened at about 7:45 a.m. south of Highway A in the town of Rutland, the Dane County Sheriff's Office said.

The preliminary investigation showed a Subaru Impreza going north on Highway 14 crossed the center line and struck a southbound Dodge Durango head on, with a Subaru Outback also going northbound hitting the initial crash.

The 72-year-old female driver of the Impreza from Oregon died in the crash, while the Durango driver, Benjamin Blum, 93, of Madison, was flown by Med Flight to UW Hospital with serious but non-life-threatening injuries.

Three passengers in the Durango suffered minor injuries while the Outback driver, Jared Bland, 26, of Crystal Lake, Ill., was not injured, the Sheriff's Office said.

The identity of the fatal victim was not released pending notification of family. The crash remains under investigation.
After hearing pleas from city officials and residents, the U.S. Postal Service will keep its post office Downtown when it permanently moves from the landmark Madison Municipal Building, which is closing for a $30 million renovation this fall.

The Postal Service this week signed a five-year lease to relocate to 3,800 square feet on the first floor of the Manchester Building, 2 E. Mifflin St., on Oct. 1, city officials and the building manager confirmed on Wednesday.

Its a done deal, city real estate agent Kris Koval said, adding that all current postal services and post office boxes will be relocated to the new site on Capitol Square. Were keeping them in the Capitol area.

Mayor Paul Soglin said the agreement is good news for residents, international students and faculty at UW-Madison and hundreds of Downtown businesses that use the central post office every day to send or pick up documents, packages and make other transactions.

This has worked out nicely, he said.

Don Brumm, a manager for the Manchester Building, said the post office will have a separate entrance on Mifflin Street and patrons will have access to parking behind the structure. It seemed like a good fit for them, he said. Its probably the most accessible part of the Square. Were glad to do it.

Initially, the Postal Service targeted its relocation to the QTI Group building on the 700 block of East Washington Avenue, but city officials protested and presented two Downtown alternatives  the Manchester Building and the former AT&T building, 315 W. Washington Ave.

Downtown Ald. Mike Verveer, 4th District, had said of the potential move: I certainly dont consider the 700 block of East Washington Avenue to be Downtown. It would be a tremendous inconvenience. And symbolically, the Downtown of a state Capitol deserves a post office.

Verveer was unavailable for comment Wednesday.

We are thrilled that the post office will remain in the Downtown business district, Jeff Vercauteren, president of Capitol Neighborhoods Inc., said on Wednesday.

The Municipal Building, built in the late 1920s, was initially a federal courthouse and post office and acquired by the city in 1979.

It is home to multiple city services. In 2005, the U.S. Congress designated the post office there as the Robert M. La Follette Sr. Post Office.

The $30 million, two-year renovation, which will also require relocation of city offices to other Downtown sites, is scheduled to begin in the late fall.

The city will move all city agencies during the renovation to rented space at the Wisconsin Veterans Museum building, 30 W. Mifflin St., and the former AnchorBank annex building at 126. S. Hamilton St.

The Madison Credit Union will leave during renovations but return when the Municipal Building reopens.
The co-chairman of the states powerful budget-writing committee called on Gov. Scott Walker this week to consider finding ways to raise revenue for the states transportation budget, which will suffer from a $939 million shortfall in the next biennium, according to the latest estimates.

Rep. John Nygren, R-Marinette, proposed lawmakers and Walker consider raising the states gas tax or create a toll road system to shore up the states funding for roads that has been subsidized with borrowing for years.

But Walker on Wednesday stood firm in his long-held opposition to raising taxes or imposing fees to help pay for road projects  putting him at odds with leaders in his own party who have implored the governor to consider finding new revenue.

A Legislative Fiscal Bureau memo released this week at Nygrens request says the state needs to find $939 million for the 2017-19 budget to keep funding at the same level as what lawmakers passed in the current state budget.

Nygren also said without new revenue, planned projects  such as the projects underway in southern Wisconsin  are in jeopardy.

Were basically passing the cost onto our kids and we cant continue to rely on bonding, Nygren said in a conference call with reporters.

Nygren noted in a separate statement released Tuesday that the $939 million shortfall estimate also doesnt include debt service payments.

Our states principal repayment currently stands at $4.3 billion in bonding; a whopping $3.5 billion of this repayment is owed by the transportation fund and the rest is set to come from the general fund, he said. Moreover, some of the transportation bonds that were approved last budget have yet to be issued, which means Wisconsins debt service will only continue to rise.

Walker, in response, said he will not support new taxes and fees.

Raising taxes and fees is not the answer, Walker said in a statement. Under our administration, we will keep it a priority to live within the means of the hardworking people of Wisconsin. That is a commitment I will honor.

Walker noted he has directed Department of Transportation secretary Mark Gottlieb to identify cost savings to help shore up the budget, especially when it comes to safety and maintenance.

I am confident we can do better than placing new taxes on Wisconsin citizens, Walker said.

Assembly Minority Leader Peter Barca, D-Kenosha, accused Nygren of pandering for votes with his call to find new revenue  noting Nygren had similar information on the state of the transportation budget while rejecting Democratic proposals for new revenue.

Rep. Nygren knew the data showing that Wisconsin has the third-worst roads in the nation when he led the Finance Committee to adopt the disastrous transportation budget that was even worse than what Walker proposed, Barca said in a statement. He led the fight against Democrats proposed solutions, further shortchanging our states crumbling, pothole-filled roads.

A transportation-funding fix has proven elusive in recent years for Republicans who control state government. Lawmakers and Walker discussed a state road funding solution during last two budget cycles but failed to agree on one.

Instead, they have turned to borrowing and delaying projects to balance the transportation ledger.

The state budget now in effect delayed highway expansions around the state, including Verona Road and Interstate 39-90.

Meanwhile, U.S. Department of Transportation data released last year showed the condition of Wisconsins roads among the nations worst.

Top Republican legislators, including Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, have said they hope the 2017-19 state budget yields a fix in the form of a significant funding boost for roads. GOP lawmakers have signaled a willingness to consider increasing taxes to do so.

But Walker has held to the stance that he will not increase fuel or other transportation taxes without spending cuts of equal or greater amounts elsewhere in the budget.

Lawmakers approved $850 million in borrowing for road projects during the last budget cycle, though Walker initially proposed to borrow $1.3 billion.

Nygren said lawmakers have kicked the can down the road long enough.

In the upcoming budget, we need to bring in new revenue that will help buy down our transportation debt and structure a sustainable plan for Wisconsins infrastructure, he said.

Its imperative to look for reform and program savings as we continue discussing revenue options for the benefit of our state. Moving forward, I implore the governor to consider additional avenues of funding as well.

Nygren said he would consider raising the states gas tax, currently at 32.9 cents. He said that is preferable to registration fees because visitors to the state pay, too.

In a tweet, Assembly Majority Leader Jim Steineke, R-Kaukauna, said The public deserves to know how much maintenance will be deferred & which projects will continue to be delayed.

In the upcoming budget, we need to bring in new revenue. ... It is imperative to look for reform and program savings as we continue discussing revenue options for the benefit of our state. Moving forward, I implore the governor to consider additional avenues of funding as well. rEP. JOHN NYGREN

R-Marinette, co-chair of

budget writing committee
Chinese tourist, 70, dies after slammed onto rocks off Kata beach

PHUKET: A 70-year-old Chinese tourist has died after being swept onto rocks by strong waves at Kata Beach yesterday afternoon (July 26).

Chinesetourismmarineaccidentsdeath

By Eakkapop Thongtub

Wednesday 27 July 2016, 01:31PM

Police speak with family members of Mr Su Fuhai. Photo: Eakkapop Thongtub

Police were notified of the incident at 2pmm, but by the time police arrived with Ruamjai rescue workers, the man, identified as Su Fuhai from Beijing, was unresponsive on the beach.

Witnesses told police that they saw the man swimming near the rocks, then a huge wave hit him and he disappeared into the water, said Maj Patiwat Yodkwan of the Karon Police.

Lifeguards recovered Mr Su, unconscious from the near the rocks, and brought him to shore.

Attempts were made to revive him, but he remained not responsive, Maj Patiwat noted in his report.

Mr Su was in Phuket with his family and we will notify the embassy, Maj Patiwat said.
Jungceylon set for final inspection before re-opening Port Zone

PHUKET: Governor Chamroen Tipayapongtada is to lead a final inspection of the repaired pillars in the underground section of the Jungceylon in Patong on Thursday (July 28) ahead of the shopping mall gaining approval to re-open the areas that have been closed off for more than a month.

patongconstruction

By Chanida Summast

Wednesday 27 July 2016, 08:48PM

Patong Mayor Chalermluck Kebsup (2nd from right) and Kathu District Chief Sayan Chaichanawong (left) first inspected the site on June 8.

The Port open-air zone and the underground market called Thats Siam were closed off on June 8 after several structural pillars showed signs of crumbling. (See story here.)

An engineer at Patong Municipality, who asked not to be named, told The Phuket News today (July 27) that a team of municipality engineers inspected the repairs yesterday, and were to return tomorrow for a final, formal inspection.

We agreed that Jungceylon cannot open the affected areas to the public until we discuss all issues, including what caused the damage, tomorrow at a meeting with officials and representatives from Jungceylon, he said.

The formal inspection tomorrow will give all parties involved the chance to give their explanations of what happened and the repairs made, the engineer explained.

Patong Municipality engineers met yesterday to discuss their own findings, he added.

We have not been able to conclude what caused the damage, were but pretty sure that it had nothing to do with structural defects or the design. I dont think the damage was caused by rainwater either, he added.

Workers have already repaired all the damaged pillars and we inspected the area again yesterday (July 26) and confirmed that all works met the requirements by our office, the engineer explained, but declined to give details of what work was done to the damaged pillars.

The Jungceylon project engineer overseeing the repairs assured that the area was safe and ready to open. However, Patong Municipality must inspect the area again after the meeting tomorrow. Then we will know for sure if we can open the area for the public to use, he said.

We told the Jungceylon engineering team to remove all the supports they had placed around the pillars out of the area by tomorrow. At the meeting, if all departments agree that all findings are final and deem the area to be safe, Jungceylon will set a date to reopen the area to the public, the engineer said.
Lawyer stands by monk in car controversy

BANGKOK: A lawyer for Wat Pailom insists the classic Panther car belonging to the temples abbot, Phra Kru Palad Sitthiwat, was legally imported from the US.

religiontransport

By Bangkok Post

Wednesday 27 July 2016, 08:49AM

Phra Kru Palad Sitthiwat, known as Luang Phi Namfon, the abbot of Wat Pailom, shows papers for the amphibious WaterCar Panther at his wat, the latest vehicle embroiled in Buddhist controversy. Photo: Tawatchai Kemgumnerd

Supapattarapoj Nitisathorn, the lawyer, said yesterday (July 26) that the vintage car was given to the abbot, also known as Luang Phi Namfon, by Somchet Khemmathat, a follower, as an exhibit for the temple to encourage more visitors.

He was speaking at a media briefing also attended by Luang Phi Namfon.

The move followed the Department of Special Investigations (DSI) recent accusations of tax evasion involving the classic Panther, which thereby implicated the abbot.

According to the DSI, the frame of the vehicle was declared as a Panther and the engine as a Jaguar, but the car was actually a wholly-built unit from Panther, registered in the US.

In 2011, the abbot was invited to give moral support to a group of Thai restaurant owners, including Mr Somchet, in Los Angeles, the lawyer said.

Mr Somchet offered the frame of the vehicle, which was being displayed in front of his restaurant, to the abbot.

On Oct 9, 2011, the frame and some parts were shipped to Thailand to Charinthorn Pathakamin, the owner of a garage.

According to the lawyer, the used engine of the Jaguar and additional parts were shipped to Luang Phi Namfon in Thailand on Oct 28 the same year.

Termsak Pitithanasansombat, the abbots attendant, paid the excise tax for the vehicle, he added.

The Panther was first made by WaterCar at its Fountain Valley, California, factory in 2013. List prices for various models are between $100,000 and $200,000 (B3.5 to B7 million).

The firm claims the four-wheel drive vehicle is capable of speeds of 137kph on land and 72kph on the water, and describes it in its marketing kit as the most fun amphibious vehicle on the planet.

Read original story here.
Legal experts warn of PromptPay security issues

BANGKOK: The trend towards a cashless society is picking up steam as the government advances rapidly towards the use of electronic cash as part of its pursuit of a digital economy.

economics

By Bangkok Post

Wednesday 27 July 2016, 09:26AM

Like many banks, Bangkok Bank is offering PromptPay registration via ATMs. As of July 12, the Bank of Thailand reported that 9.7 million people had signed up for PromptPay. Bangkok Post / Pornprom Satrabhaya

However, legal experts have raised concerns about security, privacy, crime and computerisation  issues that will crop up from giving the government, central bank and designated financial institutions absolute monetary control.

They also fear that without society being able to understand the pros and cons of electronic cash, the full benefit of the cashless society may never be realised.

More importantly, with Thailand being one of the worlds top 25 targets for malware attacks and Bangkok a prime target of hackers in Asia-Pacific, legal experts are worried about the security risks of contactless payment.

The government is making it compulsory for all companies to enter the national e-payment system by 2019 to transform Thailand from a cash-based society to a cashless one. PromptPay, an electronic money transfer and payment service, will be key to the transition.

Dhiraphol Suwanprateep, a partner at Baker & McKenzie law firm in Bangkok, says PromptPay is a centralised system, so electronic payments for online transactions will be easier to trace.

Tax evasion, money laundering, corruption and illegal funding of organised crimes and terrorism would be noticeable if transferred via PromptPay.

These traceable data may help in reducing these illegal activities, Mr Dhiraphol says.

However, he says it is also arguable that if criminals continue to use cash or other anonymous payment means such as bitcoins [a form of digital currency created and held electronically], this form of illegal funding would still be untraceable.

The biggest concern for PromptPay is that Thailand still lacks a consolidated personal data protection law in general, he stresses.

Banks and e-payment service providers are already regulated under specific banking laws and regulations.

For example, e-payment service providers are regulated under the Royal Decree regulating E-payment Service Business (2008) and the recent ETC Notification re: Requirements, Procedures, and Conditions for Undertaking Electronic Payment Service Business (2016).

These laws prescribe that e-payment service providers must keep customer data confidential throughout and after using the service, with certain exceptions  for example, if the customers have given written consent or the disclosure is for the purpose of investigation, litigation, compliance with laws or supervision of the Bank of Thailand.

However, these laws specifically regulate banks and e-payment service providers, not everyone in general. As such, it is very important that the government enact the Personal Data Protection Bill, which was approved in principle by the cabinet in January 2015.

It needs to be put in place alongside the PromptPay system, says Mr Dhirapol. This is to ensure that Thailand has a consolidated and general law to protect peoples personal data against inappropriate data handling and/or data breaches of the PromptPay system, where personal data of users will be centralised and susceptible to abuse.

People may feel sceptical if the government rushes the PromptPay system but delays enacting the Personal Data Protection Bill without providing any specific timeline, he says. The public needs reassurance that everyone (as opposed to those banks and e-payment service providers already regulated) who illegally accesses and discloses their personal data is to be punishable by law.

Thailand has laws allowing authorities such as the Revenue Department to access data and documents, particularly if fraud is suspected.

The Anti-Money Laundering Office (Amlo) has the power to gather evidence for the purpose of taking legal proceedings under the Anti-Money Laundering Act. Similarly, Amlo has the power to gather evidence for the purpose of the seizure, attachment or confiscation of property under the Counter-Terrorism Financing Act or other laws.

Mr Dhirapol says these investigating powers are quite broad in order to gather relevant evidence. When personal data is centralised under the PromptPay system, especially financial personal data, data owners who are not criminals would be loath to have their personal data be part of any investigation unless it is absolutely necessary.

This is another reason why the government must expedite the Personal Data Protection Bill while pushing PromptPay to be widely used.

As there is no such personal data protection law in place, the government must at the very least ensure that PromptPay transactions and personal data will not be illegally accessed, investigated, disclosed, misused and/or used beyond the purposes stated.

If this can be guaranteed, the public are likely to embrace the PromptPay system and Thailand's cashless society may not remain simply a pipe dream, says Mr Dhiraphol.

Paiboon Amonpinyokeat, a partner at P&P Law Firm, says a slew of concerns lie ahead for PromptPay, especially the accuracy of the national ID card system.

There could be a great opportunity for fraud involving the use of another persons identity. There are many cases where people let others use their ID cards to open a bank account under a name other than their real ones.

Theres no country in this world implementing the PromptPay system by linking a national ID card or mobile phone number to bank accounts, says Mr Paiboon. With no data protection law, how can people ensure that government officers will not abuse their power to access information or misuse that personal info?

He says a low level of consumer awareness of mobile security threats is also a concern.

An industry source disclosed that the government has a master password to get access to the national identity database.

Prinya Homanake, vice-president of the Thailand Information Security Association, says the Bank of Thailand needs to conduct penetration testing and security risk assessments including an incident response plan.

Thanachart Numnonda, president of the Association of Thai ICT industry, says PromptPay comes with good intentions but Thai people have little understanding and security awareness.

Yos Kimsawate, head of the Payment Systems Office under the Thai Bankers Association, says PromptPay is a closed system and transactions will only require a user's mobile phone or ID card number.

Financial institutions cannot see other information contained on the card. They also cannot access the individual information, he stresses.

If the government needs to access information of a bank account owner, the state must use a legal protocol to comply with the Bank of Thailand's regulations governing personal data protection, says Mr Yos.

But liability for hacking related to PromptPay will fall on consumers in cases in which mobile phones are infected with malware and viruses or if jailbreaking occurs, he says.

Finance Minister Apisak Tantivorawong has insisted that signing up for PromptPay using the 13-digit number is for identification only, and financial institutions cannot see other information contained on the card.

Mr Apisak has called on the Information and Communication Technology Ministry to speed up deliberation and approval of the Personal Data Protection Act by the National Legislative Assembly in order to dispel concerns about personal privacy protection with PromptPay.

Prawit Leesathapornwongsa, a commissioner of the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission, acknowledges that security and privacy remain the greatest concerns about PromptPay among consumers.

He warns that users needs to frequently update their mobile devices security features in order to prevent malware infections.

Read original story here.
Patong police hunting for Bangla shooter

PHUKET: Patong Police have identified the 34-year-old man who allegedly shot another man in the car park near Bangla Rd early this morning (July 27) as Patong resident Thanaphol Phatkaew.

violencepatongpolice

By Eakkapop Thongtub

Wednesday 27 July 2016, 01:19PM

Fugitive Thanaphol Phatkaew left his pickup truck at the scene. Photo: Eakkapop Thongtub

Sayan Padungsap, 35, sustained four gunshot wounds: to his abdomen (left side), hip (back right), left foot and lower left leg. Photo: Eakkapop Thongtub

Patong Hospital alerted Maj Theerasak Boonsang of the Patong Police to the shooting at 3:41am.

The victim, Sayan Padungsap, 35, sustained four gunshot wounds: to his abdomen (left side), hip (back right), left foot and lower left leg.

Mr Sayan told police that Thanaphol shot him then fled the scene, leaving his vehicle behind at the parking lot, reported Maj Theerasak.

Witnesses said that both men knew each other and they were having an argument which resulted in the shooting, he said.

We theorise that Sayan and Thanaphol met at the car park to settle some issue, but the negotiations went wrong and resulted with the suspect shooting Sayan four times, he added.

We are seeking a warrant of arrest for Mr Thanaphol now, Maj Teerasak said.

Sayan was later transferred to Vachira Phuket Hospital in Phuket Town.
Phuket Town splashes out B500mn on flood prevention

PHUKET: A project costing more than B500 million is underway to upgrade Phuket Towns drainage capabilities in order to prevent the town from flooding after huge seasonal deluges.

weatherconstructionenvironment

By Chanida Summast

Wednesday 27 July 2016, 09:05PM

Klong Bang Yai rises dangerously close to bursting its banks in the heart of Phuket Town in August last year. Photo: The Phuket News / file

The central government granted Phuket City Municipality a budget of B517 million to solve flooding issues and to improve the drainage system in Phuket Town, Thawee Homhoun, Chief of the Phuket Provincial Office of Public Works and Town & Country Planning, told The Phuket News today (July 27).

We are in charge of this project and signed a contact on March 31 with the construction company Auang Sea Heang Co Ltd to complete the works needed, he said.

The construction company will start this project early in August, maybe as late as August 15, and the whole project will take about two and half years to complete, Mr Thawee said.

Once the projects starts, officials will need to reduce some of the roads where work is being carried out to one lane only, he warned.

We need this project to help dispose of high volumes of rainwater because our city lacks a quality drainage system. Many of the drains are too small to handle the load and many of them are not connected properly, Mr Thawee explained.

To resolve these problems, in addition to upgrading and fixing drains and reworking canals throughout the town, the project will see pumping stations installed along the canals to help pump excess water, he said.

However, Mr Thawee noted that although the projects to be carried out have been identified, the plans for many of the works to be done have yet to be finalised.

We have similar projects lined up for Patong for which we have already signed a contract with another company. This project will start in September, Mr Thawee added.
Police arrest niece of killed army conscript

BANGKOK: The niece of an army conscript, who was beaten to death during military training in 2011, was arrested yesterday (July 26) for defaming military officers after she exposed the circumstances of her uncles death last year.

deathmilitaryviolence

By Bangkok Post

Wednesday 27 July 2016, 09:12AM

Wichian Puaksom, seen here as a student at Thammasat University in 2010, was beaten to death a year later during military training. Photo: Narisarawan Kaewnopparat

Naritsarawan Kaewnopparat, the niece of Wichian Puaksom, who died in Narathiwat Ratchanakarin army camp five years ago, was detained by Makkasan police in Bangkok under an arrest warrant issued by the Narathiwat Provincial Court on Feb 16.

Ms Naritsarawan, who revealed details of her uncles death on social media and in a TV interview, was charged with defaming the military and disseminating false information on the internet with the intent of causing damage to others.

Makkasan police said despite the courts approval of the warrant in February, the arrest was made yesterday after receiving information from Narathiwat police.

She was taken to Muang Narathiwat police station yesterday afternoon.

According to Ms Naritsarawan, her arrest was in response to an interview on her uncles death that she gave to a media outlet, and her post on the issue at the popular Pantip website in October last year.

Ms Naritsarawan denies the claims and said she would defend herself in court to prove her innocence, adding she did not mention anyones names in her post.

Meanwhile, Poonsuk Poonsukchareon, the defendants lawyer, said he still had no clear knowledge of who filed the complaint.

Mr Poonsuk said no legal action has been brought against officers involved in the incident, adding Ms Naritsarawan was simply trying to seek justice for her uncle but ended up being arrested.

In May 2011, Mr Wichian was posted to Narathiwat Ratchanakarin army camp in Cho Airong district.

He died of acute renal failure on June 5 after a beating administered by troops at the camp.

A probe found he was beaten by instructors as punishment for disobeying orders and absconding from the camp.

The army agreed to pay compensation of over B6.5 million in a settlement to his family after more than a year of talks with his mother, Prathuang Puaksom.

Mr Wichians mother filed a lawsuit against the Defence Ministry, the army and the Prime Ministers Office Ministry for the wrongful death of her son in May 2012.

Meanwhile, Amnesty International (AI) has called on authorities to stop investigating three activists, including AI Thailands chairman, for documenting and publishing a report about torture by Thai security forces.

The three are Somchai Homla-or, Anchana Heemmina, and Porpen Khongkaconkiet, who was appointed chair of the AI Thailand board last month.

The army has brought defamation charges against them under the Criminal Code and the Computer Crimes Act for their report on incidents of torture and ill-treatment inflicted by soldiers in the far South in 2014-2015.

The report, documenting 54 cases of inhumane treatment in detention, was published in February this year. The research and report were partly funded by the United Nations Voluntary Fund for Victims of Torture.

Read original story here.
Scores of Thai officials, residents rally to salvage Russian Adventure

PHUKET: More than 50 officials and local residents came together last Saturday (July 23) to successfully salvage a Russian and Ukrainian couples yacht sunk by storms off Ao Nang, Krabi, two weeks ago.

marinetourismweatheraccidentspolice

By Tanyaluk Sakoot

Wednesday 27 July 2016, 08:38AM

More than 50 officials rallied to salvage the Russian and Ukrainian couples sunken yacht. Photo: Hat Noppharat Thara-Mu Ko Phi Phi National Park

More than 50 officials rallied to salvage the Russian and Ukrainian couples sunken yacht. Photo: Hat Noppharat Thara-Mu Ko Phi Phi National Park

More than 50 officials rallied to salvage the Russian and Ukrainian couples sunken yacht. Photo: Hat Noppharat Thara-Mu Ko Phi Phi National Park

More than 50 officials rallied to salvage the Russian and Ukrainian couples sunken yacht. Photo: Hat Noppharat Thara-Mu Ko Phi Phi National Park

More than 50 officials rallied to salvage the Russian and Ukrainian couples sunken yacht. Photo: Hat Noppharat Thara-Mu Ko Phi Phi National Park

More than 50 officials rallied to salvage the Russian and Ukrainian couples sunken yacht. Photo: Hat Noppharat Thara-Mu Ko Phi Phi National Park

Russian national Alexander Travkin, 31, and his Ukrainian partner Julia Mironova, 29, on July 7 reported to the Krabi Marine Police that their 12-metre yacht Adventure had sunk in storm conditions the night before while moored at Ao Nang. (See story here.)

However, all attempts to salvage the yacht up to last Thursday (July 21) had been unsuccessful. (See story here.)

The ongoing efforts to recover the yacht inspired more than 50 officials and local residents to co-ordinate their efforts last Saturday, resulting in success in refloating the yacht and moving it to a nearby safe haven.

This time more than 50 of us got together, Krabi Marine Chief Boonchaw Tangsiripaisan told The Phuket News.

We used our (Krabi Marine Office) speedboat and a boat provided by Krabi City Municipality, and we had the help other many other government offices that provided equipment to help recover the yacht.

We also had the tug boat from Jiawanich Pier, while Chokphana Pier provided two small tug boats as support, he said.

The yacht was towed to Klong Muang. It will undergo repairs there, Mr Boonchaw added.

Finally, we finished our job, and that was really good cooperation, he concluded proudly.
Visitors guide to stray animals

Providing care without causing harm

Wednesday 27 July 2016, 10:59AM

Soi Dog Foundation, a not-for-profit organisation established in 2003, is a legally registered charity in Thailand, the United States, Australia, the UK, France and Holland. Our mission statement is to improve the welfare of dogs and cats in Asia, resulting in better lives for both the animal and human communities, to create a society without homeless animals, and to ultimately end animal cruelty. John Dalley, co-founder and vice president, is available for interview. For more information please visit www.soidog.org or www.facebook.com/SoiDogPageInEnglish.

by Mike Pullen

Anybody staying in Phuket or who is a regular visitor to the island is familiar with the street dog and cats phenomena of Thailand, where these mostly friendly communal animals roam free, owning the road or sleeping in shopfronts to take advantage of the cool air escaping from the air-conditioned convenience stores. Street dogs or cats may be strays, pets which may have got lost or allowed freedom to roam by their owners, or may be feral animals that have never been owned.

Reasons for the large amount of stray animals vary, from pet owners abandoning their animals once they have outgrown their cute puppy or kitten stage to owners who have not had their animals neutered or spayed, resulting in unwanted puppies or kittens being born and being dumped at temples or in remote areas. In addition, existing street animals have been allowed to breed unchecked, adding to the number of street animals in Thailand.

Soi Dog Foundation realised since its inception in 2003 that the unchecked and growing population of street animals was resulting in the needless suffering of the stray dog and cat population in Thailand, as a large number of these animals suffered and died from a range of injuries, diseases, starvation and neglect.

With the donations and support of animal lovers worldwide, Soi Dog, with the help of the local Thai authorities, has humanely reduced the stray population in Phuket through their programme of mass sterilisation, medical treatment for the sick and injured, vaccination and sheltering and re-homing of these animals all over the world. This has reduced the suffering of street dogs and cats, and made the environment a safer and healthier place for the people and the street animals within their local communities, with Phuket also becoming the first officially rabies-free province in Thailand.

Whilst most of these street animals are extremely friendly and loyal, some have experienced extreme hardship and trauma, and as a visitor does not know the background of the dog in question, it is always advisable to exercise caution when approaching street animals.

Some visitors are tempted to help these animals by feeding them, if so, please do so well away from hotel and restaurants venues. Feeding these animals near hotels or restaurants can be counter-productive, as some of the hotel and restaurant managers believe that they are a nuisance to their customers, resulting in a potential loss of trade. This could lead to extremely negative consequences for these animals when they are removed from these environments.

When coming across a sick or injured street dog or cat (not owned animals) in Phuket, visitors and residents can call the Soi Dog shelter for assistance. It is important to make a very clear assessment and distinction between emergency and non-emergency situations. An emergency would be a serious road accident or serious injuries sustained during an attack leaving the animal in a critical condition, whilst nonlife-threatening situations can be handled during normal working hours, leaving the Soi Dog emergency responders free to deal with genuine life-threatening situations.

During normal shelter operating hours from 8am to 5pm, seven days a week, people can call 081 788 4222 for assistance for suffering, critical or not critical animals, and Soi Dog will, depending on availability, send a truck to pick up the animal and take it to the Soi Dog shelter for treatment.

Outside normal shelter hours, people can call 098 927 9698 for emergency assistance only. In situations like this, Soi Dog will ask you, if possible, to take the animal to one of the Soi Dog-contracted vet clinics in Phuket for emergency treatment.

In all cases, critical or non-critical, when calling for assistance, please try to take some photos of the animal or get a full and accurate description of the animal, be ready to give the precise location of the animal, a brief description of the injuries or the symptoms of the illness, and your name and mobile phone number.

Soi Dog invites local residents and tourists to visit the Soi Dog shelter in Mai Khao to learn more about street dogs and cats. The shelter is open to visitor tours from Monday to Friday at 9:30am, 11am, 1:30pm and 2:30pm, after which visitors can spend some time socialising with the puppies and kittens.

People wishing to volunteer can visit the shelter Monday to Friday between 9am-noon and 1pm-3:30pm. Soi Dog would like to thank the local Thai authorities and Thai communities, as well as the expat community and visitors to the island for all of their support to help end the suffering of dogs and cats in Thailand.
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.
Liberia National Day

Washington, DC - Secretary of State John Kerry: "On behalf of President Obama and the American people, I congratulate the government and people of Liberia on the 169th anniversary of your countrys independence.

"The friendship between the United States and Liberia dates back to the founding of your Republic and is based on a broad array of shared interests and values.

"Today, we are partners in supporting strong democratic institutions, promoting security and sustainable prosperity for our citizens, and - in the wake of the Ebola epidemic - striving to improve health care infrastructure and services to the benefit of all. The United States places a high value on our bilateral relationship and we look forward to working with you to make the most of future challenges and opportunities.

"I extend my very best wishes to all Liberians as you celebrate your national day."
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Pakistan army soldiers stand guard next to a damage army vehicle after an attack in Karachi, Pakistan, Tuesday, July 26, 2016. Pakistani police say unidentified gunmen have killed two army soldiers in a hit and run attack in the southern port city of Karachi. (AP Photo/Shakil Adil)
Pope Francis prays in the Wawel Cathedral in Krakow, Poland, Wednesday, July 27, 2016. Pope Francis has prayed by the relics of the late pope from Poland, St. John Paul II, at the and has met with Poland's bishops who vowed to "listen carefully" to his teaching. (Daniel Dal Zennaro/Pool Photo via AP)
Trick or Treat: Why do we do it? According to the National Retail Federation, Halloween is the countrys second largest commercial holiday, boasting an estimated $3.1 billion in candy sales. The roots of the holiday stem from the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain in which people gathered during the Middle Ages, dressed and performed as ghosts and demons...

Covering the gap The lump shows up at a routine mammogram. The thyroid has enlarged. Theres blood in the stool. The EKG reading is abnormal. Every one of these indicators are symptoms of potentially life-threatening conditions or disease. These conditions are often identified through preventive screenings at the local health department, and additional...

KICK OFF EVENT The BCHF welcomes Tim Tebow on Thursday, November 10. The Heisman trophy winner will speak at the Burke County High School J.D. Smith Auditorium at 6:30 p.m. Tickets sales benefit the foundation and its mission to serve our communitys underprivileged. For tickets, call 706-55-3456.

Breast Cancer; Burke Health asks if you are at risk Convenient appointments using state-of-the-art 3D technology can be performed right here in Waynesboro at the new Burke Imaging building at the Burke Health campus. Other than skin cancer, breast cancer is the most common cancer in American women, accounting for 30% of all diagnosed cancers. In addition, early onset breast...
The Jharkhand government is ready with a land bank to attract investment to the state. Land acquisition has never been a challenge for us as we have a land bank of 1,75,000 acres readily available for different industries to set up their businesses. Farmers are ready to give us land as we are paying a handsome price. We currently hold 40 per cent of India's natural mineral wealth and we are on the way to becoming the power hub of the country by 2019 , Jharkhand Chief Minister Raghubar Das said while launching the 'Momentum Jharkhand'the investment promotion campaign of his statein Bengaluru.

As part of its investment promotion drive, a delegation, headed by the chief minister, had met up with around 40 startup entrepreneurs in Bengaluru.

Our startup focus will not be restricted to the technology space but we will encourage startups in the field of agriculture, health and education. We will be developing a start up policy and a robust e-platform to mentor those startups which will seek help in setting up their offices in our state , Das said.

The Jharkhand government will be encouraging startups in the social field as well. We will be covering social enterprises in the startup policy of our state. We are committed to the civil society and would be facilitating initial funding for startups who look forward to social space, Chief Secretary Rajbala Verma, who was part of the delegation, said.

The Jharkhand government has also signed a MoU with the networking major Cisco in Bengaluru. Under the MoU Cisco, through its Network Academy Programme, will impart network training to the students of engineering colleges, polytechnics and degree level institutions in Jharkhand. This is expected to increase the availability of skilled networking resources in the state.

Besides, the state government has proposed greenfield smart cities in Ranchi and Barhi with the aim of speeding up urbanisation. With the intention of attracting more investors to the state, the government will organise the Jharkhand Investors Summit in February 2017.
Hillary Clinton announced Senator Tim Kaine as the Democrat's candidate for vice president on July 23, days after Republican candidate Donald Trump declared Governor Mike Pence as his.

Both Trump and Clinton selected safe bets as their running mates, according to political pundits. Twitterati wryly suggest that this election should have been more a Kaine versus Pence contest, rather than Clinton versus Trumpsuch is their reputation for a level-headed, civil dialogue on the debating platform.

The two running mates are anything but soft puppets in the shadow of their presidential candidates. The Democrats are using Kaine's untarnished political experience and public service record to carve an edge over the Republicans. On the other hand, Pence's cool temperament and unwavering right-wing ideological discipline make him a sensible foil to the dramatic Trump.

Here's what you need to know about the two possible vice presidents:

Tim Kaine, 58, Democratic Party

Kaine has had a steadily rising political career for the past 20 years

Picked out of vice presidential hopefuls such as Tom Perez and Tom Vilsack, he is celebrated for his undefeated political record. He started off as a lawyer in Richmond, Virginia. He won a seat in the city council in 1994, was elected as mayor in 1998, and became lieutenant governor of Virginia in 2002. He became governor in 2006 and had been shortlisted for vice president in the 2008 elections. He became senator in 2012.

He spent a year off law school to assist in running a Jesuit school in Honduras

He completed law school and practised law in Richmond for 17 years, representing cases for those who were denied housing on account of disability or race. Kaine's proficiency in Spanish is an advantage for Team Hillary to bring in Latino votes. He famously gave a 14-minute speech in Spanish in 2013the first time anyone has ever done thaton the Senate chamber floor, fighting for immigration reforms. His nomination is also expected to appease African-American voters.

Kaine is married to Anne Holton, who is currently the Virginia education secretary

Holton's father, Linwood Holton Jr, was a Republican governor of Virginia. He is famous for his anti-segregation fight, supporting laws to redress racial segregation in schools, considered controversial during his tenure. He even sent his children to traditionally black schools.

Kaine's track record is comparatively clean, without too many scandals

Even the accusation that he accepted gifts worth $1,60,000 was not enough to deal a catastrophic blow to his reputation. He was well within the state's predefined limits of gift tax laws.

Kaine and Clinton agree on most issues, except two

Kaine and Clinton see eye to eye on major issues such as abortion rights, strengthening gun control laws, and reforms in education. Last year, Clinton had openly opposed the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a free-trade agreement involving 11 countries that was discussed in October last year. Kaine had voted for it and it was signed this February. Clinton also has a more aggressive approach to military force. Kaine disagrees with her claim that the president has the power to use military force against terrorists, including ISIS.

Mike Pence, 57, Republican Party

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump (L) and Republican vice presidential candidate Mike Pence react to the cheers at a campaign stop at address an audience at the The Hotel Roanoke & Conference Center on July 25, 2016 in Roanoke, Virginia | AFP

After two unsuccessful tries, Pence made a dashing comeback to the political scene

A lawyer in the early days of his life, he contested for elections to the Congress in 1988 and 1990, and failed in both elections. In 1991, he headed the Indiana Policy Review Foundation, a free market think tank. In 1994, he had a successful stint as a talk show host on the radio. About 11 years later, he finally made it to the Congress. In 2013, he became the governor of Indiana.

He is against abortion and Planned Parenthood

In 2011, he was nearly successful in passing a bill to stop funding Planned Parenthood, before it was struck down by the opposition. This year, a bill banning abortions for reasons of genetic anomaly was signed into law by him.

Pence's family has been involved in all his campaigning

He calls himself a 'Christian, conservative and a Republic - in that order'. He met his wife Karen Pence during mass in a church, and got married in 1985. His wife and three children travel with him on his campaigning tours. Karen is a former school teacher, one of his sons is a marine corps officer, and his daughter is a budding film maker. Raised Roman Catholic, Pence is a born-again evangelical Catholic.

Pence is not immune to controversial misunderstandings

He received nation-wide attention last year when he signed into law a bill that, according to activists, could excuse discrimination on religious grounds and was anti-LGBTQ. But, after much backlash, he amended the law, and declared that the law was not meant to be discriminating against any particular person or group. More recently, Clinton claimed that Indiana cut down on state education funding under Pence's administration. It turned out to be false; spending on education has reportedly risen slightly since 2013, when Pence came into office, despite certain slashes in individual sectors of education.

Trump and Pence are unlike each other

Pence's far right-inclined conservative outlook in the economic and social spheres are well in tune with the GOP's current rhythm, headlined by Trump. But they still have their differences. For instance, Pence is against smash-mouth campaigning, which both Trump and Clinton have adopted aggressively. When Trump made his controversial statement about banning Muslims from the US, Pence stood up against it. He is still against it, but supports Trump for president.
The Society of Electrical and Electronics Engineers in Israel (SEEEI) held its first International Business Opportunities Gateway Forum in Vilnius, Lithuania. Over 85 entrepreneurs and business leaders, decision makers and senior officials from Israel and the Baltic countries met in the relaxed atmosphere of the Grand Vilnius Resort.

The meeting focused on electrical power and energy, and entrepreneurship. Participants discussed a variety of topics: energy management, cyber protection of critical infrastructure, entrepreneurship and start-ups, renewable energy, energy efficiency, and smart energy systems. The forum provides a platform for entrepreneurs and business professionals from industry and governmental agencies to collaborate and promote common business, and partnership in future projects and tenders.

Among the Lithuanian participants and keynote speakers were: Mr. Evaladas Gustas  the Lithonia Minister of Economy; Mr. Rokas Baliukovas  Lithuanian deputy Minister of Energy; Dr. Remigijus Simasius  the mayor of Vilnius; Dr. Aleksandras Abisala  former Prime Minister of Lithuania; Dr. Dalius Minisunas  chair of the Lithuanian Electrical Company. Israeli speakers include: Mr. Emil Koifman  chairman of SEEEI; Prof. Izzy Borovich  the forum chair; Mr. Elisha Yanay  chair of the Industrials Association of Electronics and Software Industries; Mr. Emanuel Marynko  Chair of Yanai Electrical Engineering.

Baltic States and Lithuania are considered innovative countries with an impressive economic growth rate and massive utilities and energy development programs. Many of the programs are funded by the World Bank and the European Union. Israel is considered a technological superpower with entrepreneurship, and technology competitive presence. Therefore, the Society of Electrical and Electronics Engineers in Israel, considers Vilnius to be an attractive hub for international opportunities.

SEEEI represents the Israeli community of electrical and electronics engineers, academics and decision makers engaged in electronics, electrical engineering, energy, and smart systems. SEEEI holds a major international annual conference in Eilat (Electricity 2016).

Emil Koifman, SEEEI chairman, said that the Business Gateway Forum in Vilnius is a platform for initiating business contacts to establish joint ventures and joint international projects. In an era of intelligent energy, Internet of Things (IOT), new technologies and developments, the market depends very much on partnerships. International commercial success is dependent business partnership .

(YWN  Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
Jerusalems Hagihon Water Company is working to tailor ones monthly bill to ones liking, offering the bill in one of five languages  Hebrew, English, Arabic, Russian or Amharit.

Officials in the utility company explain the city is made up of many residents who are more comfortable with another language, other than Hebrew, and it has taken a step to accommodate where possible.

Company CEO Zohar Yinon explains customer service ranks high for him and this is yet another step towards better serving Hagihon subscribers.

(YWN  Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
During the early hours of Tuesday morning 20 Tammuz, an unprecedented enforcement operation took place by the National Unit for Enforcing Planning & Construction, demolishing 14 illegal buildings in Kalandia, near the separation fence in sovereign Jerusalem territory.

Due to the scope of the operation, teams from across the county participated in the operation.

In recent weeks, some 14 houses were built illegally near the security fence, adjacent to the northern Jerusalem Atarot Industrial Park. Some of the buildings were built in the prohibited area precisely due to their proximity to the border barrier. The National Unit for Enforcing Planning & Construction in cooperation with the Ministry of Defense, acted to carry out administrative demolition orders against illegally constructed buildings. All the buildings were under construction and not yet occupied.

Riots accompanied the operations, including blockades and using axes to prevent officials from reaching the areas. Border police were out in large numbers to provide security during implementation of the operation. PA (Palestinian Authority) media sources report at least 30 persons were injured by rubber-coated bullets. Simultaneously, an operation to enforce the building code was ongoing in the eastern capital in which six other illegal structures were razed, all not-yet occupied.

Officials add that efforts to construct buildings in prohibited areas at Kalandia buffer zone have been on the increase in recent months.

(YWN  Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
Twenty-five Israeli teens are currently touring North America with the IDF Widows and Orphans Organization (IDFWO), the official representative organization for the families of Israels fallen soldiers. The participants all recently celebrated their Bar and Bat Mitzvahs together in a festive mass IDFWO ceremony in Jerusalem, attended by the President of Israel and other dignitaries. It is customary among many Israeli families to take their children abroad for a fun vacation to celebrate their coming of age, however, for the families broken by war, this is often not possible. The group visited Canada and Chicago last week and will be touring New York this week.

Jewish communities across North America made the trip possible by opening their hearts and homes. With the group staying at host families in Toronto, Chicago and across New York. In addition, they will be participating in Camp Ramah to further strengthen the bond between Israel and the diaspora for future generations.

Highlights of the trip so far have included pool parties, canoeing, Six Flags amusement park, watching the Chicago White Sox, Niagara Falls, Madame Tussauds, Time Square and even a visit to Walmart. All programing is designed to give the youngsters a break from their day-to-day responsibilities and enable them to build life-long friendships in a comfortable environment with peers that share a common bond.

For many of the group, it is their first time abroad making the program even more significant. Everyone brings a unique personal story; some were mere toddlers when their father or mother didnt return. For others the wounds are still raw from the recent operation in Gaza two years ago.

Shlomi Nahumson, IDFWO Youth Director commented: This trip is a life changing event for everyone involved, the participants, the counselors and even the host families. We come to celebrate life and temporarily ease the emotional baggage that these children carry with them daily. Watching us from a distance, smiling, laughing and enjoying, you wouldnt realize the pain and anguish these children have suffered from such an early age. At home they often have the chores and responsibilities of an adult, while at the IDFWO Otzma programs they are allowed to be children again, albeit temporarily.

(YWN  Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
The High Court of Justice rejected a petition seeking to block the appointment of Rabbi Eliyahu Hyshrik Shlita to the Chief Rabbinate of Israel Supreme Beis Din. The petition was filed by Hiddush and the Religious Freedom & Equality organization.

Attorney Yossi Chavilov represented the petitioners, seeking to have the court undo the decision made by the Dayanim Appointment Committee. Their objections to the appointment stems from an interview given by the dayan seven years ago in which he stated when he addresses custody issues, of education of children, he prefers religious education over secular. The petitioners feel it undermines the basic values of the State of Israel pertaining to equality.

Justices Uzi Fogelman, Yitzchak Amit and Tzvi Zilbertal rejected the petition stating among other things that Dayan Hyshrik was announced as a candidate over two and a half years ago. Now that the process has played out and the committee appointed the rav, the court does not wish to hear the petition.

The court also ruled there were no grounds for its intervention basing a case on a single newspaper interview dating back seven years. The court explained some would argue a news article is not worthy to present in court but whatever the case may be, since the committee interviewed the rabbi it has the needed data to reach its decision.

The newly-appointed dayanim are scheduled to appear at the Presidents Residence on Sunday, 25 Tammuz, at which time they will be officially inserted as dayanim.

(YWN  Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
U.S. National Security Adviser Susan Rice told Chinese officials that countries should work to reduce tensions in the South China Sea, but that the U.S. would continue to carry out the military operations there that have angered Beijing, a senior U.S. government official said Tuesday.

Rice told Chinas top diplomat, State Councilor Yang Jiechi, and top general Fan Changlong in meetings in Beijing on Monday that the U.S. hoped a recent international tribunals ruling on the South China Sea would spur negotiations in the region toward eventually resolving long-standing territorial disputes, the official said.

Rice is the highest-level White House official to visit China since the July 12 ruling that invalidated Beijings vast claims in the South China Sea, handing a victory to the Philippines, a U.S. ally.

In meetings with Yang and Fan, Rice said all countries should avoid taking actions that raise tensions and could raise the risks of miscalculation in the South China Sea, said the official, who wasnt authorized to comment publicly. She did not discuss the topic with President Xi Jinping when they met, the official said.

Rice also said the U.S. would continue conducting military operations in the South China Sea. Those operations are lawful. They will continue, theyve been long standing, theyve been designed to impart confidence and stability, the official said, describing the stance that Rice made in her meetings.

The U.S. has said such operations are intended to protect freedom of navigation. China has described such operations as heavy-handed intervention in the South China Sea.

Chinas official Xinhua News Agency said Fan, the general, told Rice that China opposed the tribunals ruling and would continue to provide strong backing to safeguarding Chinas national territorial sovereignty and security.

(AP)
North Korea warned the United States on Tuesday that it will pay a terrifying price if the Korean Peninsula sinks into deeper tensions, stepping up its rhetoric hours after U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry blasted Pyongyang for its nuclear program.

Kerry told a regional security conference being hosted by Laos that North Koreas pursuit of nuclear weapons  when the world is trying to rid itself of them  is very provocative and deeply concerning. He urged the country to follow the lead of Iran, which hammered out a deal to end its nuclear program in return for the lifting of sanctions.

However, North Korea was slapped with new U.N. sanctions in March, and Kerry urged the international community to fully enforce those and previous sanctions.

In North Koreas typical fashion of unleashing rhetorical threats, its foreign minister, Ri Yong-ho, told the same conference, known as the ASEAN Regional Forum, that the country is ready to face any sanctions. It was mindful of all possible sanctions when it took the inevitable strategic decision to develop nuclear weapons to counter the never-ending nuclear blackmails of the U.S., he said.

North Korea says it needs nuclear weapons to cope with what it sees as U.S. military threats. The United States stations about 28,500 troops in South Korea and regularly holds joint military drills with South Korea. Pyongyang has long demanded Washington withdraw its troops from South Korea and stop the joint drills, which it calls an invasion rehearsal.

We are ready to show that even a (powerful) country will surely not be safe if it tries to torment and harm a small country, Ri said, according to the text of his speech released to the media. The United States will have to pay dearly a terrifying price.

But in later comments to reporters, published by South Koreas Yonhap news agency, Ri struck a slightly conciliatory tone. As a responsible nuclear state, we will not carelessly use our nuclear weapons unless we come to face an actual threat, (or) a threat of invasion from another nuclear state, Ri was quoted as saying by Yonhap.

Whether or not North Korea conducts another nuclear test will entirely hinge on the United Statess attitude, he was quoted as saying.

Some analysts say North Korea has developed a handful of crude nuclear devices and is working toward building a warhead small enough to mount on a long-range missile capable of reaching the continental U.S. However, South Korean defense officials say the North has neither such a miniaturized warhead nor a functioning intercontinental ballistic missile.

Kerry said if Iran can give up nuclear weapons so can North Korea.

But North Korea alone  the only country in the world defying the international movement towards responsibility, continues to develop its own weapon, continues to develop its missiles, continues the provocative actions, he said.

North Korea in January did another nuclear test. In February, March, April, May, continually they have done missile tests, he said. So together we are determined, all of us assembled here  perhaps with one exception assembled here  to make absolutely certain the DPRK understands that there are real consequences for these actions.

Ri also questioned the legitimacy of the U.N. sanctions, saying there is no article in the U.N. charter that says nuclear or missile tests are threats to international peace. Had there been such an article, the Security Council should have taken action for every nuclear and ballistic missile test conducted by other countries, he said.

(AP)
A Russian presidential spokesman on Tuesday accused U.S. politicians of being paranoid after Democrat Hillary Clintons campaign blamed Russia for an email hack and suggested the goal was to help Republican Donald Trump in the U.S. presidential race.

Hacked emails posted by Wikileaks Friday suggested the Democratic National Committee was favoring Clinton over her primary rival, Sen. Bernie Sanders.

Clintons campaign on Monday blamed Russia for the hack. Trump has dismissed claims that it was committed by Russia for his benefit, calling them a joke.

Dmitry Peskov, spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin, said Tuesday that the allegation is just another paranoid attempt by American politicians to play what he called the Russia card during the campaign.

Were still witnessing attempts to use the Russian issue  in a paranoid way  during the U.S. election campaign, he told reporters on Tuesday. Theres nothing new here, its a sort of traditional pastime of theirs. We think its not good for bilateral ties but we realize that we have to go through this unfavorable period.

Peskov also denied what he said were reports that Trumps foreign policy adviser Carter Page met with Putins chief of staff during a visit to Moscow earlier this month, but it wasnt clear what reports he was referring to. A Google search turned up no such reports in Russian or English.

I asked Sergei Borisovich (Ivanov) if he has met this man, and Sergei Borisovich said he would not comment on such outlandish reports, Peskov said.

Page, who worked for Merrill Lynch in Moscow in the 2000s, visited in early July and gave a public address and a commencement speech at a university.

(AP)
[VIDEOS IN EXTENDED ARTICLE] The terrorist who fired at Otniel resident Rabbi Miki Mark HYD few weeks ago, Mohammed Pakia, was killed by IDF soldiers as they were trying to take him into custody.

He hid in his home and engaged soldiers in a firefight, resulting in his death. Other terrorists were taken into custody. There were no injuries to IDF forces. A tractor arrived a short time later to raze the home in the village of Tzurif in the Hebron district.

Rabbi Mark and members of his family were traveling near Otniel on an erev Shabbos July 1, 2016 when they were fired upon in a drive-by shooting. Rabbi Mark was killed and his wife critically injured along with other members of the family.



(YWN  Israel Desk, Jerusalem/Photos: Media Resource Group)
Commuters who use the Lincoln Tunnel are facing delays in and out of New York City because of a fatal motorcycle accident.

Port Authority police say a 23-year-old woman passenger died and the 35-year-old man who was driving the bike was injured in the crash around 3 a.m. Wednesday in the New Jersey-bound north tube.

The north tubed reopened around 6:30 a.m. following the investigation.

However, motorists are facing delays because only the south tube was open for traffic headed into New York City and the center tube was open for motorists headed to New Jersey during the investigation.

(AP)
As the new school year approaches, the Eida Chareidis is cracking down to determine which institutions are secretly accepting state funds in violation of their Taharas HaKodesh hashkafa. This is the response to the recent revelation that the Chachmas Lev School for girls was accepting funds from Satmars Keren Hatzalah while secretly taking funds from Israels Ministry of Education too.

Satmar officials are not taking this lightly and they are compiling a list of the names of all students in the Taharas HaKodesh schools and they are going to check with the ministry to make certain none of the names appear on the states list for funding too. Satmar is cutting off funds for any students whose name appears in the Ministry of Education database too and actions will be taken against the school.

The Eida and Satmar are warning they will not make exceptions and those found in violation will be ousted, adding they will only have themselves to blame.

(YWN  Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
Former Shas party leader Eli Yishai was in the Yaffa Military Court to lend support to soldier Sgt. Elor Azariya, who is giving testimony in the manslaughter trial against him. Azariya shot and killed a wounded terrorist on the ground on Purim in Hebron.

Yishai got his message out via Facebook, stating I find it hard to ignore the words of soldier Elor Azariya yesterday, the feeling as if the system has abandoned him. I am very concerned about the results of this trial and the message being transmitted to soldiers in the field.

As he left the courthouse Yishai added I understand the need to maintain the purity of arms and the values of the IDF but it seems that in this case, the system has lost its direction. Even if there was an operation failure, the saga could have ended with a reprimand as has been the case in operational mishaps in the past in which the IDF investigated and reprimanded officers and commanders but this case has deviated from anything we have known in the past.

(YWN  Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
When Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine and Hillary Clinton made their debut as the Democratic presidential ticket, he proudly declared, Hillary and I are soul mates in this struggle.

It was a message he delivered to the Miami crowd in Spanish.

In the days after Kaines selection as Clintons running mate, much was made of his time working with Roman Catholic missionaries in Latin America as a young law student. Fluent in Spanish, the former mayor of Richmond and governor of Virginia moved easily between languages when he spoke at that first campaign event.

But while some Latinos say theres a practical value to Kaines skills, they add the days are gone when that alone is enough to win over Hispanic voters.

Words are fleeting and actions are what matter, said Daniel Lopez, a 50-year-old security guard at a Mexican market in Santa Ana, California, who said hes voting for Clinton because of her strong work ethic  not what languages she or her vice presidential pick may speak.

Latinos make up about 17 percent of the nations population, and roughly half  27.3 million  are eligible to vote in 2016. According to the Pew Hispanic Center, nearly 70 percent of Latinos say they speak only English at home or indicate they speak English very well.

It was no accident that Kaine was introduced at an event in Miami, home to one of the nations largest Hispanic communities. While he joined Clinton for a joint interview with CBS 60 Minutes, Kaines first solo television interview was with Noticias Telemundo.

Marc Campos, a veteran campaign consultant in Houston, said Kaines appearances on Telemundo and its primary competitor, Univision, will help the campaign reach older Spanish-speaking Latinos who are more likely to vote.

In cities such as Houston, local Spanish-language stations pull in ratings near their top English-language competitors. Campos said on such stations, Kaine could also reach relatively new U.S. citizens  or people living in the country illegally, who cannot vote but may be willing to volunteer.

University of California, Berkeley political science professor Lisa Garcia Bedolla said Kaines use of Spanish calls attention to his ability to connect on key issues that matter to Latinos.

He kept talking about fe, familia y trabajo (faith, family and work). He was very respectful and humble about what he learned, she said.

Kaine, who delivered the first speech on the Senate floor entirely in Spanish in 2013, is expected to help Clinton promote plans to push for a comprehensive overhaul to the nations immigration laws and connect with families who are living in fear of deportation.

Beyond Florida, his language skills could be an asset for Clinton in the battleground states of Colorado, Nevada and Virginia.

In picking Kaine, Clinton bypassed two Latinos on her short list: Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Julian Castro and Labor Secretary Tom Perez. That drew sharp criticism from some Latino academics and activists.

The superficial usage of Spanish by a white politician to appeal to the Latino vote, in addition to the Clinton campaigns decision not to pick a Latino like Julian Castro for vice president, does reveal a long history of the Democratic Party taking the Latino community for granted, said Jimmy C. Patino Jr., a University of Minnesota Chicano Studies professor.

(AP)
A couple in their 70s have won a court victory over a timeshare firm that pocketed 7,000 of their money.

Harold and Brenda Walker paid the cash to a firm that promised to take an unwanted holiday property deal off their hands.

In 2008 they spent 22,000 on a so-called timeshare deal in Spain which, as long as they paid the 350 annual maintenance fee, allowed them to let out the property to other holidaymakers for one week a year.

Big win: Brenda and Harold Walker's victory is believed to be the first of its kind in Britain

After struggling to make any money, they were approached by International Timeshare Refund Action (Itra), which promised to get them out of their contract and win compensation.

It asked for 7,180 and told the couple they would get at least that amount back because they had been mis-sold the property and could claim compensation. A year later the Walkers were in dispute with the company and still waiting for compensation.

They launched an 18-month legal battle and last week Itra returned their money. The judge concluded that the contract was void because it did not contain key information and the firm should not have asked for upfront fees.

The Walkers victory is believed to be the first of its kind in Britain. Chris Emmins, founder of KwikChex, a company that investigates other firms and helped the Walkers to win their case, says: This could open a flood of claims.

The Walkers were brave and we wanted to do everything we could to help them.

Around 500,000 British families own a timeshare. These deals became popular in the Eighties and Nineties when property developers targeted holiday- makers in sunspots such as Spain and Florida.

Salesmen told families that, for an upfront fee, they could own a share in a hotel room or apartment, which they could use for a set number of weeks every year.

Now, however, owners are desperate to sell. Many no longer use the properties, but are still paying thousands of pounds a year in fees for upkeep.

Not-so-sunny deal: In 2008, the couple spent 22,000 on a so-called timeshare deal in Spain

Others, such as the Walkers, were told they could make money by letting out the timeshare, only for very few bookings to materialise.

Harold and Brenda were contacted by Itra in May 2014 and offered a meeting to discuss how they could claim compensation. Itra says it obtained their information from a third party.

The couples timeshare contract entitled them to a week a year in one of eight properties in Spain.

They were told that it would be easy to let out their entitlement to other holidaymakers, providing income to top up their pensions.

They never made much money, however, and the fees became an annual burden.

Harold, 79, a retired accountant, and Brenda, 76, a former teacher, agreed to an obligation-free chat about a no-win, no-fee claim at Itras office in Slough.

They were worried that their timeshare was in perpetuity, which meant the property and its ever-increasing maintenance fees could be passed to their children after their deaths. Itra told them it could take the timeshare off their hands.

With KwikChex's help, the couple took Itra to Milton Keynes County Court last month

The Walkers were told they could join a class action lawsuit to win compensation for victims of timeshare mis-selling and were asked to pay 7,180 upfront on the basis that they might be able to claim this  and more  back through the lawsuit.

The Walkers signed a contract and the salesman drove them to a bank branch to make a cash transfer.

The company says the Walkers requested the location of the nearest bank and that they could have paid by cheque or card.

For five months after the meeting the Walkers say they heard nothing about the court action.

Harold says that when he called the firm he was told the right person was not around to speak to him or the court proceedings were taking longer than expected and he just needed to be patient.

Itra says that the Walkers failed to complete a power of attorney form and other documents which it needed to proceed with their claim.

Harold searched the internet and discovered other people had been frustrated when trying to get rid of timeshares. Then he found KwikChex, which was already investigating a number of timeshare companies.

With its help, the couple took Itra to Milton Keynes County Court last month.

Pair were told they could join a class action lawsuit to win compensation for victims of timeshare mis-selling

The judge ruled that their contract was null and void because it contravened timeshare regulations on a technical point.

The contract excluded information about a so-called withdrawal form, which should have outlined the 14-day cooling off period during which the Walkers could have changed their minds. Itra should not have taken any fees until this period ended.

The judge made no findings over the way Itra approached and dealt with the Walkers.

Harold says: Weve had sleepless nights. I just felt so embarrassed. we didnt even tell our children for a while  we didnt want them to worry. I had to make sure that other people would not be put through this.

A spokesman for Itra says it helped to form RCI (Europe) Action Group to win compensation for timeshare victims.

It says the lawsuit was heard in the High Court in May, but as yet no judgment has been handed down.
Mortgage borrowers after over 40 have been given a major boost after banks loosened the purse strings on loans that stretch into old age.

After the financial crisis in 2008, lenders slapped strict age caps on mortgages, which blocked many older workers and pensioners from getting a deal.

Now lenders are scrapping these unfair limits and launching new offers to help customers stay in their homes for longer.

How does yours measure up? Compare how lenders cap mortgages as you age

Why 40 became too old to borrow

Before the financial crisis struck eight years ago, it was fairly simple to secure a mortgage whatever your age. Banks and building societies were less worried about when you were due to retire  and more concerned with making a tidy profit.

With house prices rocketing, there seemed very little risk to dishing out large mortgages, so checks on customers were minimal.

Many lenders, including giants Nationwide and Halifax, did not have any age restrictions in place at all.

Then the credit crunch hit. Banks and building societies became panicked and started to impose strict rules on who could borrow. They decided lending into retirement was dangerous  pensioners might not have enough income to keep funding a mortgage  so they imposed strict age caps.

These limits were as low as 65 or 70. By then you were expected to have cleared your mortgage in full.

Yet those rigid age policies quickly started to cause problems of their own. Many major firms stopped giving older borrowers standard loans for 25 years if they would still be paying it off after they retired.

Increasingly, people who wanted to move their families to a bigger home in their 40s or 50s found they were blocked from getting a deal.

These caps also caused huge problems for people on interest-only mortgages, who either couldnt or didnt want to pay them off on the day they retired.

And the problem was only due to get worse, with soaring house prices meaning some borrowers were having to delay buying a home until their late 30s or 40s.

Dumped: Lenders are scrapping unfair limits and launching offers to help customers stay in their homes

Strict limits are crumbling

The most significant problem facing borrowers in their 40s and 50s is moving home. At this age, your earnings are likely to peak, children are in their teenage years and you may need more space.

But moving to a larger home usually means a new mortgage.

Another issue is borrowing more against your house, for example, for a new conservatory or vital repair work. Again, you could face a completely new assessment of whether you can afford the loan  taking into account your age.

Many of the largest lenders would make you pay through the nose.

Barclays and RBS  which are among the worst for age restrictions  will let you borrow until age 70. This means for someone aged 55, the loan term will be 15 years at most, rather than 25.

When you reduce the term, your monthly repayments rocket. On Barclayss 1.35 per cent two-year fixed-rate deal, youd pay 589 a month on a 150,000 mortgage over 25 years. Spread over just 15 years, the monthly repayments would shoot up to 921.

For some people this would be too expensive because their incomes wouldnt stretch that far  and the bank would reject them.

Now, after pressure from Money Mail, lenders are finally starting to loosen the purse strings.

In May, Halifax, Britains biggest mortgage lender, increased its age cap by five years to 80. And last week, Nationwide, the largest building society, increased its limit from 75 to 85.

Worrying: Many major firms stopped giving older borrowers standard loans for 25 years if they would still be paying it off after they retired

A dozen building societies have increased or scrapped their age caps since the end of last year. In total, 12 have no age limit at all.

To find a lender that will cater to your age, check our table above.

However, it is important to note that a high age limit  or none at all  doesnt guarantee youll be accepted for a mortgage. Each lender has its own criteria youll have to meet.

For example, if you want to take out a mortgage that stretches further than your named retirement date, lenders will assess your pension to see if you will earn enough to cover the repayments.

Nearly all lenders will ask you for a pension projection from your provider to find out how much income you are likely to receive when you retire.

Someone in their late 40s might have one saying theyre on track for an estimated pot of 170,000, providing an income of around 10,000 a year if they bought an annuity.

Investments or income from other pots of cash can often count, too. Here it gets a bit fiddly.

Smaller lenders, particularly building societies, have teams of underwriters that assess each case individually. By contrast, big banks rely on computers that reject anyone who does not tick all of the boxes.

They can be tough on borrowers who are paid a significant portion of their salary in bonuses or receive investment income, for example.

Santander will take into account only 50 per cent of any cash you earn from your investments or any rent you receive from a property.

Market Harborough, Newbury and Stafford Railway building societies are among the best at taking into account investment income, mortgage brokers say.

It helps if your investments show decent levels of returns and the risk is spread out, says Simon Collins, of broker John Charcol.

Lenders get nervous if you have all of your eggs in one basket.

Spreading your risk means having different types of investment, such as shares, government bonds, cash, property and commodities such as oil or gold. Speak to a financial adviser if you need help.

Barclays and RBS  which are among the worst for age restrictions  will let you borrow until age 70

How to survive a mortgage time bomb

Most people in their 60s and 70s will be nearing the end of their mortgage term. If youre on a repayment deal this should mean youre close to paying it off  unless youve borrowed more later in life.

There are also an estimated 1.7million outstanding interest-only mortgages across Britain.

These borrowers have been paying off just the interest on the loan each month.

This type of loan was widely sold in the Nineties and early 2000s as a cheap way of getting on to the housing ladder as the monthly repayments are lower.

For example, HSBCs 1.99 per cent five-year fixed-rate deal costs 635 a month for a 150,000 loan on a repayment basis.

On interest-only it would cost just 249. Crucially, borrowers have to repay the entire loan when the mortgage term ends, typically after 25 years.

Many people were sold complicated investment policies called endowments to clear this debt. They paid in a small amount each month and were told the fund would grow big enough to pay off the loan.

But most endowments performed miserably, leaving borrowers tens of thousands of pounds short of the cash they needed.

Lenders are now contacting interest-only borrowers asking how they are going to pay  and many simply dont have the cash.

That means they must try to extend their mortgage. One option is switching to a repayment deal.

If you are 60, you may be able to take a 25-year mortgage with Ipswich Building Society, Mansfield BS or Darlington BS, which all have age limits of 85.

Alternatively, find a building society without an age cap.

If you are slightly older, you may still qualify for a repayment mortgage with a shorter term.

For example, someone aged 55 with 150,000 outstanding on their mortgage might be eligible to borrow from Yorkshire Building Society, which has an age cap of 75.

Its 2.08 per cent five-year fixed-rate costs 971 a month over a 15-year term. Over ten years it would cost 1,386 a month  an extra 415.

Note that by stretching the term you end up paying more over the course of the deal.

Youd pay 174,744 over 15 years on the Yorkshire deal, but 166,270 over ten years  8,474 less.

There are also an estimated 1.7million outstanding interest-only mortgages across Britain

If youre already retired youll be asked for a pension statement showing the income you have to fund a mortgage.

To show how much state pension you receive, provide a bank statement. If you are to retire shortly, contact the Future Pension Centre by calling 0345 3000 168 for an estimate of how much youll receive.

Some lenders allow you to continue with an interest-only mortgage. But most have strict terms and conditions and will only consider borrowers with at least 50 per cent equity in their home.

Santander and NatWest will lend up to 50 per cent of the value of the property on interest-only and a further 25 per cent where the capital and interest is paid.

A 150,000 mortgage on a 200,000 property would mean 100,000 on repayment and 50,000 on interest-only.

If you go for Santanders 1.64 per cent two-year fix, the repayments would be 339 in total (136 a month interest-only and 203 repayment). Clydesdale Bank allows you to take out 75 per cent on interest-only and 5 per cent on repayment.

That means you need just 20 per cent equity in your home. But your property must be worth at least 400,000.

Interest-only mortgage timebomb calculator This calculator shows borrowers with no plan to repay an interest-only loan, or whose investments have fallen short, how much extra you may have to find if your lender forced you on to a repayment mortgage. Details of your mortgage Mortgage amount 

Interest rate %

Duration years THE TIMEBOMB Monthly payment (interest-only)

Monthly payment (repayment)

Your extra monthly payment

Extra over life of mortgage

Best ways to pay later in life

If these options are out of reach for you, there are other ways to stay in your home. Around 2,000 borrowers a month are tapping into the equity in their houses as a solution.

Equity release is similar to a normal mortgage, but you dont have to make monthly repayments. Instead, interest is rolled up and the loan is repaid from the proceeds of your house once you die or if you move to a care home.

Its for over-55s only and is seen as a last resort as its more expensive than an ordinary mortgage. The roll-up effect tends to double your debt every 12 years.

But rates have fallen over the past couple of years.

Five years ago, the cheapest equity-release deal was 6.13 per cent. Releasing 50,000 from a 200,000 property would have cost 122,051 over 15 years. Today, Legal & Generals 4.88 per cent lifetime mortgage would cost you 103,932.

However, new equity-release deals are being launched that allow you to pay interest each month, rather than watching it roll up into a giant bill.

Hodge Lifetime offers a deal like this at 4.39 per cent. Releasing 50,000 from a 200,000 property on its retirement mortgage costs 81,775 over 15 years. That saves you 22,157 against traditional equity release.

Its only different from interest-only because youre tied in for life.

If you are aged 80, after five years you can stop paying interest and have it added to the debt.

There are also new options for clearing some debt in lump sums.

New lender OneFamily allows you to repay 10 per cent of the original loan amount each year without penalty.

This helps to cut your costs if you expect to receive a windfall, perhaps from an inheritance. You pay slightly extra for this option, with its fixed rate costing 5.8 per cent a year.

Before you take out equity release, it is vital to talk to your family.

And you should always consult a specialist financial adviser  you cant afford a mistake as its a life-long commitment.

David Hollingworth, of broker London & Country, says: Its a big decision and taking equity out of your home can affect how much you pass on to your children and grandchildren.
Families who had huge chunks of their charity donations snatched by the taxman earlier this year have had 1.6 million in Gift Aid payments refunded to the causes they chose to support.

Gift Aid is a refund of the income tax you have already paid on your donation. It provides a vital boost to charities at no extra cost to you.

But in March, Money Mail revealed how HMRC was refusing to pay the tax refund to charities if you wrote more than one name in a message alongside your donation on a fundraising website, for example: Love from Mum and Dad.

Money Mail revealed how HMRC was refusing to pay the tax refund to charities if you wrote more than one name in a message alongside your donation on a fundraising website

Under Gift Aid rules, you are not allowed to claim the refund on behalf of someone else. But fundraisers say writing a loved ones name in a message when sponsoring friends or donating in memory of a relative shouldnt mean you lose the refund, as you are still donating your own money.

HMRC appears to have eased back on its strict interpretation of the rule.

Howard Bell, chief commercial officer of fundraising website JustGiving, says it has since received a 1.6 million payment from HMRC for the Gift Aid claims it had withheld since November.

The firm expects another, smaller payment later this year.

An HMRC spokesman says: Nothing has changed, our position has always been that Gift Aid can be claimed when an individual donor, who pays tax in the UK, makes a donation, even if additional names are added in a supporting message.
Profit pounding

Engineering giant GKNs profits fell after its policy of fixing exchange rates eight years in advance meant it did not benefit from the pounds fall.

Earnings fell 14 per cent to 182million for the six months to June 30. A 30million cost-cutting drive will see 300 managers axed, 30 from the UK.

Slip: Earnings for the engineering giant fell 14 per cent to 182million for the six months to June 30

Shares rose 3.31 per cent, or 10p, to 299.9p after GKN proposed a dividend hike to 2.95p-a-share from 2.9p.

Man staying

The worlds biggest hedge fund said it will stay in the UK following the Brexit vote.

Profits at Man Group fell 66.3 per cent to 41.9million in the first six months of 2016 and the amount of money it manages dropped by 1.8billion to 58.3billion.

But investors pumped 763million into Mans funds during the period.

Taxi wars

Mercedes owner Daimler is to go head to head with Uber after acquiring rival taxi booking app Hailo.

The German car giant will merge the British owned technology firm with its MyTaxi app to create Europes largest taxi-hailing service. Daimler will have a 60 per cent stake in the merger.

Virgin optimistic

Virgin Money will grow even if the economy declines, its chief executive has said. Jayne-Anne Gadhia said there had been strong customer demand since the Brexit vote and no evidence of increased caution.

She said mortgage and credit card lending targets would be met in 2017. Underlying profit for the first half of 2016 rose 53 per cent to 101.8million.

In fashion

Louis Vuitton owner LVMH revealed a better-than-expected set of second quarter results.

The Paris-based luxury fashion group reported improvements in trade in China, a slowdown in Europe and Japan but booming sales in the US.

First-half revenue rose by 3 per cent to 14.4billion. Profit was flat at 2.5billion.

Family affair

Saudi Arabian and British family wealth funds are joining forces for a 1billion offer to buy Londons luxury Grosvenor House Hotel.

They would also get majority stakes in the Plaza and Dream Downtown hotels in New York.

The bid has been mounted by UK family office 3 Associates, with most of the cash coming from a Saudi family which runs a Dubai private wealth fund.

Hyundai down

Profits at South Korean car maker Hyundai fell for the tenth consecutive quarter. The firm said second-quarter net profit fell 3 per cent to 1.1billion.

Defence drops

UK defence exports fell 800million to 7.7billion in 2015 because of a lack of major orders.
ARM Holdings, the British technology star which last week agreed to be bought by Japan's SoftBank, today reported strong second quarter growth in both revenues and profits.

The FTSE 100-listed chip designer posted a 5 per cent increase in pre-tax profits to 130.1million, as its sales jumped by 17 per cent to 267.6million.

Last week, SoftBank announced a 24billion mega-deal to a acquire the Cambridge-based company, which supplies technology for Apple's iPhone.

Confident: ARM has shrugged off concerns that a saturated smart phone market would cap its growth

The chip firm, which began as a joint venture with Apple in the 1990s, also bumped up its interim dividend by 20 per cent to 3.78p a share

ARM shares on the FTSE 100 index, however, were 1p lower at 1,675.0p at lunchtime, holding below Softbank's offer price of 1,700p a share.

Analysts pointed out that, although strong, ARM's results came in slightly below expectations, and the firm did not issue any guidance for full year revenues, citing the Softbank takeover.

Matthew Ramsay, analyst at Canaccord Genuity, said: 'Reported quarter two revenue slightly below consensus, with higher-than-anticipated overall licensing revenues but below-consensus royalty revenues as the overall macro environment remains challenging.'

ARM's results come after Apple - its biggest customer - last night reported a second-consecutive fall in profits as sales of its flagship iPhone continued to decline, although the slow down was less then expected.

Apple shares jumped 6 per cent higher in after-hours trade in New York, and look set to lead a rally on Wall Street later today.

ARM has shrugged off concerns that a saturated smart phone market would cap its growth and has shifted its focus to connected devices - otherwise known as the so-called Internet of Things.

ARM announced another Asian tie-up today, this time with Chinese private equity firm HOPU Investment Management.

The pair will launch an industry fund focused on the Internet of Things, smart devices, big data and cloud computing.

ARM's chief executive Simon Segars said: 'Our royalty revenue growth continues to outperform the wider semiconductor industry, driven by market share gains and the increasing adoption of ARM's latest technologies.

'With more end-users selecting ARM technology for products ranging from sensors to satellites to supercomputers, we expect this outperformance will continue.'

He added: 'ARM is continuing to invest in products that will support our partners' roadmaps as they develop next-generation technologies such as 5G networks, autonomous vehicles and the Internet of Things.'

The microchip firm is UK's only real rival to the US powerhouses of Silicon Valley and made a 414.8million profit last year.

The takeover by SoftBank has garnered some mixed responses, not least from ARM founder Hermann Hauser who last Monday described it as 'sad' for British technology, adding that it did not bode well for the future of the sector.

SoftBank pledged a major recruitment drive in a bid to soothe the takeover fears. It has promised to double ARM's UK workforce, and to hold on to its existing management team following the swoop.

All smiles: SoftBank boss Masayoshi Son and ARM chairman Stuart Chambers bashed out the deal

According to new Takeover Code rules introduced last year, the Japanese firm could face court action if it fails to meet promises to double staff numbers and keep its head office in the UK.

Earlier this week angry ARM employees issued a plea for shareholders to block the 24billion Japanese takeover of their company.

Workers at the company are claiming it could devastate the business and see jobs moved offshore

In a review for website Glassdoor - which lets staff rate their workplace - one anonymous user claiming to be a senior software engineer asked ARM chief executive Simon Segars: 'What have you done?'

He wrote: 'ARM is more than a successful technology company. It is a carefully-cultivated and maintained engineering paradise.

'Not only do you work with some of the best engineers in the world on a day-to-day basis, but the company culture is something special.

'Employees here are not treated as human resources on a sheet, but rather you feel like you're being invested in by the company.'

The writer said ARM offered good pay as well as share options to give staff a stake in success.

It also provided a chance to work on everything from video game technology to the world's most advanced computer chips.

The worker caution stems from the infamous Kraft/Cadbury deal back in 2010.

The then Kraft chief executive Irene Rosenfeld pledged to support Cadbury's factory in Somerdale, near Bristol - only to announce its closure six days after the acquisition was completed.

Nevertheless politicians have so far proven reluctant to intervene in the ARM takeover.

New Chancellor Philip Hammond claimed the takeover would turn ARM from a 'great British company into a global phenomenon.'

Some analysts have pointed out that ARM already is a global phenomenon.

Meanwhile Prime Minister Theresa May has said the deal shows Brexit has not turned off successful overseas investors from coming here.

Her official spokeswoman said: 'This is clearly a vote of confidence in Britain. It will be the biggest ever Asian investment in the UK.'
British tech company ARM Holdings has announced a jump in profits ahead of a planned 23bn takeover by Japanese giant SoftBank.

The Cambridge-based company revealed a 5pc profit rise to 208m for the first half of the year, and revenues climbed 19pc to 544.1m.

It also highlighted a string of major projects including a contract to build radiation-resistant microchips which can be taken into space on NASA satellites.

British tech company ARM Holdings has announced a jump in profits ahead of a planned 23bn takeover by Japanese giant SoftBank

Other victories included a ground-breaking deal for work in China and an agreement to work on high-performance supercomputers at Japan's RIKEN advanced research centre.

ARM shipped 3.6bn microchips around the world in the three months to July, up 9pc on a year earlier. The results highlight the company's strong performance and global reputation, and have triggered fresh calls to keep it out of foreign hands.

There has been increasing pressure on Prime Minister Theresa May to block the deal.

But the Government has given its backing following pledges by SoftBank to double the number of staff at ARM and keep its headquarters where they are.

City grandee Lord Myners, a former Treasury minister, said the figures were fresh evidence that a rethink was needed.

'It was short-sighted of the Government to rush out with welcome statements when SoftBank announced it was taking over this British jewel,' he said.

'ARM is one of our last large, innovative tech companies.'

ARM's own employees have raised their own concerns.

On workplace review website glassdoor, one writer claiming to be a senior software engineer said: 'It may take five years, or ten years, but eventually things are going to diverge, tough times will appear, promises aren't going to be remembered, and lots of loyal staff are going to be left out in the cold.

The Cambridge-based company revealed a 5pc profit rise to 208m for the first half of the year, above, Simon Segars, chief executive officer of ARM Holdings

'We...were proud to work for a British company. Now it feels as if we're doomed to be another appendage to an out-of-country operation.'
The outgoing boss of GlaxoSmithKline has hailed a strong set of results after sales rose by a better-than-expected 11pc.

Sir Andrew Witty, who is standing down as chief executive of Britains biggest drugs company next March, said his turnaround strategy was on track.

Revenues rose by 11pc to 6.5bn in the second quarter of the year amid strong demand for HIV and lung medicines.

The outgoing boss of GlaxoSmithKline, Sir Andrew Witty, above, has hailed a strong set of results after sales rose by a better-than-expected 11pc

But the company reported losses of 318m for the period as shares rose 1.8pc, or 29.5p, to 1696.5p as it proposed a 19p a share dividend for the second quarter.

The figures came as Glaxo outlined plans to invest an extra 275m on three manufacturing plants in Britain in a major vote of confidence following the vote to leave the European Union.

Although Witty backed Britain staying in the EU, Glaxo is set for big gains in the rest of 2016 thanks to the weak pound, which boosts the value of money earned overseas when it is brought back to the UK.

Demand for new medicines helped in the second quarter with sales of its new products more than doubling to over 1bn. The increase was driven by HIV drugs Tivicay and Triumeq, lung drugs Breo, Anoro, Incruse and Nucala, and meningitis vaccines Menveo and Bexsero.

Witty, who is standing down as chief executive, said his turnaround strategy was on track

Sales in consumer healthcare  where brands include Sensodyne, Day & Night Nurseand Panadol  rose 7pc to 1.7bn.
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.
TRN archives

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By Bridget Knight of the Times Record News

One of the most heartwarming stories in recent Wichita Falls history unfolded 30 years ago this summer at Wichita Falls Municipal Airport, when a pair of Romanian refugees who had been resettled in Wichita Falls were reunited with their young son after nearly two years of anxious separation.

Young Alexandru Anastase was just a few days short of his second birthday when his parents, Mihaela and Constantin, were forced to leave him behind in their homeland as they fled religious persecution in that Communist nation in 1984. Communist authorities allowed them to escape to refugee camps in Europe, but would not release the toddler, who was placed in the custody of Constantin's parents.

The Committee of World Outreach of First Christian Church eventually helped Mihaela and Constantin settle in Wichita Falls, where Constantin went to work as an engineer for Washex Machinery Corp. Obviously, their efforts to secure Alexandru's release would have been ongoing, but the methods that eventually allowed the boy to fly from Bucharest to New York were not reported.

What was reported was that the 3-year-old was reunited with his father on May 1, 1986, in New York, and together they flew to Wichita Falls for a full reunion that brought everyone in the airport to tears. Little Alexandru seemed confused by all the flash bulbs, reporters noted, but never let go of one parent or the other.

Alexandru, by then better known as Alex, graduated from Rider High School in 2001 after making it to state in two UIL science competitions and qualifying as a commended student in the National Merit Scholarship competition. He is now a doctor practicing in Dallas. His parents still live in Wichita Falls.
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By Times Record News

An Iowa Park man set to plead guilty next month to physically assaulting an ex-girlfriend over several days in 2015 is now facing a sexual assault charge from the same incident.

Michael Scott Greene, 45, was served an arrest warrant in Wichita County Jail Tuesday for aggravated sexual assault. His total bail is now $1.36 million.

According to the affidavits:

Greene was initially arrested on March 5, 2015, after Iowa Park police served a warrant for the aggravated assault family violence charge.

Wichita Falls police were called to the Budget Host Inn, 1601 Eighth St., around 6:46 a.m. on March 2, 2015, for an assault. The woman, who the affidavit states might have also been sexually assaulted, was taken to the hospital.

Detectives spoke with the woman at the hospital and she said she'd been friends with Greene for 27 years but didn't start dating until April 2013.

She said she broke up with him a few months later because he was "acting crazy" and she found drugs and drug paraphernalia that he was using. Since the break up, she said he'd been driving by her house and called her on a regular basis and described what she was doing at the time. She also said she'd made reports of Greene sexually assaulting and harassing her.

On Feb. 27, 2015, Greene found the woman at a gas station and "ordered her to follow him or he would hurt or kill her daughter and parents." Once at the hotel, he was verbally abusive to her and kept her awake the whole night.

The next day, the woman said Greene took her to a storage unit and made her get her lingerie and make up and "dress up for him while he called her foul names and was verbally abusive" for several hours. After several hours, Greene started "interrogating" her and would threaten her if she didn't answer correctly.

On March 1, Greene demanded her phone and, when she wouldn't give him the code to unlock it, he choked her, put his fingers up her nose and covered her mouth so she couldn't breath until she gave it to him. He became angry when he found messages from other men.

He sexually assaulted her while slapping, punching, kicking and choking her. The woman said Greene also pulled her hair and laughed, covered her nose and mouth if she made any noise, squeezed her face in an attempt to break her jaw and teeth, put his thumbs in her eyes, bit her ear, nose and face and dropped his knees on her, allegedly breaking her ribs, during the assault.

The woman said Greene later forced her to go to his vehicle and said he was going to kill her and himself, and threatened to stab her if she did anything to get attention. He threatened to set her on fire while playing with a lighter.

She said Greene drove them to a dope house near Ninth Street and bought methamphetamine. When they returned to the motel, the woman said Greene sexually assaulted her again and began choking and beating her again.

Greene then forced her back into the vehicle, drove her to the main gate of Sheppard Air Force Base while telling her he was going to kill her. He then turned around and returned to the motel room. When she saw an open door near her motel room, she ran in and told the occupant of the room she needed help. Greene left the scene.

Evidence was collected at a hospital and submitted to the Department of Public Safety Crime Lab in Garland. Nov. 12 report stated semen was detected in the swabs from the sexual assault kit. Detectives submitted DNA samples from Greene to determine if the semen was a match.

On July 26, a lab report from the crime lab stated the DNA mixture from the sexual assault kit is "257 quintillion times more likely to be a mixture of DNA from the victim and Greene than the victim and an unknown or unrelated person."

According to court documents, Greene was scheduled to plead guilty to aggravated assault family violence and injury to an elderly on Aug. 19. According to the most recent plea bargain, he was to be sentenced to 13 years in prison for those offenses.
Lauren Roberts/Times Record News

By Christopher Collins of the Times Record News

Two city of Wichita Falls maintenance workers killed this month by exposure to hazardous chemicals were the first local government employees to die of chemical inhalation in Texas since at least 2010.

Even at the national level, fewer than 2 percent of city and county workers killed on the job died as a result of exposure to "chemicals and chemical products," data collected by the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics indicates.

Daniel Arredondo and David Sheppard, the deceased Wichita Falls maintenance employees, died after being exposed to fatal levels of hydrogen sulfide gas inside a wastewater treatment plant, according to a statement released by the city. They reportedly were repairing a malfunctioning pipe valve that was leaking sewage when, for unknown reasons, they removed their breathing masks and air tanks and were exposed to the deadly gas.

A cursory state investigation found no wrongdoing on the city's part, though other, separate investigations are ongoing.

On-the-job deaths are reported to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which tracks statistics on worker injuries and deaths at federal, state and local levels. Its data indicates that only 18 of the almost 1,400 local government employee deaths from 2010 to 2014 were due to exposure to chemicals or chemical products  less than 2 percent. Statistics for 2015 are not yet available.

But the tracking system does not give details about the incidents in which the workers were killed, and the Occupational Health and Safety Administration does not keep records of some workers' deaths if the incidents fall outside of their jurisdiction.

The same data shows city and county workers are most frequently killed by moving vehicles and other people. In 2014, for example, more than half of local government employee deaths were reported as the cause of "transportation incidents." About 30 percent of the workers killed that year died at the hands of criminal suspects, jail inmates or other people.

Wichita Falls officials so far have been at a loss to explain what caused the buildup of hydrogen sulfide gas that killed Arredondo and Sheppard. One theory was that an industrial business had discharged a large amount of sulfur to the treatment plant, though that possibility was ruled out after it was determined none of the industrial users have large sulfur outputs.

City officials have hired Frisco-based Freese and Nichols Engineering to investigate how the gas became so concentrated, since it was "considered unusual for there to be hazardous levels of hydrogen sulfide in the area in which the employees were working."

Luis Villanueva, a former employee of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and current employee of the Texas Engineering Extension Service, has also agreed to conduct an inquiry into the incident, though it appears that whatever investigation he conducts will not be on behalf of those entities.
Tom Bursey appointed to serve on WFISD school board, representing District 5. Photo by Lana Lana Sweeten-Shults

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When retired Air Force veteran Tom Bursey ran for Wichita County Commissioner in 2014, the Times Record News editorial board welcomed his entrance into the public service arena.

Bursey had already served his country and wanted to serve his community. We at the TRN celebrate any time someone wants to solve problems rather than simply point them out.

Most of us only do the latter.

Bursey faced a formidable force in the November 2014 election, losing to eventual Precinct 2 Commissioner Lee Harvey. While we endorsed Harvey in that race, we recall thoroughly enjoying our time spent getting to know Bursey and hoped he wouldn't take this one defeat and never enter another ring.

We didn't have long to wait for Bursey to re-emerge. As the sole applicant for the vacated District 5 position on the Wichita Falls Independent School District, Bursey stepped right into outgoing president Trey Sralla's shoes.

Our preference would not be an appointment. We want the voters to decide who represents them, not a team of so-called insiders handpicking someone who might, a skeptic might surmise, take name recognition to a win in November.

One option would be to wait out the duration until November, keeping that slot open until the election decides who represents District 5. If the Supreme Court can have a vacancy, a school board could, right?

As Superintended Michael Kurht said last week, in complimenting Bursey, that District 5 is represented, with two at-large positions serving that community. So, what's the hurry?

The board shouldn't, however, have a vacancy. Far too many issues are addressed in the weeks leading up to an election  tough decisions, perhaps, that depend on thoughtful, reinforced representation.

Bursey was the only one to answer the call for applicants, the only one to step up instead of simply standing on the sidelines. Kudos to Bursey, who may find come November he doesn't want to continue serving his community in that capacity. He can file for office in August.

We doubt he'll walk away. What we saw in Bursey two years ago remains, a willingness to contribute.

Also willing to contribute, Adam Groves, who seeks the District 3 seat to be vacated by Kevin Goldstein. Welcome to the arena. We salute your desire to improve the lives of our community's youngest members.
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FINANCIAL

LEVERPOINT MANAGEMENT LLC

David Goldstein joined as a fund team accountant. Goldstein previously served as a cooperative intern at IBM.

Tasnim Matawala joined as a fund team accountant. Matawala previously served as an associate consultant in fraud investigation and dispute services at Ernst & Young in Mumbai, India.

Zhenni Xue joined as fund team accountant. Xue previously served as an accounting clerk and legal executive.

John Evans joined as a fund team accountant. Evans previously worked as a bookkeeper and accountant at Kraftees College Town.

Dylan Glebatis joined as a fund team accountant. Glebatis previously worked as an intern.

Mickie Yorks joined as an AP clerk on the Management Company team. Yorks previously worked in the business office at a floral industry company.

Angela Perrone joined as an accountant. Perrone previously worked as an accounting intern.

GLENVILLE BANK HOLDING COMPANY

Mark D. Massaroni was named president of the Scautub Agency. Massaroni has more than 38 years of experience with the insurance agency and previously served as vice president.

MEDIA

THE PATIENT EXPERIENCE PROJECT

Meghan Crozier joined as an account manager in the Client Services department. Crozier previously served as director of communications at the New York State Recreation & Park Society.

NONPROFITS

THE MUSEUM ASSOCIATION OF NEW YORK

Erika Sanger joined as executive director. Sanger has more than 30 years of experience as an educator and museum professional, previously serving as the director of education at the Albany Institute of History and Art.

FUZEHUB

Beth Bornick joined as matching program manager. Bornick previously served as director of a NASA-funded matching service that provided engineering assistance to businesses in New York state.

Amber Mooney joined as industry engagement manager. Mooney previously served as development coordinator at the Ballston Spa Central School District.

PROFESSIONS

KW MISSION CRITICAL ENGINEERING

Michael Gontarek joined as a mechanical engineer in the Troy office. Gontarek will design mechanical systems for data center clients across the country.

BOND SCHOENECK & KING

Mike Billok, partner, was named cochair of the chemical group, part of the firm's new manufacturing industry group.

REAL ESTATE

REALTYUSA

Geldi Tocci joined as a licensed real estate sales associate in the Saratoga Springs office.

SUNRISE MANAGEMENT & CONSULTING

Heather Schechter joined as director of marketing. Schechter previously worked at Event Horizons LLC, a company she launched in 2015 to provide marketing consulting services in the Capital Region.

WEICHERT REAL ESTATE AFFILIATES INC.

Amy Mayer joined the Expert Advisors Latham office.

SERVICES

THE ADELPHI HOSPITALITY GROUP

Michel Ducamp joined as chief operating officer at the Adelphi Hotel and its restaurant, Salt & Char, in Saratoga Springs. Ducamp has more than 30 years of corporate, multi-property and property-based experience in luxury hospitality and real estate management.

SMG

Doug McClaine was promoted to general manager of the Albany Capital Center. McClaine will retain his title and duties as assistant general manager at the Times Union Center in addition to his new role.

 Jennifer Patterson
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Albany

A $17.6 million federal grant will allow the Port of Albany to scale up its infrastructure to move and store heavy cargo.

With the grant, plans for a new on-dock warehouse to better accommodate a big lift system can proceed. The port also will use the money to upgrade terminals and reconstruct the port roadway.

Port of Albany General Manager Richard Hendrick said he hopes that the investment will bolster regional manufacturing.

"This will carry us 50 years into the future," he said Tuesday.

The grant, awarded by the federal TIGER program, for Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery, will contribute with state and port funds to a larger $50 million expansion and upgrade project dubbed ExPort Upstate NY.

The TIGER program fully funded the Port of Albany's application for $17,629,800.

Hendrick said the port has previously lost some shipments because it lacked infrastructure capabilities.

"We're positioned now where we can assist and bring projects to upstate New York," he said.

The TIGER funding will be allotted to three reconstruction projects  the on-dock warehouse, the outdoor maritime terminal and the port roadway  and separate terminal improvements, like safety upgrades.

A new dock on the south end of the port will include a roll-on, roll-off ramp for barges. Currently, a 1,000-ton crane brought to Albany from New York City is required to lift heavy pieces from these barges, which adds to shippers' costs, Hendrick said.

Optimistically, the projects will take about two years to complete, he said.

The Port of Albany has applied for TIGER money in previous funding rounds. In 2015, it asked for $15.5 million, and in 2014, it asked for $17.3 million for a barge feeder service. Both requests were unsuccessful.

U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer said he lobbied Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx for this year's grant.

Schumer said in a statement that the federal money will "support the growth of this vital job-creating economic engine of the Capital Region.

"This major federal investment will help the port accommodate larger cargo shipments and exports that our manufacturers need to be competitive with the rest of the world," he said in a statement.

Schumer appeared at the port last week to express his support for the project.

In a statement Tuesday, Albany Mayor Kathy Sheehan thanked Schumer for his advocacy.

GE Power said at last week's event that facility upgrades are necessary to use barges to move heavy generators and turbines.

"Our newest products are 30 percent heavier, one and a quarter million pounds," Jeff Connelly, vice president of global supply for GE Power, said at the event.

The Port of Albany, in its most recent annual report, said it was responsible for $800 million in state economic output annually and for 1,400 jobs locally.

lellis@timesunion.com  518-454-5018  @lindsayaellis
"Barbershop: The Next Cut": Workers at the shop arrange a weekend ceasefire among local gangs. The script by Tracy Oliver and Kenya Barris is a strong balance of serious and funny that is accented by comedians who love to improvise. Cedric the Entertainer continues to shine as the shop's veteran employee, Eddie.

"Criminal": Killer (Kevin Costner) gets the memories of a government agent. Costner ventures into "Silence of the Lambs" territory playing Jericho Stewart, a criminal with no moral compass. His violent ways are the aftermath of a childhood injury that affected the part of his brain that understands right from wrong. Costner's portrayal of both the psychopath and the pseudo-psychopath is the most interesting thing in the movie.

"The Boss": Business leader (Melissa McCarthy) is not greeted with open arms after a stint in prison. The film is about as funny as getting fired on your birthday. Not only is this movie devoid of any humor, it promotes both the forced labor and physical abuse of children. Try laughing at that.

"Hardcore Henry": This is a movie that is so much like a first-person shooter video game that a joystick should come with every DVD. The entire movie was shot using a GoPro camera fastened in front of the face of the actor. That means every scene is from the hero's point of view, whether it be a gun battle in the streets, a fight with a tank in the woods, a bloody conflict in a brothel or one of the other countless excessive scenes of death and destruction. The film is to action movies as "The Blair Witch Project" is to the horror genre. Both depend entirely on the gimmicky way the production has been put together and banks on no one noticing that there's less plot than in a one-panel comic strip.

Also new on DVD:

 "Sing Street": Boy starts a band to impress a girl he likes.

 "The Invitation": Divorcees' past haunts the present.

 "Soledad": Driver makes an unlikely friendship with a high school girl.

 "The Boy Who Cried Werewolf": No one will believe story of a werewolf attack.

 "NOVA: Operation Lighthouse Rescue": Efforts are made to save a historic lighthouse.

 "Jack Irish: Season 1": Guy Pearce stars in this conspiracy thriller.

 "Opry Video Classics": Includes performances by Johnny Cash, Tammy Wynette, Conway Twitty, Loretta Lynn, Waylon Jennings and more.

 "I Am Wrath": Man starts his own investigation into the death of his wife. John Travolta stars.

 "Nature: Nature's Perfect Partners": A look at how animals form alliances.

 "Hellhole": Woman sent to sanitarium is terrorized.

 "River": Goes from the shores of the Mekong River up to the mountains in the north.

 "Lee Scratch Perry's Vision of Paradise": Documentary filmed over 15 years on the man who created reggae and dub.

 "The Last Diamond": Planned robbery goes bad when the thief falls for the target.

 Tribune News Service
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Waterford

Executives at Momentive Performance Materials say the company is done negotiating a new contract for its unionized workers at its Waterford and Willoughby, Ohio, plants and has given the IUE-CWA its final offer.

The company, which is headquartered in Waterford, where it employs 1,050 people, has been in talks with the IUE-CWA since June 6. The two sides have yet to reach an agreement, and Momentive provided what it says is its "last, best and final" offer to the union last Friday.

"Our goal is to reach a fair balance between what is competitive in the marketplace and what meets our employees' needs," the company said in a statement. "We want to avoid a work stoppage and move forward with the investments that we have planned for Waterford and Willoughby. We believed our best hope of doing so was to provide our best proposal so that our represented employees would see for themselves that the offer is a good deal for them, their families, and the future of the company."

Momentive is offering a three-year deal that would provide a $3,500 "ratification" bonus that employees would receive after voting to approve the contract, as well as a wage increase of 5.5 percent that comes out to an added $9,000 over three years.

Workers would be moved to a high-deductible health plan in the third year of the contract, and it is expected that premiums for the health plans in the first two years would also rise.

Momentive makes silicones and quartz products. The Waterford plant makes silicones, while the Willoughby plant makes quartz used in the semiconductor industry.

It is unclear if the IUE-CWA, which also represents 45 people at the Willoughby plant, will schedule a vote on the offer. The union had said that health care was a major issue for membership going into the talks.

IUE-CWA Local 81359, which represents 700 workers at the Waterford plant, has been holding meetings about the company's offer at the fire station down the street from the plant.

Meetings with members were scheduled for all week, including one held Wednesday morning and one Friday afternoon.

IUE-CWA Local 81359 President Dom Patrignani could not immediately be reached for comment on the union's plans.

lrulison@timesunion.com  518-454-5504  @larryrulison
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Colonie

Sa'fyre Terry played with Mike the State Police dog and thanked troopers during a tour Tuesday at Troop G headquarters in Latham.

The 8-year-old, who suffered disfiguring burns during a 2013 fire at her Schenectady home, hung out in a State Police cruiser. She said she would have preferred it in her favorite color  pink, Capt. Nancy Poulin said.

Last year, Sa'fyre asked for Christmas cards and her aunt, with whom she lives in Rotterdam, launched a Facebook campaign. The family was overwhelmed by the response.

Volunteers, including the State Police, assembled in a warehouse to open more than 1 million Christmas cards addressed to the girl.

A crowd-funding page raised close to $500,000.

Last week, Poulin said, Ryan Lorey of Capital Region Toys for Tots called to say Sa'fyre wanted to thank the State Police for helping her sift through the mountain of gifts and cards.

Lorey, the girl's godfather, accompanied her on Tuesday.

"We did it to help her out and for her to come back and say thank you to us, it's just so rewarding and it just warms your heart," Poulin said.

She said Sa'fyre briefly spoke from the second-floor balcony to a crowd of about 40 law enforcement officials and civilians gathered in the first-floor lobby.

"She said 'Thank you, all' and then looked at me and said, 'This is crazy,' " Poulin said. "She has a lot of energy, a lot of love and just brightens your day."

Sa'fyre's father and three siblings died in a suspicious fire at their Schenectady home.

The girl spent months in a burn unit. She lost one of her hands, needs a specially made mouthpiece to stop her mouth from shrinking because of scar tissue and has endured multiple plastic surgeries.

pnelson@timesunion.com  518-454-5347  @apaulnelson
Philadelphia

Hillary Clinton became the first woman in U.S. history to win a major political party's presidential nomination  a mark she passed first on the votes collected Tuesday in a state-by-state roll call, and then by acclamation at the suggestion of her chief Democratic rival, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, who made it "in the spirit of unity."

A few hours later, former President Bill Clinton praised his wife of 40 years in a keynote address that began with a light-hearted account of their courtship in 1971 and gave way to an exhaustive and glowing account of his wife's career.

"She's insatiably curious," Clinton said. "She's a natural leader, she's an organizer, and she's the best darned change-maker I've ever met in my entire life."

The former occupant of the White House from 1993 through 2000  who after November could become the nation's first gentleman  brought all his prodigious Southern-flavored storytelling skills to bear as he wove together the story of their marriage and his wife's work in education and social justice causes. It was a story in which, despite his considerable accomplishments (and familiar scandals), he played a mere supporting role.

Clinton never mentioned Republican nominee Donald Trump by name.

More Information On the Web Follow Times Union state editor and columnist Casey Seiler for updates on the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia: Twitter: @caseyseiler Web: http://timesunion.com and at the Capital Confidential blog, http://blog.timesunion.com/capitol See More Collapse

Ending his story with his wife's work as secretary of state, Clinton archly asked the audience how anyone could square his account with the far darker portrait offered at last week's Republican convention, where chants of "Lock her up!" were popular.

His answer: "One is real, the other is made up."

"Life in the real world is complicated and real change is hard," Clinton said. "And a lot of people, maybe, think it's boring. Good for you, because earlier today you nominated the real one."

The real Hillary Clinton appeared a few minutes later in a live video feed from New York that emerged from a shattered montage of past presidents  all but one of them white men  to praise "the biggest crack in that glass ceiling yet."

Tuesday's program included a string of speakers who praised Hillary Clinton's work in the aftermath of the 2001 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, when she was a newly elected junior U.S. senator from New York.

The praise for Clinton included shrapnel for Trump: Rep. Joe Crowley of Queens angrily noted that the real estate mogul initially said his Lower Manhattan properties were unaffected by the attacks, then applied for and received federal funds from a program designed to assist small businesses crippled by the disaster.

Away from the stage, the efforts to focus the convention on building up Clinton and tearing down Trump encountered some familiar difficulties.

While Sanders' gesture at the end of the roll call earned long and sustained applause in the hall, it prompted a few hundred of his supporters  the Vermonter sent more than 1,800 delegates to the convention  to file out and gather in the steaming heat just outside the convention hall.

While some decided to re-enter the arena, a large contingent streamed into one of three media tents and sat down silently, using the familiar tactics of the Occupy movement as they waited for the appearance of a spokesman who never arrived.

Many wrote "No voice" on tape and put it across their mouths. Others held signs opposing the Trans-Pacific Partnership and other causes familiar from Sanders' campaign. One woman seated on the floor tore off pieces of tape and blocked out Sanders' name from a campaign sign.

After about an hour, the activists stood up  some to go back into the arena, others to join other pro-Sanders protesters outside the security cordon around the convention hall.

"A large number of them just felt that they hadn't been listened to," said Richard May, a delegate from outside Bellingham, Wash. He described the action as "organic" and not the result of any sort of organized effort, either within or outside the Sanders campaign.

While the frustrations of disaffected Sanders supporters were far less visible inside the arena compared to Monday  when the opening hours of the convention were marked by frequent booing whenever Clinton's name was mentioned  the occupation of the media tent was another sign that the nominee has considerable work to do to earn the support of Sanders' most diehard supporters.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a longtime friend and supporter of both Clintons dating back to his work in Bill Clinton's administration, attempted to seal up that breach by welcoming Sanders to the New York delegation's Tuesday breakfast reception. The governor praised Sanders' efforts to shape a more progressive platform for the party, and noted the many points of overlap between his own agenda and the Vermonter's  including his support of a $15 minimum wage.

Cuomo, who grew up in Queens, also noted that Sanders' is "a Brooklyn boy."

The senator received wild applause from his delegates in the room, and wasted no time in saying that the first order of business for Democrats was the defeat of Trump, "the worst Republican candidate in the modern history of this country."

While it's not unusual, Sanders noted, for a GOP candidate to support policies that would disadvantage minorities and working people, "what makes Trump different is he is, in fact, a demagogue that does not respect or understand the Constitution of the United States of America."

cseiler@timesunion.com (518) 454-5619 @CaseySeiler
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Saint-Etienne-Du-Rouvray, France

The Islamic State group crossed a new threshold Tuesday in its war against the West, as two of its followers targeted a church in Normandy, slitting the throat of an elderly priest celebrating Mass and using hostages as human shields before being shot by police.

It was the extremist group's first attack against a church in the West, and fulfills long-standing threats against "crusaders" in what the militants paint as a centuries-old battle for power. One of the attackers, who grew up in the town, had tried twice to leave for Syria; the second was not identified.

"To attack a church, to kill a priest, is to profane the republic," French President Francois Hollande told the nation after speaking with Pope Francis, who condemned the killing in the strongest terms.

The Rev. Jacques Hamel was celebrating Mass for three nuns and two parishioners on a quiet summer morning in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray when the attackers burst in and forced the 85-year-old priest to his knees before slicing his throat, according to authorities and a nun who escaped.

She described seeing the attackers film themselves and give a sermon in Arabic around the altar before she fled. Paris prosecutor Francois Molins said the other hostages were used as human shields to block police from entering. One elderly parishioner was wounded.

The two attackers were killed by police as they rushed from the building shouting "Allahu Akbar," Molins said. One had three knives and a fake explosives belt; the other carried a kitchen timer wrapped in foil and had fake explosives in his backpack.

One of the assailants was identified as Adel Kermiche, a 19-year-old who tried to travel to Syria twice last year using family members' identity documents, but was arrested outside France and handed preliminary terrorism charges. Kermiche had an electronic surveillance bracelet after a judge overruled prosecutors and agreed to free him, he said.

A statement published by the IS-affiliated Amaq news agency said the attack was carried out by "two soldiers of the Islamic State" who acted in response to calls to target nations in the U.S.-led coalition fighting the extremists in Iraq and Syria.

Haras Rafiq, managing director of the Quilliam Foundation, a counter-extremism think tank, described the attack as a turning point. "What these two people today have done is ... shifted the tactical attack to the attack on Rome ... an attack on Christianity," he said.

He warned that it could "radicalize people from both sides of the communities. Muslim and non-Muslim."

The increasing speed with which IS has claimed responsibility and the growing number of attacks this summer have left Europe alarmed and fearful.

Targeting a church in the rural Normandy heartland resonated with France's leadership and Christians across Europe. While France is officially secular and church attendance is low, the country has deep Catholic roots. Islamic State extremists have urged followers to attack French churches and the group is believed to have planned one earlier church attack that was foiled when the assailant shot himself in the leg.

The slain priest had been at the church for the past decade and "was always ready to help," said Rouen diocese official Philippe Maheut.

"His desire was to spread a message for which he consecrated his life," Mahut said. "And he certainly didn't think that consecrating his life would mean for him to die while celebrating Mass, which is a message of love."
Philadelphia

Bernie Sanders loyalists protested inside and outside the Democratic National Convention site and clashed with police on Tuesday after Hillary Clinton won the party's presidential nomination.

Despite Sanders' calls for them to support Clinton, thousands of activists have taken to the streets during the convention this week to voice support for the liberal Vermont U.S. senator and his progressive agenda.

After Clinton had become the first woman to be nominated for president by a major U.S. political party, Sanders supporters who had spent the day protesting began facing off with police in the streets. Protesters began scaling 8-foot walls blocking off the secure zone around the arena parking lot, and several were detained. An officer sprayed one of the protesters.

The protests continued into the night with Sanders supporters and anti-police brutality protesters joining together. They marched in the street outside of the Wells Fargo Center. Later, someone set an Israeli flag on fire while people chanted "long live the intifada."

Unmoved by Sanders' plea for party unity, the Bernie or Bust protesters walked miles in the stifling heat again Tuesday to make their case for him. They held a midday rally at City Hall, then made their way down Broad Street to the convention site. By early evening, a large crowd had formed outside the subway station closest to the arena.

"We all have this unrealistic dream that democracy is alive in America," said Debra Dilks, of Boonville, Missouri, who said she wasn't sure she'll vote in November. "Hillary didn't get the nomination. The nomination was stolen."

The crowd consisted of an assortment of protesters espousing a variety of causes, but mostly Sanders supporters and other Clinton foes on the left. College student Cory James said he expects the Democratic Party to split over the nomination.

"I suspect we are witnessing an event that will fundamentally change American politics," said James, of Flint, Mich.

Earlier in the day, participants at the rally charged that Sanders was cheated out of the nomination, and they said they weren't swayed by his Monday plea to his supporters to fall in line behind Clinton for the good of the country.

"He persuaded no one to vote for Hillary," said Greg Gregg, a retired nurse from Salem, Ore., who intends to cast his ballot in November for Green Party candidate Jill Stein.

The longstanding bitterness between Sanders' supporters and Clinton's seemed to grow worse over the past few days after a trove of hacked emails showed that officials at the Democratic National Committee played favorites during the primaries and worked to undermine Sanders' campaign.
One Sunday in high summer in 1920, the hills of central eastern Columbia County were almost as awash in visitors as they were with the area's favorite fruit, blueberries.

The Aug. 5 issue of the Chatham Courier that year reported on the previous weekend's berrying:

"It is conservatively estimated by residents in the immediate vicinity of the Austerlitz postoffice (sic) that between 400 and 450 automobiles were parked along the roadway, in the village, last Sunday and that there was an average of five persons to a machine and in addition no less than 160 horse-drawn vehicles were tied up here and there between the postoffice and the top of Huckleberry hill (to) bring the number of visiting berry pickers up to a total of about 3,000."

For decades, from about 1890 to 1940, blueberries were a rich source of income, and antioxidants, for farmers and other residents of rural communities in Columbia County. (They were called huckleberries then, probably incorrectly. The main distinctions are the seeds  huckleberries have 10 hard seeds; blueberries, lots of tiny soft ones  and that huckleberries, much more prominent in the Pacific Northwest than the east, grow wild, not commercially. For the purposes of this story, we'll use "blueberries.")

More Information More food festivals Other food festivals coming up this year include: New York State Food Festival, Aug. 10, Empire State Plaza, Albany Vermont Garlic & Herb Festival, Sept. 3 and 4, Camelot Village, Bennington, Vt. Saratoga Wine & Food Festival, Sept. 9 to 11, Saratoga Performing Arts Center, Saratoga Springs Mohawk Valley Garlic & Herb Festival, Sept., 10, Canal Place, Little Falls. Hudson Valley Garlic Festival, Oct. 1 and 2, Cantine Field, Washington Avenue, Saugerties. If you go Austerlitz Blueberry Festival When: 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday Where: Old Austerlitz Village, 11550 Route 22, Austerlitz Admission: $7 (free for age 11 and younger). Blueberry-pancake breakfast, held 9 to 11:30 a.m., is $7 extra for adults, $3 for kids younger than 12. Info: 392-0062 or www.oldausterlitz.com See More Collapse

After the middle of the 20th century, according to research about blueberries in Austerlitz by town historian Tom Moreland in the summer 2016 issue of the Austerlitz Historical Society newsletter, out-of-towners bought up land that had once been cleared for farming, allowing trees and other growth to block out sun for berry bushes, and they also put up fences that blocked berry-pickers.

Some berries remained, particularly on Harvey Mountain, on the southeast side of Austerlitz. Rob Lagonia, now Austerlitz town supervisor, remembers picking blueberries while camping on the mountain with his family as a child more than 40 years ago. A photo taken some half-century before Lagonia's family outings, of a pair of women in sun bonnets and carrying buckets for berry-picking on Harvey Mountain, was the inspiration for what has become one of the town's biggest annual events.

The Blueberry Festival, scheduled for 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday on the grounds of Old Austerlitz Village, a circa-1830s historical campus, is in its 17th year and now draws almost as many blueberry fans as one of those August Sundays in the 1920s. The day starts with a blueberry-pancake breakfast for more than 600 and continues with historic displays and demonstrations, crafters selected for their commitment to historical methods and products, live music, family fun and more.

The festival was conceived after a former director of the historical society saw the photo of the two women. Research revealed the scope of blueberries' importance to the town as well as a charming, if not exactly confirmed, story: that the women were picking berries to sell in order to pay their taxes.

"It's become part our identity again," says Moira O'Grady, current head of the historical society. "People really associate us with it now  the festival and with blueberries. They know we're all about blueberries on the last Sunday of July."

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O'Grady prefers her berries raw, in a bowl with a little cream, perhaps a sprinkling of sugar if the indigo orbs are a tad tart. Lagonia is a blueberry-pie man at heart, though while wearing his town supervisor hat he loves blueberries in all forms.

"The festival is fantastic," he says, gushing like a chomped blueberry. "It attracts so many people, it's so well run, and it's really reconnected us with our history. We're so lucky to have the Blueberry Festival in our town."

As much as organizers try to evoke the past at the festival, there's one fact of modern times they haven't yet been able to change: There are no blueberry farms in Austerlitz. The hundreds of pints of blueberries on order for the festival will be coming from Samascott Orchards in Kinderhook, 16 miles away.

sbarnes@timesunion.com  518-454-5489  @Tablehopping  http://facebook.com/SteveBarnesFoodCritic
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Bethlehem

Members of the Bethlehem Industrial Development Agency board have become increasingly anxious about delays to Monolith Solar's $4.6 million headquarters project planned for Slingerlands.

At the IDA meeting Wednesday morning, board members were informed that Monolith is now trying to get a mortgage from KeyBank to finance the project.

KeyBank would be the third bank that Monolith has tried to get a loan from since first announcing the project back in 2014.

Just last month Monolith said it had obtained financing from Berkshire Bank after originally working with Kinderhook Bank.

Monolith, which is based in Rensselaer, where it said it has run out of space, wants to build a new 26,000-square-foot headquarters and an adjoining solar farm at the Vista Technology Campus off Route 85.

Attorney Thomas Connolly, executive director of the IDA, said he has been told Monolith has a term sheet outlining the financing from KeyBank for a loan but would need a commitment letter and then close on the loan before it could move forward.

Connolly said it is unclear if all of that could happen by Aug. 25, the deadline for Monolith to start construction and retain IDA incentives.

"Obviously they want an extension, and I am assuming that will come up at the August meeting," Connolly said. The IDA meets on Aug. 24.

A Monolith spokesman could not be reached for comment.

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The IDA originally granted Monolith an incentive package that included $600,000 in tax breaks in February 2015, with a deadline to begin construction in February 2016. The deadline has since been extended to Aug. 25, and the board would have to make an exception to its rules to extend the deadline further. Gov. Andrew Cuomo also offered the company $800,000 in incentives to keep it from relocating to Missouri.

"So it seems like they are moving, slowly," said IDA chairman Frank Venezia. "It sounds like if they move forward they still want to do the project."

Board members seemed open to an extension although they said they would like to get more assurances from Monolith and its owners, as well as its developer, Columbia Development, and would like them to attend the Aug. 24 meeting.

Board vice chair Joe Richardson said he would assume Monolith could have a commitment letter from KeyBank that it could share with the board by the meeting.

lrulison@timesunion.com  518-454-5504  @larryrulison
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Albany

The longtime executive director of one of the state's largest police unions was fired last month for undisclosed reasons following an internal investigation.

James F. Lyman, 51, a former Albany police officer, received a letter from the union, Council 82, notifying him of his termination from the leadership position he has held, in various capacities, for more than 10 years. The executive board for Council 82, which represents more than 3,800 state and local law enforcement and correction officers across the state, voted unanimously to terminate Lyman during a meeting on June 27, according to another letter the organization distributed to local union leaders.

The union's letters did not specify why Lyman was fired from the job that paid him more than $185,000 last year.

Two people with knowledge of the matter said Lyman was placed on administrative leave in May after he returned from a national labor meeting in Washington, D.C.

Lyman was placed on leave and locked out of Council 82's Colvin Avenue headquarters in Albany around the time the union's leadership began examining his dealings in the private insurance marketplace and whether they overlapped with his union's insurance contracts. Police officers familiar with the union's business dealings said Lyman used a union credit card to purchase Florida airline tickets for himself and two family members, but that Lyman repaid the travel costs through payroll deductions after alerting a union official that he inadvertently used the card for a personal purchase.

Last month, Lyman was interviewed by Robert Hite, an attorney and former Council 82 general counsel who was appointed by the union to investigate the situation. Lyman answered questions from Hite but was not allowed to have an attorney present, according to a person with knowledge of the meeting.

Michael Koenig, Lyman's attorney, said the Council 82 executive board has declined to meet with Lyman or give him a reason why he was fired.

"To this day Jimmy has not been told what he supposedly has done wrong, and he has offered several times to meet with them and respond to whatever concerns they have," Koenig said. "Jimmy would welcome the opportunity to meet with the board, listen to their concerns, and respond accordingly."

Council 82 leaders have declined to comment.

Lyman joined the Albany police force in 1988 after four years as an Albany County correction officer. He left the department for full-time union leave in 2004. He retired from his police job about eight years ago.

His reign at Council 82 has been controversial at times. In 2010, Lyman and then-Council 82 President Christian M. Mesley, also a former Albany officer, filed a personal injury lawsuit against Albany County District Attorney David Soares claiming they suffered "mental anguish" from comments Soares made about them during the 2008 election cycle. The unusual lawsuit came after Mesley and Lyman had clashed with Soares publicly for years and openly supported opponents of the district attorney in past elections, including devoting union funds and resources.

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The same year the lawsuit was filed, and later dropped, some city police officers privately questioned Lyman's filing of a series of workers' compensation claims, including one that stated a claim for hearing loss due to loud noises from sirens and gunfire. Another claim filed by Lyman alleged he suffered permanent foot, arm and hand injuries due to years of police work, including a 1992 incident when he tripped over a stereo speaker.

Union officials have declined to comment on their decision to place Lyman on leave and fire him a month later.

Council 82 is affiliated with the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. Lyman, who also served on the executive council of the state AFL-CIO, previously served as Council 82's elected statewide president.

In February, a new insurance brokerage geared toward law enforcement, National Public Safety Professionals, was incorporated at the address of a Loudonville home owned by Lyman.

On his LinkedIn page, Lyman lists himself as a partner in the venture, though another of the firm's principals, Saratoga Springs insurance agent David Daignault, previously told the Times Union that Lyman's role in the business was "minimal."

blyons@timesunion.com  518-454-5547  @brendan_lyonstu
[July 27, 2016] Columbia Asia Receives $101M Investment from Mitsui & Co.

Columbia Asia, one of the largest and fastest-growing healthcare companies in Asia, announced today it is receiving $101 million in investment from Mitsui & Co., Ltd., one of the world's largest and most respected trading companies. Columbia Asia, part of Seattle-based Columbia Pacific Management, has 27 hospitals and one clinic in India, Malaysia, Vietnam and Indonesia, built with an innovative business model focused on serving Asia's rapidly growing middle class with modern and efficient multispecialty hospitals located close to where patients live and work. Tokyo-based Mitsui & Co., Ltd., already a major healthcare investor in Asia, said it saw tremendous growth potential in the Columbia Asia platform, which is the only healthcare provider in Asia to operate hospitals in so many countries under a single brand, and one of the few large, multinational providers in Asia to build the vast majority of its hospitals itself. "Columbia Asia has proven over more than 20 years that it can enter new markets across various countries and develop international, high-quality hospitals that meet the needs of the emerging middle class," said Mr. Koji Nagatomi, Managing Officer and Chief Operating Officer, Healthcare & Service Business Unit, Mitsui & Co., Ltd. "The company has also established a firm presence in countries where healthcare spending and insurance coverage are going up at a very rapid pace, which positions the firm well in coming decades." Columbia Asia will use the proceeds from the Mitsui investment to continue to expand its network of hospitals across Asia, including several current development projects. In addition, the company will open its first facility in Africa next month, a multispecialty clinic in Nairobi, Kenya under a new brand, Columbia Africa. Since opening its first hospital in Malaysia in 1996, Columbia Asia has focused on providing high-quality, affordable, standardized care in hospitals built on a single design. The company currently has 10,000 employees serving more than 2.5 million patients a year, with 2,200 beds across 27 hospitals and one clinic. As part of its investment, Mitsui will gain two seats on the Columbia Asia Board of Directors and play a role in company operations. Mitsui is also using the investment to expand its hospitals business as the core of its healthcae strategy and will look to form partnerships between Columbia Asia and some of the other healthcare companies in which Mitsui is an investor. These include IHH Healthcare Berhad, the largest healthcare company in Asia; MIMS Group, which provides drug information to about 2 million healthcare professionals in Asia-Oceania; and DaVita Care Pte. Ltd., the Asian operating company for the largest dialysis operator in the U.S.



"We are thrilled to partner with Mitsui and share in its expertise in not just healthcare operations across Asia but its vast business operations in 65 countries on multiple continents," said Nate McLemore, Managing Director of Columbia Asia's parent company, Columbia Pacific Management. "Mitsui is one of the most sophisticated and respected investors in the world, and we are proud that the company is part of Columbia Asia going forward." To learn more about Columbia Pacific Management, go to ColPacManagement.com.

About Columbia Pacific Management Columbia Pacific Management (CPM), based in Seattle, oversees an international healthcare business that develops and operates hospitals, clinics and senior housing in Asia. With locations in China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam, CPM's operating companies provide healthcare and senior care services in markets making up more than half the world's population. All of these countries have rapidly aging populations, rising middle- and upper-middle-class populations, an under-supply of quality healthcare and senior care facilities, and increasing rates of non-communicable diseases such as diabetes, cancer and cardiac diseases - creating an unprecedented demand for world-class healthcare services and senior housing. The company's affiliates include Columbia Asia, operating hospitals in India and Southeast Asia; Columbia China, which is building a network of hospitals and clinics in China; Cascade Healthcare, which operates senior care facilities in China; and Remote Medical International, which provides medical services and supplies to challenging locations around the globe. About Mitsui & Co., Ltd. Mitsui & Co., Ltd. is one of the most diversified and comprehensive trading, investment and service enterprises in the world, with 138 offices in 65 countries, as well as about 420 subsidiaries and associated companies worldwide. Utilizing our global operating locations, network and information resources, we are multilaterally pursuing business that ranges from product sales, worldwide logistics and financing, through to the development of major international infrastructure and other projects in the following fields: Iron & Steel Products, Mineral & Metal Resources, Infrastructure Projects, Integrated Transportation Systems, Chemicals, Energy, Food, Food & Retail Management, Healthcare & Service, Consumer Business, IT & Communication Business, Corporate Development Business. Mitsui is actively taking on challenges for global business innovation around the world. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160726006658/en/

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[July 27, 2016] eww ITandTEL Upgrades Nationwide Network with Ciena and Kapsch

eww ITandTEL is upgrading its backbone network and ensuring super-fast connectivity in response to growing demand for IT and telecommunications services in Austria. With Ciena's (NYSE: CIEN) packet-optical technology, deployed with Kapsch BusinessCom, eww ITandTEL's advanced 100G network can support enterprises with internet connectivity, cloud technologies, data centre services and workplace solutions. eww ITandTEL is also upgrading its wholesale carrier service offerings between international exchanges in Vienna and Frankfurt with new high-capacity services. Key Facts: ITandTEL is the telecommunications division of eww ag, a wide-ranging utility company in Upper-Austria. By broadening its offerings with high-capacity networking services, ITandTEL is extending the eww ag business and monetising its networking infrastructure to tap into new markets and new revenue streams.

With this 100G upgrade, eww ITandTEL is strengthening its network core to support its enterprise communication services portfolio, including internet, e-mail services, data backup, security and telephony; as well as adapting to meet escalating demands driven by the surge of cloud computing and video. Enhanced data centre interconnect (DCI) will also underpin eww ITandTEL's colocation and hosting capabilities from its five data centres.

Flexible, long-haul, high-bandwidth connectivity based on Ciena's 6500 Converged Packet Optical platform allows eww ITandTEL to extend its carrier wholesale services and support internet service providers (ISPs) with high-bandwidth connections and peering through its international and local exchanges.

Kapsch, a Ciena BizConnect partner, worked wit Ciena on this project, providing pre-sales support as well as integration services and maintenance. Ciena facilitated the planning and design, and will provide ongoing consultation to help eww ITandTEL further monetise its network assets.



Executive Comments: "As cloud computing and other high-bandwidth services become more and more integral to the workplace and society, the supporting IT and network services must be agile enough to adapt. With Ciena's technology and Kapsch's support, our Austrian enterprise and wholesale customers can simplify their IT with scalable solutions. This frees up time and resources so businesses can focus on their core competencies, not their infrastructure."

- Bernhard Peham, Head of ITandTEL,at eww ITandTEL "The partnership between Ciena and Kapsch gives eww ITandTEL's network an edge, delivering both technological and strategic business value. Enterprise and wholesale customers have access to the latest IT and telecommunications technologies, and can utilize a range of ICT services to develop and adapt their own business models."

- Andreas Lufteinsteiner, Sales Manager Utilities at Kapsch BusinessCom AG "ITandTel understands the changing needs of enterprises and carriers. The enhanced high-capacity platform will allow ITandTel to support high-bandwidth applications and services essential in today's on-demand world."

- Daniel Prokop, Regional Sales Director, Central Europe, at Ciena About eww ITandTEL

ITandTEL is eww ag's telecommunications business area, combining the most modern communications technologies in order to provide comprehensive solutions and offers individual complete solutions. The scope of service stretches from site networking via the internet, email services, data security, security, telephone concepts and server housing. eww ITandTEL is not only in possession of more than 10 data centers in seven different locations, it's also the owner of fiber infrastructure in Germany and neighboring countries. In terms of safety eww ITandTEL is one of the few throughout Austria 27001 certified company with respect to information security. About Kapsch BusinessCom Kapsch BusinessCom- part of the Kapsch Group - is a leading ICT service partner in Austria, Central and Eastern Europe. Kapsch has positioned itself as an ICT service partner offering a complete solution portfolio covering the areas of information technology as well as telecommunications. It is increasingly taking on responsibility for the entire area of operations. Kapsch BusinessCom relies on manufacturer independence and partnerships with globally leading technology providers, including Ciena. With its partners, Kapsch offers its services as a consultant, system supplier and service provider, but above all as a reliable, dependable, long-term trusted advisor in a rapidly changing technological environment. About Ciena Ciena (NYSE: CIEN) is the network specialist. We collaborate with customers worldwide to unlock the strategic potential of their networks and fundamentally change the way they perform and compete. Ciena leverages its deep expertise in packet and optical networking and distributed software automation to deliver solutions in alignment with its OPn architecture for next-generation networks. We enable a high-scale, programmable infrastructure that can be controlled and adapted by network-level applications, and provide open interfaces to coordinate computing, storage and network resources in a unified, virtualized environment. For updates on Ciena news, follow us on Twitter (News - Alert) @Ciena or on LinkedIn. Note to Ciena Investors You are encouraged to review the Investors section of our website, where we routinely post press releases, SEC (News - Alert) filings, recent news, financial results, and other announcements. From time to time we exclusively post material information to this website along with other disclosure channels that we use. This press release contains certain forward-looking statements that are based on our current expectations, forecasts, information and assumptions. These statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties. Actual results or outcomes may differ materially from those stated or implied, as a result of risks and uncertainties, including those detailed in our most recent annual or quarterly report filed with the SEC. Forward-looking statements include statements regarding our expectations, beliefs, intentions or strategies and can be identified by words such as "anticipate," "believe," "could," "estimate," "expect," "intend," "may," "should," "will," and "would" or similar words. Ciena assumes no obligation to update the information included in this press release, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160727005796/en/

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[July 27, 2016] Ford, MIT Project Uses LiDAR, Cameras, to Measure Pedestrian Traffic and Predict Demand for New, On-Demand Electric Shuttles

Ford Motor Company (News - Alert) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are collaborating on a new research project that measures how pedestrians move in urban areas to improve certain public transportation services, such as ride-hailing and point-to-point shuttles services. This Smart News Release features multimedia. View the full release here: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160726006646/en/ Ford Motor Company and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are collaborating on a new research project that measures how pedestrians move in urban areas to improve certain public transportation services, such as ride-hailing and point-to-point shuttles services. Above, Wally Wibowo and Justin Miller in front of MIT (News - Alert) Aeronautics and Astronautics Department's Neumann Hangar. (Photo: Business Wire) The project will introduce a fleet of on-demand electric vehicle shuttles that operate on both city roads and campus walkways on the university's Cambridge, Massachusetts, campus. The vehicles use LiDAR sensors and cameras to measure pedestrian flow, which ultimately helps predict demand for the shuttles. This, in turn, helps researchers and drivers route shuttles toward areas with the highest demand to better accommodate riders. "The onboard sensors and cameras gather pedestrian data to estimate the flow of foot traffic," said Ken Washington, vice president of Research and Advanced Engineering at Ford. "This helps us develop efficient algorithms that bring together relevant data. It improves mobility-on-demand services, and aids ongoing pedestrian detection and mapping efforts for autonomous vehicle research." Using a high-tech lab The MIT research is being conducted by the Aeronautics and Astronautics Department's Aerospace Controls Lab. ACL researches topics related to autonomous systems and control design for aircraft, spacecraft, and ground vehicles. Theoretical and experimental research is pursued in such areas as estimation and navigation, planning and learning under uncertainty, and vehicle autonomy. "Through the mobility-on-demand system being developed for MIT's campus, ACL can investigate new planning and prediction algorithms in a complex, but controlled, environment, while imultaneously providing a testbed framework for researchers and a service to the MIT community," said ACL director Professor Jonathan How.



Hailing a ride Ford and MIT researchers plan to introduce the service to a group of students and faculty beginning in September. This group will use a mobile application to hail one of three electric urban vehicles to their location and request to be dropped off at another destination on campus.

The electric vehicles are small enough to be able to navigate the campus's sidewalks, while still leaving plenty of room for traditional pedestrian traffic. Each is outfitted with weatherproof enclosures that shield out inclement weather - a feature particularly useful for New England's punishing winters. After requesting the shuttles via a smartphone app, MIT students and faculty won't be waiting long for their ride to arrive. During the past five months, Ford and MIT have used LiDAR sensors and cameras mounted to the vehicles to document pedestrian flow between different points on campus. LiDAR is the most efficient way to detect and localize objects from the environment surrounding the shuttles. The technology is much more accurate than GPS, emitting short pulses of laser light to precisely pinpoint the vehicles' location on a map and detect the movement of nearby pedestrians and objects. Using this data, researchers study the overall pattern of how pedestrian traffic moves across campus, which helps the researchers anticipate where the most demand for the shuttles will be at any given moment. This allows the shuttles to be carefully pre-positioned and routed to serve the MIT population as efficiently as possible. Researchers also take into account other factors that affect pedestrian movement on MIT's campus, such as varying weather conditions, class schedules, and the dynamic habits of students and professors across different semesters. Applying learnings to mobility services and beyond This collaboration further enhances Ford's Dynamic Shuttle project, which provides point-to-point shuttle rides to employees requesting rides using a mobile application on its Dearborn, Michigan, campus. The collaboration advances the ride-hailing concept to new heights by examining the movement of pedestrians to predict demand and reduce wait times for shuttles. What's more, the algorithms and methods learned when navigating densely crowded pedestrian areas using LiDAR will also strengthen Ford's autonomous and driver assist technologies as the company continues develop autonomous vehicles. The project is one of more than 30 mobility solutions university research projects between Ford and universities in the U.S., Germany and China aimed at helping the company and academic world better understand how to improve mobility for millions of people globally. University research partnerships are an important part of Ford's broader effort to change the way the world moves. Ford Smart Mobility is the company's plan to be a leader in connectivity, mobility, autonomous vehicles, the customer experience, and data and analytics. About Ford Motor Company Ford Motor Company is a global automotive and mobility company based in Dearborn, Michigan. With about 201,000 employees and 67 plants worldwide, the company's core business includes designing, manufacturing, marketing, financing and servicing a full line of Ford cars, trucks, SUVs and electrified vehicles, as well as Lincoln luxury vehicles. At the same time, Ford is aggressively pursuing emerging opportunities through Ford Smart Mobility, the company's plan to be a leader in connectivity, mobility, autonomous vehicles, the customer experience, and data and analytics. The company provides financial services through Ford Motor Credit Company. For more information regarding Ford and its products worldwide or Ford Motor Credit Company, visit www.corporate.ford.com. For news releases, related materials and high-resolution photos and video, visit www.media.ford.com. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160726006646/en/

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[July 27, 2016] Grant Thornton calls for nominations to North Carolina 100

Grant Thornton (News - Alert) LLP is calling for nominations to the Grant Thornton North Carolina 100 (NC100) program, which recognizes the substantial impact of private companies in North Carolina. Since 1984, the NC100 has ranked the state's largest private companies by revenue in the most recent fiscal year. This year, the NC100 has introduced individual categories, including Deal Maker of the Year, CFO of the Year, Innovator of the Year, Cultural Leader of the Year, Technologist of the Year and Leader of the Future. Applications are being accepted now through August 5. The individual award categories include: Deal Maker of the Year: Recognizes individuals who have been instrumental in the orchestration of a corporate restructuring, including merger, acquisition, sale, loan, liquidation and debt restructuring, etc.

Recognizes individuals who have been instrumental in the orchestration of a corporate restructuring, including merger, acquisition, sale, loan, liquidation and debt restructuring, etc. CFO of the Year: Recognizes financial professionals who have affected the performance of their organization and led as financial stewards. These individuals may or may not carry the title of CFO, but have the responsibilities of the position.

Recognizes financial professionals who have affected the performance of their organization and led as financial stewards. These individuals may or may not carry the title of CFO, but have the responsibilities of the position. Innovator of the Year: Honors individuals who have contributed to the long-term success of their company through innovative thinking and a risk-taking approach. They identify opportunities, and execute creative thinking that has improved revenue, communication, customer relationships, market share or visibility.

Honors individuals who have contributed to the long-term success of their company through innovative thinking and a risk-taking approach. They identify opportunities, and execute creative thinking that has improved revenue, communication, customer relationships, market share or visibility. Cultural Leader of the Year: Recognizes individuals who have intentionally cultivated and developed a collaborative, cultural change in the workplace that has inspired employees and enhanced their company's performance.

Recognizes individuals who have intentionally cultivated and developed a collaborative, cultural change in the workplace that has inspired employees and enhanced their company's performance. Technologist of the Year: Honors individuals focused on transforming their organization's value by integrating new technology to accelerate growth, achieve business objectives, increase efficiencies and drive innovation.

Honors individuals focused on transforming their organization's value by integrating new technology to accelerate growth, achieve business objectives, increase efficiencies and drive innovation. Leader o the Future: Awards forward-thinking visionaries that have a laser focus on the future state of their organizational success. Leaders of the Future are curious and innovative, accessible, agile, open to new ideas and they are quick to challenge conventional wisdom. They listen hard and they dig deep for answers, drawing on their people and leveraging talent to create a new future for their organization.



Business North Carolina, North Carolina's largest business magazine. For more details and to apply, visit GrantThornton.com/NC100.

About Grant Thornton North Carolina 100 Since 1984, the Grant Thornton North Carolina 100 has ranked the state's largest private companies by revenue in the most recent fiscal year, based on data provided by the participants. The NC100 is a voluntary list restricted to companies based in North Carolina that do not have publicly traded stock. Companies owned by private equity are permitted. Nonprofits, financial-services companies, health care providers such as hospitals and subsidiaries of corporations are excluded. For more details, visit GrantThornton.com/NC100. About Grant Thornton LLP Founded in Chicago in 1924, Grant Thornton LLP (Grant Thornton) is the U.S. member firm of Grant Thornton International Ltd, one of the world's leading organizations of independent audit, tax and advisory firms. In the United States, Grant Thornton has revenue in excess of $1.45 billion and operates 59 offices with more than 500 partners and 6,400 employees. Grant Thornton works with a broad range of dynamic publicly and privately held companies, government agencies, financial institutions, and civic and religious organizations. "Grant Thornton" refers to Grant Thornton LLP, the U.S. member firm of Grant Thornton International Ltd (GTIL). GTIL and the member firms are not a worldwide partnership. Services are delivered by the member firms. GTIL and its member firms are not agents of, and do not obligate, one another and are not liable for one another's acts or omissions. Please see grantthornton.com for further details. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160727005477/en/

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[July 27, 2016] Herbalife Family Foundation Donates $12,000 to Establish Worcester's First Casa Herbalife Program

The Herbalife Family Foundation (HFF) today announced a $12,000 donation to Friendly House, a non-profit organization addressing the ever-changing need to provide adequate nutritional programming for youth. The donation builds on HFF's global Casa Herbalife program, which already provides more than $3 million in funding and volunteer assistance each year to more than 130 organizations worldwide. According to The Center for Disease Control, a recent Massachusetts High School Youth Risk Behavior Survey showed that 29.4% of youth described themselves as slightly or very overweight. To respond to this challenge, Friendly House has developed its F.U.N (Fitness and Understanding Nutrition) Program. The F.U.N Program is designed to address this challenge and the donation will help the Friendly House program contribute to the city's overall efforts to improve nutrition and eating habits in the area. "The Herbalife Family Foundation is dedicated to improving the lives of children around the world by providing access to healthy nutrition," said Robyn Browning, executive director of the Herbalife Family Foundation. "We are proud to announce this new partnership with Friendly House and look forward to seeing the positive impact we can make in the Worcester community as we continue to provide nutrition education services to at-risk youth." The F.U.N Program goals and objectives are to improve academics, build character, promote healthy lifestyles, appreciate diversity and embrace service learning. Program participants will be actively engaged in workshops which develop the youth's knowledge nd skills as it relates to making healthy lifestyle choices in regards to exercise and nutrition.



"We are so honored to receive this donation to establish the first Casa Herbalife in this part of Massachusetts," said Gordon Hargrove, executive director of Family House. "Our goal at the Friendly House is to create an environment where our children feel safe and have access to healthy living values that will serve them well in adulthood. This donation is significant because it will help us build that environment." The donation was announced today at a special event featuring executives and children from Friendly House, Herbalife executives and Herbalife independent distributors and Boston Bruins alumni. It will support Friendly House's F.U.N program and nutritional initiatives.

As part of the collaboration, the region's vulnerable youth will have improved access to better nutrition and be placed on a path to achieving an active, healthy lifestyle. The Casa Herbalife Program was established in 2005 to help bring good nutrition to children living in orphanages, using after school centers, and other non-profit facilities around the world tasked with helping underserved young people. In addition to the annual financial grants made by the Herbalife Family Foundation, the organizations receive local financial and volunteer support from Distributors as well as Herbalife employees. About Herbalife Family Foundation Herbalife Family Foundation (HFF) is a 501C(3), non-profit corporation devoted to providing good nutrition and nutrition education to the world's children. HFF partners with over 130 programs, supporting tens of thousands of children's healthy growth and development every day. We are committed to ensuring children are provided with good nutrition for a brighter future. HFF also often supports relief efforts in response to natural disasters. For more information about HFF and how you can support the children in our programs, visit www.herbalifefamilyfoundation.org. About Friendly House Friendly House was founded "for the educational, social and family betterment of residents of the City of Worcester." Friendly House/Settlement house (multi-service center) works with entire families both nuclear and extended, as an integrating force for the families and the Neighborhood(s) it serves. Friendly House provides a continuum of comprehensive coordinated neighborhood basic services to inner-city families. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160727005479/en/

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[July 26, 2016] Inspur Attends HostingCon and Provides Server Customization to Internet Operators

NEW ORLEANS, July 26, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- On July 25 in New Orleans, Louisiana, Inspur attended HostingCon -- a global event for the cloud and service provider ecosystem. As a platinum sponsor, Inspur made big waves by displaying its IT infrastructure products and solutions, with the spotlight on its rack-scale server Inspur SmartRack, cloud appliance InCloudRack, and its latest, the 1U storage server NF5166M4. Dolly Wu, the General Manager of Inspur's US Cloud Computing and Data Center, expressed that Inspur is vigorously pushing forward with its North America growth strategy. One of Inspur's top goals is to devote itself in providing flexible and customized products and solutions for all users, and at HostingCon, catered specifically to customers in the virtual host operator and cloud computing service provider sectors. At present, the R&D center and production base for Inspur orth America operates smoothly, despite only being open for under a year. According to Gartner's 2016 Q1 data, Inspur servers ranked first in China, and the fifth worldwide.



The rack-scale server SmartRack is a product customized by Inspur for ISP users. It adopts converged infrastructure with concentrated heat dissipation, concentrated electricity supply, concentrated management, and has accumulatively upgraded four generations. Inspur is a OCP Community member and hopes to continually contribute to the growth and positive service experiences in the North America internet market, and beyond. Inspur InCloudRack is a converged infrastructure all-in-one system designed for private cloud application. It adopts whole modular design and has multiple enterprise-level RAS features, including blade-level stability, redundancy and hot plug design of electricity supply modular and management. The InCloudRack also supports flexible multi-choice expansion of Scale-Out and Scale-Up.

Inspur's latest product is the high-density storage server NF5166M4 with top storage density and is suitable to newly-developed applications such as high-performance distributed file systems, integration and big data. Inspur also partnered with Diablo Technologies to launch the Inspur Memory1 Server, a joint solution developed and optimized for Apache Spark. Diablo Technologies was also present at HostingCon to support Inspur and share insight on the joint solution. For more information regarding Inspur, please visit www.inspursystems.com. To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/inspur-attends-hostingcon-and-provides-server-customization-to-internet-operators-300304563.html SOURCE Inspur Group Co., Ltd.

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[July 27, 2016] Justin Nelson Earns CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER Certification

Justin Nelson has obtained the CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER certification, a distinguished mark in the financial services industry awarded to financial advisors who have met strict standards for experience, knowledge and ethical conduct. "I am honored to have earned the CFP certification," said Nelson. "It further demonstrates my dedication and commitment to my clients to provide them with objective financial advice to help them work toward their financial goals." Nelson is a financial advisor at Spectra Retirement in Draper, Utah. He has been helping clients pursue their financial goals for four years, all of which have been with a focus on comprehensive financial planning for individuals. Nelson is an LPL Financial-affiliated advisor. LPL is a leader in the financial advice market and provides resources, tools and technology that enable advisors in the delivery of personal, objective financial advice. CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER certifications are awarded by the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards Inc. To qualify for certification, advisors must complete the CFP Board-Registered Education Program and pass the CFP Certification Examination, a 10-hour test that assesses their ability to apply financial planning knowledge to client situations. They must also have at least three years of work experience in a qualifying area of the financial planning process and pass the CFP Board's Fitness Standards for Candidates and Registrants. The screening process is rigorous to ensure only the most qualified candidates achieve the designation.



To find out more about the CFP certification and the certification process, visit the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards website at www.cfp.net. LPL Financial and the CFP Board are not affiliated entities.

About Spectra Retirement At Spectra Management our team of industry experts is actively involved and solution-oriented. We are client-centric, putting our client's needs as the focus when developing our processes and services. We are driven to develop that delicate balance between your financial goals and your company culture. Securities and Advisory services offered through LPL Financial. Member FINRA/SIPC and a registered investment provider. Spectra Retirement is not affiliated with LPL Financial or registered as a broker dealer or investment advisor. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160727006244/en/

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[July 27, 2016] Mouser Electronics Applauds Winners of Texas Instruments Innovation Challenge Design Contest

Mouser Electronics, Inc. is pleased to congratulate the winners of the Texas Instruments Innovation Challenge North America Design Contest, including the team from Texas A&M University that took top honors. Mouser is the exclusive sponsor of the contest, which encourages engineering students to invent real-world solutions by submitting design projects that use TI technology. This Smart News Release features multimedia. View the full release here: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160727006486/en/ Pictured are the first-, second- and third-place winners of the 2016 Texas Instruments (News - Alert) Innovation Challenge North America Design Contest, sponsored by Mouser Electronics. Pictured from left to right are the DVDT team from Texas A&M University (Dakotah Karrer, David Smith (News - Alert), Trent Tate and Vince Rodriguez); the Smart Step team from University of Alabama (Nagaraj Hegde and Matthew Bries); and the Elbow Orthosis team from Texas A&M (Joe Loredo, Rafael Salas, Nathan Glaser, and David Cuevas). (Photo: Business Wire) Nearly 180 teams from accredited engineering colleges and universities across the United States, Canada and Mexico participated in the challenge, and the winning designs addressed problems in the medical, space and health and wellness industries. Entries were judged on five criteria: originality and creativity of design, real world application, level of engineering analysis, usage of TI ICs and processors and working demonstration of design in a video. The first-place team, made up of Dakotah Karrer, Vince Rodriguez, David Smith and Trent Tate from Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas, took the expression "shooting for the stars" to a new level with their project, RF Satellite Communication system that integrates TI's Sub-1 GHz CC1120 radio frequency (RF) transceiver with the CC1190 RF front-end amplifier technology. The students worked with Texas Space, Technology, Applications and Research (T STAR (News - Alert)) to create a prototype of a space communication system that will be used to conduct low-Earth orbit research, a crucial need for space exploration efforts.



Second place was awarded to David Cuevas, Nathan Glaser, Joe Loredo and Rafael Salas, another Texas A&M team, for their Powered Programmable Elbow Orthosis. The brace-like device uses a TI ultra-low-power MSP432 microcontroller to restore upper arm functionality to users suffering from a range of injuries or disorders that weaken muscles and muscular activity. Matthew Bries and Nagaraj Hegde of the University of Alabama took third place with SmartStep, a device that uses a TI Bluetooth low energy CC2540 wireless microcontroller to monitor a person's activity through the insoles of their shoes. "Throughout its history, Mouser has been a strong supporter of education and innovation," said Kevin Hess, Mouser Electronics' Senior Vice President of Marketing. "We are proud once again to have played a part in this contest and we congratulate all of the winners."

The top three teams were recognized at an awards ceremony on July 19 in the TI Engineering and Innovation Hall at the Perot Museum of Nature and Science in Dallas. Winning projects were selected for their use of engineering practices and were judged on industry-ready standards, such as quality of the design and written documentation and effective use of TI technology. The contest awarded cash prizes of $10,000 for first place, $7,500 for second place, $5,000 for third place and $1,000 for categorical prize winners. The following university teams won the category prizes: Best chance at commercialization: University of Puerto Rico - Mayaguez

Best video demonstration: University of Florida

Best use of TI wireless technology: Purdue University (News - Alert)

Most innovative home application: Carnegie Melon University

Most unique concept: Rowan University

Best overall use of TI products: University of Puerto Rico - Mayaguez

Best environmental: Florida State University

Best humanitarian: University of Wyoming

Best semester project: University of Texas at Austin Mouser is an authorized distributor of Texas Instruments and stocks the widest selection of TI's newest components and development tools while providing same-day shipping around the world. To learn more about the Mouser-sponsored Texas Instruments Innovation Challenge North America Design Contest, visit http://www.mouser.com/ti-innovation-challenge. With its broad product line and unsurpassed customer service, Mouser caters to design engineers and buyers by delivering What's Next in advanced technologies. Mouser offers customers 22 global support locations and stocks the world's widest selection of the latest semiconductors and electronic components for the newest design projects. Mouser Electronics' website is updated many times daily and searches more than 10 million products to locate over 4 million orderable part numbers available for easy online purchase. Mouser.com also houses an industry-first interactive catalog, data sheets, supplier-specific reference designs, application notes, technical design information, and engineering tools. About Mouser Electronics Mouser Electronics, a subsidiary of TTI, Inc., is part of Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway family of companies. Mouser is an award-winning, authorized semiconductor and electronic component distributor, focused on the rapid introduction of new products and technologies to electronic design engineers and buyers. Mouser.com features more than 4 million products online from more than 600 manufacturers. Mouser publishes multiple catalogs per year providing designers with up-to-date data on the components now available for the next generation of electronic devices. Mouser ships globally to over 500,000 customers in 170 countries from its 750,000 sq. ft. state-of-the-art facility south of Dallas, Texas. For more information, visit http://www.mouser.com. Trademarks Mouser and Mouser Electronics are registered trademarks of Mouser Electronics, Inc. All other products, logos, and company names mentioned herein may be trademarks of their respective owners. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160727006486/en/

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[July 27, 2016] Murgitroyd Announces New VPs of Sales in U.S.

Global intellectual property firm Murgitroyd has today announced the appointment of a new VP of Sales for the Eastern United States. Kent Robbins will join the firm from international information management firm docuLynx, where he led the national sales team. A former US Marine Corps officer, Kent brings a decade of sales experience with national and international firms across the United States, including ADP, Gardner Denver and bsi. He'll now take on responsibility for many of Murgitroyd's key US accounts including a number of blue chip clients. "I'm excited to be joining this company," he said. "Like me, Murgitroyd is always looking for ways to improve client service. I appreciate its core values - honour, wisdom, anticipation and clarity - and its commitment not only to clients but also to being a socially responsible business and employer. "This is a firm that offers some of the finest attorneys and attorney services in the world, and I'm very much looking forward to being a part of the team." Murgitroyd has also appointed a new VP of sales for the Western states. Tom Kepner, formerly the company's Global IP Counsel Liaison, has been with Murgitroyd since 2013, and has more than 20 years of experience in sales and business development. Working throughout the western United States, he specialises in business development, account management, lead generation and the development of strategic partnerships. Ed Murgitoyd, the company's CEO, welcomed the appointments, saying: "Kent has a remarkable CV and a skillset to match. I have no doubt he'll be a fantastic fit, not only with the Murgitroyd team but also with our values, aspirations and culture.



"He's passionate about providing the best for clients, and offering a level of service that's second to none. He's an innovator and a problem solver, and that's exactly what we look for from our people. "Similarly, Tom has been a valued member of our team for several years, and has consistently shown that he has the drive, energy and commitment to support our clients in every aspect of their business with us. His promotion is well-deserved.

"These appointments confirm our commitment to building a team that offers our clients the dedication, support and confidence they need." Ends About Murgitroyd: Murgitroyd ranks among the largest groups of patent and trade mark attorneys in Europe, with over 60 patent and trade mark professionals and more than 260 staff. It has 14 offices throughout Europe - in the UK, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy and Switzerland - and direct representation rights in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Luxembourg, Monaco, Netherlands, Norway and Sweden. It also has two client liaison offices in the United States, and an office in Managua, Nicaragua, which handles patent searching. About Kent Robbins: Kent served as a Captain in the US Marine Corps from 1998 - 2007. Working as an Information operations officer, he served multiple tours across the United States, the Middle East and Asia and was part of Operations Enduring and Iraqi Freedom. After leaving the military, Kent opened his career in sales, working with ADP, Gardner Denver Thomas, bsi and, most recently, docuLynx. His move to Murgitroyd reflects his desire to be part of a global company that specialises in innovative thinking, client service and a commitment to corporate social responsibility. About Tom Kepner: Tom's 20-year career spans various US national and multinational corporations, including Landis + Gyr, Celoxica, Scalent Systems and most recently Pitney Bowes, where he was Director of Sales. He joined Murgitroyd in 2013, based in Santa Clara, working with clients across the west coast of America and Silicon Valley, from small business owners to global corporations. Tom shows outstanding integrity, honesty and tenacity in every aspect of his work. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160726006203/en/

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[July 27, 2016] Napatech Teams with Dell OEM to Keep Networks Secure and Compliant with New Packet Capture Solution

COPENHAGEN, Denmark, July 27, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- In order to keep networks secure and compliant, IT teams require greater visibility into the critical data they are monitoring, both in real time and for forensic purposes. Napatech announced today the partnership with Dell OEM to provide customers with a reliable, stable and predictable network solution for high-speed packet capture and storage. The combined solution, available through the Dell OEM sell-through program, enables customers to capture and offload 100 percent of their data for post-analysis of all traffic, regardless of data type. Click to Tweet A comprehensive network view: Whether for capacity planning, regulatory compliance, network monitoring or post-analysis of data, Napatech's solution enables 100 percent packet capture. The combined solution delivers complete network visibility capturing all traffic, with zero packet loss.

Whether for capacity planning, regulatory compliance, network monitoring or post-analysis of data, Napatech's solution enables 100 percent packet capture. The combined solution delivers complete network visibility capturing all traffic, with zero packet loss. Enhancing network security: Provides a visual insight into the network, in real time and forensically, a critical component to accelerating detection times for security breaches. It is a powerful complement to automated intrusion detection systems, security information and event management, and network performance management.

Provides a visual insight into the network, in real time and forensically, a critical component to accelerating detection times for security breaches. It is a powerful complement to automated intrusion detection systems, security information and event management, and network performance management. Easing compliance: Advanced data compression increases retention when network data is recorded, providing a complete, precise and detailed record of network activity for regulatory and compliance adherence.

Advanced data compression increases retention when network data is recorded, providing a complete, precise and detailed record of network activity for regulatory and compliance adherence. Scalable with endpoint visibility: The solution can scale to accommodate the growing need for higher capture speed and larger storagecapacity. Powerful federation provides the ability to harness multi-node deployments to cover all endpoints, whether in central or remote locations.



Andrew Patterson , senior VP global sales, Napatech, said: "Data storage needs have become increasingly complex. Compliance regulations require organizations to store data long-term while maintaining access for security purposes. Our packet capture solution provides Dell's customers with accelerated data delivery, greater network visibility and the scalability to meet future storage demands." Ron Pugh, executive director and general manager, Americas, Dell Global OEM Solutions, said: "We're excited to work with Napatech to combine their packet capture solution with our own market-leading hardware to create a unique offering that meets the needs of customers across a variety of verticals in the management and security industries. This joint solution is yet another great example of Dell OEM teaming up with a company on the cutting edge of technology innovation to deliver an even greater degree of choice, flexibility and capabilities to our customers."

About Napatech

Napatech is the world leader in data delivery solutions for network management and security applications. As data volume and complexity grow, organizations must monitor, compile and analyze all the information flowing through their networks. Our products use patented technology to capture and process data at high speed and high volume with guaranteed performance, enabling real-time visibility. We deliver data faster, more efficiently and on demand for the most advanced enterprise, cloud and government networks. Now and in the future, we enable our customers' applications to be smarter than the networks they need to manage and protect. No Forward-Looking Statements

This press release may be deemed to contain forward-looking statements. Readers are cautioned that these forward-looking statements are only predictions and may differ materially from actual future events or results due to a variety of factors, including, among other things, business and economic conditions and growth trends in the networking industry, our customer markets and various geographic regions; global economic conditions and uncertainties in the geopolitical environment other macro-economic factors and other risk factors set forth in Napatech's reports. Any forward-looking statements in this release are based on limited information currently available to Napatech, which is subject to change, and Napatech will not necessarily update the information.

For more information, visit us at www.napatech.com. Media

Kim Dearborn, Nadel Phelan

+1 831 440 2407

[email protected]

Investor Relations

Niels Hobolt

+45 8853 7003

[email protected] Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20130917/LA81677LOGO To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/napatech-teams-with-dell-oem-to-keep-networks-secure-and-compliant-with-new-packet-capture-solution-300304548.html SOURCE Napatech

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[July 27, 2016] Nordic Digital Business Summit 2016 - Helsinki, Finland - September 22, 2016 - Research and Markets

Research and Markets has announced the addition of the "Nordic Digital Business Summit 2016" conference to their offering. This year NDBS will be opened by the Finnish Minister of Economic Affairs, Mr Olli Rehn, which shows that the event is being supported at the highest levels of the Finnish government as we strive to bring together the Nordic regions to find common grounds to collaborate and generate new business opportunities. On 22nd September 2016, the Nordic Digital Business Summit will take a step forward in its efforts to showcase the very best Nordic Data Center investment cases and companies working in the DC, Cloud and Digital Services industrie. 2016 is a time of opportunity for Nordic and Western European players as the new C-Lion submarine cable vastly improves connectivity and other players announce work to develop additional Nordic-German network capacity. International guests will have the opportunity to meet representatives from Finland & other Nordic regions, understand the various current DC investment possibilities and meet service providers and suppliers without spending several days physically travelling across Finland and other Nordic countries. NDBS will also host IT decision makers from a range of industries, including CIOs, CTOs and Technology Managers from the private and public sectors.



All delegates will be able to attend three seminars of Nordic and international speakers and will have full access the NDBS Smart Networking system, allowing them to find new business contacts before the event, exchange information and set up meetings in our dedicated networking lounge. For more information visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/hj6rhv/nordic_digital

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160727005919/en/

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[July 27, 2016] Phillips Edison & Company Appoints Beth Farrell Donnelly as Vice President, Assistant General Counsel

Phillips Edison & Company ("Phillips Edison" or the "Company"), announced today the appointment of Beth Farrell Donnelly as Vice President, Assistant General Counsel. In her new role, Ms. Farrell Donnelly will work closely with the General Counsel to provide legal advice to the Company concerning all aspects of its business. Ms. Farrell Donnelly brings with her more than twenty-five years of real estate, corporate and transactional law experience in both private practice and in-house. Prior to joining Phillips Edison, Ms. Farrell Donnelly served as a member of the Corporate Law Department at Dinsmore & Shohl LP where she counseled a cross section of local and national clients on the acquisition, sale, development and leasing of property including office, retail, industrial and manufacturing. "Phillips Edison's outstanding reputation as a leader in the grocery anchored retail real estate business and unique company culture were attractive factors in my decision to join the company," said Ms. Farrell Donnelly. "I'm pleased to be a part of a company with a rapid growth trajectoy and dynamic, dedicated team."



"We are pleased to welcome Beth in her new role as Vice President, Assistant General Counsel," said Tanya Brady, Senior Vice President, General Counsel at Phillips Edison. "Her impressive background and leadership experience will be great assets to the Company as we continue to execute our growth strategy and drive value for our shareholders." Ms. Farrell Donnelly received her LL.M. in business and taxation from Capital University Law and Graduate Center and her Juris Doctor from the University of Cincinnati College of Law. She completed her undergraduate studies in English and Religious Studies at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee.

About Phillips Edison & Company (PECO (News - Alert)) Since 1991, Phillips Edison & Company has focused on the grocery-anchored shopping center sector. The company has a fully integrated in-house operating platform built on market leading expertise designed to optimize property value and consistently deliver a great shopping experience. Led by a veteran management team, Phillips Edison's operating platform provides retail services including acquisition, redevelopment, leasing and management of grocery-anchored retail centers. The company's portfolio currently includes a national footprint of retail properties. The company has corporate offices in Cincinnati, Salt Lake City, New York City and Atlanta. For more information, please visit www.phillipsedison.com or connect with us on LinkedIn (News - Alert). View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160727006247/en/

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[July 27, 2016] Plex Systems Once Again Named One of the Best Companies to Work for in Metro Detroit

For the eighth consecutive year, the Michigan Business and Professional Association has honored Plex Systems, the leader in cloud ERP for manufacturing, as one of Metropolitan Detroit's Best & Brightest Companies to Work For. The annual award recognizes companies that provide an exceptional work experience through programs and practices that engage their team members and enrich their work lives. Plex: Made in Michigan Founded and headquartered in Michigan, Plex has nearly 500 employees focused on delivering innovative, industry-leading cloud-based solutions to run manufacturing enterprises.

Plex strives to be the best place to work, period. From facilities that foster both collaborative work and fun to benefits that support daily health and well-being, Plex is invested in the success of every employee.

Plex cares. As a team, we're invested in our community, including the drive to bring clean water to Flint, MI.

Plex is one of the best places to work in the country. In December, the National Association for Business Resources recognized Plex as a National 2015 Best and Brightest Company to Work For.



Comments on the News

"The Plex team combines the relentless pursuit of innovation for our customers with a passion for our people and our work experiences, and being named a top workplace for eight consecutive years is a terrific recognition of those efforts," said Lillian Reaume, Plex chief human resources officer. "We strive to build an amazing workplace every day by providing our team with the tools, programs and support that make their workday enjoyable and empower them to achieve." "As a team, all of us at Plex have built the company we most want to work for, from the way we take care of our customers to the values that guide us every day," said Jason Blessing, Plex CEO. "Everyone at Plex comes to work excited to transform the manufacturing industry; I can't think of any greater source of pride and accomplishment."

About Metropolitan Detroit's Best and Brightest

The Best and Brightest Companies to Work For competition identifies and honors organizations that display a commitment to excellence in their human resource practices and employee enrichment. An independent research firm assesses each company based on categories such as communication, work-life balance, employee education, diversity, recognition, retention and more. About Plex

Plex is the Manufacturing Cloud, delivering industry-leading ERP and manufacturing automation to more than 450 companies across process and discrete industries. Plex pioneered cloud solutions for the shop floor, connecting suppliers, machines, people, systems and customers with capabilities that are easy to configure, deliver continuous innovation and reduce IT costs. With insight that starts on the production line, Plex helps companies see and understand every aspect of their business ecosystems, enabling them to lead in an ever-changing market. Learn more at www.plex.com. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160727005070/en/

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[July 27, 2016] Randomized Penumbra 3D Trial of Next Generation Stent Retriever Meets Primary Endpoints

Penumbra, Inc. (NYSE: PEN), a global interventional therapies company, today announced that the Penumbra 3D Trial successfully met the primary trial endpoints, demonstrating non-inferiority in both safety and efficacy of the company's next-generation stent retriever, Penumbra 3D Revascularization Device, when used with Penumbra System aspiration devices compared to Penumbra System aspiration devices alone. The data were presented in the Late Breaking Abstract Presentations session today at the Society of NeuroInterventional Surgery (SNIS) 13th Annual Meeting in Boston, Massachusetts. Results showed non-inferior revascularization rates according to the FDA-defined primary effectiveness measure of TICI 2-3 in the Penumbra 3D Revascularization Device with Penumbra System aspiration devices arm (3D+aspiration device arm) compared to the Penumbra System aspiration devices only arm (aspiration device-only arm) (88.5 percent vs. 85.9 percent). In addition, the more strictly defined revascularization measure, TICI 2b/3, showed non-inferiority between the 3D+aspiration device arm and the aspiration device-only arm (83.9 percent vs 74.1 percent). The primary safety endpoints - device-related serious adverse events (SAEs) and procedure-related SAEs - were not statistically different between the two arms (p=1.0 and p=0.4920, respectively). "The results of the Penumbra 3D Trial speak positively on the use of Penumbra's 3D Revascularization Device in combination with the Penumbra System aspiration devices, as well as on the use of Penumbra System aspiration devices alone," said Donald Frei, MD, lead investigator of the study and director, NeuroInterventional Surgery at Radiology Imaging Associates/Swedish Medical Center in Englewood, Colorado. "The data also suggest that the revascularization rate in the Penumbra 3D plus aspiration device arm and the aspiration device-only arm - 83.9 and 74.1 percent, respectively - compare favorably to the 71 percent revascularization rate published in the HERMES meta-analysis of five major randomized controlled trials in acute ischemic stroke." Patients in both arms experienced similar rates of return to functional independence (mRS = 2 at 90 days): 41.6 percent in the 3D+aspiration device arm and 48.8 percent in the aspiration device-only arm (p=0.4260). These clinical outcomes were obtained without the benefit of selecting patients using imaging techniques designed to detect viable brain tissue.



"The trial results are encouraging for our Penumbra 3D Revascularization Device, and we are focused on continuing our plan to pursue regulatory submission by the end of this year," said Adam Elsesser, chairman and chief executive officer of Penumbra. "Furthermore, the broader implications of the data support frontline use of the Penumbra System direct aspiration devices in the revascularization of stroke patients." About the Penumbra 3D Trial

The Penumbra 3D Trial was a prospective, randomized controlled non-inferiority study that compared the safety and efficacy of the Penumbra 3D Revascularization Device, used in conjunction with Penumbra System aspiration devices, to that of Penumbra System aspiration devices alone for the endovascular treatment of acute ischemic stroke patients with a large vessel occlusion. The primary study endpoints included core lab-adjudicated angiographic revascularization and safety. A total of 198 patients were randomized at 25 U.S. centers. The Penumbra 3D Revascularization Device is approved for investigational use only in the United States. About the Penumbra System The Penumbra System consists of large diameter, highly flexible, and reliably trackable reperfusion catheters that utilize the full aspiration power of the Penumbra Pump MAX through its Hi-Flow Aspiration Tubing. This integrated, proprietary system removes stroke-causing occlusions safely and effectively. The next generation Penumbra 3D Revascularization Device is designed to be used with the Penumbra System's family of reperfusion catheters. It features innovative three-dimensional chambers within the lumen to enable secure clot engagement while minimizing contact with the vessel wall. The majority of Penumbra System aspiration devices used in the 3D Trial included 4MAX, 5MAX and 5MAXACE reperfusion catheters and separators. About Penumbra Penumbra, Inc., headquartered in Alameda, California, is a global interventional therapies company that designs, develops, manufactures and markets innovative medical devices. The company has a broad portfolio of products that address challenging medical conditions and significant clinical needs across two major markets, neuro and peripheral vascular. Penumbra sells its products to hospitals primarily through its direct sales organization in the U.S., most of Europe, Canada and Australia, and through distributors in select international markets. Penumbra and the Penumbra logo are trademarks of Penumbra, Inc. Forward-Looking Statements Except for historical information, certain statements in this press release are forward-looking in nature and are subject to risks, uncertainties and assumptions about us. Our business and operations are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties and, consequently, actual results may differ materially from those projected by any forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ from those projected include, but are not limited to: failure to sustain or grow profitability or generate positive cash flows; failure to effectively introduce and market new products; delays in product introductions; significant competition; inability to further penetrate our current customer base, expand our user base and increase the frequency of use of our products by our customers; inability to achieve or maintain satisfactory pricing and margins; manufacturing difficulties; permanent write-downs or write-offs of our inventory; product defects or failures; unfavorable outcomes in clinical trials; inability to maintain our culture as we grow; fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates; and potential adverse regulatory actions. These risks and uncertainties, as well as others, are discussed in greater detail in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including our Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2015. There may be additional risks of which we are not presently aware or that we currently believe are immaterial which could have an adverse impact on our business. Any forward-looking statements are based on our current expectations, estimates and assumptions regarding future events and are applicable only as of the dates of such statements. We make no commitment to revise or update any forward-looking statements in order to reflect events or circumstances that may change. Source (News - Alert): Penumbra, Inc. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160727006141/en/

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[July 27, 2016] RELIEF THERAPEUTICS Holding AG Announces Signing of a Term Sheet to Acquire FirstString Research, Inc.

RELIEF THERAPEUTICS Holding AG (SIX:RLF) ("RELIEF" or "the Company") announces today that it has executed a term sheet under which it shall acquire FirstString Research, Inc. ("FirstString"), a Delaware corporation headquartered in Charleston, South Carolina, USA, in an all-stock transaction that is slated to bring RELIEF another Phase 3-ready asset, Granexin gel for the treatment of diabetic foot ulcers (DFUs) and venous leg ulcers (VLUs), along with a pipeline of preclinical and early-stage clinical assets based on FirstString's pioneering characterization of the functions of connexin protein signaling. The envisaged transaction would involve the issuance of new shares of RELIEF THERAPEUTICS Holding AG to the existing equity holders of FirstString Research, such that the existing equity holders of FirstString Research would own no less than 33% and no more than 40% of the final combined company. Following the completion of the transaction, RELIEF THERAPEUTICS Holding AG is slated to have two Phase 3 programs in the form of aviptadil for the treatment of sarcoidosis and Granexin gel for the treatment of DFUs and VLUs, both of which could begin enrollment next year. The proposed Granexin Phase 3 program has been reviewed and approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA), with which FirstString has held a successful End-of-Phase 2 meeting. Each of these clinical programs could yield top-line data in 2018. RELIEF THERAPEUTICS Holding AG also holds worldwide rights to atexakin alfa, in-licensed from Merck KGaA, which is slated to enter Phase 2 testing in peripheral neuropathies in 2017. RELIEF THERAPEUTICS Holding AG is also slated to possess an extensive early-stage pipeline consisting of at least 10 projects spanning various therapeutic indications in oncology, ophthalmology, pulmonology and infectious disease. Raghuram Selvaraju, Ph.D., Chairman of RELIEF, states: "The envisaged acquisition of FirstString Research brings a cost-effective, capital-efficient drug development operation under the aegis of RELIEF THERAPEUTICS Holding AG and significantly broadens our pipeline, having direct continuity with our goal of treating major complications of diabetes. We look forward to advancing both Granexin gel for diabetic foot ulcers and venous leg ulcers as well as aviptadil for treatment of sarcoidosis into pivotal Phase 3 testing within the coming months, and welcome the FirstString team into the RELIEF organization." Gautam Ghatnekar, Ph.D., Prsident and Chief Executive Officer of FirstString Research, states: "This transaction is aimed at transitioning FirstString Research into the public equities markets and forging a powerful combination with RELIEF THERAPEUTICS Holding AG, where we see highly attractive synergies between the FirstString and RELIEF pipelines. Notably, the potential concomitant development of a novel approach to the treatment of diabetic foot ulcers, Granexin gel, and an innovative strategy for the treatment of peripheral neuropathies, including those seen in diabetic patients, could result in the comprehensive management of the most devastating co-morbidities due to diabetes."



Chris Brown, Director and Founder of Global Emerging Markets (GEM (News - Alert)), states: "This proposed acquisition transaction, which GEM identified and structured, continues to rapidly add breadth and depth to the RELIEF THERAPEUTICS Holding AG clinical-stage pipeline. Through the proposed integration of FirstString Research into RELIEF, we are continuing to act on our intent to build a world-class, innovative and significantly risk-mitigated biotechnology company with multiple shots on goal and late-stage clinical programs that could achieve final regulatory submission within the next couple of years." About RELIEF THERAPEUTICS Holding AG

RELIEF THERAPEUTICS Holding AG is a clinical-stage biotechnology company with a portfolio of drug candidates derived from natural human origins. Its two most promising drug candidates are aviptadil for the treatment of sarcoidosis (already in Phase III) and low dose interleukin-6 (atexakin alfa) for the treatment of peripheral diabetic neuropathy (already in Phase II). Aviptadil development in sarcoidosis focuses the drug on an orphan disease market, in which European regulators have indicated that a single pivotal Phase III trial would be sufficient to support approval. Atexakin alfa is the subject of an exclusive worldwide development and commercialization agreement with the global established pharmaceutical firm Merck KGaA, and has been the subject of multiple clinical trials and over 100 million in total capital investment. Based on its unique mechanism of action, atexakin alfa could become the first regenerative therapeutic for peripheral neuropathy. The peripheral diabetic neuropathy market is estimated to reach $4.1 billion in 2019, according to Datamonitor. RELIEF THERAPEUTICS Holding AG is listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange under the symbol RLF and is headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland. About FirstString Research, Inc. FirstString Research is a privately-held clinical-stage biotechnology company, which was founded based on pioneering research from the Medical University of South Carolina characterizing the therapeutic role of connexin-based protein signalling. The company's lead drug candidate, Granexin gel (aCT-1), is a novel, proprietary peptide mimetic of the C-terminus of connexin43, which has been shown to play a fundamental role in processes that are critical to wound healing. Granexin gel has demonstrated positive proof-of-concept efficacy and benign safety in three placebo-controlled, randomized, double-blinded clinical trials and is poised to enter Phase 3 development for the treatment of diabetic foot ulcers (DFUs) and venous leg ulcers (VLUs). The market for DFUs alone in the United States and major European Union economies is estimated to reach $1.6 billion in 2017, according to GlobalData. FirstString Research is headquartered in Charleston, South Carolina. For further information, please see the Relief website at www.relieftherapeutics.com Disclaimer This communication expressly or implicitly contains certain forward-looking statements concerning Relief Therapeutics Holding AG and its business. Such statements involve certain known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, which could cause the actual results, financial condition, performance or achievements of Relief Therapeutics Holding AG to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Relief Therapeutics Holding AG is providing this communication as of this date and does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements contained herein as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160727006611/en/

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[July 27, 2016] U.S. District Court Awards Over $600,000 in Costs to Silver Spring Networks in Patent Suit

Silver Spring Networks, Inc. (NYSE:SSNI) today announced that the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas has awarded Silver Spring Networks $614,150.70 in costs, to be paid by EON Corp. IP Holdings, LLC. The order follows the decision of the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit reversing a judgment from the District Court in Texas regarding patent claims covering wireless communication. Silver Spring Networks, as the prevailing party, is entitled to recovery of certain costs under the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. "The court's order is a victory for Silver Spring Networks and we are delighted with the award," said Rick Arnold, General Counsel, Silver Spring Networks. "We believe in Silver Spring's technology and will continue to vigorously defend ourselves, and our customers, against these types of lawsuits." Join the Silver Spring Networks Conversation Read more on the Silver Spring Connect blog at

www.silverspringnet.com/blog

www.silverspringnet.com/blog Follow @SilverSpringNet on Twitter

Like Silver Spring Networks on Facebook (News - Alert) at www.facebook.com/silverspringnetworks



About Silver Spring Networks Silver Spring Networks is a leading networking and solutions provider for the Internet of Things. Silver Spring's pioneering IPv6 networking platform, with over 23.6 million devices delivered, connects a range of applications for some of the world's leading utilities and major cities. Silver Spring's open-standards platform enables multiple applications and services to leverage a common network, control, and data platform to help drive smart energy, smart city, and broader Internet of Things applications to help address the next wave of global challenges impacting water, energy, transportation, and public health and safety. Silver Spring Networks' customers include utilities such as Baltimore Gas & Electric, CitiPower & Powercor, Commonwealth Edison, Consolidated Edison, CPS Energy, Florida Power & Light, Jemena Electricity Networks Limited, Pacific Gas & Electric, Pepco Holdings, Progress Energy, and Singapore Power, and cities such as Copenhagen, Glasgow, and Paris. To learn more, please visit www.ssni.com.

Forward-Looking Statements This press release contains forward-looking statements about Silver Spring Networks' expectations, plans, intentions, and strategies, including, but not limited to statements regarding Silver Spring's beliefs regarding the final outcome of the EON matter. Statements including words such as "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "expect" or "future" and statements in the future tense are forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties, as well as assumptions, which, if they do not fully materialize or prove incorrect, could cause our results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. The risks and uncertainties include those described in Silver Spring Networks' documents filed with or furnished to the Securities and Exchange Commission. All forward-looking statements in this press release are based on information available to Silver Spring Networks as of the date hereof. Silver Spring Networks assumes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160727005450/en/

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[July 27, 2016] Zoho Expands Footprints in Europe With Data Centers in Netherlands and Ireland

Zoho (News - Alert), provider of cloud-based business applications, today announced the opening of two data centers in Europe--one in Amsterdam, Netherlands and another in Dublin, Ireland--ensuring that the data of its European customers stays within the continent. Zoho also launched www.zoho.eu. Powered by Zoho's new European data centers, zoho.eu caters to its rapidly-expanding customer base in Europe. On zoho.eu, all Zoho products are offered in Euro. The dedicated website makes payments easier for Zoho customers and also protects them from fluctuating exchange rates. "Europe is an important market for us. More and more companies here are moving to the cloud and new ones are mushrooming across the continent. We can see a rise in demand for Zoho products, and are happy to announce that we are increasing our investment in Europe, starting with these two data centers and zoho.eu," said Raj Sabhlok, President, Zoho Corp. "Zoho's entry into Europe brings high-quality online applications to the market. Equinix (News - Alert), which connects the world's leading businesses to their customers, is delighted to be part of Zoho's journey. In 40 markets across five continents, Equinix is where companies come together to realize new opportunities and accelerate their business, IT and cloud strategies. In Dublin, Zoho's European users can be assured continuous services in the most interconnected data centers. Equinix operates the only global interconnection platform, sparking new opportunities and enabling growth for our customers," said Scott McConnell, Sales Director Ireland and Emerging Markets, Equinix. Focus on Privacy With the Amsterdam and Dublin data centers, Zoho not only provides support for its growing number of customers, but also ensures the privacy of their data. "Zoho has always been committed to protecting the privacy of its users and their right to use ur products without intrusion. That's why all of our products, even our free editions, are ad-free," said Sabhlok. "With these data centers, all the information that our European users trust us with will be stored securely within the borders of the continent."



Additional Zoho Resources Zoho news coverage: http://www.zoho.eu/inthenews.html

Zoho press releases: http://www.zoho.eu/press.html Zoho videos: http://youtube.com/zoho Zoho blogs: http://blog.zoho.eu Zoho on Twitter (News - Alert): http://www.twitter.com/zoho Zoho on Facebook (News - Alert): http://www.facebook.com/zoho About Zoho Zoho is THE operating system for business - a single cloud platform with all the necessary applications to run a business entirely from the cloud. Businesses can acquire and manage customers using Zoho's marketing, sales and customer support applications - Campaigns, CRM and Desk - and can then empower employees to create, store and distribute content on the cloud with Zoho's productivity and collaboration applications - Office, Mail and Docs. Additionally, businesses can run their own operations on Zoho's finance and human resources applications - Books, People and Recruit. More than 20 million users around the world across hundreds of thousands of companies rely on Zoho every day to run their businesses - including Zoho itself. A business can choose to run the entire Zoho suite or just a single application. Zoho applications are available directly through zoho.com, or through an ecosystem of hundreds of worldwide Zoho partners. Zoho is a division of Zoho Corp., a privately-held and consistently profitable company, with more than 4,000 employees. Zoho is headquartered in Pleasanton, CA (News - Alert) with international headquarters in Chennai, India and offices in Austin, London, Yokohama, and Beijing. For more information, please visit http://www.zoho.com. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160727005657/en/

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[July 27, 2016] Young British Adults Spend More Time Watching Video on Laptops Than TV Sets

LONDON, July 27, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Far fr om being light viewers, 18-24 y ea r olds are voracious consumers of video content overall

41 percent of their total viewing is spent using a laptop, whilst viewing on mobile devices is relatively insignificant

Traditional TV content and movies dominate their time spent viewing on a PC/laptop TV sets are still the preferred viewing device for video-based content among the UK adult online population overall, but younger adults show significant deviation from this trend. Findings just released from GfK's international ViewScape study show that, when it comes to watching video-based content, UK adults spend two-thirds (65 percent) of their total viewing time watching via TV sets. Only a fifth (20 percent) of total viewing is via PCs or laptops. For the UK's young adults (those aged 18 to 24), the picture is quite different and the majority of their viewing time is spent on PCs or laptops. This accounts for 41 percent of their total video viewing, while viewing on a TV set accounts for just over a third (35 percent). Julia Lamaison, director of media research and insights at GfK, comments, "Thee are many reasons underlying these findings, including the trend for this younger age group to view less live or scheduled TV content and more on-demand and online streamed video. Added to that is the fact that access to a TV set is lower amongst this group than for all adults: only 84 percent of these young adults say they own a TV set, compared to 95 percent amongst all adults."



Traditional TV programmes and movies drive viewing on PC/laptops more than online video On the average day, British adults spend around 55 minutes viewing video content via a PC or laptop - with two thirds (67 percent) of the content viewed being traditional formats: TV programmes and movies.

For those aged 18 to 24 years old, time spent viewing on a PC or laptop almost triples to 2 hours and 35 minutes per day, with nearly three quarters (73 percent) of that content comprising TV programmes and movies. This underlines the importance of content derived from linear broadcast channels. It may be watched on-demand or time-shifted, as well as live - but traditional TV and movie content still drives the majority of our time spent viewing. Moreover, whilst Britain's 18 to 24 year olds are conventionally light TV viewers - making them a hard-to-reach group with high commercial value - they are a generation driven by consumption and sharing of visual content and are voracious consumers of video overall. Lamaison explains, "We are seeing evidence of real change in the ways in which audiences in the UK consume video content - and nowhere is this more evident than amongst young adults. Findings from our recently released ViewScape study show a new generation of young adults who are completely engaged with video, but who are viewing in a variety of different ways and using a wider range of devices than previous generations. "This presents opportunities - and challenges - for broadcasters, producers and distributors, as they seek to enable audiences to self-curate their viewing options, in addition to traditional forms of linear consumption." GfK's ViewScape study is run in 14 countries: Australia, Brazil, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Mexico, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, UK, US. Click for full details



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[July 27, 2016] Security Metrics Simplifies Data Security and Compliance Through Its Managed Firewall Service

OREM, Utah, July 27, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- SecurityMetrics, a leading provider in data security and compliance reporting, today announces the release of SecurityMetrics Managed Firewall. The firewall is managed in-house by data security engineers in its Security Operations Center. According to recent breaches analyzed by SecurityMetrics' team of forensic investigators, only 24% of investigated merchants had properly configured firewalls. "Having a firewall doesn't mean you're secure," says Vice President of Investigations David Ellis. "If a firewall isn't properly configured, it could either reduce your security or completely negate the effectiveness of your firewall." To help small businesses like retailers, franchises, and single entity healthcare providers efficiently protect customer data, SecurityMetrics' engineers configure, maintain firewall rules based on their businesses' unique environments, and immediately notify users when an issue is discovered. Key features of the managed firewall service are log analysis, firewall status events, and alerting. SecurityMetrics' engineers review and analyze logs, events, and alert customers when they discover potentially threatening trends. This may include otifications of network traffic that is sent to known malicious sites on the Internet due to downloaded ransomware or malware.



SecurityMetrics Managed Firewall service includes: 24/7 firewall status surveillance and notifications

Notification if malware is discovered

Internal vulnerability scanning

Log monitoring and alerting

Unlimited rogue wireless detection

Firewall backup and recovery The Managed Firewall also helps fulfill many PCI requirements, particularly sections in requirements 1 and 11.

"We help fulfill some of the PCI requirements dealing with firewalls, internal scans, and rogue wireless detection," says Zach Walker, Director of Technical Support. "We can also help customers create the Access Control Lists (ACLs) or firewall rules to keep their company PCI compliant and secure." The Managed Firewall service is sold with SecurityMetrics PCI Defense package, which offers many features designed to help small businesses secure their data more easily. Some features include: Online and phone PCI scoping

PCI Self-Assessment Questionnaire (SAQ)

PCI ASV external vulnerability scanning

PCI compliance reporting to merchant processor

Card data discovery with PANscan

Online security employee training

$100,000 breach reimbursement guarantee For more information, go to www.securitymetrics.com/managed-firewall, email [email protected] or call 801.705.5565. For press inquiries, contact [email protected] About SecurityMetrics (www.securitymetrics.com) SecurityMetrics protects electronic commerce and payments leaders, global acquirers, and their retail customers from security breaches and data theft. The company is a leading provider and innovator in merchant data security, and as an Approved Scanning Vendor and Qualified Security Assessor, has tested over 1 million payment systems for data security and compliance. Among other things, SecurityMetrics offers PCI Level 4 compliance programs, PCI audits, mobile device vulnerability scanning, penetration testing, and forensic analysis. Founded in October 2000, SecurityMetrics is a privately held company headquartered in Orem, Utah, USA. Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20140225/SF71790LOGO To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/security-metrics-simplifies-data-security-and-compliance-through-its-managed-firewall-service-300304663.html SOURCE SecurityMetrics

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[July 27, 2016] Daqo New Energy to Announce Unaudited Second Quarter 2016 Results on August 9, 2016

CHONGQING, China, July 27, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Daqo New Energy Corp. (NYSE: DQ) ("Daqo" or the "Company"), a leading manufacturer of high-quality polysilicon for the global solar PV industry, today announced that it plans to release its unaudited financial results for the Second Quarter of 2016 ended June 30, 2016 before the U.S. markets open on Tuesday, August 9, 2016. The Company has scheduled a conference call to discuss the results at 8:00 AM U.S. Eastern Time on August 9, 2016. (8:00 PM Beijing / Hong Kong time on the same day). The dial-in details for the earnings conference call are as follows:







Participant dial in (U.S. Toll Free): +1-888-346-8982 Participant international dial in: +1-412-902-4272 China mainland Toll Free: 4001-201203 China Beijing local dial in: +86-10-5357-3132 Hong Kong Toll Free: 800-905945 Hong Kong local dial in: +852-301-84992

Participants please ask to be joined into the Daqo New Energy Corp. call. Please dial in 10 minutes before the call is scheduled to begin. You can also listen to the conference call via Webcast through the URL: http://mms.prnasia.com/DQ/20160809/default.aspx A replay of the call will be available 1 hour after the conclusion of the conference call through August 16, 2016. The dial in details for the conference call replay are as follows: U.S. Toll Free: +1-877-344-7529 International dial in: +1-412-317-0088 Canada Toll Free: 855-669-9658 Replay access code: 10090544 To access the replay using an international dial-in number, please select the link below.

https://services.choruscall.com/ccforms/replay.html Participants will be asked to provide their name and company name upon entering the call. ABOUT DAQO NEW ENERGY CORP. Founded in 2008, Daqo New Energy Corp. (NYSE: DQ) is a leading manufacturer of high-purity polysilicon for the global solar PV industry. As one of the world's lowest cost producers of high-purity polysilicon and solar wafers, the Company primarily sells its products to solar cell and solar module manufacturers. The Company has built a manufacturing facility that is technically advanced and highly efficient with a nameplate capacity of 12,150 metric ton in Xinjiang, China. The Company also operates a solar wafer manufacturing facility in Chongqing, China. For more information about Daqo New Energy, please visit www.dqsolar.com. For investor and media inquiries, please contact: Daqo New Energy Corp.

Kevin He

+86-187-1658-5553

[email protected] To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/daqo-new-energy-to-announce-unaudited-second-quarter-2016-results-on-august-9-2016-300304668.html SOURCE Daqo New Energy Corp.

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[July 27, 2016] GuardiCore Unveils Infection Monkey Open Source Cyber Security Testing Tool, Presents At Black Hat 2016

SAN FRANCISCO and TEL AVIV, Israel, July 27, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- GuardiCore, a leader in internal data center security and breach detection, today made its Infection Monkey testing tool freely available to the public security community at large. Designed to test the resiliency of modern data centers against cyber attacks, the Infection Monkey was developed as an open source tool by GuardiCore's research group, led by seasoned cyber security researcher Ofri Ziv. "Traditional testing tools are no longer able to effectively detect vulnerabilities in today's data center networks as they cannot continuously exploit the weakest link and propagate in-depth, resulting in a very partial view of network vulnerabilities," said Pavel Gurvich, CEO and co-founder of GuardiCore. "Our open source Infection Monkey represents a new approach that can be used to automatically test for potential security failures while operating in much the same way a real attacker would, by choosing a random starting location in the network and propagating from there, finding all possible paths of exploitation." GuardiCore's Research Group Leader Ofri Ziv will present "Unleash the Infection Monkey: A Modern Alternative to Pen-Tests" at Black Hat 2016 on August 3 in Las Vegas. During his session Ziv will discuss the shorcomings of current approaches and address how the Infection Monkey can be of value to today's security teams, provide a glimpse of the Infection Monkey running in an unsecured environment and offer use cases for real-world security testing scenarios.



Infection Monkey Features The Infection Monkey is a self-propagating testing tool that is able to identify and visualize the path of least resistance in the data center network. It scans the network, checking for open ports and fingerprinting machines using multiple network protocols. After detecting accessible machines, it attempts to attack every single machine using methods such as intelligent password guessing and safe exploits. It does this by leveraging available data on systems it has breached, such as stolen credentials, to automatically spread and infect other machines, clearly highlighting all vulnerable systems in its path.

The Infection Monkey provides detailed information about the specific vulnerability exploited and the effect vulnerable segments can have on the entire network, giving security teams the insights they need to make informed decisions and enforce tighter security policies. It is designed to be 100 percent safe, with no reconnaissance or propagation features that can impact server or network stability. Infection Monkey Availability The Infection Monkey can be downloaded at www.infectionmonkey.com. The Infection Monkey source code can also be downloaded from the GitHub repository. Contributions The Infection Monkey is developed on GitHub under the GPLv3 license. Contributions are welcome. Members of the public security community are invited to join GuardiCore's Infection Monkey project, contribute code, open issues and feature requests. About GuardiCore GuardiCore is an innovator in internal data center security focused on delivering more accurate and effective ways to stop advanced threats through real-time breach detection and response. Developed by the top cyber security experts in their field, GuardiCore is changing the way organizations are fighting cyber attacks in their data centers. For more information, visit www.guardicore.com. CONTACT:

Cinthia Portugal

Guyer Group

[email protected]

206.619.8183 Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160607/376287LOGO To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/guardicore-unveils-infection-monkey-open-source-cyber-security-testing-tool-presents-at-black-hat-2016-300304043.html SOURCE GuardiCore

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[July 27, 2016] C-Zentrix Partners With Digicon Technologies to Enhance Customer Experience in Bangladesh

GURGAON, India and DHAKA, Bangladesh, July 27, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- C-Zentrix, Global Leader in Software Products for Contact Center, Today Announces its Growth Plans for Bangladesh Partnering with a Dhaka-based company, Digicon Technologies Ltd., C-Zentrix aims to leverage its Bangladesh expansion plans. The esteemed partnership is in sync with the country's vision for a 'Digital Bangladesh 2021'. With increased opportunities and the digital transformation, Bangladesh shall soon scale up with advancements in customer experience.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20150803/10128032 )

As a key participant at the 2nd BPO Summit Bangladesh, Mr. Saket Setu, CEO, C-Zentrix said, "The Call Centre industry globally is pegged to be worth U.S. $2 billion annually, with established South East Asian markets in India, Sri Lanka and Philippines. With our tie-up with Digicon Technologies Ltd., we are bullish about growing the segment and make meaningful contribution to the economy as a whole." The Bangladesh Call Centre industry currently employs approximately 25,000 professionals. With an increased awareness amongst the qualified and employable resources, Bangladesh would be able to mobilize and become South East Asia's emerging customer experience market. Speaking on the association, Mr. Azmal Haq Azim, Drector, Digicon Technologies Ltd. said, "Our partnership with C-Zentrix has cemented a robust future for the Contact Centre industry in Bangladesh. We will not only provide C-Zentrix's world-class solutions, but also be able to leverage great strengths, deep values and evolve state-of-the-art product innovation."



C-Zentrix product suite includes unique world-class Single Box solution, Enterprise Suite, Cloud and Hybrid Contact Centre solution. These solutions empower enterprises with higher prospect outreach, increased agent productivity and help to maximize establishment of right party contacts. C-Zentrix solutions address a full range of touch points for the customers across omni-channel platforms, including voice, web, email, chat, video, mobile apps and business analytics. India's leading contact centre solution provider, C-Zentrix currently serves over 500+ customers and has its presence across Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Philippines, Dubai, South Africa, Ethiopia and Brazil. C-Zentrix's contact centre infrastructure can run up to 50,000 live licenses concurrently. The company has been recognized with a honourable mention in the Gartner Magic Quadrant Contact Centre Infrastructure Worldwide Report 2016.

About C-Zentrix C-Zentrix is a leading customer experience platform global company. It has received a honourable mention in the recently released Gartner Magic Quadrant Contact Centre Infrastructure Worldwide Report 2016. C-Zentrix was built with a vision of creating next-generation, simplified Call Centre technology, offering customer engagement centre to enable better communication and 360 experience for the end-customer. C-Zentrix's Single Box Solution is a unique one-box customer engagement solution in the world for over 180 concurrent agents. C-Zentrix helps organizations across various industry verticals to set up and manage their personalized customer centres, which entail hassle-free solutions at competitive market prices coupled with high efficiencies deployment and support. C-Zentrix is currently present in India, Middle East and Asia Pacific with special focus on emerging markets and is proud of serving many top corporates based out of India. For more information, please visit: http://www.c-zentrix.com or http://www.c-zentrixcloud.com About Digicon Technologies Ltd. Digicon is a leading Business Process Outsourcing company headquartered in Dhaka, Bangladesh with unparalleled expertise in Customer Care, Contact Center, Telesales, HR Outsourcing, Payroll Processing and variety of back office and technology support services. For more information, visit http://www.digicontechnologies.com. Media contact:

Pallavi Goel

[email protected]

+91-9945345272

Manager, Marketing & Media Relations

C-Zentrix



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[July 27, 2016] Telecom API Market Outlook and Forecasts, 2021 - Certain Technology Development and Adoption Trends Will Continue to Drive the Long-Term Future of Telecom APIs - Research and Markets

DUBLIN, July 27, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Research and Markets has announced the addition of the "Telecom API Market Outlook and Forecasts 2016 - 2021" report to their offering. Telecom APIs enable a variety of new and unique business models, including carrier branded application stores, web mash-ups, two sided business models, and developer communities. Network operators leverage APIs to derive wholesale transaction revenue as well as communication-enabled application revenue. Over-the-Top service providers and other third-parties continue to enjoy the most benefits from Telecom APIs. However, enterprise is gaining fast on OTT providers as they begin to understand how to leverage their own communications data for improved products, services, and customer experience. Telecom APIs continue to present new attractive opportunities for network operators and service bureau providers such as Do Not Call Registry compliance and Unwanted Call blocking services. Certain technology development and adoption trends will continue to drive the long-term future of Telecom APIs including Service Oriented Architecture (SOA), Virtualization, Software Defined Networks (SDN), and the Internet of Things (IoT). Telecom API Market Outlook and Forecasts 2016 - 2021 provides an in-depth assessment of the global Telco APIs market, including business models, value chain analysis, operator strategies and a quantitative assessment of the industry from 2016 to 2021. Key Findings: - Telecom API revenue is forecast to reach $183.6 billion globally by 2021 - Carriers continue to miss opportunities for Telecom APIs in Internet o Things



- Unwanted Call blocking a developing area for carriers to leverage Telecom APIs - OTT providers continue to lead the way in terms of wholesale revenue for carriers

- Enterprise to represent an important customer base as they leverage their own data Key Topics Covered: 1 Introduction 2 Telecom API Overview 2.1 Defining Network APIs 2.2 Business Drivers for CSPs to Leverage APIs 2.3 Telecom API Categories 2.4 Telecom API Business Models 2.5 Segmentation 2.6 Competitive Issues 2.7 Applications that use APIs 2.8 Telecom API Revenue Potential 2.9 Telecom API Usage by Industry Segment 2.10 Telecom API Value Chain 2.11 API Transaction Cost by Type 2.12 Volume of API Transactions 3 API Aggregation 3.1 Role of API Aggregators 3.2 Total Cost of Operation with API Aggregators 3.3 Aggregator API Usage by Category 4 Telecom API Marketplace 4.1 Data as a Service (DaaS) 4.2 API Market Makers 4.3 New Type of Application Marketplace 5 Telecom API Enabled App Use Cases 5.1 Monetization of Communications-enabled Apps 5.2 Use Case Issues 6 Network Operator Telecom API Strategies 6.1 Carrier Market Strategy and Positioning 6.2 Global Network Operator API Programs 6.3 Carriers and Internal Telecom API Usage 6.4 Carriers and OTT Service Providers 6.5 Carriers and Value-added Services 7 API enabled App Developer Strategies 7.1 A Critical Asset to Developers 7.2 Stimulating the Growth of API Releases 7.3 Working alongside Carrier Programs 7.4 Developer Preferences: Google vs Carriers 8 Telecom API Vendor Strategies 8.1 Positioning as Enablers in the Value Chain 8.2 Moving Away from a Box/Product Supplier Strategy 9 Market Analysis and Forecasts 9.1 Telecom API Revenue 2016 - 2021 9.2 Telecom APIs Revenue by API Category 2016 - 2021 9.3 Telecom API Revenue by Region 2016 - 2021 10 Technology and Market Drivers for Future API Market Growth 10.1 Service Oriented Architecture 10.2 Software Defined Networks 10.3 Virtualization 10.4 Internet of Things 11 Appendix 11.1 Telecom API Definitions 11.2 More on Telecom APIs and DaaS Companies Mentioned - AT&T Mobility - France Telecom - Telefonica - Verizon Wireless - Vodafone For more information visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/dt53ng/telecom_api Media Contact: Research and Markets Laura Wood, Senior Manager [email protected] For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470 For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630 For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900 U.S. Fax: 646-607-1907 Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716

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I don't like politics, and I definitely don't like being a doomsayer. In the United States, presidents come and go every four to eight years, and we've had some good ones and some bad ones. In retrospect, most are somewhere in the middle. The country keeps ticking on, and alarmist rhetoric during elections seems overblown in retrospect.

The reaction to Donald Trump's latest disaster  we are well beyond the level of a gaffe, blunder or faux pas  is not overblown.

The Republican presidential nominee got on Twitter (opens in new tab) and live TV (opens in new tab) earlier today (July 27) to exhort "Russia or any other country or person" to "find [Hillary Clintons] 33,000 deleted emails" and share them with the FBI.

In case you missed it, Trump just called for an unfriendly foreign power (or any foreign power, including outright hostile ones) to launch a cyberattack on a U.S. citizen who was representing the U.S. government. This is probably not something you should do if you are running for an office that exists for the express purpose of protecting U.S. citizens and their government.

Having written about cybersecurity for the last four years, there are two things I know for sure. The first is that most people don't understand it very well, and the second is that it's much more important than people think it is.

The internet isnt just for impulse shopping and pornography. It's also where people store some of their most important information and exchange some of their most sensitive communications.

Regardless of how low you keep your online profile, there's something in it that you'd prefer to keep out of someone else's hands  and there's someone who wants to use that information against you. Its not fair, and its not statistically likely, but its true.

Cybercrime can threaten your privacy, your livelihood and even your safety. Thats why when a presidential candidate implicitly requests a foreign entity to unearth and expose private information from a government agency (the State Department), it's not just irresponsible  it's uncomfortably close to an act of treason.

MORE: Best Antivirus Software

Whether Hillary Clinton's emails were private or public is a subject of some debate, and at the crux of the ongoing discussion surrounding her actions. I have no desire to rehash that issue here, suffice to say that some of her correspondence was likely private, and some of it likely involved government information.

Neither case exonerates Trump, who was either calling for a foreign power to attack a U.S. citizen, or to attack the U.S. government. Take your pick.

Hillary Clinton is not a "private citizen" in the strictest sense, and Trump wants these would-be hackers to turn the information over to the FBI rather than just plaster it online. However, even public figures possess both civil and legal rights. Law enforcement has hard boundaries in what counts as permissible evidence for a reason.

A democracy, by definition, will never be 100 percent safe from its enemies, but thats the price we acknowledge and pay in order for every citizen to have some of the freedoms outlined in our Constitution, our Bill of Rights and our laws all the way down to a local level.

Trump isnt just making an idle threat, either; Russian hackers have already unearthed and revealed a cache of private DNC emails. The Democratic Party is still dealing with the fallout, as the correspondences revealed a lot of internal strife and a little bit of religious intolerance (opens in new tab) within Clintons party. For better or worse, Russian hackers have the means to throw a monkey wrench into the American political process, and Trump actively wants them to.

Unspecified Eastern European hackers are, however, not the most reliable source of political stability. I have no desire to impugn Eastern Europes plethora of white-hat hackers, who move security research forward and protect cybersecurity all around the world. But its no secret that Eastern Europe, and Russia in particular, are hotbeds for cybercrime and malicious hacking.

If Trump doesnt believe these criminals would eventually turn on him, then his ignorance is even greater than it appears to be. (Even conservative columnist David Frum has been less than impressed (opens in new tab) with Trumps stance on Russian relations.)

Whatever you think of Clinton (and I am not a fan of hers, for the record), she is still a citizen of the United States. When someone seeking the countrys highest office calls down the wrath of a foreign power on her, that should disqualify him immediately as a serious contender for the presidency.

Make no mistake: Cybercrime can be a form of terrorism, just as sure as a bombing or mass shooting, and if Hillary Clintons privacy isnt safe under Trump, whose would be?

This column isnt meant to alter anyones vote or endorse any particular candidate for presidency. Goodness knows I havent decided yet. But unless Trump clarifies (or better yet, rescinds) his comments, a vote for him is a vote for foreign cyberattacks against United States citizens. Youd better just hope that youre not next on his list.












New York Times . . . A Worry if Hillary Clinton Wins: What to Do With Bill









Tonight the denizens of Kansas City's Democratic Party political scene seem confident that the legacy of a former President Bill Clinton will help the old school 1st lady make a return trip back to the White House.Meanwhile, some of the foremost experts of the Kansas City political scene remind us that even haters will find it hard rage against Former Prez Bubba's penchant for the ladies . . .Let's be clear . . .The only thing that's "historic" about tonight is that the now we all know the title of "First Dude" is the greatest and most coveted job in the free world.Accordingly, here are better links and coverage than what the Kansas City news is providing and something to consider for the overnight . . .You decide . . .
KCK MAN SENTENCED FOR AIRPORT BOMB HOAX

KANSAS CITY, Mo.  Tammy Dickinson, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced today that a Kansas City, Kan., man has been sentenced in federal court for conveying false information as part of a bomb hoax at Kansas City International Airport in August 2014.David James Cain, 35, of Kansas City, Kan., was sentenced on Tuesday, July 26, 2016, by U.S. Chief District Judge Greg Kays to 18 months in federal prison without parole.On Jan. 21, 2016, Cain pleaded guilty to one count of conveying false information.At approximately 5:30 p.m. on Aug. 31, 2014, Cain parked the truck he was driving in front of Terminal B at Kansas City International Airport. The truck remained parked along the curb in front of the terminal for approximately one hour. A KCI traffic control officer had the truck ticketed, and announcements were made over the loud speaker inside the terminal that the owner of truck needed to report or the truck would be towed.After approximately one hour, Cain approached the Southwest Airlines ticket counter and told a ticket agent that there was a bomb in the truck. Cain repeated that there was a bomb in the truck, and then twice told the ticket agents supervisor the same thing. The customer service supervisor contacted law enforcement. The KCPD Bomb Squad and an FBI bomb technician searched the truck, and no bomb or explosive material was located.As a result of Cains false statements, KCI evacuated and closed Terminal B for approximately two hours. Shutting down the terminal caused significant flight delays throughout the rest of the day.This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Brian Casey. It was investigated by the FBI and the Missouri State Highway Patrol.****************
On the Passing of Democratic Giant Dutch Newman

It is with great sadness that we have learned Hila "Dutch" Newman, one of the strongest Democratic leaders this area has ever known, has passed away at the age of 95. News spread quickly among the political community here in Jackson County all the way to the Missouri delegation at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia. Democratic leaders young and old are deeply moved by this news, but also reflect on her lifetime of service.Dutch began a long and amazing career as a volunteer and party builder going back to 1944. For decades, she was the head of the Westport Landing Democratic Club and has made an impact on every election in Kansas City since the end of the Second World War. Over the years, the number of high-profile officials that have paid their respects or honored her is too long to list but includes the likes of George McGovern and Tom Eagleton to Joe Biden and Barack Obama.Senator Claire McCaskill released a brief statement this morning saying, "Dutch was like a second mother to me. She was warm and loving  and at the same time a tenacious and unrelenting institution of the Missouri Democratic party. There will never be another one like her." Jackson County Democratic Committee Chairman Tom Wyrsch had similar thoughts. "I've known her my whole life. She was one of my true mentors and I know she was the same to dozens of others.Her impact truly cannot be overstated. Every candidate for city, county or state office (and sometimes national) longed for the approval of Dutch. Getting the opportunity to speak with her for a moment at events or over the phone was viewed as both critical politics and an honor. Even in her late years, she made every effort to hear from candidates and elected officials as well as show her support by attending major events around the area.The Kansas City Star interviewed her last year around the time of her 95th birthday. In the interview, she was asked about the key to grassroots organizing, her true passion for so many years. Her answer, like Dutch, was thoughtful and true. "Its really not a mystery. Its about getting a group of people together for a worthy cause, going door to door, meeting your neighbors, having meetings that build relationships within the group, creating a sense of community for a cause or candidate. And it doesnt hurt to have something to eat and drink."Dutch touched hundreds of lives is a very meaningful and personal way. The landscape of Democratic politics, and therefore our very society, is better because of her. Our friend will be missed.#############
It was that line -- "the loss of innocent lives at the hands of police" -- that the Fraternal Order of Police said did not sit well with many officers, especially considering the remark came less than 24 hours after Melton was shot.





Many people in the community were offended, and one officer's wife told FOX 4 why the comment upset her.





"That line made me stop and literally rewind to watch it again because I was appalled that those words came out of his mouth," said Dana Bye, the wife of a law enforcement officer. "We have barely started to even know what our new norm is after losing Lancaster. Now we have it again, and we have to have political rhetoric thrown in our faces.

Previously,during a press conference concerning the killing of police Capt. Melton . . .Now check thisreport from Fox4:Money line . . .Developing . . .
It was a big, beautiful Greek wedding for Million Dollar Listing: New Yorks Ryan Serhant and Emilia Bechrakis, according to People magazine.

The Bravo star and Bechrakis, whose family is from Greece, were recently married on the island of Corfu surrounded by 150 close friends and family. Ryan Serhant had proposed to Emilia two years ago by shutting down Times Square in New York and writing Sagapo in one of the billboards.

After a week of wedding festivities, designed by celebrity event planner Kevin Lee, guests journeyed by boat to the ceremony. Wearing a Mediterranean blue tux by VK Nagrani, Serhant and Bechrakis, who wore a champagne strapless gown by Romona Keveza, were wed in the Pontikonisi church in the Greek island of Corfu. The two observed Greek traditions including exchanging crowns.

From the moment I met Emilia, I knew it would be pretty incredible to do it in Greece and be surrounded by everyone close to us, Serhant told PEOPLE. But I did have a few ideas that are not transpiring. I originally wanted six Apache helicopters to fly in and drop me and my brothers down into the wedding.

Bechrakis says it was most important for her to have the ceremony in a Greek church and ideally in Greece. Im more of an intimate wedding kind of person but Im marrying Ryan so its a lot bigger than it would have been.

Following the ceremony, where guests were entertained by a quartet and lit sparklers to celebrate the couples union, Serhant, 31, and Bechrakis held court at a reception at the private Villa Kanoni. Featuring a menu of chilled soup, risotto with summer truffle, goat cheese salad and roasted lamb, the dinner included toasts made by the wedding party to the bride and groom, music by DJ Spartakos and was capped off by fireworks at the end of the night. Serhant, who owns a real estate agency and caters for some of the biggest Hollywood stars, says it is a good time to invest in Greece. Now he has one more reason to do so.

Source: People

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 Cyprus government is catching flak for pumping the brakes on the bid process for its lone casino license

The Cyprus government is catching flak for pumping the brakes on the bid process for its lone casino license, calvinayre.com reports.

The Greek-controlled southern half of Cyprus had set a July 5 deadline for its three casino license finalists to submit their final proposals for consideration. But the government now says it has pushed back this deadline by another three months.

In Cyprus reported that the government was responding to requests by two of the bidders  Filipino casino operator Bloomberry Resorts and Cambodias NagaCorp  who said they needed more time to finalize their presentations.

The two bidders reportedly told the government that they needed more time to secure deals with the owners of the land parcels on which they wish to build. Bloomberry is reportedly eyeing a property at Paphos while NagaCorp is looking at a Lamarca plot.

The extension has met with protests by Bidder #3  a consortium of the Florida Seminoles Hard Rock international and Lawrence Hos Melco International Development  who want the original timeline to be honored and object strongly to the idea of a delay.

Unanimous approval

A government source told Cyprus Weekly that the request for more time had been unanimously approved by both the Legal and Audit Services departments based on their belief that sticking to the original timeline would have unduly favored the Hard Rock-Melco bid.

The government still hopes to make a final decision on awarding the lone casino license by the end of the year. Considering that the bidders will have until Oct. 5 to submit their proposals, that doesnt leave much time.

Which may be why the government has reportedly scrubbed a clause from the original request-for-proposals that would have required government inspectors to visit each bidders existing casino operations to get a sense of what to expect. However, a government source said this clause had always been optional and visiting the existing operations would not have added anything new.

This isnt the first time the Cypriot government has been accused of messing up the casino tender. In March, a consortium that failed to make the shortlist said the vetting process had lacked credibility, while opposition politicians accused the government of favoring some bidders over others.

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 Libyan Local Investment & Development Funds (LLIDF) has appointed professional services firm PwC as its advisor to support feasibility studies for three strategic projects.



The projects include redevelopment of Tripoli Airport, and the development of specialised hospitals and solar energy.



The LLIDF is supporting the redevelopment of Libya through its new Investment Programme which includes the redevelopment of Tripoli International Airport into a world-class international airport. Based within a secure hub on the former airport site, the ambition is to cater for over five million passengers per annum, attract a multitude of new airline partners, and act as a catalyst for major commercial and corporate developments nearby.



PwCs infrastructure team in the UK and Middle East has also been brought on board to act as advisors for two separate feasibility studies on new specialised hospitals and solar energy developments.



Focussed on establishing an integrated network of specialised hospitals, providing health services to high risk communities across Libya, the programme aims to reduce the countrys reliance on overseas healthcare support in the longer term. The environmentally friendly solar photovoltaic energy project in Hoon, southwest Libya, intends to support Libyas energy needs by delivering in the region of 100 MWp of generation capacity in line with expected demands.



The agreement was signed in London by Bader Ben-Othman, CEO of LLIDF, and PwC partners, Ian Baxter, Michael Burns, Ahmed Baitelmal and Bernhard Haider.



Ben-Othman said: We are delighted to team up again with PwC as our advisors for three strategic projects; namely the redevelopment of Tripoli International Airport alongside development of an integrated network of specialised hospitals and a solar energy project. These projects are absolutely critical for Libyas needs in terms of stabilisation, socio-economic benefits and the alleviation of hardship."



Ian Baxter, PwC infrastructure partner, added: We recognise that these are three critical projects for LLIDF and Libya as a whole. While the airport will open up trade routes further, the delivery of specialised hospitals, providing services including oncology, neurology, rehabilitation and cardiology, will help improve clinical service and patient care standards.



We are delighted to continue our work with the LLIDF and look forward to using our local and global sector knowledge and PPP expertise to support this crucial work rebuilding the Libyan economy and infrastructure, he added.



Leading the airport advisory project will be Michael Burns, PwC partner based in London. The healthcare feasibility study will be led by London-based PwC partner, Ian Baxter, with the solar feasibility analysis led by Bernhard Haider, a PwC partner based in Egypt. Local PwC Libyan support to all three feasibility studies will be led by Dr Ahmed Baitelmal.  TradeArabia News Service
Batelco, Bahrain's leading telecom company, has issued a warning to its customers to be on the alert over fraudulent emails.



A number of Batelco customers have reported receiving emails which appears to come from someone they know, asking them to transfer money or open an attachment, the company said.



"This type of targeted scam email is known as spear phishing, where the sender has access to personal details such as the names and work roles of those who are targeted. The inclusion of such information makes the emails look very realistic and a number of people have transferred money believing they are sending it to help a friend in need," said a statement.



Batelco chief operating officer Abderrahmane Mounir advised customers that in order to avoid phishing scams, everyone should be suspicious of any email message that asks them to click on a link and enter or verify personal information.



Also, customers should be suspicious of any email which asks them to transfer money even if it appears to be from a friend or colleague. It is highly recommended to make direct contact with the person who appears to have sent the email and check with them before taking any action, he added. - TradeArabia News Service


Ericsson has announced that Tarek Saadi has been appointed head of Global Customer Unit (GCU) Zain as well as head of Customer Unit for the GCC and Pakistan within Ericsson Region Middle East and East Africa.



In his new role, Saadi will be responsible for Key Accounts in the GCC and Pakistan in addition to all Zain accounts within Ericsson.



Saadi joined Ericsson in Stockholm, Sweden in 1996 before moving to cover the Levant, GCC and North Africa regions as well as parts of Eastern Europe. In his 20 years with the company, he has held multiple positions in Sales and Business Development in a number of Ericsson offices across the globe.



In January 2015, he was appointed to the position of head of Engagement Practices within Region Middle East.



Prior to joining Ericsson, Saadi spent two years with Matrox as a Sales Engineer before becoming regional sales manager for a territory that covered Central USA.



Saadi attended North Carolina State University where he earned a Master of Science with a major in Management; plus a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering.



Rafiah Ibrahim, head of Ericsson Region Middle East and Africa said: Todays appointments of the new leaders will enable us to continue adding value to our customers and drive their transformation agenda.



I look forward to utilizing this leadership role to strengthen Ericssons position in the telecommunications industry. I plan to evaluate strategies and align them for continued success of the organization. Innovation is my first priority and I plan to drive growth and development amid tough competition, said Saadi.  TradeArabia News Service
Abu Dhabi-listed Etisalat reported a 51 percent rise in second-quarter net profit on Wednesday on the back of foreign exchange gains and lower finance costs and royalties.



Etisalat, which directly and indirectly operates in about 18 countries across the Middle East, Africa and Asia, made a net profit of Dh2.32 billion ($631.7 million) in the three months to June 30, it said in a statement. This compares with a profit of Dh1.53 billion a year earlier.



SICO Bahrain forecast Etisalat would make a quarterly profit of Dh1.92 billion.



The company's board proposed an interim dividend of 40 fils per share for the first half, according to the statement.



Etisalat generated second-quarter revenue of Dh13.33 billion ($3.62 billion), up from Dh12.72 billion a year earlier.



Domestic revenue rose 3 percent to Dh7.7 billion due to increased customer base, while international revenue fell 1 percent year on year to Dh5.5 billion because of currency volatility in Egypt and Pakistan.



Etisalat had 163 million subscribers as of June 30, up 0.7 percent from the same point a year earlier.



The firm agreed in June to sell its 92.3 percent holding in Sudanese fixed line operator Canary for Dh349.6 million to Sudan's Bank of Khartoum, subject to conditions including the approval of Sudanese authorities.

Etisalat Group chairman Mohamed Eissa Al-Suwaidi said: "We have succeeded in increasing our profits in the first half of 2016 and enhancing our performance in a way that fulfils our long fruitful journey. Etisalat Group owes this success first and foremost to the continued support of the wise leadership of the United Arab Emirates, which has ensured that we continue to aspire forward with confidence and also to adapt to the rapid developments and changes faced by the telecom industry."



Al Suwaidi added: "Our customers are vital to anything that we do and they are the main reason behind our success. We highly appreciate our customer's trust, which pushes us to continue our hard work to meet their needs and aspirations in every market where we operate."



He reiterated: "Etisalat Group has a leadership role in the telecommunications and Information Technology sector worldwide. The strong financial results that were achieved in the second quarter of 2016 provide a solid ground for further growth in the rest of the year. Through our fully-fledged expertise in the fields of telecoms, our ability to keep pace with the latest technological innovations, and our constant investment in the development of our infrastructure and networks, we are ready to fully contribute to the UAE's vision 2021 and meet the aspirations of Expo 2020."



Eng. Saleh Al Abdooli, chief executive officer, said: "Etisalat's performance in the first half of 2016 maintains our record of solid performance and consolidates our position as a leading operator in emerging markets. Therefore, enabling us to continue to offer significant value for our shareholders, whilst being able to make the investment in innovative solutions that is vital to maintain our leading role in one of the world's fastest evolving industries.



"While the industry is renowned for the speed of change, Etisalat Group is also undergoing positive change. The re-structuring of the company, which was announced earlier this year, was finalised during the second quarter of 2016. It was designed to help the delivery of our strategic objectives and enhance overall performance.



He said: "We are already putting in place the network and partnerships that will deliver the benefits from changes in the telecom industry. Etisalat Group is a strong supporter of the Smart City concept. The partnerships with the Expo 2020 team and with Dubai Parks and Resorts, which we announced in this quarter, are such initiatives, in line with our digital transformation strategy, and which Etisalat considers a priority to shape and advance Smart City agenda in the UAE."



Etisalat is already using its telecommunication infrastructure and digital technologies to deliver for its customers. "We were the first company in the region to roll out 4G-LTE, with now around 95 per cent of the UAE's populated areas covered by faster speeds. Recently, we launched the UAE's first Voice over LTE (VoLTE) service, providing customers with vastly improved quality for voice. In addition, Etisalat Group achieved a penetration rate of Fibre-to-the-Home (FTTH) of 89.4 per cent, which is considered as one of the highest in the world," he said. -Reuters and TradeArabia News Service


German hotel chain Steigenberger has opened a new InterCityHotel in Salalah, Oman - its first property under the mid-scale brand outside Europe, said a report.



The new hotel stands eight stories tall and features 70 rooms as well as a restaurant and a modern gym. It also offers a roof-top swimming pool with fabulous views, said a report in Muscat Daily.



Located just 4km from the airport, InterCityHotel is in the heart of the business district and within the immediate vicinity of various ministries



Puneet Chhatwal, CEO of Steigenberger Hotels, said: Following our Steigenberger debut in Dubai in November last year, we are now bringing our InterCityHotel brand to the Middle East for the first time.



The project is being implemented in conjunction with the owner Al Sedra Real Estate of Oman, a subsidiary of the Golden Group of Companies, the report said.
Fathoming a New Kind of Cruising

Fathoms Ron Fenska offers advice on how to sell the lines cruises  and whom to target.

Cruise Line & Cruise Ship Theresa Norton
(TRAVPR.COM) COLOMBIA - July 27th, 2016 - ALBANY, New York, July, 27, 2016  In 2016, the weak local currency in Colombia will increase the preference for domestic trips over outbound travel, states a report newly added by Market Research Hub to its vast database. It is also expected that the weak peso will continue to boost the growing inbound tourism as well. In 2015, international arrivals increased by 16.3%. In June 2016, an agreement was signed to end the 50-year conflict between FARC rebels and the Colombian government. This is predicted to significantly affect international arrivals, predict the reports authors. These are some of the findings of the report, titled Travel and Tourism in Colombia to 2020.

The research says that travel and tourism in Colombia has been enjoying impressive growth over the past few years  8.2% in 2013, 7.4% in 2014, and the aforementioned 16.3% in 2015. Consistent improvements in safety for tourists in Colombia have contributed to the consistent growth. The research report also highlights details about international arrivals, international departures, outbound trips, and inbound trips. As per the findings of the report, in 2015, there were approximately 2.3 million international arrivals in Colombia. By 2020, international arrivals are expected to reach 3.2 million, exhibiting a 6.70% CAGR from 2016 to 2020.

Browse Full Report on Travel and Tourism in Colombia: http://www.marketresearchhub.com/report/travel-and-tourism-in-colombia-to-2020-report.html

The research also talks about the rising government support that is boosting the travel and tourism sector in Colombia. The Colombian government is planning to exempt all foreign tourists from the sales tax (VAT) of 16% on tourism services. In February 2016, at a tourist fair, the Colombian President, Juan Manuel, announced that a decree had already been prepared declaring the exemption for foreign tourists visiting Colombia and for those availing health tourism packages. This is expected to assist travel and tourism agents in Colombia in increasing the sale of tourist packages.

The study then focuses on the major factors expected to restrict the growth of travel and tourism in Colombia. The economic depreciation has adversely affected international departures, thus hampering the travel and tourism sector in Colombia. In 2015, outbound trips fell by 1.3% and expenditure declined by around 0.6%. By 2020, domestic trips in Colombia are expected to reach 32.6 million, exhibiting a 5.70% average annual growth rate from 2016 to 2020.

As per the report, overcrowding at Colombias biggest airport, El Dorado at Bogota, is the primary challenge for the tourism sector. El Dorado was designed to serve 15 million to 17 million passengers every year. In 2015, with a total of 30 million passengers, the airport registered record-breaking passenger traffic. To ease the congestion of passengers, the Colombian government has invested US$375 mn in building a new airport, El Dorado II, by 2021. This is expected to further propel inbound and outbound trips, thus boosting travel and tourism in Colombia.

About Market Research HUB

Market Research HUB (MRH) is a next-generation reseller of research reports and analysis. MRHs expansive collection of market research reports has been carefully curated to help key personnel and decision makers across industry verticals to clearly visualize their operating environment and take strategic steps.

MRH functions as an integrated platform for the following products and services: Objective and sound market forecasts, qualitative and quantitative analysis, incisive insight into defining industry trends, and market share estimates. Our reputation lies in delivering value and world-class capabilities to our clients.

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Designer Indya is a leading India holiday tour packages provider company. Now we launch Bhutan tour packages at affordable costs.



(TRAVPR.COM) INDIA - July 27th, 2016 - Bhutan officially the Kingdom of Bhutan, is a sovereign state in South Asia. Bhutan is also well known for mountain adventure trekking and hiking. Jhomolhari Base Camp

Trek, Snowman Trek, Masagang trek are some of the popular treks in Bhutan. The most important centers for tourism are in Bhutan's capital Thimphu, and in the western

city of Paro, near India. Taktshang, a cliff side monastery (Called the "Tiger's Nest" in English) watching the Paro Valley, is one of the country's attractions. This

temple is really sacred to Buddhists. Housed inside the temple is a cave in which the Buddhist Deity who brought Buddhism to Bhutan fasted for 90 days as he battled

the demons that inhabited this valley, in order to spread Buddhism. The temple has been standing for well over a thousand years, yet has suffered two fires in which

the damage has been repaired. Visas to Bhutan are obtained through its embassy or consulate in one's home country. [Ref  Wikipedia]

Designer Indya is a leading India holiday tour packages provider company. Now we launch Bhutan tour packages at affordable costs. We provide reliable and keen services

with highly experienced tour manager. We will also include with all your travel arrangements in a best way .Your stay in Bhutan will be set very delightful, safe and

memorable holidays.

Check it out below details about our Bhutan tour packages

Inclusions:

 Accommodation on double sharing basis

 Paro - Paro by 1 SUV Non Ac Car or similar

 Daily Breakfast

 Sightseeing & Itinerary as specified in Day to Day itinerary as mentioned in your mail.

 Tour Guide

 All Entry Fees

Exclusions:

 Travel Insurance, Personal Expenses like beverages, tips, etc...

 Any meals other than specified under inclusions

 Flight ticket

 Government Service tax

NOTE:

 Rates valid for Indian Nationals only... Please write us for foreign national rates

 Indian national travelling to Bhutan required valid Passport or Original Voter ID card only.

 Carrying of Tobacco product is punishable offense to Bhutan.

 All tourists visiting Dzong and temples must be dressed appropriately. No half pant, sleeve less shirts, floaters, etc. are allowed

 Car will be as per itinerary only and it will not be on disposal basis

So now you ready for Bhutan Holiday tour in India Visit our website and book your tour package with suit your budget. Do not hesitate to contact us with enquires; our

friendly and highly experienced staff is most willing to help you with your travel to Bhutan.

###
To make a small spaces work one has to squeeze something useful out of every little square foot. Have stairs? Put storage cabinets in them. Or a cat's litter box. You get the idea. In fact, one of the most under-utilized spaces in a tiny home may actually be the roof; while some may sport solar panels on them, most of the ones we've seen thus far are mostly empty.

The Basecamp tiny home, built by mountain-climbing, husband-and-wife engineers Tina and Luke is one exception with its generous waterproof roof deck that is accessible via a tiny "hobbit door" in the bedroom. The 204-square-foot home (383 square feet including the deck) has been made to cater to the couple's passion for mountaineering, so there's lots of storage for their gear, as well as accommodation for their two dogs. The home has been designed to be off-grid; in addition to solar power there is rainwater harvesting and a composting toilet.

 Backcountry Tiny Homes

 Backcountry Tiny HomesOne enters into the home through French doors that bring in plenty of light into the L-sectioned seating area, which also doubles as a guest bed with its pull-out bed. The secondary loft above serves as storage, plus another big wall of various drawers and cabinets facing the main doors. In the midst of all this is a lot of hidden furniture that can be pulled out when needed, including a dining room table, coffee table, chairs, drying rack and more.

 Backcountry Tiny Homes

 Backcountry Tiny Homes

 Backcountry Tiny Homes

 Backcountry Tiny Homes

 Backcountry Tiny Homes

The kitchen's wooden counters feature the 'live edge' look; the propane cookstove has a clever mountain-shaped shield behind it. The bathroom looks like the standard size for a tiny house, with a shower, toilet and small sink.

 Backcountry Tiny Homes

 Backcountry Tiny Homes

 Backcountry Tiny Homes

Going up the stairs (which have storage built in of course), one enters the main bedroom. Beyond the bed is the small door that leads out to a short flight of stairs and up to the roof deck, which is placed primarily over the bedroom -- the rest of the roof is a sloping, shed-style roof with solar panels on it.

 Backcountry Tiny Homes

 Backcountry Tiny Homes

 Backcountry Tiny Homes

 Backcountry Tiny Homes

 Backcountry Tiny Homes

While roof decks are nice, they are challenging to build when one has to consider a few potential issues, like access, snow load-bearing capacity and safety. But it can be done, and as this tiny house shows, it can add extra useable space where it's needed most. In any case, Tina and Luke have some plans of the Basecamp with various options up for sale, and you can find out more details over at Backcountry Tiny Homes.

[Via: Tiny House Talk]
G Parthasarathy

AS Chinas military and economic presence in Myanmar grew following the military crackdown in 1988, concerns arose in India, about the possibility of Chinese military bases and surveillance facilities in Myanmars Cocos Island, bordering the Andaman Islands. A Chinese military analyst responded to such Indian concerns by arrogantly asserting: The Indian Ocean is not Indias Ocean! India had never asserted that it had territorial claims in the Indian Ocean. One of its most remarkable diplomatic achievements has been that it has settled its maritime boundaries with all its eastern neighbours. This was done not only with bilateral agreements on the maritime boundaries with Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Thailand, Indonesia and Bangladesh, but also tripartite agreements to determine tri-junctions, with Myanmar and Thailand, Indonesia and Thailand and Sri Lanka and the Maldives.

Unlike India, which settled maritime boundary issues in accordance with international law, China saw vast benefit, as early as 1947, in augmenting its access to huge oil and fishery resources by expanding its maritime frontiers, especially in the South China Sea. It claimed that its maritime frontiers historically lay on a nine- dash line across the South China Sea. As China grew militarily stronger, it enforced its maritime boundary claims, converting rocks into islands, while utilising its naval power coercively. A typical case of Chinese bullying was its use of force to fulfil its claims on the Scarborough Shoal, located 500 miles from its shores and barely 100 miles from the Philippines. Worse still, Beijing sought to exercise sovereignty over the entire South China Sea by issuing threats to passing naval vessels and seeking to enforce an air defence identification zone, requiring foreign aircraft to identify themselves even when on international waters.

Blinded by arrogance at its growing military power, China has sought to challenge Japanese sovereignty in the East China Sea by air space violations and its navy adopting provocative postures. This was, and remains, a real flashpoint, as the US-Japanese Security Treaty contains an American guarantee to protect Japanese sovereignty over the disputed Senkaku Islands. Chinese actions have forced the Americans to respond, with submarines and aircraft carriers challenging Chinese claims in both the South China and East China Seas. China resorted to 570 air space violations across the Senkaku Islands in 2015. China today has maritime disputes with South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Indonesia. It was the Philippines that called Chinas bluff and challenged its claims at the International Arbitration Tribunal, set up under the UN Convention of the Law of the Seas (UNCLOS). Even as China argued why India could not be admitted into the NSG, the international tribunal, whose verdict is binding, delivered China a resounding admonition.

It categorically held that there was no legal basis for any Chinese historic rights within its unilaterally imposed nine-dash line. It rejected Chinas claims on several rocks and barren islets to expand its maritime frontiers, as they were not islands as defined in the UNCLOS. This meant that China had no legal basis to claim sovereignty, or fishing rights across the Spratly Islands, including the most contentious Scarborough Shoal and the Mischief Reef, where China had sought to construct an artificial island. While rejecting the verdict, China adopted a belligerent posture, with its navy resorting to a show of force. Predictably, the US and Australia welcomed the verdict and called on China to comply, even though the US is not a signatory to the UNCLOS and settles it maritime disputes bilaterally. China has, however, clearly placed itself as a regional bully, with its pretensions of being a benign power shattered.

It is clear that despite this victory on the rejection of Chinas claims on its maritime boundaries, its affected neighbours have been restrained in their reactions. Nobody wishes to face the wrath of the wounded Dragon. Even the Philippines pledged itself to a peaceful resolution of the dispute. Moreover, even though five of the 10 ASEAN members face belligerent Chinese maritime boundary claims, others like Thailand, Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia have made it clear that they are too dependent on China to cause it offence on this issue. The call across the ASEAN states, even by the Philippines and Vietnam, was for restraint in responding to the judgment.

China, in turn, has come out with a white paper, indicating some flexibility in its approach. China did not reassert its historic rights over the whole area of the nine-dash line. The language used in the Chinese text appears to suggest that the tribunals judgment that the Spratly Islands are rocks incapable of sustaining human habitation has not been directly contradicted by China. There are suggestions in the white paper that China could move towards modifying some of its claims, in negotiations with parties like Vietnam. Just a few days prior to the judgment, the Chinese government mouthpiece Global Times made a distinctly positive reference to Vietnam, stating: China and Vietnam will have more common ground to address their bilateral territorial disputes, which will transform the landscape in the region. Global Times suggested: Hanois strategic purpose is to defend what it holds and legalise oil drilling in the waters it occupies. It wont provoke China if there is no major threat. China earlier objected to oil drilling in these waters.

India should study these developments carefully. They signal a Chinese approach of splitting territorial claimants. Around 50 per cent of Indias global trade traverses the South China Sea. New Delhi has a vital interest in seeing that China does not have a legal basis to interrupt its freedom of navigation and over-flight rights in the South China Sea. Its statement after the verdict speaks of self-restraint, but also clearly reflects its concerns by urging all parties to respect the principles of international law, as reflected notably in the verdict. China is using its national power to establish its hegemony along its immediate sea-lanes, even as it steps up its presence across the Indian Ocean. Managing this assertiveness will require imaginative diplomacy in the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea. This would involve steps to establish a viable and stable balance of power in the entire Indo-Pacific region, working with partners like the US, Japan, Australia, Vietnam and others, while keeping channels of dialogue with Beijing open.
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, July 27

Just about a fortnight after senior Congress leader Randeep Singh Surjewala sought security cover after alleging sinister conspiracy to eliminate him due to political considerations, Haryana has already provided him with adequate security.

In a reply before the Punjab and Haryana High Court, Superintendent of Police Surinder Singh said Randeep had been provided Y category security since November 2014. No less than 11 cops were in his security, considering threat perception to his life on reports from the state and Central agencies.

The state government further contended that the petition was an attempt to stop the transfer of Inspector Amrik Singh Chahal from his security. If the same was stopped, it would have serious administrative repercussions in the state police.

In his petition, Surjewala had asked for security cover by the Central Industrial Security Force due to threats faced by him due to suspicious escape of dreaded gangster Surinder Geong, with the state governments simultaneous action of withdrawing his personal security detail.

Surjewala had claimed a day after news of alleged gangsters escape surfaced, the Director-General of Police issued an order for withdrawal of an inspector from his personal security details.

His counsel told the court that Geongs group was one of the most prominent criminal gangs in the petitioners constituency, Kaithal. The petitioner earlier as a minister had publicly stated his and the governments resolve to ensure decisive and quick action against notorious criminal gangs.

After his arrest, the Haryana Government granted parole to Geong in May this year for construction of a house. Subsequently, the petitioner called the DGP to point out the gross error in granting parole to such a dreaded gangster.

He added availing the benefit and concession conferred upon him by the state government, Geong jumped the parole and did not report back in June.
Shiv kumar sharma

Tribune News Service

Yamunanagar, July 27

Eight persons, who were stranded on an island in the swallowing Yamuna near Mandewala village of the district today, were airlifted by the Army. Deputy Commissioner SS Phulia said the rescued persons had been identified as Balbir Singh, Singram, Sohan Lal, Rampal, Amit Kumar, Dukhan and Suresh Kumar, all residents of Yamunanagar districts Kohliwala village, and Ramesh Kumar of UP. He said they were farmers but why they were there was yet to be ascertained.

They said the officers of the local administration  Deputy Commissioner, Superintendent of Police Manish Chaudhri, Bilaspur SDM Naveen Ahuja and District Development and Panchayat Officer Gagandeep Singh  reached the spot at 2 pm soon after getting information.

They first made an attempt to evacuate them by using boats, but the rescue operation could not succeed as the river was swallowing. The sources said the Deputy Commissioner contacted Chief Secretary DS Dheshi and Additional Chief Secretary (Disaster Management) Keshni Anand Arora requesting them for airlift the strand persons.

They said after consulting the Chief Minister, the CS and ACS spoke to the officers of the Army, who immediately sent a helicopter MI-17 from the Sarsawa Air Force Station of UP to carry out the rescue operation. The operation was over within a few hours after the incident came to the knowledge of the administration.

The sources said the water flow in the Yamuna had started rising at the Hathnikund Barrage in the noon and reached 1.81 lakh cusecs by 3 pm. The DC said when the eight persons ran to an island situated in the middle of the river someone saw them and informed the administration.

The sources said four tractor-trailers were also washed away in the Yamuna water, but no official of the administration has confirmed the report. The local administration has sounded an alert and asked the people living in the vicinity of the river to be vigilant.
Abhinav Vashisht

KULLU, JULY 27

Traders and residents of Kullu observed a bandh here today against the takeover of Raghunath Temple by the state government.

The entire market in Akhara Bazar, Sarwari, Dhalpur and Gandhi Nagar region of the town remained closed. Even yesterday many residents of the town had met the Kullu Deputy Commissioner to oppose the acquisition of the temple.

A large number of residents under the banner of the Shree Sanatan Dharam Sabha, Kullu, had appealed to the DC that they opposed any interference by the government or the administration in the affairs of the temple.

The decision to take over the affairs of the temple was taken at the Cabinet meeting in Shimla on Monday. The temple will be taken over for the better administration, protection and preservation of its properties.

The district administration gave a notice to the temple management to hand over all properties, including structures and devices as well as stock, stores and cash within seven days.
Arteev Sharma

Tribune News Service

Jammu, July 27

Two minor girls and a woman died today in flash floods and a house collapsed in the Jammu region after heavy rains lashed the area.

Life came to a standstill in different parts of the region as landslides triggered by heavy rains closed all important road links and several low-lying areas remained water-logged and submerged in three-four feet of water. The flood water gushed into the houses of the people, causing extensive damage.

The administration issued a flood alert asking people not to venture near rivers and 'nullahs' as all major rivers, including Chenab, Ujh and Tawi, were flowing close to the danger mark. According to the Indian Meteorological Department, Jammu, witnessed nearly 108.8 mm rainfall in the past 24 hours while Katra got over 71 mm rainfall.

Official reports said two minor girls, identified as Meenakshi (9), daughter of Rudi Ram of Janipur, and Sakshi Sharma (7), daughter of Romesh Chander residing at Janipur, got washed away in the flash flood in the Janipur area while they were on the way to a school.

Two other girls had a narrow escape as they tried to save the deceased, official sources said. The Jammu Municipal Corporation said the flash flood occurred due to a cloudburst in the area.

Around 10.30 am, the two girls got washed way due to flash floods in the Janipur area and their bodies have been fished out. The bodies have been kept at the mortuary of Government Medical College and Hospital, Jammu, for legal formalities. The administration has announced Rs 4 lakh each under the State Disaster Response Fund to the families of the deceased, said Simrandeep Singh, Deputy Commissioner, Jammu.

Expressing grief over the loss of lives, Deputy Chief Minister Nirmal Singh directed the administration to prepare a damage-assessment report and submit it to the government.

Reports from Rajouri said torrential rains coupled with thunderstorm damaged four houses in the district. At Sawni village, a woman identified as Arshad Begam died due to a house collapse.

In Ramban, a JCB driver identified as Soran Singh of Punjab, who was working for Gammon India Ltd, which has been engaged for the four-laning of the Jammu-Srinagar national highway, sustained critical injuries after he came under the debris of a landslide. He was rushed to District Hospital at Ramban from where he was being shifted to Jammu. In Kathua district, traffic on Bani-Basohli, Bani-Daggar and Kathua-Basohli remained affected due to closure of roads following landslides and flash floods.

A bridge connecting Samba and Kathua through old route on Karnah nullah was washed away, snapping the road connecting of nearly 20 villages.

Vehicular movement on several vital roads in Udhampur and Reasi districts also remained disrupted due to landslides and flash floods.
Ishfaq Tantry

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, July 27

With protests gaining momemtum in the Valley, it is becoming increasingly difficult for journalists to report from Kashmir as mobs now even attack local journalists.

On Tuesday night, a Valley-based journalist, Syed Ali Safvi, who reports for Iranian Press TV, was attacked by a mob on the outskirts of Srinagar and his car damaged.

Safvi was heading home after work when he was attacked by an angry mob near the Tengpora locality, even though his car bore a sticker indicating press.

According to Safvi, the group which gathered to protest the killing of Burhan Wani and excesses committed by security forces in the past weeks were furious over what they termed blatant double standard by some sections of the media.

The protesters were yelling that the media has not given fair coverage of Kashmir, Safvi told The Tribune. He had a narrow escape.

In fact, during the ongoing unrest in Kashmir, mediapersons, both local and those reporting for the national and international media, had been at the receiving end.

On July 22, a senior photojournalist, Dar Yasin, working for an international news agency, was thrashed by near the SHMS Hospital. He and some journalists had gone there to cover funeral prayers of a civilian killed in firing.

Many journalists, in their reportage on the situation, had indicated that it had become difficult to reach interior of south Kashmir as they had to face angry civilian protesters and government forces on the way.

As soon as the people, who were readying to offer the funeral prayers, saw mediapersons, someone from the crowd yelled Indian media channels. They pounced upon the journalists and caught hold of Yasin, beating him up and smashing his camera, said a mediaperson witness to the incident.

By the time the crowd got to know that Dar was working for an international media agency and not any national news channel, the damage had been done, he said.

People cannot differentiate between a TV journalist and a print media journalist. The primary reason for the public anger against the media is the biased reportage of Kashmir by the electronic media, said Javed Dar, a senior photojournalist working for a Chinese news agency.

Dar said photojournalists were the first to the reach the spot and usually faced the wrath of angry crowds.
New Delhi, July 27

The Jammu and Kashmir Government has been requested to identify suitable land in the Kashmir valley where the migrants could be rehabilitated, the Rajya Sabha was informed today.

This was stated by Minister of State for Home Hansraj Gangaram Ahir while replying to a written question by Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut, who had asked about the status of governments plan for setting up a composite township for displaced Kashmiri Pandit migrants.

There are 62,000 registered Kashmiri migrants who had to leave the Valley due to militancy in early 1990s. Of these, 40,000 families are in Jammu, 20,000 in Delhi and remaining 2,000 in rest of the country.

The state government of Jammu and Kashmir has been requested to identify suitable land in Kashmir, where the Kashmiri migrants could be rehabilitated, the minister said in his reply.

He said a variety of measures had been taken over the years by the government which include providing two-room tenements at four places in Jammu and 2,000 flats at Sheikhpora in Budgam district in Kashmir as part of the 2004 Prime Ministers package.

He said as part of a comprehensive package in 2008, 3,000 jobs in the state were to be provided, besides announcing a financial assistance for construction of houses in the Kashmir valley and building transit accommodation.

The package is being implemented by the state government and so far 1,719 jobs have been provided to Kashmiri migrants besides construction of 505 transit accommodation, he said.

Ahir said another package was announced in November, 2015, under which another 3,000 jobs were approved besides construction of 6,000 transit accommodation in the Kashmir valley. PTI

3,550 security men hurt in stone-throwing this year

New Delhi: As many as 3,550 security forces personnel and 2,309 civilians were injured following protests and stone-throwing incidents in Jammu and Kashmir till July 25 this year, the Rajya Sabha was told today. Minister of State for Home Hansraj Ahir said there were 1,029 incidents of severe protests and stone-throwing in Jammu and Kashmir so far this year in which 48 civilians and two security personnel were killed. There were 730 incidents of severe protests and stone-throwing in 2015 in which five civilians were killed and 240 injured while 886 security forces personnel were also injured.PTI
Gurvinder Singh

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, July 27

In a significant development, National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) will shift its base from Bathinda to Ludhiana. The NDRF battalion would cover three states of Punjab, J&K and Himachal Pradesh apart from Union Territory of Chandigarh. The NDRF base is coming up on 52 acres in the Ladhowal area.

There are 12 NDRF units in the country and each of them covers three or four states for disaster response, combating emergency situations or calamities.

Right now, the NDRF base in Punjab is in the Indo-Tibetan Border Police Force (ITBPF) complex. The state government has provided land free of cost to the NDRF to set up its base in Ludhiana district. Around 1,000 personnel would be stationed at the base.

Shifting of the NDRF base from Bathinda to Ludhiana will take around two years to complete. Though the timeline is not definitive, it may take more or less time. Housing and construction has been started. But it will take around two years for the entire infrastructure to come up and shift the base to Ludhiana, Commandant Jaideep Singh, 7-NDRF, said.

Alimited infrastructure has been set up in Ludhiana. Two teams comprising around 100 personnel have also been stationed there.
Gurvinder Singh

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, July 27

Students who choose to become campus ambassadors will campaign to create awareness about voting process, rights and responsibilities to ensure that all the students and staff in their respective colleges are enrolled as voters.

Campus ambassadors from different colleges met Additional Deputy Commissioner (Development) and Additional District Electoral Officer (ADEO) Apneet Riyait at Bachat Bhawan today.

The campus ambassadors will start campaigning in colleges regarding the election process and create awareness amongst students and other sections of society to encourage first-time voters in particular.

The concept was started by the ECI to target young and first-time voters and increase the registration of voters by sensitising them about their responsibilities and voting rights. This will strengthen democracy by involving more people in the electoral process, Riyait said. The concept has been rolled out as part of Systematic Voters Education and Electoral Participation (SVEEP).

Riyait said the campus ambassadors would conduct several activities in colleges such as plays, slogan writing, poster-making competition and organise youth parliaments on campus to create awareness about the election process.

She said the campus ambassadors should circulate registers to have a list of students across campuses to know if their voter cards were made.

Riyait said campus ambassadors must come up with interesting slogans. The best slogan would be used in the awareness campaigns by the district administration. Three best performing campus ambassadors would also be chosen, she said. She said the campus ambassadors would also be given badges which would distinguish them from other students and instill a sense of duty among them. The campus ambassadors would work as a team, she said.

I feel excited about this. Many students of our age do not realise the importance of voting but the campaign carried out last year impressed me. So I volunteered to become a campus ambassador this year. Students generally shy away from voting, feeling it is none of their concern, but we have to make them realise its importance, said one of the campus ambassadors.
Imphal, July 26

Sixteen years after she began her fast, demanding that the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act be repealed, Manipur's "Iron Lady" Irom Chanu Sharmila has decided to end her protest on August 9 and contest the Assembly elections as an Independent.

The iconic 44-year-old rights activist, who has been forcibly fed through a nasal tube since 2000, said she would join politics as she no longer believed that her fast would lead to the repeal of the "draconian" AFSPA. "I will end fast on August 9 and contest elections on an Independent," she told the media after coming out of a local court where she is facing trial for attempted suicide.

(Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)

Sharmila has refused food since November 2000 and is forcibly fed through a nasal tube at Imphal's Jawaharlal Nehru Hospital. A special ward acts as her prison. Assembly elections in Manipur are scheduled early next year.

Sharmila also expressed her desire to get married on coming out of the prison on August 9. The civil rights activist reportedly has a boyfriend, a British national of Indian origin.

On November 2, 2000, an Assam Rifles battalion allegedly killed 10 civilians in a village near Imphal. Three days later, Sharmila embarked on her fast, demanding revocation of AFSPA, which allows security personnel to kill on mere suspicion without the fear of trial.

Sharmila's non-violent resistance has become a nucleus for collective protest against AFSPA in the northeastern states. Her Gandhian-like struggle has won her several human rights awards, including the 2007 Gwangju Prize for Human Rights, which is given to "an outstanding person or group, active in the promotion and advocacy of peace, democracy and human rights".

International human rights organisations, such as Amnesty International have been demanding her unconditional release from prison.

A network of civil societies NAPM, Gandhi Global Family, Asha Parivar, Jagriti Mahila Samiti, Yuva Koshish, Asian Centre of Social Studies and Mission Bhartiyam  have been running a "Save Sharmila Campaign" for several years.

Many books have been written about her life while a short documentary 'My Body, My Weapon' has also been made. Pune-based theatre artiste Ojas SV has in the past staged a mono-play titled 'Le Mashale' (Take the torch), based on her life.

Sharmila's collection of poems has been published in the Manipuri language. PTI
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, July 26

Making some headway on the GST Bill, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and the empowered group of state Finance Ministers today agreed on the principle that the tax rate would be lower than the current levels. The broad consensus was that the rate should not be part of the statute.

The Finance Ministers sought a statutory framework for compensation to the states for any loss of revenue during the first five years of the Goods and Service Tax (GST) subsuming all indirect levies, including VAT.

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The states sought that the word may be changed to shall, to make sure the states were fully compensated.The Finance Minister said since the terminology needed to be vetted legally, it would be examined if it was legally possible.

There was a broad agreement on the issue of keeping small businesses and traders with a turnover of Rs 1.5 crore or less under the ambit of a single state government and not dual control as this would cause problems to small traders.

After the meeting, West Bengal Finance Minister and panel chairman Amit Mitra said the meeting arrived at the principle that the ordinary businessman and the common tax man would benefit from GST by way of lower tax rates while the states would not face any loss of revenue. Also, there was "consensus to keep the GST rate out of the Constitutional Amendment Bill," he claimed.

Many states do not favour a cap on the GST rate under the Bill. They argue that this will hurt their autonomy as they will have to approach Parliament to change the rates.

The meeting decided to set up a committee to work out a compensation mechanism. It will submit a report in 10 days.The states also sought sharing of IGST revenue for inter-state transactions. Mitra said, "The broad consensus put together is satisfactory to all political parties and all states,"adding that a "foolproof" wording for compensation to states had been worked out.

There are indications that the government may now bring the GST Bill in the Rajya Sabha next week instead of this week as planned earlier.
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, July 27

The CBI, probing the AgustaWestland chopper kickbacks scam, has started focussing on the money trail of over 50 million euro (more than Rs 360 crore) spread across eight countries.

In the first week of July, a two-member team of the investigating agency visited Italy and discussed the scam with Italian police and legal authorities.

The CBI targeted the 50 million euro money trail after it got evidence from Italy in the form of a compliance report of the Letters Rogatory (LRs) it had sent earlier. The CBI had sent LRs to seven countries, including Italy, Tunisia, Britain, Switzerland, the UAE, Singapore and Mauritius and the British Virgin Islands earlier this year.

The LR is a formal request from a court to a foreign court for judicial assistance and taking evidence.

Sources said Italy was the only one to file complete compliance. The British Virgin Islands and three countries  Tunisia, Britain and Switzerland  have partly complied with the CBIs LR.

The CBI is conducting necessary follow-up action with British Virgin Islands and the three countries, as well as Italy.

The CBI is in touch with the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Singapore and Mauritius which are yet to respond. It has asked them to fast-track their responses.

The agency needs help from these countries to connect the money trail in the alleged kickbacks paid for the Rs 3,600-crore AgustaWestland helicopter deal with the government.
Bengaluru, July 26

India has lost the arbitration case in an international tribunal over its space marketing agency Antrix Corp annulling a contract with city-based private multimedia firm Devas and may have to fork out millions of dollars in damages.

A Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) tribunal based in the Hague ruled that the Indian government had acted unfairly and inequitably in cancelling the contract involving use of two satellites and spectrum.

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The tribunal has found that the Indian governments actions in annulling the contract and denying Devas commercial use of S-band spectrum constituted an expropriation, Devas Multimedia Private Ltd said here today. In its ruling yesterday, the PCA tribunal also found that India breached its treaty commitments to accord fair and equitable treatment to Devass foreign investors, the company said in a statement here.

Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) officials here said they were yet to get details of the ruling. The deal had cost five senior ISRO scientists, including its former chairman G Madhavan Nair, their government jobs. The ruling is the second by an international tribunal arising out of the cancellation of the Devas-Antrix contract.

The unanimous decision included the arbitrator appointed to the tribunal by India, Devas said.

In September 2015, in a jolt to Antrix, the commercial arm of ISRO, the International Chamber of Commerces (ICC) arbitration body International Court of Arbitration had asked it to pay damages worth Rs4,432 crore to Devas Multimedia for unlawfully terminating the deal five years ago on grounds of national security.

The tribunal then had noted that Antrix had no legal justification to terminate the agreement, and that Dr KR Radhakrishnan, then ISRO Chairman, Antrix and the Space Commission, could have prevented the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) from approving the annulment.

Its unfortunate that International court has come to such a conclusion. What we have to do this time is to pull up all our resources and fight out this issue in the appellate court, so that we can control the damage, Nair said.  PTI
New Delhi, July 27

India signed an over $1 billion deal with American defence and aerospace major Boeing on Wednesday for procuring four additional 'Poseidon-8I' long-range maritime surveillance and anti-submarine warfare aircraft.

The contract is a follow-on order to eight P-81 planes already bought by India in a direct deal with the firm worth $2.1 billion, defence sources said.

The contract was inked during the ongoing visit of US Under Secretary for Defence on Acquisition Frank Kendall, and is seen as a sign of growing Indo-US defence ties, they said.

India had signed a $3 billion contract with the US through Foreign Military Sales route for 22 Apache and 15 Chinook helicopters last year.

With Wednesday's deal, the total value of defence deals signed with the US in the last one decade comes to around USD 15 billion.

India is also working on a deal to get 145 pieces of M777 lightweight howitzers from the US, the sources said.

The acquisition of additional 'P-8I' will be a shot in the arm of the Indian Navy as the country has been building up its naval surveillance capabilities.

Armed with deadly Harpoon missiles, lightweight torpedoes, rockets among others, the Navy is extensively using the P-8I to keep a strict vigil over the Indian Ocean, which has seen numerous Chinese submarine forays, including docking of a nuclear sub in Sri Lanka.

The Navy will also be able to drop and monitor sonobuoys, being used in the search for the missing AN32 aircraft of the Indian Air Force, they said.

Incidentally, India was 'P-8's first international customer and was also Boeing's first military sale to India.

The P-8I fleet is based at the Naval Air Station Rajali in Tamil Nadu. The long-range maritime reconnaissance aircraft has an operational speed of 450 miles per hour and a range of 4,500 nautical miles.

The planes will provide strategic blue water and littoral undersea warfare capabilities as well as armed intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance to the navy, defence sources added.

Based on Boeing's Next-Generation 737 commercial airplane, P-8I is the Indian Navy variant of the P-8A Poseidon that the American defence has developed for the US Navy.  PTI
R Sedhuraman

Legal Correspondent

New Delhi, July 27

The Supreme Court on Wednesday said the police had no role in the criminal defamation case against Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi for his reported statement blaming the RSS for the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi.

A Bench comprising Justices Dipak Misra and RF Nariman said Sections 499 and 500 dealing with criminal defamation didn't talk of the police.

In such cases, it was the responsibility of the magistrate to assess the validity of the private complaint against individuals.

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The complainant should demonstrate that the alleged defamatory statement had damaged his reputation. The accused would have to prove that he didn't make the statement or his remark had been misunderstood to have the case against him dismissed, the Bench said.

The Bench, however, adjourned the hearing for August 23 as the complainant sought time to argue on this aspect.
Aditi Tandon

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, July 27

Battling indiscipline and out-of-line comments by leaders on policy as well as personal issues, the Congress leadership today sent out a message to all its MPs to toe the party line and not speak out of turn.

In a letter to all MPs today, disciplinary action committee chairman AK Antony asked colleagues not to speak on state-related issues and let that responsibility be performed by general secretaries in charge of states. The letter was sent on the instructions of Congress president Sonia Gandhi. A few days ago, the Congress leadership got an internal circular issued to all officer-bearers, asking them to maintain party discipline and not speak on matters when they are not authorised to do so.

In a separate development, Kamal Nath, Congress general secretary, Haryana, met top state leaders and told them that he would not accept their bickering in the media any more. Antonys letter comes close on the heels of former Union Home Minister P Chidambarams comments that greater autonomy should be restored to Kashmir.

To the embarrassment of the Congress, Rajya Sabha member Chidambaram recently advocated returning to the grand bargain under which Kashmir had acceded to India and give the state a larger share of autonomy. The party has had to distance itself from the comment with Ghulam Nabi Azad, Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha and former JK Chief Minister, saying: Everyone should toe the party position on issues.

Antonys letter, in possession of The Tribune, says: It has been observed that some members have made contradictory statements to the media on the recent political developments in the country. While diverging views are welcome during internal party deliberations, making conflicting opinion in public does not augur well for the partys image. I request each of you to avoid making any statement that is not so consistent with the established stand of the party. It is also suggested that respective party general secretaries and in charges speak on behalf of the part pertaining to matters in their jurisdiction. At the national level only authorized spokespersons can speak on the behalf of the party.

Even earlier, AICC general secretary Digvijaya Singh has frequently made statements that go against the party lines on a range of issues.

In the Haryana meeting attended by state chief Ashok Tanwar, Congress Legislature Party leader Kiran Choudhry, former Haryana CM Bhupinder Hooda and former acting state unit chief Kuldeep Sharma, Kamal Nath is learnt to said that leaders who go to the press should speak against the BJP and not one another, and told everyone he wont tolerate breach of party line.
New Delhi, Mandsaur(MP) July 27

The Opposition BSP and Congress on Wednesday created uproar in the Rajya Sabha, protesting against the beating up of two Muslim women in Madhya Pradesh in the name of cow protection.

No sooner had listed papers been laid on the table of the House, Mayawati (BSP) said after beating of Dalit youths in Gujarat, Gau Raksha (cow protection) groups beat up two women in Madhya Pradesh over suspicion of possessing beef.

The incident at the Mandsaur railway station occurred in presence of the police which remained a mute spectator, she alleged.

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The BJP, on the one hand, talks of protecting the girl child and giving dignity and honour to women but on the other unleashes goons on them, Mayawati charged.

The incident in BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh comes close on the heels of beating of four Dalit youths in partys bastion Gujarat, she said.

Mayawati asked Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi to respond to targeting of women of his community in the name of cow protection.

As she completed her submission, BSP members trooped into the Well of the House, shouting anti-government slogans.

Congress members too joined them in the Well.

Mahila virodhi yeh sarkar nahi chalegi, nahi chalegi (This anti-women government will not be tolerated), they shouted. Dalit virodhi yeh sarkar nahi chalegi, nahi chalegi (this anti-dalit government will not be tolerated).

Anand Sharma (Congress) asked why Prime Minister Narendra Modi has not responded to attacks on dalits in name of Gau Raksha.

He has done Chai-pe-Charcha (talk over tea) and Mann-ki-Baat (straight talk from heart) but why not on this issue, he asked.

Deputy Chairman PJ Kurien said derailing Zero Hour, where 13 members have given notices, was not right and if members wanted a discussion on the subject, they should give notice.

You go back to your seats, I will ask the government to respond, he said urging Mayawati and Leader of the Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad to call back their members.

Azad said the Congress was not principally against cow protection but was against targeting of Dalits and Muslims in the name of gau raksha.

Let it be very clear. We are not against gau raksha. But in the garb of it, targeting Dalits and Muslims is something we are against, he said.

It was buffalo meat: Police



Mandsaur Superintendent of Police Manoj Sharma said they had received a call from a person yesterday stating that two women were being manhandled by people on suspicion of carrying beef at the railway station.

Two police constables, including a woman, then rushed to the platform and took the two women away, he said.

After that, the meat was sent for examination which revealed that it was of buffalo, he said, adding that one of the two women had earlier also been booked for carrying meat in an illegal manner.

Following their arrest, the two women were produced before a local court which sent them in judicial remand under relevant sections of The Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act-1960.

It is a law and order situation and people should exercise restraint. Under no circumstances they should take the law in their hands. We are gradually making efforts to check such incidents, the SP said

Asked about the attack on the two women, Madhya Pradesh Home Minister Bhupendra Singh denied that the two women were assaulted by other women passengers in police custody and said the policemen who were on the site had saved them during a scuffle.

He claimed that the two women had an argument with fellow passengers and there was a scuffle involving both sides.

If they (the two women) give us any representation that something objectionable has happened, we will conduct an inquiry and ensure that the culprits are punished, the minister said.

Kotwali police station in-charge MP Singh Parihar said they had received a tip-off that the two women were on their way to Mandsaur from Jaora with beef following which they were caught outside the railway station with nearly 30 kg meat yesterday.

On examination it was found that the two women were not carrying beef and it was found to be buffalo meat, he said.

No report was filed by them that they were beaten by radical elements at the station, the police officer said.  PTI
Bengaluru, July 27

Pakistan's "obsession" to match India in military strength and efforts to equalise the field with "crazies" like Hafiz Saeed, would only create hatred that will bite it back, former Pakistan Ambassador to US Husain Haqqani has said.

"My argument as a Pakistani is why do we even want to be equal (with India in terms of military prowess). Why do not we want to be happier and prosperous and successful?" he said.

"What is this obsession about being equal and trying to equalise the field with crazies like Hafiz Saeed because he will only create hatred, which will only bite us back," Haqqani said on Tuesday night during an interaction on his book 'India vs Pakistan  Why Can't We Just Be Friends'.

"Pakistan always had this presumption that India has a tremendous conventional military advantage and Indian army will be much more bigger than Pakistan's. So Pakistan needs irregular methods to be able to be equal," he alleged.

Haqqani recalled a private conversation of former Pakistan President General Pervez Musharraf with Pakistani newspaper editors, wherein he said Lashkar-e-Taiba was his reserve core for fighting India and thus establishes the strong nexus between ISI, terrorists and Pakistani establishment.

"He (Musharraf), in a private meeting with Pakistani newspaper editors, had said 'Well, all of you keep telling me or some of you keep telling me that I should shut down Lashkar e -Taiba, but it is actually my reserve core in fighting India,' a fact that establishes a strong nexus between ISI, terrorists and Pakistani establishment," Haqqani said.

The former Pakistani envoy said it was disturbing to know that a head of a country had thought so as these terrorists "would not do good to Pakistan" as the world had seen them attacking Shias, Ahmediyas and Christians in Pakistan, apart from India.

Haqqani said unfortunately Pakistani strategic thinkers in uniform do not realise this "disturbing line of thinking of patronising terrorists and outfits like Jaish-E-Mohammad and Lashkar-E-Taiba."

Throwing light on the Jihadi movement in Pakistan, the former diplomat said Zia-Ul-Haq was not the first man to spread jihadi awareness as is presumed, but it was much before him.

"There is a presumption that Zia-Ul-Haq was the first man to start jihadi awareness, but I argue that no it was even further back and there was always a desire for irregular warfare," he said.

Asked how to shut down the large armed militias, Haqqani said it was not easy because they are well trained in warfare. But the establishment can put them out of business if they are denied the resources for their mobility and movement, he said.

"If we make this decision now it will take some 15 years to put their business out," Haqqani said.  PTI
Jupinderjit Singh

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, July 27

A year after the Dinanagar terror incident, the Punjab Police investigation has failed to establish the route adopted by the terrorists to infiltrate or their exact objective.

Though the police have made better preparations to counter any such attack in the future, the police investigation has also hit a dead end on the origin of the GPS and night vision devices seized from the three terrorists killed in the attack.

The police had sought queries through the Union Ministry of Home Affairs from the US, Taiwan and the UK on tracing the origin of the devices and the persons who handled those, but none of the three countries have responded so far.

The Punjab Police had not handed over the investigation into the Dinanagar case to the National Investigation Agency (NIA), which is the nodal agency to handle such cases.

Though the police have taken several remedial measures  both in technology and increased presence of force in the border belt, especially Gurdaspur-Pathankot  the investigation has remained at a standstill.

Further, two officers  ADGP Rohit Choudhary and ADGP Prabodh Kumar have headed the investigation and have a different reading of the incident.

Till January 31, ADGP-Railways Rohit Choudhary headed the investigation. In his report submitted to DGP Suresh Arora before relinquishing charge, he concluded that the terrorists belonged to the Lashkar-e-Toiba outfit in Pakistan. He stated in his report that the terrorists entered India from Mastgarh village in the Narot Jaimal Singh area of Gurdaspur. They crossed the Ravi river and its tributary and reached Dinanagar after travelling 16 km via Makaura village.

Choudhary based his report on GPS coordinates seized from the three slain terrorists.

However, the present incharge of the investigation, Prabodh Kumar, said there was no conclusive evidence so far to state that the entry point of the terrorists was Mastgarh or any other point.

He told The Tribune today that though the GPS coordinates were fed in the devices, there was no time recorded on those to suggest the persons entered as per the coordinates on such and such time.
Tribune News Service

Dehradun, July 26

Chief Minister Harish Rawat met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi today and sought an immediate relief of Rs 500 crore for the damage caused by recent heavy rainfall, cloudbursts and landslides in the state.

The Chief Minister told the Prime Minister that according to preliminary estimates, Uttarakhand had already suffered a loss of nearly Rs 1,000 crore during the rainy season and further damage might increase the losses up to Rs 1,500 crore by September.

Recompensing the losses is beyond states capability because of its limited resources. Thus, the cooperation and assistance of the Union Government is a must to reconstruct the damaged infrastructure and projects and normalise the situation in sensitive regions, he said.

He informed the Prime Minister that more than 370 villages located at landslide-prone zones were vulnerable to natural calamity and an amount of Rs 10,000 crore was required for the relocation of these villages to safer zones and to mitigate the possibility of future disasters.

Being a small hill state with limited revenue potential, Uttarakhand needs resources from the Central Government in this humanitarian mission. Land will be required to relocate these vulnerable villages from the areas declared unsafe. The state has 70 per cent forest cover so sufficient government land is not available for the relocation of these villages, he added.

The Chief Minister requested the Prime Minister to provide forestland for the relocation of these sensitive villages and transfer the land of these villages to the Forest Department.

As rehabilitating these villages is a technical and complicated task, the Central Government should constitute a committee for the purpose. The incorporating officials of the Disaster Management, Union Finance Ministry and departments concerned of the state government will examine the entire process of relocation of vulnerable villages, he said.

Rawat said the incidents of heavy rainfall, cloudbursts and landslides had increased in Uttarakhand due to changes in the weather pattern in the recent years.

Besides loss of human lives, the rainfall has damaged infrastructure and property in Tehri Garhwal, Pithoragarh, Uttarkashi and Chamoli districts.

The Chief Minister said the state government had saved many precious lives through proactive initiatives with the active cooperation of the NDRF. Heavy rainfall had affected a large area extensively, casuing huge damage to roads, electricity, drinking water supply, agriculture, forest and other places of importance. The process was going on to assess the loss of crops and farming land.

He said the state government with its limited resources was consistently working on relief and reconstruction works so immediate help of Rs 500 crore was required from the Central Government to speed up the reconstruction process favourably.

The Chief Minister invited the Prime Minister to the Char Dham Yatra. According to a state government press note, the Prime Minister assured Rawat that he would visit the Char Dham regions after the monsoon in September or October with regard to strengthening the state highways.
Tribune News Service

Dehradun, July 27

Chief Minister Harish Rawat has requested Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh for a reliable telecom and internet services in the border areas of the state. Besides he alos requested Rajnath for funds for the Tanakpur-Jauljibi National Highway and Rs 5.62 crore for police modernisation in the state.

The Chief Minister discussed the issues during s meeting with Rajnath Singh in New Delhi yesterday.

Rawat reminded Rajnath Singh in the past also the issue of better mobile phone connectivity in the border areas with Nepal and China in Pithoragarh and Champawat districts were taken with the Union government. The Union Communication Ministry had assured him of addressing the issue but nothing much had happened in the past one year.

He said the Telecommunication Ministry had informed that 47 posts of ITBP and SSB on the border would be provided with low-powered solar operated mobile towers but nothing had been done in this regard. Due to difficult terrain and geographical locations, it was expected from the Union government to provide more satellite telephones in far-flung areas for better communication.

Harish Rawat said the Tanakpur-Jauljibi National Highway is a strategic road connecting the mainland with border areas along China and Nepal. It is the lifeline of economic activities of hilly areas of the Kumaon region along the Kali river, which divides India and Nepal. He added the Central government had constructed the road and demanded funds for it.

Rawat informed the Union Home Minister that Uttarakhand under the non-plan expenditure of 2016-17 had sent a proposal of police modernisation for Rs. 5.20 crore and a supplementary plan of Rs one crore to the Union home ministry.

The state government had also sent a proposal of Rs 84 crore for police modernization under Special Plan Assessment (SPA) to the Union government. He urged the Home Minister to release the funds urgently.

The Chief Minister said the proposal for residential accommodation for police personnel in 19 police stations and 101 posts estimated to cost Rs 200 crore was lying with the Union government for one year. He also requested Rajnath Singh to expedite the matter.
Kathmandu, July 27

At least 39 persons have been killed and several others are missing as floods and landslides triggered by heavy monsoon rains wreaked havoc in Nepal displacing thousands of people.

Scores of houses and some bridges have been swept away in several parts of the country as incessant rains have swelled rivers, posing a threat of massive flooding and causing panic among the local population.

So far 39 persons were killed and 28 others missing in the past 24 hours in floods and landslides, officials were quoted as saying by Kathmandu Post.

Thousands of people have been displaced and hundreds of houses have been waterlogged after floodwaters gushed into their settlements.

Many of the deceased were earthquake victims who were living in a quake-damaged house after repair, police said.

Tens of thousands of Nepalese are still living in tents following the last years devastating earthquakes that killed nearly 9,000 people.

Pyuthan is among the 14 worst-hit districts where at least 11 people were killed.

In Gulmi, separate incidents of landslide have claimed at least seven lives, while five houses and three bridges have been washed away.

A swollen Tinau River destroyed a suspension bridge at Butwal-13. Around 6,000 people are at risk.

Flooded Mechi River has swept away an embankment on the Indian side. After the incident, Naksalbari, Panitanki and other Indian markets have been waterlogged, said police.

Water levels were close to dangerous levels in Saptakoshi, Narayani Rivers.

Water flow in the Saptakoshi River has crossed this years highest mark after continuous rainfall for the past 10 days.

Water flow in the river was measured at 277,410 cusec yesterday morning, the highest for this year. Thirty-seven of the 56 floodgates have been opened.

Water levels at Narayani River have also crossed the danger mark. Local administration has mobilised security personnel to warn people living near the river.

The government has launched rescue and relief operations in 14 of Nepals 75 districts that have been affected by the floods.

Soldiers and volunteers used rubber boats to rescue people marooned by the flooding, while helicopters were being used to drop food supplies.  PTI
Beirut, July 27

Two bomb blasts claimed by the Islamic State hit the Syrian city of Qamishli near the Turkish border on Wednesday, killing at least 31 persons and wounding 170 others, state television reported.

The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported the blasts but gave a lower death toll of 14 killed and dozens wounded.

It said one of the bombs exploded near a security headquarters of the Kurdish administration that controls most of Hasaka province, where Qamishli is located.

State TV said one blast was from a car bomb and the other from a bomb on a motorbike.

It rolled footage purportedly from the scene of one blast, showing large-scale damage to buildings, vast amounts of rubble strewn across the road and plumes of smoke rising.

One explosion was so powerful it shattered the windows of shops in the Turkish town of Nusaybin, directly across the border. Two people were slightly hurt in Nusaybin, a witness said.

Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack, saying they had targeted Kurdish security forces.

The jihadist group, which is fighting against the Kurdish YPG militia and its allies in Hasaka and Aleppo provinces, has targeted Qamishli and the provincial capital, Hasaka city, in the past with bombing attacks.

A suicide blast killed six members of the Kurdish internal security force, known as the Asayish, in April. In July, an Islamic State suicide bomb killed at least 16 people in Hasaka.

The YPG captured large areas of territory from Islamic State in northeastern Syria last year and is involved in a US-backed offensive that has advanced against the jihadists further west near the Turkish border.  Reuters
Sagamihara, Japan, July 27

Japanese police on Wednesday raided the house of a 26-year-old man suspected of stabbing to death 19 people and wounding dozens of others at a facility for disabled in a small town near Tokyo, Japans worst mass killing in decades.

About half a dozen plainclothes police entered the home of Satoshi Uematsu, a former employee of the facility, as reporters and TV cameras stood by.

Uematsu was earlier sent from a regional jail in the town of Sagamihara, about 45 km southwest of Tokyo, to the Yokohama District Public Prosecutors Office in Kanagawa prefecture earlier in the day.

Video footage showed him smiling in the police car as it drove away.

Uematsu, who gave himself up to police on Tuesday after the attack, had said in letters he wrote in February that he could obliterate 470 disabled people and gave detailed plans of how he would do so, Kyodo news agency reported.

Uematsu was involuntarily committed to hospital after he expressed a willingness to kill severely disabled people, an official in Sagamihara told Reuters. He was freed on March 2 after a doctor deemed he had improved and was no longer a threat to himself or others, the official said.

The affair has shocked a nation where the crime rate is low and such mass killings rare.

It has also sparked debate on whether and how the system for involuntary commitment and aftercare broke down, since Uematsu had previously made clear his intent to commit the crime.

Involuntary commitment is done forcefully by the authorities ... If the time period drags on longer than necessary, it becomes a serious violation of human rights, Asahi newspaper said in an editorial on Tuesday.

However, there were warning signs before the incident, the paper added. Was the treatment and outwatch of the man sufficient? It is vital to closely examine the system of support for the man and his family, and the contacts between the medical system and the police.  Reuters
Seoul, July 27

South Korea on Wednesday accused rival North Korea of floating propaganda leaflets down a river in the first such incident.

South Koreas military discovered dozens of plastic bags, each carrying about 20 leaflets, near the estuary of Seouls Han River close to the tense Korean border last Friday, according to the Souths Defense Ministry. Seoul is only an hours drive from the border.

The leaflets contained threats to launch missile attacks and a repeat of the Norths long-running propaganda such as that the North won the 1950-53 Korean War, a ministry official said, requesting anonymity because of department rules.

The war ended with no ones victory. An armistice that stopped the fighting has yet to be replaced with a peace treaty, leaving the Korean Peninsula split along the worlds most heavily fortified border and at a technical state of war.

Today marks the 63rd anniversary of the armistices signing.

North Korean recently warned of unspecified physical measures in response to a US plan to deploy an advanced missile defense system in South Korea by the end of next year.

North Korea last week fired three ballistic missiles into the sea, according to Seoul defense officials.

The rival Koreas resumed old-fashioned, Cold War-era psychological warfare in the wake of North Koreas fourth nuclear test in January.

Seoul began blasting anti-Pyongyang propaganda broadcasts and K-pop songs from border loudspeakers in retaliation for the Norths atomic detonation. Pyongyang quickly matched Seouls campaign with its own border broadcasts and launches of balloons carrying anti-South leaflets across the border.

The latest discovery of propaganda leaflets marks the first time for North Korea to use a river to send leaflets, according to the South Korean defense official.

He said North Korea is believed to have used a river because the direction of wind isnt favorable in the summer to fly propaganda balloons from north to south.

Many in South Korea believe their broadcasts could sting in Pyongyang because the rigidly controlled, authoritarian country worries that the broadcasts will demoralize front-line troops and residents and eventually weaken the grip of absolute leader Kim Jong Un.

Nearly 30,000 North Koreans have fled to South Korea since the end of the Korean War, mostly for political and economic reasons. South Koreans defecting to the impoverished, authoritarian North is highly unusual.  AP
Manila, July 27

US Secretary of State John Kerry on Wednesday said Washington wanted to avoid confrontation in the South China Sea, after an international tribunal rejected Beijings claims to most of the waters.

Kerry made the remarks after meeting Philippine Foreign Secretary Perfecto Yasay in Manila where they discussed the Southeast Asian nations sweeping victory in the arbitration case against China.

Americas top diplomat said the United States wanted China and the Philippines to engage in talks and confidence-building measures.

The decision itself is a binding decision but were not trying to create a confrontation. We are trying to create a solution mindful of the rights of people established under the law, Kerry said.

A tribunal based in The Hague this month ruled that Chinas claim to most of the strategic waterway was inconsistent with international law. The decision angered Beijing, which vowed to ignore the ruling.

But Kerry said the United States saw an opportunity for claimants to peacefully resolve the row.

We hope to see a process that will narrow the geographic scope of the maritime disputes, set standards for behaviour in contested areas, lead to mutually acceptable solutions, perhaps even a series of confidence-building steps, he said.

Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan also have claims to the South China Sea, a vital waterway through which $5 trillion in annual trade passes. It is also believed to sit atop vast reserves of oil and gas.

Kerry, who arrived in Manila yesterday after attending a regional summit in Laos, met Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte after Yasay.

Yesterday, Kerry said he would encourage Duterte, who assumed office on June 30, to engage in dialogue and turn the page with China.

Kerry was also expected to raise with Duterte US concerns about human rights and the rule of law.

The Philippines has an unhappy history of extrajudicial killings and violence (against) journalists and others, a US official told reporters travelling with the secretary.

We hope to hear more from President Duterte about ...

protecting human rights (and) maintaining the rule of law.

Duterte has launched a bloody war on crime, urging law enforcers, communist rebels and even the public to kill criminals.

Since he took office, police reported over 200 deaths while media tallies have said more than 300 have died, including suspected extrajudicial killings.

Even before he assumed the presidency, Duterte drew criticism from United Nations chief Ban Ki-Moon and human rights advocates for his calls to kill criminals, as well as comments stating that corrupt journalists deserved to die.  AFP
ISTANBUL/ANKARA, July 27

Turkey ordered another 47 journalists detained on Wednesday, part of a large-scale crackdown on suspected supporters of US-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, who is accused by Ankara of masterminding a failed military coup.

Turkey has suspended, detained or placed under investigation more than 60,000 soldiers, judges, teachers, journalists and others suspected of ties to Gulen's movement since the July 15-16 coup, which was staged by a faction within the military.

Turkey's army General Staff on Wednesday put the number of soldiers belonging to the Gulen network who took part in the coup attempt at 8,651, roughly about 1.5 per cent of the armed forces, broadcaster NTV reported.

Gulen has denied any involvement in the failed coup.

Turkey's capital markets board said on Tuesday it had revoked the licence of the head of research at brokerage AK Investment and called for him to face charges over a report he wrote to investors analysing the July 15 coup.

Western governments and human rights groups, while condemning the abortive coup in which at least 246 people were killed and more than 2,000 injured, have expressed alarm over the extent of the crackdown, suggesting President Tayyip Erdogan may be using it to stifle dissent and tighten his grip on power.

The detention of journalists ordered on Wednesday involved columnists and other staff of the now defunct Zaman newspaper, a government official said. Authorities in March shut down Zaman, widely seen as the Gulen movement's flagship media organisation.

"The prosecutors aren't interested in what individual columnists wrote or said," said the official, who requested anonymity. "At this point, the reasoning is that prominent employees of Zaman are likely to have intimate knowledge of the Gulen network and as such could benefit the investigation." However, the list includes journalists, such as Sahin Alpay were known to be leftist activists who do not share the religious worldview of the Gulenist movement. This has fuelled concerns that the investigation may be turning into a witch-hunt of the president's political opponents.

On Monday, media reported that arrest warrants had been issued for 42 other journalists, 16 of whom have so far been taken into custody.

Alpay is a former official of Turkey's left-leaning, secularist main opposition CHP party. The Dogan news agency said police raided his home in Istanbul early on Wednesday and detained him after a 2-1/2 hour search of the property.

Spirit of unity

Erdogan's ruling Islamist-rooted AK Party and opposition parties, usually bitterly divided, have demonstrated a rare spirit of unity since the abortive coup and are seeking consensus on constitutional amendments partly aimed at "cleansing" the state apparatus of Gulenist supporters.

A senior AK Party official said on Wednesday they were discussing plans to increase parliamentary control of a key state body that appoints judges and prosecutors.

Also on Wednesday a government official said Turkish special forces were still hunting in hills around the Mediterranean resort of Marmaris for a group of 11 commandos thought to have tried to capture or kill Erdogan on the night of the coup.

Erdogan was holidaying in Marmaris at the time and only narrowly avoided capture before flying to Istanbul where he rallied his supporters who helped to defeat the coup plotters.

Erdogan, a popular but polarising figure who has dominated Turkish politics for more than a decade, will chair an annual meeting of the Supreme Military Council (YAS) on Thursday after vowing to restructure the armed forces following the coup.

The military said 35 planes, including 24 fighter jets, 37 helicopters, 74 tanks and three ships had been used by the coup plotters, NTV reported.

In Greece, authorities on Wednesday postponed hearings for eight Turkish soldiers who sought asylum there after fleeing Turkey. The men  three majors, three captains and two sergeant majors  deny being involved in the coup but Turkey has branded them "traitors" and is demanding their extradition.

Erdogan has signalled Turkey might restore the death penalty in the wake of the failed coup, citing strong public support for such a move, though the European Union has made clear this would scupper Ankara's decades-old bid to join the bloc.

Pivot to Moscow

Turkish officials have complained of what they perceive as a lack of support from the EU over the coup, while European leaders have urged Ankara to show restraint and a sense of proportion in bringing those responsible to justice.

The attempted coup has also tested Turkey's ties with its NATO ally the United States, where Gulen has lived in self-imposed exile since 1999. Responding to Turkey's request for Gulen's swift extradition, Washington has said Ankara must first provide clear evidence of his involvement in the coup.

The strains with the EU and the United States have coincided with Turkey's renewed push to repair ties with Russia, badly hurt last November by the Turkish downing of a Russian jet near Syria and Moscow's subsequent imposition of trade sanctions.

On Wednesday, Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Simsek said his talks with Russian officials this week on improving bilateral relations had taken place "in a very positive atmosphere".

Simsek, respected by Western investors as a safe pair of hands in guiding the Turkish economy, also said he saw no reason to downgrade Turkey's credit rating following the coup. Standard & Poor's recently downgraded the sovereign debt outlook to negative from stable and Moody's has said it will review the rating for a possible downgrade.  Reuters
Istanbul, July 27

Turkish authorities issued warrants for the detention of 47 journalists on Wednesday, broadcaster CNN Turk said, the latest step in a widening crackdown following a failed military coup.

Police were set to detain the journalists as part of an investigation into US-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, accused by Ankara of masterminding the July 15-16 coup attempt in which at least 246 people were killed, CNN Turk said.

The journalists worked for the Gulen-linked Zaman newspaper, which was seized by Turkish authorities in March as part of a clampdown on the preachers supporters.

Gulen, an ally-turned-foe of President Tayyip Erdogan who had built up an extensive network of schools, charities and businesses in Turkey over decades, has condemned the coup attempt and denies any involvement in it.

Since the failed coup Turkish authorities have suspended, detained or placed under investigation more than 60,000 soldiers, police, judges, teachers, civil servants and others.

On Monday media reported that Turkey had issued arrest warrants for the detention of 42 journalists, including well-known commentator and former parliamentarian Nazli Ilicak.  Reuters
Image via Transfix

Money is lending credibility to a new crop of Uber-like trucking startups, with two large investment firms recently spending millions of dollars to fund the startups Transfix and CargoX.

Transfix, a provider of on-demand trucking, raised $22 million in Series B funding led by an investment from New Enterprise Associations, a global venture capital firm. The funding will go toward investment in technology as well as expanding its product offerings.

Transfix features an online marketplace for trucking and logistics, matching shipments with available trucks. The company is focused on the full truckload market and aims to reduce empty miles driven by truckers using algorithms that match freight with available capacity.

Transfix has differentiated themselves in a space, which is expected to grow more than 20% in the next decade, by using a tech-first approach to the full truckload market, said Scott Sandell, managing general partner, NEA. Seventy percent of the trucking industry relies on brokers to help match customers to carriers, and Transfixs technology brings much-needed innovation to the market, as well as efficiency not previously available.

Goldman Sachs has made a similar investment in the on-demand trucking realm, with $10 million raised in Series B funding for the Brazilian startup, CargoX, according to TechCrunch.

CargoX is aimed at the Brazilian trucking industry, which is in need of the technology to better connect truckers to shippers. But with Goldman Sachs funding, it is examining whether the company model could be used in more markets, according to CargoX CEO Frederico Vega. The company aims to reduce the amount of time trucks are running empty, Vega told TechCrunch.

The company is even looking ahead at autonomous vehicles, as its service is currently mapping out and collecting data on Brazils roads. This will allow it to better understand the fastest and safest routes depending on the time of day, which could make shipping more efficient and reliable.

These startups join others in the increasingly crowded freight matching, on-demand trucking market, along with companies such as Trucker Path, Convoy, uShip and Cargomatic. With the prevalence of smartphones, which provide not only instant communication but instant location data, these companies are all trying to fill cargo space in more efficient ways. According to analysis from Frost & Sullivan, smartphone-based freight brokering in North America will grow from around $125 million in 2015 to as much as $26.4 billion in 2025.

"Smartphone-based freight brokering is creating new and powerful ways of connecting shippers to carriers, driving a greater degree of transparency, facilitating on-demand logistics, and benefiting both the less-than-truckload and full-truck load markets, said Wallace Lau, team leader and industry principal at Frost & Sullivan.
South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley (right) presents a gift to Volker Mornhinweg, Head of Mercedes-Benz Vans. Photo: Paul Clinton

Mercedes-Benz will shift production of vans it sells in the U.S. and Canada to North Charleston, S.C., by the end of the decade with a plant that nearly triples its existing manufacturing footprint.

Surrounded by dignitaries such as Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-SC) and Gov. Nikki Haley, Mercedes-Benz and Daimler leaders celebrated the start of construction at a July 27 ceremony. They also provided more details about their plans to stop importing the vans from Dusseldorf in a complex assembly process to avoid the "chicken tax" assessed on trucks built in Europe. The tax assesses a 25% tariff on the vehicles, Graham said.

Instead, Mercedes-Benz will invest $500 million to expand its existing assembly plant to 1.1-million square feet from the 409,000-square-foot space. Mercedes-Benz will also construct a marshalling yard for finished vehicles of 2.8-million square feet.

The plant will also help Mercedes-Benz meet increasing demand for its full-size Sprinter and mid-size Metris models. The company sold about 29,800 vans in 2015, a 16% increase over the prior year, said Bernie Glaser, vice president and managing director of Mercedes-Benz Vans.

"Over the last few years, we've seen very steady growth [in van sales]," said Volker Mornhinweg, head of Mercedes-Benz Vans. "This is what we're counting on in the future."

The expanded plant will create 1,300 new jobs at the plant and 400 new jobs at local suppliers. Auto Truck Group and Knapheide will build upfitting facilities near the facility.

The plant will simplify production of the Sprinter and Metris. Since 2006, Mercedes-Benz has been using a semi-knock-down process of building the vans in Germany, then disassembling them for shipment through the Charleston port. Van bodies, engine and powertrain kits, and other parts arrive separately and must be reassembled before being shipped to customers.

Elected South Carolina leaders praised Mercedes-Benz for investing in the region during remarks to a group of media members, plant employees, and company associates. During a light-hearted moment, North Charleston Mayor Keith Summey urged Mercedes-Benz to build a pickup truck at the plant.

"This is the Deep South," Summey said. "I need for you to develop a line for a pickup truck."

Originally posted on Automotive Fleet
Three bars in the downtown Blue Dome District owned by a Tulsa city councilor failed to pay about $80,000 in state taxes over the past two years, according to the Oklahoma Tax Commission.

Court action was taken to collect the debt from The Max Retropub, 114 S. Elgin Ave.; The Fur Shop, 520 E. Third St.; and Legends Dance Hall & Saloon, 514 E. Second St.

The bars, co-owned by Councilor Blake Ewing, failed to pay sales and mixed beverage taxes during different time periods between May 2014 and May of this year, according to documents the commission filed Tuesday in Tulsa County District Court.

Those are taxes that customers pay when they make a purchase, and the business is responsible for subsequently handing that money over to the state.

When a business fails to remit the money from those taxes to the state, interest and penalty fees are tacked onto the original unpaid tax amount until it is paid in full.

The commission alleges the bars failed to pay taxes in amounts totaling $80,262.38 and owe an additional $16,400.35 in penalties, fees and interest, according to the court documents.

With the courts permission, the commission will begin collecting the debt from the businesses bank accounts and possibly work out a deal for the businesses to pay the debt over time to reduce the risk of having to shut down, said Paula Ross, communications director for the commission.

Hopefully people understand that thats money that citizens pay in because its a trust tax, and that well still work with the business owners to keep the business, Ross told the Tulsa World on Wednesday. But our goal is to make sure that we do get the money thats owed because that was never the businesses money.

Another business co-owned by Ewing  The Phoenix cafe and bar, 1302 E. Sixth St.  was closed briefly at the end of June because sales taxes it had collected had not been remitted to the state.

The Phoenix was allowed to reopen about an hour after it was closed because some of the money owed was paid, and arrangements were made to pay the rest of the debt, Ross told the Tulsa World at the time.

Ewing at the time said the nonpayment of taxes was due to a clerical error made by a former employee.

Tuesdays court action comes less than a month after the Tulsa World learned that two restaurants headed by Ewing and also located in the Blue Dome District had been sold.

The restaurants  Joe Mommas Pizza, 112 S. Elgin Ave., which has been closed since a fire destroyed it in July 2015, and White Flag, 116 S. Elgin Ave.  were sold to Healthy & Tasty Brands Corp., headed by former Tulsa oil and gas executive Keith Wilkerson.

Ewing has told the Tulsa World that The Phoenix is also in the process of being sold.

In the time since the devastating fire at Joe Mommas, Ive elected to sell my stake in many of my businesses to pursue other interests and spend more time with my family, Ewing said in a written statement Wednesday.

As the process of selling his share of some of the businesses, and breaking up the companies to sell others, has taken longer than expected and as employees have moved on, weve had some regrettable administrative issues resulting in some skipped payments, Ewing said.

Weve remained in regular communication with the tax commission and are confident all issues are quickly and easily resolved, Ewing said. We are excited about a new chapter in life and about moving on to new endeavors.
OKLAHOMA CITY  A bill to reduce the wage gap between women and men who do the same jobs is expected to return next legislative session, supporters said Tuesday.

Currently, Oklahoma women who work full time, year-round earn 80 cents for every $1 earned by their male counterparts, according to a 2015 paper by the Institute for Womens Policy Research, a nonprofit think tank on womens economic issues.

The Washington, D.C.-based organization gave the state a D-plus on employment and earnings.

Women in Oklahoma have made considerable advances in recent years but still face inequities that often prevent them from reaching their full potential, the paper states.

Since 2004, the gender wage gap in Oklahoma has narrowed, according to the group. But even if current trends continue, women will not see equal pay until 2068, the group says.

In late May, House Bill 2929, by Rep. Jason Dunnington, D-Oklahoma City, and Sen. Kyle Loveless, R-Oklahoma City, was to be brought up on the Senate floor for final passage. The Senate, however, ended its session without taking up the measure.

Dunnington said senators ended the session hours early in an effort to avoid a possible veto-override attempt on a bill that would have made it illegal to perform abortions in the state.

Dunnington said he believed the wage measure would have secured approval.

If we are going to be a state that attracts the brightest and most capable women in the country to work in industry and business, we need to make sure as a state we are showing that we value a womans work, Dunnington said. The least we can do in that regard is to make sure we have equal pay for equal work in Oklahoma.

The initial measure would have made it illegal for an employer to fire or discriminate against an employee because the person had asked about, discussed or disclosed the wages of the employee or another employee with someone employed by the company.

In addition, it would have made the current wage law on the books more effective by allowing the Oklahoma Department of Labor to mediate disputes and levy fines for those found to be in violation, Dunnington said.

The bill underwent significant changes as it moved through the process.

Loveless has requested a Senate interim study on the issue.

Late in the session, the Oklahoma State Chamber of Commerce, in a memo, said that although the bill was well-intended, it had some problems.

It would make it unlawful for employers to enforce employment contracts, many of which prohibit the discussion or comparison of wages, the memo said.

In addition, the bill would have greatly increased the fines that could be levied against an employer, the memo said.

The state chamber continues to support equal pay and enforcement of laws that protect Oklahoma women, said Jonathan Buxton, senior vice president of government affairs for the organization. We look forward to working with the authors next session to find a way to stop discrimination by bad actors without damaging the relationships between employers and employees.

Loveless hopes the interim study, if approved, will allow supporters and critics to work out differences.

Hopefully, next year people will step out of the way of progress so we can move forward, Dunnington said.

Loveless said he has two young daughters. Hopefully, when they graduate from college they will be given the same opportunities as someone else, he said.
Netflix has acquired the rights to a best-selling book on the Panama Papers saga, which will be dramatised into a film by John Wells Productions (Burnt, August Osage County, Love and Mercy).

No dates or title have been announced for the new project.

The story of thousands of secret bank accounts, a long list of the rich and powerful, and an insane accumulation of wealth hiding in plain sight just beyond the reach of governments gripped the world earlier this year when German investigative journalists Frederik Obermaier and Bastian Obermayer broke the story and led the team that uncovered The Panama Papers.

Now, Netflix and John Wells Productions (Burnt, August Osage County, Love and Mercy) are teaming up to tell the definitive story behind The Panama Papers and the two journalists who, working through an anonymous source known as John Doe, cracked open an unprecedented torrent of lies, diversions and information that revealed how the wealthy hid billions of dollars offshore through a little known law firm in Panama. The work, released in collaboration with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), set off an international firestorm, triggering the resignation of heads of state, judicial investigations in over a dozen countries and a global debate on just how easy it has become for the wealthy to avoid taxes, game the system and evade the law.

Netflix has acquired exclusive rights to Panama Papers: Breaking the Story of How the Worlds Rich and Powerful Hide Their Money, a recently released book by Obermaier and Obermayer and will work with producers Wells and Claire Rudnick Polstein and executive producer Zach Studin of John Wells Productions to bring to life the dramatic story in a feature film. Marina Walker, ICIJ deputy director, and Gerard Ryle, who leads the ICIJs headquarters staff in Washington D.C., and oversaw the more than 400 journalists in 76 countries on the Panama Papers, are also on-board to collaborate on the film.

We are confident that between the expert investigative work of Obermaier and Obermayer, the only journalists in touch directly with John Doe, the ICIJ, and the master storytelling of John Wells Productions, we will be able to deliver a gripping tale that will deliver the same type of impact as the The Panama Papers when they were first revealed on the worlds front pages, said Ted Sarandos, Chief Content Officer of Netflix.

Said Rudnick Polstein, John Wells Productions President of Features, We could not be more excited to be working with Netflix on this project. They have an excellent track record of producing top notch filmmaking and together, we are very much looking forward to getting started on shedding light on one of the most compelling news stories in recent memory.

It all started with a ping, when John Doe contacted us. That relationship and the work that came out of it grew to become the biggest data leak in history, and by far the biggest collaboration of journalists. The world has ever seen; with over 400 journalists ultimately participating in this investigation. We are proud that our newspaper was the starting point for this story which grew to be something monumental, commented Frederik Obermaier and Bastian Obermayer.

Panama Papers is one of the biggest economic and political stories in contemporary journalism, with an impact that resonated around the globe at a time of financial anxiety. We are thrilled to align ourselves with two leading names in contemporary filmmaking, John Wells Productions and Netflix, to tell the story of how it was put together against immense odds. Four hundred reporters, some working at great personal risk in dangerous places, were led by a scrappy team of investigative reporters in a small Washington media nonprofit. They made world powers  including political leaders and regulators  take notice and force change. That this story will be told in another compelling way is exciting and meaningful, commented Marina Walker and Gerard Ryle from the ICIJ.
The UEFA Women's EURO 2017 final tournament draw will be held at Rotterdam's Luxor Theatre at 17:30CET Ton Tuesday 8 November and streamed live on UEFA.com.

For the first time 16 teams will be involved in the finals, which will be held from 16 July to 6 August next year in the Netherlands. The hosts have already been joined by holders Germany, England, France, Norway, Spain and Switzerland with nine other teams to qualify in September and October.

Rotterdam is one of seven cities staging games next summer, along with Breda, Deventer, Doetinchem, Tilburg, Utrecht and Enschede, which will stage the final at FC Twente Stadium. In the draw the 16 qualifiers will be drawn into four groups of four teams each with the top two progressing to the quarter-finals.
Today, July 26, the law enforcers of the main department on economical protection of Ukraine's Security Service (SBU) have raided the offices of the State Aviation Service of Ukraine.

This is said in a press release available to Ukrinform.

"Activities were carried out within criminal proceedings opened under Part 5 of Article 191 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine regarding certain officials of Boryspil International Airport, who with the assistance of the State Aviation Service officials, embezzled budget funds allocated for the purchase of equipment worth UAH 4.3 million," reads a report.

According to the report, these funds were transferred to a company, which is controlled by a resident of the Russian Federation, and then were withdrawn from Ukraine.

"The investigation is under way, we will release more information later," reads a report.

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The United States will continue to exert pressure on Russia. There will be no business contacts with Russia until aggression in eastern Ukraine is ongoing.

The Ambassador said this at a press conference held after the end of his tenure in Ukraine, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

"President Obama has made it clear that we will continue to exert pressure as long as Russia continues aggression and annexation of the foreign territories. It is not our choice. There will be no business as usual between our countries until the aggression against Ukraine is stopped," the Ambassador said.

Pyatt believes that now all the efforts should be aimed at the implementation of the Minsk agreements.

"We must focus on de-escalation of the conflict and insist on implementation of the Minsk agreements. The first provision of the Minsk agreements is a complete ceasefire. The central intelligence department of Ukraine has released today a large document, which says that Russians supply military equipment to the Ukrainian territory. This contradicts the Minsk agreements," Pyatt said.

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South Sudan fighting drives surge of refugees to Uganda

UNHCR voiced extreme concern about the volatile security situation in South Sudan, where some 4,000 people are currently fleeing daily to neighbouring Uganda.



Recent fighting in South Sudan has to date forced ober 37,000 people to flee to Uganda. To put this in context: more refugees have arrived in Uganda in the past three weeks than during the entire first six months of 2016, when 33,838 came there in search of safety.



Pascalina Juwa, 60, was among the newly arrived refugees who spoke to UNHCR in northern Uganda. This was the third time she fled to Uganda in her lifetime. She doesn't trust the current calm and escaped her hometown, Opari Payam, as soon as she could.
Geneva, 26 July 2016 - UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency today appealed to donors for an additional $115.4 million to fund the voluntary return and reintegration of Somali refugees from Dadaab refugee camp, Kenya. Funding is also required for relocation of refugees from Dadaab to Kakuma refugee camp, as well as related projects and infrastructure in Kenya and Somalia. UNHCR had previously appealed for $369.4 million for the Somalia situation. With this additional ask, and with some reprioritization of projects, UNHCRs total revised 2016 requirements for this response in the affected countries (Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia) is now $484.8 million.

Following the Government of Kenyas announcement on 6 May of its decision to close Dadaab Camp, UNHCR presented a plan of action at the meeting of Tripartite Commission (Kenya, Somalia and UNHCR) which took place in Nairobi at the end of June and was attended by the High Commissioner, Filippo Grandi. The plan outlines a process intended to reduce the population of Dadaab  currently 343,043 (326,611 Somalis)  by 150,000 by the end of 2016. The $115 million requested will go towards a number of activities, including:

- Relocation of 16,000 non-Somali refugees from Dadaab to Kakuma

- Relocation of 15,000 Somali refugees currently in the resettlement process to Kakuma

- Relocation, reintegration of an estimated 42,000 Kenyans believed registered as refugees

- Verification of the Dadaab population and a comprehensive Return Intention Survey

- Support for an additional 50,000 voluntary Somali refugee returns from Dadaab to Somalia

UNHCR is committed to ensuring that all returns to Somalia are voluntary and carried out in dignity, safety and with the protection of refugees paramount at all times, said UNHCRs Africa Bureau Director Valentin Tapsoba. In order to do this we are requesting the international donor community to support this additional appeal so that returning Somalis can go back to their home country with the best possible opportunities to re-establish themselves and their families in peace and stability, he said.

This additional funding is also required for the proposed increase in the return assistance package before departure from Kenya and upon return to Somalia. It is proposed to increase the return grant from $150 to $200 for Somalis returning by road. Those with specific needs would receive an additional $75. For the smaller number of returnees travelling by air, the return grant would be increased from $100 to $150, with an additional $30 for those with specific needs. Returnees will also be provided with a package of non-food items.

On the Somalia side, donor support is sought to fund an increase in the return assistance package there. It is proposed to remove the cap of $600 per family reinstallation grant and instead offer returnees $200 per person, regardless of family size, a move which should see more large families opt to return. In order to assist with initial reintegration, each returning family will be supported with a $200 per family monthly payment for six months in order to help cover basic needs. The possibility of providing health insurance for urban returnees will also be considered.

It is proposed to increase the areas of return and UNHCR presence, with three additional Way Stations to be added in Mandera/Belet Xawa, El Khalow/Ceel Wak and Anumel/Raskamboni as well as including Afmadow, Dinsoor and Belet Xawa to the existing nine areas of return. Access to basic social services is vital for successful reintegration and interventions will be focused on quick-impact (less than six months) community-based projects to create community assets in areas of return for returnees, IDPs and host community. Rehabilitation and/or extension of schools, health centres and other basic infrastructure will be implemented to sustain return, in close liaison with respective development programmes and plans. It is also proposed to establish an online job placement cross-border platform to connect job-seeking Somali returnees with prospective employers.

If the donor support is received, it is proposed to increase food assistance from three months support to six, possibly even further. An education assistance grant of $25 per child per month for nine calendar months is also proposed. Shelter and non-food item support will be augmented with the possibility of monetization of the existing NFI package and UNHCR intends to support 22,500 households to construct localized permanent shelters with $1,000 per family. Localised solutions for urban returnees through rent payment will also be considered.

It is anticipated that the majority of the remaining refugee population, approximately 170,000 people, would return to Somalia during the course of 2017 and possibly in early 2018. To date, over 19,000 Somalis have returned to Somalia from Dadaab since December 2014.



Somalia Situation Supplementary Appeal: http://reporting.unhcr.org/node/15260

Communique of the Tripartite Commission: http://www.unhcr.org/news/press/2016/6/576ea0474/joint-communique-ministerial-tripartite-commission-voluntary-repatriation.html

UNHCR Somali Refugees Data Portal: http://data.unhcr.org/horn-of-africa/regional.php

Media contacts:

In Nairobi, Duke Mwancha, [email protected], +254 722 207 863

For Somalia (Nairobi based), Julien Navier, [email protected], +254 732 400 044

In Geneva, Nora Sturm, [email protected], +41 79 200 76 18
Samiullah Haidari, a refugee from Afghanistan, works his shift at the Blue Bottle Coffee Shop in San Francisco.  UNHCR/Nick Otto

Whipping up a flat white in a San Francisco coffee shop was not what Samiullah Haidari expected to be doing after he arrived in the United States as a refugee from Afghanistan.

I want to own a business, maybe a restaurant, but I have to start somewhere and Im learning about Americas coffee culture here, said Haidari, 20, who started working at a San Francisco coffee shop in June after completing barista training.

The programme is run by the founders of the 1951 Coffee Company, a Berkeley-based not-for-profit. The company provides training and employment for refugees resettled to the San Francisco Bay Area.

We want to help refugees get jobs because there are so many barriers that they face, such as culture and language, when trying to apply, interview and get noticed by an employer, said Doug Hewitt, one of the companys co-founders.

Hewitt and his partner, Rachel Taber, got the idea while working together at the International Rescue Committee (IRC) office in Oakland, California.

Doug Hewitt, co-founder of the 1951 Coffee Company, teaches refugees how to make different coffee drinks and become baristas.  UNHCR/Nick Otto

In the course of her work there, Taber met a young Syrian family who were trying to restart their lives. The father was highly educated, but had to settle for a job that only paid the minimum wage.

I connected with the family and that was the moment that I thought about all of the resources I have available to me, but the family doesnt, said Taber, 33.

By the time we developed the plans and signed the lease, the refugee crisis in Europe was barely starting.

Several months later, in March 2015, a friend mentioned that the student lounge at the First Presbyterian Church of Berkeley was not being used. Taber thought the space could be used as a coffee shop. She approached Hewitt, 35, who had been a coffee roaster before working with IRC.

By the time we developed the plans and signed the lease with the church, the refugee crisis in Europe was barely starting, Hewitt said. We had worked with refugees for years.

The shops name pays tribute to the 1951 Refugee Convention, a legal document signed by 144 countries that defines the term refugee and outlines the rights of the displaced, as well as the legal obligations of states to protect them.

Samiullah puts to use the skills he recently learned during a barista training programme in Oakland, California.  UNHCR/Nick Otto

Samiullah Haidari, a refugee from Afghanistan, works his shift at Blue Bottle Coffee in San Francisco.  UNHCR/Nick Otto

As well as learning about hygiene and gaining customer service skills, Samiullah Haidari, learns the finer details of American coffee culture.  UNHCR/Nick Otto

"I want to own a business, maybe a restaurant, but I have to start somewhere," says Samiullah Haidari, an Afghan refugee who now lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.  UNHCR/Nick Otto

"We drink tea in Afghanistan," Haidari said. "Making all of these different coffee drinks was new to me."  UNHCR/Nick Otto

Samiullah Haidari checks stocks of coffee during his shift at Blue Bottle Coffee.  UNHCR/Nick Otto

The coffee shop in Berkeley is set to open in September, when renovations are complete, but in the meantime Taber and Hewitt started running the training programme at the coffee bar at the Regeneration Church in Oakland. Since July 1, 19 students  from Afghanistan, Eritrea, Somalia, Viet Nam, Pakistan, Guatemala, Mongolia and Myanmar  have completed the 40-hour course.

The curriculum covers brewing coffee, making espresso-based drinks, hygiene and customer service. Taber said the standards conform to those of the Specialty Coffee Association of America, a non-profit trade organization with members in more than 40 countries.

We drink tea in Afghanistan, Haidari said. Making all of these different coffee drinks was new to me.

We drink tea in Afghanistan. Making all of these different coffee drinks was new to me.

Thanh Tran, a 31-year-old asylum-seeker from Viet Nam, was an interior designer in Ho Chi Minh City. I never made a cup of coffee in Viet Nam, she said. Without training I wouldnt know how to use any of these machines, she added, pointing to a state-of-the-art espresso machine.

Just as importantly, the training programme connects graduates with employers.

We talk with coffee shop owners and managers to recommend our graduates and let them know about their personalities, culture and potential, Hewitt said. Its like a recommendation, which is hard for newly arrived refugees to get sometimes.

Barista trainees and refugees during a training session organized by the 1951 Coffee Company.  UNHCR/Nick Otto

Samiullah Haidari (centre), from Afghanistan, speaks with other barista trainees at a course organized by the 1951 Coffee Company.  UNHCR/Nick Otto

Rachel Taber and Doug Hewitt co-founded the 1951 Coffee Company, which trains refugees in the San Francisco Bay Area to work as baristas.  UNHCR/Nick Otto

Since July, 19 students from Afghanistan, Eritrea, Guatemala, Mongolia, Myanmar, Pakistan, Somalia and Viet Nam have completed the 40-hour barista course.  UNHCR/Nick Otto

Not all of the participants aspire to be baristas, but he and Taber say the training, sense of community and support they offer could help refugees and asylum-seekers build the confidence to apply for other jobs.

In June Haidari landed an interview with Blue Bottle Coffee Company in San Francisco, a high-end roaster and retailer based in California. A former classmate from his 1951 Coffee Company course went with him.

It was my first time in the city and I was worried about finding the place, and about the interview, but she went with me, said Haidari, who studied English and business in Kabul. His father worked as a driver for the U.S. embassy there, he said, but the family began receiving threats as a result. Haidari arrived in the Bay Area with his parents and siblings in April.

Building relationships between refugees and the communities where they live is critical to the resettlement process, Taber said. She and Hewitt designed their coffee shop to educate customers about the difficult journeys so many refugees have made to reach safety and start anew.
A dean has exited a Seattle University after students cried out over having a "too white" curriculum. The dean was reported to have recommended a book written by a prominent civil-rights activists. The same dean was also reported to have presided over the racially-biased curriculum.

Now, that same dean has announced her retirement plans following the students' protest. But these Seattle based students are not satisfied with the outcome. Especially when Seattle University's own president praised her.

Dean Jodi Kelly was commended for her "distinguished service" for the school. Following her announcement, Heatst indicated that the university has neglected the harm that each students, faculty, alumni and university staff have gone through. "This is not justice. As a community, we all deserve better," as stated on a social media post.

The protest was staged over a three week period. The students camped outside Dean Kelly's office. Afterwards, the dean agreed to bring in an outside consultant to assess the "campus climate" regarding the racial bias indicated in the curriculum. On the same though, Seattle University has promised to review its system after students have demanded a curriculum that focuses on "the evolution of systems of oppression such as racism, capitalism, colonialism, etc." and "decentralizes whiteness."

It was also indicated that the students' intention was really to push Dean Kelly to resign. Initially, she was placed on administrative leave back in June. Now that the dean has exited Seattle University, and this time for good, students still are not satisfied with the campus culture. It was indicated that the students did not find the defense coming from Dick Gregory, the author of one of the books she recommended in her curriculum, enough for her to stay.

There is no official announcement yet regarding the change of the school's curriculum but Seattle University has promised to look into it further.

Check out what other people have to say regarding Dean Kelly's situation below.
Microsoft founder Bill Gates said that the world is under-prepared for challenges in fighting HIV.

Speaking at the International AIDS Conference in Durban, the philanthropist expressed the importance to accelerate response especially in African countries. He encouraged communities to use more resources for the study and prevention since the HIV infection decline rate remains stagnant.

Gates, as the co-chair of the largest philanthropic organization Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, said that 'we need to up our game'. The billionaire also stated that albeit the advances in medical treatments exist today, the current efforts are not fast enough to tackle the problems. And since AIDS topic is somehow drifting away from headlines, it would risk the funds and actions to combat the infection.

The philanthropist felt the need of stronger approach and more creative ideas to help creating accessible treatments, TheNewsNigeria reported. For instance, self-testing and longer lasting medicinal supplies. However, the most important thing according to Gates, is that every person living with HIV should step forward and seek treatment.

The AIDS prevention efforts include encouraging HIV positive people to speak openly and to fight against the stigma so that they have better understanding about the disease and willingly seek treatment. Gates admitted that this could be a challenge to overcome since the difference in cultural and social backgrounds might create unique epidemic and response. However, he believed that with better treatments, it will also help to reduce the passing of virus to others.

The 21st International AIDS Conference Durban

The 21st International AIDS Conference in Durban discussed the efforts to HIV/AIDS treatment and prevention. The event lasted for five days and gathered 18,000 experts from 180 countries. Prince Harry and actress Charlize Theron were among many others who gave inspiring speeches. AIDS has killed more than a million people per year and most deaths occur in Africa.
It is not a strange thing for universities and school to receive funding and works of art. One such school like Fisk University received a collection of prized works of art from Alfred Stieglitz. The collector's widow, Georgia O'Keeffe, sounded off that the school violated the foundation's conditions.

Fisk University was accused of selling off two paintings several years ago. It has been challenged legally which ended in a deal in 2012 that allowed Fisk to share its collection with Crystal Bridges - the museum in Arkansas. This compromise brought the struggling university $30 million in infusion.

However, it was not known at the time that some things were happening under the table. According to New York Times, two other paintings were sold off by the school prior to the deal. It was reported that Hazel O'Leary, Fisk's University president at the time, quietly sold off the pieces of art.

The first painting, called "Asbury Park South" was the first major work by Stettheimer to be sold in the market. It was reported that the art work was sold by Fisk U with information that the painting was donated to the university with no other conditions attached to it.

Fisk's under-the-table sale was an attempt to pay expenses and financial distress caused by the school's expansions. Lydnel King, the director of Weisman Museum expressed her disappointment. "Shame on them," she said. As a chairwoman of the Task Force for the Protection of University Collections, Fisk U's actions were against the ethics of their profession.

At the moment, Frank Sims, the interim president announced that he is making sure that they are dealing with the issue in order to avoid instances like that again. "We hope we are never confronted with having to make that kind of decision again," said Sims.

To find out more about Fisk University, check out the tour of the Historic buildings on the campus in the video below.












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Tokai Pharma Ends ARMOR3-SV Clinical Trial Tokai Pharmaceuticals announced it will terminate the Phase III ARMOR3-SV trial comparing its lead candidate galeterone to Xtandi (enzalutamide) in treatment-naive metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) patients whose prostate tumors express androgen receptor splice variant-7 mRNA (AR-V7).

Tokai said it was following a recommendation of the trials independent Data Monitoring Committee, which has concluded that ARMOR3-SV trial is unlikely to meet its primary endpoint of demonstrating improved radiographic progression-free survival (rPFS) for galeterone versus enzalutamide in AR-V7-positive mCRPC.

Galeterone is an oral small molecule that utilizes the mechanistic pathways of current second-generation hormonal therapies, including abiraterone and enzalutamide, while also introducing a unique third mechanismandrogen receptor degradationthat impairs the function of androgen receptors, decreasing their sensitivity to androgen activity and reducing tumor growth. Tokai is developing galeterone for the treatment of patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer. Tokai has worldwide development and commercialization rights to galeterone.

The DMC did not cite any safety concerns with galeterone in the trial, Tokai added. The company plans to present data from the trial at an unspecified scientific forum once it is available and has been analyzed.

We are very disappointed by this outcome. An immediate priority is to analyze the unblinded study data in detail as we evaluate potential paths forward for galeterone and our pipeline, Tokai President and CEO Jodie Morrison said in a statement.

Tokai has global development and commercialization rights to galeterone, an oral small molecule being developed for treating patients with mCRPC. Galeterone uses the mechanistic pathways of current second-generation hormonal therapies, including abiraterone and enzalutamide, while also introducing a unique third mechanism, androgen receptor degradation, which is designed to impair the function of androgen receptors, decreasing their sensitivity to androgen activity and reducing tumor growth.



ARMOR3-SV was designed to compare galeterone to enzalutamide in mCRPC treatment-naive patients whose prostate tumors express the AR-V7 splice variant. The trial selected patients with the variant by using an AR-V7 clinical trial assay successfully optimized for global use by Qiagen.



Tokai said it also intends to evaluate its ongoing expansion of the ARMOR2 trial in mCRPC patients with acquired resistance to enzalutamide, as well as a planned study in patients who rapidly progress on either enzalutamide or abiraterone acetate.



All patients currently enrolled in the ARMOR2 and ARMOR3-SV trials will be allowed to continue on therapy following consultation with their physicians and study investigators, Tokai said.
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Safety tips put parents of study abroad travelers at ease

If your child is planning to study abroad, recent world events may have you rethinking those plans. Study abroad leaders at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point offer several tips to enhance safety and communication.

Study Abroad Director Eric Yonke is also a parent whose children have completed overseas programs. This is a moment when your student steps out on his or her own. Its a privilege to observe and one of the greatest educational gifts we can give as parents.

His daughter interned in London and discovered she loved the big city. It gave her tremendous confidence, coming from central Wisconsin, Yonke said. His son took a three-week service learning trip to Cameroon, Africa, and saw the courage, resilience and toughness of his host country. He came home with greater appreciation for what many Americans take for granted.

Parents have safety conversations with children at several pivotal points in life, Yonke noted: starting junior high, getting a drivers license, going to college. Study abroad moves the conversation to a global scale.

Students who study overseas grow to be more independent, said Mark Tolstedt, communications professor, who has led semester-long and three-week trips to Australia, New Zealand and London. They learn to be on their own, make friends and experience something outside their comfort zone.

In spite of recent world events, study abroad is a valuable experience, he said. This university is very careful with security and safety.

For concerned parents, a bit of context is helpful. The homicide rate is higher in Milwaukee than Cameroon, said Sam Dinga, of the Academic and Career Advising Center. He has led the winterim trips to Cameroon since 2009.

We know these areas and how to navigate them and avoid locations of concern, Dinga said. I dont want to die either.

If a situation occurs that may jeopardize safe travel, a trip would be canceled or rescheduled, Yonke said.

They offer several suggestions to put parents at ease about their childs study abroad experience.

Learn about the country where your child plans to travel. Understanding its history, culture and geography can help family members be more comfortable and knowledgeable of the experience.



Those concerned about Ebola may note that a case has never been reported in Cameroon. Travel between African countries is not easy, so disease does not spread as readily, Dinga said.

Establish times and frequency of communication before your child leaves. Whether its a daily message, weekly call, or a biweekly Skype or Facetime visit, plan for regular contact. And remember the time-zone differences.

Remember, no news is no news, Yonke said. While you may be anxious to hear from your child regularly, not hearing may mean theyre out learning and having fun.

Be sure your student has arranged for phone service reliable 24 hours a day. Relying on WiFi is not good enough, Yonke said. Families and UW-Stevens Point travel leaders are required to know how to reach a student traveler in case of an emergency.

Recognize its OK to have concerns. As a parent, Im coping with my own fears  fears of the unknown, fear our child is so far away, Yonke said. Realize, too, your child will learn and grow, become more confident and independent.

Realize that what you say and do as a parent affects your childs experience. If you are anxious and fearful, your child may be worried or spend precious time abroad trying to reassure you.

Trust the trip leaders. They have carefully planned the itinerary and work with partners in the host country to ensure safety and security.

Check international media in addition to American news reports. Be aware of world events and political climate of countries, and encourage your student traveler to do the same.



The U.S. State Department posts travel warnings, which are a good source for current information. The Study Abroad office also registers all its participants with the State Departments Safe Traveler Enrollment Program (STEP). STEP registers all U.S. enrollees with the U.S. consulates and embassies in their host countries.

If anything happens anywhere on the same continent, Yonke tells students to contact family members to let them know youre OK. An infectious disease, natural disaster or terrorist incident may concern family members, even if its hundreds of miles away.

Please understand that your parents are going to worry about you know matter what, Yonke said. Its our job as parents. He encourages students to acknowledge that in a positive way and talk about how you will address it.

And for more context, Dinga says. If you saw the list of diseases you can get in Wisconsin, you may not want to travel to Wisconsin.
There were a number of inactive and active WWE stars who were not allocated to a brand in last week's brand extension on SmackDown Live.

Injured superstars

Some stars that weren't drafted are out with injury, like Emma who was injured earlier this year but is expected to return later this year.

Nikki Bella was not drafted even though she recently cleared to return to the ring | wwe.com

Nikki Bella is another star who is currently out injured and not drafted following her neck surgery but she received the all-clear from her doctor last week and it is likely that she is not far away from a return to television.

Tamina Snuka was also not drafted and she too is out healing an injury.

Tyson Kidd and Luke Harper too were not in the draft and it has been rumored that it is unlikely that we will see Tyson Kidd compete again after his injury in a match with Samoa Joe, however, it will not be too long before Luke Harper is back in a WWE ring.

Superstars not drafted for other reasons than injury

Brie Bella wasn't included in the draft, however, no one expected her to be as she unofficially retired the night after WrestleMania.

Rosa Mendes is the final female superstar who wasn't drafted and this was due to her still being out following giving birth to her child.

Triple H, Undertaker, and The Rock were also not drafted, and this is clearly down to them appearing sporadically and therefore it wasn't necessary.

Ryback, seen here in a match with Curtis Axel in March 2016, was not drafted due to ongoing contract disputes with WWW | wwe.com

WWE superstar Ryback wasn't in the draft due to his ongoing contract dispute and it is unlikely we will see him on WWE television again.

The advocate of Brock Lesnar, Paul Heyman wasn't drafted with the Beast Incarnate due to his contract expiring however it is expected that he will still appear at SummerSlam.

The final superstar not to be drafted was Heath Slater, and this was due to storyline reasons were he was forgotten about at the end of the draft.
SHARE CONTRIBUTED PHOTO/VENTURA COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICE Authorities were asking for the public's help Tuesday identifying a man suspected of Thousand Oaks pharmacy burglaries.

By Staff Reports

Authorities asked Tuesday for the public's help identifying a man suspected of burglarizing two Thousand Oaks pharmacies.

Both incidents occurred July 1, the Ventura County Sheriff's Office said. The first burglary was reported at 2:13 a.m. in the 400 block of East Avenida De Los Arboles and the second was reported at 5:37 a.m. in the 400 block of Moorpark Road, authorities said.

In both incidents, the burglar broke into the pharmacy and was captured by surveillance footage taking medications from locked cabinets, officials said. Although the burglar was wearing different clothes in each incident, authorities say they think it's the same man.

The burglar has a distinctive walking style, including being partially hunched over, officials said. Authorities say the burglar is believed to be in his late 40s to early 50s, between 6 feet and 6 feet 5 inches tall and weighing about 170 to 200 pounds. The burglar has a beard, authorities said.

Pharmacy burglaries are on the rise in Southern California with more than 100 reported this year, authorities said. More than 20 of them have been reported in Ventura County and officials say the prescription drugs stolen in the burglaries are then sold illegally.
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By Anne Kallas, Special to The Star

The Port Hueneme City Council voted Monday to turn the administrative reins of the city over to Deputy City Manager Carmen Nichols.

The vote was 3-2 during a special meeting Monday at the Orvene S. Carpenter Community Center, with Mayor Doug Breeze, Councilman Jon Sharkey and Councilwoman Sylvia Munoz Schnopp voting for the appointment, and Councilmen Tom Figg and Jim Hensley voting against it.

The council was forced to appoint another interim city manager because current Interim City Manager John Baker's contract ends Aug. 30. According to the rules of the California Public Employees' Retirement System, Baker cannot extend his contract. He is a retired city manager, having served in a number of cities, including Ventura.

Figg said he voted against the appointment because he was concerned about Nichols' workload, since she has assumed the duties of many of the people who have left the city's government, including the community development director and recreation department director.

"My concerns are not personal in nature; rather, they have to do with process and how best to backfill the broad scope of duties currently performed by Ms. Nichols," Figg said.

Nichols said she will work to ensure that the city makes progress on its list of priorities set by the council, including a response to the Department of Housing and Urban Development letter demanding a $2.4 million repayment, creating a two-year budget cycle, filling some of the city's department head positions and meeting the requirements of the Joint Powers Insurance Authority improvement plan that the agency has demanded of the city.

"I see my role as ensuring that those projects get completed while staff continues working on day-to-day operations," she said. "We are a slim staff, and it is particularly challenging to operate in the same way that we did just a year ago. City priorities will not change."

Nichols has worked for the city of Port Hueneme since 1995. She has served as a human resources administrator, assistant city manager and as deputy city manager beginning in 2014. Nichols also filled in as interim city manager after Dave Norman resigned as city manager in 2012 at the council's request and until Cynthia Haas' appointment in August 2013.

Breeze said he was sure Nichols is up to the temporary job.

"Carmen has assumed the city manager responsibilities on a number of occasions in the past, and I am sure that she will do an outstanding job while we continue our recruitment for a permanent individual," he said.

In other action Monday, the council voted 4-0 to approve a car show from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Aug. 27 at Hueneme Beach.

Sharkey recused himself, having just paid $3,000 because of a conflict of interest as determined by the California Fair Political Practices Commission. His condominium is within 500 feet of the beach, and the FPPC does not allow council members to vote on items within 500 feet that could affect the value of their property.

The council also voted 3-0 to approve a five-year contract with Aramark, which provides uniforms and cleaning services to the city.

According to Nichols, who negotiated the bids for the contract, the Aramark contract will save the city approximately $10,800 the first year. The Aramark bid was the lowest of two bids submitted from among the four purveyors solicited.

Figg and Hensley abstained from voting on the contract.

"I wanted to make sure that local businesses  with the potential ability to provide the required service  have an opportunity to participate in the bidding," Figg said. "I do not object to the proposal of the low-bidder. However, rather than award a contract for five years, I suggested that a one-year award be made and all relevant local businesses be informed of a new bid opportunity at the end of that initial term."

Sharkey said there are no uniform suppliers in Port Hueneme.

The council will meet again Sept. 6.
COURTESY PHOTO A scene during the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia on Monday.

SHARE COURTESY PHOTO Oak Park resident Bette Empol, a Hillary Clinton delegate, pose on the Democratic National Convention floor on Monday. COURTESY PHOTO Martel Fraser of Ventura, a delegate for Hillary Clinton, stands near the California banner on the Democratic National Convention floor.

By Wendy Leung of the Ventura County Star

Those very audible "boos" heard on the first day of the Democratic National Convention lingered on Tuesday.

Bernie Sanders made an appearance during a breakfast with the California delegation on Tuesday and Oxnard Councilman Bert Perello was there to witness the reaction.

"The place went nuts when he came in," said Perello, a Sanders delegate. "He told them to elect Hillary and the crowd went nuts booing."

Its a beautiful day in Philadelphia! Excited for Day 2 of our diverse and momentous Convention. #DemsinPhillly  Kristi Harn (@KristiHarn) July 26, 2016

That's when Sanders told the Californian crowd that it might be easy to boo now but it'll be harder to face your kids under a Donald Trump presidency, Perello said.

"The mood is not as nice and friendly as you might think," Perello said.

"I was a little surprised Bernie's delegates would boo him," said Arthur "AJ" Valenzuela Jr., another Sanders delegate from Oxnard. "Hopefully Bernie supporters will come around."

Valenzuela is a Sanders supporter who backs Hillary Clinton. He's a first-time delegate and is so far enjoying the food of Philadelphia but not so much the humidity.

The temperature reached triple digits on Monday with humidity around 90 percent.

For many delegates, their day started at 7:30 a.m. and ended past midnight. Some stayed up longer for the late-night parties.

Despite the heat and the heckling, many said the convention has been going well thanks to a great lineup of speeches.

"I was surrounded by Bernie delegates and they were disruptive a few times during the speeches," said Bette Empol, a Clinton delegate from Oak Park. "Cory Booker and Michelle Obama really united the group. Michelle Obama gave such an emotional speech, it was riveting."

Empol said she believes some Sanders backers will come around by Thursday, the last day of the convention, while others probably won't.

"They have until November to come around," Empol said.
CARMEN SMYTH/SPECIAL TO THE STAR Evan Austin gets his daughters Abigail (left) and Noa settled in for the night as they prepare to sleep in their van as part of the asleep-ina sponsored by the Unitarian Universalist Church in Ventura on Saturday night.

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By Hannah Guzik Special To The Star

Jessie Austin bent over her minivan trunk and said good night to her three daughters, their sleeping bags sandwiched together in the makeshift bed.

The five members of the family arent homeless  they live in Ojai  but they chose to spend Saturday night experiencing what sleeping in a car is like.

Its kind of uncomfortable right now, said the oldest daughter, Abigail Ashly, 11. Theres stuff at our feet, and were bumping into things.

The family members were among 19 people who bunked in their cars Saturday night as part of a sleep-in at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Ventura, designed to raise awareness of homelessness.

As part of the event, Noel Paul Stookey, who was Paul in the folk group Peter, Paul and Mary, played music while his wife, the Rev. Betty Stookey of United Church of Christ, read passages about inclusion from religious texts.

After 50 years of activism and a musical dialogue that is always concerned with community, I found it was a perfect match to perform at this event about homelessness in Ventura County, Noel Paul Stookey, who lives part time in Ojai, said after the concert. I feel a spiritual responsibility to come to the aid of members of the community who are homeless.

The concert raised about $2,000 for Lift Up Your Voice, a program of the Unitarian Church that works to end homelessness. The money will help homeless people register their cars so they can sleep in two designated lots in Ventura. The program also helps them find housing, said director David Pyle, an assistant minister at the church.

Nearly 300 people attended the concert, and about one-fourth of those stayed for a panel discussion on homelessness afterward, before the sleep-in participants bedded down.

Between 1,800 and 1,900 people are homeless on any day in Ventura County, Pyle said.

Any chance we have to get people together to learn about this fact and to figure out how we can solve it  we do that, he said.

A few people who sleep in their cars nightly also participated in the event, sharing stories of how they became homeless.

Gerhard Mueller, who sleeps in his pickup on Venturas streets, said he lost everything in a divorce and has had trouble finding a regular construction job. Hes been homeless for about a year and a half.

The hardest thing is not having a place to shower, he said. Sometimes Ill pick up a job, but my work is dirty. All you have left to clean up at is the fast-food bathroom.

Erin Ferguson, who said she got robbed while moving from Texas to California last fall, has been living with her husband, Myles Ferguson, in a Hyundai Accent.

Its cramped, and we cant straighten our legs out, she said. But were grateful for shelter.

The couple have applied for a transitional-living home and hope to be off the streets soon, Erin Ferguson said.

Ive seen things that I never in a million years though that I would see out here, she said. The saddest is families with small children or women who are being abused. You really have to watch yourself when youre on the streets. You dont have the luxury of not paying attention.

Ventura City Council member Neal Andrews and Ventura County Supervisor Steve Bennett also attended the event, with Bennett staying the night in his car. He said the county has made helping homeless children and families a priority but that a lack of affordable housing makes getting a large number of people off the streets difficult.

The bottom line is: We need more small, one-room, affordable units, he said.

As Bennett headed to his car in the church parking lot, Austin was tucking in her daughters and settling a dispute between the youngest, Catalina, 3, and Noa, 6, about sharing space in the cramped minivan.

I dont think well actually get much sleep, Austin said at 10:30 p.m. as she prepared to bunk down in the passenger seat. But this is what other people have to do every day. Were learning empathy.
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While watching Donald Trump's acceptance speech on the TV, I had that deja vu feeling, almost an epiphany. It was Adolph Hitler on the podium making one of his 1930s speeches.

Hitler, too, promised to put the unemployed back on the payroll. He, too, blamed the problem on a minority, the Jews, while Trump is blaming another minority, Hispanic immigrants, for taking away jobs. While Hitler would solve the "Jewish problem" with concentration camps, Trump will solve the "Muslim problem" by refusing any more of them asylum and keeping a close eye on those already here. Trump promised to rebuild the military, as did Hitler.

So many similarities beyond these that made it creepy, especially his delivery mannerisms. God help America.

Patrick S. O'Malley, Oxnard
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How and when to ask

Custody of children is one of the most litigated issues in family law and often the most expensive if the father and mother employ attorneys to assist them, according to Westlake Village family law lawyer Richard Ross of Richard Ross Associates.

In both a divorce case or a paternity case where parents of children are not married, said Ross, it is often incumbent on child custody mediators to make recommendations to judges, and on family court judges to make orders for children where the parents are unable to work out parenting plan arrangements for their children on their own.

In deciding between competing parental claims to custody, the court must make child custody orders according to the best interests of the child, Ross said. This test, established by statute, governs all custody proceedings.

But what happens after a family law trial and judgment are completed and become final if  for any one of a variety of reasons  one parent is unhappy with the existing child custody order? Can a parent come back to court post-judgment and ask a court to change its custody order?

Yes. The law allows a parent to seek a modification of an existing child custody order by filing a motion called a Request for Order, Ross said.

Generally, he added, the parent will have to demonstrate to the court that, since the original final custody determination and order made at the time of trial, there has been a material change of circumstance justifying the court to modify its order.

The changed-circumstance rule is an adjunct to the best interest rule. In essence, it says that once it has been established that a particular custodial arrangement is in the best interests of the child, the court need not reexamine that question. Instead, it should preserve the established mode of custody unless some significant change in circumstances indicates that a different arrangement would be in the child's best interest.

Stated differently, Ross said, the court reviewing a motion for modification must determine that it is essential or expedient for the welfare of the child that there be a change. The rule thus fosters the dual goals of judicial economy and protecting stable custody arrangements.

The party filing the motion has the burden of proof to convince the judge that a change of the order is in the best interest of the child  and a substantial showing of change of circumstances is required before a permanent custody order can be modified.

The reasons for the rule are clear, Ross points out. It is well established that the courts are reluctant to order a change of custody and will not do so except for imperative reasons. It is desirable that there be an end of litigation and undesirable to change the child's established mode of living.

A motion for a custody modification, he added, is a very complex, complicated area of law. A parent must first define the status quo of the final custody order issued by the judge at the time of the trial. Next, the parent must articulate to the court the various reasons that the court should change its existing child custody order.

The facts and circumstances alleged must be new developments that took place after the date of trial when the court issued its final custody order, said Ross. And, the new facts and circumstances must convince the judge that a change of custody is essential or expedient as being in the best interests of the child.

There are some exceptions where the changed circumstance rule is not applicable when a parent files a post-judgment motion to modify child custody  for example, a situation where the custody order issued by the judge at the trial is determined to be ambiguous.

In cases where a custody order appears to be final but leaves the actual time sharing arrangement up to the future agreement of the other parent, Ross said, the order is not a final judicial custody determination, and the parent can seek a modification of custody without having to satisfy the high burden of showing a material change of circumstance.

Ross advises parents to consult with a qualified family law attorney to determine if the existing custody order issued at the time of trial is ambiguous or subject to another exception, thereby eliminating the substantial burden of proof to show a material change of circumstance required by a parent to change an existing custody order.
STAR FILE PHOTO A beach in Ventura County.

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By Christian Martinez

The county coastline will experience sunny skies and temperatures in the low to mid 70s Wednesday, with a slight breeze, reported the National Weather Service in Oxnard. "That cool sea breeze is what's keeping the beaches cooler," said Ryan Kittell, a forecaster with the National Weather Service.

Meanwhile, the interior regions, including Santa Paula, Simi Valley, and Thousand Oaks, will continue to see temperatures reach triple digits, the weather service said. The same sea breeze keeping the beaches ideal won't help much, Kittell said. "It's a bit weaker and coming a bit later than usual," he reported.

Residents can expect this pattern to hold steady throughout the week with a slight drop in temperatures Saturday and Sunday.


Best Mattress President David Mizrahi presented Opportunity Village CEO and President Bob Brown and Major Gift Officer Gregory Gudenkauf with a $10,000 check at the Opportunity Villages campus, on West Oakey Blvd (Pictured: Bob Brown, Linda Mizrahi, David Mizrahi and Gregory Gudenkauf hold $10,000 check  Photo credit: Briney Lindemuth).

Using the busiest sales day of the year, Memorial Day, Best Mattress held a promotion at its 22 locations throughout Nevada and Utah, with 10 percent of all mattress sales benefiting Opportunity Village. David and his wife, Linda, then personally matched the funds raised.

After hearing about the good works of Opportunity Village, my wife and I felt compelled to help in any way we could, said Mizrahi. Theyre a wonderful organization and were very happy and proud to contribute to them.

Everyone here at Opportunity Village would like to thank David and Linda for this wonderful donation, said Brown. This money will go towards helping those with intellectual and developmental disabilities across the Vegas Valley.


It was an unforgettable night of legendary hip hop hits at the Downtown Las Vegas Events Center across from the D Casino Hotel Las Vegas (Pictured: ChuckD and Flavor Flav of Public Enemy perform at DLV Events Center  Photo credit: the D Casino Hotel).

Photo credit: the D Casino Hotel.

The Art of Rap music festival took center stage with a line-up that left a packed crowd wanting to scream Hip Hop Hooray!

Owner Derek Stevens and wife Nicole attended the event and met with the artists backstage before enjoying the show in the VIP area.

Photo credit: the D Casino Hotel.

It wouldnt be an event at the D without a celebrity sighting. Curtis Young, son of the legendary rapper and business man Dr. Dre watched the show with Owner Derek Stevens before heading to the World Famous LONGBAR inside the D Casino Hotel.

Photo credit: the D Casino Hotel.

From performances by Mobb Deep, Sugarhill Gang, Grandmasters Furious Five to EPMD, Naughty by Nature to Public Enemy and Kurtis Blow the crowd was taken back in time for a night they would remember. We even caught Derek Stevens and Flavor Flav comparing clocks.

Photo credit: the D Casino Hotel.

Photo credit: the D Casino Hotel.
Funnyman George Wallace is offering corporations across the country a unique opportunity: he will host a holiday party for companies that have had to cancel their parties due to the tough economy. Wallace invites corporations to see the Best 10 p.m. Show in Las Vegas free of charge as his personal guest. This is the last week to take advantage of this special offer. Seating is based on availability.

Shows still available for holiday parties are:

Dec. 26, 8 p.m.

Dec. 27, 8 p.m.

Dec. 28, 8 p.m.

Dec. 29, 8 p.m.

Dec. 30, 8 p.m.

Where:

Flamingo Las Vegas

3555 Las Vegas Blvd. South

George Wallace is in his fifth year as a headliner at the Flamingo Las Vegas and has packed the showroom every night with thousands of laughing fans. Known best for his Yo Mama jokes and his infamous I Be Thinkin lines, Wallace creates a one-on-one atmosphere with his audiences, including them in the show and giving away a multitude of prizes during each performance. For more information on George Wallace, please visit www.georgewallace.net. Wallace performs at 10 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday at The Flamingo Hotel & Casino. All ages are welcome. For ticket information please call (702) 733-3333 or visit www.FlamingoLasVegas.com.


With CC having the week off, Pro BMX Rider and MTV Tr3s star Ricardo Laguna served as the guest co-host for On Air with Robert & CC at PBR Rock Bar in Las Vegas. This weeks guest was Magician Michael Turco who currently stars in Magic and Mayhem at Planet Hollywood (Pictured above: Host Robert Blasi, Magician Michael Turco and BMX Pro Ricardo Laguna  Photo credit: Jeff Ragazzo).

Photo credit: Jeff Ragazzo.

Michael played all the signature Hook Jaw Net Radio on-air games and even gave away tickets to his show. After the interview Michael and his entourage enjoyed PBRs brilliant food.

Photo credit: Jeff Ragazzo.

Quote of the show: I had cable in Mexico but not now in the states I cant even watch my own show! -Ricardo Laguna

Photo credit: Jeff Ragazzo.

Ricardo Lagunas The Ricardo Laguna Project was just picked up for a 2nd season and season 1 will re-air for the first time outside of the USA on MTV Latin America starting next week. To listen to this interview go to: HookJawNetRadio.com

Photo credit: Jeff Ragazzo.

Photo credit: Jeff Ragazzo.

Photo credit: Jeff Ragazzo.

Photo credit: Jeff Ragazzo.
Although deaths from measles have decreased by 78 per cent, it still remains one of the infectious diseases in the developing countries. Know the symptoms of the disease.

By India Today Web Desk: Brazil has officially been declared as measles free country by the World Health Organization (WHO). According to the organisation, no case of the disease was found in the country in the year 2015. This has come after years of joint efforts by WHO and Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO) to eradicate the disease. Although deaths from measles have decreased by 78 per cent, it still remains one of the most infectious diseases in the developing countries.

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What is measles?

Measles is a communicable disease which affects mostly children and has remained one of the main causes of death and disability among children. It usually transmits "via droplets from the nose, mouth or throat of infected persons."

Let's understand this disease better: Symptoms, causes and facts



1. Initial symptoms of measles include high fever, running nose, tiny white spots on the inside of the mouth. The fever generally stays for 4-5 days. Other symptoms include cough, red and watery eyes



2. Initial symptoms usually occur 10-12 days after the infection



3. After a month or so, a rash develops that starts on the face and neck and gradually spreads downwards.



4. The rash lasts for 5 to 6 days, and then fades. Most people recover within 2-3 weeks



5. There has been no specific treatment for measles



6. However, the disease can terribly affect malnourished children.



7. Measles can also cause including "blindness, encephalitis, severe diarrhoea, ear infection and pneumonia."



8. The disease can be prevented by immunisation.



9. In 2014, a total of 114,900 measles deaths were recorded globally. That is about 314 deaths every day or 13 deaths every hour.



10. By the end of 2020, WHO plans to eliminate measles in at least 5 WHO regions.

Interested in General Knowledge and Current Affairs? Click here to stay informed and know what is happening around the world with our G.K. and Current Affairs section.

To get more updates on Current Affairs, send in your query by mail to education.intoday@gmail.com



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British energy giant BP faces fresh losses in Q2 2016 on new charges arising from the devastating 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill disaster. (Photo: AFP/Andy Buchanan)

The company posted a loss after taxation of US$1.4 billion (1.3 billion) for the three months to June, which however compared with a far larger loss of US$5.8 billion for the second quarter of 2015.

BP also booked a net post-tax non-operating charge of US$2.8 billion for costs linked to the oil disaster. That included a pre-tax non-operating charge of US$5.2 billion.

The energy major had already revealed earlier this month that the final cost for the spill stood at US$61.6 billion, including the latest second-quarter hit.

BP added that this year's capital expenditure was now expected to fall below US$17 billion.

"We are very pleased to have finally drawn a line under the material liabilities for Deepwater Horizon," said chief executive Bob Dudley in the results statement. "We will always be mindful of what we have learned from that tragic accident. BP today is a stronger, more focused and more disciplined company.

"We continue to actively develop a strong, balanced portfolio and we are managing the business for value over volume. Our relentless group-wide focus on capital and cost discipline is helping BP to become much more efficient while maintaining the investment needed for future growth."

Back in 2010, an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig killed 11 men off the coast of Louisiana and caused 134 million gallons (507 million litres) of oil to spew into Gulf waters.

It took 87 days to cap the out of control well some 1,500 metres (5,000 feet) below sea level, and the oil slick stretched across an area the size of Virgina, blackening beaches across five US states and hitting tourism and fishing.

London-listed BP had clocked enormous losses last year on costs linked to the deadly spill. It has axed thousands of jobs and sold billions of dollars of assets to meet the clean-up bill.

"The sigh of relief emanating from BP HQ is almost palpable as the Gulf of Mexico spill is finally consigned to the history books," noted Richard Hunter, head of research at Wilson King Investment Management.

"This is not to say that the challenges are over, not least of which is an underlying oil price still markedly short of the level which would provide comfort for the company."

Stripping out exceptional costs and changes to the value of oil inventories, BP also reported Tuesday a net profit of US$720 million in the second quarter, down 45 per cent from a year earlier on low oil prices.

Market expectations had been for profit of US$819 million according to analysts polled by Bloomberg.

"Compared with a year earlier, the underlying second-quarter result was impacted by lower oil and gas prices and significantly lower refining margins, but this was partly offset by the benefit of lower cash costs throughout the group as well as lower exploration write-offs," added Dudley.

"We are delivering significant improvements to the business that will stick at any oil price. We are now well down the path of transforming our business to compete, whatever the future holds."
Photo source: VTV

According to the Foreign Investment Agencys statistics, in the first seven months Vietnam attracted $12.94 billion in FDI, including $8.7 billion in newly-registered capital for 1,048 projects, and $4.25 billion in expanded capital for 660 projects, signifying a respective increase of 46.8 per cent in total capital, 25.7 per cent in newly-registered capital, and 126 per cent in expanded capital on-year.

In addition, the disbursed capital reached $8.55 billion, up 15.5 per cent on-year.

Numerous large enterprises poured finance to Vietnam to build new facilities as well as expand their foothold in the local market.

Notably, Korean Seoul Semiconductor Company (SSC) has been licensed to develop a $300 million semiconductor and LED lighting equipment manufacturing factory in Dong Van I industrial park, in the northern province of Ha Nam.

On July 15, representatives of the company and the Ha Nam Peoples Committee signed an agreement to develop the project. The construction is expected to kick off in August and will be divided into two phases. The first phase will have the total capital of $147 million, while the remaining $153 million will be disbursed during the second phase.

At the same time, LG Innotek, an LG Group subsidiary, plans to develop a $200 million camera production factory in the northern port city of Haiphongs Dinh Vu-Cat Hai economic zone. The project is expected to be licensed soon.

Although LG Innotek will work on a smaller scale than SSC, it is LGs third investment in Vietnam, following a $1.5 billion hi-tech screen (OLED) production factory and a $1.5 billion electronic goods production factory.

LGs consecutive investments in Vietnam show that the group is relocating its production base to Vietnam as it previously committed.

Furthermore, numerous small and medium-sized Korean enterprises are planning to expand their operation into the Vietnamese market.

Following their Korean competitors, Japanese enterprises have also set foot in Vietnam. Notably, Japanese Daikin Industries will invest $93.6 million to build an air conditioner manufacturing plant in Hanoi, as part of its plans to capitalise on the Southeast Asian nation's potential for rapid growth.

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 may increase to one million by 2020, depending on the local demand.
These residents of a retirement village in New Zealand spent a week recreating each and every scene of Taylor Swift's video for her single, Shake it Off, and they nail every second of it.

Seniors recreate Shake it Off, and nail every second of it! Pictures courtesy: YouTube

By India Today Web Desk: Taking 'age is nothing but a number' to a whole new level is these senior residents of Julia Wallace Retirement Village, New Zealand.

We always knew Taylor Swift had quite the fan following, but seniors were among that following, is frankly news to us too.

So, 50 residents, staff and grandchildren from Julia Wallace Retirement Village spent a week making this special tribute to Taylor Swift's Shake It Off.

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Okay, guess these residents' average age. Okay fine, we'll tell you--82. Also, another fun fact, their combined age more than 4,000 years!

Anyway, that's not the point. The point is that they've aced the damn video like pros; and by 'aced' we mean each and every second of it, down to every little detail--from the costumes to the break-dancing.

That reminds us, all the costumes for the video were in fact created by one of the residents of the retirement village. Some active seniors, these!

"Our residents do exercise classes and love music," a spokesperson from the retirement village told Buzzfeed. "They did a flash mob at a mall about a year ago and then they did a nude calendar for charity--they love doing different things. They liked the song because it could involve the staff and grandkids as well. When they first saw the video they were a bit nervous but they soon got into it."

Well, all we can say is, keep them coming, guys!



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Nepali people sit on a bench in front of a royal palace covered by scaffolding as it undergoes repairs in Durbar Square in Kathmandu on Jul 19, 2016. (Photo: PRAKASH MATHEMA/AFP)

Heavy monsoon rains have swelled rivers across the country, triggering floods and landslides that have destroyed homes.

Two children were killed when a school in the capital partially collapsed.

"Since Monday, 33 people have died and another 23 people are missing because of floods and landslides in several districts," home ministry deputy spokesman Jhanka Nath Dhakal told AFP.

Rescuers used helicopters and rubber boats to evacuate hundreds of people from affected villages.

"We are on high alert and our teams are working overnight in search and rescue operations," Dhakal said.

Scores of people die every year from flooding and landslides during the monsoon rains in Nepal and neighbouring India.

Millions of Nepalis are still living in tents or makeshift huts after a devastating earthquake last year that killed nearly 9,000 people.
Located in the northeast of Vietnam, Halong Bay resembles a scene from a fantasy story with its thousands of limestone islets.



Touropia said that some of the islands contain lakes while some are hollow, with a colorful fairyland of grottos inside. Four fishing villages composed of floating houses can be found on Halong Bay.



The bay, which spans 1,553 square kilometres and includes 1,969 islands of various sizes, was twice recognised by the UNESCO as a World Heritage Site in 1994 and 2000.



In 2011 it was voted one of the seven New Natural Wonders of the World.



The bay is an iconic destination for visitors to Quang Ninh province, with its rich biodiversity, stunning beauty, and significant historical and cultural value.



Last year, Quang Ninh welcomed 7.7 million tourist arrivals. In the first six months of 2016, it greeted 5.4 million tourists, including 2 million from abroad, a year-on-year increase of 52%.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel gives a press conference on Jul 23, 2016 at the Chancellery in Berlin, one day after the attack at a shopping centre in Munich. (Photo: AFP/Tobias Schwarz)

Four brutal assaults in Germany's south, three of which were carried out by asylum seekers, have rattled Germans and revived a backlash against Merkel's decision last year to open the borders to those fleeing war and persecution.

"It all appeared to be going pretty well for Merkel but the situation has changed dramatically in the 10 days between the Nice attack and Sunday's suicide bomber in Ansbach," the daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung wrote, referring to attacks in France and Germany claimed by the Islamic State (IS) group.

"The chancellor must once again fear that she will be punished by the voters," with two pivotal state polls looming in September.

Merkel's aides were quick to point out that three of the four assailants arrived in Germany before the record influx that brought in more than one million refugees and migrants last year.

The fourth, a teenager who went on a shooting rampage in Munich on Friday killing nine before turning the gun on himself, was born and raised in Germany, the son of Iranian asylum seekers who arrived in the 1990s.

Investigators say he was obsessed with mass killings, including Norwegian rightwing fanatic Anders Behring Breivik's 2011 massacre, and have ruled out an extremist motive.

NEW ASYLUM POLICY?

The violence reignited political friction that had eased as the number of new arrivals to Germany slowed to a trickle in recent months due to the closure of the Balkans migration route and an EU deal with Turkey to take back migrants.

"What we always warned of has now happened," Frauke Petry, head of the rightwing populist AfD party, said in a statement.

Horst Seehofer, conservative premier of Bavaria state which saw three of the attacks, called into question the principle that asylum seekers should never be sent back to war zones. He later backtracked, citing international law.

However, he insisted: "We must seriously consider how such people should be treated if they violate the law or can be considered a danger."

Seehofer leads the Christian Social Union, the sister party to Merkel's conservative Christian Democrats, and has long been a vocal critic of the refugee influx for which Bavaria was the primary gateway.

He ordered tightened security at airports and railway stations following the suicide bombing near a music festival in Ansbach that wounded 15 people and an axe attack that injured four passengers on a train in the city of Wuerzburg and a passer-by.

But while Thomas de Maiziere, Merkel's federal interior minister, pledged to boost spot checks in border regions, Berlin made a point of resisting calls for a raft of new security laws.

"I will propose appropriate amendments when I think them necessary," he told reporters, while warning against blanket suspicion of refugees.

'OVERCOME OUR FEARS'

Merkel, who has led Europe's economic powerhouse for nearly 11 years, sought to project calm by remaining at her holiday cottage north of Berlin this week.

But she has since called a news conference on Thursday "on current domestic and foreign policy issues" in an apparent acknowledgement that her absence was causing anxiety.

The country's top-selling newspaper, Bild, which has generally backed Merkel's stance on refugees, praised her cool-headed approach.

"Our state works better than most and ... our people are quick to support each other in times of extreme stress," it said. "Our state and our society should therefore give us confidence to overcome our fears."

But analysts warned the strategy was risky, with a poll in Merkel's political fiefdom, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, on Sep 4 followed by Berlin's state election on September 18.

The AfD, which gained support after a spate of sexual assaults on New Year's Eve in Cologne blamed largely on Arab and North African men, aims to make a strong showing in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, which would deal Merkel a powerful blow one year ahead of a general election.

Martin Emmer, professor of political communications at Berlin's Free University, warned that Merkel's hyperrational style could be found lacking if fear takes hold in the wake of the attacks.

"Politics has to cover both aspects - this emotional side in which you credibly pledge to protect citizens, and fact-bound policies that are able to ensure that," he told AFP.


illustration photo source saigontimes

In mid-July, several dozens of Thai firms came to Vietnam to scout for investment opportunities focusing on a wide range of sectors such as energy, retail, agriculture, processing, building material, and animal feed.

Thousands of Thai firms wish to join hands with Vietnamese partners to leverage the existing potential of both countries, said Sanan Angubolkul, president of the Thailand-Vietnam Business Council, at a recent press conference in Hanoi.

According to Tharabodee Serng-Adichaiwit, general manager of Bangkok Bank Public Company Limited in Vietnam, Vietnam is one of the best destinations for Thai investments in Asia and there will be more Thai investments into Vietnam in the near future.

Bangkok Bank has recently tripled its capital in hope of providing more loans for Thai investments to expand in Vietnam.

In another case, billionaire beer magnate Charoen Sirivadhanabhakdi, chairman of Thai Charoen Corp (TCC), told Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc at a mid-July meeting that TCC would continue to expand business in Vietnam.

TCC has recently finalised a 655 million euro ($876 million) purchase of German retailer Metro Cash & Carry Vietnam chain. In 2013, TCCs subsidiary, Berli Jucker, also purchased the Family Mart system in Vietnam.

Additionally, Thailands Central Group completed its acquisition of Frances Big C Vietnam super market system at a price of $1.1 billion. Late last year, Central Group purchased 49 per cent stake of Vietnams Nguyen Kim electronics supermarket chain.

The councils statistics show that between the period of 2012 and 2015, the Thailand-Vietnam trade turnover rose 40 per cent to $13 billion. Thai investments into Vietnam have augmented 35 per cent from $5.9 billion in 2012 to over $8 billion in the present.

Ponpimon Petcharakul, commercial attache from the Thai Embassy to Vietnam, told VIR that the Vietnamese government has greatly improved its administrative procedures by enacting legal documents on business conditions to make it easier for investors to do business.

Not only big firms from Thailand, but thousands of small- and medium-sized enterprises want to invest in Vietnam, especially when the Thai economy seems to become stagnant and Thai investors need to seek more opportunities outside of Thailand. Vietnam is one of their best selections, Petcharakul said.

In a June interview with VIR in Bangkok, Thai Minister of Commerce Apiradi Tantraporn said a new wave of Thai investments was coming in Vietnam as the Vietnamese government actively improved its investment climate, with significant tariff cuts under the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) and free trade agreements (FTAs).

Notably, Thailand has fewer FTAs than Vietnam. Therefore, Thai firms want to invest in Vietnam to take advantage of its FTA benefits, Tantraporn said.

Under Vietnams commitments to the AEC and FTAs, the reduction and removal of many import tariff lines for goods will help Thai firms increase their investment in Vietnam and from here, they can further boost exports to FTA member markets.

Vietnam has signed 11 FTAs and is currently negotiating another four. It is expected that Vietnam will have a total of 15 FTAs with 53 partners worldwide.

The AEC and FTAs are further strengthening the partnership between the two countries as it encourages more business transactions from Thailand to Vietnam and vice versa, Angubolkul said.
Light-emitting diode can save 30-90 per cent of electricity

Do Huu Hau, general director of Germanys lighting product maker Osram Vietnam, told VIR that Osram, currently enjoying a 30 per cent market share of Vietnams light emitting diode (LED) market, would establish other two subsidiaries in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.

It is predicted that the subsidiaries will be licensed in late July 2016, Hau said. However, he refused to reveal the total investment capital for the new subsidiaries.

In the near future, Osram will expand its LED product portfolio in Vietnam with several hundred types of new products.

The demand for LED lamp products, with increasingly reasonable price tags, is surging in Vietnam, where many LED investors are coming to invest and compete, Hau said.

Currently, Osram is operating a joint venture with local Khai Toan Company in the southern province of Dong Nai. The joint venture imports Osrams LED spare parts from Osrams factories overseas to assemble and distribute in Vietnam. Osram in Vietnams revenue rose 75 per cent year-on-year in this years first half, and is expected to double for the whole year.

Last week saw South Koreas Seoul Semiconductor ink a co-operation deal with the northern province of the Ha Nam Peoples Committee to build a $300 million semiconductor and LED lighting equipment manufacturing factory on an area of 7.5 hectares in the provinces Dong Van 1 industrial park.

Construction is expected to commence next month and will be divided into two phases, with the first worth $147 million, and the second valued at $153 million.

The factory will employ 3,000 workers. Its revenue is expected to hit $150 million in the first year of operation, and $200 million by the second year. The figure will rise to $400 million and $500 million in the third and fourth years, respectively.

Also in this park, South Koreas KMW Vietnam is boosting the recruitment of engineers and workers for its $100 million 30-hectare factory to manufacture LED telecommunications equipment. The factory will produce 220,000 telecommunications equipment products annually, including filters, diffusers, antennas, radio connectors and remote radio heads, as well as 380,000 LED lamp products. All products will be produced both for the local market and exported. The factory will also employ over 3,000 local workers.

Vietnam has big potential for LED technology to develop, with its business-friendly climate and growing demand, said Kim Duk Yong, chairman of KMW South Korea.

According to the Slovakian Embassy to Vietnam, a Slovak investor is planning to build a major factory in the central province of Nghe An to make LED lamps and will implement a project to replace the provincial public lighting system with an LED lamp system.

According to the Vietnamese Academy of Science and Technology, Vietnam is now an ideal spot for world famous foreign LED technology developers, such as Schreder, Osram, MEGAMAN, Philips, Quality System, Nitria and Hua Bo Tech (Zhuhai). These firms are trying to establish roots in Vietnam.

The first LED factory in Vietnam was built by FawooKidi, a $12.3 million joint venture between Vietnams Kim Dinh Company (65 per cent stake) and South Koreas Fawoo Technology (35 per cent stake). Based in Ho Chi Minh City and becoming operational in March 2010, FawooKidi rolls out over 10,000 LED lamps per day.

Invented in the 1960s, LED is a semiconductor light source and used as indicator lamps in many devices. Nowadays, LED is becoming increasingly popular for many other lighting solutions, and can save 30-90 per cent of power when compared to more traditional lighting methods. Currently, this eco-friendly technology is mostly used in Vietnam to light up advertising boards, shop facades, major streets and traffic signs.


illustration photo - source internet

Yesterday, US telco Verizon announced buying the internet business of struggling internet giant Yahoo for $4.83 billion in cash. The deal, which is subject to approval by regulators and Yahoos shareholders, is expected to close in the first quarter of 2017.

Before Yahoo, Verizon acquired another content creator, AOL, for $4.4 billion. Yahoo produces television shows, like Community. AOL owns The Huffington Post, TechCrunch, and a variety of digital video assets.

Verizons purchase of content creators shadows a bigger trend of telecommunication companies working to reach more synergy with content creators.

In April this year, French multinational mass media company Vivendi and Italys Mediaset forged a pay-TV alliance, with Mediaset handing over an 89 per cent stake in its pay-TV business to Vivendi.

According to Mediaset, the deal will see the company enter a big international pay-TV network. However, the deals significance transcends pay-TV services. You see AT&T buying DirecTV, Telefonica buying Via Digital, etc. The integration of telcos and media content creators is the present and the future, news site variety.com quoted media mogul Tarak Ben Ammar, member of Vivendis supervisory board, who brokered the deal.

Vietnam is not outside of this world-encompassing trend. In January this year, Vietnamese telco MobiFone, which operates the second most popular mobile network in Vietnam, officially bought pay-TV operator An Vien and rebranded it to MobiTV in April.

Telcos like MobiFone benefit from synergy with content creators because they have access to a massive base of customers that is yet to be fully exploited. In Vietnam, where mobile penetration is already high and telcos have exhausted revenue from calls, texts, and data, telcos are dying to provide extra services to their subscribers in their battle for market shares.

According to MobiFone, MobiTV is going to integrate television and telecommunication, giving them the ability to provide new services to subscribers, such as highly interactive or higher definition TV programmes, original content, and new subscriber packages combining TV and mobile features.

Purchasing AVG helped MobiFone, which now has 40 million subscribers and remain competitive, especially when the other two major players in the market, Viettel and VinaPhone, are both providing mobile TV already. According to a representative, with this acquisition, MobiFone can earn more from advertising and cross-selling data. But the most important benefit from the deal is the information gained on the habits of customers across platforms that the company can now access and utilize to learn more about customers demands, and tailor its products accordingly.


Mr Vu Huy Hoang Minister of Industry and Trade Vu Huy Hoang talks about possible solutions to this challenge.



A green economic development model is becoming fashionable not only in Vietnam, but in other economies worldwide. Is the Ministry of Insdustry and Trade (MoIT) ready to develop a low carbon and sustainable industrial growth strategy?



As everyone may know, the green economy is a fast growing new economic development model in contrast to the existing economic one based on fossil fuels. In the midst of the global economic crisis, the United Nations Environment Programme called for a global green new deal in which governments were encouraged to support the economic transformation to a greener economy.



To reach this goal, governments should update their policies to facilitate the efficient use of the natural resources, the development of clean technology, new energy, green transport, waste management, green buildings, green agriculture and forestry sectors while reducing greenhouse gas emissions and environmental pollutants.



As a platform for the development of Vietnams green industrial sector, since 2008, the MoIT has focused on the issuance and introduction of across-the-board environmental protection regulations in the industrial sector to better manage the adverse environmental impacts on the sector.



On the basis of these strict rules, the MoIT has gradually conducted investigations into manufacturing bases nationwide and ordered relevant parties to regularly report environmental assessments.



The MoIT has also coordinated and supported its member groups and companies to issue their own environmental protection rules such as those in the textile and garment, coal mining, steel, power and chemical sectors.



In addition, the MoIT has played a leading role in implementing medium and long-term sustainable development programmes such as the Vietnam National Energy Efficiency Programme, the biofuel development strategy, the action plan to respond to climate change, the cleaner industrial production strategy and the environment industry development plan, all of which are designed to develop Vietnams industrial sector in a sustainable manner while reducing emissions until 2020.



The Vietnam Cleaner Production in Industry Strategy towards 2020, which was approved by the Vietnamese government in September 2009, seems to offer little market incentives to motivate firms to invest and produce green products and services. In this context, do you have confidence in the feasibility of this plan?



I have to say that, to a certain extent, although cleaner production is not a new concept on a global scale, there are few Vietnamese firms that are fully aware of this. Cleaner production is a smart technological and management solution that maximises effective use of the natural resources and minimises carbon dioxide emissions in the environment.



Therefore, it is agreed that cleaner production helps manufacturers to reduce production costs through improved productivity by using less industrial feedstocks and spending less on environmental treatment. This has been already proved by many cleaner production demonstration projects which the MoIT implements in line with the cleaner production in industry strategy. Basically, cleaner production does not mean the manufacturing of cleaner products.



With an aim to successfully implementing the Vietnam Cleaner Production in Industry Strategy towards 2020, the MoIT is actively working on strategy components such as public awareness enhancement, design of a cleaner production website and database, technical assistance, development of cleaner production models and issuance of legal and financial incentives to whom cleaner production applies. Based on these across-the-board action plans, I am absolutely confident that the strategy will be a success.



Many of Vietnams industrial parks still lack proper treatment systems, leading to the problem of untreated waste being dumped in the environment. What solutions are needed to stop this and promote cleaner production in industrial parks nationwide?



It is true that environmental protection has increasingly become a critical issue in many industrial parks in Vietnam despite the relevant regulations in force. Many industrial parks nationwide lack good waste treatment and management systems. Such problems are the result of businesses poor planning and ability to protect the environment. Secondly, the enforcement of the environmental protection regulations is questionable.



It is a certain that such issues cannot be addressed overnight. This can only be dealt with if the Vietnamese government makes greater efforts to raise public and businesses awareness and capacity building of environmental protection. The government and relevant agencies should also introduce a wide range of cleaner production models and technologies to businesses inside and outside industrial parks while the environmental protection regulations must be better respected.



Whats more, management authorities of industrial parks nationwide should be increasingly aware of their responsibilities and duties in regard to environmental protection within their boundaries and they should be given incentives for good performances.



Currently, Vietnams industrial production remains largely dependent on fossil fuels such as coal and oil. How can Vietnam balance the need of industrial feedstocks for its fast industrial growth and savings of non-renewable energy?



Vietnams energy demand is forecasted to reach 47.63 million tonnes of oil equivalent (TOE) in 2010, 83.99 million TOE in 2020 and 97.3 million TOE in 2025. Meanwhile, the countrys energy consumption demand during 2010-2025 is estimated to grow an average 8.6-9.7 per cent, per year. Therefore, it is argued that Vietnams fossil fuels such as coal and crude oil may be exhausted by the end of the 21st century.



In this context, the Vietnam National Energy Efficiency Program (VNEEP), approved by the Prime Minister on April 14, 2006, is a set of activities to encourage, promote and disseminate energy efficiency and conservation in the public sphere, in science and technology research activities and in management measures needed to carry out synchronous activities on energy efficiency and conservation throughout society.



The VNEEP is the first-ever long-term comprehensive plan to institute measures for improving energy efficiency and conservation in all Vietnams economic sectors. The programmes energy savings goal is 3-5 per cent of total energy consumption during 2006-2010 and 5-8 per cent of the total energy consumption during 2011-2015. The programme contains a comprehensive set of measures that cover six government sectors (institutions, education and information), industry, equipment and appliances (for the residential and commercial sectors), buildings and transport.



In line with the VNEEP, the MoIT also completed the drafting of the Energy Efficiency Law to be submitted to the 12th National Assemblys seventh session in May. Once effective, the new law will act an important legislative framework on energy efficiency and consumption in industrial production, construction site management, domestic activities and energy consumed equipment, and will also ensure the targets of national energy security and environmental protection will be met.



Reports reveal that power loss during the transmission and distribution stages is still huge in Vietnam. What are you doing to prevent such losses?



According to our statistics, during 1990-2010, Vietnams power demand is expected to grow at an average 13-14 per cent, per year. Hydro power is the dominant source of generation in Vietnam so that the country is highly exposed to hydrological risks and power shortages during the dry season. As a result, power cuts often cause pain to domestic end-users and businesses.



To address this problem, the MoIT has actively taken actions to accelerate the progress of new power plant construction, review power tariffs, restructure the power sector in line with market mechanism and ensure stable power supplies. We are playing the leading role in power saving campaigns in manufacturing, trading and services sectors.



We have also encouraged individual and corporate consumers to use power saving appliances, applying effective power control measures and strengthening investigations over power saving and efficiency use activities at administration agencies and businesses. In relation to power producers and traders, the MoIT has regularly conducted checks-up for operation and maintenance of their power generation and distribution systems so as to prevent power losses and power cuts.



In parallel with technical and management tools, the MoIT is also cooperating with other relevant government agencies to promote public awareness raising and education programmes of energy efficiency and the need to use power saving appliances. These programmes are very important to ensure the targets of the VNEEP will be met.
She arrived in Ho Chi Minh City on July 23 for a tour of Quang Binh province. Famous landscapes in Quang Binh were lively and splendidly featured through her lens.

She posted a photo subtitled Wanderlust Vietnam. Below another photo of Phong Nha Cave in Quang Binh province, she wrote I am astonished everyday by how beautiful this world is.

Josephine revealed that she would spend five days on discovering the biggest cave in the world  Son Doong.

Her photo received thousands of likes and the facebookers wished her a safe and sound trip. One of her fans commented I will add this to my bucketlist.

After Son Doong was recognized as the world biggest cave, Vietnam in general and Quang Binh in particular has become a favourite tourist destination.

Many world celebrities have secretly spent their holidays in Vietnam.

Josephine Skriver (born April 14, 1993) is a Danish model. She began her career in 2011, debuting in the Fall/Winter 2011 season, and has walked over 300 fashion shows. In February 2016, she was named a Victoria's Secret Angel.
During Slovak Prime Minister Robert Ficos official visit to Vietnam last week, a series of co-operation deals were signed in the sectors of transport, information and communications technology (ICT), investment, and education.

Vietnams telecommunications giant VNPT and Slovakias financial investment firm Slavia Capital Services (SCS) clinched a co-operation deal, with VNPT expanding its business to the Eastern European nation.

SCS will introduce Slovakian partners to VNPT. The partners will provide VNPT with technological solutions, especially in the sectors of e-government, natural resources and environment, health care, and social insurance.

The deal between VNPT and SCS is among several other deals signed between Vietnamese firms and 10 Slovakian ICT firms. 18 Slovakian firms accompanied Prime Minister Fico on his visit to Vietnam.

Two months ago, Vietnamese born Le Hong Quang, a special consultant to Prime Minister Fico, worked with Vietnams Ministry of Information and Communications and invited Viettel, MobiFone, and VNPT to invest in Slovakias ICT projects.

Currently, FPT is the only Vietnamese company operating in Slovakia. In 2014, FPT Software acquired RWE IT Slovakia and renamed the firm FPT Slovakia, with 100 per cent of the capital of FPT Software.

In another case, Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam together with Slovakia National Bank will finance $500 million for a project to build a depot and an oil-conducting pipe at Hon La port in the central province of Quang Binh, which is connected with Laos Kham Muon province. Licensed in February 2015, this project is also invested in by the Laos Petro Joint Stock Company.

Vietnam is now home to five Slovakian investment projects, with the total registered investment capital of $235 million.

Currently, a Slovak investor is planning to build a major factory in the central province of Nghe An, to manufacture light-emitting diodes (LEDs), and will implement a project to replace the provinces public lighting system with an LED system.

The leaders of Vietnam and Slovakia have agreed the two nations will expand co-operation in the sectors of trade, investment, education and training, culture, tourism, law, and science and technology.

Deputy Prime Minister Vuong Dinh Hue called for more Slovakian investors to look into Vietnam. We stand ready to create favourable conditions to welcome Slovakian investors and goods into Vietnam, especially in the sectors of electronics, pharmaceuticals, energy, information and technology, and agriculture.

We also expect Slovakia to open its doors for Vietnamese products including textiles and garments, footwear, and electronic and agricultural products, he said.

The two countries bilateral trade turnover reached $294 million last year.

In order for the two nations to increase investment and trade co-operation, the Slovakian prime minister suggested that the two nations should make a list of prioritised investment projects which would be supervised and implemented in a suitable manner.

We have proposed the launch of a special governmental meeting in order to exclusively focus on our relationship with Vietnam and review all projects currently under implementation, Fico stressed.
Authorities of Quang Ninh, Hai Phong, Thai Binh, Nam Dinh, Ha Giang, Lang Son, Cao Bang, Bac Kan, Thai Nguyen, Tuyen Quang, Bac Ninh and Binh Dinh attended the event.

Chairing the teleconference, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Cao Duc Phat, who is also head of the central steering committee, called for the serious implementation of the National Committee for Search and Rescues urgent order to cope with the storm, including closely managing coastal tourist activities and evacuation in landslide-prone areas in Quang Ninh and Hai Phong, and ensuring the safety of islanders and aquaculture zones.

Urgent tasks mentioned in the order should be performed before 6pm on July 27.

Members of the central steering committee were assigned to make fact-finding trips to the northern provinces of Thai Nguyen, Bac Giang and Bac Ninh to inspect disaster prevention and control.

According to the National Centre for Hydro-meteorological Forecasting, by 1pm on July 26, the storm was centered at about 18.3 degrees north latitude and 112.1 degrees east longitude, about 170km north of Vietnams Hoang Sa (Paracel) archipelago.

In the next 24 hours, the storm is forecast to move west-northwest at a speed of up to 20km per hour.

The northeastern and northern mountainous areas are forecast to experience heavy rains on the evening of July 27.

Border guards from Quang Ninh to Phu Yen provinces will be on duty round-the-clock with 67 boats, 205 canoes and 352 automobiles.

The Vietnam News Agency, Vietnam Television and Radio the Voice of Vietnam will regularly update the latest information about the disaster to the public.

The Department of Cultivation said farming in the above 11 provinces is likely to be hit by the typhoon.
Naresh Yadav, who was arrested by Punjab Police on Sunday, was presented in Malerkotla civil court today.

By Manjeet Sehgal: Delhi Aam Aadmi Party legislator Naresh Yadav was today sent to judicial custody till August 1 by a Punjab court in connection with a Quran sacrilege incident last month.

Yadav, who was arrested by Punjab Police on Sunday, was presented in Malerkotla civil court

The court on Monday had sent Yadav to two-day police custody.

"The court rejected the police application for additional remand as police failed to get any evidence against Naresh Yadav. The police remand is over. We have moved a bail application hearing of which will take place on Thursday. The court sent him to a judicial remand and has also issued notices to the state," Naresh Yadav's counsel and in-charge AAP's media cell, Himmat Singh Shergill told India Today.

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PUNJAB POLICE ARRESTED NARESH YADAV ON JULY 24

Earlier on July 24 Naresh Yadav was arrested from Mehrauli by a team of Punjab Police. The court had issued arrest warrants against him on the basis of evidences produced by the Punjab police in the court. The police had also considered the statement of Vijay Kumar, prime accused in the desecration case.

According to the police Naresh Yadav had met Vijay Kumar on June 24 when the desecration took place in Malerkotla. Vijay Kumar during his interrogation had also told the police that he had torn the pages of holy book at the behest of Naresh Yadav. Accordingly, the police had charged him under various sections of IPC including 109, 153-A and 295.

Interestingly, Yadav was questioned by the Sangrur police two times before he was arrested on July 24. While Naresh Yadav denying the allegations had claimed that he was co-operating with the police, the Punjab police had said he was avoiding certain questions which were privy to the investigation.

ASHISH KHETAN FACING A DESECRATION CASE IN AMRITSAR

Naresh Yadav's case has acquired political overtones with the ruling Akali Dal-BJP and opposition Congress accusing AAP of misusing religion for political gains. AAP leader and party spokesperson Ashish Khetan is already facing a desecration case in Amritsar.

Also Read

Punjab Police arrests AAP MLA Naresh Yadav for Quran sacrilege



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The total value of the ten biggest M&A deals reached $1.7 billion, with a total of 14,025 rooms switching hands.

Japan ranked first with five deals, followed by Australia with a total transaction value of $278 million. The runners up are China ($252.6 million), Vietnam ($237.6 million), Taiwan ($217.6 million), and Thailand ($138.3 million), in this order.

According to Michael Bachelor, managing director of JLLs Hotel and Resort Division in the Asia Pacific, in the upcoming time a large capital inflow will hit the high-quality real estate sector. In addition, Japan is considered the most attractive destination in the second half of 2016, followed by Thailand, Vietnam, South Korea, and Myanmar, all foreseeing large M&A deals on the horizon.

The selling price of hotels located in first-grade urban areas are quite high, however, these hotels still attract investors due to their high profitability. Besides, investors are increasingly pouring finances into hotel real estate deals in second-grade urban areas to find profitable opportunities.

The Brexit, by dropping the pounds, will limit the number of British visitors to the Asia Pacific. However, the volume of Chinese visitors will remain an important factor in the tourism sector of the Asia Pacific, Bachelor added.

The Top 10 Biggest Hotel Real Estate Deals in Asia Pacific in the first half of 2016 (See table below)
Photo by LOS ANGELES TIMES

Geneva Reed-Vead, the mother of 28-year-old Sandra Bland, speaks as the Mothers of the Movement make an appearance during the second day of the Democratic National Convention on Tuesday in Philadelphia. Bland, 28, was pulled over July 10, 2015, in Prairie View, Texas, and was arrested after a heated exchange with Texas Department of Public Safety trooper Brian Encinia. She died three days after being booked into the Waller County Jail.


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From the snowy plateaus of Tibet to the mountain gorges of Chinas Yunnan province and beyond to the jungled borders of Myanmar, Thailand, Laos and down to the plains of Cambodia and paddy fields of Vietnam  the Mekong River is of crucial importance to tens of millions of people.

Yet, the future of the mighty Mekong is far from certain.

Irrevocably change is underway upriver and downriver  from China to the Mekong delta  as countries along the rivers length pursue hydroelectric dams as a path to power generation.

Dams have already brought dramatic change to fishery communities, including Om Mengs community in Patt Sanday commune in Cambodias Kompong Thom province.

We experienced drought and that created a very difficult situation for us since the amount of fish in the lake is already reducing every year, said Om Meng, explaining that dams on the upper reaches of the Mekong have already affected the flow of water in Cambodias Tonle Sap Lake.

China built many big dams upstream, and we saw decreased numbers of fish. Plus, Laos is also building a dam in Don Sahong, Om Meng, who is head of the local fishery community in his area, told VOA Khmer.

China has built six hydropower dams on the Mekong - known as the Lancang River to the Chinese. Laos is currently building two dams in Xayaburi and Don Sahong, and has plans for seven more, and it is estimated that scores of dams have been built or are planned on tributaries of the Mekong in Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam.

Many have warned of the negative consequences of hydropower dams as they change the natural flow of rivers, alter sediment deposits, where fish swim, live and spawn, and even the temperature of water.

The reliance on hydropower is further complicated by climate change, and bouts of drought and flooding.

This year Vietnam saw severe drought and changes in river levels, which reached their lowest recorded levels in 100 years in the Mekong Delta. Many parts of Cambodia and Thailand were also hit by extreme heat and water shortages, leading China to open the gates of its Mekong dams to allow more water to flow to Mekong basin countries.

These changes are already so irrevocably that the state of the Mekong River cannot be reversed to how it was previously, said Dr. Milton Osborne, distinguished historian of Southeast Asia and Cambodia.

It is absolutely essential, in my judgment, for the future of the people who live along the river that a recognition is given to the fact that you cannot change the river by building dams without having negative effects, Dr. Osborne said.

Countries through which the Mekong flows know well that hydropower produces low cost electricity.

That is only part of the equation.

Hydropower projects cost hundreds of millions of dollars to build, and never seem to produce the output that was expected, said Jennifer Turner, director of the China Environment Forum at the Wilson Center.

The fact is the current existing dams are not producing, and sometimes they are not producing half the amount of electricity that they are supposed to, Turner said as part of a recent discussion in Washington on the impact of Mekong hydropower development.

The event was organized by the Stimson Center under the title: Requiem for a River? Discussion on the Future of the Mekong.

Chinas roles in dam building on the Mekong, or Lancang, within its own borders, and as an investor in dam projects in down-river countries, was also a recurrent theme during the discussion.

Turner said that China currently depends on coal for more 60 percent of its energy consumption, and only 20 percent of its energy needs are derived from hydropower. As Turner told the discussion: Coal is king in China, and hydropower is queen.

In a bid to deal with air pollution, China has begun to shift its focus to renewable energy  solar and wind power  which may bode well for future Chinese investment in power generation in the Mekong region, she said.

I think there is a bit of potential for a more diverse, cleaner and greener energy development by the Chinese investors in [the Mekong] regionit could be interesting to see that conversation moving forward, Turner told VOA Khmer.

Richard Cronin, a research fellow and former director of the Southeast Asian program at the Stimson Center, said he was not hopeful that China would cease its own dam building projects or has any intention of encouraging lower Mekong countries to pursue renewable sources of energy.

I think that what China is saying is it will address pollution for its own reasons and for its own interest, he said.

Brian Eyler, deputy director of the Southeast Asian Program at the Stimson Center, and moderator of the discussion, and several others noted that Laos appeared to rethinking it previous hydropower development path, which was focused squarely on becoming the battery of Southeast Asia.

Courtney Weatherby, research associate for the Southeast Asia Program, Stimson Center, told the discussion that requests are now being received from Laos seeking assistance with ways to maximize dam efficiency.

There appears to be a generational divide, where younger Lao engineers are rethinking the costs of hydropower in terms of environmental and social consequences and not simply looking at the technology, as an older generation may have, in terms of hydropower as simply plumbing on a grand scale.

Dr. Cronin also seemed hopeful that the Lao government might be moving away from its earlier plans and institutional thinking about hydropower, but to do so would require strong engagement with China, and other large donor countries, such as the US and Japan.

One of the things that I am hopeful about is thatit looks like Lao is not going to be able to have all those dams that it has planned, and that means it is time for Lao to rethink its development model, rethink its idea [about] becoming the battery of Southeast Asia, he said.

For some experts, the possibility of a large country such as China, or smaller nations such as Lao, moving away from hydropower path is simply an illusion.

I am not optimistic that the Chinese will stop building dams and that in doing so they will help to revive the Mekong, Osborne wrote in an email to VOA Khmer.

Neither do I see any sign that the Lao government will move away from its present policies, he said.

Osborne described Vientianes policy of building dams on the Mekong as the few endangering the many who need to river to survive.

What the Lao government has chosen to do is to ignore the interests of the other people who live along the river and to pursue its own goals, he said in an earlier interview with VOA.

The need for cheap energy usually outweighs all other concerns, said Mak Sithirith, a professor at the Department of Development Studies of the Royal University of Phnom Penh.

Mekong countries, including China, will continue to build the dams at a fast rate, as hydropower remains a key source of cheap energy, Mak Sithirith said.

I dont see that China would stop building dams and, plus, the lower Mekong countries including Cambodia and Lao are in dire need of cheap energy, and hydropower dams are very promising for their development, he said.

Laos, he added, was in the best position to exploit hydropower compared to the other countries in the lower Mekong communities, and it will do so.

While expecting Mekong countries to move away from hydropower may be fanciful at present, some are urging for more engagement and cooperation between China and the lower Mekong countries through existing institutions, including the Mekong River Commission (MRC), the Lower Mekong Initiative, which is led by the US, and the Lancang Mekong Cooperation Mechanism, which is led by China.

Even if the three bodies engaged and cooperated more, the issue of enforcement power remains the main obstacle, participants at the Stimson-organized discussion said.

Without enforcement, there is nothing really stopping any one of the Mekong countries from pursuing policies that could be detrimental to others.

The problem with all three of them is that none of them has this enforcement power, said Jon Fasman, Southeast Asia bureau chief and acting Asia editor of The Economist whose recent essay Requiem for a River, inspired the discussion in Washington.

Many agree that the MRC is a weak institution, which requires serious reform to carry out its mandate to ensure sustainable development on the river.

It is a weak organization, and yet it is an essential organization because it cannot be replaced, the Stimson Centers Dr. Cronin said.

It could be improved, and it could become more effective. But that requires country themselves to get more serious about the organization, he added.

Mak Sithirith, of the Royal University of Phnom Penh, also said the MRC needed jurisdictional power, particularly when it came to preventing dams being built where they could cause serious negative ecological and social damage.

Its unfortunate that the MRCs agreement does not entitle the commission to hold jurisdiction to stop any country from building dams, he said.

The Lao government is currently building the Don Sahong and Xayaburi dams on the Mekong, despite Cambodia and Vietnam continuing to object over fears of down-river impacts.

Besides the MRC, some hoped the US-led Lower Mekong Initiative would play a role in engaging the lower Mekong community and China through the Lancang Mekong Cooperation Mechanism.

That has not happened.

The Lancang Mekong Commission is the place where the US could observe, and I think that there is opportunity for China to observe in the Lower Mekong Initiative. But so far we havent seen much in terms of hands shaking on that, said Eyler of the Stimson Center.

The Lancang Mekong Cooperation Mechanism appears to be more about development money than the health of the river, Dr. Cronin said.

China said to them [Mekong countries] under this Lancang Mekong Cooperation mechanism that actually take our money, take our investment, take our loans. Integrate your economy and infrastructure with ours. Lets not talk about the water, he said.

What all the experts concerned about the Mekong did agree on: Leadership and political will is necessary if the future of this might river is to be assured.
Afghanistan has alleged for the first time that the former leader of an outlawed Pakistani militant group, who is wanted in the United States and India, is overseeing attacks by Islamic State fighters in the war-torn country.

During a meeting between Afghan and Pakistani military officials in Kabul Tuesday, Afghan officials said currently former leader of Lashker-e-Taiba (LeT), Hafiz Saeed, is managing activities of IS in Afghanistan, according to an Afghan defense ministry statement.

Saeed is the founder of LeT and is wanted in India for allegedly plotting terrorist attacks on its soil, including the 2008 Mumbai raids that killed 166 people. The United States has a $10 million bounty for information leading to Saeed's arrest and says he has ties to al-Qaida. Pakistani authorities and the Islamist cleric have rejected the U.S. and Indian allegations against him as unfounded. Pakistan has not yet responded to the Afghan allegations implicating Saeed in IS terrorist attacks.

Saeed currently lives in Lahore in a fortified compound. Pakistani authorities have refused to detain him over his alleged terrorist ties.

The Afghan defense ministry's assertions about Saeed created confusion all day Wednesday in Pakistan, as reporters and Pakistani officials tried to determine whether Afghan officials were confusing the internationally-wanted militant leader with an IS commander who shares his same name. The head of Islamic State's local branch in Afghanistan and Pakistan,Islamic State of Khorasan Province (ISKP), is also named Hafiz Saeed Khan. He is not believed to be related to the LeT leader.

The IS militant commander is a former member of the Pakistani Taliban and reports of his death in U.S. drone strikes have regularly appeared in Afghan and regional media.

The Afghan allegations came during a high-level military meeting in Kabul Tuesday with their Pakistani counterparts, as well as NATO commanders, to discuss border security.

The Afghan side called on Islamabad to prevent IS terrorists from entering Afghanistan and harming its people, it said.

The trilateral discussions were convened to discuss issues related to border security and mutual concerns stemming from Pakistani construction activities along their 2,600 kilometer shared porous border, called the Durand Line.

"The Afghan DGMO (Director General Military Operations) shared details of the measures being taken by the Afghan government to crush Daesh (Arabic acronym for IS) and called for the Pakistan army to take similar actions against Daesh, the statement asserted.

The statement also expressed "serious concerns of Pakistani forces'" for allegedly carrying out construction and firing artillery along Afghan border areas without consulting the Afghan government.

Islamic State militants have stepped up their attacks in Afghanistan. On Saturday, three suicide bombers struck a civilian protest rally in Kabul, killing at least 80 people and wounding more than 230 others, the worst such bombing in Kabul since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion.

A website linked to IS claimed responsibility for the assault against a rally of ethnic Shi'ite Hazara community, saying it was aimed at punishing them for sending fighters to Syria to fight along side government forces battling the terror group.
By PTI: New Delhi, Jul 27 (PTI) Air Pegasus today cancelled all its scheduled flight operations, sparking concerns over the future of the regional carrier. The airline has been facing some financial issues and recently also came under the lens of aviation regulator DGCA for violating safety norms. Sources said the airline today cancelled all its scheduled flights. It could not be ascertained whether the operations have been cancelled indefinitely. Officials of Bengaluru-based Air Pegasus could not be immediately contacted. The carrier operates flights from Bengaluru to at least seven destinations in South India. It has services to Chennai, Cuddapah, Hubli, Madurai, Mangalore, Puducherry, and Trivandrum, as per latest data available with DGCA. Air Pegasus started operations in April 2015. Recently, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) suspended five pilots of Air Pegasus for serious safety violations. The regulator had also warned that the regional airline would be barred from flying new routes unless the lapses are addressed at the earliest. At that time, a senior Air Pegasus official said that it has already addressed the issues raised by the regulator. A safety audit of Air Pegasus, conducted in late April, showed serious safety violations by some of its flights. PTI IAS RAM MKJ

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Prosecutors in the eastern U.S. state of Maryland have dropped all remaining charges against Baltimore city police officers awaiting trial in the death of Freddie Gray, bringing a high-profile case that caught national attention to an abrupt end.

Gray, an African American, suffered severe spinal cord injuries in April 2015 while handcuffed and unrestrained in the back of a police van.

His death added fuel to the Black Lives Matter movement and sparked riots in Baltimore and large protests throughout the country.

At a hearing Wednesday that was to start the trial for officer Garrett Miller, prosecutor Michael Schatzow told Judge Barry Williams the state was dropping all charges against the officers yet to go to trial.

Three of the six officers charged in the case have been acquitted.

State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby said shortly after the charges were dropped that there was a reluctance and an obvious bias among some police investigators.

We do not believe Freddie Gray killed himself, she added, speaking in front of a mural of Gray in the neighborhood where he was arrested. We stand by the medical examiners determination that Freddie Grays death was a homicide, she said in the midst of shouts of support.

Gene Ryan, president of the Baltimore Fraternal Order of Police, said Justice has been done and added that remarks Mosby made about the police investigators were outrageous.

Grays mother, Gloria Darden, told reporters the officers were not truthful during the investigation. I know they lied, and they killed him.

Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake issued a statement from the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia. I recognize the emotional nature of this case. The eyes of the nation, indeed the world, have been on Baltimore for a very long time and I thank the citizens of our city for their patience during these trials.

Prosecutors maintained Gray was illegally arrested after he fled from an officer and that the six officers failed to buckle Gray into a seat belt or call for medical help when he asked for it. All of the officers, three white and three black, pleaded not guilty.

Mosby brought charges of second degree murder, manslaughter, reckless endangerment and assault after receiving findings from the police departments investigation.

Although the six Baltimore police officers have been cleared of criminal charges, Baltimores police commissioner has asked for an internal affairs review by outside agencies that could determine whether the officers can return to street duty.

The Gray case was one in a series of high-profile deaths of African American suspects at the hands of U.S. police that renewed a national debate about excessive police force against minorities.

The Justice Department began investigating allegations of widespread abuse and unlawful arrests by Baltimore police after Grays death. The results of that investigation have not been disclosed.
Malawi police have arrested a man who practices the custom of deflowering young girls who have reached puberty. It is a ritual observed in some remote southern regions of the country as a form of "cleansing." But there is concern the paid sex worker, referred to as a "hyena," may have infected girls with the virus that causes AIDS.

There are many like him in his remote village in Nsanje district in southern Malawi, but Eric Aniva is considered the best.

He is a "hyena," the traditional title given to a man paid by families to have sex with underaged girls to mark their passage from puberty to adulthood. He says he receives a fee of between four and seven dollars to "sexually cleanse" each girl.

Aniva says he has deflowered more than 100 young girls, some as young as 12 years old, during an initiation ceremony known as Kusasa Fumbi or Removing Dust. But he also admits that he is HIV-positive, a fact, he says, he has never revealed to the families that hire him, and that he does not use any protection when conducting the ritual.

The disclosure to news media prompted Malawi President Peter Mutharika to order his arrest and an investigation into others involved in the ritual. Aniva faces charges of defiling children and exposing them to HIV.

We do not have a problem with a cultural practice, which is very good to the people, but the harmful culture we have a problem with it and we are banning it," said government spokesperson, Patricia Kaliati. "That is why we have no option but to arrest this person who does not respect the rights of children but also affecting them with deadly HIV-AIDS which he has proudly announced that he is positive.



But Aniva's arrest on Tuesday has sparked heated debate among Malawians including lawyers, AIDS activists and traditional leaders.



HIV-AIDS activist David Odali told VOA ordering arrests or banning cultural practices that have existed for a long time will not help matters. He says the best option would be to modernize cultural practices that are perceived harmful to people.



If someone wants to play the role of Fisi [Hyena]; if someone wants to do widow cleansing; if someone wants to do widow inheritance, then that person should first of all go for HIV testing, Odali said.



The practice is centuries old. Parents send their young daughters to so-called "initiation camps," where they learn how to be good wives and please a man sexually. The "sexual cleansing" ritual is the last stage of the "initiation." Hyenas are also called upon to "cleanse" women who are widowed or who have had an abortion.

Traditional Authority Theresa Kachindamoto is local traditional leader who fights for the welfare and rights of young girls. She told VOA the practice traumatizes the girls.



She says first, their rights have been violated. These girls will not be happy all their lives, which is killing. ... There is no need for chiefs to tolerate cultural practices that are harmful, she says.



Constitutional lawyer Edge Kanyongolo says Mutharika's arrest order is wrong. He says the Malawi Constitution and Police Act do not give the president powers to interfere with the operation of independent agencies like the police.

Last year, Malawi banned child marriages and raised the legal age to marry from 15 to 18.



Police says Aniva is expected to appear before the court soon, he faces a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.
Eight years ago, Hillary Clinton came agonizingly close to winning the Democratic presidential nomination, garnering 18 million votes before losing to a freshman senator, Barack Obama.

At her concession speech, she cited her lifelong struggle to overcome barriers to women: Although we werent able to shatter that highest, hardest glass ceiling this time, thanks to you, its got about 18 million cracks in it  and the light is shining through like never before, filling us all with hope and the sure knowledge that the path will be a little easier next time.

This time, Clinton has secured the nomination and is hoping to shatter the ultimate glass ceiling and become president of the United States. If she wins in November, she will go from first lady to U.S. senator from New York to secretary of state to Madam President.

Opinion polls show Clinton is both beloved and despised. She is one of the most famous people in the world. Those who know her personally say she is warm and has a great sense of humor in private. Yet, she is guarded about revealing too much of her personality in public.

Some perceive Clinton as untrustworthy; she has been investigated numerous times, most recently for her use of a private email server while she was secretary of state in the Obama administrations first term.

Illinois native

Born in a middle-class Chicago suburb in 1947, Hillary Rodham Clinton has written in her 2003 autobiography of her own happy childhood. The daughter of a staunch Republican father, she says she got into politics because of her Democratic mother.

Dorothy Rodham had a very different childhood. As her daughter has recounted in campaign ads, She was abandoned by her parents at the age of 8, sent from Chicago to [Los Angeles] to live with grandparents who did not want her. But people showed her kindness, gave her a chance. Like the teacher who saw my mother had no money for food and started bringing her extra from home, whispering, You know, Dorothy, I just brought too much food today. 

As a teenager, Hillary became a young Republican. She attended Wellesley College and grew more active in politics, delivering the womens schools commencement speech in 1969.

She went on to Yale Law School, where she completed her transformation from Republican to a progressive Democrat, and met her future husband, Bill Clinton, in the library. She and Bill married in 1975, and she followed him back to his home state of Arkansas, where he was elected governor in 1978.

Smarter than Bill

The Clintons daughter, Chelsea, was born in Arkansas. And it was there that political journalist Ron Fournier first covered the Clintons. He had plenty of access to both of them in Little Rock and, later, at the White House.

Fournier said he thinks Hillary is even smarter and funnier than Bill. If he could pick one to have a drink with, it would be Hillary: Bill Clinton's very good about relating a joke, telling a joke, but she's really good about being funny in the moment. Self-deprecating humor. That laugh that drives a lot of people crazy, I actually find personally very engaging because it is very authentic, earthy. It's very contagious in person.

Bob Weiner, former White House spokesman in the Clinton administration, told VOA that Hillary Clinton is smarter at understanding a problem and coming up with a solution than either her husband or President Barack Obama. He also said shes aware she lacks something they both have: She knows that she doesn't have the charisma, and she does not have the charisma, but she's got the smarts and the governing power, which is enormous.

Bill Clinton was elected president in 1992, joking that he offered two presidents for the price of one. Bucking traditional expectations, Hillary remained active politically as first lady, fighting hard but failing to push through universal health care coverage.

Sex scandals

In the White House, persistent stories of Bill Clintons infidelities caught up with him, and lying about the Monica Lewinsky sex scandal got him impeached by the U.S. House of Representatives. He was acquitted by the Senate.

The months after the scandal were a painful time, close Clinton associate Weiner told VOA, but the marriage survived. The couple, he said, try to deal with their marital failures privately, but theyve gotten through them. ... Ive been there, and I've seen them, and they love each other.

But the public humiliation took a toll on Hillary Clinton, according to Fournier: She's changed because of a lot of the stuff that's come her way. She built up a lot of scar tissue because of the attacks that have come her way. Some of them are totally unfair.

Fighting back

Clinton fought her way back, forging her own separate political career. New Yorkers elected her to the U.S. Senate in 2000, and she was re-elected in 2006. In 2008, Obama chose her as secretary of state.

She subsequently visited 112 countries, highlighting womens rights and the power of diplomacy, dubbed soft power.

Both of the Obamas are strong supporters of Clintons campaign. During her speech at the Democratic National Convention this week, first lady Michelle Obama praised Hillary Clintons record and character:

And look, there were plenty of moments when Hillary could have decided that this work was too hard, that the price of public service was too high, that she was tired of being picked apart for how she looks or how she talks or even how she laughs. But heres the thing: What I admire most about Hillary is that she never buckles under pressure. She never takes the easy way out. And Hillary Clinton has never quit on anything in her life.

Clinton may need that toughness as she finds herself in the political fight of her life, running against celebrity businessman Donald Trump. Like Clinton, he is a world-famous but polarizing figure.

Polls show the two are locked in a tight race. Hillary Clintons life story suggests she will fight as hard as she can all the way to Election Day on November 8.
The Electoral Commission of Zambia says printed ballots to be used in the August 11 elections will arrive in Lusaka on Thursday.

ECZ officials said political party representatives would be at the airport in the capital to receive and inspect the ballots before they are transported to polling stations across the country.

The ECZ awarded a contract to the Dubai-based al-Ghurair Printing Company to prepare all ballots to be used for the presidential, legislative and local elections and a referendum. Opposition parties, including the United Party for National Development, said the printing of ballots by a company outside the continent was too expensive and could be used by the government to rig the elections. Until this year, ballots for Zambian elections were printed in South Africa.

Jack Mwiimbu, the UPNDs head of legal affairs, said the decision could undermine the integrity of the 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 ballot-printing contract.

Mwiimbu said the UPND strongly doubted that the upcoming polls would be credible. Edith Nawakwi, the leader of another opposition party, the Forum for Democracy and Development, said the ECZ decision on the ballot contract could create tension.

But ECZ officials said the presence of the representatives of the political parties and other stakeholders to monitor the printing in Dubai underscored the election bodys commitment to ensuring transparency and a credible vote.

Reuben Lifuka, former chairman of Transparency International in Zambia, said the ECZ's process had "strengthened the confidence that people have in the manner that the ballot papers have been printed. So, in general, there is a satisfaction that its been a transparent process. There are still concerns as to how the papers would be stowed and distributed thereafter. But in terms of its first phase, I think the Electoral Commission of Zambia has managed to bring a sense of transparency in the whole process.

Lifuka, noting that some Zambians had expressed concern about the cost of printing the ballots in Dubai, said the awarding of the contract went through a bidding process, which is the usual public procurement practice as required in the constitution.

Generally, the concerns for many Zambians is that we need to develop capacity locally to be able to print ballot papers," Lifuka said, "because in the last couple of elections weve opted to print ballot papers outside the country," rather than improve the capability of the Zambian government or local printers to do the work.

Lifuka said Zambians had witnessed the ECZ's efforts to improve the administration of elections.

The concern has always been where the votes are counted and the delays that accompany the votes," he said. "There has also been concern about the transportation of ballot papers of votes that have been cast from far land areas which cannot be accessed by road but can be accessed by air. And in most cases the Electoral Commission of Zambia has hired the Zambia Air Force. The air force only picked [up] electoral officials and the ballot papers; they will not carry everyone on board, and that has always been a concern, a black spot.

"However, one is also bolstered in confidence about the audit trail that is there when the ballots arrive. People can count the ballot papers that have been received, and they can do so when they have monitors at the polling stations."
A report says the youth wing of Burundis ruling party has been gang-raping women with connections to the opposition. Human Rights Watch says the rapes began after Burundis political crisis erupted last year.

Men armed with guns, knives, and sticks terrorize women at night in small towns and villages in the countryside of Burundi, according to Human Rights Watch.



Investigators found the men targeted women who they believed were married or related to anti-government supporters.



Skye Wheeler, a womens rights researcher at Human Rights Watch, says they spoke to 70 women in the Nduta refugee camp in Tanzania.



We spoke to many women, again and again weve heard stories of how members of the Imoberakure sometimes they knew them by face [and] will come to their houses at night, rape them often in front of the children and almost in every case gang-raped and often ask for the husband or beat the husband or perhaps take the husband away ," said Wheeler.

The Nduta refugee camp is one of three camps in Tanzania that host tens of thousands of Burundians who fled the country.



According to the United Nations refugee agency, more than 170 people have reported rapes in Burundi or during their flight to humanitarian officials in the two newest Tanzanian camps, Nduta and Mtendeli.



Wheeler says in some cases police officers and men dressed in uniform were involved in the violence against women.

We did find in some cases men dressed in police uniforms were part of the attackers but it's not always clear in Burundi whether this means they are actually police," said Wheeler. "However, there were other cases where women were raped in police stations or by police along the border when trying to leave the country.

VOA attempted to contact a spokesman for Burundis ruling party and the police, but phone calls went unanswered.

Local human rights activists have also accused the Imbonerakure, the ruling party's youth league, of working with the police to commit rights violations. Burundis government has denied the accusations.



Local organizations have also accused the opposition of attacking government supporters and security forces. This month unknown gunmen killed a former government minister, Hafsa Mossi, in central Bujumbura.

The political crisis in Burundi began when President Pierre Nkurunziza announced he would run for a third term, a move his critics was not allowed by the constitution and the Arusha accord that ended Burundis civil war.

Nkurunziza won that election, earning 69 percent of the vote. Talks aimed at resolving the crisis have hit a snag, and the violence goes on.
"This election is about climate change, the greatest environmental crisis facing our planet," Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders said Monday night in his speech at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia.

The differences between the parties on this issue are stark. Many Republican leaders, including presidential nominee Donald Trump, deny the scientific consensus that greenhouse gas emissions attributed to humans are warming the planet dangerously.

But the issue also has helped deepen the rift between Sanders and Hillary Clinton in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination, a rift clearly visible as the convention opened.

Despite the friction on the left and the hostility on the right, experts say climate change will not decide many votes this November. Although polls show the public is increasingly concerned about it, climate change lags far behind other issues when most voters consider whom to vote for.

Fracking fractures

In an election season defined by fractures, it's perhaps fitting that hydraulic fracturing has been a major environmental issue.

The oil and gas drilling technique known as fracking has helped make the United States the world's leading producer of oil and natural gas. Oil imports have dropped dramatically.

Electric utilities are switching from coal to less polluting natural gas as prices plummet. Greenhouse gas emissions in the United States have declined, in part because of the switch away from coal, although experts debate the size of the impact.

The U.S. State Department under Hillary Clinton encouraged other countries to pursue fracking as a "cleaner alternative to coal and a way in which they could, potentially, create a more secure energy future for themselves." The issue was especially pressing at a time when Russia cut off natural gas supplies to Europe during a dispute with Ukraine.

But fracking has become a lightning rod in the U.S. environmental community. Fracking has contaminated some drinking water supplies. Injecting fracking wastewater underground has triggered earthquakes.

Leaking methane, a greenhouse gas much more potent than carbon dioxide, threatens to undermine the relative climate benefits of natural gas. And cheap natural gas threatens to postpone the end of fossil fuel use that many scientists say is necessary to avoid catastrophic climate change.

While the scope and scale of these problems are a source of intense debate, Sanders condemned Clinton in debates for failing to endorse his proposal to ban fracking. Anti-fracking protesters joined Sanders supporters Sunday in a demonstration in Philadelphia, ahead of the opening of the convention.

Worlds apart

But come November, experts say, disappointed Sanders voters will mostly back Clinton, in part because Trump's energy and climate plans are a world apart.

Clinton has called for stricter regulations on fracking and an accelerated transition to a renewable energy economy. Her proposals to tackle climate change won her endorsements from leading environmental groups, including the Sierra Club and the League of Conservation Voters.

Trump says Clinton's policies will increase the cost of energy. He has blasted Obama administration regulations as job killers and calls for lifting restrictions on domestic energy production. The head of an oil and gas company would serve as his energy secretary, according to reports.

Trump has called climate change a hoax and said he would "cancel" the U.N. climate agreement reached in Paris last December.

Divided public

These polar opposite approaches to climate and energy reflect a deep divide among American voters.

Although polling shows that concern about climate change is at an eight-year high, Democrats are much more concerned than Republicans. In one poll, nearly three-quarters of those who lean Democratic said the issue is very or extremely important to their vote for president, compared with just one-quarter of Republican leaners. That's the largest gap among the 17 issues surveyed.

However, even for Democrats, climate change is not among their biggest concerns. Terrorism, the economy, health care and education top the list for both parties.

"A lot of people say, yes, climate change is an important part of my vote," said Jay Campbell of the Democratic polling firm Hart Research Associates. But he added that when pollsters ask people to choose from among a list of issues, "climate change almost always comes out on bottom. It cannot rival the importance of education or job creation or, for Republicans, immigration or, for Democrats, Social Security."

Even Sanders' DNC speech revealed the gap. Of the 10 items Sanders said the election is about, he listed climate change ninth.
Democrats at the partys national convention Tuesday evening embraced the Black Lives Matter campaign, welcoming to the stage a group of mothers whose children had died from gun violence or in police custody.

But the partys focus on black lives drew the ire of a police union that suggested blue lives were being disregarded. And U.S. criminal justice policies under both Democratic and Republican administrations came in for heavy criticism during a protest Tuesday afternoon in the citys streets.

Nine so-called Mothers of the Movement, whose children were killed by gun violence or in encounters with police, took the convention stage to loud cheers of black lives matter!

The women, vocal supporters of Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, fought back tears as they described how she was their preferred choice to carry on their childrens legacy.

I am here with Hillary Clinton tonight because she is a leader and a mother who is not afraid to say our childrens names, said Geneva Reed-Veal, whose daughter, Sandra Bland, died in a Texas jail cell last year.

The group includes the mothers of Trayvon Martin, the unarmed teenager shot while walking to a family friend's home in Florida in 2012, and Eric Garner, who died in 2014 after being put in a chokehold by police in New York.

Hillary Clinton has the compassion and understanding to support grieving mothers, said Sybrina Fulton, Martins mother. She has the courage to lead the fight for commonsense gun legislation. She has a plan to heal the divide that so often exists between law enforcement and the community they serve.

Spotlight on movement

The womens appearance marked one of the highest-profile moments yet for Black Lives Matter, and provided a strong contrast with Republican Party presidential nominee Donald Trump, who has repeatedly criticized the racial justice movement.

Trump has slammed Black Lives Matter protesters for dividing America, and many in his party say the group is partly to blame for the recent outbreak of shootings of police officers.

Blue Lives Matter

The killings of police have spurred a parallel movement, Blue Lives Matter, which focuses on the well-being of law enforcement officers. Some in this movement say they are offended that Democrats are highlighting the Black Lives Matter activists.

In a statement, the Philadelphia Fraternal Order of Police said it was shocked and saddened by the choice of speakers at the Democratic convention, saying organizers should have also included victims of violence against police.

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, and being on duty in blue, the statement said.

Mrs. Clinton, you should be ashamed of yourself, if that is possible, it continued.

However, some convention speakers did highlight the plight of police officers.

In a speech Tuesday, former Attorney General Eric Holder said he was profoundly aware that an attack on a police officer anywhere is an attack on our entire society.

But he also stressed that the goal of keeping officers safe is not inconsistent with ensuring that those in law enforcement treat the people they are sworn to protect with dignity, respect, and fairness.

We must commit ourselves to both goals, said Holder, who as attorney general carried out federal investigations into several police departments accused of racial discrimination.

Protesters reject Clinton, DNC

During the afternoon, a so-called Black Resistance March exposed animosity toward both political parties. A diverse group of protesters carried signs reading Hillary, Delete Yourself and Hillary Has Blood On Her Hands as they chanted slogans calling for the overthrow of the whole damn system.

Jamar James of Sicklerville, New Jersey, was carrying a red, white and blue coffin marked with the letters DNC as he marched with several hundred other protesters.

This is a coffin for the DNC, for the end of the Democratic Party, he said. Democrats pay us lip service most of the time, but I dont trust them. You cant trust the Democratic Party to do anything that isnt in the corporations best interest.

As they marched through the city, protesters carried signs displaying the names of African-Americans killed by police. At times, they erupted in chants, calling police pigs.

For people of color in this country, this is a critical moment, said Ewuare Osayande, a poet, author and activist. Because were witnessing the fact that the very electoral system is not structured to respond to our concerns.

Even under the watch of our nations first African-American president, we are witnessing the escalation or the visible recognition of police murder, and yet that administration has not been able to stop the bloodshed, he said.

Tensions over Bill Clinton

Some African-American activists have taken issue with Hillary Clintons husband, Bill Clinton, whose policies as president  from 1993 into early 2001  helped lead to rapid prison growth and extended prison sentences.

Others have been critical of Hillary Clintons 1996 reference to certain black youths as super predators, a term she has since apologized for.

But the overwhelming majority of African-Americans appear willing to support Clinton over Trump. Most polls show 89 to 90 percent of blacks backing her.

While many of the marchers said they would vote for Clinton, others said they support Green Party candidate Jill Stein. Some simply expressed disillusionment.

Richard Kossally from New York City said he sees Trump as a racist, but said he is opposed to both major parties.

Black people will suffer regardless of who wins, he said. It doesnt really matter which one is in office.
Forty-three pictures flashed across a screen at the arena in Philadelphia hosting the Democratic National Convention Tuesday night, each showing one of the men who has served as president of the United States. After President Barack Obama, the image on the screen zoomed out and then shattered into virtual pieces, revealing Hillary Clinton, the first woman to ever be nominated for president by one of the country's major political parties.

"It's been a great day and night. What an incredible honor you've given me," Clinton said.

She was appearing by video from New York and said Democrats had put the "biggest crack" yet in the so-called glass ceiling preventing women from advancing to higher jobs. Clinton spoke about the significance of the moment to any young girls who were watching.

"I may become the first woman president, but one of you is next."

Bill Clinton: She's the 'best darn change-maker'

Tuesday's main speaker in support of Clinton was her husband, Bill, who served two terms as the country's president through most of the 1990s.

He gave a thoroughly personal account beginning with how they met and going through the history of her work as a lawyer, U.S. senator and secretary of state.

"Hillary is uniquely qualified to seize the opportunities and reduce the risk we face, and she is still the best darn change-maker I have ever known," he said.

The former president also reached out to groups that have been singled out by Republican nominee Donald Trump.

"If you love this country, you're working hard, you're paying taxes, and you're obeying the law and you'd like to become a citizen, you should choose immigration reform over somebody that wants to send you back," Clinton said. "If you are a Muslim and you love America and freedom and you hate terror, stay here and help us win and make a future together."

Trump said on Twitter that his party's convention last week was more interesting and criticized Clinton, who gained a reputation as a strong speaker while in office.

"No matter what Bill Clinton says and no matter how well he says it, the phony media will exclaim it to be incredible. Highly overrated!"

Sanders closes roll call



Hillary Clinton officially secured the nomination Tuesday when her rival, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, closed the customary roll call of states by asking the convention to select her by acclamation, or unanimous vote. Clinton did the same in 2008 in support of her then-rival, Obama.

But the move by Sanders did not go over well with some of his supporters who staunchly oppose Clinton and have not accepted his calls for them to support her. Several hundred of them walked out of the convention hall and staged a sit-in protest.

Many had pieces of tape across their mouths with slogans such as "no voice." One held up a sign declaring, "This is what a stolen election looks like."

"They're representing that they have no voice in this democracy," one protestor told VOA. "They felt completely shut out. Our democracy has been taken over by corporations."

Other Sanders backers signaled they are ready to accept Clinton, especially as an alternative to Trump.

"It is a situation where she is the lesser of two evils, and it makes me sick that there is a candidate that I believe in, that I am passionate about, who represents oppressed minorities everywhere and has for his entire life, and I am denied the opportunity to stand behind him because the system was rigged from the beginning," Olivia Love-Hatlestad told VOA.

She said "under no circumstances" can Trump be elected president and that it would be an abuse of her privilege not to vote for Clinton.



WATCH: Voters react to Hillary nomination

Sanders and his supporters objected to the Democratic Party's use of superdelegates during the nomination process, which allowed party officials to back Clinton and give her the majority of delegates she needed to clinch the nomination. However, even without counting superdelegates, she won more pledged delegates than Sanders.

Many Sanders supporters also believe Clinton is too closely linked to Wall Street firms and still favors trade deals that hurt American workers, even as she has disavowed her original support for the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement.



WATCH: Voices from Day 2 of the DNC
More than 40 people have been killed and dozens of others wounded in the northeastern Syrian city of Qamishli after a massive suicide truck bombing claimed by Islamic State.

A reporter for VOA's Kurdish service, Zana Omar, was among those injured in the blast near the Turkish border.

The bombing happened around 50 meters away from my apartment, he told VOA. My wife, two children and I were wounded in the attack. My home is entirely destroyed.

He also said that some of his relatives in the neighborhood have disappeared after the bombing and that they are perhaps buried under in the rubble.

Rami Abdel Rahman of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights told Arab media the truck bomb demolished the facade of the headquarters of the Kurdish militia which controls the western part of Qamishli. The Syrian government controls another chunk of the city, including an outlying air base.

The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack through a statement published on its Aamaq news agency website, saying that it was targeting Kurdish security forces.

IS has been battling the U.S.-supported Kurdish militia, the Syrian Democratic Forces, over control of large swathes of territory in the north of Syria, including the town of Manbij, north of Aleppo.



Kurdish officials said that IS defeats elsewhere in the country have forced the group to resort to other means to remain relevant in the conflict. As Daesh [IS] is facing setbacks and defeats imposed by the Syrian Democratic Forces, it has nothing left but to carry out dirty terrorist operations against civilians in our areas, said Jowan Ibrahim, the head of the local Kurdish security agency, known as Asayish, in a video statement posted on his groups Facebook page soon after the Wednesday attack.

Nadim Shehadi of the Fares Center for Eastern Mediterranean Studies at Tufts Universitys Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy says that the attacks in Qamishli are not surprising, since the Kurdish forces are laying siege to Manbij, and that this and other IS attacks are "part of that battle."

IS has carried out numerous suicide attacks in the region and across both Syria and Iraq in recent months.

A suicide blast killed six members of the Kurdish internal security force, known as the Asayish, in April. In July, an IS suicide bomber killed at least 16 people in Hasaka.
Anna Hazare met Devendra Fadnavis and submitted a letter asking him to take immediate steps to curb the menace of alcoholism.

By Kamlesh Damodar Sutar: Anti-corruption crusader Anna Hazare today met Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis and demanded liquor prohibition in Maharashtra. Hazare blamed alcoholism as one of the major causes for the brutal rape in Kopardi, Ahmednagar.

HAZARE SUBMITS LETTER TO FADNAVIS

Hazare submitted a letter to the CM asking him to take immediate steps to curb the menace of alcoholism. "The rise in crime is mostly because of alcoholism. The accused in Kopardi rape case were drunk. There may be other reasons to it as well, but alcoholism was one of the major cause. The state government should form village level committees and empower the gram sabhas to ban sale of liquor" Hazare said while speaking to the reporters.

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MAHARASHTRA RANKS 3RD ON NUMBER OF CRIMES

NCP legislator Prakash Gajabhiye seconded Hazare's demand. "If Bihar can implement liquor ban then why not Maharashtra. Maharashtra ranks 3rd on number of crimes in the country and that is due to alcoholism. We will be raising the issue in the Upper House on Thursday", Gajbhiye said.

Prohibition is already implemented in Wardha, Gadchiroli and Chandrapur districts of Maharashtra.

Also read:

Prohibition has failed to check crime in Bihar, says Sushil Modi



--- ENDS ---
French President Francois Hollande appears as shaken as those he has tried to comfort one terror attack after another.

Following the slaying Monday by two jihadists of a beloved 86-year-old Catholic priest as he was celebrating Mass in a bucolic Norman village, the French leader insisted the war against terrorists will be waged with absolute determination. But Hollande, as well as the security services, appear to be fast losing the confidence of the French public.

Calls are mounting for tougher security measures to be imposed but Hollande and Prime Minister Manuel Valls, who was jeered earlier this month by furious mourners during a tribute to the Bastille Day terror attack victims, have offered little in the way of new, concrete proposals to prevent attacks.

"Daesh has declared war on us, Hollande said, using an Arabic name for the Islamic State terror group. We must fight this war by all means, while respecting the rule of law, he added Tuesday as he comforted relatives of the murdered priest and villagers at Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray near Rouen where two IS assailants slit the throat of Fr. Jacques Hamel in front of worshippers and nuns.

Hollandes predecessor, Nicolas Sarkozy, has dismissed the governments response to the terror attacks as being hedged in by legal niceties. Opposition lawmakers are demanding the formation of a national unity government, arguing the threat to France is so grave nothing short of the state coming together as one will suffice.

But the arguments over how to respond to Mondays terrorism, which came two weeks after a man plowed a truck into a crowd of people celebrating Bastille Day in Nice, killing 84 and injuring more than 300, are widening sharp political divisions.

And the political squabbling, along with the increasing sense among the French public of the states impotence, is adding to the risks of the emergence of vigilante retribution on immigrants, worry Hollandes advisers.

The Elysee Palace has two priorities, a Hollande adviser told VOA, to combat the terrorism and to prevent France from cracking under the stress of the attacks.

The greatest fear is of a clash between communities, he says. We must do everything to unite the French. Do we want to do what Daesh wants, undermine democracy, walk away from rule of law and deny our values? That would hand the jihadists a victory. Their whole aim is to make this into a war of religions and to set non-Muslim to attacking Muslims, driving young Muslims into their arms.

In the wake of the Normandy attack, Hollande is trying to summon the sense of unity that followed the gun attacks on restaurants and the Bataclan concert hall last November in Paris that left 130 dead.

But lawmakers say the keep steady approach is not convincing the public, who already question why the last two attacks were able to be mounted while the country is under a formal state of emergency. Skepticism is mixed with fury over the handling before the attack of the assailants. One of them, Adel Kermiche had been freed from jail just four months ago, despite being determined to join IS in Syria and making threats against churches.

German police arrested Kermiche in March 2015 in Germany trying to reach Syria and sent him back to France, where he was given conditional parole awaiting trial. That didnt stop him making a second attempt to get to Syria two months later, reaching Turkey before the Turks sent him back to France where he was detained in May 2015.

Despite prosecutors strenuous protests, he was released in March by a judge he was persuaded by Kermiches insistence that he regretted his attempts to leave for Syria and wanted to settle down and get married. He was ordered to wear an electronic tag and could only leave his home between the hours of 8.30am and 12.30am on weekdays. According to court documents, Kermiche since the age of six had shown signs of psychological problems and throughout his childhood he had been regularly hospitalized.

The head of the prison directors association, Jimmy Delliste, is scathing about the judges decision, which he dubs naive.

Terrorism detainees all behave well in jail, but they systematically lie, he says. Can we trust a man who has tried to join Daesh in Syria? I think the answer lies in the question.

He argues that even when a detainee is released and made to wear a tag, there is little response from authorities in cases of non-compliance. Once outside prison walls, there is no real control. It is about trust and we cant trust them.

French newspaper Le Figaro reported the church at Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray is suspected of having been on a list of Catholic places of worship near Paris drawn up as possible targets by Sid Ahmed Ghlam, an Algerian student arrested last year after murdering a mother-of-one during a failed attempt to attack a church in Villejuif.

In neighboring Germany, which has suffered four terror attacks in the past week, Chancellor Angela Merkel is facing mounting public criticism, too, with recriminations flying over her controversial open-door policy for refugees that critics argue has contributed to the upsurge of violence.

And as more details emerge of the background of the Syrian asylum seeker, Mohammad Daleel, who blew himself up Sunday in Ansbach, injuring more than a dozen people, criticism is turning into anger. According to IS Daleel had fought for al-Qaida in Iraq, pledged allegiance to IS in 2013, and after being wounded he left for treatment in Europe.
Israeli Army soldiers have killed a Palestinian man who had been accused of the murder of an Israeli rabbi earlier this month.

A statement released by the Israeli military said, the man, Muhammad Jabari Faqih, 29, had been hiding out in the West Bank village of Surif when police found him.

"A terrorist behind the attack in which Rabbi Michael Mark was assassinated on July 1 was killed on Tuesday night during exchanges of fire with soldiers," the military statement said.

Mark was killed and three members of his family were injured when a gunman opened fire on their car.

Violence in the Palestinian territories and Israel has killed more than 200 Palestinians and 34 Israelis since September of last year.
Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc said Tuesday that the Southeast Asian country had learned serious lessons from the recent mass fish kills in four coastal provinces  an environmental disaster that sparked rare protests nationwide.

Phuc addressed parliament after being re-elected to head the government.

The incident [caused by] Formosa serves as a serious lesson about getting and managing foreign investment projects, and it must not recur," he said, referring to Taiwan-based Formosa Plastics Corp., which admitted to causing the April 2016 die-off. "We must review large projects as well as closely monitor their environmental commitments.

Phuc, 62, made his acceptance speech nearly a month after the Taipei-headquartered corporation took full responsibility for causing millions of fish deaths with the toxic discharge from its steel plant in the central Vietnamese province of Ha Tinh.

The prime minister also mentioned the need for environmental protection in order to maintain fast and stable development. We must not develop at the destruction of environment, he said.

Nguyen Dinh Ha, a former independent parliamentary candidate, said he welcomed Phucs statements, but added that actions speak louder than words.

Vietnamese are used to many promises. We now want to see actions. Those [Vietnamese] who acted irresponsibly in the case need to be dealt with on legal terms," Ha said. "Many people must be held accountable.

The social activist also urged the newly elected parliamentarians to include the Formosa catastrophe as well as the South China Sea issue on their debate agenda.

Vo Kim Cu, member of the National Assembly Economic Committee, has been under fire for opening the door for the Taiwanese firm to begin operations in Ha Tinh when he was its party chief.

In his speech, Phuc vowed to defend Vietnams sovereignty over the South China Sea, where the country has overlapping claims with some other nations like China and the Philippines.

He also urged parties in the dispute to respect and comply with international laws, and not to complicate the situation further.
John Hinckley, the man who attempted to assassinate President Ronald Reagan 35 years ago, will be released soon from a government psychiatric hospital in Washington.

U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman said the 61-year-old Hinckley is no longer a threat to himself and others and will be allowed to live with his mother in Williamsburg, Virginia as early as August 5.

Hinckley's new living arrangement will be subject to many monitoring and psychiatric treatment conditions that could be phased out over the next year or so.

He has been confined to Saint Elizabeth's hospital and allowed extended monthly supervised visits at his mother's home.

The judge's order requires authorities to return Hinckley to Saint Elizabeth's if he violates the terms of his release.

Hinckley's case brought nationwide attention to the criminal justice system's handling of gun violence and mental illness.

In addition to wounding Reagan, Hinckley shot press secretary James Brady, a U.S. Secret Service agent and a local police officer. The shooting victims survived but Brady was paralyzed due to a gunshot to the head.

Brady, who died in 2014, spent the rest of his life pushing for more stringent gun control laws.
U.S. Vice President Joe Biden has taken the stage on the third day of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, to praise his boss, President Barack Obama, and to tout the qualifications of the party's 2016 presidential nominee, Hillary Clinton.

Biden told delegates Wednesday night that no one is more passionate about this country than Clinton. It's her life story, he said.

Obama is the featured speaker of the night, and will tell Americans why he thinks Hillary Clinton, his one-time secretary of state, should replace him in the White House when he leaves office next January.

In excerpts of remarks issued hours before his speech, the president said there has never been anyone, man or woman, more qualified than Hillary Clinton to be president.

"Nothing truly prepares you for the demands of the Oval Office. Until youve sat at that desk, you dont know what its like to manage a global crisis or send young people to war. But Hillarys been in the room; shes been part of those decisions. She knows whats at stake in the decisions our government makes for the working family, the senior citizen, the small business owner, the soldier, and the veteran. Even in the middle of crisis, she listens to people, and keeps her cool, and treats everybody with respect. And no matter how daunting the odds; no matter how much people try to knock her down, she never, ever quits."

Obama has already made one joint campaign appearance with Clinton. He plans to spend much of October rallying voters to her side in the weeks before her November 8 national contest against Republican Donald Trump, a real estate mogul seeking his first elected office.

It is a switch from 2008, when Obama defeated Clinton in a months-long race for the Democratic presidential nomination, and then named her as the country's top diplomat after he won the presidency.

In his final months as the American leader, Obama is particularly aware of his legacy and knows that Clinton, a kindred politico with similar views on fighting terrorism, immigration, health care, abortion, gay rights and climate change, would leave many of his policies in place, while Trump has pledged to almost immediately undo them.

Tough words for Trump

Obama in recent days has increasingly disparaged Trump's candidacy, but told NBC News that his election is possible. Trump, a one-time television reality show host, has edged ahead of Clinton in some national political surveys after claiming the Republican nomination last week.

"It is the nature of democracy that until those votes are cast and the American people have their say, we don't know," Obama said of Trump's chances of becoming the American leader. But Obama said that while Clinton "has put out very specific plans and programs and is telling you exactly what she's going to do," Trump has not.

"What I think is scary," Obama said, "is a president who doesn't know their stuff and doesn't seem to have an interest in learning what they don't know.

"I think if you listen to any press conference he's given, or listen to any of those debates, basic knowledge  about the world or what a nuclear triad is or where various countries are or, you know, the difference between Sunni and Shia in the Muslim world  those are things that he doesn't know and hasn't seemed to spend a lot of time trying to find out about," Obama said.

Trump, at his news conference, said Clinton has been "bought and sold 100 percent by special interests and lobbyists. It's going to be four more years of Obama, and a lot of people think that will be worse."

Bill Clintons address

On Tuesday night, Clinton's husband, former President Bill Clinton, offered an impassioned speech for her, recounting his courtship of her in the 1970s while they were in law school and family life with their daughter, Chelsea, through the past 30-plus years.

He told the convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and a national audience that his wife "is uniquely qualified to seize the opportunities and reduce the risk we face, and she is still the best darn change-maker I have ever known."

At the end of the evening, 43 pictures flashed across a screen at the convention, each showing one of the men who has served as president of the United States, along with that of Obama, the country's 44th chief executive. The screen then shattered into virtual pieces, revealing Hillary Clinton, via satellite from New York.

"It's been a great day and night," she said. "What an incredible honor you've given me." She said Democrats had put the "biggest crack" yet in the so-called glass ceiling preventing women from advancing to higher jobs. Clinton spoke about the significance of the moment to any young girls who were watching.

Hillary Clinton officially secured the nomination Tuesday when Bernie Sanders closed the customary roll call of states by asking the convention to select her by acclamation, or unanimous vote. Clinton did the same in 2008 in support of her then-rival, Obama.

But the move by Sanders did not go over well with some of his supporters, who staunchly oppose Clinton and have not accepted his calls for them to support her. Several hundred of them walked out of the convention hall and staged a sit-in protest.
The United Nations says there will be serious repercussions if U.N. peacekeepers in South Sudan failed to protect women being raped outside a U.N. protection-of-civilians site, as reported Wednesday.



Spokesman Farhan Haq, told reporters in New York, the United Nations is taking allegations that peacekeepers did not help civilians in need very seriously, and added that the commander of the U.N. mission in South Sudan is looking into the matter.



The Associated Press, citing witnesses and civilian leaders, reported South Sudanese government soldiers raped dozens of ethnic Nuer women and girls last week just outside a U.N. camp where they had sought shelter from recent fighting in the capital.



The report said that on July 17, two armed soldiers in uniform dragged away a woman who was just a few hundred meters from the U.N. camp's western gate, while armed peacekeepers on foot, in an armored vehicle and in a watchtower looked on.



One witness estimated that 30 peacekeepers from Nepalese and Chinese battalions saw the incident.



"They were seeing it . Everyone was seeing it," he said. "The woman was seriously screaming, quarreling and crying also, but there was no help. She was crying for help." He and other witnesses interviewed insisted on speaking on condition of anonymity because they feared reprisals by soldiers if identified.



The reported assaults occurred about a week after government and opposition forces clashed in Juba, forcing opposition leader Riek Machar from the city and killing hundreds of people.



President Salva Kiir has since ousted Machar as first vice president in South Sudans transitional government and replaced him with the oppositions chief peace negotiator, Taban Deng Gai. Machar told al Jazeera television Wednesday his ouster is a violation of last years peace agreement.



Machar, who has not been seen in public for more than two weeks, said he is around Juba. He said he would return to the capital when international troops are deployed to the capital.



The African Union has proposed sending an armed force to maintain peace in South Sudan, but Kiir has rejected the idea. A cease-fire declared July 13 has halted fighting in the capital, but clashes have taken place in other parts of the country.



Soldiers raped women buying food



As the cease-fire took hold in Juba, women and girls began venturing outside the U.N. camp for food.



The camp houses over 30,000 civilians who are nearly all ethnic Nuer, the same ethnicity as Machar. They fear attacks by government forces who are mostly ethnic Dinka, the same as Machar's rival, President Salva Kiir.



As the women and girls walked out of the U.N. camp, they entered an area called Checkpoint, in the shadow of a mountain on Juba's western outskirts. That stretch of road along one side of the camp saw some of the heaviest fighting and is lined with wrecked shops and burned tanks. It is now inhabited by armed men in and out of uniform.



In interviews, women described soldiers in Checkpoint allowing them to leave to buy food, but attacking them as they returned.



"When we reached Checkpoint, the soldiers come out and called the women and said, 'Stop, please, and sit down,' so we stopped and sat down, and they took one woman inside a shop," a woman said. "Four men went inside the shop and they raped the woman while we three stayed outside."



In another incident, one woman said a group of soldiers pulled two women and two underage girls from their group and gang-raped them in a shop, with more than 10 men to each victim. One girl later died, she said.



"I saw the men taking their trousers off and the ladies crying inside," said a middle-aged woman. As she spoke, she began to cry. "They said, 'This one belongs to me, this one belongs to me,'" she added.

Multiple Nuer women said soldiers threatened them because of their ethnicity or accused them of being allied with Machar. The women identified the soldiers as ethnic Dinka because of the language they spoke.

"One soldier came and he turned the gun to us. He said, 'If I kill you now, you Nuer woman, do you think there is anything that can happen to me?" one woman said. She said the soldier slapped her before another soldier intervened, allowing her to escape.

The number of rapes that took place outside the U.N. camp was unclear. The AP interviewed more than a dozen witnesses of rapes or people who spoke with victims, both one-on-one and in small groups.

The Protection Cluster, a group of aid workers that monitors violence against civilians in South Sudan, said at least two victims are known to have died as a result of their injuries. Civilian leaders in the U.N. camp have given estimates ranging from 27 to over 70 rapes from the time that women started venturing out for food. The United Nations says it received reports of dozens of cases. A South Sudanese rights group, the Community Empowerment for Progress Organization, said it is investigating 36 reported rapes.

The number of victims reporting to clinics is believed to be lower than the actual total because of the stigma in Nuer culture attached to rape.

The rape of civilians has been a near-constant in South Sudan's civil war that began in 2013, with both sides accused of using sexual assault, based on ethnicity, as a weapon of war.

VOA U.N. correspondent Margaret Besheer contributed to this report.
The U.S. State Department expressed concern Wednesday about new troop buildups that Russia has announced that it says are meant to counterbalance an increased military presence near its borders.

If true, we believe this would appear to run contrary to ongoing efforts to stop violence and to de-escalate the tensions in eastern Ukraine in line with Russias commitments [under the 2014-15 Minsk agreements], State Department spokesman John Kirby told reporters.

The remark came hours after Russias defense minister, Sergei Shoigu, told a meeting at the defense ministry in Moscow that Russia has strengthened its southwestern flank, including deployment of more air defense systems there, and placed a self-sufficient contingent of troops in disputed Crimea.

The main implications are for Ukraine, rather than the Baltic states, said Jeffrey Mankoff, deputy director of the Russia and Eurasia Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

I wouldnt make too big a deal out of this decision, Mankoff told VOA, noting that Russia has rotated forces into the southwest for a long time and has hinted at "launching a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on different occasions.

Crimean peninsula

Concerning the new contingent on the Crimean peninsula, Kirby, in response to a VOA query, reiterated that were not going to allow the borders of Europe to be withdrawn under the barrel of a gun.

The Crimean peninsula was seized from Ukraine and annexed by Russia in 2014.

Shoigu also said in the Moscow meeting, which was aired on state television, that since 2013 Russia has formed four divisions, nine brigades and 22 regiments that include two missile brigades armed with Iskander missile complexes, giving a boost in firepower to destroy the potential adversary.

This, Shoigu explained, was in response to NATOs build-up in Poland, the Baltic states and elsewhere near Russias borders.

Neither the U.S. or NATO is a threat to Russia, Kirby rebutted, saying the alliances forces are for defensive purposes only.

Some Western defense analysts have asserted that NATO needs an even more robust presence with larger and more permanent units on the alliances eastern flank for deterrence.

The issue has entered U.S. presidential politics, with Republican nominee Donald Trump questioning whether the United States would automatically come to the aid of other NATO allies, especially Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania  NATO members since 2004  if they were attacked.

The candidate, with an America First campaign theme, says other countries need to pay a larger share of the alliances defense expenses.

At a 2014 NATO summit, member states  at Germanys behest  pledged to invest at least 2 percent of their gross domestic product for defense by 2024.
The United States military has started a formal investigation into what officials are calling credible claims of civilian casualties from a U.S.-led coalition airstrike in Manbij, Syria.

Speaking to reporters from Baghdad, Col. Chris Garver said the initial U.S. assessment of allegations into civilian casualties proved the allegations are credible enough to warrant the investigation.

Syrian rights groups have claimed a coalition airstrike in Manbij on July 19 killed civilians, with the reported death toll ranging from about 10 to several dozen.

According to the U.S.-led anti-Islamic State coalition, the Syrian Arab Coalition, or SAC, called in an airstrike against IS buildings and vehicles after observing a convoy of armed IS fighters who appeared to be readying for a counterattack against SAC troops who were nearby. Only after the strike did the U.S.-led coalition receive reports from sources indicating there may have been civilians in the area.

Col. Garver said the formal investigation could include interviewing victims family members or witnesses that have spoken with rights groups and comparing that information with coalition knowledge on where and when they carried out strikes.

More allegations

The military is also assessing the credibility of a second allegation of civilian casualties, this one from a July 23 strike on a village east of Manbij.

That credibility assessment is still ongoing, Garver said. The coalition has conducted more than 520 airstrikes in support of the SAC push to reclaim Manbij from Islamic State fighters.
A Syrian asylum-seeker who blew himself up Sunday outside a German music festival in the town of Ansbach was in contact with another person who influenced the attack immediately beforehand, Bavaria's interior minister said Wednesday.

"Apparently he had direct contact with someone who had significant influence on the way the attack played out," Joachim Herrmann was quoted by the DPA news agency as saying on the sidelines of a state government meeting. "The chat ended immediately before the attack," he said.

Herrmann said it was not immediately clear whether the other person in the chat was in contact with Islamic State, where he was at the moment of the explosion, or how long the two had been in contact.

The minister revealed Monday that the attacker had made a video pledging allegiance to IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi that was found on his smartphone.

Sunday's attack was the fourth act of violence against German civilians in a week.

Attacker Mohammad Daleel died and 15 people were wounded when the bomb exploded in a wine bar Sunday night after he was not allowed to enter a nearby open-air concert because he did not have a ticket.
A former member of Somalias parliament who joined the Al-Shabab terror organization in 2010 was the man behind a suicide bombing that killed 13 people in Mogadishu Tuesday, according to the group.



"Salah Nuh Ismail known as Salah Badbado was among the braves who have carried out the attack on Halane military base," Al-Shabab said in statement on its Andalus radio station.

The bombing took place at the main entrance of Mogadishu's airport during morning rush hour Tuesday. The entrance targeted in the bombing is regularly used by employees who work at the airport and is located near U.N. and African Union (AU) buildings that connect to the airport.

A spokesman for the U.S. National Security Council, Ned Price, said Tuesday that the United States "stands squarely with Somalia and our partners in the fight against despicable acts of terrorism that seek to destabilize Somalia." He said the United States remains "committed to helping Somalia progress along a path towards peace and prosperity and the defeat of terrorist groups."

Residents in the area reported hearing two massive explosions just around 9 a.m. local time.

Suicide bomber attack



According to reports from the residents, a suicide bomber tried to drive a car packed with explosives through a Somali security check point and then detonated the explosives causing casualties.

Seconds later another car arrived and this time the suicide bomber detonated the car close to security forces and nearby African Union forces.

A security source told VOA that private security guards charged with protecting U.N. personnel outside the AU compound were also at the checkpoint at the time of the attack.

It's not yet known if any U.N. officials were preparing to leave the airport at the time of the attack. The private security detail escorts U.N. officials and vehicles outside the airport perimeter.

Security sources say attackers did not breach the perimeter of the airport which partially hosts the main Headquarters of the AU as well as foreign embassies.
Former President of India, rightly called 'The People's President' Dr APJ Abdul Kalam passed away on July 27, 2015. He succumbed to a heart attack while delivering a lecture at IIM Shillong.

By Vivek Surendran: Dr APJ Abdul Kalam passed away on July 27 last year, succumbing to a heart attack while delivering a lecture at the Indian Institute of Management, Shillong, where he was a visiting professor.

Dr Kalam breathed his last doing what he loved the most - imparting knowledge and interacting with youngsters.



Known to all as the 'Missile Man of India', also popularly called 'The People's President', Dr Kalam served as the 11th President of India from July 2002 till July 2007.

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Born to a boat owner in Tamil Nadu's Rameswaram, Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Kalam, was an average student in school but was always described by teachers as a hardworking student. He graduated in physics from St Joseph's College, then affiliated with the University of Madras, and studied aerospace engineering at the Madras Institute of Technology.

Photo Courtesy: NewsFlicks



He made his vision of India 2020 a goal for all. Dr Kalam loved students, interacting with them, answering their questions and was ever ready to travel any distance to meet them.

His impeccable work in the field of aerospace research put India on the world's space map and he was called to Delhi by late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi so she could personally felicitate him.

His words, be it the speeches/lectures he delivered or the books he penned, are inspiring to say the least.

The incredibly humble life the legend led, not only made him approachable to all, but also one of the most loved and revered Indians.



During an India Today Conclave, when the audiences were told the question and answer session with Dr Kalam will have to cut short due to time constraints, Dr Kalam quickly said, "If you have a question, send it to apj@abdulkalam.com. You will get a reply within 24 hours" - APJ Abdul Kalam."



Wherever you are, Sir, do know you still live in our hearts.



--- ENDS ---
Turkey announced the dismissal of more than 2,400 military personnel Wednesday and shut down scores of media outlets in what appeared to be a widening crackdown following the failed coup against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government.

At least one journalist was taken into custody and arrest warrants were issued for nearly 50 former members of the editorial staff of the country's largest daily, Zaman. The U.S. State Department said such moves against news media represent a "troubling trend."

State-run and private news outlets in Turkey reported 45 daily newspapers have been ordered to shut down, along with three news agencies and 16 television companies. Arrest warrants were issued earlier for 42 individual journalists, 16 of whom are already in custody.

Wednesday's developments are likely to increase concern among rights groups and Turkey's Western allies about the extent of the purge President Erdogan has ordered in the aftermath of the coup attempt on July 15-16.

Most of the newly issued arrest warrants were targeted at journalists allegedly affiliated with the U.S.-based Muslim cleric whom the Erdogan government claims was the mastermind of the attempt to overturn failed coup earlier this month.

Zaman, which was placed under state control four months ago, had been closely connected with the movement led by U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen. Since March the newspaper has taken a strongly pro-government stance in its reporting.

The crackdown on journalists comes as part of a wider purge of government officials and academic leaders following the coup, which left nearly 300 people dead.

A Turkish-American association has expressed deep concerns about events in Turkeys universities and mass suspension of faculty deans, and has urged government leaders to elevate democracy and academic freedom in the country.

In a statement posted Wednesday on its website, the Turkish-American Scientists and Scholars Association (TASSA) said it is very worried about the long-term adverse impact that recent events might have on higher education, academic freedom, and scientific advancement in Turkey. The group said it hopes normalcy is achieved very soon and that the deans are reinstated.

The scholars' reaction followed a statement by the Council of Higher Education of Turkey which said that decisions limiting the fundamental rights and liberties are made in case of state of emergency. The Council said it agrees with rectors who asked the deans to step aside temporarily, during investigations into the coup.

It is very likely most of the universities will be able to reinstate their deans back to their duties once the review process is completed, the statement said.

Turkish media reported last week that the country's higher education board demanded the resignations of 1,577 university deans, while the education ministry had fired 15,200 teachers across the country.

Authorities at the interior ministry dismissed nearly 9,000 employees, it has been reported, and the finance ministry fired 1,500 people. Hundreds more were fired in the religious affairs directorate, the family and social policy ministry and the prime minister's office.

In total, about 10,000 Turkish officials have been detained and another 50,000 have been suspended in less than two weeks.
The U.S. says it is encouraged by the willingness of China and the Philippines to engage in direct dialogue over the South China Sea following a tribunal ruling against Beijing earlier this month.

In Manila Wednesday, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry met with senior Philippine officials, including new Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte. It was the first meeting between the two leaders after The Hague ruling which China objects to.

At a joint press conference with Philippines Foreign Affairs Secretary Perfecto Yasay, Kerry said the U.S. encourages all parties, including the Chinese and the Philippines to negotiate, to work through this diplomatically, bilaterally, multilaterally, [and] build up confidence building measures.

The top U.S. diplomat said China indicated its willingness and readiness to engage in bilateral negotiation with the Philippines on Tuesday, a day after Kerry met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi.

While it is seen by some as a deviation from the U.S. position, a senior State Department official said Washington has never opposed direct talks between Beijing and Manila and a bilateral talk has always been an option.



That official stressed what the U.S. opposes is using a direct negotiation between claimants as a pre-condition.

China rejects multilateral solution



China has long said it will only settle maritime territorial disputes through bilateral negotiations, rejecting calls for any multilateral solution.



Bonnie Glaser, Director of the China Power Project at the Center for Strategic and Internatonal Studies (CSIS), told VOA that Washington has not excluded other forms of negotiations and has stressed that multilateral mechanisms should be employed as well, especially when bilateral talks prove fruitless.



Another expert saw direct talks between Beijing and Manila as a reflection of the fact that many issues between the two countries need to be settled bilaterally.



One such issue is how should China, which controls Scarborough Shoal, provide for the Philippines' traditional fishing rights in and around the shoal, which have now been recognized as legally valid, said Peter Dutton from the U.S. Naval War College.

Duterte will lead a meeting with his National Security Council later Wednesday, where his meeting with Kerry and the arbitration case on maritime disputes are expected to be on the agenda.

On Tuesday, the Philippine Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the so-called Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) which allows for a rotation of U.S. troops on Philippine bases and other enhanced military cooperation.

Yasay, heading into his meeting with Kerry, said this effectively resolves the last remaining legal hurdle as we recognize potential contribution of EDCA to the preservation of peace and stability in the region.

He added the Philippines is ready to strengthen military cooperation with the United States.

And even when there are times of tension and stress, as weve seen over the questions in the South China Sea or otherwise, Kerry told Yasay, I know we can count on you and you know you can count on us.

US supports Philippines



State Department Deputy spokesperson Mark Toner said, in Kerry's meeting with Philippine President Duterte on Wednesday, Kerry pledged U.S. willingness to provide continued assistance to the Philippine government as it works to address drug trafficking and violent extremism, and to deepen and strengthen bilateral relations across the board. The luncheon meeting was also an opportunity for Kerry to congratulate President Duterte for his election victory which he said showed the strength and vibrancy of Filipino democracy according to Toner.

A senior U.S. official said Washington and Manila are cooperating intensively not only on regional and global issues, but also in very practical issues such as law enforcement and maritime capacity building, implementation of our EDCA.



Kerrys talks with leaders of the Philippines followed his meetings in Vientiane, Laos, where regional foreign ministers gathered for the Association of Southeast Nations (ASEAN) Regional Forum and East Asia Summit.



The Philippines will be the 2017 ASEAN chair when the regional bloc celebrates its 50-year anniversary.
Hundreds of men and women who cook and serve lunches to U.S. lawmakers and their staffs will split more than $1 million in back pay after the Labor Department found they were illegally underpaid.

The Wage and Hour Division found the two companies that run the U.S. Senate cafeteria broke the law by paying employees wages lower than what they were entitled to receive for the jobs they performed, and for failing to pay overtime.

"Workers in the restaurant industry are among the lowest-paid workers in our economy," Wage and Hour Administrator David Weil said Tuesday. "Most struggle to afford life's basic expenses and pay their bills. They shouldn't have to deal with paychecks that don't accurately reflect their hard work and the wages to which they are legally entitled."

A top executive of one of the two companies accused of underpaying the workers, Restaurant Associates, blamed what he called "administrative technicalities" and said the problem would be fixed.

But the president of the other company, Personnel Plus, said it did nothing wrong and did not owe anyone "a dime in back wages."

Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid called on the Senate to refuse to do business with what he called "unscrupulous vendors" who put profits ahead of people.
A low-level government official in central Vietnam raised eyebrows after an image of him kissing the bare breast of a statue of a woman in the city of Da Lat surfaced online Tuesday.

Facing harsh criticism on social media, Phan Tuan Anh, a land office employee in Vu Quang district in central Ha Tinh province, was forced to admit to the bizarre act, which he pledged not to repeat.

In the photo, Anh is seen mounting the pedestal and kissing the legendary figure's breast with the help of another official, a colleague with whom Anh was vacationing.

A local official said Anh stole the one kiss  an act many netizens roundly condemned as offensive, immoral and uneducated  while drunk.

"A meeting has been held to find measures to deal with the fallout," said Anh's supervisor, Nguyen Thai Hoa.

Authorities have decided to reprimand Anh, a move welcomed by many who hope to prevent similar incidents in the future.

Netizen Cuong Mit went further, writing on VOAs Vietnamese Facebook page that Anh's disrespect for a cultural symbol was an offense worthy of investigation by a national cultural heritage watchdog.

The male and female gathering of statues that Anh approached portray protagonists of a Vietnamese legend in which members of different ethnic minorities fall in love but cannot marry because of tribal differences.

They killed themselves to maintain their loyalty in defiance of oppressive customs.
A coalition of Botswana civil organization has called for an end to police brutality in Zimbabwe and asked outgoing SADC chairperson, Ian Khama to intervene.

The Botswana Civil Society Solidarity Coalition for Zimbabwe says the brutal beating of ordinary Zimbabweans during recent peaceful protests should stop.

The organization's spokesperson, Tlasetso Palime says it is time Botswana president and SADC chairperson, Ian Khama to act on the unfolding Zimbabwe crisis.

"We feel that the head of SADC intervenes but obviously he cannot take an initiative own his own as SADC has other members. From our statement we hope that other states will see the need to intervene."

BOCISCOZ urges the Zimbabwe government to uphold the rule of law in the face of rising dissent where protests have been the order of the day.

The organization, which brings together trade unions, human rights organization; Ditshwanelo, Botswana Council of Churches and other Non-Governmental Organisations, says the President Robert Mugabe administration must restore the rule of law.

It calls on the government to reverse a recent import ban on certain goods which, BOCISCOZ argues, denies many Zimbabweans, particularly cross border traders, a decent living in the face of rising unemployment.

Additionally, the civil organizations say the ban is against the SADC trade protocol.

Meanwhile, Palime says it is aware that a group of Zimbabweans were recently denied the right to march to their country's embassy in Gaborone.

"Where have to find out why they were turned down and if they had followed the right procedures."

One of the concerned Zimbabweans, Mr Chris Madondo says they are taking the matter to court after the police denied them the right to march to the embassy and present a petition to Zimbabwe's ambassador to Botswana, Mr. Thomas Madingora.

"We have engaged our lawyer after we were denied permission to march."

BOCISCOZ says the situation has reached a level where SADC cannot turn a blind eye as it has implications on regional peace and stability.
Democrats at the partys national convention Tuesday evening embraced the Black Lives Matter campaign, welcoming to the stage a handful of mothers whose children had died from gun violence or in police custody.

But the partys focus on black lives drew the ire of a police union that suggested blue lives were being disregarded. And U.S. criminal justice policies under both Democratic and Republican administrations came in for heavy criticism during a protest Tuesday afternoon in the citys streets.

Seven so-called Mothers of the Movement, whose children were killed by gun violence or in encounters with police, took the convention stage to loud cheers of black lives matter!

The women, vocal supporters of Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, fought back tears as they described how she was their preferred choice to carry on their childrens legacy.

I am here with Hillary Clinton tonight because she is a leader and a mother who is not afraid to say our childrens names, said Geneva Reed-Veal, whose daughter, Sandra Bland, died in a Texas jail cell last year.

The group includes the mothers of Trayvon Martin, the unarmed teenager shot while walking to a family friend's home in Florida in 2012, and Eric Garner, who died in 2014 after being put in a chokehold by police in New York.

Hillary Clinton has the compassion and understanding to support grieving mothers, said Sybrina Fulton, Martins mother. She has the courage to lead the fight for commonsense gun legislation. She has a plan to heal the divide that so often exists between law enforcement and the community they serve.

Spotlight on movement

The womens appearance marked one of the highest-profile moments yet for Black Lives Matter, and provided a strong contrast with Republican Party presidential nominee Donald Trump, who has repeatedly criticized the racial justice movement.

Trump has slammed Black Lives Matter protesters for dividing America, and many in his party say the group is partly to blame for the recent outbreak of shootings of police officers.

Blue Lives Matter

The killings of police have spurred a parallel movement, Blue Lives Matter, which focuses on the well-being of law enforcement officers. Some in this movement say they are offended that Democrats are highlighting the Black Lives Matter activists.

In a statement, the Philadelphia Fraternal Order of Police said it was shocked and saddened by the choice of speakers at the Democratic convention, saying organizers should have also included victims of violence against police.

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, and being on duty in blue, the statement said.

Mrs. Clinton, you should be ashamed of yourself, if that is possible, it continued.

However, some convention speakers did highlight the plight of police officers.

In a speech Tuesday, former Attorney General Eric Holder said he was profoundly aware that an attack on a police officer anywhere is an attack on our entire society.

But he also stressed that the goal of keeping officers safe is not inconsistent with ensuring that those in law enforcement treat the people they are sworn to protect with dignity, respect, and fairness.

We must commit ourselves to both goals, said Holder, who as attorney general carried out federal investigations into several police departments accused of racial discrimination.

Protesters reject Clinton, DNC

During the afternoon, a so-called Black Resistance March exposed animosity toward both political parties. A diverse group of protesters carried signs reading Hillary, Delete Yourself and Hillary Has Blood On Her Hands as they chanted slogans calling for the overthrow of the whole damn system.

Jamar James of Sicklerville, New Jersey, was carrying a red, white and blue coffin marked with the letters DNC as he marched with several hundred other protesters.

This is a coffin for the DNC, for the end of the Democratic Party, he said. Democrats pay us lip service most of the time, but I dont trust them. You cant trust the Democratic Party to do anything that isnt in the corporations best interest.

As they marched through the city, protesters carried signs displaying the names of African-Americans killed by police. At times, they erupted in chants, calling police pigs.

For people of color in this country, this is a critical moment, said Ewuare Osayande, a poet, author and activist. Because were witnessing the fact that the very electoral system is not structured to respond to our concerns.

Even under the watch of our nations first African-American president, we are witnessing the escalation or the visible recognition of police murder, and yet that administration has not been able to stop the bloodshed, he said.

Tensions over Bill Clinton

Some African-American activists have taken issue with Hillary Clintons husband, Bill Clinton, whose policies as president  from 1993 into early 2001  helped lead to rapid prison growth and extended prison sentences.

Others have been critical of Hillary Clintons 1996 reference to certain black youths as super predators, a term she has since apologized for.

But the overwhelming majority of African-Americans appear willing to support Clinton over Trump. Most polls show 89 to 90 percent of blacks backing her.

While many of the marchers said they would vote for Clinton, others said they support Green Party candidate Jill Stein. Some simply expressed disillusionment.

Richard Kossally from New York City said he sees Trump as a racist, but said he is opposed to both major parties.

Black people will suffer regardless of who wins, he said. It doesnt really matter which one is in office.
University and college graduates, who are failing to get jobs, say they will stage a peaceful march next week to express their dismay over the current harsh economic situation in Zimbabwe.

Some unemployed graduates told journalists in the capital city Wednesday that they have been reduced to beggars as they cannot find formal employment in an economy that is not generating any jobs.

One of the graduates, Samuel Meso, who has Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering Degree, said it is worrying that President Robert Mugabe remains in power when most of them cannot find jobs.

Meso accused the president of running a government with allegedly corrupt ministers and other state officials, who cannot come up with policies to create jobs for graduates and other people in the country.

Howard Madya added that most Zimbabweans are expected to join the peaceful march on August 3rd.

The graduates said they have already written a letter to President Mugabe asking him to address their concerns before the march.

Another graduate, Kudzai Hove, said they posted the letter as they could not physically hand it to him.

Zimbabwe has been hit by sporadic protests with Zimbabweans expressing their disgruntlement over the Zanu PF governments promises in the run up to the 2013 general election that it would create 2.2 million jobs. The country has an estimated unemployment rate of 89 percent.

Meanwhile, some Zimbabweans calling themselves Concerned Citizens, have urged President Mugabes government to hand over power to a transitional authority in order to address the current social, economic and political crisis in the country.

Speaking at a press conference in Harare today, the group said without urgent action, the country faces a real threat of social unrest and the probable collapse of the state.The group is proposing that only a National Transitional Authority or NTA will be able to lead Zimbabwe through a period of key reforms and economic stabilization that will result in free and fair elections.

Dr. Ibbo Mandaza, an academic and a member of the group, said the National Transitional Authority may save Zimbabwe.

Another group member, Briggs Bomba, the transitional authority can be an instrument that would allow the country to move from the current deepening crisis.

He suggested that the NTA would create a conducive environment even for free and fair elections.

The group is suggesting that the National Transitional Authority should be composed of non-partisan Zimbabweans, who should ensure that Zimbabwe holds undisputed elections and the necessary reforms, needed to turn around the countrys economy.

Tsitsi Dangarembwa, an author and filmmaker, told Studio 7 that the National Transitional Authority is the only viable option Zimbabweans have.

There was no immediate reaction from state officials and the office of the president and cabinet.
In a bunker hidden deep within the Rocky Mountains, heads of state from around the globe meet to decide if the weapon should be released one more time. A military leader says that the time to strike is now. A prime minister reminds him what happened the last time the weapon was activated. Chaos and destruction rolled over the country. And strangely, farm animals went missing. Finally, the president of the United States of Goddamn America turns around in her chair and says, Do it. I love this shit.

And so, the CHAD is back.

Its time for the Men Tell All special, and Im gonna be honest: Theres not a whole lot here. The contesticles and the CHAD have a weird homoerotic fascination with each other. Luke and Chase (still, who?) get a little misty when they talk about being sent home after saying, I love you. Not a good look, JoJo. No one even addresses the fact that Christian and Ali were just the cutest, but didnt get any camera time. Vinny now has the same haircut as the other two-thirds of contesticles, and I found out its called the Flow and I hate that.

Am I done yet? No? Ugggggggh.

Host Chris welcomes us to the special by advertising things that are not the special. We get a preview of Bachelor in Paradise, and Im very disappointed that Wells is going after Ashley I. Nick Viall is going, Jubilee will be there, Jared again, and the Twins, who seem resigned to a lifetime of getting called each others names.

We get some silly little bloopers before the show really starts. The dosh khaleen of Bachelorette women gave JoJo some big panties to wear in the fantasy suite. James Tee made guacamole with his bare hands. The CHAD ate a bunch of lunch meat staring into a fire. Were off to a great start, huh?

As the contesticles sit before Host Chris, Im really stunned I could ever tell some of these guys apart. A handful of these men never even said a word on camera. How many Jameses are there? Three? James T., F., and Q.? That sounds right. We get a montage of the men dealing with all the undirected testosterone in the house. Unfortunately, they all eventually turn on each other, starting with the CHAD. That charge was famously lead by Alex. Luke sizes him up (no pun intended), and says that when some people leave the military, theyre still looking for a fight or a chance to be a hero. Alex just picked the lowest stakes to do so. Luke gets several rounds of applause for mentioning he was in the military, and Alex doesnt get anything. Alex also had a problem with Derek for being a crybaby or something. Once the CHAD left, Alex needed a new target.

Well, its finally time to bring the CHAD out, and hes accompanied by an extra dressed as a security guard. The CHAD tells the same ol story, except this time he sprinkles it with extra misogyny. Hes using the fact that he slept with Robby and Grants exes as some sort of leverage. (And he totally slept with them. No one is buying this were just friends thing.) Hes like a man who takes hostages, then immediately tries to neg the hostage negotiator. I guess the CHAD wants to show how Grant and Robby werent there for the right reasons  or that theyre unworthy partners because of the ways they broke up with their exes  but he just comes off like the villain in a very special episode of Boy Meets World.

Nick B. (Saint Nick for those who care or remember) takes his jacket off to challenge the CHAD to a fight. Im exhausted by the attention-seeking tactics of fragile men. Ive been watching the political conventions. Ive seen enough bruised male egos lately. What are we supposed to get from this? What revelations will this unearth?

The CHAD is still a jerk. Alex is still a chicken hawk lil guy. Evan is still petty and camera footage showed him trying to shove the CHAD. I guess the only revelation is that the Derek-CHAD feud started because the CHAD believed Derek moved his protein powder. The CHADs parting words before he gives up the hot seat are: I dont regret 99 percent of the things that happened. I was getting shit-talked night and day in front of 10 million people. I thought it could make them be quiet. Sometimes you choose apples when you should have chosen pickles. Sure, dude. Sure.

Its time for Luke and Chase to take their turns in the hot seat. Theyre both guys who said I love you to JoJo, and she immediately dismissed them. In Lukes case, he didnt seize the moment and did it too late. Chase was a human male who did and said things. Luke gets to talks about his military service. The producers measure the female-swoon factor in the audience to see if he would be a good Bachelor.

Its time for JoJo to come out. Luke and Chase both ask her what they could have done differently. Her answer is infuriating: I dont know why I did what I did, and it could have been a mistake, honestly, but I did me so \_()_/. JoJo. You cant say that. I know youre a grown woman who has never broken up with someone, and I dont even have the word space to deal with that, but come the ever-loving hell on. You certainly know your love language, girl. You couldnt have read like one Cosmo article about how to break up with someone?

James Tee thanks JoJo for being better than the countless women you meet on dating apps. High praise. The CHAD lets her know that Jordan is a cheater and Robby broke up with his girlfriend three days before the show. She says the CHAD isnt even worth her breath. Dont act all high and mighty now, not after you kept him on the show for weeks. All the guys give her a standing ovation after that little burn.

After another Nemacolin Resort ad, Alex apologizes for getting upset when he was eliminated and Derek asks JoJo to define the word reassurance. JoJo shares a charming anecdote about how she shaved Vinnys beard. His Big Anglooking mom shouts from the audience that she let a good man go and Vinny is still single if anyone is interested. Its the most Jersey Shore moment thats ever been on ABC.

We get one more look at JoJos amazing journey in a preview of next weeks finale. Yep, shes still torn that Jordan and Robby are both scumbags who will hurt her, but she loves them. See you next week!
After Aurangzeb, this will Arjun Kapoor's second film where he will essay a double role.

By India Today Web Desk: Arjun Kapoor will be making history by becoming the only actor in his generation to have played a double role in a feature film twice. The Aurangzeb actor is all set to repeat his act in Anees Bazmee's Mubaraka alongside uncle and veteran-actor Anil Kapoor.

This will also be the first time, Arjun Kapoor will be working with his very accomplished actor-uncle. In the film too, they will be playing the role of uncle-nephew. While, one of the Arjun Kapoors will play the nephew, the other one will be completely unrelated.



ALSO READ: Arjun Kapoor and Anushka Sharma to star together in Kaneda

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Bazmee last made Welcome Back, a sequel to his 2008-movie Welcome with Anil Kapoor and Nana Patekar reprising their roles, while John Abraham played a completely new character in the sequel. The film was a commercial success. Arjun Kapoor, on the other hand is continuing his tryst with adaptation of Chetan Bhagat novels, as he shoots Half Girlfriend.

Without a proper hit for his last three films - Finding Fanny, Tevar or Ki and Ka, Arjun Kapoor will be hoping Half Girlfriend and Mubaraka help him redeem himself as a bankable star.



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Elizabeth Banks, inspired by a certain Republican presidential nominees entrance last week at the Republican National Convention, took the stage at the Democratic National Convention shadowed by blue fog with Queens We Are the Champions blaring. And that, according to Banks, was only the beginning of their similar shticks. After taking a shot at Donald Trumps campaign finances by saying, The Trump campaign is so hard up for money, I just bought that fog machine on eBay for 30 bucks. I dont feel good about it, Banks pulled out her best Trump zinger. Some of you know me from the Hunger Games, in which I play Effie Trinket, explained Banks, a cruel, out-of-touch reality-TV star who wears insane wigs while delivering long winded speeches to a violent dystopia. So when I tuned into Cleveland last week I was like, Uh, hey, thats my act! Unfortunately the actress did not follow up this bit by introducing another Hunger Gamestype played by a certain Late Show host, who would dump both Gale and Peta for a spot at that podium.
Matt Smith and Claire Foy in The Crown. Photo: Alex Bailey/Netflix

The upcoming Netflix series The Crown aims to tell the full story of Queen Elizabeth IIs 60-plus-year reign, so naturally, one could assume that the Royal Family might be a tad bit apprehensive about seeing the life of Britains reigning monarch turned into a prestige television series, with all the conflict and emotional turmoil that implies. There is a sense that they are both very, very nervous and very, very excited, creator Peter Morgan told the Television Critics Association press tour on Wednesday. I think they dont like not having control. But I think they also understand that dealing with this subject matter with some degree of respect, even scrutiny, is a rare thing.

Morgan, who also wrote the 2006 film The Queen, claims that the production has attempted to get in contact with Buckingham Palace, but only in the most secretive of ways. Through untraceable back channels, countless approaches have been made in a way that protects both sides, he said. The Royals have long had an ambivalent relationship with Hollywood, Morgan told critics, but he hopes they keep a stiff upper lip. These are people who are used to slander, cartoon, satire, he said. These are not people used to being taken seriously. And while it might be a terrifying prospect, its the only worthwhile way to look at our recent history.
Shannon Purser. Photo: Courtesy of Shannon Purser

Spoilers ahead for season one of Stranger Things.

Since it dropped onto Netflix two weeks ago, the eight-episode 80s throwback Stranger Things has become a binge-watchable cult phenomenon. And perhaps the most beloved figure to emerge from that phenomenon is Barb, the bespectacled, responsible best friend who gets thrown to the wolves  well, technically, Upside Down world monster  so that her BFF, the ultraperfect Nancy, can get it on with a hot dude with a bouffant hairdo.

Barb is not a Nancy. Barb is the third wheel. Barb is the girl who gets put in a corner and stays there, because a Patrick Swayze type never shows up to announce that no one should put Barb in a corner. Barb is the outcast who refuses to be anyone other than who she is  if Stranger Things had been made into an actual movie in the mid-80s, she totally would have been played by a young Winona Ryder  and that is why the internet loves her. In a summer when women have been unfairly criticized for busting ghosts and seeking this nations highest office, Barb has become a symbol of the marginalized female everyone can comfortably rally around.

Of course, behind every symbol of marginalized womanhood, there is an actual woman. The woman behind Barb is actress Shannon Purser. Her role in Stranger Things is the first of her career  its literally her only IMDb credit so far  and its already thrust her into meme and fanfiction territory. Purser, who graduated from high school just two months ago, called from her home in Atlanta to talk to Vulture about what its been like to watch her character become a subject of cultural conversation, and whether Barb could reemerge if theres a second season of Stranger Things.

Since Stranger Things landed on Netflix, Barb has become an internet phenomenon. Have you been paying attention to all the social-media and traditional media attention that the character and you have been getting?

Yeah, definitely the internet buzz for Barb specifically was a lot more than I ever expected. Me and my sisters and my mom, we all gather around and look at all the fan art. Its absolutely incredible.

What has been the most interesting Barb tribute youve seen so far?

Definitely when I saw the Barb mural that somebody had created. I dont know if youve seen that one  on the wall, you know?

Yeah, I did see that.

That was really surreal. Im not sure if that was digitally edited or whatever. But the idea that somebody might have painted my face on a wall is totally crazy and surreal for me.

If Im not mistaken, this is your first role. How did you get cast as Barb?

I had grown up doing a lot of theater and really liked acting. As I got older, I fell more in love with movies and thought it would be incredible to someday be in one. So I kind of got discovered by an agency through an acting group I was with and spent a couple of years auditioning, doing the regular thing: sending in self-tapes, going in to meet casting directors, that sort of thing. Then one day I got an email about Stranger Things. I sent in a few self-tapes, and then they wanted to meet me in person, so I read for the Duffers. It went amazing. They were amazing. I love them so much. Then I booked the role. That was probably one of the craziest days of my life, for sure.

Tell me about that day. How did you get the news?

It might have been less than a day after that audition when they told me I booked the role. Which was amazing because I expected to wait at least a few days, you know, if I even got the part. I remember I went to the movie theater with my mom and we were sitting and watching a movie and I checked my email and there was an email that said I had booked the role. I just didnt even believe it was real.

Were you in the middle of watching the movie at the time?

Yeah. I know. Its probably not good social etiquette.

Well, this is a special exception.

There was nobody else in the theater and I was very excited. [Laughs.]

What movie was it?

Oh, man. I really cant remember.

Did you stay to the end or were you like, We have to get out of here and celebrate?

We didnt leave or anything. I just whispered, I got it, to my mom and then put my phone away.

How old are you, Shannon?

Im 19.

So youve had your own high-school experience. What was that experience like compared to the high school in Stranger Things?

I actually went to a very, very, very small high school, so it wasnt really a whole lot like the traditional big, public-school experience. It was actually really cool for me to be in that kind of setting because I had never seen what that was like. I just graduated high school this May. When I was shooting it, I was still in high school. It was very much walking out of one school and into another.

This was your first experience on a set. What was it like to be in that environment for the first time?

Being on set is just a unique and surreal experience, and its one I always dreamed about having. And then I had it. It was incredible to see all of the effort made by the cast and crew: the set, the costuming, the background workers. Everybody was incredibly talented and worked so hard.

I would just stand back and realize where I was and what I was doing. Id just feel like my dreams had come true, you know?

Purser as Barb. Photo: Netflix

You mentioned costumes: You get to wear some super-80s stuff. Did you have any input into what Barb was going to look like?

I had a little bit of input. There were certain things where the makeup artist or wardrobe would ask if I liked it, or how it felt, that kind of thing. Altogether I was really impressed and happy with all of their decisions. I mean, Im seeing fan responses that they loved the costumes for Barb, and I do, too. I think they turned out so great. I love the whole mom jeans and the sweaters and the stirrup pants.

In most of your scenes, youre with Natalia Dyer and the actors who play teenagers. Did you get to interact with some of the other actors, like Winona Ryder, at all?

Winona, I unfortunately didnt have any scenes with. That would have been sick because she is incredible and I grew up watching her movies and I think shes so unique and talented. I saw her around sometimes. There was a cast dinner at one point and I sat across the table from her and I was totally in shock, trying to play it cool, like this was something that happened every day. But on the inside, Im like, Wow, this woman: Edward Scissorhands, Little Women  I love her, for sure. So it was incredible to be that close to her.

In terms of being around the other cast members, I would see a lot of the kids around on set and it was amazing to get to hang out with them and talk with them. They are all as precocious and funny and sweet as they all seem to be.

Why do you think so many viewers are responding so warmly to Barb?

Its been really amazing to see how many people relate to Barb. There was this hashtag going around, #WeAreAllBarb, and its funny to me because I think, to a certain extent theres a stigma  we all want to be the popular, beautiful person who gets the cute boy or the cute girl and who gets invited to the parties. People saw Barb and saw how unapologetic she was about who she was and what she believed in and what she wanted to wear, even. I think they admired her for not wanting to please others too much, and for being an honest and loyal friend.

Everybody has had that experience where your friend drags you to a party because the person theyre crushing on is there, and you dont really want to be there but you go there with them anyway. Everybody has been a third wheel, and Barb is a wonderful, nerdy third wheel. People really relate to her and her outcast, left-out position because everybodys felt that way at some point.

So what are your plans now? Are you planning to continue acting?

I love acting, so now that Ive just gotten the opportunity to do it, I love it even more. Getting to experience it really confirms that this is my calling and what I want to do. Im still definitely pursuing acting right now, thats my dream and my No. 1 goal. I do have plans to go to college in the fall, maybe take some online classes. Well really just see where it goes from there. Im really thankful for the response that Ive gotten from this show, and I really hope it helps me get some opportunities.

I know its only been a couple of weeks since the show debuted, but is it having any kind of notable impact on your career?

Yeah, I think so. Such a big part of acting is getting your face out there and getting recognized. So Im really thankful to have gotten this kind of visibility and I think its already really started to help people see me and, you know, find someone a little bit more unique for the characters that they want.

At the end of Stranger Things, it appears that Barb is pretty dead. But, even though a second season hasnt been announced yet, Im wondering: Is there any chance Barb could be brought out of the Upside Down and return as a character?

Personally, I would love to come back as Barb. That would be incredible. Ive loved playing her and I would love to work with everybody again because its been an incredible experience. But yeah, I havent heard anything yet about a confirmed season two. I know the Duffers have talked about possible ideas and that sort of thing, but there hasnt been an official confirmation from Netflix. So were not really sure if theyre going to go forward from there. If I had the opportunity to be Barb again, I would love to be Barb. You know, its a sci-fi show. Anything can happen.

What about a Barb spinoff? I feel like that could work.

Thats so funny, because a lot of fans have mentioned, We want a Barb spinoff. One of my favorite ones was about Barb moving to New York and starting, like, an artisanal cheese shop. Which is so weird and so niche and totally something she would do. I think thats hilarious. If that happens, I would totally be down for it.

This interview has been edited and condensed.
By PTI: Dhaka, Jul 27 (PTI) A Bangladeshi-American was among the nine suspected Islamists killed in a fierce gun-battle during a raid on their hideout in Dhaka by police which claimed to have foiled a mass terror attack bid, authorities said today.

Dhaka Metropolitan Police said the suspects national ID cards and fingerprints were used to identify seven of the nine slain militants.

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Those identified are - Abdullah (23), Abu Hakim Nayeem (24), Motiur Rahman, Zobayer Hossain (22), Taj-ul-Haque Rashik (24), Akifuzzaman Khan (24) and Shehzad Rauf Arka.

Shehzad was a US passport holder, police said.

The youth, missing since February, had been a friend of dead Dhaka cafe attacker Nibras Islam, Bdnews24.com reported.

They had studied at Monash Universitys Malaysia campus.

Nibras had been staying in Jhenaidah with nine other youths in Jhenaidah.

Police suspect Shehzad had been with Nibras there.

Police said the nine terrorists were killed while one was captured alive during the operation codenamed Storm 26.

Officers believe the nine slain extremists were part of the same group that killed 22 people during an attack on an upscale Dhaka cafe on July 1 -- an attack claimed by IS.

Police said they recovered IS black flag and robes from the Dhaka hideout, but maintained that the extremists are actually members of the domestic Islamist group Jamayetul Mujahideen Bangladesh.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday said the raid was carried out on intelligence reports that the terrorists were preparing for an attack.

Dhakas police commissioner Asaduzzaman Mia had said that terrorists were "highly educated".

Bangladesh is reeling from a wave of deadly attacks by Islamist extremists.

22 people, including an Indian girl, were killed and around 30 others injured by suspected ISIS militants inside a cafe in Dhaka in the worst terror attack in Bangladesh.

The government, however, maintains that the home grown militant outfit Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen was behind the attack. PTI ZH AKJ ZH

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The ex-president told the Democratic Party convention in Philadelphia that Hillary Clinton was "the best darn change-maker I've ever met in my entire life."

By Reuters: Former President Bill Clinton portrayed his wife Hillary on Tuesday as a force for change and a longtime fighter for social justice as he made a case for her historic 2016 bid for the White House.

The ex-president told the Democratic Party convention in Philadelphia that Hillary Clinton was "the best darn change-maker I've ever met in my entire life."

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"If you were sitting where I am sitting and you have heard what I have heard at every dinner conversation, every lunch conversation, every long walk, you would say this woman has never been satisfied with the status quo in anything. She always wants to move the ball forward, that is just who she is," he said.

WATCH VIDEO HERE

HILLARY SECURED DEMOCRATIC PARTY'S 2016 NOMINATION FOR NOVEMBER ELECTION

Earlier on Tuesday, Hillary Clinton secured the Democratic Party's 2016 nomination for the November 8 election, becoming the first woman to head the ticket of a major party in US history.

Bill Clinton told the convention in a keynote speech that Hillary had been an activist for social justice since the couple's early days as law students together. He told how she gave legal aid services to poor people and went undercover to expose a segregationist school in Alabama in the 1970s.

"She's insatiably curious, she's a natural leader," he said, describing her as the Clinton family's "designated worrier" who was "born with an extra responsibility gene."

CLINTON VS TRUMP



After a tough battle with US Senator Bernie Sanders during the state-by-state nominating contests, Clinton is now the party's standard-bearer against Republican nominee Donald Trump.

President from 1993 to 2001, Bill Clinton, 69, left office with high approval ratings and is known as one of the most powerful political orators in the country.

His speech offered an unusual twist to the warm spousal endorsement of a presidential candidate traditionally given in party conventions by a wife, not a man - let alone a former president of the United States.

Hillary Clinton's nomination was a milestone in America's 240-year-old history. US women got the right to vote in 1920 after ratification of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution.

Also Read

Hillary Clinton makes history, wins US Democrats' White House nomination



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A Houston-area family therapist who planned to convert a vacant East Waco nursing home into a residential treatment center for troubled boys owes more than $47,000 in property taxes.

The La Vega Independent School District and the city of Waco filed a tax suit this week against Snugg Harbor Inc., an inactive Texas corporation that owns the shuttered nursing home at 1916 Seley Ave.

According to the lawsuit, Snugg Harbor owes $12,634.88 to the city of Waco and $23,748.44 to the school district for tax year 2015.

McLennan County has not filed suit against the corporation yet, but county tax records indicate Snugg Harbor owes a total of $11,048.62 in taxes to the county and to McLennan Community College.

Snugg Harbor owner Rosalyn Ruffin said this week that she was unaware of the lawsuit. Ruffin in 2014 proposed turning the former nursing home into a 90-bed treatment center for boys with severe mental or emotional disorders.

Ruffin said she knows the taxes, due Jan. 31, are overdue.

The same thing happened last year, she said. I intend to pay the taxes. I am just late. I was late last year and I paid them.

The 27,148-square-foot facility had a 2015 appraised value of $1.15 million, according to county tax records.

Ruffin, who lives in Katy, abandoned her quest after running into a torrent of opposition from La Vega school and Waco city officials and the facilitys neighbors. She said she hopes to sell the property but declined to list a price.

Ruffin began the licensing process for the facility with the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services but received an unpleasant welcome from a capacity crowd that attended a required public hearing at the former nursing home in July 2014.

Later in 2014, Waco City Council and the City Plan Commission both voted unanimously to reject a special permit Ruffin would have needed to operate the proposed residential treatment center.
Based on a tip-off, the Tamil Nadu cyber crime wing of the CB-CID arrested accused Siddharth Velu and his wife Priscilla, who ran their business from Sholinganallur in Chennai.

By Rohini Swamy: In yet another horrific case of child pornography, a Chennai couple has been arrested for operating a child porn website and also trying to sell videos and porn images to clients who registered with them.

Based on a tip-off, the Tamil Nadu cyber crime wing of the CB-CID arrested accused Siddharth Velu and his wife Priscilla, who ran their business from Sholinganallur in Chennai.

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The techie couple had a Bengaluru-based bank account through which they received payments. The two have been operating the websites for a couple of years and had received payments for membership which was close to Rs 2.4 crore.

According to the police, the website was managed by Velu who initially started with the porn site called cute candid.net. Later, the couple began a few more websites which was hosted by the names Indianshowgirls.com, mywife4u, indianswingtown.com and shakeela4u.com.

Velu and his wife earlier worked at a software company and were married three years ago.

They confessed to the police that they indulged in this activity to earn quick money.

A case has been registered under the IT act and charges of child pornography. As part of investigations, police have taken the duo into custody to find out more about the clients who had registered with the child porn websites.

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The states highest criminal court rejected an appeal Wednesday by McLennan County District Attorney Abel Reyna that challenged an intermediate appellate courts order reducing the bond of a capital murder defendant.

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ruling upheld an April decision by Wacos 10th Court of Appeals that reduced bond for James Ray Brossett from $5 million to $1 million.

Reynas office appealed the 10th Courts ruling, and the Court of Criminal Appeals rejected the appeal without comment or written opinion.

The legal exercise could prove moot because Brossett likely is still unable to post bond and secure his release, said one of his attorneys, Michelle Tuegel.

We respect the decisions of the Court of Criminal Appeals and the 10th Court of Appeals, and we are pleased to see the 10th Court of Appeals decision is basically going to be the final decision on the bond issue, Tuegel said. But I dont think this will result in the release of our client because he has been sitting in jail and unable to work for this period of time. Its hard to own and operate a business when you are sitting in jail.

Neither Reyna nor his first assistant, Michael Jarrett, returned phone messages left at their office Wednesday.

Brossett, of Arlington, is charged with capital murder in the July 2015 death of Laura Patschke, with whom he once had a dating relationship.

Prosecutors intend to seek the death penalty against the 49-year-old Brossett, who they said confessed to the crime.

Brossett was free at the time of Patschkes death on two bonds related to stalking and violating a protective order involving Patschke.

He also is charged with shooting Patschkes 18-year-old son, Trevor, in the arm during the early-morning incident at their home in Crawford.

Judge Matt Johnson of Wacos 54th State District Court set Brossetts bond at $5 million and declined to reduce it during a hearing in November.

Tuegel and Walter M. Reaves Jr., Brossetts other attorney, appealed Johnsons ruling.

No trial date has been set for Brossett, who had been jailed for 387 days as of Wednesday.

Tuegel said prosecutors still are waiting for the results of forensic testing, including DNA and ballistics.

At the previous bond hearing, Reyna told the court it was not by chance that Brossett drove from Arlington to Crawford that Sunday night or early Monday morning, when Trevor and his younger brother and sister had just returned to their mothers home from a holiday visit with their father. Brossett intended to kill the whole family, Reyna said.

Brossett parked his truck about a mile from Patschkes home on Bosque Ridge Boulevard and walked through the woods, Reyna said.

He got lost along the way, and it took him more than two hours to reach Patschkes house, Reyna said.

In arguing against the bond reduction, Reyna told the judge that Brossett sent Patschke more than 200 harassing text messages on the day he was freed from jail the last time.

Because of the harassment, Patschkes sons slept with loaded weapons near their beds because they were aware of Brossetts violent nature, Reyna said.

Brossett kicked open a door and went to Patschkes bedroom and fired a shot at her, Reyna said. The boys came running from their rooms with guns, and Brossett shot Trevor Patschke in the arm, Reyna said.

As their sister hid in her room, the boys fled the house, Reyna said. Brossett then returned and fired two more shots at Patschke, striking the 48-year-old at close range with his 12-gauge shotgun, Reyna said.

Brossett had a flashlight taped onto his shotgun barrel and went outside to look for the children to finish what he had started, the district attorney said.

Brossett later found the keys to Patschkes car, which he drove to where he had parked his truck, Reyna said. Brossett left her car and drove his truck to the Fort Worth area, where authorities arrested him, Reyna said.

Brossett served three years in prison after pleading guilty to assault-family violence with bodily injury in 2003 and has a 1997 conviction for violating a protective order. He has three other arrests relating to violence against women dating back to 1987, prosecutors said.
U.S. District Judge Walter S. Smith Jr., who was reprimanded and sanctioned for inappropriate sexual conduct with a former court clerk, likely will run out of criminal cases and should have fewer than 100 civil cases remaining on his docket by the end of August, federal records show.

Smiths docket is dwindling despite the fact that the beleaguered federal judge has scheduled cases in his Waco courtroom just one day a week for the past month and two days a week for several months before that.

The U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals Judicial Council reprimanded Smith in December 2015 for groping a court clerk in his office in 1998 and trying to mislead investigators about the incident.

The council stripped him from hearing new cases for a year and ordered him to undergo sensitivity training after determining he failed to grasp the seriousness of the allegations.

While Smith continues to draw his annual salary of $203,100, federal Western District of Texas officials have assigned new cases filed in Wacos federal court to U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman, who is known throughout the district as the I-35 judge because he also hears cases in Austin and San Antonio.

Smith, 75, who has been a federal judge since 1984, declined comment Tuesday through a court employee.

Smiths other responsibilities with new cases have been handled by U.S. Magistrate Jeffrey Manske and former U.S. Magistrate Dennis Green, who was called out of retirement to help fill the void left by Smith.

According to Western District reports, Smith had 157 civil cases and 18 criminal cases with 21 defendants pending at the beginning of June. He disposed of 28 civil cases in June and closed out four criminal cases with a total of four defendants.

Smith began May with 179 civil cases and 20 criminal cases with a total of 22 defendants. That month, he disposed of 22 civil cases and two criminal cases with one defendant each, according to federal records.

Court records show that Smith has presided over three criminal trials and three civil trials since January and has two criminal trials set in August and three civil trials set in September.

On average, each of the 19 U.S. district judges in the Western District, which includes Waco, Austin, San Antonio, El Paso, Midland-Odessa, Pecos and Del Rio, disposed of 21 civil cases and 31 criminal cases in May and 17 civil cases and 44 criminal cases in June.

Smith was reprimanded based on a complaint filed against him by former Dallas attorney Ty Clevenger, who now lives in New York.

Not satisfied with the penalties imposed on Smith, Clevenger appealed the councils decision in January and called on the Committee on Judicial Conduct and Disability of the Judicial Conference of the United States to review the case and recommend impeachment of Smith.

If I ever get in trouble, I hope the federal government will pay me $200,000 a year to do nothing, Clevenger said.

Two weeks ago, the judicial conduct committee remanded the case back to the 5th Circuit judicial council for further review, saying the council failed to adequately address all of Clevengers allegations, including claims that Smith made improper sexual advances to other women in his chambers.

That renewed investigation is ongoing.

I know from talking with retired law enforcement officers in Waco that the deputy marshals and federal agents cant stand Judge Smith, and for good reason, Clevenger said Tuesday. Judge Smith knows he is above the law, and he acts accordingly. How many deputy marshals or FBI agents have been found responsible for sexual misconduct and then paid almost $17,000 per month to take an extended vacation?

The committee remanded the case to the 5th Circuit council with orders to undertake additional investigation and make additional findings where appropriate and reconsider the appropriate sanction if there are additional findings.
Though the Baylor University Board of Regents continues to raise tuition, officials say the school is working to build the universitys endowment in an effort to keep tuition increases as small as possible.

At its latest meeting, the board increased undergraduate tuition by 4.25 percent, to $39,610 for the 2017-18 academic year, which the school touts as the lowest percentage increase in more than 20 years. Tuition will be $39,610, and general student fees will be $4,180 for the 2017-18 school year, for a total of $43,790.

Tuition and fees for the upcoming 2016-17 academic year are $42,006, about $2,000 more than the previous year.

Chief Operating Officer Reagan Ramsower said he expects a 4 percent tuition increase for the 2018-19 academic year.

Former President Ken Starr set a goal of raising the universitys endowment to $2 billion, which could offset tuition hikes. It sits at $1.15 billion, Ramsower said, and he still believes in Starrs goal.

We hope for about an 8 percent return on our endowment, but the last two years have been a little bit more difficult, Ramsower said. But prior to that, it was definitely attainable. It depends on market conditions in terms of the investment return.

Ramsower said about 5 percent of the endowments investment return goes to university operations, including scholarships.

Last year, Baylor received about $103 million in gifts and pledges, about $4 million less than the previous year. He said between 25 and 33 percent of that money goes to scholarships.

For the upcoming school year, Baylors $42,006 in tuition and fees is about $2,000 cheaper than Rice University and about $8,000 cheaper than Southern Methodist University. It is about $3,000 more expensive than Southwestern University and Trinity University.

Baylors guaranteed tuition option, which locks in students to a fixed price for four years instead of the yearly increases, was set at $41,060, beginning in fall 2017. This results in savings across a four-year period for students who choose the option.

When the program was restructured in the fall of 2014, 12 percent of students participated, director of cashier services J.T. Lloyd said. Last year, that number rose to 20 percent, and he said he expects the percentage to keep rising.

The idea of locking something in is appealing, Lloyd said. But when its combined with the idea of, over the course of four years, saving two to three thousand dollars, that really got peoples attention.

He said students learn about the plan as early as summer orientation before their freshman year.

Youre choosing to pay more in this first year in particular, Lloyd said. So in the event a student is not able to continue, theres a chance that they pay more and dont reap the benefit on the back end. But for most students, theyre going to be saving money over the course of four years.

Ramsower said graduating in four years is the best piece of advice he can give to incoming students and their families.

Its as straightforward as that, he said. Theres nothing more important than graduating in four years to approaching a financial situation. Bring in some Advanced Placement credit, plan to go a couple summers, take 15 hours, not 12 per semester, and graduate in four years.

Tuition & Required Fees Comparison  Texas Private Schools 2014/2015 2015/2016 2016/2017 Increase 2017/2018 Increase Baylor $38,120.00 $40,198.00 $42,006.00 4.50% $43,790.00 4.25% -guaranteed option $40,135.00 $41,728.00 $43,506.00 4.26% $45,240.00 3.99% Austin College $34,865.00 $36,255.00 $37,340.00 2.99% Rice $40,566.00 $42,283.00 $43,918.00 3.87% SMU $45,940.00 $48,190.00 $50,358.00 4.50% Southwestern $36,120.00 $37,560.00 $39,060.00 3.99% TCU $38,510.00 $40,630.00 $42,580.00 4.80% Trinity $36,214.00 $37,856.00 $39,560.00 4.50% AVERAGE $38,703.00 $40,462.00 $42,136.00 4.11% Tuition & Required Fees Comparison  Other Selected Private Schools 2014/2015 2015/2016 2016/2017 Increase 2017/2018 Increase Baylor $38,120.00 $40,198.00 $42,006.00 4.50% $43,790.00 4.25% -guaranteed option $40,135.00 $41,728.00 $43,506.00 4.26% $45,240.00 3.99% Boston $46,664.00 $48,436.00 $49,176.00 1.53% Cornell $47,286.00 $49,116.00 $50,172.00 3.25% Duke $47,488.00 $49,486.00 $51,510.00 4.09% Northeastern $43,440.00 $45,530.00 $47,653.00 4.66% Notre Dame $46,237.00 $47,929.00 $49,685.00 3.66% NYU $46,280.00 $48,280.00 $49,062.00 1.62% Pepperdine $46,440.00 $48,090.00 $49,770.00 3.49% Tulane $48,305.00 $49,638.00 $51,010.00 2.76% USC $48,347.00 $50,277.00 $52,283.00 3.99% Vanderbilt $42,768.00 $43,620.00 $44,496.00 2.01% Wake Forest $45,824.00 $47,306.00 $48,932.00 3.44% AVERAGE $46,280.00 $47,973.00 $49,481.00 3.14%
McLennan County commissioners have decided to increase during the next four years the amount of money they put away in case of an emergency.

Commissioner Will Jones cast the sole vote against the change.

County leaders spent Tuesday reviewing several aspects of the proposed fiscal year 2017 budget as they draw near the end of discussions. The proposed budget has a beginning fund balance of $32.35 million, $99.14 million in estimated revenue and $100.18 million in estimated expenses. Projected expenses include a 4.35 percent cost-of-living salary adjustment for employees, dedicating $3 million to paying down debt, and funding to cover an incentive program for the sheriffs office.

The budget also includes a plan to lower the tax rate by 1 cent per $100 of property value.

The proposed plan includes an estimated ending fund balance of $29.06 million.

The fund balance is 29.23 percent of annual expenditures, higher than the 25 percent of annual expenditures the county has maintained in recent years.

In 2013, the county adopted a policy to maintain an operating reserve for use in unanticipated, extraordinary expenditures or the loss of a major revenue source.

County Judge Scott Felton said the county has easily kept a 25 percent reserve. While he initially supported moving that figure to 33 percent, he said he would support reaching that total in increments spread across three years.

Commissioner Will Jones asked what the county is saving for.

If I could answer that, I could tell you how much to save, Felton said.

County Auditor Stan Chambers said the funds are there if the county ever were to declare an emergency budget amendment for a grave public necessity. Chambers said the county defines a balanced budget as one in which budgeted expenditures do not exceed budgeted revenues plus the prior years ending unassigned fund balance.

Felton said he wants to ensure the county never has to implement a significant bump in the tax rate in a single year.

Commissioner Ben Perry agreed and later said he doesnt want to see the domino effect caused 15 years ago, when commissioners slashed the tax rate by 4 cents. Revenue was depleted so badly that by 2013, the county adopted a rollback rate, jumping from 48.4258 cents per $100 of property value to 53.5293 cents, Perry said. The rollback rate was the highest rate the county could have adopted without triggering a possible election to approve the rate.

I dont want to see us repeat history in a negative way, Perry said.

However, Perry said, he supports an incremental increase to a 33 percent reserve, rather than making the move in one year, in case the county realizes it doesnt need that much put away.

We may be 2 percent into this and decide we got what we need, he said, adding that extra money could pay down debt.

Perry said at some point the county needs to make a significant payment on the $38 million in debt owed to the Texas County & District Retirement System.

We cant take wild swings anymore, Perry said. Large increases or decreases need to be a thing of the past.

Included in the budget is a $3 million payment toward the debt owed to Texas County & District Retirement System.

Jones said the county could better plan and budget for its needs with a comprehensive plan outlining work for facilities and roads instead of stockpiling money. He said the countys revenues have never been a problem and it has seen a decade of steadily increases.

Felton said the increase in revenues has been accompanied by a steady increase in expenses.

And a lot of it isnt in our control, Felton said, referring to unfunded state mandates.

Jones said 25 percent represents a healthy fund balance. He said the county is essentially building that fund balance on the backs of the taxpayers. The county does not need that much extra money, he said. Government should be in the business of providing services, not building an asset base, he said.

What has changed so much? What are we afraid of so much? Jones said.

Felton said he is afraid of the unknown. He said in the four years he has been on the court there have been multiple surprises and no indications those will stop.

Commissioner Kelly Snell said there were several bridge closures this year that caught everyone off-guard and will cost a lot of money to fix.

Incentive pay

Also during the meeting, commissioners were presented with written policies for the proposed countywide incentive pay and for the sheriffs office structured pay plan.

The court will vote Friday on adopting the policies separately.

Mike Dixon, a Waco attorney who represents McLennan County, said the policy drafted for the sheriffs office is intended to bring uniformity and market adjustments regarding salaries.

We have some positions that are lagging, Dixon said. Its a way to do that plus give incentive to officers for advancement in a position.

The plan takes tenure and uses it as the basis for a step adjustment pay schedule within each position, he said. The sheriff and chief deputy will not be included in the plan, according to the policy.

The pay plan applies to commissioned peace officers, investigators and jailors who are regular, full-time employees. Each step in the positions represents an increase in salary over the starting pay for that position. The pay is related to the employee in that position, not the position itself, meaning if the position is vacated, the salary for that position will return to the base pay.

Sheriffs Office Capt. Pam Whitlock and Chief Deputy David Kilcrease brought forward the request to commissioners to be included in the fiscal year 2017 budget.

The program would cost about $486,000 for 2017. Kilcrease has said the officers salaries are about 12 percent to 15 percent lower than market norms.

Dixon said while the step plan allows salaries to increase year to year, the proposed merit plan for the rest of the county employees does not carry over to the next year. Dixon reviewed a proposed policy for the plan that would put $900,000  or 2 percent of the cumulative budgeted amount for full-time employees of each department and office  into an incentive-pay line item.

There are checks and balances built in to try to assure that this is not abused and its actually used for the purpose its intended, which is to reward employees that meet or exceed expectations, as opposed to a flat, across-the-board raise, Dixon said.

The plan would allow supervisors to give employees a one-time merit payment after that employee scores high enough on a performance review.

No decision in the budget is final until the document is adopted. Commissioners plan to adopt the budget Aug. 26, and the countys fiscal year 2017 starts Oct. 1.

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Proposed 2017 budget by the numbers

52.5293 cents

Proposed tax rate per $100 property valuation

$32.35 million

Beginning fund balance

$99.14 million

Estimated revenue

$100.18 million

Estimated expenses

$29.06 million

Estimated ending fund balance

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McLennan County property tax rate history

2001  46.96 cents per $100 of property value

2002  42.86

2003  44.07

2004  44.49

2005  45.99

2006  45.19

2007  46.52

2008  46.47

2009  46.47

2010  46.4258

2011  46.4258

2012  48.4258

2013  53.5293

2014  53.5293

2015  53.5293

2016  52.5293 (proposed)

Source: McLennan County Appraisal District

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Public hearings on proposed tax rate and budget

5:30 p.m. Aug. 11 in the Commissioners Courtroom on the first floor of the McLennan County Courthouse, 501 Washington Ave.

9 a.m. Aug. 23 in the Commissioners Courtroom on the first floor of the McLennan County Courthouse, 501 Washington Ave.

Commissioners plan to adopt the budget and tax rate Aug. 26.
Twice I saw the word evangelical on the July 20 editorial page of the Tribune-Herald. Both times, as often in the media, the word was associated with right-wing politics of a fairly extreme kind. Kudos to the Tribs editor, who qualified the association referring to disgruntled Americans, especially white conservatives, many of whom imagine themselves evangelicals (italics added).

I want people to know what evangelical means and does not mean. I, for example, am theologically and spiritually an evangelical Christian and have been my whole life. Politically and economically, however, I am and have long been progressive.

Historically and theologically, there is no connection between evangelicalism and any certain political affiliation or economic orientation. Also, historically and theologically, at least since World War II, there has been and still is a difference between fundamentalism and evangelicalism. Unfortunately for many of us moderate evangelicals, many fundamentalists have manipulated the media to call them evangelicals.

I attended a mainstream, middle-of-the-road evangelical seminary in the 1970s. There I learned the differences between being evangelical and being fundamentalist. Evangelicals, for example, wholeheartedly supported the ministry of Billy Graham; fundamentalists criticized him for his strong commitments to racial integration, ecumenical cooperation and broad vision of evangelical Christianity.

I well remember the shock I felt when I first heard evangelist Jerry Falwell refer to himself and his followers as evangelicals. Falwell had been among the fundamentalist critics of Billy Graham. Then television talk show hosts like Phil Donahue began treating Falwell and his ilk as paragons of and spokesmen for American evangelicalism.

I am and always have been a proud, committed, card-carrying evangelical, but I cast my first presidential vote for liberal third-party candidate John Anderson of Illinois  yes, an evangelical. And although I could never cast a vote for him, I considered progressive Oregon Sen. Mark Hatfield, also an evangelical, a hero.

So what makes me evangelical? I believe in the inspiration of the Bible as Gods Word written. I believe every true Christian has had a born-again experience, whether they know it or not. I believe in taking the good news of Jesus Christ to the whole world through missions and evangelism. I believe Jesus atoning death on the cross is the only reason anyone can be saved. These are the hallmarks of evangelicalism; among them is no political orientation or commitment.

Let me put it this way. Even if all who call themselves evangelical should become vegetarians, vegetarianism would not become a hallmark of evangelicalism. Evangelicalism is a spiritual-theological ethos, not whatever the majority of people who imagine themselves evangelicals happen to believe or do.

The evangelical spiritual-theological ethos has deep roots in especially Protestant pietism and revivalism; it is identifiable in individuals, churches and parachurch organizations by its historical-theological hallmarks, not by self-proclaimed spokespersons who wish to hijack it for profit or political gain.

Roger E. Olson is the Foy Valentine Professor of Christian Theology and Ethics at Baylor Universitys Truett Seminary and author of many books, articles and chapters on evangelicalism, including a chapter in the recently published Columbia University Press volume The Future of Evangelicalism in America. He holds a Ph.D. in religious studies from Rice University and has been co-chair of the Evangelical Theology Group of the American Academy of Religion.
Whether in times of racial strife or racial harmony, law enforcement officials and community leaders are always justified in asking hard, uncomfortable questions about allegations of racially motivated violence. Always. As weve learned the past few years, we risk much when we assume the progress made in racial equality in decades past cant unravel  and fast.

Our community can take comfort in this much regarding the 12-year-old African-American Live Oak Classical School student who suffered rope burns around her neck during an overnight April 28 field trip to a Blanco County ranch: The right questions have been asked (and more than once), and a proper, discriminating criminal investigation has now concluded.

Yes, wildly conflicting answers  including changing recollections of the young victim  no doubt justify the Blanco County Sheriffs Office recommendation that no further action be taken in the case. As Sheriffs Office Capt. Ben Ablon puts it politely in his report: The victims story seems to have evolved some, but no evidence was revealed that indicates this was more than an accident.

As to the allegation by the attorney [of the victims mother now suing the private, Christian-oriented school for more than $3 million] that this injury was the result of a racially motivated attack, Capt. Ablon writes, there was no evidence found of any racially motivated act toward this victim by anyone at or associated with Live Oak Classical School. This was even supported by the victims statement.

Does this mean an unforgiving review of Live Oak Classical School policies isnt in order? Hardly. The school will want to reinforce not only the importance of chaperones keeping a more watchful eye on young charges, especially on field trips, but contacting parents when injuries occur, no matter how minor. Reportedly, trustees have seen to this.

Have some people overreacted in all this? If were talking about ensuring children dont pick up the racism we see more often in society these days, especially on social media, not at all  especially when it comes to African-Americans and ropes. As McLennan County Commissioner Lester Gibson, a longtime leader in our African-American community, noted at one point in this inquiry, I get itchy when I see a rope hanging loose.

On the other hand, comparing the April incident involving some youngsters to the horrific, hate-filled Jesse Washington lynching in Waco in 1916, as the attorney pressing the lawsuit has done, strikes us as pretty far-fetched, now more than ever.

Our hats off to the Blanco County Sheriffs Office not only for pursuing a potentially explosive investigation where student accounts shifted to and fro but also for demonstrating a sensitivity often neglected by law enforcement agencies: Capt. Ablon even drove up to Waco and appeared before black community leaders to answer their questions once his investigation was done.

That rare gesture demonstrates the sort of societal outreach that can restore proper respect for law enforcement in African-American communities and bolster mutual understanding among us all. While some might not be happy with the investigations outcome, its clear that investigators deference to local anxieties reinforced their scrutiny of conflicting and inconsistent testimony.

Our community also owes a debt of gratitude to the reasoned words and actions of the Fred Batts Leadership Forum, a local group that regularly discusses social and racial issues. They refused to be drawn into the heated rhetoric of out-of-town protesters seeking to make much of this incident before all facts were in and carefully weighed. While some questions remain in all this, the forum proved the quiet integrity of the leadership in its name.
Whatever your feelings about Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, this much is sure: Hes no longer presumptive. Hes the face and voice of todays Republican Party. And if he sails to victory in Novembers general election as easily as he took the nomination from veteran Republican politicians, he could remake the party and our nation in trade, immigration, foreign policy and, yes, new uses of executive power.

But if he craters, Republicans better take a long, hard look in the mirror.

Many Republicans, after all, created the toxic political environment that allowed Trump to flourish in the hard-fought primary election season. Whether it was former Texas Gov. Rick Perry toying with the idea of secession in 2009 or Sen. Ted Cruz irresponsibly pressing a government shutdown in 2013, their rhetoric and actions resonated with many disgruntled Americans, especially white conservatives, many of whom imagine themselves evangelical.

The only problem for politicians such as Perry and Cruz is that Trump does their shtick so much better than they do. He has rewritten the campaign playbook, employing brash bravado, careless ad hominem attacks (such as on POWs and the handicapped) and freewheeling promises that should have cued discerning Republicans. Those of us who have watched political campaigns over the decades have never seen anyone like Trump  not even Ronald Reagan, who understood the value of showmanship.

Yet, as Reagan knew, at some point political leaders must pull together the nation  and a good time to start is during a political convention. One wonders if Trump and his team understand this. For instance, who thought it was a good idea for campaign manager Paul Manafort to launch a blistering and needless attack on popular Ohio Gov. John Kasich, a Republican who quietly declined to endorse Trump? Ohio is one of the very few states in the nation that will decide this race.

Beyond that, there are the Trump policy stances  or the lack of them. Is it really wise to make demands of NATO that might weaken it  and as the Russians flex their muscles everywhere from Syria to Ukraine? Is it a good idea to allow Japan to become a nuclear power? And as former Texas Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson once told us, would any liberty-loving conservative want to live in a land where the federal government can round up and deport some 11.5 million people? Should we trust Trump wouldnt really neuter the First Amendment? And why should anyone trust a candidate who wont release his federal income taxes?

We can only think of that insight allegedly offered by Abraham Lincoln, the forgotten father of the Republican Party, and pray that Americans get it right in 2016: You can fool all the people some of the time and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.
ASHLAND  Weather permitting, a chip seal project will begin Aug. 2 on Highway 6, according to the Nebraska Department of Roads. Chip seal is an application of an asphalt binder to a roadway surface followed by an aggregate.

State maintenance forces will be doing a chip seal from Reference Post 331 to Reference Post 337 from Greenwood to Ashland. The work is anticipated to take three days.

One-lane traffic will occur with the use of a pilot vehicle and flaggers. Motorists should expect to see delays and are reminded to drive cautiously through highway work zones.
The latest reports of alleged transgression by Chinese PLA, may not have the red dragon to blame for. As per high-level sources in the government, India may have invited trouble this time.

A dog rests on the Indian side of the Indo-China border at Bumla, in the northeastern Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh, November 11, 2009. Reuters | Adnan Abidi

By Kamaljit Kaur Sandhu: India has often cried foul play, being a victim of an aggressive China for transgressions in Ladakh, Arunachal Pradesh and even in Uttrakhand. But the latest reports of alleged transgression by Chinese PLA, may not have the red dragon to blame for. As per high-level sources in the government, India may have invited trouble this time.

INVITING TROUBLE



It all began on July 22, when an Indian team of 19 civilians led by a Sub Divisional Magistrate (SDM) first entered into the area in Barahoti in Chamoli, Uttrakhand, an area perceived by Chinese as their territory near the line of actual control (LAC). Six Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) personnel, in civil clothes and unarmed, accompanied the Indian civilians 200 metres inside the "alleged disputed" territory.

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The Chinese PLA prevented the Indians from going further and asked them to return. But no soon did the Indian team return, the Chinese PLA came in exactly 200 metres inside. Seeing the aggressive stance, Indian side led by ITBP asked the Chinese team to return to their original position.



CHINA OFTEN INSTIGATED INDIA



But this was not an end of the aggression. China deliberately tested India's patience by sending a helicopter close to this very area. This air transgression took place three days later on July 25. The same has been reported to the central government.

The confusion over the incident started when Uttarakhand Chief Minister Harish Rawat confirmed reports of an incursion by Chinese troops in the Chamoli district of the state.

"The good thing is they (Chinese) have not touched an important canal there. This is a matter of concern. Our border has been peaceful. We have asked to increase vigilance. I am sure the central government will take cognizance of the issue," Rawat said.

Since the incident came to light, ITBP DG Krishna Chaudhary briefed the Minister of State Home Kiren Rijuju.

Playing down the incident, Rijuju said, "Nature of breach (by Chinese) is not severe. An incident at the border has occurred but it not a major breach. Both forces returned back to their previous positions."

ITBP personnel were not carrying arms as use of firearms is not allowed as per an agreed protocol in 2005 and the 2013 BDCA. China violated by entering land in uniform and arms.

Though Indian team may have acted as trigger with SDM in Uttrakhand going into the 'disputed' territory would perhaps make India's position weak in raising this specific matter with the Chinese authorities.

Now, a Chinese incursion in Uttarakhand, confirmed by state CM Harish Rawat



--- ENDS ---
Uttarakhand CM Harish Rawat said that Chinese infiltrated into Chamoli but haven't entered an important canal of the region that distributes water in the district and parts of Uttarakhand.

By India Today Web Desk: Uttarakhand Chief Minister Harish Rawat today confirmed an incursion by a helicopter belonging to China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) in his state's Chamoli district on July 19.

The chopper is reported to have hovered over the Indian airspace for nearly five minutes before it disappeared and flew back. A report on the intrusion was sent by the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) to the central government.

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"The information is true and the situation is worrisome. Our border area has been peaceful so far and since the beginning we have demanded to increase vigilance," Rawat told reporters. "The good thing is they did not touch an important canal there," he added.

The government said it is checking the matter. Minister of State for Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju told reporters, "We have to check whether this incident was intrusion or not. Only then can any action be taken."

The incident came a month after a Chinese bomber violated the Indian airspace in the Aksai Chin area near the international border in Ladakh. On June 9, another incursion by the Chinese troops into the Indian territory in Arunachal Pradesh had led to a minor scuffle and triggered tension between the two countries.

#WATCH: Uttarakhand Chief Minister Harish Rawat confirms Chinese incursion in Chamoli district.https://t.co/ouQJsSKNB6&; ANI (@ANI_news) July 27, 2016

Also Read:

How China is provoking India: 250 soldiers intrude into Arunachal, Beijing blocks India's NSG bid



Army gives more proof of Chinese incursion in Ladakh



--- ENDS ---
A couple of years ago, our intrepid Antipodean reporter, Phil Buckley, wrote a story for us about a dedicated team restoring a tired and weatherbeaten PBY Catalina in Rathmines, Australia. Rathmines Park, nestled beside Lake Macquarie in New South Wales was once home to the largest RAAF flying boat base. As such, the local community wished to commemorate their storied past, with an appropriate aircraft at the focal point of their efforts. And thus they formed the Rathmines Catalina Memorial Park Association (RCMPA). In 2013, they found PBY-5A Catalina Bu.48412 on the auction site e-Bay of all places. The aircraft had been rotting away outside for the best part of two decades at San Juan International airport in Puerto Rico. Just getting the hulk to Australia was a massive undertaking, but the team has worked miracles on a shoestring budget (please see HERE for Phil Buckleys previous report). They have saved this Catalina from almost certain scrapping, and made considerable progress since she arrived. We thought our readers would be interested to see what they have been up to since WarbirdsNews last visit.

PROGRESS TO DATE  2016 AND PEOPLE BEHIND THE CATALINA

by Phil Buckley with John Richard

Down besides the shores of Lake Macquarie, RCMPA Project Co-ordinator, Mr.Terry Woolard, oversees the volunteer team with other members  Kerry, David, Michael, Peter, Rob, Brian, Andrew, Warren, Ray, and Peter. The youngest volunteer is 60years of age and oldest is in their 80s. As of April 2016, the volunteer team is making progress across the whole aircraft, bringing a radical change from the condition in which it arrived into the warbird it has become. At the current time, the projects aims are to ensure the Catalina is fully inspected; that all corrosion is removed as best as possible; to repaint the airframe externally. In the longer term, they want to work on upgrading the internal fuselage with fit outs and restored items to WWII standard. As a team, they have made great advances.

CATALINA RESTORATION STATUS

Since arriving, the PBY has rested on a steel beam cradle. In 2016, the team added to this setup by welding on beams to widen the base. They have added vertical beams which incorporate an access walkway and support frames to erect a shade cloth over the fuselage, providing protection from sun, rain and wind for the restoration team. Nova Timber, a local timber company, has supplied all the timber needed for the walkway area which will enable better fuselage restoration access and other work to be undertaken.

FUSELAGE

The restoration team has bead-blasted, repaired and primed the Catalinas hull. Many lower sections of the hull required replacing due to corrosion. The rear, right-hand side of the fuselage has had extensive re-sheeting of corroded skin and patch repairs. The front right nose panel has also received attention, and will eventually re-acquire the bomb aimer and nose turret positions of wartime Catalinas. The cockpit instrument panel has been removed, stripped and will be restored. The cockpit canopy framing has also been removed and is under refurbishment. Unknown to many, the interior skins were originally lined with linseed oil-soaked cloth to act as corrosion barrier. A door hatch on the port side has been rebuilt but now swings forward instead of upwards for ease of access. Volunteers have put many hours of rebuild work into other hatches as well. They will clean up and internally rebuild the engineers position in wing tower too. The nose landing gear must be cleaned and then reattached. The main landing gear will receive similar treatment.

TAIL

Volunteers have removed corrosion from the tails leading edge. RAAF 11 Squadron personnel from RAAF Edinburgh, South Australia are working in their own time to overhaul the tail assembly, elevators and rudder.

WINGS

The wings are currently stored awaiting overhaul. The team sprayed them with fish oil to inhibit corrosion. The wings will require sheet metal work once restoration begins in this area. The fabric control surfaces will need cleaning, inspection and repairs where necessary. The restoration team will also pressure wash the wing interior structure, then inspect and ameliorate any issues. The wings will of course require new trailing edge fabric and paint following their structural refurbishment.

ENGINES

The starboard engine is with the RAAF in South Australia under overhaul as a cut-away display model. The port engine is with the team and has been restored to static display condition, but has the potential to reach operational status by the end of 2016. This engine will then become a ground running example used as a tourist attraction. It will need a set of shorter propeller blades for that purpose. The RCMPA is also on the lookout for two extra Pratt & Whitney R-1830s to mount back on the airframe, although they might consider using replicas if none are available economically. A high priority is finding the appropriate engine cowlings to fit back on the Catalina, as the originals did not come with the project.

PROPELLERS

Six propeller blades are now on site, including all of their logbooks. They are 1970-dated, Hamilton Standard paddle blades. A Sydney-based LAME recently checked them over and said that they could be overhauled and restored to airworthy, but at AU$10,000 RCMPA decided it was not worth the time and money for a static condition airframe. Meanwhile the blades will receive a coating of HCF-50 to prevent corrosion and remain in storage until needed.

GROWING LOCAL INTEREST TO SUPPORT THE CATALINA PROJECT AND RAAF LEGACY

The long term aim for the RCMPA is to build a suitable museum on the former RAAF base at Rathmines allowing visitors to see a static display Catalina flying boat alongside a museum exhibition covering the stations history and its subsequent post war uses. Rathmines still has some of its original 200+ 1930-1940s era building preserved on site. Some of the buildings include the former Officers Mess (now the Rathmines Bowling Club), technical workshops (in use with a church group), the cinema/hall (now a community centre), the Sergeants mess (now a music centre). The local Sea Scouts unit is using another building on site. Local recreational fishermen use the hardstand and ramps to launch their boats at weekends, but they also serve in their original purpose when the Seaplane Pilots Association holds their fly in during the Rathmines Catalina Festival.

The Catalina festival is generating more and more interest for locals and aviation enthusiasts with the air show, heritage displays, stalls, seaplanes its all making for an interesting day out for people to visit Rathmines. Each year the relatives of wartime service personnel tell more stories of their fathers or mothers experiences, or bring along items from their military service for display in the proposed museum. The big challenge that the RCMPA faces is the cost associated with building and running the museum. The proposed museum building will likely cost about AU$500,000 to plan, build and fit out. This hefty price will have to come from gifts, grants or in-kind donations from interested parties. The RCMPA hopes that State and Federal Governments might also contribute, as it will be a significant benefit to regional and national heritage, as well as a natural tourism draw.

LOOKING AHEAD  THE FUTURE

The future looks encouraging, but the RCMPA need assistance, donations and volunteers to help this tribute to Lake Macquaries WWII RAAF heritage achieve its goal. Sponsors are needed to help fund the proposed museum and the annual running costs. In addition, the RCMPA needs volunteers to help preserve the Rathmines Catalina. Anyone with sheet metal or structural repair skills are of particular interest, but all assistance will be gratefully accepted. A business plan is currently in place for the proposed museum, with a building development application in progress. Once the museum is built, it will help keep alive the rich history of Rathmines, the home base of the Catalina, as well as the people who flew and maintained the planes during the events of WWII. With more and more WWII heritage disappearing each year, it is essential that the Rathmines museum project be funded to preserve the memories of daring and sacrifice for the appreciation of generations to come.

Many thanks indeed to Phil Buckley for bringing us this report on the Rathmines Catalina!
PRESS RELEASE  The newest addition to the CAF national educational outreach program is CAF RISE ABOVE: WASP. The initiative will bring the legacy of the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) to a nationwide audience, with the inspirational story of a group of women that overcame social stigmas to serve their country with distinction.

The CAF RISE ABOVE: WASP program is centered on a dynamic film to be created by award-winning Hemlock Films. The film will combine historical footage, interviews with surviving WASP, and incredible flying scenes shot with the CAFs unparalleled collection of World War II aircraft. The film will utilize new technology that allows it to be viewed on a curved screen in an inflatable dome theater. These theaters create an environment that immerses viewers in the action, and allows them experience the exhilaration of flying an aircraft.

The program will debut in the 2017-2018 school year with selected CAF units operating the dome theaters at their airport locations as well as at museums, schools and aviation events across the country. The ultimate goal for CAF RISE ABOVE: WASP is to include all 60 CAF unit locations, and reach one million people each year.

The WASP are the spiritual grandmothers, so to speak, of pilots like myself, said Heather Penney, the National WASP Program Chair for CAF RISE ABOVE: WASP. Penney is one of our nations few female jet fighter pilots and renowned for her courageous effort to intercept United Airlines Flight 93 on Sept. 11, 2001. Im honored to be leading this program because I believe this is an important mission. When I was the only female in pilot training and again the only female in my fighter squadron, the legacy of the WASP allowed me to stand on their shoulders and serve with pride. Sharing their story will encourage the next generation of female aviators, and inspire all to rise above their own personal challenges and achieve success.

In 2011, the CAF launched its first national educational outreach program, the CAF Red Tail Squadron. This program sought to educate audiences nationwide about the Tuskegee Airmen, Americas first black military pilots and their support personnel. Since its creation the CAF RISE ABOVE Red Tail Traveling Exhibit has welcomed 200,000 visitors.

After the Red Tail Squadrons tremendous impact, we identified the WASP as another group of aviators who had to rise above the circumstance of their perceived role in society in order to contribute to the war effort. Our members at 60 CAF unit locations are eager to tell this history and bring the inspirational message of the WASP to todays young people. Said CAF President Stephan C. Brown.

The CAF is pleased to be working with other institutions that strive to honor the history of the WASP including the national WASP archive at Texas Womans University and the National WASP WWII Museum. We are proud to support the CAF RISE ABOVE: WASP project, and are excited about working with the CAF to tell the story of the WASP. We believe that the concept of bringing education to the public in an exciting and engaging way is a necessity in speaking to todays younger generations said Sandra E. Spears, Board President of The National WWII WASP Museum.

For more information about the CAF RISE ABOVE: WASP program, including ways to contribute, please visit http://www.RiseAboveWASP.org.
On the morning of July 2, a wave of panic hit actress-dancer Daisy Shah as soon as she woke up. It was the day she would be premiering on stage, a performance she had been practising for the past two months. "I did consider chickening out, but Pradeep Gupta (director) would have collapsed," she laughs.

Having played the lead opposite Salman Khan in Jai Ho (2014), followed by the erotic thriller Hate Story 3 (2015), Shah does not seem like the obvious choice to essay the role of a Lucknowi courtesan in the staged period drama, Ek Aur Begum Jaan. With her background in dance, learning Kathak over two months was not as much of an uphill climb. It was performing the dance on stage, learning the 45-page script by rote, and enunciating her dialogues in chaste Urdu that proved to be the challenge.

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"If you make a mistake while shooting a fi lm, you can always do a retake. I can't possibly ask for another chance on stage. I realised I just had to be one hundred per cent physically and mentally present at all times," admits the actress. It helped that Gupta's faith in his lead actress remained unhinged throughout the two months. "I looked lost, confused and completely out of place in the beginning, but Pradeep always believed in me," she adds.

Although she was nervous about her shortcomings, what excited Shah about the role was that she'd get the opportunity to bring the character of the cursed courtesan to stage, something that has been played out so many times on the silver screen.

"I decided not to refer to films like Umrao Jaan or Pakeezah, because I didn't want my character to lose that special Daisy flavour only I could bring," reveals the actor, who thoroughly enjoyed dressing up in costumes designed by Ashley Rebello. ON July 31 AT Rang Sharda Auditorium, Bandra Reclamation TIME 7.30 p.m.

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S&P 500 3,807.30 DOW 32,033.28 QQQ 272.87 Be Sure You Own United Parcel Service for the Right Reasons Wall Street Legend Warns Financial Reset is Coming (Ad) Biden zeroes in on economic message as campaign winds down Top 10 Horror Movie Entrepreneurs Wall Street Legend Warns Financial Reset is Coming (Ad) Auto prices finally begin to creep down from inflated highs Closing prices for crude oil, gold and other commodities Wall Street Legend Warns Financial Reset is Coming (Ad) Stocks gain ground on Wall Street, Facebook parent slumps US economy likely returned to growth last quarter

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The Delhi High Court had in June sought data from the police on maximum response time for distress calls after the Ministry of Home Affairs claimed that response time was reduced by 10 minutes.

In 75 per cent of cases, Delhi Police takes zero to five minutes to address a distress call. (File Photo/PTI)

By Poonam Sharma: The high court today pulled up the Delhi Police over the response time in addressing distress calls while questioning the use of PCR vans as ambulance.

The Delhi High Court had in June sought data from the police on maximum response time for distress calls after the Ministry of Home Affairs claimed that response time was reduced by 10 minutes.

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WHY PCR VANS BEING USED AS AMBULANCES?



"PCR vans should be used for crime detection. Why are you using them as ambulances? How can you reach a person in need?" the court asked Delhi Police counsels after it was told that PCR vans to carry injured people to hospital too.

Kejriwal wants more cops, says Delhi Police failed to provide safety to citizens



"The maximum time we take address a distress call is 37 minutes. In 75 per cent of cases, we reach the spot in zero to five minutes. In 19 per cent of cases, we take five to 10 minutes," the Delhi Police informed the court.

'GIVE DELHI POLICE'S CONTROL TO US'

Reacting to Delhi Police's statement, the AAP government's counsel appealed in the court for handing over the police force's control to it.

"The situation will change in six months if the Delhi government is given the control of the police force," the government's counsel said.

In May, a high court bench had directed the MHA to file a report on steps being taken to improve law and order in the national capital.

The bench had even expressed dissatisfaction with the quality of forensic investigation done by police, saying "most criminal cases coming to the courts involved poor forensic evidence."

Also Read:

AAP Vs Centre: Complaint filed against Delhi Deputy CM Manish Sisodia



Modi has a battalion of 'sycophants' like Pahlaj Nihalani, Smriti Irani: Tweets Kejriwal



Office of profit row: Target me, not people of Delhi, Kejriwal tells PM Modi



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Padbury Mining, its chief executive officer Garry Stokes and chairman Terry Quinn have all admitted breaching the Corporations Act as part of the company's botched $6.8 billion refinancing deal with hair growth entrepreneur Roland Bleyer.

The admissions came after dispute resolution process earlier this year.

Colourful business history: Hair growth entrepreneur Roland Bleyer.

Mr Quinn and Mr Stokes now face bans as company directors as well as fines. A hearing regarding penalties will take place on Thursday in Perth.

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission took action against the directors and company in 2015 after an investigation into the company's debt raising announcements.
The United Kingdom is looking to further cut corporate tax rates to attract foreign investment says its Secretary of State for International Trade Liam Fox.

Dr Fox is on a three day tour in the United States  his first overseas trip since being appointed under British Prime Minister Theresa May.

'The United Kingdom is open for business like never before.': Liam Fox, Secretary of State for International Trade. Credit:Getty Images

He sought to hose down concerns about Britain's planned exit from the European Union and reiterated the Prime Minister's pledge that that "Brexit means Brexit".

"There will be no backtracking. No second guessing. No second referendum," Dr Fox said in a speech at the Sage Summit in Chicago on Tuesday.
Egyptian women use a range of paraphernalia like slippers, belts, pins and utensils to beat their husbands black and blue.

By India Today Web Desk: Talking about reversal? Here's something refreshing. In Egypt, women beat their husbands black and blue.

Recent statistics by the Family Law Court in Egypt revealed that nearly 28 per cent of the women beat their husbands.

According to Sada El Balad News , 66 per cent Egyptian couples have filed for divorce or annulment. Men who suffer violence at the hands of their wives find no other option but to file lawsuits against their disobedience. Things get even more complicated because women are legally immune. The report also states that nearly 6,000 lawsuits have been filed so far.

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The same source claims that women use a range of tools to fight their husbands. These include belts, pins, knives, utensils, and that's not all!

They even sedate them with sleeping pills so these men are powerless while they batter them.

The report states that Egypt occupies the first position globally in the list of most women who assault their spouses, followed by 23 per cent in the United States, 17 per cent in the UK, and 11 per cent in India.

On the other end of the spectrum is the 2013 report on Egypt by Amnesty International which shows that 47 per cent women have experienced domestic violence and 37 per cent conceded that men justified beating their spouses.

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Tolstoy wrote of "epidemic suggestion" to describe those moments when humanity seems to be gripped by a kind of mass hypnosis that no force can counter. The resulting movements, like the Crusades or the 17th-century Dutch tulip craze, cannot be controlled. We find ourselves in such a moment.

To imagine that the words I write, or those of countless others lamenting the world's lurch toward the politics of violence, may stem this "epidemic suggestion" is to indulge in fantasy. It is part of the infernal nature of such eruptions that everything feeds them, including outrage. The slouching beast is insatiable.

Election-era street art in Lithuania purports to show the extent of the special relationship between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump. Credit:AP

Warnings of danger are just the self-important whining of those in whose favour the decadent, soon-to-be-destroyed system has been rigged. The movement is the answer. Mendacity is the new truth. Choreography is stronger than content. The world is upside-down.

Writing into such an environment is like directing a canoe into a gale. Still, here goes, while words still have some meaning.
It is time to dispense with a relic lingering at the core of our economy: the male breadwinner.

He's been surprisingly resilient in the face of sweeping change. Even though women have marched boldly into the paid workforce over the past four decades, fathers still tend to be primary breadwinners and mothers secondary earners.

Australia has very high ratio of part-time work compared with its peers and women hold nearly three-quarters of all those jobs. That's helped create the 1.5 worker household  with a full-time dad and part-time mum  which has become one of the bedrocks of modern Australia.

There's evidence the Aussie version is more potent than in similar economies, where a dual-earner model is becoming the norm. A recent study led by the University of Queensland's Professor Janeen Baxter concluded Australia has a "much stronger" male breadwinner culture than many other comparable nations, including the US.
Government ministers appear split on whether to support Kevin Rudd's bid to become UN secretary-general, as Labor's foreign affairs spokeswoman Penny Wong challenges Malcolm Turnbull to stand up to conservative MPs.

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop is expected to argue for Mr Rudd's nomination in cabinet on Thursday, but senior ministers including Scott Morrison, Peter Dutton and Greg Hunt have questioned his suitability for the role in recent days.

Lobbying is well underway to select the replacement for Ban Ki-moon before his term as secretary-general ends in December.

Mr Rudd's nomination has already been delayed as other candidates began declaring their interests as early as January.
ALP President Mark Butler with Senator Kim Carr at the ALP National Conference in July 2015. Credit:Andrew Meares Carr's colleagues on the left were unhappy, but what happened next turned them red with rage. Interviewed on Sky News, Carr said: "Tanya spoke very strongly in support of the shadow cabinet position at various meetings I attended. Kim Carr rallies with steel workers in Whyalla. Credit:Louis Mayfield, Whyalla News "I don't discuss the proceedings of the shadow cabinet but clearly it was my view that you should demonstrate the same attitudes that you take in shadow cabinet in the party as a whole."

The comment was widely interpreted as Carr breaching cabinet confidence and accusing Plibersek of being "two faced" on the issue. Opposition Leader Bill Shorten and Senator Kim Carr during the ALP National Conference in July 2015. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen "Everyone was trying to play nice and manage a difficult debate then Kim went and trashed Tanya," a Labor Left MP says. "That was noticed at the time and a lot of people remembered it later." Never short of enemies, Carr's factional colleagues were determined to vanquish him at the next chance. That opportunity came last week and they made their move. Senator Kim Carr comments on the automotive industry during a press conference at Parliament House in October 2013. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

"This is not about policy: it's f---ing personal," a Labor veteran says. The push threatened to trigger a new round of Labor destabilisation following three years of remarkable unity. It looked like Carr was done for. Pretty much anyone else would have been. But, thanks to some fancy footwork by Carr and a decisive intervention by Shorten, he remains in shadow cabinet. "He is the ultimate political survivor," Nicholas Reece, former state secretary of the Victorian Labor Party, says. "Other people come and go, careers rise and fall, alliances shift. But Kim Carr survives and even prospers."

An imposing figure with a sizeable stomach and a bellowing voice, Carr has been a powerful force for over two decades. Variously described as "ruthless", "calculating" and a "headkicker", he has helped make and unmake prime ministers. He has had significant influence on policy. Yet he has managed to hide in plain sight, his career never examined in depth. Humble origins While most politicians emphasise their humble origins, Carr can lay genuine claim to being a battler. His boilermaker father never owned his own home, moving regularly between rental accommodation. At one stage, the Carrs lived in a caravan park in Gladstone with other struggling families. "Services were inadequate and there was drinking, alcohol and violence," he later wrote.

"A kid got to see life at its most raw there." At Moreland High School, a history teacher fuelled his interest in politics by slipping him copies of socialist literature to read at home. While Stalin and Marx's views are out of vogue, Carr wear his socialist values with pride to this day. While other people say "mate", he says "comrade". The walls of his Parliament House office are decorated with paintings by the Communist artist Noel Counihan. His three-piece suits, which give him the appearance of a mafia boss, are all made in Melbourne  a symbol of his commitment to local manufacturing.

After studying at the University of Melbourne, Carr became a history teacher and local branch president of the Victorian technical teachers union. Following stints as a policy adviser for the Victorian state governments, he entered the Senate in 1993, already a master of the dark factional arts. Anthony Albanese, an ambitious left-winger from Sydney, joined Parliament three years later. The pair soon developed a rivalry that lasts until today. One former colleague describes their relationship as one of "brutal antipathy". Drawing on different power bases in NSW and Victoria, the pair were competing for power on the left. And while Albanese was a solid supporter of Kim Beazley, Carr backed challenges against him by Simon Crean and Mark Latham. In 2006 Carr cultivated an alliance between Julia Gillard and Kevin Rudd, convincing them they should join forces to depose Beazley.

In government he supported Gillard's leadership challenge before later becoming a leading agitator for Rudd. "Shorten is the first leader he hasn't ratted on," a colleague says. Gillard dumped Carr from cabinet after many colleagues concluded he had been leaking damaging stories to the media. Carr, who declined to be interviewed for this article, has denied this charge. Carr's rivalry with Albanese deepened during his leadership battle with Shorten in 2013. After winning the vote among Labor members, Albanese would have become leader if left-wing MPs locked in behind him. A furious Albanese has told colleagues Carr promised him his support only to vote for Shorten and encourage his allies to do the same. Carr denies reneging on any deal.

Laurie Ferguson, a left-wing Labor MP who retired at at this election, says the move against Carr was clear "payback" from Albanese and his allies. "I'm not Kim's best friend and he has zig-zagged all over the place on leadership, but on ability he should be there on the frontbench," he says. There's no doubt Carr knows his policy terrain  higher education, industry and science  inside out. Public servants at Senate hearings can look terrified as he badgers them about university regulations or a piece of scientific infrastructure. "It is hard to think of another politician who has been operating in a policy area for as long as Kim Carr," Nicholas Reece says. "While many people differ with his prescriptions nobody questions his career-long commitment to these policy domains." Others are less kind.

"It's all about throwing money at dying industries," a former cabinet colleague says. "You know Kim's position on anything before he's opened his mouth." War avoided The Labor party frontbench is usually decided like this: the Left meets and decides their names, the Right does the same, then the leader allocates the portfolios. This time the Left had decided Carr would not be included in their 14 names. Albanese, Plibersek, Wong, Mark Butler, Jenny Macklin, Catherine King, virtually the entire faction was against him. "This wasn't just Albo against Kim  it was everyone against Kim," one MP says.

"Everyone has been burnt by him," says another. "Last week his peers said, 'Enough, we've had it.'" But Carr understood the numbers. With just three supporters he could form a new faction and claim a quota for a frontbench position. The Right, led by Shorten, agreed to recognise Carr's breakaway group. He had survived again, albeit bloodied. Albanese told the caucus meeting people show their true character not in victory but defeat - a clear rebuke to Carr's actions. Almost a week on, many on the Left are still angry and frustrated that Shorten defied their wishes for Carr to be dumped. On the Right it's a different emotion.
Julia Gillard has compared the abuse she faced as Australia's first female prime minister with opposition to US presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, imploring voters to call out sexism in politics.

Writing in the New York Times from the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, Ms Gillard likened radio host Alan Jones' calls for her to be placed in a chaff bag and taken out to sea with calls from supporters of Republican nominee Donald Trump for Mrs Clinton to face a firing squad.

Mrs Clinton became the first female nominee of a major party in the United States on Wednesday and will accept the Democratic nomination formally on Thursday.

After speaking at a forum on women and leadership this week, Ms Gillard said Mrs Clinton was "the most qualified and prepared presidential candidate the United States has ever seen" and suggested she needed no advice from a former Australian prime minister.
Lawyers who have battled for Aboriginal rights for decades fear the Northern Territory government is manoeuvring to play a central role in the royal commission into youth detention.

They believe the laxity, corruption and easy acceptance of brutal prison treatment of the Darwin administration has made cruelty to Aborigines a new part of the Northern Territory brand.

Northern Territory Chief Minister Adam Giles. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

The Four Corners footage that exposed the treatment of young Aboriginal boys at Darwin and Alice Springs youth detention centres on Wednesday caused a tsunami of calls for Adam Giles' Liberal Country Party government to be dismissed.

"How we treat Aboriginal men, women and children in jail is the first thing people will now think of when it comes to the territory. Right up there with crocodiles and cyclones," said Darwin-based barrister John Lawrence.
Disagreement continues to flourish within the Turnbull government about a plebiscite on same-sex marriage, with the newly-appointed Minister for Small Business, Michael McCormack, questioning the point of a non-binding public vote.

The Nationals MP for Riverina told Fairfax Media that while he maintains his "steadfast" opposition to marriage equality itself, he would respect the national verdict when it came to a vote in Parliament.

"If the Parliament doesn't uphold the will of the people - having asked the people what they want - then I can't see the need for the plebiscite to occur," Mr McCormack said.

It followed an interview with his local Fairfax newspaper in which the minister suggested there was no point holding a plebiscite if his parliamentary colleagues ignored the result.
Future Super was founded by Simon Sheikh, the former national director of GetUp. "While some super funds are not investing in coal mining companies, they are [still] investing in the banks who provide finance to them," says the 34-year-old midwife from Melbourne. Roxane, who is politically active - she is standing as the Greens candidate for the Deputy Lord Mayor of Melbourne - no longer does her banking with one of the big four, but has shifted her accounts to a community bank. She says the big four banks are huge financiers of fossil fuel projects, yet they, along with BHP and Rio Tinto are often included in super funds' "socially responsible investment" portfolios. Moveable feast

What is "ethical" is in the eye of the investor. For some, it is mostly about the environment and climate change. For others, the concerns may be with tobacco gambling or pornography. For others, it is all of these issues and more. Anyone who is serious about investing ethically has to do their homework to find out exactly how a superannuation fund or ethical managed fund is managing the money. Many types of screening are used. Some super funds and managed funds don't invest in companies that derive revenue from fossil fuels, for example. Others will use a negative screen but also invest in companies involved in renewable energy, for example.

Some take what can only be called an "ethical-lite" approach. They invest in companies deemed to be best in their category or sector. That could mean investing in one the big miners, for example, because it scores better than its peers on ESG measures. Super is key Superannuation is the starting point for ethical investing because most people have super. More than half of Australia's largest-50 super funds offer responsible investment options, but they have only a small amount of money in them. That is probably more a result of the general apathy that most people have to their super rather than them being uninterested in investing ethically.

The vast majority of super fund members are with their funds' default investment option. Trustees of super funds have a duty to maximise investment returns for their members. And trustees are increasingly interpreting that duty as meaning that they need to mitigate the risk that a coal miner, for example, could end-up as a "stranded asset" as the world moves towards renewable sources of energy. More super funds are incorporating ESG principles into every investment decision because companies that score well on these measures tend to have better financial performances. Climate Institute chief executive John Connor says the "main game" for him is to have super funds investing ethically across their whole portfolios rather than just providing these "little parking bays"  referring to the super funds' ethical options.

Vision Super chief executive Stephen Rowe says his fund has been investing responsibly for over a decade now and has been "ramping up its" efforts in the past few years. "We are factoring in environmental, social and governance factors in investing across all portfolios," Rowe says. The fund adheres to the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment and signed-up to the goal of the Paris Convention on Climate Change in 2015 to keep global warning below 2 degrees. The fund uses index managers, those that track the returns of the various investment markets as well as "active" managers, those who pick shares with the aim of outperforming markets. "We have reduced our exposure to carbon internationally by 70 per cent for our index investment and some 17 per cent less domestically than the index," Rowe says.

The fund has also "terminated" a couple of active managers because of their high exposure to carbon in their portfolios. It's not simply a question of divesting, Rowe says. "Some 80 per cent of energy in Australian is still produced from carbon," he says. "In addition to some divestment, we also engage with the banks and with gas companies like AGL and with coal companies to try to influence them and promote the idea that renewable is the way to go," he says. The fund also votes all of its shares in resolutions put at companies' annual general meetings.

Planner's tips There is an array of names that confront those interested in investing ethically. They go by the names of ethical, sustainable, socially responsible, socially responsive and eco, among others. But what counts is how the money is invested, not simply the name that is given to the fund for marketing purposes, says Mike Josephson, a financial planner with Ethical Investment Services in Kew in Melbourne. "You want to see what the screening process is and want to see what is in the portfolio," he says. Josephson is originally from the United States where he advised not-for-profit organisations on how to invest ethically.

He finds it frustrating that compared with the United States there is generally much less disclosure of investment holdings in Australia among both super funds and managed funds. It was planned that super funds would have been required to disclose their portfolio holding from the middle of this year, but the start date has been pushed back by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission to the middle of next year. The Ethics Centre executive director Simon Longstaff says that most people probably have a degree of trust that there is some kind of thought being given by their super fund to where the investments are being made. "If markets are supposed to be free then every participant is supposed to be able to make informed decisions about that they do and the only way you can do that is if you have the relevant information before you," Longstaff says. Josephson says sometimes the ethical goals of his clients can be better achieved by investing in shares directly.

That is particularly with those with self managed super funds who like to invest directly rather than using investment managers. Many large super funds now allow fund members to invest directly in Australian shares. He says there are plenty of companies listed on the Australian sharemarket that are good fits for those who want to invest ethically. These include Australia's healthcare and medical technology and healthy foods sectors that have many companies that are successfully growing overseas. Examples include CSL, Cochlear, Blackmores, and Freedom Foods. Josephson is also a board member of the Responsible Investment Association Australasia, which runs a certification program for super funds and managed funds and provides summaries of how they invest and links to their portfolio holdings, where available. Its website is a good starting point for anyone interested in ethical investment.

Deepest green Stuart Palmer, the head of ethics research at Australian Ethical Investments, says the attitudes of the wealth manager's investors have changed over time. When Australian Ethical started in 1986 it was very much about the environment, but now investors have a broader range of interests, he says. "At the end of the day, we do think the overwhelming majority of people try to do the right thing by people, animals and the planet," Palmer says. "Where they differ may be around where those things are balanced or the best way of advancing the interests of people, and animals and the planet.

"Having said that, people do quite often have a particular passion and that is where we have robust discussions with members about ways we have drawn the balance," Palmer says. Australian Ethical will not invest in companies with material interests in gambling, tobacco and fossil fuels, among other activities. It also invests in companies making a positive contribution, such as in the healthcare and renewable energy sectors. It invests in Westpac because it is a "sustainability leader", but not in the other three big banks. It does not invest in Wesfarmers, the owner of Coles, because Wesfarmers has significant interests in coal.

Nor does it invest in Woolworths because it owns poker machines and alcohol retailers. Australian Ethical's screening processes mean its various investment portfolios tend to have bigger tilts to smaller companies than mainstream portfolios. Some of these smaller companies have done very well. For example, Australian Ethical bought shares in Nordex SE, a German company that makes wind turbines in 2013 at just under $4 a share and the shares are now worth $24. It also owns shares in Applied Materials, a US company that makes equipment and software for the manufacture of photo-voltaic cells, semiconductors and LCD displays. The shares were bought in 2013 for $14.60 and are now worth $24.

Julien Vincent, lead campaigner at Market Forces, which is an affiliate of Friends of the Earth, says some super funds are doing much better than others when it comes to fossil fuels. However, they are generally not doing enough to respond to climate change in a way that reflects the gravity of the issue, he says. Market forces has a service that shows the exposures of super funds to fossil fuel investments. It also has created a table that shows the fossil fuel finance positions of more than 120 banks, credit unions and building societies. Vincent says more than 5000 people have used super switch to call for disclosure of fossil fuel divestment from their existing fund or to switch to a fund with less exposure to fossil fuel investment. Many more have looked-up their funds' exposure to fossil fuels since the inception of Superswitch 18 months ago. Key strategies explained Broad Responsible Investment  applies environmental, social and governance screening to all investments. This approach rests on the belief that these factors are a core driver of investment returns.
"The most painful goodbyes are the ones that are never said and never explained."

With those few but powerful words, the father of Thomas and Stuart Kelly has expressed the unbearable sadness he and wife are enduring, yet again, after the death of their second son.

Ralph Kelly posted the crushing message on Facebook on Tuesday night after his son, Stuart, 18, was found dead on Sydney's northern beaches on Monday.

Stuart's death, which police said was not being treated as suspicious, came less than a month after the fourth anniversary of his older brother Thomas' death from a one-punch attack in Kings Cross.
The International Yoga Days in 2015 and 2016, last year's Independence Day, Africa Summit and Obama's Republic Day visit as well as the AoL event and Parliament sessions were on the hit list.

Ahead of the ongoing monsoon session of Parliament, the Ministry of Home Affairs approved heavy deployment of ITBP's sniffer dogs to keep the complex safe.

By Abhishek Bhalla : The canny canines from India's dog squads have nosed out and foiled at least 16 terrorist strikes in the last two years, which has unnerved the attackers who are now planning to hit the training centres, says a secret report based on recent intercepts.

Encrypted messages decoded by intelligence agencies have identified several high-profile events where specific instructions for attacks like time and date were given, but the presence of the animals proved to be a deterrent.THE EVENTS TARGETED SO FAR



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The International Yoga Days in 2015 and 2016, last year's Independence Day, Africa Summit and US President Barack Obama's Republic Day visit as well as the Art of Living event on the banks of Yamuna in Delhi this March apart from Parliament sessions were on the hit list, the report says. But the attacks were prevented as terror groups panicked seeing a heavy deployment of dogs.

"Now the latest message from the foreign terror outfits is to incapacitate the training centres that train these force multiplier dogs," the report says.

The crack K9 unit of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) was part of several operations launched to foil terror bids that were planned to inflict maximum damage during these events.

Ahead of the ongoing monsoon session of Parliament, the Ministry of Home Affairs approved heavy deployment of ITBP's sniffer dogs to keep the complex safe. The activity was named "Operation Golden Nose".

The 2001 suicide attack on Parliament that killed nine people led to strengthening of security at the premises.

DOG SQUADS NOW HAVE NEW TRAINING MODULES

In light of the high threat perception, the dog squads have undergone a change with new training modules being introduced. The ITBP is one of the main forces that prepare dogs for internal security duties and its crack K9 units have evolved over the years.

"There has been a change in role. From a top secret seldom known wing mainly involved in securing assets and sensitive border management, the K9 unit is now an indispensible cutting-edge tool to secure the common citizens of Delhi during public functions, held under very high terror threat," said an officer in charge of dog training in the force.

"The training methods are such that even if someone has touched explosives, the dogs can detect it."

The training methods and modules are designed to keep pace with the changing dynamics of security. Not only sniffing, the dogs are also being trained for assault and reconnaissance patrols.

DOGS GO THROUGH 24-WEEK TRAINING

The canines are enrolled in a grueling 24-week training programme when they are four months old and by the time they complete the training, the animals can get the whiff of even a miniscule amount of explosive.

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With the mounting threat perception even Prime Minister Narendra Modi's security has got more canine power as the elite Special Protection Group (SPG) has decided to double the size of its dog squad.

The ITBP has been asked to train two batches a year exclusively for the PM's security.

"By the end of this year the strength is likely to be doubled as the SPG needs more dogs for the PM's security in the wake of the heightened threat perception," said an official.

It's not just the high-profile events in the Capital but also the fight against Maoists where dogs have proven their mettle regularly, playing a pivotal role in seizure of explosives and also saving several lives by sensing an ambush.

Dogs along with their handlers played a stellar role at the operation in Pathankot airbase this year when Pakistani terrorists launched a deadly strike. Three-year-old Rocket, who was part of the counter-terror strategy, has also been recommended for a gallantry award.

ALSO READ:

Pathankot's canine hero Rocket to receive gallantry award



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Pokemon Go hunters are being discouraged from "catching 'em all" while driving, in a VicRoads safety campaign.

Electronic road signs popped up around Melbourne on Wednesday morning, reminding people not to play the popular mobile app while behind the wheel.

VicRoads says around 40 of its signs are carrying the "Don't drive and Pokemon" message.

The signs appear to have won approval from passersby.
A Perth photographer snapped some stunning shark photographs at Mettams Pool, with surfers making haste to get out of the water after they realised what they were sharing the surf with.

Freelancer Rick Knoppert was at the beach for surf photography session on Sunday when he captured the images.

Rick Knoppert's amazing photograph last month of surfers heading to the shore at Mettams Pool after a shark was swimming among them. Credit:Rick Knoppert

"There was no surf around," he said.

"Then I saw the guys making a beeline for the beach. I thought that was strange so I started photographing and lo and behold, this is what I got.
An elderly woman who went missing in WA's remote outback on Tuesday has been found dead by search rescue teams.

Police believe the 75-year-old woman fell down a rock face while she was walking near Pangkupirri Rockholes, near the border of Western Australia and the Northern Territory.

A police search is underway for an elderly woman, missing in WA's North West since Tuesday. Credit:WA Police

Rescuers on Wednesday afternoon were working to recover the Victorian woman's body.

She was reported missing around midday Tuesday by her travelling group when she failed to return from a morning walk.
Before the Charlie Hebdo attacks in Paris in January 2015, Adel Kermiche was a cheerful, music-loving and devout French teenager. But that terrorist atrocity, and the suspicion-filled aftermath, "acted like a detonator", his mother said.

Soon his greatest wish was to travel to Syria to join the so-called Islamic State, which his mother said had "bewitched" him on social media.

On Tuesday, Kermiche was identified by prosecutors as one of the young men who slit the throat of a Catholic priest during mass in a church in northern France. He was shot dead by police with an accomplice after they entered the Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray church near Rouen on Tuesday morning, cut the priest's throat and seriously injured another parishioner.

Kermiche was a local teenager, born in 1997, who had tried to join IS in Syria, Paris prosecutor Francois Molins said  though he failed in two attempts and instead served jail time in France.
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. Credit:AP In the midst of Monday's chaos, the bleating by Clinton supporters about the 'disloyalty' of the Bernie brigade for their inability or refusal to 'get over it,' revealed that they had short memories  several polls on the voting intentions of the Sanders loyalists, show that they are falling in behind Clinton are a greater rate than her followers had switched to Barack Obama at this stage of the 2008 campaign. In which case, does it matter if they want to slug it out at the convention? Seemingly yes, because conventions by tradition are tightly scripted to send messages of unity and  because this is Philadelphia  brotherly love, to national TV audiences numbering tens of millions. In that equation, there's no room for booing and bitching. A supporter cries while listening to Senator Bernie Sanders speak. Credit:AP Party officials spent Monday attempting to appease the Sanders wing of the party  ousting Wasserman Schultz, apologising to Sanders and his followers, elevating Sanders and his backers in the speakers' pecking order.

But to no avail  and on Tuesday morning they gave up after a failed effort to have Sanders formally nominate Clinton as the party's nominee ahead of the count of the state-by- state results of the primary votes. A supporter of Senator Bernie Sanders in Philadelphia. Credit:AP The problem for convention organisers  and for Sanders  is that the Vermont senator might no longer be in control of his movement. On Monday, when he pleaded for them to pull in their heads, they booed him too. In fact, the convention is a fork in the road for Sanders and his followers. To the extent that the party platform matters, they have pushed the party back to the left and their revolt against money and power resonates nationally. To the surprise of many pundits and players, the political revolution that Sanders demanded came alive  a powerful articulation of a need to break the influence peddling between big money and big power that drives American politics, with the likes of Clinton and her ilk in charge.

Read carefully some of their Monday night speech, and understand that the period for which Sanders and his chief backer, Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, censure the political process includes the Obama and Bill Clinton presidencies. Warren: "I'm worried that opportunity is slipping away for people who work hard and play by the rules." Sanders fixed on "the 40-year decline of our middle class," called inequality in the US "grotesque," and argued that America was moving "toward oligarchy." But if Sanders and Warren figure that they have gone as far as they can go in this political cycle and so have endorsed Clinton in the knowledge that they live to fight another day, many in the rank and file are not with them. "As beloved as Bernie is, he's not running the show," a Sanders delegate from California explained. And the angst over democracy inside and beyond the party will be enlivened on Tuesday as the roll-call count of delegate votes shows how much support there actually was for Sanders, despite 'the system being rigged against him.'

Sanders does have a significant voice on the convention floor  he has a total of 1879 delegates, compared with Clinton's 2811. But close to 600 of Clinton's are the controversial super-delegates  they are party officials and elected members who are not bound by the primary vote in their home state. I.E., they are the Democratic establishment. Against a whispered establishment narrative that Sanders has not been trying hard enough to quiet his followers, he tried again on Tuesday morning  telling a breakfast for Californian delegates: "It is easy to boo, but it is harder to look your kids in the face" if Trump becomes president because Democrats like them didn't support the ticket. Yet at the same time, Sanders was holding Clinton and the rest of the party to adhering to the rules. Asked why he would not release his delegates, so that Clinton would be formally nominated as the first woman candidate in American history, without a protracted display of division, he was tart in his response. "Why would I do that?
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.
By Rohit Kumar Singh: The flood situation in Bihar has become grim as Nepal continues to receive heavily rainfall in the last few days. Due to heavy rains in the Himalayan Kingdom, several districts in Bihar, neighbouring Nepal have been hit by flood, displacing many. Only in Gopalganj district of Bihar, where the Gandak river is flowing at almost danger level, more than one lakh people have been hit by floods.

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To make matters worse for the state, Nepal on Tuesday discharged 3.5 lakh cusec of water into the Gandak river.

INDIA TODAY AT GROUND ZERO

India Today in a bid to get a ground sense travelled to Gopalganj district where Gandak river is swelling with each passing hour.

India Today reached the Barai Patti Panchayat which houses 22 villages, all of which are now hit by flood. All these 22 villages are located in low lying areas in the Gandak and therefore was the first to be affected. In every household in these flood hit villages, water has entered affecting almost 1 lakh people. Several people have managed to save their lives escaping from the area on time but many are still trapped and most of them not willing to leave their houses and move to safer plakhes.

Sona Lal Mahto, flood victim from Nawada village said, "We are stuck here for three days. Few members of the house have gone to safer plakhes. Someone has to stay to take care of house. We are compelled to stay here. We are suffering like this for last three days buts its only today that we have got something to eat from the govt. I don't know whether help will come again or not".

VICTIM'S PLIGHT

Similar is the story of Sanjay, another flood victim from Barai Patti village. Sanjay said, "Water has entered our houses and there is no place for us to live. We are going on the embankment for safety".

The Bihar government had on Tuesday itself announced that the situation in Gopalganj was alarming and the district was put on high alert following discharge of water from Nepal. The Bihar govt had rushed 150 personnel of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) teams to Gopalganj to help evacuate people from the flood affected areas and shift them to safer plakhes. Altogether, 6 out of 14 blocks in Gopalganj are flood hit. The worst affected blocks are Kuchay Kot, Gopalganj, Manjha, Barauli, Sidwaliya and Baikunthpur.

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GOVERNMENT RELIEF

Senior officials of Gopalganj including the District Magistrate on Tuesday had himself conducted survey of the affected areas and ordered providing relief and food packets to the affected people immediately.

"In 6 blocks, due to excessive discharge of water from Nepal, food water has entered the villages. Several people who have pucca houses are still trapped in their house. We have supplied food packets to affected people. Situation is alarming at the moment", said Mrityunjay Kumar, Gopalganj SDO.

"Three teams of NDRF are working in Gopalganj at the moment. Evacuation process is low as people are not willing to leave their houses but we are helping the govt in distribution of relief and food packets to affected people. Water level in Gandak has risen and it is likely to increase further", said K.K Jha, Deputy Commandant of NDRF.

As the situation on the ground remains grim, the flood victims are complaining that the govt's response to their apathy has been delayed.

Pappu from Nawada village said, "We are stuck here for last six days. We are facing lot of problem. If everyone goes to safer plakhes then all the material in the house will submerge under water. There is no arrangement of boats also for us. We are not getting govt help for last three days".



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Within the framework of the Capacity Building Programme, the World Customs Organization (WCO), with financial support from the Eurocustoms, organized a Regional Workshop on Rules of Origin for the Customs Administration in Western and Central Africa. This Workshop was conducted in Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso) from 18 to 22 July 2016, and was attended by 20 officials and managers from Burkina Faso, Cote dIvoire, Congo (Rep. of), Cameroun, Mali, Nigeria, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Senegal, Togo, WAEMO and ECOWAS.

Topics discussed during the Workshop included the key concepts for proper origin determination, and a number of related operational issues, such as the establishment of an efficient organization, provision of effective training and private sector outreach.

During the Workshop, the WCO presented its Comparative Study on Preferential Rules of Origin and the Database of preferential trade agreements.

The Workshop also allowed presentation of the WCO's Revenue Package initiatives, including the Guidelines on Preferential Origin Verification, Origin Certification and Advance Rulings, which have been designed to assist WCO Members in bringing the provisions in Free Trade Agreements into smooth operation in the field.

Discussions during this Regional Workshop also emphasized the importance of verifying the originating status of goods, rather than merely checking the authenticity of the Certificate of Origin.

During the Workshop, participants were eager to deepen their knowledge on the practical application of Rules of Origin and actively participated in practical exercises.



The Workshop concluded successfully with positive feedback from participants who greatly appreciated the information received and the insights and experiences shared during the event.
By PTI: From Yoshita Singh

United Nations, Jul 26 (PTI) The UN General Assembly today unanimously adopted a resolution approving an agreement to make the International Organisation for Migration part of the UN as a related organisation, underlining a closer legal and working relationship between them is needed "more than ever".

"Migration is at the heart of the new global political landscape and its social and economic dynamics. At a time of growing levels of migration within and across borders, a closer legal and working relationship between the United Nations and IOM is needed more than ever," UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in a statement welcoming the Assemblys decision yesterday

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IOM, which assisted an estimated 20 million migrants in 2015, is an intergovernmental organisation with more than 9,500 staff and 450 offices worldwide.

Founded in the wake of the World War II to resettle refugees from Europe, the organisation celebrates its 65th anniversary in December of this year.

Highlighting that the approval of the agreement by the governing bodies of both organisations marks a "major milestone in the long-standing and close relationship" between the UN and IOM, the Secretary-General said, adding that the relationship agreement not only formalises this partnership, but also sets out an even closer cooperation between the two organisations while preserving the mandates and responsibilities of other UN organisations and subsidiary organs and agencies in the field of migration.

"The Secretary-General trusts that the relationship agreement will contribute to a more effective global response to the challenges posed by large and sudden population movements. It will help to strengthen the support provided by the United Nations system to Member States in implementing the migration-related elements of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development," the statement said.

"The United Nations and the International Organisation for Migration, recognising the need to work jointly to achieve mutual objectives, and with a view to facilitating the effective exercise of their responsibilities, agree to cooperate closely within their respective mandates and to consult on matters of mutual interest and concern," said the adopted resolution.

IOM Director General William Lacy Swing said the Assemblys decision to approve the agreement shows the growing strength of the relationship between IOM and the UN.

Through the agreement, the UN recognises IOM as an "indispensable actor in the field of human mobility", IOM said, adding that this includes protection of migrants and displaced people in migration-affected communities, as well as in areas of refugee resettlement and voluntary returns, and incorporates migration in country development plans.

The action paves the way for the agreement to be signed by Secretary-General Ban-Ki Moon and Swing at the UN Summit for refugees and migrants in September.IOM was granted Permanent Observer status to the UN General Assembly in 1992, and a cooperation agreement between IOM and the UN was signed in 1996. PTI YAS UZM

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Opposition BSP and other parties today created uproar in Rajya Sabha and even accused the government of being anti-OBC.

By India Today Web Desk: As if the anti-Dalit and anti-minority tag was not enough, the government was today accused of being anti-OBC as well. JD(U)'s Ram Nath Thakur today asked the government as to why some OBC candidates who had cleared the UPSC (Civil Services) examination this year had not been allowed to proceed on training.



Samajwadi Party's Ram Gopal Yadav also joined forces with the JD(U) to demand answers from the government. Soon, other parties like BSP and Left were also seen pushing the government to a corner.



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NO CHANGE IN RESERVATION POLICY: NAQVI



Fielding for the government in the Rajya Sabha, MoS Parliamentary Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi clarified that there was "no change in the reservation policy". In fact, Naqvi was seen fielding single-handedly for his party today from the start of the day.

As the Rajya Sabha resumed proceedings, an agitated Mayawati asked Naqvi directly as to why the BJP-ruled states are seeing atrocities against Dalits and minorities. She was referring to the case that has emerged from Madhya Pradesh of the brutal thrashing of Muslim women under the pretext of 'gau raksha'. The Bahujan Samaj Party supremo even accused the police of being mute spectators to the humiliation and torture.

Naqvi said, "The country works by Constitution and not by force." But the minute he told the House that action had been taken in the matter, he was shouted down by the opposition that claimed his assurance is false.



CONGRESS QUESTIONS PM MODI'S SILENCE



Meanwhile, the Congress questioned the silence of PM Modi on cases of repeated atrocities on the weaker sections of the society.

The government managed to calm the tempers down by saying it is ready for a discussion but the collective opposition ready to take on the government on this matter indicates, this relief would only be temporary.



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Fort Polk, LA (71446)

Today

Rain showers in the morning will evolve into a more steady rain in the afternoon. High near 70F. Winds E at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 90%. Rainfall around a quarter of an inch..

Tonight

Periods of rain. Low around 60F. Winds E at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 90%. Rainfall may reach one inch. Locally heavy rainfall possible.
By PTI: New Delhi, Jul 27 (PTI) The Cabinet today approved signing of the Bilateral Investment Treaty (BIT) with Cambodia, the first agreement to be inked on the basis of the model BIT text.

The decision was taken during the cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The treaty seeks to promote and protect investments from either country in the territory of the other country with the objective of increasing bilateral investment flows, an official statement said.

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It said that the treaty encourages each country to create favourable conditions for investors of the other country and to admit investments in accordance with its laws.

It "is the first Bilateral Investment Treaty in accordance with the text of the Indian Model BIT, approved by the Cabinet in December 2015," it added. PTI RR CS ABM

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By West Kentucky Star Staff Jul. 27, 2016 | 04:06 PM | PADUCAH, KY





An Illinois man who pulled a gun Saturday morning inside a Paducah movie theater has been arrested.According to Paducah Police, 64-year-old John Grabinski of Ozark, IL turned himself in late Tuesday night and was arrested on warrants charging him with first-degree wanton endangerment, second-degree disorderly conduct, fourth-degree assault and menacing.John Hempen of Paducah told officers Saturday morning that Grabinski began cursing his 14-year-old son for kicking the back of his seat in the movie theater at a showing of Star Trek Beyond at the Paducah Cinemark theater. He said he and Grabinski then began arguing. He and several witnesses said Grabinski pushed him, and the two began fighting. Hempen and other witnesses said Grabinski was knocked to the ground, and got up brandishing a handgun. Others in the theater saw the gun, and began running for the exit.Grabinski was booked into the McCracken County Jail and released on $2,500 cash bond.

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By West Kentucky Star Staff

Jul. 26, 2016 | PADUCAH, KY

By West Kentucky Star Staff Jul. 26, 2016 | 09:05 PM | PADUCAH, KY

A Paducah man rolled his car several times Tuesday evening, after an apparent road rage incident. The McCracken County Sheriff's Department is still looking for a suspect who witnesses say caused the crash.



Deputies responded at around 5:30 pm to a single vehicle rollover crash on the exit road of the old Ledbetter Bridge. The investigation showed that 19-year-old Julian Howard was traveling eastbound, and a white Camaro was closely following him. Witnesses told police that the driver of the Camaro was driving with obvious road rage. The Camaro then reportedly passed Howard and appeared to cut him off, causing Howard to over correct and overturn several times.

Howard did not complain of any injuries on scene, but was taken to an area hospital as a precaution.



Anyone with information about the white Camaro and who was involved is being asked to contact the McCracken County Sheriffs Department. Deputy D. Pugh is the investigating the case.
By West Kentucky Star Staff Jul. 27, 2016 | 11:31 AM | MAYFIELD, KY

Three Graves County residents have been arrested on drug charges.

The Graves County Sheriff's Office said deputies responded to the 400 block of Chris Drive Wednesday morning after a concerned citizen informed them of possible illegal drug activity taking place in the home. When deputies arrived at the home, they were met by 21-year-old Amber Sullivan and her two infant children.

Deputies went inside the home and spoke with Sullivan and 18-year-old Brandi Conklin of Mayfield, who was at the home with her young child. While there, deputies found 23-year-old Michael T. Phillips of Mayfield hiding in the bedroom.

Deputies then searched the home and reportedly found methamphetamine and drug paraphernalia. Sullivan, Conklin and Phillips were arrested and booked into the Graves County Jail on possession of methamphetamine charges.

The children were released to family members.
India has already deployed eight of the long-range P-8I aircraft to track submarine movements in the Indian Ocean.

By Reuters: India signed a contract today to buy four maritime spy planes from Boeing Co for about $1 billion, defence and industry sources said, aiming to bolster the navy as it tries to check China's presence in the Indian Ocean.

India has already deployed eight of the long-range P-8I aircraft to track submarine movements in the Indian Ocean and on Wednesday exercised an option for four more, two defence ministry officials and an industry source told Reuters.

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"It's a follow-on order, it was signed today," a defence ministry official said, speaking on condition of anonymity as he is not authorised to make announcements on procurements.

A second defence official confirmed the value of the contract at about $1 billion and said the aircraft were expected to enter service over the next three years.

Indian Navy gets its most sophisticated warfare aircraft Boeing P-8I

Amrita Dhindsa, a spokeswoman for Boeing defence, space, and security in India, said she was not in a position to say anything on the contract and referred all questions to the defence ministry.

But she said the P-81 was an aircraft used for not only for long-range patrol but was also equipped with Harpoon missiles for anti-submarine warfare.

INDIA BUILDING SURVEILLANCE CAPABILITIES

India has been building up its naval surveillance capabilities since China's navy expanded its reach and sent submarines, including a nuclear-powered boat that docked in Sri Lanka, across the Indian Ocean.

The deal, signed during a visit by the US Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition Frank Kendall, marks a further tightening of India's ties with the United States, which has emerged as a top arms supplier in recent years for India's largely Soviet-equipped military.

Navy has already deployed 8 of the long-range P-8I aircraft. (Photo: Boeing.com)

A US embassy spokesman was not immediately available for comment.

Boeing last year completed the delivery of the last of the aircraft under the previous order worth $2.1 billion, an industry source said.

The Indian navy has deployed some of its P8-I aircraft to the remote Andaman and Nicobar islands near the Malacca Straits and two other routes into the Indian Ocean for military and commercial shipping.

Also Read:



Here's how India's Tejas steals the 'thunder' from JF-17 jointly developed by Pakistan, China



Travelling Obama style: PM Modi's new Air India One will be flying fortress that can dodge missiles

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By India Today Web Desk: Kriti Sanon made her debut alongside Telugu superstar Mahesh Babu in 1: Nenokkadine. The film wasn't the biggest success, but some did consider it to break new ground for Telugu cinema. It became the first Telugu film to be shot in Belfast, and Kriti became a face to reckon with. A year later, she was paired opposite Jackie Shroff's son Tiger and they made their debut in Sajid Nadiadwala's Heropanti. An action romance, the film was a commercial success, and made Kriti famous all over the country.

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And yet, it wasn't until her second film that she announced her arrival in Bollywood and to the world. In Rohit Shetty's Dilwale she starred alongside the biggest names - Shah Rukh Khan, Kajol and Varun Dhawan. The film was a blockbuster, and has now established Sanon has one of the newbies to look out for. As she spends her birthday in Mauritius, shooting for her next film Raabta alongside Sushant Singh Rajput, we send her our best wishes with these 5 songs, which will make you groove with her.

1. Aww tuzo mogh korta (1: Nenokkadine)

2. Whistle bajaa (Heropanti)

3. Raat bhar (Heropanti)

4. Manma emotion jaage re (Dilwale)

5. Tukur tukur (Dilwale)







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Looks like Kriti Sanon will be celebrating her birthday on the sets of her upcoming film Raabta with co-star Sushant Singh Rajput.

By India Today Web Desk: Seems like birthday girl Kriti Sanon will be celebrating her birthday with Raabta co-star Sushant Singh Rajput on the sets of their upcoming film in Mauritius. Raabta is being directed by producer-turned-director Dinesh Vijan whose company Maddock Films produced the 2015 hit Badlapur.

ALSO READ: Are Kriti Sanon and Sushant Singh Rajput in a relationship?

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ALSO READ: No truth to these baseless stories, says Kriti Sanon about dating rumours



ALSO READ: These stories are entertaining, but they are fictional, says Sushant Singh Rajput on dating Kriti Sanon

ALSO READ: Are Sushant Singh Rajput and Ankita Lokhande trying to patch up?



In the earlier hours of Wednesday (July 27), the Dilwale actor shared a picture of herself, where she is seen to be accompanied by Sushant Singh Rajput, on Instagram. The caption read, "All set for the last schedule of #Raabta ! And the excitement shows as we wait to board the flight to Mauritius.."



All set for the last schedule of #Raabta ! And the excitement shows as we wait to board the flight to Mauritius.. @sushantsinghrajput #lastsched #outdoor A photo posted by Kriti (@kritisanon) on Jul 26, 2016 at 6:01pm PDT

The two young heartthrobs have been linked together of late but both stars have come forward to rubbish such rumours.

Last month, Kriti took to Twitter to trash the speculations about her relationship with Sushant. When a website published reports of her holidaying with Sushant in Thailand, she rubbished the news saying that there was no truth to it.



@pinkvilla Having Chai at home with my Lovebird @NupurSanon !! Who's my look-alike holidaying in Thailand??? pic.twitter.com/CQrkMspkht Kriti Sanon (@kritisanon) June 28, 2016

Recently, the 25-year-old actor told reporters, "Initially I thought it is best not to react because it is part of the industry, it happens every time you work with someone, but I clarified what I had to online. Beyond that I have nothing more to say."



She added, "I really don't know what to say. It (link-up) is the easiest thing to assume... I said what I wanted to. It reached a point where families started getting involved which was a little nasty."

Their upcoming film Raabta is said to be a love story. While shooting of the last schedule will begin in Mauritius, the duo has already shot a major chunk of the film in a two-month schedule at Budapest in Hungary.

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While Kriti will be next seen in Raabta, before that, Sushant will be seen in the Mahendra Singh Dhoni biopic titled M.S Dhoni: The Untold Story which is slated to release on September 30 this year.

Raabta starring Sushant Singh Rajput and Kriti Sanon will release in theatres on Februrary 10 next year.

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By PTI: Karachi, Jul 27 (PTI) A Hindu youth was today shot dead as communal tension gripped a district in Pakistans Sindh province following alleged desecration of a holy book by a man from the minority community who was arrested for blasphemy.

Tension ran high in Mehran Samejo village in Ghotki district after a Hindu man, Amar Lal, who was said to be mentally unstable, allegedly desecrated a holy book yesterday.

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According to reports, Amar, who has been arrested, was a drug addict and was living in a mosque after converting to Islam a few months ago.

After the incident, local religious leaders along with several agitated people took to streets.

During a protest, some men riding on motorbikes fired at two Hindu youths who were sitting outside a tea stall in Mirpur Mathelo area.

In the attack, one of the youths, Dewan Sateesh Kumar, 17, was killed while another was critically injured, Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Masood Ahmed Bangash said.

Satesh was a businessman.

Local leaders of the Hindu community have demanded protection of their lives and properties in the wake of the tensions.

Bangash said that police with the help of Rangers are trying to diffuse the tense situation.

According to reports, all towns of the Ghotki district remained closed today.

Leaders of local religious parties have demanded severe punishment for Amar, who has been booked for blasphemy and shifted to an undisclosed location by police.

Sindh has the biggest population of Hindus in Pakistan. PTI SH CORR PMS AKJ PMS

--- ENDS ---
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This article was published 27/07/2016 (2284 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Summer is in full swing, and two T-shirt companies are helping Canadians wear their hearts on their sleeves.

Local T-shirt company Free Leaf was created by a pair of Winnipeg teens, Eric Steinke, 15, and Ian Willison, 16. Both are in Grade 10 at St. Pauls High School and started Free Leaf after learning about the deforestation of the rainforest in their geography class.

As humans we have the right to save that rainforest, so we decided to spread awareness and help with that, said Willison. Eric and Ian said they were inspired to follow through with their plan after joining their schools entrepreneurship club.

Ian Willison co-founded Free Leaf after a classroom discussion about losses of the rainforest.

Ian said they decided to sell T-shirts and hoodies because As teens, we figured it would be the best way to get the word around.

The company teamed up with Rainforest Trust, which preserves a quarter-acre of rainforest with every purchase from Free Leaf. Since the companys launch May 24, 2016, theyve already preserved approximately eight acres of rainforest and are about to preserve three more. Their goal is to preserve 100 acres in 2016.

Free Leaf sweaters, T-shirts, hats and hoodies feature the company logo and small illustrations of nature. We wanted to make them nature colours and not bold, said Ian. Colours you could find in the rainforest. We also wanted it to go off of our main logo so when people see that, they immediately think of Free Leaf, and it creates more awareness.

A company in Toronto is also using T-shirts to create awareness, but for a different cause. Tee Talent sells inspirational T-shirts with the goal of making a social impact for people with disabilities. One of the founders, Carlos Fred Martins, lost his left foot in a shark attack in Brazil in 1994 and moved to Canada in 2014.

Martins and co-founder Shayne Smith, a motivational speaker from Toronto, launched Tee Talent with the goal of empowering and employing those with disabilities. Martins stressed Tee Talent is not about their products or the inspirational designs.

We want to provide employment opportunities for individuals with disabilities, he said. We are a profit company. We dont want to be a non-profit company because then people will look at us and try to help us because they feel sorry for us. We dont want that.

Alex Lytwyn, a man with cerebral palsy, is the communications manager at Tee Talent and lives in Winnipegosis.

Martins worked as a job developer for a non-profit organization that helps people with disabilities find employment. I was expecting the (Canadian) community to be more open-minded, but I was wrong, he said. There are some companies that are very open to the idea of someone with disabilities working for them but I feel like some companies are afraid of hiring people with disabilities.

Martins described a particular experience he had while trying to find a job for one of his clients. A company was looking for a receptionist, and Martins had a client in mind for the position. After going back and forth with their HR management, they said, Unfortunately, we cannot hire your client because we have stairs, and we cant accommodate someone in a wheelchair, said Martins.

The interesting thing is I didnt say what disability. My client didnt have mobility issues, it was just an assumption, he said. I knew what the disability was, and I knew my client was able to perform in that specific role, but because of a lack of information they had this misconception about individuals with disabilities.

These people can be productive, they can be working. Thats what were trying to do here, he said.

For more information about Free Leaf and Tee Talent, go to www.freeleafco.com and www.teetalent.com.

alexandra.depape@freepress.mb.ca
One of the victims, 17-year-old Dewan Sateesh Kumar, succumbed to his injuries while his friend Avinash is in a critical condition, media reports said.

By India Today Web Desk: Two Hindu teenagers were shot in Pakistan's Sindh province over allegations of Quran desecration today (July 27) while another was arrested for blasphemy. One of the victims, 17-year-old Dewan Sateesh Kumar, succumbed to his injuries while his friend Avinash is in a critical condition, Dawn reported.

The incident comes a day after a Hindu man was arrested over blasphemy charges in Ghotki area of the province, which shares its border with India.

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According to reports in the Pakistani media, one Amar Lal was arrested and booked for blashphemy after massive protests by Muslims in Ghotki. "A Hindu man was arrested for allegedly desecrating Holy Quran following massive protests and shutdown by Muslim community in Ghotki District of Sindh," a report in the Dawn stated.

IMAGE WARNING: Pakistani Hindu Nitish Kumar killed after an alleged blasphemy charge in Sindh province pic.twitter.com/i3l7v4DiVe omar r quraishi (@omar_quraishi) July 27, 2016

A young hindu

Owner of a medical store killed by extremist in Ghotki

Justice for Natish Kumar@BBhuttoZardari pic.twitter.com/RySaMhlNgj RNB (@RabN_B) July 27, 2016

COMMUNAL TENSION IN SINDH

Tension prevails in Sindh following the arrest of Amar Lal. Police claims Amar is suffering from psychotic disorder.

Shops remained shut and other daily activities remained affected in response to a shutdown called by Muslims in Ghotki.

Several protesters blocked the national highway passing through the town causing a huge traffic jam. Shops owned by Hindus also remained shut.

Sindh was in news recently when Hindus in the region had raised objections over the sale of shoes with 'Om' inscriptions. Hindus had staged massive protests in the region over reports of sale of such footwear.

BLASPHEMY LAW

Section 295 (B) of the Pakistan Penal Code deals with blasphemy under which over 1,300 people have been accused of blasphemy from 1987 to 2014. The vast majority of the accusations were lodged for desecration of the Quran.

Also Read:

Sale of 'Om' inscribed shoes in Pakistan leave Hindus fuming



Another case of forced conversion in Pakistan, this time married Hindu girl forcibly remarried by jirga



Anger over kidnappings, forced conversions of Hindu girls in Pakistan



--- ENDS ---
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Most tornado evacuees from Long Plain First Nation have returned home but the outlook for some is much bleaker.

More than 130 will live in Portage la Prairie hotels until their homes are repaired or replaced, which for some could takes months.

At an update Wednesday, Long Plain First Nation Chief Dennis Meeches said damage from a vicious storm one week ago left 585 temporary evacuees.

WAYNE GLOWACKI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Long Plain Chief Dennis Meeches (left) and Shawn Feely with the Red Cross provide a tornado response update Wednesday.

The July 20 storm became an F-1 tornado with winds exceeding 135 km/h and 57 homes were heavily or completely destroyed. There was severe damage to another 150, and damage assessments are still in the works for roads and infrastructure, including the local school and health centre.

With estimates on houses almost complete, the focus is getting families back to their own homes.

That will be determined by our inspectors when their homes are safe to go back into It could be a month for sure, it could be five to six months for homes that have to be completely rebuilt, Meeches said.

The Red Cross called the press conference at one of two Winnipeg hotels where the last evacuees were packing up to move to Portage.

Once we know the damage and whos going to be out for the long term, the Red Cross will work with the leadership and the individuals and they will determine wheres the best place for them, said Shawn Feely, vice-president for the Canadian Red Cross in Manitoba and Nunavut.

Its too early to say when they will be back in their community.

Most individuals, rightly so, want to stay close to their community. A lot of people have jobs in Long Plain or Portage, Feely said.

The agency will stay on the job until the last person goes home, he said.

It was a blessing no one was hurt or injured in that storm, Meeches said.

Evacuees, their first question is When can I go home I think people are starting to accept what has happened and get their strength back. I just met with the evacuees and they had a lot of questions but our people are really resilient. Theyve been through many challenges over the years.

The community will go ahead with its annual Treaty Days Thursday, which will serve as the first gathering for the First Nation of 2,200 people, located about 100 kilometres west of Winnipeg, since the storm.

The annual powwow, one of Manitobas premier summer powwows, has been postponed until Labour Day at least.

Property damage estimates were sure to be in the millions once theyre tallied up, Meeches said. In the meantime, the community is footing the bill on cleanup efforts, to be reimbursed by Ottawa this fall.

The path of damage from the storm was three to four kilometres wide, Meeches said.

Some people at Long Plain said there were multiple tornadoes more than three. Some people said there were as many as seven tornadoes dancing in the skies above Long Plain. A lot of people witnessed that. Theyre processing that.

While there were dozens of reports of damage and tens of thousands in Winnipeg and big chunks of southern Manitoba lost power, Long Plain took the worst of the storm. Thats raised questions about emergency preparedness, extreme weather events with climate change and the need for an early warning system.

People were worried. They were almost expecting something to happen, the chief said.

The night of the storm, Meeches described storm alerts piling from Environment Canada, a warning from a neighbouring Hutterite colony and a virtual storm of tweets and Facebook posts as the sky turned yellow and the funnel clouds formed.

Evacuations peaked over the weekend; by Wednesday, hydro was largely restored; the treatment plant is expected to be back on line in a day or two and the community remained on a boil-water advisory.

The Red Cross delivered 10,000 litres of water Wednesday, on top of the 24,000 litres that had already been donated or delivered since last week.

There were so many homes heavily damaged by the tornado, Meeches said.

We do have the insurance company out there today and inspectors over the last few days. The cleanup is about 75 to 80 per cent complete. There were hundreds of trees brought down by the storm, lot of roads were affected by that. We really appreciate the support weve been receiving from First Nations and other communities and other organizations. Thats gone very well.

alexandra.paul@freepress.mb.ca
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This article was published 27/07/2016 (2284 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The man convicted of first-degree murder in a 2012 Salisbury House shooting has launched an appeal.

Devin Kingsley Hall, 31, is contesting DNA evidence used against him during the trial, arguing the judge didnt properly instruct the jury on some of the DNA evidence that was presented and erred in law by failing to correct misstatements made by Crown counsel in respect of DNA evidence during the closing address to the jury, the notice of appeal filed in court Monday by Halls lawyer, Martin Glazer, states.

The defence took issue with the judges instructions to the jury on several occasions, the appeal notice states, arguing the judges instructions in particular on the expert evidence provided by DNA expert Dr. William Watson was incomplete and inadequate.

Watson, a Tennessee-based forensics expert, testified about the mixed DNA profile with traces from at least three individuals investigators found on the white shirt and gloves that were discarded near the restaurant where 23-year-old Jeffrey Lau was fatally shot in September 2012.

Security video entered in court showed a gunman with a white shirt pulled up over his face storm into the restaurant and fire the gun in what court heard was an execution-style killing. Lau died, and one other person was injured in the shooting.

It cant tell you anything about who fired the gun, Watson told court during the jury trial in June. Its impossible to tell from that evidence alone who did the shooting.

The judge should have ruled inadmissible a police statement from a now-deceased witness, Halls defence also argued in the appeal notice. Justin Latinecz was sitting with Lau in the diner when the shooting happened and gave a witness statement to police afterwards.

He was killed in September 2013 in a similar shooting that remains unsolved. Glazer noted during Halls trial his client was in custody at the time of Latineczs death.

No date for the appeal hearing has yet been set.

katie.may@freepress.mb.caTwitter: @thatkatiemay
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A day after the potentially devastating layoffs at the Port of Churchill, none of the key players who have a role in determining the northern communitys future did anything to keep hopes afloat.

While residents in Churchill were reacting to the shock of the sudden layoff that affects more than 70 of the towns workforce, the ports owner Omnitrax was nowhere to be seen or heard. Moreover, representatives from both Ottawa and the province, who have been key partners in the communitys economic history, only relied on carefully worded statements that said little.

It was a total shock, said Teresa Eschuk, regional vice-president of the Union of Canadian Transportation Employees, which represents the workers at the port.

LIAM RICHARDS / CANADIAN PRESS FILES NDP MP Niki Ashton

Niki Ashton, the NDP MP for Churchill-Keewatinook Aski, expressed outrage over the manner in which Omnitrax Canada is handling the situation, adding the layoffs  which have effectively shut down the port  are devastating for the community.

Omnitrax announced last December that it wanted to leave the Manitoba market and sell the Hudson Bay Railway that runs from The Pas to Churchill as well as the Port of Churchill.

Omnitrax Canada president Merv Tweed has been saying for months that talks with a consortium of northern Manitoba First Nations to acquire the assets were proceeding well, but it does not appear that a transaction is pending.

I wonder to what extent Omnitrax is truly trying to find a solution, Ashton said. This is not how a company conducts itself if it wants to sell.

Some observers believe the layoffs could be an Omnitrax strategy to leverage financial support from the public sector. Tweed, a former Conservative MP from Brandon, previously said the railway should be treated and subsidized as a public utility.

If this is a tactic  and I have heard that as well  then it is a pretty sick one, Ashton said.

Tweed did not return requests for interviews Tuesday from the Free Press but rumours abound as to why the action was taken.

One Manitoba transportation executive who has been involved in efforts to stabilize and grow the business case of the Hudson Bay Railway and Port of Churchill said, Its a troubled file. There are so many agendas.

Ashton said her communication with Omnitrax officials has been strained for some time. Omnitrax sued the former Selinger government just prior to the April 19 provincial election, accusing Selinger and his government of breaching a non-disclosure agreement in relation to the proposed deal with the First Nations consortium.

But the degree to which Brian Pallisters government is focused on the Churchill Gateway has been questioned by Ashton and others.

I have not seen any encouraging message from this provincial government as of yet, Ashton said.

Cliff Cullen, minister of growth, enterprise and trade, said in a statement Tuesday, Manitobas new government is committed to the economic and social development of northern Manitoba. We are disappointed to learn of Omnitraxs decision to lay off a number of their employees and would like to assure impacted port workers that (government departments) are investigating all avenues of assistance available to them.

He said the province has invested $29 million into the Churchill Gateway system since Omnitrax acquired the assets in 1997 and that the province is focused on attracting investment, assisting entrepreneurs and facilitating expansion of existing opportunities

I wonder to what extent Omnitrax is truly trying to find a solution. This is not how a company conducts itself if it wants to sell  Niki Ashton, NDP MP for Churchill  Keewatinook Aski

We will continue working with our partners with the Town of Churchill and all other stakeholders to provide a stronger economic future for the region, Cullen said.

Last year was the second lowest volume of business on record at the port, when less than 200,000 tonnes of grain were shipped. (Average annual shipments for the past several years have been about 500,000 tonnes.) Since the wind-up of the Canadian Wheat Boards grain marketing monopoly in 2012, the federal government has provided a subsidy of $9.20 per tonne for grain shipped through the port. That subsidy is scheduled to expire after the 2017 shipping season

Keystone Agricultural Producers president Dan Mazier and others said they were surprised at the decision because Omnitrax officials had indicated to them very recently that the coming season was looking good.

Mazier said in a statement, This is a major blow to us, especially when there appears to be an exceptionally large crop coming. Weve had so many issues shipping our grain east and west to port, and this was an excellent option. If ever there was a case for government intervention, this is it.

The federal government is believed to have been in close communication with Omnitrax and the First Nation group that has been in negotiations to buy the assets since the beginning of the year.

Terry Duguid, Liberal MP for Winnipeg South, headed a group that worked to find a buyer for the asset when CN wanted to abandon the so-called Bay Line in the mid-1990s.

Navdeep Bains, the federal minister of innovation, science and economic development, issued a statement late Tuesday afternoon, saying, I am disappointed in the decision by Omnitrax to close the port and issue layoff notices to its employees. My heart goes out to all the families that are affected. The community of Churchill plays an important role in the economy of Manitoba, given that it is a strategic gateway to northern and indigenous communities. I am in ongoing discussions with my cabinet colleagues and will continue to monitor the situation closely.

Mazier is asking the federal government to come up with a plan that will ensure the port opens for the 2017 season, and beyond.

Judy Klassen, the Liberal MLA for Keewatinook, said she was focusing on the impact of the workers.

They are worried about how they are going to buy food and pay their rents, she said. Some are talking about going on welfare.

Ashton, who has represented the region that encompasses all of Omnitraxs operating territory since 2008, has not had any direct communication with Omnitrax officials for years.

She said the First Nations group that has been negotiating for the purchase of the railway and port told her they, too, were surprised by the news.

Supplied Port of Churchill

Arlen Dumas, chief of the Mathias Colomb First Nation at Pukatawagan who has been the leader of those efforts, was also unavailable Tuesday.

Efforts have been ongoing for many years to diversify the portfolio of goods shipped out of Churchill to no avail. Many involved in the file over the years have expressed frustration at the lack of substantial action being taken.

A high level report that came out in early 2013, called the Federal-Provincial Task Force on the Future of Churchill, concluded among other things, While many of these challenges are not new, the end of the Canadian Wheat Board monopoly and the resulting changes to the grain industry in the West have provided the impetus to explore new directions with a greater sense of urgency.

The Manitoba Chambers of Commerce issued a statement on Tuesday saying time is of the essence and that its crucial to come up with a proper solution for the future operation of the port and worries that even a temporary closure will damage prospects even further.

The ports viability is more than Manitobas issue alone and more than the movement of grain. It is the Gateway to the Central Arctic, and its future is important to all of Canada, the chambers release said.

martin.cash@freepress.mb.ca
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A group of indigenous women camping at the legislature wants to know whether Manitoba supports a national inquiry into missing and murdered indigenous women.

Our understanding is the government is holding up the inquiry over the terms of reference and over semantics. So whats going on? The families are waiting, said Chelsea Cardinal, one of two women at the camp Tuesday.

There were three tents set up on the legislatures front lawn; a similar tent camp two years ago also called for a national inquiry, before Ottawa signed on to it.

RUTH BONNEVILLE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS The Urban Warrior Alliance camps outside the legislature to protest the delays in the missing and murdered indigenous women inquiry Tuesday.

The group is expected to take turns, holding down the camp, where a fire for prayers was lit Monday evening, over the next four days and nights.

The latest camp comes after a week or more of mixed signals and growing frustration among indigenous advocates in and outside Manitoba that the inquiry is being held up.

The national inquiry will look at the estimated 1,200 missing and murdered indigenous women and girls in Canada, including more than 100 who are from Manitoba.

Prior to the premiers meeting last weekend in Whitehorse, federal Indigenous Affairs Minister Carolyn Bennett attempted to settle public concerns after a copy of the terms of reference for the inquiry was leaked. She assured advovates that policing and child welfare issues, both systemic issues, would form a big part of the mandate.

Aboriginal leaders and premiers also added their oar to calm the waters by stating there was no need to wait for an inquiry to get to work on the socio-economic issues behind the problem, another issue indigenous advocates and families have repeatedly raised.

And late Tuesday, in response to word the camp had been set up, Manitoba waded in to break through the continued confusion with an unequivocal statement of support for the national inquiry.

Manitobas new government intends to move forward with an order in council in support of the federal governments establishment of a national inquiry. We will do this in a timely manner as we continue to work with our federal and provincial partners to finalize the draft terms of reference, Justice Minister Heather Stefanson said in an email to the Free Press.

The statement raised one of the major points of confusion, that the terms of reference were an issue still to be worked out with Ottawa. Stephansons statement did not go into details.

The concern with the Pallister government is Manitoba may try to delay the national inquiry, or at the very least pare down its scope, to leave out systemic issues such as the child welfare and policing, women at the legislature camp said.

The camps concerns echo the provinces First Nations and indigenous leaders who met a week ago with the provincial ministers for justice and indigenous and municipal affairs and issued public statements urging the province to sign on to the inquiry.

NDP MLA Nahanni Fontaine, the NDP governments former adviser on missing and murdered indigenous womens issues, told the women Tuesday their presence reminds the province it owes the public an explanation on where it stands.

You cannot just do the work and not advise the families of the missing and murdered indigenous women and girls on what youre doing, Fontaine said.

The federal Liberals made the national inquiry, something former Conservative prime minister Stephen Harper opposed, a major election promise.

But since Justin Trudeau became prime minister, headway in Ottawa appears to be meeting headwinds in Manitoba by the Conservatives under Premier Brian Pallister, the women at the camp said.

They cited Leslie Spilletts removal from the Winnipeg Police Board this month as a jolt, especially since the respected indigenous advocate hadnt been given the courtesy of a phone call before the announcement was made public.

What is going to be happening next? We took a few steps forward with the national inquiry happening. Now its being held up again. To us, it seems like tactics, Sandy Banman said.

Fontaine told the women to expect an announcement from Ottawa as early as next week on the start of the national inquiry.

The most recent media reports noted the province wanted a commissioner from Manitoba named to the inquiry and they had questions over the inquirys terms of reference.

alexandra.paul@freepress.mb.ca
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A Winnipeg mother accused of kidnapping her two children has to wait until next month to find out whether shell be granted bail.

Sandra Giesbrecht, 44, has been in custody since her June 22 arrest on two counts of abduction and one count of fleeing from police. She was in court Tuesday when defence lawyer Mike Cook argued in favour of her release. The Crown was opposed.

Provincial court Chief Judge Margaret Wiebe said she needs more time to consider the matter and reserved her decision until Aug. 10.

Sandra Giesbrecht

No details on evidence or information presented during the bail hearing can be published under a court-imposed publication ban thats designed to protect the accuseds right to a fair trial.

Winnipeg police arrested Giesbrecht on a Canada-wide warrant following a short pursuit with officers after her nine-year-old son and 11-year-old daughter had been missing for five days. Their father had been granted full custody of the children after a lengthy custody dispute, and Giesbrecht was ordered to have no unauthorized contact with them.
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If you spotted a handful of old-timey suffragists marching on Sargent Avenue Tuesday, no cause for alarm  they were just celebrating the colourful and historical new addition to Sargent Avenue.

On Tuesday morning, the West End BIZ unveiled its latest mural, located at 560 Sargent Ave. Painted by local artist and seasoned mural painter Mandy van Leeuwen, A Womans Parliament tells the story of Manitoba suffragettes, 100 years after most women in the province became the first in Canada to win the right to vote.

Its amazing, for a small wall, the huge impact this mural has had, said Gloria Cardwell-Hoeppner, executive director of the BIZ. When you view it from across the street, its just so striking, people who are driving by are noticing it.  Everybody who is stopping in the street wants to talk about it.

Standing four metres high and 10 metres wide, the mural depicts a key moment in the suffragist movement, van Leeuwen said, chosen through consultation with the Nellie McClung Foundation and West End BIZ. The group settled on a scene from a play presented by McClung and other suffragettes that reversed the roles of men and women in society, with men coming before an all-female parliament to beg for the vote.

It was major, said van Leeuwen of the plays role in the movement.

It was so entertaining and so funny. They say Nellie was so funny and so outspoken and everything that it actually stuck with everyone.

Van Leeuwen said the subject matter created an interesting challenge for an artist: no photographs exist of the play, and the few that remain of McClung and her fellow suffragists are black-and-white. To fill the gaps, van Leeuwen used century-old newspaper articles from the now-defunct Winnipeg Tribune and the Manitoba Free Press describing the play.

Working from a black-and-white photo, a very limited type of photo from back then, and making it something that works for today  its very, very challenging, she said. But I love that in art and projects because it really pushes you to grow.

The work is the first of three new murals to be unveiled this summer by the West End BIZ, joining more than 90 other public artworks created in the area. It will also be a stop on the BIZs award-winning mural tour.

(Public art) creates that awareness of the history that we have in the area and in our city and builds that community pride, said Cardwell-Hoeppner. It also adds some beauty to the streets because definitely a colourful mural is more interesting to look at than just a blank wall (and) deters any graffiti or vandalism to some of the walls, because artists respect other artists, whether theyre graffiti artists or otherwise.

aidan.geary@freepress.mb.ca
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A massive oil spill on the North Saskatchewan River is not an immediate threat to Manitobas water supply, government officials say.

However, a careful eye is being kept on The Pas drinking water supply, which uses the Saskatchewan River as its source.

Between 200,000 and 250,000 litres of crude oil leaked into the river last Thursday after a Husky Energy pipeline spilled near Maidstone, Sask.

Manitoba Sustainable Development said in a news release Tuesday the province is receiving regular updates on the cleanup.

Officials said the slow travel of the oil slick through the eastern portions of the Saskatchewan River will allow time to implement emergency plans if any cleanup is still required. Containment of the spill is expected to be completed in time to protect Manitoba waterways.

There is no risk to the water supply of any Manitoba community at this time, but discussions about alternatives are underway with the Town of The Pas, which uses the Saskatchewan River as a drinking water source, said the release. Provincial staff are monitoring the situation closely and will advise if any further action is required.

North Battleford and Prince Albert, two cities downstream from the pipeline leak, have stopped drawing water from the river.

North Battleford shut down its intake Friday and is relying on a limited supply from wells. Officials say the oily plume reached Prince Albert, a city of 35,000 people, Monday.

Communities affected by the oil spill can expect precautionary drinking-water measures to be in place for weeks or even months, a Saskatchewan government official says.

Its not going to be a short-term event, Sam Ferris with Saskatchewans Water Security Agency said Monday. It could go on for some time.

Ferris estimates the water supplies of nearly 70,000 people have been affected so far and the slick has travelled about 370 kilometres.

About 70,000 litres of an oil-soil mixture have been cleaned up around the source of the leak, and another 118,000 litres of oily water have been skimmed from the river, but officials dont know how much oil has been recovered.

Calgary-based Husky, which is controlled by Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-Shing, has apologized.

We realize this has been a very challenging time for everybody, with the spill impacting people, the environment and local businesses, said Al Pate, the companys vice-president overseeing the response. Were deeply sorry this has happened. We accept full responsibility for the event and for the cleanup, and we will make things right.

Pate said the breached pipeline was built in 1997 and was subject to a rigorous corrosion-monitoring program.

The Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations is demanding representation at the command centre handling the spill.

 staff, with files from The Canadian Press
Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 27/07/2016 (2284 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Once specifically associated with war veterans, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) has moved far beyond the realm of war zones and is becoming recognized as a real issue in workplaces right here in Manitoba.

In the article The hidden scars (July 23), Mike McIntyre shed light on some of the heavy psychological burden that emergency workers are forced to grapple with on a daily basis.

While firefighters, paramedics and police officers are easily identified as being more prone to PTSD, an often-overlooked but equally high risk group is nurses.

Nurses experiences with PTSD have received very little attention in the past. Some of this can be attributed to the fact that nursing is a predominantly female profession and PTSD symptoms among women can be misdiagnosed or overlooked as anxiety, burnout or depression.

However, there is no disputing the statistics  Canadian research studies have continuously shown that more than 30 per cent of nurses report experiencing one or more symptoms of PTSD. In Manitoba, the number is much higher, with more than half of the nurses in this province having experienced critical incident stress, a precursor to the development of PTSD. Furthermore, one in four nurses report consistently experiencing PTSD symptoms.

PTSD symptoms and the state of workplace psychological health and safety are having a direct impact on the absenteeism rates in the nursing profession. Nationally, the rate of absenteeism for full-time nurses is eight per cent, which is substantially higher than the average of all other occupations (4.7 per cent). The most recent statistics available for Manitoba, show that in 2014, there were 331 active psychological disability claims for health-care employees, including nurses, representing the second-highest disability claim category.

In providing care for others, nurses are often required to suppress or evoke certain emotions in themselves and others in order to provide quality care and maintain professional standards. Similarly, as the primary caregivers, they are often reluctant to recognize at times they are the ones that need help.

While the recent addition of the presumptive PTSD legislation to the Workers Compensation Act was an important and noteworthy step in the right direction, it does not mitigate the health and safety risks that nurses face on a daily basis.

Unfortunately, Manitoba still lacks a legislative framework and consistent policies that prioritize psychological health and safety in the workplace, especially in health-care environments.

Apart from violence and harassment, there is currently no legal obligation for employers to address or takes steps to prevent psychological hazards on the job. In order to reduce the effects of trauma, it is crucial for employers to adopt a comprehensive psychological health and safety prevention policy and ensure timely access to psychological supports.

During our independent research, time and time again, nurses raised concerns about the inability to access onsite supports for trauma and mental health issues. The need for debriefing supports was the number one recommendation from our focus groups.

It is imperative for the government to recognize psychosocial and psychological hazards under the Manitoba Workplace Safety and Health Act and Regulation. It should also be a legal requirement for employers to implement policies, processes and supports that directly respond to psychological hazards in the workplace.

The nursing profession can be gratifying, challenging, and rewarding but, it can also cause nurses to be ongoing witnesses to trauma and an inordinate amount of suffering and death. The exposure to this trauma is not openly discussed or recognized publicly.

We hope that the inclusion of psychological health in Manitobas workplace safety and health legislation would formally acknowledge the unique health and safety hazards in health care work environments. It goes without saying that psychological health and safety within the health care profession is paramount in ensuring a healthy health care system where nurses can provide the highest level of care to their patients.

To view the Manitoba Nurses Union PTSD research report and documentary, please visit www.traumadoesntend.ca

Sandi Mowat is the president of the Manitoba Nurses Union, representing more than 12,000 nurses of all designations across Manitoba.
Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 26/07/2016 (2285 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

What in the world is Omnitrax up to?

The Denver-based owner of the Hudson Bay Railway and Port of Churchill shocked many this week with a sudden decision to shut down its port facilities and lay off its 90 employees. In doing so, Omnitrax has put the future of the port, the community it supports, and the railway that serves as a lifeline for northern Manitoba, very much in doubt.

The big question making its way through the offices of key federal and provincial officials is: why this, why now? Other than brief comments to the employees affected by the port closure, Omnitrax has not been available to answer questions about its short- and long-term plans for Churchill. Calls to Omnitrax Canada president Merv Tweed, a former Tory MLA and MP, have gone unanswered.

BORIS MINKEVICH / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES Merv Tweed, president of Omnitrax Canada, has been silent about the port closure so far.

In the absence of comments from the operator of the railway and port, this is a summary of what we do know.

It was no secret that Omnitrax was having a tough time finding the volume of grain shipments necessary to make the port a viable business. In fact, the decision to end the Canadian Wheat Board grain monopoly has seriously eroded grain shipments through Churchill. Previously, the CWB was Churchills single biggest customer. Government sources indicated the port had only been able to confirm about 35,000 tonnes of grain for this shipping season, a far cry from the 700,000 tonnes the port needs to be viable.

Still, there is much more than the shipment of grain going on in Churchill these days.

The tourism industry is booming right now. Churchill is also experiencing a renaissance in scientific research activity with two new centres of excellence, including the University of Manitobas $45-million Churchill Marine Observatory that will study the impact of Arctic oil spills. Churchill also remains a key resupply depot for the burgeoning mining activity across the eastern regions of Nunavut. Although grain shipments have dropped precipitously, there seems to be other opportunities in the offing, all of which rely in one way or the other on a fully operational railway and port.

Government officials at the federal and provincial level are, to put it mildly, dumbfounded at Omnitraxs decision. Despite that fact, no one from either level of government would answer direct questions on the future of Churchill. Ottawa issued a statement from Innovation Science and Economic Development Minister Navdeep Bains indicating that he was monitoring the situation closely. The province issued a similarly vague statement from Enterprise and Trade Minister Cliff Cullen who promised to work with our partners to provide a stronger economic future for the region.

Notwithstanding those platitudes, sources at both levels of government are clear that no one is particularly amused with what Omnitrax did this week. The consensus right now is that Omnitrax is trying to stoke fears about a more permanent closure of the port to prompt government to dig into its pockets for multimillion-dollar subsidies to keep the railway and port operator up and running.

The strategy is not without merit. Omnitrax got involved in northern Manitoba the late 1990s after CN, then-owner of the railway, threatened to pull up its tracks and abandon the line for good. That threat prompted the federal and provincial governments to negotiate a purchase from CN using taxpayer money. Omnitrax, the great private-sector saviour, was essentially paid to take over both the port and railway.

The government largesse has continued in one form or another for most of the last two decades. Tens of millions of dollars have been poured into maintenance and facility upgrades, while government has continued to lead the study of non-grain related business opportunities to make Churchill truly viable.

This time around, however, Omnitrax may find out that the days of direct operating subsidies or grants for facilities upgrades are coming to an end. Early indications from both federal and provincial sources are that neither level of government is going to rush to write a cheque.

Theyre playing a dangerous game that we just dont want to encourage right now, said one source. Theyre essentially holding a gun to their own head and threatening to pull the trigger. Its ridiculous.

To be fair, government is going to have to be involved at some point. Despite the fact that neither is self-sufficient, the railway and port are essential building blocks in the northern Manitoba economy. As a result, the political valuation of the Hudson Bay Railway and Port of Churchill is much higher than the market valuation. Neither the feds nor the province can afford to watch the north lose these valuable assets.

But how much support is too much? Omnitrax has already signalled its interest in selling the railway and port to a consortium of First Nations. Its been hard to tell how serious Omnitrax has been about completing this deal; despite claiming publicly to be making progress, there is little to suggest that a sale is close to fruition. Grain industry sources claim the uncertainty about future ownership of the railway and port have done nothing to encourage anyone to use Churchill to move product.

For now, Churchill and indeed all of northern Manitoba has been thrown into yet another period of uncertainty. In the past, government has always been able to cobble together some sort of deal or package to keep everything up and running.

Omnitrax is clearly wagering that the two levels of government are willing to, once again, come to Churchills rescue. And maybe they will. But it appears more and more likely that everyone wants to see if Omnitrax has the guts to pull the trigger.

dan.lett@freepress.mb.ca
Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 27/07/2016 (2284 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Theres no shortage of controversies at city hall these days, but Coun. Scott Gillingham opened up the door to more by dropping the P word in response to overtime costs at Winnipeg Transit  privatization. In an exclusive Free Press report, city hall reporter Aldo Santin detailed the rise of overtime in Winnipeg Transit for several mechanics and other unionized staff. In fact, one mechanic worked so much overtime he made just a few thousand dollars less than the transit director, whose salary is $173,710.

Mr. Gillingham responded to the Free Press report Sunday suggesting all options, including privatization, would be considered to try to control costs. Mr. Gillingham clarified he was speaking about privatization for the maintenance department only, something that has been done in other cities.

According to American public policy researcher Lynn Scholl, bus transit services in the U.S. were largely privatized until the mid-1960s, when it was no longer profitable as automobiles became more popular. In the U.K., prime minister Margaret Thatcher privatized the countrys bus and rail system in the 1980s. It didnt go particularly smoothly. More recently, in London, one of two transit companies contracted to maintain the subway went bankrupt in 2007, leaving taxpayers on the hook for billions of pounds.

Transit privatization in the U.S. usually means the government controls planning, route and scheduling co-ordination, while private bus companies own, maintain and operate the buses  seemingly what Mr. Gillingham was proposing. Would this work in the Winnipeg scenario? Not likely.

If one of the reasons overtime costs are so high is the city doesnt pay their mechanics the industry standard, making hiring and maintaining staff difficult, how could a private contractor cut those costs?

According to Ms. Scholls study, critics of privatization suggest, among other things, cutting costs can result in poor vehicle maintenance. Thats a problem.

In 2015, Winnipeg Transit officials were forced to scale back services during rush hour because of a backlog of buses in the shop for repair.

Private transit can work well but only in areas where there is already a strong ridership who rely on it as an alternative to busy commutes.

Winnipeg Transit struggles with ridership issues, particularly in the outlying areas of the city. Privatization could mean cutbacks to lesser-subscribed areas, further eroding accessibility.

But the main reason privatization should not be considered right now in Winnipeg is this: it requires a watchful eye to ensure standards are maintained and lives are not being endangered.

Its difficult to have any type of faith in city hall to ensure a careful monitoring of the situation. City Coun. Janice Lukes, the chairwoman of the public works committee that oversees Transit, said she was not aware of the overtime issues and has asked Transit director Dave Wardrop for an explanation.

Thats like not bothering to read the schedule and then chasing down the sidewalk after the first bus you see.

And this is a worrying trend at city hall: bureaucrats not releasing information, leaving councillors holding the bag. Before privatization can even be put on the agenda, accountability needs to improve first. Otherwise, Winnipeggers are going to miss more than their bus.
By PTI: definitely consulted everybody, much before taking the decision." "The concern that we have in mind is very well explained by the fact that if we are spending huge amounts on purchase of defence equipment, is it not possible for us being a large purchaser of defence equipments, to invite these companies to come and produce in India and also not just supply for us but any excess that would be produced, other than what we buy, be exported," she said. The Minister said it also gave an opportunity for India to generate employment and also create such investment which will eventually keep money, largely within India. Clarifying the issue of FDI in civil aviation, the Minister said "we have only said that if it is possible that everything less than 49 per cent would be through automatic route and if it is more than 49 per cent, it passes through the approval route." On the issue of FDI in pharma sector, she said the Indian pharma sector was confident enough to run their business as they have captured global standards. "They are the leaders in generic medicines. We wanted to give them a greater traction. We have had consultations with industry. And, it is only after receiving suggestions from the industry, we have opened up the brownfield and subsequently the greenfield also," she said. PTI SKC ARC

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A laundry list of infrastructure needs was presented to U.S. Sen. Al Frankens staff Tuesday.

Jake Schwitzer, state policy adviser for Franken, and Bree Maki, the senators southern Minnesota field representative, collected complaints, suggestions and ideas from 12 attendees representing government and business groups to bring back for further study.

The group touched on a variety of infrastructure needs, everything from highways and roads to water, transportation, housing and broadband internet.

Regarding infrastructure aid, Lewiston mayor Dave Sommer said the city has been struggling with an aging clay pipe water system that it cannot afford to fully replace all at once, and doing it piecemeal only adds to taxes over the long term.

Sommer described the repairs as one cost after another, to the point that the city loses residents to nearby cities with cheaper water and sewer rates.

The only way we can get those funds is to raise taxes on the people, and we already have high enough infrastructure fees, Sommer said. Were trying to get creative, but theres only so much you can do.

Sommer said the citys estimated cost would be around $8.5 million to bring it to appropriate operating standards.

Goodview city administrator Dan Mateka said that his city has had similar struggles finding help in funding improvements to their water system, and have been required to create two water treatment systems.

Mateka said they have been lining their water at a cost of over $100,000 per year for the past several years.

You can only budget so much a year, but that relates back to the sewer rates, Mateka said.

Water infrastructure was one of the goals of the Minnesota Legislature in the 2016 session, but it failed to pass the bonding bill  which also included transportation funding  after lawmakers were unable resolve disagreements during last-minute negotiations.

Transportation was also a topic.

Winona city manager Steve Sarvi said the city needs more government help supporting bus and train transport in the area.

Amtrak informed Winona in August that the citys train station would become unstaffed as part of a company-wide program of attrition, which will leave St. Paul and La Crosse as the only staffed stations in the area.

Sarvi said the bus program is also an issue. Stronger inter-city bus systems would help bring people in and provide opportunities for shopping, as well as connect people in smaller communities.

We need those opportunities for transit, Sarvi said.

For housing needs, attendees said there are a variety of needs, and suggested the use of incentive programs to help drive development.

Winona Area Chamber of Commerce president Della Schmidt said one of the factors contributing to limited business growth in the area is the lack of affordable housing, particularly housing for young professionals that isnt geared toward college students.

From the business community standpoint we have a very difficult time attracting or retaining talent, Schmidt said. Housing is a huge barrier to solving some of the workforce challenges we have.

Schmidt said the overabundance of college housing makes it difficult for developers to make it financially viable to build different housing.

While the meeting didnt have a particular agenda, Schwitzer said that he and staff members are collecting anecdotes and data to allow Franken to lobby for and support things he hears from constituents, and connect their needs to similar ones elsewhere in the state  and country.

This isnt a Minnesota problem, Schwitzer said. Its absolutely a nationwide problem.
Knowing how much the Winona arts have thrilled her granny, our 19-year-old granddaughter from Apex, N.C, came to experience them for herself this summer.

In the space of five days, we attended two unbelievable Minnesota Beethoven Festival performances, and we watched the three Great River Shakespeare Festival plays, where she gasped, laughed and hummed along with the music.

Touring the Minnesota Marine Art Museum, she marveled at awesome paintings of the masters through the ages. At the Winona County Historical Society, we explored exhibits from the beginnings of Winona, as well as the Art of Fine Furniture. Papa John gave her a driving tour of Winona with its gorgeous Victorian houses, historic downtown and Lake Winona surrounded by beautiful bluffs.

The GRSF's Front Porch symposium on rhetoric informed us about the power of words. While listening to a Concert on the Green at Winona State University, we ate purchased food and met directors and actors who are friends of her grandparents. Neighbors invited us into their homes for meals.

A highlight of her visit was the GRSF Company Conversations on Sunday morning. Actors responded to questions about roles and their lives. A couple from St. Paul had just seen all three plays. The wife passionately exclaimed: We have seen lots of Shakespeare performances. I don't like Shakespeare anywhere except Winona. I tear up when something is close to my heart.

Her tears provoked emotional responses from the actors who acknowledged how much this professional acting company means to them. They voiced their appreciation for everyone who makes the plays possible  those who design scenes, build sets, sew costumes, teach the texts, direct the plays and volunteer. They are especially grateful to this hospitable community, which welcomes them every year.

Leaving us, our granddaughter expressed her happiness for a special introduction to Winona and its extraordinary arts. What a memorable visit!
The Great River Shakespeare Festival would like to thank all who helped make our third annual Will Run such a success last Sunday. Carter Briggs and Linda Williams were the overall winners. Carter beat last year's winning time and is thus the new world record holder at 28 furlongs. For a complete list of times and results check out the GRSF website, grsf.org, very soon.

Winonas wellness community is one of a kind, but we at GRSF would like to especially thank the following:

Our Will Run sponsors, Altra Federal Credit Union and Thrivent Financial, for their generous support. Our clock keepers, Kathy Hovell and Tom Slaggie, who devote hours of service for so many of our regional races. The devoted Live Well staff of Janneke Sobeck and Deb McClellan, for keeping Winona fit and healthy. And our food and beverage sponsors, Bloedow's, Hy-Vee, Culligan Water, and Mugby Junction. Thanks also to J. R. Watkins, Sole Sport, Back to Health, and Cha Chi's for their gifts.

None of this would be possible without Chad Ubl and Marty Mullen at Winona Park and Recreation, and all of the Will Run volunteer team. It was great fun and we hope you will join us all next year!
The Baraboo School Board finalized teacher pay for the 2016-17 school year Monday night, tying teacher salary increases to a .12 percent rise in the Consumer Price Index.

Wisconsin Education Association Council Director Bill Froelich said the Baraboo Education Association disagrees with how the board calculated the new salaries.

Despite having limited bargaining rights, he said the Association will continue to converse with the board about the complex issues.

I think the district is listening  they arent stonewalling the dialogue, Froelich said. It all goes back to people wanting to be heard, valued and respected.

On June 28, the boards Personnel Committee met with the Associations Negotiations Committee to discuss annual contracts. The board presented an initial offer to the teachers union for the 2016-17 contract year, but the Association declined the offer.

The boards Personnel Committee acknowledged both parties were at impasse and recommended the board implement its initial offer as final.

School Board Treasurer Sean McNevin is on the boards Personnel Committee and said the board has the authority to move forward and adjust teacher contracts and supplemental pay increases without approval from the teachers union.

What were doing now is were saying we are at impasse, McNevin said. Weve negotiated as far as we can and reasoned as far as we can.

McNevin said the board offered the maximum wage increase allowed by Wisconsin law to teachers, but the Association rejected the offer based on principle.

Teachers unions like the Baraboo Education Association have lost most bargaining rights in Wisconsin since Act 10 passed in 2011.

The next Baraboo School Board meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m. Aug. 8 in the Baraboo High School Media Center.

In other business, the board also:

Hired Al Behrman Elementary special education teacher Kathleen Burdey

Hired Jack Young Middle School language arts teacher Karla Reinhardt

Hired Gordon L. Willson Elementary School Principal Amy Fassbender

Approved long-term substitute music teacher Elizabeth Meter for Gordon L. Willson and North Freedom elementaries
On the eve of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the hypocrisy of the Democratic National Committee came into full view. A Democrat was forced to resign over an email scandal.

Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the Congresswoman from Florida and chair of the DNC, was forced to resign when 19,000 hacked emails exposed she was working against Bernie Sanders, the almost Democratic nominee. Wasserman Schultz failed to take a page from Hillary Clinton by not deleting them.

Of course, those emails were to other Democrats who were helping coordinate the effort, but when the DNC establishment came under fire, someone had to go. It was the person whose name was at the header of the stolen emails.

Not having read the emails, I suspect it was a mass coordination of the Super Delegates who are given enough voting power to squash the voice of millions of primary voters who supported Sanders. In many states where Sanders won, Clinton received the most delegates because of the unusual power Super Delegates have.

Isnt it ironic the party that screams that the Republican Party is trying to suppress votes by requiring that American voters prove their identity when casting a ballot is the same party that uses its political powers to actually suppress the vote?

But then again, Democratic delegates have to show an ID before they receive their credentials to sit on the floor of the Wells Fargo Center. Thats as legitimate as needing to have an ID to purchase beer and cigarettes. If you live in Colorado, an ID also lets you by marijuana. Voting, on the other hand, is altogether different.

Then again, why should we expect logic to dictate when there is a perfectly good agenda to politicize? Take for example the DNCs pro-abortion stance. It is perfectly acceptable to kill an unborn child, however someone who murders another person should not receive the death penalty because suddenly life has value.

This is the same party that lectures extreme words against Muslim extremists are dangerous. While protecting Muslim extremists from these harsh words, they disregard the fact these are the same people who will kill someone simply because they have violated Sharia law by being gay. Then again, maybe a Coexist bumper sticker will fix this.

This is the same party that claims to oppose racism, yet classifies everyone by the color of their skin. Why would they support welfare programs that enslave millions of blacks into poverty while promoting a practice that disproportionately kills black babies? Thirty-six percent of abortions are performed on the babies of black women who make up only 13 percent of the population. However, a 60 percent incarceration of black criminals who make up only 30 percent of the population is unjust. If it is about racism, why dont they take issue with both statistics?

Of course, this is the week the DNC wants us to celebrate history claiming Clinton as a first (insert race/gender here). Forget the fact that Victoria Woodhall (white female) was the first woman to run for president. As a candidate for the Equal Rights Party, she ran with Frederick Douglass (black male) in 1872.

Meanwhile, the party that claims to support womens rights called Sarah Palin every name in the book when she was the first female to run as a Republican vice-presidential candidate. It was quite the opposite of the reaction Geraldine Ferraro received as their partys first. If it is truly about womens rights, does it matter what party they represent when advancing women in politics?

The DNC is championing a trillion dollar per year free college program and the need to give Americas impoverished even more assistance, despite losing the $22 trillion war on poverty. There is a $19 trillion debt and theyre throwing one of the most lavish celebrations in the country. Why not show solidarity and move to a less expensive venue with less pomp and circumstance?

The Democrats love to fly home in their private jets while claiming humans alone are causing climate change. They preach against guns while surrounded by armed guards. If the rich are not paying their fair share, why dont the Clintons start by sharing more of theirs?

Despite not filing charges, the FBI outlined a very thorough criminal case against Clintons email scandal. The Democrats still dont see any wrongdoing. Wasserman Schultzs emails were at least private and did not contain state secrets. One could even argue she was working to protect the party. But theyre not spending the week not talking about Clintons emails  not even the deleted ones.
If the party conventions have you feeling sick about the state of the U.S. government, rest easy. Things are ugly all over, especially in Italy, and not just because the banks there dont have enough money to buy gelato. In that country, leaders have decided the best punishment for government workers who occasionally avoid their jobs is to throw them in jail, where they can avoid work permanently.

This month, the mayor of a small town outside Naples shut down most municipal offices after police arrested 23 of his staff for absenteeism. The Reuters news agency reports police arrested about half of all employees in the town hall offices of Boscotrecase after a weeks-long investigation uncovered 200 cases of absenteeism involving 30 people. Why were only 23 of the 30 suspects arrested? Perhaps the other seven were out getting pedicures at a day spa.

In response to this scandal, Donald Trump vowed to build a wall around Italy. Hillary Clinton sent some snarky emails about Italians and forgot to delete them.

The government staffers were filmed clocking in and then leaving to conduct personal business. Some used multiple swipe cards to register absent colleagues. Such scenes have become familiar after numerous similar scandals in Italys public sector. The workers, clearly undeterred by a recently announced government crackdown against absenteeism, have been suspended from work for between six and 12 months and risk eventual dismissal.

This is where government gets it wrong. These people would clearly rather go to jail than go to the office. The apt punishment isnt to toss them in the cooler: Its to force them to go to work. You may call it a prison term, but theyll consider it a sabbatical.

A police video showed one worker trying to tamper with a security camera and then putting a cardboard box over his head to hide his identity before swiping two cards. It must be exhilarating to attempt acts of derring-do against your own government, but youre hardly Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible if you find yourself walking around the town hall wearing cardboard.

Recently elected Mayor Pietro Carotenuto said four major town hall departments had to be closed last month due to a lack of staff. Those arrested, accused of fraud against the state, included the head of the local traffic police and the head of the towns accounting department.

Ill probably have to shut down the town hall, said Carotenuto, elected this summer as mayor of the town of 11,000 people.

Anyone watching Congress at work might get to thinking that rampant absenteeism at Capitol Hill might be just what America needs. Want to make America great again? Play hooky and leave the Constitution alone.

No ones ever satisfied with their government, of course. In the U.S. we have a loudmouth Republican promising to kick out anyone who looks at him sideways, jaywalks or folds their toilet paper over the roll. What, you thought that TP logo stood for Trump/Pence?

Meanwhile, on the eve of the Democratic National Convention, the party chair resigned after emails showed she was holding her thumb on the scale to help Clinton beat Bernie Sanders in the primaries. A word of advice to Democrats: Stop using email. Try passing notes in study hall, or hire the Pony Express. Maybe those wannabe IMF agents wearing cardboard boxes in Italy could show you how to make your messages self-destruct in 5 seconds.

No one says government work is easy. Perhaps thats why Italian bureaucrats sometimes need to get it away from it all. From time to time, you need to spend a couple hours shopping. Just make sure you dont spend a couple years behind bars.
By PTI: From Anisur Rahman

Dhaka, Jul 26 (PTI) Describing Bangladesh as an "invaluable partner" in the fight against terrorism, India today sought greater security cooperation with the Muslim- majority nation to fight a "common battle" against the menace.

"New challenges call for enhanced security cooperation between our armed forces; police and law enforcement agencies; close coordination on the ground," Indian High Commissioner Harsh Vardhan Shringla said at the National Defence College here, referring to recent spate of terror attacks in Bangladesh.

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He said the regional peace and stability was of "utmost importance" against the backdrop of enhanced economic cooperation that terrorism tried to undermine.

Speaking at the NDC session Contemporary India, its Foreign Policy, Security Strategy & Bangladesh-India Relations, he said that security perceptions had changed with terrorism emerging as "a major challenge".

In his maiden address to the NDC after taking up Dhaka assignment this year, Shringla condemned the terrorist attack on a Dhaka cafe this month and said the armed forces played "a valiant role in effectively subduing the terrorists".

"Our Prime Minister has already gone on record to convey that Bangladesh is not alone in its fight against terrorism. The people of India stand with you," he told the officers.

He said that in line with Prime Minister Modis commitment, India "is willing to offer any support required in this regard".

Shringla appreciated Bangladesh armys role in "effectively subduing the terrorists" particularly after the July 1 terror attack on a Dhaka restaurant that killed 22 people, including an Indian girl. The subsequent security raid led by commandos neutralised the terrorists.

The envoy said a changed perception of security terrorism emerged as a major challenge while India particularly faced the "challenge of cross-border terrorism since the 1990s".

He said the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack was a "major eye-opener" and since then "there has been a marked expansion of India?s global partnership on terrorism and India?s strategic and security dialogues".

Shringla said India continued to build consensus on the Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism at the UN.

It called for "strengthened efforts to prevent supply of arms to terrorists, disrupt terrorist movements, curb and criminalize terror financing, secure its cyber space and minimize use of internet and social media for terrorism and radicalization".

"Bangladesh has also faced some serious challenges from terrorism and is an invaluable partner in our fight against terrorism," he said.

He highlighted a whole range of bilateral engagements particularly after the visit of Prime Minister Modi last year.

"India and Bangladesh share a special relationship," the high commissioner said, adding that the "understanding in India is that India can only prosper if Bangladesh prospers". PTI AR ZH AKJ ZH

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Secondary to the shock and horror of a sniper killing five Dallas police officers on July 7 was the news of how the sniper was finally neutralized: Through the use of a remote-controlled robot armed with explosives.

Micah Johnson, a 25-year-old Army Reserve veteran, was killed late that evening by the explosion of a device carried toward him by remote control, after he was cornered by officers at a college parking garage, the Guardian reported. The action is thought to be the first killing by robot carried out by police in the United States.

In a statement July 9, Dallas police said they had used a robot manufactured by Northrop Grumman. The robot had been fitted with a claw and arm extension and was carrying about one pound of C4 plastic explosive plus a detonating cord.

As most of us knew that same night or the next day, Johnson had opened fire on officers from the garage at the end of a peaceful demonstration. Five officers were fatally struck and seven others were wounded. Dallas police said July 9 they had no choice but to take out Johnson remotely after their efforts to talk him into surrendering ended unsuccessfully.

When all attempts to negotiate with the suspect, Micah Johnson, failed under the exchange of gunfire, the department utilized the mechanical tactical robot, as a last resort, to deliver an explosion device to save the lives of officers and citizens, the police statement said.

Dallas police chief David Brown reiterated the justification in an interview July 10. We had no choice in my mind but to use all tools necessary, he told CNN. Without our actions he would have hurt more officers.

This is a new frontier in police tactics, and we do not take lightly this escalation in the use of force to neutralize an individual.

Under federal constitutional law, excessive-force claims against the police are governed by the Fourth Amendment, Elizabeth Joh, a law professor at the University of California-Davis, told the Guardian. But we typically examine deadly force by the police in terms of an immediate threat to the officer or others. Its not clear how we should apply that if the threat is to a robot  and the police may be far away. In other words, I dont think we have a framework for deciding objectively reasonable robotic force. And we need to develop regulations and policies now, because this surely wont be the last instance we see police robots.

As with the military, there must be a police version of rules of engagement and the Law of Land Warfare. Such robots should only be used with the highest authorization and as a last resort.

But we do not fault Chief Brown for authorizing the decision to use the robot instead of risking more officers lives on that deadly night.

I approved it and would do it again if presented with the same circumstances, Brown said. I appreciate critics, but theyre not on the ground and their lives are not at risk.
JUNEAU  A 55-year-old Lomira man was found guilty of first degree sexual assault on Wednesday after a DNA test showed he was the father of his daughters child.

The man, who will not be named to protect the identity of the victim, pleaded no contest to first degree sexual assault and was found guilty. One additional felony charge of incest was dismissed but was read into the court record. He could face up to 72 years in prison and a $25,000 fine for the charges.

Judge Joseph Sciascia found the man guilty of sexual assault and ordered a pre-sentencing investigation be conducted. The defendant has been held on a $100,000 cash bond since charges were filed in July 2015.

According to the criminal complaint, the victim was a client at Bethany Christian Services in Waukesha, where they assist in adoptions, foster care and pregnancy counseling. The victim had given birth to a daughter in March and was interested in putting the child up for adoption. She had originally named a Beaver Dam man as the childs father. However, a DNA test showed that the man was not the father. The Beaver Dam man listed some possible men who could have been the father, including the victims father.

The victim said her father forced her to have sex.

The father admitted to having sex with the victim. The DNA test came back showing that the father was likely the parent of the girl.

The defendant will appear in court on Oct. 19 for a sentencing hearing.
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The courtroom has changed with technology as the issue of lugging around heavy case files has been replaced by the challenges of connectivity and slow log-ins. Columbia County Circuit Court is now taking a big step toward becoming completely paperless.

As of Aug. 1 the Columbia County Circuit Court will become next in line of Wisconsin state courts that will require nearly all court filings to come through an online e-filing system.

We have been getting ready for this for a couple years, said Clerk of Courts Susan Raimer. Between the e-signatures and the scanning of documents. We have gone paperless in small claims a couple years ago.

As is often advertised on websites, court records have been available online for years. Connoisseurs of the Wisconsin court system are largely familiar with Consolidated Court Automation Programs, in service since the early 1990s, which allows anyone to view Wisconsin court records, calendars and notes from court clerks.

At the court itself, computers allow access to internal documents and communications including criminal complaints, letters to judges, motions and everything else that is recorded and entered into the court file.

In the event of cases more than about 10 years old, a document request will require one of the clerks to go to the archives on the third floor to pull the physical file. The court is now taking the last step to keep that archive from getting any bigger with the online filing system, and with a long-term goal of shrinking it as much as possible.

It will be hectic. We elected to be the third county, said Raimer. On Aug. 1, Jefferson [County] and us are going on. Dodge and Ozaukee are already on. So it was a county choice to go now or later.

Columbia County elected to be at the head of the line, but the change comes at the behest of the U.S. Supreme Court, which in 2014 ordered that the change be made.

Although the judges are all adjusting to the change and seeing it as an evolution of their processes, there is specific motive in Columbia County to be one of the first counties to go to electronic filing.

Part of the reason is the building project, said Judge W. Andrew Voigt, referring to Columbia Countys $45.51 million building project that includes remodeling the courthouse. We should have dramatically fewer things to move and that will open up a lot of space that will be needed.

Slow rollout

After Jefferson County and Columbia County adopt the project in August, the rollout will continue with two or three more counties each month. If Columbia County left it to fate, transitioning in July 2017 would blow up a challenging situation to new proportions, laid on top of the scheduled move to new facilities, at which point Voigt said he would prefer to have the court investing in all around longer-term solutions.

Because weve known it was coming, we have been doing a lot to help prepare, said Voigt, like being less reliant on the paper file in court.

Whereas on TV and in movies, judges constantly scanning the courtroom and giving piercing looks to attorney and defendants, in reality, judges divvy their attention between a case as it is being argued and the case as it is written, with a computer in front of them and the clerk handing them a hard copy.

Nonetheless, there will be an initial shock and challenge when there isnt an option involved, Voigt said.

There are some things that are absolutely voluminous, said Voigt, giving an example of a case in which he is dealing with not the usual four or five interested parties, but 33 interested parties with names, addresses and other information filling up his screen. How do we deal with unusual cases? Its just figuring out how to deal with it.

But just one point of new convenience will be documents becoming universally searchable for staff.

Judges are going to have to do more fingerwork, Judge Alan White explained. There is aversion among many judges within his demographic  the over 60 crowd  to reading anything on a screen if given a choice. But they can still get things ordered on paper if they like, it just wont be the official copy.

One straight benefit of this, White said: I never get yelled at for writing on documents.

An important exception to this new paperless system, is for the person appearing pro-se, appearing without an attorney. Because this online access is for judges, clerks and attorneys, forcing it upon the public at large would be unconstitutional, impeding due process. Access to the internet, White explained, cannot be a prerequisite for having access to the court.

Court records make up not only the basis of much of what happens in government and business, but is the foundation of the historic record. Court records are a critical source for establishing elements of biblical accuracy. Moving to a system beyond a physical record is not without risk.

Backups planned

The system, managed by the state, will have two or three backups at different sites, according to Raimer. So lightning or online attack, for instance, should not be insurmountable.

There have been physical occurrences, like Milwaukee County had the huge fire and up north there was a flood, said Raimer. CCAP was there in hour and able to get the information back up on temporary equipment.

As for the dust collecting files on the seldom-visited third floor, they are being processed, brought online and either being destroyed or finding a new home.

A lot of it has been turned over to the historical society because they like a lot of it, said Raimer. We tackled a great portion a couple years ago. We have many, many records from the mid-1800s forward.
A Beaver Dam teen has been sentenced to 90 days in jail and two years of probation, following a hearing on four felony cases involving charges of theft and burglary.

Noah Prieve, 19, appeared in Columbia County Circuit Court on Tuesday, entering an agreement with pleas of no contest to four counts of misdemeanor theft.

Prieve was arrested in May and charged with burglary, theft and drug possession, then released on a signature bond, only to be arrested just over a month later, with three more cases brought against him with similar charges in a string of thefts in Portage.

These are his first criminal cases, said defense attorney Roger Klopp, explaining that he got involved with the wrong crowd in Portage. Theyre all a species of what we call car shopping.

The accusations involve Prieve taking things from unlocked cars parked outside overnight and going into garages that had been left open. The motivation for the thefts, Klopp explained was an underlying drug problem, which he said Prieve now was addressing through drug treatment and counseling.

The other factor was those around him, whom Klopp said Prieve would be avoiding by moving back home to Beaver Dam to stay with his family.

I realize the seriousness of my crimes and I just want to say I wasnt myself, said Prieve. And I hope it will be a learning experience.

Judge Todd Hepler told Prieve that he had little doubt the process would be a learning experience, saying, the most important part will be for you to find drug treatment.

Given Prieves age and that his only other court records are two citations for failing to wear a seatbelt, Hepler agreed to the recommendation from the attorneys, withholding sentencing while placing Prieve on two years of probation, to follow 90 days in jail.

Klopp requested that Prieve be given a 30-day stay on his sentence, giving him time to connect with a job and have his sentence transferred to Dodge County so he would be able to take advantage of Huber privileges, working during his time in jail.

Despite reservations, Hepler agreed.

Im somewhat hesitant to let you go for this stay, that you might relapse. But I see your family is here and they are supporting you, said Hepler. Good luck.
Its not Arya Stark traveling the world in George R. R. Martins Game of Thrones. But a girl from Portage moving 1,000 miles from her hometown is something similar.

The best stories, Miranda Stark of Portage said, are about people who leave their comfort zone.

Stark is off to Brooklyn to study criminal justice at Saint Francis College  a big move she wrote about recently for the website Collegeismylife.com. The article hit the main page of the websites stories section on July 20 and has since received more than 100 shares. Collegeismylife claims a reach of 3 million college students and has 130,000 followers on Twitter.

It was shocking, really emotional because of all the hard work I put into it, Stark said of the response to her article, available at collegeismylife.com/miranda-stark/journey-to-nyc . Stark felt compelled to share her story after the Saint Francis College Class of 2020 group she belongs to posted a message saying it sought writers.

Ive always liked writing and English, said Stark, 18, who will be minoring in communications at Saint Francis. If I dont like criminal justice, I might fall back on that.

Stark has neither read nor watched Game of Thrones  though she said its been nice to have fewer people asking her if shes Iron Mans daughter, since she also shares the name of the superhero, Tony Stark, from the Iron Man films.

The 2016 Wisconsin Virtual Academy graduate and former Portage High School student will move to Brooklyn Heights in August, enrolled in the two-year Criminal Justice program shed need to become a paralegal. She and her mother  Bartels Middle School technology assistant Christine Stark  traveled to Brooklyn in March for an open house at Saint Francis, where they visited Brooklyn Bridge and Chinatown and rode the ferry from Manhattan to Staten Island.

New York feels like a different world, Stark said. In Brooklyn shell be completely alone  with no family or friends to start with. Its scary, she said, but I just think its time to branch out and see whats out there, (to see) more than Portage. A lot of people dont think of the big things out there and stay in their hometown their whole life.

I want to push myself, meet new people.

Stark gained an affinity for New York City during a family vacation there in 2013, where the Starks visited the 9/11 Memorial and walked through Central Park. In a big city Stark feels at peace with whats going on around me, that even with so many crazy things going on, I feel like I fit in.

Theres so much more to do, Stark said, you can jump on a subway and see different things, with different options that I just dont feel I have in Portage.  I feel like I can accomplish anything when Im in New York.

I just think its so important to push yourself. Thats when we learn the most about ourselves.

So what is Starks advice to high school graduates who fear making a similar jump across the country?

I would say its totally OK to be nervous. But if you dont do it now, if you dont jump right in, years will go by and I think youll wonder what would have happened had I done that. I believe Id think back in 10 years and wonder what would have happened.

I would also add, Would you do it if you werent afraid? That has always helped me when making difficult decisions.

Stark plans to write her next article on why college open houses should be student-led.
Harry Alan Cuff

Harry Alan Cuff passed peacefully at his Billings, Montana, home July 22, 2016.

He was born in Portage on Dec. 20, 1944, to Willis and June (Rampson) Cuff. He was the youngest with two older sisters, Lois and Rita. He savored his childhood with a wonderful family, close friends, special classmates, and his beloved family cottage on Swan Lake.

Graduating from Portage High in 1963, he was the president of his class. He graduated from New York University in accounting, obtained CPA certification and began a career in public accounting in 1967. His career was interrupted by the Vietnam War, and he served in the U.S. Army Military Police Corp from 1968 to 1970 in Germany. He returned to NYC until transferring to the Minneapolis office. In 1975, he was hired by Kampgrounds of America, Inc. as a controller, and retired in 2005 as CFO and treasurer. The KOA staff and his years there meant a great deal to Harry.

Harry attended his 10-year high school reunion and a K-12 friendship was rekindled with Judy De Jong. In October 1976, the son of a beer distributer and the daughter of a minister were married with six kindergarten classmates included in the wedding party and their teacher also attended! Amanda Mandy Jo arrived in 1977, and Kate Katie Elizabeth in 1979. They, plus a black lab always, completed the family.

Harry had a deep faith, loved his family and felt called to serve his church and community. He served as church elder and treasurer, was on the boards of the BAC Swim Team, Alberta Bair Theater, Chamber of Commerce, United Way, Rocky Mountain College, was instrumental in the beginnings of the State Games, and was a founding member and treasurer of Special K Ranch. In family life, Harry found his true calling and was an unbelievable father and husband. He was his daughters best friend, supported them in all their activities, timed umpteen swim meets, participated in church youth and school functions and showered his love on them. He was honest, kind, loving, humorous, caring, but not particularly handy, and duct tape was his tool of choice. He loved their cabin on the Stillwater and the quality family time spent there. He was an avid fly fisherman and could spend hours on the river.

Harry was predeceased by his parents, Willis and June; Judys parents, the Rev. Lloyd and Bernice De Jong; brother-in-law, Jerry De Jong; and a number of aunts, uncles and other family members. He is survived by his wife, Judy; his daughters, Mandy Bronson (Danny) and Katie Sulpizio (Scott); his six grandsons, Zeke, Theo, Jonah, Samuel and Moses Bronson, and Ryan Sulpizio; his beautiful granddaughter, Morgan Sulpizio; sisters, Rita Meisner (Bob) and Lois James (Don James); his ever-present lab, Sadie; Judys sisters and brother, Joann Hellberg (Chuck), Jane Dewey (Tom), Jim (Patty) De Jong; and a special group of nieces, nephews and other extended family.

Thank you to all who supported and loved Harry, especially the buddies who spent time with him the last few years when Frontotemporal Dementia (FTD) reared its ugly head. Diabetes was his shadow for 37 years, but Harry lived a full life, although much too short. He will be missed more than anyone can imagine, but he is at peace and we will treasure the memories of his sense of humor, Papa-isms and words of wisdom. He will be loved forever.

A memorial service and reception will be at 2 p.m. Saturday at the First Presbyterian Church, 2420 13th St. West, Billings.

We are humbled and eternally thankful for the memorials that brought Mandy and her family home from Chad, Africa, to say goodbye. We are indebted to Dr. Jim Knostman, Dr. Karen Cabell, Jan Hollingworth, RN, CDE, and Rocky Mountain Hospice. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be directed to First Presbyterian Church, Special K Ranch or the charity of your choice.

Michelotti-Sawyers Mortuary is in charge of arrangements. Condolences may be made online at www.michelottisawyers.com.
Earlier this year, a series of columns were written to underscore the growing danger that faces the world over the increasing demand and shortage of fresh water. Those columns prompted a phone call from a reader. The woman had heard from her daughter, who lives in Colorado, about the selling of water from the United States to foreign countries.

The Almarai Dairy Company of Saudi Arabia has purchased 15,000 acres in Arizona. The purpose of buying the land is to grow alfalfa for Almarais 170,000 head of cattle. While the land is very desert like, on the property are 15 wells, each capable of pumping 1.5 billion gallons of water per year. Alfalfa is, apparently, very hearty and can grow well in the desert if provided with enough water. Almarai is able to get three or four cuttings of the crop each year. Harvested, the alfalfa is then shipped back to Saudi Arabia to feed their cattle. The reason for having a farm in the U.S. is that the Saudis have pumped their own aquifers dry.

The United Arab Emirates has also purchased land that has water rights here in the U.S. But since their herds of cattle are not nearly as large, the UAE is able to harvest the alfalfa, not only for its own use, but are also able to export a sizable portion to China.

But the story and race to control fresh water, just begins there. Over the last 15 years, large Wall Street banks and various investment companies have been buying up large tracts of land all over the world that, in every case, has access to fresh water. It is estimated by environmental scientists that large banks and investment firms now control at least 5 percent of the worlds fresh water supply.

You can go online and find companies like SellingColoradoWater.com and Aqua Capital Management. Aquas home page states, Aqua is the industry leader in water rights investment and management. Our focus is on building and managing a portfolio of water rights in water scarce regions around the globe. The website, Unusual Investment, has an article called How to Make a Killing Selling Water Rights. Forbes Magazine ran an article called Thirsty for Investments in Water.

Neil Beriant, of the investment firm Crowell and Weedon, was quoted as saying, All the easy to get water has already been tapped. He estimates that the cost of fresh water will double or even triple over the next 10 years.

Steve Hoffman of Bankrate has said that the current global water industry generates about $620 million in revenue a year, but that number could easily jump to $25 trillion a year in the next 15 years.

And the thought of our fresh water supplies being controlled by investment bankers and their ilk gets even scarier. One hedge fund manager is quoted as saying, For advisors and their wealthy clients, the global water crises could present unique opportunities. Some investors are so bullish; they refer to water as blue gold. Notice they specify their wealthy clients.

Or this, from the Summit Global Management Investment Firm, water is obviously undervalued relative to its real economic worth, so huge room exists for asset price expansion. In other words, they will make lots of money selling you the necessity for life.

This all comes at a time when the World Economic Forum states that there will be a 40 percent shortfall in fresh water supplies in the world within the next 10 years. This comes at a time when images from NASA show that one-third of the largest fresh water aquifers in the world either are, or soon will be, dry. This comes at a time of the freshwater crisis in Flint,

Michigan, and at a time that is estimated that there are 72,000 miles of water lines in the U.S. that are more than 80-years-old. There are anywhere between 250,000 and 300,000 leaks in those lines per year causing the loss of 1.7 trillion gallons of fresh water. The cost to fix the infrastructure needed to insure our freshwater supplies in the immediate future runs, in a worst-case scenario, to a $1 trillion.

This comes at a time when the United Nations reports that more than 780 million people worldwide do not have access to clean water.

This all comes at a time when Wall Street and their counterparts are slowly but surely buying and controlling the most basic sustenance for human life to exist.

In addition to the sources already quoted, additional information came from Fox News Online, the U.S. Geographical Survey, Scientific American, the University of California, and the Wall Street Journal.
Gurdip Singh, who was arrested in a case of alleged heroin smuggling in 2004, is likely to be executed this week in Indonesia, Amnesty International said.

By Maha Siddiqui: An Indian national, Gurdip Singh, is likely to be executed this week in Indonesia, according to Amnesty International.

It says it has credible reports to believe that the execution will be carried out on Friday or Saturday.

Arrested in a case of alleged heroin smuggling in 2004, Singh is believed to be in the list of 14 who are likely to face a firing squad.

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AMNESTY RAISES ALARM

Amnesty International says the "organisation is concerned that some of the prisoners who could face the firing squad were convicted in manifestly unfair trials and have not submitted clemency request to the President."

Amnesty is believed to have contacted the Ministry of External Affairs to press for approaching the Indonesian government for clemency.

The co-defendant in the case, a Pakistani national Zulfiqar Ali, had claimed that he was refused the right to contact his embassy and was not permitted any access to a lawyer until approximately one month after his arrest.

Some others claim, as reported by Amnesty, they were tortured in custody and forced to confess to the crime.

However, Amnesty says it has not been able to contact Singh or his family.

Singh was awarded a death sentence in 2005 by a court in Indonesia. His death penalty was upheld by the Supreme Court in 2006.

The government had informed the Parliament in 2012 that he had two more chances for appeal for commutation of death sentence - a review petition before Supreme Court (of Indonesia) and a mercy petition before the President.

Also Read:

ISIS-linked suicide bomber attacks Indonesian police

India-Indonesia symposium on social issues to be held in HP



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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.
Youth would rather protest than vote

A study by Masters student, Lauren Tracey, found that young people feel elections are no longer an effective way of changing or improving the country.

The Institute for Security Studies (ISS) monograph, titled: Do you want my vote? Understanding the factors that influence voting among young South Africans, provides a detailed picture of young South Africans perceptions of politics and of the factors that infuence their participation in elections.

Download and read the complete monograph.

The Times yesterday published details of the study that involved 49 one-on-one interviews and 277 with focus groups at 34 high schools or institutions of higher learning last year.

...the study found that young voters, particularly in high schools and at FET colleges, were put off by poor service delivery, poor quality of school education, crime and high unemployment rates.

Citing Statistics SA, the study said about 1.9 million South Africans were aged 18 and 19 and eligible to vote, but only 646000 (about a third) registered to vote in the 2014 national and provincial government elections. About 64% of citizens aged 20-29, and about 79.8% of those aged 30-39, registered.

Read the full story on www.timeslive.co.za.

Lauren Tracey joined the ISS in April 2009 as a Sarah Meek fellow, and then as a researcher in the Arms Management Programme in 2011. In May 2012 she joined the Governance, Crime and Justice Division of the ISS as a researcher. Her research focuses on issues of governance, particularly as it relates to the youth and their democratic participation in South Africa. She holds a BA (honours) and postgraduate diploma in international relations; and is currently completing her masters degree in developmental sociology at the University of the Witwatersrand.
The Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) together with the ISI are planning an attack on the Red Fort.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi after his address during the Independence Day function at the historic Red Fort in New Delhi last year. Photo: PTI

By Manjeet Negi: Intelligence agencies have warned of a drone attack on the Red Fort during the prime minister's speech on Independence Day by terrorists this year.

In a high-level security meeting by the PM's security wing, it was revealed that the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) together with the ISI are planning an attack on the Red Fort.

Based on calls intercepted between handlers from Pakistan and militants taking shelter in India, agencies have further warned of possible terror strikes ahead of August 15. According to sources, handlers have reportedly asked militants to attack Indian Army camps and convoys of other security forces.

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SECURITY MEASURES

To prevent any untoward incident, the Special Protection Group (SPG) has proposed to cover the prime minister's speech area with a bullet-proof overhead canopy.

With this, the prime minister would become the first in India to address the nation under a cover.

High resolution cameras are also likely to be installed inside the towers of the Red Fort to maintain vigilance in the area. Moreover, air defence guns would also be deployed as a security measure.

Apart from making Delhi a no-fly zone on the day, fighter aircrafts would also remain activated to counter any threats.

This year, the independence Day speech will be Narendra Modi's third as prime minister. The day will witness increased security ahead of the terror alerts.

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At the memorial service in Drass there wasn't a dry eye when the young women rose to pay homage to their fathers.

By Gaurav C Sawant: Proudly she looked at the tricolour flying high at the Kargil war memorial in Drass. There was pain in her eyes but there was also pride. She insisted she did not want to cry because her father Major CB Dwivedi always made her smile when he was alive.

DIKSHA PAYS HOMAGE TO HER MARTYR FATHER

Diksha was barely eight years old when Major Dwivedi, a gunner officer, made the supreme sacrifice in the Kargil conflict and 17 years later accompanied by her mother and sister Neha, Diksha Dwivedi visited the exact spot where her father was martyred by the Pakistan army counter bombardment.

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"For us this is a pilgrimage. This is the place where our father and so many brave Indian soldiers chose the nation above the family," Diksha told India Today. Diksha is a writer and she beats back tears to say her father's memory always brings back a smile so no tears.

WILL NEVER LET PAKISTAN WIN: NEHA

"This is the first time we have come on Kargil Vijay Diwas. It is wonderful that the army remembers its braves but it really hurts to have come here in the cover of darkness hiding like thieves," says Neha angrily. The two sisters accompanied by their mother were received by the army at the Srinagar airport but given the curfew, stone pelting and agitation in Kashmir the army took no chances ferrying the families of martyrs and war heroes to Drass during day time.

"We were brought here like thieves at night. Our father chose India above us but the only message I want to give to the stone pelters and Pakistan sponsored separatists is - that a lot of blood has been shed in protecting our borders and we will never let Pakistan win," she adds pride writ large on her face.

TOLOLING HILL TOP IS A PILGRIMAGE: BHAVYA

Not just for Diksha and Neha even for Bhavya Pundir, daughter of late Squadron Leader R Pundir coming to Drass at the base of Tololing hill top is nothing short of a pilgrimage. "I am very proud of my father. He knew he was flying his helicopter in a very difficult mission. But he chose his love for India above his love for his family," she said.

Sqn Ldr Pundir was one of the pilots of the Mi-17 helicopters that was shot down by a Pakistan army soldier firing a stinger missile over Tololing.

At the memorial service in Drass there wasn't a dry eye when the young women rose to pay homage to their fathers. But the brave young ladies beat back their tears. They walked with their heads held high. Their fathers had done the nation proud, the daughters intend to carry the legacy forward.

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ALSO READ:

Kargil diwas: Infiltration across border will increase as Pakistan is frustrated, says Lt General DS Hooda

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By PTI: Mumbai, Jul 27 (PTI) "Raabta" lead pair Sushant Singh Rajput and Kriti Sanon are off to Mauritius to shoot the last schedule of the film.

Kriti, who turns 26 today, took to Instagram to share a picture from the airport.

"All set for the last schedule of #Raabta ! And the excitement shows as we wait to board the flight to Mauritius.. @sushantsinghrajput #lastsched #outdoor," she wrote.

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The photo features the actress and Sushant, 30, chilling at the airport lounge in casual travel attire.

"Raabta" is directed by Dinesh Vijan and produced by him, Homi Adajania and Bhushan Kumar.

The film, which was delayed due to casting issues, is slated to hit theaters on February 12 next year. PTI SHD SHD

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Wales must maintain nuclear industry, says parliamentary committee

27 July 2016

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The proposed Wylfa Newydd nuclear power plant can deliver value for money, a UK parliamentary committee looking into the future of nuclear power in Wales has concluded. Meanwhile, it says the Trawsfynydd site is a "standout candidate" for locating a first-of-its-kind small modular reactor (SMR).

The Commons Select Committee on Welsh Affairs launched an inquiry into nuclear power's future of in Wales in January. Since then, six evidence sessions have been held, hearing from 33 witnesses. Members of the committee also visited the two main nuclear sites in Wales - Wylfa and Trawsfynydd. The committee has taken into consideration the decommissioning of shut down plants, the construction of the new plant at Wylfa and the UK government's plans for the development of SMRs. It has now published its conclusions and recommendations.

"Nuclear power has a long history in Wales, supplying power to large parts of the nation and providing thousands of people with well-paying jobs," the report said. "Wales has played a key part in establishing the nuclear industry in the UK, having hosted two first generation nuclear reactors for the past half a century. However, the future for nuclear power in Wales is uncertain. Both the [Wylfa and Trawsfynydd] power stations are now closed, and therefore Wales no longer has any operational nuclear power plants."

The committee noted Horizon Nuclear Power's plans to build a new nuclear power plant at the Wylfa site on the Isle of Anglesey. However, it said it had received conflicting evidence on the potential cost of the new plant. The committee said it is reassured that the taxpayer will be protected from excessive costs, "as the risk of investment is placed on the developer".

"Without the nuclear power industry, there is little prospect of many high-quality, well-paid jobs in the area, which will negatively affect the local economy."



Commons Select Committee on Welsh Affairs

The report said the UK's energy policy should "balance cost against energy and environmental concerns". It added, "We recommend that the government negotiate a strike price for Wylfa Newydd below that agreed for Hinkley Point C and seek a price that would be competitive with renewable sources, such as on-shore wind. The government should not continue with the project if the price is too high."

"We believe that Wylfa Newydd can deliver value for money and deliver a significant portion of the country's future energy needs," the committee concluded. "To achieve this, the developers and the government will need to manage potential delays and bottlenecks, to keep costs down and the project on schedule."

The report recommends the UK government puts in place a contingency plan "to fill the gap in the energy supply" if there is a delayed start to the Wylfa Newydd project.

"The nuclear industry has made a major contribution to the economy of North Wales, and Wylfa Newydd would make a strong contribution in the future," it said. "Without the nuclear power industry, there is little prospect of many high-quality, well-paid jobs in the area, which will negatively affect the local economy."

The committee said it is surprised the government's plans for nuclear skills development in the UK does not have "a Welsh dimension". It recommends the UK government sets out plans to create a North Wales campus for the National Nuclear College, announced in May this year.

SMR for Trawsfynydd



Last November, the government announced plans to invest at least 250 million ($352 million) over the next five years in an "ambitious" nuclear research and development program to include a competition to identify the best value SMR design for the UK.

"It is clear that Trawsfynydd would be an ideal site for a first-of-a-kind SMR," the committee suggests. "The availability of cooling water and the grid connections mean it would meet the technical requirements, and its history as a nuclear site and its ownership by the government mean that it would be easy to designate it as a site for SMR development. The presence of a skilled workforce, which is strongly in favour of the project, would also be a major boost to SMR development."

North Wales is well positioned near centres of nuclear excellence in north-west England and needs investment to stimulate the economy, the report said.

Researched and written

by World Nuclear News

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Canadian government upholds Kiggavik recommendation

27 July 2016

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The Canadian government has agreed with a 2015 recommendation by the Nunavut Impact Review Board (NIRB) that the Kiggavik uranium project should not proceed at this time, but said proponent Areva Resources Canada may resubmit the project for consideration in the future.

Canada's minister for indigenous and northern affairs, Carolyn Bennett, notified the NIRB of the decision in a letter dated 14 July and publicly released yesterday.

The NIRB's recommendation was made in May 2015 following an environmental assessment process of the proposed uranium mining and milling operation that would be located in the Kivalliq region of Nunavut, approximately 80 kilometres west of the community of Baker Lake. In its report, the board concluded that the project should not proceed because Areva Resources Canada had not presented a definite start date or development schedule. This, it said, "adversely affected the weight and confidence which it could give to assessments of future ecosystemic and socioeconomic effects."

In her letter to the NIRB, Bennet said that the group of ministers with jurisdictional responsibility for authorizing whether the project should or should not proceed had reviewed the board's report and accepted its determination.

Areva Resources Canada had contended that the lack of a firm start date alone should not prevent the approval of the project. It had asked for the report to be returned to the NIRB so that the board could consider amending it to include appropriate terms and conditions to enable it to be approved. In a July 2015 letter to then-minister Bernard Valcourt, Areva Resources Canada CEO Vincent Martin said that start date uncertainty was not unique to Kiggavik and should not stand in the way of the environmental approval process.

Nunavut legislation requiring a new assessment to be carried out if a project does not commence within five years of its approval "largely" addressed the issue of uncertain start dates, Bennett said. However, the ministers agreed with the NIRB's finding that in this case mechanisms that might enable a more flexible approach would not be sufficient to address all the issues that might arise in the absence of a definite start date.



The ministers noted that uncertainty with respect to start dates and development schedules was a "common situation" for proposed developments in the region. The NIRB "should continue to assess each project based on its specific circumstances and, if possible, consider terms and conditions that can accommodate uncertainties with respect to the commencement of a project," she said.

The ministerial decision - like the NIRB recommendation - is not that the project should never go ahead. "We would also like to reiterate that Areva may resubmit the Kiggavik Project for consideration at such future time when increased certainty regarding the project start date can be provided," Bennett said.

Kiggavik has 48,953 tU of indicated uranium resources at an ore grade of 0.554% U3O8. The proposed mining and milling operation would take about four years to construct and operate for around 14 years. The operation would be co-owned by Areva (62.8%), JCU Canada Exploration (33.5%) and Daewoo Corporation (1.7%), and operated by Areva.

Researched and written

by World Nuclear News

Related topics
By PTI: New Delhi, Jul 27 (PTI) Apple CEO Tim Cook has said the tech giant is "looking forward" to setting up retail stores in India to tap into the booming smartphone market here.

"India is now one of our fastest growing markets. In the first three quarters of this fiscal year, our iPhone sales in India were up 51 per cent year-on-year," Apple CEO Tim Cook said on an investor call.

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He added the company has announced setting up of a design and development accelerator to support Indian developers creating innovative applications for iOS and opened a new office in Hyderabad to accelerate maps development.

"Were looking forward to opening retail stores in India down the road, and we see huge potential for that vibrant country," he said without disclosing further details.

Cook, who visited India in May, had discussed issues including manufacturing and setting up retail stores in the country with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

"On a personal note, during the past quarter I visited China and India, and I am very encouraged about our growth prospects in those countries," he said.

Recently the government issued new norms allowing single-brand retail trading and exemption from local sourcing for state-of-the-art and "cutting edge" technology with a waiver for three years, and the option to extend it for five years.

Sources had said Apple may have to submit a fresh application for the same.

The Cupertino-based tech giant had yesterday reported its revenues rising to USD 42.4 billion in the third quarter, driven by markets including India, Russia, Brazil, Turkey and Canada. PTI SR ABK

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Australia News  World Weird and Crime News

Police (illustration)

By: Mahesh Sarin

A woman was arrested after she walked into a police station to inform officers that she was atoo drunk to drive.a

The woman of New Zealand, drove to the police station to let officers know that he was too drunk to drive.

Amanda Jane Boyd, 50, of Blenheim, said that she thought she was doing the right thing by asking officers to help her get to where she wanted to go, and she did not expect to be arrested.

Boyd was heavily intoxicated when she arrived at the Blenheim Police Station at about 2:00 p.m.

She told police officers at the front desk that she needed to get to Christchurch, but she was too drunk to drive there and asked if they could arrange for her to get there.

Police said that when the officer asked how she arrived to the station, Boyd pointed to her car and said she was driving, but she could not drive any further because he was too drunk.

Police gave Boyd a breath tested, which showed that she was way over the legal limit is to drive.

Boyd said that she thought she was doing the right thing by just driving a short distance to the police station to get help rather than driving to Christchurch.

Judge David Ruth told Boyd that she had a serious problem with alcohol as this is the third time she was arrested for driving under the influence.
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
The couple apologizing

By: Feng Qian

(Scroll down for video) A man and a woman got together during a night of drinking and had sex in public in Thailand.

A video of a incident that was uploaded to the Internet, shows the woman wearing her underpants and a bra while the man was in his underpants and shirt.

Residents who witnessed the act near The Hussin House Hotel on Phi Phi Island, became angry and berated the couple. They then ordered them to stop.

At first, the two kept going, but they stopped when they were informed that police have been called. The couple apologized and walked away, but they were soon arrested.

A Thai police spokesman said that the 21-year-old woman from the United States, is an exchange student and the man was a 24-year-old tourist.

The two were taken into custody. They have each been ordered to pay a fine of $60 for performing a sex act in public.
By Devarsi Ghosh: Consider this filmography: Namastey London, Kahaani, B.A Pass, D-Day, City Lights, Airlift, Irrfan's latest release Madaari and the upcoming Kahaani 2. Screenwriter Ritesh Shah, over a career spanning more than a decade, has been involved in writing these critically and commercially acclaimed films in various capacities: story writer, screenwriter or dialogue writer.

What makes this man tick? What inspires him? Why are writers always in the shadows? IndiaToday.in in conversation with Ritesh Shah who talks about writing Madaari, his journey to Bollywood and writing some of its best films.



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ALSO READ: MADAARI MOVIE REVIEW

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ALSO READ: 'Usne yeh bol diya' cannot be an issue worthy of debate in every channel, says Irrfan



How did Madaari happen?

Shailja Kejriwal had an idea about a guy who kidnaps a minister's son when his own son dies in a bridge accident similar to the 2012's Andheri (East) bridge collapse and she gave this idea to Irrfan who shared it with me during D-Day's shooting.

(Spoilers ahead: If you haven't watched Madaari yet, please come back once you've watched it. Else go ahead.)

Two notable parts of Madaari: The emotional stretches between Irrfan and his son which I felt slowed the film down, and the sudden detour in the end from Irrfan getting killed to an alternate possibility where Irrfan gets his revenge. Explain the writing process.



Regarding the 'detour', the entire film is constructed around the voiceover in the beginning, "Baaz chuzey pe jhapta, use utha le gaya. Kahaani sacchi lagti hai magar acchi nahi lagti. Baaz pe palatwaar hua, kahaani sacchi nahi lagti magar acchi lagti hai." (Translated: When a hawk snatches a chick and flies away, the story seems real but not nice. But when the chick attacks the hawk back, the story is unreal but it sounds nice.) So, in the beginning we establish that the film might go into a zone where there won't be much believability, but there will be catharsis, a kind of wish-fulfilment.

As for the emotional scenes, whether or not they are stretched depends on the emotional quotient of a person. It was important to show the child's daily relationship with his father, so that that would justify the madness that Irrfan's character goes through so as to do something so incredulous, because I don't think a sane man would do what he does in Madaari.

How different is working with Nishikant Kamat from working with Sujoy Ghosh?

Nishikant was a writer before he turned director. So, he knows the kind of job writing is and that's why he leaves me to my devices and steps in as and when required.

Sujoy writes a lot of his stuff himself. He uses me and Suresh Nair as bouncing boards for his stories, and also because he is not very proficient with Hindi, he needs my help with dialogues.

How did you become a Bollywood screenwriter?



I was a playwright in Delhi. Once, I adapted Polish playwright Slawomir Mrozek's one-act play The Police. It was a political farce, a black comedy. That play became popular with the film industry and one of the actors in that play, who I will not name, asked me to come down to Mumbai with my scripts. When I came to the city, he stopped responding, and luckily, I got offers from elsewhere to write scripts. So, I got into television because in those days, the kind of stories I was comfortable writing were not in vogue in Bollywood. I worked on some quality productions like Kashmeer and Kagaar: Life on the edge.

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It took me about six years for cinema to happen. Sujoy hired me as a dialogue-writer for Home Delivery (2005) which bombed. Then luckily, Anurag Kashyap recommended me to Vipul Shah for writing dialogues for Namastey London (2007) which became a success. Soon, offers started coming in.



You have written some really quality films over the years: Kahaani, D-Day, Airlift, Te3n, Madaari and so on. How is it that you are not well-known? Does the industry not treat writers with respect or is it the media's fault?

If the industry did not give me respect, I wouldn't have written 20 films in 11 years. It is mostly a problem of the press. The media is interested in covering big stars and star directors, not writers. 9 out of 10 film reviews do not mention the writer unless the critics want to abuse him. I don't think print or digital press, or even the readers are interested in writers because writing is not a glamorous job. This is a trend in the west as well. How many Charlie Kaufman interviews will you find? He's such a great writer.

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ALSO READ: Udta Punjab writer Sudip Sharma interview: "We kept asking ourselves where we went wrong"

Tell me about your upcoming films: What is the story of Kahaani 2?

All I can say right now is that Kahaani 2 is a sequel in spirit and not a continuation of Kahaani's story.



Another mother of a story ..... pic.twitter.com/CNMmLhzeXL vidya balan (@vidya_balan) May 9, 2016

Whatever happened to Sujoy Ghosh's adaptation of Keigo Higashino's The Devotion of Suspect X?

I wrote a draft of the film with Sujoy but right now, the project is in a limbo. I don't know what is happening with it.

Writing inspirations?

Salim-Javed. Born in the mid-70s, a lot of North Indian writers and directors have a strong Salim-Javed influence and I am no exception. I also like the works of KK Shukla, Pandit Mukhram Sharma and Mirza brothers. From the West, Charlie Kaufman.

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Any advice to aspiring writers in Bollywood?

I think writers should try to write their own stories. People message me on Facebook saying, "Sir, I have a Bollywood-ish story, or, sir, I have a Hollywood-ish story." and I always reply, "Where is your-ish story?" So, people should write your-ish stories. 90-95% of formulaic films are flopping today. Films which wouldn't have been made four-five years back like Kapoor & Sons, Neerja and Airlift are being made today. So, I think the time is to write your own stories, without bothering about anything else.

( The writer tweets as @devarsighosh )



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While roads have been blocked due to landslides, so the students have no other choice but to risk their lives and use trolley tied across a rope to reach their schools.

By India Today Web Desk: Following heavy rainfall in Uttarakhand, students in Pauri now use rope trolley to cross the Alaknanda river, to go to their schools and come back home.

Due to the heavy downpour in Srinagar and other areas, Alaknanda river is flowing close to the danger mark.

While roads have been blocked due to landslides, so the students have no other choice but to risk their lives and use trolley tied across a rope to reach their schools.

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One of the students told ANI, "To go to school we have to cross the river using a rope trolley, we feel scared but have no option."

To go to school we have to cross the river using a rope trolley, we feel scared but have no option: Student pic.twitter.com/EommS8pzyZ&; ANI (@ANI_news) July 27, 2016

"Sometimes the rope gets stuck and we are stranded. We feel afraid and also get late for school," another student added.



Sometimes the rope gets stuck and we are stranded, feel afraid and also get late for school: Priyanka,student pic.twitter.com/KNxFXytq3r&; ANI (@ANI_news) July 27, 2016

RAIN-HIT UTTARAKHAND

Uttarakhand has been hit by heavy rains and landslides. Due to the recent spell of heavy rains, largescale damage has been caused in different parts of the state.

Presenting a preliminary estimate of the extent of damage caused by the recent spell of heavy rains before Prime Minister, Rawat said losses worth Rs 1000 crore have been inflicted on the state this rainy season which is likely to rise up to Rs 1,500 crore by the end of September.

Apart from loss of precious human lives in Pithoragarh, Uttarkashi, and Chamoli districts, there was great damage to property and infrastructure.



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The Third National Congress of the Socialist Equality Party (SEP), the Australian section of the International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI), was held in Sydney from April 24 to 26, 2016. The discussion and resolutions adopted at the Congress provided the political grounding for the intensive campaign conducted by the SEP over the following weeks in the July 2 Australian federal election.

David North, chairman of the international editorial board of the World Socialist Web Site and national chairman of the SEP (US), participated in the Congress, delivering greetings on behalf of the ICFI. The ICFI was also represented by Niles Niemuth, who is standing in the US elections as the vice-presidential candidate of the SEP (US), and K. Ratnayake, a longstanding leader of the SEP (Sri Lanka).

Niemuth and Ratnayake delivered the greetings of their sections, while greetings and political analyses of the deepening political crisis in Europe were presented to the Congress via Skype by Chris Marsden, national secretary of the SEP (UK), and Peter Schwarz, the secretary of the ICFI and a central leader of the Partei fur Soziale Gleichheit (PSG) in Germany.

An important delegation attended from the Socialist Equality Group in New Zealand, which is working toward the establishment of a section of the ICFI.

The central task of the Congress was discussion of the statement issued by the ICFI on February 18, 2016, Socialism and the Fight Against War: Build an International Movement of the Working Class and Youth Against Imperialism!

Opening the Congress and political discussion, James Cogan, the national secretary of the SEP, said:

The ICFI statement was issued because all the processes that have led to a new period of wars and revolutions have reached an advanced stage. The great historical question in the period in which we live is how the crisis of the world capitalist system will be resolvedbecause it will be resolved. This is not a crisis that can or will continue indefinitely.

The axis of the ICFI statement is summed up in its simple declaration that the drive to World War III must be stopped. It elaborates the principles upon which an international anti-war movement must be built. Our aim is to lead social revolution, before imperialism plunges humanity into disaster.

Those alternatives are what provide to the work of our party, in every fieldpolitical, theoretical and practicalits great urgency. The strategic task is the building of the ICFI, both the current sections and new sections throughout the world. In the struggle for this perspective, the SEP in Australia has great responsibilities in the Asia-Pacific region.

Following contributions by representatives from SEP branches in Sydney, the Newcastle/Central Coast region, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, and from the SEG in New Zealand, a resolution was unanimously adopted to place the analysis and perspective contained in the ICFI statement at the centre of the partys work.

David North presented an extensive report reviewing the ICFIs struggle against all forms of national opportunist and pseudo-left politics. He reviewed the significance of the ICFIs exposure of Syriza in Greece and its betrayal of the Greek working class, and underscored the historic importance of the ICFIs defence of the fundamental theoretical conceptions of Marxism against tendencies and individuals that base themselves on post-modernist philosophical conceptions and identity politics.

The Congress also discussed a supplementary resolution to the ICFI statement, which assessed the critical political issues involved in the fight to build an international anti-war movement in Australia and the Asia-Pacific region. The resolution reviewed the partys analysis of Australias role in the US preparations for war against China, the economic and political crisis of Australian imperialism and the tasks of the SEP, including in the federal election.

Incorporating amendments adopted at the Congress, the SEPs resolution, The Socialist Equality Party and the fight to build an international anti-war movement, has now been published here.

The Congress concluded with the election of a new National Committee, which re-elected James Cogan as the SEPs national secretary, Cheryl Crisp as assistant national secretary, and Peter Symonds as the national editor of the World Socialist Web Site.
The monsoon mayhem continues in several districts of north West Bengal with rivers flowing over the danger level.

By Manogya Loiwal : The monsoon mayhem continues in several districts of north West Bengal with rivers flowing over the danger level and villages flooded for almost a week now.

Heavy rain that have been lashing the sub-Himalayan parts of West Bengal have flooded villages, even as the Met department today forecasted more rains in the coming days.

The districts of Jalpaiguri, Coochbehar, Siliguri, Darjeeling and parts of Alipurduar have been severely hit in the rains.

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Coochbehar recorded the highest rainfall from Tuesday morning with the Met department recording the maximum of 108 mm rainfall.

Darjeeling experienced 91.5 mm rain, while precipitation in Jalpaiguri amounted to 50.1 mm. The city also received heavy rain with the precipitation being 75 mm, the Met department said.

Other parts of the state received moderate to little rainfall in the past one week.

RIVERS CROSSING DANGER MARK



The rivers Teesta, Torsha, Geesh and Mahananda are increasingly crossing the danger mark, posing severe threat to the villagers living in the adjoining areas.

Locals have been distressed owing to the heavy overflow of the Teesta which has caused the water to gush in to the numerous villages, flooding them in the process.

"The embankment which was breached by the Teesta at Basusuba and Chapadanga last year had not been repaired and water was gushing through it though the repairing is being done now. Almost 1000 huts have been submerged under the water badly," said Panchnan Roy, a local.

Among the areas which have been affected are Siliguri and the nearby areas of Darjeeling. Although the rains have not flooded villages in Darjeeling owing to the altitude, the torrential rains have caused landslides at several places, with many arterial roads blocked and traffic been hit.

Heavy rainfall caused a building to collapse in Darjeeling's Zakir Hussain Busty area last week, killing 4 people in the process.

Dooars region in Jalpaiguri and Alipurduar districts, Kalchini, Madarihat and Kumargam blocks in Alipurduar district and parts of Cooch Behar and Uttar Dinajpur districts have also been hit badly in the deluge.

The continuous rains in the region has resulted in water entering many homes and shops. The roads have almost turned into rivers and locals are having a harrowing time walking their way out through them.

SERVICES HIT

Railway services have been hit badly with many trains from the routes delayed for long hours. Schools, colleges and many offices have also been shut in the area.

Road connecting to Bhutan has also been affected due to the rain water in the Teesta River.

Patients at a public health centre in the district were shifted to other hospital through boats. The NDRF (National Disaster Response Force) has been called in for rescue efforts and relief camps have been set up.

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ADMINISTRATION ALERT

Villagers from have been moved to safe places already and the administration is on alert for any untoward incident.

District officials at Coochbehar and Alipurduar are also monitoring the situation. Although the villages have been flooded badly, the rescue teams are ensuring that they can reach as many people as possible and evacuate them out of their marooned villages.

"Almost 400 families have been rescued from different areas in the Tufanganj there and shifted to higher areas.Our administration is ready to combat any situation. Adequate quantity of relief materials is there to help the distressed people," Coochbehar District Magistrate P.Ulganathan said.

The flood situation has forced schools, colleges and offices to be shut in Jalpaiguri, as roads have merged into the river.

While officials at the state secretariat in Kolkata are keeping a check on the situation in all the districts, the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and the Army has been alerted for any requirement in case of an emergency.

Assam flood toll reaches 12, Centre assures all help





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The Democratic National Convention on Tuesday officially nominated Hillary Clinton as the partys presidential candidate in the November election. At the conclusion of the state-by-state voting, Clintons former rival Bernie Sanders underscored his embrace of the former secretary of state by calling for the convention to suspend the rules and declare Clinton the nominee by acclamation.

The nomination of Clinton was a foregone conclusion, part of an elaborately orchestrated and carefully scripted spectacle designed to portray a corrupt and reactionary capitalist party as a vehicle of progress. The fraudulent character of the entire event was underscored by the conspiracy of silence over the exposure, via leaked emails, of the antidemocratic manipulation of the primary process by the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee to undermine the challenge from Sanders, including the illicit diversion of millions of dollars in campaign donations from the state parties to the Clinton campaign.

Speaker after speaker lauded Clinton, a crony of the most powerful Wall Street banks, the Pentagon and the CIA, as a woman of the people. They ignored her complicity in war crimes from Iraq to Libya to Syria and her association with reactionary domestic policies that have led to an explosion of social inequality and poverty.

The second day of the four-day convention was a nonstop exercise in racial and gender politics. All social and political issues were defined in terms of race or sex, with the large majority of speakers either black or female or both. The political framework was summed up by Jennifer Palmieri, the Clinton campaign director of communications, who declared, Its a remarkable story that we may follow the first African-American president with the first woman president.

Almost immediately after the conclusion of the nominating process, the stage was filled with a parade of Democratic congresswomen, led by multimillionaire House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi. But the low point was the presentation of nine mothers of black men killed by police, including those of Trayvon Martin in Florida, Michael Brown in Ferguson, and Eric Garner in New York, to declare their support for Clinton.

The Democratic Party cynically exploited their tragedies to push its politics of race and conceal the essential class issues of capitalist state violence and poverty that are at the root of the epidemic of police killings across the United States. One African-American mother who was not invited to speak was Samaria Rice, the mother of 12-year-old Tamir Rice, who was shot and killed in November of 2014 by a Cleveland police officer because he was holding a toy gun. In advance of last weeks Republican convention in Cleveland, Samaria Rice told an interviewer, I dont know how you [President Obama] are able to sleep at night nobody is getting any justice.

Nor was the mother of 19-year-old Dylan Noble, a white unarmed youth murdered by police in Fresno, California, brought onto the stage. Even though the majority of people killed by police in the US are white, Nobles case does not fit into the racialist narrative pushed by Clinton and the Democratic Party.

The Obama administration and the Democratic Party, moreover, have systematically defended the police and shielded those who kill and brutalize the working class and youth. They have militarized police departments with billions of dollars in combat equipment and defended police violations of due process and civil liberties in the courts. The Obama administration has not prosecuted a single cop caught on video attacking or even killing a defenseless worker.

Tuesdays speakers included the chief of police in Pittsburgh and a former New York City deputy. The message of the convention was deference and support for the police.

The central role of racial and gender politics in the fraudulent attempt to palm off the Democratic Party as a vehicle of the people reflects, first of all, the interests of privileged upper-middle class layers, black and white, which have no interest in equality or the needs of working people, but instead are consumed by the drive to increase their own wealth and status.

It is a political means for the ruling class to win broader support for its policies of war and austerity, while dividing and demobilizing the working class. The Democratic Party and its media allies, such as the New York Times, have intensified their promotion of racial politics in the aftermath of Sanders withdrawal and endorsement of Clinton. They were shocked by the mass response to the denunciations of social inequality by Sanders, who calls himself a "socialist." The fact that millions of workers and youth in America oppose the capitalist system and favor socialism, and therefore seek to unite on a class basis, makes all the more critical for the ruling class the insistence that race is the defining issue in America and white racism is pervasive.

The appearance of former President Bill Clinton to deliver the keynote address was a fitting conclusion to Day Two of the convention. Clintons potted version of the personal and political history of Hillary and himself exemplified the dishonesty and hypocrisy of the entire proceedings. He presented Hillary Clinton as a tireless and selfless advocate of the poor and downtroddena change-maker for the people.

He left out the key role both of them played in severing the ties of the Democratic Party with its previous policies of liberal reform and adopting the policies of social reaction of Reagan and the Republicans, the massive growth of financial swindling and corporate corruption, along with social inequality, during the Enron years of the Clinton administration, and the warmongering policies pursued by Hillary Clinton first as senator and even more as Obamas secretary of state.

Clinton also failed to mention how he and Hillary cashed in after his presidential tenure to make themselves multimillionaires, in part by taking tens of millions in speaking fees from Wall Street bankers.
As contract talks continue between government-owned Canada Post and the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW), the union is making ever-more explicit its opposition to any job action against managements sweeping concession demands, to say nothing of the mobilization of the working class as a whole in defence of public services.

Earlier this month, Canada Post temporarily withdrew its threat to lock out 50,000 mail sorters, letter carriers, mail truck drivers, and other postal workers and accepted the CUPWs call for a 30-day cooling-off period to pursue intensive negotiations.

This followed an intrusive intervention by the Liberal government of Justin Trudeau against postal workers. Just a few days after the Liberals claimed they had no immediate plans to mimic the previous Stephen Harper-led Conservative government and impose a concessions-laden contract on postal workers, Labour Minister MaryAnn Mihychuk urged the CUPW to accept binding arbitration.

Canada Post management was quick to endorse this reactionary proposal. Initially, it said its acceptance of the CUPWs truce proposal was conditional on the union agreeing that at the end of the 30 days any outstanding contract issues would be determined through binding arbitration.

However, at the urging of the government, which has developed close ties with the union bureaucracy with the aim of using it to smother opposition to its right-wing agenda, Canada Post backed down.

As for the CUPW, which has been promoting the big business Liberals as allies of postal workers, it politely declined Mihychuks offer of help, while touting its commitment to making Canada Post even more profitable. Then, in a further show of good faith, the CUPW dropped its complaint of illegal management bargaining tactics, after the post office agreed to the 30-day cooling-off period.

Canada Post will use the extended period of negotiations and the CUPWs latest retreat to press ahead with its concession drive.

The Crown Corporation is exploiting technological changeincluding the decline in letter volumes and the growth of online shoppingto justify its demand for labour flexibility and major rollbacks. These include the elimination of the defined benefit pension system for new hires and its replacement by a defined contributions model, a pay freeze for temporary workers, massive cuts in health care benefits, the cutting of paid meal times, and the undermining of job protection guarantees.

From the very beginning of the conflict, the CUPWled by National President Mike Palecek, a former leading member of the pseudo-left Fightback grouphas demonstrated it has no intention of mounting a serious struggle. It has confined postal workers within the narrow framework of collective bargaining, refusing to make the defence of postal services and postal workers jobs and working conditions the spearhead of a working-class counter-offensive in defence of public services and worker rights.

For all his left posturing, Palecek has continued and deepened the right-wing policy of the CUPW bureaucracy, which has overseen a long series of reversals and concession contracts.

Palecek has repeatedly spoken against job action, saying that the union is determined to avoid anything that would disrupt or take attention away from the Liberal governments review of Canada Posts operations.

The union has hailed this review as an instrument whereby postal workers can defend their interests. In reality, it is the fulfillment of a bogus Liberal election promise aimed at giving a democratic veneer to the continued dismantling and privatization of postal services.

Instead of mobilizing its membership to seriously defend postal and public services, the union is fully participating in the review and accepts without question its fundamental premise: that Canada Post, and by implication other public services, must be profit-making enterprises.

The union is using the review to promote its diversionary and reactionary campaign for Canada Posts revenues and profits to be boosted through the introduction of postal banking. This campaign is an appeal to the political establishment and big business, not the working class. It separates the struggle to Save Canada Post from the defence of health care, education and other vital services, and once again is predicated on Canada Post being run as a profit-making, capitalist enterprise.

Indeed, the CUPW has demonstrated repeatedly in recent years that it is dedicated to making the company profitable. In 2011, after isolating its membership in a series of futile rotating strikes, the union bowed before the Harper Conservative governments strikebreaking legislation and subsequently agreed to a five-year concessions contract, enabling Canada Post to pocket hundreds of millions in profits.

The anti-worker, pro-capitalist character of the CUPW is most clearly demonstrated by its support for the Liberal Party, the ruling elites favoured party of government for most of the last century. Palecek and the CUPW played a critical role in the Anybody but Harper campaign that paved the way for the coming to power of Trudeau and his Liberals in the 2015 elections by promoting them as a progressive alternative to the Conservatives.

Less than a week after Trudeau was appointed prime minister, Palecek was among more than 100 Canadian Labour Congress (CLC) leaders who met with him behind closed doors and pledged to work with the new government.

It is an indication of just how far the CUPW apparatus has moved to the right that it is shamelessly boosting the same party that in 1978, under the leadership of the current prime ministers father, Pierre-Eliot Trudeau, jailed CUPW President Jean-Claude Parrot and threatened to fire postal workers en masse when they defied a strikebreaking law.

While the current Liberal government is urging Canada Post management to rely on the CUPW and the CLC to impose a concessions contract, the Liberal government, like its Conservative predecessor, stands ready to impose back-to-work legislation should the union bureaucracy prove incapable of ramming through rollbacks in the face of rank-and-file opposition.

Trudeau and his Liberals have themselves already signaled this with their call for the postal contract dispute to be settled through binding arbitration.

If postal workers are to prevail in a struggle that pits them not only against Canada Post, but against the Liberal government and the entire ruling class, they must seize its leadership from the hands of the CUPW apparatus and repudiate its corporatist program. This requires the building of independent rank-and-file committees oriented to mobilizing the entire working class in defence of public services and defiance of the battery of anti-worker laws and initiating the struggle for a workers government. Such a government would radically reorganize social-economic life so as to make the satisfaction of human needs, not capitalist profit, the animating principle.
An Australian Broadcasting Corporation Four Corners program on Monday night broadcast footage and interviews exposing some of the brutal and violent methods against boys, some as young as 10, held in juvenile detention centres in the Northern Territory (NT). The sickening abuses inside the Don Dale facility, south of Darwin, committed mostly against indigenous children, can only be described as torture.

In an attempt to head off widespread public outrage over the revelations, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull yesterday announced a royal commission of inquiry, designed to bury the exposures as much as possible and cover up the political responsibility for them.

The abuses did not begin under the current Country-Liberal Party government in the NT. They date back at least to 2010, during the period that the Labor Party held office in the territory from 2001 to 2012.

The Four Corners catalogue of evidence includes CCTV vision and video recordings made by guards showing repeated assaults on boys being kept illegally in solitary confinement for up to 17 days at a timefar beyond the legal limit of 72 hoursin hot, tiny and filthy cells without access to running water and little natural light.

One recording shows a boy, just 14, being pinned face down on the floor and stripped naked by three guards, leaving him visibly distraught and traumatised. The supposed reason for this assault, in October 2011, was that the child had threatened self-harm.

In another video taken in 2015 the same boy, Dylan Voller, then 17, is seen strapped, hand and foot, in a mechanical restraint chair with a cloth bag over his head, where he is left for two hours after allegedly threatening self-harm.

Commentators have justifiably described the footage as akin to the images of hooding and torture that emerged from the US-run Abu Ghraib facility in Iraq. After seeing the video, a former guard has revealed that the device was used on Voller several times.

CCTV footage showed the tear-gassing of six boys inside the Don Dale centres so-called Behavioural Management Unit (BMU) in August 2014. One of the boys, Jake Roper, 17, had left his cell and smashed fittings in a frustrated protest against his prolonged solitary confinement.

Prison officers, accompanied by a savage dog, rushed in from a nearby adult prison to spray 10 bursts of tear gas at the boys, who were seen desperately attempting to escape the fumes by climbing beneath bed sheets in their locked cells, while gasping for air and crying out. Then the boys were hogtied, dragged out and hosed.

It is clear that such mistreatment was approved at the highest levels of government. The then NT Corrections Commissioner Ken Middlebrook, who was present during the 2014 incident, authorised the use of tear gas. He issued a media statement falsely claiming it was necessary to subdue a riot by six detainees who had broken out of their cells and armed themselves with broken glass and light fittings.

NT Corrections Minister John Elferink applauded the action, declaring: I again congratulate and place my support behind, the staff who made this decision.

After Four Corners went to air, Turnbull joined NT Chief Minister Adam Giles in a damage-control operation. Giles yesterday sacked Elferink as corrections minister, while leaving him as the territorys attorney-general and childrens protection minister. Giles claimed not to have known of the evidence of abuse.

Such claims do not hold water. A report on the 2014 incident by the former NT Childrens Commissioner Dr Howard Bath was presented to the NT government in September 2015. The report rejected the official claim of a riot at the facility and confirmed that boys had been tear-gassed. Baths report was accurately reported by the World Socialist Web Site last year and received coverage in other media.

Baths report also made clear that the horrific conditions at the centre had long been known. Bath noted that in August 2012, information came to light that staff were using restraints, but nothing was done to prevent further abuses. The government dismissed Baths report as inaccurate, shallow and one-sided.

Even as Giles tried to cover his governments tracks, describing the Four Corners footage as horrific, he provided a glimpse of the underlying law and order regime and culture that is driving such conditions, not just in the NT but nationally.

Giles, who is an indigenous politician, sought to justify the barbaric treatment by claiming that people in NT were sick of youth crime and the majority of the (NT) community is saying lets lock these kids up. He added: The Northern Territory government does not resile from its tough approach to those who dont want to respect other peoples property or safety.

The reality is that these boys are being punished for petty crimes, such as car thefts and breaking and entering, that have their roots in worsening poverty and disadvantage, and not just in indigenous communities. Despite years of lip service, initiated by the last federal Labor government, to closing the gap between indigenous and non-indigenous health, education, housing and social conditions, Aboriginal people remain among the most oppressed layers of the working class.

Over the past decade, the NTs rates of incarceration of Aboriginal people have increased sharply. Almost 90 percent of adult inmates are indigenous, up from 69 percent in 1991. Between 2002 and 2012, the rate of imprisonment of Aboriginal women rose by 72 percent.

While indigenous people are being particularly victimised, however, similar police and state violence is increasingly being deployed against working class people more generally. Governments, both federal and state, have conducted relentless law and order campaigns for decades as social conditions have deteriorated as a result of the austerity and pro-market measures demanded by the financial and corporate elite.

The shock expressed by Turnbull and federal Labor leader Bill Shorten over the Four Corners exposure is doubly hypocritical because Coalition and Labor governments alike have enforced the equally brutal detention and abuse of refugees, including vulnerable young children. Both parties also oversaw the NT Intervention, a repressive operation from 2007 onward that imposed police-military and bureaucratic control over indigenous communities.

Turnbull claimed that a joint federal-territory royal commission will get to the bottom of this swiftly and we will identify the lessons that need to be learnt. Such inquiries are a long-standing means of defusing contentious issues, whitewashing the political responsibility and strengthening the powers of the state apparatus itself.

Such was the outcome of the Hawke Labor governments 1987 Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody, which resulted in no prosecutions and handed down 330 recommendations that only served to ensure that the killings of indigenous people continued with impunity.
The sand fire raging in the Santa Clarita Mountains just north of the greater Los Angeles area has erupted since Sunday, growing from 22,000 acres to over 37,000. County officials have ordered a state of emergency in the county along with the evacuation of 10,000 homes in the area, and warned that 45,000 more are at risk.

The fire is still only 25 percent contained, up from only 10 percent on Monday night. Fire fighters reported progress on Tuesday, citing favorable weather conditions the previous night. Despite this, difficulty in containing the rear of the fire has continued and the fire has entered the Angeles National Forest, where access is limited.

Firefighters have claimed that thousands of homes have been saved in Santa Clarita due to their quick containment of the area, although 18 homes have been destroyed, and at least person has died.

Smoke plumes were visible in the city of Los Angeles for several days, and air quality warnings were issued as far away as Las Vegas and Reno. Satellite images clearly show a burn scar left behind where the fire burned through all its fuel.

A spokesman for the firefighting effort said of the fire, This is a big animal. Other officials said that there was nothing normal about the speed with which the fire grew.

Of the 20,000 or so evacuated residents, most expect to return to their homes tonight although a mandatory evacuation order remains in place for a number of them. Some residents, panicked and fearful for their homes, tried returning before the evacuation order was lifted. According to witnesses, the one man known to have perished so far died attempting to return to his house.

Some residents have complained about the rushed warnings issued by authorities. One told KTLA5, After the third alert, they came in and said weve got 30 minutes to get out a thousand barrels.

Mike Antonovich, the Los Angeles county supervisor, has placed part of the blame on residents for the destruction of the fire, claiming, "By remaining, you create a problem for the fire department to fight the fires, which because of that delay, could also end up having your home burn down, as was the case as some of the other areas where weve already lost 18 homes.

In saying this he is blaming the victims of a fire for something that is fundamentally the fault of the irrationality of capitalism. Natural disasters, including wildfires, can be anticipated and rationally planned for, and in so doing their devastating effects can be significantly mitigated.

As many as 3,000 firefighters have been deployed to contain the fire, including some that had to be called in from neighboring counties. This number is comparable to the size of the entire LA Fire Department (LAFD)one of the biggest in the country, and one which is still recovering from a five-year hiring freeze that ended in 2014 and is occupied by numerous smaller fires that are cropping up in the most recent heat wave. Firefighters working on the sand fire have reported working 12 hour shifts in what are, needless to say, intense conditions.

In the context of one of the hottest summers on record and repeated warnings by experts about this years wildfire season (and previous years for that matter), a shortage of firefighters cannot be explained by simple ignorance. The chronic short-staffing of the fire department and the consequently greater impact of the fire are the responsibility of the politicians and the capitalist interests they defend.

Mitchell Englander of the LA city council said of the LAFD last month, At the end of the day, when youve got one of the most populated cities in the nation and a chronic shortage of firefighters, [they work] lots of overtime. Theyre also the hardest working fire department in the nation, doing more with less. They dont want this kind of overtime; theyre burnt out. They want more hires.

Antonovich, after haranguing worried residents for interfering with the firefighters work, later acknowledged that now we have a fire season 52 weeks out of the year.

This fire is only one instance of the many wildfires that have swept the American southwest this summer, and it certainly will not be the last. The degree of devastation may vary for every individual fire, but the failure to fully prepare for them lies at the feet of the economic system which mandates budget cuts and makes impossible a rational allocation of resources to fight them.

Also this week, while the US Small Business Association has offered low-interest federal disaster loans to victims of last months Erskine Fire which burned areas north of Los Angeles, FEMA denied assistance to the many victims who are still recovering from their loses.
Written and directed by Alexander Sokurov

Francofonia is the latest film by Russian director Alexander Sokurov (born 1951), responsible for Mother and Son (1997), Moloch (1999), Taurus (2001), Russian Ark (2002), Father and Son (2003), The Sun (2004) and numerous other films.

The new work opens in Sokurovs apartment as he attempts to make a videophone connection with a friend, the captain of a ship carrying precious artwork through stormy seas. The connection is breaking up, the vessels fate is uncertain. It is inhumane to carry art across the sea, deplores the film director, creating a metaphoric link between turbulent waters and human history and comparing the ship full of art to the Biblical ark.

Sokurovs narration drifts along as he discusses the centuries of human culture contained within the walls of the Louvre Museum in Paris, the worlds largest such institution, and ponders the essence of art and its significance for humanity. In Russian Ark, Sokurov took the viewer on a tour of the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, while Francofonia revolves around the fate of the Louvre during the Nazi occupation.

In the films fictional portions, the director of the Louvre in World War II, Jacques Jaujard (Louis-Do de Lencquesaing), and Count Franziskus Wolff-Metternich (Benjamin Utzerath), appointed by the Nazis to oversee Frances art collection, enter into an unspoken alliance to protect the museums invaluable art. When a victorious Hitler enters Paris in 1940, he finds the Louvre empty, with most of the art objects having been evacuated to various chateaux (manor houses) in the Loire Valley in central France.

Narrated in the form of fragments from a poetic diary, the film recreates the events of the time by combining vintage photographs and documentary material with sepia-toned footage shot by Sokurov. The effective soundtrack is a mixture of the music of Gustav Mahler, human whispers and street noise.

Francofonia is probably one of the few films Sokurov has made worth taking seriously, primarily due to the importance of the issues it raisesthe looting of art by the Hitler regime and the defence of culture. Sokurov links the period of the Nazi occupation to the contemporary danger of war and Europes refugee crisis. However, merely raising critical issues does not guarantee their successful treatment.

The new film demonstrates better taste than many of the directors previous morbid, murky projects, which revealed serious historical and social wrongheadedness, but Francofonia too is damaged by Sokurovs impressionistic viewpoint. A genuine appreciation for art, culture and education is combined here, as one often finds in Sokurov, with peculiar and disoriented thoughts and obsessions, as well as sweeping and unfounded statements. For example, the ghost of Napoleon (Vincent Nemeth) roams the galleries of the Louvre in Francofonia, claiming that he went to war for art.

Sokurov has been capable throughout his filmmaking career of certain striking and intense images, but hisat bestterribly confused ideas continually weaken his art. Like many Soviet-born artists and intellectuals, he no doubt identifiesor chooses to identifyMarxism with Stalinism. In opposition to the official Soviet doctrines and postmodern relativism, he has adopted an eclectic ideology with elements of anti-communism, quasi-mysticism and artistic austerity. Determined not to make films that might be interpreted in any precise scientific or historical sense, Sokurovs works suffer from vagueness and deliberate unsightliness and the essential pessimism of his outlook.

Sokurov told a Berlin press conference in 2009 in regard to his films about Hitler, Lenin and Hirohito, I am not interested in the history or politics which took place, I am not really interested in historical events or the period, I am much more interested in the human being, as though there was such a thing as an abstract-biological human being apart from history or politics.

For Sokurov, art is elegy. His obsession with death and the beyond is repeatedly manifested through an interest in the transcendental and in fortune-telling, a fixation with eyes, feet (sometimes crucified) and hands, as well as his search for the eternal in the midst of the changeable. In Francofonia, the filmmaker searches for answers to philosophical questions among the dead, focusing on the expression in the eyes of Tolstoy and Chekhov in old photographs, trying to raise them from the grave or at least summon their spirits. He mourns them as father figures who died at the most important juncture in history, leaving childish humanity to fend for itself.

Sokurovs world is distorted, full of phantoms, awaiting apocalypse. Barbarism and ugliness are the norm in a society where Liberty, equality, brotherhood is only a slogan. It is enough to recall his reduction of Romanticism to pornographic revulsion in Faust , the mummy-like grotesqueness of Lenin (Taurus) and the physical monstrosity of Solzhenitsyn (Dialogues with Solzhenitsyn).

The narrow focus on objects, combined with a muffled audio and the degraded quality of the tinted frame, in the end creates an unpleasant, claustrophobic sense of being trapped in a cage, drowning and suffocating. Beauty in his films fades, cracks with age or under brutal blows.

As part of the mishmash of his influences, Sokurov follows French philosopher Michel Foucault (Of Other Spaces) and treats museums as heterotopias no different than prisons or temples. Beauty, according to this reasoning, is always captured. Looted or acquired art is a war trophy.

Whoever is in possession of these artifacts usurps the historical memory and fate of a people, said Sokurov, sounding like a Nietzschean. Paintings may give us an understanding of who we are as Europeans, he adds. Known for turning his movies into historical burlesque, he sees the portrait as a driving force in European development (in opposition to the Muslim world), with rulers like Napoleon promoting art not only through plunder, but by commissioning the artists to glorify them. Art, and especially older art, according to him, portrays the fear of power. Power is ubiquitous; it governs everywhere. If you believe in Gods plan then power is part of that plannot the best part as far as I can see, he observes.

Sokurov also warns against the non-European barbarians, who are risking their lives to reach Europe, because they will destroy the continents culture. We love and appreciate Europe, European individuality. Do not assimilate, look after yourselves, Sokurov said at a press conference at the 2015 Venice Film Festival where Francofonia premiered. What the Nazis would not dare, was quickly and ruthlessly realised by Islamic terrorists, he added referring to the destruction of Palmyra in Syria by ISIS .

Pointing to the threat of a Franco-German alliance, Sokurov singles out the Nazis respect for French culture as opposed to their destructive treatment of the Hermitage during the siege of Leningrad, when eastern Europe art was stolen or destroyed. However, it is not Sokurovs admiration for the first workers state or support for the heroism of its defence that prompts his comment: he is rather making an appeal for the resurrection of Russias supposed past military and patriotic glory and the mobilisation of its population in the face of the dangers facing their country.

The film ends with the blurry red screen turning black and blue and a cacophony of the distorted sounds of the Soviet and Russian anthems.

Francofonia is not devoid of beauty, and there are scenes that are moving, like the one in which Sokurov touches the marble statue of Eros in an effort to connect with the past. There is also an amazing surrealist scene in which a German warplane flies through the Louvre. Sokurovs movies tend to be dream-like, but it is ironic that he refers to surrealist art. The surrealists, many of whom were strongly connected to the socialist movement, were uncompromising opponents of capitalism, religion and nationalism.

Stalinism and the wreckage of the Soviet Union have helped produce Sokurovs filmmaking. The result is an artistic stagnation, like a half-dead body in the swamp, unable to envision a better world, incapable of inspiring anyone or indicating a way forward for humanity. Political and social emancipation is unthinkable for him. The filmmaker is not to blame for the historical tragedies that befell him, along with wide layers of the Soviet population, but he has not made any serious, rational effort to understand them. The results are accordingly meagre.
Last week, Britains parliament voted 472-117 to renew the Trident nuclear submarine programme.

Amid jeering and abuse heaped by members of the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) on their leader Jeremy Corbyn, 140 Labour MPs voted with the Conservatives in defence of Britains nuclear deterrent. The Trident vote revealed that there is a single party of war, cutting across party lines.

The media campaign surrounding the vote exposed the central aim of the attempted coup against Corbyn. Its aim is to install the Blairite forces who will ensure Labour continues to serve as the direct and pliant instrument of British imperialism.

As with every aspect of this campaign, the Guardian has played a key role.

On the eve of the vote, it provided a platform for Labour MPs demanding support for Trident, as well as those calling for an abstentionreserving its vitriol for Corbyns anti-nuclear stance.

The first of these sorties was launched by Labours deputy leader, Tom Watson. He spoke for the vast majority of PLP members in a July 17 article headlined, Economically and militarily, we must renew Trident.

Emphasising Labours history as a party of war, Watson declared, [N]ow is not the time to step away from our historic role as a nuclear power. When [Labour Prime Minister Clement] Attlee built Britains bomb, he did so because he knew our role in the world would be shaped by our capacity to defend ourselves and our allies; the logic of that Labour party position holds even truer today.

He made clear the predatory interests behind the Trident debate, calling on Britain to step up its involvement in the NATO build-up against Russia: I am pleased that the UK is committed to deploying our troops as part of NATOs Baltic forces. Putins Russia looms, a mafia state built on chauvinism. Britain must play its part in holding it at bay.

Labour MPs Clive Lewis and Emily Thornberry, who are nominally Corbyn supporters, contributed their own article, This Trident vote is a contemptible trick. Thats why we are abstaining.

Justifying their refusal to oppose the government motion, the pair wrote that Mondays debate would be nothing more than a political game  There is nothing new in this debatea vote in principle was agreed in 2007. It is being held simply to sow further divisions inside the Labour party.

To portray the vote on Britains nuclear program as merely a cynical political manoeuvre by the Tories is politically criminal. Both MPs are well aware of the context in which the Trident vote is being helda growing arms race by all the major imperialist powers that threatens a third world war. Thornberry is heading up Labours Defence Review, while Lewis, a graduate from Sandhurst military academy who served in Afghanistan, is currently Labours shadow defence minister. Both are privy to high-level military briefings, especially in relation to the current NATO build-up against Russia.

While claiming to offer a third way between outright rejection and acceptance of the governments motion, they made clear that any concerns they have over the Trident programme are of a militarist character. Budget outlays on Trident will matter if our already highly stretched conventional defence capabilities must be cut to pay for it, Lewis and Thornberry wrote. If we choose to retain a nuclear capability, there are many cheaper alternatives than building the full complement of replacement submarines.

The next day, just hours before the Trident debate, Guardian commissioning editor Archie Bland weighed in with an extraordinary opinion piece: Banging on about Tridentits Corbynism to a T.

Blands objective was to portray Corbyns planned opposition to Trident as irrelevant, because the issue lacked salience with the broader public.

Do you prefer your potatoes mashed or roasted? he asked his readers. Which are better, cats or dogs? Is it reasonable for your aunts next-door neighbours to play loud music after 11pm? If pressed, you will have a view about all of these things.  But a view isnt usually the same thing as a deep concern. Political scientists call this salience: the idea that, as well as what you think about something, it is worth asking whether you think about it.

According to Bland, the attitude of millions of people to the danger of nuclear war is on par with the minor inconvenience of rowdy neighbours.

They dont care whether Jeremy Corbyn is leader of the Labour party, he continued. They no longer care about the invasion of Iraq, which remains a shibboleth for a huge segment of Labour activists, even though it began more than a decade ago and all of the key players have departed from the stage. And they certainly dont care about the particulars of Trident.

The Tories would breeze through the vote on Trident in a spirit of complete unity, he concluded, while Labour appears hopelessly divided on something that most people dont care about.

Blands article provoked hundreds of objections on the Guardians comment thread.

Undeterred, Guardian journalist Owen Jones took up Blands theme in his own column the next day, concluding: Those of us who believe Britain could set an example by disposing of its nuclear weapons should have the humility to accept we have not convinced the majority of people in this country, including those whose jobs currently depend on Trident and who have not been persuaded about an alternative economic plan. We have to at least start from there.

The picture painted by Bland and Jones of an apathetic populace is an outright lie. Their aim is to delegitimise opposition to Tridentand to block any challenge to the imperialist war drive.

When Bland writes that the public no longer cares about the invasion of Iraq he is confusing the indifference of his fellow columnists, such as Jones, who speak for the most privileged layers of the upper middle class, with the egalitarian and oppositional sentiments of millions of workers and young people.

A critical aspect of the Guardians coverage is its determination to downplay the threat of nuclear war. But Prime Minister Theresa Mays unprecedented and ominous declaration, made in the Trident debate, that she would not hesitate to authorise a nuclear strike killing 100,000 innocent men, women and children, shows what is at stake.

Her chilling admission was passed over in silence by Labour MPs and the Guardian duly stepped in to cover their tracks. The result was a comment by Giles Fraser, Theresa May is lying over Trident. At least I hope she is.

Fraser, a former canon chancellor of St. Pauls Cathedral, and therefore in the professional business of granting benedictions, claimed that parliament has just committed well over 100bn on a weapons system that we wont use, that we mustnt use, and that even the Russians know we wont use. They know this because the only situation in which we would think about pressing the button would be precisely the situation in which there was no longer any point in pressing the button.

His imaginary schema was based on the premise that the British ruling class would not initiate a nuclear attack. In his entire column, the words Hiroshima and Nagasaki do not appear. But the bombs dropped on both Japanese cities in August 1945, killing over 200,000 people, were nuclear first strikes by the United States. Declassified papers made public in 2013 revealed that British wartime Prime Minister Winston Churchill personally endorsed these atrocities.

On February 15, 2003, more than 1 million people in the UK joined global protests to oppose the impending invasion of Iraq the largest anti-war protests in history. This opposition has not gone away. According to a YouGov poll published last June, opposition to the Iraq War has in fact increased over the past 13 years. Polls conducted over the past decade have also consistently registered majority opposition to Trident.

The Guardian is not merely a newspaper. It is an organising centre of the nominally liberal bourgeoisie. Claiming to stand for progressive opinion, its role is to police public discourse, upholding at all times the strategic imperatives of imperialism.

The problem is not apathy, as the Guardian claims, but the absence of a revolutionary leadership, programme and perspective. The instinctive opposition of working people has been deliberately confined to the parties and institutions of capitalismthe very system responsible for war, austerity and the growing assault on democratic rights.

In 2003, the Stop the War Coalitionled by figures such as Tony Benn, Ken Livingstone, Tariq Ali and Jeremy Corbynchannelled mass protests behind impotent appeals to the Labour Party, the United Nations and imperialist powers such as France and Germany, to oppose the US-led invasion of Iraq. Corbyn addressed the mass rally in Londons Hyde Park, calling on Blair to hold a parliamentary vote on the war. Blair did so four weeks later. A pro-war vote by Labour and the Tories resulted, with British military action commencing the next day.

Corbyns record since becoming Labour leader in September 2015 has been one of abject capitulation to the Blairite warmongers on every critical issue. In the name of party unity he has: (1) refused to challenge Labour policy on Trident at the partys National Conference; (2) allowed a free vote on British military action in Syria that resulted in bombing raids; and (3) opposed war crimes charges against Tony Blair and his accomplices, helping to sweep the findings of the Chilcot inquiry into the Iraq War under the mat.

Despite addressing rallies of thousands of supporters over the weekend, including a campaign launch in Salford on Saturday, Corbyn made no mention of Trident or the threat of war.
On July 14, the German news programme Monitor reported new numbers on top income earners in Germany. The report based itself on data from top earners at more than 1,300 businesses collected by the Kienbaum consultancy firm.

According to the study, from 1997 to 2014 the income of CEOs increased by an average of 42 percent, the income of managers by 59 percent and the income of company board members with DAX companies by 186 percent. During the same period, the income for average earners increased by just 15 percent.

The Kienbaum study estimates the average gross income of company management in 2013 at approximately 500,000. That is more than double the amount arrived at for this year by the socioeconomic panel SOEP. They estimated that the average gross income of the top percent of top earners in 2013 at only 200,000.

The numbers of the SEOP are used in several other investigations into wealth and poverty in Germany. They constitute an important basis for the German governments report on wealth and poverty and represent an extreme misrepresentation of the gap between rich and poor.

That the numbers on the income of top earners were inaccurate was already understood. For the most part, they consisted of appraisals arrived at through the surveys and extrapolations of the SOEP. What is new is the size of the gap between high and average incomes.

In a press release, Monitor writes that the new data on the richest Germans reveals, The gap between poor and rich is clearly much larger than official statistics have shown.

The Monitor piece itself points out from the beginning that there is a large amount of data on the poorer part of the population: The rich, howeverstatistically speakingare somewhat unknown creatures. What the top earners actually make and what they pay in taxes, even in the official statistics, is often only vague speculation.

Professor Wolfgang Lauterbach, a wealth researcher who contributed to the Monitor piece, says of the top percentage point of income recipients: This 1 percent is actually a group about whom we are feeling around in the fog.  Who are they? What, ultimately, do we know about the amount of taxes paid by each person? What do we know about their assets? What we know, to be frank, is nothing. That is a little like a black box.

The report uses two examples to demonstrate how income levels have grown apart. A shop owner must earn a gross annual income of 30,000 to make ends meet. While the shop owners work in recent years has grown, his or her income, however, has not. With 150,000 in annual income, the CEO of a company belongs statistically to the top 1 percent of income earners in Germany.

According to the relevant statistics, says the report, since the end of the 1990s, the average income has increased demonstrably slower than the income of the top 1 percent. The average has only increased by 8.4 percent, the highest incomes by 31.5 percent. Inequality has also increased.

One must say, however, that the cited example of a shop owner with 30,000 and a CEO with 150,000 in annual income presents only a small section of income inequality. Many company directors, at DAX companies in particular, receive annual incomes of several million euros and earn far more than shown in the example.

The World Wealth Report 2016, recently published by the consultancy firm Capgemini, has already documented the increase in millionaires worldwide and provides a sense of the enormous concentration of wealth at the top of society. Last year, the number of millionaires worldwide (calculated in US dollars) grew to 15.4 million and in Germany to almost 1.2 million. In the last year alone, 58,000 people became millionaires in Germany. (See The number of German millionaires increases).

A striking redistribution of social wealth from the bottom to the top has been taking place for a long time. This process intensified with the outbreak of the international financial and economic crisis of 2008. According to the World Wealth Report 2016, the assets of the worlds super-rich have quadrupled in the last 20 years despite the financial crisis.

In Germany, especially since the SPD-Green government of Gerhard Schroder and Joschka Fischer from 1998 to 2005 and the governments that followed, austerity measures against the working and poor population have greatly intensified. The wealth tax was abolished in 1997, followed by the lowering of the peak tax rate from 53 to 42 percent and additional benefits for the wealthy and top earners.

With the Hartz IV welfare laws, an immense low-wage sector was created and the conditions placed on social assistance in case of unemployment and other emergency situations were tightened and severely restricted. Millions of people forced to work in this low-wage sector cannot make ends meet even though they are employed and must rely on Hartz IV supplements, a time-consuming and stressful affair.

While wealth is concentrated at the top of society, poverty and social hardship is on the rise in large sections of the population. According to the latest government report on wealth and poverty, the top 10 percent possess more than half (51.9 percent) of all wealth. The poorer half possesses just 1 percent. And even these figures will have grown farther apart in recent months in light of new statistics on income trends among the wealthy.

Poverty in a rich country like Germany has already reached devastating proportions. Since 2014, 15.4 percent of the population, or one in six people, are considered poor, as reported by the Parity Association. One in seven children under the age of 15 is considered poor and dependent on Hartz IV, as shown in statistics of the Federal Labour Office for 2015. In cities like Bremen and Berlin and several cities in the Ruhr, almost one in three children grow up in poverty.
A terrible attack in Japan by a disturbed individual on disabled people early Tuesday morning has left 19 people dead and a further 26 injured, half of them critically. Satoshi Uematsu, 26, broke into a centre for people with disabilities around 2 am, tied up the staff and then methodically stabbed the residents, before leaving and handing himself in to police.

The deadly attack has produced widespread shock in Japan where the homicide rate is low and multiple murders rare. No serious attempt, however, has been made in the Japanese or international media to probe any of the underlying social and political causes of the killing spree.

Uematsu was a former employee of the disabilities centre, known as Tsukui Yamayuri-en. He was forced to resign in February after he sent a letter to the speaker of the lower house of parliament advocating euthanasia for the disabled. According to the national broadcaster, NHK, he threatened to kill hundreds of people with disabilities for the sake of Japan and called for legislation to allow the lives of the severely disabled to be ended.

I will carry out a massacre without harming staff, Uematsu reportedly wrote. I can kill 470 disabled people. My goal is a world where people with multiple disabilities who have extreme difficulty living at home or being active in society can be euthanised with the consent of their guardians.

Uematsu made clear that Tsukui Yamayuri-en would be his first target, and that he would carry out the attack at night, when fewer staff were on duty.

After hearing about the letter, the welfare centres director told Uematsu that he was not an appropriate person to work at the facility and obtained his agreement to resign. The young man was involuntarily committed to a psychiatric hospital, where he was diagnosed with a marijuana-induced psychosis and delusional disorder, but allowed to leave just 12 days later.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe yesterday issued a perfunctory statement offering condolences from the bottom of my heart to the families of the victims and said his government would do everything to get to the bottom of the truth. Other politicians at the national and prefectural level followed suit.

While nothing suggests that yesterdays attack was in any way connected to terrorism, the multiple murders will undoubtedly be used, as has been the case in recent incidents in France and Germany, to justify a further bolstering of the state apparatus in Japan.

Already, various commentators are calling for tough law-and-order measures. Nobuo Komiya, a Rissho University criminology professor, told Associated Press: Japan has put an emphasis on not creating criminals, but it is reaching breaking point. Like in foreign countries, I think institutions need to develop a plan in operational management and prepare for a worst-case scenario, given that criminals are inevitably born.

What Komiya is dismissing is the very notion that crimes, including murder, are the product of a diseased society rather than being innate to evil individuals.

A report on global homicide issued by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime in 2013 noted: With no notable fluctuations, the homicide rate in Japan has decreased steadily since 1955 to reach one of the lowest levels in the world. The countrys homicide rate is associated with a stable and prosperous society with low inequality and high levels of development.

In 2014, there were 11 times more homicides in the United States than in Japan, even though the American population is approximately three times that of Japan.

Two decades of economic slump, however, combined with a deepening assault on living standards by successive governments have led to rising levels of social inequality, unemployment and poverty that are exacerbating social tensions. Young people in particular face an uncertain future as permanent jobs have been replaced by casual, low-paid employment.

According to the Yomuiri Shimbun, Uematsu obtained work as a part-time employee at the Tsukui Yamayuri-en centre in December 2012 after quitting a job with a transportation-related company. He became a full-time worker in April 2013. The New York Times reported that he told the police yesterday: I held some grudges after being forced to resign.

The Financial Times explained that care facilities in Japan have come under growing strain as the number of elderly people has risen, creating the need for a large number of carers. Wages in the sector are low and a widespread shortage of trained carers and nurses had been blamed for a rise in incidents of elderly abuse.

A study published in 2010 by researcher Yuuka Ooka into the working conditions of staff at welfare facilities for people with disabilities found that 62 percent of workers were in the condition of high-risk mental health.

The study noted that government reforms had resulted in funding cutbacks, which resulted in increased workloads. In recent years, problems in mental health among welfare staff have been increasing in every facility, resulting in their leaving or early retirement. It is clear that the reform efforts made the staff exhausted and sometimes sick. This trend in Japan has been a serious issue among facilities for people with disabilities.

What drove Uematsu to murder disabled people remains unclear. He was clearly a deeply disturbed individual whose mental instability may well have been compounded by poor working conditions and the lack of assistance for staff members. There are some hints that he might have been attracted to extreme right-wing groups. The New York Times, for instance, noted that he had been following several right-wing accounts on Twitter.

The Abe government, in particular, has given succour to right-wing and fascistic organisations in Japan through its efforts to remilitarise Japan, integrate the country into US-led wars and promote virulent Japanese nationalism. This agenda only encourages a climate in which violence is seen as normal and that finds its most reactionary expression in the extreme right.
The release of roughly 20,000 internal Democratic National Committee (DNC) emails by WikiLeaks exposes the methods that the Democratic Party utilizes in order to raise funds, dole out privileges and cover up their dirty dealings.

One of the schemes included the creation of the Hillary Victor Fund (HVF), which appealed for hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions for Hillary Clinton through extravagant fundraisers. The fund included 40 state Democratic Party committees and could accept checks as large as $356,100, with individuals limited to $10,000 per state party (of which there are 32), $33,400 for the DNC and $2,700 for Clintons campaign.

The fund in effect worked to funnel money into the Clinton campaign and the DNC. According to Politicos analysis of the Federal Elections Commission records, between the creation of the fund in September and the end of last month, it brought in $142 million, with 44 percent ending up in the DNC and Hillary for America, with state parties keeping less than $800,000, or 0.56 percent.

As a result of campaign finance laws, these practices are at best legally questionable and at worst criminal. Legally a donor would be allowed to give a maximum contribution of $5,400 to Clinton per election cycle, $33,400 to the DNC per year, and $10,000 to each state committee in the fund per year.

If a wealthy donor had already given $33,400 to the DNC, and then gave a substantial contribution to the HVFwhich the fund funneled back into the DNChe or she would essentially have donated more money to the DNC than is allowed. This situation is particularly problematic since Clinton, and others associated with her campaign, claimed the fund was primarily to aid local Democrats.

The leaked email exchanges show the effort of leading members of the DNC to cover up the fact that funds were not being allocated to state parties. In an email chain from late April, leading DNC membersincluding Communications Director Luis Miranda and Deputy Communications Director Eric Walkerdiscussed how to deal with a Politico journalist inquiring about funds being sent back to the DNC. In the end Miranda writes, Theres been no coverage [of funds going back to the DNC] that weve found, which is what we wanted.

In May, following claims by Politico as well as then-Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders that HVF was a form of money-laundering, officials from the DNC and Clinton campaign spokesman Josh Schwerin worked together to draft a response to these allegations. Miranda specifically ran a proposal to write a brief comment stating that HVF was not laundering money, and told Schwerin, Since its your HVF we want to make sure you guys are good with it, and with the push back.

In the leaked emails, Miranda and Schwerin also work out a number of key points to argue that the HVF is legal, including that many millions have been raised for state parties and just havent been distributed to them yet, and that experts have agreed theres nothing unusual about the victory funds. These points were also used by the DNC to claim that Sanders allegations were wrong, and the Clinton campaign also joined in to criticize him for not raising funds for the state parties.

Other leaked emails expose the extent the DNC sought out large donors and created different packages to encourage donors to give more. The more a contributor gave to the DNC the more perks he or she could receive.

As Max Marshall, the DNCs southern finance director, explained to one wealthy donor in May, You currently qualify for the Main Line package! If were willing to contribute $33,400 we can bump you up a level to the Fairmont. Additionally, your generous contribution would allow you to attend a small roundtable we are having with President Obama in DC on May 18th or a dinner in NYC on June 8th (Invites also attached).

In some cases special exceptions were made, such as with multinational conglomerate Honeywell. The company was given a hotel room in Philadelphia for a contribution of $60,000 to the DNCs convention host committee becausein the words of one DNC financial stafferthey are the biggest PAC contributor in the country, and that the gesture would create better relations with them for later in the election cycle and for years to come.

Another large donor, Shefali Razdan Duggal, also requested a variety of benefits for the money she was helping to raise, including an invitation to Vice President Joseph Bidens holiday party. She stated in the email that she was working for the Rittenhouse Convention package, the top-tier donors package. The package would require Duggal to raise $1,250,000 or personally give $467,600 between January 2015 and June 2016. This would provide the contributor with a premier hotel in Philadelphia for the Democratic National Convention, VIP credentials and a campaign briefing with high-level Democratic officials.

The frenzy to win larger donations eventually resulted in Ruthzee Louijeune, an associate from the DNCs outside law firm Perkins Coie, requesting that DNC officials change the wording in the announcement of a round table discussion. Louijeune, who wrote to the DNCs financial chief of staff in May, explained, As you know, WH [the White House] policy restricts the use of language that gives the appearance that contributors can pay for policy access to the President.

In reality, however, the emails expose the fact that many of the wealthiest individuals could gain access to the president or other White House officials, as long as they worked out a deal with an official from the DNC and were willing to pay the right price.

During the Democratic primaries, Sanders frequently raised the issue of Clintons ties to Wall Street and wealthy contributors. Since his recent endorsement of Clinton, Sanders has worked to portray Clinton as a great progressive, with the party as a whole moving towards the left. In order to do this, he has chosen to remain largely silent about the email leaks.
Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian reported the deaths of three agents of the General Directorate of Exterior Security's (DGSE) Action Service, which is carrying out black ops on Libyan soil. The incident underscores the illegal character of the French government's ongoing military operations in Libya, which are being carried out behind the backs of the French people.

The Brigade for the Defense of Benghazi, an Islamist militia, claimed responsibility for the destruction of the helicopter carrying the soldiers earlier this month. According to the Associated Press, militants fired a surface-to-air missile and shot heavy weapons at the aircraft, bringing it down and killing the soldiers.

President Francois Hollande praised the courage and devotion of the soldiers active in fighting terrorism, whereas Le Drian simply referred to a helicopter accident in an attempt to obscure France's military intervention in Libya, which has never officially been approved.

The revelation of the presence of clandestine French forces provoked an angry reaction from the Libyan puppet regime, installed after NATO's bloody war in Libya in 2011 and backed by the UN, which claimed to not be aware of the French operations.

In a communique published a week ago, the national unity government led by Fayez el-Serraj described its profound unhappiness concerning the French presence in the east of Libya, organized without coordination with us. Serraj claimed that his government had contacted the French government to demand an explanation.

The French presence on the ground is officially an intelligence and support mission. From the Sahel countries to the south of Libya, where it has maintained a military presence even since formal decolonization in the 1960s, France is engaged in surveillance operations and military interventions.

Hasni Adibi, a political scientist and analyst of Arab countries at the Study and Research Center for the Arab and Mediterranean World (CERMAM) in Geneva, explained Frances intervention in Libya to the Atlantico web site: Hollande has chosen an intermediate option, a targeted but discreet presence. But France's presence in Libya is not new. Immediately after the fall of Gaddafi and the spread of the jihadists across the Sahel, the French reinforced their presence in Chad, that is to say very close to the border, and since then they have been monitoring Libyan skies. France fears a movement of men and weapons from Libya towards its positions in the Sahel countries. The reinforcement of the Islamic State [IS] in Derna, in the east of the country, in 2015 and it sudden growth in Syrte forced a turn in French policy in Libya.

Adibi added, The third element that motivated France's involvement is the intensification of coalition air strikes in Syria and Iraq, IS might decide to look for a place to retreat and take refuge. Libya, which has collapsed into instability, is well situated to become this place. France cannot allow a return of the jihadists to the Mediterranean's southern flank.

This is a damning admission of the responsibility of French imperialism, together with the other NATO powers, for the bloody chaos in Libya, the Middle East, and across northern Africa. In 2011, the imperialist powers responded to revolutionary struggles of the working class in Egypt and Tunisia by launching a violent military offensive seeking to recolonize the entire region.

During the war in Libya five years ago, waged under the pretext of defending a revolution that would bring down Muammar Gaddafi's regime, NATO provided massive air support to Islamist militias tied to Al Qaeda. These Islamist groups were the main proxy forces on the ground in the war organized by NATO to install a puppet regime and seize the strategically-located, oil-rich country.

Libya subsequently served as a base for Islamist fighters and weapons which US, French and other European intelligence agencies funneled into Syria in order to fuel a sectarian civil war there aimed at overthrowing the government of President Bashar al Assad.

In Libya, the chaos created by the NATO war and the conflicts that broke out between the different Islamist factions sank the country into an entrenched civil war and provoked a vast migrant crisis. Thousands of refugees have died in the Mediterranean on boats which they boarded in Libya.

Libya's UN-backed national unity government has proven incapable of controlling these conflicts and consequently is not considered reliable by the imperialist powers, including France.

The French special forces' clandestine operations have exposed the double game France is playing.

Paris officially supports the Serraj regime, but at the same time backs General Khalifa Haftar, the self-proclaimed military chief of the east, where the French military presence is deployed.

The French-backed general reportedly aims to imitate Egypt's dictator, General Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. Sisi installed a military dictatorship in Egypt after a coup against the Islamist government of President Mohamed Morsi, who repressed social opposition based in the working class through assassinations and mass torture. France sees Haftar as the best option to set up a bloody regime that can ensure the stability of Libya and thus French imperialism's interests in the country.

Haftar is seeking to build and deploy his own army in the region, but due to his close ties with the US and French governments, the Misrata militias and the military forces in Tripoli have refused to officially recognize him.

Ultimately, France's military intervention in Libya exposes the anti-democratic character of Hollande's Socialist Party (PS) government, which covertly sends soldiers to fight in Libya without informing the public, which is largely hostile to France's external military operations.
The monsoons make for an amazing time to explore the beauty of Rajasthan. Here are a few places you must visit.

By Samonway Duttagupta: There's hardly a person alive who would not like to travel to Rajasthan. Well, it's just not heritage that attracts so many travellers to this colourful state. Rajasthan has a bit of everything--right from wildlife to hills to heritage. And trust us on this--monsoons are a great time to explore all of that. In fact, in a few places, it's even better than the winters, which is usually considered to be the peak season. After all, the dark clouds and the rain-soaked greenery gives a picturesque glow to the landscape. Here are a few destinations in the state that you must visit this season.

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Ranakpur

Not many travellers have heard of this place. But interestingly, this is one place in Rajasthan where you can see the real charm of the Aravalli Range, which is said to be Earth's oldest mountain range. While the entire landscape is covered by a carpet of green, the dark grey clouds overhead add a soothing hue to the 360-degree view of the surrounding hills.

The Jain temple of Ranakpur is a must-visit because of its amazing architecture. Picture courtesy: Flickr/Andrew Miller/Creative Commons

While you are here, go on a nature walk and spend a day visiting the ancient Jain temple which is the main tourist attraction of this place. Dedicated to Tirthankara Adinatha, this temple is known for its architecture. The intricate marble carvings covering most of the interior space of the temple are stunning. You can spend hours here taking in the beauty and taking photographs of the place. Don't forget to have the prasad meal offered here. It's pure vegetarian, but we bet it's one of the most delicious meals you will ever have.

The intricate carvings leading the way towards the sanctum sanctorum of Ranakpur's Jain temple. Picture courtesy: Flickr/Daniel Mennerich/Creative Commons

If you have time, pay a visit to Bera wildlife sanctuary--a place where you can spot leopards. It is located at a distance of just 6o km from Ranakpur. For a dose of heritage, visit the Kumbhalgarh Fort, which is located at a distance of 33 km from Ranakpur.

Distance from Delhi: 627 km

Stay: Mana Hotel

Bundi

Another lesser-known destination of Rajasthan, Bundi is a place where you can see the beauty of Rajasthan's traditional culture in its purest form. Filled with narrow lanes and Brahmin-blue houses, the city is home to numerous lakes, hills, bazaars, and temples at every turn.

The Brahmin-blue houses of Bundi have Rajasthani folk art adorned on them. Picture courtesy: Flickr/Fabio Campo/Creative Commons The Brahmin-blue houses of Bundi have Rajasthani folk art adorned on them. Picture courtesy: Flickr/Fabio Campo/Creative Commons

Unlike other popular destinations of Rajasthan, this place doesn't have every street crowded with tourist crowds. A walk through this city will bring you in close encounters with the state's folk art (displayed through the wall paintings adorning the houses) and delicious street food available at the several local stalls. Besides, the local bazaars of this place promise authentic experiences to shopaholics.

The Bundi Palace. Picture courtesy: Flickr/taylorandayumi/Creative Commons

Apart from all this, Bundi happens to be one of the best places to witness the colourful festival of Teej that Rajasthan is known for. This year, the celebrations will take place on the 5th of August. Bundi's heritage is dictated by the Bundi Palace which offers amazing panoramas of the town.

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Also see: If this video can't inspire you to travel to Rajasthan, nothing else can!



Distance from Delhi: 493 km

Stay: The Hadoti Palace



Bhainsrorgarh

Located at a 57 km picturesque drive from Kota, Bhainsrorgarh is a place where you can experience Rajasthan rather differently than you have always imagined it to be. Bordering the state of Madhya Pradesh, the Chambal River and its surrounding landscape add beauty to this place.

The Chambal River and its lush green surroundings add to the beauty of Bhainsrorgarh. Picture courtesy: Facebook/Rare Destinations and Experiences

You can go on a nature hike along the river and end it with a picnic lunch inside the verdant forests of Chambal or row to the beautiful river island. Taking time out to walk up to the 9th century Badoli temples also offers a refreshing experience to explorers. Apart from this, a trip to Bhainsrorgarh is incomplete without a stay at the Bhainsrorgarh Fort, which is a boutique heritage hotel perched beautifully on the top of a cliff overlooking Chambal River.

The Bhainsrorgarh Fort, located atop a cliff overlooking the Chambal River is an amazing place to stay in. Picture courtesy: Facebook/Rare Destinations and Experiences

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Distance from Delhi: 575 km

Stay: Bhainsrorgarh Fort



Udaipur

No matter how many times you have visited this place or no matter how much you have read about it, the City of Lakes can be rediscovered in a new way every single time you are there. Apart from the City Palace, Lake Pichola and other popular tourist attractions of this place, Udaipur is one destination in Rajasthan that boasts of a Monsoon Palace.

A panoramic view of Udaipur from the top of the Monsoon Palace. Picture courtesy: Flickr/Hugh Mitton/Creative Commons

Built by Maharana Sajjan Singh of the Mewar dynasty in 1884, the Monsoon Palace is located on the top of one of the hillocks of the Aravalli Range, thus offering a panoramic view of the city under the beautiful monsoon clouds.

From left to right: City Palace, Lake Palace, various hotels and the Monsoon Palace. Picture courtesy: Flickr/albedo20/Creative Commons

Distance from Delhi: 663 km

Stay: Jagmandir Island Palace

Also see: Rajasthan Tourism invites you to visit these offbeat monuments



Bharatpur

Located at an easy driving distance from Delhi, Bharatpur makes for a perfect weekend getaway for birders living in the national capital. The place is known for the Keoladeo National Park (formerly Bharatpur Bird Sanctuary), which is home to more than 350 avian species including a good number of rare and migratory species.

A Black Rumped Flameback Woodpecker in Keoladeo National Park. Photo: Bhavneet Singh Aurora

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The UNESCO World Heritage Site is a wildlife photographer's haven and can be best explored on foot. Also, one must not miss out on a boat ride, which is less popular yet promises an amazing experience for both birders and nature lovers.

Rudy Shellducks in Bharatpur. Photo: Bhavneet Singh Aurora

Distance from Delhi: 223 km

Stay: Bharatpur Forest Lodge



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Explosive struggles are developing in Sri Lanka among workers, the poor and youth against the governments austerity measures, dictated by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and its growing attacks on democratic rights.

The strikes and protests in Sri Lanka are part of the resurgence of working class struggles internationally, in the US, in Europe, China, India and elsewhere, in the context of a deepening crisis of world capitalism.

President Maithripala Sirisena came to office under the bogus banner of defending democratic rights and improving living conditions. The trade unions, pseudo-left parties and so-called civil society groups supported his election as the only supposed alternative for the masses to the autocratic rule of President Mahinda Rajapakse.

Just 18 months on, the government of Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe is discredited. It is continuing and deepening the attacks carried out by the Rajapakse government to shift the burden of the capitalist crisis onto the working class.

Sirisena was installed via a regime-change operation orchestrated by the US, with the assistance of India and sections of the Sri Lankan ruling elite. Washington did not oppose Rajapakses anti-democratic methods of rule but rather his close ties to Beijing. Sirisena and Wickremesinghe shifted the countrys foreign policy into the US camp as Washington stepped up its military build-up throughout Asia in preparation for war with China.

Socialist Equality Party is the only party that exposed the US-backed operation to instal Sirisena and consistently fought for a socialist alternative to defend democratic rights and living conditions and end the threat of war.

The SEP and International Youth and Students for Social Equality (IYSSE) public meeting in Colombo will discuss this socialist and internationalist program. We urge workers, youth and socialist-minded intellectuals to participate in this important discussion.

Meeting details:

Date: Tuesday August 9

Time: 4:00 p.m.

Venue: Colombo Public Library Auditorium
The Democratic Partys 2016 national convention is unfolding as a carefully scripted and staged infomercial in which this right-wing capitalist party, tied at the hip to Wall Street and the Pentagon, postures as some sort of popular representative of the people.

Amidst the humanitarian moralizing and sentimental declarations of universal brotherhood, one thing that is absent is any serious discussion of what kind of foreign policy a Clinton administration would pursue.

Despite fifteen years of the war on terror, the conventions headline speakers made no mention of the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria, the death of Libyan president Muammar Gaddafi or the White Houses drone assassination program. This silence is all the more extraordinary given the fact that the Obama administration is the first in US history that has been at war throughout two full terms in office.

The real decision-makers know, however, that in the background of the 2016 elections are escalating military tensions with Russia and China that raise the danger of world war between nuclear-armed powers.

None of the conventions speakers saw fit to mention the fact that the Obama administration has committed to go to war with Russia if the highly unstable, right-wing governments of Latvia, Lithuania or Estonia launch a provocation against it.

There was likewise no mention of the fact that the vice president is meeting this week with Philippine President Rodrigo Dutertewho has threatened to suspend the countrys Congress and has personally bragged about murdering 1,700 peoplein order to strengthen the anti-China alliance.

The absence of any discussion of substantive foreign policy issues is all the more striking given recent warnings of a looming great-power conflict from foreign policy journals, military think tanks and high-ranking military officials.

This month, Dennis Blair, the former commander of US forces in the Pacific, told a congressional hearing that, contrary to current policy, the United States should be willing to use military force if China seeks to assert its claims to a set of rocks in the South China Sea that are also claimed by the Philippines. Such a conflict, provoked over dubious territorial claims by a US ally on the opposite side of the world, would have a high likelihood of ending in a nuclear exchange that results in hundreds of millions, or even billions, of deaths.

Chinese officials, under no illusions as to what such statements signify, declared in the state-controlled Global Times, China hopes disputes can be resolved by talks, but it must be prepared for any military confrontation.

In the latest issue of the journal Foreign Affairs, John J. Mearsheimer and Stephen M. Walt state, There are regions outside the Western Hemisphere that are worth expending American blood and treasure to defend. The authors add, In Europe and Northeast Asia, the chief concern is the rise of a regional hegemon that would dominate its region, much as the United States dominates the Western Hemisphere.

With regard to Russia, leading generals are calling for an even more maniacal policy than that being proposed against China. Richard Shirreff, NATOs former Deputy Supreme Allied Commander in Europe, has suggested that a war with Russia could well take place next year in a book bluntly titled, 2017: War with Russia: An Urgent Warning from Senior Military Command.

Shirreff has developed these points in a strategy paper entitled Arming for Deterrence, released this week by the US-based Atlantic Council think tank. He declared that Russia has the capacity and possible intention to invade the USs Baltic allies overnight. To this end, in a plan of Hitlerian madness, he proposes to convert Poland, currently under the grip of an authoritarian right-wing government, into a military spearhead against Russia. Poland must reserve the right to attack Russian targets preemptively, become a staging ground for nuclear weapons and publish a potential list of targets inside Russia.

The prospect of a war with Russia after the election is openly being discussed in policy circles, with the National Interest declaring in its most recent cover story, entitled Russia and America: Destined for Conflict?, Relations between the two sides have deteriorated to dangerous levels If Moscow refuses to oblige, Washington should do whatever is necessary to protect its interests.

In fact, Hillary Clinton is the most open advocate of military intervention to win the Democratic nomination in recent memory.

As Mark Landler, author of Alter Egos: Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and the Twilight Struggle Over American Power, put it earlier this year, For all their bluster about bombing the Islamic State into oblivion, neither Donald J. Trump nor Senator Ted Cruz of Texas has demonstrated anywhere near the appetite for military engagement abroad that Clinton has.

As Secretary of State, Clinton proved to be a more open advocate of military force than Obama. On bedrock issues of war and peace, writes Landler, Clintons more activist philosophycollided with Obamas instincts toward restraint.

The fact that Obama, who as the New York Times noted in May, has now been at war longer than Mr. Bush, or any other American president, is presented as an example of military restraint is a testament to Clintons credentials as a warmonger.

In addition to calling for more aggressive military intervention than Obama in Afghanistan and Iraq, Clinton pressed for the United States to funnel arms to the rebels in Syrias civil war (an idea Obama initially rebuffed before later, halfheartedly, coming around to it). She privately demanded that Obama set up a no-fly zone in Syria after declarations by the US military/intelligence apparatus in 2013 that Syrian President Bashar Assad had used chemical weapons, declaring, If you say youre going to strike, you have to strike. Theres no choice.

Bruce Riedel, a former intelligence analyst who conducted Obamas initial review on the Afghanistan war, told Landler, One of the surprises forthe military was...that they have a secretary of state whos a little bit right of them on [military] issuesa little more eager than they are.

Writing in the National Interest, Yale professor David Bromwich observed the growing convergence between the policies of Clinton, her left apologists and the neoconservatives who helped launch the invasion of Iraq in 2003.

The past few weeks have cemented an extraordinary alliance to defeat Trump that joins two foreign-policy sects that were never entirely distinct: the neoconservatives who commandeered the Bush-Cheney foreign policy of 2001-2006, and liberal interventionists who supported the Iraq war, the Libya war, an expanded program of drone killings, and military intervention in Syria beyond what the Obama administration has allowed.

He notes, With a spate of recent articles and op-eds, these people are preparing the ground for Hillary Clinton to assert that the Russian government is in league with the Trump campaign, and that Russia has intervened in the election by releasing hacked Democratic National Committee emails to embarrass Clinton.

This campaign has been led by the New York Times, whose resident Clinton apologist, Paul Krugman, declared Donald Trump to be a Siberian candidate and a proxy for Putin, whom Clinton is determined to oppose.

This theme was taken up in the form of abbreviated remarks by former Secretary of State Madeline Albright at the DNC last night. Albright denounced Russia with a ferocity unheard of since the end of the Cold War. Bemoaning that her native Czechoslovakia had been taken over by Communists, Albright declared, Take it from someone who fled the Iron Curtain, I know what happens when you give the Russians a green light.

The US ruling class has historically waited to implement long-prepared military escalations until after elections, and the coming year poses enormous dangers. Regardless of who is elected, the struggle against war is the central issue in the building of an independent, socialist movement of the working class in the United States and around the world.
The following resolution was adopted at the Third National Congress of the Socialist Equality Party (Australia), which took place in Sydney from April 24 to 26, 2016.

1. The political tasks of the Socialist Equality Party derive from the February 18, 2016 statement of the International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI), Socialism and the Fight Against War: Build an International Movement of the Working Class and Youth Against Imperialism! The SEPs responsibility is to win workers and youth in the Asia-Pacific region, of which Australia is a part, to the perspective advanced by the ICFI.

2. As the ICFI statement stresses, the danger of a third world war arises from the inherent contradictions of capitalism, between the integrated character of world economy and its continued division into antagonistic nation-states, and between socialised production and the private ownership of the means of production. Propelled by the global economic breakdown of world capitalism that began with the financial crisis of 20082009, the United States, the European powers, Japan and lesser imperialist powers, such as Australia, are seeking to assert the interests of their banks, finance houses and corporations in an ever-more bitter struggle for control over resources, markets and sources of profit. The most destabilising factor in world politics is the drive by US imperialism to reverse its economic decline and maintain its global hegemony.

3. To prevent the catastrophe of war, the international working class, the great revolutionary force in society, must unite in a common struggle to end the capitalist profit system and nation-state divisions. This is the urgent strategic task. Workers in Australia, China, Japan, and across the Indo-Pacific region, must be unified with their counterparts in the United States, Europe and around the world into an international anti-war movement, consciously fighting for the establishment of world socialism. In the struggle for that perspective, the SEP in Australia has great responsibilities. The party must expand its influence across the entire country, and give all assistance possible to the historic work of the Socialist Equality Group in New Zealand, which is preparing the founding of the first new section of the ICFI in the Asia-Pacific since the establishment of the Australian section in 1972. The SEP, in the closest collaboration with the ICFI, will reach out to and work with individuals and groups in the South Pacific states and East Timor; in Indonesia, the Philippines and across South East Asia; in Korea, Japan and China, who, on the basis of the principles elaborated in the IC statement, recognise the necessity for building the world party of socialist revolution.

These principles are:

 The struggle against war must be based on the working class, the great revolutionary force in society, uniting behind it all progressive elements in the population.  The new anti-war movement must be anti-capitalist and socialist, since there can be no serious struggle against war except in the fight to end the dictatorship of finance capital and the economic system that is the fundamental cause of militarism and war.  The new anti-war movement must therefore, of necessity, be completely and unequivocally independent of, and hostile to, all political parties and organisations of the capitalist class.  The new anti-war movement must, above all, be international, mobilising the vast power of the working class in a unified global struggle against imperialism. The permanent war of the bourgeoisie must be answered with the perspective of permanent revolution by the working class, the strategic goal of which is the abolition of the nation-state system and the establishment of a world socialist federation. This will make possible the rational, planned development of global resources and, on this basis, the eradication of poverty and the raising of human culture to new heights.

US preparations for war against China

4. The Obama administrations pivot to Asia, directed against China, has dramatically escalated tensions in the Indo-Pacific. Having failed thus far in its objective of compelling the Beijing regime to submit to what it calls the global rules-based orderthat is, to US dictatesWashington is recklessly inflaming volatile flashpoints in the region. Over the past year, it has denounced Chinese land reclamation activities and militarisation in the South China Sea, and, on two occasions, directly challenged Beijings maritime claims by sending warships within the 12-nautical-mile territorial limit of Chinese-administered islets on the grounds of freedom of navigation. On the Korean Peninsula, the site of some of the bloodiest crimes of American imperialism in the 20th century, the US and South Korea last year changed their operational plans for war with North Korea, Chinas only formal ally, from defensive to offensive, including pre-emptive strikes and decapitation operations to assassinate the North Korean leadership.

5. The US, its allies and the corporate media are utilising allegations of Chinese militarisation in the South China Sea to turn reality on its head and portray Beijing, rather than Washington, as the regime seeking hegemony over Asia. The Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Hague will soon rule on a US-backed Philippines challenge to aspects of Chinas claims. The stage is being set for hypocritical denunciations of Chinas occupation of territory as illegal under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), which the US has refused to ratify. Freedom of navigation has joined terrorism, weapons of mass destruction and responsibility to protect as the sinister pretext for military provocations, interventions and wars.

6. The economic driving forces underpinning the turn to militarism were demonstrated with the signing of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) in February 2016. While it is yet to be ratified, President Obama openly declared: The TPP allows Americanot countries like Chinato write the rules of the road in the 21st century. The TPP is not a free trade agreement but an alliance between the US and Japan, the worlds largest and third largest economic powers respectively, to isolate China and apply even greater pressure on Beijing to open its markets on terms demanded by Washington.

7. The response of the capitalist regime in Beijing to the US-led provocations and war preparations is reactionary. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) does not represent the interests of the working class and rural masses of China but those of the parasitic ultra-rich oligarchs, who have amassed their fortunes over the past three decades through the processes of capitalist restoration and the ruthless exploitation of the Chinese working class. Maoism, based on the anti-Marxist Stalinist theory of socialism in one country, led the great revolutionary struggles of the Chinese masses into a dead-end and betrayed their aspirations. Today, the CCP leadership seeks to appease Washington by offering to open up further economic sectors to global investors, while at the same time engaging in an arms race that can end only in disaster for workers in China and around the world. It promotes virulent nationalism and chauvinism in order to divide workers in China from their counterparts in Japan, across Asia, and the United States, thereby strengthening the hands of imperialism.

8. US imperialisms escalating confrontation with Beijing has set in motion processes over which it has limited control. The entire Indo-Pacific has been transformed into a powder keg, which could be set off by a miscalculation by the US or China, or by any one of Washingtons regional allies. The ruling classes throughout the region are increasingly responding to their own internal political and economic crises by attempting to project social tensions outward through the stoking of nationalism. Nowhere is this more ominous than in Japan, where the right-wing government, under the umbrella of the pivot, is reviving militarist traditions and boosting military spending. Having pushed through unconstitutional legislation last year to allow collective self-defencethat is, direct participation in US-led wars of aggressionPrime Minister Shinzo Abe is now seeking the complete revision of the constitution to cast aside any constraint on the pursuit of Japanese imperialist ambitions through military might. While the US and Japan are currently allies, their conflicting interests could easily transform them into enemies, as occurred in the years prior to World War II.

ANZUS and the role of Australian imperialism

9. The decision by the Australian ruling elite to support the US pivot to Asia has played a critical role in the preparations for war against China. The strategic relationship between the two countries began in 1941, in the midst of World War II, when the Curtin Labor government shifted its allegiance from Britain to the rising imperialist power, the US, and transformed Australia into a key staging post and ally in the war in the Pacific against Japan. For decades, the ANZUS (Australia, New Zealand, United States) Alliance, signed in 1951, has been underpinned by ever-expanding corporate and investment links, along with US protection and support for Australian imperialisms neo-colonial interests throughout the South Pacific region. In return, the alliance has provided the framework for Australias active backing of US foreign policy and its involvement in the intrigues, massacres and wars orchestrated by the CIA and the Pentagon in Korea, Vietnam and Indonesia in the 1950s and 1960s, and in the Middle East over the past 25 years. To this day, American satellite, communications and spying bases in Australia have been critical for US imperialism in conducting its global operations and wars, including the provision of targeting information for its nuclear weapons.

10. Australia is at the very forefront of US planning for a major war. In 2011, just prior to President Obamas announcement of the US pivot to Asia in the Australian parliament, then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton declared that relations between the two countries would be escalated from a Pacific Partnership to an Indo-Pacific one, and indeed a global partnership. In its review of the pivot in 2016, the US-based Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) declared, in its report to Congress: As Australias own influence expands and Australias geopolitical position becomes more central to US strategy, Washingtons expectations of Canberra are growing.

11. The Pentagon is stationing 60 percent of its air force and navy in the Asia-Pacific region and fully integrating Australian military forces with its own. It plans to regularly operate American long-range, nuclear-capable bombers from northern Australian airfields, while warships and submarines will increasingly operate from Australian ports and naval bases. With the countrys strategically vital proximity to key sea passages between the Indian and Pacific Oceans, the Australian military is being re-equipped to participate in the Pentagons AirSea Battle plans for devastating attacks on the Chinese mainland and an associated naval blockade of sea lanes to strangle the Chinese economy. The 2016 Australian Defence White Paper commits to increasing the defence budget from $A32 billion in 20152016 to $59 billion by 202526. Total military spending will be at least $495 billion over the next decade. These immense resources, which could be used to address urgent social needs, will be squandered on jet fighters, warships and submarines and the upgrading of ports and airfields across the north of the country and on Cocos Islands in the Indian Ocean, for expanded use by Australian and American forces.

12. The 2016 White Paper, begun under former Coalition Prime Minister Tony Abbott and finalised under Prime Minister Turnbull, sets out the predatory interests of Australian imperialism in the Asia-Pacific region, which it is defending through its alignment with the US. Australia, it declared, would act militarily to ensure that Papua New Guinea, East Timor and South Pacific nations did not come under increasing influence by actors from outside the region with interests inimical to oursthat is, China. It would seek to prevent instability in South East Asia, whether internal to countries or between countries, with an emphasis on preserving so-called stability in Indonesia and against Chinese territorial claims in the South China Sea. It would protect Australias sovereignty over the Australian Antarctic Territory [Australia claims 42 percent of the entire continent] and its sovereign rights over its offshore waters. A report issued by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute in February stated: Australia has benefited from Antarctic research cooperation with its Chinese counterparts, but we must prepare for a possible future where national interest trumps friendly cooperation.

13. The scale and potential consequences of this military build-up have the most dangerous implications for the working class, not only in Australia and the Asian region, but the entire world. Australian imperialism is a critical component in the drive toward World War III. Every effort is being madeby the major political parties, the Greens, the pseudo-left tendencies and the state-owned and corporate mediato conceal this fact from the vast majority of the population. The ruling elites in both Australia and the US fear the eruption of mass anti-war sentiment, and for good reason. Since a generation of youth was sent off to be slaughtered in World War I, the opposition of Australian workers and youth to war has been expressed in referenda and elections, and in mass anti-war protests against the Vietnam War in the 1960s and the Iraq War in 2003. There exists no significant support for militarism among workers and youth, let alone for war with China.

14. As it seeks to prevent opposition from below, the Australian ruling class faces a growing dilemma over how to respond to escalating tensions between US imperialism, its longstanding diplomatic and military ally, and China, its most important trading partner. Unprecedented Chinese demand for Australian raw materials, above all iron ore and coal, was the primary factor enabling the country to escape the severe recession that hit the economies of the US and Europe after the 20082009 financial crisis. As recently as 200405, China accounted for just 10 percent of Australian merchandise exports. By 2010, only five years later, it accounted for more than double that amount22 percentsupplanting Japan as Australias largest export market. By 2014, the figure was 37 percent, the highest of any major economy. Sections of big business and the political establishment fear that Australias backing for Washingtons provocative actions towards Beijing could trigger Chinese economic retaliation.

15. The Obama administration and the Pentagon rely on an extensive and seasoned pro-US network embedded within the official establishmentin the Labor Party, the Liberal and National parties, the trade unions, the media, assorted think tanks and in academiato maintain Canberras alignment with their war plans. It was protected sources of the US embassy among Labor members of parliament and union leaders who orchestrated the overnight political coup against former Labor Prime Minister Kevin Rudd in 2010 and installed his replacement, the US-vetted Julia Gillard. At the very point that the confrontational pivot was being prepared, Rudd had angered Washington with his proposals that the US make an accommodation to China in the Asia-Pacific region.

16. Following Rudds ousting, the Gillard Labor government committed itself unconditionally to Washingtons agenda and invited Obama to announce the pivot on the floor of the Australian parliament in November 2011. After Labor lost office in September 2013, the Liberal-National Coalition under Abbott escalated Canberras diplomatic and military role, in the region and internationally. Since Malcolm Turnbull became prime minister in September 2015, the strategic dilemma has only escalated as the danger of war escalates, while Australian corporate relations with China continue to grow.

The US-Australia pro-war propaganda campaign

17. Preparations for war are proceeding not only on the military, but also on the ideological front. An array of strategic think tanks, such as the Defence Department-funded Australian Strategic Policy Institute and the Lowy Instituteone of a number that operate out of leading universitieshas churned out a series of studies and reports, intended primarily for the military-intelligence apparatus and selected politicians and media commentators. These portray China as an expansionist power and advocate ever-greater Australian support for US hegemony in the region.

18. The most ideologically focussed of these think tanks is the US Studies Centre (USSC) at the University of Sydney. The USSC was founded in direct response to the mass anti-Iraq-war protests of 2003 and surveys registering widespread popular opposition to US-led militarism and Australias participation in it. The Centres remit is to develop propaganda centring on the indispensability of the US alliance to Australias national interests. In 2014, Alliance 21, a research group within the USSC, warned: Demographic and generational changes in the two countries [the US and Australia] mean young and immigrant populations are less attached to the alliance  Careful attention to the relationship is needed across government, business and social sectors in both countries, with an eye to demonstrating the value of Australia-US ties. It stressed the need for educational components at schools and institutions of higher learning on the history of shared values and commitments between Australia and the US, as well as the meaning of the alliance today.

19. The USSCs aims dovetail with those of the campaign initiated by the Gillard Labor government in 2011involving all the parliamentary parties, the media, academia and the artsto promote militarism and patriotism through the commemorations of the centenary of World War I. The multi-million-dollar celebrations, which glorify Australian military exploits and falsify their motives, have been focussed particularly on the schools. Youth are being subjected to state-directed lies and propaganda, which present World War I, and every subsequent war involving Australian armed forces, as necessary for the defence of freedom and our way of life.

20. The key role of Australian universities in the development of militarist strategy and propaganda is underscored by their efforts to censor the most conscious opponents of militarismthe Socialist Equality Party and its youth movement, the International Youth and Students for Social Equality (IYSSE). The University of Sydney, host to the USSC, refused to hire a venue to the Socialist Equality Party to hold a meeting, on the weekend of the April 25, 2015 Anzac Day centenary, devoted to opposing the glorification of World War I and the drive to World War III. At the University of Melbourne, another sandstone bastion of the corporate and financial elites, the student union has refused four times, between 2014 and 2016, to affiliate the IYSSE as a club, on spurious and anti-democratic grounds. The IYSSE has also faced politically-motivated censorship from administrations and student unions at other universities across the country. The aim, in each case, has been to suppress revolutionary socialist opposition among students to imperialism and war.

21. Over the past 15 years, the primary pretext for the massive build-up of the repressive apparatus of the state to suppress political opposition has been the war on terror. Manufactured hysteria over domestic terror threats, assisted by a thoroughly complicit media, has been utilised by successive governments to justify expanding the intelligence agencies and police, shredding democratic rights, stoking xenophobia and racism and denying tens of thousands of desperate refugees their right to claim asylum in Australia. At the same time, the working class as a whole is being subjected to ever-greater intimidation and violence at the hands of militarised police and private security companies, on the fraudulent grounds of combating crime and anti-social behaviour. Incidents of police killings and taserings are soaring, as is the rate of imprisonment and deaths in custody. While the most vulnerable social layersrefugees, Muslim immigrants and the poorest sections of the working class, particularly indigenous communitiesare currently the main victims, this state build-up is being undertaken in anticipation of mass struggles by workers and youth against war, austerity and social inequality.

The objective impulses toward revolution

22. The perspective of the ICFI and SEP is based on the scientific understanding that the same contradictions driving the capitalist elites toward world war are generating the objective impulses propelling the international working class towards revolution. Economic, political and social conditions are maturing, in Australia and around the world, for the resurgence of the class struggle and the development of a mass anti-war movement, driven by the ongoing breakdown of capitalism that began in 20082009. The growing combativeness of the working class has already been revealed in the revolutionary events in Egypt in 2011, the mass strikes and protests against austerity in Greece and across Europe, the struggle of American autoworkers in 2015, the growing strike wave in India and China and the protests in France against the state of emergency and anti-labour laws. In the United States, millions of workers and young people have supported the campaign of self-proclaimed democratic socialist Bernie Sanders, in the mistaken belief that he represents the fight for social equality and socialism. The rise of socialist sentiment in America, which has been the bastion of anti-communism for decades, is an indication of the changes that have taken place in the consciousness of workers in every country.

23. Australian capitalism is plunging into a historic economic and political crisis. The mining boom that began in the early 2000s, based on rising exports to China, has ended in a crash, with commodity prices and investment collapsing during the past three years. As corporate revenues and share values plunge, and unemployment grows, the balance sheets of the four major banks are being threatened by the likelihood that a property bubble, upon which two-thirds of their record profits have been based, will burst. Faced with this rapid reversal, the financial elite is demanding that savage new austerity measures be imposed on the backs of the working class. Treasury Secretary John Fraser lectured the political establishment on January 28 this year: For the longer-term, we need to look for substantial structural savings across the boardincluding transfer [welfare] payments. Hailing the devastating policies imposed against the working class in the US, Britain and Ireland, Fraser declared: Expenditure restraint played a key role in all these countries in improving their fiscal situation.

24. Conditions of life for large sections of the Australian population are already dire. At least 40 percent of the workforce and the majority of young workers have been reduced to part-time, casual or short-term contract employmentthe product of decades of economic restructuring, imposed by successive Labor and Coalition governments, aimed at achieving international competitiveness. Working-class suburbs and regional towns, where millions depend on irregular, low-paid work or on below-poverty-level aged pensions and welfare payments, are plagued by deprivation, endemic youth unemployment, a mental health crisis, homelessness and intractable social problems such as substance abuse and suicide for which no solutions are provided. High housing, child care and utilities costs; overcrowded, underfunded hospitals and health clinics; substandard public schools; and dysfunctional road and public transport systems add to seething frustrations over the level of social inequality and deepen the alienation of millions of workers and youth from official politics.

25. At the same time, the political attitudes of millions of people have become more critical due to the lies that surrounded the illegal invasion of Iraq; the corporate criminality revealed in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis; the exposure of US-led war crimes and diplomatic intrigues by WikiLeaks; and the revelations by Edward Snowden of US and allied government spying around the world. The mass anti-war sentiment that erupted in 2003 has not diminished, despite years of pro-war state propaganda, and the political establishment is viewed with distrust and disgust.

26. As a result, the two-party parliamentary system dominated by Labor and the Coalitionwhich has formed the basis of political stability for more than a centuryis wracked by crises and instability. Unrelenting US pressure on Canberra to step up its direct involvement in provocations against China, at the potential expense of major sections of Australian business, has created tensions within and between all the bourgeois parties. Every government confronts the same political quandary: how to pursue a militarist foreign policy and impose austerity on the backs of millions of hostile workers and youth and survive even one term in office. Traditional political allegiances are collapsing. Official politics is becoming increasingly volatile, with each election result more unpredictable than the last. In the 32 years between 1975 and 2007, there were just four prime ministers. Since the defeat of John Howards Coalition government and the election of the Rudd Labor government in 2007, the position of prime minister has changed five times. ThreeRudd, Gillard and Abbotthave been removed outside the electoral process through backroom factional conspiracies within their own parties. Numerous state-level leaders have suffered the same fate, prompting the British Broadcasting Corporation to dub Australia the coup capital of the world.

27. As the political establishment moves ever further to the right, anti-capitalist sentiment is growing among workers and young people, fuelled, above all, by intense hostility toward social inequality. At present this shift takes an inchoate form, but its content and significance are unmistakeable. Historically, the objective basis for the subordination of the working class to capitalism and the two-party system was the material prosperity of Australiathe so-called lucky countrywhere social reform was possible and each generation could expect to improve on the conditions of the last. The experiences of the past three decades, during which the ruling class has embarked on an ever-intensifying social counter-revolution, are shattering these illusions. For the first time since the Great Depression of the 1930s, todays youth cannot look forward to a living standard higher than that of their parents. Rather, they are being brought face to face with the reality that Australia is not exceptional and that their future is one of rapidly worsening economic and social prospects.

28. The crucial factor in determining the outcome of the economic and political crisis is the extent to which the Socialist Equality Party develops its roots in the working class and educates the most advanced layers in the theory and program of scientific socialism. The fight to win the working class to the revolutionary strategy of the ICFI requires, above all, the demarcation of a genuine internationalist and socialist perspective from every pro-capitalist party, organisation and tendency. At the centre of this demarcation is the struggle against all forms of nationalism. The working class must be imbued with the understanding that its legitimate anger over the destruction of living standards needs to be directed into an international struggle against the capitalist profit system, not against foreign competition, which pits workers of one country against those of another in an endless race to the bottom. Workers of all countries must grasp the lessons of history: economic nationalism, one of the toxic products of the global crisis of capitalism, invariably becomes the prelude to war.

29. A critical political task of the SEP is to clarify the need for the working class to draw the necessary lessons from its bitter historical experiences with Laborism and to make a complete political and organisational break with the nationalist and pro-capitalist Labor Party and trade unions. Labor is the linchpin of political reaction in Australia and the primary party of war, nationalism and class collaboration. During World War I, the Depression and World War II, it subordinated the working class to the interests of Australian imperialism, demanding sacrifice for the nation. In the 1980s, in response to globalised production, Labor, with the full support of the trade unions, imposed devastating economic restructuring to meet the requirements of the corporate and financial elites for international competitiveness.

30. The unions have become major corporations in their own right, operating labour-hire and consultancy companies and controlling billions of dollars in superannuation funds and property. In the interests of the corporate elites, they have suppressed strikes and other industrial action to the lowest levels in Australian history. The Labor Party and unions are at the forefront of campaigns to blame Chinese competition for the economic crisis, and have become vociferous advocates of military confrontation with China, in alliance with the United States. Labor Defence spokesperson Stephen Conroy has demanded that the Australian government carry out a freedom of navigation operation in Chinese-claimed waters, an action that could lead to an armed clash.

The tasks of the SEP

31. The SEP will stand candidates in the forthcoming 2016 federal election to further the fight to build an international anti-war movement of the working class on the basis of socialist internationalism. Our election campaign will be international in character and addressed to the working class throughout Australia and the Asia Pacific region. It will be carried out in the closest collaboration with our co-thinkers in the ICFI and the election campaigns being waged by the Socialist Equality Party (US) and the Partei fur Soziale Gleichheit in Germany, as well as the fight of the SEP (UK) for an active boycott in the Brexit referendum. In conjunction with the SEP in Sri Lanka and the Socialist Equality Group in New Zealand, as well as our members at large in Asia, we will seek to expand the political influence of the ICFI across Australia and throughout the region.

32. The double dissolution election takes place under conditions of the mounting danger of world war, and major attacks on the social position and democratic rights of the international working class. For the Australian political establishment this election is one of deep political crisis, amid the advanced decay and break-up of the two-party system. None of the parliamentary parties, groupings or so-called independents represents the interests of the working class or opposes the agenda of war, austerity and attacks on democratic rights. The SEP is the only party fighting for the political independence of the working class and advancing a socialist, anti-war and anti-capitalist program. Our campaign will wage a relentless political struggle against all the parties of the official political establishmentthe two longstanding parties of big business, Labor and the Liberalsand the Greens.

33. The Greens are a bourgeois political formation committed to the defence of the Australian nation state, private property relations and the capitalist market. While they seek to win support as defenders of the environment, the Greens reject any struggle against the greatest barrier to any decisive action over the danger of climate change: the subordination of economic and social life to the accumulation of profit and the division of the planet into antagonistic nation-states. The Greens speak for layers of the upper middle class who are preoccupied with their own lifestyles and are deeply hostile to the working class. Their support for the 20102013 Gillard minority Labor governmentwhich signed up to the US pivot against China, slashed welfare spending and condemned refugees to indefinite detention in squalid Pacific Island campsunderscored, yet again, the fraudulent character of their anti-war and socially progressive pretensions. Since then, the Greens have moved even further to the right, promoting themselves as the party of stability, prepared to enter into coalition with either Labor or the Liberals.

34. At the centre of our election campaign will be an ongoing political and theoretical struggle against the pseudo-left organisations, such as Socialist Alternative and Socialist Alliance, which seek to channel mass disaffection and political alienation back behind Labor and the Greens and serve as political adjuncts to the trade unions.

35. The pseudo-lefts are advocates of imperialist war, and have aligned themselves with the foreign policy of Australian imperialism on every major international question. Since 2011, they have supported US-backed factions in the civil wars in Libya and Syria and the imperialist-sponsored, fascist-led coup in Ukraine. In order to legitimise imperialist interventions, the pseudo-left invoke humanitarian pretexts, particularly by supporting pro-capitalist separatist movements among ethnic and religious minorities, and their demands for national self-determination against states such as China and Russia. The pseudo-left have suppressed any discussion of the Australian governments key role in the US preparations for war with China, including the vast expansion of basing arrangements and full integration of the Australian military and intelligence apparatus into the US war machine.

36. The positions of the pseudo-left are not the product of theoretical mistakes. Rather, their political orientation is determined by their class character. They are neither left nor socialist, but speak for privileged sections of the upper middle classes that have a vested interest in maintaining capitalism, and whose material position has been boosted by the growth of financialisation and parasitism, one of the key features of imperialism and capitalist economy over the past three decades. This has rested on two foundations: imperialist domination of the world economy and the suppression of any independent struggle by the working class. That is why, amid mounting signs of working-class resistance and growing fears in ruling circles over what such resistance portends, the pseudo-left have become ever more strident in their attacks on Marxism and its embodiment in the International Committee of the Fourth International.

37. On the theoretical level, the pseudo-left have waged an ongoing offensive against the fundamental scientific conceptions of revolutionary Marxism: the revolutionary role of the working class and the vanguard role of the Marxist party in bringing scientific socialist consciousness into the working class. Their promotion of identity politics is used to elevate race, gender and sexual preference above the fundamental class divisions wracking society, including the massive growth of social inequality. They base themselves on the subjective-idealist and irrationalist nostrums of post-modernism, which have disoriented generations of students and young people in schools and universities over the past four decades. Driven by fear of the revolutionary potential of the working class, the pseudo-left denounce the fight to build a revolutionary party as elitist and anti-democratic. Their attacks express the deepest needs of the bourgeoisie.

38. The working class can only break from the ideological influences of the bourgeoisie and prosecute the fight for its independent class interests, by developing a scientific understanding of the objective contradictions of capitalism and of the strategic experiences of the 20th century. Over the past three decades, since the 198586 split with the Workers Revolutionary Party in Britain, the International Committee of the Fourth International has carried out an unprecedented offensive for classical Marxism, elaborating the independent standpoint of the working class on every major issue it has confronted. In the wake of the liquidation of the Soviet Union in 1991, the ICFI launched a counter-offensive for historical truth against the post-Soviet school of historical falsification, establishing the ongoing contemporary significance of the 1917 October Revolution as the harbinger of the world socialist revolution.

39. Basing itself on the decades-long struggle waged by Leon Trotsky and the Fourth International against Stalinism, the ICFI established that the collapse of the USSR was the product of the bankruptcy of the Stalinist program of socialism in one country, under conditions of an unprecedented globalisation of economic life. Far from refuting Marxism, the dissolution of the Soviet Union established the unviability of all national programs and the necessity for the working class to turn to the revolutionary internationalist program of Trotskyism to defend even its most immediate interests. Amid the slaughter of the first Gulf war in 1991, the ICFI warned that the same processes that had led to the dissolution of the Soviet Unionabove all the heightening of the contradiction between world economy and the division of the globe into antagonistic nation-stateswere ushering in a new period of imperialist war and socialist revolution. A quarter century later, that prognosis has been vindicated.

40. On the basis of the decades-long political and theoretical preparation of the Trotskyist movement, the Socialist Equality Party fights to win the leadership of the working class in the struggle against war, social counter-revolution and the accompanying assault on democratic rights. This will involve many practical initiatives, campaigns and interventions within the working class in Australia and throughout the region. The SEPs youth movement, the International Youth and Students for Social Equality (IYSSE), will develop the fight for historical truth, critical inquiry and vigorous intellectual debate among students, against all attempts to curtail or censor its activities by university student unions and managements. Above all, the party faces political and theoretical tasks, requiring that it continually develop its analysis and bring to bear the entire heritage of the Marxist movement in response to all developments. Lenin, in the years preceding the 1905 Russian Revolution, emphasised that the entry of the working class into major social and political struggles heightened the necessity for consciousness in the theoretical, political and organisational work of the party.

41. The SEP will continue to develop its contribution to the World Socialist Web Site, the organ of the International Committee of the Fourth International. As the central vehicles for the development of revolutionary consciousness and its dissemination around the world, the theoretical polemics, historical and political analyses and commentary on the WSWS are the basis for the expansion of the partys influence and political authority. The web site is the concrete embodiment of the Trotskyist movements internationalist perspective, and it will play the central role in unifying workers in Australia with their class brothers and sisters internationally in the common struggle against war. The highest expression of this common struggle is the recruitment of workers and youth into the ICFI. The SEP will fight to expand its ranks, assist in the development of new sections of the ICFI throughout the Asia-Pacific region, and train a new generation of socialists in the history and theoretical heritage of Marxism and the world Trotskyist movement.
Two ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) supporters murdered an 86-year-old priest, Father Jacques Hamel, on Tuesday, cutting his throat while shouting Allah Akbar in the church at Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, near Rouen in northern France. Another victim was critically wounded. Police special force units summarily executed the two as they left the building.

The attackers entered into the church as Mass was ending, at around 9:30 a.m. They held several worshippers and at least one nun hostage, while another nun escaped. One nun, Sister Danielle, said: Everyone was shouting stop, stop, you dont know what youre doing! They forced him to his knees and obviously he wanted to defend himself and thats when the drama began. She said she had fled the church as the terrorists murdered Hamel.

Sister Danielle said the two men filmed their attack. They didnt see me leave, she told the French channel BFMTV. They were busy with their knives. They were filming themselves preaching in Arabic in front of the altar. It was a horror. Jacques was an extraordinary priest.

ISIS reportedly claimed responsibility for the slaying via its Amaq news agency. This was the fourth attack claimed by ISIS in less than two weeks, after a man ploughed a truck into a crowd of people celebrating Bastille Day in Nice, killing 84 people and wounding more than 300; a knife attack on a train in Wurzburg, Germany, injuring 5 people; and a suicide bombing at a wine bar in the southern German town of Ansbach last Sunday, wounding 15 people.

Paris prosecutor Francois Molins said that one of the attackers was identified as 19-year-old Adel Kermiche, who lived in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray. According to Molins, Kermiche had tried to go to Syria in 2015, had been under judicial control since March 18, under house arrest and under electronic surveillance. Under the terms of his house arrest, he was only allowed to go out between 8:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m.

French intelligence had issued Kermiche an S file, which classified him as a threat to French national security, after he was condemned for associating with terrorists and trying to travel to Syria. As of this writing, the second attacker is still being identified.

The incident occurred amid a massive deployment of police and armed forces across France in the wake of recent attacks. Since the foiled terrorist attack on two churches near Paris in April 2015, which was being prepared by a 24-year-old Franco-Algerian IT student, Sid Ahmed Ghlam, churches and other houses of worship, including mosques and synagogues, have been placed on high alert.

The church attack is horrific and reactionary. Its main beneficiary will be the French political establishment, which has exploited such attacks to escalate its military interventions in the Middle East and to tighten the draconian, anti-democratic measures of Frances ongoing state of emergency.

Imposed after the November 13 terror attacks in Paris last year, the state of emergency has been extended for another six months, following the July 14 Nice attack. It gives police extra powers to carry out arbitrary searches and seizures, launch mass arrests and place people under house arrest. After yesterdays church attack, the Socialist Party (PS) government vowed to further boost law-and-order measures and give even more extraordinary powers to the police and military.

The PS has also intensified the war in the Middle East, supposedly to fight ISIS. Just before the Nice attack, it had already announced that the aircraft carrier Charles De Gaulle would travel to the Middle East. After the events in Nice, President Francois Hollande announced that France would send heavy artillery to Iraq from next month, to support the fight against ISIS.

Following the killing in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, Hollande described it as an ignoble terrorist attack. He declared, Daesh has declared war on us. We have to win that war. ... Terrorists will not give up on anything until we stop them. It is our will. The French must know that they are threatened, that we are not the only countryGermany is, as well as othersand that their strength lies in their unity.

Other heads of state internationally also used the attack to terrorise the public and call for stronger law-and-order measures.

Speaking from Downing Street, British Prime Minister Theresa May said: We all face a terror threat. If you look at the national threat level here in the United Kingdom, it is at severe. That means that a terrorist attack is highly likely. What is necessary is for us all to work together, and stand shoulder to shoulder with France. We offer them every support we have in dealing with this issue and this threat that they, and the rest of us, are facing.

In France, Prime Minister Manuel Valls insisted, We have today all the tools we need to fight terror. ... The French people must understand that we are at war, [and] must change our relationship to security.

There may be new attacks. We will do everything we can to avoid them, with the weapons allowed under the rule of law, without placing our democracy in question, Valls declared.

In fact, the PS has abrogated democratic rights by imposing the state of emergency, and there are escalating calls from within the political establishment for even more drastic law-and-order measures. In June, right-wing French lawmakers called for retention centres for radical Islamists after the brutal murder of a policeman and his partner at their home.

After yesterdays attack, far-right National Front (FN) leader Marine Le Pen called for police state measures. In a statement, she advocated closing Salafist mosques, expelling imams who spread hate, controlling our national borders, stopping immigration, vetoing the German policy of greeting migrants, expelling immigrants with criminal records, dealing with people with S files so they do no harm, reinforcing our security, military, and intelligence forces, reforming the nationality code, reinforcing judicial punishments and effectively applying penalties, and building more prisons.

There have been repeated calls from right-wing politicians to allow the state to indefinitely detain individuals targeted for S files. Between 10,000 and 11,000 individuals in France have had S files opened on them, but they do not all have jihadist sympathies. Insofar as the intelligence services can open S files on individuals at will, this proposal would amount to giving the state a blank check to indefinitely imprison anyone whose political opinions it dislikes.
In a meeting Monday in the presidential palace with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and leaders of his ruling Justice and Development party (AKP), leaders of the main opposition party, the Republican Peoples Party (CHP), and officials from the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) agreed on the need to restructure the state apparatus in the aftermath of the failed military coup of July 15. The reforms would be sanctioned by means of small-scale constitutional changes.

Presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said in a statement: At the meeting on steps to be taken for the freedom, security and welfare of our nation, which is united around democracy and the rule of law, there was an evaluation of the state of emergency, security measures, work on the new constitution and economic policies.

The pro-Kurdish Peoples Democratic Party (HDP) was excluded from the meeting. Its co-chair, Selahattin Demirtas, criticized the exclusion as an unreasonable policy. HDPs parliamentary group leader Idris Baluken complained of the decision, saying, The HDP was the first party to propose a leaders summit. Our co-chairs announced this to the public. But today we face an attitude that excludes the first party to propose a leaders summit.

The meeting came a day after an anti-coup demonstration organized by the CHP in Istanbuls Taksim Square, which involved the participation of members of several political parties, including the ruling AKP. The participants also included pro-CHP trade unions and pseudo-left organizations.

At this Republic and Democracy Rally, CHP leader Kemal Klcdaroglu announced the Taksim Declaration, which states in its first paragraph: The coup attempt of 15 July targeted our parliamentary democracy. Although the Turkish Grand National Assembly was under bombardment, it continued to perform its duties and managed to repel the coup. We condemn and denounce the perpetrators, their supporters in the country and, if there are any, abroad.

The declaration also called for restructuring the state, stating, We should bury in history the concept of usurping the state rather than governing the state. In this respect, restructuring the state is a must. In its declaration, the CHP warned the government, The state should not be governed by anger and revenge. The culprits of the putsch should be tried lawfully with an understanding of abiding by the rule of law.

Meanwhile, an intensive media propaganda campaign is underway aimed at whitewashing the highest level of the Turkish military and declaring it innocent and clean. In an effort to cover up the fact that one third of the generals and admirals were directly involved in the coup attempt and the rest of the top command echelon did not lift a finger to fight back, all of the media outlets are promoting narratives about how the commanders-in-chief and the general chief of staff himself supposedly resisted the coup.

As it turned out, they were informed of the looming coup attempt as early as 4 pm on Friday, July 15, but launched their operations against the putschists only hours later, in the early morning hours of July 16, and only after the coups failure in the face of mass resistance had become clear.

The CHPs Republic and Democracy Rally, the consensus apparently reached in the meeting of three main bourgeois parties in the presidential palace, and the HDPs desire to participate in the meeting indicate a convergence that will inevitably mean severe anti-working class measures, carried out under the cover of fighting coup plotters and normalizing Turkish politics.

The decree law, which was published in the Official Gazette on July 23, increases the detention period to 30 days and orders the closure of some 1,229 schools, hospitals, associations and trade unions linked to the US-based Gulen movement. The decree also bans individuals from returning to work in a state institution after being suspended from another in a bid to prevent suspended state employees from returning to their jobs. On July 25, a detention warrant was issued for 42 journalists.

The anticipated reconstruction of the state apparatus will primarily affect the Turkish Army. Prime Minister Binali Yildirim told Bloomberg News on July 25 that there was a serious need for restructuring in [public] institutions, especially the Armed Forces.

Using the now commonly employed phrase security gap, which aims to obscure the initial passive complicity of the top command echelon, Yildirim said: There is a security gap, as we have seen during the coup attempt. There are problems in the hierarchy between lower level and senior level. We will restructure [the Army] in a manner that will resolve these problems.

Along the same lines, the prime minister said in an interview with A Haber on July 24: This incident showed us that the presidency of [the] Turkish General Staff can easily be invaded. It should not be so easy to enter and invade these places. It is the heart of the Armed Forces.

It is not clear how the command echelon will react to the ongoing arrests and projected reorganization of the Army. However, one thing is obvious: the ongoing blockade of the barracks by means of heavy machinery and trucks, which implies the possibility of further coup attempts, is a heavy blow on the prestige of the Turkish Army.

While seeking to consolidate the rule of his government through a consensus with opposition parties, Erdogan has arranged an official visit to St. Petersburg for August 9. Announcing the visit, Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Simsek said yesterday that the scheduled meeting between Erdogan and Russian President Vladimir Putin would help normalize bilateral ties between the two countries, which dramatically deteriorated after the downing of a Russian warplane by the Turkish Air Force last November 24.
UK Labour Party General Secretary Iain McNichol announced Monday that the National Executive Committee (NEC), having already taken the difficult decision to suspend most Party meetings while the Leadership election is ongoing, will now take further action against alleged intimidation.

If you are a member and you engage in abusive behaviour towards other members it will be investigated and you could be suspended while that investigation is carried out. If you are a registered supporter or affiliated supporter and you engage in abusive behaviour you will not get a vote in this Leadership election, he continues.

McNichol issued his statement in response to a letter signed by 44 women Labour MPs, two-thirds of the total. The letter demanded that party leader Jeremy Corbyn take swift and tangible action against escalating abuse and hostility towards them. It is a filthy slander designed to stifle all opposition to the right-wing clique of which they are a part.

The entire affair is a McCarthyite smear campaign. Not a single claim of intimidation made has been substantiated, let alone directly or even indirectly attributed to Corbyn and his supporters. Instead there is a resort to the politics of amalgam and innuendo to blackguard party members as bullies while Blairite MPs are left free to insult, lie and bully whoever they choose.

The letter, drafted by Paula Sherriff, begins by linking those seeking to defend Corbyn with the fascist murderer of Labour MP Jo Cox during the referendum campaign on Britains membership of the European Union.

Cox is described as a staunch defender of all the values we all hold so dear, in order to equate accusations of abuse with a failure to heed the lessons of this terrible event. The claim is then made that it is women and BAME (black, Asian, minority, ethnic) women who are disproportionately affected by these incidents, which supposedly include rape threats, death threats, smashed cars and bricks through windows...

Responsibility is placed directly at Corbyns feet, who is himself accused of intimidation on the basis that his decision to vote against a secret ballot in the National Executive Committee meeting was taken without reference to the concerns of female representatives for their safety.

Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell and others in Corbyns leadership team are denounced for the supposed crime of addressing rallies and events in which demonstrations outside MPs' offices and bullying at CLP meetings have been either actively encouraged or quietly condoned [emphasis added].

Finally the demand is placed on Corbyn to subscribe to three pledgesto make an unequivocal statement declaring his support for all MPs, particularly women, and clearly condemning campaigning outside MPs' offices, surgeries etc.; to actively challenge any behaviour which does not conform to Labour Party values; and to hold senior Labour figures to account for supporting events where such behaviour would appear to be encouraged, including the mere act of being present where posters, t shirts, etc. are abusive and supposedly encourage threatening behaviour.

Corbyn must also commit to regular meetings with the womens [Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP)] to update on progress.

In the name of shared Labour values and on the basis that, as women, their political sensitivities are too fragile to withstand criticism, Labour Party members are to be prohibited from expressing opposition to MPs who have voted for the Conservative governments austerity measures, for war in Libya, Iraq and Syria, and most recently for the renewal of the Trident nuclear weapons system.

Meanwhile, to uphold Labours shared values, the NEC bars 130,000 members, who have joined since January, from voting in the leadership contest, extorts 25 from anyone wanting to do so in contravention to the contract they signed, closes down Constituency Labour Parties (CLPs) for the duration of the leadership contest and suspends two CLPs for having the effrontery to vote against their MPs in defence of Corbyn.

As is made clear by the demand for an anonymous vote on the NEC over whether Corbyn should be excluded from the leadership contest, this is not about creating a safe space for women. As always such policies are utilised for reactionary ends. In this instance, it is a demand for a safe space for political scoundrels.

Naturally, not a word is said regarding the majority of members of the Labour Party, female and male, who support Corbyn and who are now accused of thuggery, violence, sexism, anti-Semitism and racism.

In reality, some hostile online posts will clearly involve disturbed individuals animated by the wall-to-wall media coverage of Labours infighting. Many more will be legitimate political comment that has now been unilaterally declared to be beyond the pale.

In addition, many posts will have been manufactured by provocateurs. Len McCluskey, the leader of Unite, has raised the possibility of MI5 involvement in a dirty-tricks operation. This cannot be excluded. But neither, it must be added, can the involvement of forces within and around the PLP.

As for concrete instances of intimidation, few examples are given, and these are often dubious. The most widely reported was the throwing of a brick through the window of Angela Eagles officeat that time a leadership challenger to Corbyn, before she was side-lined by unity candidate Owen Smith.

This was a curious incident to attribute to Corbyns supporters, given that members of Eagles Wallasey constituency had already moved a motion of no-confidence against her. This week, right-wing Daily Mail columnist Peter Hitchens reported that he asked Merseyside Police, and they told me that the window wasnt that of Mrs Eagles office, which wasnt broken. It was the window of a stairwell and hallway, in an office building which Wallasey Labour Party shares with several others.

No other reporter noted this fact, as the incident was blazoned across the nations newspapers front pages, news bulletins and current affairs programmes.

The politics of those involved, and not their gender, is the litmus test in determining the veracity of claims of abuse and intimidation. The 44 MPs who signed the letter include the arch Blairite and roundly defeated 2015 leadership challenger Liz Kendall, and Margaret Hodge, the multi-millionaire MP who first submitted a letter to the PLP requesting a motion of no-confidence in Corbyn.

The letters author, Paula Sherriff, who declares, Im with Owen, is just one of 14 signatories who resigned from the shadow cabinet to help precipitate the motion of no-confidenceand who now demand that Corbyn reports to them on his progress in carrying out their dictates.

As could be expected, none of these issues has been raised by the media, which has acted throughout in concert with the Blairite coup plotters. Rather the Sun, for example, gives its pages over to former Tory MP Louise Mensch to denounce McDonnell as a vile sexist and Corbyn as a scumbag.

Of greater significance than the complicity of the media is the acquiescence of Corbyn, and his and McDonnells constant appeals for unity with their political opponents. The truth is that they would rather see their supporters sacrificed than threaten the organisational integrity of the Labour Party apparatus, to which they are wedded.
The women were slapped, kicked and abused by Hindu Dal activists at the railway station even as onlookers, including cops, watched.

The women were beaten up by people allegedly for carrying beef.

By Rahul Noronha: Two Muslim women were thrashed and abused by Hindu Dal activists in Madhya Pradesh's Mandsaur district over rumours that they were carrying beef.

The women were slapped and kicked by a group of men and women at the crowded railway station even as onlookers, including cops, watched.



A mobile phone video taken by one of the spectators shows the policemen making only a half-hearted attempt to stop the attackers.The women were thrashed for nearly half an hour before the police drove them away.

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WATCH VIDEO HERE



According to sources in the local police, around 30 kg of meat was recovered from the women.A preliminary veterinary report said the women were carrying buffalo meat, said state Home Minister Bhupinder Singh.

According to preliminary veterinary report, it was buffalo meat and not cow meat: MP Home Minister Bhupinder Singh pic.twitter.com/o3uAtYukW5 ANI (@ANI_news) July 27, 2016

No action so far has been taken against those who assaulted the women. Singh added: "If the women register a complaint, then action will be taken against the attackers."

If the women register a complaint, then action will be taken against the attackers: MP Home Minister Bhupinder Singh on Mandsaur incident ANI (@ANI_news) July 27, 2016

The incident in BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh comes close on the heels of the stripping and beating of four Dalit men in the saffron party's bastion, Gujarat.



Many Indian states have banned the consumption of cow meat. Last year in September, Mohammad Akhlaq was dragged from his house in Uttar Pradesh and beaten to death over rumours that his family had eaten beef.

UPROAR IN PARLIAMENT



The opposition BSP and Congress today created uproar in the Rajya Sabha, protesting against the beating of the two Muslim women.



"BJP raises 'Mahilaon ke samman mein, BJP maidan mein' slogan, yet in Madhya Pradesh women were thrashed on beef rumours," BSP supremo Mayawati said.

Even the Congress cornered the BJP with the Leader of the Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad saying, "Cow protection must prevail but the Dalits and Muslims must not be targeted in the name of the protection of cow."

Also Read

From the magazine: Beef, ban and bloodshed





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Narsingh Yadav, who failed the dope test conducted by the National Anti-Doping Agency ahead of Rio Olympics, is leaving no stone unturned to prove his innocence to the probe panel.

By India Today Web Desk: Wrestler Narsingh Yadav has finally taken up the matter to the police over the doping row that has rocked the nation just a few days ahead of the Rio Olympics.

Narsingh, who failed a doping test conducted by the National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA), has filed a written complaint at the Sonepat Police station.

"Yes, I have filed an FIR with the police. Now it's up to them to probe the matter. I demand a thorough investigation into the case," Narsingh told reporters.

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"I hope everything goes well in today's hearing," he added.



Narsingh was tested positive for steroid methandienone, a banned substance, in a test and has been handed a provisional suspension, which has jeopardised his chances of participating in the 74 kg freestyle category at Rio.

However, to keep hold of the Olympic quota, Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) has sent Praveen Rana's name as a provisional replacement for Narsingh. The Olympic Games begin August 5.

SUPPLEMENTS CLEARED

In another development, NADA has not found any banned substance in the supplements that are used by Narsingh.

Narsingh will have a chance to put forward his case in front of the NADA panel today. The chances of his suspension being revoked are remote as World Anti Doping Agency (WADA) has zero tolerance towards doping.

However, WFI said it will support Narsingh to the hilt and if the wrestler proves his innocence, the federation will ensure that he boards the flight to Rio.

"If Narsingh Yadav gets a clean chit, he will go to Rio, We will fight for his rights," WFI president Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh told India Today.

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In its editorial mouthpiece Saamana, Devendra Fadnavis in his wishes said that his relationship with Uddhav has always been that of an elder brother.

By Kamlesh Damodar Sutar: Calling Uddhav Thackeray as a "true friend", Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis today showered rich praises on the Shiv Sena president on his 56th birthday.

In its editorial mouthpiece Saamana, Fadnavis in his wishes said that his relationship with Uddhav has always been that of an elder brother.

"We may have difference of opinions on some issues but Uddhav ji has never let that affect our personal equations. Be it Balasaheb or Uddhav ji, many in the BJP, including myself, feel a family bond with them," Fadnavis' message read.

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The CM also took the opportunity to clear the air about Shiv Sena's tirade against the BJP.

Fadnavis said, "Logical thinking is Uddhav ji's biggest asset. His demands are based on logic but if you explain him your counter logic, he is always willing to listen. He never stalls things just for the sake of it. Sometimes relationship between two parties gets strained. But our relationship is based on the strong foundation of Hindutva and Nationalism."

Stating that Uddhav is rightly carrying forward Balasaheb Thackeray's legacy, CM Fadnavis said that inspite of everything, Uddhav has kept the artist in him alive.

NCP leader and MP Supriya Sule too extended his greetings to Uddhav in this special issue. Citing the close bond between the Thackeray and Pawar parivar , Supriya said "Uddhav has changed the party accordingly. The change in party's line on Valentine's Day celebration is an indication of that."

Superstar Shahrukh Khan's company Red Chillies too wished the Shiv Sena president on his birthday. The Shiv Sena had staged huge protests against SRK's Film "My Name is Khan" in 2010.

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Delbert Wheeler was surrounded by his loving wife Trina Wheeler and beautiful children as he went with the creator with open arms. His time on earth was finished but he leaves behind a legacy for his family to continue.
SELAH, Wash. -- Leslie Brown and others involved with the Selah Dolphins thought the swim team was going to become a casualty in a dispute bet
MABTON, Wash. -- In a lawsuit filed against the city of Mabton, its former police chief and deputy clerk say they were harassed and discrimina
By PTI: New Delhi, Jul 27 (PTI) All states were today asked to send their comments on the proposed recommendations by Seventh Central Pay Commission related to hike in salaries of IAS and IPS officers. In a letter to chief secretaries of all state governments, the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) said that the central government has accepted the pay panels recommendations. They have been requested to furnish the comments of the state government on the proposed recommendations immediately and positively by August 3, 2016 through fax, it said. "If no reply is received by this time, it would be presumed that the state government concurs with the said proposals relating to the revision of pay scales of all India services (AIS) officers," the DoPT said. There are three all India services--Indian Administrative Service (IAS), Indian Police Service (IPS) and Indian Forest Service (IFoS). The pay panel has recommended a starting salary of Rs 56,100 per month at entry level for these and officers of Group A services like Indian Revenue Service. The Finance Ministry had on Monday issued an order notifying implementation of almost all the recommendations of the panel. In that, the DoPT has been authorised to take action regarding pay and related issues concerning IAS, IPS and IFoS officers. The three-member Seventh Central Pay Commission, which had submitted its report on November 19, 2015, was divided over the issue of financial and career-related edge given to IAS officers as against those belonging to the other services. IAS officers presently get a two-year edge over other services for getting empanelled to come on deputation at the Centre. Besides, they also get two additional increments at the rate of 3 per cent over their basic pay at three promotion stages i.e., promotion to the Senior Time Scale (STS), to the Junior Administrative Grade (JAG) and to the Non-Functional Selection Grade (NFSG) after putting in about four, eight and 13 years of service, respectively. A confederation representing thousands of officers of 20 civil services, including the IPS, have been demanding pay parity and other benefits enjoyed by IAS officers. "Regarding pay and related issues concerning all India services, appropriate action will be taken by Department of Personnel and Training to give effect to the decisions on these matters as may be applicable to them," the Finance Ministrys notification said. PTI AKV RG

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Protesters set an Israeli flag on fire and chanted "long live the intifada" outside of the Democratic convention site.

A woman wearing a black bandanna on her face lit the flag on fire Tuesday night as protests continued outside of the secure zone around the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia. Someone stood nearby waving a Palestinian flag.

Protesters also set pro-Bernie Sanders fliers on fire that were hanging on steel fencing around the site.

Separate groups of Sanders supporters, protesters marching against police brutality and others have joined together in the streets outside of the convention.
The terrorist who murdered Rabbi Michael "Miki" Mark in a drive-by shooting earlier this month was killed in an IDF raid in the Hebron area overnight Tuesday, it was cleared for publication early Wednesday morning.

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Mohammed Jabarah al-Fakih, a 29-year-old Hamas operative from Dura, barricaded himself in a house in the village of Surif in the Hebron area, ignoring calls by forces from the IDF's elite Duvdevan unit and Israel Police's counterterrorism unit Yamam to surrender.

After a firefight, the IDF troops fired and anti-tank missile and several other projectiles at the house, which caused a significant part of the structure to collapse. Forces then used a bulldozer that started demolishing the structure while the terrorist and others were hiding inside. In the pre-dawn hours, forces looking through the demolished house found the terrorist's body.

The forces also seized weapons that were in Fakih's possession, including a Kalashnikov rifle and a homemade grenade.

Troops raid Surif in search of terrorist

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Troops from the Kfir Brigade's Haruv Battalion, who were providing backup to the raid, encountered violent rioting by other residents of the village, which they quelled using crowd dispersal measures. According to the Palestinians, the power to the village was cut during the night and gunfire and explosions were heard.

None of the Israeli troops, who left the village around 6am, were hurt in the raid. According to the IDF, one Palestinian woman was lightly wounded. Fakihs family blame the Palestinian security forces who they say gave him up to the Israelis.

Fakih was imprisoned in the past for planning terror attacks along with others while he was a member of the terror organization Islamic Jihad. While in prison, he joined the ranks of Hamas's military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades.

Firefight in Surif

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Michael "Miki" Mark, 48, who was murdered on July 1 in a drive-by shooting attack near the settlement of Otniel in the southern Mount Hebron area of the West Bank, was the head of a religious-Zionist yeshiva in Otniel and the cousin for Mossad chief Yossi Cohen.

Mark and his wife, Chavawho was seriously wounded in the attackhave 10 children, two of whom were also in the car at the time of the shooting: 15-year-old son Padya was lightly wounded while 13-year-old daughter Tehila suffered moderate-to-serious injuries.

After the attack, the IDF sent hundreds of troops to the area to search for the perpetrators in what was the largest operation in the territory in two years.

Three other terrorists also involved in the attack that claimed Mark's life have also been arrested recently, along with several of their family members.

Top: Mohammad Amaira and Mohammed Fakih. Bottom: Sahib Fakih, Muaz Fakih. Background: The house where terrorist Mohammed Fakih barricaded himself.

Among them was Mohammad Majid Amaira, 38, from Dura, who is a member of the Palestinian security forces.

He was detained for questioning three days after the murder and confessed to serving as a driver during the attack, while Fakih was the one who fired the deadly shots at the Mark family car. After his interrogation, the Shin Bet seized the weapon and car used to carry out the attack.

Fakih's brother, Sahib, was also arrested and confessed in his interrogation to aiding Mohammed Fakih hide and conceal weapons he had in his possession.

A cousin of the two brothers, Muaz Fakih, was also arrested. He told interrogators that he provided Mohammed Fakih with a place to stay in the days following the attack.

Other relatives who helped Fakih hide were also arrested on similar suspicions.
MADRID - Spanish police arrested two brothers in the northern city of Girona accused of helping to fund Islamic State's operations in Syria and Iraq, the interior ministry said on Wednesday.

The two Moroccans, aged 22 and 32, diverted funds from Europe to pay for the transfer of members of the militant group into conflict zones, the ministry said.

The two otherwise unidentified men, who are charged with financing terrorism, collaboration with a terrorist group and indoctrination, sent money to Islamic State administrators operating under false identities, it said.

The investigation was the first in Spain to uncover concrete evidence of money transfers into Islamic State accounts from Europe.

A third brother who travelled to Syria with his wife and two sons had since died, the ministry said.
A 57-year-old man was moderately-to-seriously wounded on Wednesday morning, apparently from an explosive device planted on his car in Jerusalem in what is believed to be a criminal assassination attempt.

The wounded man, who is known to police, has prior convictions and is affiliated with criminals in Jerusalem.

Police launched an investigation into the alleged assassination attempt, and the working assumption is that a crime organization in a feud with the wounded man is behind the attempt on his life.

The man was taken to the Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem's Ein Karem for treatment.
IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot stated Tuesday that certain statements made by politicians and civil servants against the IDF threatened a loss of public faith in the IDF.

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The comments came during a closed meeting on Tuesday night with the Foreign Affairs and Security Committee (FASC) during which he expressed his belief that the ad hominem attacks represented the greatest threat to the military.

The statements that have been made recently on operational matters which are still being checked by the military command and judicial system are not appropriate and they dont influence the internal procedures in the IDF, he said.

The main example which Eisenkot cited was the ongoing case of Sgt. Elor Azaria who shot dead an immobilized terrorist, Abed al Fatah Al-Sharif, in March in Hebron.

Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot at FASC meeting (Photo: Gil Yohanan)

Many things have been said without knowledge of the facts, in order to advance agendas unconnected with the IDF. We want the IDF to operate according to orders, rules of engagement for opening fire and according to the spirit of IDF values. If someone wants a gang ethos, speak now, he said.

The chief of staff then condemned the attacks levelled by some politicians against the Azaria trial. All the procedures were undertaken according to orders. The commanders recognized that this was an unusual case before the video even reach the media, he insisted.

The process is fair but it cant be that from the very first moments there is slander and defamation against soldiers and commanders in the army. These people are doing what they do with agendas in mind. There is no basis to the accusations against the judicial procedures, Eisenkot continued. There are clear values in the IDF and I am conscious of them especially when it comes to opening fire. If we dont keep them in mind then the IDF is the one that will be hurt, he continued.

Eisenkot then said that military judicial proceedings must be allowed to occur without the harassment of key witnesses: The military proceedings must be able to function according to accepted norms and without external interference. Witnesses called by the prosecution and by the defense must be able to say the truth without fear of worry. Every attempt to exert pressure on those involved in the judicial process deserve to be condemned, he said.

An MK asked Eisenkot if he could be specific on which politicians were slandering the IDF to which he quipped that he should look on up on Google.

Following the chief of staffs comments Chairman of the FASC, MK Avi Dichter decided to bring a vote before the committee on whether to issue a statement of support for Eisenkot and IDF commanders and pledge to protect the IDF from political controversies.

Eisenkot then touched on another IDF case involving Brig. Gen. Ofek Buchris who was indicted last week for a series of sexual assault and rape allegations levelled by a female soldier and a female officer under his command. Eisenkot dismissed the accusation voiced since the beginning of the case suggesting that the investigation against Buchris was merely a smear campaign to prevent his progress in the army.

Statements implying that they are stopping the progression of an officer in a specific sector have no connection with reality, he said before emphasizing that his obligations to a highly decorated officer such as Buchris were no more or less than those to a soldier or officer that may have been harmed.

Finally, he addressed the comments recently made by his nominee for the position of of IDF chief rabbi, Rabbi Col. Eyal Karim who made controversial statements regarding women, gay people. According to Eisenkot, the matter was checked and he had personally expressed his dissatisfaction directly to Karim for his comments and decided to stick with his nomination after he apologized.

On the disparaging remarks about gay people made by Rabbi Yigal Levinstein , who heads an IDF preparatory yeshiva however, Eisenkot categorically condemned him and stated his intentions to bring a halt to all his activities in the IDF until a final decision was made on how to proceed by the chief of staff of the defense ministry, Maj. Gen. Udi Adam.
One month after Israel received the new stealth F-35 plane at a ceremony in Dallas, Texas , the aircraft Adir was tested for the first time on Tuesday in the southern US.

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The flight took place as another stage in the transfer process to Israel from the American government which is, in practice, responsible for the aircraft until it is flown to Israel in mid-December.

In the coming months, the Adir will will undergo more trial flights to test its functional capabilities. Furthermore additional training for pilots in the Israel Air Force using new simulation technology will take place.

F-35 in action

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Lockheed Martin aerospace company, where the plane was manufactured is supposed to send the second plane which is still in production and in total Israel is set to receive 19 such planes in the near future.

Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman participated in the ceremony where he addressed around 400 guests. The State of Israel is proud to be the first in our region to receive and operate the plane, said Lieberman. This is the most advanced plane in the world and the best decision of the security apparatus is to preserve air supremacy. It is obvious and well-known to us that the F-35 will serve as a deterrence and increase our military abilities for a long time to come.

F-35 stealth aicraft (Photo: Caulun belcher images)

Lieberman then went on to praise the deal as yet another sign of the robust relationship between the US and Israel. The plane will allow Israel to defend itself from developing threats in the region. It is another important milestone in our strategic cooperation. It is no secret that sometimes we have our disputes with the US on political frontiers but when it comes to Israels security we enjoy strong support and cooperation, he said.

Photo: Caulun belcher images)

Air Force Chief of Staff Lt. Col Tal Kalman also delivered a speech at the ceremony. As a pilot with more than 30 years of experience with a wide variety of planes, I had the privilege to fly in the F-35 simulator and it felt as if I was holding the future in my hands. The groundbreaking and lethal technology combined with human-artificial intelligence will lead the world to the fifth generation.

The Adir will augment Israels world-renowned air force arsenal and will maintain its qualitative superiority over the skies in the Middle East given. It is able to cope with, among other things, rocket threats and areas particularly protected by anti-aircraft weaponry.

In total, Israel is set to receive 33 such planes, with deliveries taking place over the course of the remaining year and next year. Six will be received annually until 2021 which will, together, form two squadrons.

Israel produced the F-35s wings, the unique helmet required by its pilots as well as the supply of special material for the planes fuselage, and the doors of ammunition compartments.
An Iranian general recently visited the southwest Syria city of Quneitra, located near the Israel-Syria border, Iranian news agency Fars has reported.

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While the reason behind Basij Paramilitary Force Commander Mohammad Reza Naqdi's visit has yet to be revealed, Arab news outlets have reported that it constitutes the first time Iran has officially recognized one of its chief officials nearing the Israeli-Syrian border.

Basij, Iran's paramilitary forces, during training (Photo: AP)

On a related note, the Syrian Army issued a statement on Sunday that two Israeli, unmanned aerial vehicles shot two missiles toward a residential building in Quneitra, causing property damage but no injuries.





Basij Commander Mohammad Reza Naqdi

The Syrian Army's statement said that the attack "is part of Israel's direct and public assistance to armed groups (in Syria), in a desperate attempt to raise the groups' low morale due to the heavy losses that we have caused them." It continued by saying, "Such aggressiveness will not deter us from continuing our fight against the Zionist enemy."

The IDF, for its part, ordered the attack after a mortar fell inside the Golan Heights territory near Israel's border with Syria. No one was injured and there was no property damage as a result.

The mortar fire is considered to have been the result of Syrian rebel forces' ongoing civil war against President Bashar Assad's regime.
A former Islamist lawmaker turned al Shabaab terrorist was one of the drivers in Tuesday's double car bomb attack on the African Union's main peacekeeping base in Somalia, al Shabaab said.

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The terrorists said in a radio broadcast that Salah Nur Ismail, who joined al Shabaab in 2010, was one of those to blow himself up in the attack which killed 13 people, mainly guards from a private security firm.

In the broadcast aired late on Tuesday on the terrorists' radio al Andalus, Ismail, also known by the nickname of Badbaado, said in audio recorded before the attack that he would be one of the suicide bombers.

Scene of terror attack at African Union's main peacekeeping base in Somalia (Photo: EPA)

Government officials were not immediately available for a comment.

Somalia is scheduled to hold a presidential election next month and security analyst say al Shabaab could take advantage of the distraction caused by campaigning to launch more attacks.

Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab, al Shabaab's military operation spokesman, confirmed Ismail's participation in the attack.

"Salah defected from the parliament in 2010, joined us and repented and he became a martyr today," Abu Musab told Reuters.

"The current so-called Somali government lawmakers should follow suit. We are telling them to take part in the jihad via the same procedures," the spokesman added.

Ismail, who was from Somaliland, joined parliament in 2009 as one of 275 Islamists nominated by former President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed. He joined al Shabaab the following year, accusing the government of abandoning religious principles.
RIYADH - Saudi Arabia's Foreign Ministry distanced itself on Wednesday from a recent visit to Israel by a number of Saudi citizens, including an outspoken former military general.

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An unnamed ministry official told the Saudi-owned al-Hayat newspaper that the rare public engagement "does not reflect the views of the Saudi government."

The official referred to Israel as "the occupied territories."

Gold in a previous meeting with Eshki (Photo: CFR)

Saudi Arabia and Israel have no official relations and the kingdom prohibits its citizens from traveling to Israel. It also does not grant visas to Israelis.

However, Saudi government permission was likely necessary for Anwar Eshki and the delegation of Saudi academics and businessmen to make the visit.

While in Jerusalem, Eshki met with the Israeli Foreign Ministry's Director-General, Dore Gold, and a group of opposition Knesset members.

Israeli media reported that Eshki was leading a delegation of "businessmen and academics" on a mission to promote a stalled Saudi-led 2002 Arab peace initiative.

He reportedly met with Maj. Gen. Yoav Mordechai, head of the COGAT, military body that coordinates Israeli activities in the West Bank and Gaza.
BERLIN - Bavaria's top security official said Wednesday it's unclear whether the man who blew himself up at a bar in the town of Ansbach meant to detonate it at the moment he did.

State Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann, who also says the assailant was in an online chat with a still-unidentified person immediately before the explosion, said that further investigation is needed.

"Because of witness testimony on what happened and also the course of the chat, there are indeed questions about whether he intended to set off the bomb at that moment," Herrmann said.

Attacker Mohammad Daleel, a Syrian asylum-seeker, died and 15 people were wounded when the bomb exploded in a wine bar Sunday night after he wasn't allowed entry to a nearby open-air concert because he didn't have a ticket.
This video of four policemen taking down innocent children playing on a driveway might just brighten up your day. Hands up!

By India Today Web Desk:



These police officers come out from nowhere and start playing with kids because 'all fun matters'.

Police in Dixon, Illinois, were filmed last week engaging in a water fight with several children playing on a driveway.

Here's the video

These are the guns we need to play with.

The video posted on Facebook by Dixon, Illinois Police Department garnered over 48,90,000 views and nearly 80,000 shares.

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Deserves it, right?





--- ENDS ---
Channel 2 News revealed on Tuesday recordings where Rabbi Eliezer Berland, who was extradited to Israel last week on charges of sex crimes, confesses to sexually assaulting a woman, explicitly stating that he committed the act against her will.

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The recordings include a conversation between Berland and several of his followers, in which he referred to "the first time I raped her," explaining that she was not obligated to divorce her husband, since she did not consent to the act.

Rabbi Berland arrested at Ben Gurion Airport

"She had not idea what was happening, so there is no need for a get (a Jewish divorce document ed.)," Berland told his listeners. "The rape had completely broken her, start to finish." He told them that "she never did it out of her own free will."

Berland returning to Israel

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Another recording released was that of one of the women Berland had allegedly victimized. The woman can be heard saying, "It happened ten times. On several occasions, he would talk to me and smile and I would talk to him as if nothing was going on. Sometimes I would be lying on top of him while he talked to me. Usually, though, there would be a feeling of awe, especially during our last meeting. The last few times I came, he didn't say a word, and we simply went to bed."

Rabbi Berland

The woman explained that the entire situation left her confused. "I couldn't understand what he was even doing. And if I didn't understand what was going on, how could I have asked any questions about it?"

Berland's attorney, Rachel Toren, refuted the claims of misconduct on her client's part. "I have no doubt that this is yet another fabrication created by his adversaries, some of whom include members of his own family." Toren fundamentally discredited one of the women who had allegedly been violated for not filing an official complaint sooner. "If there was any truth to it, she would have already gone to the police."

Protest outside SA Embassy

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Representing some of the women who have brought forward allegations of sexual misconduct against Berland is Sarah Markovich. She said that "new evidence shows that under no circumstances can Berland be allowed to be released to house arrest," stressing that "there are women who may not come forward if he will be released, and it might scare the women who have already spoken out."

79-year-old Berland had founded the Shuvu Banim Yeshiva in Jerusalem and is considered a leading figure among the Breslov Hasidic community. In 2012, one of his followers had stated seeing him in a compromising position with a girl from the local community. The man was beaten by his other followers, which brought the incident to the police's attention. The ensuing investigation gathered testimonies from several women, accusing him of sexual misconduct.

Berland had fled from Israel to Morocco in 2013, after being requested to make himself available for police questioning on suspicion of sexual misconduct. After King Muhammed VI of Morocco ordered him to leave, Berland moved to Zimbabwe. When news of the standing sexual allegations against him reached Zimbabwe, the government decided to eject him, as well, claiming that his Visa had expired. In 2014, Berland moved to South Africa, but after a warrant for his arrest was filed by Interpol, he escaped to Holland, where he was finally arrested. Berland was then placed under house arrest and due to be flown back to Israel, but in July 2015 he disappeared. Two months later, it was discovered that he had returned to South Africa, where he was ultimately apprehended and sent to Israel to stand trial. Hundreds of his followers awaited him at Ben Gurion Airport, joining in a group prayer after he had landed.
BERLIN  The online magazine of ISIS has described how a 27-year-old Syrian asylum-seeker who blew himself up at a bar in the southern German town of Ansbach spent months planning the attack, once even hiding his home-made bomb in his room moments before a police raid.

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The weekly Al-Nabaa magazine's report, published late Tuesday, added that Mohammad Daleel had fought both in Iraq and Syria with a branch of al-Qaida and the ISIS group before arriving in Germany as an asylum-seeker two years ago.

Daleel died and 15 people were wounded when the bomb exploded in a wine bar Sunday night after he wasn't allowed entry to a nearby open-air concert because he didn't have a ticket.

Attack in Ansbach (Photo: EPA)

Conservative lawmakers have called for an increased police presence, better surveillance and background checks of migrants and new strategies to deport criminal asylum seekers more easily.

Al Nabaa's Arabic-language report on the attacker said he initially fought against government forces with al-Qaida's branch in Syria before pledging alliance to ISIS in 2013. He also helped the group with its propaganda efforts, setting up pro-ISIS accounts online.

This undated photo from Al-Nabaa, an online magazine of the Islamic State group, shows Mohammad Daleel in an article published late Tuesday, July 26, 2016.

In Germany he started making the bomb, a process that took him three months, al Nabaa wrote. It added that German police once raided his asylum shelter in an unrelated case and searched Daleel's room without noticing the bomb that he hid moments before the raid.

ISIS earlier claimed the Ansbach attack, publishing a video it said of Daleel pledging allegiance to the group and vowing that Germany's people "won't be able to sleep peacefully anymore." It appears to be the same video as the one found by German investigators on the suicide bomber's phone.

Daleel unsuccessfully applied for asylum in Germany and was awaiting deportation, German authorities said.

Police officers in Ansbach (Photo: Getty Images)

The unprecedented bloodshed in Germany began July 18, when a 17-year-old from Afghanistan wielding an ax attacked people on a train near Wuerzburg, wounding five people before he was shot to death by police. ISIS claimed responsibility.

The deadliest attack came Friday night in Munich. The German-born, 18-year-old son of Iranian refugees went on a shooting spree and killed nine people. The youth had obsessively researched mass shootings, and authorities said the attack does not appear to be linked to Islamic extremists.

On Sunday, a 21-year-old Syrian used a machete to kill a 45-year-old Polish woman in the southern city of Reutlingen. Authorities said assailant and victim knew each other from working in the same restaurant, and the incident was not related to terrorism.

Scene of attack (Photo: Getty Images)

Despite the fact that not all the cases were terror-related, they have caused concerns about the government's migration policy that saw more than 1 million people enter Germany last year.

A senior figure in the nationalist Alternative for Germany party, which has no seats in the national parliament but saw its popularity surge after last year's migrant influx, suggested Wednesday that there should be "a halt to immigration for Muslims to Germany" until all asylum-seekers currently in the country have been registered, checked and had their applications processed.

"For security reasons, we can no longer afford to allow yet more Muslims to immigrate to Germany without control," Alexander Gauland, a deputy party leader, said in a statement. "There are terrorists among the Muslims who immigrated illegally and their number is rising constantly."

The Interior Ministry rejected the notion that Germany is still seeing uncontrolled migration. Spokesman Johannes Dimroth said that "for some time" all new arrivals have been registered and checked against security databases.

Scene of attack (Photo:AFP)

"As for the concrete question of whether you can act differently according specifically to a person's religion, as I understand it that simply would be incompatible with our understanding of freedom of religion," he said.

German train operator Deutsche Bahn said Wednesday that following the attacks it would invest heavily in increased security and hire hundreds of security staff to control trains and train stations across the country.

The city of Munich said it is re-evaluating its security concept for the annual Oktoberfest and is considering banning all backpacks from the popular beer fest.
Most countries have an age at which a person becomes legally responsible for their actions. In principle, Israel has such an age: 18. At the age of 18, Israeli women and men become adults in every significant way, with one caveat: Once they join the ranks of the IDF, their aging is reversed, and they become children once more. Armed children who cant be held morally responsible for their actions.

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This process only encompasses IDF soldiers. A Palestinian 14-year-old who threw stones at an Israeli vehicle is seen as having the same moral responsibility as an adult. You can arrest him, interrogate him, and even jail him for monthssometimes years. An Israeli soldier who shot a Palestinian , on the other hand? Hes just a boy. The law may see him as an adult, but in the publics eye, hes just a toddler who strayed from the path.

If he fell into captivity while carrying arms and wearing a uniform, hes still just a kidnapped boy, not a captive soldier. If he shot a Palestinian, hes automatically defined as a victim. Whose victim? Well, that changes from case to case.

Elor Azaria. Should be seen as an accountable adult. (Photo: Motti Kimchi)

If hes backed by his commanders, then hes a victim of the political left, who is trying to hurt the boy by demanding that he be held up to universal moral standards, which no child can meet. If his commanders dont back him up, as is the case with Elor Azaria, then theyre the bad guys. Theyre corrupt, leftist (as is well known, the left is the root of all evil in Israeli society) liars. These bad guys are abusing our innocent boy.

Azarias new claim of being slapped by his company commander is an example of the infantilization of the Israeli soldier. Allegedly, theres no connection between what the company commander did or did not do after the fact and Azarias innocence or guilt of the crime of manslaughter . If he wishes, the accused can file a complaint regarding the treatment he received at the hands of the authorities, just like a civilian defendant would when claiming police abuse. This isnt supposed to be relevant to the question of whether or not hes guilty. The entire point of the claim is to portray the soldier as a little boy being abused by the mean adults.

This claim, by the way, was made not only by the defense and by the ranks of those who see the killing of any Palestinian as inherently justified (or at the very least a happy accident). It was also made by people who belong to the opposite political camp. Its not the soldiers fault, they say, but the systems.

The system (society, culture, the elites) signaled the idea that killing Palestinians is justified to the soldier, and so it, and only it, is responsible. They too see the soldier as a victim.

Like Azarias right-wing protectors, they believe the Israeli soldier cannot be held morally responsible. Hes confused, even brainwashed. The fact that his behavior is aberrant (that is to say, other soldiers in the same situation did not act as he did) means nothing to them. An Israeli soldier is not punishable. Morally, hes a boy. Our boy.

This is a dangerous perception. If we believe that 18-year-old soldiers arent morally responsible, than we must not give them guns. We have to wait until their old enough. Firearm in the hands of children are a great danger to the public. If they are responsible, on the other hand, they must be treated like any other adult.

MK Oren Hazan with Elor Azaria. (Photo: Motti Kimchi)

True, soldiers more often find themselves in complex situations. They have to make decisions under pressure. Sometimes theyre afraid or confused. But the state believes they are capable of withstanding this pressure. They can withstand it, among other reasons, because theyve gone through training, during which the rules have been explained to them over and over again, and during which those who are seen as unfit for combat duties are expected to be ousted by the commanders in charge.

A model soldier such as Elor Azaria can hardly be described as unfit to function in combat. Hes fit. What he did is his responsibility, as an adult man. The leftist claim that the guard at the gate is never to blame is ridiculous. Soldiers who committed crimes in other countries and at other times were not absolved simply because the system was racist or murderous.

Soldiers are not children, they are adults. And adults are responsible for their own actions.
The Shin Bet had no intelligence on the terror cell that murdered Rabbi Michael "Miki" Mark in a drive-by shooting earlier this month, even though two of its members served long prison sentences in Israeli prisons.

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A day after the attack that claimed Mark's life and left his wife and two of his ten children wounded, the Israeli intelligence agency was able to connect the twoMohammed Fakih and Mohammad Amairaand even arrested four accomplices from the Hebron area that helped in the execution of the attack and in hiding them after it.

Troops raid Surif in search of terrorist

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The attack was more successful than usual for the attackers, with the terrorists taking advantage, much like the terrorists who murdered husband and wife Na'ama and Eitam Henkin in October, of several main factors: the complete freedom of movement Palestinians enjoy on main roads of the West Bank, the easy access to makeshift weapons and the crowded urban Hebron area where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians reside, of them tens of thousands affiliated with Hamas or supportive of it.

Amaira drove the vehicle out of which Fakih opened fire at the Mark family car. He was imprisoned in Israel for four years for his involvement in a shooting attack near the Fawwar refugee camp at the end of the second intifada, and released in 2010.

From top left, clockwise: Mohammad Amaira, Mohammed Fakih, Muaz Fakih, Sahib Fakih. Background: The house where terrorist Mohammed Fakih barricaded himself.

Amaira, who has been a member of the Palestinian security forces over the past few years, planned the attack on the Mark family as part of a local cell rather than as part of Hamas or Islamic Jihad in the West Bank.

Fakih, who was killed in the village of Surif in an overnight IDF raid , was the one who fired the deadly shots. A member of Islamic Jihad's military wing, he was imprisoned in Israel from 2006 to 2010 after working to set up an explosives lab. The weapon that he used in the attack was a modified rifle, the likes of which are produced in West Bank lathes in large amounts. They are usually sold for intra-Palestinian criminal activity.

The Surif raid was the climax of the three-week-old manhunt during which IDF forces from the Nahal Brigade and special forces, commanded by the officer responsible for the Hebron Brigade, Col. Itzik Cohen, carried out detentions and searches both for persons and weapons in several villages around Hebron. Recently, the car and gun used for the attack were found in Hebron.

39 killed, 291 injured

Shin Bet sources have emphasized that in recent years, and especially since the commencement of the current wave of terrorism in October 2015, dozens of terrorist attacks in the West Bank have been thwarted, including roadside shootings by local cells and organizations belonging to the Islamic Jihad and Hamas.

Cell leader Mohammed Fakih

From October 1, 2015, until July 27, 2016, 317 terrorist attacks and significant attempts at attacks have taken place. Thirty-five Israelis, three foreigners, and one Palestinian have been murdered in those attacks. Two hundred ninety-one persons have been injured.

Inside the Green Line, ten attacks have been carried out by ten terrorists. In the West Bank, 268 attacks have been carried out by 270 terrorists. In Jerusalem, 44 attackers carried out 39 attacks. At this point, 180 stabbings, 97 shootings, 32 car-rammings, and eight other kinds of attacks have taken place.

The Shin Bet also reported regarding the time period of October 1 to May 31 the following: In 2015, 117 shooting attacks were prevented, and 62 in 2016. In 2015, 17 kidnappings were thwarted, and nine were in 2016. Twelve suicide attacks were prevented last year, and a further eleven this year.
A new art and tourism project featuring 10 original and reproduced mosaics was unveiled on Monday by Minister of Jerusalem Affairs Ze'ev Elkin at the Cardo in the Jewish Quarter.

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"The project, 'Jerusalem of Mosaics,' is another step in branding the Jewish Quarter as a location that tells a story," said Itay Bezalel, CEO of the Jewish Quarter Restoration and Development Company. "The mosaic stones represent an ancient form of art and therefore blend admirably with the Byzantine paintings along the ancient street."

Minister Ze'ev Elkin helps unveil new Mosiacs in the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem's Old City. (Photo: Andrew McIntire/TPS)







The mural depicts a representation of the commercial and cultural life along the Cardo in Roman period Jerusalem. Next to it is a pillar base, left from the ancient Roman colonnade. (Photo: Andrew McIntire/TPS)

The mosaic project tells the history of the Cardo, the main street and commercial center of the city of Jerusalem during the Roman period. After Emperor Hadrian rebuilt Jerusalem as Aelia Capitolina, the main street, known as the Cardo Maximus, ran from north to south.

The Roman thoroughfare was lined with shops and vendors and served as a hub of economic and cultural life. The Cardo's most striking visual feature was its Roman colonnade, which according to some historians was among the grandest and most impressive in the ancient Roman world. The Cardo and its colonnade are a main feature of the Madaba Mosaic Map, which is considered to be the oldest surviving original cartographic depiction of the Holy Land and Jerusalem.





A mosaic inspired by the Ravenna Mosaics unveiled in the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem's Old City (Photo: Andrew McIntire/TPS)







(Photo: Andrew McIntire/TPS)







Zeev Elkin, the Minister of Jerusalem Affairs makes a mosaic of Jerusalem's symbol during the unveiling of new Mosiacs in the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem's Old City. (Photo: Andrew McIntire/TPS)







A reproduction of the early Byzantine Madaba Mosaic Map unveiled in the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem's Old City (Photo: Andrew McIntire/TPS)

The ten mosaic art pieces unveiled on Monday consist of a reproduction of the Madaba Map while the original is located in the early Byzantine church of Saint George in Madaba, Jordan. The other nine mosaics in the project, reproduced by the Eilon Mosaic Company at Kibbutz Eilon, depict the various shops that used to occupy the historic street. Examples include a mosaic of a fabric shop inspired by the famous mosaics of Ravenna, Italy, and a mosaic of a glassware shop, reproduced from an actual Roman mosaic discovered in Caesarea.

The mosaics were placed among the modern stores currently lining the Cardo, creating a contrast between past and present.
Last week, an event was held at the Presidents Residence in tribute to Supreme Court President Emeritus Meir Shamgar, celebrating the justice's 90th birthday. Among those at the event was Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit, who is marking six uneasy months in office these days.

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Mandelblit sees Shamgars career as a kind of guideline, and enjoys mentioning the parallels in their respective legal careers. For instance, both men served as IDF advocates general, and now theyve both been attorneys general as well. Mandelblit says that when the IDF Advocate Generals Offices were moved into the Kirya base in Tel Aviv, leaving its old offices across the street, he personally made sure his photo was hung right below that of Shamgar on the wall commemorating those who led the office across the years.

Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit. Spoke to MKs about his first six months. (Photo: Amit Shabi)

For the past six months, hes been trying to gain some inspiration from Shamgar in his current role as AG. And indeed, in his first appearance at the Knessets Constitution, Law, and Justice Committee, Mandelblit showed confidence and focus, alongside calm and humility. When asked about the hot potato thrown into his lap  investigating Prime Minister Neytanyahu  he neither avoided the question nor seemed unnerved by it.Its not easy for me, as the head of the prosecution whos running an inquiry on the prime minister, to (also) have a work relationship with him, which demands frequent consultations, sometimes one-on-one, he said.

Mandelblit continued, Its not the easiest or most comfortable thing for me to sit with the prime minister in work meetings that have to do with legal advice. Now that theres an inquiry into his affairs, I cant speak to him and he doesnt ask me (about the matter). But we are still in touch. This is a question of professionalism  and you need to trust me to make that separation.

The AG stood on much sturdier ground when asked about the professional side of the inquiry. He said that his top priority is preserving the publics trust in his office, and explained that he is aware of the fact that the speed with which he makes decisions on the matter will greatly influence this trust.

Nevertheless, Mandelblit says he will not be hasty in his decision-making. Some of these decisions are crucial, and so we need to be very careful. We arent looking to hang people in the public square, and so Ill work as professionally, cleanly, correctly, and quickly as possible.

Mandelblit doesnt back down from criticism over his insistence in calling this process a check or inquiry as opposed to an investigation. When theres a reasonable suspicion that (a criminal offense) has been committed, you have to switch to an investigation, he said, but in a complex situation in which theres no reasonable suspicion but only initial information, an inquiry must be commenced.

The AG continued, The second criterion to distinguish an inquiry and an investigation is the suspect's status: When (the subject) holds a high position you cant ignore information, but as long as theres no reasonable suspicion you need to be careful, because there are consequences for those being investigated. Even so, he emphasized, Not one will be immune, and if there is a need for an investigation, I wont hesitate.

Later on, Mandelblit spoke of how he saw his role as attorney general, defining it as helping the government ministers and the ranks of elected political officials implement their policies. He said he was not pleased by the fact that the attorney general was nicknamed the countrys true manager, implying the positions great power.

I strenuously oppose that, he said, There is a (government), and we want to help (it) achieve (its) policy within the borders of the law. My goal is the government, any government, being able to implement its policy. The government offices legal advisors have to be attentive to (the ministers) and accept (their) directives. I expect there to be good relation between the advisers and the management ranks of the (ministries).

Mandelblit differentiated between opinions issued by the AG which point to legalistic incapability and opinions that point to legalistic difficulties. The former means that there is no way to accept the governments desired move, since it is clearly illegal or unconstitutional, but the latter merely indicates that there are some legal problems with the decision, and that the government can still make that decision knowing that there is the possibility of it being struck down by the courts.

Mandelblit with PM Netanyahu. A delicate situation. (Photo: Mark Israel Salem)

In both cases, Mandelblit emphasized, the goal of the attorney general is to create a dialogue with decision makers in order to improve the decisions as much as possible from a legalistic standpoint. As an example, he brought up his striking down of the proposed bills meant to legalize the status of the illegal Amona settlement outpost and his attempts to find another solution for the problem.

The AG explained that, other than in rare cases, he opposes ministerial demands to appear before the High Court of Justice (HCJ) themselves, and advocate for decisions struck down by the AG. The state needs to speak with one voice before the HCJ, and this (is done) via the AGs representatives, he said, Otherwise it all falls apart.

Mandelblit was and remains strongly opposed to the idea of splitting his institution into two  a prosecution wing and a governmental advisory wing. He is aware of its advantages, especially considering his own delicate situation of the moment  having to both advise the prime minister and lead the inquiry into his affairs  but at the end of the day, he claimed that he was, worried that a split would cause the weakening of the rule of law.

According to Mandelblit, the fact that both roles are held by the same person allows that person to have a wider view of the Israeli political and legal landscape. In addition, he believes a split can cause excessive investigations on one hand and excessive advising on the other. Today, theres a high level of faith in the institution, and I worry that a split will constitute too big of a gamble, he summarized.
Have you always wanted to visit Hawaii?

Or perhaps youve been there and want to go again. The Fun Club has the perfect trip for the new traveler as well as for those who have visited the islands in the past.

We have scheduled a nine-day Hawaiian adventure for Friday, Feb. 10, to Saturday, Feb. 18, 2017. The tour begins in Honolulu where we will board the fabulous Pride of America. Well cruise to the islands of Maui and Kauai and two locations on the Big Island before heading back to the island of Oahu. At the conclusion of the cruise the Fun Club will tour Pearl Harbor and the city of Honolulu.

February Cruise

February may seem like a long way off, but its not. In fact, Aug.10, which will be here in just a few weeks, is what the travel industry calls our seat reduction date. On that date, the cruiselines may start to take away some of the unsold staterooms they have been holding for us. Our airline prices are locked in until Aug. 10. Later in the year the tour price may go up because the airlines often increase their prices as we get closer to the tour date.

This would be a very good time to make the decision if youd like to go to Hawaii with the Fun Club and we sure hope you do! Stop by our office at the News-Times building or give us a call at 402-745-6477 and ask for the brochure. We cannot reserve your spot until we have your completed registration form and a deposit.

Each of the Hawaiian Islands is unique and beautiful. Plan to join us for this relaxing wintertime escape.

Southern Charms

Another wonderful adventure will be our Southern Charms tour scheduled for Sunday, April 2, to Friday, April 7, 2017. This trip is packed full of exciting experiences.

We will start the six-day tour in Charleston where well see historic homes, antebellum mansions, the historic city market, the Citadel and Battery and other sights on our city tour. Charleston is one of the top tourist destinations in the U.S. and well sure find out why.

Well admire the views of Charleston harbor on a dinner cruise and well enjoy the beauty and rich history of Magnolia Plantation. The Fun Club will take a trolley tour through the countrys only Tea Plantation and a horse carriage ride through the historic district of Beaufort.

Charms of Savannah

The Southern Charms tour will continue in the beautiful city of Savannah with its historic squares, Forsyth Park, River Street, the Cotton Exchange and other sights. Well relax on a scenic riverboat cruise, enjoy a Southern cooking demonstration and attend a fantastic show at the Historic Savannah Theatre.

After Savannah, well visit some of the hidden jewels of the area. St. Simons Island and Jekyll Island are unique and interesting to explore. Doesnt this tour sound fun?

A brochure with trip details is available from the Fun Club. We must have a deposit and completed reservation form to add your name to the roster.

More Trips

The Fun Club will be touring the Colorado Springs area Sept. 20  24, 2016, and we will attend selected Branson Christmas shows on Nov. 29  Dec. 3, 2016. Both of these trips are currently filled. We encourage you to put your name on the waiting list if youre interested in either of these great locations. Contact our office at 402-745-6477 any weekday morning from 9 a.m. to noon to find out more.
Whiteman Reservists, A-10s arrive in Estonia

Eight United States Air Force Reserve Command A-10 Thunderbolt IIs assigned to the 442nd Fighter Wing, Whiteman Air Force Base, Missouri, arrived at Amari Air Base, Estonia, July 25.



The A-10s will be participating in a flying training deployment with the Estonian air force as part of Operation Atlantic Resolve.



A USAF KC-135 Stratotanker from the 185th Air Refueling Wing, Iowa Air National Guard, and approximately 230 USAF support personnel from bases across the U.S. and Europe are also at Amari to support the FTD.



Its important for Guardsmen, Reservists and active-duty members to work together so when we need to deploy were ready to send Airmen anywhere, said Col. Gregory Eckfeld, 442nd FW vice commander and troop commander of this movement.



The two-week exercise will serve to enhance mutual capabilities of the United States and Estonia while working alongside other NATO Allies and partner nations on regional security and interoperability.



Our fighters were here last year, said Eckfeld. We are committed to building and retaining our relationship with our NATO allies.



The A-10s will further train with British Royal Air Force as well as with Estonian, Lithuanian, and Latvian joint terminal attack controllers at the nearby Tapa Range.



Additionally, medical professionals with the 442nd Medical Squadron and firefighters with the 442nd Civil Engineering Squadron will be participating in familiarization and integration training with Estonia and British forces respectively.



This FTD is an example of total force integration with active duty, guard and reserve Airmen coming together to provide critical support throughout the USAFE-AFAFRICA areas of operation by deploying together and interacting with a variety of nations.
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At present, only ovines (sheep), caprines (goat), suillines (pig) and bovines (the cattle family including buffalo and bison) are included the list.

By Baishali Adak: Rabbit and hare may become the fifth category of meat that can be legally consumed in India after fresh amendments to the Food Safety and Standards (Food Products Standards and Food Additives) Regulations, 2011.

PMO RECEIVED SEVERAL REPRESENTATIONS



A new category for 'Leporids' that refers to rabbits - both wild and domestic - was introduced after the PMO received several representations from Kerala, a state where rabbit meat is a delicacy.

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At present, only ovines (sheep), caprines (goat), suillines (pig) and bovines (the cattle family including buffalo and bison) are included the list. This is authorised by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), which categorises animals as 'hygienic' or 'non-toxic' for human consumption.

Hilly areas in Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and the Northeast also rear rabbits for their fur while their carcasses are diverted to meat industry.



A senior FSSAI officer, who preferred to speak anonymously, told Mail Today, "We believe, several representations came to the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) last year. They said livelihoods of at least 10-15,000 families in Kerala alone depend on rabbit farming. It's considered a delicacy there. Restaurants claim it as a specialty. Their business was also hurt. The PMO referred their case to us and we decided to put 'Leporids' or rabbits in the list," he said.

Notably, a debate has already broken out on whether the small mammal should be allowed to be slaughtered. Certain States like Kerala and Goa have developed 'farm rabbits' over the past few years where these are bred and killed commercially, like poultry.

RABBITS ARE ALSO REARED FOR THEIR FUR



Hilly areas in Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal and the northeast also rear rabbits for their fur. It's carcass is then diverted to the meat industry. Animal activists, on the other hand, argue that the Indian Hare or Black-naped Hare is, in fact, protected under Schedule IV of the Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972. They say it's inclusion in the FSSAI list is a gross mistake.

Only in 2014, FSSAI had clamped down on slaughtering and meat consumption of 'unlisted' animals in the southern State. It had issued strict orders against killing of rabbits, cats, dogs and camels following such reports. Rabbit farmers had protested against it saying it's the most economical meat available. A single female rabbit produces a litter of at least 20 in a year. Rabbit fodder does not compete with food grains meant for human consumption.

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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 Radhika Bhalla/Mail Today: Indian Railways is back on the track with a special set of uniforms of employees that will be designed by Delhibased veteran, Ritu Beri. The designer gave a presentation on the same to the Ministry for Railways, Suresh Prabhu and members of the Railway Board in the Capital on Tuesday afternoon.

In a bid to infuse a new lease of life into the railway services--which includes ecatering services from leading fast food joints--the national carrier has decided to spruce up the uniform worn by all staff members, including station master, loco pilot, train ticket examiner and guard. In an exclusive interview with MAIL TODAY, Beri shared, "The work on the uniform designs (for men and women) is in progress; I shall share details once everything is finalised. For now, we have made the first presentation--we worked very hard for two months and researched various possibilities. We will work with Khadi, our national fabric, which also works well given our climate conditions."

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She said that the idea was to create uniforms that are attractive, impactful and comfortable at the same time. While retaining the traditional look of Indian dress is important, it will be given a modern twist. Accordingly, she presented four themes on Tuesday, namely Ethos of India including inspirations such as kalamkari from Andhra Pradesh, madhubani from Bihar and warli art from Madhya Pradesh; The Golden Period featuring the Harappa Age, stupas and the Konark Temple; The Legacy of Nawabs including intricate inlay work; and The Vibrant Soul of India with a more kitsch appeal. The selection process of the themes will be done on public demand, said the Railways Minister.



Also Read: Indian Railways to introduce Rail Radio service in 1,000 trains!

A competition will be held on social media where the theme with the most votes will be selected. Beri added, "The look of the uniforms will be an ode to India and her exoticism. The focus is to reflect modern India whilst respecting our deep rooted tradition and culture, thus reflecting the Glory of India. The uniforms will be Indo-western in cut and silhouette with comfort being the most important factor.?? As for her involvement with the Railways uniform, she said, I am a big fan of our Prime Minister as well as our Railway Minister. I was hugely impressed when the Indian government released the rail budget this year. It demonstrated that the Modi government was taking steps in the right direction towards meeting its goal of revitalising India's economy and reflecting long term strategies gearing towards securing the future growth of India's railways."

Commenting on the fashion revamp, she said, "I believe that the uniform of an institution creates the necessary image that is desired to uplift it's perception and impact. So I offered to do my bit by creating a new look for the staff of the Indian Railways. I am honoured to contribute in my own way to help create an image for them." While Beri awaits feedback on her presentation, the final decision will cater to all sectors of the railways.

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World No. 5 and London Olympic bronze medallist Saina Nehwal has been seeded fifth while her compatriot PV Sindhu is seeded ninth in the women's singles for the Rio Olympics.

By Indo-Asian News Service: India's star shuttler Saina Nehwal has been placed in Group G in the women's singles category while Kidambi Srikanth is placed in Group H in the men's singles at the upcoming Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. (Latest India @ Olympics stories)



World No.5 and London Olympic Bronze medallist Saina has been seeded fifth while her compatriot P.V. Sindhu is seeded ninth in the women's singles. Sindhu has been placed in Group M, the Badminton Association of India (BAI) tweeted on Tuesday.

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Srikanth has received a ninth seeding in the men's draw.

India's women's doubles pair of Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa are placed in Group A, while men's doubles pair Manu Attri and B. Sumeeth Reddy were placed in Group D.

Malaysia's Lee Chong Wei and Spain's Carolina Marin are the top seeds in men's and women's singles.

--- ENDS ---
By PTI: case

New Delhi, Jul 27 (PTI) The Supreme Court was today critical of the trial court in Maharashtra asking the cops to probe the criminal defamation complaint lodged against Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi for his remarks allegedly accusing RSS for assassination of Mahatma Gandhi.

The apex court said "prima facie the procedure of taking cognizance by the judicial magistrate is erroneous" as police has no role in a private criminal defamation case and it cannot register an FIR.

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It said magistrates cannot ask the police to investigate a private criminal defamation complaint as it is the complainant who needs to prove the case.

The remarks finding fault with the trial court order comes a week after the same bench of Justices Dipak Misra and R F Nariman had said that Gandhi should not have resorted to "collective denunciation" of an organisation (RSS) and will have to face trial if he does not express regret.

Gandhi, facing a defamation complaint for his remarks allegedly accusing RSS for assassination of Mahatma Gandhi, has sought its quashing from the apex court.

"If the process of taking cognizance is erroneous then the matter can be remanded back but not for the ambitious plea of quashing," the bench observed.

Today, the bench at the outset, referred to an earlier judgement delivered on a batch of pleas, including the one filed by BJP leader Subramanian Swamy and Gandhi each, challenging the constitutional validity of penal defamation law and said that police cannot be asked by judicial magistrates to probe a private defamation complaint.

"We have said in the Subramanium Swamy case that the police has no role in private criminal complaints...whatever has to be established, it has to be established by the man (complainant) himself. The magistrates cannot call for a report from the police," the bench said.

It asked senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for the Congress leader, to read relevant portions of the judgemnent, penned by Justice Misra, in the Subramanian Swamy case, dealing with the power of police and magistrates in criminal defamation cases.

"Police has no role in criminal defamation. It cannot lodge an FIR and a Magistrate cannot seek a inquiry report from police under sections 156 (3) and 202 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. The Magistrate has to himself make inquiry into the allegations...this is altogether a different process," it said. (MORE) PTI MNL SJK RKS VMN

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The Tasmanian government is in the process of reviewing planning regulations in the state as they attempt to move to a state wide planning scheme.

Under that scheme, labelled the Tasmanian Planning Scheme, owners of residential real estate in Tasmania would be able to offer their properties as short-term accommodation through platforms such as Airbnb or Stayz for six weeks (42 days) per year.

Owners looking to offer their property for period larger than that would be required to apply for a permit.

Peter Gutwein, Tasmanian Minister for Planning and Local Government said the proposal strikes the right balance in meeting the need for tourist accommodation in Tasmania with the interests of existing businesses.

While Gutwein believes the move is necessary, Airbnb have hit out at the proposed change and warned it will do more harm than good.

While were all for regulation and rules to govern home sharing, theyve got to be fair and balanced. We know the current proposal will have significant unintended consequences on the state economy and tourism sector if implemented, an Airbnb statement said.

Tasmanians have been quick to embrace the sharing economy. In the 12 months to May 2016, the Apple Isle welcomed 118,000 Airbnb guests  a figure which represents about 10% of the states total annual inbound tourists, the statement said.

The short-term rental giant claims the proposed changes would cut the number of Airbnb visitors to Tasmania in half, an outcome that would severely impact owners in the state.

Not only would it stand to impact approximately five percent of Tasmanias annual tourism, the rules would significantly hamper the governments ambition to grow the states tourism sector in a sustainable and responsible way, the Airbnb statement said.

But worst of all, the proposed rules will hurt everyday Tasmanians  mums and dads, young families and seniors - who open their homes or spare rooms to welcome travellers from around the world. On average, the total amount generated through Airbnb by a host in Tasmania is just $6,400 a year; and while that might not sound like a lot to some we know the impact of that money can often be life changing.

Airbnb also said the proposed changes go against moves being made in other states around Australia, which are becoming more accommodative of the short-term industry.

Earlier this year the NSW Government released a position paper that indicated it will be more receptive to owners utilising platforms like Airbnb.

The short-stay giant also announced this week that it has hired four ex-city mayors, including one from Adelaide to better help its rollout across the globe.
Shilpa Shetty and Shah Rukh Khan had a reunion of sorts when the two bumped into each other recently.

By India Today Web Desk: Baazigar hit the screens in 1993 and went on to become of the biggest hits of 1993. From songs to script to chemistry between the lead actors, everything about the film struck the right chord with the audiences. And 23 years later, Shilpa Shetty, who played Shah Rukh Khan's love interest in the film, met her first hero.

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ALSO READ: When Shilpa Shetty got surprised by her turbaned fan



The Dhadkan actor, who was shooting for a commercial, bumped into SRK who was also shooting next door. Shetty shared this adorable photo which is definitely remind you of the Baazigar days.



And guess who was shooting next door ,my "Baazigar" forever??@iamsrk u are Charming personified always ??So lovely seeing u #hero #nostalgic #memories #firsthero A photo posted by Shilpa Shetty Kundra (@officialshilpashetty) on Jul 25, 2016 at 9:47am PDT

Shetty called her first hero "charming" and called the 50-year-old actor her "Baazigar forever."

It's been so many years since Baazigar but the two have never worked together, except Shilpa made a special appearance in a song in Farah Khan's 2007 film Om Shaanti Om.

On the work front, Shah Rukh will be next seen in Rahul Dholakia's Raees. The film is set to hit the screens on January 26, 2017.

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By PTI: Chandrapur (Maha), Jul 27 (PTI) A captivating picture of a tigress with her cub taken at Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve (TATR) here will be on a postal stamp to be released to mark World Tiger Day on July 29.

The "one-in-a-million" shot was clicked by a local wildlife enthusiast and amateur photographer, Amol Bais, during one of his visits to TATR recently, a press release issued by the District Information Office here said.

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Bais posted the photograph, where the tigress and her cub are seen in an affectionate pose, on Facebook where it was widely liked and shared on social media.

Maharashtra Minister for Forests, Sudhir Mungantiwar was impressed with the photograph.

He made a proposal for releasing the postal stamp to mark World Tiger Day on July 29 and met Union Minister for Information Technology Ravi Shankar Prasad in this connection, the release said.

The postal department then decided to release the stamp. PTI COR ARS TIR SRE

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News

Loveland, Colorado - Forty years ago on July 31, as Coloradoans and tourists celebrated the states centennial, between 12 and 14 inches of rain fell over a four-hour period in the mountains below the resort town of Estes Park, killing 143 people. The 1976 Big Thompson flood stands as the worst natural disaster in Colorados recorded history.

A massive, prolonged rain event in September 2013 claimed far fewer lives, but destroyed numerous establishments, including Vistenz-Smith Park, where the 30th anniversary remembrance of the Big Thompson flood was held. A high-water marker placed by the U.S. Geological Survey to commemorate the 1976 flood was obliterated by the 2013 event, and the Sylvan Dale Ranch, host of the 40th anniversary, suffered major property damage.

What: Weather and public safety experts will gather to commemorate lives lost, discuss flood safety in Colorado, describe improvements in weather forecasting and compare the two major flood events. Speakers will also discuss how residents and visitors should exercise safety during flash floods. USGS maps depicting the scale of both events will be available.

Who: Officials from the state, National Weather Service and USGS.

Nolan Doesken, state climatologist

Nyzette Rydell, NWS Denver-Boulder WFO

Bob Kimbrough, USGS

Susan Jessup, Sylvan Dale Ranch owner and eyewitness to the 1976 and 2013 floods

Bob Henson, WeatherUnderground.com

Matt Kelsh, UCAR meteorologist, flood historian

Emergency management official TBD

Colorado Division of Water Resources

Friday, July 29, 2016 10 a.m.  11:30 a.m.

Sylvan Dale Guest Ranch 2939 N Co Rd 31D, Loveland, Colorado 80538
Arizona News

Phoenix, Arizona - Attorney General Mark Brnovich and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Phoenix Division announced a State Grand Jury indicted Dr. Harinder Kumar Takyar on 42 felony counts. The indictment alleges Dr. Takyar prescribed controlled substances with no medical necessity and provided compensation for the referral of patients to his medical offices in Mesa, Florence, and Coolidge, Arizona.

DEA Phoenix Division Special Agents and the Attorney Generals Office launched an investigation into the distribution of controlled substances by Dr. Harinder Takyar. Dr. Takyar allegedly wrote prescriptions for narcotic drugs and dangerous drugs to individuals with no medical necessity. During the investigation, agents also discovered Takyar allegedly paid money to people in the medical profession for patient referrals.

Takyar is now facing 42 felony charges, including five counts of Fraudulent Schemes and Artifices; five counts of Administration of a Narcotic Drug; three counts of Administration of a Dangerous Drug; five counts of Accomplice to Obtaining a Narcotic Drug by Fraud; three counts of Accomplice to Obtaining a Dangerous Drug by Fraud; four counts of Forgery; and 17 counts of Consideration for Referral of Patient.

Assistant Attorneys General Brian Boyd and Matthew Williams are prosecuting this case.

All defendants are presumed innocent until convicted in a court of law.

If anyone has information on this case, please contact the Health Care Fraud and Abuse Section of the Arizona Attorney Generals Office (602) 542-8419.
Border News

Wellton, Arizona - Wellton Station Border Patrol agents detained four suspects believed to be involved in the robbery of a local Chevron gas station over the weekend.

An on-duty agent was entering the stations parking lot Saturday when he observed a white sedan leaving at a high rate of speed. At almost the same time, a clerk ran out of the stations convenience store and told the agent she had just been robbed.

The agent then attempted to follow the suspect vehicle but was delayed when a passing train blocked his path.

A short time later, other Wellton agents located the sedan parked on the shoulder of an eastbound on-ramp to Interstate 8 with four subjects inside. After reporting their location and situation, agents approached the vehicle and detained the subjects until the arrival of Wellton Police Department officers who took charge of the incident.

Yuma Sector Border Patrol agents effectively combat smuggling organizations attempting to illegally transport people and contraband through southwestern Arizona and California. Citizens can help the Border Patrol and U.S. Customs and Border Protection by calling 1-866-999-8727 toll-free to report suspicious activity. Callers can remain anonymous.
Sushma Swaraj came to the rescue of a Kazakhstani girl married to Fatehabad youth, who was left with no option but to leave the country once her visa expires on August 1.

By India Today Web Desk: External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj has time and again proved to be one of the most pro-active ministers in the Modi Cabinet.

This time, the minister came to the rescue of a Kazakhstani girl married to a Fatehabad youth, who was left with no option but to leave the country once her visa expires on August 1.

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Sushma Swaraj sprang into action when a report carried by Dainik Bhaskar highlighted the girl's plight. Swaraj tweeted in chaste Haryanvi, 'Thari Bahu Ne Kaho Visa Badhan Khatar Arzi Daal De, Hum Uski Madad Kar Diyange. (Ask your wife to apply for a visa extension, we will help her)'.

???? ??? ?? ??? ????? ????? ????? ?????? ????? ?? ??. ?? ???? ??? ?? ?????? Pl apply for Visa extension.Will help https://t.co/GgfXlfpFXc; Sushma Swaraj (@SushmaSwaraj) July 10, 2016

Last year, Teenu Jangra, a youth from Samain village of Fatehabad, had gone to Saudi Arabia to work as a welder, where he befriended Zhanna on Facebook. After eight months of friendship, Zhanna expressed her wish to get married to Teenu, who in return asked her to come to India.

On May 29, 2015, the duo got married at Vishwakarma temple at Tohana in Fatehabad as per Hindu rituals.

Trouble immediately followed for the newlyweds when Zhanna's visa expiry date approached. The duo ran from pillar to post to seek official help but their efforts went in vain.

The MEA chief's tweet to help came as a major relief to the distressed couple, especially Zhanna, who feared getting separated from her husband.

Zhanna is a law graduate with a translator's diploma who knows six languages, including English, French, Persian and Kazakh.



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My sole motivation behind letting myself into that abominable prison house called school was the little white stick that my mother allowed me to grab and lick after the classes were over. I used to look with wishful eyes the attractive white box of ice cream walla who also had other varieties-the red tangy one that came in twenty five paisa, the slightly yellow one that came in fifty paisa and the expensive white creamy one that came in full one rupee. My mother had warned me against eating the orange one as she said it contained worms that came out if you sprinkled salt on it! So my childhood remained deprived of that one single taste that so often contented the appetite of my not-so-affluent friends. <BR><BR> When I went to college I read about globalisation, about the invasion of markets by foreign goods and of absolute wiping out of the local economy by organized production houses. But I could not understand these things till one day while crossing from near my school my eyes failed to spot that old ice cream walla whose presence had become such an inseparable part of the entire set up. It came as a rude shock to me that his place was now taken by three four colourful wheeled vans endorsing attractive logos and pictures of branded ice cream. <BR><BR> That changes are always for better or worse is like putting an emotion into plain black and white. I may have in my own personal way some attachment with the white stick ice cream or with the more expensive soapy, frothy softie of my school days but the accessibility, taste and variety that the present day ice cream industry is offering is no doubt incomparable. <BR><BR> Who would have thought barely a decade ago of eating ice creams made of real fresh fruits- a la Gelato Vittorio or a cool creamy liquid fried in hot boiling oil or what is called today the fried ice cream. <BR><BR> In India the ice cream industry took sometimes to catch the global cue because the country has an indigenous rich and well developed dessert market. What ice cream would stand in competition against Indian sweets? But no you cant say so just because you are born in the land of Kulfi. You will have the authority only when you taste Baked Alaska (an ice-cream sponge cake dish topped with meringue), Arctic roll (British dessert made of vanilla and flour), Adzuki (Japanese red bean ice cream) and Dondruma( a Turkish ice made of salep and mastic resin). <BR><BR> We Indians who generally go gaga over a handful of varieties that Baskin Robbins offers are unaware of the fact that the company actually makes 1000 flavours! What we get in India generally as branded ice cream is nothing but milk and corn flour seasoned with a few chemicals and packed in attractive cones, cups and cornettos. Our knowledge of Ice cream is so poor that we do not even know what cornetto is! Most of us think it is the name of an ice cream that Kwality offers. Update your dictionary- it is actually the registered name of an improved variety of waffle cone that does not become soggy and that was invented and patented by an Italian firm called Spica in 1960! <BR><BR> The world offers so much in shape of that delicate, cool, tender delight called ice cream that I being a lover of it feel choked with emotion at my own minisculeness and misfortune of not having tasted even a fraction of that tremendous, rich and inexhaustible treasure. What is thy life O mortal, my heart cries out, if thou hast not known the glories of the Australian Giant Sandwich Monster, the Manoco Bar, the Irish Scottish Sliders, the Argentine Helado, the Greek Kimaki and the Japanese Macha! <BR><BR> Sometimes I wonder whether there is an intricate connection between the survival of a race and its appetite for ice cream! Otherwise why would the Greeks, the Romans, the Chinese and the Persians survive the ravages of time and the Glorious Harappan civilization fade into oblivion? And let us be pragmatic and not blame some harmless ecology or innocent river for their decline. The reason I am sure was hidden in their food habits-they having failed to secure the divine blessings of the Gods. Yes, thats precisely what the ancient Greeks called ice cream! Imagine what foodies they must have been that nearly 4000 years ago they got for themselves ice houses constructed at the banks of Euphrates and as early as 5th century BC they began its marketing by selling ice cones mixed with fruit and honey. A honey flavoured cornetto.! <BR><BR> Roman emperor Nero (62 AD) was fond of fruit ice cream and hence sent his servants to fetch ice from mountains! The Falooda that we eat today is actually a Persian dish Faloodeh made from starch and has its origin around 400BC. The Chinese who claim to be the pioneers in almost everything -be it the first currency notes, the first stint with silk or the first to flood the markets of neighbours with cheap plastic goods-were not far behind in making ice cream too. They are credited to have invented a device that made quick ice using salt peter (no, it was not imported from Bihar, China had enough of it). <BR><BR> The unfortunate Charles I whom the world knows as an autocrat, a despot, a tyrant, an enemy of democracy and parliament was also a lover of ice cream! It is said that he made his chef keep the formula a secret so that it remained a royal prerogative. <BR><BR> Our great Mughals, we should not forget were the die hard lovers of food and all that is rich and luxurious in the modern Indian cuisine has a Mughal origin. So they too loved ice cream and they too enjoyed it in royal feasts and ceremonies. When they could get choicest fruits from Farghana and Samarquand and the best wines from Persia, why couldnt they send relays of horsemen to bring ice from Hindukush for their aromatic fruit sherbets? <BR><BR> But were sending horsemen to run and fetch ice or storing ice in underground icehouses near rivers, the only way of making ice creams in those days? Sadly, yes. And thats why the common man remained deprived of and unknown to its delectable taste. But lets thank Nancy Johnson of Philadelphia who first got the patent for a small hand run ice cream freezer. Gradually with the coming of electricity there also came a revolution in ice cream making. Thereafter Giant corporates like Howard Johnson, Dairy Queen, Baskin Robbins, Gelato Vittorio, Ben and Jerrys, Haagen Dazs and Carvel changed the concept of ice cream in the world. Soft serves, Sundaes and super premiums began to be offered by shops next door. <BR><BR> Thanks to globalisation, the world has really become a small place to live in. Today I can access any ice cream from the world over in my local confectionary shop. but among the confused tastes of multitudinous flavours I some how always try to find that one singular taste of the white stick ice-cream which trickled through my fingers and ran into my nursery uniformspoiling it but leaving an imprint on my memory which has failed to faint in all these years.
By PTI: to Centre

New Delhi, Jul 27 (PTI) The Delhi High Court today wanted to know the "factual position" regarding the security cover given to Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray even as the Centre said that the Maharashtra government was taking care of his security.

A bench of Chief Justice G Rohini and Justice Sangita Dhingra Sehgal said this while hearing a petition which sought withdrawal of the security cover given to Thackeray.

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The plea also sought a direction to the Centre to frame guidelines about the security cover given to private persons who are engaged in hate speech or having criminal cases pending against them.

During the hearing, the petitioner told the bench that Thackeray has been given security cover by the Maharashtra government.

When the court asked about it, the central governments standing counsel Anil Soni said that security was given to him by the state and not by Centre.

He, however, said he would look into the issue and would seek instructions.

"What is the factual position, we would like to know," the bench said and posted the matter for hearing to August 26.

The petitioner, Mithilesh Kumar Pandey, has alleged in his plea that persons who are involved in hate speeches and have the means to hire private security guards should not be given security cover on taxpayers money by the government and a guideline should be framed on the issue.

He has also alleged that Thackeray is neither holding a constitutional post nor he is a lawmaker so he should not be given security cover by the government.

The plea sought a direction to the central government to frame guidelines while referring to the ratio of policemen and civilians in India.

According to the petitioner, Thackeray is provided with Y category security cover. PTI ABA PPS HMP RKS SMN

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Washington: John W. Hinckley Jr., the man who shot President Ronald Reagan in 1981, will be released from a government psychiatric hospital over 35 years after the assassination attempt, a US federal judge ruled on Wednesday.

The 61-year-old Hinckley no longer poses a danger to himself or others and will be allowed to leave St. Elizabeth`s Hospital in Washington on August 5, although he will be subject to treatment and monitoring conditions, Judge Paul L. Friedman said in a ruling.

Hinckley shot Reagan in the chest on March 30, 1981, outside the Washington Hilton hotel, where the then President had just given a speech, Efe news reported.

Three others were also wounded in the attack, including White House Press Secretary James Brady, who was shot in the head and left paralysed.

When Brady passed away in 2014, his death was ruled a homicide and deemed to be directly related to the gunshot wound he suffered in the 1981 assassination attempt.

Brady became a staunch gun-control advocate following the attack, which occurred just over two months into Reagan`s presidency.

Reagan (1911-2004) suffered a punctured lung and was hospitalised, but he made a full recovery after surgery.

After an eight-week trial, Hinckley was found not guilty by reason of insanity on June 21, 1982, a decision that sparked public outrage, Efe news added.

Hinckley said he had been motivated by a desire to impress Jodie Foster after compulsively watching the 1976 film "Taxi Driver", in which the American actress, then 13, portrayed a teenage prostitute.
Florida: US presidential candidate Donald Trump insisted Wednesday that he had "nothing to do with Russia" after Democrats accused Moscow of trying to help the Republican nominee win the November general election.

"I have nothing to do with Russia," he told reporters just outside Miami. "I said (Russian leader Vladimir) Putin has much better leadership qualities than (US President Barack) Obama, but who doesn`t know that?"

The New York billionaire, who has never previously held elected office, has spoken frequently of his belief that he would "get on" with Putin and has stopped short of promising unconditional support for NATO allies.

On Wednesday, Trump said he had never met the Russian leader but cast doubt over accusations that Moscow was behind a hack of Democratic Party emails that embarrassed his rival Hillary Clinton`s campaign.

"If it is Russia, nobody knows. It`s probably China, or it could be somebody sitting in his bed. But it shows how weak we are. It shows how disrespected we are," he said.

Clinton`s campaign blamed Russia for the leak of emails from the Democratic National Committee and Obama refused to rule out that Russia could be trying to sway the outcome of America`s election on November 8.

The Kremlin on Wednesday denied Moscow was interfering in the US election.
District of Columbia: US President Barack Obama warned Democrats Wednesday that anything was possible in the US elections and to "stay worried until all the votes are counted."

Obama, who is the keynote speaker Wednesday at the Democratic National Convention, was asked in an interview with NBC`s Today Show whether Republican candidate Donald Trump could defeat the Democrat`s Hillary Clinton.

"Anything is possible," he said.

"As somebody who has now been in elected office at various levels for about 20 years, I have seen all kinds of crazy stuff happen, and I think everybody that goes into campaigns not running scared can end up losing.

"My advice to Democrats -- I don`t have to give this advice to Hillary Clinton because she already knows it -- is you stay worried until all the votes are cast and counted, because one of the dangers in an election like this is that people don`t take the challenge seriously, they stay home, and we end up getting something else."

Clinton was proclaimed the Democratic presidential nominee Tuesday night at a star-studded convention in Philadelphia keynoted by husband and former president Bill Clinton.

Divisions were on display, however, after leaked emails showed that leaders of the supposedly neutral Democratic National Committee worked to undermine the candidacy of Clinton primary rival, Bernie Sanders.

The Clinton campaign has blamed the leak on Russian hackers bent on helping the Trump campaign. The FBI has said it is investigating.

"Anything is possible," Obama said when asked in the interview about the hack.

"Donald Trump has repeatedly expressed admiration for Vladimir Putin," Obama said in an excerpt of the interview that aired earlier.

"And I think that Trump`s gotten pretty favorable coverage back in Russia."

Obama praised Clinton as an "outstanding secretary of state" who helped make the country safer and defended her against Republican accusations that her use of a private email account while in office had compromised national security.

"What I think is scary is a president who doesn`t know their stuff and doesn`t seem to have an interest in learning what they don`t know," he said, referring to Trump.

"I think if you listen to any press conference he has given or any debates, basic knowledge about the world or what a nuclear triad is, or the difference between Sunni and Shia in the Muslim world, those are things he doesn`t know and hasn`t seem to spend a lot of time trying to find out about."

Obama, who speaks to the convention Wednesday night, said his message would be that "the president of the United States is profoundly optimistic about America`s future, and is 100% convinced that Hillary Clinton can be a great president."
Guwahati: The current wave of flood has claimed 12 lives and affected nearly 16 lakh people across Assam, the state Assembly was informed on Wednesday.

Making a statement on the flood situation, Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal declared an ex-gratia of Rs 4 lakh to the families of each of the deceased and said the amount will be paid this week.

"Flood is the most burning problem of the state. The current flood has affected almost all constituencies and has become a serious problem. It has claimed 12 lives so far and hit nearly 16 lakh people across 19 districts," he told the Assembly.

The government is closely monitoring the situation and has been holding regular discussions with officials of various departments, mainly those responsible for flood relief and rehabilitation, Sonowal said.

"We have specifically directed the DCs and SDOs to depute officials for flood-related works and do a detailed study of the situation. Health and Veterinary departments have been asked to go to the people and evaluate the situation," he added.

The government has asked the authorities concerned to provide all necessary support to the people living in the relief camps, the Chief Minister said while making his statement during the Budget Session of the Assembly.

"As soon as the flood problem hit the state, we released funds to all the DCs (Deputy Commissioners). Earlier, all DCs used to complain about lack of funds, but this time it will not happen," he added.

Sonowal also informed about his discussion with Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, who had yesterday assured all possible help from the Centre in tacking the problem.

He also said BJP MPs met the Prime Minister yesterday and "he has assured them that the Centre is with Assam at this hour".
Bengaluru: Finally, the employees of Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) have called off their strike on Wednesday.

The strike was called off after the state government assured workers of 12.5% pay hike.

Karnataka Transport Minister Ramalinga Reddy on Wednesday had said that the KSRTC bus strike should be called off today.

"I will convey their (KSRTC staff) demands to the Karnataka CM," Ramalinga Reddy, Karnataka Transport Minister, had added.

Earlier, on Monday, employees of state-owned Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) had launched an indefinite strike to press for their salary hike demand, affecting normal life across the state including the IT capital Bengaluru.

Around 150 buses were damaged in stone pelting allegedly by sections of agitators reported in Hassan, Bengaluru, Ramanagara, Belagavi, Shivamogga, Koppal and Chikkamagaluru, police said.

Office goers, patients and passengers had to bear the brunt with no buses plying on roads in Bengaluru, as also elsewhere in the state.

KSRTC bus strike

Over one lakh employees of four state transport corporations are on strike with around 41 demands, prominent among them being a hike in salaries.
Hajipur (Bihar): A Vaishali court here today issued summons to AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi to appear personally before it on August 11 in connection with his reaction against awarding of capital punishement to Mumbai blast accused Yakub Menon last year.

Sub-Divisional Judicial Magistrate (SDJM) Rajesh Pandey ordered Owaisi, an MP, to personally appear in the court on August 11 when the case would be heard next.

The order was delivered while hearing a complaint filed by a Hajipur-based lawyer Rajeev Kumar Sharma on July 31 last year.

The complainant had said that the AIMIM chief, while protesting against death sentence to Yakub Menon, had argued questioning why capital punishement had not been given to killers of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and rioteers during 2002 Gujarat carnage.

The SDJM took cognizance of the complaint under IPC 153 A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language etc and prejudicial to maintenance of harmony) and issued summons order, the petitioner's lawyer said.

The complainant in his writ filed on July 31, 2015 had said that he had been hurt hearing strongly-worded statement of AIMIM over TV channels against death sentence awarded to Yakub Menon and had filed the case.

Four persons were named accused but the court exempted three for lack of evidence and issued summons to Owaisi.
Chennai: Some objects were spotted as the co-ordinated search for the missing aircraft AN-32 of the Indian Air Force (IAF) continued for the sixth day on Wednesday in the extended area of the Bay of Bengal between Chennai and Port Blair.

There are no confirmed reports of anything, but there are some objects, news agency ANI quoted Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar as saying.

Ships involved in the search operation have been asked to verify, the Defence Minister added.

Parrikar had yesterday said a lot of resources have been deployed to work to locate the missing aircraft and that the Ministry was doing its best to find out leads.

A top Coast Guard official had earlier that said no debris or survivors have been located yet.

An international safety network has been activated to alert the merchant ships passing by the zone of search operation to look out for any survivors or the debris.

The Andaman and Nicobar Command of the defence forces are keeping a watch for it even beyond the search zone.

As part of the procedure, a formal complaint about the missing aircraft has been registered with the Selaiyur police station in Chennai by the Air Force authorities.

India`s largest ever search operation over the sea to trace the missing twin-engined aircraft is getting imageries of the search area from the ISRO through its radar imaging satellite RISAT.

The Indian Mission Control Centre of the space agency responsible for Satellite Aided Search and Rescue in the region is supplementing the operation by offering its services.

Seventeen naval and Coast Guard ships are mounting day-and-night watch and various military aircraft have made 28 sorties over the search zone till Sunday evening.
New Delhi: The Delhi Police on Wednesday arrested accused Ramesh Bhardwaj in connection with the suicide of a female Aam Aadmi Party worker.

Bhardwaj was arrested by the Crime Branch, which took over the case from local police after AAP worker Soni (28) allegedly committed suicide in Narela area of outer Delhi on July 19. Her family members had claimed that she had gone into depression after Bhardwaj, her alleged molester and a party colleague, was released on bail. She had alleged that the accused was being protected by the local MLA.

The woman had filed a complaint against Bhardwaj for allegedly touching her inappropriately and a case of molestation was registered in June.

Soni, the mother of two daughters, had left behind a self-shot WhatsApp video in which she claimed, "I was denied justice".

According to police, the woman in her video clip accused Bhardwaj, Amit Kumar and Rajni Kanth of torturing her to withdraw a sexual harassment complaint she filed against Bhardwaj on June 2.

Wadhwa was arrested on June 3 but granted bail the very next day.

The case was registered under Sections 506 (punishment for criminal intimidation) and 509 (word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman) of the Indian Penal Code, police said.

On July 20, the Delhi Police had registered a case of abetment to suicide and handed over the entire matter to a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to be headed by Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime Branch).

AAP's Delhi Convenor Dilip Pandey had claimed that Bhardwaj was not a member of AAP as claimed by the BJP.
New Delhi: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday sarcastically asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to get his Transport Minister Satyendar Jain arrested after a senior officer complained against the minister.

Referring to a published report, Kejriwal tweeted: "Read this whole story and see what really is Satyendar`s fault. I urge Modiji to get Satyendar arrested now."

A Special Commissioner of Delhi Transport Department, I S Mishra, on Tuesday sent a complaint to Lt Governor Najeeb Jung alleging misbehaviour by Jain.

Mishra alleged that he was targeted for demanding that the department should revert to the earlier six days work week instead of seven days.

"Staff working at Zonal office have sent many complaints that they are working overtime and not getting a single day leave," Mishra said in his complaint.

He added that Jain yelled at him alleging that he doesn`t work because he demanded to reschedule a meeting called at a very short notice.

"I simply told him that I do my work with commitment and not a single file is pending with me. Then he shouted at me... further he told me that he will teach me how to deal with such persons," Mishra said.

"I cannot work in an environment where matters are dealt not according to rules but on whims and fancy. The whole episode has made me depressed."
By PTI: Kohima, Jul 26 (PTI) Remembering the supreme sacrifice made during the Kargil War in 1999, Inspector General Assam Rifles (North), Major General M S Jaswal and jawans today paid rich tribute to Late Captain Neikezhakuo Kenguruse at his memorial located near Nerhema village in Nagalands Kohima district.

The wreath laying ceremony organised by 9 Assam Rifles under the aegis of Headquarter 5 Sector Assam Rifles and IGAR (N) was attended by family members of the Late Captain along with ex-servicemen and villagers. Captain Neikezhakuo Kenguruse of Nerhema village was born on July 15, 1974. He did his schooling at St Xaviers School, Jalukie and graduated from Kohima Science College. He thereafter served as a teacher at Government High School, Kohima from 1994 to 1997. He was later commissioned into the Indian Army on December 12, 1998.

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On June 28, 1999 during Kargil War, he attained martyrdom while destroying enemy bunker and killing four enemy soldiers. He was later awarded Mahavir Chakra posthumously.

Saluting the martyr for his exceptional act of bravery, the IGAR (N) said the act of bravery shown by Late Captain is a source of motivation and inspiration to all personnel of the armed forces.

He also conveyed appreciation and gratitude to the parents of Captain Neikezhakuo.

Father of the martyr, Neisielie Kenguruse expressed gratitude to the Assam Rifles for not forgetting his son and also for maintaining the memorial site. PTI NBS CR DBS PD

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New Delhi: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday accused the BJP of sponsoring the auto and taxi strike in the national capital saying its "goons" were forcibly stopping autos and taxis from plying.

"See this. BJP goons stopping autos and taxis from plying. BJP wants to cripple Delhi. Active support from LG (Lt. Governor) and Delhi Police," Kejriwal tweeted, posting pictures of some people forcibly stopping autos and e-rickshaw from plying.

His remark came after reports that a section of strikers in different parts of the city were forcibly stopping auto drivers from plying their vehicles and asking them to join the strike being observed on Wednesday.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)-led Delhi government termed the strike as sponsored by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Delhi Transport Minister Satyendar Jain accused the Delhi Police of not taking action against strikers forcibly stopping other auto drivers from plying their vehicles.

"Goons stopped autos and other passenger vehicles with BJP support. Why no action by Delhi Police," Jain asked on Twitter.

Passengers had to suffer a lot due to hooliganism by a section of auto strikers.

"I had to reach ISBT Anand Vihar from New Ashok Nagar in east Delhi but some people stopped the auto I was travelling in near Gazipur. They asked the driver not to ply the auto and join in the strike," Praveen Yadav, a medical student, told IANS.

He added, "I had to leave the auto in Gazipur and reach the bus station with the help of a friend."

Similar incidents of auto drivers forcibly stopping the others from plying their autos and taxis and asking passengers to get down were reported in Saket, Bhajanpura, Sarojini Nagar and Kondli areas of the city.

Around one lakh drivers of auto-rickshaws and taxis went on an indefinite strike On Tuesday and several of them are not plying their vehicles on Wednesday.

The protesters said the indefinite strike was against the increasingly popular app-based taxi services. They are demanding the Delhi government fix rates for the app-based taxi services.

About 90,000 auto-rickshaws and 15,000 traditional yellow-top taxis ply in Delhi.

Not long ago, the auto rickshaw drivers were the mainstay of the ruling Aam Aadmi Party`s campaigns and poster wars against the central government.
New Delhi: The Election Commission on Wednesday rejected pleas of the Congress, the BJP and the Delhi government to implead as parties to a petition in the office of profit case that seeks disqualification of 21 AAP legislators for holding the post of parliamentary secretaries.

On July 21, the Commission had reserved its order on the issue. The next hearing will now be held on August 10.

But at the same time, the poll body said while it cannot allow the applicants to be joined as parties, it may seek their assistance as offered by them, if, and when, required.

Prashant Patel, who had petitioned before the Commission seeking disqualification of the MLAs, had opposed the plea of Congress and BJP of becoming a party to the case saying "they wanted to politicise the issue".

The Delhi government too opposed the plea of intervention by the BJP and the Congress. Rakesh Mehra, representing the Delhi government, said it should be made "impleader" as the AAP dispensation will have a direct impact on the decision by the EC on the matter.

The plea of an intervention of Congress and BJP was also opposed by the 21 AAP MLAs.

Congress and BJP had said that they should be allowed as parties as the issued involved public interest and money of the exchequer.

Since Patel and the 21 AAP MLAs are the parties assigned in the President's reference to EC, the plea of Congress, BJP and Delhi government for "impleadment as parties to the present proceedings is not maintainable before the Commission," the elaborate EC order signed by Chief Election Commissioner Nasim Zaidi and fellow Commissioners O P Rawat and A K Joti said.

"...The present enquiry proceedings have been initiated by the Election Commission on the basis of the reference received from the President of India...Seeking the opinion of the Commission on the question of alleged disqualification of 21 sitting members of the Delhi Legislative Assembly, respondents herein. This question has been raised by the petitioner in his representation dated June 19, 2015, to the President of India...Thus, the parties to the present proceedings have been determined by the said Presidential reference dated November 10, 2015," the EC said.

Following the petition by Patel seeking their disqualification, EC had issued notices to the AAP MLAs last month.

In their response, the MLAs said there was no "pecuniary benefit" associated with the post and it comes without any remuneration or power. They had also sought a personal hearing before the poll panel in their reply.

The AAP government had appointed 21 parliamentary secretaries to assist its ministers. Subsequently, the city government sought to amend the Delhi Members of Legislative Assembly (Removal of Disqualification) Act, 1997, so as to exempt parliamentary secretaries from disqualification provisions in 'office of profit' cases.

However, the President refused to give his assent to the Bill.
New Delhi: The Lok Sabha on Wednesday approved an amendment to the Lokpal Act to allow extension to 50 lakh central government employees and NGOs receiving government funds in the deadline for filing asset declaration beyond July 31.

While the House provided immediate relief by approving the amendment to Section 44 of the Act, the provision will be examined in detail by a Parliamentary Standing Committee which will submit its report before next session of Parliament.

Moving the amendment for consideration, Minister of State for Personnel Jitendra Singh said the government has received representations from Members of Parliament and other stakeholders and on July 25 a delegation of MPs had met Prime Minister Narendra Modi demanding deletion of the provision.

The amendment pertains to Section 44 of the Lokpal Act which deals with declaration of assets and provision of making the assets public, he said.

"Till the present impasse is overcome, the deadline with regard to government servants can be deferred," Singh said as he moved amendments to the Act.

Singh said the Standing Committee would give its recommendation before the next session of Parliament and till then the deadline for declaration of assets of public servants and NGOs can be deferred.

As per the rules notified under the Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act 2013, every public servant shall file declaration, information and annual returns pertaining to his assets and liabilities as well as for his spouse and dependent children on March 31 every year or on or before July 31 of that year.

In April, the government had extended the date of filing returns by public servants from April 15 to July 31. This is the fifth extension in the deadline since the Act came into force in January 2014.

As per rules, organisations receiving more than Rs 1 crore in government grants and donations above Rs 10 lakh from abroad fall under the ambit of Lokpal.

"Since this law was framed by the Standing Committee, the same (amendment) has to go to Standing Committee. Government is open to the idea of of amending the law but the same can be done after taking into account the recommendations of Standing Committee. The Standing Committee is seized of the matter and I hope that the Standing Committee will give report before next session," Singh said while referring it to the Committee.

The amendment to the Lokpal Act 2013 was later passed by a voice vote.

Curiously, the bill, which was not initially listed in the business of the day, was introduced by Singh some time after the House took up the Zero Hour. Speaker Sumitra Mahajan asked the Minister to introduce the bill, which was added to the order paper later.

Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge supported government's move of introducing the bill, saying there are no two opinions that the amendments are urgent.

He, however, said the provisions of the Act should not be diluted as common people would say that MPs came together to dilute the Lokpal Act.

"Certainly it is not the intention or design to dilute the provision of Act. We are ready to make it even more stringent. We are just giving an opportunity for another thought to it," Jitendra Singh said.

He said if the Standing Committee rules out the proposition, then the government will not press for it.

As CPI(M) member Mohd Salim and TMC member Kalyan Banerjee raised objections to the hurried way in which the amendments to the Bill was sought to be passed, the minister sought to assuage their concerns, saying the government was only trying to facilitate effective implementation of the Act.

"Government is not against Lokpal Bill, government is not against eradication of corruption. That is not the message or intention," Singh said, adding Section 44 has certainly created urgency to get the amendments passed before July 31 as the government cannot do it on its own.

Kalyan Banerjee (TMC) sought to know from the government why it was "favouring" NGOs by exempting them from filing asset declaration, saying very few of the NGOs are engaged in charitable purpose.

He also asked the government not to dilute the provisions of the Act.

Singh replied: "It is not my NGO, or your NGO or siding with NGO. We have NGOs and trusts running media houses... We are not going to spare or bail out any NGOs."

As Singh sought to get the support from the members, Md Salim (CPIM) sought to know from the Minister who were the MPs in the delegation who met Modi on July 25.

"The Minister seeks to pass this bill in a hurry when he had not even listed this important bill in the List of Business or Supplementary Business" and this is "wrong Parliamentary practice", Salim said, as he sought to know the urgency behind the bill passage.

Sugata Bose (TMC) appreciated the government, saying it was a "sensible" move and suggested that public servants be properly defined in the bill.

Parliament had earlier in December 2014 passed amendments to the Lokpal and Lakoyukta Act changing the word Leader of Opposition with Leader of largest opposition party.
New Delhi: E-commerce in India is expected to see a significant uptrend in the coming days and could lend a helping hand to the country's job landscape, which needs as many as 80 million new jobs in the next decade, says a report.

"Already employing just under a million Indians, e-commerce could be a new source of service sector jobs," global financial services major HSBC has said.

Young population, rapid smartphone adoption and a digital payments revolution could support the rise of e-commerce.

Moreover, India is lagging behind China by more than seven years, in terms of Internet penetration and online purchases, e-commerce could experience a similar takeoff.

"We find that e-commerce jobs are more productive than the kind India is currently creating. They could also be an easy fit, matching India's skills and entrepreneurial profile," HSBC said in a research note.

With the rise of online purchases, e-commerce could create 20 million 'gross' jobs across logistics & delivery (70 per cent), and customer care, IT & management (30 per cent), however, some jobs will be lost in bricks-and-mortar stores.

"We model this carefully and find that, on net, e-commerce could create 12 million 'new' jobs.

According to the report, "business-as-usual estimates suggest India could have a shortfall of 24 million jobs over the next decade. E-commerce could fill half that gap."

The report noted that with the formation of Taobao villages (digital market places where villagers can set up digital shops ), e-commerce in China has spread to rural areas.

"A similar revolution in India could engage five million village merchants and create many livelihood opportunities over 10 years," it said.

India's current job profile is lopsided as low productivity sectors employ the vast majority. Agriculture is very low productivity, but employs half the labour force.

On the other hand, sectors such as financial services are highly productive, but employ a modicum of the labour force.

"As a result, India's overall labour productivity is at very low levels," HSBC said.
Zee Media Bureau

New Delhi: Frogs fall into one such group of amphibians that enjoy having sex in water, land and even leaves.

Out of the lot, some male frogs prefer reproducing on land. Do you know why?

A new research suggests that they do it in order to keep competitors far far away.

It was earlier assumed that natural selection drove frogs to take the evolutionary step to reproduce on land as a way for parents to avoid aquatic predators who feed on the eggs and tadpoles.

The new study, published in the journal American Naturalist, showed that some frogs hide eggs on land to reduce competition from other males who also want to fertilise those eggs.

"We thought maybe it's not just natural selection driving the adaptation to reproduce on land, maybe this is actually sexual selection," said corresponding author Kelly Zamudio, Professor at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.

In the study, researchers analysed data on reproductive modes for two families of frogs - Hylidae, or tree frogs, and Leptodactylidae, including about 900 species that are mostly found in Central and South America.

Frogs are known to have up to 40 reproductive modes, with new ones still being discovered.

The study sheds light on evolutionary forces that drive diversity. Also, the results give conservationists insights on habitats and species that may need more protection, Zamudio said.

(With IANS inputs)
New York: An international team of scientists has identified a rare new species of beaked whale that ranges from northern Japan across the Pacific Ocean to Alaska's Aleutian Islands.

Japanese whalers call the enigmatic black whales "karasu," the Japanese word for raven. The new species is darker in colour and about two-thirds the size of the more common Baird's beaked whale, but so scarce that even whalers rarely see them.

A DNA analysis of 178 beaked whales from around the Pacific Rim found eight known examples of the new species, the scientists reported in the journal Marine Mammal Science.

The eight included specimens from the Smithsonian Institution and Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History, a skeleton on display in an Alaska high school, and another that puzzled researchers trying to identify it when it washed up on an island in the Bering Sea.

In 2014 scientists found a dead beaked whale on St. George Island, one of the Pribilof Islands in the Bering Sea. It did not match any known species,and genetic tests later showed it to be the new species.

"The challenge in documenting the species was simply locating enough specimens to provide convincing evidence," said lead author of the new study Phillip Morin, a research molecular biologist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Southwest Fisheries Science Center in the US.

"Clearly this species is very rare, and reminds us how much we have to learn about the ocean and even some of its largest inhabitants," Morin said.

An earlier Japanese study had suggested that the black whales, sometimes considered a dwarf form of Baird's beaked whale, might represent a new species.

That sent Morin in search of additional genetic samples to definitively answer the question and better understand the range of the elusive species.

Official recognition and naming of the species awaits a formal review of the animal's characteristics and differences from other beaked whales.
Paris: France's Le Monde daily said on Wednesday it would no longer publish photographs of killers responsible for terror attacks to avoid giving them "posthumous glorification".

The country's biggest rolling news television channel, BFMTV, later confirmed that it was following suit, as did Catholic daily La Croix.

And the Europe 1 radio station said it was going further and not "naming terrorists".

"We realised after the Nice attack that we were very uncomfortable about a series of photos from the attacker's past," Le Monde's managing editor Jerome Fenoglio told AFP, referring to widely circulated images of Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel flexing his muscles and salsa dancing.

"It is not about hiding the facts, or where these killers came from, which is why we do not agree with not naming them," he added.

"But their photos are not pertinent for describing their background," he said.

BFMTV, which came in for criticism for interviewing gunman Amedy Coulibaly during the January 2015 kosher supermarket siege in Paris in which four people died, said it had also stopped showing images of attackers.

"We made the decision last night to no longer show pictures of the terrorists until further notice," said editorial director Herve Beroud.

"We have been thinking about this for some time. Our decision was speeded up by Nice, by the repeated tragedies," he told AFP.

He said the station would continue to name "terrorists... The difficulty of this debate is that we have to guard against not informing people," he added.

La Croix's editor-in-chief Francois Ernenwein said that it would no longer publish the surnames of suspected attackers.

"We will not publish their photo and we will only publish their first name and the initial of their surname," he told AFP.

The brutal killing of an elderly priest, whose throat was slit during mass on Tuesday, has further traumatised a country already reeling from the truck massacre in Nice in which 84 died, the third major terror attack in 18 months.
Panaji: Goa`s Tourism Minister Dilip Parulekar on Wednesday used a Konkani racial slur, "khapri" for an African national, before quickly apologising and later addressing him as a "black person".

Parulekar was responding to questions from reporters at the State Secretariat, about a controversy surrounding liquor licences allotted to foreign nationals in Goa.

"Even in Saligao, there is West-End (a night-club), a `khapri` runs it, sorry a black person. His wife is from Goa and he is operating it using a licence in her name and a lot of South Africans come there and do many things. People oppose it, but by law, they are operating it using a genuine licence," Parulekar said.

Khapri is a racial slur in Konkani, used to refer to those with dark skin. The origin of the word dates back to African soldiers who were posted in Goa during the colonial Portuguese regime.

This is not the first time that the use of the word "negro" has caused a stir in Goa.

Former Goa Chief Minister Ravi Naik referred to Nigerians as "negros" during a media interaction last month.

In August 2014, former Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar apologised to the Goa legislative assembly after documents tabled by his ministry in the monsoon session of the Goa legislative assembly referred to an African as "Negro".
New Delhi: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has once again stepped up its probe in the AugustaWestland case and is now focusing on the money trail of over 50 million euros.

The probe is spread over 8 countries. A CBI team recently visited Italy and got some information from police authorities.

News agency ANI said that the probe agency is now awaiting complete compliance report of letters rogatory from Tunisia, British Virgin Islands, UK and Switzerland.

However, CBI has not received any response from Mauritius, UAE and Singapore in this regard, the news report said.

The CBI has named several suspects in the case, including former IAF chief, SP Tyagi and his two cousins.
New Delhi: Locals in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) have hit the streets to protest against the rigged July 21 election, which saw Nawaz Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) winning 32 out of 41 seats.

Huge protests were witnessed in Muzaffarabad, Kotli, Chinari and Mirpur, after the members of the PML(N) killed a supporter of the Muslim Conference (MC) in Muzaffarabad.

The protesters maintained that they were not allowed to cast their votes, and Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency and others rigged the polls in favour of Sharif's PML(N).

Locals allege that elections in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir have always been fixed in favour of the federal ruling party.

#WATCH Muzaffarabad: Protests break out in PoK as locals complain of rigging in electionshttps://t.co/IkM3FTxjLn  ANI (@ANI_news) July 27, 2016

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.

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.

Last year reports had emerged that residents of PoK were openly advocating to be a part of India. They were said to be impressed with PM Narendra Modi's style of governance.

Chairman of the Anjuman Minhaj-e-Rasool, Moulana Syed Athar Hussain Dehlavi, who had toured PoK had said that people residing in the region want to be a part of India.

According to Dehlavi, the people of the region are distressed with growing extremism in Pakistan and want to lead a peaceful life. Given the opportunity, they would want a referendum so that they can vote to join back India.
Researchers believe the giant underwater sinkhole found in the South China Sea to be the deepest in the world. They determined the depth with the help of sonar scanners, deep-sea current metres and underwater robots.

By India Today Web Desk: Chinese researchers have found the world's 'deepest blue hole' near the disputed islands in the South China Sea.

After nearly a year of exploration, researchers have determined that the underwater sinkhole reaches about 300m below the surface and trumps the previous record holder, Dean's Blue Hole near the Bahamas, by more than 90m, Xinhua News Agency reported.

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Named as the 'Dragon Hole' by the Chinese, the underwater cave is 300.89 meters deep and it was spotted near the disputed Paracel island called as Xisha Islands by China.

Get to know newly-confirmed world deepest blue hole! Locals call it "eye" of #SouthChinaSea https://t.co/tmk5mQyItw pic.twitter.com/LL3WE2lehB China Xinhua News (@XHNews) July 23, 2016

Researcher were able to determine the depth of the sinkhole with the help of sonar scanners, deep-sea current metres, underwater robots and underwater cameras. The cave does not support life deeper than 330 feet, as there is no oxygen.

The South China Sea is located at the western edge of the Pacific Ocean has been the bone of contention between several East Asian countries for decades.China, Taiwan, the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam have made their claim to the territory.

China claims by far the largest portion of territory, an area designated as nine-dash line and this claim dates back to records from the Xia and Han dynasties according to them. However the recent verdict by the international tribunal appointed by the Permanent Court of Arbitration struck down its claims of nine-dash line based on historic rights.

China has rejected the verdict and called for bilateral resolution of the maritime dispute.



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--- ENDS ---
Guwahati: Over 15 lakh people are marooned by the current wave of floods in Assam in 19 districts even as there are reports that new areas have been inundated by surging waters of Brahmaputra river and its tributaries.

Flood waters have inundated 2,653 villages across 19 districts, affecting 15,70,571 persons and forcing 1,27,786 persons to take shelter in 322 relief camps in the districts till late Tuesday evening.

The flood affected districts are Lakhimpur, Golaghat, Bongaigaon, Jorhat, Dhemaji, Sivsagar, Barpeta, Kokrajhar, Nagaon, Dibrugarh, Chirang, Golapara, Tinsukia, Dubbri, Morigaon, Sonitpur, Biswanath, Darrang and Nalbari.

Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal has asked the legislators to go to their respective constituencies to assess the flood situation and submit their reports that will help preparing the detailed memorandum to the central government.

The Chief Minister will visit the Majuli river island, which is also his constituency, to make an on-the-spot assessment of the situation there.

Sonowal has also asked the legislators to liaise with the Deputy Commissioners to address the difficulties and to streamline the process of distribution of relief materials.

"The MLAs must remain with the affected people in their hour of distress and provide succour to them," Sonowal said on Wednesday.

The Chief Minister has also asked the Deputy Commissioners in the flood-hit districts to step up relief and rescue operations as enough funds have been released to provide respite to the affected people.

Sonowal directed the Deputy Commissioners to provide the relief as there was no dearth of funds, and asked them to release within a week an ex-gratia amount of Rs 4 lakh each to the next of kin of those who died in the deluge.

He further asked the Deputy Commissioners to ensure that the affected people in relief camps did not face any difficulty in matters of ration, medicine, sanitation and pure drinking water.

"Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh has assured all possible help to our government to deal with the situation and in bearing the costs of relief, rescue and rehabilitation. Even Prime Minister Narendra Modi is keeping a close watch on the crisis," Sonowal said.

Meanwhile, the floods have also inundated 80 per cent of Kaziranga National Park, forcing the animals to migrate to higher grounds and hills located in the neighbouring Karbi Anglong district.

Park officials on Wednesday said that 129 of the total 178 anti-poaching camps inside the park have been inundated by the floods.

"Five hog deer have died after being hit by speeding cars while trying to cross the NH-37 that bifurcates the park while three others died due to drowning. A few rhinos have also crossed the NH-37 towards Karbi Anglong and those are being continuously monitored by park patrol," a park officials said.

The Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA) officials said that over 1,37,041.08 hectares of cropland have been affected by the floods and hundreds of houses have been damaged in different districts. Roads and embankments have also been breached.
Dehradun: Uttarakhand Chief Minister Harish Rawat on Wednesday confirmed Chinese incursion on two occasions into the Indian territory at Barahoti in Chamoli district of the state.

On July 19, Chinese troops had violated the border in Chamoli district and were seen camping along with arms.

Reports said that China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) troops had sent back a team led by Chamoli District Magistrate and others including officials from ITBP, who had gone for a survey of Barahoti ground. The Chinese troops claimed that it was their land.

In another incident, a helicopter of PLA violated the Indian airspace in Uttarkhand on July 19.

After hovering over the Indian airspace for nearly five minutes, the helicopter disappeared and flew back into the Chinese airspace.

"This is a matter of concern. Our border has been peaceful. We have asked to increase vigilance. I believe the government will take necessary cognisance and the information is absoluely correct," Rawat said.

Union Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju said ITBP had been asked to look into the matter.

The incident comes a month after a Chinese fighter-bomber jet violated the Indian airspace in the Aksai Chin area near the Indo-China international border.

On June 9, a fresh incursion by the Chinese troops into Indian territory in Arunachal Pradesh led to a minor scuffle and triggered tension between the two sides.

However, the issue was resolved soon and the Chinese offered chocolates as a gesture of peace and returned back. According to reports, around 250 Chinese troops transgressed to the Indian side in the Yangtse sector, approximately 650 metres east of Shankar Tiki, an area where Indian soldiers are stationed in a sizeable number.

Earlier this year, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar had said in a written reply in Lok Sabha, "There is no commonly delineated LAC between India and China. There are areas along the border where India and China differing perception of LAC. Due to both sides undertaking patrolling up to their perception of LAC, transgressions do occur. Such transgressions have also occurred in the general area of Chumar, However, no incursion into the Indian territory by China has taken place."

Indo Tibetan Border Police Force (ITBP) has sent a report to the Union Home Ministry on the latest Chinese transgression.
Dehradun/New Delhi: The Uttarakhand government said on Wednesday that Chinese troops had been spotted within its territory on July 19 by local officials who were asked to return. Army sources however said the incident took place on July 22.

The defence ministry however maintains that there are no incidents of "incursion" by Chinese troops and the "transgressions" occur due to different perception of borders.

Senior state government officials said the incursion was spotted in Badahoti in Chamoli district. District Magistrate Vinod Kumar Suman told IANS that he had sent a report to "appropriate authorities" but refused to elaborate.

Uttarakhand Chief Minister Harish Rawat also confirmed the incursion, saying he had reported the matter to the Union Home Ministry. "It is a serious matter. I am sure the central government would look into the issue," he added.

Uttarakhand shares a 350-km-long boundary with China and incursions have been reported in the past too. Only last year some boys grazing cattle were beaten up by Chinese troops and asked to retreat.

Sources said the administration sends teams to Badahoti, which lies in very tough terrain over 100 km from Joshimath, thrice a year -- twice in summer and once in winter.

The area can only be reached on foot. A team of 19 government officials, led by Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM) Yogendra Singh had on July 19 left for the "summer inspection".

The team is said to have spotted the "presence of Chinese soldiers on the soil". When they engaged in eye-to-eye contact with the soldiers, the Chinese troopers asked them to leave and go back, an official said.

The team retreated to Rimkhim and informed the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) teams posted there. They then informed the district magistrate who passed the information to the chief ministers office. The Chinese retreated to their own side after spending 40 minutes on Indian soil.

The defence ministry has meanwhile maintained that there are no incidents of 'incursion' by the Chinese side, referring to different perceptions of boundary.

Responding to questions in the Lok Sabha last week related to intrusion in Indian territory by Chinese troops, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar said: "There have been no instances of intrusion by troops of China or Pakistan into Indian territory.

"However, as there is no commonly delineated Line of Actual Control (LAC) between India and China, there are areas along the Indo-China border where both sides have differing perception of LAC. Due to both sides undertaking patrolling upto their perception of the LAC, transgressions do occur."

The minister also said in a written replies that the government "regularly takes up any transgression along LAC with the Chinese side through established mechanisms including Flag meetings, Border Personnel meetings, meetings of Working Mechanism for Consultation and Coordination on India-China Border Affairs and diplomatic channels".

He added that the two sides have appointed Special Representative (SR) to explore the framework for a boundary settlement from the political perspective of the overall bilateral relationship.

The 19th Round of SR Talks on India-China boundary question was held in China from 20-21 April, 2016.
New Delhi: Magistrates cannot ask the police to investigate a private criminal defamation complaint as it is the complainant who needs to prove the case, the Supreme Court on Wednesday said while prima facie finding fault with a lower court order asking Maharashtra cops to probe the defamation case against Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi.

Gandhi, facing a defamation complaint about his remarks allegedly accusing RSS of the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi, has sought its quashing from the apex court which had observed that the leader should not have resorted to "collective denunciation" of an organisation (RSS) and will have to face trial if he does not express regret.

A bench of Justices Dipak Misra and RF Nariman, at the outset, referred to an earlier judgement delivered on a batch of pleas, including the one filed by BJP leader Subramanian Swamy and Gandhi each, challenging the constitutional validity of penal defamation law and said that police cannot be asked by judicial magistrates to probe a private defamation complaint.

It also prima facie found fault with the order of the Maharashtra lower court asking the police to inquire into the allegations against Gandhi and said that instead of "quashing" the case, it may "remand" the matter back to the lower court.

"We have said in the Subramanian Swamy case that the police has no role in private criminal complaints...Whatever has to be established, it has to be established by the man (complainant) himself. The magistrates cannot call for a report from the police," the bench said.

It asked senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for the Congress leader, to read relevant portions of the judgement, penned by Justice Misra, in the Subramanian Swamy case, dealing with the power of police and magistrates in criminal defamation cases.

"Police has no role in criminal defamation. It cannot lodge a FIR and a Magistrate cannot seek an inquiry report from police under sections 156 (3) and 202 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. The Magistrate has to himself make inquiry into the allegations...This is altogether a different process," it said.

The bench then deferred the hearing to August 23 and asked the counsel for both sides including senior advocate U R Lalit to address it on a legal proposition with regard to the power of magistrates and police in such cases.
Delhi: India is going to buy four more Poseidon-8I long-range maritime patrol aircraft, potent with anti-submarine warfare capabilities, from the United States.

As per a report in The Times of India, the deal is of $1.1 billion, taking the total value of arms contracts signed with the US to over $15 billion in the last 10 years.

At the same time, the two countries is also said to have discussed several new projects to jointly produce weapon systems and platforms.

The report says that visiting US undersecretary of defence Frank Kendall held extensive talks with defence secretary G Mohan Kumar and defence production secretary AK Gupta.

Talks pertained to different co-production projects under the bilateral Defence Trade and Technology Initiative (DTTI).

On July 1, the Cabinet Committee on Security had cleared the acquisition of the four P-8I aircraft.

The first aircraft will reportedly to be delivered in 50 months.

The development assumes significance at a time when Chinese nuclear and conventional submarines are making frequent forays in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR).

Eight such aircraft was earlier inducted by the Navy from May 2013 to October 2015.

It is using eight P-8Is, armed with Harpoon Block-II missiles, MK-54 lightweight torpedoes, rockets and depth charges, to keep an eye over the entire IOR. They are based at the naval airbase INS Rajali at Arakkonam (Tamil Nadu).

It has maximum speed of 907 kmph and an operating range of 1,200 nautical miles.

Thus, it is important from the perspective of maritime surveillance and intelligence-gathering missions.

Moreover, according to the Daily, apart from the above, major deals inked with the US include ones for 13 C-130J Super Hercules aircraft ($2.1 billion), 10 C-17 Globemaster-III giant strategic airlift aircraft ($4.1 billion) as well as 22 Apache attack and 15 Chinook heavy-lift helicopters ($3.1 billion).
New Delhi: The Narendra Modi government is planning to bring back the Kohinoor through diplomatic channels, rather than opting for the legal route, reports said on Wednesday.

The government is expected to file a fresh affidavit in the Supreme Court, which would reiterate India's resolve to bring back the Kohinoor, reports said.

The NDA Government will submit a new affidavit in the apex court before August 15.

Kohinoor, one of the world's largest diamonds, is currently set in a royal crown on display in the Tower of London.

Following Prime Minister Narendra Modi's direction to take steps to bring back the 108-carat precious gem from the UK, a high-level meeting was held last week which was attended by External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, Culture Minister Mahesh Sharma and Cabinet Secretary PK Sinha among others to discuss on the issue.

Meanwhile, Alok Sharma, Minister of Asia and Pacific affairs of the government of the United Kingdom said India has no legal grounds to seek the Kohinoor back from the United Kingdom.
New Delhi: India signed a contract on Wednesday to buy four maritime spy planes from Boeing Co for about USD 1 billion, defence and industry sources said, aiming to bolster the Navy as it tries to check China's presence in the Indian Ocean.

India has already deployed eight of the long-range P-8I aircraft to track submarine movements in the Indian Ocean and on Wednesday exercised an option for four more, two Defence Ministry officials and an industry source told Reuters.

"It's a follow-on order, it was signed today," a Defence Ministry official said, speaking on condition of anonymity as he is not authorised to make announcements on procurements.

A second defence official confirmed the value of the contract at about USD 1 billion and said the aircraft were expected to enter service over the next three years.

Amrita Dhindsa, a spokeswoman for Boeing defence, space, and security in India, said she was not in a position to say anything on the contract and referred all questions to the Defence Ministry.

But she said the P-8I was an aircraft used for not only for long-range patrol but was also equipped with Harpoon missiles for anti-submarine warfare.

India has been building up its naval surveillance capabilities since China's navy expanded its reach and sent submarines, including a nuclear-powered boat that docked in Sri Lanka, across the Indian Ocean.

The deal, signed during a visit by the US Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition Frank Kendall, marks a further tightening of India's ties with the United States, which has emerged as a top arms supplier in recent years for India's largely Soviet-equipped military.

A US embassy spokesman was not immediately available for comment.

Boeing last year completed the delivery of the last of the aircraft under the previous order worth USD 2.1 billion, an industry source said.

The Indian Navy has deployed some of its P-8I aircraft to the remote Andaman and Nicobar islands near the Malacca Straits and two other routes into the Indian Ocean for military and commercial shipping.
New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday paid tribute to former president APJ Abdul Kalam on his first death anniversary, saying that his death has created an "irreplaceable" void.

"It`s been a year since our beloved Dr APJ Abdul Kalam left us and created a void that is irreplaceable. My tributes to this great personality," tweeted Modi.

While delivering a lecture at the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Shillong, Kalam collapsed and died due to cardiac arrest on this day last year.
By PTI: From K J M Varma

Beijing, Jul 27 (PTI) President Xi Jinping today called for more reforms in the PLA, the world?s largest military, to cope with changing international situation as tensions deepened over the disputed South China Sea after an international tribunal struck down Chinas claims over the area.

"Reform is a comprehensive and revolutionary change, and obstacles and policy issues that may hold back reform measures must be addressed so as to build a strong armed forces commensurate with Chinas international status, Xi, who consolidated hold over the military to emerge as the most powerful Chinese leader, said.

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The ruling Communist Party of China (CPC), the armed forces have been constantly reformed and improved, he said presiding over a group study seminar of the Politburo of the CPC which focused on national defence and military reform.

"Further military reform is needed to cope with changing international situation and develop socialism with Chinese characteristics," he was quoted as saying by the state-run Xinhua news agency today.

Xi, 63, who is also the General Secretary of the CPC, called for the building of strong armed forces through military reform.

His comments came as China braced for a more tensions specially with the US in the South China Sea following this months verdict by an international tribunal which struck down China?s claims over the area. China has rejected the verdict.

The Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan countered China?s claims over all most all of the South China sea.

The 2.3 million strong Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) has undergone major structural changes since Xi took over in 2013 including massive anti corruption campaign in over 40 retired and serving Generals were indicted.

Based on the reform plan, the PLA Army, the PLA Rocket (missile) Force, and the PLA Strategic Support Force were established.

The previous seven military area commands were regrouped into five theatre commands, and the four military departments -- staff, politics, logistics and armaments -- were reorganised into 15 agencies.

With those reforms, the PLA has a system in which the Central Military Commission (CMC) is tasked with the overall administration of the armed forces, while theatre commands focus on combat preparedness, and various armed services pursue development, Xi said.

These measures solved some deep-seated problems that many considered unsolvable, Xi said.

The reform drive marks a historic change in the organisation and structure of the PLA, he said.

The reforms included measures to trim down the PLA by down sizing it by retiring three lakh troops by next year to make leaner force. PTI KJV NSA

--- ENDS ---

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New Delhi: Several political personalities on Wednesday paid tributes to the "Missile Man" and former president of India Dr APJ Abdul Kalam on his first death anniversary.

Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje took to twitter to pay rich tributes to Kalam.

"Don't be pushed by your problems, be led by your dreams." An inspiration loved by all,remembering #APJAbdulKalam ji pic.twitter.com/xZSSZLyX8r  Vasundhara Raje (@VasundharaBJP) July 27, 2016

Bharatiya Janata Party president Amit Shah described him as a epitome of simplicity, hardwork and morality."

Dr. #APJAbdulKalam was a epitome of simplicity,hardwork and Morality. His teachings and vision will continue to inspire generations to come.  Amit Shah (@AmitShah) July 27, 2016

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLA Kapil Mishra took the opportunity to announce that Delhi governmnet led by Chief Minsiter Arvind Kejriwal will inaugurate a memorial to the Bharat Ratna awardee on July 30 at Delhi Haat.

He left us all a year back but is back in Delhi forever now #APJAbdulKalam pic.twitter.com/HQYJgvjWAy  Kapil Mishra (@KapilMishraAAP) July 27, 2016

Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar on Tuesday announced the foundation stone for a memorial to the former president will be laid on July 27 at Rameswaram, Tamil Nadu, where his mortal remains were laid to rest.

Kalam had collapsed while delivering a lecture to the management students of the IIM-Shillong on July 27 last year. He was rushed to the Bethany hospital, where he was declared dead due to a massive cardiac arrest.
New Delhi: All states were today asked to send their comments on the proposed recommendations by Seventh Central Pay Commission related to hike in salaries of IAS and IPS officers.

In a letter to chief secretaries of all state governments, the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) said that the central government has accepted the pay panel's recommendations. They have been requested to furnish the comments of the state government on the proposed recommendations immediately and positively by August 3, 2016 through fax, it said.

"If no reply is received by this time, it would be presumed that the state government concurs with the said proposals relating to the revision of pay scales of all India services (AIS) officers," the DoPT said.

There are three all India services--Indian Administrative Service (IAS), Indian Police Service (IPS) and Indian Forest Service (IFoS).

The pay panel has recommended a starting salary of Rs 56,100 per month at entry level for these and officers of Group A services like Indian Revenue Service.

The Finance Ministry had on Monday issued an order notifying implementation of almost all the recommendations of the panel.

In that, the DoPT has been authorised to take action regarding pay and related issues concerning IAS, IPS and IFoS officers.

The three-member Seventh Central Pay Commission, which had submitted its report on November 19, 2015, was divided over the issue of financial and career-related edge given to IAS officers as against those belonging to the other services.

IAS officers presently get a two-year edge over other services for getting empanelled to come on deputation at the Centre.

Besides, they also get two additional increments at the rate of 3 per cent over their basic pay at three promotion stages i.E., promotion to the Senior Time Scale (STS), to the Junior Administrative Grade (JAG) and to the Non-Functional Selection Grade (NFSG) after putting in about four, eight and 13 years of service, respectively.

A confederation representing thousands of officers of 20 civil services, including the IPS, have been demanding pay parity and other benefits enjoyed by IAS officers.

"Regarding pay and related issues concerning all India services, appropriate action will be taken by Department of Personnel and Training to give effect to the decisions on these matters as may be applicable to them," the Finance Ministry's notification said.
New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday extended birthday greetings to Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray amid an unease in the ties between alliance partners BJP and Shiv Sena.

"Warm birthday wishes to the leader of the Shiv Sena, Shri Uddhav Thackeray. May he lead a long life filled with great health," Modi tweeted.

Thackeray turned 56 today.

His greetings came even as Thackeray has made an angry outburst against the coalition partner BJP, saying Shiv Sena "wasted" 25 years of its 50-year existence by having the alliance.

"In last June, we completed 50 years since our advent and half the time, which means 25 years, we were in the alliance (with the BJP)."

"Twenty-five years is a long time and we grew up by holding hands of each other...But the way certain things unfolded, including breaking up of the alliance in previous (assembly) elections...Now I feel that we wasted all these 25 years being in alliance...And these years got rotten," Thackeray said in an interview to Sena mouthpiece 'Saamana'.
New Delhi: In a shocking revelation, it has been reported that former prime minister Manmohan Singh's plane could have crashed in 2007.

As per The Times of India, the incident dates back to November 11, 2007 when the then PM Manmohan Singh was travelling to Russia on an official visit.

The report, published online on Wednesday, claims the Air India One flying Dr Singh failed to lower its landing gear in time while landing at the Moscow airport.

The corrective action by pilots of the Boeing 747 was taken only after being alerted by the Moscow Air Traffic Control (ATC).

The ATC, upon noticing the error, had warned the pilots that they had failed to lower the aircraft wheels. Warning lights in the cockpit also alerted the pilots, the report said.

As per the flight data recorder (FDR) of Air India One, the plane flew below the 'electronic glide slope' for some time before the landing gear was brought down for landing.

As per the newspaper, the electronic glide slope is the flight path a descending aircraft takes to land gently on the runway.

The newspaper could not elicit any response from the national air carrier on the revelation.

An unnamed pilot, meanwhile, told the newspaper that the pilots of Air India One could have delayed the lowering of the landing gear in order to keep the flight quiet for some more time for the PM on board.

The bringing down of the landing gear increases drag and causes noise disturbance in the aircraft.
Ahmedabad: As a mark of protest against the thrashing of Dalit youths at Una, Dalit writer Amrutlal Makwana on Wednesday returned an award given by the Gujarat government.

The 44-year-old writer had received the Dasi Jeevan Shreshth Dalit Sahitya Kruti Award for 2012-13 for his work "Kharapat Nu Dalit Lok Sahitya".

Makwana returned the award, including Rs 25,000 cash, at Ahmedabad District Collector's office.

"I have also given a short letter to the authorities saying that I am returning this award out of grief and pain due to the treatment meted out to Dalit youths in Una," he said.

The letter is addressed to Chief Minister Anandiben Patel.

Makwana, a resident of Wadhwan town of Surendranagar district, further said, "Such incidents are occurring in Gujarat on a regular basis but the government is not doing enough to ensure that Dalits get justice.

"What happened at Mota Samadhiyala village of Gir-Somnath district was ghastly and barbaric. Such atrocities on Dalits are condemnable and it shook me to the core. Sadly, such incidents are happening around us regularly," he said.

On July 11, some Dalit youths from Mota Samadhiyala who were skinning a dead cow were flogged by cow vigilantes, alleging that they had killed the cow.

After a video of the incident went viral, it sparked off violent protests across Gujarat.
New Delhi: Rajya Sabha erupted on Wednesday over the issue of targeting of Dalits and Muslims over beef rumours.

Amid uproar, MPs stormed the Well of the House after BSP chief Mayawati spoke on the issue of two Muslim women being assaulted in Madhya Pradesh for allegedly carrying beef.

Mayawati also addressed the Dalit unrest issue while speaking in the Upper House of Parliament.

BJP raises 'mahilaon ke samman mein, BJP maidan mein' slogan, yet in BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh women are thrashed on beef rumours, the BSP supremo said.

She demanded that the Madhya Pradesh government act against those who beat up the women at Mandsaur railway station.

Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad said cows should be protected but Muslims and Dalits should not be targeted in the name of cow protection.

We are against such attacks, Azad said.

Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs MA Naqvi said the government doesn't justify the violence which is condemnable.

The Madhya Pradesh government has taken action on the issue about which Mayawati ji spoke about, Naqvi said in the House.

Adding to the list of attacks related to beef rumours, activists of a Hindu radical group roughed up two Muslim women in Madhya Pradesh on Tuesday for allegedly carrying beef.

The women were beaten up by Hindu Dal activists at Madhya Pradesh's Mandsaur railway station.

Shockingly, the women were beaten up after they had been detained by the police.

Reports said 30 kilograms of meat was recovered from the women. An examination of the meat by local doctors showed it was from buffalos.

The women were later produced before a court and sent to judicial custody.

But the police have failed to take any action against the men who beat them up at the railway station.
New Delhi: With 79 terrorists being killed in Jammu and Kashmir till June 30, militant groups based in Pakistan have intensified their efforts to radicalise youths, who are targeting security forces and giving it a shape of civil resistance, Rajya Sabha was told on Wednesday.

Minister of State for Home Hansraj Ahir said there has been a spurt in infiltration attempts from Pakistan and the security forces have responded to it, resulting in the killing of 79 terrorists till June 30 this year.

"Since a large number of terrorists neutralisation has taken place, the terrorist organisations based in Pakistan are now increasing their efforts to promote radicalisation through vested interest groups and social media and increase the attack on the security forces in Jammu and Kashmir forcing them to retaliate and give it a shape of civil resistance," he said replying to a written question.

Ahir said the security situation is monitored and reviewed regularly at all levels and security agencies work in close coordination to thwart the nefarious designs of Pakistan sponsored terrorists.

The Minister said there were 125 terrorist incidents in the first six months of 2016 in comparison to 76 in the corresponding period of last year.

Altogether 390 incidents of stone pelting took place until June 2016 in comparison to 224 in the corresponding period of 2015. There were 40 fresh recruitment of terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir in the said period in comparison to 34 in June last year.
Srinagar: A terrorist, who was captured alive by security forces after a fierce gunbattle in Kashmir on Tuesday, is a Pakistani national, said Home Ministry sources on Wednesday.

According to NDTV, he has been identified as Bahadur Ali, resident of Pakistan's Lahore city. MoS (Home) Hansraj Ahir also later confirmed his identity.

It has been confirmed that terrorist who was captured alive in Kupwara, is from Pakistan: Hansraj Ahir, (MoS, Home) pic.twitter.com/HtRR4RYKe5  ANI (@ANI_news) July 26, 2016

Bahadur Ali was captured alive by the security forces while four other Lashkar-e-Toiba terrorists were killed in the gunbattle near Nowgam sector in Kupwara district.

Bahadur Ali, alias Saifullah, is 22 years old and has been trained by LeT in guerilla warfare.

Three AK-47 rifles, two pistols and Rs. 23,000 in Indian currency were also recovered from him by the security forces.

This was the second time in two months a Pakistani terrorist has been captured alive in the frontier district. The terrorists had entered in Valley from Teethwal area of Pakistan Occupied Kashmir a day before, sources in the Home Ministry said.

They had moved into the Tangdhar sector and from there to the Leepa Valley. Later, they had holed up in a forest area, where the encounter took place.
Srinagar: Curfew continued in south Kashmir districts on Wednesday while only restrictions were imposed in parts of Srinagar city and elsewhere after it was lifted on Tuesday in the tense valley.

"There will be no curfew in the Kashmir Valley today (Wednesday) except in Anantnag, Shopian, Kulgam and Pulwama," a senior police official said here.

"Restrictions will, however, remain imposed at places where breach of peace by anti-social elements is apprehended," the official said.

Restrictions were enforced in Rajouri Kadal and adjacent areas in old Srinagar city where a 61-year-old man died in Eidgah area on Tuesday after he lost control on his two-wheeler vehicle during clashes between stone-pelting mobs and security forces.

The separatists had asked people to start normal activities from Tuesday afternoon, but angry youths showed up at various places in Srinagar and elsewhere forcing the shops to remain shut.

Many masked youths placed obstructions on old city roads and the outskirts to ensure the separatists` call to resume half day`s normalcy was defied.

The separatists had called for a valley wide shutdown till July 29, except for opening of businesses so that people could buy essentials from 2 p.m. onwards on Tuesday.

Clashes broke out between stone-pelting protesters and the security forces at more than 40 places across the valley after curfew was lifted from Srinagar city and other districts on Tuesday.

Security forces did not use firearms to quell angry mobs anywhere during the clashes.

Over 50 people have died in clashes between demonstrators and the security forces as Kashmir Valley is on edge since July 9, a day after Hizbul commander Burhan Wani was killed by security forces in Kokernag area of Anantnag district.
Bengaluru: Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah faced the wrath of Twitterati on Wednesday for using his official Twitter handle to make an announcement regarding a personal matter.

The CM used his official Twitter handle @CMofKarnataka to say that his son has been hospitalised in Belgium.

Here's what his tweet read:

CM Siddaramaiah's son Rakesh had fell ill while touring in Belgium. Hospitalized& getting better. CM's family is in touch with the doctors.  CM of Karnataka (@CMofKarnataka) July 27, 2016

Instead of gaining sympathy, his followers lashed out at the CM for using his official account. Read some of the tweets here:

Sorry @CMofKarnataka, I could have visited hospital due to KSRTC strike I am not able to. Please don't mind.  Prabhu Chawandi (@PChawandi) July 27, 2016

@CMofKarnataka And this is official news? Need to change people who rn this handle.  Sabina Basha (@SabinaBasha) July 27, 2016

@CMofKarnataka State is under sever problem is this the more important? We pray for him, whom will pray for us!!  balaji (@balaji785) July 27, 2016

@CMofKarnataka @OfficeOfRG What an important news to be shared by CM. Don't tweet such trivial things from official IDs  Kumar Kollipara (@kumarkollipara1) July 27, 2016

@CMofKarnataka chief minister of Karnataka or his higness of the republic of Karnataka  kanhaiya kumar (@Breaks256) July 27, 2016

@CMofKarnataka is this a news of so much importance?  Hameed Pasha (@whitecrescent) July 27, 2016

@CMofKarnataka

You call this rubbish as news, shame on CM of Karnataka.

No one cares if your son is sick or healthy.  NVy (@Vijgatt) July 27, 2016

@CMofKarnataka nt a imp matter fr common ppl.. Nxt tym u myt say whn he gt loose motion too..!! Cong n their media handln... My god..!!  Sahana A (@SahanaA09) July 27, 2016

@CMofKarnataka ww are not interested, lets talk about issues facing by people & your step towards solving them  Vinay UV (@uv_vinay) July 27, 2016
The two people, who were arrested in connection with missing youths in the state, told the Kerala police that they had various visitors every day, who'd come to them for various reasons- Islam, conversion, marriages.

The arrested men said that some who visited them were fans of Zakir Naik, who enquired about his speeches and a possibility to meet him.

By Revathi Rajeevan: The two people, who were arrested in connection with the case of missing youths in Kerala, told the investigating officers that at least ten people visited them at their organisation every day for various reasons.

Arshi Qureshi, who is associated with controversial Islamic preacher Zakir Naik's Islamic Research Foundation, and Rizwan Khan, another suspected ISIS recruiter, were arrested from Mumbai last week by a team involving Maharastra ATS and Kerala police.

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The two were arrested based on a complaint filed by Ernakulam native Abin Jacob, brother of Merin who went missing from Palakkad. He alleged that Merin's husband Bestin, who is also missing, and Qureshi forced him to convert.

TEN PEOPLE VISIT EVERY DAY, SOME WERE NAIK'S FANS

"When we asked if they knew the youths who went missing from Palakkad, they said they don't remember because at least ten people from different parts of the country visited them every day," said a police official who did not wish to be named.

The various reasons for meeting range from queries about Islam, conversions and marriages.

"In addition, the organisation also had 'fans' of Zakir Naik who visit enquiring about his speeches and a possibility to meet him," said the official.

Qureshi and Khan who were produced in principal sessions court in Kochi on Monday are currently in police custody.

MISSING YOUTHS CHARGED UNDER UAPA

Five missing youths from Kerala have been charged under UAPA (Unlawful Activities Prevention Act) by the Kerala police. The five went missing from Palakkad in May this year and are among the 21 Muslim youths who went missing from the state and are suspected to have joined ISIS.

Brothers Bekson (Yahiya) and Bestin (Isa), Bekson's wife Nimisha (Fathima) and Bestin's wife Merin (Mariam) along with Shibin were reported missing from Palakkad earlier this month.

Both Nimisha and Merin were pregnant when they had gone missing.

The Kochi police had earlier charged Bestin and Qureshi under UAPA following Abin's complaint.

Also Read:

15 Kerala youths go missing: Did they join ISIS? Families fear they did

NIA writes to Kerala, will take over ISIS case

Zakir Naik's employee, suspected of recruiting Kerala youth for ISIS, arrested



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Kozhikode: Six final year students, including three girls, of a private college near Vadakara here have been arrested on charges of ragging and abetting the suicide of a junior student of the same college, police said today.

The final year students of B.Sc. Computer Science discipline in Malabar Higher Education Society (MHES) at Cherandathur were arrested last evening under section 306 (abetment of suicide) of IPC and Kerala Prohibition of Ragging Act, 2009, Vadakara Circle Inspector, Viswambaran said.

Later, they were produced before the Judicial Magistrate at Vadakara who remanded them in 14 days judicial custody, he said, adding that their bail applications would be heard tomorrow.

On July 23, Hasinaz Hameed (19), a second year B.Sc Microbiology student of the same college, was found hanging inside the bathroom of her house in Thodannur.

Her relatives had filed a complaint alleging that she had taken the extreme step following ragging by her seniors.

However, the college management denied any instance of ragging on the campus.

Students belonging to ABVP had boycotted classes in various colleges in Vadakara taluk on July 25, demanding action against those involved in the alleged ragging incident.

Members of Students Federation of India had also taken out a protest march towards the college campus demanding a fair inquiry into the incident.

On June 2, a 19-year-old Dalit girl of Malappuram district, was admitted to the Kozhikode Medical College Hospital here with severe stomach problems after she was allegedly ragged by her seniors, police had said.

The girl, who was studying in a nursing college in Karnataka, was allegedly forced to drink toilet cleaning solution by eight of her seniors, who also belonged to Kerala, in the college hostel, in May, they had said.
New Delhi: The beating up of two Muslim women in Madhya Pradesh on beef rumors was raised by Mayawati in Rajya Sabha on Wednesday, with the BSP leader slamming the government over situation in BJP-ruled states

"In Madhya Pradesh, in the name of `gau raksha` (cow protection) women have been beaten up. Police remained a mute spectator. They were Muslim women... it is cannot be tolerated," Mayawati said.

The two women were allegedly beaten up by cow protection vigilantes.

Soon, members of BSP and the Congress trooped near the Chairman`s podium and raised slogans. However, after a few minutes, they went back to their seats.

Leader of Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad said they were not against protecting cows but targeting the Dalits and the minorities will not be tolerated.

"Cow should be protected. But in the name of protection, Dalits and Muslims are being targeted. We are not against protecting cows but if you target the Dalits and the minorities then we will oppose," Azad said.

Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said the government was ready for a debate on the issue.

"I want to make it clear that the country is run as per the Constitution and not by muscle power. Any incident of violence is condemnable. The Madhya Pradesh government has taken action in the matter. We want an atmosphere of development and trust," he said.

The minister also said the opposition members should "rise above politics" on such issues.

"On such sensitive issues, we should rise above politics. Peace and harmony in the society should be the priority," Naqvi said.

Congress leader Anand Sharma questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi`s silence on the incidents taking place in BJP-ruled states.

To this, Naqvi said: "Give a notice, we are ready for discussion."

Two women were allegedly beaten up by a mob in Mandsaur, around 350 km from state capital Bhopal by cow vigilantes following a rumour that they had a large quantity of beef to sell.

In a video, police were seen making attempts to stop the mob.
Bhopal: Activists of a Hindu radical group roughed up two Muslim women in Madhya Pradesh on Tuesday for allegedly carrying beef.

As per a report in NDTV, the women were beaten up by Hindu Dal activists at Madhya Pradesh's Mandsaur railway station.

Shockingly, the women were beaten up after they had been detained by the police.

The police had been tipped-off that the Muslim women were carrying beef. As per the report, the women were taking the beef from Jaora to sell it in Mandsaur.

A video of the incident shows a huge crowd cornering the women before verbally abusing and beating them.

The police tried to stop the crowd but were outnumbered.

Reports said 30 kilograms of meat was recovered from the women. An examination of the meat by local doctors showed it was from buffalos.

The women were later produced before a court and sent to judicial custody.

But the police have failed to take any action against the men who beat them up at the railway station.
Mumbai: A 26-year old Mumbai youth lost his life following an argument over a change of Rs 2 with an auto-rickshaw driver here early Sunday, officials said here on Wednesday.

The incident occurred when the victim, Chetan Archinerkar, arrived on a flight from Goa and hopped into an auto-rickshaw from Mumbai Airport.

On reaching Archinerkar`s residence at Godrej Colony in Vikhroli, driver Kamlesh Gupta demanded change of Rs 2 or forfeit Rs 8 for paying the fare of Rs 172.

An altercation ensued and Archinerkar went home upstairs to get the change.

Even then driver Gupta allegedly returned only Rs 20.

Meanwhile, Archinerkar`s father came down and told his son to forget the balance Rs 8, when the driver allegedly abused him and drove off.

Enraged, Archinerkar chased the auto-rickshaw and managed to grab the metal frame of the running vehicle which suddenly lost balance and overturned.

The auto-rickshaw fell on Archinerkar who suffered severe injuries. He was later declared dead in a hospital.

Archinerkar`s father watched the incident but could do nothing to save his son.

Later, he lodged a complaint with Vikhroli police who quickly nabbed Gupta and arrested him on the charge of culpable homicide not amounting to murder.

He has been remanded to police custody and is lodged in Thane Central Jail, an official said.

Archinerkar had recently graduated in management and had gone for a job interview to Goa. He is survived by a younger brother and parents.
New Delhi: Controversial televangelist Zakir Naik of the Islamic Research Foundation (IRF) used funds from countries like Saudi Arabia to carry out illegal conversions in India, says a report.

The report surfaces a day after another report claimed that Naik used to lure Hindus and Jains with money to make them convert to Islam.

The Daily Mail Online has quoted sources with knowledge of the IRF as alleging that Naik is on the Saudi Arabia's payroll for performing religious conversions.

Meanwhile, PA Inamdar, the president of the Maharashtra Cosmopolitan Education Society at Punes Azam Campus, told India Today that Naik converted 12 Hindus and Jains to Islam at a 2008 event after a public debate.

That's what I am telling you, that I spoke with him the moment we stepped down (from the podium) that whatever you are doing (is inappropriate), Inamdar said.

Those who want to convert and convert with full understanding, they need no public platform. According to me, that was all stage-managed, he remarked.

The Azam Campus president further said: Second way of looking at it is about getting money from the countries who take interest in these activities.

He was most likely referring to Saudi Arabia that is currently hosting Naik.

Meanwhile, senior cleric Mufti Manzoor Ziayee has also alleged that Naik paid to converts and there is Saudi funding behind the IRF chief's proselytising programmes.

Notably, in 2015, Saudi Arabia's King Salman conferred the Arab country's most prestigious Service to Islam award on Naik.
Toronto: Bears, wolves and other large carnivores may be frightening beasts but the fear they inspire in their prey pales in comparison to that caused by the human super predator, a new study has found.

Researchers from Western University in Canada found that smaller carnivores, like European badgers, that may be prey to large carnivores, actually perceive humans as far more frightening.

Globally, humans now kill smaller carnivores at much higher rates than large carnivores do, and these results indicate that smaller carnivores have learned to fear the human super predator far more than they fear their traditional enemies.

Researchers experimentally demonstrated that smaller carnivores, like badgers, foxes and raccoons, that may appear to be habituated to humans because they live among us, are actually experiencing elevated levels of fear - living in fear of the human super predator in human-dominated landscapes.

"Our previous research has shown that the fear large carnivores inspire can itself shape ecosystems," said Liana Zanette from Western University.

"These new results indicate that the fear of humans, being greater, likely has even greater impacts on the environment, meaning humans may be distorting ecosystem processes even more than previously imagined," said Zanette.

"These results have important implications for conservation, wildlife management and public policy," said Zanette.

By frightening their prey, large carnivores help maintain healthy ecosystems by preventing smaller carnivores from eating everything in sight, and the loss of this landscape of fear adds to conservation concerns regarding the worldwide loss of large carnivores.

Fear of humans has been proposed to act as a substitute, but the new results demonstrate that the fear of humans is qualitatively different and cannot be expected to fulfil the same ecosystem function.

Researchers conducted the study on Europeans badgers in the UK. To experimentally compare their relative fearfulness, they played badgers the sounds of bears, wolves, dogs and humans in their natural habitat and filmed their responses, using hidden automated speakers and cameras.

Whereas hearing bears and dogs had some effect, simply hearing the sound of people speaking, in conversation, or reading passages from books, prevented most badgers from feeding entirely.

The sound of the human super predator, dramatically reduced the time spent feeding by those few badgers that were brave enough to venture forth, researchers said.

The findings were published in the journal Behavioural Ecology.
Lucknow: A flood alert has been sounded in the Uttar Pradesh districts which border Nepal after rains pounded the Himalayan country in the past 48-hours, an official said on Wednesday.

Following the rains, the water levels in Saryu and Ghaghra have gone up in the past 24-hours, leading the state government to step up rescue and relief work.

Sources said Nepal was likely to release five lakh cusecs of water anytime, affecting districts like Shravasti, Bahraich, Faizabad and Barabanki.

Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav has asked the chief secretary to personally monitor the situation and ensure there was no loss of lives owing to the impending floods and increasing water level in many rivers flowing through the state.

District magistrates in the flood prone areas were asked not to leave the district headquarters without the chief secretary`s permission.

The "Early Warning System" at Nanpura which forewarns of floods has sent out an alert in the border areas, an official informed IANS.

With a population of more than a lakh people in Shivpur and Balhar blocks of Bahraich, the district magistrate Abhay Singh said the administration was vigilant and taking all steps to evacuate people to safer places in case of floods.

District Magistrate Shravasti Nitish Kumar said more than 125 villages in the district faced the threat of floods.

Operations were underway to evacuate the people and cattle population to safe areas. With rains in eastern Uttar Pradesh and Nepal, the districts of Narayani, Rapti and Rohin were also in spate.
Lucknow: Two Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) legislators raised the banner of revolt against the party leadership on Wednesday and accused party chief Mayawati of selling tickets for a price.

The legislators -- Brijesh Verma and Romi Sahni -- said both Mayawati and general secretary Naseemuddin Siddiqui were busy selling tickets to the highest bidder.

Interestingly, both these legislators had returned to the party after seeking forgiveness from Mayawati for their anti-party rant. Sahni said he was denied a ticket after he failed to give Rs five crore and the ticket was then given to a hotelier.

Verma also made similar accusations and said the party chief wanted him to deposit Rs four crore into the party fund and when he failed to do so, the ticket was denied.

Meanwhile, the BSP said the accusations were nothing but a bunch of lies and alleged that after being denied tickets the legislators were making false charges. The party also swiftly suspended both the MLAs for alleged anti-party activities.
Islamabad: It's really shocking!

It seems Hindus in Pakistan are not safe at all.

In a horrific incident, a Hindu youth was killed and another injured on Wednesday when they were shot during a mob attack in Sindh province of Pakistan following tensions over alleged desecration of the holy Quran a day ago.

The attack came after a Hindu man was arrested for allegedly desecrating the Quran on Tuesday.

Dewan Sateesh Kumar, 17, was killed and his friend Avinash was in a critical condition after the two were shot while having tea at a stall in Gothki district.

Hindu community leaders demand protection

Hindu community leaders have demanded protection to their lives and properties as communal tensions ran high in the district following Tuesday's incident of alleged desecration of the Quran.

Locals said the suspect, Amar Lal, was a drug addict who lived in a mosque after converting to Islam a few month ago. His mental condition was "unstable", they said.

Some burnt pages of the holy book were found outside an old mosque in Daharki where the emotionally charged protesters on Tuesday held a sit-in, demanding the arrest of the culprit.

The accused was taken into custody and shifted to an undisclosed location.

Local leaders of religious parties, including Jamiat-e-Ulema-e-Islam Fazl (JUI-F) and Ahle Sunnat wal Jamaat (ASWJ), have demanded "severe punishment" for the accused.

Demonstrators in the district burnt tyres, ransacked shops owned by Hindus and clashed with the police.
Philadelphia: Bernie Sanders loyalists protested inside and outside the Democratic National Convention site and clashed with police after Hillary Clinton won the party's presidential nomination.

Despite Sanders' calls for them to support Clinton, thousands of activists have taken to the streets during the convention this week to voice support for the liberal Vermont US senator and his progressive agenda.

Moments after Clinton became the first woman to be nominated for president by a major US political party, a large group of Sanders delegates and supporters exited the Philadelphia convention site to hold a sit-in inside a media tent.

Some had their mouths taped shut. A few spontaneously sang the chorus of the folk song "This Land is Your Land," and a banner read "we the people." They said they were holding a peaceful protest to complain about being shut out by the Democratic Party.

"This was not a convention. This was a four-day Hillary party. And we weren't welcome," said Liz Maratea, a New Jersey delegate at the media tent protest. "We were treated like lepers."

In the streets outside, Sanders supporters who had spent the day protesting began facing off with police. Protesters began scaling 8-foot walls blocking off the secure zone around the arena parking lot, and several were detained. An officer sprayed one of the protesters.

The protests continued into the night with Sanders supporters and anti-police brutality protesters joining together. They marched in the street outside of the Wells Fargo Center. Later, someone set an Israeli flag on fire while people chanted "long live the intifada."

Others then came together for a candlelight vigil. Unmoved by Sanders' plea for party unity, the Bernie or Bust protesters walked miles in the stifling heat again Tuesday to make their case for him. They held a midday rally at City Hall, then made their way down Broad Street to the convention site. By early evening, a large crowd had formed outside the subway station closest to the arena.

"We all have this unrealistic dream that democracy is alive in America," said Debra Dilks, of Boonville, Missouri, who said she wasn't sure she'll vote in November. "Hillary didn't get the nomination. The nomination was stolen."

The crowd consisted of an assortment of protesters espousing a variety of causes, but mostly Sanders supporters and other Clinton foes on the left. College student Cory James said he expects the Democratic Party to split over the nomination.

"I suspect we are witnessing an event that will fundamentally change American politics," said James, of Flint, Michigan.

Earlier in the day, participants at the rally charged that Sanders was cheated out of the nomination, and they said they weren't swayed by his Monday plea to his supporters to fall in line behind Clinton for the good of the country.
The Xiaomi Redmi Pro is follow-up to the company's much-popular budget phone, Redmi Note 3 and just like it, the new phone boasts of top-tier hardware, an all-metal body and an aggressive price tag.

By Saurabh Singh: As expected, Chinese company Xiaomi launched what it calls its new Redmi flagship, the Redmi Pro at an event in Beijing on Wednesday. The Xiaomi Redmi Pro is follow-up to the company's much-popular budget phone, Redmi Note 3 and just like it, the new phone boasts of top-tier hardware, an all-metal body and an aggressive price tag.

The Xiaomi Redmi Pro comes with a 5.5-inch fullHD OLED display and will be available in two processor variants. While the top-end variant will come with MediaTek's 10-core Helio X25 (clocked at 2.5GHz), Xiaomi will also be selling a lesser variant with Helio X20. At the same time, two RAM variants and three memory variants will be on offer. The Redmi Pro powered by Helio X20 will come with 3GB RAM and 32GB of internal memory. Meanwhile, the Helio X25 version will be available in 3GB RAM/64GB memory and 4GB RAM/128GB memory variants.

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All the variants support expandable storage via hybrid card slot. The phone supports 4G LTE (VoLTE-ready) and runs Android Marshmallow-based MIUI 7.



Also Read: Xiaomi Mi Max review: A giant that's surprisingly light on its feet

The USP of the Redmi Pro is however said to be its dual-camera setup on the rear. The dual-camera setup consists of primary 13-megapixel and secondary 5-megapixel camera. Xiaomi claims the setup can capture outstanding DSLR-quality bokeh.' It essentially allows the user to capture an image first and adjust the depth of field later.

The new Redmi Pro boasts of an all-brushed metal body, chamfered edges, curved 2.5D glass on the front, a front-mounted fingerprint scanner and USB Type-C for data syncing and charging purposes. The phone is backed by a 4.050mAh battery which is non-removable.

The Redmi pro starts at 1,499 RMB (Rs 15,122) for the Helio X20, 3GB RAM and 32GB memory and goes all the way to 1,999 RMB (roughly Rs 20,163) for the top-tier Helio X25, 4GB RAM and 128GB memory variant.





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Beijing: An extremely funny video of a young girl slipping and pulling down a fellow passenger's shorts while travelling in a bus has become viral on the social media.

The hilarious video shows a young girl slipping when the driver of the bus applies brakes and pulling a man's shorts down to his feet.

The incident took place in the city of Fuzhou, south east China on July 6.

A brief video of the young man's embarrassing moments were captured by some co-travellers who later shared the same on the social networking websites.

The black-haired woman can be seen losing control over herself and reaching out for something to latch onto when the driver applied brakes suddenly.

Makeup accessories, a shoehorn and other items belonging to the woman also fell on the floor of the bus. In the footage, the woman also appeared to head-butt the man in his sensitive area, which he reached to in agony.

Watch the funny video here.
Sagamihara: Japanese police on Wednesday searched the home of the suspect in a mass stabbing spree that left 19 people dead at a facility for the mentally disabled.

The suspect, 26-year-old Satoshi Uematsu, was transferred earlier in the day from a local police station to the prosecutor's office in Yokohama.

The attacker left dead or injured nearly a third of the approximately 150 patients at the facility in a matter of 40 minutes early yesterday, Kanagawa prefectural authorities said. The fire department said 25 were wounded, 20 of them seriously.

Uematsu turned himself into police about two hours after the pre-dawn attack in Sagamaihara, a city about 50 kilometers west of central Tokyo.

He had worked at the facility until February, when he delivered a letter to Parliament outlining a bloody plan to attack two facilities for the handicapped and saying all disabled people should be put to death.

Kanagawa prefecture welfare department official Shogo Nakayama said that officials from the Sagamihara facility confronted him about the letter a few days later, and Uematsu quit.

His head and shoulders hidden with a blue jacket, the suspect was led out of a police station in Sagamihara on Wednes and into the back of an unmarked white van with emergency lights on top. Photographers and video journalists swarmed the van as it pulled away.

At his house in Sagamihara police took in cardboard boxes to carry out any evidence. Parts of the property were sealed off with yellow police tape.

The parents of one of the seriously injured residents of the facility told Japanese television network NTV that their son is unconscious and on artificial respiration.

"I feel anger that he was a former worker," the mother said of the attacker. NTV did not identify the parents or show their faces.

Uematsu broke into the Tsukui Yamayuri-en facility by shattering a window at 2:10 a.M., according to a prefectural health official, and then set about slashing the residents' throats.

Sagamihara fire department official Kunio Takano said the dead were 10 women and nine men, ranging in age from 19 to 70. All those killed were residents, said Tatsuhisa Hirosue, another Kanagawa welfare division official.

Further details of the attack, including whether the victims were asleep or otherwise helpless, remained unclear today.
Mai Ja Yang: Leaders of Myanmar rebel armies held talks in a war-hit border town on Wednesday, state media reported, as they prepare for a major peace conference with a government desperate to end insurgencies that have plagued the country.

Myanmar has been racked for half a century by ethnic rebel wars in its resource-rich frontier states, leaving tens of thousands dead or displaced.

Some groups have signed ceasefires but several other rebel armies are still fighting the nation's army -- including in the northern state of Kachin, where today's talks were held.

Aung San Suu Kyi, the democracy activist leading the country's first civilian government, says ending the fighting is essential if Myanmar is to rise from the ashes of junta rule.

She wants to restart full peace talks within weeks.

This week's summit, held in a Kachin town ravaged by years of warfare, brought together "leaders representing 17 ethnic armed groups to search for common ground in working toward a federal system for the country", state-run Global New Light of Myanmar reported today.

The negotiators, many sporting traditional clothing, gathered in a hall in Mai Ja Yang, a town ringed by displacement camps on the border with China, which also sent an envoy to the talks.

Peace is hard to secure.

Distrust in the still-powerful military runs deep and the rebel groups themselves are divided -- with four pulling out of the Mai Ja Yang talks at the last minute.

The conflicts are complex and fuelled in part by the illegal trade in drugs, timber and jade, much of which is funnelled across the border to China. Rebels use the proceeds to buy guns.

The former military-backed government launched a peace dialogue but failed to secure a nationwide ceasefire with all groups.

Suu Kyi has promised a greater level of federal autonomy in a bid to secure peace, but has yet to spell out how it would work.

It is a promise her independence hero father also made in 1947. It was ignored by the junta that took control several years after his assassination and ruled over Myanmar for almost 50 years.
Seoul: South Korea on Wednesday accused rival North Korea of floating propaganda leaflets down a river in the first such incident.

South Korea's military discovered dozens of plastic bags, each carrying about 20 leaflets, near the estuary of Seoul's Han River close to the tense Korean border last Friday, according to the South's Defense Ministry. Seoul is only an hour's drive from the border.

The leaflets contained threats to launch missile attacks and a repeat of the North's long-running propaganda such as that the North won the 1950-53 Korean War, a ministry official said, requesting anonymity because of department rules.

The war ended with no one's victory. An armistice that stopped the fighting has yet to be replaced with a peace treaty, leaving the Korean Peninsula split along the world's most heavily fortified border and at a technical state of war.

Today marks the 63rd anniversary of the armistice's signing.

North Korean recently warned of unspecified "physical" measures in response to a US plan to deploy an advanced missile defense system in South Korea by the end of next year. North Korea last week fired three ballistic missiles into the sea, according to Seoul defense officials.

The rival Koreas resumed old-fashioned, Cold War-era psychological warfare in the wake of North Korea's fourth nuclear test in January.

Seoul began blasting anti-Pyongyang propaganda broadcasts and K-pop songs from border loudspeakers in retaliation for the North's atomic detonation. Pyongyang quickly matched Seoul's campaign with its own border broadcasts and launches of balloons carrying anti-South leaflets across the border.

The latest discovery of propaganda leaflets marks the first time for North Korea to use a river to send leaflets, according to the South Korean defense official.

He said North Korea is believed to have used a river because the direction of wind isn't favorable in the summer to fly propaganda balloons from north to south.

Many in South Korea believe their broadcasts could sting in Pyongyang because the rigidly controlled, authoritarian country worries that the broadcasts will demoralize front-line troops and residents and eventually weaken the grip of absolute leader Kim Jong Un.

Nearly 30,000 North Koreans have fled to South Korea since the end of the Korean War, mostly for political and economic reasons. South Koreans defecting to the impoverished, authoritarian North is highly unusual.
Mogadishu: A former Somali MP who joined the Shabaab group in 2010 was one of two suicide bombers who killed 13 people near a United Nations and African Union base, the militants announced on Wednesday.

Car bombs driven by suicide attackers exploded yesterday morning near Mogadishu's airport, one of which went off 200 metres from the base, killing mainly security staff.

Salah Badbado, 53, served in Somalia's parliament from 2004 until 2010, when he declared at a press conference he was leaving politics to join the Somali al-Qaeda affiliate.

"Salah Nuh Ismail known as Salah Badbado was among the braves who have carried out the attack on Halane military base," the group said in statement released on the Telegram app and their Andalus radio station.

"He was a former lawmaker but he has repented from the apostasy in the year 2010 when he publicly announced defecting from the apostates," the Shabaab statement said.

The attack was condemned by the African Union and the United Nations, which said that none of its personnel were among the confirmed dead.

The group's radio station released an audio message purportedly recorded a few hours before the former MP carried out the attack, in which he is heard announcing an imminent suicide strike.

Somali security officials were yet to confirm the bomber's identity early today.

The Shabaab group is blamed for a string of bloody assaults in Somalia and neighbouring Kenya, and is fighting to overthrow Mogadishu's internationally-backed government.

Its fighters were forced out of the capital five years ago but continue to carry out regular attacks on military, government and civilian targets.
Ankara: Turkey on Wednesday said it was discharging 149 generals and ordering the closure of dozens of media outlets in the next phase of its controversial crackdown in the wake of the failed coup.

Eighty seven land army generals, 30 air force generals, and 32 admirals -- a total of 149 -- were being dishonourably discharged from the military over their complicity in the coup bid, a Turkish official said, confirming a government decree published in the official gazette.

Meanwhile the closure was ordered of three news agencies, 16 television stations, 23 radio stations, 45 newspapers, 15 magazines and 29 publishers, the official gazette added.
Manila: US Secretary of State John Kerry on Wednesday said Washington wanted to avoid "confrontation" in the South China Sea, after an international tribunal rejected Beijing's claims to most of the waters.

Kerry made the remarks after meeting with Philippine Foreign Secretary Perfecto Yasay in Manila where they discussed the Southeast Asian nation's sweeping victory in the arbitration case against China.

America's top diplomat said the United States wanted China and the Philippines to engage in talks and "confidence-building measures".

"The decision itself is a binding decision but we're not trying to create a confrontation. We are trying to create a solution mindful of the rights of people established under the law," Kerry said.

A tribunal based in The Hague this month ruled that China's claim to most of the strategic waterway was inconsistent with international law. The decision angered Beijing, which vowed to ignore the ruling.

But Kerry said the United States saw an "opportunity" for claimants to peacefully resolve the row.

"We hope to see a process that will narrow the geographic scope of the maritime disputes, set standards for behaviour in contested areas, lead to mutually acceptable solutions, perhaps even a series of confidence-building steps," he said.

Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan also have claims to the South China Sea, a vital waterway through which USD 5 trillion in annual trade passes. It is also believed to sit atop vast reserves of oil and gas.

Kerry, who arrived in Manila yesterday after attending a regional summit in Laos, met with Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte after Yasay.

Yesterday, Kerry said he would encourage Duterte, who assumed office on June 30, to engage in dialogue and "turn the page" with China.

Kerry was also expected to raise with Duterte US concerns about human rights and the rule of law.

"The Philippines has an unhappy history of extrajudicial killings and violence (against) journalists and others," a US official told reporters travelling with the secretary.

"We hope to hear more from President Duterte about ... protecting human rights (and) maintaining the rule of law."

"Duterte has launched a bloody war on crime, urging law enforcers, communist rebels and even the public to kill criminals."

Since he took office, police reported over 200 deaths while media tallies have said more than 300 have died, including suspected extrajudicial killings.

Even before he assumed the presidency, Duterte drew criticism from United Nations chief Ban Ki-Moon and human rights advocates for his calls to kill criminals, as well as comments stating that corrupt journalists deserved to die.
Bengaluru: Pakistan's "obsession" to match India in military strength and efforts to equalise the field with "crazies" like Hafiz Saeed, would only create hatred which will bite it back, former Pakistan Ambassador to US Husain Haqqani has said.

"My argument as a Pakistani is why do we even want to be equal (with India in terms of military prowess). Why do not we want to be happier and prosperous and successful," he said.

"What is this obsession about being equal and trying to equalise the field with crazies like Hafiz Saeed because he will only create hatred, which will only bite us back," Haqqani said here last night during an interaction on his book 'India vs Pakistan - Why Can't We Just Be Friends'.

"Pakistan always had this presumption that India has a tremendous conventional military advantage and Indian Army will be much bigger than Pakistan's. So Pakistan needs irregular methods to be able to be equal," he alleged.

Haqqani recalled a private conversation of former Pakistan president General Pervez Musharraf with Pakistani newspaper editors, wherein he said Lashkar-e-Toiba was his reserve core for fighting India and thus establishes the strong nexus between ISI, terrorists and Pakistani establishment.

"He (Musharraf), in a private meeting with Pakistani newspaper editors, had said 'Well all of you keep telling me or some of you keep telling me that I should shut down Lashkar-e-Toiba, but it is actually my reserve core in fighting India,' a fact that establishes a strong nexus between ISI, terrorists and Pakistani establishment," Haqqani said.

The former Pakistani envoy said it was disturbing to know that a head of a country had thought so as these terrorists "would not do good to Pakistan" as the world had seen them attacking Shias, Ahmediyas and Christians in Pakistan, apart from India.

Haqqani said, unfortunately, Pakistani strategic thinkers in uniform do not realise this "disturbing line of thinking of patronising terrorists and outfits like Jaish-e-Mohammad and Lashkar-e-Toiba."

Throwing light on the Jihadi movement in Pakistan, the former diplomat said Zia-ul-Haq was not the first man to spread jihadi awareness as is presumed, but it was much before him.

"There is a presumption that Zia-ul-Haq was the first man to start jihadi awareness, but I argue that no it was even further back and there was always a desire for irregular warfare," he said.

Asked how to shut down the large armed militias, Haqqani said it was not easy because they are well trained in warfare.

But the establishment can put them out of business if they are denied the resources for their mobility and movement, he said.

"If we make this decision now it will take some 15 years to put their business out," Haqqani added.
Rome: The conflicts afflicting the world are about wealth, power and control of natural resources, not religion, Pope Francis said on Wednesday.

"It's warfare over interests, money and natural resources, I am not speaking of a war of religion," Francis said after knifemen beheaded an 86-year-old priest at a church in northern France on Tuesday in an attack claimed by the Islamic State jihadist group.

"Religions don't want war. The others want war," he added.

He made the remarks to reporters during a flight from Rome to Krakow, where he was due to kick off a five-day visit to Poland by attending the city's World Youth day celebrations taking place till Sunday.

"We shouldn't be afraid of telling the truth: the world is at war because it has lost the peace," Francis added.

Poland's Interior Minister says more than 39,000 police and other security officers will be ensuring security as Francis meets hundreds of thousands of young pilgrims from around the globe in southern Poland.

The papal visit includes open-air masses and prayers with around 1.5 million World Youth Day participant, visits to the site of the former Nazi death camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau and to Jasna Gora, Poland's holiest shrine.

It is the first visit by Francis to Poland, one of Europe's most Catholic nations, which produced late Polish pope, St. John Paul II.
YEREVAN, JULY 27, ARMENPRESS. The Armenian Ministry of Emergency Situations informs that all state and interstate highways in the Republic of Armenia are passable on July 27 by 08.00.

Today, on July 27, according to the information received from the Department of Emergency Situations of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia from 06.00 till 20.00 Lars highway will be open, however, in the evening it will be closed again for security reasons.

The highway is open for all kinds of vehicles according to the following rules:
YEREVAN, JULY 27, ARMENPRESS. There is a positive dynamics in one of the wounded gunmen Aram Manukyans health condition. He is already breathing without mechanical ventilation, head of the department of rehabilitation and intensive therapy of Erebouni medical center Harutyun Margaryan said, reports Armenpress. The two wounded are now in critical but stable condition, there is positive progress in Aram Manukyans health condition which is related with the fact that he breathes without mechanical ventilation, the doctor said.

As for Pavel Manukyans health condition, he continues breathing via mechanical ventilation. The doctor said if there are no further complications, it is possible there will not be a necessity of a new surgery.

Referring to the wounded policemens health condition, the doctor said his condition is not so serious.

On July 27 gunmen Gagik Yeghiazaryan and Aram Hakobyan were surrendered to the law enforcement agencies in the Police Patrol Station. A firefight took place as a result of which one of the law enforcement agencies, as well as Pavel Manukyan and his son Aram were wounded. All the three were immediately taken to hospital.
YEREVAN, JULY 27, ARMENPRESS. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump posted a two-point lead over his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton, according to a Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll released on July 26, the first time he has been ahead since early May.

Reuters reports Trump's gains came as he accepted his party's nomination to the Nov. 8 ballot at the four-day Republican National Convention in Cleveland last week, and as Clinton's nomination in Philadelphia this week was marred by party divisions and the resignation of a top party official.

The July 22-26 poll found that 39 percent of likely voters supported Trump, 37 percent supported Clinton and 24 percent would vote for neither. The poll had a credibility interval of 4 percentage points, meaning that the two candidates should be considered about even in support.

Clinton held a three-point lead on Friday, which was also within the credibility interval.

Clinton has solidly led Trump in the poll throughout most of the 2016 presidential race. The only times that Trump has matched her level of support were when the Republican Party appeared to be roughly aligned with his campaign.

In early May, Trump briefly pulled even with Clinton after his remaining rivals for the party nomination dropped out of the running. He held a 0.3 percentage point lead over Clinton on May 9, the last time he was nominally ahead.

Trump fell back in the poll as he feuded with party bosses over comments he made about Hispanics, Muslims and immigrants, but he rebounded this month as his candidacy took the national spotlight at the Cleveland convention.

The Democratic party is hoping for a similar boost during its convention this week in Philadelphia, but the confab had a rough start: the Wikileaks website released emails on Friday that enraged many voters who had supported Clinton's rival for the nomination, Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, showing that party officials had looked for ways to undermine his candidacy.

The chair of the Democratic National Committee, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, announced her resignation afterward.

On Monday, some speakers at the Democratic convention were booed by Sanders supporters, and hundreds of protesters took to the streets to protest Clinton's candidacy.

Presidential candidates usually get a boost in popularity following their party conventions.

In 2012, Republican nominee Mitt Romney jumped by 5 percentage points to pull about even with President Barack Obama after the Republican convention. After the Democrats held their convention, Obama then rose by a few percentage points and again pulled ahead.

The Reuters/Ipsos poll was conducted online in English with about 962 likely voters.
YEREVAN, JULY 27, ARMENPRESS. Ambulance doctors offered to take the wounded gunmen, who seized the Police Patrol Station, to hospital, Ambulance CJSC Director Taguhi Stepanyan said in an interview with Armenpress. She said there are several people in the group who received gunshot wounds. She condemned such act stating that issue cannot be solved in such a way. I have managed to have a short talk with our doctors who are in the Police station. They said they cannot go out. Thereafter, I was informed that the gunmen demand the Healthcare Minister to come and organize surgeries in the Police station. I must say we cant organize surgeries there, we do not have a surgeon, we cannot provide first medical assistance and take them to hospital, Taguhi Stepanyan said.

This night it was reported that according to the gunmen there are two more wounded in the Police Patrol Station. The law enforcement agencies urged to provide those persons with necessary medical assistance, but they were rejected.The relatives of the wounded have also urged to take them to hospital. The law enforcement agencies have provided all the necessary conditions.

Later the gunmen called a doctor stating that the conditions of the wounded are critical, and after the doctors arrived in the Police station, they have been taken hostage by the gunmen. The law enforcement agencies take measures to release the doctors from hostage through negotiations.
YEREVAN, JULY 27, ARMENPRESS. There are two wounded gunmen in the Police Patrol Station, member of the Founding Parliament Alek Yenigomshyan said, reports Armenpress. There are no other wounded. The guys control the situation, he said.

He conveyed the gunmens expectations who are in the Police station. The first one concerns the implementation of the shift work of the medical group. The doctors, who are in the Police station, they are not hostages. The guys just demanded a work shift. They are not being kept here by force, they can go out and other medical groups can replace them, Alek Yenigomshyan said.

The second concerns the Armenian MPs. They must ask the power structures to hold a meeting with the gunmen in the Police station.
YEREVAN, JULY 27, ARMENPRESS. Doctors working in various medical centers of Armenia call the gunmen to immediately release their colleagues who are kept in the Police station, reports Armenpress.

I am very sad and I cannot express right words. The fact that the doctors are being kept in the Police station, I think that it shocked the whole Republic. As I know, there isnt such a phenomenon in the world when the doctors are taken hostage. Even during the wars the doctors are not being taken hostage. If there had been such cases, the doctors were immediately released. I am angry and surprised, I call the guys in the Police station, some of them know me very well, to immediately release the doctors, doctor Ara Asoyan said.

All doctors condemned such act stating that it cannot be justified. Such behavior does not bring honor to our people, Armenians have always helped each other, in some cases even the enemy, but now we use another approach. All of us must do everything possible for our partners to be released as soon as possible. The doctors have always been in the first rank. They do not deserve such attitude, doctor Gagik Beglaryan said.

Doctor Davit Petrosyan also condemned such act. He recalled that the situation is tense, slow war is underway for 22 years, and the situation can escalate very quickly. He urged the gunmen to release the doctors from the Police station.

In the night of July 26 it was reported that according to the gunmen there are two more wounded in the Police Patrol Station. The law enforcement agencies urged to provide those persons with necessary medical assistance, but they were rejected. The relatives of the wounded have also urged to take them to hospital. The law enforcement agencies have provided all the necessary conditions.

Later the gunmen called a doctor stating that the conditions of the wounded are critical, and after the doctors arrived in the Police station, they have been taken hostage by the gunmen. The law enforcement agencies take measures to release the doctors from hostage through negotiations.
YEREVAN, JULY 27, ARMENPRESS. Head of the NATO Liaison Office in Georgia William Lahue says NATO-Georgia cooperation can be beneficial for Armenia, reports Armenpress.

We are mainly concentrated on Georgia in the region. We consider Georgias democracy as the most important factor for ensuring stability not only in Georgia, but also in the entire region. Armenia can also receive certain benefits from this successful cooperation. In particular, the NATO-Georgia Joint Training and Evaluation Center will enable the Armenian defense units to take part in the works of that center. The first actions include the exercises which are going to be held in November, and the Armenian Armed Forces are also invited, he said.

William Lahue said currently NATO faces difficult times, since after the cold war it is the first time it faces the problem of making huge changes in the security field.

For us it is important that our partners perceive our presence as a factor of strengthening and developing the defensive capabilities. The existing issues in the security field have a direct impact both on the member-states, as well as the partners, which perhaps requires a redefinition of our approaches in this field, William Lahue concluded.
YEREVAN, JULY 27, ARMENPRESS. The Armenian Police have issued a statement regarding a media report linked with the observations of the mother of one of the hostage paramedics.

The statement of the Police reads:

A reporter of a media agency has contacted the mother of paramedic Salvador Khechoyan  who is being held hostage in the Police precinct  who told the reporter that her son was in normal condition during their phone conversation.

The media should at least be aware as to what methods hostage-takers apply to influence their hostages, how they work with their relatives and how they attempt to distort the true picture.

Media representatives should have these basic knowledge and consciousness and should act strictly responsible in such serious situations, instead of attempting to emotionally impact the public opinion.
YEREVAN, JULY 27, ARMENPRESS. The Armenian Ombudsman is concerned over reports on paramedics being held hostage in the seized Police precinct.

The Ombudsmans office issued an announcement, which reads:

Any attempt of aggression against medical personnel is reprehensible. Doctors are carrying out a high humanitarian mission of saving human lives. This mission is subject to unconditional protection by all international requirements, without any exception.
YEREVAN, JULY 27, ARMENPRESS. Armenian MP Nikol Pashinyan suggests convening an extraordinary session in Parliament to discuss the situation over the seized Police precinct.

Pashinyan told reporters he has initiated a petition signing. At least 44 lawmakers must sign the petition for the session to be convened.

According to him, so far the petition was signed by Heritage faction MP Tevan Poghosyan, and independent MP Alexan Arzumanyan expressed desire to join.

Pashinyan suggests convening the session on July 28 at 17:00.

Arsen Babayan  head of the Public Relations and Mass Media department of the Parliament- told ARMENPRESS that according to Regulation laws, an extraordinary session can be convened if it is initiated by the President of Armenia, the Government or the 1/3 of lawmakers.
North Korea is on Team Trump, reports Reuters, describing the millionaire mogul as a "wise" choice and his rival as "thick-headed Hillary."

Run by a brutal and notoriously reclusive authoritarian clique, North Korea is under U.N. sanctions and regularly threatens the U.S. and the south with nuclear annihilation. Trump has indicated he will take a softer line with the regime.
Financial Aid

Digital Financial Aid Platform Adds Scholarship Matchmaking Component

CampusLogic has licensed Scholarship University to be part of its own digital student engagement platform for financial aid. Scholarship University is a web-based technology developed by University of Arizona (UA) students to help their peers find scholarships.

First implemented in 2009, Scholarship Universe was developed by a collaboration of UA students and UA student affairs staff members to streamline the institution's process for awarding departmental scholarships. The technology has since evolved to help students find scholarship sources both within and without the university. When a student logs into Scholarship Universe for the first time, she is prompted to answer questions that are generated from eligibility requirements of currently available scholarships.

The system stores the answers in the student's profile, which can be edited at any time, and uses the data to find suitable matches in the scholarship database. Users see matches only for scholarships that are open for application, and they receive a snapshot of the information needed to apply. In addition, students can track scholarships for which they have already applied and update their search.

More than $8 million in non-UA affiliated funding opportunities have been linked to students since the implementation of the software program in 2009.

The CampusLogic platform, intended to simplify the process of finding and obtaining college funding, already has three other components: StudentForms, CampusMetrics and AwardLetter. Scholarship Universe will be the fourth. It is currently being used by more than 300,000 active students at nearly 60 colleges and universities.

"Thanks to this collaboration, we will be able to promote scholarships within AwardLetter, provide student-scholarship matching analytics within CampusMetrics, and remind students to renew their scholarships via StudentForms," said Camps Logic COO Chris Chumley.

CampusLogic, in Gilbert, AZ, was the very first company chosen by a new initiative of Arizona State University, the ASU Draper GSV Accelerator, created to source, fund, pilot and credential new products created by higher-education technology companies. Companies accepted into the accelerator program receive training and mentoring, an entrepreneurial boot camp in Silicon Valley and access to a network of experts.
WEDNESDAY, July 27, 2016 (HealthDay News) -- Changes that occur in teens' brains as they mature may help explain why the first signs of mental illness tend to appear during this time, researchers report.

British researchers used MRI scans to compare the brain structures of nearly 300 participants who were aged 14 to 24.

The scientists discovered that the brain's outer region (cortex) becomes thinner as teens get older. At the same time, they saw that levels of myelin increased within the cortex. That increase was seen in critical regions of the brain that act as connection points between other regions. Myelin is the sheath that covers nerve fibers and enables them to communicate efficiently.

"During our teenage years, our brains continue to develop. When we're still children, these changes may be more dramatic, but in adolescence we see that the changes refine the detail," explained study first author Kirstie Whitaker, from the department of psychiatry at the University of Cambridge.

"The hubs that connect different regions are becoming set in place as the most important connections strengthen. We believe this is where we are seeing myelin increasing in adolescence," Whitaker said in a university news release.

Further investigation revealed that the brain regions that undergo the greatest changes during the teen years are also where genes associated with schizophrenia risk are most strongly expressed.

"Adolescence can be a difficult transitional period and it's when we typically see the first signs of mental health disorders such as schizophrenia and depression," said Ed Bullmore, head of psychiatry at the University of Cambridge.

"This study gives us a clue why this is the case: It's during these teenage years that those brain regions that have the strongest link to the schizophrenia risk genes are developing most rapidly," he explained.

The study was published July 25 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

More information

The U.S. National Institute of Mental Health has more on schizophrenia.
Czech Hazardous Waste Shipment Winds Up in Court

The European Commission has referred the Czech Republic to the Court of Justice of the European Union because it failed to take back 20,000 tonnes of hazardous waste that was shipped to Katowice, Poland, by a Czech operator in late 2010 and early 2011.

The European Commission has referred the Czech Republic to the Court of Justice of the European Union because it failed to take back 20,000 tonnes of hazardous waste that was shipped to Katowice, Poland, by a Czech operator in late 2010 and early 2011. The case involves a dispute involving Poland and the Czech Republic on the classification of the shipment; Polish authorities refused to accept it on the grounds it was shipped in breach of the Waste Shipments Regulation (Regulation (EC) No 1013/2006) and should have been subject to the procedure of prior written notification and consent.

As the Poles saw it, it was an illegal shipment and Czech authorities should have accepted its return, but Czech authorities refused, arguing the material in question  a mixture of acid tar from petroleum refining, coal dust, and calcium oxide  was not waste but a product registered in accordance with the REACH Regulation.

The commission has intervened to resolve the dispute. "A reasoned opinion was sent to the Czech Republic in November 2015, rejecting the Czech arguments for classifying the shipment as a product and urging it to take it back. As the Czech authorities still refuse to take the waste back, the Commission has now referred the case to the Court of Justice of the EU," according to its news release.

It says if the relevant authorities in the Member States of destination and origin cannot agree on whether a shipment is waste or not, it must be treated as waste and taken back by its country of origin.
Revenue of 1.133 billion up 12% on a comparable basis 1 up 7% on a reported basis



Strong growth across most regions Excluding Brazil, organic growth of 15% in the first half



ePayments accelerating; double-digit growth expected in the second half

EBITDA2 of 244 million, equal to 21.5% of revenue

Net Profit attributable to Ingenico Group shareholders of 122 million

Objective for 2016 maintained Organic growth 1 above or equal to 10% EBITDA margin 2 of c. 21%





PARIS, July 27, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Ingenico Group (Euronext: FR0000125346 - ING) announced today its financial statements for the six-month period ended June 30, 2016.

Philippe Lazare, the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Ingenico Group, commented: "Ingenico Group has once again achieved solid growth in the first half of this year. Our multi-local strategy has continued to prove its effectiveness, with our excellent results in mature markets and Asia offsetting the slowdown in Brazil. At the same time, our ePayments division has extended its business reach substantially, finalizing a new major agreement with Alipay. And although we have maintained our investment drive to keep bringing out new products and developing our online transaction platforms, Ingenico Group still has a 21.5% EBITDA margin. The Group has also carried out three acquisitions: a start-up provider of connected screens, Think&Go, and two terminal distributors, Lyudia in Japan and Nera in Southeast Asia.

All these examples of operational progress highlight the speed with which we are implementing our 2020 growth plan."

H1 2016 results

Key figures

(in millions of euros) H1'16 H1'15 Revenue 1,133 1,058 Adjusted gross profit 490 474 As a % of revenue 43.2 % 44.8 % Adjusted operating expenses (284 ) (253 ) Profit from ordinary activities, adjusted (EBIT) 206 221 As a % of revenue 18.1 % 20.9 % Operating margin 184 194 Net profit 127 124 Net profit attributable to Group shareholders 122 122 EBITDA 244 249 As a % of revenue 21.5 % 23.6 % Free cash-flow 64 59 Net debt



Net debt-to-EBITDA ratio3 232



0.5x 441



0.9x Equity attributable to Group shareholders 1,588 1,395





12% organic growth in revenue









H1 2016 Q2 2016 m % change m % change Comparable1 Reported Comparable1 Reported Europe-Africa 408 15 % 11 % 215 13 % 9 % APAC & Middle East 262 32 % 25 % 133 29 % 20 % Latin America 86 -14 % -28 % 41 -27 % -37 % North America 148 14 % 12 % 74 11 % 7 % ePayments 230 1 % -1 % 119 4 % 1 % Total 1,133 12 % 7 % 581 9 % 4 %













Performance in the first half

In the first half of 2016, revenue totaled 1.133 billion, representing a 7% increase on a reported basis, including a negative foreign exchange impact of 50 million. Total revenue included 788 million generated by the Payment Terminals business and 345 million generated by Payment Services.

On a comparable basis1 revenue growth was 12% higher than in the first half of 2015, a result that included a 15% increase in Terminals and a 5% increase in Payment Services.

A key feature of the first half of 2016 was a very high volume of business in Europe, demonstrating the Group's ability to leverage regulatory change in mature markets. In Asia-Pacific, the Group further increased its share of the market, with vigorous growth in Turkey, Australia and China. In contrast, Brazil's unfavorable economy heavily affected business volume in Latin America. In North America, revenue growth was driven by the Group's increasing market share at large-scale retail chains. Investment in the Group's ePayments division over the last few months has started to pay off, as reflected in the strong sales momentum of the first half.

Performance in the second quarter

In the second quarter of 2016, revenue totaled 581 million, representing a 4% increase on a reported basis, including a negative foreign exchange impact of 30 million. Total revenue included 400 million generated by the Payment Terminals business and 181 million generated by Payment Services.

On a comparable basis1 revenue growth was 9% higher than in the second quarter of 2015, a result that included a 10% increase in Terminals and an 8% increase in Payment Services.

Excluding Brazil, the Group recorded organic growth of 14% in the quarter.

Ingenico Group's solid performance in Payment Terminals reflected expanding market share in Asia, Russia and the United States, as well as the operational excellence that has enabled the Group to take full advantage of equipment replacement cycles in mature markets.

The Group also continued to gain market share in in-store Payment Services. Furthermore, the ePayments division's return to growth makes it possible to reaffirm double-digit growth objective for the second half of 2016.

Compared with Q2 2015, the various divisions performed as follows on a like-for-like basis and at constant exchange rates:

- Europe-Africa (up 13%): The Payment Terminals activity enjoyed brisk business in most countries, but particularly in the United Kingdom and the Nordic countries, where the Group took full advantage of a major equipment replacement cycle following a change in standards (PCI v1). In Russia, Ingenico Group doubled its revenue as a result of an agreement signed with Sberbank. In Eastern Europe and Africa, strong growth was attributable to increasing market share, most notably in South Africa, Poland, the Ukraine and Greece.

At the same time, the Group's in-store Payment Services business delivered sound performance, fueled by rising electronic transaction volume in Germany and growing market share in France and the United Kingdom.

- Asia-Pacific and Middle East (up 29%): Ingenico Group has continued to record high growth throughout this geographic area. In Turkey, sales rose during the quarter on the back of mandatory replacement of the installed base with fiscal memory payment terminals. In China, the Group once again reaped the benefits of a booming market to increase its sales further. Tetra deployment in Australia also contributed to the Group's strong performance in the region.

- Latin America (down 27%): The Group has maintained its share of the Brazilian market even though the country's difficult macroeconomic climate strongly affected sales volume. Elsewhere in the region, Ingenico Group has continued to grow at a rapid pace. In Mexico, the Group has strengthened its position as a supplier to the main acquirers and large-scale retailers; in Argentina, efforts to win over acquirers are producing results; and the business trend in Peru remains encouraging. At the same time, Telium Tetra deployment has been advancing swiftly in Latin America.

- North America (up 11%): As forecast, the Group has achieved double-digit growth in the United States. EMV migration is still the key driver of that growth, both on traditional and on mPOS terminals. Although there is considerable inventory build-up at distributors, Ingenico Group has continued to gain market share at major retail outfits, a segment where business remains buoyant. The Group has also continued to gain ground in new vertical markets like hospitality and healthcare.

- ePayments (up 4%): The division returned to growth in the second quarter, making extremely rapid operational progress in both technological and business terms. The first investments in its platforms have already led to significant service quality enhancements. In addition, the deployment of IngenicoConnect on the GlobalCollect platform has enabled the Group to win greater market share with strategic customers as well as new contracts. During the second quarter, the number of e-merchants increased significantly and the Group finalized an agreement with Alipay, reflecting this major company's confidence in the platform's performance.

Gross profit up 3%

Adjusted gross profit in the first half of 2016 was 490 million, equal to 43.2% of revenue.

At 46.7% of revenue, gross margin remained high in the Terminals business, but was 110 basis points lower than in the prior-year period, due to a less favorable product mix.

Gross margin in the Payment Services business fell 290 basis points to 35.3% of revenue. That result was primarily attributable to a changing customer mix and to rising expenditure to enhance performance on the ePayments division's platforms.

Operating expenses up to 25% of revenue

On an adjusted basis, operating expenses in the first half of 2016 increased by 12% to 284 million. As announced at the start of the year, the Group has stepped up expenditure, both in its Terminals business to launch the Telium Tetra range and develop new offers, and in its Payment Services business to add new features to its platforms. Operating expenses represented 25.1% of revenue, versus 23.9% in the first half of 2015.

EBITDA margin in line with objective

The Group recorded EBITDA of 244 million, compared with 249 million in the first half of 2015. This brought the EBITDA margin to 21.5% of revenue, a result in line with management objective for the full year. At 18.1% of revenue, EBIT reached 206 million in the first half of 2016, versus 221 million in the prior-year period.

Substantial profit from operating activities

Other operating income and expenses represented a net expense of 0.4 million, down from 3 million in the first half of 2015.

Purchase Price Allocation expenses totaled 21 million in the first half of 2016, versus 25 million in the prior-year period.

After accounting for Purchase Price Allocation and other operating income and expenses, profit from operations totaled 184 million, compared with 194 million in the first half of 2015. The Group's operating margin was equal to 16.2% of revenue, versus 18.3% in the first half of 2015.

Profit attributable to Group shareholders on par with the previous year

At 1 million, net finance costs include an 8.5 million gain on the disposal of Visa Europe securities recognized at end-June.

Income tax expense fell from 64 million in the first half of 2015 to 56 million in the first half of 2016. As of June 30, 2016, the Group's estimated effective tax rate was 31%, a year-on-year improvement reflecting a more favorable country mix.

The net profit attributable to Ingenico Group SA shareholders in the first half of 2016 was 122 million, as in the prior-year period.

A sound financial position in line with the Group's growth plan

Total equity attributable to Ingenico Group SA shareholders was 1.588 billion.

During the first half of 2016, Ingenico Group's operations generated free cash flow of 64 million. This result was 8% higher than the prior-year amount, due to a smaller change in working capital than in the first half of 2015 despite business growth. At the same time, continued investment brought the Group's investing activities to 27 million.

The Group has maintained its goal for the year of converting approximately 45% of EBITDA into free cash flow.

The cash dividend paid in respect of 2015 was 34.5 million, whereas 54.8% of the total dividend amount was paid in stock (502,641 shares), reflecting strong shareholder confidence.

Accordingly, as of June 30, 2016, the Group's net debt stood at 232 million, down from 252 million as of December 31, 2015. The net debt-to-equity ratio was 15%, while the net debt-to-EBITDA ratio held steady at 0.5.

Highlights of the first half

Agreement with Alipay

Ingenico ePayments has scored a major win with Alipay, an iconic new economy company. The Group will be handling cross-border transactions for Alibaba.

Strategic acquisition in Japan

Ingenico Group has acquired a 70% interest in Lyudia from BroadBand Tower Inc., which will retain a 30% stake in the entity. Lyudia, a Japanese developer of payment applications and software, is the distributor of Ingenico terminals in Japan. This strategic move will allow Ingenico Group to gain a solid foothold in a market with high barriers to entry.

A stronger position for the Group in Southeast Asia

Ingenico Group has acquired the payment solutions business of Nera Telecommunications Ltd for 88 million Singapore dollars. This acquisition will give Ingenico Group an enhanced local payment applications portfolio and the ability to leverage the existing distribution and services network of a company with market leadership in Thailand and a substantial share of the market in Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia and Vietnam. Completion is expected to take place during the third quarter of 2016.

Acquisition of Think&Go NFC

Ingenico Group has finalized the acquisition of Think&Go NFC, a start-up provider of connected screens. Think&Go NFC and Ingenico Group designed the first connected screens incorporating contactless payment technology, with the result that digital advertising displays are turned into genuine points-of-sale.

Outlook

The Group has maintained its objective for full-year organic revenue growth in 2016 at 10% or above, despite a troubled economy in Brazil and the uncertainty surrounding the pace of inventory destocking among distributors in the United States. Business will remain vigorous in Europe and Asia, and the ePayments division will return to double-digit growth in the second half of the year.

The Group has also maintained its full-year objective for EBITDA margin, which is expected to reach 21% of revenue in 2016.

Conference call

A conference call to discuss Ingenico Group's H1 2016 results will be held on July 26, 2016 at 6.00 p.m., Paris time. Dial-in numbers: 01 70 99 32 08 (French domestic), +1 646 851 2407 (for the United States) and +44 (0)20 7162 0077 (international) with conference code: 959181. The presentation will also be available on www.ingenico.com/finance.

This press release contains forward-looking statements. The trends and objectives given in this release are based on data, assumptions and estimates considered reasonable by Ingenico Group. These data, assumptions and estimates may change or be amended as a result of uncertainties connected in particular with the performance of Ingenico Group and its subsidiaries. These forward-looking statements in no case constitute a guarantee of future performance, and involve risks and uncertainties. Actual performance may differ materially from that expressed or suggested in the forward-looking statements. Ingenico Group therefore makes no firm commitment on the realization of the growth objectives shown in this release. Ingenico Group and its subsidiaries, as well as their executives, representatives, employees and respective advisors, undertake no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements contained in this release, whether as a result of new information, future developments or otherwise. This release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy or subscribe for securities or financial instruments.

About Ingenico Group

Ingenico Group (Euronext: FR0000125346 - ING) is the global leader in seamless payment, providing smart, trusted and secure solutions to empower commerce across all channels, in-store, online and mobile. With the world's largest payment acceptance network, we deliver secure payment solutions with a local, national and international scope. We are the trusted world-class partner for financial institutions and retailers, from small merchants to several of the world's best known global brands. Our solutions enable merchants to simplify payment and deliver their brand promise.

Learn more at www.ingenico.com twitter.com/ingenico

Contacts / Ingenico Group

Investors

Stephanie Constand

VP Investor Relations

stephanie.constand@ingenico.com

(T) / 01 58 01 85 68 Investors

Caroline Alamy

Investor Relations Manager

caroline.alamy@ingenico.com

(T) / 01 58 01 85 09



Communication

Coba Taillefer

External Communication Manager

coba.taillefer@ingenico.com

(T) / 01 58 01 89 62

Upcoming events

Conference call on H1 2016 results: July 26, 2016 at 6 p.m., Paris time

Q3 2016 revenue: October 26, 2016

EXHIBIT 1

Basis for preparing the 2016 interim financial statements

The consolidated financial statements have been drawn up in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). In order to provide meaningful comparable information, these data have been presented on an adjusted basis, i.e. restated to reflect the depreciation and amortization expenses arising on the acquisition of new entities. Pursuant to IFRS3R, the purchase price for new entities is allocated to the identifiable assets acquired and subsequently amortized over specified periods.

The main financial data for 2015 has been analyzed on an adjusted basis, i.e., before purchase price allocation (PPA). Please see Exhibit 3.

EBITDA is not an accounting term; it is a financial metric defined here as profit from ordinary activities before depreciation, amortization and provisions, and before expenses for shares distributed to employees and officers. The reconciliation of adjusted profit from ordinary operations to EBITDA is available in Exhibit 3.

EBIT (Earnings Before Interest and Taxes) is equal to profit from ordinary activities, adjusted for amortization of the purchase price for newly acquired entities allocated to the identifiable assets acquired.

Free cash flow is equal to EBITDA less: cash and other operating income and expenses, changes in working capital requirements, investing activities net of disposals, financial expenses net of financial income, and tax paid (Note 5e in the exhibit of interim financial statements)

EXHIBIT 2

Income statements, balance sheet, cash flow statements

1. INTERIM CONSOLIDATED INCOME STATEMENTS (REVIEWED)

(in millions of euros) June 30, 2016 June 30, 2015 REVENUE 1 133 1 058 Cost of sales (650 ) (590 ) GROSS PROFIT 484 468 Distribution and marketing costs (99 ) (99 ) Research and development expenses (87 ) (70 ) Administrative expenses (113 ) (102 ) PROFIT FROM ORDINARY ACTIVITIES 184 197 Other operating income 3 0 Other operating expenses (4 ) (3 ) PROFIT FROM OPERATING ACTIVITIES 184 194 Finance income 45 60 Finance costs (46 ) (66 ) NET FINANCE COSTS (1 ) (6 ) Share of profits in equity-accounted investees (0 ) 0 PROFIT BEFORE INCOME TAX 183 188 Income tax expense (56 ) (64 ) NET PROFIT 127 124 Attributable to: - Ingenico Group SA shareholders 122 122 - non-controlling interests 5 1 EARNINGS PER SHARE (in ) Net earnings: - basic earnings per share 2.01 2.03 - diluted earnings per share 1.96 2.02





2. INTERIM CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEET (REVIEWED)



ASSETS (in millions of euros) June 30,

2016 Dec. 31,

2015 Goodwill 1 358 1 351 Other intangible assets 499 509 Property, plant and equipment 54 56 Investments in equity-accounted investees 9 12 Financial assets 12 11 Deferred tax assets 53 49 Other non-current assets 32 31 TOTAL NON-CURRENT ASSETS 2 016 2 019 Inventories 146 144 Trade and related receivables 477 461 Receivables related to intermediation activities 16 10 Other current assets 31 32 Current tax assets 11 7 Derivative financial instruments 16 10 Funds related to intermediation activities 282 256 Cash and cash equivalents 853 920 TOTAL CURRENT ASSETS 1 832 1 842 TOTAL ASSETS 3 848 3 860 EQUITY AND LIABILITIES (in millions of euros) June 30,

2016 Dec. 31,

2015 Share capital 61 61 Share premium account 766 722 Other reserves 726 682 Translation differences 34 41 Equity for the period attributable to Ingenico Group SA shareholders 1 588 1 506 Non-controlling interests 6 5 TOTAL EQUITY 1 594 1 511 Non-current borrowings and long-term debt 894 885 Provisions for retirement and benefit obligations 19 17 Other long-term provisions 22 21 Deferred tax liabilities 144 142 Other non-current liabilities 110 98 TOTAL NON-CURRENT LIABILITIES 1 190 1 163 Short-term loans and borrowings 190 287 Other short-term provisions 32 31 Trade and related payables 432 439 Payables related to intermediation activities 298 266 Other current liabilities 96 135 Current tax liabilities 14 28 Derivative financial instruments 3 1 TOTAL CURRENT LIABILITIES 1 065 1 187 TOTAL LIABILITIES 2 255 2 350 TOTAL EQUITY AND LIABILITIES 3 848 3 860





3. INTERIM CONSOLIDATED CASH FLOW STATEMENTS (REVIEWED)

(in millions of euros) June 30,

2016 June 30,

2015 Profit for the period 127 124 Adjustments for: - Share of profit of equity-accounted investees 0 (0 ) - Income tax expense/(income) 56 64 - Depreciation, amortization and provisions 44 45 - Change in fair value (6 ) 0 - Gains/(losses) on disposal of assets (0 ) 1 - Net interest costs/(revenue) (1 ) 5 - Share-based payment expense (1) 15 9 Interest paid (11 ) (13 ) Income tax paid (75 ) (73 ) Cash flows from operating activities before change in net working capital 150 161 inventories (3 ) (23 ) trade and other receivables (25 ) (41 ) trade payables and other payables (41 ) (17 ) Change in net working capital (69 ) (81 ) NET CASH FLOWS FROM OPERATING ACTIVITIES 80 80 Acquisition of non-current assets (27 ) (28 ) Proceeds from sale of tangible and intangible fixed assets 9 1 Disposal of subsidiaries, net of cash disposed of 3 - Acquisition of subsidiaries, net of cash acquired (8 ) - Loans and advances granted and other financial assets (2 ) (4 ) Loan repayments received 1 1 Interest received 4 5 CASH FLOWS FROM FINANCING ACTIVITIES (21 ) (25 ) Purchase/(sale) of treasury shares 0 0 Proceeds from loans and borrowings - 746 Repayment of loans and borrowings (94 ) (501 ) Change in the Group's ownership interests in controlled entities 1 103 Changes in other financial liabilities (0 ) 6 Dividends paid to shareholders (34 ) (31 ) Tax on financing activities - (8 ) NET CASH FLOWS FROM FINANCING ACTIVITIES (128 ) 315 Effect of exchange rates fluctuations 3 7 CHANGE IN CASH AND CASH EQUIVALENTS (66 ) 377 -- -- Cash and cash equivalents at beginning of the year 900 412 Cash and cash equivalents at year end 834 789 June 30,

2016 June 30,

2015 CASH AND CASH EQUIVALENTS Short-term investments and short-term deposits (only for the portion classed as cash and cash equivalents) 237 306 Cash and cash equivalents 616 504 Bank overdrafts (19 ) (22 ) TOTAL CASH, CASH EQUIVALENTS AND SHORT-TERM INVESTMENTS 834 789





EXHIBIT 3

Impact of purchase price allocation (PPA)

(in millions of euros) H1'16 adjusted excl. PPA PPA impact H1'16 Gross profit 490 (6 ) 484 Operating expenses (284 ) (15 ) (299 ) Profit from ordinary activities 206 (21 ) 184





Reconciliation of profit from ordinary activities to EBITDA

EBITDA represents profit from ordinary activities, restated to include the following:

- Provisions for impairment of tangible and intangible assets, net of reversals (including impairment of goodwill or other intangible assets with indefinite lives, but not provisions for impairment of inventories, trade and related receivables and other current assets), and provisions for risks and charges (both current and non-current) on the liability side of the balance sheet, net of reversals.

- Expenses related to the restatement of finance lease obligations on consolidation.

- Expenses recognized in connection with the award of stock options, free shares or any other payments to be accounted for using IFRS 2, Share-based Payment.

- Changes in the fair value of inventories in accordance with IFRS 3, Business Combinations, i.e. determined by calculating the selling price less costs to complete and sell.

Reconciliation:

(in millions of euros) H1'16 H1'15 Profit from ordinary activities 184 197 Allocated assets amortization 21 25 EBIT 206 221 Other D&A and changes in provisions 23 20 Share-based payment expenses 15 8 EBITDA 244 249

1 On a like-for-like basis at constant exchange rates.

2 EBITDA is not an accounting term; it is a financial metric defined here as profit from ordinary activities before depreciation, amortization and provisions, and before expenses for shares distributed to employees and officers.

3 Year-on-year.

PDF VERSION: http://hugin.info/143483/R/2030763/755420.pdf












Dublin, July 27, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Research and Markets has announced the addition of the "US Biosimilars Market Opportunity & Clinical Pipeline Analysis" report to their offering.



US Biosimilars Market Opportunity & Clinical Pipeline Analysis Report Highlight:



- US Biosimilars Market Introduction

- US Biosimilars Regulatory Scenario

- Unique Features of US Biosimilars Market

- Impact of Biosimilars in US Market

- Impact of Reimbursement Policies on US Biosimilars Market

- Zarxio: First Approved Biosimilar in US

- US Biosimilar Clinical Pipeline By Company, Indication & Phase

- US Biosimilar Clinical Pipeline: 104 Biosimilars

- Marketed Biosimilars: 1 Biosimilar



Biosimilars in US has been approved after a long-time while they have been introduced in other places over a decade ago. Late entry in US market has prevented the patients from getting benefit of biosimilars. Also, spending on healthcare could have been mitigated but absence of proper regulatory framework prevented commercialization of biosimilars in US.



Number of indication under biosimilar coverage are also less, single at present, which is going to have modest effect on US market. Number of indications will increase in coming years till then US biosimilar market is expected to grow at modest rates. Slow market growth is of great concern as it is also related to cost cutting by regulators in health care spending. US biosimilars market is at nascent stage and it would take few years to become suitable niche for biosimilars.



Biologics have dominated the US market for several decades due to absence of worthy competitor in different disease segment. In coming years, this situation is expected to change as biosimilars are expected to be commercialized. Zarxio, first US biosimilar, has created lot of enthusiasm among masses but some physicians, investigators and payers have reservation against biosimilars. This scenario may cause hindrance in uptake of biosimilars in coming years.



To increase acceptance rates, biosimilar developers have to produce head-to-data confirming pharmacological efficacy. Biosimilars are also expected to have higher cost-effectiveness promoting patients to switch from biologics. In this way, biosimilar developers would be able to generate more revenues by developing positive attitude towards biosimilars.



Newly developed biosimilars in US market are expected to face hard time as regulations are not in place. Both patient and payers are expected to suffer from this issue that has to be resolved as soon as possible. Implication of new rules is expected to take some time as lots of issues have to be solved.



Naming of biosimilars and assigning of appropriate billing code is one of the fore most necessities. This situation is likely to deteriorate when monoclonal antibodies will be introduced in US market. Substitution and reimbursement will become easy if clear demarcation is made between which molecule belongs to which category. Regulators are likely to resolve these issues in coming years as they have just entered in biosimilars segment.



Key Topics Covered:



1. US Biosimilars Market Introduction



2. US Biosimilars Regulatory Scenario



3. Unique Features of US Biosimilars Market



4. Impact of Biosimilars in US Market



5. New Biosimilar Categories with High Commercialization Potential



6. Impact of Reimbursement Policies on US Biosimilars Market



7. Biobetters: Middle Ground between Biosimilars & Biologics



8. US Biosimilars Market Overview



9. Zarxio: First Approved Biosimilar in US



10. US Biosimilars Market Dynamics



11. US Biosimilars Commercialization Challenges



12. US Biosimilars Future Prospects



13. US Biosimilars Market Guidelines



14. US Biosimilar Clinical Pipeline By Company, Indication & Phase



15. Suspended & Discontued Biosimialrs in Clinical Pipeline



16. Competitive Landscape



- Amgen

- Apotex

- Boehringer Ingelheim

- Celltrion

- Coherus BioSciences

- Eli Lilly

- EPIRUS Biopharmaceuticals

- Finox Biotech

- Harvest Moon Pharmaceuticals

- Hospira

- Intas Biopharmaceuticals

- Juno Therepeutics (Opus Bio)

- Merck

- Momenta Pharmaceuticals

- Mylan

- Nora Therapeutics

- Novartis

- Oncobiologics

- Pfenex

- Pfizer

- Sandoz

- Wockhardt



For more information visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/l9mn92/us_biosimilars




The first rally began at 7pm (local time) in Tabriz the provincial capital of Irans Eastern Azerbaijan Province. Thousands gathered in Darayi Street, chanting slogans which defended the rights of the Azeri community and decried the disrespect shown to them by the regime.

In Orumieh (Urmia), the provincial capital of Irans Western Azerbaijan Province, hundreds gathered and marched from Atai Street towards Imam Khomeini Street.

The regime responded to these peaceful protest by dispatching a scourge of anti-riot troops armed with water cannons and rubber bullets. Many protesters were subsequently arrested.

Reports emerged that students at the University of Orumieh began begun a protest on campus against the regimes lies.

Shahin Gobadi of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) said: This is another sign of growing discontent in Iran which manifests itself in different forms and different places. The Iranian people use every possible opportunity to manifest their loath and hatred towards this regime which doubly suppresses ethnic and religious minorities.
HENDERSON, Nev., July 27, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Oroplata Resources, Inc. (Oroplata or the Company) (OTCBB:ORRP) is very pleased to welcome Paul Pelosi, Jr. to his new role as a Senior Advisor to the Company as previously announced on July 8, 2016.



Mr. Paul Pelosi , Jr. has experience advising companies in business development, environmental sustainability and public policy. He is currently an Executive Director of the American Kratom Association, as well as an Advisor at National Strategies in Washington, D.C.

"I am extremely pleased that Mr. Pelosi has now joined the Oroplata team as a Senior Advisor, stated CEO Craig Alford. This is an unparalleled time in the growth of lithium portable power and the electric vehicle global marketplace. We strongly believe Mr. Pelosi will provide our team with invaluable insight into the regulatory and environmental landscape for the industry, and we look forward to working with him as we focus on developing a reliable source of clean energy through the fast growing lithium market in the U.S.A. and worldwide."

Mr. Pelosi commented, "I welcome the opportunity to work with Craig Alford and the Oroplata team to rapidly explore, develop, produce and deliver the much needed domestically produced lithium carbonate for the growing electric car and lithium ion battery industry, as well as for various other high-growth applications. Increasing the supply of domestic lithium has the potential to lower the cost of electric cars for everyone, provide thousands of new jobs, reduce overall pollution, cut the United States dependence on foreign oil, and challenge the status quo of how we drive our lives. The growth of lithium production in America should be one of our top priorities.

Mr. Pelosi will play an integral role in promoting Oroplata Resources as a potential supplier of environmentally friendly and economically viable lithium carbonate. Oroplata Resources, with the support of Mr. Pelosi, will help prove that the latest mining technology and ingenuity can be much more than just great for the environment, but can also be economically beneficial for shareholders and the United States. With many of the automakers making a major shift to electric vehicle production, Oroplata is well positioned to capitalize on these opportunities.

For more information on Paul Pelosi, Jr., follow him on Instagram at Paul_Pelosijr, Twitter @paul_pelosi, or his website, Climate4change.info.

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 the Railroad Valley in Nevada.

www.oroplataresourcesinc.com

info@oroplataresourcesinc.com

IR Contact: Kingston Advisors, +1-212-796-5290

info@kingstonadvisors.com

http://www.kingstonadvisors.com/

Legal Notice and Safe Harbor Statement

This press release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the safe harbor provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, including those with respect to the expected project economics for Western Nevada Basin (Railroad Valley), including estimates of life of mine, average production, cash costs, AISC, initial CAPEX, sustaining CAPEX, pre-tax IRR, pre-tax NPV, net cash flows and recovery rates, the impact of self-mining versus contract mining, the timing to obtain necessary permits, the submission of the project for final investment approval and the timing of initial gold production after investment approval and full financing, metallurgy and processing expectations, the mineral resource estimate, expectations regarding the ability to expand the mineral resource through future drilling, ongoing work to be conducted at the Western Nevada Basin(Railroad Valley), and the potential results of such efforts, the potential commissioning of a Pre-Feasibility study and the effects on timing of the project, are "forward-looking statements." Although the Company's management believes that such forward-looking statements are reasonable, it cannot guarantee that such expectations are, or will be, correct. These forward-looking statements involve a number of risks and uncertainties, which could cause the Company's future results to differ materially from those anticipated. Potential risks and uncertainties include, among others, interpretations or reinterpretations of geologic information, unfavorable exploration results, inability to obtain permits required for future exploration, development or production, general economic conditions and conditions affecting the industries in which the Company operates; the uncertainty of regulatory requirements and approvals; fluctuating mineral and commodity prices, final investment approval and the ability to obtain necessary financing on acceptable terms or at all. Additional information regarding the factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from these forward-looking statements is available in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended September 30th, 2015 . The Company assumes no obligation to update any of the information contained or referenced in this press release.

Oroplata Resources, Inc.

170 S Green Valley Parkway, Suite 300

Henderson, NV

89012

+1-702-318-7218
English Icelandic

Marel Q2 2016 Results

(All amounts in EUR)



Record revenue and robust operational performance

 Revenue for Q2 2016 totaled 264.2m [Q2 2015: 218.3m]. On a pro forma basis, revenue in Q2 2015 was 253.1m.

 EBITDA for Q2 2016 was 48.4m or 18.3% of revenue [Q2 2015: Adj. EBITDA** 37.2m or 17.1% of revenue]. Pro forma adj. EBITDA** Q2 2015 was 47.7m or 18.9% of revenue.

 EBIT* for Q2 2016 was 39.7m or 15.0% of revenue [Q2 2015: Adj. EBIT** 29.7m or 13.6% of revenue]. Pro forma adj. EBIT** in Q2 2015 was 38.4m or 15.2% of revenue.

 Net result for Q2 2016 was 22.1m [Q2 2015: 19.5m]. Earnings per share were 3.09 euro cents in Q2 2016 [Q2 2015: 2.71 euro cents].

 Cash flow from operating activities before interest and tax in Q2 2016 was 43.7m [Q2 2015: 23.7m]. Net debt/EBITDA is 2.7x at the end of Q2 2016.

 The order book was at 306.5m at the end of Q2 2016 compared with 340.0m at the end of Q1 2016 [Q2 2015: 165.9m]. On a pro forma basis at the order book at end of Q2 2015 was 272.4m.

Q2 2016 was a good quarter for Marel with record revenue of 264 million and 15.0% EBIT*. In the first half of the year Marel saw good performance and profitability. Pro forma revenue for 1H 2016 is 498 million with pro forma EBIT* of 15.1%.



Order intake in Q2 2016 was at 231 million and year to date 485 million. Order intake of standard equipment and spare parts was strong across all industries. Market conditions for large greenfield projects in the meat and fish industries were soft in 1H while Marel Poultry has managed to secure several large projects in 1H 2016.



Cash flow from operating activities was strong and Marel continues to invest in the business to prepare for future growth and full potential. Net debt/EBITDA is 2.7x which is within the range of the targeted capital structure.



Arni Oddur Thordarson, CEO:

We are pleased with Marels second quarter results with record revenue and robust operational performance. Revenue is 264 million with 15.0% EBIT.



In 2016 we have introduced a steady flow of new innovative solutions enabling poultry, meat and fish processors to advance their business further. The cash generated from operations is strong and we are investing in the business to improve premises, tools and processes to prepare for full potential and future growth. Despite the temporary spike in investments we have continued to deleverage and strengthen financials.



Last year we saw significant organic revenue growth and increase in order intake, both for Marel and MPS. Marel increased significantly revenue and profitability in first half of 2016 with MPS on board. Long term growth prospects for Marel are promising while short term economic uncertainty has recently increased. Our target for the year is modest organic growth and an increase in operating profit between years.



Streamlining in Seattle concluded

In the first half 2015 Marel discontinued several activities such as High Speed Slicing and freezing. In the first half of 2016, Marel streamlined its operations in Seattle. Revenue and order intake from discontinued operations are 15 million lower in 1H 2016 than for same period last year.



Marel is now focusing its onboard business on innovative and standardized solutions instead of customized ad-hoc solutions and is running the business with 50 less employees going forward.

Markets

Marel is the leading global provider of advanced processing systems and services to the poultry, meat and fish industries. Marel has a commercially strong product portfolio stemming from its continuous focus on innovation and strategic acquisitions. During the first half of 2016, Marel has introduced various innovative solutions to the market that will continue to advance food processing and help Marels customers to increase value creation going forward. These projects are a mixture of new breakthrough innovations, product upgrades and incremental additions to existing machines and systems to maintain our competitive edge.

Order intake was at a strong level during the first half of 2016 across all industries and geographies and a good increase was seen in standard equipment and spare parts. Market activity has been strong in the poultry industry and Marel Poultry has secured several large projects in 1H 2016. Market conditions for large greenfield projects in the meat and fish industries have been softer during the same period. Long term growth prospects for Marel are promising while short term economic uncertainty has recently increased.

Marel Poultry

Marel Poultry had an excellent start to the year, During the first half of 2016 Marel Poultry generated 271 million in revenue and EBIT of 47.8 million (17.6% of revenue). Marel Poultry accounted for 54% of Marels revenue in 1H 2016. Projects were well distributed geographically and between different product groups and sizes, including large projects in the U.S., Hungary and China.

Marel Fish

Marel Fish generated 63.4 million in revenue and EBIT of 3.1 million (4.9% of revenue) in the first half of 2016. Marel Fish accounted for 13% of Marels revenue in 1H 2016. Large projects were at a low level in the fish industry during 1H 2016. Marel Fish managed to secure milestone sales of FleXicut solutions during the period.

Marel Fishs results are colored by streamlining actions in its onboard business in Seattle, which was concluded during Q2 2016 resulting in the reduction of 50 employees. Marel is shifting focus in its Seattle operations from customized ad-hoc solutions towards innovative high-end solutions to better serve fish processors in North America. This is a significant step towards a more streamlined and cost effective future operation in North America and is fully in line with Marel's strategy to be a full-line supplier to the poultry, meat, and fish industries. The step also represents Marel's continuous effort on refocusing its product portfolio to concentrate on areas of competitive advantage and to strengthen its market position.

Marel Meat

Marel Meat generated 159.9 million on a pro forma basis in revenue and EBIT* of 22.4 million (14.0% of revenue) in 1H 2016. Marel Meat accounted for 32.1% of Marels revenue in 1H 2016. Order intake and volume is at a good level and the pipeline is promising. Integration of Marel and MPS is on track and is going well. Sales teams have been trained to sell the whole product portfolio in meat, from primary processing to secondary processing and further processing. Marel, with MPS on board is a leading global provider in the primary and secondary processing of meat.

Financial items

Cash flow and investments

Marel returned a strong cash flow from operations with operational cash flow before interest and tax being 43.7 million for Q2 2016 compared with 23.7 million at Q2 2015.

Marel continues to invest in the business to prepare for future growth and full potential in line with previous communication. Investment activities are expected to be on average above depreciation level for the coming quarters. Net debt/EBITDA is 2.7x which is within the range of the targeted capital structure.

In Q2 2016, Marel sold 2.0 million treasury shares for a total amount of 2.1 million in order to fulfill its obligations according to employee stock option agreements. Marel now holds 18.1 million treasury shares.

Acquisition related items

Purchase price allocation in relation to the acquisition of MPS is recorded as provisional; the period during which adjustments are permitted is limited to 12 months from the date of acquisition. No material changes are foreseen from previous publication.

Outlook

Marel expects modest organic revenue growth and increase in EBIT* between years.

The industry that Marel operates in has a history of 4-6% annual growth and it is expected that average annual growth will remain at that level in the long term. Marels aim is to continue to grow faster than the market by leveraging its market presence and with continuous investments in innovation.

Long term growth prospects for Marel are promising while short term economic uncertainty has recently increased. Results may vary from quarter to quarter due to general economic developments, fluctuations in orders received and deliveries of larger systems.

Presentation of results, July 28, 2016

Marel will present its results at an investor meeting on Thursday, July 28, at 8:30 am (GMT), at the Companys headquarters at Austurhraun 9, Gardabaer. The meeting will also be webcasted at marel.com/webcast.

Publication days of Consolidated Financial Statements in 2016

3 rd quarter 2016 October 26, 2016

4 th quarter 2016 February 1, 2017

1 st quarter 2017 May 5, 2017

2 nd quarter 2017 July 26,2017

3 rd quarter 2017 October 25, 2017

4th quarter 2017 January 31,2018

Release of financial statements will take place after market closing on the aforementioned dates.

For further information, contact:

Audbjorg Olafsdottir, Corporate Director of Investor Relations and Communications, tel: (+354) 563 8626 / mobile: (+354) 853 8626.






CUDAHY, Wis., July 27, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Patrick Cudahy, The Home of Sweet Apple-Wood Smoked Flavor, is excited to announce their newest chef and brand ambassador, Lambeau Field Executive Chef Heath Barbato. The addition brings two Wisconsin staples together, Patrick Cudahy and the Green Bay Packers.



A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/08b1fca9-8f83-413d-a1da-ef40e6cc20a0

Barbato will be creating sizzling new bacon recipes for Patrick Cudahy, featuring a variety of all natural, sweet apple-wood smoked bacons. The flavors and aroma will be unveiled at Lambeau Fields dedicated Patrick Cudahy concession stand Pack House, which will be open on gamedays during the 2016 season. Packers fans and their Wisconsin neighbors can put their own chef skills to work when the recipes are released at www.patrickcudahy.com.

We are thrilled to have Chef Heath join the Patrick Cudahy family, as he is among the finest chefs in the state, said Bud Matthews, Senior Vice President, Patrick Cudahy. Chef Heath believes in our tradition of bringing families the quality, one-of-a-kind sweet apple-wood smoked flavor they know and love. Bacon lovers are going to love him and what he creates.

Chef Heath Barbato will also make television and event appearances in Wisconsin on behalf of Patrick Cudahy throughout the year where viewers will be able to see new and original Patrick Cudahy holiday and tailgate recipes come to life through cooking demonstrations.

I am so excited to represent a true Wisconsin staple with such rich history, said Chef Heath Barbato. I look forward to creating new recipes this season, and cant wait for all the hungry fans to taste new dishes at the Pack House concession stand at Lambeau this season.

Patrick Cudahy began the craft of smoking meats 125 years ago in Cudahy, Wisconsin where the original smokehouse is located. Meats are smoked with sweet apple-wood to deliver the same authentic flavor and everyday value as they did when Patrick first started out.

For more information about Patrick Cudahy please visit www.patrickcudahy.com or www.Facebook.com/PatrickCudahyMeats.

Patrick Cudahy is a brand of Smithfield Foods.

About Patrick Cudahy

For 125 years, families throughout the Midwest have known the name Patrick Cudahy as one they can count on for quality, value and for the unmistakable flavor of Sweet Apple Wood. Our product line includes fully cooked and traditional bacon, bacon pieces and toppings, dry sausage, pepperoni, ham, deli and sliced meats.

About Smithfield Foods

Smithfield Foods is a $14 billion global food company and the world's largest pork processor and hog producer. In the United States, the company is also the leader in numerous packaged meats categories with popular brands including Smithfield, Eckrich, Nathan's Famous, Farmland, Armour, John Morrell, Cook's, Kretschmar, Gwaltney, Curly's, Margherita, Carando, Healthy Ones, Krakus, Morliny, and Berlinki. Smithfield Foods is committed to providing good food in a responsible way and maintains robust animal care, community involvement, employee safety, environmental and food safety and quality programs. For more information, visit www.smithfieldfoods.com.
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[July 26, 2016] Big Data Deployment Efficiency Optimized By Big Memory, Say Experts at Inspur Systems and Diablo Technologies

SAN JOSE, Calif., July 26, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- As the volume and breadth of data continues to proliferate, businesses are faced with both opportunities and challenges associated with this deluge. On one hand, there is a genuine benefit to be found in leveraging growing volumes of information to plan, act and react to continuously evolving business environments. On the other hand, the amount of time, energy and resources required to collect and interpret this incoming data can easily outpace the value obtained. While turning to in-memory data processing applications built on DRAM to secure real-time analysis may help satisfy the former, the massive system memory usage required to support DRAM's extremely high performance, as well as capacity and cost restraints associated with the technology, exasperate the latter. With platforms like Apache Spark having emerged and gaining popularity among those looking to make intelligent, real-time business decisions, there is an increased need for memory capacity to enable the fastest access and most optimized system-level performance. However, using excessive numbers of servers to design around DRAM capacity constraints leads to inefficient, high-cost deployments. Instead, an approach that enables more memory per server by utilizing high-capacity NAND flash is better able to provide the unbeatable combination of business and economic value needed in Big Data environments, experts at Inspur Systems and Diablo Technologies found through close collaboration. Diablo Technologies' Memory1 is the first memory DIMM to expose NAND flash as standard application memory. This revolutionary tiered-memory solution provides the industry's highest-capaity byte-addressable memory modules. Memory1 provides significantly higher capacity than DRAM DIMMs, enabling dramatic increases in application memory per server. This provides substantial performance advantages, due to increased data locality and reduced access times. Memory1 also minimizes Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) by reducing the number of servers required to support memory-constrained applications like Apache Spark.



"Dramatically expanding the application memory available in a single server directly addresses key issues found in traditional, DRAM-only deployments for Big Data processing platforms like Apache Spark," said Maher Amer, Chief Technology Officer. "Because each server is capable of doing more work, jobs can be more efficiently handled with fewer servers, which also minimizes the associated networking and operational expenses. A tiered NAND flash approach is key to providing the benefits of real-time analysis while minimizing the expense required to collect and interpret valuable information." Additional information about how Memory1 improves Spark's Return on Investment is available by downloading the Diablo Technologies and Inspur Systems whitepaper "Igniting Apache Spark with Memory1" at http://www.inspursystems.com/downloads/Inspur%20Spark%20Whitepaper.pdf

FOLLOW DIABLO https://twitter.com/diablo_tech https://www.facebook.com/pages/Diablo-Technologies/369582183128064 ABOUT DIABLO TECHNOLOGIES Founded in 2003, Diablo is at the forefront of developing breakthrough technologies for next-generation enterprise computing. Diablo's flagship Memory1 is a first-of-its-kind memory technology that delivers four times the capacity of the largest DRAM modules. Diablo's Memory Channel Storage platform combines innovative software and hardware architectures with Non-Volatile Memory to introduce a new and disruptive generation of Solid State Storage for data-intensive applications. The Diablo leadership team has decades of experience in system architecture, chipset design, enterprise software and business development at companies including PMC-Sierra, Anobit, AT&T-Microelectronics, Bell Labs, Nortel Networks, Intel, Cisco, AMD, SEGA, Cadence Design Systems, Matrox Graphics, BroadTel Communications and ENQ Semiconductor. Learn more at http://www.diablo-technologies.com. CONTACT AGENCY:

Dan Miller

JPR Communications

818-798-1473

[email protected] Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20121108/LA08460LOGO To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/big-data-deployment-efficiency-optimized-by-big-memory-say-experts-at-inspur-systems-and-diablo-technologies-300304252.html SOURCE Diablo Technologies

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[July 26, 2016] 4Gbit DDR4 DRAM

MILPITAS, Calif., July 26, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Integrated Silicon Solution, Inc. (ISSI), a leader in advanced memory solutions, today announced it has begun sampling production units of its new 4-gigabit (4Gbit) DDR4 DRAM. The 4Gbit DDR4 device is IS43QR16256A (IS46QR16256A for automotive grade), and it is organized as 256Mbx16, packaged in a 96-ball BGA, and operates at 1.2V. ISSI's DDR4 provides low power, high bandwidth, high performance and high reliability needed for leading edge networking, automotive, and industrial systems. This is the first DDR4 DRAM from ISSI, and adds to ISSI's extensive selection of DRAMs. ISSI is offering the DDR4 with the long lifecycle product support required by customer applications in Automotive, Industrial, Communications, and other market segments. "Today's networking systems constantly need higher bandwidth due to tremendous growt in network traffic; and higher (Industrial) temperature support. Industrial and Automotive customers are also seeking more data throughput, along with high reliability and a wide range of temperature support for rugged applications," said Anand Bagchi, Director of Strategic Marketing at ISSI.



"Many of the applications are adopting DDR4 not only because of increased data throughput with lower power, but also due to the new features in DDR4 like CRC for error detection and Boundary Scan that add data integrity and reliability," said Chuck McLaren, Director of DRAM Marketing at ISSI. In addition to the new DDR4, ISSI offers a broad line of SDR, mobile SDR/DDR, DDR, DDR2, and DDR3 products, 256Kb-4Gb automotive grade flash memory products as well as a comprehensive line of asynchronous and synchronous SRAMs with densities from 64Kb to 72Mb, and analog & mixed signal products. And ISSI supports a range of Known Good Die (KGD) devices in its portfolio.

About Integrated Silicon Solution, Inc. ISSI is a fabless semiconductor company that designs and markets high performance integrated circuits for the following key markets: (i) automotive, (ii) communications, (iii) industrial/medical, and (iv) digital consumer. The Company's primary products are high speed and low power SRAM and low, medium, and high density DRAM. The Company also designs and markets Serial/Parallel NOR and SLC NAND Flash Products and high performance analog and mixed signal integrated circuits. ISSI is headquartered in Silicon Valley with worldwide offices in Taiwan, Japan, Singapore, China, Europe, Hong Kong, India, and Korea. Visit our web site at http://www.issi.com/ Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160726/393166LOGO To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/4gbit-ddr4-dram-300304290.html SOURCE Integrated Silicon Solution, Inc.

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[July 26, 2016] Children's Hospital Los Angeles is Tech-Savvy, and that Makes Our Patients Safer and Staff More Efficient

In an age of smartphone notifications, instant messaging and Siri-like digital assistants, it makes sense for your doctor to be able to quickly see and securely share your child's health information with those who need it the most, including you. Children's Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA), a nationally-ranked pediatric academic medical center, has achieved two important electronic medical records (EMR) milestones for providing that high level of automation and transparency for patients and medical staff. CHLA's entire suite of outpatient services has been certified as Stage 6 on the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) Ambulatory EMR Adoption Model (EMRAM), a global benchmark measuring how far and how well hospitals implement digital record-keeping tools. While CHLA achieved HIMSS Stage 6 for inpatient services in December, outpatient certifications are more rarely awarded; in that category, only four children's hospitals in the country have reached Stage 6 or 7, the highest levels attainable, and CHLA is the only pediatric facility in Southern California to do so. "Reaching HIMSS Stage 6 on both inpatient and outpatient sides means we have closed the technology loop on the continuum of care our hospital offers," says CHLA Vice President and Chief Information Officer T.J. Malseed. "This makes the outpatient experience more valuable - not only can crucial health information about our infants, children and teens be documented and distributed in a short visit; doctors can receive auto-reminders for patients, such as a need for a booster shot." Malseed says the IT infrastructure now in place also facilitates the workflow between hospital departments - for example, doctors and nurses can place certain orders digitally, which eliminates the need for handwritten prescriptions and phone referrals, reducing booking delays and chance for error. Meanwhile, Children's Hospital Los Angeles has also been recognized in the 18th Annual Health Care's Most Wired survey, released by the American Hospital Association's Health Forum. CHLA is just one of 15 children's hospitals nationwide to make the 2016 Most Wired rankings, placing it in the top 20 percent of all healthcare facilities for its pace of technology adoption. "Receiving the Most Wired designation is especially meaningful because their scale is a moving target wit constantly advancing benchmarks," says Malseed. "Everyone sees the value in technology and how it can improve quality outcomes, but being Most Wired means you are keeping ahead of the curve. Our patients are safer because of Children's Hospital Los Angeles' commitment to EMR."



Some of the criteria CHLA fulfilled to make this list include accepting patient-generated data through an online patient portal, offering telemedicine consults in certain clinics, and using intrusion detection systems to monitor and prevent cybersecurity attacks. To make the Most Wired list, organizations must meet specific requirements in four areas: infrastructure; business and administrative management; clinical quality and safety; and clinical integration between ambulatory services, physicians, patients and community partners. If any advanced capability requirements are not met, the organization does not receive a Most Wired designation.

CHLA will be honored for its Ambulatory Stage 6 certification at the HIMSS17 conference in February 2017. The Most Wired award results are published in the July issue of Hospital & Health Networks. About Children's Hospital Los Angeles Children's Hospital Los Angeles has been named the best children's hospital in California and among the top 10 in the nation for clinical excellence with its selection to the prestigious U.S. News & World Report Honor Roll. Children's Hospital is home to The Saban Research Institute, one of the largest and most productive pediatric research facilities in the United States. Children's Hospital is also one of America's premier teaching hospitals through its affiliation since 1932 with the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California. For more information, visit CHLA.org. Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn, or visit our blog: CHLA.org/BLOG. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160726006589/en/

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[July 27, 2016] Global Study Reveals Businesses and Countries Vulnerable Due to Shortage of Cybersecurity Talent

Intel (News - Alert) Security, in partnership with the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), has just released Hacking the Skills Shortage, a global report outlining the talent shortage crisis impacting the cybersecurity industry across both companies and nations. A majority of respondents (82 percent) admit to a shortage of cybersecurity skills, with 71 percent of respondents citing this shortage as responsible for direct and measureable damage to organizations whose lack of talent makes them more desirable hacking targets. "A shortage of people with cybersecurity skills results in direct damage to companies, including the loss of proprietary data and IP," said James A. Lewis, senior vice president and director of the Strategic Technologies Program at CSIS. "This is a global problem; a majority of respondents in all countries surveyed could link their workforce shortage to damage to their organization." In 2015, 209,000 cybersecurity jobs went unfilled1 in the United States alone. Despite 1 in 4 respondents confirming their organizations have lost proprietary data as a result of their cybersecurity skills gap, there are no signs of this workforce shortage abating in the near-term. Respondents surveyed estimate an average of 15 percent of cybersecurity positions in their company will go unfilled by 2020. With the increase in cloud, mobile computing and the Internet of Things, as well as advanced targeted cyberattacks and cyberterrorism across the globe, the need for a stronger cybersecurity workforce is critical. "The security industry has talked at length about how to address the storm of hacks and breaches, but government and the private sector haven't brought enough urgency to solving the cybersecurity talent shortage," said Chris Young, senior vice president and general manager of Intel Security (News - Alert) Group. "To address this workforce crisis, we need to foster new education models, accelerate the availability of training opportunities, and we need to deliver deeper automation so that talent is put to its best use on the frontline. Finally, we absolutely must diversify our ranks." The demand for cybersecurity professionals is outpacing the supply of qualified workers, with highly technical skills the most in need across all countries surveyed. In fact, skills such as intrusion detection, secure software development and attack mitigatin were found to be far more valued than softer skills including collaboration, leadership and effective communication.



This report studies four dimensions that comprise the cybersecurity talent shortage, which include: 1. Cybersecurity Spending: The size and growth of cybersecurity budgets reveals how countries and companies prioritize cybersecurity. Unsurprisingly, countries and industry sectors that spend more on cybersecurity are better placed to deal with the workforce shortage, which according to 71 percent of respondents, has resulted in direct and measureable damage to their organization's security networks.

2. Education and Training: Only 23 percent of respondents say education programs are preparing students to enter the industry. This report reveals non-traditional methods of practical learning, such as hands-on training, gaming and technology exercises and hackathons, may be a more effective way to acquire and grow cybersecurity skills. More than half of respondents believe that the cybersecurity skills shortage is worse than talent deficits in other IT professions, placing an emphasis on continuous education and training opportunities. 3. Employer Dynamics: While salary is unsurprisingly the top motivating factor in recruitment, other incentives are important in recruiting and retaining top talent, such as training, growth opportunities and reputation of the employer's IT department. Almost half of respondents cite lack of training or qualification sponsorship as common reasons for talent departure. 4. Government Policies: More than three-quarters (76 percent) of respondents say their governments are not investing enough in building cybersecurity talent. This shortage has become a prominent political issue as heads of state in the U.S., U.K., Israel and Australia have called for increased support for the cybersecurity workforce in the last year. Recommendations for Moving Forward: Redefine minimum credentials for entry-level cybersecurity jobs: accept non-traditional sources of education

Diversify the cybersecurity field

Provide more opportunities for external training

Identify technology that can provide intelligent security automation

Collect attack data and develop better metrics to quickly identify threats For more information on these findings, along with Intel Security's proposed recommendations, read the full report: Hacking the Skills Shortage: A study of the international shortage in cybersecurity skills. Methodology Intel commissioned independent technology market research specialist Vanson Bourne to undertake the research upon which this report is based. IT decision-makers who are involved in cybersecurity within their organization were interviewed in May 2016 across the U.S. (200), U.K. (100), France (100), Germany (100), Australia (75), Japan (75), Mexico (75) and Israel (50). The respondents were from organizations with at least 500 employees, and came from within both public and private sectors. Interviews were conducted online using a rigorous multilevel screening process to ensure that only suitable candidates had the opportunity to participate. About Intel Security Intel Security, with its McAfee (News - Alert) product line, is dedicated to making the digital world safer and more secure for everyone. Intel Security is a division of Intel Corporation. Learn more at www.intelsecurity.com. 1Ariha Setalvad, "Demand to fill cybersecurity jobs booming," Peninsula Press, March 31, 2015 http://peninsulapress.com/2015/03/31/cybersecurity-jobs-growth/ Intel and the Intel logo are trademarks of Intel Corporation in the United States and other countries. *Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160727005460/en/

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Perhaps they see him as on their side. I believe many of his supporters are just fed up with politics as usual, and want to d0 s0mething, anything, to shake things up. But you don't throw out the baby with the bath water.

Speaking of which, did you see that Trump just asked to throw a crying baby out of his rally? You're supposed to kiss them, not kick them...
Hey, gang!

I'm in Beverly Hills for the summer TV press tour (another one! Already!), which only just got started yesterday with Netflix. Today and tomorrow are PBS.

Right now, there are presentations for a cutesy new PBS cartoon with a lot of singing fish in it, sooooo I've sneaked away to a quiet corner for most of our chat, but at some point I may need to move into another session, which may mean an interruption. Bear with me.

Let's get to it.
Editor's note: This story was originally published at the start of the Democratic National Convention in July. With Election Day almost here, it's worth taking another look at where you should be investing under a President Clinton. Also, check out what Hillary Clinton's policies would mean for the U.S. economy.

If you think Hillary Clinton's headed to the White House, maybe you should bet on it. That's not really possible in the United States, of course, but you can always buy stocks instead.

We've put together a portfolio of 15 stocks experts think should do well under a Clinton presidency. So, the more it looks like she might be elected, the more lift these stocks should get. The markets have already responded to her comments on the campaign trail on more than one occasion.

Each week until the election, we'll be checking back in with the portfolio, measuring the performance of each of these investments, which, in turn, could also give us some indication of Clinton's chances. We've included a chart measuring the stock's performance since Clinton announced her candidacy on April 12, 2015. We'll continue to update the charts and our analysis of the portfolio as the campaign progresses.

Check Out TheStreet's Donald Trump Stock Portfolio: Bullish on Trump winning the White House? Bet on it!

HCA Holdings (HCA)

Performance since Clinton announced on April 12, 2015 through July 25, 2016, the start of the Democratic National Convention: +2.70%

HCA Holdings is a for-profit health care services company that operates hospitals and other related facilities.

Clinton has pledged to defend and build on the Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare. Adjustments to make the system work better, and the possibility of more states accepting Medicaid expansion under incentives supported by Clinton, would likely benefit hospitals. This is especially true of HCA Holdings, which has numerous hospitals and surgery centers in states like Florida, Georgia and Tennessee that have thus far held out on accepting Medicaid expansion.

Aetna (AET)

Performance since Clinton announced on April 12, 2015 through July 25, 2016, the start of the Democratic National Convention: +11.63%

The company would benefit from a Clinton presidency on two fronts: in the Obamacare exchanges (which under her would likely be fixed), and in Medicare Advantage (a substitute for parts of original Medicare that is likely to expand). Especially if its planned acquisition of Humana (HUM) goes through.

SolarCity (SCTY)

Performance since Clinton announced on April 12, 2015 through July 25, 2016, the start of the Democratic National Convention: -52.84%

Clinton's campaign platform includes setting a series of national goals, including 500 million solar panels installed and generating enough renewable energy to power every home in America, to curb climate change and promote clean energy. If she were to make progress, it would mean good things for companies in solar. Elon Musk's SolarCity has already executed projects for government clients in states like Connecticut, California and Maryland.

Renewable Energy Group (REGI)

Performance since Clinton announced on April 12, 2015 through July 25, 2016, the start of the Democratic National Convention: -4.61%

Renewable Energy Group produces biofuels and develops renewable chemicals.

Clinton is a proponent of the Renewable Fuel Standard, which requires a minimum blend of biofuels in gasoline. She has also pledged to reduce American oil consumption by a third, which would almost certainly be good for biofuels. Ames, Iowa-based Renewable Energy Group could get a boost from such initiatives.

Aecom (ACM)

Performance since Clinton announced on April 12, 2015 through July 25, 2016, the start of the Democratic National Convention: +6.56%

Aecom provides professional engineering, consulting and project management services for infrastructure projects.

It pulled in more than 5,000 government contracts in 2015 valued at $2.6 billion, and if Clinton were able to boost federal infrastructure investment as much as she pledges to on the campaign trail, it might very well see that increase. The former secretary of state has said she would increase investment by $275 billion over a five-year period and create a $25 billion infrastructure bank to support critical infrastructure improvements.

Goldman Sachs (GS)

Performance since Clinton announced on April 12, 2015 through July 25, 2016, the start of the Democratic National Convention: -18.01%

Goldman Sachs has been a sore spot for Clinton the campaign trail, with her foes on both the left and the right critiquing paid speeches she gave at the firm. Even though the former first lady has said she would get tough on Wall Street in the White House, it is unlikely she would really go after Goldman and others all that hard. Moreover, the degree of certainty Clinton represents compared to her opponent, Donald Trump, might help bankers wary of market volatility sleep at night.

Walmart (WMT)

Performance since Clinton announced on April 12, 2015 through July 25, 2016, the start of the Democratic National Convention: -8.87%

Clinton has said that as president she will support raising the federal minimum wage to $12 and that where it can be raised to $15, it should be. While such a maneuver would mean many companies would have to increase wages, it would also put more money into consumers' pockets. According to an analysis from S&P Capital IQ, large retailers like Walmart and competitor Target are well-positioned to absorb wage hikes and would benefit from lower-income consumers having more to spend in their stores.

L-3 Communications Holdings (LLL)

Performance since Clinton announced on April 12, 2015 through July 25, 2016, the start of the Democratic National Convention: +17.46%

L-3 Communications Holdings focuses on integrated space communications system design and production, including command and control, communications, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance systems and products.

On the campaign trail, Clinton has repeatedly called for increased surveillance, in the wake of the June Orlando attack demanding an "intelligence surge" to bolster capabilities. As a U.S. senator, she voted for the Patriot Act in 2001 and its reauthorization in 2006. S&P Capital IQ's analysis predicts Clinton's increased focus on surveillance would be a boon for L-3 Communications.

CACI International (CACI)

Performance since Clinton announced on April 12, 2015 through July 25, 2016, the start of the Democratic National Convention: +8.02%

CACI International provides information solutions and services in support of national security missions and government transformation.

According to S&P's analysis, companies specializing in federal information technology, including CACI International, would benefit from a Clinton presidency. It also notes CACI's $13 billion business backlog, suggesting future growth.

United States Steel Corporation (X)

Performance since Clinton announced on April 12, 2015 through July 25, 2016, the start of the Democratic National Convention: -14.40%

In April 2016, U.S. Steel filed a complaint with the International Trade Commission alleging Chinese steel producers conspired to fix prices, steal intellectual property and falsify import labels to avoid tariffs. Clinton is likely to be more aggressive than President Obama in enforcing trade laws and leveling the global playing field, tripling the number of trade enforcement officers, cracking down on currency manipulation and standing up to abuses. This would give U.S. Steel a hand.

Netflix (NFLX)

Performance since Clinton announced on April 12, 2015 through July 25, 2016, the start of the Democratic National Convention: +32.26%

Netflix is a proponent and beneficiary of net neutrality, which requires internet service providers and government treat all internet data the same and provide no "fast lanes" for certain content providers, sites or users. Clinton has been a vocal supporter of net neutrality, which benefits content providers like Netflix as well as startups and up-and-coming companies.

American Electric Power (AEP)

Performance since Clinton announced on April 12, 2015 through July 25, 2016, the start of the Democratic National Convention: +24.24%

According to S&P Capital IQ's analysis, American Electric Power would be positively affected in the long term by the Clean Power Plan, a policy aimed at combating global warning put forth by the Obama administration that Clinton would support and continue to push. AEP, which generated 14% of its power from its merchant coal fleet in 2014 but 62% from its regulated plants, would have to spend more money to replace its generating assets under the Clean Power Plan, which would in turn be added to its rate base.

American Electric Power is a holding in Jim Cramer's Action Alerts PLUS Charitable Trust Portfolio. See how Cramer rates the stock here. Want to be alerted before Cramer buys or sells AEP? Learn more now.

Smith & Wesson Holding Company undefined

Performance since Clinton announced on April 12, 2015 through July 25, 2016, the start of the Democratic National Convention: +122.44%

The firearm manufacturer's stock price has soared in reaction to President Obama's calls for tougher gun laws in the past, and it could very well do the same under a President Clinton, as she has also made gun reform a major plank of her platform.

Tyson Foods (TSN)

Performance since Clinton announced on April 12, 2015 through July 25, 2016, the start of the Democratic National Convention: +83.82%

Tyson, like most in the consumer staples sector, taps into the immigrant labor pool Clinton's rival, Trump, promises to crack down on in the White House. The former first lady would likely be more immigrant-friendly than her opponent, which would help food producers like Tyson keep costs down.

SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY)

Performance since Clinton announced on April 12, 2015 through July 25, 2016, the start of the Democratic National Convention: +3.43%

The SPDR S&P 500 ETF is an investment trust that tracks the S&P 500. While a Clinton presidency would by no means be a surefire assurance of market success, she would provide the sort of certainty and predictability the market generally prefers -- especially in comparison to her more volatile opponent.

Check Out TheStreet's Donald Trump Stock Portfolio: Bullish on Trump winning the White House? Bet on it!
'Star Wars: The Force Awakens' Production Company Pleads Guilty

"The British film industry has a world-renowned reputation for making exceptional films. Managing on-set risks in a sensible and proportionate way for all actors and staff  regardless of their celebrity status  is vital to protecting both on-screen and off-screen talent, as well as protecting the reputation of the industry," an HSE spokesman said July 26.

Foodles Production (UK) Ltd pleaded guilty July 26 to failing to protect actors and workers following a 2014 incident in which actor Harrison Ford was injured during the filming of "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" at London's Pinewood Studios. Foodles Production (UK) Ltd is based in London and pleaded guilty to two charges in a Magistrates Court, the Health and Safety Executive reported.

HSE announced four charges in the case in February 2016, reporting then that Ford suffered a broken leg and other injuries when he was hit by a heavy hydraulic metal door on the set June 12, 2014. The company was charged for allegedly violating Section 2 of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, Section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, Regulation 3(1) of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999, and Regulation 11(1) of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998.

"During the filming of Star Wars Episode Seven: The Force Awakens, the actor Harrison Ford was badly injured after he became trapped under a rapidly closing metal-framed door. The power of the door's drive system was comparable to the weight of a small car. This was a foreseeable incident. Foodles Production (UK) Ltd has accepted it failed to protect actors and staff, and HSE welcomes the firm's guilty plea," an HSE spokesman said July 26. "Every employer in every industry has a legal duty to manage risks in the workplace. Risks are part and parcel of everyday life, and this is acknowledged by health and safety law  but they still need to be identified and managed in a proportionate way. The British film industry has a world-renowned reputation for making exceptional films. Managing on-set risks in a sensible and proportionate way for all actors and staff  regardless of their celebrity status  is vital to protecting both on-screen and off-screen talent, as well as protecting the reputation of the industry."
Wage and Hour Division Enters Alliance with NYS Workers' Compensation Board

The alliance will better protect workers for an initial three-year term.

OSHA's Wage and Hour Division has entered an alliance with the New York State Workers' Compensation Board, according to a report.

"Our agencies share a common purpose of helping ensure proper working conditions and benefits for workers in New York. Working together and sharing resources to achieve that common purpose makes sense," said OSHA Regional Administrator Robert Kulick.

The alliance will communicate more efficiently and effectively, as well as promote New York employers' compliance with the laws administered by each agency. Some of the elements of the agreement include: cross-training of agencies' staffs, providing employers and employees with compliance assistance information, and conducting joint investigations.

"We look forward to working with our partners. Our combined efforts will enhance our own resources and ensure increased compliance by employers throughout the state," said Wage and Hour District Director Jay I. Rosenblum.
Many of Hillary Clinton's university classmates have traveled to Philadelphia to witness her historic Democratic presidential nomination, including Nancy Wanderer, who recounts how the candidate caught the political bug at Wellesley in the 1960s. Clinton was elected student body president at the prestigious all-women's college near Boston in 1968. In the years since, she has regularly attended class reunions, providing her former classmates a privileged peek into the development of the woman who seeks to make history as the 45th president of the United States. Wanderer and Clinton spent four years at the school and graduated in 1969. Today, Wanderer is 68 and a professor emerita of law at the University of Maine. She is also a delegate to this week's Democratic National Convention, where she took questions from AFP. Q: Was Clinton politically active in her early years at Wellesley? A: "Yes, she was. She came with a very strong service orientation, that she attributes to her Methodist upbringing. Wellesley's motto, 'Non Ministrari sed Ministrare', means 'Not to be ministered unto but to minister,' and she took it very, very seriously. "We were all very close to the five African-American students (seeking) to educate the Wellesley admission office and administration about getting more minority students on campus. In those days, they put roommates together by race and religion. That was a really important endeavor and Hillary was really involved in it in a supportive way. "Her reputation was as very serious -- not humorless, but a serious person who was not there for... fraternity parties and having a lot of drinking." Q: With the Vietnam war raging, 1968 was a turbulent, even violent, year on many campuses. What was Clinton's political philosophy? A: "Her brand of politics was pretty close to mine at that time. She wanted to make the world a better place, whether that was Wellesley or the whole world. "At Wellesley, she wanted to respond to the kinds of complaints that students had about restrictive social rules, or too many required courses. "She was also very concerned about civil rights. She tutored a black student in Roxbury. That's typical of Hillary: she isn't just going around and complaining about it, she's working in the community. "She was the one that I think most people imagine standing up at a rally or a protest, and leading it, and speaking and calling on people to speak. "She was a constructive leader, not a destructive leader... Hillary helped to keep it from being that kind of protest. No taking over of classrooms or blowing up bombs." Q: How did you see Clinton's public persona evolving over the years since she was the first lady of Arkansas? A: "Up until Arkansas, everything had gone well. She was just herself, she wore her hair the way she wanted, she wore her glasses, and she called herself Hillary Rodham. "And then when Bill was elected governor (in 1978), there began to be this criticism of her, every little thing about her. How she looked, the fact that she didn't take her married name. "I think to help him out for his career... she dyed her hair blonde, she lost a lot of weight, she got contact lenses, she dressed in a much more feminine way. "Once she got to the White House (in 1993), I think she still wanted to be herself. She got that assignment on health care, she looked more like the old Hillary I knew, she had a job to do. "But they just walloped her with it. Then they started to go after the two of them with Whitewater, there was Vince Foster (a lawyer and friend who later committed suicide). That's when she began to close down and become very wary of this type of scrutiny. "I think that's been her biggest problem ever since. She's afraid to just open up and be honest about things, because over the years she's learned that it just gets twisted and turned against her. So her first instinct is to pull back and to not be so open. She's an introvert."
Reuters

The Indian rupee advanced on Friday as the dollar fell and Treasury yields recoiled on signs of a softening U.S. economy, which bolstered views that the Federal Reserve may opt to slow down the pace of its rate hikes. The local unit had a strong showing on Thursday but dollar demand from importers and foreign banks pushed it to close at 82.49, well off its session high. For the day, the rupee was tracing the dollar and would "likely hold this range as we head to next week ... packed with the Fed, Bank of England and now added Reserve Bank of India (RBI) meeting," said Gaurang Somaiya, forex analyst at Motital Oswal Financial Services.
French President Francois Hollande sought Wednesday to head off religious tensions after the jihadist murder of a Catholic priest in his church, while his government tried to fend off criticism over security failings. Hollande met top religious leaders as a violence-weary France mourned Tuesday's attack, which came less than two weeks after a truck ploughed through a crowd enjoying a Bastille Day fireworks display, killing 84 people in the southern city of Nice. In a boost for the embattled government, a police internal affairs probe said the security contingent on the night of the Nice attack was "not undersized". But questions raised over that attack only intensified when two men stormed into a church in the northern town of Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray during morning mass Tuesday and slit the 86-year-old priest's throat at the altar. Another man was left seriously injured in the attack. One of the attackers was identified as French jihadist Adel Kermiche, 19, who was awaiting trial on terror charges and had been fitted with an electronic tag despite calls from the prosecutor for him not to be released. Dalil Boubakeur, the head of France's Muslim community described the attack as a "blasphemous sacrilege which goes against all the teachings of our religion". Residents of Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray were struggling to come to terms with the bloodshed in their small town, so far from France's tourist hubs. They made their way to a makeshift memorial to lay flowers, candles and messages of peace -- a ritual that has become chillingly familiar from Brussels and Paris to Nice and Munich, all cities that have been struck by attackers inspired by the Islamic State group. "This is a super anonymous place," said Moustapha Doucene, a neighbour of Kermiche, adding he expected terror attacks "in the big cities." - 'A war of religions' - Kermiche and his accomplice entered the centuries-old stone church of Saint Etienne, taking hostage the priest, Jacques Hamel, three nuns and two worshippers. One nun managed to flee and alert police. The two jihadists were gunned down by police after leaving the church and three other hostages were unharmed. Prime Minister Manuel Valls has warned that the goal of the attack, claimed by Islamic State jihadists, was to "set the French people against each other, attack religion in order to start a war of religions". In an editorial, Le Monde newspaper recalled a key strategy of IS, to eradicate the so-called "grey zone" in which Muslims live peacefully alongside other religions, making it so uncomfortable for them to do so that they are forced to join ranks with the jihadists. "France comes under attack because it is made up of one of the biggest Muslim communities in Europe. The jihadists' aim is to provoke violent revenge attacks that will create a religious war in our country," wrote the daily. Pope Francis said "the world is at war" but argued that religion was not the cause. "When I speak of war I speak of wars over interests, money, resources, not religion. All religions want peace, it's the others who want war." - Big beach bags banned - Hollande also met his defence and security chiefs, who tried to find new ways to reassure a jittery population as his government comes under fire from the opposition over the repeated attacks, some nine months ahead of a presidential election. Defence Minister Jean Yves Le Drian said the 10,000-member Sentinelle military force -- deployed after an attack in January 2015 -- would be spread out more in areas outside Paris. Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve vowed that events taking place across the country over the summer months, in which the majority of French people flock to holiday spots, would take place under tight security. He said local government officials should cancel events "if conditions do not allow for optimal security". The Riviera city of Cannes, just down the coast from Nice, banned sunseekers from bringing large bags to the beach "which could conceal ... weapons or explosive substances." - 'Where are the police?' - The government, already under pressure after the Nice attack, faced more questions over security weaknesses after it emerged one of the church attackers was known to anti-terror investigators. Paris prosecutor Francois Molins said Kermiche twice tried to travel to Syria under a false identity. After his latest arrest in Turkey in May 2015, he was held in custody until March this year when he was released and fitted with the electronic bracelet. Annie Geslin, who worked with Kermiche's mother for many years, told AFP "he was the youngest child and had psychological problems but I don't know more than that." Mohammed Karabila, who heads the regional council of Muslim worship for Haute Normandie, where the church attack took place, asked simply: "How could a person wearing an electronic bracelet carry out an attack? Where are the police?"
Turkey issued arrest warrants Wednesday for 47 former staff of the Zaman newspaper, an official said, in a growing crackdown on citizens suspected of links to alleged coup mastermind Fethullah Gulen. The official, declining to be named, said the swoop covers "executives and some staff including columnists", describing Zaman as the "flagship media organisation" of the movement led by Gulen, a US-based preacher. In March, Zaman and its sister English-language newspaper Today's Zaman were taken over by state-appointed administrators and it has since taken a strongly pro-government line. The official insisted the warrants were not related to what individual columnists had previously said or written. But "prominent employees of Zaman are likely to have intimate knowledge of the Gulen network and as such could benefit the investigation", the official explained. In the attempted coup of July 15, renegade soldiers sought to topple President Recep Tayyip Erdogan but were stopped by crowds of civilians and loyalist security forces. At least 270 people were killed on both sides. The failed power grab sent shockwaves through Turkish life, and 13,000 people have since been detained. More than 9,000 of them have been placed in custody ahead of trial over the coup, which the Turkish authorities blame on reclusive Pennsylvania-based cleric Gulen. He strongly denies Ankara's accusations and demanded Tuesday that the United States resists demands for his extradition. "Turkey's president is blackmailing the United States," he wrote in a New York Times opinion piece. - Ex-editors wanted - The swoop on newspaper staff came after authorities on Monday issued another 42 arrest warrants for journalists, including prominent veteran reporters. London-based rights group Amnesty International said that they represented a "draconian clampdown on freedom of expression". Among those wanted in the new set of warrants are former Zaman editor-in-chief Abdulhamit Bilici, and former Today's Zaman editor-in-chief and columnist Bulent Kenes, according to the Hurriyet newspaper. Kenes was previously accused of insulting Erdogan in a series of tweets in late 2015. Several former Zaman staff are believed to be outside the country following the March takeover of the newspaper. A major shake-up of the Turkish armed forces is expected to be announced on Thursday when the country's Supreme Military Council meets. With 143 generals and more than 3,000 soldiers arrested on suspicion of links to the coup, there are gaping holes in the command structure which will have to be filled. Erdogan is also set to visit Russia on August 9 to repair ties harmed by the downing of a Russian warplane by Turkish jets last year, officials said Tuesday, in an apparent sign of Turkey's post-coup diplomatic strategy.
In a new development linked to the 1MDB corruption scandal, a former Hong Kong-based investment fund is suing Goldman Sachs for conflict of interest in advising a 2011 Malaysian bank merger. Primus Pacific Partners said Tuesday that Goldman and its then managing director in Southeast Asia, Tim Leissner, concealed its close relationship with Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak when the bank was recruited to advise EON Capital, partly owned by Primus, in its $1.7 billion sale to Malaysia's Hong Leong Bank (HLB). Najib "had close family and business ties with HLB" giving him an interest in the success of HLB's takeover of EON, Primus charged in a statement. At the same time that Goldman was advising EON on the merger, though, the New York investment bank was also the key advisor to 1MDB, the government investment fund established and chaired by Najib. Goldman used its role advising EON to "secretly curry favor with the Prime Minister by using the (EON) board's confidential information" to help Hong Leong's bid for EON, it said. Goldman allegedly convinced EON's board that Hong Leong's bid was fair, "even though Goldman Sachs knew that the bid in fact was well below the fair intrinsic value of the company." Primus, which held 20 percent of EON at the time, asked a New York court to award it $510 million for fraud and breach of fiduciary duty by Goldman Sachs. That includes $170 million for what Primus said Goldman's alleged misconduct cost it in the deal, and another $340 million in punitive damages. The lawsuit came after a move by US authorities to seize $1 billion in properties bought with money allegedly siphoned off from 1MDB, which placed a spotlight on Goldman Sachs' role in the burgeoning scandal. With Leissner its main contact with the Malaysian authorities, Goldman had raised billions of dollars for 1MDB. One month after he left Goldman, in March Leissner was subpoenaed by the US Justice Department in its investigation into the scandal. Goldman said it would fight the lawsuit, noting that Primus had lost a 2011 legal challenge to the merger in Malaysian courts. "This plaintiff previously lost its challenge in the Malaysian courts seeking to stop a transaction involving a Malaysian company, which was then approved by shareholders. We will vigorously contest this misguided additional lawsuit in New York court," it said in a statement.
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The maker movement started to gain major awareness a few years ago, but it is a movement that has been going on for a long time. Most cultures have innovation and creativity in their DNA and making something by hand is part of how you solve a physical problem or need.

Its been a while since I previously compiled a list of 29 places to sell your handmade creations. As the saying goes, time flies, and I decided it was time to revisit the topic by providing another 20 sites and resources for selling craft and homemade items.

A quick note: There are many general eCommerce platforms to help artists, crafters and makers, but the goal of this post is to share marketplaces and solutions that focus on this niche. More clearly, Im not profiling all of the eCommerce leaders like BigCommerce, Shopify, and others. (Ive done that with 68 eCommerce and shopping carts for small business along with 19 new eCommerce additions. )



20 Places for Selling Craft and Homemade Items

Meylah allows indie artisans to create a social storefront. More interesting is how they have built it with a community focus. Individual neighborhoods or marketplaces can build an online community with individual merchants in it. For example, the Sammamish Chamber of Commerce built one and it highlights the community first, then you can walk into an individual store or offer.

Another example of this community first approach can be found in almost every U.S. State. You can search for handmade marketplace [michigan]  obviously insert your state. Youll get a great list and thats how I found Handmade Detroit, which offers a Google Map that shows craft stores, resources and more for DIY types. West Virginia has The West Virginia Handmade Marketplace.

Foodies and farmers will want to do the same type of search farmers markets [insert state]. Nearly every state has something to help you find farmers markets, food festivals and healthy food providers. Using Michigan as an example again: Michigan Farmers Market Association. Frequent contributor to Small Business Trends, Robert Brady, points out there are some specialty providers like the Grass Fed Beef Directory for consumers looking for organic or healthier meats. But you can also list your farm.

Sourcing Handmade is a boutique consulting firm that specializes in helping artisans get their products into retail stores. And the reverse, to help retail shops find great new products that will become strong sellers.

Crafters Town lets you build your own store, but also curates shops into collections and storefronts so that consumers can easily browse.

ToSouk is similar to Crafters Town but adds the vintage and collectables focus alongside handmade items.

The Craft Star is a handmade boutique collection of indie storefronts. They offer a flat $5 per month fee (instead of a listing fee), but has a transaction fee.

Goodsmiths states that it is a marketplace for makers. They have no listing fees, but also charge transaction fees. The site is believable with store owner testimonials. There is a free forever version, then premium paid accounts.

The Indie Business Network is a great resource and membership site. It offers a membership directory in addition to lots of education for indie artisans and product creators. I like their Pinterest board and pins which go direct to member sites.

Artulis is focused on helping the UK artisan, craftsperson and vintage product creator to market their wares. They have a craft forum and offer lots of advice to help their sellers succeed.

Jumping to the foodie front again, if you love indie, artisan-made food, then you have to visit Mouth. They started as New York Mouth to highlight locally made foods and then decided that online local could include many more local hotspots for good food. Great site and products. To be clear, they pick the products they will accept in their marketplace, so in that way they differ from most of these services. But if you have an established, stellar food product, you will want to consider sending in a sample. But you can also get ideas for how to market your own products by following their lead.

Hat tip to The Kitchn for a blog post that listed out a number of artisanal foodie marketplaces (some of which I included in my last post so I did not repeat them here).

The GLCmall is a collection of craft stores. You can create a basic store for free with no monthly fees or commissions or setup fees (up to 12 items).

If you are a hatmaker or just love hats, then That Way Hat is a site you will enjoy. They offer a free listing in their directory and a premium = level listing, too. Flows in a Pinterest-like format.

ShopHandmade is a totally free marketplace based on members and buyers who want to contribute, as in donate, funds to keep the community venture going strong. Interesting model, for sure. Elegant website design, too.

ArtsyCrafters has an admirable mission: To help our fellow disabled artisans present their work to a broader marketplace. We showcase their abilities and talents while also connecting them with others who share our special challenges. The site promises to handle many of the day-to-day operational tasks of running a business so the artist/maker can focus on their craft.

BigCartel looks like a huge eCommerce provider, but they have a solid focus on the handmade indie shop owner. They have a light free plan that will probably work for most indie artisans. Worth a look.

Ruby Lane has a terrific name that makes you want to stroll through their shops. They have built their niche in vintage products and have a number of handmade makers in their midst, although you will also find vintage products from collectors as well.

FarmMade lets you buy and sell, well, products that come from a farm. Great niche focus and well designed site. It is $5/month and five percent commission on all products sold through the site.

You can create your own shop, what they call a showroom, on ezebee. The site is well-designed and captures the eye. They have several unique offerings, including their own currency modeled, it appears, after BitCoin: We also offer BeeCoins, our internal currency. BeeCoins are easy to use and a great way to sell more easily to international shoppers. Based in Switzerland, they operate in multiple languages, as you might expect.

Last item: If you are selling at physical markets in your local area, do not forget to look at Square, Stripe or Intuits GoPayment card readers that connect to your smartphone or iPad. Some work with the Nexus 10 (Im a huge fan of Googles tablet). These tiny card readers allow you to process payments on-the-fly  and in the case of Square  it is pretty affordable with a flat-rate of 2.75 percent per swipe.

If you have been watching the maker movement, now is your time to start an indie business. Handmade products are in high demand. But perhaps not all of them, so do your research. There are many local physical marketplaces starting to shift their focus to handmade goods.

How are you marketing and selling craft and homemade products?
If one of your customers left your business unsatisfied or even a little ticked, theres a good chance you  and the rest of world  may never hear about it.

Yes, in a world where its so easy to spout off and drag your business through the mud on social media or with an online review, about 67 percent of consumers say theyll stay silent on a bad experience with a local merchant. Thats the finding from a series of surveys conducted by GetFiveStars.com and its founder Mike Blumenthal.

The same study  taken from a survey of 365 consumers  found that only 34.5 percent will actually complain about a bad experience theyve had at a local merchant. Worried about your online reputation? The complaints will likely be filed in person. Only 12.6 percent of those responding say that theyd write a bad review of the business online  and, of course, never go back.

More than a quarter of the more than 300 asked  28.8 percent, specifically  say theyd remain quiet after a bad experienced but never go back to the place again. And another 24.1 percent say theyd not only remain silent about the poor customer service theyd received. They would likely give the place another try.

So, can this apparent reluctance on the part of dissatisfied customers to tell you, others they no or the whole internet about a bad experience they had wit your business be looked at as a good thing  even if it means, in some cases, you will never see them again? Hardly, says Blumenthal.

The Benefit of Asking for Customer Feedback

In fact, he says, you should be asking for feedback from your customers. After all, if youve delivered a bad experience and the customer never says a word, how can you prevent it from happening  and again ad again?

Youre not asking for complaints, youre asking for feedback. Ask every customer for feedback, Blumenthal said in an interview with Small Business Trends. Most small businesses never ask.

In fact, Blumenthal insists that, in the long run, inviting feedback  including complaints  could actually benefit your business. Its just a matter of phrasing the solicitation for feedback in the right way.

He suggests using a net promoter score where customers are asked to rate their experiences at checkout from 1 to 10, for example.

The key to using feedback  positive or negative  is to take it in, decide what it all means and then use it to make your business better.
Some small businesses are still not fully tapping into the greatest marketing opportunity of our time: the Internet. Many businesses now have a website and can interact with potential consumers via desktop, but these businesses are still behind the ball because increasingly, online traffic is being conducted through mobile phones. Small businesses are missing out because they either:

a.) Do not have a mobile optimized website or

b.) Do not have a mobile application.

Last year, Google updated its search algorithm to favor mobile friendly websites for mobile Google searches. To mobile-friendly businesses, this was a good thing, but according to eMarketer, 48 percent of small businesses are not mobile optimized and their search listings on mobile have dropped as a result.

Mobile traffic is on the rise. Back in 2014, comScore reported that smartphones and tablets already accounted for at least 60 percent of all online traffic. While much of this traffic was going to social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram even at that time, an estimated 35 percent of organic website traffic came from mobile devices too. So in 2016, a small business ignoring the rising popularity of mobile would be missing out on a tremendous and growing market.

Whats more, the study concluded that 50 percent of online mobile traffic originated from mobile apps, another trend small business owners should be watching. Still, many small businesses are often afraid of the high price of a developer to build their mobile app Fortunately, there is a much more affordable option out there that many users arent aware of: do-it-yourself (DIY) application software or app creators.

More and more businesses are turning to DIY apps because they are cost effective and easy to create. DIY apps are made with drag and drop templates and do not require any specially technical skills to construct. The software can be bought with a monthly subscription that gives business owners access to all of the softwares features.

Comparing some of the top DIY app builders, the average monthly subscription is about $62 ($744 a year), which is much cheaper than the average cost of a custom app. A custom mobile app typically requires hiring a developer who charges somewhere around $100 an hour, for a project that, at a minimum, will likely take 250 hours to complete. Thats $25,000 on the low end.

Small businesses will likely find that a DIY app is a more efficient and cost effective approach than developing a mobile friendly website. DIY apps can do everything that a web app can, including integrate with social media and eCommerce, and send push notifications. A DIY app maker can be used to create more personal interactions with customers by providing loyalty systems and rewards for customers who download the app. DIY apps are a great choice for a business with a small, but loyal client base.

Conclusion: Why You Should Consider Building a Mobile Application

It is important for small businesses to understand the value of the mobile app audience. Most trends suggest that consumers will continue to shift to mobile as their modality for surfing the internet and purchasing goods. To stay competitive, small businesses need to address this growing market and work to put mobile first.
[July 27, 2016] XLerateHealth Accelerator Announces Incoming Fourth Cohort

XLerateHealth, (www.XLerateHealth.com), a Louisville-based accelerator for early-stage healthcare companies, announced it has selected six companies to participate as part of its incoming fourth cohort. The accelerator's 13-week intensive program will begin August 1, 2016 and run until "Demo Day" on October 27, 2016. Selected companies include: eBlu Solutions (Louisville, KY) is a platform providing workflow-driven services to streamline the complex processes that specialty medical practices face while navigating a patient to treatment. Services include real-time Benefit Investigation, as well as management of Prior Authorization and manufacturer Co-Pay Assistance workflows. eBlu supports practices in providing a better patient care experience, decreasing the time to treat while mitigating the financial risks a practice faces in providing in-office infusion. http://eblusolutions.com/ Epikardis Medical (Nashville, TN) is a medical device ideation and development company. Founded by a registered nurse and a mechanical engineer, Epikardis aims to create products that carry robust clinical and financial incentives. Their first product under development is a chest tube stabilization device that is expected to enter the market in 2017. http://marcushenschen.wix.com/epikardismedical Medic-Air (Louisville, KY) is a portable cooling device designed for children who suffer from the upper airway infection known as croup. The device is easy to use and on-demand, instantly producing n ambient temperature drop of 50 degrees to help shrink the airway inflammation the virus causes.



Orthopedix (Providence, RI) is a 3D-printed orthopedic implant company that creates personalized, patient-specific implants throughout the body. The implants are individually sized and shaped to fit to each patient's unique anatomy, offering benefits not achievable with "off-the-shelf" orthopedic implants. http://www.orthopedix.net/ OR Link (Lexington, KY) OR Link is a mobile healthcare software company focused on redefining communication in and around the operating room. At its core, the unique software platform aims to simplify the process by which a surgeon's "preferences" (for everything from surgical instruments to operating room layout) are stored, shared, and utilized in real time between all the personnel in the OR. Additional features include peri-operative scheduling management and surgical education.

Solas Operations (Toronto, Canada) uses a Raman spectroscopy based diagnostic for early, non-invasive identification of gout. Solas' novel gout diagnostic is able to identify gout early in asymptomatic patients, which is superior to the other two methods currently used (ultrasound and clinical exam for diagnosis) which identifies gout only after the disease has progressed and the patient is symptomatic - which makes it much harder to treat. In addition to the Chairman & Co-Founder of XLerateHealth Robert Saunders, a seasoned venture capitalist who has worked with more than 100 startup companies over the past two decades and has mentored several healthcare startup enterprises, fellow XLerateHealth co-founders include Ted Smith, a successful healthcare entrepreneur, former Senior Advisor for Innovation in the Office of the National Coordinator in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in Washington D.C., and Jackie Willmot, who has over three decades in the healthcare innovation and startup space, spending 15 years at Humana and the past 7 years working as a Venture Consultant with healthcare startup companies. XLerateHealth has received sponsorship support from the Kentucky Cabinet for Economic Development - Office of Commercialization & Innovation, Louisville Metro Government, The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), Mountjoy Chilton Medley, Old National Bank, and ID&A Office and Interior Design. Supporting venture capital sponsors include Kentucky Enterprise Fund/KSTC (Lexington), OCA Ventures (Chicago), TriStar Ventures (Nashville), River Cities Capital (Cincinnati), and Chrysalis Ventures (Louisville). In kind sponsors include Frost Brown Todd and Argi (formerly OPM Financial). XLerateHealth's partners include Louisville's Cardiovascular Innovation Institute; Johns Hopkins Health for America; The National Space Biomedical Research Institute; and The Nucleus Innovation Center. For more information, please visit www.XLerateHealth.com. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160727005088/en/

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Smart Classroom

Stanford Learning, Design and Technology Students to Showcase Master's Projects

Students from the Stanford Graduate School of Education's Learning, Design and Technology master's program will showcase their master's projects on July 29 at the LDT Expo on the Stanford campus.

This year's LDT Expo will feature 16 projects, from web apps to teaching kits, which were developed by individuals or teams of students in the program. As part of the expo, the students will present their projects to experts, potential investors, peers and the general public.

One of the projects, called "SuperGenerational," developed by LDT students Alex Barker and Lucas Longo, is a "video-based platform designed to connect young learners with a curated network of seniors who would act as an audience and give feedback on student work," according to the news release. Barker and Longo tested a prototype of their app at a senior services agency in Palo Alto, CA, and refined it at a retirement community in Menlo Park, CA. They said they hope to partner with senior organizations to establish a network of seniors to support the network.

Another project, called "CollegePath," developed by Shelley Williamson, "provides interactive video vignettes from graduates who were the first in their families to go to college or who had good grades but doubted their college prospects," according to the news release. Williamson developed the software platform with the goal of demystifying the process of getting into college.

A third project, called "Releaf," developed by Mingming Jiang, "is a social networking application where people can seek help from their friends during stressful periods," according to the news release. Stressed out students can use the app to post anonymous messages to their existing online network of friends. The friends can then recommend a research-based coping mechanism from a list and write a personalized message, and then the stressed out student can choose whether to "love" the recommendation.

The year-long LDT master's program at Stanford is currently in its 19th year, with students entering from a variety of disciplines and professional backgrounds. The program prepares students for careers as learning technology specialists developing technological solutions to educational challenges. "Their projects are grounded in learning theories and empirical research, and then combined with human-centered design strategies," according to the news release.

"The idea is not to start with a cool technology but to start with the problems we need to address, looking at who needs help and why," said Karin Forssell, director of the LDT master's program, in a prepared statement. "Then you can use the technology as appropriate to solve real problems."
Career & Technical Education

Senate Bill Proposes Shot in Arm for CTE

Career and technical education (CTE) could get a boost if bi-partisan legislation moves ahead. Recently, United States Senators Michael Bennet (D-CO) and Orrin Hatch (R-UT) introduced a bill that would expand dual and concurrent enrollment in multiple directions. The Workforce Advance Act would allow states to invest dollars in increasing the number of courses offered and encourage school districts to bolster their CTE programs by incorporating college credit opportunities.

The move came at the same time the House Education & the Workforce Committee voted to reauthorize the Perkins Career and Technical Education Act, which forms the baseline funding for CTE in this country.

The proposed bill would encourage states to consider expanding access to CTE dual and concurrent enrollment and early college high school courses. These types of programs allow students to earn college credit while still in high school. The legislation would enable states to invest leadership dollars in expanding access and supporting teachers and districts to increase the number of courses offered.

The bill would let schools use a portion of the funding they receive through Perkins for tuition and fees for CTE college courses. It would also allow school districts to use funding to support teachers seeking credentials needed to teach those courses in their high schools. Finally, the bill would push the U.S. Department of Education to use national CTE activities to help identify best practices and approaches for providing dual or concurrent enrollment programs and early college high school CTE opportunities.

In a prepared statement, Bennet alluded to the "tens of thousands" of Colorado students who are already taking advantage of similar programs, "which has helped more of them enroll and do well in college." If passed, he said, the new legislation would allow "even more students to benefit."

Utah, as well, has created a "fast, affordable route for students to gain the skills and earn the credentials they need to compete in today's global economy," added Hatch. There students have earned more than 180,000 college-level credit hours, he said. "With each class students took, they were one step closer to finding a job or earning a college degree."

The proposed legislation awaits attention from the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor & Pensions.
Is IkoPesa legit or a scam? Everything you need to know
Itongadol.-The Health Ministry launched a program to identify an estimated 100,000 carriers of hepatitis C and gradually give them a new and very expensive drug that eradicates the deadly virus.

The ministry, which said the World Health Organization has called for the wiping out of the virus, said about 80 percent of carriers are unaware of the infection, making them able to infect others. An estimated 180 million people around the world are carriers of the virus, and some four million people are infected in an average year.

The announcement was made Tuesday, two days before World Hepatitis Day, aimed at increasing public awareness of the blood-borne infection, which can come back to haunt victims 10 or even 40 years after the initial infection.

Several drugs for different genotypes of the virus have been developed and were initially sold for $90,000 per patient. The price has since been reduced to a few tens of thousands of dollars per patient, but it is expected to decline significantly as market competition increases.

The public committee that advises the government on expanding the health basket approved in 2015 the allocation of a third of the entire sum of NIS 300 million for gradually treating HCV carriers, who after years can develop liver fibrosis, liver failure and liver cancer.

Hepatitis C is an infectious disease caused by the virus and is spread mostly through blood-to-blood contact such as transfusions (before the virus was screened out of donor blood), intravenous drug use and other means.

Numerous hemophiliacs became carriers decades ago before blood was screened, but there are still carriers who can develop the disease many years after infection.

Immigrants from the former Soviet Union, HIV carriers and kidney dialysis patients, lab technicians who worked with direct exposure to blood until the 1990s, people who had tattoos done with non-sterile equipment and children of mothers who carried the virus are also at higher risk.

The disease becomes chronic and potentially fatal in 20% to 30% of all carriers.

Donated blood began to be screened for HCV in 1992.

Its presence can be detected with a blood test. There is no vaccine against HCV, and the infection is a major cause for the need of liver transplants. Chronic infection can be cured about 90 percent of the time with treatments that include the medications sofosbuvir or simeprevir.

Shaare Zedek Medical Center Director- General Prof. Jonathan Halevy  a liver specialist who was head of the health basket committee that decided in 2015 to cover NIS 100m. worth of HCV drugs  told The Jerusalem Post that he was very pleased that a ministry campaign will begin to identify carriers, put them under medical supervision, follow up any progress of the disease and give them the pills to kill the virus when they have reached the relevant stage.

The AIDS cocktail keeps that viral disease on a back burner but does not eradicate it; the HCV drugs do wipe the virus out, said Halevy. They are the next best thing to vaccines. Five companies make the drug, which will save the lives of tens of thousands of Israelis.

Julio Borman, director of the voluntary liver health organization Hetz, which has advocated the inclusion of the drugs in the basket and screening of carriers, said he was very happy about the ministrys new program.

This is after years in which we warned of the importance of the topic. Until today, someone who discovered he was an HCV carrier found out by chance. There are many people who dont have a clue that have a serious infectious virus that requires treatment and a change in lifestyle.
Belgian milk farmer protest

REUTERS/Francois Lenoir

A former Goldman Sachs partner warned the bank to resist the pressure to "milk" Libya's $60 billion (42 billion) sovereign wealth fund in an email in 2008.

The email was cited in court by the Libyan Investment Authority's lawyer, Roger Masefield QC, in summing up the fund's case against Goldman Sachs.

The Libyan Investment Authority claims it lost more than $1 billion (750 million) on nine trades executed by Goldman Sachs in 2008 on banks such as Citigroup and UniCredit, as well as the French company EDF.

The bank made more than $200 million in profit on the trades, exploiting the LIA's relative financial naivety, according to the LIA's lawyers.

The biggest risk now is the natural internal pressure to milk' Libya," Driss Ben-Brahim, a former Goldman Sachs partner covering Libya, said in the internal email sent in July 2008 before he left the firm to join GLG.

"I expect everyone and his brother at GS to be visiting them with one brilliant idea after another, some partners will want to prove they can print business and won't have the instruments of trust," Ben-Brahim continued.

"Don't push hard to do big deals  not now  it has risk of backfiring. Do large delta 1 trades, avoid as much as possible complicated derivatives," Ben-Brahim said. His email also added, I will always use my own judgment and be fair to GS. I dont believe in all GS stands for but for most of what GS stands for. I expect to be a good ambassador even after I have left."

Goldman Sachs denied the claims. The evidence at trial has confirmed the frailty of the LIAs highly ambitious case, and has come nowhere near establishing a case of undue influence or unconscionable bargain," a spokesman for the bank said in an email. "We have always disputed the LIAs claim that it was financially illiterate and it is clear that they understood the disputed trades and entered into them of their own volition."

Story continues

goldman sachs trader patch

REUTERS/Francois Lenoir

The LIA's lawyer said the fact that Goldman Sachs hadn't called Ben-Brahim as a witness strengthened the Libyan fund's case.

"They almost certainly explain why Goldman Sachs has not called Mr. Ben-Brahim to give evidence, because Mr. Ben-Brahim could not in all honesty have supported Goldman Sachs's pleaded case that the LIA was sophisticated and capable of understanding the disputed trades," Masefield said.

Edey also read excerpts of emails from former Goldman Sachs Partner Driss Ben-Brahim to Youssef Kabbaj, a former Goldman Sachs salesman embedded with the LIA, that said: "Stay super-close to the client on a daily basis. Teach them, train them, dine them. You need to own this client, it's a once in a career opportunity."

Goldman Sachs became close to the LIA after Kabbaj was embedded within the organisation in 2007. Kabbaj befriended Haitem Zarti, the younger brother of a senior LIA official.

The seven-week long trial has entered its final week in London.

In closing arguments, Goldman Sachs will point to the fact that the LIA was offered the opportunity to restructure or unwind the trades before taking heavy losses, but chose not too.

Lawyers for the bank will also highlight one of the LIA's witnesses, Abdulfatah Enaami, has been accused of taking bribes in a separate dispute, according to documents presented to the judge.

NOW WATCH: 50 Cent will pay $23.4 million to creditors over the next 5 years  here's how he made and lost millions

See Also:

SEE ALSO: Goldman Sachs is firing traders again

SEE ALSO: These are the texts a Goldman Sachs banker allegedly sent to a prostitute he was trying to get for a client
By Loucoumane Coulibaly ABIDJAN (Reuters) - Randgold Resources' Tongon mine in Ivory Coast will have a slightly lower gold output this year than previously expected mainly owing to an erratic power supply, Chief Executive Mark Bristow told reporters late on Saturday. The mine, one of five operated by the London-listed company in three African countries, is on track to produce 260,000 ounces of gold this year, up from 242,948 ounces in 2015, Bristow said. Power cuts have hurt output and equipment at the Tongon mine, but while production will fall short of a previous estimate of 290,000 ounces, Bristow said an upgrade to its generator would ramp it up to 300,000 ounces in 2017. French-speaking West Africa's largest economy, normally one of the region's best lit, is struggling to meet a surge in demand for electricity to power its expanding postwar economy. "We had disturbances in the power supply from the national grid," Bristow said. "We are in discussions with the government to stabilise the supply." Randgold's share price has more than doubled this year, as a recovery in the gold price driven by concerns over geopolitical risk and, more recently, uncertainty surrounding Britain's vote to leave the European Union has lifted stocks of gold miners. Gold is seen by many as a safe-haven asset in difficult times. Shares traded 1.3 percent higher on Friday at 88.5 pounds ($116.02). Bristow said Tongon would this month pay $22 million in dividends to shareholders, its first payout. The company, which has mines in Congo, Mali and Ivory Coast, owns 89 percent of Tongon while the Ivorian government has a 10 percent stake and a local company has 1 percent. According to Randgold's website, total production for the group is expected to be around 1.3 million ounces this year. Bristow said exploration in the northwestern Ivory Coast area of Mankono had provisionally revealed between 700,000 and 1 million ounces, but that they would need to find 3 million ounces for it to be profitable. ($1 = 0.7628 pounds) (Editing by Tim Cocks and Clelia Oziel)
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.
YEREVAN, JULY 26, ARMENPRESS. The Defense Ministry of Nagorno Karabakh says overnight July 25-26 the Azerbaijani forces violated the ceasefire regime for 27 times by firing more than 200 shots from various caliber weapons at the Armenian positions in Nagorno Karabakh-Azerbaijan line of contact.

The Defense Army forces adhered to the ceasefire regime and continued confidently conducting their military service.
YEREVAN, JULY 26, ARMENPRESS. Passengers have boarded the UTai Moscow-Yerevan plane which was delayed earlier, UTair Armenian representation told ARMENPRESS.

The boarding began, the plane will take off in a few minutes, the representative said.

Harutyun Mnatsakanyan posted on Facebook that passengers of Moscow-Yerevan Flight 873 in Vnukovo airport have been told to leave the aircraft after boarding, due to technical malfunction. After a 4-hour delay, airport officials tried to board the passengers on the same plane, but passengers refused and demanded another aircraft.

The representative of UTair said they have been told the aircraft has been changed; there is nothing to worry about.

UTair reported the flight will land in Yerevan after 2.5 hours.
The cool repose of the empty, unlit surgical suite belies the desert heat outside beating on the tinted windows at Midwestern University College of Veterinary Medicine. This training area will start getting more use this year as members of the inaugural third-year class return to Glendale, Arizona, to begin classes Aug. 29 and delve more deeply into their clinical education.

Midwestern may be new to veterinary medicine, but it has educated health care professionals for more than 100 years. With more than a dozen programs of study and about 6,400 students at its two campusesthe other located in Downers Grove, Illinoisthe university focuses on one health and quality clinical education as well as community service.

Kathleen H. Goeppinger, PhD, president and CEO of Midwestern University, said, Our mission is providing health care professionals at the masters and doctoral level who meet the needs of society.

Veterinary medicine, in my mind, was one of the professions that fits with our mission of health care. We have a chance to integrate our programs ... that will make us unique and successful.

Tradition of excellence

Midwestern traces its history to the Chicago College of Osteopathic Medicine, founded in 1900. But its current iteration didnt take form until Dr. Goeppinger came along.

She joined the universitys board of trustees in 1985, and a year later, the college moved from Hyde Park in Chicago to a newly purchased campus in the western suburbs. Following the relocation, the board voted to begin the development of new academic programs within the health sciences. This led to adding pharmacy and health science colleges by 1992 and a renaming to Midwestern in 1993.

Dr. Goeppinger became CEO in 1995, after a five-year stint as chairperson of Midwesterns board of trustees, and led the universitys expansion into Arizona the following year. She came to Midwestern from Loyola University Chicago, where she received a doctorate in international policy and was a professor of industrial relations.

Commuting between Arizona and Illinois each week, she brings a business sense honed during a 19-year career at the department store chain Carson Pirie Scott (now Carsons), where she rose through the ranks to become a vice president in charge of human resources, leaving in 1985.

Dr. Goeppinger is intimately involved in all levels of decision-making at the university. In fact, she and her late German Shorthaired Pointer, Rudy, assisted in deciding the layout and materials for the Companion Animal Clinic.

The 14 examination rooms can accommodate six people because Dr. Goeppinger disliked the tiny rooms at her veterinarians office, especially with Rudy weighing 100 pounds. In addition, she and Rudy walked on all the flooring on campus until they found two surfaces that Rudy never slipped on, even when the floor was wet. These flooring materials are now installed at the CAC.

There are no plans for a veterinary college at the Illinois location, Dr. Goeppinger said. On the other hand, the university is looking into a combined-degree program for veterinary students with other colleges. However, that likely wont happen until the DVM-degree program receives full accreditation.

One health in action

Joint efforts among the veterinary program and other health profession programs at Midwestern have already begun on various levels. For instance, every first-year student on campus takes the interprofessional health care class. This teaches them the importance of working as a team with their colleagues in other professions, Dr. Goeppinger said. That kind of collaboration continues later on with community service efforts.

Madison Skelton, a third-year student at Midwestern, performs surgery on a dog from a shelter during her second year. (Courtesy of Madison Skelton)

MWUs Health Outreach through Medicine & Education Project has delivered medical care and preventive medicine education weekly at local homeless shelters since 1999. The program plans to expand that outreach by bringing in veterinary students to perform physical examinations on homeless peoples pets. In addition, the university annually participates in international mission trips through DOCARE International, a medical outreach organization. This year, Dr. Thomas K. Graves, dean of the veterinary college, and 89 others in the veterinary, optometry, dental, podiatry, osteopathic medicine, and pharmacy colleges traveled to Guatemala to provide health care to underserved populations.

As the veterinary college gets its research endeavors off the ground, one health will be a major focal point. A team of veterinarians, dentists, and pharmacists already is working on obtaining two one-health grants. Other interdisciplinary research has started as part of Midwesterns Institute for Healthcare Innovation, which oversees clinical trials, translational research, and technology development related to human and veterinary drugs, biologics, devices, nutritional products, and diagnostics.

Research needs to be an important part of the program. Like the clinics, it takes time to build, said Dr. Brian Sidaway, associate dean for clinic operations. Veterinary faculty members are currently doing research on the human-animal bond and infectious diseases.

Hands-on learning

The curriculum, too, is a work in progress but is being guided by results from the North American Veterinary Medical Educational Consortium.

Kathleen H. Goeppinger, PhD, president and CEO of Midwestern University, says while the veterinary college tuition may be higher than at state universities, it is priced close to that of similar private universities and "provides a great product so students are investing in their own futures." (Courtesy of MWU CVM)

Spearheaded by the Association of American Veterinary Medical Colleges in 2010, NAVMEC looked at how to create next-generation veterinarians who can meet societys changing needs. One of its goals is to Graduate career-ready veterinarians who are proficient and have the confidence to use an agreed-upon set of core competencies.

Thats been our primary focus and vision: What skills are perceived as lacking and not developed by veterinary graduates, and how can we help to make those better? Dr. Sidaway said. The primary focus of the veterinary college is to attempt to produce grads who are highly employable, who have good day-one skills, so they are not only competent to perform medicine and surgery and communicate but also to be confident in those skills.

The simulation laboratory in the Companion Animal Clinic has students interact with standardized clients every quarter. They will do this 27 times in their first three years, so by the time students go into clinical rotations, theyve got a wealth of knowledge behind them already and can communicate their findings to an owner, talk to them about the financial aspect of treatment, and in a difficult situation, they will know how to discuss euthanasia, Dr. Sidaway said.

As far as clinical skills, first-year students first week involves a CPR laboratory, and within the first month, they are performing physical examinations on live animals. Further, they participate in case discussions to model the way clinicians work through a case to arrive at a diagnosis.

The Companion Animal Clinic became a 24-hour facility earlier this year. The American Animal Hospital Associationaccredited clinic has a large primary care component but also offers specialty services, including dentistry. In fact, general practice and surgery are conducted in the same area of the hospital. (Photos by Malinda Larkin)

The Equine and Bovine Centers indoor stalls, to be used when the temperatures rise in the summer, were recently finished. Veterinary students have a number of laboratories during which they palpate, for example, haptic models and live cows.

Second-year students have a principles of surgery class with a laboratory component before performing recovery surgeries in the second quarter of the year. Working in groups of three, each student will be involved with 24 spays and neuters on shelter animals, each performing the procedure eight times while faculty members monitor and provide immediate feedback.

The students are responsible for everything from the physical examination to postoperative care and discharge.

Students get training that not many other places do not only as far as scope and number of surgeries and how early in program but also with community service. This is at no cost to shelters, and theyre sent out for adoptions, Dr. Sidaway said.

Third-year students start clinical rotations in March. In their fourth year, students spend eight months in core rotations on campus in either the small or large animal track. Six of those months are dedicated to primary care, the other two months to pathology and emergency medicine.

The CAC, which sees around 600 patients a month, includes specialty services of emergency and critical care, internal medicine, surgery (orthopedic and soft tissue), and anesthesiawith the hope to add more as other faculty come on board. The pharmacy suite opened in July; oncology and rehabilitation services staff just began seeing patients this summer.

The Equine and Bovine Center, the other part of Midwesterns Animal Health Institute, has an ambulatory service that is now operational but is still building its caseload, which consists of about 100 animals, mostly small ruminants and horses. In addition, the Diagnostic Pathology Center recently opened and has a growing caseload of necropsies to perform and surgical biopsies to examine.

A mobile unit for shelter medicine work has been in place for about a year and will be an integral part of the colleges shelter medicine rotation. For now, students can go with the faculty during weekends and breaks to assist with clinics held on local Native American reservations and in underserved urban areas.

Making their own way

Madison Skelton, a third-year veterinary student at Midwestern, has participated in some of the mobile clinics community service events. She traveled to the Chemehuevi Indian Reservation in Lake Havasu, California, where the team performed nearly 30 spay-neuter surgeries and vaccinated more than 50 dogs and cats.

It was a very interesting experience, very high pressure. Youre in a small cabin of a trailer with nine other colleagues, two doctors, and one technician. It can get very claustrophobic, but I probably learned the most, Skelton said.

She has enjoyed the hands-on experience in classroom and clinic, too. On their days off, first- and second-year students can shadow doctors at the CAC in primary care, internal medicine, oncology, and ophthalmology. Skelton also worked at the Equine and Bovine Center this summer.

Shes one of 24 in her class from Arizona. Her desire to stay in-state helped sway her to choose Midwestern even before she heard back from the other three veterinary colleges she applied to.

Students received financial counseling from the university even before stepping on campus and afterward. Plus, topics such as personal finance and debt management and practice and personal business issues are addressed in the curriculum. That helps, as Midwesterns veterinary tuition and feesat $57,085 for this academic yearare the highest among U.S. veterinary colleges except for Colorado State Universitys out-of-state tuition. Thats not to mention, Midwesterns tuition increases annually between 4 and 7 percent, but Skelton said the university was upfront about the costs from the beginning.

The 24-year-old wants to enlist in the Army Veterinary Corps after graduation. And within five years out of school, shed like to buy a mixed animal practice while continuing to work with local Native Americans and their animals. Ideally, shed relocate to her hometown of Queen Creek, where she says there is one veterinarian who responds to farm calls within 100 miles of the area.

Skelton says she checks the market for veterinary practices in the state to see what clinics are for sale, what they are grossing annually, what theyre selling for on the market, and the percentage of market share. Of the veterinary situation in Arizona, she says the cities are mostly taken care of, but the rural areas are seeing more and more doctors retire.

Students such as Skeltonand Midwesternare ready to help guide the future of the profession.

Related JAVMA content:

Midwestern closer to accreditation (July 1, 2013)

Midwestern appoints Sidaway as first dean (March 1, 2013)

3 universities interested in veterinary programs (July 1, 2011)
Shanxi province plans to improve the lives of left-behind children by enhancing care services in rural areas.

Under a new guideline, parents should prioritize the nurturing and education of their children, and local government workers should guide parents to make children's interests a priority when making decisions.

Training for parents and guardians should be provided to ensure that left-behind children receive proper care.

The guideline also encourages parents to take children with them to cities, or to have one parent stay at home. If both parents leave home, guardians must be appointed, as children under 16 years of age cannot be left alone.

According to Xinhua News Agency, Shanxi has about 166,800 left-behind children scattered in rural areas.

The province aims to establish a network to provide care for left-behind children by 2020.

About 61 million children are left behind nationally, according to the All China Women's Federation in 2013.

In June 2015, four siblings from 5 to 13 years of age in Bijie, Guizhou province, committed suicide by drinking farm chemicals.

An investigation found that they suffered from severe mental problems, which may have been related to their parents' absence.

The tragedy shocked the country and exposed the plight of those children.

"It is human nature for parents to raise their children. Some parents lack a sense of obligation for guardianship and leave young children at home alone, or rarely visit their children, or don't communicate with them, which severely affects their development," said Li Liguo, minister of civil affairs.

Guan Xinping, a professor at the Institute of Social Development and Administration at Nankai University in Tianjin, said care and protective services for left-behind children should be combined with rural social welfare and economic development.

"Solving the problem of left-behind children should be linked to the protection of migrant workers' rights and interests in urban areas," he said.

"Only when city authorities allow migrant workers to become permanent urban residents and enjoy all social welfare services can the problems of left-behind children be truly solved," he said.

Contact the writers at luowangshu@chinadaily.com.cn
MATTOON (JG-TC) -- Registration for students will take place next week for students in kindergarten through grade 12 in the Mattoon school district.

Students will be able to register for the school year from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Aug. 3 and from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Aug. 4 at the schools in which the student is enrolling including Williams Elementary School, Riddle Elementary School, the Armstrong Program at Hawthorne School, Mattoon Middle School and Mattoon High School.

Parents who can't register their students either day are recommended to call the school after Aug. 4 between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. to make other arrangements, according to the district website.

Registration for pre-kindergarten students is from 8 a.m.-6 p.m. Aug. 11 at Hawthorne School.

Registration forms can be found online at http://bit.ly/2ahMJzG to then print out prior to registration. Forms will also be available at registration.

The website states only children who will be five years old on or before Sept. 1 are eligible to enroll in kindergarten. Likewise, only children who will be six years old on or before Sept. 1 are eligible to enroll in first grade.

Only resident students in the district may attend the schools without paying tuition. Parents will be required to provide evidence that they reside in the school district by either showing a valid driver's license or some other proof of residency, according to the website.

The website states all parents should bring their children's social security numbers and the name and telephone number of an adult to contact in case of an emergency during school hours.

Beginning Aug. 5, all of the school offices will be open from 8 a.m.- 4 p.m. Monday through Friday, where school principals will be available to answer questions or provide information concerning educational matters.

More information about registration and the requirements to do so can be found out at http://bit.ly/2ayvKIe.

The first day of school for students will be Aug. 16 with a 2.5-hour early dismissal.
CHARLESTON -- DanceLife Center and the city Parks and Recreation Department will be bringing an uncommon Shakespearean tale to Kiwanis Park with the support of various people in the community.

Local area residents will be tackling The Tempest, along with a more familiar William Shakespeare play, A Midsummer Nights Dream, at 6 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday at the Daum Amphitheater in Kiwanis Park.

Earl Halbe, play director, said "The Tempest" is not as typical a play as some others in Shakespeare's catalog like Romeo and Juliet or Hamlet, which is exciting for him and the cast.

(The Tempest) rarely gets done, Halbe said. They have done some versions of it in New York that I have seen, but I have not seen it done around here. I don't know of any productions around here in the past few years, at least.

He said it is also interesting to set a performance in the park, a less than usual venue for a play like these.

For those unfamiliar, the story of The Tempest tells a heavy but uplifting tale following Chuck Trent playing Prospero, a wizard once the Duke of Milan, who was betrayed by his brother, Antonio, played by Halbe, and had his position stripped from him. Antonio leaves Prospero and his daughter Miranda, played by Bethanny Lawson, for dead on a raft which makes its way to a deserted island.

Then, 12 years later, his brother is sent his way, prompting Prospero to raise a tempest to strand the brother on the island in order for Prospero to set things straight with his brother who betrayed him. The rest of story follows Prosperos plan to torment those who betrayed him. He would later forgive those who had done so.

A Midsummer Nights Dream, a popular Shakespearean comedy, has a lighter tone. This story depicts the events surrounding an Athenian marriage between two: Theseus, played by Greg Ledbetter, and Hippolyta, played by Ann Bruehler. The story follows the adventures of four star-crossed lovers and a group of actors who get controlled by fairies from the forest the play is set in.

Shakespeare speaks something to everybody, Steve Darimont, playing Caliban in The Tempest, said about the plays. Everybody can take something different away from it.

Trent, Otterbein United Methodist Church pastor, said the Shakespearean plays have been major undertakings, but they are well worth it.

It is like running cross country, he said. It feels so good when you stop.

Darimont, retired Coles County Sheriffs Department officer, said he had not been in a play since high school, but thought it would be fun to take on.

Having thought, foolishly, that this would be fun, it has become a lot of work, Darimont said. But I am glad I am doing it It will be fun at the end. It is something to knock off my bucket list.

The cast of 27 started practicing for these performances in the first part of June.

We got a lot of people who are from different walks of life, and everybody is just really dedicating themselves to this, Halbe said.

Both productions, which are free, will run one hour each. Water and cushions will be on sale, with proceeds going to the Charleston Schools Music Boosters. Halbe said the thought to involve the music boosters stemmed from the recent significant budget cuts the school district has had to make.

Attendees are urged to bring lawn chairs or blankets for seating.
The European Commission will launch an arbitration procedure to resolve a dispute between Norwegian Air Shuttle and U.S. regulators over the budget carrier's wish to fly to the United States from Ireland, two sources said.

The EU executive will take the unprecedented step as it considers the delay in granting flying rights to Norwegian's Irish subsidiary a breach of the EU-U.S. Open Skies agreement, one of the people said.

Norwegian's Irish subsidiary, Norwegian Air International, applied for permission to operate flights to the United States more than two years ago, but the typically routine request has languished amid opposition from labour unions and some U.S. airlines, which say Europe's third-biggest budget carrier would undermine wages and working standards.

EU Transport Commissioner Violeta Bulc sent a letter to U.S. Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx on Tuesday informing him the Commission had consulted EU member states and would invoke arbitration, the person said.

Norwegian Air welcomed the news. "We are very pleased that the EU Commision is seeking arbitration with U.S. authorities to solve this long overdue issue," a company spokesman said.

"Norwegian Air International is an approved and fully operational EU carrier that meets all requirements under the Open Skies Agreement between the EU and the U.S. A final approval will lead to more new jobs on both sides of the Atlantic, more new transatlantic routes and more affordable fares," he said.

A win for Norwegian could challenge the strong position of U.S. carriers such as Delta Air Lines on the lucrative transAtlantic route, where partnerships with European rivals and immunity from U.S. antitrust law have helped them churn out steady profits.

The delay has hindered the airline's ambitions to expand its long-haul operations to the United States. The carrier already flies to New York and other U.S. cities with its Norwegian operating licence.

However getting permission to fly to the United States with its Irish subsidiary would mean the airline could tap into aviation rights that the EU has secured, as Ireland is an EU member, unlike Norway.

Bulc also said the delay in allowing Norwegian's British unit to fly to the United States was another breach of the Open Skies agreement.

The arbitration procedure, involving a tribunal of three arbitrators (one designated by the EU, one by the United States and one jointly appointed by the EU and U.S. arbitrators), will formally kick off after the summer and could take several months.

The U.S. Transportation Department provisionally approved Norwegian's request in April, giving opponents three weeks to file objections, but there has been no final decision.

The EU has repeatedly called on the United States to approve Norwegian Air International's request, calling it a breach of the Open Skies agreement.

The Transportation Department said it found no legal basis for denying the Irish unit's request to fly to the United States.

Norwegian has relied on the fuel-efficient 787 jetliner from Boeing Co to keep its costs low and cut fares on transAtlantic routes. (Reuters)



Source: www.businessworld.ie
Modified On Jul 27, 2016 05:43 PM By Raunak

The $5 billion gigafactory 1 will make batteries primarily for Teslas most economical offering, the Model 3 sedan, which will also be the first Tesla to be officially retailed in India in 2018

Tesla has opened its colossal $5 billion gigafactory 1, which will primarily focus on battery production. The unit which was announced just over two years ago is located on the outskirts of Sparks, Nevada, and has been constructed in partnership with Panasonic Crop., Japan. The factory was opened yesterday for media and will have a grand opening this Friday.

Teslas CEO, Elon Musk, stated that this factory has the largest footprint of any building in the world! Presently, just around 14 per cent of the factorys total expected real estate of 10 million square feet has been completed. Seeing the enormous pre-bookings of Teslas latest offering, the Model 3, Musk has taken steps to speed up the construction. The company will also increase its annual vehicle production  which includes the Model 3 (which will roll off the production line late next year) and others  by 2018 to 5,00,000 units annually, which is almost two years earlier than scheduled.

All this will help in satiating the demand for Teslas vehicles, including the Model 3. The demand for the Powerwall (a battery pack which stores energy in your house either from solar panels or the grid) is also likely to be met comfortably. Recently, Musk also revealed the second part of the master plan.The highlight of the second master plan was the merger of his two companies, Tesla and SolarCity. This will mean that customers will soon be able to run a house on solar power, including charging their cars, using just Tesla products. The Powerwall will play a vital role in this.

Recommended: Elon Musk Outlines Tesla's Future In Master Plan 2

At the July 26 media event, Elon Musk said that he sees more gigafactories in the future. The LA Times quoted him as saying, It makes sense to have a gigafactory in Europe, one in China, one in India  wherever there is a huge demand for the product. Indeed, the Indian government also approached Tesla recently and offered the company space to construct its factories in locations of its choice. So there are chances that Tesla will set up a unit in India, perhaps for the production of its cars, or for its batteries, for both the local market and for export to the rest of Asia.
When weve first released Secure Comparator to use in our Themis crypto library and started talking about novel authentication concepts, weve encountered a few common misconceptions and plenty of magical thinking about Zero-Knowledge Proofs as a phenomenon. In this post, well talk about some of them, tie ZKP authentication to traditional security models, and help you gain a better understanding of how authentication, in general, should work.

Understanding authentication and Zero-Knowledge Proof Protocols

What is authentication, anyway?

Note: If you know (or think that you know) what authentication is, you can skip the next few paragraphs. Else  behold the power of Captain Obvious.

Authentication is the act of confirming the truth of an attribute of a single piece of data claimed true by an entity. In contrast with identification, which refers to the act of stating or otherwise indicating a claim purportedly attesting to a person or thing's identity, authentication is the process of actually confirming that identity. ( Wikipedia

In secret-based authentication, parties agree that a secret (S) represents the public identity of a prover (P). When P wants to prove he/she actually is P, all he/she needs to do is to supply S as his/her secret to the second party  verifier (V). Whatever the authentication method is, general methodology is the same:

The prover sends his/her identity (P) and a secret (S(P)) (for example, login/password pair). The verifier tries to match S(P) with the records in the credential database.

For any secret-based authentication, it is important that the parties have a pre-shared secret.

Problems with secret-based authentication techniques

Interception. The only way to prove that you know a secret to the remote party is to transmit either the secret or its derivatives (hashes are frequently used for that purpose). Both the secret or its derivative data can be stolen through intercepting the traffic between the parties in one way or another and then used to impersonate P, knowing their secret S or any derivative of this secret.

Authentication database leakage. To compare secrets, V has to carry a database of secrets of remote provers matched to their identities. By stealing that database, the attacker can pretend hto be P holding S to this party and any other, which have the same S.

Solutions to these problems?

Secret interception can be prevented by:

Public-key based authentication: safe method, based on asymmetric cryptography. Requires parties to exchange public keys (which you cant easily dictate over the phone or write down on a post-it note on your desktop), requires key management (key revocation, a chain of trust, etc.). Securing transport layer: encrypting traffic means you either need to have the pre-shared secret key or have the public key-based system, so restrictions mentioned above apply. Zero-Knowledge Proof: does not require the key exchange, does not leak password. Allows to derive temporary keys for secret key transport encryption after authentication itself. The only drawback is that ZKP is computationally expensive.

Secret leakage can be prevented through:

Protecting authentication database: Limit the database access and encrypt the secret storage with some external secret. Ultimately, this will deter an unprepared attacker with insufficient privileges. Indirect secret storage: To complicate the life of an attacker, the Verifier can avoid storing the secret itself, but store one-time reproducible derivative of the secret instead (i.e. salted cryptographic hash value). On each authentication session, the Prover has to reproduce this derivative from secret and present it to the Verifier.

Also, any secret-key authentication is frequently reinforced by OTP and other MFA techniques.

So why exactly Zero Knowledge Proof is better for authentication?

Imagine that the Verifier is actually an attacker! Or that the Verifier is replaced by an attacker. It could even happen locally; thats how banking-oriented malware frequently works.

With traditional techniques, theres not much you can do. If the Prover authenticates with fraudulent Verifier once, in most cases its enough for this fraudulent Verifier to pretend he/she is the Prover to any third party as he/she now knows that Secret.

This is the largest advantage: no amount of data emitted by the Prover under Zero-Knowledge Proof protocol is sufficient to re-run the Zero-Knowledge Proof protocol or to reconstruct the Secret.

Themis is an easy-to-use crypto library that provides interactive ZKP protocol for authentication and comparing secrets.

Zero-Knowledge Proof Protocols in simple words

ZKP enables two parties to check (verify) if they share the same secret (for example, find out if they have the same password for their respective accounts), without exposing it. As a byproduct, some Zero-Knowledge Protocols enable you to derive shared secrets (one or many) in the process.

How Zero-Knowledge Proof Protocol actually works?

Over the time, cryptographers invented few smart ways to explain ZKP to normal people:

Using Zero-Knowledge Proof Protocol

ZKP in practice: how can I use it for my own tasks?

ZKP is not some abra-cadabra magical technique which could allow building trust without having the parties to exchange the secrets. ZKP is a good reinforcement of the existing authentication patterns:

You still need to share a secret to be able to verify it.

You still need a public identifier to match to the secret.

Its only the security guarantees of the process that change.

In the most general form, you use ZKP to verify secrets in hostile environments, architecturally its just another implementation of authentication.

However, some features of ZKP proofs could use a few novel security tricks.

Need assistance with ZKP or zk-SNARKs? Consult with our cryptographic engineers.

Zero-Knowledge Proof Protocols in practice: some applications

Login/password authentication

The most obvious application is login/password authentication, where you exchange login in an open (or easily decipherable) form and then perform ZKP to prove that you know the password and that the server knows it, too.

Request by ID

Another useful technique is authenticating requests to sensitive data. A good example is Name/SSN pair. A bank that is asking the Credit Rating authority for a credit rating score via SSN is directly exposing the fact that this SSN is banks client and it is letting the Credit Rating authority create a record out of nothing (solely out of the fact that the person behind the SSN contacted the bank). However, a name is a very broad identifier, which does not objectively point at one person.

Lets say, you (as a bank) is a Verifier and the Credit Rating authority is a Prover. You send the public requisite (name) to the Verifier and initiate a ZKP over SSN. The Verifier allocates a list of SSNs that match this name and performs a ZKP on each.

This way, the protocol only succeeds if the Credit Rating authority has some record(s) matching to the desired SSN and exposing the SSN to authority grants meaningful benefits to the Verifier.

There are more sophisticated schemes (in terms of storage), where both parties hold the secrets they use and their derivatives as identifiers for these secrets. Such schemes pay off in situations where there is only one identifier  and its leakage already is a problem.

Repeated authentication: paranoid mode on

To enforce the proper behaviour in risky protocols (like signing transactions in online banking), we need to verify the honesty of both parties (because we dont know where the attacker might hit).

To do that, we can authenticate each step of the protocol with secret S and sensitive data from the previous step. This way we keep a trust chain from the very beginning of the protocol (the first value can be any derived key) and do not rely on temporary trust tokens like session keys.

Secure Comparator

At Cossack Labs, weve developed our own ZKP implementation, "Secure Comparator". Take a look at it in Themis, our security services library. Its quite useful as an illustration of what ZKP is and how it can be used in your infrastructure.

Summary

The summary is as simple as it gets: ZKP protocols are not magic. But by understanding how they work, you can add some "magical" (as in "magically effective") reinforcements to your security architectures.

They allow:

authentication over an untrusted communication channel

authentication with an untrusted / unidentified remote party

key derivation based on this secret exchange (sometimes).

ZKP protocols still require the secret to be pre-shared. More importantly, they still require the authentication to be a part of the security system, not a magical feature to scare the hackers away.

2018 UPD: This article is just as valid as on the day it was published, yet Themis and Secure Comparator have significantly evolved. If you're looking for new ideas, this is the right place. If you're looking to implement security, apply for our Customer Success Program. If you're looking for ready-made solutions, consider looking into Themis, Acra, or Hermes.
ASHMORE (JG-TC) -- A Casey woman was reportedly airlifted from the scene of an accident southeast of Ashmore on Saturday evening.

Caitlin B. McComas, 27, lost control of her vehicle at a curve while driving southbound on Illinois Route 49, according to a report from the Coles County Sheriff's Office.

The report said the accident occurred about two miles southeast of Ashmore at 5:40 p.m. Saturday when McComas' vehicle left the road and overturned.

It said she was taken by medical helicopter to Carle Foundation Hospital, Urbana. McComas was still hospitalized there on Tuesday and listed in fair condition, according to a Carle representative.

The report also said McComas was cited for improper lane use and not wearing a seat belt.
Rich is relative.

Maybe you think it means being in the top 1% of earners in some of the wealthiest cities in the US. Maybe it means being able to buy a flashy mansion or spend your life flitting from luxury vacation to luxury vacation.

But former investment banker Kristin Addis told Business Insider she feels richer earning about 40% of her previous six-figure salary while she travels the world. Nick and Dariece Swift, who also left their jobs to make a fraction of their former income, said theyre happier earning less. The self-made millionaire stars of West Texas Investors Club say their relationships are more valuable than the money they earn.

Ultimately, rich can be just as subjective as happy  its different for everyone. However, there are a few universal indications of wealth, no matter how you view it:
The mission to get British lamb chops back onto American dinner plates has moved a step nearer, Farming Minister George Eustice announced at the National Sheep Event today.

The Minister of State confirmed the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) has published proposals for consultation to relax import restrictions on lamb that could generate an extra 35 million for the UK economy.

This significant step forward means that British lamb is on track to be available for US consumers by early 2017.

The move is the latest in ongoing efforts to allow Britains farmers to start exporting sheep meat to the United States 300 million consumers.

"Great news for our farmers": Farming Minister George Eustice

A 1,000-page dossier was submitted to the USDA detailing the safety and quality of British beef and lamb ahead of Aprils trade talks with US Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack in Washington.

Speaking at the NSA Sheep Event, Farming Minister George Eustice said: "The US decision to press ahead with proposals to lift export restrictions on British lamb is great news for our farmers who are one step closer to gaining access to the lucrative American market, worth an estimated 35 million a year.

"Our world-leading food and drink industry is a key part of our nations economic success and in addition to forging good trade deals with our European neighbours, we want to secure more export opportunities in the States as well as with our close friends in the Commonwealth and other countries around the world."

Defra is now co-ordinating UK farming industry comment for the 60-day consultation and liaising with relevant US trade associations to gain support for proposals.

'Vital' for the sheep industry

NSA chief executive Phil Stocker said the increasing number of export destinations for British sheep meat is 'vital' for the industry, and ensuring there is demand for 'quality product in as many markets as possible' is paramount.

"It is very encouraging that the USA is interested in opening its doors. Lamb sales in the USA have dropped over the years, as a result of a falling domestic production base, and NSA would like to see British lamb exported and promoted to boost consumption. It could be a real opportunity for our sector."

NFU livestock board chairman Charles Sercombe said: "Re-opening the US beef and lamb market to UK imports would be a positive move and an important confidence building measure for the British livestock sector.

"The US is potentially a huge and affluent market that has strong links to the UK as we share history and language."
Stoddard, an expert in capturing proteins 3-D forms and engineering them for different potential therapeutic purposes, got involved in a research project a few years later to modify a protein from yeast for possible use as part of a targeted cancer therapy. The modified protein was the brainchild of Washington State University biologist Dr. Margaret Black, who recognized that with a few tweaks this natural molecule could have potent anti-tumor power.

The research team published a paper describing the engineered enzyme in 2005 and showed that the protein showed promise against tumors in an animal model in 2008, and Stoddard moved on to other projects.

But several years later, he was delighted to learn from Black that their work was being tested as part of a small clinical trial for patients with aggressive glioblastoma, led by a biotech company in San Diego, Tocagen.

Last month, the company researchers and their colleagues reported results from that early-stage trial in the journal Science Translational Medicine. The enzyme  and the rest of the drug built around it  is safe. And it may be extending patients lives.

Its every basic scientists dream to see something that they do, thats entirely curiosity-driven to start with, actually turn into something useful, Stoddard said. And to suddenly realize that there are people walking around, getting to spend more time with their families, who otherwise would be dead, because they have an enzyme inside of them that was created in your lab  thats a pretty amazing feeling.

When asked if he thought about his mom, Weintraub and other friends taken by brain cancer when he heard about the trial, Stoddard didnt hesitate.

Of course. Those people all meant a lot to me, he said. Im sure theyd be really thrilled to know how things have been going.

The enzyme strategy

The strategy Black proposed to Stoddard, like many therapies, was based on a set of molecules that exist in nature. The simple, single-celled yeast  that of beer- and bread-making fame  makes a certain kind of protein that more complicated creatures (like humans) dont possess, Stoddard said.

The yeast uses this enzyme  a type of protein that spurs an active change in the cell  to quickly switch the building blocks of DNA from one type of block to another. Humans are less efficient  we have to do our DNA construction from the ground up.

It turns out that enzyme can also switch another molecule  5-fluorocytosine, or 5-FC, a very safe drug used to treat fungal infections  to a related molecule called 5-fluorouracil, or 5-FU, a potent chemotherapy drug that is already FDA-approved and in clinical use for many cancers. This technique falls into a class of therapies known as pro-drugs, which use a combination of a harmless drug precursor and another molecule (like the yeast enzyme) that catalyzes them in the body to turn into an active drug.

This ends up being an extremely powerful enzyme-pro-drug combination, Stoddard said.
On July 20, a day early, Black Lives Matter activists in New York, Washington D.C. , and Chicago shut down the offices of their local police associations. Lockdowns and demonstrations were held in Detroit Ann Arbor , and other cities across the country.In New York, activists used lockboxes inside of the Patrolman's Benevolent Association office. Organizers were arrested in the morning.In D.C., activists locked themselves with chains to the steps of the Fraternal Order of Police. Several arrests were made.In Chicago, activists using lockboxes and ladders blocked the street in front of the notorious Homan Square CPD torture facility and twelve were arrested At 2pm in Oakland, the offices of the Oakland Police Officer's Association (OPOA) and two associated businesses were shut down when protesters used U-locks and chains to lock themselves to the front doors. Those at the scene remarked that they were surprised they were able to set up and lock down at the OPOA office after the other similar actions had already occurred that morning on the East Coast.The Oakland lockdown effectively shutdown the OPOA building for over twelve hours, until 3am, when activists decided to end the lockdown of their own accord in order to rest for actions the following day.Upwards of two dozen Oakland police were present on foot early on, mostly standing around. Police numbers thinned over time and eventually ten or so just sat in their cars nearby. No attempts were made to cut activists from the doors and there were no arrests.In the afternoon, an offer was made by Oakland police to skeptical activists to meet them for a barbecue at some point in the future. Meanwhile, unknown to those present at the time, the OPOA was threatening city officials with a lawsuit over the proposed ballot measure for a new Oakland Police Commission . As of this writing it appears that the City Council will kowtow to the OPA and gut the police commission proposal.For more on the Oakland Freedom now actions:
We Invite Members of the Press to Our Press Conference which will be held At 8:30am until 8:45am infront of the Superior Court of California County of Contra County A.F. Bray Courthouse located at 1020 Ward Street Martinez, CA 94553

Quanah Parker BrightmanExecutive Director ofUnited Native Americans(510) 672-7187For Immediate Release: 7-27-2016Native Lives Matter Justice For Lakota BrightmanFamily seeks Closer for Murder of Beloved U.S. Army Veteran Field MedicMartinez,CA: Native American Civil Rights Leaders Seek Justice for the Murder of Slain Family member. On May 25th, 2016. The Jury Found Mark AnthonyNelson Guilty of Penal Code 187- Murder First Degree & a Knife Enhancement for the Murder of Lakota Gall Brightman on July 3rd, 2015 outside the Carlson Food Market located in Richmond California. We are Asking for the Honorable Judge Laurel S. Brady in Department 31 to Sentence Mr Nelson to Life in Prison.We Invite Members of the Press to Our Press Conference which will be held At 8:30am until 8:45am infront of the Superior Court of California County of Contra County A.F. Bray Courthouse located at 1020 Ward Street Martinez, CA 94553Lakota Gall Brightman, was murdered by the defendant. The facts of the case were proven beyond a reasonable doubt and your verdict was rendered guilty!Words cannot express the pain and anguish our family and friends have endured since Lakota Gall Brightman's murder. The defendant decision to take the life of a human being with no regard for the effects it has had on Lakota Gall Brightman Friends and Family is unimaginable.The loss of Lakota Gall Brightman is beyond words. Lakota Gall Brightman was born on December 25th 1969 in Rapid City, South Dakota to parents Lehman and Trudy Brightman. He was the second of three children. Lakota attended Delmar Elementary School, Portola Junior High School, and graduated from El Cerrito High School in 1988. His earlier years were spent advocating for Native American Rights along with his family and the Organization founded by his father Lehman and carried on by his brother Quanah, United Native Americans. United Native Americans was and are still very active in Native american rights and the promotion of progress and general welfare of Native Americans. Specialist Lakota Gall Brightman served 6 years in the California Army National Guard, 235th Engineer Company (Sapper) as an Army Field Medic from August 11, 2007 to his date of separation on August 10th, 2013. Lakota was ordered into active service in 2007 in support of Operation Enduring Freedom Afghanistan.He is remembered as a gentle and kind hearted human being who wanted to help others and was a beloved son, brother, nephew, cousin, uncle, father, friend and hero. He is preceded in death by his mother Trudy Brightman and his older brother Lehman Brightman III. Lakota is survived by his Daughters, Phoebe (24) and Star (14) Brightman his brother Quanah Parker Brightman, father Chief Lehman L. Brightman, aunts Nancy and Lorelie Oldlodge and uncles, Anthony David Clairmont and Donald Oldlodge. Taken too soon, Lakota is warmly remembered and greatly missed by all who knew and loved him.There will be no more birthday parties, backyard gatherings, holiday celebrations or other family activities to share. The laughter, hugs, guidance/advice, sense of security and those opportunities to say, I love you are forever gone. Our family is forever broken.To say the least, the financial affect on the family has also been devastating.Compassion is a word commonly used for and by defendants. However, I ask, how much compassion the defendant considered when the decision was made to murder Lakota Gall Brightman?It is the request of the family that the maximum penalty for the crime for which the defendant was convicted be imposed. On behalf of the family of Lakota Gall Brightman, we wish to express my sincerest gratitude for allowing this opportunity of expression.For more Information: Please Visit #NativeLivesMatter Justice For Lakota Gall Brightman https://www.facebook.com/groups/1687551678167048/
The Nationals were in the mix for Aroldis Chapman right up until the end of the Yankees negotiations with the Cubs, reports ESPNs Jayson Stark, and general manager Mike Rizzo and his staff are still on the hunt for a relief ace that could anchor the back of the bullpen and provide an upgrade over Jonathan Papelbon. Citing rival clubs that have spoken with the Nationals, Stark reports that Andrew Miller, Wade Davis and David Robertson are all on the radar for the Nats.

The asking price on Miller and Davis is said to be otherworldly, of course, as evidenced by a recent report from Yahoos Jeff Passan which stated that the Royals kicked around Lucas Giolitos name when internally discussing the notion of trading Davis. Beyond that, Stark reported yesterday that the package sent from the Cubs to the Yankees in exchange for Chapman  Gleyber Torres, Adam Warren, Billy McKinney and Rashad Crawford  wouldnt have pried Davis away from Kansas City. The price on Miller, as has been the case since discussions about potentially trading him surfaced back in May, is exceptionally high. The Yankees were said to be fixated on Kyle Schwarber in talks pertaining to Miller, and Joel Sherman of the New York Post reports again emphasizes that the Yankees would want MLB-ready talent from the Nationals in exchange for Miller, suggesting that names like Giolito and Joe Ross could surface in talks.

According to Stark, the Nationals arent willing to part with Giolito, Trea Turner or Reynaldo Lopez in their quest to upgrade the bullpen, which makes the addition of either Miller or Davis seem decidedly unlikely. Robertson, on the other hand, would perhaps be another story given the facts that hes owed roughly $29.15MM through the end of his contract and hasnt seen his results with the White Sox match up with his otherwise pristine track record.

Robertson has managed an excellent strikeout rate both this year and last, and his 2016 ground-ball rate of 46.7 percent is the second-best of his career. However, hes sporting a troublesome 4.46 ERA with the Sox this season and has a 3.82 mark since signing with the team. Robertson has struggled with location, leading to an increase in walks (4.7 BB/9) and home runs (1.3 HR/9, 14.3 percent homer-to-flyball ratio) in 40 1/3 innings this year. Optimists can point to the fact that 16 of the 20 runs yielded by Robertson since Opening Day have come across just four disastrous outings and hes been otherwise excellent, but the bottom-line results havent been as consistent as the ChiSox would hope.

Beyond the prospects the Nationals would have to surrender, finances also have to factor into the equation. Washington reportedly struggled to attract free agents this offseason because the club had to factor deferred money into nearly all of its offers, in part due to the longstanding dispute with the Orioles over the shared MASN television network rights fees. (The Nats also convinced Papelbon to take a slightly lesser 2016 salary than his club option called for in exchange for exercising it immediately upon completion of last summers trade.) Robertsons salary is the most prohibitive, but Davis is slated to earn $10MM next season via a club option, and Miller is owed $9MM in each of the next two seasons. None of the three is an insurmountable sum, but the finances involved with each reliever in question add another layer to the calculus of negotiating a trade.
KANSAS CITY -- A Charleston man has been sentenced to prison for causing an accident that killed a Tennessee man in western Missouri early last year.

Joshua K. Swisher received the 2 1/2-year prison term for his conviction for involuntary manslaughter, the charge he faced after the Jan. 5, 2015, accident near Kansas City.

Swisher, 27, whose most recent Charleston address on record is on Sunny Dale Drive, was reportedly driving more than 90 mph when his car rear-ended another vehicle.

A passenger in the other vehicle, Marlon J. Cook, 31, of Goodlettsville, Tenn., died later at a hospital, according to a Missouri State Police report. The accident took place on I-70 at Oak Grove, Mo., which is about 20 miles east of Kansas City.

Swisher was found guilty of the charge in May, when he opted for a trial by a judge instead of a jury. The charge against him was a felony that, under Missouri law, could have resulted in a prison sentence of up to seven years.

The Missouri State Police report said Swisher's car hit the rear of a pickup truck towing a trailer, forcing the truck off the road and causing it to overturn.

The data recorder in Swisher's car and additional investigation showed the car's speed was 96 mph just before the accident, the report says.

Swisher told police he was driving and "the next thing I remember I was getting out of my car trying to figure out what happened," the report also says.

The report says Swisher and the pickup truck's driver, Geoffrey R. Updike of Hendersonville, Tenn., weren't injured.

An arrest warrant was issued for Swisher in May 2015 and he waived extradition from Illinois shortly after that.
I looked out over the grandeur and majesty of the Grand Canyon last Thursday -- face to face with one of the seven natural wonders of the world -- and, as a nearly lifelong writer, had a profound and verbally astounding description of this gift of nature stretching out before me and my feelings about it.

Wow.

As I toured Grand Canyon National Park with one of my sisters, Val, and her kids, Stephanie, 13, and Tyler, 10, I said "wow" so many times that Tyler began to mock me.

"'Wow,' huh?" he would say at our next stop along the south rim of the canyon just as I was about to say ... well, "Wow."

The Grand Canyon is truly awe-inspiring. I've always wanted to go there. Val and I were discussing this nearly two years ago and we decided we'd go together with the kids. Last week was our big adventure.

We drove the approximately 24 hours out to the south rim just a bit northwest of Flagstaff, Ariz. But we stopped the first night, after about 10 hours in the vehicle, in Oklahoma City.

First, on Tuesday, we toured the science museum in Oklahoma City or OKC (clever, huh?). Initially, when we were making plans for our day in that city, we mentioned this museum and got a response of, "Science is boring!" from the kids.

They quickly changed their minds and had a great time at the site. It was hot, so being indoors at a museum was the way to go that day. The OKC science museum has a kids' hands-on area that in particular was a big hit. Steph and Ty put on a brief "show" on a pre-made stage, curtains and all. Tyler and I -- hey, kids come in all ages -- put on a puppet show; the kids worked with tubes magnetically attached to a large wall to get soft balls routed here, there and everywhere.

Their favorite activity there was getting to ride a Segway, but they also played at interactive stations covering erosion, space exploration, flight and the piping of water from one place to another.

From the science museum, we headed to my favorite: the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum. This was more "museum-like," with painting and sculpture exhibits, but also exhibits ranging from Native American garb and tools to a firearms display room to a rodeo history area and halls featuring famous cowboy or Western figures.

I enjoyed seeing guns that I've read about for decades via Louis L'Amour Western books. Colt's Dragoon model was a highlight for me, and there were displays of Remingtons, Winchesters and others.

The movie cowboy hall was cool, with the John Wayne exhibit a particularly fascinating one to me. They have on display the costume he wore in "True Grit," right down to the black hat and eye patch, plus the rifle he carried in more than one movie.

I was beyond impressed with the 1939 J-200 guitar that Gibson made specifically for Gene Autry, with its ivory inlay and just the overall beauty of the J-200. The Autry J-200 is one of the most rare guitars in the world. Having a junior Gibson myself, courtesy of my mom and dad, and treasuring Dad's jumbo Gibson, that was a highlight of the museum for me.

Val and the kids were very patient while I viewed these things, and then we went to the authentic Old West town that they have in the museum. That was one place we all enjoyed. Sounds piped in made you feel as if you were really in such a town: a cowboy's boots sounded on the boardwalk, spurs jingling, and the sound of an approaching train was signaled by a far-away whistle.

We put the kids in "jail," a metal cage actually once used as a jail in a Western town. I checked out the newspaper office, and we toured the one-room schoolhouse, one-room church, hotel lobby, bank lobby, livery stable and made note of the readily available hitching posts.

This museum was great if you care at all about the Old West, or just cowboy and Native American history.

We had a long driving day on Wednesday, then made Thursday a full day at the south rim of the Grand Canyon.

We were glad that our first view of this majestic treasure was at a stopping point that we had all to ourselves. It was breathtaking, and being away from other people was a plus (no offense; I'm sure other tourists would have thought the same about us). We just stood and stared for a while.

You can see for miles to the north rim, and to at least one mountain beyond. A park ranger later noted that on a clear day, you can see as far as Utah from the canyon's south rim.

We drove along the east side of the south rim and stopped at most of the overlooks. Each view was as breathtaking as the last, and we took gobs of photos.

Of course, nothing could beat that first glimpse.

We hiked along the canyon farther west on the south rim for a mile or so. The weather was practically perfect: a high of 84, and that "dry heat" that everyone talks about; no humidity. The sun shone down on us and the blue sky and puffy white clouds made the picturesque scenery complete.

Val is afraid of heights, and I'm not too keen on some heights myself, so the kids went on their own -- safely behind the rails and barriers, of course -- out onto some points. Along some places of the rim trail where we walked, with the canyon's steep sides to our right, Val walked on the far left of the trail and put her right hand up so that she couldn't see the height.

I was on the left side of the trail, too, away from the canyon side, but I could manage a few looks down into the depths of this natural wonder while walking ... and while pausing for frequent rests.

We all noticed the higher elevation, stopping to catch our breath here and there.

We also took the shuttle buses to parts of the park, and watched the movie that explains the formation of the canyon, early exploration of the Colorado River and the canyon, and other history of the area. We saw elk grazing just a few feet from the road or trails, seemingly oblivious to the people nearby.

It was an amazing day at the Grand Canyon. But we weren't done yet.

On the way home, we managed to see Meteor Crater -- dubbed the "worlds best preserved meteorite impact site on Earth" -- in northern Arizona; plus Petrified Forest Park and Painted Desert Park, also in northern Arizona and along our route, Interstate 40. We also made a stop in Amarillo for lunch at The Burger Bar downtown.

What a great trip! If you haven't gone to the Grand Canyon, start planning your trip right away. I mean ...

Wow.
Never before has Warsaw seen such a high level of new supply. From January to June 2016 some 16 office sites were handed over for use, says Elzbieta Czerpak, Head of Research, Knight Frank. The majority of new supply is located in the city centre, Zoliborz and along Aleje Jerozolimskie.

The firs...

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Exercise alone can reduce the number of obese, pregnant women who develop gestational diabetes, a new study from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) has shown.

Women in the exercise group also had lower blood pressure than the control group towards the end of their pregnancy.

The study has just been published in PLOS Medicine.

The number of women of childbearing age who are obese is on the rise. Obese women are at increased risk of complications during pregnancy, the most common of which are gestational diabetes, high blood pressure, a large increase in weight and pre-eclampsia.

They are also at an increased risk of needing a Caesarean section and giving birth to large babies. These complications can have a great impact on the health of both mother and child, not just during pregnancy, but also later in life.

Diabetes rates dropped

In a large study at NTNU and St. Olavs Hospital in Trondheim, Norway, researchers studied the effect of regular exercise during pregnancy in obese, pregnant women.

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The study comprised 91 women who were divided randomly into an exercise group or a control group. Of those, only two in the exercise group vs. nine in the control group developed gestational diabetes. The women in the exercise group also had lower blood pressure towards the end of their pregnancy.

Long-term consequences

"It's important to reduce obesity-related pregnancy complications because they can have long-term consequences for both the mother and her child," says Dr. Trine Moholdt, the principal investigator for the study. "We advise all women to exercise during pregnancy, as long as there aren't any medical reasons that prevent them from exercising."

The study also showed that the amount of exercise needed to reduce the risk of gestational diabetes is not very high, Moholdt said.

Walking and strength training three times a week

Women in the exercise group were invited to three weekly supervised sessions of 60 minutes throughout the course of their pregnancy. The training consisted of 35 minutes of moderate intensity treadmill walking and 25 minutes of strength training. The control group was given standard prenatal care.

The researchers noted that the intensity of the training for the exercise group was not very high and that not all women in the exercise group met for all sessions.

"That meant that even a little training during pregnancy can be beneficial," said Kirsti Krohn Garns, the PhD candidate who was responsible for all the training sessions in the trial.
Engineers from the University of Utah and the University of Minnesota have discovered that interfacing two particular oxide-based materials makes them highly conductive, a boon for future electronics that could result in much more power-efficient laptops, electric cars and home appliances that also don't need cumbersome power supplies.

Their findings were published this month in the scientific journal, APL Materials, from the American Institute of Physics.

The team led by University of Utah electrical and computer engineering assistant professor Berardi Sensale-Rodriguez and University of Minnesota chemical engineering and materials science assistant professor Bharat Jalan revealed that when two oxide compounds -- strontium titanate (STO) and neodymium titanate (NTO) -- interact with each other, the bonds between the atoms are arranged in a way that produces many free electrons, the particles that can carry electrical current. STO and NTO are by themselves known as insulators -- materials like glass -- that are not conductive at all.

But when they interface, the amount of electrons produced is a hundred times larger than what is possible in semiconductors. "It is also about five times more conductive than silicon [the material most used in electronics]," Sensale-Rodriguez says.

This innovation could greatly improve power transistors -- devices in electronics that regulate the electrical current -- by making power supplies much more efficient for items ranging from televisions and refrigerators to handheld devices, Sensale-Rodriguez says. Today, electronics manufacturers use a material called gallium nitride for transistors in power supplies and other electronics that carry large electrical currents. But that material has been explored and optimized for many years and likely cannot be made more efficient. In this discovery made by the Utah and Minnesota team, the interface between STO and NTO can be at the very least as conductive as gallium nitride and likely will be much more in the future.

"When I look at the future, I see that we can perhaps improve conductivity by an order of magnitude through optimizing of the materials growth," Jalan says. "We are bringing the possibility of high power, low energy oxide electronics closer to reality."

Power transistors that use this combination of materials could lead to smaller devices and appliances because their power supplies would be more energy efficient. Laptop computers, for example, could ditch the bulky external power supplies -- the big black boxes attached to the power cords -- in favor of smaller supplies that are instead built inside the computer. Large appliances that consume a lot of electricity such as air conditioners could be more power efficient. And because there is less power wasted (wasted electricity usually dissipates into heat), these devices will not run as hot as before, says Sensale-Rodriguez. He also believes that if more electronics use these materials for transistors, collectively it could save significant amounts of electricity for the country.

"It's fundamentally a different road toward power electronics, and the results are very exciting" he says. "But we still need to do more research."

Co-authors on the paper also include: University of Utah electrical and computer engineering professor Ajay Nahata; U graduate students Sara Arezoomandan, Hugo Condori Quispe, Ashish Chanana; and Minnesota graduate student Peng Xu. The work at University of Minnesota is funded by the Air Force Young Investigator Research Program, and the work in Utah is primarily supported by the National Science Foundation's Materials Research Science and Engineering Center at the University of Utah.
New research is casting doubt on a commonly held belief about how cells use DNA to make proteins, suggesting the genetic code is more diverse than previously thought.

Cells take a number of complicated steps to translate their sequence of basic DNA building blocks into proteins, which then act as workhorses to carry out the vital functions of life. Since many different proteins are encoded on a single DNA strand, the cell uses markers to know when to start and stop making a protein.

Many biology textbooks say that the start marker, called a start codon, always encodes for a compound called methionine. Yet William Duax, a structural biologist at the State University of New York at Buffalo, says new research by his team suggests the textbooks could be wrong. He will present the research at the 66th annual meeting of the American Crystallographic Association, help July 22-26 in Denver, Colorado.

"We have ample evidence that hundreds of the oldest ribosomal proteins still start with a valine or a leucine code and do not have the codon for methionine in the DNA," Duax said, referring to proteins found in basic cell components called ribosomes. "We have found unequivocal evidence that the earliest species on earth are still using a primitive form of the genetic code consisting of only half of the standard 64 codons," he said.

The results are contradictory to a widely held belief among biologists. "There are significant errors in text books. The universal code is not universal and all species now on earth do not use a code "frozen in time" as claimed by Watson and Crick," Duax said. "Some basic assumptions about evolution are incorrect." Duax also noted that the results raise questions about some aspects of a hypothesis on the origins of life, called the RNA world, which posits that RNA, which is similar to DNA and is still used in cells, was the first genetic material.

Duax and his team obtained their results by combing through a database that contains the sequences of more than 90 million genes. The genes encode proteins and the researchers used new techniques to accurately identify all members of each family of proteins and distinguish them from all other families that have remained unchanged for 3 billion years.

The research team developed programs to expedite the complete capture and perfect alignment of families of proteins having 25,000 members and encompassing all species for which genomes are reported. From those perfect alignments researchers could identify the precise location and function of the most conserved residues in the alignment, meaning the proteins that have stayed the same for the longest period of time. From these primordial proteins the researchers found evidence that the oldest proteins do not start in the standard way or use many of the other parts of the standard codes for making proteins.

Perhaps as surprising as the research and its findings is the way that Duax helped fund his research. He developed a three-week summer school in molecular bioinformatics and evolution for highly motivated high school students. In the past six summers he has trained more than 220 students to trace the origin and evolution of the protein composition and folding, of all cellular species and of the genetic code.

In addition to changing the way we look at genetic coding and rewriting textbooks, Duax's work has applications in genetic therapies that exploit structural details of bacteria to develop therapies that are selective and have fewer side effects.

The next step for the research team is to publish the results of their work and receive feedback from other researchers.

"Some of my students have been in the program for three years and are already equipped to prepare manuscripts for submission to journals in molecular evolution and structural science," Duax said. However, the team is just beginning.
Currently, there is no effective method to predict the prognosis of chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients. Tomonori Kimura and Yoshitaka Isaka, researchers in Department of Nephrology, Osaka University, found that measuring D-amino acids1, which present only trace in human, provides prognostic information of CKD. The present discovery would facilitate CKD treatment and thus improve the prognosis of CKD, and may also lead to the further discovery of novel therapy. The potential application is not limited to kidney diseases: the disease context ranges to life style-related diseases such as diabetes mellitus and hypertension, as well as lethal diseases including cardiovascular diseases.

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a critical health problem. CKD patients are highly-prevalent throughout the world, and the number of end-stage kidney disease (ESKD) patients, who need to receive cost-prohibitive kidney replacement therapy, is increasing year by year. Additionally, the risk of cardiovascular diseases and death increases with the progression of CKD stages. In Japan, the number of ESKD patients receiving kidney replacement therapy is over 320,000, including 30,000 patients who start it every year. Moreover, it was estimated that about 10% of Japanese population have CKD. Thus, it is critical to prevent CKD patients from the progression to ESKD, however, there is no effective methods to predict the progression of CKD.

On the other hand, D-amino acids, the enantiomers2 of L-amino acids, are increasingly recognized as potential biomarkers in several diseases. Although the amounts of D-amino acids are usually very trace in human and their existence have been overlooked, recent technological advancement enables us to measure D-amino acids simultaneously with high sensitivity at fentomole3 levels. The research group from Osaka and Kyushu University searched for prognostic biomarkers of CKD through a chiral amino acid metabolic profiling4.

The research group measured D-amino acids in blood from CKD patients by applying micro-two-dimensional HPLC (2D-HPLC) system5 developed by Kenji Hamase, Department of Pharmaceutical Science, Kyushu University, and followed their prognoses. 16 out of 21 D-amino acids were detected in blood from CKD patients. Further analyses revealed that D-Serine and D-Asparagine were associated with the progression of CKD; the risk of progression to ESKD was elevated from 2- to 4- fold in those with higher levels of those D-amino acids.

The results of present study will provide the novel method to the clinician which can identify CKD patients at high-risk for progression to ESKD. The information of D-amino acids would enable to select the best treatment for individual person, as well as the discovery of novel therapy. This method is also applicable to such diseases as life style-associated diseases (diabetes mellitus and hypertension) and cardiovascular diseases, as the prognoses of these diseases are strongly influenced by CKD progression.

Terminology:

1 D-amino acid

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Most amino acids, the component of proteins, have two chiral bodies (stereoisomers): L-amino acids and D-amino acids. The amino acids present in life systems are the L-forms almost exclusively, however, current technological advancement has just revealed the presence of D-amino acids in higher animals including humans, and the D-amino acids are gradually recognized as physiologically active molecules. D-Serine and D-Asparagine, which are highlighted in the current report, are the stereoisomers of L-Serine and L-Asparagine, respectively.

2 Enantiomer (chiral body)

An etantiomer (also known as optical isomer or chiral body) is one of two stereoisomers that are mirror images of each other, just like one's left and right hands. L-amino acids cannot be superimposed to their chiral bodies, D-amino acids.

3 fentomole (fmol)

A billionth of a millionth (10-15) of a mole. Very trace amount.

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4 Metabolome profiling

Metabolome is the collection of all metabolites in the measured samples. Metabolome profiling is to study the metabolome systematically.

5 2D-HPLC system

HPLC (high performance liquid chromatography) is a technique to separate, identify and quantify each component in a mixture. Single HPLC system is not sufficient to detect amino acids with chiral selectivity. The 2D-HPLC system, composed of tandemly-connected two HPLC systems, has enabled the detection of amino acids with chiral selectivity.
Drugs for livestock can harm beneficial organisms that break down dung. Therefore newly developed medical substances need to be tested on single species in the lab. An international research group including evolutionary biologists from the University of Zurich have been scrutinizing the reliability of such laboratory tests, evaluating the implementation of a field test based on the anti-parasitic drug ivermectin at four climatically different locations. The scientists thus presented a novel approach for more advanced environmental compatibility tests.

Livestock medications can impair beneficial organisms that break down dung. Too high a dosage of ivermectin, a common drug against parasites, harms coprophilous organisms, for instance. The toxicity of new livestock medications therefore needs to be verified in ecotoxicological tests with individual animal species such as the common yellow dung fly, the barn fly or a dung beetle. This involves determining the lethal dose leading to the death of half the maggots (LD50 test). However, sensitivity to toxic substances is known to vary significantly even among closely related coprophilous organisms, which begs the question as to how representative the reaction of any individual animal species actually is in such laboratory tests. After all, there is a high risk that more sensitive species will continue to be harmed by the substance, jeopardizing key ecosystem functions in the long run.

An international research group including UZH evolutionary biologist Wolf Blanckenhorn recently proposed extending the testing scheme to a representative selection of all organisms that break down dung, ideally in their natural environment. The scientists now presented a successful and more comprehensive higher-tier ecotoxicological field test. Their study provides important insights into minimizing the risks of drug residues in nature.

Earthworms compensate for loss of coprophilous insects

For their feasibility study, the scientists worked on cattle pastures in the Canadian Prairie and the agricultural landscapes of southern France, the Netherlands and Switzerland -- four locations with very different climatic conditions. On these pastures, they distributed dung pats with different concentrations of ivermectin. "As expected, the overall number and diversity of dung beetles, dung flies and parasitoid wasps decreased as the ivermectin concentration increased," explains Blanckenhorn. However, a number of species also proved to be resistant: earthworms and springtails living in the ground underneath the cowpats were not notably affected, and a parallel test ultimately revealed that dung degradation was not significantly impaired. "Evidently, beneficial organisms not affected as much by the drug, such as earthworms, were apparently able to compensate for the loss of other organisms," sums up Blanckenhorn.

A basis for decision makers and licensing authorities

Despite diverse environmental conditions and methodological details, the results were very similar and reproducible in all four habitats. "Our field approach was therefore a success and in principle can be recommended. The regulation authorities responsible, such as the European Medicines Agency EMA, now have to decide whether this more conclusive yet more complex test should be required in the future," says Blanckenhorn. The amount of effort involved in determining the numerous dung organisms is tremendous and impossible without expert biological knowledge. "Classifying species via so-called DNA barcoding, based on each organism's unique genetic fingerprint, is possible in principle and will probably be more cost-effective in the future. However, this approach requires the establishment of a complete database for coprophilous organisms, which does not yet exist," concludes the scientist.
Male honey bees, called drones, can be affected by two neonicotinoid insecticides by reducing male honey bee lifespan and number of living sperm. Both insecticides are currently partially banned in Europe. Researchers from Bern, Switzerland, together with partners from Thailand and Germany, call for more thorough environmental risk assessments of these neonicotinoids.

In recent years, beekeepers have struggled to maintain healthy honey bee colonies throughout the northern hemisphere. In the first study to investigate the effects of neonicotinoids on drones, and one of the first to study the effects of these agricultural chemicals on males in general, an international research team led by the University of Bern and Agroscope has found that two neonicotinoids may inadvertently reduce drone lifespan and number of living sperm. Because queen survival and queen productivity are intimately connected to successful mating with males, any influence on sperm quality may have profound consequences for the health of the queen, as well as the entire colony. In light of recent beekeeper surveys that identified poor queen health as an important reason for honey bee colony losses, this study further strengthens calls for more thorough environmental risk assessments of these insecticides, as well as other crop protection products, to protect bees and other beneficial organisms.

'We know multiple stressors can affect honey bee health, including parasites and poor nutrition. It is possible that agricultural chemicals may also play an important role', says senior author Geoff Williams of the University of Bern and Agroscope. In 2013, the European Union and Switzerland took a precautionary approach by partially restricting the application of the widely used neonicotinoid insecticides thiamethoxam, clothianidin, and imidacloprid, with the mandate to perform further environmental risk assessments. A new inter-governmental review is currently taking place. Previous research suggests that these chemicals cause both lethal and sub-lethal effects on honey bee females from exposure, but nothing is known about how they may affect males of the species.

A research team from the institutes of bee health and veterinary public health at the University of Bern (Switzerland) and Agroscope at the Swiss Confederation (Switzerland), alongside collaborators from Chiang Mai University and Mae Fah Luang University (Thailand) and the University of Koblenz-Landau (Germany) recently demonstrated in an article in the scientific journal Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B: Biological Sciences that male honey bees, also called drones, are vulnerable to the neonicotinoids thiamethoxam and clothianidin.

Reduced longevity and sperm quality

The study showed that males maintained in the laboratory after colony-level exposure had a shorter lifespan and produced fewer living sperm. This could have important consequences for colonies because queens, which are essential to colony functioning, must be properly inseminated with healthy sperm from multiple males. Factors affecting the health of drones could therefore have profound consequences not just for the queen, but for the entire colony, as replacement of poorly mated queens is resource intensive and not without risks.

'Most neonicotinoid studies that employ honey bees have focused on workers, which are typically the non-reproductive females of the colony. Male honey bees have really been neglected by honey bee health scientists; while not surprising, these results may turn a few heads', says lead author and doctoral student Lars Straub from the University of Bern. Co-author Peter Neumann from Bern states 'these results, coupled with the importance of males to honey bee reproduction, highlight the need for stringent environmental risk assessments of agricultural chemicals to protect biodiversity and ecosystem functioning.'

Bees, pollination, and honey

Honey bees, like all insect pollinators, provide crucial ecosystem and economic services. Annually in Europe and North America, millions of honey bee colonies produce honey and contribute to the pollination of a range of agricultural crops -- from carrots to almonds to oilseed rape -- that is valued at billions of Euros.16. Neonicotinoid insecticides can serve as inadvertent insect contraceptives.
Research conducted by Duke-NUS Medical School (Duke-NUS) and Duke University has associated low vitamin D levels with increased subsequent risk of cognitive decline and impairment in the Chinese elderly.

Produced primarily in the skin upon exposure to sunlight, Vitamin D is necessary for maintaining healthy bones and muscles. It is now believed to also play a significant role in maintaining healthy brain function. An increased risk of cardiovascular and neurodegenerative diseases has been observed in those with low vitamin D levels, and studies from Europe and North America have linked low vitamin D levels with future cognitive decline.

This study asks similar questions of vitamin D levels and cognition in the Chinese elderly. It is the first large-scale prospective study in Asia to study the association between vitamin D status and risk of cognitive decline and impairment in the Chinese elderly. 1,202 study subjects greater than or equal to 60 years of age from the Chinese Longitudinal Health Longevity Survey took part in this study. Their baseline vitamin D levels were measured at the start of the study, and their cognitive abilities were assessed over 2 years.

Regardless of gender and extent of advanced age, individuals with lower vitamin D levels at the start of the study were approximately twice as likely to exhibit significant cognitive decline over time. In addition, low vitamin D levels at baseline also increased the risk of future cognitive impairment by 2-3 times.

"Although this study was conducted on subjects from China, the results are applicable to regions in Asia where a large proportion of the elderly are ethnically Chinese, like Singapore," said Professor David Matchar, first author of the study and Director of the Health Services and Systems Research Programme at Duke-NUS Medical School.

These findings reinforce the notion that vitamin D protects against neuron damage and loss, and call for more intensive investigations into the effects of vitamin D supplements on cognitive decline. Better understanding of the mechanism by which vitamin D protects neurons may help identify effective interventions to stem the rapidly increasing prevalence of cognitive decline observed in aging populations.
A DNA analysis of living and extinct species of mysterious New Zealand wrens may change theories around the country's geological and evolutionary past.

A University of Adelaide study into New Zealand's acanthisittid wrens has provided compelling evidence that, contrary to some suggestions, New Zealand was not completely submerged under the ocean around 21 to 25 million years ago.

The acanthisittid wrens are a group of tiny, largely flightless, birds found nowhere else in the world. They are called wrens because of their similarity in appearance and behaviour to "true wrens," but they don't belong to the same family.

"Of the seven species living before humans arrived in New Zealand, only two now remain, the rock wren and the rifleman," says lead author Dr Kieren Mitchell, Postdoctoral Research Associate in the University's Australian Centre for Ancient DNA (ACAD). "Consequently, little is known about their evolution."

Published in the journal Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution and led by ACAD, the researchers analysed DNA from three of the extinct species along with the two living species.

The research was in collaboration with the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, Canterbury Museum and the New Zealand Department of Conservation.

"Most surprisingly, we found that some of the wren species were only distantly related to each other, potentially sharing a common ancestor over 25 million years ago," Dr Mitchell says.

"Previously, researchers have suggested that New Zealand was completely submerged 21 to 25 million years ago, which implies that all of New Zealand's unique plants and animals must have immigrated and diversified more recently than that time.

"This theory is consistent, for instance, with what is known about the moa, where the different species all shared a common ancestor much more recently than 21 million years ago.

"But the ancient divergences we found among the wrens suggest that they have been resident in New Zealand for more than 25 million years, and possibly as long as 50 million years (when New Zealand became disconnected from the rest of Gondwana).

"As the wrens were largely very poor fliers, or even flightless, some land must have remained throughout that period.

"This has important consequences for our understanding of the evolution of New Zealand's unique ecosystems."
With the aid of platinum catalysts, it is possible to efficiently produce hydrogen. However, this metal is rare and expensive. Researchers have discovered an alternative that is just as good, but less costly.

The mineral pentlandite is a potential new catalyst for hydrogen production. As described in the journal Nature Communications, it works just as efficient as the platinum electrodes commonly used today. In contrast to platinum, pentlandite is affordable and found frequently on Earth.

A team headed by Dr. Ulf-Peter Apfel and Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Schuhmann of the Ruhr-Universitat Bochum describes the results together with colleagues from the Max-Planck-Institute for Coal Research in Mulheim an der Ruhr and the Technical University of Bratislava.

Producing hydrogen without precious metals

In addition to platinum, there are numerous other substances that can catalyse the reaction of water to hydrogen and oxygen and do not contain any precious metals. Among such compounds are the so-called metal chalcogenides. Usually, however, these non-metallic materials are distinctly poorer conductors of electrons and are thus inefficient catalysts.

Pentlandite consists of iron, nickel, and sulfur. Its structure is similar to the active center of hydrogenases, which are hydrogen-producing enzymes, as found, for example, in green algae. In the current study, the researchers compared the hydrogen production rate of naturally obtained and artificially produced pentlandite with platinum and other non-metallic catalysts.

Mineral pentlandite just as good as platinum

Artificial pentlandite and platinum prove to be equally good catalysts, with a performance that surpasses that of all the other materials tested. The mineral synthesized in the lab produced hydrogen much more efficiently than the naturally found variant. The reason: Inclusions of magnesium and silicon in natural pentlandite reduce its conductivity. The scientists called the output of artificial pentlandite "surprisingly high," and the rate of synthesis also remained stable for a long time.

The mineral has another advantage compared to other non-precious-metal materials. It has a greater active surface area to which the reacting substances can dock. In other non-precious-metal materials, this surface has to be created using complex methods by applying the catalyst to an electrode in the form of nanoparticles.

Funding

The German Research Foundation subsidized the work as part of the Resolv Cluster of Excellence (EXC1069) and the Emmy-Noether-Project AP242/2-1. Further financial support came from the Chemical Industry Fund in the form of a Liebig Stipend.
Transport Minister Simon Bridges has welcomed the signing of an air services agreement opening the opportunity for code-sharing between New Zealand and Mauritius airlines.

The agreement was signed today after being negotiated by officials at an international air services conference in Turkey in 2015.

This agreement opens up opportunities for code-share services linking New Zealand and Mauritius, through Air Mauritius services to and from Perth, Australia. Passenger airlines of each side can now also operate up to 14 services per week, Mr Bridges says.

This agreement will further enhance New Zealands international air connectivity, bringing both trade and tourism benefits.

Mr Bridges says the Governments liberal International Air Transport Policy is bringing many benefits to New Zealand.

Since the policy was implemented in 2012 more than 50 new or amended air agreements have been negotiated, bringing the total to 78. Most of the major airlines in the world are now able to operate services to New Zealand without restriction, with 19 new air routes announced in the past year alone.

Well continue our efforts to grow and enhance these connections, making it easier for New Zealanders to travel and trade internationally.

SOURCE: Office of Simon Bridges
If elected, a Labour Government would transform careers advice in high schools to ensure every student has a personalised career plan, says party leader Andrew Little.

This week Labour announced a $30 million plan that would see schools partner with business and training providers to deliver up-to-date and relevant careers advice that prepares young people for the future.
Baby Keith was far from alright.

Keith the baby elephant | AWARE Trust Zimbabwe

The 3-month-old elephant calf was first spotted by a camp manager at the Greater Mapungubwe Transfrontier Conservation Area (TFCA) in Zimbabwe during the first week of July. His right hind leg was severely swollen, leaving him in desperate need of medical attention. The camp manager took photos of the elephant and sent them to AWARE Trust Zimbabwe. Upon receiving photos of the calf, veterinarians from AWARE immediately began to track down the elephant - getting permission to search the parks from wildlife officials, and getting in touch with locals in the area to see if they knew anything about the young elephant and his troubling condition. From the photos provided, the team accurately guessed that the calf's foot was wrapped in a wire snare trap.

AWARE Trust Zimbabwe

"These elephants roam the Greater Mapungubwe TFCA, into Tuli and Botswana, part of which is communal land," Dr. Lisa Marabini, director of AWARE, told The Dodo. "I suspect the elephant picked up a snare set by a villager for the bushmeat trade." By the time the veterinarians were able to reach the watering hole where Keith, his mother and his herd had reportedly been gathering for two days in a row, it was too late - the injured elephant and his herd had disappeared.

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AWARE Trust Zimbabwe

"Immobilizations can only safely be performed in daylight as the drug takes 10 to 15 minutes to take effect, during which time an animal could run off and get lost in the darkness," AWARE wrote on Facebook. "Additionally it would not have been safe to immobilize the baby elephant and its mother with up to 100 other elephants milling around." The search was called off by nightfall, but picked back up the next day. A drone was utilized to follow a nearby herd, and the team attempted to approach on foot, but both times they scared off the animals, leaving veterinarians unable to get close enough to see if the calf with the swollen foot was among them.

The second night came and the search had to be paused once again. "We realized the only safe and effective way we would get a chance to locate and dart the baby is with a helicopter," AWARE wrote. "We figured that with his injury, the calf would be slow and the herd would not have ventured too far from the water point. We clearly underestimated his mobility, because after scouring the area for four and a half hours spread over two days in the helicopter, we could not find him." Sadly, AWARE no longer had the funds available to continue the search and had to call it off, relying instead on word of mouth about further sightings of the calf. It wasn't until weeks later that AWARE would gain the opportunity to rescue Keith for good.

Keith with his mother | AWARE Trust Zimbabwe

"In the last 10 days, reports of sightings started to come in again at the same water hole, together with some pictures showing the calf's deteriorating condition," AWARE wrote in a Facebook post on July 24 recounting the rescue. The AWARE team had a rhino management operation scheduled and decided to utilize their resources from the operation to take one last stab at locating Keith. Finally, on Saturday, Keith was found. "His swollen foot was unmistakeable from the chopper as he sped along on three legs with his mother following," AWARE wrote. Keith's very protective mother, who never once left him, was tranquilized along with her calf for the safety of the team. Veterinarians were finally able to get a close look at the extent of his injury.

Keith's mother tranquilized | AWARE Trust Zimbabwe

"Although he was thinner than he should be, from fighting the devastating injury, the calf was strong and was very stable under the anaesthetic," AWARE wrote. As it turns out, the snare was so deeply embedded into his leg that it had reached the very bone. An X-ray conducted on site showing damage done to his feet as well.

AWARE vets tending to Keith's injury | AWARE Trust Zimbabwe

Despite the injury, Keith had a good blood supply still running through the foot. Rescuers say Keith has a good shot at recovery because of his youth. The vet team cleaned Keith's wounds and gave him pain relief medication, in addition to long-lasting antibiotics.

AWARE Trust Zimbabwe

After the team patched Keith up, they woke up the calf and his mother. "The mother instantaneously got her bearings and we could swear she nodded at the calf, before they went trotting off in unison into the bush," AWARE wrote. Keith's rescuers believe that he'll be left with a deformed foot, but Keith has already demonstrated that he has no problem keeping up with his herd on three legs. More importantly, Keith will no longer have to endure the pain that plagued him for weeks, thanks to the veterinarians who refused to give up on saving him.

Keith just before he was woken up | AWARE Trust Zimbabwe
When someone brought Megan Sorbara a bucket-full of kittens, she didn't actually melt into a chorus of oooohs and awwwws. More like, "Oh no."

Megan Sorbara

It's the middle of kitten season in Florida - a time that sees rescues like Naples Cat Alliance flooded with furry orphans. "We just get hammered with kittens," Sorbara tells The Dodo. "It's just kittens everywhere. When you don't have the mom, it's a lot of work."

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Megan Sorbara

But these weren't typical orphans. It didn't take long for Sorbara to learn these babies came from a place far away. At least in kitten miles. Their mother had left them in a bucket on the back of a landscaping truck - more than 50 miles away in Fort Myers. When an unsuspecting worker drove that truck to Naples, the kittens tumbled around in the open bed of the truck the whole way. "It's amazing that they did not fall off," Sorbara says. "If it rained, even, they would have drowned."

Megan Sorbara

Someone soon discovered the newborns - and, like many cats in need, they ended up at the Naples Cat Alliance. But then there was the not-so-small detail of finding their mother in a construction yard in another city. It turns out, finding the mother wasn't so difficult. The workers in Fort Myers recalled a very friendly stray. A party of volunteers was dispatched from Naples to pick her up. And later that night, the refuge rang out with a meowing monument to motherhood.

Naples Cat Alliance

"When we brought her in, she started meowing," Sorbara says. "And the kittens, all four of them, went nuts." "They hadn't seen her. They just heard her meow."

Naples Cat Alliance
This is Balou.

We may never know why his mom left him behind, but we do know that he's lucky to be alive. "I've lived in close presence of koalas for twenty years," Betty Blue, a resident of Rosebank, Australia, wrote on Facebook, describing how she came to find Balou. "The mother had been around for a few days, so when we first heard the little meeping we thought nothing of it, but the next night I decided to investigate and was quite surprised to find him on the ground, no mom in sight."

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Blue contacted people who could help little Balou survive. Wildlife caretakers from Friends of the Koala, a nursery and care center in New South Wales, Australia, arrived at the Blue residence to bring Balou to his new foster home, where he'll gain his strength for the next six to eight months. Cold and hungry, the little Koala didn't even weigh a whole pound.

But already, just days later, he's doing much better. "Balou was placed with his home carer the day after he came into care," Susannah Keogh, care coordinator at Friends of the Koala, Inc., told The Dodo. "They need to form a bond quickly so that he continues to eat and grow as he should. I am happy to report he is completely in love with his foster mom and is taking his milk like a pro."

Koalas need to develop a special digestive bacteria in order to eat eucalyptus leaves, which are toxic without it. A video captures Balou having his first taste of "fecal pap." "In the wild, the mother koala would pass her gut bacteria through her feces to her young," Keogh said. "It is a major step in their development ... As you can see, he is totally loving the pap and will no doubt be trying his first eucalyptus leaf in the days to come."

Balou is also growing up with a foster brother, Nino, who was found thrown from his mother's pouch after she was hit and killed by a car. Nino is a little further along in his recovery, slowly learning to climb.

"I am looking forward to him being raised up by a wonderful local carer," Blue wrote. "He will be released back here when he's older."
Canadas housing agency says there is evidence of increasingly problematic conditions in the national home market, prompting it to upgrade its assessment of the countrys troubling signs from weak to moderate.

One of those signposts has been planted just down the road from Toronto in the neighbouring city of Hamilton.

A third-quarter report from Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. (CMHC) on Wednesday said overvaluation in Hamilton was similar to that of Torontos property market.

That means home prices are higher than would normally be explained by factors such as population, employment and income.

Theres no specific data proving Torontonians are moving west on the QEW in search of cheaper housing, said Abdul Kargobo, CMHC analyst for the city of about 520,000 people.

But if we look back to 2013, we do see that Hamilton is attracting some buyers that are priced out of Toronto because Hamilton is relatively affordable, he said.

The economic development department in Hamilton recently reported its average home price of $451,000 was nearly half that of Torontos $940,000.

The sales-to-new-listings ratio was 84 per cent, reaching its highest quarterly level on record and significantly above the 75-per-cent threshold used to identify evidence of overheating, said CMHCs Housing Market Assessment report.

The other hot Toronto-area market is Durham Region, according to CMHC analyst Dana Senagama. The east end of the region is attracting many first-time buyers with housing prices that are significantly lower, she said.

There are supply constraints, but the advantage Durham has is that it is about 50 per cent less on average in terms of house pricing, she said.

The Toronto areas housing vulnerabilities continued to be termed strong in the third quarter. But, in its latest report, CMHC put Vancouver in the same assessment category.

Both cities are experiencing overheating, overvaluation and price acceleration according to the CMHC study and each has consumers paying record sums in aggressive bidding wars.

On Monday, the British Columbia government also announced a 15-per-cent tax on property transactions involving foreign buyers, also considered to be a factor driving that market.

Also contributing to CMHCs national assessment is a combination of overvaluation and overbuilding in cities such as Calgary, Saskatoon and Regina, said Bob Dugan, the agencys senior economist.

If CMHC detects more broad-based price acceleration in the future as Toronto and Vancouver market conditions spread to neighbouring areas, its next assessment could be upgraded further from moderate to strong, he said.

Average Toronto home prices climbed 16.8 per cent year over year in June, according to the Toronto Real Estate Board.

A lack of single-family homes has continued to push Toronto prices higher.

Fewer launches of new single-detached projects in recent years meant demand has been increasingly absorbed by the resale market, said CMHC.

That, in turn, is pushing more buyers into condos and a low vacancy rate in the rental market is also helping absorb unsold highrise units, it said.

The report is further evidence, the building industry said, that provincial intensification polices are driving up home prices in the Toronto area.

The homebuilding industry has been consistent in its advocacy to increase housing choice in the GTA marketplace. The industry is building far fewer lowrise homes, especially single-family detached homes, today because we are mandated to, said Bryan Tuckey, CEO of the Building Industry and Land Development Association.

The CMHC assessment is based on a number of signals in 15 major Canadian markets.

The objective is to identify signs of instability in housing prices.

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Torstar Corp., the Toronto Stars parent company, reported an adjusted loss of 13 cents per share in second-quarter earnings on Wednesday.

That was down from an adjusted profit of 14 cents per share in the same quarter of 2015.

The 2016 quarter included a 40-cent-per-share impact of amortization and depreciation. The quarter included $31 million in unusual non-cash amortization charges associated with the companys investment in VerticalScope and the outsourcing of printing of the Toronto Star to Transcontinental Printing.

The company started printing the paper at those presses on July 3. The sales process for the building and land at the now-closed Star printing presses in Vaughan is ongoing and the company said it is pleased with the level of interest so far.

The printing switchover, announced in January, is expected to save some $10 million annually, though the savings wont be fully realized until 2017.

Segmented revenue in the second quarter was $196.5 million, down nine per cent or $20.4 million from the second quarter of 2015.

Adjusted earnings per share before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, or EBITDA, was $15.6 million. That was down $5.3 million from the second quarter of 2015, partially due to the loss of $1.4 million in commercial printing from the Vaughan presses and partially due to the $1.5-million incremental investment in the Stars tablet app.

The impact of continued print advertising pressures and $1.5 million of incremental costs associated with Toronto Star Touch exceeded contributions from VerticalScope and the effect of continuing efforts on costs, CEO David Holland said in a statement.

On a positive note, we were pleased with our continued progress in digital advertising, Holland said.

Digital ventures reported $9.3 million more in revenue due to the companys investment in VerticalScope, the owner of more than 600 online forums and premium content sites.

Revenues at VerticalScope again posted double-digit growth in the quarter. We continue to be pleased with the progress at VerticalScope where revenue grew 15 per cent and earnings are up 17 per cent during our period of ownership, Holland said.

Digital revenues comprised 17 per cent of the total revenue in the period ending June 30, compared to 13 per cent in the first quarter of 2015.

The companys board of directors announced that it plans to lower the dividend to 10 cents per share annually beginning in the third quarter.

Torstar also said in its outlook that it expects the difficult print advertising market to continue into the third quarter of the year, while digital revenues are expected to grow for the remainder of 2016.

Looking forward we expect earnings in the balance of the year to benefit from growth at VerticalScope, efforts on costs, including outsourcing of printing the Toronto Star, and as anticipated, lower net investment in Toronto Star Touch compared to the 2015 launch, Holland said.

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Sophie Gregoire Trudeau has achieved fashion icon status during her ascent into the spotlight, and has many applauding her for wearing Canadian designers.

But should she pay for it?

Five fashion gifts she was given have come to light recently, with some people criticizing her acceptance of them, though the items fall within Canadian conflict of interest guidelines.

The gifts include an Ellie Mae jacket, a Pink Tartan suit, Alan Anderson costume earrings, a Rudsak coat, and five pairs of Aldo shoes.

Duff Conacher, co-founder of Democracy Watch, a non-profit advocating for democratic reform and government accountability, said accepting the gifts may give the impression she is willing to wear certain designer names if they give her items, or dont charge a rental fee.

If I was her I would want to pay a fair price like everybody else does, Conacher said.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also received a number of gifts this year, though most appeared to be from heads of state, including U.S. President Barack Obama, French President Francois Hollande and Japan minister of foreign affairs Fumio Kishida.

Gifts from international politicians are different from company gifts, Conacher said, because they are part of establishing relationships between countries.

Its a push and pull that comes with the couples celebrity, unusual for Canadian politicians: weighing the expectation that they will dress well and show off Canadian designers because of the potential for exposure, with the expectation that theyll pay for it all. Female politicians fashion choices tend to attract more attention and scrutiny.

Members of Parliament and their families are bound by accountability laws that say any gift worth more than $200 must be disclosed to the Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner and published on its public registry. Those worth more than $1,000 are to be forfeited to the Crown.

The Trudeau family also accepted discounts on guides and lift tickets during a ski trip to Whistler Blackcomb, B.C., the registry says.

The Prime Ministers Office confirmed each item on the registry was kept, not donated.

Sophie Gregoire Trudeau makes a point of wearing independent Canadian designers clothing at official events, PMO spokesperson Olivier Duchesneau said in an emailed statement, adding all the gifts are properly disclosed to the registry.

But Conacher said that gives the impression of creating a disadvantage to Canadian brands that cant afford to give freebies. He believes the items on the registry are probably ones shes planning to wear again.

Which is fine, but if it is becoming part of her wardrobe as opposed to a one-off, then . . . she should buy it, he said. As for those like the Lucian Matis dress she was lent to wear to the U.S. State Dinner, he said she should pay a rental fee.

Jill Killeen, vice-president of business development for jewelry designer Alan Anderson, said Gregoire Trudeau bought a pair of earrings she wore at a dinner in Rideau Hall attended by Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto, but would not disclose the price. The company also gave her the pair of earrings she wore to the White House in March, according to the registry.

Requests for comment to the other designers on the registry went unanswered, except for Rudsak, which said it would not provide any.

First Lady Michelle Obama reportedly pays for most of her clothes, and gowns gifted to her for special events are donated to the National Archives. She, among other things, gave Gregoire Trudeau a custom alpaca cape by Alicia Adams.

Conacher said the brands offering giveaways may be part of an industry organization actively lobbying the government, adding a layer of conflict of interest. The Star could not confirm this because some groups dont disclose their membership.

Her husband is supposed to be making decisions that are not under the influence at all of any gift from anyone trying to win a decision from him, said Conacher.

The PMO says Gregoire Trudeau cant accept gifts that would place the prime minister in a situation of conflict of interests, whether real or apparent.

The PMOs Duchesneau pointed out that Laureen Harper, former prime minister Stephen Harpers wife, accepted gifts while he was in office.

If somebody wouldve called me about that, I wouldve said the same thing, Conacher said.

Correction  July 27, 2016: This article was edited from a previous version that misquoted PMO spokesperson Olivier Duchesneau as saying Laureen Harper, wife of former prime minister Stephen Harper, accepted designer gifts while he was in office. In fact, Duchesneau did not make any reference to designer gifts.

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A Federal Court judge has ordered two Canadian banks to disclose their dealings with a financial institution in the tax haven of Cayman Islands.

Its the second time the government has sought a court order to investigate offshore tax evasion since the Star, in collaboration with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, made the Panama Papers leak public in April. After years of weak enforcement, experts say the recent activity is evidence of a new-found will to crack down on the wealthy who hide their money offshore.

Royal Bank of Canada and Citibank, N.A. now have 120 days to hand over all transaction information for accounts held by Cayman National Bank Ltd. between 2009 and 2015.

The banks will have to provide the Canada Revenue Agency with account statements, deposit slips, cheques, bank drafts and wire transfer orders, all of which will help CRA auditors determine whether Canadian residents used these banks to transfer money home without reporting it.

Neither bank opposed the federal governments court application.

In May, the CRA also sought a court order for RBCs dealings with the law firm at the centre of the Panama Papers leak, Mossack Fonseca. RBC didnt oppose that request either.

Its part of a resurgence in the investigation and prosecution of offshore tax evasion, said tax lawyer Joseph Markson. In the present climate, following the Panama Papers and international efforts to end tax haven secrecy, resistance becomes futile.

Markson wasnt surprised that the banks didnt oppose the government court applications because the CRA is targeting individual tax cheats, not the banks themselves.

The banks want to be seen as good corporate citizens, he said.

In an affidavit filed with the Federal Court, CRA auditor David Letkeman described how the CRA was tipped off about the Cayman tax dodge by a Canadian woman who voluntarily came forward to disclose her hidden offshore assets.

Documents showed how the woman transferred money from the Cayman Islands, through Cayman National Banks account at a Canadian branch of Citibank, N.A., to a Canadian bank account in her name.

She was ordered to pay a total of more than $1.2 million plus interest for unreported capital gains related to offshore property. Because she came forward through the CRAs voluntary disclosure program, the woman did not have to pay penalties and avoided criminal prosecution.

While the CRA has no evidence that other Canadians have used the same methods, the court order will allow it to investigate.

This is symptomatic of a broader worldwide effort. The Canadian government is catching up, looking to expose and deter tax evasion through offshore accounts, said Markson.

While there were few prosecutions of offshore tax cheats under the previous Conservative government, in its first budget last spring the Liberal government announced $444 million over five years to beef up the CRAs investigation of offshore tax cheats. It expects to recuperate $2.6 billion in taxes.

Times are changing said Markson.

Tax havens used to enforce absolute bank secrecy and tax cheats were able to sleep easy, he said, but thats all been blown apart in the last 10 years through a series of leaks.

Theres now pressure on countries around the world to prohibit secret accounts.

When this news reaches those who used the Cayman Bank, Markson said tax lawyers phones will start ringing.

Count on it, he said. There will be a lot of conversations between clients and lawyers trying to figure out what to do.

With files from Star wire services

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MODESTO, CALIF.Police in Central California say they arrested a Canadian woman allegedly carrying 38 kilograms of heroin after a police dog alerted his handler to drugs inside her pickup truck during a traffic stop.

The Modesto Bee reports 63-year-old Kathleen Landry, of British Columbia, was arrested Monday on Highway 99 in Modesto.

Modesto Police spokeswoman Heather Graves says investigators would not release the moving violation allegedly committed by the driver that led to the probable cause for the stop.

Graves says patrol officers, with the assistance of the Modesto Narcotics Enforcement Team, obtained a search warrant for the truck and recovered 38 kilograms of heroin with an estimated street value of more than $2 million (U.S.)

Landry was arrested on suspicion of possessing a controlled substance for sales and transportation of a controlled substance.

Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 1 (209) 521-4636

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The appointment was right there last Friday in Justin Trudeaus public itinerary, which the Prime Ministers Office sends daily to every Ottawa reporter who cares to sign up. The prime minister will attend the Dock Innovators Retreat, it said. Closed to media.

Attend the what?

Googling the mysterious term provided no further information. I was finishing a vacation and assumed some other reporter would ask what the PM had done with his day  normally an interesting question. But by this week nobody had asked. So I did, and here is what Ive found.

The retreat was a real thing. The dock in question is attached to a sprawling cottage somewhere north of Toronto. Dock and cottage belong to Magna CEO Donald Walker, who welcomed 30 corporate CEOs and tech leaders for a two-day gathering whose correct and somewhat precious name is the Dock (Un)Conference.

The, uh, Dock was held under the auspices of the C100, an association of Canadian expats working in Silicon Valley. Since 2010 the C100 has been the organized expression of a kind of yearning: that a rising generation of innovative Canadian entrepreneurs wont have to leave Canada to build the next billion-dollar startup.

The C100 website calls the Dock a highly curated event . . . on the future of tech and where Canada can lead. John Stackhouse, a former Globe and Mail editor now working at the Royal Bank, did the curating. Guests included GE Canada president Elyse Allan. Jordan Banks from Facebook. Tiff Macklem, who left the Bank of Canada to become dean of the Rotman School of Management. Nadir Mohamed, a former Rogers CEO who now runs a venture-capital firm called Scale Up Ventures that gets half its money from the Ontario government. Air Canada CEO Calin Rovinescu. And a mostly younger cohort of rising stars in technology-intensive companies in Canada and California, including Angela Strange, Jennifer Holmstrom and Brendan Frey.

Trudeau appeared in the conference agenda as Special Guest and spoke at lunch on Friday. But he also wanted to hear from his hosts because they share a goal: to encourage entrepreneurs and tech companies to stay in Canada in a bid to boost economic growth and enhance Canadians standard of living.

This was the second time in three weeks that Trudeau has showed up at a tech conference in an idyllic locale. At the beginning of July he was at Sun Valley in Idaho for an annual retreat where he met a succession of blue-chip CEOs: Facebooks Mark Zuckerberg, Amazons Jeff Bezos, Apples Tim Cook, GMs Mary Barra, IBMs Ginni Rometty.

Justin Trudeaus goal here extends well beyond schmoozing. As he said in Davos in January (more billionaires! More scenery!), attracting foreign investment will be a key priority of his government. He does not want an increase on the scale of a rounding error. He wants a massive increase in the amount of investment coming into Canada. The country saw such a thing once before, after World War II, when Europe was levelled, America ravenous, and Canadas national resources desperately needed by both. What would drive another investment boom now, I asked a Trudeau adviser  resources again?

Talent.

Trudeaus PMO and senior ministers are preoccupied with the firms and the entrepreneurs who get their start in Canada and make their fortune elsewhere. Theyre concerned about recent raiding expeditions by Google and others to recruit Canadian leaders in the field of artificial intelligence.

Among people who could work anywhere in the world, size and coolness matter when they decide where to move or whether to stay. Waterloo has managed to become a magnet for global expertise in theoretical physics and quantum computing. Over the next year the Trudeau government will seek to reinforce or shore up Canadas advantage in three emerging fields: quantum tech; artificial intelligence; and big data and analytics.

Four big themes will drive the Trudeau economic policy through next years budget: innovation, infrastructure, immigration and foreign investment. Where will the money come from? Trudeau has been talking to executives at Blackrock, the worlds largest asset manager, which controls $5 trillion in investments worldwide.

Increasing Canadas share of that titanic portfolio would make a lot of things possible. Trudeau is devoting more and more of his time to figuring out how to make that happen. So are his senior economic ministers  Bill Morneau, Chrystia Freeland, Navdeep Bains. This is how the government is spending its summer.

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HALIFAXThe boy was just three weeks old when he suffered a head injury so severe his skull was like a crushed egg, according to one doctor.

His father offered police several possible explanations, all of them accidental.

But in a new ruling, a Nova Scotia Supreme Court judge convicted the father, suggesting he snapped because of the stress of the new baby and tension with his father-in-law.

It is my determination that (the father) intentionally assaulted his infant son, thus causing the catastrophic injuries, said Justice James Chipman. He acted out of emotional upset and inflicted excessive force on his innocent, completely defenceless infant son.

Chipman convicted the man of aggravated assault, failing to provide the necessities of life, and criminal negligence.

Today, the boy is 4-and-a-half, cannot walk and has significant mental and physical challenges.

At the time, he lived with his parents in a small unit attached to his maternal grandparents mobile home in southwestern Nova Scotia.

The boys mother described the accused as an unemotional loner but not violent, and the case against him was entirely circumstantial.

The mother first noticed something was wrong with the boy on Nov. 28, 2011, when she saw his hands twitch repeatedly, and he was staring off with his eyes. The boys father told her she worried too much, according to evidence cited in Chipmans ruling.

She took the boy to hospital anyway, and he was airlifted to the IWK Health Centre in Halifax where tests revealed a complex skull fracture, brain swelling and other symptoms that were highly suspicious for non-accidental trauma, Chipman said. One doctor told them the MRI showed the boys skull was like a crushed egg.

The boys injuries were later summarized in a report by Dr. Alfhild Larson of the IWKs Child Protection Team: On November 28, 2011, (the boy,) then 24 days old, was hospitalized with seizures and reduced consciousness, attributed to severe injuries that included bilateral and complex skull fractures, extensive bleeding in multiple layers of the brain, brain damage due to hypoxic ischemic injury, and hemorrhages within the retina of the eyes.

The judge found the boys injuries were inflicted sometime on Nov. 26 or 27, during one of two moments when he was alone with his father.

The man told police of several incidents in which the boy could have been accidentally injured, including a fall from the couch where his mother was feeding him, a drop from a higher height as his dad tried to warm his bottle in the microwave, or another fall when he fell hard on the boy on Nov 27.

At trial, the defence argued the father is not violent, and the injuries were accidental.

But Chipman rejected that, saying the accused lost control and intentionally applied brutal, extreme force. The judge noted the boys mother said the father did not like living with his in-laws, and he thought his father-in-law was overbearing and drank too much.

Family members also said the pregnancy had been a shock  a doctor had told the father he could not have children because of a bout with cancer  and he was not sleeping well.

I find that (the father) snapped at the time in question, said the judge, who delivered his ruling in court July 22. The written judgment was released on Monday.

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Mississauga Councillor Carolyn Parrish is standing up for her profession, after sending a letter to a resident calling him a cranky constituent for suggesting she took a bribe.

As politicians all we have is our reputations, Parrish told the Star. The best way to get me riled up is by claiming Ive ever taken a bribe. In my 32 years Ive never taken a nickel. We are not steel-coated people. We do have emotions. You should treat me with a similar courtesy that you should use with your doctor, your teacher and others who work to make ours a better society.

In her July 8 letter to resident Frank McGurk, Parrish wrote: You are a cranky constituent  insulting to say the least. The Cliff Gyles reference was obnoxious. I suspect from your tone, others may find your opinions equally rude so Im not concerned greatly regarding your opinions of me.

The Malton resident had earlier sent Parrish a letter regarding the planned demolition of a local shopping plaza to make way for a mixed-use residential development that would include affordable housing units, which has been a priority for Parrish.

Im very disappointed as I read the minutes of the meeting regarding Netherwood plaza, McGurk had written to Parrish two days earlier. The plaza is a mainstay in this community where I have lived for 40 years plus. I smell another Cliff Gilles (sic) move here. We do not need 30 more detached homes with front yards the size of postage stamps.

Gyles is a former Mississauga councillor who accepted $35,000 from businessmen to support a zoning application in 2003. He was convicted of municipal fraud and spent time in a federal prison.

The Star asked McGurk about his reference to Gyles.

The only thing that brought attention (to the issue of the plazas possible demolition) was when I brought up the Cliff Gyles scenario, McGurk said. By no means was I calling anyone in Mississauga council dishonest, I just threw that at them to get their attention.

Asked to respond to Parrishs claim that he attacked her reputation, McGurk said, Well, it happened once before. How can we guarantee it doesnt happen again?

Parrishs office provided a letter that she sent to neighbourhood residents. She wrote that a public meeting was held May 16 to deal with the demolition of the Brandon Gate Plaza to make way for residential units.

The letter outlines plans to include a variety store in the new residential development.

This store will address the concern that there would be no store within walking distance for local residents, the letter says.

The homes to be built on the rest of the property have generous front setbacks so there is adequate driveway parking for each home and will have the largest backyards in the community. They will be an attractive addition to (the) neighbourhood.

A small number will be for affordable housing.

A woman working at a convenience store inside the plaza told the Star that the proposal to tear it down has upset many locals and some business owners.

With Peel Region facing an affordable housing crisis, last year Parrish pushed Mississauga council to make a minimum number of affordable housing units a requirement in all future development plans. Staff is working on a report to determine a viable percentage for all future residential construction that will have to be designated for affordable housing.

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An old white guy, stirring passions that have already riven the Democratic convention: Bernie or Bust.

Its been a bust, of course, that relatively small  estimated at 10 per cent  rump of supporters which continues to carry the standard for Bernie Sanders, even as Hillary Clinton was formally nominated Tuesday as her partys presidential candidate.

But they certainly made a noisy mash of it in Philadelphia, jeering even their adored Sanders when he did the honourable  if hypocritical  thing by unequivocally endorsing his primaries rival.

What we must do or forever look back in regret is to beat Donald Trump and elect Hillary Clinton, he beseeched from the stage. In my view, its too easy to boo, but it is harder to look your kids in the face who would be living under a Donald Trump presidency.

Do the clamorous dissidents even realize that Sanders, who hails from a state, Vermont, that is almost 97-per-cent white, came very late and without much enthusiasm to the singularly most incendiary issue in the U.S. in the past year  the killing of black men by law enforcement and an attendant explosion of old racial rancour?

Does it not matter  as well it should to any Democrat  that Sanders, representing a fiercely gun-friendly state, voted against the Brady Bill in 1993, objecting to its imposition of a five-day waiting period to purchase a handgun. Or that, a decade later, he voted in favour of allowing guns in national parks and on Amtrak trains?

But gun carnage and racism, that black lives do matter, seem not front of mind among the overwhelmingly white and young constituency  judging from his primary rallies. They were so captivated by Sanders oratory on the hustings: the soft s socialism of income redistribution; the ugly underbelly of globalization; clawing back the influence of billionaire oligarchs on politics; defying Wall Street; job creation (which played particularly well with a well-educated, middle class transitioning unhappily from la-la college campuses to the real world); and free university; the type of government largesse which helped bankrupt Greece.

Why not acknowledge the impact Sanders had on shifting Clintons platform to a more liberal left, particularly on commitments to increase the minimum wage to at least $15 an hour and eliminate college tuition for families with an annual income under $125,000?

The irascibly idealistic Sanders, who would have been utterly unelectable in November, has served a historical purpose. That he was viewed dimly and undermined by the establishment  specifically the Democratic National Committee  was confirmed by WikiLeaks releasing a tranche of hacked emails, resulting in the convention kicking off with the resignation of DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz. Not quite the abomination of bile that infused every word and gesture of the Republican convention last week, but embarrassing nonetheless. The difference is the GOP as constituted in the Trump era revels in its malignancies.

Having courted and attracted a legion of militant foot soldiers, Sanders, the great revolutionary, seems now incapable of controlling them, certainly not directing their disbandment. In a way, the defiant Bernie Believers have moved beyond their leader. Theyre generally new to the political process and unobservant of its tacit code of conduct, that only compromise allows the whole mess to function. But Sanders drew his strength as an outsider from a perceived revulsion for compromise. The disenchanted and disillusioned and politically naive responded to that rebelliousness. Those who still wont accept Sanders defeat would rather risk a victory for Trump  and much will depend in a close election on who stays home, as some of the Sanders acolytes have threatened, so intractable is their opposition to Clinton  than reconcile. As one delegate told the New York Times: They have to realize that the art of politics is compromise. That is anathema to them.

Unity is a dirty word to a significant number of Sanders backers.

Those could have been the crazies of the Republican party, shouting LOCK HER UP on Monday. Those could have been the Trump loonies symbolically taping their mouths shut on the delegate floor.

Chicago Tribune columnist Rex W. Huppke wrote the other day: After last weeks Mad Max: Fury Road-themed Republican National Convention, the bar for Hillary Clintons coronation this week in Philadelphia had been set fairly low. Low enough, apparently, that the Democratic Party managed to trip over it and land face-first in the mud.

The diehards booed Sanders intermittently during his speech, whenever he pleaded for unity on behalf of the Clinton presidential bid. Theyve fled the big pole tent into which many ventured only because of Sanders quixotic allure.

Their last hurrah came Tuesday, in dewy-eyed nomination speeches for the iconoclast Sanders as their septuagenarian idol looked on, unreadable, emotional only when his brother paid tribute to their Jewish immigrant parents. Vermont brought up the rear on the floor, for their beloved Senator Sanders.

Strategically, he was given the near-last word. I move that Hillary Clinton be selected as the nominee of the Democratic Party for president of the United States.

Rules were suspended allowing Clinton to be nominated by acclamation.

Sanders tilting at windmills was not in vain. It has been vainglorious.

The roll call of delegate votes was a last stand, final opportunity  one can only hope  for the dead-enders to muscle their anger into the spotlight. Because anger, diffuse and reactionary, is the purview of Trumps America. And Trump is the beneficiary of Democratic discord.

Lesson lost on the heretics: Know thy enemy.

One convention protester vowed: Im not going to have Trump held up to our head like a gun.

BANG.

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A Ghanaian man with limited English forced to stand naked from the waist down after three Toronto officers performed an unlawful public strip search in broad daylight.

A Toronto beat cop testifying in court that he strip searched hundreds of people naked, wrongly believing it was standard procedure.

An unconstitutional search by an officer who forced a man to drop his pants, prompting an Ontario judge to call out troubling systemic issues with strip searches at one Toronto police division.

Despite a 15-year-old Supreme Court ruling declaring strip searches inherently humiliating and degrading and setting strict limits on when they can be performed, unlawful strip searches continue in Ontario  prompting tossed criminal charges, civil lawsuits and complaints to the provinces police watchdogs.

So many cases of unjustified strip searches have been brought to the Office of the Independent Police Review Director (OIPRD) that Gerry McNeilly announced Tuesday he is using his offices greatest power to launch a systemic, province-wide review of police strip search policies and practices.

Ive had enough, McNeilly, the independent police director, said in an interview Tuesday. There is no regard being given to the rules.

The systemic review  only the fourth initiated by the OIPRD  is the culmination of a years-long pursuit by McNeilly and other critics to see officers follow the law set by the 2001 Supreme court case.

The landmark ruling states strip searches can only be conducted when there are reasonable grounds, such as looking for evidence related to an arrest or weapons. The searches cannot be employed routinely, Canadas highest court ruled.

Nonetheless, Toronto police statistics show strip searches were performed 20,152 times in 2013  one out of every three arrests. Meanwhile, evidence such as drugs was located in just over one per cent of those searches.

Former police chief Bill Blair, however, said objects that could harm suspects or police officers, or could be used to escape, were found in 43 per cent of those searches.

But critics say Toronto officers have for too long been allowed to perform strip searches with unjustifiable frequency. In his 2012 report on mass arrests at Torontos G20 summit, retired judge John Morden called for an investigation into the high rate of invasive strip searches.

The Toronto police services board, too, attempted to rein in employment of strip searches, calling for random spot checks at all 17 police divisions to see how and when the searches were approved and performed.

That review  which examined level 3 searches, which involve removing all or some of a persons clothing  ultimately found every strip search performed over a two-month period in 2014 was justified and lawful, according to then-police chief Bill Blair.

McNeilly, too, appealed to Toronto police to reexamine how frequently officers employed strip searches. In 2013, he wrote a letter to Blair, saying he was deeply troubled by what appears to be a general over-use of strip searches by his officers.

A Toronto police spokesperson said Tuesday that the service would not be commenting on McNeillys announcement that he is launching a systemic review of strip searches. Blair has previously defended Toronto police policies on strip searches, saying the force has policies restricting and accounting for the use of strip searches, including requiring that officers videotape their orders to perform a strip search (the searches themselves are not videotaped).

On Tuesday, McNeilly said the overreliance on the searches is far from a Toronto problem; he has sent similar letters to other police chiefs. But it was to no avail, he said, as shown by the growing number of complaints and the frequency of judicial findings of unconstitutional searches.

Enough police services across the province are either not totally aware of (the Supreme court decision), or policies are not being followed, or policies may not be in place, he said. I can tell you that I have come across situations where some small services really dont have policies.

The first step of the systemic review will be requesting and reviewing individual police services policies and practices  or lack thereof. The reviewers will also examine the training given to officers, both within each force and at the Ontario Police College, where all officers receive basic training.

McNeilly said he also hopes to interview some of the complainants who have brought their concerns about police strip searches to the OIPRD over the years.

The agency will then release a report with recommendations.

Jonathan Rosenthal, a Toronto criminal lawyer who has been practicing criminal law for nearly 30 years, says he is cautiously optimistic about McNeillys review. But he says it will be difficult to tackle a system-wide problem of police ignoring the Supreme court ruling.

(The ruling) was 15 years ago, and you still have police that dont seem to have any concept of what their constitutional obligations are, he said.

Created in 2009, the OIPRD investigates complaints about police in Ontario, but has the power to initiate a systemic review of issues affecting policing province wide.

The agencys first systemic review produced a scathing report on police actions during the G20. Last month, the agency released the results of another systemic review, examining an incident involving the OPPs collection of DNA from migrant workers in Elgin County.

The OIPRD is still conducting its systemic review into police use of force, prompted by the Toronto police shooting death of Sammy Yatim, and it is expected to officially announce a systemic review into police officer mental health and suicides later this year.

Wendy Gillis can be reached at wgillis@thestar.ca

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WASHINGTONThe driver killed when his Tesla sedan crashed while in self-driving mode was travelling at 14.5 km/h above the speed limit just before hitting the side of a tractor-trailer, federal accident investigators said Tuesday.

Data downloaded from the Tesla Model S shows the vehicle was travelling at 119 km/h in a 104 km/h zone on a divided highway in Williston, Florida, near Gainesville, the National Transportation Safety Board said in a preliminary report.

The driver, Joshua Brown, 40, a tech company owner from Canton, Ohio, was using the sedans cruise control and lane-keeping features at the time, the report said. Those features are part of the vehicles Autopilot self-driving system, but the NTSB report doesnt mention the system.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which is also investigating the crash, has previously said the Autopilot was engaged.

The Teslas roof struck the underside of the trucks 16-metre semi-trailer at a 90-degree angle, shearing off the sedans roof before it emerged on the other side of the trailer, according to the report. The truck was making a left turn at the time.

The sedan is equipped with automatic emergency braking. Tesla and NHTSA have previously said the Autopilot was unable to distinguish the white side of the truck from the brightly lit sky and there was no attempt to brake by either the self-driving system or Brown.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk didnt address the report Tuesday at an event at the companys battery factory in Nevada. But he did reiterate that the company will press ahead with semi-autonomous driving features, which can prevent injuries and accidents.

I think its been unequivocally a good thing, Musk said.

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PHILADELPHIAIts Hillary Clintons show, but rival Donald Trump is doing his best to steal it.

The Democrats historic hand-off to Clinton is arriving with affection from one ex-president and an endorsement from an outgoing one. But also with a warning: That last glass ceiling isnt shattered yet, and the Republican nominee is a formidable and unpredictable foe.

Clinton formally captured the Democratic nomination Tuesday night and declared the barrier keeping women from the presidency nearly broken. Her husband, former President Bill Clinton offered a personal testimonial, and President Barack Obama was on deck to make the case for electing his former secretary of state.

But Wednesday morning, Clintons rival touched off a firestorm with his encouragement of Russia to meddle in U.S. politics. Specifically, he said, Russia, if youre listening, hed love to get a look at the thousands of emails Clinton has said she deleted from her tenure as secretary of state.

His startling remarks followed suggestions by Obama and other Democrats that the Russian government was behind the hack of Democratic National Committee emails that toppled the partys chief earlier this week. In an NBC News interview, Obama suggested that Russian President Vladimir Putin was actually rooting for Trump  although he provided no evidence  and said the GOP businessman has expressed admiration for Putin.

Trump declared Wednesday he has nothing to do with Russia, but quickly went much further.

Russia, if youre listening, I hope youre able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing, Trump said. I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press. Lets see if that happens. Thatll be next.

The suggestion drew swift condemnation from the Clinton campaign.

This has to be the first time that a major presidential candidate has actively encouraged a foreign power to conduct espionage against his political opponent, said Clinton adviser Jake Sullivan. Thats not hyperbole, those are just the facts. This has gone from being a matter of curiosity, and a matter of politics, to being a national security issue.

Trump later indicated he would consider a major break from U.S. policy toward Russia, saying his administration would be looking at recognizing Crimea as a Russian territory and removing sanctions the U.S. imposed against Moscow annexed the region in 2014.

Trumps remarks, in a free-flowing news conference in Miami, steered attention from Philadelphia, where Democrats were preparing Wednesday to hear from Obama, Vice-President Joe Biden and Clintons running mate, Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine.

Backers of vanquished liberal Bernie Sanders considered walking out on a Kaines speech, a sign of residual frustration with Clinton, the party and the perception, fuelled by the leaked emails, that top officials had greased her path to victory.

Despite the swirl of distractions, Democrats appeared to be finding unity as they formally sealed the deal behind Clinton on Tuesday night. A convention that had been consumed by drama of formally defeating Sanders had turned to showcasing the coalition Clinton will need to win  blacks, Hispanics, women and young people.

The base-boosting strategy has some Democrats worried Clinton is ceding too much ground to her opponent. Her convention has made little mention of the economic insecurity and anxiety that has, in part, fuelled Trumps rise with white, working-class voters.

Speaking on MSNBC Wednesday morning, Biden said his party has failed to connect with and show respect for white, working-class voters.

Trump accused Democrats of avoiding talking about the Daesh, also known as ISIS or ISIL, because they grew it. In his news conference, he hammered Clinton on her trade policy, saying if she is elected she will flip her opposition to the Trans-Pacific trade deal. He also backed an increase to the minimum wage to $10 per hour.

During the Democrats convention, the fallout from the hack and the effort to appease Sanders fans competed with the celebration of Clintons landmark achievement. But Tuesday nights roll call vote sealed her nomination and Sanders himself stepped up in the name of unity to ask that her nomination be approved by acclamation.

The unhappiest among his followers filed out, occupied a media tent and staged a sit-in, some with tape on their mouths to signify their silencing by the party. But a teary Sanders acknowledged the end. Obama was kind enough to call, he said Wednesday in a meeting with New England delegates. As of yesterday, I guess, officially our campaign ended.

The roll call vote was laden with emotion and symbols of womens long struggle to break through political barriers. Holding a sign saying Centenarian for Hillary, 102-year-old Jerry Emmett of Prescott, Ariz., cast her state delegations vote. She was born before women won the right to vote in 1920, and remembered her mother casting a ballot for the first time.

Said Clinton, in a surprise appearance on video at nights end: We just put the biggest crack in that glass ceiling yet. The crowd roared.

Bill Clinton traced the couples love story chapter and verse, starting from their meeting in a library and proceeding through his headstrong courtship and on through the years. Unsavory episodes, like his numerous dalliances with women in Arkansas and the nearly career-ending liaison with White House intern Monica Lewinsky, were omitted.

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PARISMore horrifying details emerged Wednesday about an attack on a French village church even as the countrys main religious leaders sent a message of unity and solidarity after meeting with President Francois Hollande in Paris.

Two attackers took five hostages Tuesday at the church in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray in northwest France and slit the throat of the elderly priest saying morning Mass.

One of three nuns at the Mass slipped out to raise the alarm and both attackers, one of them a local man, were then killed by police outside the church.

Emotions in France are still raw after the July 14 Bastille Day attack in Nice that killed 84 people  and only became more frazzled Tuesday when the church in Normandy was attacked.

With the level of the threat of attack for the country ranked extremely high, France is working to protect 56 remaining summer events and may consider cancelling some, Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said Wednesday.

Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said 4,000 members of the Sentinel military force will patrol Paris, while 6,000 will patrol in the provinces. They are being bolstered by tens of thousands of police and reservists.

An 86-year-old woman, who was one of the church hostages, said the attackers had handed her husband Guy a cellphone and demanded that he take photos or video of the priest, 85-year-old Rev. Jacques Hamel, after he was slain. Her husband was then slashed in four places by the attackers and is now hospitalized with serious injuries.

The woman, identified only as Jeanine, told RMC radio on Wednesday that her husband played dead to stay alive. Two nuns were held hostage along with the couple and the priest.

He (the priest) fell down looking upwards, toward us, said Jeanine.

The terrorists held me with a revolver at my neck, she said, adding it was not clear to her now whether the weapon was real or fake.

The Paris prosecutor, Francois Molins, said the two attackers had knives and fake explosives, including a phoney suicide belt covered in tin foil. He identified one of the attackers as Adel Kermiche, a 19-year-old who grew up in the town and tried to travel to Syria twice last year using family members identity documents.

Kermiche was detained outside France, sent home, handed preliminary terrorism charges and placed under house arrest with a tracking bracelet, allowing him free movement within the region for four hours a day, Molins said.

A police official told The Associated Press that the bracelet was deactivated during those four hours, allowing Kermiche to leave the family home without raising alarms. The official was not publicly authorized to speak about the case.

The prosecutors office said Wednesday the second attacker has not been formally identified. In addition, police detained a 16-year-old whom Molins said was the younger brother of a young man who travelled to the Syria-Iraq zone of the group within Daesh (also known as Islamic State, ISIS or ISIL), which was carrying Kermiches ID.

Hollande, meanwhile, presided over a defence council and Cabinet meeting in Paris after speaking with Roman Catholic, Orthodox, Muslim and Jewish leaders.

The archbishop of Paris, Cardinal Andre Vingt-Trois, called on Catholics to overcome hatred that comes in their heart and not to allow Daesh to set children of the same family upon each other.

The rector of the main Paris mosque, Dalil Boubakeur, said Frances Muslims must push for better training of Muslim clerics and urged that reforming French Muslim institutions be put on the agenda. He did not elaborate.

In the town of Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, young and old were stunned by the attack.

An 18-year-old neighbour said he had seen Kermiche just three days earlier in nearby Rouen wearing a long Islamic robe.

When he heard about the church attack, I knew it was him. I was sure, the young man told the AP, identifying himself only as Redwan. He said Kermiche had told him and others about his efforts to get to Syria and he was saying we should go there and fight for our brothers.

We were saying that is not good. And he was replying that France is the land of unbelievers, Redwan said.

Candles were set out in front of the town hall as residents called for unity.

We are scared, said Mulas Arbanu. (But) be we Christians, Muslims, anything, we have to be together.

Said Aid Lahcen had met the slain priest.

From the moment when you touch a religion, you attack the nation, and you attack a people. We must not get into divergences, but stay united people as we were before, he said.

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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 ...
When Dolly the sheep was born 20 years ago, The University of Edinburghs famous girl was the first mammal created by way of true cloning. Her embryo was created not using the sex or stem cells of another sheep, but from mature cells taken straight from the donors mammary tissue.

Then, at age 5  middle age, for a sheep living the good life in a research facility  Dolly developed osteoarthritis. She died at the age of 6, riddled with joint and lung problems reminiscent of old age. When researchers examined the length of her telomeres  structures at the end of DNA that shorten with each replication, creating cells with shorter telomeres as the body ages  they found that her biological age surpassed her chronological age; her cells looked as if theyd been ticking for longer than shed been alive. Some worried that this meant clones would age prematurely, carrying the same biological clock as the adult cells theyd been created from. From a biomedical standpoint, this would spell disaster, with any tissues or organs created from the cells of healthy adults running on a shortened biological clock.

But according to research published Tuesday in Nature Communications, Dollys premature aging isnt likely to extend to all clones or tissues formed using adult cells. In fact, four sheep clones formed from the same cell line as Dolly seem to be in perfect health and are now pushing nine years of age.

When we did the study, these clones were already two and a half years older than Dolly was when she died, lead study author Kevin Sinclair of the University of Nottingham told The Washington Post. And they appeared to be perfectly healthy, but we wanted to see if they might be harbouring subtle defects.

Sinclair and his colleagues failed to measure the telomere lengths of these Dollies (and another nine cloned sheep from other cell lines that they studied along with them). Theyll investigate molecular aging in about a year, when the sheep  which will then have reached the truly impressive sheep age of 10, a milestone rarely seen in farm animals  are humanely put down.

But the research team did undertake the most comprehensive study of physical aging ever in cloned animals (other than mice, according to Sinclair) by looking for signs of noncommunicable diseases, including obesity, hypertension and osteoarthritis. They found some signs of very early osteoarthritis in the sheep, but none were showing symptoms more than three years after their genetic identical had. Now, a year later, one sheep is starting to exhibit signs of stiffness, but given their age, Sinclair said, it wouldnt be unusual for one sheep out of four to have arthritis. The four were completely cleared of all other health issues.

It was quite obvious that the concerns of Dolly just didnt relate, Sinclair said. So you cant extend beyond the Dolly experience and say this premature aging applies to all clones.

Some studies have found shorter telomere length in clones than in naturally born animals, but even more have found no difference. Based on the physical evidence, Sinclair and his colleagues expect to find normal telomere lengths when they study Dollys clones next year, confirming that their cells have aged properly given the lifespans theyve had.

So why was Dolly so decrepit? Scientists arent positive, but it may come down to the very methods with which the cloned embryos are cultured and implanted. The enzyme that causes telomeres to elongate is abundant in a healthy, normal embryo, but a slow or inefficient implantation process might interrupt this, causing embryos to develop with old cells instead of ones that totally reset.

Its a question worth going back and revisiting, Sinclair said.

But the new study suggests that its possible to completely reprogram an adult cell, Sinclair said, which could mean theres hope for greater batches of healthy stem cells formed without embryos in the future. So-called pluripotent stem cells are created by reprogramming cells from living humans, forcing them back to a pseudoembryonic state (just as Dollys parent cells once were) where they can grow and change into cell types that suit therapeutic purposes. They can be used to provide medical treatments that sometimes seem miraculous  helping stroke patients walk again, for example  but for now, taking stem cells straight from human embryos, cloned or otherwise, is considered more efficient. The obvious ethical debate could be avoided if healthy, truly pliable cells were easier to create from adult source material, and this research suggests that such reprogramming is possible.

That process is truly the greatest legacy of cloning, Sinclair said. Cloning was really the inspiration for that.

While other labs across the world are working on cloning (now commonly used to produce other farm animals such as cattle, and even available for grieving dog owners who want genetic copies of their lost pets) to improve efficiency, Sinclair and his team wont be continuing Dollys legacy for much longer.

These are the only Dollies left, he said of the four sheep used in the study, And theyre likely to be the last Dollies.

Sometime next year, the famous sheeps copies will meet their end. But the research performed on them  now, and after their death  will continue to push biomedical science into the future for years to come.

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JUBA, SOUTH SUDANSouth Sudanese government soldiers raped dozens of ethnic Nuer women and girls last week just outside a United Nations camp where they had sought protection from renewed fighting, and at least two died from their injuries, witnesses and civilian leaders said.

The rapes in the capital of Juba highlighted two persistent problems in the chaotic country engulfed by civil war: targeted ethnic violence and the reluctance by UN peacekeepers to protect civilians.

At least one assault occurred as peacekeepers watched, witnesses told The Associated Press during a visit to the camp.

On July 17, two armed soldiers in uniform dragged away a woman who was less than a few hundred metres from the UN camps western gate while armed peacekeepers on foot, in an armoured vehicle and in a watchtower looked on. One witness estimated that 30 peacekeepers from Nepalese and Chinese battalions saw the incident.

They were seeing it. Everyone was seeing it, he said. The woman was seriously screaming, quarrelling and crying also, but there was no help. She was crying for help. He and other witnesses interviewed insisted on speaking on condition of anonymity because they feared reprisals by soldiers if identified.

A spokeswoman for the UN mission, Shantal Persaud, did not dispute that rapes took place close to the camp. The mission has documented 120 cases of rape and sexual violence against civilians throughout Juba since the latest fighting began, she said Wednesday.

The mission takes very seriously allegations of peacekeepers not rendering aid to civilians in distress and the UNMISS force command is looking into these allegations, Persaud said.

The reported assaults occurred about a week after rival government forces clashed in Juba, forcing opposition leader Riek Machar from the city and killing hundreds of people. As a ceasefire took hold, women and girls began venturing outside the UN camp for food.

The camp houses over 30,000 civilians who are nearly all ethnic Nuer, the same ethnicity as Machar. They fear attacks by government forces who are mostly ethnic Dinka, the same as Machars rival, President Salva Kiir.

As the women and girls walked out of the UN camp, they entered an area called Checkpoint, in the shadow of a mountain on Jubas western outskirts. That stretch of road along one side of the camp saw some of the heaviest fighting and is lined with wrecked shops and burned tanks. It is now inhabited by armed men in and out of uniform.

In interviews with The Associated Press, women described soldiers in Checkpoint allowing them to leave to buy food but attacking them as they returned.

When we reached Checkpoint, the soldiers come out and called the women and said, Stop, please, and sit down, so we stopped and sat down, and they took one woman inside a shop, a woman said. Four men went inside the shop and they raped the woman while we three stayed outside.

In another incident, one woman said a group of soldiers pulled two women and two underage girls from their group and gang-raped them in a shop, with more than 10 men to each victim. One girl later died, she said.

I saw the men taking their trousers off and the ladies crying inside, said a middle-aged woman. As she spoke, she began to cry. They said, This one belongs to me, this one belongs to me, she added.

Multiple Nuer women said soldiers threatened them because of their ethnicity or accused them of being allied with Machar. The women identified the soldiers as ethnic Dinka because of the language they spoke.

One soldier came and he turned the gun to us. He said, If I kill you now, you Nuer woman, do you think there is anything that can happen to me? one woman said. She said the soldier slapped her before another soldier intervened, allowing her to escape.

The number of rapes that took place outside the UN camp was unclear. The Associated Press interviewed more than a dozen witnesses of rapes or people who spoke with victims, both one-on-one and in small groups.

The Protection Cluster, a group of aid workers that monitors violence against civilians in South Sudan, noted a significant spike in reported cases was observed on 18 July when large numbers of women began leaving (the camp) to travel to markets in town in search of food.

The Protection Cluster said at least two victims are known to have died as a result of their injuries.

Civilian leaders in the UN camp have given estimates ranging from 27 to over 70 rapes from the time that women started venturing out for food. The United Nations says it received reports of dozens of cases. A South Sudanese rights group, the Community Empowerment for Progress Organization, said it is investigating 36 reported rapes.

Hospitals inside the camp received four rape cases last week, including an underage girl who said she had been gang-raped by five men and a woman who said she had been gang-raped by five men and beaten, according to medical staff who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

The number of victims reporting to clinics is believed to be lower than the actual total because of the stigma in Nuer culture attached to rape.

The rape of civilians has been a near-constant in South Sudans civil war which began in 2013, with both sides accused of using sexual assault, based on ethnicity, as a weapon of war.

Army spokesman Lul Ruai Koang did not deny that rapes occurred after the latest fighting but said the military has yet to receive any formal complaints from victims.

Witnesses and aid workers accuse the armed UN peacekeepers, who are mandated to protect civilians with lethal force if necessary, of failing to act.

This is not the first time that UN peacekeepers have faced that accusation.

Last year, more than 1,300 women and girls were raped by government forces and allied militias during a scorched-earth campaign in Unity state, according to the Protection Cluster. Doctors Without Borders accused the UN mission of complete and utter failure to protect civilians there. The medical aid organization also blamed the peacekeeping mission over a government attack on the UN camp in the town of Malakal in February that killed about two dozen civilians. A UN investigation found confusion in command and control by UN forces.

In the latest clashes in Juba, residents of the UN camp accused peacekeepers of running away when the camp was shelled. Two Chinese peacekeepers were killed.

Aid workers said they asked the UN to increase patrols July 17-18 along the camp where women were most vulnerable, but that patrols in the area did not begin until July 21.

The UN has said it has increased patrols outside the camp in response to reported rapes.

One local woman, Christmas David, who said she was beaten by government soldiers but not raped, said the limited patrols were not enough.

When the UN is moving, (the government soldiers) just stop the women and tell them to sit down, she said. When the peacekeepers leave the road, then they do the things.

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The failed prosecution of the six Baltimore police officers involved in the April 2015 arrest of Freddie Gray leaves a question mark at the end of one of the boldest and most controversial moves of Baltimore States Attorney Marilyn J. Mosbys young career.

Mosby, then 35, drew national attention weeks after Grays death in police custody when she bypassed a grand jury and charged the six officers with counts that included misconduct in office, false imprisonment and second-degree murder.

Community activists praised her courage and willingness to take action in a case that had sparked riots and protests in Baltimore, while police advocates and many legal experts accused her of grandstanding and rushing to judgment.

Meanwhile, her husband, Nick Mosby, a member of the all-Democratic Baltimore City Council, launched a run for mayor after incumbent Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said she would step down when her term ended to focus on helping the city heal.

The councilman failed to gain traction in a crowded Democratic field and dropped out two weeks before the April 2016 primary.

The trials of the police officers began this spring. One after another ended without a conviction. After the fourth trial resulted in an acquittal, Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (Rep.), declared that additional prosecutions would be a waste of time and money.

George Washington University law professor John Banzhaf III filed an ethics complaint against Mosby, saying her office had violated the officers constitutional rights by not turning over exculpatory evidence and had failed to follow professional conduct rules that prohibit criminal prosecutions unless the prosecutor has probable cause.

In an op-ed published in the Baltimore Sun, Harvard law Prof. Ronald S. Sullivan dismissed Banzhafs criticism as wholly unfounded.

Tessa Hill-Aston, president of the Baltimore branch of the NAACP, on Wednesday said she supported Mosbys decision to drop the remaining charges.

She did what she had to do, Hill-Aston said. She didnt get the results she wanted. But the bottom line is that change has been brought about.

Hill-Aston said the prosecutors decision to pursue charges brought attention to killings by police and made it easier for local activists to pursue policy changes, such as requiring all police to wear body cameras and installing cameras in police transport vehicles.

Theres not closure, she said. Theres not justice. But there has been change and reform.

Most people will continue to support Mosby and respect her decision to bring the charges in the first place, Hill-Aston said. In the long run, she said, all of Mosbys decisions in the police officers cases will be a positive for her.

Right now, I think people know that she did the best she could, she said. They know theres a lot of obstacles in prosecuting a case like this and dont fault her for deciding to drop the charges.

State Sen. Catherine E. Pugh (Baltimore), the Democratic nominee to succeed Rawlings-Blake as mayor, told the Sun she supported Mosbys initial decision to charge the officers, and her decision to drop the charges.

Pugh told the Sun that Mosby has a long career ahead of her. She is responsible for making sure justice prevails on both sides. She made a decision based on the information she had at hand and the outcome of the cases thus far. She felt it was the best decision in her own view, and I support it.

Cortly C.D. Witherspoon, a community activist involved in protesting police brutality cases, called the decision to halt the prosecutions a miscarriage of justice.

No one was held accountable, Witherspoon told the Sun. There was this one opportunity for us to receive police accountability, and we were deprived of that.

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RIO DE JANEIRO  Brazilian police say they are investigating the apparent disappearance of the mother-in-law of Formula 1 chief Bernie Ecclestone.

A police official speaking on the condition of anonymity told The Associated Press that authorities are trying to find 67-year-old Aparecida Schunck. The official has knowledge of the investigation but is not allowed to speak publicly.

Several Brazilian news outlets have reported that Schunck was kidnapped in Sao Paulo on Friday. However, the police official said Wednesday that investigators are looking into other possibilities as well as kidnapping, though he would not specify.

Friends of Ecclestones wife Fabiana Flosi, reached by the AP, declined comment. Formula 1 did not return messages seeking comment.

Schunck is Flosis mother. Ecclestone met Flosi at a Brazilian Grand Prix and married her in 2012.

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Scientists hunting for new antibiotics have scooped them from soil. They have searched in oceans and caves. And now, they are picking them out of your nose.

In a new paper published Wednesday in the journal Nature, German researchers report the discovery of a new antibiotic produced by a bacterium that lives inside the human nostril.

Experts say the paper is fascinating not just for the discovery of a potential new antibiotic  one that can kill a superbug called MRSA  but because it opens a potential new frontier in the desperate search for novel antibiotics: ourselves.

Finding a new antibiotic is relatively rare. In the human microbiome, its super rare, said Gerry Wright, an antibiotic resistance expert with McMaster University, who was not involved with the study. The human microbiome refers to the trillions of microbes that live on our skin and in our guts.

Its yet another great example of looking where people have rarely looked before  and finding something cool.

This paper is just the latest effort to stave off what public health officials are calling a post-antibiotic era  a time when bacteria are resistant to all available antibiotics and a scraped knee or run-of-the-mill infection can kill.

People are already dying from once-treatable infections and deaths caused by superbugs, are expected to become more frequent causes of death than cancer in the coming decades, according to the study.

This crisis has renewed efforts to find new antibiotics and scientists have become increasingly creative in their search, with a handful of promisingnew compounds recently unearthed.

A starting point for this latest study was the observation that the bacterium Staphylococcus aureus, a common cause of infection, can be found in the nostrils of roughly 30 per cent of people.

These people are not necessarily infected  just colonized  though this bug is an opportunistic pathogen, causing pneumonia or serious infections in people who are sick or immuno-compromised.

The researchers asked themselves: whats going on in the noses of people who arent harbouring this pathogen? One difference, they found, is the presence of another bacterium called Staphylococcus lugdunensis, which produces an antibiotic theyve named lugdunin.

Analyzing the nasal swabs of 187 hospital patients, the researchers found that 9 per cent had this protective bacterium in their noses  and out of this group, only 6 per cent were colonized with Staphylococcus aureus.

In patients who didnt have the bug, however, 35 per cent were colonized with Staphylococcus aureus.

We started the project just for basic understanding (but) it led us to some very unexpected and exciting findings, said co-author Andreas Peschel, a bacteriologist with the University of Tubingen.

It was totally unexpected to find a human-associated bacterium to produce an antibiotic. This is usually known from soil or environmental bacteria.

That said, bacteria-killing compounds have been discovered in the human microbiome before. After all, this is an ecosystem where more than a thousand microbial species compete for space, deploying antibiotics to kill their rivals.

But Staphylococcus lugdunensis uses a complex machinery to produce its chemical weaponry  something more often seen in bacteria living in soil, where the vast majority of modern-day antibiotics have been found.

(This machinery) gives bacteria access to building blocks that otherwise they cant get access to, Wright explained. And these researchers have shown that you can actually find that in some members of the human microbiome.

Thats kind of a cool thing to me. You want to know: How did that happen? Does it happen a lot? Is there other examples of this in various microbiomes, and not just human ones?

Laboratory tests showed that lugdunin was effective at wiping out not just Staphylococcus aureus but also a superbug strain called MRSA, which is estimated to be 64 per cent more likely to cause death than non-resistant staph infections.

The antibiotic also cured mice infected in lab experiments.

Some of the animals were completely cleared of Staphylococcus aureus, said co-author Bernhard Krismer, a bacteriologist with the University of Tubingen in Germany. No single cell of the bacterium was detectable.

Other mice still had traces of infection but the researchers believe they licked off their antibiotic ointment.

The researchers dont understand how, exactly, lugdunin is killing the bacteria and they say more work is needed to determine whether the antibiotic is safe or effective in humans.

They suggest that antibiotic-producing bacteria like Staphylococcus lugdunensis could someday be used as a probiotic, however, given to vulnerable patients to prevent staph infections.

They have also filed patent applications and hope to attract interest from drug companies. There are early signs that lugdunin might only be useful as a topical antibiotic  but even if everything goes well, it will take hundreds of millions of dollars, and several years before the antibiotic is ready for market.

Peschel believes lugdunin is just the first such example of this kind of antibiotic, with more probably waiting to be mined from the human microbiome.

The creativity and innovation of this work also gives Wright hope in the face of what many are calling a looming antibiotic apocalypse.

Necessity is the mother of invention, he said. Were entering into what I think is a new golden era of antibiotics, just because theres a lot of really creative science happening.

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Dozens of people in a Kurdish-controlled town in northeastern Syria died after an explosion on Wednesday, while a humanitarian crisis in the rebel-held sections of Aleppo, a city in the countrys northwest, intensified.

A truck loaded with explosives blew up on the western edge of the Kurdish-controlled town, Qamishli, on Wednesday morning. There were reports of a second blast a short while later, though the cause was not clear. At least 37 people were killed, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a monitoring group based in Britain.

It was so disturbing, Dawood Dawood, a resident of Qamishli and an official with the Assyrian Democratic Organization, said via Viber, a messaging app. I saw burned cars, at least 10 damaged buildings.

Dawood said he had rushed to the scene after the truck attack, which occurred on a highway near a Kurdish police station. Dawood said he thought the second explosion may have been set off by the first.

It was a busy road, he said. There were many cars, and there were generators that feed the area with power; this is why the damage and death toll were so high.

Daesh, also known as ISIS or ISIL, issued a statement calling the attacker a martyr, but it stopped short of directly claiming responsibility. The statement made reference to only one explosion.

Qamishli is a centre of activity for Rojava, an enclave that Kurds began carving out in 2012, early in the Syrian civil war, and of the Democratic Union Party, which has gotten arms, equipment and training from the United States, and some smaller Kurdish parties. Turkey considers the Democratic Union Party to be a front for the Kurdistan Workers Party, a militant group that has waged an insurgency in Turkey for decades.

A humanitarian crisis has also been intensifying in Aleppo, a large city that is divided between rebel and government forces.

UNICEF said on Tuesday that four hospitals in the eastern section of the city, as well as a blood bank, had been hit by airstrikes over the weekend, disrupting key life-saving health services for up to 300,000 civilians.

A 2-day-old baby died in an incubator from disruptions to his oxygen supply as a result of airstrikes that damaged a UNICEF-supported hospital, which was reportedly struck twice in less than 12 hours.

All hospitals hit over the 48-hour-period are in the Al Shaar neighbourhood, a location with several health facilities in close vicinity to one another, UNICEF said. These hospitals make up half of all health facilities operating in the area.

At least 60 per cent of public hospitals in the country have closed or are only partly functional.

In the rebel-held eastern part of Aleppo, at least six more people died in airstrikes Wednesday, according to a medical group operating in the area. More than 50 civilians were killed on Monday, according to the White Helmets, a rescue group operating in rebel areas. Forces loyal to Syrias president, Bashar Assad, control most of the western part of the city.

Food is in short supply, and Stephen OBrien, the UN undersecretary general for humanitarian affairs, warned recently that basic necessities were running out. The United Nations has backed calls for ceasefires in the air raids on Aleppo.

Shops are almost empty from food, prices of bread are soaring, there is no fuel, electricity has become rare and expensive, said Dr. Omar Abu al-Ezz, who works at a hospital in rebel-held Aleppo that is supported by the Syrian American Medical Society. Sometimes hospitals are obliged to do amputations for the wounded due to scarcity of medication.

Zaher Azzaher, an Aleppo resident and activist, said via Facebook Messenger: The siege in Aleppo is getting worst day after day, number of people here are decreasing, the feeling of boredom is growing. He added, Theres nothing left in Aleppo but air.

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Bernie Sanders is urging his insurgents to unite behind Hillary Clintons bid for the U.S. presidency. Will they comply?

The Vermont senator and self-styled socialist made the pitch Monday night to delegates at the Democratic national convention in Philadelphia.

Our revolution continues, he insisted.

He said he was sorely disappointed to find out from leaked emails that Democratic Party officials, some with close links to Clinton, had conspired to hobble his campaign to become the partys presidential nominee.

But he told his supporters to vote for her anyway  largely on the grounds that Republican nominee Donald Trump would be worse.

He argued that his insurgency has already made great gains by persuading the Democratic establishment to agree to what he called the most progressive platform in the partys history.

Indeed, much of that platform does reflect Sanders themes. It says trade deals, including the controversial Trans-Pacific Partnership, must include strong and enforceable labour and environmental standards.

It says existing deals, such as the North American Free Trade Agreement, should be reviewed.

It says Americans should have the option of joining a public, Canadian-style health care insurance scheme.

It calls for a modernized version of the 1933 Glass-Steagall Act, which, by separating commercial from investment banking and until its repeal in 1999, helped to prevent financial crises.

Yet it is not clear this will be enough for all of the 30 million people who voted in the primaries for Sanders. Even the roughly 1,800 Sanders delegates attending the convention are split.

He was jeered Monday when he urged his supporters to vote for Clinton in order to forestall Trump. On Tuesday, he was jeered again.

Its easy to boo, he told them in exasperation. But it is harder to look your kids in the face who would be living under a Donald Trump presidency.

Much of the reason for the Sanderistas animosity to Clinton is that she is exactly the kind of politician Sanders warned against during the primaries.

She is intimately connected to Wall Street and corporate America. She is a member of the political establishment. She is the ultimate insider.

As well, her partys platform  no matter how progressive  is far from binding on her.

In Canada, party platforms are taken relatively seriously because of the electoral system. If a governing party has a majority of Commons seats, it is expected to keep its campaign promises.

In the U.S., by contrast, party platforms are largely aspirational. A president may push for, say, better environmental laws. But unless he wins support in both houses of Congress, he will fail.

In 2008 and 2012, the Democratic Party platform called for gun control. But President Barack Obama was unable to deliver on that promise because he could never win Congressional support.

More to the point in this campaign, it is not clear Clinton is fully on side with some elements of the platform she and her party have crafted.

In December, for instance, she dismissed as ineffective the idea of restoring the Glass-Steagall Act to regulate financial institutions. And like Obama before her, Clinton has shifted her position on trade deals to align with the prevailing political winds.

She says she opposes the TPP now. But she has supported it before and could do so again.

Will the Sanders revolutionaries embrace her anyway? Many, particularly those determined to stop Trump, will do so. Others may throw their support to the Green Partys presidential candidate, Jill Stein. Some may not vote at all.

And some, particularly those angered by free trade deals, may vote for Trump. Like Sanders but unlike Clinton, he has made opposition to such pacts a centrepoint of his campaign.

While Clinton may not like the idea of reinstituting the Glass-Steagall Act to regulate financial institutions (her husband, Bill, signed the bill that repealed it), Trump does. At his insistence, Glass-Steagall is part of the Republican platform.

Bernie Sanders started a revolution. Hes right about that. But revolutions are hard to control. He may not be able to stop this one.

Thomas Walkoms column appears Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

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The ignominious role many Western journalists played in building a case for war in Iraq  worthy of two of the three little pigs  remains among the unfinished reckoning of that catastrophic conflict.

Stop for a moment and ask yourself this question: Have you read a word penned by Canadas keyboard cavalry concerning the scathing vivisection delivered by Sir John Chilcot on July 6th about every one of their now discredited rationales for launching the war?

Like me, I suspect you havent encountered a syllable of regret, repentance or introspection lately from the once giddy brigade of war cheerleaders, who reassured themselves and Canadians that the invasion would be a smashing military, geopolitical and humanitarian success for liberated Iraqis and the Middle East.

Turns out, Iraq has been smashed into pieces all right, along with the lives of countless Iraqis, who are still paying an almost incomprehensible price for the disastrous miscalculations of an unrepentant band of cocky journalists who, from the comfort of their desks far from Baghdad, joined in the premature, and, ultimately, fictitious Mission Accomplished chorus.

Indeed, by my count, its now approaching 20 days since the writers who once derided former prime minister Jean Chretien with such pious sanctimony for rebuffing membership in the coalition of gullible have, in large measure, stayed strangely mute in the stubborn face of Chilcots exhaustive indictment. His official report on Britains involvement in the Iraq War took to task not only former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, but, by extension, the very pundits who sided with the equally unrepentant architect of the invasion.

Before revisiting some of the more egregious examples of their inept prognostications, its important to encapsulate Chilcots key findings for necessary context.

First, Blair chose to invade Iraq before peaceful, diplomatic avenues had been exhausted. From the start, the British prime minister exaggerated the threat constituted by Saddam Hussein to Western interests and regional security. Chilcot concluded Hussein posed no immediate threat and the so-called intelligence gathered by Britains spies about the Iraqi leaders weapons of mass destruction capability was flawed. Thats diplomatic code for crap.

Supremely confident of the righteousness of his cause, Blair dismissed warnings about the violent religious fissures that would be unleashed in postinvasion Iraq. As if to compound this blind certainty, Chilcot found Blair had no strategy to deal with the postinvasion chaos and violence. The resulting political and security vacuum, Chilcot reported, helped spawn the murderous malignancy, Daesh, also known as ISIS.

As we know, a cautious Chretien heeded those warnings and wisely decided against injecting Canada into a perpetual war in Iraq. Still, on the eve of the invasion, one marquee member of Canadas punditocracy upbraided Chretien and Canadians for their timidity in the face of what he described as the Iraq crisis in early 2003.

Citizens of other countries may wish their nation to stand for something in the world, the columnist wrote. But Canada long ago abjured such a role, neither contributing our fair share to the collective defence nor even lending our allies much in the way of moral support. Instead we reinvented ourselves as honest brokers  because it saved us from ever having to take a position on anything.

So, in not following Blairs reckless lead, Canada had not only become irrelevant, but also failed to contribute its fair share morally and militarily to the Blair/Bush project.

Lost in all the anguished hyperbole was the wisdom of knowing that governing shrewdly sometimes means not doing something rash when circumstances seem to demand it.

Not done scolding the nation, the same columnist later wrote a column rebutting 12 arguments offered up by the wars opponents.

In dealing, for instance, with the feared incalculable risks, he wrote: It is not at all clear that the region would be destabilized by a quick and decisive war. As for the prediction that hundreds of thousands of Iraqis would perish: There is no basis to these forecasts. No one can say with certainty how many will die, on either side, he insisted.

Well, the region has been destabilized  to put it charitably  and millions of Iraqis have been killed, maimed or become wandering refugees. (Chilcot also deals emphatically with the other, equally laughable rebuttals.)

Given the scale of these howlers, youd think such journalists would be disqualified from offering strategic advice to anyone, about anything. Wrong. See, thats the beauty of a pundits rear view mirror: Objects that previously appeared close, invariably and conveniently fade into the distance and from memory.

Andrew Mitrovica is the author of Covert Entry: Spies, Lies and Crimes Inside Canada's Secret Service.

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The sorry fact that Canada ranks highest among wealthy countries for road deaths related to impaired driving created headlines this month, but it comes as no surprise to advocates for safer streets.

As the Star's Jim Coyle reported, the recent study by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control analyzed international data for 19 high-income countries and found that Canada topped the list for drunk-driving deaths, with alcohol impairment in 34 per cent of its motor fatalities.

The United States came second, followed by New Zealand, Australia and Slovenia, which all had roughly 31 per cent  still far above the average rate of 19 per cent. Israel had the lowest rate, at 3.2 per cent.

Robert Solomon, national legal director of Mothers Against Drunk Driving and a Western University law professor, told Coyle that Canada's dubious distinction is the result of "the dumbest impaired-driving laws on the face of the planet." Simply put, he's correct.

Solomon, his colleagues at MADD and other anti-impaired-driving advocates have demanded better legal protections for decades. Provincial rules, including graduated licensing for young drivers, have improved safety. But federal laws remain far too lax despite proof that deliberate changes  like mandatory roadside breath screening by police  can save thousands from death and injury.

A federal committee is scheduled to review breathalyzer legislation this fall. Change is long overdue.

The American study should  finally  spur Canadian parliamentarians to rewrite the existing laws to, among other things, mandate police to make year-round random breath checks.

Current rules require police have "reasonable grounds" to do a breathalyzer tests. Studies have shown that police officers have a difficult time assessing drivers' behaviour to decide whether they have the legal grounds to administer the tests. It's not unusual to see impaired charges dropped in court if proper procedure isn't followed.

Clearly, the status quo in Canada is unacceptable. As Solomon said, every jurisdiction that has introduced so-called mandatory screening has seen a significant drop in deaths and injuries. It is the "single most effective impaired-driving countermeasure."

While previous federal changes have focused on how drunk-driving offences are prosecuted, studies have shown that many Canadians continue to drink and drive believing there's little chance they'll be caught.

Many who avoid drinking and driving during the traditional police RIDE program seasons, like Christmas holidays or long weekends, are willing to take their chances during the rest of the calendar year. It's an unconscionable risk that leads to the impaired-driving deaths of between 1,250 and 1,500 Canadians every year. Another 64,000 are injured.

The CDC report, called Vital Signs, analyzed data from the World Health Organization and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. Its findings are disturbing, even shocking, to those who believe the campaign against drunk driving has generally succeeded.

If it takes an American study to call attention to Canada's problem, then let that international embarrassment lead to tougher federal laws that allow police to keep our streets safe. No more time, or lives, should be wasted.

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Re: Florida nightclub shooting victims identified, July 25

Florida nightclub shooting victims identified, July 25

This news item states that, Fort Myers police Capt. Jim Mulligan said the shooting was not an act of terror. But what does that mean exactly? What is an, act of terror?

Just because George W. Bush used language to befuddle the American electorate doesnt mean it has to be repeated here. Im losing enough brain cells already playing Pokemon Go.

If the Star cant define a term and its not a direct quote, then please dont use it.

Ben Bull, Toronto

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NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Shares of Whole Foods (WFM) are falling 0.81% to $34.29 in midday trading as the company prepares to report 2016 third quarter earnings on Wednesday after the market close.

Analysts are looking for earnings of 37 cents per share on revenue of $3.73 billion.

For the 2015 third quarter, the company reported diluted earnings per share of 43 cents and revenue of $3.63 billion.

Analysts at Macquarie Research upgraded Whole Foods to an "outperform" rating from "neutral" yesterday ahead of its earnings report, saying the company is positioned to report strong results despite "well-known challenges."

The firm added that the company is a "best-in-class operator with an iconic brand."

On the other hand, Goldman Sachs said in a note this morning that the company could face issues from competition. "The industry is mature and hyper-competitive, and the backdrop subdued, with no sign of inflection," the firm said, lowering its rating to "sell" from "neutral."

Separately, TheStreet Ratings objectively rated this stock according to its "risk-adjusted" total return prospect over a 12-month investment horizon. Not based on the news in any given day, the rating may differ from Jim Cramer's view or that of this articles's author.

TheStreet Rating rated this stock as a "hold" with a ratings score of C.

The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its revenue growth, largely solid financial position with reasonable debt levels by most measures and notable return on equity. However, TheStreet Ratings finds weaknesses including a generally disappointing performance in the stock itself and deteriorating net income.

You can view the full analysis from the report here: WFM
NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Shares of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCAU) are sliding 4.36% to $6.70 in late-afternoon trading on Wednesday despite hiking its full-year financial targets.

Before the market open, the Italian-American car maker boosted its revenue outlook by 2 billion euros to 112 billion euros and its adjusted operating profit to 5.5 billion euros from 5 billion euros.

But analysts have pointed out that the revised numbers are near where the consensus estimates already were, Reuters reports.

In all, the company said second-quarter sales declined 2% to 27.89 billion euros, below expectations of 29.3 billion euros. Adjusted operating profit rose 16% to 1.63 billion euros ($1.8 billion), in line with analysts' estimates of 1.64 billion euros.

The company's margins in North America increased to 7.9% this quarter from 7.7% a year ago, but the improvement was less significant than in previous quarters.

"Free cash flow was a touch better than anticipated, yet FCA's net debt remains elevated," George Galliers, an analyst at Evercore ISI, told Reuters. "Rightly, investors may be concerned given the fact that North American earnings growth would appear to be plateauing."

Separately, TheStreet Ratings team rates the stock as a "hold" with a ratings score of C.

Fiat Chrysler's strengths such as its increase in net income, revenue growth and growth in earnings per share are countered by weaknesses including weak operating cash flow, disappointing return on equity and poor profit margins.

You can view the full analysis from the report here: FCAU

TheStreet Ratings objectively rated this stock according to its "risk-adjusted" total return prospect over a 12-month investment horizon. Not based on the news in any given day, the rating may differ from Jim Cramer's view or that of this article's author.
A girl picks up her cereal at the new Kellogg's NYC cafe in Times Square. Dishes featuring Kellogg's cereals and ingredients are sold at the cafe, which opened on July 4. (Eduardo Munoz/European Pressphoto Agency)

MANUFACTURING

Durable goods orders drop 4 percent in June

Orders to U.S. factories for long-lasting manufactured goods fell in June by the largest amount in nearly two years, reflecting broad weakness across a number of areas. The key category that tracks business investment eked out a small gain.

Demand for durable goods dropped 4 percent in June, the biggest setback since an 18.4 percent drop in August 2014, the Commerce Department reported Wednesday. Excluding the volatile transportation area, orders would still have been down, but by a smaller 0.5 percent.

The new report was weaker than analysts had expected, and it indicates that manufacturing remains under stress from weak global demand and a strong dollar.

Junes result was led by a 58.8 percent plunge in orders for commercial aircraft.

Demand in a closely watched category that serves as a proxy for business investment plans edged up a slight 0.2 percent after two months of declines. This category has shown monthly increases only three times this year. Orders in the investment category through the first half of this year are down 3.8 percent compared with the same period a year ago.

For June, one of the few areas of strength was autos and auto parts, which increased 2.6 percent. Orders for primary metals such as steel, computers and machinery all declined.

 Associated Press

Real Estate

Home contracts rise less than expected

Contracts to buy previously owned U.S. homes rose far less than expected in June, another sign that a lack of inventory is crimping activity despite mortgage rates being at near-record lows.

The National Association of Realtors said Wednesday that its pending home sales index, based on contracts signed last month, nudged up 0.2 percent to 111.0.

Economists polled by Reuters forecast pending home sales rising 1.4 percent last month. Contracts usually become sales after one or two months.

 Reuters

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 From news services

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NASAs $23 billion program to build a powerful new rocket and spacecraft that could carry astronauts to the moon or even Mars faces potential cost overruns and schedule delays, a government watchdog warned Wednesday.

The findings released in a pair of reports by the Government Accountability Office are the latest concerns about the Space Launch System rocket and the Orion spacecraft, and come as NASA struggles with poor cost estimation, weak oversight and risk underestimation, the GAO said.

While there are technical difficulties that are expected to be associated with complex vehicles designed to launch humans deep into space and keep them alive for an extended period, the GAO also found management challenges that could create future problems and lead to cost overruns.

The SLS and Orion would be NASAs first vehicles in more than 40 years capable of sending humans beyond whats known as low Earth orbit, where the International Space Station circles Earth at an altitude of about 250 miles.

The pair are scheduled to make their maiden flight together at the end of 2018 in a no-crew mission around the moon that would last more than three weeks. Then the first mission with astronauts on board could come as early as 2021, although NASA has warned that could be delayed by two years.

The SLS, being manufactured by contractors Boeing, Orbital ATK and Aerojet Rocketdyne, would be a monster of a rocket, with versions as tall as 365 feet.

In 2014, Orion, manufactured by Lockheed Martin, flew for the first time but launched atop a different heavy-lift rocket. The spacecraft traveled 3,600 miles, more than any other one designed for humans had gone since the last moon landing in 1972.

NASA heralded it as a history-making success. But the GAO warned that NASAs attempts over the past two decades to develop a system to take astronauts into deep space have ultimately been unsuccessful.

The agency has not flown a human beyond low Earth orbit since the Apollo era. And currently, NASA relies on the Russians to fly American astronauts to the space station, although Boeing and SpaceX are developing spacecraft that would restore human flight to the space station from U.S. soil as soon as next year.

The predecessor to the SLS and Orion program, known as Constellation, was killed by the Obama administration when it was over budget and behind schedule.

The GAO said that some challenges are inherent in a program as big and complicated as SLS and Orion but that they merited scrutiny because of past failures.

The GAO found that cost overruns for Orion could be as high as $707 million and that work is not being accomplished as scheduled.

It also found challenges with the capsules software and heat shield, and said that the space capsules cost and schedule estimates are not reliable.

At a recent congressional hearing, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) said NASA had spent about $13 billion between 2005 and 2010 before the Constellation program was canceled. And he asked what needed to be done to ensure than SLS and Orion dont face the same.

William Gerstenmaier, NASAs associate administrator for human exploration and operations, said the new program is in a different position, with a lot of the development already completed.

The teams have made tremendous progress moving forward, he said. He urged Congress to remain focused on the agencys long-term vision and to resist temptations to jump to the next shiny object.

As for the GAOs findings, he said in a letter attached to the report that many of the concerns are being addressed.

In a podcast accompanying the reports, the GAOs Cristina Chaplain said the goals of SLS and Orion are still a little unclear.

NASA says it plans to fly humans to Mars by the 2030s.

But Chaplain said, Theres still a lot of debate about is Mars the right place? Or should we be going to the moon? And how firm should these plans be?
Dear Dr. Fox:

After losing my 15-year-old wheaten terrier in November, I got another one, now 4 months old.

I am unsure when to neuter him. I had always done it at 6 months with my other dogs, but my breeder said its better to wait a year. I asked my vet, and he said there is some controversy. I have also heard that it would be more beneficial to his health to wait as long as possible.

I will need to make an appointment soon if I decide on doing it at 6 months, so I would very much appreciate your view.

C.M., Middletown, N.J.

DF: I would wait until your dog is around a year old. Early neutering can have developmental consequences affecting growth and metabolism. It might also contribute to the high incidence of Cushings disease, a common endocrine disorder, later in life. The jury is still out on deciding the best age to neuter male dogs  if at all.

The emphasis on spaying and neutering all dogs to help control overpopulation, a critical issue in most communities in the past, is now over, with more responsible ownership and people not letting their dogs roam the neighborhood and breed freely, as in decades past. But not all people can be trusted  look at those communities where people let their unsterilized cats roam freely.

I was shocked to see on television a tabby cat (with collar) being let outside from 10 Downing St., the residence of Britains prime minister. Such a laissez-faire attitude, or unquestioned cultural tradition, is highly irresponsible. Most shelters still insist that all adopted dogs and cats be sterilized.

Neutering or spaying German shepherds before they reach the age of 1 is associated with a threefold-higher risk of joint disorders, researchers report in Veterinary Medicine and Science. The study examined records from 1,170 dogs, finding 21 percent of males neutered before they were 1 year old had joint disorders, compared with 7 percent of intact males.

Sixteen percent of females spayed early later developed joint disease, compared with 5 percent of intact females. Simply delaying the spay/neuter until the dog is a year old can markedly reduce the chance of a joint disorder, said University of California at Davis veterinarian and lead author Benjamin Hart.

BEACHCOMBERS

Dear Dr. Fox:

The attacks you are experiencing from advocates for feral cats leads me to ask whether it is they, rather than the cats, who need the distemper shots!

My wife owns a house in Ocean Township, in Monmouth County, New Jersey. The town has a convoluted animal control policy requiring residents to call the police, who then call the Long Branch animal control officer, who then may or may not turn the cat over to the local Humane Society, with which the county has a contract.

Its benign neglect, which Im sure saves the township money.

This has resulted in a couple of my neighbors leaving food out for several feral cats that are neither part of a supervised colony nor have any shelter. The raccoons and possums feed on their porches in broad daylight. My yard is always rife with cat feces, dead birds and mice.

Cape May and Seaside Heights, N.J., are the scenes of a continuing battle between the beach feral-cat advocates and the piping plover protectors. How well-meaning people cannot see the cruelty to both the cats and to wildlife that a feral program presents is upsetting to me.

Again, thank you for being a voice of reason in this highly emotional argument.

M.D., Bradley Beach, N.J.

DF: I appreciate your support on the feral cat issue, in which compassion and reason do not sufficiently prevail, allowing misguided altruism to spread in a vacuum of rescue-syndrome, pro-life sentimentality.

I have great respect and concern for feral cats and an abiding affection for those which my wife, Deanna, and I have trapped and socialized.

Without strict enforcement of municipal ordinances, prohibiting the roaming of owned cats and the neutering of same, this problem is never going to be resolved.

DOG DEVELOPS COUGH

Dear Dr. Fox:

My healthy 14-month-old Rottweiler developed a hacking cough, which I thought indicated that she had something stuck in her throat. I took her to my vet, and the vet gave her an antibiotic and some cough tabs.

My dog attends a well-run day-care facility twice a week. Thirteen days ago, I boarded her there for two nights. I provided the food. On the same day, I gave her a chewable Heartgard after having her test negative for heartworms. The day-care owner reports no other dogs with a cough.

Because I am dubious about almost any medication other than herbal for my animals or myself, I am wondering whether there might be a connection between the heartworm medication and the cough. I hate giving her an antibiotic.

The cough seems somewhat better after two days of medication.

C.S., Hendersonville, N.C.

DF: I doubt there is any connection between the Heartgard and the cough, unless your dog already had heartworms and the medication is killing them and their remains are getting into the pulmonary circulation.

A blood test must always be done before ever giving such preventive medication to be sure the dog is not already infested.

Because your dog is improving on the antibiotic, you should continue the full course of treatment. When that is done, load your dog with probiotics to help recover a healthy bacterial population in the digestive system.

There are lungworm parasites that can cause respiratory problems in dogs after they consume earthworms and snails, which should not be permitted, and in rare instances an inhaled grass seed can cause acute respiratory distress.

The stress of boarding and probably barking a lot can make dogs more prone to picking up any bacterial or viral infection from other dogs in the facility.

Michael W. Fox, author of a newsletter and books on animal care, welfare and rights, is a veterinarian with doctoral degrees in medicine and animal behavior. Send letters to animaldocfox@gmail.com or write to him at United Feature Syndicate, 1130 Walnut St., Kansas City, Mo. 64106.


A fruit that looks like this . . . (Nate Parsons/The Washington Post)

. . . turns into this: Jicama Apple Chayote Salad With Pepita-Avocado Dressing. (Dixie D. Vereen/For The Washington Post)

Will life be boring once we run out of political conventions to watch? Not at all  well just have more time to catch up on our reading. Some suggestions on where to start:

In Food this week, Lavanya Ramanathan turns to a pro  Sweetgreens Michael Stebner  for advice on how to build a great salad that people will actually want to eat. Jason Wilson pays a visit to the new Great Northern Food Hall in NYC, where Americans are invited to explore the delights of smorrebrod and sea buckthorn. Wine columnist Dave McIntyre remembers Robert Mondavi, who bought a vineyard 50 years ago and transformed Californias Napa Valley into the wine powerhouse it is today. And now that American tourists can bring back Havana Club rum from Cuba, Spirits columnist M. Carrie Allan decides to find out whether it really lives up to the legend.

Its Wednesday, so set aside some time for the Free Range chat, our live forum about all things culinary. Michael Stebner will be on hand to talk salads, and Jason Wilson will pay us a visit, too. It starts at noon sharp, so tune in and get ready for this always enlightening hour.

It was a busy chat last week, and we didnt get to every question, so heres a leftover to start things off:

I want to try making Pati Jinichs recipe for Jicama, Apple and Chayote Salad With Pepita-Avocado Dressing. What am I looking for when I buy chayote? Ive never tried it.

First of all, let me testify on behalf of that salad. Loved it! A winner! So I applaud your willingness to tackle unfamiliar produce; youll be glad you did.

Because its Patis salad, I asked her to weigh in with buying advice for chayote (CHI-yo-dee). Its simple! She says: It should be hard as a rock, firm, and no wrinkles on the skin, as well as even-colored.

Chayote  also known as mirliton, christophene and a score of other names  is a really interesting little food. Its a member of the gourd family, which makes it a fruit, though its often treated like a vegetable. It can be eaten raw or cooked, and its said to have some medicinal properties. Is it super tasty? Not really; it obligingly takes on the flavors of what its prepared with. So the lovely dressing in Patis recipe is what you taste, but the chayote lends a cool and satisfying crunch to the dish  akin to cucumber, but firmer.

Chayote used to be hard to find outside Latin markets, but now its also available at large supermarkets. After youve brought it home, store it, loosely wrapped in a plastic bag, in the refrigerator, where it should be good for several weeks.

Besides Patis salad, our trusty Recipe Finder offers a few more uses for this fruit: Pickled Chayote Salad, Lemon Grass Chicken With Egg Noodle, and Chicken Rice Soup With Avocado. So that gives you ways to serve it raw, pickled and cooked. Why not try them all?


Solar Impulse 2 lands in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday with Bertrand Piccard at the controls, completing the last leg of the round-the-world journey in the solar-powered plane. (Impulse/Revillard/Rezo.ch)

Solar Impulse 2, an airplane powered only by the sun, completed its round-the-world flight early Tuesday by landing in Abu Dhabi, covering more than 27,000 miles in 550-plus hours in the sky.

Bertrand Piccard piloted the final flight, a turbulent two-day ride from Egypt to the capital of the United Arab Emirates. Piccard, who is 58, and Andre Borschberg, 63, took turns in the airplane for the 16 other flights in the single-seater, which has the wingspan of a 747 jumbo jet but weighs only as much as a car.



Solar Impulse 2 pilots Andre Borschberg, left, and Bertrand Piccard celebrate Piccard's successful landed in Abu Dhabi. Piccard and Borschberg took turns flying the single-seat plane. (Christophe Chammartin/REZO/Impulse)

The trip began in March 2015 with early stops in India, China and Japan. While heading from Japan to Hawaii, Borschberg was at the controls for four days, 21 hours, 52 minutes  a world record for the longest flight with only one pilot onboard.

That flight was Borshbergs most challenging, he said by phone from Abu Dhabi.

It was the first time we could and had to fly many days and many nights over the ocean. It was what I call the moment of truth, Borschberg said. The tension was incredibly high. . . . When I left Japan, I had technical difficulties. The engineers wanted me to go back.

Borschberg said he was convinced that he could succeed despite the equipment problems. Pilot and plane arrived safely in Hawaii last July, but the batteries overheated and needed replacing. The problem caused a nine-month delay in the trip.



Piccard takes a photo while flying over the Red Sea in Solar Impulse 2, which is powered by 17,000 solar cells. (Bertrand Piccard)

New batteries allowed the journey to resume in April. Stops in the United States included San Francisco, California; Tulsa, Oklahoma; and Dayton, Ohio, the childhood home town of aviation pioneers Wilbur and Orville Wright. At several of the layovers, the public was invited to see the plane. Borschberg said he enjoyed the kids reaction.

So many classes of kids, when they see the airplane you see the eyes get bright, he said.

Borschberg said he hopes Solar Impulse 2 will inspire children around the globe.

They can develop better solutions, clean solutions, he said. We have showed the way that we can go, but there is so much potential.

That potential includes aircraft powered by electricity  something Borschberg said should be developed in the near future. But as he and Piccard continue to spread the message of using clean technology (or using renewable resources) in the air and on the ground, Borschberg is hoping the sun will play a significant role.

Theres something that is truly special about solar power, he said.
Washington Post media columnist Margaret Sullivan sat down with comedian Samantha Bee, host of TBS' "Full Frontal," Wednesday during the Democratic National Convention to discuss Bee's show, her take on the conventions and what it's like to be a woman in late-night television. (Washington Post Live)

Samantha Bee has been a United States citizen for only a couple of years, but the breakout comedy star has a few things to say about American politics.

And for the multitudes who are threatening to move to her native Canada if the wrong candidate is elected, she has a message:

Theres no room in Canada for discontented Americans, the Toronto native told me firmly on Wednesday. Canada is full, and doing responsible things like taking in refugees.

So Americans will need to deal with whatever happens in November and beyond. Her advice: Stay where you are. Live in your mess.

On a Facebook Live appearance with The Washington Post at the Democratic National Convention, Bee offered reflections on the role of satire in the political sphere and talked about whether she was ever considered seriously to succeed Jon Stewart when he left Comedy Centrals The Daily Show. (She worked on the show for 12 years, some of that time as its only female correspondent.)

Her Monday night half-hour show, Full Frontal With Samantha Bee, is a hit on TBS, both with audience and with critics. Hunting for satirical targets, she set up shop during both the Democratic and Republican national conventions.

[Samantha Bee looks more like a Jon Stewart heir than anything weve see so far]



Bees advice for life after November: Stay where you are. Live in your mess. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)

On comedians as pundits: We may seem to have influence, but we really dont. We love to put our white-hot laser on things but that cant be the point of what were doing. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)

Perched on a stool in a corner of Philadelphias City Tap House, The Posts headquarters for the convention week, Bee wore a fitted, black-and-green print dress that swirled at the hemline. (Its Givenchy, she told me in an embarrassed whisper when I inquired. A splurge.)

We talked about her ambitions for her three children; the eldest is 10. Born in America, they can all be president, I noted. They can, and I expect them all to be, she said.

Bee rejects the notion that late-night comedy  with the likes of John Oliver and Stephen Colbert  seems to have an outsize influence on informing Americans about politics.

I think the key word is seems,  she said. We may seem to have influence, but we really dont. We love to put our white-hot laser on things but that cant be the point of what were doing.

As for taking Stewarts place, she said that was never in the cards.

The ideal situation was to do my own thing exactly the way I wanted to do it, she said. It was everybody elses deal that she should have been the successor. I wanted to be headed in my own direction.

That has been disappointing to a lot of viewers. Soon after Full Frontal debuted in February, Steve Almond wrote in Salon, its become painfully obvious that The Daily Show squandered its shot at a political comedy dynasty by betting on the wrong host.

It should have been Bee, he wrote. Instead, the nod went to Trevor Noah, who has made the show worse than unfunny  with a few exceptional moments, he said, hes made it irrelevant.

Meanwhile, critics love her TBS show  she gets 100 percent approval from them on Rotten Tomatoes. And although comparative ratings are hard to tease out, given that her show appears only once a week, there can be no doubt that Bee has, well, buzz.

[Is Meryl Streep here? Chasing celebs at the DNC.]

This year, Dave Itzkoff of the New York Times quoted her husband, Jason Jones, who criticized Comedy Central for evidently never seriously considering her to succeed Stewart: The fact that she wasnt approached is a little shocking, to say the least.

Bee, who is in her mid-40s, grew up in Toronto and helped found a sketch comedy troupe there, the Atomic Fireballs, before joining The Daily Show in 2003. When she and Jones co-hosted The Daily Show in Stewarts absence in 2014, the couple said they had recently become American citizens.

In the past few days, Bee made news when she pushed back against a TBS tweet that mocked Hillary Clintons laugh and used the hashtag #ImWithHyena. Bee retweeted it with the biting Twitter putdown: Delete your account. The network didnt go quite that far, but it did delete the offending tweet.

After initially dissing Clintons choice of Timothy M. Kaine as a running mate, she took another look. And then another, appreciating his call to do good for others, as his Jesuit high school had instructed. Soon, she was calling him a walking hug and a Ferrari minivan with airbags.

Smitten, she invited the veep hopeful to Take my panties, Tim Kaine. I mean my vote. No, I mean my panties.



US State Senator Cory Booker, from New Jersey, greets comedian Samantha Bee at the Washington Post Live space on the third day of the 2016 Democratic National Convention. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)

As for the two conventions, she described them as so tonally different.

They are worlds apart  for one thing, there are people of color here. But as a comedic resource, the Republican convention offered riches at every turn. Not so much in Philadelphia, where she said that she and her team have been feeling inspired and moved at the speeches, but not finding too much fodder for comedy.

On the hot topic of Fox News and Roger Ailes, Bee recently congratulated the deposed executive for finally achieving your ultimate fantasy, as she showed a photo of Gretchen Carlson and Megyn Kelly. The punch line, alas, cant be fully printed here, but it has to do with an encounter with two gorgeous employees at the same time. (Carlson, a former Fox host, has accused Ailes of sexual harassment in a lawsuit; Kelly, according to news reports, alleged he harassed her, too. Ailes denies it all.)

Bee described herself as shocked/not-shocked about the claims against Ailes, and added, It feels like a huge moment in time.

Bee told me that while in Cleveland last week, she was approached by many current and former Fox News employees who grasped her arm and said they would have had plenty to spill if not for their non-disclosure agreements.

They should rethink their caution, and come on the show, she said.

We could put them in a black shroud. We have ways.

For more by Margaret Sullivan visit wapo.st/sullivan
Thursday, July 28

Tiny Tot nature programs For ages 18-35 months, explore nature. Thursday-Friday from 10-10:45 a.m. Long Branch Nature Center, 625 S. Carlin Springs Rd., Arlington. 703-228-6535. parks.arlingtonva.us. Each program $5; registration required.

Opening of family centers new computer lab For ACPS students and families residing in public housing during after school and summer hours. 11 a.m. Ruby Tucker Family Center, 322 Tancil Ct., Alexandria. 703-619-8003. andrianna.nicholas@acps.k12.va.us. Free; registration required.

Preschoolers nature programs For ages 3-5, learn about our Water Planet. Thursday-Friday from 1-2 p.m. Long Branch Nature Center, 625 S. Carlin Springs Rd., Arlington. 703-228-6535. parks.arlingtonva.us. Each program, $5; registration required.

Visiting Artist Program talks Features artists Steve Prince and Regina Davis. 5-6:30 p.m. Torpedo Factory Art Center, 105 N. Union St., Alexandria. 703-838-4565. torpedofactory.org. Free.

Music at Twilight concert By the Alexandria Harmonizers mens a cappella ensemble. 7-8 p.m. Fort Ward Museum and Historic Site, 4301 W. Braddock Rd., Alexandria. 703-746-5592. apps.alexandriava.gov. Free.

Jane Austen dance class In preparation for the Jane Austen Ball on Aug. 13, learn 18th-century English country dancing. Thursdays from 7:30-9:30 p.m. Through Aug. 11, Gadsbys Tavern Museum, 134 N. Royal St., Alexandria. 703-746-4242. apps.alexandriava.gov. $12; series of three classes, $30. Reservations required.

U.S. Army Rock Orchestra Features Downrange with the Army Orchestra. 7:30 p.m. Fort Myer, Brucker Hall, 400 McNair Rd., Arlington. 703-696-3399. usarmyband.com. Free.

Movies Under the Stars series Features Mrs. Doubtfire. Bring chairs or a blanket and a picnic supper. 8:30-11:30 p.m. John Carlyle Square Park, 300 John Carlyle St., Alexandria. 703-746-5592. apps.alexandriava.gov. Free.

Friday, July 29

Rosslyn Cinema An outdoor movie festival features food trucks, popcorn and kids activities. Bring a blanket. For a schedule, go to the website. Fridays from 5-11 p.m. Gateway Park, Lee Highway and North Lynn Street, Arlington. 703-522-6628. rosslynva.org. Free.

Alexandria City Academy For Alexandria residents and business owners, register by Friday for nine-week program beginning Sept. 7. Participants learn about local government. Thursdays from 6:30-9 p.m. Through Nov. 3. 703-746-4317. elaine.scott@alexandriava.gov. alexandriava.gov. Free.

Lubber Run summer concert Africa, highlife and rumba, bikutsi, zouglou, and West African reggae by DC HighLife Stars. 8 p.m. Lubber Run Amphitheater, North Columbus Street and Second Street North, Arlington. 703-228-1850. arlingtonarts.org. Free.

U.S. Air Force Band Features the Airmen of Note. 8 p.m. Air Force Memorial, 1 Air Force Memorial Dr., Arlington. 703-979-0674. usafband.af.mil. Free.

Saturday, July 30

Ball-Sellers House Museum Tour the oldest building in Arlington. 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Ball-Sellers House, 5620 S. Third St., Arlington. 703-577-7042. arlingtonhistoricalsociety.org. Free.

Weekend Artist Demonstrations An hour-long demonstration by Torpedo Factory artists. Saturday at 11 a.m. and 1 and 3 p.m. Torpedo Factory Art Center, 105 N. Union St., Alexandria. 703-838-4565. torpedofactory.org. Free.

Childrens art workshop For ages 8-12, taught by artists Susan Hostetler and Julia Bloom using a variety of materials. 2 p.m. the Athenaeum, 201 S. Prince St., Alexandria. 703-548-0035. kelly@nvfaa.org. nvfaa.org. Free.

Gulf Branch program For ages 8-12, learn about dragonflies. 2-3 p.m. Gulf Branch Nature Center, 3608 N. Military Rd., Arlington. 703-228-3403. parks.arlingtonva.us. $5; registration required (program No. 642826-I).

New Project Studio: The Silent World By Isabel Cureux. Reception, Saturday from 2-4 p.m. Closes Sunday. Torpedo Factory Art Center, 105 N. Union St., Alexandria. 703-838-4565. torpedofactory.org. Free.

Possum campfire Features stories, games, songs and smores. 7-8 p.m. Long Branch Nature Center, 625 S. Carlin Springs Rd., Arlington. 703-228-6535. parks.arlingtonva.us. $5; registration required. (program No. 642956-F).

Lubber Run summer concert Rock, soul and reggae by CAZ. 8 p.m. Lubber Run Amphitheater, North Columbus Street and Second Street North, Arlington. 703-228-1850. arlingtonarts.org. Free.

Saturday and Thursday movie nights 8:15-11 p.m. For a complete schedule, go to the website. Locations include Penrose Square, 2503 Columbia Pike, and Arlington Mill Community Center, 909 S. Dinwiddie St., Arlington. 703-892-2776. columbia-pike.org. Free.

Moths in the moonlight For ages 3 and older, learn why moths are ecologically important and how to attract them. 8:30-9:30 p.m. Gulf Branch Nature Center, 3608 N. Military Rd., Arlington. 703-228-3403. parks.arlingtonva.us. $5; registration required (program No. 642856-G).

Sunday, July 31

Real Science Behind Harry Potter For age 21 and older. An in-depth look at Potters real world, make a Dragons Blood tooth powder, trivia knowledge test, costume contest and tours. 1:30-6 p.m. Stabler-Leadbeater Apothecary Museum, 105-107 S. Fairfax St., Alexandria. 703-746-3852. shop.alexandriava.gov. $30.

Seashell workshop: Seashell Collection For ages 7-12. Naturalists discuss how to store, organize and identify seashells. 1:30-3 p.m. Gulf Branch Nature Center, 3608 N. Military Rd., Arlington. 703-228-3403. parks.arlingtonva.us. $10; registration required (program No. 642826-F).

Tavern Museum family tours Learn about the historic ice well and more, led by junior docents. Sundays from 2-5 p.m. Through Sept. 4, Gadsbys Tavern Museum, 134 N. Royal St., Alexandria. 703-746-4242. gadsbystavern.org. $3-$5; age 4 and younger, free.

Lubber Run summer concert Roots rock by the Grandsons. 6 p.m. Lubber Run Amphitheater, North Columbus Street and Second Street North, Arlington. 703-228-1850. arlingtonarts.org. Free.

Monday, Aug. 1

Artist in the Spotlight Features designer purses, belts, leather and fabric clothing by Annemarie Feld. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Continues through Aug. 31. Demonstration, Aug. 14 from 1-4 p.m. Torpedo Factory Art Center, Fiberworks, Studio 14, 105 N. Union St., Alexandria. 703-836-5807. torpedofactory.org. Free.

City concert series A performance by the 257th Army Band. 7-8 p.m. Market Square, 301 King St., Alexandria. 703-746-5592. apps.alexandriava.gov. Free.

OCD family support group For family and friends who have a loved one with OCD. First Mondays from 7:30-9:30 p.m. St. Andrews Episcopal Church, 4000 Lorcom Lane, Arlington. 202-215-5859. familygroupocd@verizon.net. Free.

Tuesday, Aug. 2

Early Stage Breast Cancer Support Sisters Meet others diagnosed with breast cancer, share and learn coping techniques, facilitated by patient navigators. First and third Tuesdays from 5-6:30 p.m. Virginia Hospital Center, Cancer Resource Center, 1701 N. George Mason Dr., Arlington. 703-558-6913. Free; registration required.

Gadsbys Tavern Museum Society benefit Features West Side Story and a reception with appetizers and beverages. 7 p.m. Show at 8 p.m. The Little Theatre of Alexandria, 600 Wolfe St., Alexandria. 703-746-4242. gadsbystavernmuseum.us. $35.

Jellys Last Jam A musical about early jazz pianist Jelly Roll Morton. Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. Show continues through Sept. 11. Signature Theatre, 4200 Campbell Ave., Arlington. 703-820-9771. sigtheatre.org. $40-$95.

Wednesday, Aug. 3

Nature program: Babes in the woods For adults with infants to toddlers, explore the park. 9:30-11 a.m. Long Branch Nature Center, 625 S. Carlin Springs Rd., Arlington. 703-228-6535. parks.arlingtonva.us. $5; registration required (program No. 642916-V).

Iceland, A Changing Land exhibit Photographs by Robin Kent. Opens Wednesday from 10 a.m.-5 p.m.; artists talk from 2-4 p.m. Continues through Oct. 29. Cherrydale Branch Library, 2190 Military Rd., Arlington. 703-228-6330. Free.

We Can Cope cancer program Meet others diagnosed with breast cancer, share and learn coping techniques, facilitated by patient navigators. First Wednesdays from 10-11:30 a.m. Virginia Hospital Center, Cancer Resource Center, 1701 N. George Mason Dr., Arlington. 703-558-6913. Free; registration required.

Alexandria Citizens Police Academy For those 21 years and older who live or work in the city of Alexandria, applications are being accepted for the 10-week Police Citizens Academy session from Sept. 7-Nov. 16. Learn various aspects of the police department. Wednesdays at 6:30-10 p.m. Alexandria Police Headquarters, 3600 Wheeler Ave., Alexandria. 703-746-1909. virginia.obranovich@alexandriava.gov. alexandriava.gov. Free; register by Aug. 15.

Twilight Tattoo: A Military Pageant Features Soldiers of the Third U.S. Infantry Regiment, troop and ceremonial units; the Old Guard Fife and Drum Corps; the U.S. Army Drill Team; the U.S. Army Blues, a soloist from the U.S. Army Chorus, and vocalists of the U.S. Army Band Downrange and U.S. Army Voices. 7 p.m. Fort Myer, Summerall Field, Sheridan Avenue, Arlington. 202-685-2888. usarmyband.com. Free.

Thursday, Aug. 4

Kit Keung Kan exhibit The artist and physicist interprets traditional Chinese landscape paintings. Thursday from noon-4 p.m. Continues through Sept. 18. Reception, Aug. 7 from 4-6 p.m. The Athenaeum, 201 S. Prince St., Alexandria. 703-548-0035. nvfaa.org. Free.

History of Chocolate Dave Borghesani of Mars Chocolate discusses how chocolate became a part of the culture, plus a dessert reception to benefit Friendship Firehouse Museum. 7 p.m. The Lyceum, Alexandrias History Museum, 201 S. Washington St., Alexandria. 703-746-4994. shop.alexandriava.gov. $25; reservations required.

60th Anniversary Celebration Concert Features the U.S. Army Chorus. 7:30 p.m. Fort Myer, Brucker Hall, 400 McNair Rd., Arlington. 703-696-3718. usarmyband.com. Free.

Northern Virginia Senior Olympics Ongoing online registration through Sept. 5 for Sept. 10-21 events for participants who are 50 years old by Dec. 31, 2016. For information and registration, go to the website. 703-830-5404. nvso.us. $12.

 Compiled by Ria Manglapus

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Email: axliving@washpost.com

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Details: Announcements are accepted on a space-available basis from public and nonprofit organizations only and must be received at least 14 days before the Thursday publication date. Include event name, dates, times, exact address, prices and a publishable contact phone number.
Anne Arundel County

The following was among incidents reported by the Anne Arundel County police. For information, call 410-222-8050.

ODENTON AREA

ROBBERIES

Annapolis Rd., 1200 block, 12:04 a.m. July 16. An armed male stole cash and food from a pizza delivery worker and fled on foot.

Annapolis

These were among incidents reported by the Annapolis Police Department. For information, call 410-268-9000.

ASSAULTS

Newtowne Dr., 700 block, 4 a.m. July 18. A man was shot while sitting in his vehicle.

THEFTS/BREAK-INS

Amberstone Ct., 11 p.m. July 16 to 10 a.m. July 17. A bag, a laptop computer, running shoes and sunglasses were stolen from a vehicle.

Ashford Ct., 6 p.m. July 14 to 7:30 a.m. July 15. A package was stolen from a vehicle.

Ashford Ct., 8 a.m. July 14 to 8 p.m. July 16. A window screen at a home was cut and a motion light was removed, but entry was not made into the home.

Bay Ridge Rd., 900 block, 11 a.m. July 17 to 6:30 a.m. July 18. A window at a business was forced open; nothing was reported stolen.

Dewey Dr., 200 block, 2 p.m. July 10 to 6 a.m. July 14. Power and hand tools were stolen from a vehicle.

Duke of Gloucester St., 100 block, 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. July 14. A screen was removed and a window opened at a home, but entry was not made.

Franklin St., 11 p.m. July 19 to 7 a.m. July 20. A cellphone was stolen from a vehicle.

Hanson St., 1000 block, 9:20 to 11:20 a.m. July 19. A home was entered through an unlocked window; nothing was reported stolen.

Landings Ct., 9 p.m. July 16 to 5 p.m. July 17. Two boys bicycles were stolen from a home.

Main St., 200 block, 4 p.m. July 13 to 6:45 p.m. July 16. An apartment door was forced open; nothing was reported stolen.

Northwest St., 10 a.m. July 18 to 8:40 a.m. July 19. Cash was stolen from a vehicle.

Northwest St., 9:30 p.m. July 19 to 8:45 a.m. July 20. Cash was stolen from a vehicle.

Rosedale St., 700 block, 11 p.m. July 12 to 6:40 a.m. July 13. Power tools were stolen from a vehicle.

Schley Dr., 400 block, 8 p.m. July 12 to 9 a.m. July 14. A kayak and a canoe were stolen from a home.

Shiley St., 100 block, 10 a.m. July 8 to 10 a.m. July 15. Electronic devices were stolen from a vehicle.

South Cherry Grove Ave., 300 block, 6:30 p.m. July 16 to 7:30 a.m. July 17. A laptop computer and a purse were stolen from a vehicle.

State St., 500 block, 9:30 p.m. July 15 to 8:30 a.m. July 16. A wallet was stolen from a vehicle.

Washington St., 3-5 p.m. July 19. The contents of a delivered package were stolen from a front porch.

West St., 1900 block, 4:25 a.m. July 20. A window at a business was forced open; nothing was reported stolen.

West St., 2-3 p.m. July 20. A wallet was stolen from a vehicle.

Wye Island Ct., 600 block, 3:45 p.m. July 15 to 7 a.m. July 16. Cash and three watches were stolen from a home.

VANDALISM

Van Buren Dr. and August Dr., 1300 and 1100 blocks, 9:50 p.m. July 15 to 2:50 p.m. July 16. Two houses and three vehicles were shot with BB pellets

Howard County

These were among incidents reported by the Howard County Police Department. For information, call 410-313-2236.

CLARKSVILLE AREA

THEFTS/BREAK-INS

Simpson Rd., 11800 block, July 12 to 8 a.m. July 13. A leaf blower, a weed trimmer and an all-terrain vehicle were stolen from a shed.

COLUMBIA AREA

ROBBERIES

Freelark Pl., 5400 block, 7 to 10:30 p.m. July 17. A wallet was stolen from a vehicle parked in a garage.

Guilford Rd., 8800 block, 11:48 p.m. July 19. Four armed males approached a bicyclist and demanded his bag; he refused and fled.

Murray Hill Rd., 7600 block, 10:55 p.m. July 14. A man with a knife assaulted another man, stole cash from him and fled.

ASSAULTS

Waterloo Rd., 5600 block, 8:45 p.m. July 15. A man was assaulted in a home by an acquaintance.

THEFTS/BREAK-INS

Brett Lane, 9400 block, 12:51 p.m. July 16. Appliances were stolen from a vacant house.

Cobblefield Dr., 8600 block, 5:15 p.m. July 17. Cash was stolen from a home.

Four Foot Trail, 6400 block, 8 a.m. July 17. A wallet and a cellphone were stolen from a vehicle.

Gramercy Pl., 10600 block, 2:40 p.m. July 15. Two male youths entered an apartment through a sliding glass door; they fled when they were confronted.

Softwater Way, 9800 block, 7:42 p.m. July 14. Jewelry was stolen from a home.

Symphony Way, 10700 block, 12:31 p.m. July 15. Appliances were stolen from a vacant property.

MOTOR VEHICLE THEFTS

Berger Rd., 9500 block, 12:51 p.m. July 19. An International box truck was stolen.

Slalom Lane, 11200 block, 12:08 p.m. July 18. A 2004 neon green Dodge was stolen.

ELKRIDGE AREA

ROBBERIES

Bonnie View Lane, 5800 block, 10:25 p.m. July 16. An armed male assaulted a female acquaintance and stole her purse.

Old Waterloo Rd., 6500 block, 8:37 p.m. July 17. A group of people assaulted a man, stole his cellphone, and fled.

THEFTS/BREAK-INS

Main St., 5600 block, 3:17 a.m. July 17. A door at a business was broken; nothing was reported stolen.

Washington Blvd., 6300 block, 1:20 a.m. July 15. A woman tried to gain entry into a business. An Elkridge woman, 35, was charged with attempted burglary and drug possession.

ELLICOTT CITY AREA

THEFTS/BREAK-INS

Bonnie Branch Rd., 4700 block, 5:21 p.m. July 14. Jewelry, a television and blank checks were stolen from a home.

MOTOR VEHICLE THEFTS

Split Rail Lane, 3500 block, 5:58 a.m. July 15. A Lexus RX350 and a Honda Odyssey were stolen. The Honda was found in the 3400 block of Plum Tree Drive.

FULTON AREA

THEFTS/BREAK-INS

Westside Blvd., 8100 block, 10:40 a.m. July 15. Two males jumped over a counter at a pharmacy, stole prescription drugs and fled.

LAUREL AREA

ROBBERIES

Washington Blvd., 9600 block, 12:40 a.m. July 20. A man forced a female employee to open a cash register at a business, stole cash, and fled.

MOTOR VEHICLE THEFTS

N. Second St., 10000 block, 6:09 p.m. July 14. A 2006 silver Audi was stolen.

MARRIOTTSVILLE AREA

THEFTS/BREAK-INS

Driver Rd., 1200 block, 2:15 a.m. July 14. Someone broke a door at a home but did not go inside.

MOUNT AIRY AREA

THEFTS/BREAK-INS

Frederick Rd., 16600 block, 7:44 p.m. July 15. Tools and a stereo were stolen from a home.
Gustavo Torres, the executive director of Casa Maryland, rallies with immigrants and supporters outside the White House in protest of planned raids against immigrant families. (Marvin Joseph/The Washington Post)

The Washington regions largest immigrant advocacy group is calling for the ouster of the Democratic National Committees chief spokesman over an email he wrote that calls a push for federal protection of unaccompanied Central American minors irresponsible.

In a letter sent Tuesday to Donna Brazile, who took over as interim chair of the DNC in the wake of the scandal over internal emails released by WikiLeaks, Casa in Action takes issue with statements made in one of those emails by DNC spokesman Luis Miranda.

The problem is these groups dont want to hear this, they want us to send a message to Central Americans to keep paying smugglers and put those kids at risk of abuse and even death, Miranda wrote in a May email about Obama administration immigration raids. Frankly the rhetoric on this and calls for TPS [temporary protected status] are irresponsible, they send a message that ends up in more lives lost.

Miranda declined Wednesday to comment on the email. The DNC has posted a statement of apology on its website for disparaging remarks revealed about former presidential candidate Bernie Sanders that caused an uproar and led to the resignation of chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz at the start of this weeks national convention in Philadelphia.

[Debbie Wasserman Schultz was the ultimate Washington survivor. Until she wasnt.]

Mirandas email alludes to concerns about how offering federal temporary protected status to Central Americans who have crossed illegally into the United States in recent years could serve as a magnet for others, which would fuel dangerous smuggling operations on the U.S.-Mexico border.

Gustavo Torres, director of Casa in Action, argued that the email diminishes the fact that thousands of Central Americans are fleeing violence in their homelands, including the unaccompanied minors, which would qualify many as refugees.

Torres also said Miranda, who has served as a Democratic Party liaison for immigrant groups, appears to be privately accusing them of promoting illegal immigration by calling for federal protections.

We believe that we really need people in the Democratic Party who are really pro-immigrant, who want to resolve the issue of immigration, Torres said. He is the main voice for Latinos in the Democratic Party. I believe that its unacceptable.

As of Wednesday, Democratic Party leaders  including Miranda  have not responded to the groups complaint, he said.


In this file photo from 2013, a fourth grader at St. Francis International School in Silver Spring, Md. practices cursive writing. Once thought to be on its way out, cursive instruction is hanging on as states are moving to require that students learn it. (Sarah L. Voisin/The Washington Post)

Cursive writing was supposed to be dead by now. Schools would stop teaching it. Kids would stop learning it. Everyone would stop using it. The Common Core standards adopted by most states in recent years no longer required teaching cursive in public schools, and the widespread reaction was succinct: good riddance.

But like Madonna and newspapers, cursive has displayed a gritty staying power, refusing to have its loop de loops and curlicues swept to the dustbin of handwriting history. Just last month, Louisiana passed a law requiring that all traditional public schools and public charter schools begin teaching cursive by third grade and continue through 12th grade. Arkansas legislators passed a law mandating cursive instruction last year. And 10 other states, including Virginia, California, Florida and Texas, have cursive writing requirements in their state education standards.

Is cursive still relevant? Voting is closed on this poll User Poll Results: Should cursive still be taught in schools? Yes! It's still useful! No, we don't need it anymore. Pardon the interruption! We need to verify that you are an actual person. Yes! It's still useful! No, we don't need it anymore. 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 cursive comeback is championed by a mix of educators, researchers, parents and politicians who lament the loss of linked-letter writing and cite studies that learning cursive engages the brain more deeply, improves fine motor dexterity and gives children a better idea of how words work in combination.

And some also just like the way it looks.

I think its really discouraging to get a note from a college graduate that is printed like a second-grader, said Beth Mizell, the Louisiana state senator who introduced the cursive writing bill in her state.

The Republican lawmaker said she acted when she heard from a surveyor who told her he couldnt find young people who could read the notes on old land documents. A grandmother, Mizell said she was shocked to find out that students were no longer learning cursive in school.

It seemed we had made a decision that was arrogant on our part that we didnt think these kids needed something that we had taken for granted, that was our way of communicating for generations, she said.

[This went viral: 7-year-old blasted by her teacher for writing her name in cursive]

Those pushing for a return to cursive cite studies that show it benefits students in many ways, from improving their spelling and comprehension to helping them generate ideas and compose them more easily.

Theres a myth that in the era of computers we dont need handwriting. Thats not what our research is showing, said Virginia Berninger, a University of Washington professor who has co-authored studies on the topic and followed the same children every year for five years to track their development. What we found was that children until about grade six were writing more words, writing faster and expressing more ideas if they could use handwriting  printing or cursive  than if they used the keyboard.

She said the connecting strokes in cursive help children speed up handwriting making it easier for them to compose thoughts: It helps get your words down on paper more quickly.

But Berninger is not an absolutist on cursive. She recommends a minimal amount of daily instruction that is less focused on drills than acquiring the basics.

Yes, lets put handwriting back in schools, but just enough to let us get on with the real business of writing and communicating, she said.

Though it was widely taught in schools in the early 20th century, cursives dominance has been in jeopardy ever since. First it was threatened by printed handwriting, and then it fell further from favor as typewriters, personal computers, laptops and tablets gained widespread use. More recently, the smartphone has become cursives chief enemy as the graceful, fluid lines of sentences inked on paper by a carefully gripped pen have rapidly given way to tweets and texts battered out with indifferent thumbs on mini keyboards or screens.

Many who want cursive back yearn for the artistry of the handwriting style. But if the early 20th century marked the golden age of cursive, it was less about beautiful penmanship than it was about discipline and conformity, said Tamara Thornton, a University at Buffalo historian who tackled the subject in her 1996 book, Handwriting in America: A Cultural History.

Learning cursive has never been just about learning how to express yourself in writing, Thornton said. In the early 20th century, its about following models and suppressing your individuality.

Handwriting drills at the time were compared to military drills, with the idea that an emphasis on repetition and perfection would keep students in line and lead to standardization. Thornton sees a correlation between cursives waxing and waning fortunes and the nations political and cultural climate.

We get very interested in cursive when we feel that our morals are in a state of decline, all hell is breaking loose, people are doing whatever they want, Thornton said.And I dont think its that much of a stretch that the sort of people who believe in the standard model of the family get very nervous when we depart from the standard models of the cursive script. So there have been periodic bouts of hysteria about the decline of cursive. And its always when we feel that as a society, were going down the tubes.

Like many school districts across the country, D.C. Public Schools leaves the decision on whether to include cursive as part of the curriculum up to individual principals and teachers.

I trust our teachers to teach kids what they need to know without mandating every little thing, said outgoing D.C. Public Schools Chancellor Kaya Henderson, who is retiring in October following a five-year run leading the system. And I feel like we are increasingly in a place where the mandates are overwhelming.

Henderson, who opts to print when she writes by hand rather than to use cursive, isnt spending a lot of time thinking about the issue.

Its not something that I feel strongly about when Ive got a whole lot of other things to worry about, she said with a laugh.

As he prepares to enter fifth grade this fall, Sean Beilke, 10, of Bethesda, Md., has been learning to write in cursive, something that isnt taught in the Montgomery County public school he attends.

When I first saw it in first grade, I thought: Thats neat. Id like to try that someday,  Sean said. Its kind of fancy.

Seans parents both work in high-tech, but they wanted their sons to be able to write in cursive because they believe a foundation in handwriting could affect their ability to innovate.

Theres just a huge difference in the creative part of the brain when you are writing and when you are typing, said Seans mother, Molly McCarthy, who works for Microsoft. I really support our public schools, but I feel like were doing a huge disservice by not teaching handwriting and cursive.

For Jan Olsen, the renewed push for more cursive instruction is good for business. Olsen is president of Handwriting Without Tears, a company she founded more than two decades ago in suburban Washington that has 150 employees and has become one of the leading handwriting and cursive curriculums in the country.

Many of the school districts that still teach cursive use Handwriting Without Tears materials. And in areas where schools have abandoned cursive, many individual families who want their kids to learn the writing style purchase the brands workbooks for home instruction.

If kids dont have the mechanics, no matter what theyre thinking in their minds, its hard to get it on paper, said Olsen, an occupational therapist who developed her handwriting method for her son when he had difficulty learning cursive as an elementary school student in the 1970s.

Olsen also worries about the loss of cursives signature contribution: the signature.

Handwriting is meant to be personal, she said. Thats why a signature is a signature. Because nobody writes exactly like anybody else.

But Thornton, the handwriting historian, isnt swayed by the signature argument.

People do like to express their individuality, but they can do it in many ways, she said. For all I know, people are coming up with their own emoji and maybe that will replace the signature.

The debate over whether to teach kids cursive will probably not go away soon.

Lawmakers in Indiana and Washington introduced bills earlier this year to return cursive to classrooms. Texas, a state where third- and fourth-graders are required to learn cursive, is considering extending instruction to second-graders. Even as keyboard-fueled communication extends its dominance, educators, politicians and parents continue to evaluate the handwritten word and its relevance to young students.

(Full disclosure: This story was typed on a computer, but the notes were taken in cursive.)
Baltimore state's attorney Marilyn Mosby gave an impassioned news conference on July 27 to discuss the decision to drop all charges against three police officers awaiting trial in the death of Freddie Gray. Mosby brought criminal charges against all six officers after Gray suffered a fatal spinal injury while in police custody. (WUSA)

Baltimore state's attorney Marilyn Mosby gave an impassioned news conference on July 27 to discuss the decision to drop all charges against three police officers awaiting trial in the death of Freddie Gray. Mosby brought criminal charges against all six officers after Gray suffered a fatal spinal injury while in police custody. (WUSA)

Baltimore States Attorney Marilyn J. Mosbys promises of justice nearly 15 months ago calmed a violent, broken city, bringing her instant national celebrity  even a Vogue magazine spread with photos by Annie Leibovitz  and talk of a skys-the-limit political future.

She and her husband, City Council member Nick Mosby (D), reigned as Baltimores rising stars.

At the same time, the first-term prosecutors many detractors, especially in the law enforcement community, labeled her the rankest kind of opportunist. They accused her of recklessly slapping together criminal cases with unseemly haste in an ambition-fueled rush to judgment.

On Wednesday, Mosbys office announced that it was dropping all criminal charges against the officers after three acquittals and one hung jury in the arrest and death of 25-year-old Freddie Gray last year. Predictably, both sides remained split over whether Mosby, 36, can recover politically.

[Prosecution drops all charges against police in Gray case]

Residents in Baltimore respond to news that all charges have been dropped against the three remaining police officers in connection with the 2015 death of Freddie Gray. Three others were already acquitted. (Ashleigh Joplin/The Washington Post)

I dont think so, said Warren Brown, a lawyer and former assistant states attorney who worked in the office before Mosbys arrival. I dont think she can regain the trust of the white community, and the black community has been fractured. Their regard for her is fractured.

Brown contended that the gathering backlash against Mosby also damaged her husbands short-lived mayoral candidacy. Nick Mosby launched his bid last October, six months after Grays death, and dropped out two weeks before the April 26 primary. His office did not return phone calls Wednesday.

Prospective opponents are already lining up to consider challenging Marilyn Mosby in 2018, Brown said, including defense lawyer Ivan Bates, who represented Sgt. Alicia White, one of the six charged officers.

In a telephone interview, Bates deflected questions about running, but said: I do feel there needs to be a change. The city needs to heal, and unfortunately Ms. Mosby has shown herself to be extremely divisive.

Others in the legal community said Mosbys relationship with the citys police department was irreparably damaged  a potentially serious problem going forward as she tries to prosecute crimes in a city where homicides are sharply on the rise.

Her angry, defiant appearance before reporters Wednesday morning, in which she accused detectives of launching a counter-investigation to undermine the states case, seems likely to widen the breach.

I dont know that she has made enemies in the city, but I think she missed an opportunity this morning to make peace with police, said Roya Hanna, a former Baltimore assistant states attorney who now runs her own criminal defense practice. Instead of putting out a hand and making peace, she attacked the city.

Rebuilding those relationships wont be easy, said Donald Norris, director of the School of Public Policy at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.

Even in a perfect world  which we dont live in, of course  even if she were able to establish positive connections with the top police command structure, the rank and file wont buy it, he said.

[Who is Baltimore prosecutor Marilyn J. Mosby?]

Mosby held her news conference in the run-down West Baltimore neighborhood where Gray was arrested. As she spoke, she was cheered on by residents and onlookers who chanted, Were with you.

I was elected the prosecutor. I signed up for this, and I can take it, she declared, describing months of harassment and threats over the decision to forgo a grand jury indictment and press charges against the police. I refuse to allow the grandstanding of some and hyperbole of others to diminish our work for justice.

Community activists, including Baltimore NAACP President Tessa Hill-Aston, said the prosecutor won widespread respect for charging the officers in the first place. Hill-Aston predicted that Mosby will continue to have strong support in poor communities and the citys heavily African American areas, especially because the Gray case encouraged efforts to improve police training and accountability in Baltimore and statewide.

I think people know that she did the best she could, Hill-Aston said. They know theres a lot of obstacles in prosecuting a case like this and dont fault her for deciding to drop the charges.

Former Baltimore mayor Kurt L. Schmoke  who first met Mosby when she and her future husband were undergraduates at Tuskegee University in Alabama, and served on her transition committee when she won office in 2014  said he was confident that fallout from the Gray case will not jeopardize her political career.

Schmoke likened her situation to the uproar he faced in 1988, his first year as the citys first African-American mayor, after he told a congressional committee that the country might be better off legalizing illicit drugs.

Some people thought I ought to be impeached, said Schmoke, now president of the University of Baltimore.

But Schmoke, who went on to win two more terms in office, said he discovered that patient, steady explanations of his position quelled the controversy.

The majority of citizens still disagreed with me, but they supported the fact that I didnt waffle and I didnt change my opinion, Schmoke said. I think thats what opponents of Marilyn are going to face two years from now.
A Dunkin Donuts employee at an Oakton, Va.-area store allegedly gave a group of teens donuts tainted with a bleach spray, Fairfax County police said.

The teens ate some of the donuts, but were not sickened and alerted authorities, police said.

The incident took place on Monday night, police said. The employee had previously given the teens donuts that would have been discarded at the close of business, and on that day the teens came back for more.

The employee initially refused several times, but then told the teens to return later and he would give them some donuts, police said. Before handing the donuts over, the employee allegedly sprayed them with a cleaning solution that contained bleach.

The teens ate anywhere from a few bites to a whole donut, before realizing they were tainted. They then contacted police.

Charges have not yet been filed in the case, but police said the investigation remains ongoing.
Authorities evacuated people at Union Station Metro in Northeast Washington on July 27 following reports of a suspicious package. (Claritza Jimenez/The Washington Post)

Authorities evacuated people at Union Station Metro in Northeast Washington on July 27 following reports of a suspicious package. (Claritza Jimenez/The Washington Post)

Operations at Union Station returned to normal Wednesday evening after the transit hub was evacuated and train service halted as police investigated a suspicious package.

The incident occurred shortly after 5:15 p.m. A D.C. police spokesman said there was a suspicious package but would not elaborate. A D.C. fire department spokesman, quoting a paramedic in the station, described it as a bomb threat.

Trains including MARC and VRE commuter service were halted, as was at least one Amtrak train. Armed police were seen rushing into the terminal.

Shortly after 6 p.m., Metro Transit Police and MARC tweeted that the situation had been resolved and rail service was returning to normal. The Metro Red Line had not been suspended,but people were not alllowed to enter the station. All restrictions have been lfited.

Police referred questions to Amtrak officials who have not responded to questions.
Newly eligible voters Louise Benjamin (L) and Viola Marie Brooks are outside the courthouse with their registration letters July 19, 2016. After the Supreme Court of Virginia heard arguments on the legality of Gov. Terry McAuliffe's order restoring voting rights to convicted felons, it overturned his order. The women say they've been devastated by the court ruling invalidating their voting registrations. (Sabrina Khan / The Advancement Project) (Sabrina Khan/The Advancement Project)

Louise Benjamin, 48, looked forward to casting her first ballot in Virginia this November, after Gov. Terry McAuliffe restored her voting rights and those of more than 200,000 other convicted felons who had also completed their sentences.

She saw voting as a chance for redemption after serving time for assault charges. Then, last week, the state Supreme Court decided she could not vote after all.

[McAuliffe promises to dodge court order invalidating his clemency order]

I was so hurt. I couldnt even believe it, Benjamin said, after the court ruled that McAuliffe overstepped his authority by restoring voting rights en masse instead of on a case-by-case basis. Why they dont want us to vote?

Across the state, more than 13,000 ex-offenders who had registered to vote after McAuliffe signed his wholesale clemency order in April have been thrust into a kind of voting limbo.

They have felt like they just had their rights restored and before they could even savor that for long, here comes the court just swooping in and taking it all away again, said Tram Nguyen, co-executive director of New Virginia Majority, which has been registering ex-offenders, including Benjamin. A lot of them are hearing the message that they dont belong, they dont deserve a voice.

The court directed the state elections commissioner, Edgardo Cortes, to cancel by Aug. 25 the registrations of the 13,000 felons and to add their names to a list of prohibited voters.

McAuliffe has vowed to circumvent the court ruling by issuing individual restoration orders with an autopen. Once signed, the order will be sent to the eligible felon, along with a new voter-registration form, administration officials said.

Meanwhile, state Republicans, who challenged McAuliffes April order and accused him of trying to swell the ranks of Democratic voters, say they are closely monitoring his actions and may sue again.

Organizers acknowledge the confusion over this legal back-and-forth is making it harder to register felons, some of whom can be difficult to reach if they do not have permanent homes. For many ex-convicts trying to reenter society, voter-registration paperwork is not a top priority, activists say.

[In Virginia, race is on to register 200,000 former felons]

McAuliffe has framed his decision as a civil rights achievement, saying he is removing 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.

Among them is Anthony Hill, who said he was first convicted on burglary-related charges when he was 18. The 50-year-old Richmond resident said the experience of winning back and then quickly losing the right to vote again left him feeling more passionate about electoral participation.

They want us to continue to be in slavery, Hill said. They want us to be in mental bondage.

Local election officials who are supposed to strike the 13,000 felons from the voting rolls by Aug. 25 have been told by the McAuliffe administration to hold off until the state releases a plan next week.

The fallout from all of this is hurting the very people that the governor is trying to help and leaving them in some uncertainty about their voting status, said Richmond General Registrar J. Kirk Showalter, one of several local officials to criticize the administration for how it handled the clemency order. Its heartbreaking to me.

In Northern Virginia, New Virginia Majority organizer Matt Rogers says about 200 people volunteered to help contact and re-register ex-offenders who already signed up to vote. Local chapters of the NAACP are regrouping to spread the word to churches, local businesses and fraternities in urban centers about how to re-register .

We were always aware that the window opened by the executive order can be closed as quickly as an election, said Linda Thomas, president of the Virginia State Conference of the NAACP.

She and other advocates are pushing for a constitutional amendment to permanently lift voting restrictions on ex-offenders after they complete their sentences.

Virginia is one of four states that permanently disenfranchises people with felony records, but it allows the governor to restore voting rights.

Why am I denied from voting when I did my time? said Viola Brooks, a 54-year-old Richmond resident who says she served about a year because of felony maiming and assault charges after a fight with a woman with a knife. I understand I made a mistake, but I did my time and I should have been forgiven for that.

Del. Robert B. Bell (R-Albemarle) says that state Republicans are keeping a close eye on how McAuliffe handles individual restoration orders.

We are reserving all legal options at this point, but we need to see what he is going to do, said Bell, who is running for attorney general.

But Claire Guthrie Gastanaga, executive director of the Virginia chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, says she does not think Republicans have an argument. I dont know how they can challenge the individual orders when they said their issue is not what he was doing, but how he was doing it, she said.
Antoinette Marie Rezek, 94, of Lincoln died on Monday, July 25, 2016 in Wahoo. She was born on December 24, 1921, on a farm near Valparaiso to Edward and Mary (Kubista) Pecha.

Antoinette is survived by her sister, Marjorie Rezek, Weston; sister-in-law, Rose Novotny, Wahoo; many nieces and nephews.

Visitation: 9:30 a.m., Thursday, July 28, with a rosary at 10 a.m. Mass of Christian Burial: 10:30 a.m. all at Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church, 1720 Lake St., Lincoln. Memorials to Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church. Burial: Lincoln Memorial Park Cemetery.
Over the top

Sen. Bernie Sanders was the one who put Hillary Clinton over the top in Philadelphia on Tuesday night.

After a lengthy roll-call vote inside Wells Fargo Center, Sanders took the microphone alongside the delegation of his home state of Vermont and proclaimed that the former secretary of state would now officially become the Democratic nominee for president.

It was a crucial moment of unity in a primary process that has been marked by divisions between the partys more progressive wing and its center.

As Sanders sealed the deal for Clinton, delegates waved multicolored H signs and danced to the hit song Happy.

Sanders quickly exited the arena as delegates danced. But there were few if any outward signs of emotion. Few tears were shed. The inevitable  after more than 18 months of intense campaigning and two days of raw floor drama  came to pass, quickly.

BFFs

Hillary Clintons childhood friend Betsy Ebeling was given the honor of casting the votes from her home state of Illinois for Clinton on Day Two of the Democratic convention.

Abby Phillips was inside the hall for the moment: On this historic, wonderful day, in honor of Dorothy and Hughs daughter and my sweet friend  I know youre watching, Ebeling said, her voice heavy with emotion. This ones for you, Hill.

She called out Illinoiss 98 votes for Clinton and let out a final Yes!

Celebrity sightings

It is no secret that the star wattage at Democratic conventions is usually a whole lot brighter than at Republican gatherings.

The same holds true for Philadelphia, report Ben Terris and Monica Hesse, who have spied a parade of high-profile celebrities performing both on the convention stage and at events about town. They include Alicia Keys, Chloe Grace Moretz, Demi Lovato, Ashley Judd, Elizabeth Banks and Sarah Silverman.

Thats just to name a few.

Having been to Cleveland, we can confidently state that the GOP gathering was less full of the famous, with Scott Baio and Antonio Sabato Jr. as the marquee well-known guests.
Never gonna give you up

Some Bernie Sanders supporters seemed shocked when Hillary Clinton was officially nominated Tuesday as the Democratic standard bearer, reports David Weigel.

Some walked off the convention floor after Sanders, standing with the Vermont delegation, verbally confirmed Clintons nomination.

We would like a recount of all the states where there were irregularities, said Cheryl Fisher, an Oregon delegate for Sanders. We dont just believe in Bernie as a person, we believe in the issues that he brought up. She [Clinton] represents the rich and the corporations, and the rich and the corporations rigged the election in her favor.

Some members of the Sanders-heavy Oregon delegation, who had been holding signs with slogans such as We Are the 99.9 Percent and No Justice No Peace, dropped the signs when Clinton was nominated, their mouths gaping.

They wrapped gags around their jaws and headed into the concourse at Wells Fargo Center. There they met dozens of angry delegates from other states, chanting and marching toward the media tents.

Walk out! they chanted. Walk out!

Russian influence

President Obama pointed to Donald Trumps praise of Russian President Vladimir Putin as he appeared to raise the possibility Tuesday that Russian hackers breached the Democratic National Committees email system, reports Sean Sullivan.

What we do know is is that the Russians hack our systems. Not just government systems, but private systems, Obama told NBC News, saying it wasnt yet clear who hacked the emails. But you know, what the motives were in terms of the leaks, all that, I cant say directly. What I do know is that Donald Trump has repeatedly expressed admiration for Vladimir Putin.

He continued: I am basing this on what Mr. Trump himself has said. And I think that Trumps gotten pretty favorable coverage  back in Russia.

quotable

It is with a full heart that Im here today as we nominate Hillary Clinton to be the first woman president.

 Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski (D-Md.)
Frank Hodsoll, a self-described bureaucratic gnome who emerged as a surprisingly persistent champion of cultural funding and programming as President Ronald Reagans chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, died July 24 at a hospice center in Falls Church, Va. He was 78.

His death, from cancer, was confirmed by his family.

Mr. Hodsoll  a lawyer and Foreign Service officer whose previous artistic endeavors consisted largely of collegiate theatrical productions and glee clubs  was deputy to White House Chief of Staff James A. Baker III when he was asked to help form a presidential task force to stimulate private philanthropy in the arts.

Before Reagans first year in office was over, Mr. Hodsoll floated his own name for chairman of the NEA, the largest single U.S. funder of theater and dance companies, musical ensembles, soloists, artists, writers and others engaged in creative pursuit.

Baker was astonished. Are you serious? he reportedly asked. Why would you want to do that?

Frank Hodsoll is pictured with President Ronald Reagan, holding the Academy Award received by the National Endowment for the Arts, in 1985. (Courtesy Frank Hodsoll/National Endowment for the Arts)

Mr. Hodsoll explained to The Washington Post at the time that he maintained an enduring passion for the lively arts, even as he spent a career mastering the art of policy papers. Encouraging creativity is like being at the cutting edge of human development, he said. Maybe Im crazy, but I think that would be an exciting thing to do. Not being a member of the creative sector myself, I think it would be interesting to help develop a climate within which creative people will find it easier to do their thing.

Mr. Hodsoll took office in 1981 and remained in the post until 1989. He was widely reported to have earned the appreciation of the arts community, where many had initially feared that he would join other Reagan officials in advocating sweeping cuts to federal funding.

In a discussion panel last year, Mr. Hodsoll said that David A. Stockman, Reagans first director of the Office of Management and Budget, regarded the NEA and its sister organization, the National Endowment for the Humanities, as good ones to simply bring to a halt because they went too far, and they would be easy to defeat. (At one point, the Reagan administration proposed halving the arts endowment budget.)

Reagan, a Hollywood actor before his rise through politics, was ultimately dissuaded from taking the draconian step of eliminating the NEA. Congressional support helped the NEA maintain its appropriations, which amounted to approximately $158.8 million in 1981, dipped to $143.5 million the next year, and rose to $169.1 million by 1989.

As chairman, Mr. Hodsoll took a particular interest in film. Under his leadership, the NEA partnered with the American Film Institute to form a national center for video and film preservation, a project for which the NEA, represented by Mr. Hodsoll, received an honorary Academy Award in 1985.

He sought to spur local and regional support for the arts through matching grants. Among the recipients of funding during his tenure was the fledgling Sundance Institute, actor and director Robert Redfords nonprofit organization to support independent artists in film and theater.

Also under Mr. Hodsoll, the National Medal of Arts was established in 1984 to recognize exceptional achievement by artists and arts patrons. He sought to encourage cultural education in schools and was credited with supporting avant-garde as well as traditional arts, major companies as well as new ones.

Rock and roll builds on Bach, he told the Los Angeles Times when he stepped down, describing what he regarded as a cultural stream that grows over time. Andy Warhol builds on Coca-Cola, and vice-versa. One of the great art works of the 20th century has to be Lawrence of Arabia. . . . Its as good, in my view, as some of the famous paintings in museums.

Mr. Hodsoll was a hands-on administrator and attracted controversy for his willingness, on occasion, to veto grant decisions by peer-review panels. He discarded a plan, roundly criticized, to use computer-generated formulas in an effort to improve consistency in grant allocations.

In 1989, Mr. Hodsoll left the NEA to become executive associate director and chief financial officer at the OMB under President George H.W. Bush. He retired from federal service in 1993.

Looking back on his time at the NEA, he told the New York Times that the endowment has nothing to do with creating genius.

What weve done essentially is to make it easier for institutions and creative individuals to pursue their art, he said. More important, we symbolize the federal governments recognition of culture in this country as an aspect of national health.

Francis Samuel Monaise Hodsoll was born in Los Angeles on May 1, 1938. He received a bachelors degree in art history and American studies from Yale University in 1959. After Army service, he received a masters degree and a bachelor of laws degree in 1963, both from the University of Cambridge in England, followed by a juris doctor degree from Stanford University in 1964.

He worked briefly for a Wall Street law firm doing securities work before joining the Foreign Service, which took him on assignment to Belgium. Later in his career, he worked in the State Department on nuclear nonproliferation. He called himself a jack of all trades in government work, and he also had stints with the Environmental Protection Agency and the Commerce Department, where he first met Baker.

Mr. Hodsoll was a coordinator of Reagans presidential debate preparation in 1980 and served on his transition team, working on matters including the resolution of the Iran hostage crisis. After his federal career, he was a county commissioner and management consultant in Ridgway, Colo., before returning to the Washington area.

Survivors include his wife of 52 years, Mimi McEwen Hodsoll of Falls Church; two children, Francis Hodsoll of Reston, Va., and Lisa Hodsoll of Falls Church; a sister; and two grandchildren.

Mr. Hodsolls opportunity to attend the Academy Awards and accept an Oscar was an unusual privilege of government work. He recalled that he was introduced by Glenn Close and that Gregory Peck offered him tips on how to prevent his Oscar statuette from tarnishing.
Each week, the Lincoln Journal Star will bring you a list of the upcoming holidays dedicated to the foods we eat -- or need to try.

Here's the holiday fare for July 27-Aug. 2

July 27: National Scotch Day. Single malt or blended, this day of Scotch whisky is frequently celebrated with tasting parties. Single malt Scotch whisky is made from 100 percent malted barley, blended (which accounts for 90 percent of Scotch whiskies sold) are a mix of single malts and grain whiskies. And the whisky in Scotch whisky is always spelled without an e according to Foodimentary.com.

July 28: National Milk Chocolate Day. Americans eat 2.8 billion pounds of candy per year -- of that 50 percent is chocolate. Chocolate comes from the Aztec word, Xocolatl, which means bitter water. U.S. chocolate manufacturers use about 3.5 million pounds of whole milk every day to make milk chocolate, according to Random House. According to the Food Network, one chocolate chip can give a person enough energy to walk 150 feet.

July 29: National Lasagna Day. In Italy the plural form of lasagna -- lasagne -- is always used when referring to this dish. In fact, the word literally refers to the pot in which it was cooked, rather than the food -- which may have been derived from lasanon, the Greek word for chamber pot.

July 30: National Cheesecake Day. Technically speaking, cheesecake is not a cake, but a baked cheese custard pie with a crust. It is believed that cheesecakes were served to athletes competing during the first Olympic games in 776 B.C. to give them energy, according to mobile-cuisine.com. Americans so love their cheesecake that five cheesecake holidays are celebrated each year -- the next one is National Pumpkin Cheesecake Day on Oct. 21.

July 31: National Cotton Candy Day. Originally called fairy floss, the worlds first machine-spun cotton candy was invented in 1897 by Dr. William Morrison, a dentist, and John C. Wharton, a confectioner, and introduced at the 1904 Worlds Fair. The treat is made by heating and liquefying sugar and spinning it out through minute holes, where it re-solidifies in extremely thin strands of "sugar glass." Sugar is the only ingredient, and its primarily made up of air.

Aug. 1: National Raspberry Cream Pie Day. Raspberries, like strawberries, belong to the rose family. There are more than 200 species of raspberries coming in colors of red, black, yellow and purple. Raspberries produce more fiber per calorie than any common fruit -- even prunes, according to Foodimentary.com.

Aug. 2: National Ice Cream Sandwich Day. The original cream sandwich was created in 1899 by an unknown pushcart peddler in the Bowery neighborhood of New York City, who put vanilla ice cream between two thin graham wafers. The sandwich sold for one cent, according to Jeri Quinzio's book "Snow and Ice: the History of Ice Cream Making." Today, the ice cream sandwich is most popular among the 30- to 44-year-old crowd, and on the East Coast where more than 50 percent of all ice cream sandwiches are consumed.
GERMANY

ISIS: Suicide bomber was former fighter

The Islamic State claimed on Wednesday that a suicide bomber who struck a southern German city had been an active fighter with the extremist group in the Middle East and had drawn on his expertise with explosives to craft the device.

The militants al-Nabaa newsletter published an obituary of the assailant, a Syrian asylum seeker who arrived in Germany in 2014 under the name Mohammed Daleel.

The obituary  a gesture the Islamic State generally reserves for prominent figures  claimed that the 27-year-old Daleel had regular contact with an operative of the organization in the months before the Sunday attack.

But it also suggested that Daleel had personally devised and orchestrated the bombing, which left him dead and 15 people wounded.

The claims contrasted with initial police theories that he was probably a self-radicalized figure influenced by militant propaganda.

Orthodox believers and clergymen march to prayer in downtown Kiev, Ukraine, Wednesday. (Efrem Lukatsky/AP)

The Islamic State also said that German police had almost foiled Daleels plot. They missed the bomb during a search of the refugee center he was staying in, it said, because he hid it quickly before they entered.

Bavarian Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann said investigators poring over the attackers cellphone found evidence that Daleel was in contact with someone in an online chat room immediately before Sundays blast in Ansbach.

Apparently, there has been a direct contact with someone, who decisively influenced the attack, Herrmann told the Deutsche Presse-Agentur news agency.

He said it was not clear whether the chat had been with a member of the Islamic State.

 Anthony Faiola

ARMENIA

Paramedics taken hostage in standoff

Gunmen who have been barricaded in a police station in the Armenian capital for 10 days took members of an ambulance crew hostage on Wednesday after they came in to treat those wounded in an exchange of fire with officers, police said.

The group seized the police post in Yerevan on July 17, killing one officer, wounding others and taking those remaining hostage to demand freedom for a jailed opposition figure. The last of those hostages were released Saturday.

A child cools off with water at a makeshift camp for migrants in Horgos, Serbia, meters away from Serbia's border with Hungary, Wednesday. (Darko Vojinovic/AP)

After an exchange of fire before dawn Wednesday, two of the gunmen surrendered and one police officer and two gunmen were taken to hospitals with gunshot wounds. More than 20 gunmen are thought to remain in the police station.

A police spokesman said the gunmen took several paramedics hostage after they were called in to treat the wounded.

An anti-government protest held outside the station on Wednesday ended with the detentions of about 300 people

 Associated Press

Flood, landslides kill 54 in Nepal: Floods and landslides triggered by monsoon rains in Nepal have killed 54 people over the past two days, an official said. At least 20 people are missing, said Yadav Prasad Koirala, a spokesman for the Home Ministry. The government has launched rescue and relief operations in 14 affected districts, he said. Hundreds of people have been displaced after swollen rivers breached their banks and flooded homes.

Attacks kill 18 in Iraq: Militants unleashed attacks in and around Baghdad, killing at least 18 people, officials said. Meanwhile, south of the Iraqi capital, the Babil provincial council approved a decision allowing authorities to demolish homes of convicted militants and banish their families from the province. Its the first such decision in Iraq since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion. The decision will apply only to convicted militants who have exhausted all possibilities of appealing their convictions.

Iran to hold presidential vote in May: Irans Interior Ministry said a constitutional watchdog had approved the countrys presidential election for May 2017. The official Islamic Republic News Agency quoted a ministry spokesman as saying that the Guardian Council has approved May 19 as the election day.

Council rules former Romanian leader plagiarized thesis: Former Romanian prime minister Victor Ponta will be stripped of his doctorate after a council upheld a verdict that he plagiarized his thesis. The science magazine Nature reported in 2012 that more than half of Pontas 432-page thesis, written in 2004 on the International Criminal Court, was plagiarized from the work of two Romanian law scholars. Ponta denied wrongdoing but conceded he had not always named sources in his footnotes.

 From news services
What Donald Trump is doing on the campaign trail

What Donald Trump is doing on the campaign trail

Donald Trump never met a conspiracy theory he didnt like  until now.

He has dabbled in, among other things, the notion that President Obama is a Muslim born in Kenya, that Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia was murdered and that Ted Cruzs father was involved in the JFK assassination.

But on one topic, Trump is conspicuously incurious: the suggestion that he is complicit in a plan by Vladimir Putin to influence the U.S. election. Consider how Trump might react to the following fact pattern if the candidate involved werent Donald Trump but  lets pick a name at random here  Hillary Clinton:

The candidates real estate empire, unable to borrow from most U.S. banks, gets capital from Russian sources. Such transfers couldnt occur without Putins blessing.

The candidates campaign manager, Paul Manafort, has worked extensively for pro-Putin oligarchs.

One of the candidates foreign policy advisers, Michael Flynn, was filmed sitting with Putin at a Moscow banquet celebrating a Russian propaganda network.

Another adviser, Carter Page, has close ties to Gazprom, the Russian energy company under Putins thumb.

One of the only interferences the campaign made in the Republican platform was to remove language calling for providing lethal defensive weapons to Ukraine in its fight against Russian-backed separatists.

The candidate cast doubt on the utility of NATO and said he might not come to the aid of Baltic members of the alliance attacked by Russia.

Putin has aimed to destabilize rival powers by supporting extremist parties in several European countries. His state news outlets have been heavily supportive of the candidate.

The Russian ambassador to the United States attended a campaign speech by the candidate, and Putin described the candidate as talented. The candidate said he was honored.

The Post's Ellen Nakashima goes over the events, and discusses the two hacker groups responsible. (Jhaan Elker/The Washington Post)

Russian intelligence hacked the Democratic National Committee and, experts say, handed the emails to WikiLeaks for release on the eve of the Democratic convention. Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus declared: I think that they ought to be prepared for more excitement in the email world this week.

How would he know?

If the Clinton campaign, and not the Trump campaign, were so extensively interwoven with Putins Russia, its a safe bet that Trump would be demanding that Clinton release her tax returns to prove that shes not beholden to Putin  just as he demanded Obama release his birth certificate.

He would also very likely float allegations masquerading as questions by using the phrases a lot of people have said or Im hearing, or theres something we dont know about. But Trump, Im hearing, wont be doing that in this case. So lets help him. The following are all phrases Trump has used to float conspiracy theories  but this time applied to his Putin ties  combined with wild Trump-style speculation.

A lot of people have said Putin is trying to get Trump elected so he can blackmail the American president. Somebody told me Trump would completely go out of business if Putin took back all the Russian money he let Trump have. I dont know exactly whats going on, but I just heard Trumps airplane would be grounded immediately.

Manafort helping the oligarchs? Flynn having dinner with Putin? Page getting money from Gazprom? No coincidence! Now its coming out that Putin wants to destabilize America. Theres something fishy about the whole thing.

And why did Trump propose changing NATO and Ukraine policy in ways that would benefit Putin? Obviously some people think its evil intentions. I think its incompetence. Regardless, a lot of people think its evil intentions.

I dont bring up the possibility that Trump has already been bribed or blackmailed by Putin because I dont know enough to really discuss it. I will say there are people who continue to bring it up because they think it was absolutely bribery and blackmail. I dont do that because I dont think its fair.

Im hearing its a big topic, the question of whether Trump is guilty of treason. Im not sure. I mean, let people make their own determination. Trump never denied that Putin was his patron.

He cannot give us his tax returns. He didnt pay his taxes, or, if he did, theres something in those returns that is very bad for him. Now, somebody told me  and I have no idea whether this is bad for him or not, but perhaps it would be  that he owes billions to Putin. Somebody said, Maybe thats the reason he doesnt want to show his returns. I dont think so. I just dont think he paid his taxes.

Why is Trump so emphatic about not talking about his Putin connections? He gets it better than anybody understands. Theres something going on. Theres something we dont know about. I dont know. All I know is whats on the Internet. Wow!

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If political conventions tell us anything beyond the predictable, the one held last week in Cleveland and the other going on this week in Philadelphia pose contrasts so stark that one wonders whether the two groups hail from the same country. Hint: One of them didnt present a diverse cross section of America.

Whereas Clevelands arena was a relatively sparsely populated panorama of predominantly pale faces animated by anger, Philadelphias is a teeming, multicolored mass of (mostly) joyous celebration. In starkest contrast, Sen. Bernie Sanders (Vt.), unlike Republican runner-up Sen. Ted Cruz (Tex.), handed the baton and a passionate endorsement to his partys nominee.

The Democratic convention managed to wrestle unity from the Sanders crowd, while Republicans left their gathering as divided as ever. Not even the storied email scandal  regarding the hacked Democratic National Committee files released on convention eve, not those on Clintons private server  muted the enthusiasm of delegates.

On opening night, a series of speakers carefully culled from the trove of Democratic demographics related personal stories that were lovely and touching, if at times it felt like a group therapy session. Then along came comedian Sarah Silverman, who broke the spell with a little reality therapy, telling the Bernie-or-bust crowd, Youre being ridiculous.

Comedian Sarah Silverman told Bernie Sanders supporters who refuse to back Hillary Clinton that they are being ridiculous during her speech at the Democratic National Convention July 25. (The Washington Post)

Did she just say that?

This is what passes for scandal when banal DNC emails make one yearn for the days of gloved burglars with flashlights. Even speculation about Russian intelligence being behind the hack and trying to influence the outcome of the presidential election (really?) pales next to the flesh-and-blood drama of Watergate.

The Russian conspiracy theories, loosely posited by the Clinton campaign and others, go something like this:

Donald Trump has expressed admiration of Vladimir Putin. Trump has recently turned more pro-Russia, suggesting that he wouldnt interfere with Russian aggression if NATO members didnt pay their fair share for their defense. Oh, and Trump has refused to release tax returns. Might they reveal business associations with certain Russian parties?

Then, too, the hackers, who did not breach the Republican National Committee, according to the FBI, could just be messing around.

Either the Russians have no interest in what Republicans chat about or they dont need to spy because (cue the Bourne Identity soundtrack) Trump and Putin are already in constant contact. Actually, rumor has it that Trumps hairdo conceals a chip that feeds his thoughts directly into a computer in an underground silo in remotest Kamchatka, where analysts celebrate the coming New Russian Empire with shots of Trump Vodka.

But I digress.

After Silverman, who was paired with the formerly funny Sen. Al Franken (Minn.), came a series of heavy hitters, including Sens. Cory Booker (N.J.), Elizabeth Warren (Mass.) and Sanders, with affirming and unifying messages. First lady Michelle Obama, who stole the show, was gracious as she serially insulted Trump without once mentioning his name  the ultimate putdown.

Contrast this with the direct, full-frontal, name-calling insult-a-thon that has been the Trump campaign. Even winning the nomination failed to improve his mood or personality. Winning has always been Trumps endgame, so why wasnt he happy?

Theres no reason to imagine that the first woman ever to be nominated to the presidency will maintain a grim expression as Trump did following his nomination. He obviously made a decision to forgo the victors grin and instead bear the countenance of a general about to enter war. Happy warrior isnt in his repertoire.

Whatever ones political persuasion, objectively, the future belongs to the party that reflects the nation it aspires to lead. This would not be the party whose platform, though not binding, seeks to undo many of the rights  reproductive choice and same-sex marriage  that most Americans find acceptable.

The math simply doesnt support a viable Republican Party without a long period of reconstruction after the Trump demolition. This is true whether Trump wins or loses.

In the meantime, sentient Americans arent the only ones worried about what comes next. On Tuesday, I moderated a panel before an international audience hosted by the National Democratic Institute. A woman from Africa summarized the sentiments of the larger group with her question. Noting that people around the world depend on the United States to be the shining light for all, she asked: Who is the best to provide the moral leadership of America?

The world awaits our answer.

Read more from Kathleen Parkers archive, follow her on Twitter or find her on Facebook.
In a bizarre turn of fate, the diehard supporters of Fidel Castros left-wing ideology seem to be fighting their last battle in Venezuela, as the frustrated, hungry population there pushes for democracy and change.

The political stalemate in Venezuela continued this week as the National Election Council, under pressure from the leftist government, failed to meet a Tuesday deadline to act on an opposition demand for a recall referendum this year that could replace President Nicolas Maduro. Though the required number of signatures appeared to have been collected, the council postponed a decision until Monday .

U.S. officials fear a disintegration of the current, delicate political situation. The Venezuelan government Tuesday called for the abolition of the opposition coalition, known as the MUD, which controls the countrys parliament. The government accused the opposition of massive fraud in the push for a recall vote  an allegation that Venezuelan opposition leaders and U.S. officials both dismiss. U.S. officials fear that the governments attempt to ban dissent could provoke counter-demonstrations and a crackdown in the streets.

The governments latest foot-dragging tactics are a sad illustration of the paralysis and decline that have afflicted the country since the revolution symbolized by the late Hugo Chavez ran out of gas after his death in 2013. It has sputtered along under his successor Maduro, propped up by aging Cuban leftists and their Venezuelan allies. But even Cuba has now partly defected, embracing the resumption of relations with the United States  leaving Venezuela with a collapsing economy, desperate food shortages, a corrupt government and a bitterly polarized political elite.

U.S. policy has been to work with other Latin American countries to nudge Venezuela toward the new leadership that a majority of the population now seems to want. The United States has operated through Latin organizations to isolate Maduro and his ruling group. Luis Almagro, secretary general of the Organization of American States, courageously took the lead in May when he issued a carefully documented report on the abuses of Maduros government and proposed revoking Venezuelas membership in the OAS. Secretary of State John F. Kerry endorsed Almagros stand in June.

U.S. officials this week discussed the next step in this isolation campaign, which would be to suspend Venezuela from the Latin American trading bloc known as Mercosur, which includes Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay. Maduro was scheduled to take the rotating presidency of the group this summer from Uruguay. But at the urging of Paraguay (with quiet U.S. support), that handover has been blocked.

The United States is also weighing sanctions that would restrict the travel and foreign banking of some top officials of the Maduro regime. Law-enforcement sources also disclose that sealed indictments have been handed up in U.S. federal courts naming nearly a dozen prominent Venezuelans allegedly implicated in drug-trafficking cases. U.S. officials say they intend to play these cards carefully  worrying that they could trigger even more disorder within the battered country.

The challenge for the Obama administration has been to help Venezuelans achieve change without making the United States the issue. This reticent strategy has been aided by the increasing willingness of the regions giants, Brazil and Argentina, to resist Maduros pressure. The Vatican has also endorsed a mediation mission, which has tentative support from Maduro. Thats one ray of hope in the embattled country, according to Venezuelan opposition sources.

The role of the military will be crucial in maintaining order. The majority of the military is prepared to stand with the parliamentary opposition, according to retired Maj. Gen. Hebert Garcia Plaza, a former member of Maduros cabinet who left in 2014 and has been accused of corruption by the regime. He says that the Venezuelan minister of defense, Gen. Vladimir Padrino Lopez, is seeking to prevent further deterioration of law and order.

The greatest danger to Venezuelan security, Garcia Plaza said in an interview, is a network of militias inside the country that back the most hard-line elements of Maduros government. Garcia Plaza shared with me documents showing that some of these militias were created years ago by Chavez himself, with the backing of Cuban Fidelistas, as a strategy to protect the regime from the kind of change movement that has now arisen.

Venezuela doesnt get much attention in the U.S. media . But stay tuned next week when the final confrontation may come over Maduros recall.

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Philippine Marines deployed on the Philippine Navy ship LT 57 Sierra Madre practice the "relieving the watch" ceremony near Second Thomas Shoal in the South China Sea. (Bullit Marquez/Associated Press)

China suffered a significant setback this month in its bid for dominance in the South China Sea, and its leaders are following a familiar script after such reversals: Theyre making angry statements but taking little action while they assess the situation.

The United States is playing a characteristic role in such a flare-up, too. Rather than crowing about victory, its trying to talk Chinese leaders off the ledge before they do something rash. The chief hand-holder in this case has been national security adviser Susan Rice, who said in a blog post Tuesday after a visit to Beijing that she had urged Chinese leaders to manage our significant differences constructively.

I reiterated that our overriding interest is the peaceful resolution of conflicts and sustaining the rules-based international order, Rice wrote. This rules-based order was precisely what Beijing had been challenging in its recent moves to seize territory in disputed waters.

The rebuke to China came in a ruling July 12 by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague that shredded Chinas territorial claims in the South China Sea. The case had been brought by the Philippines, and it challenged Chinas assertion of sovereignty within what Beijing calls the nine-dash line. The panel held unanimously that there was no legal basis for these claims.

The fact that it went against China was not a surprise, but the degree to which it went so comprehensively against them was, said Christopher Johnson, a leading China analyst with the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

The Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague ruled that China does not have historic rights to justify its expansive claims. The verdict, which strongly favored the Philippines, will undermine China's claim to sovereignty under the nine-dash line it draws around most of the sea. (Simon Denyer,Jason Aldag/The Washington Post / Satellite photos courtesy of CSIS)

Kurt Campbell, who was the State Departments top Asia expert in the Obama administrations first term, agreed that the arbitration ruling was clear as a ringing bell. Although the Chinese had said beforehand that they would ignore the panel, and called the ruling trash paper, the rejection was so sweeping that the Chinese seem to have paused. The Politburo is gathering for its seaside retreat next month at Beidaihe, where leaders will assess policy before taking new steps.

The Chinese have refrained, at least initially, from one specific challenge of the ruling: U.S. officials had feared that if the Philippines case went against them, the Chinese would announce an air defense identification zone for the South China Sea, to further assert their sovereignty. The United States is said to have warned that Washington would sharply oppose such a declaration.

So far, no zone has been announced, but some U.S. analysts suspect this may partly reflect Chinas reluctance to make a decision about the scope of such an area. Claiming the entire territory within the nine-dash line as theirs would be provocative, but trimming back the sovereignty claim to something more manageable would be a loss of face. For now, it may be easier for Beijing to remain silent.

One success for China this month is that it persuaded some of its Southeast Asian allies to block a resolution affirming the arbitration panels ruling. Secretary of State John F. Kerry sought such a consensus at a meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in Laos on Monday, but he came away empty-handed. Most Southeast Asian nations strongly oppose Chinas maritime expansion in the region, but allies such as Cambodia are said to have sided with China and blocked any official endorsement of the ruling.

A senior U.S. intelligence official offered this assessment recently: The arbitration decision was, I think, huge. The news came, and [the Chinese] are doing their damnedest to get people not to say anything about it. But its out there, and theres nothing that they can do about that.

The deeper problem underlying the South China Sea dispute is the increasingly assertive nationalism of Chinese President Xi Jinping. But here, too, the Chinese appear to have taken a step back from the public anti-U.S. agitation that immediately followed the ruling. State-run media initially blamed the United States, and there were scattered demonstrations in which Chinese protesters smashed iPhones and demonstrated at KFC franchises.

One leading China analyst noted that the media agitation has eased, with some commentators even criticizing irrational anti-U.S. fervor. Thats a signal the Chinese want to cool things down  a good sign indicating that diplomacy is working behind the scenes, the analyst said.

What a contrast there is between this delicate, real-life diplomacy and the blunderbuss approach advocated by Donald Trump and other critics of China. Despite Rices calming visit, Chinese leaders know that their U.S. relationship is entering an interregnum  and that Beijing cant predict what comes next.

Read more from David Ignatiuss archive, follow him on Twitter or subscribe to his updates on Facebook.
Eugene Robinsons July 26 op-ed, Can Democrats unite and get out of their own way?, posited that supporters of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) could prove to be a stumbling block to the Democratic Partys coalescence. I was reminded of Will Rogerss quote I am not a member of any organized political party. I am a Democrat.

I was further reminded of the 2000 hanging chad election, in which the Supreme Court stunned the nation by stopping a recount of ballots in Florida. George W. Bush was awarded the election by securing 271 electoral votes (one more than the minimum). We know how well that worked out.

That action by the court serves as a reminder that at least one new justice, and perhaps more, will be named by either Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton or Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump. So it is critical that Sanders supporters get on board.

Richard S. Kochan, Washington
WHEN REPUBLICANS gathered in Cleveland last week, they adopted a platform opposing broad changes in American society and ignoring massive issues facing the country. The platform the Democrats adopted in Philadelphia this week is more mainstream and realistic, although as a governing strategy, it too would leave some major problems unaddressed and make others worse.

The Republicans embraced an agenda hostile to gays and lesbians, hard-line on immigration, opposed to rudimentary gun safety laws and skeptical about the threat of climate change. They claimed to stand for budget responsibility but endorsed tax cuts that would exacerbate the nations fiscal predicament.

The Democrats, by contrast, support same-sex marriage and would shield lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people from discrimination in employment and housing. The delegates acknowledge that climate change is real, that human activity is a cause of it and that the country must respond aggressively. The party does not oppose fracking for cleaner-burning natural gas, but favors rules to ensure gas is extracted with care for the environment. The platform calls for removing gun-sale loopholes and funding research into reducing firearm violence without trampling on Second Amendment rights. Unsurprisingly, Democrats support President Obamas legally audacious immigration executive actions, but they also call for Congress to pass comprehensive immigration reform. Rather than force the country through another disruptive and divisive health-care policy shift, the Democrats would seek to make Obamacare successful.

The Democrats propose to raise revenue to pay for new programs, mostly by raising taxes on the wealthy. But, like the Republicans, they fail to grapple with a central looming challenge: the national debt, which, on its current course, will grow and eventually overwhelm the government as the ratio of active workers to retirees diminishes. Mr. Obama acknowledged eight years ago that reform of entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare was necessary, but it did not happen and now the Democrats have made entitlement reform dirty words. In fact, they would add new entitlements, like free tuition even for well-off people who do not need the help.

Republicans stressed the importance of economic growth, but embraced few policies suggesting they know how to set the stage for that growth or govern a rapidly transforming 21st-century society. Democrats stressed the importance of achieving a more even distribution of wealth through a broad range of government interventions, but underplayed the importance of the private sector in generating the growth needed to address inequality. And the platform locks the party into a backward-looking position on trade that would harm the economy at home and U.S. leadership abroad.
Over at the CIA and the National Security Agency headquarters, they must be really enjoying watching Democrats in Philadelphia squirm over WikiLeakss exposure of tens of thousands of internal Democratic Party emails. Theres a word for what is happening in the intelligence community:

Blowback.

Throughout the entirety of the Obama administration, nothing was done as WikiLeaks damaged our national security with its serial leaks of highly classified intelligence documents.

When in 2010 WikiLeaks released more than 76,000 secret intelligence documents  exposing the identities of at least 100 Afghans who were informing on the Taliban, including the names of their villages, family members, the Taliban commanders on whom they were informing, and even GPS coordinates where they could be found, as I wrote in The Post  nothing was done.

When in 2011 WikiLeaks released a trove of classified documents it dubbed the Gitmo Files in 2011  including secret details about the CIAs enhanced interrogation program  nothing was done.

The Washington Post's Abby D. Phillip explains the circumstances around Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz's decision to resign as chair of the Democratic National Committee. (Peter Stevenson/The Washington Post)

When that same year WikiLeaks unleashed what founder Julian Assange called a thermonuclear device  its full, unredacted archive of more than a quarter-million secret U.S. diplomatic cables  nothing was done.

When in 2014 WikiLeaks released classified CIA documents exposing how CIA operatives maintain cover while traveling through airports  including guidance on how to survive secondary screening  nothing was done.

When in 2015 WikiLeaks released documents revealing that the U.S. government was spying on its allies, including listening in on the phone calls of three French presidents  nothing was done.

When in 2016 WikiLeaks published secret details of European Union military operations to intercept refugee boats traveling to Europe from the regions along the Libyan coast infested with terrorists from the Islamic State, nothing was done.

When in 2016 WikiLeaks exposed top-secret documents describing NSA intercepts of foreign government communications  including a private climate-change strategy meeting between United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin  nothing was done.

But WikiLeaks has finally crossed a red line (pun intended) that has earned it the Democrats outrage. Instead of targeting the CIA or the NSA, WikiLeaks has gone after an organization Democrats actually care about  the Democratic National Committee.

WikiLeaks has released tens of thousands of emails showing that, while presenting itself as an impartial arbiter during the primaries, the DNC was, in fact, working overtime on Hillary Clintons behalf to undermine Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). In one leaked email, DNC officials said they planned to expose Sanders as an atheist with Baptist voters in Kentucky and West Virginia. Others showed DNC staffers mocking Sanders supporters as Bernie Bros and plotting how to spin the narrative of his failure. Others reveal that the DNC and the Hillary Victory Fund apparently channeled money through state Democratic parties, perhaps in an effort to avoid contribution limits to her campaign. Other leaks include spreadsheets that appeared to match Democratic donors and fundraisers with appointments to federal boards and commissions once Clinton was elected. Still others show DNC staffers calling their donors clowns and promising to have one sitting in the [s-----est] corner I can find at a DNC event. The convention in Philadelphia has been roiled by the revelations, which caused Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) to step down as chair.

1 of 62 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad  Scenes from the third day of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia View Photos Follow along as Post photographers document the Democratic convention in Philadelphia. Caption Follow along as Post photographers document the Democratic convention in Philadelphia. July 27, 2016 President Obama embraces Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton at the end of the third day of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia. Melina Mara/The Washington Post Wait 1 second to continue.

Democrats have no one to blame but themselves for this debacle. As I pointed out in The Post on August 2010, there were many steps the Obama administration could have taken to stop WikiLeaks. It could have indicted Assange and his fellow WikiLeaks staffers and made clear that the United States will not tolerate any country  particularly NATO allies  providing them with a haven. They could have sought their extradition and  if the countries where they were hiding refused to cooperate  used existing Justice Department authorities to arrest them anywhere in the world, with or without those countries consent. They could have used the assets of U.S. Cyber Command to carry out cyberattacks on WikiLeaks servers to disrupt its ability to disseminate classified information that puts lives at risk.

But it appears that the administration has done none of these things. In 2013, The Post reported that The Justice Department has all but concluded it will not bring charges against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange for publishing classified documents because government lawyers said they could not do so without also prosecuting U.S. news organizations and journalists . . . unless he is implicated in criminal activity other than releasing online top-secret military and diplomatic documents. Seriously?

As for using our nations offensive cyber capabilities to disrupt WikiLeakss ability to disseminate classified information, that clearly has not happened. To this day, WikiLeakss entire archive of stolen classified documents remains available on its website for anyone to read.

Now Democrats are paying the price for Obamas inaction. And WikiLeaks promises there is more to come. In an interview with CNN this week, Assange said he might soon release a lot more material. That should have Democrats terrified.

Apparently, exposing intelligence sources and methods has not mattered enough for the Obama administration to do something about WikiLeaks. Maybe saving Hillary Clinton from further embarrassment, or worse, will finally spur them to action.

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In recent weeks Lincoln has been host to three premier winemakers from Piedmont, Italy, so it seems fitting to focus this column on wine from that famous wine region of the world.

Piedmont is an amazing region with beautiful mountainous and hilly terrain, much of which is committed to grape vines. It offers some of the most ideal terroir in the world for wine grape production. Piedmont is most famous for Barolo, made from nebbiolo grapes. Barolo is known as the King of wines and the wine of kings, and it fetches prices ranging from $50 to hundreds of dollars per bottle.

Piedmont is also known for Dolcetto, which means little sweet one for the sweet flavor of the grape when it comes off the vine, though the Dolcetto wine is usually dry. Dolcetto wine is typically aged in stainless steel tanks and sees no wood treatment when produced. The wine is normally considered best in its youth, to be consumed within the first four years after release. The wine tends to be fresh and approachable, and easy to pair with a wide variety of foods. Most nice Dolcettos can be found for under $25 at your local wine shop.

For this tasting I started with Virna Dolcetto D Alba, 2013, Piedmont, Italy, $18. Ruby red in the glass, the wine offers notes of fresh red fruit, cherries and violets. On the palate it is soft, clean and fresh with flavors of red raspberry, pomegranate and a hint of warm earth. The wine is approachable and easy to drink. Well made. 87 points

Next, I tried Orlando Abrigo Dolcetto D Alba, 2014, Piedmont, Italy, $19. Ruby red in the glass with subtle hints of raspberry, plums and spice on the nose. On the palate the wine is bright and lively with pleasant acidity, accentuating the flavors of raspberry, baked rhubarb and cherries. A delicious wine. 87 points

The final wine was Cascina Adelaide Dolcetto de Diano D Alba, 2013, Piedmont, Italy, $24. Ruby red in the glass with aromas of baked plum, dried red fruit and spice. Soft and plush on the palate with flavors of blackberry, currant and dark cherry. The wine is elegant and approachable. 88 points

This was an enjoyable tasting from three impressive wineries, all with different subtleties in creating wine from the same grape. Owner Simone Ortale from the Cascina Adelaide winery was in Lincoln recently and he described the modern and ecologically friendly winery where his Dolcetto is produced. Not surprisingly, his wine offers a very polished, modern style of production. On the other hand, Virna has an equally impressive but historic production facility, and its Dolcetto takes on a more old-world charm. Their wineries are right next to each other in the shadows of the castle Barolo, but the two wines are very different.

The Orlando Abrigo winery, whose owner will visit Lincoln in August, is a combination of the two, having recently built a new modern cellar, but also employing very traditional winemaking methods. All of these wineries attain great results with their winemaking.

Wine is exciting when you take a walk off the beaten path. You dont see a lot of Dolcetto in the Nebraska wine market, but it is a delicious variety that can please both the serious wine lover and those just getting started. Its an ideal wine to introduce new wine enthusiasts to the world of red wine.
The Fairfax County School Board is not retreating from its commitment to equal opportunity for all students, including transgender and gender nonconforming students, as suggested by the July 25 editorial A failure on transgender protections. Our commitment to nondiscrimination on the basis of gender identity, approved more than a year ago, remains as strong and unwavering as ever. This month, the school board received a regulation drafted by Fairfax County Public Schools staff that detailed how FCPS planned to implement the revised nondiscrimination policy. Ultimately, the board directed staff to delay implementation of the proposed regulation because more time was needed to evaluate the many legal issues associated with it, including a Virginia school districts case pending before the U.S. Supreme Court, as well as to ensure a transparent process for public review.

FCPS continues to accommodate the needs of all transgender and gender nonconforming students on a case-by-case basis. The school board welcomes community feedback on the proposed regulation. Prior to implementation or formal adoption of the regulation, the board will provide additional information and further opportunity for public comment on this important topic. Meanwhile, we continue to work to create a welcoming and caring environment for all of our students, including transgender and gender nonconforming students.

Sandy Evans, Falls Church

The writer is chair of the

Fairfax County School Board.
Columnists get complaints. After my most recent column (which argued that maybe the economy is better than we say), I got one from Alice Lang of Spartanburg, S.C. She accused me (politely) of ignoring the long-term unemployed, of which she is one. After our conversation, I asked her to put her thoughts in an email. Heres what she wrote, slightly edited. Its a powerful counterpoint for me and, I think, for readers. (Note: Lang, an advocate for the long-term unemployed, made similar complaints to a Forbes columnist in 2015.)

Dear Mr. Samuelson,

I dont think you fully understand what it is like to be a well-educated American who has been shut out of the economy. Unfortunately, there are thousands like me who have been unable to restart careers after the Great Recession and are facing frustration and despair as long-term unemployment drags on and on.

I am 54. My background includes a Masters degree in history and a Certificate in Teaching English as a second language [ESL]. I have worked as a journalist and was an ESL instructor for five years at a local college before my job was downsized in 2014 due to budget cuts. Since then, I have been unable to find full-time work, even though I have been diligently networking and applying for jobs. I currently write a monthly business column for The Spartanburg Herald-Journal (for free) about employment issues and also write contracts to try to stay solvent.

Although I agree that our economic expectations were raised during the 1990s boom, I dont think it is a false expectation for Americans to want good paying, full-time jobs. Unfortunately, many of the 14 million jobs created [since the employment low-point], which you mention in your column, are low-wage, part-time service jobs which are not what people need in order to support themselves and their families. In Spartanburg, very few white-collar jobs have been created. Instead, the new jobs are in fast-food restaurants and distribution centers, which are popping up everywhere due to our low cost of land.

Every day, I read articles from national newspapers, and I am continually dismayed and angered by journalists that accept without question the government statistics of glowing successes in job creation. Whatever happened to investigative journalism? Why arent reporters looking beyond the statistics to the thousands of real people still suffering from long-term unemployment?

The anger driving this election cycle comes from voters in financial distress. The media is misinformed when they state that only blue-collar workers and uneducated people supported the anti-establishment candidates Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump. People in the middle class, who are being pushed into poverty, also supported them.

I care deeply about long-term unemployment because I know first-hand the damage it inflicts on a persons health and well-being. I am very concerned that none of our leaders will admit to the severity of the issue. In past recessions, having a college degree gave one an edge to get back to work. This time, members of the well-educated middle class have been left on the sidelines. As one of the long-term unemployed, I can tell you that we feel voiceless and invisible.



Its hard not to be moved. But its also worth remembering that the employment situation has improved. The basic statistics are these: In June, there were nearly 2 million workers who had been unemployed for more than 27 weeks  the usual definition of long-term joblessness, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That was about a quarter of the 7.8 million unemployed. Both figures were down from their peaks. In April 2010, the long-term unemployed totaled 6.8 million, about 44 percent of the 15.3 million then unemployed. Still, the numbers are meaningless if you cant find a job.

Read more from Robert Samuelsons archive.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has been praised by Donald Trump in the past as a strong leader. (Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP)

President Obama on Tuesday waded into the controversy over the leak of Democratic National Committee emails, saying the hack of party records was characteristic of Russian government behavior and suggesting a potential motive for that country to meddle in the U.S. presidential election.

What we do know is that the Russians hack our systems, not just government systems but private systems, Obama told NBC. What the motives were in terms of the leaks, all that  I cant say directly. What I do know is that Donald Trump has repeatedly expressed admiration for Vladimir Putin.

Obamas comments align with those made Sunday by Democratic nominee Hillary Clintons campaign manager, Robby Mook, who said the Russian government was behind last weeks release of DNC documents on the website WikiLeaks as a way to help Trump.

Trump campaign officials have called the allegations absurd and a distraction from the embarrassing content of the emails, which showed top DNC officials supporting Clinton despite public pronouncements of neutrality in Clintons primary battle against Sen. Bernie Sanders (Vt.).

Trump has praised Putin in the past as a strong leader. He told the New York Times last week that he would not necessarily defend certain NATO allies from potential Russian aggression.

The Post's Ellen Nakashima goes over the events, and discusses the two hacker groups responsible. (Jhaan Elker/The Washington Post)

Trump also has sought for years to extend his real estate empire into Moscow. He has not succeeded at that, but his son, Donald Trump Jr., once said that Russians make up a pretty disproportionate cross-section of a lot of our assets.

Obamas comments came as party officials gathered in Philadelphia for this weeks Democratic National Convention continued to fret about the leaked emails. The Washington Post reported last month that the DNC had been broken into twice by hackers linked to Russia.

The FBI, which has been investigating the DNC hacks for months, formally announced this week that it was investigating the matter.

Also Tuesday, Secretary of State John F. Kerry said he raised the issued during a private meeting with his Russian counterpart, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. The exchange took place during a meeting of ASEAN nation foreign ministers. Kerry told reporters afterward that he, too, has no clear answers.

The FBI has responsibility for this investigation and well let them speak as they proceed forward gathering those facts, he said.

The fallout of the leaks continued to hover over this weeks events in Philadelphia.

Sanders on Tuesday called the hack an issue of concern.

1 of 60 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad  Scenes from the second day of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia View Photos Follow along as Post photographers document the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia. Caption Follow along as Post photographers document the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia. July 26, 2016 Former president Bill Clinton takes the stage to address the convention. Ricky Carioti/The Washington Post Wait 1 second to continue.

Its a growing issue that we have foreign bodies or other entities hacking into important institutions in this country and thats the whole issue of cybersecurity, which is something as a nation weve got to pay a whole lot of attention to, he said.

Sanders did not repeat the Clinton campaigns allegations of a direct connection between the leaks and a desire to help Trumps campaign. But he did point to Trumps past positive comments about Putin.

I found it interesting that a candidate for president of the United States would be praising Mr. Putin who is, I think most people know, has moved Russia into a more authoritarian state, Sanders said. . . . And that you would have a candidate for president of the United States talking about what a good job Mr. Putin is doing? No. It should raise some concerns among the American people.

In recent days, a Kremlin media spokesman declined to comment on the alleged hack, referring questioners to remarks made by Donald Trump Jr., who rejected the allegations as part of a pattern by the Clinton campaign of lie after lie.

Law enforcement and intelligence officials have been focusing their inquiry on the Russian military intelligence agency, the GRU, and whether it was responsible for the leak to WikiLeaks. The GRU is one of two Russian intelligence organizations believed to be linked to one of the two hacks, according to CrowdStrike, a cyber firm that investigated the attack at the request of the DNC. Another Russian spy agency, FSB, or an affiliate had penetrated the DNC computers last summer.

The DNC and the Clinton campaign are attempting to review communications going back to that period so they can anticipate what might become public if WikiLeaks releases more documents, as promised. In addition to email communications, research files were hacked along with Internet chat sessions used by employees, according to Crowdstrike.

David Weigel, Ellen Nakashima and Carol Morello contributed to this report.
Democrats in Philadelphia reflect on the significance of nominating Hillary Clinton for president  the first time a major party has nominated a woman for the nation's highest office. (Peter Stevenson,Alice Li,Sarah Parnass,Jayne Orenstein,Nikita Mandhani,Adriana Usero/The Washington Post)

Democrats in Philadelphia reflect on the significance of nominating Hillary Clinton for president  the first time a major party has nominated a woman for the nation's highest office. (Peter Stevenson,Alice Li,Sarah Parnass,Jayne Orenstein,Nikita Mandhani,Adriana Usero/The Washington Post)

Within hours, Virginia Webb would stand with the rest of the Georgia delegation here at Wells Fargo Center on Tuesday and vote for the first woman ever to head a major partys presidential ticket.

But her thoughts would be with another woman, one who had fought to put her here, and one who did not live to see it happen.

My grandmother was a suffragette, said Webb, 59, who evoked that era with a white HILLARY FOR AMERICA sash across her frilly blue dress. She made history 96 years ago, marching for a womans right to vote, and now we have the first woman for president.

Or at least the first one who has a strong chance of reaching the Oval Office.

Milestones of history can look smaller through a windshield than they do through a rear-view mirror. That is especially true if the road has been long and winding and it is not clear what lies around the next turn.

1 of 60 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad  Scenes from the second day of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia View Photos Follow along as Post photographers document the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia. Caption Follow along as Post photographers document the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia. July 26, 2016 Former president Bill Clinton takes the stage to address the convention. Ricky Carioti/The Washington Post Wait 1 second to continue.

Because of Hillary Clinton, my daughters and all our sons and daughters now take for granted that a woman can be president of the United States, first lady Michelle Obama had said the night before, in her address to the Democratic National Convention.

That it no longer seems like such a big deal speaks to the fact that Clinton herself was slow to embrace the singular nature of her first White House campaign. Never before 2008 had a woman won so much as a single state in a major partys presidential primary.

[Clinton captures historic nomination]

But that seemed only an asterisk compared with the prospect of electing an African American as president. So she played up her experience and seasoning in a campaign that seemed almost genderless  practically right up to the concession speech in which she declared that she and her supporters had put 18 million cracks in that highest, hardest glass ceiling.

In this contest, maybe different in 2016 than it was in 2008, she has embraced the nature, the historic nature of her candidacy, and it is a sign that there has been progress, John Podesta, Clintons campaign chairman, said Tuesday.

I think she has reflected upon that, he added at a breakfast that was hosted by Bloomberg Politics. She is not asking anybody to vote for her because she is a woman, but I think she brings that unique sense of history.

[From spouse to senator: The evolution of Hillary Clinton, politician]

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) made a motion to suspend the rules and declare Hillary Clinton the official Democratic presidential nominee on the second day of the Democratic convention July 26. (The Washington Post)

At a time when everything about politics seems brutal and bitter, Clintons nomination offers many in her party a chance to remember the sweetness they felt eight years ago.

At the convention in 2008, it was an extraordinary experience to see an African American man with the name Barack Obama be nominated  I had to pinch myself, said Estela Vazquez, 68, a member of the New York delegation. And the possibility of electing the first woman president  its extraordinary.

And lagging behind the rest of the world, added Vazquez, who is from the Dominican Republic.

For my granddaughters  and when my great-granddaughters are born  theyll have the ability to aspire to something like that, she said. In other Latin American countries, it has been done.

Indeed, Chile elected Michelle Bachelet in 2005. Since then, in a region known for its machismo, Argentina, Brazil and Costa Rica have all had female presidents as well.

Whether and how her gender will be an electoral advantage for Clinton remain to be seen. Her Republican opponent, Donald Trump, has accused her of playing the woman card, and he has said she would be at 5 percent in the polls if she had a Y chromosome.

But polling suggests that Americans are, as the first lady suggested, almost blase at a moment they have seen coming for such a long time.

The latest of those surveys was taken in July by CBS News and the New York Times. It found 30 percent saying the fact Clinton is a woman helps her as a candidate, 14 percent saying it hurts her and 56 percent saying it makes no difference.

Last year, The Washington Post and the Kaiser Family Foundation asked in a survey whether women thought electing other women was important to improving all of their lives. Only 38 percent called it a top priority  which ranked well below other concerns, including increasing access to affordable child care (70 percent), reducing domestic violence (84 percent) and improving womens health care (66 percent).

There is also the fact that Clinton herself has been part of the nations consciousness for so long, as first lady, a senator from New York and secretary of state. Often stilted as a politician, she remains a divisive figure and one whose character most Americans say they mistrust.

[Only the Clintons: Why Bills speech tonight will be unlike anything weve ever seen]

The wounds of the bitter primary season also have not healed.

Retired electrician Lahoma Buckley, 66, and her friend Kathy Adair, 64, a retired retail worker, plan to vote for a woman this fall  Jill Stein, the Green Party nominee.

The Michigan women, who had supported Sen. Bernie Sanders (Vt.), attended a Bernie or Bust rally in a public square here Tuesday.

Shes the wrong woman, Buckley said of Clinton. I dont like her and I dont like her positions and I think shes corrupt.

For some, the real test of the significance of Clintons nomination is whether it will encourage other women to run  and voters to elect them.

Documentary filmmaker Alexandra Pelosi recalled how her mother, Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), was demonized and caricatured when she became the first female speaker of the House in 2007.

Its so much worse for women, Alexandra Pelosi said. I was always worried that women who saw what happened to my mother would be discouraged. Yet she also noted that many young women now throng to her mom to take selfies.

Perhaps no one else in the convention hall had quite the perspective of Jerry Emmett, who, at 102, can recall her elation the first time she saw her mother, Winnie, cast a ballot.

Im crying, and I never cry, Emmett said of Clinton. She deserves it so much. She has been so good and such an example that we can do anything.

As the momentous day came to a close, the first female major-party nominee appeared by video on a giant screen in the hall  at the end of a slideshow of the 44 men she hopes to succeed as president, and to the sound of shattering glass.

If there are any little girls out there who stayed up late to watch, let me just say: I may become the first woman president, Clinton said, but one of you is next.

Joel Achenbach, Scott Clement, Kayla Epstein, Ed OKeefe, Lois Romano, Robert Samuels and Vanessa Williams contributed to this report.
Over profanities about the Democratic Party on Tuesday, a chant rang out across a downtown plaza: Jill, not Hill!

And then, from behind a 30-foot bronze sculpture that goes by the title Government of the People, the woman herself emerged: Jill Stein, the presumptive presidential nominee of the Green Party and the final frontier for loyalists of Bernie Sanders who refuse to vote for Hillary Clinton.

Her index finger pressed to her thumb, Stein prosecuted the case against both major political parties, saying it was impossible to have a revolutionary movement within a counterrevolutionary party. She accused Clinton, who later in the day became the Democratic presidential nominee, of backstabbing Sanders  and she beckoned to his angry supporters with a promise of salvation: My campaign is here.

Stein, 66, a physician-turned-political activist, is trying to seize on Democratic divisions that flared as the convention began, to lure liberals who feel abandoned now that Sanders has officially lost, leaving them without a preferred candidate. On the streets of Philadelphia this week, Stein has been, in effect, shadowing the Sanders backers, creating a buzz among some here that she offers a credible alternative for those who want to vote but cant stand the thought of siding with Clinton or Republican Donald Trump.

Thats exactly what worries many Democrats here. In Stein, they are starting to have flashbacks to 2000, when Ralph Nader ran an insurgency from the left that many still blame for costing Al Gore the election.

On the second night of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, delegates supporting Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-Vt.) walked out in protest, despite Sanders's calls for unity within the party. (Peter Stevenson,Adriana Usero,Dalton Bennett,David Bruns,Jayne Orenstein,Alice Li/The Washington Post)

Im sure shes a great person, but I cant see how the effort can lead to anything but helping Trump, said Rep. Keith Ellison (Minn.), who had been one of Sanderss most high-profile supporters but is now urging the party to unify behind Clinton. Trump is such a clear and present danger to the republic that weve got to get behind the candidate who gives us the best chance of defeating Trump.

Stein said Tuesday that shes not worried about shouldering the blame if Clinton loses in November.

I am very worried about whether Donald Trump gets elected or whether Hillary Clinton gets elected, she told reporters.

She said that she hasnt spoken with Sanders, and that she continues to urge him to get in touch, adding that Clintons campaign probably is not interested in talking to us.

A two-time Harvard graduate from Lexington, Mass., Stein practiced internal medicine for 27 years before turning to political activism full time, focusing on environmental and health issues in particular. She entered numerous political races in Massachusetts, and was elected to a local town seat in Lexington in 2005. She made her first bid for the White House in 2012, as the Green Partys candidate, and netted less than 1 percent of the vote.

Her running mate in that campaign, Cheri Honkala, said Stein saw herself as jump-starting a movement for political independence, and didnt care about their impossible odds.

Stein is an evangelist of healthful eating, said Honkala, recalling that her clearest image of her former running mate is with blueberries stuck between her teeth.

1 of 60 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad  Scenes from the second day of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia View Photos Follow along as Post photographers document the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia. Caption Follow along as Post photographers document the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia. July 26, 2016 Former president Bill Clinton takes the stage to address the convention. Ricky Carioti/The Washington Post Wait 1 second to continue.

Stein is expected to name a No. 2 as the Green Party convention approaches in August.

She may not do much better in 2016, political scientists predicted.

In addition to the structural obstacles faced by third parties, Clinton has moved decisively to the left, said Lawrence Jacobs, a political scientist at the University of Minnesota. Less concerned about losing centrist voters to Trump, Jacobs said, Clinton made concessions to fend off Sanderss insurgent campaign and then, more recently, to ensure that he would endorse her. This blunts Steins appeal, he said.

Shes trying to swim upstream even though theres a Hoover Dam in front of her and its just been reinforced with a second Hoover Dam, he said.

And yet Hans Noel, a political scientist at Georgetown University, warned that minor support nationwide may not prevent her from tipping the balance in a swing state, as Nader did in Florida in 2000.

A July Washington Post-ABC News poll found that 14 percent of registered voters said they would seriously consider a third-party candidate but that only 2 percent specifically named Stein. When voters in the same survey were presented with named options  Clinton, Trump, Stein, and libertarian Gary Johnson  Stein received 5 percent support, to Johnsons 8 percent.

Several Sanders supporters said they would back Steins candidacy as an alternative, pledging Never Hillary. Julie Tyler, an independent contractor for Toyota in Los Angeles, said it wont be Steins fault if the votes she draws hand the election to Trump.

It will be the Democratic Partys fault for picking a bad candidate, she said.

But others were more cautious about abandoning the Democrats, even though their candidate didnt end up as the standard-bearer. They said Clinton must convince them over the next three months that she believes in the platform that arose from negotiations with the Sanders campaign and is prepared to carry out its mandates.

Im a Democrat, but the Democrats have seriously underestimated the ire of their own voters, said Christopher Fury, a Virginia delegate. He said that he wont organize for Clinton, but that she still has time to win his vote. Nobody that I know likes Donald Trump. Some people, however, are willing to let it burn a bit, and I mean b-u-r-n, not b-e-r-n.

Ruth Ross, another Sanders supporter in the Virginia delegation, said that Steins platform is attractive to her but that she fears that a vote for her would risk a Trump presidency. And that outcome, said Martha Allen, a New Hampshire delegate, would undermine Sanderss influence in the Senate, which none of his supporters should want.
Anyone who went to both conventions, racing from the shores of Lake Erie to the banks of the Delaware with only a couple of days in between, may be suffering from ideological and tonal whiplash.



Trump addresses the Republican National Convention on July 21. (Michael Robinson-Chavez/The Washington Post)

The Republicans convened last week in a country under siege, imperiled by terrorists, illegal immigrants, criminals and, most ominously, Hillary Clinton. Donald Trump in Cleveland said he would be the law-and-order president and then said it again, and then said it a third time on the off chance anyone missed the concept.



Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) speaks in Philadelphia on July 25. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)

The Democrats have gathered here this week in a still-great, still-hopeful country  but one in desperate need of more love, empathy, justice and equality. That softer tone has emphasized diversity, togetherness and caring. Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), a keynote speaker, used the word love 10 times Monday night. Booker said, We are called to be a nation of love.

Wednesdays rhetoric was set to toughen up as the party turned to national security, and the speakers, including President Obama, police officers and former CIA director and Pentagon chief Leon E. Panetta, were to cast Clinton as a cool head and a fighter who is fully qualified to be commander in chief. But for the first two days, the Democrats assiduously positioned themselves as the nurturing party.

Between the convention cities of Cleveland and Philadelphia is an America distressed by job losses but also running on hope fueled by new immigrants. (Lee Powell/The Washington Post)

The contrasting tones carry political risks for each party in what has been a violent and chaotic summer, with terrorist attacks at home and abroad. The Republicans are the party of change this time, led by an insurgent outsider who has never held elected office and says America is in a moment of crisis. The Democratic establishment, fully in command here if not always in control, is banking that the public is not eager for a Trump-scale disruption of American political life.

The strategists want to send a message to the public: We hear you. We know how you feel. Beyond the presidential race, there is a battle for both chambers of Congress and numerous state and local contests; these conventions are golden opportunities for the parties to make an emotional connection with voters.

Michelle Obama used the words kids or children or referenced her daughters or the role of parents 39 times in her much-lauded prime-time speech Monday.



Lauren Manning, a survivor of 9/11, speaks at Wells Fargo Center on July 26. (Saul Loeb/Agence France-Presse via Getty Images)

One of the most effective speeches came Tuesday night, when Lauren Manning, who suffered burns over 82 percent of her body during the 9/11 terrorist attack in New York, spoke of being visited in her hospital room by Clinton, then a senator: She took my bandaged hand into her own.

Certainly fear is a strong motivator, but I think hope and love is a better plan, said Wisconsin Democratic delegate Karla Stoebig, 33, an aspiring veterinarian who stood in her delegation on the convention floor.

Our platform is inclusive to all kinds of people, without the divisive, hate-filled rhetoric we saw at the Republican convention, said Crystal Miller, 35, a beauty adviser in Wisconsin  and, like Stoebig, wearing a cheesehead hat.

Walking past Philadelphia City Hall earlier in the day, Carl Levin, the retired six-term Democratic senator from Michigan, and his brother Sander M., a 17-term congressman also of Michigan, paused on the sidewalk to ponder the difference in tone between the conventions.

His speech was the worst speech in terms of tone, Carl Levin said of Trump. Its obviously an ego speech, and I think thats not going to work for him.

There is an autocratic streak in Donald Trump, his brother said.

And that has never appealed to Americans, Carl Levin said.

Instead of love, its narcissism, Sander Levin said.

Fear vs. hope may be a simplistic and coarse framing of the presidential contest, but the candidates and their strategists have made that unavoidable. Some traditional issues, such as free trade, are topsy-turvy this year, with Trump taking a position to the left of Clinton. There has been little talk of taxes. Even fractious social issues such as same-sex marriage and abortion have not gotten much attention. Instead there is a sharp contrast in tone.



The skyline of downtown Cleveland is reflected on the windows of the convention center. (Eva Hambach/Agence France-Presse via Getty Images)

Some of the differences between the two conventions have been structural and geographical. The Republicans met in an arena downtown. The smaller dimensions of Cleveland, the natural perimeters created by the Cuyahoga River and Lake Erie, and the decision by locals to take the whole week off meant that downtown Cleveland became a kind of GOP bathtub, all partisans, journalists and law enforcement officers with hardly a regular 9-to-5 worker in sight.



Bernie Sanders supporters a rally at City Hall in Philadelphia on July 25. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)

The Democrats, however, have soaked into the fiber of the much larger city of Philadelphia in a more subtle fashion. The big hotels are full of delegates, and the plazas around City Hall sprout protests reliably on the hour, but the convention proper is a long, hot ride by subway, taxi or Uber down Broad Street, in an arena surrounded by parking lots and media tents.

Another obvious difference is that all the Democrats showed up here, showing off the partys diversity and attendant divisions. Many of the most distinguished Republicans, including the two most recent Republican presidents, skipped Cleveland, unwilling to associate themselves with Trump. The result was a convention comparatively heavy on testimonials from Trumps wife and children.

One common feature of both conventions: organizational missteps and unscheduled dissent. The Republicans had a plagiarism kerfuffle and then a stiff middle finger from Ted Cruz in prime time. The Democrats have had their hacked email scandal, the deposing of the party chairwoman and then a steady series of disruptions and a walkout Tuesday evening from Bernie Sanders supporters.

The Sanders partisans marched into one of the media tents, taping their mouths shut to signal their sense of being silenced. Others chanted The whole world is watching! in homage to the chant among protesters at the riotous 1968 Democratic convention in Chicago.



Bernie Sanders supporters occupy media tents at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)

One of the Bernie or Bust protesters, Werner Lange, a 69-year-old retired teacher and a Sanders delegate from Ohio, said he doubted Sanders had endorsed Clinton of his own volition: They must have gotten to him. My impression is that they threatened his family.

A hot debate soon broke out in a concourse within the arena, with the Rev. Antonio Anderson of Hope Church Philly telling Sanders partisans that they need to work to get Clinton elected. The Sanders folks vehemently disagreed, saying that she is no better than Trump and is uninspiring.

Where are the Hillary marches? one young woman asked.

Hillary dont need to march, Anderson replied, and he pointed to the interior of the arena where the pro-Clinton speeches were ongoing. Theyre in there!

Party conventions are extraconstitutional; there is nothing in the historic document written in this city in the summer of 1787 that countenances such a thing as a Democrat or a Republican, much less a nominating convention with 15,000 credentialed members of the media and associated protests and policing. So every convention is a staged event, more or less scripted, with improvisations and big moments that no one saw coming.

David Axelrod, a Democratic strategist who now is a talking head for CNN, cautioned against premature story lines coming out of the second half of July.

Conventions are like four-act plays, Axelrod said late Tuesday, and you can only measure them when the play is done.

In Cleveland, we heard a message of Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid,  said Sen. Mark R. Warner (D-Va.) as he navigated a crowded concourse at Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia. He said the more positive message from Democrats was not something carefully orchestrated by party leaders: Were Democrats; wed never be that organized.

Democrats said in interviews that they think their sunnier message will resonate with voters in November. But this is shaping up as another highly competitive White House contest. One Democratic operative who has worked on a number of campaigns and did not want to be identified because of the sensitivity of the issue, was somber as he rode the subway to the arena.

I believe love is stronger than hate, but fear wins elections, he said.
The Democratic Party tackled its biggest challenge of the election year here Tuesday night: to transform the way people think about Hillary Clinton.

Although she has been a fixture in American political life for a quarter-century  the mere mention of her first name triggers immediate reactions  the candidate and her image-makers argue that the country doesnt know the real Hillary Clinton. So they devoted the second day of the Democratic National Convention, when Clinton made history as the first woman nominated for president by a major party, by trying to reveal just that.

A parade of supporters from all walks of life  led by husband Bill Clinton, whose long, folksy telling of their love story was the evenings capstone  tried to open a window into Clintons character and motivations by sharing a medley of personal anecdotes.

Bill Clinton harked back to the spring of 1971, when he was a love-struck young man from Arkansas smitten by the brainy blonde he spotted across a law-school classroom.

Weve been walking and talking and laughing together ever since, the former president said of the woman he would marry. Weve done it in good times and bad, through joy and heartbreak. . . . We built up a lifetime of memories.

1 of 60 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad  Scenes from the second day of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia View Photos Follow along as Post photographers document the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia. Caption Follow along as Post photographers document the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia. July 26, 2016 Former president Bill Clinton takes the stage to address the convention. Ricky Carioti/The Washington Post Wait 1 second to continue.

The clear takeaway was intended to be that Hillary Clinton makes things better. She makes peoples lives better. She has made his life better.

Bill Clinton appeared to riff extemporaneously in his 42-minute speech, veering off the prepared text loaded onto teleprompters, as he traced the arc of Hillarys public service career as well as their marriage. Most of his stories were familiar ones to students of the Clintons and elicited knowing laughter from the audience in Wells Fargo Center. His remarks cast the would-be president as committed, compassionate, thoughtful, determined and genuine.

Always making things better, he said, adding: Shes the best darn change maker Ive ever met in my entire life. It was one of his favorite lines about her on the campaign trail, as evidenced by the fact that delegates on the convention floor held placards that said, Change maker.

He said the Republicans who have long demonized his wife are trying to run against a cartoon. But he told the Democratic delegates: Earlier today, you nominated the real one.

Clinton concluded with an echo of the uplifting theme of his own 1992 campaign: Weve always been about tomorrow, he said. Your children and your grandchildren will bless you if you do.

At the nights end, the jumbotron flashed a photo gallery of the nations 44 presidents, all men and all but one of them white. Then it showed Hillary Clinton breaking through what looked like a plate of glass.

Beaming in live from New York, she said, I cant believe we just put the biggest crack in that glass ceiling yet. . . . If there are any little girls out there who stayed up late to watch, let me just say: I may become the first woman president, but one of you is next.

Here is former president Bill Clinton's full speech at the 2016 Democratic National Convention. (The Washington Post)

Tuesday nights program, billed as Fights of Her Life, amounted to a reintroduction of a public figure who is nearly universally known  and widely disliked. In an effort to improve the publics view of her, speakers talked about Clintons work for women and families, social justice, health care, and global security, among other issues, as well as shared warm reflections on her as a friend.

Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, who has known the Clintons for decades, recalled Hillary playing mermaid in the pool with his daughter Sally, being the first to call to congratulate his son Jack on becoming an officer in the Marine Corps, and traveling through a blizzard to attend his fathers funeral.

Hillary is tough, McAuliffe said. Shes determined. She is an amazing mother, grandmother and wife. And I know that she loves this country more than anything.

The effort here to humanize and rewrite the narrative about Clinton is imperative in the view of her campaign strategists.

People know her, but perhaps just being the kind of figure she is in public life, sometimes its a very two-dimensional sense of who she is as a public figure and a political figure, John Podesta, her campaign chairman, told reporters Tuesday at a breakfast hosted by Bloomberg Politics.

Yet it could be argued that few figures in American life have been so scrutinized and analyzed as the former first lady, senator and secretary of state. She has written two best-selling memoirs herself, and her life has been the subject of enough books to fill a small library.

All of that has left most Americans with a distinct  and perhaps indelible  impression of how they feel about her. Were it not for Republican nominee Donald Trump, Clinton would be the most unpopular presidential nominee in modern times.

Public polls consistently show most voters do not believe Clinton is honest or trustworthy. As a campaigner, she can come off as stiff, scripted and aloof. Improving her favorability ratings and building up the trust of voters in her is essential. And failing to do so, many Democrats believe, may be the only thing that could cost her the White House.

So it was that dozens of people whose lives have intersected with Clintons took the stage here Tuesday night, one after another, giving testimonials to the Hillary they said they know. Their speeches were interspersed with a series of short, heavily-polished, biographical videos.

A partner at Cantor Fitzgerald who sustained burns on 82 percent of her body in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center: Hillary showed up, Lauren Manning said. She walked into my hospital room and she took my bandaged hand into her own. Our connection wasnt between a senator and her constituent. It was person to person.

A man who grew up in the New York foster care system, moving from home to home with a trash bag as his suitcase and who caught a break in Washington because Clinton reserved an internship slot in her Senate office for foster kids: She looked me in the eye and said, Jelani, Im proud of you, Jelani Freeman said. I felt seen and heard  for the first time in my life.

The mother of Trayvon Martin, a 17-year-old black high school student fatally shot four years ago in Florida: Hillary Clinton has the compassion and understanding to comfort a grieving mother, Sybrina Fulton said.

And a young man with a rare form of dwarfism, who first got to know Clinton when he was 7 and she was first lady: Every time I see Hillary, she remembers meaningful details about my life, Ryan Moore planned to say. She lifts my spirits.

There were more speakers and more stories. One told of Clintons time as a law student researching child abuse  beatings, burnings and neglect  at Yale New Haven Hospital; another of her trek across rural Alabama in 1972 to shed light on unlawfully segregated public schools; and yet another on her investigation of South Carolinas jails, which had been housing youths in the same prison cells as adults  research that led to juvenile justice reforms there.

Amid the tributes to Clinton, Tuesday nights speakers also took time to deliver digs at Trump. Former secretary of state Madeleine Albright asserted that the billionaire mogul has an affinity for dictators and suggested that Russian President Vladimir Putin was rooting for Trump.

The Clinton anecdotes poured onto the stage following the traditional state-by-state roll-call vote that secured for her the 2,383 required delegates and made her nomination official.

In a bid to show party unity, Sen. Bernie Sanders, the runner-up for the nomination, appeared on the convention floor with the Vermont delegation at the end of the process and made a motion to suspend the rules and declare Clinton the nominee by acclamation.

With the motion seconded, a loud roar of ayes arose and the hall erupted in applause, making her the nominee at 6:56 p.m. Eastern time.

The orchestrated show of unity was a notable change from the opening days proceedings, though Sanderss gesture did not bring all of his delegates into line. Through the evening, many of the seats reserved for the delegations from Alaska, Kansas, Maine and Oklahoma  all states Sanders won against Clinton  were largely empty. Some Sanders supporters exited the hall chanting, Walkout! Walkout! Walkout!

Tensions flared over the weekend when leaked internal emails showed some top officials at the Democratic National Committee exhibiting Clinton favoritism in the primaries. The controversy forced the resignation of Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (Fla.) as DNC chair.

Wasserman Schultz is being replaced by interim chair Donna Brazile, who on Tuesday night playfully sashayed onstage to address delegates. She recalled first meeting Clinton as a young woman at the Childrens Defense Fund.

I was 21, feisty and ready to fight, Brazile said. And I remember thinking immediately, Here is a woman who doesnt mess around. Steel in her spine, Hillary didnt want to talk about anything other than how to make childrens lives better. Thats the Hillary I know. Thats who she is.

John Wagner contributed to this report.
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump said the United States gets "no respect" from Russian President Vladimir Putin during a town hall event in Scranton, Pa., July 27. (The Washington Post)

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump said the United States gets "no respect" from Russian President Vladimir Putin during a town hall event in Scranton, Pa., July 27. (The Washington Post)

Republican nominee Donald Trump pleaded directly Wednesday with the Russian government to meddle in the U.S. presidential election by finding and releasing tens of thousands of private emails from his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton  an extraordinary and perhaps unprecedented maneuver in American politics.

Russia, if youre listening, I hope youre able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing, Trump said during a news conference at one of his South Florida resorts. He added later, They probably have them. Id like to have them released.

Asked whether Russian espionage into the former secretary of states correspondence would concern him, Trump said, No, it gives me no pause. If they have them, they have them.

The emails cited by Trump are from Clintons time at the State Department, where her use of a private server prompted a federal investigation. The FBI concluded that no prosecution was necessary.

Those are different than emails from the Democratic National Committee that were leaked ahead of the party convention here, possibly with the involvement of Russia. The FBI is investigating whether Russian state actors were responsible for leaking the politically damaging messages last Friday in an episode that forced the resignation of DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz.

The Fix's Chris Cillizza explains why Donald Trump made a mistake when he called on Russia to find Hillary Clinton's missing emails. (Peter Stevenson/The Washington Post)

President Obama, who was scheduled to address the convention on Wednesday night, told NBC News in an interview on Tuesday that Russia could be working to influence the election.

What we do know is that the Russians hack our systems, not just government systems but private systems, Obama said. What the motives were in terms of the leaks, all that  I cant say directly. What I do know is that Donald Trump has repeatedly expressed admiration for Vladimir Putin.

Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook responded to Trumps Wednesday comments with a tone of disbelief, telling reporters that the apparent hacking was a national security issue.

It appears the Russians did steal these emails from the DNC, Mook said at a lunch sponsored by the Wall Street Journal. It appears as if they were active in releasing them for the purpose of hurting the campaign.

But Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said any such speculation is unfounded. There is no evidence, absolutely no evidence, that the Russians are trying to influence the U.S. election, he said in an interview.

Democrats have labored all week to put Trump on the defensive over his business and personal ties to Russia, as well as his professed admiration for its president, Putin, as a model leader. Some have portrayed Trump as Putins Manchurian candidate.

Vice President Biden roused thousands of delegates at the Democratic National Convention here Wednesday night by excoriating Trump as unfit to be commander in chief. We cannot elect a man who belittles our closest allies while embracing dictators like Vladimir Putin, he said.

1 of 45 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad  What Donald Trump is doing on the campaign trail View Photos Businessman Donald Trump officially became the Republican nominee at the partys convention in Cleveland. Caption Businessman Donald Trump officially became the Republican nominee at the partys convention in Cleveland. Donald Trump speaks at a campaign event at Trump Doral golf course in Miami. Carlo Allegri/Reuters Wait 1 second to continue.

[Inside Trumps financial ties to Russia and his unusual flattery of Putin]

The candidate and several of his top advisers have business connections to Russia. Campaign chairman Paul Manafort has made millions of dollars in business deals with pro-Russia oligarchs as well as advised the Putin-aligned president of Ukraine whose 2014 ouster triggered Russias intervention there.

Trump seemingly played into Democratic hands on Wednesday by praising Putins leadership qualities and vowing that U.S. relations with Russia would improve if he is elected in November.

I dont think Putin has any respect whatsoever for Clinton, Trump said. He added: He has a total lack of respect for President Obama. . . . I think hes going to respect your president if Im elected. And I hope he likes me.

In a series of afternoon tweets, Trump spokesman Jason Miller said the candidate was merely encouraging other countries to turn over any information relating to Clintons emails to U.S. authorities.

To be clear, Mr. Trump did not call on, or invite, Russia or anyone else to hack Hillary Clintons emails today, Miller wrote.

[In business as in politics, Trump adviser Manafort is no stranger to controversial figures]

Still, Trumps provocation alarmed many Republican leaders and foreign policy experts  not only for his disjointed discussion of Russia, but also for the signal it sent about their standard-bearers worldview. Many were also alarmed by Trumps remark Wednesday that he would be looking at whether Crimea, which Russia seized from Ukraine in 2014, should be recognized as Russian territory.

He has repeatedly questioned the need for NATO, the main Western bulwark against Russia: He told an Ohio rally crowd Wednesday night that if a nation has not paid enough toward defense costs asks for help, he would respond, Bye bye!

Rather than approaching Russia with trepidation, Trump embraced Putin as a future ally and said he hoped to develop a chummy and mutually beneficial rapport with one of the globes notorious strongmen. In doing so, Trump broke with decades of Republican instincts that were honed during Ronald Reagans presidency at the end of the Cold War.

Foreign governments sometimes express preferences about who should be elected; thats already problematic, said Eliot A. Cohen, a former counselor in George W. Bushs State Department. But to do something in the nature of dirty tricks would be a very, very serious problem.

Trumps running mate, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, issued a statement minutes after Trumps remarks that hewed closely to established GOP orthodoxy. Instead of baiting the Russians to reveal Clintons emails, Pence said that the FBI must get to the bottom of who is behind the hacking.

If it is Russia and they are interfering in our elections, I can assure you both parties and the United States government will ensure there are serious consequences, the statement continued.

It was unclear whether Trumps declaration would hurt or help him politically. Such comments by a normal candidate in a normal election year would be a seminal and possibly fatal episode. Yet neither Trump nor this year are typical  and as with past controversies, voters may not take Trumps commentary seriously.

Partisan figures rallied immediately to Trumps defense, blaming the mainstream media for blowing Trumps comments out of proportion and trying to shift the focus from Clintons judgment.

Whats irresponsible is that more than 30,000 emails were deleted by a crook who broke the law, former House speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) said in an interview. I dont care if its the Bulgarians, the Chinese or Haitian immigrants studying at Stanford. Lets see the 30,000 emails.

Veteran GOP strategist Mike Murphy said many longtime Republicans were appalled by Trumps gambit.

This is what happens when you nominate an egomaniacal bozo as your candidate for president of the United States, Murphy said. He has jumped the shark into complete embarrassment.

On the convention stage here this week, Clintons supporters have tried to cast Trump as a pawn in Russias global ambitions.

Reacting to Trumps Wednesday comments, former defense secretary Leon E. Panetta said, As someone who was responsible for protecting our nation from cyberattacks, its inconceivable to me that any presidential candidate would be that irresponsible.

Retired admiral John Hutson was more pointed: This morning, he personally invited Russia to hack us. Thats not law and order; thats criminal intent.

[Former mafia-linked figure describes association with Trump]

Trump has repeatedly tried to do business in Russia, and Russian investors have been important to his real estate empire, particularly in recent years.

According to litigation filed in Florida, Trumps partners on a Panama project traveled to Moscow in 2006 to sell condos to Russian investors. Trump also sold a mansion in Palm Beach in 2008 for $95 million to Russian oligarch Dmitry Rybolovlev; he had purchased the home at a bankruptcy auction four years earlier for $41.4 million.

Trump has also sought to build a tower in Moscow numerous times since the late 1980s, when he said he had a deal to explore a Trump project in partnership with the Soviet government. His most recent effort came after a Putin ally, Aras Agalarov, known as the Trump of Russia, paid Trump millions to bring the Miss Universe pageant to Moscow in 2013. Agalarov has told The Washington Post that he signed a preliminary deal to bring a Trump project to the Russian capital.

We will be in Moscow at some point, Trump promised in a 2007 deposition.

Alan Garten, general counsel for the Trump Organization, also outlined the companys interest in Russia to The Post in May. Were always looking to expand and do projects all over the world. I have no doubt, as a company, I know weve looked at deals in Russia. And many of the former Russian republics, he said.

Trump tried to swat away several questions from reporters on Wednesday about his ties to Russia. I have nothing to do with Russia, he told one journalist. How many times do I have to say that? Are you a smart man? I have nothing to do with Russia.

Trump has also surrounded himself with aides with ties to Russia, in addition to Manafort. One of his foreign policy advisers, Carter Page, once ran the Moscow office of Merrill Lynch and has advised Russian oil giant Gazprom. Page has said his Russian business associates are excited at the prospect that a Trump presidency would result in the end of Ukraine-related sanctions on Russia, which has crimped their business.

Another Trump adviser, retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, who was on his shortlist of potential running mates, has advocated for a stronger alliance with Moscow to fight Islamic State terrorists. Flynn sat near Putin at a 2015 dinner in Moscow honoring RT, an English-language media service aligned with the Kremlin.

At his news conference Wednesday, Trump imagined his presidency ushering in an era of good relations with Russia.

I would treat Vladimir Putin firmly, but theres nothing that I can think of that Id rather do than have Russia friendly, as opposed to the way they are right now, so that we can go and knock out ISIS together with other people and with other countries, Trump said. Wouldnt it be nice if we actually got along with people?

DelReal reported from Milwaukee. Rosalind S. Helderman in Washington and Tom Hamburger and Anne Gearan in Philadelphia contributed to this report.
A 46-year-old Omaha man will spend the next eight to 12 years in prison for a theft that led to an assault on a Lincoln police officer in February.

Robert Mello was trying to steal a drill and return it for money from the Menards in south Lincoln on Feb. 4.

He was walking to his car when he saw an officer arrive, and he took off running, then struggled with the officer and managed to get into his car, police said. Mello pulled a fixed-blade knife from a sheath on his right hip and then drove his car forward and backward 10 to 15 feet in both directions, dragging the officer with him. The officer was left with minor injuries including abrasions on the knees.

A passerby tried to block Mello's vehicle, but just hit the side of it with his truck.

Mello drove off and was stopped later by the Nebraska State Patrol in Nebraska City. He pleaded guilty on June 28 to second-degree assault on an officer.

Wednesday, he told Lancaster County District Judge Lori Maret he feels nothing but shame and guilt.

"I am terribly sorry that I hurt a police officer," Mello said. "I grieve. I have no excuses. There are no excuses for what I've done. I should be punished."

Defense attorney Shawn Elliott argued for probation so Mello can get back to his wife and child, but Maret said that what Mello's wife said about him is "very telling" of who he is.

She "knows (Mello) better than anyone else," Maret said, and she called Mello a con artist and a liar.

"This was a serious and dangerous crime," Maret said. "This type of offense could have been charged more harshly."

Mello will get 173 days credit for time served.
From President Obama's passionate endorsement of Hillary Clinton to Tim Kaines Donald Trump impression, heres what happened on Day 3 of the Democratic National Convention. (Deirdra O'Regan/The Washington Post)

From President Obama's passionate endorsement of Hillary Clinton to Tim Kaines Donald Trump impression, heres what happened on Day 3 of the Democratic National Convention. (Deirdra O'Regan/The Washington Post)

In an election season in which restive voters of all stripes are frustrated with the status quo, it fell to President Obama on Wednesday to argue for staying the course by giving Democrats a third term in the White House  and that Hillary Clinton is the right person to keep moving the nation forward.

Having spent the first two nights of the Democratic National Convention trying to unify the party behind Clinton, a procession of leading party figures made a sharp pivot to GOP nominee Donald Trump. Over the course of the evening, they questioned his character, his judgment, his business acumen  even his sanity.

Obama offered an American ideal against that bill of particulars against Trump: Our power doesnt come from some self-declared savior promising that he alone can restore order. We dont look to be ruled.

[Donald Trump once again proves hes the chaos candidate]

About the onetime rival who became his secretary of state and whose election would burnish his legacy, Obama said: There has never been a man or a woman more qualified than Hillary Clinton to serve as president of the United States of America.

1 of 62 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad  Scenes from the third day of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia View Photos Follow along as Post photographers document the convention in Philadelphia. Caption Follow along as Post photographers document the Democratic convention in Philadelphia. July 27, 2016 President Obama embraces Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton at the end of the third day of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia. Melina Mara/The Washington Post Wait 1 second to continue.

She will finish the job  and shell do it without resorting to torture or banning entire religions from entering our country, he added.

On Wednesday, the convention also formally nominated Sen. Timothy M. Kaine (Va.) as the Democratic vice-presidential pick. Noting that his eldest child is a Marine who deployed to Europe on Monday, Kaine said: I trust Hillary Clinton with our sons life.

It was the first night in which the Democratic speakers focused heavily on the themes of national security and foreign policy  and their most concerted effort to undermine Trump on issues where he has relentlessly pummeled Obama and Clinton.

Vice President Biden described Trump as a man who confuses bluster with strength and someone who doesnt have a clue about the middle class.

[Joe Biden delivered the Donald Trump takedown nobody else could]

A president of resurgent popularity, Obama offered a counterpoint to the near-apocalyptic portrait of the country on display during last weeks Republican National Convention in Cleveland, where Trump accepted his partys nomination.

The America I know is full of courage and optimism and ingenuity. The America I know is decent and generous, Obama said.

President Obama's speech electrified the crowd in Philadelphia on July 28, leaving some with chills and others in tears. (Alice Li,Jenny Starrs/The Washington Post)

He nodded toward the countrys worries and the trauma of recent tragedies.

Weve still got more work to do, the president said. More work to do for every American still in need of a good job or a raise, paid leave or a decent retirement; for every child who needs a sturdier ladder out of poverty or a world-class education; for everyone who hasnt yet felt the progress of these past seven-and-a-half years.

But Obama, echoing some of the upbeat themes that first lady Michelle Obama sounded on the conventions opening night, gave an address focused on progress, both economic and social, and a younger generation full of energy and new ideas, unconstrained by what is, and ready to seize what ought to be.

Clinton took the stage unannounced at the end of the Obamas remarks, and the two engaged in a prolonged embrace before walking around arm in arm waving to a boisterous crowd.

All of it amounted to a reversal of the two parties traditional orientations. Republicans typically claim the upbeat mantra of Ronald Reagan, who famously talked of the United States as a shining city upon a hill, echoing the words of Puritan John Winthrops famous 1630 sermon, which paraphrased Jesuss Sermon on the Mount.

The Democrats, on the other hand, often have come across as the party more focused on the nations woes and flaws  or as then-U.N. Ambassador Jeane J. Kirkpatrick put it contemptuously at the 1984 GOP convention, the blame America first crowd.

Midway through Wednesday evenings speeches, Tony Fratto, a deputy press secretary in the George W. Bush White House, tweeted: Watching Democrats talk about America the way Republican candidates used to talk about America.

For any party to hold the White House for three consecutive terms is a difficult feat, even in rosy times.

Democrats have not done so since before World War II, and only twice since 1828, at the dawn of the modern two-party system. The GOP has done it four times, most recently when Vice President George H.W. Bush won the 1988 election to succeed Reagan.

But it is all the more of a challenge when the vast majority of voters think the country is headed in the wrong direction.

The latest Real Clear Politics average of polls shows that the share of Americans who think the country is on the wrong track is nearly 46 percentage points greater than those who think it is on a favorable course.

That has fueled the anti-establishment mood that delivered the GOP nomination to Trump and made Sen. Bernie Sanders (Vt.) a formidable challenger to Clinton for the Democratic nomination.

As the evening wore on, scattered anti-TPP signs popped up around the arena, signaling opposition to the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a pending trade deal championed by Obama but opposed by most congressional Democrats and labor unions.

Kaine has supported the deal in the past but is expected to modify his position to conform with that of Clinton, who as secretary of state called it the gold standard of trade deals but is now opposed.

Speeches and videos Wednesday aimed to reinforce Clintons governing credentials, particularly on national security. This followed Democrats efforts to unify the party on Monday and both humanize and attest to their nominees character on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Democrats were given fresh fodder Wednesday for their argument that Trump is unprepared and temperamentally unsuited to be president.

At a news conference in Florida, Trump pleaded directly with the Russian government to meddle in the U.S. campaign by finding and releasing tens of thousands of private emails from Clinton  a development that alarmed not only Democrats but also many Republican leaders and foreign policy experts.

[Trump invites Russia to meddle in the U.S. presidential race]

Among those called upon to draw contrasts between Clintons and Trumps foreign policy credentials was retired Rear Adm. John Hutson, one of several military leaders in the spotlight at the convention.

Donald Trump calls himself the law-and-order candidate, but hell violate international law, Hutson said. In his words, he endorses torture at a minimum. Hell order our troops to commit war crimes like killing civilians. . . . This morning, he personally invited Russia to hack us. Thats not law and order. Thats criminal intent.

Members of the Congressional Black Caucus on Wednesday looked past the Obama era and expressed their faith in Clinton as their standard-bearer and champion. But mostly they delivered a vehement denunciation of Trump, saying he has no plan to lift African Americans.

Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (N.Y.) said Trump is simply the least-qualified person to ever seek the presidency. He added a bit of wordplay, saying Clinton had served as secretary of state while Trump is a secretary of hate.

In his remarks to the convention, Senate Minority Leader Harry M. Reid (Nev.) chided Trump as a hateful con man but also blamed his Republican counterpart, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.), for setting the stage for Trump.

New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, a onetime Republican turned independent, also urged a vote for Clinton, making a special appeal to his fellow independents.

The bottom line is: Trump is a risky, reckless and radical choice, and we cant afford to make that choice, Bloomberg said, calling Trump a dangerous demagogue.

The former New York mayor is also a leading voice for tougher gun laws, a cause that was featured in a segment of Wednesday nights program. It included an emotional speech by Christine Leinonen, the mother of Christopher Leinonen, who was killed in the massacre last month at an Orlando nightclub.

The presentation also featured speakers with connections to the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., in 2012 and at a church in Charleston, S.C., last year.

Former congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords (Ariz.), who was shot in Tucson in 2011, also appeared alongside her husband, Mark Kelly, a retired astronaut and Navy captain. The two have made it their mission to enact additional gun control measures.

We have important work ahead of us, work that will determine the future of our country, said Giffords, who argued for Clintons candidacy, saying, Strong women get things done.

Former Maryland governor Martin OMalley, who dropped out of the Democratic presidential race after a dismal showing in the Iowa caucuses, noted that he had competed against Clinton and worked with Kaine when the vice-presidential nominee was governor of Virginia.

I am here to tell you that Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine are as tough as they come, OMalley said. They never give up. They never give in.

OMalley took aim at Trump, saying he has been a bully his whole life.

Kaines pick as Clintons running mate drew praise from many quarters, but the former Virginia governor faces a challenge in convincing some liberal groups that he will champion their issues. Longtime watchers of Virginia politics say the question during much of Kaines career there has been whether he is too liberal for the state.

I think progressives are looking for him not only to talk about progressive issues, but to talk about them with authenticity and sincerity, said Stephanie Taylor, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, which bills itself as representative of the Warren wing of the Democratic Party, a reference to Sen. Elizabeth Warren (Mass.).

He has a real chance to introduce himself to the Democratic Party and electorate at large, Taylor said of Kaine.

Some Sanders supporters had threatened in recent days to walk out of the hall or otherwise show their displeasure with Clintons pick of Kaine, a former Richmond mayor, Virginia governor and chairman of the Democratic National Committee. Only a smattering of disapproval could be heard in the hall.

In his address to the convention, Kaine showed that he is warming up to the running mates traditional role as the presidential nominees attack dog.

He delighted the crowd with his mocking impersonation of Trump, focusing on his verbal tic of saying Believe me.

Folks, you cannot believe one word that comes out of Donald Trumps mouth. Not one word, Kaine said, setting off the delegates in a chant of Not one word.

Isaac Stanley-Becker contributed to this report.
Scenes from the second day of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia

Scenes from the second day of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia

Democrats opened their convention with an emphasis on inclusion and public service, and little mention of law and order or the rise of the Islamic State  a stark contrast to the Republicans focus on homeland security at their convention in Cleveland last week.

Hillary Clinton has made a strategic calculation to present an optimistic view of America and its place in the world as she is formally nominated this week. Its a bet that voters will reject what her campaign calls the inaccurate fear-mongering of Republican nominee Donald Trump.

But some Democrats worry that the contrast could help Trump make up in rhetoric for a lack of traditional national security credentials.

My hope is that people will see through this, said Michele Flournoy, a former senior Pentagon official under President Obama and a Clinton supporter. Its policy by bumper sticker. There will be some people who will find the strength of his rhetoric very appealing.

None of the prime-time speakers on the Democrats opening night, Monday, dwelled on security in the traditional sense  either U.S. military readiness or safety on the streets. On Tuesday, many Republicans jumped to say that the threat from the Islamic State went unmentioned.

Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort sent this Twitter message Tuesday morning, using another name for the Islamic State:

Clinton Mentions at DNC Last Night: 208. Trump Mentions at DNC Last Night: 96. ISIS Mentions at DNC Last Night: 0 (!!!)

Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta was pressed Tuesday about the silence from Monday nights lineup of speakers on a major issue in the minds of voters  terrorism.

This is not a problem that is going away. It needs an intelligent and resourced and fulsome strategy, but the wrong strategy is to split away our alliances and to divide our country, Podesta said at a Wall Street Journal luncheon here. We need everyone in this fight together.

Several Democrats said the structure of the convention is deliberate, with an initial focus on bringing the divisive primary contest to a respectful close, as well as on Clintons biography as an advocate for children and families.

Her national security bona fides and an examination of where the country stands after nearly eight years of the Obama presidency are subjects for later in the week, several Democrats said, although there is an effort to avoid much mention of Clintons onetime support for the Iraq War.

Clintons attempt to offer a sunnier vision of American leadership comes along with a concerted strategy to make the case that she is more knowledgeable and experienced on national security issues. It will be a major theme of her address in accepting the nomination Thursday as well as a subtext to remarks Wednesday from President Obama. Former president Bill Clinton, her husband, was to include similar points in his speech Tuesday.

At the Veterans of Foreign Wars conference in Charlotte on Tuesday, July 26, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump introduced his 10-step plan for veteran's reform, but not before throwing jabs at Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. (The Washington Post)

America is grappling with big questions, Hillary Clinton said Monday in an address in Charlotte to a gathering of the Veterans of Foreign Wars. How do we keep our country safe? How do we make the world safer?

Clinton has continued to make the case that Trump would be a reckless commander in chief  and she has added to that charge a warning: that Trump is asking to become an autocrat.

I believe the United States of America is an exceptional nation, with capabilities that no other country comes close to matching. We have the worlds greatest military  dont let anyone tell you otherwise, she said, a reference to Trumps claim that Obama has gutted the armed forces.

At the same time, some Clinton backers acknowledge that Trumps dark portrait of diffuse threats holds resonance for Americans made uneasy by terrorism and mass shootings.

The Republican convention last week focused heavily on safety, particularly the notions that Obama has made the country more vulnerable and diminished its stature, and that Clinton would push the nation further to the brink. Trump came out of the convention essentially tied with Clinton in two national polls, a larger bounce from the nomination than senior Democrats had expected and potential evidence that Trump is connecting with undecided voters on questions of personal and national safety.

Clinton has repeatedly called Trump unfit to lead  impetuous, uninformed and untested. Trump is offering no public indication that he considers national security a weak spot, and instead has broadened his argument that the country is in crisis and that he can fix it, Democrats said.

Trump is making a classic strongman appeal, said Philip Gordon, Obamas former White House Middle East policy coordinator, who also worked in Hillary Clintons State Department. Its exactly what authoritarian leaders in other countries have done  its, Trust me, I know how to do that. 

The generalized threat Trump invokes makes it harder in some ways for Clinton to counter him and could marginalize her credentials as secretary of state, several Democrats said.

Addressing the VFW convention Tuesday, a day after Clinton, Trump mocked the idea that she has the experience and credentials to keep the country safe.

We know how she takes care of the veterans, just look at her invasion of Libya and her handling of Benghazi  a disaster, Trump said as the crowd booed Clinton. Or look at her emails, which put Americas entire national security at risk.

Suddenly there were scattered shouts of Lock her up!

Trump grinned and said: And to think she was here yesterday. I guess she didnt do very well.

Trump is also trying to capitalize on deep concerns about jobs, wages and trade  issues that animated the Democratic primary contest this year.

As the Democratic convention opened Monday, Trump reminded disaffected supporters of Clintons primary rival, Sen. Bernie Sanders (Vt.), of his own opposition to international trade deals that Clinton once supported.

As if to acknowledge the political threat, Clinton and her running mate, Sen. Timothy M. Kaine (Va.), will immediately embark on a three-day bus tour of Pennsylvania and Ohio after the convention.

Both states were hit hard by the Great Recession. Global trade is often blamed for manufacturing and other job losses in the two states, and both are home to large numbers of working-class whites, a demographic among which Trumps message about a loss of American primacy has found an audience.

We also have an economy that is larger, more durable and more entrepreneurial than any other on the planet, Clinton said during her VFW appearance. And we are guided by values that have long inspired people across the world  a commitment to freedom and equality, justice and diversity  that fundamental American idea that every single person deserves to be treated decently and with respect, no matter who they are.

Jenna Johnson in Charlotte and Abby D. Phillip in Philadelphia contributed to this report.
President Obama takes the stage at the Democratic National Convention on Wednesday for what aides said he views as a symbolic passing of the mantle after eight years as the leader of the Democratic Party.

Obama burst onto the national political scene with a soaring address 12 years ago to the day at the 2004 convention, and he was the center of attention as the nominee in both 2008 and 2012. But the president gave clear instructions to his team as it began envisioning this speech a month ago: It was not to be a valedictory for his White House tenure or a direct rebuttal to Republican nominee Donald Trump.

Rather, the president told his advisers, he wants to make the most forceful case possible for Hillary Clinton as the best qualified public servant to succeed him.

He is expected to tout Clintons experience in the White House: Until youve sat at that desk, you dont know what its like to manage a global crisis or send young people to war, Obama is expected to say, according the his prepared text. But Hillarys been in the room; shes been part of those decisions. She knows whats at stake in the decisions our government makes for the working family, the senior citizen, the small business owner, the soldier, and the veteran.

And in a moment of particular modesty, he is expected to essentially concede that she is better prepared for the job than he was. . . . No matter how much people try to knock her down, she never, ever quits. . . . Thats the Hillary I know. Thats the Hillary Ive come to admire. And thats why I can say with confidence there has never been a man or a woman more qualified than Hillary Clinton to serve as president of the United States of America.

1 of 62 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad  Scenes from the third day of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia View Photos Follow along as Post photographers document the convention in Philadelphia. Caption Follow along as Post photographers document the Democratic convention in Philadelphia. July 27, 2016 President Obama embraces Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton at the end of the third day of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia. Melina Mara/The Washington Post Wait 1 second to continue.

The speech is just the beginning, aides promise.

Well do everything we can to help her, a senior administration official said during a background briefing for reporters to preview Obamas address. From this point forward, she is the torchbearer of the Democratic Party.

White House officials said the president and his advisers labored through six drafts of his remarks during the past week. Obama stayed up until 3:30 a.m. to work on the speech after his wife, first lady Michelle Obama, delivered her rousing convention address Monday. Aides suggested that there may have been a touch of spousal competitiveness at play.

The president then needed just a single dry run, reciting the 30-minute speech out loud in the Map Room on Tuesday, before pronouncing himself satisfied. Obama aides contacted the Clinton campaign this week to offer them a summary of the address.

In an interview with NBCs Today, Obama urged the party not to take the November election for granted, and he said of a possible Trump victory that anything is possible.

I think anybody who goes into campaigns not running scared can end up losing, Obama said. So, my advice to Democrats  and I dont have to give this advice to Hillary Clinton, because she already knows it  is you stay worried until all those votes are cast and counted because you know, one of the dangers in an election like this is that people dont take the challenge seriously. They stay home. And we end up getting the unexpected.

In many ways, the White House views Obamas speech as the kickoff to his role as surrogate in chief, and they said he will stump enthusiastically for Clinton in the final months before the Nov. 8 election  raising money, doing robo-calls and appearing at rallies in key swing states.

Post political reporters Dan Balz, Robert Samuels and Abby Phillip and senior political editor Steven Ginsberg held a town hall conversation at the Democratic National Convention, giving a behind-the-scenes look at covering 2016. (Washington Post Live)

He wants to be one of the loudest voices out there making the case for why she is the right person to succeed him, said another senior White House official.

Obama, who is scheduled to be in Philadelphia for less than two hours, will speak after remarks by former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg and Vice President Biden.

An eight-minute video highlighting the nations progress during the presidents tenure  featuring appearances by Biden, Michelle Obama, senior adviser Valerie Jarrett and former adviser David Axelrod  will be shown before the president speaks, aides said.

In a moment that will highlight the solemn responsibilities of the commander in chief, Obama will be introduced by Sharon Belkofer, 73, a retired nurse and school board member in Rossford, Ohio, who has met the president twice before. Belkofers three sons served in the U.S. armed forces, and one, Lt. Col. Tom Belkofer, was killed in a Taliban attack in Afghanistan in 2010.

The president intends to make the case for Clinton by focusing on her experience as a public servant, having worked closely with her when she served as U.S. secretary of state during his first term. As he did in a joint campaign appearance with Clinton in North Carolina this summer, the president will sketch the arc of their relationship, evolving from fierce competitors for the 2008 presidential nomination to close working partners.

Aides said the president will mention Trump a half-dozen times, but Obama does not intend to dwell on the GOP nominee despite having denounced his positions on immigration, counterterrorism and Muslim refugees, among other issues.

At heart, Obama does not believe he must offer a detailed policy rebuttal to Trump, aides said, because Trumps rise and rhetoric have raised broader questions of the nations moral values and the temperament of the candidates to become commander in chief.

What I think is scary is a president who doesnt know their stuff and doesnt seem to have an interest in learning what they dont know, Obama said of Trump on Today. I think if you listen to any press conference hes given, or listen to any of those debates, basic knowledge  about the world or what a nuclear triad is or where various countries are or, you know, the difference between Sunni and Shia in the Muslim world  those are things that he doesnt know and hasnt seemed to spend a lot of time trying to find out about.

The president also plans to use the speech to offer praise for Sen. Bernie Sanders (Vt.), who waged a fierce primary campaign against Clinton and whose delegates have remained vocal in their support for him at the convention even as he has urged party unity. Obama called Sanders on Tuesday to congratulate him after the senator moved on the convention floor to nominate Clinton by acclamation. Aides said the president will emphasize the success Sanders had in inspiring passion in younger voters.

Though aides said the president is intent to not make the speech about himself, they said he will hark back to his famous address from the 2004 Democratic convention, during which he urged the nation to rise above partisan politics and find common ground.

Obama will touch on those themes again in Philadelphia, aides said, and though he has acknowledged that the partisan tenor in Washington has not improved, the president will reaffirm his view that the American people have more in common than they do differences and that the nation is stronger together than apart.
Congressional Democrats and Republicans havent agreed on much lately, but theyre together on one issue that affects condominium buyers and sellers across the country: The Federal Housing Administration has bungled its condo finance program.

In a rare moment of bipartisanship before heading home for the summer, the Senate unanimously passed legislation that will require the FHA to lighten up on its condo financing regulations and make low-down-payment FHA loans more available to the people they are supposed to serve: moderate-income buyers, many of them minorities and first-time purchasers, who turn to condominiums as their most affordable option. The vote in the Senate followed a 427-to-0 vote in the House earlier this session.

Passage of the legislation came after several years of complaints by housing, community association and other groups about the FHAs overly strict requirements. Critics pointed out that FHA once was the go-to source of condo financing for first-time buyers, but since 2010 its role has shrunk drastically. The FHA helped finance 80,000 to 90,000 condo mortgages a year during the previous decade and a half, but more recently production has dwindled to barely a quarter of that volume. FHA condo lending in the first three months of this year plunged by 8.6 percent from the previous quarter, according to Inside Mortgage Finance, a trade publication. In the final quarter of last year, volume declined by 20.3 percent from the third quarter.

[More Harney: Many owners seem unaware of the home equity they could easily tap]

The agencys restrictions on condo community eligibility for financing became so onerous  requiring complicated recertifications of entire developments every two years  that thousands of condo associations abandoned the program. According to the Community Associations Institute, fewer than 14,000 of the 152,000 condo associations in the United States are now eligible for FHA loans. Individual units are not eligible for FHA financing unless the entire associations finances, reserves, insurance, budget and other items have been approved by the government.

The bill (H.R. 3700) aims at correcting a number of key problems by:

Ordering FHA to streamline the entire recertification process for condo associations and make compliance substantially less burdensome. Condo experts predict this alone could convince significant numbers of associations to return to the FHA fold, thereby opening up sales and purchases to thousands more condo units.

Reducing the minimum owner-occupancy ratio from the current 50 percent to 35 percent, unless the FHA can provide justification for a higher percentage. Seth Task, a realty agent with Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Professional Realty in Solon, Ohio, says the 35 percent ratio would allow substantial numbers of developments that cant quite meet the 50 percent test to get back into the FHA program. In an interview, he cited the case of an elderly condo owner who recently listed her unit for sale with him in a development whose owner-occupancy ratio was 49 percent. Ineligible for buyers using low-down-payment FHA loans, she tried unsuccessfully to sell and ultimately had to accept an offer $10,000 below what she could have obtained if her building qualified for FHA financing.

[More Harney: Homeowners can reap benefits as mortgage rates near record lows]

Allowing transfer fees. The legislation directs the FHA to stop rejecting condo communities because they collect small transfer fees when units are sold. The funds collected are used to support association activities  they benefit all residents. The FHA would now have to follow the lead of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, both of which consider community-benefit transfer fees acceptable.

Providing more flexibility on the amount of commercial space permitted in condo developments. Some urban condos are designed for mixed use  residential and commercial combined  because thats what makes economic sense in their locations. Under current rules, some of these developments are ineligible because the FHA considers their commercial component excessive. The legislation directs the agency to be more flexible and to take the local market context into account.

Would these changes be sufficient to revive the FHAs sagging condo program? We are cautiously optimistic, said Dawn Bauman, senior vice president at the Community Associations Institute, which represents nearly 34,000 condo communities and management organizations. Rita Tayenaka, past president of the Orange County (Calif.) Association of Realtors, told me the bill is a good thing but will not be the end-all in resolving the FHAs condo woes.

Most analysts agree that the actual effects would depend on two things: how quickly the FHA puts its revised procedures into the field, and whether thousands of condo associations that have fled the program conclude, Okay, theyve cut the red tape; maybe its time to jump back in.

Ken Harneys email address is kenharney@earthlink.net.
Residents gather at the site of a bomb attack in Syrias northeastern city of Qamishli. (Delil Souleiman/AFP via Getty Images)

A suicide bomber in an empty livestock truck laden with explosives struck Wednesday in a crowded district in the predominantly Kurdish town of Qamishli in northern Syria, causing massive destruction and killing 44 people in an attack claimed by the Islamic State militant group.

Residents and activists described a huge explosion in the western district of the town the Kurds call the capital of their self-declared autonomous enclave in northern Syria.

Most of the victims were civilians who were lingering in the district that also houses a station for the Kurdish security forces. It was not clear whether any Kurdish fighters were among those killed.

Qamishli, near the Turkish border, is mainly controlled by Kurds, but Syrian government forces are present and control the towns airport.

The Kurds, Syrias largest ethnic minority, have carved out a semi-autonomous enclave in Syrias north since the start of the conflict in 2011.

Separately, the official Syrian Arab News Agency reported a total blackout in nearby Aleppo province, accusing rebel groups of hitting the main power station in the provincial and deeply divided capital. Government forces and allied troops have tightened the noose on the main rebel enclave in the city of Aleppo, urging fighters there to surrender. Humanitarian groups have warned of a major catastrophe if the siege on the rebel-held parts of Aleppo continued.

Kurdish officials said Islamic State militants targeted Qamishli in retaliation for the ongoing offensive against Manbij, an Islamic State stronghold east of Qamishli.

The predominantly Kurdish Syria Democratic Forces, backed by airstrikes and training from a U.S.-led coalition, have been the main force fighting the Islamic State on the ground in northern Syria. Kurdish forces have also been the most successful ground force in terms of reclaiming territory and towns from the Islamic State over the past two years.

In a statement published by the Islamic State-linked Aamaq news agency, the group said it carried out the attack in Qamishli. In a later statement, it said the suicide bombing was in retaliation for the U.S.-led airstrikes in Manbij, threatening the Kurds specifically with more attacks.
The Lincoln Independent Business Association went on record Tuesday criticizing the Lincoln Board of Education for not lowering the tax rate on its proposed $401.2 million budget.

Spending on the proposed 2016-17 general fund budget would increase by $22.6 million while keeping the tax rate essentially flat and at the state-imposed lid.

LIBAs Wanda Caffrey told the board that LIBA and the community have consistently supported the schools by approving and supporting bond issues. Over the past five years the amount of money of property taxes collected by LPS has increased by 25 percent and taxpayers need a break, she said.

With school property taxes comprising more than 60 percent of our property tax burden, the fact that LPS cannot find even the slightest reduction in its general fund levy has left taxpayers wondering whos looking out for them.

Caffrey noted a report from the Nebraska State Education Association that said both beginning and maximum salaries of LPS teachers are the highest in the state.

The budget includes $7.8 million to pay for salary increases negotiated by teachers and other employee groups and $7.6 million to add staff to keep up with enrollment growth.

Caffrey said enrollment growth -- estimated at 950 more students -- would suggest a budget increase of 3.25 percent based on a formula used by LIBA.
Two attackers stormed a village church during Mass in northern France Tuesday. The pair took hostages and slit the throat of an 85-year-old priest. (James McAuley and Jason Aldag / The Washington Post)

Two attackers stormed a village church during Mass in northern France Tuesday. The pair took hostages and slit the throat of an 85-year-old priest. (James McAuley and Jason Aldag / The Washington Post)

The Islamic State-inspired attack on a quiet village church in northern France on Tuesday was relatively small: one dead and one other injured. But its significance was anything but.

In a country where the village church remains a national symbol, many here see the attack as an exacerbation of a long-brewing culture war over religion in a nominally secular but increasingly divided society.

Of the major terrorist attacks that have rocked this country over the past year and a half  Charlie Hebdo in January 2015, Paris in November 2015 and Nice this month  none has been perceived so strongly as an Islamic affront to the age-old idea of a Catholic France.

For prominent conservatives here, that was the essence of the horror that transpired in the working-class town of Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray shortly after 9:24 a.m. on Tuesday.

[Islamic State says militant soldiers carried out Normandy church attack]

1 of 6 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad  The scene after 2 attackers killed a priest at a church in Normandy, France View Photos French soldiers patrolled the narrow streets and mourners gathered near the church. Caption French soldiers patrolled the narrow streets and mourners gathered near the church. July 26, 2016 Police and rescue workers stand at the scene after two assailants had taken five people hostage in the church at Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray near Rouen in the Normandy region of France. Steve Bonet/Reuters Wait 1 second to continue.

At that moment, Adel Kermiche  a 19-year-old local man already known to anti-terrorism investigators for having tried, unsuccessfully, to enter Syria twice last year  stormed into the local parish with an unnamed accomplice and slit the throat of Jacques Hamel, a beloved 85-year-old priest in the middle of celebrating Mass.

Kermiche had frequently posted to social media urging fellow Muslims in France to immigrate to Islamic countries or perpetrate attacks on French soil, according to an analysis by the Middle East Media Research Institute .

Almost immediately after the news broke, Nicolas Sarkozy, Frances former president, on Twitter proclaimed the attack to be against the soul of France. Likewise, Marine Le Pen, the fiery leader of Frances far-right National Front, said in a statement that the attack threatened the cultural identity of the nation.

[French newspaper Le Monde will no longer publish photos of terrorism suspects]

When will the powers that be take the necessary measures and finally end the decades of laxity and blindness that have led France to where it is now? she said.

To her and others, the church assault, however small, was more of a threat to the French nation than other recent attacks that claimed many more lives.

After the November attacks in Paris, for instance, when 130 people were slain at a concert hall and at cafes, Sarkozy merely said that the terrorists have declared war. For Le Pen, November showed that the center of France was struck by an exceptional barbarity.

But the slaying of a priest in a country church was somehow an attack on what makes France French.

Although it has been officially secular since 1905, France is nonetheless a country of about 45,000 Catholic churches, and its public holidays are virtually all Christian holidays.

It is also a country with one of the largest Muslim populations in Europe, where wearing the veil in public is strictly prohibited and where controversy broke out last month when the education minister floated the idea of teaching Arabic to elementary students in public schools.

In France, its French culture that one must study first, Bruno Le Maire, a conservative member of Parliament, told BFM TV at the time. The underlying assumption: French culture includes neither Arabic nor Islam.

To many French Muslims, it is this tension that Islamic State operatives have long attempted to exploit and that this most recent attack has returned to the foreground.

[What France thinks of multiculturalism and Islam]

A common interest in far-right groups here and Daesh there has been to create this division in French society, Marwan Muhammad, director of the Collective Against Islamophobia in France, said in an interview, using the Arabic acronym for the Islamic State.

Although some in the French Muslim community fear reprisals after the church attack, others have expressed a desire to change their communitys image. Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Dalil Boubakeur, the chief imam of Pariss Grand Mosque, went so far as to advocate a reform of Frances Islamic institutions, although he did not elaborate.

I would like to express in the name of all French Muslims the profound loss and psychological upheaval they feel after the announcement of the blasphemous sacrilege contrary to all the teachings of our religion, he said.

Boubakeur could not be reached for further comment.

Also on Wednesday, Pope Francis dismissed out of hand the idea of religious wars in France: All religions want peace. Do you understand?

But for Muhammad, the fear is that an extremist minority will worsen growing tensions between a certain faction of the French right and Islam in general.

Their main hope is to antagonize our democracy by forcing each and every one of us to take a side, he said of Islamic State operatives. And thats basically what Marine Le Pen and the others are providing for Daesh.

Joby Warrick contributed to this report.

Read more

In Germany, anti-Muslim extremists may pose as big a threat as Islamist militants

When ISIS claims terrorist attacks, its worth reading closely

Scandal grows over lack of security on night of Nice terror attack

Todays coverage from Post correspondents around the world
An image from Al-Nabaa, an online magazine of the Islamic State, showing Mohammad Daleel, a bomber who killed himself and injured 15 people in an attack Sunday in the southern town of Ansbach. (Uncredited/AP)

The Islamic State on Wednesday claimed that a suicide bomber who struck a southern German city had been an active fighter with the extremist group in the Middle East and had drawn on his expertise with explosives to craft the device.

The militants al-Nabaa newsletter published an obituary of the assailant, a Syrian asylum seeker who arrived in Germany in 2014 under the name Mohammed Daleel.

The obituary  a gesture the Islamic State generally reserves for prominent figures  claimed the 27-year-old Daleel had regular contact with an operative of the organization in the months prior to the Sunday attack outside a music festival.

But it also suggested that Daleel  not experts within the Islamic State  had personally devised and orchestrated the bombing that left him dead and 15 people wounded.

The claims of past Islamic State links for Daleel contrasted with initial police theories that he was likely a self-radicalized figure possibly influenced by militant propaganda. And  if they are proved true  the Islamic State assertions could bring further scrutiny on possible efforts by the militant group to slip its backers into Europe.

[In France, Islamic State claims its soldiers carried out priest slaying]

The Islamic State  which has already claimed responsibility for his attack and issued a video of the assailant  additionally said that German police had almost foiled Daleels plot. They missed the bomb he spent three months making during a search of his refugee center, it said, because he hid it quickly before they entered.

German police officials declined to comment on the Islamic States account, which came amid a spike in attacks in Germany and neighboring France.

But Bavarian Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann told reporters that investigators poring over the attackers cellphone found evidence that Daleel was in contact with someone in an online chat room immediately before Sundays blast in the southern German town of Ansbach.

Apparently, there has been a direct contact with someone, who decisively influenced the attack, Herrmann told the German news agency DPA.

Herrmann said it was not clear whether the online chat had been with a member of the Islamic State. The whereabouts of the chat partner also were not known.

The chat appeared to have ended immediately before the attack, Herrmann said.

[Freelance terrorism may mark new front for Europe]

Experts expressed doubts about the Islamic States account of Daleels life but added that it was highly unusual for the group to publish such a detailed obituary of a lone-wolf attacker. The purpose, some said, may simply be to instill more fear.

This is the first time you have such an elaborate biography of a lone-wolf attacker, said Fawaz Gerges, author of the book ISIS: A History.

By publishing it, ISIS is trying to say, Weve infiltrated your society. This is taking the fight to a different level, he added, using one of the acronyms for the Islamic State.

But other experts dismissed the groups claims outright. I dont believe ISIS had any idea who he was, said Azeem Ibrahim, a Britain-based security expert. Most of these attackers claiming to be supporters of ISIS had no contact with the organization at all.

Whether fact or fiction, the group painted a picture of Daleel as a longtime militant who began fighting for Jabhat al-Nusra, al-Qaedas affiliate in Syria, before switching allegiances to the Islamic State. The group claimed he had been attached to a unit specializing in grenades and molotov cocktails.

After Daleel was injured in battle, the group said, he was brought out of the Middle East to Europe, where he began praising the Islamic State on social media. The group claimed he tried to return to Syria to continue fighting. But, when he failed, he contacted the group with his plan to stage an attack. The group claimed he had stayed in regular contact while planning the operation.

German authorities say Daleel initially sought asylum in Bulgaria and Austria before arriving in Germany in 2014.

Daleel, officials say, had been treated for psychiatric problems, had twice tried to kill himself and had been detained for drug possession and other petty crimes. Although he was due to be deported back to Bulgaria  where he had earlier been granted asylum  Herrmann said officials delayed the order because of what they believed to be his fragile mental state.

Daleel received a new deportation order nine days before the attack.

Heba Habib in Cairo and Stephanie Kirchner in Berlin contributed to this report.

Read more

Not uncommon for those denied asylum to stay on in Germany

Illegal weapons still a threat despite strict German gun laws

Faces of Munich victims provide portrait of new Europe

Todays coverage from Post correspondents around the world


In this May photo released by a family member, Robin Shahini is shown during his International Security and Conflict Resolution graduation ceremony at San Diego State University. (Shahini family photo/AP)

Before Reza Robin Shahini flew to Iran to visit his ailing mother in May, he was careful to delete years-old postings about Iran on his social-media accounts. He was not a political activist, but Shahini wanted to avoid attracting any attention from Iranian authorities.

For the first six weeks, the trip went as planned. The San Diego resident texted friends photos of his sightseeing in the country of his birth.

But on July 11, Shahini, 46, was arrested in Iran on suspicion of crimes against the Islamic Republic, becoming the latest Westerner with dual citizenship to be detained.

He joined two other U.S. citizens known to be detained, and at least four dual nationals from Britain, Canada and France, three of whom have been arrested in the past five months.

Friends and sources close to the family say that nothing in Shahinis past suggested he would be targeted. He had made several uneventful trips to Iran before.

But his arrest reflects a shift in tactics by hard-liners in Iran trying to keep the country isolated despite a nuclear deal signed a year ago. Prominent people are not the only ones in the crosshairs. Now, ordinary people are being swept up.

People with a high profile arent traveling to Iran anymore, said Trita Parsi, head of the National Iranian American Council. So if you want to keep people afraid, you have to go after people who dont have high profiles.

In the first two decades after the 1979 Islamic revolution, Iranians who fled the country rarely returned. That changed in the late 1990s after the election of reformist President Mohammad Khatami, who advocated more tolerance and openness. But after protests broke out over a contested election in 2009, a government crackdown discouraged them from returning.

The 2013 election of President Hassan Rouhani, who campaigned promising engagement with the West, opened the door again. In New York for the U.N. General Assembly, he has vowed to make it easier for Iranian American travelers to visit.

We have a hard time finding seats for them all, said Cyrus Beheshti, head of Cyrus Travel in California, who attended a Rouhani dinner in New York last fall and met with the Iranian tourism minister.



Iranian President Hassan Rouhani acknowledges the crowd at Azadi Stadium in Bakhtaran, Iran, on July 17. ( Presidency Of Iran / European Pressphoto Agency )

But Rouhani has come up against fierce opposition from the powerful Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, which controls the intelligence and security services plus the judiciary. Iran does not recognize dual citizenship, and the Revolutionary Guards have arrested dual nationals as if they were Iranian citizens.

Theres often a political and economic logic for Irans hard-liners to imprison dual nationals, said Karim Sadjadpour of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. It deters diaspora businessmen from visiting Iran, which is less competition for the Revolutionary Guards. It sabotages improved relations with Washington, which Irans hard-liners fear. Lastly, it undermines the agenda of the Rouhani government, who has encouraged dual nationals to return to Iran and bring with them foreign investment.

The release of five Americans, including Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian, when the landmark nuclear deal took effect in January, raised hopes that Iranian American businessman Siamak Namazi, arrested in October, would soon be released. But Namazi is still behind bars. So is his father, Baquer Namazi, who was arrested in February when he tried to get his son out.

And more arrests have followed.

In March, Nazak Afshar, a French citizen visiting her critically ill mother, was detained on arrival. She has been sentenced to six years in prison on unspecified charges.

In April, Nanzanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a British charity worker, was arrested at the airport after visiting family in Iran. Her infant daughters passport was confiscated.

She was an ordinary citizen, said her husband, Richard Ratcliffe. She always stayed away from politics so that she would be able to continue visiting.

In early June, Homa Hoodfar, a Canadian academic specializing in womens issues, was picked up while visiting for family and professional reasons.

I was certainly surprised of her arrest, because of that fact that she is not a political activist or organizer, said Mona Tajali, a former student of hers.

Zaghari-Ratcliffe, Namazi and Hoodfar were all indicted in early July on unannounced charges.



Homa Hoodfar, a retired Iranian Canadian professor, is shown in an undated photo. (Courtesy of Amanda Ghahremani/AP)

Siamak Namazi, an Iranian American businessman arrested in October, is shown in May 2012. (Handout/Reuters)

A spokesman for the Iranian judiciary has confirmed the arrest of another Iranian American. He did not name him, but the arrest was made in Shahinis home town of Gorgan.

The pattern of jailing apolitical people is thwarting Rouhanis attempts to rebuild the country partly with the help of Iranian exiles, said Hadi Ghaemi, head of the New York-based International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran.

Its flaming waves of concern throughout the expatriate community, he said. They see anyone could become a victim to the pattern.

Iranian Americans contemplating a visit to Iran are scouring their Facebook pages for any evidence that they criticized the governments behavior during the 2009 protests, said Elise Auerbach, an Iran specialist for Amnesty International.

Rouhani and his administration can talk about how he welcomes members of the diaspora all he wants, she said. But the way the leadership in Iran works, the president doesnt have any authority over the security apparatus.

The message is starting to sink in, said Armin Anvaripour, who helps would-be travelers obtain Iranian passports.

They ask me, Do you think if we go over there they might persecute us?  he said. I say, I dont know, because nobody knows what is going on.

In a March travel warning, the State Department said that since the nuclear deal, Iran has continued to harass, arrest, and detain U.S. citizens, in particular dual nationals. The department says its ability to assist is extremely limited, because Tehran will not allow consular visits from Swiss diplomats, who represent U.S. interests in Iran.

The travel warning advises citizens to carefully consider nonessential travel to Iran and make advance plans for emergencies. It also urges U.S. citizens to sign up in the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program to get security messages and help track them down.

Little is known about what happened to Shahini, the son of a fruit and vegetable vendor who emigrated to the United States in 2000.

According to friends and sources close to the family, he settled in San Diego and ran a pizzeria that failed during the recession and a car-repair shop that he sold to become a full-time student. He earned his bachelors degree in international conflict resolution and was about to enter graduate school at San Diego State University.

Shahini became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 2009, according to his girlfriend, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because she has family in Iran. She said Iranian authorities confiscated his electronic equipment and warned his family not to talk to the media.

Lin Kong, a friend from New York City, said Shahini called her just before his arrest, inquiring about the Farsi language she is studying and mentioning places he had visited. He had invited her and other friends to accompany him and discover his country.

I think he thought it was safe to go back, she said.

Julie Tate contributed to this report.

Read more:

Post reporter describes tortuous final hours in Iran after release from prison

Namazi relative comes to Washington asking U.S. for help getting prisoners out

Family doesnt understand why Canadian academic is jailed in Iran
From inside a Humvee, an Iraqi army soldier spots two men standing on a pickup truck with a mounted heavy machine gun by the side of the road in an abandoned area in the countryside of Makhmour, Iraq, on April 19. (Alice Martins/For The Washington Post)

American military advisers have begun working with Iraqi army battalions in forward positions, U.S. officials said, as the campaign against the Islamic State enters a new, more risky phase.

The first mission began on July 20, when a small team of combat engineers was tasked with helping an Iraqi engineer battalion establish security around a temporary bridge constructed over the Tigris River.

The bridge, southeast of the town of Qayyarah, is expected to be a key infrastructure point in the upcoming offensive for Mosul, a crucial test for Iraqi forces and their Western backers.

But the American engineers, in a departure from the longer-term advisory missions that characterized earlier campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan, have spent only a limited number of hours a day with the Iraqi army battalion before falling back to its more fortified position near Makhmour for the night. The engineers work is now mostly complete.

It was short-duration, high-payoff, said Col. Chris Garver, a spokesman for the U.S.-led military coalition.

A woman wearing clothing imposed by Islamic State militants stands surrounded by Iraqi army soldiers hours after fleeing ISIS-controlled territory and reaching the town of Kharbadan on April 19. (Alice Martins/For The Washington Post)

The narrowly targeted mission, with limited battlefield exposure, is an illustration of the restricted role that American commanders are planning for U.S. ground forces in the Mosul operation.

According to senior commanders, U.S. advisers will make short visits to Iraqi battalion headquarters, sometimes for only a few hours, rather than embedding with the local troops for extended periods.

The planned ground role is a recognition of the difficult course U.S. commanders must navigate as they seek to provide Iraqs military with needed support without inflaming tensions with Shiite militias or fueling perceptions that the already-fragile Iraqi government is reliant on foreign power.

[Harrowing images show what war against the Islamic State on Iraqs front lines looks like]

It is also born of a desire to avoid additional U.S. casualties. Already, three Americans have died in combat in Iraq since 2014.

If Iraqi troops succeed in swiftly smashing the militants grip on the city, it would bolster Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, who is grappling with a fiscal crisis and pressure from Shiite allies, and would also deliver a needed victory to President Obama before he steps down.

Douglas Ollivant, a former White House official who is a senior fellow at New America, a Washington think tank, said a limited ground role would help the Pentagon strike a practical balance in the Mosul operation. We kind of have our hand on the throttle, and we dont have to have Americans out there getting killed, he said.





In a recent interview, Lt. Gen. Sean MacFarland, commander of U.S. and coalition troops in Iraq and Syria, suggested there would be a high bar in assessing the risk versus reward calculus for future advisory missions.

The closer you get to the forward edge of the battle, of course, the higher the risk, MacFarland said. And if the return on investment or the possibility of loss or injury to one of our service members is not justified by the military necessity, we wont do it, he said. Its going to be something that will be very present in our calculation.

In private, other senior officers are even more blunt, making reference to troops they lost in earlier Iraq deployments. This time, they will place Americans in the thick of fighting only if the overall mission is at risk.

The Mosul plans are the latest illustration of the war-weary U.S. militarys preference for restraint in the battle against the Islamic State. Most of the Pentagons uniformed leaders served in Iraq during the bloody insurgent war that followed the 2003 invasion.

[In White Houses Iraq debate, military brass pushed for doing less]

While U.S. Special Operations forces have already been advising elite counterterrorism troops and Kurdish peshmerga forces at their lower levels, the Qayyarah mission marks the first time since 2014 that U.S. forces have advised Iraqi army battalions in the field.

In April, Pentagon leaders approved MacFarlands request for new military powers for the Mosul fight, including the authority to place advisers at the battalion level, employ Apache attack helicopters to support ground forces and use HIMARS long-range artillery. While the artillery system and helicopters have already been used, advisers had not yet been placed at the battalion level until this month. American officials had expected that lower-level advisers would be necessary in the battle for Mosul because the citys large size and its distance from Baghdad  more than 250 miles to the north  have the potential to stymie Iraqi troops.

In past battles against the Islamic State, U.S. officials were dismayed to see Iraqi units get bogged down for days at a time because of a lack of basic supplies. The problem can be as simple as a faulty air filter for a tank, MacFarland said.

Theres only so much you can tell by talking with people over the radio or flying over them. So well go out and say, Okay, lets take a look-see what the problems are,  he said.

While the Pentagon has not announced a timeline for launching an assault on the city, officials have hinted that it could begin in the late fall. By that time, MacFarlands replacement, Lt. Gen. Stephen J. Townsend, is expected to be in command in Baghdad.

American officials have said that advisers sent close to the front lines would require a large entourage of protection and support, including teams providing medical and evacuation assistance, roadside bomb clearance and artillery.

[After more than $1.6 billion in U.S. aid, Iraqs army still struggles]

Equally important to safety considerations is U.S. commanders desire to avoid upsetting Iraqs already tense political environment. Abadi, facing widespread outcry over a string of bombings in Baghdad, is eager to show that local forces can deal a decisive blow to the Islamic State in the same city where they suffered a major defeat in 2014.

While American and allied air power has proven instrumental for the advance of Iraqi forces in battles in Fallujah, Ramadi and elsewhere, Abadis government has maintained that Americans are not needed in combat.

After eight years of occupation, Iraqis are remarkably and understandably touchy about anything that looks like occupation, Ollivant said. If U.S. troops are out there on the front line with Iraqi troops and seeing Iraqi civilians, it has a different flavor to it, he said.

U.S. officials are also keen to avoid igniting renewed conflict with the Shiite militias whose support has been crucial in helping Iraq push back the Islamic State. Some militia commanders have already threatened to take action against U.S. troops or facilities if Americans are seen in combat. Earlier this month, Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr told his followers that U.S. forces are a legitimate target.

Read more:

Pentagon will send hundreds more troops to Iraq following seizure of key airfield

These photos show how the Marines are using their new fire base in Iraq against ISIS

Gen. Dempseys first fight in Iraq shapes his approach to Islamic State
An Imperial couple is bringing Lincoln 1-gigabit internet service and a downtown grocery store.

When Brad and Jill Moline decided to buy a downtown Lincoln apartment a year ago, they had no idea they would both be doing a lot of business in Lincoln in the near future.

They figured the apartment would come in handy when they visited their youngest son in college here, said Jill Moline.

But before long, Brad Moline was living in the apartment as his company, Allo Communications, began expanding its internet/television/telephone service into the Lincoln market. He is president of Allo, which was purchased by Nelnet and is rolling out 1-gigabit internet service across the city over the next three years.

And now Jill Moline, who manages the couples three grocery stores in southwest Nebraska and eastern Colorado, will open Lincolns first full-service downtown grocery store in about 35 years, in partnership with Lincoln-based Whitehead Oil.

Jill Moline's dad owned a grocery in Imperial, and she grew up in the small-town grocery business.

When the couple moved back to Imperial in 2002, they bought Imperial Super Foods. At the time, Brad Moline had a no-compete clause with his former employer in telecommunications. When that ended, he and partners Russ Pankonin and Jeff Kuenne started Allo Communications, and Jill Moline handled the grocery business, which has grown to include stores in Wray and Holyoke, Colorado.

Now, she'll bring her experience to a store in downtown Lincoln, part of the Speedway-Nelnet proposed development that will wrap around the Lumberworks Garage in the Haymarket south of the O Street viaduct.

The project is to include apartments aimed at young professionals, retirees, etc., plus office space and retail, including the full-service grocery store.

Jill Moline said Nelnet folks began talking to her about Lincolns desire for a downtown grocery store when they found out she owned and managed smaller stores. She warmed to the idea, but slowly.

After using the Lincoln apartment, she understood the need, but wondered where one could go.

The Speedway/Nelnet location -- adjoining the N Street bike trail and a city parking garage -- is about as close to perfect as one can get downtown, she said in a telephone interview this week.

Although she is working with Whitehead Oil, which owns U-Stop convenience stores, the downtown store will be a traditional full-service grocery store, she said. Mark Whitehead is bringing his knowledge of Lincoln to the partnership, but the store will not be another U-Stop.

Moline is excited.

We think we can go into an urban setting and still make it have a community feel," she said.

City sidewalks also have to be cleared

Every winter the folks who try to keep city streets clear of ice and snow are also responsible for shoveling city-owned sidewalks.

So when they get done with their street work, some of the city workers move over to smaller equipment to work on sidewalks, especially those along the Harris Overpass, the overpass on A Street and the pedestrian bridge along 10th Street from Charleston Street to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln campus.

Public Works maintenance manager Ty Barger is hoping to find a better solution by contracting with private companies to do that work.

The city has about 45,000 linear feet of sidewalk to keep clear, or about 8.5 miles spread across town. Barger has divided the 71 areas of sidewalks the city is responsible for into eight regions and will put the work out for bid by region.

If the city can contract for the work at about the same or less than the city's cost, Public Works and Utilities will move to using private contractors. Barger is not saying what the city spends currently until after the bid process is over.

It's a little more than shovel work, he said. Contractors would likely need a small Bobcat and a snow blower.

The citys Parks and Recreation staff also clears about 20 miles of sidewalk and 80 miles of trails during winter storms. The department sometimes has the bike paths in better shape than nearby city streets, leading to complaints called in to council members and reporters.

More than half of the trails are also school routes, required to be clear by 9 a.m., said city Park Superintendent Jerry Shorney. His crews and equipment are at capacity, he said, and likely couldnt clear the public works sidewalks.

Library date change cosmetic

In the flurry of budget-related votes Monday afternoon, the Republican majority on the Lincoln City Council postponed for two years the construction date for a new downtown library.

This is a cosmetic change, signaling some trepidation over the $50 million estimated price tag ($42 million of that coming from a bond that would require voter approval; the rest from donations).

The library project is part of what is called the Capital Improvement Program, or CIP, a list of one-time projects -- generally construction or purchases of big equipment -- over the next six years.

And the CIP can be amended quite simply with a majority vote of the council, which happens often.

For projects six years off, the CIP often functions more like a wish list. Projects listed in the next two years are much more likely to become reality, though not always.

The four Republicans on the council moved the downtown library project from fiscal year 2017-18 to 2019-20 as part of Monday budget changes.

But if the city came up with a specific plan -- say a fantastic donation or a grand plan for building the library with a private partner or even polls showing the public would love to vote for a $40 million bond -- the council could simply change the date.
Bangladeshi special forces leave the premises of a five-story building that was raided by police in Dhaka on July 26. Police said an apartment there was used as a den by suspected Islamist militants, nine of whom were killed. (AP)

A 24-year-old Bangladeshi American student was among nine suspected militants killed in a gun battle with police in Bangladesh, Dhaka police said Wednesday.

On Facebook, police identified seven of the nine suspects killed Tuesday after a raid in a residential neighborhood in Dhaka, including six Bangladeshis and American Shazad Rouf, 24, a masters student in business administration at North South University in Dhaka.

Police said they descended upon an apartment in the neighborhood in the early hours and engaged in a protracted battle with the militants, who shouted God is great and hurled improvised bombs at the officers. Police said the apartment was loaded with small arms and draped in black Islamic State flags.

The men were plotting a major attack and were part of the same local group that carried out an assault on a cafe earlier this month that killed more than 20 people, police said.

Rouf was born in Bangladesh but spent time in Illinois and California as a youth, his father said in an interview. After Rouf had gone missing Feb. 3, his father had sought the help of police. His name was eventually listed among the 200 or so names of missing Bangladeshi citizens released this month by the countrys Rapid Action Battalion force.

[Foreigners restrict movements in Bangladesh after ISIS-claimed killings]

After the July 1 cafe attack, authorities launched a wide-ranging effort to locate Bangladesh citizens who had gone missing and whose families feared that they could be entangled in militancy. Five attackers in the cafe hostage-taking had gone missing in the preceding weeks and months. Roufs father said his son had not shown any signs that he had been radicalized in the weeks before he disappeared.

That is the worst part. Maybe it was my inability to understand, but we never got any indication, Tauheed Rouf said. The young man had been praying with some regularity, he said, but that was all.

[After attack, Bangladesh fears missing sons are being radicalized overseas]

The U.S. State Department referred all questions about Shazad Rouf to local authorities and declined further comment.

The Muslim-majority South Asian nation has been grappling with a rise in extremist violence since 2013. There have been brutal hacking deaths of secular bloggers, largely claimed by a local affiliate of al-Qaeda, and the killings of foreigners, Hindu and Christian priests, and other minorities that were claimed by the Islamic State militant group.

Roufs father said his son was born in Bangladesh and immigrated with the family to the Chicago suburb of Elmhurst in 1999.

Later, the whole family  except the father, who is an arms and military supply trader  became U.S. citizens and relocated to the San Francisco area. The family moved back to Bangladesh in 2009 so Roufs mother could be treated for cancer; she has since died. Rouf graduated from the American International School in Dhaka in 2010 and from North South University last year before embarking on his masters program.

The elder Rouf said he had gone to identify the body earlier Wednesday and was not entirely sure it was his son, but police said they had made a positive identification through fingerprints in the national identity-card database.

Azad Majumder and Saad Hammadi in Dhaka and Carol Morello in Washington contributed to this report.

Read more:

Bangladesh is in the grip of Islamist mayhem. So it blames Israel.

The blog posts that can get you killed in Bangladesh

Killing of senior police officers wife marks a brutal turning point in Bangladesh

Todays coverage from Post correspondents around the world
Journalists gather outside a court building in Istanbul on July 27 to support their colleague Bulent Mumay, who was detained a day earlier in connection with the investigation launched into the failed coup attempt on July 15. (Petros Karadjias/AP)

Turkeys government has ordered the closure of dozens of media outlets  including news agencies, television channels, radio stations and newspapers  as part of its widespread crackdown in the wake of a failed coup attempt on July 15.

Authorities have suspended thousands of people working in the countrys judicial, education, health and financial sectors. But the move against media outlets escalated a campaign against journalists in a country that had once been hailed as a model of democracy in the region.

Nearly 90 reporters and columnists have been ordered detained this week, a decision the rights group Amnesty International called a brazen attack on press freedom.

The decree from Turkeys cabinet of ministers to close the outlets was published late Wednesday in the countrys Official Gazette. A state of emergency enacted after the coup attempt allows Turkeys executive to issue decrees, which are then sent to parliament for approval.

Earlier Wednesday, prosecutors issued detention orders for nearly 50 journalists and media figures tied to the Zaman newspaper, which was shut down at the request of local prosecutors in March. Forty-two journalists and columnists from various media outlets were also ordered detained Monday.

Zaman, which had been Turkeys largest daily, was believed to be tied to Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, a rival to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The president and his supporters have accused Gulen, who lives in self-imposed exile in the United States, of orchestrating the coup, which saw more than 200 people killed.

Turkey has said it will formally ask the United States to extradite Gulen, who has denied involvement.

A band of rogue military officers seized combat aircraft, blocked bridges and fired on unarmed protesters demonstrating against the takeover. The government survived the violent putsch attempt but has since launched a devastating purge of Turkeys security institutions and bureaucracy.

[In quest to punish coup plotters, Turkey squeezes out room for dissent]

The New York-based Human Rights Watch warned this week that the detention or suspension of thousands of bureaucrats, judges, journalists and others is an unvarnished move for an arbitrary, mass and permanent purge of the civil service.

On the detention of scores of journalists, Amnesty Internationals deputy director for Europe, Gauri van Gulik, said Turkeys government is failing to make a distinction between criminal acts and legitimate criticism.

Rather than stifling press freedom and intimidating journalists into silence, it is vital that Turkish authorities allow the media to do their work, she said, and end this draconian clampdown on freedom of expression.

1 of 63 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad  The scene in Turkey after an attempted coup View Photos The nations military tried to overthrow the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Caption The nations military tried to overthrow the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. July 17, 2016 Women mourn near the flag-draped coffin of a relative in Istanbul, during the funeral of seven victims of the July 15 coup attempt. Aris Messinis/AFP/Getty Images Wait 1 second to continue.

The decree Wednesday targeted three news agencies, 16 television channels, 23 radio stations and 45 newspapers. Many of these companies are local or regional outlets.

Turkeys government pins the coup on a shadowy network of Gulen sympathizers operating overseas and in the country, including in the media and a host of state institutions. The movements infiltration of the militarys officer corps is said to have given the coup plotters the critical mass needed to launch their failed bid to take over the state.

On Wednesday, Turkey also discharged more than 2,400 military personnel for complicity in the attempted coup, a senior Turkish official said.

The dismissed personnel included 1,200 commissioned officers from the navy, air and land forces. The Turkish armed forces said that 8,651 personnel  or 1.5 percent of the military  participated in the abortive coup and that the rebel faction used 35 planes, 37 helicopters, 74 tanks and three ships during the operation.

The government also ordered that the coast guard and the gendarmerie, the security force tasked with keeping the peace in rural areas, be removed from military control and be placed under the jurisdiction of the Interior Ministry, which is administered by civilian leadership. An Al Jazeera Turk report indicated that authorities will take the further drastic step Thursday of ordering the closure of military high schools  once pillars of the Turkish state  across the country.

[Turkey declares a state of emergency for three months]

The coup attempt took place over about 12 hours from the night of July 15 to the morning of July 16, when the rogue soldiers surrendered to citizens and police who had fought back against the takeover. Pro-coup pilots had used combat aircraft to bomb Turkeys parliament and presidential palace. The countrys top leaders, however, emerged unscathed.

Since then, authorities have embarked on a massive campaign to detain, arrest and suspend tens of thousands of government employees for alleged links to the plot. Turkeys opposition parties have condemned the coup but are also warning against further repression.

Those who are innocent should not be thrown into the fire with those who are guilty, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the head of the leftist Republican Peoples Party (CHP), told the Associated Press on Tuesday.

Ishaan Tharoor contributed to this report.

Read more:

In quest to punish coup plotters, Turkey squeezes out room for dissent

Thousands of judges purged in Turkey after failed coup attempt

The cleric blamed by Turkey leads a global movement from the Poconos

Todays coverage from Post correspondents around the world
Nepals prime minister, K.P. Oli, resigned last Sunday, as he faced certain defeat in a no-confidence motion filed by the pro-India Nepali Congress (NC) and the Maoist United Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist (UCPN-M).

India undoubtedly had a significant hand in toppling the Oli government. New Delhi is determined to undercut Beijings growing influence on Nepal, which is wedged between India and China. The Indian government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi is working closely with the US in support of Washingtons pivot to Asia policy directed against China.

In a deal with the NC, the Maoists withdrew from Olis ruling Communist Party of Nepal UML (CPNUML)-led coalition on July 12 and filed the no-confidence motion. The United Democratic Madhesi Front (UDMF) backed the move. It is an alliance of Madhesi parties, which are demanding greater autonomy in Nepals southern Terai region, bordering India. The UDMF said it would support the formation of a new government only if it receives a written promise to address their demands.

Olis administration was the eighth government since 2006 when the Maoist party abandoned its rural guerrilla movement and joined the NC and the UPNUML to scuttle mass struggles against Nepals monarchy. India supported that manoeuvre as part of its efforts to keep the country under its sway.

Announcing his resignation after a three-day parliamentary debate, Oli said he had maintained international relationships with India and China based on national independence and sealing some trade agreements with China, thereby ending dependence on a single nation [India] for trade and commerce. He spoke of thereby transforming the nation from land-locked to land-linked.

In his resignation speech, Oli described the game to change the government as mysterious, but did not elaborate. Earlier, however, on July 14, addressing a National Security conference in Kathmandu, Oli directly accused India of engineering the operation. After declaring that he never compromised on the national interest, Oli said: India used the Nepali Congress and Maoists against my government and is trying to topple it.

India has denied any responsibility. On July 10, speaking to visiting Nepali parliamentarians, Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj asked them not to drag India into Nepals internal affairs. However, she went on to accuse Oli of not keeping promises made to the Indian prime minister.

The Maoist partys deal with the NC stipulated that its leader Pushpa Kamal Dahal (Prachanda) would become prime minister for nine months and then hand over to Congress leader Sher Bahdur Deuba. Addressing the parliament, Dahal made a thinly-veiled reference to the tensions between India and China, saying: Given our geopolitical realities, we have to make fair and balanced relations with our neighbors. So we have to strengthen our internal national unity.

The Hindu and the Times of India reported that after withdrawing support from the Oli government, Dahal sent a party leader, Matrika Yadev, to New Delhi to secure its support. According to the Times, Yadev did not just meet MEA [ministry of external affairs] officials, but also Janatha Dal MP Sarad Yadev and National Congress Party MP D.P. Tripathi. They met to allay Indian concerns about Dahals past pro-China policies, the Times reported.

Oli accused India of making a similar regime-change attempt in May. New Delhi officials and Deuba reportedly persuaded Dahal to quit the government but he changed his mind at the last moment. In return, Oli promised to withdraw criminal charges against Maoist party members allegedly involved in the decade-long insurgency from 1996 to 2006 and expedite reconstruction work in the country, which was devastated by a deadly earthquake early last year.

In retaliation for Indias intervention, Oli recalled Nepals envoy to New Delhi, saying the ambassador was part of the conspiracy, and cancelled a visit to India by Nepals president.

During the past year, India has increasingly pressed Nepal to distance itself from China. Sections of Nepals elite had sought to lessen the countrys dependence on India, seeing it as limiting the pursuit of their own interests.

As part of Indias response, last September New Delhi backed the Madhesi parties agitation for greater regional powers in Nepals new constitution. India effectively supported the Madhesi parties disruption of supplies from India to Nepal. The blockade, which dragged for five months, resulted in serious shortages of fuel, medicine and other essentials, compounding the impoverished conditions facing the masses.

Oli ultimately made constitutional amendments to give limited concessions to the Madhesis, but Modi pressed for further concessions. The Indian government had no concern for the democratic rights of the Madhesi people but exploited the issue as a lever to influence Kathmandu.

In March, Oli made a five-day visit to China and signed several trade and investment agreements, including for China to open more transit points for Nepal. China also agreed to build an oil pipeline from China to Nepal, an international airport for the city of Pokhara and a new bridge at the border town of Hilsa. China surpassed India as the top donor to Nepal.

Olis government was toppled just as the South China Morning Post reported that Chinese President Xi Jinping was planning to visit Nepal in October. The newspaper said the visit was widely seen as a key to Chinas outreach in South Asia as it battles for influence in the region. Since the Oli governments collapse, Beijing has yet to make a statement on Xis visit.

In another sign of the intensifying geopolitical tensions, Olis communication minister, Sherdhan Rai, accused the Maoists of making their move at the behest of external forces, who are interested in stalling the Chinese presidents visit.

The collapse of the Oli government has only deepened the political instability in Nepal. None of the parties in the political establishment has the slightest concern for the interests of the workers and poor. The population is being dragged into a dangerous maelstrom, driven by the moves against China by India and the US.
Categories Hair

Selena Gomez celebrated her 24th birthday over the weekend with a new leg of her Revival world tour, and a fresh haircut. While she gave her Snapchat followers a sneak peek at her shorter, curlier do, she didnt officially debut the look until last night.

If youve been following Selena on Instagram, youre aware that she also has an account solely dedicated to her tour. Luckily for us, the photographer who is capturing behind-the-scenes looks also managed to give us a peek at Selenas new chop. Selena shortly followed suit afterwards, sharing a photo of her arriving in Indonesia: Her shoulder-grazing cropped look is perfect for landing on new grounds.

This isnt Selenas first hair change while out on tour, though. Right before her first show this past May, Selena headed to Nine Zero One in Los Angeles for a trim and some blonde additions to her waves. Shortly afterward, she debuted a set of subtle bangs, following by much bolder, blunt fringe.

At the rate Selenas going, were almost positive that this isnt the last hairstyle makeover shell attempt while gracing arenas around the globe. Well be keeping our eyes peeled for any new looks from the chart-topper.
From Cosmopolitan

Two attackers invaded a church Tuesday during morning Mass near the French city of Rouen, killing an 84-year-old priest by slitting his throat and taking hostages before being shot and killed by police, French officials said.

Another person inside the church was seriously injured and is hovering between life and death, Interior Ministry spokesman Pierre-Henry Brandet said.

Police managed to rescue three other people inside the church in the small northwestern town of Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, Brandet told reporters, and the two attackers were killed outside the church.

The identities of the attackers and motive for the attack are unclear, according to a French security official who was not authorized to be publicly named. The Islamic State said the church attack was carried out by two "soldiers" from the group.

Brandet said the RAID special intervention force was searching the perimeter of the church ahead of entering for possible explosives and terrorism investigators had been summoned.

"The investigations are ongoing. There are still unknowns," Brandet said. "There are dogs, explosive detectors and bomb disposal services and as long as there are still unknowns, the judicial police cannot get inside the site. It's a dramatic situation."

It was the first known attack inside a French church in recent times. One was targeted last year, but the attack never was carried out. The anti-terrorism division of the Paris prosecutor's office immediately opened an investigation.

French President Francois Hollande traveled to the town. Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve was also visiting.

Dominique Lebrun, the archbishop of Rouen, confirmed the death of 84-year-old Rev. Jacques Hamel.

"I cry out to God, with all men of good will. And I invite all non-believers to unite with this cry," Lebrun wrote in a statement from Krakow, Poland, where Pope Francis was visiting. "The Catholic Church has no other arms besides prayer and fraternity between men."

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France is currently on high alert after an attack in Nice on Bastille Day - July 14 - that killed 84 people and a string of deadly attacks last year claimed by the Islamic State group that killed 147 others. France is also under a state of emergency and has extra police presence after the Nice attack, where a man barreled his truck down the city's famed Promenade des Anglais, mowing down holiday crowds.

Islamic State extremists have urged followers to attack French churches and the group is believed to have planned at least one church attack earlier.

In April 2015, an Algerian student who was arrested after shooting himself in the leg was found with heavy weapons, bulletproof vests, and documents linked to Islamic State. He is charged with killing a young woman inside her car the same day. According to French authorities, the suspect, Sid Ahmed Ghlam, was sent by the Belgian Abdelhamid Abaaoud to attack a church in Villejuif, just outside of Paris.

A cell directed by Abaaoud later carried out the Nov. 13 attacks in Paris that left 130 people dead and the March 22 attacks in Brussels that killed 32 people.
Jeff Grant and Lynn Springer

Shame. Ostracism. A shift to food stamps.

This is a harsh reality for the families of white-collar criminals  hedge fund managers convicted of insider trading, or bankers nabbed for embezzlement.

Sure, these are some of the world's most privileged people, and incarceration certainly ruins lives across the economic spectrum.

So these "one-percenters" garner no public sympathy. But that also means their families are left with few resources and little guidance on how to face the jarring change of losing  very often  a sole source of income and an entire social network.

In Greenwich, Connecticut, one of the US's richest cities, a ministry is trying to provide that help.

Jeff Grant, a former corporate lawyer who served nearly 14 months in prison after pleading guilty in 2006 to wire fraud and money laundering, launched Progressive Prison Ministries with his wife. The two work with hedge fund managers, corporate lawyers, doctors, and their spouses across the country.

"They're coming in droves," Grant told Business Insider, adding that he received at least one inquiry a day. "People need help."

Practical guidance



That help can range from financial support to emotional support. And sometimes it's just practical guidance on how to obtain help that is already available  but perhaps was once unthinkable.

The ministry helped one Connecticut wife who could no longer afford food or have her driveway plowed in the winter, pointing her to food stamps and subsidies for the heating bill, Grant and his wife, Lynn Springer, said. Regulators froze the wife's bank accounts after her husband was charged with a crime, they said.

The ministry offers an uncommon service, given that white-collar criminals and their families have little social support other than online forums.

Lisa Lawler, a blogger who runs a support site called the White Collar Wives Club, highlighted the misconceptions surrounding the wives of criminals.

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Andrew Caspersen

"The truth is that white collar crime knows no professional or economic boundary," she wrote on her blog. "Nonetheless, white collar wives are mostly seen as entitled, spoiled and undeserving of pity and in most cases, are not considered victims at all."

But the cases she describes are harrowing, like that of a woman in her mid-70s, whom she calls Susan, whose husband's conviction left her homeless and estranged from her only daughter. Lawler wrote that she couldn't locate Susan, ever since she was kicked out of a motel she was living in.

"White collar wives are blindsided by their husband's criminal activity and often have little opportunity to get our from under the fallout unless they act quickly," she wrote. "Susan's husband may be incarcerated, but he has a roof over his head."

Springer works with the wives and families of the mostly male white-collar criminals, while Grant organizes weekly call-in video sessions for the men, some of whom have recently returned from prison.

Though the ministry has a Christian bent, Grant, a Jewish convert, says he accepts anyone. Some attendees are Jewish, one participant said. They discuss rejection, loss, and how to move forward.

Returning to a previous career is often not an option, so Grant helps attendees find new routes. In one case, he helped a former hedge funder go to school for social work to become a drug counselor.

"This is not an atypical situation," Grant said.

Grant was barred from practicing law, and he opted to become a minister.



'Painfully alone'

Reentering old social circles is often not an option, either. And that requires adjustment, according to Bill, one of Grant's participants who, before going to prison, headed a New York investment firm. He spoke with Business Insider on the condition that we use only his first name.

"I walked with the wealthiest people on the planet," Bill said as he sat on a park bench across 15 Central Park West, one of Manhattan's toniest addresses. "All of a sudden, that just evaporates ... Everybody knows one another. There's no anonymity in New York City."

Bill returned from a 20-month prison sentence in Pennsylvania last year, and he said he felt fortunate. His wife stayed with him, though they rarely take part in what they once loved about the city, like dining out, he said.

Martoma

"Your identity is wrapped up in what you do and who you know," he said. "That's all gone."

The ministry's group video meetings have helped. Bill says he finds the meetings therapeutic.

"You realize you're not the only one traveling on this highway," he said.

A wife of a Connecticut hedge fund manager who is in prison said she wished she had found support sooner. She also requested anonymity.

"You are painfully alone when this happens," she told Business Insider in an email.

Time has helped the shock of having her husband go through the legal process  from the day the federal investigation was announced up until the guilty verdict.

"The shock was unreal," she said. "At some point, though, survival instincts took over. With having had close friends bury their children and other friends fighting cancer, I knew that no matter how horrible it may have seemed my life had become, we all were healthy and had an unshakable love for one another."

She became the sole breadwinner for her family. Working with Springer at the ministry has helped with the shame.

"You only feel shame if you let yourself," she said.

"I've never been a big fan of public prayer," she added, "but Lynn has an incredible gift and prays with me when we meet."

Grant has also helped her prep for when her husband returns from prison, she added.

Indeed, prison is often just the first step in a new chapter.

"It wasn't the beginning of the end," Bill said of his time served. "It was the end of the beginning."

NOW WATCH: 1 YEAR LATER: Heres what may come next for 'El Chapo' Guzman





More From Business Insider


* Allison departure could be big blow to title hopes * Mattia Binotto appointed chief technical officer (Adds details, quotes) By Abhishek Takle HOCKENHEIM, Germany, July 27 (Reuters) - Ferrari have split with technical director James Allison in a mutual decision, the Formula One team announced on Wednesday, in a move which could deal a big blow to their title ambitions. "Ferrari announces that after three years of working together, Scuderia Ferrari and James Allison jointly decided to part ways," the team said in a statement ahead of this weekend's German Grand Prix. Mattia Binotto will fill the role of Chief Technical Officer, the statement said. Briton Allison joined the glamour team in September 2013 from the Enstone-based Lotus outfit, which is now Renault, and had worked at the Maranello-based squad under technical director Ross Brawn during the Michael Schumacher years. The highly-regarded 48-year-old was seen as the man to spearhead a turnaround in the fortune of the sport's most successful team who have endured a few difficult years. "During the years I spent at Ferrari, at two different stages and covering different roles, I could get to know and appreciate the value of the team and of the people, women and men, which are part of it," Allison said in the statement. "I want to thank them all for the great professional and human experience we shared. I wish everybody a happy future with lots of success." Allison lost his wife to meningitis earlier this year and reports since have hinted he was keen to move back to the UK to spend more time with his three children. Ferrari, who have not won a driver's title since Kimi Raikkonen's 2007 triumph, bounced back from a winless 2014 campaign with three victories last year, becoming the only team other than dominant Mercedes to triumph. They struggled to build on that form and are currently second in the constructors' championship -- without a win and in danger of slipping back to third with resurgent Red Bull just one point behind. "The team would like to thank James for his commitment and sacrifice during the time spent together, and wishes him success and serenity for his future endeavors," team principal Maurizio Arrivabene said. Ferrari's current drivers are four-time champion Sebastian Vettel and Finn Raikkonen. (Reporting by Abhishek Takle; editing by Amlan Chakraborty)
There are a lot of reasons to want to get know Georgia May Jagger, model, brand ambassador and daughter of famous Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger and model Jerry Hall.

Recently in Toronto for the autumn/winter 2016 Thomas Sabo collection launch  Jagger is one of the faces of the brand  Yahoo Canada sat down with the stunning 24-year-old to chat about modelling, that famous #gaptooth and why Malteasers are her ultimate weakness.

Watch the video and let us know your thoughts by tweeting to @YahooStyleCA.
Madrid (AFP) - Spain's top criminal court said Wednesday it had sentenced 11 former executives of stamp firm Afinsa to up to 12 years in jail for their role in a vast scam that ruined thousands of savers.

The Madrid-based Audiencia Nacional also ordered six of the accused to pay 2.57 billion euros ($2.8 billion) in compensation for the losses incurred by investors -- including former Afinsa president Juan Antonio Cano, who was sentenced to 12 years and ten months in prison.

The court said the scam, which saw Afinsa sell low quality and sometimes fake stamps for highly inflated prices to more than 190,000 people in Spain and Portugal from 1998 to 2006, was "one of the biggest frauds our courts ever experienced."

The company promised to buy back people's stamps after these supposedly rose in value, which would see their clients recoup their initial investment plus interest, the court said.

But given that the reportedly rare stamps were actually of little value in the collectors market, initial investors were only paid thanks to the cashflow received by other newer customers, in a classic Ponzi scheme.

By 2006 when authorities started investigating the scam, Afinsa had accumulated 2.57 billion euros in liabilities.

According to the court, the investors were largely middle-class people, "who in many cases lost the savings they were keeping for retirement or for crisis situations."

In one case reported by the El Pais daily in May 2006, nearly half of the 2,300 inhabitants of the village of Dosbarrios, a farming community in the heart of the country, lost their savings.

Apart from Cano, who was found guilty of aggravated fraud and criminal insolvency, the other former executives received prison sentences ranging from two years and three months to 11 years.

They were also ordered to pay fines totalling more than 72 million euros.
From Good Housekeeping

A 2-year-old boy died over the weekend after being left in a hot car in Dallas, reports ABC News. He is the 21st child to die of heatstroke after being left in an overheated car, according to national safety advocacy organization KidsandCars.org - that's nearly twice as high as the number reported last year at this time.

The boy is identified by WFAA-TV as Boi Lei Sang. He was reportedly left in a Honda Pilot while his family attended church. Another member of the church told the outlet that the child's father noticed the boy wasn't at bible service and went outside to look for him. He brought the boy back inside and asked someone to call 911. It's unknown how long the child was left in the car. Temperatures in Dallas on Sunday climbed near 100 degrees.

"The child was transported to a local hospital where the child was pronounced deceased," said police spokesman Carlos Almeida, who called it "an active investigation."

Days before, Samaria Motyka from Williamsport, Pennsylvania had died after a woman who was in charge of dropping her at daycare forgot and drove to work instead, leaving the 4-year-old in the car for hours while temperatures rose to 97 degrees.

So far this year, 21 children have died of heatstroke after being left in hot cars - last year at this time, 11 had died from the same cause, according to KidsandCars.org. On average, 37 children die every year from heat stroke in a vehicle, and infants and toddlers are most at risk, the site reports. Today.com recommends checking your entire car before locking it up - and leaving your bag or phone in the back to help you remember to look in the backseat. Another tip is leaving a stuffed animal in the front seat to serve as a reminder that the child is in a carseat in the back.
Native American Kim McCabe, who belongs to the Navajo Nation, could say the French language had her at "bonjour." The Colorado native says it was during middle school that she realized how big her world had become, just by speaking another language -- and that mastering French would be her long-term goal.

"I could communicate with millions more people around the world, not just in France," says McCabe, who is pursuing her master's in French at Middlebury College in Vermont. She will spend one summer of her program at the Middlebury Language Schools' School of French in Vermont and a full academic year abroad at the Middlebury School in France.

There are many reasons to pursue a foreign language degree abroad. The six official languages of the United Nations -- Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish -- are widely spoken worldwide. They also serve as languages of international diplomacy and global business.

Here are some additional reasons students from around the world have chosen to earn a foreign language degree in another country.

[Read these tips for U.S. students to learn a foreign language in college.]

1. Language and culture immersion: At the Middlebury schools, all students are required to take a Language Pledge -- a promise that they will speak only in the language they are studying throughout the entire program.

Dalal Abo El Seoud, chair of the Department of Arabic Language Instruction at Egypt's American University in Cairo, also recommends language immersion for students. He says this allows students to "learn in different real-world situations beyond the classroom" and helps them "solve problems using language as they deal with native speakers," whether it's conversing with a cashier at the local store or deciphering a restaurant menu.

Finnish national Niina Ollanketo says studying abroad at Heriot Watt University in Edinburgh, Scotland, made her a better communicator, "not only because of knowing foreign languages but because I've learned to use different wording to make myself understood and to explain and re-explain things from different points of view."

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International students who study languages abroad "expand their cultural competencies, gain a better sense of how language works in context and understand their native language in a deeper way," says Rosemary Feal, executive director of the Modern Language Association of America.

2. Funding, including scholarships: International students can find scholarships and other financial resources to offset their educational expenses. For Ollanketo, a European Union citizen, the Scottish government paid her tuition to study at Heriot Watt University. The Finnish social security system also provided her a monthly student allowance for living expenses.

"I considered other universities but only in Scotland because studying there was free -- as it would have been in Finland," says Ollanketo, who graduated in June with an undergraduate degree, referred to as a master's with honors in interpreting and translating French and Spanish.

[See global universities where tuition is low or free.]

Ollanketo says her four-year program allowed her to "learn interpreting in three foreign languages in one degree" -- the third being English -- unlike in Finland where she would have studied philology in one foreign language, with one or two optional courses in interpreting.

"I wanted a more hands-on, practical degree, with more languages," says Ollanketo.

McCabe from Middlebury College received a partial scholarship from the school and says without the funding she would have had "to think much longer and harder about the value of this master's degree."

There are many partial and full scholarships available, such as the U.S. Department of State's Critical Language Scholarships -- awarded to American undergrad and grad students enrolled in a degree program at a U.S. school in any field -- for the equivalent of one academic year of language study abroad. The Danish government offers what it calls "long-term scholarships" to international graduate-level students from China, Japan, Israel, Egypt and Russia who are studying Danish; bachelor's students can also apply if they have studied Danish for two years.

[Find out how to study a foreign language online.]

3. Improve employability: Learning another language builds self-confidence and bolsters communication skills, which in turn can increase employability, says Nasser Isleem, senior lecturer of Arabic at New York University Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates. He says being multilingual adds a highly sought-after skill on resumes and gives students an edge in the job market.

Some language learners studying overseas "find new passion that can affect their specialization or career line, or even relocate to live in another country and continue with their life there," Isleem says. He adds that they are also likely to adapt to new settings quickly, which gives them "a better chance to get jobs in different settings and fields."

Ollanketo's mastery of French and Spanish will likely serve her well as she pursues employment in translation and interpreting. According to Heriot-Watt University, 80 percent of grads with a degree in interpreting and translating French and Spanish land a job in six months. These jobs range from working in education to media and public service.

Meanwhile, the U.S. job market for individuals with language degrees looks promising. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that employment of interpreters and translators will grow much faster than the average of all other occupations -- increasing by 29 percent from 2014 to 2024 -- thanks to globalization and rising numbers of non-English-speakers in the U.S.

Despite a promising U.S. job market, following graduation from Middlebury College, McCabe plans to live in France for a few years. She hopes to work in education, particularly in the study abroad and student exchange field.

"I love that learning a foreign language expands my world," says McCabe. "Paris, in a sense, writes its own narrative, and I can't wait for it to be part of my own."

See the complete rankings of the Best Global Universities.

Anayat Durrani is a Los Angeles-based freelance education reporter for U.S. News, covering global universities, including those in the Arab region.
In so far as its possible to feel sorry for someone who steals the best part of a billion pounds, I confess to having just a little sympathy with Nick Leeson.

The worlds most famous rogue trader was delivering the closing address at ETF.coms Inside ETFs conference in Amsterdam last month. Ive closed other things before, said the worlds most famous rogue trader, Notably a bank.

The bank in question, of course, was Barings. Over a three-year period, operating from its Singapore office, Leeson racked up a staggering 832 million of losses until he could live the lie no longer. In February 1995, he went on the run, and by the time of his arrest in Frankfurt a week later, Britains oldest merchant bank had been declared insolvent.

Leeson is nothing if not honest about joining the public speaking circuit. He needs the money. Employers dont exactly queue up to offer work to a convicted fraudster with a household name. He appears repentant and openly acknowledges his stupidity, dishonesty and greed. He entirely blames himself for the loss of his reputation, his first marriage and his liberty, serving four years in a gang-ridden Singaporean jail, an experience made all the more traumatic by being diagnosed with colon cancer.

But theres a bigger reason to rein in our moral indignation about Nick Leeson. Without in any way condoning what he did, Leeson was the product of a system, an industry, a culture. Many other than Leeson played a part in the collapse of Barings, and Im not just referring to the obvious failure of the banks management to scrutinise his work and to spot the losses he was hiding.

Scandals Continue Today

It is no surprise that bigger scandals have engulfed the banking and financial services sector in the intervening 20 years, and while four key lessons of the Leeson affair continue to go unlearned, we can expect more of the same in the years ahead.

The first lesson is that banks and other major financial organisations must insist on the highest ethical standards. Financial professionals continue to succumb to the same temptations that proved Leesons undoing. In a recent survey of top earners in the City of London and on Wall Street, 34 percent said they had actually witnessed or had first-hand knowledge of unethical or illegal practices in the workplace. An incredible 32 percent said compensation structures or bonus plans pressurize employees to compromise ethical standards or violate the law. Most worryingly, the survey suggests that ethical standards are actually falling.

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Second, we need to insist on more rigorous education and training for financial professionals. Leeson, who failed his maths A Level, admits to having little qualification for his job at Barings other than a burning desire to make money. Standards may well have improved, but why do we insist on would-be doctors, vets and lawyers studying their subject at university for several years, and yet happily allow young people to walk into a job in the City without any formal background in finance?

Stop Idolising The So-Called Stars

Third, we must stop idolising star performers. Leeson was revered by his peers and also his managers, who convinced themselves they had found a money making machine. Just days before his downfall, colleagues were flown from around the world to a champagne party to celebrate his latest industry award. It is human nature to look for heroes and in this the media is the biggest culprit. But the reality is there are very few genuine stars in financial markets. Of course there are outliers, but much of the performance we ascribe to skill is in fact the result of random chance. And in cases like those of Leeson or Bernie Madoff, where the figures seem too good to be true, they usually are.

The fourth and final lesson of the Barings collapse is related to the third, and its this: we need to make a much clearer distinction between speculating and investing and to ensure that the consumers understand it. The reason why its so difficult to outperform with any degree of persistence is that financial markets are fundamentally efficient (and indeed more efficient than they were 20 years ago).

The way to win  other than by investing passively and incurring fewer costs  is to take more risk, to be contrarian, to do what others arent doing and to keep doing it. The downside, of course, is that you are just as likely to lose. Nick Leeson, who effectively gambled on the future direction of the Japanese markets, is an extreme example of precisely that. As markets become even more efficient and money managers find it even harder to outperform, the temptation to take bigger and bigger risks  yes, to gamble  with their employers or their clients money will only rise, especially if their jobs and bonuses depend on it.

Unless we heed the lessons, there will be more Nick Leesons, more collapsed institutions and more fleeced customers in the future.





Robin Powell produced and presented How to Win the Losers Game for Sensible Investing TV. He is a journalist and the founder of Regis Media, a content marketing company for the evidence-based investing sector.

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(ANCHORAGE, Alaska)  Two Good Samaritan vessels rescued 46 people Tuesday night who abandoned their sinking fishing boat in the Bering Sea off Alaskas Aleutian Islands, the Coast Guard said.

There were no reports of any injuries as the crew members were transferred from life rafts to the merchant ships, in a fairly calm seas, Coast Guard Petty Officer Lauren Steenson said.

The ships then embarked on a 13-hour voyage to Adak, Alaska, a port in the Aleutians.

When the 220-foot Alaska Juris started taking on water Tuesday morning, all crew members donned survival suits and got into three rafts.

An emergency beacon alerted the Coast Guard to the sinking ship just after 11:30 a.m. Alaska Standard Time.

The Good Samaritan ships Spar Canis and the Vienna Express rushed to the scene in response to a Coast Guards emergency broadcast for help, as did two other merchant vessels.

The trouble occurred about 690 miles west of Dutch Harbor, one of the nations busiest fishing ports.

The Coast Guard also diverted the cutter Midgett and dispatched two C-130 transport planes and two helicopters from Kodiak to the site of the sinking ship, located near Kiska Island, which is about 690 miles west of Dutch Harbor, one of the nations busiest fishing ports.

One C-130 monitored the rescue situation overhead.

It wasnt immediately known what caused the Alaska Juris to begin taking on water, and that will be part of the Coast Guard investigation, Steenson said.

Weather conditions were calm seas and winds, but there was low visibility because of heavy fog, Coast Guard Chief Warrant Officer Joseph Ayd said.

Its not the first trouble the Alaska Juris has encountered in recent years.

In March 2012, a fisherman on board the Alaska Juris died after a cable snapped and struck him in the head. Days later, another fisherman was treated for a head injury after a cable snapped aboard the vessel and struck him.

In May 2012, the crew of the Alaska Juris requested help from the Coast Guard after three crew members were exposed to ammonia after a leak when the ship was just north of Cold Bay, Alaska. The Coast Guard flew the trio to Cold Bay, where an airplane was waiting to fly them to Anchorage.

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AP writer Mark Thiessen contributed to this story from Anchorage. Seavey reported from Phoenix.
4Patriots LLC has donated a three-month supply of its Food4Patriots emergency food to the Community Action Partnership of Kern Food Bank for the purpose of helping feed victims of wildfires in and around Bakersfield, Calif

NASHVILLE, TN / ACCESSWIRE / July 27, 2016 / Recent wildfires in California that burned more than 30,000 acres of land took the lives of at least two people and destroyed more than 100 structures, including homes, according to The Los Angeles Times and other media outlets, prompting Gov. Jerry Brown to declare a state of emergency for Kern County.

4Patriots LLC of Nashville, Tenn., responded to the carnage by donating a three-month supply of its Food4Patriots emergency food to the Community Action Partnership of Kern Food Bank.

"We understand that approximately 2,000 people in the area evacuated their homes while firefighters moved in to try to save those dwellings," said Allen Baler, Partner at 4Patriots. "Our hearts ache for the victims and for those who lost their homes in the fires."

"But those are just words. We decided to back up our words with a donation of our Food4Patriots emergency food in order to help those who have been devastated by this disaster. The need is still great there, so we encourage everyone who is able to donate to food banks in the Bakersfield area to do so."

The 72-hour, one-week, four-week, three-month and one-year emergency food kits from Food4Patriots have shelf lives of up to 25 years. The food in these kits can be prepared in less than 20 minutes and requires only boiling water. It's contained in easy-to-store Mylar pouches, which keep out air, moisture and light.

"We strongly recommend that people stock up on emergency food so they can help themselves if they're ever victims of extreme weather. Store shelves often empty quickly in these situations, and even when they don't, it can be difficult to get to those stores."

Other 4Patriots products include:

Patriot Power Generator, a portable solar generator designed to provide electricity for important devices and equipment during a power outage or disaster situation.

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Water4Patriots, featuring the Alexapure Pro water filtration system and the Survival Spring personal water filter, both designed to provide the user with safe, clean drinking water in any situation.

Power4Patriots, a series of Do-It-Yourself videos and manuals (printed and electronic) showing how to build solar panels, a wind turbine, a solar water heater and a solar air heater.

SurvivalSeeds4Patriots, a seed vault containing approximately 5,340 survival seeds from 21 varieties of heirloom, non-genetically modified seeds, rated for five-plus years of storage.

Patriot Power Hub, a portable device that jumpstarts almost any vehicle, charges electronic devices, functions as a powerful flashlight and a flashing strobe light, and includes a steel, glass-breaking hammer.

Food4Patriots provides emergency food products that are shelf-stable for 25 years. Food4Patriots survival food kits are made with food grown, harvested and packaged in the United States, and all of the meals are made without any genetically-modified products, preservatives or fillers. The kits are available in 72-hour, one-week, four-week, three-month and one-year supplies.

For more information, please visit http://www.4patriots.com

Contact Info:

Name: Tim Boyle

Email: timm.boyle@4patriots.com

Organization: 4Patriots LLC

SOURCE: 4Patriots LLC
On Tuesday night, hip-hop heads flocked to Brooklyn and took in the hits from a loaded lineup headlined by G-Eazy and Logic for their Endless Summer Tour with support from YG and Yo Gotti.

G-Eazy Brings Light to His Struggles On 'When It's Dark Out'

Openers YG and Yo Gotti brought the street appeal to the bill, as the Compton rapper YG delivered cuts from both his chart-topping debut, 2014's My Krazy Life, as well as his sophomore effort Still Brazy. Yo Gotti brought his No. 1 smash "Down In The DM" as well as standouts from his The Art of Hustle LP, while Logic brought an onslaught of bars to Barclays and G-Eazy dominated the sold-out stint with a mix of hip-pop fan favorites like his Top 10 single Bebe Rexha collaboration "Me, Myself And I."

Below, Billboard recaps the highlights of the night.

1. Performing at Barclays was "a dream" for both Logic and G-Eazy

During the show, both Logic and G-Eazy ruminated on their humble beginnings that consisted of performing low-paying shows to small turnouts. For one, Logic shared that he was only paid $100 for his first show in Brooklyn, which hosted 50 attendees. As for YG's first New York show, he performed in a tiny room at Webster Hall for approximately 100 people.

Just Headlined Barclays Center in NYC. Watch it on my SnapChat: Logic301 -- @nickmahar

A photo posted by logic301 (@logic301) on Jul 26, 2016 at 7:17pm PDT

2. Brooklyn is definitely anti-Trump

YG riled up the crowd with a live rendition of his politically charged cut "FDT (F--- Donald Trump)." G-Eazy also joined in on a performance of the remix, which was released earlier this month with additional bars from Macklemore. Somewhere in America, Hillary Clinton was smiling as the crowd jeered at the thought of Trump becoming president. YG also revealed that he wasn't allowed to sell "F--k Donald Trump" shirts at Barclays Center because Trump "owns a piece of this building."

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Whole Barclays was singing FUCK @realDonaldTrump hahahahahaha @YG & @G_Eazy did that! ------------ pic.twitter.com/SPS2AKq3I8

- Rob Markman (@RobMarkman) July 27, 2016

YG says he wasn't allowed to sell "Fuck Donald Trump" t-shirts at Barclays Center because Trump is an owner of the building which I don't think is true but is a good yarn nonetheless

A video posted by joncaramanica (@joncaramanica) on Jul 26, 2016 at 4:30pm PDT

3. Yo Gotti is a party starter

During his set, Gotti had the crowd pumped by jumping into bangers by other artists like Rae Sremmurd's "No Type" and Fetty Wap's "My Way." He also had fans screaming "My DM just caught a body" during the performance of his chart-topping hit "Down in the DM." Club favorites like 2013's "Act Right," Gotti's collaboration with YG and Jeezy as well as 2010's Lil Wayne-assisted "Women Lie, Men Lie" also turned the tour into an instant lituation.

#Brooklyn MAD LUV-- [ SnapChat : iamyogottikom ]

A photo posted by Yo Gotti (@yogottikom) on Jul 26, 2016 at 7:46pm PDT

Barclays got wavy when Gotti @yogottikom performed "Down in the DM" side to side wavy! -------------- #newyork #nyc #brooklyn #hiphop #music #yogotti #cmg #epicrecords #barclayscenter #memphis #nycnightlife #concert #vibes #weup

A video posted by Sid The Kid (@sidthekid1) on Jul 26, 2016 at 7:25pm PDT

4. Logic is a Rubik's Cube on the mic

Logic took a brief time-out from rapping to show off his Rubik's Cube-solving skills, which he was able crack in under 30 seconds. For his set, the Maryland MC ran through fan favorites like "Gang Related" and "Super Mario World." For his set, Logic ran through fan favorites like "Gang Related" and "Super Mario World." He even showed the crowd how to make a beat from his MPC and freestyled over the newly created beat. He also performed more bangers like "Flexicution" and "Wrist."

Straight off that Bobby Tarantino tape! @Logic301 pic.twitter.com/Q22N9MmdWm

- XXL Magazine (@XXL) July 27, 2016

5. Jadakiss is a G-Eazy fan

G-Eazy expressed his gratitude for New York rap when he brought out Yonkers' own Jadakiss. After Jada performed "Why" and "Knock Yourself Out," he lauded the Bay Area rapper for his resiliency and ability to sell out Barclays.

#EndlessSummerTour was lit! -- @G_Eazy x @Therealkiss pic.twitter.com/vqCaGmUN1s

- Simply Rockin (@Simply_Rockin) July 27, 2016

6. G-Eazy is conquering the Bay and beyond

G's scintillating set wasn't just a solo endeavor. Aside from Jadakiss, he also recruited Bebe Rexha, Marc E. Bassy, Ty Dolla $ign and Nef The Pharaoh for his Barclays stint. He also rolled through tracks like his Hot 100 Top 10 hit "Me, Myself And I" featuring Rexha, "I Mean It," the Jay Ant-collaboration "Far Alone," "Tumblr Girls" and his personal opus "Loaded."

Bebe joining G-Eazy on stage to perform 'Me, Myself & I' yesterday in Brooklyn #4  pic.twitter.com/wRbrLp3HDY

- Bebe Rexha crew  (@rexhacrew) July 27, 2016
From ELLE

The Beach Read is an elusive, tricky category: hard to pin down, but instantly recognizable. For example, Bridget Jones' Diary is definitely a beach read (chatty, fun, romance-y) in a way that Underworld is not (verrrrry long, intricately structured, layered to infinity with historical commentary).

But for the most part, the components of a beach read are simple: a galloping narrative; absorbing prose; subject matter that might be quotidian or fluffy but has bite; and a hint of the sensational, a spark that makes the act of reading feel like an indulgence rather than a chore. Clearly, this combination is popular for a reason. The books we reach for in the warm months are easy and light, meant to be inhaled in one sitting. Summer is the languorous season, when we want to be able to enjoy the act of reading without too much effort.

Still, that doesn't mean there's only one kind of book that we can put in our beach bags. There are plenty of other titles beyond those frothy, flirty, somewhat socially unacceptable books that can capture the same exhilarating feelings, without coming from one designated category. Here are our suggestions for leveling up your beach read.

The Dazzling Modern Myth

Summer is social; it's two-stepping in a sundress in a stranger's backyard, it's happy hour drinks and dollar oysters gulped down on a Tuesday night in 90 degree heat. Taking the time to read when there are so many other activities beckoning feels like an indulgence-so it had better be a good one. We've selected a couple of modern myths that crackle and spark, grab you firmly by the lapels, and whisk you willingly along for the ride.

'Beauty Is a Wound' by Eka Kurniawan

"One afternoon on a weekend in March, Dewi Ayu rose from her grave after being dead for twenty-one years." So starts this magical gem of a novel. On one level, it's the story of Dewi Ayu, a mixed-race prostitute, and her three beautiful daughters. On another, it's a fairytale in the tradition of One Hundred Years of Solitude, chronicling the history of Indonesia and drawing upon elements of myth to create an intoxicating tale. (New Directions)

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'The Paper Menagerie & Other Stories' by Ken Liu

Even if genre fiction and short stories aren't your style, Ken Liu's short stories will enchant you. The worlds he creates toe the line between magical realism and speculative fiction, yet are just close enough to reality to feel possible. In the title story, a Chinese mother breathes her love into magical origami animals for her son that keep him company. Keep tissues at the ready. (Saga Press)

The True-to-Life Tale

Gone Girl set the standard for a tightly-paced, headrush-inducingly plotted beach read, with a thrilling story that drew from real-life emotion but felt like watching a buzzy procedural. The best thrillers hew closely to reality while maximizing the drama, but, as they say: Truth can be stranger than fiction. We'd add that truth can also be just as addictively readable. These books tell true stories that will fascinate you.

'In Cold Blood' by Truman Capote

In 1959, in Holcomb, Kansas, the Clutter family was dragged out of bed, tied up, and shot at close range. Truman Capote and his assistant Harper Lee went to investigate, and the account that came of Capote's years-long obsession with the case is now a classic work of narrative non-fiction. Although it's based on fact, Capote called In Cold Blood a "nonfiction novel"-and it has the deep concern with human nature, consequences, and suspense of the best fiction. (Vintage)

'One of Us: The Story of Anders Breivik and the Massacre in Norway' by Asne Seierstad

Here, human tragedy proves as gripping, and more affecting, than your run-of-the-mill thriller. On one horrific day in 2011, Anders Breivik killed 77 people at two locations in Norway. Seierstad's book is a holistic look at the psychology of evil and how a peaceful, relatively non-violent society dealt with massive, shocking loss. It's thoroughly reported and beautifully written, absorbing despite the horrors it describes. (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux)

The Traditional Beach Read, Turned Up to 11

These books could be considered traditional beach reads; they're novels that elevate the seemingly inconsequential events of everyday life from the banal to the sublime. Like all beach reads, these go by like a breeze. But these books heighten the best elements of the category, dazzling us with their unique, sharp, and memorable writing.

'Losing It' By Emma Rathbone

A refreshing new entry in the "virgin's progress" category, Losing It follows Julia Greenfield, 26-year-old virgin, over one hot summer in North Carolina. Holed up with her Aunt Vivienne, who at 58 also happens to be a virgin, Julia misguidedly spends the summer attempting to figure out why her aunt held on to it for so long while doing everything she can to lose hers, so as to avoid such an unseemly-or so she thinks-fate. (Riverhead Books)

'Dating Tips for the Unemployed' by Iris Smyles

Especially if you power through it in one sitting-or one "lounging"-this collection of rambling and loose-jointed vignettes perfectly encapsulates the feeling of being mired in the strange muck of the late '20s and early '30s, stuck between "fake adult" and "actual adult." Interspersed with amusingly bizarre vintage advertisements for books like Crafting With Cannoli Box String, Smyles' book feels like leafing through an extraordinary personal diary, at times both blunt and lyrical. (Mariner Books)

The Vacation Stand-in

Summer is a great time for forcibly clearing the cold months from your brain. Sometimes, though, an actual vacation is just not going to happen. The fix? Read a book that takes you to distant terrain, with prose so crisp and crackling and good that you essentially feel like you're somewhere far, far away.

'The Encyclopedia of Trouble and Spaciousness' by Rebecca Solnit

This collection of essays treks, with its author, to diverse and far-off locales, from New Orleans to Haiti and Iceland. In each place, Solnit examines what is causing "trouble" for the local residents, and puzzles out the causes and consequences. Solnit's signature blend of history, science, justice, and the personal illustrates each location just as she finds it, with a sense of specificity, sensitivity, and empathy. (Trinity University Press)

'Fear and Clothing: Unbuckling American Style' by Cintra Wilson

If Cintra Wilson wrote a book about a laundromat, it would be interesting. So it's no surprise that her sartorial journey across the United States, during which she aims to learn about us by examining what we wear, is a rollicking, whip-smart adventure. No matter what you're wearing during these warm months, this "fashion road trip" will get you dreaming about outfits and the others who wear them. (W.W. Norton & Company)
The second-quarter earnings season is in full swing this week. So far, we have results from 126 S&P 500 members (as of Jul 22) that combined account for 32.7% of the indexs total market capitalization as per the Earnings Trends report. Revenues are up 2.6% while earnings are down 1.1%. However, the beat ratio is 70.6% for the bottom line and 55.6% for the top line.

Accident and Health insurance is part of the broader Medical sector. So far, 15.4% of the total Medical sector has come up with second-quarter results. The sector is expected to deliver 1.8% earnings growth backed by 7.7% higher revenues. This compares favorably with the projected 3.4% earnings decline on 0.5% lower revenues for the S&P 500 index.

Lets see what factors might have influenced its performance in the second quarter.

Accident and Health insurers face intense competition in workers compensation insurance (one of the most popular accident policies) due to abundant market capacity. Premium rates have been declining for this insurance line and will continue to fall through 2016.

Also, diversified product offerings and expansion into newer markets are likely to have driven revenues. Cost management should give the bottom line a boost.

Health insurers will see top-line growth with higher enrollment. The supplemental health insurance policies are highly sought after as out-of-pocket medical costs are growing for many Americans. Health Care Reform has spurred demand for supplemental coverage and companies are experiencing top-line growth from these products.

Additionally, the firms are generating steady free cash flow, and will push up their bottom line through share buybacks.

As many as 189 S&P 500 companies will release results from Jul 2529.

Lets find out whats in store for these two accident and health insurers that will report second-quarter earnings results on Jul 28:

Aflac Inc. AFL through its subsidiary, American Family Life Assurance Company of Columbus, provides supplemental health and life insurance products. Last quarter, Aflac delivered a 6.8% positive earnings surprise. It has an Earnings ESP of +0.60% and a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). The Most Accurate estimate for the quarter is $1.69, a penny above the Zacks Consensus Estimate.

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We expect sales of third sector products to be down, given the production strength seen in 2015. Also sales of first sector products will be low since Aflac is taking steps like production caps, commission restructuring, product re-pricing and in select cases, product discontinuance, to control its sales.



Aflac is likely to witness an increase in revenues and pretax income in the quarter. In addition, Aflac U.S. is likely to have experienced premium sales growth.

With respect to the surprise trend, the company surpassed estimates in three out of the last four quarters. The average beat for the trailing four quarters is 4.1% (Read more: Is a Surprise in Store for Aflac This Earnings Season?)



AFLAC INC Price and EPS Surprise

AFLAC INC Price and EPS Surprise | AFLAC INC Quote

Amerisafe, Inc. AMSF, based in DeRidder, LA, is an insurance holding company that provides workers compensation insurance in the United States.

Last quarter, the companys earnings beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 57.5%. It has an Earnings ESP of 0.00% as both the Most Accurate estimate and the Zacks Consensus Estimate stand at 86 cents. So, although the company carries a favorable Zacks Rank #3 (Hold), surprise prediction is difficult.

With respect to surprise trend, the company surpassed estimates in each of the last four quarters. The average beat for the trailing four quarters is 25.86%.



AMERISAFE INC Price and EPS Surprise

AMERISAFE INC Price and EPS Surprise | AMERISAFE INC Quote

Stay tuned! Check back on our full write-up on earnings releases of these stocks.

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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AFLAC INC (AFL): Free Stock Analysis Report



AMERISAFE INC (AMSF): Free Stock Analysis Report



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Zacks Investment Research
From LennyLetter

On the same night that Hillary Clinton was officially nominated as the Democratic candidate for president, Lena and her friend American Ferrera addressed the convention (and the nation!) with some thoughts on why Love Trumps Hate.

Lena Dunham: Hi, I'm Lena Dunham and according to Donald Trump, my body is probably, like a two.

America Ferrera: And I'm America Ferrera and according to Donald Trump, I'm probably a rapist.

LD: You're not Mexican.

AF: And President Obama isn't Kenyan, but that hasn't stopped Donald.

LD: Now I know what you're all thinking: Why should I care what some television celebrity has to say about politics?

AF: We feel the same way. But he is the Republican nominee, so we need to talk about him.

LD: The un-funny fact is, this man would have you believe that our differences are more important than what unites us.

AF: The truth is that this country was founded on the belief that what sets us apart  race, language, religion, sexual orientation  should not dissolve what binds us.

LD: Which is why we're proud to say, "we're with Hillary!"

AF: As a child of Honduran immigrants, I am profoundly grateful for the access and opportunity that exists in this extraordinary nation. I was educated in public schools; my talents were nurtured through public arts programs and occasionally I needed a free meal to get through the school day. Not everyone looks at the millions of young people like me  children born into struggling families, children born to immigrant parents, children who are immigrants themselves  and sees an investment. But Hillary has spent the last 30 years proving what she sees in us. Not our color, gender, or economic status, but our capacity to grow into thriving adults able to contribute great things to this country.

LD: I'm a pro-choice, feminist, sexual assault survivor with a chronic reproductive illness. Donald and his party think I should be punished for exercising my constitutional rights, and his rhetoric about women takes us back to a time when we were meant to be beautiful and silent. Meanwhile, 22 years ago, Hillary declared that women's rights are human rights. And she made it possible for my fellow sexual assault survivors in my home state of New York to have access to safe, immediate care in any emergency room. Hillary knows that access and opportunity are the American promise  not transphobia, Islamophobia, xenophobia, and systemic racism. She knows that hatred of all kinds is ours collectively to change, not to ignite for the craven purpose of seeking power.

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AF: Donald's not making America great again, he's making America hate again. The vast majority of us cannot afford to see his vision of America come to be.

LD: Luckily, we the voters carry the future of this country. We don't accept hatred as the norm in our communities  why would we accept it in the Oval Office?

AF: So to everyone here tonight and out there watching at home, here's your chance to join Team Hillary.

LD: Do you want equal pay for equal work? The right to make decisions about your body? Paid family leave? As our queen says, "deal us in."

AF: Text DEAL to 47246 and we will make you a card-carrying member of this team. Let's forcefully reject division.

LD: Let's say with one voice that we all have worth; we're all part of this country.

AF: Let's put Hillary in the White House

LD: And declare

LD & AF: Love trumps hate!
Thank you Andrew Whitney, for the July 20 letter, "American 'Sophie's Choice'" pointing out that, like Sophie, "America has been given a terrible choice" in the 2016 presidential election. The corporate political parties have offered up "a lying deceptive manipulator" and "a potential tyrant." He says "We need a better choice."

Dr. Jill Stein is that better choice. From the Jill2016 website, "It's time to build a people's movement to end unemployment and poverty; avert climate catastrophe; build a sustainable, just economy; and recognize the dignity and human rights of every person. The power to create this new world is not in our hopes; its not in our dreams  it's in our hands." Dr. Stein's Green New Deal addresses how to create this better world.

The old politics of fear has dominated our broken system long enough. The new way forward is the politics of courage. It puts "people, planet and peace over profit." The Green Party takes no corporate money. Dr. Stein's campaign is people-powered. The Green Party is no longer the alternative, it is now the imperative.

Nebraska Green Party is gathering signatures on petitions for a Jill Stein ballot line, which will offer a choice of voting for the next president instead of against either of two "terrible" choices. The deadline for submitting petitions is August 1. As professor Cornel West said in a July 18 Democracy Now! interview, "The next step is a Green step." The interview concluded with Professor West saying, "love is at the center of how we proceed."

Mj Berry, Lincoln
From ELLE

The Democratic National Convention drew some star power this evening, inviting Lena Dunham and America Ferrera to share why they support Hillary Clinton for president.

By way of introduction, Dunham observed that "according to Donald Trump, my body is, like, a 2" and Ferrera added that "according to Donald Trump, I'm probably a rapist."

"We know what you're all thinking," Dunham continued. "Why should you care what some television celebrity has to say about politics?"

"And we feel the same way," Ferrera said, pausing for dramatic effect. "But he is the Republican nominee, so we need to talk about it."

Dunham and Ferrera went on, tag-teaming a speech that seemed to make a special case to millennial women to vote for Hillary in November. But each took time to invoke her own experiences. Ferrera asserted that she is "the proud child of Honduran immigrants" and went on to remind her audience how critical it is that we give Clinton the mandate she needs to invest in those individuals who want to join our nation:

I am profoundly grateful for the access and opportunity that exists in this extraordinary nation. I was educated in public schools. My talents were nurtured in public arts programs. And occasionally, I needed a free meal to get through the school day. Not everybody looks at the millions of young people like me- children born into struggling families, children born to immigrant parents, children who are immigrants themselves. Not everybody looks at them and sees an investment. But Hillary has spent the last 30 years proving what she sees in us. Not our color, gender, economic status, but our capacity to grow into thriving adults capable of contributing great things to this country.

Meanwhile, Dunham tied Hillary's record on women's health and reproductive access to her own narrative. "I am a pro-choice, feminist, sexual assault survivor with a chronic reproductive illness," she said. "Donald Trump and his Party think I should be punished for my constitutional rights. His rhetoric about women takes us back to a time when we were meant to be beautiful and silent."

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Dunham drew the obvious contrast: As first lady, "Hillary Clinton declared that women's rights are human rights." And as a senator from New York, she made it possible for sexual assault survivors "to have access to safe, immediate care in any emergency room."

"Hillary knows that access and opportunity are the American promise-not transphobia, islamophobia, xenophobia, and systemic racism," Dunham said. "She knows we haveto fight hatred of all kinds and not ignite it for the craven purpose ofseeking power."

Ferrera spoke to "the vast majority" of Americans-women, immigrants, minorities, and all the decent men and women who value equality and fairness. "We cannot afford to see [Donald Trump's] vision of America come to be."

"Let's declare," Ferrara said, her voice rising, turning to Dunham to join her: "Love Trumps Hate."
* H1 EBIT 239 mln euros vs Rtrs poll 257 mln euros

* Eyes 2016 EBIT of between 670-720 mln euros

* Flags Brexit, Europe attacks, Turkey uncertainty (Adds CFO comments from call)

By Dominique Vidalon

PARIS, July 27 (Reuters) - AccorHotels on Wednesday predicted its operating profit would rise further this year as Europe's largest hotel group reaps the fruits of its restructuring and gets a boost from the acquisition of luxury hotel group FRHI Holdings.

The world's fifth-largest hotel group however expressed caution about the impact of Britain's vote to leave the European Union and attacks in France and Germany and said the situation in Turkey was "still difficult to measure".

AccorHotels, undergoing an overhaul begun by Chief Executive Sebastien Bazin in 2013, forecast a 2016 operating profit of between 670 million euros ($736.20 million) and 720 million euros, compared with 665 million in 2015. A ThomsonReuters poll produced a forecast of 713 million euros.

"We are giving a target range that is broader than in previous years and reflects some degree of uncertainty," Chief Financial Officer Jean-Jacques Morin told a conference call.

The group will fine-tune this estimate when it releases its third-quarter sales in October, he added.

First-half operating profit fell 4 percent like-for-like to 239 million euros, below the Thomson Reuters average estimate of 257 million euros, as weak trading in France following Islamist attacks in Paris and slumping profits in recession-hit Brazil weighed.

First-half revenue grew 2 percent like-for-like, reflecting solid activity elsewhere in Europe, notably in Britain and in Germany, as well as in recovering southern Europe.

AccorHotels was cautious about France, its largest market accounting for 30 percent of group revenue and EBIT, where profit fell 4.2 percent in the first half and Revenue per Available Room (RevPar) in Paris alone fell 14 percent.

Commenting on the impact of the Bastille Day attack in Nice, Morin said that at this stage AccorHotels' Nice business was down 10 percent. The group had however not yet seen an impact of the attack on bookings in the rest of France.

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Economy Minister Emmanuel Macron said last week that tourism in the Nice area had already seen bookings plunge by 20-30 percent after the attack.

Britain is the group's third-largest market after France and Germany, accounting for around 15 percent of its sales and EBIT.

Britain's vote to leave the EU has caused the value of the pound to fall by about 10 percent, making it more expensive for Britons to travel abroad, and prompted consumer uncertainty.

Morin said the pound's fall could cost AccorHotels 10-15 million euros in second-half profit but with more Britons staying in their country it could also sustain Accor's business in Britain, where it has 220 hotels.

Bazin, a private equity specialist who took over in August 2013, has split Accor into two divisions, HotelServices and HotelInvest, separating its hotel services business from its property activities in a move to boost profitability.

Last week Bazin announced a plan to turn HotelInvest into a subsidiary, paving the way to selling the majority of its capital to institutional investors to raise cash for the group's further expansion.

As part of the restructuring Bazin has also expanded the group's business in China and increased its exposure to the luxury sector with the $2.7 billion acquisition of FRHI Holdings, owner of London's Savoy and New York's Plaza hotels.

AccorHotels has also been strengthening its digital expertise with a flurry of small deals to fight the rising challenge of companies such as Airbnb and online travel agents (OTAs) Expedia and Booking.com.

($1 = 0.9101 euros) (Reporting by Dominique Vidalon, editing by Astrid Wendlandt and David Evans)
By Richard Valdmanis PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - Billionaire environmental activist Tom Steyer is expanding his political agenda beyond climate change to embrace issues ranging from immigration to income inequality, which he expects will be critical to mustering votes for Democrat Hillary Clinton in the November presidential election. Steyer, who four years ago left the hedge fund firm he co-founded in order to devote himself full-time to environmental activism, said he hoped the broader agenda for his NextGen Climate organization would help undermine Republican nominee Donald Trump. He derided the New York real estate magnate's policies as "dangerous" and "delusional." Steyer has directed NextGen, his main advocacy arm, to delve into immigration, racial justice, wealth inequality and education instead of just environmentalism to better drive youth and minority voter turnout for the Nov. 8 election. "Were talking about a broader group of connected issues, and we dont think any of them stand without the others," Steyer told Reuters in an interview on the sidelines of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, explaining the shift. NextGen has already produced ads in California attacking Trump on immigration and his temperament. In one, a group of young people are filmed listening to Trump describe Mexicans as rapists and drug dealers and promising to wall off the border. In another, women look into the camera as Trump's voice is heard calling women fat, disgusting, and ugly. Steyer said he hoped the broader agenda for NextGen would help undermine Trump. "I show him no respect," Steyer said. A Trump spokesperson was not immediately available to comment. NextGen's shift into new issues began a few months ago, Steyer said, and was inspired by his work on California's progressive Fair Shake commission, launched last year by a group of high-profile activists, academics and former politicians focused on wealth inequality in the state. "That was the genesis to some extent. It allowed us to look deeply at all the related issues," he said. NextGen has spent about $20 million so far on the U.S. election, and is likely to spend at least another $55 million by election day. MIXED RESULTS Steyer, who has earned a reputation as America's most influential environmental advocate, has had mixed results in his crusade on climate change, despite the money he has poured into mobilizing voters around the issue. Steyer has battled large-scale oil industry infrastructure projects like the Keystone XL pipeline, which was rejected by the administration of President Barack Obama last year, and has sought to bolster climate-friendly politicians. In 2014, NextGen pumped around $75 million into efforts to support six climate-friendly Democratic candidates in mid-term elections, but only two of whom won their contests. In the current presidential contest, NextGen has fallen short of its aim make climate change a critical issue, eclipsed by voter rage over issues including immigration, the economy and national security. Reuters/Ipsos polling shows only about 25 percent of likely American voters will make a choice on the basis of a candidate's views on climate change, although most agree that the United States should act to combat it. Steyer endorsed Clinton last month after she clinched the Democratic nomination following a heated battle against Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont. Clinton has said she would seek to advance renewable energy use, boost regulation and reduce U.S. consumption of oil and coal if elected. "I can take them at their word that they are going to prioritize this," Steyer said. Trump has called climate change a hoax and has vowed to cut U.S. environmental regulation to expand U.S. drilling and coal mining, part of his bid to win over blue collar voters. Steyer called that position dangerous. "It would be funny if it werent so serious," he said. (Editing by Leslie Adler)
The young singing group that became a sensation after appearing at a Donald Trump rally performing a song in his honor may sue the GOP presidential pick.

Read: USA Freedom Kids: Trump Says He'll Listen to Our CD All Night

The USA Freedom Kids captured the countrys hearts with their patriotic renditions after the trio opened the rally for Trump, earning a ton of applause from his supporters.

They did so well that they were invited to another Trump rally, according to Jeff Popick, the father of the youngest 'Freedom Kid.'

Popick told Inside Edition the Trump campaign later rescinded the invitation, after the group had traveled to Iowa on their own dime.

"We will be filing a lawsuit," he said. "They promised us that the girls could perform other songs and that the exposure, in their words, would be huge."

Popick even wrote the pro-Trump song Freedoms Call which gained them national attention.

"That was an agreement we entered into on the phone at 6:30 at night before the next day when his rally was taking place in Des Moines, Iowa. It was essentially a verbal agreement," Popick claims.

Read: Kids Group Performs Donald Trump Theme Song At Campaign Rally

"There were planned 'changes' and we were to sit in the audience of this rally and we were instructed to not even speak to the media," he told Inside Edition.

Popick says he's not thrilled about going up against Trump, but he will if that's what it takes. He really just hopes the kids will get another chance to perform.

Watch: Donald Trump Lets Loose While Live Tweeting DNC, Slams Speakers

Related Articles:
Paris (AFP) - Agence France-Presse said Wednesday it had fallen victim to a hoax by a person claiming to be a relative of a man killed in the Nice attack who never existed.

A woman claimed in an interview via Twitter that she was the cousin of a man named Timothe Fournier who died after pushing his seven-months pregnant wife out of the way of a rampaging truck.

The account was reported by AFP which put together a comprehensive list of the victims after the July 14 attack, combing through social media networks and local media in a bid to identify and contact family members.

However when an official list was published, the name of Timothe Fournier did not appear among the 84 victims.

When AFP tried to recontact the "cousin", who had given numerous details about the supposed victim, the woman did not reply and closed the Twitter account. AFP corrected the initial story.

"Our journalist, trying to be extremely sensitive and empathetic to victims of the attack, did not sufficiently cross-check and verify the information," said global news director Michele Leridon.

"This is regrettable and harmful to the Agency and its clients who used the story. But we were victims of a malicious act.

"We firmly reminded our news staff of sourcing rules and those governing the use of social media networks," she said.
Some things are better when youre the President of the United States. Meals. Transportation. Housing.

But some things are exactly the same as they are for other people. Like in-flight Wi-Fi.

Very soon, the airplanes of the President, Vice President, Secretary of State, Secretary of Defense and Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staffs will have the same in-flight internet connection as passengers on JetBlue, United, and Virgin America.

The U.S. Government awarded ViaSat, the broadband company that services many commercial airlines, a $73-million, one-year contract for the use of its Ku-/Ka-band connection.

This hybrid connection ensures that aircraft are always connected to the strongest network in the immediate vicinity by automatically switching between satellitesthe exact same satellites commercial jets use.

"ViaSat's high-capacity global in-flight internet service ensures executive and government leaders and their teams can stay connected, informed and productive, maximizing the effectiveness of time in-flight with 'Situation Room and Command Center' connectivity in the sky," Ken Peterman, ViaSats senior vice president, said in a statement.

The ViaSat connection will be used to stream HD video, do HD video conference calls, make phone calls over the internet, and access real-time intelligence.

Related Articles
Paris (AFP) - Air France-KLM said Wednesday it managed to cut its net loss significantly in the first half of this year but warned attacks had reduced the attractiveness of France as a travel destination.

"The global context in 2016 remains highly uncertain regarding the geopolitical and economic environment in which we operate," the French-Dutch airline group said in a statement, citing "a special concern about France as a destination".

The group cut its net loss to 114 million euros in the first half of the year compared to 638 million in the same period in 2015.

On an operating basis, it made a profit of 218 million compared to a loss of 238 million.

While the airline group even managed a net profit of 41 million euros in the second quarter, it noted a "clear deterioration during the quarter" in revenues, which dropped by 5.2 percent.

The company's shares soared nearly five percent in early Paris trading. They later showed a gain of 3.4 percent while the main CAC 40 index was up 1.5 percent.

The results were announced as Air France faced another strike by employees, which forced it to cancel 13 percent of flights on Wednesday during the peak summer travel season.

Chief financial officer Pierre-Francois Riolacci said unit revenue fell by 5.6 percent in the second quarter, which he put down to the sluggish global economic recovery and "most of all the effect of the terror attacks that have struck Europe in recent quarters and which resumed with the Brussels attacks at the end of March."

The March 22 Brussels airport and metro attacks which killed 32 people are believed to be the work of jihadists closely linked to the cell which carried out the November Paris massacres in which 130 people died.

The July 14 attack in Nice in which 84 people were killed when a gunman drove a 19-tonne truck into a crowd of revellers following Bastille Day fireworks has renewed concerns about the impact on tourism, which accounts for 7 percent of France's economy and employs two million people.

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French officials said earlier this month that the number of tourists arriving on regular flights has fallen by 5.8 percent since January, including by 11 percent in Paris.

A Paris stock trader said the airline's results were quite good, but that it faces turbulence ahead.

Air France-KLM is "buffeted by considerable headwinds: attacks, strikes, Brexit, changes to European air regulations, hikes in airport fees, competition from Gulf airlines ... a change in management," said the broker, who requested anonymity.
NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / July 27, 2016 / When most people think about aviation injuries and fatalities, they think of airline crashes. Admittedly, catastrophic crashes usually get the most media coverage. Fortunately, disastrous aviation crashes are relatively rare. On the whole, air travel is indeed the safest way to get from one place to another. Just because a plane doesn't crash, however, doesn't mean passengers can't get seriously injured. Air turbulence is much more common than catastrophic crashes, but it can still cause catastrophic injuries. In fact, air turbulence is the most common cause of injury to airline passengers.

Earlier this summer, an Etihad Airways flight traveling from Abu Dhabi to Jakarta experienced air turbulence so severe, over 30 passengers were injured and nine were so badly injured they had to be transported directly from the runway to the hospital.

You can visit BBC News to read more about this air turbulence accident.

In June 2016, dozens of passengers on a Malaysian Airlines flight traveling from London to Kuala Lumpur were injured due to severe turbulence. As reported by the Telegraph, passengers posted photos showing overturned food carts, spilled food, and scattered luggage - all the aftermath of the flight's path through rough skies over the Bay of Bengal.

In December 2015, an Air Canada flight also experienced violent air turbulence that reportedly caused some passengers to be thrown as high as the plane's ceiling.

Types of Air Turbulence Injuries

Air turbulence injuries can occur in a variety of ways. Unsecured equipment, such as rolling food carts, is a major source of passenger and flight attendant injuries. Falling luggage is also a problem, with some estimates placing falling luggage-related injuries at 4,500 incidents per year. Passengers can also get injured while walking around the cabin or using the lavatory when turbulence strikes. Unfortunately, because turbulence is often unpredictable, passengers can get caught in a bumpy ride with little or no warning. In the cramped interior of an airline cabin, injuries can occur before a passenger has an opportunity to return to his or her seat.

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Although fatal air turbulence injuries are rare, passengers can and do get seriously hurt during flights every year. Severe injuries include broken ribs, head and spine injuries, broken ankles, and internal injuries. Passengers can also experience secondary injuries caused by physiological reactions to turbulence, such as high blood pressure caused by the fear and anxiety associated with a violent flight.

Who Is Responsible for Air Turbulence Injuries?

In many cases, the airline is liable for passenger injuries caused by air turbulence. Although pilots generally can't detect turbulence on radar, they usually receive a warning about impending turbulence from a variety of sources, including other pilots, air traffic controllers, and the Federal Aviation Administration.

The airline is also liable for injuries caused by the negligence of flight attendants. For example, an airline might be responsible in cases where a flight attendant failed to properly secure luggage, or in a situation where a flight attendant left a beverage or food cart in an aisle.

In other cases, passengers can file a lawsuit against the manufacturer of equipment within the aircraft or the manufacturer of the aircraft itself. For example, a defective latch on an overhead storage compartment could cause luggage to fall, resulting in passenger injuries.

Each air turbulence case is different, and a passenger may need to file a lawsuit against more than one party or entity to ensure he or she receives full and fair compensation.

New York Aviation Accident Lawyer

Attorney Jonathan C. Reiter is an experienced aviation accident lawyer who devotes a significant portion of his practice to helping air disaster victims and their families obtain compensation for injuries and deaths caused by negligence in the aviation industry. He has a long track record of success in the area of aviation accidents representation.

If you or a loved one has been injured in an aviation accident, you need the help of an experienced air disaster and injury lawyer.

Call 866-324-9211 today for a free case evaluation.

Source: http://injuryaccidentnews.jcreiterlaw.com/2016/07/20/air-turbulence-can-cause-serious-injuries/

SOURCE: Jonathan C. Reiter Law Firm, PLLC via Submit Press Release 123
With the second-quarter 2016 earnings season picking up pace, the past week saw airline heavyweights like American Airlines Group AAL, JetBlue Airways Corporation JBLU Alaska Air Group, Inc. ALK and Southwest Airlines LUV reporting their respective earnings numbers. While American Airlines, JetBlue and Alaska Air Group reported better-than-expected earnings aided by soft oil prices, Southwest Airlines bottom line lagged expectations. Apart from the earnings miss, the low-cost carrier issued a downbeat guidance for the third quarter, sending its shares skidding.

Moreover, the carriers continued to struggle with respect to revenues with woes related to passenger revenue per available seat mile (PRASM: a key measure of unit revenue) at the forefront.

On the price front, the NYSE ARCA Airline index decreased over 1% to $89.47 during the course of last week, with carriers continuing to struggle with respect to unit revenues. Lufthansas DLAKY disappointing guidance, as its operations were negatively impacted by the rise in terror attacks and the uncertainty following the Brexit vote, also hurt stocks resulting in the index losing value.

Read the last Airline Stock Roundup for Jul 20, 2016.

TRANSPORTATION-AIRLINE Industry Price Index

TRANSPORTATION-AIRLINE Industry Price Index

Recap of the Past Weeks Most Important Stories

1. American Airlines reported better-than-expected earnings in the second quarter of 2016. The company posted adjusted earnings per share of $1.77, beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 12 cents. However, quarterly earnings declined over 32% on a year-over-year basis. Moreover, the carrier announced its decision to defer the delivery 22 wide-body jets from Airbus (read more: American Airlines Q2 Earnings, Sales Beat; Down Y/Y).

2. Low-cost carrier JetBlue Airways second-quarter 2016 earnings (excluding special items) of 53 cents per share beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 4 cents. Earnings improved substantially from the year-ago figure, aided by low fuel costs. Total operating revenue climbed 2% year over year to $1,643 million, beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1,635 million (read more: JetBlue Gains on Q2 Earnings Beat, PRASM Woes Stay).

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3.Alaska Air Group reported second-quarter 2016 earnings per share of $2.12, which surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $2.08 and also increased 20% year over year. The commendable performance can be attributed to lower fuel costs. Quarterly revenues increased 4% year over year. Passenger revenues accounted for bulk of the top line (read more: Alaska Air Q2 Earnings Beat Estimates, Rise Y/Y).

On a separate note, the carriers impending acquisition of Virgin America VA took another step toward closure with the latters shareholders approving the deal.

4. Southwest Airlines reported mixed results for the second quarter of 2016, missing on earnings but beating on revenues. The carriers earnings per share (on an adjusted basis) of $1.19 fell short of the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.22. Earnings, however, increased 15.5% on a year-over-year basis. The carrier anticipates RASM decline in the band of 3% to 4% for the third quarter of 2016 (read more: Southwest Airlines Q2 Earnings Miss, Revenues Beat).

5. Lufthansa has apparently trimmed its earnings per share outlook for 2016 as travel demand to Europe has been waning following multiple terror attacks and the uncertainty following the Brexit vote. The carrier said that advance bookings, especially on long-haul Europe bound routes, have been hurt by the above-mentioned headwinds. The German carrier now expects 2016 adjusted earnings before interest and taxes to be below 2015 levels (the previous guidance had hinted at the measure being slightly above the 2015 figure).

Performance

The following table shows the price movement of the major airline players over the past week and during the last 6 months.

Company Past Week Last 6 months HA 4.84% 28.52% UAL -1.04% 0.04% GOL -4.22% 516.0% DAL -2.63% -12.72% JBLU 2.13% -12.14% AAL 0.41% -7.91% SAVE -2.31% 7.18% LUV -4.67% 2.65% CPA 0.58% 34.52% ALK 4.20% -4.98%

The table above shows that many airline stocks lost value over the past week with Southwest Airlines being the biggest laggard (4.67%). Over the course of six months, the NYSE ARCA Airline index appreciated over 17% on the back of huge gains at GOL Linhas.

What's Next in the Airline Biz?

Investors will look forward to reports from the likes of Spirit Airlines SAVE in the coming days.

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You couldn't go on social media in 2014 without seeing a new video of a friend, celebrity or tech star dumping a bucket of ice water over his or her head to raise money for research into the degenerative neurological disorder ALS, short for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

Now, it looks like that "ice bucket challenge" produced some very real scientific results, according to the ALS Association.

A new Nature Genetics study  funded by money raised through the ice bucket challenge  details the discovery of a new gene associated with ALS.

SEE ALSO: Facebook's latest feature helps you raise money for your favorite charity

The gene, named NEK1, appears to be one of the most common found in association with the disease and may be a good option for future gene therapy, the new study suggests.

Global collaboration among scientists, which was really made possible by ALS Ice Bucket Challenge donations, led to this important discovery, co-author of the new study John Landers, said in a statement.

It is a prime example of the success that can come from the combined efforts of so many people, all dedicated to finding the causes of ALS. This kind of collaborative study is, more and more, where the field is headed.

Scientists found the gene by searching the genomes of more than 1,000 ALS families. Researchers also independently found the gene in a Dutch population, the ALS Association said.

The new study is part of Project MinE, a gene sequencing effort looking at the genomes of about 15,000 people with ALS around the world that's funded by donations raised through the ice bucket challenge.

The discovery of NEK1 highlights the value of big data in ALS research, ALS Association scientist Lucie Bruijn said in the statement. The sophisticated gene analysis that led to this finding was only possible because of the large number of ALS samples available."

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"The ALS Ice Bucket Challenge enabled The ALS Association to invest in Project MinEs work to create large biorepositories of ALS biosamples that are designed to allow exactly this kind of research and to produce exactly this kind of result.

In total, the challenge raised about $115 million, with about $77 million of that going to research. The viral hit also produced some amazing videos.

Stars like Chris Pratt and Justin Timberlake got in on the ice bucket action, and even tech giants like Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg took the plunge for ALS research.

This August, the ALS Association is asking for donations as part of its "Every Drop Adds Up" campaign. The new campaign asks contributors to talk about their commitment to fighting ALS.
Altria Inc.s MO second-quarter 2016 adjusted earnings of 81 cents per share beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 80 cents by 1.25%. Earnings also increased 9.5% year over year on the back of strong performance of the core tobacco business and the leading premium brands.

Revenues and Margins

Net revenue dipped 1.4% to $6.5 billion backed by higher sales across all segments. Revenues net of excise taxes remained flat year over year at $4.9 billion. The top line also missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $5.03 billion by 2.58%.

Supported by lower excise tax levied on products, gross profit inched up 3% year over year to $2.95 billion. Operating income increased 8.4% to $2.41 billion.

Segment Details

Smokeable Products Segment: Net revenue was down 2.4% year over year to $5.82 billion due to lower shipment volumes. Revenues net of excise taxes slipped 1.1% to $4.23 billion.

Shipment volume decreased 4.9% year over year to 31.82 billion units.

Cigarettes retail market share remained flat year over year as higher gains in Discount brands were offset by lower shares in Marlboro and Other Premium brands. Marlboros retail share declined 0.1 pp to 44.1%.

Retail share for cigars dipped 1.1 pp due to lower shares at the Black and Mild brand.

Smokeless Products: Revenues jumped 8.7% to $523 million supported by higher pricing, partially offset by increased promotional investments. Revenues net of excise taxes increased 9.2% to $488 million.

Smokeless Products shipment volume increased 4.3% to 217.9 million units buoyed by a 5.2% rise in Copenhagen and Skoal shipment volumes.

Smokeless Products retail share grew 1.1% year over year. Copenhagen brands retail share increased 2.8 pp, whereas Skoal witnessed a 1.3 pp dip.

ALTRIA GROUP Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise

ALTRIA GROUP Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise | ALTRIA GROUP Quote

Wine: The segments revenues went up 6.2% year over year to $171 million due to higher shipments. Revenues net of excise taxes increased 5.8% year over year to $165 million.

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Wine shipment volume rose 3.4% to 2.12 million units driven by higher shipments of Ste. Michelle brand.

Outlook



Altria raised its 2016 outlook. The company expects adjusted earnings per share in the range of $3.01$3.07 compared with $3.00$3.05 expected earlier. This range represents a growth of 7.59.5% from the adjusted diluted earnings per share of $2.80 posted in 2015.

Altria maintains its full-year effective tax rate expectation at around 35.3%.

Financial Updates

During the second quarter, Altria repurchased 2.7 million shares for a total of $173 million.

In May 2016, Altria declared a regular quarterly dividend of $0.565 per share, which amounted to an annualized dividend of $2.26 per share.

Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV (AB InBev) is making progress in securing regulatory clearances for its merger with SABMiller plc (SABMiller) where Altria holds a minority stake.

E-Vapor Category in Focus

Altrias subsidiary Nu Mark LLC (Nu Mark) stepped up the distribution of MarkTen XL and Green Smoke e-vapor products across several markets.

Productivity Initiative

In Jan 2016, Altria announced the implementation of an initiative for approximately $300 million in annual productivity savings by the end of 2017. Part of the savings is to be realized through reduced spending on certain infrastructure and will be invested in brand building and regulatory capabilities. Such initiatives are expected to help the company reap higher profits over the long term.

Zacks Rank

Altria has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). In order to combat macro issues, the company, along with other tobacco majors like Philip Morris International Inc. PM, British American Tobacco BTI and Reynolds American Inc. RAI, is focusing on the growth of the alternative tobacco product category.

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Chris Klein is officially a dad!

The American Pie star and his wife, Laina Rose, welcomed their first child, announcing the news via social media on Wednesday.

WATCH: 9 Celebrity Babies Due in 2016

Frederick Easton Klein was born in Austin, Texas, last Saturday. A source confirmed to ET that Frederick arrived two weeks late, but mom and baby are doing well.

Judging by the adorable photo Laina posted, Frederick's personality is already shining through!

"So excited to announced our precious baby boy, Frederick Easton Klein was born on 7/23/16," Laina wrote with a precious snap of the newborn pumping his fists in the air. "This little Champ has already mastered his warrior pose and is doing great. Our hearts are bursting with love and joy#staylittleforever #wakingupklein#chrisklein #partyofthree."

Chris, who is "madly in love" with his son (and adjusting to life with less sleep), tweeted a photo of the newborn on Wednesday, along with a sweet message to his wife. "So incredibly blessed and forever grateful for my amazing wife & our healthy baby boy," the 37-year-old actor lovingly wrote. "Laina delivered me a miracle."

So incredibly blessed and forever grateful for my amazing wife and our healthy baby boy. Laina delivered me a mirac https://t.co/NR5harArB3  Chris Klein (@iamchrisklein) July 27, 2016

Prior to the little bundle of joy's arrival, Laina wasn't shy about documenting her pregnancy journey with fans. On Saturday, she took to Instagram to share a pic of her and Chris' dog, Chief, taking a nap.

"Getting in some quiet moments before the little one arrives," she captioned it, using the hashtags "#saturdaynaps," "#40+weeks," "#40weeks," and "#countingdowntobabyklein."

Laina also gave her followers a peek of her burgeoning belly at 39 weeks over the "hot" Fourth of July weekend, wearing a body-hugging American flag-printed dress while posing next to her pal, Stephanie Collins.

Story continues

Chris adorably announced that Laina was pregnant on his 37th birthday in March. "My beautiful wife Laina and I are expecting our first child," he tweeted. "23 weeks along. Gratefully blessed on my 37th B-Day."

My beautiful wife Laina and I are expecting our first child. 23 weeks along. Gratefully blessed on my 37th B-Day. pic.twitter.com/BFNbKhSemY  Chris Klein (@iamchrisklein) March 14, 2016

The new parents said "I do" last August in a small intimate ceremony at the Rainbow Ranch in Montana. The two met at a mutual friend's wedding and dated for four years before tying the knot.

Congrats to the happy couple!

WATCH: Russell Brand Is Going to Be a Dad -- See His Funny Announcement!

In more baby news, Russell Brand is also preparing to be a first-time father. After rumors began swirling in May that his girlfriend, Laura Gallacher, was pregnant, the 41-year-old comedian finally confirmed the news via Instagram on Friday.

"Right then. My Mum bought me this," the Get Him to the Greek star captioned a photo of himself reading Dean Beaumont's "The Expectant Dad's Handbook." Hear more in the video below.

Related Articles
When the news broke this year that the annual volume of ETFs traded on the NYSE was more than $18 trillion and exceeded the GDP of the U.S., it was game on between the ETF naysayers and yea-sayers.

In particular, the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY), the iShares Russell 2000 ETF (IWM), the Powershares QQQ Trust (QQQ) and the iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF (TLT) would typically account for $13 billion of that volume per day.

Life Was Simpler In The Past

The complexity of understanding the stock market as a dynamic system is a mammoth task and one needs to factor in the impact of huge volumes of ETF flows. Yet in 1991 when physicist Doyne Farmer and his fellow researchers at Prediction Company were deconstructing equity markets, they didn't need to grapple with the central role that ETFs would play in the years ahead. It was a hard enough problem dealing with one order book, let alone needing to factor in the primary and secondary ETF market.

By 2015, the noise around the topic of ETF liquidity was getting deafening.

50 days of intraday SPY pricing  Source, Bloomberg 2.10.15

How NOT to Wipe Out with Momentum

For a larger view, please click on the image above.

Yet the noise did not manage to drown out the chaos that ensued on 24 August, when some of the best known ETFs gapped down 30 percent or more.

The doom mongers predicted failure in the high yield market. Little did they know that it would be large cap equity ETFs that would be hit the hardest. This particular occasion proved to be the first test of the new volatility limits that were imposed by the regulators after the 2010 flash crash.

You could say this episode was something of an embarrassment. At least the global head of iShares, Mark Weidman, thought so, as he recently told the readers of the Wall Street Journal that "the test didn't go well".

303 Seconds To Avert A Real Crisis

On 24 August, SPY, along with other ETFs, experienced so many sell orders the NYSE could hardly cope. The anti-ETF brigade were preparing their pick nick for a field day.

Story continues

But their euphoria wouldn't last long: data provided in a recent Wall Street Journal article suggested that the arbitrage between the price of a major iShares ETF and its underlying basket of stocks on 24 August had vanished after just 303 seconds. This means the fund experienced dysfunctional trading three seconds over five minutes.

If the same time frames were applied to unit trusts, which can trade at a significant premium or discount for weeks and months, then that would surely be worthy of a headline.

And on the point of other investment vehicles  for most of 2015 the concern of liquidity seemed to only to pertain to fixed income ETFs and bonds. Yet when Apple, one of the most liquid stocks in the world, announced their results on 21July, all hell broke loose as the stock fell nearly 10 percent. So much for liquidity being on the universal investor's wish list.

Allan Lane is managing partner of Twenty20 Investments

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Permalink |  Copyright 2016 ETF.com. All rights reserved
The mysterious common ancestor of all life on Earth may have lived in hot springs that were iron-rich and oxygen-poor, a new study finds.

The last universal common ancestor, or LUCA, is what scientists call the forerunner of all living things. Much about LUCA remains uncertain; while previous research suggested that it was little more than a chemical soup from which evolution gradually built more complex forms, recent work suggested it may have been a sophisticated organism with an intricate structure.

To learn more about how and where LUCA might have lived, researchers analyzed 6.1 million genes from prokaryotes  microscopic, single-celled organisms that lack distinct cell nuclei. Bacteria are examples of prokaryotes, while animals, plants and fungi are eukaryotes, or life-forms whose DNA is contained within cell nuclei. Recent findings suggest that prokaryotes are the oldest group of life on Earth, with eukaryotes descending from prokaryotes. [See Photos of the Oldest Organisms on Earth]

The researchers focused on clusters of genes that were found in several different branches of prokaryotes. After figuring out how similar or different the genes were from one another, the researchers developed family trees of these genes. This helped the scientists deduce what genes might be the oldest among prokaryotes, and therefore the ones most likely inherited from LUCA.

The genes the scientists examined were blueprints for proteins. (Some genes are not thought to direct protein-making.) Of the 286,514 protein groups the researchers looked at, only 355 matched the strict criteria that the researchers set for potentially belonging to LUCA. Previous research had uncovered the functions of many of these genes, so they now shed light on LUCA's habitat and lifestyle.

"We can get a glimpse of how and where our most ancient ancestors lived, and these environments are still around today, inhabited by cells whose lifestyle resembles that of LUCA," said study senior author William Martin, a microbiologist at Heinrich Heine University in Dusseldorf, Germany.

Story continues

LUCA was apparently a thermophile, meaning it thrived at relatively high temperatures. It also was anaerobic, meaning it did not require oxygen for growth. Instead, LUCA apparently lived in an environment rich in hydrogen, carbon dioxide, nitrogen and iron. These sites may also have contained sulfur and selenium.

The scientists concluded that a number of prokaryotes currently alive today dwell in similar settings, namely hydrothermal vents, which include hot springs on land, as well as fissures near undersea volcanoes. These modern prokaryotes include Clostridia bacteria and methanogen archaea.

"It's fascinating to think that some microbes are still living in the same ecological niche where life arose 4 billion years ago," Martin told Live Science.

In the future, "we would like to do some chemical synthesis reactions in the laboratory that simulate ancient hydrothermal vent conditions to see if we can get basic building blocks of life," Martin said.

The scientists detailed their findings online July 25 in the journal Nature Microbiology.

Original article on Live Science.

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Copyright 2016 LiveScience, a Purch company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
LIMA, July 27 (Reuters) - A fiery anti-mining activist and former governor of a gold-rich region in Peru who was freed from jail on Wednesday accused the government of locking him up for two years in order to keep him from power.

Gregorio Santos welcomed the Supreme Court's decision to annul an extension of his stay in 'preventive' prison, which prosecutors probing him for corruption said was needed to keep him from fleeing Peru or obstructing their work.

Santos, who has no past convictions, never faced trial nor was found guilty of a crime. The investigation is ongoing.

"I'm only getting back what should never have been taken from me, my right to defend myself in freedom," Santos told reporters in broadcast comments after his release.

Santos, an Andean peasant leader who was elected governor of Cajamarca in 2010 and again in 2014, spearheaded protests that derailed Newmont Mining Corp's plans to expand its operations in the region, one of Peru's poorest and home to the country's biggest gold mine.

"The state has turned into a dictatorship," Santos said. "They have kept me from acting as governor and have kept me from taking part in the political life of the country."

The office of outgoing President Ollanta Humala did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Santos has previously accused the government of Humala, who had supported Newmont's now-suspended $5 billion proposed Conga mine, of pulling strings to imprison him to pave the way for the project.

Humala has repeatedly denied the charges and has not tried to revive Conga since Newmont put it on hold in 2011 following protests that turned deadly. Santos and others oppose Conga because it would destroy Andean lakes in a farming region.

Santos ran for president from behind bars this year and garnered a better-than-expected 4 percent of votes in a crowded first-round election.

Santos did not comment on his political future on Wednesday, but a former lawmaker close to him said he would likely run for president at the next election in 2021. "Gregorio Santos is returning to his political activities heading toward 2021, to shake Peru up," Jorge Rimarachin told reporters.

Story continues

After losing the first-round election, Santos broke with other leftists by refusing to endorse incoming centrist President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski in June's run-off race against right-wing populist Keiko Fujimori.

Kuczynski said this week that he thought Santos' detention was unconstitutional and that he did not see any way of reviving Conga in the near future.

(Reporting by Mitra Taj; Editing by Dan Grebler)
By Julia Love and Anya George Tharakan

(Reuters) - Apple Inc (AAPL.O) sold more iPhones than Wall Street expected in the third quarter and estimated its revenue in the current period would top many analysts' targets, soothing fears that demand for the company's most important product had hit a wall.

Its shares rose 7 percent in after-hours trading.

The world's most valuable publicly traded company said it sold 40.4 million iPhones in the third quarter, down 15 percent from the year-ago quarter but slightly more than the average analyst forecast of 40.02 million, according to research firm FactSet StreetAccount.

IPhone sales dropped for the second straight quarter, pushing down Apple's total revenue 14.6 percent in the fiscal third quarter, ended June 25.

Demand for Apple's phones has waned in China, partly because of economic uncertainty there, and has also slowed in more mature markets as people tend to hold on to their phones for longer. The sales slump has stoked concerns about whether the tech leader can continue to deliver profits at the level Wall Street has come to expect.

"China was a major letdown," said Patrick Moorhead, an analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy. "Samsung and Huawei are much more competitive now than a year ago and the Chinese economy is not doing well at all."

Moorhead said, however, that increased services revenue - which includes the App Store and iCloud - was a "very big bright spot for Apple."

Chief Financial Officer Luca Maestri told Reuters in an interview that Apple's performance had topped his expectations in a quarter weighed down by tough foreign exchange rates and difficult comparisons with blockbuster iPhone 6 sales from the previous year.

Apple reduced channel inventory by $3.6 billion, exceeding the $2 billion expected reduction, meaning sales were better than they appeared, Maestri said.

Customer demand "was better than what is implied in our results and better than we had anticipated," he said.

Story continues

Sales of the iPhone fell last quarter for the first time since the gadget's release in 2007, dropping 16.3 percent. Maestri projected the gadget's average selling price to rise in the September quarter.

The iPhone drives about two-thirds of Apple's total sales. Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook said during a call with analysts that the iPhone SE, a cheaper, four-inch (10 cm) phone released this year, was extending the range of people able to buy Apple phones.

"It's opening the door to customers we weren't reaching before," he said.

Apple's quarterly net profit fell 27 percent to $7.8 billion, while revenue of $42.36 billion beat analysts' average estimate of $42.09 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

CHINA WORRIES

Sales in Greater China, once touted as Apple's next growth engine, decreased 33.1 percent, compared with a 112.4 percent growth in the year-earlier quarter and a near 26 percent fall in the second quarter.

Maestri attributed the drop to channel inventory reduction in the nation, foreign exchange headwinds and a general downturn in the Chinese economy.

"It is very clear that there are some signs of economic slowdown in China, and we will have to work through them," he said.

Adding to Apple's woes in China, the company's stores for books and movies went dark earlier this year. Cook said Apple was working with regulators to restore the services but played down the financial impact of the outage, saying the stores yielded less than $1 million in revenue during the short time they were on the market.

"Its not a revenue-related issue," he said. "This is a service we want to provide our customers."

Apple's services business, which includes the App Store, Apple Pay, iCloud and other services, generated nearly $6 billion in revenue, up 18.9 percent from the previous year.

As iPhone sales level off, Apple is attempting to use such services to wring more revenue out of its existing base of users. The business emerged as Apples second largest after the iPhone for the first time in the second quarter, eclipsing gadgets such as the iPad and the Mac.

That shift bodes well for Apple because gross margins on services are better than the average for the rest of the company, Maestri said.

"Its a great business because it is recurring in nature and more linked to our installed base," he said.

Maestri touted music as an example of one successful service, saying the growth of the Apple Music streaming service had more than made up for declines in digital downloads. To redouble its momentum in music, Apple purchased rights to the next season of popular series Carpool Karaoke, CBS Television Studios announced on Tuesday.

India was one of the rare bright spots, with 51 percent growth in iPhone sales, as Apple expands into emerging markets.

"India is now one of our fastest growing markets ... We're looking forward to opening more retail stores in India down the road, and we see huge potential," Cook told analysts.

Apple forecast fourth-quarter revenue of $45.5 billion to $47.5 billion, largely above Wall Street's average estimate of $45.71 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

The forecast, covering the quarter ending in September, will likely include at least the first weekend of sales of the iPhone 7 range, which Apple is expected to launch in September.

Up to Tuesday's close, Apple's shares had fallen about 8.2 percent since the start of the year. Shares rose 7 percent to $103.47 in after-hours trade following publication of results.

(Reporting by Anya George Tharakan in Bengaluru and Julia Love in San Francisco; Editing by Savio D'Souza and Bill Rigby)
The council unanimously voted Tuesday to provide financial and other aid to Costco and Georgia-based Lincoln Premium Poultry. The companies say the $300 million facility targeted for land on the south side of Fremont will provide 1,100 new jobs. The project manager says construction could begin early next year if Costco gives the final OK in August.
Apple (ticker: AAPL) stock spiked by more than 6.5 percent in after-hours trading Tuesday after the technology juggernaut reported quarterly earnings and revenue figures that were down from a year ago, but still managed to exceed analysts' dour expectations.

And perhaps just as importantly, Apple managed to sell 40.4 million iPhones, besting the FactSet's estimated consensus by 400,000 units.

"It's clear the introduction of the $399 iPhone SE has buoyed iPhone sales, and it's a good option for students or anyone who wants to be in the iPhone app-ecosystem without paying a high premium," says Mark Spoonauer, editor in chief of Tom's Guide. "The question is where Apple goes from here to get upgraders and Android switchers excited about phones again. Some say there's no room left to innovate in this oversaturated market, and the iPhone 7 needs to prove the doubters wrong."

Tuesday's earnings statement for the fiscal third quarter followed a miserable second quarter that saw Apple post its first year-over-year revenue decline since 2003. And while investors were celebrating Tuesday's report, the numbers show that Apple's business remains in decline.

[Read: Why Warren Buffett Snapped Up Apple Stock (AAPL).]

Revenue fell more than 18 percent to $40.4 billion from $49.6 billion in the year-ago quarter. Earnings per share dropped 23 percent to $1.42 from $1.85 a year ago.

Both topped analyst expectations, which called for Apple to report EPS of $1.38 on revenue of $42.09 billion. Going into the report, AAPL stock had fallen more than 22 percent over the last year and was down 8 percent in 2016, so Tuesday's results are a welcome breath of fresh air for shareholders.

Investors applauded the classic bullish "beat and raise" scenario, as the Cupertino, California-based company guided for fiscal fourth-quarter revenue between $45.5 billion and $47.5 billion; the midpoint of $46.5 billion is above the $45.7 billion analysts expected.

Story continues

Year-over-year iPhone revenue fell 23 percent while Mac revenue fell 13 percent. iPad and services revenue increased 7 and 19 percent, respectively.

Revenue also fell in all five geographic categories the company reports; the Americas and Europe fell 11 percent and 7 percent, respectively, while the most notable decrease came from greater China, where revenue cratered 33 percent from last year.

China and Watch: two catalysts that weren't. China hasn't been the growth engine some expected. Famed activist investor and corporate raider Carl Icahn announced in April that he'd sold his entire multibillion-dollar position in Apple, citing concerns that the Chinese government wielded too much power and could make it hard to do business in the country.

Peripheral products and services like the Apple Watch and Apple Pay haven't been material either, putting the onus on the iPhone to bear the weight of the proverbial Apple cart. The Apple Watch hasn't even been popular enough to be broken out into its own reporting category, and is still lumped in with the vanilla "other products" segment.

Sales of the Apple Watch, which was the first new product line from the company since the passing of Steve Jobs, have been objectively disappointing. The first wearable fitness device from the tech giant has several different pricing tiers: The 38mm Apple Sport is priced the most cheaply at $299, and the 38mm Apple Watch Edition, replete with an 18-karat gold case, retails for $17,000.

Those offerings, it seems, are too pricey for most consumers.

Fitbit (FIT), which has huge market share in wearables, doesn't retail anything for more than $250, and sells several trackers for less than $100. The smartwatches featured on Alphabet's (GOOG, GOOGL) Android Wear website range from $149 to $499.

About 57 percent of Apple's revenue still comes from the iPhone, which looks to remain the dominant revenue driver until the company can come up with another awe-inspiring product or service.

[Read: 7 Great Stocks That Cost $10 or Less.]

As it enters a period of lower growth, Apple has been increasingly pressured to return money to shareholders via dividends or share buybacks. It's done both, but still has over $231 billion in cash and long-term investments on its books.

The vast majority of Apple's cash hoard is held overseas, which makes that cash pile far less meaningful. CEO Tim Cook has vowed that Apple won't repatriate its hundreds of billions of dollars held in foreign countries as long as Uncle Sam charges a 40 percent fee for bringing it back to the U.S.

Barring major changes to the corporate tax code, it seems unlikely the repatriation tax will disappear anytime soon.

Moving forward. In the meantime, investors are looking ahead to the iPhone 7 as the next major catalyst for AAPL stock. The next iteration of Apple's cash cow is expected in mid-September, at the tail end of the current fiscal quarter. The biggest rumored change to the upcoming iPhone model is the abandonment of the headphone jack -- wired headphones will now plug directly into the Lightning port -- while the 16GB storage model may also be abandoned in favor of 32 GB.

Longer-term, an Apple Car may be the company's driving force for growth, despite the fact that Apple has refused to even confirm the initiative, dubbed "Project Titan." The purported electric and semi-autonomous vehicle would go head-to-head with the likes of Tesla Motors (TSLA), and Tesla CEO Elon Musk has even claimed Apple poached engineering talent from his company.

That said, early chatter in Silicon Valley surrounding Project Titan has been decidedly negative; there was reportedly a hiring freeze in January and talks with two major auto manufacturers have reportedly fallen apart.

[See: 10 Tips for Couples and Young Families to Build Wealth.]

Thankfully, the iPhone isn't losing ground as quickly as most expected, so the core smartphone and tablet business may be enough to sustain Apple shares until the next big thing comes along.

John Divine is a staff writer for U.S. News & World Report. He is also a longtime investor, and has previously written about investing and the markets for InvestorPlace and The Motley Fool. You can follow him on Twitter @divinebizkid or give him the Tip of the Century at jdivine@usnews.com.
LOS ANGELES, CA / ACCESSWIRE / July 27, 2016 / Lundin Law PC (the "Firm") announces that a class action lawsuit was filed against TransEnterix, Inc. ("TransEnterix" or the "Company") (NYSE MKT: TRXC) concerning possible violations of federal securities laws between February 10, 2016 and May 10, 2016 (the "Class Period"). Investors who purchased or otherwise acquired shares during the Class Period should contact the Firm in advance of the August 1, 2016 lead plaintiff motion deadline.

To participate in this class action lawsuit, click here. You can also call Brian Lundin, Esquire, of Lundin Law PC, at 888-713-1033, or e-mail him at brian@lundinlawpc.com.

No class has been certified in the above action. Until a class is certified, you are not considered represented by an attorney. You may also choose to do nothing and be an absent class member.

The complaint alleges that, during the Class Period, TransEnterix made false and misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: there were deficiencies within the Company's 510(k) submission regarding the SurgiBot that undermined the likelihood that the SurgiBot would receive clearance from the Food and Drug Administration, which would leave TransEnterix unable to commercialize the SurgiBot in 2016, and would impair its ability to obtain approval for and commercialize its other robotic surgery platform in the United States.

Lundin Law PC was created by Brian Lundin, a securities litigator based in Los Angeles.

This press release may be considered Attorney Advertising in some jurisdictions under the applicable law and ethical rules.

Contact:

Lundin Law PC

Brian Lundin, Esq.

Telephone: 888-713-1033

Facsimile: 888-713-1125

brian@lundinlawpc.com

http://lundinlawpc.com/

SOURCE: Lundin Law PC
MILAN (Reuters) - Italian fashion designer Giorgio Armani said on Wednesday his younger and more accessible Emporio Armani line would go on show in Paris in September instead of Milan but also said that this was a one-off. Traditionally, the Armani collection shows are held in Milan in June for men and in September for women. The designer said the decision to move to Paris was made "exceptionally" for this season, addressing any potential speculation that he might leave the Milan catwalks for good. "The restyling of the store and the EA Caffe in Saint-Germain (in Paris) have provided the opportunity to rethink the location and timing of the show," he said in a statement. There have been cutbacks this year in menswear fashion shows by some designers, a move industry analysts have said is being driven by the need to cut costs in the face of a global sales slowdown in luxury goods. Armani's pret-a-porter lines will hit the Paris catwalks starting on September 27. The haute couture Armani Prive collection has historically always been shown in Paris. (Reporting by Giulia Segreti. Editing by Jane Merriman)
Obstacles Remain For Deutsche Borse/NYSE Euronext Merger

The proposed merger of Deutsche Borse AG and NYSE Euronext has been approved by Germanys Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin). The approval follows the completion in August of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) review which found no objection to the merger.

The road to the deal being fully approved is not entirely straightforward, however. Following an initial investigation, the European Commission (EC) has initiated a more detailed investigation of the deal, which is set to conclude on 13 December 2011. Joaquin Almunia, Commission Vice President in charge of competition policy, commented, The proposed merger would remove a strong competitor from the market and would give the merged company by far the leading position in derivatives trading in Europe. The Commission needs to make sure that markets which are at the heart of the financial sector remain competitive and efficiently deliver to users.

A press release issued by the two exchanges comments: The European Commissions decision to open an in-depth investigation was fully anticipated. The Companies have had open and constructive discussions with European Commission staff throughout, and look forward to continuing to work closely with the European Commission to obtain clearance for a transaction that will deliver an extraordinarily broad range of benefits to European market participants.

Meanwhile, leaked documents have indicated that the merger will be affected by reforms to the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID), which are set to be announced in October. The reforms are expected to enforce competition among top exchanges in Europe. Some commentators claim that the MiFID proposal has been heavily influenced by the competition concerns surrounding the NYSE Euronext/Deutsche Borse deal.

LSE Bids For LCH.Clearnet

The London Stock Exchange is reported to have made a 1 billion bid for a majority stake in LCH.Clearnet. The UK exchange is looking to bolster its market position following its failed bid for Canadian exchange TMXparticularly in light of the proposed merger between NYSE Euronext and Deutsche Borse.

Story continues

The bid places LSE in competition with other companies which have expressed an interest in Europes only independent clearing house, most notably post-trade services company Markit, which made a 15 per share offer for 100% of LCH.Clearnet earlier this year. Some commentators believe that the Markit bid is more attractive and there are rumours that Markit is considering raising its offer for the clearing house in response to the LSEs rival bid.

Clearing houses have taken on increasing importance since 2008, as regulators push more trading onto electronic platforms. In contrast to some other European exchanges, LSE does not currently own a clearing house for its UK stocks, which are cleared by LCH.Clearnet. At present, the clearing house is 83% owned by its customers and 17% owned by exchangesa factor which could complicate any sale agreement.

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Today in 5 Lines

The second day of the Democratic National Convention has begun: Mothers of the Movement, which includes the mothers of Tamir Rice, Michael Brown, Eric Garner, and Trayvon Martin, and former President Bill Clinton are among those scheduled to deliver remarks. Were covering it live here. The Indiana GOP nominated state Lieutenant Governor Eric Holcomb to replace Mike Pence as governor. A priest was killed and another person wounded in an attack on a Catholic church in Normandy, France.

Today on The Atlantic

DNC You Later, Debbie: Not many Democrats were sad to see Debbie Wasserman Schultz step down as chair of the DNC. Heres why. (Molly Ball)

Why Does the World Look So Grim?: Media coverage of world events shapes public perception, leading people to believe acts of violence or extreme events are more common than they are. (Derek Thompson)

Shame, Shame, Shame: Democratic leaders are being forced to play the role of peacekeepers among the partys divided base, and nowhere was it more clear than during the opening night of the Democratic National Convention. (Alex Wagner)

The Atlantic is at the Democratic National Convention! You can sign up for our daily convention newsletter here, or find out about our events in Philadelphia here. And follow stories throughout the day with our Politics & Policy portal.

Snapshot

A delegate wears buttons as he arrives at Wells Fargo Arena before the start of the second day session of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia on Tuesday. John Locher / AP

What Were Reading

Trump vs. Star-Spangled Teens: Remember the trio of preteen girls who sang a Trump-themed song at a Florida rally in January? Well, now one of the girls fathers plans to file a lawsuit against the Republican nominees campaign. (Philip Bump, The Washington Post)

Recommended: How Abigail Adams Proves Bill O'Reilly Wrong About Slavery

It Shouldnt Have Been Clinton: The Democratic party chose Hillary Clinton as its candidate long before the primaries had even begun, Megan McArdle argues, and if Donald Trump wins the presidency, it will be because the party chose wrong. (Bloomberg)

Story continues

Haters Gonna HateOn Hillary: After 40 years in the public eye, one thing is cleara lot of people dont like Hillary Clinton. But when did it become cool to hate on Hillary? (S.V. Date, Huffington Post)

Trump Wants to Paint the Town Red: Over the last 25 years, Pennsylvania has voted Democrat, but current polling suggests that with a few strategy changes Donald Trump could win the state over in what would be an important victory. (Brandon Finnigan, National Review)

Can Latinos Swing Arizona?: The organization Promise Arizona is using Donald Trumps anti-immigration rhetoric to motivate Latinos to vote. But will their work be enough to register their goal of 75,000 voters before the election? (Hector Tobar, The New Yorker)

Visualized

How Safe Are Americas Cities?: Violent crime has been falling since the 1990s, but homicides are increasing in cities across the country. Take a look at these graphs to see the trends. (Mark Berman, The Washington Post)

Bonus: Our own Vann Newkirk is in Philadelphia, asking convention attendees about the future of the Democratic party. Watch him in action. (Jeremy Raff, The Atlantic)

Question of the Week

Here we go again! Last week you submitted your suggestions for Donald Trumps convention song, and here were a few of our favorites. What song should Hillary Clinton come out to when she walks on stage Thursday night at the Democratic National Convention? Submit your answers by Thursday afternoon for consideration.

Send your answers to hello@theatlantic.com or tweet us @TheAtlPolitics, and our favorites will be featured in Fridays Politics & Policy Daily.

-Written by Elaine Godfrey (@elainejgodfrey) and Candice Norwood (@cjnorwoodwrites)

Read more from The Atlantic:

This article was originally published on The Atlantic.
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.
A lucky Australian man has won his own remote Pacific island resort in a raffle, after shelling out just US$49 for the winning ticket to claim the paradise property.

The man, identified as Joshua, won the 16-room Micronesian resort in a draw organised by the Australian owners, who were looking to handover the lodge to someone like-minded.

Ahead of the draw, co-owner Doug Beitz said he was hoping the winner would be "someone who likes warm weather, likes meeting new people from around the world, is adventurous".

A video posted on Facebook revealed the winning number, drawn on Tuesday evening by a computer, to be ticket 44,980.

But Doug's efforts to reach the new owner by phone and inform him of his life-changing win were not immediately successful.

He eventually tracked the lucky winner down and gave him the good news.

"His name is Joshua and he's from Australia," Doug said, adding that he lived in New South Wales state.

The man's full identity was not immediately revealed until news of winning the Kosrae Nautilus Resort on the Micronesian island of Kosrae, which lies west of Hawaii and north of the Solomon Islands, had sunk in.

Joshua will take ownership of a resort, which is debt-free, profitable and has more than 20 years left on its lease.

Doug and Sally Beitz, who built the resort in 1994, have lived in Micronesia for more than two decades but said they felt it was time to return to Australia.

They were going to sell the property in the traditional way until one of their sons came up with the idea of the raffle.

"We will do financially well out of it," Doug said ahead of the draw, for which tens of thousands of tickets were sold around the world.

If nothing else, it afforded some people an opportunity to dream of life on a tropical paradise.

"Thanks for the awesome dream," wrote one ticket-buyer on Facebook. Another said: "Congrats Joshua, have a good life there."
SYDNEY (Reuters) - Cardinal George Pell, the Australian-born Vatican treasurer, is being investigated by police in relation to multiple allegations of child abuse in his home country, the Australian Broadcasting Corp (ABC) reported on Wednesday. In a statement issued in Rome on Wednesday, Pell's office said he "refutes all the allegations made on the program". Victoria state police have been investigating allegations against Pell, which date from the 1970s to the 1990s, for more than a year, the broadcaster said, adding that police had referred the matter to the public prosecutor's office for advice. Victoria Police declined to comment to Reuters which was unable to independently confirm the accusations in the ABC report. Pell became archbishop of Melbourne, Australia's second biggest city, in 1996, and archbishop of Sydney, the biggest city, in 2001, before taking the Vatican role in 2014. The ABC quoted a spokesman for Victoria Police commissioner Graham Ashton as saying there was "very much a live investigation" into the allegations. ABC said it has obtained eight police statements from complainants, witnesses and family members who were helping with the investigation. The statement from Pell's office said: "The ABC has no license to destroy the reputation of innocent people and Cardinal Pell, like all those who have allegations against them that have not been tested by the Courts, is entitled to the presumption of innocence - not immediate condemnation. He is entitled to a fair go." "While the Cardinal in no way wishes to cause any harm to those making allegations of sexual misconduct and abuse against him, the simple fact is that they are wrong," it said. The statement Pell's office release also said he had "cooperated in the past and will continue to co-operate through the proper and appropriate civil authorities." This year, Pell testified at an Australian government inquiry into institutional child abuse, where he said the Church made "catastrophic" choices by refusing to believe abused children, shuffling abusive priests from parish to parish and over-relying on counseling of priests to solve the problem. (Reporting by Byron Kaye. Additional reporting by Philip Pullella; Editing by Robert Birsel and Lincoln Feast)
By Tom Westbrook SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australia's second-largest energy retailer AGL Energy Ltd said on Wednesday it had set up the nation's largest renewable energy fund, worth A$2-3 billion, with Australia's sovereign wealth fund and a Queensland government-owned fund. The Powering Australian Renewables Fund (PARF) plans to develop 1000MW of renewable energy and will acquire two existing AGL solar plants, which together produce 155MW, AGL said in a statement. "It demonstrates that funding is available for large scale renewable projects and demonstrates that AGL is able to do these projects if the risks are shared," AGL chief financial officer Brett Redman told Reuters by telephone. "It breaks in a material way the logjam around funding for large scale renewables." QIC Global Infrastructure, Queensland state's public-service pension fund, and Australia's sovereign wealth fund, the Future Fund, will contribute A$800 million to the renewables fund and AGL A$200 million at the outset. The fund's 1000MW of new renewables comprise about 20 percent of the new renewable generation capacity required for Australia to meet its renewable energy target of 33,000 GWh by 2020. Two AGL wind farm projects, at Silverton in New South Wales state and at Coopers Gap in Queensland will also be transferred to the PARF, along with the existing solar plants, AGL's statement said. "The built sites provide ballast and cashflow," Redman said. "It becomes real at the very beginning and that turns this from an announcement in to a genuine fund with genuine cash." Redman said that AGL eventually plans to close its coal-fired power plants. In February it quit the coal-seam gas business. (Reporting by Tom Westbrook; Editing by Michael Perry)
Michelle Money has revealed that she had a teen pregnancy and placed her son for adoption in a new promotional video for skincare tool PMD.



The Bachelor album made the revelation while giving a motivational message for the brand, in a series called "Empowered by PMD."



"When I was 15-years-old, I got pregnant," she reveals in the clip. "The decision to place this baby up for adoption was not an easy one. But it was the right one."



The clip features footage of a teenage Money cradling her newborn son while in hospital. "The day came, my water broke, it was very bittersweet," she added. "The process of labor and the process of delivering and feeling of feeling love that I have never felt before. It rocked me."







"When the moment came to say goodbye and hand him over to the social worker, it was the hardest thing I've ever done."



Money's message in the video was her hope that women can still feel beautiful, no matter what problems they've faced in their life.
One of the Baltimore police officers acquitted in the death of Freddie Gray said he was elated Wednesday to hear that prosecutors have dropped the remaining charges against his colleagues.

Officer Edward Nero, who was found not guilty of assault and other charges in May, told TIME he was relieved that the high-profile case has come to a close without a conviction. I feel very good. Words cant describe it. Were very elated, said Nero, 30. Its a tragedy on both sides, but were glad that its over for everybody.

Gray was critically injured in the back of a police van in April 2015. Six Baltimore police officers were charged in the death of the 25-year-old black man, which sparked civil unrest throughout the city and country.

Nero was the first to be cleared by a judge of all criminal charges, which included second-degree assault, reckless endangerment, and two counts of misconduct in office. He was one of three officers on bike patrol who chased Gray last April before Gray was arrested and put inside a police van.

Three of the six officers had already been acquitted by the time prosecutors announced their decision Wednesday to drop all the remaining charges.

The last year has been very long and life changing, Nero said. It definitely has had an impact, the officer added.
By Scott Malone and Ian Simpson (Reuters) - Baltimore prosecutor Marilyn Mosby strutted into the national spotlight last year when she filed criminal charges against six officers tied to Freddie Gray's death in police custody just days after the alleged crime. On Wednesday, after losing the first four trials, she gave up on the case. Such a high-profile failure would be a heavy blow for the career of any prosecutor, but Mosby's quick action has earned her significant support in the majority black city of 620,000 people, legal experts and civil-rights activists said. "She did what she had to do," said Tessa Hill-Aston, president of the Baltimore City branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. "Because she brought these charges, we have some changes in Baltimore." Hill-Aston noted that since the charges, Baltimore police started to issue officers body cameras and install cameras inside police transport vans like the one where Gray, 25, sustained his fatal injuries while restrained by handcuffs but not a seatbelt. "All these things would have taken years to happen. But because of her, we have had more rapid movement," Hill-Aston said. Gray's case was one in a long series of high-profile deaths of black men at the hands of police over the past two years, which stirred a national debate on race and justice and fueled the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement. Mosby, who is black, was a little more than four months into her role as state's attorney for Baltimore City in April 2015 when she charged the officers four days after the city exploded in a day of rioting and arson following Gray's funeral. In an editorial published shortly after Wednesday's announcement, the Baltimore Sun newspaper praised Mosby for both her decisions, saying the move to bring the charges helped cool tempers and bring an end to the violence. "The process of these trials has helped rather than hurt the cause of repairing the rift between the police and the community," the newspaper wrote in an unsigned editorial. 'ACTED TOO QUICKLY' But legal experts said Mosby may have botched the case by moving too quickly. Grand juries in New York and Ferguson, Missouri, by way of comparison, reviewed evidence of similarly controversial deaths for weeks before ultimately deciding not to bring criminal charges. "She acted too quickly," said David Weinstein, a former state and federal prosecutor now in private practice in Florida. "She didn't take the time that was necessary to conduct an investigation in a case like this." Mosby, 36, whose husband Nick last year ran an unsuccessful campaign for mayor of Baltimore, blamed what she described as a shoddy police investigation for the failure of her cases. The head of the city's police union rejected that claim, calling it "outrageous." [L1N1AD0TP] Gray died of his injuries on April 19, 2015, a week after his arrest. That made the case less easy to prosecute than cases in which police shoot suspects, legal experts noted. "This case was always a hard one to prove and certainly beyond a reasonable doubt," said David Jaros, a law professor at the University of Baltimore who closely followed the trials. "If ultimately Marilyn Mosby doesn't pay a high political price for this, it may suggest that there are cases that state's attorneys can take seriously and pursue, and we may see more in the future." Daniel Alonso, a former chief assistant district attorney in New York, agreed that Mosby's decision to prosecute the officers was risky. "Prosecutors come close to a dangerous line when they start promising justice to crowds," Alonso said. Mosby, in a fiery press conference on Wednesday in the neighborhood where Gray lived, and where he was arrested, vowed to fight on. "I was elected the prosecutor," Mosby said in her first public remarks on the case in more than a year, after a judge lifted a gag order that prevented lawyers from discussing it. "I signed up for this, and I can take it." (Reporting and writing by Scott Malone in Boston, additional reporting by Ian Simpson in Washington, D.C. and Karen Freifeld in New York)
Bangladesh on Wednesday launched a hunt for the survivor of a police raid on an extremist hideout which killed nine suspected Islamists who claimed to belong to the Islamic State group.

Investigators hope the escaped extremist and another man who was arrested during the major gunfight in Dhaka Tuesday will shed light on the group's proclaimed ties with the IS.

"We've alerted all checkpoints in the capital in a bid to arrest him (the escapee)," deputy commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police, Masud Ahmed, told AFP.

Officers believe the nine slain extremists were part of the same group that killed 22 people during an attack on an upscale Dhaka cafe on July 1 -- an attack claimed by IS.

Police said they recovered IS's black flag and robes from the Dhaka hideout, but maintained that the extremists are actually members of the domestic Islamist group Jamayetul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB).

"We're conducting an investigation. Hasan has claimed that they were IS members," a senior security official told AFP, referring to a 25-year-old arrested in the raid who is being treated in hospital.

"We suspect he is one of the leading members of the group."

Investigators are also trying to retrieve information from a laptop and several mobile phones recovered in the raid.

IS has claimed responsibility for dozens of murders of religious minority members and foreigners in Bangladesh in recent months.

Bangladesh authorities, however, have steadfastly maintained that the IS has no presence in the world's third-largest Muslim majority nation. They blame homegrown groups such as JMB.

Following the Dhaka cafe attack, IS released photos of five gunmen posing with the group's flag. The group also published gruesome images of the carnage before commandos ended the siege.

Meanwhile, the British Council temporarily closed its offices in Bangladesh Wednesday over safety fears, as a rumour swirled that Islamist extremists would soon target a major market, school or foreign organisation.

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"The safety and security of our staff and customers is always our top priority," Barbara Wickham, director of the British Council in Bangladesh, said in a message on its website.

"Therefore we have taken the decision to temporarily close our offices in order to review our security practices."

Many schools and businesses run by the nation's small Christian community closed their doors for days last week fearing an attack from extremists, while several parents have kept their children home from school.
Dhaka (AFP) - A US national of Bangladesh origin was among nine suspected Islamist extremists killed in a massive gunfight in Dhaka, police said Wednesday, as officers hunted a militant who fled the shoot-out.

Dhaka Metropolitan Police spokesman Masudur Rahman told AFP that Shahzad Rouf was one of nine young men who were killed during Tuesday's early morning raid on a militant hideout.

"He was an American citizen. We confirmed his identity by checking finger prints," he told AFP.

He said six other dead extremists were also identified by police investigators by matching their finger prints with their national identity cards.

The nine were shot dead when hundreds of armed police stormed their den at a six-storey apartment building in Dhaka's Kalyanpur neighbourhood.

Police on Wednesday launched a hunt for a survivor of the raid. Investigators hope the escaped extremist and another man who was arrested during the gunfight will shed light on the group's claimed ties with the Islamic State group (IS).

"We're conducting an investigation. Hasan has claimed that they were IS members," a senior security official told AFP, referring to a 25-year-old arrested in the raid who is being treated in hospital.

The British Council temporarily closed its offices in Bangladesh Wednesday over safety fears, as a rumour swirled that Islamist extremists would soon target a major market, school or foreign organisation.

Rouf, 24, was a business administration student at the North South University (NSU), Rahman said.

Local media said he was a close friend of Nibras Islam, one of five gunmen who attacked an upscale Dhaka cafe on July 1 and killed 22 people, mostly foreigners.

NSU, a top private university, has been a hotbed of Islamist extremism.

Another of its students was shot dead in a northern Bangladesh town a week after the Dhaka cafe attack when Islamists launched a major assault on the country's largest Eid prayer congregation, where some 250,000 people gathered.

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Seven of its students were also convicted and jailed in December last year for the murder of an atheist blogger in early 2013, kickstarting a deadly campaign against secular activists and religious minorities.

Dhaka police chief Asaduzzaman Mia told reporters after the raid that most of the extremists killed in the operation were highly educated and from the country's elite.

- Islamic State? -

Rouf's father, Touhid Rouf, told AFP that he was shown a body, but was not sure whether it was that of his son.

"I am not 100 percent sure. I am confused. Maybe it is because the body had an autopsy and it was partly decomposed. We need a DNA test," he told AFP.

He confirmed that his son was an American passport holder and that he had been missing from home for the last six months.

A US embassy spokesman refused to comment on Rouf's case.

Rouf had been named on a list of missing people prepared by the elite security force Rapid Action Battalion after authorities raised concerns that he might have fled the country and joined the Islamic State group.

The nine had claimed that they were members of the Islamic State organisation, with officers recovering the group's black flags and robes from their hideout.

But the national police chief rejected the claim, asserting that the nine were members of banned homegrown militant outfit Jamayetul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB).

IS said it was responsible for the attack, releasing images of the carnage and photos of the five gunmen posing with the group's flag.The group has claimed responsibility for dozens of murders of religious minority members and foreigners in Bangladesh in recent months.

Bangladesh authorities, however, have steadfastly maintained that the IS has no presence in the world's third-largest Muslim majority nation. They blame homegrown groups such as JMB.

The government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has launched a nationwide man-hunt for Islamists, arresting more than a dozen suspected extremists including one of JMB's regional heads.
(Adds medium term debt and cost targets, factors for higher profit, copper production forecasts, and capital spending outlook)

By Susan Taylor

TORONTO, July 27 (Reuters) - Barrick Gold Corp, the world's largest gold producer, reported a rise in second-quarter profit on Wednesday and said it plans to sell its 50 percent stake in a western Australia mine to carve more from its debt.

Toronto-based Barrick, which has been selling off non-core mining assets and using cash flow to pay down debt, said it will explore selling half of the Kalgoorlie mine in Australia to improve its balance sheet.

The chief executive of Newmont Mining, Barrick's joint venture partner at Kalgoorlie, said last September that he was interested in buying out the rest of the mine.

Barrick said it has reduced its total debt by $968 million so far this year, and remains on track to cut debt by $2 billion in 2016. Over the medium term, it aims to reduce total debt to under $5 billion from $9 billion, and chop its all-in sustaining costs, the industry cost benchmark, to below $700 by 2019.

The miner said its adjusted profit rose to 14 cents a share, matching analyst expectations, from 5 cents a share in the same period last year. The gain reflects lower costs, notably fuel and energy, foreign exchange gains, lower royalty payments and operating efficiency, the company said.

Revenue fell to $2.01 billion from $2.23 billion.

The company, which has mines in the Americas, Australia and Africa, said gold production fell 7.5 percent to 1.34 million ounces in the second quarter after it sold assets.

All-in sustaining costs fell nearly 13 percent to $782 per ounce.

Barrick reaffirmed its full-year gold production guidance of 5.0-5.5 million ounces and lowered its all-in sustaining cost forecast to $750-$790 per ounce from $760-$810 per ounce.

Copper output was increased to 380-430 million pounds from 370-410 million pounds with the start of commercial production at the Jabal Sayid copper mine in Saudi Arabia, which is 50 percent owned by Barrick.

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Capital spending was trimmed to $1.25-$1.4 billion from $1.35-$1.55 billion in the first quarter.

Barrick stock has soared 175 percent this year, lifted by a 26 percent climb in the price of gold, as investors have sought a safe haven during increasing geopolitical uncertainty and declining real interest rates.

(Reporting by Susan Taylor; Editing by Sandra Maler, Leslie Adler and David Gregorio)
WILBER -- A Nebraska company cleared a major hurdle Tuesday with the approval of a special use permit to build 37 wind turbines in Saline County, the first of three wind farms it plans for the state.

Following more than two hours of public comment that pitted neighbor against neighbor, Saline County Commissioners granted the permit requested by Aksamit Resource Management for a 74 megawatt wind farm the company plans to built northeast of Milligan.

Wind turbines have been a contentious issue for Nebraskans in recent years. A couple hundred people protested a 30-turbine wind farm last week at a Cherry County planning and zoning meeting, the North Platte Telegraph reported.

In Butler County, which lacks zoning, the Board of Supervisors has condemned efforts by six townships to regulate wind farms.

In Lancaster County, commissioners last year established noise limits of 40 decibels in the day and 37 at night for wind turbines. The limits were prompted by a proposal from Oregon-based Volkswind USA to build more than 50 wind turbines in southern Lancaster and northern Gage counties.

In Saline County, Aksamit plans to spend $110 million to build 37 turbines, each 440 feet tall when blades are at their highest point, said Michael Matheson, the companys vice president of retail and municipal sales.

Matheson said Aksamit is in negotiations to sell the power the turbines will produce but declined to say with whom.

Construction is expected to begin after harvest this fall, with the turbines operational by Nov. 1, 2017, said Jason Edwards, Aksamits vice president of energy development.

The company also proposes at a later date to spend about $440 million on two more wind projects, including an additional 300 megawatt wind farm in Saline County with 90 turbines and 76 megawatt wind farm in Thayer County with 40 turbines.

The Saline County Wind Association, a group of landowners and county residents who first met in 2008, has been working for years to bring turbines to the county and helped recruit Aksamit.

This is a good project for us, said Jamie Girmus, a landowner and member of the association.

It will bring money to both farmers and local governments and schools, she and other supporters said.

Aksamit estimated its initial 37-turbine facility will generate a combined $700,000 for landowners and local tax revenue.

Opponents of the Saline County project cited many of the same studies and concerns presented by opponents of other projects -- the annoyance and health impacts caused by the sound of the blades, decreased property values, despoiling of picturesque views and possible harm to wildlife.

They also had complaints more specific to the county and their individual situations.

Jim Jirsa, whose house will be within a half mile of a tower, asked for the turbine by his place to be moved another quarter mile away.

Christine McClain and her husband, Gary, bought land five months ago and spent their savings building a new home that will now be flanked by turbines. She said her dreams of a peaceful life in the country have been ruined. She fears the whoosh-thump of the turbines will cause her headaches and other ailments.

Had I known this was going to happen, I would not have purchased my property. Im furious, she said.

Jan Buzek of Tobias said the countys zoning regulations violate the equal protection clause of the United States Constitution because people who have turbines on their land get the protection of ordinances limiting noise to 50 decibels. County zoning regulations say nothing about people who live nearby but havent signed contracts, making them an unprotected separate class, he said.

Commissioner Tim McDermott said concerns about possible health impacts of turbines made him second guess his support of the project, and he wished the board had an independent medical opinion on the issue. In the end, he voted to approve the special use permit along with Janet Henning and Willis Luedke.

Commissioners Marvin Kohout and Stephanie Krivohlavek abstained from voting, Kohout because he owns land contiguous to the project and Krivohlavek because she has family that could benefit from it.

The public hearing held prior to the commissioners vote Tuesday attracted more than 25 people, prompting officials to move the hearing from the usual meeting room on the second floor of the Saline County Courthouse to the more spacious district court room on the third floor.
PHILADELPHIA  Hillary Clinton made history on Tuesday when she became the first woman officially nominated for president by a major American political party.

The Democratic national convention that kicked off Monday here in Philadelphia has been marred by controversy and infighting, but with high-profile entreaties from Michelle Obama and former rival Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, Clintons history-making moment showed signs of healing. Now, with heavy hitters Vice President Joe Biden, President Barack Obama, and new VP-pick Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine slated for Wednesday, the party is training its fire on Trump and his unsteady, unfit and dangerous approach to national security, according to the Clinton campaign.

The Trump camp and the Republican National Committee, fresh off their own chaotic convention, havent tried to hide their happiness at the rancor over a suspected Russian hack of Democratic National Committee servers and later dump of 20,000 DNC emails by Wikileaks. The emails showed the supposedly-neutral organization plotting against Sanders and forced out DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a close Clinton ally.

But now the U.S. intelligence community has told the White House it has high confidence Russia orchestrated the hack, putting the Trump campaign on defense over whether Moscow leaked the emails to cause maximum damage to Clinton while benefiting her friendlier rival.

Sign up for FPs Editors Picks newsletter here to receive Battleground 16, our take on the presidential race, each Wednesday through November.

A Muslim Lawmaker Appeals to Bernies Camp to Stop Trump

Rep. Keith Ellison was an early champion of Sanders. But now hes urging Bernies backers to get behind Clinton to defeat what he calls an existential threat: Donald Trump.

The first thing that the secretary of state did was say that they were not honest and not fair  She set the tone for some actors in our country and gave them a signal.

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 Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2011, accusing then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton of meddling in Russian elections

Tim Kaine Thinks ISIS Fight Needs Congressional Approval

Will Commander in Chief Hillary Clinton listen to him?

Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine, the Democratic vice presidential nominee, was passed up on Barack Obamas shortlist in 2008 in part because of national security inexperience. He spent the years since making his mark on foreign policy by waging a quixotic campaign to limit President Obamas  and his successors  power to wage war against the Islamic State. It could now put him at odds with a Commander in Chief Hillary Clinton.

Moscow Brings Its Propaganda War to the United States

From Ukraine to Germany, Russia has been meddling with elections for years. Now its trying to destroy Hillary.

The dump of nearly 20,000 internal Democratic National Committee emails online dropped a bombshell into the 2016 election, but perhaps more dramatic than the revelations is the apparent expansion of a Kremlin intelligence agency tactic common in Europe: waging cyberwar to influence politics.

32M

The number of Americans who watched GOP nominee Donald Trumps closing night speech on Thursday at the Republican convention in Cleveland, Ohio, last week.

Suspected Russian Hack Claims First Democratic Scalp, as DNC Chair Resigns

Just before the Democratic convention, a likely Russian-orchestrated hack of DNC emails whacks Wasserman Schultz and sows havoc in an already divided party.

Sign up for FPs Editors Picks newsletter here to receive Battleground 16, our take on the presidential race, each Wednesday through November.

Photo credit: Joe Raedle/Getty Images
Frankfurt (AFP) - Germany's chemicals giants showed sharply differing results on Wednesday, with Bayer enjoying strong growth on pharmaceuticals while oil blackened BASF's outlook.

Chemicals and pharmaceuticals powerhouse Bayer upped its growth forecasts for the year after a strong second quarter saw profits surge by 19 percent.

While revenues fell 1.4 percent to 11.8 billion euros ($13 billion), profits hit 1.4 billion euros -- compared with 1.2 billion in the same period in 2015.

The company pointed to strong growth in sales of prescription and non-prescription drugs as the main contributor to the boost.

We remain confident about the year as a whole and are raising the Group forecast, said newly-installed chief executive Werner Baumann.

Bayer's strength stood in stark contrast to BASF, whose second-quarter net profits slid 14 percent to 1.09 billion euros.

Revenues were also down 24 percent to 14.5 billion euros.

BASF "expects continuing challenging conditions and significant risks" over the whole year, it said in a statement in which it confirmed a first-quarter forecast of falling profits.

Chief executive Kurt Bock pointed to low oil and gas prices and an asset swap with Russia's Gazprom to explain the results, adding in a statement that the firm's targets remain "ambitious" given the economic context.

Shares in BASF shed 2.8 percent on the Frankfurt stock market in late morning trading, while Bayer enjoyed a bump of 1.85 percent.

- Pharmaceuticals drive growth -

Bayer's annual revenues are expected to hit around 35 billion euros, excluding income from the recently-separated plastics business Covestro.

Earnings before interest, tax and special items grew 5.7 percent in the second quarter and are expected to see almost 10 percent growth over the whole year -- up from the five percent the firm previously expected.

Bayer's prescription medications division saw sales growth of 5.5 percent to 4.1 billion euros, while sales of over-the-counter medications fell by 2.3 percent to 1.6 billion euros.

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Meanwhile, the agrochemicals unit reported that sales shrank by 4.5 percent to 2.5 billion euros.

Baumann blamed an "ongoing weak market environment" for the result, noting that sales at the division remained "steady" with a fall of 0.4 percent when currency and portfolio effects were taken into account.

Bayer has repeatedly courted US agrochemicals and seeds giant Monsanto in a bid to become the world's largest firm in the sector, with its latest offer standing at almost 60 billion euros -- which would make it the largest-ever takeover by a German company.

But managers at the US firm, controversial for its genetically modified crops and widely-used weedkiller Roundup, have continued to hold out for more cash.

The two firms remain in talks -- although Monsanto is reportedly also in talks with BASF over a possible merger of their agrochemicals divisions.
(Reuters) - While in other parts of the world honeybees have been creating a buzz because of their rapid decline, in New York their population has been soaring for the past few years, literally. The number of urban beekeepers has exponentially grown according to Andrew Cote, President of New York City Beekeepers Association, with registered beehives growing ten-fold in the past five years. In Manhattan, many keep their hives on rooftops, including skyscrapers and office buildings which make for "fantastic apiaries", according to Cote. "Tending beehives on top of New York City and other urban areas is nothing new. However, there has been something of a renaissance in the past five to eight years and it has gained great popularity," he told Reuters on Tuesday (July 26). Cote tends hives on a dozen of skyscrapers throughout Manhattan, including the ones on the 76th floor of the Residence Inn hotel near Central Park, which at 723 feet (220 meters) is the highest apiary measured from the ground in the world according to management. "Since we have put the hives in two and a half years ago, we have done a fair amount of research, and we haven't been able to find a hive higher than we are at this point," explained Timothy McGlinchey Area General Manager of Residence Inn Central Park. The hotel started the "Broadway Bees" project as part of their green initiative as bees are the main pollinators of flowering plants, including many fruits and vegetables. The rooftop hosts six hives which totals to about 180,000 honey bees, all in robust condition. Bee populations are in sharp decline around the world, under attack from a poorly understood phenomenon known as colony collapse disorder. One reason is believed to be the bees' exposure to excessive pesticides and chemicals in rural areas and the lack thereof in New York makes the hives healthy, says Cote. "Beehives in New York City are healthier I would say then the beehives in the Midwest. There is little to no spraying (of pesticides) on top of buildings, no chemicals interfering with their ins and outs," he said. Naturally, the honey gathered by urban bees is apt for human consumption. Cote owns dozens of hives throughout the city and sells his "caramelized gold" in green markets and online. The labels read "Tribeca", "Bushwick" or "Coney Island" corresponding with the neighborhood the honey was collected from. "I don't care. To me if it's pure good organic, whether it's made on a rooftop or in a shed, it doesn't matter to me," said Harvey Marshal, who frequently buys "Andrew's Honey". "I just had a taste of it and it's really nice," said another customer Paul Walker. New York has legalized beekeeping in 2010 and currently has nearly 300 registered hives according to the Department of Health.
French media giant Vivendi is looking to change the terms of its deal with Mediaset over the Italian companys pay TV unit. Vivendi confirmed that it is no longer looking to take control of 100% of Mediasets loss-making pay TV unit, earning the chagrin of Mediaset execs, who have fired back and accused Vivendi of breaking a signed agreement.

Back in April, when news of the deal closing was announced, the Vivendi-Mediaset alliance was being heralded as a game-changer for the media biz in Europe. The deal was supposed to set the way for Vivendi to push forward with plans to create a pan-Euro free-to-air, pay TV and over-the-top platform that can compete with everyone from Netflix to Sky and other competitors. The original deal envisaged the two companies swapping 3.5% of each others stock, with Vivendi also acquiring control over Mediaset Premium, in which Mediaset owned 89%. Vivendi was also set to take over the remaining 11% owned by Spains Telefonica. The agreement with Mediaset confirms Vivendis intention to build strong positions in Southern Europe, a market that shares a similar Latin culture and roots, Vivendi said in a statement at the time.

Now, however, Vivendi  according to irate Mediaset execs- has proposed to acquire only 20% of the pay-TV unit, plus 15% of Mediaset itself in three years. That shift was blasted by execs at Mediaset, still controlled by the Berlusconi family, as a stealth attempt to take over Mediaset. Vivendi execs countered by saying due diligence carried out by the French company had discovered significant differences in the analysis of Mediaset Premiums financials, as outlined in a June 21 letter sent from Vivendi to Mediaset, which also expressed its doubts the unit would break even in 2017-2018.

Vivendi execs argue that the new proposal is value-wise equivalent to that agreed in April. Mediaset execs, however, see the new proposal diluting the stake of Fininvest SPA, the Berlusconi familys holding company, in Mediaset from 34% to 30%. A Fininvest statement accused Vivendi, and its billionaire chairman Vincent Bollore, of attempting to amass an extremely large stake in Mediaset in an underhanded and unacceptable way, a charge that Vivendi chief exec Arnaud du Puyfontaine has rejected, saying the two companies still have amicable ties and remain strategic partners. To the contrary, he told reporters, weve proposed an even more ambitious relationship.

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It remains unclear, even unlikely, if Mediaset shareholders will accept the new terms on offer.

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A pro-Sanders protest at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia. (Photo: Hunter Walker/Yahoo News)

PHILADELPHIA  A ragtag group of protesters made a last-ditch, quixotic and extremely unofficial effort to secure the Democratic nomination for Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders on Tuesday.

Minutes before Hillary Clinton was officially nominated on the floor at the Democratic National Convention at the Wells Fargo Center, a group of pro-Sanders protesters stood outside the security perimeter attempting to persuade delegates to change their minds. They stood pressed against the black metal barricades that encircle the convention and shouted inside at everyone they saw passing by.

Some of the protesters attempted to guilt-trip the delegates.

How can you sleep at night? asked a woman sitting in a beach chair next to the fences.

Dont call yourselves Americans! shouted another woman.

Others resorted to threats.

Your names are public! a man screamed. Well find you!

One protester simply insulted the people inside the fence.

Youre so old! Look at you! they said.

It was unclear if the protesters could be heard inside the perimeter, as most of the people inside were at least 50 feet from the barricades. And a vast majority of the people who passed by the tent appeared to be law enforcement and convention workers rather than the delegates the protesters hoped to reach. Even if the shouts had been heard, it was nearly impossible to imagine delegates deciding to switch their votes after Clinton decisively won the nomination and earned Sanders endorsement.

Slideshow: Bernie Sanders supporters make a last stand >>>

Yet some of Sanders stalwarts who came to the convention were clearly unable to let go of his campaign even though the Vermont senator had conceded the race. The protesters along the barricades said they viewed Clinton as insufficiently progressive and claimed that the primary was rigged in her favor.

My main point is we will not unite behind Hillary Clinton, said Christina Donley, a 34-year-old restaurant worker who came to the convention from Michigan. She is exactly against what everything that, as a nation, we want to grow towards.

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One man in a neon vest shouted at the fence that Clinton works for the military weapons contractors. The man, who declined to give his name, said he is a college student who lives in New Jersey.

The way she bullied Bernie Sanders, shes going to bully us the same way! Slander and deception! he shouted.

Several of the protesters cited Democratic National Committee emails leaked to the public last weekend as proof that the primary results were illegitimate. Those messages showed DNC staffers talking about undermining Sanders campaign.

The DNC stole democracy  now we have the proof, said a woman named Fran. Seems like nobody cares.

Some of the protesters questioned the election results entirely. In spite of the results, they insisted it was clear that Sanders had won.

Bernie has the majority of votes. He does. Hillary stole the election and its not OK, Megan Lewis said.

Lewis, an 18-year-old from Reno, Nev., who described herself as a full-time activist, pointed to rumors that Sanders actually won in California to prove her point. (Those claims have been thoroughly debunked.) She also pointed to allegations of questionable practices by the Clinton campaign in her home state.

On a curb across the street from the fence, Sanders supporters lounged in the shade between sessions at the barricades. A small boy rode by on a scooter festooned with a balloon bearing the slogan Stamp Big Money Out of Politics. He wore a skirt and had a shirt tied around his neck like a cape. Many in the crowd wore tie-dyed clothes, and a man was selling colorful Sanders T-shirts for those who didnt have them. He added his thoughts about Clinton to his pitch.

Bernie buttons and tie-dyed shirts! F*** Hillary! the man called out to the crowd.

Apart from one demonstrator who said they planned to write in Sanders no matter what, everyone who spoke to Yahoo News at the barricades said they planned to cast a ballot for Green Party candidate Jill Stein in November. However, some still held out hope that Sanders could somehow win the nomination.

Im still for Bernie Sanders, but if he does not make it in, I will vote for Jill Stein, said Donley.

None of the protesters were swayed by Sanders endorsement of Clinton.

The only impact that that has on me is that Bernie planted his seed in all of us, and we are here to  do the job that he actually set us out to do, which is grow within the nation, Donley explained.

Some liberals criticize the Bernie or bust voters by arguing that backing anyone other than Clinton would aid Republican nominee Donald Trump. The diehards at the barricades were not impressed by this argument.

A man named Cory James walked along the fences with a megaphone politely imploring people inside the perimeter not to vote for Clinton. He cited polls showing that Sanders would outperform Clinton in a matchup with Trump.

I met this exceedingly polite pro-Bernie protester outside the barricades. pic.twitter.com/AXPcfrAZhU  Hunter Walker (@hunterw) July 26, 2016

Bernie Sanders does much better against Trump. In fact, Trump beats Hillary in those polling conglomerations, you know, theyre weighted and stuff, James said. I think itd be awesome if you supported Sanders. Would you mind giving that a try?

James, who said he is a student from Michigan, explained why he opted for a polite approach as he tried to persuade delegates to change their minds.

I dont want to be rude because these are the people that  hopefully will be voting for Bernie, James said. Also because I just dont really like to be a rude person. Whenever I do something rude, I think about that at night and I stay awake forever.

Fran, who said she was from New Jersey and declined to identify her last name or occupation, offered her own theory for why she doesnt feel the need to vote for Clinton over Trump. She described both of them as being owned by corporations and posited that Trump might be a plant in the race.

I think theyre both the same, Fran said of Clinton and Trump. Who knows if its even real?

_____

Related slideshows:

On the ground at the DNC  a photo report >>>

How newspapers covered the DNCs first big day >>>

Demonstrators protest outside the DNC >>>

Sanders supporters weep at DNC >>>
As the Democratic convention held a roll call vote on delegates, some Bernie Sanders supporters took one last opportunity to back their candidate.

As the Vermont Senator watched quietly from a seat with his states delegation, Sanders backers from various delegations made brief statements of support as they enumerated their states vote count.

Alaska: Fourteen votes for the inspiring progressive Senator Bernie Sanders.

As California cast 330 votes for Clinton and 221 for Sanders, some members of the delegation chanted Sanders beats Trump.

Larry Sanders, Bernies older brother, cast a vote for his brother as a member of Democrats Abroad. It is with enormous pride that I case my vote for Bernie Sanders, Larry said as he choked back tears. Bernie and his wife, Jane, shed tears as well.

Hawaii: The man who inspired people all over this great land for a future we can believe in, we cast 19 votes for Bernie Sanders.

A delegate from Illinois said, Illinois proudly casts, for a true progressive and the father of a new political revolution, 74 votes for Bernie Sanders!

New York cast 108 delegates for Sanders as Gov. Andrew Cuomo said his states applauds him for his call for unity for all Democrats.

An Oregon delegate said, Oregon, feeling the bern, casts 38 votes for Senator Bernie Sanders.

Gov. Tom Wolfe of Pennsylvania said his state awards 82 votes to Senator Bernie Sanders, whose fight for justice, inclusion and fairness has invigorated our party.

After Vermonts delegation reported its vote totals, Sanders took the microphone to call for the rules to be suspended and Clinton named the nominee by acclamation.
When the Bernie Sanders hopes of winning the Democratic nomination officially ended inside of the Democratic Convention hall Tuesday, his most ardent supporters took their fury outside.

Sanders delegates and supporters from across the U.S.California, Wyoming, Utah, you name itwalked out of the arena in protest. Show me what Democracy looks like, they chanted, hoisting Bernie signs above the sea of heads heading toward the exit. This is what democracy looks like. As the crowd shuffled along, a woman in a red dress said aloud, They just signed the whole nomination over to Trump.

In the end, Sanders was the one to make a motion to give the nomination to Clinton, after spending weeks telling his supporters to vote for her. But the emotions of many of his delegates were raw. They were convinced the fires of revolution theyd sparked had been doused by the powers that be in the Democratic Partya feeling that was stoked by the release of 20,000 hacked DNC emails.

He made a commitment to run for president. He had made a commitment to contest this convention. He hadnt conceded. He hadnt suspended. He hadnt released us. And he told us that he would be grateful for our vote said Jim Boydston, a delegate from California. And then he just handed it off.

Standing outside of the arena in a light blue Sanders shirt embellished with pins and a Veterans for Bernie sticker, Boydston wondered aloud over why Sanders had just decided to torpedo the movement. Others also made clear that they no longer felt required to follow Sanders lead.

You cant just start and stop a movement, Kshama Sawant, who sits o the Seattle City Council, told TIME earlier on Tuesday. Sawant was not at the walk-out. Its not a faucet. We are human beings, we are activists, we are people who have for years been angry at not being offered a real choice. We dont believe that the Dems are any answer for the Republicans.

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Outside of the arena, with the protest still ongoing, two women embraced, comforting each other as they wept. One woman, an alternate delegate from Georgia said through tears, We know what theyre doing. Were smarter than them. The woman, Paula Olivares, then turned to the watching news cameras and said, In 2016, elections are stolen in front of peoples eyes.

Austin Dreis-Ornelas, a Texas delegate, said he felt despair at Sanders loss to Clinton. Because we worked so f**king hard, he said through tears. The email leaks confirmed what we knew was true all along.

A woman dressed like Princess Leia, donning hair buns and a white tunic, held up a sign that said Bernie is our only hope. Representatives of the National Nurses United union, wearing red scrubs and green Robin Hood hats, held signs calling for universal healthcare. Dozens wore black, blue or white tape over their months in silent protest of the Democratic National Committee.

More than one hundred protesters eventually gathered around the entrance to the media tent, across the street from the Wells Fargo Arena, where the convention was taking place. The scene was a mix of despair, anger and surrender. Their goal, said Erik Molvar of Wyoming, was to occupy the media tent. The media, Molvar said, was guilty of skewing coverage in favor of the just-named Democratic nominee for president. The group held hands and swayed, singing This Land Is Your Land, a 1940 Woody Guthrie folk song that has long been an anthem of progressive politics.

The group did not represent all Sanders supporters at the convention. Ken Roos, a Sanders delegate from New Hampshire was incredulous. Bernies revolution should continue, but not to splinter the party, he said. Who are these people going to vote for? What do they want to accomplish?

The demonstrators inside the media tent left at around 8:20 p.m., when organizers called the demonstrators inside to watch the Mothers of the Movement, a group of women who have lost children to gun violence, including police shootings. Come inside to support Black Lives Matter, said Jeffrey Eide, a North Dakota delegate.

With reporting by Sam Frizell Charlotte Alter, Zeke Miller, and Jay Newton Small/ Philadelphia
By Aditi Shah

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India's largest telecom network operator, Bharti Airtel Ltd, reported a 30.8 percent fall in first-quarter net profit on Wednesday, blaming an adverse foreign exchange impact in Nigeria, although it beat analysts' estimates.

Consolidated net profit fell to 14.62 billion rupees ($218 million) in the quarter ended June 30, from 21.13 billion rupees last year, the company said.

Analysts on average had expected a net profit of 11.59 billion rupees, according to Thomson Reuters data.

Bharti Airtel, headed by billionaire Sunil Mittal, said total revenue rose 7.9 percent from a year earlier to a record 255.47 billion rupees, helped by new customers signing up for the company's 3G and 4G data services.

During the quarter, the Nigerian naira depreciated by 42 percent, forcing the company to register an exceptional loss of 7.48 billion rupees as a result. Bharti derives about 7 percent of its consolidated EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) from Nigeria, analysts estimate.

Restructuring in some other countries also hurt profits, the company said.

Mobile data revenue during the June quarter rose 35 percent to 35.25 billion rupees from a year ago, Bharti Airtel said. Average revenue per user (ARPU) of data rose 10-fold from a year earlier to 202 rupees during the quarter.

The proliferation of cheap smartphones, led by Chinese brands, has prompted more Indians to use their handsets to access the Internet and demand faster downloads. An Internet-based startup boom in the country has also seen increased adaptability on smartphones, bolstering demand for high-speed data.

Over 100 million smartphones were sold in India, the world's second-biggest mobile phone market by customers, last year and that number is expected to grow by over a quarter this year.

Earlier in July Indian conglomerate Reliance Industries said it would launch its much-awaited fourth-generation (4G) wireless services commercially in the coming months, competing with Bharti Airtel, which ramped up coverage of its 4G services last year to 300 towns in anticipation.

4G services should make it much faster than 3G services to surf the web on mobile phones, tablets and laptops.

(Additional reporting by Tripti Kalro in Bengaluru; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips and Susan Fenton)
Of all the thankless tasks that a political spouse must endure, the ritual of the convention speech is perhaps the worst.

Every four years, in front of a crowd of thousands and an audience of millions, the candidates spouse has to testify to their essential goodness, weaving the most personal anecdotes with broader campaign themes.

The fact that Bill Clinton was a practiced convention speaker with nine speeches under his belt already did not make his task easier Tuesday. If anything, it made it harder.

Those speeches were more straightforward affairs, endorsing the partys candidate, arguing for his own campaigns, serving as Explainer-in-Chief for the platform. To testify on his wifes behalf, Clinton had to unlearn some of those habits, and as the first man in his position on a major party platform, he had no role models.

His job was to humanize Hillary Clinton, to turn her from a cardboard cutoutthe most famous, least-known person in the countryback into something relatable.

In 2008, Michelle Obama described Barack Obama as the same man who drove me and our new baby daughter home from the hospital 10 years ago this summer, inching along at a snails pace, peering anxiously at us in the rearview mirror, feeling the whole weight of her future in his hands.

In 2000, Laura Bush recalled that Hop on Pop was one of George W. Bushs favorite childrens books, and told the Republican National Convention that George would lie on the floor and the girls would literally hop on pop, turning story time into a contact sport.

Read More: Bill Clinton Has Spoken Over 35,000 Words at Democratic Conventions

But Bill Clinton had a trickier task. He could not paint the first female presidential nominee as an anxious new mom without risking reducing her political stature. And he could not make broad proclamations about building a better future without sounding like he was running himself.

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Instead he had to perform the kind of rhetorical alchemy that only a gifted speaker could pull off: turning the story of her success into the story of their love.

The crowd was largely silent as Bill Clinton cast his spell, conjuring up the image of a bright young go-getter and the hapless fool who fell for her. Bill dwelled heavily on the couples early courtship, painting a picture of a good-hearted, idealistic Hillary Clinton who swept him off his feet. She wore a flowered skirt and had big hair. He followed her to register for classes, even though he had already signed up. She took him home to Illinois to argue about the Bears and Cubs with her two brothers.

He also credited herperhaps too muchfor his own ambition, arguing that she had believed in him and pushed him into office. Through her work helping children and migrant workers, he said, Hillary opened my eyes to a whole new world of public service by private citizens. Whatever he had accomplished, he seemed to imply, was largely thanks to her.

Lets get back to business, he said after he finished listing early examples of her do-goodery to return to his grandfatherly reminiscences. Meanwhile, I was trying to get her to marry me. The first portion of the speech focused not on any jobs or campaigns, but on his three marriage proposals to Hillary. He managed to spin an image of Hillary Clinton as both a superhero and an ingenue.

Then he elided more than a decade, skipping over his own presidency so that he could drill into her stints in the Senate and the State Department. Every mention of his own political career was couched as part of a personal narrative of their life together. If somehow you didnt know that hed been President in the 1990s, you might not have realized it from this speech.

Instead, Bill assumed the posture of an awestruck bystander who happened to be around while Hillary worked her magic. When they dropped Chelsea off at college, he recalls, there I was in a trance staring out the window the window trying not to cry, and there was Hillary, on her hands and knees looking for one more drawer to put that liner paper in. Unlike Michelle Obama or Laura Bush, he softened his spouse by opening up about his own vulnerabilities, not hers.

Shes the best darn change maker I ever met in my entire life, he said. This woman has never been satisfied with the status quo in anything. This woman always wants to move the ball forward, thats just who she is.

In a particularly artful slight of hand, Bill Clinton compared this portrait of Hillary to the nasty caricatures painted by her enemies. One is real, he said, the other is made up. With one flick of a long, outstretched finger, Bill Clinton used the GOPs attacks against Hillary to lend credibility to his own account. A real change maker represents a real threat, he said. So the only option is to create a cartoon alternative, and run agains the cartoon.

Delegates loved the idea of Bill Clinton as First Guy. Its never been done before, but based on how he did this, I think hes gonna fill it with grace and grit, said Judy Noel, a Hillary Clinton delegate from Florida. He made her into such a warm, human and accomplished person.

Even Bernie Sanders delegates were impressed. Bills speech really shows a good side of Hillary Clinton, said Gina Robinson Ungar, a Bernie Sanders delegate from Indiana. I hope our neighbors back home will pay attention.

Theres an old line that everything Fred Astaire did, Ginger Rogers also did backwards and in high heels. Bill Clintons speech Tuesday was the male analogue. He had to do everything Michelle Obama and Laura Bush did, only standing straight while wearing a tightly knotted tie.

It was not easy, but by all accounts he pulled it off.
Bill Clinton

Bill Clinton created a very personal portrait of his wife, Hillary, who earlier was officially chosen to be the Democratic presidential nominee, when he spoke at the party's convention Tuesday night.

He talked of meeting Hillary and courting her when they were both in law school at Yale University.

"The first time I saw her, we were, appropriately enough, in a class on political and civil rights," he told an audience at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia. "She exuded this sense of strength and self-possession that I found magnetic."

Bill couldn't manage to work up the nerve to introduce himself, he said, and one day Hillary caught him staring at her in the library.

"She said, 'Look, if you're going to keep staring at me, and now I'm staring back, we at least ought to know each other's names. I'm Hillary Rodham, who are you?'" Bill recounted. "I was so impressed and surprised that, would you believe it or not, momentarily, I was speechless."

He reminisced about taking long walks with her and meeting her family. He remembered the flowery skirt she was wearing when he saw her again after that meeting in the library. And he explained how it took some convincing for Hillary to marry him because she was so ambitious with her career.

"I had married my best friend," Bill said. "I was still in awe after more than four years of being around her at how smart and strong and loving and caring she was, and I really hoped that her choosing me and rejecting my advice to pursue her own career was a decision she would never regret."

Bill also characterized Hillary as a change agent.

"This is a really important point to take out of this convention," he said. "If you believe in making change from the bottom up  you know, it's hard, and some people think it's boring. Speeches like this are fun. Actually doing the work is hard."

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Hillary is often criticized for being a "career politician" at a time when many Americans are rejecting the political establishment. The rise of Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who challenged Hillary for the Democratic nomination, and of this year's Republican nominee, Donald Trump, are evidence of voters' desire to see an unconventional leader in the White House.

But Bill tried to make the case that Hillary had always pushed for change in her political career and that she had a track record of accomplishments.

"I hear people say, 'We need a change  she's been around a long time.' She has," Bill said. "But she's been worth every single year she's put into making people's lives better."

He continued: "I can tell you this. If you were sitting where I'm sitting and you heard what I have heard at every dinner conversation, every lunch conversation, every long walk, you would say that this woman had never been satisfied with the status quo on anything. She has always wanted to move the ball forward. That is just who she is."

Bill also characterized her as "insatiably curious," a "natural leader," a "good organizer," and "the best darn change-maker" he had ever seen.

He then contrasted the message of the Democratic convention  which has been overwhelmingly positive and optimistic  with the anti-Hillary caricature that was amplified at the Republican convention, which was held last week in Cleveland.

"How does this square with the things that you heard at the Republican convention?" he asked. "One is real  the other is made up  We just have to decide which is which, my fellow Americans."

NOW WATCH: Watch Bill Clinton tell the story about how he first met Hillary





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PHILADELPHIA  Bill Clintons speech at the Democratic National Convention late Tuesday was part grandfatherly musings, part nostalgic love story, part family history, part political memoir and entirely about portraying his wife as trustworthy, authentic and an agent of change for voters sick of the status quo.

Republicans fearful of Hillary Clintons appeal used their convention to draw a cartoon alternative of her, he charged.

Cartoons are two-dimensional, theyre easy to absorb, said Clinton. Life in the real world is complicated, and real change is hard. And a lot of people even think its boring. He continued, Good for you, because earlier today, you nominated the real one.

Four years after his folksy and feisty address at the 2012 convention led President Obama to dub him secretary of explainin stuff, Clinton treated Democrats packed into the Wells Fargo Center here to an affectionate, and often wistful, biographical portrait of 45 years of private and public life with the former first lady, senator and secretary of state.

His characteristic hoarse voice took rapt party faithful from the beginning of their story  In the spring of 1971, I met a girl  through his attempts to get her to marry him, their life in Arkansas and his political rise, fall and rise. He took them through his presidency, mentioning her failed effort to overhaul American health care but omitting his impeachment. All the way through, Bill Clinton noted his wifes commitment to family, from her parents and siblings to their daughter, Chelsea, who will address the hall on Thursday. He spoke of their wedding, Chelseas birth and their struggle when their daughter went off to college.

He summed up a day of testimonials from people touched and helped by Hillary Clintons advocacy  in public and in private.

What he called the real Hillary has earned the loyalty, the respect and the fervent support of people who have worked with her in every stage of her life, including leaders around the world who know her to be able, straightforward and completely trustworthy, he said. The real one calls you when youre sick, when your kids in trouble or when theres a death in the family.

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If the speech seemed at times to meander, its message went straight for some of Hillarys most serious vulnerabilities: that she is untrustworthy, that she cannot relate to ordinary voters dreams and fears, and that electing her will chart a more-of-the-same course for a country always looking for change.

This woman has never been satisfied with the status quo in anything, he said. Shes insatiably curious, shes a natural leader, shes a good organizer and shes the best darn change-maker I ever met in my entire life.

Democrats packed in the arena cheered and clapped, but more telling was their focused silence as the former two-term president made himself a character witness to Hillary Clintons personal and professional qualifications for holding the highest office in the land.

He spoke of her deep Methodist faith and her conversion from Goldwater Girl to Democrat, powered by what he summed up as her support for civil rights and opposition to the Vietnam War.

He highlighted a lifetime of Hillarys advocacy, for prison reform, against segregation and for disabled children.

She never made fun of people with disabilities; she tried to empower them based on their abilities, he said. It was one of just a few lines recognizable as knocks on Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, who once mocked a disabled reporter while speaking at a campaign rally.

But even as he took a shot at the brash entrepreneur, Clinton vouched for his wifes ability to work with Republicans. He cited praise from such stalwart Clinton opponents as Newt Gingrich, the former House speaker who now supports Trump, or Tom DeLay, the sharp-elbowed Texas lawmaker who served as Republican House majority leader.

This is a really important point for you to take out of this convention: If you believe in making change from the bottom up, if you believe the measure of change is how many peoples lives are better, you know its hard  and some people think its boring, he said. Speeches like this are fun. Actually doing the work is hard.

Clinton continued: So people say, well, We need to change. Shes been around a long time. She sure has, and shes sure been worth every single year shes put into making peoples lives better.

There were Clintonian flourishes, in style and substance. He spoke of Hillarys efforts to battle extremist messages online, adding, Weve got to win this battle in the mind field. He mentioned the recent assassinations of police officers and the deaths of young black men at the hands of law enforcement, all the while playing middle-way peacemaker. If youre a young African-American, disillusioned and afraid, we saw in Dallas how great our police officers can be. Help us build a future where nobody is afraid to walk outside, including the people that wear blue to protect our future, he said.

When I was president, I worked hard to give you more peace and shared prosperity, to give you an America where nobody is invisible or counted out, he said. But for this time, Hillary is uniquely qualified to seize the opportunities and reduce the risks we face. And she is still the best darn change-maker I have ever known.

_____

Related slideshows:

On the ground at the DNC  a photo report >>>

Bernie Sanders supporters make a last stand >>>

Sanders supporters weep at DNC >>>

How newspapers covered the DNCs first big day >>>

Demonstrators protest outside the DNC >>>
Drawing on his 40-year marriage with Hillary Clinton, former President Bill Clinton told the nation stories Tuesday night about a remarkable partnership that could make history againfor both of them.

I married my best friend, Clinton said of his wife, a trailblazing former First Lady, Senator and Secretary of State. She figured out what needed to be done and what made the most sense and what would help the most people. And if it was controversial, she just tried to persuade that it was the right thing to do.

His keynote speech on the second day of the Democrats nominating convention in Philadelphia was filled with jokes about his wifes fussiness over drawer liners and praise for her get-things-done attitude. The touching stories capped a night sagely designed to introduce voters to the Hillary Clinton that her friends say we would love, if only we knew her the way they do.

Read More: Bill Clinton Auditions for the Role of First Guy

If Hillary Clinton wins Presidency, it remains an open question what, exactly, Bill Clinton will do and what roles he will play. For the moment, the job is to be chief character witness for her campaign. But the role would likely expand if he moves back into 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue once more.

Clinton occupies a unique place in American politics, and remains one of the greatest political minds in the party, a world-class campaigner and unrivaled strategist. The Presidents since he left officeGeorge W. Bush and Barack Obama alikehave phoned him looking for advice. One veteran of the Obama White House said this week that he was jealous he wouldnt be working in the same building as Bill Clinton. Life, he said, would have been easier if we could pop over to the East Wing to run idea past Bill.

America has never before had a female leader, let alone a male first spouse, let alone a first spouse who is himself an ex-President. Its one thing when Michelle Obama pops over to the West Wing to chat with Barack Obama. Its another when two presidents live together in the White House residence.

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Hillary Clinton has said she would rely on her husband for advice, especially on the economy, and may give him a specific global problem to solvefrom a perch in government, as opposed to the family foundation, which he is likely to turn over to daughter Chelsea if her mother wins.

Some Hillary Clinton friends suggest he could be dispatched abroad, where he has tremendous popularity. He has taken some of those missions for other Presidentsheading up Haitian earthquake fundraising and bringing home journalists detained in North Korea.

Bill Clinton is unlikely to take up the more traditional First Lady duties, such as managing florists and catering. Hillary Clinton said she would keep an eye on those more social aspects, something her longtime friends say she enjoys. Just because shes dealing with China doesnt mean she cant also deal with the china, one longtime friend said.

Read More: Bill Clinton Has Spoken Over 35,000 Words at Democratic Conventions

For now, Clinton aides are trying to deflect any specific speculation on what Bill Clinton would do if they move back to the White House. Its premature, they say. Left unsaid: most of these aides dont know if they are getting gigs in the White House.

When Hillary Clinton asked her advisers opinions on her running mate, Bill Clinton was in the room in many ways. Yes, Bill Clinton joined a lunch with Tim Kaine and his family, but aides also repeatedly wanted Hillary Clinton to consider how her No. 2 would deal with having an ex-President in the mix. They cautioned against picking someone who might be jealous of the first spouses ability to sway Hillary Clinton during Oval Office meetings or in private moments in the White House residence.

Despite the unchartered territory Bill Clinton would navigate, its not like other presidential spouses have been armchairs. Hillary Clinton reshaped the public role of First Lady, taking on an ambitious health care overhaul and being a key player in her husbands Administration. She took an office in the West Wing and had more senior staffers working for her than did Vice President Al Gore. Her critics pilloried her as overly ambitious, and even during the 1992 campaign, political advisers said polls showed voters sour on her.

First spouses, of course, have always wielded power and influenced their partners in private. Nellie Taft wrote her husbands speeches and cajoled Teddy Roosevelt into endorsing William Howard Taft. Her power was so great that, in 1909, he wrote a to his wife after she vetoed her husbands picks for ambassadors to China and to England: Memorandum for Mrs. Taftthe real Presidentfrom the nominal President.

Similarly, Florence Harding managed her husbands Senate campaign, Rosalynn Carter attended Cabinet meetings and lobbied House Speaker Tip ONeill, and Ellen Wilson served as Woodrows acting chief of staff.

Bill Clinton is unlikely to have such a formal role, but top Clinton aides half-joke that its a toss-up as to which staff will be more demanding: Bills or Hillarys. Its entirely plausible that Bill Clintons chief of staff could find himself or herself as powerful as the Cabinet-ranked counterpart to Hillary Clinton. If Hillary Clinton wins the Presidency, keeping Bill Clinton focused and in his lane will be an enormous task.

Read More: How Would Bill Clinton Handle the Role of First Spouse?

Its also not clear how the public will look on the return of the ex-President. In office, his approval ratings swung from 37% to 73%, according to Gallup. Last year, the polling giant found him at a 59% favorable rating, up from the average 55% he enjoyed in office.

For now, Bill Clinton seemed ready to help his wife make history. In a speech that was remarkably on-message, Clinton urged supporters to roll up their sleeves and send the ClintonBill and Hillaryback to the White House.

For this time, Bill Clinton said, Hillary is uniquely qualified to seize the opportunities and reduce the risks we face today and she is the best darned change maker that I have ever known.
Bill Clinton is no stranger to the Democratic convention stage. When he speaks Tuesday night, it will be his 10th consecutive time delivering a major address there.

Hell make history as the first husband giving a speech on behalf of his wife as a major party nominee.

Clinton is known for going long and off-script, with results that either soar or falter.

Read highlights from his past convention speeches below.

1980: Jimmy Carter

Clinton was the nations youngest governor when he spoke on behalf of the Democratic Governors Association. During the well-received speech, he urged the party not to ignore the appeal of Ronald Reagan.

What he said: I became a Democrat many years ago because of the values and the influence of my wonderful grandfather who ran a country store in a black neighborhood in a small town in southwest Arkansas. But I remain a Democrat today because of my love and concern for the welfare of my six month old daughter.

1984: Walter Mondale

After being bounced from office, Clinton returned to the governors mansion, sparking the Comeback Kid nickname he would later use to great effect. He received positive reviews for his speech on behalf of former Vice President Walter Mondale.

What he said: We live in a time when millions of Americans believe that the Democratic Partys greatest days are behind it, that we are no longer the party of progressive change. Harry Truman fought for change, for new ideas, for the future. He began the Democratic Partys historic commitment to civil rights and brought the United States into peacetime cooperation with other nations.

1988: Michael Dukakis

Then-Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton took the stage in 1988 to endorse then-Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis. Its a half hour that Clinton could have used to propel him onto the national spotlight, but it fell flat as he meandered through the speech. People actually clapped when he said in conclusion.

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What he said: Michael Dukakis knows that working together works. Hes proved that again in this great convention because were here in unity and poised for victory. Mike Dukakis is a man with a vision, a shining vision for this country.

1992: His Nomination

This was the speech that showed Clinton learned his lesson about speaking at convention. Clinton took the stage at his own convention to accept the nomination and blew everyone away. He even joked about how bad his last convention speech was.

What he said: In the name of all those who do the work, pay the taxes, raise the kids and play by the rules, in the name of the hard-working Americans who make up our forgotten middle class, I proudly accept your nomination for president of the United States. I am a product of that middle class, and when I am president you will be forgotten no more.

1996: His Re-Election

Clintons 1996 speech was an opportunity for him to put his record on display for the nation. He used the metaphor of building a bridge to the future throughout his speech.

What he said: We can only build our bridge to the 21st century if we build it together, and if were willing to walk arm-in-arm across that bridge together.

2000: Al Gore

This was the year that Al Gore, Clintons vice president, was nominated, so Clinton was able to personally vouch for him. This speech came after the Monica Lewinsky scandal, and he threw in a line at the end to keep building bridges and putting people first, whatever you think about me.

What he said: I ran for president to change the future for those people. And I ask you to embrace new ideas, rooted in enduring values, opportunity for all, responsibility from all, and a community of all Americans.You gave me the chance to turn those ideas and values into action, after I made one of the very best decisions of my entire life: Asking Al Gore to be my partner.

2004: John Kerry

This was the first presidential election following the 9/11 attacks, so security was a high priority in Americans minds. It was also high on the Clinton agenda: Hillary Clinton was then serving as a New York senator.

What he said: Americans long to be united. After 9/11, we all just wanted to be one nation. Not a single American on September the 12th, 2001 cared who won the next presidential election. All we wanted to do was to be one country, strong in the fight against terror, helping to heal those who were wounded and the families of those who lost their loved ones, reaching out to the rest of the world so we could meet these new challenges and go on with our democratic way of life.

2008: Barack Obama

By the time 2008 rolled around, Clinton had earned himself a reputation similar to that of a rockstar at conventions. He was greeted with extended applause and chants. He drew parallels between himself and then Sen. Barack Obama as well as critiqued Sen. John McCain for embracing an unchanging Republican way of thinking despite loving his country as much as Democrats. This was one of Clintons shorter convention speeches, and it came after Obama beat Hillary Clinton in the primaries.

What he said: Senator Obamas life is a 21st-century incarnation of the old-fashioned American dream. His achievements are proof of our continuing progress toward the more perfect union of our founders dreams. The values of freedom and equal opportunity, which have given him his historic chance will drive him as president to give all Americans, regardless of race, religion, gender, sexual orientation or disability, their chance to build a decent life and to show our humanity, as well as our strengths, to the world.

2012: Obama Re-Election

At this point, Clinton was an expected presence. He gave the nominating speech at Obamas request and ran past his allotted time. His stage presence was Clinton at his finest, a testament to what a natural he is at giving a good speech, and some credit it with helping Obama get re-elected.

What he said: I want Barack Obama to be the next president of the United States, and I proudly nominate him to be the standard-bearer of the Democratic party.
Former President Bill Clinton could make history this November as the first first gentleman. But his speech making the case for his wife at the Democratic convention Tuesday night was a historic moment in and of itself.A



As the Chicago Tribune put it, he was "a former president who wants to be first man extolling the virtues of a former first lady who wants to be president."



"Only the Clintons."



And the former president was in true Clinton form on the second night of the Democratic convention in Philadelphia, as he took the stage in support of wife Hillary Clinton following her official nomination.A







His was not so much a speech as a quintessentially Clinton-esque story hour  starting with his opening line: "In the Spring of 1971, I met a girl."



He captivated the audience with a colorful, " awwww-inducing" yarn of the moment he first laid eyes on Hillary Rodham Clinton in a classroom at Yale Law School. He recalled her "big blonde hair, BIG glasses, wore no makeup and she exuded this sense of strength and self-possession that I found magnetic."



"I followed her out, intending to introduce myself. I got close enough to touch her back  but I couldn't. Somehow, I knew this wouldn't be just another tap on the shoulder and I might be starting something I couldn't stop."



When he finally got up the nerve to ask her out, it was for a walk on campus. "We've been walking and talking and laughing together ever since," he said. "We've done it in good times and bad, through joy and heartbreak."



But the walk around campus was only the beginning. It took Bill three tries to get Hillary to agree to marry him, he said. During his second proposal, he told her he "really wanted to marry her"  but advised her to decline his offer and pursue a career in politics instead. On his third attempt, he surprised her by buying a little red brick house she had once admired in Arkansas.



"We were married in that little house on October the 11th, 1975. I married my best friend. I was still in awe after more than four years of being around her, at how smart and strong and loving and caring she was, and I really hoped that her choosing me and rejecting my advice to pursue her own career was a decision she would never regret."





Hillary Clinton's Inspiring Message to Every Little Girl





In a campaign where Hillary's character  her trustworthiness and personal warmth  have been problem issues for her in polls, the former president seized with gusto the mission to undo those impressions with anecdotes about her homey side. And every story carried an undercurrent of his wife's work ethic and selflessness.



For all her early accomplishments as a lawyer and children's advocate, Hillary's priority was being a mom, Bill said. "She became, as she often said, our family's designated worrier, born with an extra responsibility gene." With a laugh he recalled that they rarely disagreed on how to raise their daughter, Chelsea Clinton  except for that one time he took a couple days off work to binge watch with Chelsea all six Police Academy movies back to back. "[Hillary] did believe that I had gone a little over the top."



A campaign official tells PEOPLE that Hillary watched her husband's address on TV from their home in Chappaqua, New York. Their daughter, Chelsea, was in the hall for her father's speech, which he wrote himself. The former first daughter, seated next to Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, cheered her father on along with the rest of the crowd. (With their grandfather speaking way past their bedtime, Chelsea's children,A Charlotte and Aidan, did not make an appearance.)



In his speech, the former president, thumping his hand on the lectern to emphasize every word, took issue with those in this campaign season who fault his wife  a former first lady, U.S. senator from New York, and secretary of state under President Obama  for being too long in government, an insider when outsiders are cool.



"Some people say, 'Well, we need change. She's been around a long time,' " Bill said in a mocking sing-song. He continued with a fist-pounding fierceness: "She sure has! And she's sure been worth every single year she's put into making people's lives better!"



Bill's addressA marked a hugeA role reversal for the husband and wife team. Exactly 20 years ago,A at the 1996A Democratic National Convention,A Hillary urged Americans to vote for her husbandA in her first ever prime-timeA speech, whichA focused on what remain two of her key issues: families and children.



"We are all part of one family  the American family  and each one of us has value.A Each child who comes into this world should feel special." Making that vision a reality, she continued, "takes a president who believes not only in the potential of his own child, but of all children; who believes not only in the strength of his own family, but of the American family.A It takes Bill Clinton."



Hillary will take the stage again on Thursday, the final night of the convention  this time as the official 2016 Democratic presidentialA nominee.A
When potential First Gentleman Bill Clinton took to the stage to campaign for wife Hillary Clinton at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia Tuesday night, most viewers were probably not scrutinizing what he was wearing, a navy suit, white shirt with spread collar and bright blue silk tie with subtle tonal pattern.

But they should have been. Because that's exactly what we've been doing for female presidential spouses from Martha Washington, who made sure to keep a fashionable look without the appearance of abundant luxury, to Michelle Obama, who wore a low-key cobalt blue Christian Siriano dress for her DNC speech Monday night.

The fashion industry is a multi-trillion dollar business that employs more than 1.8 million people in the United States, so the fashion choices of the First Gentleman, the First Lady and the President matter.

See More: Lena Dunham, Debra Messing and More Support Hillary Clinton at the Democratic Convention

If Hillary Clinton wins the presidency, Bill Clinton, as her spouse, will likely take on a supporting role, as he has done in the campaign. But unlike most presidential spouses, who are largely strangers to the public before moving into the White House, Bill Clinton is a known quantity. His clothes don't have to do the talking for him because he's already been on the public stage for more than 40 years, warts and all.

Which is not to say he doesn't think about it. Over the years, Clinton has worn plenty of American labels, including suits by Chicago-based Hart Schaffner Marx, Rochester, NY-based Hickey Freeman and New York City-based Donna Karan (before the men's business closed).

He's shown his support for American manufacturing by sporting a "Built in Detroit" Shinola watch, and actually purchased 13 of them, mostly the Runwell style, after touring the Shinola factory in Detroit in 2014. (This was before Shinola was called out by the Federal Trade Commission for failing to meet the made-in-the-USA standard; the watches are assembled here, but some parts are made overseas.)

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Read More: Eva Longoria to Wear This Dress From Her New Limited Collab Onstage at DNC Tonight

What kind of impact, if any, could his wardrobe choices have on the American fashion industry?

Let's look at Michelle Obama to start. A study released by David Yermack, professor of finance at New York University's Stern School of Business, found that for 189 public appearances the First Lady made between November 2008 and December 2009, she generated about $2.7 billion in value for the brands she wore, including US labels J. Crew and Liz Claiborne, and European labels, too. To put a more specific number on it, for a generic brand, it would be worth $38 million to have First Lady Michelle Obama wear their clothes, Yermack found.

Could Bill Clinton have the same style power?

Yermack is not optimistic. "He is already too well known, and he had ample opportunity to establish himself as a fashion icon during his eight years as president. That never happened," he told The Hollywood Reporter. "In the future, it might be different for another first husband. "

"Also, it seems obvious that as a former fashion model, [Melania] Trump may have a large impact on the apparel industry if her husband is elected," Yermack added.

Read More: Hillary Clinton's Campaign Shop Has More Designer Labels Than a Department Store

By their nature, most men's fashion choices aren't as splashy as women's. (A blue business suit, even if it's a nice cut by Hart Schaffner Marx, isn't as likely to create a social media and buying frenzy as First Lady Michelle Obama's Tracy Reese pink brocade dress, or potential First Lady Melania Trump's white Roksanda Ilincic dress for that matter.)

And even the most diehard Bill fans would probably agree, he's not a glamorous as the current First Lady, who has appeared on the cover of Vogue twice. (Hillary Clinton was the first first lady to appear on the cover of Vogue, in December 1998. Both Bill Clinton and Barack Obama have covered laddie mag GQ's Man of the Year issues.)

So far during the convention, it's a far humbler fashion statement that has drawn attention for Bill Clinton, at least on social media--a friendship bracelet. It was a gift from Los Ninos del Vallenato, a Colombian band that performed at the White House during his presidency, according to The Independent. The head of the group was later kidnapped and murdered by Marxist rebels. Clinton wears the string bracelet to show solidarity with the Colombian people.

Which may say a lot about his current role--and how he would like to be perceived--not as a former president or even a would-be First Gentleman, but as a global humanitarian.
(PHILADELPHIA)Taking on the role of devoted political spouse, former President Bill Clinton declared his wife Hillary Clinton an impassioned change-maker, serving as character witness for her on the night she triumphantly became the first woman nominated for president.

Shes been worth every single year shes put into making peoples lives better, he said of his partner of more than 40 years and the Democratic Partys new standard-bearer in the race for the White House.

For a man more accustomed to delivering policy-packed stem-winders, Clintons deeply personal address underscored the historic night for Democrats, and the nation. If she wins in November, the Clintons would also be the first married couple to each serve as president.

She will take on Donald Trump, who won the Republican nomination a week ago. Trump, who campaigned Tuesday in North Carolina, mocked the former presidents speech in advance, calling him over-rated.

Referring to Trump, though not by name, Clinton said there are real and affordable solutions to problems facing the nation but we wont get to them if America makes the wrong choice.

Read More: Bill Clinton Has Spoken Over 35,000 Words at Democratic Conventions

The former president traced his relationship with his wife back more than 40 years, recalling in great detail the first time he spotted her on campus and the impact she had on pushing him into politics.

Hillary opened my eyes to a whole new world of public service by private citizens, he said, addressing a convention hall packed to the rafters with delegates listening raptly.

He closed the second night of the Democratic convention, a jubilant celebration of Hillary Clintons formal nomination for president. In an important move for party unity, her primary rival Bernie Sanders helped make it official when the roll call got to his home state of Vermont, prompting delegates to erupt in cheers. It was a striking parallel to the role Clinton played eight years ago when she stepped to the microphone on the convention floor in Denver in support of her former rival, Barack Obama.

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This time, Clinton shattered the glass ceiling she couldnt crack in 2008.

She leads a party still grappling with divisions. Moments after Clinton claimed the nomination, a group of Sanders supporters left the convention and headed to a media tent to protest what they said was their being shut out of the party. At the same time, protesters who had spent the day marching in the hot sun began facing off with police.

Trump cheered the disruptions from the campaign trail. In North Carolina, he told a convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars that, our politicians have totally failed you.

Indeed, Clintons long political resume  secretary of state, senator, first lady  has sometimes seemed an odd fit for an electorate deeply frustrated with Washington and eager to rally around unconventional candidates like Trump and Sanders. Many voters have questions about her character and trustworthiness, suggesting her years in power give her the impression she can play by different rules.

President Clinton spoke after three hours of testimonials from lawmakers, advocates, celebrities and citizens who argued otherwise. Each took the stage to vouch for Clintons commitment to working on health care, childrens issues and gun control.

Hillary Clinton has the passion and understanding to support grieving mothers, said Sybrina Fulton, whose son Trayvon Martin was killed in 2012. She has the courage to lead the fight for commonsense gun legislation.

The significant time devoted to the character testimonials underscored the campaigns concerns about how voters view Clinton. Public polls consistently show that a majority of Americans dont believe she is honest and trustworthy. That perception that was reinforced after the FBI directors scathing assessment of her controversial email use as secretary of state, even though the Justice Department did not pursue charges.

President Clinton complicated the email controversy last month when he met privately with Attorney General Loretta Lynch in the midst of the FBI investigation. Republicans cast the meeting as a sign that the Clintons play by different rules, while Democrats bemoaned that at the very least, it left that impression.

The former president has campaigned frequently for his wife during the White House race, but mostly in smaller cities and towns, part of an effort by the campaign to keep him in a more behind-the-scenes role. His convention address was his highest profile appearance of the campaign.

Clintons landmark achievement saturated the roll call with emotion and symbols of womens long struggle to break through political barriers. Jerry Emmett, a 102-year-old woman born before women had the right to vote, cast the ballots for Arizona.

Martha McKenna, a Clinton delegate from Maryland, said the night felt like a celebration for Sanders campaign as well as Clintons. She added, The idea that Im going to be here when the first woman president is nominated is overwhelming.

The Democratic convention drew the partys biggest stars to sweltering Philadelphia for the week-long event. On Monday night, first lady Michelle Obama made an impassioned case for Clinton as the only candidate in the presidential race worthy of being a role model for the nations children. President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden will speak Wednesday, along with Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine, Clintons new running mate.
"In the spring of 1971, I met a girl," began Bill Clinton when he took the stage at the Democratic National Convention on Tuesday night.

Saying she had big blonde hair, big glasses and wore no makeup, the former President says he sought "her" out.

"I got close enough to touch her back, but I couldn't do it," he explained. "Somehow I knew this would not be just another tap on the shoulder."

Speaking Tuesday night for his 10th address to a Democratic convention, the former president joined his wife, Hillary Clinton, in making history as potential first gentlemen.

Hillary Clinton's groundbreaking Democratic nomination as the first woman to ever lead a major political party into the general election came earlier on Tuesday. If she wins in November, Bill Clinton will become both the first male to be a first spouse and the first former president to reoccupy the White House.

Bill Clinton continued to tell their love story to an apt crowd in Philadelphia, who laughed and cheered as he took them down Clinton memory lane.

"Then I saw the girl again," he said. "Finally, she was staring back at me." She then approached him and said, "Look, if you're going to keep staring at me, we at least ought to know each other's name. I'm Hillary Rodham Clinton, who are you?"

Bill Clinton said he was so impressed and surprised that "momentarily," he was left speechless.

"We built up a lifetime of memories," he continued, as he recounted their early career and relationship steps, all the way up to the birth of daughter Chelsea Clinton. "You'll see Thursday night when Chelsea speaks - Hillary's done a pretty fine job of being a mother."

Recalling how Hillary Clinton turned down his first offer to marry him, he says he asked a second time by saying, "I really want you to marry me but you shouldn't do it." Explaining that he told her she should focus on politics and running for office, he listed her strengths as empowering people on their abilities. "She believed anybody could make it."

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Eventually, "The third time was the charm," he said. "I married my best friend .. I really hoped her choosing me and rejecting my advice [to focus on her career] was a decision she'd never forget."

Bill Clinton compared the Democratic Convention to last week's Republican Convention, calling one "real" and the other "fake": "Today, you nominated the real one."

He then called Hillary the "best damn change-maker I have ever known."

Bill Clinton's past speeches to the convention have been career highs, and lows: His longwinded 1988 address famously drew cheers when he said the words "in conclusion." In 2012, he acted as a powerful speaker for President Barack Obama, electrifying the room as the party's "explainer-in-chief."

Tonight, Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta said the speech will be "more personal" and focused on Hillary Clinton. Bill Clinton wrote the first draft of his Tuesday speech himself before sharing it with the campaign.

Hillary Clinton has made clear that her husband will remain involved with her administration. The two frequently talk multiple times a day, say aides, with Clinton often weighing in on choices like picking Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine as her running mate.

Day two of the four-day convention carries the theme: "A Lifetime Of Fighting For Children And Families."

Watch the speech live above.

See More: The Wild Scene and Characters of the Democratic and Republican Conventions
Philadelphia (AFP) - Former president Bill Clinton urged Americans to dismiss decades of political attacks and elect the "real" Hillary Clinton this November, in a deeply personal testimonial to his wife's character and grit.

"You should elect her because she'll never quit when the going gets tough. She'll never quit on you," the former president told Democratic Party delegates who selected her as their first female nominee earlier in the day.

Turning Republican attacks on their head, Clinton offered a tacit admission that his wife was part of the political scenery and that she was not always as flashy, or such a gifted orator, as other politicians.

"She's been around a long time. She sure has," he joked. "And she's sure been worth every single year she's put into making people's lives better."

Some people find change from the ground up "boring," said the two-term leader, who is now 69. "Speeches like this are fun -- actually doing the work is hard."

Republicans who gathered for their own convention in Cleveland last week called on Hillary Clinton to be jailed, accusing her of mishandling classified material, introducing dodgy foreign policies and of rank corruption.

Bill Clinton said the two images of his wife were impossible to reconcile because "one is real and the other is made up."

"You just have to decide which is which, my fellow Americans," he said.

The 45-minute speech was as much Bill Clinton playing "First Gentleman" -- reprising the role of character witness played by so many aspiring first ladies at conventions past -- as Bill Clinton the political "big dog."

In a lilting story that spanned decades and states across America's heartland, Bill Clinton described Hillary as a "magnetic" young student, a "fine" mother, his best friend and the "best darn change maker" Americans could hope for in a president.
It was a historic night Tuesday as Hillary Clinton shattered the glass ceiling and became the first woman from a major political party to secure a presidential nomination.

Read: 102-Year-Old Woman Born Before Female Suffrage Pledges Arizona Delegates to Clinton

Former President Bill Clinton was on hand to deliver the keynote address in support of his wife at the Democratic National Convention at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia.

In the spring of 1971, I met a girl, she had big blonde hair, big glasses, wore no make-up, Bill said at the top of his speech as he told how he pursued Hillary while they were students at Yale.

I married my best friend. I was still in awe after more than four years of being around her at how smart and strong and loving and caring she was and really hoped that her choosing me and rejecting my advice to pursue her own career was a decision she would never regret," he said.

His speech struck a sour note with MSNBC's Rachel Maddow, who said: I got to say the top of the speech I found shocking and weird.

CBS News Anchor Scott Pelley had a different take, saying: He did very well last night. One of the things he came out to do was humanize his wife, as he said, not the cartoon version you often hear but the real person.

Read: Bipartisan Folly: History's Most Memorable Political Convention Madness

The former president ended with a rousing defense of her record of public service.

Hillary is uniquely qualified to seize the opportunities and reduce the risk we face and she is still the best darn change maker I have ever known, he said. This woman has never been satisfied with the status quo ... She always wants to move the ball forward. That is just who she is."

Watch: Blind Man With Cerebral Palsy Hugs Biden Ahead of National Anthem Performance at DNC

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Bill Clinton

At the 2012 Democratic National Convention, Bill Clinton gave a speech that went about 20 minutes over time. It was a very good speech, and it was shockingly detailed, as late-night convention speeches go.

For example, Bill's 2012 speech had a compelling section arguing that GOP nominee Mitt Romney had bad ideas about how to divide state and federal responsibilities for funding Medicaid, ideas that would hurt millions of voters who probably don't usually spend much time thinking about how Medicaid is paid for. This isn't exactly scintillating stuff, but Bill sold it as not just interesting but important.

Clinton is one of the most talented political speakers of our time, but what especially sets him apart is his ability to talk about complex, arcane policy topics without boring the audience. His speeches can be soaring and technical at the same time.

In his address to the Democratic convention on Tuesday night, Clinton set out two tasks for himself: humanize his wife, a candidate with poor personal favorability ratings who is often discussed as though she were not a person with feelings; and ground her ideology, making the case that she is a committed progressive who has devoted her life to making the sorts of policy changes people on the left care about, all while working successfully with Republicans.

He managed this combination through a tour of the career he and Hillary built together, one that was heavy on arcane policy content. It was a clever combination: The message of the speech was essentially that Hillary channels her humanity into her policy work  that we can understand her soul by examining the laws she helped shape.

Bill talked about Hillary's early work as a lawyer, suing to strip whites-only private schools of their tax exemptions in the interest of promoting integration.

He described the variety of boards and commissions she served on during his administrations, crafting policy changes on topics from K-12 school funding in Arkansas to children's health insurance, which he argued improved the quality of education in Arkansas and extended health insurance to millions of children nationwide.

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And he talked about her own record in the Senate and as secretary of state, crafting international agreements including the New Start nuclear treaty with Russia.

This content sounds boring, a fact Bill acknowledged in his speech, and in the hands of most speakers it would be. But I think Bill pulled it off, making the case that Hillary's often unglamorous work in the trenches of government made her a "change maker," as signs in the hands of delegates declared. And he managed to include numerous examples of bipartisan cooperation to boot.

In 2012, I wrote that Bill Clinton was able to mount a far more convincing defense of Barack Obama's governing record than Obama himself seemed to be able to muster. In this campaign, Hillary Clinton has struggled to make the case that voters should be excited about her presidency rather than simply preferring it over the other unappealing options.

We will see on Thursday whether she can make as strong a case for herself as Bill did.

NOW WATCH: Watch Bill Clinton tell the story about how he first met Hillary





More From Business Insider


After Michelle Obama looked to American history Monday night at the Democratic National Convention, when she spoke of whats its like for her to live in a house that was built by slaves, Bill OReilly had a reaction that likewise looked to historybut not in the same way. The host of The OReilly Factor said on Tuesday that though the First Lady was essentially correct, the slaves who worked on building the White House, he said, were well-fed and had decent lodgings. He followed that up on Wednesday by emphasizing that she was correct and he was merely providing extra facts about that moment in time.

Far left loons distort tip about @FLOTUS statement that slaves built White House. She's correct & I provided facts. More on The Factor -BO'R  Bill O'Reilly (@oreillyfactor) July 27, 2016

Whether or not his facts were rightas the New York Times points out, records do show those slaves were fed pork and bread, but that may or may not have meant they were well fedthe statements drew quick reactions from observers like Shonda Rhimes, who, among many others, tweeted about how OReillys comments were irrelevant. Talking about food and lodgings, they reminded audiences, is missing the point when the matter is one of human beings who are treated like property.

But OReillys comments might not have surprised anyone familiar with the history in question.

As Edward L. Ayers, President Emeritus of the University of Richmond, explains to TIME, the idea that people in slavery in America were well-fed and cared for is one of the oldest rationalizations of the nations history of slavery.

To understand how it came to be, Ayers says, look back to the 1830s, a pivotal moment for American slavery. At that moment in time, it began to seem possible that slavery might be on its way out: Nat Turners Rebellion in 1831 scared slaveholders, Virginia considered freeing slaves in the state and radical abolitionists, who wanted to end slavery immediately, began to attract more national attention. At the same time, however, the economics of slavery were changing: with the spread of the cotton gin, the main cash crop associated with slavery became many times more valuable to plantation owners, which meant that the slaves who did the labor were more valuable too. Those who benefited from the system had all the more reason to seek its continuation, and all the more reason to worry that wouldnt happen.

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So the people who wanted to keep slavery around had to figure out a way to defend it as a positive good, especially against those who had moral, not economic, arguments. One defense was religious, pointing out that being enslaved had introduced people to Christianity. The other main defense was that American slaves were better off, in terms of living conditions, than they would have been in Africa or in another slave society. The idea was exemplified by people like Thomas R. Dew, who wrote in 1832 that A merrier being does not exist on the face of the globe, than the negro slave of the United States and that the slaves of a good master were accustomed to look up to him as their supporter, director and defender. (Even in his own time, Dews arguments were fiercely disputed.)

When the pro-slavery defense crystallized, Ayers says, the material welfare of the enslaved people in the United States was always held up as the example of its benign nature.

That so-called welfare wasnt the defense that slaverys boosters thought it was. For example, if slaves in the U.S. lived longer than slaves in other places, that wasnt a sign that slavery was a benevolent institution. It was a sign that the economics of cotton were such that, as Ayers puts it, it wasnt worth working someone to death. And, as historian Caleb McDaniel pointed out on Wednesday, modest gains in enslaved peoples living conditions, food [and] housing, were won in struggle, not given freely.

But the material-welfare argument endured even beyond the end of the institution itselfif not as a justification, once the practice was abolished, as a footnote that seemed, to some, to mitigate an evil. And so, in that sense, its not really shocking to see the idea make headlines more than a century later. If you take a plantation tour, they often say, Well, here the slaves were well taken care of,' Ayers notes wryly. This place is always an exception.

Not that it would really matter.

No matter how materially adequate [slavery] might have been, in terms of nutrition or whatever, Ayers says, you could wake up any day and your children could be sold.
There will be no "achy breaky hearts" at CMT.

The Viacom-owned country-music themed cable network has renewed Billy Ray Cyrus scripted comedy Still the King for a second season, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.

The renewal comes as little surprise as the hourlong comedy holds the distinction as having the highest-rated series premiere ever for CMT. Its June 8 bow collected more than 4.7 million total viewers with three days of delayed viewing and a 1.03 rating among adults 18-49 (across three networks, including TV Land and Nick@Nite). The series, which heads into its Aug. 14 season finale, is averaging 4.5 million viewers per week.

"Working on the series has been a career highlight," said executive producer and star Billy Ray Cyrus. "Thanks to the fans for embracing these crazy characters and all of their beautiful flaws. We're going to take this mess to a whole new level next season."

"The success of Still the King is a wonderful start for our move into scripted programming," said Jayson Dinsmore, exec vp development at CMT. "Both charming and irreverent, this series is like nothing else on television and we can't wait to continue the journey."

The renewal comes as CMT continues to make scripted programming a priority. In addition to Still the King, the cabler rescued country music drama Nashville after ABC's cancellation and will debut the 22-episode series in early 2017. Next up, CMT has eight-episode limited drama Million Dollar Quartet.
First McDonald's franchise

McDonald's golden arches have come a long way over the years.

The now iconic logo had its start in 1952, when the McDonalds brothers were interviewing architects to design the first McDonald's location, reports The Daily Meal. The first three architects were skeptical of the brother's plan to construct a restaurant with two arches, shaped like semicircles, on each side.

Then, they found Stanley Clark Meston. Meston designed the McDonald's location to stand out amongst the surrounding buildings, grabbing the attention of hungry drivers who could be convinced to pull over and buy a quick burger. Two golden arches, one on each side of the building, did just that.

Originally, the two arches were not meant to form an "M," as they do today in the chain's logo. However, as the building design became famous, the chain created a logo intended to be a minimalist view of a McDonald's location, with a slanted roof and two arches lining up to form an M.

old mcdonalds hamburger university

By the late 1960s, McDonald's had ditched the two-arch design, with the golden arches appearing instead on signs. This is the era in which Ray Kroc had taken over the business and was swiftly franchising McDonalds across the US, using the golden arches as a logo, not as an architectural instruction.

There was, at this point in time, reportedly some discussion regarding the need for a new logo. However, the change was rejected by a marketing expert for a somewhat bizarre psychological reason, reports the BBC.

vintage mcdonalds cars

Apparently, design consultant Louis Cheskin convinced McDonald's to maintain its branding with the argument that with the golden arches carried the "Freudian symbolism of a pair of nourishing breasts."

Since Cheskin's reported pro-golden arch argument in the '60s, there have been a few tweaks to the logo as it has traveled around the world.

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The only non-yellow M in the world...apparently. #sedonamcdonalds A photo posted by Greg Vogel (@theurbanwombat) on Oct 5, 2015 at 5:47pm PDT on Oct 5, 2015 at 5:47pm PDT

As the arches have become immediately recognizable, there have been instances in which McDonald's has allowed differences in color at local restaurants. In Sedona, Arizona, the arches are turquoise, to avoid clashing with the surrounding environment. In Monterey, California, the arches are black, as part of a compromise with the city to create a more "sophisticated" look.

There have been small aesthetic shifts over the years, to make the arches taller or thicker, or to change the shading, but for the most part the arches have remained the same. Across the world, the golden arches mean one thing: McDonald's.

NOW WATCH: We tried McDonald's popular international hit that's finally in the US  here's the verdict





More From Business Insider


It was a powerful moment at the DNC as 9 mothers who lost children in police shootings and other violent acts spoke out before eventually throwing their support behind Hillary Clinton.

Read: LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony, Chris Paul and Dwyane Wade Call for End to Police Brutality, Gun Violence

The Mothers of Movement addressed the convention to discuss the deaths of their children and endorse the former secretary of state.

As they took the stage, the crowd began to chant: Black lives matter!

The mothers held back tears as they spoke about the deaths of black men and women at the hands of law enforcement as race relations have become a national debate.

Most of the mothers wore black and all had giant red carnations on their right lapels to honor their kids.

"So many of our children gone but not forgotten, Geneva Reed-Veal, whose daughter Sandra Bland, died in jail after being pulled over last year. I'm here with Hillary Clinton because she is a leader and a mother who will say our children's names. Hillary knows that when a young black life is cut short, it's not just a personal loss. It is a national loss. It is a loss that diminishes all of us.

Lucia McBath, whose teenage son Jordan Davis was killed in Florida in 2012, said: I am still Jordan Davis' mother. His life ended the day he was shot and killed for playing loud music. But my job as his mother didn't.

Sybrina Fulton, the mother of Trayvon Martin, who was shot dead by neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman in 2012, said she didnt want this spotlight but praised Clintons efforts on gun control.

Fulton was joined by Lezley McSpadden, the mother of Michael Brown, who was shot by Officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Missouri, in 2014. Wilson was not charged in Brown's death and says he acted in self-defence when he feared for his safety in the August 2014 incident.

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Read: Alton Sterling's Teenage Son Pleads for Calm: 'Protest in Peace, Not Guns'

Other mothers gracing the stage in Philadelphia included the following:

Gwen Carr, the mother of Eric Garner, who died after he was put in a chokehold by an NYPD officer in Staten Island.

Maria Hamilton, the mother of Dontre Hamilton, who was shot by police in 2014 in Milwaukee.

Annette Nance-Holt, the mother of Blair Holt, who died on a Chicago bus in 2007 while trying to protect a friend from gang-related gunfire.

Wanda Jackson, the mother of Oscar Grant, who was gunned down by a Bay Area Rapid Transit Officer on New Years Day in 2009  his story was depicted in the film, Fruitvale Station.

Watch: Blind Man With Cerebral Palsy Hugs Biden Ahead of National Anthem Performance at DNC

Related Articles:
STURTEVANT  An Oak Creek woman is facing a felony charge for reportedly stealing more than $37,000 from her former employer.

Adrian Barrera, 39, worked as an accounting assistant at Titan Inc from April 2014 to October 2014, according to the criminal complaint.

While employed at Titan, 9900 Durand Ave., Barrera had access to three of the companys credit cards and monthly credit card statements. Using the credit cards, she reportedly make a myriad of personal purchases, the complaint said.

The purchases included two iPads, 348.6 GB of cellular data, air fare from Milwaukee to Miami and Chicago to Birmingham, Alabama, rental cars, restaurants, hotel rooms, utility bills, furniture and other items totaling $37,329.26, according to the complaint.

Barrera faces a felony theft of a business setting over $10,000.


Taring the vampire is the ambassador for MBO Cinemas' Blood Donation Drive 3.0.

27 Jul  Here's one vampire you will willingly give your blood to, because you know he is collecting it for a good purpose. Taring the vampire returns once again as the ambassador for MBO Cinemas' annual blood donation drive with St John Ambulance of Malaysia.



Dubbed Blood Donation Drive 3.0, this year Taring and his friends  the trained personnel from St John Ambulance of Malaysia and staff from National Blood Centre (PDN)  are targeting to save a further 15,000 lives by collecting 5,000 pints of blood to contribute to PDN.



"With this engaging charitable endeavour, MBO Cinemas hopes to further stamp our presence in the community, together with our core values of fun and entertaining, and yet a meaningful community work," said CEO of MBO Cinemas, Mr Lim Eng Hee.



The blood donation drive, with its tagline "1 Pint Saves 3 Lives", will be held at 25 locations nationwide from the first weekend of August.



Dr Noryati bt Abu Amin (PDN), Mr Lim Eng Hee (MBO Cinemas)

and Dato' Yeo Kim Thong (St John Ambulance of Malaysia) at the launch of Blood Donation Drive 3.0.

On 5 and 6 August, the drive will take place in Kedah and Johor locations from 12pm to 6pm. It will then be held for the rest of Malaysia on 6 and 7 August, also from 12pm to 6pm.



Donors will be given a goodie bag each, which includes a free cinema ticket, MBO Cinemas movie merchandise, food, drinks and pharmaceutical gifts.



Started in 2014, the first drive, Blood Donation Drive 1.0 featuring Taring the Vampire Kid as ambassador, was able to collect 1,065 pints of blood. Last year, Blood Donation Drive 2.0, featuring Zen Jun Qian as Gigi the Vampiress, collected 4,052 pints.



Donations made to both events have already saved more than 15,000 lives.
The Boeing Co. BA is a premier jet aircraft manufacturer and is also one of the largest defense contractors in the U.S. Its revenue exposure is spread across more than 90 countries around the globe.



In the race for supremacy in the commercial skies, the North American jet plane maker  Boeing  has surpassed its European rival Airbus in 2015 for the fourth consecutive year. Competition between Airbus and Boeing has been characterized as a duopoly in the large jet airliner market since the 1990s.



Estimates Revision & Earnings Surprise Trend



Boeings earnings estimates revision for the second quarter has mostly been to the downside. The company witnessed 4 downward revisions over the past 7 days.



Yet, it does have an impressive history in earnings season, reporting positive earnings surprises in the last three of the four quarters with an average beat of 10.97%.



Zacks Rank: Currently, Boeing has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). However, since the latest earnings performance is yet to be reflected in the estimate revisions, the rank is subject to change. We have mentioned below some of the vital information from this just-revealed announcement:



Earnings: Our consensus called for loss of 88 cents and the company reported adjusted loss per share of 44 cents.



Revenue: Revenues surpassed the expectations. Boeing posted revenues of $24.76 billion, compared to our consensus estimate of $24.45 billion.



Key Stats to Note: Boeing ended the second quarter of 2016 with total backlog of $472 billion, down from $480 billion at first-quarter end.



Boeing lowered its 2016 outlook with its core earnings is now expected in the range of $6.10-$6.30 versus $8.15$8.35 per share expected earlier. It, however, maintained its revenue forecast of $93-$95 billion.



Market Reaction: Shares were up about 4.28% in pre-market trading following the release, at the time of this write-up.



Check back later for our full write up on this Boeing earnings report later!



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BOEING CO (BA): Free Stock Analysis Report



To read this article on Zacks.com click here.



Zacks Investment Research
Brie Larson thinks her fans are super.

Following her officially being announced as the star of Marvel Studios' Captain Marvel, Larson took to Instagram on Tuesday, addressing reactionary casting culture and thanking fans for support.

In her post, Larson called being cast as Captain Marvel a "trust fall into the internet."

"I know who I am, but it's wild how quickly you can forget once someone calls you something terrible. I was reminded how the acceptance of community is a deeply rooted need - but I don't want to live worried people will hate me because I'm myself!" Larson wrote. "We should all have the freedom to be our authentic selves without fear or judgment. It's scary to chip away at all the hardness we coat ourselves with to protect that perfect little being inside. Yeah, people can be mean, but they can also be so many other wonderful things too. Let's make this place a safe space. No hate and more understanding. To the followers that are new: welcome!"

Woke up this morning thinking about the tidal wave of support I got this weekend. It was nerve-racking to trust fall into the Internet! I know who I am, but its wild how quickly you can forget once someone calls you something terrible. I was reminded how the acceptance of community is a deeply rooted need - but I don't want to live worried people will hate me because I'm myself! We should all have the freedom to be our authentic selves without fear or judgement. It's scary to chip away at all the hardness we coat ourselves with to protect that perfect little being inside. Yeah, people can be mean, but they can also be so many other wonderful things too. Let's make this place a safe space. No hate and more understanding. To the followers that are new: welcome! Sometimes I let people take over my Instagram to share their views of the world. That's coming up next. Thanks for joining us!

A photo posted by Brie (@brielarson) on Jul 26, 2016 at 6:46am PDT

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There has been a long history of knee jerk reactions to comic book casting announcements dating back to 1988, when grumbles about Mister Mom star Michael Keaton being casted as Batman were heard in comic book stores all over the country. But in the online age, reactions can be particularly harsh on women, with Wonder Woman star Gal Gadot facing body shaming issues following her casting, with some online complaining she was too skinny to play the Amazonian warrior. Her response? "Wonder Woman is a one-breasted Greek Amazonian woman, so if I were to really go 'by the book' - that would be a problem."

In Captain Marvel, Larson will play Carol Danvers, who in the comics is a test pilot who gains superpowers after an encounter with aliens.

"My dream casting - or the actor who is the voice in my head - is Kathleen Turner from about 1983. She could be both sexy and awkward and powerful. She could do all of those things at once. From what I can tell, Brie Larson can do those things too," Kelly Sue DeConnick said in an interview with Vanity Fair. "She has a gravitas and she has a power to her. But you can see she also has a sense of humor and playfulness there. I'm psyched."

Marvel Studios' Captain Marvel will be released in 2019.

Read More: Brie Larson's 20-Year Climb to Overnight Stardom: I'm "Totally Out of My Comfort Zone"
RACINE  A Racine man is looking for his fathers World War II medal that was reportedly stolen along with his wallet from his car Saturday morning.

Patrick Miskulin, 66, was moving items into his apartment and left the car in an alley in the 2100 block of Green Street. When he returned, the wallet was gone. He first looked around the alley for it and then in nearby trash cans. It was later discovered that the wallet was taken from the car. In it was as much as $250 cash and a St. Christopher medal his father gave to him before he died 24 years ago.

(Patricks father) said it brought him safety for five years, Madeline Miskulin, Patricks mother, said. Patrick just wants to the medal back.

The medal was carried by Miskulins father for five years during World War II while he served in the 125th field artillery unit of the army. He served in Northern Africa and Italy.

The family memento was going to be passed down to Patricks brothers children.

Madeline, also of Racine, is asking the suspects or anyone who finds the medal to bring it to a post office in an envelope with Patrick Miskulin written on it. Send it to P.O. Box 044661, Racine, WI, 53404.

We only want the medal, Madeline said. Hes heartbroken and he feels terrible about it.
It was first shown in the summer before 9/11 back in 2001, but soon after, Catherine Malandrino's American flag-printed dress became an iconic - not to mention, timeless - piece.

When the dress made its red-carpet debut on Halle Berry at the Swordfish photocall on Sept. 1, 2001, there was no way the French designer could have known the symbolism the chiffon shirt dress would hold in the coming months when it would be worn by Julia Roberts, Sharon Stone and Madonna as an emblem of patriotism. At the time she created the piece, she noted that she was simply inspired by the Americana fashion of the film Easy Rider.

Read More: Bill Clinton Makes His Own Fashion Statement At Democratic National Convention

In 2008, Malandrino relaunched the dress to commemorate the historic election of President Barack Obama (the price jumped from $375 to $475). Following the election, it was worn by Kelly Ripa on Live With Regis and Kelly, and vocal Hollywood Democrat Meryl Streep first stepped out in the patriotic number at the Paris photo call for Doubt in January 2009; Malandrino herself wore it to a charity event a few months later.

In July of that same year, it was featured in the exhibit, "Fashion and Politics" at the Museum at Manhattan's Fashion Institute of Technology, on display next to a floor-length flag gown circa 1889. (Fashion history sidenote: wearing American flags was not always a celebrated practice. In 1968, social activist and anarchist Abbie Hoffman was arrested for wearing a t-shirt emblazoned with the flag.)

AMERICA'S FAVE DRESS: Catherine Malandrino in 2009; Tatyana Ali in 2012; 2014 Miss USA Nia Sanches in 2014. (Photos: Getty Images)

But America's obsession with the look didn't stop there. In another election year - 2012 - the print caught the eye of The New York Times' Bill Cunningham, who snapped a young Manhattanite wearing the dress on Fifth Avenue. Tatyana Ali, too, was photographed in the look at the 2012 BET Upfronts.

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Though the designer herself took a two year break from the industry following the presentation of her spring 2014 collection, the dress continued to reign. Wendy Williams and former Miss USA, Nia Sanchez, wore the gown for press events in 2014, and even Katy Perry took the look for a spin in 2013, posting a July Fourth photo of herself and then-boyfriend John Mayer decked out in stars and stripes.

A photo posted by KATY PERRY (@katyperry) on Jul 4, 2013 at 7:59pm PDT

And at last night's 2016 Democratic National Convention, the dress made an appearance for its third landmark moment in American history, thanks to Streep. The actress chose to wear the shirt dress for her speech in celebration of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, who broke new ground last night as the first woman ever to win a major party's nomination.

SHE'S WITH HER: Meryl Streep at the 2016 Democratic National Convention on July 26. (Photo: Getty Images)

Malandrino herself will soon be returning to the design game, too. Following a two year hiatus, the designer revealed to Vogue that she has a ready-to-wear collection for HSN that will be available beginning tomorrow.

And don't worry, she's also aware of the staying power of her 15-year-old classic piece - so much so that she outfitted a model in the look to promote her brand new fine jewelry collection. Talk about a classic.

A photo posted by Catherine Malandrino (@malandrinobuzz) on May 18, 2016 at 12:00pm PDT
London (AFP) - The British government hailed a A344 million (410 million euro, $450 million) investment to expand London City Airport on Wednesday as evidence Britain was "open for business" despite its Brexit vote.

Finance minister Philip Hammond was at the airport to cheer the announcement by the Canadian-Kuwaiti consortium which owns the airport, a business travel hub located close to Britain's financial centre.

The "ambitious growth plans will boost international connections, strengthening the City of London's links to destinations across the world, and send a clear signal that Britain is open for business," he said.

The investment will expand the airport terminal, create more space for planes to taxi and add new stands to allow bigger planes to use the airport.

The finance ministry said it expected the expansion would create 1,600 airport jobs for staff, as well as 500 construction jobs and could contribute A1.5 billion to the British economy by 2025.

Flights from City go to Europe as well as New York.

Last year it had a record 4.3 million passengers -- an 18-percent increase from 2014.

Its expansion had been blocked by then London mayor Boris Johnson, who is now the foreign minister.

But the new mayor Sadiq Khan lifted the ban.

The plan is being launched as proposals to expand one of London's two main airports -- Heathrow and Gatwick -- appear to be stalled due to environmental concerns despite demands for increased capacity.

City airport was bought earlier this year by a consortium of Canadian and Kuwaiti investors from US fund Global Infrastructure Partners.

The sale was announced by Alberta Investment Management Corporation, Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System (OMERS), and Wren House, an arm of the Kuwait Investment Authority.
From Harper's BAZAAR

On June 23, 2016, more than 30 million people in the United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union. There are a lot of people unhappy with the decision, but if Britain believes it can stand on its own, we thought we ought to find out why. This week, BAZAAR.com is bringing you the best of everything from across the pond (fashion, food, culture, etiquette and more) in what we have coined, #BritWeek.

"There's a huge difference in etiquette between Brits and Americans," says Lisa Vanderpump, the star of Bravo's The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, in her West London accent. The 55-year-old, who has owned 26 restaurants (which currently includes Villa Blanca in Beverly Hills and SUR in West Hollywood) with her husband, Ken Todd, admits she has "adopted the American way of dining," but old habits die hard. "Americans are just rather loud," she says. "And please, I'm not trying to patronize-but it's considered kind of quite rude to be talking so other people can't hear in a restaurant."

We asked Vanderpump to give BAZAAR.com a crash course in British vs. American etiquette-on everything from dining to hosting-and she kindly obliged, before adding with a laugh: "One thing I would like from Harper's Bazaar, I'd like them to please put me on the cover. That is etiquette. In England, you reciprocate."

Dining:

"When people ask for their food to go, it's the funniest thing to me. In England, they would look at you like you're bonkers if you said, 'Can I take my steak and kidney pudding with me?' They don't have containers. They're not prepared for that in England, no one takes their food to go. Whereas here, it's almost like it's a compliment to take your food to go. Like, 'It was so delicious, I want to eat it tomorrow, can I have it to go?' You'll never see anyone walking out of a restaurant in England with their dinner under their arm."

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"Americans abandon the knife. They cut with the knife, and they pass the fork to the right and lose the knife which takes twice as long. We push the fork into the knife to collect the food, so we only do one action, they do two."

"In England, you have to put the knife and fork together on the plate to signal you are finished. When the knife and fork are put together, that means you're done. Otherwise how does the waiter know you're finished? When you leave the knife and the fork spread in the eating position and expect it to be cleared, which most Americans do, that's actually considered rude in England. It's not an aristocratic standard that I'm talking about. I'm talking about basic 101 in England, that you just put your knife and fork together."

"When you leave the knife and the fork spread in the eating position and expect it to be cleared, which most Americans do, that's actually considered rude in England."

"The bill doesn't arrive until you ask for it in England. Here, the bill's just dropped on the table. So when you're in London, don't wait for the check!"

"In England, you don't clear the plate until everybody's finished eating because people often feel that it puts pressure on those still eating, as though they need to catch up. But in the U.S., you often see the plate cleared. People come and say, 'Let me get that out of your way,' and somebody's then left eating on their own."

"The social interaction between the waiters and waitresses and customers is interesting. You often don't have that in England-that kind of, 'Hey! Hi! My name's so and so'. It's more of a service in England, which is more curt and not as friendly-not as familiar. That can be construed by Americans when they go to Britain as being a little snobby."

"I use the word loosely but as a celebrity, I often get approached at the table here. People come up like, 'I love your show!' and I would never experience that in England. I don't mind it at all but it's very different."

Hosting:

"In England, it's much more commonplace to entertain at home in the first place, to invite people to have dinner parties. Certainly, when we lived in the countryside in England, I would be invited to a dinner party a week whereas here it's much rarer, really. People don't entertain in their homes as much. I don't know why."

"You always arrive with a hostess gift in England. Chocolates are a big thing. People often take chocolates that you can have with coffee or with dessert. I don't believe in ever taking flowers that need to be arranged because, where are they going to be put? In the sink when you're cooking? If you take flowers, they should either be an arrangement of flowers that you can put on the bar, or something like a candle. When people say 'can I bring anything?' the hostess is going say, 'no, just bring yourself,' but I would never go to somebody's house without something."

"You always arrive with a hostess gift in England. Chocolates are a big thing."

"A good hostess will always avoid certain subjects and steer the conversation; changing it if she sees things getting heated."

"When you entertain, it's nice to have a couple of specialized drinks. We have LVP Sangria which is our own take on the Pimms cup-a very famous drink in England. To have a drink like that to serve with fruit in a jug, it looks like you've made a big effort rather than just having wine. It's really important when entertaining for your guests to feel like you've made some kind of effort for them."

"If you are a guest, it's unacceptable to be more than 10 or 15 minutes late if somebody's cooking and timing the dinner."

"If you're going to a birthday party and you really don't know what to buy somebody, then just send flowers beforehand, before you get there that say 'Looking forward to seeing you!' or 'So excited!' It's something the hostess can use."

Social interactions:

"Things are changing in Britain as it's become more cosmopolitan, but certainly in the years preceding, you would get introduced by both names. You don't really hear that here and I think it's a great way if you've forgotten someone's name when you're introducing them. If you can't remember somebody's name, say 'I'm so sorry, I've forgotten your name,' and they will say 'Kate!' and you say, 'No, no, I meant your surname.' They will say, 'Oh, it's Willis.' And that get's you out if you forget. Rather than being insulted, it alleviates the awkwardness."

"When I arrived in America, I was always flabbergasted that people would just talk to you. In England, you can sit on a train opposite someone in a small carriage for hours and not a word would be said. Not a word. In America, people are more familiar, they chat. And I like that."

"When I arrived in America, I was always flabbergasted that people would just talk to you."

"The sense of humor is very different. Brits are much more polite and reserved in one way, but we're much more aggressive as soon as we know you. Insults are almost taken as a compliment in England. I wish people weren't so sensitive here. I've had a couple of Americans around when we've had all Brits at dinner and they're like, 'God, don't you guys like each other?' It's just in fun. Americans are more sensitive about things, where as in England nobody would give it a second look."

"In England, we say 'please' a lot more. A lot more. I used to say to my daughter, Pandora, that I wouldn't put her friends through unless they said please. They'd say, 'Is Pandora there?' and I'd hang up-then they'd get the message. 'Please' goes a long way."

Interactions with house staff:

"I would never refer to my house staff as the maid. I value them because they make my life easier and because they're kind, decent people. I've had live-in staff since I was 21, since I first got married, and had everything from a formal butler to a live-in housekeeper with us who was absolutely brilliant and taught me so much. But I think the more you respect people, it's reciprocated. People are not servants. They might serve you, but they're not servants. Treat them with respect and how you'd like to be treated. I treat Rosia, who has been with me for ten years, very well to keep her happy. She's the same shoe size as me, which helps! She's got more Louboutins than any other housekeeper in all of Los Angeles! I swear that's the only reason she stays with me."

Tea time:

"That's something I've still maintained, teatime. Take a break, it's refreshing. At 4 o'clock it's nice to meet for tea if you don't have time for lunch."
A bronze shark was filmed at a popular surf spot in Perth, on July 12. The video, taken at Toms Surf Spot in North Beach by Ryan Geddes, shows the shark swimming circles in the waves. According to Geddes, the shark didnt harm anyone and looked to be hunting for fish.

There have been sharks at the local surf spot everyday for about three weeks, Geddes said. Still has not stopped me from surfing. Credit: Ryan Geddes
Coming to you live every morning from Philadelphia, Unconventional is the one thing you need to read to understand whats really happening at the Democratic National Convention. 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.

So long, Sanders. Its Clintons convention now.

Sen. Bernie Sanders waves to the crowd on Tuesday at the DNC in Philadelphia. (Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

PHILADELPHIA  At first it was about him. And then, finally, it was about her.

The theme of the first day of the Democratic National Convention was United Together  a redundancy that underscored how desperate the Democratic establishment was to set aside the divisions of this years long, hard, primary battle and unite the party around nominee Hillary Clinton.

In practice, this meant that Bernie Sanders and his often obstreperous delegates dominated the first 24 hours of the event. How they booed. Who they booed. What they chanted. Whether Bernie could control them. What his surrogates would say onstage. Whether the divisions on display in the Wells Fargo Center reflected larger divisions in the party.

Even Tuesdays roll call vote, usually a ceremonial tribute to the nominee, was all about Bernie. Instead of interrupting the proceedings when Clinton hit the magic number of delegates  2,383  every last one of Sanders 1,894 votes was counted, as his team had requested and his supporters had demanded. A woman from South Dakota spoke about how Sanders had inspired us all; a man from Washington described him as transformative. That was the tone of much of what transpired in Philadelphia up until that point: Trump is terrible. Hillary is pretty great. Bernie is spectacular.

From a historical perspective, it was a remarkable reversal. The names of other Democratic runners-up had been entered in the roll call before: Ted Kennedy in 1980, Jesse Jackson and Gary Hart in 1984, Jerry Brown in 1992, Hillary Clinton in 2008. But none had been treated as tenderly, or portrayed as heroically, as Sanders.

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The 1992 convention was so controlled, they wouldnt even let me talk, Jerry Brown recalled on Tuesday. This is a love fest compared to that.

The tables turned, however, the minute that Sanders stepped to the microphone at the end of the roll call and move[d] that Hillary Clinton be selected  unanimously  as the nominee of the Democratic Party for president of the United States. The delegates roared. A version of Pharrells Happy played on the sound system. And Sanders disappeared from the massive screens over the stage.

Hes unlikely to appear again in Philadelphia.

Hillary Clinton appears on a video monitor streamed live from New York at the Democratic National Convention on Tuesday. (Photo: Mark Kauzlarich/Reuters)

The rest of the night was Hillarys. The rest of the convention will be hers as well. For the next five hours, a long line of senators and surrogates, politicians and police officers, celebrities and survivors paraded to the podium to tout Clintons achievements and testify on her behalf.

Im here with Hillary Clinton because she is a leader and a mother who will say our childrens names, said Geneva Reed-Veal, whose daughter, Sandra Bland, died last year in policy custody.

Every time I have a big operation coming up, I always receive a note from Hillary, full of encouragement and kindness, said Ryan Moore, who suffers from spondyloepiphyseal dysplasia, or dwarfism.

When we needed someone to speak for us, to stand with us, to fight on our behalf, Hillary Clinton was there, every step of the way, said 9/11 first responder Joe Sweeney.

She looked me in the eye and said, Jelani, Im proud of you, said Jelani Freeman, a former intern who benefited from Clintons policy of reserving one spot in her Senate office for foster youth. I felt seen and heard  for the first time in my life.

And so on. Speaker after speaker insisted that Clinton was all the things her opponents and critics claim she is not  kind, caring, honest, trustworthy, human  by highlighting the fights of her life: for kids, for social justice, for women, for 9/11 survivors, for health care, for human rights.

Former President Bill Clinton at the Democratic National Convention on Tuesday. (Photo: John Locher/AP)

Bill Clinton was, as usual, the highlight. As Olivier Knox, Yahoo News chief Washington correspondent, described it, Bills address was part grandfatherly musings, part nostalgic love story, part family history, part political memoir and entirely about portraying the former first lady as trustworthy, authentic and an agent of change for voters sick of the status quo.

Speeches like this are fun, Clinton chuckled. Actually doing the work is hard.

The evening was a laundry list, a hodgepodge, an overstuffed resume with dozens of reference letters from every imaginable character witness and constituency. But thats what national nominating conventions are, or, at least, what theyve become. So far, its a fact thats been easy to forget during this years unusual convention season. Tuesday was the night that Philly became conventional again. (Except, of course, for the fact that a major party had just nominated a woman for president, for the first time in the United States 240-year history.)

Outside the Wells Fargo Center, Sanders last remaining holdouts defied their heros wishes and tried to seize the spotlight again, storming the media tents and staging a semi-silent sit-in. The effort was a tacit admission of their waning influence: With a new Pew Research Center poll showing that 90 percent of Sanders most ardent supporters plan to vote for Clinton in November, the only way such avid but unrepresentative activists can continue to get attention is by getting in the medias face.

Its exposure, Ohio delegate Alex Davis told Yahoo News. Were forcing you to cover us.

With Tim Kaine, Michael Bloomberg, Vice President Joe Biden and President Obama set to take the stage Wednesday night, and with Clinton scheduled to accept the nomination Thursday, Bernie or bust delegates probably wont be able to force the issue for long.

Back inside the arena, the convention moved on. Meryl Streep spoke. Alicia Keys sang. And suddenly, as the delegates were starting to stream out, Hillary herself materialized on the Jumbotron, live from New York.

Singer Alicia Keys performs at the convention. (Photo: J. Scott Applewhite/AP)

I cant believe we just put the biggest crack in that glass ceiling yet, she said. If there are any little girls out there who stayed up late to watch, let me just say: I may become the first woman president, but one of you is next.

The camera panned out to reveal a roomful of people, smiling and waving robotically. A little girl clung to Clintons red pantsuit. The infomercial was back on track.

_____

Missed the speeches? Weve got you covered.

Lena Dunham, left, and America Ferrera speak at the DNC Tuesday night. (Photo: Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Olivier Knox on Bill Clinton: Four years after his folksy and feisty address at the 2012 convention led President Obama to dub him secretary of explainin stuff, Clinton treated Democrats packed into the Wells Fargo Center here to an affectionate, and often wistful, biographical portrait of 45 years of private and public life with the former first lady, senator and secretary of state.

Liz Goodwin on the Mothers of the Movement: Nine black mothers who have lost children to gun violence vouched for Hillary Clinton during a criminal-justice section of Tuesday nights DNC program. Hillary Clinton isnt afraid to say that black lives matter, said Lucy McBath, whose 17-year-old son Jordan Davis was shot at a gas station in Florida.

Lisa Belkin on Cecile Richards: Twenty-eight years ago, then-Texas Gov. Ann Richards charmed the Democratic Party from the 1988 convention podium, as she taunted the new Republican nominee. On Tuesday night, Cecile Richards, president of the Planned Parenthood Action Fund and Anns daughter, chided another Republican nominee for what she called his deeply disturbing worldview.'

Garance Franke Ruta on Lena Dunham and America Ferrera: The creator of Girls, Lena Dunham, and actress America Ferrera took to the stage here Tuesday night to tweak Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump about his views on women, a topic Democrats have been driving home for months in Web and TV ads in an effort to increase Trumps already high negative ratings with women voters heading into the general election.

_____

Overheard

(At the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia)

Delegate 1: We gotta win in November.

Delegate 2: Yeah. We have so much to fight for.

Delegate 1: Yeah. And against.

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On Wednesday and Thursday, the DNC will pivot from populism to pragmatism

Hillary Clinton and Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia. (Photo: Mary Altaffer/AP)

In his latest column, Matt Bai argues that, for the first day of the convention, it seemed for all the world as if Sanders argument had carried the day.

If you looked at the program for the entire four days, however, you might have realized that all of this was by design, Bai continues. Just as the first night of the Republican convention a week earlier seemed to be all about washed-up TV stars, the opening of the Democratic confab, which began with a lineup of union leaders, was effectively conceived as populist night in Philadelphia.

The unstated theme of the night seemed to be: OK, people, just get it all out now.

So what does that mean for the rest of the DNC?

That were going to see a show thats a less about the unyielding ideology of the populist left and more about the pragmatic politics of the last two Democratic presidents.

Well let Bai take it from here:

On these last two nights of the convention, when the television audience will reach its apex, the lineup of speeches will leave little doubt about whose Democratic Party this really is and whose brand of liberalism has actually prevailed.

On Wednesday alone, Democrats will pack in more powerhouse speakers than Donald Trump managed to assemble for his entire convention. (By day four in Cleveland, the whole thing pretty much felt like little more than a family reunion, except that you didnt know any of the relatives before they showed up and started rearranging the furniture.)

The most symbolically important speaker of the night will be a New York mayor  which shouldnt surprise anyone, since New York is now the geographic center of a presidential campaign, on both sides, for the first time since 1944, when Thomas Dewey ran against Franklin Roosevelt.

But the mayor on stage wont be Bill de Blasio, who once ran Hillary Clintons Senate campaign, and who, along with Sanders and Warren, forms the lefts populist triumvirate.

Instead, Clintons team will hand over the podium to Michael Bloomberg, who hasnt been a Democrat for many years now, and who stands for much of what the left detests. He is a reform-minded billionaire, a titan of Wall Street, an empire builder who champions free enterprise and fiscal restraint.

Bloomberg, who apparently likes Trump even less than he likes very large sugary beverages, will validate Clinton to the national audience, vouching for her pragmatism and gravitas, while de Blasio sits in the cheap seats, suffering in silence among all the bewildered Bernie Bros.

After that, viewers will be introduced to Tim Kaine, the vice presidential candidate whom the partys left flank was less than enthused about. Thats mostly because, until last week, he bravely supported the presidents trade agenda.

And then, before the night is through, the party will turn to its Gehrig-Ruth combination (might as well stay with a New York theme): first Joe Biden, who wrote and championed the Clinton crime bill the populists now vilify, and then President Obama, chief proponent of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, who raised more money from Wall Street than Mitt Romney last time around.

I would not expect either man to use the phrase political revolution.

And on Thursday, of course, Clinton herself will take the stage, where I doubt shell say a whole lot about the sharply leftist party platform that Sanders and his acolytes have been crowing about for a week.

When we look back on this week, we will not see the convention where Sanders and his uprising redefined the Democratic Party, but rather the moment when Clinton and her high command took it back.

Make sure to read the rest.

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Convention diary

Click through for the full convention diary from DNC volunteer Tracy Russo

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The big picture

Photographer Khue Bui is on the ground in Philadelphia, capturing all of the action for Yahoo News. Heres his most unconventional pic of the day.

Photo: Khue Bui for Yahoo News

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Crying Peter Pan Sanders delegate speaks out for party unity

Sean Kehren reacts to Bernie Sanders speech. (Screenshot: YouTube/DNC)

By Liz Goodwin

PHILADELPHIA  As Sen. Bernie Sanders urged his 1,900 Democratic delegates to back Hillary Clinton Monday night, the Internet quickly noticed  and poked fun at  some of his delegates emotional responses to the end of his insurgent campaign.

Even in this sea of sadness, Sean Kehren, a 22-year-old Sanders delegate from Minnesota, stood out. For one, he was wearing a Peter Pan-style hat (which represents a Robin Hood tax on Wall Street). His expression of pure anguish as Sanders spoke earned him the title of breakout star among all the crying Sanders delegates.

Kehrens image was quickly churned into memes, many of them making fun of Sanders supporters for their die-hard Bernie or bust stance. Twitter referred to him alternately as Crying Peter Pan and sad Robin Hood.

Kehren, however, told Yahoo News that he is not a Bernie-or-buster. He said he was crying in part because he found it very noble that Sanders was encouraging his fans to back Clinton for the good of the nation after such a hard-fought and idealistic campaign. (Kehren also wept earlier Monday when Sanders was loudly booed by his delegates for telling them to get behind Clinton.)

I was getting emotional over the fact that he was doing his best to unify the party and I think thats such a noble cause, Kehren said. Bernie has led a revolution, hes led a movement, and now that movement has to get behind the party.

Sad Robin Hood just needs a minute. #DemsInPhilly pic.twitter.com/OkeQjHSrUY  Quinn Sutherland (@ReelQuinn) July 26, 2016

Kehren said hes not a privileged Bernie Bro who hates Clinton, as some on social media have branded him. He said he was raised by a struggling single mom and will vote for Clinton in the election. Shes done her best to make deals with Bernie and to embrace his side, and I have to give her credit for that, he said of Clinton.

This is not Kehrens first brush with Internet fame. Two months ago, I pulled a woman out of a burning car, he said. (He helped save the womans life by bravely removing her from the car.) And he understands why people with more distance from the impassioned Democratic primary think the photos are funny.

Im willing to admit that its funny to other people who dont feel as passionate about it as I do, he said. And I dont expect anyone to know who I am through just a picture of me crying.

_____

By the numbers

26 million:

The number of people who watched the first night of the Democratic National Convention

23 million:

The number of people who watched the first night of the Republican National Convention

_____

The best of the rest

This @mattyglesias piece is important for understanding what's happening at the DNC. https://t.co/vB9ocfYeDV  Josh Barro (@jbarro) July 27, 2016

DOWD: Bubba Pours on the Estrogen https://t.co/LX7ZqPjeTM  DRUDGE REPORT (@DRUDGE_REPORT) July 27, 2016

I interviewed @realDonaldTrump. We discussed Michelles speech, whether the Lewinsky scandal is fair game and Ailes: https://t.co/ZzoazapFfJ  Ryan Parker (@TheRyanParker) July 26, 2016

I had a moving & illuminating conversation w/ the mothers of sons who have become household names. I hope you watch. https://t.co/7dpkoDACta  Katie Couric (@katiecouric) July 26, 2016

Delegates in a stew  but of what? Pottage or porridge? By @jonward11 #DemsinPhilly https://t.co/nefWtZokwJ  Yahoo News (@YahooNews) July 27, 2016

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What to watch Wednesday

Theme: Working Together

Gavel in: 4 p.m.

Speakers:

President Obama

Vice President Joe Biden

Senator and vice presidential nominee Tim Kaine

Former New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg

Current New York Mayor Bill de Blasio

Civil Rights leader the Rev. Jesse Jackson

Actress Angela Bassett

Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown

California Gov. Jerry Brown

Erica Smegielski, whose mother was killed in the Sandy Hook shootings

Felicia Sanders and Polly Sheppard, who survived last years shootings at Emanuel AME church in Charleston, S.C.

Former Maryland Gov. Martin OMalley

Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid

Actress Sigourney Weaver

Gabby Giffords and Mark Kelly, founders of the anti-gun-violence super-PAC Americans for Responsible Solutions

Jamie Dorff, whose husband died in a helicopter crash while serving in Iraq

Musical performance by Lenny Kravitz

_____

Related slideshows:

On the ground at the DNC  a photo report >>>

How newspapers covered the historic second day of the DNC >>>

Bernie Sanders supporters make a last stand >>>

Sanders supporters weep at DNC >>>

How newspapers covered the DNCs first big day >>>

Demonstrators protest outside the DNC >>>
July 27 (Reuters) - California's power grid operator on Wednesday asked electric companies to restrict maintenance work on their generating facilities and transmission lines to help maintain reliability as a heat wave bakes the northern part of the state.

The California Independent System Operator (ISO), which oversees California's bulk electric power system, said on its website that generation resources "may be inadequate" to meet demand during the daylight hours on Wednesday.

The ISO forecast that peak demand would reach 45,931 megawatts on Wednesday and 45,428 MW on Thursday. Although high, that would fall short of the 2015 peak of 47,358 MW in September and the grid's all-time record of 50,270 MW set in July 2006.

Restricting maintenance is the first of many steps a power grid operator can take to help maintain reliability during times of high demand or other stresses.

The ISO, however, urged customers to watch for flex alerts, which inform consumers of any potential power reliability problems and when to conserve energy.

AccuWeather forecast that temperatures in San Jose, the third biggest city in California, would reach 93 degrees Fahrenheit (34 Celsius) on Wednesday and 89 on Thursday after hitting 94 on Tuesday.

High temperatures in Los Angeles, meanwhile, were expected to remain at near-normal levels in the mid-80s for the rest of the week.

State agencies in April warned that millions of electric customers in Southern California could suffer power outages of up to 14 days this summer due to the limited availability of Southern California Gas' Aliso Canyon natural gas storage facility after it shut due to a closure massive methane leak.

SoCalGas, a unit of Sempra Energy, said it had enough gas to meet demand this week. The company said on its website it expects to deliver about 3.1 billion cubic feet of the fuel on Wednesday and 3.0 bcf on Thursday, with about 2.7 bcf coming from pipelines and 0.3 bcf from storage facilities.

See: https://scgenvoy.sempra.com/#nav=/Public/ViewExternalDailyOperations.getDailyOperation%3Frand%3D329

See: http://www.caiso.com/Pages/TodaysOutlook.aspx (Reporting by Scott DiSavino; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)
(Adds call for conservation, updates peak power and gas demand forecasts)

July 27 (Reuters) - California's power grid operator issued an alert urging consumers to conserve electricity on Wednesday as a heat wave baked the state, especially in the north.

Electricity supplies statewide are expected to be tight because of high summer temperatures driving up demand, power plant outages, and reductions in the capacity of transmission lines, the California Independent System Operator (ISO) said in a statement.

Power imports may also be limited Wednesday because of high temperatures in neighboring states, the ISO said.

Earlier Wednesday, the ISO told electric companies to restrict maintenance work on their generating facilities and transmission lines to help maintain reliability.

The ISO forecast that peak demand would reach 45,876 megawatts on Wednesday and 46,866 MW on Thursday. Though high, the levels would fall short of the 2015 peak of 47,358 MW in September and the grid's all-time record of 50,270 MW set in July 2006.

Restricting maintenance and issuing so-called flex alerts for conservation are among the first of many steps the ISO can take to help maintain reliability during times of high demand or other stresses.

AccuWeather forecast that temperatures in San Jose, the third biggest city in California, would reach 93 degrees Fahrenheit (34 Celsius) on Wednesday and 89 on Thursday after hitting 94 on Tuesday.

High temperatures in Los Angeles, meanwhile, were expected to remain at near-normal levels in the mid-80s for the rest of the week.

State agencies in April warned that millions of electric customers in Southern California could suffer power outages of up to 14 days this summer due to the limited availability of Southern California Gas' Aliso Canyon natural gas storage facility after it shut due to a closure massive methane leak.

SoCalGas, a unit of Sempra Energy, said it had enough gas to meet demand this week. The company said on its website it expects to deliver over 3.3 billion cubic feet (bcf) of the fuel on Wednesday and just under 3.3 bcf on Thursday, with almost 3.0 bcf coming from pipelines and 0.3 to 0.4 bcf from storage facilities.

Story continues

If correct, the projected Wednesday delivery would be SoCalGas' biggest demand for the fuel so far this summer.

When the company last delivered 3.3 bcf on June 20, it warned customers that supplies could run short. The company however has not yet issued any similar warnings for Wednesday.

See: https://scgenvoy.sempra.com/#nav=/Public/ViewExternalDailyOperations.getDailyOperation%3Frand%3D329

See: http://www.caiso.com/Pages/TodaysOutlook.aspx (Reporting by Scott DiSavino; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)
PHNOM PENH (Reuters) - Cambodia advised a grouping of South East Asian nations to avoid using words that "would escalate tension between China and the Philippines" in a weekend statement, the country's foreign ministry said on Wednesday. Cambodia's support for China's position on an international court ruling denying the Asian giant's claims in the South China Sea handed Beijing a diplomatic victory when the grouping's ministers met on Sunday. The bloc, which follows an overriding principle of making decisions by consensus, omitted reference to the ruling after its first meeting following the decision by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Hague in favor of the Philippines. Phnom Penh advised ministers of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) against the use of words that "would escalate tension between China and the Philippines," Foreign Ministry spokesman Chum Sounry told reporters on Wednesday. "The dispute in the South China Sea is between the Philippines and China, not ASEAN and China," he said. "So, this shouldn't drag ASEAN countries into the dispute, and it shouldn't drag Cambodia to get involved," he added, describing the Cambodian position at the meeting. ASEAN needed to maintain its neutrality by not touching on the issue, he added. Beijing rejects the court's jurisdiction over its maritime claims in the strategic seaway, and called the case a "farce". Any suggestion that China bought Cambodia's support with soft loans of $600 million a week before the meeting was an "insult", Sounry said. Philippines Foreign Minister Perfecto Yasay had agreed not to mention the court ruling in the statement, Sounry said. On Wednesday, the Philippines said it had "vigorously pushed" for the inclusion, but denied that its failure to secure the reference was a diplomatic win for China. ASEAN foreign ministers met in Vientiane, the capital of Laos, and then hosted two days of talks with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, and his Chinese counterpart, Foreign Minister Wang Yi, among others. The disputed sea, through which more than $5 trillion in global trade passes each year, is the most contentious issue for the 10 ASEAN members. China claims most of the sea, but ASEAN members Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam all have rival claims. China is adamantly opposed to an ASEAN stand on the South China Sea, preferring to deal with the disputed claims on a bilateral basis. (Reporting by Prak Chan Thul; Editing by Clarence Fernandez and Simon Webb)
RACINE  After Sept. 1, 2002, Barb Witek went to bed every night not caring for a single second if she woke up the next day.

That was the day her son Kevin, then 22, was killed in a motorcycle crash in Kenosha County.

I had no idea how I would ever get through it, she remembered. I was on a journey that I never wanted to be on.

In November 2002, Witek attended a meeting of the Racine chapter of The Compassionate Friends, a national support group helping families that have experienced the death of a child, sibling or grandchild.

She has attended monthly meetings for almost 14 years and now helps on the groups steering committee. Today, she helps others get through the intensely personal pain of losing a child.

On Tuesday night, Witek and about 50 other group members gathered at St. Lukes Pavilion at Wheaton Franciscan-All Saints hospital to remember those lost loved ones by releasing balloons of all colors and sizes, with the names of and messages to their relatives written on them.

Standing on the edge of a pond behind the hospital pavilion, the group sent the balloons into the cloudless summer sky.

The group has been doing the balloon release each year since the local chapter formed, Witek said.

Founded in England and brought to the United States in 1978, The Compassionate Friends has more than 660 chapters throughout the United States, with a presence in more than 30 countries around the world.

The Racine group, which covers Racine and Kenosha counties, meets on the last Tuesday of each month. Between 15 and 20 relatives usually attend the sessions, Witek said.

At their first meetings, survivors usually have no idea how they should act or what they should do, Witek said. Many times people dont know what normal is anymore, she said. They question themselves.

Others may want you to be yourself again, but sometimes you dont have the energy or interest to do that, said Sharon Beck, who moderated Tuesdays meeting. Maybe you become a new person with a new world view; a person who values relationships more than ever before.

Remembering

Before going outside to launch the balloons, the group gathered in a circle and said their names of the relatives who they were there to remember

Outside, right before releasing the balloons into the sky, the group recited a litany of remembrance written by Rabbi Roland B. Gittelsohn.

So long as we live, they too shall live, for they are now part of us, as we remember them, the prayer ended.

Many members of the group gazed into the air for almost 10 minutes, watching the balloons turn to specks.

How do you get through this? You find a way, Witek said. You realize you dont have a choice. You dont like it. But you dont have a choice.

I had no idea how I would ever get through it. I was on a journey that I never wanted to be on. Barb Witek, who lost her son on Sept. 1, 2002
MADRID (Reuters) - The leader of Spain's Catalonia region announced on Wednesday its parliament would hold a vote of confidence in his pro-independence government in September, a step aimed at drumming up support for its separatist drive. Carles Puigdemont of the "Junts pel Si" (Together for Yes) party said this was needed after his legislative partners from the anti-austerity CUP group rejected the proposed 2017 budget. A Sept. 28 vote would give time for a calm debate, he said. The Catalan parliament voted on Wednesday to continue with its plans to detach the wealthy north-eastern region from Spain, despite a ruling by the Spanish Constitutional Court annulling its resolution to form an independent state. Under the separatists' 18-month "roadmap," Catalan authorities are due to approve their own constitution and begin founding the necessary institutions for an independent state such as armed forces, a central bank and a legal system. Spain's acting deputy prime minister, Soraya Saenz de Santamaria, said her People's Party (PP) will table a motion at a cabinet meeting on Friday to take the result of Wednesday's Catalan parliament vote back to the Constitutional Court. "Another ... very serious step has been taken," she said. Puigdemont's push for independence got a fresh lease of life in June, following Britain's decision to leave the European Union without the approval of the remaining member states. He said at the time that this suggested Catalonia could claim independence without Madrid's consent. (Reporting by Catherine Bennett; Editing by Paul Day and Tom Heneghan)
UPDATED: PHILADELPHIA  Its such a simple notion as to be downright radical: While every other major broadcaster at the Democratic National Convention is anchoring news reports from sky boxes high above the floor of the Wells Fargo Arena here, CBS has gone old school. The network of Dan Rather and Walter Cronkite and its current evening news anchor, Scott Pelley, is delivering the news from a booth right on the floor of the Wells Fargo Arena.

Pelley and the rest of the CBS team have been having a strong week, as Hillary Clinton prepares to accept the nomination as the first female presidential nominee of a major political party. CBS Evening News recently notched its best ratings in a decade, powered in good measure by its coverage of Campaign 2016.

Pelley, who turns 59 on Thursday, feels like the networks roost on the floor of the convention is bringing viewers an immediacy unmatched by any of its television competitors.

I am thrilled to be down on the floor instead of in a sky booth, where you are glassed in and removed from the action like you are watching from a submarine, said the veteran newsman and 60 Minutes correspondent. We were live from the floor for everything. Norah ODonnell and I were talking about how it felt to be in the room. People were in tears when Hillary went over the top for the nomination and other people marched out because they were so unhappy. We are reporters. We should not be observing people as if from another planet but, instead, elbow to elbow with them, interacting, and gauging what they are feeling. And down there on the floor you could feel the emotion, there was no question. It was visceral.

Pelley described being just feet away on Tuesday, as Bernie Sanders stepped to the microphone in the Vermont delegation to pledge all the states delegates to his long-time rival for the Democratic nomination, Hillary Clinton. It was a real moment, Pelley said. Pelley said the moment never would have been possible without CBSs position right on the floor, just to the left of the podium.

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The anchor praised CBS News President David Rhodes for coming up with the idea of floor-based reportage. It turned out that he was exactly right and we are right in the moment, said Pelley, who is covering his seventh convention. When I was on the set last night I said to Rhodes that I never, ever want to go back to a sky box. This has been a transformative development for us!

I thought it would be too noisy or that the crowds would be too disruptive and I was not sure the angle for our cameras would work from down there, said Pelley. But our audio engineers worked everything out perfectly and the crowds have turned out to be curious and fun  not disruptive at all. The way the shot works, you see the podium right at my shoulder height  and it just has a very innovative look.

Pelley praised former NBC News boss Steve Capus, now executive producer of rival CBSs Evening News, for driving many of the innovations that have had CBS climbing in the ratings. Steve brought in a new director, and made it tasteful and modern, but did it all gradually and it has been a beautiful change.

Steve is also just a really solid journalist when it comes to what we are going to cover and how we are going to cover it, added Pelley, a classical music buff and workout fanatic. He has a really good sense of what is important out there in the world.

Capus has run the breadth of the TV News production employment cycle, starting as an intern and working his way up to producer, assignment editor, then show producer and, eventually, executive in charge of NBCs landmark Today Show. Now we get the benefit at CBS of having the most experienced news executive in all of television. You cant imagine how lucky I am.

Another watershed in the current election cycle for CBS has been the advent of a 24/7 streaming coverage via CBSN. The live video web feed takes political fanatics to events all day long from the convention city of Philadelphia. On Wednesday morning, for example, there was wall-to-wall coverage of Vice Presidential nominee Tim Kaines appearance before the Virginia convention delegation. Besides the live stream of the event, CBS offers pre and post-event commentary.

The streaming effort has been building audience steadily since its introduction, drawing a record 7.6 million streams during the Republican National Convention, higher than the previous big nights for CBSN, like the must-watch primary season debates, starring Donald Trump.

During a week when viewers had many choices for live streaming video from the convention, we saw record demand for our wall-to-wall coverage and original reporting, said Christy Tanner, senior vice president and general manager of CBS News Digital, in a prepared statement.

Nancy Lane, senior exec producer of CBS News Digital, said the growth was expected to continue at the Philadelphia convention, though numbers were not in as of Wednesday afternoon.

Related stories

Joe Biden Rallies DNC: 'Trump Has No Clue, Period'

Bernie Sanders' Hollywood Supporters Stage Another Protest At Democratic Convention

Jerry Brown Calls Donald Trump a 'Fraud'
chelsea handler celebrity apprentice alums donald trump netflix

Chelsea Handler assembled former "Celebrity Apprentice" contenders to discuss Donald Trump.

"I wanted to put together a list of a group of people that have all worked with [Trump]," Handler began, "because I know there's a lot of discussion about whether this is an act, everything he's doing on his campaign, if this is his real personality, or if he's just touching on hot-button issues to make himself more popular."

"Keeping Up with the Kardashians" star Khloe Kardashian, former "American Idol" contender Clay Aiken, comedian Lisa Lampanelli, and former "Real Housewives of Atlanta" star NeNe Leakes said on the Netflix talk show "Chelsea" that they're not voting for their former TV boss for president.

Leakes said that the Trump camp had asked her to make a speech in support of him, but she declined.

Handler asked Leakes, "You don't want to represent him?"

"No," Leakes answered.

Several of the guests agreed that his kids, especially Ivanka Trump, are an asset.

"Someone raised those kids right," Lampanelli said. "And whomever the mother is, did that."

Lampanelli then added, "In all honesty, Chelsea, I have no problem with Trump as a human being ... But here's the deal, Trump is effing crazy. Because in that boardroom, he will say some crazy stuff to the women."

The comedian, who had lost a lot of weight since she was on the NBC show, said that she felt left out when Trump made compliments about the other women's beauty around her.

Aiken feels that Trump is running for president because he's a narcissist.

"This campaign for him, I don't think it is about being president," Aiken said. "It's about having a hundred percent name recognition, about being able to say he won, which I think he probably will do. And that's frightening to me."

Watch the discussion below:





More From Business Insider


In March 2015, President Barack Obama made a pledge to students and student loan borrowers in the form of the Student Aid Bill of Rights. In addition to promising easier access to higher education and the means to pay for it, the pledge resolved to allow all borrowers to receive "quality customer service, reliable information, and fair treatment as they repay their loans." Last week, the Department of Education issued a playbook of sorts of how it intends to fulfill this objective.

Over the last few years, the Department of Education and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau have collected complaints and other feedback from borrowers, members of the student loan industry and consumer advocates. One of the most frequent complaints was about borrowers' confusion when their loans were held by multiple servicers, who may have differing policies or procedures.

In response, in 2014, the department asked how the current platform of 11 different servicers could better respond to the 40 million student loan borrowers. The answer? Just have one servicer.

As a result, the department is choosing a single servicer, who will create a student loan servicing "ecosystem" that is intended to be the single point of contact and managing system for all federally held student loans. There will still be multiple servicers, but that should be invisible to borrowers. That was the first step.

Step 2 appears to be the new directive describing how this future "ecosystem" should respond to student loan borrowers and their needs. These rules should be implemented immediately within the new system, but may require regulatory or statutory action for those federal loans not directly held by the department, such as the Federal Family Education Loan Program and Perkins loans. Below are some of the highlights of what borrowers can expect.

[Prepare to ask these three questions before refinancing student loans.]

-- A single web portal for all federally held loans and a standard communication format branded with the Department of Education logo. Borrowers will no longer need to know the name of their servicer to manage their loans.

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-- Standard customer service practices to ensure a "consistent customer experience."

-- More oversight, accountability and transparency of all student loan service providers, and greater incentive for providers to keep borrowers current on their payments and assist those at high risk for delinquency and default.

-- Specially trained personnel to assist high-risk borrowers and those in the military.

-- Proactive communication to ensure borrowers on income-driven plans are aware when it's time to recertify their plan and help them if their applications are incomplete.

-- Increased call center hours, account access and payment methods, including the use of mobile technology.

-- Larger payments than due that are submitted without instructions will have the excess applied in a way that saves borrowers the most money. Borrowers will also be able to go online to provide instructions on how to allocate extra payments. Payments may be reallocated retroactively if requested.

-- Payments less than what is due will be applied in the way that keeps the most loans current.

-- Increased access to detailed account information.

-- Servicers will develop a "comprehensive complaint resolution plan" that dovetails with the department's own recently launched feedback system. Complaints will be handled consistently and in a timely manner. Borrowers should expect acknowledgment of their complaint within 15 days and resolution within 60 days.

[Learn the five steps to file a student loan complaint.]

-- The department will receive all complaint information -- as will the Federal Trade Commission's Consumer Sentinel system. This system is accessible by agencies such as the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Department of Defense.

-- The department will publicize data, including: servicer performance; loan portfolio characteristics; average phone - answering time; number of disputes and the percentage of those resolved in favor of the borrower; account characteristics including borrower status, payment methods and payment plan choice; and characteristics of defaulted borrowers.

While many servicers already offer this level of service, not all borrowers have had this experience. The Department of Education's goal is to increase consistency, accuracy, accountability and transparency for the whole federal student loan system.

The Student Loan Ranger applauds this initiative. Student loans can be a heavy burden for some borrowers -- how their loans are managed shouldn't be part of that burden.

Betsy Mayotte, director of regulatory compliance for American Student Assistance, regularly advises consumers on planning and paying for college. Mayotte, who received a B.S. in business communications from Bentley College, responds to public inquiries via the advice resource "Just Ask" and is frequently quoted in traditional and social media on the topics of student loans and financial aid.
By Ian Simpson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Baltimore's top prosecutor on Wednesday dropped remaining charges against police officers tied to the death of black detainee Freddie Gray, after failing four times to secure convictions in a case that inflamed the U.S. debate on race and justice.

Prosecutor Marilyn Mosby had stunned the city and became a national figure when she filed charges against six officers just days after Gray's death from a broken neck suffered in a police van sparked protests and rioting in April 2015.

The death of the 25-year-old was among the high-profile deaths of black suspects at the hands of U.S. police that have made law enforcement tactics and police officers' treatment of minorities into national headlines, It also fueled the rise of the civil rights movement Black Lives Matter.

The decision to drop charges against the three remaining officers facing trial came a day before Officer Garrett Miller was due to go on trial in Baltimore City Circuit Court.

At a news conference held before a mural in Gray's neighborhood memorializing him, a combative Mosby said individual police officers had tried to thwart her investigation.

The interference included officers who were witnesses investigating the case and key questions not being asked during interrogations, she said. A police counter-investigation aimed at disproving the prosecution's case also failed to execute search warrants, Mosby said.

"Police investigating police, whether they are friends or merely their colleagues, was problematic," she said to cries of "we're with you" from onlookers.

Successful prosecution was impossible without an independent investigation, a say in whether the cases would be heard before a judge or jury, community oversight of police and major justice reforms, she said.

Baltimore Police Commissioner Kevin Davis said the decision to drop charges was wise and would help the city move forward.

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"As the trials end and this chapter in Baltimore's history closes, it is important that we collectively resolve to direct our emotions in a constructive way to reduce violence and strengthen citizen partnerships," Davis said in a statement.

FOUR ATTEMPTS TO CONVICT

Gene Ryan, the head of the Baltimore police union, also welcomed the decision but said Mosby's allegations of police interference were "outrageous."

"The state's attorney simply could not accept the evidence that was presented," Ryan said at a news conference, flanked by the accused officers and their lawyers.

Prosecutors last week failed in their fourth attempt to secure a conviction against a police officer. Judge Barry Williams acquitted three officers in bench trials, and the trial of a fourth officer ended in a deadlocked jury. The officers still face administrative reviews over Gray's death.

Reacting to the decision to drop charges, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump said Mosby had made a bad call in prosecuting the officers.

"It was disgraceful what she did and the way she did it," he told reporters in Florida.

Gray was arrested after he fled officers unprovoked in a high-crime area. Officers bundled him into a police wagon shackled and not secured by a seat belt.

Prosecutors alleged that officers gave Gray a "rough ride," and failed to secure him as outlined in department protocol or to seek medical assistance.

But defense lawyers said officers had the discretion on whether to fasten detainees into seatbelts, and that it was unclear when Gray suffered his fatal neck injury.

It represented one of the first high-profile cases in which a prosecutor went after officers involved in a black suspect's death. Grand juries had declined to charge officers involved in the shooting of Michael Brown, 18, in Ferguson, Missouri, and in the choking death of Eric Garner, 43, in New York.

Federal prosecutors have launched a civil rights investigation into the shooting of a black man by police in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and Minnesota officials began a probe into a fatal shooting of a black motorist outside St. Paul. Both killings occurred this month and triggered new protests.

(Reporting by Ian Simpson and Susan Heavey; Editing by Scott Malone and Marguerita Choy)
RACINE  A Racine woman charged with stealing 26 steaks from a Mount Pleasant Grocery store last September was sentenced Tuesday to two years on probation for the crime.

Barbara A. Kile, 54, of the 1700 block of Grand Avenue, was charged on Sept. 28 of stealing more than $500 in groceries from the Piggly Wiggly store at 5201 Washington Ave., and then walking the items more than 3 miles home in a shopping cart.

Kile is alleged to have entered the store just after noon on Sept. 19 where, according to a criminal complaint, she put various items in a shopping cart, including the steaks, and then left the store without paying. The total value of the items, according to information store security personnel reported to Mount Pleasant police, was $503.29.

Three days later, police received a call from store security saying a woman had contacted them saying she had received information that Kile had allegedly been bragging about the theft.

Police caught up with Kile a few days after that and she allegedly told officers that she had taken the groceries because she did not have anything to eat. She said she pushed the cart all the way home, but returned it the next day.

On Tuesday, Racine County Circuit Judge Eugene Gasiorkiewicz found Kile guilty of three counts of misdemeanor theft. If Kile fails to abide by the terms of her probation, which includes staying drug and alcohol free and having to no contact with any Piggly Wiggly store, she could face nine months in jail for each theft charge.
The Cheesecake Factory Inc. CAKE just released its second quarter fiscal 2016 earnings results, posting earnings of $0.78 per share (excluding special items) and revenue of $558.9 million.

Currently, CAKE has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold), but it is subject to change following the release of the companys latest earnings report. Here are 5 key statistics from this just announced report below.

The Cheesecake Factory:

Beat earnings estimates. The company posted earnings of $0.78 per share (excluding special items), surpassing the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $0.71 per share.

Missed revenue estimates. The company saw revenue figures of $558.9 million, below our consensus estimate of $562.95 million. Revenue grew 5.6% year-over-year.

Declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.24 per share on the companys common stock, representing a 20% increase.

Saw the bottom line grow to $38.59 million, up from $34.72 million for the same quarter last year.

CAKE was down $1.26, or 2.53%, to $48.50 as of 4:40 PM ET in after-hours trading shortly after its earnings report was released.

Heres a graph that looks at The Cheesecake Factorys share price and EPS surprises since 2015

CHEESECAKE FACT Price and EPS Surprise

CHEESECAKE FACT Price and EPS Surprise | CHEESECAKE FACT Quote

The Cheesecake Factory Inc. operates full-service and casual dining restaurants primarily in the United States. As of May 31st, 2016, it owned and operated 202 casual dining restaurants throughout the United States and Puerto Rico, including 189 restaurants under the Cheesecake Factory mark, 12 restaurants under the Grand Lux Cafe Mark, and operated 11 The Cheesecake Factory branded restaurants under licensing agreements. The company also produces cheesecakes and other baked products for foodservice operators, retailers, and distributors.

Check back later for our full analysis onCAKEs second quarter earnings report!

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BEIJING (Reuters) - Profits earned by China's industrial firms grew at their fastest pace in three months in June, indicating government spending is supporting the corporate sector though uneven growth and soft investment pose headwinds.

Profits in June rose 5.1 percent to 616.31 billion yuan ($92.40 billion), the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on Wednesday, the fastest growth since March.

"The bottom line is that the worst has gone in terms of industrial profits," said Raymond Yeung, an economist at ANZ in Hong Kong.

He said the improvement in China's upstream prices, as seen in the recent moderation in producer price index declines, points to a pickup in profits in the second half of the year.

Total profits for the first half stood at 3.0 trillion yuan, up 6.2 percent from the same period a year ago and compared with a 6.4 percent gain in the January to May period.

"June profits accelerated from May but unfavourable conditions for companies continue to exist," NBS official He Ping said in a statement accompanying the data.

He added increased profits were spread unevenly across industries, with profit gains focused on just a few industries including electronics, steel and oil processing.

Profits in the mining sector fell 83.6 percent in the first half from a year earlier.

Firms faced further difficulties accessing capital in June, he added.

The data, which covers large enterprises with annual revenues of at least 20 million yuan, come as investment cools and growth in home prices eased.

China's economy expanded 6.7 percent in the second quarter, but the slightly better than estimated growth rate comes amid a dangerous rise in both debt costs and inefficient loans to state firms. Private investment remains weak, with high funding costs becoming a major obstacle for private enterprises, according to the state planner.

Across several industrial sectors, lukewarm demand and a campaign aimed at reducing surplus has taken a toll on some of the largest state-owned firms.

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Sinopec, the country's largest refiner, last week said crude oil production fell 11.4 percent on year. Meanwhile, China National Building Material co. said it expects a substantial drop in profits in the first half due to a fall in cement prices.

Liabilities at China's industrial firms rose 4.6 percent in June from the same point last year, easing from 4.9 percent growth at the end of May.

On Monday, a senior official from the state planner said China should increase government investment and not compete with private investment.

Profits at China's state firms fell 8.5 percent in the first half, the Ministry of Finance said on Monday.

($1 = 6.6700 Chinese yuan)

(Reporting by Beijing Monitoring Desk and Sue-Lin Wong; Editing by Sam Holmes)
Young overseas Chinese can now go on an (almost) free two-week trip to China. Since 1999, the Office of Overseas Chinese Affairs (OOCA), an office of Chinas powerful State Council, has organized annual trips, called root seeking camps, to help Chinese children growing up abroad stay in touch with their national heritage. Many of these camps used to charge tuition and fees. But this year, the Chinese government has decided to cover most expenses, excluding airfare. The move may be part of a government push to expand ties with the approximately 60 million Chinese who live overseas, comprising the largest diaspora population in the world.

The programs stated goal is to increase young overseas Chinese peoples understanding and interest toward their home culture. It has wide appeal  to date, more than 400,000 Chinese abroad have attended the camps. (Then again, some seem to have attended involuntarily at their parents urging). OOCA, which also drafts policies on returned overseas Chinese, work with Chinese schools and global Chinese associations all over the world to recruit participants. Most campers must be between the ages of 12 and 18, must identify as at least part ethnically Chinese, and must speak basic Mandarin or a local dialect.

OOCA holds the camps in several Chinese cities each year. Themes vary widely city to city. A camp held this year in the central province of Henan focused on martial arts, while young participants in the coastal city of Ningbo learned about Chinese calligraphy and the art of paper cutting. A camp in the metropolis of Nanjing features trips to Nanjing Massacre Memorial Hall, which commemorates the 1937 slaughter of about 300,000 Chinese by the invading Japanese army; several local museums; and Fuzimiao, a famous Confucius temple.

Kuang Lihong, a participant back in 2000, said her trip changed her previous prejudice against the country. Cong Zhongxiao of Atlanta, Georgia, told Hong Kong-based news outlet Phoenix Media in July that she didnt like Chinese culture on her first trip and had refused to talk to anyone Chinese. But eventually, Cong said, she grew to care for the country and the language; 2016 marked her fourth time attending.

Chinas global image is mixed, with decades of stunning economic growth marred by a poor human rights record and a growing reputation for regional bullying. President Xi Jinping has made improving Chinas image a priority, and influencing the huge Chinese population abroad looks like a good place to start. In July 2010, Xi, then vice president, greeted summer camp students in the Great Hall of the People, where Chinas legislature sits. In February, the Chinese government issued a directive demanding that Chinese students, even those studying abroad, receive a solid patriotic education. In March, Li Wei, the chairman of the Federation of Returned Overseas Chinese in the southern province of Guangdong, said that China should allow dual citizenship to make it easier for overseas Chinese to maintain ties.

China isnt the only nation to court its diaspora by organizing such trips. Armenia, Iceland, Israel, and Taiwan also hold birthright programs for their diaspora populations. But Chinas effort is especially noteworthy given the vast size of its overseas community.

The program isnt just a soft power play; it does appear to help youngsters of Chinese descent understand their place in the world. One third generation Chinese-American participant, Brandon Louie, was able to visit his grandparents ancestral hometown of Taishan during his participation in the Chinese program. For me, its important to have a connection to your past, to know where it started, Louie told Dissent Magazine in 2012. I know its cliche, but its about knowing where you began.

STR/AFP/Getty Images
Four people, including two Hong Kong journalists were sentenced to up to five years in prison by a Chinese court Wednesday, accused of running an illegal business after mailing copies of their political magazine across the border into the mainland, reports the Associated Press.

The sentencing follows the high-profile disappearance of five Hong Kong booksellers, who were detained in China on the same charges, and whose case sparked concerns that Hong Kongs status as a semi-autonomous territory was being eroded.

Magazine publisher Wang Jianmin, 62, was sentenced to five years and three months and editor Guo Zhongxiao, 40, was given two years and three months, reports the South China Morning Post. The pair were reportedly detained back in 2014 in the southern Chinese city Shenzhen. The identity and reasons for conviction of the other two people remain unclear.

Wang and Guo published New Way Monthly and Faces, magazines concerning the dealings of the Communist Party of China. Wangs lawyers maintain the two men were not running a mail-order business, but rather, they had sent eight copies of the magazine to friends in the mainland. The two had pleaded guilty to the charges last year.

The Hong Kong Journalists Association and Independent Commenters Association expressed concerns over the sentencing, saying the verdict was another attempt by Beijing to target Hong Kong publishers and clean the origin of mainland political gossip in Hong Kong.



One of the missing booksellers, Lam Wing-kee, returned to Hong Kong last month and delivered a surprise press conference, detailing his capture, eight-month detention and mistreatment at the hands of Chinese authorities.

[AP]
By Guillermo Parra-Bernal

SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Fosun International Ltd is in advanced talks to buy Brazilian fund manager Rio Bravo Investimentos Ltda, a source familiar with the matter said on Wednesday, in what would be the Chinese firm's first investment in Brazil.

The source, who requested anonymity because the deal is private, did not elaborate on terms or a timetable for the deal. Finance blog Brazil Journal first reported the talks on Wednesday.

Rio Bravo's three main partners, former Brazilian central bank president Gustavo Franco, Paulo Bylik and Mario Fleck, would keep running the Rio de Janeiro-based firm, according to the blog.

Calls to a media representative for Rio Bravo were not immediately answered. Efforts to contact Fosun's media office in China outside working hours were unsuccessful.

Rio Bravo manages about 10 billion reais ($3 billion) of client's money distributed in liquid funds, real estate and private equity investments. Fosun has about $50 billion in assets under management.

Founded by Chinese billionaire Guo Guangchang, Fosun has grown into China's biggest private conglomerate, with holdings ranging from medical companies to French travel group Club Med.

Facing a slowing economy at home, Chinese businesses are hunting for non-yuan assets abroad. Chinese outbound M&A activity has more than doubled in two years, hitting a record $120 billion in total deal value so far in 2016, according to Thomson Reuters data.

($1 = 3.26 Brazilian reais)

(Reporting by Guillermo Parra-Bernal; Editing by Leslie Adler)
MUMBAI (Reuters) - Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical (Group) Co will sign a definitive agreement on Wednesday to buy a controlling stake in India's Gland Pharma in a $1.4 billion deal, the Economic Times newspaper reported, citing a source with direct knowledge.

In May, Shanghai Fosun had made a non-binding proposal to buy Gland Pharma, which is backed by KKR & Co (KKR.N), to boost its drug manufacturing and research and development capacity.

Fosun did not immediately comment, when contacted by Reuters. Gland Pharma made no immediate comment on the report. http://bit.ly/2awbQOe

The paper said KKR declined to comment.

(Writing by Devidutta Tripathy; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips)
Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke weighed in on the decision to invite the mothers of black men and women who were killed by police to attend the Democratic National Convention, but no mothers of slain police officers were invited.

It is a slap in the face of the American police officer, Clarke told the FOX Business Networks Trish Reagan.

Clarke questioned the decision to have the mothers of these individuals attend the DNC.

The theme tonight, with this group thats going to get up and speak is compassion for criminals. Every one of these individuals, nearly every one of these individuals whose mother will speak was engaged in questionable lifestyle choices. Mike Brown was a criminal who tried to disarm a law enforcement officer. Eric Garner resisted arrest, Freddie Gray resisted arrest.

Clarke then called for a greater discussion on the issues within American families that lead to violence.

Heres the question I have, where are the dads? When there are no fathers around to raise a young black boy to develop into a healthy human being what you end up with, when that fathers not there to shape behavior, you end up with a young man who is unmanageable, and he ends up being a misfit that the law enforcement officer has to deal with aggressively unfortunately.

According to Clarke parenting in America needs to be addressed, not the issue of police force.

What we need to do is to stop all this nonsense in the black community, take hold of our families, start having more effective parenting, stop with the charade about the police use of force when in fact underclass behavior is at the forefront of a lot of whats going on in the American ghetto.

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Philadelphia (AFP) - Many of Hillary Clinton's university classmates have traveled to Philadelphia to witness her historic Democratic presidential nomination, including Nancy Wanderer, who recounts how the candidate caught the political bug at Wellesley in the 1960s.

Clinton was elected student body president at the prestigious all-women's college near Boston in 1968.

In the years since, she has regularly attended class reunions, providing her former classmates a privileged peek into the development of the woman who seeks to make history as the 45th president of the United States.

Wanderer and Clinton spent four years at the school and graduated in 1969. Today, Wanderer is 68 and a professor emerita of law at the University of Maine.

She is also a delegate to this week's Democratic National Convention, where she took questions from AFP.

Q: Was Clinton politically active in her early years at Wellesley?

A: "Yes, she was. She came with a very strong service orientation, that she attributes to her Methodist upbringing. Wellesley's motto, 'Non Ministrari sed Ministrare', means 'Not to be ministered unto but to minister,' and she took it very, very seriously.

"We were all very close to the five African-American students (seeking) to educate the Wellesley admission office and administration about getting more minority students on campus. In those days, they put roommates together by race and religion. That was a really important endeavor and Hillary was really involved in it in a supportive way.

"Her reputation was as very serious -- not humorless, but a serious person who was not there for... fraternity parties and having a lot of drinking."

Q: With the Vietnam war raging, 1968 was a turbulent, even violent, year on many campuses. What was Clinton's political philosophy?

A: "Her brand of politics was pretty close to mine at that time. She wanted to make the world a better place, whether that was Wellesley or the whole world.

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"At Wellesley, she wanted to respond to the kinds of complaints that students had about restrictive social rules, or too many required courses.

"She was also very concerned about civil rights. She tutored a black student in Roxbury. That's typical of Hillary: she isn't just going around and complaining about it, she's working in the community.

"She was the one that I think most people imagine standing up at a rally or a protest, and leading it, and speaking and calling on people to speak.

"She was a constructive leader, not a destructive leader... Hillary helped to keep it from being that kind of protest. No taking over of classrooms or blowing up bombs."

Q: How did you see Clinton's public persona evolving over the years since she was the first lady of Arkansas?

A: "Up until Arkansas, everything had gone well. She was just herself, she wore her hair the way she wanted, she wore her glasses, and she called herself Hillary Rodham.

"And then when Bill was elected governor (in 1978), there began to be this criticism of her, every little thing about her. How she looked, the fact that she didn't take her married name.

"I think to help him out for his career... she dyed her hair blonde, she lost a lot of weight, she got contact lenses, she dressed in a much more feminine way.

"Once she got to the White House (in 1993), I think she still wanted to be herself. She got that assignment on health care, she looked more like the old Hillary I knew, she had a job to do.

"But they just walloped her with it. Then they started to go after the two of them with Whitewater, there was Vince Foster (a lawyer and friend who later committed suicide). That's when she began to close down and become very wary of this type of scrutiny.

"I think that's been her biggest problem ever since. She's afraid to just open up and be honest about things, because over the years she's learned that it just gets twisted and turned against her. So her first instinct is to pull back and to not be so open. She's an introvert."
ROME (Reuters) - Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi said on Wednesday that Italy respected the British vote to leave the European Union, but said there should be a clear time frame for the exit. "Italy will do its utmost to collaborate and support the process," Renzi said after meeting the new British Prime Minister Theresa May in Rome. "But it's important to have a vision and precise timeline for the process" of Britain leaving the EU. He added that it was important for Italy to have strong relations with Britain even after it left the European Union. (Reporting by Steve Scherer, Massimiliano Di Giorgio and Gavin Jones)
By Valerie Volcovici WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Rising sea levels due to hurricanes and tidal flooding intensified by climate change will put military bases along the U.S. East Coast and Gulf Coast at risk, according to a report released on Wednesday. Nonprofit group the Union of Concerned Scientists analyzed 18 military installations that represent more than 120 coastal bases nationwide to weigh the impact of climate change on their operations. Faster rates of sea level rises in the second half of this century could mean that tidal flooding will become a daily occurrence for some installations, pushing useable land needed for military training and testing into tidal zones, said the report titled "The U.S. Military on the Front Lines of Rising Seas." By 2050, most of these sites will be hit by more than 10 times the number of floods than at present, the report said, and at least half of them will experience daily floods. Four of those - including the Naval Air Station in Key West, Florida, and the Marine Corps recruit depot in South Carolina - could lose between 75 and 95 percent of their land in this century. The report said the Pentagon already recognizes the threat of climate change on its military installations but warned that more resources and monitoring systems are needed to boost preparedness. But last month, the U.S. House appropriations committee passed an amendment that blocked funding for the Pentagon's climate adaptation strategy. "Our defense leadership has a special responsibility to protect the sites that hundreds of thousands of Americans depend on for their livelihoods and millions depend on for national security," the report said. (Editing by Matthew Lewis)
Philadelphia (AFP) - Hillary Clinton's campaign on Wednesday lashed out at Donald Trump for encouraging Russia to trawl the former secretary of state's emails, describing his comments as a "national security issue."

"This has to be the first time that a major presidential candidate has actively encouraged a foreign power to conduct espionage against his political opponent," said top Clinton advisor Jake Sullivan.

"This has gone from being a matter of curiosity, and a matter of politics, to being a national security issue."

Trump, who is expected soon to receive his first government intelligence briefing, suggested Wednesday that Russia could help find emails known to have been deleted from Clinton's private server when she was secretary of state on the grounds they were personal.

The FBI concluded earlier this month that Clinton had been "extremely careless" in her handling of classified material via a private email server, but did not recommend that she face criminal charges.

Republicans see the missing emails as a smoking gun, however.

"Russia, if you're listening, I hope you're able to find the 30,000 e-mails that are missing," Trump told a news conference.

The Clinton campaign's explosive accusation of inviting foreign spying came as US intelligence agencies pointed to Russia as the cause of a mass hack of Democratic Party emails.

Clinton's camp believes that Moscow gave the mails to WikiLeaks, which released them last week, to foment unease between the former first lady and her one-time Democratic rival Bernie Sanders.

The scandal caused the resignation of Democratic Party leader Debbie Wasserman Schultz and poured kerosene on Democratic infighting at a party convention in Philadelphia.

Trump has adopted a number of pro-Russian policy positions as a presidential candidate, suggesting he would recognize Moscow's annexation of Crimea and lift economic sanctions.

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His campaign chair's close ties with pro-Russian politicians in Ukraine has also raised allegations that Trump is too cozy with Moscow and its powerful leader Vladimir Putin.

"I have nothing to do with Putin," Trump said. "Never spoken to him. I know nothing about him other than he will respect me."

"If it is Russia. Nobody knows. It's probably China, or it could be somebody sitting in his bed. But it shows how weak we are. It shows how disrespected we are," he said.

Trump's vice-presidential running mate Mike Pence quickly tried to limit the fallout from the mogul's comments.

"The FBI will get to the bottom of who is behind the hacking," he said in a statement. "If it is Russia and they are interfering in our elections, I can assure you both parties and the United States government will ensure there are serious consequences."
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The mysterious, missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 likely crashed off the coast of Australia or hundreds of miles to the north, researchers in Italy said.

The potential crash area overlaps with the underwater zone that investigators are now scouring for hunks of metal debris. Search efforts have so far failed to reveal why and where the airliner wrecked more than two years ago, taking with it 239 passengers and crew members.

SEE ALSO: It's MH370: Debris found on island is from the missing plane

The disappearance of flight MH370 is probably one of the most bizarre events in modern history, Eric Jansen, a researcher at the Euro-Mediterranean Center on Climate Change in Italy and lead author of Wednesdays study, said in a statement.

The study, published in the European journal Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences, arrives at a crucial time in the search for MH370.

Malaysian, Australian and Chinese authorities last week agreed to suspend their quest if their current search efforts  in a 120,000-square-kilometer (46,300-square-mile) swath near Australias western coast  fail to turn up credible new evidence about the aircrafts exact whereabouts.

Search teams already trawled some 110,000 square kilometers of ocean floor without finding any promising clues about the location of the Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 that disappeared on March 8, 2014.

Image: Australian Transport Safety Bureau

Speaking to Mashable, Jansen said his research team determined the aircraft may have wrecked in the northern part of the current search zone.

If the main wreckage isnt there, however, it could be in an area around 500 kilometers (311 miles) to the north, the simulations suggested.

The researchers based their predictions on the five sites where debris from MH370 have already appeared, on the shores of eastern Africa and Indian Ocean islands.

Image: Australian Transport Safety Bureau

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The team then combined a series of simulations to determine where the plane may have crashed, and where more pieces of wreckage could appear, based on ocean currents and wind patterns after the crash.

Other chunks of aircraft will likely wash up near Tanzania and Mozambique, along with the islands of Madagascar, Reunion, Mauritius and the Comoros, according to the study.

That debris can also contain vital clues about the disappearance of MH370, Jansen said in a phone interview. People should be on the look-out.

Image: Jansen et al., Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci (2016)

Another piece of aircraft washed up on the shores of Pemba Island, near Tanzania, in late June.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau, which is leading the search for MH370, said Australian and Malaysian investigators are now working to determine if the recovered wing flap was part of MH370.
Washington (AFP) - The US-led coalition fighting the Islamic State group aims to open a new front in southern Syria in addition to its ongoing offensive in the northeast, US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said Wednesday.

"We will aggressively pursue opportunities to build pressure on ISIL in Syria from the south, complementing our existing, robust efforts from northeastern Syria," he said in a speech to US troops at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. ISIL is another term for the Islamic State group.

Carter said the move will help Jordanian security and further split IS theaters of operation in Syria and Iraq.

At the moment, the main coalition effort is centered on recapturing the Manbij pocket in northern Syria, the last jihadist-held territory bordering Turkey.

That offensive is being led by the Syrian Democratic Forces, an Arab-Kurdish coalition.

US-backed rebels also have tried to attack IS from the south, but so far without success.

The New Syrian Army, a small rebel formation allied with the United States, tried in June to attack IS positions in Boukamal on the border with Iraq.

But after coming within five kilometers (three miles) of the town, the rebels were repelled by a jihadist counteroffensive.

In another setback, the Pentagon said a rebel camp was bombed in mid-June by Russian warplanes, a charge Moscow has denied.

After two years of war against the jihadists, the coalition estimates it has recovered about 50 percent of the territory seized by IS in Iraq, and 20 percent in Syria.

The allies' objective is to isolate and then recapture the cities of Raqa in Syria and Mosul in Iraq, the most important IS strongholds.

"As this isolation and pressure on Raqa and Mosul builds from the outside in, our partners will continue to reach deep inside those cities to enable pressure on ISIL from the inside out," Carter said.
Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump have their fair share of critics. Depending on your political leanings, you can find something one of them has done with which you find fault, actions which for you indicate an unworthiness of holding the office of president of the United States.

One of Trumps advisers went way too far with his rhetoric last week.

Al Baldasaro, a New Hampshire state representative who advises Donald Trump on veterans issues, on July 19 called for Hillary Clinton to be put in the firing line and shot for treason for her handling of the Benghazi terror attack, the Boston Globe reported.

Appearing on WRKO radio from the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Baldasaro said: She is a disgrace . . . for the lies that she told those mothers about their children that got killed over there in Benghazi. This whole thing disgusts me. Hillary Clinton should be put in the firing line and shot for treason.

In the Constitution, treason is defined as levying war against [the United States], or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort.

If Clinton were suspected of treasonous activity  whether in her handling of the 2012 attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, or for her use of a private email server while secretary of state  she would be under arrest instead of preparing to make her acceptance speech as the Democratic Party nominee on Thursday night in Philadelphia.

Rep. Baldasaro has apparently appointed himself judge and jury, and sounds a bit too willing to carry out the sentence hes issuing.

Asked Wednesday in a telephone interview if he stood by his comments, Baldasaro replied, Without a doubt.

When you take classified information on a server that deals with where our State Department, Special Forces, CIA, whatever in other countries, thats a death sentence for those people if that information gets in the hands of other countries or the terrorists, he said. As far as Im concerned, thats information for the enemy. In the military, shot, firing squad. So I stand by what I said.

Again, if Clinton were as guilty as Baldasaro seems to think she is, she would be under arrest. She has not been indicted either with regard to Benghazi or the email server.

This is dangerous, reckless rhetoric. We cant help but recall the handbills being distributed in Dallas on accused President John F. Kennedy of treason, on Nov. 22, 1963, the day he was assassinated.

In an emailed statement to the Globe, a spokesman for the Secret Service said the agency was aware of Baldasaros comments and would conduct the appropriate investigation.

Notably, when the chant of Lock her up! rang out Thursday night in the arena in Cleveland where Trump made his acceptance speech, Trump replied to the chanting with Lets defeat her in November.

We have been critical of Trumps rhetoric during the course of the campaign. But he struck the right tone in response to the chanting Thursday night.

The voters in the Republican and Democratic primaries have spoken. Barring some extraordinary circumstance, either Trump or Clinton will be the next president.

You can question the worthiness of either Trump or Clinton for the presidency. You can do so using all the tools of argument at your disposal.

But in these violent times, with mass shootings nearly a weekly occurrence and police officers being ambushed, cooler heads must prevail. Baldasaros reckless rhetoric is out of step with Trump, who declared himself the law and order candidate on Thursday night.

Law and order means you defeat a presidential candidate you dont like at the ballot box in November. No one should be threatening a presidential candidate with physical violence.
BEAUFORT, SC / ACCESSWIRE / July 27, 2016 / Coastal Banking Company Inc. (CBCO), the holding company of CBC National Bank, which operates branches in Fernandina Beach, Ocala and The Villages, Fla., and Beaufort and Port Royal, S.C., announced that Paul R. Garrigues has resigned as Chief Financial Officer, effective August 5, to pursue other opportunities.

Garrigues joined Coastal Banking Company Inc. as Chief Financial Officer in September 2007 as a 30-year financial, accounting and banking professional. Over his long career, Garrigues has served as Chief Financial Officer for eight financial institutions across the country. Immediately prior to joining Coastal, Garrigues served as Senior Vice President of secondary marketing at Seacoast National Bank in Stuart, Fla., which acquired Big Lake National Bank in 2006, where he served as CFO.

Garrigues earned a bachelor's degree in accounting from the University of Southern California. He is a certified public accountant and is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants.

"Paul Garrigues served Coastal with distinction for nine years as Chief Financial Officer, helping the company navigate a period of both stellar growth and positive financial results, and also through the very difficult period of the Great Recession," said Michael G. Sanchez, chief executive officer. "His decades of experience and financial acumen were a valuable resource to the company throughout his tenure. We wish him nothing but the best in his future endeavors."

About Coastal Banking Company Inc.

Coastal Banking Company Inc., headquartered in Beaufort, S.C., is the $474.8 million-asset bank holding company of CBC National Bank, headquartered in Fernandina Beach, Fla., which provides a full range of consumer and business banking services through full-service banking offices in Fernandina Beach, Ocala and The Villages, Fla, Beaufort and Port Royal, S.C. The company's residential mortgage banking division, headquartered in Atlanta, includes traditional retail and wholesale lending, as well as a National Retail Group that has lending offices in Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Maryland, Michigan, North Carolina, Indiana, Illinois and Ohio. The company's government guaranteed lending division originates SBA loans primarily in Jacksonville, Ft. Myers, Tampa and Vero Beach, Fla., Greensboro, N.C., Atlanta and Beaufort. The company's common stock is publicly traded on the OTCQX Markets under the symbol CBCO. The company was been named to the OTCQX Best 50 in both 2015 and 2016, an annual ranking of the top 50 US and international companies traded on the OTCQX Best Market, based on the combined one-year total return on market value and average growth in daily dollar trading volume. For more information, please visit the company's website, www.coastalbanking.com.

Story continues

About CBC National Bank

CBC National Bank, headquartered in Fernandina Beach, Fla., provides a full range of consumer and business banking services through full-service banking offices in Fernandina Beach, Ocala and The Villages, Fla., and Beaufort and Port Royal, S.C. The company's residential mortgage banking division, headquartered in Atlanta, includes traditional retail and wholesale lending, as well as a National Retail Group that has lending offices in Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Maryland, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois and Ohio. The companys government guaranteed lending division originates SBA loans primarily in Jacksonville, Ft. Myers, Tampa and Vero Beach, Fla., Greensboro, N.C., Atlanta and Beaufort. For more information, please visit CBC National Bank's website, www.cbcnationalbank.com.

For More Information:

Michael G. Sanchez

Chairman & Chief Executive Officer

Coastal Banking Company Inc.

904-321-0400

SOURCE: Coastal Banking Company Inc.
The Coca-Cola Company KO commands a strong market position due to its global reach, strong brand power, expanding international presence, a solid global bottling network and an impressive cash position.

2015 was a transition year for Coca-Cola because of the changes implemented to create a new operating model. The company made tangible progress on the plan. The company implemented aggressive cost-cutting measures and several initiatives to drive growth during the year. The resultant savings are being deployed to fund marketing programs and in innovations to re-accelerate top-line growth, margin expansion and returns on capital.

Coca-Cola is also refranchising the majority of its company-owned North American bottling territories to create a more efficient system. Over 65% of the U.S. territories have already been transferred or agreed to be refranchised so far.

The company is also focused on refranchising in markets like Europe and Africa which includes the creation of Coca-Cola European Partners through merger of bottlers in Western Europe in May and Coca-Cola Beverages Africa through merger of bottling operations in Southern and Eastern Africa in July.

Investors should note the recent earnings estimate revisions for KO have been mostly downwards. However, KO has a superb history in earnings season. KO has delivered positive earnings surprise for four straight, making for an average positive earnings surprise of 2.99%.

Currently, KO has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold), but that could definitely change following Coca-Colas earnings report which was just released. We have highlighted some of the key stats from this just-revealed announcement below:

Earnings: KO beat on earnings. Our consensus earnings estimate called for EPS of 58 cents/share, and the company reported EPS of 60 cents instead. Investors should note that these figures take out stock option expenses.

Revenues: KO reported revenues of $11.54 billion. This missed our consensus estimate of $11.71 billion.

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Key Stats to Note: The cola giant witnessed flat volumes in the second quarter, less than 2% in the previous quarter due to severe challenges in many emerging markets.

Though the company re-affirmed the previously issued full year 2016 profit outlook, it lowered its sales expectations.

Stock Price: Shares declined around 2% in pre-market trading.

Check back later for our full write up on this KO earnings report later!

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The Coca-Cola Company KO reported soft second-quarter 2016 results. Though the cola giant beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate for earnings, it missed the same for sales due to severe macroeconomic challenges in many international markets. Importantly, soda volumes declined in the all important North America segment.

Atlanta beverage giant lowered its previously issued sales guidance for 2016 and guided for an adjusted earnings decline in the year. This hurt investor sentiment propelling a more than 2% share price decline in pre-market trading.

Earnings Beat

Second-quarter 2016 adjusted earnings of the company were 60 cents per share, which beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 58 cents by 3.4%.

Earnings declined 5% year over year due to currency headwinds. Excluding the 11% negative Fx impact, earnings rose 6% on the back of improved organic growth and higher operating margins.

Earnings have been adjusted mainly to incorporate charges related to the North American/international re-franchising initiative and costs associated with the productivity program. Including these, reported earnings were 79 cents per share, up 12% year over year.

The Coca-Cola Company (KO) Street EPS & Surprise Percent - Last 5 Quarters | FindTheCompany

Sales Miss; Organic Revenues Improve

Net revenue declined 5% year over year to $11.54 billion due to currency headwinds and the negative impact of acquisitions/divestitures and structural items.

Currency headwinds hurt sales by 3%, in line with managements expectations of 2-3%. Acquisitions/divestitures and structural items hurt revenues by 5%, more than the predicted 23%.

After adjusting for the negative Fx impact and acquisitions/divestitures, organic revenues rose 3%, better than 2% in the previous quarter as pricing gains mitigated flat volumes in the quarter.

Strong performance in developed markets like U.S., Mexico and Japan was offset by weakness in key emerging markets like China and Argentina due to worse-than-expected macroeconomic headwinds.

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Revenues missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $11.71 billion by 1.5%.

Operating Margins Improve

Adjusted consolidated gross margins contracted 20 basis points (bps) year over year to 60.5% as positive pricing, productivity gains, and lower commodity costs were offset by currency headwinds, the effects of refranchising the North American bottlers and sale of the legacy higher margin energy brands to Monster in 2015. Gross margins rose 40 bps sequentially.

Adjusted selling, general and administrative (SG&A) expenses declined 5% on a currency-neutral basis to $3.92 billion.

Adjusted operating income, on a constant currency basis, was $3.05 billion, up 3% year over year. Adjusted operating margin was 26.5%, up 50 bps year over year as lower gross margins were counteracted by strong cost management and productivity gains. Operating margins rose 280 bps sequentially.

Profit-before-tax (PBT) declined 6% to $3.40 billion. Currency translations hurt PBT by 11%, in line with expectations. Structural changes had a negative impact of 4% on PBT, more than an impact of 3% as estimated. Excluding currency headwinds and structural changes, PBT rose 10% on the back of higher organic revenues and operating income along with increased equity income and favorable timing of expenses.

The structural changes mainly include the impact of bottler re-franchising efforts and the brand transfer agreement with Monster which closed in 2015.

Volume and Pricing

Coca-Cola witnessed flat volumes in the second quarter, compared with 2% growth in the previous quarter, due to lower sparkling beverage volumes. Moreover, still beverages volumes slowed down in the quarter.

Sparkling beverage volumes declined 1% compared with flat result in the previous quarter due to weakness in some emerging markets. Still beverages grew 2% in terms of volume, compared with less than 7% growth the previous quarter. Positive growth in all categories was partially offset by lower juice and juice drinks volumes due to industry weakness in China.

In North America, volumes grew 1% versus less than 2% growth in the previous quarter as soda volumes fell. Sparkling soda volumes declined 1% in North America. Rival, PepsiCo, Inc.s PEP carbonated soft drink volumes also declined 4% in the country in the second quarter, as announced earlier this month. Sales of sodas of these bigwigs are being hurt by lower demand due to increasing health consciousness among consumers. Coca-Colas North America still beverage volumes rose 3%, also slowing down from 5% in the previous quarter.

Among other developed nations, volumes remained stable in Japan while improving slightly in Europe. European volumes were flat, better than a decline of 1% in the previous quarter. Japan volumes rose 4%, same as in the previous quarter.

Among the developing countries, 3% growth in India and a high single-digit growth in Mexico were offset by declines in Brazil, Russia and China.

Price/mix increased 3% compared with a 1% rise in the previous quarter as pricing gains were partially offset by an unfavorable geographic mix.

2016 Outlook

Though the company reaffirmed the previously issued 2016 profit outlook, it lowered its sales expectations.

Organic revenues are expected to rise 3%, less than the previous range of 45% in 2016. The guidance now falls short of Coca-Colas long-term target of a mid single-digit increase. Acquisitions/divestitures (mainly the bottler re-franchising efforts) are expected to hurt revenues by 67% (previously 45%), while Fx is expected to have a negative impact of 23% (maintained) on revenues.

Excluding currency headwinds and structural changes, PBT is expected to increase 68%, in line with long-term estimates.

Foreign exchange is expected to hurt PBT by 89%. Structural changes are expected to have a 4% (previously 34%) negative impact on PBT, primarily due to accelerated re-franchising.

In 2016, the company expects adjusted EPS to be down 4% to 7% versus prior years comparable EPS of $2.00.

The company expects to buy back shares worth $2.0 billion to $2.5 billion in 2016. Adjusted effective tax rate is likely to be 22.5%.

Progress on the Re-franchising Efforts

Concurrent with the earnings release, Coca-Cola said that two existing bottlers signed letters of intent to expand their territories. While Moses Lake territory has been granted to Coca-Cola Bottling Company of Yakima, Washington, Sanford territory has been added to Durham Coca-Cola Bottling Company of North Carolina.

The company also said that the National Product Supply Group will add two new members.

The company also said it has reached a definitive agreement with Viking Coca-Cola Bottling and Great Lakes Coca-Cola Distribution to add territories or acquire production facilities, as agreed upon, in the previously announced letters of intent.

Coca-Cola is refranchising the majority of its company-owned North American bottling territories to create a more efficient system. Over 65% of the U.S. territories have already been transferred or agreed to be refranchised so far.

The company is also focused on refranchising in markets like Europe and Africa, which include the creation of Coca-Cola European Partners CCE through the merger of bottlers in Western Europe in May and Coca-Cola Beverages Africa through the merger of bottling operations in Southern and Eastern Africa in July. In China, it has agreed to refranchise its company-owned bottling operations to its existing partners, COFCO and Swire.

In addition, Coca-Cola has made equity investments in smaller companies like Monster Beverage Corporation MNST to enhance growth in key categories.

The refranchising efforts, though hurting sales/profits in the near term, are expected to result in higher operating margins, lower capital spending, and improved return on invested capital over the long term.

Currently, Coca-Cola has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

COCA COLA CO Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise

COCA COLA CO Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise | COCA COLA CO Quote

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Los Urabenos Colombia drug gang cartels Medellin

In June, the Colombian government reached a deal with the left-wing Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) to end the 52-year war the latter group had waged against the Colombian state.

Myriad political and logistical challenges remain for that peace deal, but even as the FARC has agreed to lay down its arms, another threat to the country's stability looks set to endure: cocaine, and the people who produce and traffic it.

FARC rebels, based around the country during their campaign against the state, have long funded their operations through taxes on coca, the base product for cocaine, that was produced and shipped through their territory.

The group controls 70% of the coca-growing area in Colombia, and its involvement in the trade is thought to have earned it anything from $200 million to $3.5 billion a year.

FARC leaders already agreed to abandon the trade as a condition of the peace talks and have started a joint crop-replacement program with the government. But the production of the drug has not slacked; in fact, it has increased.

A July report from the UN Office on Drugs and Crime found that coca production in Colombia increased 40% between 2014 and 2015, growing from about 170,500 acres to about 237,200 last year. The total acreage under cultivation in 2015 was also double the amount found in 2013. (The US government estimated a 42% increase in 2015, to 393,000 acres.)

Colombia cocaine production

The UN estimated potential cocaine production for 2015 at 646 metric tons, an increase of 46% over 2014.

The UN report also found that 81% of cultivation was concentrated in five of Colombia's 23 departments: Cauca, Narino, Putumayo, Caqueta and Norte de Santander, which are in areas of high FARC activity.

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The significant spike in coca production has raised criticism of the Colombian government from several sources.

"There are domestic critics that think that Santos' administration has been giving concessions to the FARC in terms of taking it easy or loosening on its antinarcotics efforts," Anna Szterenfeld, the Economist Intelligence Unit's senior analyst for Colombia, told Business Insider.

"We know that the FARC has been big in coca cultivation for all these years to finance itself. We know that the FARC demanded a cessation of aerial fumigation of coca crops, and last year the Santos [administration] halted aerial fumigation but gave as its rationale the fact that the chemical being used is carcinogenic," Szterenfeld told Business Insider. "But there's skepticism and people think that was sort of a bone that they threw to the FARC. That's reasonable, I think."

Colombia rebel groups ceasefire FARC June 2016

Criticism on this point is not limited to Colombians. The US government, on which the Colombian government relies for considerable aid and support, has noted the increase in coca cultivation, attributing it to decreased eradication efforts.

"We have to acknowledge that as the peace process and the negotiations have developed for the last four years, one of the elements of the Colombian government policy that has not been maintained at its previous levels is counternarcotic and eradication efforts," William Brownfield, a former ambassador to Colombia and the US State Department's top antidrug official, told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in June.

Brownfield said he backed Colombia's peace efforts, but other elements of the US government will likely take issue with the increased cultivation.

Colombia coca cocaine crops eradication war on drugs

"Remember that Colombia has to be on good terms with the United States," Szterenfeld told Business Insider.

With the Obama administration requesting $450 million to support post-conflict programs in Colombia, it's likely that the "US Congress, and Republicans in particular, are going to say, 'OK, but if we're going to give Colombia more money, we want to see some more efforts on their part to combat this increase in coca crops, etc.'" Szterenfeld added.

"So it creates yet one more challenge for the government of Colombia to deal with."

Ongoing security challenges

Even if the FARC were to totally extricate itself from the coca and cocaine trade (one notorious faction has already said it won't lay down its arms, and others may follow suit), other groups are likely to continue, if not intensify, their production of the drug.

Colombia's current criminal groups (bandas criminales, or BACRIM, as they're known in Spanish) are already involved in the cocaine trade, shipping millions of dollars in product through the country and on to points abroad. With the FARC pulling out of the cocaine racket in some parts of the country, it's likely that these groups will compete with each other and the authorities to fill the void.

Colombia cocaine submarine

According to studies and field research by Insight Crime, BACRIM are already looking to move into areas vacated by the FARC.

Chief among those groups is Los Urabenos, which was formed by leaders of demobilized right-wing paramilitary members and is now considered the only BACRIM with a national reach, often working with Mexican traffickers to move immense amounts of cocaine north from Colombia.

Moreover, some BACRIM elements have mounted attacks against civil-society programs in an attempt to slow or scuttle the ongoing demobilization, as the end of the FARC would mean more law-enforcement focus on the BACRIM, in addition to the heavy security pressure they already face.

"As the FARC move out of some of the areas of the country where they've been dominant ... there is a risk that these existing ... criminal groups do move in," Szterenfeld told Business Insider.

"So it means that for the government, there's still going to be a tremendous need to have a strong security presence in these areas of the country."

'We'll fight whoever comes and touches our plants'

Alongside challenges from recalcitrant FARC units and ambitious criminal groups, the Colombian government will have to contend with farmers and coca growers who are sure to resist switching to legitimate crops.

Some farmers who have gone through with crop-replacement schemes have found that some legitimate crops bring in less than one-third of what coca crops did  an amount below the country's minimum wage.

Colombia cocaine production

Moreover, logistical issues have compelled some farmers to either stick with or switch back to coca plants: Some legitimate crops are not viable in parts of Colombia where coca is grown, and some parts of the country are so rugged and remote that bananas or other goods would spoil before they reach the market.

But with coca, Jeremy McDermott, codirector of Insight Crime, told The Atlantic, the buyer will come to your house.

For those farmers, the government's goal of reducing coca crops clashes with their need to provide for themselves.

"We'll fight whoever comes and touches our plants," Fernando Zapata, a community council leader in a tiny hamlet located in Colombia's north-central Antioquia department, told the Associated Press when it visited the region to document the coca-paste-production process. "We're organized and will fight to the death if necessary. They want to stop us from feeding our families."

Colombia cocaine production

The spike in cocaine production seen in recent years may be a near-term one, spurred on by Colombia's reduced eradication efforts and by some farmers encouraged by the FARC to produce more in order secure more government aid when the conflict finally concludes.

But the promise of increased market share for Colombia's many criminal groups, as well as the existential imperative some farmers feel to produce and sell coca, indicate that coca, and cocaine, will not soon disappear from a country emerging from a half-century of war.

"Even if the FARC is demobilized, the problem of violence and crime and drug trafficking in Colombia is not going to go away," Szterenfeld said.

NOW WATCH: Colombian authorities seized 3 tons of cocaine bound for the US hidden in a 'narco-submarine'





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(The opinions expressed here are those of the author, a columnist for Reuters.)

By Alison Frankel

NEW YORK July 27 (Reuters) - Lynn Tilton, the flamboyant financier sued by the Securities and Exchange Commission last March for allegedly defrauding investors in three distressed debt funds, accused the commission in an interview Tuesday of depriving her of due process rights.

"Now I know why everyone writes a check" to settle SEC allegations, Tilton said. "Until you are in this situation, you don't believe it could happen - not to be given the ability to put up a fair fight."

The SEC brought its $200 million fraud suit against Tilton as an administrative proceeding, which takes place before an SEC-appointed judge under agency-designated rules, rather than as an enforcement action in federal district court, where the federal rules of evidence apply.

Tilton's lawyers have been arguing since before the SEC even filed civil charges that her constitutional due process rights would be violated if the commission opted for an administrative proceeding in her very large and complex case.

After the SEC launched the administrative proceeding, Tilton sued the agency in federal court in Manhattan to enjoin it, challenging the constitutionality of the SEC's appointment of in-house judges.

In June, a divided three-judge panel at the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Tilton must wait until after the completion of the administrative process to challenge the SEC regime.

The appeals court also lifted a temporary stay on the case before the SEC administrative law judge.

NEW LEGAL TEAM

Tilton brought in new lawyers from Gibson Dunn & Crutcher, the aggressive defense firm known for its role in Chevron's Ecuadorian environmental case and the Chris Christie Bridgegate investigation. Both the SEC enforcement division and Gibson Dunn partner Randy Mastro asked the judge overseeing the Tilton proceeding, Administrative Law Judge Carol Foelak, to set a trial date in December.

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Instead, Judge Foelak issued an order that the trial begin in October. Tilton and Gibson Dunn contend that date doesn't give Tilton's new lawyers enough time to prepare her defense.

They argue that the hurry-up trial date favors the SEC, which has been investigating Tilton for more than five years, in an already lopsided proceeding. Late Monday, Gibson Dunn petitioned the SEC commissioners to reset the trial for December.

The dispute over the timing of the trial prompted Tilton to speak out about what she considers the fundamental unfairness of facing potentially ruinous fraud accusations in an administrative proceeding instead of federal court.

"I was not under the impression something like this could exist," she said. "That's why I have fought so hard to stop it."

According to Tilton's lawyers, the SEC's case against her dwarfs the agency's previous administrative proceedings. In 2015, for instance, the agency collected about $32 million in disgorgement and penalties in all of its litigated administrative proceedings. It is seeking at least $200 million from Tilton and Patriarch.

REPUTATIONS AT STAKE

Tilton said the Patriarch funds and dozens of portfolio companies have already been damaged by the SEC's allegations that Tilton and Patriarch misled investors in collateralized loan obligation funds about the performance of underlying loans to distressed companies

The SEC claims Tilton and Patriarch charged the $2.5 billion funds about $200 million in unjustified management fees. Tilton and her funds have asked the administrative law judge to throw out what she called "baseless" civil charges.

"When allegations such as fraud are made by the government against an individual, the overhang will always make people look at your reputation differently," Tilton said.

Gibson Dunn has argued that the outcome of the SEC case could affect the tens of thousands of jobs at the dozens of companies in Tilton's private equity portfolio. "No less than the welfare of these companies and their employees is at stake," Tilton's lawyers wrote in their petition to the SEC commissioners.

Tilton's new lawyers got off to a rocky start with the administrative law judge. When Judge Foelak first set an October trial date, Gibson Dunn's Mastro responded with an eight-page letter reminding the judge of the case's high profile.

"A perception persists that these SEC administrative proceedings are fundamentally unfair and deny respondents due process," Mastro wrote. "It is therefore even more imperative that this tribunal be particularly sensitive to such perceptions and concerns and afford us the time necessary and jointly requested to commence this trial."

"FRIVOLOUS" MOTIONS

Judge Foelak was notably unmoved. She pushed Tilton's trial date back by a couple of weeks - but also warned Gibson Dunn against filing additional "frivolous" motions.

Mastro said in a letter last week that he was "surprised and troubled" by the judge's warning, which, in his view, only heightened the perception that Tilton isn't getting a fair shot at defending herself.

"Our ethical obligation is to zealously advocate on behalf of our clients," Mastro wrote. "Yet now, we face potential sanctions for filing future motions, which could have a chilling effect upon the exercise of our client's due process rights. Surely, that could not have been Your Honor's intent, but just as surely, it is the effect."

The petition Tilton filed Monday asks the SEC commissioners to reconsider the looming October trial date. It also asks that the SEC apply new administrative proceeding rules it adopted earlier this month in Tilton's trial.

The new rules would allow Tilton's lawyers to take a handful of witness depositions and could bolster defense arguments for a longer wait for trial.

Tilton has asked the 2nd Circuit to reconsider its split decision to allow the SEC to proceed with its administrative case. She is represented at the appellate court by Paul Clement of Bancroft, who entered the case after the 2nd Circuit bounced Gibson Dunn, apparently because one of the judges on the Tilton panel, Robert Sack, was a Gibson Dunn partner before he was elevated to the bench.

In addition to the SEC administrative proceeding, Tilton and the Patriarch funds are facing private litigation in Delaware Chancery Court over the collateralized loan obligation funds.

An SEC representative declined to comment on Tilton's assertions of unfairness and her petition to the commissioners.

In the past several years, the SEC has prevailed in almost every suit in which defendants tried to block administrative proceedings by suing for an injunction in federal court on due process grounds.

(Reporting by Alison Frankel. Editing by Alessandra Rafferty.)
By Aaron Ross KINSHASA (Reuters) - Hundreds of thousands of people lined the streets of the Congolese capital Kinshasa on Wednesday to welcome home opposition leader Etienne Tshisekedi after a nearly two-year stay overseas for medical treatment. Tshisekedi's return to delirious crowds flashing victory signs comes at a crucial moment in Democratic Republic of Congo, as a near-certain delay to a presidential election slated for November risks triggering violence in the chronically unstable central African nation. President Joseph Kabila, in power since 2001, is required by term limits to step down this year, but opponents accuse him of delaying the Nov. 27 poll to cling to power. The government says logistical and budgetary constraints make it unrealistic to hold the election on time. Kabila's opponents hope that Tshisekedi's return can rally people to the streets after opposition protests over the last year failed to attract large turnouts. Some supporters carried banners with Tshisekedi's picture calling him president of the republic. "He is the hope of all people," said Eric Ilunga, a 31-year-old businessman who awaited Tshisekedi's arrival outside Kinshasa's main airport. The 83-year-old politician, who left Congo in August 2014 for unspecified medical treatment in Brussels, has been visibly frail in public appearances over the last two years and leaned on his son as he slowly descended the stairs of a private plane. A girl in a white dress greeted him with a bouquet of flowers while police linked arms outside the airport to keep the crowd from rushing in. People looked on from rooftops and along the highway on the 17 km (11 mile) journey to his home. Tshisekedi, who formed Congo's first organized opposition platform, the Union for Democracy and Social Progress (UDPS), under longtime autocrat Mobutu Sese Seko in 1982, was runner-up in Kabila's 2011 re-election, a vote observers said was marred by massive fraud. He is scheduled to speak at an opposition rally on Sunday. Allies had said he would lead the opposition in a national dialogue called for by Kabila expected to begin next month. On Sunday, however, Tshisekedi said the UDPS and allied parties would not participate in a dialogue led by the African Union's designated facilitator, former Togolese prime minister Edem Kodjo, whom they accuse of bias. Though other opposition leaders have gained prominence during Tshisekedi's time abroad, he remains by far the most popular opposition figure despite concerns over his health. "The return of Tshisekedi represents the beginning of the departure of Kabila," said Martin Fayulu, another opposition leader. (Editing by Nellie Peyton and Robin Pomeroy)
By Michael Georgy and Mert Ozkan ISTANBUL/ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey's failed coup was financed by the CIA and directed by a retired U.S. army general using a cell in Afghanistan, said one Turkish pro-government newspaper. CIA agents used an island hotel off Istanbul as a nerve center for the plot, said another. Turks are churning out conspiracy theories about who helped orchestrate the abortive military coup that nearly toppled President Tayyip Erdogan, with the United States - a close NATO ally but a traditional object of suspicion - top of the list. "The coup was directed by this man," said a front-page headline in the pro-government Yeni Safak newspaper, alongside a photo of retired U.S. Army General John F. Campbell, the last commander of NATO-led forces in Afghanistan and before that the 34th vice chief of staff of the U.S. Army. It said the failed coup had been financed by the CIA via Nigeria's United Bank for Africa , and that two Afghan-based Turkish generals detained in Dubai on Tuesday were part of Campbell's cell of plotters. UBA on Wednesday denied involvement and said the accusations were "clearly false". Campbell told the Wall Street Journal that the allegations were "absolutely ridiculous" and Washington has dismissed claims of U.S. involvement as absurd. Erdogan has blamed U.S.-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen for masterminding the attempted coup, which killed more than 240 people as rogue soldiers commandeered fighter jets, helicopters and tanks, and has called on Washington to extradite him. Erdogan accuses Gulen of building a "parallel structure" in the judiciary, education system, media and military in a bid to overthrow him, a charge the 75-year-old cleric denies. A poll on Tuesday showed two thirds of Turks believe Gulen was behind the coup plot, though only 3.8 percent blamed the United States. Prime Minister Binali Yildirim has said any country that stands by the cleric would be considered at war with Turkey. Labour Minister Suleyman Soylu said a day after the coup bid that it was clear "America is behind it", though Erdogan's spokesman later said he had spoken "in the heat of the moment". Washington has said it will only extradite Gulen if Turkey provides evidence of wrongdoing. For Erdogan's fervent supporters, such apparent reluctance is further evidence of U.S. complicity. "I know that the United States has a finger in this. I know that this is a play put on by the United States, Israel and the United Kingdom," said Ahmet Demirci, among the dozens of people to have gathered in solidarity outside Erdogan's palace night after night since the July 15 coup attempt. "That dishonest man, Fethullah Gulen is their pawn." Older Turks recall past coups. Many see evidence that the United States backed a 1980 coup, at the height of the Cold War, citing reports that the CIA station chief in Ankara cabled Washington to say "our boys did it". Mystery still shrouds modern Turkey's first coup in 1960 which overthrew a pro-American prime minister but was led by a U.S.-trained officer. One newspaper published a photograph of a hotel it identified as a nerve center for CIA agents it said helped hatch the coup plot this month. "The CIA was at work in this hotel that night," the headline in the pro-government Sabah newspaper said, above a photo of the Splendid Hotel on Buyukada, the largest of a group of islands in the Marmara sea just off Istanbul. The paper said a group of 17 people, mostly foreigners, checked in at the hotel on the day of the coup attempt. It said the hotel was used as a headquarters for the British army during its occupation of Istanbul in 1919. CONSOLIDATING POWER A successful overthrow of Erdogan, who has run the country of about 80 million people since 2003, could have sent Turkey spiraling into conflict. The intrigue in the aftermath is helping justify a wide crackdown, analysts say, with more than 60,000 soldiers, police, civil servants and other officials detained, suspended or under investigation. "This has helped him strengthen his position," said Andrew Finkel, a journalist and political analyst based in Turkey since 1989. "He is doing what he does best, consolidating power." Conspiracy theories have spiced up Turkish crises for decades amid the struggle between Islamists and secularists to shape the country, with superpower America often accused of fuelling the fire. Erdogan blamed foreign powers for stirring up nationwide anti-government protests three years ago. Sometimes the perceived enemy is less formidable. During contentious local elections in 2014, seen as a referendum on Erdogan's rule, power cuts disrupted the count. Turkey's energy minister blamed a cat, saying it had walked into a transformer unit, drawing ridicule from social media users who portrayed a "cat lobby" threatening the government. In 2013, authorities detained a bird on suspicion it was spying for Israel, but freed it after X-rays showed it was not embedded with surveillance equipment, local newspapers said. Nevertheless, Turks take their conspiracies seriously and the latest tensions are providing fresh material. Gulen lives in a secluded compound in Pennsylvania's Pocono Mountains. But Erdogan has good reason to worry about the reclusive cleric's reach inside Turkey. In 2013, his followers in the police and judiciary opened a corruption probe into business associates of Erdogan, then prime minister, who denounced the investigations as a foreign plot. "Why don't they hand him over? Why do they keep making insinuations? He (Gulen) lives there. Don't you think this is an apparent indicator? This is the impression people have," said Erdogan supporter Ayhan Onkibar outside the presidential palace. "Why does he live in the United States? These are details we notice." (Additional reporting by Ayla Jean Yackley, Melih Aslan and David Dolan; Editing by Nick Tattersall and Anna Willard)
Lyle Denniston, the National Constitution Centers constitutional literacy adviser, looks the Democrats election pledge to overturn the Citizens United campaign finance decision  a vow that faces considerable odds.

bernieonCU

Bernie Sanders speaks about Citizens United

THE STATEMENTS AT ISSUE:

Today Im announcing that in my first 30 days as president I will propose a Constitutional Amendment to overturn Citizens United and give the American people, all of us, the chance to reclaim our democracy. I will also appoint Supreme Court justices who understand that this decision was a disaster for our democracy. I hope some of the brilliant minds in this room will seek out cases to challenge Citizens United in the courts, because I know I cant do this alone. 

 Excerpt from a videotaped speech that Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton made on July 18 to a St. Louis convention of a liberal advocacy group, Netroots Nation.

Hillary Clinton will nominate justices to the Supreme Court who are prepared to overturn Citizens United and end the movement toward oligarchy in this country.

 Excerpt from a speech by Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders at the Democratic National Convention Monday night in Philadelphia.

We will fight to end the broken campaign finance system, overturn the disastrous Citizens United decision, restore the full power of the Voting Rights Act, and return control of our elections to the American people.

 Excerpt from the 2016 platform adopted by the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia.

WE CHECKED THE CONSTITUTION, AND

Some tasks that the American government might perform are, by the design of the founding generation, very hard to bring about. The hardest is to change the Constitution itself. To do that requires a massive mobilization of the political sentiment of nearly the entire nation. And it is a task that the founders did not trust to leave entirely to the new national government; they insisted that the choice to amend must be kept as close as possible to the people themselves.

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Those who met in Philadelphia in 1787 had no illusions that the final document they had written was perfect in every way. In fact, they quickly learned, during the state conventions to ratify the Constitution, that a promise of early amendments  to create a bill of rights  would actually be politically necessary in order to get enough states to accept the Constitution.

Article V, spelling out how to amend, was designed  or so James Madison wrote  to guard equally against that extreme facility which would render the Constitution too mutable and that extreme difficulty which might perpetuate its discovered faults.

Beyond the Bill of Rights, added in 1791 as the first ten amendments, the words of the Constitution actually have been changed only 17 additional times. The latest came 24 years ago, with the Twenty-seventh Amendment dealing with congressional salaries.

However, it is a historical reality and has been since 1803 (although this is still as hotly debated as it was more than two centuries ago), that the Constitution also gets its meaning from the way the Supreme Court interprets it. Actually, the complex machinery of Article V has been used seven times to amend the Constitution by overruling Supreme Court decisions. Remember the Nineteenth Amendment, giving women the right to vote?

By far the easiest way to change the Constitution, at least in terms of numbers, is to persuade the Supreme Court to change its mind on a given point of constitutional interpretation. The fact is that, through the course of American history, the Supreme Court has overruled itself at least 112 times on a constitutional point, by one reliable estimate. When was the last time that happened? Just last year, when the court ruled that the Fourteenth Amendment provided an equal right for same-sex couples to marry, overruling a 1972 decision that said this was left to the states.

Throughout the current presidential campaign, especially among Democrats, there has been much talk of overruling the courts 2010 decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. That has been a prominent theme of the partys convention in Philadelphia this week.

In that ruling, the court voted 5-to-4 in declaring that the First Amendment protects the right of corporations and labor unions to spend unlimited amounts of their money to try to influence election outcomes. Many political analysts believe that this ruling brought about the rise of super PACs, with a dominant financial influence in national elections. (It is an irony of history that the Citizens United case arose because of the money spent to create a highly critical campaign movie against Hillary Clinton, who now is one of the strongest critics of the Citizens United decision.)

Hillary Clinton is now proposing two different ways to overturn that ruling. Often during speeches last year, she spoke about selecting Supreme Court Justices who, she hoped, could be counted on to overrule that decision. She has continued to press that approach. That has always seemed like quite a long shot. Even the death in February of one of the Justices in the majority, in that case, Antonin Scalia, may not have changed the judicial calculus  unless a newly elected Democrat chooses a replacement for Scalia who would help make a majority to overrule that decision. Candidate Clinton recently added a strong encouragement of lawyers to keep trying to file lawsuits to test whether the court might be persuaded on this point.

Lately, though, she has added a proposal to amend the Constitution to get that job done. Although the Constitution assigns no formal role, of any kind, to the president in the Article V amendment process, a strong campaign by a president to promote such an amendment might give the idea added impetus  especially if Congresss leadership is taken over by the Democrats in November.

The amendment process, too, may be a long shot. Even assuming that the House and Senate would each approve such an amendment by at least a two-thirds vote, are there at least 38 states that would ratify it after that decision were handed on to the states?

This project, of course, is a strong rallying point for Democrats in politics. But, in constitutional terms, it may not be much more than that.
The first black President of the U.S. took the stage to support first woman presidential nominee of a major political party at the Democratic National Convention Wednesday night. Delegates chanted, Yes We Can, Barack Obamas campaign slogan from 2008, as Obama spoke to the crowd in support of Hillary Clinton.

Obama, who walked out as The City of Blinding Lights by U2 rocked the arena in Philadelphia, offered a ringing endorsement of Clinton, his onetime primary competitor who became his Secretary of State, saying she would blast through the glass ceiling.

Even in the midst of crisis, she listens to people. And she keeps her cool, Obama said. And no matter how much people try to knock her down, she never, ever quits. That is the Hillary I know.

Obama also got in some digs at Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, whose name was met with boos in the arena.

Dont boovote! Obama urged the crowd.

As Signed, Sealed, Delivered played at the end of Obamas speech, Hillary Clinton emerged on stage. The former opponents touched foreheads and embraced before Obama put his arm around Clinton and led her to center stage. The two history-making presidential nominees held hands and waved as the crowd cheered.

Earlier, referencing Trumps plan to build a wall at the Mexican border, Obama was cheered when he said Clinton knows the American dream is something no wall will ever contain.

Obama also made an overture to supporters of Senator Bernie Sanders.

We all need to be as persistent as Bernie Sanders supporters have been during this election. We need to vote for Democrats up and down the ticket, and then hold them accountable until they get the job done. Thats right, feel the Bern!

Obama looked back to the past as well, striking an optimistic note as he recalled the 2004 DNC speech that catapulted him to fame and ultimately to the presidency.

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Twelve years ago tonight, I addressed this convention for the very first time, Obama said. And while this nation has been tested by war and its been tested by recession, I stand before you again tonight, after almost two terms as your President, to tell you I am more optimistic about the future of America than ever before.

Toward the end of his speech, Obama choked up as he described what has kept him going through his two terms in the White House.

Ive told Hillary, and Ill tell you, whats picked me back up every single time, its been you, the American people, Obama said, adding later, Now Im ready to pass the baton.

Before Obamas speech, Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine accepted the vice presidential nomination, and he joined a range of leaders who offered impassioned messages of support for the Democratic nominee.

I trust Hillary Clinton, Kaine said, calling her lista, the Spanish word for ready. Vice President Joe Biden called Clinton a historic candidate who will change the lives of women moving forward.

Kaine and Biden, like other speakers Wednesday night, also had sharp words for Trump.

No major party nominee in the history of this nation has ever known less or has been less prepared to deal with our national security, Biden said. We cannot elect a man who exploits our fears of ISIS and other terrorists, who has no plan whatsoever to make us safer, a man who embraces the tactics of our enemiestorture, religious intoleranceyou all know, all the Republicans know, thats not who we are. It betrays our values.

He did not stop there, adding Trump has no clue, period.

How can there be pleasure in saying, Youre fired, Biden said.

Clinton has yet to speak at the Philadelphia convention, where on Tuesday she became the first female nominee of either major party, but her surrogates have covered her bases. Nearly all of the major issues in this election have been addressed, and she has continued to emphasize the stark differences between her and Trump.

Wednesdays schedule was no different: The theme was Working Together, and those who spoke included former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who also had sharp words for Trump.

Donald Trump says he wants to run the country like he runs his business, Bloomberg said. God help us. Im a New Yorker, and I know a con when I see one.

Bloomberg, an Independent who considered his own presidential bid, said he chooses candidates based on their ability to do the job. Whatever our disagreements may be, we must put them aside for the good of our country. We must unite around a candidate who can beat a dangerous demagogue, Bloomberg said.

[Clinton] is the right choice and the responsible choice in this election, Bloomberg added, calling on fellow Independents to choose the best person to lead the country. Hillary Clinton understands this is not reality television, this is reality!

Much of the earlier part of the evening focused on gun control, with the family, friends and victims of gun violence making appearances onstage.

They included former U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, a former U.S. representative who was shot in the head in 2011 in her home state of Arizona in an incident that left six others dead, and Christine Leinonen, the mother of Christopher Drew Leinonen, who was killed in the June gay club shooting in Orlando that left 49 dead.

The weapon that murdered my son fires 30 rounds in one minute. An Orlando city commissioner pointed out the terrible math. One minute per gun to fire so many shots, five minutes per bell to honor so many lives. Im glad common-sense gun policy was in place when Christopher was born, but where was that common sense the day he died? Leinonen asked.

In a short but powerful address, Giffords also backed Clinton.

Speaking is difficult for me. But come January, I want to say these two words: Madam President, Giffords said.

Ranging from immigration reform to addressing the needs of citizens with disabilities, the Clinton campaign has produced a steady stream of testimonials that have painted a picture of a candidate who is not only a change maker, as her husband put in on Tuesday night, but of a politician who has spent decades collecting the experience Democrats treasure in their nominee.

Clinton has also brought her primary rival, Sanders, into the fold, with the Vermont Senator even moving that she be nominated by acclamation in a moment of reconciliation.

Still, protests continue outside the convention, with some Sanders supporters saying they will continue the fight.

Former Maryland Governor and presidential hopeful Martin OMalley made an energetic appearance as someone who has worked with and competed against Clinton. He gave her a shining endorsement as a protector, but, like many other speakers, spent a good amount of his short appearance attacking Trump.

He will not fight for us. He feeds off of economic fears and failures, stirs up false divisions and ancient hates, turns anger into a political weapon, OMalley said.

He said Trumps opinion of himself is way too high, a statement that got a positive response from the crowd.

To hell with Trumps American nightmare. We believe in the American dream, OMalley said.
VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / July 27, 2016 / Coronet Metals Inc. (CRF.V) (FWB:2CM) (OTC Pink: CORMF) ("Coronet" or "the Company"), is pleased to provide overview on its Corporate strategy and summary on current developments.

Coronet's strategy is acquiring precious metals mining projects which have the potential for both near-term cash flow and exploration upside in safe, mining friendly, jurisdictions. The goal is to derive low cost production from high value deposits and pay for these acquisitions from cash flow as opposed to issuing stock which is dilutive for its shareholders.

The White Caps Gold Mining Project ("White Caps" or "the Project")

Through its wholly-owned subsidiary, "White Caps Mining Company" ("WCMC"), the Company controls the former producing White Caps Gold Mine and processing mill, along with an estimated 250,000 tonnes of historic tails and mine dumps *.

Management is aggressively pursuing a 3-phase program to (1) assess gold recoveries using extensive independent metallurgical analysis within the historic gold bearing tailings and mine dumps and reprocess those tails in order to generate short-term cash flows, and (2) permit and re-develop the existing 250 tonne/day White Caps Mill in order to accelerate recoveries of gold from the surface tails, and ultimately (3) re-drill and re-enter the historic White Caps Gold Mine to assess potential and develop an NI 43-101 compliant resource.

Six Drill holes have been outlined for the White Caps dump and 23 auger holes proposed for the drilling the White Caps tailings. The upper portion of the tailings pile is considerably thicker and may require reverse circulation holes to drill to the bottom of the pile. Coronet anticipates commencing the drill program within the next 4-8 weeks. This work, together with the metallurgical work will form the basis to upgrade or verify the historical estimates of the quantity of the gold bearing tailings and mine dumps as a NI 43-101 compliant mineral resources or mining reserves.

Presuming all the above proposed work on the White Caps tails confirms prior analysis, the next step will be to begin small scale production and re-processing of the tails. Gold extracted in that effort will be sold and cash flows directed to fund exploration work on the historic White Caps underground mine. Between 1930 and 1960, significant gold production was secured from the Mine, however no exploration has been conducted since that time. Using current advanced techniques, Coronet's management believe that the there is a strong case to be made for fully-restoring White Caps to gold production.

In a recent press release dated June 29, 2016, Coronet announced that it had entered into a "Letter of Intent" to acquire a 60% interest in the Dixie Queen Mine located near Charlotte, North Carolina. The Dixie Queen Mine and surrounding property has been providing small scale gold production, and Coronet believes that production values can be significantly increased through the provision of additional development capital along with the expertise and experience of Coronet's mine-development team.

The Dixie Queen Gold Mine ("Dixie Queen")

Presently concluding due diligence work with plans to enter into a final purchase and sales agreement within the coming days.

Coronet's management and operations team has visited the site and is very pleased with early indications of what seems to be a very promising discovery.

The due diligence includes independent sampling of high grade gold veins, and an initial work program to process approximately 200 tonnes of ore.

Upon closing of the transaction, the Company will immediately initiate work to complete a NI 43-101 complaint resource report.

The Carolina Gold Rush, the first gold rush in the United States, followed discovery of gold in North Carolina in 1799. North Carolina boasts several historic mines including the Reed mine, Dixie Queen and in South Carolina, less than 150 miles from the Dixie Queen, the 4 million oz "Haile Mine" **.

The Dixie Queen is an ideal fit with Coronet's business model of pursuing production-oriented assets in proven gold-producing jurisdictions.

In addition to the above two projects the Company is actively pursuing other near-term, promising high value gold and silver projects that will play to its existing strategy.

* References to tonnages are historical estimates. The estimated tonnage of 250,000 tonnes was provided by the two different mining (name the company) engineering companies in October 2011 that the Company engaged to provide an estimate. The stockpile measurement is a technique to measure the volume and weight of commodity stockpiles. It is a scientific/ instrumental method, using Total Station equipment to determine the volume of the stockpile quantity. While the Company believes that the historical tonnage estimate is useful to guide future work on the project it cautions readers that these historical estimates should not be relied upon.

** http://www.oceanagold.com/our-business/united-states/haile-gold-mine/

About Coronet Metals

Coronet Metals Inc. is engaged in the business of acquiring, exploring and developing natural resource properties, with a focus on precious mineral properties/projects which have the potential for both near-term cash flow and significant exploration upside potential. Coronet's White Caps Gold Project is near the town of Manhattan in Northern Nye County. The Project is well in line with its strategy of acquiring precious metals mining projects which have the potential for both near-term cash flow and exploration upside.

The Company has launched a fresh new web site so please visit www.coronetmetals.com for more information on the project, the history of the area and up to date information regarding its near-term plans, execution and strategy.

Forward Looking Information

This news release contains forward-looking statements and other statements that are not historical facts. Forward-looking statements are often identified by terms such as "will", "may", "should", "anticipate", "expects" and similar expressions. All statements other than statements of historical fact included in this release are forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the Company's expectations are risks detailed from time to time in the filings made by the Company with securities regulations.

The reader is cautioned that assumptions used in the preparation of any forward-looking information may prove to be incorrect. Events or circumstances may cause actual results to differ materially from those predicted, as a result of numerous known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors, many of which are beyond the control of the Company. As a result, the Company cannot guarantee that any forward-looking statement will materialize and the reader is cautioned not to place undue reliance on any forward-looking information. Such information, although considered reasonable by management at the time of preparation, may prove to be incorrect and actual results may differ materially from those anticipated. Forward-looking statements contained in this news release are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement. The forward-looking statements contained in this news release are made as of the date of this news release and the Company will only update or revise publicly any of the included forward-looking statements as expressly required by Canadian securities law.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its regulation services provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION AND ENQUIRIES:

Theo van der Linde

President and CFO

Tel: +1 604-336-3193

Email: tvanderlinde@coronetmetals.com

SOURCE: Coronet Metals Inc.
From Esquire

PHILADELPHIA-By the end, it was pandemonium. The signs-green ones now added amongst the blue-waved furiously on the floor of the Wells Fargo Center in South Philadelphia. On the first night of the Democratic National Convention, New Jersey Senator Cory Booker ushered in the primetime hours with a rousing speech. It culminated in what might, if Hillary Clinton's stuttering campaign has the wisdom and the courage to turn the page, be the path forward for the Democrats.

"America," he said repeatedly, after recounting the daring accomplishments of past Americans, from the founders to escaped slaves to Stonewall, "We will rise."

It was a stirring riff on a Maya Angelou line he recited ("You may write me down in history / With your bitter, twisted lies, / You may trod me in the very dirt / But still, like dust, I'll rise."), and it was a huge step up in message here. Those blue signs read, "Stronger Together," the tagline for the Clinton campaign ever since Bernie Sanders got on board. But the green ones, distributed just before Booker went up to speak, read "Rise Together."

One of the major weak points of Clinton's campaign is that she represents the status quo. In a time when so many Americans' careers and opportunities are stagnant, the Democrats cannot afford to settle for "let's continue as we are"-even when the alternative is a swan dive off the Trumpian cliff. "Stronger Together" is nice, but we need to be going somewhere. Booker's speech evoked a people who can move onward and upward if they band together.

It's also an alternative narrative about American greatness. Booker repeatedly cited the kind of communitarian values that Democrats have called on in recent years. He mentioned an "unusual and extraordinary commitment to each other," and the last line of the Declaration of Independence: "We mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor." He professed respect for "rugged individualism and self-reliance," but reminded us that it "didn't defeat the British, it didn't get us to the moon, build our nation's highways, or map the human genome."

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"When workers make a fair wage," he added, mopping his brow once again, "it doesn't just help their families. It builds a stronger, more durable economy that expands opportunity and makes all Americans wealthier." He characterized affordable college as an investment in our collective future, a public good rather than millions of a personal ones.

At times, it was a speech he could have given four years ago. There were more polished versions of that infamous line of President Obama's-"You didn't build that"-that was co-opted by the RNC into an entire day of content at the 2012 Republican Convention. (Obama, like Booker, meant the interstate highway system and the public infrastructure that allows businesses to thrive in America.) But it was a more forward-thinking message, and one more concerned with American strength. In this year, as much as any other, the Democrats must have their own vision of strength and greatness.

Booker managed to weave Donald Trump into the narrative as well. He painted the Republican nominee, like Mitt Romney before him, as an example of rugged individualism run amok-someone more than happy to profit off of the misfortune of others. "We are not a zero-sum nation," he said, to contrast the national project with the vulture capitalism of the last two Republican nominees.

The response was predictable, and showed Booker might just have left a mark:

The speech wasn't all gravy. It started slow, with sanitized visions of our nation's founding. It failed to acknowledge the true depths of the divisions that have been carved into our society, mentioning only briefly, for example, the fissure between communities of color and police. But that prevailing message, of an American people who could band together and rise as one to a new kind of collective greatness, is a potent one in a year when so many are responding to a man who says all that's required for American greatness is to simply pull the lever next to his name.
The Explainer-in-Chief did it again.

On night 2 of the Democratic National Convention, Bill Clinton gave an all-important, passionate speech testifying to the goodness and strength of character of his wife, the first woman in United States history to be nominated by a major party for the presidency. And the collective sound you heard throughout the auditorium, and from many viewers watching at home, was "Awww"

What he delivered was less a political address than a deeply personal account of his relationship with Hillary and their life together. He began by saying, "In the spring of 1971, I met a girl," and you could practically hear the music on the imaginary soundtrack swelling up. It was like the opening scene of Love Story, only with a happier ending.

Read More: Bill Clinton Tells His Hillary Clinton Love Story at the DNC  Watch His Speech

The speech shouldn't have been held in an arena. It was better suited to be delivered on a wintry night by a roaring fire, with plenty of hot chocolate and marshmallows handy.

He talked about his courtship of Hillary in his inimitable homespun manner, although certain lines couldn't avoid having an unfortunate resonance, such as when he described his wariness to approach her for the first time: "I might be starting something I couldn't stop," he remembered thinking. Too bad he didn't show such restraint later in life.

He went on to recount how she turned down his first proposal (Awww), and then how he asked a second time, only to be rejected again (Awww). He bought a starter house that she had admired before she even agreed to marry him, but, as he triumphantly related, "the third time was the charm" (Awww)

"I married my best friend," he declared, and you could hear the sniffles throughout the arena. The broadcast frequently cut to close-ups of Chelsea Clinton, whose tearful reactions seemed to indicate that she had strangely never heard the story before.

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Bill dutifully checked off all the important life events ("We found out we were going to be parents"), even talking about when Hillary's water broke. He mentioned a day spent with his daughter watching "all six Police Academy movies back to back," which just seemed like a shameless pandering to the uneducated white male voters rejecting Hillary.

Read More: Hillary Clinton Puts a "Crack in That Glass Ceiling" to Conclude Day Two of DNC

And in an anecdote to which every couple with children can relate, he talked about trying not to cry when leaving Chelsea at college. His blissful portrait of their married life made Ozzie and Harriet seem edgy by comparison. The years of couples therapy have clearly paid off.

Eventually he got around to mentioning Hillary's accomplishments, describing her as "the best change-maker I've ever met in my entire life." Contrasting his portrait of her with the demonic one painted at last week's GOP convention, he pointedly observed, "One is real, the other is made up."

Along the way, he also somehow managed to mention nearly every state in the Union in which Hillary has ever set foot, each time inevitably garnering cheers from its delegation. (The only place she seems to have missed is Guam.) In his powerful effort to humanize his wife, he pulled every weapon from his rhetorical arsenal, forgetting only to play the sax. But it certainly worked, at least with the crowd in the arena who ate it all up.

And in case you were wondering if the stakes were high enough, he promised that, for those voting for Hillary this fall, "your children and grandchildren will bless you forever if you do." No pressure there.

His speech was followed by an appearance by Meryl Streep, wearing what seemed like a recycled flag, who was very jazzed up about Hillary's historic nomination. The theme was echoed by Hillary herself, appearing via video from her Chappaqua home, surrounded by a large group including children who were clearly up past their bedtime.

"I can't believe we just put the biggest crack in that glass ceiling yet," the candidate exulted, promising any young girls who were watching that "one of you is next."

The first part of the evening was essentially a warm-up bill for Bill's main event, although there was no shortage of powerful moments. Chief among them was the appearance of the "Mothers of the Movement," composed of African-American women whose grown children have been lost to gun violence. The group included the mothers of Sandra Bland, Jordan Davis and Trayvon Martin, and they spoke with quiet dignity.

Read More: Mothers of the Movement Bring "Black Lives Matter" Discourse to Democratic Convention

"The majority of police officers are good people doing a good job," one of them said. Another exhorted us to vote for Hillary "so that this group of hard-working mothers stops growing." The crowd responded by loudly chanting, "Black lives matter."

9/11, which occurred when Hillary was a New York senator, was another major theme. NYPD detective Joe Sweeney talked about her strong efforts on behalf of first responders. Survivor Lauren Manning, an executive at Cantor Fitzgerald who suffered near-fatal burns, earned one of the biggest cheers when she said about her painful, lengthy recovery, "I fought as hard as I could so that the terrorists would not get one more." Recounting how Hillary visited her often in the hospital, Manning said, "She had my back." And New York Representative Joseph Crowley, whose firefighter cousin perished on that day, contrasted Hillary's actions with those of the Republican nominee.

"Where was Donald Trump?" Crowley bitterly asked. Describing how Trump "cashed in" by taking advantage of funds designated to help small businesses, he said, "It was one of our darkest days, but to Trump it was just another chance to make a quick buck."

Then there was Howard Dean, who talked at length about Hillary's efforts on behalf of healthcare reform. "Her first attempt did not work," he admitted, which was putting it mildly. It was a strong speech, at least until he reprised his infamous "Dean Scream" in a light-hearted attempt to fire up the crowd, much like a comedian delivering a familiar joke for which the audience already knows the punchline.

Tomorrow night's event holds the prospect of even bigger fireworks, with President Obama reportedly poised to deliver the sort of full-throttle attack on Trump that he's been longing for. Yes, he can!

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Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced an additional stimulus package to support the economy, sending the yen lower and supporting market gains, with currency-hedged Japan exchange traded funds leading the charge.

On Wednesday, the WisdomTree Japan Hedged Equity Fund (DXJ) rose 1.6%, iShares Currency Hedged MSCI Japan ETF (HEWJ) gained 1.0% and Deutsche X-trackers MSCI Japan Hedged Equity ETF (DBJP) increased 0.9%. The currency-hedged ETFs outperform non-hedged funds when the local currency depreciates against the U.S. dollar.

Trending on ETF Trends

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More Downside for the Yen ETF?

Hedged Japan ETFs to Capitalize Off Additional Stimulus

Meanwhile, the non-hedged iShares MSCI Japan ETF (EWJ) was flat Wednesday while the CurrencyShares Japanese Yen Trust (FXY) was 1.1% lower.

The yen weakened to 105.71 against the U.S. dollar.

Japan revealed a surprisingly large 28 trillion yen or $265 billion, economic stimulus package on Wednesday, surpassing estimates for a 20 trillion yen package, reports Herbert Lash for Reuters.

Abe said the details of the package will be compiled next week.

Related: More Downside for the Yen ETF?

Some have argued that the government does not have the means to support the additional spending. Economists have criticized the idea of a new spending package, arguing that the heavily indebted country needs structural economic reforms and deregulation before additional fiscal spending, Bloomberg reports.

The new stimulus, though, also comes as market observers speculated the Japanese government would announce a new 50-year Japanese Government Bond plan in the coming days, which could help fund the new round of fiscal spending.

Some Abe advisors have said the Bank of Japan and the government could combine further monetary easing with more public spending, the Wall Street Journal reports. The central bank holds over a third of outstanding government debt.

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Related: Hedged Japan ETFs to Capitalize Off Additional Stimulus

This looks very much like the market quickly put two and two together and came up with a very appealing answer  the government was moving toward specifically issuing longer-term debt to finance some larger than expected stimulus plan, Derek Halpenny, analyst at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, told the Financial Times.

Looking ahead, investors will also need to watch for the BOJs policy meeting on Friday.

Click here to read the full story on ETF Trends.

WisdomTree Japan Hedged Equity Fund
Dan Loeb

In his second quarter letter to investors, Dan Loeb, founder of hedge fund Third Point Partners, disclosed that he's investing in China's answer to Uber, Didi Chuxing.

You may recall that Uber has had some difficulty penetrating China's market, where Didi reigns supreme. Jean Liu, the company's president, called Uber's efforts to attract Chinese customers "cute," which has to smart.

With this investment, Loeb is joining China's tech behemoths Alibaba and Tencent as well as Apple, who have also invested in Didi. He reasons that China is the perfect market for ride sharing since there are tons of people packed into dense cities, and a fairly low number of them own cars: China has "130 vehicles per thousand people (vs 800 in the US and 500700 in Western Europe)," he noted.

From the letter:

"As a result of these tailwinds, Chinas ridesharing sector is rapidly capturing market share from both public transport and private car ownership. We forecast that the Chinese ridesharing market will expand from its 2015 volume level of less than two billion annual trips to ~25 billion annual trips by 2019, representing a market size of ~$100B, or ~9% of the Chinese urban transportation market.

Given the winnertakemost characteristics of ridesharing (which result from supplyside economies of scale and network effects) and Didis alreadydominant position in the Chinese market (~80% market share today), we believe Didi can capture the vast majority of this substantial market opportunity. As a result, we expect Didi to grow into one of Chinas largest internet companies, resulting in significant equity appreciation over the next five years."

Third Point is up 4.6% for the second quarter, versus the benchmark S&P 500's 2.5%. Year to date, the fund is up 2.2% versus the S&P 500's 3.8%.

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Bill Clinton

The second day of Hillary Clinton's convention was marked by her becoming the first woman to receive a major party's presidential nomination, her husband, former President Bill Clinton, humanizing her as a progressive change maker in a lengthy address, and a number of lower-profile speakers explaining how she fought for them and improved their lives.

In short, it was one of the better days for Clinton's candidacy.

"Absolutely" it was, Democratic strategist Ben LaBolt told Business Insider, adding that the speakers helped explain not only why Clinton is in politics, but why she would make a good president.

The night was full of speakers, whether they were talking about Clinton's healthcare initiatives or her work involving first responders and survivors of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The speakers showed her "fighting for people who you don't necessarily read about in the newspaper every day," LaBolt said.

He added that a "main takeaway" from the whole convention will be the addresses delivered by people directly affected by the attacks.

"I fought to honor our troops, who were fighting on frontlines around the world," said Lauren Manning, a 9/11 survivor from the World Trade Center attack who suffered burns on more than 80% of her body. "I fought to return to my young son. I fought as hard as I could so the terrorists wouldn't get one more. Hillary Clinton stood with me through that fight."

"In the darkest of days and the hardest of times, the people who show up mean everything," she continued. "Hillary showed up. She walked into my hospital room and took my bandaged hand in her own. Our connection wasn't between a senator and her constituent. Our connection was person-to-person."

LaBolt said that testimony such as Manning's was "particularly powerful" because it hits on Clinton's main message  "that she's going to fight for people like you."

"That was some of the most powerful testimony we've ever heard about Hillary Clinton," he said.

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Democratic U.S. presidential nominee Hillary Clinton appears on a video monitor streamed live from New York at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. July 26, 2016. REUTERS/Mark Kauzlarich

Evan Siegfried, a Republican commentator opposed to the candidacy of GOP nominee Donald Trump, told Business Insider that he thought the Clinton campaign didn't do some of the things it should've been doing on Tuesday night.

Pointing to President Clinton's speech, Siegfried said that he missed a major point: the stakes in the election.

"He humanized Hillary and it was a reintroduction of who she is, but she's a known quantity," he said. "What he sort of missed out on was that he didn't explain what the stakes are this election. And for two candidates who are basically despised by everybody, that's a big problem."

"In addition to trying to make her seem like a palatable alternative, you have to say the other guy is that much worse," he said. "Like it or not, this election is about who's less despised than the other."

He said that the DNC is already off to a better start than the Republican National Convention from last week because "there was no plagiarism," pointing to Melania Trump's speech that was partially cribbed from first lady Michelle Obama's 2008 DNC address.

Siegfried also said that one of the biggest questions of the convention, whether the party is united, is at the forefront for an interesting reason. Unlike in Cleveland, where many of Trump's dissenters within the GOP decided against showing up, many fiercely anti-Clinton Democrats and independents who backed Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont decided to show up and be vocal about their disapproval.

Cleveland, as a result, "was much more Trump-friendly from the outset."

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By John Davison BEIRUT (Reuters) - A large truck bomb blast claimed by Islamic State killed nearly 50 people and wounded scores more in the northeastern Syrian city of Qamishli near the Turkish border on Wednesday, a monitoring group and state television reported. The attack, which hit near a Kurdish security forces headquarters, was the deadliest of its kind in the city for years, the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. The blast, which took place early on Wednesday, killed at least 48 people. The death toll expected to rise because of the number of people seriously injured, the Observatory said. State media put the death toll at 44. Kurdish forces control much of Hasaka province, after capturing vast areas from the jihadist group last year. The Kurdish YPG militia, which has proved the most effective partner for a U.S.-led coalition battling Islamic State, is also involved in fighting the extremists farther west, in Aleppo province. Islamic State claimed responsibility for what it said was a suicide truck bomb attack, and added that it targeted Kurdish security forces. The group State has carried out a number of bombings in Qamishli, which is in Hasaka province, and in the provincial capital, Hasaka city. State TV rolled footage purportedly from the scene of one blast, showing large-scale damage to buildings, vast amounts of rubble strewn across the road and plumes of smoke rising. The explosion was so powerful it shattered the windows of shops in the Turkish town of Nusaybin, directly across the border. Two people were slightly hurt in Nusaybin, a witness said. Islamic State has targeted Qamishli and the provincial capital, Hasaka city, in the past with bombing attacks. A suicide blast killed six members of the Kurdish internal security force, known as the Asayish, in April. In July, an Islamic State suicide bomb killed at least 16 people in Hasaka. The YPG is now involved in a U.S.-backed offensive that has advanced against the jihadists further west near the Turkish border. The assault against Islamic State in the city of Manbij has put it under pressure, cutting off all routes out of the city. Fighters from the U.S.-backed alliance have in recent weeks made incremental advances as they try to flush out the remaining IS fighters in Manbij. Territory that Islamic State controls in that area was a major supply route to the outside world via the Turkish-Syrian border, through which it moved weapons and fighters. (This story has been refiled to fix typo in fourth paragraph) (Reporting by John Davison, additional reporting by Ahmed Tolba in Cairo and Seyhmus Cakan in Diyarbakir, Turkey; editing by Larry King)
Manila (AFP) - Philippine police said Wednesday they were hunting a man captured on CCTV shooting dead a cyclist in an apparent road rage incident in the nation's capital.

The footage, broadcast on national TV, shows a motorist confronting another man on a bicycle on Monday evening.

The two men initially engage in a fist-fight before one of them takes out a gun and shoots the other five times at close range, said investigating officer Charles John Duran.

"It looks like a case of road rage. There was a confrontation. The cyclist put the suspect in a headlock and the suspect then retreated. Then he takes out a gun from his car," Duran said.

"He shot (the cyclist) in the head and then fired four more shots as he lay on the ground," the police officer said.

A ricochet hit an 18-year-old woman nearby and she is still in critical condition, Duran added.

"Thanks to the CCTV, we know who he (the gunman) is," Duran said, adding that the suspect, identified as an army reservist, is now being hunted.

Closed-circuit television systems have multiplied in congested areas of the Philippine capital in recent years.
The pilots of the Solar Impulse 2 have described their year-long attempt to fly around the world powered solely by the sun as the "definition of adventure."



Speaking to CNBC shortly after landing in Abu Dhabi Tuesday, pilot and chairman Bertrand Piccard said the round-the-world trip had "some elating moments but also difficult moments, setbacks even, and this is the definition of adventure."

Solar Impulse 2 landed in Abu Dhabi more than a year after its initial take off, marking the end of an epic 25,000-mile (40,000-kilometer) journey. The plane made 16 stops, including in India, China, the U.S., Italy, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates -- where it first took off.

The Swiss-engineered single-seater aircraft is powered by 17,248 solar cells and runs on battery power at night. Its average airspeed was 46 mph, though that increased during the day when the sun's rays were strongest.

It took 70 hours for the plane to cross the Atlantic and 118 hours across the Pacific.

On Sunday, Piccard took off from Cairo in Egypt to complete the last leg of the journey, landing 48 hours and 37 minutes later in Abu Dhabi at 2:05 a.m. CEST on Tuesday.

"It really shows that you can do incredible things with clean technologies, renewable energies, like flying day and night on solar power with an airplane (with) unlimited endurance because you don't need to refuel," Piccard told CNBC.

The trip has not been without its hiccups. Last year, the plane suffered "irreversible damage to overheated batteries" after a record breaking flight between Nagoya and Hawaii that lasted more than four days. It had to be grounded for several months while repairs took place.





"We arrived thanks to two things: first, that the airplane is using solar energy as the only source of energy and second, that this airplane is extremely energy efficient," Andre Borschberg, chief executive and pilot of Solar Impulse, told CNBC.



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"Thanks to this efficiency (we can) fly through the night with an airplane powered by the sun only," he added before going on to explain that Solar Impulse 2 was the first airplane ever developed with "unlimited endurance."

The world first trip has drawn praise from around the world.

In a live streamed chat with Piccard during the last hours of the flight, United Nations secretary general Ban Ki-moon expressed his "deepest admiration and respect" for the pilot's courage. "This is a very historic day, not only for you (but) for humanity," Ki-moon added.

While the journey is an undoubted feat of human endurance, for Piccard the message is bigger.

"Very often when you speak about the protection of the environment it's boring and expensive and we wanted to demonstrate that it's exactly the opposite, that you have now clean technologies that are profitable, they create jobs, they make profit, they sustain growth and at the same time if they were implemented everywhere they would divide by two the CO2 emissions of our world and save natural resources and decrease pollution," he said.

Piccard added that best way to demonstrate this was to embark on a "spectacular" project like Solar Impulse that would attract the attention of people and offer solutions. "This is one of the solutions not only for aviation, but for energy in general to be more efficient with natural resources of our planet and show that there are other ways of thinking and other ways of doing."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Supporters of Bernie Sanders chant at the Democratic National Convention on Tuesday, July 26, 2016. (Photo: Jon Ward/Yahoo News)

PHILADELPHIA  Esau sold his birthright for a bowl of what?

Stew? Pottage? Porridge?

You wouldnt think a raucous protest by delegates on the floor of the Democratic convention would raise such a question. But youd be wrong.

I stood watching Monday night as California delegates who remained loyal to Sen. Bernie Sanders, the Socialist turned Democrat, greeted the end of his candidacy with tears and howls of fury.

One Bernie supporter in particular stood out. Luci Riley, an ICU nurse from Oakland, Calif., was a lead organizer for Sanders supporters in the Bay Area, according to the business card she handed me.

As Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., spoke in support of Hillary Clinton  even if it was a remarkably subdued endorsement  Riley covered her face with her hands, crossed her arms and cried, and screamed at Warren, You turned on us!

When Warren said that Clinton would hold big banks accountable, Riley and her compatriots chanted, Tax Wall Street! Tax Wall Street!

Then, as the chant died down, Riley gripped the railing in front of her with both hands, leaned over it, and yelled at the top of her lungs, You sold your birthright for a bowl of porridge!

Here's video of Bernie supporter yelling at Warren about selling birthright for bowl of porridge, in all its glory pic.twitter.com/uDNT14gIW5  Jon Ward (@jonward11) July 26, 2016

Come again? Porridge? Wasnt that from Goldilocks?

The mention of selling a birthright was familiar to me. I was raised on Bible stories. I know that in the book of Genesis, Abrahams grandson, Esau, sold his birthright to his twin brother, Jacob.

But that was for a bowl of stew.

I posted the video to Twitter, and the responses fell into three categories. Some were clearly unfamiliar with the biblical story.

What does this even mean? wrote one woman.

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What does this even mean?? ???? https://t.co/bygM6H2SuM  Jules78 (@jjekblad) July 26, 2016

The second group was like me, thinking Riley had mistakenly fused a fairy tale with the Old Testament.

Jacob, Esau and the 3 bears, wrote James Pethokoukis of the American Enterprise Institute.

Jacob, Esau, and the 3 bears https://t.co/77j8UgBaKR  James Pethokoukis (@JimPethokoukis) July 26, 2016

But then there was a third type of response. These people kept mentioning the word pottage. I was mystified, having never heard of such a term.

Its mess of pottageget it right wrote Nathan Whittaker.

Once I started to search for the term online, I was shocked to see that it, too, was related to the story of Jacob and Esau. Had I gotten it wrong when I quoted Riley saying porridge? Had she meant to say pottage? I watched the video again. It sure sounded like porridge.

As I looked into the history of the term, it became clear that if you were raised on the King James Version of the Bible, pottage was the term you were familiar with.

And Jacob said, Swear to me this day; and he sware unto him: and he sold his birthright unto Jacob. Then Jacob gave Esau bread and pottage of lentils; and he did eat and drink, and rose up, and went his way: thus Esau despised his birthright, it says in the King James version of Genesis, Chapter 25, verses 33-34.

If you were raised on the more modern New International Version, however  as I was  you were told a story that involved stew.

But Jacob said, Swear to me first. So he swore an oath to him, selling his birthright to Jacob. Then Jacob gave Esau some bread and some lentil stew. He ate and drank, and then got up and left. So Esau despised his birthright.

As for mess of pottage, the phrase entered the English language more than a century before the King James Version of the Bible was published, in 1611. It does not appear in any version of the biblical text, but came into common usage thanks at first to 15th-century commentators on Genesis.

So even in the pious denunciations of Riley among those on the mess of pottage side, there was a bit of a blind spot.

As the clock approached midnight Monday, I walked out of the Wells Fargo Center and saw Riley making her way through the hall.

I ran her down and asked, a little sheepishly, Did you say porridge or pottage?

Porridge! she said, laughing. Its in the Bible!

_____

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The second day of the Democratic convention in Philadelphia was the one that gave Hillary Clinton the formal, roll-called nomination as the Democratic Partys official candidate. Bernie Sanders, in a symbolic gesture of appeasement, was the person who asked that Clinton be voted in by acclamation, but the cable news TV cameras couldnt wait to cut to the teary faces of Bernie supporters still needing a safe space to come to terms with the fact that their man didnt win.



The headliner of the night was the husband of the candidate. Former President Bill Clinton told a long, winding story of his courtship of Hillary Rodham, their marriage, and his nonstop respect for her. It was a rambling tale, with Bill talking in a manner that crossed his usual early-Elvis mode with Andy Griffiths Sheriff Andy Taylor, and I liked its shaggy-dog quality mostly because I figured Bill was giving ABC, CBS, and NBC conniption fits for filling up a big chunk of their paltry hourlong coverage.



Bill Clintons political bottom line was that of the two candidates for president now, one is real, the other is made up, referring to Donald Trump (although not by name) as a cartoon  two-dimensional.

On the celebrity front, Meryl Streep was pushed out of prime time by Bills overtime swoon; once the Oscar winner appeared, the networks scurried away to commercial breaks and wedged-in analysis, thus missing Streeps repeated use of the phrase grit and grace to describe Hillary and comparing Clinton to everyone from Eleanor Roosevelt to Amelia Earhart.



After that intro, I thought Clinton might come soaring into the Philadelphia convention site in a Peter Panstyle flying rig. But, no, she had her own idea of a better visual: a mosaic of every American president breaking like glass to reveal Hillary, beaming in red as she was beamed into the convention. If the gesture lacked subtlety (all male presidents; breaking glass ceiling), it worked as a crowd pleaser, especially with the lead-in provided by Alicia Keys, whose three-count-em-three songs set the stage for Clintons entrance.

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Earlier in the evening, Elizabeth Banks had made an entrance similar to Trumps WWE-style We Are the Champions one. More aggressive was the duo of Lena Dunham and America Ferrera, who chanted Were for Hillary in unison. The Girls star-creator opened with the line, Im Lena Dunham, and according to Donald Trump, my body is probably, like, a 2, and Ferrera followed that with, Im America Ferrera, and according to Donald Trump, Im probably a rapist  even though, as both immediately acknowledged, Ferrera is not from Mexico. Another almost-but-not-quite punchline from the duo was that Donald Trump isnt making America great again, Hes making America hate again. Again? What previous era of American hate were Ferrera and Dunham referring to?



Dunham introduced herself as a pro-choice, feminist, sexual-assault survivor with a chronic reproductive illness, and you can bet the audience members more or less froze into silence as they unpacked that phrase to give it the respect they were quick to assume merited sobriety in the midst of this enthusiastic gathering. Ferrera scored a solid response with her own autobiography, noting that, as the daughter of immigrants from Honduras, I occasionally needed a free meal to get through the school day  a thus-far rare suggestion from either convention that the term free meal isnt a phrase of, or meriting, derision.


PHILADELPHIA  The roll calls at nominating conventions are a quadrennial joy, a chance for every state in the nation to brag about former and potential future presidents and products, from Pez to Gore-Tex. After a Republican convention whose highlights included the candidates children announcing the votes that put their father over the delegate threshold, it seemed the Democratic roll call might be overshadowed. But it had its notable moments. Here are a few:

Family affair

In what was probably the most emotional moment of the roll call vote, Bernie Sanders brother Larry acknowledged their parents, who would be immensely proud of their son and his accomplishments. Sanders, who lives in the United Kingdom, was speaking for the delegation of Democrats Abroad. Both Sanders brothers were failing in their attempts to hold back tears as Larry continued. They loved the New Deal of Franklin Roosevelt, and theyd be especially proud that Bernard is renewing that vision. It is with enormous pride that I cast my votes for Bernie Sanders.

A long wait

Jerry Emmett was an honorary delegate within the Arizona delegation, and for good reason. At 102, she was born before any women in America had the right to vote, and she lived to voice her support for the first female major party nominee in American history. Emmett, who described herself as a lifelong good Democrat in an interview with the Phoenix Sun Times, has a spare bedroom in her home dedicated to Clinton, and she has an inaugural dress picked out just in case.

In honor of Dorothy and Hughs daughter

In another emotional moment on the floor, Illinois delegate Betsy Ebeling cast the states votes for Clinton. Why is that notable? Eberling has been friends with the Democratic nominee since they were children in the Chicago suburbs. My sweet friend, I know youre watching, said Ebeling, choking up. This ones for you, Hill. 98 votes cast.

They know its about meth, right?

The New Mexico delegation proudly boasted that its the home of Breaking Bad, the award-winning AMC series about a high school teacher who turns to drug dealing. It was not the first Bad reference in political news so far this cycle: Actor Steven Michael Quezada, who played DEA Agent Steven Gomez in the show, was successful in his bid to win the Democratic primary for a county commissioner seat in Bernalillo County in the Land of Enchantment. (And yes, co-star Bryan Cranston helped his campaign.)

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Pick your home state pop-culture hero

The most popular celebrity at both conventions was the late, great Prince, who received shout-outs from both the Republican and Democratic delegations from Minnesota. (The Democratic delegation described themselves as being from The land of Purple Rain Tuesday, meaning that the pop legend has apparently ascended past a multitude of lakes on the importance list.) In what might be a convention first, Maine bragged about being the home state of author Stephen King.

Bernie finishes the job

During the alphabetical roll call vote, Vermont initially skipped its place in order. The reason? Sanders had joined the delegation to cast the final votes for Clinton, who had technically passed the threshold for delegates needed earlier in the night. After taking the microphone and letting the wave of Bernie! chants subside, Sanders  who had heartily endorsed Clinton in his Monday night address  finished off the roll call. I move that Hillary Clinton be selected as the nominee of the Democratic Party for president of the United States.

_____

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Philadelphia (AFP) - Democrats gathered in Philadelphia formally selected Tim Kaine as their US vice presidential candidate Wednesday, completing the party's ticket for the November election.

Kaine, a 58-year-old senator from the battleground state of Virginia, was nominated by voice vote, setting the stage for his address to the convention later in the evening.

Congresswoman and acting convention chair Marcia Fudge motioned to dispense with the roll call vote and nominate Kaine by acclamation, which led to a chorus of "Ayes."

"The motion to suspend the rules and nominate by acclamation is adopted," declared Fudge to loud cheers.

The tickets are now set for both parties: Hillary Clinton and running mate Kaine for the Democrats, with Republicans Donald Trump and running mate Mike Pence, both of whom were nominated last week and their party's convention in Cleveland.

With working-class roots and a spotless record both as Virginia governor and senator, he is seen as helping Clinton garner support among reluctant independent male voters -- although at the risk of alienating the party's progressive left wing.

Supporters of Clinton's main adversary in the Democratic primary race, Bernie Sanders, had argued that she should choose a more liberal running mate such as the feisty leftist Elizabeth Warren.

But Clinton, at a Florida rally last weekend introducing her vice presidential pick, said Kaine was a can-do progressive who is ready to "step into this job and lead from Day One."

Kaine, she said, is "everything Donald Trump and Mike Pence are not."
Deutsche Bank CEO John Cryan addresses the bank's annual general meeting in Frankfurt, Germany, May 19, 2016. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach

Deutsche Bank's profits in the second quarter nosedived to just 20 million euros, or $22 million, from 800 million euros in the same period last year.

The results were affected by a tough environment for European banks, and a range of restructuring-related charges, as new CEO John Cryan looks to clean up the bank's act.

The bank took goodwill impairments of 285 million euros, restructuring and severance charges of 207 million euros, and litigation charges of 120 million euros.

The bad news for the bank's staff: The restructuring effort may be about to accelerate.

Cryan said in a statement (emphasis ours):

"We have continued to de-risk our balance sheet, to invest in our processes and to modernize our infrastructure. However, if the current weak economic environment persists, we will need to be yet more ambitious in the timing and intensity of our restructuring."

He said something similar in a note to employees (emphasis again ours):

"Here I would like to speak plainly. If this weak economic environment persists, we will need to be still more ambitious in our restructuring. We will do everything in our power to accelerate the measures we have already planned."

We've previously written about how Cryan has the toughest job in banking. There are 160 projects ongoing as part of the implementation of the bank's Strategy 2020. The bank has decommissioned 500 applications in technology and has reduced the number of relational databases it maintains to four from 50.

The bank is restructuring its operations in its home market, closing 188 branches and cutting 3,000 workers. It has reached a "turning point in employee numbers," according to Cryan, with headcount falling in the quarter despite bringing in 900 employees who were previously external contractors.

Deutsche Bank has exited some parts of the securitized debt-trading market and cut its emerging-markets debt trading business. It is halfway through pulling out of the countries it plans to exit, and it has withdrawn from Russia.

Story continues

And now, Cryan is suggesting that the restructuring could become "more ambitious."

Deutsche Bank isn't alone in this regard. Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs also said earlier this year that they may cut more jobs if the market environment remains challenging.

But Deutsche Bank has had a particularly tough run of late. It had to assure the market that it could pay the coupon on its bonds earlier this year, a remarkable position to be in for a bank of its size. The bank's share price is down by more than 40% in 2016. Edward Misrahi, the founder and chief investment officer of Ronit Capital, said recently that Deutsche Bank was his No. 1 short trade.

Cryan is unperturbed, however, and is pushing ahead. In a call with analysts, he said (emphasis ours):

"At Deutsche Bank, we are undertaking as much restructuring as possible in 2016 despite the burden of lost revenues and the added expense in the year. Not to do so would simply perpetuate our structural inefficiency and delay the achievement of our fundamental goal of returning to sustainable profitability. We'll not deviate from taking tough decisions just to flatter results in the short-term. We did this in the past and it led to many failed restructurings."

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Frankfurt (AFP) - Deutsche Bank acknowledged on Wednesday that it may be forced to push its restructuring faster, as it booked a 98-percent fall in profits in the second quarter.

Deutsche's performance fell well short of the average of 188 million euros ($207 million) expected by analysts surveyed by Factset.

"If the current weak economic environment persists, we will need to be yet more ambitious in the timing and intensity of our restructuring," chief executive John Cryan said in a statement released with the results.

Launched in October 2015 -- just months after he took the CEO's seat -- the 54-year-old Briton's "Strategy 2020" calls for 200 Deutsche branches to close in Germany and the slashing of 9,000 jobs worldwide.

By the end of this year, the bank hopes to have completed the sale of its stake in the Chinese Hua Xia bank as part of efforts to boost its capital ratio.

Cryan is battling to convince markets and regulators that Deutsche is on course for recovery after it was described as a "major systemic risk" by the International Monetary Fund in June.

Its share price has slumped this year, sapped by fears over Britain's vote to quit the EU and weakness in the Italian banking sector.

The bank is battling almost 8,000 legal actions around the world, setting aside billions in recent years to cover judicial costs.

And in early July the US Federal Reserve revealed that Deutsche's US arm had failed two sets of stress tests in a row.

- Impatient shareholders -

Cryan insisted on Wednesday that "even if our results show that we are undergoing a sustained restructuring, we are satisfied with the progress we are making".

But shares in the bank plumbed losses in the region of five percent on the Frankfurt stock exchange on Wednesday, before recovering slightly as the day wore on.

Shares in the troubled lender have lost almost half their value since January 2016, standing at around 12.50 euros on Wednesday.

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In May 2007, before the sub-prime mortgage crisis hit, shares were worth more than 100 euros.

May 2016, by contrast, saw angry shareholders berate managers over the almost seven-billion-euro loss ($7.7 billion) the bank posted for the year in 2015 at its AGM.

"This journey is demanding. It requires effort, but it will be worth that effort," Cryan insisted back then.

Since then, fresh worries, including Britain's surprise vote to quit the EU on June 23 and renewed fears over Italy's banks, have been added to his in-tray -- on top of the low interest rates and heavy restructuring costs that were already weighing on Deutsche.

"The outlook is therefore uncertain and that's particularly true in the eurozone," Cryan told a conference call early on Wednesday.

- Some clouds clearing -

While the bank faces daunting challenges, it has made progress in reducing some of its risks.

The bank reported a reduction in the second quarter in its stock of non-performing loans, which it hived off into a separate structure which finance director Marcus Schenck hopes to have wound up by the end of 2016.

Its bill for legal costs is also massively reduced, at 120 million euros in the second quarter of 2016 compared with 1.2 billion over the same period in 2015.

Cryan aims to have resolved four of the largest cases by the end of the year, including one regarding Deutsche's dealings on the US mortgage-backed securities market before the financial crisis and another dealing with allegations of money laundering in Russia.

However, Schenck acknowledged that the bank has little control over how long it will take for the courts to reach judgements.

Meanwhile, the executives denied recent reports in the German press that Deutsche had given up on plans to float its Postbank retail banking subsidiary.

European Banking Authority stress test results -- set for release on Friday -- will provide an initial indication of the Cryan strategy's impact.

Observers may then be in a better position to judge the CEO's insistence on Wednesday that fears over Deutsche's stability are "unjustified".
July 27 (Reuters) - Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings said it would buy Sequenom Inc, a maker of non-invasive prenatal tests for reproductive health, for about $371 million, including debt.

The $2.40 per share cash offer, which has a total equity value of $302 million, represents a 182 percent premium to Sequenom's Tuesday close.

Sequenom's shares rose 177 percent to $2.36 in premarket trading on Wednesday.

Sequenom offers genetic tests that allow patients to gain insight about their pregnancy and conditions that can affect their baby's health.

The company's MaterniT test screens for chromosomal abnormalities and conditions like Down syndrome, Edwards syndrome and Patau syndrome.

The buy complements LabCorp's own women's health and reproductive genetics testing products.

The U.S. Supreme Court last month rejected a bid to review a ruling by a federal court to invalidate Sequenom's patent in an infringement dispute with rival Ariosa Diagnostics, a unit of Roche Holding AG.

(Reporting by Amrutha Penumudi in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel)
By Summer Delaney

Philadelphia was the scene of political assemblies long before the Continental Congress issued the Declaration of Independence in 1776. In modern times, the city has played host to eight major party conventions since 1856.

With the backdrop of the 2016 Democratic National Convention, Yahoo Newss Summer Delaney spoke with delegates and tourists visiting Independence Mall to discuss unity in the Democratic Party and what the Founding Fathers would make of the 2016 presidential race.
putin

Russia's troll factories were, at one point, likely being paid by the Kremlin to spread pro-Trump propaganda on social media.

That is what freelance journalist Adrian Chen, now a staff writer at The New Yorker, discovered as he was researching Russia's "army of well-paid trolls" for an explosive New York Times Magazine expose published in June 2015.

"A very interesting thing happened," Chen told Longform's Max Linsky in a podcast in December.

"I created this list of Russian trolls when I was researching. And I check on it once in a while, still. And a lot of them have turned into conservative accounts, like fake conservatives. I don't know what's going on, but they're all tweeting about Donald Trump and stuff," he said.

Linsky then asked Chen who he thought "was paying for that."

"I don't know," Chen replied. "I feel like it's some kind of really opaque strategy of electing Donald Trump to undermine the US or something. Like false-flag kind of thing. You know, that's how I started thinking about all this stuff after being in Russia."

st petersburg

In his research from St. Petersburg, Chen discovered that Russian internet trolls  paid by the Kremlin to spread false information on the internet  have been behind a number of "highly coordinated campaigns" to deceive the American public.

It's a brand of information warfare, known as "dezinformatsiya," that has been used by the Russians since at least the Cold War. The disinformation campaigns are only one "active measure" tool used by Russian intelligence to "sow discord among," and within, allies perceived hostile to Russia.

"An active measure is a time-honored KGB tactic for waging informational and psychological warfare," Michael Weiss, a senior editor at The Daily Beast and editor-in-chief of The Interpreter  an online magazine that translates and analyzes political, social, and economic events inside the Russian Federation  wrote on Tuesday.

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He continued (emphasis added):

"It is designed, as retired KGB General Oleg Kalugin once defined it, 'to drive wedges in the Western community alliances of all sorts, particularly NATO, to sow discord among allies, to weaken the United States in the eyes of the people in Europe, Asia, Africa, Latin America, and thus to prepare ground in case the war really occurs.' The most common subcategory of active measures is dezinformatsiya, or disinformation: feverish, if believable lies cooked up by Moscow Centre and planted in friendly media outlets to make democratic nations look sinister."

It is not surprising, then, that the Kremlin would pay internet trolls to pose as Trump supporters and build him up online. In fact, that would be the easy part.

From his interviews with former trolls employed by Russia, Chen gathered that the point of their jobs "was to weave propaganda seamlessly into what appeared to be the nonpolitical musings of an everyday person."

"Russia's information war might be thought of as the biggest trolling operation in history," Chen wrote. "And its target is nothing less than the utility of the Internet as a democratic space."

'The gift that keeps on giving'

From threats about pulling out of NATO to altering the GOP's policy on Ukraine  which has long called for arming Ukrainian soldiers against pro-Russia rebels  Trump is "the gift that keeps on giving" for Putin, Russian journalist Julia Ioffe noted in a piece for Politico.

"Life is still not great here," Ioffe reported from the small Russian city of Nizhny Tagil in June. "But it's a loyal place and support for Putin is high. In large part, it is because peopleespecially older people like [Russian citizen Felix] Kolskyget their news from Kremlin-controlled TV. And Kremlin-controlled TV has been unequivocal about whom they want to win the U.S. presidential election: Donald Trump."

As such, the year-long hack of the DNC  discovered in mid-June and traced back to Russian military intelligence by the cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike  would seem to be the archetypal "active measure" described by Weiss, adapted to modern technology to have maximum impact.

"The DNC hack and dump is what cyberwar looks like," Dave Aitel, a cybersecurity specialist, a former NSA employee, and founder of cybersecurity firm Immunity Inc., wrote for Ars Technica last week.

Vladimir Putin

That makes sense given Russia's partiality to weaponizing information  and the digital era's abundance of hackers for hire.

The leak of internal DNC email correspondences revealing a bias against Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders  by WikiLeaks, an organization founded by Russia Today contributor Julian Assange  has divided the American left and made the Republican Party look unified in comparison.

Trump's seemingly shady financial overtures to Russian oligarchs have since resurfaced, perhaps as evidence that the real-estate mogul or his top advisers may have had a hand in the hack that made his opponents look so bad.

As Ioffe noted in a later piece for Foreign Policy, however, Trump's own influence among high-level Russian figures may be overstated given the difficulty that he has had throughout his career in securing lucrative real-estate projects there.

Donald Trump

It seems, rather, that Trump is more useful to the Russians than they have ever been to him.

Even if  and it's becoming increasingly unlikely  Vladimir Putin and his intelligence apparatus had nothing to do with the DNC hack, that the mere suspicion has come to dominate American media is a huge propaganda boon for the former KGB operative.

"The very fact that we are discussing this and believing that Putin has the skill, inside knowledge, and wherewithal to field a candidate in an American presidential election and get him through the primaries to the nomination means we are imbuing him with the very power and importance he so craves," Ioffe wrote.

"All he wants is for America to see him as a worthy adversary. This week, we're giving that to him, and then some," she wrote.

NOW WATCH: 11 facts that show how different Russia is from the rest of the world





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PHILADELPHIA  The creator of Girls, Lena Dunham, and actress America Ferrera took to the stage here Tuesday night to tweak Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump about his views on women, a topic Democrats have been driving home for months in web and TV ads in an effort to increase Trumps already high negative ratings with women voters heading into the general election.

Hi, Im Lena Dunham, and according to Donald Trump, my body is probably like a 2, said Dunham, who has been subjected to a huge amount of public body-shaming as part of her creative decision to appear nude on her show, despite the fact that she is not stick-thin. Trump has a history of publicly ranking women physically in radio remarks and used to own the Miss USA beauty pageant.

And Im America Ferrera, and according to Donald Trump, Im probably a rapist, said Ferrera, who is of Honduran, not Mexican, heritage. Trump launched his campaign by accusing Mexico of sending rapists into the United States.

Now I know what youre all thinking: Why should I care what some television celebrity has to say about politics? asked Dunham, tag-teaming with Ferrera.

We feel the same way. But he is the Republican nominee, so we need to talk about him, Ferrera answered.

The two went on to praise Hillary Clinton  Were with Hillary!  and her ability to see past color, gender and economic status to, in Ferreras words, our capacity to grow into thriving adults capable of contributing great things to this country.

As for Trump, said Dunham, Donald Trump and his party think I should be punished for exercising my constitutional rights. His rhetoric about women takes us back to a time when we were meant to be beautiful and silent.

_____

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A pro-Bernie Sanders protest in the Democratic National Conventions media tent. (Photo: Hunter Walker/Yahoo News)

PHILADELPHIA  Shortly after delegates at the Democratic National Convention officially nominated Hillary Clinton to be the partys presidential candidate on Tuesday, a group supporting her ex-rival, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, stormed into tents outside the Wells Fargo Center arena where members of the media had workspaces. The group walked in chanting, but eventually went silent as they were swarmed by reporters.

This is about failed neoliberal policies and they had a chance to save themselves from themselves with Bernie, but they completely blew it. So, thats what this is about. This is a Dem exit, an Ohio delegate named Mary Findley explained to Yahoo News.

It was impossible to gauge the size of the protest as the large crowd that gathered at the front of the tent included at least as many journalists as protesters.

During the primary, Sanders and his campaign repeatedly alleged the Democratic National Committee was biased in favor of Clinton. Along with this, they questioned the results and processes in individual states. Many Sanders supporters who believe the primary was unfair to him felt their suspicions were confirmed when Wikileaks released leaked emails on Saturday showing DNC staffers discussing undermining his campaign.

This came about through a lot of reasons, a lot of discontent with the DNC in general, Findley said of the protest.

Bernie supporters are blocking media tent right outside the Dem convention hall pic.twitter.com/McsOe8Awyf  Jon Ward (@jonward11) July 26, 2016

Sanders endorsed Clinton earlier this month. On Monday evening, the first day of the convention, he made an impassioned plea for his supporters to get behind her in spite of their disappointment with the primary. While there were few disruptions from the pro-Sanders contingent in the arena as Clinton was officially nominated on Monday, there were also groups of protesters outside the DNCs secure perimeter who have been expressing their dissatisfaction with the results.

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The three media tents outside the arena include curtained-off workspaces for many outlets, including the New York Times, Reuters, Politico and Yahoo News. After the protesters entered, a group of police officers blocked the doors to the tents, leaving some of the demonstrators outside.

Alex Davis, another Ohio delegate who participated in the protest, told Yahoo News why they selected the media tents to hold the demonstration.

Its exposure. Weve experienced the media blackout of Bernie Sanders and so were forcing you to cover us, Davis said.

Both Davis and Findley said they were with a group called Socialist Alternative that helped organize the protest. Findley also said other groups helped plan the demonstration.

Sanders supporters who refuse to back Clinton face criticism from other liberals who claim they are aiding Republican nominee Donald Trump. A man who participated in the protest at the media tent countered that by suggesting Clinton was likely to perform worse than Sanders in against Trump.

Ill tell you what, they just elected Donald Trump in there, he said.

The man declined to give his name.

Several protesters said they hoped to occupy the media because they believe coverage of the primary was biased in favor of Clinton.

Protesters eventually began negotiating with police and asking to leave the media tents. Multiple demonstrators who spoke to Yahoo said they wanted to return to the arena to watch the Mothers of The Movement speak. The mothers are a group of African American women whose children were killed in police-involved shootings. They have been campaigning for Clinton and spoke at the convention on Tuesday evening.

Yahoo News overheard an official tell the protesters he could not give them permission to leave until he confirmed they would not be charged with trespassing. The group was eventually allowed to leave the tents. As of this writing, a handful of protesters are still in the tents doing interviews, but the majority have dissipated.

Watch video of the protest below:

LIVE on #Periscope: Pro Bernie Sanders supporters have invaded the media tents at the DNC. https://t.co/J1GzXJBoAD  Hunter Walker (@hunterw) July 26, 2016

This post was updated at 8:45 p.m. after the protesters left the tents.

_____

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From Good Housekeeping

In Colorado and around the country, more and more children are mistaking a not-so-innocent brownie for a tasty snack causing a severe increase in marijuana exposure, The New York Times reports.

The rate at which Colorado children were exposed to marijuana began increasing in 2009, when the U.S. government first announced it would not prosecute residents who complied with the state's new medical marijuana laws. Dr. Genie E. Roosevelt, an associate professor of emergency medicine at the University of Colorado School of Medicine and Denver Health Medical Center, expected that rate to go up even more when Colorado voters decided to legalize the recreational use of marijuana in 2012, the Times reports - but she never could have predicted the rate would increase as much as it did.

Since 2014 (when the law legalizing the recreational use of marijuana in Colorado took effect and recreational marijuana products went on the market), the rate at which Colorado children are exposed to marijuana has increased by a whopping 150%, according to a study in the journal JAMA Pediatrics.

Usually, this means that kids are finding their parents' or older siblings' drug-laced brownies, cookies and gummy candy (a.k.a. edibles) and are eating them without realizing the danger. Some cases, Dr. Roosevelt tells the Times, could also be the result of secondhand smoke.

Regardless of the source, accidental exposure to marijuana can be dangerous for a child. The Times reports that a toddler who has eaten an edible marijuana product might "become lethargic or agitated, vomit and lose balance." In the case of the 244 children analyzed for Dr. Roosevelt's study, the exposure resulted in the parents calling poison control or, in a few cases, taking the child to the hospital for treatment.

In large part, this extreme physical reaction to marijuana is the result of a dosing and portion size problem. As Dr. Kari L. Franson, an associate professor at the University of Colorado Skaggs School of Pharmacy, tells the Times, edible marijuana products typically contain more than one "serving" of the drug - but unsuspecting children don't know the difference.

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Colorado has been taking some steps to combat the issue. Last year, the state mandated that marijuana products be sold in childproof packaging. Just this month, a new law prohibiting marijuana gummies shaped like humans, animals or fruits (shapes that appeal to small children) went into effect.

Of course, Colorado is not the only place where children are accidentally exposed to marijuana. A recent national study published in the journal Clinical Toxicology showed that overall, reports of accidental child exposure to marijuana in the U.S. have increased between 2013 and 2015 as well (though at nearly as high a rate as in Colorado alone).

Still, the number of cases of accidental exposure isn't huge, and Dr. Roosevelt acknowledges that the perceived increase might be the result of parents who now feel more willing to honestly report an accidental ingestion because marijuana has been decriminalized. Statistics aside, however, Dr. Roosevelt considers accidental child marijuana exposure a problem that could easily be avoided.

[h/t The New York Times]
Donald Trump asked Russia to hack into rival Hillary Clintons emails Wednesday, publicly inviting a foreign nation to spy on a former U.S. government official and meddle in an American election.

The Republican presidential nominee made the audacious ask during a press conference at his resort in Doral, Fla.

Russia, if youre listening, I hope youre able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing, Trump said. I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press.

Clintons team was quick to respond. This has to be the first time that a major presidential candidate has actively encouraged a foreign power to conduct espionage against his political opponent, said Clintons chief foreign policy adviser Jake Sullivan. This has gone from being a matter of curiosity, and a matter of politics, to being a national security issue.

Trump himself has referenced the missing emails  which Clintons team admitted to deleting from her servers due to their personal and private nature  as a national security issue throughout his campaign. After a lengthy investigation, FBI Director James Comey found Clinton and her team to be extremely careless in using a private server but recommended to the Department of Justice that no charges be filed against them. Clinton admitted in a recent 60 Minutes interview that she made a mistake and pledged no private email servers would be used if she were elected president.

Trumps running mate Mike Pence released a statement following Trumps press conference warning any interference. If it is Russia and they are interfering in our elections, I can assure you both parties and the United States government will ensure there are serious consequences, the Indiana governor wrote.

Russian intelligence agencies are widely believed to be behind last weeks hacking of the Democratic National Committees servers, where 20,000 emails were stolen and later released by WikiLeaks. The emails revealed that several DNC members favored Clinton over her primary rival Bernie Sanders, a revelation that angered many of Sanders supporters and led to protests at this weeks national convention.

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Russia has denied any involvement in the hack. President (Vladimir) Putin repeatedly said that Russia never interfered into internal affairs of other countries, especially in electoral processes, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters Wednesday. Moscow scrupulously avoids any actions, any statements that could be interpreted as direct or indirect interference into electoral processes.

Trump reiterated his request in a tweet following his press conference.

If Russia or any other country or person has Hillary Clinton's 33,000 illegally deleted emails, perhaps they should share them with the FBI!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 27, 2016

Clinton has not directly responded to Trumps request. The Democratic presidential nominee is expected to take the stage at the Democratic National Convention on Thursday in Philadelphia.

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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.
AP16209556760978

Donald Trump concluded a lengthy Florida press conference Wednesday morning by challenging Hillary Clinton to hold one of her own.

So ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much, Trump said at the end of an approximately hour-long news conference held at his resort in Doral. I think its time for Hillary Clinton to do a news conference because its been almost a year now. And it would be interesting to see how she does.

It has been 235 days since Clinton last held a press conference.

Instead, the former secretary of state has opted to dole out one-on-one interviews with various members of the media.

A representative for Clintons campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday about Trump's comments.

When asked earlier this month about the lack of press conference, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the Democratic National Committee chair who was forced to resign over the DNC email leak, insisted Clinton had regular interactions with the press.

Clinton was formally nominated for president Tuesday by the Democratic Party. She is scheduled to formally accept the nomination during a prime speech Thursday at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia.

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On Wednesday morning, Merriam-Webster announced that Donald Trump had done it yet again. After the Republican nominee appeared to suggest that Russia should commit a cybercrime against Hillary Clinton, the dictionarys editors watched lookups for a single word spike in response to something Trump had done. This time there was a 76% increase for the term treason.

Thats not a word Trump used but one that social media users started tapping out in response to Trump saying at a press conference, Russia, if youre listening, I hope youre able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing. He also said he hoped Russia had the Democratic National Committees hacked emails. The Clinton campaign responded by saying he was encouraging espionage. Twitter meanwhile, reacted by invoking a word used to describe the act of committing crimes that help ones enemies: The hashtag #TreasonousTrump was trending by Wednesday afternoon.

Any lawyers out there? What do you have to do to commit treason in America? Asking for a friend. https://t.co/WvNuEjVR3k  Salman Rushdie (@SalmanRushdie) July 27, 2016

Trump has sent people running to the dictionary all election. During a debate in January, Trump caused a spike for the word bimbo (an attractive but stupid young woman) when he said he refused to use that word to describe Fox News host Megyn Kelly. That same month, Dictionary.com editors also saw lookups for the word pugnacious blow up because people were using that adjectivewhich means inclined to quarrel or fightto describe the man who was describing many other people with terms like loser and low-energy.

Trump inspired many Americans to query the verb schlong after he said that Hillary Clinton had been the object of such an action during the 2008 primary. And he increased Americas vocabulary by accusing fellow candidates of collusion when they formed an alliance against him.

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Among the words that Merriam-Webster has tracked, more have come from critics and pundits describing Trump than from straight Trump quotes. Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter gave radicalize a boost by accusing Trump of trying to radicalize Americans against Muslims by calling for a ban on Muslim immigrants. News consumers also wondered what it meant that, for a time, Trump did not disavow white supremacists, as well as what it meant when reporters described Trump as a tycoon.

Anti-Trumpers propelled lookups for trumpery, delighting in the words definition of something fallaciously splendid. Others did the same by calling Trump puerile (New York Times columnist), a sniveling coward (former adversary Ted Cruz), a demagogue (scientist Stephen Hawking) and a man who used his convention speech to paint a dystopian nightmare of what life in America is like (late night talk show host Seth Myers).

As linguist Ben Zimmer says of the words that have been spiking this season, theyre not rare words but theyre the words that might require a little unpacking. And so it makes sense that most of them arent coming directly from Trump, whose much-beloved and much-mocked straight-talkin speech often hovers around the fourth-grade reading level. He has said outright that hes not one for the kind big, fancy words that might require a dictionary consultation (though he does reserve the right to know them).

I used to use the word incompetent. Now I just call them stupid,' he said in December of describing the likes of Hillary Clintons State Department. I went to an Ivy League school. Im very highly educated. I know wordsI have the best words. But theres no better word than stupid. The crowd in Hilton Head, S.C., erupted in applause.
Two Hundred and thirty-five days since Crooked Hillary Clinton has had a press conference and you as reporters, who give her all these glowing reports, should ask yourself why, said Donald Trump today in a press conference in Doral, Florida the morning after the star studded Day 2 of the 2016 Democratic National Convention

Ill tell you why, because, despite the nice platitudes, shes been a mess, the GOP Presidential nominee added on the nearly 1-hour presser carried live on all the cable newers. I think President Obama has been the most ignorant President in our history, Trump also told the reporters after the current White House occupant took a few swipes at him on Today. He will go down as one of the worst Presidents in the history of our country, it is a mess and Hillary Clinton will be even worse.

I put myself through your news conferences often, not that its fun, the rare away from a camera Trump asserted, noting hed been watching the Dems on TV the past few days. Just ask yourself why she doesnt have news conferences and honestly, the reason is there is no way that she can answer questions because the job she has done is so bad.

Trump also reveled some of his past TV habits as he lashed out at a Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook for his remarks on ABCs This Week on July 24 that the recent hacking of the DNC and its email correspondence could have been leaked by the Russians for the purpose of helping Donald Trump

Snl 40th Anniversary Special, New York, USA - 15 Feb 2015

He reminded me of Jon Lovitz for Saturday Night Live in The Liar, the ex-Celebrity Apprentice host said of Mooks TV appearance. Where hed go, yeah, yeah, I went to Harvard, Harvard, the GOPer and former NBCer then added, doing an pretty good impersonation of the 1985-1990 SNL cast member and his well known character.

This is the second time this week that SNL has become part of the political narrative. On Monday fellow former SNL 1994-1995 cast member Sarah Silverman and now Minnesota Senator Al Franken took the stage at the DNC in what became a joke heavy and then unsuccessful attempt at party unity between Clinton supporters and the Bernie Sanders delegates.

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RelatedSarah Silverman Calls Fellow Bernie Sanders Supporters Ridiculous; Al Franken Rips Donald Trump At DNC  Update

Laying out a litany of political sins against Dems nominee Clinton, ex-President Bill Clintons speech last night, the DNC email hack scandal, praising the RNC, the polls and the convention itself  particularly the status of the former Secretary of States real stance on the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal, Trump comments on Wednesday come after a flood of similar remarks he put out on Twitter on Wednesday:

Not one American flag on the massive stage at the Democratic National Convention until people started complaining-then a small one. Pathetic  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 27, 2016

Trump also took his time on the stage to promise Russian President Vladimir Putin would respect America if he was POTUS, praising the RNC last week and his polls. Honestly, they have no idea if its Russia, might be Russia the Republican candidate told the assemble media and the camera, also noting reports that the DNC hack was carried out by China or even a lone hacker.At one point in the press conference, Trump seemed to encourage Russia to find the tens of thousands of private emails of Hillary Clintons that were seemingly delated before the FBI investigation of the private server she had while at the State Department from 2009 to 2013.

Tonights DNC see current VP Joe Biden speak to the delegates in Philadelphia as well as VP nominee Tim Kaine. The star attraction is President Barack Obama, who is expected to lay out the case for putting his former cabinet member in the White House as well as a look back at his own administration  which Trump could live-Tweet.

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Donald Trump had a jaw-dropping comment when asked if Russia could be responsible for hacking Democratic National Committee emails.

Russia, if you're listening, I hope you're able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing. I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press, Trump said at a campaign stop in Florida Wednesday.

Read: Eva Longoria Takes Aim at Trump During DNC Appearance

Trump tweeted what was seen as a clarification after the uproar: If Russia or any other country or person has Hillary Clinton's 33,000 illegally deleted emails, perhaps they should share them with the FBI!

If Russia or any other country or person has Hillary Clinton's 33,000 illegally deleted emails, perhaps they should share them with the FBI!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 27, 2016

In the past, Trump has praised Putin and his leadership. During a November debate, Trump said he and the Russian leader were stable mates.

When Trump was asked about Russias worldwide aggression during the debate, the billionaire said that about Putins actions.

First of all, its not only Russia. We have problems with North Korea, where they actually have nuclear weapons. Nobody talks about it. We talk about Iran and thats one of the worst deals ever made, Trump said.

He added: As far as Syria, I like if Putin wants to go in. I got to know him very well because we were both on 60 Minutes, we were stable mates, we did well that night.

Despite that statement, Trump claims he has never met the Russian strongman and denies he has any business deals in the country.

For the record, I have ZERO investments in Russia.  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 26, 2016

In 2013, Trump told Inside Edition, when he staged the Miss Universe contest in Russia, It's a great place  it's a fantastic country, you know, [I have] many friends in Russia and Im very excited to be here.

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Sitting next to Trump at a news conference at the time was Russian billionaire Aras Agalarov, who negotiated with the New York real estate tycoon to bring the Miss Universe contest to Moscow.

Agalarov has close ties to Putin, who awarded him Russias highest civilian medal.

Trump was working with Agalarov to build another Trump Tower in Moscow. On Wednesday, Trump said the deal didn't work out and he decided not to do it.

Conservative columnist George Will, who left the Republican Party because of Trump, believes the GOP presidential candidates unreleased tax returns could reveal more:

Read: Anthony Weiner Says He Would Beat Donald Trump Jr. in a Race for NYC Mayor

Will told Fox News: Perhaps one more reason why we're not seeing his tax returns  because he is deeply involved in dealing with Russian oligarchs.

On Wednesday, President Obama spoke to the Today shows Savannah Guthrie, who asked the commander-in-chief if Putin could influence Novembers U.S. presidential election.

Anything's possible, Obama said.

Watch: Lip Reader Reveal What Trump Said During Cruz's Speech: Did I Make a Mistake?

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Donald Trump

Reversing a position that he took just two months ago, Donald Trump told Fox News on Tuesday that he would like to see the federal minimum wage raised to $10 per hour.

Trump slammed former Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders for saying, in his Monday speech at the Democratic National Convention, that Trump doesn't support raising the federal minimum wage.

Sanders also said that Trump believes "that states should actually have the right to lower the minimum wage below $7.25."

"He lied last night, I mean it was a total lie and everybody said it," Trump said on "The O'Reilly Factor" in response to Sanders.

PolitiFact, for its part, rated Sanders' statement as "mostly true."

"In fact, some of the folks on your network said, 'Wow that was really a lie; he said that I wanted to go less than minimum wage'  this is a new one because I'm the one Republican that said in some cases we have to go more than minimum wage, but what I like is states," he said.

Repeating an earlier position, Trump advocated for leaving the minimum wage up to individual states.

"You go with the states  let the states make the determination because if you take New York, it's very expensive to live in New York, they need more than you know seven, eight, nine dollars," he said. "So you go with the states and let the states make the determination."

But then he said that he would also set a federal minimum wage.

"There doesn't have to be  well, I would leave it and raise it somewhat," Trump said. "You need to help people and I know it's not very Republican to say, but you need to help people."

He continued: "I would say $10, but with the understanding that somebody like me is going to bring back jobs, I don't want people to be in that $10 category for very long. But the thing is, Bill, let the states make the  they're not doing that for the most part."

The federal minimum wage is currently set at $7.25.

Trump's proposal for a $10 federal minimum wage contrasts with earlier statements that he has made. PolitiFact noted Trump's response to a question in May on NBC's "Meet the Press," when he was asked whether the federal government should set a floor for the minimum wage and then let states decide if they want to go above that.

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"No, I'd rather have the states go out and do what they have to do," Trump said then. "And the states compete with each other, not only other countries, but they compete with each other. ... So I like the idea of let the states decide. But I think people should get more."

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Donald Trump was quick to shut down NBC News' Katy Tur during a media conference Wednesday.

The GOP presidential nominee made his comment when Tur pressed him about other comments he made during the same conference when he encouraged Russian hackers to find and expose Hillary Clinton's deleted emails from her time as Secretary of State.

"Be quiet. I know you want to save her," Trump told Tur.

The billionaire businessman also said he didn't think John Hinckley Jr., the man who attempted to assassinate President Ronald Reagan, should have been released from a mental institution, which was ordered by a judge on Wednesday. Trump called Hinckley "David" at first, but corrected himself.

The campaign declined additional comment on Hinckley.

Read More: Donald Trump Defends RNC in Interview: "I Wasn't Looking for Star Power, I Was Looking for Policy"

On the topic of his family, Trump dismissed any notions of his son, Donald Trump Jr., running to be the mayor of New York. On Tuesday, former congressman and previous mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner said he would step back into politics to run against Trump's son, claiming he would "beat him like a rented mule."

Trump responded to those comments on Wednesday. "He's a sleezeball and a pervert," Trump said of Weiner.

WATCH: Trump tells @KatyTurNBC to "be quiet" as she presses him on his hope that Russians have Clinton's emails. https://t.co/uBqOXeob3Y

- NBC Nightly News (@NBCNightlyNews) July 27, 2016
Qamishli (Syria) (AFP) - A massive bomb blast claimed by the Islamic State jihadist group killed at least 44 people and wounded dozens on Wednesday in the Kurdish-majority Syrian city of Qamishli.

It was the largest and deadliest attack to hit the city since the March 2011 outbreak of Syria's conflict.

State media gave a toll of 44 dead and 140 injured in the bombing, which hit a western district of the city where several local Kurdish ministries are located.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor gave a toll of 48 dead, adding that children and women were among those killed.

Kurdish officials said the attack was carried out by a suicide bomber driving an explosives-laden truck, adding that the blast detonated a nearby fuel container.

An AFP journalist saw devastating scenes in the bomb's aftermath, with distraught civilians, some covered in blood, staggering through rubble past twisted metal and the burned-out remains of cars.

One man running along the streets was completely covered in blood, his shirt drenched red.

He was gripping the arm of a small boy whose face was grey and red with blood and dust.

They ran past a hysterical woman who was crying and screaming, her clothes torn. A girl and boy stood next to her, apparently in shock.

Children could be heard screaming as smoke rose from small fires that continued to burn amongst the rubble.

Civilians and local security forces with guns slung across their backs worked to carry the dead and wounded from the remains of damaged and destroyed buildings.

- US probes civilian casualties -

The Islamic State group claimed the attack in a statement circulated on social media, calling it "a response to the crimes committed by the crusader coalition aircraft" in the town of Manbij, a bastion of the jihadists in Syria's Aleppo province.

Kurdish fighters have been a key force battling the jihadists in north and northeastern Syria and are the main component in the Syrian Democratic Forces alliance currently seeking to oust IS from Manbij.

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They are backed by air strikes launched by the US-led coalition fighting IS in Syria and Iraq.

Civilians have been caught up in the fighting and on Wednesday 800 residents fled Manbij for areas under SDF control, the Observatory said.

Also Wednesday, a spokesman for the US-led coalition said it had opened a formal investigation to determine whether its strikes near Manbij last week had killed civilians.

The Observatory reported that 56 civilians were killed in strikes as they fled a village near Manbij on July 19, and Colonel Chris Garver said there was sufficient credible evidence of civilian victims to warrant a probe.

The coalition aims to open a new front in southern Syria in addition to its ongoing offensive in the northeast, US Defence Secretary Ashton Carter said Wednesday.

Carter said the move will boost security in neighbouring Jordan and further split IS theatres of operation in Syria and Iraq.

Qamishli is under the shared control of the Syrian regime and Kurdish authorities, who have declared zones of "autonomous administration" across parts of north and northeast Syria.

It has regularly been targeted in bomb attacks, many claimed by IS.

But a source in the Kurdish Asayesh security forces told AFP that Wednesday's was "the largest explosion the city has ever seen".

The area that was targeted houses several Kurdish administration buildings including the defence ministry and was considered a secure zone, with multiple checkpoints and security measures.

"This blast is the biggest in Qamishli in terms of both the toll and the damage since the beginning of the war," Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman said.

- Hospitals swamped -

Local officials said hospitals in the city had been swamped with casualties.

State television carried an appeal from the governor of Hasakeh province, where Qamishli is located, urging residents to donate blood.

More than 280,000 people have been killed in Syria since the war began with anti-government protests that were met with a regime crackdown.

In Aleppo city, at least 18 people were killed in government air strikes and artillery fire Wednesday on rebel-held neighbourhoods in the east, the Observatory said.

The Syrian army, meanwhile, officially announced it had severed "all the supply routes and crossings used by terrorists to bring mercenaries, weapons and ammunition into eastern neighbourhoods of Aleppo".

The opposition-held east has been effectively under siege since July 7, when government forces advanced within range of the sole remaining access route.

A source at Aleppo electricity company told state news agency SANA of a major blackout in Aleppo province after "terrorists" fired rocket-propelled grenades at a main supply station.

Aleppo was once the country's economic powerhouse but it has been ravaged by war and divided roughly between government control in the west and rebel control in the east since mid-2012.
March 2016 Wearing Jason Wu during a visit from the Canadian Prime Minister. [Photo: Getty]

Tailored coats, gorgeous ball gowns and fitted shift dresses; Michelle Obamas wardrobe is bursting with them. As probably the most stylish First Lady of the United States since Jackie O, Michelles been giving us plenty of fashionable ensembles to pore over since moving into The White House six years ago. Needless to say, when she departs the building in November, both she and her wardrobe will be greatly missed.

Above, the style-savvy 52-year-olds best looks.
* Brexit casts doubt on future of London financial centre

* Irish recruiters say financial jobs moving from Britain

* Ireland is only English-speaking centre with EU future

* France, Germany, Benelux also trying to lure financial jobs

By Padraic Halpin and Esha Vaish

DUBLIN, July 27 (Reuters) - Irish recruiters are already filling jobs for financial services firms which are shifting some operations from the United Kingdom, with Dublin moving fast to steal a march on rivals just a month after Britons voted to leave the European Union.

While France has begun courting bankers with new tax breaks for expatriates and Frankfurt, Amsterdam and Luxembourg are also making pitches, Ireland is presenting itself as the only English-speaking country that offers a base in the euro zone and a future in the EU.

Before the June 23 referendum, the government warned that a departure of Ireland's nearest and biggest trade partner from the EU would pose "a major strategic risk", with exporters to Britain particularly worried.

But Brexit also presents opportunities for Ireland, which has decades of experience in attracting multinational investment, and it is determined to seize them.

Ireland is already one of the world's largest centres for "back office" banking functions such as settling transactions, many of them farmed out from London - Europe's financial capital but whose future outside the EU is beset by uncertainty. On top of that, Ireland hosts a growing financial technology industry.

Some headhunters say it's too early to spot any definite trend. Nevertheless, Dublin-based Sigmar Recruitment is more than doubling its own workforce, hiring 150 extra staff over the next two years to handle foreign demand that was already increasing before the referendum and has accelerated since.

"We have two particular projects relocating from the UK and then maybe another three that were considering two to three locations across Europe ... and those have all gone in Ireland's favour," said Robert Mac Giolla Phadraig, Sigmar's Chief Commercial Officer. "The headcounts for some of the projects are anywhere between 50 and 200."

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He told Reuters that Sigma now has to find candidates for a total of 1,500 to 2,500 positions, mainly from U.S. and European firms. The jobs are in many areas including internal departments that ensure firms are complying with regulatory rules on managing their financial risk, as well as financial technology and IT support.

MORE ATTRACTIVE THAN EVER

A major opportunity for Ireland is the risk to London-based operations if Britain loses access to the EU's "passporting" arrangement, which allows businesses regulated in member states to sell financial services across Europe.

Beazley Plc, which manages six Lloyd's of London syndicates, said last week it was working to get European insurance licences for its Irish reinsurance business. British asset manager M&G Investments, the fund arm of insurer Prudential, is also looking at expanding its operations in Dublin.

Brightwater, another specialist Irish financial recruiter, has got go-aheads from bigger companies, mostly banks, for jobs in the "low hundreds" moving from Britain, according to head of marketing Eileen Moloney.

Other firms are at an earlier stage of planning, such as DueDil, a financial technology startup employing just under 100 people in London that was looking at expanding into Europe regardless of the referendum result.

"What Brexit does is it makes us re-evaluate the distribution and types of teams we would be hiring," co-founder and chief executive officer Damian Kimmelman told Reuters.

Kimmelman gave inside sales - those made over the phone or online rather than face-to-face with clients - as an example.

"Should we hire our inside sales (team) in the UK or should we hire them in Ireland? Ireland's always been attractive as a hub for inside sales, but it becomes even more attractive now than it was before," he said, adding that his firm could be employing 20 people in the country within a year.

TRICKLE, NOT A TORRENT

The pick up in Ireland has coincided with flagging recruitment in Britain even before the referendum, due to uncertainty over its outcome. British recruiter Hays said net fees in the UK and Ireland fell 4 percent on a like-for-like basis in the quarter to end-June, but taken alone, fees in Ireland grew 22 percent.

Randstad, the world's second largest employment services company, has seen a low level of hiring in the British financial sector, its CFO told Reuters.

The state agency in charge of attracting foreign direct investment (FDI) to Ireland reports similar trends to the recruiters.

"From our end, Brexit is coming up in all our discussions with clients and potential clients," said Martin Shanahan, the chief executive of IDA Ireland which reported a pick up in jobs in the first half of the year following record growth in 2015.

"The most significant increase is in financial services. We've seen a major increase in traffic into Ireland over the past number of weeks across all areas - banking, insurance, funds and payments - wanting to talk to us about possibilities."

Shanahan, who oversees a strategy responsible for around 190,000 jobs or almost one in every 10 Irish workers, also sees opportunities in the technology and pharmaceutical sectors and expects it will be well into next year before the full impact becomes apparent.

Companies hunting for the right talent in Ireland, where unemployment has halved to 7.8 percent since 2012 amid a sharp economic recovery, will still have abundant choice, if initial inquiries are anything to go by.

Recruiters say they've seen big jumps in British-based candidates seeking Irish positions since the referendum. Some are Irish looking to return home, but others are Europeans and Britons who now consider Ireland a more stable place to work.

Job website Indeed.com says searches for Irish positions made from Britain were 2.5 times higher in the days after the vote than the average before, and have remained at a high level.

Ireland also appeals to companies due to its easy access to the United States.

Joe Bollard, head of International Tax Services for EY in Ireland, said he is aware of one new FDI investor that has already gone back to its board to reconsider a decision to base its European headquarters in Britain.

The company was starting the process of hiring, leading to several hundred jobs long term. Although a large number may still go to Britain, Bollard said Ireland is the most likely credible alternative because of its record in the sector involved.

"It's a trickle rather than a torrent at this early stage but this does create a real medium term window of opportunity for Ireland," said Bollard.

(Esha Vaish reported on this story from BENGALURU; Additional reporting by Anthony Deutsch in Amsterdam; editing by David Stamp)
London (AFP) - A haunting picture of a forest and photographs of Guantanamo Bay -- eerie rendition locations lift the veil in art form on government methods to counteract terror.

"Extraordinary rendition involved very ordinary places," says artist Edmund Clark, pointing at the forest picture, part of a new exhibition, "War of Terror," which opens in London on Thursday.

The exhibition's loose sequence starts with the theme of extraordinary rendition followed by photographs of the Guantanamo Bay prison and ends with the experience of a man subject to a form of house arrest for suspected jihadists in Britain.

Award-winning British photographer Clark uses multimedia installations to portray "the unseen processes, sights, and forms of control and incarceration" used by governments in the name of counter-terrorism.

Extraordinary rendition, whereby suspects were transferred covertly to a third country or to US-run detention centres, became controversial immediately after it began following the September 11, 2001 attacks.

According to the Open Society foundation, there have been more than 100 individuals rendered by the CIA.

The Council of Europe found that 14 European countries had tolerated the secret transfer of terror suspects by the United States.

"I've used as many visual forms as possible to show the spectacle and scale. My aim is to show that the war on terror affects not only the geopolitical sphere but also the personal," Clark told AFP.

"The theme that underpins everything is how terror affects all of our lives and changes the way we think about fear," he added.

For the artist it was important that the audience understand that some of the forms of control took place in ordinary places like suburban houses, hotels, or forests hiding military bases and that inmates led normal lives before being taken away.

"Because of the media, it is easy to feel disconnected from these subjects. I want people to think about how they see these subjects," he said.

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Clark became interested in the topic after he took some photographs of ex-Guantanamo prisoners having returned home to Britain. He found the contrast between the lives of these people while in prison and their return to normality fascinating and felt the need to expose this.

The photographer hopes "that the exhibition will make people reflect about whether our government's current responses to terrorism erode the legality and ethics of imprisonment of individuals thought to have links with terrorism."

The exhibition runs until August 28.
Is the presidential Donald Trump the real man, or is he really just "effing crazy"?

Chelsea Handler put together a panel of former Celebrity Apprentice stars to find out if the GOP presidential nominee is the real Trump, or if it's all "an act."

Khloe Kardashian, Clay Aiken and Lisa Lampanelli, who were fired by Trump on his NBC reality series (Nene Leakes quit) joined Handler on her Netflix show to discuss if the version of Trump that the public sees now.

Donald Trump Asked to Stop Using 'Air Force One' Music for Campaign: Exclusive

Leakes told Handler that she quit the show because she "just couldn't take it anymore," and she "was about to pull my wig off." She also told the host that the Trump campaign reached out to her to speak at one of rallies, but she refused.

Kardashian, who also joined Handler for her Netflix docuseries that debuted in May, said she appeared on Celebrity Apprentice because her mom made her, and she "hated every minute of it."

"It just is something I would never do," said Kardashian. "I'm put in these situations I would never be in in real life. I went to home school, I don't know how to do a f - king PowerPoint. I don't care. What is that going to prove in my real life? I'm just stressing out, and then dealing with him and about to be fired, I'm like 'F - you, I don't want to do this.'"

Leakes added that while she was on the show, she "thought he was very nice, he was very true to who he was" and she liked his kids.

Why Donald Trump Should Have Gotten Song Permission from The Rolling Stones (But Not Queen)

Comedian Lampanelli added that she "has no problem with Trump as a human being," as she still does charity work with him, but she also thinks he is "effing crazy." "In that boardroom, he would say some crazy stuff to the women," the comedian explained.

Story continues

Aiken, who also recently ran for office but lost, believes Trump's campaign is about his narcissism and that Trump will probably win, which "is frightening to me." He also encouraged people to vote for Hillary Clinton to avoid "a clown president" like Trump.

On Tuesday, Clinton won the Democratic nomination and made history as the first female major-party nominee.

Watch the full segment below.

This article was originally published on The Hollywood Reporter.
DUBAI, July 27 (Reuters) - Egypt's stock market rose sharply early on Wednesday in response to news that Cairo was near agreeing an International Monetary Fund lending programme.

The main Egyptian equities index was 3.3 percent higher after five minutes of active trade. Blue-chip stocks favoured by foreign investors surged with Commercial International Bank, the largest listed lender, jumping 4.5 percent.

Late on Tuesday, the government said it was seeking $7 billion annually over three years. Prime Minister Sherif Ismail ordered the central bank governor and minister of finance to complete negotiations for the programme with an IMF team that would visit Egypt in the next few days.

An IMF deal, and the attached economic policy conditions, could help to revive foreign investor confidence in Egypt and allow it to remove some of the curbs on access to hard currency that have plagued the economy.

But many analysts think another currency devaluation remains inevitable, while the IMF programme could involve fiscal tightening that would prevent any quick recovery in economic growth.

Also, $21 billion over three years might not be enough by itself to restore Egypt's balance of payments to health, especially if donors in the Gulf decide to cut back their aid in response to their own budget pressures.

(Reporting by Andrew Torchia, editing by Larry King)
True Bloods Nelsan Ellis is sinking his teeth into a role 100 years in the making.

The actor is joining Elementary Season 5 for a three-episode arc as Shinwell Johnson, a character who first appeared in Sir Arthur Conan Doyles 1924 story, The Illustrious Client.

RELATEDFall TV 2016: Your Handy Calendar of 90+ Season and Series Premiere Dates

Elementary

s modern take sees Shinwell as a former drug dealer whos struggling to get his life back on track after a long stint in prison. A surgical patient of Watsons (Lucy Liu) more than a decade ago, Shinwell reappears in her life as a helpful tipster in a murder investigation. He begins working with Sherlock and Joan, leveraging various illicit connections from his past to help the pair solve cases. But the more time he spends navigating New Yorks underworld, the closer he gets to sliding back into the life hes so desperate to leave behind.

PHOTOSFall TVs First Scoops: A Greys Baby, Vampire Diaries New Big Bad and More Early Intel From 18 Returning Series

Ellis will debut as Shinwell in Elementarys Season 5 premiere on Sunday, Oct. 2 at 10/9c.

Launch Gallery: Exclusive Comic-Con Portraits From Favorite Shows

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Amy Acker Spies MacGyver Role

Stephen Colbert Introduces Identical Twin Cousin of Colbert Report Persona

MacGyver Reboot Adds Vampire Diaries' Tristin Mays as Series Regular
Elizabeth Banks had a big night on Tuesday when she hosted the second evening of the Democratic National Convention, where she got to mock Donald Trump, stump for Hillary Clinton, and show off her star-studded music video for Clinton's new rally tune, "Fight Song."

Speaking with ET backstage at the convention in Philadelphia, the Power Rangers star opened up about collaborating with Rachel Platten on the a capella cover of her popular song, and bringing together some of her favorite friends to be a part of the video.

WATCH: Jane Fonda, Mandy Moore, Connie Britton and More Celebs Team Up for Epic 'Fight Song' Music Video

"I've been to a few Hillary rallies and [I've been] hearing that song. I love Rachel Platten and she just said yeah, let's do it," Banks told ET's Nischelle Turner. "It's a really fun journey, and [it was great] to have it revealed tonight [after Bill Clinton's speech]. It's just been a really fun evening."

Banks, who directed and starred in Pitch Perfect 2, said that the song was ideal for an a capella cover because "there's harmony and strength in many, many voices. I just felt like that message would be carried [through] if we made that kind of video out of 'Fight Song.'"

NEWS: Elizabeth Banks Mocks Donald Trump's 'Over the Top' RNC Entrance at the DNC

Banks also addressed Michelle Obama's powerful speech from the first night of the DNC, where she reflected about raising her daughters in the White House, and managed to slam Donald Trump without ever uttering his name.

"That was shade of the highest order," Banks marveled. "She's so gracious and regal and amazing."

"I mean to me, Bill Clinton gave a great speech tonight, but Michelle Obama just blew me away honestly," she added. Check out the First Lady's impassioned oration in the video below.

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KIEV, July 27 (Reuters) - A company set up by investment fund Emerstone Energy has won a contract for shale gas exploration in Ukraine, after Royal Dutch Shell PLC withdrew as separatist violence erupted in Ukraine's east.

State company Nadra Ukrainy on Wednesday named Yuzgas B.V. as the winner of the tender.

Shale would help Ukraine's ambitions to cut its gas purchases from Russia. Relations between the two plunged after Moscow's 2014 annexation of Crimea.

The Yuzivska Field of 7,800 square kilometers could, according to preliminary estimates, yield about 8-10 billion cubic metres of gas per year.

It is located in the Kharkiv and Donetsk regions in areas bordering territory seized by pro-Russian separatists. Since 2014 the conflict there has claimed more than 9,400 lives.

Ukraine in 2015 produced about 20 billion cubic meters of gas and imported 16.5 billion.

"In circumstances of falling world oil prices Ukraine sharply reduced the search of hydrocarbons," Nadra Ukrainy said in a statement without giving an exact amount of planned investments. "That is why it is important that the winner committed to invest several hundred million dollars into the programme of geological exploration at the Yuzivska site."

Yuzgas B.V. says on its website it was set up specifically for the tender by Emerstone Energy, owned by Emerstone Capital Partners.

The latter was founded by Jaroslav Kinach, head of a private Canadian company Iskander Energy Corp and a former Ukraine country head of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). (Reporting by Natalia Zinets; editing by Matthias Williams and William Hardy)
MILAN (Reuters) - Italian oil major Eni, oil services group Saipem and former Eni CEO Paolo Scaroni have been ordered by an Italian judge to stand trial in an Algerian corruption case. The long-running case revolves around allegations Saipem paid intermediaries around 198 million euros ($218 million) to bag contracts worth 8 billion euros with Algeria's state-owned Sonatrach. Saipem has previously said the allegations relate to events that took place up to the beginning of 2010. In statements on Wednesday, Eni and Saipem said they were confident they would be able to prove the allegations were groundless. A lawyer representing Scaroni, CEO at Eni for nine years to 2014, said his client was innocent. "We are sure the court will recognise this as the judge in the first preliminary hearing had done," said Enrico de Castiglione. A decision by a judge last year that Eni and Scaroni should not be sent to trial was overturned by Italy's top appeals court in February. When Scaroni was CEO, Eni controlled 43 percent of Saipem. Under Italian law, companies are responsible for the actions of their managers and can be fined if found guilty. The corruption trial is scheduled to begin in Milan on Dec. 5, legal sources said. Saipem, one of Europe's biggest oil contractors, is currently controlled by Eni and state lender Cassa Depositi e Prestiti. ($1 = 0.9098 euros) (Reporting by Manuela D'Alessandro and Stephen Jewkes; Editing by Francesca Landini and Mark Potter)
High disposition activity in 2016 has led to a decline in Equity Residentials EQR normalized funds from operations (FFO) per share for second-quarter 2016, which came in at 76 cents, missing the Zacks Consensus Estimate by a penny and down from the prior-year quarter figure of 85 cents.



Further, the company revised its annual guidance citing an elevated new supply and slow-down in high-paying jobs in San Francisco and New York. It lowered its revenue growth assumption to 3.5%4.0% from 4.0%4.5% guided earlier, leading to a change in net operating income (NOI) outlook to 3.75%4.25% from the previous range of 4.5%5.5%.



Also, total revenue generated during the reported quarter was $595.2 million, reflecting a 12.4% decline from the prior-year period. The figure also missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $607.4 million.

Quarter in Detail



No doubt, the dilution impact from the companys 2016 asset sales and weakness in its markets have hurt its bottom line. However, its same-store revenues (includes 72,781 apartment units) inched up 4.2% year over year to $556.0 million, while expenses climbed 1.7% from a year ago, to $159.6 million. As a result, same-store NOI grew 5.3% year over year to $396.5 million.



The company experienced a 4.0% increase in average rental rates to $2,544, while occupancy notched up 10 basis points year over year to 96.3% for the same-store portfolio.



Equity Residential made no acquisitions during the quarter but sold three consolidated apartment properties, having 728 apartment units, for an aggregate sale price of around $112.5 million.



It exited second-quarter 2016 with cash and cash equivalents of $497.8 million, up from $368.0 million at the end of first-quarter 2016. Further, the company ended the quarter with $8.51 billion in debt against $8.6 billion at the end of the prior quarter.



2016 Outlook



Equity Residential is now projecting 2016 normalized FFO per share in the $3.05$3.11 range against the prior guidance of $3.05$3.15. The Zacks Consensus Estimate of $3.09 falls within this range.



For third-quarter 2016, the company expects normalized FFO per share in the range of 7579 cents. The Zacks Consensus Estimate is currently pegged at 78 cents.



Our Viewpoint



Growth at Equity Residential remains a concern as elevated supply curtails landlords ability to command higher rents and reduces absorption. Moreover, demand is anticipated to remain stressed with a slowdown in better-paying jobs in San Francisco and New York. Further asset sales, which might help the company in focusing exclusively on its core, high-density urban markets in the long term, will continue to lead to earnings dilution in the near term.

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EQUITY RESIDENT Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise

EQUITY RESIDENT Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise | EQUITY RESIDENT Quote

The company currently carries a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell). Investors interested in the apartment REIT industry may consider stocks like Mid-America Apartment Communities Inc. MAA, Post Properties Inc. PPS and Select Income REIT SIR. All these stocks carry a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).





Note: All EPS numbers presented in this write up represent funds from operations (FFO) per share. 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.



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Zacks Investment Research
Paterson (United States) (AFP) - Opioid abuse has turned into a public health crisis in America, blamed for the deaths of tens of thousands of people. But one hospital is determined to reverse the epidemic.

Since January, St Joseph's Regional Medical Center, which boasts the largest emergency room in New Jersey, has stopped prescribing opioid painkillers in all but essential cases, slashing overall use by more than 40 percent.

While these powerful drugs are an "excellent" medication for terminal cancer patients or those with a broken leg, for the vast majority there are far safer courses of treatment, says emergency medicine chief Mark Rosenberg.

"In our first 60 days, we were absolutely shocked," Rosenberg told AFP. "We had 300 patients. And out of those 75 percent of them did not need opioids."

"It's just a remarkable change of our prescribing habits and our management of patients' acute pain," he added.

In 2014, 14,000 people died from an opioid overdose in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Since 1999, these powerful painkillers have caused 165,000 deaths.

The problem dates back to the 1990s but critics accuse President Barack Obama of being slow to respond to the scale of the epidemic, comparing his delayed reaction to Ronald Reagan's sluggish response to the HIV/AIDS crisis.

Back in the mid-1990s, drug companies, professionals and authorities promoted opiates as a compassionate medicine that would end pain and minimized concerns that they were addictive.

"It led to the epidemic that we're dealing with today," says Andrew Kolodny, chief medical officer at Phoenix House Foundation, which treats addiction, and executive director of Physicians for Responsible Opioid Prescribing.

Clean for three months, former heroin addict Erik Jacobsen, 24, is determined to turn his life around after getting hooked on the class A narcotic.

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- Endless cycle -

It all began when he popped a quarter of one of his grandfather's painkillers in order to impress a girl he fancied.

"She was using it," he told AFP at Odyssey House, a treatment center in New York's East Village. "That's why I got into it."

He never tried to get them legally from a doctor. He didn't have to, they were so easy to buy on the street in Gordon Heights, a hamlet an hour's drive from celebrity summer resort the Hamptons on Long Island.

"There were so many kids that would get 200 pills a month and they'd sell it. And then they'd still owe their dealers because they were using more than they were selling. It would just be an endless cycle."

That was until local authorities realized there was a problem, doctors clamped down on prescriptions and the police got involved.

"There was one night I couldn't find any pills. So I tried heroin. And from there, I never went back," he said.

He knew three people who died of an overdose, including a close friend.

"I just kind of accepted the possibility that one day I might die," he said. "It's horrible... It's just crazy what it does to your body," he said.

- White problem -

He got help when he was arrested and hauled before a judge, who ordered him to enter a treatment program or go to jail.

He likes Odyssey House and their approach but he is full of regret.

"I lost everything," he said. He and his fiancee broke up because of his drug use and three of his best friends still refuse to talk to him.

"I want my life back," he said.

He believes America's opiate addiction is getting worse and wants to do more to help others before it's too late.

"It's scary," he said. "The people that were young in my town at least, they didn't realize what they were getting into," he said. "You don't really comprehend how intense it is when you try this thing."

Experts say the opioid epidemic is a white problem. While heroin use is on the decline in inner city New York, painkillers are most abused in suburbs and rural areas -- generally wealthier, whiter areas.

Rosenberg says St Joseph's one-year fellowship, offered since January to New Jersey professionals, teaches safe alternatives, how to support patients to best manage pain and explain to them the dangers of opioids.

Next January, the program will expand to doctors, nurses and educators from across the United States and around the world, with enquiries already in from Britain, Canada, Scandinavia and Turkey.

"If you can sleep, if you can walk, then pain is not going to be your enemy. That's what our goal is, to make you functional in pain, not to eliminate it completely," said Rosenberg. "We need to do something."
Evrin Erdem, head of investments at Copia Capital Management, has grown her exchange traded fund (ETF) focused wealth management proposition to around 45 million via quantitative investment and the use of algorithms. Although she doesn't make discretionary decisions on asset allocation, she does carry out due diligence on each fund the team uses and decides whether they match up to her chosen criteria.

The list of suitable funds is made up of around 18 ETFs. Erdem then rebalances the portfolios every two months, carrying out bulk trades for new client money.

When it comes to choosing ETFs, we have a whole document on this, looking at liquidity, costs, bid offer spread, replication method and the historic tracking error, she said. What I am most concerned about is the costs implied via the bid offer spread, which comes back to liquidity and the ability to buy and sell and what impact that has.

Below are three of Erdem's favourite strategies which include minimum variance, U.S. equities and currency hedging.

1) Ossiam FTSE 100 Minimum Variance UCITS ETF (UKMV)

This 37.6 million fund has annual fees of 0.45 percent and has returned 5.3 percent over the past year. It aims to track a portfolio of less volatile stocks like HSBC, BP and Royal Dutch Shell.

Erdem chose this fund in March 2014 based on three criteria  its liquid, physically backed and accumulates dividends.

When it comes to preferring accumulating funds, Erdem explains: Research shows that when dividends are reinvested then overall return of that fund is better. The more money stays in cash, the more it loses out, in theory.

2) PowerShares EQQQ Nasdaq-100 UCITS ETF (EQQQ)

This ETF is skewed to the U.S. technology sector and has produced whopping returns of over 25 percent over 12 months. Top holdings include Microsoft, Apple, eBay and Amazon.

Erdem invested in November 2013 and has held the fund since launch, and it has grown to around 27 million under management.

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Im very happy with the price [0.30 percent fees], its a very popular fund to use, she said.

Erdem excluded the other alternatives from Amundi and Lyxor as they are swap backed, and iShares physical version is slightly more expensive and reinvests dividends.

3) UBS MSCI EMU hedged to GBP UCITS ETF (UC60)

This fund has returned over 17 percent over the past 12 months and costs just 0.33 percent per year. Erdems algorithmic model switches between funds for certain exposures depending on currency movements, and she favours currency-hedged ETFs to mitigate risk of FX fluctuations.

Other funds in the approved list are XESC for non-hedged European equity exposure, UC62 for currency hedged exposure to Japan, IGUS for Sterling-hedged exposure to the S&P 500, and the Vanguard Total Market S&P 500 UCITS ETF for non-hedged equities in the U.S.

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23 injured in bus accident, eight in critical condition

At least 23 people were injured when a passenger bus veered off the road and fell some 150 meters in Budathoki Gaun, near the Changunarayan temple in Bhaktapur on Tuesday.
ETF Securities has launched two 3x short and leverage exchange traded products (ETPs) tracking the FTSE China 50 Index, the first ETPs in Europe to offer such leveraged exposure and expanding the ways in which foreign investors can access China.

The two new ETPs will be listed on the Borsa Italiana today (3 November) and track an index of 50 large and liquid stocks listed and traded in Hong Kong.

The ETFS 3x Daily Long FTSE China 50 (CH3L) and the ETFS 3x Daily Short FTSE China 50 (CH3S) aim to deliver three times the positive or negative performance of the underlying index. They have delivered negative returns of 35.2 percent and 10.5 percent year to date respectively.

Top holdings in the index are financials at over 52 percent  like Tencent Holdings and China Construction Bank  while telecommunications and oil and gas are around 22 percent of the fund.

Massimo Siano, head of Southern Europe, ETF Securities (UK), said in a statement that the launch is due to strong demand from Italian clients.

"Investors appetite for Chinese equity exposure continues to grow in reaction to heightened volatility and we believe these products provide opportunities to trade on a short term basis with a competitive total cost of ownership," he said.

The ETPs structure is synthetic  fully funded collateralised swaps (learn more about how these work here). Annual fees amount to 0.98 percent per year.

European-listed short and leverage ETPs and ETFs are already available across commodities, various equity markets and bonds, but this is a first for Europe in offering these funds for Chinese equities.

The provider is also launching 18 3x short and leverage commodity-focused exchange traded products in Italy today, from coffee to silver and wheat, all with fees of 0.98 percent.

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BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Commission has cleared French state support for an experimental tidal power plant off the northwestern coast of the country, saying the aid given was in line with European rules. France will support the construction of four turbines, which will each produce 1.4 megawatts of electricity, through a direct grant and repayable advances, the Commission said, without stating the amount of money pledged. The NEPTHYD (Normandie Energie PiloTe HYDrolien) pilot farm will be located at Raz Blanchard, west of the Cotentin peninsular. A subsidiary of Engie will build and operate the plant for 20 years. The Commission said the project supported market entry of a novel renewable energy technology, including turbines with several innovative features, with aid limited to the cost of producing electricity from the plant. (Reporting by Robert-Jan Bartunek; editing by Philip Blenkinsop)
PRAGUE (Reuters) - Top judges of European Union member states called on Turkey on Wednesday to respect the rule of law, saying the dismissal of thousands of judges following an attempted coup was an attack on the independence of the judiciary. Turkey has suspended, detained or placed under investigation more than 60,000 soldiers, judges, teachers, journalists and others suspected of ties to the movement of U.S.-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen following the failed July 15-16 coup. The EU judges, in a statement, said they were concerned at reports that more than 2,700 members of the judiciary had been removed and the death penalty might be restored in Turkey. The group, comprising the presidents of the supreme courts of EU states, said independence of the judiciary was a guarantee of respect for human rights and freedoms allowing citizens to have confidence in the justice system. The group "views the current events, in particular the dismissal or arrest of thousands of judges, as an attack on the independence of the judiciary in Turkey," it said. Western governments and rights groups have condemned the abortive coup in which at least 246 people were killed and more than 2,000 injured. But some have expressed alarm over the extent of the crackdown and suggested President Tayyip Erdogan may be using it to tighten his grip on power. (Reporting by Jason Hovet; Editging by Richard Balmforth)
Brussels (AFP) - The European Union on Wednesday handed Poland's rightwing government a three-month deadline to reverse changes to its Constitutional Court or face sanctions for breaching EU norms on the rule of law and democracy.

The move is the second step in an unprecedented procedure which could eventually see Warsaw's voting rights suspended in the Council of Ministers, the EU's highest decision-making body.

"We now invite the Polish authorities to take action to solve these concerns and inform the Commission of the steps taken within three months," European Commission deputy president Frans Timmermans told reporters.

Among the demands by the commission, the executive arm of the 28-nation EU, are for the Constitutional Court rulings to be published and implemented.

The Polish government has refused to publish a March 9 judgement by the Constitutional Court that would strike down the changes to the body, or any rulings that have followed it.

Poland's conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party swept to power late last year and immediately pushed through legislation which critics say paralysed the Constitutional Court.

It has also ramped up state control over public broadcasters, further straining relations with the EU which demands that all member states meet the same rule of law and democratic norms.

The United States has also voiced concern over the changes, with President Barack Obama taking up the issue with his Polish counterpart Andrzej Duda earlier this month during a visit to Warsaw.

- 'Systemic threat' to rights -

The commission launched an initial probe in January to see if the changes violated EU rules and warranted punitive measures.

It formally warned Poland on June 1 to reverse the changes so as to remove a "systemic threat" to the rule of law and said Warsaw had still failed to address the concerns despite legislative amendments adopted last week.

"This new law does not address the threats to the rule of law in Poland," said Timmermans, a former Dutch foreign minister who has been locked in a tense six-month stand-off with Warsaw.

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"The fundamental concerns are still unresolved," he added.

Timmermans said in fact "new problematic provisions have been introduced in the legislative process" that raise concerns on how effective a constitutional review can be.

He said that there were also concerns over the refusal by President Duda to swear in three judges elected legally by the preceding parliament.

However, Timmermans welomed last week's amendment to allow court verdicts to pass with a simply majority rather than the two-thirds majority required under laws passed in December.

- EU steps 'premature' -

Poland, which is welcoming Pope Francis on his first visit to the country amid widespread concerns over the changes to the constitutional court, slammed the commission for acting before Duda had signed the legislation into law.

"The steps taken by the European Commission before the new law on the constitional court enters into force are clearly premature," the foreign ministry said in a statement.

"They expose the European Commission to a loss of prestige needed for carrying out the duties described in the treaties," it said.

Without a satisfactory response in three months, the Commission, the European Parliament or a group of 10 member states can propose Poland be stripped of its voting rights in EU institutions if it is guilty of serious and persistent breaches of the rule of law.
BRUSSELS, July 27 (Reuters) - Eurogroup President Jeroen Dijsselbloem said on Wednesday that he was disappointed with the European Commission's decision not to levy fines against Spain and Portugal for failing to bring their budget deficits below the EU cap.

"It is disappointing that there is no follow up on the conclusion that Spain and Portugal did not take effective action to consolidate their budgets, Dijsselbloem said in a statement.

"It must be clear that despite all the efforts already taken, Spain and Portugal are still in danger."

He said he would wait for the EU executive to clarify its decision and also discuss the issue with other euro zone countries.

(Reporting by Jan Strupczewski, writing by Foo Yun Chee)
* European shares rise, STOXX 600 up 0.5 pct

* LVMH leads luxury stocks after strong Q2

* Autos also rise after Peugeot results

* Though Deutsche Bank, BASF drop

* France's Ingenico Group slumps after H1 results (Adds company news and quotes, updates prices)

By Kit Rees

LONDON, July 27 (Reuters) - European shares rose on Wednesday, led higher by auto stocks and several companies such as luxury group LVMH and France's Peugeot that advanced after their results.

The pan-European STOXX 600 index rose 0.5 percent, as did the FTSEurofirst 300.

France's LVMH was up 7.5 percent after its fashion and leather Q2 sales beat forecasts, helped by solid demand in the United States and improved trading in Asia, excluding Japan. It was on track for its biggest one-day gain since February 2015.

"Our Buy case on LVMH hinges on the underappreciated resilience of the Louis Vuitton brand combined with the defensiveness and momentum of the wider portfolio. H1 results reinforced our confidence in this view," analysts at UBS said in a note.

Luxury peers Christian Dior and Kering also gained 3.8 percent and 2.3 percent respectively.

Auto stocks were the top sectoral gainers, up 2.6 percent, following a well-received update from France's Peugeot , which jumped 8.8 percent.

Volkswagen gained 3 percent after a $14.7 billion settlement of its U.S. diesel emissions cheating scandal cleared another legal hurdle as a federal judge gave the automaker preliminary approval to buy back up to 475,000 vehicles.

Gains in the auto sector helped Germany's DAX index recoup the last of its post-Brexit losses as it traded up 0.9 percent.

The top riser on the STOXX 600 index was French IT services group Atos, which rose 8 percent after hiking its outlook.

It was joined by British broadcaster ITV, which jumped 8 percent on the back of its advertising revenue forecast.

"There's been a lot of negativity priced in to the more (UK) domestically-focused companies, so we like what we're seeing this morning with ITV," Dafydd Davies, partner at Charles Hanover Investments, said.

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Likewise the beaten-down Travel & Leisure sector was given a fillip, up 0.3 percent, after Air France jumped 3.5 percent after an improvement in its earnings thanks to lower costs.

Peers IAG, Ryanair Holdings and Lufthansa also gained between 1.6 percent to 4.2 percent.

Among the top fallers, however, was Deutsche Bank which slumped more than 4 percent after revenues fell sharply in the second quarter.

Shares in French payments provider Ingenico Group dropped more than 12 percent, putting it on track for its worst day since February 2003 after its H1 results.

"North American sales ... did not grow sequentially, which in our view, considering the difficult comps Ingenico is facing in H2 in that region, implies that North America double-digit sales growth targeted by management for the full year is out of reach," Jean Beaubois, analyst at Berenberg, said in a note.

Chemicals company BASF also fell, down 2.6 percent after reporting a drop in Q2 profit.

British IT firm Essentra was down over 7 percent following a downgrade to its rating from JP Morgan.

(Reporting by Kit Rees; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky)
A future for tigers

If current trends continue, life will never be the same for the king of the jungle, if they even exist in the future
Photo: Facebook



Former tour guide Yang Yin, 42, has changed his mind about pleading guilty to two charges of criminal breach of trust for misappropriating $1.1 million from a wealthy elderly widow.

At the resumption of the hearing into the charges at the State Courts on Wednesday (27 July), The Straits Times reported Yangs lawyer Irving Choh as saying, He has changed his mind.

According to the report, Yang told the court through a Mandarin interpreter, "Yes I confirm what my counsel has said, because we have many (pieces of) evidence that we have yet to show.

At the previous hearing on 8 July, Choh told the court that Yang, a China-born permanent resident, had decided to plead guilty to the charges.

Yang is alleged to have misappropriated $500,000 and $600,000 on separate occasions from Chung Khin Chun, a Singaporean. He claimed that the money was used to buy paintings for Chung, now 89.

On 31 May, Yang pleaded guilty to 120 charges involving falsification, immigration and cheating-related offences. Another 227 charges will be taken into consideration when Yang is sentenced after the current trial.

In 2006, Yang was a tour guide based in China when he met Chung, then 79, at a travel fair in Singapore. He later began living with her in Singapore in 2009, almost two years after Chungs husband passed away. In 2011, Yangs wife and two children also moved in to live with Chung after he obtained his PR.

Chung listed her bungalow to be given to Yang in a will made in 2010, and granted him the Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA) to make decisions on her welfare and assets in 2012.

In 2014, Hedy Mok, a niece of Chung, took legal actions against Yang after Chung was diagnosed with dementia. Yangs LPA was revoked and Chung made a new will.

Yang was arrested and charged in September 2014, and has been remanded since October that year after he was denied bail.

On Wednesday, Choh told the court that Chung and Yang agreed not to let anyone find out about the money that she had passed to him to avoid jealousy and gossip, said the Straits Times report.

But Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Jane Lim Miaoqing, who was the prosecutions final witness, disagreed with Chohs statement and that the money was a gift to Yang, according to the report. DSP Lim, from the Commercial Affairs Department, had said that Yang lied during recorded interviews in October 2014.

The hearing will continue on 2 August, when Yang is expected to take the stand.
European Commission To Get Tough On Settlement Fails

European regulators are set to impose a two-day settlement cycle across Europe and introduce fines for those who fail to settle trades on time, according to a Financial Times report.

The newspaper says a draft European Commission report, released in November, proposes that paper-based share certificates are abolished in favour of electronic registration of securities. It says this would allow the settlement period to be harmonised across Europes network of central securities depositories (CSDs) and allow more streamlined cross-border transactions.

Once the new deadlines are in place, it wants CSDs to issue fines to those who fail to settle on time. The key objective is to reduce settlement fails cross-border and to discourage any competition on risk, for instance between markets that may have different penalties systems in place, the draft says.

Anecdotal evidence suggests many trades in European exchange-traded funds are not settled on time. However, there is a lack of official data to provide a clear picture.

In any case, the reported increase of delayed settlements in Europe is likely to have been worrying regulators for some time, particularly as this may have contributed to the rogue trading scandal that was uncovered at UBS in September. However, the complicated structure of Europes clearing and settlement facilities means introducing uniform rules across the continent is difficult.

In the US, all trades are cleared through the Depositary Trust and Clearing Corporation, but in Europe, national CSDs handle clearing and cross-border trades can be complicated, particularly as settlement timeframes vary across the region. While most of Europe operates on a three-day settlement cycle, in Germany trades are cleared after two days. This inconsistency is something the European Commission wants to address by proposing that the rest of Europe is brought in line with Germany.

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NYSE And Deutsche Borse Submit Remedy Proposal

Deutsche Borse and NYSE Euronext have submitted a remedy proposal to the European Commissions Directorate-General for Competition (DG Competition). According to a joint press release issued on 18 November, the remedies are designed to address the remaining concerns of DG Competition in derivatives trading and clearing while preserving the compelling industrial logic of the transaction.

The proposal consists of two key components: divesting the European single equity derivatives businesses held by both exchanges in the areas in which they overlap, and giving third parties access to Eurex Clearingat least in some cases.

These concessions are designed to reassure the ECs concerns regarding the proposed merger, which would result in over 95% of European futures contracts trading being carried out by the new entity. A particular area of focus is the tendency of exchanges to operate vertical silos by finalising trades via their own clearing house. The MiFID proposal released in October seeks to address this issue by requiring exchanges to open up these silos.

The question is whether the move by Deutsche Borse and NYSE Euronext goes far enough towards achieving thisand the stipulation that access will be given to unspecified derivatives product innovations is arguably less than wholehearted. On the other hand, it is a commitment that has not been given by any other vertical silo in the market. Whether this will be enough for the merger to get the green light remains to be seen.

The review by DG Competition is now scheduled for completion by 23 January.

BATS Gets Green Light For Chi-X Europe Merger

The merger between BATS Global Markets and Chi-X Europe has secured regulatory clearance from the UKs Competition Commission. The acquisition of Europes largest equity exchange by its US rival was agreed in February, however the deal was held up after the Office of Fair Trading referred the case to the Competition Commission back in June.

The regulator had expressed concerns that the merger of the two exchanges into a new company, to be known as BATS Chi-X Europe, would reduce competition in trading services for UK-listed equities. However, in November the Commission concluded that customers would have the power to prevent any attempt by the merged company to raise trading fees or worsen service quality, by taking, or threatening to take, their business elsewhere.

The merger will allow BATS to gain a greater foothold in the European market, where it has struggled to achieve anywhere near the same level of market share it enjoys in the US.

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LONDON  As the July 31 release of the script to J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter play inches closer, social media excitement is quickly reaching unprecedented levels.

SEE ALSO: The first 'Harry Potter and the Cursed Child' reviews will get your wands tingling

As presale copies of the script break records and bookstores fill their Twitter feeds with plans for midnight celebrations, it's rapidly dawning on fans that they will actually be holding the next chapter of the world's greatest wizardry saga in what is now just a matter of days.

It's fair to say plenty of people are excited.

Others are really, really excited.

Finally, some people seem to be experiencing too many emotions to contain in a single tweet.

The Harry Potter and the Cursed Child play will have its world premiere on Saturday, July 30 in London and the script will be released in bookstores across the globe at midnight the next day.

It's so close you can almost taste the magic.
Lindsay Lohan turned to social media to put her fiance on blast for enjoying a night out with a fashion designer over the weekend, but now the alleged other woman is fighting back.

In a flurry of now deleted social media posts, the 30-year-old actress accused her fiance Egor Tarabasov not coming home tonight and posted a video of him with mutual friend, fashion designer Dasha Pashevkina. Pashevkina spoke out against Lohans claims in a lengthy Instagram post, and now shes exclusively opening up to ET about the fallout from Lohans rant.

RELATED: Lindsay Lohan Speaks Out On Relationship Drama With Egor Tarabasov

I felt very violated after she publicly accused me of something which is a complete lie and displayed my private information for the whole world to see, Pashevkina tells ET.

In one of the deleted Instagrams, Lohan reportedly shared Pashevkinas home address and cell phone number.

Im still receiving hate mail, threats and phone calls from her crazy fans, she says. I actually had to move, as I was scared to stay at my place.

Pashevkina says shes an old friend of the couple  having been friends with Tarabasov for years and meeting Lohan a year and a half after ago after being introduced through a mutual friend. Lohan wore a sexy black dress from Pashevkinas womenswear label, Pa5h, for the Elle Style Awards in 2015.

RELATED: Lindsay Lohan Hints at Pregnancy

I helped Lindsay through her last breakups and even introduced her into my circle with her ultimately meeting and dating Egor, Pashevkina says. Once she and Egor became an item, she became increasingly insecure and irrationally jealous with everyone, which is especially ridiculous bearing in mind that I introduced them and that weve known each other for years.

Pashevkina claims Lohans rant came after a night out at a London nightclub, where the fashion designer and Tarabosov were enjoying a few drinks with a group of friends.

Lindsay had a new home, someone that cared about her and friends around her, yet shes destroyed a fresh start over nothing, Pashevkina laments, adding, Sometimes I feel like Lindsay lives in her own Mean Girls world and needs to get a grip on reality instead of pretending to be Regina George.

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On Tuesday, Tarabasov was photographed seemingly moving out of Lohans London home while Lohan hopped on a yacht. A source tells ET that Lohans bodyguard was on hand at her home to prevent Tarabasov from re-entering the apartment.

Lohan apologized for airing her recent relationship drama on social media in a lengthy essay posted to her Instagram on Tuesday, writing, We all make mistakes. Sadly mine have always been so public. I have done a lot of soul searching in the past years, and I should have been more clear minded rather than distract from the good heart that I have.

Still, the apology doesnt seem to have satisfied Pashevkina.

WATCH: Lindsay Lohan Wears Engagement Ring Amid Relationship Drama, But May Have Changed Locks

I did expect an apology from Lindsay, but unfortunately I still have not gotten one even after contacting her representative, she tells ET.

ET has reached out to Lohans rep for comment.

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Parenting win! Though Mila Kunis is embracing Bad Moms these days, the actress happily dished to ET about her "good mom" moments at the Westwood, California, premiere of her new comedy.

The pregnant star opened up about parenting baby Wyatt, 21 months, with her husband, Ashton Kutcher.

Getty Images

MORE: Kristin Cavallari, Kendra Wilkinson and More Hot Celeb Moms Hit 'Bad Moms' Carpet

"Every night that we play 'put Wyatt down,' we high-five each other and we're like, 'We did it.' Every single day we kept her alive, we're like, 'She's alive!'" Kunis quipped. "And we're still in love. Like, you high-five when you still like each other and you still like your kid at the end of the night. Because sometimes they're the devil. They're the devil."

And Kunis admits that her life isn't as glamorous as it seems on the red carpet.

AP Images

"Here's the truth, I have an amazing stylist," she said of her stunning maternity wear. "I have an actual stylist. If I were to shop, it'd probably be Target."

Kunis admitted to stepping out in everything from pajamas to sweatpants in her down time.

WATCH: Mila Kunis Reveals If Ashton Kutcher Is a 'Beer Can or Carrot Stick' on 'Late Late Show'

"Remember, like 10 years ago, paparazzi were not what they used to be. So, like, you could still actually look like a human being without having to be, like, 'Oh my God, I have to put mascara on!'" she said of her looks off the carpet.

AP Images

The comedian was joined by her co-stars Kristen Bell, Kathryn Hahn, and Christina Applegate for the premiere of the film.

Bell even came up to Kunis to give her a big hug right around her baby bump. The Veronica Mars star later told ET, "I love all these women. And sometimes, you grab each other's buns."

Bad Moms hits theaters July 29.

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Congrats to Ike Barinholtz and his wife, Erica Hanson!

The Mindy Project star and his wife welcomed baby No. 2 on March 10, ET can confirm.

WATCH: First 'Suicide Squad' Cast Photo Is Here!

Barinholtz's Suicide Squad co-star Jay Hernandez opened up to ET at the Bad Moms premiere in Los Angeles on Tuesday night about Barinholtz's new bundle of joy.

"We have a thread, the whole Squad is on this thread, so we randomly get pictures of him being you know...being dad," Hernandez told ET.

As for how he's doing the second time around, Hernandez gushed, "Adorable. He's doing fine!"

Though the baby's birth was kept under wraps, Barinholtz's brother-in-law did share on Facebook it's a girl and her name -- Payton! -- during a recent visit on May 27.

The newest Barinholtz joins 3-year-old big sister Foster. While the 39-year-old comedian and his wife announced they were expecting their second child in December, their new addition has managed to stay out of the limelight -- but not Barinholtz' Instagram.

"I'd trust him with my baby," the Suicide Squad star captioned a pic of what appears to be his little one with co-star Joel Kinnaman.

It seems Barinholtz already has a couple babysitters among his Mindy Project co-stars as well.

"It's a tie between [Adam] Pally and [Chris] Messina because they both have two kids and are amazing dads," the actor told Glamour when asked who he'd rather have babysit Foster. "I feel like Ed [Weeks] would somehow lose her. [In a British accent] 'I'm sorry! I don't know where she is! I dropped her off somewhere and lost her! I took her to the Soho House and started hitting on this girl and lost her!'"

NEWS: Sarah Chalke Welcomes Baby No. 2 -- Find Out the Name!

Barinholtz can definitely check "babysitter" off the list as he prepares for his next project, Suicide Squad, which will hit theaters Aug. 5.

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Watch the video below to get caught up on who's playing who.

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From Road & Track

Formula 1 boss Bernie Ecclestone's mother-in-law, Aparecida Schunck, has been kidnapped in Brazil. Regional magazine Veja reports that the kidnappers are seeking 120 million Brazilian reals (roughly $36.5 million) in ransom.

Australia's Herald Sun claims the ransom is the highest ever demanded in Brazil's history.

Schunck, 67, was reportedly captured in the Interlagos region of Sao Paolo, Brazil. Her daughter, Fabiana Flosi, 38, has been married to Ecclestone since 2012.

Ecclestone, 85, has a net worth estimated at up to $3.1 billion, mainly earned from a long tenure promoting Formula 1 from a niche motorsport into an international sporting spectacle.

It's not the first time an Ecclestone family member has been targeted in a ransom plot: In 2011, a London man threatened to kidnap Ecclestone's daughter, Tamara, for a $300,000 ransom. The kidnapping never happened, and the man who made the threat is serving a five-year prison sentence.

via Jalopnik
Global health officials are racing to better understand the Zika virus behind a major outbreak that began in Brazil last year and has spread to many countries in the Americas. The following are some questions and answers about the virus and current outbreak: How do people become infected? Zika is transmitted to people through the bite of infected female mosquitoes, primarily the Aedes aegypti mosquito, the same type that spreads dengue, chikungunya and yellow fever. The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) said Aedes mosquitoes are found in all countries in the Americas except Canada and continental Chile, and the virus will likely reach all countries and territories of the region where Aedes mosquitoes are found. How do you treat Zika? There is no treatment or vaccine for Zika infection. Companies and scientists are racing to develop a safe and effective vaccine for Zika, but the World Health Organization (WHO) had said it would take at least 18 months to start large-scale clinical trials of potential preventative shots. How dangerous is it? The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention concluded that infection with the Zika virus in pregnant women is a cause of the birth defect microcephaly and other severe brain abnormalities in babies. The CDC said now that the causal relationship has been established, several important questions must still be answered with studies that could take years. According to the World Health Organization, there is strong scientific consensus that Zika can cause the birth defect microcephaly in babies, a condition defined by unusually small heads that can result in developmental problems. In addition, the agency said it could cause Guillain-Barre syndrome, a rare neurological disorder that can result in paralysis. Conclusive proof of the damage caused by Zika may take months or years. Brazil reports the number of confirmed cases of microcephaly at more than 1,600 as doctors and Brazilian health officials find that some suspected cases of microcephaly are not the disorder. Suspected ones under investigation declined to 3,257. Brazil registered 91,387 likely cases of the Zika virus from February until April 2. Current research in Brazil indicates the greatest microcephaly risk is associated with infection during the first trimester of pregnancy, but health officials have warned an impact could be seen in later weeks. Recent studies have shown evidence of Zika in amniotic fluid, placenta and fetal brain tissue. What are the symptoms of Zika infection? People infected with Zika may have a mild fever, skin rash, conjunctivitis, muscle and joint pain and fatigue that can last for two to seven days. But as many as 80 percent of people infected never develop symptoms. The symptoms are similar to those of dengue or chikungunya, which are transmitted by the same type of mosquito. How can Zika be contained? Efforts to control the spread of the virus focus on eliminating mosquito breeding sites and taking precautions against mosquito bites such as using insect repellent and mosquito nets. U.S. and international health officials have advised pregnant women to avoid travel to Latin American and Caribbean countries where they may be exposed to Zika. How widespread is the outbreak? Active Zika outbreaks have been reported in at least 50 countries or territories, most of them in the Americas, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Brazil has been the country most affected. (http://1.usa.gov/1ovAJyh) Africa (1): Cape Verde Americas (41): Anguilla, Argentina, Aruba, Barbados, Belize, Bolivia, Bonaire, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Curacao, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, French Guiana, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Martinique, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, Saint Barthelmy, Saint Lucia, Saint Martin, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Saint Eustatius, St. Maarten, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, U.S. Virgin Islands and Venezuela Oceania/Pacific Islands (8): American Samoa, Fiji, Kosrae, Federated States of Micronesia, Marshall Islands, New Caledonia, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, and Tonga. What is the history of the Zika virus? The Zika virus is found in tropical locales with large mosquito populations. Outbreaks of Zika have been recorded in Africa, the Americas, Southern Asia and the Western Pacific. The virus was first identified in Uganda in 1947 in rhesus monkeys and was first identified in people in 1952 in Uganda and Tanzania, according to the WHO. Can Zika be transmitted through sexual contact? The World Health Organization (WHO) said sexual transmission is "relatively common" and has advised pregnant women not to travel to areas with ongoing outbreaks of Zika virus. It also advised women living in areas where the virus is being transmitted to delay getting pregnant. The U.S. CDC is investigating about a dozen cases of possible sexual transmission. Those cases involved possible transmission of the virus from men to their sex partners. But the CDC issued updated recommendations for preventing and testing for Zika infection on July 25, warning that the virus can be transmitted through unprotected sex with an infected female partner. A reported case of female-to-male sexual transmission in New York City, and limited human and non-human primate data indicating that Zika virus RNA can be detected in vaginal secretions, led to the new warning, the agency said. CDC's expanded warnings on sexual exposure to Zika now caution against sex without a condom or other barrier method of protection with any person, male or female, who has traveled to or lives in an area with Zika, including female to female transmission with a pregnant partner. British health officials reported Zika was found in a man's semen two months after he was infected, suggesting the virus may linger in semen long after infection symptoms fade. The PAHO said Zika can be transmitted through blood, but this is an infrequent transmission mechanism. There is no evidence Zika can be transmitted to babies through breast milk. The WHO has identified Zika cases in Argentina, Chile, France, Italy and New Zealand as likely caused by sexual transmission. What other complications are associated with Zika? Zika has also been associated with other neurological disorders, including serious brain and spinal cord infections. The long-term health consequences of Zika infection are unclear. Other uncertainties surround the incubation period of the virus and how Zika interacts with other viruses that are transmitted by mosquitoes, such as dengue. (Compiled by the Americas Desk)
Arbitrary cylinder pricing

Gas bottlers have been found to have charging arbitrary prices to first-time buyers of LPG cylinders.
By Dan Freed

(Reuters) - Online lender Social Finance Inc is unlikely to seek a banking license because its fast growth and involvement in unorthodox activities like dating services would make it hard to win approval from regulators, according to its chief executive.

"It's not a viable solution for us to be a bank," CEO Mike Cagney said on a conference call hosted by Goldman Sachs analysts on Tuesday.

Known as SoFi, the company is growing at a pace the U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation would view as too fast, Cagney said. Entities that want to become banks need FDIC approval since it provides deposit insurance.

SoFi has doubled its business every year and expects to continue that trend in its core lending business over the next two years. "That's a growth trajectory that the FDIC traditionally hasn't been comfortable with," Cagney said.

FDIC spokesman David Barr declined to comment.

SoFi started out as a company that refinances student loans. But more recently it has been diving into a variety of financial services businesses, ranging from mortgages to an in-house hedge fund. Since it caters to younger consumers, it also has marketing tactics that are not commonly found at traditional brick-and-mortar lenders.

For instance, it hosts cocktail parties and singles meetups for its customers and is working on a meeting and dating app. Those types of activities are "critical to brand," but "wouldn't be functional within a bank holding company," Cagney said.

SoFi underwrites about $1 billion per month in loans, making it the largest non-bank unsecured lender in the United States, he said. The company has touted the idea of a "bankless world," but still wants to offer products like deposit accounts and credit and debit cards that might eventually require it to get a bank license.

The idea of becoming an industrial loan corporation, which was used in the past by companies like General Electric Co's GE Capital, is attractive, Cagney said. But he added that a more likely option would be a partnership with another financial firm that could provide "functional transactional capability" while SoFi controlled "the user experience."

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He mentioned Serve, a prepaid debit card offered by American Express Co, as one example.

In an emailed statement to Reuters after the call, Cagney said SoFi evaluates the question of whether to become a bank holding company "regularly" as it considers ways to become a full-service financial services firm.

(This version of the story corrects dateline and third paragraph to reflect that the FDIC does not issue licenses. The FDIC provides insurance.)

(Reporting by Dan Freed; Editing by Lauren Tara LaCapra, Dan Grebler and Bernard Orr)
New research from the American Heart Association claims that even one cigarette a day could make you three times more likely to suffer from a brain haemorrhage than people who do not smoke. And that women are more likely than men to suffer from these brain bleeds.

Subarachnoid haemorrhage s are when blood leaks into the brain tissue and they make up 3% of all recorded types of stroke in the US.

The survey  which comes from results conducted in Finland, where 65,521 people were examined also discovered that, despite the fact the risk increases with the amount of cigarettes smoked, social smoking is still a risky habit.

Research showed that women who smoked 11-20 cigarettes a day were 3.89 times more at risk of internal bleeding, while men who consumed the same number of cigarettes were 2.13 times more likely to suffer from bleeding than non-smokers. Alarmingly, those percentages take a leap with females who smoke 21-30 cigarettes per day, 8.35 times more likely to suffer a subarachnoid haemorrhage.

The research was led by Dr Joni Lindbohm of the University of Helsinki who suggested that, despite the findings, other factors like alcohol-consumption will also make certain individuals more likely to suffer from a stroke or bleeding. Our results suggest that age, sex and lifestyle risk factors play a critical role in predicting which patients are at risk for subarachnoid haemorrhage and emphasise the importance of effective smoking cessation strategies.

'There is no safe level of smoking, and naturally, the best option is never to start," said Lindbohm, adding: Quitting smoking, however, can reduce the risk for subarachnoid haemorrhage in both sexes.

The study also showed that those who chose to quit would enjoy drastically improved health after six months and render themselves much less susceptible to illness. So next time you fancy a cheeky drag on a cigarette in the smoking area, maybe think twice.

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Before Catherine Guthrie moved into a condo in Somerville, Massachusetts, she and her partner owned a single-family home and were accustomed to paying for gutter cleaning and other recurring maintenance. But the other owner in the house-turned-condo wasn't used to paying for these expenses. "It's very similar to people's different relationships to their health," Guthrie says. "Some people are really into preventative maintenance and some people are like 'If a problem pops up, I'll deal with it,'" she adds.

[See: The 20 Most Desirable Places to Live in the U.S. ]

When Guthrie approached her co-owners about splitting the cost of an annual gutter cleaning, they said they'd never had the gutters cleaned and didn't think it was necessary. "We did not have a shared reality," she says. Eventually, they compromised by cleaning the gutters every other year and splitting the cost.

While Guthrie's disagreement was resolved fairly easily, it underscores the challenge of negotiating with neighbors who have different attitudes toward maintenance tasks and homeownership. And it's not just condo owners; these disputes can arise between homeowners over issues such as fences or trees.

In fact, the issue of fences is so complex that most states or municipalities have ordinances around fence height, appearance and the homeowner who is responsible for repairing or replacing it. These rules can vary depending on whether it's a boundary fence or another type of fence, according to Lina Guillen, a California attorney, a legal editor at Nolo and co-author of "Neighbor Law: Fences, Trees, Boundaries & Noise."

Neighbor law is a broad and nuanced field depending on your situation and jurisdiction, but there are some general steps for working with another resident to repair or replace a fence. Follow these expert strategies to deal with common maintenance disputes that arise between neighbors.

Check the local law. If it's a boundary fence that borders your property, then depending on your local ordinances, you're likely part owner of that fence and partly responsible for its maintenance, but you'll want to confirm that. You can look up the municipal code at Municode.com. If you and your neighbor agree that one owner should be responsible for the fence, you can write up a signed and dated agreement that can override state law, Guillen explains. (It depends on the rules in your jurisdiction, but generally that agreement would not carry over to future owners.)

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If you're not a part owner of the fence but it's visible to you and it's creating a neighborhood eyesore, you may still have recourse if your municipality prohibits blighted property. "It could be decreasing the value of your property," Guillen says. "If that's happening, you can contact the local city and town and deal with it that way." Another issue is if it's actually a danger to kids, like rusty nails sticking out of the fence. Depending on your community, this complaint may be a low priority unless there's a safety concern.

[See: 10 Tips to Sell Your Home Fast.]

Discuss your concerns with your neighbors. Once you familiarize yourself with the law, discuss the fence's condition with your neighbor. "Have a friendly chat if you can," Guillen says. "Don't run out in your robe and your slippers angry and don't approach your neighbor if they're carrying five bags of groceries and a two-year-old," she adds. Offer to get several estimates and to split the cost in your initial discussion. Ideally, you should also get your agreement in writing, since oral agreements are tougher to enforce.

Often that conversation will be enough to generate some buy-in, but disputes can arise if your neighbor doesn't think the fence needs repairs. "Generally speaking, if the fence is dragging down the value of your home, it needs some repair," Guillen says. If your neighbors are uncooperative, you should document the fence's condition with photos and note the date you originally discussed the issue, so you can follow up with a demand letter or email.

Take it to mediation. If a demand letter doesn't get results, consider taking the issue to mediation or a community board, where a volunteer attorney or a person who's been trained in mediation brings you to a room and tries to help you work it out, Guillen explains. Mediation or a community board is preferable to small claims court because "unless you plan on moving, you will still have to live next to your neighbors after bringing them to court," Guillen points out. "So, it's worth the effort to avoid a lawsuit," she adds.

If your neighbor still won't budge, your final option may be to pay for repairs yourself and sue in small claims court to get reimbursed for your neighbor's portion of the expense. If that happens, you'll want to have a paper trail of you making reasonable requests for cooperation, so document your interactions. "Really show that you're trying to get the neighbor to buy in and you're being as reasonable as possible and doing a lot of the legwork," Guillen says. "If you do end up in court, the judge is going say 'This person did everything possible.'"

Fortunately, discussions with neighbors are not always contentious. When Guthrie's next-door neighbor wanted to trim a large maple tree that shades both residents' yards, he emailed to give her a heads up. She decided to have them trim some of her own branches as well so they could share the cost. "The company is so used to working with people who live very close [to each other] that they have a policy where they give separate estimates so that neighbors don't share one estimate and one invoice," she says. "I think that was really helpful to have the company draw those lines so that we as neighbors didn't have to," she adds.

Kristen Fischer, who lives in Point Pleasant, New Jersey, says her neighbors of nine years have always been good about splitting communal costs and responsibilities. "We have a strip of land between our houses that my neighbor planted some hostas on the strip that's along her driveway, and she waters them, which waters my lawn," Fischer says. With Fischer's permission, the neighbor paid to have the tree trimmed when branches hung over the driveway and causes a mess with leaves and droppings. "When it died though, I took care of the cost to remove it," Fischer adds.

[See: 12 Home Improvement Shortcuts That Are a Bad Idea.]

As Fischer and Guthrie's stories show, a willingness to communicate and compromise goes a long way toward building goodwill with neighbors and mitigating tensions over potential maintenance disputes.





More From US News & World Report


Milan (AFP) - Fiat Chrysler Automobiles said Wednesday its second quarter net profit rose by a quarter thanks to better operating performance in its main markets and a jump in Jeep sales.

However the net profit of 321 million euros ($353 million) was far below the 619 million euro consensus forecast of analysts surveyed by Factset.

A 2 percent dip in sales to 27.89 billion euros also disappointed investors who were expecting sales to rise by that amount.

Fiat said the increase in net profit was "driven by strong operating performance" in its key North American and European markets as well by its components unit.

FCA continued to benefit from the launch of its new Jeep Renegade model, with Fiat's worldwide Jeep sales up 16 percent.

Net profit over the first half of the year nearly tripled to 799 million euros.

The Italian-US manufacturer nudged up its annual targets. It now sees ending the year with an adjusted net profit of 2 billion euros on 112 billion euros in sales.

FCA shares were up 0.2 percent in afternoon trading in Milan, underperforming the FTSE-Mib index which was up 1.4 percent.
By Agnieszka Flak and Bernie Woodall

MILAN/DETROIT (Reuters) - Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) nudged up its full-year adjusted earnings guidance on Wednesday, but its shares came off earlier highs after recall costs hit second-quarter profit and concerns remained about its exposure to a peaking U.S. market.

The world's seventh-largest carmaker said adjusted operating profit for April to June rose 16 percent to 1.63 billion euros (1.3 billion), in line with an analyst consensus of 1.64 billion euros in a Reuters poll.

But earnings fell 14 percent when including charges related to recall costs and production adjustments in North America.

FCA (FCHA.MI) is investing billions of dollars - despite high debts - in a bid to capture a bigger share of the lucrative SUV and pickup truck markets in the United States. This includes $1.5 billion (1.1 billion) in a plant in Michigan and another $1 billion to retool assembly plants in Ohio and Illinois.

FCA's profit margins in North America rose to 7.9 percent in the quarter from 7.7 percent last year but the improvement was less marked than in previous quarters and failed to impress when compared with 12.1 percent for GM (GM.N).

"Free cash flow was a touch better than anticipated, yet FCA's net debt remains elevated," said George Galliers, an analyst at Evercore ISI.

"Rightly, investors may be concerned given the fact that North American earnings growth would appear to be plateauing."

North America accounted for nearly 85 percent of FCA's quarterly profit, reflecting robust demand for its Jeep SUVs and pickup trucks. FCA broke even in Latin America and posted strong earnings growth in Europe.

FCA Chief Executive Sergio Marchionne applauded GM's margins, but said he expected FCA to get "very close" to those numbers once the retooling of its U.S. plants was completed.

He added he expected FCA to stop making passenger cars in the United States by the end of the first quarter 2017.

"Our biggest task now is to close the operating margin gap with our competitors ... we need to get off our butts and get that done," he said. He added management was increasingly confident the carmaker's targets to 2018 were achievable.

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FCA raised its full-year guidance for revenues and adjusted operating profit and kept its debt projection intact, but analysts remained unimpressed, saying the revisions came close to where consensus expectations were.

Shares in the company, down 26 percent in the year to date, fell more than 3 percent after the results, but later recovered some losses and were down 0.2 percent by 1358 GMT.

In the second quarter, sales fell 2 percent to 27.89 billion euros, below expectations of 29.3 billion euros.

The automaker, which spun off luxury unit Ferrari (RACE.MI) at the start of the year, said net industrial debt fell to 5.5 billion euros at the end of June, down from 6.6 billion euros three months earlier, helped by strong cash generation.

(Additional reporting by Stefano Rebaudo; Editing by Alexander Smith and Mark Potter)
By Agnieszka Flak and Bernie Woodall

MILAN/DETROIT (Reuters) - Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) nudged up its full-year adjusted earnings guidance on Wednesday, but its shares came off earlier highs after recall costs hit second-quarter profit and concerns remained about its exposure to a peaking U.S. market.

The world's seventh-largest carmaker said adjusted operating profit for April to June rose 16 percent to 1.63 billion euros ($1.8 billion), in line with an analyst consensus of 1.64 billion euros in a Reuters poll.

But earnings fell 14 percent when including charges related to recall costs and production adjustments in North America.

FCA <FCHA.MI> is investing billions of dollars - despite high debts - in a bid to capture a bigger share of the lucrative SUV and pickup truck markets in the United States. This includes $1.5 billion in a plant in Michigan and another $1 billion to retool assembly plants in Ohio and Illinois.

FCA's profit margins in North America rose to 7.9 percent in the quarter from 7.7 percent last year but the improvement was less marked than in previous quarters and failed to impress when compared with 12.1 percent for GM <GM.N>.

"Free cash flow was a touch better than anticipated, yet FCA's net debt remains elevated," said George Galliers, an analyst at Evercore ISI.

"Rightly, investors may be concerned given the fact that North American earnings growth would appear to be plateauing."

North America accounted for nearly 85 percent of FCA's quarterly profit, reflecting robust demand for its Jeep SUVs and pickup trucks. FCA broke even in Latin America and posted strong earnings growth in Europe.

FCA Chief Executive Sergio Marchionne applauded GM's margins, but said he expected FCA to get "very close" to those numbers once the retooling of its U.S. plants was completed.

He added he expected FCA to stop making passenger cars in the United States by the end of the first quarter 2017.

Story continues

"Our biggest task now is to close the operating margin gap with our competitors ... we need to get off our butts and get that done," he said. He added management was increasingly confident the carmaker's targets to 2018 were achievable.

FCA raised its full-year guidance for revenues and adjusted operating profit and kept its debt projection intact, but analysts remained unimpressed, saying the revisions came close to where consensus expectations were.

Shares in the company, down 26 percent in the year to date, fell more than 3 percent after the results, but later recovered some losses and were down 0.2 percent by 1358 GMT.

In the second quarter, sales fell 2 percent to 27.89 billion euros, below expectations of 29.3 billion euros.

The automaker, which spun off luxury unit Ferrari <RACE.MI> at the start of the year, said net industrial debt fell to 5.5 billion euros at the end of June, down from 6.6 billion euros three months earlier, helped by strong cash generation.

(Additional reporting by Stefano Rebaudo; Editing by Alexander Smith and Mark Potter)
By Idrees Ali and Yeganeh Torbati WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S.-backed forces fighting to drive Islamic State out of northern Syria have gathered a massive trove of documents and data belonging to the militant group, potentially shedding more light on its operations, a U.S. military official said on Wednesday. The material, gathered as fighters moved from village to village surrounding the town of Manbij, includes notebooks, laptops, USB drives, and even advanced math and science textbooks rewritten with pro-Islamic State word problems, Colonel Chris Garver, the U.S. military spokesman in Iraq, said in a news briefing. The U.S.-backed fighters - an alliance of Kurdish and Arab forces - have gathered more than 4 terabytes of digital information, and the material, most of it in Arabic, is now being analyzed by the U.S-led coalition fighting the militant group. "It is a lot of material, it is going to take a lot to go through, then start connecting the dots and trying to figure where we can start dismantling ISIS," Garver said, using an acronym for Islamic State. Coalition advisers, knowing that Manbij served as a strategic hub for Islamic State, specifically described to fighters the kind of digital and other material to gather as they battled the group's forces, Garver said. A U.S. special forces raid last year in Syria against a senior Islamic State leader, Abu Sayyaf, produced 7 terabytes of data, U.S. officials said, revealing information about the group's leadership, financing, and security. The information gathered around Manbij has so far shed light on how Islamic State processes foreign fighters once they enter Syria, Garver said. Manbij served as a key receiving area for foreign fighters on their arrival. "As a foreign fighter would enter, they would screen them, figure out what languages they speak, assign them a job and then send them down into wherever they were going to go, be it into Syria or Iraq," Garver said. Fighters from the U.S.-backed alliance have in recent weeks made incremental advances as they try to flush out the remaining Islamic State fighters in Manbij. (Reporting by Idrees Ali and Yeganeh Torbati; Editing by Jonathan Oatis)
At least 39 dead in floods, landslides across country

At least 39 people have been killed and 28 have gone missing in the past 24 hours in floods and landslides triggered by incessant rainfall across the country.
Ozploitation weighs in on the abortion debate with Red Christmas, in which an unsuccessfully terminated and hideously deformed fetus returns two decades later to wreak havoc during his familys already volatile Yuletide celebration. Starring and co-produced by horror icon Dee Wallace (the original The Hills Have Eyes, The Howling and Cujo, not to mention the more family-friendly E.T.), the film is an energetic, candy-colored romp through genre tropes that manages to take its subject matter seriously while poking fun at itself at the same time. Following a lusty debut at the Sydney Film Festival, the title will be a natural fit for genre gatherings and ancillary.

In her sprawling rural estate (the film was shot on location in the verdant Southern Highlands of New South Wales), widowed yet spirited matriarch Diane (Wallace) has managed the not-insignificant task of gathering her disparate offspring and their partners to a Christmas Day feast. Their mob includes Dianes outspoken and very pregnant daughter Ginny (Janis McGavin) and her partner Scott (Bjorn Stewart); Ginnys conservative and childless sister Suzy (Sarah Bishop) and her preacher husband Peter (David Collins); younger sister Hope (Deelia Meriel); Dianes Down Syndrome-afflicted son, the Shakespeare quoting Jerry (Gerard Odwyer); and grumpy, pot-smoking uncle Joe (Geoff Morrell).

Their fete is interrupted by the arrival of the mysterious Cletus (Sam Bazooka Campbell), clad in dirty bandages and a black cloak, who has come with a letter to Mother. More out of politeness than anything else, Diane invites him in, only to realize his missive refers to the other Down Syndrome baby she aborted when her husband was dying of a brain tumor. Subsequently, she vehemently denies this to her family, saying, Yknow, this is exactly why I dont go to church anymore. Cletus is unceremoniously thrown out of the house, but as night falls he has big plans for the mother who rejected him and the family he never knew.

While the gore is relatively restrained for this sort of thing, first-time writer-director Craig Anderson (of the Aussie TV satire Double the Fist) compensates with an imaginative flair for the dispatches that includes a Straw Dogs-inspired death by animal trap, impalement by umbrella, and the malicious use of a blender. Giving the film a distinctive visual sheen is the lighting design of Doug Bayne, which channels Joe Dantes Its a Good Life segment of Twilight Zone: The Movie with its neon glows produced by, in this case, the Christmas lights that festoon the inside of the house.

Wallace, who has built an off-screen career as a public speaker and self-help author, displays those qualities to good effect through the tough love and spunk of Diane (whose American accent is never explained). Collins, who is half of the popular comedy/mime duo the Umbilical Brothers (The Upside Down Show, seen on Nick Jr. stateside) is fine as the minister with backbone.

As with the best exploitation titles, its difficult to know when to take Anderson seriously: the distasteful (to some) subject matter is balanced by closing credits that helpfully suggest a clutch of websites on the abortion issue as well as list for further watching that includes Alexander Paynes Citizen Ruth and Tony Kayes Lake of Fire.

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From Town & Country

It's a match made in British heritage brand heaven: Barbour is teaming up with Wedgwood on a collection of shirts and jackets featuring the fine tableware company's iconic Hibiscus print, and they gave T&C the first look.

The collaboration features four designs (pictured from left to right above): the Catherine Wax Jacket ($399), Frances Waterproof Jacket ($429), Catherine Shirt ($129), and Emma Quilt Jacket ($229), all of which highlight Wedgwood's signature blue-and-white floral print, which dates back to 1810.

"This is an exciting collection," said Paget Billingsley, Barbour's Head of Womenswear. "The silhouette and style of the pieces reflect Barbour's classic designs while Wedgwood's floral prints add a feminine touch to winter staples."

While previous Barbour collaborations (including Liberty of London and Paul Smith) have only been available in Europe, this year's brand mashup will also be sold in America.

For those of us in the States, the collaboration, which drops September 1, will be available exclusively at Tuckernuck, both online at Tnuck.com and at the e-commerce site's first brick-and-mortar, which is set to open in D.C.'s Georgetown neighborhood this fall.

Of their choice of retail, Elissa Millican, Barbour's Head of Marketing for North America, said "When we saw the Wedgwood Collection, we immediately thought of Tuckernuck, due to its clean and classic look. Tuckernuck has connected with a customer who wants an elegant and classic look, but still likes to feel unique."

Tuckernuck CEO Jocelyn Gailliot says the brand is "honored" that Barbour reserved the collaboration just for them.

In addition to the Barbour designs, Tuckernuck's new boutique will feature a monogram bar, personalized styling, and a curated collection of seasonal clothing and accessories.

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For more, follow Town & Country on Pinterest.
(The following statement was released by the rating agency) SINGAPORE/HONG KONG, July 27 (Fitch) Fitch Ratings has downgraded the Insurer Financial Strength (IFS) ratings of seven insurance companies in Asia by one notch. The Outlook on these ratings is Stable. The seven Asian insurers are: - Etiqa Insurance Berhad (EIB) - Etiqa Takaful Berhad (ETB) - Etiqa Insurance Pte Ltd (EIPL) - Malaysian Reinsurance Berhad (Malaysian Re) - Muang Thai Life Assurance Public Company Limited (MTL) - Thai Life Insurance Public Company Limited (Thai Life) - Thai Reinsurance Public Company Limited (Thai Re) A full list of rating actions is provided at the end of this commentary. KEY RATING DRIVERS The rating actions follow Fitch's downgrade of the Long-Term Local-Currency Issuer Default Rating (IDR) of Malaysia to 'A-' from 'A' and that of Thailand to 'BBB+' from 'A-' (see www.fitchratings.com">www.fitchratings.com/site/pr/1009379">Fitch Applies Criteria Changes to Global Sovereign Ratings and www.fitchratings.com">www.fitchratings.com/site/pr/1009380 ">Fitch Reviews Thailand's Ratings, Applies Criteria Changes, dated 22 July 2016). The ratings of these insurers are capped at their respective sovereign's Long-Term Local-Currency IDR.

In Fitch's view, only very strong insurance groups can be rated above the sovereign if they are judged to be sufficiently strong to withstand a sovereign crisis. In certain cases, Fitch would allow insurers that hold high levels of government debt (that is, more than 20% of their invested assets) to be rated above the sovereign rating if they have very good credit quality and sizeable international business diversification. RATING SENSITIVITIES With the insurers currently rated at the same level as their sovereigns' Long-Term Local-Currency IDRs, an upgrade of any of the insurers is unlikely in the near future. Conversely, if the sovereign ratings were lowered, the ratings on the insurers are also likely to be lowered. See previously released commentary on the various insurance companies at www.fitchratings.com">www.fitchratings.com for a discussion of additional ratings sensitivities. FULL LIST OF RATING ACTIONS The rating actions on the seven Asian insurers included in this review are as follows: Etiqa Insurance Berhad - IFS Rating downgraded to 'A-' from 'A'; Outlook Stable Etiqa Takaful Berhad - IFS Rating downgraded to 'A-' from 'A'; Outlook Stable Etiqa Insurance Pte Ltd - IFS Rating downgraded to 'A-' from 'A'; Outlook Stable Malaysian Reinsurance Berhad - IFS Rating downgraded to 'A-' from 'A'; Outlook Stable Muang Thai Life Assurance Public Company Limited - IFS Rating downgraded to 'BBB+' from 'A-'; Outlook Stable Thai Life Insurance Public Company Limited - IFS Rating downgraded to 'BBB+' from 'A-'; Outlook Stable Thai Reinsurance Public Company Limited - IFS Rating downgraded to 'BBB+' from 'A-'; Outlook Stable Contact: Primary Analysts Thomas Ng Associate Director (EIB, ETB, EIPL and Malaysian Re) +65 6796 7224 Fitch Ratings Singapore Pte Ltd. 6 Temasek Boulevard #35-05 Suntec Tower Four Singapore 038986 Wan Siew Wai (MTL, Thai Life and Thai Re) Senior Director +65 6796 7217 Secondary Analyst Jeffrey Liew Senior Director +852 2263 9939 Committee Chairperson Stephan Kalb Senior Director +49 69 768076 118 Media Relations: Leslie Tan, Singapore, Tel: +65 67 96 7234, Email: leslie.tan@fitchratings.com. Disclosure: Muang Thai Life Assurance Public Company Limited (in which KBANK holds a 38.3% economic interest) owns 10% of the shares in Fitch Ratings (Thailand) Ltd. Kasikorn Asset Management Company Limited (in which KBANK holds a 100% stake) owns 10% of the shares in Fitch Ratings (Thailand) Ltd. Thai Life Insurance Public Company Limited has a 10% equity stake in Fitch Ratings (Thailand) Ltd. No shareholder, other than Fitch Ratings Limited, is involved in the day-to-day operations of, or credit rating reviews undertaken by Fitch Ratings (Thailand) Ltd. Additional information is available on www.fitchratings.com">www.fitchratings.com Applicable Criteria Insurance Rating Methodology (pub. 17 May 2016) https://www.fitchratings.com">www.fitchratings.com/creditdesk/reports/report_frame.cfm?rpt_id=881564 Additional Disclosures Dodd-Frank Rating Information Disclosure Form https://www.fitchratings.com">www.fitchratings.com/creditdesk/press_releases/content/ridf_frame.cfm?pr _id=1009520 Solicitation Status https://www.fitchratings.com">www.fitchratings.com/gws/en/disclosure/solicitation?pr_id=1009520 Endorsement Policy https://www.fitchratings.com">www.fitchratings.com/jsp/creditdesk/PolicyRegulation.faces?context=2&det ail=31 ALL FITCH CREDIT RATINGS ARE SUBJECT TO CERTAIN LIMITATIONS AND DISCLAIMERS. PLEASE READ THESE LIMITATIONS AND DISCLAIMERS BY FOLLOWING THIS LINK: HTTP://FITCHRATINGS.COM/UNDERSTANDINGCREDITRATINGS. IN ADDITION, RATING DEFINITIONS AND THE TERMS OF USE OF SUCH RATINGS ARE AVAILABLE ON THE AGENCY'S PUBLIC WEBSITE 'WWW.FITCHRATINGS.COM'. PUBLISHED RATINGS, CRITERIA AND METHODOLOGIES ARE AVAILABLE FROM THIS SITE AT ALL TIMES. FITCH'S CODE OF CONDUCT, CONFIDENTIALITY, CONFLICTS OF INTEREST, AFFILIATE FIREWALL, COMPLIANCE AND OTHER RELEVANT POLICIES AND PROCEDURES ARE ALSO AVAILABLE FROM THE 'CODE OF CONDUCT' SECTION OF THIS SITE. FITCH MAY HAVE PROVIDED ANOTHER PERMISSIBLE SERVICE TO THE RATED ENTITY OR ITS RELATED THIRD PARTIES. DETAILS OF THIS SERVICE FOR RATINGS FOR WHICH THE LEAD ANALYST IS BASED IN AN EU-REGISTERED ENTITY CAN BE FOUND ON THE ENTITY SUMMARY PAGE FOR THIS ISSUER ON THE FITCH WEBSITE.
At least 58 people have died in floods and landslides triggered by heavy rains in Nepal, the government said Wednesday.

Another 20 people are missing and the Nepal army is racing to evacuate hundreds more from flooded villages as the waters rise.

The home ministry spokesman said 58 people were confirmed dead and another 20 were still unaccounted for.

"Our teams are working continuously in search and rescue operations, as well as to provide relief," deputy spokesman Jhanka Nath Dhakal told AFP.

Images released by the army, which is involved in the operation, showed villagers waiting on rooftops to be evacuated in motorboats.

Scores of people die every year from flooding and landslides during the monsoon rains in Nepal and neighbouring India.

Earlier this month, two children were killed when a school in the capital partially collapsed in heavy rains.

The situation is particularly desperate this year because millions of Nepalis are still living in tents or makeshift huts after a devastating earthquake that killed nearly 9,000 people in 2015.
By Biswajyoti Das and Gopal Sharma GUWAHATI, India/KATHMANDU (Reuters) - Severe floods in India have affected more than 1.6 million people, buried hundreds of villages and almost submerged a national park, forcing wildlife to seek refuge on roads, authorities said on Wednesday. With the weather office forecasting heavy rain for at least another 48 hours, the outlook is grim for the northeastern tea-growing state of Assam, which suffered its worst floods four years ago that killed 124 people and displaced six million. In neighboring Nepal, flash floods and landslides swept through villages, killing at least 58 people over two days, home ministry official Yadav Koirala told Reuters on Wednesday. Floods and landslides are common in India and Nepal during the June-September monsoon season and the death toll runs into the hundreds every year. "The situation has turned from bad to worse since Tuesday and over a million people have been shifted to relief camps," Assam's water resources minister Keshab Mahanta said. The Brahmaputra river and its tributaries have burst their banks - affecting more than half of the region's 32 districts. Police and rescue workers said at least 12 people had drowned across the state of Assam in recent days. Animals from the state's national parks came out onto roads built up on banks and other high ground as the flood inundated forests. The state has five national parks, including the Kaziranga National Park, which is home to two-thirds of the world's one-horned rhinoceroses. "More than 80 percent of the park is under water," said Suvasis Das, a forestry official in the park. Forest officials said they have rescued a 3-month-old rhino that took shelter in a backyard in a village. At least 20 hog deer were either washed away or drowned. Assam's Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal urged authorities to provide safe drinking water to prevent the outbreak of disease. (Reporting by Biswajyoti Das and Gopal Sharma; Writing by Malini Menon; Editing by Douglas Busvine, Robert Birsel)
By Julie Steenhuysen

CHICAGO (Reuters) - The Florida health department said on Wednesday it was investigating another two cases of Zika not related to travel to a place where the virus is being transmitted, raising the possibility of local Zika transmission in the continental United States.

The Florida health department said it has identified an additional case of Zika in Miami-Dade County, where it was already investigating a possible case of Zika not related to travel, and another case in Broward County, where it has been investigating a non-travel related case.

"Evidence is mounting to suggest local transmission via mosquitoes is going on in South Florida," said CDC spokesman Tom Skinner said.

"These cases fit similar transmission patterns for mosquito-borne diseases such as Chikungunya that we've seen in South Florida in years past."

To confirm whether Zika is being transmitted locally, epidemiologists must survey households and neighbors within a 150-yard radius around the residence of the person who has Zika, which constitutes the flying range of the mosquitoes that carry the virus.

According to the U.S. Zika response plan, Zika transmission is defined as two or more cases not due to travel or sex with an infected person that occur in a 1-mile diameter over the course of a month. Evidence of the virus in local mosquito populations can also be used to confirm local transmission.

Florida heath department officials said investigations into the new cases begins today. The state is urging residents and visitors to participate in requests for urine samples by the department in the areas of investigation. These results will help the department determine the number of people affected.

In addition to the possible cases of non-travel related transmission, Florida on Wednesday reported 328 travel-related cases of Zika. The state is monitoring 53 pregnant women who had Zika infections.

(Reporting by Julie Steenhuysen; Editing by Bernard Orr)
(Adds details on investigation, background on probe) By Julie Steenhuysen CHICAGO, July 27 (Reuters) - The Florida health department said on Wednesday it is investigating another two cases of Zika not related to travel to a place where the virus is being transmitted, raising the possibility of local Zika transmission in the continental United States. The health department said it has identified an additional case of Zika in Miami-Dade County, where it was already investigating a possible case of Zika not related to travel, and another case in Broward County, where it has been investigating a non-travel related case. "This pattern is consistent with other mosquito-borne virus investigations, such as the 2013 dengue response," health officials said in a statement. To confirm whether Zika is being transmitted locally, epidemiologists must survey households and neighbors within a 150-yard radius around the residence of the person who has Zika, which constitutes the flying range of the mosquitoes that carry the virus. According to the U.S. Zika response plan, Zika transmission is defined as two or more cases not due to travel or sex with an infected person that occur in a 1 mile diameter over the course of a month. Florida heath department officials said investigations into the new cases begins today. The state is urging residents and visitors to participate in requests for urine samples by the department in the areas of investigation. These results will help the department determine the number of people affected. In addition to the possible cases of non-travel related transmission, Florida on Wednesday reported 328 travel-related cases of Zika. The state is monitoring 53 pregnant women who had Zika infections. (Reporting by Julie Steenhuysen; Editing by Bernard Orr)
(Reuters) - A Florida man shot and killed his 1-year-old daughter and critically wounded his 7-year-old son before fatally shooting himself on Wednesday after an argument with the children's mother, law enforcement officials said.

Timothy Hollis, 32, is accused of shooting his two children at about 1:30 a.m. EDT in the city of Dania Beach, just outside Fort Lauderdale, the Broward County Sheriff's Office said in a statement.

Hollis and the 34-year-old mother of his children had been arguing earlier in the night, the statement said. They drove to the home of family members in Dania Beach, where the mother got out of the vehicle to get help from relatives.

"Hollis remained in the car with the two kids," the statement said. "Shots were fired."

The children's mother and family members ran to the car to find the boy lying "on the street with serious life-threatening injuries" it said.

The bodies of Hollis and the 1-year-old daughter were on a nearby sidewalk.

The boy was taken to a local children's hospital.

It was not immediately clear what had caused the argument between the parents.

The deaths came the same week an Arizona woman was found dead inside her Phoenix-area home with the bodies of her 17-year-old son and 12-year-old daughter. The mother is believed to have shot her two children before turning the gun on herself.

(Reporting by Laila Kearney; Editing by Alan Crosby)
Beijing for stability in Nepal

Two days after KP Sharma Oli resigned as prime minister, China on Tuesday said that Beijing hoped that all political parties in Nepal would work for stability.
Miami (AFP) - Florida is investigating two new cases of Zika virus that may not involve people infected while traveling outside the United States, bringing the state's total number of such cases to four, officials said Wednesday.

If any of the cases are confirmed, it would mark the first time that mosquitoes carrying the virus are known to be present in the continental United States.

Zika is spread via mosquitoes and by sexual contact. If pregnant women are infected they face a higher risk of bearing an infant with microcephaly, a birth defect that causes an abnormally small head.

"The department is expanding its ongoing investigations with two additional possible non-travel-related Zika virus cases in Miami-Dade and Broward counties," the Florida Department of Health said in a statement.

"The investigations into the new cases will begin today, and door-to-door outreach and sample collection are ongoing in all cases," it added.

The department urged residents and visitors to participate if asked for urine samples in the areas being investigated. The results would help determine the number of people affected.

Last week, Florida reported its first two cases of Zika virus in people who did not immediately appear to have any travel-related exposure -- one in Miami-Dade County and one just to the north, in Broward County.

Those investigations are still ongoing, a spokeswoman told AFP.

The state has already seen 381 cases of Zika, all involving people who were infected while traveling to parts of the world where the virus is circulating.

For Zika to become a homegrown virus in the mainland United States, a mosquito would have to bite a Zika-infected person and then bite another person, passing on the virus.

Health officials have warned of possible localized Zika outbreaks in the United States, particularly since the virus has spread quickly throughout Central and South America and the Caribbean in the past two years.

However, mosquito control measures such as air conditioning, use of window and door screens and bug repellant are likely to prevent Zika from becoming established in the United States.
Former Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis weighed in on Donald Trumps criticisms of the medias coverage of Hillary Clintons campaign and his claims she is avoiding answering questions.

She responds to the press all the time, I mean shes out on the campaign trail, the press asks her questions all the time, shes not hiding. Maybe Trump ought to tell us where his tax returns are, and why he wont release them, the one-time Democratic presidential nominee told the FOX Business Networks Charles Payne.

On calls for Hillary Clinton to hold a formal press conference to answer media questions, Dukakis responded, Ive got to tell you, during my entire campaign, I was out there for 18 months, I dont remember doing a formal stand up press conference, presidential style, you just dont do that in a campaign. Youre moving around, the press is with you, theyre asking a lot of questions, youre responding as best you can.

He also reacted to complaints that Hillary Clinton flip-flopped on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), and questions over whether she would actually support it if elected, after opposing it.

I think all of us are having increasing questions about the value of these trade agreements, but, Dukakis continued, If you take a look at this agreement, its actual benefit to the American economy is relatively small. I dont consider it a major issue in this campaign.

Dukakis then questioned the potential impact of Donald Trumps economic agenda.

This country, when Barack Obama took over, was an economic basket case. And it was an economic basket case because of Republican economic policies that practically killed us. General Motors was going bankrupt, Wall Street was hysterical. Were a very different country today. And weve got a Republican nominee who basically wants to go back to the same policies that practically destroyed us in the first place. Those are the kind of issues we should be debating these days, he said.

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Then Payne questioned the economic recovery following the Great Recession, and whether it could even be called a recovery.

One thing that you cannot debate is that even though we were in those dire economic times, this has been a very flat-footed recovery, its hard to even call it a recovery. We havent even had one single year of 3 percent growth, said Payne.

To which Dukakis responded, Hold it, you cant be serious, weve come from economic disaster to relative economic health, particularly if you compare us with places like Europe.

Dukakis then pointed to the jobs created under the Obama Administration.

Its 15 million who are now working and earning and supporting themselves and their families who werent doing so eight years ago under Republican policies, thats what this issue, this election is all about, he said.

But, Payne argued back, Its also going to be about the millions of people that have dropped out of the jobs market, its also going to be about people who yeah, theyre lucky enough to get a job but theyre not making what they were making. And I think more importantly its about the hopelessness that hangs over the air like a thick cloud.

According to Dukakis, a Trump presidency would lead to policies that wont work for the U.S. economy.

The idea that we arent far better off thanks to the Obama Administration and its policies over the past eight years, and we ought to go back to the very same policies, tax cuts for the rich, all that kind of stuff were hearing from Trump doesnt make much sense to me, Dukakis continued, Ill tell you, Donald Trump is not the answer to our problems.

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By Feisal Omar MOGADISHU (Reuters) - A former Islamist lawmaker turned al Shabaab militant was one of the drivers in Tuesday's double car bomb attack on the African Union's main peacekeeping base in Somalia, al Shabaab said. The militants said in a radio broadcast that Salah Nur Ismail, who joined al Shabaab in 2010, was one of those to blow himself up in the attack which killed 13 people, mainly guards from a private security firm. In the broadcast aired late on Tuesday on the militants' radio al Andalus, Ismail, also known by the nickname of Badbaado, said in audio recorded before the attack that he would be one of the suicide bombers. Government officials were not immediately available for a comment. Somalia is scheduled to hold a presidential election next month and security analyst say al Shabaab could take advantage of the distraction caused by campaigning to launch more attacks. Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab, al Shabaab's military operation spokesman, confirmed Ismail's participation in the attack. "Salah defected from the parliament in 2010, joined us and repented and he became a martyr today," Abu Musab told Reuters. "The current so-called Somali government lawmakers should follow suit. We are telling them to take part in the jihad via the same procedures," the spokesman added. Ismail, who was from Somaliland, joined parliament in 2009 as one of 275 Islamists nominated by former President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed. He joined al Shabaab the following year, accusing the government of abandoning religious principles. (Writing by Duncan Miriri; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky)
Paris (AFP) - French President Francois Hollande sought Wednesday to head off religious tensions after the jihadist murder of a Catholic priest in his church, while his government tried to fend off criticism over security failings.

Hollande met top religious leaders as a violence-weary France mourned Tuesday's attack, which came less than two weeks after a truck ploughed through a crowd enjoying a Bastille Day fireworks display, killing 84 people in the southern city of Nice.

In a boost for the embattled government, a police internal affairs probe said the security contingent on the night of the Nice attack was "not undersized".

But questions raised over that attack only intensified when two men stormed into a church in the northern town of Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray during morning mass Tuesday and slit the 86-year-old priest's throat at the altar.

Another man was left seriously injured in the attack.

One of the attackers was identified as French jihadist Adel Kermiche, 19, who was awaiting trial on terror charges and had been fitted with an electronic tag despite calls from the prosecutor for him not to be released.

Dalil Boubakeur, the head of France's Muslim community described the attack as a "blasphemous sacrilege which goes against all the teachings of our religion".

Residents of Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray were struggling to come to terms with the bloodshed in their small town, so far from France's tourist hubs.

They made their way to a makeshift memorial to lay flowers, candles and messages of peace -- a ritual that has become chillingly familiar from Brussels and Paris to Nice and Munich, all cities that have been struck by attackers inspired by the Islamic State group.

"This is a super anonymous place," said Moustapha Doucene, a neighbour of Kermiche, adding he expected terror attacks "in the big cities."

- 'A war of religions' -

Kermiche and his accomplice entered the centuries-old stone church of Saint Etienne, taking hostage the priest, Jacques Hamel, three nuns and two worshippers.

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One nun managed to flee and alert police.

The two jihadists were gunned down by police after leaving the church and three other hostages were unharmed.

Prime Minister Manuel Valls has warned that the goal of the attack, claimed by Islamic State jihadists, was to "set the French people against each other, attack religion in order to start a war of religions".

In an editorial, Le Monde newspaper recalled a key strategy of IS, to eradicate the so-called "grey zone" in which Muslims live peacefully alongside other religions, making it so uncomfortable for them to do so that they are forced to join ranks with the jihadists.

"France comes under attack because it is made up of one of the biggest Muslim communities in Europe. The jihadists' aim is to provoke violent revenge attacks that will create a religious war in our country," wrote the daily.

Pope Francis said "the world is at war" but argued that religion was not the cause.

"When I speak of war I speak of wars over interests, money, resources, not religion. All religions want peace, it's the others who want war."

- Big beach bags banned -

Hollande also met his defence and security chiefs, who tried to find new ways to reassure a jittery population as his government comes under fire from the opposition over the repeated attacks, some nine months ahead of a presidential election.

Defence Minister Jean Yves Le Drian said the 10,000-member Sentinelle military force -- deployed after an attack in January 2015 -- would be spread out more in areas outside Paris.

Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve vowed that events taking place across the country over the summer months, in which the majority of French people flock to holiday spots, would take place under tight security.

He said local government officials should cancel events "if conditions do not allow for optimal security".

The Riviera city of Cannes, just down the coast from Nice, banned sunseekers from bringing large bags to the beach "which could conceal ... weapons or explosive substances."

- 'Where are the police?' -

The government, already under pressure after the Nice attack, faced more questions over security weaknesses after it emerged one of the church attackers was known to anti-terror investigators.

Paris prosecutor Francois Molins said Kermiche twice tried to travel to Syria under a false identity. After his latest arrest in Turkey in May 2015, he was held in custody until March this year when he was released and fitted with the electronic bracelet.

Annie Geslin, who worked with Kermiche's mother for many years, told AFP "he was the youngest child and had psychological problems but I don't know more than that."

Mohammed Karabila, who heads the regional council of Muslim worship for Haute Normandie, where the church attack took place, asked simply: "How could a person wearing an electronic bracelet carry out an attack? Where are the police?"
CIAA chief snubs House panel citing ill health

Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority Chief Commissioner Lok Man Singh Karki on Tuesday failed to show up at a meeting called by the Good Governance and Monitoring Committee (GGMC) of Parliament, citing health reasons.
By Sybille de La Hamaide PARIS (Reuters) - France will help grain farmers cope with an expected plunge in revenue after torrential rain and a lack of sunshine in late spring hit the country's cereal crops. First results of the still ongoing harvest point to a crop of soft wheat, the most cultivated cereal in France, at some 30 million tonnes this year, growers group Orama said on Wednesday. This would be down more than 25 percent on last year's record for European Union's largest producer. The fall in production, which also affects grains such as barley and rapeseed, comes at a time of low prices due to ample global supplies, with plentiful wheat crops expected in top producers such as the United States and Russia. Agriculture Minister Stephane Le Foll presented new measures to help grain farmers at a cabinet meeting, including tax rebates or deferrals as well as a speeding up in the repayment of value added tax (VAT), minutes of the meeting showed. Pointing to adverse weather conditions in the spring that damaged crops and fueled plant disease, he also extended existing aid such as public loan guarantees and the possibility of postponing loan repayments. "These are initial emergency measures for farmers' cash flow so that they can start their crops for next year," a farm ministry official said. Total costs were still unknown because so were the scope of the damage and the number of farms which would claim, she said. "The situation we are experiencing is extremely serious and totally unprecedented," Orama President Philippe Pinta told reporters ahead of the government plan. "The figures (for soft wheat) that we are getting are so bad it's hard to imagine." Separately, in response to several farm unions' demands, Le Foll is envisaging a change in France's application of the EU Common Agriculture Policy as part of a review due by July 31. Paris could slow down the implementation of extra aid for small farms, which lead to a transfer of EU subsidies from large grain farms to smaller livestock ones, the official said. Oilseed crops were also hit by adverse weather conditions although to a lesser extent, Orama said. First results pointed to a French rapeseed yield between 2.8 and 3 tonnes per hectare compared to a ministry estimate of 3.5 t/ha in 2015. ($1 = 0.9088 euros) (Writing by Gus Trompiz and Sybille de la Hamaide; Editing by Susan Thomas and Alexander Smith)
Updated at 10:36 a.m. ET

NEWS BRIEF A federal judge granted John Hinckley, the man who shot President Reagan in 1981 in order to impress Jodie Foster, his freedom Wednesday under the condition he lives with his mother full-time in Williamsburg, Virginia.

Hinckley was 25 at the time of the shooting and had a history of mental illness. He was obsessed with Fosters role in Taxi Driver, in which the main character plots to assassinate a presidential candidate in order to win the affection of the character played by Foster. He shot Reagan in the chest on May 30, but the president made a full recovery. Three others, including press secretary James Brady, were wounded.

A jury found Hinckley not guilty by reason of insanitya plea that was supported by the American Psychiatric Association. But since that time, he has lived at St. Elizabeths Hospital in Washington, D.C. Since 2014, Hinckley has been allowed to spend about half the month at his mothers home in Williamsburg. Friedmans order makes that arrangement permanent.

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Hinckleys obsession with Foster was the element of the story that got the most public attention following his attempt to assassinated Reagan. He tried to establish contact with the actress several times in the years leading up to 1981, going as far as to visit Yale University in New Haven Connecticut, where Foster was a student at the time. When those attempts failed, he tried to impress her by stalking then-President Carter. Indeed, on October 9, 1980, Hinckley was arrested with firearms and ammunition in his suitcase at the airport in Nashville, Tennessee, where Carter was scheduled to make a campaign appearance.

When Reagan won the presidential election that year, Hinckley turned his attention toward him. And on March 30, 1981, he tried to kill Reagan in the driveway of the Washington Hilton Hotel. Brady, the press secretary, suffered permanent brain damage in the shooting; he died from his injuries in 2014. Shortly after his seven-week trial in 1982, Hinckley tried to kill himself. Heres more from Wednesdays court order:

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The release is being presented as convalescent leave, and Hinckley is subject to strict rules. He must live at his mothers house and be restricted to a 50-mile radius of that location in Williamsburg. He must, the order says, inform his doctors before he goes to any private home. If he meets those restrictions, Hinckley could be removed from the courts control in as soon as a year.

Hinckley could be released from St. Elizabeths as soon as next month.

Read more from The Atlantic:

This article was originally published on The Atlantic.
Paris (AFP) - Two jihadists who attacked a French church and brutally murdered a priest had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group, a video showed Wednesday.

The attack in the Normandy town of Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray came as France was still coming to terms with the Bastille Day killings in Nice claimed by IS.

Here is what we know so far about the church attack:

- What happened? -

Two men arrived at the 17th century Eglise Saint-Etienne during morning mass, attacking the church and taking five hostages inside.

During the siege they killed a priest in his 80s by slitting his throat and seriously injured another captive.

The victim was father Jacques Hamel, a semi-retired assistant parish priest, according to the archbishop of nearby Rouen, Dominique Lebrun.

Hamel was born in 1930 in Darnetal, a town near Saint-Etienne du Rouvray, and was ordained in 1958, according to information on the diocesan website.

This is the first jihadist attack on a church on French soil since IS carried out its first attacks in Syria's war in 2013.

Some 65 percent of France's population identify as Catholics, according to the Ifop polling centre. The country's second-largest religion, Islam, has five million followers.

- Taken down by police -

As the two attackers made to leave the church they were confronted by a French police unit specialising in hostage situations, the BRI, and were shot dead.

Three of the hostages were freed unharmed.

The scene was then secured by officers from France's elite RAID unit, who scoured the area for explosive devices. None were found.

- Who were the attackers? -

One of the attackers has been identified as French jihadist Adel Kermiche, 19, who was awaiting trial on terror charges and had been fitted with an electronic tag despite calls from the prosecutor for him not to be released.

Sources close to the investigation said they found an identity card belonging to one Abdel Malik P., also 19, at Kermiche's home, who they believe is the second attacker.

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They said Abdel Malik "strongly resembles" a man hunted by anti-terrorism police in the days before the attack over fears he was about to carry out an act of terror.

In a video posted on the IS news agency Amaq, two bearded men, calling themselves by the noms de guerre Abu Omar and Abu Jalil al-Hanafi, hold hands as they swear "obedience" to IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

On Tuesday, IS said the two assailants were its "soldiers" and the attack retribution for France's fight against the jihadists in the Middle East.

Kermiche, who was known to France's anti-terrorism police, tried twice to go to Syria in 2015.

He had already threatened to attack a church, according to witness testimony collected in his neighbourhood.

"We knew he wanted to go to Syria," a 60-year-old neighbour of the assailant's family, who added that he "never saw him go to the mosque".

- Deadly summer surge -

President Francois Hollande, members of his government and opposition rivals gathered together on Wednesday at the symbolic Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris for a mass attended by Muslim, Jewish and Christian leaders to pay tribute to the murdered priest.

The moving gathering provided a rare show of unity and respite from days of political sniping over the repeat attacks, which right-wing parties say are due to the Socialist government's failure to protect citizens.

Prime Minister Manuel Valls has warned that the goal of the attack, claimed by Islamic State jihadists, was to "set the French people against each other, attack religion in order to start a war of religions".

France remains on high alert after Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel ploughed a truck into a crowd of people celebrating Bastille Day in Nice, killing 84 people and injuring over 300.

The July 14 killings was the third major terror attack in France in little more than 18 months.
By Philip Blenkinsop BRUSSELS (Reuters) - A French politician who introduced a swathe of European financial regulation after the financial crisis was named on Wednesday to represent Brussels in negotiations on Britain's exit from the European Union, drawing a cool response in London. European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker selected Gaullist Michel Barnier, a former EU commissioner and center-right French foreign and agriculture minister, in a choice that may antagonize Britain's ruling euroskeptic Conservatives. In London, a spokeswoman for Prime Minister Theresa May said Britain looked forward to working "with representatives from the member states, the Council and the Commission to ensure an orderly departure of the UK from the EU". She pointedly did not mention Barnier by name, and initial British media reaction was hostile. "Hard to think of a more anti-British figure. Declaration of war," Tom Newton Dunn, political editor of the pro-Brexit Sun newspaper, said on Twitter. London's Evening Standard daily branded Barnier the "scourge of the City" - the financial district of the British capital. However, a former British Europe minister, Denis MacShane of the pro-European opposition Labour party, said Barnier was "pro-Brit but also pro-EU", and had the experience to understand that key decisions on future ties would be taken in Berlin, Paris and other national capitals rather than by anyone in Brussels. Barnier will take up his post on Oct. 1, the EU executive said in a statement. He will report directly to Juncker and have the rank of a director-general of a Commission department, with all necessary resources at his disposal. Barnier, 65, was a commissioner from 2010 to 2014, in charge of internal market and services. He was involved in reforms of financial services and in the establishment of a European banking union with a single supervisor for euro zone banks. Juncker said Barnier was a skilled negotiator with rich experience in major policy areas and an extensive network of contacts in the capitals of EU member states. "I wanted an experienced politician for this difficult job," Juncker said. "I am sure that he will live up to this new challenge and help us to develop a new partnership with the United Kingdom after it will have left the European Union." SOUNDINGS May has said she does not expect to trigger the EU treaty's Article 50 exit clause before the end of this year. She has taken soundings on initial visits to Berlin, Paris and Rome and spoken by telephone with the heads of EU institutions. But her government has yet to determine what kind of relationship it wants with the bloc after Britain withdraws. After talks with Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi on Wednesday, she said Britain's future ties with the EU may not mirror any of the existing relationships between non-EU countries and the bloc. Given the British electorate's determination to control migration from EU countries, opinions among leading Conservatives range from a simple free trade agreement to as complete an access to the EU's lucrative single market as possible. EU partners say that freedom of movement of workers is a pivotal condition for full market access. It is also unclear who will lead the exit negotiations on the British side, although veteran Conservative euroskeptic David Davis, was appointed "Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union" in May's cabinet. EU leaders have said there will be no formal or informal negotiations with London until it gives notice under Article 50, starting a two-year countdown to withdrawal. Barnier's task will be to prepare the ground internally in the meantime and once the divorce process is triggered, to conduct talks with the British authorities and all other EU and national interlocutors, an EU official said. Michael McKee, a financial services lawyer at DLA Piper in London, said Barnier had a good grasp of technical and political issues associated with the single market and financial services. "It does suggest to some degree that Juncker sees the single market and financial services as core elements of the negotiations, which is not a surprise," McKee told Reuters. Asked whether Juncker had consulted Britain and other major EU players before choosing such a senior political figure, a Commission source said "all the relevant parameters" had been covered, noting that Barnier embodied the Franco-German axis at the heart of the bloc and had wide political contacts. European Council President Donald Tusk, who chairs EU summits, had previously named Belgian EU official Didier Seeuws to oversee preparations for the Brexit negotiations on behalf of member governments, sparking a minor turf war in Brussels. Barnier presided over a frenzy of European financial rulemaking, not all welcomed by Britain. More than 40 sets of rules were rushed onto the statute book, most based on global responses to the financial crisis. A hawkish European Parliament also insisted on caps for bankers bonuses, a reform Britain failed to stop. The Frenchman, who co-organized the 1992 Winter Olympics in his home region of Albertville and was a close ally of former Gaullist President Jacques Chirac, prided himself on working mostly in consensus with the City, London's financial center. He worked hard to improve his spoken English on the job. Sharon Bowles, a former British Liberal Democrat EU lawmaker who worked closely with Barnier when she chaired the European Parliament's economic affairs committee, said his appointment "makes sense". "He knows about financial services and the UK as well as other things and has done a lot of hard negotiating. He is not as inflexible as people said and we worked well together," Bowles told Reuters in an email. Barnier was succeeded in Brussels by Briton Jonathan Hill as commissioner in charge of financial service. Hill, who set about building a European capital markets union while trying to give the financial sector a breather from fresh regulation, resigned after Britain voted to leave the EU in a June 23 referendum. (Additional reporting by Huw Jones, Estelle Shirbon and Jeremy Gaunt in London; Writing by Paul Taylor; Editing by Mark Heinrich)
Montreal (AFP) - French Open champion Garbine Muguruza of Spain pulled out of her opening match at the WTA hardcourt tournament in Montreal on Tuesday minutes before she was to take on Britain's Naomi Broady.

Muguruza, the world number three who is seeded third in a tournament already hit by the withdrawal of Serena Williams, cited a gastrointestinal illness.

World number one Williams pulled out with inflammation in her shoulder over the weekend.

"I'm pretty disappointed, I practiced a lot for this tournament," Garbine said. "Since yesterday, I have kind of been feeling weird and I spoke with the doctor and everything. I thought today I was going to feel better, but in the last moment I didn't feel good enough to go on court and give my best."

Although it was a second-round match, Muguruza enjoyed a first-round bye. Organizers filled her place in the draw with lucky loser Varvara Lepchenko of the United States, who stepped in at the last minute against qualifier Broady.
Dramatic video that surfaced on July 22 shows French riot police clashing with a refugee after clearing the makeshift camp in Paris where she had been living.

More than 1,000 asylum seekers were evicted from the refugee camp, which was situated near the metro stations Jaures and Colonel Fabien in the north of the French capital, Le Monde reported. Security forces used tear gas to disperse the crowds from the area, which was packed with hundreds of tents and mattresses.

The footage shows police pushing and shouting at a woman in a hijab as she scrambles to find her identification. Journalist Ricardo Abdahllah said that he started filming after he saw the police kick a baby in a stroller several times. According to Abdahllah, the woman was trying to return to the camp to retrieve a few personal belongings. Credit: Ricardo Abdahllah
Index provider FTSE says it is raising the minimum free float requirement for companies wishing to be included in its UK index series to 25%. Free float measures the proportion of a companys shares that is freely tradeable on public markets, and therefore excludes stakes held by large, often majority shareholders.

The decision, taken earlier this week by FTSEs policy group, follows a consultation process among the index providers users. Over four-fifths of the market participants responding to the consultation said they back an increase in the minimum free float requirement to 25% from the previous 15% or, exceptionally, 5% for companies exceeding US$ 5 billion in market capitalisation.

FTSEs move means it is now effectively imposing stricter liquidity standards than the UK Listing Authority (UKLA), which is part of the UKs national securities market regulator, the Financial Services Authority.

While the UKLA also has a minimum free float requirement of 25 percent for companies seeking a London listing, in practice it has been willing to waive this requirement for larger foreign companies willing to reincorporate in the UK.

Since 2007, several companies of foreign origin with free floats of under 25 percent have reincorporated and listed their shares in London. Five of theseFresnillo, ENRC, Essar, Evraz and Ferrexpoare currently members of the FTSE All-Share, the UKs benchmark share index, while the first four also make it into the FTSE's large-cap 100 index.

The UKs liberal rules on listing and index eligibility have attracted increasing criticism, however, largely as a result of concerns over corporate governance. UK-incorporated mining company ENRC, for example, most of whose operations are in Kazakhstan, underwent a bitter boardroom battle this summer, with the controlling shareholders ejecting non-executive directors from the companys board. Other firms have obtained permission to list their shares in London while not meeting the UKs corporate governance code under a comply or explain provision in the rules.

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The tightening of the free float requirements comes only days after FTSE admitted steel maker Evraz, which currently has only 23.4% of its share capital freely traded, to the benchmark 100-share index as part of its quarterly review of index constituents.

Evraz and the other four FTSE All-Share index constituents that do not meet the new 25% minimum free float requirements will be given two years to comply with the new rules. Glencore, which is also a member of the FTSE 100 but has to meet higher liquidity standards as a non-UK company, says it will increase its free float to a 50% minimum by May 2012.

Given the increasing importance of tracker funds such as index funds and ETFs, eligibility for inclusion in widely tracked share indices like the FTSE 100 has become an important concern of companies interested in listing in London. FTSEs chief executive, Mark Makepeace, said today that the index provider had stopped disclosing the names of its policy committee members three years ago as a response to active lobbying of committee members by companies seeking index inclusion.

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Fundamentals will once again become the real drivers of portfolio returns as central bank stimulus is pared back, according to BlackRock Investment Institutes md-year 2015 outlook.

The paper, published today, said that factors like productivity and earnings growth will be more important this year, however flagging productivity has affected growth rates and corporate profits.

"Heady valuations in some markets and uncertainty over the pace of Fed tightening argue for caution and selectivity in countries, sectors and securities," said Ewen Cameron Watt, global chief investment strategist for BlackRock.

Cameron Watt pointed to richly priced government bonds and rising currency volatility, and said he expects increased equity volatility. Although European Central Bank stimulus has pushed bond yields to record lows, higher yield can still be found in Portuguese sovereign bonds and subordinated bank debt.

Attention Turns To Interest Rates

The U.S. Federal Reserve is expected to raise short-term rates in the autumn, which is forecast to hit short-maturity bonds, but [] any rise in long-term rates should be subdued by yield-hungry buyers, according to Russ Koesterich, global chief investment strategist at BlackRock.

Raising rates in the U.S. is also likely to hit U.S. stocks, said Koesterich, especially dividend-paying, low-volatility sectors like utilities and consumer staples, and so he prefers cyclical sectors like technology and financials. The Vanguard S&P 500 UCITS ETF  USD (VUSD) is up over 1.1 percent so far this year.

Greek Drama Continues

European markets have suffered tremors due to the Greek crisis. However, the markets jumped around 1.2 percent today after European leaders agreed a further 25 billion bail-out for Greece as long as the country implements certain reforms by Wednesday.

Shaun Port, CIO at wealth manager Nutmeg, said: "Market reaction so far is muted, given the many hurdles to overcome in the next few days.

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European equities overall have not been hit too hard by Greece so far this year, with the iShares Euro Stoxx 50 UCITS ETF (EUE) delivering over 6.6 percent in GBP terms.

Cameron Watt said Greek drama has served to obscure more important drivers of returns, and while it is too soon to call an end to QE, investor focus will shift away from central bank policy.

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Cooking gas imports drop by almost half

LPG imports have dropped by almost half, thanks to a fall in demand as a result of consumers hoarding the fuel during the blockade and the summer season when consumption remains low.
PHILADELPHIA  Her brother was born the year Arizona became a state. She was born six years before women in America won the right to vote. And on Tuesday night at the Democratic National Convention, 102-year-old Geraldine Emmett delightedly cast the Arizona delegations 51 votes for the next president of the United States of America, Hillary Rodham Clinton!

As the cameras panned away, she added, Woo!

Im feeling wonderful right now, Emmett told Yahoo News after her vote, as the states roll call continued. The roll call would conclude with Clinton being selected as the first major-party female presidential nominee.

Emmett, familiarly known as Jerry, said she didnt recall whom she first voted for or when. Im not real sure, but I think it was [Franklin Delano] Roosevelt, she said, because before that there was a war on, and I dont think I was in a position to vote at the time. Emmett taught school during the war and waited for her husband, then stationed in the South Pacific, to come home. They were separated for four years by his service and had two children. A 1937 graduate of Northern Arizona University Teachers College, she taught for 45 years in small towns and major cities in Arizona, as well as on a Navajo reservation.

A lifelong Democrat, she recalls meeting her states first governor when she was 20, though he died before she turned the voting age of 21. At 75, she founded the Democratic Women of Prescott Area in Arizona. In 2015, Arizona Rep. Kyrsten Sinema entered a recognition of Emmetts 101st birthday into the congressional record.

Shes an Arizona icon, said Sue Castner, who sits on the Clinton campaign National Finance Committee and helped arrange for Emmetts role in the roll call vote. Shes just been living for this her entire life.

Being at the convention was a powerful moment for Emmett in a life full of political activity. It just means that God has been real good to me, and Im very grateful to be alive to come to this because I love Hillary Clinton, and I think that shes going to be a marvelous president of the United States, she said.

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After Emmett spoke on the floor, Castner said, everyone in the delegation was crying.

_____

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BERLIN (Reuters) - A Syrian asylum seeker who blew himself up in the southern German town of Ansbach on Sunday was influenced by an unknown person in a chat conversation on his mobile phone, Bavaria's Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann said on Wednesday. "It's possible to deduce that another person wherever they were at the time of the call, of the chat, significantly influenced how the attacker acted," Herrmann said on the sidelines of a meeting of the Bavarian cabinet. "The chat ended directly before the attack," he added. Officials say the bombing by the 27-year-old Syrian, who had arrived in Germany two years ago, was clearly a terrorist attack, citing a video found on his mobile phone in which he talks of planning an "act of revenge" against Germans. The man set off explosives in his rucksack on Sunday outside a musical festival in Ansbach, a town of 40,000 people southwest of Nuremberg, killing himself and injuring 15 people. Police are trying to find out whether the attacker had help in making the bomb and whether it exploded prematurely, which could suggest he wanted to kill as many people as possible. "There are indications that the attacker did not want to ignite the bomb at this moment," a spokesman for the Bavarian Interior Ministry said. The attack on Sunday was the fourth act of violence by men of Middle Eastern or Asian origin against German civilians in a week and is likely to fuel growing unease about Chancellor Angela Merkel's open-door refugee policy. More than a million migrants entered Germany over the past year, many fleeing war in Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq. Herrmann told the Handelsblatt newspaper that not every refugee should face suspicion, but it was vital to get a better handle on the identities of those seeking asylum. "We have a significantly higher risk in connection with Islamist extremists, whether the flood of refugees are being specifically misused or whether people are radicalizing themselves here," Herrmann told the newspaper in an interview to be published on Thursday. Investigators found a video on the Ansbach bomber's mobile phone in which he pledged allegiance to militant group Islamic State, which later claimed responsibility for the bombing. On searching his room, Nuremberg police found diesel, hydrochloric acid, alcohol, batteries, paint thinner and pebbles -- the same materials used in the bomb -- and computer images and film clips linked to Islamic State. (Reporting by Reuters TV and Joern Poltz; Writing by Caroline Copley; Editing by Richard Balmforth)
Time to make the coffee: Netflix's highly anticipated Gilmore Girls revival finally has a premiere date.

The four-part event will launch Nov. 25 on the streaming giant, it was announced Wednesday at the Television Critics Association's summer press tour.

All four parts of Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life will premiere on the same day, ending previous speculation that each of the four 90-minute installments, aptly titled "Winter," "Spring," "Summer" and "Fall," would roll out individually. Netflix normally releases all episodes of a particular season at once - with such exceptions as the Canadian horror series Between, The Ranch and the upcoming hip-hop drama The Get Down. However, Gilmore Girls creator Amy Sherman-Palladino had previously stated she preferred the one-at-a-time strategy as opposed to the all-at-once model that Netflix has become known for.

Read More: 'Gilmore Girls': Everything to Know About Netflix's Revival

In addition to announcing the premiere date, the streamer also unveiled the first promo for A Year in the Life. The video, as seen below, shows all the iconic Stars Hollow spots that served as the backdrop for the original series, which ran for seven seasons on The WB and then The CW. The video then cuts to a pitch-perfect, rapid-fire, pop culture-heavy exchange between mother and daughter Lorelai and Rory (Lauren Graham and Alexis Bledel, respectively) about John Oliver, Amy Schumer and the latter's love of water sports.

Watch the video below:

Netflix also announced premiere dates for several other series:

Chef's Table, season three: Sept. 2

Easy, anthology series: Sept. 16

The Ranch, part two of season one: Oct. 7

Black Mirror, anthology series: Oct. 21

Lovesick, season two: Nov. 10

Beat Bugs, season one: Nov. 18

Captive, season one: Dec. 9

One Day at a Time, season one: Jan. 6, 2017
The S&P 500 may witness an astounding run this month, but that may not be enough to prove its resilience to a group of analysts. Because after Goldman, Deutsche Bank gave a bearish outlook on the forward run of the key U.S. equity index.

In a recent note, Deutsche Bank's David Bianco indicated that the next move for the S&P 500 is a 5% to 9% decline ahead of the election. Though the U.S. economy is taking root lately, the momentum is still sluggish. The ongoing earnings recession may pose a threat to the upbeat market outlook.

So, investors seem over-excited about the S&P 500s immediate prospects but are also complacent about long-term yields as per the bank. It believes that in spite of the present bullishness, its best to be patient with equity investments.

In any case, the MaySeptember period is seasonally weak for the S&P 500 which is one of the reasons for Deutsche Banks moderate outlook over the S&P 500. The analyst revealed that "out of recessions, average S&P MaySep gain is 0.8% and -0.9% in election years vs. the 5.3% gain since April end this year.

Having said all, Deutsche Bank expects the indexs year-end rally to close at 2,150. If this holds true, this means a 0.9% decline in the S&P 500 for this year from 2,168.48 as of July 25, 2016. The index rose about 8.4% in the last one month (as of July 25, 2016).

Inside Goldmans Take

Even Goldman Sachs is not bullish on the S&P 500. The research house recently expected the S&P 500 to slide as much as a 10% this year. Its recent view on stocks is neutral on both the three- and 12-month frames. In fact, the Fed already pointed to the overvaluation in U.S. stocks.

P/E Expansion Too High to Remain Stable?

Goldmans chief equity strategist David Kostin indicated that since September 2011, S&P 500 forward P/E has grown by 75% (from 10x to 18x). This gigantic expansion rate was breached only twice since 1976, one in the 19841987 period when P/E increased 111% and then in the 19941999 timeframe when P/E skyrocketed 115%.

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But both times, the rally ended in massive crashes. The first instance was the Black Monday collapse and the second was the tech bubble burst. So, the analyst finds it difficult for the S&P 500 to continue with its stellar show in the current investing backdrop (read: ETF Strategies for 2H).

ETFs to Gain from This Warning

If you are a believer and follower of Deutsche Bank and Goldman, you can play this warning by shorting the S&P 500 and investing in inverse ETFs like Short S&P500 ETF SH and Direxion Daily S&P 500 Bear 1x Shares ETF SPDN. But investors may not need to take such extreme routes and just park their money in defensive ETFs to benefit out of this situation (read: Beat Brexit-Induced Sell-Off via These Inverse ETFs).

WeatherStorm Forensic Accounting Long-Short ETF FLAG

The underlying index of the fund seeks to allocate capital to higher quality stocks at lucrative valuations while shorting poor quality stocks offering a less compelling valuation.

Reality Shares Divcon Dividend Defender ETF DFND

The fund invests 75% of its portfolio in large-cap U.S. companies with the highest probability of raising their dividends within a year, based on their DIVCON dividend health scores.

X-Links Long/Short Equity ETN CSLS

The index is designed to correlate to the historical performance of the Credit Suisse Long/Short Equity Hedge Fund Index. It gives exposure to a long/short equity strategy as indicated by long and short positions in various market measures.

Reality Shares DIVS ETF DIVY

This ETF is active and does not track a benchmark. It looks to deliver long-term capital gains on the basis of growth of dividends, not stock price, of large cap companies (read: SEC's New Rule May Boost Active ETFs).

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By Ben Hirschler

LONDON (Reuters) - Demand for new medicines helped GlaxoSmithKline (GSK.L) grow earnings in the second quarter and the drugmaker is set for big gains in the rest of 2016 thanks to a weak pound, after Britain's vote to leave the European Union.

GSK, whose outgoing chief executive Andrew Witty had backed Britain staying in the EU, will benefit from the fact that many of its costs are in sterling while it earns nearly all its money overseas.

It earlier announced 275 million pounds ($361 million) of new investments at three drug manufacturing sites in Britain.

Quarterly sales, in sterling terms, rose 11 percent to 6.53 billion pounds in the three months to June, generating core earnings per share (EPS) up 42 percent at 24.5 pence, GSK said on Wednesday.

Analysts, on average, had forecast sales of 6.34 billion pounds and core EPS, which excludes certain items, of 21.0p, according to Thomson Reuters.

GSK edged up its forecast for full-year core EPS growth at constant currencies to 11 to 12 percent from 10 to 12 percent seen previously.

In sterling, however, earnings are likely to grow far more. The company said that if exchange rates were to hold at the end-June rates, there would be a positive impact of 19 percent on core EPS.

That currency effect also protects the dividend, which GSK has pledged to keep at 80 pence a share this year and next.

Witty has been under pressure since 2013 as profits have flagged and some investors have questioned his strategy, but he is confident he can hand over the company in a strong recovery phase when he retires next March.

New respiratory and HIV medicines are offsetting falling sales of ageing lung treatment Advair, while profitability is also improving in consumer healthcare, which makes products ranging from headache pills to toothpaste.

The consumer division is currently run as a joint venture with Novartis (NOVN.S) and there has been speculation GSK might buy out its minority partner before 2018, although the Swiss firm's CEO said last week he was in no rush to sell.

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GSK has declined to join a mergers and acquisitions spree that has seen many other large pharmaceutical companies snap up smaller rivals in recent years.

But it moved to boost its drug pipeline by announcing on Wednesday it has agreed to pay Johnson & Johnson (JNJ.N) up to 175 million pounds for rights to an experimental biotech treatment for severe asthma.

(Editing by Adrian Croft)
Dahal zeroes in on names from his party

Chairman of CPN (Maoist Centre) Pushpa Kamal Dahal, who is poised to be the next prime minister, on Tuesday intensified consultations with possible coalition partners on formation of a new government.
(Photo: Universal Studios Singapore)

Get ready to scare yourself as the popular Halloween Horror Nights theme park returns to Universal Studios Singapore with themes like Old Changi Hospital and hawker centre nightmares.

From 30 Sept to 31 Oct, screaming pontianaks, deadly descendants and large ghoulish skeletons await unsuspecting victims at Resorts World Sentosas popular scare festival, which takes place across 16 selected nights.

Horror with a distinctively Singapore flavor has been a big hit with fans in previous editions, and we are doing it again this year with two iconic local places - the derelict Old Changi Hospital and a massacre at our everyday hawker centre, said Jason Horkin, senior vice president of attractions at Resorts World Sentosa.

Old Changi Hospital, which was used as a prison camp during the Japanese Occupation, was closed in 1997 and remains abandoned til this day. It has also been dubbed as one of the most haunted places in Singapore.

Its one of the themes for this years Halloween Horror Nights five haunted houses. The remaining are Hawker Centre Massacre, Salem Witch House, Bodies of Work and Hu Lis Inn.

There are also two live shows that promise to keep you at the edge of your seat. Jacks Recurring Nightmare Circus is about a clown and his deranged disciples hunting for world-class aerialists, acrobats and other freaky friends, while there will also be a Day of the Dead-inspired procession called March of the Dead.

Early bird tickets priced at $51 and $56 are available now.
LONDON (Reuters) - British finance minister Philip Hammond reiterated on Wednesday that he and the Bank of England would take whatever action was needed to support the economy as it entered "a period of adjustment" after the June 23 vote to leave the European Union. Hammond made the statement after official figures for the three months to June showed the economy grew a faster-than-expected 0.6 percent. However, most economists polled by Reuters last week expect a recession after the Brexit vote. "Today's GDP figures show that the fundamentals of the British economy are strong ... so it is clear we enter our negotiations to leave the EU from a position of economic strength," he said. "Those negotiations will signal the beginning of a period of adjustment and along with the Bank of England, this government will take whatever action is necessary to support our economy," he added. (Reporting by David Milliken; editing by William Schomberg)
On July 27, 1789, Congress created the State Department, which became an important part of the Executive Branch established under the new Constitution.

It was a function so important that James Madison proposed it to the First Congress and Thomas Jefferson was appointed as the first Secretary of State.

The successful conduct of foreign affairs was critical to the young nation. In the fight with the British and the era of rule under the Articles of Confederation, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams and John Jay served as diplomats.

The Confederation Congress appointed Robert Livingston to head the Department of Foreign Affairs, a predecessor unit, in 1781. However, because the Articles of Confederation decentralized diplomacy, Livingston, and his successors found their ability to conduct any diplomatic business very limited.

The newly ratified Constitution made sure that the President and Congress had roles in affairs of state. Article II, Section 2, said that the President shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur; and he shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls.

Jefferson believed that the President and the Executive Branch had the leading role in conducting foreign policy. [The president] being the only channel of communication between this country and foreign nations, it is from him alone that foreign nations or their agents are to learn what is or has been the will of the nation; and whatever he communicates as such, they have a right, and are bound to consider as the expression of the nation, he wrote to Edmond Charles Genet in 1793.

President George Washington appointed Jefferson as the first Secretary of State in March 1790 and Jefferson headed the first Cabinet branch with a staff of five employees. Jefferson advocated President Washingtons philosophy about a neutral foreign policy (despite his own feelings about France) and Jefferson set the tone for an unpretentious American diplomatic style.

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Jefferson resigned as Secretary of State in late 1793 as part of a struggle with Alexander Hamilton, the Treasury Secretary, over the centralized role of the new federal government. But the office soon carried considerable prestige. Of the 10 secretaries who served between 1790 and 1831, five were later elected President (Jefferson, Madison, James Monroe, John Quincy Adams and Martin Van Buren) and another, John Marshall, served as Chief Justice of the United States.

Today, the State Department has an estimated 68,000 employees, here and overseas, including 45,000 locally employed Foreign Service staff at overseas posts.

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(Adds details on background, returns, plans)

By Svea Herbst-Bayliss

BOSTON, July 27 (Reuters) - Stephen Blyth, who was appointed to oversee Harvard University's endowment only 18 months ago, has resigned, the Ivy League school said on Wednesday, creating further uncertainty about the management of its $37.6 billion pool of funds.

Blyth, who took a temporary medical leave in May, is departing for personal reasons, the school said.

Harvard, the richest U.S. university, has gone through several chief investment officers over the last decade and the endowment's once strong returns have ebbed in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis.

Robert Ettl, chief operating officer at Harvard Management Co (HMC), will continue to run the university's investment arm on an interim basis.

Blyth, 48, was tapped as investment chief in late 2014 as it become more apparent that the Harvard's investment returns, once the envy of the endowment world, were lagging rivals including Yale University, where David Swensen has overseen investments for more than three decades.

Harvard traditionally invested much of its money using in-house teams while many other schools, including Yale, use outside managers.

Blyth succeeded Jane Mendillo as chief executive officer at HMC in January 2015 and set out to overhaul performance.

Only last month, Harvard said that it will rely more on outside money managers. Earlier in the year Blyth cut a number of jobs on the public equities team. Several top executives, including Michael Ryan, who headed public markets and absolute return strategies, have left.

After having earned his PhD in statistics from Harvard, Blyth worked on Wall Street before arriving at HMC in 2006.

He will now serve as a senior advisor to the HMC Board and spend more time teaching, the school said.

Blyth's first months as investment chief were not seen as altogether successful, industry analysts have said, noting Harvard's endowment returned 5.8 percent during the fiscal year ended on June 30 2015, while Yale gained 11.5 percent.

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Blyth could not immediately be reached for comment.

Harvard hired David Barrett Partners to find the next investment chief.

For the 380-year old school, which has educated U.S. presidents, world leaders and Wall Street financiers, it has been a rocky decade at the endowment. Jack Meyer, who more than quadrupled its size in 15 years as investment chief, quit in 2005 to run a hedge fund.

He was succeeded by former PIMCO executive Mohamed El-Erian, who left after less than two years. Mendillo arrived just as the financial crisis began.

(Reporting by Svea Herbst-Bayliss; Editing by Jeffrey Hodgson)
Heath Ledger's sister Kate was one of the last people to speak to the actor before he died at 28 of a drug overdose.

The night before his death in 2008, Ledger's father Kim tells news.com.au that Kate was concerned about her brother's drug use. "The last conversation Kate had with him was this discussion about his medications and she warned him, 'You can't mix drugs that you don't know anything about,'" he recalls. "He said 'Katie, Katie, I'll be fine.' Well, that's a cavalier boy's answer. It just put his whole system to sleep I guess."

WATCH: Heath Ledger's Sister Praises Michelle Williams for Giving Daughter Matilda a 'Normal' Life

Ledger's death was later ruled accidental and the toxicology report showed "acute intoxication by the combined effects of oxycodone, hydrocodone, diazepam, temazepam, alprazolam and doxylamine."

Kim says his son was not a drug addict but didn't heed his sister's warning. "It was a one-off thing," he insists. "That's what killed us, because he was warned by his sister the night before: 'You shouldn't mix what you're taking for pneumonia with your Ambien.' But most of Heath's problems were self-induced."

WATCH: Michelle Williams Sells Brooklyn Home She Bought with Heath Ledger

The Oscar winner's father adds that he thinks his son's hectic work schedule had taken a toll on him. "He was a young guy that traveled all the time for work. Even as a 2-year-old, he hardly ever slept. He was trying to work and travel and do everything in a short space of time," Kim explains. "Heath mixed a couple of drugs together with sleeping tablets and he's gone forever. That's something we just have to deal with."

It's been over eight years since Ledger died, but his presence is still felt in Hollywood. Jared Leto has stepped into the role of the Joker in the upcoming movie Suicide Squad, which has inevitably caused comparisons between his performance and that of Ledger's Joker role in Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight.

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WATCH: Heath Ledger Surprises His Biggest Fan With a Kiss in Hilarious 2006 Flashback Video

"Heath did an impeccable, perfect performance as the Joker," Leto tells Rolling Stone magazine. "It's one of the best performances ever in cinema. I had met Heath before. I didn't know him well, but he was a beautiful person."

Jake Gyllenhaal has said that working with Ledger on Brokeback Mountain had a significant impact on his life. "I think losing Heath and being a part of a family that was something like the movie, the movie we all made together, makes you see that, makes you appreciate that and hopefully moves you away from the things that really don't matter to the things that do," he told NPR last year. "I'm trying to have relationships that are as real as they possibly can be on a movie set, be close to people because I know that it's precious."

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Australia took command Wednesday of a low-scoring Test against Sri Lanka, building up an 86-run first innings lead before dismissing opener Kulsan Perera with the last ball of a rain-affected day in Pallekele.

Despite the heroics of Lakshan Sandakan, who took four wickets on debut, the hosts were staring down the barrel at stumps on the second day of the opening Test after rain again forced an early end to proceedings.

Perera fell for just four when he was lbw to paceman Mitchell Starc, leaving Sri Lanka wobbling on six for one -- still 80 runs short of having to make the visitors bat again.

Australia had earlier been bowled out for 203 in reply to Sri Lanka's first innings total of 117, with rookie Sandakan and the veteran Rangana Herath both taking four wickets apiece.

Adam Voges top-scored for the Australians with 47, meaning no player from either side managed to score a half-century in the first innings.

And with the turning pitch showing few signs of offering respite, the Australians' first innings lead could well prove decisive as they try to cement their position as Test cricket's number one side.

The 38-year-old Herath, who has hinted that he may soon retire from Test cricket, was the pick of the bowlers and unlucky not to record another five-wicket haul.

He dismissed both overnight batsmen -- skipper Steve Smith and Usman Khawaja -- in successive overs and had a third wicket in the morning session when wicketkeeper Peter Nevill was caught at mid-on.

After lunch, wicketkeeper Perera dropped a chance off Josh Hazlewood, denying Herath what would have been his 24th five-wicket haul.

Australia scored at less than two runs per over off Herath, with the bowler conceding just 49 runs from his 25 overs.

- Debutant's delight -

While Herath was providing captain Angelo Mathews with options both for attack and containment, Sandakan ran through the lower order to finish with impressive figures of four for 58.

His first wicket was that of the all-rounder Mitchell Marsh, who added 60 for the fifth wicket with Voges before being bowled for 31.

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"I bowled a googly to the other batsman, Voges, and when he got beaten, I thought that I will do the same thing and Marsh fell into the trap. It was a good feeling," a delighted Sandakan told reporters.

"He is a guy who can play the anchor role. It's a big wicket, dismissing him is special."

Seamer Nuwan Pradeep finished with two wickets, including that of the resolute Voges, who was brilliantly caught by Kusal Mendis at gully after facing 115 deliveries and hitting three fours.

Voges expressed frustration that the Australians had failed to put together any big partnerships. He said he would have felt more comfortable had they managed to stretch the lead into three figures on a tricky pitch.

"We felt if we had one or two good partnerships... and got a 100-plus run lead and then we're feeling we are driving the game," Voges said.

"A little bit of missed opportunity there... we know in these conditions you need to get bigger scores and big partnerships."

The match has so far been badly hit by rain, with afternoon downpours in what is Sri Lanka's rainy season forcing the umpires to call a premature end to play at tea on both days.

The second Test will be held in Galle from August 4-8 and the third in Colombo from August 13-17.
From ELLE

Beyonce is currently doing the European leg of her Formation World Tour but in between shows, she's not exactly sleeping. She's busy, very busy, doing touristy things with her fam in the most Beyonce way. Just see how she did Paris below and take notes for your next trip-this is how to do the city on social media:

1. Take a pic with your Beyonce tickets. This becomes much more enviable when it's done in a fancy department store, oh and also you're Beyonce. Marvel at your own face and the fact that thousands are paying to see you.

2. Take a mirror elevator selfie and a full-length. Get your husband to help. If his reflection shows, it's just Insta proof of his devotion. Also, make sure your husband is Jay Z.

3. Stage a photo shoot by the Eiffel Tower. Most people do it in the Parc du Champ de Mars (the park where the tower is located) while standing in a crowd of people trying to take the same exact picture from the grass below the tower. But if you're fortunate enough to, you know, be Beyonce, you get a baller Airbnb with baller access (sort of like that $10,000 per night one you had for the Super Bowl.) So go out on the balcony, stage a shoot on your private patio, and match your outfit with Blue Ivy. Definitely match with Blue Ivy, future top model of the universe.

4. Then get a chic couples pic by the Eiffel Tower. You work the camera, while your hubby showers you with love.

5. Document your romantic dinner with all the wine/champagne/fancy alcohol. If the Eiffel Tower is your backdrop, even better. Hold it in your manicured hands. Paris is yours. The world is yours.
Source and Pimco have launched another joint ETF in what they call the smart passive range, this time focusing on high yield bonds with short maturities.

The Pimco Short-Term High Yield Corporate Bond Index Source ETF tracks the Bank of America Merrill Lynch 0-5 Year US High Yield Constrained Index, which is made up of bonds from over 800 securities with maturities ranging from zero to five years.

Demand for fixed income ETFs has been growing and a recent BlackRock report revealed that fixed income products, particularly high yield funds, enjoyed record demand in January.

Ted Hood, CEO of Source said: Investors told us they were looking for opportunities to invest in high yield but wanted a smarter ETF to deliver access to the short maturity sector whilst at the same time aiming to deliver efficient tracking and improved portfolio management.

According to the issuers, investors are attracted to the short-term end of the high yield sector because it provides returns in line with equities, but with lower volatility.

Vineer Bhansali, managing director at Pimco and portfolio manager of the new ETF, said: Returns on a diversified basket of high yield bonds tend to be less volatile than equities over a long holding horizon because the income component of the return is typically larger than that of equities, providing an added measure of stability.

The new ETF uses physical replication and has a total expense ratio of 0.55%. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange.

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Delayed airport projects hope to make headway this year

Last years earthquake and following trade embargo severely hit the progress of multi-billion-rupee airport construction projects, but officials are optimistic they will be able to make up for lost time this fiscal year.
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Hillary Clintons campaign is hoping to capitalize on yet another controversial proclamation from Donald Trump: That global warming is a hoax.

Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, has said he rejects the scientific consensus on climate change and opposes most U.S. efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and curb fossil fuel use.

Obamas talking about all of this with the global warming and  a lot of its a hoax, Trump said at a Dec. 30 campaign rally in South Carolina. I mean, its a money-making industry, okay? Its a hoax, a lot of it.

SEE ALSO: Climate 'calamities' boost risk of armed conflicts in ethnically divided countries

Trumps anti-climate stance is the focus of a new short film, directed by James Cameron, that will play tonight at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia.

Not Reality TV offers a gut-wrenching survey of the consequences of climate change, including deadly floods, rising seas, crop-killing droughts and raging wildfires.

But the video also highlights the deep divide between Trumps agenda  including his avowal to cancel the Paris climate change agreement  and Clintons pledge to tackle the climate challenge and install millions of solar panels throughout the country.

Clinton, who last night became the first woman to head a major party ticket, vowed in a voiceover to transform the United States into the worlds clean energy superpower.

Image: Getty Images

The five-and-a-half minute video is part of a broader effort by Democrats and Clinton supporters to make global warming a key issue among voters in the 2016 presidential race, Cameron told Mashable and other reporters on a Wednesday press call.

It should be a much bigger issue than it is, the climate activist said. I think people of compassion, people of conscious really need to take this problem seriously.

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Cameron, who directed such blockbusters as Avatar and Titanic, also produced the Emmy Award-winning documentary TV series Years of Living Dangerously, which chronicles both climate change and clean energy progress in the United States and globally.

At the Republican National Convention in Cleveland last week, Republicans barely gave climate change a passing glance. Trump didnt mention climate or the environment at all during his big speech, and GOP politicians who did reference the climate threat only did so when deriding Democrats.

Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), who chairs the GOP platform committee, drew laughs from other committee members when he noted that Democrats were planning to include climate change in their party platform, Talking Points Memo reported .

"There's sections about that they call 'climate justice'  climate justice!" Barrasso said at last weeks meeting.

In Philadelphia, by contrast, climate change is taking center stage.

This election is about climate change, the great environmental crisis facing our planet, Sen. Bernie Sanders, runner-up for the Democratic presidential nomination, said Monday on the first night of the DNC.

Hillary Clinton understands that a presidents job is to worry about future generations, not the profits of the fossil fuel industry, the Vermont senator said, noting that Trump chooses to reject science.

With Wednesday's video, Democrats also hope to appeal to undecided voters who  if not already turned off by Trumps controversial stances on immigration, freedom of religion and national security  might be dissuaded by the candidates denial of climate science, Cameron said.

To that end, the film includes the voices of Republican, military and religious leaders warning of the threats of climate change.

We all know that human activities are changing the atmosphere in unexpected and in unprecedented ways, former President George H.W. Bush said in an old video clip.

Im a Christian; Im a conservative in many ways. And I also believe that climate change is real, said Andrew Farley, a pastor and academic whose wife, Katharine Hayhoe, is a prominent climate scientist.

A thermometer is not Republican. A thermometer is not Democrat, he added.

Cameron said the video is partially a reach across [party] lines, and partially calling bullshit on the hypocrisy of people who know this is a serious problem and refuse to do anything about it.

The Hollywood director and his wife, Suzy Amis Cameron, made contributions to the DNC's account; that money was used to pay Mob Scene, a production company, for the film, a public relations representative told Mashable. Cameron worked with that company as a volunteer to create the film, which he made specifically for the DNC.
Hillary Clinton just made history!

Hillary Clinton just made history!

Its official! Hillary Clinton is the Democratic Partys nominee for presidentthe first woman in U.S. history to achieve that feat.

The former Secretary of State locked in the nomination during a roll-call vote at the Democratic National Convention on Tuesday. If she wins the election in November, shell become the first-ever female president of the United States.

Clintons fight to secure the partys leadership has been contentious, and the convention has been marked by boos, jeers and protests by supporters of rival Bernie Sanders (who offered his strong support for Clinton in a speech on Monday). But those Sanders fans are slowly shifting their allegiance thanks in part to fierce advocates for Clinton, like Michelle Obama.

The First Lady gave a deeply moving speech at the convention Monday night, noting that Clinton has fought hard to shatter the highest and hardest glass ceiling, and that her presidency would set a powerful example not only for girls, but for all future generations.

Because of Hillary Clinton, my daughters and all of our sons and daughters now take for granted that a woman can be president of the United States.

Clinton herself is embracing the historic nature of her candidacy, celebrating her victory on Twitter before she delivers her hotly anticipated acceptance speech on Thursday night.

This moment is for every little girl who dreams big. #WeMadeHistoryhttps://t.co/DRAJuUUhOr  Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) July 26, 2016

Before the convention had even begun, The New York Times predicted that Clinton has a 76 percent chance of beating Republican Party nominee Donald Trump.

Tell us, readersdo you think she can do it?

The post Hillary Clinton just made history! appeared first on HelloGiggles.
Philadelphia (AFP) - Hillary Clinton, the first woman to represent a major US political party as its presidential nominee, evokes strong feelings, even on America's political left. Some people love her. Others cannot stand her.

The following explains how Clinton is seen through the eyes of three female Democratic activists:

- Dyana: convinced -

Dyana Forester, 36, backed Barack Obama in the 2008 primaries, and it took her some time to come around to the Clinton camp.

But this year, she was elected to be a Clinton delegate from the nation's capital at this week's Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia. For Forester, Clinton rival Bernie Sanders was too much of an idealist.

"She's smart, she is great at seeing both sides of things, in coming up with a balance, striking a balance," Forester told AFP in the US East Coast city.

Clinton's supposed compromising of her principles, denounced by her detractors, is for Forester just the proof of her pragmatism -- essential when trying to navigate hyper-partisan Washington.

"Bernie has very strong values but how much can he actually get done in a divided house? We want a president who can actually move things and come to a compromise," Forester says.

The black labor organizer highlighted Clinton's experience as a senator and secretary of state, and even as first lady from 1993 to 2001 when her husband Bill Clinton served as president.

"I believe she was the force behind him. I think she'll be a better president than him," Forester said.

- Paula: disgusted -

Those on the far left of America's political spectrum look at Clinton's CV and come to the opposite conclusion.

For 61-year-old Paula Iasella, Clinton's political staying power just shows how corrupt she is. The semi-retired online seller of vests for dogs from New Hampshire is part of the Bernie or Bust movement.

"They've been grooming Hillary for years," she says, referring to Democratic Party heavyweights, while holding a sign with a picture of Sanders.

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Does Clinton have no redeeming qualities?

"I really don't see it," Iasella says.

"I know supposedly she has done good work for women's rights but then she's accepted money from all these different Middle Eastern countries that are terrible on women's rights. It's all about money for her," she notes, referring to donations made to the Clinton Foundation.

While Clinton favors an increase in the national minimum wage, Iasella fears she only means to do it incrementally -- between now and, say, 2025, not next year.

Like many Sanders diehards, Iasella isn't all that concerned with the fallout should Republican Donald Trump defeat Clinton in November.

"Honestly, sometimes you have to throw the baby out with the bath water to make things right," she said of the Democratic Party.

- Patricia: an admirer -

For decades, Clinton has counted on a strong base of hardcore, tried-and-true fans like Patricia Acosta, a delegate from California who spoke to AFP outside her Philadelphia hotel.

She recalls seeing Clinton in Los Angeles when she was campaigning for her husband in 1992.

"I really felt along with my friends that she was going to be a true leader and that she could definitely be president of the United States," the 50-year-old Acosta says.

"She had a reputation of being very smart, very determined and educated."

Acosta notes that Clinton has "always been strong on education," going all the way back to her days as the first lady of Arkansas in the 1980s, when Bill served as the governor of the southern state.

The Hillary Clinton of today is a more refined version of her 1992 self, as she has learned from the various trying times over the years, Acosta says - from the Whitewater and Monica Lewinsky scandals of the White House years to working across the aisle with Republicans in Congress.

"She is a much more polished professional in our government system," Acosta says with genuine admiration.
Hillary Clinton raised eyebrows with a somewhat surreal satellite appearance at the Democratic National Convention that drew parallels to Apple's "1984" ad.

Clinton appeared on a giant screen toward the end of artist Alicia Keys' performance to thank delegates for formally selecting her as the Democratic Party's presidential nominee.

The screen showed glass breaking to reveal Clinton, a nod to her status as the first female major-party presidential nominee.

The moment instantly reminded many of the classic "1984" Apple ad, which featured a heroine destroying Big Brother and setting the masses free:

The shattering screen has a vague echo of the Apple 1984 Super Bowl commercial.  Karen Tumulty (@ktumulty) July 27, 2016

This is my favorite scene from 1984.  Polling Bump (@pbump) July 27, 2016

Its like the 1984 ad  Will Rahn (@willrahn) July 27, 2016

Guys. Did anyone else think Apple "1984" with that spectacular glass screen shatter? Powerful, iconic moment of political theater there.  Xeni Jardin (@xeni) July 27, 2016

Here's the "1984" commercial, in case you haven't seen it:





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Whoever is elected on Nov. 8 will be a war president on day one, with the power and autonomy to undertake destabilizing shows of force, drone strikes, special operations raids and ever-deepening military interventions. Today, combat troop deployments are routinely made by executive branch spokespeople, decisions to back open-ended air wars in places like Yemen by partners like Saudi Arabia are announced via press release, and congressional oversight hearings largely boil down to legislators pleading with commanders to ask for more troops and looser rules of engagement.

And much of this probably suits Hillary Clinton just fine.

Unlike Donald Trump, who has wildly shifting positions and alleged secret plans to defeat the Islamic State, Clinton has an extensive track record upon which one can evaluate her likely positions. By any reasonable measure, Clinton qualifies as a hawk, if a nuanced one. Though she has opposed uses of force that she believed were a bad idea, she has consistently endorsed starting new wars and expanding others.

Consider seven prominent situations in which she has had to decide whether to support the use of American military force:

Haiti: In 1994, Clinton opposed intervening in Haiti to reinstate the Jean-Bertrand Aristide government. As historian Taylor Branch recounted in his diary of interviews with Bill Clinton: I asked him what Hillary thought. He said the pell-mell rush to invade was crazy to her. Reacting against the pressure, the lack of options, and his sense of being trapped, she said he was badly served by his foreign policy staff. This was an astute judgment by the then-first lady, as the options developed by the U.S. Southern Command and Joint Chiefs were poorly conceived and often logistically impossible to carry out. Fortunately, a 25,000 U.S. troop invasion was avoided after Jimmy Carter brokered a last-minute agreement with Raoul Cedras that assured he would step down from power.

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Iraq: In 2002, as a senator for New York, Clinton voted for the authorization for the use of military force in Iraq. In her accompanying floor statement, she claimed it was to ensure President George W. Bush was in the strongest possible position to lead our country in the United Nations or in war and to show Saddam Hussein that the country was united. After initially defending the vote, she later adjusted, variously declaring she thought it was a vote to put inspectors back in, it was based on the facts and assurances that I had at the time, and ultimately it was a mistake to trust Bush. Clinton also justified the 2002 vote as simply one for compelling compliance, proclaiming, I believe in coercive diplomacy, in a January 2008 presidential debate. Regardless of the reasons or excuses behind her vote, the Iraq War was a foreign-policy and geopolitical disaster.

Pakistan: In 2007 and 2008, Clinton strongly disagreed with then-Sen. Barack Obama about striking al Qaeda targets inside of Pakistan. Obama called such attacks just common sense if there were actionable intelligence. Clinton referred to the 1998 cruise missile strikes in Afghanistan that failed to kill Osama bin Laden and warned that we have to be very conscious of all the consequences, particularly anything that would destabilize Pakistans nuclear arsenal. Obama would go on to authorize 407 drone strikes in Pakistan, killing 3,089 people. Nearly 300 of these occurred while Clinton was secretary of state, during which time U.S. diplomats opposed only one or two of the strikes. Whatever hesitation Clinton once had in attacking militants in Pakistan vanished upon being confirmed as secretary of state.

Afghanistan: In 2009, Clinton supported three-quarters of the Afghanistan surge. When Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, requested four brigades of additional U.S. troops in the summer of 2009, Clinton endorsed deploying three of them (equaling roughly 30,000 troops). Reportedly, Clinton usually favored sending even more [troops] than [Secretary of Defense Robert] Gates did. Obama eventually deployed 33,000 extra troops. It is hard to identify any enduring political or security gains in Afghanistan that have resulted from the surge. Moreover, more than three-quarters of all U.S. troop casualties in that country since 9/11 were killed or wounded in the four years after the surge was initiated.

Libya: In 2011, Clinton was a strong proponent of regime change in Libya (as was Trump). It is forgotten today that a primary justification she offered for the U.S. military role in Libya was to pay back allies for Afghanistan. As she stated in late March 2011: We asked our allies, our NATO allies, to go into Afghanistan with us 10 years ago. They have been there, and a lot of them have been there despite the fact they were not attacked. When it comes to Libya, we started hearing from the U.K., France, Italy, other of our NATO allies. This was in their vital national interest. Academic research shows that great powers enjoy freedom of action to avoid becoming dragged into wars involving allies, but the Libya regime change intervention was, unfortunately, one that the Obama administration chose to fully support, despite misleading the American people at the time that it was not the goal. Obama correctly labeled not planning for the postwar scenario his worst mistake and correctly described Libya as a mess.

Osama bin Laden: In 2011, she endorsed the Navy SEAL raid into Abbottabad, Pakistan, that killed Osama bin Laden, even while recognizing that it would likely poison diplomatic relations with Pakistan for a short time. According to Vice President Joe Biden  who opposed it  every other official (including Clinton) was 51-49 in supporting the raid. Before the news broke, Obama called Bill Clinton (who, as president, signed three covert findings authorizing bin Ladens killing) to let him know the al Qaeda leader was finally dead. I assume Hillarys already told you, Obama said to an unaware Clinton. As Hillary Clinton later wrote in her memoir: They told me not to tell anyone, so I didnt tell anyone. Bill later joked with me, No one will ever doubt you can keep a secret!

Syria: In 2012, she reportedly proposed to the White House  along with CIA Director David Petraeus  a covert program (apparently larger than the one later authorized) to provide arms to vetted Syrian rebel groups fighting Bashar al-Assads government. Obama opposed this proposal on the grounds that there could be no guarantees of where the weapons would ultimately end up and that CIA analysts determined they would not have materially hastened the removal of Assad from power. It is difficult to assess the CIA-led train-and-equip programs effectiveness, compared to larger Defense Department-led efforts, but there remains no collection of U.S.-backed rebel groups that has threatened the existence of the Assad government, which is now backed by indiscriminate Russian air power.

Outside of specific interventions, Clinton also supported muscular shows of force as secretary of state. New York Times reporter Mark Landler describes a July 2010 White House debate about rerouting the USS George Washington aircraft carrier from its normal cruise into the Yellow Sea. Adm. Robert Willard, the head of U.S. Pacific Command; Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs; and Secretary of Defense Gates all agreed on this aggressive maneuver. Clinton strongly seconded it. Weve got to run it up the gut! she had said to her aides a few days earlier, Landler writes. But Obama refused the request, declaring, I dont call audibles with aircraft carriers. It bears noting that determining the aggressiveness by which the United States conducts freedom of navigation operations in maritime waters claimed by China will be a consequential call for the next president.

Finally, Clinton has had an unusual exposure to the military from multiple civilian positions, which may make her far better prepared to serve as commander in chief than her husband was in 1993, when he had a notoriously difficult start leading the military. As first lady, Clinton was routinely exposed to military intervention debates among senior officials, including over Haiti, Bosnia, and Afghanistan, and later served six years on the Senate Armed Services Committee and four as secretary of state. She also has developed close relations with retired military officers like Gen. Jack Keane, who has rarely seen a country that cannot be improved with U.S. ground troops and airstrikes. As Bob Woodward wrote of a 2009 meeting between the two to discuss the Afghan surge: Clinton greeted Keane with a bear hug, astonishing [U.S. envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard] Holbrooke becauseand he should knowHillary rarely bear-hugged anyone.

I have spoken about Clinton with a handful of military officers, then stationed in Islamabad and Kabul, who were routinely involved in video teleconferences with her as secretary of state. They all described her as being, by far, the best-prepared senior participant in meetings and having read all the memos or briefing books that were sent as preparatory material. They relayed that Clinton has an intimate understanding of military doctrine, Pentagon acronyms, and military planning principles and was not afraid to press senior commanders to clarify the courses of action and the intended end state of any given military intervention.

Should Hillary Clinton win the White House, the United States, already at war for 15 years, would be led by a president deeply aware and comfortable with the military. Its impossible to know which national security crises she would be forced to confront, of course. But those who vote for her should know that she will approach such crises with a long track record of being generally supportive of initiating U.S. military interventions and expanding them.

Photo credit: JILL M. DOUGHERTY/Getty Images




From Town & Country

In 1973, cereal heiress Marjorie Merriweather Post donated her 128-room Palm Beach mansion to the U.S. government to be used as the "winter White House." And now that Donald Trump is president, that legacy has in some sense come true.

Post was one of the world's richest women when she finished building Mar-a-Lago in 1927 at a cost of $7 million. American architect Marion Sims Wyeth designed the estate, which sits on 20 acres that border the Atlantic Ocean on one side and Florida's Intracoastal Waterway on the other. (Wyeth also designed the Florida governor's mansion in Tallahassee).

Photo credit: Getty

Post willed her home to the American government upon her death with the intention that it be used as a warm-weather retreat for the president. But in 1981 the government returned Mar-a-Lago, which had been declared a National Historic Landmark a year earlier, to the Post Foundation, citing its high annual maintenance cost of $1 million.

Photo credit: Courtesy of federal HABS-Historic American Buildings Survey in Florida

Enter Donald Trump. The mogul's reported first offer for the property-$28 million-was turned down. But he persisted and the market slumped. Trump ended up getting the property for $5 million in 1985, and paid an additional $3 million for Post's antiques and furniture. (Post's Washington, D.C estate, by the way, is now a museum. It's called Hillwood. No word on whether the Donald has toured it yet.)

Trump turned Mar-a-Lago into a private club in 1995 and built a 20,000-square-foot ballroom with $7 million in gold leaf. He also spent $100,00 on four gold-plated sinks. Basically, there's gold everywhere you look. (When Trump is in residence, he and his family stay in a private wing of the house.)

Photo credit: Getty

Last spring, Trump's former butler and Mar-a-Lago's unofficial historian, Anthony Senecal told the New York Times about the house's "library, paneled with centuries-old British oak and filled with rare first-edition books that no one in the family ever read." (Senecal was also investigated by the Secret Service last year for threatening comments he made on Facebook about Barack Obama)

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Trump hasn't always seen eye-to-eye with the locals over his plans for Mar-a-Lago. In the last decade, for example, he has fought the town of Palm Beach over the size of this American flag. The original, installed in 2006, was on an 80-foot pole and Palm Beach ordinances forbade flag poles higher than 42 feet; violation carries a daily fine of $250.

Photo credit: Getty

Trump sued for $25 million claiming his right to free speech was being violated. Ultimately he and the town came to an agreement: Trump switched to a smaller flag posted on a 70-foot pole. And instead of paying fines, he donated $100,000 to veterans' charities.

Then last year Trump sued Palm Beach Country for what he called "deliberate and malicious" moves to direct departing flights from the Palm Beach International Airport over Mar-a-Lago. He dropped that suit in November, after the election. It's a moot point now anyway, as the secret service requested a no-fly zone be established over Mar-a-Lago when Trump is in residence.

When he opened Mar-a-Lago, Trump welcomed Jewish members, African-Americans, and gay couples, who had been prohibited from joining other Palm Beach clubs. Club members reportedly used to pay a $100,000 initiation fee and annual dues of $14,000 (along with taxes and an annual food minimum of $2,000) for the privilege of using the facilities like this pool. On January 1, following Trump's November victory, the inauguration fee was reportedly increased to $200,000.

It is, by most accounts, a profitable business. Trump made $15.6 million from the club in 2014. He reportedly stands to profit even more as president, both through higher fees and through increased interest in the club and its events.

Photo credit: Getty

Trump apparently feels more comfortable at Mar-a-Lago than almost anywhere else, and his pleasure in the estate was in evidence when I spoke to him about it back in 2014. "I have 24 acres in Palm Beach and nobody has anything like that," Trump told me at a show jumping event there in 2014. "A big house is on one acre. I have 24. It's the great estate of Palm Beach."

The estate is actually 20 acres, but who's counting?

Follow Sam on Twitter.









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Hillary Clinton made history Tuesday when she became the first woman to ever lead a major political party into the general election.

At the Democratic National Convention, delegates cheered her historic nomination after Vermont passed during the roll call and Bernie Sanders later joined the delegation. Sanders then took the microphone to vote that all of his states' votes go to Clinton, voting to "suspend the rules" and nominate Clinton as the presidential candidate of the Democratic party.

Clinton's supporters took to social media shortly after the historic moment to congratulate her and celebrate with fellow #ImWithHer followers. Later on Tuesday, Lena Dunham and former President Bill Clinton are set to take the stage.

See some of the reactions below.

So proud of you, Hillary. #DemsInPhilly

- Bill Clinton (@billclinton) July 26, 2016

It's official. I couldn't be more proud to call @HillaryClinton my mom - today & every day. #ImWithHer

- Chelsea Clinton (@ChelseaClinton) July 26, 2016

the moment it became real

A photo posted by Lena Dunham (@lenadunham) on Jul 26, 2016 at 4:08pm PDT

History made! #ImWithHer @HillaryClinton proud of my boo boos down there @lenadunham @AmericaFerrera @ambertamblyn pic.twitter.com/1nS0qQ97iU

- Amy Schumer (@amyschumer) July 26, 2016

Hillary Rodham Clinton just made Herstory.

- Uzo Aduba (@UzoAduba) July 26, 2016

I am SO happy I've lived to see this day! CONGRATS @HillaryClinton! I've been with HER since 1992 when she campaigned for Bill @UAkron!

- yvette nicole brown (@YNB) July 26, 2016

Let's pause our political disagreements to watch one of the last glass ceilings for U.S. women shatter. Congratulations @HillaryClinton.

- Larry King (@kingsthings) July 26, 2016

@livfirst and I right after Bernie stood up & @HillaryClinton became 1st female nominee.very emotional. #Herstory pic.twitter.com/lzcPeU7eI5

- Debra Messing (@DebraMessing) July 26, 2016

WE MADE HISTORY! I love you @HillaryClinton!!! So proud to be a part of this campaign! https://t.co/OXARf6BiFJ

Story continues

- Jaime King (@Jaime_King) July 26, 2016

YES SHE DID! HISTORY! HERSTORY! SERVICE. SACRIFICE. STRENGTH! @HillaryClinton #HillaryClinton pic.twitter.com/jShRMUjzC5

- Jamie Lee Curtis (@jamieleecurtis) July 26, 2016

Congratulations, @HillaryClinton !

- Andy Richter (@AndyRichter) July 26, 2016

So amazing to see Bill Clinton give a speech about love courtship politics and making the world better. Inspiring, sweet, moving #DNCinPHL

- Maria Shriver (@mariashriver) July 27, 2016
Engineers decry lack of pay and work in Dolakha

Engineers mobilised by the National Reconstruction Authority (NRA) in Dolakha have started a protest, saying that they have been without work and pay from the day they arrived in the district two months ago to assist the earthquake-affected families in house reconstruction.
Hollywoods Egyptian Theatre will soon have the capability to screen rare and fragile 35mm nitrate film prints thanks to a film preservation project undertaken by The Film Foundation, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, and Turner Classic Movies, in conjunction with the American Cinematheque.

When I was told that one of the most beautiful movie theaters in the country could be retrofitted for nitrate projection, I was overjoyed, moved, and excited by the potential, said Martin Scorsese, founder and chair of The Film Foundation. I hope that this is the beginning of a trend.

Cellulose nitrate was the standard film stock in commercial use prior to 1951. Though beloved by buffs for its vivid image quality, cellulose nitrate is flammable and was replaced by cellulose acetate safety film. Though old nitrate prints survive in controlled vault environments, few theaters are equipped to screen them.

Scorsese praised the stock for its luminosity and a richness that was never quite matched by the safer stocks that followed or their digital reproductions.

Rick Nicita, chairman of American Cinematheque, which owns the 1922 Egyptian, said the project will enable the theater to show every film format possible. A state-of-the-art digital projector will sit side-by-side with our 35mm/70mm machines  representing the rich history of cinema, as well as the future of the art form. The new nitrate-safe projection booth at the Egyptian, designed by BAR Architects, has begun construction, with the retrofit scheduled for completion in fall of 2016.

Needless to say, said Scorsese, Im eager for the completion of the necessary work so that I can see those glorious images projected in that one-of-a-kind theater.

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Hong Kong (AFP) - Hong Kong pro-democracy activists challenged controversial new election rules in court Wednesday after candidates for an upcoming vote were asked to sign a form saying the city is an "inalienable" part of China.

Critics have slammed the new stipulation as political censorship and an attempt to deter candidates in September's parliamentary elections from advocating self-determination or independence from Beijing.

It comes as some young campaigners are calling for more distance or even a complete breakaway from the mainland as fears grow that freedoms in the semi-autonomous city are disappearing due to Beijing interference.

At least 13 pro-democracy candidates have refused to sign the declaration.

Hong Kong's High Court said Wednesday it would not make a ruling on the challenge over the legality of the form -- brought by two pro-democracy political groups -- before the end of the nomination process Friday, as activists had wanted.

Instead the case was adjourned until August.

"The public should be angry...if candidates have to be screened based on their political views," activist Avery Ng of the League of Social Democrats told reporters, adding he was "disappointed" with the delay in the court decision.

Edward Leung of Hong Kong Indigenous -- a "localist" group pushing for independence from Beijing -- said everyone had the right to stand.

"This is definitely political censorship if someone is not approved to stand in the election," Leung told reporters outside court.

It is not yet clear whether those candidates who have refused to sign the form will be barred from running.

Some have told local media their candidacy has been confirmed despite opting out of the declaration. Others have said they have been quizzed by election officials over their stance on independence.

Leaders of several pro-independence groups have announced they are running for the legislature in September, as well as other pro-democracy campaigners who are calling for self-determination for Hong Kong.

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Beijing and Hong Kong officials have repeatedly said that advocating independence goes against the city's mini constitution and that independence activists could face legal consequences.

Election authorities in Hong Kong introduced the new declaration form earlier this month. It sets out three constitutional points, including the description of Hong Kong as a "local administrative region" of China.

Hong Kong was returned from Britain to China in 1997 under an arrangement that guarantees civil liberties unseen on the mainland.

But concerns have grown that such freedoms are now fading.

That negative sentiment was exacerbated by the disappearance last year of five Hong Kong-based booksellers from a firm that published gossipy books about leading Chinese politicians.

All resurfaced on the mainland where they were investigated over trading banned books.
A teenage boy shown hooded and shackled in images from a juvenile detention centre that shocked Australia has apologised for his crimes as anger mounted over the scandal Wednesday.

The treatment of Dylan Voller has become the focus of outrage after graphic evidence was broadcast of prison guards assaulting mostly indigenous boys in the Northern Territory, including stripping them naked and using tear gas.

It prompted an appalled Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to order an inquiry into the treatment of young inmates.

In one video from last year, Voller, then 17, is shown hooded and shackled to a mechanical restraint chair and left alone for two hours.

A former guard at the Don Dale Centre in Darwin told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, whose Four Corners programme exposed the abuse on Monday, he had seen the boy put in the chair at least three times.

Voller, who has been in and out of custody since he was 11 and is now in an adult prison, thanked the ABC for "getting the truth out there" in a hand-written letter released by his lawyer Wednesday.

"I would just like to thank the whole Australian community for the support you have showed for us boys as well as our families," said Voller, who has previously been convicted of crimes including car theft and robbery.

"I would also like to take the opportunity to apologise to the community for my wrongs and I can't wait to get out and make up for them."

Northern Territory Chief Minister Adam Giles has insisted he was not aware of the extent of the abuse, as calls mounted for him to resign after comments he made in 2010 urging criminals to be put "in a big concrete hole" resurfaced Wednesday.

The Northern Territory News headlined its front-page "Sack the lot of them", while The Australian broadsheet said in an editorial: "Juvenile detention horror a window on our shame."

Rights groups have called for the royal commission to be Australia-wide, but Turnbull ruled this out, saying it risked becoming too cumbersome.

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"This royal commission, which will be done in collaboration with the Northern Territory government, will be focused on the youth detention centres and youth detention practices in the Northern Territory that were the subject of the Four Corners program," he said Wednesday.

The Northern Territory has one of the highest crime rates in Australia, with indigenous offenders making up more than two-thirds of the prison population.

According to Amnesty International, Aboriginal children are 26 times more likely to be jailed than their non-indigenous counterparts as they struggle to deal with poor education, high unemployment rates, and substance abuse.
Taylor Wimpey (London Stock Exchange: TW.-GB) has sought to reassure that there is life beyond Brexit by telling investors it has seen "no meaningful change to date" in trading since the U.K.'s referendum last month.

The British homebuilder qualified this by using a line popularly quoted by companies this earnings season that it was "too soon to really tell yet".

Speaking to CNBC, Taylor Wimpey Group Finance Director Ryan Mangold pointed to long-term tailwinds for the company and broader sector: "From a market point of view, the structural undersupply of housing in the U.K. will underpin the fundamentals really positively for us."

This message was reinforced by the 5.8 percent jump in total average selling prices to 238,000 achieved by Taylor Wimpey in the first half.

Expectations that the Bank of England will cut rates on August 4th have risen since a key "hawk" on the bank's monetary policy committee, Martin Weale, said weak PMI data had prompted him to change tack and advocate immediate policy changes. However, Mangold cautioned that he didn't think mortgage rates could go much lower.

Homebuilders such as Taylor Wimpey are more reliant on the U.K. government's Home to Buy Equity Loan Scheme, which offers a 20 percent five-year loan to buyers (40 percent in London) of new homes only. Some analysts believe that in the case of a prolonged slowdown, new builds could stand to be better supported than existing stock.

Analysts are broadly positive on Taylor Wimpey's stock, with most target prices significantly above today's level despite a series of price target cuts in recent weeks. Deutsche Bank slashed its target price from 261 pence to 218 pence on Tuesday but reconfirmed its "buy" rating  no surprise given an implied upside of around 50 percent from Taylor Wimpey's Tuesday night close.

The company's price-to-book value ratio is now back in line with historical levels. Combining this with a solid landbank, a tidy balance sheetand a strong net cash position, some commentators see much to like. A further bright point is the company's dividend policy which was enhanced last May and reaffirmed today. Shareholders are set to receive a 300 million special dividend in both July 2016 and July 2017, as well as an ordinary dividend set at around 5 percent of net assets or a minimum level of 150 million.

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And Mangold's comments to CNBC did not indicate any let up in that approach. In Mangold's words: "We've got a clearly stated strategy in terms of what we're trying to deliver as a business and the balance sheet scale and the land bank scale fits perfectly with that strategy. To the extent we have surplus cash available, it's available for return to shareholders."

Nonetheless, the U.K. housing market faces a significant slowdown in transactions, record high affordability pressures, recent obstructive policy changes and nerves over consumer confidence levels and economic prospects.

While homebuilders' earnings are much more driven by falling house prices than tumbling transaction levels, warnings out of real estate giants Foxtons and LSL in the past few weeks raise the prospect of price cuts being pushed through at some point if sales fail to get going again.

A sobering estimate from Bank of America Merrill Lynch suggests a 10 percent reduction in volumes and prices over two years could cut earnings in the U.K. homebuilder sector by around 50 percent.

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HSBC Global Asset Management has bolstered the competitiveness of its passive index tracking funds by slashing fees, yet its other passive instruments  exchange traded funds (ETFs)  continue to bleed assets.

HSBC announced today it has more than halved fees on index trackers on its U.S., European and FTSE All-Share funds, to 0.08 percent, 0.10 percent and 0.07 percent respectively. The new fees will be applied to new and existing customers from 15 November.

Andy Clarke, chief executive officer at HSBC Global Asset Management UK, said in a statement that the firm has always been at the forefront of passive fund development.

Passive investing is a big and expanding market in the UK and as a fund provider we are committed to playing a part in this expansion, he said.

The move brings the provider in line with the other major tracker providers like Legal & General, BlackRock and Vanguard.

ETF Arm Continues To Shed Assets

However, HSBCs ETF range has been dogged by outflows year-to-date at 649 million, according to Deutsche Bank data as of 29 September. The vast majority of European ETF providers have had positive inflows so far this year.

Data from Bloomberg from 2 to 9 October show that only two HSBC ETFs had any flow activity: HSPX (S&P 500) and HRUD (Russia) saw outflows of almost $20 million and inflow of around $1 million respectively.

ETFs Not As Cheap As Trackers

Investors have piled out of HSBCs two main funds which track global equities (ticker HMWD) and the FTSE 100 (ticker HUKX).

Adam Laird, passive investment manager at Hargreaves Lansdown, told ETF.com: This is probably an outcome of the price war: HSBCs range is low cost in some places but theyve been undercut here.

Both HMWD and HUKX charge 0.35 percent in annual fees.

A spokesman from HSBC responded that whilst the firm seeks to be competitive in pricing, it's about overall value for our clients.

Pricing is an important but not the only measure. For instance, we do not embed derivatives in our ETFs so headline pricing should not be treated in isolation, he said.

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Bad Luck Could Turn Around

Laird added that HSBCs advantage is its comprehensive range of single country funds, which range from Russia to Indonesia.

Emerging markets have been massively out of favour this year. Its probably unlucky, but they could benefit if this turns around, added Laird.

HSBC has been managing index trackers since 1988, and ETFs since 2003. It now manages 28 ETFs with a total of 4.7 billion assets under management.

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Permalink |  Copyright 2016 ETF.com. All rights reserved
REUTERS - International Business Machines Corp said on Wednesday it would provide its technology and resources to help track the spread of the Zika virus. Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz), a leading research institution affiliated with the Brazilian Ministry of Health, plans to use IBM's technology to analyze information from official data about human travel patterns to anecdotal observations recorded on social media. Global health officials are racing to better understand the Zika virus, which has caused a major outbreak that began in Brazil last year and has spread to many countries in the Americas. IBM also said it plans to donate a one-year subscription feed of highly local, daily rainfall, average temperature and relative humidity data to the U.S. Fund for United Nations Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF). Rainfall, temperature and humidity play key roles in the development of the Aedes aegypti mosquito, which carries Zika as well as dengue, chikungunya and Yellow Fever. IBM is also collaborating with the New York-based Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies to collect and mine biological and ecological data to help devise algorithms that can determine which primates are carriers for the virus. IBM also runs the 'OpenZika project' on the company's World Community Grid, a crowd-sourced supercomputer. The initiative allows scientists in the United States and Brazil to screen millions of chemical compounds to identify candidates to combat the virus. More than a dozen small biotech firms and other organizations are developing vaccines against Zika, which is linked to birth defects and neurological disorders, although most work is at a nascent stage. Google, a unit of Alphabet Inc, said in March it was working with UNICEF to analyze data in an effort to map and anticipate the spread of the virus. (Reporting by Natalie Grover in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila)
Morcha puts caveat to join govt

Will a change of guard mean a resolution to the long-drawn Madhes crisis?
You couldn't listen to coverage of last months EU referendum without hearing the word "immigration"; The Leave campaign adopted it as one of its key arguments and their slogan, take back control, was routinely applied to the UKs borders.

So anyone who voted Leave could be forgiven for thinking the number of immigrants coming to the country would fall.

However, a new report by MPs says we could actually see a surge of immigration from the EU immediately before Britain leaves and possible restrictions on free movement are put in place, the BBC reported.

(1/9) Today we are publishing our report, The work of the Immigration Directorates (Q1 2016). Read it here: https://t.co/6w6EPtGVpq  Home Affairs Cttee (@CommonsHomeAffs) July 26, 2016

The report by the Home Affairs Select Committee said: "Past experience has shown that previous attempts to tighten immigration rules have led to a spike in immigration prior to the rules coming into force.

The MPs urged the government to prepare for a surge by fully resourcing the countrys immigration agencies so they can handle the heavy extra demands placed on them, the Guardian reported.

The most obvious cut-off date for new immigration rules to come into play would be the date that article 50  the formal mechanism to leave the EU  is triggered, the report also said.

Crucially, the government must also offer EU citizens currently in the UK some confirmation of their status, said the MPs  will they be sent home or allowed to stay?

The government has said it cant guarantee that EU citizens will be able to stay without a mutual agreement from other EU countries about British citizens living in the EU.

However, the report said EU nationals living in the UK are "in a potentially very difficult and uncertain position" because of the Leave vote, and that they should not be used as bargaining chips in the negotiations, reported the BBC.

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Many EU migrants in the UK feel unwelcome after the Leave vote, with many experiencing racism and hate crimes and weighing up whether they would even want to live in a post-Brexit Britain anyway.

Brexit has made me rethink my own future in London," Vicky Angelina Stoelzel, 21, a German migrant in the UK, told Refinery29 last month. "We still dont know what the outcome of leaving the EU will be and that is what scares my friends and me."

Like what you see? How about some more R29 goodness, right here?

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India has signed a billion-dollar deal with Boeing to buy four maritime surveillance planes, defence and aviation sources said Wednesday, as it looks to counter China in the Indian Ocean.

The deal for four P-8I aircraft follows India's earlier purchase of eight of the planes from the American aerospace giant in 2009.

"The deal has been signed. The delivery dates are being worked out," a defence ministry source told AFP, adding that the deal was worth more than a billion dollars.

India has already deployed its original eight long-range P-8I aircraft to track submarine movements in the Indian Ocean.

The navy is looking to beef up its fleet to strengthen its capabilities against submarines and surface ships.

"India has a vast maritime border and these planes are meant for long-range surveillance," a Boeing official told AFP, adding that a clause in the earlier agreement provided for New Delhi to purchase four more planes.

"The navy will likely deploy them in the Indian Ocean and Bay of Bengal to counter Chinese influence in the seas," the official said.

India, the world's number one defence importer, is in the midst of a multi-billion dollar upgrade of its Soviet-era military hardware.

The country has signed several big-ticket defence deals since Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party stormed to power in 2014.

Other deals have been mired in bureaucratic wrangles, however, notably the agreement to buy 36 Rafale fighter jets from France's Dassault Aviation which has been pending since 2012.

Modi's government has raised the limit on foreign investment in the defence sector and encouraged tie-ups between foreign and local companies.

Modi, a hardline Hindu nationalist, has also called for the manufacturing of defence equipment locally and cut down reliance on expensive imports.
By Sanjeev Miglani

NEW DELHI, July 27 (Reuters) - India signed a contract on Wednesday to buy four maritime spy planes from Boeing Co for about $1 billion, defence and industry sources said, aiming to bolster the navy as it tries to check China's presence in the Indian Ocean.

India has already deployed eight of the long-range P-8I aircraft to track submarine movements in the Indian Ocean and on Wednesday exercised an option for four more, two defence ministry officials and an industry source told Reuters.

"It's a follow-on order, it was signed today," a defence ministry official said, speaking on condition of anonymity as he is not authorised to make announcements on procurements.

A second defence official confirmed the value of the contract at about $1 billion and said the aircraft were expected to enter service over the next three years.

Amrita Dhindsa, a spokeswoman for Boeing defence, space, and security in India, said she was not in a position to say anything on the contract and referred all questions to the defence ministry.

But she said the P81 was an aircraft used for not only for long-range patrol but was also equipped with Harpoon missiles for anti-submarine warfare.

India has been building up its naval surveillance capabilities since China's navy expanded its reach and sent submarines, including a nuclear-powered boat that docked in Sri Lanka, across the Indian Ocean.

The deal, signed during a visit by the U.S. Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition Frank Kendall, marks a further tightening of India's ties with the United States, which has emerged as a top arms supplier in recent years for India's largely Soviet-equipped military.

A U.S. embassy spokesman was not immediately available for comment.

Boeing last year completed the delivery of the last of the aircraft under the previous order worth $2.1 billion, an industry source said.

The Indian navy has deployed some of its P8-I aircraft to the remote Andaman and Nicobar islands near the Malacca Straits and two other routes into the Indian Ocean for military and commercial shipping.

(Editing by Robert Birsel)
A controversial former military chief accused of atrocities during Indonesia's brutal occupation of East Timor was appointed top security minister Wednesday, with activists calling it a step backwards for human rights.

Wiranto, named to the powerful post in a cabinet reshuffle, was among senior officers indicted by United Nations prosecutors over gross human rights abuses during the 24-year occupation of tiny East Timor.

Around 100,000 people are estimated to have been killed, mainly by Indonesian forces and their proxies, or to have died of starvation and illness during the occupation, which occurred during dictator Suharto's three-decade rule.

Markets however cheered the appointment of prominent reformist Sri Mulyani Indrawati, currently a World Bank managing director, to the post of finance minister -- six years after she resigned from the same job after coming under attack from conservative forces in the government.

Wiranto's appointment was met with disappointment by rights activists. President Joko Widodo, who took power in 2014, was the country's first leader from outside the political and military elites and it was hoped the influence of the old guard would wane under his leadership.

"It is a setback," Andreas Harsono, Indonesia researcher for Human Rights Watch, told AFP. "The message might be that Jokowi (Widodo) is not going to be as progressive as before in pursuing his human rights agenda."

Widodo was likely trying to balance his unwieldy ruling coalition, said Keith Loveard, a senior risk analyst at Jakarta-based Concord Consulting.

Wiranto's Hanura party, a small partner in the coalition, lost two other ministers in the shake-up, which saw 13 changes to the cabinet and was the second reshuffle under Widodo.

- Bloody rampage -

Wiranto, who like many Indonesians goes by one name, was head of the armed forces when the Indonesian army and paramilitaries went on a bloody rampage in East Timor after it voted to become independent in August 1999. The country formally became independent in 2002.

Story continues

He denies any wrongdoing and has never faced court over the atrocities.

He replaces Luhut Panjaitan in the key role of chief security minister, overseeing five ministries including foreign, interior and defence.

Observers suggest Panjaitan caused concern among the military elite and Islamic groups by taking unprecedented steps to probe a bloody 1960s purge of communists and their supporters.

Cabinet Secretary Pramono Anung defended the appointment of Wiranto, describing him as "tested and experienced". He has previously held the posts of defence and security minister.

Despite the claims against him, Wiranto has managed to retain a prominent position in public life. He has been a presidential candidate in two elections and in 2009 was the running mate of Jusuf Kalla, the current vice president.

It was Widodo's latest controversial appointment to the top echelons of the security establishment. He also faced criticism for making hardline ex-general Ryamizard Ryacudu defence minister.

Panjaitan moved to the post of coordinating minister for maritime affairs, still a key job at a time when Indonesia is embroiled in rows with China over the South China Sea.

Indrawati previously held the finance minister post in 2005-10 and won praise for battling corruption and keeping Southeast Asia's biggest economy on track. But she eventually resigned after facing attacks over a controversial bank bailout.

The Jakarta stock market was up 1.2 percent following news of her comeback.
By Gayatri Suroyo and Eveline Danubrata JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesian President Joko Widodo pleased market reform advocates on Wednesday by bringing home the World Bank's managing director to be finance minister and upset human rights activists by naming a controversial ex-general as security chief. The surprise appointments of Sri Mulyani Indrawati to head the finance ministry and Wiranto as coordinating minister for politics, law and security were part of a wider-than-expected cabinet reshuffle in which the trade, energy, transport and industry ministers were also replaced. "I am aware that the challenge keeps changing and it needs quick action from us," Widodo told reporters, adding that unemployment and income inequality must be addressed and the cabinet needed to work "more quickly, more effectively". The addition of Indrawati to the president's economic team lifted financial markets, with stocks closing 1 percent higher and the rupiah strengthening 0.4 percent against the dollar. "Sri Mulyani's appointment is a game-changer because it restores a certain amount of investor confidence and means having a steady hand on the tiller with a solid record as a reformer," said Paul Rowland, a Jakarta-based analyst. In 2010, Indrawati joined the World Bank after serving as both Indonesia's chief economic minister and finance minister under a previous president, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. Six years later, she officially returned to Indonesia, wearing a blue batik outfit and a pearl necklace at a handover ceremony at the finance ministry in Jakarta. "This task is a noble task but it is not light," Indrawati said as she accepted her appointment. She listed reducing poverty and inequality, creating job opportunities and restoring business confidence as priorities. Indrawati had earlier said that she would be looking at both budget and fiscal policies to strengthen Indonesia's economy to withstand "global tremors and pressures that are very difficult at the moment". CRISIS MANAGEMENT Indrawati, who has a doctorate in economics from the University of Illinois and is not a member of a political party, won praise for successfully managing Indonesia's economy through the 2008 global financial crisis. "The president wants a dream team to manage economic policies so that we can accelerate (growth). He needs Sri Mulyani," said David Sumual, chief economist for Bank Central Asia. Indonesia's economic growth is expected to improve only slightly in the second quarter from 4.92 percent in the first three months of the year. The finance ministry has forecast full-year GDP growth of about 5.2 percent in 2016, up from 4.79 percent last year. Bambang Brodjonegoro, the finance minister Widodo appointed in 2014, has been shifted to head the national development planning agency. The change in finance ministers comes just after Indonesia launched a tax amnesty it hopes will bring home billions of dollars that Indonesians have parked overseas. Widodo also surprised many by announcing Wiranto as his new chief security minister, reassigning his close adviser Luhut Pandjaitan to be chief maritime minister. 'VERY OLD GUARD' Wiranto, army chief when strongman Suharto quit amid protests in 1998, was indicted by a U.N. panel over the bloodshed surrounding East Timor's 1999 independence vote, when about 1,000 people died. The former general has denied any wrongdoing in East Timor. "He is part of the very old guard of Suharto's New Order," said Andreas Harsono, Indonesia director of Human Rights Watch. "This is really bad news for human rights." Analysts viewed Wiranto's appointment and others as politically motivated, as the president looks to consolidate support from parties keen to join the ruling coalition. Wiranto controls Hanura, "a party which has supported Jokowi from the get-go, and one way of seeing this is for the president to secure its continued support", wrote Wellian Wiranto, economist at OCBC. The president also welcomed the second-largest political party, Golkar, into the cabinet by appointing Airlangga Hartarto as industry minister. Golkar, which was in opposition to Widodo when he was elected in 2014, played a key role in getting the president's tax amnesty bill passed this year. Other major cabinet changes included the re-assignment of Thomas Lembong from trade minister to investment chief. Arcandra Tahar, an executive at Texas-based offshore engineering firm Petroneering, was appointed energy and mining minister, replacing Sudirman Said. (Additional reporting by Kanupriya Kapoor, Wilda Asmarini, Nilufar Rizki, Cindy Silviana, Agustinus Beo Da Costa, Hidayat Setiaji, Bernadette Christina Munthe and Yuddy Cahya; Writing by Randy Fabi; Editing by Richard Borsuk)
JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesia's president on Wednesday appointed World Bank managing director Sri Mulyani Indrawati as the country's new finance minister, among a wider cabinet reshuffle aimed at increasing the effectiveness of his team. Former Indonesian army general Wiranto will replace Luhut Pandjaitan as the chief security minister. The trade, energy and industry ministers are also among those who will be replaced. Sri Mulyani served as finance minister under the former president, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. The new cabinet, which will be inaugurated later on Wednesday, will include at least one member of Indonesia's second-largest political party, Golkar. (Reporting by Gayatri Suroyo and Jakarta bureau; Writing by Eveline Danubrata; Editing by Richard Borsuk)
Protesters in Philadelphia marched from City Hall to the Democratic National Convention on Wednesday, with some demonstrating in favor of legalizing marijuana and others chanting their support for Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.

Various groups joined the march and gathered at the Wells Fargo Center to protest fracking, criticize the electoral process and accuse Hillary Clinton of corruption, among many other issues.

A large crowd also gathered to watch as two giant inflatable marijuana joints passed, with the words Berned (sic) by the DNC scrawled on at least one, video shows. A man in the footage can also be heard repeatedly screaming, Pot reform! Prison reform!

Sanders supporters can also be seen playing the bagpipe and banging on drums as several joined in to chant, Bernie!

Read More: Scenes of Protest and Peace from the Democratic Convention

TIME photographer Ben Lowy took to the streets to film our latest 3D 360-Degree video. Earlier this month, Lowy captured about 100 protesters outside of the Republican National Convention calling GOP nominee Donald Trump a racist and embarrassment to America.
NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / July 27, 2016 / The following statement is being issued by Levi & Korsinsky, LLP:

To: All persons or entities who purchased or otherwise acquired securities of Juno Therapeutics, Inc. ("Juno") (JUNO) between June 4, 2016 and July 7, 2016 .

You are hereby notified that a securities class action lawsuit has been commenced in the USDC for the Western District of Washington, Seattle Division. If you purchased or otherwise acquired Juno securities between June 4, 2016 and July 7, 2016, your rights may be affected by this action. To get more information go to: http://www.zlk.com/pslra/juno-therapeutics or contact Joseph E. Levi, Esq. either via email at jlevi@zlk.com or by telephone at (212) 363-7500, toll-free: (877) 363-5972. There is no cost or obligation to you.

The complaint alleges that Juno materially misled investors by failing to disclose the May 2016 death of a patient in the Company's Phase 2 trial of product candidate JCAR015. These omissions led Juno to trade at artificially inflated prices, and certain insiders participated in the heavy selling of shares in the weeks prior to the disclosure of the death. Then, following the death of two other patients in June and July, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued a clinical hold on the study, and Juno disclosed the patients' deaths.

If you suffered a loss in Juno you have until September 12, 2016 to request that the Court appoint you as lead plaintiff. Your ability to share in any recovery doesn't require that you serve as a lead plaintiff.

Levi & Korsinsky is a national firm with offices in New York, New Jersey, California, Connecticut, and Washington D.C. The firm's attorneys have extensive expertise and experience representing investors in securities litigation, and have recovered hundreds of millions of dollars for aggrieved shareholders. Attorney advertising. Prior results do not guarantee similar outcomes.

CONTACT:

Levi & Korsinsky, LLP

Joseph E. Levi, Esq.

30 Broad Street - 24th Floor

New York, NY 10004

SOURCE: Levi & Korsinsky, LLP
NC in discussion for choosing candidates

With the CPN (Maoist Centre) and the Nepali Congress getting down to the nitty-gritty of a power sharing deal to form a new government under the leadership of Maoist Centre Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal, Congress leaders have initiated deliberations on settling the portfolios and the names of their choice of ministers.
ATHENS, GREECE / ACCESSWIRE / July 27, 2016 / Diana Shipping Inc. (DSX) will host a live conference call and webcast to discuss the results of the second quarter 2016, to be held Thursday, July 28, 2016 at 9:00 AM Eastern Time.

To participate in this event, dial 877-407-8291 domestically, or 201-689-8345 internationally, approximately 5 to 10 minutes before the beginning of the call. Additionally, you can listen to the event online at www.investorcalendar.com/IC/CEPage.asp?ID=175093 as well as via the Diana Shipping Inc. website (www.dianashippinginc.com).

The webcast archive will be available at www.investorcalendar.com or www.dianashippinginc.com.

About Diana Shipping Inc.

Diana Shipping Inc. is a global provider of shipping transportation services through its ownership of dry bulk vessels. The Company's vessels are employed primarily on medium to long-term time charters and transport a range of dry bulk cargoes, including such commodities as iron ore, coal, grain and other materials along worldwide shipping routes.

SOURCE: Investor Calendar
BOULDER, CO / ACCESSWIRE / July 27, 2016 / Dynamic Materials Corporation (BOOM) will host a conference call and live webcast to discuss the results of the second quarter 2016, to be held Thursday July 28, 2016 at 5:00 PM Eastern Time.

To participate in this event, dial 877-407-0778 domestically, or 201-689-8565 internationally, approximately 5 to 10 minutes before the beginning of the call. Additionally, you can listen to the event online at www.investorcalendar.com/IC/CEPage.asp?ID=175167 as well as via the Dynamic Materials website (www.dmcglobal.com/investors).

If you are unable to participate during the live webcast, the event archive will be available at www.investorcalendar.com or www.dmcglobal.com/investors.

You may access the teleconference replay by dialing 877-481-4010 domestically or 919-882-2331 internationally, referencing conference ID # 10056. The replay will be available beginning approximately 2 hours after the completion of the live event, ending at midnight Eastern on August 4, 2016.

About DMC

Based in Boulder, Colorado, DMC operates in two sectors: industrial infrastructure and oilfield products and services. The industrial infrastructure sector is served by DMC's NobelClad business, the world's largest manufacturer of explosion-welded clad metal plates, which are used to fabricate capital equipment utilized within various process industries and other industrial sectors. The oilfield products and services sector is served by DynaEnergetics, an international developer, manufacturer and marketer of advanced explosive components and systems used to perforate oil and gas wells. For more information, visit the Company's website at: http://www.dmcglobal.com.

SOURCE: Investor Calendar
MAYFIELD HEIGHTS, OH / ACCESSWIRE / July 27, 2016 / Materion Corporation (MTRN) will host a conference call and live webcast to discuss the results of second quarter 2016, to be held Thursday, July 28, 2016 at 9:00 AM Eastern Time.

To participate in this event, dial 877-407-0778 domestically, or 201-689-8565 internationally, approximately 5 to 10 minutes before the beginning of the call. Additionally, you can listen to the event online at www.investorcalendar.com/IC/CEPage.asp?ID=175118 as well as via the Materion Corporation website (www.materion.com).

If you are unable to participate during the live webcast, the event archive will be available at www.investorcalendar.com or www.materion.com.

You may access the teleconference replay by dialing 877-660-6853 domestically or 201-612-7415 internationally, referencing conference ID #13640503. The replay will be available beginning approximately 2 hours after the completion of the live event, ending at midnight Eastern on August 11, 2016.

About Materion Corporation

Materion Corporation is headquartered in Mayfield Heights, Ohio. The Company, through its wholly-owned subsidiaries, supplies highly engineered advanced enabling materials to global markets. Products include precious and non-precious specialty metals, inorganic chemicals and powders, specialty coatings, specialty engineered beryllium alloys, beryllium and beryllium composites, and engineered clad and plated metal systems.

SOURCE: Investor Calendar
RICHMOND, VA / ACCESSWIRE / July 27, 2016 / NewMarket Corporation (NEU) will host a conference call and live webcast to discuss the results of the second quarter 2016, to be held Thursday, July 28, 2016 at 3:00 PM Eastern Time.

To participate in this event, dial 877-407-9210 domestically, or 201-689-8049 internationally, approximately 5 to 10 minutes before the beginning of the call. Additionally, you can listen to the event online at www.investorcalendar.com/IC/CEPage.asp?ID=175113 as well as via the NewMarket Corporation website (www.NewMarket.com).

If you are unable to participate during the live webcast, the event archive will be available at www.investorcalendar.com or www.NewMarket.com.

You may access the teleconference replay by dialing 877-660-6853 domestically or 201-612-7415 internationally, referencing conference ID # 13640355. The replay will be available beginning approximately 2 hours after the completion of the live event, ending at midnight Eastern on August 4, 2016.

About NewMarket Corporation

NewMarket Corporation through its subsidiaries, Afton Chemical Corporation and Ethyl Corporation, develops, manufactures, blends, and delivers chemical additives that enhance the performance of petroleum products. From custom-formulated chemical blends to market-general additive components, the NewMarket family of companies provides the world with the technology to make fuels burn cleaner, engines run smoother and machines last longer.

SOURCE: Investor Calendar
BOSTON, MA / ACCESSWIRE / July 27, 2016 / Winthrop Realty Trust (FUR) will host a conference call to discuss the results of the second quarter 2016, to be held Thursday, July 28, 2016 at 12:00 PM Eastern Time.

To participate in this event, dial 877-407-9205 domestically, or 201-689-8054 internationally, approximately 5 to 10 minutes before the beginning of the call.

You may access the teleconference replay by dialing 877-481-4010, referencing conference ID # 10052. The replay will be available beginning approximately 2 hours after the completion of the live event, ending at midnight Eastern on August 28, 2016.

About Winthrop Realty Trust

Winthrop, headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, is a NYSE-listed real estate investment trust (REIT). Winthrop's shareholders recently adopted a plan of liquidation pursuant to which Winthrop is liquidating and winding down and, in connection therewith, is seeking to sell its assets in an orderly fashion to maximize shareholder value. For more information, please visit their website at www.winthropreit.com.

SOURCE: Investor Calendar
Only fools pay for their champagne at Oxford. As a womens-studies graduate student at the British university, I could always count on my professors stocking a bottle or two of bubbly in their offices, happily pouring me a glass whenever I walked in. Students of other graduate programs at Oxford had reserved seats in the library, educational field trips, or allotted funding for research materials, but the 15 women of Oxfords womens-studies program during the 201314 academic year made do with drinking in medieval-era buildings we wouldve been banned from a century ago.

I'd felt like I'd been let into this cultural club because so much of English culture, things like Brideshead Revisited and that sort of thing, is based around Oxford, 27-year-old Isobel Laing, a classmate from Cheltenham, told me. Lisa Bernhardt, a 24-year-old Ph.D. candidate at Cambridge, shared similar sentiments about her university: I was just really enchanted from the outside looking init was so grand.

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If you had just joined a club that took centuries to grant you membership, would you dare ask for more? We were grateful that a womens-studies masters program existed at Oxford at all, especially after learning our professors, who taught in other disciplines as well, werent getting paid for the additional work they did for womens-studies students. Sure, my classmates and I were confidently theorizing in seminars about womens unpaid labor, but addressing these discrepancies in real life proved to foreshadow future disappointments in the devaluation of women beyond the stone enclaves of Oxford.

A classmate recently shared a link to Feminist Formations, a peer-reviewed journal about feminist scholarship, published by Johns Hopkins University Press. I immediately delved into the back archives of the journal, where I discovered, to my dismay, that womens- and gender-studies programs began as volunteer commitments by scholars and activists in universities both in the U.K. and the U.S. It has been a long struggle to get support from universities for them, Lila Abu-Lughod, a professor of anthropology and women's and gender studies at Columbia University, confirmed. At Columbia, with a grant from the Mellon Foundation, professors took it upon themselves to found the Institute for Research on Women, Gender, and Sexuality in 1987, but salaried positions in the programa faculty line in academic jargonwerent established until 1998. The budget only covered basic operations, and faculty members had difficulty getting permission from their departments to commit time to teaching and developing the program.

Story continues

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The first womens-studies program in the United Kingdom wasnt established until 1980 at the University of Kent in Canterbury, with a Master of Arts degree offered in gender studies. The gender-studies degree programs in Britain are affiliated with interdisciplinary research centers, which means that their work isnt guaranteed to be recognized, supported, or funded as are dedicated faculties in English, philosophy, or economics. In other words, they will always be secondary to the traditional departments because there isnt a gender-studies departmentjust a gender-studies research center.

"Its the sense of doing good service."

To this day, there are no salaried posts in womens studies at Oxford, and it would cost 2 million to endow such a post at the school, according to Ros Ballaster, the co-founder of womens studies at Oxford. Womens Studies: Oxfords cheapest faculty, was the slogan printed on badges worn by the volunteer-based Oxfords Womens Studies Committee in 1993. The committee, originally formed to organize lectures funded by small royalties received by publications based on the lectures, still exists as the steering committee for the masters program; it voluntarily meets several times every year for additional tasks and projects, such as deciding whom to admit to the next cohort of masters-degree students and responding to student feedback. When I went to the committee meeting, there were probably three people there, Laing, who served as my cohorts student representative, recalled. It didnt seem like something people were caring too much about  Maybe because they volunteered for it?

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Oxford wouldnt dare cut its own womens-studies programIt would be an obvious PR disaster as a leading university, Helen Swift, a professor of medieval French who leads the program, told me. But womens studies in Britain is at risk of being defunded. On the other side of town in Oxford, the program in womens studies was recently terminated at Ruskin College, an alternative college for adults who have no traditional educational qualifications. (The college is famous for educating women when other schools banned them.) We haven't got much money, the colleges principal, Chris Wilkes, said. After conducting a curriculum review, the school decided to cut other programs, too, including English studies and history. [Womens studies] wasn't covering its costs, Wilkes added.

The loss of the program was a blow to a progressive school known for its history of radical feminist activism, such as hosting the first Womens Liberation Conference in 1970. But its not just Ruskin: Traditional universities like the University of Kent and the University of Edinburgh have also cut institutional support for gender studies. And in the United States in 2014, the University of South Carolina Upstate was forced to close its gender-studies center.

I called Paige West, a professor of anthropology at Barnard College and Columbia University who also works in interdisciplinary programs, to explain the shift away from these fields. All interdisciplinary programslike ethnic studies, womens studies, and urban studieswere born out of voluntary commitments from existing faculty members, she noted. That means that if these programs are financially draining to a given institutionespecially because, unlike their counterparts in scientific departments, their costs arent covered by contracts and grantsthey run the risk of termination. Thats particularly true if the discipline is politically charged and if there arent many viable employment options outside of higher education. Abu-Lughod pointed out that the salaries of economics professors are at least three times that of humanities professors and ... [they] argue for raises on the basis of their market valuesince they could be in business or politics [instead of education].

Meanwhile, back at Oxford, its left to the professors who were initially hired for other departments to eke out time and resources for their womens-studies instruction. I reached out to the university to learn more about its approach to women's studies, and I was directed to Ballaster, the co-founder of that department, and Swiftboth of whom advised me while I was a student there.

I asked Swift about how she gets paid. Because Swifts salary at the university comes out of funding for the Medieval and Modern Languages faculty, that money has to be stretched to support her work for the womens-studies program.

The university allocates Swift eight hours a week to complete work for womens studies, so every week, the facultynot Swiftreceives eight hours worth of her salary to let her work on something else. This system is known in British higher education as a buyout, not to be confused with the American definition of the term. But Swift admits that the buyout is just an institutional gesture of support. Now, strangely enough, it takes me a little bit longer than the equivalent of writing and delivering eight hours of lectures, she noted. But it's never intended to actually cover the amount of time that it takes. Or at least, that's how I've always construed them  Because they don't. Thats just the reality of academic life.

The rooms were still not our own.

One professor at Oxford called the work of teaching womens studies a labor of lovea sentiment echoed by Swift. [Its] the sense of doing good service, she said. It's not something that brings one extra time, but in that respect, its a bit like contributing to outreach. It seems  part of one's mission, in a way. There's inevitable pro-bono.

But such work comes with consequences. As passionate as our professors were, my cohort at Oxford didnt feel all that inspired in seminars. Some students, such as Julienne Orcullo, a 24-year-old from Sydney, did say she appreciated Oxfords lax, hands-off approach to womens studies. But most of my other peers expressed disappointment. I think when you get into a university which has such a prestigious reputation internationally, as Oxford does, you expect a certain level of support and engagement, Laing reflected. I felt quite let down by Oxford.

Once, a professor confessed she hadnt done the assigned reading herself. I seethed in class, feeling self-righteous because I did all the reading and even highlighted a few passages, too. At the time, I didnt realize she was essentially volunteering her nonexistent free time to teach us and that my anger toward her lacking preparation for class was misplaced. I should have been furious with my school for its blatant labor exploitation and for failing to support certain forms of academic pursuit.

In response to a public-records request, the University of Oxford shared documents revealing how the womens-studies masters-degree program was funded between the 2011 and 2016 academic years. The funding varied wildly from year to yearin the 2011-12 school year, the program received a grand total of 111,790. The following school year, it received just 44,965.01less than half of the previous years funding. By the 2015 to 2016 school year, the funding was up to 89,304.35. The biggest costs involved infrastructure (libraries and IT support, for example), while administrative expenses also ate a large chunk. But spending on teaching was comparably low: At its peak, it was 8,842.95 (compared to 43,410 for infrastructure and 17,261.23 for administration), and at its base, it was 5,725 (compared to 15,100 and 7,354). (The University of Oxford declined a public-records request for funding statistics from other interdisciplinary masters-degree programs, citing excessive costs.)

Spending, according to the document, varied largely according to the number of students in the course. That means that, in my year of 15 students, for all the weekly lectures and seminars we attendedand all the papers we wroteteaching each of us only cost the university about 456 per student over the course of 10 months.

These wages are comparative to those of adjunct professors in the United States akin to freelance instructors with low pay and no job security. The standard pay per course for U.S. adjunct professors is $2,700 or soor about $270 for grading, administrating, and teaching a student over the course of a term, assuming the adjunct is teaching a 10-person seminar. And while the burden of being a full-time instructor in womens studies comes with benefits publicly funded health care and full-time salaries, for exampleteaching womens-studies students ultimately come with a significant loss of time and, often, money. Whether our programs are well funded or not, for most of us, it is an intellectual and political passion, Abu-Lughod said. That involves seeking funding, seeking respect, helping each other, institutionalizing, et cetera.

And my program at Oxford, and Abu-Lughods Institute for Research on Women, Gender, and Sexuality at Columbia, are the luckier of the bunch: In 2007, a census of U.S. womens-studies programs conducted by The National Womens Studies Association determined that 5 percent of womens-studies programs in the country reported that they received no funding at all.

* * *

Long before my programs struggle for legitimacybefore females were even allowed to study at Oxfordwomen were essential to the endowment and founding of some of the universitys most prestigious colleges. In 1610, the influential heiress Dorothy Wadham founded Wadham College, according to the will of her late husband Nicholas Wadham, using her own funds to finance the institution. It would greatly offend my conscience to violate any jot of my husband's will, she said. In 1974, Wadham College, along with Brasenose College, Jesus College, Hertford College, and St. Catherine's College, became one of the first formerly men-only institutions to admit women.

Oxford, despite opening its womens colleges in the 1800s, continued to deny degrees to qualified women until 1920, not giving them full collegiate status until 1959. Elite American universities werent much betterColumbia, for example, didnt admit women until 1987. A persistent argument in academia, as Ballaster told us during one of our first days in the program, is that separate programs for womens studies are no longer relevant because gender studies is incorporated into other disciplines. The political scientist Wendy Brown even critiqued womens studies to be a border control of gender that privileges the political over the intellectual.

But learning in a space carved out for womens studiesno matter how small or flimsynot only taught me how to use gender as a tool to extract meaning when conducting my research, it also gave me the space to realize that living and interpreting the world as a woman is a valid experience. It made me realize that not being a cisgender, white manespecially at a school known for its imperialistic tiesdidnt automatically mean I was inferior. "[The Masters in Womens Studies] has led me to question the assumption that interdisciplinarity is always a necessary good, Ballaster wrote in a 2012 essay in the anthology Teaching Gender. There is a freedom in teaching gender from within a single discipline if the questions we ask are sufficiently generous and rigorous."

Virginia Woolf, who was educated at home while her two brothers were schooled at Cambridge, also had her own set of frustrations about the treatment of women in the U.K.s most prestigious universities. At the core of her 1929 essay A Room of Ones Own was a demand for literal and physical spaces for women writers, as literary tradition was (and is) dominated by men. She, as an imaginary narrator, attempts to enter the library at Oxbridge, an imaginary college based on Oxford and Cambridge, but is stopped by a gentleman who tells her that ladies are only admitted to the library if accompanied by a fellow of the college or furnished with a letter of introduction. She later ends up at an imaginary womens college called Fernham, where she is discouraged by the poverty of amenitiesnot even booksin contrast to Oxbridge. To raise bare walls out of bare earth was the utmost they could do, Woolf wrote.

Nearly a century after Woolfs observations, Oxford is giving women much more than bare wallsample amounts of wine (paid for out of professors pockets, of course), faculty mentors, and access to the libraries, to name a few. There are intangible gifts as well. [Oxford is] quite a mythic place in British culture, and I think having been there, I suddenly felt like I was part of that club, Laing, my classmate, told me. I felt like I'd been let into an elite group. While other graduate students got their own libraries or at least reserved desks to sit in, we had to ask for permission from departments like that of history and English to use their resources. Sometimes, we were even denied access due to confusion about our status as interdisciplinary students. In 2014, the rooms were still not our own.

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Dublin (AFP) - Ireland's central bank on Wednesday cut its growth forecasts for 2016 and 2017 because of Britain's vote to leave the European Union but said the full impact would depend on the details of any Britain-EU deal.

The bank cut its GDP forecast to 4.9 percent this year from a previous forecast of 5.1 percent on April 1 and to 3.6 percent next year from 4.2 percent earlier.

"The close relationship between the Irish and UK economies creates a particular exposure for the Irish economy from Brexit," the bank said in a quarterly bulletin -- its first since a momentous June 23 referendum in which Britain opted for Brexit.

"Both in the short-term and in the longer-term, the economic impact of Brexit on Ireland is set to be negative and material," the central bank said.

It also warned of the potential for "a protracted period of heightened uncertainty and risk aversion" during negotiations between Britain and the EU.

"The trade outlook is likely to be most affected by the Brexit referendum given the prospect of weaker demand and higher levels of uncertainty," it said.

The central bank said it expected export growth of 6.4 percent in 2016 to moderate to 4.5 percent in 2017.

Britain is Ireland's biggest trading partner in several key sectors, including agriculture.

Britain is the destination for 52 percent of Irish beef, 60 percent of cheese and 84 percent of poultry exports.

Almost 200,000 people in Ireland rely on British exports for their livelihoods.

An immediate effect is already being felt as the British pound has fallen against the euro, making Irish exports more expensive in Britain.
Dublin (AFP) - Two men have been arrested in connection with the murder of Denis Donaldson, a former British secret service agent shot dead in 2006, Irish police said on Wednesday.

Donaldson was a former senior party official in Sinn Fein, formerly the political wing of the IRA, who in the months before his murder was outed as having spent 20 years spying on the movement for British intelligence.

Investigators did not name those arrested but said one is in his 40s and the other in his 70s. They were remanded in custody on Wednesday and can be held for up to 72 hours, police said.

Detectives appealed for anyone with information about the case to come forward.

"Both men were arrested in the Donegal area on July 26, 2016, and are currently being detained at Letterkenny police station," police told AFP by email.

Donaldson's body was found in April 2006 in the home where he lived alone, without water or electricity, in the rural village of Glenties in north west Ireland.
iShares plans to launch its first swap-based commodity ETF in the UK early next year, according to a Citywire report.

The iShares S&P GSCI Dynamic Roll Energy Swap ETF will allow investors to gain exposure to oil and gas, sectors which would be more difficult for the issuer to access using its more traditional physical replication method.

iShares launched a swap-based ETF platform in September of last year, although it said at the time that physical replication would remain its first option when launching new products.

The first two funds in the range at launch were the MSCI Russia Capped Index and the S&P CNX Nifty India Index. The rationale for straying from its usual methodology was that in emerging markets, physical replication could lead to greater tracking errors due to a lack of liquidity in the underlying securities.

According to Citywire, the new fund will use swap counterparties to mirror the S&P GSCI Energy Dynamic Roll Capped Commodity index.

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ETFs may have attracted a lot of bad press last year, but for iShares European business, there really was no such thing as bad publicity.

As regulators issued a series of warnings on the dangers of synthetic ETFs, investors piled into physically replicated funds such as those offered by the worlds largest ETF issuer, helping iShares secure 70% of all new inflows into European ETFs last year.

The ETF platform of BlackRock gained over 80% of all net new cash inflows to European ETFs during the year. Its total assets under management rose to 81 billion by year-end, representing a 39% market share.

iShares US equity, German equity and corporate bond funds proved particularly popular with investors, with over 8 billion of inflows into its DAX (DE) ETF making it the star performer for the firm.

Joe Linhares, head of iShares for the EMEA region, said: In a year where investors faced challenging macroeconomic conditions and looked to avoid risk, iShares had a very successful 2011.

As more investors return to the market and reposition portfolios in 2012, we believe ETFs will attract significant new interest and we are upbeat on the prospects for continued industry growth. Investors increasingly recognise the value of ETFs as transparent, liquid and highly regulated vehicles through which they can execute strategies and build up longer-term allocations.

Much of iShares success came at the expense of rivals that focus on synthetically replicated products, and in particular, Lyxor, which suffered net outflows of over 7 billion during 2011.

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Nepal alerted against threat to Koshi Barrage

Nepal has beefed up security at and around the Koshi Barrage located close to the Nepal-India border after perceived threats of destruction of the dam by international terrorist groups or Islamic militant outfits that could cause a massive flooding mostly in the Bihar state of India.
As the sovereign crisis continues to rumble along, iShares has launched a new range of single-country ETFs allowing investors to pick and choose which countries are safe haven enough for their risk profile.

The issuer has introduced eight new funds: the iShares Barclays Austria Treasury Bond ETF, the iShares Barclays Belgium Treasury Bond ETF, and six others focused on Finland, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain.

The ETFs will invest in fixed rate debt issued by the government of each country, buying only bonds that have at least one year until maturity.

The launches are significant in a market that offers mostly broader pan-European funds in the government bond space. Since the eurozone crisis began, however, many investors have shied away from peripheral countries and the credit rating gap among European countries has widened, leaving many seeking more granular exposure to sovereign debt.

Although there are many ETFs offering exposure to German government bonds already in the marketplace, and a smaller number tracking France and Italy, the new funds are firsts for the rest of the countries in iShares new range.

Axel Lomholt, head of iShares product development EMEA, said: Investors are allocating to fixed income in a more granular way than ever before. This new series of single country eurozone debt exposures will allow them to invest and express their views in a more precise fashion. The ETFs can be used to overweight or underweight bonds in fixed income portfolios on a country basis, according to an investors risk and return expectations and objectives, as well as to implement core allocations."

The new products have been listed on the London Stock Exchange and are physically-backed funds. All have total expense ratios of 0.20 percent.

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iShares has expanded its currency hedged fund range with the launch of an ETF that tracks European equities while hedged into the U.S. dollar to protect investors against a weakening euro.

The iShares MSCI EMU USD Hedged UCITS ETF (EMUU) launched today. It has annual fees of 0.38 percent and is physically replicated. It tracks an index of 240 companies across the Economic Monetary Union, with over 23 percent invested in financials and over 15 percent in consumer discretionary stocks.

The fund currently holds $5 million in assets and rebalances quarterly. As to currency hedging, the fund uses one month foreign exchange forward contracts to reduce exposure to currency fluctuations between the USD and the euro, according to the provider.

iShares now has a total of 11 currency-hedged ETFs, covering the euro, US dollar, Sterling and the Swiss franc. Most recently the provider launched the iShares MSCI Europe ex-UK GBP Hedged UCITS ETF (EUXS) with annual fees of 0.40 percent. It also brought to market a UK real estate ETF in March, which costs 0.40 percent, a European corporate bond ETF for 0.25 percent, and a U.S. buyback fund for 0.55 percent.

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DAMASCUS, Syria  A twin bombing struck a crowd in a predominantly Kurdish town in northern Syria on Wednesday, killing 44 people and wounding dozens more, Syrias state-run news agency and Kurdish media reported. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack.

Media reports said a truck loaded with large quantities of explosives blew up on the western edge of the town of Qamishli, followed by an explosives-packed motorcycle a few minutes later in the same area. The blasts caused massive damage in the area and rescue teams were working to recover victims from under the rubble, the SANA news agency said.

Qamishli, near the Turkish border, is mainly controlled by Kurds but Syrian government forces are present and control the towns airport.

Syrian state TV broadcast footage showing people running away from a mushroom of gray smoke rising over the town and others running amid wrecked or burnt cars.

Qamishli resident Suleiman Youssef, a writer, told The Associated Press by telephone that he heard the first explosion from few miles away. He said the blasts leveled several buildings to the ground and many people were trapped under the rubble.

Most of the buildings at the scene of the explosion have been heavily damaged because of the strength of the blast, he said.

ISIS, in a statement published by the ISIS-linked Aamaq news agency, said it carried out the attack in Qamishli, describing it as a truck bombing that struck a complex of Kurdish offices. The extremist group has carried out several bombings in Kurdish areas in Syria in the past.

The predominantly Kurdish U.S.-backed Syria Democratic Forces have been the main force fighting IS in northern Syria, capturing significant territory from the extremists over the past two years.

Wednesdays explosion came as U.S.-backed Kurdish forces pressed ahead with their offensive to take the IS-held town of Manbij, also in northern Syria but further to the east of Qamishli.
Islam Makhachev had his UFC on FOX 19 lightweight preliminary fight with Drew Dober cancelled just 24 hours prior to fight time in April. Makhachev had tested positive for the non-prescription medication meldonium, a prohibited substance on the World Anti-Doping Agency's list.

On Wednesday, the United States Anti-Doping Agency, which oversees the UFC Anti-Doping Policy, issued a statement saying that Makhachev was found to be not at fault for ingesting the prohibited substance. As such, he will not face a suspension, despite the positive test result.

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USADA's statement on Makhachev:

USADA announced today that UFC athlete Islam Makhachev, of Dagestan, Russia, has tested positive for a prohibited substance, which was determined to have been ingested by him without fault or negligence.

Makhachev, 24, tested positive for meldonium as the result of an out-of-competition urine sample he provided on April 4, 2016. Meldonium is a non-specified substance that was added to the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) Prohibited List in 2016. It is in the category of Hormone and Metabolic Modulators and is now prohibited at all times under the UFC Anti-Doping Policy, which has adopted the WADA Prohibited List.

During USADAs investigation of the case, it was discovered that Makhachev underwent a radiofrequency ablation procedure for frequent ventricular arrhythmia in December of 2014. In November of 2015, Makhachevs physician recommended that Makhachev incorporate meldonium, a non-prescription medication, into his follow-up treatment plan and as a preventative measure against a potential relapse. Makhachev then used meldonium for four weeks, from late November to late December 2015. USADA confirmed that Makhachev discontinued use of the substance prior to January 1, 2016, because he was aware that the substance would be added to the WADA Prohibited List and banned under the UFC Anti-Doping Program.

After a thorough review of the case, USADA concluded that the extremely low meldonium concentration in the athletes urine sample, combined with the athletes explanation of use, was consistent with ingestion prior to the substance being officially prohibited on January 1, 2016. Based on the latest guidance offered by WADA on June 30, 2016, for cases involving meldonium, Makhachev will not face a period of ineligibility for his positive test.

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By Noemie Olive SAINT-ETIENNE-DU-ROUVRAY, France (Reuters) - Knife-wielding attackers interrupted a French church service, forced the priest to his knees and slit his throat on Tuesday, a murder made even more shocking as one of the assailants was a known would-be jihadist under supposedly tight surveillance. As the attackers came out of the church shouting "Allahu akbar" (God is Greatest) they were shot and killed by police. The men arrived during morning mass in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, a working-class town near Rouen, northwest of Paris, where the 85-year-old parish priest, Father Jacques Hamel, was leading prayers. "They forced him to his knees and he tried to defend himself and that's when the drama began," Sister Danielle, who escaped as the attackers slayed the priest, told RMC radio. "They filmed themselves. It was like a sermon in Arabic around the altar," the nun said. Three other worshippers were held hostage until the assailants were killed, one of them was badly wounded during the attack. News agency Amaq, which is affiliated with Islamic State, a group France is bombing in Iraq and Syria as part of a U.S.-led coalition, said two of its "soldiers" had carried out the attack. Police said one person had been arrested. France's anti-terrorism prosecutor Francois Molins identified one of the attackers as 19-year-old Adel Kermiche, a local man who was known to intelligence services after his failed bids to reach Syria to wage jihad. Kermiche first tried to travel to Syria in March 2015 but was arrested in Germany. Upon his return to France he was placed under surveillance and barred from leaving his local area. But less than two months later he slipped away and was intercepted in Turkey making his way towards Syria again. He was sent back to France and detained until late March this year when he was released on bail. He had to wear an electronic tag, surrender his passport and was only allowed to leave his parents home for a few hours a day. The fact that he was still able to commit the attack will raise yet more questions over the intelligence services and legal procedures in a country still under a state of emergency. It is less than two weeks since a Tunisian plowed a truck into a crowd in the French Riviera city of Nice, killing 84 people, an attack claimed by Islamic State. "In the face of this threat that has never been greater in France and Europe, the government is absolutely determined (to defeat) terrorism," President Hollande said in a televised address. The White House condemned the attack and commended the French police's "quick and decisive response." "NORMAL TEENAGER" One former school acquaintance remembered Kermiche as a normal teenager who became obsessed with hardline interpretations of the Koran after the attack on the satirical Charlie Hebdo magazine in January 2015 and would later urge his friends to "fight for our brothers". "He tried to indoctrinate us," said the 18-year-old, who gave his name only as Redwan. A horrified local resident, Cecile Lefebre, said: "I have no words. How do you arrive at this point, killing people in cold blood like this? It's pure barbarity." Since the Bastille Day mass murder in Nice, there has been a spate of attacks in Germany, some of which also appear to be Islamist-inspired. "In the face of this threat that has never been greater in France and Europe, the government is absolutely determined (to defeat) terrorism," Hollande said in a televised address. MERCILESS But former president Nicolas Sarkozy, who is expected to enter a conservative primary for next year's presidential election, accused the Socialist government of being soft. "We must be merciless," Sarkozy said in a statement to reporters. "The legal quibbling, precautions and pretexts for insufficient action are not acceptable. I demand that the government implement without delay the proposals we presented months ago. There is no more time to be wasted." The center-right opposition wants all Islamist suspects to be either held in detention or electronically tagged to avert potential attacks. Far-right National Front leader Marine Le Pen, who is also expected to run for the presidency, said both Sarkozy's and Hollande's parties had failed on security. "All those who have governed us for 30 years bear an immense responsibility. It's revolting to watch them bickering!" she tweeted. Hollande said France should "use all its means" within the law to fight Islamic State. Pope Francis condemned what he called a "barbarous killing". "The fact that this episode took place in a church, killing a priest, a minister of the Lord and involving the faithful, is something that affects us profoundly," Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said. In a telephone call with the pope, Hollande expressed "the sorrow of all French people after the heinous murder of Father Jacques Hamel by two terrorists," and said everything would be done to protect places of worship, the presidential palace said. Jean-Pierre Raffarin, a former conservative prime minister who now heads the Senate's foreign affairs committee tweeted: "Everything is being done to trigger a war of religions." (Additional reporting by Chine Labbe, Marine Pennetier, Michel Rose and Richard Lough in Paris and Jess Mason in Washington; Writing by Richard Lough and Paul Taylor; Editing by Jeremy Gaunt and Robin Pomeroy)
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli troops shot dead a Hamas fighter on Wednesday who the military said was responsible for an attack that killed a rabbi in a drive-by shooting in the occupied West Bank earlier this month. The militant was killed in an overnight raid in the territory, during which residents of the Palestinian village of Surif, near the city of Hebron, reported lengthy exchanges of fire between Israeli forces and gunmen. In a statement, the military said that security forces killed the man responsible for the July 1 attack that killed Rabbi Michael Mark. Mark was shot from a moving vehicle as he drove in his car. Israeli forces also arrested three other militants. Islamist group Hamas identified the man killed in the raid as Mohammad al-Fakih and it said he was a member of its armed wing, the al-Qassam Brigades. The house in which Fakih was hiding out was damaged during the fighting and then demolished by an Israeli bulldozer. Since October, Palestinian street attacks have killed at least 33 Israelis and two visiting Americans. At least 205 Palestinians have been killed, 139 of whom Israel said were assailants. Others died during clashes and protests. (Writing by Jeffrey Heller, Additional reporting by Ali Sawafta in Ramallah; editing by John Stonestreet)
Washington (AFP) - The United States has slammed as "provocative" Israeli plans to build hundreds of new settlement homes in annexed east Jerusalem, saying they seriously undermined the prospect of peace with the Palestinians.

"We are deeply concerned by reports today that the government of Israel has published tenders for 323 units in east Jerusalem settlements," State Department spokesman John Kirby said in a statement on Wednesday.

"This follows Monday's announcement of plans for 770 units in the settlement of Gilo."

"These steps by Israeli authorities are the latest examples of what appears to be a steady acceleration of settlement activity that is systematically undermining the prospects for a two-state solution," Kirby said.

"We remain troubled that Israel continues this pattern of provocative and counterproductive action, which raises serious questions about Israel's ultimate commitment to a peaceful, negotiated settlement with the Palestinians."

Palestinian leaders and the United Nations joined in condemning plans advanced this week for 770 new homes that would expand the Gilo settlement on the southern perimeter of east Jerusalem.

They are part of a larger Israeli plan for around 1,200 units approved some three years ago, according to Ir Amim, an NGO that monitors Israeli settlement activity.

On Wednesday, tenders for 323 settlement homes in four areas of east Jerusalem were published, Ir Amim and Israeli NGO Peace Now said.

The tenders in at least three of the areas had been previously published but the homes were not built for unclear reasons. They are now being relaunched, Peace Now said.

"On the one hand, the government does not allow for Palestinian construction, and on the other hand it promotes massive construction for Israelis," Peace Now said in a statement.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government "decided to repudiate the Quartet report and to prove, yet again, that it has no intention to promote a peace agreement based on a two-state solution."

Story continues

A recent report by the diplomatic Quartet -- the United States, European Union, Russia and the UN -- said settlement expansion was eroding the possibility of a two-state solution to the conflict.

Israeli settlements in east Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank are viewed as illegal under international law.

They are also considered major stumbling blocks to peace efforts as they are built on land Palestinians view as part of their future state.

Kirby also voiced concern about increased demolitions of Palestinian structures in the West Bank and east Jerusalem.

"More than 650 Palestinian structures have been demolished this year, with more Palestinian structures demolished in the West Bank and east Jerusalem thus far than in all of 2015," he said.

"As the recent Quartet report highlighted, this is part of an ongoing process of land seizures, settlement expansion, legalisations of outposts, and denial of Palestinian development that risk entrenching a one-state reality of perpetual occupation and conflict."

Israel occupied the West Bank and east Jerusalem in 1967. It later annexed east Jerusalem, which Palestinians view as their future capital.

The status of Jerusalem has been among the most contentious issues in peace negotiations, which have been at a standstill since April 2014.
Kailali Carnage: Nepal Police refutes Amnesty Internationals report

Nepal Police has refuted Amnesty International (AI)'s report alleging arbitrary arrests of members of Tharu community, torture and coercion to sign confessions in connection with the killings of the eight security personnel and a child in Tikapur, Kailali district, on 24 August 2015.
ROME (Reuters) - Italy's Economy Minister said on Wednesday that the nation's banking system is fundamentally solid and it will wind down its massive holdings of bad loans over time.

European rules allowing the government to guarantee the bundling of some non-performing loans and a private fund set up to help take them off bank balance sheets provide Italy with the tools needed to tackle the problem of soured debt.

"The Italian banking system can adopt effective and sustainable market solutions," Economy Minister Pier Carlo Padoan said during question time in the lower house of parliament.

Italian banks had some 83 billion euros (69.5 billion) of net bad debt at the end of February, according to the International Monetary Fund, Padoan added.

(Reporting by Giuseppe Fonte, writing by Steve Scherer)
They're all with her!

After mocking Donald Trump's fog machine RNC entrance at the Democratic National Convention on Tuesday, Elizabeth Banks debuted another project in support of the Democratic presidential nominee, Hillary Clinton: a music video featuring all of her famous friends.

The 42-year-old actress and director channeled Pitch Perfect -- and recruited a few co-stars -- for the a capella cover of Rachel Platten's "Fight Song," a powerful anthem that Clinton has used on the campaign trail as she worked toward being the first female major party nominee for president.

RELATED: Elizabeth Banks Mocks Donald Trump's 'Over the Top' RNC Entrance, Compares Him to Her 'Hunger Games' Character

The video is the "secret project" that Banks has been teasing on Instagram in recent weeks, sharing pics of stars like Eva Longoria, Connie Britton and Platten herself showing up to record their parts. Others, like America Ferrara, Idina Menzel and Pitch Perfect's Ben Platt, shot their segments of the video on location, on cell phones and laptop cameras.

NEWS: Lena Dunham and America Ferrera Team Up on Trump In DNC Speech: 'Love Trumps Hate'

YouTube star Mike Tompkins also shared an Insta pic featuring more of the "amazing people" with whom he and Banks collaborated on the project, including Jane Fonda, Aisha Tyler, Mandy Moore, Jesse Tyler Ferguson and Kristin Chenoweth.

Stay tuned until the very end of the video for an epic cameo!

Check out more from the star-studded DNC in the video below.

WATCH: Lady Gaga Mobbed by Fans in New York City After Watching DNC With Sister Natali

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By Linda Sieg and Minami Funakoshi TOKYO (Reuters) - A day after the mass murder of 19 people at a facility for the disabled, many shocked Japanese were questioning why the only suspect was discharged after just two weeks from a hospital to which he'd been forcibly committed under mental health laws. Some are also wondering why the suspect, who had written letters in February saying he would kill hundreds of handicapped people, was not kept under surveillance after he left hospital. "Involuntary commitment is done forcefully by the authorities...If the time period drags on longer than necessary, it becomes a serious violation of human rights, Asahi newspaper said in an editorial on Tuesday. "However, there were warning signs before the incident," said the Asahi, one of Japan's two biggest newspapers. "Was the treatment and monitoring of the man sufficient"? The suspect, 26-year-old Satoshi Uematsu, gave himself up to police just an hour after the frenzied attack at the Tsukui Yamayuri-En facility in the sleepy town of Sagamihara, southwest of Tokyo early on Tuesday. The victims were stabbed to death and at least 25 other residents of the facility were wounded. On Wednesday, he was sent from a regional jail in Sagamihara to the Yokohama District Public Prosecutors Office in Kanagawa prefecture. Uematsu had said in the letters to a top politician that he could "obliterate 470 disabled people". He gave detailed plans of how he would do so, including breaking into the facility at night and targeting the severely disabled, media reported. After questioning by police, to whom he repeated his extreme comments, Uematsu was sent to a hospital on Feb. 19. He was discharged on March 2 after a doctor deemed he had improved and was no longer a threat to himself or others. Given the warning signs, mainstream media raised the question of whether Uematsu had been discharged too soon from hospital, where he had tested positive for marijuana use and exhibited signs of paranoia. Experts said there were no legal limits on the length of involuntary hospitalization but a discharge was required once the patient was no longer deemed a danger to himself or others. The decision is up to the doctors, so it's difficult to second guess. "The general public might think, 'Why was such a person let loose?' but forcible commitment is against the person's will so the conditions should be strict," said Fumie Kyo, a lawyer specializing in mental health patients' rights. MEDICAL CARE, CRIME PREVENTION Nevertheless, Kyo added, it might have been possible to keep Uematsu in hospital longer under protective care even if he was no longer judged a threat to others. The goal of Japan's hospital commitment system, however, is to provide medical treatment, not prevent crime, experts said. "If medical treatment is deemed no longer necessary, then the doctor must discharge the patient," said Seijo University professor Teruyuki Yamamoto. "The law is for the purpose of medical treatment, not for the prevention of crime, so there are limits." Authorities have not disclosed the hospital where Uematsu was treated or identified the doctor who approved his discharge. The experts said there was no legal requirement to keep a discharged mental patient under surveillance and indeed, doing so without permission would risk violating his rights unless the patient had previously committed a serious crime. Still, most agreed the incident had exposed weaknesses in Japan's community support system for discharged mental patients. "Japan's regional support system for the mentally ill is weak," Kyo, the lawyer, said. "All we have been doing is institutionalize the mentally ill." What sort of system should be put in place could be a delicate problem in a society where mental illness carries a stigma. "What is needed from now on is to create a soft system where officials from the department of health ask how the patient is doing," said Toshihiko Matsumoto, a physician who specializes in drug dependence at the National Institute of Mental Health. "Most mentally ill patients do not do such a thing," Matsumoto added, referring to the killings. "It's an extremely exceptional case. I'm worried that because of such an exceptional case, the rights of people who are trying to get better will be restricted." (Additional reporting by Kaori Kaneko; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)
(Adds details)

By Leika Kihara

TOKYO, July 27 (Reuters) - Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is planning a stimulus package with a headline figure of $255 billion to reflate the flagging economy, Fuji TV said, though it is uncertain how much of it will consist of government spending.

Abe will announce details of the package, including the total size of around 27 trillion yen ($255 billion) on Wednesday afternoon, the TV station reported, citing government officials.

Thirteen trillion yen will be spent by national and local governments as well as cheap loan programmes offered to private-sector projects by semi-government financial institutions, Fuji TV said.

Abe has ordered his government to craft a stimulus plan to revive an economy dogged by sluggish consumption and investment, despite three years of his "Abenomics" mix of hyper-easy monetary policy, spending and promised reforms.

Government sources have told Reuters the package will have a headline figure of at least 20 trillion yen. But only about 3 trillion yen would come from direct spending by national and local governments, they said, with the rest comprised of loan programmes and state subsidies to inflate the total size.

($1 = 105.8400 yen) (Reporting by Leika Kihara; Editing by Chris Gallagher and Eric Meijer)
By Hyun Oh SAGAMIHARA, Japan (Reuters) - Japanese police on Wednesday raided the house of a 26-year-old man suspected of stabbing to death 19 people and wounding dozens at a facility for the disabled in a small town near Tokyo, Japan's worst mass killing in decades. About half a dozen plainclothes police entered the home of Satoshi Uematsu, a former employee of the facility, as reporters and television cameras stood by. Uematsu was earlier sent from a regional jail in Sagamihara town, about 45 km (25 miles) southwest of Tokyo, to the Yokohama District Public Prosecutors Office in Kanagawa prefecture. Video footage showed him smiling in a police car as he was driven away. Uematsu, who gave himself up to police on Tuesday after the attack, had said in letters he wrote in February that he could "obliterate 470 disabled people" and gave detailed plans of how he would do so, the Kyodo news agency reported. He was involuntarily committed to hospital after he expressed a "willingness to kill severely disabled people", an official in Sagamihara told Reuters. He was freed on March 2 after a doctor deemed he had improved and was no longer a threat to himself or others, the official said. The affair has shocked a country with one of the lowest crime rates in the world. Residents of the Sagamihara area, a largely rural, wooded valley where houses are interspersed with orchards and vegetable gardens, were struggling to come to grips with the violence. "There was no reason or benefit to this," said 82-year-old Yukiko Inoue. "He just killed them." The killings have sparked debate on whether the system for involuntary commitment and aftercare has broken down, since Uematsu had previously made clear his intent to commit the crime. "Involuntary commitment is done forcefully by the authorities ... If the time period drags on longer than necessary, it becomes a serious violation of human rights, the Asahi newspaper said in an editorial on Tuesday. "However ...there were warning signs before the incident," the paper said. "Was the treatment and outwatch of the man sufficient? It is vital to closely examine the system of support for the man and his family, and the contacts between the medical system and the police. (Additional reporting and writing by Kaori Kaneko in Tokyo; Editing by Michael Perry, Robert Birsel)
Even Jay Z is an Instagram husband.



Beyonce released a series of photos documenting her family's trip to Paris during the European leg of the Formation World tour. One the cute pics posted to her website shows Beyonce and daughter Blue Ivy in matching Gucci dresses, while another shows Bey and Jay looking very romantic in front of the Eiffel Tower. But there's one photo in particular that's driving the internet wild.



Whether it was accidental or on purpose, Jay Z caught his reflection in the mirror as he snapped a picture of his wife wearing a mint green dress in an elevator.





A photo posted by BeyoncA (@beylite) on Jul 26, 2016 at 9:04am PDT









Fans declared Jay Z the face of Instagram husbands  men who are forced to be the photographer in their wives' mission to achieve the perfect social media snap  and started imagining scenarios that led to the photo.





I will never stop screaming at Jay Z in this photo. pic.twitter.com/q8UmFHXY0y a Josh (@J_Manasa) July 26, 2016







Jay-Z's role in this picture exemplifies literally the only thing that makes me think I should get myself a man pic.twitter.com/x523hFxyw6 a shon faye (@shonfaye) July 26, 2016







Jay: lean over a little more

Bey: Like this?

Jay: Sickening, don't move pic.twitter.com/XX7HZUaDcM a Xavier Cornelius (@Izzy_ohsopretty) July 26, 2016







jay posing like he was the one taking the selfie in the first place and bey is just in the way of his slayage pic.twitter.com/83lUv3MIGK a pop icon (@beyonseh) July 26, 2016







Related Video: WATCH: Beyonce Thanks 'My Beautiful Husband' Jay Z as She Launches Her Formation World Tour in Miami







You know what I just realized? Beyonce doesn't make Jay Z take these pictures. Jay Z makes Beyonce take em. pic.twitter.com/bnzafUWCfZ a DK Uzoukwu (@DKuzLA) July 26, 2016











Jay: I can't get a good angle!

Bey: Don't make me right another album about you .

Jay: Sorry, I'll do better. pic.twitter.com/tpOBHwoZQg a Bey Central (@BeyCentral) July 26, 2016





The creator of the Instagram Husband tumblr has even weighed in.





Made up a term, and now it has been applied to Jay Z and @Beyonce's relationship. My work is done. #instagramhusband https://t.co/cGz4xMcV9S a Jeff Houghton (@themysteryhour) July 26, 2016





Being half of a Hollywood power couple doesn't mean Jay Z can't take a fierce photo.



Beyonce is currently bringing the Formation World Tour across Europe with her husband and daughter in tow.
UKVI launches new online visa app form

The UK Visas & Immigration (UKVI) has launched a new online application form, making it easier for those in Nepal intending to travel to the United Kingdom to apply for UK visit visas.
Haute couture designer Jean Paul Gaultier has developed a taste for collaborations.

The French fashion icon is teaming up with Italian retail chain OVS on a new capsule collection for fall, WWD reports.

The collection will comprise 60 pieces spanning ready-to-wear and accessories for both men and women, titled 'Jean Paul Gaultier for OVS'. It will launch in a selection of the brand's 900 stores and online from November.

It is the latest in a line of surprising collaborations for Gaultier, who brought his ready-to-wear line to a close in 2014 to focus on his couture pieces. Since then he has teamed up with the Japanese retailer Seven & i and with the Australian retail chain Target on a range of womenswear, menswear, childrenswear and homeware. He has also been hard at work creating around 500 cabaret-influenced costumes for a new revue going on show at the Friedrichstadt-Palast in Berlin in the autumn, and continues to manage an impressive fragrance empire.

OVS was founded in 1972 as Magazzini Oviesse and expanded throughout the 70s and 80s to include household items, sporting goods, toys, perfumes and leather goods. Recently the brand has worked to cultivate an edgier image, collaborating with designers such as Elio Fiorucci, Costume National and Matthew Williamson.
A New Jersey nurse who allegedly told a 10-year-old boy with autism she would "give him the needle" if he did not behave, then stabbed him with a hypodermic syringe "sometimes repeatedly," has been suspended, according to documents filed by the state Office of the Attorney General and obtained by PEOPLE.



Nurse Naomi Derrick's alleged actions  "each time drawing droplets of blood" as she stabbed the boy and bent his finger backward until it cracked  were captured on video and/or witnessed by another employee at the inpatient psychiatric unit of AtlantiCare Regional Medical Center's City Campus in Atlantic City, the New Jersey attorney general's office says.



"A developmentally disabled child, confined to a psychiatric ward under the supervision of nurses, is as vulnerable a patient as you can find," said Acting Attorney General Christopher S. Porrino, who filed a complaint with the state Board of Nursing accusing Derrick of gross negligence, professional misconduct, and incompetence in her treatment of the child.



The Atlantic County prosecutor's office also is conducting a criminal investigation.



"Instead of caring for this boy and protecting him from harm, as was her duty, Naomi Derrick allegedly used her position of authority to bully and assault him," Porrino said. "There is no place in the healthcare profession for this kind of barbaric behavior."



Derrick voluntarily agreed to the temporary suspension of her license "without making admissions" of guilt or innocence while the matter is investigated, the documents show.



Her attorney, John A. Zohlman, who reviewed and signed the suspension agreement along with Derrick, could not immediately be reached for comment.



A statement to PEOPLE from the hospital reads: "We are appalled and deeply saddened that this occurred."



"As soon as we became aware of this situation we notified the child's family as well as law enforcement and regulatory authorities," the statement says. "We suspended and terminated the nurse involved, who worked full time at a state psychiatric hospital and was a pool employee at AtlantiCare."



"Because this is now a criminal investigation, it is not appropriate for us to comment further," the statement says.



 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.





Alleged Repeated Instances of Abuse

Derrick was the boy's assigned nurse during the 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. shift at the hospital on May 15, when the alleged observed incidents took place, as described in documents filed with the nursing board.



In a series of alleged incidents, according to the attorney general's office, "Derrick several times brandished the syringe in a menacing manner and threatened the boy that she would 'give him the needle' if he did not behave."



The filed documents allege that Derrick stabbed the boy with the unsheathed hypodermic needle "sometimes repeatedly" on at least six occasions throughout the day, poking his upper arm, thigh, kneecaps, foot and hand, "each time drawing droplets of blood."



The documents further allege: "Derrick also attempted to force compliance from the boy by stepping on his bare foot with her shoe, forcing him to fall by repeatedly shoving a chair he was holding onto, and bending his pinky finger back until a crack was heard."



Following a July 12 hearing and subsequent agreement with the nursing board, Derrick voluntarily surrendered her license and is barred from further practice pending further action by the board or resolution of any criminal charges that may result.



"Naomi Derrick will have no access to patients  child or adult while these appalling allegations against her are pending," said Steve Lee, director of the New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs.



"Her alleged actions demonstrate a shocking departure from the most basic standards of care, let alone the standard of care one would expect for a child with special needs," Lee said. "If Nurse Derrick had not agreed to voluntarily surrender her license, the Board was prepared to take action to suspend it."
A federal judged ruled Wednesday that John Hinckley Jr., the man who shot President Reagan in 1981, will be released from St. Elizabeths Hospital, citing in his opinion to the court that Hinckley no longer posed a threat to himself or others.

Beginning no sooner than Aug. 5, the 61-year-old will be permitted to reside full time in Williamsburg, Va., on convalescent leave, the court ruled. Under this order, Hinckley must live with his mother for at least the first year and carry a cellphone that tracks his movements, work or volunteer at least three days a week and he cannot drive more than a 30-mile radius outside of Williamsburg.

The court did, however, grant him permission to drive to monthly hospital appointments in the Washington area.

At 25, Hinckley opened fire outside the Washington Hilton Hotel, striking Reagan; his press secretary, James S. Brady; a Washington police officer; and a Secret Service agent. Brady suffered permanent brain damage and eventually died from his injuries in 2014.

Hinckley had become obsessed with actress Jodie Foster after seeing her in the 1976 film Taxi Driver, in which a disturbed man plots to assassinate a presidential candidate.

He followed Foster to New Haven, Connecticut, where she was attending school at Yale University, in an attempt to win her over. After failing, Hinckley stalked President Jimmy Carter and was eventually arrested on firearms charges. He later went after Reagan.

Hinckley was also ordered to have no contact with Foster, any member of Reagans family, Bradys family or those of his other victims.

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It's Tuesday afternoon and Jarrett Hill now has a job.

The 31-year-old, who became a media sensation last week after he was the first to notice that Melania Trump's speech at the Republican National Convention contained plagiarized text from Michelle Obama's 2008 address at the Democratic National Convention, has been hired as a special correspondent for progressive news website Blue Nation Review.

Hill is working for BNR on a freelance basis during the DNC - happening now in Philadelphia - and for a few weeks after. Speaking on his cell phone from the floor of Wells Fargo Arena during the nominating roll call (minutes before Hillary Clinton secured the Democratic nomination for president, making history as the first woman to lead a major U.S. party), Hill seemed stoked about his new gig, if not a bit shocked that it came together so quickly. He tweeted the passages of Trump's speech on Monday night in a Culver City Starbucks, by Tuesday he was making the rounds speaking about his discovery for national and international media outlets, and by the weekend he had his BNR gig lined up.

"I definitely love what they're doing," he said of BNR's work. "And they believed in me. We are here covering the DNC, talking to people about their convention experience, about America, why they are Democrats and what moves them about the party."

Read More: Diary of a Media Darling: Jarrett Hill on Outing Melania Trump's Plagiarism and What's Next for Him

The formerly unemployed L.A. journalist and fledgling interior designer seemed pretty moved about being able to witness the DNC's opening night, which featured speeches from Bernie Sanders, Demi Lovato, Eva Longoria and Obama. It's obviously the latter who left him (nearly) speechless.

"Sitting here last night, listening to her speech, was an amazing moment," he explained. "Michelle's speech eight years ago is what got me this attention. Almost a week ago to the minute of tweeting that, I was sitting in this room, watching her come out and address the nation. It's remarkable, and was a full circle moment for me. I can't really describe it beyond that. I never imagined something like that would've happened for me."

Story continues

Full. Circle.

Sitting next to @LisaMaatz, readying for @MichelleObama.

In person.

NOT at Starbucks. #DNCinPHL pic.twitter.com/lSFhuqQWCO- Jarrett Hill (@JarrettHill) July 26, 2016

SNL's Colin Jost & Michael Che.

And what not. pic.twitter.com/vydfhH8yRu- Jarrett Hill (@JarrettHill) July 26, 2016
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange foreshadowed the release of the hacked Democratic National Committee emails more than a month before the archive of emails was published ahead of the Democratic National Convention.

Assanges comments in a June 12 interview with ITV made it clear that he intended to harm Hillary Clintons chance of winning the presidency, and timed the release of the emails to coincide with the start of the convention, an interview first highlighted by the New York Times.

During the interview, Assange told British TV host Robert Preston that WikiLeaks had obtained emails related to Hillary Clinton which are pending publication, which he said were great.

Assanges comments to ITV received little attention at the time, in part because Preston and other media outlets, including TIME, that covered the interview appeared to assume he was discussing emails from Clintons private server she used while serving as Secretary of State.

However, following DNC chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultzs resignation Monday in light of the leaked emails, Assange told Democracy Now! that he had intended for the emails to release at the same time as the convention.

Often its the case that we have to do a lot of exploration and marketing of the material we publish ourselves to get a big political impact for it, he said. But in this case, we knew, because of the pending DNC, because of the degree of interest in the U.S. election, we didnt need to establish partnerships with the New York Times or the Washington Post.
ROME (Reuters) - Juventus have signed Argentina striker Gonzalo Higuain from Napoli for 90 million euros ($98.89 million), the third highest transfer fee ever paid. "I can confirm that the contract has been deposited with the League and the deal has been done," Napoli spokesman Nicola Lombardi told Reuters on Tuesday, adding that the fee will be paid in two installments. The Turin-based club triggered the release clause for the 28-year-old, who still had two years to run on his contract, Napoli added later on Tuesday in a statement. Higuain's transfer fee is the third highest paid, after Gareth Bale moved to Real Madrid from Tottenham Hotspur for 100 million euros in 2013 and Cristiano Ronaldo joined the Spaniards from Manchester United for 94 million euros in 2009. Last season Higuain scored a record 36 Serie A goals in 35 games for Napoli, who finished runners-up as Juventus won a fifth consecutive title. He joined Napoli in 2013 after spending six years at Real. The news that he was poised to join Juventus caused anguish among Napoli fans, who gathered in Naples city centre on Saturday to tear up pictures of the Argentine and set fire to replicas of his number nine shirt. ($1 = 0.9105 euros) (Reporting by Crispian Balmer and Silvia Recchimuzzi, editing by Gavin Jones and Toby Davis)
NTB promo campaign in India

Nepal Tourism Board (NTB) has re-launched one of its successful promotional campaigns named Garmi Se Behal, Chalo Nepal in major Indian cities.
Kate and Wills are going on another royal tour to Canada and we couldnt be more excited

Kate and Wills are going on another royal tour to Canada and we couldnt be more excited

As if Canada wasnt already the luckiest for having such a dreamy, feminist prime minister (Justin Trudeau we heart you so hard), it was just announced today that the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, AKA Prince William and Kate Middleton, are planning a royal tour of our neighbors to the north this fall.

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge will visit #Canada in autumn. Their Royal Highnesses have been invited to visit by the Government of Canada. They will visit British Columbia and the territory of Yukon as part of their tour. The Duke and Duchess are delighted to be returning to Canada. They hold very happy memories from their visit in 2011 - their first overseas tour as a married couple. They are really looking forward to seeing other parts of this beautiful country and having the opportunity to meet many more Canadians along the way. A photo posted by Kensington Palace (@kensingtonroyal) on Jul 27, 2016 at 6:08am PDT

The royal couple will be viewing some of the natural wonder and beauty of northern Canada on their trip, focusing on British Columbia and the Yukon territory.

Prime Minister Trudeau said he was delighted that the royals were visiting, and that their planned itinerary would showcase some of Canadas finest natural beauty. Were trying so hard not to make a comment about how that surely includes gazing at Justins face. Sincere apologies.

We just cant help it! Look at this perfect human:

Proud  Fiers A photo posted by Justin Trudeau (@justinpjtrudeau) on Jul 3, 2016 at 1:59pm PDT

Whether or not they spend much time hanging with Justin, we cant wait to see photos of William and Kate touring such beautiful areas in a beautiful country while surely wearing beautiful clothes.

The couple hasnt been back to Canada since their first tour in 2011, right after they got married. Lets have a look back on that trip, shall we?

Story continues

No word yet on whether Prince George and Princess Charlotte will join their parents to make it a family vacay, but we hope so!

The post Kate and Wills are going on another royal tour to Canada and we couldnt be more excited appeared first on HelloGiggles.
Kelly Clarkson awesomely shuts down a dude over Michelle Obamas legendary DNC speech

Kelly Clarkson awesomely shuts down a dude over Michelle Obamas legendary DNC speech

Even though Michelle Obamas speech at the Democratic National Convention on Monday night was positively received, there was some social media backlash as people on the internet tend to blow things wildly out of proportion. Heres what went down: Obama had mentioned that the White House was built on the backs of slaves.

I wake up every morning in a house that was built by slaves. And I watch my daughters, two beautiful, intelligent black women, playing with their dogs on the White House lawn.

And then Twitter user Joshua Gage (aka @CoffeeBeansRock) lashed out, criticizing her for the mention of slavery. Luckily, pop-powerhouse Kelly Clarkson came to the rescue by tweeting a reply (which has been removed).

Shutting it down!

via GIPHY

Naturally, Clarksons response spawned even more backlash on Twitterbut instead of nasty trolls continuing to harp on that dudes comment, people praised her for swooping in to help.

@kelly_clarkson Best tweet ever.  Robert Scott Bean (@TheWorldOfRSB) July 26, 2016

Clearly, no one deserves to be trolled by someone on Twitter, and least of all Michelle Obama (#Michelle2024!). As the First Lady, shes an all-round inspiring person who speaks intelligently and gracefully about issues that matter.

With all this hate and misplaced judgement in the world, its nice to see a celebrity (and one whos not a politician) supporting another public figure.

Clarkson didnt have to do that, but her simple action made the incident less of a concern. It actually made the situation rather humorous, because trolling is just downright unnecessary.

The post Kelly Clarkson awesomely shuts down a dude over Michelle Obamas legendary DNC speech appeared first on HelloGiggles.
MANILA (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Wednesday he was very satisfied that Southeast Asian countries could issue a joint communique that championed the rule of law, and its omission of reference to an arbitration case on the South China Sea did not detract from its importance. On a visit to Manila, Kerry said the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) issuing a statement was a success because it covered "every single value of the rule of law". Kerry said the ruling by the Permanent Court of Arbitration was legally binding, and not irrelevant. (Reporting by Lesley Wroughton; Writing by Martin Petty; Editing by Lincoln Feast)
Shareholders of Home Retail Group (London Stock Exchange: HOME-GB) Wednesday approved a 1.4 billion ($1.83 billion) takeover offer by U.K. supermarket J Sainsbury (London Stock Exchange: SBRY-GB) after they gave their backing to the retailer's takeover bid.

Sainsbury's agreed in April to buy Home Retail Group, the parent company of Argos and Habitat, and, now the deal has been approved, the deal could be completed by September this year.

Earlier Wednesday Home Retail's Chief Executive, John Walden, told CNBC how he was looking ahead to the vote.

"We're really just excited to get on with things, the board and I think it's a great deal and our shareholders will decide later today if they agree with that and our colleagues are anxious to get on with things as a combined company with Sainsbury's."

U.K. competition regulators gave the all-clear for the acquisition dispelling concerns that there could be a prolonged competition inquiry. The supermarket has said that it plans to create 1,000 jobs through the acquisition.

Home Retail Group shareholders will receive 55 pence in cash per share and 0.321 new Sainsbury's shares plus an additional payment capital return relating to disposal of the group's other chain, Homebase, and 2.8 pence in lieu of a final 2016 dividend.

Sainsbury's and Home Retail Group have been operating in an increasingly competitive U.K. retail space. Earlier this year, Sainsbury's chief financial officer John Rogers said the takeover would create a "leading food and non food retailer of choice to customers; offers customers a winning combination of location, range, speed and flexibility."

The deal would also increase Sainsbury's retail presence and delivery networks, Rogers said "meeting the changing needs that customers are expecting today."

Home Retail's Walden said that, despite the competition, the deal offered opportunities.

"It's a competitive market across all product categories but being able to offer a full range of food, non-food, apparel, across all kinds of channels and in potentially up to 2,000 locationsthat's a proposition that doesn't otherwise exist in the country, and it's being offered by a couple of iconic brands so we think the proposition is unique."

Story continues

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Kim Kardashian loving on Blac Chynas baby bump is too sweet for this world

Whether you love or hate her, its obvious that Kim Kardashian is a very solid businesswoman. And when she shares moments on Snapchat, people pay attention. This week, her account moved past showing support for her husband Kanye, instead showcasing her support for Blac Chyna, Rob Kardashians fiancee, who happens to be pretty well into her pregnancy. The family met up San Diego to celebrate the 82nd birthday of grandmother MJ, Kris Jenners Mom, and Kim seemed so excited about Blac Chynas adorable baby bump. North West, Scott Disick, Kourtney and Khloe were also in attendance to celebrate the big day.

Heres the video that Kim posted, showing the girls acting super friendly and incredibly supportive of each other.

This isnt the first time weve seen Kim and Blac Chyna buddy up. In late June of this year, the two posted a bunch of selfies together when they celebrated Khloe Kardashians birthday.

Based on some drama that weve heard about in the tabloids regarding Blac Chyna and Rob (explosive fights, deleted photos, and a whole mess of other relationship issues) its really nice to see Kim showing some support for both Blac Chyna and the brand new baby. Since Kim knows a thing or two about in-the-spotlight pregnancy and motherhood, hopefully shes also given Blac Chyna a few tips on how to handle being a Kardashian-level Mom. This is actually the second child for Blac Chyna  she had son King Cairo Stevenson with ex-fiance Tyga, back in 2012.

Were guessing that this new baby is going to be childhood buddies with North West and Saint West, without a doubt.

Related:

The post Kim Kardashian loving on Blac Chynas baby bump is too sweet for this world appeared first on HelloGiggles.
Kim Zolciak-Biermann has a pair of new lips.



The reality star was spotted at Los Angeles International airport on Tuesday with noticeably larger lips.



The Don't Be Tardy star shared selfie videos while waiting for her flight. In one Snapchat clip, she can be seen telling the camera she hid her no makeup face with a pair of oversized sunglasses and had only applied lipstick.



During her L.A. trip, Zolciak-Biermann, 38, documented a visit to her plastic surgeon Dr. Kassabian in Beverly Hills. The mother of six took to Snapchat to share her appointment during which fans and followers pointed out she had gotten a lip filler procedure.







This is certainly not the first time Zolciak-Biermann has been open about her plastic surgery history.



"I will always nip and tuck if I feel the need to do so" Zolciak-Biermann told E! News in May. "I'm open about it. I don't care. You only go around one time, and I especially understand that."



The former Real Housewives of Atlanta cast member previously documented her breast augmentation surgery for TV. Though Zolciak-Biermann has admitted to getting a tummy tuck, she has strongly denied getting cosmetic surgery on her face.
Kevin Ferguson Jr., Kimbo Slices son, is shown on the right. (AP)

Although Kimbo Slice is no longer with us, his spirit will live on in the cage as Bellator recently announced the signing of Kevin Baby Slice Ferguson Jr.

Bellator already set a date for the debut of the 24-year-old son of the late Kimbo Slice as well  August 26 at Bellator 160: Henderson vs. Pitbull.

Baby Slice will fight for the same promotion that his father last competed in before tragically dying of congestive heart failure on June 6. Although Ferguson Jr. doesnt have a professional MMA fight under his belt, he did have his first amateur fight in March when he scored a knockout in 84 seconds.

Hes only been training MMA full-time for the past two years. Prior to that, he studied photography at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco.

I was always around the fight business and everything, so I saw it and I understood what was going on, Ferguson told the AP. I just knew without a doubt that one day, this was what I wanted to do.

Ferguson Jr. hopes to pick up where his late father left off. Its an imposing shadow to try to get out from under, but Ferguson Jr. is willing to take on the challenge. The announcement may have just happened but he was signed to the MMA promotion before his fathers passing. Ferguson Jr. spoke to the Associated Press about dealing with Kimbo Slices death.

I wont say I adjusted well or it didnt bother me, but I was talking to him a few days before, so I understood what was going on, Ferguson said. It was more of a shock to the world, put it like that. It was still a very big tragedy, but I got through it. Im still getting through it. I wont say Im over it, but Im working on it, I guess.

Ferguson Jr.s opponent has yet to be selected but should be announced in the coming week.
NWPP will not join new government: Bijukchhe

Chairman of the Nepal Workers and Peasants Party, Narayanman Bijukchhe, has said that his party would not join the new government.
A group of friends were enjoying a nice day on the Chesapeake Bay during a sailboat regatta when a fight broke out on board  and it was caught on video.

The incident in Cambridge, Maryland last weekend was filmed by Daryl Newhouse, who was in a nearby boat and alerted the Coast Guard to the violent altercation.

Read: Mother Streams Beating of Her Daughter on Facebook Live: 'I'm Gonna Need Y'All to Send This Viral'

The boat was going around in circles, Newhouse told Inside Edition. We saw this boat sort of buzzing a number of the sailboats and getting dangerously close to them.

In a call to the Coast Guard during the incident, she said: We have a boat buzzing participants in the race."

Newhouse told Inside Edition: That's when we saw that they were starting to fight. We saw someone throw something.

One of the men fighting ripped off the boats antenna and started hitting his opponent with it.

We started to believe somebody would go overboard quickly, Newhouse told Inside Edition. Somebody might have gotten hit with the propeller.

The fight eventually stopped for a brief moment and they headed back to land, to return the boat because it was a rental.

Read: Pregnant Wendy's Employee Gets Pulled Out of Drive-Thru and Beaten Over Straws

Newhouse kept her camera rolling, even as the boat was making its way to the docks, and fists were still flying.

The video of the incident was posted to Facebook and Maryland Natural Resources Police are said to be investigating the brawl.

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At first blush, the notion that your organs could move from their original position inside you sounds like the stuff of science fiction. But it happens quite frequently, especially among women whose pelvic organs descend or droop from their normal location over time. The phenomenon, called pelvic organ prolapse, can involve a woman's bladder, uterus or rectum descending into the vagina or bulging into the front or back of the vaginal wall. Pelvic organ prolapse, or POP, affects millions of women -- as many as 50 percent of women, according to researchers at the Cleveland Clinic -- which makes it something of a secret medical epidemic, given that it's rarely talked about in polite company.

Most women aren't aware of what prolapse is, and "it kind of freaks them out but it's really just a hernia of the vaginal wall," says Dr. Kimberly Kenton, a professor of obstetrics, gynecology and urology and chief of female pelvic medicine and reconstructive surgery for Northwestern Medicine in Chicago. "Pelvic organ prolapse is very common, especially among women who've gone through vaginal childbirth."

Indeed, the most common causes of pelvic organ prolapse are pregnancy and childbirth, and the more babies a woman has had and the larger they are in terms of birth weight, the greater her risk is. Meanwhile, obesity doubles the risk of POP because there's more weight pushing on the organs in the pelvis. In fact, anything that increases pressure within the abdomen and causes repetitive strain to the pelvic floor -- including chronic cough or constipation and occupations involving heavy lifting -- can lead to prolapse, notes Dr. Mark Ellerkmann, director of urogynecology at the Center for Women's Health & Medicine at Mercy Medical Center in Baltimore.

Pelvic organ prolapse also becomes increasingly common with age, particularly after menopause. "As we get older, our tissues aren't as strong, collagen content decreases and our muscles get more lax -- we all tend to sag in different places," Ellerkmann says. This loss of support can cause pelvic organs to stray from their normal position, especially since gravity is working against women in this respect. Similarly, having a hysterectomy can compromise support for pelvic organs high up in the vagina, thus increasing the risk of prolapse. There may be a genetic predisposition as well, so if your mother or grandmother had it, you may be at higher risk, too.

[See: 11 Changes Women Go Through in Menopause.]

Symptoms of POP can vary from one woman to another but may include a feeling of pressure in the vagina, a pulling sensation in the groin area, difficulty urinating or having bowel movements or pain with intercourse. "Like any condition, there are different degrees of prolapse," says Dr. Benjamin Brucker, an assistant professor of urology and obstetrics-gynecology at the NYU Langone Medical Center. "There are patients who have it that don't realize it."

Whether symptoms are present or not, an OB-GYN or urogynecologist can diagnose pelvic organ prolapse during a standing pelvic exam as well as one in which the woman is lying on her back. The biggest indication for treatment is if a woman is bothered by the vaginal bulge or a pelvic organ dropping down into the vagina (and perhaps having to push it back up with her hand); if a woman has vaginal prolapse but is asymptomatic, treatment isn't necessary. "All the treatments are designed to improve quality of life, so you really can't improve quality of life if you don't know there's a problem," Kenton explains.

Women typically experience symptoms when prolapse reaches a stage 2 or 3 on a 4-point scale. At this point, physical therapy (sometimes with the use of biofeedback) and Kegel exercises may be recommended to strengthen the pelvic floor muscles. If you're overweight, shedding excess pounds can help decrease pressure in the abdomen. Even in the early stages, prolapse "can worsen if it's not addressed," Brucker says. A nonsurgical treatment that's often recommended is the use of a pessary, a small device, usually made of silicone, that's placed in the vagina to support the pelvic organs. It can be inserted and removed by the woman, for regular cleaning and during sex.

[See: 5 Physical Therapy Procedures You Should Question.]

For later stages of POP that are causing truly bothersome symptoms and interfering with a woman's quality of life, surgery -- performed through the vagina or the abdomen -- may be advised. Approximately 300,000 surgeries are performed each year for prolapse in the U.S., according to the National Institutes of Health. Reconstructive surgery for prolapse involves using stitches (an approach that carries a higher prolapse recurrence rate) or inserting either the patient's own tissue or surgical mesh to bolster support for the pelvic organs.

Mesh has long been used safely to treat abdominal hernias and stress urinary incontinence, Brucker notes. But in recent years, the use of mesh in prolapse surgeries has become controversial, largely because it's associated with a significant risk of complications -- such as pain, bleeding and infection -- when the mesh is inserted vaginally. "The complications can be immediate after surgery [but] most of the patients present to us with complications months or years after mesh insertion," notes Dr. Shlomo Raz, professor of urology and director of pelvic medicine and reconstructive surgery at UCLA. The Food and Drug Administration has even issued warnings about the risks of the transvaginal placement of surgical mesh for POP.

The problem with vaginal placement of mesh is, "the vagina normally contains large amounts of bacteria; even after extensive preparation prior to surgery, the bacteria still persist," Raz explains. "During surgery the mesh is inserted through a contaminated area [and] bacteria can colonize the mesh." The mesh ends up getting covered by a protective layer of chemicals, so antibiotics can't penetrate the area or cure the mesh infection, he adds; in such cases, the mesh needs to be removed.

[See: Tampons, Pads or Menstrual Cups? A Woman's Guide to Period Products.]

For these reasons, Raz doesn't use mesh in prolapse repair. Other doctors, such as Ellerkmann, still do use mesh in some patients, particularly with abdominal surgery for prolapse, which has a lower risk of mesh-related complications. (With yet another type of surgery, the vagina is narrowed and/or closed off to provide support for prolapsed organs, which means sexual intercourse is no longer possible after the surgery, Kenton says.)

Since all surgical treatments have their pros and cons, "if you're only offered one option, you should go see another urogynecologist," Kenton says. "There are many nonsurgical and surgical treatments for prolapse -- your doctor should discuss multiple options with you. If you're being given one option, you should quickly hit the road. Women have the right to weigh the risks and benefits of each approach and make the safest, best choice for them."

Ultimately, it's a quality-of-life issue, experts say, so there's no reason to suffer silently if you think you may have pelvic organ prolapse. After all, "pelvic organ prolapse is often associated with stress, urinary incontinence and it can lead to depression and social isolation [if it's not effectively treated]," Brucker says. "The first step is to talk to a doctor who is aware of this issue and will listen to your complaints because there are nuances and subtleties to the management of this."

Stacey Colino is a freelance Health + Wellness reporter at U.S. News. You can connect with her on LinkedIn or email her at staceycolino@gmail.com.
PRISTINA (Reuters) - Kosovo's foreign minister on Wednesday said a request by Turkey for Pristina to punish a journalist for tongue-in-cheek Facebook comments on Turkey's failed military coup was unacceptable and an overreaction. As the coup attempt against President Tayyip Erdogan unfolded in Turkey on July 15, prominent journalist Berat Buzhala wrote on his Facebook profile: "I invite the citizens of the Republic of Kosovo who are holidaying in Turkey to align with the army." He signed it with an emoticon symbol with a tongue protruding, indicating he was not serious. The Turkish embassy subsequently sent a note to Kosovo's government urging it to take action against Buzhala, citing a newly-adopted Kosovo law which prohibits citizens from joining armed conflicts outside the country. "Without a doubt this as overreaction by the Turkish Embassy in Pristina," Foreign Minister Enver Hoxhaj said in an interview broadcast by the Albanian service of Radio Free Europe. Hoxhaj called the note "unacceptable" and said he was due to meet the Turkish ambassador soon to discuss the matter. Turkey is a major investor in Kosovo, which declared independence from Serbia in 2008. Turkish companies run the sole airport, electricity distribution networks and won the contract to build two highways worth around $2 billion. Turkey's request has sparked criticism from journalists and civil society in Kosovo. The country's Association of Journalists (AGK) has demanded an apology from the embassy and has called on Ankara to recall its ambassador. Kosovo's State Prosecutor Aleksander Lumezi told local media that so far he saw no criminal offense in Buzhala's actions but that his office was ready to investigate. Turkey has previously reacted against mockery in foreign media. Erdogan was outraged earlier this year when a German comedian satirized him in a crude poem on television. Erdogan launched legal action against him in Germany and his lawyer said this month he had filed a complaint to get the poem banned in its entirety after a court banned re-publication of parts. (Reporting by Fatos Bytyci; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky)
Source already offers cheap and plain vanilla exchange traded funds (ETFs) and the initiative to launch a family of physical, equity ETFs with Legal & General Investment Management (LGIM) is not a ploy to move away from synthetic funds, according to chairman Lee Kranefuss.

Speaking to ETF.com about its announced partnership with LGIM to launch a range of physically replicated equity ETFs, Kranefuss said the move is not intended to "de-emphasise" its other funds and partnerships.

Most providers have one platform with one set of service providers, and then they cant do certain things [certain strategies] and they try to convince you that they have made all the right choices  like they only offer synthetic because thats what they do a lot of anyway, said Kranefuss. Our goal is to provide a next generation model, to provide the investment strategies people want, not just the ones we can come up with internally.

Kranefuss added it was nonsense to have 100 percent in either physical or synthetic, and firms should offer a variety of strategies.

Source has 42 percent of existing assets in physical ETFs, mostly in fixed income and managed by PIMCO, but this figure also includes precious metals and China A-shares. Meanwhile 58 percent of assets are in synthetic funds  or as Source calls it, the multi-dealer swap model, thanks to its partnerships with various investment banks.

Unlike providers such as db X-trackers and Lyxor, Kranefuss said Source will not convert any synthetic funds to physical replication.

The new equity range would be managed by LGIM and Kranefuss said the proposed start date is early 2016, but it was too early to say how many ETFs would be launched.

When asked if the partnership with LGIM was the first push by Source to offer plain vanilla ETFs for financial advisers, Kranefuss responded the firm already offers this type of fund.

Look at our Euro Stoxx and our S&P 500 ETFs. They are the lowest cost and best performing in their categories in Europe, he said. If people really want plain vanilla, I would strongly encourage them to look at those funds and the multi-dealer swap model. On price and performance and some other features, they are very beneficial relative to physical.

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The firm also announced that it has launched a GBP-hedged share class on its $1.2 billion PIMCO Short-Term High Yield Corporate Bond Index Source UCITS ETF, tapping into demand for currency hedged high yield exposure in the UK.

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MOSCOW (Reuters) - The Kremlin on Wednesday dismissed allegations Russia had hacked Democratic Party emails as "horror stories" dreamt up by U.S. politicians, saying it never interfered in other countries' election campaigns. "Moscow is at pains to avoid any words that could be interpreted as direct or indirect interference in the election process," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told a conference call with reporters. "... We see that the Russian card is in the red corner on the writing table of all Washington politicians during the election campaign, and that very often they make it a trump card in their game." Peskov was responding after U.S. President Barack Obama in an interview with NBC News said it was possible Russia would try to influence the U.S. presidential election after a leak of Democratic National Committee emails that experts have blamed on Russian hackers. "This reminds me of a company where they tell each other horror stories and then start being frightened of their own stories," said Peskov. The Kremlin on Tuesday said unidentified individuals in the United States were trying to cynically exploit fear of Russia for electoral purposes. (Reporting by Dmitry Solovyov; Editing by Andrew Osborn)
Kuwait City (AFP) - A Kuwaiti court on Wednesday sentenced a Shiite lawmaker to 14 years and six months in absentia for remarks deemed highly offensive to fellow Gulf states Saudi Arabia and Bahrain.

Abdulhameed Dashti received 11 years and six months for insulting Saudi Arabia and three years for insulting Bahrain in another case.

The outspoken lawmaker, who has been living overseas for the past four months, was also convicted of endangering Kuwait's diplomatic ties with the two countries and for calling on people to join the Lebanese Shiite Hezbollah militia.

Dashti described the sentences as "oppressive" on his Twitter account, but insisted that he will not back down.

The verdicts are not final but Dashti can only challenge them when he goes back to the oil-rich emirate. He did not say when he will return.

Dashti, a strong supporter of Iran and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, told parliament in March that he was undergoing medical treatment in Britain.

The lawmaker still faces several similar cases and if convicted could receive additional jail terms.

Dashti has been a vocal critic of the royal families of both Saudi Arabia and Bahrain.

He denounced the 2011 Saudi military intervention in Bahrain to support the government against Shiite-led protests as an "invasion".

In May last year, Dashti filed a request to question the Kuwaiti foreign minister over the country's participation in the Saudi-led air campaign against Yemen's Shiite Huthi rebels.

But parliament refused to allow him to grill the minister over Kuwait's involvement, which he alleged was in breach of the constitution.

There are just nine Shiite MPs in Kuwait's 50-seat parliament. The minority Shiite community comprises some 30 percent of the country's native population of 1.3 million.
By Nellie Andreeva



EXCLUSIVE: With a well-known title and formidable lead cast, Amazons The Last Tycoon pilot has been a strong contender for a series pickup. Now the project, toplined by Matt Bomer, Kelsey Grammer, Rosemarie DeWitt and Lily Collins, has been ordered to series by the streaming service, I have learned. It comes from Sony TVs TriStar Television. I hear Amazons other drama pilot from the batch, The Interestings, is not going forward.

Written and directed by Billy Ray based on F. Scott Fitzgeralds final unfinished novel, The Last Tycoon was inspired by the life of film mogul Irving Thalberg, on whom the books protagonist Monroe Stahr was based. The project centers on Stahr (Bomer), Hollywoods first wunderkind studio executive in the 1930s as he climbs to the height of power pitting him against his mentor and current head of the studio, the brawny, imposing, charming and vain Pat Brady (Grammer), a character based on Louis B. Mayer. Having come from the streets, Brady has no intention of returning to his misfortune, and is determined to make sure his studio is successful, no matter what personal morals he compromises. Dewitt plays Pat Bradys wife, Rose Brady, who may be involved with Stahr.

In The Last Tycoons 1976 big-screen adaptation directed by Elia Kazan and written by Harold Pinter, the roles of Stahr and Brady were played by Robert De Niro and Robert Mitchum, respectively.

Bomer, Grammer and DeWitt all have toplined TV series before, USAs White Collar (Bomer), Frasier and Boss, among others (Grammer) and Standoff (DeWitt). This marks Emmy winner Grammers return to drama series following his Golden Globe-winning turn on Boss. Bomer also won a Golden Globe, for HBOs The Normal Heart, and recently co-starred on American Horror Story: Hotel. DeWitt has been focused on movies for the past few years, recently starring in Poltergeist. Collins comes from feature background, with starring roles in Mirror Mirror and The Mortal Instruments.

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Ray executive produces The Last Tycoon alongside Chris Keyser, who serve as showrunners, as well as Josh Maurer, David Stern and Alix Witlin. Pulitzer-winning author and F.Scott Fitzgerald scholar A. Scott Berg served as consulting producer on the pilotThis marks TriStar TVs second series at Amazon, joining Good Girls Revolt.

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Korea snake warning

The dispute between the two Korean nations took a really odd turn when North Korea accused their southern counterpart of releasing deadly snakes along the border.

Pyongyang's fresh, albeit unorthodox, claim comes as the nation warns its military personnel to remain wary of snakes.

The Guardian reports that Pyongyang has told its military personnel to be wary of the serpents, as they were allegedly released by the Souths spy agency to cause chaos.

According to The Guardian, multiple sources in North Korea have stated that South Koreas National Intelligence Service were using the creatures as part of a cunning scheme to challenge our unity.

North Koreas Ministry of Peoples Security has reportedly issued a warning to its citizens, and guards stationed at the border have been ordered to capture these reptiles that have been appearing in larger than average numbers this season.

On the other side of the border, South Korea accused their northern counterpart of dropping propaganda leaflets near the Han River next to Seoul for the first time.

According to the Associated Press, the South Korean military discovered dozens of plastics bags that contained about 20 leaflets  each of which held threatening messages of missile attacks. The leaflets also were intended to tell the South that North Korea remained the victors of the Korean War.

Traditionally, South Korea would be the perpetrators in this ongoing propaganda feud  even activists take part since the South Korean government considers the dropping of leaflets into the North as a freedom of speech and expression.

Much to the chagrin of North Korean officials, thousands of balloons containing various goods, such as radios, dollar bills, and sweets have been sent by concerned activists from the South.

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MADRID  Adding to its growing lineup of multi-prized, first-time feature directors, Madrid-based sales agent Latido Films has acquired world sales rights to Playground, a buzzed-up Polish horror movie inspired by real events.

A portrait of disaffected Polish youth and the disconnect between its young protagonists and their parents  which may or may not explain the teenage pathology seen in the film  Playground marks the fiction feature debut of Bartosz M. Kowalski.

Kowalski is best known for two documentary features for HBO Europe: The Dream in the Making, which won the top prize in the Polish film competition at 2013s Krakow Festival, and Unstoppables, which was the co-recipient of the 2015 Discovering Eye Award for the Most Interesting Emerging Film Artists at Chicagos 27th Polish Film Festival in America Awards. Born in Poland in 1984, Kowalski is an alumnus of Paris Eicar film school and USC in Los Angeles.

In Playground, which he wrote as well as directed, Kowalski depicts the lives of three high school students  two cocksure boys, one girl  in a small town in Poland as they have breakfast, then attend their schools end-of-year speech day. After callously humiliating the girl, the boys head for the local shopping mall to play video games. What happens next is inspired by real events which, occurring over a decade ago, traumatized Poland.

This is not a movie that leaves you untouched. Once finished  if you can finish watching it in one go  it makes you think about the world we are creating for our children, said Antonio Saura, executive director of Latido Films.

Playground represents one of the latest productions from Polands Film It, a film, TV and commercials house established in 2002 whose current slate also features upcoming Volhynia, a love story set in World War II that Film It bills as one of the biggest of recent Polish productions. Majority-financed by the Polish Film Institute, which can put up most of the budget on first features, Playground is produced by Film It and Orka Studio, the latter providing post-production services.

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A disturbing vision of a nation that elected a right-wing government last October, Playground may add Kowalskis name to a string of young Poles helping to drive a renaissance in Polish filmmaking. Others include Damian Nenow (Another Day of Life), Agnieszka Smoczynska (The Lure) and Kuba Czekaj (Baby Bump).

Though based in Spain, Latido Films is also a top Latin American film sales agent. Its new talent roster includes Mexicos Celso Garcia, director of 2015s The Thin Yellow Line, produced by Guillermo del Toro, and Rara, from Chiles Pepa San Martin, which won this years Grand Jury Prize at the Berlinales Generation Kplus.

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DALLAS, TX / ACCESSWIRE / July 27, 2016 / V-103 teams up with Dallas accident lawyer Amy Witherite from Eberstein & Witherite, LLP to tell Atlanta they have someone in their corner when involved in a truck wreck.

The "Frank Ski" show, on air since 1985, has been a long time favorite in Atlanta. Ski is lovingly referred to as "The Rainmaker of Urban Radio" and it is easy to see why. With his engaging voice Ski has been able to captivate his listening audience and increase ratings. While not on-air he has an impressive list of hobbies and titles that keeps him busy. He is a philanthropist, motivational speaker, journalist, producer and all around devoted father. His love for children extends beyond his own as he is the chairman and co-founder of the Frank Ski Kids Foundation in which he commits to investing in children through outreach and motivational programs.

Ski's passion for connecting with the community made him a perfect match for accident lawyer Amy Witherite. Witherite is widely known for her outreach to the community and the heart she has for giving back. One of her many notable outreaches includes Eberstein Witherite's "Making a Difference" scholarship fund, in which she awards several $1000.00 scholarships to students who are committed to making a difference in their communities Paul Laurence Dunbar High School.

With the expansion to Atlanta, Amy searched for individuals who have the same passion for serving others. Upon meeting with the legendary Frank Ski it became apparent that the two would continue to make a difference in the world around them while joining forces.

The future looks bright for anyone who has the pleasure of calling on Amy Witherite for representation on their Truck Accident needs in Atlanta and you can hear all about the difference both Amy and Ski are making in the community on V-103 The People's Station.

Media Contact:

Lucy Tiseo

Eberstein & Witherite, LLP

119 N. McDonough Street

Decatur, GA 30030

1-800-TRUCK-WRECK (1-800-878-2597)

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Source: http://www.1800truckwreck.com/leading-truck-wreck-lawyer-amy-witherite-goes-live-atlanta-help-truck-accident-victims.html

SOURCE: Eberstein & Witherite, LLP via Submit Press Release 123
Im Lena Dunham, and according to Donald Trump my body is probably like a 2, Dunham said, introding herself at the DNC, where she appeared with America Ferrera.

Im America Ferrera and, according to Donald Trump, Im probably a rapist, Ferrera chimed in, though she is not from Mexico.

We know what youre all thinking, Dunham jumped back in. Why should you care what some television celebrity has to say about politics?

Fererra then joked: We feel the same way. But he is the Republican nominee, so we need to talk about it. The crowd lapped it up.

Ferrera said that, as the child of parents from Honduras, she was educated in the United States in public schools and occasionally I needed a free meal to get through the school day.  Not everybody looks at the millions of young people like me, children born into struggling families, children born to immigrant parents, children are are immigrants themselves, and sees an investment. But Hillary Clinton does, Ferrera pitched to a very receptive crowd.

Dunham, meanwhile, described herself as a pro-choice feminist sexual assault survivor with a chronic reproductive illness, which seemed to quiet the crowd a bit as they sorted out all that. Donald Trump and his party, Dunham said, thinks I should be punished for exercising my constitutional rights. His rhetoric about women takes us back to a time when women were supposed to be silent, she said. Meanwhile, 22 years ago, Hillary Clinton declared that womens rights are human rights. She made it possible for sexual assault survivors in my home state of New York to have access to safe immediate care in any emergency room. Hillary knows access and opportunity are the American promise, not transphobic, Islamophobic, xenophobic, and systematic racism. She knows we have to fight hatred of all kind, and not ignite it for the craven purpose of seeking power.

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Lena Dunhams oft-discussed figure got its moment in the spotlight at the Democratic National Convention.

Hi, Im Lena Dunham, and according to Donald Trump, my body is probably, like, a 2, the Girls creator and star joked, as she introduced herself to the delegation.

RELATEDMichelle Obamas Emotional Speech Rouses Democratic Convention Audience  Watch and Grade It

And Im America Ferrera, countered the star of Superstore and Ugly Betty. And according to Donald Trump, Im probably a rapist.

After Dunham exclaimed that Ferrera isnt actually Mexican, her podium buddy shot back, And Preisdent Obama isnt Kenyan, but that doesnt stop Donald Trump!

Ultimately, though, the actresses zeroed in on a difficult question looming over their heads. We know what youre all thinking, confessed Dunham. Why should [you] care what some television celebrity has to say about politics?

We feel the same way, added Ferrera. But [Trump, the former Celebrity Apprentice ringleader] is the Republican candidate  so we need to talk about him.

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Ferrera then turned serious, noting that as the proud child of Honduran immigrants, she attended public schools, relied on public arts programs, and occasionally needed a free meal to get through the school day.

Dunham, for her part, boasted that shes a pro-choice, feminist, sexual assault survivor with a chronic reproductive illness, a woman who Donald Trump thinks should be punished for exercising my constitutional rights.

What did you think of Dunham and Ferreras speech? Grade it in our poll below, then sound off in the comments!



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Lena Dunham took the podium at the Democratic National Convention Tuesday to say Donald Trump probably considers her like, a 2. Then America Ferrera volunteered that according to Donald Trump, Im probably a rapist.

But America, youre not Mexican, said Dunham.

And President Obama isnt Kenyan, said Ferrera, whose parents are from Honduras.

Also Read: The Democratic National Convention's Star-Studded Turnout From Lena Dunham to Tony Goldwyn

It was just the sharp opening of a very fast-quipping double act, one that landed digs quickly in an appeal to young women voters.

We know what youre all thinking, said Dunham. Why should you care what some television celebrity has to say about politics?

And we feel the same way, said Ferrara. But he is the Republican nominee, so we need to talk about him.

Also Read: Lena Dunham Blasts Kanye West Video as 'Sickening' in Light of Stanford Rape Case

The convention also featured a series of videos in which the former Apprentice star rated women based on their looks and suggested there may be a time when they can no longer get legal abortions  but can pay extra for illegal ones.

Dunham said Trump wishes for a time when women were supposed to be beautiful and silent. The pair said Trump wants to divide people and set women back.

Ferrera also said Trump isnt, to quote his slogan, making America great again: Hes making America hate again, she said.

They were just the funniest of many celebrities who took the Democratic convention stage Tuesday, including Hunger Games star Elizabeth Banks and Scandal star Tony Goldwyn.

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It was Hillary Clinton's night but Donald Trump weighed heavily on the minds of many on Day 2 of the Democratic convention  including two of Clinton's biggest celebrity supporters, Lena Dunham and America Ferrera, who opened a powerful joint speech with the words:



"Hi. I'm Lena Dunham, and according to Donald Trump, my body is probably, like, a 2."



"And I'm America Ferrera, and according to Donald Trump, I'm probably a rapist."



"But America, you're not Mexican," Dunham pointed out.







"And President Obama isn't Kenyan, Lena, but that doesn't stop Donald," Ferrera shot back.



"We know what you're all thinking," Dunham told the crowd. "Why should you care what some television celebrity has to say about politics?"



"And we feel the same way," Ferrera continued. "But he is the Republican nominee so we need to talk about it."





Hillary Clinton's Inspiring Message to Every Little Girl





"The unfunny fact is that this man would have you believe that our differences are more important than what unites us," Dunham said.



"When we know that the truth is that this country was founded on the belief that what sets us apart  race, language, religion, sexual orientation  should not dissolve what binds us," Ferrera finished.



"Which is why we are proud to say," Dunham began  "We're with Hillary," the two actresses said in unison.



Ferrera, her voice rising and breaking, recalled her upbringing as the proud child of Honduran immigrants, who went to public schools. "And you know what? Occasionally, I needed a free meal to get through the school day. Not everybody looks at the millions of young people like me  children born into struggling families, children born to immigrant parents, children who are immigrants themselves  not everybody looks at them and sees an investment." But Hillary does, Ferrara said.



Dunham then took over, telling the crowd, "I am a pro-choice, feminist sexual assault survivor with a chronic reproductive illness. Donald Trump and his party think I should be punished for exercising my constitutional rights. His rhetoric about women takes us back to a time when we were meant to be beautiful and silent. Meanwhile, 22 years ago, Hillary Clinton declared that women's rights are human rights."



Dunham went on to accuse Trump of "trans-phobia, Islama-phoboia, xenophobia and systemic racism."



"Look," America said, "Donald's not making America great again. He's making America hate again. And the vast majority of us, we cannot afford to see his vision of America come to be."



"Luckily, we the voters carry the future of this country. We don't accept hatred as the norm in our communities. So why would we ever accept it in the Oval Office?" Dunham concluded to cheers from the crowd.



Both actresses have been vocal supporters of Clinton's candidacy throughout the election. In addition to stumping separately for Clinton on the campaign trail, Dunham and Ferrera also co-hosted a private event for the former secretary of state in Hollywood in March.



Dunham explained her support for Clinton in a January " travelogue" on her campaign experiences, writing, "I believe that nothing will send a stronger message to America and the world at large than electing a competent, experienced, and brilliant woman to the highest office in the land. Our first female president would send a message that we are here. We are ready to lead. In fact, she has been leading all along."



The Girls star and creator also lashed out at those who have accused her of supporting Clinton only because she was a woman, calling that assumption "condescending at best and hideously misogynistic at worst."



In the hours leading up to her speech on Tuesday, Dunham posted several photos from the convention on her Instagram  including a selfie with two Bernie Sanders delegates who are transgender, and a sneaky shot of Jerry Springer and a Clinton delegate.





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Ya gurl made it! #DNC2016 #northdakota (continued support of my damaged arm courtesy of Dr. @joaquinzfass) A photo posted by Lena Dunham (@lenadunham) on Jul 26, 2016 at 11:56am PDT







These gorgeous delegates both cried when they cast their vote for HER A photo posted by Lena Dunham (@lenadunham) on Jul 26, 2016 at 12:31pm PDT







Jeanne Smith & Tessa James Sheller are trans delegates here for Bernie and inspiring us ALL #transjeanne A photo posted by Lena Dunham (@lenadunham) on Jul 26, 2016 at 12:38pm PDT







Portrait of a Hillary delegate with Jerry Springer A photo posted by Lena Dunham (@lenadunham) on Jul 26, 2016 at 1:16pm PDT







YES @americaferrera A photo posted by Lena Dunham (@lenadunham) on Jul 26, 2016 at 1:17pm PDT







My soul sister @americaferrera and I are headed to the Democratic National Convention to speak as a team in support of @hillaryclinton. The honor! The thrill! We promise not to copy off Michelle Obama's homework, dreamy as she is #imwithher A photo posted by Lena Dunham (@lenadunham) on Jul 20, 2016 at 5:30pm PDT





Last week, Dunham posted a photo of herself with co-speaker Ferrera, captioning it: "My soul sister @americaferrera and I are headed to the Democratic National Convention to speak as a team in support of @hillaryclinton. The honor! The thrill! We promise not to copy off Michelle Obama's homework, dreamy as she is #imwithher."
Lena Dunham and America Ferrera joined Tuesday night's star-studded lineup of speakers at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia.

"Hi, I'm Lena Dunham and according to Donald Trump, my body is probably, like, a 2," said Girls creator and star Dunham to laughs from the crowd.

"And I'm America Ferrera and according to Donald Trump, I'm probably a rapist," said the Superstore actress to even bigger laughs.

"We know what you're all thinking," Dunham continued. "Why should you care what some television celebrity has to say about politics?"

"And we feel the same way," replied Ferrera, "but he is the Republican nominee, so we have to talk about it."

The crowd continued to cheer.

The TV pair then listed a few "unfunny" facts.

"This man would have you believe that our differences are more important than what unites us," said Dunham, while Ferrera said the U.S. was founded on the belief that race, religion and sexual orientation "should not dissolve what binds us."

They then said together: "Which is why we're proud to say: We're with Hillary!"

Read More: Elizabeth Banks Compares Donald Trump to 'Hunger Games' Character at DNC

"I am a pro-choice, feminist, sexual assault survivor with a chronic reproductive illness," continued Dunham. "Donald Trump and his party think I should be punished for exercising my constitutional rights. His rhetoric about women takes us back to a time when we were meant to be beautiful and silent. Meanwhile, 22 years ago, Hillary Clinton declared that women's rights are human rights."

Dunham said Clinton made it possible for her fellow sexual assault survivors in New York to have access to safe care in any emergency room.

"Hillary knows that access and opportunity are the American promise - not transphobia, Islamophobia, xenophobia and systemic racism," said Dunham. "She knows we have to fight hatred of all kinds and not ignite it for the craven purpose of seeking power."

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Ferrera then added: "Donald is not making America great again - he's making America hate again."

Read More: Tony Goldwyn Calls for Racial Justice at DNC: "We Can Change the World"

Ferrera, who related that she is the "proud" child of Honduran immigrants who occasionally needed a free meal to get through the school day, said she is "profoundly grateful" for the access and opportunity that exists in the U.S.

"Hillary has spent the last 30 years proving what she sees in us," said Ferrera. "Not our color, gender, economic status, but our capacity to grow into thriving adults."

Speaking directly to voters, the pair told the room "Deal us in" and "Love trumps hate" while encouraging everyone to become card-carrying members of the Clinton team by texting "Deal" to 47246.

Clinton made history earlier on Tuesday when she won the Democratic nomination and became the first female major-party nominee for president.

Dunham shared a photo from earlier in the day of herself and Ferrera wiping away tears with the caption: "The moment it became real."

the moment it became real

A photo posted by Lena Dunham (@lenadunham) on Jul 26, 2016 at 4:08pm PDT

Dunham and Ferrera first announced they would be speaking together on Instagram and included a jab at Melania Trump in their post. Holding up a T-shirt reading "Love Trumps Hate," the caption read: "The honor! The thrill! We promise not to copy off Michelle Obama's homework, dreamy as she is."

Dunham, Ferrera and Chelsea Clinton - who will introduce her mother when she officially accepts the nomination on Thursday - also spoke Tuesday afternoon at an event hosted by Facebook and Glamour.

The second night of the four-day convention saw speeches from former President Bill Clinton and the Mothers of the Movement, which included the mothers of Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner, Michael Brown and other African-Americans whose deaths have fueled the Black Lives Matter movement. The night's host Elizabeth Banks, Scandal's Tony Goldwyn, Debra Messing and Meryl Streep also were on hand to lend their star power behind Clinton.

Banks did her best impersonation of Donald Trump's RNC entrance when she took the stage to kick off the night's primetime speakers. She also compared the GOP presidential nominee to her Hunger Games character.

"[She's] a cruel, out-of-touch reality TV star who wears insane wigs while delivering longwinded speeches to a violent dystopia," the actress said of Effie Trinket. "So when I tuned into Cleveland last week I was like, 'Uh, hey, that's my act!'"

See More: The Wild Scene and Characters of the Democratic and Republican Conventions

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Lena Dunham and America Ferrera, two longtime supporters of Hillary Clinton, appeared on stage at the Democratic National Convention and immediately turned their target to Donald Trump.

I am Lena Dunham and according to Donald Trump is probably a 2, she said.

I am America Ferrera and according to Donald Trump, I am probably a rapist, she said.

Each talked of Trump by framing his candidacy with their own personal experiences.

Ferrera talked about being the daughter of Honduran immigrants, and how Trump was out of touch with the experiences of many families. Occasionally I needed a free meal to get through the school day, Ferrera said.

Donald is not making America great again, she said. Hes making America hate again.

Dunham talked about being a survivor of sexual assault, and said of Trump, We dont accept hatred as the norm in our communities. Why would we accept it in the Oval Office?

She noted that when Clinton was first lady, she talked of how womens rights are human rights.

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Level 3 Communications Inc. LVLT reported mixed financial results in the second quarter of 2016 wherein the top line missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate while the bottom line outpaced the same.

Level 3 Communications operates in a highly competitive enterprise communications market. This Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) company has to compete with telecom giants like Verizon Communications Inc. VZ and AT&T Inc. T in North America and with Telefonica, Orange, BT Group and America Movil SAB AMX in Europe and Latin America.

On a GAAP basis, net income in the reported quarter was $149 million, or 42 cents per share versus a net loss of $13 million or a loss of 4 cents per share in the second quarter of 2015. Moreover, quarterly adjusted earnings per share of 52 cents were well ahead of the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 46 cents.

Level 3 Communications Inc. (LVLT) Street EPS & Surprise Percent - Last 5 Quarters | FindTheCompany

Second quarter total revenue was $2,056 million, down 0.2% year over year and short of the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $2,084 million.

Segment-wise, Core Network Services (CNS) revenues came in at $1,956 million, up 0.7% year over year. Wholesale Voice Services and Other revenues totaled $100 million, down 16% year over year.

Geographically, North America generated $1,605 million in CNS revenues, up 4% year over year. Europe, the Middle East and Africa accounted for $191 million of revenues at CNS, down 7% while Latin America contributed $160 million, down 2%.

Total operating expenses in the reported quarter were $1,682 million, down 0.4% year over year. Operating income came in at $362 million, up 14.6%. Adjusted EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization) was up 10% to $715 million. Adjusted EBITDA margin expanded to 34.8% from 31.9% in the prior-year quarter.

In the second quarter of 2016, Level 3 Communications generated $631 million of cash from operations compared with $419 million in the year-ago quarter. Free cash flow, in the reported quarter, was $264 million compared with $102 million in the prior-year quarter.

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At the end of the second quarter of 2016, the company had $1,291 million of cash and cash equivalents and $10,878 million of outstanding debt compared with $854 million and $11,009 million, respectively, at the end of 2015. Meanwhile, the debt-to-capitalization ratio was 0.51 compared with 0.52 at the end of 2015.

LEVEL 3 COMM Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise

LEVEL 3 COMM Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise | LEVEL 3 COMM Quote

Guidance

For 2016, Level 3 Communications expects adjusted EBITDA to grow 10% to 12% on a year-over-year basis. Free cash flow is estimated in the range of $1 billion to $1.1 billion.

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From Esquire

PHILADELPHIA-A little before seven last night, when the votes of the South Dakota delegation were cast, the Democratic Party nominated Hillary Rodham Clinton, the first woman ever nominated by a major party for President of the United States. Not long after that, her primary opponent, an avowed Socialist named Bernie Sanders, moved that her nomination be declared by acclamation, and it was. So, naturally, the next thing that happened was that the press tent behind the Wells Fargo Center was occupied by disgruntled progressives because that's what happens when a major political party nominates the first woman ever nominated for President of the United States. I remain amazed.

The roll call itself was jovial and, occasionally, very touching, such as when Sanders' brother, whose name really is Larry Sanders, announced the tally of ballots from the Democrats Abroad. On the big viewing screens, Bernie Sanders visibly wept. As it wound down, word was passed among the Irreconcilables that there would be a walkout of Sanders delegates as soon as the roll call ended.

"This election was stolen!" screamed a woman in a green hat, standing on a chair in the middle of the Florida delegation. "Don't you all understand? She's a cheat and a thief and a killer!" Amid the generally joyous celebration, a crew from a local Fox affiliate moved in to film her and to conduct an interview. She pretty much repeated what she'd been screaming from atop the chair, because that's what you do when the first woman is nominated for president by a major American political party.

"Fuck it," said the woman in the green hat, "I'm tired of this shit. Let's go."

"The election was stolen!"

So that was the walkout, which was badly timed, because everybody was leaving the arena anyway because the nomination of the first woman for president by a major party already had happened and it was time for dinner and fun. But the Irreconcilables, numbering maybe 300 at the outside, reconvened in and around the massive press tents in back of the arena.

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A number of them got into the place before police caught on, whereupon the police locked down the front doors to the tents, refusing to let anyone in, including the members of the press. Outside, a Sanders delegate named Matthew Rock was explaining things to a TV crew from Japan. "In every poll," he said, "Bernie Sanders beats Donald Trump, and they're going to try to blame us. It's Hillary Clinton's fault that Donald Trump will become president. Enjoy your Trump presidency because she brought it to you."

Nearby, a delegate from Vermont named Shyla Nelson, who was much cooler than Rock was, made a similar case. Asked about the unquestioned victories that the Sanders supporters had won in the party's platform deliberations, Nelson dropped her voice into tones of deep concern not entirely unlike those of Peggy Noonan. "We have doubts about the implementation of some of those provisions," she said. "And we are also here to support those provisions that did not prevail, and to represent the grassroots people who have been shut out of the process. We also have some doubts about the implementation of the TPP."

Meanwhile, inside, the folks sat down in the middle of the media tent and applied various forms of tape to their mouths as the cameras formed a kind of corral around them. There was among them a dead certainty that the entire nominating process had been gamed away from Sanders by some sort of unholy finagling on the part of the Clinton campaign, the DNC, and, as far as I can tell, the Bavarian Illuminati. As soon as the sit-in broke up, they dispersed to all corners of the press tent, each doing their own interviews. It looked like media day at the Super Bowl.

At one point, having removed the tape from their mouths, they began to chant, "Let us out!" Nobody noticed that all the tents were connected by a big tunnel and that there was a back door. That is what happens on the day that a major political party nominates the first woman ever for president because, god knows, that's not enough news for one day.

I have lived long enough to see that. I also have lived long enough to know that some people will bring their own punchbowl to the party just to piss in it.

This, apparently, is what democracy looks like.

Click here to respond to this post on the official Esquire Politics Facebook page.
Heather Podesta wore a scarlet letter L to the last two Democratic National Conventionsa not so subtle protest over the Barack Obamas ban on lobbyists like her donating money to his cause.

Podestas scarlet letter is gone this week, because Hillary Clinton and the Democratic National Committee have lifted the ban.Things have already changed, said Podesta, while mingling at a brunch put on by her firm at the swanky Philadelphia restaurant Fork on Tuesday with members of Congress, the Obama Administration, and, yes, lots of lobbyists.

During Obama Administration I couldnt give money to the Democratic National Committee, the President, and if the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee was having an event with him I couldnt go even though I was a maxed-out donor, she continued. This year, Im helping to raise money for Hillary. Ive known her a long time. Im really excited about her campaign. I raised for her in 2008 and Im ready for her to go all the way. So my money is now good.

Podesta is just one of a legion of lobbyists coming out of the proverbial closet this convention, free to raise money, support candidates and be proud of it for the first time in nearly a decade. For many influence brokers, the distinction is an important one. Facing a fundraising shortfall after Congress ended public funding for the conventions, the Democratic National Committee eased the ban in 2012 to allow corporate funding of external convention events. That led to lobbyists and private industry largely funding much of the 2012 Democratic convention.

Campaign finance reformers have watched the change happen with dismay. The stricter rules regarding lobbyists that the Obama administration and Democratic Party first put in place have been eroded and there has been a lack of effort to enact new rules, so this is not surprising, said Lawrence Noble, general counsel for the Campaign Legal Center. In fact, the conventions have become a stocked pond of local, state and federal officials for lobbyists to fish in.

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Tony Podesta, Heathers ex-husband and fellow lobbyist, says the shift in rules from the conventions in Charlotte and Denver have only led to changes in the amount of money he spends. There was no ban having parties in 2012, he said, at his own swanky brunch at Barbuzzo on Monday morning. The lobbyist ban meant that I couldnt buy Obama T-shifts. That made the administration seem a little crazy, to say I couldnt buy a T-shirt for my niece and nephew. He is the brother and former business partner of Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta. T-shirts and official campaign swag are still considered direct contributions under Federal Election Commission guidelines.

In February, the restrictions were further eased to allow lobbyists to directly raise money for the various Democratic committees, the convention and any events that dont directly involve President Obama, Vice President Biden or their wives. The move was controversial at the time as it was supported by former secretary of state Hillary Clinton. Her rival, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, opposed the change.

Some lobbyists still regret how maligned their profession became in the Obama years. The Obama Administration made a mistake with that lobbying ban because some of the smartest most talented people who wanted to help move his agenda forward couldnt do it, says Gloria Dittus, chair of Story Partners and a Republican lobbyist who this year is supporting Clinton. Granted they helped on the outside but they couldve done more on the inside.

Anecdotally, convention goers have noticed a bigger business presence in Philadelphia than was seen in Charlotte. Im certainly running into a lot more people as compared to 2012, says Stephanie Cutter, who ran communications for Obamas reelection, looking around the room at Heather Podestas brunch, but it feels the same.

Both Dittus and Heather Podesta agreed that there is a more prominent business presence in Philadelphia for Clinton than there was in Cleveland last week for Donald Trumps Republican National Convention. There were fewer executives in town at the Republican convention, but the business community is present at both, said Heather Pedesta, who held one brunch in Cleveland and two in Philadelphia to accommodate demand. Her clients include Home Depot, Red Bull and Cigna.

Reformers have begun a debate over what the change in policy will mean, if Clinton wins the White House in November. We do not believe this mistaken move from the Democratic Party is a harbinger of how a Clinton administration would handle revolving door issues, said Robert Weissman, president of another watchdog group, Public Citizen. The party platform contains a powerful commitment to crack down on the revolving door between the private sectorparticularly Wall Streetand the federal government, and candidate Clinton has made similar commitments. The Obama administration made some important progress in addressing revolving door issues, and we expect a Clinton administration to go further.

But Dittus sees a different future for all those talented lobbyists shut out of the Obama Administration. I think the Clintons know how to find and pick the best talent and put them to work for the cause, Dittus said. Theyre great at finding, grooming, and fielding talent. Theyre going to tap a lot of great smart women and Im really looking forward to that.

Emails to the Clinton campaign for comment on this story went unanswered.
Paris-based sales company Luxbox has acquired world sales rights to Dao Khanong (By the Time It Gets Dark), the second feature by Thai director-writer-producer Anocha Suwichakornpong, who impressed with her 2009 debut Mundane History.

Written by Suwichakornpong, a graduate of Columbia Universitys MFA program, By the Time It Gets Dark will world-premiere in Locarnos main competitive section, its International Competition, where it will compete for Locarnos top Golden Leopard prize.

The deal on By the Time It Gets Dark marks out Luxbox, a nearly new sales outfit launched last October by Hedi Zardi and Fiorella Moretti, as one of the most active companies acquiring titles in the run-up to Locarno. Earlier this month, Luxbox took world sales rights to Swiss Michael Kochs debut feature Marija.

Inspired in part by the 1976 Thamassat University student massacre, perpetrated by government and right-wing paramilitary forces, By the Time It Gets Dark melds individual fiction characters and a broader sense of Thai history. In it, a film director attempts to make a film about the massacre, aided by her muse, a student activist in the 1970s. Other stories, which loosely connect, involve a waitress who is forever changing jobs, and an actor and an actress.

Mixing reality and dreams and different layers of time and space, Suwichakornpong questions the possibility of making nowadays a historical film about an untold chapter in the history of her country, Moretti and Zardi said in a statement, adding they were impressed by the poetry of her ode to cinema.

By the Time It Gets Dark is produced by, among others, Suwichakornpong and Soros Sukhum, one of the most prolific of indie Thai producers, whose credits include Aditya Assarats Wonderful Town, Mundane History and Kongdej Jaturanrasamees Snap. Electric Eel Films produces out of Thailand; Survivance co-produces out of France. The films drew financing from the Rotterdam Festivals Hubert Bals Fund and the Doha Film Institute.

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With established directors often holding down relationships with established sellers, it is natural for new sales agents to link with newer directors. This has already paid off for Luxbox as it drives into world cinema titles. Hedi, the debut of Tunisias Mohamed Ben Attia, won the 2016 Berlinales Best Actor (Majd Mastoura) and Best First Feature Award. Mimosas, the second feature from Spains Oliver Laxe, took Cannes Critics Week Grand Prix.

Luxbox is also representing Jeanette, the new film from veteran Bruno Dumont, which will be ready for delivery in 2017.

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It's been more than five years since New York police discovered a mass grave at New York's Gilgo Beach in 2011. But the recent death of the motherof one of the deceased has brought the years-old case back into national headlines and the suspected Long Island serial killer back into the minds of many.



The mother of Shannan Gilbert, the sex worker whose body was found near the mass grave, was found dead suffering stab wounds on Saturday. The woman's other daughter, Sarra, was charged with her murder.



A missing-person's specialist said the family "never found closure" after Shannan's death, and that may have played a role in the recent tragedy.



"When your loved one is missing, the torture is too much for family members," Dottie Laster told PEOPLE amid revelations that Sarra suffered from schizophrenia. "Over time, they can develop serious medical malfunctions."





Long Island Murder Mystery: Everything We Know About the Gilgo Beach Case Thus Far| Crime & Courts, Death, Murder, True Crime, True Crime

Here's everything we know about the Long Island murder mystery:



Shannan's Death is Not Connected to the "Serial Killer" Case



Shannan, a 24-year-old from New Jersey, disappeared in May 2010 after meeting a client through Craigslist. Police found what they believed to be Shannan's remains in December 2011.



The search for Shanna's body led to the discovery of a mass grave of missing people on the Long Island beach. Although Shannan's body was found on the same stretch of land where the other victims were found, police have long maintained that her death was not connected to the suspected serial killer.



A Suffolk County Police Department spokesperson said police still believe Shannan's death is not connected to the other victims  who are all believed to have been murdered by the serial killer  and noted that they have not declared Shannan a murder victim.



"With respect to Shannan Gilbert, an autopsy was completed by the Office of the Suffolk County Medical Examiner a and the cause of her death was undetermined," the spokesperson said.



Police have said that Shannan likely drowned.





Story continues

Long Island Murder Mystery: Everything We Know About the Gilgo Beach Case Thus Far| Crime & Courts, Death, Murder, True Crime, True Crime



But Shannan's Mother Believed Differently



Since losing Shannan, 52-year-old Mari Gilbert and her remaining daughters, Sarra and Sherre, have maintained that the woman's death was not accidental, as authorities have suggested.



Mari fought for authorities to investigate Shannan's death as a murder case and insisted that the FBI take over the search.



"We are going to continue to fight as long as we need to until justice is done for our daughter," Mari said at a press conference in February.





Long Island Murder Mystery: Everything We Know About the Gilgo Beach Case Thus Far| Crime & Courts, Death, Murder, True Crime, True Crime



Mari even enlisted the help of famed forensic pathologist Michael Baden to perform an autopsy in which he determined that Shannan may have been strangled to death, NBC New York reports.



"We're demanding they activate a homicide investigation for Shannan Gilbert," family attorney John Ray told NBC in February.



The police spokesperson said detectives have requested to review Baden's report and are awaiting documentation.



 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.



How it All Began





Long Island Murder Mystery: Everything We Know About the Gilgo Beach Case Thus Far| Crime & Courts, Death, Murder, True Crime, True Crime



Melissa Barthelemy went missing from her Bronx apartment in July 2009. And police seemed sure that nothing was wrong.



"They said, 'She's 24; she's where she wants to be; she's not missing,' " her mother, Lynn, recalled to PEOPLE then.



Investigators changed their tune when Barthelemy's teen sister started receiving anonymous phone calls from a man, saying, "I killed Melissa."



Melissa's remains, and the remains of three other sex workers, were found about 10 months later when authorities began searching for Shannan. The discovery led experts to a conclusion: there was a serial killer.



"Prostitutes are probably the most common victims of serial killers," Vernon Gerberth, author of textbook Practical Homicide Investigation told PEOPLE in 2011.



Shannan's aunt, Lori Grove, told PEOPLE that it was likely her niece's status as a sex worker that caused police to pay Shannan's disappearance little attention initially.



Shannan was a prostitute, Lori said, "but does that mean she wasn't worth looking for all those months?"



The Victims





Long Island Murder Mystery: Everything We Know About the Gilgo Beach Case Thus Far| Crime & Courts, Death, Murder, True Crime, True Crime



During the search for Gilbert, investigators found the remains of eight women, a child and a man dressed in women's clothing, The New York Times reported.



Officials said then that all of the victims has a possible connection to the sex trade  police said they believe the toddler found was the child of a prostitute, according to the Times.



Four of the victims, Barthelemy, Maureen Brainard-Barnes, Megan Waterman and Amber Costello, were all sex workers who had advertised on Craigslist and had been missing for months or years.



The four women were found first and, after increasing their search efforts, investigators unearthed the remains of six more bodies in the same area.





Long Island Murder Mystery: Everything We Know About the Gilgo Beach Case Thus Far| Crime & Courts, Death, Murder, True Crime, True Crime



Shortly after the discoveries, families of the deceased began connecting with one another on Facebook.



"There's comfort in knowing that someone else knows that your going through," Costello's sister, Kim Overstreet, told PEOPLE in 2011. "Someone knows your pain."





What You Need To Know: The Phoenix Serial Killer



The Killer is Still at Large



The Suffolk County Police Department spokesperson said although officials do not "speak on suspects or leads," "no arrests" have been made in the case. The spokesperson added that police find themselves virtually in the same place they were at the time of the gruesome discoveries, with very little information about the killer.



"The Suffolk County Police Department is doing everything it can to solve the Gilgo Beach homicides and that is why the Department recently partnered with the FBI," police said in a February statement obtained by PEOPLE.



Among the remains found at Gilgo Beach, police linked some of the body parts to victims found several miles away since 1996, the Associated Press reports.
Madeleine Albright, this countrys first female Secretary of State, told DNC delegates and TV viewers today that, both she and Clinton know, from their shared experience in that office, know that safeguarding freedom and security is not like hosting a TV reality show. It is a complex, round-the-clock job that demands not only a steady hand and a cool head but also a big heart.

Many have argued that Donald Trump would harm our national security if he were elected president. The fact is, he has already done damage, just by running for president, Albright warned.

He has undermined our fight against terrorism by alienating our Muslim partners. He has weakened our standing in the world by threatening to walk away from our friends and our allies, and by encouraging more countries to get nuclear weapons. Donald Trump also has a strange admiration for dictators: Saddam Hussein, Kim Jong-un, Vladimir Putin. When asked about Putin, Donald Trump said, in term of leadership hes getting an A. The truth is, a Trump victory in November would be gift to Putin. And, given what we know about Russias recent actions, Putin is eager to see Trump win, Albright said.

And that should worry every American. Take it from someone who fled the Iron Curtain. I know what happens when you give the Russians a green light. Trumps dark vision of America, one thats isolated in the world, alienated from our allies, would be a disaster. We must make sure that this never happens.

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Buenos Aires (AFP) - Opponents of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro say they have been arrested for their political activities and subjected to torture including brutal beatings and electric shocks, Human Rights Watch said Wednesday.

At least 21 opposition activists have been arrested since May, and most report being tortured or otherwise abused in custody, said the New York-based rights group.

Some of those arrested said they were forced to confess to crimes they did not commit or threatened with rape or murder, said the group, which based its findings on interviews, court documents and police records.

With oil-giant Venezuela's economy pushed to the brink of collapse by the crash in global crude prices, Maduro is fighting off opposition efforts to make him face a recall referendum.

Opponents have sought to rally mass protests to pressure the leftist leader. The authorities have responded by arresting opposition figures.

Human Rights Watch called on the Organization of American States to step up pressure on Maduro's government to investigate alleged abuses and release prisoners who have been arbitrarily detained.

"Without strong regional pressure, the Venezuelan government may well believe that it can get away with brutal and authoritarian punishment for dissent," the rights group's Americas director, Jose Miguel Vivanco, told a press conference in Buenos Aires.

He said Venezuela is currently holding some 90 political prisoners.

The report, presented in the Argentine capital, documents 21 cases.

They include that of 20-year-old student Jose Gregorio Hernandez Carrasco, who was arrested for alleged violence against the security forces at a protest in Caracas on May 18.

"He was beaten and tortured and finally agreed to sign a confession because his abusers threatened to rape him," said the report.

"The torture included applying electric shocks, covering his head with a plastic bag to choke him and placing a stick on his rectum and threatening to rape him.

"Hernandez Carrasco remains in detention and subject to criminal prosecution, despite the fact that the attorney general's office failed to present any credible evidence against him," it said.

Maduro's government denies holding political prisoners.
Kuala Lumpur (AFP) - Struggling Malaysia Airlines on Wednesday announced plans to purchase 50 Boeing aircraft for $5.5 billion as it continues efforts to recover from devastating twin disasters in 2014.

Malaysia's national flag carrier said it had placed firm orders for 25 Boeing 737 MAX jets and had purchase rights for another 25. Deliveries are to commence in 2019.

New CEO Peter Bellew said the purchase of the aircraft, which are known for their fuel efficiency, would aid the airline's recovery.

"This deal is a game-changer for Malaysia Airlines with much lower costs and greater efficiency which we will pass on to our loyal customers with lower fares," Bellew said in announcing the deal.

Malaysia Airlines currently operates 56 Boeing 737-800s as well as smaller numbers of Airbus aircraft.

The devastating MH370 and MH17 disasters in 2014 pushed the perennially loss-making airline to the brink of bankruptcy as bookings dried up.

MH370 disappeared on March 8 of that year, en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 passengers and crew.

Debris found in the Indian Ocean has confirmed the Boeing 777 went down but the reasons are unknown.

Four months after MH370 vanished, MH17 was blown from the sky by a suspected Russian-made ground-to-air missile over war-torn Ukraine, killing all 298 passengers and crew.

State investment fund Khazanah Nasional took the company private later that year, and in 2015 brought in German airline turnaround specialist Christoph Mueller.

Mueller soon launched a painful rescue plan that slashed 6,000 jobs and dramatically trimmed its route network.

But he abruptly announced in April that he would be leaving well before the end of his three-year contract for unspecified "personal reasons".

He was succeeded on July 1 by Bellew, an Irish former executive with Ireland-based low-cost carrier RyanAir.
* Airline places 25 firm orders, purchase rights for 25 more

* Total deal valued at $5.5 bln

* Airline CEO says aiming to tap capital markets by March 2019 (Adds CEO comment from news conference)

KUALA LUMPUR, July 27 (Reuters) - Malaysia Airlines said on Wednesday it had ordered 50 Boeing 737 MAX jets, with firm orders for 25 and rights to purchase 25 more.

Deliveries will begin in 2019 and the deal is worth $5.5 billion at list prices, the full-service carrier said in a statement.

Airlines typically receive a discount off the list prices.

The 737 Max is the re-engined and upgraded variant of Boeing's popular narrowbody model.

The new planes will cut operating costs and their longer range will allow the airline to fly to more destinations, Chief Executive Peter Bellew said in a statement.

This is the first major decision by the ailing carrier since Bellew took over from former chief executive Christoph Mueller on July 1.

The new planes will replace some of the airline's 56 Boeing 737-800s, which have an average age of 4.1 years according to airfleets.net.

Malaysia Airlines has been struggling since the disappearance of flight MH370 and shooting down of flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine, both in 2014.

The national carrier was taken private by state-fund Khazanah Nasional Bhd following the twin disasters as part of a restructuring plan, which included a shrinking of its network.

Since then, the airline has cancelled all non-stop flights to Europe except those to London and ended several low-yield Asia-Pacific services.

Bellew told reporters the airline was aiming to tap capital markets by March 2019, adding that he was confident it would break even in 2018.

He said with the new planes, costs would go down by 40 percent and operating expenses would drop by 15 percent.

MAS has retired its long-haul Boeing 777s and signed an agreement to lease four Airbus A350s, which have lower operating costs, from 2018.

Its focus, however, is on the Asian market and narrowbody planes like the 737, which are used on short-haul routes of up to five hours, will help with that.

"Malaysia Airlines is now on a path to growth across the ASEAN region," Bellew said, referring to the 10-member Association of South East Asian Nations.

"This new aircraft order will set the stage for our continued recovery and success into the next decade." (Reporting by A. Ananthalakshmi; Writing by Praveen Menon and Siva Govindasamy; Editing by Clarence Fernandez, Robert Birsel)
KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Malaysia Airlines said on Wednesday it had ordered 50 Boeing <BA.N> 737 MAX jets, with firm orders for 25 and rights to purchase 25 more.

Deliveries will begin in 2019 and the deal is worth $5.5 billion at list prices, the full-service carrier said in a statement.

Airlines typically receive a discount off the list prices.

The 737 Max is the re-engined and upgraded variant of Boeing's popular narrowbody model.

The new planes will cut operating costs and their longer range will allow the airline to fly to more destinations, Chief Executive Peter Bellew said in a statement.

This is the first major decision by the ailing carrier since Bellew took over from former chief executive Christoph Mueller on July 1.

The new planes will replace some of the airline's 56 Boeing 737-800s, which have an average age of 4.1 years according to airfleets.net. Malaysia Airlines has been struggling since the disappearance of flight MH370 and shooting down of flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine, both in 2014. The national carrier was taken private by state-fund Khazanah Nasional Bhd [KHAZA.UL] following the twin disasters as part of a restructuring plan, which included a shrinking of its network. Since then, the airline has canceled all non-stop flights to Europe except those to London and ended several low-yield Asia-Pacific services.

Bellew told reporters the airline was aiming to tap capital markets by March 2019, adding that he was confident it would break even in 2018.

He said with the new planes, costs would go down by 40 percent and operating expenses would drop by 15 percent.

MAS has retired its long-haul Boeing 777s and signed an agreement to lease four Airbus A350s, which have lower operating costs, from 2018.

Its focus, however, is on the Asian market and narrowbody planes like the 737, which are used on short-haul routes of up to five hours, will help with that.

"Malaysia Airlines is now on a path to growth across the ASEAN region," Bellew said, referring to the 10-member Association of South East Asian Nations.

"This new aircraft order will set the stage for our continued recovery and success into the next decade."

(Reporting by A. Ananthalakshmi; Writing by Praveen Menon and Siva Govindasamy; Editing by Clarence Fernandez, Robert Birsel)
The Mothers of the Movement, a group of black mothers who lost their children to gun violence, endorsed Hillary Clinton at the Democratic National Convention on Tuesday.

As seven mothers walked across the stage to discuss their childrens deaths, several at the hands of police, chants of black lives matter! erupted in south Philadelphias Wells Fargo Center.

Earlier that day, demonstrators took to the streets of Philadelphia to protest police brutality.

Well-known companies like Google and Facebook, as well as individuals like President Barack Obama, Lady Gaga, Beyonce and Lin-Manuel Miranda, have spoken out in support of the Black Lives Matter movement. Meanwhile, others decry the movement with their own all lives matter mantra.

Best-selling author Malcolm Gladwell, whos biracial, says he is rallying behind Black Lives Matter, which was created in 2012 after George Zimmerman was acquitted of second-degree murder for shooting and killing an unarmed 17-year-old named Trayvon Martin.

Black Lives Matter is not a symptom of whats wrong with this country, Gladwell told Yahoo Finance at the Ozy Fusion Fest in New York City. Thats a symptom of whats right with this country. Thats not things falling apart, thats things coming together.

He says the movement, which describes itself as a call to action and a response to the virulent anti-black racism that permeates our society, is the most positive thing thats come along in a very, very long time. Gladwell believes that this indignation, often manifested in marches and protests, has been brewing within the American populace for 200 years.

We are finally saying, Wait a minute, that shouldnt happen. We have finally evolved to the point where we think its an outrage and want to talk about it. People who think this is part of some conflicted, disintegrated fabric of American society, have it totally backwards. This is about the restoration of the American ideal  that we are all created equal.

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Its imperative to differentiate the Black Lives Matter movement from the general sentiment of unrest and discontentment in the US, says Gladwell. Earlier this month, five police officers were killed by a lone attacker at a Black Lives Matter rally in Dallas.

There are other angry, unhappy people doing all kinds of things. I dont lump the BLM stuff with any of that, Gladwell says. To me, that is something beautiful and pure, and anger directed in the appropriate direction which is in restoring fundamental American ideals of justice.

Despite his rhetoric supporting Black Lives Matter, Gladwell is often criticized for being an armchair analyst, pontificating on issues like capitalization (the measure of how well America is making use of its human potential), the exorbitant cost of higher education, and misguided philanthropy. He often makes compelling arguments through his writing and podcast, Revisionist History, but readers may wonder how exactly he is affecting change.

He told Yahoo Finance that though he may not be hitting the streets (Im too old, he says in jest), he still considers himself an activist. I think everybody has a different role to play. I have a platform through my writing and my podcast that I have built over the past 20 years. I think that I am most useful to the world if I speak out through those kinds of platforms.

In fact, he says he views his primary role as illuminating issues like police brutality in an intellectual manner. My role is to be the one providing people with arguments, with data, with exhorting them to various forms of action. I absolutely think of myself as being part of these social movements but there are many ways to participate in social movements beyond marching in the streets.

When asked whether he plans to vote for Clinton, Gladwell said, Well, Im a Canadian. I cant vote. Hypothetically, I suppose I would vote for her.

Melody Hahm is a reporter at Yahoo Finance. Read more from her:

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Bamako (AFP) - Malian special forces arrested a senior figure from the Ansar Dine jihadist group close to a central military base where he is accused of planning an attack that killed 17 soldiers.

"Today, at around 4:00 pm (1600 GMT) our special forces captured Mahmoud Barry, alias Abou Yehiya," one of the most senior figures in the group's branch operating in central Mali, an intelligence officer told AFP.

Other security sources confirmed the arrest, adding that Barry was the "emir" of Ansar Dine's Macina combat unit and was behind several attacks on Malian security forces since last year.

He is suspected of taking part in last week's attack on a military base of Nampala, near the border with Mauritania, that left 17 soldiers dead and another 35 wounded, said a security source.

The attackers stormed the site, which has been targeted multiple times since January last year, taking control of it for several hours and making off with military vehicles.

The government declared a 10-day state of emergency after what it called a "coordinated terrorist attack", which was claimed by Ansar Dine and another armed ethnic group.

Barry was captured between the military base of Nampala and Dogofri, in the central region of Segou.

"For several days, Mali's special forces and intelligence services have been searching for the individual in the area," the security source said.

The intelligence officer said Barry is in the process of being transferred to the capital Bamako.

Northern Mali has seen repeated violence since it fell under the control of Tuareg-led rebels who allied with jihadist groups linked to Al-Qaeda, including Ansar Dine, in 2012.

But attacks are now becoming more frequent in the country's centre, close to its borders with Burkina Faso and Niger, both from criminal and jihadist elements.

Although Islamists were largely ousted by an ongoing French-led military operation launched in January 2013, sporadic attacks from desert hideouts are common.
The ultimate birthday wish has come true for a Kentucky man with Down syndrome after he was sworn in as an honorary police officer just before he turned 23.

Read: 3-Year-Old Boy Battling Terminal Cancer Sworn In as Honorary FDNY Firefighter

Brennan Wheatley has wanted to be a cop since he was a kid.

And just days before his birthday, his dreams became reality when he was named a Campbellsville police officer in a ceremony attended by friends and family.

"Officer Wheatley is ready to go," Campbellsville Police Chief Pat Thompson announced after the swearing in ceremony, WLEX18 reported.

He was presented with a badge and uniform before being dispatched to duty right away.

Read: Heartbreaking Image Shows 2 Children Praying for Their Police Officer Dad in Front Of Squad Car

His partner for the day, Officer Andy Warren, joined him as they patrolled the streets in a squad car, where Wheatley kept the streets safe by making a traffic stop.

He even cuffed a perpetrator before loading him into the backseat of the patrol car.

Warren told WLEX18: "He reminds us every day of what it's like to help people."

Watch: Police Officer Photographed Kneeling to Clean Homeless Man's Feet: 'You Just Feel Compassion'

Related Articles:
STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - An unidentified assailant shot and wounded a man in a shopping mall in the Swedish city of Malmo on Tuesday, but police said the attack had nothing to do with recent Islamist militant violence elsewhere in Europe. A Malmo police statement said the victim was shot in the leg and taken to a local hospital. His condition was not immediately known. Police said they had not identified a suspect or motive in the shooting and had made no arrests. A police spokesperson later told regional daily Sydsvenska Dagbladet that the incident, in a mainly immigrant neighborhood of Sweden's third largest city, was being investigated as a case of aggravated assault or attempted murder, and had no connection with Islamist militancy, he said. Europe has been shaken by a series of violent attacks on civilians in Germany, France and Belgium over the past 18 months by men of Middle Eastern or Asian origin. Many of the attacks were claimed by the Islamic State militant group. (Reporting by Sven Nordenstam and Daniel Dickson; editing by Mark Heinrich)
Maryland's attorney general has asked that any new trial for Serial subject Adnan Syed be held pending the appeals process, as the state intends to fight the recent ruling that overturned Syed's 2000 murder conviction, PEOPLE confirms.



The state made their request in a court document filed Thursday, which was obtained by PEOPLE, and has until Aug. 1 to file an appeal of the ruling.



Justin Brown, Syed's attorney, previously told PEOPLE that an appeal could drag out the possibility of a new trial up to "a year or longer."



"Part of it is up to the state to see how long they would drag it out," he said.



Brown declined to comment Tuesday.



 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.



On June 30, Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Martin Welch vacated Syed's conviction and life sentence for the 1999 death of ex-girlfriend Hae Min Lee. The pair had been high school seniors in Baltimore at the time of her death.



Syed's case came to national prominence in the popular first season of the NPR podcast, which scrutinized the case made against him.



Syed has always maintained his innocence, though Lee's family believes "justice was done" by his conviction.



In 2013, Welch denied Syed's first post-conviction relief efforts. But for Syed's second post-conviction relief hearing, in February, Syed's defense team presented new evidence: a fax cover sheet from AT&T undercutting the reliability of cell phone records prosecutors used to put Syed at the scene where he allegedly buried Lee's body.



The prosecution's cell phone expert was not aware of this information at the time he testified at Syed's trial  and when he learned about the new information he signed sworn affidavits stating he was concerned about his earlier testimony concerning the reliability of the incoming calls.



Welch ruled in June that because Syed's original defense attorney, M. Cristina Gutierrez, did not cross-examine the cell expert on this issue during Syed's 2000 trial, she was so deficient that the conviction should be vacated and he should be granted a new trial.
Rome (AFP) - Prime Minister Theresa May on Wednesday said Britain would take the time needed to steer its way towards the EU exit as Italian counterpart Matteo Renzi urged a clear timeline to deliver Brexit.

"It will take time to work out the nature of our relationship. And thats why we should take time for these negotiations so that both sides can identify their objectives and opportunities," said May, chosen by the governing Conservative Party to be premier in the aftermath of Britain's shock vote to leave.

She said London would look to guarantee the rights of hundreds of thousands of Italians living in Britain and demand reciprocity for British nationals living in EU states.

Renzi urged a clear timeline be established to remove Brexit-related uncertainty.

"For us its important to give a message of a clear timeline to avoid the risks," said the Italian premier, adding Rome regretted the decision in favour of Leave, not least for its potential impact on some 600,000 Italians living in Britain.

"But it is the British people's decision and we respect it," said Renzi.

May reassured him on an issue affecting some three million British-based EU nationals as well as around 1.3 million Britons according to UN figures who have taken advantage of the free movement of Labour across the bloc to work away.

"I want to be able to guarantee their rights in the UK. I expect to be able to do that and I intend to be able to do that, to guarantee their rights," said May.

"The only circumstances in which that would not be possible it would be if the rights of British citizens living in other EU countries would not be guaranteed," she said.

May has insisted since taking office earlier this month that Brexit will not be overturned -- even if parliament still has to endorse the divorce after 43 years of membership.

- 'Clear message' -

"We had a very clear message from the British people in the Brexit vote that they want us to bring in some controls on free movement. We will deliver on that," May said.

Story continues

"We should be developing the model that suits the United Kingdom and the European Union, not adopting necessarily a model thats on the shelf already," she asserted.

May said Britain and its EU partners must decide on the exact basis for future relations but has stated that negotiations will not start before year's end.

France and Germany have urged Britain be given time to mull its exit path and Renzi has invited the leaders of both to Italy to discuss the issue next month.

Once negotiations are formally engaged Britain would leave the union at the end of a two-year process.

May, who said that Britain's exit would not reduce "friendship" or "cooperation" on issues such as fighting terrorism and migration, will Thursday visit Poland notably to assuage Polish concerns on the future of 790,000 Poles working in the United Kingdom.
LGBT rights advocate Sarah McBride will make history when she speaks in support of Hillary Clinton at the Democratic National Convention Thursday.

She will be the first openly transgender person to speak at a national convention for either major U.S. political party.

On the eve of her speech, McBride, 25, joined Yahoo Global News Anchor Katie Couric at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia to discuss her experience as a transgender person in the United States and why theres so much prejudice against her community.

I want to make sure that people understand that behind this national conversation around transgender rights there are real people, McBride said. Who hurt when theyre mocked, who hurt when theyre discriminated against and who just want to be treated with dignity and respect.

McBride, who grew up in Wilmington, Del., is the national press secretary of the Human Rights Campaign, an LGBT rights advocacy group. She is also on the steering committee of Trans United for Hillary, which urges the transgender community and its allies to support Clintons bid for the White House.

According to McBride, people are scared of what they do not understand, and thats why personal stories from the transgender community  like the one she will share on Thursday  and public education play an integral part in changing hearts and minds.

As the trans community becomes more visible, were going to see, I think, a decrease in discrimination, but at the same time, at least in the short term, this increased visibility is going to create more vulnerability for a lot of people, she said.

Stories about transgender rights have been in the news frequently the past year. Issues like North Carolinas controversial House Bill 2 (HB2), which requires people to use public bathrooms that correspond with their sex as assigned at birth rather than their gender identities, have sparked intense debates around the subject.

Three months ago, McBride made headlines when she shared a selfie from inside a North Carolina public womens restroom to protest the law, which she calls probably the most hateful, mean-spirited bill toward the LGBT community ever passed in the history of the United States.

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Bathrooms have been at the center of equality and civil rights movements for the last 50 years, she said. And the reason for that is because discrimination in bathrooms keeps people from being able to participate in public life. If you cant use a bathroom, it becomes much harder to go to school, go to work or participate in the public marketplace.

Supporters of HB2 and similar laws argue that allowing transgender women to use the restroom corresponding with their gender identity would allow potential sexual predators into womens rooms and put little girls in danger. The transgender community has denounced these arguments as prejudiced, offensive and false.

Discomfort isnt grounds for discrimination, McBride said. We have a big country with a lot of different kinds of people in it. Its OK to be talking to one another about what it means to be transgender. We dont have to shield everyone from the existence of people like me.

Turning the conversation toward the presidential election, Couric asked what McBride thought of the fact that there are 28 transgender delegates at the Democratic National Convention and only 18 African-American delegates were at the Republican National Convention last week in Cleveland.

For McBride, this contrast illustrates that the Democrats convention is one of inclusion and equality while the Republicans convention was built around hate, fear and division.

At that convention, they endorsed the most anti-LGBT platform in their partys history. And for the Republican Party, thats pretty astounding, she said.

Sarah McBride discusses her life as a transgender woman at the Democratic National Convention. (Photo: Yahoo News)

McBride called Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump an enemy of LGBTQ rights and criticized his choice of running mate: Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, best known outside his state for signing the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which critics said made it easier to discriminate against gay people.

Last week, Trump made history as the first Republican to mention the LGBTQ community during a GOP nomination acceptance speech, when he vowed to protect it from Islamic terrorism.

Other Republicans have been criticized for not even accepting the premise that transgender identity is legitimate. Former presidential candidate Ben Carson, for instance, called it the height of absurdity.

There are biological markers that tell us whether we are a male or a female, and just because you wake up one day and you say, I think Im the other one, that doesnt change it. A leopard cant change its spots, Carson said to Yahoo News last week.

In response, McBride said she has known she was transgender her entire life and identifying as female was not something she did casually one morning.

In 2012, McBride publicly came out as transgender in an op-ed titled The Real Me for American Universitys student newspaper, The Eagle, a day after finishing her term as the schools student body president.

For my entire life, Ive wrestled with my gender identity. It was only after the experiences of this year that I was able to come to terms with what had been my deepest secret: Im transgender, she wrote. For me, it has been present my whole life, but, for the longest time, I couldnt accept it.

Sarah McBride speaks at a Human Rights Campaign dinner in Nashville, March 5, 2016. (Photo: Wade Payne/Invision/AP)

Later that year, she took an internship at the White House  becoming the first transgender woman to work there. She went on to work for the liberal think tank Center for American Progress, and became one of the most prominent young voices for the transgender community.

On June 19, 2013, Delaware Gov. Jack Markell publicly thanked McBride after signing into law the Gender Identity Nondiscrimination Act, which ensures equal legal protections for transgender men or women in the state. Before the bill, it had been legal to kick transgender people out of stores, deny them housing or fire them because of their gender identity.

I especially want to thank my friend Sarah McBride, an intelligent and talented Delawarean who happens to be transgender, Markell said at the time. She courageously stood before the general assembly to describe her personal struggles with gender identity and communicate her desire to return home after her college graduation without fear. Her tireless advocacy for passage of this legislation has made a real difference for all transgender people in Delaware.

McBride, who had been standing by Markells side while he announced the new law, spoke next. She thanked Delawares legislators for their compassion and courage, the governor and attorney general for their support and the LGBT activists and allies who worked toward that goal.

After todays vote, transgender people now know that Delaware is a safe and welcoming state for everyone to live and work, she said.

On Wednesday, McBride said she wants to make sure that transgender people across the United States are protected. She said transgender people are not just part of the American story but are a facet of human diversity and have existed in all times and cultures.

This degree of hate and prejudice we have toward transgender people, that is a choice. And we do not need to continue to make that choice, she said. We can open our hearts and change our minds and treat every person in this country with dignity and fairness. And frankly, thats what Hillary Clinton is calling for and thats what this elections about.

_____

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Meryls style choice was a huge hit with her fans on Twitter [Photo: Rex]

What does one wear to a Democratic National Convention? A very patriotic ensemble, apparently. Hollywood actress Meryl Streep dug deep in her wardrobe and pulled out an American flag frock for the occasion, proving her love for her country.

You may recognise the Catherine Malandrino number. Meryls worn it before, at a photocall for her movie Doubt back in 2009, and its also been donned by a fair few other famous faces.

Halle Berry got there first, famously showcasing it on a promotional tour for Swordfish back in 2001 and Katy Perry got was patriotic goals for Americans globally while wearing the French fashion designers dress on Independence Day in 2013.

Meryl wearing the same dress back in 2009 [Photo: Rex]



But while neither Halle or Katy have been spotted in their stars and stripes frock since, Meryl clearly owns (and loves) hers. The 67-year-old called upon the wrap dress to do its patriotic duty and help her speech resonate with the U.S.A.

And what a speech it was. The actress clearly tapped into all of her years of training and delivered a rousing speech in support of Hillary Clinton that delighted Twitter - almost as much as her dress did.

Meryls speech included one massive scream that got the crowd going [Photo: Giphy]

Including a celebratory banshee whoop and an award-winning start (What does it take to be the first female anything? she began. It takes grit, and it takes grace.) the Oscar-winner was easily one of the most memorable speakers of the Philadelphia convention.>

You Wont Believe What 20 Year Old Meryl Streep Had To Put Up With

Meryl Streep: Womens Issues Are Mens Problems
Bill Clinton may be the only person in America, at least judging by last week's Republican convention and two days of inept Democratic speakers, to know how to give a proper speech. Conversational, intimate, his voice carefully modulated, a man comfortably in the moment, easily - pleasurably (for him and us) - holding our attention. He cast a spell from which emerged a new Hillary Clinton. Bill is better than video. His speech was her Man From Hope, the biopic that recast him in 1992 as a new, humble yet protean American political figure.

It was a convention session last night here in Philadelphia, rolling out from a 4:30 pm start to after 11:30 pm - hence with a touch of Stockholm Syndrome by the end - designed to hide in artful stage smoke Hillary Clinton's personal ambitiousness, dedicated wonkishness and Machiavellian calculations. Over seven hours she became, in clear contrast to Donald Trump, a model of civic virtue and the personification of the new Democratic party, a more pointedly sensitive and caring women's party, if you will.

Even the near two-hour roll call, a negotiated settlement with Bernie Sanders meant to literally meet his followers' need to be counted, worked nicely for Hillary. There is a certain kind of civic ritual and enthusiasm in this kind of going-on-too-long vote - "the great state of such and such, home to  birthplace o f " - that reminds you what a civic anomaly and deviation Donald Trump really is. In some ways it's the Democrats' most basic weapon: anybody who's ever taken a civics class, or thought he or she could grow up to be President, ought, in the end, to find Donald Trump implausible, if not perverse. (Of course a lot of people have not taken civic classes, or paid attention in them, or have had it occur to them that they would want to be president.)

Read More: Hillary Clinton Puts a "Crack in That Glass Ceiling" to Conclude Day Two of DNC

Out of that sense of civic gauziness emerged a rehabbed Hillary into the quickly developing new Democratic politics, a greater progressive do-gooderism than ever before (a very different sort of Democratic politics from her husband's). Hence, there was no mention last night of economics, business, security, military or foreign entanglements, those harsher subjects - indeed, could it be, men's subjects?

Rather, Hillary and the Democratic Party equals warmth. (One old friend of Hillary's from childhood giving testimony explicitly said as much: If you know her, you'd know she's really warm.)

Hillary understands what middle class families need (really?). Hillary, says Chuck Schumer, is the salt of the earth, and when she tells you something you can take it to the bank (really?). She works for the children. Indeed, the major highlight of her resume is the few years after law school when she worked for the Children's Defense Fund and was a public advocate lawyer. She didn't, various people testifying for her declared, go to work for a big law firm when she graduated from law school (until, of course, she did, four years after law school, but pay no attention).

She's an innovator and promise keeper. Hillary came into our neighborhood and came into our schools and unlike other politicians delivered on her promises. She believes people deserve the full protection of the laws. She knows women's rights are human rights - she feels it in her bones. She will, unlike you know who, stand up for reproductive rights. She's a caring person, most of all. She never needed instant gratification (according to her mother, reported by Barbara Boxer). She had a light in her eyes, as per Boxer, when she became a grandmother. She was a hero of 9/11.

She has a kindness and grace that endures. She remembers meaningful details. She sends encouraging notes. She makes you feel like you're the most important person in her day. She's against sex trafficking and human rights abuses. She's first and foremost a mother. She works day and night. In Hillary's America, suggests one of the video clip modules running through the convention, she spends day and night in community centers hugging children and their mothers.

Read More: Critic's Notebook: Bill Clinton Delivers a Mash Note to Hillary at the Democratic Convention

In effect, bad Hillary is really good Hillary. Everything you think you knew about her is wrong, and the opposite of that is true. And perhaps in some sense it is (anyway, Stockholm Syndrome is real).

Certainly, what must be one of history's most troubled marriages seemed last night, in the husband's telling, a strong, loving and enduring one. True, it was edited to a fault. The good years, or at least the most distant ones, got all of the attention, and the well-known difficult years almost none at all.

And yet, it wasn't all gauze. It was a reasonable picture of a career in politics, a policy career, a social program bureaucrat, a little-known side of public life from which most Democratic politicians come and in which they believe they make a difference (hence, the conceit that she makes things better, a change agent - if you dropped her into a bad place, she'll improve it, declared her husband, like  Libya). And there was, in his telling, an aspect of her character that is surely true, a Sisyphean sense. She takes a punch in the head and keeps going.

For sure, the Democratic faithful, waving Hillary sticks that lent the convention a reassuring 1940s look, went out into the night (and an hour wait for an Uber) believing, for a few hours anyway, that they had missed the real Hillary all along.
From Harper's BAZAAR

In her eight years as FLOTUS, Michelle Obama has fought childhood obesity, given resounding speeches like the one she delivered last night at the Democratic National Convention and has quietly championed young American designers. She helped put Jason Wu and Prabal Gurung on the global map, gave J.Crew the kind of boost brands only dream of and recently stepped out in Altuzarra and Creatures of the Wind-labels that read like a CFDA ballot. She wore Carolina Herrera on her and President Obama's historic trip to Cuba earlier this year and Oscar de la Renta-after the late designer publicly admonished the First Lady for donning Alexander McQueen in China.

Doubtlessly, Obama has effortlessly entered the echelons of timeless style icons-joining rank with famed First Ladies Jacqueline Kennedy and Nancy Reagan. But the simple blue crepe, cap sleeve, cinches waist dress that she wore last night said a lot more than its quiet presence might suggest.

The gown was created by Christian Siriano, a New York based designer who recently made headlines after he dressed Leslie Jones, the very tall, very funny star of the new "Ghostbusters," reboot. Siriano stepped in to outfit Jones for the film's premiere after the actress complained on Twitter that no designers would dress her-prior to the comedienne being viscously, racially attacked on the platform, so much so that the social media site had to step in to regulate. As the former Project Runway winner told the New York Times, "I just don't think anyone should be excluded from having a beautiful dress."

In contrast, last week at the Republican National Convention, Melania Trump donned a white, dramatic sleeve dress by the British designer Roksanda-purchased from net-a-porter.com. While she looked lovely in the frock, it certainly didn't serve a patriotic or political agenda.

In her time as FLOTUS, Michelle may have swayed to Beyonce in Jason Wu, but wearing a minimal cobalt gown to quietly stand with designers who stand with women might be even more impactful.
Everyone on the commuter ferry to the tiny coastal village of Gezaulole in Tanzania recognized Michael Laverty. Not only was he one of a few foreigners living in the rural settlement, but Lavertys thrill-seeking demeanor had caught peoples attention too. He had taught himself to ride a motorbike on the streets in full view of the community. I was probably the only person in Tanzania with a Japanese motorcycle, he says.

Laverty, a die-hard adventurer, has spent close to a decade launching and managing businesses at the farthest edges of the investment universe. In Dar es Salaam, Laverty designed a research study to help antimalarial medicines reach the countrys outermost villages. And in the midst of a civil war in the South Sudanese capital, Juba, he ran a logistics business and oversaw a downstream petroleum company with $5 million a week in turnover. His next challenge: fraught, difficult Cuba.

Michael

Michael Laverty

Source: Courtesy of Michael Laverty

This island nation, which for more than 50 years has been separated from the U.S. by just a 90-minute flight (and 90 miles of ocean), now holds the promise of opportunity in the globalized economy. Laverty, 34, has become an intermediary, sought after by the increasing number of Americans  investors, companies, politicians, even Hollywood stars  who are licking their chops, and not over rice and beans. He founded Havana Strategies with his brother, Collin, 33, last year, a company that acts as middleman for U.S. companies that want to move in on the Cuban market.

Though Cuba remains lined with 1950s cars, its also seen an explosion of private enterprises since Obama and Castro kissed and made up.

They organize fact-finding missions and meetings with Cuban officials, help companies get government approval and brainstorm media strategy. Lavertys advised at least 15 different companies, half of them Fortune 500 firms, across the hospitality, aviation, technology and logistics industries. When Netflix held its company retreat and meeting (seriously) in Havana this April, all 285 employees were in the Lavertys hands. When Airbnb headed in, they called Havana Strategies; same with Facebook. (Neither Netflix nor Facebook wanted to comment; an Airbnb spokeswoman said the companys faced no major issues in setting up shop there.) The brothers, led by Collin at his sister business, helped arrange the logistics for a concert headlined by electronic music king Diplo.

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Though Cuba remains lined with 1950s cars and its majority works for the state, living on ration books, its also seen an explosion of private enterprises since December 17, the day President Barack Obama and his Cuban counterpart, Raul Castro, kissed and made up. Or at least approached frenemy status. The excitement of the brave new world reminds Laverty of the same thrill in South Sudan, post independence. He recalls his global business history with a tinge of cheekiness.

Still, huge barriers remain in Lavertys mission, like a wide-ranging economic and political embargo thats prevented most U.S. companies from doing business. Despite the excitement, American investment remains essentially notional  it was only in 2014 that the Department of Commerce approved $4.3 billion worth of business transactions; before that, details rarely saw the sun. Naturally, Laverty is careful to hedge his bets, saying he wont overpromise. The long timeline  two to five years to set up manufacturing, for instance  is a deterrent for some companies, who simply move on, he says.

But Havana Strategies is overwhelmed with requests anyway, he says. The Denver-born Fordham alumnus and MIT Zaragoza graduate landed here thanks to a snap decision when his brother, a Cuba expert whos run the successful Cuba Educational Travel company since 2012, said he needed help managing an onslaught of new clients seeking to enter the islands market. I had just got back from Africa, and I was tired and frustrated, Laverty says. But the fraternal call beckoned; he booked a flight the next day. Dont let the sprightly decisions cause you to call him an amateur. Its not his first time to the rodeo, says Augusto Maxwell, Cuba Practice chair at Akerman, a U.S. law firm that, he says, helped Laverty with the Airbnb deal. Maxwell says Lavertys experience in other developing nations shows.

Gettyimages 529710150

A rooftop swimming pool at the Hotel Saratoga, Havana, Cuba.

Source: Walter Bibikow / Getty Images

A son of former ski bums in Colorado, Laverty began his career adventure working for MIT Zaragozas international logistics program, focusing on malaria in Tanzania, where he crossed paths with his future wife, 33-year-old Megumi Gordon, then deputy director of the malaria control team at the Clinton Health Access Initiative. So began a love affair between a development-sector power couple. Their marriage caused him to settle down, and in the two years since, hes briefly muffled his wanderlust. But one wonders what his itchy feet really look like since he travels back and forth from San Francisco to Havana every month. Hes made about 30 trips so far.

But now comes the hard work. Laverty says several companies are still waiting for approval from the government  and fully normalizing economic relations with Cuba will fall to the next U.S. president. Cue the Trump drumroll. Even then, it will take several additional rounds of negotiations before fully lifting the embargo is a possibility. Youve got kind of a Cuba bubble right now, says Andrew Otazo, the executive director at Washington D.C.-based Cuba Study Group. Theres an exuberance. But American-Cuban relations remain tense. (Representatives from both the American and Cuban government declined comment.)

Lavertys ever the optimist. Were lucky to be doing stuff in a place that is so sexy and sought after right now, he says. He points to the breadth of people drooling over the island as proof, from Diplo to the White House.

An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that Akerman is a Cuban law firm and misstated who was responsible for a Diplo concert.

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Just days after authorities mooted suspending the ocean search for missing flight MH370, researchers suggested on Wednesday that the debris zone may stretch a further 500 kilometres (310 miles) north.

A team of Italian scientists used computer modelling, into which they fed data on ocean currents and winds over the past two years, to try and pinpoint the Malaysia Airlines plane's likely underwater grave.

They also added information on the location of five confirmed pieces of debris found to date  two in Mozambique and one each in Reunion, South Africa, and Mauritius.

"One of the most important findings is that everything that has been discovered so far is indeed compatible with the area where the authorities are searching," lead researcher Eric Jansen of the Euro-Mediterranean Center on Climate Change in Italy told AFP.

"The most likely (crash) area we found in our simulations overlaps with the official search area," he said. But it also stretches a further 500 km north.

"If nothing is found in the current search area, it may be worth extending the search in this direction," said Jansen, while conceding "the area is very large."

Last week, Malaysia, Australia and China said hopes of finding the doomed plane were fading and the search would be suspended if nothing is found in the current search zone.

The Boeing 777 vanished on March 8, 2014 en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, with 239 people aboard. It remains one of the greatest mysteries in aviation history.

The Australian-led search operation is scanning the seafloor at forbidding depths within a 120,000-square-kilometre (46,000-square-mile) area -- nearly the size of Greece.

"I don't expect really that the authorities will change their opinion based on this" new data, said Jansen.

"The search is incredibly expensive and has being going on for two years," he said, adding: "it is, of course, a question of money."

Story continues

Jansen described the disappearance of the plane as "bizarre".

"It is important to understand what happened, not only for all the people directly involved, but also for the safety of aviation in general," he said in a statement issued by the European Geosciences Union, which publishes the Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences journal in which the study was carried.

"We hope that we can contribute to this, even if our study is just a small piece of a very complicated puzzle."
By Pamela Barbaglia and Silvia Aloisi

LONDON/MILAN (Reuters) - Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena (BMPS.MI) has asked at least eight banks to guarantee a five billion euro ($5.49 billion) cash call as Italy's third-largest bank races against the clock to comply with regulators' demands to strengthen its balance sheet, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters.

JPMorgan (JPM.N) and Mediobanca (MDBI.MI), who are leading the fund raising as global coordinators, have so far contacted a pool of banks including Goldman Sachs (GS.N), Morgan Stanley (MS.N), Bank of America (BAC.N), Citigroup (C.N), Deutsche Bank (DBKGn.DE), Unicredit (CRDI.MI) and Intesa SanPaolo's (ISP.MI) Banca IMI, the source said.

He added that UBS (UBSG.S), which is working on Monte dei Paschi's rescue plan alongside Citi, is among the banks who have been left out from the list.

Monte dei Paschi wants to get approval from the European Central Bank for its proposed capital hike ahead of the release of the region's bank stress tests on Friday evening. Investors fear the tests will show the bank has insufficient capital levels to withstand an economic downturn.

Monte dei Paschi, UniCredit, Deutsche Bank, Morgan Stanley and Citi declined to comment. Goldman Sachs, Mediobanca, JPMorgan and UBS were not immediately available for comment.

Monte dei Paschi has set a multiple of between 0.5 and 0.6 of its tangible book value as a threshold to back the capital hike.

That's raising concern about its proposed valuation as the bank's share price has slumped by around 75 percent so far this year and is currently trading at just 0.1 of its tangible book value, the source said.

Discussions with Monte dei Paschi are currently underway and no final decision has been taken on which banks will be part of the consortium, the source added.

($1 = 0.9100 euros)

(Additional reporting by Paola Arosio and Stefano Bernabei; Editing by Rachel Armstrong)
By Paola Arosio

MILAN (Reuters) - Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena (BMPS.MI) is working on a five billion euro (4 billion pounds) capital increase as part of plans to fix its balance sheet ahead of European bank stress tests, a source said on Tuesday.

The bank, one of the few lenders in Italy to fail Europe's last set of stress tests in 2014, is seeking to cobble together a banking consortium to guarantee the cash call, the source said.

"The hope is that at least a pre-consortium can be formed by Friday," the source said.

The European Banking Authority is due to announce its health check on a group of European lenders from across the 28-country bloc on Friday.

Monte dei Paschi's capital increase will follow a sale of 10 billion euros of its non-performing loans, the source said.

The Siena-based bank, which has already taken state aid, is in talks with Italian rescue fund Atlante over a deal to help it reduce its bad debts.

The lender, which has tapped investors for 15 billion euros of capital since 2008, has been told by ECB supervisors to cut its net bad loans by 40 percent in two-and-a-half years.

Europe's oldest lender is waiting for the ECB to clear its plans for a share issue and bad loan clean-out, a second source said.

According to a third source, Monte dei Paschi's capital increase plans do not envisage any state-backed guarantees.

Monte dei Paschi and the ECB both declined comment.

Saddled with 47 billion euros of non-performing loans, Monte dei Paschi is among the most exposed of a group of weak banks whose pile of bad debts and capital shortfalls are threatening contagion to other European Union nations.

The EBA tests will focus on 51 European banks, subjecting them to an adverse scenario that includes a protracted recession and a steep fall in commodity prices. The results are due to be released on Friday night.

On Tuesday a European Union official said EU authorities were making contingency plans for the possible winding down of Monte dei Paschi if it had a poor reading in stress tests and no private or public support was available.

Story continues

Soured loans totalling 360 billion euros racked up by Italian banks after three years of recession have become the focus of investor concerns over the sector.

In an effort to reassure the market, Rome is looking for ways to support its lenders without breaking EU state aid rules that would require investors to take a hit first.

Earlier on Tuesday, government adviser Yoram Gutgeld said Italy was counting on the markets to help the Tuscan lender.

($1 = 0.9107 euros)

(Reporting by Paola Arosio, Writing by Stephen Jewkes; Editing by Adrian Croft, Toni Reinhold)
By Aziz El Yaakoubi RABAT (Reuters) - Morocco will retry 24 civilians convicted of killing members of the security forces during clashes in Western Sahara in 2010, a victory for human rights campaigners who say allegations they were forced to confess were never addressed. The cassation court on Wednesday ordered a retrial in a civilian court for the defendants who were jailed for between 20 years and life by a military court in 2013, Mohamed Sebbar, head of the National Human Rights Council, said. Morocco outlawed military trials for civilians in 2014. Two lawyers confirmed the news, which comes as Morocco negotiates with the United Nations about the return of members of its Western Sahara mission expelled from the country after U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon described Morocco's 1975 annexation of the territory as an "occupation". Moroccan authorities say 13 people were killed - 10 security officers, a firefighter and two civilians - and dozens injured on Nov. 8, 2010 when authorities dismantled a camp where thousands of Western Saharans, known as Sahrawis, were protesting. The camp had been set up to protest against unemployment. Morocco annexed Western Sahara in 1975, when former colonial power Spain withdrew and says the territory should come under its sovereignty, while the exiled Polisario Front says Western Sahara is an independent state. U.S.-based Human Rights Watch has said the defendants, who include several advocates of human rights and independence for Western Sahara, had been jailed by the military without any investigation into allegations their confessions were extracted under torture. Western Sahara is a sparsely populated tract of desert about the size of Britain, with rich fishing grounds off its coast and reserves of phosphates. (Editing by Robin Pomeroy)
In the face of a choppy third quarter exchange traded fund (ETF) flows have continued to defy gravity and poured into European, global and U.S. equities year-to-date, despite the top 10 most popular funds all delivering negative performance since 1 January.

Data house Markit found the top 10 ETFs in Europe have gathered 11.45 billion to 2 October this year. European equities gathered the most in the top 10 list at 6.21 billion between four ETFs, with U.S. equities gaining 2.7 billion in the same timeframe between two ETFs.

However, all of these funds delivered minus returns since the start of 2015. The number one ETF, the iShares Euro Stoxx 50 UCITS ETF, gave negative price returns of 7.2 percent, while the third spot, the iShares S&P 500 UCITS ETF, fell by more than 5 percent.

A surprising entrant on the Markit list was the iShares $ High Yield Corporate Bond UCITS ETF, which saw 963 million inflows to 2 October. This fund also fell around 5 percent in price terms since 1 January.

Markit data published yesterday found that the majority of Europe-listed and global ETFs were in the red year-to-date after capital markets went into freefall on 24 August, but there were a handful of winners in the healthcare, consumer discretionary sectors and Italian equities.

But the challenge in picking winners hasnt deterred investors from ETFs overall. Figures from ETGI last month showed that Europe ETFs gathered $11.45 (7.4) billion in August, hitting its third highest ever amount of monthly net inflows.

But investors have more recently switched out of U.S. equities as they believe the U.S. stock market has reached its peak. In fact HSBC Global Asset Management and Vanguard have suffered in 2015, having their major offering in this area, with the former ETF provider shedding around 476 million so far, according to Deutsche Bank data.

No. ETF YTD Asset Flows (GBP) 1 iShares EURO STOXX 50 UCITS ETF (DE) 1,886,521,800.08 2 iShares MSCI World UCITS ETF (Acc) 1,547,672,697.82 3 iShares S&P 500 - B UCITS ETF (Acc) 1,376,519,066.24 4 Vanguard S&P 500 ETF 1,351,656,521.19 5 db x-trackers DAX UCITS ETF 1C (DR) 1,173,098,911.39 6 Lyxor UCITS ETF EURO STOXX 50 1,115,954,556.13 7 iShares STOXX Europe 600 UCITS ETF (DE) 1,098,614,707.35 8 iShares $ High Yield Corporate Bond UCITS ETF 963,440,151.74 9 db x-trackers EURO STOXX 50 UCITS ETF 1C (DR) 937,122,254.77 10 UBS ETF -MSCI EMU 100 hedged to USD UCITS ETF (USD) A-acc 875,334,089.81

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The bodies of a mother and her two children were found inside a suburban Arizona home in what investigators believe was a murder-suicide, officials said.

Maricopa County sheriffs deputies found Lisa Gerhart, 45, her 17-year-old son and 12-year-old daughter shot dead inside their Phoenix house about 9 p.m. Monday, Sheriff Joe Arpaio told reporters at a news conference.

Gerhart is believed to have shot her children before shooting herself, he said.

He noted the handgun was found near the body of the mother, who was found in a different room than her kids.

We're looking at other aspects to make sure we get the correct evidence and conclusion to this sad situation, Arpaio continued. Were leaving that little part open just in case someone else could have caused these three deaths. But I think were pretty confident it was a murder-suicide.

Read: A Baby Is Left Without Parents After The Murder-Suicide of Mother and Father

Deputies were responding to a call from a neighbor who reported a running vehicle parked near the home with a hose running from the exhaust pipe to the inside of the home through a window. A dog inside the home was unharmed in the incident.

The county medical examiners office will determine if the children died from gunshot wounds or carbon monoxide from the cars exhaust fumes.

Calling it a very strange situation, Arpaio said it was not yet clear what led to both the use of a gun and the carbon monoxide at the home.

Right now we dont know why, he said. We can just surmise.

Read: Lawyer of Texas Cop: Prior Suicide Calls Took an Emotional Toll on Him

Gerhart and the victims father were separated and they are not believed to have any other children together, Arpaio said. It was not clear if there was a history of domestic violence.

The father has been contacted by authorities, he said.

Story continues

Its sad, he said. Many of our deputies, including myself, are married and have children. But we have a job to do; I dont know if you ever get used to it, but here were talking about a 12-year-old and a 17-year-old. Every life is precious, whether youre 84, or youre 12 or 2.

Loved ones took to social media to express the sorrow and grief over the horrifying discovery.

My heart is completely BROKEN, a friend of Gerhart wrote on Facebook. Devastated isn't a strong enough word to describe anything right now.

Watch: Why This Mom Livestreamed Her Daughter's Physical Punishment on Facebook

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The second night of the Democratic National Convention was an emotional one, featuring a heartfelt speech about gun violence from Mothers of the Movement.

The group, including parents of Trayvon Martin, Sandra Bland, Jordan Davis, Eric Garner, Hadiya Pendleton, Dontre Hamilton, Michael Brown and Oscar Grant, appeared onstage to a crowd chanting "Black Lives Matter" after an introduction from Scandal star Tony Goldwyn.

Sandra Bland's mother, Geneva Reed-Veal, first spoke of watching her daughter "on permanent leave from this earth," after she was found dead in a jail cell "after an unlawful traffic stop and an unlawful arrest." She named several others who were "gone but not forgotten" before she went on to voice her support for Hillary Clinton as the candidate who supports the Black Lives Matter movement.

Read More: Tony Goldwyn Calls for Racial Justice at DNC: "We Can Change the World"

"She is a leader and a mother who will say our children's names," said Reed-Veal. "She knows that when a young black life is cut short, it's not just a loss. It's a personal loss. It's a national loss. It's a loss that diminishes all of us. What a blessing tonight to be standing here so that Sandy can still speak through her mama!"

To cheers from the crowd, she added that she supports Clinton as "a president who will help lead us down the path of restoration and change."

Jordan Davis' mother, Lucia McBath, remembered warning her son that "because he was a young black man, he would meet people that wouldn't value him or his life. That is a conversation that no parent should ever have with their child."

"Hillary Clinton isn't afraid to say that Black Lives Matter," she added, urging the audience to "build a future where police officers and communities of color work together in mutual respect to keep children like Jordan safe."

Story continues

"I am an unwilling participant in this movement," said Trayvon Martin's mother, Sybrina Fulton, who said that she supports Clinton because she "has the courage to lead the fight for common-sense gun legislation."

"This is about saving our children," she said, "and that's why in memory of our children, we are imploring all of you to vote this election day. Hillary is one mother who can ensure our movement will succeed."

As the mothers exited the stage, the crowd again erupted into a chant of "Black Lives Matter" and gave the group of women a rousing standing ovation.

Earlier on Tuesday, Clinton made history during the second night of the four-day convention when she won the Democratic nomination and became the first female major-party nominee.

Read More: Michelle Obama Endorses Hillary Clinton, Takes Aim at Donald Trump: "Don't Let Anyone Ever Tell You This Country Isn't Great"

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PHILADELPHIA  Nine black mothers who have lost children to gun violence vouched for Hillary Clinton during a criminal-justice section of Tuesday nights DNC program.

Hillary Clinton isnt afraid to say that black lives matter, said Lucy McBath, whose 17-year-old son Jordan Davis was shot at a gas station in Florida. She isnt afraid to sit at a table with grieving mothers and bear the full force of our anguish. She doesnt build walls around her heart.

She has the courage to lead the fight for common sense gun legislation, said Sybrina Fulton, the mother of Trayvon Martin, an unarmed teen who was shot and killed by a neighborhood watchman in 2012.

I am here for Hillary Clinton tonight because she is a leader and a mother who will say our childrens names, said Geneva Reed-Veal, the mother of Sandra Bland, a 28-year-old who died of suicide in a county jail after a traffic stop. The officer was later fired for making the unnecessary arrest.

Before their appearance on the stage, the convention showed a video of Clinton meeting with the women and advising them to start a movement. Theyve named themselves Mothers of the Movement.

At the Republican National Convention last week, Donald Trump was repeatedly referred to as the law and order candidate, and the real estate developer said he would restore order to the streets. He portrayed the country as overrun by crime, pointing to a spike in violent crime in several major cities in 2015. As sign of lawlessness, the convention cited the recent ambush killings of police officers in Dallas and other cities following outrage over officer-involved shootings in Minnesota and Louisiana.

But at the DNC, a police chief along with former Attorney General Eric Holder pointed out that violent crime overall is at near historic lows, and they stressed a need to make the criminal justice system fairer, especially for people of color.

Despite the fiction and the fear mongering from the other partys nominee, violent crime has gone down since President Obama took office, Holder said. As president, Hillary would go even further.

Story continues

Women from Mothers of the Movement speak during the second day of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, July 26, 2016. (Photo: J. Scott Applewhite/AP)

Shes talked about systemic racism the way no other candidate has, Holder added.

Pittsburgh Police Chief Cameron McLay said both law enforcement and minority communities have legitimate fears right now about the other. He said criminal justice reforms would improve that relationship. Ironically, our communities are arguably safer than ever before, McLay said. However, absent a sense of justice, less crime in your neighborhood is at best a hollow victory.



_____

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During a convention marked by rabid dissent, protests and walkouts, there was one thing Tuesday on which Bernie Sanders supporters and Hillary Clinton supporters could agree: Black Lives Matter.

In three emotional speeches Tuesday night, black mothers who had lost their sons to violence endorsed Hillary Clinton as the candidate they thought would be most likely to soothe the racial divisions that contributed to the deaths of their children. The respect for their obvious anguish was one of the first moments of unity in a convention that has been otherwise marked by dissent.

The grieving mothers, known as Mothers of the Movement, have previously met with Clinton and appeared in an ad for her campaign. But their primetime appearance at the Democratic National Convention Tuesday night was at once a powerful gesture to the African-American community and a repudiation of a Republican party that seems increasingly hostile to the Black Lives Matter movement.

Their appearance also nudged a fractured Democratic party towards a fragile unity. Racial justice is one of several issues on which both Clinton supporters and Sanders supporters tend to agree, and Black Lives Matter is perhaps the only activist chant regularly employed by both camps. So even after more than a hundred Sanders supporters staged a walk-out after the Vermont Senator threw his votes behind Clinton during the roll call, dozens came back inside specifically to hear the Mothers.

Read More: Transcript of the Mothers of the Movement at the Democratic Convention

As the six women walked onstage, the crowd began to chant Black Lives Matter for the first time since the convention began on Monday. So many of our children are gone but they are not forgotten, said Geneva Reed-Vead, mother of Sandra Bland, a 28-year old black woman who died in police custody last year, as she held back tears. I am here with Hillary Clinton tonight because she is a leader and mother who will say our childrens names.

Story continues

She isnt afraid to sit at a table with grieving mothers and bear the full force of our anguish,said Lucia McBath, mother of 17-year old Jordan Davis, who was killed by a white man in 2012 for playing music too loudly in his car. Not only did she listen to our problems, she invited us to become a part of the solution. and thats what were going to do. They were also joined by Lezley McSpadden, mother of Michael Brown; Gwen Carr, mother of Eric Garner; and several others.

This isnt about being politically correct, this is about saving our children, said Sabryna Fulton, mother of Trayvon Martin, who was killed in a racially-motivated confrontation in 2012. Thats why were here tonight with Hillary Clinton. And thats why, in memory of our children, we are imploring you, all of you, to vote this election day. Hillary is one mother who can assure our movement will succeed.

The appearance was one of few unifying events of the night, both energizing Clinton supporters and engaging Sanders supporters. It also presented an obvious difference from the GOP convention in Cleveland last week, where crowds chanted Blue Lives Matter and speakers condemned Black Lives Matter as a violent organization (most protests are peaceful).

For black delegates, the inclusion of the Mothers was a powerful repudiation of the hostile racial atmosphere they perceive in the Republican party. Not to have that voice here would be almost ignoring it, says Mia L. Jones, a Democratic State Representative and delegate from Florida. She wanted us to know shes not ignoring it.

It shows me that the young men who have died in my community, that theres a spotlight placed on their deaths, and values placed on their lives, she added.

The gesture also helped the humanize Clinton in the eyes of many delegates. Its not just Hillary the candidate, its Hillary the mom, Hillary the wife, Hillary the person, says LaKeshia Myers, a delegate from Wisconsin. Myers says that when Hillary visited Milwaukee, she asked to meet with the parents of Dontre Hamilton, another slain black man, just so she could find out how theyre doing.

Even some delegates who supported Bernie Sanders appreciated the significance of including the Mothers of the Movement in Tuesdays program. I think that it is certainly an important contrast for the Democratic Party to make with the Republican Party, says Colin Byrd, a 23-year old Sanders delegate from Maryland. As an African-American, this is the kind of thing that makes me feel safer and more secure when a Democrat is president. Donald Trump, he says, has an owner-slave mentality about African American people in his orbit.

I have two younger brothers that look like I do, and I dont want my mother to become a Mother of the Movement, said Julian Ivey, 20, also a Sanders delegate from Maryland. Keanuu Smith Brown, another young Maryland Sanders delegate, agreed, but he wants Hillary to be held accountable to the goals of the movement. If shes going to show off the support shes gained from these mothers, shes going to have to enact the policies she claims to be fighting for, he says.

Still, all three Sanders delegates plan to vote for Hillary, not because of the endorsement of the Mothers, but out of a conviction that a Donald Trump presidency will be devastating for black Americans. Any vote that isnt for Hillary Clinton is a vote for Donald Trump, Ivey says.
By Sarah B. Boxer

PHILADELPHIA  Ahead of their appearance Tuesday night at the Democratic National Convention, the mothers of Eric Garner, Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown spoke to Yahoo Global News Anchor Katie Couric.

The three women  Gwen Carr, Sybrina Fulton and Lezley McSpadden  will appear onstage tonight at the Democratic National Convention, along with four other women who have lost children to gun violence or excessive use of force by police. They call themselves the Mothers of the Movement.

Losing a child is the worst death that a human can endure, says Fulton, Martins mother. Its an unstoppable pain. Its a pain that we never get over. Its a pain that we carry with us every single day.

Weve learned to lean on each other, weve learned to confide in each other, and we get strength from each other, says Carr, Garners mother.

The women told Couric that it was important for them to come to the DNC to represent their children. All had come to endorse Clinton at different times over the past year. Carr told Couric about meeting Clinton last November. She took notes, recalled Carr. She listened. And at the end, she asked what do we think that she should do to help resolve these problems.

Why do I endorse her? asked Carr. She endorsed us first.

She has the necessary experience to get the job done, says Fulton. She understands the concepts. She understands politics. Shes been in politics for over 25 years. This is not something thats new to her. This is not her first time in the White House.

She gets the walk of the average person. She might not be living the lifestyle of the average person, Fulton says with a smile. But she understands. Shes very relatable. Shes very compassionate. Shes very strong.

At the Republican National Convention last week, presidential nominee Donald Trump evoked Ferguson, Mo., where McSpaddens son was killed.

Said Trump: 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?

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Couric asked the women whether any thought Trump would be sympathetic to their cause. Of course not, replied McSpadden.

Browns death two years ago gave rise in large part to the Black Lives Matter movement. McSpadden says she can understand people who believe all lives matter, but doesnt want the core message of the movement to be lost.

We are black. And we have created black lives with the help of God. And they are important, says McSpadden. Everybodys life matters to someone. But in this case, our kids  our sons  black lives matter. And right now we need people to pay attention to that.
By Stephanie Nebehay GENEVA (Reuters) - Severely malnourished children are dying in large numbers in northeast Nigeria, the former stronghold of Boko Haram militants where food supplies are close to running out, Medecins Sans Frontieres said on Wednesday. The medical charity, also known as Doctors Without Borders, urged the United Nations to set up emergency food transports to the area, where up to 800,000 civilians have been cut off for over a year, it said "The situation is a large-scale humanitarian disaster.... There is a vital need to have a food pipeline in place to save the population that can be saved," MSF general director Bruno Jochum told a news briefing. "We are talking at least about pockets of what is close to a famine." Under military escort, a MSF team delivered some 40 metric tonnes of food last week to Banki, a town of 12,000 near the Cameroon border, including emergency supplies for more than 4,000 children. It vaccinated children against measles, which can be deadly in under-fives. The U.N.'s World Food Programme (WFP) also delivered 30 metric tonnes of food and other items there last week, in a cross-border operation from Cameroon. The U.N. says 3 million people in the northeast are in urgent need of food aid, but that some roads within Nigeria are unsafe for convoys due to mines. "It is a situation of complete destitution, with hardly anything to eat," said MSF emergency program director Hugues Robert who was part of the team in Banki. "What is extremely shocking is the level of severe acute malnutrition." MSF, which carried out a rapid survey of the population in Banki, estimates "extremely high mortality rates of approximately four per 10,000 people per day - four times the emergency threshold," the agency said in a statement. In the town of Bama, MSF teams estimate that 15 percent of children are suffering from life-threatening malnutrition. "Probably the medical and epidemiological indicators are the worst we are facing today in the world," said Jochum. (Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay, editing by Larry King and John Stonestreet)
The Democratic National Convention is set to wrap up on Thursday night with Hillary Clinton accepting the partys presidential nomination.

Over the course of the conventions four days, Philadelphia, the birthplace of American Democracy and a city of 1.56 million, will host 40,000 party delegates, media and other visitors. Putting on a good show for all those in the Wells Fargo Center and the millions watching on TV isnt cheap.

When bidding to host the convention, Philadelphia set a budget of $84 million for the event. Most of that money will come from two groups: the Democratic National Convention Committee 2016 and the Philadelphia 2016 Host Committee, both of which rely on private donors. The DNC committee raised over $7 million, and the Host Committee had nearly reached its $60 million fundraising goal, according to a July 22 report from the U.S. Public Interest Research Group. In total, private and corporate donors are expected to contribute $67.2 million, making this the most expensive Democratic convention in terms of private fundraising.

Related: How Much Did the Republican National Convention Cost?

In addition to that money, the federal government gives up to $50 million to host cities to cover security costs. Philadelphia requested $43 million for security personnel, equipment and supplies.

That makes the total cost of the convention $127 million, more expensive than the Republican National Convention last week.

Who are the private donors shelling out big bucks for the Democrats? Among them is Eric Schoenberg, an adjunct associate professor at Wharton and chair of IT company CampusWorks,

who gave $100,000 in the hopes of preventing Trump, his schools alumnus, from winning in November. The conventions website lists AT&T, Microsoft, Samsung, Twitter, Facebook and others as sponsors.

Beyond that list, theres a gaping hole; the host committee has not released its donor contribution list. The Pennsylvania Office of Open Records required the DNC host committee to immediately disclose its list of donors on June 14. Host Committee Chair Ed Rendell refused; he claims that the Federal Election Commission does not require a public donor list until 60 days after the convention.

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Related: Kaines $160,000 Gift Controversy: More Bad Optics for the Democrats

The DNC committee spends more than half of its budget for the convention on staff. More than a quarter of the host committees budget goes toward reserving Philadelphias Wells Fargo Center. The host committee also paid $200,000 for 57 local artist-decorated fiberglass donkeys that have been installed across the city, complete with a Pokemon Go-style scavenger hunt. The City of Philadelphia plans to spend $695,700 on preparations for and work during the convention, including cleaning, employee overtime, patriotic decorations and homeless outreach.

Cities vie to host presidential conventions in the hopes that thousands of visitors will pour money into their economies. Philadelphia expects to bring in $300 million over the course of the convention. Visitors will reserve 15,000 hotel rooms, and more than 5,200 people will stay in Airbnb rooms, apartments and homes. The average Airbnb host will make $850 over the course of the week.

Top Reads from The Fiscal Times:
Harare (AFP) - Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe on Wednesday launched a blistering attack on anti-government activists, foreign embassies and disaffected war veterans as he sought to assert his grip on power following recent protests.

Mugabe addressed thousands of supporters outside the headquarters of the ruling ZANU-PF party, issuing a clear threat to Evan Mawarire, the pastor who has become the figurehead of a new opposition movement.

"The Mawarires. I want to warn them very strongly," Mugabe said in a fiery 45-minute speech.

"ZANU-PF will not tolerate any nonsense.

"Once you begin to interfere with our politics, you are courting real trouble.

"We know how to deal with our enemies who have been trying to bring about regime change."

Mugabe, who took power in 1980 and is now aged 92, has often used his security forces to crack down ruthlessly on any sign of dissent in Zimbabwe.

But a wave of street demonstrations and strikes has shaken his government, which has run out of money and is struggling to pay its soldiers and civil servants.

In the latest sign of growing national instability, veterans of Zimbabwe's 1970s independence war, who have previously been loyal supporters of the president, issued a statement last week denouncing him.

"When we find out who the people were, the party will discipline them. The punishment will be severe," Mugabe said in his first comments on the veterans' criticisms.

Douglas Mahiya, a spokesman for the war veterans who issued the communique, was Wednesday summoned for interrogation by the police, his lawyer said.

"They said they want him for questioning," lawyer Charles Nyika told AFP a few hours after Mugabe's warning.

- 'I will continue' -

Earlier this month, many offices, shops and some government departments closed for a one-day nationwide strike to protest over the country's economic collapse -- worsened by a severe drought.

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Mugabe on Wednesday also repeated his accusations that western countries were fuelling opposition against him.

"The foreign embassies in the country that are interfering with our politics... I want to warn them to desist from it," he said.

"(They) try and subvert our system of government."

Authorities in Zimbabwe have alleged the French and US envoys support the popular "ThisFlag" protest movement, named after the hashtag first adopted by Mawarire.

Mugabe's audience on Wednesday was made up of party loyalists, some of them waving the party flag and wearing party regalia displaying his portrait.

"There is one centre of power and that is Comrade President Mugabe. (He) should rule until death," Dickson Mafios, a provincial party chairman, told the crowd.

Mugabe, who is increasingly fragile, has vowed to stand for re-election in 2018, though party seniors have long been jockeying to step into the role when he dies.

"As long as the party still wants me to serve and if I still have the energy and still have the life and the blessings of God, I will continue," he said.

Mugabe's wife Grace and vice-president Emmerson Mnangagwa are among the possible successors of the world's oldest president.
PHILADELPHIA  Rep. Keith Ellison is desperately trying to convince fellow Democrats who backed Bernie Sanders for president that its time to rally around Hillary Clinton  but hes finding it tough going.

You know, supporting a candidate is not nominating them for sainthood, the Minnesota congressman told an older African-American man in an impromptu debate on the sidewalk in downtown Philadelphia.

Ellison, an early and staunch supporter of Sen. Sanderss bid for the Democratic partys nomination, defended his decision to endorse Clinton this month. But his sparring partner would have none of it and pushed back, lumping Clinton in with neoconservatives because of her vote for the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq.

Ellison countered that Republican nominee Donald Trump posed a serious risk to the country and had to be defeated.

Its not a close call here, Ellison said, pointing to Trumps disparaging comments against Mexicans, women, and Muslims.

Despite the intense summer heat, the two kept arguing, even as the congressmans staff attempted to nudge them both along.

After a few more minutes, Ellison finally threw his hands up. I cant say a word  youve already got your mind made up!

The argument underscored the challenge now left to Ellison and other elected officials after this weeks Democratic convention. The four-day event was intended to offer primetime proof of a party united behind Clinton, but has instead been marred by heckling from frustrated Sanderss supporters and anger over Democratic National Committee emails showing officials trying to undermine the Sanders campaign.

Party leaders are trying to persuade holdouts loyal to Sanders that Clinton represents the best and only chance to defeat the Republican nominee, who Ellison sees as a dire threat to the countrys democracy and traditions of tolerance.

Im not aware of any nominee for any major party whos openly called for religious exclusion, who said, no fill in the blanks can come here, he told Foreign Policy.

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Its racism  theres no other way to put it. And Trump has made it mainstream, he said.

This is a clear and present threat to the republic  this should alarm everyone, he said.

Although it means overlooking some prior disappointments with Clinton, for Ellison, an African-American and one of two Muslim members of Congress, helping her defeat Trump is deeply personal.

Ellison represents Minneapolis, a midwestern city with a Somali community that has been caught up in the heated debate over U.S. counterterrorism tactics, criminal justice reform, and the Black Lives Matter movement brought to the forefront by the 2016 election.

Ellison has been critical of President Barack Obamas homeland security measures, suggesting that the government at times unfairly targets and effectively entraps young, black, Muslim men in his city.

We know that if you look at all the domestic terrorism in the country, the greater bulk of it is white, right-wing extremist groups, he said in an interview Sunday in Philadelphia, as he walked to a union fundraiser.

Im not saying there arent Muslim people who do it; they do, he said. But weve got to have a budget that better aligns the investment with the threat.

The public debate over the right balance between civil rights and security is disingenuous, he said.

They create this false choice: rights or safety, he said. Meanwhile, white people seem to not get profiled  Its not that hard.

Clinton too has taken Trump to task for his anti-Muslim rhetoric, saying U.S. authorities need to work with Muslim-American communities to counter terrorism instead of alienating them. Ellison said he will be holding any future administration accountable on the issue.

He acknowledged that Sanders had questioned Clintons national security judgment, slamming her 2002 vote for the Iraq War. But he said: Im comfortable with the fact that she has the benefit of hindsight  I think she is going to approach calls to arms very carefully.

Ellison introduced Sanders on stage at the convention Monday night, using the moment to focus on the choice presented by Trump. Ellison told FP he is optimistic that voters ultimately will opt for Clinton in November.

I believe in the American people: were going to reject him, Ellison said. It hasnt happened yet, but when we do, its going to be something very important for the nation. Its the haters last stand.

Photo credit: Bloomberg / Contributor
Mai Ja Yang (Myanmar) (AFP) - Leaders of Myanmar rebel armies held talks in a war-hit border town Wednesday, state media reported, as they prepare for a major peace conference with a government desperate to end insurgencies that have plagued the country.

Myanmar has been racked for half a century by ethnic rebel wars in its resource-rich frontier states, leaving tens of thousands dead or displaced.

Some groups have signed ceasefires but several other rebel armies are still fighting the nation's army -- including in the northern state of Kachin, where Wednesday's talks were held.

Aung San Suu Kyi, the democracy activist leading the country's first civilian government, says ending the fighting is essential if Myanmar is to rise from the ashes of junta rule.

She wants to restart full peace talks within weeks.

This week's summit, held in a Kachin town ravaged by years of warfare, brought together "leaders representing 17 ethnic armed groups to search for common ground in working toward a federal system for the country", state-run Global New Light of Myanmar reported Wednesday.

The negotiators, many sporting traditional clothing, gathered in a hall in Mai Ja Yang, a town ringed by displacement camps on the border with China, which also sent an envoy to the talks.

Peace is hard to secure.

Distrust in the still-powerful military runs deep and the rebel groups themselves are divided -- with four pulling out of the Mai Ja Yang talks at the last minute.

The conflicts are complex and fuelled in part by the illegal trade in drugs, timber and jade, much of which is funnelled across the border to China. Rebels use the proceeds to buy guns.

The former military-backed government launched a peace dialogue but failed to secure a nationwide ceasefire with all groups.

Suu Kyi has promised a greater level of federal autonomy in a bid to secure peace, but has yet to spell out how it would work.

It is a promise her independence hero father also made in 1947. It was ignored by the junta that took control several years after his assassination and ruled over Myanmar for almost 50 years.

Suu Kyi's ability to wrest a peace deal or decentralise the government will depend heavily on the support of the military, which remains a potent political and economic force.

It holds the keys to any charter changes, runs crucial government ministries and dominates the economy's most lucrative sectors.
Season two of Narcos will be the last featuring drug kingpin Pablo Escobar, played by Wagner Moura. But the series producers contend that it wont be the last for the show.

The show is not about Pablo Escobar, executive producer Jose Padilha said at the Television Critics Association press tour Wednesday. The show is about cocaine. Its about drug dealers that sell cocaine. The show is still going to be the show it is.

Moura revealed to Netflix talk-show host Chelsea Handler in June that Narcos season two would cover a period of time leading up to Escobars death. In real life, Escobar died in 1993 in Medellin, Colombia.

This is definitely the last season for me, Moura said at TCA Wednesday. Explaining the difference between seasons one and two, he added, The first season is an epic in that it covers 15 years of the drug trade. The second season is less epic, more dramatic. It covers one year, 18 months, so it focuses more on the characters  its more character driven, more dramatic.

Season two of Narcos is set to premiere Sept. 2. Producers fended off questions about where exactly the focus would be for an Escobar-free season three.

Were not really at liberty to say what next season is yet, but we have a joke that we plan on stopping when cocaine stops, executive producer Eric Newman said. As season two closes, he added, There are other drug dealers that are forming alliances against Pablo, so there are multiple stories that we could tackle if we want to.

Padilha explained that the evolution of the Colombian drug trade saw post-Escobar drug lords shift from selling directly to the United States to selling to Mexican middlemen, who then moved product to the U.S.  and had to deal with U.S. law enforcement.

What happens with the violence? It goes to Mexico, Padilha said. I dont want to tell you what the next season is, but 

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If you had to predict a few years ago which Diaz brother would eventually end up on Conan, you wouldve probably guessed Nick. He is (was?) the bigger star, he enjoyed watching weird YouTube videos and talking about conspiracy theories and he was just the more personable of the two. Right?

Maybe not. Now were hearing those surreal words come out of Conans mouth: from Stockton, California  Nate Diaz! Yes, the same dude who threw double middle fingers when he had a fully locked-in triangle on Kurt Pelligrino all those years ago is walking out from behind a curtain to be on a late night show. It warms an MMA fans heart.*

The whole interview really showed how far Nates come as a needle mover. The dude is straight up endearing now, and the interview was a good one. Much to the UFCs dismay, Conan started out by wondering aloud why Nate would think the UFC would screw him. Of course, Nate explained in Diaz fashion why he wanted a physical paycheck rather than getting his cash direct deposited.

As we know, Conor McGregor would eventually show up and ruin Nates special night by mocking Nates favorite black shirt, which is an unforgivable sin, and probably breaks every code in the fighter book.

*I wiped away a tear after that sentence.
The emerging energy boom in the eastern Mediterranean could be just whats needed to finally reunify Cyprus after the island has spent more than 40 years bitterly divided between a Greek south and a Turkish north.

The discovery in recent years of natural gas fields in waters belonging to Egypt, Israel, and even Lebanon has galvanized the attention and investment of energy companies, including big ones from Europe and the United States. On Wednesday, Cyprus itself took a big step toward realizing its own energy promise, announcing that a spate of major-league players, including ExxonMobil of the United States, Total of France, and Eni of Italy, have bid to drill for gas off the southern coast of the divided island.

Cypruss latest effort to jump-start interest in its offshore resources  after several false starts and spats with Turkey as recently as 2014 over disputed waters where some of the natural gas is found  comes just as Turkey and Israel are mending fences after six years of antagonism.

That reconciliation is driven, in part, by Turkeys desire to import Israeli natural gas, which would likely have to come via a pipeline that would almost certainly have to pass through Cypriot waters  and Nicosia has said it will block any pipeline if the island stays divided.

In other words, Ankaras appetite for Israeli gas might just give it reason enough to back the reunification of Cyprus some 42 years after Turkish troops invaded and tore it asunder.

Gas might provide an incentive to Turkey to support the process of reunification, said Michael Leigh, a senior fellow with the German Marshall Fund of the United States.

Turkish officials have been all over the map with their public statements. Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said Tuesday, in his first comments after the coup attempt, that Turkey supports reunification talks. But he also called the current round of talks the last chance for Greek Cypriots to be flexible. Turkeys ambassador to the EU, Selim Yenel, told Politico this week that the islands reunification was not a prerequisite for Ankara to start importing gas from Israel, though energy experts believe it is.

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A spokesman at the Turkish Embassy in Washington told Foreign Policy, Turkey strongly believes that hydrocarbon resources in the Eastern Mediterranean should serve as a source of peace, cooperation and welfare for the region. While the energy aspect is a new twist in the decades-old talks over the islands future, he said that we believe both Turkish and Greek Cypriots have equal and inherent rights to the resources.

The Cypriot embassy did not respond to requests for comment. Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades has repeatedly said energy development in the eastern Mediterranean, including in Cyprus itself, could be a catalyst for peace, stability, and regional integration. But any export pipeline that passed through its waters on the way to Turkey would require a unified island, Cypriot officials have made clear.

In July 1974, Turkish troops invaded the northern part of the island and established a breakaway republic in the north that only Turkey recognizes. The Greek-speaking south is a member of the European Union and is internationally recognized. The divided island has, for decades, soured Turkeys relations with fellow members of NATO, including Greece, as well as the EU and the United States.

Reunification talks between Greek and Turkish Cypriots have been ongoing for years, and both sides say 2016 represents perhaps the best chance to reach a deal to end the islands artificial division. On Tuesday, the United Nations agreed to extend its peacekeeping force on the island, where it has been since 1964, for another six months.

Cypruss own possible energy resources could also act as a spur to reunify. The interest of major international firms like ExxonMobil and Total are a testament to the potential resources buried deep in the Mediterranean, and the discovery last year of a huge field off the coast of Egypt raised hopes of a similar find in Cypriot waters. That, in turn, has fueled the islands dreams of turning itself into an energy hub and a regional exporter of natural gas.

But even if all the fields put out for tender this month are developed, the country is unlikely to be awash in gas, relatively speaking. Though estimates vary widely, the best available data on gas reserves estimate that Cyprus has about the same volume that Turkey consumes annually, or a bit more: 50-70 billion cubic meters.

In a part of the world where we supersize every issue, it doesnt surprise me that 50 [billion cubic meters] in Cyprus becomes a major source of gas, said Brenda Shaffer, a Mediterranean energy expert at Georgetown University.

Rather, she said, it is the Turkish desire to reduce its reliance on Russia for energy supplies, and especially Ankaras hunger to start importing gas from its new friend Israel, that puts Cyprus in an advantageous position.

The bargaining position of the south is better than most times, because there is Turkish interest in a pipeline and there is Turkish interest in showing that they are mending fences with everyone, so the timing is probably one of the best for Cyprus to reach an accord on reunification, Shaffer said.

There are still loads of obstacles, though, energy promises notwithstanding. Its not clear exactly where Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan stands on some thorny issues, Leigh said, where Ankaras green light is essential to reach an agreement. That pertains to territorial questions arising from decades of division and especially the withdrawal of the estimated 30,000 to 40,000 Turkish troops still in Cyprus, he said.

And in the wake of this months failed coup attempt by elements of the Turkish army and Erdogans subsequent draconian crackdown on perceived enemies, its not clear if Turkish leaders even have the bandwidth to push forward a solution to the Cyprus question right now, Leigh said.

Photo credit: TOMS/Flicker
Jerusalem (AFP) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has defended his leadership in the build-up to the 2014 war in Gaza after protests by parents of soldiers killed.

Speaking at an event to mark two years since the conflict Tuesday, Netanyahu was heckled by two fathers of soldiers who accused him of seeking to monopolise power.

"I'm not willing as a bereaved father for you to undermine our democracy. I didn't pay such a high price for that," one said.

A number of parents of the 67 Israeli soldiers killed in the 2014 Gaza war with Hamas and other factions have lent their support to calls for an independent inquiry into the conflict, with Netanyahu's government accused of being unprepared for Hamas's tunnels at the time.

Such tunnels were used in a number of surprise attacks.

Netanyahu has refused to sanction such an inquiry, but his office released a statement late Tuesday saying the army had been fully prepared.

"Claims that Israel was unprepared to meet the tunnel threat are without foundation," the statement said, adding that the cabinet discussed the threat nine times in as many months before the conflict.

The statement said it was "regrettable that there are those who have misled the public on substantive security issues," without naming them.

Minister of Education Naftali Bennett, who heads the rightwing Jewish Home party, has been a prominent critic of Netanyahu's preparations for the conflict.

A comment piece in Israeli newspaper Yedioth Aharonot, which is hostile to Netanyahu, called on him to agree to the inquiry.

"Do you want the bereaved families to believe you? Accept their justified outcry and form a state commission of inquiry," it said.
bojack horseman

Netflix's animated comedy "BoJack Horseman" is back for a third season, and its the highest-rated show by critics this summer, according to Rotten Tomatoes.

BoJack is a Netflix cult favorite that satirizes Hollywood and celebrity worship. After a mixed critical reception to its first season, the show has been a critical darling its second and third. The third season, which came out on July 22, is currently sitting at a whopping 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Rotten Tomatoes confirmed to Business Insider that this is the highest rating of any show released this summer.

In the show, the titular character BoJack Horseman is a has-been sitcom star  and a horse  in a world where anthropomorphic animals live alongside humans. At the start of the series, Horseman is plotting his big comeback with a tell-all book.

We won't spoil the plot of the show in case you haven't watched, but beyond the critics, BoJack is also Netflix CEO Reed Hastings' favorite Netflix show.

BoJack isn't the only hit Netflix has had this summer. Its new show "Stranger Things" has generated buzz and snagged a 93% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Here's how Netflix describes it: "a small town uncovers a mystery involving secret experiments, terrifying supernatural forces and one strange little girl."

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Netflixs chief content officer Ted Sarandos addressed the perennial elephant in the room at any Netflix press event right off the bat today. Lets talk about ratings, he said at the opening of Netflixs TCA executive session. There was talk but there were no revelations as Netflix continues to closely guard ratings information for its shows. Subscriber growth, not ratings drives our revenue,  he said, noting two recent reports by companies, Nielsen and Symphony, that claimed to have been able to crack Netflixs ratings for paying customers. Sarandos pointed out that one of the companies reported twice the audience for Orange Is the New Black than the other. Of course, he would not say whether either of the viewerships was correct but either number would be great, he said. Sarandos was not concerned about the recent subscriber drop in Q2, noting that various factors, including a rate increase, played into it and noted that Q1 subscriber growth was bigger than expected.

Netflix is on track to spend the earmarked $6 billion on original programming this year. The unprecedented number will go up even further in 2017, Sarandos said, but exactly by how much will become clear later in the year, he said.

He gave some indication what some of Netflixs most watched shows globally are, speaking of the success of Orange Is The New Black and Marvels Daredevil and Jessica Jones as well as acquired Breaking Bad and Gilmore Girls, with expectations high for CBS new Star Trek series, which Netflix will distribute internationally.

Netflixs big push this year has been in family programming, going up to 40 programs by the end of this year, and that will continue, he said, pointing to the new Beatles music animated series Beat Bugs and its upcoming Motown offshoot. The network is looking for co-viewing on those series, as well as the upcoming One Day At A Time reboot, overseen by Norman Lear, who turned 94 today.

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Sarandos once again addressed the often discussed subject of Peak TV. There are too many mediocre safe shows on television, he said but indicated that Netflix would not be slowing down in its original series expansion. We vote to keep the bar high and keep them coming, he said. Afterwords, he was asked who makes mediocre TV. Weve got a few too. Not intentionally.

The newest Netflix original programming additions that Sarandos mentioned in the context of shows that break through the clutter is breakout paranormal drama Stranger Things. Given its resonance with fans, a second season appears a lock, but Sarandos would not commit to that yet. We always want to take some time to be thoughtful about the (renewal) process, he said.

Speaking of renewals, Sarandos was asked about the decision to pick up a 90-episode second season of Chelsea Handlers talk show despite some rough going early on, including a showrunner departure.

I used to think the departure of a showrunner was a failure. Now I see it as a part of making a great show creatively, Sarandos said. He highlighted Chelseas bookers that have been able to get big-name guests and the expanding live comedy and filmed bits on the show, noting that he feels the elements are all there, its all about finding the right rhythm.

Some elements that have popped are expected to have even bigger presence on the show last year, including the segments with kids and dinner party episodes, Sarandos said. Asked about the lack of water-cooler buzz for the show in terms of did you watch Chelsea last night, Sarandos said, It really isnt about last night. He noted that the linear late-night shows are desperate to get that moment while Chelseas viewers watch the show at different times, with audiences growing.

Every Netflix series so far has been renewed for a second season. What does it take to cancel a show on Netflix? Relative to what it costs, does it get an audience?, Sarandos said, listing several factors that play a role, including whether viewers complete a season, what the audience satisfaction and social media engagement/buzz is and what the critical response is.

Sarandos indicated that, with the Marvel universe expanding via renewals and spinoffs, Netflix may air more than the two series a year that had been slated originally but noted that, while there is a push in closing the gap between seasons, maintaining the quality of the shows wont allow to shrink hiatuses too much. He said that miniseries The Defenders will follow Luke Cage and Iron Fists first seasons before the Marvel series begin airing new seasons. He noted that the mini will feature the casts of all Marvel series. Will that include Jon Bernthal, star of spinoff The Punisher? Stay tuned, Sarandos said.

He indicated that Netflix is open to further expanding the superhero universe and to potential crossovers with ABCs Marvel series.

Getting episodes on the air as soon as possible is a goal, and it led to the new model introduced with The Ranch of releasing two seasons a year and splitting The Get Downs first season into two. The gap between desire and availability is piracy, Sarandos said, noting that getting content online sooner is great for fans.

Shortening the window comes at a cost, and Netflix had to step in to pricing, Sarandos said.

After the session, Sarandos confirmed that the Spanish-language series starring Mexican actress Kate del Castillo, who was drawn into the El Chapo-Sean Penn saga earlier this year, is currently in production.

He also gave the latest update on a new season of Arrested Development. We are working on it, Sarandos said. By as early as next year.

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CHINESE ETFs TRADING ON BEST GUESS BASIS

ETFs tracking Chinese equities were hit with large price swings and gaps in valuation as many stocks suspended trading in July, with one industry expert saying that Chinese ETFs were left trading on a best guess basis.

Over half of all Chinese-listed stocks on the Chinese markets halted secondary market trading in July to minimise panic selling and massive outflows, causing problems for ETFs tracking these indexes across both mainland and offshore markets. Problems continued in August as the Chinese government intervened in the FX market.

LYXOR SUSPENDS ACTIVITY OF GREEK ETF AMID TURMOIL

Lyxor temporarily halted creations and redemptions of its Greek equity ETF between 29 June and 3 August while the Athens Stock Exchange was shut. Meanwhile US ETF provider Global Xs US-listed Greece fund continued to trade, casting doubt over whether the ETFs price reflected the underlying assets.

The Lyxor UCITS ETF FTSE ATHEX Large Cap (GRE) was halted on the French, German and Italian exchanges, and only continued to trade in Stuttgart.

INDEX-HUGGING ACTIVE FUNDS DOUBLE IN UK

Closet tracker fundsactively managed funds which closely replicate a benchmark rather than generate alpha to justify their higher feeshave doubled in the UK, research from Morningstar revealed in a damning indictment of the fund industry.

The number of these benchmark-hugging active funds has risen by more than 100%, from eight to 17 funds over the past 12 months, and the vast majority of these funds fall into the Investment Associations UK All Companies sector.

BARCLAYS iPath ETNs DRYING UP, INVESTORS NOT INFORMED

Retail investors were left in the dark in June and were unable to buy and sell certain exchange traded notes issued by Barclays iPath as market makers stopped quoting prices to trade and the bank did not inform investors of its next steps regarding the product range. This development shed a spotlight on the potential danger of this type of instrument.

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Winterflood Securities was one of the few market makers that continued to price some of these products on a daily basis, to help out a small number of its retail investors. At the time of writing, the iPath S&P 500 VIX Short-Term Futures Index ETN (VXIS) had 9.1 million worth of shares outstanding.

Flow Traders, a large liquidity provider, agreed at the end of June to act as principal market maker for large investors until Barclays decides what to do with these products.

iSHARES SCRAPS 50% STOCK-LENDING LIMIT

In an attempt to boost profits, iShares scrapped its limit on stock lending for all of its physically replicated ETFs. As of 22 June, the ETF provider decided to ditch the 50% limit of an ETFs net asset value that could be lent out in a stock-lending program, just three years after it was implemented, meaning theres more opportunity for revenue. iShares ETFs domiciled in Europe were lent out for an average of less than 10% of their net asset value in the year ending 31 March, 2015.

IFAs UNSATISFIED WITH PLATFORMS ETF CAPABILITIES

Platforms are one of the major sticking points when it comes to the growth of ETFs amongst the investor and adviser community, research from ETF.com discovered. The sponsored survey interviewed 132 financial planners and fund managers, and found that only half were satisfied with their platforms selection and trading of ETFs.

ETP ASSETS FINALLY OVERTAKE HEDGE FUNDS

The end of the second quarter has seen ETPs and ETFs finally overtake assets in hedge funds, according to data from ETFGI.

There were $2.971 trillion across 5,823 ETPs and ETFs at the end of June, slightly shy of their $3.015 trillion record at the end of 2015. However, hedge funds have $2 billion less, as global assets stand at $2.969 trillion across 8,497 hedge funds, according to Hedge Fund Research.

MORE FIRMS RANK PASSIVE FUNDS

This year so far has seen a number of research houses and consultancies launch ETF and passive fund rankings. TrackInsight and FE Trustnet are among the firms to have started rating passive funds within the last 12 months, and consultancy shops FundCalibre, Square Mile and Rayner Spencer Mills Research look poised to follow suit.

The proliferation of such tools should prove a welcome boon for IFAs to help them with their fund selection and due diligence.

MSCI, UNLIKE FTSE, FORGOES CHINA A-SHARES

MSCI decided not to include China A-shares in its global and emerging market indices in the near future, less than a month after competing index provider FTSE said it would start introducing A-shares in some of its benchmarks.

In the world of ETFs, that means funds that track MSCI indices such as the $4.9 billion iShares MSCI Emerging Markets UCITS ETF (IEEM) will remain A-shares-free for the time being. Meanwhile, the $574 million Vanguard FTSE Emerging Markets UCITS ETF (VFEM) plans to own mainland Chinese stocks.

FCA COMMENDS NUTMEG FEE DISCLOSURE

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) cited Nutmeg as an example of a money manager firm that displays its charges and value to customers clearly and transparently, setting a high bar for other firms to follow for the benefit of the end investor.

The ETF focused discretionary fund manager Nutmeg was mentioned in an FCA discussion paper, published in June, called Smarter Consumer Communications, and was praised for its disclosure of full costs.

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ROBO Advice Market To Grow To $489B By 2020

The digital advice market, or robo advice, is projected to become an even bigger industry, with $489 billion in assets under management by 2020, according to new research, and will become a more important part of an advisers investment proposition.

The report from Boston-based Cerulli Associates said that large, retail direct firms are driving this growth and have captured considerable market share. Tom OShea, associate director at Cerulli, said robo advisers offer low minimum and low cost portfolios, and it coincides with expanding interest in passive investing.

ZyFin Plans Worlds First Indian Bond ETF

Indian macro analytics firm ZyFin plans to launch ETFs in Europe, including the worlds first Indian fixed income ETF, expanding ways that investors can access higher yields and emerging markets.

ZyFin, which was founded in 2011, will domicile the ETF in Ireland and has announced plans to grow its range, including smart beta ETFs, in Europe.

Sanjay Sachdev, executive chairman and co-founder, said that the firm expects to launch further fixed income and equity ETFs to offer easy access to global investors who want to tap into India.

ETFs Arent The Cheapest Choice

ETFs are more expensive than traditional index tracking fundsif you only take so-called clean share classes on passive trackers into account, according to new research.

Research from ratings and consultancy shop Defaqto found that ETFs usually come out best when comparing passive fund costs due to the legacy commission loaded into certain share classes of index tracking funds, which were widely available before the Retail Distribution Review.

The RDR was implemented in January 2013 and banned advisers from selling products and funds for commission, and only legacy commission payments were allowed to continue in some cases.

Lyxor Switches 7.6B Euro Stoxx ETF To Physical Replication

Lyxor switched its 7.6 billion Euro Stoxx 50 fund, the largest such ETF in the world, to physical replication on 2 Nov., as it announced plans to have 50% of its total ETF assets physically tracking their indexes by the end of 2016.

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The provider is following a Europe-wide trend in which various ETF firms are switching certain ETFs from synthetic to physical replication to improve tracking performance.

Lyxor will also make further switches, such as with its MSCI World and Topix funds, amounting to more than half of its 25 billion ETF range in physical replication by the end of 2016.

Arnaud Llinas, head of ETF and indexing at Lyxor, said the move was to improve performanceimprove tracking error, tracking difference and liquidity.

Smart Beta Gets More Complex

Smart beta funds have exploded in popularity to a total of 844 exchange traded funds worldwide with $497 billion in assets, according to Morningstars latest report. But theres a catch.

In its research called A Global Guide to Strategic Beta Exchange-Traded Products, Morningstar found that so-called strategic beta indexes of new ETPs are becoming more complex and harder to understand.

As these strategies become increasingly nuanced, looking to infuse elements of an active managers thinking into an index, investors collective due-diligence burden will continue to increase commensurately, it read.

ETF Securities Launches Europes First Cybersecurity ETF

ETF Securities launched Europes first ETF to track cybersecurity-focused companies, allowing investors to tap into a growing market.

The ETFS ISE Cyber Security GO UCITS ETF listed in London and costs 0.75% in annual fees, in partnership with ISE ETF Ventures. The ticker is USPY for USD and ISPY for Sterling. The ETF tracks an index of 33 companies and is physically replicated.

The launch follows a similar fund in the U.S., the PureFunds ISE Cyber Security ETF (HACK|C-36), which has grown to $1.1 billion since launching in November 2014.

TrackInsight Expands ETF Ratings Service

French-based advisory group Koris International expanded its ETF ratings service, allowing investors to make more informed decisions when picking investment vehicles.

TrackInsight, which launched in June this year, has expanded from rating 520 to 549 Europe-listed ETFs, and now provides detailed information on a total of 731 ETFs, jumping up from 650 funds.

Jean-Rene Giraud, CEO of Koris, told ETF.com that 136 of the analysed ETFs received a rating of between three and five stars, which show a good record of tracking error and tracking difference. TrackInsight only rates ETFs that have a three-year consistent track record and have at least 50 million in assets under management.

ETF Inflows Defy Market Volatility

Figures from ETFGI found that Europe-listed ETFs gathered $11.45 billion in August, hitting the third highest amount of monthly net inflows, as investors flocked to European equities.

Furthermore, during the week of 24 to 28 Aug., when the VIX spiked to 40 points, Europe ETF inflows jumped to $3.8 billion, the strongest weekly figure since early February, data from BlackRock revealed, as investors were taking a positive bet on macro recovery and the European quantitative easing programme.

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Permalink |  Copyright 2016 ETF.com. All rights reserved
Paris (AFP) - Air travel bookings to France have fallen by a fifth for August and September following the deadly jihadist attack in Nice, a specialist in traveller data said Wednesday.

Even before the July 14 attack, flight reservations to France were down by 16 percent for the two months compared to the same period in 2015 due to the Paris attacks in November, ForwardKeys said.

The Spanish-based company has access to databases of more than 200,000 online and physical travel agencies.

For Nice alone, air bookings from abroad have slumped 19 percent after the Bastille Day attack. They had already been projected to fall by 14 percent, ForwardKeys said in a statement.

It also studied the flow of international tourists in the immediate aftermath of the Nice attack, in which a truck driven by Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel, a 31-year-old Tunisian, rammed into Bastille Day revellers, killing 84 and injuring more than 300.

"As an immediate reaction, international visitor arrivals in Nice dropped by 9.4 percent in the week after the attack, when compared with the same time last year," it said.

"Across the country, post-attack arrivals were down 8.8 percent."
From ELLE

It's noon at Spring's airy studios in TriBeCa, and Nicole Richie is surrounded by beautiful girls. There is Kristina Bazan, the Swiss blogger with a L'Oreal contract. There is Danielle Bernstein, the recent college graduate who can make $15k with a single Instagram shot. And there is Natasha Oakley, whose modeling career gave rise to a clothing line, Monday Swimwear.

The influence (and beach waves) of these Internet mavens is impressive, but everyone knows that Richie's reigns supreme. A Hollywood insider turned reality TV starlet, her Fleetwood-Meets-Fendi style captivated young women worldwide, propelling Richie onto magazine covers, ad campaigns, and finally her dream role: founder and CEO of the fashion brand House of Harlow 1960.

We spoke with the 34-year-old working mom after checking out her latest collection.

Google News says you're the new headliner for Create + Cultivate. That's a huge deal. What will your speech be about?

There's enough people talking about funding and capital. I want to talk about how important it is to surround yourself with people that have more experience than you, but also people that have different experience and interests than you.

My message is very specific. I'm going with my best friend, [Hello Giggles founder and Glee producer] Rivka Rossi... We're doing it together because I think it's extremely important to speak to the role of friendship in business. There's enough people talking about funding and capital. I want to talk about how important it is to surround yourself with people that have more experience than you, but also people that have different experience and interests than you. We can't get where we want to get by ourselves. Instead of looking at someone and saying, "That person's too different from me. Therefore, I don't understand them. Therefore, I don't like them," we have to take the approach of, "That person is so different from me! What can I learn from her? And what can I teach her and add to her life?" That's what leads to true success.

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Can you run for president?

Ha!

So you're cool, stylish, smart, famous-seemingly you "have it all." What do you need help doing?

Oh, tons! Rivka works in the Internet space, and I struggle with that. It doesn't come naturally to me, and I'm always the last to know. I found out how to use Snapchat yesterday.

What?!

I need someone to tell me what to do, and I need a help hotline. I don't want to look at a ghost sign. That's not helpful. And also, Rivka is extremely kind, which is what I really respect about how she runs her business. She's always held up an umbrella for other women, no matter what kinds of competition come her way. She's very clear about her goals and she knows how to go about getting them, and always she reaches her goals through kindness. That's huge.

There's a room full of bloggers next door. They're all ostensibly competitors, even though they're different. How would you tell them to support each other, even though their business goals are so similar?

You have to understand that there's enough to go around for everybody. You have to know that success is greater when it's shared.

You're close with Stella McCartney, Jennifer Meyer, Joyce Azria-other cool women with their own brands and clothing lines. How do those friendships work?

Stella is a great example. She and I have many parallels in the way we grew up. And she's somebody that I could call right now and say, "There's something I'm having trouble figuring out," and she would tell me her own experiences and put me in touch with people that have helped her. Because she knows that I could copy every single thing Stella McCartney did, and I would have a different outcome, because I'm me, and she's Stella, and that's just how life works. We are individuals. There's free will. There's timing. We can make the same things in totally different ways. Same with Joyce. You have to trust and support each other if you want to be excellent.

What's the worst advice you've ever gotten about "building your brand"?

I want to sit across from someone who's authentically who they are, even if they're not my personal cup of tea.

Oh, when people put pressure on me to be someone else... I'm not going to change myself because I think it'll make somebody like me more. And in terms of being a business, I've found that when you're always in the people-pleasing mode, that's the easiest way to lose control of your brand's DNA. I want to sit across from someone who's authentically who they are, even if they're not my personal cup of tea. It's still more comforting than being across from someone who's making moves to please other people! I don't believe in all of that.

House of Harlow 1960 is named for your young daughter. Does she understand how big the label is?

She knows what it is, but she doesn't care. Not in the way you'd think. She's going to be nine, and she appreciates what I do, but she's like, "Unless you're giving clothes to me, I'm not interested."

I would be remiss if I didn't ask: Would you like to take a Taylor vs. KimYe side?

Absolutely not. I would not like to take a side. [Laughing] And I would not like to talk about [what happened on Kim's] Snapchat, because I still have no idea how to use Snapchat!

But the filters are so cute!

Those seem okay. Maybe I'll figure them out.

A while ago, you told me that your hidden talent was braiding hair. Are you considering a beauty line?

No. I haven't gone down that path. I've been so busy with the accessories and the ready-to-wear... But I think if I wanted to, I could be a YouTube star. I would do how-to braid tutorials all day and I would happily film myself. I'd be like, "Let's do a fishtail braid! Let's do a crown!"

Be careful what you wish for...

On record, I want a column in ELLE and a video on ELLE.com where I teach you guys how to do braids. From my mouth to God's ears. I want it. Tell Robbie Myers to call me.
From Esquire

PHILADELPHIAWhat a long, strange run-up the DNC scripted for Bernie Sanders' Convention address on Monday night.

There was Bernie supporter Sarah Silverman's massive takedown of the Bernie or Bust contingent.

There was a pop-up performance by Paul Simon with a not-so-subliminal message: While a parade of faces made achingly familiar through the many iterations of Sanders' viral America ad campaign flashed across the massive video board, a mournful Simon crooned a S&G standard, "Bridge Over Troubled Waters:"

Sail on Silver Girl

Sail on by

Your time has come to shine

All your dreams are on their way

See how they shine

But that's the Clinton campaign for you. Subtle as a brick through a plate glass window.

Shoehorned in was a brief video tribute to the late New York Governor Mario Cumo, whose keynote address at the 1984 Democratic Convention in San Francisco set the standard by which all keynotes are now measured. Taking on the wildly popular Ronald Reagan, Cuomo, who had spurned efforts to get him to enter the presidential race, aimed his remarks straight at the occupant of the Oval Office.

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"In this part of the city, there are more poor than ever. More families in trouble, more and more people who need help but can't find it," Cuomo declared. "Mr. President, you ought to know that this nation is more 'a tale of two cities' than it is just a 'shining city on a hill.'"

It was up to First Lady Michelle Obama to suggest how we all are expected to behave from here on out. We must resist the example of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, who questioned the faith and the citizenship of her children's father. To those children, "We explain that when someone is cruel or acts like a bully, you don't stoop to their level. Our motto is: When they go low, we go high." And she shamed the Bernie Bros, in doing so transforming all of Hillary Clinton's shortcomings into virtues. Obama lectured gently:

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[When Clinton] didn't win the nomination eight years ago, she didn't get angry or disillusioned. Hillary did not pack up and go home. Because as a true public servant, Hillary knows that this is so much bigger than her own desires and disappointments. And look, there were plenty of moments when Hillary could have decided that this work was too hard, that the price of public service was too high, that she was tired of being picked apart for how she looks or how she talks or even how she laughs. But here's the thing-what I admire most about Hillary is that she never buckles under pressure. She never takes the easy way out. And Hillary Clinton has never quit on anything in her life.

The keynote speaker, Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren, was introduced by Massachusetts congressman Joseph P. Kennedy III. In 1980, Kennedy's Uncle Ted made what was arguably the most graceful concession speech ever delivered by a political candidate: "For me, a few hours ago, this campaign came to an end. For all those whose cares have been our concern, the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die." Then-President Jimmy Carter had to chase Kennedy-who had taken his challenge to deny Carter re-nomination to the Convention floor, mounting an unsuccessful rules fight to unbind the delegates-around the Convention stage in an unsuccessful attempt to get the Massachusetts senator to raise a clasped hand in a show of unity.

For her part, Warren delivered a workman-like but effective address, soldiering on with her assigned task of inciting Donald Trump into pulling a full General Custer.

That's the Clinton campaign for you. Subtle as a brick through a plate glass window.

Rep. Keith Ellison, the first and only Muslim elected to the U.S. Congress and the second member of Congress to endorse Sanders' insurgent presidential campaign, was tapped to introduce the Vermont Senator. Ellison, himself famously the subject of a recent maternal reprimand, was one of Sander's picks to sit on the platform drafting committee. After months of calling Clinton out for being the "No You Can't" candidate, Ellison was charged with convincing the delegates that Yes, We Can get behind a Clinton candidacy.

Sitting it out in November simply plays into the Republicans' hands. "They don't want us to vote," insisted Ellison, adding, "Not voting is not a protest, it is a surrender."

And then came Bernie. No clouds of Trump's theatrical smoke trailed him to the podium. It was simply Bernie: slightly rumbled, vaguely irascible, walking on water Bernie.

"I understand that many people here in this convention hall and around the country are disappointed about the final results of the nominating process," Sanders said. "I think it's fair to say that no one is more disappointed than I am."

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A quick tour of the Convention floor suggested he may be wrong on that one.

"Any objective observer will conclude that-based on her ideas and her leadership-Hillary Clinton must become the next president of the United States," Sanders continued. "It is no secret that Hillary Clinton and I disagree on a number of issues. That is what this campaign has been about. That's what democracy is about," Sanders said, to mostly cheers. "But I am happy to tell you that at the Democratic Platform Committee, there was a significant coming together between the two campaigns, and we produced by far the most progressive platform in the history of the Democratic Party."

And he offered a spoonful of medicine to make that sugar go down: "If you don't believe this election is important, if you think you can sit it out, take a moment to think about the Supreme Court justices that Donald Trump would nominate and what that would mean to civil liberties, equal rights, and the future of our country."

So the deed will be done. Sanders is voting for Clinton in November. He wants his supporters to vote for Clinton in November. But Tuesday night, he empowered his 1893 delegates to stay the course. "I look forward to your votes during the roll call tomorrow night," he told them. Bernie Sanders, unbought and unbossed.

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Officials at Nissan's US auto plant in Canton, Mississippi refused to meet Tuesday with a French legislator seeking information on workers' efforts to organize a union.

Christian Hutin, a member of France's National Assembly, was in Mississippi on a fact-finding mission on working conditions at Nissan, which is partly controlled by the French government via the Renault-Nissan Alliance.

Hutin, who is deputy chairman of the Assembly's Social Affairs Commission, has been calling for the French government to use its leverage as a major stockholder in Renault to help improve the situation in Canton.

After meeting with workers and civil rights leaders, he told AFP that the plant, located in one of the poorest US states, was a "lawless place."

In May, the United Auto Workers, which has been attempting to organize workers at the Nissan plant, formally complained to the National Labor Relations Board that the automaker was using coercive and illicit tactics to stymie union organizing, including surveillance of workers who have spoken out in favor of unionization.

"It is deeply troubling that Renault-Nissan refuses to meet with Mr Hutin, who is on a good-faith mission to learn about the plight of workers in Canton," said Gary Casteel, secretary-treasurer of the UAW and director of the union's transnational department.

The UAW has enlisted support of metal workers unions in Europe, South America and Asia to put pressure on Nissan, but the Japanese automaker has refused to budge.

The French government owns a 20 percent stake in Renault, which in turn is the largest shareholder of Nissan. Nissan itself has a significant but smaller stake in Renault.

So far the company hasn't budged under the pressure.

Nissan, which opened the plant in 2003, employs more than 6,000 Mississippians.

Company spokeswoman Kristina Adamski said Nissan does not believe workers at the plant will gain from unionization.

"In every country where Nissan has operations, we follow both the spirit and the letter of the law. Nissan not only respects labor laws, but we work to ensure that all employees are aware of these laws, understand their rights and enjoy the freedom to express their opinions and elect their representation as desired."

She said Nissan was not able to accommodate Hutin's request to visit the plant "due to the demands of the business."
Nissan on Wednesday blamed a surge in the yen and struggles in its home market for the first decline in April-June net profit in four years.

The Japanese automaker said net profit in the quarter was down nearly 11 percent to 136.4 billion ($1.3 billion), while operating profit and revenue also slid from a year ago.

A stronger yen has put pressure on Japan Inc's bottom line as it makes the country's exporters less competitive overseas and shrinks the value of repatriated profits.

The currency rallied about 18 percent on the US dollar in the year through June.

"A stronger yen is another setback as Nissan generates more than 80 percent of its sales volume overseas," Nikkie Lu, an analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence, said before the earnings announcement.

Nissan -- which had been reporting bumper profits owing to upbeat sales in North America and China -- was also hit by falling sales of minicars in Japan, produced by scandal-hit Mitsubishi Motors.

Mitsubishi, which reported a 129.7 billion yen quarterly loss on Wednesday, has been hammered by admissions it falsified mileage tests for years, manipulating data to make cars seem more efficient than they were.

Mini-cars, or kei-cars, are small vehicles with 660cc gasoline engines that are hugely popular in the Japanese market, although they have found little success abroad.

In May, the Altima sedan maker threw a lifeline to Mitsubishi as it announced plans to buy a one-third stake in the crisis-hit automaker for about $2.2 billion, forging an alliance that will challenge some of the world's biggest auto groups.

Nissan left its fiscal year forecasts unchanged. It expects net profit to inch up to 525 billion yen in the year through March 2017, while operating profit is set to fall 10.5 percent.

Sales are on course to fall about three percent to 11.8 trillion yen.
(Reuters) - Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump "will not be releasing" his tax returns due to a federal audit, his campaign manager said on Wednesday, despite pressure to release them and provide a window into his finances before the Nov. 8 election. "Mr. Trump has said that his taxes are under audit, and he will not be releasing them," campaign manager Paul Manafort said in an interview with CBS on Wednesday. "That issue will be dealt with when the audits are done." His Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton, has released tax returns and called on Trump to put out his. Mitt Romney, the 2012 Republican nominee, has called it "disqualifying" for a party's White House nominee not to make tax returns public. Trump has come under new pressure to release financial information and show whether he has any ties to Russia. That came after U.S. officials this week said there was evidence that Russia was involved in the recent release of sensitive Democratic Party emails, potentially to influence the U.S. election. Trump has often praised Russian President Vladimir Putin as a "strong leader," but on Tuesday he said it was "crazy" for Democrats to suggest Russia would try to help his election bid. "For the record, I have ZERO investments in Russia," Trump wrote on Twitter. Manafort said on CBS on Wednesday that Trump's hesitance to release his tax returns has nothing to do with Russia. Asked to clarify that Trump has no financial relationships with any Russian oligarchs, Manafort responded, "That's what he said. ... That's obviously what our position is." (Reporting by Emily Stephenson; Editing by Jonathan Oatis)
Geneva (AFP) - Northeast Nigeria is "close" to famine with hundreds of thousands trapped without help, and must be declared a "top emergency" by the UN, said Medical charity Doctors Without Borders on Wednesday.

The charity known by its French acronym MSF said the region devastated by Boko Haram's Islamist insurgency had between 500,000 and 800,000 people trapped in areas that cannot be reached by humanitarian workers.

A UN "top emergency" designation -- which would put Nigeria on a list with Syria, Iraq and Yemen -- would immediately mobilise more resources to a crisis that has not received nearly enough attention, MSF said.

Boko Haram attacks in the northeast have declined over the last year, but MSF's emergency programme manager Hugues Robert noted that aid workers were still limited in where they can go.

Some cities in the northeast, such as Banki and Bama, had gone up to 18 months without any humanitarian deliveries before aid agencies and the UN arrived in June.

"What was extremely shocking was the level of severe acute malnutrition," Robert said, adding that communities faced "close to a famine situation."

Many areas can only be accessed under escort from the Nigerian army, he told reporters in Geneva after returning from Borno state, the epicentre of the Boko Haram insurgency.

"We need the UN and all their agencies to consider this as a top emergency," Bruno Jochum, director of MSF Switzerland, told reporters.

Boko Haram, which seeks to impose strict Islamic law in northern Nigeria, has been blamed for some 20,000 deaths and displacing more than 2.6 million people since 2009.
Philadelphia (AFP) - US President Barack Obama will spearhead a Democratic effort to paint Donald Trump as unfit to be commander-in-chief Wednesday, contrasting the Republican nominee with his vastly more experienced rival Hillary Clinton.

Obama, acting as a character reference for his former primary foe and secretary of state, will make the case to Democrats gathered in Philadelphia for their national convention that Clinton is uniquely qualified to be president.

"Nothing truly prepares you for the demands of the Oval Office," the two-term president will say, according to excerpts of his speech released by the White House.

"Until you've sat at that desk, you don't know what it's like to manage a global crisis or send young people to war," he will say. "But Hillary's been in the room; she's been part of those decisions."

"I can say with confidence there has never been a man or a woman more qualified than Hillary Clinton to serve as President of the United States of America."

Having fought his own angst-ridden primary against Clinton eight years ago, Obama could offer a potent testimony about how a rival became an ally and evenhanded advisor.

For four years, Clinton traveled the globe pushing Obama's foreign policies as America's top diplomat.

- Framing the battle ahead -

The White House would like to make November's crunch election a battle about competence versus incompetence, steady versus capricious, knowledge versus entertainment.

On Wednesday, Obama will be one of a string of Democratic national security heavyweights -- from former CIA director Leon Panetta to Vice President Joe Biden -- who will appear before the convention to explicitly and implicitly question Trump's temperament.

In an incendiary press conference, Trump launched a pre-emptive attack against Obama, calling him "the most ignorant president in our history."

Democrats will hope to capitalize on a string of perceived foreign policy missteps, culminating in Trump's suggestion that Russia spy on his rival Clinton.

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The Republican nominee caused howls of outrage Wednesday, with a reference to thousands of Clinton emails held on a private server that were deleted.

"Russia, if you're listening, I hope you're able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing." Trump said.

Clinton says the mails were personal and not work-related, but for Republicans, it is a smoking gun for a cover-up involving her use of a private server during her time at the State Department.

The FBI concluded this month that Clinton had been "extremely careless" in her handling of classified material via a private email server, but did not recommend that she face criminal charges.

"This has to be the first time that a major presidential candidate has actively encouraged a foreign power to conduct espionage against his political opponent," said Clinton's top foreign policy aide Jake Sullivan.

"This has gone from being a matter of curiosity, and a matter of politics, to being a national security issue."

Clinton on Tuesday became the first woman to win the presidential nomination of a major US political party, teeing up the November showdown with Trump.

Democrats had "put the biggest crack" yet in the glass ceiling for women, she said in a video message to the convention.

- Dimming limelight -

In the twilight of his second term, Obama faces ever-dwindling opportunities to address the nation, mold his legacy and influence the 2016 race.

But on Wednesday, he has a prime-time chance when he appears before thousands of delegates in Philadelphia and tens of millions of viewers at home.

The White House says Obama has been working on the roughly 30-minute speech for weeks.

Yet this touchstone presidential moment has been a decade or more in the making.

The address will bookend Obama's career-launching address to the Democratic convention in 2004, his contentious 2008 primary battle with Clinton and his eight years in office.

Aides said Obama will make a familiar case for what has been achieved during his two terms, highlighting America's recovery from the Great Recession.

Obama will also try to leverage his vast popularity among Democrats to unify a party scarred by the bruising primary campaign between Clinton and leftist Bernie Sanders.

The four-day confab in Philadelphia -- the City of Brotherly Love -- has so far been somewhat less than fraternal, with disappointed Sanders supporters periodically disrupting the proceedings with boos.
President Obama sits down with Savannah Guthrie at the White House. (Photo: NBC/Today)

Following Donald Trumps victory in the New Hampshire primary, President Obama said he had faith that the American people would not vote for the brash real estate mogul come November. Now hes not so sure.

Anything is possible, Obama said in an interview that aired on NBCs Today show Wednesday. It is the nature of democracy that until those votes are cast and the American people have their say, we dont know.

As somebody who has now been in elected office, at various levels, for about 20 years, the president continued, Ive seen all kinds of crazy stuff happen.

At a news conference in February, Obama rejected the idea that voters would elect Trump to succeed him in the Oval Office.

I continue to believe Mr. Trump will not be president, Obama said. And the reason is because I have a lot of faith in the American people, and I think they recognize that being president is a serious job. Its not hosting a talk show or a reality show, its not promotion, its not marketing, its hard. And a lot of people count on us getting it right, and its not a matter of pandering and doing whatever will get you in the news on a given day.

But in the interview that aired Wednesday, Obama said Democrats should be fearful of such an outcome.

You stay worried until all those votes are cast and counted because you know, one of the dangers in an election like this is that people dont take the challenge seriously, he said. They stay home. And we end up getting the unexpected.

Fear, though, can be a good thing, Obama explained.

I think anybody who goes into campaigns not running scared can end up losing, he said.

According to the latest average polling data from RealClearPolitics, Trump has a slight lead over Hillary Clinton (45.7 percent to 44.6 percent) nationally.

Is Obama personally scared of a President Trump?

What I think is scary is a president who doesnt know their stuff and doesnt seem to have an interest in learning what they dont know, Obama said. I think if you listen to any press conference hes given, or listen to any of those debates, basic knowledge  about the world or what a nuclear triad is or where various countries are or, you know, the difference between Sunni and Shia in the Muslim world  those are things that he doesnt know and hasnt seemed to spend a lot of time trying to find out about.

Story continues

The interview comes hours ahead of Obamas primetime address to the Democratic National Convention. Vice President Joe Biden and Tim Kaine, Clintons vice presidential running mate, are also scheduled to speak.

Obama also said that Trump is not your typical presidential candidate.

Well for one thing, he doesnt seem to have any plans or policies or proposals or specific solutions, the president said. The good news is weve got a candidate in Hillary Clinton who has put out very specific plans and programs and is telling you exactly what shes going to do.

_____

_____

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Washington (AFP) - US President Barack Obama warned Democrats Wednesday that anything was possible in the US elections and to "stay worried until all the votes are counted."

Obama, who is the keynote speaker Wednesday at the Democratic National Convention, was asked in an interview with NBC's Today Show whether Republican candidate Donald Trump could defeat the Democrat's Hillary Clinton.

"Anything is possible," he said.

"As somebody who has now been in elected office at various levels for about 20 years, I have seen all kinds of crazy stuff happen, and I think everybody that goes into campaigns not running scared can end up losing.

"My advice to Democrats -- I don't have to give this advice to Hillary Clinton because she already knows it -- is you stay worried until all the votes are cast and counted, because one of the dangers in an election like this is that people don't take the challenge seriously, they stay home, and we end up getting something else."

Clinton was proclaimed the Democratic presidential nominee Tuesday night at a star-studded convention in Philadelphia keynoted by husband and former president Bill Clinton.

Divisions were on display, however, after leaked emails showed that leaders of the supposedly neutral Democratic National Committee worked to undermine the candidacy of Clinton primary rival, Bernie Sanders.

The Clinton campaign has blamed the leak on Russian hackers bent on helping the Trump campaign. The FBI has said it is investigating.

"Anything is possible," Obama said when asked in the interview about the hack.

"Donald Trump has repeatedly expressed admiration for Vladimir Putin," Obama said in an excerpt of the interview that aired earlier.

"And I think that Trump's gotten pretty favorable coverage back in Russia."

Obama praised Clinton as an "outstanding secretary of state" who helped make the country safer and defended her against Republican accusations that her use of a private email account while in office had compromised national security.

Story continues

"What I think is scary is a president who doesn't know their stuff and doesn't seem to have an interest in learning what they don't know," he said, referring to Trump.

"I think if you listen to any press conference he has given or any debates, basic knowledge about the world or what a nuclear triad is, or the difference between Sunni and Shia in the Muslim world, those are things he doesn't know and hasn't seem to spend a lot of time trying to find out about."

Obama, who speaks to the convention Wednesday night, said his message would be that "the president of the United States is profoundly optimistic about America's future, and is 100% convinced that Hillary Clinton can be a great president."
Chicago (AFP) - US President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama have reached a long-awaited decision on where exactly in Chicago to build their presidential library.

The location is the city's historic Jackson Park, near the University of Chicago where the president taught law before being elected to public office, a source familiar with the decision making told AFP.

A formal announcement will be made in the coming days.

The 540-acre park, named after the seventh US president Andrew Jackson, was commissioned in 1869, according to the city's park district. It is nestled on Chicago's famed waterfront, overlooking Lake Michigan and is also the site of the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry.

The newest addition to the US network of presidential libraries will serve as a repository for historical items, records and papers pertaining to Obama's two terms as president after he leaves office in January.

The Obamas last year picked Chicago as the host city for their library, instead of Honolulu in Hawaii or New York City, which were also bidding.

They had since narrowed their choice down to two sites: Jackson Park and Washington Park, which lies not far away to the west of the University of Chicago.

Their decision determines which of two economically struggling, predominantly African-American neighborhoods receive a boost in investment and jobs.

The Obama Foundation, which is in charge of building the library, has not said how much it will cost, but it is expected to be in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

Anthony Clark, author of a book on presidential libraries entitled "The Last Campaign," said the Obamas made the more cautious and conservative choice in picking Jackson Park.

"The foundation will build the library where more people, resources, and infrastructure exist already," Clark said, "Rather than try to be the main economic engine for a renewal" of the neighborhood around the other park being considered.

The foundation last month announced that the firms Tod Williams Billie Tsien Partners (TWBTA) and Interactive Design Architects (IDEA) were chosen to design the building.

At the time, Obama Foundation Chairman Martin Nesbitt said a location would soon be picked with the architects' input and that a building design could take one to two years to complete.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama's presidential library will be built in Jackson Park in Chicago's South Side, the Associated Press reported on Wednesday, citing an unnamed source.

In May, the Obama Foundation announced that the library would be built in the president's hometown of Chicago, after the city beat out proposals by New York City and Hawaii. The library and museum are expected to be open to visitors by 2020 or 2021.

(Reporting by Eric Beech; Editing by Eric Walsh)
South Korean filmmakers, famed for their conservatism when it comes to new media, are unsurprisingly wary about virtual reality (VR) and once again demonstrated their caution at the Korean Film Council's annual Global Forum held in Seoul earlier this month. But with the Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival (BiFan) preparing a special VR program for its 20th anniversary edition, and Samsung attracting scores of tourists for its VR Gear showroom, Oculus Story Studio's creative producer believes there is great potential for the medium in South Korea and other Asian countries

"The richness of the film history here does leave some filmmakers slightly hesitant to venture into VR, but what I learned [is] that early theater in Korea was actually a 360-degree experience," said Yelena Rachitsky, a guest speaker during the forum, following a tour of Samsung's D'light showroom featuring Oculus technology, with The Hollywood Reporter.

"The audience would stand all around the stage, and the actors would act directly to the audience. It's interesting that sometimes we should look to the past to understand how to create for the future. I'd be curious to see 360 experiences using those previous techniques mixed in with the tech of the present to see how Korea will venture into the 360 storytelling space."

Read More: Is Virtual Reality the Future of South Korean Cinema?

Local industry insiders believe that the Korean media culture will influence other Asian regions, such as China, a major importer of Korean talent ranging from scriptwriters to VFX artists. "There is great demand for Korean filmmaking know-how, technology and trends in China, and Korea's experimentation with VR will most positively influence how things are done in China," said film critic Jung Ji-ouk.

Ever since Oculus showcased VR for the first time at Sundance in 2013, some 2 million hours of Gear VR is being watched per month and the figure is expected to go up to 3 million hours soon, according to Rachitsky. About 80 percent of people of those who use Gear VR everyday watch video content. The producer believes that VR will dramatically transform the landscape of media culture across the globe, marking a true paradigm shift.

Story continues

"VR is different from 3D. 3D wasn't a paradigm shift; it was still limited to a rectangular box. But VR means the convergence of different media. The digital landscape of filmmaking, and the time structure we're used to, is getting blurred," she said.

This is often challenging to filmmakers, Rachitsky explains, because filmmakers are accustomed to having full control of the way the viewer perceives and experiences their work. "Now they have to let go of their control and let the audience feel more like they're part of the experience."

Read More: Oculus CTO Says Virtual Reality "Content Needs the Most Attention" at Connect Conference

VR, however, does not change the ultimate nature of storytelling.

"Technology is always just a framework and a tool; it's always about [translating] people's ideas and brining life into it. VR is fully immersive, and geared toward the human," she said. The French VR production Notes on Blindness for example, utilizes the audio diaries of visually-impaired academic John Hull to allow viewers to experience a world without sight. The work, furthermore, reflects a visceral quality that is unique to French cinema. Likewise, Hollywood VR content often reflects the industry's love of action films. "I am interested in what the Korean sentiment will bring to VR," she said.

"For me, the experience of culture immersion rarely loses the ability to broaden my perspective of cultures, traditions and a way of life for people who have had different experiences, as it did on this trip [to Korea]," she said. "It furthers my conviction of VR's possibilities for immersion to broaden perspectives and create a deeper, more visceral level of understanding around common human traits regardless of cultural differences."

Also as head of education at the studio, Rachitsky says she is looking forward to working with film students who are part of the younger generation that grew up in the digital age. "It will be interesting to see what kind of perspectives they will bring," she said, which is all the more meaningful because VR is still in the works. "The VR storytelling industry is not fully formed. Everyone is experimenting and making mistakes. In film history, the edit was an accident that worked. What are these accidents that we are making in VR that will help us create something new?"
By Caroline Stauffer SAO PAULO, July 27 (Reuters) - In a sport long dominated by Europeans, South American riders will be out in force at the continent's first Olympic Games to be held in Rio de Janeiro's Deodoro area next month. Argentina, Colombia, Venezuela, Uruguay and hosts Brazil are all represented. Peru qualified for the individual show jumping competition for the first time, as did Ecuador in individual three-day eventing. "It's more than the usual... The level has increased tremendously so they are a force to contend with in the future," Sabrina Ibanez, secretary general of the International Equestrian Federation (FEI), said of South American riders. Ibanez told Reuters more South Americans had qualified after investment in grass-roots development programmes over the past decade. She noted a strong showing in last year's Pan American Games in Toronto, where Venezuela claimed silver in individual jumping and Argentina came second in team jumping to Canada. Riders from Chinese Taipei, the Dominican Republic, Palestine, Qatar and Zimbabwe will also be making Olympic debuts, though the favorites are coming from more traditional equestrian strongholds like Germany and Great Britain. At the 2012 Olympics in London, New Zealand and Saudi Arabia were the only non-European countries to take home equestrian medals - bronze for team eventing and team show jumping respectively. In addition to the geographical diversity, much of the 2016 equestrian field is young. The entire Brazil dressage team is under 25. With a new generation coming up, some notable veterans were left out. Brazil's only Olympic gold medal equestrian, the 2012 flag bearer Rodrigo Pessoa, is the alternate of the host nation's show jumping team. Canada's Ian Millar, who holds the record for most Olympic appearances at 10 Games, has been sidelined due to an injured horse but his daughter Amy will make her show jumping debut. Among the Olympic champions returning are Germany's four-time gold medallist Ludger Beerbaum, 52, in show jumping and New Zealand's double gold medallist Mark Todd, 60, in eventing. "The level of competition is so strong at the moment and you just need everything... it could go to any one of 10 different people and hopefully I might be one of those 10," Todd, who heads to Rio with more Olympic medals than any other equestrian, told Reuters. Germany's Michael Jung is returning after winning team and individual gold in eventing in London and Great Britain's dressage prodigy Charlotte Dujardin is back with Valegro, the horse she won individual and team gold medals on in 2012. Athletes and the FEI, the sport's governing body, said they were pleased with the Deodoro facility, which has been upgraded since hosting the Panamerican Games in 2007. An episode of Glanders, a fatal disease for horses, at a nearby military facility is no longer a concern after Deodoro was isolated for much of last year, Ibanez said. "The agriculture ministry has guaranteed that the place is clean, they have done all tests necessary so we are confident it is completely free," she said. (Additional reporting by Alan Baldwin; Editing by Ken Ferris)
OMG, Joss Whedon would be down to direct the potential Black Widow film

OMG, Joss Whedon would be down to direct the potential Black Widow film

Lets start off with the facts:

We want a Black Widow movie. We need a Black Widow movie. Supposedly its on the table to happen, but when and HOW is the big question. That means, right now, we dont have ANY Black Widow movie.

Amazingly, that might soon change.

Over the weekend at San Diego Comic-Con, the guy who brought the Avengers to life (and not just that, also created Buffy, Dollhouse, AND Firefly), Joss Whedon, happened to mention that if given the opportunity, hed love the chance to bring Black Widow to the big screen.

Pause to freak out for a few seconds.

If someone pointed at me and said, Do you want to make a Black Widow movie? The answer would be Duh.' Whedon explained to IGN, For two reasons, I think that character [of Black Widow is] very interesting, and very earth bound. So its the kind of action that I got to do less of [with characters like Thor and Vision]. When you get into your Superman territory, its harder to maintain that gritty action. Shes got that kind of thing, and [Id] do a spy thriller. A good, paranoid, spy thriller. That would be really fun.

Then, getting us even more on board, Whedon gushed about ScarJo for a few seconds.

Also, Scarlett Johansson is just delightful. She works really hard, but she just spends most of her time cracking me up [on set]. So it would be a fun shoot.

DO YOU HEAR THAT, WORLD? Someone fast-track a Black Widow movie, and give Whedon the keys to the Black Widow kingdom. If you dont know anything about Whedon, lets start with something super basic: He loves strong, powerful female characters, and hes brought so many of them to life (ahem, Buffy, just to name one of a dozen).

A Black Widow movie is something weve long been dreaming of, so hopefully with Whedons powerful Marvel-action-female-driven voice, it finally becomes a reality. Even if he doesnt direct it, it sounds like he can push it in the right direction towards the big screen.

The post OMG, Joss Whedon would be down to direct the potential Black Widow film appeared first on HelloGiggles.
Once Upon a Times Emma and Hook have the most magical Comic-Con tradition

Once Upon a Times Emma and Hook have the most magical Comic-Con tradition

If you thought Once Upon a Time was the epitome of a fairy tale, then you should take a look at the actors who work on the show. They all seem to be great friends straight out of a storybook  and some of them even found true love on OUAT (were referring to Ginnifer Goodwin and Josh Dallas, who just welcomed their second child into the world).

To further prove just how magical this cast is off-camera, we have Jennifer Morrison (who plays Emma) and Colin ODonoghue (Hook). Over the past few years, at San Diego Comic-Con, Popsugar caught on to the fact that these two have been participating in an adorable tradition.

Beginning in 2014, while being interviewed on their shows panel, these two started getting their side-hug on:

ABC's "Once Upon A Time" Panel - Comic-Con International 2014

In 2015, they continued their ritual. In this snapshot, they look genuinely happy to be in each others company:

Once Upon a Time 2

This year, Jennifer and Colin did not disappoint  especially after Yvette Nicole Brown (Ursula) pointed out their tradition in front of the Comic-Con crowd:

Once Upon a Time 1

Based on the above photo alone, you can tell that these two love working together. I mean, just look at Jennifer giving Colin a kiss on the head!

Ultimately, this pair is definitely giving Emma/Hook shippers a lot to work with.

The post Once Upon a Times Emma and Hook have the most magical Comic-Con tradition appeared first on HelloGiggles.
In late 2000, a woman named Irom Sharmila went on a hunger strike in the northeast Indian state of Manipur to protest the countrys Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), and what many claim is the virtual impunity it grants to security forces in parts of the country. She persisted with her call to repeal the act in her state, often outside the glare of media attention, for the next decade and a half (during which time she has been fed through a tube attached to her nose).

Now, 16 years later, Sharmila will finally break her fast.

The 44-year-old activist announced Tuesday that she will conclude her hunger strike  believed to be the worlds longest  on August 9 this year, the Indian Express reports. Instead, she said, she will take her battle into the political arena by contesting next years state elections.

The government has not been listening to our voices and has been suppressing our movement, Sharmila told reporters on Tuesday, adding that her foray into politics is an attempt to get our voices heard at the [central government].

The AFSPA, which allows members of the army in parts of India to arrest and even kill suspects without warrants or consequences, has been in effect in Indias insurgency-ridden northeastern region since 1958. The only other part of the country where it is in effect is the fractious, disputed state of Kashmir, where it has become the focal point yet again of violent protests that have resulted in dozens of deaths over the past month.

Sharmilas fellow activists have vowed that the struggle she has been at the forefront of will continue.

The movement for AFSPA will continue with or without Sharmila. If she wishes to continue leading the movement, we will all be with her, one activist told the Express. The movement will continue till the time justice is served to the families who have lost loved ones.

[Indian Express]
By Justin Kroll, Variety



Oprah Winfrey is in final negotiations to join the cast of Disneys A Wrinkle in Time adaptation that Ava Duvernay is on board to direct.

Jennifer Lee, who wrote and co-directed Frozen with Chris Buck, is penning the adaptation of Madeleine LEngles book for Disney. The story follows children as they travel through time and visit strange worlds in order to find their missing scientist father.

A Wrinkle in Time is the first book in LEngles Time Quartet series, which includes A Wind in the Door, Many Waters and A Swiftly Tilting Planet.

Related: Oprah Winfrey Shares Her Personal Connection to Greenleaf

Winfrey will play Mrs. Which, one of the three Mrs. Ws that helps guide the children along their journey.

Winfrey and Duvernay have a relationship going back to Selma, which Winfrey appeared in and Duvernay directed. Sources say Duvernay always had Winfrey in mind for one of the three Mrs. Ws.

Winfrey is about to start filming on HBOs The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.
(Corrects paragraph 8 to say the company's revenue "missed", not "beat", analysts' estimates)

July 27 (Reuters) - Mondelez International Inc's quarterly net revenue slumped nearly 18 percent, the 11th straight quarter of decline, as sales fell in markets outside North America.

The Oreo cookie and Cadbury chocolate maker's shares declined about 1 percent to $44.73 in light premarket trading on Wednesday.

Mondelez said sales fell by 26.5 percent in Europe, its biggest market, in the second quarter. The company gets more than a quarter of its total revenue from the region.

Sales plunged by a third in Latin America and fell slightly in Asia Pacific.

However, Mondelez said it expected incremental earnings of 3-5 cents per share for the full year.

Lower-than-expected interest expenses and strong results from its coffee joint venture investments will offset the impact of a strong dollar and Britain's vote to exit the European Union, the company said. Mondelez holds its coffee business in a joint venture with D.E. Master Blenders.

Separately, Mondelez said its "Milka" chocolates and more than a dozen core products would hit shelves in China from September.

The company's net revenue fell to $6.30 billion in the quarter ended June 30, missing the average analyst estimate of $6.33 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Net income attributable to the company rose 14.3 percent to $464 million, or 29 cents per share.

Excluding items, Mondelez earned 44 cents per share, topping the average estimate of 40 cents.

Last month, Mondelez offered to buy chocolate maker Hershey Co in a $23 billion cash-and-stock deal, an offer Hershey rejected.

(Reporting by Subrat Patnaik in Bengaluru; Editing by Kirti Pandey)
hillary clinton

PHILADELPHIA  Despite ongoing protests and a walkout by some delegates representing Sen. Bernie Sanders at the Democratic National Committee, high-profile Hillary Clinton supporters say that reports of party disunity are being blown out of proportion.

After a Tuesday event hosted by climate groups, including the Sierra Club, former Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland dismissed claims that the DNC protests demonstrated rifts in the party.

"I think that reports of disunity are exaggerated," said Strickland, who is running for US senate in Ohio this year. "Obviously there are some, a fairly small group that will be a part of the Bernie or bust movement. But I think the vast majority of Bernie supporters or voters understand the consequences of a Trump presidency."

The governor said that Sanders supporters would come on board once they considered the Supreme Court vacancies that Donald Trump would likely fill.

"If one or two or three or four young, radical conservative people were placed on that court, everything the Bernie supporters care about would be at risk," Strickland said. "If they have a brain and really thought it through  I'm sure they do have brains, theyre bright people  they would understand the consequences of pulling back and not getting on board with Secretary Clinton."

Some party leaders hoped that Sanders' endorsement of Clinton on Monday, as well as the significantly more liberal Democratic party platform, would inspire Sanders voters to coalesce behind Clinton.

Speaking with Business Insider, Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro described the raucous, occasionally anti-Clinton crowd as "energetic."

"Bernie provided a tremendous positive voice for change. And Hillary has embraced so much of the policy positions and the spirit of Bernie's campaign. So the ground is set for us to move forward as a united Democratic Party," Castro said Monday.

Story continues

"There's a lot of great energy. Sen. Sanders has been fantastic about helping to unify the party," Castro said.

Indeed, though protesters at the convention have been vocal, polls show that much of the Democratic Party has already coalesced around Clinton. According to a recent Washington Post poll, only 8% of former Sanders supporters said that they would support Trump over the former secretary of state.

Other party leaders also tweaked reporters for breathless coverage of conventions as a whole.

Sen. Chris Murphy speculated that conventions don't really matter all too much in the first place, saying that he "tends to overlook" the narratives that emerge from conventions, noting stories of Democratic party disunity in 2008 after the contest between then-Senators Clinton and Barack Obama.

"I think that they make for very interesting TV, but I don't think they dictate the decisions that voters make in November," Murphy told Business Insider.

He added: "I remember the reports of conflict eight years ago when supporters of Hillary Clinton said they'd never support Barack Obama. This is normal for a party that prides itself on having a big tent. And I think this is a more interesting storyline than it is dispositive on what's going to happen in November."

Still, Murphy noted that despite his skepticism about convention coverage, he thought Tuesday was a bit calmer than the previous day's events.

"I think today was a good day. People were fired up in the hall to have Bernie bring us together. And I thought some of the testimony tonight from the mothers of gun violence was powerful," Murphy said.

NOW WATCH: Bill Clinton tells a funny story about how he met Hillary





More From Business Insider


Surif (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) - Israeli forces fired anti-tank missiles at a house in the West Bank after a shootout overnight, killing a Hamas member accused of a deadly attack on a rabbi, authorities said Wednesday.

Several other people were arrested in the hours-long raid in the village of Surif, near Hebron.

Military footage showed a house being hit with an anti-tank missile then further demolished with an earthmover.

The military said soldiers surrounded the house where the Hamas member was hiding out and exchanged fire with him.

Afterwards, the house was struck with anti-tank missiles and the militant's body was found inside. He was identified as Mohamed Fakih, 29, and Hamas hailed him as a "martyr".

"After extensive research, we found the hideout of the terrorist who killed Michael Mark," Colonel Roman Gofman, commander of the brigade that led the operation, said in a video distributed by the military.

"We besieged the house and exchanges of fire took place after he opened fire at the soldiers. We responded and the terrorist was killed in battle. His house was destroyed on him."

Soldiers carried away Fakih's body and arrested three people, who were led away with their eyes covered and loaded into military vehicles, an AFP photographer witnessed.

The official Palestinian news agency reported five people were arrested and said several villagers were injured, with Palestinian ambulances denied access to the site by Israeli soldiers.

The Israeli army reported three arrests over the course of the investigation that began after the July 1 attack that killed the rabbi.

It called them part of a cell "affiliated with Hamas", the Islamist movement that runs the Gaza Strip and which has a strong presence in parts of the West Bank, particularly Hebron.

- Flashpoint city -

The July 1 attack saw a car targeted by gunfire south of Hebron, leading to a crash that killed Mark and wounded three family members.

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It was among a series of attacks in the Hebron area at the time, including a June 30 stabbing by a Palestinian in the Jewish settlement of Kiryat Arba that killed a 13-year-old girl.

Hebron is the scene of frequent tensions in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Several hundred Israeli settlers live in the heart of the city under heavy military guard among around 200,000 Palestinians.

Fakih had served time in Israeli jail for links to the Islamic Jihad movement and joined Hamas while in prison, according to Israel's Shin Bet security service.

It issued a statement saying a Palestinian security official was arrested earlier this month on suspicion of driving Fakih to the scene of the rabbi attack.

Fakih's brother and cousin were also held on suspicion of helping him to hide after the attack, the statement added.

Hamas said in a statement it "hails the Al-Qassam martyr Mohamed Fakih, who was martyred after a gun battle that lasted more than seven hours with occupation forces in Surif."

The Al-Qassam Brigades are Hamas's armed wing.

Violence in the Palestinian territories and Israel since October has killed at least 218 Palestinians, 34 Israelis, two Americans, an Eritrean and a Sudanese, according to an AFP count.

Most of the Palestinians killed were carrying out knife, gun or car-ramming attacks, according to Israeli authorities.

Others were shot dead during protests and clashes, while some were killed in Israeli air strikes in the Gaza Strip.
Asuncion (AFP) - Paraguay reported its first two cases Wednesday of babies born with microcephaly linked to the Zika virus, which is blamed for a surge in the birth defect across Latin America.

"The central laboratory confirmed the birth of two babies with microcephaly caused by Zika," health ministry official Agueda Cabello told a press conference.

Since Zika, a mosquito-borne virus, was detected in Latin America last year, health authorities have sounded the alarm over a sharp rise in the number of infected mothers giving birth to babies with microcephaly, or abnormally small heads.

The World Health Organization has declared an emergency over the apparent link between the virus and the potentially debilitating or deadly birth defect.

Brazil has been the country hardest hit, with more than 1,000 confirmed cases of microcephaly blamed on Zika.

Spain reported the first case Monday of a baby born in Europe with microcephaly linked to Zika. The mother had caught the virus during a trip abroad, though authorities did not say where.

Zika, which causes flu-like symptoms and a rash, is mainly transmitted by the Aedes aegypti mosquito. It has also been shown to spread through sexual contact.
Paramount TV is looking to expand its presence in the unscripted world. To spearhead those efforts, the company has hired Eben Davidson as SVP of development.

Davidson comes from Viacom sibling Paramount Pictures, where he was SVP of acquisitions and production, working on films like Richard Linklaters Everybody Wants Some!! and Charlie Kaufman and Duke Johnsons Oscar-nominated animation joint Anomalisa.

With the tremendous success of our Emmy-nominated show Grease: Live, we are committed to exploring new opportunities for compelling unscripted and live television events, said Amy Powell, president of Paramount TV. Eben has been an integral part of the Paramount family and were thrilled to have him join our team. His diverse skill-set within development and acquisitions will aide Paramount TVs global footprint as we push the boundaries of content across multiple platforms.

Davidson makes the jump as Viacom is in talks to sell a 49% stake in Paramount Pictures to Chinese giant Dalian Wanda Group. The sticking point is aging media mogul Sumner Redstones adamant refusal to sell any part of Paramount; Redstone owns 80% of Viacoms voting shares through his company National Amusements, Inc.

Paramount TV has experienced a renaissance of sorts in the last couple years. The studio was behind the aforementioned Grease: Live production on Fox, and has sold two high-profile series to Netflix: Maniac, directed by Cary Fukunaga and starring Emma Stone and Jonah Hill, and Selena Gomez-produced Thirteen Reasons Why, based on the YA novel by Jay Asher.

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'Battlefield' Video Game Being Developed for TV Series by Paramount Television & Anonymous Content

Netflix Lands Emma Stone, Jonah Hill, Cary Fukunaga Series 'Maniac'
Parker Posey and Omar Townsend in the New York 90s classic, Party Girl (Photo: Everett Collection)

Its been 21 years since Parker Posey danced the New York night away as the eponymous heroine of Daisy von Scherler Meyers 1995 favorite, Party Girl. But as the actress told Yahoo Movies recently, she knows that its a film  and a character  shell always be synonymous with, even as it matures from drinking age to retirement age in the decades ahead. Asked how often shes approached by eager fans still in thrall of Party Girls Mary and her pre-Boho Soho lifestyle, Posey just sighs: Its like, every day. For a long time, people thought I was that character. At a certain point, I wanted to say, I can also do other things!

Watch the Party Girl trailer:

Posey does acknowledge that, early on, she played a role in burnishing her Party Girl persona. When the film premiered at the 1995 Sundance Film Festival, she originated a rumor that she had landed the role after the director spotted her working at the make-up counter at Barneys. That followed me, she says, laughing. For her younger self, though, inventing that story was all part of the screwball spirit that defined Party Girl. I watched a lot of Carole Lombard movies to tap into that; I love those movies. I wanted to be in one of those movies.

Parker Posey strikes a pose in Party Girl

Although she couldnt have known this at the time, Party Girl preserves for future generations a wilder, woolier version of New York that, these days, seems almost like ancient history. Shot in 1994, the movie captures a downtown Manhattan that has yet to go through its high-end makeover. I remember marching down Lafayette Street in all of Marys different outfits, Posey says. The wardrobe designer would borrow rhinestone shorts from [fashion designer] Todd Oldham, and return them the next day. Wed be out all hours dancing and voguing in the clubs. There was a jargon and attitude to New York [back then] that was so liberating and funny and expressive. Even the experience of making the movie represents a model of indie filmmaking that defined the 90s, and has largely gone away with the advent of digital cameras. We shot Party Girl on film, and I remember being told We need to get this in two takes, because we dont have a lot of film in the mag right now!

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Jesse Eisenberg, Posey, and Paul Schneider in Cafe Society

Poseys small, but memorable role in Woody Allens newest film, Cafe Society, allows her to spend time in another vanished version of New York, one that she definitely wasnt present for the first time around. Rewinding the clock all the way back to the 30s, the drama, which is now playing in limited release, follows the career of ambitious Manhattanite, Bobby Dorfman (Jesse Eisenberg), who explores career opportunities  and romantic possibilities with a winsome secretary (Kristen Stewart)  in sunny Los Angeles, before returning east to run a popular nightclub. Posey and Paul Schneider play bicoastal married socialites, Rad and Steve Taylor, who help lift the young man into the upper rungs of New York society and introduce him to his glamorous new love interest (Blake Lively).

Related: Kristen Stewart on Woody Allen, Twilight, and Those Boos at Cannes

Although Cafe Society fastidiously re-creates the atmosphere of Manhattan in the 1930s, it doesnt have the rosy nostalgic glow of some of the directors other period pieces, including Radio Days and Bullets Over Broadway. Instead, theres a palpable sense that this world, and all its accompanying glamor, is fleeting. And even as Bobby attains the wealth and status he covets, a pronounced melancholy underlines his existence as he contemplates the girl that got away.

As Posey describes it, making Cafe Society was far from a melancholic experience, although it didnt get off to the smoothest start. I was shooting my first scene on my first day of work, and I thought it was going so well, she remembers. Until they turned the camera around [to do reverse shots] after lunch, and I did 20 takes! I thought I was going to get fired. Its not like Woody hasnt re-shot movies with other actors before!

Watch the Cafe Society trailer:

Shes got a point: Allen has regularly replaced cast members during and after production. A week into filming 1985s The Purple Rose of Cairo, for example, the director swapped out Michael Keaton for Jeff Daniels, and in the case of his 1987 drama, September, he re-shot the entire film with a new cast. Even Cafe Society wasnt immune to casting changes; Steve Carell replaced Bruce Willis as Bobbys uncle, Phil Stern, early on in production. Fortunately, Posey avoided a similar fate. Once I got through those 20 takes, I was onto the next scene, she says. It was great to be in the hands of a great director who knows what hes doing and you can trust everything hes saying. His energy and experience makes everyone working on the film better.
By Tracy Rucinski

CHICAGO, July 27 (Reuters) - Peabody Energy Corp, the largest U.S. coal producer, reached a deal to cover mine clean-up liabilities while in bankruptcy with three U.S. states, court documents showed on Tuesday.

Peabody has benefited from a federal program known as self-bonding that allows the largest miners to extract coal without setting aside cash or collateral to ensure the company will restore the site to its natural setting.

The practice has come under scrutiny following bankruptcy filings by Peabody and other large coal miners because without collateral set aside for mine reclamation, taxpayers are potentially exposed to billions of dollars in cleanup costs.

Under agreements reached with Wyoming, New Mexico and Indiana, about 15 percent of Peabody's $1.2 billion in self-bonds will be secured by debtor-in-possession financing during its bankruptcy.

Wyoming can receive $127 million cash if Peabody were to walk away from reclamation in that state while in bankruptcy, New Mexico $32 million and Indiana $17 million.

The agreements are similar to bankruptcy deals reached by coal miners Arch Coal and Alpha Natural Resources in Wyoming and West Virginia.

Peabody's agreement must be approved by a federal bankruptcy judge at a hearing in August.

The deals did not specify whether Peabody must replace its self-bonds once it emerges from bankruptcy, as Alpha did this month in Wyoming.

In court filings, Peabody said that were it required to replace its self-bonded liabilities, its entire liquidity would be depleted, leaving it without enough cash to run its business.

This is a scenario regulators have said they want to avoid. If a producer walks away from its self-bonded mines, the state would be stuck with the cleanup.

There were $3.9 billion of self-bonds across the United States as of June 1, including $2.2 billion in the hands of bankrupt coal miners, according to federal mining regulator Office of Surface Mining and Reclamation Enforcement (OSMRE).

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If Peabody were to handle its own cleanups, it said the bill would be significantly less than its $1.2 billion in self-bonds. Reclamation costs are listed on its books at $450 million, it said.

Peabody has already been taking steps to reduce its environmental liabilities in Wyoming by speeding up grass planting and regulatory paperwork at former mines.

The company also has self-bonds in Illinois, which has expressed concern over the company's reclamation liabilities and was not included in the settlements.

(Reporting by Tracy Rucinski; Editing by Tom Hals and Marguerita Choy)
From Esquire

PHILADELPHIAThere seems to be some discomfort over on the right that the Democratic Party got through the first night of its convention without mongering sufficient fear. Noted hypnosis subject Mike Pence seemed particularly exercised. Per ABC:

"It is extraordinary to think that yesterday in Philadelphia 61 speakers came to the podium and not one of the named ISIS by name," Pence told the national veterans' group in Charlotte, North Carolina. "This man will name our enemies without apology and he will defeat them," Pence added, pointing to his running mate Donald Trump, who stood behind him at the podium.

However, and of course, there was a similar phenomenon at work in Cleveland last week. There is no more immediate and existential a threat to the planet than the climate crisis. Glaciers are cracking. Deserts are expanding. And, god knows, the weather is speaking loudly for itself here this week. Still, the Republicans adopt a platform that is the climatic equivalent of inviting the leadership of Daesh to the White House Easter Egg Roll, as Mother Jones reported. Here are just a few of the highlights:

Abolish the EPA as we know it. The platform calls for turning the EPA into "an independent bipartisan commission" and shifting responsibility for environmental regulation to the states. This would remove the federal government's ability to study the effects of pollution and establish safe standards. In a particularly Orwellian touch, the Republicans promise that a kneecapped EPA would adhere to "structural safeguards against politicized science." That actually means safeguards against scientific findings they don't like. In other words, they would politicize the science.

Stop environmental regulatory agencies from settling lawsuits out of court. Huh? Republicans have been pushing this for a while. Here's what it's about: When an agency doesn't do its job of enforcing a law like the Clean Air Act-often the case, especially under Republican administrations-environmental groups sue to force it to. If the agency thinks it will lose, it may then reach a settlement and agree to do its job going forward. That's what the platform aims to prevent. Fighting in court until every last appeal is dead can make cases drag on for years, and Republicans want to get away with not regulating polluters for as long as possible.

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Forbid the EPA to regulate carbon dioxide. This one pretty much speaks for itself. It would wipe out the agency's ability to reduce emissions and slow climate change.

One day, when we're all fighting for elbow room on a rapidly disintegrating cinder, we can discuss this further. However, instead of thinking about that, and instead of praying to Gaia to turn He, Trump altogether into a ferret, how's about we meet three people who make sense, not merely on addressing this impending catastrophe, but also on how to organize politically to do something about it? On Tuesday, a climate and environmental caucus met for the first time to map out strategies they can use both within and without the political process.

[contentlinks align="center" textonly="false" numbered="false" headline="" customtitles="The Media Needs to Stop Using the Term 'Chaos'" customimages="" content="article.47059"]

The first person who made sense was a guy named Cecil Corbin-Mark, who is the director of policy initiatives for a group called We Act For Environmental Justice in New York. Corbin-Mark argues that one of the problems the environmental movement has is that it tends to argue scientific minutiae instead of the obvious real-world effects of the crisis. He also draws a clear, bright line from the climate back through every element of the daily lives of the people whom his organization serves. As he said:

In the environmental justice movement, we have worked over the years to engage people in fighting for good climate policies and to protect their communities, not by throwing at them a science book when we know that our schools are failing them in many ways in teaching them science, and confusing them with a lot of scientific gobbledegook. What we do is we try to connect the challenge of the climate crisis to their own very real problems. The fact that power plants not only emit carbon, but they also emit co-pollutants that are very much the triggers of asthma attacks and other kinds of respiratory illnesses, and that while we're dealing with the reduction of carbon, that we have to deal with those things as well. We try to connect it to the fact that the heat waves they're experiencing are things that are only going to increase because of the destablilizing factors that are part of the ongoing climate crisis, and that if they're paying more in their electrical builds, either because they have to buy an air-conditioner, or because they have to run more fans to cool themselves, indeed this is a problem they need to be working on, too.

In addressing the caucus, Corbin-Mark made no bones about the size of the job. "Start small," he told the group. "Organize locally. And then, when you have that support, take the fight national. Congress isn't going to take you seriously at the start because Congress doesn't really work for you."

The second person who made sense was Jane Fleming Kleeb, the state Democratic chairman from Nebraska and the person who organized the local opposition there that helped shut down the Keystone XL pipeline, the continent-spanning death funnel and current conservative fetish object. She told the caucus:

We didn't beat it with a bunch of suits lobbying Congress. We beat it with frontline communities and when unlikely alliances came together. It was farmers and ranchers. It was private communities. It was moms. It was climate advocates. And we all stuck together, not letting any groups or any lobbyists put a wedge between us. I think that lesson was a real chance for us to take on not only other pipelines, but other forms of the fossil fuel infrastructure. I think that this climate caucus, if we're able to form it, will send a message to the Democratic Party that we're seriousthat this is not some fly-by-night operation. That climate has to be woven into the party at its very core. I took that seriously and put my hat in for chairman of the Nebraska Democratic party. And we beat them. We beat them by a pretty good chunk, and we only did that because the Bernie Sanders folks followed the process. They came into the party and became part of the party. So I've always lived one foot in the movement and one foot in the establishment. We have to do that. As Bernie folks, as Hillary folks, if we care about climate, we have got to reform the party from the outside as well as from the inside.

(Note to those people seeking to shoot very big fish in very small barrelsKleeb got unanimous applause for that last part. Nobody booed. No drum circles broke out.)

The last person who made sense was a woman named Sheila Holt-Orsted, a former bodybuilder and a two-time breast cancer survivor. In 2007, a researcher named Dr. Robert Bullard, who is regarded as the father of the environmental justice movement, discovered that Holt-Orsted's home county of Dixon, Tennessee was a public-health time bomb. Cancer rates had skyrocketed. Birth defects plagued both families and their pets. Sheila moved back home from Virginia to take care of her family. Holt-Orsted's father and mother both died of cancer, Sheila herself was diagnosed, and so were several of her cousins. For decades, industrial plants in and around Nashville had been dumping toxic wastespecifically, TCEinto a leaky landfill that had poisoned the community's water supply. Working on her own hook, Holt-Orsted meticulously collected the evidence of what had happened, including letters in which local white families were warned off the local water while local black families were told it was fine to drink. She testified to the Senate. She got the national and international press to pay attention. Eventually, in 2011, Holt-Orsted and her family won the largest settlement of an environmental justice suit to date. She told the crowd:

They told us that as long as I was living, no one would settle. They told me I had to die first, because I was the one who had brought the national attention. The Ku Klux Klan came out of the woodwork. They told us if we brought Al Sharpton to a rally we were planning that somebody would be hung. Around 2008, Hillary Clinton, not only did she call for the first environmental justice hearing in the Senate ever, she asked me to testify, because I left my house behind and I told my husband, "Look. I'm not looking for another man. I'm going to find justice. I'm going down there to Ground Zero." I moved back and did everything I could. I knew I was fighting giants, but because Hillary called the hearing, I came back to the D.C. area, and I said, "Oh, even though I'm feeling great, walking OK, I'm going to go by and see my doctor." I found out that my breast cancer had returned, so I say, she does great things even when she doesn't do great things.

Nobody booed. Nobody put duct tape across their mouths. The people who made sense were not a story. But, to be fair, nobody dealt out the old boogedy-boogedy about ISIS, either. What's wrong with these people? Don't they understand television at all?

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Its difficult not to break a sweat while walking down the street these days, but for some reason, celebrities are seen all over New York and Los Angeles in their heaviest, and darkest clothing in the summer heat. The most recent (and reccurring) offenders are the Olsens.

And on a Tuesday we hang out with the Olsens at the Chateau. NBD. Thank you for having me tonight @elizandjames @instylemagazine and congrats on the flagship store at The Grove! #EandJtakesLA watch it all on my snapchat! ????:@chrisellelim A photo posted by Chriselle Lim ????  (@chrisellelim) on Jul 26, 2016 at 8:26pm PDT

Stylist Chriselle Lim posted a photo on Instagram Tuesday with Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen, and while people are freaking out over the epic trio being photographed together, more people are focused on what the twins are wearing. Isnt it summer and arent we experiencing a nationwide heat wave? Why the jackets? Im sweating just looking at this! one commenter wrote, questioning the outfit choice, while others were simply confused as to when the photo was taken. Is [this] recent its like 90 degrees out today lol, noted one  because laughing out loud is all were doing, thinking about how much wed be sweating under those trench coats.

This isnt the first time the twins  or any other A-list celebrities  have been seen in sweat-worthy summer clothing. And it actually seems to be a trend. Just last week Kim Kardashian attended an event for Revolve in the Hamptons where she wore a sweater dress with thigh-high boots in 80-degree weather. And this week, Selena Gomez began wearing black turtlenecks and satin pants onstage  in the steamy Malaysian city of Selangor, of all places.

How they do it? We dont know. But our guess is that when youre in the biz, its all in the name of fashion.

Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest for nonstop inspiration delivered fresh to your feed, every day.
Paris (AFP) - Neonicotinoid pesticides, already blamed for short-circuiting honeybee brains, also diminish their sperm, possibly contributing to the pollinators' worrying global decline, researchers said Wednesday.

Widespread neonicotinoid use may have "inadvertent contraceptive effects" on the insects which provide fertilisation worth billions of dollars every year, said a study in the British journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

In their experiment, researchers divided bees into two groups.

One group was fed pollen containing field-realistic concentrations of two neonicotinoids -- thiamethoxam and clothianidin.

The other group was given untainted food.

After 38 days, the male drones -- whose key role in life is to mate with the egg-laying queen -- had their semen extracted and tested.

The data "clearly showed... reduced sperm viability" -- which is the percentage of living versus dead sperm in a sample, said the study.

Honeybee queens mate for just a single short period, but with many males in a sort of bee orgy, before storing the sperm for the rest of their fertile lifetime.

Bees have been hit in Europe, North America and elsewhere by a mysterious phenomenon called "colony collapse disorder", which has alternatively been blamed on mites, a virus or fungus, pesticides, or a combination.

The new study adds reduced sperm quality to the list of possible causes.

"As the primary egg layer and an important source of colony cohesion, the queen is intimately connected to colony performance," the paper said.

Previous studies have found neonicotinoids can cause bees to become disorientated to the extent that they cannot find their way back to the hive, and can lower their resistance to disease.

The European Union has placed a moratorium on the sale of neonicotinoids.

Last year, a study found that wild bees provided crop pollination services worth more than $3,250 (2,950 euros) per hectare every year.

Bees account for an estimated 80 percent of plant pollination by insects.
NAIROBI (Reuters) - The board and senior executives of Kenya Airways lack the ability to steer the carrier out of its current loss-making streak, the Kenya Airline Pilots Association (KALPA) said on Wednesday. The airline, which is part-owned by Air France KLM, said last week its pretax loss narrowed 12 percent to 26.1 billion shillings ($257.78 million) in the year to March, amidst a decline in operating losses. Its net loss however widened. The carrier has been reducing its fleet, selling land and cutting jobs to recover from losses caused by a slump in tourism and the cost of renewing its planes. "KALPA reaffirms its lack of confidence in the board of directors and top-level management overseeing the recovery of Kenya Airways," the union said in a statement. Kenya Airways declined to comment immediately. The pilots grounded dozens of flights on April 28 when they went on strike demanding the removal of CEO Mbuvi Ngunze and other senior executives. Kenya Airways' head of human resources, flight operations director and head of safety left their positions after the strike, allowing KALPA to halt the walkout after a day. KALPA wants the airline to stop its job cuts programme which targets 600 employees, saying it is unfair. It also wants it to end its commercial partnership with KLM, which it says favours the Dutch carrier at the expense of Kenya Airways. ($1 = 101.2500 Kenyan shillings) (Reporting by John Ndiso; Writing by Duncan Miriri; Editing by Alexandra Hudson)
Pinnacle West Capital Corporation PNW will release second-quarter 2016 financial results before the market opens on Aug 2. Last quarter, the utility reported a negative earnings surprise of 69.23%. Lets see how things are shaping up prior to this announcement.

Factors to Consider

As coal constitutes 31% of Pinnacle Wests generation mix, the company is subject to stringent state and federal regulations related to emission control at its plants. This entails either shutting down coal plants completely or incurring heavy expenses for installing emission control equipment at the facilities, which will eat into its margins.

As it is, planned outages at two units in Four Corners generation plant are expected to dent the companys earnings in the to-be-reported quarter.

However, above-average temperatures in May and high temperatures in June in its service territories are expected to aid the topline as higher air conditioning requirements will boost electricity sales.

Earnings Whispers

Our proven model does not conclusively show that Pinnacle West Capital 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) for this to happen. But that is not the case here, as you will see below.

Zacks ESP:The Most Accurate estimate stands at $1.14 while the Zacks Consensus Estimate is pegged higher at $1.17, resulting in an Earnings ESP of -2.56%.

PINNACLE WEST Price and EPS Surprise

PINNACLE WEST Price and EPS Surprise | PINNACLE WEST Quote

Zacks Rank: Pinnacle West Capital carries a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell).As it is, 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

Instead, here are a few utility players that have the right combination of elements to post an earnings beat this quarter.

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Pattern Energy Group Inc. PEGI has an Earnings ESP of +100.00% and a Zacks Rank #2. It is expected to report earnings on Aug 8.

Avista Corp. AVA has an Earnings ESP of +2.33% and a Zacks Rank #2.It is slated to report earnings on Aug 3.

The AES Corporation AES has an Earnings ESP of +11.11% and a Zacks Rank #3.It is slated to report earnings on Aug 5.

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Police officers in the U.S. are more likely to stop or arrest black, Hispanic and Native American people than they are to stop or arrest non-Hispanic white people, a new study finds.

The researchers also found that more blacks, Hispanics and Native Americans were killed and injured by police over the study period than non-Hispanic whites.

"Both blacks and white Hispanics are four times as likely to be killed by the police as white non-Hispanics are," said lead study author Ted Miller, a senior research scientist at the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation in Maryland. "Native Americans are six times as likely to be killed by the police as whites." [How to Talk About Race to Kids: Experts' Advice for Parents]

Live Science reached out to the National Association of Police Organizations (NAPO) for a comment on the new findings, but NAPO's representatives did not provide a comment by press time.

The new study "is only the second study to analyze health data on nonfatal injuries caused by police, and the first to do so using a national U.S. data set," said Justin Feldman, a graduate student at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, whose research focuses on using data about injuries and fatalities to monitor police violence.

"This in itself is a welcome development," said Feldman, who was not involved in the new study. However, Feldman and other experts who were not involved in the study pointed out that there were certain limitations concerning some of the study's findings.

In the study, the researchers looked at injuries and deaths that resulted from legal police interventions in the U.S. during 2012. Those interventions included arrests, stop-and-search incidents that occurred on the street, and traffic stops that involved a search.

To conduct their study, the researchers analyzed national data from several sources: the 2012 Vital Statistics Mortality Census, the 2012 Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project, nationwide inpatient and emergency department samples, two newspaper censuses of police-related deaths, FBI reports for arrests and the 2011 Police-Public Contact Survey.

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The researchers found that, during 2012, there were 12.3 million arrests, 2.8 million street stop-and-search incidents and 1 million traffic stops involving searches. Police officers were more likely to stop or arrest black, Hispanic and Native American people than they were to stop or arrest non-Hispanic white people. The rate of stops and arrests was about 500 per 10,000 people for non-Hispanic whites. In comparison, the rates were 1,400 per 10,000 people for blacks; 1,000 per 10,000 people for Hispanics; and 1,140 per 10,000 people for Native Americans, Miller said.

But to find out how often such incidents resulted in a death, the researchers turned to two news publications (The Washington Post and The Guardian), which have compiled statistics on such deaths by searching for news reports about these incidents. That's because previous research on federal databases shows that these databases tend to undercount deaths from police interventions, and other previous research has suggested that the news publications' reporting is reliable, the researchers said.

The researchers estimated that during police interventions in 2012, the police killed a total of 1,000 people in the U.S. and injured another 54,300 people, who required hospital treatment for their injuries.

When the researchers looked at how people died during police interventions, they found that almost all (95 percent) were killed with firearms. The remaining 5 percent of the deaths involved the use of tasers, the researchers found.

Most of the people in the study with nonfatal injuries were harmed by blows or by being hit with blunt objects, the researchers found. Less commonly, a police officer's use of tear gas, mace or pepper spray led to someone being hospitalized, the researchers said in their study, published July 25 in the journal Injury Prevention.

Together, those findings meant that 1 in 291 stops or arrests led to the injury or death of a suspect or bystander, the researchers said. [Fight, Fight, Fight: The History of Human Aggression]

When the researchers looked at the number of people who were killed or injured as a result of police interventions per 10,000 stops and arrests  that is, the rate at which these incidents occurred  they found that the rates did not vary by the ethnicity of the people involved. In other words, black, Hispanic, Native American and non-Hispanic white people who were stopped or arrested were all equally likely to be killed or injured as a result of these interventions.

"Consistent with our findings, simulation studies find police are no more likely to fire on unarmed blacks than unarmed whites, and high rates of black speeding citations per capita result from high violation rates," the authors wrote in the study.

However, the numbers of black, Hispanic and Native American people who were killed or injured during interventions during the study period were still higher than the number of non-Hispanic white people killed or injured, because black, Hispanic and Native American people were stopped and arrested much more frequently than white people, Miller said.

Limitations and racial bias

Feldman and other outside experts noted that the study had certain limitations.

For example, Feldman said, "The authors conclude that black people who are arrested are no more likely to be injured or killed than white people who are arrested," he said. "They interpret this as evidence that there is no racial bias in use of force."

However, Feldman said, the researchers did not take into account important differences between the populations of black people who typically get arrested and the white people who typically get arrested.

"Black people are much more likely to be arrested for nonviolent, low-level offenses such as drug possession or public transit fare evasion," and in police interventions for such nonviolent offenses, the use of force by the police is largely preventable, he said.

Conversely, white people are much less likely to be scrutinized by the police for low-level offenses than black people, "so, while [white people] are arrested at lower rates, the average white arrestee is more likely to stand accused of a violent crime," Feldman said.

"Comparing these two populations of arrestees is akin to comparing apples and oranges, and doing so will inevitably underestimate racial bias," he said.

Moreover, the authors cherry-picked examples from scientific literature to support some of their statements, said Hannah Cooper, an associate professor of behavioral sciences and health education at Emory University who was not involved in the study. [Understanding the 10 Most Destructive Human Behaviors]

For instance, the authors cited some research suggesting that black people are stopped for traffic infractions in a way that is proportionate to their violations of traffic laws, Cooper said. "That's just not true," she said. "There is a lot of literature on the fact that officers disproportionately target black men, in particular, when [black men] are driving and stop them for having a broken taillight or things that they don't stop white drivers for."

Dr. Mindy Thompson Fullilove, a professor of clinical sociomedical sciences and psychiatry at Columbia University who was not involved in the study, said the authors didn't provide an adequate discussion of some of the findings presented in the study. For example, the authors did not discuss why black, Hispanic or Native American people are stopped and arrested more often than white people in the first place.

This lack of discussion "sidesteps the racism that is involved in the excess rate of stops and arrests," of people of color, she said. For example, policies such as Stop and Frisk have been known to target young people of color, but the authors didn't discuss that, she said.

Originally published 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.
Paris (AFP) - An internal probe has found the security contingent in Nice was "not undersized" on the night of the Bastille Day truck attack that killed 84 people, the French authorities said Wednesday.

Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve ordered the investigation as the government faced fierce criticism from the opposition over security for the July 14 event.

The head of the national police internal affairs division, Marie-France Moneger-Guyomarc'h, described the squabble as "the result of poor understanding and interpretation of information."

She said that 64 national police and 42 municipal police were deployed to secure a fireworks display on the Nice seafront for the July 14 national holiday.

A truck driven by Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel, a 31-year-old Tunisian, rammed into the revellers, killing 84 and injuring more than 300. Bouhlel was shot dead by police.

Opposition politicians had contested the figures for police deployment, with regional president Christian Estrosi slamming "state lies".

President Francois Hollande is facing mounting demands to improve security after a string of terror attacks, dating back to January 2015, left at least 230 people dead and hundreds injured.

Pressure on Cazeneuve intensified when a local police officer, Sandra Bertin, accused his ministry of trying to bully her into altering a report on police deployment on the night of the attack.

Bertin, who was in charge of the video surveillance system in Nice on the night of the massacre, said on Sunday she was told to describe a police presence that did not match what she had seen on the security camera system.

Bertin is a strong supporter of Estrosi and has fiercely criticised the Socialist government through social media networks, Le Parisien newspaper reported Monday.

Cazeneuve filed a lawsuit for libel against Bertin, saying her accusations were "likely to give birth in the public mind to the idea that the ministry and the minister have communicated false information" regarding the Nice massacre.
Pop is getting into the horror business.

The network will debut its third-ever scripted series with six-part miniseries Wolf Creek on Friday, Oct. 14. Based on the cult classic movie, the show originally aired in Australia and stars John Jarratt and Lucy Fry.

Jarratt reprises his movie role as the murdering psychopath Mick Taylor, wreaking havoc in the Australian Outback. But the television version will turn the entire genre on its head when a 19-year-old American college student, played by Fry, survives the massacre of her parents and little brother and sets out to hunt down the killer and avenge her family.

Read More: Ali Wentworth to Star in Pop's Second Scripted Series

"Wolf Creek is holy !#@$! scary!" said executive producer Greg McLean. "The television series delivers the same pulse-pounding tension and terror of the films combined with a storyline that evolves into a suspense-filled, character-driven psychological thriller. In many ways, Wolf Creek is more like a Western - set in the untamed, desolate landscape of the Australian Outback, with gritty characters and an immersive story of revenge and good versus evil."

"Wolf Creek is a binge-worthy, premium revenge tale that we are thrilled to bring fans at the perfect time of the year," said Brad Schwartz, president of Pop. "To turn everything you expect from a horror film around and hunt the psychopath through a strong and singularly-focused female protagonist is thrilling to watch. It is probably the scariest series to ever premiere on basic cable and will have viewers hooked 13:40 minutes into the first episode."

The story of Wolf Creek begins when an American family is on vacation in Northern Australia and becomes the unsuspecting prey of Mick Taylor, a sadistic serial killer who hunts and kills tourists in the Outback. The sole survivor is Eve Thorogood, a college student, who vows to bring the killer to justice or die in the attempt. The series will reveal her complex and extraordinary journey, traveling every step of the way as she evolves from child to adult, from prey to predator.

The series is produced by Lionsgate Television and Zodiak Rights (a Banijay Group company), in association with Emu Creek Pictures and financed with the assistance of Screen Australia and the South Australian Film Corporation.
Pop has set an October 14 premiere date for Wolf Creek, the six-episode Australian series from Lionsgate Television and Screentime based on the feature horror franchise.

John Jarratt reprises his villainous role from the films as Mick Taylor, a murdering psychopath wreaking havoc in the Australian Outback  but this time, the tables are turned.

An American family vacationing in Northern Australia becomes the Taylors unsuspecting prey. The sole survivor is Eve Thorogood (Lucy Fry), a college student who vows to bring the sadistic killer to justice or die trying. Wolf Creek reveals her complex and extraordinary journey, traveling every step of the way as she evolves from child to adult, from prey to predator. But can she triumph over Mick Taylor, evil incarnate?

Wolf Creek is a binge-worthy, premium revenge tale that we are thrilled to bring fans at the perfect time of the year, said Pop president Brad Schwartz said. To turn everything you expect from a horror film around and hunt the psychopath through a strong and singularly-focused female protagonist is thrilling to watch.

The original Wolf Creek bowed at Sundance 2005 and was followed by a 2013 sequel.

A STAN original, the Wolf Creek series is produced by Screentime in association with Emu Creek Pictures and financed with the assistance of Screen Australia and the South Australian Film Corporation.

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Krakow (Poland) (AFP) - Pope Francis said Wednesday the world was at war but argued that religion was not the cause, as he arrived in Poland a day after jihadists murdered a priest in France.

"We must not be afraid to say the truth, the world is at war because it has lost peace," the pontiff told journalists aboard a flight from the Rome to Krakow.

"When I speak of war I speak of wars over interests, money, resources, not religion. All religions want peace, it's the others who want war."

The brutal killing of an elderly Catholic priest during mass in France on Tuesday, in an attack claimed by the Islamic State group, has cast a shadow over Francis's trip to headline a gathering of hundreds of thousands of young Catholics from across the globe in Krakow and increased concerns over security.

"This holy priest who died in the moment of offering prayers for the church is one (victim). But how many Christians, innocents, children?" Francis told journalists travelling with him.

"The word we hear a lot is insecurity, but the real word is war. The world has been in a fragmented war for some time. There was the one in 14, one in 39-45 and now this," he said referring to World War I and World War II.

A string of terror attacks targeting civilians in Europe appears to have dampened turnout for the World Youth Day festival.

Around 200,000 pilgrims attended the opening mass on Tuesday, according to Krakow police, while organisers had originally expected around half a million.
Krakow (Poland) (AFP) - Pope Francis said on Wednesday the world was at war but argued that religion was not the cause, as he arrived in Poland a day after jihadists murdered a Catholic priest in France.

In his first speech after touching down in the city of Krakow, the pontiff said the way to "overcome fear" was to welcome people fleeing conflict and hardship.

Opening doors to migrants demands "great wisdom and compassion" he said, chastising a rightwing government that has refused to share the burden during Europe's worst refugee crisis since World War II.

"We must not be afraid to say the truth, the world is at war because it has lost peace," the pontiff told journalists on the flight out from Rome.

"When I speak of war I speak of wars over interests, money, resources, not religion. All religions want peace, it's the others who want war."

The brutal killing of the elderly priest during mass in France on Tuesday, in an attack claimed by the Islamic State group, has cast a shadow over Francis's trip to headline World Youth Day, a gathering of young Catholics from across the globe.

"This holy priest who died in the moment of offering prayers for the church is one (victim). But how many Christians, innocents, children?" Francis said.

- Polish stance softening? -

"The word we hear a lot is insecurity, but the real word is war. The world has been in a fragmented war for some time. There was the one in 14, one in 39-45 and now this," he said referring to World War I and II.

A string of terror attacks targeting civilians in Europe appears to have dampened turnout for the World Youth Day festival, a week-long faith extravaganza dubbed "the Catholic Woodstock".

Flag-waving crowds of youngsters nonetheless turned out in force to cheer on the pope as he sped to the Wawel Royal Castle in his open-top popemobile, defying security fears.

"I saw him! He was just five metres (yards) away, it's incredible to see a man like him in person and not just on TV," Polish teenager Karina Borowicz told AFP.

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Around 200,000 pilgrims attended the opening mass on Tuesday, according to Krakow police, while organisers had expected around half a million.

The French priest's murder has also complicated Francis's aim to champion migrants, while emboldening Polish Prime Minister Beata Szydlo and her right-wing government who have refused to take in refugees for security reasons.

But Polish President Andrzej Duda appeared to signal a softening of Warsaw's stance following closed-door talks with Francis.

"If someone wants to come here, especially if they are a refugee, fleeing war to save their life, we will of course accept them," he told reporters.

Poland is on high security alert, deploying over 40,000 personnel for the visit. Authorities also charged an Iraqi man on Monday with possessing trace amounts of explosive material.

- 'Love, peace, prayer' -

"World Youth Day is a great celebration and we hope the attack in France will not ruin it," said Marcin Przeciszewski, head of Catholic Information Agency KAI, as worshippers gathered Tuesday to pray for the fallen French priest.

"The best answer to violence is love, peace and prayer," said French pilgrim Pierre Darme.

The pope, 79, will likely have to work overtime to win hearts and minds in the homeland of Polish pope John Paul II.

The charismatic saint, hailed for his role in toppling Communism, sponsored conservative Catholic movements -- a legacy which sits uncomfortably with the Argentine pontiff's attempts to nurture a more flexible, compassionate Church.

"Polish Catholics probably aren't going to be welcoming the pope they really want, but given their current social and political situation, they may be getting exactly the one they need," Vatican expert John Allen wrote on the Cruxnow.com website.

Christopher Lamb in Catholic weekly newspaper The Tablet said many of Poland's bishops are "at odds with the direction of his papacy," particularly Francis's push to open church doors to traditional "sinners" such as single mothers and divorced people who have remarried.

An off-the-record meeting with Polish Church leaders will give the pontiff a chance to call on dissident bishops to reconsider their attitudes.

At the heart of the visit will be a meeting with Holocaust survivors at the former Nazi death camp Auschwitz, where Francis will pray for the camp's 1.1 million mostly Jewish victims, before the five-day trip winds up with the customary papal vigil and mass.
ABOARD PAPAL PLANE (Reuters) - Pope Francis said on Wednesday that a string of recent attacks, including the murder of a priest in France, was proof that the "world is at war". However, speaking to reporters aboard a plane taking him to Poland, the pope said he was not talking about a war of religion, but rather one of domination of peoples and economic interests. "The word that is being repeated often is insecurity, but the real word is war," he said in brief comments to reporters while flying to southern Poland for a five-day visit. "Let's recognize it. The world is in a state of war in bits and pieces," he said, adding that the attacks could be seen as another world war, specifically mentioning World War One and Two. "Now there is this one (war). It is perhaps not organic but it is organized and it is war," he said. "We should not be afraid to speak this truth. The world is at war because it has lost peace." About 15 minutes later, after greeting journalists individually, Francis took the microphone again and said he wanted "to clarify" that he was not referring to a war of religion. "Not a war of religion. There is a war of interests. There is a war for money. There is a war for natural resources. There is a war for domination of peoples. This is the war," he said. "All religions want peace. Others want war. Do you understand?" he said. He called Jacques Hamel, the priest forced to his knees by Islamist militants on Tuesday who then slit his throat, "a saintly priest", but said he was just one of many innocent victims. He thanked the many people around the world who have sent their condolences over the killing of Father Hamel, particularly French President Francois Hollande, who spoke to the Pope on Tuesday. (Reporting by Philip Pullella; Editing by Crispian Balmer and Larry King)
By Philip Pullella and Wiktor Szary KRAKOW, Poland (Reuters) - Pope Francis, starting a trip to Poland overshadowed by the killing of an elderly priest in France by suspected Islamist militants, said on Wednesday this and a string of other attacks were proof the "world is at war". However, speaking to reporters aboard the plane taking him to Krakow for the start of an Catholic youth jamboree, he said he was not talking about a war of religion, but rather one of domination of peoples and economic interests. After his arrival under heavy security in Krakow, the pope also took on Poland's conservative government, implicitly criticizing its anti-immigration stance. But his strongest words of the day came while talking to reporters about the killing of Father Jacques Hamel, who on Tuesday was forced to his knees by suspected militants who then slit his throat. "The word that is being repeated often is insecurity, but the real word is war," he said. "Let's recognize it. The world is in a state of war in bits and pieces," he said, adding that the attacks could be seen as another world war, specifically mentioning World War One and Two. "Now there is this one (war). It is perhaps not organic but it is organized and it is war. We should not be afraid to speak this truth. The world is at war because it has lost peace." About 15 minutes later, after an adviser spoke to him, Francis took the microphone again as he was leaving the journalists' section in the plane and said he wanted "to clarify" that he was not referring to a war of religion. "Not a war of religion. There is a war of interests. There is a war for money. There is a war for natural resources. There is a war for domination of peoples. This is the war," he said. "All religions want peace. Others want war. Do you understand?" CONSERVATIVE WIND Poland's political landscape has undergone a big shift since October when the euroskeptic, conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party ended nearly a decade of centrist, secular government. Despite being rooted in Christian values, the PiS government disagrees with Francis on issues such as refugees and the environment. It opposes mandatory European Union quotas for accepting migrants. In a speech to President Andrzej Duda and the government in Krakow's historic Wawel Castle, he pointedly called for "a spirit of readiness to welcome those fleeing from wars and hunger, and solidarity with those deprived of their fundamental rights ..." "This means doing everything possible to alleviate the suffering while tirelessly working with wisdom and constancy for justice and peace, bearing witness in practice to human and Christian values," he said. Poland's conservative leaders have harnessed a brand of patriotism infused with Catholic piety to build popularity among voters and ensure the backing of the clergy, which is influential across provincial Poland. Francis' five-day trip to the Krakow is taking place in the shadow of a predecessor, John Paul, who has cult-like status in Poland for his role in inspiring his native country to stand up to communist rule in the 1980s. There were more posters of John Paul in Krakow than of Francis, an Argentine. During the trip, Francis will also visit the former Nazi death camp site at Auschwitz-Birkenau, and pray at Czestochowa, site of Poland's holiest shrine. (Editing by Mark Heinrich)
Former President Bill Clinton listens as first lady Michelle Obama speaks on Monday at the Democratic National Convention. (Photo: EPA/Peter Foley)

If you tuned in only for the opening of this Democratic convention in Philadelphia Monday, you might have been asking yourself who really emerged from the primary season in control of the party.

Even as protesters turned the streets of Philadelphia into an Occupy Wall Street rally, even as the partys chairwoman handed over her gavel and fled the arena to avoid further humiliation, Bill Clinton sat in the balcony, opposite the main stage, and pretended to cheer as Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders effectively excoriated his entire economic philosophy.

Energized delegates waved signs denouncing the latest free-trade pact and erupted in jeers at Wall Street. It must have felt to Clinton as if he had drifted back in time to the Democratic conventions of the Humphreys and Mondales, and here he was, hovering above the stage like some unexorcized ghost.

Hillary Clinton was the nominee, but it seemed for all the world as if Sanders argument had carried the day.

If you looked at the program for the entire four days, however, you might have realized that all of this was by design. Just as the first night of the Republican convention a week earlier seemed to be all about washed-up TV stars, the opening of the Democratic confab, which began with a lineup of union leaders, was effectively conceived as populist night in Philadelphia.

The unstated theme of the night seemed to be: OK, people, just get it all out now.

By Tuesday, the party had turned to remembering the roaring 90s. Bill Clinton took back the stage for his eighth consecutive major convention address (this has to be a record), reminding the delegates  and the audience at home  of his own stewardship during better economic times.

Clintons appearance seemed intended as a pivot point, from the unyielding ideology of the populist left to the more pragmatic politics of the last two Democratic presidents.

And now, on these last two nights of the convention, when the television audience will reach its apex, the lineup of speeches will leave little doubt about whose Democratic Party this really is and whose brand of liberalism has actually prevailed.

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On Wednesday alone, Democrats will pack in more powerhouse speakers than Donald Trump managed to assemble for his entire convention. (By day four in Cleveland, the whole thing pretty much felt like little more than a family reunion, except that you didnt know any of the relatives before they showed up and started rearranging the furniture.)

The most symbolically important speaker of the night will be a New York mayor  which shouldnt surprise anyone, since New York is now the geographic center of a presidential campaign, on both sides, for the first time since 1944, when Thomas Dewey ran against Franklin Roosevelt.

But the mayor on stage wont be Bill de Blasio, who once ran Hillary Clintons Senate campaign, and who, along with Sanders and Warren, forms the lefts populist triumvirate.

Instead, Clintons team will hand over the podium to Michael Bloomberg, who hasnt been a Democrat for many years now, and who stands for much of what the left detests. He is a reform-minded billionaire, a titan of Wall Street, an empire builder who champions free enterprise and fiscal restraint.

Bloomberg, who apparently likes Trump even less than he likes very large sugary beverages, will validate Clinton to the national audience, vouching for her pragmatism and gravitas, while de Blasio sits in the cheap seats, suffering in silence among all the bewildered Bernie Bros.

After that, viewers will be introduced to Tim Kaine, the vice presidential candidate whom the partys left flank was less than enthused about. Thats mostly because, until last week, he bravely supported the presidents trade agenda.

And then, before the night is through, the party will turn to its Gehrig-Ruth combination (might as well stay with a New York theme): first Joe Biden, who wrote and championed the Clinton crime bill the populists now vilify, and then President Obama, chief proponent of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, who raised more money from Wall Street than Mitt Romney last time around.

I would not expect either man to use the phrase political revolution.

And on Thursday, of course, Clinton herself will take the stage, where I doubt shell say a whole lot about the sharply leftist party platform that Sanders and his acolytes have been crowing about for a week.

Because despite what you may have heard, platforms arent actually governing documents. Theyre more like that legal waiver you scribble your name on when you go to the bouncy house, even though both you and the kid behind the counter know that if you break your back on a collapsing slide youre going to sue for every last Minion toy in the claw crane machine.

No, the only governing vision that counts now will be the one Clinton articulates Thursday night. And my guess is that it will be aimed squarely at more typical working-class and minority voters, as well as independent voters, rather than at the activists who seemed to have taken over the hall earlier in the week.

Clinton is counting on Trump to galvanize those hard-core Sanders voters on her behalf, and in the end he probably will.

For all the images of protest in the streets and Bernie signs gyrating in the arena, the truth is that the Clintons and their Democratic allies have played this convention perfectly, and theyve shown once again how the two parties diverged this year in their handling of populist uprisings.

Republican leaders allowed their party to be overwhelmed and carried away by an antiestablishment tsunami, because they couldnt get control of a sprawling field and a chaotic process, and because they made plain their contempt for Trumps legion of new followers.

Democrats, on the other hand, kept a tighter rein on the process, and Clinton locked down her core constituencies even as she mouthed just enough populist rhetoric  like changing her stance on the Pacific free-trade pact  to mollify some voters on the left.

When we look back on this week, we will not see the convention where Sanders and his uprising redefined the Democratic Party, but rather the moment when Clinton and her high command took it back.

_____

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Oct 31, 2015; Pasadena, CA, USA; UCLA Bruins wide receiver Thomas Duarte (front) runs the ball down the field during the fourth quarter against the Colorado Buffaloes at Rose Bowl. The UCLA Bruins won 35-31. Mandatory Credit: Kelvin Kuo-USA TODAY Sports

Continuing our newest series, we will continue taking a look at the Miami Dolphins potential depth chart. I will again be doing my best to help sort out what the Dolphins depth chart could look like entering the final weeks of the pre-season and heading into the regular season.

While some days we will only take a look at multiple positional group, today we will take a good long look at a group of players who performance this season could go a long way in helping the teams overall performance. Mixing veterans with younger players, the Miami Dolphins starter at tight end will likely be decided late on in the preseason.

Five talented players will enter training camp at the position for the Miami Dolphins. It is unlikely all five will make it to week one. The combination of veterans, experienced players, and rookies should make for a tremendous battle for the positions first string spot.

AROUND COVER32

FREE AGENCY: Five teams that should call Devin Hester

NFL: Ranking each teams best QB/WR/RB combinations

UNDERDOG: Daniel Brown is ready for Ravens training camp

NFL: The past weeks news in review

Dolphins News: Predicting the depth chart at running back

Tight End

This could easily be one of the most competitive positional groups during the preseason. Whether it be related to the poor play last season from Jordan Cameron or the talent of those also playing the position for Miami, the battle for the starting tight end spot looks to be entertaining.

Entering the preseason on top of the leader board will be last season starter and former pro-bowler Jordan Cameron. Though he did underperform last season  his first with the Miami Dolphins  Cameron has the experience and veteran leadership needed to enter the preseason as Adam Gases first string tight end.

Also returning to the team from last season are Dion Sims and Jake Stoneburner. Sims  who was the second choice tight end last season  should put up better numbers this season should he remain healthy. Stoneburner could also be in line to move into the backup role should either Cameron or Sims go down with injury this season.

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The biggest wildcard of this entire battle will be seventh round draft pick Thomas Duarte. Though a league rule prevented him from participating during most of the Miami Dolphins offseason workouts, Duarte is a supreme talent. Converted from the wide receiver position, Duarte has the speed downfield to trouble most linebackers and nickel corners that he will face.

Entering the 2016 season, I do expect Jordan Cameron to still be in control as the teams starting tight end. The biggest surprise for me could come in the form of Duarte who I expect will contend for the teams second string role. Joining the battle will also be undrafted rookie Gabe Hughes who could make the roster should the Miami Dolphins decide to release one of their older tight end players in Sims or Stoneburner.

READ MORE: Dolphins should keep Laremy Tunsil on the bench

The post Predicting the Miami Dolphins depth chart: Tight End appeared first on Cover32.
A fire that destroyed a Bronze Age village in the marshlands of eastern England around 3,000 years ago may have been set on purpose, possibly in a raid by warriors from a hostile group, according to a new archaeological study.

"We've been working with [a fire] investigator who works a lot with modern fires, and he thinks there's a good chance that the fire was set deliberately," said Selina Davenport, an archaeologist at the University of Cambridge.

The researchers found four houses that were likely all burned at the same time, which suggests it was a large fire, they said. [See Photos of the Must Farm Site and Its Bronze-Age Treasures]

"For that to have spread from something like a spark off a hearth is unlikely," Davenport told Live Science. "These people were really good at living in wooden houses, so I don?t think they were just catching fire accidently very often."

The original Bronze Age village at the Must Farm archaeological site in Peterboroughconsisted of up to eight circular wooden houses built on stilts above a river, and would have been home to several families, archaeologists said.

Tree-ring analysis dated the posts from the houses to between 1290 and 1250 B.C., and showed they were all cut down in a single autumn, according to the researchers. A wooden wall, or palisade, near the houses was built at the same time, which the archaeologists think may be a sign that the villagers were living in hostile territory.

But within a few years of being built, the prehistoric village was burned down and abandoned. It seems no effort was made to resettle the village, the researchers said, or to recover the many items that the villagers left behind in their hurry to escape, which included wooden boats, weapons, stone and metal tools, patterned sets of kitchen pottery, jewelry made from imported glass and amber beads, and clothes of finely woven fabrics.

The abundance of artifacts found by the Cambridge Archeological Unit during a 10-month excavation at the Must Farm site has inspired the village's comparison with the Roman city of Pompeii, which was destroyed and preserved in ash when the nearby volcano Vesuvius erupted in A.D. 79.

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"The analogy comes from the idea that there is one moment in time that has been captured by a destructive event," Davenport said. "At Pompeii, that's the destruction by the volcano, and here we have this fire that just rips through the settlement, and the settlement collapses and is perfectly preserved in the silt."

Bronze Age sophisticates

As at Pompeii, the disaster in the Bronze Age village has provided modern archaeologists with a wealth of information about the remarkably sophisticated people who lived there a little more than 3,000 years ago. [The 7 Most Mysterious Archaeological Finds on Earth]

The discoveries include many rare wooden tools and other artifacts preserved in the marshy ground of the fenlands, such as kitchen platters made from sewn layers of bark; wooden spoons and buckets; a bronze ax and a bronze-tipped spear with their wooden hafts intact; eight log boats; and one of the oldest wooden wheels ever found in Britain.

Other finds include a matching set of kitchen pots, from very small bowls to tall storage jars, which appear to have been made by a single potter from local clay. The researchers also found the charred remains of several different woven fabrics, mainly of linen spun from flax plants, which were probably used for clothing and other purposes, such as traps and binding materials.

Davenport supervised visits to the site by more than 2,000 members of the public during the recent excavations, including visits by schools and archaeological interest groups.

"Non-archeologists who come here imagine that life 3,000 years ago was very simple, and the thing they're really excited about is the wealth of material culture, its sophistication, and how varied it all is," she said.

Several items originated overseas, indicating the extent of international trade in the 1200s B.C., Davenport added.

"We've got evidence of trade with the continent in some of our metalwork, but we've also got blue glass beads coming from Syria or Turkey, and amber beads probably coming from the Baltic," she said.

It's not known what the villagers traded in return, but since they lived on a river, they may have traded in fish, which were an important food resource for the village, according to Davenport. The excavations also revealed that the villagers hunted deer and wild boar, grew crops of wheat and barley, and herded sheep and cattle, she added.

Skull and bones

A single human skull was found at the site, but the archeologists think it was probably a "curated item" kept in one of the houses  a practice that was not uncommon in prehistoric Britain, Davenport said. [8 Grisly Archaeological Discoveries]

The complete skeletons of two dogs were also found. "They were the only animals we believe were actually living on the site with the people, and they seem to have been the only casualties of the fire," she said.

Pieces of wood from the buried Bronze Age village at Must Farm were first uncovered in the 1960s by workmen quarrying for clay. But it was not recognized as an archeological site until the late 1990s, by which time up to half the buried village had been destroyed by quarrying, Davenport said.

Now that the excavation is coming to an end, the site will be backfilled and returned to its commercial owners, who have undertaken not to quarry there.

But researchers will continue to analyze the artifacts that were found at the Must Farm site.

"Even off-site we can continue analyzing it, we can continue studying it, and trying to figure out what was going on," Davenport said. "So, we'll be able to get a lot of information about life in the Bronze Age from our site, and we wouldn't be able to do that if it was still in the ground."

Original article on Live Science.

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The world's largest wine trade fair has released more details on the second edition of Vinexpo Japan, which will be held in November.

After making its inaugural debut in 2014, Vinexpo will return to Tokyo this fall in the aim of expanding the wine and spirits market in a country where potential for growth is high.

Japan is the No. 1 market in Asia for spirit imports and the second market in Asia for imported wines.

In 2015, wine imports totaled 2.8 million hectoliters, at a value of 1.41 billion. That marked an increase of nearly 4 percent in both volume and value compared to 2014.

But while Japan boasts a sophisticated wine and spirits consumer market that skews towards luxury brands, analysts at Vinexpo point out that Japan's drinking culture remains decidedly different than the Western world which can present a challenge for growth.

With wine consumption on the rise, the Japanese market is booming again. Wine imports in 2015 totaled 2,793,000 hectoliters, worth 176.28 billion yen (1.41 billion), an increase of 3.6% in volume and 4.2% in value compared to 2014.

A previously published Vinexpo market forecast study also predicted that by 2017, Japanese consumers will tip back a volume of 37 million cases or almost 445 million bottles, or an increase of 4 percent between 2013 and 2017.

France is the leading wine supplier in Japan, followed by Italy and Chile, while red wine dominates the market.

Vinexpo Tokyo is expected to attract 4,500 trade visitors. The event takes place November 15 to 16 at Prince Park Tower Hotel.
One of the pillars of Donald Trumps Make America Great Again movement is the belief that Washington is a dysfunctional morass that the billionaire builder will clean up and get working again.

Longtime political activist Ralph Reed of the Faith and Freedom Coalition said in June that Trump told a gathering of evangelical leaders: pray but you need to act. You need change, and this is your opportunity to see real change come to Washington.

Related: This Is Why Vladimir Putin Wants Trump in the Oval Office

Reed said he believes that Trump will disrupt the broken system in Washington, D.C., in a way that Hillary Clinton won't.

But there are already signs that Trump, should he be elected President, would be on a collision course with a GOP Congress and that the government gridlock of the Obama years might not necessarily go away.

Yesterday in a speech in Milwaukee, House Speaker Paul Ryan broke with presidential nominee of his party over comments Trump has made about Americas role in NATO and said the U.S. should take the lead in free-trade agreements, according to the AP.

Calling NATO an indispensable ally, Ryan said that the U.S. relationship with the mutual defense organization is as important now  as its been in my lifetime. He also said he would strengthen NATOs eastern front.

In an interview with The New York Times last week and then at a rally in North Carolina on Monday, Trump set off red alerts in the U.S. and Europe when he said he would think twice about coming to the aid of Baltic state members of NATO threatened by Russia if they hadnt paid their fair share to maintain the alliance.

Related: Trump Gets a Big Bump in the Polls as Democrats Clash

Trump has long railed against trade agreements such as NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) and Chinas U.S.-supported entry into the WTO (World Trade Organization) as deals that have robbed American workers of jobs.

The website Politifact says Trump is right about Chinas entry into the WTO costing the U.S. millions of jobs but finds the effect of NAFTA on the countrys workforce to be more complex.

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While trying to correlate Trumps position on trade deals with his own stance  that free-trade partnerships are essential to the U.S. economy  Ryan said Tuesday, "I'm for good trade agreements as well. We agree on that. We don't want bad trade agreements, we want good trade agreements."

But the differing positions of Trump and Ryan on trade and NATO are just two examples of how the Republican Party is presenting dueling agendas to the electorate. Trumps off-the-cuff demands, pronouncements and proclamations frequently seems at odds with Ryans more detailed Better Way, which lays out what his website calls our vision for a more confident America.

Related: 7 Ways Paul Ryans National Security Plan Challenges Donald Trump

As The Fiscal Times reported last month, Ryan and Trump part ways on immigration and the 40-foot-high wall the reality TV star wants to build on the border with Mexico; what to do about the nuclear agreement with Iran; and the most effective way to counter the nuclear threat from North Korea. They also split, according to The Hill, on banning Muslims from entering the country from certain points of origin, taxes; and changes in Social Security eligibility, eminent domain rules and Cuba policy. And yesterday Trump said he would back a $10 minimum wage, while Republicans in Congress have opposed any increase. So theres plenty of potential for significant conflict between a Trump White House and a GOP-controlled Congress, even if theyre all technically from the same political party.

Top Reads from The Fiscal Times:
July 27 (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.

- Two followers of Islamic State killed a priest while he was celebrating Roman Catholic Mass Tuesday, the first time a church has been attacked amid a wave of terrorist violence rocking Western Europe. http://on.wsj.com/2atIyCE

- Anheuser-Busch InBev raised its offer for SABMiller Plc in their proposed $100 billion-plus beer megamerger, trying to assuage concerns over the valuation of the deal after the British pound's steep descent. http://on.wsj.com/2atqoRe

- Analog Devices Inc agreed to buy Linear Technology Corp in a cash-and-stock deal valued at $14.8 billion, uniting two venerable names in a lucrative subset of the semiconductor industry. http://on.wsj.com/2abXobf

- A key supplier of semi-autonomous car technology ended a supply agreement with Tesla Motors Inc following a high-profile traffic fatality in May involving one of the Silicon Valley company's electric vehicles. Mobileye NV said it would no longer provide its computer chips and algorithms to Tesla after a contract ends due to disagreements about how the technology was deployed. Mobileye provides core technology for Tesla's Autopilot system, which allows cars to drive themselves in limited conditions. http://on.wsj.com/2ab8uNI

- Qualcomm Inc will pay $19.5 million to settle claims that women at the chip maker receive lower pay and fewer chances for promotion than men, according to papers filed Tuesday in a San Diego federal court. http://on.wsj.com/2ashOBg

- LG Display Co Ltd, one of the world's biggest makers of display panels used in smartphones and televisions, said it would invest 1.99 trillion won ($1.75 billion) to produce flexible organic light-emitting diode, or OLED, displays for use in mobile phones. http://on.wsj.com/2aamrBR

($1 = 1,133.9700 won) (Compiled by Rama Venkat Raman in Bengaluru)
The United Nations expressed alarm Wednesday at the looming execution of 14 drug convicts in Indonesia, urging Jakarta to put an end to the "unjust" practice of capital punishment.

A group of drug convicts including foreigners have been given notice of their executions and could be put to death as early as Friday.

Attorney-General Muhammad Prasetyo said Wednesday that 14 people -- including prisoners from Nigeria, Pakistan, India and Zimbabwe -- had been put in isolation and would be executed this week.

Rights groups and governments have been voicing concern in recent days, and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Raad Al Hussein expressed alarm at the planned executions.

The increasing use of the death penalty in Indonesia is terribly worrying, and I urge the government to immediately end this practice which is unjust and incompatible with human rights, he said in a statement.

The death penalty is not an effective deterrent relative to other forms of punishment nor does it protect people from drug abuse."

He said that under international law, in countries which have not abolished the death penalty, it may only be used for the most serious crimes -- which has been interpreted to mean only crimes involving intentional killing.

Family members and embassy officials visited the condemned prisoners Wednesday on Nusakambangan island, home to a high-security prison where Indonesia conducts executions.

Indonesia -- which has some of the world's toughest anti-drugs laws -- executed 14 drug convicts, mostly foreigners, in two batches last year.

Activists intensified pressure on President Joko Widodo this week, with Amnesty International saying the executions would put his government "on the wrong side of history".

Indonesia last carried out executions in April 2015 when it put to death eight convicts, including two Australians and a Brazilian, sparking international outrage.

Lawyers for some of the condemned inmates have been making last-minute bids to save their clients from the firing squad.

A letter from Indonesian convict Merri Utami to Widodo asking for clemency was sent on Tuesday. Activists lobbying on behalf of Pakistani prisoner Zulfiqar Ali said they would also consider making a final appeal for clemency, despite alleging their 52-year-old client was tortured into confessing and should not have been convicted.

"We've seen how Indonesia's legal system is full of flaws. (Widodo) can actually put a moratorium on executions, he has the right to do so," said Al Araf, the director of Indonesian rights group Imparsial.
Prince Albert and Princess Charlene are headed to the U.S.



First, the royal couple will visit Washington, D.C., in late September "to celebrate the 10th anniversary of diplomatic relations and the exchange of ambassadors between Monaco and the United States," Prince Albert told PEOPLE in a recent interview.



The next day, they'll be in New York City to inaugurate a new Cartier store, which will feature a tribute to Albert's parents, Prince Rainier and Princess Grace. They'll also return to New York in October to attend the annual Princess Grace Foundation dinner.



 Want to keep up with the latest royals coverage? Click here to subscribe to the Royals Newsletter.







But there's another favorite spot the royal dad says he'd like to share with his wife.



"I'd like to show her Ocean City, New Jersey," he says. "I used to go there a lot when I was young."





Princess Charlene and Prince Albert Are Coming to America  Find Out Where!| The Royals, Charlene Wittstock, Prince Albert



As a young girl, Philadelphia-raised Grace Kelly summered at her family home on the Jersey Shore and waitressed at the local Chatterbox restaurant, riding on its parade float as the restaurant's beauty queen contestant. And even after she became a leading lady in Hollywood she remained loyal to her summer home. Later, in her royal life, she organized vacations with Prince Rainier and their children, inviting famous friends including Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Bob Hope to the family's annual Labor Day barbecue.





Where Will Prince William and Princess Kate Be Touring Next?





Grace adamantly believed sharing her family's vacation home on the Jersey shore was an essential part of the "normal" life she tried to give her three children. Albert and his sister, Princess Caroline, learned to surf at Ocean City  and Albert attempted to learn how to skateboard there.



Today, the Ocean City Historical Museum hosts an annual Grace Kelly Tea and keeps a replica of her wedding dress on display.



"There's still a Kelly reunion at Ocean City every Labor Day," says Albert, adding that this year, "maybe we'll just surprise them!"
shake shack

The best chefs in the world can't eat fine dining all the time.

Bloomberg's Richard Vines interviewed chefs from the world's most celebrated restaurants about what they eat when they're craving fast food.

Some chefs had classy tastes, even when it came to chains. Joan Roca from El Celler de Can Roca, in Girona, Spain  which was awarded the best restaurant in the world in 2015  namedropped Beefsteak, a vegetarian-focused chain started by the chef Jose Andres. Daniel Boulud said he loves Le Pain Quotidien , which is more bakery than fast food.

However, other chefs are true fast-food lovers at heart. Here are six fast-food menu items that chefs actually love.

To see the full Bloomberg story, click here.

1. Five Guys' burger and milkshakes

Five Guys Burgers 14

Heston Blumenthal, the chef at Fat Duck in Bray, England says that Five Guys is high on his list, thanks to the burgers and milkshakes. "The guys behind the counters actually have some interest in food," he told Bloomberg.

2. Popeyes' fried chicken

Popeyes

"I treat myself to Popeyes a couple of times a year and I am wickedly happy downing a few pieces (wings and thighs best) of their crispy, spicy chicken  with a side of dirty rice and biscuits," Danny Meyer told Bloomberg. Meyer, who founded Shake Shack in addition to fine dining classic Gramercy Tavern, is clearly an expert on what makes quality fast food.

3. Chipotle's salad

Chipotle

Meyer's other favorite: Chipotle. His go-to order isn't a burrito, but instead salad with grilled chicken, pinto beans, shredded cheese, extra cilantro, and spicy dressing.

4. Shake Shack's burger

Shake Shack

Unsurprisingly, Danny Meyer's Shake Shack was a top pick, mentioned by Helene Darroze, who inspired a character in Disney's Ratatouille, and Massimo Bottura, chef of the current No. 1 restaurant in the world, Osteria Francescana in Modena, Italy. The reason: the keen attention to detail that allows for the high quality of the meat, bread, and sauce.

Story continues

5. KFC's fried chicken sandwich

#Zinger Stacker Stacker Stacker? We  it A photo posted by KFC Australia (@kfcaustralia) on Jul 11, 2016 at 12:00am PDT on Jul 11, 2016 at 12:00am PDT

The top chef-approved KFC item is nowhere to be found on the American menu. "I only go for the Zinger Tower Burger," Karam Sethi of Gymkhana in London told Bloomberg. "It's got a fried, battered breast, hash brown, a spicy tomato salsa, mayonnaise and crispy iceberg in a sesame bun."

6. In-N-Out's burger

in n out

It may only be available on the West Coast, but In-N-Out Burger is a cult classic. Wolfgang Puck, of Spago in Beverly Hills, and Nuno Mendes, of Chiltern Firehouse in London, said the burger chain was one of their favorites.

"I like it because you can have a hamburger wrapped in lettuce instead of a bun," said Puck. "I feel like I am eating a salad."

NOW WATCH: Chipotle is giving out more free food





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Investors are keeping an eye as the Q2 earnings season has gained momentum, so far unveiling modest improvement compared to the last couple of quarters. Per the latest Zacks Earnings Trends report as of Jul 22, out of the 126 S&P 500 members that have come up with their quarterly numbers, approximately 70.6% have posted positive earnings surprises, while 55.6% beat top-line expectations.

According to the report, earnings for the 126 S&P 500 companies that have reported so far are down 1.1% from the same period last year, while revenues have dropped 2.6%.

The report further projects that earnings for the total S&P 500 companies will decline 3.4% from the year-ago period, and total revenue will dip 0.5%. We observe that this will be the fifth straight quarter, if the index witnesses a decline in earnings. Well, as the earnings season gets into full swing, the scenario would be much more prominent. So dont be in a rush to count your chickens before they hatch.

The performance of the index is not restricted to a single sector, and of the 16 Zacks sectors, 9 are expected to witness an earnings decline in Q2, with Basic Materials, Industrial Products, Oil/Energy, Technology and Transportation being a big drag. The Consumer Staples sector also portrays a soft trend. Total earnings for the sector are expected to drop 3.7%; however, revenues are projected to increase marginally by 0.2%. Publishing forms part of the Consumer Staples sector.

Publishing Industry: A Synopsis

The U.S. publishing industry has long been grappling with sinking advertising revenues, and the global economic meltdown has only worsened the situation. The downturn in the publishing industry witnessed over the last few years aggravated, as print readership declined, with more readers opting for free online news, thereby making the print-advertising model increasingly irrelevant.

The publishing companies are transforming their business models to better position themselves in a multi-platform media universe. According to industry experts, publishing companies are focusing more on mobile devices, online advertising based on user experience and personalized content to lower their dependence on traditional advertising revenues. They are also streamlining their cost structure, strengthening their balance sheet and restructuring their portfolio.

Story continues

Among publishing companies, The McClatchy Company MNI reported its second-quarter 2016 results on Jul 21. This newspaper publisher posted a loss of $1.89 per share that missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of a loss of 54 cents by a wide margin. The company witnessed a 16.6% drop in print advertising revenues, while digital advertising revenues increased 4.4%.

Sneak Peek at Three Publishing Stocks

Among publishing stocks lined up to report, lets take a sneak peek at three companies.

The New York Times Company NYT, a diversified media conglomerate, is slated to report second-quarter 2016 results on Jul 28. The company is diversifying its business, adding new revenue streams, strengthening its balance sheet and restructuring its portfolio. It had offloaded assets in order to re-focus on its core newspapers and pay more attention to its online activities. We believe these moves will have a favorable impact on the quarter to be reported.

However, advertising revenue remains an area of concern for the company. Total advertising revenue fell 6.8% year over year during the first quarter of 2016. Print advertising revenue declined 9% in the quarter, while digital advertising revenue dropped 1.3%. Management had earlier projected that total advertising revenue in the second quarter may decline at a rate equivalent to that experienced in the first quarter.

The New York Times Company carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) with an Earnings ESP of 0.00%. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the quarter is currently pegged at 12 cents. (Read: NY Times Q2 Earnings: What's in Store for the Stock?). The company has surpassed earnings expectations for seven straight quarters. Also, the average positive surprise over the trailing four quarters comes to 26.7%.

NY TIMES A Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise

NY TIMES A Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise | NY TIMES A Quote

Meredith Corporation MDP, one of the leading media and marketing companies with interests in publishing, broadcasting, integrated marketing and interactive media, is slated to report fourth-quarter fiscal 2016 results on Jul 28. Management had earlier projected fourth-quarter earnings per share in the range of $1.01$1.06. Also, it anticipates total revenue to increase in the low-to-mid-single digits.

Favorable advertising trends in the digital section and recent acquisitions continue to positively impact the companys performance. Management is focused on bolstering advertising revenues, primarily in the digital space, and is increasingly concentrating on brand licensing, marketing services and eCommerce. However, with advancement in technology, the print media is on a decline. Shift to online is likely to put enormous pressure on Merediths magazine portfolio. Though the company is expanding its digital presence, it will take time to complete the metamorphosis.

MEREDITH CORP Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise

MEREDITH CORP Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise | MEREDITH CORP Quote

Meredith carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) with an Earnings ESP of 0.00%. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the quarter stands at $1.04. In the previous quarter, the company posted a positive earnings surprise of 15%. Notably, it surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate in each of the trailing four quarters, with an average earnings surprise of 5.8%. (Read: What's in the Cards for Meredith in Q4 Earnings?).

Another publishing stock, New Media Investment Group Inc. NEWM is scheduled to report second-quarter 2016 results tomorrow. This publisher of locally based print and online media in the U.S. has an Earnings ESP of 0.00% and a Zacks Rank #2. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the quarter currently stands at 31 cents. In the trailing four quarters, the company outperformed the Zacks Consensus Estimate by an average of 17.7%.

NEW MEDIA INV Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise

NEW MEDIA INV Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise | NEW MEDIA INV Quote

Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report >>



Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report



NY TIMES A (NYT): Free Stock Analysis Report



NEW MEDIA INV (NEWM): Free Stock Analysis Report



MCCLATCHY CO-A (MNI): Free Stock Analysis Report



MEREDITH CORP (MDP): Free Stock Analysis Report



To read this article on Zacks.com click here.



Zacks Investment Research
- JT McNamara, one of the leading amateur jump racing jockeys until he was paralysed in a fall three years ago, has died aged 41 .McNamara, who clocked four wins at jump racing's most prestigious meeting, the Cheltenham Festival, died in his sleep. McNamara fractured vertebrae in his spine following his fall from Galaxy Rock in the Fulke Walwyn Kim Muir Challenge Cup at the 2013 Cheltenham Festival. He was due to retire later that year. The racing world set up a fund to help him, with Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary contributing 200,000 euros in 2013.

AFP
KOCHI  Kabali, starring cult South Indian superstar Rajinikanth, has opened on a strong note worldwide. The film debuted on July 22 and has collected $36.6 million worldwide in five days of release, according to trade estimates.

This includes a five-day total of $22.3 million in India. In North America the film collected a robust $5 million in its opening weekend.

Kabali also earned $29.7 million ahead of its release from sales of satellite, music and other rights, according to producer Kalaippuli S. Thanu of V Creations. The budget of the film is estimated at $12 million.

Written and directed by Pa. Ranjith (Madras,) Kabali is largely set in Malaysia. Rajinikanth plays a Malaysian mafia don of Indian Tamil ethnicity who is released from prison after 25 years and proceeds to exact revenge on his adversaries.

The films Malay dubbed version is set to release on July 29, but will be different from the Tamil, Telugu and Hindi language versions that are currently on release. Abdul Halim Abdul Hamid, chair of the Malaysian censor board, has confirmed that several scenes will be shortened by a few seconds and the ending has been altered to convey a message that crime does not pay.

In the film Taiwanese actor Winston Chao uses the word keling while addressing Rajinikanth. The term is considered pejorative towards Malay Indians and has also been removed for the Malaysia release.

Related stories

Japan Box Office: 'One Piece' Wins Weekend, Dethrones 'Dory'

Korea Box Office: Runaway 'Train to Busan' Smashes Records

China Box Office: Jackie Chan's 'Skiptrace' Leaps to $60 Million Opening
BAMAKO (Reuters) - Randgold Resources' (RRS.L) Loulo-Gounkoto gold mining complex in Mali is currently on track to beat its 2016 production guidance, CEO Mark Bristow told reporters late on Wednesday.

Loulo-Gounkoto, the company's flagship operation in the West African nation, was targeting output of 670,000 oz of gold this year, according to the company's website, up from 630,167 oz last year.

"Loulo-Gounkoto complex is currently on track to beat its 2016 production guidance and continue to produce more than 600,000 ounces of gold annually for the next 10 years with a life of mine which well exceeds that horizon," Bristow said.

Speaking in the capital Bamako, he said that while Morila, Randgold's other gold mine in Mali, was approaching the end of its lifespan, it would continue to remain profitable for the next three years.

Mali is Africa's third-largest gold producer after South Africa and Ghana. Randgold's operations constitute between 7 and 11 percent of its gross domestic product, Bristow said.

(Reporting by Tiemoko Diallo; Writing by Joe Bavier; Editing by James Dalgleish)
The following 1944 photo, colorized by Marina Amaral, shows two American GIs sitting next to a military vehicle in Nazi-occupied Geich, Germany.

The two soldiers from C Company, 36th Armored Infantry Regiment, 9th Infantry Division, smoke cigarettes while looking out at the war-torn city.

18618885933_20b374a1ad_h

The 9th Infantry Division, nicknamed the "Old Reliables," was one of the first US Army combat units to fight on the ground during World War II. The unit saw a little more than 300 days of combat during the war.





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And I saw her several more times in the next few days, but I still didnt speak to her. Then one night I was in the law library talking to a classmate who wanted me to join the Yale Law Journal. He said it would guarantee me a job in a big firm or a clerkship with a federal judge. I really wasnt interested, I just wanted to go home to Arkansas.

(APPLAUSE)

Then I saw the girl again, standing at the opposite end of that long room. Finally she was staring back at me, so I watched her. She closed her book, put it down and started walking toward me. She walked the whole length of the library, came up to me and said, look, if youre going to keep staring at me

(LAUGHTER)

CLINTON: and now Im staring back, we at least ought to know each others name. Im Hillary Rodham, who are you?

(APPLAUSE)

I was so impressed and surprised that, whether you believe it or not, momentarily I was speechless.

(LAUGHTER)

(APPLAUSE)

Finally, I sort of blurted out my name and we exchanged a few words and then she went away.

Well, I didnt join the Law Review, but I did leave that library with a whole new goal in mind.

(LAUGHTER)

A couple of days later, I saw her again. I remember, she was wearing a long, white, flowery skirt. And I went up to her and she said she was going to register for classes for the next term. And I said Id go, too. And we stood in line and talked  you had to do that to register back then  and I thought I was doing pretty well until we got to the front of the line and the registrar looked up and said, Bill, what are you doing here, you registered morning?

(LAUGHTER)

I turned red and she laughed that big laugh of hers. And I thought, well, heck, since my covers been blown I just went ahead and asked her to take a walk down to the art museum.

Weve been walking and talking and laughing together ever since.

(APPLAUSE)

And weve done it in good times and bad, through joy and heartbreak. We cried together this morning on the news that our good friend and a lot of your good friend, Mark Weiner, passed away early this morning.

Weve built up a lifetime of memories. After the first month and that first walk, I actually drove her home to Park Ridge, Illinois

(APPLAUSE)

to meet her family and see the town where she grew up, a perfect example of post World War II middle-class America, street after street of nice houses, great schools, good parks, a big public swimming pool, and almost all white.

I really liked her family. Her crusty, conservative father, her rambunctious brothers, all extolling the virtues of rooting for the Bears and the Cuba.

(APPLAUSE)

And for the people from Illinois here, they even told me what waiting for next year meant.

(LAUGHTER)

It could be next year, guys.

Now, her mother was different. She was more liberal than the boys. And she had a childhood that made mine look like a piece of cake. She was easy to underestimate with her soft manner and she reminded me all over again of the truth of that old saying you should never judge a book by its covers. Knowing her was one of the greatest gifts Hillary ever gave me.

(APPLAUSE)

I learned that Hillary got her introduction to social justice through her Methodist youth minister, Don Jones. He took her downtown to Chicago to hear Dr. Martin Luther King speak and he remained her friend for the rest of his life. This will be the only campaign of hers he ever missed.

When she got to college, her support for civil rights, her opposition to the Vietnam War compelled her to change party, to become a Democrat.

(APPLAUSE)

And then between college and law school on a total lark she went alone to Alaska and spent some time sliming fish.

(APPLAUSE)

More to the point, by the time I met her she had already been involved in the law schools legal services project and she had been influenced by Marian Wright Edelman.

(APPLAUSE)

She took a summer internship interviewing workers in migrant camps for Senator Walter Mondales subcommittee.

(APPLAUSE)

She had also begun working in the Yale New Haven Hospital to develop procedures to handle suspected child abuse cases. She got so involved in childrens issues that she actually took an extra year in law school working at the child studies center to learn what more could be done to improve the lives and the futures of poor children.

(APPLAUSE)

So she was already determined to figure out how to make things better.

Hillary opened my eyes to a whole new world of public service by private citizens. In the summer of 1972, she went to Dothan, Alabama to visit one of those segregated academies that then enrolled over half-a-million white kids in the South. The only way the economics worked is if they claimed federal tax exemptions to which they were not legally entitled. She got sent to prove they werent.

So she sauntered into one of these academies all by herself, pretending to be a housewife that had just moved to town and needed to find a school for her son. And they exchanged pleasantries and finally she said, look, lets just get to the bottom line here, if I enroll my son in this school will he be in a segregated school, yes or know? And the guy said absolutely. She had him!

(LAUGHTER)

Ive seen it a thousand times since. And she went back and her encounter was part of a report that gave Marian Marian Wright Edelman the ammunition she needed to keep working to force the Nixon administration to take those tax exemptions away and give our kids access to an equal education.

(APPLAUSE)

Then she went down to south Texas where she met

(APPLAUSE)

she met one of the nicest fellows I ever met, the wonderful union leader Franklin Garcia, and he helped her register Mexican- American voters. I think some of them are still around to vote for her in 2016.

(APPLAUSE)

Then in our last year in law school, Hillary kept up this work. She went to South Carolina to see why so many young

(APPLAUSE)

she went to South Carolina to see why so many young African- American boys, I mean, young teenagers, were being jailed for years with adults in mens prisons. And she filed a report on that, which led to some changes, too. Always making things better. (APPLAUSE)

Now, meanwhile, lets get back to business. I was trying to convince her to marry me.

(LAUGHTER)

I first proposed to her on a trip to Great Britain, the first time she had been overseas. And we were on the shoreline of this wonderful little lake, Lake Ennerdale. I asked her to marry me and she said I cant do it.

(LAUGHTER)

So in 1974 I went home to teach in the law school and Hillary moved to Massachusetts

(APPLAUSE)

to keep working on childrens issues. This time trying to figure out why so many kids counted in the Census werent enrolled in school. She found one of them sitting alone on her porch in a wheelchair. Once more, she filed a report about these kids, and that helped influence ultimately the Congress to adopt the proposition that children with disabilities, physical or otherwise, should have equal access to public education.

(APPLAUSE)

You saw the results of that last night when Anastasia Somoza talked.

(APPLAUSE)

She never made fun of people with disabilities; she tried to empower them based on their abilities.

(APPLAUSE)

Meanwhile, I was still trying to get her to marry me.

(LAUGHTER)

So the second time I tried a different tack. I said I really want you to marry me, but you shouldnt do it.

(LAUGHTER)

And she smiled and looked at me, like, what is this boy up to? She said that is not a very good sales pitch. I said I know, but its true. And I meant it, it was true.

I said I know most of the young Democrats our age who want to go into politics, they mean well and they speak well, but none of them is as good as you are at actually doing things to make positive changes in peoples lives. (APPLAUSE)

So I suggested she go home to Illinois or move to New York and look for a chance to run for office. She just laughed and said, are you out of you mind, nobody would ever vote for me.

(LAUGHTER)

So I finally got her to visit me in Arkansas.

(APPLAUSE)

CLINTON: And when she did, the people at the law school were so impressed they offered a teaching position. And she decided to take a huge chance. She moved to a strange place, more rural, more culturally conservative than anyplace she had ever been, where she knew good and well people would wonder what in the world she was like and whether they could or should accept her.

Didnt take them long to find out what she was like. She loved her teaching and she got frustrated when one of her students said, well, what do you expect, Im just from Arkansas. She said, dont tell me that, youre as smart as anybody, youve just got to believe in yourself and work hard and set high goals. She believed that anybody could make it.

(APPLAUSE)

She also started the first legal aid clinic in northwest Arkansas, providing legal aid services to poor people who couldnt pay for them. And one day I was driving her to the airport to fly back to Chicago when we passed this little brick house that had a for sale sign on it. And she said, boy, thats a pretty house. It had 1,100 square feet, an attic, fan and no air conditioner in hot Arkansas, and a screened-in porch.

Hillary commented on what a uniquely designed and beautiful house it was. So I took a big chance. I bought the house. My mortgage was $175 a month.

(LAUGHTER)

When she came back, I picked up her up and I said, you remember that house you liked? She said yeah. I said, while you were gone I bought it, you have to marry me now.

(LAUGHTER)

The third time was the charm.

(APPLAUSE)

We were married in that little house on October the 11th, 1975. I married my best friend. I was still in awe after more than four years of being around her at how smart and strong and loving and caring she was. And I really hoped that her choosing me and rejecting my advice to pursue her own career was a decision she would never regret.

A little over a year later we moved to Little Rock when I became attorney general and she joined the oldest law firm west of the Mississippi. Soon after, she started a group called the Arkansas Advocates for Families and Children.

(CHEERS)

Its a group, as you can hear, is still active today.

(APPLAUSE)

In 1979, just after I became governor, I asked Hillary to chair a rural health committee to help expand health care to isolated farm and mountain areas. They recommended to do that partly by deploying trained nurse practitioners in places with no doctors to provide primary care they were trained to provide. It was a big deal then, highly controversial and very important.

And I got the feeling that what she did for the rest of her life she was doing there. She just went out and figured out what needed to be done and what made the most sense and what would help the most people. And then if it was controversial shed just try to persuade people it was the right thing to do.

(APPLAUSE)

It wasnt the only big thing that happened that spring my first year as governor. We found out we were going to be parents.

(APPLAUSE)

And time passed. On February 27th, 1980, 15 minutes after I got home from the National Governors Conference in Washington, Hillarys water broke and off we went to the hospital. Chelsea was born just before midnight.

(APPLAUSE)

And it was the greatest moment of my life. The miracle of a new beginning. The hole it filled for me because my own father died before I was born, and the absolute conviction that my daughter had the best mother in the whole world.

(APPLAUSE)

For the next 17 years, through nursing school, Montessori, kindergarten, through T-ball, softball, soccer, volleyball and her passion for ballet, through sleepovers, summer camps, family vacations and Chelseas own very ambitious excursions, from Halloween parties in the neighborhood, to a Viennese waltz gala in the White House, Hillary first and foremost was a mother.

She became, as she often said, our familys designated worrier, born with an extra responsibility gene. The truth is we rarely disagreed on parenting, although she did believe that I had gone a little over the top when I took a couple of days off with Chelsea to watch all six Police Academy movies back-to-back.

(LAUGHTER)

When Chelsea was 9 months old, I was defeated for reelection in the Reagan landslide. And I became overnight, I think, the youngest former governor in the history of the country. We only had two-year terms back then.

Hillary was great. Immediately she said, OK, what are we going to do? Heres what were going to do, were going to get a house, youre going to get a job, were going to enjoy being Chelseas parents. And if you really want to run again, youve got to go out and talk to people and figure out why you lost, tell people you got the message and show them youve still got good ideas.

I followed her advice. Within two days we had a house, I soon had a job. We had two fabulous years with Chelsea. And in 1982, I became the first governor in the history of our state to be elected, defeated and elected again.

(APPLAUSE)

I think my experience is its a pretty good thing to follow her advice. The rest of the decade sort of flew by as our lives settled into a rhythm of family and work and friends.

In 1983, Hillary chaired a committee to recommend new education standards for us as a part of and in response to a court order to equalize school funding and a report by a national expert that said our woefully underfunded schools were the worst in America.

Typical Hillary, she held listening tours in all 75 counties with our committee. She came up with really ambitious recommendations. For example, that we be the first state in America to require elementary counselors in every school because so many kids were having trouble at home and they needed it.

(APPLAUSE)

So I called the legislature into session hoping to pass the standards, pass a pay raise for teachers and raise the sales tax to pay for it all. I knew it would be hard to pass, but it got easier after Hillary testified before the education committee and the chairman, a plainspoken farmer, said looks to me like we elected the wrong Clinton.

(LAUGHTER)

(APPLAUSE)

Well, by the time I ran for president nine years later, the same expert who said that we had the worst schools in America said that our state was one of the two most improved states in America. And thats because of those standards that Hillary developed.

(APPLAUSE) Now, two years later, Hillary told me about a preschool program developed in Israel called HIPPY, Home Instruction Program for Preschool Youngsters. The idea was to teach low-income parents, even those that couldnt read, to be their childrens first teachers.

She said she thought it would work in Arkansas. I said thats great, what are we going to do about it? She said, oh, I already did it. I called the woman who started the program in Israel, shell be here in about 10 days and help us get started.

Next thing you know Im being dragged around to all these little preschool graduations. Now, keep in mind, this was before any state even had universal kindergarten and Im being dragged to preschool graduations watching these poor parents with tears in their eyes because they never thought theyd be able to help their kids learn.

(APPLAUSE)

Now, 20 years of research has shown how well this program works to improve readiness for school and academic achievement. There are a lot of young adults in America who have no idea Hillary had anything to do with it who are enjoying better lives because they were in that program.

CLINTON: She did all this while being a full-time worker, a mother and enjoying our life. Why? Well, shes insatiably curious, shes a natural leader, shes a good organizer, and shes the best darn change-maker I ever met in my entire life.

(APPLAUSE)

Look, this is a really important point. This is a really important point for you to take out of this convention. If you believe in making change from the bottom up, if you believe the measure of change is how many peoples lives are better, you know its hard and some people think its boring. Speeches like this are fun.

(LAUGHTER)

Actually doing the work is hard. So people say, well, we need to change. Shes been around a long time, she sure has, and shes sure been worth every single year shes put into making peoples lives better.

(APPLAUSE)

I can tell you this. If you were sitting where Im sitting and you heard what I have heard at every dinner conversation, every lunch conversation, on every lone walk, you would say this woman has never been satisfied with the status quo in anything. She always wants to move the ball forward. That is just who she is.

(APPLAUSE)

When I became president with a commitment to reform health care, Hillary was a natural to head the health care task force. You all know we failed because we couldnt break a Senate filibuster. Hillary immediately went to work on solving the problems the bill sought to address one by one. The most important goal was to get more children with health insurance.

(APPLAUSE)

In 1997, Congress passed the Childrens Health Insurance Program, still an important part of President Obamas Affordable Care Act. It insures more than 8 million kids. There are a lot of other things in that bill that she got done piece by piece, pushing that rock up the hill.

In 1997, she also teamed with the House Minority Leader Tom DeLay, who maybe disliked me more than any of Newt Gingrichs crowd. They worked on a bill together to increase adoptions of children under foster care. She wanted to do it because she knew that Tom DeLay, for all of our differences, was an adoptive parent and she honored him for doing that.

(APPLAUSE)

Now, the bill they worked on, which passed with an overwhelming bipartisan majority, led to a big increase in the adoption of children out of foster care, including non-infant kids and special-needs kids. It made life better because shes a change-maker, thats what she does.

(APPLAUSE)

Now, when youre doing all this, real life doesnt stop. 1997 was the year Chelsea finished high school and went to college. We were happy for her, but sad for us to see her go. Ill never forget moving her into her dorm room at Stanford. It would have been a great little reality flick. There I was in a trance just staring out the window trying not to cry, and there was Hillary on her hands and knees desperately looking for one more drawer to put that liner paper in.

(LAUGHTER)

Finally, Chelsea took charge and told us ever so gently that it was time for us to go. So we closed a big chapter in the most important work of our lives. As youll see Thursday night when Chelsea speaks, Hillarys done a pretty fine job of being a mother.

(APPLAUSE)

And as you saw last night, beyond a shadow of a doubt so has Michelle Obama.

(APPLAUSE)

Now, fast forward. In 1999, Congressman Charlie Rangel and other New York Democrats urged Hillary

(APPLAUSE)

urged Hillary to run for the seat of retiring Senator Pat Moynihan. We had always intended to go to New York after I left office and commute to Arkansas, but this had never occurred to either one of us. Hillary had never run for office before, but she decided to give it a try.

She began her campaign the way she always does new things, by listening and and learning. And after a tough battle, New York elected her to the seat once held by another outsider, Robert Kennedy.

(APPLAUSE)

And she didnt let him down. Her early years were dominated by 9/11, by working to fund the recovery, then monitoring the health and providing compensation to victims and first and second responders. She and Senator Schumer were tireless and so were our House members.

In 2003, partly spurred on by what we were going through, she became the first senator in the history of New York ever to serve on the Armed Services Committee.

(APPLAUSE)

So she tried to make sure people on the battlefield had proper equipment. She tried to expand and did expand health care coverage to Reservists and members of the National Guard. She got longer family leave, working with Senator Dodd, for people caring for wounded service members.

And she worked for more extensive care for people with traumatic brain injury. She also served on a special Pentagon commission to propose changes necessary to meet our new security challenges. Newt Gingrich was on that commission, he told me what a good job she had done.

(APPLAUSE)

I say that because nobody who has seriously dealt with the men and women in todays military believes they are a disaster. They are a national treasure of all races, all religions, all walks of life.

(APPLAUSE)

Now, meanwhile, she compiled a really solid record, totally progressive on economic and social issues. She voted for and against some proposed trade deals. She became the de facto economic development officer for the area of New York outside the ambit of New York City.

She worked for farmers, for winemakers, for small businesses and manufacturers, for upstate cities in rural areas who needed more ideas and more new investment to create good jobs, something we have to do again in small-town and rural America, in neighborhoods that have been left behind in our cities and Indian country and, yes, in coal country.

(APPLAUSE)

When she lost a hard-fought contest to President Obama in 2008, she worked for his election hard. But she hesitated to say yes when he asked her to join his Cabinet because she so loved being a senator from New York.

So like me, in a different context, he had to keep asking.

(LAUGHTER)

But as we all saw and heard from Madeleine Albright, it was worth the effort and worth the wait.

(APPLAUSE) As secretary of state, she worked hard to get strong sanctions against Irans nuclear program. And in what The Wall Street Journal no less called a half-court shot at the buzzer, she got Russia and China to support them. Her team negotiated the New START Treaty with Russia to reduce nuclear weapons and reestablish inspections. And she got enough Republican support to get two-thirds of the Senate, the vote necessary to ratify the treaty.

(APPLAUSE)

She flew all night long from Cambodia to the Middle East to get a cease-fire that would avoid a full-out shooting war between Hamas and Israel in Gaza to protect the peace of the region.

She backed President Obamas decision to go after Osama bin Laden.

(APPLAUSE)

She launched a team, this is really important today, she launched a team to fight back against terrorists online and built a new global counterterrorism effort.

Weve got to win this battle in the mind field.

She put climate change at the center of our foreign policy.

(APPLAUSE)

She negotiated the first agreement ever  ever  where China and India officially committed to reduce their emissions. And as she had been doing since she went to Beijing in 1995 and said womens rights are human rights and human rights are womens rights

(APPLAUSE)

she worked to empower women and girls around the world and to make the same exact declaration on behalf of the LGBT community in America and around the world.

(APPLAUSE)

And nobody ever talks about this much, nobody ever talks about this much, but its important to me. She tripled the number of people with AIDS in poor countries whose lives are being saved with your tax dollars, most of them in Africa, going from 1.7 million lives to 5.1 million lives and it didnt cost you any more money. She just bought available FDA-approved generic drugs, something we need to do for the American people more.

(APPLAUSE)

Now, you dont know any of these people. You dont know any of those 3.4 million people, but Ill guarantee you they know you. They know you because they see you as thinking their lives matter. They know you and thats one reason the approval of the United States was 20 points higher when she left the secretary of states office than when she took it.

(APPLAUSE)

CLINTON: Now, how does this square? How did this square with the things that you heard at the Republican convention? Whats the difference in what I told you and what they said? How do you square it? You cant. One is real, the other is made up.

You just have to decide. You just have to decide which is which, my fellow Americans.

The real one had done more positive change-making before she was 30 than many public officials do in a lifetime in office.

(APPLAUSE)

The real one, if you saw her friend Betsy Ebeling vote for Illinois today

(APPLAUSE)

has friends from childhood through Arkansas, where she has not lived in more than 20 years, who have gone all across America at their own expense to fight for the person they know.

(APPLAUSE)

The real one has earned the loyalty, the respect and the fervent support of people who have worked with her in every stage of her life, including leaders around the world who know her to be able, straightforward and completely trustworthy.

The real one calls you when youre sick, when your kids in trouble or when theres a death in the family.

The real one repeatedly drew praise from prominent Republicans when she was a senator and secretary of state.

(APPLAUSE)

So whats up with it? Well, if you win elections on the theory that government is always bad and will mess up a two-car parade

(LAUGHTER)

a real change-maker represents a real threat.

(APPLAUSE)

So your only option is to create a cartoon, a cartoon alternative, then run against the cartoon. Cartoons are two- dimensional, theyre easy to absorb. Life in the real world is complicated and real change is hard. And a lot of people even think its boring.

(APPLAUSE)

Good for you, because earlier today you nominated the real one.

(APPLAUSE)

Listen, weve got to get back on schedule. You guys calm down.

Look (INAUDIBLE) a long, full, blessed life, it really took off when I met and fell in love with that girl in the spring of 1971. When I was president, I worked hard to give you more peace and shared prosperity, to give you an America where nobody is invisible or counted out.

(APPLAUSE)

But for this time, Hillary is uniquely qualified to seize the opportunities and reduce the risks we face. And she is still the best darn change-maker I have ever known.

(APPLAUSE)

You could drop her into any trouble spot, pick one, come back in a month and somehow, some way she will have made it better. That is just who she is.

(APPLAUSE)

There are clear, achievable, affordable responses to our challenges. But we wont get to them if America makes the wrong choice in this election. Thats why you should elect her. And you should elect her because shell never quit when the going gets tough. Shell never quit on you.

She sent me in this primary to West Virginia where she knew we were going to lose, to look those coal miners in the eye and say Im down here because Hillary sent me to tell you that if you really think you can get the economy back you had 50 years ago, have at it, vote for whoever you want to. But if she wins, she is coming back for you to take you along on the ride to Americas future.

(APPLAUSE)

And so I say to you, if you love this country, youre working hard, youre paying taxes and youre obeying the law and youd like to become a citizen, you should choose immigration reform over somebody that wants to send you back.

(APPLAUSE) If youre a Muslim and you love America and freedom and you hate terror, stay here and help us win and make a future together. We want you.

(APPLAUSE)

If youre a young African American disillusioned and afraid, we saw in Dallas how great our police officers can be, help us build a future where nobody is afraid to walk outside, including the people that wear blue to protect our future.

(APPLAUSE)

Hillary will make us stronger together. You know it because shes spent a lifetime doing it. I hope you will do it. I hope you will elect her. Those of us who have more yesterdays than tomorrows tend to care more about our children and grandchildren. The reason you should elect her is that in the greatest country on earth we have always been about tomorrow. You children and grandchildren will bless you forever if you do.

God bless you. Thank you.
A federal judge has granted John Hinckley, Jr., the man who shot President Ronald Reagan in 1981, full-time release from St. Elizabeth's Hospital in Washington, D.C., where he has been in treatment since the shooting.

Judge Paul L. Friedman delivered the ruling Wednesday, granting Hinckley, now 61 years old, full time convalescent leave to begin no sooner than Aug. 5.

CBS News' Paula Reid reports that St. Elizabeth's Hospital has a constitutional obligation to transition patients to outpatient care when they are ready. This case is not about the merits of whether an individual should be able to shoot four people, including a sitting U.S. president, and then be able to spend the last third of his life a free man. The hospital believes he is ready for this next step to independent living and is required by law to advocate for his release.

Doctors responsible for treating Hinckley urged last year to grant him a form of permanent leave from the psychiatric facility.

"John Hinckley is responsible for the shooting of President Reagan and three other brave men," read a statement released by the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute, following the release of Hinckley. "One died two years ago from the wounds he received. Contrary to the judge's decision, we believe John Hinckley is still a threat to others and we strongly oppose his release. They are all lives that matter dearly to us."

The last hearing in this case was more than a year ago and the government pushed for strict conditions for his release as he goes to live with his 90-year-old mother in Williamsburg, Virginia. The court has ordered him not to speak to the media - a consistent condition of his release even on short-term trips to visit his mom.

PHOTOS: Stars We've Lost in Recent Years

He's already been spending 17 days per month at his mother's home since federal judge Paul Friedman granted him partial leave from the hospital in 2013.

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CBS News' Reid reports the conditions of Hinckley's release are incredibly detailed and strict, which is a big win for the U.S. government. While the requirements focus mostly on continued mental health treatment, Hinckley's lawyer had been arguing for minimal conditions to make it less likely he will be found in non-compliance.

Some of the conditions include:

He must carry a GPS enabled phone whenever he is away from his mother's home, but no tracking devices need to be installed in his cars.He must notify his treatment team before going to any private residences.

He must travel to D.C. once a month for mental health treatment. His must provide detailed information about his travel to D.C. including his specific route and time of departure, but he can travel by himself. If he is delayed by more than 30 minutes, he needs to notify his treatment team.

He must have weekly phone calls with his health care professionals as well as individual and group therapy in Williamsburg. He also does monthly music therapy sessions. He has expressed an interest in recording an album.

He is expected to find a volunteer position or a job which must be approved by his mental health team.

He cannot speak with media. Any media contact by him or his family will constitute a violation of his release.

No drugs, no weapons.

No contact with the family members of his victims, which include the Reagan family, Brady family, Thomas Delahanty or Timothy McCarthy.

He cannot travel to areas where current or former presidents, Congress or senior executives or "United States Secret Service protectees" are found.

He can use the internet but cannot Google himself, research weapons, porn, or his victims.

He may not set-up any social media accounts without unanimous permission from his treatment team.

He must live with his mother in Williamsburg for the first-year of his full-time release and after that, following an assessment by his team, he may reside alone or with roommates within a 30 mile radius of Williamsburg.

In addition to these conditions, the judge also issued a 103-page opinion.

On March 30, 1981, Hinckley opened fire outside a Washington, D.C. hotel as then-President Reagan was exiting the building after a speech. One of the bullets punctured the president's lung and barely missed his heart. Another left then-White House press secretary James Brady paralyzed from the waist down.

After Brady died in 2014, the coroner ruled his death a homicide, blaming it on injuries he sustained during the shooting. No additional charges were pursued against Hinckley.

In a letter the would-be assassin sent before the shooting, Hinckley confessed his bizarre motive to Jodie Foster, whom he'd been stalking for months.

"The reason I'm going ahead with this attempt now is because I cannot wait any longer to impress you," he wrote. "This letter is being written only an hour before I leave for the Hilton Hotel. Jodie, I'm asking you to please look into your heart and at least give the chance, with this historical deed, to gain your love and respect."

Hinckley was found not guilty by reason of insanity.

His assassination attempt -- and the outcome of his trial -- sparked a visceral sense of outrage among the American public.

"There was a lot of shock, there was anger," recalled Julian Zelizer, a presidential historian at Princeton University, to CBS News' Jake Miller in 2015. "Reagan himself talked about how the law was too easy on criminals and this played right into that. There were many people who were skeptical that insanity was a legitimate defense after an assassination attempt on the American president. ... I think the popular assumption is if you try to assassinate the president -- and actually shoot the president -- you're gonna be in jail for life."

The progression of Hinckley's case, though, has been roughly comparable to the experience of others who have committed similar -- but less infamous -- acts.

"In terms of the management of insanity acquittees, generally, it is common to have this very carefully titrated doses of liberty approach, with gradual doses of freedom and a fairly tight monitoring system," explained University of Virginia law professor Richard Bonnie, who specializes in mental health and criminal law. "That is the model."

Hinckley has enjoyed some degree of freedom and socializing since he started his 17-day stays in Williamsburg, where he's been spotted at book stores and movie theaters. When his leave was last expanded in 2013, the judge issued a 29-point order that laid out the terms of his partial release. It specified when he was allowed to leave his mother's home for a drive or a walk, it urged him to take music therapy classes and volunteer at a local hospital, and it required him to check in regularly with his doctors and take his medication.

(Originally published by CBS News on Wednesday, July 27, 2016 at 10:36 am ET)

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Washington (AFP) - John Hinckley, who tried to assassinate president Ronald Reagan 35 years ago, is to be freed from a psychiatric hospital to live full-time with his mother, a federal judge ordered Wednesday.

Hinckley, who was declared not guilty of the attempted assassination on grounds of insanity, said after shooting the president outside a Washington hotel that he wanted to kill Reagan to impress the actor Jodie Foster, with whom he became obsessed after viewing the film "Taxi Driver."

The court order places dozens of detailed conditions on Hinckley's "full-time convalescent leave" from St. Elizabeths Hospital in Washington, including a ban on contact with Foster, but said they can be phased out after a year to 18 months if he continues to make progress.

US District Judge Paul Friedman wrote that Hinckley, 61, no longer poses a threat to himself or others.

He will be freed as soon as August 5 to live with his 90-year-old mother in her gated community in Williamsburg, Virginia.

"Contrary to the judge's decision, we believe John Hinckley is still a threat to others and we strongly oppose his release," the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute said in a statement.

The attack badly wounded three other men, including Reagan press secretary James Brady.

Following a two-month trial in 1982, a federal jury found Hinckley not guilty by reason of insanity. The widely criticized verdict led many states to tighten the laws on insanity defenses.

Since the 1990s, Hinckley has been permitted gradually longer supervised home visits with his mother, lately lasting up to 17 days. Secret Service agents have tracked him during each such foray.

- Reagan family opposition -

Members of Reagan's family have consistently opposed Hinckley's release. Daughter Patti Reagan Davis wrote on her website in 2015 that "I hope the doctors are right when they say that John Hinckley isn't a danger to anyone, but something in me feels they are wrong."

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One thing troubling her, she said, was that while at St. Elizabeths, Hinckley had written to the mass murderers Ted Bundy and Charles Manson.

But Hinckley attorney Barry Levine has argued since 2003 that evaluations by the hospital's officials showed that he no longer posed any threat.

The attempt on Reagan's life sparked intense debate over gun violence and the treatment of the mentally ill. Brady, though left paralyzed, became a leading gun-control advocate.

A medical examiner attributed Brady's death in 2014 to the injuries received 33 years earlier, but no additional charges were filed against Hinckley.

The 1981 attack also badly wounded US Secret Service agent Tim McCarthy and local police officer Thomas Delahanty.

The conditions on Hinckley's release include a ban on contact with survivors of any of the victims, as well as with Foster.

Hinckley must remain within 50 miles of his mother's home, and cannot travel to any area where a current or former president, vice president or member of Congress is known to be.

He must return to St. Elizabeths for monthly monitoring and must notify the Secret Service in advance about his intended route of travel.

He cannot post any writings or memorabilia on the internet or display them in person without authorization.

The detailed conditions even include a requirement for monthly music therapy sessions with a board-certified music therapist.

St. Elizabeths, Hinckley's home for most of the past 35 years, opened in 1855, the first federally run psychiatric hospital. Though it once housed as many as 8,000 patients -- many of them indigent -- the aging facility is being phased out and now holds only a few hundred.
RedHawk Begins Trading on the OTCQB Market

YOUNGSVILLE, LA / ACCESSWIRE / July 27, 2016 / RedHawk Holdings Corp. (IDNG) (the "Company") announced today that RedHawk Financial Services LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Company, has agreed to acquire more than 90% of the outstanding capital stock of Mint Leasing, Inc. ("Mint"). Concurrent with the Mint acquisition, RedHawk Land & Hospitality, LLC, the Company's commercial real estate investment company, will acquire 100% of the outstanding membership interests in VJ Holdings, LLC ("VJ"), a Texas-based commercial real estate limited liability company and an affiliate of Mint.

The Company also announced today that it has received approval to begin trading on the OTCQB Market.

Mint (OTC: MLES) provides automobile leasing and fleet vehicles to the commercial and consumer markets throughout the United States. Most customers are located in Texas and seven other states in the Southeast. Lease transactions are solicited and administered by Mint's sales force and staff. Mint's leasing customers are provided from brand-name automobile dealers that seek to provide leasing options to their commercial and individual customers, many of whom would not have the opportunity to acquire a new or late-model-year vehicle. Mint currently has approximately 450 vehicles under lease and 600 automotive dealers under contract.

The commercial real estate owned by VJ is currently under long-term lease to Mint for its corporate offices and warehousing of its vehicle inventory held for sale or re-lease. The valuation of the commercial real estate owned by VJ was based upon an independent third party appraisal authorized by the financial institution providing VJ with its real estate financing.

The total purchase price for the Mint shares and the VJ membership interests being acquired consists of up to 25 million restricted shares of RedHawk's common stock, $300,000 in cash, and the assumption of VJ's real estate bank indebtedness. The restricted shares will vest pursuant to certain mutually agreed upon performance milestones.

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Commenting on the proposed acquisition, G. Darcy Klug, the Company's Chief Financial Officer, said, "At its height, Mint reported more than $5 million of EBITDA, revenues topping $50 million, and approximately 2,500 vehicles under lease. Mint's primary lender fell victim to the financial collapse of 2008, resulting in Mint losing its vehicle lease financing floor plan. Mint has since been unable to re-establish a satisfactory warehouse leasing floorplan. We believe we can re-establish the solid credit facilities necessary for Mint to resume profitable operations."

"We like the equipment rental and the equipment leasing business sectors," continued Klug. "As such, we expect further strategic and organic expansion in the area. Additionally, we believe Mint fits nicely within our diversified business model for equipment sales and leasing, including future sales and leasing of the Centri Controlled Entry System, our full-body scanner which is now in final testing."

Klug added, "Jerry Parish, the President of Mint, has spent his entire professional career in the automotive industry. He has served as both Sales Manager and General Manager for numerous well-recognized, Texas-based automobile dealerships. Jerry has received numerous Salesman of the Year awards and in the 17 years since founding Mint, built the company into a well-respected, well-recognized automobile leasing company. He will be an outstanding addition to the RedHawk management team. We are thrilled to have someone like Jerry join the RedHawk team as we provide Jerry with the management support to re-build Mint, return Mint to profitability, and re-establish Mint as a leading provider of vehicle leasing to the commercial and consumer markets throughout the United States."

Closing is expected to be completed on or before October 31, 2016 and is contingent upon completion of satisfactory due diligence, approval by the board of directors of both companies, completion of new equipment financing under terms acceptable to the Company, bank approval of the assumed real estate indebtedness, finalization of the terms and conditions of the definitive purchase agreement, and satisfactory completion of legal and financial due diligence. The acquisition is subject to a $500,000 break-up contingency fee should Mint elect not to complete the transaction.

About RedHawk Holdings Corp.

RedHawk Holdings Corp., formerly Independence Energy Corp., is a diversified holding company which, through its subsidiaries, is engaged in sales and distribution of medical devices, sales of branded generic pharmaceutical drugs, commercial real estate investment and leasing, sales of point of entry full-body security systems, and specialized financial services. Through its medical products business unit, the Company sells WoundClot Surgical - Advanced Bleeding Control, the Disintegrator Insulin Needle Destruction Unit, the Carotid Artery Digital Non-Contact Thermometer and Zonis. Its real estate leasing revenues are generated from various commercial properties under long-term lease. Additionally, RedHawk's real estate investment unit holds limited liability company interest in various commercial restoration projects in Hawaii. The Company's financial service revenue is from brokerage services earned in connection with debt placement services. RedHawk Energy holds the exclusive U.S. manufacturing and distribution rights for the Centri Controlled Entry System, a unique, closed cabinet, nominal dose transmission full body x-ray scanner.

Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward Looking Statements

This release may contain forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are all statements other than statements of historical fact. Statements contained in this release that are not historical facts may be deemed to be forward-looking statements. The words "anticipate," "may," "can," "plans," "believes," "estimates," "expects," "projects," "targets," "intends," "likely," "will," "should," "to be," "potential" and any similar expressions are intended to identify those assertions as forward-looking statements.

Investors are cautioned that forward-looking statements are inherently uncertain. Actual performance and results may differ materially from that projected or suggested herein due to certain risks and uncertainties. In evaluating forward-looking statements, you should consider the various factors which may cause actual results to differ materially from any forward-looking statements including those listed in the "Risk Factors" section of our latest 10-K report. Further, the Company may make changes to its business plans that could or will affect its results. Investors are cautioned that the Company will undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statements.

Media Contact:

Julie Calzone

(337) 235-2924

jcalzone@calzone.com



Company Contacts:

Thomas J. Concannon, CEO

(908) 625-7811

tom.concannon@redhawkholdingscorp.com

G. Darcy Klug, CFO

(337) 269-5933

darcy.klug@redhawkholdingscorp.com

SOURCE: RedHawk Holdings Corp.
From LennyLetter

In the late 1980s, when I was a newly arrived, barely solvent resident of the East Village, I had frequent debates with myself about whether to walk up East 7th Street on my way home. If I did, I would pass by Einstein's, a small boutique that to me was the fashion equivalent of a Viennese bakery, with sumptuous clothing and costume jewelry instead of Sacher tortes and petits fours. The jewelry was especially swoony. It was one-of-a-kind, big in size, wit, and personality: gold seraphs cavorting on a giant cuff, a pair of miniature candelabra earrings (complete with dripping wax), a black jet necklace with tentacles like an octopus.

There were no mannequins or display trays showcasing the goods inside. Instead, there were theatrical tableaux starring one or more dolls, hand-sewn and smartly attired. Some were effigies of fashion legends like Coco Chanel and model Peggy Moffitt, muse to the visionary '60s designer Rudi Gernreich. The invented characters might as well have been famous, too, because they were certainly fascinating: the sneering, anorexic society matron; the jolly circus fat lady; the cheery sideshow pinhead; the battle-hardened, chain-smoking housemaid. The dolls weren't about simple prettiness, yet each expressed an idea of beauty, including those that didn't conform to conventional ideas of beauty. The windows at Einstein's were a source of awe and delight, a free pleasure in a city where not much came cheap.

I never went into Einstein's; I never had the nerve. A few years and a move to Seattle later, however, I met the designer of that jewelry and owner of Einstein's, Paul Monroe. It was 1996, and I'd just gotten a haircut in a salon on a residential street. As I was leaving, I noticed a hand-painted sandwich board a few doors down that said "Que" in curling script. The sign led to a tiny boutique on the ground floor of a modernist house. There was an Anna Sui skirt in the window - and a Peggy Moffitt doll. Paul had brought a little bit of his old store's magic to gray Seattle. He and I became friends that day, and I learned that all the dolls I had seen were the work of his late wife, Greer Lankton, and represented just one corner of the singular universe she willed into existence during her 38 years.

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I never went into Einstein's; I never had the nerve.

Born in 1958 as Greg Lankton, Greer grew up in suburban Illinois. She was the youngest child of a Presbyterian minister and his wife. Fine-boned and androgynous, Greer's earliest desire was simply to feel pretty like a girl; as a toddler, she liked to put a washcloth on her head and pretend it was long hair. Even that fairly anodyne bit of feminine self-expression was alarming in those days. By Greer's reckoning, she was eighteen months old when she saw a psychiatrist for the first time. A few months later, lonely and longing for a friend, Greer made herself a doll out of hollyhock flowers. The link between life and art began there, when she was just two years old. Dolls were not only her primary creative medium; they were her stalwart friends, alter egos, and confidantes.

By the time she was in sixth grade, she was working with wire, stuffing, and other materials that allowed her to make more sophisticated dolls, some of them life-size. And she became her own work of art once when she started dressing in drag around age twelve. On the sly, Greer became a dedicated and expert thrift shopper, scouring the racks for pieces that spoke to her love of Golden Age Hollywood and high fashion. She was as determined and tenacious as any '30s movie starlet, surreptitiously glamming herself up after school and riding her bike to the local Woolworths for photo-booth sessions in glorious black and white.

By the time she was in sixth grade, she was working with wire, stuffing, and other materials that allowed her to make more sophisticated dolls, some of them life-size.

Meanwhile, she continued to see shrink after shrink in search of a solution to the "problem" of being both a cross-dresser and gay. The pressure to be someone else was unrelenting, suffocating. From the ages of fourteen to nineteen, Greer suffered through breakdowns and stints in mental hospitals that included shock therapy. Finally, she underwent a complete sexual reassignment - hormone treatment and penile inversion surgery, a procedure that inverts the skin of the hollowed-out penis to line a newly created vagina.

Sexual-reassignment surgery was even rarer in the United States when Greer had it in 1979 than it is today. In the mid-'60s a handful of American universities had established treatment clinics to perform penile inversions, a technique developed by a French doctor a decade earlier. Most of those clinics had closed by the early 1970s, and for years there were only a handful of private physicians who performed penile inversions in the United States.

According to her husband, Paul, Greer didn't want the surgery but, as she later explained, she was too worn out to fight. Greer had just turned 21 (but was still covered by her father's insurance) when she was treated at a private clinic in Ohio. Following her recovery, she moved to New York City, where she received a BFA from the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn.

Greer drew on those first two decades and her truth-is-stranger-than-fiction experiences for the work she began showing in 1981, when she was featured in the now-legendary New York/New Wave group show at PS1 in Long Island, which also featured Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring, Sarah Charlesworth, Robert Mapplethorpe, and Kiki Smith, among many, many others. The pieces she contributed to that show reflected the raw wounds of childhood, leading up to what Greer always referred to as her "sex change" or "the operation." There were hermaphrodite dolls and dolls trapped in wire cages, hunched and folded onto themselves. A series of watercolors gave a haunting account of the operation itself, from the eve of the surgery through the recovery. But the final piece of the show, a funny-looking doll named Rags, marked a beginning. She was literally made from the rags of her fellow dolls and splotched with red in a reference to Greer's surgical dressings. With her big, floppy feet and hands, bulbous two-tiered head, and messy, red-lipsticked O of a mouth, Rags was sui generis, a doll uncaged.

Greer became one of the bright stars of the '80s East Village art scene. She collaborated with and inspired fellow artists including David Wojnarowicz, filmmaker Nick Zedd, and photographers Peter Hujar, David Armstrong, and Nan Goldin. She made art that was ahead of its time in its exploration of the body, gender, and sexuality; art that no one else could have made. She made dolls of her heroes and friends who flouted social and cultural norms; Warhol superstar Candy Darling and Divine were favorite subjects, and there were dolls of local luminaries like drag performance artist Ethyl Eichelberger and transgender supermodel Teri Toye.

Greer became one of the bright stars of the '80s East Village art scene.

She and Paul became partners in life and work in 1983. They were uncannily well-matched, with creative and personal sensibilities that were of a piece: beauty resided in difference, too much was exactly right, and freak flags were made to be flown high. When they married in 1987, Greer created the bride and groom dolls for the top of the wedding cake. The dolls smile blissfully and hold hands: Greer, yellow-blonde and sexy in her mother's wedding dress, which she had altered to be form-fitting and partially sheer; Paul, green-haired and chic in a black turtleneck, white jacket, and black vinyl pants.

For nearly a decade, Einstein's was an ongoing platform for Greer's art, and fashion players noticed. Barneys commissioned her to make life-size dolls of Anna Wintour and Diana Vreeland for a window display saluting Vogue. As AIDS began to decimate New York's arts communities, Greer responded with anguished yet disciplined work, including masks and sculptures that evoked the ravaged bodies of people she loved.

Her own health began to decline in the 1990s, and she moved back to the Chicago area. But she continued working and achieved important recognition when she was included in the Whitney Biennial and Venice Biennale of 1995. She summed up her life in what would be her final work, a massive installation called It's all about ME, Not You, a doll-studded re-creation of her Chicago apartment. She died a few weeks after attending the show's opening at the Mattress Factory museum in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The Mattress Factory put the show on permanent display in 2009.

Finally, I was seeing all these works that I'd heard about for so many years: Princess Pamela, Aunt Ruth, Candy Darling, and Jackie O. The little wire cages with dolls trapped inside. And so much more. It left me speechless. And wishing like hell that I'd had the nerve to walk into Einstein's back in 1988.She didn't have an easy life, but Greer was loved: by her friends and her peers, and most of all by her husband, Paul. Since her death, Paul has worked nonstop to keep her memory alive and bring her work to the public. Those efforts took a big step forward in 2014, when he worked with the small nonprofit New York gallery Participant to mount the first posthumous retrospective of Greer's work. For nearly twenty years, Paul has been one of my closest friends, and I wanted to be there to support him on this milestone occasion. I flew from California to New York for opening night.

Greer's work will be featured in the Museum of the City of New York's upcoming Gay Gotham exhibition, opening October 7, 2016. In 2017, she will be featured in a group show at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. Photos of It's all about ME, Not Youcan be seen on the Mattress Factory website. Photos of Greer and her art can be seen anytime at greerlankton.com.

Meredith Osborne is a freelance writer based in San Francisco.
RenaissanceRe Holdings Ltd.s RNR second-quarter 2016 operating earnings per share of $1.55 missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $2.01 by 22.9%. The bottom line plunged 29% year over year.

The downside can be attributed to a rise in total expense, including claim expenses and underwriting expenses, which offset revenue growth. The Texas hailstorms and the Fort McMurray wildfire were primarily responsible for higher cliam expenses.



Including non-recurring items, the company reported net income of $3.22 per share, up 102% year over year from $1.59 in the year-ago quarter.



RenaissanceRes operating revenue of $408 million declined 2.6% year over year on 7.4% lower net premiums earned. The top line also missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $419 million by 2.6%.



Underwriting income plunged roughly 31% year over year to $63.6 million, attributable to higher net claims and claim expenses and underwriting expenses driven by catastrophe events. Combined ratio increased 670 basis points (bps) to 81.9%.



Gross premiums written of $1.6 billion jumped 23% year over year.



RenaissanceRe reported total investment result of $123.8 million in the quarter as against $11.3 million a year ago. The improvement was supported by net unrealized gains in fixed maturity investments trading and an increase in net investment income.



During the quarter, RenaissanceRe witnessed a 1.3% year-over-year decline in total expenses to $304 million. This was mainly due to lesser net claims and claim expenses, operational expenses and corporate expenses.



Segment Update



Catastrophe Reinsurance: Gross premiums written were $397.4 million, up 3% year over year.

Underwriting income was $50.6 million, down 23% year over year. Combined ratio increased 480 bps year over year to 64.3%.



Specialty Reinsurance: Gross premiums written were $200 million, up 25% from the prior-year quarter. This was largely due to significant growth in credit and casualty business lines.



Underwriting income came in at $15.4 million as against $22.5 million in the year-ago quarter. Combined ratio increased 330 bps to 88.8%.



Lloyds: Gross premiums written were $160.9 million, up 38% from the year-ago quarter. This upside is attributable to solid performance across all business lines under Lloyd.

The Lloyd segment reported an underwriting loss of $2.3 million, narrower than a loss of $5.9 million in the second quarter of 2015. Combined ratio for the quarter was 103.1% compared with 90.4% a year ago.



Financial Position



As of Jun 30, 2016, total asset of RenaissanceRe was $12.5 billion, up from $11.5 billion as of Dec 31, 2015. The company had a total debt burden of $954.6 million as of Jun 30, 2016 compared with $960.5 million as of Dec 31, 2015.



Cash and cash equivalents came in at $455.5 million as of Jun 30, 2016, down from $506.9 million as of Dec 31, 2015. Shareholders equity at RenaissanceRe totaled $4.70 billion at the end of the quarter, higher than $4.73 billion at the end of 2015.



RenaissanceRes annualized operating return on average common equity or ROCE was 6.1% as of Jun 30, 2016. This represents a decline of 300 bps from Dec 31, 2015.



Tangible book value per common share plus accumulated dividends increased 2.8% year over year to $113.07 in the quarter.



Share Buyback



RenaissanceRe repurchased 1.7 million shares for $187.1 million.

Subsequent to the second quarter through Jul 25, 2016, the company repurchased another 0.3 million shares for $33.1 million.

RENAISSANCERE Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise

RENAISSANCERE Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise | RENAISSANCERE Quote

Zacks Rank



RenaissanceRe currently carries a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell).



Performance of Other Insurers



Among other property and casualty insurers that have reported their second-quarter earnings so far, the bottom line at RLI Corp. RLI and Progressive Corp. PGR missed their respective Zacks Consensus Estimates, while First American Financial Corporations FAF earnings beat the same.

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PARIS (Reuters) - Renault (RENA.PA) on Wednesday said it had cut the bonus of Chief Executive and Chairman Carlos Ghosn by 20 percent to an amount equal to 120 percent of his annual remuneration.

However, the company added that Ghosn's bonus could reach a maximum amount equal to 180 percent of his salary in the event Renault outperformed.

Ghosn also told the board he would give 1 million euros (1 million pounds)from his bonus to Renault's foundation.

(Reporting by Astrid Wendlandt, editing by Richard Lough)
We are in the busiest week of the current-reporting cycle and the week represents one of full activity from residential real estate investment trusts (REIT) earnings perspective also.



In fact, results from the big shots like AvalonBay Communities, Inc. AVB, Equity Residential EQR and UDR Inc. UDR are already out in the early half of the week. Next come Apartment Investment and Management Company AIV, Camden Property Trust CPT and Essex Property Trust Inc. ESS, that are slated to report their earnings on Thursday, Jul 28.

So far results have not been much impressive on the residential REIT front. While backed by higher average rental rates, AvalonBays second-quarter 2016 core funds from operations (FFO) grew 8.6% from the year-ago tally to $2.03 per share, but the figure missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $2.09.



Moreover, high-disposition activity in 2016 has led to a decline in Equity Residentials normalized FFO per share for second-quarter 2016, which came in at 76 cents, missing the Zacks Consensus Estimate by a penny and down from the prior-year quarter figure of 85 cents. Further, the company has lowered its annual revenue growth expectations citing elevated levels of new supply and a slow-down in high- paying jobs in San Francisco and New York.



On the other hand, UDR managed to report second-quarter 2016 FFO of 44 cents per share, in line with the Zacks Consensus Estimate. The figure was up 7.3% from the prior-year quarter tally of 41 cents and the improvement was driven by growth in same-store revenue and net operating income (NOI).



No doubt, the New York and San Francisco markets are experiencing rising supply and this remains a concern as elevated supply of new units usually curtails landlords capability to command more rents and leads to lesser absorption.



In fact, delivery of new supply in a number of markets has moderated the annual effective rent growth that came in at 3.7% in Q2, reflecting a 134-basis-point (bps) decrease from the solid 5.1% a year ago, per the early end-of-quarter apartment numbers from Axiometrics.



However, as new graduates enter the workforce and start looking for a place to live, along with renter families seeking settlement well ahead of the upcoming school year, rent growth was notably stronger in Q2, with quarterly effective rent growth coming in at 2.3% in the second quarter against 0.5% in the first.



Lets now take a look into how these three residential REITs are expected to perform, when they report their second-quarter 2016 results on Jul 28.



Apartment Investment and Management Company  commonly known as Aimco  has a strong portfolio of B/B+ geographically diversified assets situated among the largest-coastal and job-growth markets in the U.S. The company has an Earnings ESP of -1.75% and a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).



Our proven model does not conclusively show that Aimco is likely to beat on earnings this quarter. This is because the company lacks the right combination of the two key ingredients  a positive Earnings ESP (the percentage difference between the Most Accurate estimate and the Zacks Consensus Estimate) and a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), 2 (Buy) or 3.



Aimco is expected to benefit from solid demand for apartment communities. Its balance sheet is also projected to improve. However, though the companys portfolio-revamping initiative through property sales and reinvesting the proceeds in select apartment homes with higher rents, superior margins and greater-than-expected growth is a strategic fit for the long term, the dilutive impact on earnings from such asset dispositions cannot be avoided either in the near term. (Read more: Will Aimco Disappoint Investors in Q2 Earnings Season?)

Story continues

APARTMENT INVT Price and EPS Surprise

APARTMENT INVT Price and EPS Surprise | APARTMENT INVT Quote

Camden Property Trust is engaged in the ownership, development, acquisition and management of multi-family apartment communities in the U.S. The company has an Earnings ESP of 0.00% and a Zacks Rank #3. Despite a favorable Zacks Rank, a zero ESP lowers the chances of a beat this quarter.

CAMDEN PPTY TR Price and EPS Surprise

CAMDEN PPTY TR Price and EPS Surprise | CAMDEN PPTY TR Quote

Essex Property Trust is engaged in the acquisition, development, redevelopment and management of multifamily residential properties in supply constrained markets. Specifically, the company enjoys concentration of assets in select coastal submarkets along the West Coast. It has an Earnings ESP of 0.00% and 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.



Essex has a strong property base and a sturdy balance sheet. However, rising supply remains a concern. Particularly, the supply deliveries in the San-Francisco market might restrict the growth tempo of the company in the to-be-reported quarter. (Read more: Is Essex Property Set to Beat This Earnings Season?)

ESSEX PPTY TR Price and EPS Surprise

ESSEX PPTY TR Price and EPS Surprise | ESSEX PPTY TR Quote

Stay tuned! Check back on our full write-up on earnings releases of these stocks.



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 EPS numbers presented in this write up represent FFO per share.



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Now, we are at the peak of second-quarter earnings releases with companies in various spaces including Real estate investment trust (REIT) having reported their results. To date, all categories of REITs have come up with their earnings numbers.



This week will see a deluge of second-quarter earnings releases with many companies in the REIT space reporting their earnings numbers.



Some retail REITs which are slated to release their results on Jul 28 are CBL & Associates Properties Inc. CBL, Kite Realty Group Trust KRG, Taubman Centers, Inc. TCO and Weingarten Realty Investors WRI.



According to a study by CBRE Group Inc. CBG, retail sales picked up during second-quarter 2016, and the expansion of omni-channel retailing raised the demand for space in brick-and-mortar centers. Further, amid reviving retail sales, national retail availability rate declined to the lowest level since 2008. In second-quarter 2016, retail availability averaged 10.9%, down 10 basis points (bps) on a sequential basis and 30 bps year over year. Encouragingly, in two-thirds of the U.S. markets retail availability has tightened and this trend is expected to continue, backed by the solid job market report for June and strong momentum in retail spending.



Now lets take a look at whats in store for these retail REITs which are slated to report tomorrow.



For doing this, we rely on the Zacks methodology, combining a favorable Zacks Rank  Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) or 2 (Buy) or 3 (Hold)  and a positive Earnings ESP, to predict the chances of a beat this quarter.



Our proprietary methodology, Earnings ESP, shows the percentage difference between the Most Accurate estimate and the Zacks Consensus Estimate. Research shows that with this combination of rank and ESP, chances of a positive earnings surprise are as high as 70% for the stocks.



Chattanooga, Tennessee-based CBL & Associates Properties is engaged in owning, developing, acquiring, leasing, managing and operating regional shopping malls, open-air centers, community centers and office properties. The company has an Earnings ESP of 0.00% and a Zacks Rank #3. Our model does not conclusively predict that the company will record a positive surprise.

Story continues

CBL&ASSOC PPTYS Price and EPS Surprise

CBL&ASSOC PPTYS Price and EPS Surprise | CBL&ASSOC PPTYS Quote

Kite Realty Group Trust is an Indianapolis, IN-based retail REIT which is mainly engaged in the development, construction, acquisition, ownership and operation of high quality neighborhood and community shopping centers. The company has an Earnings ESP of 0.00% and a Zacks Rank #2. Our model does not conclusively predict that the company will record a positive surprise.

KITE REALTY GRP Price and EPS Surprise

KITE REALTY GRP Price and EPS Surprise | KITE REALTY GRP Quote

Bloomfield Hills, MI-based Taubman Centers owns, develops, manages, acquires and operates regional and super-regional shopping centers throughout the U.S. The company has an Earnings ESP of +7.22% and a Zacks Rank #3. So, our model predicts an earnings beat.

TAUBMAN CENTERS Price and EPS Surprise

TAUBMAN CENTERS Price and EPS Surprise | TAUBMAN CENTERS Quote

Houston, TX-based Weingarten Realty Investors is engaged in the ownership, management, acquisition, development and redevelopment of neighborhood and community shopping centers. The company has an Earnings ESP of 0.00% and a Zacks Rank #3. Our model does not conclusively predict that the company will record a positive surprise.

WEINGARTEN RLTY Price and EPS Surprise

WEINGARTEN RLTY Price and EPS Surprise | WEINGARTEN RLTY Quote

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A retirement community recreated this Taylor Swift video and its pure joy

A retirement community recreated this Taylor Swift video and its pure joy

We cant be the only ones that still listen to Taylor Swifts 2014 hit Shake It Off on the regular, right? It is undeniably an amazing song. We were, and still are, totally obsessed with the video, too, which sees Taylor trying her hand at various different dance moves.

Another group of people who obvs still love Shake It Off are the residents of the Julia Wallace Retirement Village. In fact, they loved the video so much that they decided to make their own version of the video and IT RULES.

With an average age of 82, the clip sees the residents of Julia Wallace joining forces with staff and their grandchildren to re-create all the H-I-L-A-R-I-O-U-S scenes from Taylors original video.

This is so great!

80-odd years shake it off GIF1

Yes ladies! You rock!

80-odd years of shake it off GIF 2

Honorable mention to this guy.

80-odd years of shake it off GIF 3

The group apparently spent a week in April working on the tribute to TayTay. Most amazingly of all, according to the YouTube description the collected group had lived a combined 4000 years!

However, youre NEVER too old to Shake It Off.

Watch the amazing video below.

The post A retirement community recreated this Taylor Swift video and its pure joy appeared first on HelloGiggles.
LONDON (Reuters) - British property website Rightmove (RMV.L) said the uncertainty ahead of a June 23 referendum on Britain's EU membership had contributed to pushing down property transactions.

But Britain's third-largest housebuilder Taylor Wimpey (TW.L) said the Brexit vote had no meaningful effect on its performance in the last month, with trading in line with normal patterns, helped by government incentive schemes.

Rightmove, which posted a 21 percent rise in operating profit in the first half of 2016, said some buyers also rushed to buy homes before a property tax rise introduced in April, reducing demand thereafter.

"(Transactions) were lower year-on-year in the second quarter as a consequence of buyers having brought forward purchases in the first quarter to avoid additional Stamp Duty liabilities and due to the increased economic uncertainty in the lead up to the EU referendum," the firm said.

Taylor Wimpey Chief Executive Pete Redfern said government incentive schemes to promote housebuilding was one reason why demand for new homes was likely to remain stronger than for existing properties, which forms a significant part of Rightmove's business.

"You will see lower transactions in the second-hand market...I think a lot of that is to do with sellers more than buyers. Sellers are actually in some cases more cautious than buyers which doesn't really impact on new build at all," Redfern told Reuters.

However, the firm, which posted a 12 percent rise in pre-tax profit to 267 million pounds ($350.14 million) in the first half of 2016, said it had slowed the pace of land buying shortly after the EU vote and looked again at some housebuilding programmes.

"We haven't actively slowed our programmes on any sites but we'll continue to look at trading over the next few weeks," Redfern said.

(Reporting by Costas Pitas; editing by Sarah Young and Susan Thomas)
Rio de Janeiro (AFP) - Rio's mayor and the Australian Olympic team buried the hatchet Wednesday in a row that started over shambolic lodgings in the athletes' Village and veered into a bizarre controversy over kangaroos.

Mayor Eduardo Paes kissed Australia delegation chief Kitty Chiller on the cheek, handed her a symbolic key to the city and apologized for the construction hiccups at the Village, which included blocked toilets, dangerous wiring and leaks.

"I saw the things. This was the worst building. I recognize the problems you faced," a repentant Paes said.

Paes' speech was a far cry from his apparently combative reaction Sunday after Chiller publicly lambasted the accommodations as the worst she'd seen in a career spanning five Olympics.

The mayor's quip that a kangaroo should be sent to make the Australians feel better did not go down well, being widely interpreted as a jibe and quickly surfacing on Twitter as #kangaroogate.

Paes explained that he'd not meant any harm. "I wanted to make fun of Australia because of the kangaroo," he said, offering "a formal apology -- almost a diplomatic thing."

Earlier Wednesday, Paes said in an interview on Globo television that he'd simply made "a bad joke."

Chiller, flanked by Australian athletes, praised Brazil for the hard work to repair the accommodation problems in the last few days.

"So very happy to be here, happy for the Village that you provided, for the beautiful city, and the people," she said.

"This is something we have noticed when we had our challenges: the passion and the commitment of your people to help us out," she said.

Showing that they've also decided the kangaroo controversy should be sent hopping, the tongue-in-cheek Australians have taken Paes' advice and stationed a large replica of the iconic animal outside their front door, along with an emu.

And just so that Paes didn't leave empty handed after he presented the symbolic key, Chiller gave him a present of her own: a stuffed kangaroo.

Story continues

The Olympic Games -- the first to be held in South America -- are to open on August 5, less than two weeks away.

The initial lack of preparedness in the Olympic Village was another embarrassing blow for host Brazil, which is struggling to show it can cope with the Olympic pressure during a severe recession and political crisis.

It is already facing questions over low ticket sales, public apathy, fears over the Zika virus, and a spike in street crime as police complain of lack of resources.
1951 Then Princess Elizabeth II and Prince Philip (right, wearing a hat) are accompanied by Harold Alexander, Governor General of Canada, as they arrive at Dorval Airport in Montreal. [Getty/ Paul Popper]



Kate and Wills are returning to Canada (possibly with Prince George and Princess Charlotte)!

Kensington Palace announced the royals upcoming visit in a statement, saying, "The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge will visit Canada this autumn at the invitation of the Canadian Government. TRH hold very happy memories from their last visit to Canada in 2011 - their first overseas tour as a married couple.

ALSO SEE: Throwback: Remember the last time Will and Kate visited Canada?



If the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge do return with the little ones in tow, it would mark the first official tour abroad as a family-of-four. Think of all the adorable photo ops!

Meanwhile, we took a look back at some other times the royals visited Canada. Click through the gallery above to see more and let us know what you think by tweeting us @YahooStyleCA.
MOSCOW, July 27 (Reuters) - Russia has strengthened its southwestern flank as NATO builds up its military presence near its borders and next-door Ukraine remains unstable, Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said on Wednesday.

Moscow has deployed more air defence systems in the southwest and has also deployed a "self-sufficient" contingent of troops in Crimea, Shoigu told a meeting at the Defence Ministry broadcast on state television.

"Since 2013 ... we have formed four divisions, nine brigades and 22 regiments," he said. "They include two missile brigades armed with Iskander missile complexes, which has allowed to boost fire power to destroy the potential adversary."

Shoigu said "terrorist" groups were also active in the North Caucasus.

(Reporting by Vladimir Soldatkin; Writing by Dmitry Solovyov)
* CEO calls for immediate halt to contact with ABI, others - memo

* Shareholders say they are talking to SAB management

* Board to meet in due course to weigh offer (Adds quote from internal memo, shareholders' comments)

By Martinne Geller

LONDON, July 27 (Reuters) - SABMiller has told employees to pause the integration of its operations with those of Anheuser-Busch InBev as the brewer's board weighs its sweetened takeover offer, two sources familiar with the matter said.

The pause is not an indication of the board's thinking, said one of the sources, who declined to be identified as the matter is private.

Still, AB InBev's U.S.-listed shares fell 3 percent and shares of Molson Coors, which is set to take over SAB's U.S. operations, fell 5 percent on concerns about the fate of the $100 billion-plus deal, one of the biggest in corporate history.

The world's top brewers agreed to merge late last year and for months have been engaged in back-office preparations, the sources said, aimed at smoothing the combination that was expected to start in the second half of the year when the deal was due to close.

The deal, however, has hit the rocks in recent weeks amid investor dissent over an offer made less attractive by a sharp fall in the pound following Britain's vote to leave the European Union.

In an effort to calm a stream of investor complaints, AB InBev sweetened its offer on Tuesday.

That prompted SABMiller Chief Executive Alan Clark to call for a pause in "convergence planning workstreams," according to a company memo published on Wednesday by the Financial Times' blog Alphaville.

"There should be no contact with AB InBev with immediate effect, and all meetings and calls will be postponed until further notice," the memo said, noting that it also applied to brewers Molson Coors and Asahi, which are picking up assets that need to be divested in the deal, and all advisers and consultants.

"This is another big piece of news to take in and I appreciate this will cause lots of internal and external speculation. However, please stay focused and I will keep you updated as soon as I am able to," Clark added.

Story continues

SAB officials declined to comment on the memo or the pause in integration, which was mentioned earlier on Wednesday by trade publication Beer Business Daily.

Denver-based Molson Coors, which on Monday announced leadership changes to take effect once the deal closes, also declined to comment, as did AB InBev.

MIXED RECEPTION

AB InBev's new offer is worth around 79 billion pounds, up from a November deal worth about 70 billion pounds. The steep weakening of the pound versus the dollar had reduced the value of that offer for U.S. investors, while a rise in AB InBev shares has increased the value of a special cash-and-share alternative aimed at SAB's two largest shareholders.

The new offer, which is final, has met a mixed reception.

Top 10 shareholder Aberdeen Asset Management said the offer remained "unacceptable" as it undervalued the company and continued to favour those two major shareholders, cigarette maker Altria and Colombia's Santo Domingo family.

By contrast, New York-based hedge fund Twin Capital Management, also a shareholder, applauded the raised offer.

"I'm hopeful it gets done. It should get done," Twin's CEO David Simon told Reuters, adding that he had conveyed that message to SABMiller management.

South Africa's Public Investment Corporation (PIC), a top five shareholder, told Reuters it was in talks with SAB over the revised offer, but declined to make its view public.

Following discussions with shareholders, SAB's board plans to meet to formally review the new offer.

($1 = 0.7603 pounds) (Reporting by Martinne Geller in London and Lauren Hirsch in New York, editing by Susan Fenton and David Evans)
London (AFP) - SABMiller has paused integration work with brewing giant AB InBev, according to media reports on Wednesday, after AB InBev raised its takeover offer due to the plunge in the pound after the Brexit vote.

London-based SABMiller has asked its employees to halt work on integrating finance, technology, procurement and some supply-chain functions, according to reports in Bloomberg News and the Wall Street Journal.

The Wall Street Journal said the decision was taken "following AB InBev's announcement that its revised offer for SABMiller was final" on Tuesday.

Contacted by AFP, a SABMiller spokesman declined to comment.

Belgium-based Anheuser-Busch InBev, the world's top brewer, owns the Budweiser and Stella Artois brands.

The company said it was raising its all cash offer for SABMiller from 44 pounds per share to 45 pounds in what was its final proposal.

The transaction now values SABMiller's entire "issued and to be issued" share capital at around 79 billion ($103 billion), AB InBev said.

That includes a restricted share offer that is less attractive to investors as they must wait five years before cashing out.

SABMiller said that its board would consult with shareholders before giving an answer.

AB InBev agreed in November to buy SABMiller, whose brands include Foster's, Grolsch and Peroni.

The brewer said the new offer represents a premium of approximately 53 percent to SABMiller's closing share price when news of the negotiations first broke in September last year.

The deal is expected to boost world-leader AB InBev's prospects in developing markets in Africa and China.

AB InBev's acquisition of SABMiller is in line to be the third largest in history if it clears all regulatory hurdles.

But the deal's value fell sharply given the plunge in the value of the pound after Britain's vote to leave the European Union.
By Martinne Geller LONDON (Reuters) - SABMiller has told employees to pause the integration of its operations with those of Anheuser-Busch InBev as the brewer's board weighs its sweetened takeover offer, two sources familiar with the matter said. The pause is not an indication of the board's thinking, said one of the sources, who declined to be identified as the matter is private. Still, AB InBev's U.S.-listed shares fell 3 percent and shares of Molson Coors , which is set to take over SAB's U.S. operations, fell 5 percent on concerns about the fate of the $100 billion-plus deal, one of the biggest in corporate history. The world's top brewers agreed to merge late last year and for months have been engaged in back-office preparations, the sources said, aimed at smoothing the combination that was expected to start in the second half of the year when the deal was due to close. The deal, however, has hit the rocks in recent weeks amid investor dissent over an offer made less attractive by a sharp fall in the pound following Britain's vote to leave the European Union. In an effort to calm a stream of investor complaints, AB InBev sweetened its offer on Tuesday. That prompted SABMiller Chief Executive Alan Clark to call for a pause in "convergence planning workstreams," according to a company memo published on Wednesday by the Financial Times' blog Alphaville. "There should be no contact with AB InBev with immediate effect, and all meetings and calls will be postponed until further notice," the memo said, noting that it also applied to brewers Molson Coors and Asahi <2502.T>, which are picking up assets that need to be divested in the deal, and all advisers and consultants. "This is another big piece of news to take in and I appreciate this will cause lots of internal and external speculation. However, please stay focused and I will keep you updated as soon as I am able to," Clark added. SAB officials declined to comment on the memo or the pause in integration, which was mentioned earlier on Wednesday by trade publication Beer Business Daily. Denver-based Molson Coors, which on Monday announced leadership changes to take effect once the deal closes, also declined to comment, as did AB InBev. MIXED RECEPTION AB InBev's new offer is worth around 79 billion pounds, up from a November deal worth about 70 billion pounds. The steep weakening of the pound versus the dollar had reduced the value of that offer for U.S. investors, while a rise in AB InBev shares has increased the value of a special cash-and-share alternative aimed at SAB's two largest shareholders. The new offer, which is final, has met a mixed reception. Top 10 shareholder Aberdeen Asset Management said the offer remained "unacceptable" as it undervalued the company and continued to favor those two major shareholders, cigarette maker Altria and Colombia's Santo Domingo family. By contrast, New York-based hedge fund Twin Capital Management, also a shareholder, applauded the raised offer. "I'm hopeful it gets done. It should get done," Twin's CEO David Simon told Reuters, adding that he had conveyed that message to SABMiller management. South Africa's Public Investment Corporation (PIC), a top five shareholder, told Reuters it was in talks with SAB over the revised offer, but declined to make its view public. Following discussions with shareholders, SAB's board plans to meet to formally review the new offer. (Reporting by Martinne Geller in London and Lauren Hirsch in New York, editing by Susan Fenton and David Evans)
Kim Kardashian brought her son, Saint West, to grandmother Mary Jo Campbells store opening in San Diego, Calif. (Photo: AKM-GSI)

Today in adorable baby news, its 7-month-old Saint West, one of the only people on Earth who could steal the paparazzi spotlight from mom Kim Kardashian. And in true celebrity style, he made his public debut yesterday in an effortlessly cool camouflage-print two-piece ensemble.

Saints unveiling has been a work in progress. Unlike the ubiquitous North, his fashion-forward 3-year-old big sis, the second child of Kardashian and Kanye West has been a bit camera shy. His glamorous mom has released only a handful of photos of her sweet son on social media, leaving fans curious as to why such a fame-centric family would keep its littlest star under wraps  and chalking it up to privacy (yes, some things are sacred, even for the Kardashians!).

Photo: AKM-GSI

But the whole family  including the Disick clan but minus aunts Kendall and Kylie and husband Kanye  hit the road yesterday to attend the San Diego store opening and birthday of baby Saints great-grandmother, Mary Jo Campbell. Though she lives her life out of the spotlight in La Jolla, matriarch Campbell  Kris Jenners mom and a style icon in her own right  has made sporadic appearances on Keeping Up With the Kardashians. Yesterdays outing was being filmed for the 12th season of the series.

Kim stepped out in a black, skintight outfit and strappy heels  clearly proud to show off the fact that shes back to her goal weight of 120 pounds. Kourtney was also camera-ready in crisp, white, wide-leg pants and statement-making platform shoes, while Khloe went the high-fashion route in a leopard-print tank, ripped jeans, stilettos, and a black trench coat. Great grandma Campbell hosted the opening in a tweed romper and lemon-yellow blazer.

Photo: AKM-GSI

The little kids were casual-cool in T-shirts, shorts, sundresses, and sneakers. North, ever the girly girl, topped her denim cut-offs look with a pretty pearl necklace.

As photogenic as his lookalike sibling, handsome little Saint kept a cool head as cameras swirled and he was passed from his mom to his doting grandmother and aunts. Clearly a content baby, he even smiled for the cameras a few times.

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Just a few days ago, Kardashian revealed that her baby boy said his first words  but she wasnt too crazy about what came out. According to Yahoo Celebrity, Kardashian told E! News, He said dada today, three times and I was like what?, she said. Kanye was so excited. He was like I told him to say that. I was like, I just really wanted him to say momma first. (Not to burst your bubble, Kanye, but according to Yahoo News, the sound da might simply be the easiest for a baby to make  and might not mean hes calling for his papa at all!)

In his first-ever public photo, shared to his moms website and Instagram, a cherubic-looking Saint is wearing a simple, cream-colored thermal top and lounging on a matching duvet. Kardashian wrote on her site, Today is my dads birthday. I know theres nothing more in the world he would have wanted than to meet his grandchildren. So I wanted to share this pic of Saint with you all.

SAINT WEST A photo posted by Kim Kardashian West (@kimkardashian) on Feb 22, 2016 at 8:57am PST

But Saint has some pretty chic shoes to fill if he wants to compete with sister North for the sartorial spotlight  particularly the burgundy Doc Martens boots she wore with her faux-leopard fur jacket or her red high-top Yeezys  her dads signature kicks. Mom and Dad have matching sneakers, and we think theres room in this photo for just one more pair:

#Famleezys!!! A photo posted by Kim Kardashian West (@kimkardashian) on Feb 15, 2014 at 3:01pm PST

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PHILADELPHIA  Shortly after the Democratic National Convention officially nominated Hillary Clinton for president, dozens of delegates loyal to Sen. Bernie Sanders streamed out of the Wells Fargo Center and into one of the tents outside that serves as a press filing center for the convention.

Many of the delegates are engaged in a "silent protest," with gags or tape over their mouths. Others are giving press interviews about their dissatisfaction.

This presented a significant contrast to the mood of comity inside the arena, where Sanders moved to name Clinton as the party's nominee, to cheers from his supporters and hers. Unlike on Monday, there was no significant booing at mentions of Clinton's name.

In total, Clinton received the support of 2,838 delegates to 1,843 for Sanders.

Police closed off press access to the tents, which are ordinarily supposed to be closed to delegates, in an effort to keep protesting delegates outside.

NOW WATCH: Watch Bernie Sanders get booed for telling supporters to vote for Hillary Clinton





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Apparently, not everyone was a fan of Sarah Silverman's passionate speech at the Democratic National Convention on Monday.

The 45-year-old comedian took to Twitter on Wednesday to clarify that a tweet from her verified Twitter account linking to an anti-Hillary Clinton video wasn't actually posted by her. "America, are you awakening? #Hilary4Prison," the now-deleted post read.

"MY TWITTER ACCT GOT HACKED THIS IS NOT ME," Silverman clarified.

Twitter

NEWS: Susan Sarandon Calls Gif of Her Looking Miserable at the DNC 'Accurate'

Silverman, who was an outspoken Bernie Sanders supporter throughout the election, spoke out at the DNC in support of Clinton. At the end of her speech, she came back to the mic to call out Sanders supporters who were booing.

"To the 'Bernie or Bust Crowd,'" she declared. "You're being ridiculous."

Still, she gave a shout-out to Sanders on Twitter on Monday, posting a picture of the Vermont senator rallying the crowd at the DNC.

"#BERNIE," she captioned the snap.

"I will vote for Hillary with gusto, as I continue to be inspired and moved to action by the ideals set forth by Bernie, who will never stop fighting for us," she also said during her speech. "I am proud to be a part of Bernie's movement and a vital part of that movement, and a vital part of that movement is making sure Hillary Clinton is the next president of the United States."

WATCH: Michelle Obama Gives Emotional Speech About Raising Her Daughters in the White House at the DNC

Silverman isn't the only celeb speaking out at the DNC in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Demi Lovato got candid about her own struggle with metal health issues, and the important role politicians play in ensuring everyone gets access to help.

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"Like millions of Americans I am living with mental illness, but I'm lucky. I had the resources and support to get treatment at a top facility," Lovato shared. "Unfortunately, too many Americans from all walks of life don't get help either because they fear the stigma, or cannot afford treatment."

Watch below:

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By Holly Rubenstein (Reuters) - British physics professor Brian Cox taught students at St. Paul's Way Trust School in London on Tuesday how to create fire with methane gas. The school is hosting a science summer school and invited the celebrity physicist, who says he hopes the project will bring in those from different backgrounds. "We often hear - it's true actually - that we have a shortage across the world of scientists and engineers," Cox told Reuters. But Cox, an advanced fellow of particle physics in the School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Manchester, noted that a shortage of engineers does not translate into a lack of interest from students. "There is no shortage of enthusiasm for students and young people when you talk about science and engineering," Cox said. The students agreed, noting that performing experiments with Cox ignited their interest in the subject. "It makes science more fun and practical and makes you want to find out how stuff like that happens," one student said standing in front of a wall filled with science charts. "Because of what he was saying it gave me ideas of what I could actually do and it helped me a lot," another student chimed. Cox pointed out that the difficulty many of the students at the inner-city school, whose demographic is mainly ethnic minority students, may face is the fact that families members haven't experienced higher education or gone through university. "They may not even know anyone who'd done that," Cox said. "Even though they're close to one of the biggest cities in the world, with lots of world class universities, it might as well have been a thousand miles away. But what this does is make those connections," Cox added. In an interview following the experiment, Cox reflected on the importance of funding and international collaboration within science - issues that have been raised since the June 2016 Brexit vote. "Ultimately it's about giving information to people about why this is valuable," said Cox, presenter of a five-part television documentary series titled Wonders of Life. (Reporting by Holly Rubenstein in London; Writing by Melissa Fares in New York; Editing by David Gregorio)
[This article was first published in the Financial Times special report and is republished with permission]

Institutional investors are lending out more bonds and accepting increasing amounts of non-cash securities  including exchange traded funds  as collateral, according to a recent report. But the practice is raising concerns among some investors some of whom are particularly concerned about the practice of ETFs accepting other ETFs as collateral.

The trends for more bond lending and less cash collateral were picked up in the latest report from the International Securities Lending Association (ISLA), published on August 27. It said the 1.8tn securities lending industry had continued to move towards sovereign debt, with 39 per cent of securities on loan being made up of government debt, up from 35 per cent a year earlier. Of the 718bn worth of government bonds on loan, 72 per cent is taken in return for non-cash collateral, up from 61 per cent 12 months before.

Among those institutions feeding the increased desire to borrow securities is iShares, the worlds largest ETF provider in terms of assets under management, which is owned by BlackRock. It recently scrapped the 50 per cent limit on securities lending for ETFs domiciled in Europe that it had imposed in 2012.

In a statement published in July, iShares said it had decided to scrap the limit to ensure clients can benefit from additional securities lending returns in funds where there is more borrowing demand.

But scrutiny of just one US Treasuries ETF reveals some decisions  over collateral  that investors might find surprising. In the 12 months to the end of June 2015, the $1.8bn iShares $ Treasury Bond 7-10yr Ucits ETF (IBTM), had lent out on average 47.48 per cent of its assets under management, generating a 12 month return of 0.09 per cent.

iShares online information about this fund states that acceptable collateral includes selected ETF units, which last week included 10 iShares ETFs, including ones tracking US property and Chinese and Australian equities.

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Andrew Jamieson, global head of broker dealer relationships for iShares, insists the policy of using ETFs as collateral is nothing new and that ETFs are a viable and liquid collateral type as part of a broad range of assets that you can use.

Ben Seager-Scott, director, investment strategy at Tilney Bestinvest, says he is deeply concerned by the securities lending programme at iShares and accused the provider of poor communication.

And Peter Sleep, senior portfolio manager at Seven Investment Management, questions iShares use of a Chinese equity ETF as collateral in a government bond fund. What happens if you have a China ETF? Maybe its liquid, maybe it isnt. What happens ifChina suspends trading on its stock market again?

Mr Jamieson insists iShares has an active discussion with clients. He says that for iShares to use its own ETFs as collateral is not doubling up on risk.

Theres no conflict of interest and theres no cannibalisation, Mr Jamieson says, although he accepts it would be a conflict of interest if iShares accepted as collateral bonds or stock owned by its parent BlackRock.

Deutsche Asset & Wealth Management is also considering accepting ETF units as collateral. Keshava Shastry, head of capital markets at db x-trackers, says: At the moment, we do not take ETFs as collateral, and will watch with interest how the market develops, he says.

The European ETF lending market is worth $26bn and has stayed flat over the past five years, according to Markit. The percentage of securities out on loan is consistently below 5 per cent, it says. Meanwhile in the US, there are some $90bn of lendable ETF assets, and between 20 per cent and 40 per cent of those assets are currently out on loan.

Mark Schaedel, managing director of Markit index & ETF services, says: Theres definitely more room to grow here. In the US, [using ETFs as collateral is] standard practice.

Other industry experts are less convinced. Kenneth Lamont, passive funds research analyst at Morningstar, says the practice adds an additional layer of complication.

For example, if the ETFs used as collateral are also lending securities, this means the collateral basket is exposed to counterparty risk  a less than ideal situation, he says.

However, Kevin McNulty, chief executive at ISLA, says that some commentators are overthinking the issue and that ETFs are a natural choice for collateral.

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NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / July 27, 2016 / SeeThruEquity, the leading independent equity research firm focused on smallcap and microcap public companies, today announced it has initiated coverage on Q BioMed Inc. (QBIO) with a price target of $3.85.

The report is available here: QBIO Initiation.

QBIO is focused on identifying, acquiring and licensing attractive biomedical assets from small private companies and academia, which lack the resources and experience to bring their programs to market on their own. QBIO believes it can add considerable value to its investments by providing strategic capital, industry resources and experience in order to accelerate the development and commercialization of life science assets. QBIO's initial program is MAN-01, a small molecule designed to treat glaucoma, an eye disease which affects 60mn people globally, and is expected to affect over 100mn people by 2020E. The glaucoma market is a $5 billion annual market opportunity, for which no new drugs have been approved in approximately 20 years. The company acquired an exclusive license to MAN-01 from Mannin Research, Inc. The technology platform is based on the research of Dr. Susan Quaggin, Chief Scientific Officer of Mannin Research. Broadly, Dr. Quaggin's research demonstrates a unique approach to treating a host of vascular diseases including glaucoma, cystic kidney disease, influenza, ebola, and others. These additional indications are part of the exclusive license agreement with Mannin. In addition to the Mannin Research platform technology, QBIO has announced its intention to acquire 2-3 additional programs over the next twelve months.

"In our view the experience and quality of management should a crucial role in the successful execution of the biomedical accelerator model. Indeed, the core value promised by QBIO is that it will be able to identify, develop, and support value-creating programs harvested from small private biomedical companies and academia, providing a conduit which would otherwise be difficult to access or unavailable to pubic company investors  and then provide strategic capital and other valuable resources to these companies to help them reach commercialization and/or a value-creating event. QBIO is led by CEO Denis Corin, who brings a wealth of experience in the biomedical field at both large pharmaceutical firms and small innovative firms in the biotech space," stated Ajay Tandon, CEO of SeeThruEquity. "We see serval potential catalysts for the company in coming months, including the pending acquisition of a new cancer palliation drug. We are initiating coverage with a price target of $3.85."

Highlights from the report are as follows:

Promising initial program targeting glaucoma

QBIO's initial asset is MAN-01, a preclinical small molecule designed for the treatment of glaucoma, an eye disease that affects 60mn people globally and represents a $5 billion annual market, according to the World Health Organization. Significantly, no new drugs for glaucoma have been approved in 20 years, despite the current standard of care being effective at stopping the progression of glaucoma but not providing a cure. MAN-01 is a pre-clinical asset which QBIO has licensed from Mannin Research, and we expect the companies to provide details of the clinical study in 2017, with the first-in-human proof-of-concept clinical trial executed in 2018.

New acquisitions on the horizon, with revenue a possibility

Beyond MAN-01, QBIO management is looking to make 2-3 acquisitions over the next year, including at least one with short-term revenue-generating potential. On June 1, 2016, QBIO announced that it entered into an agreement to exclusively license a "revenue ready," FDA-approved drug indicated for pain care associated with metastatic bone cancer. QBIO has stated that the new program is expected to provide $1mn+ in revenues in the first year following the close of the deal with a goal of $10mn+ in annual sales within 3-5 years. The deal offers QBIO an attractive entry point to access to a cancer palliation drug undergoing label expansion to therapeutic, which management expects to result in a target market opportunity of approximately $1 billion per year within 36 months of the acquisition's close.

Please review important disclosures at www.seethruequity.com.

About Q BioMed Inc.

Q BioMed Inc. "Q" is a biomedical acceleration and development company. We are focused on licensing and acquiring undervalued biomedical assets in the healthcare sector. Q is dedicated to providing these target assets; strategic resources, developmental support, and expansion capital to ensure they meet their developmental potential, enabling them to provide products to patients in need.

About SeeThruEquity

Since its founding in 2011, SeeThruEquity has been committed to its core mission: providing impactful, high quality research on underfollowed smallcap and microcap equities. SeeThruEquity has pioneered an innovative business model for equity research that is not paid for and is unbiased. SeeThruEquity is the host of acclaimed investor conferences that are the ultimate event for publicly traded companies with market capitalizations less than $1 billion.

SeeThruEquity is approved to contribute its research reports and estimates to Thomson One Analytics (First Call), the leading estimates platform on Wall Street, as well as Capital IQ and FactSet. SeeThruEquity maintains one of the industry's most extensive databases of opt-in institutional and high net worth investors. The firm is headquartered in Midtown Manhattan in New York City.

For more information visit www.seethruequity.com.

Contact:

SeeThruEquity

info@seethruequity.com

SOURCE: SeeThruEquity
GREAT NECK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / July 27, 2016 / Sarraf Gentile LLP announces that it is investigating possible breaches of fiduciary duty by the board of directors of Santander Consumer USA Holdings (SC).

On February 29, 2016, Santander disclosed it was unable to timely file its Annual Report for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2015. Then, on March 15, 2016, Santander disclosed it would not meet the extended filing deadline for its 2015 Annual Report, citing an inability to implement changes to its methodology for estimating credit loss allowance on individually acquired retail installment contracts to address concerns raised by the Division of Corporation Finance of the SEC. The Company further announced its noncompliance with Rule 8.01E of the NYSE's listed company manual as a result of its failure to file its annual report within the extended time period.

Following these disclosures, class action lawsuits were filed against the company and certain of its officers alleging violations of the federal securities laws. Those actions were consolidated and are pending in the United States District Court, Northern District of Texas, Dallas Division, under docket number 16-cv-00783. No class has yet been certified in the action. Until a class is certified, you are not represented by counsel unless you retain one. Sarraf Gentile LLP has not filed a lawsuit against the defendants.

If you are a current Santander shareholder and want to discuss your legal rights, at no cost and without obligation, please contact Joseph Gentile at Sarraf Gentile LLP (telephone: 516-699-8890, extension 12; e-mail: joseph@sarrafgentile.com).

Sarraf Gentile LLP has extensive experience litigating shareholder actions across the United States and has recovered millions of dollars on behalf of injured shareholders.

NOTE: Sarraf Gentile LLP pledges to donate 10% of any net attorneys' fees earned in connection with this matter to worthy unaffiliated charities.

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ATTORNEY ADVERTISING. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.

Contact:

Joseph Gentile

SARRAF GENTILE LLP

14 Bond Street, Suite 212

Great Neck, NY 11021

T 516.699.8890

F 516.699.8968

joseph@sarrafgentile.com

www.sarrafgentile.com

SOURCE: Sarraf Gentile LLP
FORT WORTH, TX / ACCESSWIRE / July 27, 2016 / Range Resources Corporation (RRC) hosted their conference call and live webcast that discussed their results for the second quarter 2016, this morning at 9:00 AM Eastern Time.

Investor Calendar would like to make everyone who participated on the call aware that, along with many other unrelated calls in progress, the RRC Question and Answer session was cut short as a result of technical difficulties caused by the telecom vendor.

The Company is working with the providers to enable a full audio archive of the call that will be made available by market close today July 27, 2016.

About Range Resources Corporation

Range Resources Corporation (RRC) is a leading independent oil and natural gas producer with operations focused in stacked-pay projects in the Appalachian Basin. The Company is headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas. More information about Range can be found at www.rangeresources.com.

SOURCE: Investor Calendar
One of the stars of the entrepreneur competition series Shark Tank was has offered to buy a California boy a new prosthetic leg after his old one was stolen during his first trip to the beach.

Robert Herjavec was so touched by the story of 4-year-old Orange County boy Liam Brenes that he offered to replace the prosthesis that was swiped by heartless thieves on Sunday morning.

And while the TV star and businessman was beaten to the punch after throngs of supporters offered to help the family, Liam's mother told InsideEdition.com that Herjavec insisted on giving them something nonetheless.

"He sounds like an amazing person and he still just wanted to do something," Amanda McFarland said.

Herjavec has pulled some strings at Disney and, at some point after he's fitted with a new prosthesis, Liam, his parents and brothers will be treated to a VIP tour of Disney Land.

His mother said Liam couldn't be more thrilled.

Read: Little Girl Cries With Joy as She Receives American Girl Doll With Prosthetic Leg, Just Like Her

"He's very excited, he's bugging me to go for a long time now," McFarland said.

After her son's story went viral, McFarland said a number of prosthetic makers lined up to help the family. "It's a strange position to be in to have to choose," she joked.

Eventually the family settled on California company Essential Orthotics and Prosthetics, who've managed to rush the order. Just a few days after his leg was swiped, Liam will get a new prosthetic.

A GoFundMe that the family started before they knew they'd be gifted the prosthetic will now go toward expenses for Liam and toward sending him to a camp with other children facing the same challenges. The rest will be donated to Shriner's Hospital in Los Angeles, McFarland said.

The heartless thief struck Sunday at Crystal Cove State Beach in Orange County. Leaving the leg and other items such as a camera and Liam's glasses on top of their cooler in the sand, the family hit the water.

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But when they returned, the personal items  including the leg  had been stolen.

His father, Frank Brenes, wrote on Facebook, "My four year old son is now without his leg because of these people... I am crushed."

Liam's mother Amanda McFarland told InsideEdition.com she felt angry and helpless when she heard what happened at the beach.

Read: 7-Year-Old Boy With Two Prosthetic Legs Meets Dolphin With Prosthetic Tail

"I was very mad but I was mostly just worried about him," she said. "I didn't know how he was going to feel and how it was going to affect him."

According to Brenes, Liam was diagnosed with FATCO syndrome, a rare condition that caused him to be born with only two fingers on his left hand, and no right fibula bone.

At just 1 year old, the boy had his leg amputated above the ankle at Shriners Hospital for Children in Los Angeles. To help him get around, he wears Star Wars- or pirate-themed prosthetics.

But since his custom leg was stolen, his mom said they are still working out the logistics of replacing it.

McFarland explained the most basic functional prosthetic can cost upwards of $10,000.

"Little guy has such a better attitude about it than me," Brenes wrote. "He's just like, 'I'll ask Santa to put something important on my list.'"

Watch: College Students Create 'Frozen'-Themed 3D Printed Prosthetic for Girl Born Without Hand

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Yerevan (AFP) - Pro-opposition gunmen locked in a protracted standoff with police in the Armenian capital Yerevan on Wednesday took four medical staff hostage, officials said, after a shootout left five people wounded.

Two doctors and two nurses were held after entering a police compound seized by the assailants 10 days ago to treat two gunmen injured in clashes.

"The doctors who went into the captured territory to assist two members of the armed group who refused to go to hospital have been taken hostage," police spokesman Ashot Aharonyan wrote on Facebook.

"The police are taking steps to free the doctors through negotiations."

A health ministry spokesman said later on Facebook that one of the nurses had been freed.

"Three other health professionals, two doctors and a nurse, are still being held," he said.

Gunmen -- supporters of fringe jailed opposition leader Zhirair Sefilyan -- stormed a police building in Yerevan on July 17, killing one officer, taking several more hostage and seizing a store of weapons.

Over the weekend they released the final four police officers being held captive but remained holed up inside the police building surrounded by law enforcement officers.

The group has demanded the resignation of the ex-Soviet nation's President Serzh Sarkisian and the release of Sefilyan.

The lengthy standoff has shaken the tiny Caucasus republic and sparked clashes between police and protesters furious over the handling of the incident.

Sefilyan -- the leader of a small opposition group named the New Armenia Public Salvation Front -- and six of his supporters were arrested in June accused of preparing to seize government buildings and telecoms facilities in Yerevan.

A fierce critic of the government, he was previously arrested in 2006 over calls for "a violent overthrow of the government" and jailed for 18 months. He was released in 2008.

Sarkisian, a pro-Russian former military officer, has been president of the country of 2.9 million people since winning a vote in 2008 that saw clashes between police and supporters of the defeated opposition candidate in which 10 people died.
Blues pioneer B.B. King will be celebrated by Slash, Keb' Mo', Jimmie Vaughan, Susan Tedeschi, Derek Trucks and more at Icon: The Life and Legacy of B.B. King. The live benefit tribute is set for Sept. 1 at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills, California.

B.B. King Estate, Universal Music Sued By Photographer

Rounding out the talent lineup are Joe Bonamassa, Kenny Wayne Shepherd and Joe Louis Walker. Music director for the evening will be Jimmy Vivino, joined by his Basic Cable Band from the Conan show. Presented by partners the Grammy Foundation and Grammy Museum and sponsored in part by Gibson USA, Icon: The Life and Legacy of B.B. King will be hosted by Grammy Foundation VP Scott Goldman. A pre-event VIP reception will also be held.

Chris Stapleton, Bonnie Raitt & Gary Clark, Jr. Pay Tribute to B.B. King With 'The Thrill Is Gone' at Grammys

Nicknamed the King of the Blues, King released more than 50 albums during a career dating back to the 1940s. Best known for such classics as "3 O'Clock Blues" and "The Thrill Is Gone," King was inducted into the Blues Foundation Hall of Fame in 1980 and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987. The 15-time Grammy Award winner also received the Recording Academy's Lifetime Achievement Award in 1987. King died at the age of 89 on May 14, 2015.
Aside from writing songs about war and historical atrocities, Slayer have hardly been the sort of band to dabble in politics. And while guitarist and chief songwriter Kerry King expects his fans to come to their own conclusion in November, he has made up his mind. "I'm certainly not a political analyst, but I think that Hillary Clinton is the safe, correct choice," he tells Rolling Stone.

"Trump is just a sideshow," he continues. "I'm not even going to apologize to all the Trump followers." King laughs. "I think the reason he's so popular is because he's like the politics version of WWE. He's sensational like wrestling and that's why middle America loves him."



King thinks that part of Trump's wrestling-like appeal is his ability to talk smack. "He's the biggest liar I've ever seen in politics," he says with a laugh. "I mean, most of them are liars, but he just outright in-your-face lies."

When Rolling Stone mentions that King might offend some of his more conservative fans, he says his opinion shouldn't make any difference to them. "People just have to make up their minds and not be into things because their friends are into it or because their girlfriend or their spouse or whoever is into it," he says. "People have to be individuals. ... Sounds like I'm talking about religion, doesn't it?" He laughs.

Slayer are currently touring in support of their most recent album, last year's Repentless. After a handful of dates in Europe next month, they'll return to North America in September with Anthrax and Death Angel.

They also recently announced that they had collaborated with Dark Horse comics on a new three-part comic-book, Slayer: Repentless. They revealed the covers, which they signed posters of at Comic-Con last week, via Rolling Stone.

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By Kathryn Doyle (Reuters Health) - Smokers, especially female smokers, have a higher risk of subarachnoid hemorrhage - bleeding inside the lining of the brain  compared with nonsmokers, according to a new study. Based on previous studies, smoking seems to account for at least one third of all cases of subarachnoid hemorrhage, and women suffer bleeding in the brain almost twice as often as men, the authors write in the journal Stroke. Our surprising finding was that the elevated risk in women was explained by vulnerability to smoking, lead author Dr. Joni Valdemar Lindbohm of the Department of Public Health at the University of Helsinki in Finland. Smoking may decrease estrogen levels and cause early menopause which further lowers estrogen levels, Lindbohm told Reuters Health by email. This decrease may cause vessel walls to degrade and make them rupture prone. Subarachnoid hemorrhage becomes much more common for women after age 55, he noted. In the study, even light smoking boosted hemorrhage risk considerably (for both men and women), Lindbohm said, though it decreased again after quitting smoking. The researchers studied 65,000 people in a group that had filled out lifestyle questionnaires every five years since 1972 and were recruited in random samples from various areas in Finland. The participants answered questions on alcohol consumption, history of high blood pressure and high blood pressure medications, smoking and socioeconomic status. Nurses measured their blood pressure, height, weight and blood cholesterol. The researchers tracked participants until the end of 2011. During that time there were 492 subarachnoid hemorrhages, 266 of them among women. Smokers were more likely to suffer a hemorrhage, especially women. Compared to nonsmokers, women who smoked more than 20 cigarettes per day were eight times as likely to suffer a brain hemorrhage, and men who smoked that much were almost three times as likely to suffer a hemorrhage. Former smokers had lower hemorrhage risk than current smokers. The authors speculate that the stronger effects of smoking among women would have to do with an interaction with female hormones, said Dr. Ale Algra, professor of Clinical Epidemiology of Cerebrovascular Diseases at Utrecht Stroke Center in The Netherlands. However, I think that the truth is that we do not yet really understand this observation. All smokers should try to quit smoking for a variety of health reasons, Algra, who was not involved in the new study, told Reuters Health by email. Approximately 20 percent of all subarachnoid hemorrhage patients die suddenly away from hospitals and up to 45 percent of all subarachnoid hemorrhage patients die, Lindbohm said. In addition, most survivors suffer from a range of neurological and/or psychological conditions. Female smokers should definitely try to stop smoking and treat their high blood pressure aggressively, with the help of health care providers when necessary, Lindbohm said. SOURCE: http://bit.ly/2aeXAdr Stroke, online July 21, 2016.
25-year-old jewelry thief Abigail Lee Kemp has pleaded guilty to armed robbery charges, PEOPLE has learned.



Kemp was arrested in January after nearly a year of committing armed robberies at six jewelry stores across the south, including Panama City Beach, Woodstock and Dawsonville, Georgia; Bluffton, South Carolina; Sevierville, Tennessee; and Mebane, North Carolina.



According to a press release obtained by PEOPLE, Kemp pleaded guilty on July 11 and her conspirators  Lewis Jones III, 36, Larry Bernard Gilmore, 43, and Michael Bernard Gilmore, 46  were all convicted on Monday.



The group's string of robberies started in April 2015, after which Jones and the Gilmores started training Kemp to handle robberies on her own.







"The training took place at the Gilmores' window tint shop in Atlanta Georgia," the press release read. "Jones and the Gilmores reviewed jewelry store layouts with Kemp and taught her how to handle a gun, secure employees with zip ties, and what merchandise to steal."



After her training, Kemp  described as a "nice girl" by neighbors  began entering the jewelry stores at the same time of day during each incident, at which point she would reveal her weapon and detain the employees wile she took "hundreds of thousands of dollars-worth of jewelry" and used an earpiece to keep in contact with her conspirators who maintained surveillance outside of the shops.



The entourage's hundred thousand dollar heists came to an end when a jewelry store owner reported a woman matching Kemp's in his store, but the conspirators "decided to call off the robbery and left the store," when the owner instructed another employee to call police.



Kemp was arrested at her Georgia home in early January after authorities used cell tower data and license plate tracking systems to locate her.
MADRID (Reuters) - Spanish police have arrested two Moroccan brothers in the northern city of Girona and charged them with helping to fund Islamic State's operations in Syria and Iraq, the interior ministry said on Wednesday. The pair, aged 22 and 33, diverted funds from Europe to pay the costs of moving members of the militant group into conflict zones, the ministry said. Police found a large amount of money and telephone information at the brothers' home, which they hope will yield details on Islamic State's financing networks from Spain, the ministry said. The arrests will help neutralize one of the financial support structures Islamic State has in Europe, it added. The two otherwise unidentified men, who are charged with financing terrorism, collaboration with a terrorist group and indoctrination, sent money to Islamic State administrators operating under false identities, it said. The investigation was the first in Spain to uncover concrete evidence of money transfers into Islamic State accounts from Europe. A third brother who traveled to Syria with his wife and two sons had since died, the ministry said. Including Wednesday's arrests, Spain has detained close to 30 people so far this year with suspected links to Islamist militants. (Reporting by Paul Day; Editing by John Stonestreet and Hugh Lawson)
SPDR has launched a European variant of its flagship US-listed S&P 500 ETF, but whether or not it can replicate the phenomenal success enjoyed by the product Stateside remains to be seen.

Its American fund was the first ETF to trade in the US back in 1993, and it remains the most popular S&P 500 ETF, with its assets under management of around US$95 billion far outstripping those of its rivals.

James Ross, senior managing director and global head of SPDR ETFs at SSgA, said: The SPDR S&P 500 is well-recognised by many investors. The case for investing is straightforwardinstant and easy access to one of the worlds premier indexes tracking 500 large cap US stocks diversified across a range of sectors.

SPDR, the ETF arm of State Street Global Advisors, has been making a concerted push into the European market over the past year, with its most recent new launches less than a month ago.

However, the new product already has a substantial amount of competitionrather than the first mover advantage it enjoyed in the US, its European fund comes as more of a last mover. Europes top three ETF providersiShares, Lyxor and db X-trackersall have S&P 500 ETFs, as do a number of other providers, such as Amundi, ComStage, Easy ETF and HSBC.

The total expense ratio on SPDRs European ETF may go some way towards setting it apart from the crowdat 0.15 percent it is lower the equivalent offerings from iShares, Lyxor and db X-trackers.

In addition, the new ETF will be managed by the same team that has overseen the US product for the past 19 years.

The fund uses physical replication and is listed on Deutsche Boerse and the London Stock Exchange.

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Permalink |  Copyright 2016 ETF.com. All rights reserved
GOP House Speaker Paul Ryan and other Republicans on Wednesday denounced Russias potential involvement in the U.S. presidential election without specifically criticizing GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump, who earlier called on Russia to hack Hillary Clintons emails.

Russia is a global menace led by a devious thug. Putin should stay out of this election, said Brendan Buck, spokesman for Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan, in an email.

Trumps press conference on Wednesday morning came amid an FBI investigation into a hack of Democratic National Committee files by the Russian government.

Russia, if youre listening, I hope youre able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing, Trump said at the press conference in Doral, Florida. I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press. Lets see if that happens.

He later repeated a more refined argument on Twitter.

If Russia or any other country or person has Hillary Clinton's 33,000 illegally deleted emails, perhaps they should share them with the FBI!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 27, 2016

Ohio Governor and former presidential candidate John Kasich criticized Clintons use of a private email server as Secretary of State, while also cautioning that Putin is not our friend.

.@hillaryclinton put our security at risk, but Putin is not our friend; foreign meddling in US elections cannot be tolerated, Kasich said on Twitter.

Newt Gingrich, a Trump supporter, called the statement a joke and refuted the notion that it was a national security issue, as Clintons campaign quickly argued.

The media seems more upset by Trumps joke about Russian hacking than by the fact that Hillarys personal server was vulnerable to Russia, Gingrich said on Twitter. Since Hillary promised us she only deleted 33,000 personal emails how can it be a national security issue if someone releases them?

Story continues

Trump communications adviser Jason Miller, meanwhile, sought to clarify Trumps comments and accused Democrats of trying to change the subject.

Trump was clearly saying that if Russia or others have Clintons 33,000 illegally deleted emails, they should share them w/ FBI immed, he said, arguing that Trump did not call on, or invite, Russia or anyone else to hack Hillary Clintons e-mails today.

Trumps running mate Indiana Gov. Mike Pence took a different tack, promising serious consequences if Russia was, in fact, responsible for the hack.

The FBI will get to the bottom of who is behind the hacking, Pence said in a statement. If it is Russia and they are interfering in our elections, I can assure you both parties and the United States government will ensure there are serious consequences.
The line-up for the 41st Toronto International Film Festival has now been unveiled. Plenty of pictures on the bill at this year's event have high hopes for the 2017 Oscars. In fact, some of the films set to screen at the 2016 edition of the Canadian festival could turn out to be next year's Academy Award winners.

The 2015 Toronto Film Festival line-up included "The Danish Girl," "Room," "Spotlight," "Brooklyn," "Sicario" and "Son of Saul," all of which ended up in the running for gongs at the 2016 Oscars. The 41st edition of the Canadian event could therefore reveal some of the potential contenders for the American Academy's much coveted golden statues.

"The Birth of a Nation," one of the major favorites

After causing a sensation at Sundance at the beginning of the year, Nate Parker's historical drama is the film on everyone's lips when it comes to Oscars predictions. The period drama about a slave who led a rebellion during the American Civil War will be presented at Toronto in September before its US release October 7.

Other films picked for Toronto with strong potential for a place at upcoming awards ceremonies include "La La Land," a musical from Damien Chazelle. After scoring Oscars success with "Whiplash," the director is back with a story of romance between Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone and J.K. Simmons. Hopes are high for this movie, which has also been picked to open the Venice Film Festival, August 31.

Actors hoping for an Oscar

"Nocturnal Animals," a new film from Tom Ford ("A Single Man"), could offer Amy Adams and Jake Gyllenhaal a chance to enter the running for the 2017 Oscars. The actress will also be seen in "Arrival," which marks Denis Villeneuve's return to Toronto after last year's screening of "Sicario." Plus, Casey Affleck is often tipped for his role in "Manchester by the Sea." Two actresses already accustomed to the glitz and glam of major awards ceremonies -- Nicole Kidman and Rooney Mara -- will be hoping to bag nominations with "Lion," along with Lupita Nyong'o and David Oyelowo for "Queen of Katwe," Woody Harrelson in the role of US President Lyndon Johnson in "LBJ," and Joseph Gordon-Levitt in "Snowden."

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From Cannes to Toronto

A host of films screened at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival back in May have been picked for the Toronto event. These include "Loving" from Jeff Nichols -- expected to be well placed in the Oscars running, "Paterson" from Jim Jarmusch, "Toni Erdmann" from German filmmaker Maren Ade, "American Honey" from Andrea Arnold, "The Handmaiden" from Park Chan-Wook and "The Salesman" from Asghar Farhad, which received two awards from George Miller's jury.

The 41st Toronto International Film Festival opens September 8 with Antoine Fuqua's western "The Magnificent Seven," starring Denzel Washington, Chris Pratt and Ethan Hawke.

The full festival program is available here: Tiff.net
By Simon Jessop

LONDON (Reuters) - Wealth manager St James's Place posted a forecast-beating rise in funds under management in the first half of the year after record second-quarter net inflows, sending its shares up 6 percent to a two-month high.

The group has benefited from strong demand for its face-to-face advice from savers looking to better invest their money amid a number of changes to the pensions and savings system, and said on Wednesday the trend had continued since January.

"Whilst the UK's decision to leave the EU has created a period of economic uncertainty ... the challenges and responsibilities that many people face when considering how to manage their wealth, and the ever-changing tax considerations, remain," Chief Executive David Bellamy said in a statement.

Bellamy said the group had seen no negative impact from the June 23 vote and would be looking for opportunities to hire staff and expand its network of advisers as the industry fallout becomes clearer.

"Our stated objective is to grow the business between 15 and 20 percent per annum and since the 24th of June, our business has continued very much in line with those medium-term objectives," Bellamy told Reuters.

The company posted net inflows of 3.1 billion pounds, up 15 percent from the previous year and beating a company-supplied consensus forecast of 2.7 billion, helped by a record 25 percent rise in inflows in the second quarter.

That pushed total funds under management to 65.6 billion pounds and cash reserves to 94.4 million, comfortably beating consensus estimates of 84.9 million and helping underpin a 15 percent increase in the interim dividend.

By 0713 GMT the stock was up 6 percent at 937 pence, making it the leading gainer in the blue-chip FTSE 100.

Calling the results a beat across almost all metrics, Shore Capital analyst Eamonn Flanagan reiterated a "buy" recommendation and said he expected the market to respond favourably to "overall excellent delivery".

(Editing by Sinead Cruise and David Holmes)
Star Wars is in serious trouble after the accident that almost killed Han Solo IRL

Star Wars is in serious trouble after the accident that almost killed Han Solo IRL

You likely already know the fate of the beloved Han Solo.

If you dont, I highly suggest you stop everything youre doing right now (including reading this article) and watch Star Wars: The Force Awakens in as few parsecs as possible.

But even the most avid Star Wars fans may not know that Han Solos tragic fate was nearly mirrored on set by Harrison Ford thanks to an extremely dangerous accident.

A court is finally hearing about an extremely scary accident that happened during The Force Awakens filming. Apparently, Ford was on board the Millenium Falcon (or, at least, the set of his famous starship) when a heavy door accidentally fell down on him, crushed, and trapped him. The accident left him a number of terrifying injuries including a broken leg and dislocated ankle. Yet despite all that, he was apparently in good humor and even cracking jokes with the rest of the crew on set after the accident.

The silver lining in the incident was that at least an emergency stop was activated before any irreparable damage could be done.

Despite his injuries, Ford was completely healed and (at least according to the director J.J. Abrams) seemed better than ever within a few months.

The company in charge of the films behind-the-scenes safety, Foodles Production (which is also owned by Disney), has apparently plead guilty to two of the counts theyre being charged with and are basically admitting that they breached some important health and safety regulations. Though they wont be sentenced until August 22, they will likely plead that the actor was in much less danger than it seemed.

A Health and Safety executive for the British government (where The Force Awakens and Episode VIII were both filmed) asserted that theyre committed to safety.

The government released an official statement saying, The British film industry has a world-renowned reputation for making exceptional films. Managing on-set risks in a sensible and proportionate way for all actors and staff  regardless of their celebrity status  is vital to protecting both on-screen and off-screen talent, as well as protecting the reputation of the industry.

Were just glad everybody is OK and hope that they all stay safe on and offscreen as they tell these epic stories of galaxies far, far away.

The post Star Wars is in serious trouble after the accident that almost killed Han Solo IRL appeared first on HelloGiggles.
Los Angeles (AFP) - Hollywood actors and music stars, from Lena Dunham to Moby, have signed a petition against what they say is the "hateful ideology" of Republican White House hopeful Donald Trump.

"We are a coalition of artists who, today, are joining millions of Americans in our commitment to defeat the presumptive Republican nominee for president, Donald Trump," the online pledge reads.

"We believe it is our responsibility to use our platforms to bring attention to the dangers of a Trump presidency, and to the real and present threats of his candidacy."

Among the hundred stars on board include actors Kerry Washington, Julianne Moore, Patricia Arquette, Jane Fonda and Woody Harrelson, and music stars Russell Simmons, Michael Stipe and DJ Spooky.

Keen to throw a spotlight on potential threats posed by Trump, they warned that the billionaire real estate mogul "wants to take our country back to a time when fear excused violence, when greed fueled discrimination, and when the state wrote prejudice against marginalized communities into law."

US voters, the group said, should "use the power of our voice and the power of our vote to defeat Donald Trump and the hateful ideology he represents."

Americans will vote for president on November 8.
real estate fancy house

Eight years after the subprime crisis, news of a startup bringing institutional real-estate exposure to individual investors may be met with some skepticism.

But Michael Burry, the hedge fund manager who foresaw the housing market's nosedive and was immortalized in the movie "The Big Short," clearly doesn't think so.

He was an early investor in a new real-estate peer-to-peer lending platform called PeerStreet.

PeerStreet, cofounded by Brett Crosby and Brew Johnson, is applying the peer-to-peer lending model to real estate, giving investors access to high-quality private real-estate loans.

As investors diversify assets in a low-interest-rate world, Crosby and Johnson seek to take an asset class that was traditionally only available to institutional investors like banks and hedge funds and make it accessible to a wider audience of accredited investors.

To qualify as an accredited investor, a person must have an income of at least $200,000 per year or a joint income of $300,000 per year in each of the last two years.

Peer-to-peer lending is the practice of lending money to people or businesses through online services that match lenders directly with borrowers. With lower overheads and smaller fees, these lenders offer consumers a chance to get loans quickly and easily, compared with banks and other financial institutions that have tightened consumer-lending policies after the financial crisis. While online lenders often lend to those who may not qualify for bank finance, they also run the risk of higher defaults.

The modern peer-to-peer lending industry in the US really started with the launch of Prosper and Lending Club in 2006, and it is forecasted to reach over $150 billion by 2025, according to a report by PWC.

The Big Short Jaap Buitendijk Paramount

PeerStreet works with local, private, nonbank money lenders from 17 states to source real-estate loan investments. PeerStreet's loans are all for business properties not occupied by the owner.

Story continues

"Typically, the borrowers that work with our lender partners are real-estate entrepreneurs who are purchasing properties for investment, with the intention to make improvements to the homes and then sell them," Crosby said.

Alternatively, a borrower may be purchasing a property and looking to stabilize it by getting a tenant in place so that they can refinance into a traditional mortgage. "They only need short-term financing, and banks typically don't offer attractive options for them, if any," Crosby said.

The loans are underwritten by PeerStreet using advanced algorithms, big-data analytics, manual processes, and on-the-ground due diligence to filter and select the ones that are high quality. These loans are then funded by accredited investors on the online platform.

Crosby previously founded the web analytics company Urchin Software, which was sold to Google in 2005. He stayed on at Google for 10 years, building out mobile, advertising, and Chrome, and cofounding Google Analytics.

Crosby grew up in Orange County, California, and met fellow cofounder Johnson at the University of Southern California.

Brett Crosby

Johnson was a real-estate attorney who eventually approached Crosby with his idea of using technology to make real-estate financing accessible to the individual investor. PeerStreet was born.

Accredited investors can choose investments one-by-one or use an automated investment tool that matches a person's investment criteria to loans in the portfolio.

The minimum investment amount is $1,000. Usually the loans are crowdfunded to the total amount, and PeerStreet claims investors can earn double-digit returns.

The loans are typically short-term, ranging from six to 24 months, and are made across the country on different types of real-estate projects, with different originators and different property types, to create a wide diversification of potential investments.

The company opened to investors in October 2015 and has funded over $75 million in real-estate loan investments on the platform, returning over $25 million to investors so far.

While peer-to-peer lending has recently faced scrutiny in the wake of the scandal at Lending Club that called into question the integrity of the model, Crosby points to the robust and conservative underwriting platform that PeerStreet employs. There have been zero defaults thus far, but the startup is still in its infancy.

For now, "the sky is the limit," Crosby told Business Insider.

Their goal was to give everyone access to these high-quality private real-estate loans, but current regulation means that the startup is limited to only opening up the asset class to accredited investors.

"If and when regulations change, and it becomes less cumbersome to provide everyone access to our investments, we would definitely like to open up to a more all-encompassing investor base," Crosby said.

NOW WATCH: 3 Wall Street legends share one investment they find attractive right now





More From Business Insider


Peep Show is heading stateside.

An adaptation of the award-winning U.K. comedy is in the works at Starz, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.

Filmed through first-person perspective from its two main character, Peep Show centers around two dysfunctional friends who share their lives while trying to adjust to the professional world. The Channel 4 series, which premiered in 2003 and ran for nine seasons, went on to win two BAFTA Awards, two British Comedy Awards and two Royal Television Awards.

Series creators Sam Bain and Jesse Armstrong will serve as consulting producers on the U.S. adaptation. Eli Jorne (Blunt Talk, Wilfred) is attached to write the half-hour pilot and serve as showrunner. Jorne will executive produce with All3Media America CEO Greg Lipstone and Objective Media Group America's Jimmy Fox (The Arrangement) and Layla Smith (Witless). (Objective Media Group also produced the original series.)

"Peep Show gives a unique spin to relationship comedy - it's a great opportunity for Starz to innovate in the half-hour space," Starz managing director Carmi Zlotnik said Wednesday in a statement.

Starz senior vp original programming Ken Segna and original programing director Patrick McDonald will be the network execs in charge of Peep Show.

"We are hugely relieved to hand over the responsibility of coming up with the dark and twisted thoughts of two terrible men to the extremely funny, dark and twisted Eli Jorne," Bain and Armstrong said in a joint statement.

Added Jorne: "I feel lucky to be working with Starz again. And I'm, of course, grateful to Sam and Jesse for entrusting me with nine seasons' worth of insightful, darkly hilarious material that I can hopefully pass off to American audiences as my own."

The news comes just weeks after Starz moved its original programming from Saturday to Sunday evenings, which resulted in a ratings bump for drama Power. If picked up to series, Peep Show would join the pay cabler's original comedies Blunt Talk, Survivor's Remorse and the hourlong Ash vs. Evil Dead.
(Reuters) - Custody bank State Street Corp (STT.N) said it has agreed to resolve all pending litigation and regulatory matters in the United States related to its indirect foreign exchange business.

State Street said it expects to pay a total $530 million for the settlements, which would be fully covered by a previously established reserve, according to a statement on Tuesday.

The U.S. Justice Department said in a statement that under the settlement, State Street "admitted that contrary to its representations to certain custody clients, its State Street Global Markets division (SSGM) generally did not price FX transactions at prevailing interbank market rates."

State Street is paying at least $382.4 million under the settlement with the Department of Justice, to settle allegations that it deceived some clients of its indirect foreign currency exchange services, the Department of Justice said in a statement. The amount includes $155 million to be paid to the Justice Department, $167.4 million in disgorgement and penalties to the Securities and Exchange Commission, and at least $60 million to ERISA plan clients in an agreement with the Department of Labor.

State Streets custody clients, many of whom were public pension funds, financial institutions and non-profit organizations, had a right to expect that State Street would execute transactions in an honest and forthright manner, Carmen Ortiz, the U.S. attorney for Massachusetts, said in a statement.

Instead, State Street executed FX transactions in a manner that enabled it to reap substantial profits at the expense of its custody clients."

In addition, the Boston-based bank agreed to pay $147.6 million to settle private class action lawsuits filed by bank customers alleging similar misconduct, the Justice Department said.

These settlements exclude charges announced in April against two former State Street executives for scheming to defraud six clients, including Irish and British government pension funds, through secret commissions on billions of dollars of trades.

(Reporting by Ismail Shakil in Bengaluru; Editing by Leslie Adler)
(Reuters) - Custody bank State Street Corp <STT.N> said it has agreed to resolve all pending litigation and regulatory matters in the United States related to its indirect foreign exchange business.

State Street said it expects to pay a total $530 million for the settlements, which would be fully covered by a previously established reserve, according to a statement on Tuesday.

The U.S. Justice Department said in a statement that under the settlement, State Street "admitted that contrary to its representations to certain custody clients, its State Street Global Markets division (SSGM) generally did not price FX transactions at prevailing interbank market rates."

State Street is paying at least $382.4 million under the settlement with the Department of Justice, to settle allegations that it deceived some clients of its indirect foreign currency exchange services, the Department of Justice said in a statement. The amount includes $155 million to be paid to the Justice Department, $167.4 million in disgorgement and penalties to the Securities and Exchange Commission, and at least $60 million to ERISA plan clients in an agreement with the Department of Labor.

State Streets custody clients, many of whom were public pension funds, financial institutions and non-profit organizations, had a right to expect that State Street would execute transactions in an honest and forthright manner, Carmen Ortiz, the U.S. attorney for Massachusetts, said in a statement.

Instead, State Street executed FX transactions in a manner that enabled it to reap substantial profits at the expense of its custody clients."

In addition, the Boston-based bank agreed to pay $147.6 million to settle private class action lawsuits filed by bank customers alleging similar misconduct, the Justice Department said.

These settlements exclude charges announced in April against two former State Street executives for scheming to defraud six clients, including Irish and British government pension funds, through secret commissions on billions of dollars of trades.

(Reporting by Ismail Shakil in Bengaluru; Editing by Leslie Adler)
* Caixa Ontinyent is one of only two remaining savings bank

* Spain had more than 50 savings banks before crisis

* But bad loans brought them down

* Italian lenders now facing same challenges

By Jesus Aguado

ONTINYENT, Spain, July 27 (Reuters) - The patient had made an appointment to see the surgeon at his consulting room in the local hospital, but when he arrived, he told Dr Antonio Carbonell he wasn't actually unwell. He wanted to talk about his mortgage.

Carbonell works as a surgeon in the small Spanish town of Ontinyent near the Mediterranean coast. He also happens to be chairman of the town's tiny savings bank, Caixa Ontinyent.

"He wasn't sick. But we are so close to our clients here that he had booked an appointment at the hospital to see the banker, not the surgeon," said Carbonell, relating the story as an example of the extreme localism that kept Caixa Ontinyent alive.

Out of more than 50 small savings banks in Spain, known as cajas, Ontinyent is one of only two that survived the country's banking collapse of recent years.

It did so by retreating from wholesale funding markets, withdrawing efforts to attract new business, focusing on its existing client roster of mostly small savers in its home town, and ploughing its profits back into covering for bad loans.

Today, Ontinyent is thriving. Profits were up 24 percent in the first quarter of this year after growing 13 percent last year. Though its network of 49 branches would barely be noticed by a giant competitor with thousands of branches like Santander , it has slowly begun opening more.

Now, with Spain's banking trouble being repeated in Italy -- a bigger country with an even bigger problem of bad loans and an even larger proliferation of tiny local banks -- Caixa Ontinyent's success is drawing new attention from those wondering whether its formula can be repeated.

It has a simple message for bankers at small Italian lenders in a similar predicament: stay local, serve your clients and act quickly to fix your balance sheet.

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SELL, SELL, GROW

Italy is in much the same place now that Spain was a few years ago, trying to reform a fragmented banking sector weighed down by bad loans, in Italy's case totalling some 360 billion euros, compared to Spain's 2014 peak of 200 billion euros.

The Italian government wants to shrink a large network of co-operative banks, similar to Spain's cajas, by persuading small banks to merge. But progress has been slow, with no major merger in the sector yet to be completed. Economists say Italy's small banks, often with murky ties to local government and business, have been slow to open their books and reveal the extent of their problems.

But Caixa Ontinyent shows why such steps are necessary. Vicente Ortiz, adviser to the board and the visible face of the bank, said the secret behind its rebound was to react quickly and decisively when it became clear that a decade-long property bubble would burst.

"Until 2007, our plan was sell, sell and grow. But in 2008, we saw we had to quickly get the balance sheet under control," Ortiz told Reuters in an interview from the lender's recently refurbished headquarters on a shady central square of Ontinyent.

Unlike rivals which kept attracting new clients with artificially low rates on loans and high returns on deposits as they slipped deeper into trouble, Caixa Ontinyent scrapped all commercial offers. Instead, it focused on keeping its relationships with existing small savers, most with less than 15,000 euros in the bank, Ortiz said.

The result was that an ongoing client and deposit flight stopped and was reversed. Today, Caixa Ontinyent has around 100,000 clients, compared to 90,000 before the crisis. It manages 800 million euros in deposits, compared to 700 million euros in 2009 and a low of 600 million euros during the slump.

Although back in 2008 the Bank of Spain and many Spanish banks were denying any threat of a lending crash, Caixa Ontinyent became obsessed with boosting its financial ratios.

Between 2008 and 2012, when Spain's banks were eventually bailed out with 42 billion euros of European money, Ontinyent set aside as much as 100 percent of its profits in some years to boost an insurance fund against losses.

CLOSE TIES

That was key to its survival, as in the meantime bad loans had grown five-fold to more than 10 percent of its total portfolio, boosted by the excesses of the boom years and mirroring the trend that brought down most Spanish lenders.

Like most Italian and Spanish lenders, Caixa Ontinyent still has a big stock of bad loans at around 12 percent. But unlike others it enjoys 74 percent coverage on them, compared to 45 percent on average for Spain's and Italy's financial sector.

According to Santiago Carbo-Valverde, professor of Economics and Finance at Bangor Business School, the turnaround was helped by the bank's small size, community ties and focus on domestic retail clients rather than international wholesale markets.

"For four years, it was 'for god's sake let's hope nothing happens," said Ortiz, also the longest serving employee with 43 years at the lender. "But then came the tipping point and people stopped asking if we were going to disappear and instead began inquiring how they could become clients."

Still, learning the lessons of Ontinyent might not be enough to save small banks in Italy, where bad lending is more complicated to untangle than in the wake of Spain's comparatively straightforward property boom, said Nicolas Veron, a research fellow at economic think tank Bruegel.

"The main problems in Spanish lenders were their high exposure to the real estate business, whereas Italian banks are more exposed in lending to businesses and households. And that makes it more difficult to address the problems," he said.

Italy's notoriously Byzantine legal system creates particular hurdles, with long and uncertain court procedures making it hard to quickly recover collateral for non-performing loans, Veron said. Italian labour law makes it hard to lay off workers and shrink a bank's business to save it.

For now, the Italian government is mainly focused on saving its big banks, rather than the little ones, which it has failed so far to persuade to merge. But time is running out, and Ontinyent's example shows the importance for small banks of acting quickly to identify problems if they hope to survive.

"Italy may have some small strong banks too but at some point there is obviously a need for more transparency," Veron said. "One clear lesson to be learned from Spain is that you cannot wait forever." (Editing by Julien Toyer and Peter Graff)
By Jesus Aguado

ONTINYENT, Spain (Reuters) - The patient had made an appointment to see the surgeon at his consulting room in the local hospital, but when he arrived, he told Dr Antonio Carbonell he wasn't actually unwell. He wanted to talk about his mortgage.

Carbonell works as a surgeon in the small Spanish town of Ontinyent near the Mediterranean coast. He also happens to be chairman of the town's tiny savings bank, Caixa Ontinyent.

"He wasn't sick. But we are so close to our clients here that he had booked an appointment at the hospital to see the banker, not the surgeon," said Carbonell, relating the story as an example of the extreme localism that kept Caixa Ontinyent alive.

Out of more than 50 small savings banks in Spain, known as cajas, Ontinyent is one of only two that survived the country's banking collapse of recent years.

It did so by retreating from wholesale funding markets, withdrawing efforts to attract new business, focusing on its existing client roster of mostly small savers in its home town, and ploughing its profits back into covering for bad loans.

Today, Ontinyent is thriving. Profits were up 24 percent in the first quarter of this year after growing 13 percent last year. Though its network of 49 branches would barely be noticed by a giant competitor with thousands of branches like Santander (SAN.MC), it has slowly begun opening more.

Now, with Spain's banking trouble being repeated in Italy -- a bigger country with an even bigger problem of bad loans and an even larger proliferation of tiny local banks -- Caixa Ontinyent's success is drawing new attention from those wondering whether its formula can be repeated.

It has a simple message for bankers at small Italian lenders in a similar predicament: stay local, serve your clients and act quickly to fix your balance sheet.

SELL, SELL, GROW

Italy is in much the same place now that Spain was a few years ago, trying to reform a fragmented banking sector weighed down by bad loans, in Italy's case totalling some 360 billion euros, compared to Spain's 2014 peak of 200 billion euros.

Story continues

The Italian government wants to shrink a large network of co-operative banks, similar to Spain's cajas, by persuading small banks to merge. But progress has been slow, with no major merger in the sector yet to be completed. Economists say Italy's small banks, often with murky ties to local government and business, have been slow to open their books and reveal the extent of their problems.

But Caixa Ontinyent shows why such steps are necessary. Vicente Ortiz, adviser to the board and the visible face of the bank, said the secret behind its rebound was to react quickly and decisively when it became clear that a decade-long property bubble would burst.

"Until 2007, our plan was sell, sell and grow. But in 2008, we saw we had to quickly get the balance sheet under control," Ortiz told Reuters in an interview from the lender's recently refurbished headquarters on a shady central square of Ontinyent.

Unlike rivals which kept attracting new clients with artificially low rates on loans and high returns on deposits as they slipped deeper into trouble, Caixa Ontinyent scrapped all commercial offers. Instead, it focused on keeping its relationships with existing small savers, most with less than 15,000 euros in the bank, Ortiz said.

The result was that an ongoing client and deposit flight stopped and was reversed. Today, Caixa Ontinyent has around 100,000 clients, compared to 90,000 before the crisis. It manages 800 million euros in deposits, compared to 700 million euros in 2009 and a low of 600 million euros during the slump.

Although back in 2008 the Bank of Spain and many Spanish banks were denying any threat of a lending crash, Caixa Ontinyent became obsessed with boosting its financial ratios.

Between 2008 and 2012, when Spain's banks were eventually bailed out with 42 billion euros of European money, Ontinyent set aside as much as 100 percent of its profits in some years to boost an insurance fund against losses.

CLOSE TIES

That was key to its survival, as in the meantime bad loans had grown five-fold to more than 10 percent of its total portfolio, boosted by the excesses of the boom years and mirroring the trend that brought down most Spanish lenders.

Like most Italian and Spanish lenders, Caixa Ontinyent still has a big stock of bad loans at around 12 percent. But unlike others it enjoys 74 percent coverage on them, compared to 45 percent on average for Spain's and Italy's financial sector.

According to Santiago Carbo-Valverde, professor of Economics and Finance at Bangor Business School, the turnaround was helped by the bank's small size, community ties and focus on domestic retail clients rather than international wholesale markets.

"For four years, it was 'for god's sake let's hope nothing happens," said Ortiz, also the longest serving employee with 43 years at the lender. "But then came the tipping point and people stopped asking if we were going to disappear and instead began inquiring how they could become clients."

Still, learning the lessons of Ontinyent might not be enough to save small banks in Italy, where bad lending is more complicated to untangle than in the wake of Spain's comparatively straightforward property boom, said Nicolas Veron, a research fellow at economic think tank Bruegel.

"The main problems in Spanish lenders were their high exposure to the real estate business, whereas Italian banks are more exposed in lending to businesses and households. And that makes it more difficult to address the problems," he said.

Italys notoriously Byzantine legal system creates particular hurdles, with long and uncertain court procedures making it hard to quickly recover collateral for non-performing loans, Veron said. Italian labour law makes it hard to lay off workers and shrink a banks business to save it.

For now, the Italian government is mainly focused on saving its big banks, rather than the little ones, which it has failed so far to persuade to merge. But time is running out, and Ontinyent's example shows the importance for small banks of acting quickly to identify problems if they hope to survive.

"Italy may have some small strong banks too but at some point there is obviously a need for more transparency," Veron said. "One clear lesson to be learned from Spain is that you cannot wait forever."

(Editing by Julien Toyer and Peter Graff)
By Jesus Aguado

ONTINYENT, Spain (Reuters) - The patient had made an appointment to see the surgeon at his consulting room in the local hospital, but when he arrived, he told Dr Antonio Carbonell he wasn't actually unwell. He wanted to talk about his mortgage.

Carbonell works as a surgeon in the small Spanish town of Ontinyent near the Mediterranean coast. He also happens to be chairman of the town's tiny savings bank, Caixa Ontinyent.

"He wasn't sick. But we are so close to our clients here that he had booked an appointment at the hospital to see the banker, not the surgeon," said Carbonell, relating the story as an example of the extreme localism that kept Caixa Ontinyent alive.

Out of more than 50 small savings banks in Spain, known as cajas, Ontinyent is one of only two that survived the country's banking collapse of recent years.

It did so by retreating from wholesale funding markets, withdrawing efforts to attract new business, focusing on its existing client roster of mostly small savers in its home town, and ploughing its profits back into covering for bad loans.

Today, Ontinyent is thriving. Profits were up 24 percent in the first quarter of this year after growing 13 percent last year. Though its network of 49 branches would barely be noticed by a giant competitor with thousands of branches like Santander (SAN.MC), it has slowly begun opening more.

Now, with Spain's banking trouble being repeated in Italy -- a bigger country with an even bigger problem of bad loans and an even larger proliferation of tiny local banks -- Caixa Ontinyent's success is drawing new attention from those wondering whether its formula can be repeated.

It has a simple message for bankers at small Italian lenders in a similar predicament: stay local, serve your clients and act quickly to fix your balance sheet.

SELL, SELL, GROW

Italy is in much the same place now that Spain was a few years ago, trying to reform a fragmented banking sector weighed down by bad loans, in Italy's case totaling some 360 billion euros, compared to Spain's 2014 peak of 200 billion euros.

Story continues

The Italian government wants to shrink a large network of co-operative banks, similar to Spain's cajas, by persuading small banks to merge. But progress has been slow, with no major merger in the sector yet to be completed. Economists say Italy's small banks, often with murky ties to local government and business, have been slow to open their books and reveal the extent of their problems.

But Caixa Ontinyent shows why such steps are necessary. Vicente Ortiz, adviser to the board and the visible face of the bank, said the secret behind its rebound was to react quickly and decisively when it became clear that a decade-long property bubble would burst.

"Until 2007, our plan was sell, sell and grow. But in 2008, we saw we had to quickly get the balance sheet under control," Ortiz told Reuters in an interview from the lender's recently refurbished headquarters on a shady central square of Ontinyent.

Unlike rivals which kept attracting new clients with artificially low rates on loans and high returns on deposits as they slipped deeper into trouble, Caixa Ontinyent scrapped all commercial offers. Instead, it focused on keeping its relationships with existing small savers, most with less than 15,000 euros in the bank, Ortiz said.

The result was that an ongoing client and deposit flight stopped and was reversed. Today, Caixa Ontinyent has around 100,000 clients, compared to 90,000 before the crisis. It manages 800 million euros in deposits, compared to 700 million euros in 2009 and a low of 600 million euros during the slump.

Although back in 2008 the Bank of Spain and many Spanish banks were denying any threat of a lending crash, Caixa Ontinyent became obsessed with boosting its financial ratios.

Between 2008 and 2012, when Spain's banks were eventually bailed out with 42 billion euros of European money, Ontinyent set aside as much as 100 percent of its profits in some years to boost an insurance fund against losses.

CLOSE TIES

That was key to its survival, as in the meantime bad loans had grown five-fold to more than 10 percent of its total portfolio, boosted by the excesses of the boom years and mirroring the trend that brought down most Spanish lenders.

Like most Italian and Spanish lenders, Caixa Ontinyent still has a big stock of bad loans at around 12 percent. But unlike others it enjoys 74 percent coverage on them, compared to 45 percent on average for Spain's and Italy's financial sector.

According to Santiago Carbo-Valverde, professor of Economics and Finance at Bangor Business School, the turnaround was helped by the bank's small size, community ties and focus on domestic retail clients rather than international wholesale markets.

"For four years, it was 'for god's sake let's hope nothing happens," said Ortiz, also the longest serving employee with 43 years at the lender. "But then came the tipping point and people stopped asking if we were going to disappear and instead began inquiring how they could become clients."

Still, learning the lessons of Ontinyent might not be enough to save small banks in Italy, where bad lending is more complicated to untangle than in the wake of Spain's comparatively straightforward property boom, said Nicolas Veron, a research fellow at economic think tank Bruegel.

"The main problems in Spanish lenders were their high exposure to the real estate business, whereas Italian banks are more exposed in lending to businesses and households. And that makes it more difficult to address the problems," he said.

Italys notoriously Byzantine legal system creates particular hurdles, with long and uncertain court procedures making it hard to quickly recover collateral for non-performing loans, Veron said. Italian labor law makes it hard to lay off workers and shrink a banks business to save it.

For now, the Italian government is mainly focused on saving its big banks, rather than the little ones, which it has failed so far to persuade to merge. But time is running out, and Ontinyent's example shows the importance for small banks of acting quickly to identify problems if they hope to survive.

"Italy may have some small strong banks too but at some point there is obviously a need for more transparency," Veron said. "One clear lesson to be learned from Spain is that you cannot wait forever."

(Editing by Julien Toyer and Peter Graff)
By Svea Herbst-Bayliss

BOSTON, July 27 (Reuters) - Billionaire investor Steven A. Cohen is committing $250 million to a Boston-based investment firm that lets scientists, developers and students submit computerized investment models and then picks the most promising ones to manage the money.

Quantopian, a hedge fund that makes investments with the help of algorithms submitted by thousands of would-be traders, is getting the $250 million in investment capital from Cohen's venture capital arm Point72 Ventures, the investment firm and Cohen's family office said in a news release on Wednesday. Cohen is also making an undisclosed investment in Quantopian itself.

Cohen for decades ran SAC Capital Advisors, one of the world's most successful hedge funds. He now invests his roughly $11 billion personal fortune through a so-called family office and is always looking for new investment ideas.

Investments in computerized models or quantitative strategies have become especially popular this year, and many of these types of firms performed particularly well following stock market turmoil that came after Britain voted to leave the European Union on June 23.

At Quantopian, some 85,000 members from 180 countries are part of an online community where anyone can submit algorithms that might be used deliver market-beating returns. Quantopian pays royalties to people who write models that are selected.

A portion of Cohen's money, which is the first big chunk of outside cash that will be invested by using its members' models, will be allocated to Quantopian when certain performance targets are met.

Quantopian's chief executive, John Fawcett, called Cohen's investment a "watershed moment for the entire industry" and said he expects it to "propel everyone to new levels of creativity." Some of the money will be used to make bigger allocations and pay bigger royalties to people who write profitable algorithms.

Point72, meanwhile, will "benefit from an ocean of untapped talent," at the same time that Quantopian is getting strategic advice from Cohen's operation, said Matthew Granade, chief market intelligence officer at Point72 Asset Management, who joined Quantopian's board in 2012.

Cohen was forced to shutter his hedge fund after SAC pleaded guilty to criminal insider trading charges in 2013. He was never personally charged and reached a deal with the U.S. government that would possibly allow him to again manage outside money beginning in 2018.

(Reporting by Svea Herbst-Bayliss; Editing by Jonathan Oatis)
Hygiene isnt the only concern when it comes to tattoo safety  the ink itself can also be dangerous, studies find. (Photo: Getty Images)

You know the design will last forever, but it turns out you may be getting more than you bargain for when you get a tattoo. According to The Sun, long-lasting and even fatal skin problems could be part of the package.

The article references a shocking new study from the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) that finds the dyes in tattoo inks can lead to cancer. Other adverse effects include reproductive toxicity and painful itching that can last for years when the ink literally gets under your skin  and red ink is the most dangerous, the ECHA says on its website. Green, black, and blue inks are also thought to be significantly harmful.

This report could have a major impact on the tattoo industry; its likely that certain inks will be banned by the European Union altogether. As of now, the inks are not regulated by the EU, which has been asked to assess the risks, the relevant socio-economic impacts and the need for Union-wide action by preparing a dossier for restriction. The ECHA emphasizes that restrictions would not be placed on hygienic practices that could lead to infection; this would be up to the individual tattoo artist and the client to determine.

Related: Chrissy Teigen and Kim Kardashian Bond Over Accidentally Getting Spray Tan on Babies

Rick Stevens, president of the Tattoo and Piercing Industry Union, in the U.K., blames the toxic compounds found in many tattoo inks currently used in the EU on the influx of cheap Chinese inks, which are not regulated or checked for safety. In addition, U.K. tattoo shops are not regulated by the government at all, though a record number of U.K. citizens are reportedly getting inked.

The Federal Drug Administration (FDA) in the U.S. also warns about the dangers of tattoo inks. On its website, the FDA says that allergic reactions to tattoo inks can happen right after tattooing or even years later. Like ECHA, the FDA cites itchy or inflamed skin at the tattoo site, and confirms that it does not currently regulate inks in the U.S. But, it says, recent reports associated with permanent make-up inks have prompted FDA to study tattoo ink safety.

Story continues

Related: Losing Your Hair? Heres What to Eat.

Currently, the FDAs Arkansas-based National Center for Toxicological Research (NCTR) is conducting studies on the inks used in American tattoo parlors to examine chemical compositions, short- and long-term safety, and the reactions of pigments to light. The NCTR is also finding that tattoo removal procedures  in which lasers are used to break down ink  may be sending the pigment to the bodys lymph nodes, which filter out disease-causing organisms. Cancer cells that enter the lymph nodes have been found to then metastasize throughout the body.

According to the Truth About Cancer, about 10 percent of people who have gotten tattoos have suffered adverse reactions from the ink  reactions that include itching and infections that last for more than four months. The website also cites a study by Copenhagen University Hospital, which found carcinogenic chemicals in 13 out of 21 common tattoo inks in Europe, and the origins of the inks are unknown. Even the most common pigment  black  is known to contain poisonous chemicals that have been directly linked to cancer.

While the EU will likely put regulations in place soon, the FDA has not indicated that tattoo ink will be regulated in the near future and may not make any announcements until the results of its testing come through.

Lets keep in touch! Follow Yahoo Beauty on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest.
The German fund industry association (BVI) has called a push by European securities regulator ESMA to impose new transparency standards on the financial index business stunning, saying the regulator has pre-empted the conclusions of a debate thats just beginning.

In a recent letter to Verena Ross, ESMA's executive director, the BVI said that the regulators transparency push threatens to push hundreds of European index-tracking funds into costly changes in their investment strategy, while also jeopardising existing commercial relationships between fund managers and index firms.

In its letter the BVI calls for a postponement of the index-specific guidelines contained in ESMAs report and consultation paper on ETFs and other UCITS issues, released in July.

In our opinion application of the ESMA guidelines to broad market indices should be postponed until an agreement on regulatory standards applicable to index providers has been reached, says the BVI, noting that the European Commission has recently released a separate consultation document on the regulation of financial indices.

In its consultation document the Commission says that the recent alleged manipulation of key money market rates like LIBOR has highlighted both the importance of indices and their vulnerabilities.

Doubts about the accuracy and integrity of indices may undermine market confidence, cause significant losses to consumers and investors and distort the real economy, says the EC. It is therefore essential that steps are taken to ensure the integrity of benchmarks and the benchmark-setting process.

ESMA's July guidelines for the European UCITS (retail) fund sector focused primarily on increasing levels of index transparency for investors.

Here, however, says the BVI, the securities market regulator is pushing index users into potential commercial conflict with index providers, as well as increasing the costs to fund managers of regulatory compliance.

Story continues

We have grave reservations [about] the approach adopted by ESMA with regard to financial indices, says the BVI.

In its quest to inhibit replication of hedge fund-like stategies in UCITS ESMA has severely tightened the standards applicable to all financial indices, thus placing severe burden also upon traditional UCITS managers. Due to the extensive transparency standards anticipated in financial indices, UCITS managers are now in the disagreeable position of being forced to exert economical pressure upon index providers in order to retain the ability to use their products for investment purposes, the German fund association argues.

[ESMAs] transparency expectations...will not be met even by many traditional and recognized index products, says the BVI, noting that under current market practice index providers only release information on an indexs calculation methodologies and constituents after the payment of licensing fees. The fund association cites MSCI as an example of a firm levying such fees for the provision of index-related information.

In its guidelines, ESMA ruled that UCITS should not be allowed to invest in financial indices whose calculation methodology and constituent details are not fully disclosed by the index provider, and that such information should be easily accessible and free of charge on a public website.

ESMAs new UCITS guidelines are due to come into force in early 2013. The consultation period for the European Commissions index review ends on 15 November.

Write to pamery@indexuniverse.com

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Mogadishu (AFP) - A former Somali MP who joined the Shabaab group in 2010 was one of two suicide bombers who killed 13 people near a United Nations and African Union base, the militants announced Wednesday.

Car bombs driven by suicide attackers exploded on Tuesday morning near Mogadishu's airport, one of which went off 200 metres from the base, killing mainly security staff.

Salah Badbado, 53, served in Somalia's parliament from 2004 until 2010, when he declared at a press conference he was leaving politics to join the Somali al-Qaeda affiliate.

"Salah Nuh Ismail known as Salah Badbado was among the braves who have carried out the attack on Halane military base," the group said in statement released on the Telegram app and their Andalus radio station.

"He was a former lawmaker but he has repented from the apostasy in the year 2010 when he publicly announced defecting from the apostates," the Shabaab statement said.

The attack was condemned by the African Union and the United Nations, which said that none of its personnel were among the confirmed dead.

The group's radio station released an audio message purportedly recorded a few hours before the former MP carried out the attack, in which he is heard announcing an imminent suicide strike.

"This suicide task we are going to is for the sake of Allah and it is a religious duty. We have chosen to please Allah and to harm the infidels more than they have harmed the Muslim nation," the former MP said in the audio message.

Somali security officials were yet to confirm the bomber's identity early on Wednesday.

The Shabaab group is blamed for a string of bloody assaults in Somalia and neighbouring Kenya, and is fighting to overthrow Mogadishu's internationally-backed government.

Its fighters were forced out of the capital five years ago but continue to carry out regular attacks on military, government and civilian targets.
By Ilze Filks and Gwladys Fouche OSLO (Reuters) - Bored with palm-fringed beaches and turquoise seas? Then the gigantic oil platforms of the North Sea beckon. The first ever "rig-spotting" cruise just ended off the coast of Norway, and those onboard the four-day trip said it was jawdropping. "I couldn't believe that these big buildings could be made," said passenger Kari Somme, 86, after seeing Statoil's Troll A platform - the heaviest structure ever moved by mankind - towering 200 meters (650 feet) above the surface of the sea. "It's just wonderful, just wonderful. I was so excited because I didn't know much about it. So when I came here and we went from rig to rig, or platform to platform, I was amazed," she said. The North Sea is usually known for its cold and storms. The group of 120 tourists, all Norwegians except for a German and a Swedish couple, paid between 6,000 crowns and 30,000 crowns ($700-$3,500) for four days on board the high tech offshore vessel Edda Fides. The trip was organized by Edda Accommodation, a firm that provides housing for oil workers working offshore. It was looking for new ways to drum up business: oil firms are cutting costs to cope with a 60-percent drop in the price of oil since mid-2014. "There was little activity, so we used our creativity to come up with ideas. We organized this trip in six weeks," Bjoern Erik Julseth, the hotel manager on board, told Reuters by phone. The group toured oil installations at the Troll, Balder or Ringhorn fields. Right after this ended, a second tour departed for a trip further north to the fields of the Norwegian Sea. Many were curious to see Norway's oil production first hand. Oil brought wealth to a once-poor country of 4.2 million within a generation, and is still its top industry. But the bulk of the work is unseen as it takes place offshore. "Every Norwegian knows that the oil has brought us wealth and welfare that can't be compared to nothing or to no one," said passenger Arnt Even Boe, a journalist. The tourists were not allowed to board the rigs for security reasons, but the offshore workers seemed thrilled to get visitors. "Some of them fired flares or used water canons to welcome us ... We even had a rescue helicopter, with one worker dangling above us," said Julseth, adding that the company would now evaluate whether to do another cruise tour again. Passenger Nils Olav Nergaard brought his drone on the trip and said it had been "a real adventure". "To be a part of a high-tech offshore vessel, almost as a crew, and get the experience to go to the oil platforms and see them for real, that was very amazing," Nergaard said. (Writing by Gwladys Fouche; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky)
AP susan sarandon dnc angry

After being visibly frustrated at day one of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia on Monday, actress Susan Sarandon left the convention early on Tuesday by way of a terse tweet.

An outspoken Bernie Sanders supporter, Sarandon was spotted shaking her head and grimacing as speakers threw their support behind Hillary Clinton on Monday.

When a Now This News video producer captured her reaction and stated, "Susan Sarandon is having literally the worst time at the #DemocraticConvention," Sarandon retweeted the video and called it "accurate."

But on Tuesday, Sarandon took to Twitter before the convention's speeches even began to voice her displeasure with the process and explain her departure from the Philadelphia event in two succinct words: "I'm out."

Sarandon's tweet linked to a Chicago Tribune op-ed titled, "DNC betrayed Bernie Sanders and the rest of America." It was one of several anti-DNC articles that Sarandon had tweeted out since the start of the convention.

Subsequently, Sarandon replied to a series of tweets applauding Sanders' endorsement of Clinton, seemingly in an attempt to deflect attention from "Bernie or bust" supporters like herself.

So now it's up to her. Don't blame him if she loses. https://t.co/vKZwReC4ij  Susan Sarandon (@SusanSarandon) July 26, 2016

So don't blame us if she loses to Trump. He did what you wanted. https://t.co/YVIXwKOlxc  Susan Sarandon (@SusanSarandon) July 26, 2016

With two more days of speakers left, the Democratic National Convention will go on, Sarandon-less, until Hillary Clinton's final speech on Thursday night.

Story continues

NOW WATCH: Watch Elizabeth Banks mock Donald Trump's flashy entrance from the RNC





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Beirut (AFP) - Syrian government air strikes and artillery fire killed at least 16 civilians on Wednesday in rebel-held neighbourhoods in the east of Aleppo city, a monitor said.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said seven people had been killed in the Sakhur neighbourhood and another seven in Al-Ansari district.

Two more were killed in the Sukari and Bustan al-Qasr neighbourhoods, the monitor said, adding that the toll could rise because people were still trapped under the rubble.

The renewed strikes came as Syria's army officially announced it had surrounded the rebel-held east of the city.

Opposition neighbourhoods of Aleppo have been effectively besieged since July 7, when government troops advanced to within firing range of the sole remaining supply route into the east.

They have continued to advance, seizing the road itself and at least one rebel-held neighbourhood in the north-west of the city.

"Our armed forces... cut all the supply routes and crossings used by terrorists to bring mercenaries, weapons and ammunition into eastern neighbourhoods of Aleppo," the army said in a statement carried by official media.

It added that "in order to stop the bloodshed" fighters were being offered the opportunity to lay down their arms, "settle their situations" and remain in or leave Aleppo.

A day earlier the military said it had sent text messages to residents and fighters in Aleppo urging rebels to lay down their weapons and identifying "safe passages" for civilians wishing to leave.

Once Syria's economic powerhouse, Aleppo has been roughly divided between rebel control in the east and government control in the west since mid-2012.

More than 280,000 people have been killed in Syria since the conflict began in March 2011 with anti-government protests that were met with a regime crackdown.
Berlin (AFP) - A Syrian with suspected links to the Islamic State group who blew himself up outside a German music festival was in contact with another person "who influenced the attack" immediately beforehand, authorities said Wednesday.

The 27-year-old failed asylum seeker, who wounded 15 people at a nearby cafe late Sunday when he was refused access to the festival venue, had been speaking to an unknown person in an "intensive" online chat, Bavaria state interior minister Joachim Herrmann said.

"Apparently he had direct contact with someone who had significant influence on the way the attack played out," Herrmann said on the sidelines of a state government meeting.

"The chat ended immediately before the attack."

Herrmann said it was not immediately clear whether the unknown person had contact with IS jihadists, where the chat participant was, or how long the two had been in contact.

The minister revealed on Monday that the attacker had made a video pledging allegiance to IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi that was found on his smartphone.

IS later said via the jihadist-linked Amaq news agency that the attacker "was a soldier of the Islamic State".

The assailant also had longstanding links to Al-Qaeda, the IS online weekly Al-Naba said Wednesday.

Originally from the city of Aleppo in northern Syria, he joined Al-Qaeda in Iraq before returning to his country to try to infiltrate the intelligence services of President Bashar al-Assad.

When war broke out in 2011, he formed an armed cell to launch roadside bomb attacks on regime forces and later joined Al-Nusra Front, the Al-Qaeda affiliate in Syria.

He was wounded in Aleppo and left the country for treatment in Europe, where he followed the actions of IS in Syria and Iraq while planning a large-scale attack of his own in Germany, Al-Naba said.

According to German authorities, the assailant travelled to Germany two years ago but had his asylum claim rejected after a year because he had already been granted refugee status in Bulgaria.

Story continues

He had tried to kill himself twice in the past and had spent time in a psychiatric clinic, authorities said.

Herrmann said that the attacker had large amounts of cash on him and stashed in his room -- unusual for an asylum seeker.

- Mosque raid -

Meanwhile, a psychological evaluation of the assailant written in 2015 found that it was possible that he would commit "suicide in a spectacular way", noting that after the death of his wife and six-month-old son he had "nothing left to lose".

It was not clear when or how his family members died.

The Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) confirmed the written assessment, first reported by the daily Bild, and said that he had at first not been deported because of his acute mental instability.

But after he did not respond to official requests for information, the BAMF ordered him to leave Germany this month.

Germany was already reeling after nine people were killed in a shopping centre shooting spree in Munich on Friday and four passengers on a train and a passer-by were wounded in an axe attack in Wuerzburg on July 18.

IS also claimed the axe rampage.

All three brutal incidents were in Bavaria, the southern state which has been a portal for scores of thousands of refugees under Chancellor Angela Merkel's liberal asylum policy.

In northern Germany, police on Wednesday raided a mosque in the town of Hildesheim, seen as a meeting point for radical Islamists, Lower Saxony state said in a statement cited by German news agency DPA.

Officials also raided the apartments of eight members of the German Islam Conference (DIK) association that ran the mosque, the statement said.

"The DIK is a hotbed of radical Salafism," the state's interior minister Boris Pistorius said, referring to an ultra-conservative movement of Sunni Islam.

During prayers and seminars held at the mosque, calls for "hate against the disbelievers" had been made, Pistorius said.
Taco Bell Canada Crunchwrap

Taco Bell is launching a test of a Cheetos burrito.

The fast-food chain is adding the wild mashup to the menu in Cincinnati in mid-August, Taco Bell told Business Insider. The dish will contain seasoned meat, rice, cheese sauce, and, of course, Cheetos, reports Foodbeast.

According to Taco Bell, the Cheetos Burrito will cost $1.

Taco Bell added Crunchwrap Sliders filled with Cheetos to the menu in Canada earlier this year, launching Beefy Cheddar Cheetos Crunchwrap Sliders and Supreme Cheetos Crunchwrap Sliders.

But this would be the first time that Cheetos make an appearance on Taco Bell's US menu.

@tacobell is gonna start testing this cheesy Cheetos Burrito next month! || #foodbeast #tacobell #cheetos A photo posted by foodbeast (@foodbeast) on Jul 27, 2016 at 12:00pm PDT on Jul 27, 2016 at 12:00pm PDT

Cheetos are taking over the fast-food world, with Burger King's launch of Mac n' Cheetos in late June. The Mac n' Cheetos had an explosive response, going viral online before they hit restaurants.

The mashup snack is a continuation of PepsiCo snack brands' entrance into the fast-food industry. Doritos have been an industry favorite, with menu items such as Taco Bell's Doritos Locos Tacos and 7-Eleven's Doritos Loaded.

Now, it looks like Cheetos are having their moment of popularity.

NOW WATCH: We tried Burger King's new Mac n' Cheetos  and they're an 'affront to nature'





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Theyre back on TV! Black Sabbath rocker Ozzy Osbourne and his son, Jack Osbourne, first became household names when they appeared alongside most of their outrageous clan  Sharon Osbourne and Kelly Osbourne  in MTVs reality series The Osbournes, which ran for four seasons. Now they're going on new adventures  and bickering, of course  on their new show, Ozzy and Jack's World Detour.

PHOTOS: Famous Celebrity Families

Since the days of the family's MTV stardom, Black Sabbath released another record, 13, in 2013; Sharon landed a position as cohost of CBS daytime talk show The Talk; Kelly has hosted Fashion Police on E! and Australias Got Talent; and Jack went behind the camera and started a production company.



Now, Ozzy and Jack are back to star in an unscripted reality travel series on the History channel. Ozzy and Jacks World Detour (airs Sundays at 10 p.m. ET) shows the Osbourne father and son as they visit locations like Stonehenge, Cuba, the Alamo and more.

The TV stars spoke with Us Weekly about their packing essentials, favorite pit stops and the memories they made along the way!

PHOTOS: Biggest Reality TV Meltdowns of All Time

Carry-on Essentials

Ozzy: The 67-year-old took Dr. Lancer cream, Czech & Speake No. 88 cologne and an iPad.

Jack: Inside the 30-year-olds backpack: My laptop, iPad, three passports  two U.K., one U.S.  and emergency cash.

Personal Highlight

Ozzy: We went panning for gold in South Dakota, Ozzy says of the 10-episode series. And we rode a military tank in Virginia.

Jack: Havana. Growing up in America, Ive been told Cuba is this evil place, Jack says. But what I experienced was far from evil.

PHOTOS: Rockstar Romances

Navigation Prowess

Ozzy: The Black Sabbath frontman praises his producer son: Jack was able to navigate us to some very remote places.

Jack: Ozzy, he jokes, is a crap navigator. I guess when youre the Prince of Darkness  someone else can read the map.

Lasting Memory

Ozzy: At San Antonios Alamo, where he was arrested for public urination in 1982, there was nearly a riot, with 100 fans!

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Jack: The father of two recalls trying on colonial wigs, looking for UFOs and eating fast food in a hardware store parking lot.

Ozzy and Jacks World Detour airs on History channel Sundays at 10 p.m. ET.






Talend CEO Mike Tuchen

On Friday, big-data startup Talend will launch itself as a public company in this anemic year for tech IPOs, and many other tech companies will be watching how investors react.

Talend offers a service that helps a company take the data it stores in all sorts of apps and clouds, and cleans it up so that it can be used by popular big data software like Hadoop and Spark.

Talend was born a French company but its current headquarters are in Redwood City, California.

Its CEO, Mike Tuchen, joined in 2013. He was previously CEO of security company Rapid7 during its startup growth years, but left before its successful IPO in 2015. He cut his teeth at Microsoft.

The cofounders, Bertrand Diard and Fabrice Bonan still have stakes in Talend, but were out not too long after Tuchen joined. (They are doing a new startup called Influans according to their LinkedIn profiles.)

Talend has raised over $100 million in venture funding. It had 2015 revenues of nearly $76 million and a loss of $22 million. Its first quarter revenue for 2016 was up 42% over the year-ago quarter.

This is a modest IPO. The company plans to sell 5.3 million shares, is expected to price them between $15 - $17 and hopes to raise about $84 million.

Even so, the whole Valley will be watching.

A slow, but mostly successful, year

So far, there's been only a handful of previous startups to go public in 2016 and things went well for them.

This includes Twilio, whose IPO was so hot for so many days, that it was hailed as a cure for the tech IPO blues. Twilio was so hot after its IPO that when CEO Jeff Lawson attended the Fortune Brainstorm conference in Aspen earlier this month, people kept stopping him to take selfies, as if that IPO magic could rub off by association in a photo.

Part of the excitement was because Twilio is not yet profitable. The company offers a messaging/communication service for software developers (it's what Uber uses to send you a text, for instance). Its IPO busted the myth that public investors have grown weary of the Valley's crop of highly valued startups that have chosen to grow revenues at the expense of profits.

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And Twilio's stock is still trading at about $40, way above its opening price of $15.

Then came Acacia Communications, maker of optical networking equipment, which also had a successful IPO. Acacia was profitable. Its stock popped 36% on Day 1 and is at nearly $60, well above its opening price of $23.

Earlier this month, Japanese mobile-messaging app Line went public with success, too, the biggest IPO of the year, raising about $1 billion for the company, which is not yet profitable. It popped 32% on opening day before settling in close to its opening share price of $42.

This after the year started out poorly, with Dell's spin-out company, SecureWorks, dropping its planned share price and the number of shares it sold, with prices staying soft on opening day.

So, if Talend's modest IPO does well, that's a good sign.

There are a whole bunch of Valley companies waiting in the wings, wanting to proceed with their own IPOs like Nutanix, Okta, Insidesales.

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By Julie Steenhuysen

CHICAGO, July 27 (Reuters) - TauRx Pharmaceuticals' experimental Alzheimer's drug LMTX failed to improve cognitive and functional skills in patients with mild to moderate Alzheimer's disease, a large, late-stage study showed.

But in a perplexing twist, the drug did show a significant benefit in about 15 percent of patients in the trial who were not taking other standard Alzheimer's drugs, according to the findings released on Wednesday at the Alzheimer's Association International Conference in Toronto.

Claude Wischik, cofounder of Singapore-based TauRx and a professor of geriatric psychiatry at Aberdeen University, said in that so-called "monotherapy" group, the drug reduced the rate of decline in cognitive and functional skills by 85 percent.

Dr. Laurie Ryan, chief of the Dementia of Aging Branch at the National Institute on Aging, called the finding "intriguing," but said "it doesn't tell us a lot yet at this point."

While the overall study involved 891 subjects, only 15 percent were not taking standard Alzheimer's drugs. "It's a small proportion that showed a benefit. That is why they weren't able to achieve significance," she said in a telephone interview. The mean age of the study was 70.6.

The findings are the first from a large-scale trial of a drug that targets the Alzheimer's-related protein tau, which forms toxic tangles of nerve fibers associated with the fatal disease. Current treatments help improve Alzheimer's symptoms, but no drug has yet been shown to slow disease progression.

After several years of failed drug trials targeting beta-amyloid, the Alzheimer's protein that forms sticky plaques in the brain, several companies, including Eli Lilly, Biogen and AbbVie, have begun targeting tau, a protein linked with cell death.

Despite missing the overall study goals, Wischik remained optimistic. He pointed to a separate analysis of brain scans that showed a statistically significant reduction in the rate of brain shrinkage among the monotherapy patients who benefited, suggesting the drug slowed brain atrophy.

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It remains unclear why the drug only worked in patients who were not getting any other Alzheimer's treatment. Wischik said the company is working on that question, but has no answers at this point.

TauRx is currently studying LMTX in an 800-patient trial of patients with mild Alzheimer's. In that study, the main goal is to prevent the advance of Alzheimer's in patients only taking LMTX. Results are expected to be presented later this year.

More than 5 million Americans have Alzheimer's, according to the Alzheimer's Association.

(Reporting by Julie Steenhuysen; Editing by Diane Craft)
When the European Economic Community, the forerunner of the European Union, was founded in 1957, its main goal was promoting peace. While the EECs and EUs member states have avoided military conflict since then, things are somewhat less harmonious on the economic front. There has been more than a little bickering over the bailout of struggling eurozone sovereigns and this week has seen a war of words erupt between British prime minister David Cameron and Frances president, Nicolas Sarkozy.

At the heart of the hostility lies a financial transactions tax (FTT), sometimes dubbed a Tobin Tax after economist James Tobin, who proposed a levy on currency transactions four decades ago. Calls for a Europe-wide financial transactions tax have been growing since the onset of the credit crisis, with some viewing the tax as a means of making banks repay the taxpayers who bailed them out.

Last year the European Commission set out a proposal for a tax to be applied across the EUs 27 member states, which it hoped would ensure that financial institutions make a fair contribution to covering the costs of the recent crisis. It proposed a rate of 0.1 percent on trades in stocks and bonds and 0.01 percent on those in derivatives. Other stated aims include the avoidance of fragmentation in the financial markets and the creation of disincentives for transactions that do not increase the efficiency of the financial markets. Here, it seems, the EC has in mind the high-frequency trading that many blame for recent flash crashes.

While the idea has drawn some support from political, community and religious quarters, opponents to such a levy have been numerous and vociferous. BlackRock, for example, in a submission to the House of Lords, says it would be likely to have an effect opposite to that envisaged by policymakers. Contrary to the intentions of policymakers, an FTT will reduce liquidity and increase volatility in the marketplace, BlackRock argues.

The firm also points out that the cost of the tax would be borne by end-investors rather than by banks. MJ Lytle, managing director at ETF issuer Source, takes a similar view. The big issue with this proposed tax is that it does not do what it is apparently trying to achievethat is, to target banks. The tax does not target banks because if banks incur a cost they will pass it on to investors. If you are trying to lean on the revenues of banks this is not a particularly good way to do it.

It is perhaps understandable that, by and large, the financial services industry opposes the tax. After all, even if they do pass the tax on to consumers, they still stand to lose out if transaction volumes fall as a result of its introduction. Interestingly, however, there are also some high-profile supporters within the financial community, such as the FSA chairman Lord Turner and financier George Soros.

In any case, after David Cameron voiced such staunch opposition to the tax that he threatened another EU veto earlier this year, most considered it impossible that a financial transactions tax would get the backing of all 27 member states, and that it was highly unlikely that any countries would choose to go it alone.

Fast forward to this week, however, and some form of an FTT looks much more likely. Sarkozy announced plans for France to introduce its own FTT if he is elected for another term in the upcoming presidential elections. Europes other powerhouse economy, Germany, appears to be undecided; although it initially supported France, it favours a Europe-wide tax and wants to get Britain on board.

But while an FTT will undoubtedly introduce more costs for all types of financial transactions if implemented, it may not necessarily be a bad thing for the exchange-traded funds industry.

In fact, the tax could increase the appeal of ETFs. BlackRocks aforementioned submission to Parliament includes a table illustrating the impact of the tax on various investments. It puts the additional cost imposed by the tax at just 8 basis points (bp) for a fixed income euro ETF, while the burden on a fixed income euro active fund is three times higher, at 25 bp.

Lytle says this would increase the pressure on active funds. Active equity managers face many problems beating their index and this would just create another headwind. The average active manager turns over their portfolio three times a year whereas for a passive instrument it is a small fraction of that. You can see that an active fund would have an extra 30 bp to pay before it outperforms.

He concedes, however, that this would also increase the pressure on those ETFs with high turnover levels, such as the Man GLG Europe Plus Source ETF run by the firm. For the Man GLG Europe Plus Source ETF the predicted turnover is six times per year which equates to 60 bp of increased costs. However, the index does a pretty good job of outperforming so investors would just factor that in to their analysis.

But Townsend Lansing, head of regulatory affairs at ETF Securities, says the number of intermediaries involved in ETF trading could lead to multiple layers of taxable trades and higher overall costs. In the ETF chain there are quite a lot of opportunities for the tax and without actually knowing the detail of who is going to be paying the tax and whether there are going to be exemptions for duplicative or chained transactions, it is hard to speculate about which products will come out on top.

An increase in market-makers bid-offer spreads is seen by most as an inevitable consequence of the mooted FTT and Bart Lijnse, managing director at Dutch market maker Nyenburgh, says this will be particularly pronounced if the tax is applied unilaterally in Europe.

If physical ETFs cannot avoid paying tax on stocks in France, for example, it will increase their creation and redemption costs, which will impact the short term tracking error of the funds. They will trade in a wider range around net asset and with a much wider spread, since market makers will pass on all taxes they have to pay. Funds that now trade at a 5 bp spread will then trade at 30 bp or more, he says.

Lytle also points out that a Europe-wide FTT would negatively affect ETFs tracking error. There are a lot of rebalancing trades that go on at the moment. If a fund gets out of line with its benchmark, the manager trades to get it back in line. With the imposition of a new tax, the trigger point on a rebalancing trade will move. It will raise the threshold of how far you have to be away from the benchmark before you rebalance10 bp is only 10 bp but it will have an impact.

For market makers, however, there could be a significant upside, says Lijnse. The tax will open up a whole universe of arbitrage opportunities, similar to those caused by the UKs stamp duty. Another effect will be that if the FTT is implemented across the EU it will reduce our operational risk because you dont need to have expensive low-latency infrastructure anymore. If funds start trading with wider spreads then it could actually save market makers money. If spreads are larger they might not need to have that newest server. This will reduce investments in technology and technical innovation, which will be another cost to the economy that politicians overlook.

If the tax is implemented only in some countries, such as France, it may also provide a boost to exchanges in other jurisdictions. Indeed, after Sweden introduced an FTT back in the 1980s, it saw a big migration of its most actively traded stocks to the London Stock Exchange.

Cass Business Schools Professor Philip Booth says that situation could be replicated if France presses ahead on its own. The likely result of a transactions tax in France is that business will move elsewhere and economic recession in France will be entrenched. It is, indeed, incredible that one of the worlds most over-taxed and over-regulated developed economies should be imposing more taxation as part of a so-called recovery package.

For ETFs, Lijnse says multiple listings may become less widespread. Under the current proposal, if there is anybody in the chain involved in any one of those countries with the tax then they will have to pay it. There could be a scenario where many French investors will choose to buy in London. The spreads on the French exchange will go wider by a few times the transactions tax and issuers will probably delist their ETFs from those markets because nobody will trade them anymore.

In a provocative move, both David Cameron and London mayor Boris Johnson issued an open invitation to any French banks wanting to escape the tax and said the UK was poised to benefit if Sarkozys plan went ahead. Whether or not a so-called Tobin tax will provide opportunities for some EU member countries at the expense of others remains to be seen, but the debate about its merits is not fostering much peace between Europes leaders.

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san francisco

Top tech workers in San Francisco can add another perk to the free meals and massages: zero-down mortgages.

Housing prices in the San Francisco Bay Area have gone insane in the past few years, to put it mildly. San Francisco's median home value sits at $1.13 million, a 67% increase since 2011, according to Bloomberg. In 2015, San Francisco's median home price was six times the national average.

This upsurge is the result of a variety of factors, but it has been driven forward, hard, by the rise of the tech industry.

Yet there's a strange paradox for tech workers who are trying to buy homes. On one hand, their enormous salaries are pushing up home values. But on the other hand, a lot of their assets are in things like company equity, and aren't liquid.

This means it can get tricky when tech workers are trying to come up with a down payment. Bloomberg notes that some of these down payments can cost as much as the average US house ($187,000).

But companies like San Francisco Federal Credit Union are being proactive about this problem. In December, the company started offering zero-down mortgages on homes costing up to $2 million, according to Bloomberg. SFFCU defends its practices by pointing out that it rejects four in 10 applicants, and that approved people have an average household income of $219,000, and a 747 FICO score.

We are vetting our borrowers to make sure they can afford it and have reserves," SFFCU chief lending officer, Rebecca Reynolds Lytle, told Bloomberg. But still: Its a loan  its not going to be risk free.

Others are not so charitable about this type of lending practice.

Given what we went through in 2008, zero-down financing is suicidal for our country, Chuck Green, CEO of mortgage broker Bay Area Capital Funding, told Bloomberg.

But zero-down mortgages aren't the only way banks are trying to attract tech workers.

First Republic Bank has even opened branches inside Facebook and Twitter's headquarters to try and snag them.

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The teenage terrorist who forced an 86-year-old French priest to kneel before slashing his throat inside a church has been identified.

Read: 2 'Soldiers of ISIS' Slit Throat of 86-Year-Old Priest and Hold Nuns and Churchgoers Hostage During Mass

Adel Kermiche, 19, was an Algerian-born Frenchman who was released from prison twice after attempting to head to Syria to join ISIS.

In March 2015, he was stopped by German police and accused of trying to travel to Syria and sent back to France. Two months later, he attempted to enter Syria again through Turkey and was sent back home.

Earlier this year, Kermiche was released from prison and was ordered to wear an electronic tag by French courts and could only leave his home between 8:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m.

He carried out his attack on the church during the hours out of his home.

Kermiche was born in Algeria then moved with his family to France. Of three children, he was the middle child, and his mother was a professor in France.

Kermiche and an unnamed accomplice entered the Normandy church and held the small congregation inside hostage. It was Kermiche who carried out the attack on Father Jacques Hamel.

Read: After Bloody Church Siege in France, Are American Houses of Worship Safe From Terror?

The two terrorists were shot dead by police as they exited the house of worship.

ISIS quickly claimed responsibility for the attack and called the terrorists soldiers for their actions.

On Wednesday, French President Francois Hollande joined Catholic, Orthodox, Muslim and Jewish leaders calling for unity following the church attack.

Watch: Counterterrorism Experts Call For More Security Around Airports in Wake of Attacks

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(Adds dateline, details throughout)

By Joseph White

RENO, Nev., July 26 (Reuters) - Tesla Motors Inc Chief Executive Elon Musk said on Tuesday that the company's Model 3 could generate $20 billion in revenue per year and an annual gross profit of about $5 billion.

A "modest capital raise" could be needed to fund Tesla's strategic plans, and new products in the plan could cost "tens of billions" over time, Musk said at a press conference at the official unveiling of Tesla's battery "gigafactory" near Reno, Nevada.

Last week Musk unveiled an ambitious plan to expand the company into electric trucks and buses, car sharing and solar energy systems.

Tesla has taken 373,000 orders for the Model 3, which has a starting price of $35,000, about half its Model S. It has said it would begin customer deliveries in late 2017.

(With additional reporting by Rishika Sadam in Bengaluru; Editing by Jeffrey Hodgson)
tinder costume

You know who's the worst?

People.

Seriously. Have you ever dated a person? Forget that  have you ever tried to find a person to date?

Over at The Washington Post, Jeff Guo highlights research that helps illustrate just how awful people  and dating them  can be.

A group of scientists at Queen Mary University of London, Sapienza University of Rome, and Royal Ottawa Health Care Group studied the behavior of Tinder users and found that women generally swipe right only for men they're seriously interested in, while men are less picky. That ultimately leads to a frustrating experience for everyone.

For the study, the scientists created 14 fake profiles of male and female Tinder users and set them loose in New York and London. The fake users liked everyone  thousands of people  within a 100-mile radius.

The researchers were interested specifically in how many "likes" each profile would rack up (i.e. how many matches they'd make) and how many messages they would receive from users they'd matched with.

Results showed stark gender differences.

The fake men only matched with others 0.6% of the time. The fake women, on the other hand, matched with others 10.5% of the time.

Interestingly, most of the matches for the fake women and fake men came from men, suggesting that homosexual men are more willing to swipe right than heterosexual women are.

As for messages, just 7% of male matches sent a message, compared to 21% of women.

In other words, men aren't so choosy about who they swipe right for  but they're rarely invested enough in the person to send a message. By contrast, women only swipe right when they're really interested in someone.

The researchers say there could be a "feedback loop" happening here. They write: "Men see that they are matching with few people, and therefore become even less discerning: women, on the other hand, find that they match with most men, and therefore become even more discerning."

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In fact, several Tinder users told the researchers as much in a separate survey. As many as 80% of male users who admitted to "casually" liking most profiles said they swipe right on more than half of all the women they see  and that's because they so rarely match with anyone.

man talking to woman

Other dating apps may do a better job of stopping this vicious cycle before it starts.

Bumble, for example, only allows women to message men they're interested in, and not the other way around.

Research suggests that women may be more choosy simply because of social norms about men having to initiate contact. In one speed-dating study, women rotated around men  instead of men rotating around women, as per usual  and gender differences in selectivity disappeared.

Meanwhile, on OKCupid, where men and women can message each other, women gain an advantage when they send a note to men instead of waiting to receive one.

Another interesting finding from the new Tinder study: The researchers say most Tinder activity happens around 9 a.m. and 6 p.m., or regular commuting times. So perhaps, for some people, Tinder is more like a game than anything serious  just a way to pass the time and maybe get something out of it.

If that sounds like you, and you're not especially frustrated by your online dating experience, then more power to you. But if you're investing time and energy into finding love on Tinder to no avail, at this point it might be worth looking into other options.

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At only 28 years old, Katrina Bolduc has already completed a total of five triathlons  but the triathlon she completed this past Sunday was by far the most rewarding. After introducing her son, Grayson, into the world in December, Bolduc had a difficult time maintaining her active lifestyle. Finishing her first triathlon as a mom on Sunday was a token of her strength and dedication, despite all the demanding responsibilities that may typically hinder her me time.

Bolduc is a yoga instructor who was previously told she couldnt have children. But this difficult obstacle was not the only one she surmounted. After having Grayson, she realized getting in shape after having a baby is not only a physical, but also a mental challenge. Inspiring all mothers, Bolduc completed a series of races to prove that even with a newborn, moms can still find the time to be active. I think all of us as new moms are a little body-shamed by people everywhere. Ive always been active, but even I found myself kind of in that rut, and it was a little bit harder to get back into the endurance shape that i was used to, she tells Self.

For motivation, Bolduc entered in a series of races, including three 10K races and a sprint triathlon. By committing to these events, the supermom wanted to shatter the stereotypes associated with being a mother, specifically those which associate motherhood with being a housewife and not working out.

I think sometimes society kind of pushes [new moms] aside and expects us to stay at home and not work out and just be a mom. But I believeand I think Im proof of thatthat we can be so much more. We continue to be part of a fitness community and have goals and we can still get our training in., she said.

The training for her races was not easy, especially with Grayson in the picture. Before Grayson, Bolduc could just hit the ground running when it was time to log miles or head to the pool when she needed to get in laps. now, she had to adjust her training around Graysons schedule, including his regular breastfeeding sessions, reports Self. Although she had to make several adjustments to her training sessions, Bolduc was determined that she would reach the finish line in all four of her races. Her most recent, and perhaps the most memorable success for her, was finishing the sprint triathlon on July 24. This included a half mile swim 12.4 mile bike ride, and a 3.1-mile run. Up for the challenge and with no regrets, Bolduc breastfed her son before the race. After she triumphantly completed the triathlon, the sweaty but proud mom was greeted by a familiar sight: a hungry baby.

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Soon after Bolduc crossed over the finish line, she was back to mommy duties and breastfed her son again after grabbing her medal and a drink of water. I had an easy-access top on. We were right there at the finish line, and I unzipped my top. He latched right on, and he was as happy as can be. he looked up, smiling at me, she says. Other athletes were also very supportive, making an effort to congratulate the mother directly. The fact that people chose to say something like, congrats mama, versus just walking by made me feel really good. I think its an acknowledgement of, wow, youre a mom and you just finished this race and now youre feeding your child. It was so much more than, oh good job you finished a race.

Photo via Facebook

The moment was captured on camera by her husband and after posting it to the Facebook group Breastfeeding Mama Talk, it went viral online. Since there has been so much scrutiny around public breastfeeding, Bolduc wanted to show women that there are good breastfeeding stories out there. Bolduc hopes that the photo not only serves as a motivating piece for mothers to stay active, but also to empower all moms in believing that whether its train for a triathlon or breastfeed in public, they can do anything.

What do you think about this mothers story? Are you inspired to become more active as a mother? Let us know by tweeting to @YahooStyleCA.
BELGRADE, July 27 (Reuters) - An Indian company, a Brazilian company and a British-Russian consortium have bid for a 25 percent stake in Serbia's Galenika pharmaceutical maker which has debts of $220 million, the Economy Ministry said on Wednesday.

In April the ministry invited strategic partners to invest at least 7 million euros ($7.7 million) in Galenika, which operates drug manufacturing plants, for at least five years.

In a statement the ministry said Cadila Pharmaceuticals Limited from India, Brazil's EMS S.A. and the consortium of Britain's Frontier Pharma Limited and Russian LLC NPA Petrovax Pharm submitted valid offers.

"The opening of offers will take place on July 29 ... the government will announce the best bidder and it will have 90 days to negotiate (terms) with the first-ranked bidder," it said.

The tender is part of Serbia's efforts to sell, shut or slim down unprofitable state firms under a 1.2 billion euro loan deal with the International Monetary Fund.

Other assets to be sold or shrunk include the RTB Bor copper mine and the Resavica coal mine. In April, Serbia sold its loss-making Zelezara Smederevo steel mill to China's Hebei Iron & Steel Group for 46 million euros.

Under the terms of the Galenika tender, prospective bidders must be companies with 2015 revenues of no less than 50 million euros and assets worth more than 100 million euros. Bidders are each required to nominate a team of five experts to manage the company.

Of Galenika's $220 million debt, $50 million is owed to commercial banks and the rest to the state. A proposed $8.7 million sale of Galenika to Valeant failed in June 2013.

($1 = 0.9088 euros) (Reporting by Aleksandar Vasovic; Editing by Ruth Pitchford)
Tilda Swinton (left) as The Ancient One with Benedict Cumberbatch in Doctor Strange (Photo: Film Frame/Marvel)

Tilda Swinton takes her place in the Marvel Cinematic Universe later this year as the mystical sorcerer known as the Ancient One in the much-anticipated big-screen version of Doctor Strange. And according to one of Hollywoods most acclaimed screenwriters, the actress has her eye on another role as a mentor  albeit of a far different sort  in a potential heavyweight adaptation.

In a wide-ranging interview with Vanity Fairs Julie Miller, actress and screenwriter Annie Mumolo, a member of the ensemble cast in this Fridays Bad Moms, reveals that Swinton was a big fan of Bridesmaids, which Mumolo wrote with Kristen Wiig (and which earned them both a Best Original Screenplay nomination at the 2012 Academy Awards).

Bad Moms: Watch a trailer:



Before long, the two were regularly corresponding over email. Eventually, Swinton suggested that they work together on a new version of Auntie Mame, the best-selling 1955 novel by Patrick Dennis (about a boy sent to live with his free-spirited aunt) thats been previously turned into a movie twice (in 1958 starring Rosalind Russell, and in 1974 with Lucille Ball), as well as a Broadway musical. I said yes, Mumolo tells Vanity Fair, because you say yes to Tilda Swinton when she asks if you want to do something.



While theres no set timetable for when this updated Auntie Mame might arrive in theaters, Mumolo sounds as if the project is moving full-steam ahead, telling Vanity Fair:

I read the book and it was one of the most fun reads Ive ever had. Its totally different from what I had seen in the movie versions, Mumolo says. We had meetings and then, as I got a little overwhelmed with a few other work things, I brought on a co-writer to work together on this, because its a huge job and an adaptation. I brought on a friend of mineStan Chervin [the Oscar-nominated Moneyball co-screenwriter].



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Related: Bad Moms Stars Share Their Own Bad Mom Stories at CinemaCon

Mumolo added that shell jump back into the project after her Bad Moms promotional obligations are fulfilled: Im really excited about it. Youre always feeling you have to prove yourself, and then once you do that, youre onto the next thing and you feel like you have to prove yourself again.

Read the full Mumolo article at Vanity Fairs website. Bad Moms is in theaters on Friday, and Swintons Doctor Strange debuts on Nov. 4.

Doctor Strange: Benedict Cumberbatch Thinks Audiences Will Get Their Minds Blown:


When Tim Kaine ran for the U.S. Senate in Virginia in 2012, Republicans attacked him in the same way they attacked virtually every Democrat running for Congress during Barack Obamas tenure: They tried to tie him as closely as possible to the unpopular president.

In Kaines case, this required no rhetorical gymnastics or misleading analyses of voting records. Until he jumped into the Senate race left open by the retirement of Jim Webb, Kaine had been Obamas handpicked chairman of the Democratic National Committeea job that was itself something of a consolation prize after Obama chose Joe Biden instead of the former Virginia governor as his running mate. The GOP set up a website, cheerleaderinchief.com. Again, this wasnt really a misnomer. In the modern era, a chairman of the party in power is pretty much a cheerleader for the presidents policies, promoting them to donors and the public as a prominent television surrogate. There is no such thing as a politically independent party chairman.

Kaine leaned into his close association, and friendship, with Obama. And in a good year for Democrats, he won.

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As a Senate candidate, Kaine didnt parrot Obama on every issuehe disagreed with the White House on the income threshold for extending the Bush-era tax cuts, for example, and on the specifics of a religious exemption to the contraception mandate in Obamacare. But unlike Democratic hopefuls from swing and red states, he didnt go out of his way to distance himself from the president. That would be inauthentic, Kaine reasoned at the time, according to Mo Elleithee, a former top adviser.People would see through that, and besides, thats not who I am. Hes a personal friend and I support him.

He wasnt shopping for an issue that could distinguish himself from the administration.

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Kaine had run an ad promising to work with a president of either party, noting previous collaborations with President Bush during his tenure as governor. He said he had disagreed with Obama on certain issues, but ultimately, the two just didnt differ on all that much. He carried that approach with him to the Senate, Elleithee said, and I think he got a lot of street cred for thatboth with the White House and with people back home.

A year and a half after arriving in the Senate, however, Kaine did break with the man he once served in a much more vocal way: He called on Obama to seek congressional authorization for the use of military force against ISIS and began pushing back against the administrations claims that it had all the authority it needed to launch airstrikes in Iraq. President Obama said in May 2013 that he would work with Congress to update the 2001 [Authorization for the Use of Military Force], Kaine wrote in an op-ed for The Washington Post.

It is June 2014, and there has been no progress. The White House should submit to Congress a new draft authorization to deal with todays threats. Now is clearly the time for this debate. I believe the president must come to Congress for authority to initiate any U.S. military action in Iraq.

It would be another six months before Obama would actually ask Congress for a new AUMF, a request that came long after he began dropping bombs in Iraq and Syria. Kaine has continued pushing for Congress to act, but more than two years after his initial demand, neither the House nor the Senate has been able to agree on language that both authorizes and constrains the war against ISIS.

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An aide to Kaine, speaking on the condition of anonymity because he is not an authorized spokesman for the senator, said he became interested in the War Powers Resolution and Congresss role in declaring war after studying a 2007 report issued while he was governor by a bipartisan commission at the University of Virginias Miller Center. The recommendations became the basis for legislation he introduced with Senator John McCain in 2013 to revise the 1973 law.

Those close to Kaine said his outspoken advocacy for a resolution authorizing the war against ISIS flowed from a genuine belief in Congresss responsibility to weigh in, both from a Constitutional and a moral standpoint. But they dont deny that it also helped him politically on two key fronts.

When Obama considered tapping him for the vice presidency in 2008, Kaine had been serving as Virginias governor for just two and a half years. He had no foreign-policy experience, and had been in statewide office less than a year longer than Sarah Palin. Kaine scored seats on both the Foreign Relations and Armed Services Committees in the Senate, but taking a high-profile stand on the AUMF was clearly an opportunity for him to bolster his credentials on the military and foreign affairs.

And by getting out in front of the White House, Kaine was also able to demonstrate his independence in a way that was comfortable for himwithout aggressively bashing the president. He wasnt shopping for an issue that could distinguish himself from the administration, the aide said.

Recommended: How TV Networks Can Force Trump to Release His Tax Returns

Whether Kaines push for a new AUMF will die down now that he is Hillary Clintons running mate is unclear. Hillary Clinton has come out in support of updating the 2001 authorization, but she has not made it a significant part of her agenda for defeating the Islamic State. In a statement, Clinton campaign spokesman Jesse Lehrich said Clinton supports Kaines position but gave little indication about how hard she would push Congress to act.

Hillary Clinton agrees with Senator Kaine that if we are serious about confronting ISIS, Congress ought to express its resolve to stand behind our military and win this fight by passing a new AUMF, and she has publicly applauded Kaines efforts, Lehrich said. Kaines experience in the Senate was clearly key to Clintons decision, but while his advocacy on war powers might have helped him get on the ticket, it probably carries less weight in a Clinton White House. As vice president, after all, Kaine would be returning to a familiar role: serving as an unwavering surrogate for the president, political independence neither required nor desired.

Read more from The Atlantic:

This article was originally published on The Atlantic.
Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine is quickly settling into his role as a joyful Donald Trump attack dog.

In his first solo outing since securing the Democratic vice presidential nominationand just hours before he is set to deliver his speech to the Democratic conventionKaine attended three swing-state delegation breakfasts in Philadelphia, offering brief remarks to the Iowa and Florida contingent and longer remarks to those from his home state in which he criticized his GOP rival at length.

Donald Trump is a one-man wrecking crew when it comes to alliances, Kaine said, referencing Trumps comments about U.S. allies.

Kaine noted that his son, who serves in the military, deployed to Europe on Monday to assist NATO allies. I dont believe in coincidencesthis happened for a reason, Kaine said. Whats his deployment, its to serve right in the front line in NATO that Trump is suggesting he wants to throw overboard and leave at the mercies of the big bad wolf Vladimir Putin.

As Democrats drew fire from Republicans for failing to mention ISIS during the Monday night program, Kaine continued that Trumps policies would weaken the nations ability to prevent terror attacks. You cant stop terrorist attacks if you dont share intel and youre not going to share intel if you shred your alliances, he said.

Kaine also further developed what is quickly becoming a campaign riff for the former civil rights attorney, saying the race against Trump is a civil rights election, folks. Highlighting Trumps offensive comments toward women and minorities, Kaine stepped in to deliver the blow.

He talks about anybody of Latino background as though they are second-class citizens. We dont have any second class citizens in this country, he said. And thats what this election is about.

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Adding that Trumps attitude in business has been me-first, Kaine argued that if anyone believes that Trump cares about average Americans like he claims, Folks, Ive got a bridge to sell ya if you believe that.

Kaine also devoted time in his remarks to noting the historic nature of Clintons candidacy. Stating that the U.S. is 75th in the world in terms of womens participation in politics, Kaine said it was time for change. If were self-confident, we ought to be able to acknowledge the things that were not good at and the things we need to improve, he said.

I think its great for men to be able to stand to support strong women leaders, he added.
From Esquire

PHILADELPHIA-Somebody needs to get the Big Dog on a short leash.

Bill Clinton is the most gifted politician of our times. But when it comes to his wife-as it did when it came to his marriage-his judgment goes straight to Yellville.

Most recently it showed when he upstaged the presumptive Democratic nominee by letting it leak that he would be perfectly happy if his wife made Tim Kaine her vice presidential pick. Clinton reportedly "left the decision entirely to his wife"-a decision she had not yet made public, and possibly had yet to make. It's not clear if in return his wife made a well-considered decision to whack the former president on the nose with a rolled-up newspaper.

Bill Clinton is scheduled to take the Convention podium tonight after HRC's official nomination to warm up his wife's public persona, round off her sharp corners, and folksy her up a bit. It's something he's known to excel at. Clinton got high marks for his explainer-in-chief address at the 2012 Democratic Convention. But it hasn't always been so.

In 1988, then-little known Arkansas Governor Clinton delivered a long-winded nominating speech for Michael Dukakis-a speech so lengthy that when he finally said "in closing," the hall erupted in wild cheers. It was 33 minutes that would have killed most political careers. It barely broke Clinton's stride. Four years later, Bill Clinton was again at the podium, accepting the Democratic Party's nomination for president.

It's uncertain how transferable that magic is, though. In a potentially ominous sign, Clinton is reportedly holed up in a Philadelphia hotel room, writing tonight's speech himself.

"Bill Clinton is an incomparable genius when it comes to politics-except when it comes to his wife," former Obama strategist David Axelrod has explained. "It clouds his judgment."

And muddies the waters. In February, in the closing days of the New Hampshire primary race with HRC sinking like stone, Bill Clinton angrily accused Sanders of running a "hermetically sealed" and ultimately dishonest campaign, "looting information from our computers," and generally acting like an establishment pol.

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He set Sanders up so well that the day after his record-setting primary win the Vermont Senator could appear on The View and say sadly, "I was disappointed in President Clinton. I have known him for 25 years, and I like him and I respect him, and I hope that this campaign does not degenerate."

"He's fighting for his wife," co-host Joy Behar interjected.

"I understand that," Sanders continued patiently. "Nonetheless, let's keep it on the issues, not making personal attacks."

Just when it seems Clinton has learned to pull back, he slips his chain. It was pathology far in excess of clouded judgment that compelled Clinton to initiate a tarmac confab with Attorney General Loretta Lynch last month. ("Clouded Judgment" is a perfectly reasonable explanation for what caused the AG to lose track of the fact that Justice Department was investigating Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server when she was at the State Department. Like the marijuana he never inhaled, the force of Bill Clinton's persona often has that effect on people.)

"Bill Clinton is an incomparable genius when it comes to politics-except when it comes to his wife."

This is not the first time that Bill Clinton has been the Newfoundland in the punch bowl at his wife's party. In the late fall of 2007, the Comeback Kid slogged his way through New Hampshire church basements and union halls like a penitent. As the wheels began to come off Hilary Clinton's campaign, Bill Clinton began flailing.

In January, he told a town hall meeting Obama's claim that he had better judgment on Iraq than HRC did was "the biggest fairy tale I've ever seen," a remark that was widely misinterpreted to mean Obama's presidential quest was a fairytale and inspired a significant amount of pushback. HRC staged a comeback of her own in New Hampshire, only to falter again when the campaign moved south. In South Carolina, Bill Clinton accused Barack Obama of putting a "hit job" on him, later implying that Obama's win, like Jesse Jackson's before him, was devalued because voters were voting on race.

Bill Clinton has often expressed his commitment to seeing HRC elected in terms of obligation. "We were married a very long time when she was always, in effect, deferring to my political career," Bill Clinton explained last year. "I told her when she got elected to the Senate from New York that she'd given me 26 years, and so I intended to give her 26 years."

But there's more to it than that. Hillary Rodham Clinton not only gave her husband 26 years, but she took it on the chin for him. Let him set her up and publicly knock her down, time after time after time. It's not the kind of thing a guy can fix with two dozen roses and a box of Kopper Kettle candies.

But gift wrapping the presidency, now that just might work. And as a side benefit, possibly redeem him.

Or so a clouded mind goes. But fact is, HRC doesn't need Bill's help to win the presidency. In anxious, feckless pursuit of his own redemption, all he can really do is hurt her.

If Clinton really wants to do something for his wife, he should give her something worth more than an Oval Office full of roses. He should give her the down ticket. Get her a Congress she can work with. Go to Wisconsin and pull crowds for Russ Feingold, go to New Hampshire and help Maggie Hassan wrap Donald Trump around Kelly Ayotte's neck. Katie McGinty in Pennsylvania, Ted Strickland in Ohio, and Catherine Cortez Masto in New Mexico all could benefit from some Clinton magic. Go to Missouri and show Jason Kander how it's done.

Get out there on the trail and make it clear: The Big Dog still can hunt.

Click here to respond to this post on the official Esquire Politics Facebook page.
The following timeline charts the origin and spread of the Zika virus from its discovery nearly 70 years ago: 1947: Scientists researching yellow fever in Uganda's Zika Forest identify the virus in a rhesus monkey 1948: Virus recovered from Aedes africanus mosquito in Zika Forest 1952: First human cases detected in Uganda and Tanzania 1954: Virus found in Nigeria 1960s-80s: Zika detected in mosquitoes and monkeys across equatorial Africa 196983: Zika found in equatorial Asia, including India, Indonesia, Malaysia and Pakistan 2007: Zika spreads from Africa and Asia, first large outbreak on Pacific island of Yap 2012: Researchers identify two distinct lineages of the virus, African and Asian 201314: Zika outbreaks in French Polynesia, Easter Island, the Cook Islands and New Caledonia. Retrospective analysis shows possible link to birth defects and severe neurological complications in babies in French Polynesia March 2, 2015: Brazil reports illness characterized by skin rash in northeastern states July 17: Brazil reports detection of neurological disorders in newborns associated with history of infection Oct. 5: Cape Verde has cases of illness with skin rash Oct. 22: Colombia confirms cases of Zika Oct. 30: Brazil reports increase in microcephaly, abnormally small heads, among newborns Nov. 11: Brazil declares public health emergency November 2015-January 2016: Cases reported in Suriname, Panama, El Salvador, Mexico, Guatemala, Paraguay, Venezuela, French Guiana, Martinique, Puerto Rico, Guyana, Ecuador, Barbados, Bolivia, Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, Curacao, Jamaica Feb. 1: World Health Organization (WHO) declares public health emergency of international concern Feb. 2: First case of Zika transmission in United States; local health officials say likely contracted through sex, not mosquito bite Feb. 5: U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says virus being actively transmitted in 30 countries, mostly in the Americas Feb. 8: U.S. President Barack Obama requests $1.8 billion to fight Zika Feb. 12: Brazil investigating potential link between Zika infections and 4,314 suspected cases of microcephaly. Of those, 462 confirmed as microcephaly and 41 determined to be linked to virus Feb. 17: Brazil investigating potential link between Zika and 4,443 suspected cases of microcephaly. Of those, 508 confirmed as microcephaly and most of those cases are linked to the virus. WHO seeks $56 million to fight Zika. Feb. 18: CDC adds Aruba and Bonaire to countries and territories with active outbreaks, bringing total to 32. Feb. 23: CDC investigating 14 cases of possible sexual transmission of Zika. CDC also adds Trinidad and Tobago and Marshall Islands to countries and territories with active outbreaks, bringing total to 34. Feb. 25: Brazil says confirmed microcephaly cases number more than 580 and considers most of them to be related to Zika infections in the mothers. Brazil is investigating an additional 4,100 suspected cases of microcephaly. Feb. 27: France detects first sexually transmitted case of Zika. Feb. 29: CDC adds St. Maarten, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines to countries and territories with active outbreaks, bringing total to 36. March 1: Brazil says confirmed microcephaly cases rose to 641 and considers most of them to be related to Zika infections in the mothers. Brazil is investigating an additional 4,222 suspected cases of microcephaly. March 8: WHO advises pregnant women to avoid areas with Zika outbreak and said sexual transmission of the virus is "relatively common." March 9: CDC adds New Caledonia to countries and territories with active outbreaks, bringing total to 37. March 15: Cuba reports first case of Zika contracted in the country. March 16: Cape Verde identifies first case of microcephaly. March 18: CDC says during Jan. 1, 2015 to Feb. 26, 2016, 116 residents of the United States had evidence of recent Zika virus infection based on laboratory testing. Brazil says confirmed microcephaly cases rose to 863 and considers most of them to be related to Zika infections in the mothers. Brazil is investigating an additional 4,268 suspected cases of microcephaly. March 19: CDC adds Cuba to countries and territories with active outbreaks, bringing total to 38. March 21: South Korea confirms first case of Zika. March 22: CDC adds Dominica to countries and territories with active outbreaks, bringing total to 39. Bangladesh confirms first case of Zika virus. Brazil says confirmed microcephaly cases rose to 907 and considers most of them to be related to Zika infections in the mothers. Brazil is investigating an additional 4,293 suspected cases of microcephaly. March 29: Brazil says confirmed microcephaly cases rose to 944 and considers most of them to be related to Zika infections in the mothers. Brazil said the number of suspected cases of microcephaly dropped slightly to 4,291. March 31: According to the World Health Organization, there is a strong scientific consensus that Zika can cause the birth defect microcephaly as well as Guillain-Barre syndrome, a rare neurological disorder that can result in paralysis, though conclusive proof may take months or years. April 1: CDC adds Kosrae, Federated States of Micronesia to countries and territories with active outbreaks, bringing total to 40. April 4: CDC adds Fiji to countries and territories with active outbreaks, bringing total to 41. April 5: Vietnam reports first Zika infections. April 6: Brazil says confirmed microcephaly cases rose to 1,046 and considers most of them to be related to Zika infections in the mothers. The number of suspected cases of microcephaly dropped to 4,046. April 7: St. Lucia confirms first two cases of Zika, contracted locally. April 12: Brazil says confirmed microcephaly cases rose to 1,113 and considers most of them to be related to Zika infections in the mothers. The number of suspected cases of microcephaly dropped to 3,836. It was the second week in a row that the overall total figure fell. April 13: The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention concluded that infection with the Zika virus in pregnant women is a cause of the birth defect microcephaly and other severe brain abnormalities in babies. The CDC said now that the causal relationship has been established, several important questions must still be answered with studies that could take years. CDC adds St. Lucia to countries and territories with active outbreaks, bringing total to 42. April 14: Colombia confirms two microcephaly cases linked to Zika. April 18: Peru reports first case of sexually transmitted Zika virus. CDC adds Belize to countries and territories with active outbreaks, bringing total to 43. April 19: Chilean authorities find Zika mosquito for first time in decades. April 25: Canada confirms first sexually transmitted Zika case. April 26: Brazil says the number of confirmed cases of microcephaly climbed to 1,198 from 1,168 in the week through April 23, but suspected ones under investigation continued to decline to 3,710 from 3,741 a week ago. Brazil registered 91,387 likely cases of the Zika virus from February until April 2, the health ministry said, in its first national report on the epidemic. April 29: Puerto Rico reports first death related to Zika, according to the CDC. The country also confirmed 683 Zika cases, including 65 pregnant women, and five suspected cases of Guillain-Barre syndrome from Zika, the CDC reported. May 4: Panama confirms four microcephaly cases tied to Zika. May 6: Spain gets first case of Zika-related brain defect in a fetus. May 9: CDC adds Papua New Guinea, Saint Barthelemy and Peru to countries and territories with active outbreaks, bringing total to 46. Honduras suspects first case of microcephaly in Zika patient. May 11: Brazil says the number of confirmed cases of microcephaly dropped to 1,326 in the week through May 7 as doctors and Brazilian health officials find that some suspected cases of microcephaly are not the disorder. Suspected ones under investigation continued to decline to 3,433. May 12: CDC adds Grenada to countries and territories with active outbreaks, bringing total to 47. May 13: Puerto Rico reports first case of Zika-related microcephaly. May 20: WHO says an outbreak of Zika virus on the African island chain of Cape Verde is of the same strain as the one blamed for birth abnormalities in Brazil. May 24: Brazil reports the number of confirmed cases of microcephaly at 1,434 for the latest week to May 21. Suspected ones under investigation declined to 3,257. May 26: CDC adds Argentina to countries and territories with active outbreaks, bringing total to 48. June 9: WHO issues updated guidelines on prevention of sexual transmission of the Zika virus, including advising women living in areas where the virus is being transmitted to delay getting pregnant. June 14: El Salvador confirms first case of microcephaly linked to Zika. June 23: CDC reports seven babies in the United States with microcephaly or other Zika-related birth defects such as serious brain abnormalities, and five lost pregnancies from either miscarriage, stillbirth or termination. June 28: First baby with Zika-related birth defect microcephaly born in Florida. June 30: CDC adds Anguilla to countries and territories with active outbreaks, bringing total to 49. Guinea-Bissau confirms three cases of Zika, government says. Spain records first case of sexually transmitted Zika virus, health authorities said. July 8: CDC confirmed that a Utah resident's death last month is the first Zika-related death in the continental United States. July 14: CDC adds Saint Eustatius to countries and territories with active outbreaks, bringing total to 50. July 15: New York City's health department reports the first female-to-male transmission of the Zika virus. July 18: CDC reports that caregiver of Utah man who died of Zika tested positive for virus. July 19: Florida health officials are investigating a case of Zika virus infection that does not appear to have stemmed from travel to another region with an outbreak. July 21: CDC reports 400 pregnant women in U.S. with evidence of Zika infection, up from 346 a week ago. The health agency also reports three more babies born in U.S. with birth defects linked to the Zika virus, bringing total to 12. Florida Department of Health said it was investigating a non travel-related case of Zika in Broward County, marking the second such case in the U.S. July 22: New York City health officials reports first baby born with Zika-related birth defect. July 25: Spain reports first case in Europe of baby born with Zika-related defect. CDC issues updated recommendations for preventing and testing for Zika infection, warning that the virus can be transmitted through unprotected sex with an infected female partner. July 26: Honduras detects 8 cases of babies with Zika-related defect. July 27: Paraguay reports first cases of microcephaly linked to Zika. SOURCES: World Health Organization, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Reuters (Reporting by Ben Hirschler; Editing by the Americas Desk)
Warsaw (AFP) - Outside the Polish prime minister's office, on an elegant tree-lined avenue, a makeshift village of government opponents has sprung up to condemn the reforms to the country's top court, changes they see as a "violation of democracy".

For nearly 150 days, dozens of members of the Committee for the Defence of Democracy (KOD) have camped out here in tents with improvised kitchenettes and colourful banners, taking turns manning the fort to keep the sit-in going.

Their source of discontent lies in the reforms of the Constitutional Court that the conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party pushed through soon after sweeping to power late last year.

The changes to the top court's decision-making rules, which according to the opposition were intended to paralyse the institution, have notably alarmed the European Union and triggered several demonstrations across the country.

The KOD activists have been occupying the three tents along a 100-metre (330-foot) stretch of the avenue outside Warsaw's large Lazienski Park since March.

They set up the makeshift village in response to the government's refusal to publish a March 9 judgement by the Constitutional Court that would strike down the changes.

- 'Democracy is being violated' -

"The government refuses to publish the rulings of the constitutional court. And yet that's its job," said Mateusz Kijowski, who founded the KOD civic movement to oppose what critics see as an attempt by the PiS to marginalise the court.

"Democracy is being violated. Only global public awareness will help us," he told AFP.

Their sit-in is peaceful. Volunteers engage passersby in discussion, distribute pamphlets, gather petition signatures.

"We're firmly against any kind of aggressive rebellion. We're protesting with smiles," said KOD activist Slawomir Milowy.

"We cherish the freedom we won 26 years ago too much to have it taken away from us now," he told AFP, referring to the events of 1989, when the freedom-fighting Solidarity trade union negotiated a peaceful end to communism in Poland.

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Passersby have responded every which way to the sit-in: car honks, victory signs, selfies  even swear words.

"One time, these Spaniards called out: 'We're with you, we wish we could do the same at home,'" recalls Jerzy Gogol, who is one of the collective's coordinators and proudly wears his "I love KOD" badge.

Milowy said nearby residents have even been dropping off food for them.

"One woman brings excellent soup every day," said Aleksandra Juziuk, a 71-year-old pensioner who came down from northern Poland to join the protest.

She is proud of belonging to KOD, which she calls the country's "second social movement after Solidarity"  which she also joined a quarter century ago.

Juziuk may be able to spend 12 straight hours at the village, but others, like lawyer Jerzy, have work commitments to factor in. Still, he tries to come help out for at least three hours a day.

- Giant calendar -

The volunteers have at their disposal piles of provisions stashed inside the tents like an Aladdin's cave: water bottles, coffee, tea, sweets, newspapers, gadgets.

Concerned about their visibility, the volunteers feed the KOD social media accounts with a steady flow of updates. Every day they post a photo of the giant calendar showing how many days have passed since the March 9 judgement.

Kijowski said the makeshift village has authorisation from Warsaw mayor Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz, who belongs to the liberal Civil Platform (PO) opposition.

But a couple of police officers still make daily rounds to check that all the papers are in order, for which Juziuk is grateful: "We thank the police for carrying out controls. They keep us safe."

Just a couple of metres away is the tent of another group, Citizens of Poland, which KOD considers "more radical" because of some of their tactics, like protesting before parliament when it is forbidden.

"We're ordinary citizens. We distinguish ourselves from KOD but we still support their actions," member Tadeusz Jakrzewski told AFP.

"Here, there's no hierarchy, we all have the same position."

Their tent is more bareboned, equipped only with essentials like water bottles, cots and warm clothes. An average shift lasts around three days.

"Sleeping here at night, it's not really comfortable," volunteer Przemyslaw Duda said, pointing to his spartan cot.

"Juggling work and tent duty is also hard. Our children complain."

The two groups may be separate, but they are driven by the same goal, according to Duda: to preserve Polish democracy in order to "remain in Europe".
From Cosmopolitan

Chef de Mission of the Australian Olympic Committee Kitty Chiller confirmed to the Sydney Morning Herald 410 Australian Olympians could not be move into Rio's Olympic Villages on Sunday as planned. The reason? The facilities' toilets failed "stress tests," in which toilets were flushed at the same time on different floors of the building to see if they could handle multiple residents simultaneously.

"The system failed. Water came down walls, there was a strong smell of gas in some apartments and there was 'shorting' in the electrical wiring," Chiller said. Additionally, there were "blocked toilets, leaking pipes, exposed wiring, darkened stairwells where no lighting has been installed and dirty floors in need of a massive clean."

She also mentioned the British and New Zealand team areas were experiencing similar issues. Dutch athletes are considering seeking financial restitution from Rio after the Dutch team's staff had to repair similar damages to make the conditions in their section of the Villages livable. For now, the Australians are staying in hotels.

Rio's mayor Eduardo Paes hit back at Chiller after her Monday comments, saying Rio's facilities now are more inhabitable than Sydney's were for the 2000 games. He added he felt like "putting a kangaroo in front of their building to make them feel at home."

Despite Paes's sass, Australia's very public complaint sparked action: Reuters reports an immediate response to Chiller's concerns from maintenance crews. Twelve of the 31 17-story buildings of the Villages passed full safety checks yesterday and Rio 2016 spokesman Mario Andrada told Reuters she believed all 31 would be green-lit by Thursday. Chiller said she saw "fantastic progress made" and believes Team Australia could possibly move in Wednesday, just three days later than scheduled - and just eight days before the Olympics are set to begin.

May the odds be ever in everyone's favor (toilet-wise) (and Olympic-wise) (and just in general).

Follow Tess on Twitter.
Tony Goldwyn took the DNC stage in support of his friend Hillary Clinton on Tuesday night.

The Scandal star appeared at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia to introduce the Mothers of the Movement, which includes the mothers of Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner, Michael Brown and other African-Americans whose deaths have fueled the Black Lives Matter movement.

"Hillary Clinton has spoken of watching Nelson Mandela embrace his former jailers because he didn't want to be imprisoned twice," the actor said before speaking of his work with the Innocence Project and introducing a DNC video titled "She's With Us" and the Mothers of the Movement.

"I am proud tonight to introduce a group of women profoundly impacted by injustice and violence, who have turned their pain into power and their outrage into action," he continued. "They are the Mothers of the Movement.

Read More: Mothers of the Movement Bring "Black Lives Matter" Discourse to Democratic Convention

"They understand that we must reach out to each other because of our diversity, because we are stronger together.

"Hillary says we can't hide from these hard truths about race and justice in America," he added. "We have to name them and own them, and then change them. That's what she'll do as President."

He concluded: "The Mothers of the Movement prove that one life at a time, one Mother at a time, we can change the world."

The crowd erupted into a "Black Lives Matter" chant as the Mothers of the Movement took and left the stage. After their speech, the crowd gave them a standing ovation.

Goldwyn, who plays Republican President Fitzgerald Grant on the ABC show, is an avid Clinton supporter along with the rest of his cast. Scandal's Kerry Washington, How to Get Away With Murder's Viola Davis and Grey's Anatomy's Ellen Pompeo teamed up with their creator Shonda Rhimes for an endorsement video for Clinton that aired on ABC earlier this year.

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In February, Clinton was on the Scandal set during a fundraising visit to Los Angeles.

Goldwyn joined host Elizabeth Banks in Tuesday night's star-studded lineup of speakers, which included headliner and former President Bill Clinton, as well as Lena Dunham and America Ferrera, Debra Messing and Meryl Streep.

Clinton made history during the second night of the four-day convention when she won the Democratic nomination and became the first female major-party nominee.

The nominee appeared via satellite to conclude the night, shattering a video montage of past presidents and delivering a message to the young girls watching: "I may become the first woman president, but one of you is next."

See More: The Wild Scene and Characters of the Democratic and Republican Conventions

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By Alastair Sharp TORONTO (Reuters) - Torstar Corp slashed its dividend and reported a wider second-quarter loss on Wednesday, sending its shares lower, as the owner of one of Canada's largest circulation newspapers struggled with slumping print advertising revenue. The publisher of the Toronto Star and a string of community newspapers said lower revenue trends have extended into the current quarter, but it was difficult to predict performance for the rest of 2016. Torstar cut its annual dividend to 10 cents a share, from 26 cents. It had already halved its payout earlier this year. Its shares fell 2.4 percent to C$1.62 on the Toronto Stock Exchange. Like other North American newspaper publishers, Torstar faces weakening print advertising sales as it invests in digital initiatives it hopes will plug the revenue gap. Revenue from Torstar's Metroland and Star Media units fell a combined C$27.9 million. But its much smaller digital ventures unit - which includes its majority stake in online forum company VerticalScope - grew sales by just C$7.5 million from a year earlier. The company, which eliminated an online paywall for the Toronto Star in April, is betting heavily on its Toronto Star Touch app, but said uptake has been slower than expected. Its net loss from continuing operations was C$24.3 million, or 30 Canadian cents a share, compared with a net loss of C$1.1 million, or 1 cent a share, in the same period the year before. Revenue fell by 9.4 percent to C$196.5 million. The company said its adjusted loss per share was 13 Canadian cents. Analysts had on average expected Torstar to post a loss of 20 Canadian cents a share on revenue of C$192 million, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. RBC Capital Markets analyst Drew McReynolds said in a note the results were a modest negative, picking out a slight reduction in its pension solvency deficit and digital ventures growth as bright spots. Torstar has worked to cut costs, outsourcing printing of the Star and killing the print version of the Guelph Mercury in January. It is trying to sell its printing facility. The company is searching for both a new chief executive and a new Toronto Star publisher. Chief Executive David Holland plans to retire later this year after seven years in the job. John Cruickshank stepped down as Star publisher in May. (Additional reporting by Matt Scuffham; Editing by Jeffrey Hodgson)
By David Ingram

(Reuters) - Lawyers for a transgender high school student in Virginia asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday to keep out of a legal dispute about bathroom rights, an issue that has emerged as an increasingly divisive one in the United States.

In court papers, lawyers for the student, Gavin Grimm, urged the Supreme Court to leave in place a lower court's order in favor of Grimm while the litigation goes on.

The case is the first time the fight over transgender bathroom rights has reached the Supreme Court.

Last year, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) sued on behalf of Grimm to challenge the Gloucester County School Board's bathroom policy, which requires transgender students to use alternative restroom facilities.

Grimm, 17, was born a girl but now identifies as male.

A federal district court in June ordered the school board to allow Grimm to use the boys' restroom for now, and this month the school board asked the Supreme Court for an emergency stay of that order.

Seeking to keep the order in place, ACLU lawyers wrote that no "irreparable harm" will occur if the Supreme Court keeps out of the case and Grimm uses the boys' bathroom.

"In every context outside school, he uses the boys' restrooms, just like any other boy would," they wrote.

The school board's application for a stay was directed to Chief Justice John Roberts, who has responsibility for emergency actions that arise from the appeals court that covers Virginia. Roberts could act alone or refer the matter to all eight justices. Five votes are needed to grant a stay application.

In court papers this month, the school board's lawyers said the lower court wrongly deferred to President Barack Obama's administration's view that prohibitions on sex discrimination under federal law also apply to gender identity.

In May, the Obama administration directed public schools nationwide to allow transgender students to use bathrooms that correspond to their gender identity or risk losing federal funding. So far, 23 states have sued to block the directive.

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Separately, the Justice Department sued North Carolina over a state law requiring people to use public bathrooms that correspond to the sex on their birth certificates.

An April ruling by the Richmond, Virginia-based 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in favor of Grimm was the first by an appeals court to find that transgender students are protected under federal laws that bar sex-based discrimination.

(Additional reporting by Lawrence Hurley in Washington)
Noel Carey remembers the mortars screaming in over his head and then the ear-splitting crash as they hit the ground and exploded. I nearly sh-t myself, he says. We knew there and then that these guys were trying to kill every last one of us. John Gorman recalls sitting in a trench while a chaplain gave him the last rites. Thats what he thought of our chances. It was scary, I thought this is it, he adds.

In September 1961 Carey was a 24-year-old lieutenant, Gorman a wide-eyed 17-year-old private, part of an Irish contingent of United Nations peacekeepers deployed in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to stop the country descending into chaos. Even at a distance of 55 years, their voices crack with emotion as they recall how their mission turned into a battle for survival in what was Irelands first ever international military deployment.

What unfolded over five days in Jadotville is a little-known but astonishing story of heroism and against-all-odds soldiering, a feat of indefatigable courage that is now the subject of a major new Netflix movie, to be released in September.

The Siege of Jadotville, with Fifty Shades of Grey star Jamie Dornan in the lead role, tells the true story of how these 157 Irishmen, led by a tactically astute commander, routed a force of 3,000 attackers, killing 300 of them  while suffering no fatalities.

The siege of Jadotville has echoes of 1879 battle of Rorkes Drift in Natal province, South Africa, when 150 British soldiers repelled attacks by up to 3,000 Zulu warriors. The battle was immortalized in the film Zulu.

jadotville-congo-map

The Congo, like many African countries in the years after the Second World War, had turned against its European ruler, Belgium, and declared independence in 1960. The new government was ill-prepared for its new role and the U.N. Security Council set up the U.N. Operation in the Congo to support it. Amid the chaos, Moise Tshombe, a Christian and anti-communist politician, supported by some Europeans, declared the resource-rich province of Katanga independent of the DRC. The U.N. forces found themselves party to a civil war between the central government and Katanga, which was also supported by Rhodesia and South Africa.

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Ireland, which had only broken free from Britain in 1922, now found itself defending other newly independent states, as part of the U.N., which it had joined in 1955.

As part of the U.N. mission, Carey and Gormans A Company of the Irish Armys 35th Infantry Battalion was dispatched to Jadotville, a strategic, mineral-rich town in Katanga, with orders to protect the mainly Belgian settlers.

The U.N. forces were largely based in the provincial capital of Elisabethville, 80 miles south-east of Jadotville, and initially the Irish were deployed to that citys airport. In a move that has never been explained, two companies of U.N. peacekeepersone Swedish and one Irishhad been hastily withdrawn from Jadotville, days before A Company was sent in.

What seemed like a simple mission, ended up in a desperate life or death fight, pitting the Irish against a well-armed enemy, which consisted of Katangan troops supported by European mercenaries and settlers who outnumbered them 20 to one.

Commandant Pat Quinlan, the wily, blunt, pipe-smoking officer in charge of A Company noted the deep levels of hostility to his men in Jadotville and began to organize a robust defensive perimeter around their base. The 42-year-old officer ordered his men to dig 1.5-metre-deep trenches, stockpile water and carry their guns at all times.

His instincts were correct; while most of his men were at mass on September 13, the Katangans attacked, probably with the aim of taking the Irish as prisoners and using them as leverage in negotiations with the U.N.

The Katangans attacked after other U.N. forces seized Katangan positions in Elisabethville, a planned operation, which had inexplicably been kept secret from Quinlan by the U.N. command. The Katangans had also taken a key river crossing that meant the Irish were completely trapped.

The Irish were lightly armed, with 60mm mortars, Vickers machine guns, shoulder-fired anti-tank guns and Bren light machine guns. They had one truck, two jeeps and only intermittent radio communications. The Katangans had artillery and air support in a single Fouga Magister training jet.

Sergeant John Monahan was the first to see the first wave of attackers coming. Hed just finished shaving and his towel was still draped around his shoulders, but Monahan rushed to the nearest machine gun.

He opened fire and so began the battle. The Irish were hit by mortars and heavy machine gun fire and strafed by the Fouga jet. The same airplane later dropped bombs, damaging the Irish vehicles and buildings. As the shells and bullets rained down on us, I just thought what that the fk? we were supposed to be peacekeepers, now were all going to get killed, Carey tells TIME.

The Katangans attacked and were driven back again and again but they were getting closer to the Irish positions. I dont know to this day how we did it, says Gorman. But Quinlan was a master tactician.

Quinlan negotiated a series of ceasefires with the Belgian mayor of Jadotville to create time for the arrival of re-inforcements or supplies. A Norwegian pilot flew his helicopter in with water, which turned out to be contaminated but that was the U.N.s last attempt to help the Irish. The Katangans continued to breach the ceasefire and without water and ammunition, the Irish had no choice but to surrender. They had killed 300 of their attackers and five Irish soldiers were wounded. The Irish feared for their lives after the damage they had done to their enemy but they were only held for five weeks before the U.N. could negotiate their release, and returned home in December.

There was to be no heros welcome. The surrender of A Company was seen by some as a national embarrassment which overshadowed the mens courage and competence. The treatment of the Jadotville troops infuriated the soldiers and their families and led to a decades-long fight to recognize the importance of the battle.

Jadotville was swept under the carpet, says author and military expert Declan Power, on whose book, Siege at Jadotville, the new movie is based. Anyone who was there was made to feel like they couldnt talk about it. There was shame associated with it. The men should have been heroes, instead they were subject to humiliation and in some cases abuse for their involvement.

Quinlan, from Waterville in Co. Kerry, who is played in the movie by Dornan, died in 1997, aged 78, with his achievement still unrecognized. In Jadotville, he was supported by a close-knit group of officers and NCOs who ensured that A Company stuck together during the siege. I didnt know Quinlan very well before the Congo, but by God, when the chips were down, he was first through the gates, says Gorman. He adds that in later years, Quinlan never spoke about what happened in Jadotville.

We were a raw, inexperienced army, recalls Carey, who now lives in the southern Irish city of Cork. He provided Dornan with information to help the actor prepare for the role. We had antiquated equipment, armored cars that you could probably shoot arrows through. We wore uniforms made of bulls wool and hobnailed boots.

Gorman didnt even tell his mother he was going to Africa. The first she knew of this was when she got a telegram from the Army, saying I was a prisoner, says Gorman.She had been praying every night for the boys in Jadotville and she had no idea I was one of them, he recalls.

Pat Quinlan saved our lives and now with this film, the truth has finally come out, said the 72-year-old, who retired from the army in 1984.

Gorman and Carey stress they had small roles in a greater enterprise. Quinlan happened to be the manager but we were a team, says Gorman.

The campaign to gain recognition for the units bravery received a boost last week; Irelands defense minister Paul Kehoe said the men of A Company will be honored at a ceremony in September.

The movie means the mens actions will no longer be a forgotten detail of Irish history. Pat Quinlans son Leo, watched The Siege of Jadotville at a special screening in Galway in June. His son, Pat Quinlans grandson Conor, appears in the film.

The film is directed by Richie Smyth, an Irishman who has made videos for U2 and Bon Jovi and will be distributed by Netflix.

Leo Quinlan says he was thrilled with how sensitively and accurately his fathers story has been told. The truth has finally been recognized. Dad would be very proud, very happy, to see the real story told at last, he tells TIME.

Michael Kennedy, a military and diplomatic historian and author of Ireland, the United Nations and the Congo, provided some historical guidance for the movies script. He says: Quinlan and his men helped to shape Irelands reputation today for providing well-trained, respected and, above all, resilient United Nations peacekeepers. At Jadotville, the Irish, with a small unit under very competent leadership, resisted a much larger, battle-hardened force and showed their ability and professionalism in Irelands first ever peacekeeping mission. Now they can finally be honored.

The Siege of Jadotville will be available to 81 million Netflix subscribers in 190 countries from September, after a limited cinema release.
Miami (AFP) - Donald Trump responded to the murder of an elderly French priest, the latest in a string of jihadist attacks to rock the country, by saying Wednesday that "France is no longer France."

During a news conference in Florida, the Republican presidential nominee brought up the attack on a church in Normandy, and said a friend who recently visited the country told him: "I wouldn't go to France. I wouldn't go to France. France is no longer France."

"They won't like me for saying that," Trump added, "but you see what happened in Nice. You see what happened yesterday with the priest, who is supposed to be a spectacular man. France is no longer France."

Both the truck attack July 14 in Nice that claimed 84 lives and the attack on the French church, in which two attackers slit the throat of 86-year-old priest Jacques Hamel, have been claimed by the jihadist Islamic State group.

Trump sought to link the violence caused by IS to immigration from the Middle East.

"It's only going to get worse," the billionaire real estate mogul said.

"Hillary Clinton wants to allow 550 percent more people from that region into our country, and we have no idea who they are, where they come from, where their documentation is. It's only going to get worse."

The Democratic nominee Clinton said on CBS last September that she would favor raising the number of Syrian refugees admitted from the 10,000 planned by President Barack Obama to 65,000  a 550 percent increase  but said she would emphasize "persecuted religious minorities" and would ensure "rigorous vetting."

Trump, who at one point called for a temporary ban on Muslims coming to the United States, has said he would be far tougher in dealing with IS.

"We have to get them and get them fast. This world better be very careful and better get very tough and very smart, and they'll never do it with Hillary Clinton."
Russian government hackers are widely believed to have been behind the theft of Democratic National Committee emails that threw the start of the Democratic convention into disarray. Now Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump wants these cyber bandits to do more.

During a press conference Wednesday morning, Trump called on Russia to find thousands of emails Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton deleted from her private server.

If they hacked, they probably have her 33,000 emails. I hope they do, Trump told reporters on Wednesday at a press conference in Florida. They probably have her 33,000 emails that she lost and deleted. Youd see some beauties, so well see.

He then directly addressed Moscow. Russia, if you are listening, I hope you are able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing. I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by the press.

Last year, Clinton, who used a private server as secretary of state, turned over about 30,000 work-related emails to the State Department. Some 30,000 additional messages were deleted because they were private.

Trumps appeal to Russia to spy on the nations former chief diplomat is startling and unprecedented, to say the least. Hes appealing to a country now accused of trying to sway a U.S. presidential election in favor of Trump, a candidate of whom Russian strongman Vladimir Putin has spoken highly. Trump has done the same, and has also said some Baltic members of NATO might be on their own if Russia decide to invade.

Also on Wednesday, Trump contradicted his earlier claim that he knows Putin very well, telling reporters, I never met Putin. I dont know who Putin is.

Trump continued, He said one nice thing about me. He said Im a genius. I said thank you very much to the newspaper and that was the end of it. I never met Putin.

The billionaire businessmans comments come a day after President Barack Obama declined to rule out possible Russian meddling in the election. What we do know is that the Russians hack our systems, not just government systems but private systems, Obama told NBC. What the motives were in terms of the leaks, all that  I cant say directly. What I do know is that Donald Trump has repeatedly expressed admiration for Vladimir Putin.

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In a statement, Hillary for America Senior Policy Advisor Jake Sullivan said, This has to be the first time that a major presidential candidate has actively encouraged a foreign power to conduct espionage against his political opponent. This has gone from being a matter of curiosity, and a matter of politics, to being a national security issue.

Trump has sought out business opportunities in Russia over the years and his son, Donald Trump Jr., once claimed that Russian investors make up a pretty disproportionate cross-section of a lot of our assets.

Also during the press conference, Trump said he would be looking into recognizing Crimea as Russian territory, as well as lifting the sanctions against the country for its actions in Ukraine. Putin annexed the Crimean Peninsula, which has been part of Ukraine for decades, in March 2014.

Updated with Trumps comments on Crimea.

Photo credit: SARA D. DAVIS/Getty Images
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump on Wednesday invited Russian hackers to find and publish Hillary Clinton's emails.

"Russia, if you're listening, I hope you're able to find the 30,000 [Clinton] emails that are missing," Trump said at a press conference. "I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press. Let's see if that happens. That'll be nice."

Trump was referring to the emails Clinton says she deleted because they were personal in nature. She has been investigated for her use of a private email server while she served as secretary of state.

Trump's remarks came after Clinton's camp said this week that Russian hackers were likely responsible for breaching the computer networks of the Democratic National Committee earlier this year and leaking emails of top officials to WikiLeaks for publication. While Russian hackers are suspected to have accessed both the Clinton server and the DNC emails, they are two separate occurrences.

VIDEO: Trump: "Russia, if you're listening, I hope you're able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing..." https://t.co/NEGclzLXtP  Bradd Jaffy (@BraddJaffy) July 27, 2016

The hack, which showed top staffers considering leaking negative information about Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, led to chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz announcing her resignation.

"Russia has no respect for our country," Trump said at the press conference. "And that's why, if it is Russia, nobody even knows it's Russia, it was probably China. ... It shows how weak we are. It shows how disrespected we are."

Trump also slammed the DNC for what was seen as conspiring against Sanders to ensure that Clinton won the Democratic nomination.

"I'm not gonna tell Putin what to do. Why should I tell Putin what to do?" Trump said. "It's not even about Russia or China or whoever it is that's doing the hacking. It's about the things they said in those emails. They were terrible things."

He also accused Clinton of being in on the conspiracy.

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"Believe me, as sure as you're sitting there, Hillary Clinton knew about it," Trump said. "She knew everything. Debbie Wasserman Schultz could not breathe without speaking and getting approval from Hillary Clinton."

Trump doubled down on his Russian hacker comments in a tweet after the press conference, but revised his language to say that if Russia already has emails, they should hand them over:

If Russia or any other country or person has Hillary Clinton's 33,000 illegally deleted emails, perhaps they should share them with the FBI!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 27, 2016

But his running mate, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, released a statement after the press conference that discouraged Russian involvement in a US election.

"The FBI will get to the bottom of who is behind the hacking," Pence said in the statement. "If it is Russia and they are interfering in our elections, I can assure you both parties and the United States government will ensure there are serious consequences."

A spokesman for House Speaker Paul Ryan issued a statement after the press conference pushing back on Trump's comments.

"Russia is a global menace led by a devious thug," Brendan Buck said, according to the statement. "Putin should stay out of this election."

Clinton's campaign also responded.

"This has to be the first time that a major presidential candidate has actively encouraged a foreign power to conduct espionage against his political opponent," senior policy adviser Jake Sullivan said in a statement. "That's not hyperbole, those are just the facts. This has gone from being a matter of curiosity, and a matter of politics, to being a national security issue."

NOW WATCH: Trump said he never vowed to 'carpet bomb' ISIS  we fact-checked his claim





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Donald Trump told a reporter to be quiet on Wednesday after she pressed the Republican nominee over his assertion that he hopes the Russians have Hillary Clintons emails.

At a press conference in Doral, Fla., NBC News correspondent Katy Tur asked Trump whether this weeks leak of Democratic National Committee emails, which cybersecurity experts believe were obtained by Russian hackers, gave him pause.

It gives me no pause, Trump said. If they have them, they have them.

Tur, a London-based correspondent who has been following Trump on the campaign trail for NBC News, tried to ask a follow-up question, but Trump shut her down.

You know what gives me more pause? That a person in our government, Crooked Hillary Clinton  be quiet, I know you want to save her, he said. That a person in our government, Katy, would get rid of 33,000 emails  that gives me a big problem.

WATCH: Trump tells @KatyTurNBC to "be quiet" as she presses him on his hope that Russians have Clinton's emails. https://t.co/uBqOXeob3Y  NBC Nightly News (@NBCNightlyNews) July 27, 2016

Moments earlier, Trump had delivered a message to the Kremlin.

Russia, if youre listening, I hope youre able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing, he said. I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press.

Its not the first time Trump has clashed with Tur.

Last July, he sat down with Tur for a one-on-one interview at Trump Tower during which he interrupted her several times. And at a rally in South Carolina in December, Trump referred to Tur as Little Katy, third-rate journalist during a rant about the absolute scum media that cover his campaign.

The brash real estate mogul then pointed out to the crowd where she stood on a riser near the back of the rally as his supporters turned and glared.

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On Wednesday, Tur gave Trump credit for holding a press conference, something Clinton has not done in more than eight months.

Trump did have one major valid point today. It has been 235 days (almost a year) since @HillaryClinton faced the press.  Katy Tur (@KatyTurNBC) July 27, 2016

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An agitated and seemingly out-of-breath Donald Trump appeared at one of his resort properties in Florida Wednesday morning and spoke to the media for nearly an hour on a wide range of topics, from controversy about his refusal to release his tax returns to his most recent poll numbers.

But the issue that seemed to animate the Republican presidential nominee the most was the suggestion the recent hacking of the Democratic National Committees email server and the subsequent release of nearly 20,000 emails through WikiLeaks was possibly orchestrated by the Russian government in order to help the Trump campaign -- or at least to harm Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.

Related: This Is Why Vladimir Putin Wants Trump in the Oval Office

I have nothing to do with Russia. I have nothing to do with Russia, he repeated at one point. At another he insisted that he doesnt know anything about Russian President Vladimir Putin, despite having repeatedly praised the Russian strongmans leadership qualities, defended his repressive tactics, and pledged that relations between the US and Russia would be much better under a Trump administration.

President Trump would be so much better for US-Russian relations, he said at one point. It cant be worse.

(Trumps relationship with Putin is odd, to say the least. During a primary debate last November, he bragged that he got to know [Putin] very well because we were both on 60 Minutes, we were stablemates. It later came out that, while both appeared on the show in pre-recorded interviews, the two men were never on the same continent while preparing for the show, much less in the same room.)

Despite very strong evidence to the contrary, Trump repeatedly insisted that Russia probably had nothing to do with the hacking of the DNC servers. However, at one point he suggested -- presumably in jest -- that Russian hackers might be able to release emails that Clinton erased from the private email server that she used -- against State Department regulations -- while serving as secretary of state.

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Related: Battle of the Billionaires -- Why Bloomberg Will Savage Trump

By the way, if they hacked, they probably have her 33,000 emails -- I hope they do -- they probably have the 33,000 emails that she lost and deleted because youd see some beauties there, he said.

Later, he added, Russia, if youre listening, I hope youre able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing. I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press.

That last comment caused a huge uproar in the press and foreign policy establishment, despite the very strong possibility that Trump thought he was being funny.

"I find those kinds of statements to be totally outrageous, said former CIA director Leon Panetta, who claimed Trump was in fact asking the Russians to engage in American politics.

Panetta added, I just think thats behind the pale. Theres a lot of concerns I have with his qualities of leadership or lack thereof and I think that kind of statement only reflects the fact that he truly is not qualified to be president of the United States. "

Related: Clintons Historic Nomination Leads Dems Through Convention Storm

Trump, who has made multiple well-documented efforts to do business in Russia, nevertheless insisted that the closest he came to Russia was selling a house in Florida to a Russian citizen.

The billionaire former reality television star repeatedly insisted that the real problem with a foreign power hacking into the email systems of a US political party is that, It shows how weak we are. It shows how disrespected we are...Its a total sign of disrespect for our country.

His position appears to be that once he is president, other countries will have so much respect for the US that espionage will be a thing of the past.

In a note of discord, the Trump campaign released a statement from vice presidential nominee Mike Pence that appeared to take a different stance on both the likelihood of Russias being responsible for the attack and on potential consequences.

Related: Trump Gets a Big Bump in the Polls as Democrats Clash

The FBI will get to the bottom of who is behind the hacking, the statement said. If it is Russia and they are interfering in our elections, I can assure you both parties and the United States government will ensure there are serious consequences.

Trump, who appeared to calm down somewhat as the press conference went on, also took time to contradict a statement made by his campaign manager, Paul Manafort, earlier Wednesday morning. Manafort, in an interview with CBS, had appeared to close the door on the possibility of Trump ever releasing his tax returns to the public, as all presidential candidates have done for decades.

Trump reverted to the dodge he has been using for the past year -- that he cannot release the returns because he is under audit and that he will do so when the audit is complete.

Among other things, Trump also attacked President Obama. Among other things, he called the Columbia- and Harvard-educated lawyer and former professor of constitutional law the most ignorant president in the countrys history.

Top Reads from The Fiscal Times:
By Steve Holland MIAMI (Reuters) - Donald Trump was in the middle of creating another nickname for Democratic rival Hillary Clinton - "Hillary Rotten Clinton!" - when he suddenly thought of his mild-mannered vice presidential running mate, Mike Pence. "You think Mike Pence would say this?" he smiled to the audience in Roanoke, Virginia. "What a high-quality person." On their first campaign swing together this week, Trump and Pence are giving voters an initial look at their odd-couple pairing as they prepare to battle against Clinton and her running mate, Tim Kaine, the Virginia governor, in the Nov. 8 presidential election. Their public routine is a work in progress, but it's clear that they've learned from their first joint appearance, a sometimes awkward interview on CBS's "60 Minutes." In that session, Trump frequently talked over Pence and Pence went out of his way to wave off his differences with Trump on policies like his past support for the North American Free Trade Agreement, which Trump wants to renegotiate. They now have a system: When they campaign together, Pence introduces Trump enthusiastically as the modern-day equivalent of 1980s Republican President Ronald Reagan and speaks of himself as the son of a combat veteran and the father of a U.S. Marine. Then he steps aside. The Trump-Pence union was a political marriage of necessity. The combustible, free-wheeling Trump needed the staid, staunchly conservative Pence, the governor of Indiana, to give him some credibility with establishment Republicans and a boost in the Midwest. The risks for Pence seem minimal and the upsides are huge. He opted out of the 2016 Republican presidential sweepstakes in the fallout over his fight over a religious freedom law in Indiana that critics said was anti-gay, and he faced a potentially difficult re-election race for governor. With his experience as a former member of Congress, he could serve as a conduit to lawmakers in a Trump administration, something that could be important for a presidential candidate who has never held elective office. In the two weeks since he was named Trump's running mate, Pence has become a lightning rod for criticism from Democrats who portray him as holding extreme right-wing views. Clinton's campaign chairman, John Podesta, described Pence as "an incredibly divisive and unpopular running mate known for supporting discriminatory politics and failed economic policies that favor millionaires and corporations over working families." WHEN THE CAMERAS ARE OFF Pence seems to be still getting accustomed to Trump's worldview. While introducing Trump in Roanoke on Monday, he hewed closely to the establishment Republican position in criticizing Clinton for not doing more to ensure that a contingent of U.S. troops was left in Iraq after a U.S.-Iraqi agreement expired. "Remember, it was Hillary Clinton who squandered the gains that were made at the close of our presence in Iraq, the failure in judgment that sent ISIS on the loose," Pence said in Roanoke, using an acronym for the Islamic State militant group. That was at odds with Trump's view that the American invasion of Iraq was wrong. "I didn't want to go to Iraq," Trump said moments after Pence spoke. Still, Pence's loyalty to Trump seems absolute. In his speech introducing Trump at their appearance before the Veterans of Foreign Wars convention in Charlotte, North Carolina, on Tuesday, Pence tried to show what Trump is like behind all the bluster. "I know this man's heart," Pence said. "I know the way he speaks, when the cameras are off." Trump chose Pence over former House of Representatives Speaker Newt Gingrich and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, the two other finalists. Although Republican elites have been divided over Trump's presidential bid, many approve his choice in a No. 2. "Mike Pence is a good man. He will add value to the ticket," tweeted Jeb Bush, the former Florida governor and one of Trump's former rivals for the nomination. Gingrich said via email that Pence is proving to be "a good balance for Trump's powerful personality." Trump himself jokingly brought up the vetting process that led him to Pence, describing a candidate who was squeaky clean compared to others whose background checks turned up "many pages" of materials. "With Mike, they came back with like nothing. He's the most perfect human being, this guy. I love him. Where is he? I love him," Trump said. (Editing by Leslie Adler)
Just when it starts to seem that Donald Trump cant surprise the jaded American media anymore, the Republican nominee manages to go just a little bit further.

During a press conference Wednesday morning that was bizarre even by Trumps standards, he praised torture, said the Geneva Conventions were obsolete, contradicted his earlier position on a federal minimum wage, and told a reporter to be quiet.

But the strangest comments, easily, came when Trump was asked about allegations that Russian hackers had broken into the email of the Democratic National Conventionas well as further suggestions that Vladimir Putins regime might be trying to aid Trump, who has praised him at length. Trump cast doubt on Russias culpability, then said he hoped they had hacked Hillary Clintons messages while she was secretary of state.

By the way, if they hacked, they probably have her 33,000 emails, he said. I hope they do. They probably have her 33,000 emails that she lost and deleted. Because youd see some beauties there. A few minutes later, he returned to the idea, speaking directly to the Kremlin: I will tell you this: Russia, if youre listening, I hope youre able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing.

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It was a stunning moment: a presidential nominee calling on a foreign power not only to hack his opponent and release what they found publicly, but hoping the Russians had stolen the emails of a top American official, perhaps including classified information.

Following Trumps thread on Russia was practically impossible. On one hand, he portrayed the act of hacking into Democratic emails as a total sign of disrespect, yet in the next breath he pleaded with foreign powers to do just that. He said he was not going to tell Putin what to do. He also insisted, I have nothing to do with Putin. I dont know anything about him, other than he will respect me.

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Trump previously claimed a friendship with the Russian president. I got to know him very well because we were both on 60 Minutes, we were stablemates, he said. That was later revealed as a lie: Although both men were on the same episode of the show, they had never met.

Trump has given conflicting signals about his connections to Russia elsewhere, too. On Tuesday, a spokeswoman told Newsweek that he had no business with the country. In 2008, however, Donald Trump Jr. said that Russians make up a pretty disproportionate cross-section of a lot of our assets  We see a lot of money pouring in from Russia, as The Washington Post reported.

Trump struck a balance Wednesday, insisting that Putin was a strong leader but tempering his praise. In one of the odder moments, Trump charged Putin with racism and then immediately said he hoped Putin would like him.

Recommended: 'Trump Says He Wants to Run the Nation Like Hes Run His Business. God Help Us!'

Putin has said things over the last year that are really bad things, okay. He mentioned the n word one time. I was shocked to hear him. You know what the n word is, right? Total lack of respect for President Obama. Number one, he doesnt like him. Number two, he doesnt respect him. I think hes going to respect your president if Im elected, and I hope he likes me.

He has less affection for France, where Islamist terrorists killed a priest on Tuesday. I wouldnt go to France, Trump said. I wouldnt go to France, because France is no longer France.

What if Clinton or Obama had wished that a foreign power had hacked a political opponents emails?

For an ordinary candidate, that would been extraordinary enough of a press conference. But Trump was barely getting started. NBCs Katy Tur asked him point-blank whether he believed the Geneva Conventions were out of date.

I think everythings out of date. We have a whole new world, Trump said. He then reaffirmed his support for torture, even though theres no evidence its an effective intelligence-gathering tool. I am a person that believes in enhanced interrogation, yes. And, by the way, it works.

He launched into a tirade against Clintons running mate, Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia. But Trump repeatedly accused Kaine of trying to raise taxes while governor of New Jersey. He was eventually corrected; it was unclear what caused the slip, although some reporters noted the similarity between Kaines name and former Governor Tom Kean (whose name is pronounced cane) of New Jersey.

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Trumps flip-flop on his relationship with Putin was not the only reversal. In May, Trump said he wanted to abolish the federal minimum wage. On Wednesday, he gave a somewhat confusing answer, saying, I would like to raise it to at least $10, yet also suggesting that perhaps states rather than the federal government should do that.

Just for good measure, Trump threw in a shot at Obama, who is scheduled to speak at the Democratic National Convention Wednesday evening. I think President Obama has been the most ignorant president in our history, he said. When he became president, he didnt know a thing. And honestly, today he knows less.

By the end, Wednesdays press conference made Trumps weird speech on Friday seem positively quotidian. These sorts of outbursts are the kinds of things that are disqualifying for most candidates. Its hard to imagine what would happen if Clinton or Mitt Romney or Obama had publicly wished that a foreign power had hacked a political opponents emailsespecially a cabinet secretary. But Trumps supporters have been unbothered so far. As Trump gleefully pointed out during the press conference, several recent polls show him leading Clinton. Who knows what inspired Trump to spout off on Wednesday, though. With the DNC in full swing, perhaps he just couldnt bear to surrender attention to the Democrats any longer.

Read more from The Atlantic:

This article was originally published on The Atlantic.
When news broke Tuesday that TV personality Miss Cleo  an actress best known as the face of the now-defunct Psychic Readers Network  had passed away from colon cancer, the Internet remembered a charismatic Jamaican woman with a signature catchphrase, "Call me now!"



The woman who actually died, 53-year-old Youree Dell Harris, was a Los Angeles-born civilian who stumbled into a psychic career  and expressed regret over taking money from innocent people who called into her network asking for spiritual guidance to the tune of several dollars a minute.



"If someone called me on the line and I knew that they didn't have any money, I had no intention of keeping them on the line," Harris said in the 2014 documentary Hotline. "That was more about me rather than them. It was more about my karma."



Karma wasn't necessarily good to her: the Psychic Readers Network was shut down by a federal probe in 2002, and Harris was named in the legal proceedings, though later dropped from the suit, as she was just the face of the Network, not a founder. It still hurt her image, though.







"I made 24 cents a minute, that was on the high end," she shared in Hotline, adding to The Advocate in 2006, "I'm said to have gazillions of dollars. I wish people would tell me where it is."









A 2003 PEOPLE interview with Harris told her story: she was born to David Harris, 37, a Texan, and Alisa Teresa Hopis, 36, of California, on Aug. 12, 1962. Former classmates at the Southern California school that Harris attended as a boarder in the 1970s recall an all-American, gregarious student who spent much of her time snapping photos for the yearbook.



"I speak perfect English," she told Vice in 2014, adding that her family had Jamaican roots. "When you grow up in America and you're Caribbean, your parents beat it into you that the only way to succeed is by dropping the patois. My mother was very deliberate about that, and so was my father."



Harris enrolled at the University of Southern California in 1980 but left after taking only four classes. Actors who worked with her more than a decade later at a city-run theater in Seattle recall Harris  who by then had a daughter and went by the name Ree Perris  as a creative playwright and director but also somewhat elusive.



"She owed people money," says Darcell Hubbard, who directed one of the three plays Harris produced at the Langston Hughes Performing Arts Center in 1996 and 1997. Hubbard says some of the teenage theater ushers were given $200 checks that promptly bounced when Harris skipped town after telling some of her colleagues that she had sickle cell anemia and others that she suffered from bone cancer. (Harris and her lawyer declined to respond for PEOPLE's 2003 profile.)



In 1996, for a collection of her monologues titled For Women Only, Harris played the role of a turban-wearing Jamaican who sold trinkets at a market. Little did her coworkers know they were witnessing the creation of a character she would ride to national fame.



"She always talked to me in that voice," says composer Derrick Brown, who recalled Harris practicing her accent onstage and off, "and I thought, 'Boy, she's a weirdo.' "



The Truth About Miss Cleo: How a Privileged Girl from L.A. Became a Psychic Sensation| Death, Miss Cleo



She was still using the accent when she moved to Florida in 1998 and began working as a tarot-reading psychic for a so-called "bookstore"  a telemarketing center to which calls are routed from different numbers around the country. While working a special event at a mall in Pompano, Flordia, she was approached by a production assistant from Access Resource Services and accepted an offer to appear in an ad in 2000.



"That first commercial, I looked like a hag," she told Miami radio station Y-100 in 2003. "It was done on purpose. They wanted it to look like I was in my garage."



In her 2014 talk with Vice, Harris said she did have fortune telling in her blood  though didn't claim to be an expert. "I come from a family of spooky people," she said. "I come from a family of Obeah  which is another word for voodoo. My teacher was Haitian, [a mambo] born in Port-au-Prince, and I studied under her for some 30 years and then became a mambo myself. So they refer to me as psychic  because the word voodoo scares just about everybody. So they told me, 'No, no, no, we can't use that word; we're going to call you a psychic.' I said, 'But I'm not a psychic!' "



Harris came out to The Advocate in 2006. Though she'd once been married to a man and had two children (one with him, one later in life), "I've been gay since I was about 16," she told the magazine.



Aside from Hotline and her interview with The Advocate, she flew under the radar for most of the 2000s, appearing in a 2015 April Fool's Day ad for Benefit cosmetics. A 2012 piece on xoJane.com written by a woman who briefly worked for the Psychic Readers Network exposed the inner workings of the scam, though Harris never commented on the story.



For most of her final years, it turns out, she was still doing readings privately, charging clients up to $100 to chat by phone or in person, despite her admissions of her past.



"People are going to believe what they want to believe," she said in Hotline. "I don't know who I helped, but I'm certain that I helped some people."
ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkey's Capital Markets Board on Wednesday canceled the license of the head of research at brokerage AK Investment and called for him to face charges over a report he wrote analyzing the July 15 coup attempt. In a regular bulletin, the board said it had canceled Mert Ulker's capital markets activity license over a report he had sent to clients on July 18, saying he had not "fulfilled his responsibilities". It said Ulker would face charges under articles 299 and 301 of the penal code covering insults to the president, the nation and state institutions. The general manager of AK Investment, Mert Erdogmus, told Reuters the company had sacked Ulker on July 25 over the report, saying it contained "mistakes and a lack of foresight", though he denied the move was linked to the board's decision. "Mert Ulker, our former head of research, had shared a report with investors on the morning of July 18 which does not reflect our institution's views at all," Erdogmus said. Ulker's report analyzed the expected impact of the failed coup on financial markets and the economy. It also referred to several theories of who might be responsible. Among the scenarios, it said some had speculated it was a "false flag" event stage-managed to give President Tayyip Erdogan an opportunity to purge the military of opponents and extend his grip on Turkey. It went on to say a more rational alternative version hints that Erdogan was vaguely aware of the coup attempt and allowed it to proceed, as he knew the attempt would be weak and disorganized. Ankara accuses U.S.-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen of masterminding the coup. Gulen, who has built up a network of followers, schools, businesses and charities in Turkey over decades, denies any involvement in the coup. In an interview with Reuters last week, Erdogan, who narrowly escaped capture and possibly death on the night of the coup, dismissed as "indecent" any suggestion that he might have secretly orchestrated it to boost his own power. Turkey has suspended, detained or placed under investigation more than 60,000 soldiers, judges, teachers, journalists and others suspected of ties to Gulen's movement since the July 15-16 coup, which was staged by a faction within the military. (Reporting by Asli Kandemir; Writing by Daren Butler; Editing by Gareth Jones)
Ankara (AFP) - Turkey on Wednesday said it was discharging 149 generals and ordering the closure of dozens of media outlets, in the next phase of its controversial crackdown in the wake of the failed coup.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who survived the biggest threat to his 13-year domination of the country when supporters countered the plotters on the streets, has blamed the July 15 coup on the reclusive US-based preacher Fethullah Gulen.

The authorities have now embarked on a relentless campaign to eradicate every influence of Gulen from Turkish institutions in a crackdown that has shaken every aspect of life in Turkey and led to the detention of nearly 16,000 people.

Eighty-seven land army generals, 30 air force generals, and 32 admirals -- a total of 149 -- were being dishonourably discharged from the military over their complicity in the coup bid, a Turkish official said, confirming a government decree published in the official gazette.

In addition, 1,099 officers and 436 junior officers have also received a dishonourable discharge, the decree added.

- Media to be shuttered -

The closure was ordered of three news agencies, 16 television stations, 23 radio stations, 45 newspapers, 15 magazines and 29 publishers, the official gazette added.

It did not give the names of those media outlets to be closed but according to a list obtained by the CNN-Turk channel they include mainly provincial titles but also some well-known national media.

These include the Cihan news agency, the pro-Kurdish IMC TV and the opposition daily newspaper Taraf.

Also to be shut are the Zaman newspaper and its Today's Zaman English language sister publication which, like Cihan, were part of a holding linked to Gulen until being put into state administration earlier this year.

Authorities issued arrest warrants for 42 journalists earlier this week and on Wednesday issued another 47 for former staff of the once pro-Gulen Zaman newspaper.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday expressed deep concern about the ongoing wave of arrests in Turkey following the putsch.

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- Key military council -

The discharge of the generals -- most of whom are currently under arrest -- came ahead of a meeting of Turkey's Supreme Military Council which is expected to agree one of the most radical shake-ups of the armed forces in years.

The military has insisted that only a tiny proportion of the total armed forces -- which number around three quarters of a million and are the second largest in NATO after the United States -- took part in the coup.

But 178 generals have been detained -- with 151 of them already remanded in custody -- around one half of the 358 generals serving in Turkey.

Turkish officials say this shows the extent to which the armed forces were infiltrated at the hightest level by supporters of Gulen.

The council will decide on the personnel changes needed -- in particular at general level -- with lower-ranking officers expected to be fast-tracked to fill the gaps in the top positions.

In a symbol of the military's waning power in Turkey after the coup, the meeting will be symbolically held at the Cankaya Palace of the Turkish premier in Ankara and not, as is customary, at military headquarters.

In the wake of the coup the military has already lost control of the coastguard and gendarmerie, which will now be dependent on the interior ministry.

The army said Wednesday that 8,651 of its military personnel had been involved in the coup, 1.5 percent of its total number.

It said that 35 planes, 37 helicopters, 74 tanks, and three ships had been used by the plotters.

Energy Minister Berat Albayrak, who is Erdogan's son-in-law, told reporters that Gulen supporters had successfully infiltrated the armed forces and authorities had been planning to purge them ahead of the coup.

"Especially at the level of general, the problem is high. Quantity wise the problem is low," he said.

Gulen, who says he runs a peaceful Islamic movement, rubbishes the claims that he was behind the coup and expressed hope that the United States would not give into Ankara's pressure and extradite him.

According to Interior Minister Efkan Ala, 15,846 people have been detained -- including more than 10,000 soldiers --- with a total of 8,113 people remanded in custody.

Turkey has insisted all suspects will be given a fair hearing and an official said Wednesday almost 3,000 suspects have been released after being detained.

Some 50,000 state employees have lost their jobs since July 15, mostly in the education sector.
Ankara (AFP) - Turkey issued arrest warrants Wednesday for 47 former staff of the Zaman newspaper, an official said, in a growing crackdown on citizens suspected of links to alleged coup mastermind Fethullah Gulen.

The official, declining to be named, said the swoop covers "executives and some staff including columnists", describing Zaman as the "flagship media organisation" of the movement led by Gulen, a US-based preacher.

In March, Zaman and its sister English-language newspaper Today's Zaman were taken over by state-appointed administrators and it has since taken a strongly pro-government line.

The official insisted the warrants were not related to what individual columnists had previously said or written.

But "prominent employees of Zaman are likely to have intimate knowledge of the Gulen network and as such could benefit the investigation", the official explained.

In the attempted coup of July 15, renegade soldiers sought to topple President Recep Tayyip Erdogan but were stopped by crowds of civilians and loyalist security forces. At least 270 people were killed on both sides.

The failed power grab sent shockwaves through Turkish life, and 13,000 people have since been detained.

More than 9,000 of them have been placed in custody ahead of trial over the coup, which the Turkish authorities blame on reclusive Pennsylvania-based cleric Gulen.

He strongly denies Ankara's accusations and demanded Tuesday that the United States resists demands for his extradition.

"Turkey's president is blackmailing the United States," he wrote in a New York Times opinion piece.

- Ex-editors wanted -

The swoop on newspaper staff came after authorities on Monday issued another 42 arrest warrants for journalists, including prominent veteran reporters.

London-based rights group Amnesty International said that they represented a "draconian clampdown on freedom of expression".

Among those wanted in the new set of warrants are former Zaman editor-in-chief Abdulhamit Bilici, and former Today's Zaman editor-in-chief and columnist Bulent Kenes, according to the Hurriyet newspaper.

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Kenes was previously accused of insulting Erdogan in a series of tweets in late 2015.

Several former Zaman staff are believed to be outside the country following the March takeover of the newspaper.

A major shake-up of the Turkish armed forces is expected to be announced on Thursday when the country's Supreme Military Council meets.

With 143 generals and more than 3,000 soldiers arrested on suspicion of links to the coup, there are gaping holes in the command structure which will have to be filled.

Erdogan is also set to visit Russia on August 9 to repair ties harmed by the downing of a Russian warplane by Turkish jets last year, officials said Tuesday, in an apparent sign of Turkey's post-coup diplomatic strategy.
By Tulay Karadeniz, Gulsen Solaker and Can Sezer ANKARA/ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkey on Wednesday deepened a crackdown on suspected followers of a U.S.-based cleric it blames for a failed coup, dismissing nearly 1,700 military personnel and shutting 131 media outlets, moves that may spark more concern among its Western allies. So far, tens of thousands of people - including police, judges and teachers - have been suspended or placed under investigation since the July 15-16 coup, which Turkey says was staged by a faction within the military loyal to the Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen. Gulen, who lives in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania but whose movement has a wide following in Turkey where it runs a large network of schools, has denied any involvement in the failed putsch. Western governments and human rights groups, while condemning the abortive coup in which at least 246 people were killed and more than 2,000 injured, have expressed concern over the extent of the crackdown, suggesting President Tayyip Erdogan may be using it to stifle dissent and tighten his grip on power. Erdogan, who narrowly escaped capture and possibly death on the night of the coup, denies the crackdown has wider aims and says the Gulen movement threatened democracy by attempting to build a "parallel state" within the military, media and civil service. On Wednesday, the military dishonorably discharged 1,684 of its personnel, a Turkish government official said, citing their role in the failed coup. Of those, 149 were generals and admirals, said the official, who requested anonymity. Data show that would represent roughly 40 percent of all generals and admirals in Turkey's military. Broadcaster CNN Turk has reported that more than 15,000 people, including around 10,000 soldiers had been detained so far over the coup, citing the interior minister. Of those, more than 8,000 were formally arrested pending trial, it said. In addition, the government said in its official gazette that three news agencies, 16 television channels, 45 newspapers, 15 magazines and 29 publishers have been ordered shut down. These moves, which follow the closure of other media outlets with suspected Gulenist ties as well as the detention of journalists will further stoke concerns among rights groups and Western governments about the scale of Erdogan's post-coup purges. The United States said on Wednesday it understood Turkey's need to hold perpetrators of the attempted coup to account, but said the detention of more journalists was part of a "troubling trend". JOURNALISTS DETAINED Turkey ordered another 47 journalists detained on Wednesday, singling out columnists and other staff of the now defunct Zaman newspaper, the government official said. Authorities in March shut down Zaman, widely seen as the Gulen movement's flagship media organization. "The prosecutors aren't interested in what individual columnists wrote or said," said the official, who requested anonymity. "At this point, the reasoning is that prominent employees of Zaman are likely to have intimate knowledge of the Gulen network and as such could benefit the investigation." However, the list includes journalists, such as Sahin Alpay, known for their leftist activism who do not share the religious worldview of the Gulenist movement. This has fueled the concerns that the investigation may be turning into a witch-hunt of the president's political opponents. The media reported on Monday that arrest warrants had been issued for 42 other journalists, 16 of whom have so far been taken into custody. Alpay is a former official of Turkey's left-leaning, secularist main opposition CHP party. The Dogan news agency said police raided his home in Istanbul early on Wednesday and detained him after a 2-1/2-hour search of the property. Separately, Turkey's capital markets board said it had revoked the license of the head of research at brokerage AK Investment and called for him to face charges over a report he wrote to investors analyzing the coup. SPIRIT OF UNITY Erdogan's ruling Islamist-rooted AK Party and opposition parties, usually bitterly divided, have demonstrated a rare spirit of unity since the abortive coup and are seeking consensus on constitutional amendments partly aimed at "cleansing" the state apparatus of Gulenist supporters. A senior AK Party official said on Wednesday the parties were discussing plans to increase parliamentary control of a key state body that appoints judges and prosecutors. Also on Wednesday a government official said Turkish special forces were still hunting in the hills around the Mediterranean resort of Marmaris for a group of 11 commandos who are believed to have tried to capture or kill Erdogan on the night of the coup, when he was on holiday in the area. In testimony provided following his detention, Major General Mehmet Disli, the brother of a prominent ruling party lawmaker, strongly denied allegations that he was involved in the coup, saying he had been forced by the plotters to mediate with the chief of the military's General Staff on July 15. General Staff head Hulusi Akar was held hostage for hours by the plotters, but refused to join their coup. Erdogan, a popular but polarizing figure who has dominated Turkish politics for more than a decade, will chair an annual meeting of the Supreme Military Council (YAS) on Thursday after vowing to restructure the armed forces following the coup. The General Staff said 35 planes, including 24 fighter jets, 37 helicopters, 74 tanks and three ships had been used by the coup plotters, NTV reported. It put the number of soldiers from the Gulenist network involved in the attempted putsch at 8,651, or about 1.5 percent of the armed forces. In Greece, authorities on Wednesday postponed hearings for eight Turkish soldiers who sought asylum there after fleeing Turkey. The men - three majors, three captains and two sergeant majors - deny being involved in the coup, but Ankara has branded them "traitors" and is demanding their extradition. Erdogan has also signaled the country might restore the death penalty in the wake of the failed coup, citing strong public support for such a move, though the European Union has made clear this would scupper Turkey's decades-old bid to join the bloc. PIVOT TO MOSCOW Turkish officials have complained of what they perceive as a lack of support from the EU over the coup, while European leaders have urged Ankara to show restraint and a sense of proportion in bringing those responsible to justice. The attempted coup has also tested Turkey's ties with its NATO ally the United States, where Gulen has lived in self-imposed exile since 1999. Responding to Turkey's request for Gulen's swift extradition, Washington has said Ankara must first provide clear evidence of his involvement in the coup. Gulen lives in a secluded compound in Pennsylvania's Pocono Mountains, but Erdogan has reason to worry about the reclusive cleric's reach inside Turkey. In 2013, his followers in the police and judiciary opened a corruption probe into business associates of Erdogan, then prime minister, who denounced the investigation as a foreign plot. The strains with the EU and the United States have coincided with Turkey's renewed push to repair ties with Russia, badly hurt last November by the Turkish downing of a Russian jet involved in military operations in Syria, and Moscow's subsequent imposition of trade sanctions. On Wednesday, Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Simsek said talks with Russian officials this week on improving bilateral relations had taken place "in a very positive atmosphere". Simsek, respected by Western investors as a safe pair of hands in guiding the Turkish economy, also said he saw no reason to downgrade Turkey's credit rating following the coup. Standard & Poor's recently revised the country's sovereign debt outlook to negative from stable and Moody's has said it will review the rating for a possible downgrade. (Additional reporting by Ercan Gurses, Yesim Dikmen and Orhan Coskun in Ankara and Ayla Jean Yackley, Asli Kandemir, Humeyra Pamuk and Nick Tattersall in Istanbul; writing by Gareth Jones and David Dolan; editing by Peter Millership, Peter Graff and G Crosse)
Ankara (AFP) - Turkish authorities were planning a major shake-up of the military to remove elements linked to US-based preacher Fethullah Gulen just ahead of the failed coup, a key minister said Wednesday.

Energy Minister Berat Albayrak, who is the son-in-law of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, suggested parts of the military had wanted to act against the government as they knew they were about to be purged.

Albayrak, who was with Erdogan throughout the night of the botched putsch on July 15, said the president had first been warned about the coup by a civilian and it was only later that the gravity of the situation became clear.

In his first meeting with foreign reporters since the coup night, Albayrak revealed that Turkey's Supreme Military Council (YAS) had this summer been planning to meet to expel all officers linked to Gulen, who Turkey blames for masterminding the putsch.

"They were going to take really important steps to remove Gulenist officers and generals from the armed forces. We were already working on this."

He said this would have been part of a general purge against pro-Gulen elements that would have also extended to the legal system and other institutions.

"These people (linked to Gulen) were detected and the related lists had been conveyed to the line ministries."

He added: "After they (the plotters) realised things were going like this, at their last breath, they took their final step (the coup)."

- 'A coordinated coup' -

He said only a small proportion of the NATO member's 750,000-strong military supported the coup but alleged pro-Gulen figures had successfully infiltrated the high and middle ranks in large numbers.

"If we are speaking especially at the level of general we understand the level of the problem."

Albayrak, who is married to Erdogan's eldest daughter Esra, was with the president at the holiday resort of Marmaris in southwestern Turkey when they received news of the coup.

Story continues

"We received the first phone call from a civilian from the Istanbul area -- you cannot rationalise something based on one phone call," he said.

It was only after Erdogan could not reach important figures like chief of staff Hulusi Akar -- who had been abducted -- that the gravity of the situation became clear.

"We had phone calls with ministers and we realised this was not a simple thing but a coordinated coup d'etat," Albayrak said.

He said the president then spoke to Turkish media from his hotel but because some media -- such as state-run TRT -- had been taken over by the plotters the remarks were not broadcast.

"So Turkey did not hear us," he said.

It was at this point that, through FaceTime and using channels that had not been taken over, Erdogan made his now famous call to citizens to defeat the coup, Albayrak explained.

"This was one of the most important turning points," he said, recalling how crowds of Erdogan supporters then poured onto the streets to defeat the rebels.

The president then decided to fly back to Istanbul from the nearby airport of Dalaman to direct measures to stop the coup.

"Until the last minute it was not clear which place we were going to choose" to fly back from, Albayrak said.
Emerging markets have had a tough few years. Slowing growth in China after the global financial crisis has meant reduced commodity demand and weaker investor sentiment for the group. Then the plunge in crude prices led to lower income for oil-producing nations, along with weakening currencies and falling foreign direct investment.

But 2016 looked to be the year the group could turn a corner. The price of oil and of some metals has rebounded, and dollar strength has plateaued. The iShares MSCI Emerging Markets (NYSE: EEM) was up 26% in mid-July from its January low.

One particular emerging market looked to be a standout among the group, with shares of its country fund up 37% from the January low just to the end of April. The country's current account deficit, the difference between exports and imports, shrank to a five-year low in 2015 and foreign investors were pouring money into the economy. That is, until political uncertainty started gripping the country in late April and erupted in a failed coup this month.

Shares of the country fund are now down 22% from their 52-week high and may be the best buy in emerging markets this year. Historical evidence shows that failed coups do not detract meaningfully from economic growth, and the President may now be able to push through his plan for growth spending.

Is The Turkey Country Fund A 'Gift from God'?

A military coup erupted in Turkey on the 15th, led by religious leader Fethullah Gulen and parts of the military. The government put down the insurrection and within days nearly 6,000 dissenters had been arrested within the army and judiciary.

[More from StreetAuthority.com: Turkey's Failed Coup Presents A Unique Opportunity For Investors]

President Erdogan himself called the coup a "gift from God" that allowed him to consolidate power and charge dissenters with treason. The President has promised "a new Turkey" and looks able to do it after the swell of support for him after the attempt. He's expected to ask parliament to grant him additional powers or call for a new vote on parliament membership which would likely lead to a majority for his party.

Story continues

While foreign governments are pleading for a measured response from the Turkish government against dissenters and investors are rushing to the exits over the uncertainty of the government's call for a three-month state of emergency, there could be an upside for rational investors able to look past the selloff.

Lena Komileva, former Head of G10 Global FX Strategy at Brown Brothers Harriman, told Bloomberg she believes the failed coup will end up increasing political stability as Erdogan consolidates power. Recent global political uncertainty, from terror attacks around the world to Brexit, has weighed on the market, so increased political stability in Turkey could be a major advantage for investors in the country.

A slow bureaucracy and judicial checks on environmental impact have so far delayed Erdogan's massive construction projects and economic plans to become one of the world's top 10 economies by 2023. Greater control after the coup will likely see this infrastructure spending jump and could mean a snap back in economic growth.

Deputy Minister Simsek held a conference immediately following the failed coup and said that the Central Bank would provide unlimited Lira liquidity and drop the rate for intraday liquidity to zero to support the financial system after a flash drop in the currency over the weekend. Simsek said that 560 institutional investors and analysts listened to his Sunday address of the economy and said that the event will not have a significant impact on consumption.

[More from StreetAuthority.com: This Company Could Be In The Economic Sweet Spot]

A working paper this year by Erik Meyersson of the Stockholm Institute for Transition Economics suggests that the failed coup will probably not affect the country's growth and that it could still reach its 4.5% GDP target. On data from 1955 to 2001, failed coup attempts on democratic governments showed no significant effects on the economy.

Turkey has received $16 billion in foreign inflows over the first five months of the year as investors rush into the $780 billion economy. Turkey's economy has been one of the strongest among emerging markets, growing 4.0% last year and above 2% annually since 2012.

The iShares MSCI Turkey ETF (NYSE: TUR) plunged 6.7% on the Monday after the attempt and has fallen more than 13% as skittish investors head for the exits on the fear trade. Shares had been booming, up 17.4% year-to-date before the coup attempt easily outperforming the 11.5% gain on the MSCI emerging markets group. The fund holds shares of 70 companies within financials (44.6%), consumer staples (21.7%), industrials (12.1%), materials (8.4%) and three other sectors.

After the recent selloff, the fund trades for just 8.9 times trailing earnings and pays a 3.0% yield. Relatively strong economic growth and a benchmark rate of 7.5% should keep foreign money coming into the country, supporting the Lira and driving gains for the financial sector. Shares could rebound to around $40 each once investor fears subside for a 10% gain on top of the dividend yield.

[More from StreetAuthority.com: Take Advantage Of The Brexit Discount On This Industry Leader]

Risks To Consider: Uncertainty could weigh on shares of the Turkey fund until news around the attempt calms and economic reports soothe market anxiety throughout the year.

Action To Take: Take advantage of the selloff on the iShares Turkey fund after the failed coup attempt to go long on one of the emerging market's strongest economies.

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ANKARA/ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkey has dismissed nearly 1,700 military personnel and closed more than 130 media outlets, official sources said on Wednesday, amid a deepening crackdown that has stirred alarm among Ankara's NATO allies following this month's failed coup. A total of 1,684 military personnel have been dishonorably discharged, a Turkish government official said, citing their role in the July 15-16 abortive putsch, where a faction of the military attempted to topple the government. President Tayyip Erdogan has accused U.S.-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen of masterminding the failed coup and authorities have already suspended, dismissed or placed under investigation more than 60,000 soldiers, police, teachers, judges and others suspected of links to the Gulen movement. Gulen denies any involvement in the coup attempt. Of the military personnel whose discharge was announced on Wednesday, 149 were generals and admirals, the government official said. That would represent roughly 40 percent of all Turkish generals and admirals, military data show. In addition, the government said in its official gazette that three news agencies, 16 television channels, 45 newspapers, 15 magazines and 29 publishers have been ordered shut down. These moves, which follow the closure of other media outlets with suspected Gulenist ties, will further stoke concerns among rights groups and Western governments about the scale of Erdogan's post-coup purges. The United States said on Wednesday it understood Turkey's need to hold perpetrators of the attempted coup to account but said the detention of more journalists was part of a "worrisome trend". Earlier on Wednesday, Turkey ordered another 47 journalists detained as part of the crackdown on Gulen's supporters. However, the names include known leftists who do not share the Gulenists' religious outlook, increasing concerns that the crackdown may be indiscriminately sweeping up people simply because they are critical of Erdogan and his government. (Reporting by Tulay Karadeniz, Gulsen Solaker in Ankara and Humeyra Pamuk and Can Sezer in Istanbul; Writing by David Dolan; Editing by Gareth Jones)
Athens (AFP) - Eight Turkish military officers who fled the failed coup to Greece have been given more time to press their asylum claims, their lawyer said on Wednesday.

Vassilis Terzidis told AFP that the men "fear for their lives" if they are returned to Turkey, where the authorities have been waging a massive crackdown against suspects in the July 15 military coup bid.

"Given the very volatile situation in Turkey the eight soldiers wish to wait and better prepare (their case)," he said.

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 four days after the attempted government takeover.

Last Thursday, a Greek court sentenced the eight -- who face a military trial in their homeland if sent back -- to suspended two-month prison terms for illegal entry.

They will remain in police custody in Greece until their asylum applications are heard.

A first ruling had been expected in early August but now they have been summoned to a hearing on August 19, said Terzidis.

The eight claim they will not receive a fair trial in Turkey, where the authorities have detained thousands of people over the coup, including top generals.

Rights group Amnesty International has said it has "credible evidence" of the abuse and torture of people detained in sweeping post-coup arrests -- something Ankara has denied.

Terzidis also referred to the possibility of Turkey restoring the death penalty in the wake of the attempted coup.

"That will be another argument in their favour for the international protection they are requesting," he said.

The case threatens to strain ties between the uneasy NATO allies, with Ankara labelling the eight "terrorists".
ATHENS (Reuters) - Greek authorities on Wednesday postponed hearings for eight Turkish soldiers who sought asylum after they fled Turkey following an abortive coup attempt, a case that has underscored lingering tensions between the two NATO allies. The men - three majors, three captains and two sergeant majors - flew a military helicopter to the northern Greek border town of Alexandroupolis on July 16, a day after the coup attempt unfolded. Claiming they fear for their lives, the men have sought political asylum in Greece. They deny being involved in the coup. Turkey has sought their deportation, calling them "traitors" and "terrorist elements". That created a dilemma for Greece, which now has to decide whether to hold on to the men or risk irking Ankara. Athens has said it will deal with any asylum request swiftly. Two of the men who appeared at the Central Asylum Service in Athens on Wednesday asked for a postponement of interviews to better prepare themselves, said one of the lawyers, Vasiliki Ilia Marinaki. The interviews were postponed, with the first due to start on Aug. 19. "They are afraid to go to Turkey," Marinaki told Reuters Television. "They told me that they will definitely be tortured. They told me exactly 'we are going to beg for death, we are going to be dead anyway'." Relations between Greece and Turkey have improved over the years, but they almost went to war over an uninhabited islet in 1996 and they remain at odds over territorial disputes and ethnically split Cyprus. Last week, the men were handed a two-month suspended jail sentence on charges of entering Greece illegally. Nonetheless, they remain in 'administrative' custody. Those who appeared at asylum offices on Wednesday were accompanied by police, and held t-shirts over their heads to conceal their faces. Since the coup attempt Turkey has launched a purge of the armed forces and judiciary, rounding up thousands of people. The eight men say they did not know a coup was under way and were obeying orders by their superiors to transport the wounded from the streets to ambulances, according to their lawyers. They said they fled to Greece when their Black Hawk helicopter came under fire by police on the ground. (This version of the story corrects final paragraph to read Greece, not Turkey) (Reporting By Phoebe Fronista, writing by Michele Kambas, editing by Larry King)
iShares has expanded its emerging markets product range with the addition of a fixed income Asia ETF and a Mexico equity offering.

The issuer claims that the iShares Barclays Capital EM Asia Local Govt Capped Bond fund is the first European ETFit is listed on the London Stock Exchangeto offer investors exposure to emerging Asian government bonds in local currencies.

Countries included in the underlying index include Thailand, South Korea, Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia, with countries weights capped at 40 percent. South Korea currently accounts for 40 percent of the index.

Axel Lomholt, head of product development for iShares EMEA, said: European investors are continuing to search for new sources of yield, and new ways in which they can secure sustainable income streams. Asian debt markets have grown steadily over the last ten years, and bonds denominated in local currencies provide a different yield and risk profile to US dollar denominated debt, allowing investors to diversify their fixed income holdings.

The Asia ETF is physically-replicated, distributes income semi-annually and has a total expense ratio of 0.5 percent. Portfolio management and trading of the fund will be handled by BlackRocks fixed income team in Singapore.

The issuers other new launch, the iShares MSCI Mexico IMI Capped ETF, was driven largely by a desire to replicate the success of a similar fund in the US.

Our US domiciled Mexico ETF has gathered approximately US$1 billion to date, and we believe UK investors will find the new LSE-listed fund a valuable asset allocation tool, said Lomholt.

The underlying index includes a cap to ensure no company accounts for more than 30 percent of the index. Sector-wise, consumer staples comprise the largest portion of the index with 28.55 percent, followed by telecommunication services (26.71 percent) and materials (18.44 percent).

The ETF is also listed on the LSE and has a total expense ratio of 0.65 percent.

Story continues

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Two South Carolina soldiers are being hailed as heroes after their attempts to protect a woman from a gun-toting man at a bar early Sunday cost them their lives, police said.



Staff Sgt. Charles Judge Jr., 40, and 29-year-old Sgt. First Class Jonathan Prins were fatally shot at the Frayed Knot Bar & Grill in Lake Murray while trying to stop 25-year-old Joseph Mills from allegedly attacking a woman, NBC News reports.



"[The men] were acting as good Samaritans when they were shot," Capt. Adam Myrick of the Lexington County Sheriff's Department told NBC.



Prins and Judge were enjoying a night at the bar when Mills allegedly, "physically assaulted a female companion and was physically separated from her by several bar patrons," NBC reports, citing arrest warrants.





Two Hero Soldiers Killed While Protecting Woman from Alleged Gunman at South Carolina Bar| Crime & Courts, Murder, Shootings, True Crime, True Crime



Then, Mills allegedly pulled out a handgun and fired, shooting Judge twice and Prins three times, according to NBC.



Mills, of Little Mountain, was "arrested without incident" later in the afternoon and charged with two counts of murder for fatally shooting the soldiers, police said in a statement.



 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.



He is being held at Lexington County Detention Center, police said.









He was denied bond at a hearing on Monday and apologized for the shooting, The State newspaper reports.



"I'm very sorry about what happened. I never meant for it to happen like that," he reportedly said. "I was being lynched by eight people because I was chasing a girl who grabbed drugs off the seat and took off running."



Officials at the club shared the news in a Facebook post on Sunday, noting that the hotspot would be closed for the day.





WATCH: 2 Killed, 16 Wounded in Mass Shooting Outside Florida Nightclub



"A criminal situation that originated elsewhere, was brought onto our property when a female victim was trying to escape her male attackers," officials wrote in the post. "Tragically, two good Samaritans lost their lives trying to help the victim."



In a Facebook post, the 218th Leadership Regiments 1st BN Engineers mourned Judge.



"It is with a heavy heart we say goodbye to SSG Charles A Judge JR," officials wrote. "You will be truly missed by so many!! RIP Judge, see you on the other side brother!"



Prins' mother told KLTV that her son was a selfless man.



"If there was a picture of someone with true integrity, courage, bravery, honor, dedication to his fellow mankind I would be his," Lesa Dennis said.



A GoFundMe page created for Prins' family described the 29-year-old as a married father of three.



Loved ones of Judge set up a GoFundMe account for the man's family, and noted that Judge had two children.
Texas Instruments TXN, or TI) reported second-quarter earnings of 76 cents that easily beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 72 cents. Shares were up 1.11% in response.

Revenue

TI reported revenue of $3.27 billion, which was up 8.8% sequentially (better than seasonal) and 1.3% year over year (within the guidance range of $3.07 billion and $3.33 billion) and ahead of the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 2.1%.

The automotive market was again strong in the last quarter as electronic content per vehicle continues to increase (led by infotainment and also other areas like hybrid electric vehicle and powertrain systems) with broad-based improvement in industrial (half the segments grew) Communications equipment was up but personal electronics weakened, possibly because of continued weakness in mobile phones. Enterprise systems also grew.

Management has successfully steered the business into analog and embedded processing applications, which typically yield a more stable longer-lived business as well as stronger margins. On the call, management said that TI has been picking up market share in both the fragmented Analog and Embedded Processing markets.

The company continues to return cash to investors in the form of share repurchases and dividends.

Segment Revenue

The Analog, Embedded Processing and Other Segments generated 62%, 23% and 15% of quarterly revenue, respectively.

The Analog business grew 8.8% sequentially and down 0.2% from the year-ago quarter. In the year-over-year comparison, HVAL and power management sales were weaker, offsetting stable sales in HPA and SVA.

The Embedded Processing segment, which includes the processor, microcontroller and connectivity product lines, was up 3.6% sequentially and 9.4% from last year. The revenue split between the three product lines was 45%-45%-10%. Connectivity is the fastest growing part with applications across diverse markets; processor growth is next (mainly coming from the auto and communications infrastructure markets) while the growth in microcontrollers is coming from the industrial market. Similar to the previous quarter, the strength was broad-based across all product lines with processors leading the growth. Management focus in this business is on long-lived products, so thats where current investment is going.

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The Other segment, which includes DLPs, custom ASICs, calculators, royalties and some legacy wireless products was up 7.0% sequentially but down 3.9% year over year. Calculators, royalties and custom ASICs impacted the year-over-year performance with DLPs partially offsetting the negative impact.

Net product orders were $3.33 billion in the last quarter, up 7.8% sequentially and 2.1% year over year.

Margins

TIs gross margin of 61.2% was up 56 bps sequentially and 300 bps from the year-ago quarter. The companys gross margin has been improving consistently as more production shifts to its 300mm line (this results in a 40% cost benefit at the die level). Reducing depreciation on its fixed assets is also a contributing factor. Fab utiization remains steady and mix relatively consistent at these levels, so these factors aren't likely to remain gross margin drivers in the future. Over time, TI expects to take the incremental gross margin to 70-75% of sales, or around 2 to 7 points higher than it is today.

Operating expenses of $886 million were up 3.5% sequentially and up 1.6% from last year. The operating margin was 34.1%, up 195 bps sequentially and 295 bps from the year-ago quarter. All expenses declined sequentially as a percentage of sales but R&D was up slightly from last year.

The Analog, Embedded Processing and Other segments generated operating margins of 37.7%, 25.0% and 33.1%, respectively. The Analog margin expanded 158 bps sequentially, Embedded Processing expanded 7 bps with Other expanding 897 bps. Analog and Embedded and Other segment margins expanded year over year by 219 bps, 547 bps and 330 bps, respectively.

Net Income

There were no one-time items during the quarter. Ongoing restructuring gains and acquisition charges (that are expected to remain steady at around 5 cents over the next five years) were around 8 cents a share. They remain about level on a dollar basis (other than the dip in the December 2015 quarter).

The pro forma net income was $779 million, or a 23.8% net income margin compared to $668 million, or 22.2% in the previous quarter and $695 million, or 21.5% in the year-ago quarter.

On a GAAP basis, the company reported a net profit of 76 cents a share compared to a net profit of 65 cents in the previous quarter and a net profit of 66 cents in the comparable prior-year quarter.

Balance Sheet and Cash Flow

Inventories grew 3.9% sequentially to around $1.88 billion, with inventory turns up slightly from 2.6X to 2.7X. Management said that the lower cost of inventory enabled the company to generate more days of sale at similar dollar values. So there does appear to be some buildup that may be burnt off in the second half of the year when sales pick up. Days sales outstanding (DSOs) were almost consistent at around 38. The cash and short-term investments balance was $2.54 billion, down $261 million during the quarter.

TI generated $1.07 billion in cash from operations, spending $158 million on capex, $527 mllion on share repurchases and $382 million on cash dividends.

TI is one of the few technology companies that return a significant amount of cash to investors. Its management policy is to return cash in the form of both share repurchases and dividends. TI has increased dividends 8.2% over the trailing 12 months, although amount spent on share repurchases dropped 4.4%. As a result, the total cash returned to shareholders was consistent with the trailing 12 months of 2015.

At quarter-end, TI had $2.98 billion in long-term debt and $637 million in short-term debt. During the quarter, the net debt position dropped $245 million. TI also had net underfunded retirement plans of $108 million.

Guidance

TI provided guidance for the third quarter.

Accordingly, it expects revenue of between $3.34 billion and $3.62 billion (up 3.5% sequentially at the mid-point) and better than the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $3.39 billion for the next quarter.

Non-cash amortization charges related to acquisitions will remain in the range of $80 million until the third quarter of 2019, declining to $50 million a quarter for two more years. The annual effective tax rate and the rate to be applied for the second quarter is unchanged at around 30%.

The EPS for the quarter is expected to be 81 to 91 cents, better than the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 81 cents.

Capex target remains at 4% of revenue including expansion of 300mm capacity for Analog production.

Recommendation

Texas Instruments reported a better-than-expected quarter and provided encouraging guidance. All signs point to strengthening auto and industrial markets, which are helping the company. The communications market is also improving, with personal electronics and other markets weak or have moving parts but TI continues to do well negotiating them.

Internally, the company has always executed rather well. TI, along with chipmaker Intel (INTC) remains one of the few semiconductor companies that depend on internal capacity for manufacturing the bulk of its devices. Since the company usually builds out capacity well ahead of demand, it is able to make opportunistic purchases. As a result, it is able to contain capex at up to 4% of sales even while on an expansion plan.

For instance, the 300mm capacity that it acquired a few years back is a huge support for its margins right now. On the call, management said that the Richardson fab (RFAB) can be built up to produce up to $5 billion in 300mm Analog demand. A second 300mm fab has been qualified which will be split between Analog and Embedded production. Using 300mm capacity reduces cost by around 40%. Therefore, producing more of its chips at 300mm facilities will be a continued positive for the gross margin going forward.

Overall, we remain optimistic about TIs compelling product line, the differentiation in its business and lower-cost 300mm capacity that should in combination drive earnings. We note that channel inventories remain very low, meaning that demand is likely to remain strong.

Texas Instruments also continues to prudently invest its R&D dollars into several high-margin, high-growth areas of the analog and embedded processing markets. This is gradually increasing its exposure to the industrial and automotive markets and increasing dollar content at customers, while reducing its exposure to the volatile consumer/computing markets.

TEXAS INSTRS Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise

TEXAS INSTRS Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise | TEXAS INSTRS Quote

TXN shares carry a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell). Semiconductor stocks worth investing in right now are NVIDIA NVDA, Taiwan Semconductor TSM, Intel and Semtech Corp SMTC. While NVDA and TSM have a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), the other two carry a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

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To read this article on Zacks.com click here.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. State Department said on Wednesday it is looking into reports that Iran has detained a third U.S. citizen of Iranian descent but declined to provide details.

Iran on Sunday confirmed the detention of an unnamed visiting U.S. citizen, the latest in a string of arrests of dual nationals, but declined to say what charges they might face, the semi-official Fars news agency reported.

However, an Iranian Judiciary spokesman said the person's arrest took place in the northeastern city of Gorgan and that the trial "may be held" in Tehran, Fars reported.

An Iranian-American man, California-based Robin Reza Shahini was detained while visiting his mother in Gorgan earlier in July, according to Shahini's friends.

"We've seen reports of the detention (in) Iran of a person reported to be a U.S. citizen, and I can tell you we are looking into that," State Department spokesman John Kirby told reporters, saying he had no more information to offer.

The two other U.S. citizens of Iranian descent detained in Iran are businessman Siamak Namazi and his father Baquer Namazi. Iran does not recognize dual nationality, which prevents Western embassies from visiting such detainees.

Iranian dual nationals from the United States, Britain, Canada and France are behind bars on various charges, including espionage or collaborating with a hostile government. Some are kept to be used for a prisoner exchange with Western countries, according to prisoners, their families and diplomats.

(Reporting by Arshad Mohammed; Editing by Sandra Maler)
By Andrew Downie SAO PAULO (Reuters) - The United Nations has called on Brazilian authorities to investigate the killing of a scrappy local journalist in the nation's interior, the third reporter to die in the country this year. Joao Miranda do Carmo was shot seven times on Sunday night by unknown assailants in Santo Antonio do Descoberto, a small city 30 miles (48 km) west of the capital Brasilia. Miranda wrote a blog that covered local issues and frequently blamed authorities for problems such as unpaved roads, the non-payment of employees and irregularities in municipal tenders. Irina Bokova, director-general of the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, condemned the killing. "It is important that the authorities investigate this killing and bring its perpetrators to justice," Bokova said. "Impunity for crimes against journalists threatens media workers' ability to do their work and the public's access to independent and diverse sources of information." Miranda, 54, was also a member of the local Communist Party of Brasil who planned to stand in municipal elections this year, and officials believe he was killed because of his advocacy. "He was very controversial in his city; he demanded answers from politicians, police, and local officials," said Claudio Curado, president of the Goias State Union of Professional Journalists. "We believe the crime has a political component. He questioned local politicians." The local mayor could not be reached for comment. Miranda reported at least two previous death threats, and his car was set on fire in 2014, local police officer Gilson Ferreira said. According to Reporters Without Borders, Miranda was the third journalist to be killed for his work this year in the South American nation. At least 38 journalists have been killed in Brazil since 1992, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. (Editing by Lisa Von Ahn)
DUBAI (Reuters) - The United Nations called for a humanitarian truce in the Yemeni province of Taiz after government forces captured a town from Iran-allied Houthi militia in heavy fighting that has spurred allegations of war crimes. The fighting has complicated U.N.-sponsored peace talks, as envoys for the Houthis have delayed responding to U.N. proposals calling for Houthi pullouts from cities they control, including the capital Sanaa, and the creation of an inclusive government. James McGoldrick, the U.N. Humanitarian Coordinator for Yemen, voiced alarm at increasing bloodshed in the southwestern Taiz Governorate, particularly the al-Sarari area, and the closure of Taiz city, the regional capital. He urged all warring parties to agree immediately to a "humanitarian pause" to protect civilians and cooperate with humanitarian agencies to help treat and evacuate war-wounded and deliver urgently needed medicine into the embattled zone. McGoldrick warned both parties that holding civilian populations hostage and depriving them of humanitarian assistance was illegal under international humanitarian law. Hadi supporters control most of Taiz, Yemen's third largest city with an estimated pre-war population of 300,000, but it is sealed off by Houthi forces on three sides. There were conflicting reports on the fighting in al-Sarari, a Houthi stronghold southeast of Taiz captured by troops loyal to President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi earlier this week. A Houthi envoy on a ceasefire committee assigned to oversee a shaky truce in Taiz wrote to the U.N. that Sarari residents had been subjected to "war crimes" including house burnings and the detention of 49 civilians including women and children. "We call on you to swiftly intervene to stop these gangs and limit the massacres they have begun to commit against unarmed civilians," Ahmed al-Msawa said in the letter, seen by Reuters. Two residents of a hamlet adjacent to Sarari said that at least 15 Houthi combatants were killed or wounded in the fighting. They said 40 other Houthis were taken prisoner but denied that any women or children were among them. They said most Sarari residents had fled to neighboring communities. Hadi supporters have denied setting fires to houses and accused the Houthis of booby-trapping a Sarari mosque to try to kill as many Hadi supporters as possible. A Saudi-led alliance intervened in Yemen's conflict in March 2015 to try to restore Hadi to power after the Houthis seized Sanaa and advanced on his temporary headquarters in Aden, forcing him to flee to Saudi Arabia. A ceasefire accord between the Houthis and Hadi loyalists has repeatedly been violated since it took effect in April. Peace talks in Kuwait since then have done little to end fighting that has killed more than 6,200 people and displaced more than 2.5 million in the Arabian Peninsula state. (Reporting by Sami Aboudi; editing by Mark Heinrich)
London (AFP) - Drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline on Wednesday revealed plans to invest 275 million into three of its British manufacturing sites, shrugging off Brexit worries.

The investment -- worth $361 million or 328 million euros -- will be ploughed into facilities in Barnard Castle in northeastern England, Ware in the southeast, and Montrose in Scotland, GSK said in a statement.

The move will "boost production and support delivery of its latest innovative respiratory and large molecule biological medicines", it said, adding that the "vast majority" of products will be exported globally.

GSK, which already employs 6,000 staff across its nine manufacturing plants in Britain, also noted that the investment would provide new job opportunities.

"Today's announcement reflects further investment to support our pharmaceutical pipeline and meet growing demand for our innovative portfolio of newly launched products," said chief executive Andrew Witty, who had backed the unsuccessful 'Remain' campaign in Britain's June 23 EU membership vote.

"It is testament to our skilled UK workforce and the country's leading position in life sciences that we are making these investments in advanced manufacturing here," added Witty.

"From their manufacture in the UK, many of these medicines will be sent to patients around the world."

GSK said it regards Britain as an "attractive" location because of its skilled workforce, technological and scientific capabilities and infrastructure -- and its "competitive" corporate tax system.

Separately on Wednesday, GSK announced that it sank into a net loss in the second quarter of 2016.

The group made a loss after taxation of 435 million in the three months to June. That contrasted with a net profit of 149 million for the same period a year earlier.
London (AFP) - Owen Smith, who is battling to lead Britain's main opposition Labour Party, pledged Wednesday to launch a "socialist revolution" if he wins his leadership challenge.

Smith is running against leftist stalwart Jeremy Corbyn, who despite popularity with grassroots members has lost the support of at least 75 percent of the party's MPs, following Britain's vote to leave the EU.

Smith 46, launched a range of new tax and spending proposals on Wednesday.

"We need a revolution," he said, in an apparent swipe at 67-year-old Corbyn.

"Not some misty-eyed, romantic notion of a revolution where we are going to overthrow capitalism and return to a socialist nirvana... but a cold-eyed, practical socialist revolution where we build a better Britain."

He set out a platform of resetting the highest income tax band to 50 percent and reversing cuts to inheritance and capital gains taxes.

Smith also proposed a wealth tax of 15 percent on "unearned income from investment", charged on people with a taxable income of A150,000 ($198,000, 180,000 euros) a year or more.

He also apologised after saying of Conservative Prime Minister Theresa May that he wanted to "smash her back on her heels".

"We should be smashing the Tories back on their heels. Their ideals, their values, let's smash them," he added.

His spokesman said later: "On reflection it was an inappropriate choice of phrase and he apologises for using it."

Chosen by party members, trade unionists and registered supporters, the winner of the two-man contest will be announced on September 24.

Labour has been in deep crisis since the Brexit referendum, with most of its MPs believing Corbyn is an incapable leader driving the party towards a third crushing general election defeat in 2020.

An online ICM poll of 2,012 adults conducted between Friday and Sunday put the centre-right Conservatives up four points on 43 percent and Labour down two on 27 percent.

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The anti-EU UK Independence Party was on 13 percent and the centrist Liberal Democrats on eight percent.

Meanwhile a YouGov survey for The Times newspaper gave the Conservatives 40 percent of the vote share and Labour 28 percent -- the biggest gap they have recorded since the Conservatives came to power in 2010.

"Clearly, the relative calm associated with the handover of power from David Cameron to Theresa May, allied to the current Labour leadership challenge weighs heavily on electors' minds," said ICM's Martin Boon.
United Nations (United States) (AFP) - The United Nations has documented at least 120 cases of rape since a recent flareup of violence in South Sudan and is investigating allegations that its peacekeepers did nothing to stop the violence, a spokesman said Wednesday.

"We take very seriously the allegations that peacekeepers did not render aid to civilians in distress," said UN spokesman Farhan Haq.

"Of course that is exactly what they are supposed to do and there would be serious repercussions if they failed in their duty," he added.

Media reports quoted witnesses who said peacekeepers looked on and did nothing during at least one assault on a woman.

The Associated Press interviewed a witness who said at least 30 peacekeepers from Chinese and Nepalese battalions watched as a woman screamed for help during an assault by two soldiers near the base's gate.

Haq said the command of the UN force in South Sudan, known as UNMISS, was looking into the allegations that peacekeepers failed to protect civilians.

South Sudanese soldiers in uniform and men in plain clothes were allegedly involved in the sexual violence, including gang rapes, against civilians near a UN base in Juba and other areas of the capital, said Haq.

Some of the victims were minors, he added.

Juba was rocked by several days of heavy fighting starting on July 9 between government forces and those loyal to rebel chief Riek Machar, the latest upsurge in the two and half year war.

Nearly 300 people died in the violence and thousands rushed to UN peacekeeping bases for safety.

In response to the increase in rapes, UN peacekeepers have stepped up patrols around the base and in the city.

They are also accompanying women who venture out of the base to collect firewood and procure other items, said Haq.

UNMISS has 13,500 troops and police deployed across South Sudan under a mandate that calls for the protection of civilians.
United Nations (United States) (AFP) - Warning of humanitarian catastrophe in Nigeria and the Lake Chad region, the UN's aid chief on Wednesday called for scaling up efforts to address Africa's fastest growing refugee crisis.

More than 2.8 million people have been displaced in northeastern Nigeria and parts of Cameroon, Chad and Niger, fleeing attacks by Boko Haram Islamists who have ransacked villages across the poverty-stricken region.

"If we do not act now, the human suffering will only get more extreme," Stephen O'Brien told a Security Council meeting called to discuss the crisis.

"We have to stop this  we can with will, money, urgency and coordination."

More than nine million people are in need of urgent food aid in the region  seven million of them in Nigeria.

The UN under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs stressed that Boko Haram's violent campaign "is as much or now even more a humanitarian catastrophe as it is a security priority."

Boko Haram has coerced more than 50 children to carry out suicide bombings from January to June of this year, said O'Brien.

He expressed frustration with the lack of international attention to the plight of those affected by Boko Haram's campaign.

"I have been shouting into what feels like an empty room to highlight the dire situation in the Lake Chad Basin," he added.

O'Brien renewed calls for donor funding to support humanitarian efforts.

Only 28 percent of the UN's appeal for $279 million in funding has been pledged, and requests for funds to help Niger, Cameroon and Chad are also underfunded, he said.

The medical charity Doctors Without Borders also raised alarms, saying its teams had recently found extremely high levels of malnutrition in Nigeria's northeastern Borno state.

The group called for a major humanitarian response and said the crisis should be declared a "level 3" emergency  the most severe and large-scale according to the United Nations.
MILAN (Reuters) - UniCredit (CRDI.MI) will ask authorities to investigate possible market abuse in relation to media reports over its upcoming strategic review, which on Wednesday affected its share price and that of two of its units, the Italian bank said in a statement.

UniCredit said that, if necessary, it would "pursue other available means to ensure that its rights and reputation are protected."

The bank said its shares and those of its units FinecoBank (FBK.MI) and Bank Pekao (PEO.WA) had experienced "unusual ... price movements."

Shares in both UniCredit and its online broker Fineco fell 4 percent on Wednesday as the Milan stock market gained 1 percent (.FTITLMS). Bank Pekao (PEO.WA) lost 3 percent.

Two sources told Reuters earlier on Wednesday that UniCredit was considering a cash call of more than 5 billion euros ($5.5 billion) and the sale of its remaining stakes in Fineco and Pekao.

Bloomberg News reported on Tuesday the bank was mulling a stock sale worth 5 billion euros and the sale of its entire stake in Pekao, citing people with knowledge of the matter.

(This version of the story corrects day to Wednesday from Thursday)

(Reporting by Valentina Za, editing by Stephen Jewkes and David Evans)
It would be extremely unpleasant for Sir Halford Mackinder, a bespectacled and slightly aloof Edwardian academic, to witness the use to which his lifes work has been put in post-communist Russia.

Best-known for a lecture entitled The Geographical Pivot of History, which he delivered to the Royal Geographical Society in 1904, Mackinder argued that Russia, not Germany, was Britains main strategic opponent. This he illustrated with a colorful theory that came to be known as geopolitics. The timing of his prediction, prior to two world wars against Germany, subsequently did not do his theory any favors. However, Mackinder was finally vindicated in the last year of his life by the start of the Cold War, the epitome of his teachings. He saw the world arrayed in pretty much the shape he had foreseen in 1904: Britain and America, whose navies ruled the worlds oceans, against the Soviet Union, the worlds predominant land power, whose vast steppe and harsh winters had defeated Napoleon and Hitler  all but impregnable behind a land fortress, the Heartland of Eurasia.

Despite the centuries of technological progress and human enlightenment, Mackinder believed that geography remained the fundamental constituent of world order, just as it had been during the Peloponnesian War, in which sea power Athens faced off against Greeces greatest land army Sparta. Since then, geopoliticians have argued, most armed conflicts have always featured a stronger navy against a stronger army. Sea power and land power, in other words, are fated to clash. The global seat of land power  inner Eurasia, the territory of the Russian Empire  would forever be in global competition with the sea power, the mantle of which was soon to be transferred from Britain to the United States.

In 1919, Mackinder still clung to the notion that Russia was Britains main adversary: he advocated a complete territorial buffer between Russia and Germany. Mackinder justified the move with the most famous sentences he ever penned: Who rules East Europe commands the Heartland; Who rules the Heartland commands the World Island; Who rules the World Island commands the World.

It took about 50 years for those words to get noticed in the heartland itself; but when they were, Mackinder was suddenly plucked from obscurity to fame and given the status of prophet  for all the wrong reasons. His dire warnings, issued about the latent potential of Russia for conquest and domination, were intended to coax a consensus among the interwar-era European elite to prevent this from happening; instead they became the lightning rod for a new Russian version of Manifest Destiny.

Russias push into Georgia in 2008, into Ukraine in 2014, and its recent campaign in Syria, as well as its efforts to consolidate a sphere of influence in the inner Eurasian heartland of the former USSR called the Eurasian Union, all are eerily foretold in geopolitical theory. Mackinder held that geography, not economics, is the fundamental determinant of world power and Russia, simply by virtue of its physical location, inherits a primary global role. Under President Vladimir Putin, the slightly kooky tenets of Mackinders theory have made inroads into the establishment, mostly because of one man, Alexander Dugin, a right wing intellectual and bohemian who emerged from the Perestroika era in the the 1980s as one of Russias chief nationalists.

Largely thanks to Dugins murky connections within the elite, Geopolitics today is mainstream. Mackinders arguments were useful to Dugin and other hardliners who contended that conflict with the West was a permanent condition for Russia, though they had trouble explaining why. The reasons for the Cold War had seemingly evaporated with the end of ideological confrontation, in a new era of universal tolerance, democracy, and the end of history.

The Englishmans elevation to the status of grand mufti of Atlantic power was assisted by Dugin, who in 1997 published The Foundations of Geopolitics, one of the most curious, impressive, and terrifying books to come out of Russia during the entire post-Soviet era, and one that became a pole star for a broad section of Russian hardliners. The book grew out of Dugins hobnobbing with New Right thinkers and his fortnightly lectures at the General Staff Academy under the auspices of General Igor Rodionov, the hardliners hardliner who would serve as defense minister from 1996 to 1997. By 1993, according to Dugin, the notes from his lectures had been compiled as a set of materials, which all entrants to the Academy were supposed to use, and which were frequently amended and annotated by new insights from the generals, or following the odd lecture by a right-wing ideologue flown in from Paris or Milan.

Dugin thus set out self-consciously to write a how-to manual for conquest and political rule in the manner of Niccolo Machiavelli. Like The Prince (which was essentially a fawning job application written to Florentine ruler Lorenzo de Medici after Machiavelli had been out of power and exiled for ten years), Dugin wrote his book as an ode to Russias national security nomenklatura from the depths of his post-1993 wilderness. Until 1991 he had been one of the hardliners chief propagandists, writing a combination of conspiracy theories and nationalist demagoguery for The Day, a newspaper funded by the defense ministry. But following the failed coup by the KGB and the Red Army in August of that year, Dugin had been in internal exile with little way to support himself.

Together with fellow nationalist intellectual Eduard Limonov he had founded a cantankerous political movement called the National Bolshevik Party (NBP), which he called a political art project and in addition he rather improbably landed a visiting lectureship at the Academy of the General Staff as a result of connections to the hardliners and to Rodionov. Drawing on his connections with military academics and sitting in the dirty basement of the NBPs Frunzenskaya Street headquarters, Dugin wrote a book that would become a major influence on Russias hardliners.

In Dugins capable hands, Mackinder was transformed from an obscure Edwardian curiosity who never got tenure at Oxford, into a sort of Cardinal Richelieu of Whitehall, whose whispered counsels to the great men of state provided a sure hand on the tiller of British strategic thinking for half a century, and whose ideas continue to be the strategic imperatives for a new generation of secret mandarins.

In addition to Mackinder, there were the opposing geopoliticians profiled by Dugin, mostly German, who argued from the same logic as Mackinder but in defense of continental land power rather than global sea power. These included Friedrich Ratzel, a late nineteenth-century German geographer who coined the term Lebensraum, or living space, which later was co-opted as an imperative by the Third Reich. The second generation of geopolitical writings earned the theory a lingering association with Nazism. Mackinders contemporary, Karl Haushofer, was a German army general and strategic theorist who was a strong proponent of a three-way alliance between Berlin, Moscow, and Tokyo.

Mainstream political scientists look slightly askance at the subset of geopolitics. They regard geopoliticians much as mainstream economists regard the so-called gold bugs, who persist in believing in the eternal value of gold as a medium of exchange and who place their faith in the old constants which they are sure will inevitably reappear. Similarly, the geopoliticans, an exotic subculture within the expert community, believe that despite lofty principles and progress, the mean  strategic conflict over land  will always prevail. Sometimes, they are right.

The Foundations of Geopolitics sold out in four editions, and continues to be assigned as a textbook at the General Staff Academy and other military universities in Russia. There has probably not been another book published in Russia during the post-communist period which has exerted a comparable influence on Russian military, police, and statist foreign policy elites, writes historian John Dunlop, a Hoover Institution specialist on the Russian right.

In 1996, Andrey Kozyrev, the Russian foreign minister who was a symbol of the westernizing strain in Yeltsins policies, was sacked, and the same year, General Rodionov, Dugins patron at the General Staff Academy, was appointed defense minister, replacing Pavel Grachev, who, as head of the airborne forces, had sided with Yeltsin in the August 1991 attempted coup. Also in 1996, the Duma voted to abrogate the decision of the Belovezh Agreement of 1991, which declared the Soviet Union officially dissolved, and simultaneously to recognize as legally binding the results of the 1991 referendum, in which 70 per cent of Russian voters supported the preservation of the USSR. It was obviously only symbolic, but a mere five years after the end of the USSR, a majority of the Russian elite  if one accepts the overwhelming Duma vote as an adequate bellwether  supported the restoration of empire.

Foundations arrived at just the moment when Russias elite was undergoing a seismic shift, though it would not be until the collapse of the ruble in August 1998 that liberalism in Russia was finally dealt a deathblow. Foundations was helped by curiously ubiquitous product placement in Moscows best bookstores  almost invariably next to the cash register.

Dugins main argument in Foundations came straight from Haushofers pages: the need to thwart the conspiracy of Atlanticism led by the United States and NATO and aimed at containing Russia within successive geographic rings of newly independent states. The plan was simple: first put the Soviet Union back together, counseled Dugin, and then use clever alliance diplomacy focused on partnerships with Japan, Iran, and Germany to eject the United States and its Atlanticist minions from the continent.

The key to creating Eurasia is to reject a narrow nationalistic agenda, which could alienate potential allies. He quoted New Right theorist Jean-Francois Thiriart, who said the main mistake of Hitler was that he tried to make Europe German. Instead, he should have tried to make it European. Russia, it followed, would not be making a Russian Empire, but a Eurasian one. The Eurasian Empire will be constructed on the fundamental principle of the common enemy: the rejection of Atlanticism, the strategic control of the USA, and the refusal to allow liberal values to dominate us, wrote Dugin.

It did not seem to matter that around 1997 this idea seemed completely insane. Russias GDP was smaller than that of the Netherlands, and the once formidable Red Army had just been defeated on the battlefield and forced into a humiliating peace by a rag-tag group of Chechen insurgents. It was a period of Russian history when analogies to Weimar Germany were plentiful, and Dugins book was evidence that the same dark forces that had been radicalized by Germanys interwar collapse seemed to be in the ascendant in Russia. It preached that the countrys humiliation was the result of foreign conspiracies. The dust jacket was emblazoned with a swastika-like runic symbol known in occult circles as the star of chaos, and the book itself favorably profiled several Nazis and extreme rightists. If the parallels with the Third Reich were not already plentiful enough, it called for the formation of a geopolitical axis which would include Germany and Japan.

Foundations was premised on the notion that real politics took place behind a veil of intrigue, according to rules that the elites and regimes of the world had internalized for centuries behind their bastions of privilege, but were loath to demonstrate publicly. The idea was an easy sell to a conspiracy-mad reading public and the book came outfitted with all the esoteric trappings of an initiation to secret wisdom: runic inscriptions, arcane maps with all manner of arrows and cross-hatching, introductions to unheard-of grey cardinals of world diplomacy. But there were just enough actual facts in support of the fantastic conclusions for the reader to be instantly intrigued  just as players at a Ouija board are often most impressed when the planchette lands on some fact of which they are already aware.

The reason that geopolitics is so obscure, it turns out, is not because its practitioners are crazy, hopelessly abstruse, or were prosecuted at the Nuremburg trials; but rather, because of a clever cover-up by the powers-that-be. Or, as Dugin puts it, because geopolitics too openly demonstrates the fundamental mechanism of international politics, which various regimes more often than not would prefer to hide behind foggy rhetoric and abstract ideological schemes.

Foundations was more sober than Dugins previous books, better argued, and shorn of occult references, numerology, traditionalism and other eccentric metaphysics. In fact, it is quite possible that he had significant help from high- level people at the General Staff Academy, where he still lectured. Dugin did not try to hide his connection to the army: on the first page he credited General Nikolai Klokotov, his main collaborator at the Academy of the General Staff, with being his co-author and major inspiration (though Klokotov insists he was not). But the clever association with the military gave Dugins work some authority and a veneer of official respectability, as well as the pervasive notion that he was the front man for some putative Russian deep state conspiracy of hardliners, straight off the pages of one of his pamphlets. And it is not impossible that this was actually the case.

Dugin clearly longed to walk the corridors of power, and did his best to make his case to those who abided there. Only those who understood the imperatives of geography and power, he wrote, could be considered qualified to hold the tiller of state: The dependence of the human being on geography is only apparent the closer one gets to the summit of power. Geopolitics is a worldview of power, a science of power, for power.

Of course, it went without saying in Dugins view that the USSR must be put back together; Georgia must be dismembered and Ukraine annexed: Ukraine, as an independent state with certain territorial ambitions, represents an enormous danger for all of Eurasia. Azerbaijan, though, could be given away to Iran in exchange for a MoscowTehran axis. Finland could be added to the Russian province of Murmansk, while Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria, and Greece would join Russia as an Orthodox Third Rome or Russian South.

The other thing the book gives short shrift to, despite Dugins erudite style and exhaustive presentation, was exactly why Russia needed an empire. Russian thinkers, from Alexander Herzen to Andrey Sakharov, have been adamant that the empire is the primary culprit for Russias eternal backwardness. Few would say that modern-day Russias dysfunction and lack of status and influence commensurate with its ambitions on the global stage are due to any deficiency in size  it is, after all, still geographically the largest country in the world, despite losing 14 post-Soviet territories. Additionally, Russias land-based civilization was not just a strategic opponent of sea-based powers, but culturally and civilizationally anomalous, inherently more hierarchical and authoritarian than the more mercantile and democratic Atlantic world. Dugin argued that empire was the only way to stop the march of liberalism, which was antithetical to Russias value system.

The influence of Foundations was profound if measured by book sales; but even more profound if measured by the true yardstick of the scribbler: plagiarism. Dugins ideas became a virus, as he put it. They were reprinted in dozens of similar manuals and textbooks, all of which devoted themselves to the theories of Mackinder, Haushofer, and others. Bookstores in Russia began to have a Geopolitics section; the Duma formed a Geopolitics committee stacked with deputies from arch-nationalist Vladimir Zhirinovskys so-called Liberal Democratic Party. Boris Berezovsky, influential oligarch and behind-the-scenes power broker, ended an appearance on the Hero of the Day television chat show in 1998 with the statement I just want to say one more thing: geopolitics is the destiny of Russia.

Geopolitics was like open source computer software, as Dugin put it. He wrote the program, and everyone copied it.

This article is adapted from Charles Clovers new book, Black Wind, White Snow: The Rise of Russias New Nationalism.

Photo credit: DMITRY ASTAKHOV/AFP/Getty Images
United Nations (United States) (AFP) - UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday expressed deep concern about the ongoing wave of arrests in Turkey following the attempted coup.

Ban told Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu during a telephone conversation that "credible evidence" must be presented swiftly so that the detainees' legal status can be determined by a court of law.

More than 15,000 people including military officials were detained during the massive sweep that followed the July 15 failed coup and at least 8,000 remain in custody.

On Wednesday, Turkish authorities issued arrest warrants for dozens of journalists including 47 former staff of the Zaman daily, one of the country's biggest newspapers.

In his conversation with the foreign minister, Ban "referred to worrying reports of mistreatment and abuse of some of those who are still in custody and their detention conditions, and underscored his deep concern about the scope of continuing widespread arrests, detentions and suspensions," said UN spokesman Farhan Haq.

"Credible evidence on those under investigation has to be presented swiftly to the judicial system so that legal determination could be made before the court of law," he added.

The UN chief said that while he recognized the "extraordinary circumstances prevailing in the country following the coup attempt", he expected Turkey to uphold fundamental rights and to adhere to its international obligations.

Ban has spoken out repeatedly on the need for Turkey to respect freedom of speech and assembly and to uphold due process.

Turkey's Prime Minister Binali Yildirim warned the crackdown and purge unleashed after the coup was not over.

The UN chief "trusts that the government and people of Turkey will transform this moment of uncertainty into a moment of unity, preserving Turkey's democracy," the spokesman added.
If you look up "The Intelligent Investor" by Benjamin Graham on Amazon.com, you'll find that 69 percent of the 1,100 or so reviewers give it five stars, while 13 percent dismiss it with one, two or three stars. How many of those unimpressed reviewers would rather follow a hothead like Jim Cramer the website doesn't say.

But perhaps those naysayers missed the one review that trumps them all: the one from billionaire Warren Buffett. He calls "The Intelligent Investor" "the best book about investing ever written." That dovetails nicely with the squib of a far lesser known reviewer, one "Paige Turner," who dubs it "Shakespeare for the Investing Crowd."

[See: 10 Tips for Couples and Young Families to Build Wealth.]

Turning the page from Graham's 1949 book to now, value investing boasts Buffett as its most famous proponent. And while he has countless disciples, the Oracle of Omaha was in turn a Graham groupie himself; after reading "Investor," he went to study under Graham at the Columbia Business School.

Granted, value investing, like so many a term culled from the world of finance, has a faint ring of jargon to it for some newbie investors. Poke behind the name, though, and value investing has principles that are fairly easy to understand -- if hard to stick by in a go-go age of instant gratification 2.0 (otherwise known as instant instant gratification).

"In its simplest form, the valuation of the stock of a given company can be calculated by viewing its current price versus its book value," says Kevin Mahn, chief investment officer at Hennion & Walsh in Parsippany, New Jersey. "If the price is below its book value, one can infer that it's undervalued -- and if the price is above its book value, one can infer that it's overvalued."

And to make the most of this, value investors such as Buffett subscribe to a strategy known as "buy and hold," which is exactly what is sounds like: Buy a stock and hold onto it, often for years or decades.

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There's also the strategy of following the money. "I like to find undervalued companies where corporate executives are buying heavily with their own money," says Mike Chadwick of Chadwick Investment Advisors in Unionville, Connecticut. "That's normally a very powerful recipe for long-term results."

It also helps to know some of the measurable metrics that will help determine when a company is a good value. "Price-to-earnings and price-to-book ratios are great ways to tell if a company is indeed undervalued or not," Chadwick says. "There are dozens and used together it's the best recipe."

But like any other way of approaching the market, value investing has its limits -- especially when it comes to sectors that might as well have the word "relic" etched all over them.

"The classic value trap arises where a stock looks inexpensive on the surface but the business is in a structural, rather than cyclical decline, and further downside is in store," says Mike Beall, executive vice president at Davenport Asset Management in Richmond, Virginia. "History is littered with value traps, such as Eastman Kodak (twitter: KODK) in photography film, Kmart and Sears (SHLD) as failed retail concepts, newspapers, etc."

[See: 10 Ways to Play in the Asia-Pacific Stocks Pool.]

"All investors including Buffett make mistakes; it is how they manage these mistakes that sets certain investors apart," says Allen C. Benello, co-author of "Concentrated Investing: Strategies of the World's Greatest Concentrated Value Investors," and founder/general partner of White River Investment Partners in San Francisco.

"Value investing is a discipline that helps an investor make smaller and less frequent mistakes, and having a slightly better hit rate and a slightly lower failure rate makes a huge difference in long-term returns," Benello says.

The detective work in spotting the winners often starts with a simple concept known as asset valuation. Bello's co-author, Michael van Biema of van Biema Value Partners in New York, cites this example:

"Let's say one is buying shares in a jewelry company and the company makes only pure gold jewelry," van Biema says. "If one can buy all the shares of this jewelry company at a price that's a significant discount to the value of the gold alone, one has a significant margin of safety." And hence, a value investment.

"Academic studies have consistently shown that a portfolio of value stocks has outperformed the market historically," says Ken Little, managing director of investments at Brandes Investment Partners. "That said, there are extended periods when value investing goes temporarily out of favor and underperforms. In many equity markets around the world, we have been experiencing just such a period for the past seven-plus years."

"Value investing can often go hand-in-hand with contrarian investing," Beall says. "The key is differentiating between cheap stocks likely to bounce back versus the value traps. ... Remember that sometimes it is OK to pay up for a great company with a great outlook."

So when does it make sense to go the value route? Beall says: "Ultimately, our litmus test is reflected in one question: Would an informed business person -- and I like to think that includes us -- buy the whole business at the current price and hold it for the long term?"

[Read: 7 Great Stocks That Cost $10 or Less.]

In other words, if you're breaking the way of value investing, it's fundamental to know your investing values.

A former longtime staff writer, editor and columnist at the Chicago Tribune, Lou Carlozo writes about investment for U.S. News & World Report, and personal finance for Money Under 30 and GOBankingRates. He is based in Chicago. Connect with him at linkedin.com/in/loucarlozo.
Police were called to a disperse a block party in Stamford Hill on July 19, when the situation turned violent and resulted in officers being pelted with missiles. The gathering was being held in the centre of the Malvern House Estate in Stamford Hill, and screenshots appearing to show details about the block party had appeared on social media in the hours leading up to the event.

Police were at the scene for a number of hours, and videos posted by residents show an initial effort by police to disperse revellers from the centre of the estate, followed by a police retreat. Later during the night, police returned and pursued a reinvigorated effort to corral people towards the outskirts of the estate. On July 19 police were also called to monitor a large water party in Hyde Park, which also turned violent when three police officers were stabbed.

The intense heat of July 19, dubbed #HottestDayOfTheYear saw large numbers of people congregate outside in areas throughout London and England. Credit: Instagram/ Loren Bowe
You never thought youd set foot on this side of Rio de Janeiro. A hulking police officer towers above you, his assault rifle in your face. You shriek as a bullet whizzes toward your chest. And then, the live stream cuts out.

Youre spared. Safe in front of your laptop, thousands of miles from Brazils anti-Olympics protests  and, it turns out, part of a new and controversial type of activism: virtuous reality. Around the world, charities are using virtual reality to let first-worlders join the front lines of sit-ins, strikes, even revolutions. Witness, a human rights nonprofit, will let you march alongside protesters in Brazilian favelas with the help of its 360-degree, live-stream videos. Nonny de la Pena created Use of Force, a virtual reality film that places you alongside 32-year-old Anastasio Hernandez-Rojas as he dies at the hands of the U.S. Border Patrol. And if that doesnt make you want to grab a picket sign, a slew of activists and nonprofits are working to include touch, taste, smell and temperature into their do-gooder virtual experiences. Just imagine the stench of a solitary confinement cell, or the heat of a packed refugee camp.

In an era of widespread compassion fatigue, the goal is to use technology to break through apathy, much the way the Kony 2012 campaign and the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge went viral. Enhancing the good deeds of activists through VR will propel social impact in ways weve never seen before, predicts Lauren Burmaster, who launched the VR for Good initiative at Oculus. Indeed, a growing body of evidence suggests that lifelike virtual experiences can compel you to care about social issues and to change your behavior accordingly. That would mean not just signing pledges or sharing posts on Facebook, but actually ponying up some cold, hard cash.

Clouds over sidra

A still from the virtual reality film Clouds Over Sidra

Source: UNICEF

It seems to be working for some organizations. The United Nations, in collaboration with UNICEF, raked in some $3.8 billion  more than double the typical haul for a campaign  after debuting its virtual reality experience inside a Jordanian refugee camp. The eight-minute film, Clouds Over Sidra, puts you in the shoes of 12-year-old Sidra, who narrates her day-to-day existence. You can walk the dry desert she crossed, stand in the bare-bones room she shares with three brothers, and learn times tables alongside her in a crowded classroom. Erica Kochi, co-founder of UNICEFs Innovation Unit, says its not just for technophiles, Poindexters and gamers; virtual reality can be a potent way to take part in a movement, Kochi says, and feel intimately connected to it. After all, its not just all super-fancy headsets, she adds.

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Yet theres little doubt that in this case, the medium amplifies the message. Virtual reality is closing that distance between your apathy and the rest of the world, says Sun Joo Ahn, an assistant professor at the University of Georgia who researches the social impact of virtual reality. Experts hope this new medium can better conjure up the kind of walk-in-their-shoes empathy that nonprofits and activists say is necessary to inspire action  even on behalf of whales. On a worldwide tour from Orlando, Florida, to San Diego, PETAs Alex Blount souped up his plea against killer whale captivity by handing out wireless Google VR goggles, instead of ho-hum pamphlets, to passersby. The goggles allowed people to virtually swim alongside a grieving mother orca as she mourned the capture of her baby.

Vr cartoon

Source: Sean Culligan / OZY

Of course, who wouldnt prefer a slick, shiny VR headset over the recitation of depressing facts about orcas? The emotive power of VR may diminish with time, as the technology becomes mundane, says Ahn. Ahn is cautious in these early adoption stages; she would be the first to tell you that virtual reality is not a magic bullet, at least not yet. High-tech doesnt always equal high-impact, and activists who dont heed such warnings could run the risk of peddling poverty porn to viewers while exploiting vulnerable communities through manufactured virtual reality experiences that feel eerily intrusive and out-of-body.

Indeed, rendering the suffering of people via virtual reality would strike many as the worst kind of poverty porn. From a certain angle, virtuous reality is just a higher-tech version of an appeal that humanitarian agencies have made for decades: shock advertising, sad-looking puppies, endless spam to Act Now! A 2011 study from global research agency OnePoll found a public inured to shock tactics, with 41 percent indicating that photographs or stories of suffering were an abuse of emotions. A more immersive experience might strike potential donors as outright manipulation.

Besides, the true test of activism is not how many heartstrings you can tug, says Sam Gregory, program director of Witness, but rather how much it layers in understanding, compassion or solidarity  not just a sense of how shitty the world can be. In other words, transporting someone to a virtual refugee camp for 10 minutes doesnt exactly measure up to the reality of life in a refugee camp. Emotionally draining people is no substitute for real action, Gregory emphasizes. And there still need to be meaningful next steps, ones that go far beyond the virtual reality experience. Even so, there may be value in getting people out of their comfort zones.

But to make a real difference, youve still got to channel visceral reaction into concrete change. In other words, give real money. Bitcoin is not yet accepted.

Related Articles
BRUSSELS, July 27 (Reuters) - U.S. rail component maker Wabtec Corp has offered concessions to allay EU antitrust concerns about its $1.8 billion bid for French rival Faiveley Transport.

Wabtec made the offer on July 25, according to a filing on the European Commission website on Wednesday, without providing details.

Companies usually propose to sell overlapping assets or facilitate rivals' access to address competition concerns.

The Commission, which is scheduled to rule on the deal by Oct. 24, is expected to seek feedback from third parties before deciding whether to accept the concessions, demand more or block the acquisition.

Wabtec had revealed plans to buy Faiveley in July last year and said the deal would create one of the world's biggest public rail equipment companies.

The Commission began its review of the deal in May and said at the time the transaction would remove a significant competitor.

Wabtec did not immediately respond to a request to comment.

(Reporting by Foo Yun Chee. Editing by Jane Merriman)
Good evening from Philadelphia, where President Obama will address his final convention while in office, as he seeks to firm his legacy both by trumpeting his accomplishments to the American public and by ensuring he is replaced by a Democrat to prevent it from being undone. The evening will feature Obama returning the favor Clinton did for him when she worked to unite the party behind him after their bitter 2008 primary. Obama has been itching to take it to Donald Trump, viewing his pessimistic view of the world as a direct rejection of his hope and change message from his first campaign. Obama will also be one of the key validators of Clintons credentials to be president, and will join a long list of speakers who will make the experience argument on her behalf.

Also speaking to Clintons record Wednesday night are Vice President Joe Biden, former New York City Mayor Michael Bloombergwho will speak as a Republican-turned-independent-turned-Clinton-endorserand former Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta. The program also features a long section highlighting a number of key Democratic priorities, including gun control, womens rights, and LGBT rights.

What you missed today: Donald Trump tiring of not being the center of attention

What youll hear tonight: Testimonials to Clintons qualifications for the job of president

What youll want to look out for during the speeches: Will Obama mention Donald Trump by name?

Read the best from the convention below and check Time.com for updates all night:

Must Reads

Hillary Clinton Haunted by Past Support for Trade Deals

Allys statement causes uproar [TIME]

Meet Jill Stein, the Green Party Foe of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump

Unapologetic opposition that could be pivotal on Election Day [TIME]

Donald Trump Calls on Russia to Hack Hillary Clintons Emails

Russia, if youre listening [TIME]

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Donald Trump Wanted a Showbiz Convention. Hillary Clinton Got One.

Celebrities turn out for Clinton [TIME]

Obamas Mission: Do Unto the Clintons What They Have Done for Him

After a 12-year whirlwind, Obama looks to pay it forward [Washington Post]

Sound Off

Russia, if youre listening I hope youre able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing. I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press.  Donald Trump encouraging Russia to hack Clintons emails Wednesday

Bits and Bites

Tim Kaine Makes First Solo Appearance Since Veep Pick [TIME]

Donald Trumps Comments Make Dictionary Lookups for Treason Spike

See Every Celebrity We Have Spotted at the Democratic Convention So Far [TIME]

Former New York Mayor Calls for Electronic Monitoring of Watch List [TIME]

Speaker Paul Ryan Calls on Global Menace Russia to Stay Out of This Election [TIME]
Earlier this year, Wentworth Miller was confronted with a painful image  an Internet meme that struck such an emotional chord that the actor decided to open up for the first time about the depression he'd battled his entire life.



"I was having a really strong emotional experience and I needed to get it out," Miller tells PEOPLE exclusively of his decision to write a reactive Facebook post. "Articulating how I'm feeling, that's a life-saving practice. And it's part of my self-care."



The meme featured two side by side photos of Miller, one from 2006 when he was in peak shape, and one from 2010, when the Prison Break" star, semi-retired from acting, had gained weight. The caption read, "When you break out of prison and find out about the McDonald's Monopoly."



"I knew whoever was responsible didn't know me or know anything about me," Miller, 44, says now. "They didn't have a clue what kinds of issues they were bringing up for me."









Wentworth Miller on How Having Suicidal Thoughts After Depression Led to Him Conquering Bullies| Depression, Gay and Lesbian, Prison Break, TV News, Wentworth Miller

Those issues were lifelong struggles with depression and suicidal thoughts. In 2010, when the second photo was taken, Miller had resorted to binge eating to make himself feel better. Amid everything else at that time, the actor, who also now stars on the CW's Legends of Tomorrow, was also agonizing over another secret  he is gay, but hadn't come out publicly.



Finally, after coming out in an open letter to the St. Petersburg Film Festival, in which he declined an offer to attend their event based on Russia's treatment of the LGBT community, "I was grateful," Miller says.



 For much more from Wentworth Miller, pick up the new issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands Friday





Wentworth Miller on How Having Suicidal Thoughts After Depression Led to Him Conquering Bullies| Depression, Gay and Lesbian, Prison Break, TV News, Wentworth Miller

And since then, things have been looking up. The actor is filming the Prison Break reboot (which premieres next year) and says, "I haven't experienced a major depressive episode in maybe three years," he says. "I try to stay really aware of where I'm at and what's up for me."



Continues Miller: "And I'll just emphasize how important it is to reach out if you think someone is in crisis. The tiniest gesture can have a huge impact. Just let them know they're not alone. It can make a difference."
Short-term rental site Airbnb has taken the hospitality and real estate markets by surprise worldwide. People traveling to different cities use the service to take advantage of nightly rates that cost less than a hotel, and many renters and landlords are converting a room or entire home into a place travelers can book for a few nights through Airbnb or another short-term rental site.

But with U.S. real estate largely seeing low inventory and rising rental and sale rates as a result, can we afford to have spaces taken up by short-term rentals?

The U.S. cities with the most Airbnb listings are Los Angeles and New York -- with 20,891and 38,810 available listings, respectively, according to third-party analysis site Inside Airbnb.

While Airbnb is the largest short-term rental site, the company's listings make up less than 0.5 percent of housing units in the U.S. Airbnb had 550,000 listings in 2015, according to data from Airbnb and analysis company Airdna, compared to the more than 134 million estimated housing units in early 2015, per the U.S. Census Bureau.

To consider Airbnb, even combined with competitor sites like HomeAway or VRBO, a serious threat to housing availability or rates over other factors would be an oversimplification of U.S. housing. The lack of new inventory for mid- to low-income households and the cost of living increasing faster than wages are more significant contributors to the shortage of available, affordable housing. Of course, that's not to say Airbnb isn't causing at least a few headaches when it comes to residential space.

[See: 10 Ways to Save Energy and Reduce Utility Bills at Home.]

Where Is Airbnb Causing a Problem?

The popularity of short-term rentals may be creating nightmares for legislatures regulating where businesses can operate and neighbors who don't enjoy living next to tourists, but it's not the primary cause of housing shortages in cities throughout the country.

The idea of shorter-term renting isn't new: Corporate and furnished housing has long provided a few weeks' or months' worth of housing for people in an area for work or an extended visit. Jackie Tom, president of the San Francisco-based company Rentals in SF, says she leases some furnished units, though many property owners who choose to enter the short-term market return to long-term, unfurnished rentals after a year or two because they incur more costs when maintaining an apartment that is often vacant.

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"Over the course of a year, you're probably better off doing unfurnished [rentals]," Tom says.

Leasing out corporate short-term rentals is a business with regulations, but many local governments are struggling to convey to Airbnb hosts that income earned by renting space must be reported for tax purposes, and they must provide sound, safe quarters for paying customers.

Much of the legal work involving Airbnb hosts centers around ensuring they are properly registered and paying the appropriate taxes for the additional income, as well as running a business out of their residential property. Real estate attorney Avi Sinai of the Sinai Law Firm in Los Angeles works with many people looking to become legal Airbnb hosts.

"[There are] a lot of people calling in asking, 'How do I do it right?' They want to make sure they're following the law," Sinai says.

While Boston's short-term rental market isn't as big as the likes of New York and Los Angeles, it has more than 2,500 Airbnb listings, according to Inside Airbnb. Nancy McCreary, vice president and manager of the Hammond Rental Group with Hammond Residential Real Estate in Boston, says many landlords want a clause in lease agreement to ensure renters can't list the space themselves.

"Landlords want it in the lease that you can't Airbnb," McCreary says.

But Sinai also notes that short-term rentals and home exchanges are a reality homeowner and condo associations, landlords, neighbors and city officials will have to get used to. While local legislation and association bylaws may need to be updated to take transient occupancy into account, "There's no way you can stop something like this," Sinai says.

[See: 8 Types of Roads That Have a Big Impact on Home Sales.]

So What Is Contributing to Housing Shortages?

Residential real estate development has risen in many major U.S. markets in recent years, with more than 1 million housing units approved for construction in 2015, compared to less than 583,000 units approved in 2009, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. While there are a substantial number of units coming on the market now and in the near future, many new apartment and condo developments are in the higher price range.

In highly desirable markets like San Francisco and New York, general interest in living in the city remains high, contributing to population growth and increased density. As a result, newly available housing can't keep up with the growing demand, and to live there, people are willing to pay the price to live in the right location.

While there may be ample new housing inventory, it could easily be outside your budget. Here are four tips to help you find your next place to rent in a tough market.

Rethink location. This isn't a new idea: Anyone looking for their next home will likely have to consider cost versus location. "The first compromise they have to make is location," McCreary says.

If you prefer a downtown location, you'll often have to pay a steep price. But if your budget doesn't allow for that, neighborhoods outside the city center and in the suburbs can often give you a better price.

Find a roommate or two. Co-living is an easy way to be able to rent a larger space while cutting down on costs for rent, utilities and more.

In San Francisco, Tom notes the millennial generation in particular is taking advantage of four- and five-bedroom units with multiple roommates, which allows them to live in a nicer community than they would be able to afford otherwise.

"They want to save their money and have a better quality of life and travel and buy things, versus spend $4,000 on a one-bedroom for rent," Tom says.

But before you pack five people into a two-bedroom apartment, be sure to take your comfort level into account. Sometimes it's better to pay a couple hundred extra dollars and avoid fighting for the bathroom or space in the fridge.

Avoid short-term competition by checking association bylaws. If you're concerned about having a landlord who will want to convert his or her space into a vacation rental, pursue neighborhoods or condo communities that have bylaws restricting Airbnb and other short-term rental use. Inquire about bylaws or association rules with the landlord, leasing agent or property manager.

"Condo buildings are starting to change their bylaws to either make Airbnb impossible or very restricted," McCreary says.

[See: The 20 Most Desirable Places to Live in the U.S.]

Check again down the line. Real estate trends tend to be cyclical, so if a building was just out of your price range before, once new inventory comes on the market, it's possible that same place could come back within your budget.

"They're building so much that there's a lot of inventory for one- and two-bedrooms," Tom says, noting that in San Francisco, rents are slightly down for smaller apartments, while rental rates are up for three- and four-bedroom units because there isn't as much development of the larger spaces.
Greece is putting to a vote Sunday whether the country should abide by the European Central Banks and the International Monetary Funds demands in order to get additional funding it needs to honour debt payments. At heart, the vote is on austerity measures, but a no would put Greece on its path to exit the Eurozone, according to geopolitical think tank Stratfor.

Over the weekend, when negotiations between Greece and its lenders broke down, people in Greece rushed to ATMs to take out as many euros as they could, adding to billions of euros in capital flight since the beginning of the year, Stratfor said.

Even if the Greek government plans to continue negotiating with its creditors, the referendum creates significant uncertainty in Greece and capital controls will be difficult to avoid, Stratfor said in a research note Monday, noting that the upcoming referendum could mark the beginning of Greece's exit from the Eurozone.

How that exit takes shapeif it happensis still unclear, but economists and market experts are already weighing in. Here are excerpts from two views shared in blog posts this week on whats at stake:

Steen Jakobsen, CIO at Saxo Bank, says: My advice of taking a six-month holiday from markets unfortunately looks like good counsel.

There is exactly the same feeling into the air as before the Lehman default. I remember being almost alone in thinking Lehman would fail to remain afloat, but both the market and the Federal Reserve kept seeing last-minute solutions.

The decision is similar. Lehman was perceived as being too "difficult" to save; actually, very few people wanted to help them and don't forget Lehman paid a significant premium for funding +100/200 bps in one-week deposits way before 2008...

Lehman was leveraged 30/35x on its balance sheet, and the Greek debt was/is similarly exposed.

The "morale" risk is also similar and it comes from the macroprudential framework of always trying to buy more time..... which never works.

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The Fed's plan (regarding Lehman Brothers) was to buy more time as plan A and plan B were "carrot and stick"-type solutions. When these blew up, plan C was panic... and no plan. Lehman didnt have a plan, neither does Greece. Having no plan is not a plan, as we are witnessing.

We have difficulty dealing with non-linear movements in markets, hence the hope and belief. But again, let me stress that the biggest risk is bloated VaR (value at risk and correlations going to...). This will produce unintended consequences like the Bulgaria and Romanian bond routs yesterday, Puerto Rico's likely default, and a higher euro.

The market is chasing "good hedges", which dont exist. Trust me: as someone who ran risk and trading through 1992, 1997-1998, 2000, 2008 and 2010/14, there aren't any good hedges  there is only not having the bad positions in the first place when everything goes to a correlation of one

The failure to secure a last-minute deal should see the Dax head down another 3-5% and will explode credit risk to new Eurozone members like Hungary, Croatia, Bulgaria, and Romania... even Poland should feel headwinds.

My advice of taking a six-month holiday from markets unfortunately looks like good counsel.

From where I sit in Shanghai, the market here is nervous ahead of opening... we are down 22% from the 2015 peak!

[] Are you beginning to understand why I disapprove of macro and politicians?

John Stepek, editor of MoneyWeek magazine, warns investors to keep an eye on Eurozone bond yields for signs of trouble.



Theres certainly a good chance that the Greeks would vote yes on Sunday. Your entire banking system has been shut down. You are effectively being asked whether you want it to be issuing an entirely different currency when it opens back up again. Its a heck of a leap of faith to vote in favour of that.

Trouble is, getting to that point is dependent on vast reserves of patience that are currently running dry faster than your average Greek bank vault.

Politics in Europe generally is getting ratty. Thats the only way to describe it. And the chances of someone throwing their toys out of the pram before the end of the week have to be rising dramatically.

And that could be much scarier than the markets expect. The reaction of the Americans is particularly telling. Barack Obama was on the phone to German chancellor Angela Merkel, and the US Treasury Secretary, Jack Lew, has urged debt relief for Greece.

I suspect that the US has difficulty grasping the nuances of the whole European political situation. But in this case, you can see why theyre worried. They have experience of what happens when an apparently inconsequential economic cog is allowed to slide into default.

They look at Lehman Brothers and think that they should have bailed it out and saved a lot of heartache. They cant see why Europe wont do the same for Greece. They wonder: why are these people even taking the risk?

So could Greece be Europes Lehman Brothers? As Ive said already, the main mechanism is probably not via direct exposure to Greek debt. Instead, the fear is that if Greece goes, the market will turn to the next victim. Given that European unity is being strained already by Brexit (and in France, populist Marine le Pen is talking about Frexit), the promise to do whatever it takes to keep things together could be tested to breaking point.

The key is to keep an eye on Eurozone area bond yields. Thatll be the first sign that things are fracturing beyond Greece.

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AutoNation, Inc. AN is set to release its second-quarter 2016 results on Jul 29. Last quarter, the company posted a positive earnings surprise of 3.23%. Lets see how things have shaped up for the forthcoming announcement.



Factors Influencing this Quarter



AutoNation is positioned to benefit from the recovery in the auto market, backed by its optimal brand and market mix as well as a disciplined cost structure. Rising average age of cars and trucks in the U.S., a robust consumer credit environment, and an increase in new product offerings from automotive manufacturers are building a strong sales environment. In addition, the company is poised to benefit from the expansion of its business through acquisitions.



However, AutoNation operates in a highly competitive industry. The company competes on the basis of location, service, price, selection, and online and mobile offerings. Also, its performance is dependent on automakers. Any fluctuation in supply can adversely affect the results of the company.



Earnings Whispers



Our proven model does not conclusively show that AutoNation 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. 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. AutoNations Earnings ESP is 0.00% because the Most Accurate estimate and the Zacks Consensus Estimate both stand at $1.05.

AUTONATION INC Price and EPS Surprise

AUTONATION INC Price and EPS Surprise | AUTONATION INC Quote







Zacks Rank: AutoNation carries a Zacks Rank #3, which increases the predictive power of ESP. However, the companys ESP of 0.00% makes surprise prediction difficult.



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 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. The companys second-quarter 2016 financial results are expected to release on Aug 3.



Magna International Inc. MGA has an Earnings ESP of +0.75% and a Zacks Rank #3. The companys second-quarter 2016 financial results are expected to release on Aug 5.



Visteon Corporation VC has an Earnings ESP of +5.97% and a Zacks Rank #3. The companys second-quarter 2016 results are expected to release on Jul 28.



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AUTONATION INC (AN): Free Stock Analysis Report



MAGNA INTL CL A (MGA): Free Stock Analysis Report



VISTEON CORP (VC): Free Stock Analysis Report



WESTPORT FUEL (WPRT): Free Stock Analysis Report



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A white Chicago man was arrested after allegedly slapping a widely respected 79-year-old black judge in the face and calling her Rosa Parks, authorities said.

The attack occurred outside the Daley Center courthouse, police said, as Judge Arnette Hubbard, 79, was taking a smoke break.

Read: Judge OKs Cover-Up of Defendant's White Supremacist Facial Tattoos

The jurist is the first female president of the National Bar Association and the Cook County Bar Association, two African-American attorney groups, the Chicago Tribune reported Tuesday.

Hubbard walked past David Nicosia, 55, who became enraged over her cigarette smoke, Cook County prosecutors said.

They argued and Nicosia stepped up to her face and said, Rosa Parks, move. Then he spit in her face, authorities said. He turned and walked away, followed by Hubbard who called out for help, according to prosecutors.

Nicosia spun around and slapped the jurist across the face, authorities said. He was arrested by sheriffs deputies and charged with a hate crime and four counts of aggravated battery.

He was being held Tuesday in lieu of $90,000 bail.

Read: Ruth Bader Ginsburg Apologizes to Trump: 'Judges Should Avoid Commenting On A Candidate for Public Office'

Hubbard has a long history of civil rights work and is an icon in our community," Delores Robinson, past president of the Cook County Bar Association, told the newspaper.

The jurist was also a former commissioner on the Cook County Board of Elections and was an international election observer in Haiti and South Africa.

People of good common sense and decency, people of good hearts should be outraged by this, Robinson said. Not just because of who she is but that this happened to anybody.

Watch: House Speaker Paul Ryan Calls Donald Trump Judge Comments 'Racist'

Related Articles:
Whole Foods Market Inc. WFM just released its FQ3 2016 earnings results, posting earnings of $0.37 per share and revenue of $3.7 billion.

Currently, WFM has a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell), but it is subject to change following the release of the companys latest earnings report. Here are 5 key statistics from this just announced report below.

Whole Foods:

1. Met earnings estimates. The company posted earnings of $0.37 per share, matching our Zacks Consensus Estimate.

2. Beat revenue estimates. The company saw revenue figures of $3.7 billion, beating our estimate of $3.69 billion.

3. We delivered record sales of $3.7 billion this quarter along with a sequential improvement in our comparable store sales trends, said Walter Robb, co-CEO of Whole Foods Market. We are continuing to make measurable progress on fundamentally evolving our business including the successful launch of our new 365 format, expanded value investments, and increased efforts to better understand and provide personalized offers to our customers. We are seeing some encouraging signs in terms of our sales and believe our nine-point plan will produce strong returns for our shareholders over the long term.

4. For the 40-week period ended July 3, 2016, total sales increased 2.3% to $12.2 billion. Comparable store sales decreased 2.4%. Average weekly sales per store were $695,000, translating to sales per gross square foot of approximately $935.

5. WFM was down $0.58, or 1.7%, to $33.06 as of 4:35 p.m. EDT in after-hours trading shortly after its earnings report was released.

Heres a graph that looks at Whole Foods latest earnings performance:

WHOLE FOODS MKT Price and EPS Surprise

WHOLE FOODS MKT Price and EPS Surprise | WHOLE FOODS MKT Quote

Whole Foods Market, Inc. operates natural and organic foods supermarkets. Its stores offers produce, packaged goods, bulk, frozen, dairy, meat, bakery, prepared foods, coffee, tea, beer, wine, cheese, nutritional supplements, vitamins, body care, pet foods, grocery, and household goods. As of January 28, 2016, the company had approximately 434 stores in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. Whole Foods Market, Inc. was founded in 1978 and is headquartered in Austin, Texas.

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Check back later for our full analysis on Whole Foods latest quarterly earnings report!

If you want information on how to trade during earnings season, check out the Zacks Market Edge Podcast below.

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Investors are always looking for stocks that are poised to beat at earnings season and Taubman Centers, Inc. TCO may be one such company. The firm has earnings coming up pretty soon, and events are shaping up quite nicely for their report.



That is because Taubman Centers is seeing favorable earnings estimate revision activity as of late, which is generally a precursor to an earnings beat. After all, analysts raising estimates right before earningswith the most up-to-date information possibleis a pretty good indicator of some favorable trends underneath the surface for TCO in this report.



In fact, the Most Accurate Estimate for the current quarter is currently at $1.04 per share for TCO, compared to a broader Zacks Consensus Estimate of 97 cents per share. This suggests that analysts have very recently bumped up their estimates for TCO, giving the stock a Zacks Earnings ESP of 7.22% heading into earnings season.



TAUBMAN CENTERS Price and EPS Surprise

TAUBMAN CENTERS Price and EPS Surprise | TAUBMAN CENTERS Quote

Why is this Important?



A positive reading for the Zacks Earnings ESP has proven to be very powerful in producing both positive surprises, and outperforming the market. Our recent 10 year backtest shows that stocks that have a positive Earnings ESP and a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) or better show a positive surprise nearly 70% of the time, and have returned over 28% on average in annual returns (see more Top Earnings ESP stocks here).



Given that TCO has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) and an ESP in positive territory, investors might want to consider this stock ahead of earnings. Clearly, recent earnings estimate revisions suggest that good things are ahead for Taubman Centers, and that a beat might be in the cards for the upcoming report.



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TAUBMAN CENTERS (TCO): Free Stock Analysis Report



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Zacks Investment Research
Marina Rose Joyce is a 19-year-old British YouTube fashion and beauty vlogger with more than 800,000 subscribers. But her fans say they have become worried about her safety and state of mind in recent months, and overnight the hashtag #SaveMarinaJoyce began trending worldwide as concerns peaked.

Joyce has since insisted that shes fine on Twitter and via a livestream YouNow video  and police have confirmed shes safe and well  but her followers continue to suggest that she either is dealing with health issues, an abusive and controlling person in her life, or both. Her videos and social media accounts are inundated with concerned comments.

The prolific vlogger, who started posting three years ago, is known for her bleached-blonde hair, bubbly attitude and colorful makeup and clothing. Recently, fans said they started to notice odd things in her videos: bruises on the backs of her arms, a shotgun propped up against a dresser in her bedroom (which she later said is a BB gun) and a distinct change in the energy and tone of her output.

After fans fretted about unnerving tweets in early July, Joyce posted a video on YouTube to say that she hasnt changed at all. In a subsequent video  an advertisement for a clothing brand  that shows Joyce spinning and modeling, sharp-eared fans said they heard her whisper help me at one point, and later said they saw bruises on the backs of her arms.

On Tuesday night, Joyce began tweeting to invite followers to a 6:30 a.m. meetup at Bethnal Green, a park in London.

Meet me Bethnal Green at 6:30am if you would like to join partying with me at that event ^-^ bring a friend so you dont get lost  Marina Rose Joyce (@MarinaJoyce7) July 26, 2016

Friends recommended that fans stay away from the early morning meeting. But in a follow-up video, Joyce suggested the timing was related to the dawn Morning Gloryville dance party she was planning to attend. She also addressed the bruises, saying they come from an accident but that its a private story.

Its quite a sad story I wasnt OK, like, recently. Its really sad about the bruises, but I cant say what happened, but Im OK, and I really do love you guys, she says. During the livestream, Joyce cycles between tears and laughter, peppering her delivery with insistences that she truly loves her fans, and that shes just fine.

To the 22.2k people watching, I want to say that Im the kind of YouTuber who actually replies to my viewers, so, everyone dance! she says. I literally am fine.
Why did Hillary Clinton reward Debbie Wasserman Schultz after WikiLeaks published emails that exposed how the supposedly neutral DNC Chair helped undermine Bernie Sanders and abused her office? Clinton elevated the disgraced operative to Honorary Co-Chair of her campaign, further enraging Bernies army of supporters.

What could enrage them more? Maybe choosing a moderate, rather than a progressive, to be her running mate? Oh wait, Clinton did that, too. She picked Virginia Governor Tim Kaine, who is not popular with the Sanders-Warren set.

Related: Kaines $160,000 Gift Controversy: More Bad Optics for the Democrats

There are two possible explanations for the boneheaded Schultz decision. Either Schultz was working during the primary season on orders from Clinton, and thus had to be rewarded for taking the fall. (WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has promised that he will be releasing more emails; perhaps some of those will reveal communications between Clinton and Schultz operatives.) Or else Hillary is confident that Bernies supporters will turn out for her because she sees Donald Trump as so especially loathsome.

If the latter is true, Hillary Clinton is in trouble. Not just because her political instincts are truly terrible, but because of this: almost nobody wants Clinton to be elected president. Well, other than Debbie Wasserman Schultz, and maybe Chelsea. She faces a profound enthusiasm gap, which has only widened in recent months.

A mere 33 percent of Democrats in a recent poll said they were very enthusiastic about voting for Clinton. Only 79 percent of Democrat voters say they will definitely vote in the upcoming election, compared to 86 percent of Republicans  a serious disadvantage for the former First Lady. Only 72 percent of Independents vow to come out on Election Day, and only 33 percent of that group say theyll vote for Clinton; 40 percent expect to cast a ballot for Trump. Thats what you get for so many lies and for promising four more years  a campaign slogan as riveting as a live reading of the Encyclopedia Brittanica.

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Related: Democrats Create Their Own Brand of Convention Chaos

The leaders of the divided Democratic Party are counting on antipathy to Donald Trump to unite their party. Heaping scorn on the GOP nominee is the underlying theme of their convention, not lauding Hillary Clinton. Michele Obama, the most popular speaker at the opening night of the Democrat gathering in Philadelphia, praised the presumptive nominee saying, What I admire most about Hillary is that she never buckles under pressure. She never takes the easy way out. And Hillary Clinton has never quit on anything in her life.

Not exactly warm and fuzzy, Micheles words conjure up Hillary Clinton stoically gutting it out before the Benghazi Committee or facing down journalists questioning her use of a private email server  not the image you might want voters to recall. Bernie Sanders called on his supporters to vote for Hillary, because of her ideas and her leadership. Thats about the most tepid endorsement imaginable, but, really, what could Bernie have said? Vote for Clinton because shes an honorable, principled standard-bearer who will fight to keep the promises made during the campaign? He knows better and so does his supporters.

They know that Hillary adopted Sanders push for a $15 minimum wage and joined his opposition to Obamas TPP trade pact to win the primary contest; they also know she didnt mean it. The selection of Virginia Senator Tim Kaine as her running mate confirmed what the Sanders camp suspected -- Hillary really is the Secretary of the Status Quo.

Thats why the Democratic convention in Philadelphia got off to a rough start. Its tough to rally behind a negative  opposition to Donald Trump -- but thats what the leadership is trying to do. Its what they have to do.

Related: Trump Pulls Nearly Even with Clinton after Republican Convention

En route to the convention, Democrats saw their candidate clobbered by the worst polling in her career. A recent CBS poll showed that 67 percent of the country thinks Hillary Clinton is dishonest. Think about that. More than two-thirds of the country, not just of Republicans, think Clinton is deceitful. That survey shows Clinton and Trump in a dead heat, even though Trump has raised only $67 million to Clintons $335 million. (Sanders supporters are highly skeptical that Hillary wants to get big money out of politics, and they should be.) Even though Trump has supposedly offended nearly every slice of the population that Democrats have carved out, still, they are tied.

CNNs most recent poll shows Clintons favorables are down to 39 percent -- the lowest according to that organization since April 1992 when she haughtily (and ham-fistedly) pushed for a government takeover of our healthcare system. Gallup concurs, with a 38 percent favorable number, the worst of her 24-year public career.

Towards the end of the primary season, 52 percent of Democrats or those who lean towards the Left had a net favorable opinion of Bernie Sanders. Only 39 percent felt that way about Clinton.

Related: Sanders Cant Promise to Rein In His Angry Supporters

So, what Clinton wants to do in the next several months is convince voters (and especially Democrats) that she is honest and that she will abide by the pledges to Bernie Sanders supporters made during the primary season. Thats not going to happen. Instead, she needs to make sure that supporters will come out and vote. To do that, she needs to make Donald Trump into a monster. This, she will strive to do, aided by her stalwart allies in the media.

Will she prevail? Maybe. She has a lot of guns trained on Trump, and firepower to spare. She will have money to burn and a host of enablers. Obama and Michele will hit the campaign trail on her behalf, as will husband Bill and daughter Chelsea and a host of other Democrats eager to keep the party rolling. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren will do their part, relying on Donald Trump to offend the liberal base.

And yet, Republicans and many Independents dislike Clinton as energetically as liberals hate Trump. How many voters turn out to deny each candidate a win will determine this race. Hillary Clinton could well win that contest.

Top Reads from The Fiscal Times:
Kardashians take Cuba!



In a sneak peek at Sunday's Keeping Up with the Kardashians, Kim Kardashian West and Khloe try to convince their mom to come to Cuba with the family.



"I will tell you guys, that there's no internet," Kris, 60, says to them in the clip.



The Kardashian-West-Disick family traveled to Havana in early May and documented their vacation on Keeping Up with the Kardashians.







"It's our whole family, who needs to call anyone?" Kim, 35, asks her mom.



"Um, me!," Kris replies. "I'm not going to Cuba if there's no communication ... I have work to do."



"You don't communicate either way," Khloe, 32, jokingly tells her. "We can't reach you."





RELATED VIDEO: U.S. Representative of Florida Takes Issue With Kardashian Trip to Cuba



"The girls wanting to go to Cuba is a little stressful for me," Kris says in her interview. "I feel very anxious about not being able to communicate with them while they're gone."



"It's going to be legendary," Kim says to her mom. "It's going to be so much fun and I heard the sangria is to die for."



As worried as Kris is, she did admit that she would "really enjoy" having her quiet time.



"I'll enjoy my time," Kris says. "You guys let me know when you get back, because you certainly can't send me an email when you land!"



In the end, Kris had nothing to worry about, seeing as though the girls shared photos via social media throughout their trip to Cuba.



Keeping Up with the Kardashians airs Sundays (9 p.m. ET) on E!
An increasing number of real estate developers in the U.S. are exploring ways to make homes out of the shipping containers used to move goods around the world.

There are certainly plenty of shipping containers to work with. In June alone, the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, together the largest in the U.S., imported 669,149 shipping containers. But they exported only 268,660 containers, or 40 percent of the number that came in.

Slideshow: 18 Stunning Homes and Offices Made From Shipping Containers

In Houston, home builder Jeff Hartless is turning them into homes. He just put a 1,280-square-foot ranch-style house made from two 40-foot shipping containers on the market for $189,995, which is more than twice the median home price for that zip code. Hartless says that for him shipping container homes dont cost less to build than traditional ones, but the upkeep is easier and less costly.

You dont have to replace the roof or the siding, Hartless told the Houston Business Journal. And no termites. Hes planning to build a rental community made up of 42 shipping container duplexes in the same neighborhood, renting for $1,000 to $1,200 a month.

Developer Rick Kueber in Louisville, Kentucky, plans to make a similar rental community from the corrugated steel boxes. He has proposed eight to nine homes made from 8-foot by 20-foot shipping containers. The finished homes would be 640 square feet and have roof decks. Kueber still must get zoning approval, but hopes the homes will be built by the end of the year, with rents between $800 and $1,200.

Related: 3 Awesome Tiny Homes That Cost Less Than $45,000

In San Diego, two entrepreneurs are trying to find a way to build cheaper homes from shipping containers. Matt Jakstis and Jonathan Sanders, who fix up old homes for resale, recently put a three-bedroom, three-bath house made from six shipping containers on the market for $799,000 in San Diego. They say it cost about $100,000 less to develop than a traditional house.

Story continues

One drawback to shipping container homes is running afoul of local building regulations. Its a matter of creating whatever you can dream up, Sanders was quoted saying in The Los Angeles Times, and what the city will accept.

Click here to see 18 unique homes and other structures made from shipping containers.

Top Reads from The Fiscal Times:
Shares of the wings, beer and sports-centric restaurant chain Buffalo Wild Wings BWLD surged in Wednesday morning trade above $165, a jump of nearly 13%. The company released its second quarter 2016 financial results, and despite a decline in same-store sales, BWLD was pleased with its performance.

The company posted a slightly higher-than-expected EPS figure of $1.27, above the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.26. Revenue estimates of $502.32 million were not met though, as the company posted revenue of $490.2 million. Quarterly revenues did grow 15% year-over-year, though the growth was driven entirely by new restaurant openings and franchise acquisitions. Same-stores sales declined 2.1% and 2.6% at company-owned and franchised restaurants respectively.

On the bottom line the companys net income grew 10.2% to $23.7, and a 13.1% increase in earnings per diluted share to $1.27, thanks to 548,402 shares being repurchased for $75 during the quarter. The company also reiterated its previous guidance for full-year earnings of between $5.65 to $5.85. The current Zacks Consensus Estimate for full-year earnings stands at $5.73.

On Monday, activist investor Marcato Capital Management disclosed a 5.1% stake in BWLD, making it the companys fourth-largest investor. Sales declines may open up the opportunity for Marcato to instill some of the ideas it has for the company, like shaking up management, or altering the companys capital structure.

Buffalo Wild Wings executives arent turning a blind eye towards Marcatos ideas either, with President and CEO Sally Smith commenting, We do have some capacity to take on debt. Also according to Smith, the company would first look to repurchase shares, and then possibly offer a dividend. BWLD is holding an analyst day on August 16th where it intends to share its plans to enhance shareholder value, where some of these ideas could be discussed.

Buffalo Wild Wings is currently a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy), and shares of the company are up nearly 3% so far this year.

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BUFFALO WLD WNG Price and EPS Surprise

BUFFALO WLD WNG Price and EPS Surprise | BUFFALO WLD WNG Quote

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The body of evidence suggesting that Russian government-backed hackers were responsible for penetrating the email servers of the Democratic National Committee and arranging the transfer of nearly 20,000 internal emails to WikiLeaks has been built up to the point where few people outside the Kremlin challenge it anymore.

However, whats less clear in this case is the motive. The leaked emails unquestionably damaged Hillary Clintons presidential campaign. But it is possible, as Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook suggested over the weekend, that they were released for the purpose of actually helping Donald Trump?

Related: More Tumult Ahead at Messy Democratic Convention

Believing that Russian intelligence agencies with the presumed blessing of President Vladimir Putin are actively trying to help Donald Trump to become the next president of the United States would require also believing that Putin wants Trump in the Oval Office. Are there any good reasons to believe that Putin, or any world leader for that matter, would want to see the mercurial billionaire as the commander-in-chief of the most powerful military in the world?

Well, now that you mention it...

There is a clear case to be made that Vladimir Putins interests would be better served by having Donald Trump as president than Hillary Clinton, said Susan Hennessey, a fellow at the Brookings Institution and the managing editor of its Lawfare blog.

First off, she pointed out, is Trumps oft-repeated claim that he would like to see a much closer relationship between the US and Russia, along with his statements of personal admiration for Putin himself. With that more intimate relationship, presumably, would come more willingness to turn a blind eye to Russias increasingly aggressive behavior with its neighbors and beyond.

Related: Sanders Cant Promise to Rein in His Angry Supporters

Which leads to another reason why Putin might like to see Trump in the White House.

The US, since the cold war, has operated as the primary check on Russian aggression around the world, said Hennessey. That check has mainly taken the form of NATO, the mutual defense organization that Trump has repeatedly labeled as obsolete.

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Vladimir Mikheev, a Russian foreign policy analyst who writes for websites friendly to and often owned by the Russian government, says that is music to Putins ears.

Trumps treatment of NATO as a costly enterprise with little benefit to the U.S. (We certainly cant afford to do this anymore) is a welcome change of tune, he wrote in an article listing the possible benefits to Russia of a Trump presidency.

Related: Economists, Blogs and Donald Trump

Trumps suggestion that the US might reduce its commitment to NATO, and his warning that he might ignore the mutual defense agreement that is the alliances cornerstone if he felt other countries hadnt contributed enough money, said Hennessey, is pro-Russian in a way that is not only unprecedented but was inconceivable before Trump came on the scene.

The US commitment to NATO is considered an article of faith in the foreign policy community, she said. The basic premise of the commitment to mutual defense and mutual aid is accepted by everyone.

However because the mutual defense requirement has never been invoked, a consistent signal from national leaders that their treaty obligations would be honored is incredibly important, she said. Not only does it help maintain trust among NATO members but it also preserves the deterrent effect that comes with the promise of an automatic and overwhelming military response to aggression against member states.

Another reason why Putin might prefer to see Trump in the White House is that he and his inner circle in the Kremlin are quite familiar with the alternative.

Related: Trump Gets a Big Bump in the Polls as Democrats Clash

They really, really hate Hillary Clinton, said Hennessey. Certainly in their minds, he is the lesser evil.

Thats because, during her time as secretary of state, Clinton developed a reputation for pushing back hard against Russian provocations and has so far given every indication that she would be a more aggressive opponent of Russian adventurism in Syria and elsewhere than the Obama administration has been.

Finally, she notes, Trump has surrounded himself with advisors who appear to be more sympathetic to Russia than the US foreign policy establishment as a whole. His campaign manager, Paul Manafort, worked closely with Putin ally Viktor Yanukovych, the deposed ruler of Ukraine.

Carter Page, another Trump advisor, has accused the Obama administration of fomenting the revolution in Ukraine that ousted Yanukovych -- a position that dovetails almost perfectly with Putins account of what happened in Ukraine. Retired Army General Michael Flynn, the former head of the Defense Intelligence Agency who clashed with the Obama administration over Russia policy and took a controversial meeting with Putin, is also an advisor.

Related: Can Bernie Sanders Save the Democratic Convention?

To be sure, there is no hard evidence of an effort by Putin to help Trump defeat Clinton in November. And in a statement translated and released by the state-run Russian news service TASS, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov explicitly denied any connection.

"In general, we still see manic attempts to use the Russian topic in U.S. electoral campaign, he said. The usual fun and games he continued, are not really good for bilateral relations.

However, there is a credible case to be made that even if Putin did not himself engineer the leaked emails to boost Trump and damage Clinton, he probably isnt terribly sad about the result.

Top Reads from The Fiscal Times:
Wikileaks founder Julian Assange

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange said Tuesday that his organization will be releasing a lot more material related to the US election in the coming months.

The remarks to CNN came just days after Wikileaks published thousands of emails showing the correspondence of top officials at the Democratic National Committee.

The emails, which caused great turmoil inside the Democratic Party as its convention got underway, were thought to have been compromised by Russia-linked hackers. They showed top officials working to tip the scales in favor of Hillary Clinton in the 2016 primaries and against her chief opponent, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.

Assange declined on Tuesday to confirm or deny whether there was a Russian link, but left open the possibility the source would one day be revealed.

"Perhaps one day the source or sources will step forward and that might be an interesting moment some people may have egg on their faces. But to exclude certain actors is to make it easier to find out who our sources are," Assange told CNN, speaking from the Ecuadorian embassy in London.

On Tuesday, the Hillary Clinton campaign said its internal security team had determined the hack was related to Russia. Assange took a jab at the former secretary of state for doing so.

"It raises questions about the natural instincts of Clinton that when confronted with a serious domestic political scandal, she tries to blame the Russians, blame the Chinese, etcetera," he told CNN.

He added: Because if she does that while in government, it could lead to problems.

NOW WATCH: Watch Hillary's brutal attack ad showing children watching Trump's controversial statements





More From Business Insider


Montreal (AFP) - Britain's Prince William and his wife Kate will visit Canada this fall, traveling to British Columbia and the Yukon, Governor General David Johnston announced Wednesday.

"Our true Canadian pride and spirit will shine and be at the very heart of this visit so they can feel at home,a the Canadian official said.

It will be William and Kate's second official visit to Canada, following one in 2011 two months after their marriage.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the royal tour was "a unique opportunity for Canadians of all backgrounds to meet with the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and learn more about our heritage, traditions and institutions."
WisdomTree Europe has launched an exchange traded fund (ETF) that tracks Asian equity income stocks for investors looking seeking yield in a world of low returns, the first such ETF in Europe.

The WisdomTree Emerging Asia Equity Income UCITS ETF (ticker DEMA) listed in London today and has a total expense ratio of 0.54 percent. It physically tracks an index of the highest 30 percent of companies in emerging Asia ranked by dividend yield, resulting in the ETFs dividend yield of 6.1 percent.

There is a cap of 4.5 percent per stock, 33.3 percent per sector and the same cap per country.

Viktor Nossek, director of research at the provider, said DEMA has over 300 constituents and features a mid to small cap bias.

The strategy has a large allocation to high dividend yielding countries like China and Taiwan whilst underweighting low dividend countries such as India and South Korea. At a sector level it is overweight financials and defensives such as telecoms, energy and utilities, he said.

Investors looking at Asia as a region more broadly for income might consider the SPDR S&P Pan Asia Dividend Aristocrats UCITS ETF (ticker PADV/ASDV) for fees of 0.55 percent, or the db X-trackers MSCI AC Asia ex Japan High Dividend Yield UCITS ETF (XAHG/XAHD) for 0.65 percent.

WisdomTree now has 12 ETFs listed in Europe. Last week the pr ovider brought to market the WisdomTree UK Equity Income UCITS ETF (WUKD) with fees of 0.29 percent in a move to expand its income-focused fund range.

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(Adds details)

JERUSALEM, July 27 (Reuters) - Wix.com, which helps small businesses to build and operate websites, expects its new service that can automatically design a website in about a minute will be fully launched in a matter of weeks.

The Israel-based company, which on Wednesday reported strong second quarter results that beat estimates, rolled out its Artificial Design Intelligence (ADI) technology on a small-scale in June and says the initial response has been very favorable.

"It will be extremely positive for us," Chief Financial Officer Lior Shemesh told Reuters, declining to estimate the exact impact ADI might have on business, but adding that it should be fully integrated "in a matter of weeks".

The new service, Wix says, can build an entire website on its own. The programme searches the internet and incorporates pictures and content the user may have previously posted online. It also accesses the company's database to help fine tune the new website's composition.

Wix raised its 2016 revenue guidance to $278-$280 million from a previous forecast of $274-$277 million, and its earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) outlook to $34-$36 million from $30-$32 million.

Wix offers free basic features for setting up websites but users must pay for extra services.

During the second quarter it added 5.1 million registered users to reach a total of 87 million and a record 183,000 paid subscribers to reach 2.12 million.

The company reported a second quarter loss of 9 cents a share excluding one-time items, versus a 21 cent loss a year earlier. Revenue grew 41 percent to $68.7 million.

It was forecast to lose 12 cents a share on revenue of $66.7 million, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

For the third quarter it forecast revenue of $72-$73 million for year on year growth of 32-34 percent and EBITDA of $9-$10 million.

(Reporting by Ari Rabinovitch; Editing by Alexandra Hudson)
Diane Russell was nervous. By the time she crossed the Democratic National Convention stage for her big moment, disgruntled delegates had already booed many of the speakers who went before her. Russell identified herself as a proud delegate for Bernie Sanders at the outset of her 13-minute speech  here, she relished the cheers and standing ovations but then she dug into the tough stuff: trying to unify the divided Dems by backing Hillary Clinton for the White House.

This Maine state representative and former convenience-store cashier seems to have found a new home  in the land of compromise. Many superdelegates in her state favored Clinton, before rank-and-file Democrats had the opportunity to vote; about 64 percent supported the bespectacled senator from Vermont. Earlier this year, Russell introduced an amendment in Maine to reform the superdelegate system, and if she wins a national battle the number of superdelegates could be reduced by two-thirds.

For some, this battle became very much a Bernie versus Hillary thing, Russell told OZY after her address this week. But that was never what it was about for me. Bernie was the example, the case study, of something that needed to be fixed before we ended up in a really bad scenario. It was about: How do we pave the way for the next election and the generation after? Here, Russell discusses her push to reform her partys presidential nominating process.

DNC

Getting the word out: She ruffled political feathers, both in the Maine Democratic Party and the national group, by helping to craft rule changes so that, in 2020, Maines delegates will be bound by the popular vote. Last week, in her New York Times op-ed  Abolish Superdelegates. Its Only Democratic.  she took a stand for those of us who have been left behind by establishment politics  or the Good Old Boys Club.

The impact: Russell is part of a grassroots movement in which more than 750,000 progressives have signed petitions calling for serious structural reform to the superdelegate system. Already, Democrats in nearly 20 states have voted for their own reforms. And Russells efforts have helped form the DNCs unity reform commission, which recently brought together the Sanders and Clinton campaigns before passing a resolution charged with cutting the number of superdelegates by two-thirds.

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The aftermath: This is a tremendous victory for Sen. Sanders fight to democratize the Democratic Party and reform the Democratic nominating process, Jeff Weaver, Sanders campaign manager, said in a statement this weekend.

But not everyone seems pleased. Some delegates who met with Russell this week accused her of not supporting Sanders to the end and of failing to enact rules that would take effect this year. Russell argues the changes couldnt have passed this election cycle but that she desired real change, and I wanted people to walk away from this convention understanding that they got something.

Lost in translation? Commissions sometimes seem to lead nowhere; theyre an excuse to put a book on a shelf, says Russell. Yet this one, she insists, is different because it directs members on how best to reduce superdelegates.

Even so, she notes, there were some real concerns by the Congressional Black Caucus because  some of the states have been gerrymandered to diminish the vote and power of minority communities. Yes, we didnt get 100 percent, but we realized why we might need some superdelegates.

The best lines from her DNC speech: You know, Dumbledore from Harry Potter once said, It takes great courage to stand up to your enemies. It takes even greater courage to stand up to your friends. Obviously, we had a real family disagreement over the role of superdelegates in our partys nominating process. Working to get a president elected is supposed to be hard work. But we can definitely do more as a party to ensure a fairer, more open process that places everyday voters at the center.

Whats next: Russell is finishing her fourth term in the Maine House of Representatives, and shes run into the limit for her state. And she recently lost a very brutal primary battle for a Senate seat. If you have to choose between losing the election and losing your principles, lose the election, Russell told OZY. Look at what just happened  we won on principle. This is so much more important than serving in elected office. Making change? Thats the point of serving in office.
Geneva (AFP) - The head of the World Trade Organization said on Wednesday he would not get involved in a slanging match with Donald Trump after the US presidential candidate suggested withdrawing from the WTO.

Trump, having earlier threatened to renegotiate or rip up the North American Free Trade Agreement, told NBC on Sunday that if he takes the White House he might "renegotiate or pull out" of trade deals if the WTO challenges his policies.

Republican Trump added that "These trade deals are a disaster ... (the) World Trade Organization is a disaster," insisting he would not let the WTO override his plans to impose punitive taxes on firms which shift production offshore.

But the WTO's director general Roberto Azevedo said he would not rise to the bait.

"I do not intend to open a discussion on this subject -- as I am not a (presidential) candidate," Azevedo told a news conference in Geneva.

"Everybody knows what I think of the WTO and its importance for international trade and job creation," the Brazilian added, saying he would put himself forward for a second term at the head of the body after his first ends in September next year.

In May, Trump raised eyebrows when he slammed China on trade, blaming the Asian behemoth for weakening the US economy and taking American jobs.

"We can't continue to allow China to rape our country, and that's what we're doing, Trump told a campaign rally, insisting that the United States had "a lot of power with China."
For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL  July 27, 2016 - Stocks in this weeks article include: Air Lease Corporation (AL), Just Energy Group Inc. (JE), Gibraltar Industries Inc. (ROCK), Apogee Enterprises Inc. ( APOG) and Stamps.com Inc (STMP).

Screen of the Week of Zacks Investment Research:

5 Stocks with Solid Net Margins for Your Portfolio

Profitability is the ultimate yardstick of a companys success. And net profit margin is the most effective way to measure it.

Net Profit Margin = Net profit /Sales * 100.



Net profit margin is the percentage by which a companys total sales exceed or fall short of the sum of all its expenses, including taxes.



In fact, net profit margin can turn out to be a powerful tool to measure how efficiently a company is running its business and controlling its costs. Moreover, a higher net profit margin as compared to peers lends a competitive advantage.



What Net Profit Margin Can Do?



Net profit margin helps investors to understand a companys business model in terms of pricing policy, cost structure and manufacturing efficiency. Hence, a healthy net profit margin is preferred by all kinds of investors.



However, net profit margin has a number of flaws that limit its scope as an effective analytical tool. Its calculation widely varies from industry to industry. Difference in accounting treatment of various items  especially non-cash expenses like depreciation and stock-based compensation  makes it a difficult metric for the purpose of comparison.



Further, for companies preferring to grow with debt, instead of equity funding, higher interest expense usually drags down the net profit. In such cases, it is not an effective tool to analyze the companys performance.



The Winning Strategy



Healthy net profit margin and solid EPS growth are two of the most sought after ingredients in a business model.

Apart from these two metrics, we have added a few other criteria to ensure maximum possible return from this strategy.



Screening Parameters



Net Margin 12 months  Most Recent (%) greater than equal to 0 : High net profit margin indicates solid profitability.



Percentage Change in EPS F(0)/(F-1) greater than equal to 0 : It indicates earnings growth.



Average Broker Rating (1-5) equal to 1 : A rating of #1 indicates brokers extreme bullishness on the growth prospects of the stock.



Zacks Rank equal to 1 : Only Strong Buy stocks are allowed. In good markets or bad, stocks with a Zacks Rank of #1 (Strong Buy) continue to outperform.



VGM Score of A or B: Our research shows that stocks with a VGM Score of 'A' or 'B' when combined with a Zacks Rank #1 or 2 (Buy) offer the best upside potential.



Here are five of the eight stocks that qualified the screen:



Los Angeles, CA-based Air Lease Corporation (AL) is an aircraft leasing company principally engaged in purchasing commercial aircraft and leasing to airlines around the world. The stock has a VGM score of A. Moreover, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2016 increased by a penny to $3.38 over the last 60 days.



Toronto-based Just Energy Group Inc. (JE) is engaged in the sale of natural gas and/or electricity to residential and commercial customers under long-term fixed-price and price-protected contracts. The stock has a VGM score of A. Further, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2016 increased by three cents to 31 cents per share over the last 60 days.



Gibraltar Industries Inc. (ROCK) manufactures and distributes products to the industrial and buildings market. The company has its headquarters at Buffalo, NY. The stock has a VGM score of B. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2016 has remained steady at $1.38 per share over the last 60 days.



Minnesota-based Apogee Enterprises Inc. (APOG) is a leader in technologies for the design and development of value-added glass products, services, and systems. The stock has a VGM score of B. Moreover, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2016 increased by a dime to $2.83 over the last 60 days.



El Segundo, CA-based Stamps.com Inc (STMP) provides Internet-based services for mailing or shipping letters, packages or parcels anywhere in the U.S. The stock has a VGM score of B. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2016 has remained steady at $4.65 per share over the last 60 days.



Get the rest of the stocks on the list and start putting this and other ideas to the test. It can all be done with the Research Wizard stock picking and back testing software.



The Research Wizard is a great place to begin. It's easy to use. Everything is in plain language. And it's very intuitive. Start your Research Wizard trial today. And the next time you read an economic report, open up the Research Wizard, plug your finds in, and see what gems come out.

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Disclosure: Officers, directors and/or employees of Zacks Investment Research may own or have sold short securities and/or hold long and/or short positions in options that are mentioned in this material. An affiliated investment advisory firm may own or have sold short securities and/or hold long and/or short positions in options that are mentioned in this material.

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Zacks.com provides investment resources and informs you of these resources, which you may choose to use in making your own investment decisions. Zacks is providing information on this resource to you subject to the Zacks "Terms and Conditions of Service" disclaimer. www.zacks.com/disclaimer .

Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Inherent in any investment is the potential for loss. This material is being provided for informational purposes only and nothing herein constitutes investment, legal, accounting or tax advice, or a recommendation to buy, sell or hold a security. No recommendation or advice is being given as to whether any investment is suitable for a particular investor. It should not be assumed that any investments in securities, companies, sectors or markets identified and described were or will be profitable. All information is current as of the date of herein and is subject to change without notice. Any views or opinions expressed may not reflect those of the firm as a whole. Zacks Investment Research does not engage in investment banking, market making or asset management activities of any securities. These returns are from hypothetical portfolios consisting of stocks with Zacks Rank = 1 that were rebalanced monthly with zero transaction costs. These are not the returns of actual portfolios of stocks. The S&P 500 is an unmanaged index. Visit https://www.zacks.com/performance for information about the performance numbers displayed in this press release.



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AIR LEASE CORP (AL): Free Stock Analysis Report



JUST ENERGY GRP (JE): Free Stock Analysis Report



APOGEE ENTRPRS (APOG): Free Stock Analysis Report



GIBRALTAR INDUS (ROCK): Free Stock Analysis Report



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Indian macro-analystics firm ZyFin plans to launch exchange traded funds (ETFs) in Europe, including the worlds first Indian fixed income ETF, expanding ways that investors can access higher yields and emerging markets.

The LAM Sun Global ZyFin India Sovereign Enterprise Bond UCITS ETF will list on 19 November and will offer investors access to a basket of Indian public sector corporate bonds, representing a play on infrastructure with companies like the Indian Railways, Power Finance Corporation and Rural Electrification Corporation of India. According to a statement from the provider, although 51 percent of the companies issuing the bonds are state-owned, the ETF has a higher yield than an Indian sovereign bond at around 7 percent. Annual fees for the new fund amount to 0.79 percent.

ZyFin, which was founded in 2011, will domicile the ETF in Ireland and has announced to grow its range, including smart beta ETFs, in Europe. It will work with London-based wealth manager Sun Global Investments to launch and distribute this fund.

Sanjay Sachdev, executive chairman and co-founder, said in a statement that the firm plans to launch further fixed income and equity ETFs to offer easy access to global investors who want to tap into India.

"This is the first time global investors will have access to AAA rated government owned Indian companies through an exchange traded fund and with the Indian government keen to stimulate outside investment, this is a very exciting time to be investing in the country," he said.

Mihir Kapadia, CEO at Sun Global Investments, said: "With India expected to overtake China next year as the worlds fastest growing economy, we are confident that new investments innovations such as ours will help reinforce its growth trajectory."

Global investors have limited options to access India via European ETFs currently  indexes like MSCI India and the S&P CNX Nifty are tracked by providers including db X-trackers, Lyxor, Amundi and BNP Paribas.

Story continues

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Photo: Instagram

Twin sisters married twin brothers on the same day, wearing matching outfits. The photos from the double ceremony, which took place in Ghana, were captured by captured by professional photographer Sindaco Di Lecco, who has since seen his images go viral after sharing them on Instagram. Di Lecco doesnt identify the couples wearing matching modern-meets-traditional kente cloth attire, but heres hoping they step forward soon with the story of how all four met.



The spectacle of twins marrying twins never seems to get old. As of 2013, the Guinness Book of World Records had recorded 251 such couples  and several have since followed. Here are a few of our favorite such foursomes, in what are called quaternary marriages:

Photo: Snapshot

Twins Seek Same

Indian identical twins Dinker and Dilraj Varikkassery told the Daily Mail

they decided back in high school they wanted to marry a set of twins. When they finally decided to settle down, the search for the perfect brides took five years, and all sorts of matchmaking sites and ads.

When we met Reena and Reema, we knew it was them we were looking for all this while. Fortunately, they also had the similar feeling after meeting us, Dilraj said. The couples were married in Thrissur, Kerala State, India, on Nov. 8, 2015, by identical twin priests, with twin pageboys and flower girls.

Craig and Diane (L) with Darlene and Mark (R) on their joint wedding day. (Photo: Getty Images)

Twinsburg, Ohio

Its kind of inevitable that the home of the annual Twins Days Festival has a couple of love stories to its credit. Mark Sanders met Darlene and Diane Nettemeier in the lobby of a hotel at the festival in 1998, and instantly fell in love with Darlene. Luckily, his twin Craig took to Diane. Craig told the Today show that they proposed on the same day, because, he said, We were worried, Well, what happens if one proposes, whats that one going to think? In 2001, Craig and Diane had identical twins of their own (an extra-special occurrence because having identical twins is not hereditary).

Phil and Doug and Jena and Jill Malm got married at the Twins Days Festival in 1993. When they returned for their 22nd anniversary last year, they told Inside Edition that they all live together in Moscow, Idaho.

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Youre Dating Her?!

Unbeknownst to each other, Nigerian Chinonso Akinade Okueze started dating Folawemi Taiwo Okunniyi around the same time that his twin, Chibuzor Adelakin Okueze, was seeing her twin, Febisola Kehinde Okunniyi, according to KemiFilani.com. Theirs was the first quaternary marriage recorded by Guinness in Africa, and lucky number 251 in the world.

This is awesome. Its great being brothers and brothers-in law to each other at the same time, and vice versa, Chibuzor said after their joint wedding in Lagos.

Round-The-Clock Service

At a restaurant in Yiwu, China, two sets of married twins have used their identical looks to an interesting advantage. The four run a restaurant, and tricked customers into thinking they were just one married couple that was somehow able to work from 6 a.m. until 3 a.m. Many diners thought we worked too hard and are like robots, but they dont know that we are actually four people, Mao Zhanghua, 32, told reporters in 2008. Guess that secret is out.

Reluctantly Twinning

Then theres the sad (to us) tale of Yun Fei and Yun Yang, who met their husbands, Zhao Xin and Zhao Xuan, through a matchmaker in Shanxi Province, China. Their identical nature must have been what made them a good match in the first place, but now theyve had second thoughts. According to the Peoples Daily Online (via the Daily Mail) the sisters are undergoing plastic surgery so that they wont be mistaken for each other anymore. Wouldnt a different haircut suffice?

Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest for nonstop inspiration delivered fresh to your feed, every day.


Tim Cook at Apples Worldwide Developers Conference 2016 (Reuters)

Apple (AAPL) is one of the most valuable companies in the world. But its not infallible. Just look at the companys last two fiscal quarters. For Q2, the company reported its first revenue decline in 13 years.

While Apple beat expectations when it reported earnings Tuesday, revenue still declined 15%. Sure, the stock is up around 8% in trading today. But its still down for the year during a period when the market (^GSPC) is up 6%.

To get back on track, Apple has to get its customers excited about the companys products again. And that starts with making them more compelling than the current lineup. That means a significantly upgraded iPhone, improved MacBooks and a reason to finally buy a new iPad. Right now, it feels like Apple is just selling us the same products every year with slight improvements and expecting us to run out and buy them  because a few executives got on stage and called them magical.

Here are some steps Apple can take to turn its losses around.

A genuinely interesting iPhone

The iPhone 7 is right around the corner, and as expected, the internet is awash in leaks and rumors. Various sources point to three versions of the iPhone 7: the standard iPhone 7, the iPhone 7 Plus and a new iPhone 7 Pro. Noted leaker Evan Blass, however, says there will only be two models.

So far, reports indicate the iPhone 7 will likely drop its 3.5mm headphone jack in favor of using the phones Lighting connector to connect headphones. The new phone is also supposed to have a water-resistant body, and there are indications the iPhone 7 Plus will get a dual-lens camera.

Apples iPhone line

Those are all interesting propositions, but it remains to be seen whether such changes will motivate consumers to upgrade their handsets. To be sure, theres a potential market for iPhones out there. An estimated 60% of iPhone users own a device that is more than two years old, according to Baird Equity Research senior research analyst William Power.

Still, its yet to be determined whether those users will still want an iPhone when they replace their current smartphone  or whether theyll go with a different brand.

Story continues

Most smartphone brands have caught up to Apple in terms of overall quality, as NPD Groups Stephen Baker explains in a recent note. Just look at Samsung and brands like Xiaomi and Oppo in China for proof of how modern competing smartphones compare to the iPhone. In other words, Apples iPhone is no longer the only handset with a solid design pedigree. Whats more, Chinese brands sell their handsets at more appealing price points than Apple.

The stakes are pretty high here, since the iPhone represents two-thirds of Apples total revenue. If the company is going to reverse its recent setbacks, it has to build an iPhone thats intriguing enough to get current iPhone owners to ditch their devices for the iPhone 7.

Unfortunately for Apple, analysts at both Credit Suisse and Oppenheimer have their doubts about the iPhone 7 soaring to the same lofty heights the iPhone 6 once reached.

We believe incremental design changes this year will not be compelling enough to drive an upgrade cycle and continue to believe the 7 cycle will undersell the 6S cycle, Oppenheimer analysts write in a recent research note.

Credit Suisse analysts predict the iPhone 7 sales cycle will be muted, but have high hopes for the iPhone 8 ringing in a so-called super cycle.

New MacBooks for heavens sake

Apples MacBook Air and MacBook Pro have been in a rut for some time. They still look largely the same as they did years ago, and their processors are three years older than anything else on the market. Thats ridiculous.

In Q2 the company saw its MacBook unit sales fall, though not as precipitously as iPhone sales. Thats surprising given the fact that the companys laptops sales had been growing while Windows laptops sales continued to decline.

Apples current MacBook Pro

For Apple to see a rebound in the number of MacBooks it moves, the company needs to make some serious changes to the product line. Since the MacBook rose to prominence, Windows laptop makers like, ASUS, Dell, HP and Samsung have made significant strides in improving their devices build quality and design. Whats more, PC laptop makers regularly beat Apples offerings in terms of price.

If Apple wants to give consumers a reason to buy new MacBooks, the company needs to actually make new MacBooks.

The iPad needs a reason to exist again

In Q3 2016 Apple moved 10 million iPads, a decline of 3% versus Q2 2016 and 9% year-over-year. That said, the company saw a revenue increase in both consecutive quarters and year-over-year. Thats likely because the iPad Pro line brings in higher margins for the company than the standard iPad Air and mini line.

Apple iPad Pro

Apples iPad Pro

Still, the fact remains that Apple is selling fewer and fewer iPads over time. Unlike the iPhone, a significant upgrade to the iPad wont drastically increase the number of people buying them. That much has been proven with the release of the high-powered, 9.7-inch iPad Pro, which didnt drive a major increase in unit sales.

There simply isnt a reason for consumers to purchase new iPads. If people want a big-screen Apple device, theyll opt for the 5.5-inch iPhone 6s. If they want to do resource-intensive tasks, theyll turn to their laptops.

Apple simply needs to come up with a way to once again draw people to the iPad. That could be a killer app that you need any iPad to use  most apps already run on the iPhone or are shells of existing Mac programs. Or Apple needs to drop the tablets prices, eliminate the woefully undersized 16GB versions and start consumers at 32GB of storage.

In a perfect world, the standard iPad wouldnt have to compete with the big-screen iPhone 6s Plus, and the iPad Pro wouldnt have to contend with the MacBook Air. But sadly, for Apple, thats not the case.

Keep pushing services

As NPDs Baker puts it: At some point you run out of customers to sell stuff to. Its kind of the natural progression of the market. Thats what happens.

In other words, Apple is going to hit a wall when it comes to hardware. To offset that, Apple can further mine its existing users to get them to join the companys various services including Apple Pay, Apple Music and Apple Care. These users can then take advantage of the companys iCloud storage plans.

This is a promising area. Apple saw a 20% year-over-year increase in services revenue in Q3, and CEO Tim Cook says the segment should be the size of a Fortune 100 by next year.

Still, Apple needs to work to keep perfecting its services. Its still behind the likes of Google, Microsoft and Amazon in terms of cloud services capabilities, according to Baker. But, he predicts, Apple could see growth if it puts the pedal to the metal and finally catches its competitors in the space.

More from Dan Howley:

Email Dan Howley at dhowley@yahoo-inc.com; follow him on Twitter at @DanielHowley.
By Matt Siegel SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australia's three biggest banks, including no. 1 lender National Australia Bank (NAB), on Wednesday said they had lodged a joint application with anti-trust regulators seeking approval to collectively negotiate with Apple Inc to install their own electronic payments applications on iPhones. Apple, which operates its own Apple Pay mobile wallet, does not allow third-party electronic payment apps to be loaded onto to the hugely popular smartphones. The banks are seeking to be able to negotiate jointly for access to Apple's phones without themselves being accused of violating anti-competition law. The move escalates a power struggle between Australia's dominant lenders and Apple on financial technology, a growing force in shaping global retail banks' strategy. The three banks have resisted signing deals to use Apple Pay and want iPhone users to be able to install the electronic wallet systems they have already developed and financed themselves. A spokeswoman for Apple in Australia wasn't immediately available to comment on the move by the banks. For Apple, the payments app offers a potentially lucrative new stream of revenue from services and software as iPhone sales retreat - on Tuesday it reported a 15 percent drop in sale of the device. The country's second-biggest lender, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, and number three, Westpac Banking Corp, teamed up with NAB to file the application with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC). The big three have been joined in the move by smaller lender Bendigo and Adelaide Bank. The ACCC declined to comment on the application. The spokesman for the bloc of lenders, Lance Blockley, Senior Advisor at banking industry group Novantas, said the move is the first challenge by banks to Apple on mobile payments restrictions of which it's aware. While Apple rival Samsung Electronics Co and Alphabet Inc's Google have developed proprietary payments systems known as Samsung Pay and Android Pay, Samsung smartphones and other Android handsets accept third-party mobile payment apps. APPLE PAY ROLLOUT Australia and New Zealand Bank, which signed a deal to use the Apple Pay system in April, is the only of the country's 'Big Four' banks not to join the action. Apple has rolled out its payments system to six countries so far - the United States, China, Britain, Canada and Singapore, as well as Australia - with plans to expand to many more. Some banks in countries beyond Australia have been reluctant to accept the system, though in recent months Apple has added four banks in Singapore to its sole partner there, American Express, as well as Canada's five big banks. To use Apple Pay, consumers pay for goods and services by holding hold their iPhones over special Apple payment terminals, as well as vending machines that accept contactless payments. The three Australian banks contend that while Apple allows apps on iPhones using other commonplace technology, such as Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, restricting the technology through which mobile wallets function - known as Near Field Technology - constitutes anti-competitive behaviour. (Reporting by Matt Siegel; Editing by Kenneth Maxwell)
"Our community and business had another good quarter," said Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook founder and chief executive (AFP Photo/Kay Nietfeld) (DPA/AFP/File)

San Francisco (AFP) - Facebook on Wednesday reported a huge quarterly profit jump fueled by strong growth in revenues and its global user base, powering shares higher for the top social network.

Net profit leapt 186 percent from a year ago to $2.05 billion in the second quarter, as Facebook blew past most analyst forecasts.

With its global base of monthly active users growing to 1.7 billion, Facebook saw a 59 percent jump in total revenues to $6.4 billion, mostly from online advertising.

Facebook shares jumped 6.3 percent in after-hours trade on the stronger-than-expected results.

"Our business is growing at a healthy rate," Facebook founder and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg told a conference call, noting that the company has strategic plans for the next five and 10 years.

"Our results show our progress in our goal of making the world more open and connected."

Zuckerberg said a key part of Facebook's strategy was using video, which he said was "at the heart of all our apps and services."

Facebook used video to boost engagement and has drawn considerable interest in its Facebook Live platform that allows any user to stream live video.

Facebook has been dominating the social media space as well as related online advertising as it seeks to diversify into areas such as messaging, virtual reality and other fields.

The research firm eMarketer estimates Facebook is taking in two-thirds of social media ad revenues, trouncing rivals such as Twitter, which this week reported disappointing results.

The number of monthly active users, a key metric for social networks, grew 15 percent from a year ago, Facebook said.

- Mobile, mobile and mobile -

Almost all of Facebook's revenue, $6.2 billion, came from advertising, and 84 percent of ad revenues came from messages delivered to mobile devices.

Facebook said it had more than one billion daily active users on mobile at the end of the quarter June 30, up 22 percent from a year ago. Monthly active users on mobile grew 20 percent to 1.57 billion.

Story continues

It ended the quarter with more than $23 billion in cash and cash equivalents.

Zuckerberg said he sees "one of the biggest opportunities" for growth in developing countries, where high-speed internet is not widely available.

He noted that Facebook is working to expand internet access around the world through a variety of initiatives, including its drone project aimed at bringing online access to underserved areas.

Last week, Facebook announced it had completed the first successful test of its solar-powered Aquila drone, calling it a "major milestone" for the project.

Facebook has been winning plaudits from analysts as it grows its base and extends into new services, including its Instagram photo-sharing service, messaging applications and its Oculus virtual reality gear.

"Facebook remains a top pick for us, given its position as the largest/most engaging mass-reach Internet platform for advertisers, unmatched targeting potential, and very potent monetization formats," said a note this week from Cantor Fitzgerald analysts.

"Mobile has been the main driver of growth to date, video and Instagram should start moving the needle more meaningfully in the second half of 2016."

RBC Capital Markets analysts said in a research note they see room for Facebook to grow further.

"Facebook still has many growth levers left to pull, not least of which is video advertising," the analysts wrote.

Facebook said earlier this month it was ramping up availability of its Oculus virtual reality gear.

Oculus began selling its Rift virtual reality headsets earlier this year for $599, a price that does not include the cost of a computer that can handle the processing and graphics demands of the technology.

Oculus is also increasing inventory at US shops.
By Se Young Lee SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea's LG Display Co Ltd on Wednesday guided for a second-half earnings recovery, signaling a pickup for the struggling panel industry as clients prepare to launch new gadgets such as smartphones. The firm also unveiled plans to invest 1.99 trillion won ($1.75 billion) to boost production of organic light-emitting diode screens for mobile devices, as smartphone makers increasingly adopt the next-generation technology. "Overall profitability in the second half of the year is expected to further improve due to stabilized panel prices," LG Display Chief Financial Officer Don Kim said in a statement. The world's top liquid crystal display maker said April-June profit fell 91 percent from a year earlier to 44 billion won ($38.79 million), compared with a 43 billion won profit tipped by a Thomson Reuters StarMine SmartEstimate derived from a survey of 11 analysts. Revenue fell 13 percent to 5.9 trillion won. Global economic uncertainty has undercut demand for electronics devices and squeezed margins for components makers such as LG Display, Samsung Electronics Co Ltd unit Samsung Display Co Ltd and Sharp Corp. Key client Apple Inc on Tuesday said it sold 40.4 million iPhones in the third quarter, down 15 percent from the year-ago quarter but slightly ahead of market expectations. LG Display shares were unchanged as of 8.42 p.m. ET, in line with the broader market. LOOKING UP LG Display said it would invest 1.99 trillion won to build a new production line for flexible organic light-emitting diode (OLED) displays. Apple is expected to use OLED screens for its iPhones as early as next year. Monthly output capacity for the new production line, which will start mass production in second half of 2018, could be more than four times that of an existing facility based on surface area. LG Display said second-quarter panel shipments by surface area rose 5.1 percent from the previous quarter while average selling prices fell 4 percent. Chief Executive Han Sang-beom has said conditions are tougher this year than 2015, although there have been some signs of improvement in the second quarter. Panel prices for some televisions, tablets and monitors picked up in June, according to research house IHS. Researcher TrendForce said in late June there could be a mild shortage of large-sized LCD panels as television makers prepared for peak shipments season during the third quarter. (Reporting by Se Young Lee; Editing by Stephen Coates)
It shouldnt be anyones business what you choose to do with your free time, but if youre the boss of one of the largest companies in the world, you should at least make sure nobody finds out about your predilections. After all, everyone has a pretty decent camera in their pocket these days, and Samsung makes a huge number of them. He may be in a coma right now, but Samsung Group chairman Lee Kun-hee is being investigated for having allegedly solicited the services of prostitutes multiple times between 2011 and 2013.

DONT MISS: Two new videos get up close and personal with the iPhone 7 like never before

According to The Associated Press, an official from the Seoul Central District Prosecutors Office said a division that specializes in crimes against women and children is handling the case. Selling or buying sex is a crime in South Korea punishable by up to a year in prison or a fine of up to 3 million won (around $2,600).

News of Lees alleged crimes emerged last week when Newstapa published footage that shows a man who appears to be Lee interacting with women who might have been prostitutes. The videos were supposedly recorded discretely by at least one of the women who worked for Lee at the time, and they may have been used to blackmail Lee or the Samsung Group before being leaked to the press.

Samsung did not comment on these allegations, describing them as a personal matter concerning Lee, his family and authorities.

Lee suffered a heart attack in May 2014 and has been in a coma ever since.

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A Tesla logo hang on a building outside of a Tesla dealership in New York, U.S., April 29, 2016. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson/File Photo (Reuters)

By Joseph White

RENO, Nev. (Reuters) - Tesla Motors Inc <TSLA.O> Chief Executive Elon Musk said on Tuesday that the company's Model 3 could generate $20 billion in revenue per year and an annual gross profit of about $5 billion.

A "modest capital raise" could be needed to fund Tesla's strategic plans, and new products in the plan could cost "tens of billions" over time, Musk said at a press conference at the official unveiling of Tesla's battery "gigafactory" near Reno, Nevada.

Last week Musk unveiled an ambitious plan to expand the company into electric trucks and buses, car sharing and solar energy systems.

Tesla has taken 373,000 orders for the Model 3, which has a starting price of $35,000, about half its Model S. It has said it would begin customer deliveries in late 2017.

(With additional reporting by Rishika Sadam in Bengaluru; Editing by Jeffrey Hodgson)
For Apple bears, there was plenty to feast on in the companys latest financial report. Revenue fell againthis time by 15%the first time since 2002 that Apple has faced two straight quarters of shrinking sales. Shipments of Macs, iPads and iPhones were all below last years figures. iPhones alone, which recently made up nearly two-thirds of Apples revenue, slid by 23%. Even worse, Apple said its revenue would fall year-over-year for a third straight quarter.

And yet the Cupertino, Calif. giants stock rallied 7% on the earnings report amid a sense that that things are looking more hopeful at Apple than they have in a while. Wait, what? Here are three key reasons why Apples results are not what they might seem at first blush.

The first is that all this bad news had long been expected. Apples stock has slumped 22% during the past year as investors braced for slower iPhone sales. iPhone generations have a two-year cycle, with the second year a lackluster one as loyal consumers await the next model. Apple also introduced the smaller, cheaper iPhone SE earlier this year, which dragged down the average sales price of iPhones to $595 from $660 a year ago (silver lining: this suggests the SE model was a hit).

The second reason is that Apple managed to do better than Wall Streets dismal expectations. Despite a dwindling market share in China (where smartphone sales dropped 33%), iPhone sales saw impressive growth in Japan, India, Brazil and Russia. More new customers are switching to iPhones than ever, CEO Tim Cook said. All told, Apple squeaked above analysts revenue and profit estimates and forecast revenue in the current quarter at a midpoint of $46.5 billion, or a billion above the consensus estimate.

The third and most interesting reason for the rally lies inside the vague hints Cook gave about Apples future products in a call discussing earnings. Analysts parse such comments as closely as they would a central bankers. Apples constant quandary is that it cant, for competitive reasons, tip its hand on new innovations. Its so good at keeping secrets that, when its revenue and stock price are on a down swing, things can look darker than they really are.

Story continues

While Cook wouldnt talk about features on a new iPhone expected to be released in September, he said hes very optimistic about the future in part because of the iPhones large and loyal user base, underscoring an argument made by Morgan Stanley this week that pent-up demand for iPhone upgrades may create a coiled spring of demand this fall.

Asked about Apples interest in the augmented reality technology that spawned Pokemon-hunting hordes into city streets, Cook was a bit more forthcoming. Im sure developers will go for this over time, he said. Augmented reality can be really great, and we have been and continue to invest a lot in this. We are high on AR for the long run. Its a great commercial opportunity.

Another analysts probed at Apples hidden product pipeline by asking about the bump in recent R&D spending. Apple spent 4.4% of its revenue on R&D in the last nine months, up from 3.2% in the year-ago period. How much of that is for bold new products? There is quite a bit of investment in products and services that are not current currently shipping, Cook said. You can look at the growth rate and conclude that there is a lot of stuff that were doing beyond the current products.

In other words, be patient and see. Something new is indeed coming. Cook reminded doubters that Apple faced a similar attack of the bears right before the iPhone 6, which ended up surpassing even his hopeful expectations. One new product could be an Apple TV that is meatier than what the company introduced last fall. As Cook said, Think about that release as building the foundation for what we believe could be a broader business over time, including video-on-demand services built on top of a hardware device.

You shouldnt look at whats there today and think weve done what we want to do, Cook added. He was talking about the Apple TV, and yet that statement pretty much sums up where Apple is in the troubled summer of 2016.
- By Shudeep Chandrasekhar





Any discussion on cloud must necessarily include Alphabet's Google (GOOG). Why? Because they are one of the pioneers of cloud, initially using their entire capacity for their own needs, but over time maturing into a provider of cloud services such as infrastructure, software and so on.

But Google is not one of the those companies that moves fast. Take Oracle (ORCL), for example. Despite shying away from the cloud for several years, they've realized that their legacy businesses are just not made for the future. Now, they're trying desperately to grow their cloud revenues in an attempt to compensate for declines in software and hardware income.





Google could have easily taken the lead in cloud when they were already using it to serve their products.

Today, Google is trying to push into the cloud through sheer muscle power, but it is late to the race. Can they now move fast enough to catch up to the top three cloud providers, Amazon (AMZN), Microsoft (MSFT) and IBM (IBM)? The real question is, will they?

Let's look at a few aspects of their cloud business.

Google's Cloud Market Share

It's almost as if nobody recognizes that Google is very late to the cloud party. Yes, they are one of the biggest users of cloud in the world, but as a provider they're still far behind the rest of the tech pack.

Gartner, for example, puts them in the category of cloud "visionaries", as you can see from their famous cloud quadrants from two consecutive years.

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But here's the story as far as market share is concerned:

Amazon Web Services, 31%

Microsoft, 9%t

IBM Cloud and SoftLayer, 7%

Google, 4%

Salesforce, 4%







As you can see, they're still far behind the top three - and that's just in the infrastructure-as-a-service segment. Microsoft is well ahead of them in the software-as-a-service space, with Office 365 against Google Apps. IBM is far advanced in the analytics-as-a-service arena and, as we just saw, AWS is the leader in the cloud infrastructure space.

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This is not something you'd expect to see in a tech major with nearly $500 billion in market capitalization and a global presence.

Unfortunately, that's just the beginning of their troubles.

Data Center Footprint





The one thing that you need in order to serve customers as an infrastructure-as-a-service provider is, obviously, infrastructure. Google has plenty of server farms around the world but, being a company that wants to archive all of the world's available digital information, their own data center needs are an ever-growing entity.

Therefore, the possibility of having excess capacity that can be offloaded to another business line is very low - even if that business has a tremendous growth trajectory.

So, unless they have capacity to handle, there will be a very small chance for them to challenge the leaders who are running away with the market.

Google announced in March they would invest in 12 new data centers/regions to support their cloud business.

Look at it from the point of view of a cloud customer, the value of cloud comes from economy, convenience, scalability, speed and reach. The speed and reach parts are where data centers figure heavily.

As of now, Google is still way behind the competition in terms of available infrastructure that they can "rent" out to other businesses.

GvSVXagB5dVd78MIhtIMZYwU2QQWJUnwEuxwidr_

Their current footprint is a total of 15 data centers, with the majority of them being in the United States. Of the 15, Google only considers eight of them to be cloud data centers.

In comparison, Microsoft has 100 data centers to provide support for Azure Cloud. IBM has more than 45, with the most recent one going operational in Johannesburg, South Africa. Amazon has 33 of what it calls "availability zones."

With Google now squarely in the cloud game, I expect them to ramp up their data center footprint over the next few years. For now, however, they're behind the curve while their competitors are fighting each other to increase their reach, customer base and scale.

All three - Amazon, Microsoft and IBM have been growing their cloud IaaS units at double-digit rates for the past two years and Google still doesn't have the volume or the scale to compete on an even level.

What Can Google Do?





There is one area that Google has tremendous expertise in, and if they can tap into that then they can easily give the other three a run for their money. I'm talking about artificial intelligence, or AI.

It's a well known secret that Google has been developing advanced neural networks and other AI elements for its own use, and everything resides inside what they call Google DeepMind.

m5dtPqnpGPBU4OdZc_HKMNiSF-7vlaWLZ_udAi6C

There are already several known applications for DeepMind:

"Google DeepMind, Google's Artificial Intelligence unit, achieved 40% drop in cooling costs (on data center servers), increasing power efficiency by 15%."

- 1reddrop

All three of their competitors do have their own solutions for machine learning and are building their own suites of products that can exploit artificial intelligence capabilities. Google, on the other hand, has practical experience that might be far more evolved than the competition.

If they can piggyback on that, they will eventually have a robust cloud product that can provide the thrust the company needs to keep pace with the leaders.

This will be the one key product line I will be keeping my eye on with respect to Google cloud. It is the one thing that can totally transform the company - provided they build their datacenters fast enough.

They cannot afford to be slow here and, in my opinion, the faster Google finds alternate revenue streams, instead of increasingly spending more to maintain their search advertising business, the better it will be for the company and its investors. And I believe cloud and artificial intelligence can make that happen if they play their cards right.

Disclosure: I have no position in any of the stocks mentioned and no intention to initiate any position in the next 72 hours.

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This article first appeared on GuruFocus.






Yvonne Boggs holds a flier seeking information on her daughter, Charlotte Trego, who has been missing for more than a year, in Chillicothe, Ohio. (Credit: AP Photo)

Viewers still haunted  i.e. all viewers  by The Vanishing Women, the Investigation Discovery docuseries about the unsolved mysteries of six women who went missing during a brief period in the small town of Chillicothe, Ohio, take note: The series sixth, and final, episode will air later this summer or in early fall, and, at least for one family, the finale will include a small, heartbreaking bit of closure.

Related: The Vanishing Women: Does a Small Ohio Town Have a Serial Killer on the Loose?

On July 15, Jason McCrary was found guilty in the shooting death of Timberly Claytor, the 38-year-old mother of five whose story was featured in the ID series. The Vanishing Women executive producers Jeanie Vink and Jennifer Anderson talked to Yahoo TV about how McCrarys trial and sentencing will factor into the finale, about how the series had led to new clues in the cases for local police, about what drew them to the Chillicothe tragedies for the networks first serialized documentary, and how they relied on everyone from family and friends to a local newspaper editor to help them portray each victim as a person, and not just a headline.

We learn right up front that these women have problems. Their families are very open in talking about that. But theyre also people who are loved, and who have people they love, who continue to have no answers about what happened to the women in several cases. That gets lost in a lot of coverage of stories like these  it feels like people can become desensitized to the sheer number of crimes like this  but this series really focuses on the details of who the women are. Is that why it has connected with so many viewers?

Jeanie Vink: Thank you, thank you very much. Its one of the things that Im particularly proud of. I give Jen, who is the person whos been on the ground in Chillicothe its Jens handling of the show and the sensitivity to the families and the victims. That was the intention, to make sure that people understood that these were troubled women on some level, but they have families who love them. They have friends who love them. This is a really tragic story that we all should care about.

Story continues

Angela Robinson talks about the overdose drug death last year of her daughter, Tameka Lynch, eight days after her husband reported her missing, in Chillicothe, Ohio. (Credit: AP Photo)

Its inherently a very compelling story, but what made you see it as a story that would be well served by a series of this scope?

Vink: For ID, this is our first serialized docuseries, and that in and of itself is exciting for us. The fact that six women went missing in such a relatively short period of time in a small community felt like it warranted a really full exploration. We wanted to go into each victims story and the circumstances. It isnt something that could have been done properly in an hour or two. It made sense for us to try it on a serialized level and make sure people appreciated the scope of the series.

Jennifer Anderson: There are so many themes we all felt were really important to introduce, which made the story even bigger. Of course, one of those themes is delving into being honest about addiction and how it affects families. How it begins. Which is something that is happening all across our country and is an important story to tell. Kudos to ID for really taking the leap into that realm and agreeing to tell that part of the story as well, to make it a larger thematic series.

The drug issues, how that ties into so many of these stories and what an impact it has in small towns like Chillicothe, is one of the many interesting sidebars in The Vanishing Women.

Vink: I think that hopefully the success of the series speaks to this. It may be a time when this country is ready to talk about whats happened here, because it started with the whole pill mill phenomenon and a lot of people getting addicted to opiates that way, and then turning to heroin. We felt like the timing was right and that our viewers would be receptive and sympathetic.

Diana Willett (Credit: ID)

How do you jump into a series like this? Do you have a lot of initial contact with local law enforcement, local media, the families? Where do you even start?

Anderson: Yes, its a lot of initial outreach to law enforcement, to families. We also worked with the local newspaper [The Chillicothe Gazette]. There were a lot of preliminary conversations with all of these parties. First of all, we have to gain the trust of the people there in Chillicothe. We worked really hard to do that. They definitely, across the board, felt that when the national media came in and got ahold of this stor  they were a little bit reticent about what our intentions were. We took several trips to Chillicothe without any cameras before the series was even greenlit, just to sit down face-to-face with everybody there who played a part in this story. To talk to them and talk through what kind of story we wanted to tell. Through multiple conversations and multiple face-to-face meetings, we slowly gained their trust, and it really wasnt until they said, especially law enforcement, Yes we would like to move forward, and we would like to move forward with Investigation Discovery to tell this story, that the project really got off the ground.

Mike Throne, the editor at The Gazette, is a great part of the whole series. Hes someone you know lives in the town, hes raising his kids in the community. He clearly cares about the community in general, and how its perceived. As you said, its on a national level now. How did that come about, that he became, in a way, the spokesperson for a lot of the story?

Anderson: Mike is just a wonderful person and of course that comes across. Hes also able to speak really clearly from a community perspective about these events and how they affected Chillicothe as a town, as a community. As we were putting these shows together with no narrator, we really needed that clear voice to glue things together. He definitely rose to the forefront of in that role.

Mike Throne (Credit: ID)

How important was it to have the local medias sign off, agree to work with you on this?

Anderson: I think it was very crucial to the success of this. Its a very close-knit town. Its a very engaged community. Theyre very engaged on a local level. Being able to work with those voices at The Gazette and have them spend as much time with us as they did, and speak honestly and openly we would be missing a critical part of the story if we did not have their participation. Then of course, being able to use headlines from the relevant stories added a lot.

What was the initial vibe of the reaction from the community when they found out about the series? News must have spread quickly that a TV series was going to film there.

Anderson: Yes, everybody knew who we were. In any small town, when you come from out of town, theres a level of Should we trust these people? What are their motives? It took us being there, people getting used to our faces, our cameras being around. I would say that one thing that really struck me was the honesty of the people who were our interview subjects. A lot of times, you put a camera in somebodys face, and they clam up and get nervous. I really didnt see much of that at all. People were not frightened of the camera. They really wanted to say what they wanted to say. They said it honestly and openly. People wept in front of us. The emotions were pretty raw. That was not only really compelling, but it really, as a producer, it made me feel like we were doing something right.

(Credit: ID)

Vink: I was just gonna add that I think this is a community that wants their story told, but wanted it told in a sensitive manner. Obviously, ultimately, we really hope that this series does generate new leads and helps law enforcement. On a lot of levels, I think it was cathartic for the families but theyre also looking for answers. Given the sensitivity of the subject matter, which I hope came across in the series as well, it was hard for law enforcement, because with the drug issues in the community, people are often reluctant to talk. In some ways, I think they were more comfortable talking to Jen and her crew, perhaps. I think law enforcement would back that up, and hopefully its positive thing for them. I think it ended up feeling very overall positive to the entire community.

Jen, did you feel like you got a crash course in getting to know the town itself, which is also spotlighted in the series, and, I think, favorably. It looks like a nice, friendly town.

Anderson: Well, it is a really beautiful little town, in the foothills of the Appalachians. The foothills are just gorgeous. Being there on that little main street and seeing so many great little Mom and Pop shops, it had a bit of an artsy vibe. It wasnt what I expected, just having read articles about the place. We definitely did want to show that it is an all-American, quintessential, very charming town with an engaged population. I dont know about a crash course, I think it just evolved naturally from having spent the time that I did spend there

You returned to town earlier this month for the trial of Jason McCrary. What was that experience like? Everything happened so quickly.

Anderson: Yeah, I was kind of giving Jeanie a running text message account of things as they were happening. I dont want to give too much away for people who will be watching the show and havent been following the trial. It was far more interesting than I anticipated. I definitely hope that I can make that come across in the final episode.

Im guessing that will be much of the focus of the final episode then?

Anderson: Itll be quite a bit, yes.

Jason McCrary (Credit: Ross County Sheriffs Office and Chillicothe Police Department/AP Photo)

Will you cover the sentencing in August as well, for the final episode of The Vanishing Women?

Vink: Theres no question we will reveal the sentencing in Episode 6. Whether its actual coverage quite honestly, the sentencing hearing itself is not necessarily the most compelling television. You want to give people you want to finish the story, no question, but things can happen. Like I said, who knows if new leads or some other developments start happening, we will do our best to cover it. For the time being, well deliver the sentencing information, but we may or may not cover it.

Have there been specific leads that the local law officials have followed that are a result of the series, people seeing the cases on a national level?

Anderson: Yes, [local police] have come out and said that. They hold all of that information very close to their chest, because these are all active, open investigations. Thats been a challenge from the outset of this. They can only tell you so much, because they dont want to jeopardize their investigations in any way. We dont know anything about what those leads entail.

Jen, since you were in Chillicothe recently, after the trial, what do you sense is the feeling in the town, in terms of, do they feel any safer that, at least, theres been a concrete result, consequence, in one of the cases?

Anderson: I think theres no question that they do feel like a bad guy has been taken of the streets. At least for one family, there is definitely a sense of closure. Well, I dont know if closure is the right word, because of course it wont bring their daughter back, but that justice was served. There are still a lot of questions. Law enforcement has been very open and adamant about the fact that they do not think the defendant in this particular murder case was connected at all to the other women. Thats not to say he doesnt have information. There are still a lot of questions. I dont think that the communitys put this to bed at all, but for one family, theres a bit of closure.

Did you become close with the families and with the local law enforcement officers while you were filming?

Anderson: I think, with the families, I dont know if close would be the right word, but definitely theres a mutual respect there. I feel so deeply for them, just being with them in person, hearing their stories. Hearing what theyve gone through. So many of us cant even fathom the devastation and the heartbreak and the not knowing. My heart just constantly goes out to them.

Law enforcement, I definitely think that we did have good relationships with them, and the feedback that Ive gotten from the police department there has been very positive. Theyve been very pleased with the series, how its unfolded, and the storys thats been told. That feels good.

Tiffany Sayres family (Credit: ID)

Many of the family members break your heart. Tiffany Sayres aunt and her grandmother and her father it was crushing to watch them. They were so honest and so open about everything in her life, that she had experienced a lot of tragic things, that she had problems with drugs  its no small thing that theyre being that open and honest with you. That must make you feel a lot of responsibility as well, to tell their stories.

Anderson: Oh, absolutely. Yeah, Ill say that across the board. Wanda Lemonss mother, Diana Willett, as well. She spent a lot of time with us and was just so open. Like I said, you put that camera in somebodys face and you dont necessarily expect to have that level of emotion. The things that they were sharing with us Youre right, thats a really good way to put it, theres a sense of responsibility to tell those stories to the best of our ability and really bring their loved ones to life, to make them into a person, and not just a headline.

Det. Bud Lytle (Credit: ID)

Diana she is shown really putting her faith in keeping her relationship going with the law enforcement officers. She trusts them to continue searching, and to continue trying to find answers. With everything thats going on in the country right now, that was was nice to see. These people all live together and they know each other and theyve grown up together. It probably makes for a weird situation when they have to ask questions about each other in these cases that are uncomfortable, but it was interesting to see that shes put her trust in them, and that they take that seriously.

Anderson: Yep, that was a scene with Detective Bud Lytle, who spent a really really large amount of time with us, which I really appreciate. Hes someone who cares deeply about his community and the people in it. He has that personal connection with Wanda, Dianas daughter. They attended the same church. He was a youth pastor, and Wanda worked with him. Hes someone who sees whats happening in the community and is out there making sure that people know hes out there. Hes working hard, as hard as he can, for answers for these families that he cares about, too.

The Vanishing Women, Episodes 1-5, are streaming at InvestigationDiscovery.com.
We all love entertainment, but when it comes to a cost, many people tend to retreat and find alternative things to do. We have all had our mood spoiled by finding our favorite series on a site only to realize we cannot watch it until we pay. And then there is the problem of spending and finding that your connection is not good enough to download or even stream. Why let such challenges ruin your day? We've decided to help you sort this problem by providing a list of 20 of the best sites where to download series for free.

Image: powerakademy.com

Source: UGC

What could be more irritating than opening your browser and attempt to download a series from many download sites but fail? It's a simple task, but only if you know the right locations to download free movies. Unfortunately, there is a sea of series download sites, many of which are illegal. Sometimes you might be successful to download the series, but you will be subjecting your device and yourself to a lot of risks. These unlawful sites are usually a gateway to a tone of malware, so be warned. Sometimes you might think you have eliminated such a problem by using free online torrent sites.

20 best sites where to download series for free

There can be no worse way of jumping from the frying pan into the fire. Torrent sites are good, but they will most likely get you in legal trouble. Furthermore, you might use a torrent site today, and the next minute you can't find it because Google has deleted it. The only solution is identifying the many legitimate sites that provide a free series download. Here are 20 best websites that might help you download your favorite series:

1. YouTube

Image: instagram.com, @youtube

Source: Facebook

YouTube is one of the best sources through which people can search for and enjoy any kind of videos. The advantage of YouTube is that it is accessible from anywhere in the world. The only thing you require is an internet connection, and you are good to go. Here are thousands of free movies and series. You can always find software for downloading series from YouTube.com. You have to look for a software that doesn't require you to add an extension or install other third-party packages. After this, you will visit YouTube and search for popular channels that may contain the series you are looking for.

READ ALSO: The Richest Actor in Ghana 2017

2. Retrovision

Image: retrovision.tv

Source: UGC

A visit to this site opens up a world of many classics and TV shows. The variety of content on this site is very diverse. What's more, this source for series has an android app that goes by the name Classic UHF. This app can be used to grab and watch content on the go. It is a growing trend where many sites are creating free movie apps to help people access tailored content quickly. Retrovision TV is genre-specific which makes it very user-friendly when searching for series.

3. The Roku Channel

Image: elroku.com

Source: Depositphotos

This popular site comes with free streaming channel websites for downloading movies. Many people believe that Roku can only be accessed if you have Roku hardware, but this is not the case. You can easily access the channel from any device. This movie site boasts of hosting many popular films and series. To make it easier for people visiting the site, Roku.com has arranged its content in various categories based on genre. The content is updated regularly, and all you have to do is sign up and enjoy the free collection. Because this site was initially made for users in the US, those from other countries can access the site by a VPN.

READ ALSO: Ghana versus Nigeria: Most handsome actors

4. Crackle

Image: facebook.com, @CrackleTV

Source: Facebook

Crackle is a free series downloading site owned by Sony. Sony produces its movies and series so naturally, you access lots of series and entertainment here to watch. All that is demanded from you is simple signup and creation of a watchlist of your favorite series. The site has an exciting feature that recommends content for you based on your priorities and preferences. This site offers more content for free as opposed to many websites. However, to pay for these free services, users have to be tolerant of ads and commercials.

5. Open Culture

Image: facebook.com, @openculture

Source: Facebook

As the name may suggest, openculture.com is open to a variety of content ranging from free series, movies, online courses, and free language lessons. Open Culture has been around since 2006 and has its content differentiated by six significant sections. These sections are Movies, Online courses, Language Lessons, e-Books, Textbooks, Audiobooks. As you can see, this is a great site to visit as it entertains and educates you. If you are only interested in the movies and series section, you can access more than 1,150 movies.

6. MoviesFoundOnline

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Source: UGC

Moviesfoundonline.com is a great place to find free movies and other videos online. To make your search easier, it filters content to display the most viewed videos and recent uploads to the site. MoviesFoundOnline is a host for thousands of free movies such as cult classics, documentaries, and comedy. It is where you can find public domain movies and has the strict observance of copyrights.

7. PopcornFlix

Image: facebook.com, @Popcornflix

Source: Facebook

Popcornflix.com is a free movie streaming website. The site is a product of Screen Media Ventures. Here you can access lots of public domain movie content and other original productions. Content on the site can easily be accessed from any device without the need to spend money. Series found on the site fall into different categories such as drama, comedy, action, documentary, and horror, among others. It is popular for TV shows and a full National Geographic series catalog.

8. Classic Cinema Online

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Source: UGC

Classiccinemaonline is dedicated to fans of classic cinema. If you are one of them, you wouldn't know what you have been missing until you visit the site. Classic Cinema Online allows you to download the content and helps you use the sorting feature available. The site is elementary and straightforward to use.

9. Kanopy

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Source: UGC

Kanopy.com is yet another free movie download site. To access the collection of movies and series on this site, one is required to have a library card. These cards are issued by various campuses and public libraries all over the world. Each library gives access to different content.

READ ALSO: Ghana versus Nigeria: Most handsome actors

10. Vimeo

Image: facebook.com, @Vimeo

Source: Facebook

Vimeo.com is very similar to YouTube. It has a vast collection of free movies and series to offer. Vimeo also allows you to host, share, and view videos. The site is highly recommended due to its clean layout making it safe for those downloading content. Here you get access to many free independent movies, series, and documentaries. The site also has a special section where visitors can pay for on-demand content.

11. Yahoo View

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Source: UGC

Yahooview.com makes it to the list of credible sites where one can access free series to download. Yahoo's movie section can be accessed outside the United States using a VPN. Its online movie content is sorted in a clean interface, thus making it easy for viewers to interact with it. It's upon the individual to select a genre from the variety provided. Here you can find great series, movies, and documentaries. If you see a free film or series here, get your hands to it quickly because they are often placed on the site for a limited duration before their time lapses.

12. Hulu

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Source: UGC

Hulu.com is another excellent site to download movies with unrivaled services. There is a free account, but it only gives you access to restricted content. Subscribers get to enjoy free series movies, TV episodes, and documentaries. Android Apps and iOS also support the site.

13. GrabTheBeast

GrabTheBeast is a famous TV website that lets its users download episodes, series, and shows for free. It has numerous English television shows and web series that one can download even without registration. It is effortless to download an episode from this site. All one has to do is to look for the show they want by its name, then pick the episode they want, and then click on the download link.

GrabTheBeast offers its users several video quality options. It means that one can choose to download their show in HD 720p, SD 480p, or Full HD 1080p. GrabTheBeast also grants its users subtitles for each episode in case they have difficulties hearing. This service is also free and does not require any registration.

14. Adder

Adder is one of the best sites to download your favorite movies. It is straightforward to navigate, granting its users smooth searches and their favorite television series, by just a few clicks. A user can choose to download their movies and television shows in Full HD, SD, or in H video quality format. The exciting thing about it is the fact that it gives its users direct download links for every episode. Therefore, if you prefer direct download links, then adder is the place to be.

15. Yify TV

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Source: UGC

Yify TV is a popular site due to its contents. It offers its users downloads of various television shows, televisions series, and even games. Yify TV recently launched a section that has television series and shows. The section has so many latest episodes of the various series and shows and is assuring users they can get every episode they want. The site has a very appealing user interface, which has made it very easy for users to access the uploaded contents. The contents are updated regularly, assuring its users of fresh and latest episodes.

16. 01Torrent

01Torrent is one of the best free download sites because it contains the latest television shows, series, games, and movies. It has one of the most massive user bases, which has made 01Torrent maintain a reliable 24/7 customer support team. Its interface is user-friendly, and its contents are well-arranged into segments. These segments are classified into those of movies, television shows, and games.

It goes to mean that you can get anything in this download platform. It could be NASCAR races, the latest episode, a trending movie, or even the trending reality television show. If you are searching for a download site that grants its users quality videos, then 01Torrent is the site for you. It even supports speed downloads of up to 2.0MB/s.

17. Today TV Series

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Source: UGC

Today TV Series allows its users to download television shows, games, software, and movies. It has over 3.5M verified torrents. It goes to mean that you get a software, the latest reality episodes, trending movies, or a late-night shows in Today TV Series. Al these contents have been arranged systematically in sections, making it very easy for the user to access them. The content is updated frequently, assuring its users of fresh and trending content.

18. Torrentz2

Although Torrentz2 may not be so popular, it, however, has one of the best collections of television shows, games, and movies. Its user interface is amicable and intuitive, making it the preferred download site of most people. The user can enjoy download speeds as high as 2.0 MB/s.

19. o2TVSeries

Image: o2tvseries.com

Source: UGC

o2TVSeries is a popular free download site for series. It is an old site, making it have one of the largest collections of television series compared to other free downloading sites. Although the site has a more old-school appeal, it is, however, straightforward to navigate through. If you are looking for a soap opera to download, search for it by its name. You can also choose to browse through the various categories in the site. You can download a favorite television show in SD, HD, or Full HD.

20. The Internet Archive

Image: facebook.com, @internetnetarchive

Source: Facebook

The Internet Archive allows its users to download free television series, music, books, and movies. You can acquire hot pieces of stuff from this site such as the original Jungle Book, Iron Mask, Night of the Living Dead, and many more. The site continues to grow every day and frequently adds content.

These are just a few of the best websites where to download series in 2019. There are probably thousands of other great sites you can visit for the same purpose. Use any of the above to enjoy your favorite series collection.

READ ALSO: Real ages of Yaw Dabo, Don Little, other popular Ghanaian diminutive actors

Source: YEN.com.gh
Al Mar Knives now has a heavy-duty model of its Eagle Ultralight folder.

Built for the individual that carries the Eagle Ultralight for their EDC and wished they could have a tougher version with the same features as their SERE 2000. Well, here it is, the revamped Eagle "HD Heavy Duty, according to Knifecenter.com.

The "HD" weighs in at 3.2 ounces, thats only one ounce more than the Ultralight version. It has skeletonized heat treated 400 series stainless steel liners, G-10 scales, adjustable action, dual thumstuds and a reversible/removable pocket clip system which attaches through the lanyard hole.

It features a features a four-inch VG10 stainless steel blade with a satin finish.

They took the same great profile and slim design and added strength, according to Knifecenter.com. The Eagle Heavy Duty will be your next favorite EDC or Every Day Carry knife.

The Eagle HD retails for $300, but you can get it at Knifecenter.com for $150.
Kerry says he will encourage Manila to pursue negotiations with Beijing

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi(right) meets with US Secretary of State John Kerry in Vientiane, capital of Laos, July 25, 2016. [Photo/Xinhua]

Washington agrees with Beijing that "the time has come" to move away from the tensions in the South China Sea and to "turn the page", US Secretary of State John Kerry said, adding that he will encourage the Philippines to pursue dialogue and negotiation with China in their dispute.

He made the comments to reporters in Vientiane, the capital of Laos, while recalling his meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Monday.

Both Wang and Kerry attended a range of multilateral meetings of the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations from Sunday to Tuesday.

Kerry told a news conference on Tuesday that "we don't take a position, as I said earlier, on the claimants" in the South China Sea issue. He said the US "would like to see a process of dialogue" between Beijing and Manila.

"I will be leaving to the Philippines this afternoon, meeting with President (Rodrigo) Duterte tomorrow, and I would encourage President Duterte to engage in dialogue and in negotiation," he said.

The consensus between Kerry and Wang surprised many observers, since Washington has publicly pressed Beijing to accept the recent ruling by the Arbitral Tribunal of The Hague in a case unilaterally initiated by Manila in 2013.

Wang told China Daily on Tuesday night that the three-day meetings were a success, and "the biggest consensus between China and ASEAN this year is to return to the track of resolving disputes through dialogue and consultation" after the arbitration ruling.

Wang said that since ASEAN said during the meetings that it takes no position as a whole on the arbitral ruling, the hyping about the South China Sea did not resolve the issue, but instead "offered excuses to forces outside the region to impose intervention".

Chen Qinghong, a researcher on Southeast Asian and Philippine studies at the China Institutes of Contemporary International Research, welcomed Washington's milder tone. "The possibility cannot be ruled out that Washington may require Manila to make the ruling a condition for future talks with China, while this condition has been refused by Beijing," Chen added.

On the sidelines of the meetings, Foreign Minister Miroslav Lajcak of Slovakia, which assumes the chairmanship of the European Union this year, told China Daily that the EU believes the South China Sea issue should be solved "in a direct dialogue of parties affected".

He said that "we are pleased by the joint communique" achieved on Monday in the meeting between ASEAN member states and China, which renewed commitment to managing the disputes.

"We believe that this is a step in the right direction, and we believe that in this spirit, the progress will continue in the future," he added.

Zhou Fangyin, a professor of Chinese foreign policy at Guangdong Institute for International Strategies, said the meetings "set a tone" for ASEAN's future South China Sea policies, and ASEAN's not taking a position on the arbitration ruling "will be a restraint for Manila".
By Kim Jae-kyoung





Cho Yong-byoung

Shinhan Bank CEO

Shinhan Bank CEO Cho Yong-byoung said that the bank will step up efforts to strengthen its foothold in Southeast Asia to capitalize on opportunities created by the launch of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC).

"The establishment of the AEC means the birth of a powerful economic bloc with the world's seventh largest GDP and over 600 million people," Cho said in a recent interview.

"This will bring great opportunities for Korean financial firms looking for new growth engines." The AEC is an agreement among the 10 ASEAN member nations to create a single market with the free flow of goods, capital and skilled labor by 2025.

He added that the ASEAN market is particularly attractive because net interest margins (NIMs) are still very high in the region.

"In Korea, NIMs have been stuck at below 2 percent, while those in many of ASEAN member states stand at over 4 to 5 percent," he said. "Also, the penetration rate of financial services still remains very low in many parts of the region."

Currently, Shinhan has operations in five ASEAN nations _ Singapore, Vietnam, Indonesia, Cambodia and the Philippines. It plans to open an office in Myanmar this year. Its revenue from the region accounted for 42 percent of the lender's global revenue in 2015.

The chief executive said that ASEAN is a market that fits the bank's globalization strategy.

"We are looking to expand our presence in markets where Korean firms have operations and that we well understand," he said.

"Also, there should be cultural similarities and we should be able to secure competitive advantages there in the future," he added. "In this regard, ASEAN is the region where we should put our strategic focus."

Cho stressed that in order to ensure sustainable growth in ASEAN, the lender will employ a localization strategy.

"We plan to expand our customer base by providing the best financial services tailored to local markets and customers," he said.

"To that end, we will establish an organization able to maximize that goal and continue to introduce market-tailored products and services," he added. "At the head office in Seoul, we will create a global matrix structure to support it and set up a customized business model.'

In particular, he said that the bank will pursue a two-pronged strategy in globalization.

"For expansion in ASEAN, we will push for additional merger and acquisitions (M&A) while opening new branches and subsidiaries in promising markets," he said. "We are looking at multiple targets for M&As in strategic markets in the region."

When asked which market he is most attracted to, the CEO did not single out one market.

"It is difficult to pick just one market among ASEAN nations because every market is important. We will try our best to achieve success, as we have had in Vietnam, in other markets," he said.

On the back of robust growth in the ASEAN region, Cho aims to turn Shinhan into Asia's leading global bank by increasing its portion of overseas revenue to 20 percent by 2020 from the current 10.5 percent. It was 5.37 percent in 2011 and 8.7 percent in 2014.

Shinhan has 142 branches in 19 nations across the globe. Among them, it has 120 outlets in 14 countries in Asia.

This year, Shinhan plans to merge Bank Metro Express (BME) with Centratama National Bank (CNB) to gain a stronger foothold in Indonesia, which it believes will help Shinhan establish Asia's financial belt linking strategic markets _ Japan, China, Vietnam, Indonesia and India. It acquired BME in 2014 and CNB in 2015.

In Vietnam, the bank plans to get approval this year to open four more branches, which will increase its outlets there to 18, the most extensive network among foreign banks operating in Vietnam.
By Jorge Castaneda

MEXICO CITY  Since the 1950s, European countries have debated the costs and benefits of regional integration. But not until the United Kingdom's "Brexit" referendum did the debate revolve around such central issues as globalization, free trade, immigration, and their economic effects.

Voters in the UK made a mistake in deciding to leave the EU; they were hoodwinked, most notoriously by Britain's new foreign minister, Boris Johnson. But Eurocrats and Europhiles would also be mistaken were they to ignore the lies that animated the "Leave" campaign's cause. Those lies were effective in the UK, and they could be effective in other EU member states, and in democracies around the world, as well.

Continuing toward "ever closer union" in Europe won't be easy. Europe must grapple with many issues simultaneously, including refugees, immigration, sovereign debt, high unemployment, and a welfare state that no longer delivers what it promises, despite high taxation and the availability of enormous resources to finance it. To meet these challenges, EU leaders will have to build a strong constituency by directly addressing Europeans' needs and demands.

Globalization, free trade, immigration, and inequality have been long ignored by elites elsewhere as well. The free-trade obsession of US Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton in the 1990s, and of successive Mexican governments, made it politically virtually impossible to compensate those who were adversely affected.

Now, 20 years after this policy failure, it is no surprise that alienated voters in the United States are flocking to Donald Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, just as many on the left flocked to Bernie Sanders, the Vermont senator who challenged Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination.

Both outsider candidates have tapped into American voters' grievances and fears. In Trump's case, this has made for a revolting spectacle, full of pandering to anti-Muslim and anti-Mexican sentiment. In the case of Sanders, US voters have been exposed to some appealing ideas, such as free college tuition and universal health care, though these policies and others remain politically unrealistic.

Both responses are the result of national leaders' failure to mitigate, or even acknowledge, the results of policies instituted over the past 20 years. Any effort to begin correcting this failure must be based in reality. For example, Trump and Sanders supporters may be surprised to learn that many new manufacturing jobs were created in the US since the Great Recession of 2008-2009 , as well as after the enactment of the North American Free Trade Agreement in 1993. Many of these jobs were the result of surging exports to China, Mexico, and a few other smaller countries with which the US negotiated trade deals (Chile, Peru, and Colombia, among others).

Of course, the transfer of millions of manufacturing jobs to countries like China and Mexico partly offset this trend, even if it could reasonably be argued that more jobs were created than lost; that the US became more competitive thanks to this shift; that China has transformed itself into a major consumer market; and that even Mexico has made some progress.

The main problem in the US has been the type of jobs that filled the gap after manufacturing jobs migrated elsewhere. This was missed by policymakers concerned with macroeconomic outcomes. But it was not missed by people in their fifties or sixties who lost a $30-per-hour job with health care and retirement benefits, and had to settle for employment at half the previous wage and few, if any, benefits.

Policymakers didn't care about the victims of globalization, because they didn't believe they had to care. The market would sort everything out on its own. It didn't. But that hasn't taught policymakers a lesson. The Trans-Pacific Partnership trade negotiations came to a favorable conclusion last year partly because, again, little was done to protect US workers.

A similar anti-globalization surge has appeared in Mexico, where NAFTA was always oversold and over-criticized. NAFTA brought about the export boom that many hailed and predicted, but it did nothing to stem northward immigration. It made many of Mexico's industrial and agricultural businesses more competitive, but brought only a small and temporary increase in foreign investment as a percentage of GDP.

Moreover, while NAFTA locked Mexico into many needed and desirable economic reforms, it never delivered on the promise of growth: Since 1994, annual economic growth has averaged just 2.5%  low by emerging-market standards  while the figures for productivity, employment, and wages are similarly disappointing.

After NAFTA, the policies needed to mitigate globalization's negative effects  such as higher minimum wages for manufacturing workers  were never implemented. The entire country is paying the price today, and Mexicans are unhappy. While NAFTA is not entirely to blame for a generally mediocre state of affairs, it has contributed to anti-establishment sentiment, which could affect the outcome of the 2018 general election.

Popular backlash against disruptive change is inevitable, and occasionally serves as a useful counterweight to heedless leadership. What is new today is the extent of the backlash in Europe and North America, which many pundits and policymakers believed were better equipped than ever to manage change. Judging by the reaction of voters in Britain, the US, and Mexico, no country is immune to its leaders' mistakes.

Jorge G. Castaneda, former Foreign Minister of Mexico (2000-2003), is Professor of Politics and Latin American and Caribbean Studies at New York University. Copyright belongs to Project Syndicate.
North Korea's top diplomat blamed the United States Tuesday for dashing hopes for denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula, saying that whether or not there will be additional nuclear tests depends "entirely" on Washington's attitude.



In a hastily-arranged press meeting after attending a regional security gathering held in the Laotian capital, North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho also demanded U.S. troops pull out of South Korea altogether.



"It is the U.S.' hostile policy that is making the current situations worse," Ri said. "The problem is that its hostile policy is getting severe and the prime example can be found in the increased military pressure and nuclear threats."



"Another can be found in its economic isolation policy aimed at restricting our economic development. Recently, this has come to the point where (the U.S) carried out the biggest hostile act by insulting our 'greatest dignity' by taking issue with the so-called human rights," he stressed.



He referred to the U.S.' move on July 7 to impose sanctions on North Korean leader Kim Jong-un over human rights abuses in an unprecedented, highly symbolic measure underscoring Washington's determination to ramp up pressure on Pyongyang.



Mentioning Kim's earlier demand for the U.S. to roll back its hostile policy toward the North, replace the armistice treaty signed following the 1950-53 war with a peace treaty and withdraw all its weapons and troops from the peninsula, Ri said, "This is our one and only way to go" at a time when co-existence and all dialogue have been denied.



Ri is in Laos to attend the ASEAN Regional Forum, a rare international security consultation event attended by North Korea and all other member countries of the long-halted six-party talks. The multilateral talks set up to resolve the North's nuke issue were last held in late 2008.



The policymaker then said the U.S. is to blame for why the talks failed to make headway.



"The six-party talks started for the sake of denuclearization of the entire Korean Peninsula. Denuclearization itself has been taken and thrown out into the sky by the U.S.," he said.



His trip for this year's ARF comes against heightened tensions caused by the North's fourth nuclear test in January followed by repeated launches of ballistic missiles in the following months. Adding to that speculation has also been mounting concerns that the North might be preparing a fifth nuclear test soon.



Asked if the North is considering another nuclear test, he didn't offer a direct answer but pointed his finger at the U.S. again, saying, "Whether we conduct an additional nuclear test or not depends entirely on the U.S.' attitude."



With regard to the recent decision by Seoul and Washington to deploy a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense battery on the peninsula, Ri called it the "U.S.' key strategic asset," saying that this raises "serious concerns" that makes it necessary for the North to stay alert and militarily ready.



On the issue of suspended inter-Korean talks, he said that it is South Korea that has rejected dialogue.



"We have made various proposals aimed at resolving inter-Korean relations through conversation and negotiations but all of them have been rejected. All of them. We don't think at this point that the South is prepared to engage in talks."



Ri also said that North Korea is a "responsible" nuclear state and that it would not use its nuclear weapons unless provoked, repeating the country's previous stance. (Yonhap)




By John Burton

North Korea is often described as being unpredictable, but much the same can be said about Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump when he is talking about North Korea.

Earlier this year Trump suggested that perhaps a mob-style hit could be arranged to take out Kim Jong-un, the North Korean leader. But months later he was suggesting that he would be willing to meet Kim over hamburgers in Washington to find a solution to dealing with Pyongyang's nuclear threat.

Neither an ordered assassination nor a hamburger summit is likely to happen. But some of Trump's other ideas regarding the Korean peninsula could see the light of day if he is elected president.

Trump made headlines earlier this year in interviews suggesting that he would pull U.S. troops out of South Korea and Japan if these countries were unwilling to pay their "full" share of costs for enjoying American military protection. He added that South Korea and Japan could strengthen their own defense by acquiring nuclear weapons in the absence of a U.S. military presence.

Such musings were welcomed in Pyongyang. A commentary allegedly written by a China-based Korean academic and published in North Korea's DPRK Today praised Trump for being a "wise politician" and "far-sighted presidential candidate." Although the column did not amount to official endorsement of Trump by Pyongyang, the fact that it was allowed to appear in the state-run media surely reflects the thinking of the Kim regime.

Trump is not the first to make suggestions about withdrawing U.S. troops from South Korea. It was also a campaign promise made by Jimmy Carter during his presidential campaign in 1976, when he criticized the autocratic rule of Park Chung-hee. But once he was elected to the White House, Carter was persuaded by his senior foreign policy advisors to drop the idea.

The withdrawal of U.S. troops has also been mooted for years by groups of both left-wing and libertarian scholars in the U.S. For example, Doug Bandow with the Cato Institute, the Washington-based libertarian think tank, has argued for years, most notably in his 1996 book "Tripwire," that the deployment of U.S. troops in South Korea reflected outmoded strategic thinking and contributed to regional tensions. He said that South Korea and Japan, both advanced economies, could now defend themselves without U.S. assistance.

Such views, however, horrify the foreign policy establishment in Washington as well as officials in Seoul. They have described Trump's proposals concerning South Korea and Japan as naive and dangerous, particularly when North Korea is ramping up its nuclear ambitions.

Tellingly, the Republican Party platform that was adopted last week during the convention that nominated Trump also appears to disagree with him. It described North Korea as the "Kim family's slave state." The party pledged to "counter any threats from the North Korean regime" and demanded that Pyongyang dismantle its nuclear weapons program.

It is anyone's guess what Trump would actually do if he reaches the White House. "He is a completely transactional figure and opportunistic," Marcus Noland, a North Korean expert and executive vice-president of the Peterson Institute for International Economics, recently told me.

Scott Snyder, senior fellow for Korean studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, believes that Trump's foreign policy advisors as well as institutional players might try to dissuade him from reducing the U.S. military presence in East Asia, but adds that "the question is whether he would accept it."

The great fear among regional experts is that the withdrawal of U.S. troops from South Korea and Japan would create a power vacuum that would quickly be filled by Seoul and Tokyo arming themselves with nuclear weapons. Japan would do so because it fears the rising power of China, while South Korea would respond to Japan's rearmament with its own nuclear force.

There is also speculation that South Korea, shorn of the U.S defense alliance, would team up with China to counter what both countries perceive as a "militaristic" Japan. This would completely alter the balance of power in Northeast Asia. It would also create the ironic situation of both North and South Korea suddenly being on the same side of the geostrategic divide, which would undoubtedly please China.

Of course, this train of troubling events depends on whether Trump reaches the White House. I frankly scoffed when Noland told me last month he gave Trump a 45 percent of being the next U.S. president. I thought the odds were too high.

But when I last checked FiveThirtyEight, the political website of Nate Silver who accurately predicted the outcome of the 2012 U.S. presidential election, he gave Trump a 46 percent chance of winning the election.

Fasten your seatbelts. We could be in for a bumping ride.

John Burton, a former Korea correspondent for the Financial Times, is now a Seoul-based independent journalist and media consultant. He can be reached at johnburtonft@yahoo.com.atimes.co.kr.
U.S. President Barack Obama on Thursday issued a new policy directive laying out how U.S. government agencies should respond to significant cyber attacks from China, Russia, North Korea and other actors, White House officials said.

The Presidential Policy Directive on United States Cyber Incident Coordination is the latest in a series of measures the U.S. government has taken to battle cyberattacks.

"When it comes to cyber actors, the global landscape is increasingly diverse and dangerous. Nations like Russia and China are growing more assertive and sophisticated in their cyber operations. Iran has launched denial of service attacks on American banks -- and North Korea has demonstrated it will conduct destructive attacks -- against other nations and companies alike," Lisa O. Monaco, Obama's counterterrorism aide, said at the International Conference on Cyber Security in New York.

Monaco said the new directive establishes a clear framework to coordinate the government's response to cyberattacks and spells out which federal agencies are responsible.

The North's cyber capabilities have been a greater focus of attention since a massive hacking attack on Sony Pictures in late 2014, which Pyongyang is believed to have carried out in retaliation for Sony's release of a comedy film ridiculing North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. (Yonhap)
Kendallville, IN (46755)

Today

Some clouds this morning will give way to generally sunny skies for the afternoon. High 59F. Winds E at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Clear skies. Low 33F. Winds light and variable.
ALBION  The Ford Motor Co. has awarded a huge chunk of business to Busche Enterprises.

The Albion Town Council on Tuesday approved a tax abatement that will bring 21 new jobs to Busche Enterprises as a result.

The five-year abatement would cover approximately $5 million in equipment to be installed at its Plant 8, the old Citation factory located at 1612 Progress Drive.

According to Town Manager Stefen Wynn, the company estimates that these machines will require an additional 21 employees to run them, and will retain 37 employees.

According to Busche general manager Jim Stewart, the additional seven CNC machines and additional equipment became necessary when the company landed its first tier 1 contract with Ford.

Beginning this fall, Busche will begin a $60 million annual contract to design and produce aluminum control arm assemblies for the Ford Edge.

According to Cory Ryner, vice president of engineering and business development for Busche, the 12-pound aluminum control arms are a part on the chassis that allows the vehicles suspension to move up and down when passing over potholes and the like.

The arms are being designed and tested in Busches new technical center located in Southfield, Michigan. They will be machined and assembled in Albion.

According to Ryner, the contract with Ford calls for the production of 800,000 control arm assemblies per year.

The tier 1 designation means Busche is responsible for design, testing and production.

We now have the ownership of the product from cradle to grave, Ryner said. Its a big step in the supply chain.

The company also carries a greater liability to make sure the parts meet stringent specifications.

These are safety critical parts, Ryner said.

Busche Enterprises is also a tier 1 supplier for Honda.
There will be treasures to find and baubles to buy at the 58th Art Fair on the Green, which will run July 30-31 on the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse campus lawn. Professional artists from across the country, as well as local high school and college students, will display and sell their work.

There will be everything you can imagine, said first-year publicity chair Marian Schiesser. Pottery, jewelry, weavings, paintings. People say the art keeps getting better and better.

The fair is put on by the American Association of University Women and averages between 3,000 and 4,000 visitors each year. Admission fees and concession sales fund scholarships for area students. Exhibited artists are eligible for the best 2-D, 3-D, peoples choice or green awards.

We gave away 25 $1,000 scholarships last year, said Schiesser, a four-year member of the sponsoring association. The event is a great way to support creative people and our mission to promote women.

Darryl and Delores Heiden of D&Ds Rock and Wire in Onalaska will have a booth at the fair for the fifth year. After retiring years ago, the couple started to make stone and wire jewelry as a hobby. Eight years ago, they transitioned into a jewelry business.

The Heidens have always had a fascination with rocks, having been collecting them since their honeymoon. The pair take yearly trips around the country to dig for rocks, and also purchase some from foreign countries.

We go through a multitude of rocks, Darryl said. We may bring 50 home, and only a couple are usable.

Delores is able to identify dozens and dozens of stones, one of her favorites being the colorfully-banded laguna agate. Darryl is taken with picture rhyolite, a stone known for its vivid landscape-type images.

Each piece has a little scene in it, Darryl explained. Youd swear someone painted it on.

The couple also works with rutilated quartz, dendritic opal, ruby-in-zoisite and others.

Were like a pair of crows, Delores said. We like anything that glows.

Jewelry making is a team effort for the Heidens. Darryl cuts, shapes and polishes the rocks, creating cabochons. Delores specializes in wire and filigree settings, as well as meticulous Egyptian-style coil work.

Delores has a recognizable style, Darryl said. I could never do that intricate detail.

Filigree takes a cool hand and a keen mind, Delores laughed, adding that the stone is always the centerpiece. We dont want to overpower it with too much wire.

The couple take pride in the uniqueness of each piece, which takes up to 10 steps and two days of combined effort to complete.

Sometimes people refer to our work as a craft, but we consider ourselves to be jewelry designers, Delores said.

We try to be multi-faceted, Darryl said of their freehand style. People like the out of the ordinary. We want to tap into the interests of many.

The Heidens sell their creations at numerous fairs, but the Art Fair on the Green is a favorite. Delores, a former UW-L professor, says being on the campus feels like home.

This fair has lot of traffic and is very well run, Delores said. I love the camaraderie. If people stop at our booth, it means they like rocks and we have kindred spirits to talk to. Everyone is very gracious.

Its nice to sell something you worked hard on to somebody who appreciates it, Darryl added.

The Heidens plan to continue expanding their repertoire, taking new classes and adding to their tool collection.

There are always more rocks out there, Darryl said. And people like pretty, shiny things.

Schiesser encourages the community to visit the Heidens and the 77 other artists featured at this years fair.

We anticipate people will be pleased and surprised by the quality of the art, Schiesser said.

You might even find something pretty to buy.
The Childrens Museum of La Crosse is committed to affordable access for all, and fees are reflective of this commitment. Although actual cost per visitor is about $8 per person, with a discounted fee ($5 per student with adult chaperones free) offered to schools and other organizations which bring field trips of 10 or more children, it is understood, however, that even this discounted rate can be prohibitive for some schools/groups and families. Financial support from Xcel Energy Foundation allows the museum to welcome groups of children from the region who may otherwise not get a chance to experience what the museum has to offer.
The city of Black River Falls will be unveiling a trail marker on the Foundation Trail this Saturday in honor of retired Mayor Ron Danielsons 26 years of service to the city.

The public is invited to attend the unveiling at 3 p.m. on the Foundation Trail near the Jackson County Fairgrounds. The marker will be placed near the Pine View Care Center sign, and parking will be available at the fairgrounds and along Highway R and Pine View Road.
Updated fish eating guidance, "Choose Wisely: A Health Guide for Eating Fish in Wisconsin," is now available online through the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources website.

Detailed information also is available through "Find Advice," an online search tool that allows anglers to select their county and fishing spot to see local consumption advice.

For rivers where polychlorinated biphenyls build up in fish, new testing reconfirms current advisories with slight modifications for some species from Lake Michigan, the Lake Winnebago/Wolf River system and parts of the lower Fox (Little Lake Buttes des Morts to De Pere Dam), Menominee and lower Manitowoc rivers.

Changes include less stringent advice for some Lake Michigan and Winnebago species, meaning people can safely eat some of those fish more frequently. Advice does remain the same for several systems including the upper Manitowoc and Mississippi Rivers.

Advice for some inland lakes and impoundments, where mercury is the primary fish contaminant, was also updated. Fish consumption advice varies by location and species of fish and ranges from unrestricted or one serving per week to "do not eat." These changes include advice to eat fewer of some fish from the Twin Falls Flowage in Florence County, Long Lake in Oneida County and Loretta Lake in Sawyer County. Included is less stringent advice for Lake Noquebay in Marinette County

DNR, in consultation with the Wisconsin Department of Health Services, examines contaminant results for fish samples obtained each year at a subset of Wisconsin's waters, along with data from recent years, to re-evaluate fish consumption advice.

The 2016 fish consumption advisory reflects new results for fish collected mostly in 2014-2015 from 32 locations and also considers results from bordering states and the Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission, as well as the DNR.

Most waters in the state are covered by general statewide advice. In 2016, the number of waters that carry more specific, stringent advice due to higher contaminant levels in some species from those waters is 146 due to removal of more stringent advice at two locations and addition at two other locations.

For more information, search the DNR website, dnr.wi.gov, for keywords "eating your catch." Printed copies of the booklet will be available at DNR service centers and regional offices in a few weeks.
Prosecutors want Wisconsins highest court to uphold the convictions for 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 July 22 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 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.

His trial attorneys did not fail him by objecting to the oath administration process or during jury selection because he did not prove juror bias, prosecutors wrote.
Duane Bunde was 2 years old when he and his family moved from Millston to Squaw Creek in 1935.

That also was when he became a member of Squaw Creek Lutheran Church and joined a congregation of helpful, faith-focused members.

The church brought the whole community together, said Bunde, now 82 and still a member. Everybody worked together. Funeral or a wedding or someone needed help  everybody showed up to help.

Bunde and his fellow Squaw Creek members are celebrating the 125th anniversary of the formation of the congregation this year, marking its long history of Norwegian heritage, Lutheran worship and community presence.

This is a congregation that has very deep roots in its community  there are people there who are sixth-generation members, said Denise Anderson, who has served as Squaw Creeks pastor for a little more than two years.

I am impressed that even though theyre a small congregation, they are outward-focused. They are still in ministry in our world and in our communities.

Squaw Creeks history began on March 9, 1891, when 22 pioneer men from Norway met to discuss the need to establish a Lutheran congregation and build a house of worship. The congregation held services out of members homes and other places until the church, located on Highway P in the now-town of Albion, was built in 1892.

Worship services and records were kept in Norwegian until 1921 until the transition to English was made. Norwegian items remain in the church, including a wall hanging that includes the Lords Prayer in the Scandinavian language.

The church received its first addition in 1906 to provide space for Sunday School, Ladies Aid and Young Peoples meetings, and parking facilities were expanded in 1952. Five years later the facility underwent a large remodeling and enlarging project that included a new chancel and additional Sunday School room and a kitchen, dining area and remodeled furnace room.

Another addition to the back of the church was completed in 1977.

Meanwhile, the church has maintained memberships across generations even as some moved away from the country.

We have a pretty nice bunch of people, said Kurt Salveson, who has been a member since he was 11 years old in 1963. The rural landscape has changed over the years  but a lot of people keep their membership.

Its changed, but it hasnt. Were a part of the community there.

Former Pastor Cal Thoreson, who spent 22 years serving the Squaw Creek and Little Norway parish, also noted the strong roots members have in the church over generations. He spent his longest tenure with the two congregations  a fond memory because of the members, he said.

It was a great time. The people made it marvelous to be there, Thoreson said. It was a tribute to the people who were there, and the congregation and the way the congregation worked together.

The congregation held a two-day celebration for its 125th anniversary last weekend, which included an open house, cemetery walk, painting party and hymn singing on Saturday and a joint anniversary worship service, meal and program on Sunday.

Several family members of former pastors were in attendance, including the granddaughter of the congregations first pastor, Nils Amundsen Giere, who served from 1891 to 1903.

I think its a time to celebrate, Thoreson said before the event. The celebration is, of course, a time to look back and have thoughts about where youve been, but  its also about where you are going  whats the future direction.

This isnt the end of the road  its a time to look ahead and see what does the future hold for the congregation.

Anderson said the congregation will continue its focus on worship and extending Gods message beyond the church.

(It is) an experience where youre called to worship and be gathered in music and in prayer. You hear Gods word proclaimed and preached and shared  where you meet God in either prayer and twice a month at the Lords table and you are sent out to be Gods presence in the world, she said.

I am just so impressed with the quality of people in this area and at Squaw Creek and (Little Norway) and in the Black River area. Its a great place to call home.
Black River Falls High School Principal Tom Chambers enjoyed the opportunity to welcome a fellow principal from Germany last year.

This summer, Sabine Hartmann welcomed Chambers to Germany to allow him the opportunity to learn about its educational system as part of a Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction exchange program for administrators.

I think its an excellent opportunity, said Chambers, who spent June 10-18 in Gelnhausen, Germany. Certainly, it was an excellent opportunity for me, and I think Sabine as well, to really look at another system of education, look at our own system of education and the things we do from a different perspective and put a different light on how and why we do the things that we do to educate kids.

Chambers, who is fluent in the German language, visited Hartmanns school each day and shadowed several teachers in their classrooms, where he had the opportunity to talk to them about the United States and its educational system and field questions about similarities and differences.

The people were super open and friendly, he said. They were happy to have me there. People were ready and willing to speak with me in English or in German.

He also did a version of Tiger Tuesday Trivia  an activity he does weekly in Black River Falls  with the German students, who enjoyed learning and receiving Tiger memorabilia he brought as prizes.

It was a huge success and together with his visits to several classes. It generated a lot of interest in Black River Falls High School, Hartmann said. He was a big success with my fifth graders. Some of them even showed up at 7:15 a.m. because they wanted to be the very first ones to see the quiz question coming up on the screen in the entrance hall.

Chambers also sat in on administrative meetings, where teachers are part of the administrative team, and he said it was interesting to observe career preparation strategies, which he noted includes a required internship for 10th-grade students.

The experience wasnt limited to the school and in addition involved tours of nearby towns, castles, cathedrals and town squares, a reception with local legislators and a tour of a business that produces and sells work and protective clothing.

Chambers said he was particularly interested in the similarities between the two educational systems in terms of career preparation, given that remains a strong focus of DPI.

Finding ways for (students) to think about and prepare for future jobs and things  theyre doing that at their school as well, he said. Thats something were really focusing on with the new career planning programs coming in the state of Wisconsin.

It was good to see that.

Hartmann said he wanted to ensure Chambers would meet many different staff members and also give a broader view of the school community when planning his visit. She hopes to sustain the relationship with Chambers and the Black River Falls School District and sees value in continued collaboration.

Meeting students of various grades (and) classes or introducing him to parents was also important since you need a net of supporters if you want to pursue such an idea seriously, she said. After Tom and I have now a better understanding of what our school communities are like, we have agreed to stay in touch, and hopefully well succeed in creating ways of exchanging ideas and people in (the) future.

It would be fitting for a program which is so much valued by politicians on your side as well as on our side. Of course, financing will always be the biggest issue in whatever the plans are, but Id rather like to be optimistic and see what we will be able to pull off in the end. Which is truly an American notion, isnt it?

Chambers said many of the educators he met are eager to connect with BRF staff, and he also hopes to continue the relationship in coming years.

It was really, really positive, he said.
The Wisconsin Wins campaign and the 7 Cs Health Initiative recently completed tobacco compliance checks in Jackson County and the results were great. Of 27 retailers, 23 refused to sell tobacco to underage youth.

7 Cs is proud of Hixton and Merrillan retailers for not selling tobacco to minors. Eight tobacco licensed businesses were inspected and none of them sold tobacco to underage buyers. By not selling tobacco products to underage youth, Jackson County wins and so does Wisconsin.

The purpose of the WI Wins program is to reduce the number of tobacco sales to Wisconsin minors. In the year 2001, almost 35 percent of WI businesses sold to underage youth; in 2015 studies show a little more than 5 percent of the businesses sold. All retail clerks can and should do the right thing for Wisconsin by refusing to sell to minors.

Studies like this will continue in the future. 7 Cs and WI Wins believes this project will not be completely successful until all establishments refuse to sell to underage youth. Our goal is to stop the illegal sales of tobacco to minors, thus hoping to decrease the number of youth who may become nicotine addicted adults.

Smokecheck.org is a free online training available for all Wisconsin retailers. You can learn more about the program at www.wiwins.org.
Private landowners, conservation organizations and land trusts can now apply for funding and technical help through the Landowner Incentive Program to create and manage habitat for rare plants and animals in Wisconsin's Driftless Area.

Since these grants were first awarded in 2006, the Landowner Incentive Program has helped improve nearly 8,000 acres of habitat for more than 240 at-risk species, including red-headed woodpeckers, bullsnakes and pickerel frogs, to Hill's thistle and purple milkweed.

The program is competitive, and landowners should visit the Landowner Incentive Program website to review project ranking criteria, eligible work and costs for details. For application information and more helpful tools, search the DNR website, dnr.wi.gov, for "LIP."

Any privately-owned land located within the Driftless Area is eligible for the program, including traditional private parcels and land trust holdings. Projects must clearly provide benefits to at-risk species and their habitat, but often benefit other species as well.

Eligible work includes, but is not limited to, prescribed burns, planting native vegetation, and invasive and woody species removal.

"We're very pleased to be able to offer property owners technical and financial help that will benefit rare and declining plant and animal species in the Driftless area," said Drew Feldkirchner, who leads the Bureau of Natural Heritage Conservation that runs the Landowner Incentive Program. "Landowners play a key role in helping conserve our natural heritage for future generations and we appreciate that the work is not always easy but brings great benefits to all of us."

The Department of Natural Resources recently received a $250,000 grant from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's competitive State Wildlife Grants program -- these funds will help support the Landowner Incentive Program. Portions of the grant will also be used to conduct inventories of priority species and manage public lands within the region and can cover up to 75 percent of total project costs.

Funding is provided to highly ranked projects on a first-come, first-served basis. Applicants may request funding between $2,500 and $25,000; however, most awards are around $4,000 to $6,000. Projects generally last one year but may be extended for reasons such as weather complications.

How to apply

Landowners who have received LIP funding in the past can contact DNR program staff directly to receive a project application, while new applicants must complete an online pre-proposal form. A site visit by an LIP biologist may also be required to assess a project proposal. If the pre-proposal is approved, landowners are invited to submit a more detailed full project proposal -- this includes a comprehensive budget, project objectives, work schedule and evaluation benchmarks.

As a cost-share program, the department will reimburse a landowner for up to 75 percent of the cost for on-the-ground practices. Landowners are required to contribute the remaining 25 percent share through out-of-pocket costs (cash match), or as an in-kind labor and equipment match.
Dear Doc: I love your radio show and because I cant listen on Saturday mornings, I podcast it (thank you for that). I would love if you could comment on the recent colon cancer screening discussion of finding out procedure coding and costs before the procedure. Im a paralegal and Im shocked by what I have read.  D.C. from Milwaukee

Dear Milwaukee: Heres a bottom-line bulleted summary of the situation involving one womans colon-cancer screening situation.

She has a family history of colon cancer; her father died from it.

She had her first colonoscopy at age 45 and one at 50, where they found a noncancer-causing polyp.

She was told a repeat colonoscopy at age 50 would not be considered preventive but would be diagnostic, as it was to be done for cause (i.e. family history of colon cancer).

Cost for this would be a whopping $8,000, even though the average cost of a preventive colonoscopy would be half the price, at $4,000. (Is your head spinning like mine is right now? Well, hold on to your hat because theres more.)

Her co-pay for this would be $1,000-$1,500, while the co-pay for a preventive colonoscopy would be absolutely $0.

Heres my response:

The standard of care for a person with a family history of colon cancer is a colonoscopy every five years or sooner. Colon cancer is curable if caught early. Its usually a slow-growing cancer, so every five years should be sufficient.

A fecal occult blood test  testing your stool for blood  every year is OK for patients who have a normal risk of colon cancer, but not in this persons case as a cancer might be missed. Its not for her.

Cologuard might be an excellent alternative. Federal regulators have not yet certified that this is an acceptable alternative, but they are very conservative and dont recommend something until the evidence is overwhelming.

I think the evidence that this is a safer, cheaper alternative is reasonable so you might want to consider it. Its not the gold standard, but its better than nothing.

And now, an update on e-cigarettes:

A recent study out of Ohio State showed that e-cig sellers are making all kinds of health claims. Because the Food and Drug Administration did not regulate e-cigs until very recently, manufacturers were able to claim anything  and I mean anything  that they liked.

And most do that, claiming that e-cigs are less harmful than cigarettes and have less second-hand smoke risks. They may be right, but they may be wrong. It takes 25 years for tobacco to cause lung cancer, heart attacks and chronic lung disease. How do they know these e-cigarettes are safer? They dont.

Researchers looking at e-cig liquid found components such as heavy metals that can cause toxic poisoning.

My spin: If you want to smoke e-cigs, at least do so with wide-open eyes. They may not be as harmful as cigarettes, or they may be just as bad. We dont know.

We do know that teens are jumping on the e-cig bandwagon in droves. Do we really want our kids to be hooked on e-cigs? As a society do we really want to have these thought of as a safe alternative to smoking? Theyre not.

Pure, clean, unpolluted air is the only safe thing to breathe  over and out. Stay well.
A tribute to Wisconsins Vietnam War dead will be on hand throughout the Jackson County Fair.

Bruce Thayer, a member of the Jackson County Historical Society, worked to bring the paper wall memorial to the Milt Lunda Memorial Arena Aug. 3-7 in an effort to allow fairgoers an opportunity to see the names of the 1,244 servicemen and women from the state who were killed in action or went missing in action during the conflict.

Hopefully there will be a lot of people who come through and view this thing, said Thayer, who is a Vietnam-era veteran. I believe that we need something that shows, well, yes, there are people that make the supreme sacrifice and never return.

This is one way we can do it, and we can honor people and have the general population see it.

The 115-foot-long display will be split in two parts and will be in the middle of the arena. Those killed in action or missing in action are separated by county and their obituaries will hang on a backdrop for onlookers to view.

Jackson County has five individuals who died in Vietnam, including Lt. Peter Carlson, Army Spc. Roger Goldsmith, Leonard Dutcher, Master Sgt. Orlan Nelson and Lance Crpl. Steven R. Ott, according to a book written by the late Bob Teeples.

Local Veterans of Foreign Wars and American Legion Post members will help watch the exhibit while its on display. Randy Bjerke, Jackson Countys veterans service officer, has volunteered and said he also looks forward to having the display at a local event like the fair.

I give (Bruce) a lot of credit for doing it, Bjerke said. I think its important for people to see it  this is Wisconsin veterans, these are Wisconsins killed in action.

I dont think itll be too somber, but I think its a good thing for people to see and realize. I appreciate all the work and expense to bring it to Black River.
If your mission is to expand what people think of as contemporary classical tonality, sometimes you dont know what youre going to get.

It doesnt sound like Mozart, said clarinetist and pianist Clara Byom, who is part of the New Mexico Contemporary Ensemble.

The ensemble will play a Gala Series concert at 7:30 p.m. July 29 at Old Main Historical and Community Arts Center in Galesville. A concert also is planned July 27 at Driftless Books and Music in Viroqua.

With a mixture of live and electronic music, the ensembles aim is to celebrate contemporary classical music of the Americas, featuring compositions from Orlando Jacinto Garcia (Cuba and the U.S.), Rodrigo Lima (Brazil), Alexandre Lunsqui (Brazil), Gustavo Trillini (Argentina), and U.S. artists Michael Lowenstern, Maxwell R. Lafontant, Elliot Carter, John Luther Adams and Benjamin Broening.

Its not just about expanding the idea of tonality, Byom said, its also about exploding the definition of what is often thought of as classical music.

At this point, lines get blurred, she said.

Some of the pieces may sound like jazz, others are so fresh and new they dont sound like anything youve ever heard. That, Byom said, is the thrill of what the new ensemble is trying to do: cross borders, open hearts and get the music played.

There should be way more of it heard, she said.

Byom is no stranger to Old Main, nor Galesville, for that matter. She was raised on a nearby dairy farm and helped locate the Steinway piano that resides at Old Main (it was refurbished and installed in a year that saw Byom practice on it regularly); her mother is Old Mains arts coordinator, and her brothers landscaping business is sponsoring the ensembles visit.

I cant think of another place of its size that has so much regular programming, Byom said. And they do right by the artists.

The other half of the ensemble is trombonist Dalton Harris. Hes Byoms best friend, and, when they met at the University of New Mexico, not only did they discover they had the same interests, but they also realized that the native and Mexican-American musical influence in Albuquerque cried out to be explored. But they didnt know how to do it at first.

We hadnt realized our context, Harris said.

Soon enough, they did, playing the Albuquerque area and then branching out on a Midwest tour. This year theyll be playing Byoms hometown; next year theyll go to Cary, N.C., where Harris grew up.

Its important for us to play (our music) for people we dont know, he said, but its also important for us to play it for our friends and family.

While there are a few duets, a sizable amount of the concert is solo material with electronic musical augmentation. For instance, while Byom is playing the clarinet, Harris is at the computer.

When I get to a certain point, Byom said, he clicks a button and a sound comes out.

For Harris, the trombone lends itself well to modern sounds; it also helps lift the veil from classical music.

The music is really good, Harris said, and totally different than you might expect.

Both are passionate about the project, giving exposure to the young voices of contemporary classical music, Harris said. Byom is equally passionate about bringing another new program back home.

Its a special place, she said.
La Crosse developers will continue work on the phased project to renovate the former La Crosse Rubber Mills complex while bringing in tenants to one of its many structures after the city Tuesday approved an amendment to its conditional-use permit in a series of special meetings.

Fenigor Group LLC, which bought the 18-building former rubber factory at 1501 St. Andrews St. in 2005, received the go-ahead from the city to occupy another of the buildings as it continues to work on renovating the historical buildings into apartments and commercial space.

The company, which is owned by four members of the Hass family, has built and leased out the Indian Hill Lofts, but is hoping to continue occupying the building as it makes improvements.

When we first bought it 10 years ago, we figured there were about 300,000 square feet, Justin Hass said. Weve developed the rest or filled the rest with tenants, so we have about 20 percent left after this phase is done.

Hass said the company has 17,000 square feet of the complex left to develop.

City planner Jason Gilman said the city has been monitoring the project to ensure that each building is safe before it is occupied, in part because many of the buildings are connected by walls.

Because of these adjacencies, we need to make sure that each module is going to be safe and meet our compliance requirements for a firewall and separation between whats going on in construction and whats being used commercially, Gilman said.

The permit change will allow the occupancy of one of the buildings, connected by a wall to a building currently under construction, which is also connected to Pearl Street Brewery. Gilman recommended approval after the owners found a solution to keep occupants of each building safe during construction.

Hass said the company has begun meeting the conditions of the permit, particularly one requiring more parking.

I know one of the issues on there is parking, Hass said, saying the company purchased 1528 Loomis St. to help alleviate future parking problems. If we wanted to grow in the future, we needed more spots.

The developer also has applied for a $200,000 grant and $300,000 loan from TID 16 as part of their ongoing project to redevelop the 10.5 acre parcel.

The citys economic development commission and redevelopment authority will weigh the benefits of investing in the project at their regular monthly meetings at 8:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. Thursday before the request for funding goes before the Plan Commission and Common Council next month for a final decision.

If approved, the funding would go toward the sewer and sanitary infrastructure, as well as parking and elevator improvements associated with the two-phase construction of 68 studio apartment units on the second, third and fourth floors. The ground floor is reserved for commercial space.
When David Gunderson got out of the Navy in 1954, he got off a train in La Crosse and headed to his North Side home all by himself.

When he ran into former classmates, they asked where hed been.

There was no ticker-tape parade or heros welcome. An armistice on July 27, 1953, ended the fighting in Korea, establishing a demilitarized border between the north and south. But unlike World War II, there were no victory celebrations back home.

It was kind of forgotten while it was being fought, said Louie Ferris, who heads the La Crosse chapter of the Korean War Veterans Association.

People still call it the Forgotten War, but Ferris wants the nearly 1.8 million Americans who served to be remembered.

They were not forgotten Wednesday, when Ferris presided over the dedication of the Korean Veterans War Memorial, a $30,000 monument and walkway in La Crosses Veterans Freedom Park.

Hundreds of people attended the ceremony, many wearing caps announcing their service. Some leaned on canes and walkers.

Al Pokrzywinski lives just a few blocks away. He rode in on a motorized scooter with an American flag on the back. Gunderson, who is 86, drove from Bloomer, where he settled after the war. He called the memorial wonderful.

Rev. Zachariah Han was born in South Korea, where his parents sought refuge during the war. He said 50 million South Koreans owe their safety and freedom to the sacrifices of American veterans.

The ceremony reminds us to remember what has happened long time ago and why we are here, said the pastor of New Hope church in La Crosse. Many young soldiers, they gave up their life.

City parks director Steve Carlyon said the memorial will be the first of seven that will be built in the park.

All the men and women here were once children playing on a playground, said Carlyon, himself a veteran. Either they got a notice like I did or they signed up.

Nine months in the making, the project started with Ferriss idea to put a little plaque in Riverside Park commemorating his fellow Korean War vets. The cost was $2,886. Ferris figured if he could raise a little more cash, he might add a bench.

The project was announced in the Tribune on Veterans Day, and by 4 p.m. Ferris had met his goal with a single donation. By the third day, he had doubled it.

And donations kept rolling in, 190 of them altogether, from across the country.

Ferris, who spent two years in the National Guard and eight in the Air Force said he cant remember exactly when he was in Korea. He said the memorial is meant for everyone who served, including the 36,576 who gave their lives.

It isnt so much what Ive done, he said. Im just very aggressive.

In particular, Ferris said he was inspired by the story of his boyhood friend, Francis Knobel. The 20-year-old Army corporal went missing in the winter of 1950 during fierce fighting near the Chosin Reservoir. He was buried in Arlington National Cemetery last year after his remains were identified.

Ferris said Knobel was one of five childhood friends who didnt come home.

With membership in his organization down to a couple of dozen members, all in their 80s, Ferris hopes the memorial will provide a lasting reminder of their service.

We arent going to be around long, he said. We dont have to be forgotten.
TOMAH  A Wisconsin State Patrol pilot flying a routine traffic patrol Friday calculated that a Porsche was traveling at 118 mph on Interstate 90/94 in Monroe County.

According to the pilot, a black Porsche 911 driven by Thomas Brochhagen, 55, North Bellmore, N.Y., was moving with the flow of traffic at 5:17 p.m. when it suddenly accelerated in the left lane and passed a large group of cars. The pilot radioed the information to a trooper in a ground cruiser, who was able to stop the vehicle without incident.

Brochhagen told the trooper that he was speeding because he had to use the bathroom.

The driver is extremely lucky that he did not cause a violent crash that might have seriously injured or killed himself or others, said State Patrol Lt. Christopher Jushka, who supervises the Air Support Unit. This incident also shows the value of aerial traffic safety enforcement in apprehending drivers who endanger others on our highways.

Brochhagen was cited for exceeding the speed limit by 48 mph and faces a $515.50 fine with a possible 15-day drivers license suspension.

The State Patrol and local law enforcement agencies put out extra patrols during summer weekends, watching over the hundreds of thousands of tourists and residents heading to vacation spots in the Badger State.
So, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., and some of their Republican buddies want to go to war? Trump recently said if hes elected he would have Congress declare a world war on radical Islam. Johnson, speaking at the Republican National Convention last week, said, this is a fight for freedom. Its not someone elses fight; this is our fight. He was criticizing the defense credentials of Russ Feingold, a Democratic challenger for the Senate.

Maybe waging war on ISIS is a good idea; I dont know. ISIS' real religion seems to be killing people. But if Trump and Johnson and their buddies really want to have a war, theyd better open their eyes wide. To fight and win against ISIS wouldnt be just a chance to hop around on a stage, waving the flag, or to cut big deals with their military contractor friends. This war would be no joke, and it would change everything. It would make Vietnam look like a spat. This would be a bloody, destructive, dangerous, costly, drawn-out grind. Most likely some American cities would suffer damage; wed probably have to reinstate the draft. And you can forget about tax cuts; taxes would have to go through the roof.
PHILADELPHIA  U.S. Rep. Ron Kind faced a row of TV cameras, surrounded by a small band of fellow Democratic rebels resolved to make their voices heard.

Kind, D-La Crosse, had just finished addressing Wisconsin delegates Wednesday morning at the Democratic National Convention.

Kind started speaking to reporters when about a dozen protesters encircled him, waving signs and heckling him for supporting the Trans Pacific Partnership trade deal.

Andrew Walsh, a delegate from Appleton for U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, yelled about how the deal would affect Wisconsin union workers.

No TPP! No TPP! Walsh chanted, others joining him.

Kind, his voice lost in the din, smiled, shook his head and walked away from the cameras.

Opposition to TPP, a proposed free-trade deal with Pacific Rim nations including Japan and Vietnam, was a key issue in the primary campaign for Sanders and his supporters.

It has become a key fault line within the party at this convention. The TPP deal was put forth by President Barack Obama and is supported by some congressional Republicans.

Hillary Clinton, who became the Democratic nominee at the convention Tuesday night, has wavered on TPP. She initially spoke favorably about the deal, then came out against it last year as Sanders campaign was ascending.

While many Sanders supporters have fallen in behind Clinton at this convention, a small, vocal band of Sanders die-hards repeatedly and loudly have registered objections to Clinton and the views she and her allies hold.

The No TPP! chant has been one of their rallying cries, heard intermittently at places in and around the convention site, including on the convention floor Monday.

Whether enough of those Sanders backers support Clinton could determine if she beats Republican Donald Trump in November.

Wisconsin, with its large manufacturing base, is a state in which trade issues resonate. The state tilts Democratic in presidential years, but often is close enough that it could be up for grabs if Democrats are divided.

Kind, a 10-term Democrat from La Crosse, has been one of Obamas top allies in trying to steer the deal through Congress.

In the Aug. 9 Democratic primary, Kind faces a opponent, Myron Buchholz, who has emphasized his support for Sanders and opposition to TPP.

Matthew LaRonge is a Sanders delegate from Stevens Point who said he has worked on behalf of Buchholz. LaRonge said Wednesdays protest escalated when Kind promoted TPP in his speech, then declined to speak with protesters about their concerns.

He literally was trying to shove the TPP down our throats as we were eating breakfast, LaRonge said.

LaRonge, like many TPP critics, say it will lead to more U.S. jobs being outsourced.

Speaking to the Wisconsin State Journal after Wednesdays fracas subsided, Kind said TPP is poorly understood  in part because its supporters havent done enough to explain its benefits.

Obama has portrayed the deal as vital for the U.S. as it jockeys with China for influence over trade rules in East Asia.

Kind said the deal contains enforcement triggers to sanction member nations if they fail to abide by labor, human-rights and environmental standards  a point contested by its critics.

Theres confusion; people are conflating trade with trade agreements, Kind said. The trade thats going on absent trade agreements has not worked well for us. China, Brazil, India: We dont have trade agreements with those countries.

But when most people think of the adverse effects of trade, they think about those countries.

Kind said military leaders have expressed support to him for TPP on diplomatic and national security grounds.

Kind declined to say if he would support a congressional vote on the deal during the lame-duck session of Congress. Such a vote has been floated by supporters of the deal as possibly its only path forward, since both Clinton and Trump have come out against it.

Meanwhile, Walsh, a union bookmaker, was asked if hell vote for Clinton in November.

Walsh responded that he wants to see how Clinton handles TPP and whether she pressures Kind and other Democrats against it.

She wants to have our backs? Walsh said. This is her chance.

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PHILADELPHIA  For Democratic National Convention delegates, being here is about being part of history.

But a small place in political lore carries a hefty pricetag, many first-time Wisconsin delegates have learned.

Most delegates must pay for five nights of $400-a-night hotel rooms near the Philadelphia Convention Center, plus plane tickets and other expenses. That means many delegates say theyre spending between $3,000 and $4,000 to attend.

The Democratic Party of Wisconsin says it isnt helping delegates absorb the cost. Party spokesman Brandon Weathersby said the party would consider financially assisting a delegate if they said they couldnt afford to go. But Weathersby said the party hasnt gotten any such requests, likely because it isnt something parties typically do.

Instead, many delegates are turning to crowdfunding websites to raise the money they need. Wisconsin delegates for U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders said his campaign also is helping defray delegates travel costs on the basis of need.

Some delegates have trimmed costs by sharing hotel rooms or driving the 13-plus hours to Philadelphia instead of flying.

First-time delegate Ryan Champeau of Waukesha said he saved for months to attend. Like many other first-time delegates who spoke to the Wisconsin State Journal, Champeau, a Hillary Clinton delegate, said he was determined to be part of the convention no matter what.

I put this on my bucket list, Champeau said.

Champeau said he was particularly excited to help nominate the first female president, which delegates formally did Tuesday night.

Not a member of the billionaire class

For many prospective delegates, the travel costs can be daunting  or prohibitive, said Peter Rickman of Milwaukee, whom the Sanders campaign designated to lead its Wisconsin delegates.

Im not a member of the billionaire class, Rickman laughed, in a joking crib of Sanders rhetoric. A lot of delegates are priced out.

Rickman described the Sanders campaigns decision to provide financial help to delegates struggling to pay for the convention as fairly unprecedented.

The Sanders campaign did not respond Tuesday to Wisconsin State Journal inquiries about the matter.

Rickman and other delegates have used the website GoFundMe to raise contributions from fellow Sanders supporters to pay their way.

The website has said hundreds of Sanders delegates from across the country are using it for that purpose.

Rickman said almost all Wisconsin Sanders delegates are crowd-funding at least part of their convention costs.

He called it a nice echo of Sanders grassroots campaign fundraising strategy. Rickman said it also reflects Sanders message of opening up the political process to people who arent wealthy and have not previously participated in politics.

Joe Kanzleiter, a Sanders alternate from Menomonee Falls, said he raised about $500 through GoFundMe, much of it from Sanders supporters he has never met.

Kanzleiter said he also got financial support from his union, his family and friends.

When I ran as a delegate, I told people that Im getting here no matter what, even if I got to run up a credit card, Kanzleiter. Im just glad that I got a lot of support.

Campaign help

makes it possible

Jaime Alvarado, a Sanders delegate from Milwaukee, said he took an all-of-the-above approach to pay his way. He got financial help from the Sanders campaign, used a crowd-funding website and cut costs by packing four people in his hotel room and driving to Philadelphia.

We tried to make it as budget-wise as possible, Alvarado said. If you didnt do that, and you didnt get the help from the campaign, its practically impossible.

The process of being a first-time delegate isnt just about paying your way. Newbie delegates also have to navigate a new city, build relationships with delegates theyve never met before, and quickly learn a dizzying array of convention rules and procedures.

Mary Ginnebaugh, a Clinton delegate from Green Bay, said Democratic Party of Wisconsin staffers have done an admirable job keeping delegates apprised of what they need to do and where they need to be.

The cost is on many delegates minds, Ginnebaugh acknowledged. She said frugal delegates must plan carefully and be creative to make the trip fit their budget. Being part of the action, Ginnebaugh said, makes it all worthwhile.

I view it as a once-in-a-lifetime event, she said.
The Jackson County Sheriffs Department will offer a child identification program at this years fair.

The department will offer the free SafeAssured ID child program Wednesday through Saturday of the fair in the Milt Lunda Memorial Arena.

The SafeAssured ID system allows local law enforcement the necessary information and tools to assist parents with being prepared for unforeseen and unfortunate crimes against their children.

The SafeAssured privacy-protected mini-CD offers a single repository of important information:

All 10 electronically imaged fingerprints.

A digital photograph.

Streaming video showing mannerisms and gait with linked audio file providing the childs voice inflection and accent.

Private information  general physical description, street address, date of birth, life-threatening medical conditions, identifying scars or marks and tattoos.

The ability to create missing person poster from the mini-CD.

Families also receive a full-color photo data card and a parents guidebook with prevention tips, written in conjunction with the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children.

The departments arena booth will be open from 6-10 p.m. on Wednesday, Aug. 3, from 1-4 p.m. on Thursday and from 1-5 p.m. on Friday and Saturday.

The department also plans to again hold a K-9 demonstration that will showcase the departments K-9 handlers and their partners trailing and drug detection. Specific dates and times for the demonstrations have not yet been set.

For more information, call the sheriffs department at (715) 284-9009.
Monroe County District Attorney Kevin Croninger hosted a law enforcement appreciation rally Sunday at Burnstads European Restaurant in Tomah.

Wisconsin Attorney General Brad Schimel attended, giving his support to law enforcement officers and his endorsement to Croninger for the upcoming Monroe County District Attorney election.

Croninger said he planned the event to find a way to thank law enforcement officers. More than 20 officers attended from Tomah, Sparta and Wilton departments, and the Burnstads banquet room overflowed with officers, their families and community members.

Tomah Police Chief Mark Nicholson said it was good to see community members in a positive setting.

We deal with five percent of the population 95 percent of the time, Nicholson said. He said he was glad to see some of the other 95 percent, the community members not usually seen by law enforcement, come out and show their support.

Socializing continued for a half-hour until Schimel arrived. Walking in, Schimel remarked, This never happens, saying that it is rare that a room picked for a law enforcement rally is too small.

The crowd spilled over into the hallway as Croninger stood behind the lectern, picked up the microphone and began by asking those present to join him in reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. He invited police chaplin Jef Skinner of the Monroe County Sheriffs Office to say a prayer, then Croninger asked for a moment of silence in honor of law enforcement officers killed or injured in the line of duty.

Were in an unprecedented time in law enforcement, Croninger said, citing the difficulty of working in the field without full support from the public. Croninger said its important for people in leadership positions to recognize law enforcement and then introduced Schimel.

Schimel began with an anecdote about his trip to the Republican National Convention last week, remembering how people had asked if he was worried about security.

There was never a moment when you thought twice about it, he said, commenting that he felt safe at the convention with law enforcement officers controlling crowds and protesters.

Everything was peaceful, Schimel said.

Schimel also spoke at length about Croninger, calling him an asset to Monroe County. Croninger is being challenged in the Aug. 9 Republican primary by Tomah attorney Aaron Lueck.

Kevins among the best that are out there, Schimel said.

Schimel closed his speech by returning to the topic of law enforcement.

Theres no higher priority for me than making sure that law enforcement gets home at the end of every shift, he said.

Addressing the officers in the room, he added, Im so proud of the work you guys do.

Croninger then made a few more brief remarks regarding recent public negativity directed towards officers.

We as members of the public need to do something, he said, adding that law enforcement officers should not be burdened with changing public perception of law enforcement.

Following the speeches, items and gift cards donated by local businesses were given to officers through a drawing. Donations were collected for the Monroe County K-9 unit.

In the wake of highly publicized shootings of and by law enforcement officers, several cities nationwide have held events to bring together police and community members for casual interactions. A barbecue hosted by a police department in Wichita, Kansas, July 17 drew nearly 2,000 people and a video of a police officer dancing at the event went viral online. Similar videos of entire police departments dancing went viral online in June, showing the positivity and personality of law enforcement officers.

Locally, the Sparta police department held its first Coffee with a Cop event in March, as part of a national initiative supported by the U.S. Department of Justice that promotes officers and community members connecting over conversation.
Area residents have a chance to learn how to keep their family safe and thank emergency services personnel during this years Monroe County National Night Out (NNO) in Tomahs Winnebago Park Tuesday, Aug. 2.

Coordinated by the Tomah Memorial Hospital community outreach department and Monroe County NNO Committee, there is no charge to attend the 14th annual event from 4-8 p.m.

Even though they may not consider themselves heroes, police officers, firefighters, EMTs, first responders and hospital staff are heroes in the jobs they do every day and we want to put them in the spotlight, said Tomah Memorial Hospital community outreach health educator Whitney Sanjari, CHES. Two years ago officials determined the annual superhero theme.

She said children and adults can take part in this years theme by dressing as their favorite superhero or donating a nonperishable food item for a chance to win a three-night stay at JellyStone Park Camp/Resort in Warrens.

Area law enforcement leaders say the attention is humbling.

I dont consider us heroes, said Sheriff Scott Perkins. Its not a job, its a lifestyle. We do this because we have a passion to keep Monroe County safe.

Sparta Police chief David Kuderer agreed.

Law enforcement, firefighters and EMS are all heroes helping people and keeping people safe in our community, said Kuderer.

Its an excellent opportunity for the community to come out and show their support for the law enforcement agencies, EMS (emergency medical services) and fire (departments), said Tomah Police chief Mark Nicholson. As it relates to being a superhero, its great for us to look like that in the community; were very privileged and honored.

National Night Out was introduced in 1984 by the National Association of Town Watch, a nonprofit, crime prevention organization which works in cooperation with thousands of crime watch groups and law enforcement agencies throughout the country. Locally, officials know it helps build relationships that create safe communities.

We always need public support when doing our job, said Kuderer. We cant solve crimes without the support and help from the citizens of our communities. They provide us with a lot of information and details on what they see and what they hear, which helps us put together all the little pieces that we need to solve a crime.

I want the citizens to know that Monroe County Sheriffs deputies are people just like everybody else, added Perkins. Instead of just seeing them in the squad car driving by, theyre actually out being able to talk to the people and get one-on-one with individuals; thats how you solve crimes.

Even though the event is held in Tomah, all three law enforcement officials said it is a countywide event.

Its a great opportunity to meet people, said Kuderer. Youve got a lot of different people from different communities coming together and a chance for me to meet with the people and talk to them and address concerns that they might have.

I think everybody in the county and smaller communities needs to come into the city of Tomah and go to Winnebago Park, added Perkins. It is a great opportunity to talk to the Monroe County emergency services.

Nicholson, Kuderer and Perkins admit that while no community is totally crime-free, their communities are safe places to live.

Like any other community in Wisconsin, we have some issues that we are dealing with, whether it be drug-related or burglaries, but all in all, Tomah is a very safe place, said Nicholson.

Monroe County is a very safe community as a whole, explained Perkins. We have the same problems like anybody else.

More than 30 not-for-profit organizations will have various exhibits, information booths, health screenings and displays on things such as nutrition, school bus safety, weather storm spotting, parenting information, car seat checks, home electricity safety, seat belt use, ear safety, swimming and boating safety, poison control, mental health and first aid during the event.

As part of a joint effort between Tomahpolice, Tomah Memorial Hospital and Monroe County, families can learn more about firearm safety through a nationwide organization called Project ChildSafe. Chief Nicholson said thanks to a grant from the U.S. Department of Justice, officials will be distributing firearm safety information including gun locks.

We hope to hand out 350 gun locks at National Night Out, said Nicholson. We want to make sure guns are safe and locked up out of the hands of children.

Tomah police and volunteers will also provide children three to 15 years old safety lessons for riding a bicycle during the Tomah Police Department Bike Safety Expo from 4-6 p.m. Registration begins at 3:30 p.m. The expo will include safety tips and on-site bicycle licensing. Parents must be present, and children are reminded to have a bike or rollerblades and helmet. Prizes will be awarded after bicycle course stations close at 5:45 p.m. All stations must be completed to qualify for the drawings. Children must be present to win prizes. The first 200 children will receive a complimentary backpack with school supplies provided in part by Wal-Mart.

A live demonstration featuring the area K-9 unit and combined tactical Unit will follow the bike expo. A number of area fire and rescue units will also be featured during a mock traffic crash, complete with the use of the Jaws of Life will wrap up the events.

Weather permitting, Gundersen Health Systems MedLink AIR is scheduled to be on display at 4 p.m.

Food and refreshment sales will be available, plus childrens activities including two bounce houses. Due to limited parking, officials ask residents to park in the Tomah High School lot and walk across Butts Avenue to enter the Winnebago Park, located adjacent to Lake Tomah.

Additional information on National Night Out can be found at tomahhospital.org.
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack recently announced funding for 821 projects across the nation that will help rural small businesses and agricultural producers reduce energy usage and costs in their operations. In Wisconsin, 18 projects were awarded nearly $3 million for energy related projects. The funding is available through the Rural Energy for America Program (REAP) and will be used to make energy efficiency improvements and install renewable energy systems.

Area recipients include Joseph L. Erlandson, DC Corporation, Westby, $5,133 grant to purchase and install a solar renewable energy system; Parker Hill Century Farm LP, Viola, Richland County, $14,411 grant to purchase and install a solar renewable energy system; Southwest Sanitation, LLC, Viroqua, $20,000 grant to purchase and install a solar renewable energy system; and Vernon Electric Cooperative, Westby, $19,978 grant to make energy efficiency improvement to the lighting system.

Since 2009, the Rural Energy for America Program has helped roughly 15,000 small businesses and farms save enough energy to power about 730,000 homes, replace over 34 million barrels of oil, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by more than 5 million metric tons annually  the equivalent of removing 1.1 million cars from our roads, Vilsack said. These investments in clean energy are good for the environment, are good for each businesss bottom line, and they support the broader rural economy by encouraging the production of renewable energy sources.

USDA is providing $43.2 million in loan guarantees and $11.6 million in grants through REAP for projects in every state. Funding of each award announced July 13 is contingent upon the recipient meeting the terms of the loan or grant agreement.

Congress created the REAP program in the 2002 Farm Bill. Because of the programs success, Congress reauthorized it in the 2014 Farm Bill with guaranteed funding of at least $50 million annually for the duration of the five-year Farm Bill.

From 2009 to date, REAP has provided more than $373 million in grants and almost $481 million in loan guarantees to help finance more than 11,000 renewable energy and energy efficiency projects for agricultural producers and rural small business owners.
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The massive Sand Fire has been raging for five days and has scorched 37,000 acres. The damage is immeasurable, not in just in terms of the grief it has caused for families who have lost their homes, but also for the one life it had taken over the weekend.

The body of Robert Bresnick, 67, was discovered around 7:20 p.m. on Saturday, reports the L.A. Times. Firefighters found his body inside a burned car that was parked in a driveway at a home on Iron Canyon Road. Bresnick, thus far, is the only casualty reported from the Sand Fire.

John Kim, a neighbor of Bresnick's, told CBS 2 that Bresnick lived on the property with a woman and that, with the fires approaching, he'd gone back into the home to rescue his dogs. He emerged from the house and took shelter in his car. He was found dead twenty minutes later. Before the incident, Bresnick had been "uncooperative" with evacuation orders, said a spokesman for the Los Angeles County coroner's office.

Bresnick's girlfriend refused to speak with the CBS 2 news crew because she was "too distraught." Morgan Franklin, who lives across the street from Bresnick's property, said that Bresnick and his girlfriend owned three dogs together. "Her house is gone, her boyfriend is gone," Franklin told the Times. "It's crazy."

The fire has shown some signs of abatement. The Times reports that, as of 11:05 a.m. Tuesday, the fire is 25% contained. On Monday night, the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff's station said that most of the evacuated residents were allowed to return to their homes. There were exceptions, however, for residents living on sections of Placerita Canyon Road, Little Tujunga Canyon Road, Agua Dulce Canyon Road, and Soledad Canyon Road. Mandatory evacuations had been issued for approximately 20,000 residents. According to KTLA, 18 homes were destroyed in the blaze.

L.A. Times photographer Irfan Khan took some images of those destroyed properties:

The South Coast Air Quality Management District has issued another smoke advisory on Tuesday, saying that the smoke is expected to move north and northeast of the original site of the blaze. Smoke advisories had also been issued on Saturday and Monday. Even regions as far as Clark County in Nevada (about 250 miles from Los Angeles) have issued their own air quality advisories pertaining to the Sand Fire.

LAist reached out to the L.A. County Homicide Bureau regarding Bresnick, but investigators were unavailable for comment at the moment.
Wednesday, July 27, 2016

We've all been watching the migration crisis in the Dominican Republic as that country seeks to remove individuals of Haitian descent. What you may not have know is that there is a division within the Catholic Church in Hispaniola over that migration crisis.

As the BBC reports, Father Luc Leandre is a Catholic priest who is helping Haitian "returnees" from the DR. He calls the deportation of Haitians a "grave crisis" and does what he can to resettle those returned.

But Father Leandre notes, "The cardinal in Santo Domingo [Cardinal Nicolas de Jesus Lopez] is personally very vocal in his support for the deportations. He supported sending all the Haitians back to their country."

-KitJ

https://lawprofessors.typepad.com/immigration/2016/07/haitiandr-crisis-reveals-rift-in-catholic-church.html
Health officials, experts, advocates, researchers and many others gathered in South Africa last week for the 2016 International AIDS Conference.

AIDS is short for Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome.

As the conference was ending, organizers told delegates to go back home and start the hard work toward an ambitious goal. The goal is to end the threat from the disease by the year 2030.

The five-day conference offered delegates a chance to hear about ways to stop new infections from HIV, the virus responsible for the disease. They also could attend discussions on treatment for those infected and efforts to develop a vaccine for AIDS.

The first International AIDS Conference was held 21 years ago. Since then, health officials and researchers have made progress against the disease. Yet HIV/AIDS has killed tens of millions of people, infected tens of millions and continues to infect many more.

More than 1 million AIDS-related deaths were recorded last year. Seventeen million infected people are receiving antiretroviral drugs. But 20 million others have yet to be treated.

This led conference organizers to appeal to all nations and their citizens to do what is necessary to stop these numbers from increasing.

Olive Shisana was a co-chair of the conference this year.

We need to heed the call to start a social justice movement that aims to reinvigorate the HIV response similar to the global anti-apartheid movement that we had.

Apartheid was a system of racial separation in South Africa. It ended in the 1990s.

At the conference, the South African health minister, Aaron Motsoaledi, called on young people to launch a campaign to bring about a new generation free from HIV.

A global campaign led by young people is urgent. If we dont we will not be able to achieve a generation free of HIV/AIDS by 2030.

Linda-Gail Bekker is the incoming president of the International AIDS Society. She made an emotional appeal to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. The fund collects donations and provides financing to prevent and treat those diseases.

Whether people live or die in many countries will depend on how donors respond to the Global Funds call to action. Lives depend on the Global Fund.

The message to all delegates was simple and clear; the conference might have ended, but the hard work has just begun.

Im Anna Matteo.

Thuso Khumalo reported this story for VOA News from Durban, South Africa. Anna Matteo adapted it for Learning English. George Grow was the editor.

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Words in This Story

advocate  n. a person who argues for or supports a cause or policy : a person who works for a cause or group

ambitious  n. having ambition : having a desire to be successful, powerful, or famous

antiretroviral  n. medical : acting, used, or effective against retroviruses

invigorate  v. to give life and energy to (someone) : reinvigorate to put life and energy back into (someone)

apartheid  n. a former social system in South Africa in which black people and people from other racial groups did not have the same political and economic rights as white people and were forced to live separately from white people

call to action  n. something such as a speech, piece of writing, or act that encourages people to take action about a problem
The Democratic Party that is set to nominate Hillary Clinton for president is not the same party that twice nominated her husband, Bill Clinton, for president.

The partys 2016 platform -- or statement of positions on major issues -- is the most progressive in the partys history, according to Senator Bernie Sanders.

Hillary Clinton, who defeated Sanders for the Democratic nomination, is backing key parts of the platform.

She is expected to accept the Democratic nomination on Thursday, the last day of the four-day convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

The 2016 platform is more liberal than the positions Bill Clinton campaigned on and supported during his two terms as president from 1993 to 2001.

Bill Clintons positions

Clinton vowed to end welfare as we know it, and signed a 1996 bill that put time limits and work requirements on welfare recipients.

He signed the Defense of Marriage Act, which defined marriage as a union of one man and one woman. The Supreme Court in effect ended the law when it ruled last year that same sex couples can marry.

Bill Clinton also negotiated the North American Free Trade Agreement, which Hillary Clinton now says did not do what many had hoped in creating jobs for Americans.

In 1992, when Clinton accepted the Democratic presidential nomination, he spoke about what government should and should not do.

He promised a government that is leaner, not meaner; a government that expands opportunity, not bureaucracy; a government that understands that jobs must come from growth under a free enterprise system.

Changing times

Brian Brox is a political science professor at Tulane University in the southern state of Louisiana. He said some of the policies Bill Clinton championed in the 1990s came from a group called the Democratic Leadership Council, or DLC, which he helped lead.

The DLC called for new centrist policies after the party lost three straight presidential elections from 1980-1988 with candidates considered too liberal, Brox said.

John Breaux is a former Democratic senator from Louisiana. He replaced Clinton as DLC chairman after Clinton was elected president.

It is a different time now with different issues, Breaux said.

Brox agrees. He said: America has changed in the 16 years since his presidency ended, and the current platform reflects how the country has changed after wars and an economic crisis, as well as how the country is demographically different than it was when he was president.

Breaux said Clinton carried southern states when he ran for president. Those states are now solidly Republican in national races. That means Democrats do not feel the need to support centrist proposals that appeal to Southern voters, he said.

The new Democrats

The 2016 Democratic Party has gone further than the party led by Bill Clinton in the 1990s. For example, Bill Clinton supported and won passage of a bill requiring most companies to offer family leave so a worker could deal with an emergency.

Now, Democrats and Hillary Clinton propose that the law do more. For example, they want companies to continue paying employees for up to 12 weeks if they have to take care of a sick child or parent.

Bill Clinton appears comfortable with the more liberal agenda proposed by his wife and the Democratic Party, said Tulane Universitys Brox.

He might very well have pushed for a more progressive agenda had the voters wanted it, Brox said. But ultimately he wanted to win then, just as he wants his wife to win now.

As president, Clinton balanced his centrist proposals with some liberal bills. He proposed a bill, which his wife pushed in Congress, to provide health insurance for all Americans.

He also proposed a crime bill with a five-day waiting period for handgun purchases and higher taxes on wealthy Americans to lower the deficit.

The crime and tax bills passed. The health care legislation did not.

Clinton has mostly managed to get favorable ratings from a majority of Americans despite continued controversy.

In 1998, a majority of voters held a favorable view of Clinton, even as Republicans tried unsuccessfully to remove him from office for his sexual relationship with a White House intern.

Last month, Clinton was criticized for meeting with Attorney General Loretta Lynch at an airport. The meeting occurred just days before she said the government would not prosecute Hillary Clinton for using a private email server as secretary of state.

But Democrats said there are few people better able to tell Americans why they should elect Hillary Clinton, over her Republican opponent, businessman Donald Trump.

No one can do a better job talking about the things that Hillary has done, the fights she's taken on," said Robby Mook, Clintons campaign manager.

Bruce Alpert reported this story for VOA Learning English. Hai Do was the editor.

We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section and share your views on our Facebook Page.

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Words in This Story

welfare -- n. a government program for poor or unemployed people that helps pay for their food, housing, medical costs, etc.

leaner -- adj. thinner, smaller

bureaucracy -- n. a large group of people who are involved in running a government but who are not elected

free enterprise -- n. a system in which private businesses are able to compete with each other with little control by the government

replace -- v. to do the job or duty of another person

demographically -- adv. qualities such as age, sex, and, income, ethnic background of people

prosecute -- v. to charge a person with a crime and move to prove guilt

email server -- n. a system used to transmit messages through computers

controversy -- n. strong disagreement about something among a large group of people
Billy Shreve was surprised by the talent and imagination of the student films he watched at a Maryland Film Festival last year.

The festival inspired him to start a competitive film project for children of all ages.

Shreve named the film competition Classmates4Life.

The contest called for elementary, middle, and high school aged students to create a film against drug use.

The Classmates4Life competition was held in Frederick County, Maryland.

Ninety-five students submitted films this year for Classmates4Life. Shreve explained that he kept the topic of the contest simple this year.

How have drugs wrecked your world for middle school and high school students. And why are drugs bad for elementary school students."

Although it was a small contest, over 50,000 people have already viewed the students' videos on the Classmates4Life YouTube channel. Shreve said parents use the videos as a teaching tool for their children.

"The parents love it because they can sit down at home, watch a few videos with their kids, [and] talk about what the video content was.

The high school winner of the Classmates4Life competition was Alex Ismael. Alex is a 10th grader at Linganore High School. He made a film called Lights Out. In the film, he used lightbulbs as a metaphor.

Our friends and family around us each represent a different light and we need to keep those lights on, and, just the brighter the better. Doing drugs really is going to stop you from being there for those people.

The principal of Linganore High School, Dave Kehne, says the school workers were excited that one of the students from their school won first prize.

We were also very excited to hear about the program in general because we know that students can use their peer pressure for positive things.

Kehne added that any effort to include kids in a discussion about drugs are greatly needed.

Alexandra Kishs video was the top winner at the middle school level. Her film had a simple message:

I wanted to make it straightforward: dont do drugs.

Alexandras personal experience motivated her to make the film.

I know someone who was very severely affected by drugs. And if someone does drugs, that affects other people. This person kind of affected me, although I dont see this person much. But my position could be anyone elses position and I just dont want that to happen.

The first place winner in the elementary school level was 4th grader Liam Timpane from Centerville Elementary School. He made his film, called Drugs Can Make Your Life Explode, because he wanted to make his father, who is a filmmaker, proud of him.

Liam also wanted to have a positive effect on his peers.

In our health lessons, were talking about how bad drugs are for you. And, actually, one of the kids in my class mentioned, for that part of the health lesson, he said, Its kind of like what Liams video is talking about.'

Because the Classmates4Life contest was successful, it will be a statewide program next year. That means more students will have an opportunity to creatively fight drug abuse.

Im Mehrnoush Karimian-Ainsworth.

Faiza Elmasry reported this story for VOA News. Mehrnoush Karimian-Ainsworth adapted it for VOA Learning English. Mario Ritter was the editor

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Words in This Story

inspire  v. to make (someone) want to do something : to give (someone) an idea about what to do or create

contest  n. an event in which people try to win by doing something better than others

submit  v. to give (a document, video, proposal, piece of writing, etc.) to someone so that it can be considered or approved

metaphor  n. an object, activity, or idea that is used as a symbol of something else

peer pressure  n. when a person feels pressure to do something so that a group likes them or accepts them

motivate  n. to give (someone) a reason for doing something : to be a reason for (something)

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Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump Wednesday appeared to ask Russia to find and make public missing emails from Democrat Hillary Clinton.

I will tell you this, Russia, if youre listening, Trump said. I hope youre able to find 30,000 emails that are missing.

Trump was talking about emails from Clintons private email server that she deleted before turning over others to the State Department.

Clinton said the deleted emails covered private matters. She said they were not related to her work as secretary of state.

After Trump made the statement, his vice presidential running-mate, Indiana Governor Mike Pence, offered a different opinion.

Russia faced serious consequences if it interfered with the U.S. election, Pence said. It is unusual for a vice presidential candidate to disagree publicly with his running mate.

Trumps unusual request came after WikiLeaks released emails from the Democratic National Committee, or DNC, Sunday. The emails showed that Democratic Party officials supported Clinton over her opponent for the partys nomination, Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont.

Sanders supporters had long suspected this. The party is expected to remain neutral in the competition for its presidential nomination.

President Barack Obama told NBC News Wednesday that outside experts blamed Russia for hacking into the DNC computers to get the emails.

The release seemed timed to embarrass Clinton as she prepared to accept the partys nomination at the Democratic convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

The four-day convention will end Thursday with Clintons acceptance speech. She is the first woman to run as the presidential choice of a major U.S. political party.

After his statement about the Clinton emails, Trump was asked whether he really wanted a foreign country to hack into U.S. computers.

Trump said: If Russia or China or any other country has those emails, I mean, to be honest with you. Id love to see them.

The Clinton campaign said the Trump request is the first time that a major presidential candidate has actively encouraged a foreign power to conduct espionage against a political opponent.

The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation judged that Clinton had been extremely careless in dealing with the emails. But, the FBI said no criminal charges were called for.

Im Mario Ritter.

Ken Bredemeier reported on this story for VOANews.com. Bruce Alpert adapted this story for Learning English with information from the Associated Press. Mario Ritter was the editor.

We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section or share your views on our Facebook Page.

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Words in This Story

consequence -- n. something that happens as a result of a particular action or set of conditions

suspect -- v. to think that someone or some country did something wrong

hack -- v. to secretly get access to the files on a computer or network in order to get information, cause damage

embarrass -- v. to make (someone) feel confused and foolish in front of other people

encourage -- v. to tell or advise someone to do something

espionage -- n. the activity of spying
Turkey has approved orders to arrest more reporters suspected of ties to a Muslim clergyman living in the United States.

Turkish officials claim the religious leader plotted the attempted overthrow of the government this month. The attempt failed.

Officials announced arrest orders for more than 40 former members of the editorial staff of Zaman, the countrys largest newspaper.

In March, a Turkish court placed the newspaper under government control. Police officers raided its offices a short time later. Since then, the paper has taken a strongly pro-government position in its reporting.

Earlier this week, the government ordered the arrest of 42 other media workers.

The actions are part of a wider operation to punish government officials and others after the overthrow attempt. Amnesty International estimates that more than 10,000 people have been detained in Turkey since the July 15 coup failed.

The Zaman newspaper was closely connected with the religious movement of clergyman Fethullah Gulen. He now lives in the American state of Pennsylvania.

On Tuesday, The New York Times newspaper published an opinion piece Gulen wrote. In the piece, he condemned the coup attempt and denied having any part in it. He denounced Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan for what he called a systematic and dangerous drive toward one-man rule.

Gulen said Erdogan is threatening to limit his countrys support for the coalition against the Islamic State unless the United States surrenders him to Turkey. The Turkish government says the clergyman must face legal action in Turkey.

The religious leader accused Erdogan of blackmailing the U.S. government. The U.S. must resist the demands, he said.

Jonathan Adelman teaches international studies at the University of Denver in Colorado. He spoke with VOA on Wednesday. He said he thinks Gulen has a point.

"What he is saying is what we (Americans) are afraid of: That Turkey, which had really been a model for the Middle East in terms of strong economic growth, doubling their output in a period of 10 years, democracy and trying to end military coups, now seems intent on taking Turkey almost like into the Vladimir Putin way as a kind of one-man dictatorship, and that is something that were really very concerned about.

Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim told The Wall Street Journal newspaper that the governments evidence against Fethullah Gulen is clear. He likened the attempted coup to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks against the United States.

Yildirim criticized what he called a heartbreaking lack of support from the Obama administration for Turkeys extradition request. A U.S. official said on Tuesday that the two countries have an extradition process and said, Were going to let that play out.

Im Ashley Thompson.

Joshua Fatick reported on this story for VOANews.com. George Grow adapted his report for Learning English. Caty Weaver was the editor.

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Words in This Story

editorial staff  adj. the leadership or publishers of a newspaper

coup  n. a military overthrow of a government

blackmailing  v. threatening to take action unless the person or group being threatened does what you want

output  n. the amount of something being produced

intent  v. showing great attention

extradition  n. the surrender of a criminal suspect, usually under the rules of a treaty

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Vietnams Prime Minister says his country has learned serious lessons from mass fish kills in four coastal provinces.

Large numbers of dead fish and other sea creatures were discovered along the coast in April. The environmental disaster led to nationwide protests.

The Taiwan-based Formosa Plastics Corporation admitted a month ago to causing the fish kills.

Nguyen Xuan Phuc spoke to the Vietnamese parliament after being re-elected prime minister on Tuesday.

He said, The incident [caused by] Formosa serves as a serious lesson about getting and managing foreign investment projects. It must not recur. He adds that we must review large projects as well as closely monitor their environmental commitments.

One month ago, the company took full responsibility for causing millions of fish deaths. Its steel factory in the Vietnamese province of Ha Tinh released wastewater filled with poisonous chemicals.

He also noted a need for environmental protection measures, saying, We must not develop at the destruction of (the) environment.

Nguyen Dinh Ha is a former independent candidate for parliament. He said he welcomed the Prime Ministers statements but also demanded action. He said, Vietnamese are used to many promises. We now want to see action. Those [Vietnamese] who acted irresponsibly in the case need to be dealt with on legal terms. Many people must be held accountable.

He also urged the newly elected parliamentarians to include the Formosa disaster among their debate issues.

Vo Kim Cu is a member of the National Assembly Economic Committee. He has been criticized for opening the door for Formosa Plastic to begin operations in Ha Tinh province when he was its party chief.

In his speech, the Vietnamese Prime Minister promised to defend Vietnams territorial rights over the South China Sea. He also urged all sides with territorial claims in the waterway to respect and obey international laws.

Im Anna Matteo.

VOANews reported this story with help from the VOA Vietnamese service. Caty Weaver adapted it for Learning English. George Grow was the editor.

Post your thoughts in the Comment Section. Or leave a message on our Facebook page.

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Words in This Story

lesson  n. a single class or part of a training program

manage  v. to take care of and make decisions about

recur  v. to happen or appear again

monitor  v. to watch, observe, listen to, or check (something) for a special purpose over a period of time

commitment  n. a promise to do or give something

accountable  required to be responsible for something


It is late afternoon in the small village of Fandene, Senegal. Students begin to arrive at the local school. They arrive on bicycles, motorbikes, and donkey carts. Under the shade of a giant baobab tree, they chat in the dusty school yard.

Lycee Fandene is a typical rural high school in Senegal. The school has no electricity. There are no glass windows, only square openings to let in light and fresh air. The students have no books. They crowd into a small classroom, their elbows touching.

Isidore Tine is the teacher. He is young, energetic and always smiling.

He leads the class singing Clementine, an American folk song.

Oh my darling, oh my darling

Oh my darling Clementine

Welcome to the English Club of Fandene.

Fandene is a rural village about three hours east of Senegals capital, Dakar. The students come here from nearby villages to practice speaking English.

The English Club of Fandene is just one of a growing number of English clubs in Senegal. With no tuition or tests, the clubs offer a low-pressure way to learn English. And, for many Senegalese, it is their only opportunity to learn English.

Tine started the English Club of Fandene three years ago. It is has grown to become one of the most active clubs in the area.

When I came here I saw that the students they did not practice their English. And I said that creating the English club is an opportunity for me to help the students speak and practice the language, because the mastery of the language is in the speaking.

To encourage communicative learning, Tine uses songs, games and discussions of current events.

English in Africa

Senegal is a country of 14 million people in western Africa. It is among the more peaceful, stable, and democratic countries in Africa. French is the countrys official language. Most Senegalese also speak a local African language, such as Wolof.

English is an official language in 21 African countries, mostly in the eastern part of the continent. Africans in Anglophone countries sometimes have mixed feelings about the language. On the one hand, it is a major advantage to speak the language of globalization. On the other hand, English was imposed on them by British colonialism.

Senegal was a French colony until 1960. Most Senegalese do not connect the English language to colonialism. For them, French is the language of the colonizers. French remains the language of business, government, and education in Senegal.

Mouhamadou Diouf is the president of the English Teachers Association of Senegal. He says English has been gaining ground on French in recent years.

I think the first influence comes from the USA as the leading country. And they see the USA as a success story and they just want to do like them.

Diouf says American culture is widely spread in Senegal. In the 1970s and 80s, American musicians like James Brown and Michael Jackson were very popular. Today young people love rap music.

Diouf says that Senegalese are also inspired by the progress of African Americans -- from slavery to the election of President Barack Obama. Many African Americans have roots in the Senegambia region of Africa. Their ancestors were captured and brought to the New World as slaves. Obama made an emotional visit to the slave port of Goree in 2013.

Diouf says he sometimes has to remind young people that Obama is Americas president, not Senegals.

Challenges in education

Even with an openness toward American culture, few Senegalese can speak fluent English. English is taught as a subject in secondary school, but Senegals public school system is struggling.

A United Nations study says that only about 25 percent of Senegalese graduate from high school. Only about 42 percent of adults can read and write. Diouf is especially concerned about the quality of education in rural areas.

Sometimes you have over 100 in a class, which makes it impossible to have what we call communicative activities, group work, because the noise it will bring about. The second thing is most of our schools are in very poor areas, with no access to computers, no access even to electricity, even electricity is a problem for 50 percent of our schools, so let alone having access to [the] Internet.

Robin Hinders teaches English courses at the University of Thies. She is an English Language Fellow, supported the U.S. Department of State.

Many times when you ask a student, Why do you want to learn English? the first response I almost always hear is, I love English! I like it because it makes me feel happy when I speak English.

Hinders says people on the street often approach her and want to speak English.

One of her many local friends is Faly, a tea seller at the bus station. He has taught himself basic English. Faly, who cannot walk, is happy when Hinders sits down at his table for tea.

Faly: Robin! You sit down.

Robin: Your children are happy?

Faly: Very happy

Robin: And theyre healthy?

Faly: Very healthy

Robin: Good. Im glad.

Faly: And you?

Robin: Im fine.

Faly: Your family?

Robin: Everybody is good.

A key to success

In addition to Hinders fellowship, the U.S. Department of State supports several educational exchange programs in Senegal. One program is called the Young African Leaders Initiative or YALI. The YALI program brings sub-Saharan Africans to the U.S. for leadership training. English fluency is required for all candidates.

Eran Williams is the Regional English Language Officer for the U.S. Embassy in Senegal.

Were bringing young African leaders from every country in Africa to the United States to study, to meet with other Africans, to meet with the president. And were only bringing people who speak English. So countries like Senegal, Francophone countries, need a lot more help in preparing their candidates for the YALI program.

The YALI program is looking for students like Jean Celestinn. He is a member of the English Club of Fandene. He always sits in the front of the classroom and pays extra close to Tines lessons. He says English is the passport of our future.

I realize that English is the one language in the world. Everywhere you go you will meet people that speak English. And if you dont know, if you cannot speak English, you will have some problem.

Tine closes the English lesson with a famous childrens song.

If youre happy and you know it

Then youll really want to show it

If youre happy and you know it

Clap your hands

Im John Russell

And Im Ashley Thompson.

Adam Brock wrote and reported this story from Senegal. Hai Do was the editor.

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Words in This Story

donkey cart  n. a cart with an underslung axle and two lengthwise seats

baobab  n. a short tree with an enormously thick trunk and large edible fruit.

typical  adj. normal for a person, thing, or group : average or usual

elbow  n. the joint where your arm bends

tuition  n. money paid to attend school

communicative learning  n. an approach to language teaching that emphasizes speaking and interaction as both the means and the ultimate goal of study.

Anglophone  adj. English-speaking

impose  v. to establish or create (something unwanted) in a forceful or harmful way

colonialism  n. control by one country over another area and its people

Senegambia - n. a region of western Africa watered by the Senegal and Gambia Rivers

fellowship  n. an amount of money to pay for food, housing, etc., that is given to someone who teaches or does research at a university

Francophone  adj. French-speaking
Chinese author Cao Wenxuan recently releases his new novel, The Eye of the Dragonfly. Photos provided to China Daily

Oceane, a French girl, met Du Meixi, a Chinese sailor, at a cafe in Marseilles in 1925 and followed him to Shanghai to inherit his family's silk business nearly 15 years later.

But as war and hunger invaded their lives, the couple tried to deal with the situation with as much dignity as possible, finally departing during the "cultural revolution" (1966-76).

This is from The Eye of the Dragonfly, a novel by Cao Wenxuan, who is the first winner of the Hans Christian Andersen Award from China. The novel debuted in People's Literature magazine in June and was published more recently as an individual book by Phoenix Juvenile and Children's Publishing.

The story has been in the author's mind for long.

The market reacted zealously to Cao's new work. More than 600 copies of the magazine signed by the author were booked within a month, editors from People's Literature say.

"I'm a bit overwhelmed with the many interviews and events since returning from Bologna (the Italian city where the international award for children's literature was announced), but I'm trying to fulfill some of the appointments I made before that trip," Cao says.

Oceane's granddaughter A Mei is featured as the main character in the novel. To her, granny is a "typical Shanghai-style elegant elderly lady who speaks and even bargains in the local dialect, but once she smiles, she returns to being a French lady".

"Cao's work shows that children's perspectives are not shallow, and that they experience the same cruelty, fear and depth of life as us (adults)," says Eric Abrahamsen, editor of Pathlight, the magazine's English version.

The story, spanning some 40 years, begins in the French port city and moves to Shanghai, where it is largely set, and later to Yibin, a riverside town along the Yangtze River in Southwest China's Sichuan province.
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LEXINGTON, Neb. - The Lexington City Council gave final approval Tuesday to an agreement with the Islamic Center of Lexington, clearing the way for the mosque to continue in its present location in downtown Lexington.

The terms of the agreement will also serve to limit the impact the mosque has on parking in the downtown area as well as protect the interests of a neighboring bar and grill.

Along with the city granting the Islamic Center a conditional use permit, the terms of the agreement include:

 A 200-person occupancy limit for the mosque

 The allocation of 67 parking spots in downtown Lexington for the mosque. The mosque doesnt own or have exclusive rights to the spots, but is allowed to use them and count them toward parking required by zoning laws

 The mosque will not contest any special designated liquor permit applications or the like within 150 feet of the church

 The city will drop a lawsuit it filed against the Islamic Center seeking an injunction preventing them from worshipping in parts of the building at 401 N. Grant Street

 The mosque will comply with all building codes

Its important to realize this agreement came about from a lot of negotiation between the parties, said City Attorney Brian Copley. Along with the conditional use permit, the parties will sign an agreement releasing each other from damages like fines or attorneys fees.

Islamic Center attorney Claude Berreckman Jr. addressed the council, saying that while not everyone may agree, he sees the situation as a win for both sides.

Prior to the councils vote, Kristie Tepley, the owner of Teps Bar and Grill which neighbors the mosque, voiced some concerns. She noted that the Islamic Center had previously ignored city zoning rules and regulations about occupying certain portions of the building at 401 N. Grant.

This has come before the planning commission and city council multiple times and it was denied. When it didnt suit their agenda, none of the rules applied, Tepley said. I have a feeling this agreement isnt worth the paper its printed on.

Mayor John Fagot said Lexington is one of many communities around the country grappling with situations like this. He said the circumstances of this issue, including the intervention on the mosques behalf by the ACLU and the existence of the federal Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Person Act (RLUIPA), limited the citys options.

Copley noted that while the Islamic Center didnt abide by local zoning laws, they did abide by their interpretation of RLUIPA, which among other things prevents governments from discriminating against religious organizations.

We are under federal inquiry about our zoning regulations due to this issue, Copley said, and there is a lawsuit in Dawson County District Court that could be removed to federal court. I do not think it is in the communitys best interests to spend the resources and most importantly man-power to continue with it.

He continued, Now we will have a signed agreement that says we can revoke the conditional use permit if the terms arent met. This is a good thing for Lexington. It doesnt fit with the vision for downtown Lexington, or with the land use in the area, but under the circumstances I think its a fair plan.

Members of the Islamic Center were on hand and verbally reinforced that they would honor their agreement with the city.

Tepley thanked Copley for clarifying and said after the meeting his explanation did make her feel more confident that her business would be able to operate unhindered.

The council voted 4-0 (Fagot, John Salem, Linda Miller, and Jeremy Roberts all in favor) to grant the conditional use permit and sign the agreement with the Islamic Center.
Doesnt it seem like some people in this world were just meant to do something? Its like they were born to do what they do, and they just rock at it. This absolutely seems like the case with 56-year-old Army Veteran, Bert Leaverton. Here is her story.

Leaverton joined the Military in 1978, and left for basic training straight out of high school. She was in the National Guard and Army Reserves for just over 25 years, and just as she was ready to retire, she was called up for deployment to Iraq. Unfortunately, this happened at the same time her husband was being deployed to Bosnia, so they were forced to make living arrangements for their 15-year-old son at the time. Luckily, Leavertons sister was able to come to the rescue. She moved into the Leaverton home to care for their son, and took on the role as his legal guardian. After a 15-month deployment, Leaverton retired from the Military as a Sergeant First Class, and she returned home to her family.

Upon returning fromIraq, Leaverton and her husband were both changed people, making it a very trying time for her family. She admits that she didnt even realize anything was wrong mentally, until she went back to work. Leaverton spent several years working in the foodservice industry, before recognizing that she needed help and needed to choose a different path of work for herself.

When you come back with both your arms and both your legs and youre still a whole person, you dont realize how it affects you internally and mentally until youre put in that situation and triggers come up, she explains.

She continues, I really didnt realize how much was pent up inside of me until a guy got too close to my personal space at work and I tried to choke him out. And when that happened, I wasnt there at the moment. It was like I was - I cant even really explain it - it was like I had a blackout, but for that few seconds, I was ready to take this guy out.

During this time in Leavertons life, along with unexpectedly coming face-to-face with her PTSD, the company she worked for was transitioning and not retaining her. With her elderly mother living with the Leavertons, rather than looking for another job in the food service industry, she decided to take her life in an entirely different direction. She decided to go to college to get a degree in something that she absolutely loves - fine art photography - and then become self-employed using this degree.

If youre wondering what made Leaverton so interested in the field of fine art photography, it was all of her life experiences, good and bad, that got her hooked. I started a journal while still in the states and continued writing for most of my deployment, she explains. I wasnt with my own unit, and my journal and film camera became the closest thing to my soul while in this foreign land. I purchased my first digital camera in Baghdad,Iraqa Canon 2.0 mega pixel camera that soon became as much as a part of daily wear as my dog tags.

Leaverton enrolled in the Photography program at a local college, and this is where the real work started. She shares with us, I dont even know what started me looking at dioramas, but my husband had a GI Joe that I bought him that was from the early 60s and I had a Barbie that was from 1960, so for something controversial, I put these two together on an area that was sandy and grassy with snow in the background that had tanks and little military men. I didnt have a lot of space to work with, but because of the various sizes, I was able to make it look like the depth of field had changed. And without even realizing it, it was the very first diorama I ever created.

For Leavertons final portfolio class, she elected to build upon the diorama idea and started collecting miniature resin soldiers, building structures, and finding models in 1/35 scale to complete this last class. It was through an accomplished art instructor and Veterans art advocate, Troy Muller that Leavertons work was noticed. Muller offered Leaverton her very first exhibition admiring the portfolio she shared that day. One piece of advice that Muller gave to Leaverton was to never stop creating her art. Through the Veterans Vocational Rehabilitation program, the idea of a business arose. Leaverton explained that while she never thought of doing anything with her toy soldiers or her passion, it would actually serve her quite well to do this.

What it did is it made me go back. I journaled my year that I was gone. So it made me go back and look at some of the dates and see some things I was involved in, whether they were good, bad, or indifferent. It was a year that was very humbling to me. I came home with not just these memories but also with photographs of the Iraqi people; the people we were there to help.

At first, Leaverton was skeptical about how this project would affect her mental health: Is it going to bother me to go back and reread this journal? Because there were things in there - you know - I talked about my worst days. There were the days I hated, the days I didnt want to be there, the days I didnt want to be in charge, the days I was deathly sick.

But after some careful consideration and positive outlook, Leaverton knew that the project was going to be beneficial to her overall: Going back over that stuff... its like, you know... I can put it back into my images and be here doing this by myself. It was art therapy for me.

And so it began this new and exciting chapter of Leavertons life. She continued steadily creating dioramas with her miniature soldiers and other unique props, all in the comfort of her own basement against an old limestone wall, as it is easy to control all of the lighting there.

Although it was a bit more difficult than she had imagined to get this project off the ground, it did eventually pick up. Leaverton started being featured in exhibitions where she could display her unique fine art photography. She also chose to do an entrepreneurship program at Purdue University so that she could engage with and help other veterans, rather than just showing off her art. Her hope was that other veterans would see the positive effect that this work has had on her life, and in turn, be inspired to find a passion of their own to have the same positive effect on their lives someday.

Im gonna continue doing what Im doing right now because Im not done with it. Im glad that I have a supportive husband and that he has accepted my mom to be able to live with us. Its not easy with just having one income. He knows Im a starving artist, but hopefully it will do something before I die. Thats all I can say about that! Leaverton jokes.

Bert Leavertons next art exhibition is on display through September 16 at the Bemus Center of Contemporary Arts inOmaha, where nine of her images will be featured. For more information on this event, visit http://www.bemiscenter.org/art/exhibitions/2016.html. Be sure to visit the Bert Leaverton Fine Art Photography website www.bertleaverton.com.

Or, to reach out to Leaverton directly, you can send her an email at rileaverton@gmail.com.

Fortunately, with the help of the VA Accelerator Program www.vaaccelerator.com, Leavertons dreams are achievable. The VA Accelerator Program is currently in the process of raising capital to fund the organization to give back to even more disabled veterans. They are looking for anywhere between $130,000 and $300,000 to continue assisting veterans. If youd like to help, or if youd like more information on the program, you can directly visit the campaign page at www.aboutgiving.org.
LEXINGTON, Neb.  Coming back to Lexington on June 18 for the Lexington Alumni Banquet was a special occasion for Janna Peyton, a graduate of the Class of 1966.

Formerly known as Janna Guyer during her high school years, Peyton said she hadnt returned to Lexington in decades when she came back for a prior class reunion.

Peyton, is a retired teacher who lives in Tucson, Ariz., with her husband David. Her life story, hardships, and her experience coming back to her hometown of Lexington are starkly different than your average alumni.

Born in Lexington and having lived on 1212 North Washington Street, close to the current middle school, Peyton was diagnosed with polio at the age of one.

After spending four months at St.FrancisHospital in Grand Island, Peyton said she was released home with her parents, paralyzed by her bout with polio.

My mother woke me up from a nap and I was limp as a rag doll. I was completely paralyzed from the neck down. I got polio when I was one, we were riding the big polio siege, she said.

At the age of three, her mother, Evelyn Guyer (her father was H. Burman Guyer) took her to Warm Springs, Ga., to the RooseveltPolioCenter. It was there that Peyton received surgery that allowed her to gain movement and feeling back in her arms.

At three, she was able to walk with crutches all her life until 1999 when she transitioned to moving about in a wheelchair, she said.

Peyton said she remembers being embarrassed at the junior high school having other female students carry her books up the stairs as male students linked arms in the firemens lift formation, to provide a seat for her as they carried her up the stairs.

The girls were very good about carrying my books. It was very embarrassing at the time. So many guys at the reunion said, I remember carrying you up and down the stairs at the junior high school, Peyton said.

Always an independent spirit, Peyton said she always walked about a block from her home to school. Her parents installed low special steps to allow her to get out of and into the house safely, she said.

After graduation from LHS in 1966, Peyton attended Kearney State College, now known as the University of Nebraska at Kearney. She was a business education major. She moved to Tucson, Ariz., in 1970 after obtaining her bachelors degree from KSC.

Peyton later obtained her masters degree in Reading in 1976 and taught English and reading classes. She served for 12 years as a high school teacher teaching business subjects, typing and shorthand.

Her education in business paid off for Peyton, who started her own business, the Tucson Society for the Blind, which is still running although she is no longer involved with it.

In 1987, Peytons life changed dramatically. She was diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa, a denigration of the retinas in her eyes. Her eyesight would then deteriorate until she went totally blind in 1999.

I woke up and looked in the mirror (1999) and Janna wasnt there anymore, she said about realizing she was blind.

In the years before going blind, Peyton said she was involved in three car accidents and noticed that her side or peripheral vision was diminishing. Suspecting her vision might fail her one day, Peyton begin taking vocational rehab years before her blindness set in, she said.

When I think of all the pollution in the world and how girls dress now-a-days, Im glad I cant see it, Peyton said.

Even though her husband helps her a lot getting around, Peyton said she gladly goes to her own appointments and events via wheelchair or bus because she wants her husband to be her spouse and not her caregiver.

Peyton said she was thankful to be blessed with a supportive family, husband and God. She and David will celebrate their 45th Wedding Anniversary in December.

Without God I dont think you can exist. I have to wake up everyday and trust in Him, Peyton said.

A poem titled A Tribute to Janna

A poem written by Peytons first cousin Dean Henricks for her 50th birthday is listed below. It includes some hints into Peytons personality and biography.

There was a little girl, who came to live with Burman and Evelyn, his wife. By the set of her jaw, she showed that she would have a lot of courage in her life.

When the doctors delivered baby Janna, they were so glad to get another little girl, they were the happiest parents in the world.

Soon the dreaded polio, brought anguish to their dream, but they didnt give up, they all stuck together like a team.

How many things they did to help her, no one will ever know! From the trips to the Warm Springs of Georgia, to the wheelchair stuck in Nebraskas ice and snow.

In grade school, high school and college, Janna made a lot of friends. They have always tried to help her, and stuck with her to the end.

She had two very special cousins, their names were Pat and Rae. They were always quick to help, through many a trying day.

They were as faifthful as Old Faithful, and as steady as Gibralter, and they all worked together, with a faith that would never falter.

Her husband, David, proved his colors were true blue. He deserves a Congressional Medal of Honor, for all hes been through.

Poor eyesight and wheelchairs, have always had a special place. She loves to help the handicapped, and she does it with a grace.

Cowards never started and the weak died on the way, Franklin D. Roosevelt said it was so. But Janna certainly had a lot of courage or she would have died long ago.

And when you get to heaven, Im very sure youll find there are no wheelchairs in heaven, or classes for the blind.

50th Class Reunion

She said coming back to Lexington for her 50 year class reunion was a wonderful experience. Peyton said she bonded with classmates, toured her former hometown and was constantly kept busy.

Its great to see my classmates. My challenge is I was not able to see them. I pictured them young and beautiful as they were in 1966, she said.

She said her husband introduced her to her classmates and described them.

The weekend in Lexington was filled with activities planned by and facilitated by the alumni members, she said.

On Friday, the Peytons attended a BBQ at the District 22 building, where her mother used to teach elementary students. Peytons mother taught eight of her classmates. Peyton attended elementary school at PershingElementary School.

On Saturday, alumni visited the DawsonCountyHistoricalMuseum. The evening was spent at the alumni banquet at the cafeteria of LexingtonMiddle School, she said.

Another event was a lunch tour on a bus through Lexington, Peyton said.

I kept telling David, this wasnt there, Oh David it is so changed, she said about the tour of Lexington.

She said Lexington has grown and become more diverse, with the downtown area changed dramatically since she lived in Lexington.

A tear jerking moment of the alumni banquet was when Jeannine (Batie) Nelsen, an alumni, presented 22 quilts to alumni who are military veterans, Peyton said.

Im pretty well adapted to being blind. Im thankful to God to have had sight, so now I have all those memories.
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The days when we could get excited about a $150 Android tablet are long gone. These days you can find Windows 10 tablets for about half that price.

Of course, you cant get a very good Windows tablet for $80 but that doesnt mean you have to break the bank to get a high-quality Windows tablet. Right now Micro Center is selling a Microsoft Surface Pro 4 model with a Core i5 Skylake processor for $750 and students with an .edu email address can get it for just $600.

Here are some of the days best deals.

You can find more bargains in our daily deals section.
Chinese device maker Xiaomi is launching its first laptop computers. The Mi Notebook Air is a Windows 10 laptop with a 1080p display and an Intel Skylake processor that comes in two sizes: theres a 12.5 inch model thats priced at 3,499 yuan ($525) and a 13.3 inch version with more powerful specs that sells for 4,999 yuan ($750).

Like a lot of Xiaomi products, the Mi Notebook Air borrows a bit from Apples playbook. Its named like a MacBook Air and it looks a lot like a MacBook. But its far cheaper than any notebook Apple currently offers.

Xiaomi is probably best known for its smartphones. But in recent years the company has branched out into tablets, wearables, wireless routers, headphones, TVs, and even pens.

There have been rumors for years that the company had its eye on the laptop space. Now it looks like those rumors were accurate.

Xiaomis 13.3 inch model packs some impressive specs for a $750 laptop. It measures 0.6 inches thick, weighs about 2.8 pounds, and features an Intel Core i5-6200U processor and NVIDIA GeForce 940MX graphics. It has 8GB of RAM, 256GB of PCIe solid state storage, and a 40Wh battery that Xiaomi says is good for up to 9.5 hours of run time.

The 12.5 inch Mi Notebook Air measures 0.5 inches thick, weighs about 2.4 pounds, and features an Intel Core M3 processor, 4GB of RAM, and a 128GB SATA SSD. It has a USB 3.0 port, an HDMI port, and a USB Type-C port. Xiaomi says the laptop should get up to 11.5 hours of battery life.

Both laptops run Windows 10 software, feature backlit keyboards and metal bodies, and use a USB Type-C port for charging.

Xiaomis first laptops will be available in China starting August 2nd. Xiaomi hasnt announced plans to sell them in any other markets yet, but I suspect it wont take long for resellers to start exporting them to folks willing to pay a little extra to ship the Chinese notebooks to overseas addresses. Unlike Xiaomi smartphones, which often lack full support for wireless networks in the United States, the Mi Notebook Air laptops should work just as well in the US as they do in China.
With the municipal elections next week, there has been a great deal in the news about different forecasts and polls that have been running. It may be useful to reflect on whether polls provide more than dinner party conversation and fuel for expert commentary.

The current race to the White House in the USA has been dramatic in many ways, and news about that election is likely to dominate international headlines until November. In particular, in the last UK general election, pollsters got it horribly wrong and they misfired again in the Brixit forecasts, based on polls that proved to be mainly wrong. There may not be the same level of poll fixation in South Africa, but its certain that many people are deeply concerned about the outcome, and what that may mean for the future in South Africa.

One of the things that people look for in the media coverage in the US  more so perhaps than anywhere else, and certainly more intensely so than has traditionally been the case in South Africa  has been what the polls are saying. In addition to headline reports and discussions about how accurate the polls are (or how accurate they were after the event), there are also discussions about how political polling as a political barometer is conducted in an environment where communication channels are changing rapidly, and where it is important to find appropriate ways to reach representative samples of the voting public who can participate in quick turn-around polling projects.

Political polling is in many ways no different than other quick turn-around marketing research projects, but at the same time it has also become a highly specialised field where the race is often to squeeze the last drop of credibility out of available resources.

Looking at polls from a methodological point of view, one could argue that they are about as accurate as throwing darts at a newspaper front page, simply because nobody knows how many people will vote, let alone which candidate they will vote for.

A large part of the reason for this is that their measurements are based on the fiction of attempting to represent a population using statistical theory that assumes a random probability where each element in the population has a known (usually equal) chance of being selected.

In the early days of polling in both the US and UK, polls have traditionally been considered reasonably accurate. But this assumption no longer holds because telephones (AKA landlines), which were almost universally distributed across the population, have been replaced by mobile phones for which random digit dialling doesnt exist.

So, methodologically, polling is now less reliable because of the lack of a reliable way of randomly accessing a representative sample.

There are two things that we may think about in the future

One is to rather measure change directly and preselect people who voted last time and intend to vote this time. In other words, panels may be part of the answer. Online panels do not represent the total universe, at best only 45% (the portion of the population that accesses the internet), but measure change of choice by individual over a period of time.

A second is to measure volatility of intention of segments of the population. It means measuring to what extent will people vote differently from the way that they previously voted, rather than just who they intend to vote for. To illustrate this idea, Panel Services Africa used their panel to measure peoples Intentions using this approach. Launching on Monday, 25 July the results presented below were obtained on Tuesday, 26 July.

While only 301 panellists were interviewed, the results suggest that a high voter turnout amongst people who access the internet regularly would favour the DA

*Note that Bizcommunity staff and management do not necessarily share the views of its contributors - the opinions and statements expressed herein are solely those of the author.*
The global Jack Daniel's Barrel Hunt will come to South Africa, as part of the distillery's 150th anniversary. It is a global scavenger hunt to find 150 handcrafted barrels located at historic and cultural sites.

Two of these 150 barrels will be hidden in different locations in South Africa and Jack Daniels, together with KFM and 947, will be providing clues to help fans find them and stand the chance to win the prizes concealed inside. The contents are valued at over R150,000 each and include all-expenses paid trips to Lynchburg, Tennessee, to be part of the 150th distillery anniversary celebration, and to New York to learn more about the New York bar and American whiskey culture.

To find the barrel hidden in the city of gold, Jozi fans will need to listen to Aneles show on 947 on Friday 5 August and follow the Jack Daniels Tennessee Whiskey Facebook page. The Facebook page will be integral to helping fans locate the barrels at the secret locations.

After the final clue has been given, the first 50 fans to crack the clue and reach the secret location  bringing with them the password and proof of passport, will each receive a key to open the barrel. Meanwhile, in Cape Town, KFM DJ Rob Vember will keep fans in suspense with clues on Friday 19 August before the final dash to find the second barrel. In both cities, only one key opens each barrel.

Jack Daniels has commissioned +NESS to create a series of works that display the facades of different locations, which will form the clues that ultimately uncover the whereabouts of the two SA-based barrels. Masters at their craft  depicting architectural projects that help define the skylines, culture and history of South African cities  South African artists Max Melvill and Jamil Randera are the duo that make up +NESS. Fans can look out for digital versions of these on Facebook.com/Jack Daniels Tennessee Whiskey and the limited edition series will be among the prizes inside the two barrels.

For more information, go to www.jackdanielsbarrelhunt.com.
New Delhi: As a new Harry Potter will appear on bookshelves after nine years, avid fans are leaving no stone unturned to welcome the much anticipated eighth saga.

When Harry Potter and the Cursed Child hits the bookshelves on 31 July at 11.30 am (global release), the fever will be at its peak going by the fanfare it has created.

"Once again this is going to be a publishing sensation as the magic continues from where it left off in book seven. The rave reactions from fans, post the London previews clearly indicate that this is another classic Harry Potter," said Thomas Abraham, Managing Director of Hachette India, the publisher.

From fan events to parties in bookstores and popular hubs in metros to other cultural shows, Potter fans want to make it a memorable experience.

The eighth story begins where the seventh book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows concludes. While Harry grapples with a past that refuses to stay where it belongs, his youngest son Albus must struggle with the weight of a family legacy he never wanted. As past and present fuse ominously in the new book, both father and son learn the uncomfortable truth: sometimes darkness comes from unexpected places.

While Delhi will see a series of events organised by Potter lovers, Chennai, Mumbai and Bangalore are also not lagging behind.

For the fans, Hachette India is also organising a contest, and the two lucky fans will win a limited edition author-signed copy of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Parts 1 and 2. The contest will end on 5 August.

Also read: Harry Potter and the Cursed Child: Check out these magical images from the play

While Cafe Red in Shahpur Jat is hosting Harry Potter and the Fragrant Latte, an evening of board games, coffee, and magical conversations on 31 July, KoolSkool in Gurgaon will be decked up to celebrate the release. Fans can drop in to buy a copy and attend the quizzes.

For Mumbaikars, Landmark Bookstores will be celebrating with delectable cake and other activities and Crossword Kemps Corner has an exciting day planned for its customers. Fans can relish yummy Potter-themed cupcakes, magical music, quizzes and much more.

Chennai fans can join Crossword in Alwarpet to celebrate the launch with exciting contests and a scavenger hunt. Starmark Bookstore and Phoenix Market City Mall are also pulling out the stops for Potter fans.

Bengaluru's dedicated fans can look forward to an exciting evening party at Lightroom Bookstore in Cooke Town.
Ever since it was announced, Kamal Haasan's film Sabaash Naidu has been in the news.

Initially, it was because the actor was teaming up with his daughter Shruti Haasan for the very first time, for a film. Then, it was Sabaash Naidu's US schedule that had fans interested.

However, in recent months, the project has been plagued by one hurdle after another.

It began with director TK Rajeev Kumar having to opt out of the project because he was diagnosed with Lyme Disease. Kamal stepped into the breach and took up the director's mantle himself.

Then, just when things were beginning to get back on track, there was more trouble  this time because Sabaash Naidu's editor James Joseph pulled out. Joseph's wife had an accident, and he had to rush back from the US to be by her side.

That isn't all  reports in various media outlets suggested that Kamal was unhappy with the work of cinematographer Jaya Krishna Gummadi, because the latter was unable to deal with the simultaneous shooting of Sabaash Naidu in Tamil, Telugu and Hindi.

It wasn't just the changing line-up among the technical crew that beset Sabaash Naidu  Kamal himself suffered an injury that took very long to heal.

With so many unforeseen issues, Sabaash Naidu  which was supposed to release this September  has now been pushed to a 2017 release.

In a report dated 12 July in The Hindu, Kamal said that about 42 minutes of the film  in all the three language versions  were complete, including the post-production. Kamal's younger daughter Akshara is also helping with the filming.

The delay has prompted speculation that another long-awaited film of Kamal's  Vishwaroopam 2  may see a theatrical release before Sabaash Naidu. However, Vishwaroopam 2 has also been in limbo for a while as its rights are with producer Aascar Ravichandran.

Sabaash Naidu is based on the character of Balram Naidu from Kamal's previous film Dasavatharam.
Rajinikanth's Tamil action drama Kabali on Tuesday entered the Rs 200 crore club worldwide and the elated superstar thanked his fans and everybody else associated with the film for making it a success.

"It's the fastest south Indian film to rake in over Rs 200 crore at the box-office worldwide in just five days. As on Tuesday, Kabali has grossed Rs 205 crore and this includes the three languages in which the film was released," trade analyst Trinath told IANS.

In India, in its opening weekend, the film minted over Rs 100 crore.

"In the domestic market, the film collected a whopping Rs 128 crore from the opening weekend. It's the best ever opening for a south Indian film," he said.

Directed by Pa Ranjith, Kabali narrates the story of a gangster's shot at redemption and how he fights for equal pay rights for Tamils in Malaysia.

In a handwritten letter, Rajinikanth extended gratitude to fans, producer Kalaipuli S Thanu, director Ranjith, theatre owners and distributors, for the grand success of his latest outing.

"My heartfelt gratitude to all those who made Kabali successful. From the producer to director to fans and to the media, I thank each and every one of them," Rajinikanth said.

In the letter, he also wrote about his US sabbatical.

"Since I was working non-stop on Kabali, and Shankar's 2.o, I was required to take mental and physical rest. Hence, I went on a two-month long trip with my daughter, Aishwarya Dhanush, and during which time I had undergone a few medical tests," he said, and added that he feels revitalized and motivated now.

Although Rajinikanth heard about the success of Kabali in the US, he said: "To see and experience in person gives me immense happiness."

He signs off his letter with his now famous line from Kabali 'Magizchi'.

While all his fans were touched by Thalaivaa's gesture, they could not help notice that he has written this letter from a time in future. In an inadvertent mistake he has dated the letter as 26 July 2017.

#Rajinikanth's Thankyou letter to his fans, cast & crew of #Kabali. He is ahead of his time. One year to be precise pic.twitter.com/RpaQFIkcfJ  T S Sudhir (@Iamtssudhir) July 26, 2016

With inputs from IANS
On Tuesday India lost its arbitration case in an international tribunal against Bengaluru-based Devas Multimedia Private Ltd for cancelling its space/satellite contract with the government-owned Antrix Corporation. This is the second international tribunal to rule against the Indian government in the Antrix-Devas scam, and questions how the government will react to the judgment especially since it was trying to avoid a potentially dangerous scam when it cancelled its deal with Devas in 2011.

In the earlier decision in 2015, the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) tribunal found unanimously that Antrix's repudiation of the contract was unlawful, and awarded Devas damages and pre-award interest of approximately 672 million US dollars, plus post-award annual interest accruing at 18 percent until the award is paid in full.

In a statement, Devas said, "A Permanent Court of Arbitration tribunal has found that the government of India's actions in annulling a contract between Devas and Antrix Corporation Ltd, and denying Devas commercial use of S-band spectrum, constituted an expropriation."

The Hague-based tribunal, which regularly takes cases involving states, including investment treaty claims brought under arbitration rules of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL), also found that India breached its treaty commitments to accord fair and equitable treatment to Devas's foreign investors.

15 things you should know about this deal:

1. The Antrix-Devas scam is one of the most serious crisis Isro has faced in its history. The other one was when in 1994 two of Isro's scientists were accused of espionage. The charges were dropped afterwards as the accusation turned out to be false.

2. The deal between Antrix and Devas was signed in 2005 when G Madhavan Nair was at the helm of affairs in the Department of Space (DoS). He later blamed the UPA-2 government for things going south in the deal.

3. As per the agreement, Antrix was to provide 70 MHz of the scarce S-Band space segment to Devas for its digital multimedia services. Antrix was to lease satellite transponders to Devas for allowing it to offer digital multimedia services using the S-band wavelength (spectrum), reserved for strategic purpose.

4. This was to be done by leasing 90 percent of the transponders in satellites GSAT-6 and GSAT-6A that are proposed to be launched by Isro. Devas, in turn, was to pay Antrix a total of 300 million US dollars over 12 years. The aim of the project was to provide broadband wireless services to the remote areas of India.

5. However, the deal failed to take off, as the then Manmohan Singh-led government in 2011 said the project was already under review and action has been initiated for termination of the contract.

6. The scandal first came to light when in 2011, The Hindu reported that there were some irregularities in the agreement between Antrix and Devas. They reported the findings of a draft audit report and pointed out discrepancies including financial mismanagement, conflict of interest, non-compliance of rules, and favouritism. This revelation came at the heel of the 2G spectrum scam which was condemned for the high-level of corruption.

7. The government finally cancelled the deal on 17 February, 2011. Devas then took Antrix and the Government to International Court for cancelling its contract by the Cabinet Committee on Security in 2011.

8. After arbitration proceeding began in June 2013, Devas claimed $1.6 billion in damages.

9. Antrix filed an arbitration suit in Bengaluru in November 2015 against the September 2015 order of the ICC arbitration court asking Antrix to pay damages of $672 million to Devas Multimedia.

10. The Department of Space (DoS), in a statement, said that in the award, issued on "jurisdiction and merits on 25 July, 2016", the tribunal has said that the Indian government's essential security interest provisions "do apply in this case to an extent" and the "limited liability of compensation shall be limited to 40 percent of the value of the investment" but the precise quantum has not been determined as yet.

11. Devas Multimedia is suspected to have received foreign direct investment (FDI) of Rs 578.54 crore between May 2006 and June 2010 from various overseas investors, but the share subscription agreements it entered with them contained clauses contrary to the conditions specified in the approvals granted by Foreign Investment Promotion Board.

12. Devas Multimedia was also charged with contravening the FDI regulations under Fema for assuring foreign investors an annual eight per cent priority dividend in addition to other dividends on cumulative basis, and for one tranche of receipt of funds, issuing a security akin to an External Commercial Borrowing (ECB) promising higher returns than the ceiling fixed by the Reserve Bank of India.

13. The Department of Space said that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has filed an FIR against Devas and other unknown public servants of Antrix/Isro/DoS and it is presently under investigation.

14. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has launched an investigation against Devas and its directors and foreign subsidiaries under Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) and Foreign Exchange Management Act (Fema).

15. Antrix was set up in 1992 to commercialise space products, and was also used as a channel for the transfer of technology. Devas Multimedia was set up by former space engineers from Isro and then was funded by foreign investors some of them from Mauritius.

With inputs from agenices
New Delhi: Bajaj Auto Wednesday reported 13.77 percent increase in consolidated net profit at Rs 1,039.7 crore for the first quarter ended June 30, 2016.

The company had posted a consolidated net profit of Rs 913.86 crore in the same quarter of previous fiscal, Bajaj Auto said in a BSE filing.

Total income from operations during the quarter under review stood at Rs 6,088.75 crore as against Rs 5,881.24 crore in the same period last fiscal, up 3.52 percent.

The company said its total vehicles sales during the quarter declined 2 percent to 9,94,733 units as compared with 10,13,029 units in the corresponding period last fiscal.

Total motorcycle sales were marginally down at 8,72,540 units in the first quarter as against 8,75,235 units in the year-ago period. Domestic bike sales were, however, up 13 percent at 5,48,880 units as against 4,85,818 units in the same period last fiscal.

The company said its total exports declined by 22 percent to 3,70,649 units as against 4,76,496 units in the same quarter last fiscal.

Bajaj Auto cited input cost pressure and headwinds in export markets as challenges during the quarter.

Shares of Bajaj Auto were trading at Rs 2,701.95 apiece in the afternoon trade, up 1.19 per cent from the previous close on BSE.
New Delhi: Telecom major Bharti Airtel today reported around 31 per cent decline in consolidated net profit at Rs 1,462 crore for the first quarter of 2016-17 mainly due to high capital expenditure during the period.

The company had reported a net profit of Rs 2,113.2 crore in the same period a year ago.

"Net Income for the quarter stands at Rs 1,462 crore compared to Rs 2,113 crore in corresponding quarter last year. Q1'16 Net Income of Rs 2,113 crore has been re-instated to Ind-AS from previously reported IFRS figures which includes an exceptional gain of Rs 556 crore on account of this reinstatement," Airtel said in a statement.

As per IFRS format, the net profit was Rs 1,554.3 crore in April-June 2015-16.

Total consolidated income from operations of Airtel in the reported quarter increased by 7.9 per cent to Rs 25,572.9 crore from Rs 23,680.8 crore in the year-ago period.

The consolidated revenues in the reported quarter grew on an underlying basis, adjusted for Africa divested operating unit and tower assets sale, the statement said.

Consolidated mobile data revenues at Rs 4,640 crore grew by 34.1 per cent on year-on-year basis.

Its capital expenditure spiked 23 per cent year-on-year to Rs 4,925 crore in the quarter under review.

Airtel said that its India revenues for in the reported quarter grew by 10.3 per cent at Rs 19,155 crore compared to corresponding period of 2015-16 due to healthy growth of 9.1 per cent in Mobile, 11 per cent in Homes Services, 22.2 per cent in Digital TV and 10.4 per cent in Airtel Business on yearly basis.

"The year has begun well with revenue growth of 10.3 per cent Y-o-Y and continued revenue market share gains. In continuation of our Project Leap announcement, we have now transparently opened up our entire mobile network to our customers," Bharti Airtel MD and CEO for India and South Asia Gopal Vittal said.

The company's consolidated net debt excluding the deferred payment liabilities to the Department of Telecom and finance lease obligations decreased to Rs 46,534.92 crore (USD 6,891 million) from Rs 50,316.6 crore (USD 7,451 million) in the previous quarter.

The net debt of the company at the end of June 30, 2015 was Rs 68,134.5 crore.

However, there was increase in net interest cost. "Net interest costs of Rs 1,631 crore have risen from Rs

1,124 crore in the corresponding quarter last year largely due to higher spectrum interest costs," Airtel said. Mobile Data revenues of Airtel in India grew by 35.1 per cent to Rs 3,500 crore from Rs 3,525 crore in a year led by increase in the data customer base by 19.1 per cent and traffic by 54.9 per cent.

Mobile Broadband customers increased by 68.3 per cent to 36.6 million from 21.7 million in the corresponding quarter last year. The company reported customer base of over 255 million in India at end of April-June 2016 quarter.

Average revenue per user from data service of Airtel in India moved up by Rs 21 y-o-y basis to Rs 202 in the reported quarter.

Mobile Data revenues now contribute to 23.7 per cent Airtel total revenue from mobile services compared to 19.2 per cent in the corresponding quarter last year.

Bharti Airtel had over 357 million customers across its operations at the end of June 2016.
Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical (Group) Co will sign a definitive agreement on Wednesday to buy a controlling stake in Hyderabad-based Gland Pharma in a $1.4 billion deal, the Economic Times newspaper reported, citing a source with direct knowledge.

In May, Shanghai Fosun had made a non-binding proposal to buy Gland Pharma, which is backed by KKR & Co, to boost its drug manufacturing and research and development capacity.

Fosun did not immediately comment, when contacted by Reuters. Gland Pharma made no immediate comment on the report.

The paper said KKR declined to comment.
New Delhi: The cabinet on Wednesday cleared changes in the GST Constitutional Amendment Bill, dropping 1 percent manufacturing tax and providing guarantee to compensate states for any revenue loss in the first five years of rollout of the proposed indirect tax regime.

The cabinet, headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, decided to include in the Constitutional Amendment Bill that

any dispute between states and the Centre will be adjudicated by the GST Council, which will have representation from both the Centre and states.

With states on board and the cabinet approving the amendments, the government is hopeful of passage of the

long-pending Goods and Services Tax (GST) Bill in the ongoing monsoon session of Parliament, which ends on 12 August.

The GST Bill, with the changes approved by the cabinet, could come up in the Rajya Sabha as early as this week, but

certainly by next week.

The changes approved by the cabinet are to the Constitutional Amendment Bill that was approved by Lok Sabha in August last year. Once the Rajya Sabha approves the legislation, the amended Bill will have to go back to the Lok

Sabha again for approval.

"The amendments to the GST Constitutional Amendment Bill have been cleared," a top official said after the meeting of the Union cabinet chaired by Modi.

The amendments were taken up by the cabinet after Finance Minister Arun Jaitley's assurance to state finance ministers to include in the Bill the mechanism of compensating states for all the loss of revenue for five years.

The Bill, in its present form, provides that the Centre will give 100 percent compensation to states for first three years, 75 percent and 50 percent for the next two years.

However, the Select Committee of the Rajya Sabha had in its report recommended 100 percent compensation for probable loss of revenue for five years.

As per the amendments, the Centre will now constitutionally guarantee states any loss of revenue from the GST subsuming all indirect taxes, including VAT, in the first five years of introduction.

By doing away with the 1 percent inter-state tax over and above the GST rate, the government has met one of the

three key demands over which Opposition Congress has been blocking the Bill in the Upper House.

The other demands of including GST rate in the statute and a Supreme Court judge-headed dispute resolution body has

not been accepted. It remains to be seen if meeting of its demands halfway will persuade the Congress to support the legislation.

There is a talk of mentioning the GST rate in one of the two supporting legislations that need to be passed after the Constitution is amended, a move that may pacify the Congress.

The government plans to roll out GST by 1 April, 2017, and is working overtime to build consensus to get the Bill

passed in the ongoing session.

With the Congress demand of getting GST rate capped in the Bill delaying its passage, the Centre on Tuesday built a

broad consensus with the states that the rate should not be mentioned in the Constitution and instead could figure in GST law.

It was also assured that the tax rate in the new regime, which is to be decided by the GST Council, will be less than what it is at present.

"The amendments will pave the way for political consensus and early passage of the Bill in the monsoon session," EY National Leader (indirect tax) Harishanker Subramaniam said.

In the new regime, there will be one Central GST or C-GST and State GST or S-GST. States levy sales tax or VAT on goods sold within their jurisdiction and get a Central Sales Tax (CST) on sales made outside their territories.

This CST will no longer be available in the new regime and a 1 percent additional tax was proposed to make up for

that.

GST being a constitutional amendment requires to be passed by Parliament with two-thirds majority and after that,

50 percent of state assemblies will have to pass the legislation.

Thereafter, Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha will have to pass the Central GST Bill and the states have to pass their own GST Bills.

After the legislative procedure gets over, the GST Council, which will be the decision-making body on all issues,

including rates of the new tax, will come into play.

The Council will be chaired by Union Finance Minister, but Centre's voting share will be one-third and all decisions of the council would be taken by 75 percent majority.

Terming compensation guarantee as a very big development, chairman of the Empowered Committee of State Finance Ministers Amit Mitra had on Tuesday said appropriate wordings on compensation would give confidence to the states regarding the Centre's intention.

"I cannot go into details of the wordings, I can only give you spirit of it. States are satisfied that in the

constitutional amendment, the wording (will be provided) by which states will be guaranteed five years of compensation if there is any loss of revenue," Mitra said.

The GST Bill, which intends to convert 29 states into a single market through a new indirect tax regime, was earlier planned to be introduced from April 1 this year, but the deadline was missed as the legislation to roll it out remains in limbo in the Opposition-dominated Rajya Sabha.

If the legislation is passed in the current monsoon session of Parliament, it can be implemented from 1 April,

2017.

The Congress, which first proposed the constitutional amendment in 2006, is demanding capping the overall rate at 18 percent and scrapping an additional 1 percent tax designed to compensate manufacturing-heavy states that fear losing out revenue once the measure is implemented.

After Parliament approves the constitutional amendment to allow GST, it needs to be ratified by more than half of

states.

After the Constitution Amendment Bill is passed in Parliament, there are three more legislations - Central GST

(CGST), State GST (SGST) and Integrated GST (IGST) - which are require to be passed.
Indias 27 public sector banks (PSBs), which constitute 70 percent of Indias banking sector, have written off Rs 59,547 crore in fiscal year ended March 2016, going by the information given by minister of state for finance, Santosh Kumar Gangwar, in Parliament on Tuesday.

What does it mean? These are the cases where banks have thoroughly failed to make any recovery from the borrowers, largely corporate clients. In other words, Rs 59,547 crore of depositors money has vanished in thin air. Remember, in the last three years (FY13, 14 and 15) banks had together written off Rs 1.14 lakh crore.

This means in just last one year (FY16), PSBs wrote off more than half of the combined loan amount they did in last three years. Of the total loans written off, the countrys largest lender State Bank of India (SBI) alone accounts for Rs 15,763 crore. It is followed by Punjab National Bank (Rs 7,340 crore), IDBI Bank (Rs 5,459 crore) and Canara Bank (Rs 3,387 crore).

According to the minister, 20 nationalised banks have cumulatively written off bad debt worth Rs 38,674 crore, while the same for SBI Group was Rs 20,873 crore. Among the other PSU banks, Indian Overseas Bank (Rs 2,578 crore), Bank of India (Rs 2,374 crore) and Allahabad bank (Rs 2,097 crore).

This information is significant since the write-off numbers arent normally made public. As per the statute, RBI is prohibited from disclosing the borrower wise credit information.

With huge loan write-offs turning an annual affair, the depositors and taxpayers should get worried. Why? Banks have to take huge provisioning hit when they do this, which severely impacts their profitability. Government banks survive on annual capital infusion from the government. In other words, the taxpayers money is used to bail out these banks.

Hence, when these banks write off large chunk of loans, it is the taxpayer which is ultimately taking the hit. In the last nine years, the government has infused Rs 1.18 lakh crore in state-run banks, including the Rs 23,000 crore infused so far this fiscal year. SBI has received the largest pie (Rs 29,000 crore). Has these huge capital infusions translated into efficient use by these lenders? Empirical evidence suggests otherwise.

For decades, state-run banks have epitomised inefficiency and vulnerability to the corporate-political nexus, giving room for cronies and crooks to loot public money. The total gross non-performing assets (GNPAs) of Indian banks currently stand at Rs 6 lakh crore, of which over 90 percent is with PSBs. If one combines this with the restructured loan stock, the total stressed assets in the banking system stands at 11-12 percent.

The recent bank loan clean up exercise initiated by RBI governor, Raghuram Rajan has resulted in many skeletons tumbling out of banks cupboards. Logically, the state-run banks have been the worst hit. In the last two quarters alone (September-March), these lenders have reported Rs 2.26 lakh crore NPAs in public. The question arises. Why these NPAs were not reported all these years? Did it take the RBI to go for the ultimatum (March, 2017) to prompt banks dig out the dirt merrily hidden under their carpets? Crony promoters have been looting the banking system for years making full use of the corporate-political nexus.

According to government data, the total number of wilful defaulters of Public Sector Banks (PSBs) escalated from 5,554 to 7,686 for the period December 2012-December 2015 with the amount involved more than doubling to Rs 66,190 crore from Rs 27,749 crore. Wilful defaulters are those promoters who wouldn't pay back to banks even if they have the ability to do so.

Also, banks merrily pushed loans to the restructured loan basket at the first sign of trouble and retained them as standard assets. Cronies thrived in these technical adjustments since they were still eligible to borrow even more from the same banks or other bank unless tagged as defaulters. It was Rajan who insisted that banks shouldnt postpone todays problem to tomorrow and worsen it.

The RBI withdrew regulatory forbearance on restructured loans, making it mandatory for banks to make provisions on restructured loans at par with bad loans. This forced them to set aside 15 percent of the loan amount as provisions if they decide to go for fresh restructuring. Earlier, banks used to conveniently push many stressed loans, especially in the infrastructure segment, to the restructured loan category to prevent them from slipping into the NPA category.

Rajan also insisted banks to recognise stress in their portfolio early and classify them into special mention accounts (SMAs) depending on the period of repayment delay. Banks were asked to form Joint Lenders Forum and address the problem as a group. In effect, the RBI forced banks to have a clear road map to clean up their balance sheets. He set a deadline of March 2017 for banks to clean up their books.

Is the pain over? It may not be the end of the bad-loan story yet. Even within the loans that are considered standard (where repayments happen promptly), there is a disturbing trend. That is the rise of Special Mention Accounts-2 (SMA-2), where the repayments are overdue for 60 days. This is an issue Firstpost flagged last year.

A loan is tagged an NPA if interest repayments do not take place in 90 days. The SMA slabs were brought in by the RBI to detect early signs of stress in the banking system. The recent rise in the SMA-2 means that there are more good loans that are waiting to turn bad if support doesnt come from economic recovery.

The short point is this: When PSBs do huge write-offs, the taxpayer is taking the real hit. Such bail-outs cannot go on forever.
New Delhi: The government on Tuesday has notified revised pay grades for the implementation of the 7th Pay Commission recommendations, giving nearly 10 lakh government employees 2.57 times hike in basic pay.

Here are 10 facts you need to know about the salary hike:

1) The minimum pay in central government with effect from January 1, 2016 will now be Rs 18,000 per month; at the highest level, it will be Rs 2.5 lakh.

2) There shall be two dates for grant of increment - 1 January and 1 July every year - instead of the existing 1 July only. Employees will be entitled to only one annual increment on either of these two dates depending on the date of appointment, promotion or grant of financial upgradation.

3) The Central government employees will not get annual increment if their performance is not up to the mark. The benchmark for performance appraisal for promotion and financial upgradation has been enhanced to "very good" from "good" level.

4) The Modified Assured Career Progression (MACP) scheme will continue to be administered at 10, 20 and 30 years of service as before, the Ministry said as it "accepted" the pay panel's recommendations.

5) Annual increments in the case of those employees who are not able to meet the benchmark either for MACP or a regular promotion within the first 20 years of their service will be with held. The pay panel had in its report to the Centre said that there is a widespread perception that increments as well as upward movement in the hierarchy happen as a matter of course. The move is expected to act as a deterrent for complacent and inefficient employees.

6) The Centre will set up anomalies committees to examine individual, post and cadre-specific anomalies arising out of implementation of the recommendations of seventh Central Pay Commission.

7) The Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) has been authorised to take action regarding pay and related issues concerning officers of all India services--Indian Administrative Service (IAS), Indian Police Service (IPS) and Indian Forest Service (IFoS).

8) IAS officers at present get a two-year edge over other services for getting empanelled to come on deputation at the Centre. Besides, they also get two additional increments at the rate of 3 per cent over their basic pay at three promotion stages i.e., promotion to the Senior Time Scale (STS), to the Junior Administrative Grade (JAG) and to the Non-Functional Selection Grade (NFSG) after putting in about four, eight and 13 years of service, respectively. A confederation representing thousands of officers of 20 civil services, including the IPS, have been demanding pay parity and other benefits enjoyed by IAS officers. The anomalies committee is expected to look after these issues.

9) Employee unions had earlier this month postponed a strike demanding that the minimum pay should be increased to Rs 26,000 from the recommended Rs 18,000.

10) The Cabinet had last month decided on pay increase for central government employees and pensioners, that is estimated to cost the exchequer Rs 1.02 lakh crore annually.

With PTI
India signed a contract on Wednesday to buy four maritime spy planes from Boeing Co for about $1 billion, defence and industry sources said, aiming to bolster the navy as it tries to check China's presence in the Indian Ocean.

India has already deployed eight of the long-range P-8I aircraft to track submarine movements in the Indian Ocean and on Wednesday exercised an option for four more, two defence ministry officials and an industry source told Reuters.

"It's a follow-on order, it was signed today," a defence ministry official said, speaking on condition of anonymity as he is not authorised to make announcements on procurements.

A second defence official confirmed the value of the contract at about $1 billion and said the aircraft were expected to enter service over the next three years.

Amrita Dhindsa, a spokeswoman for Boeing defence, space, and security in India, said she was not in a position to say anything on the contract and referred all questions to the defence ministry.

But she said the P81 was an aircraft used for not only for long-range patrol but was also equipped with Harpoon missiles for anti-submarine warfare.

India has been building up its naval surveillance capabilities since China's navy expanded its reach and sent submarines, including a nuclear-powered boat that docked in Sri Lanka, across the Indian Ocean.

The deal, signed during a visit by the U.S. Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition Frank Kendall, marks a further tightening of India's ties with the United States, which has emerged as a top arms supplier in recent years for India's largely Soviet-equipped military.

A U.S. embassy spokesman was not immediately available for comment.

Boeing last year completed the delivery of the last of the aircraft under the previous order worth $2.1 billion, an industry source said.

The Indian navy has deployed some of its P8-I aircraft to the remote Andaman and Nicobar islands near the Malacca Straits and two other routes into the Indian Ocean for military and commercial shipping.

The P8-I is being used to track IAF'S An-32 aircraft which went missing on 21 July.
While Pascal Saint-Amans, head of tax at the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), has once again emphasised the need for beneficial ownership and corporate transparency, India has introduced legislation on beneficial ownership in the Companies (Amendment) Bill, 2016 which is currently being reviewed by the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance.

Beneficial ownership is a policy measure that would require all legal entities to make details about their true human owner(s) available to their countries authorities. Saint-Amans commented that improved availability of and access to information on beneficial owners of all legal entities, including trusts, would ensure that international efforts to curb tax dodging and corruption succeed.

The proposal in the Companies (Amendment) Bill would require companies in India to file information regarding their beneficial owners to the Registrar of Companies, Ministry of Corporate Affairs. Through the Registrar of Companies, the public would be able to access this information. However, at present, the Bill proposes to identify a beneficial owner(s) as a person or a trust that holds 25 percent shares in a company, or the right to exercise significant influence or control.

It is crucial to go beyond ownership of shares of a company to identify the beneficial owner, as one of the most common ways in which true ownership is obscured is by appointing nominees, proxies or agents who are shareholders on paper, but do not actually benefit from the proceeds of the company. There is also a need to lower the threshold of 25 percent, as it is vulnerable to abuse.

An individual wishing to remain anonymous would only need to appoint three people to represent themselves as the beneficial owners of a company, while diluting his / her own ownership to 20 percent or lesser, thereby ensuring anonymity. A registry for beneficial ownership of trusts and foundations could also be considered by the Parliamentary Standing Committee.

Anonymously owned companies are yet to be recognised as one of the most serious financial secrecy issues in the world. An anonymous company is an entity used to disguise the identity of their true human owner  the person(s) who ultimately control or profit from the company, or its beneficial owners. Anonymous companies often have very few or no employees at all, most dont conduct any real business but are legally eligible to make financial transactions, buy a million-dollar penthouse or own other companies. Therefore, it is close to impossible to trace the transactions carried out by these companies to the people who actually own or benefit from them.

Financial secrecy that can be afforded by powerful multi-national corporations and rich individuals ends up hurting the poor by eroding tax revenues for countries. Anonymous companies are also behind crime and corruption  the likes of terrorist financing, human traffickers, drug cartels and mobsters. The OECD too, has claimed that almost every economic crime involves the misuse of corporate vehicles.

In 2009, Barack Obama had referred to a building in Cayman Islands, Ugland House, citing that it was home to 12,000 businesses  which he claimed was either the largest building in the world or the biggest tax scam on record. The figure is closer to 20,000 businesses registered at the same address in the small offshore secrecy jurisdiction that is Cayman Islands.

However, an address in Wilmington, Delaware, USA  1209 North Orange Street  is the official address for 285,000 companies. In fact, Delaware has over a million business entities registered in the state, including 64 percent of the companies that comprise the Fortune 500 list. Labeled as USAs onshore tax haven, the state of Delaware offers the most amount of ease in creating a company  one would need to provide more information to obtain a library card in Delaware than to register a company. Delawares lack of disclosure requirements means that companies can be created and businesses can be run absolutely anonymously, helping owners avoid detection as well as taxes from the countrys authorities.

The Panama Papers  a leak of financial documents from a Panama-based law firm, Mossack Fonseca earlier in 2016  have once again pointed towards the issue of anonymous companies as being implicit in financial crime and illicit financial flows, or black money. With developing countries losing over $1 trillion to illicit financial flows a year, and $7.6 trillion of the worlds assets being held in offshore secrecy jurisdictions, it becomes crucial to close legal loopholes that allow anonymous companies to exist.

Public registers of beneficial ownership are not only going to result in financial transparency and apprehending criminals. This policy measure is also good for business. 91 percent senior executives across the world are of the opinion that it is necessary for them to know the beneficial owner of companies that they do business with  businesses and consumers can thus protect themselves from being victims of crime, and such a policy measure will level the playing field.

Several businesspersons have called for company ownership transparency, including Mo Ibrahim (Celtel), Richard Branson (Virgin Group), Arianna Huffington (The Huffington Post), Paul Polman (Unilever) and Bob Collymore. The UK is the first country which now requires all companies to file a record of their true ownership, a practice that started last week. The UKs beneficial ownership registries are publicly accessible.

Several other countries, including France, the Netherlands, Nigeria and Afghanistan have committed to public beneficial ownership registries. Onshore or offshore  unaccounted for wealth, assets and income hurt every countrys economy. India

would be setting a precedent of sorts, if it legislates in favour of public beneficial ownership registries in the upcoming monsoon session of Parliament, in order to clamp down on the shadow economy.

The author works with Centre for Budget and Governance Accountability (CBGA), New Delhi. She can be reached at neeti@cbgaindia.org. Views are personal.
Bengaluru: Scientists at the Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa have proposed an innovative system for harvesting safe drinking water from air.

Capturing atmospheric moisture is not a new invention in itself because atmospheric water generators for commercial and domestic use already exist. But the new device requires less energy to produce high-quality water from air compared to existing systems, according to the report in American Chemical Society's journal Environmental Science & Technology.

Atmosphere contains water vapour in amounts comparable to all the surface and underground water on the planet. But current machines that collect water from the atmospheric reservoir have major limitations. They use electrical refrigeration to cool the air and condense the vapour and that consumes a lot of energy.

The new system designed by Israeli scientists uses a liquid desiccant to first separate the water vapour from air and then cool only the vapour. Their calculations show that this approach would result in 20 to 65 per cent energy savings over the standard system.

"We show that the liquid desiccant separation (LDS) stage that is integrated into atmospheric moisture harvesting (AMH) systems can work under a wide range of environmental conditions using low grade or solar heating as a supplementary energy source, and that the performance of the combined system is superior," the report says.

Desalination of seawater by reverse osmosis is also a potential source of fresh water, but it is not applicable in countries that do not have access to the sea. Besides, desalination requires large capital investments in piping and pumping infrastructure and in its operation and maintenance. "Atmospheric moisture is accessible essentially everywhere," says the report.

The atmosphere contains about 13,000 cubic kilometres of freshwater, 98 per cent of it in the form of water vapour, says the report. The vapour must be condensed to liquid water. The existing atmospheric moisture harvesting (AMH) systems, where standard electrical compression-expansion refrigeration unit is used, can save significant energy by first separating the vapour from the bulk air before it enters the condenser, such that only the vapour is cooled rather than the entire air bulk.

In the new design, separation of water vapour from the air is achieved by using a liquid desiccant. The water vapour absorbed by the desiccant can be liberated using low-grade or solar heat.

The liquid-desiccant vapour separation (LDS) subsystem was designed to operate continuously in a closed-cycle, says the report. "The product of this subsystem is Pure water vapour, which is then condensed by a standard refrigeration system without the burden of cooling the air."

In general, the combined LDS-AMH system is expected to save up to 65 per cent of the energy expenses of water production relative to off-the-shelf direct-cooling AMH systems, the scientists claim. "Scaling up the LDS system to produce larger amounts of freshwater is possible simply by installing additional absorbing units around a single desorber-condenser core."

Another important advantage, according to the report, is that the water coming out of the LDS-AMH system will be free of airborne bacteria since "the coil of the condenser does not come into contact with the ambient air but only with pure vapour that has been liberated from the desiccant solution."
New Delhi: Drug firm RPG Life Sciences Wednesday inked a pact to acquire seven prescription brands from Sun Pharmaceutical Industries for a consideration of Rs 41 crore.

The company "today signed an agreement to acquire seven prescription brands from Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd together with its subsidiaries", RPG Life Sciences said in a filing to the BSE.

The move is in line with the company's strategy to focus on formulation business. The acquired brands are primarily in respiratory and urology segments. In addition to this, three products will compliment the company's existing range, it added.

Commenting on the development, RPG Life Sciences MD CT Renganathan said: "Historically, the company has invested in in-licensing products. This is the first time that we have made a brand acquisition".

The company believes these brands have a huge potential to grow and are a perfect fit to its current portfolio and in line with the long-term growth strategy, he added.

This deal is subject to receipt of Competition Commission of India's (CCI) approval, RPG Life Sciences said.

The company also announced collaboration with US-based API firm Biophore to develop, file and commercialise products specifically targeting the US market.

As part of the tie-up, Biophore will develop, manufacture and file finished dosage formulations (DMF) for the APIs where as RPG Life Sciences shall develop, manufacture, file and commercialse these products from its manufacturing facility

for regulated markets, RPG Life Sciences said.

The company will also partner with Biophore for the development of niche products for the US market. To begin with, the company will start with four projects which shall be achieved in two phases comprising of two products each, it added.

"The company will own the ANDA for these products in the US market while exploring the potential for these products in the other regulated markets with Biophore," RPG Life Sciences said.

"This alliance is in accordance with our target to enter the US market in the next 24 to 36 months from now. We desire to have our own set up in the region and shall adopt strategic partnership models for this market for product development and marketing focused for US market," Renganathan said.

RPG Life Sciences "will explore and go for first to file, first few to file, NCE-1 product opportunities for US market along with niche formulations with limited competition", he added.

Shares of RPG Life Sciences closed at Rs 352.50 per scrip on BSE, up steep 18.75 percent from its previous close.
New Delhi: Equity mutual funds witnessed an addition of over six lakh investor accounts or folios in April-June quarter of the current fiscal, primarily on account of strong participation from retail investors.

This is on top of an addition of 43 lakh folios in 2015-16 and 25 lakh in 2014-15. In the past two years, investor accounts increased mainly due to robust contribution from smaller towns.

Folios are numbers designated for individual investor accounts, though one investor can have multiple accounts.

According to the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) data on investor accounts with 43 fund houses, the number of equity folios jumped to 36,640,396 at the end of June quarter from 36,025,062 in quarter ended March 31, 2016, a gain of 6.15 lakh.

Growing participation from retail investors and huge inflows in equity schemes have helped in increasing the folio counts, experts said.

Mutual funds have reported net inflows of Rs 9,479 crore in equity schemes in the first quarter (April-June) of the current fiscal.

The inflow is in line with the BSE's benchmark Sensex surging 6.5 percent during the quarter under review. Mutual Funds are investment vehicles made up of a pool of funds collected from a large number of investors. The funds are invested in stocks, bonds and money market instruments, among others.
BERLIN Authorities evacuated a shopping centre in Bremen, Germany on Wednesday evening as police hunted for a 19-year-old Algerian suspect who fled a psychiatric facility and was believed to have links to Islamist extremists, the Bild newspaper reported.

The newspaper, citing police sources, said the man had behaved suspiciously in the mall, but gave no details. It said authorities were describing the evacuation as an "anti-terrorism operation".

A police spokesman confirmed that a police operation was under way in the area but gave no details.

(Reporting by Ralf Bode and Andrea Shalal; Editing by Catherine Evans)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
New Delhi: AAP MLA Amanatullah Khan, arrested for allegedly threatening a woman after she had visited his residence to raise the issue of power cuts, on Wednesday moved a session court here seeking bail.

The Okhla MLA, who is in judicial custody, moved the bail plea before an Additional Sessions Judge who has fixed the matter for hearing on Thursday.

The legislator had been denied the relief by a magisterial court on Tuesday on the ground that he might influence witnesses and hamper investigation if released. Khan's bail application, filed through advocate Madan Lal, contended that he is innocent and is an MLA who has to serve society/public.

His counsel said Khan is a responsible man and he is ready to abide by whatever conditions the court would impose and that no purpose would be served by keeping him in jail. The MLA, who was produced before a duty magistrate last evening, was sent to Tihar jail for 14 days after the police sought the same submitting that the complainant was constantly being threatened and harassed at the behest of the accused.

Khan was first detained for questioning and then arrested on 24 July, a day after he alleged in a press conference that the woman was "pressurised" by the police into giving a false statement against him. According to the police, on 22 July, the woman had recorded her statement before a magistrate under Section 164 of the CrPC alleging that when she was returning from the MLA's residence, a vehicle, in which Khan was sitting, tried mowing her down.

She also claimed that a motorcycle tried to run over her when she was on her way to the court to record the statement. Prior to that, she had on 19 July filed a complaint with police alleging that at the AAP MLA's residence in Jamia Nagar, a youth had on 10 July abused her and threatened that she would be killed if she did not stop politicising the matter.

The woman, a resident of Jasola, had said that she had telephoned Khan on 10 July and later went to his Batla House residence to raise the issue of power cuts with him after which she was allegedly threatened by the youth. An FIR was subsequently registered in this regard under sections 506 (criminal intimidation) and 509 (word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman) of the IPC.

After her statement to the magistrate, Section 308 (Attempt to commit culpable homicide) of IPC was added to the FIR. Khan had, however, said he did not even know if the woman came to his residence.
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu on Tuesday urged the Centre to relax the limit set by the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (FRBM) Act so that Andhra Pradesh could go for more borrowings to boost public spending.

How can I mobilise finances? I have a lot of work on my hands. I need to get money from one source or the other. Let the Centre relax the FRBM norms for AP, The New Indian Express quoted him as saying.

Addressing a press conference in Vijayawada, Naidu said that it was the responsibility of all political parties in Parliament to undo the injustice done to Andhra Pradesh in the matter of its bifurcation.

"The BJP has a larger responsibility in this regard. All parties should come to the rescue of Andhra Pradesh as they had contributed to its bifurcation by supporting the AP Reorganisation Bill (in 2014)," Chandrababu said.

He was referring to the stalemate in Rajya Sabha for the last two days over the private member's bill, moved by Congress member KVP Ramachandra Rao seeking special category status to AP.

"I have asked the TDP MPs to do everything to safeguard the interests of the state," he said, stating that his party was hence supporting the private member's bill.

"I want all parties in Parliament to ensure that the AP Reorganisation Act, 2014 be implemented in true spirit," Chandrababu said.

"I raised this issue at the Inter-State Council meet on 16 July and reminded the chief ministers of all states about the irrational bifurcation. Not only was injustice done to AP but we were insulted. I asked them to undo the injustice as all parties were responsible for the division," he said.

He wanted expeditious implementation of all the provisions of Reorganization Act and assurances made by the then Prime Minister on the floor of Rajya Sabha, the most important among them being grant of special category status.

The execution of Polavaram as a national irrigation project, sanction of railway zone at Visakhapatnam, special package for development of backward regions, provision of tax incentives for rapid industrialisation and release of balance grant to bridge the resource gap were some of the other demands he raised.

(With inputs from PTI)
Mumbai: Veteran Gandhian Anna Hazare on Wednesday reiterated his demand for "total prohibition" in Maharashtra and urged the government to set up a "gram suraksha dal (village protection force)" to combat problems arising out of alcoholism.

He met Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and asked him to consider setting up such a village force in rural areas comprising members from the local villages.

"Fadnavis was positive to the suggestion and said he would come out with a draft bill on the issue soon. Let the government work on it and take a decision," Hazare told media persons later.

Elaborating, he said currently there are several issues like jurisdiction of the state excise department and the police machinery which lack coordination and "most times they pass the responsibility to each other".

Here, the village force would find the illegal liquor joints, bust them, make a 'panchanama' (initial situation report), then inform the excise department to seize the liquor and call police to lodge the cases, he explained.

Hazare also blamed increasing liquor consumption for the growing number of road accidents and other evils.

Citing the example of his native Ralegan-Siddhi village, he said 20 years ago there were 40 liquor distillation plants which were removed with public support and now nobody in the village drinks or consumes tobacco.

"If the people display a strong will and the government supports them, it is possible to implement total prohibition and make it a liquor-free state," Hazare said.
Guwahati: In an unprecedented move, the Assam Assembly was on Wednesday adjourned for the next three days for allowing MLAs to visit flood-affected constituencies and give a report to the Chief Minister.

As soon as the House assembled on Wednesday morning, both ruling and opposition MLAs raised the matter and appealed to the Speaker to adjourn the House so that they could visit the flood-hit areas in their constituencies.

After getting support from Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal on the issue, Speaker Ranjeet Kumar Dass held an urgent meeting of the Business Advisory Committee (BAC) by adjourning the House for 30 minutes after the Question Hour.

"The flood situation at present is very serious. With support from all MLAs of the House, BAC decided to adjourn the House till July 30," Dass said, announcing adjournment of the House with immediate effect.

As per the BAC recommendation, the Budget Session has been extended by a day till 13 August, he informed the House.

The Speaker said the House will next meet on 8 August as the scheduled recess after the Budget Session will remain as per earlier programme from 30 July to 7 August.

Earlier, BJP MLA Topon Kumar Gogoi said all the members are willing to visit flood-affected areas in their respective constituencies.

"Therefore, I request the Speaker to adjourn the House immediately for some days," he said.

Congress MLA Rakibul Hussain extended his party's support to the request.

Supporting the MLAs, Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal said: "It is good that our MLAs are wanting to stand by the people...I request the Speaker to consider this because we should be with the people when they need us the most...I also request all the MLAs to give me a report after visiting their constituencies...When we will send a memorandum to the Centre, we will incorporate their suggestions."

Congress MLA Sherman Ali Ahmed pointed out that while people affected by flood are usually compensated by the government, nobody looks after those who lose everything due to erosion.

"So I request the Chief Minister to help those people and declare erosion as a state problem," he added.
Guwahati: The current wave of flood has claimed 12 lives and affected nearly 16 lakh people across Assam, the state Assembly was informed on Wednesday.

Making a statement on the flood situation, Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal declared an ex-gratia of Rs four lakh to the families of each of the deceased and said the amount will be paid this week.

"Flood is the most burning problem of the state. The current flood has affected almost all constituencies and has become a serious problem. It has claimed 12 lives so far and hit nearly 16 lakh people across 19 districts," he told the Assembly.

The government is closely monitoring the situation and has been holding regular discussions with officials of various departments, mainly those responsible for flood relief and rehabilitation, Sonowal said.

"We have specifically directed the DCs and SDOs to depute officials for flood-related works and do a detailed study of the situation. Health and Veterinary departments have been asked to go to the people and evaluate the situation," he added.

The government has asked the authorities concerned to provide all necessary support to the people living in the relief camps, the chief minister said while making his statement during the Budget Session of the Assembly.

"As soon as the flood problem hit the state, we released funds to all the DCs (Deputy Commissioners). Earlier, all DCs used to complain about lack of funds, but this time it will not happen," he added.

Sonowal also informed about his discussion with Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, who had on Tuesday assured all possible help from the Centre in tacking the problem.

He also said BJP MPs met the prime minister on Tuesday and "he has assured them that the Centre is with Assam at this hour".
Scarcity of drinking water has surfaced as a major health hazard in the flood-hit river island Majuli. Marooned people resorting to contaminated sources for drinking water have caused a serious health concern in the largest river island in the world.

Though more than 160 villages of Majuli have been inundated in the flood for more than five days, only 13 relief camps have been built up till now, complained a villager Deepak Bora, while speaking to Firstpost.

A source in the office of the Deputy Commissioner said that there are only 1200 people in the camps. More than one lakh people living in the island have been affected by the floods, he added. Disaster management agencies are still trying to reach out to people marooned in their homes and distribute food and other necessary items among them, he further explained. A very small segment of the affected people have been reached till now. Even fewer people have received drinking water bottles from the relief agencies, said Deepak Bora.

Flood victims are compelled to depend on contaminated sources for drinking water, he added.

Majuli hardly has any public drinking water supply system. People mainly depend on ponds for drinking water. Pond water is no more safe for drinking. Flood has contaminated most of these ponds. People are left with no option but to drink water from these sources, Deepak Bora said.

Sources in the Deputy Commissioner's office said that the government is well aware of this hazard and is trying its best to tackle it.

The Deputy Commissioner has ordered 20 hand pumps to be set up in Majuli. Moreover, relief and rescue teams are also distributing point-of-use water purification system, such as halogen tablets, said a source in the Deputy Commissioners office.

Pitambor Debo Goswami, a renowned spiritual leader, stretched out a helping hand to the flood victims by distributing clothes and small sums of money.

While speaking to flood victims, he said that the government has to find out permanent solution to the recurrent flood problem the river island has been facing.

Apart from being the largest river island in the world, Majuli is also seen as the capital of rich Vaishnavite cultural and spiritual heritage of Assam. Recurring flood has not only posed threat to the life and livelihood of more than 2 lakh people living in Majuli but has also challenged the existence of more than 30 Sattras who practise Vaishnavite culture and tradition.

Floods have ravaged more than 3000 hectares of farmland in Majuli and damaged a large number of roads, causing a standstill, when the swelling Brahmaputra breached an embankment in a place called Bongaon.

Assam has been reeling under floods for the last five days. Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal said that 16 lakh people across 19 districts of the state have been affected by flood this time around and it has claimed 12 lives till now.

Torrential rains in Assam and its nearby hilly states of north east and also in neighbouring country Bhutan is said to have caused floods this time around in the state. Many of the rivers that flow through Assam have origin in the hills of Bhutan and neighbouring hilly states. Rains in the hills cause massive flooding in the plains of Assam.
Barkha Dutt on Wednesday took to social media to slam Times Now editor-in-chief Arnab Goswami for his brand of journalism. The outrage was triggered apparently because Arnab in his prime time Newshour Debate on 26 July, which also happened to be Kargil Diwas, had called other Indian news channels sympathisers of terrorists and "pro-Pakistan". Not relenting at that he even sought stringent punishment for those "pro-Pakistan" media houses.

See the full show here:

Reacting to this on air ferocity from the Times Now edit wing boss, Barkha Dutt, in a strongly-worded Facebook post, said, "I am ashamed to be from same industry as him."

Read the full post here:

Taking strong exception to the #ProPakistanDoves term used by Arnab for journalists, Barkha questioned his silence on Jammu and Kashmir alliance agreement that commits the BJP and PDP to talks with Pakistan and Hurriyat. She also called Arnab out on his silence on Narendra Modi's "outreach" programme to Pakistan.

Barkha also expressed "disgust" over media being silent on Arnab's allegations:

"Imagine, a journalist actually exhorts the government to shut down sections of the media, misrepresents them as isi agents and terror sympathisers, calls for them to be tried and acted against. And our fraternity remains locked into politically correct and timid silence."

Slamming Arnab for his hypocrisy, Barkha dubs him a chamcha and says:

What's striking is his brazen and cowardly hypocrisy. So he drones on and on about Pro Pakistan Doves without one word on the JK alliance agreement that commits the BJP and PDP to talks with Pakistan and Hurriyat and is silent on Modi's own Pakistan outreach- neither of which I object to- but since Arnab Goswami measures patriotism by such views why is he so silent on the government? Chamchagiri?

Arnab Goswami was caught in a controversy in May, after he called Tehelka journalist, Asad Ashraf, a cover for Indian Mujajideen. Ashraf was a guest speaker in Arnab's Newshour, which was discussing the Batla encounter.

Ashraf wrote his side of the story for Firstpost and he said: The takeaway from the events of that day not only jolt me, but also present a very grim picture of the time in which we are living. Journalism, once a respected profession has become a tool of hoop-la into the hands of certain promoters who use it as a mechanism to build public opinion and manufacture consent.
Srinagar: Curfew continued in south Kashmir districts on Wednesday, while only restrictions were imposed in parts of Srinagar city and elsewhere after it was lifted on Tuesday in the tense valley.

"There will be no curfew in the Kashmir Valley today (Wednesday) except in Anantnag, Shopian, Kulgam and Pulwama," a senior police official said here.

"Restrictions will, however, remain imposed at places where breach of peace by anti-social elements is apprehended," the official said.

Restrictions were enforced in Rajouri Kadal and adjacent areas in old Srinagar city where a 61-year-old man died in Eidgah area on Tuesday after he lost control on his two-wheeler vehicle during clashes between stone-pelting mobs and security forces.

The separatists had asked people to start normal activities from Tuesday afternoon, but angry youths showed up at various places in Srinagar and elsewhere forcing the shops to remain shut.

Many masked youths placed obstructions on old city roads and the outskirts to ensure the separatists' call to resume half day's normalcy was defied.

The separatists had called for a valley wide shutdown till 29 July, except for opening of businesses so that people could buy essentials from 2 pm onwards on Tuesday.

Clashes broke out between stone-pelting protesters and the security forces at more than 40 places across the valley after curfew was lifted from Srinagar city and other districts on Tuesday.

Security forces did not use firearms to quell angry mobs anywhere during the clashes.

Over 50 people have died in clashes between demonstrators and the security forces as Kashmir Valley is on edge since 9 July, a day after Hizbul commander Burhan Wani was killed by security forces in Kokernag area of Anantnag district.
Srinagar: Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti on Wednesday said the prevailing law and order problem has dealt a "huge setback" to the efforts of her government to upgrade infrastructure in key sectors and stressed on the need for "infusing new life" in the institutions to address the developmental concerns of the public.

"The efforts initiated by the government to upgrade the infrastructure in health, education, power, roads and buildings, tourism and other key sectors and enhance the employability of the youth through various initiatives received a huge setback due to the prevailing law-and-order situation.

"Our focus should be on making up for the losses suffered on the development front. The administration should redouble its efforts in realising the targets on this front and ensuring benefits to the people," she told a meeting of officers at Town Hall in Budgam in central Kashmir.

Mehbooba visited Budgam to take stock of the situation and reach out to the people.

She asked the administration to expedite the implementation of developmental and welfare programmes.

Asking the officers to "lead from the front" in mitigating the problems of the people, the chief minister stressed on the need for infusing new life in the institutions at the "cutting-edge level" to address the developmental concerns.

She, however, maintained that peace was imperative for all kinds of economic and developmental activities.

"Many developmental and welfare programmes of the government have come to a standstill and it would be our endeavour to bring them back on track as soon as possible," said Mehbooba.

Without naming the separatists, she said, "Those trying to fuel repeated unrests in Kashmir must also realise that they are only adding to the tragedies and miseries of the people."

She claimed that the government was not only responsive to the needs of the people, but also concerned about their problems, adding that her priority was the people and not politics or power.

"As long as I am here, I will spend every day in mitigating the sufferings of the people," she said, adding that she would like her officers "to become partners" in this "enterprise of hope" so that the people get to feel the "real change".

The chief minister stressed on the need for strengthening humanitarian action to help the "poorest of the poor" who were the "worst sufferers" of the prevailing law and order situation.

"We have to take care of those families whose breadwinners depend on daily earnings," she said, adding that her government would extend all possible support to them.

She also sought the update on availability of essential commodities, drinking water, electricity and other basic amenities in the district and asked the Irrigation and Flood Control department to ensure that dredging of flood channels was carried out smoothly to safeguard the area from the threat of future floods.
Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar admitted that the search teams looking for the missing Indian Air Force aircraft AN-32 have found a floating object in the Bay of Bengal, although he couldn't confirm whether or not it belonged to AN-32.

"Some floating objects have been found, but it is yet to be ascertained if they are of the AN-32 aircraft," Parrikar was quoted by India Today as saying, adding that they would do everything they can to locate the missing aircraft and that no compromises will be made in searching for it.

Speaking in Rajya Sabha on Tuesday, Parrikar had said they have 4-5 leads and are investigating them further.

During Question Hour, Parrikar was asked about the status of the plane. "There are 4-5 small leads and attempts are being made to verify them," he said, adding, however, that there has been no confirmed finding yet.

The India Today copy said efforts are being intensified as the search moves into the sixth day. The search area has been also expanded to look beyond the initial zone. "13 Naval vessels, 2 Coast Guard ships besides assets from Andaman and Nicobar islands are engaged in the operations," Coast Guard Commander (East) Inspector General Rajan Bargotra was quoted as saying in the India Today report.

The Russian-made workhorse of the IAF went missing on 22 July, soon after taking off from Tambaram air base in Chennai for Port Blair, a distance of 1,400 km. It made the last radio contact at 8:46 am, 16 minutes after take off.

Worries mounted for the authorities as time was running out and no positive signals emerged from the operations which were launched soon after the news of the missing aircraft trickled in Friday morning.

There were 29 people on board the aircraft, including six crew members, two of them pilots and one navigator. Besides, there were 11 personnel from the IAF including a lady officer, two from the army, one from the Coast Guard and nine from the navy, which included some from its armament depot.
Dehradun: Cabinet expansion in Uttarakhand is set to get delayed with the Congress high-command yet to give the go-ahead for it.

Replying to a question about expansion, Chief Minister Harish Rawat said he has expressed his readiness to the party high-command for it and will conduct the exercise whenever he gets the permission.

"I have told Soniaji that I am ready for a Cabinet expansion and will do it whenever I get her permission," Rawat said on his return from New Delhi where he met Sonia Gandhi.

Pradesh Congress president Kishore Upadhyay had recently said the exercise should not be inordinately deferred in view of the assembly elections due early next year.

In fact he had even suggested that the Cabinet can be expanded on 23 July, a day after the conclusion of the two-day session of the state Assembly.

Apart from Rawat there are nine Cabinet ministers while two ministerial berths are vacant.
Srinagar: Curfew was re-imposed in various places in the Kashmir Valley on Wednesday following clashes between protesters and security forces amid heavy rains, hours after a dragging security lockdown was lifted in all areas barring the volatile southern districts.

A police officer said that angry young men took to the streets and hurled stones at security forces, prompting authorities to re-impose curbs on the movement of people at places where peace was breached.

The government had lifted curfew from various places in the restive valley on Tuesday. But as soon as people were allowed to move, clashes broke out in Srinagar and at some other places in southern Kashmir.

The curfew was, however, not removed from south Kashmir amid fears that a separatist-called march to Kulgam town may trigger more violence.

All link roads and entry points to the south of the valley were closed and no vehicular movement was allowed on the Jammu-Srinagar highway that runs through the region, the worst-hit in the unrest since 8 July which has left nearly 50 people dead and thousands injured.

Senior separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani, in house detention, defied the restrictions and came out of his residence in upscale Hyderpora neighbourhood.

Police took Geelani, chairman of the hardline Hurriyat Conference faction, into preventive custody. He was briefly lodged at a nearby police station, police said.

Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, chairman of the moderate Hurriyat faction, was also detained after he tried to march towards Kulgam, breaking the security cordon around his house, an aide told IANS.

Earlier, in Srinagar, while curfew was lifted from most parts, the restrictions continued in some parts of the old city where a 61-year-old man died on Tuesday evening after losing control on his two-wheeler during a clash between stone-pelting mobs and security forces.

According to police, the retired government employee was injured in his head after he fell off his motorbike.

The separatists had asked people to start normal activities for some hours from Tuesday afternoon. But angry youths showed up at various places in Srinagar and elsewhere, forcing the shops to remain shut.

The Srinagar protesters, mostly teenagers, blocked main roads, lanes and bylanes in downtown with tree trunks, cement pipes and huge rocks.

They fought pitched battles with police and security forces till late in the night. Such clashes were reported from some 40 places of the old city, according to police.

Security forces exercised restrain and did not use firearms to quell the mobs but fired tear gas and pellet guns. Dozens of youths were injured.
Two Muslim women were beaten up over allegations of beef possession by a crowd lead by cow vigilantes at Mandsaur railway station in Madhya Pradesh on Tuesday, reported CNN-News18.

In a video recorded by a spectator, the mob is chanting "Gau mata ki jai", cornering the two women. People from the crowd then slap, kick and abuse the women, while the policemen present at the scene make apathetic attempts to control the crowd, reported NDTV.

As per the NDTV report, the police had been tipped off about the two women carrying 30 kg of beef, and had gone to the station to arrest the women.

But even after they were arrested, the women were thrashed by the mob for nearly half an hour before police finally took them away. Deccan Chronicle reported that many other spectators stood silently, but nobody came to the women's aid.

According to the report, it was further revealed that the meat was that of buffalo and not cow. But the women have still been charged as they did not have a permit to sell meat.

However, no action has been taken against the mob that beat up the women, or the policemen who failed to stop the attack.

The incident caused a furore in the Rajya Sabha, with BSP chief Mayawati and others condemning the attack.

BJP raises 'Mahilaon ke samman mein,BJP maidan mein' slogan, yet in BJP ruled Madhya Pradesh women thrashed on beef rumours: Mayawati in RS  ANI (@ANI_news) July 27, 2016

Gau raksha honi chahiye, lekin uske naam par bahaana karke Dalit aur Musalmanon ko target karo, uske khilaaf hain hum: GN Azad in RS  ANI (@ANI_news) July 27, 2016

Violence in any state is condemnable, we don't justify anything.MP Govt took action on issue about which Mayawati ji spoke about:MA Naqvi  ANI (@ANI_news) July 27, 2016

State Home Minister Bhupinder Singh has said appropriate action will be taken.

If the women register a complaint, then action will be taken against the attackers: MP Home Minister Bhupinder Singh on Mandsaur incident  ANI (@ANI_news) July 27, 2016

BJP MLA Yashpal Sisodia however tried to justify the incident, saying that the women were criminals and since it was other women who beat them up, it was a mere reaction to an action.

Those women are criminals and it was women who beat them up, so it's a reaction to an action: BJP MLA Yashpal Sisodia on Mandsaur incident  ANI (@ANI_news) July 27, 2016 Earlier also, one of these women had been caught by police: BJP MLA Yashpal Sisodia on Mandsaur beef incident. pic.twitter.com/SntDEpnNwO

 ANI (@ANI_news) July 27, 2016
Srinagar: In a new trend, militants are now being trained in Kashmir  and not only in the camps in Pakistan. Plus, they have managed to even pull police personnel into their ranks.

Unlike in the past when youths were moving to the other side of border to receive weapons training in Pakistan-administered Kashmir (PaK), they have now become increasingly active in Kashmir and are receiving the training in the forest areas. Not only is the trend being corroborated by the decline in infiltration attempts from across the border, but also by the increase in the number of local militants  as against foreign ones  who are killed in encounters with the forces.

As per government statistics, while there were 222 infiltration attempts in 2014, the number was only 121 in 2015. A majority of these attempts were foiled with the militants getting killed along the Line of Control (LoC) in the action with Indian armed forces.

Official documents reveal that between January and June this year, the number of local militants who were killed was 20, while the number of foreign militants killed was only four. During the period, the number of security forces personnel killed was 21, while 52 others were injured. The number of local militants killed in 2015 was 38 against 13 foreign militants and the number of casualties among security force personnel was 39 while 103 others were injured.

Militants have even managed to pull police personnel into their ranks. The men from the forces who join their ranks and the militant commanders train the new recruits, said officials. Earlier this year, a case was registered against Constable Shakoor Ahmad in the South Kashmir area of Bijbehara after he joined militants. He was subsequently arrested and is now serving his prison term at a jail in Kathua in Jammu. In 2015 one of the police persons who joined the militant ranks was identified as Nasir Pandit, a close aide of the slain Hizbul Mujahideen commander, Burhan Wani.

The security establishment was rattled here as Pandit, who was on guard duty of the high-profile roads and buildings (R&B) minister Altaf Bukhari, joined the militants. A case was slapped against him at Kothibagh police station and he was subsequently killed in an encounter with forces.

Last year, others who had joined the militancy include Special Police Officers (SPOs), Gul Moammad Mangoo and Riyaz Ahmad against whom cases were registered at Doda police station. They were later killed in an encounter with the forces at Gaddi Bhagwah in Doda, official records reveal. In 2014, SPO Mohammad Shafi Dar, was arrested and a case was registered against him at the Sopore police station after he had joined the militants, while in 2012 and 2010, cases were registered at the Shaheed Gunj and Kulgam police stations against constable Abdul Rashid and head constable Ghulam Mohidin Ganie respectively after they had joined militant ranks.

Both the youth as well as the well-trained militants have been involved in incidents in which they have snatched service rifles of security forces. Numerous such incidents have been reported in the past year. The militants and the youths  who are later recruited in militant ranks  have managed to snatch the service rifles of the police and paramilitary force personnel. Such incidents have taken place at high security establishments including court complexes and transit camps of Kashmiri migrants.

In April last year, unidentified persons snatched the service rifle of a paramilitary trooper in Tral, the hometown of Burhan Wani. A number of these incidents have taken place in restive areas of South Kashmir including Shopian and Pulwama, and militants have even attacked the lower-rung mainstream political leaders including those of the National Conference (NC) and BJP, and swiped the service weapons of the personnel posted with them.

On 25 May, an NC leader was attacked by militants in the Pulwama district and the militants snatched the service weapon of his security guard. On 28 June, militants snatched the service rifle of a security guard posted with a BJP leader at Panzan in the Chadoora area of Kashmir.

According to defence officials, apart from the traditional infiltration routes, the youth manage to develop contacts with militants to be recruited in their ranks. Apart from the traditional infiltration routes in the areas of Kupwara and Uri, youths manage to develop contact with local militants and receive training. In South Kashmir particularly, militants enjoy significant local support due to which the youth join them.

"These militants are mingling with people and even showing up at the funerals, said a defence official and added, The militants even manage to draw in the youth into their ranks through social networking sites and the use of cellphones. He went on to state that the militants manage to get their training in the forest areas of Kupwara as well as the South Kashmir areas of Tral and Pulwama, but pointed out that many of them were caught due to the intense combing operations carried out by the armed forces.

Special director-general of the Central Reserve Police Force SN Srivastava said that the paramilitary force personnel in coordination with the police ensures that the militants are not able to carry out their activities.

A senior CRPF official said, Based on the inputs, we have engaged the militants in the encounters and smashed their infrastructure here.
Bhubaneswar: Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Wednesday sought Prime Minister Narendra Modi's intervention in sharing of the Mahanadi river waters and dubbed his Chhattisgarh counterpart Raman Singh's statement on the issue as "most unfortunate".

"The Chhattisgarh Chief Minister's statement on the issue of sharing Mahanadi waters is most unfortunate. It violates the cardinal doctrine of inter-state river-water sharing between co-basin states and our federal governance," Patnaik told reporters.

Patnaik said he had already taken up the Mahanadi river water issue with Modi.

On Tuesday, Raman Singh said the Mahanadi issue was being "unnecessarily politicised" in Odisha. "Chhattisgarh is taking water from the river after Central Water Commission's nod. In fact, we have right to more water," he had said.

Patnaik also criticised Union Minister of State for Water Resources Sanjeev Balyan for allegedly making a misleading statement in parliament on the issue.

"What is more unfortunate is the false and misleading statement of Balyan on the floor of parliament on Tuesday," the Odisha Chief Minister added.

Patnaik urged the Chhattisgarh government to stop all construction activity in the upper catchment area of the river until the issue is resolved.

"Mahanadi is the lifeline of our state. We shall not allow Mahanadi to dry out because of the unilateral and blatant actions of Chhattisgarh," he added.

"I assure Odisha people that my government will take up the issue at various levels and leave no stone unturned to establish our justifiable rights over Mahanadi waters," Patnaik said.

Odisha is opposing the construction of barrages in the upper catchment areas of the Mahanadi by the Chhattisgarh government on the ground that it will affect Odisha's farmers.
(Editor's note: This article was originally published on 27 July, 2016. It is being re-published in light of the fact that a humboldt penguin died at the Byculla zoo on Sunday, barely three months after it was procured along with seven others from an aquarium in South Korea.)

It was sometime in June 2009 that a press conference was organised by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (under whose purview the Veermata Jijabai Bhosale Udyan  better known as the Byculla Zoo  falls) at the zoo to announce its plans for a major facelift. The Rs 433-crore makeover plan included, among other things, the installation of observatory zones, a taxidermy museum, food courts and an underground parking facility.

What's more, the plan drawn up by Thai firm HKS Designer and Consultancy envisioned splitting the zoo into thematic zones  each of which would represent a different continent and house animals and attractions accordingly.

Fantastic stuff!

In attendance at the press conference were Shiv Sena leader at the time (and now Sena supremo) Uddhav Thackeray and his younger son Tejas. Thackeray Jr exhibited a keen interest in nature, evident in the way he rattled off species, genera, phyla, orders, families and classes of nearly every bit of flora and fauna upon which he laid his eyes. Meanwhile, BMC and Byculla Zoo staff fell over each other to speak about the nitty-gritties of the detailed blueprint of the new and improved Veermata Jijabai Bhosale Udyan.

The question and answer segment of the interaction soon began and amid the flurry of queries, came a particularly astute one  and one that would set the wheels in motion for Monday night's development.

Reporter: Which animal would you most like to see at the zoo?

Uddhav: A polar bear

(Beat)

Polar bears in India? Now that was a bad idea if I'd ever heard one.

Nevertheless, perturbed although I was with not knowing exactly how to digest that bit of information, I took solace in the fact that I already had a headline for the report I would file later that day.

Fast-forward to 2016 and past revamps of the plan, run-ins with the Mumbai Heritage Conservation Committee and the dropping of several expensive bells and whistles, the Byculla Zoo finally welcomed eight Humboldt penguins on Monday night.

Mumbai: 8 Humboldt penguins(South American penguin) brought to Byculla zoo pic.twitter.com/CxrgK1X0bW  ANI (@ANI_news) July 26, 2016

But wait just a minute, you may well exclaim.

What do penguins have to do with polar bears, you may well ask.

Polar bears belong in the Arctic Circle, while penguins almost exclusively live in the Antarctic. Bringing in penguins in place of polar bears is less a case of buying Pepsi because Coca Cola wasn't available than buying a block of mature English cheddar cheese because Coca Cola wasn't available.

Rs 24cr for penguins in Mumbai? Thats like spending money to move a fish into a concrete bowl without water! #MumbaiZoo  Rahul Puri (@rahulpuri) July 27, 2016

It was in 2011 that the plan to bring in penguins was first announced by the BMC. There's no clarity about just when the idea of polar bears was shelved  if at all it was considered  and the plan for penguins was mooted, but after numerous delays, the little tuxedo-clad flightless birds were on Indian soil for the first time.

The first thing visitors notice about India is the intoxicating mix of aromas and odours (or something to that effect), wrote Gregory David Roberts in that must-carry-around-if-you're-visiting-India that is Shantaram. But it's unlikely that our new monochromatic friends will have even had the opportunity to experience a single aroma, never mind a mix, seeing as how they were carted off into a 'specially designed 1,700 square foot air-conditioning chamber' immediately after arrival.

This will be their home for three months while they 'cool off'.

Wait. Penguins in Mumbai zoo? I mean humans who've adapted to hot and humid conditions find it hard surviving there! https://t.co/wktABiLtCX  Amit Phansalkar (@asuph) July 27, 2016

A senior BMC official told PTI that "after the cooling period is over, these penguins will then be shifted to the Penguin Exhibition Centre where people can see them."

Their shift to the Penguin Exhibition Centre is expected to occur in November, but there's a very real concern: Will all eight Humboldt penguins make it to November?

How can the Mumbai weather suit the Penguins?Who will be b held responsible if the Penguins die!!??  nitesh rane (@NiteshNRane) July 27, 2016

A glance at the Byculla Zoo's mortality record is required. According to a 2014 Indian Express report, "Thirty-nine mammals, 22 birds and 10 reptiles died at the zoo in 2010-11. In the following two years, the total number of deaths were 34 and 63. Up to August 2014, the number of mammals and reptiles at the zoo have remained the same since 2012-13 at 147 and 32 respectively, but around 61 birds have died in the first six months itself."

The report continues that Byculla Zoo has the worst mortality rate (12.1 percent) among zoos in the country.

Unsurprisingly, people are up in arms. And among those leading this public outpouring of incredulity at the arrival of the penguins is Anand Siva, a motivational speaker who describes himself as an 'Anti Theist Vegan'.

His anger has been mounting since news reports began to emerge about the penguins being on their way, but no sooner than those tiny tykes had arrived at last did Anand go into meltdown:

Anand also suspects a political angle to this strange case of forced migration:

Oh, he's also got a conspiracy angle, asking as he does, "How do we know they didn't bring in 10 penguins and 2 died? So on record we will always see only 10?"

It's easy to dismiss the protesters, the Petas and the Anand Sivas of the world as being kooks with too much time on their hands. After all, why let science-based facts get in the way of a great story?

First Indian zoo to host penguins

It's catchy. It's got a nice ring to it. It's great publicity. It's good political mileage to have ahead of the 2017 municipal elections. And it's a great story. My concern, however, is about the potentially sad ending.

Here's a question: Do you think the penguins will still be healthy by the time the civic polls actually take place?

Considering Byculla Zoo's record and the weather conditions in Mumbai, it's not something I'd bet on. I'd be more inclined to bet on those polar bears actually coming to Byculla Zoo in the near future.
New Delhi: Magistrates cannot ask the police to investigate a private criminal defamation complaint as it is the complainant who needs to prove the case, the Supreme Court on Wednesday said while prima facie finding fault with a lower court order asking Maharashtra cops to probe the defamation case against Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi.

Gandhi, facing a defamation complaint for his remarks allegedly accusing RSS for assassination of Mahatma Gandhi, has sought its quashing from the apex court which had observed that the leader should not have resorted to "collective denunciation" of an organisation (RSS) and will have to face trial if he does not express regret.

A bench of Justices Dipak Misra and RF Nariman, at the outset, referred to an earlier judgement delivered on a batch of pleas, including the one filed by BJP leader Subramanian Swamy and Gandhi each, challenging the constitutional validity of penal defamation law and said that police cannot be asked by judicial magistrates to probe a private defamation complaint.

It also prima facie found fault with the order of the Maharashtra lower court asking the police to inquire into the allegations against Gandhi and said that instead of "quashing" the case, it may "remand" the matter back to the lower court.

"We have said in the Subramanium Swamy case that the police has no role in private criminal complaints...whatever has to be established, it has to be established by the man (complainant) himself. The magistrates cannot call for a report from the police," the bench said.

It asked senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for the Congress leader, to read relevant portions of the judgemnent, penned by Justice Misra, in the Subramanian Swamy case, dealing with the power of police and magistrates in criminal defamation cases.

"Police has no role in criminal defamation. It cannot lodge an FIR and a Magistrate cannot seek a inquiry report from police under sections 156 (3) and 202 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. The Magistrate has to himself make inquiry into the allegations...this is altogether a different process," it said.

The bench then deferred the hearing to 23 August and asked the counsel for both sides including senior advocate UR Lalit to address it on legal proposition with regard to power of magistrates and police in such cases.
New Delhi: Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi today visited the AIIMS to inquire about the health condition of the five Kashmiri youths who had suffered grave pellet injuries.

"Gandhi reached AIIMS around 4.30 pm and inquired about the ongoing treatment of the five Kashmiri patients who were hit by pellets. He met the victims, four of whom are undergoing treatment at Dr Rajendra Prasad Centre for Ophthalmic Sciences while one of them is admitted in Trauma Centre.

"Gandhi was here at AIIMS for almost half an hour," said a senior doctor at the hospital.

The five Kashmiri patients, including a 14-year-old girl and a 15-year-old boy, were admitted to AIIMS on 23 July, due to the inefficient medical infrastructure at Jammu and Kashmir hospitals.

The five were among the many injured by the pellets guns during the protest, following the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani earlier this month.
New Delhi: Republican Party of India (RPI) leader and Union Minister of State for Social Justice Ramdas Athawale on Wednesday said there has been a consistent demand to raise the creamy-layer limit for OBC to Rs 10 lakh, and that he would discuss the matter with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

"There has been a consistent demand on this. I can raise the issue and discuss with Prime Minister Modi," Athawale told reporters outside Parliament.

At present the "creamy layer" income limit for Other Backward Classes (OBC) is Rs 6 lakh a year.

Athawale said the demand to raise the cap is genuine as the incomes of the people are increasing.

The hike, if brought in by the government, will bring more OBC people with higher income bracket within the reservation net.

The "creamy layer" is the group with income beyond the Rs 6 lakh a year ceiling, that excludes relatively wealthier and better educated members of the OBC from seeking reservation in government colleges, institutes and jobs.

The "creamy layer' criteria was defined as earning more than Rs 1 lakh per annum in 1993, and subsequently the limit was revised to Rs 2.5 lakh in 2004, Rs 4.5 lakh in 2008, and Rs 6 lakh in 2013.

However, in October 2015, the National Commission for Backward Classes recommended that for the OBCs an annual family income of up to Rs 15 lakh should not be considered as the "creamy layer".
Raipur: A 28-year-old unemployed youth who had tried to commit suicide by setting himself on fire in front of Chief Minister Raman Singh's official residence last week, succumbed to his burns at a hospital on Wednesday.

"Yogesh Kumar Sahu breathed his last at around 3.40 am. He had sustained around 85 per cent burns," Dr Sunil Kalda, who was attending on him at Kalda Burns and Plastic Surgery Centre, Raipur, told PTI.

A resident of Birgaon area on the outskirts of Raipur, Sahu was admitted to Dr Bhim Rao Ambedkar Memorial hospital after he set himself on fire in Civil Lines area on 21 July during Singh's 'Jandarshan' programme (public grievance redressal meet). Subsequently, he was admitted to Kalda hospital for advanced treatment.

Later, the CM had announced the state government will bear his medical expenses.

According to police, the economic condition of Sahu's family was not good and he had been trying to get a job but failed, which probably prompted him to take the extreme step.

The CM expressed condolences over Sahu's demise and assured to extend all possible support to his family.

Terming the incident as "very sad" and "unfortunate", Singh said, "Human life is precious. Youth should never get disappointed in their life and be prepared to take on every challenge. The state government has been running several schemes for self-employment of the youth and they should take advantage."

Two days back, Rs one lakh was sanctioned from the Chief Minister's relief Fund for Sahu's treatment.

After a discussion with his family, every possible assistance will be provided to them further, the CM said.

Chhattisgarh is the first state in the country to have provided right to skill development to youths. Livelihood colleges have been opened in all 27 districts of the state where free residential skill development training is being imparted to youth, he said.

Besides, district employment office in every district has been directed to hold weekly self-employment guidance and

placement camp in their respective areas, Singh said.

Meanwhile, the opposition Congress demanded government job for a kin of the deceased and compensation to his family.

"We pray that almighty gives his (Sahu) family the strength to withstand this tragic moment. We are with them," Congress state general secretary Shailesh Nitin Trivedi said.

The state government should provide job to a kin of the deceased and a compensation of Rs 10 lakh to his family, Trivedi said, adding that if the government failed to do so, a massive protest will be staged by his party.
Guwahati: This is an elephantine problem not confronted before, and the Assam government has set up an experts' panel to solve it: How to retrieve a pachyderm washed away from the state by the flooded Brahmaputra river into Bangladesh.

The cow elephant was washed away in June from Kaziranga National Park and reached Kurigram district in Bangladesh, bordering Dhubri district of Assam.

Bangladesh officials have informed the Assam government that the cow elephant was in good health now. Earlier she was found to be weak and stressed as the locals drove her off from one place to another.

Assam has now turned to wise counsel of its experts to get the elephant back home. Assam's Principal Chief Conservator of Forests Bikash Brahma said a three-member expert team is likely to go to Bangladesh early August.

"The Ministry of External Affairs has cleared the necessary formalities. We hope to get other formalities like visa to be over by end of this month," Brahma said on Wednesday.

However, nobody is sure about how to go about solving the weighty problem. "The team will first meet the Bangladesh forest department officials and study the feasibility on how to bring the elephant back and then take a decision," Brahma said.

The three experts are retired senior forest department official Ritesh Bhattacharyya, serving Divisional Forest Official (DFO) Suleiman Choudhury and serving veterinarian KK Sarma.

"All of them have substantial experience to handle such a situation," Brahma said, adding that probably effort will be made to tranquilise the elephant.

The Assam forest department officials tried to rescue the elephant when it was spotted first near Guwahati while floating in the Brahmaputra river. However, the attempts failed as the river was in full spate then.
The Hague: Two renowned paintings stolen from a Dutch museum seven years ago, one by Salvador Dali and the other by Polish artist Tamara de Lempicka, have been recovered, a specialist art detective said Wednesday.

Dali's 1941 surrealist work Adolescence featuring the Catalan artist and his beloved nanny and Lempicka's sensual 1929 tableau La Musicienne have been tracked down, detective Arthur Brand said via his Twitter account.

"We recovered the #Dali and the #DeLempicka, stolen in 2009 from Scheringa museum," he wrote in a Tweet, posting two pictures of himself with the paintings.

BREAKING: we recovered the #Dali and #DeLempicka , stolen in 2009 from Scheringa museum pic.twitter.com/Xa7jSvgvJp  Arthur Brand (@brand_arthur) July 27, 2016

The two works of art were snatched from the Scheringa Museum of Realist Art in the northern town of Spanbroek in a daylight armed robbery on 1 May, 2009.

Several masked men threatened staff and visitors with a gun and then drove off in a car with the two tableaux, police told AFP at the time.

Brand said the two paintings had then been given to a criminal gang in lieu of payment -- a transaction which is common among criminal groups.

But "this organisation did not want to be found guilty of the destruction or resale of art works," Brand told the Dutch daily De Telegraaf, and had contacted him through a go-between.

Brand said he had handed the paintings over to British police at Scotland Yard who are in contact with the rightful owners, whose identities have not been revealed.
New Delhi: Ramesh Bhardwaj, the accused in the AAP woman activist suicide case that had triggered a war of words between BJP and the Aam Aadmi Party, has been arrested from Haryana, Delhi Police said on Wednesday.

A senior official said Crime Branch of Delhi Police arrested him late last night.

The woman had consumed poisonous substance at her home in north west Delhi's Narela and died during treatment at LNJP Hospital on 19 July.

The woman had filed a complaint against Bhardwaj for allegedly touching her inappropriately and a case of molestation was registered in June. The accused was arrested and later released on bail.

On 20 July, Delhi Police had registered a case of abetment to suicide and handed over the entire matter to a Special Investigation Team.

The family members of the woman had claimed that she had gone into depression after her alleged molester Bhardwaj, an AAP colleague, was released on bail.

She had also alleged that the accused was being protected by the local AAP MLA.

Delhi BJP had held the AAP dispensation "responsible" for the death of the 28-year-old woman, drawing sharp reaction from the AAP which accused it of playing "politics over corpses".
New Delhi: After two BSP MLAs on Wednesday accused party chief Mayawati of selling tickets for UP assembly polls, BJP said their charge only establishes the claim that BSP nomination was "up for sale".

"What the two BSP MLAs have said only establish the claim that Mayawati sell her party tickets. She is not the daughter of a dalit but 'daulat' (wealth)," BJP national secretary Shrikant Sharma said.

Hitting back at her over the dalit issues, BJP also accused Mayawati of being "hand in glove" with ruling Samajwadi Party, saying she did not launch any major protest against the Akhilesh Yadav government despite "increasing" incidents of atrocities against dalits, including cases of rapes.

In a fresh rebellion in the BSP, MLAs Romi Sahni and Brijesh Verma criticised party workers for sloganeering against expelled BJP leader Dayashankar Singh's family and accused the party leadership of "demanding huge sums" for allotting tickets for the 2017 UP Assembly polls.

Sharma alleged the SP government did not probe corruption cases, including NRHM scam and murders of medical officers, involving the previous BSP government and Mayawati in turn did not protest against it over atrocities against dalits. "There have been over 92 cases of rape in which dalit women were victims. Mayawati did not visit any family and nor did she hit streets. She only believes in photo-op politics," he said.
Making headway on the long-pending GST Bill, the Centre and States on Tuesday agreed on the principle that the tax rate will be lower than the current levels even as the broad consensus emerged that the rate should not be part of the statute.

A meeting of the Empowered Committee of State Finance Ministers convened by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley also agreed to include in the Constitutional Amendment Bill the mechanism of compensating states for any loss of revenue in first five years of Goods and Service Tax (GST) subsuming all indirect tax levies including VAT.

There was also broad agreement on the principle that the ordinary businessman and the common tax man will benefit from introduction of GST by way of lower tax rates while the states will not face any loss of revenue, West Bengal Finance Minister and the panel chairman Amit Mitra said after the meeting.

Also, there was "consensus to keep the GST rate out of the Constitutional Amendment Bill," he claimed.

The government is keen to get the GST Bill approved during the current monsoon session of Parliament ending 12 August but is facing opposition from the Congress which wants a low tax rate to be part of the Constitutional Amendment Bill while the 1 percent additional tax in hands of states over and above the GST rate be scrapped.

"As you know that no tax rates are provided in the Constitution. It was discussed and conclusion reached that Union Finance Minister will communicate to other parties. He will explain it to them that it can't come in Constitutional Amendment but it can come in GST Bill or GST Act," Mitra said.

The decision at the empowered committee is likely to isolate the Congress on the issue. The only way out for the party seems to be to fall in line.

However, on the revenue neutral rate of 18 percent recommended by the Arvind Subramanian panel seems to continue as a bone of contention for the state governments.

According to a report in The Indian Express, "the crucial revenue neutral rate (RNR) of taxation as well as capping of the GST rate in the Bill did not find favour with many states".

All states were of the view that the tax rates put forward by the Chief Economic Advisor are not acceptable. There was no consensus on what the rate should be," Kerala finance minister Thomas Isaac has been quoted as saying in the report, adding that the consensus was the rate cane be 18 percent or above that.

However, a DNA report quoted Mitra as saying that the rate can be decided when the law is enacted. What is more important is that a "a wording has been worked out which essentially means that the incident of tax on the common man has to be significantly reduced", the report said citing Mitra.

The "broad consensus put together is satisfactory to all political parties and all states," PTI quoted Mitra as saying.

There are indications that the government may now bring the GST bill in Rajya Sabha next week instead of earlier plans of doing it this week.

Mitra said while there was no talk on specific tax rate, it emerged at the meeting that the rate should be such that is lower than existing levels otherwise "there is no point of reform."

The states, he said, were of the view that small businesses with turnover up to Rs 1.5 crore in a year should come under purview of only state governments and dual control of states and centre can be exercised over businesses larger than them.

With PTI
In his 7 January article published in The Indian Express, former general secretary of Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) Prakash Karat outlines the threat the Left parties face in the country's post-liberalisation era. Of late, Karat believes, the Left has lost its appeal among the middle-class and is increasingly getting alienated from the masses.

He cites two reasons for this: "There is a differentiation within the middle classes, with an upper stratum having high incomes and a lifestyle closer to that of the affluent sections of society. They see benefits in neo-liberal capitalism and can no longer relate to the Left programme."

And second: "The problems and concerns of the other strata of the middle-classes have undergone changes, which have not been properly addressed by the Left. The Left organisations are still stuck with the old issues and have not innovated in ways to reach out to them and take their concerns on board."

Karat is bang on. In other words, he is acknowledging the fact that the Left ideology, whose relevance has always been a matter of debate, has now turned totally redundant in the changed socio-economic order. As Karat acknowledges in the article, in an increasingly integrated (both socially and economically) world, the problems and needs of the neo-middle class are far different from what the party ideology is used to. Except in Kerala, where there is a bipolar political system, the Left ideology has been turned down by voters elsewhere, including its once invincible fortress West Bengal.

Kerala-the last stand

But even when CPM's central leadership seemingly acknowledges the fault lines in its ideology, political experts observe that the party hasn't learned from its mistakes. The latest example is evident from the way the party is dealing with the Pinarayi Vijayan government's development oriented approach. Ever since the LDF took power in Kerala, Vijayan's government has signaled a break from the traditional Left thinking of governance.

This was clear the first day itself, when Vijayan advertised his new government's arrival through full-page advertisements in national newspapers, something Left governments have rarely done in the past. Vijayan's aggressive efforts to connect the party's state unit and government with the state's ambitious middle-class are evident.

The government clearly doesn't show the traits of previous Left governments in the state, whose policies have been viewed as regressive and ideas largely anti-development. But Vijayan entered the poll battle with a new image, as his slogan said "LDF varum, ellam shariyakum (LDF will come and everything will be fine)."

Finance minister Thomas Isaac, in the government's first budget, initiated measures to fix the state's cracked economy by initiating a slew of revenue generating measures, including a rarely heard 14.5 per cent fat tax on junk food items and green tax on old vehicles to boost revenue collection. The government also spoke about measures to raise additional resources from the market through bond issuances if needed. Isaac expects to increase tax revenues by 25 per cent.

His budget was promising, it envisaged higher capital expenditure in start-ups, five multipurpose industrial zones and investment in industrial technology. The government seems to have a serious intent to rescue the state exchequer from the current crisis.

Vijayan has a big task at hand, as the economy is staring at a crisis. As this Mint analysis shows, the state is hit with depleting commercial tax revenues and a near-empty exchequer. Between 2011 and 2015, the state treasury's closing balance has slowed to a trickle, from Rs 3,514.22 crore to Rs 142.65 crore, the lowest level in the last decade. The state has a total debt of over Rs one lakh crore and about Rs 10,000 crore in immediate liabilities as highlighted in the government's white paper. Most of the damage to the state treasury can be attributed to the corruption-ridden erstwhile UDF government led by Congress and its policy flip-flops.

Left's neo-liberal phobia

But, even as the Vijayan-led LDF government is trying hard to set things right in Kerala's economy, the Left's neo-liberal phobia is threatening to trample the apparent progress. Vijayan's decision to appoint Gita Gopinath, renowned economist and Harvard professor, to advice the government on key economic matters has been met with protests from CPM's central leadership and party's ideological centres.

"The LDF government should not fall into the trap of new economic development strategies, Marxist economist Prabhat Patnaik told local daily Manorama Online. "Such strategies are often anti-labour and against the interests of the common people. Intellectuals of Kerala will not accept such advice," Patnaik said.

It's not clear what "strategies" and which "intellectuals" Patnaik is talking about, but one thing is clear: If the Vijayan government fails to take a pro-industry stance to grow an industrial base in the state, the state's economy is looking at a bleak future.

Two of the state's main revenue streams  remittance money from middle-east (NRI remittances to the state stood over Rs one lakh crore) and revenue from liquor sale (Less than Rs 10,000 crore annually) are weakening on account of labour restrictions and the liquor ban, respectively.

Vijayan did the right thing by inviting an expert economist, who is also familiar with Kerala, to guide him out of the economic mess. Gopinath is known for her neo-liberal views and pro-industry stance that are largely in sync with the thought process in Vijayan's government as well, but not with CPM's sacred ideological stance.

This has ruffled some feathers in the Left fold, prompting the CPI-M politburo to seek an explanation from Vijayan's government and the CPI to question the appointment. "Neo-liberalism has become outdated worldwide," Kanam Rajendran, state secretary of the CPI, part of LDF in Kerala, told NDTV. "So we are not sure whether this Harvard professor (has) also made any change in her earlier stand in this," Rajendran said.

Patnaik and Rajendran are both missing the reality here. One major reason why the Left has lost its links with the youth and the masses is this phobia towards neo-liberal economic policies. The Left should reconcile with new socio-economic realities and make necessary adjustments in the party's thought process, at least not by indulging in the state government's functioning. In the context of Kerala, it is a must that the party has to rethink its policy course to push the development agenda.

The fact is that, at this stage, the Left is painfully reduced to just one state, Kerala, and the chances of its revival even there depend very much on the party's ability to adapt to the new socio-economic realities and ensuring progressive governance. More importantly, it should send this message to the party's think-tanks and lower cadres. It's high time the Left got over its neo-liberal phobia and faced the reality.
Speaking in Rajya Sabha on Tuesday, Subramanian Swamy sought a fresh discussion in Parliament on Mahatma Gandhi's assassination. Perhaps Swamy has not heard of the perils of not letting sleeping dogs lie.

The Mahatma's murder, to use another metaphor, is a hornet's nest. Stirring it will unleash so many facts that it will end up stinging a lot of heroes we have been worshipping, including the ones held dear by Swamy and friends.

As Jagjit Singh once sang, Baat niklegi to phir door talak jayegi. So, careful, Mr Swamy, what you wish for.

In 1966, the government of India constituted a one-man committee under justice Jeevanlal Kapur of Supreme Court to probe the Mahatma's murder in the wake of fresh evidence and allegations.

The probe was the result of GV Ketkar's boast that he was aware of the plan to murder the Mahatma. Ketkar, grandson of Bal Gangadhar Tilak, had revealed this fact during a programme organised to celebrate the release of Gopal Godse and two other sentenced to life for the murder.

Justice Kapur examined hundreds of witnesses, including the then home minister of Bombay (Mumbai) Morarji Desai, socialist leader Jayprakash Narayan, cops who investigated the case in various cities (Pune, Delhi, Gwalior, Alwar, Mumbai) and noted: "All these facts were destructive of any theory other than the conspiracy to murder by Savarkar and his group..." (25.106, part two.)

Though Savarkar was let off after the initial trial, the Commission uncovered new evidence that left no doubt that the Mahatma's murder was planned by Madanlal Pahwa, Nathuram Godse, Narayan Apte and Savarkar.

The Kapur Commission cited also the evidence of one Devendra Kumar to point at the larger conspiracy by Savarkarites.

"Statement made before a magistrate under section 164 CrPC of one Devendra Kumar, who was originally resident of Goa and had joined the Hindu Rashtra Dal in March 1937. He stated that he met NV Godse (the person hanged for the Mahatma's murder) who was captain of the Dal. The statement shows how the deponent was taught to manufacture bombs and to use guns from cycles and cars and how to use pistols and revolvers. He was also training others. Among other things he disclosed that it was planned that Mahatma Gandhi, (JLN) Nehru, Sardar Patel, Maulana Azad and Baldev Singh should be killed as they were standing in the way of the Rashtra Dal. The party was waiting for a chance to execute this programme. Then he added:

'We were creating hatred against these leaders in the minds of the public and it was planned that as soon as the public was ready the leaders should be killed one by one...When I heard of the sad incident about Gandhiji I became unnerved. I dropped a letter to Savarkar threatening to expose the conspiracy if he did not desist from the execution of the rest of the programme'..."

Read that list again, narrated in Justice Kapur's report: Gandhi, Nehru, Azad and Patel.

A portrait of Savarkar hangs in Indian Parliament alongside Gandhi's today. Many of his colleagues swear by Savarkarwad, his idea of India. Is Swamy willing to discussed the murder again, bring the spotlight back on Savarkar's role?

Perhaps Swamy should consult some of his current colleagues before getting into the backstory of the murder. Many questions about the murder have remained unanswered for several years, leading to several conspiracy theories. Naming people whose failures resulted in the Mahatma's assassination will sully several reputations today.

Speaking in Rajya Sabha, Swamy raised several questions. The BJP leader has the knack for making irrefutable, undisputed facts look controversial and commonplace occurrences resemble mysteries. In trademark style, Swamy popped questions with the air of a man revealing something sensational. But, his questions have been answered many times in the past and are mentioned in dozens of reports and books.

According to India Today, Swamy said there was a dispute regarding the number of bullets fired at Gandhi. Nathuram Godse said he fired two bullets but the public prosecutor said three bullets were fired. Some newspapers said four bullets were fired at him.

Here is what The Hindu reported on 31 January, 1948: "As he (Mahatma Gandhi) walked up the four steps leading to the prayer mandap, a young man, aged about 35, came before Gandhiji and, bending his body forward at a distance of less than two yards, offered pranam. Gandhiji returned the salute, when the young man remarked You are late to-day for the prayer. Gandhiji smiled and replied, Yes, I am; but just at that moment, the young man pulled out his revolver and rang out three shots from point-blank range, the bullets piercing the frail body of the great leader just below the heart and stomach. Immediately, Gandhiji collapsed; but Ava Gandhi and Manu Gandhi stuck to their place by his side and held him firmly. But that was the last of the Nations Father. It was then 5.12 p.m."

This is what Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre wrote in Freedom at Midnight: "At that instant Nathuram's left arm shot out, thrusting her (Manu) aside. The Black Berretta pistol lay exposed in his right hand. Nathuram pulled the trigger three times." (Page 440, chapter: The Second Crucifixion).

And this is what justice GD Khosla, the Punjab High Court judge who heard the murder case, said in his book, The Murder of the Mahatma: "Mahatma Gandhi had been shot dead while walking to his prayer meeting, that day at 5 p.m., by Nathuram Godse, a Brahmin from Poona. The assassin had fired three shots at point-blank range. Mahatma Gandhi was wounded in the chest and abdomen, and fell down on the spot saying: 'Hai Ram'. The murderer was immediately apprehended and saved from a lynching by the crowd. The pistol from which he had fired the shots was recovered from his possession. Gandhiji was carried to his room in a state of unconsciousness, and he succumbed to his injuries within a few moments."

In his book, justice Khosla also answers Swamy's second question: Why wasn't the Mahatma taken to a hospital?

Elementary, Mr Swami, he died within a few moments.

Finally, as Swamy asked, why wasn't an autopsy conducted? It was Mahatma Gandhi's will that he be cremated within 24 hours of death. After his death, many in the Indian government had suggested that his body be embalmed and kept for public darshan for several days. But his secretary Pyarelal put his foot down, citing the Mahatma's desire.

As The Hindu reported: "The last act Gandhiji did was to lift both his hands as a sign of prayer in the direction of the large gathering which had assembled for the prayer. Thereafter, he was speechless and the loss of blood, at his age and so soon after his fast, made death inevitable. He was beyond medical aid even from the start when shock had its effect. Lord Mountbatten and Cabinet Ministers, including Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and Maulana Abul Kalam Azad and others soon arrived. The Ministers present held consultations among themselves as to the future course of action."

So, what is super sleuth Swamy insinuating? That the Mahatma was allowed to die in the presence of the entire Indian government?
It is said that each time a terrorist attack happens on American or even European soil, Donald Trump adds a few percentage points to his ratings.

In India, the lumpen 'cow protection' gangs are doing a similar favour to BJP's rivals. With their each act of sheer lunacy, these newly emboldened fringe bullies are undermining the Prime Minister's slogan of inclusiveness, creating an atmosphere of mutual animosity among communities and severely jeopardising BJP's chances before the upcoming Assembly elections.

And as it gets sucked into the beef politics tornado, the party's social inclusion project, that drew a vast number of Dalits towards the BJP during the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, lies in tatters. Narendra Modi and Amit Shah's grand plans of Dalit outreach is undergoing a spectacular implosion, the Muslims are hardening their stance and the party is lurching from one crisis to another with a nary an idea of how to control the fire.

The embers of a vicious attack on Dalits  in which self-styled gau-rakshaks (cow-protectors) stripped four Dalit youths and thrashed them for skinning a dead cow in Una on 11 July  had barely died down when another fringe gang lashed out.

On Wednesday, two Muslim women were reportedly assaulted by female members of Hindu Dal, a fringe cow protection gang, at Mandsaur railway station in Madhya Pradesh over suspicion that they were carrying beef. The women were reportedly carrying 30 kg of meat without proper permit. Though initial reports by a veterinary doctor suggested that the meat was that of a buffalo, both of them have still been taken into custody for 'smuggling and trying to sell' the meat. Importing of buffalo meat inside Madhya Pradesh without permission is illegal.

Damningly, however, an amateur video of the incident that has since one viral on social media and is being played on loop by TV channel shows cops policemen watching and making half-hearted attempts to intervene as the two Muslim women are slapped, kicked and abused by a mob led by the cow vigilantes.

In the video, the women are cornered by a crowd that is heard screaming "Gau Mata Ki Jai (Hail holy cow)". They are slapped and punched by the women in the mob until one of them collapses.

Though Madhya Pradesh Home Minister Bhupender Singh promised to take actin against the perpetrators, the damage was done.

BSP chief Mayawati was quick to start of the blocks. No sooner had listed papers been laid on the table of the House, she took up the issue and tore into the government, accusing it of running a hate campaign against Dalit and minorities. Ever the consummate politician, this was a juicy half-volley she'd never let go.

The BSP chief protested against Prime Minister Narendra Modi's "silence" on the issue and what she termed as "inaction" against cow vigilante groups by the governments at the Centre and BJP-ruled states. "The BJP raises the slogan 'Mahilaon ke samman mein, BJP maidan mein' slogan, yet in BJP ruled Madhya Pradesh women thrashed on beef rumours," Mayawati said.

Though Congress also joined in the protest, labeling the government as 'anti-Dalit' and 'anti-women' the politician who stands to gain the most from this unrest is the BSP chief.

A string of incidents  including BJP's now-deposed state unit president Dayashankar Singh's misogynist attack on Mayawati, the Dalit agitation in Gujarat and now the thrashing of Muslim women in Madhya Pradesh by a 'cow protection'  have taken place at just the right time for the BSP chief who is planning a grand Dalit-Muslim coalition for the 2017 UP Assembly polls.

Her strategy is clear. After burning her fingers during the 2014 general elections, when her wooing of upper castes alienated her core Dalit vote-bank who had gravitated towards the BJP, she has corrected her course and is now looking at a social engineering involving the oppressed and the minorities whom she plans to wean away from the ruling Samajwadi Party.

In the 2007 Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls, Mayawati gave tickets to 61 Muslim candidates  15 per cent of the total BSP candidates. In 2012, the count rose to 85. For next year's polls, BSP will field 100 Muslim candidates  a clear jump to 25 per cent of the total number of candidates.

This is a winning formula because a Dalit-Muslim combine signifies 38.5 per cent of Uttar Pradesh's total population  enough to give any party absolute majority.

The BJP, which had assiduously courted the Dalit votes to add to its upper caste base, can only rue the latest developments. The Frankenstein is twisting the knife into its master.
In what can be seen as a major leg up for the NITI Aayog  to assume a greater role in governance  Prime Minister Narendra Modi will attend a high level meeting with the think-tank on Thursday, to take stock of its varied assignments. His interaction with mandarins of the Aayog would largely focus on fine-tuning the 15-year vision document, that envisages long-term planning for the country.

The 15-year vision document  that will be enacted in the beginning of 2017-18 fiscal year  will replace the earlier five-year planning system, that has been followed for over six decades.

In effect, Modis second visit to the Yojana Bhavan  after he wound up its forerunner, the Planning Commission  is clearly aimed at turning the body into a systems reform commission. The meeting will also serve a secondary purpose  it will effectively put to rest all speculations about the possibility of vice-chairman of the NITI Aayog, Arvind Panagariya, being shifted to head the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). Indeed Panagariya is saddled with far too serious tasks these days.

A cursory look at the works assigned to the Aayog would be in order to ascertain the growing importance of the body in governance. For instance, the Aayog has been drawing a vision document which would set the guidelines for the countrys development. We have been making plans that will take care of short term and long-term objectives, said a senior official involved with the drafting of the vision document.

At the same time, the Aayog has been assigned the job of identifying the structural bottlenecks and devise a way to overcome them. In sectors like education, health, labour, agriculture, infrastructure and disinvestment of the Public Sector Units (PSUs), the Aayogs role is becoming increasingly critical. The vision document will now also include internal security and defence  as they were not part of the earlier five-year plans.

The fact that the government is heavily banking on the Aayogs brain-trust to devise and induce reforms, in order to create a healthy competition among the various states, speaks volumes of the body's growing importance.

For example, the Aayog has come up with a plan to measure a states performance on the basis of certain parameters  education, health, and basic necessities like drinking water and sanitation. Shortly, the states will be appraised on the basis of their performance. The details of their appraisal would be made public, like the report cards of students.

Though the performance will not be initially linked to the devolution of funds, the criteria can later be used to reward the performing states and penalise the non-performing states.

Apparently, the NITI Aayog will become a forum for regular interaction with the states, which may seek its support as a neutral umpire to advocate its case with the Centre. Though the Aayog does not have any influence over the devolution of funds, its prescription would have significant bearing on the manner in which funds would be allocated to the states. The Aayog would, at the same time, goad states to initiate reforms in land acquisition and labour laws to facilitate industrial growth.

In the agriculture sector, the Aayog has been pushing the states to initiate land reforms and digitisation of land records in order to avail the benefits of crop insurance and governments assistance to improve farming. In certain states, the prevalence of share-cropping by tenants proved to be a major handicap to assist those who sustain on agriculture. The Aayog has been preparing a guideline for the states to initiate measures to help farmers, to get maximum benefits from the governments schemes and improve their earnings.

The Aayog has also been particularly working overtime to create world-class university campuses all over the country. Officials of the Aayog are working in tandem with the University Grants Commission (UGC) to pave the way for foreign universities to invest in India, and set up campuses which can be comparable internationally. Similarly, the Aayog has been working on a comprehensive package to improve the quality of medical education in the country, by removing hurdles created by the likes of the medical council of India (MCI).

Another important task assigned to the Aayog is to find a transparent and effective way for the disinvestment of PSUs and to introduce efficiency in their functioning. By all indications, the government has been widening the mandate of the newly created institution, which is built on the ruins of the all powerful Planning Commission.

Quite unlike the planning body, the Yojana Aayog has now been modelled on the systems reform commission to identify and plug loopholes on a perpetual basis, and to act like a think-tank for the government. Modis meeting on Thursday would only reaffirm the growing importance of the Aayog.
New Delhi: The Delhi Police have registered a fresh case under non-cognisable offences against AAP Okhla MLA Amanatullah Khan, already under arrest in another case, on a complaint by some protesters in his constituency.

The case has been registered against Khan under Section 506 (punishment for intimidation) of IPC which is a non-cognisable offence, on the complaint of a group of protesters, a senior police officer said.

The complainant Syed Tanveer Ahmad, a resident of Shaheen Bagh in Okhla, said he, along with others, was protesting against civic woes and alleged underdevelopment of the constituency under the AAP government on 16 July.

He alleged Khan reached the venue on the night of July 16 "with his men and threatened" them to call off the protest.

Tanveer alleged the MLA intimidated him saying he would "cut him into pieces and throw in Yamuna" if he did not comply.

Based on the complaint of Tanveer and other protestors, including Sultan Ahmad and Syed Abdul Ali, a non-cognisable offence case was registered 24 July at Jamia Nagar Police station.

Khan, who is also chairman of Delhi Waqf Board, was arrested on 24 July from his Batla House residence for allegedly threatening a woman who had visited his house to raise the issue of power cuts.

He was remanded to a 14-day judicial custody on Tuesday by a city court.
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Congress on Tuesday termed Prime Minister Narendra Modi's "silence" on Una Dalit thrashing incident as "devaluation" of his post as well as democracy, even as the opposition party organised sit-in agitations across Gujarat against the incident.

"He (Modi) took votes from Gujarat and became PM. But, he has refused to utter a single word for Dalits as he fears that it will harm BJP in Gujarat. This is devaluation of democracy and PM's post," said Leader of Opposition in Legislative Assembly, Shankersinh Vaghela.

While the protests were held at various places in 33 districts, senior party leaders, including state unit Congress president Bharatsinh Solanki and Vaghela participated in a dharna near collector's office in the city.

The Congress leaders blamed the brutal assault on Dalit youths on the "anti-Dalit mentality" of the BJP and state government.

Addressing a gathering of Dalits here, Solanki said the "atrocities" committed on people under the BJP government are "more heinous and barbaric than during the British rule".

"This government crushes all those who raise their voices for their rights. Dalits and poor citizens are subjected to atrocities in Gujarat. This government is having an anti-Dalit mentality, as people who thrashed Dalits in Una were supporters of BJP," he alleged.

Solanki alleged that more than 40 people were involved in thrashing Dailts at Una, but only 16 were arrested.

"This shows that enough steps are not taken by government to instill a sense of security among Dalits. Such incident on Dalits has tarnished Gujarat's image," the Congress leader said.

On 11 July, some Dalit youths from Mota Samadhiyala village in Una taluka of Gir-Somnath district were flogged allegedly by cow protection vigilantes for skinning a dead cow.

The incident sparked a huge outrage in Gujarat with the Dalits taking to streets and indulging in vandalism and arson.
New Delhi: Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi is expected to mount a scathing attack on the government in the Lok Sabha on Thursday on the issue of rising prices of essential commodities.

Party sources on Wednesday said that the House is expected to take up a short duration discussion on the issue.

With the prices of pulses and some other commodities skyrocketing in recent months, the main opposition party has launched a sharp attack on the Narendra Modi dispensation for hitting hard the common man.

Last week, Congress President Sonia Gandhi had targeted the government on the issue of price rise and asked party MPs to be aggressive and hold the government and its ministers accountable for it.

Picking holes in the government's claims of economic growth, she said "when it comes to growth and GDP figures that they tout, questions on their veracity are raised even by their own party leaders. BJP blocked every important FDI initiative of the UPA government. Yet now it has put in place a free-for-all policy even in sensitive areas like defence."
Questioning the magistrates order on whether the police have any role in the criminal defamation case filed by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) against Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, the Supreme Court on Wednesday adjourned the hearing till 23 August, reported CNN-News18.

The apex court said that the trial court had asked police for a report following the defamation complaint against Rahul instead of examining evidence themselves. The police have no authority to conduct an inquiry in a criminal defamation case, the Supreme Court added.

Earlier, the apex court had told Rahul Gandhi that he must either apologise or face trial for saying that the RSS was responsible for Mahatma Gandhi's assassination.

The Congress vice-president had earlier moved the Supreme Court seeking a stay on the Bombay High Court order dismissing his plea for quashing the defamation case against him.

At a rally in Bhiwandi, Maharashtra, in 2014, Rahul Gandhi had reportedly said that "RSS people killed Gandhiji. They opposed Sardar Patel and Gandhiji", reported The Times of India.

Rajesh Kunte, the secretary of Bhiwandi unit of RSS, had alleged that Rahul at an election rally blamed the RSS for Gandhi's death. Kunte, according to PTI, had said that the Congress leader had sought to tarnish the reputation of the Sangh through his speech.

Kunte had then filed the defamation suit in a Maharashtra court against Rahul.

The TOI report also said that Rahul had made fun of senior BJP leaders for claiming credit for the introduction of computers to India. He said that the credit should have gone to Rajiv Gandhi and Sam Pitroda.

Following Kunte's complaint, the magistrate's court had initiated proceedings and issued a notice to Rahul directing him to appear before it. Rahul was summoned to appear before the trial court on 6 January, 2015.

The prosecution had opposed Rahul's petition seeking exemption from appearance and quashing of the complaint and argued that Rahul can plead his case and lead evidence during the trial before the magistrate.

The high court had dismissed the petition and refused to grant a stay on its order. It had allowed Rahul some time to appeal against the order in the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court bench, after perusing the judgement of Punjab and Haryana High Court, said it only says that Nathuram Godse was an RSS worker and added that Godse killed Gandhi and RSS killed Gandhi are two different things.

With inputs from agencies
New Delhi: Former Congress MP Sandeep Dikshit has mounted a stinging attack on DPCC Chief Ajay Maken accusing him of having tried to falsely implicate his mother and then Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit in the CWG scam and create an atmosphere to "discredit" her ahead of assembly polls in 2013.

Bringing the strife in Congress' Delhi unit to the fore, Dikshit, without naming Maken, said in a blog he cannot accept a leadership whose sole objective was to discredit the Congress government in Delhi under Sheila Dikshit, which ultimately led to "destroying" the party itself.

"It is led by a person who has consistently and directly attacked Sheila Dikshit, with his stories, innuendoes and defamatory propaganda.

"He prepared a false synopsis of the CAG's Commonwealth report, putting in fabricated charges, and sent them to a media house even before the CAG report was published, and that media house broadcast these allegations.

"Of course, the actual report contained none of these charges, but the damage, as planned was done. The same game was played with electricity rates, power meters, and so on," he said. When contacted, Maken refused to comment.

Dikshit said he wrote the blog to clarify his position after a journalist speculated about his leaving the party for greener pastures.

"As far as the Congress set up at the national level is concerned, I am informed that I am not particularly liked for my rebellious nature and irreverent attitude.

"So where does that leave me? When my own party has put me out to graze, what greener pastures do I look for?" he wrote in news portal 'Dailyo'.

Asserting that he was a dedicated Congressman, Dikshit said the "political vehicle" of the Congress is the "pivot"

around which a large coalition can take shape.

Dikshit, who could not retain his East Delhi Lok Sabha seat in the parlaimentary elections in 2014, said an atmosphere was deliberately created to discredit his mother.

"Even as late as three-four weeks back, the Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) leader was cajoling journalists to hype up the water tanker issue. He said the Congress was staging a comeback on the strength of the 15 years of its rule in Delhi, which was discredited by the very person who is reaping that benefit now.

"This leadership has prospered by being her counterpoint, and has made abusing her its rallying point," he said, adding for the current Delhi leadership, she remained a source of "grave concern and fear".

In the blog, Dikshit also attacked the BJP-led government at the Centre and the AAP dispensation in the city.

Meanwhile, reacting to a question on Dikshit's blog, senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad told journalists that it could be because of "personal rivalry" between two individuals. "I do not give it much credence," he said.

Azad, the Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, is also Congress general secretary in-charge of Uttar Pradesh and Sheila Dikshit has been declared the party's chief ministerial candidate for the assembly polls there due early next year.

Azad said, "We cannot take responsibility for any person in the family. There can be different views of people in a

family."

He said both Sheila Dikshit and her father-in-law Umashankar Dikshit have been staunch Congress leaders.
Damascus: At least 44 are dead after an attack Wednesday on the town of Qamishli in north-eastern Syria, a hospital official told dpa.

"The initial number of the victims of the blast that targeted the eastern district of the town also includes 140 injuries, while there are still dead bodies under the debris [that have not been retrieved yet]," Qamishli National Hospital Director Omar Al-Qaqoub said.

A car bomb targeting the Justice Department and Kurdish internal security force in the town located in al-Hasaka province, the head of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Rami Abdel Rahman, told dpa.

Activists in the area said a truck laden with explosives blew up at the entrance of the street housing the headquarters of the Asayish forces, killing and wounding mainly civilians, as well as inflicting heavy material damage.

Earlier reports said there were two bombings. But there were no immediate details on the other blast.

Islamic State claimed responsibility for one of the two bombings, saying that a suicide bomber driving a booby-trapped truck targeted the Kurdish People's Protection Unit (YPG) headquarters in Qamishli.

The claim was made via its mouthpiece, the Aamaq News Agency, on the Telegram messaging app.

YPG controls swathes of north-eastern Syria, including most of al-Hasaka province.

The extremist group cited a security source as saying 100 were killed in the blast and dozens others were wounded.
Baghdad: A suicide bomber targeted a police checkpoint in a Shiite neighborhood in Baghdad on Wednesday, killing at least six people. South of the Iraqi capital, a provincial council approved a decision allowing authorities to demolish homes of convicted militants and banish their families from the province.

The Baghdad attacker, who was on foot, blew up his explosives-laden vest at a police checkpoint in the northern neighbourhood of Shula, a police officer said. Three policemen and three civilians were killed and at least 15 people were wounded in the explosion, the officer added, speaking on condition of anonymity as he was not authorised to talk to the media.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, which bore the hallmarks of the Islamic State group. The Sunni militant group has claimed previous such attacks against security forces and public places mainly in Shiite-dominated areas.

Meanwhile, the decision by the Babil Provincial Council reflects attempts by local authorities to try  independently of the central government in Baghdad  to rein in militant attacks in municipalities and provinces across the country battered by years of war.

Hassan Fadaam, a Babil Provincial Council member, told The Associated Press in a phone interview that the council decision was approved on Tuesday in the provincial capital of Hillah, 95 kilometers (60 miles) south of Baghdad.

It's the first such decision in Iraq since the 2003 US-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein. Earlier, some pro-government Sunni tribes have demolished houses of those they accused of cooperating with the Islamic State group after the militants' 2014 blitz captured large swaths of land in western and northern Iraq.

The decision will only apply to convicted militants who have exhausted all possibilities of appealing their convictions. A court order also must precede the demolishing of a house, Fadaam said, without clarifying where a family of an offender would go to, once banished from the province.

The decision also calls on Baghdad to hand over militants who are on death row for attacks carried out in a province to provincial authorities. A convict would then be executed in public in the province where he committed the crime, Fadaam added.

"We will consider any means that could help deter terrorism and this is one of them," he said. "We have grown frustrated with the central government's efforts to maintain security and execute convicted militants. Nothing is deterring the terrorists who realise once they are in prison, they only receive good treatment."

Public anger against the government has mounted since the 3 July massive bombing in Baghdad's busy commercial area of Karradah that killed nearly 300 people and wounded hundreds. Demands for execution of hundreds of convicted militants on death row have also grown. In an attempt to absorb public anger, days after the Karradah truck bombing, the government executed five militants, sentenced to death for other attacks.

The militants, who in mid-2014 declared a caliphate in areas they control in Iraq and neighboring Syria, have increased their attacks in the past months in Baghdad and other cities far from the front lines in what is seen by Iraqi and US officials as attempts to distract from their battlefield losses.
Philadelphia: Hillary Clinton made history on Tuesday by becoming the first woman to win a major US political party's White House nomination, earning the backing of convention Democrats and prime-time praise from a presidential superstar: her husband Bill.

The 68-year-old former first lady, senator and secretary of state took a monumental step on her quest to become America's first female commander-in-chief, by besting party challenger Bernie Sanders.

After a tumultuous convention opening, which saw Sanders and Clinton supporters trade jeers and chants, cheers erupted as Clinton passed the 2,382-delegate threshold needed for the nomination, setting up a showdown with Republican Donald Trump in November.

Hours later, another historical moment greeted the Clintons, when a former president took the stage to intimately make the case that his wife was the compassionate and capable "change-maker" America needed.

"She always wants to move the ball forward. That is just who she is," Bill Clinton said of his candidate wife, keeping his audience of thousands of delegates rapt throughout his 45-minute speech, which marks the convention's halfway point.

"For this time, Hillary is uniquely qualified to seize the opportunities and reduce the risks we face, and she is still the best darn change-maker I have ever known."

The ayes have it

Although the roll call outcome was a foregone conclusion, the state-by-state vote saw rowdy displays on the convention floor.

A handful of diehard Sanders delegates fumed over their candidate's defeat, but they were drowned out by ecstatic Clinton supporters. Several wept and embraced.

Sanders took the floor in a bid to unify the party, drawing deafening cheers and a chorus of "ayes" when he called for Clinton to be "selected as the nominee of the Democratic Party for president of the United States."

Delegates thrust placards in the air, forming a mosaic of "H's" across the arena.

'I met a girl'

Hillary Clinton made a stunning appearance by video after her husband's speech, appearing to burst through a symbolic glass ceiling comprised of the faces of former presidents, all men.

"What an incredible honour that you have given me," she said to roars from the crowd.

"This is really your victory," she added. "And if there are any little girls out there who stayed up late to watch, let me just say, I may become the first woman president but one of you is next."

Bill Clinton, a Democratic icon at 69, meanwhile reminded the audience why he is still considered such a spellbinding speaker.

While he made a forceful case for Hillary as president, his speech was deeply personal and heartfelt, taking his audience back to his earliest moments with his wife of more than 40 years.

"In the spring of 1971, I met a girl," Bill began as he warmly recalled their budding romance, his persistence in seeking her hand in marriage, and his eventual realisation that he was "in awe" at Hillary's smarts, strength and persistence in doing public good.

He alluded to Clinton's election rival, although not by name, by pointing to some of Trump's more controversial policy positions, including his call to ban Muslims from entering the United States.

"If you're a Muslim and you love America and freedom and you hate terror, stay here and help us win and make a future together," Clinton said to huge applause.

"We want you."

'The real one'

The Democratic convention has been convulsed by revelations over leaked Democratic National Committee emails that showed party bias against Sanders. Frustration boiled over on the opening day Monday as his delegates booed speakers who mentioned Clinton.

Trump took the usual shots at Clinton during a speech in Charlotte, North Carolina, calling her "Crooked Hillary" and charging that her use of a private email account as secretary of state "put America's entire national security at risk."

But Bill Clinton took a veiled swipe at Trump and his vision for change, and congratulated Democratic delegates for nominating "the real" Hillary, not the "cartoon" version portrayed by Republicans.

"Life in the real world is complicated, and real change is hard," Clinton said. "Today, you nominated the real one."

Tuesday's convention events drew sharp contrast with Trump, with several speakers discussing Clinton's life-long fights to make a difference.

Several mothers of African-Americans who were victims of gun violence or police-involved deaths took the stage to back Clinton, as delegates chanted "Black lives matter."

Speakers also addressed the differences between Clinton and Trump on women's rights, including Cecile Richards, the head of women's health care provider Planned Parenthood.

"Women are going to be the reason you're not elected president," Richards said of Trump.

From 'political revolution' to revolt

Bill Clinton's speech struck a unifying tone. But despite Sanders calling on his flock to get behind Hillary, his self-styled "political revolution" appears to have transformed into a revolt.

Tace Geesaman, a Nevada delegate and single mom, walked out after Sanders's plea feeling betrayed.

"There's no unity in the party," she said of the Clinton camp.

"They're talking at us, they're telling us to fall in line," she added. "We didn't come to this convention to just fall in line."

But Bill Clinton laid out the options before voters, saying there were "clear, achievable, affordable" Democratic goals at stake in November.

"That's why you should elect her because she'll never quit when the going gets tough," Bill said of Hillary. "She'll never quit on you."
PHILADELPHIA Barack Obama will highlight Hillary Clinton's judgement and toughness on Wednesday as he seeks to boost her campaign to be the first woman U.S. president, hoping to hand off the White House to a trusted fellow Democrat and stop Republican Donald Trump.

On a day when Democrats meeting in Philadelphia planned to tout their candidate as far better suited than Trump to keep the country safe, the Republican gave his critics fresh fodder for attack, with remarks that the Clinton campaign said posed a possible national security threat.

Grabbing the spotlight at a news conference in Miami, Trump urged Russia to find and release tens of thousands of emails that Clinton did not hand over to U.S. officials as part of a probe into her use of a private email system while she was secretary of state. Clinton has said the emails she did not hand over were private.

Wednesday's events at the party's national convention were aimed at contrasting the 68-year-old Clinton's foreign policy skills with Trump's "unsteady, unfit and dangerous approach," Clinton campaign chair John Podesta said earlier.

Clinton secured the party's nomination on Tuesday. When she formally accepts it on Thursday, she will become the Democratic standard-bearer against Trump in the Nov. 8 election.

Trump, a 70-year-old New York businessman with no experience in political office, has hammered Clinton as untrustworthy and cast America as a place where security threats abound and law and order are breaking down. He has proposed deeply controversial measures such as temporarily banning Muslims from entering the country and building a wall on the border with Mexico border to stop illegal immigrants.

The Clinton campaign portrays Trump, a former reality TV star, as temperamentally unfit for the White House.

Obama offered a preview of his evening speech in an interview with NBC News broadcast on Wednesday.

"I hope my headline (from the speech) is that the president of the United States is profoundly optimistic about America's future and is 100 percent convinced that Hillary Clinton can be a great president," the president said.

Obama "has been candid about why he thinks electing the Republican nominee is a risky path for the United States," White House spokesman Eric Schultz said on Tuesday.

However, Obama's speech would focus more "on how Secretary Clinton has the judgement, the toughness and the intellect to succeed him in the Oval Office," Schultz said.

Obama, who beat Clinton in the 2008 campaign for the Democratic nomination, will be speaking 12 years to the day since he gave a keynote address, as an Illinois state senator, to the Democratic convention in 2004, which launched him on the national stage.

Clinton waged another hard-fought primary battle this year, beating off an unexpectedly strong challenge from the left by Bernie Sanders, a U.S. senator from Vermont.

Democratic leaders have sought to tamp down lingering bitterness among some die-hard Sanders supporters, and move past unruly displays of dissent that marked the convention's first day on Monday.

In a gesture of party unity, Sanders put forward Clinton's name on Tuesday night to make her the first woman presidential nominee for a major U.S. party.

Democrats have buttressed Clinton with a star gathering of current and past party notables. By contrast, many prominent Republicans were absent from the party convention that nominated Trump for the White House last week.

STAR LINEUP

As well as Obama, speakers on Wednesday will include Clinton's vice presidential running mate, Tim Kaine; Vice President Joe Biden; former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Leon Panetta, a former defence secretary and former CIA director.

Speaking on CNN on Wednesday, Panetta said Trump's remarks about Russia and the Clinton emails were "beyond the pale."

Bloomberg, founder of the Bloomberg news and data service, was previously elected as a Republican and later became an independent. He would take on Trump in the area where the New York real estate developer seeks to appeal to voters: his business acumen, said campaign chair Podesta.

"He (Bloomberg) will talk about the reason he has come to the conclusion that Hillary Clinton is the right choice to be a stable leader on economic matters, and why Donald Trump through his life in business is incapable of managing the economy, let alone his own affairs," Podesta said.

Kaine, a U.S. senator from Virginia picked as Clinton's running mate last week, will also get a chance to present himself to the party and the country.

After being formally nominated on Tuesday night, Clinton got an enthusiastic endorsement from her husband, Bill Clinton. The former president called his wife, who has also been a U.S. senator, a dynamic force for change. He also sought to counter the image critics have of her as driven by political ambition, with anecdotes painting his wife in a warm personal light.

(Additional reporting by Amy Tennery, Emily Stephenson, Jonathan Allen, Susan Heavey, Doina Chiacu, Steve Holland and Frances Kerry; Writing by Frances Kerry; Editing by Jonathan Oatis and Howard Goller)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
Dhaka: A US national of Bangladesh origin was among nine suspected Islamist extremists killed in a massive gunfight in Dhaka, police said Wednesday.

Dhaka Metropolitan Police spokesman Masudur Rahman told AFP that Shahzad Rouf was one of nine young men who were killed during Tuesday's early morning raid on a militant hideout.

"He was an American citizen. We confirmed his identity by checking finger prints," he told AFP.

He said six other extremists were also identified by police investigators by matching their finger prints with their national identity cards.

The nine were shot dead when hundreds of armed police stormed their den at a six-storey apartment building in Dhaka's Kalyanpur neighbourhood.

The extremists had claimed that they were members of the Islamic State organisation, with the officers recovering the group's black flags and robes from the hideout.

But the national police chief rejected the claim, asserting that the nine were members of banned homegrown militant outfit Jamayetul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB).

Rouf was a business administration student at the North South University (NSU), Rahman said.

NSU, a top private university where well-off people send their children for higher education, has been a hotbed of Islamist extremism.

Two of its former students were among five Islamist extremists who took hostages at an upscale Dhaka cafe earlier this month and killed 22 people, including 18 foreigners.

Another of its students was shot dead in a northern Bangladesh town a week later when Islamists launched a major attack on the country's largest Eid prayer congregation, where some 250,000 people gathered.

Seven of its students were also convicted and jailed in December last year for the murder of an atheist blogger in early 2013, kickstarting a deadly campaign against secular activists and religious minorities.

Rouf's father, Touhid Rouf, told AFP that he saw the body, but was not sure whether it was that of his son.

"I am not 100 percent sure. I am confused. Maybe it is because the body had an autopsy and it was partly decomposed," he told AFP.

He confirmed that his son was an American passport holder and that he had been missing from home for the last six months.

Rouf had been named on a list of missing people prepared by the elite security force Rapid Action Battalion after authorities raised concerns that he might have fled the country and joined the Islamic State group.
Philadelphia: A top Democratic lawmaker has accused Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump of cashing in on the 9/11 terror attacks even as he applauded Hillary Clinton's role as the New York senator in the aftermath of the tragedy.

"Where was Donald Trump in the days, and months, and the years after 9/11? He didn't stand at the pile. He didn't lobby

Congress for help. He didn't fight for the first responders. No," Congressman Joe Crowley asked in his address to the

Democratic National Convention here.

"He cashed in, collecting USD 150,000 in federal funds intended to help small businesses recover, even though days after the attack, Trump said his properties were not affected," Crowley said.

On the other hand, Hillary, the Democratic presidential nominee sought those funds to help local mom and pop shops get

back on their feet, he said.

"Donald Trump saw it as a payday for his empire. It was one of our nation's darkest days, but for Trump, it was just another chance to make a quick buck," he said.

"Hillary has never and will never forget the reality of that day, and that is why she will never give up on making us a better and stronger nation," said Crowley, who is a former Co-Chair of the Congressional Caucus on India and Indian Americans.

Crowley said Hillary Clinton, as the then Senator from New York understood the pain of the 9/11 families. "She fought to help our city rebuild, and she delivered. People forget, but the assistance package that was first proposed didn't have a dime, not a dime for New York. Hillary helped turn that around, securing USD 20 billion we needed to help get New York going again," he said.

"But she didn't stop there. Hundreds worked on the pile in the days after 9/11. First, they came to find survivors, but eventually searched for remains. They didn't worry about their own health. They were told the air was fine, but it

wasn't," he added.

"And when health issues emerged years later, Hillary Clinton was still by their side. She brought families and first responders to Washington. She took them door to door, never letting her colleagues forget the consequences of that terrible day," Crowley said.

"For almost a decade, Hillary never gave up, and she was there with us when the 9/11 Health and Compensation Act was finally passed," he said.
CHICAGO The Florida health department said on Wednesday it is investigating another two cases of Zika not related to travel to a place where the virus is being transmitted, raising the possibility of local Zika transmission in the continental United States.

The health department said it has identified an additional case of Zika in Miami-Dade County, where it was already investigating a possible case of Zika not related to travel, and another case in Broward County, where it has been investigating a non-travel related case.

"This pattern is consistent with other mosquito-borne virus investigations, such as the 2013 dengue response," health officials said in a statement.

(Reporting by Julie Steenhuysen; Editing by Bernard Orr)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray: President Francois Hollande sought Wednesday to head off divisions between France's religious communities after the jihadist-claimed murder of a Catholic priest in his church, as calls mounted for tougher security measures.

Hollande gathered top religious leaders at his Elysee Palace offices, as a violence-weary France struggled to come to terms with the latest attack, just two weeks after the Bastille Day truck massacre that killed 84 people.

France's large Catholic community was in shock after two men stormed into a church in the northern town of Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray during morning mass and cut the 86-year-old priest's throat at the altar.

One of the two attackers was identified as French jihadist Adel Kermiche, who was awaiting trial on terror charges and had been fitted with an electronic tag.

"We are stunned because we did not know it was dangerous to be a priest these days in France," said Pierre Amar, a priest from Versailles near Paris.

Prime Minister Manuel Valls has warned that the goal of the attack, claimed by Islamic State jihadists, was to "set the French people against each other, attack religion in order to start a war of religions".

Following the meeting with Hollande, the head of France's Muslim community  the largest in Europe  urged stepped-up security at places of worship.

"We deeply desire that our places of worship are the subject of greater (security) focus, a sustained focus," said Dalil Boubakeur.

In the name of French Muslims, he voiced his "deep grief" at the attack which he described as a "blasphemous sacrilege which goes against all the teachings of our religion".

'Capacity to act'

The third major strike on France in 18 months has prompted a bitter political spat over alleged security failings, and revelations over the church attack were likely to raise further questions.

Paris prosecutor Francois Molins said the 19-year-old Kermiche first came to the attention of anti-terror officials when a family member alerted he was missing in March 2015. German officials arrested him and found he was using his brother's identity in a bid to travel to Syria.

He was released under judicial supervision, but in May fled to Turkey where he was again arrested and returned to France. He was then held in custody until March this year.

Kermiche was released and fitted with the electronic bracelet, which allowed him to leave his house on weekdays between 8:00 am and 12:30 pm, Molins said.

Tuesday's attack prompted renewed opposition calls to further harden France's anti-terrorism legislation.

But Socialist Hollande  who faces a tough re-election bid next year  rejected them, saying: "Restricting our freedoms will not make the fight against terrorism more effective."

Changes made to legislation in 2015, and the extension of a state of emergency in the wake of the Nice attack, already gave authorities sufficient "capacity to act," he said.

But the deputy chief of France's police union, Frederic Lagache, said: "It should not be possible for someone awaiting trial on charges of having links to terrorism to be released" on house arrest.

'Where are the police?'

Mohammed Karabila, who heads the regional council of Muslim worship for Haute Normandie, where the church attack took place, asked simply: "How could a person wearing an electronic bracelet carry out an attack? Where are the police?"

Kermiche and another assailant entered the centuries-old stone church of Saint Etienne, taking hostage the priest, Jacques Hamel, three nuns and two worshippers.

One of the nuns managed to escape and call police, who tried to negotiate with the hostage-takers.

The nun, Sister Danielle, told local radio RMC that the men were speaking Arabic and shouting, and had "recorded" the attack.

Three hostages were lined up in front of the church door, meaning police could not launch an assault, said Molins.

Two nuns and one worshipper left the church followed by the two attackers, one carrying a handgun, who charged at police shouting "Allahu akbar" (God is greatest). Police gunned down the jihadists.

Joanna Torrent, a 22-year-old store employee, was stunned to see terror hit her small working-class town of 30,000 people, far from bustling tourist hubs like Paris and Nice.

"I thought it would only be in big cities, that it couldn't reach here," she said.

Saint Etienne's stone-and-brick town hall, a short distance from the church, became a communal grieving place as residents signed a condolence book and left candles and flowers.

A silent march will set off from the town hall on Thursday.

Outside Saint Etienne's Yahya Mosque  which sits on land donated by the adjacent Sainte Therese church  Karabila said his community had "never had problems with the authorities or the neighbours".

He added: "Here we don't preach hatred or we would be shut down."
Paris: More horrifying details emerged Wednesday about an attack on a French village church even as the country's main religious leaders sent a message of unity and solidarity after meeting with President Francois Hollande in Paris.

Two attackers took five hostages Tuesday at the church in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray in northwest France and slit the throat of the elderly priest saying morning Mass. A nun at the Mass slipped out to raise the alarm and both attackers, one of them a local man, were then killed by police outside the church.

Emotions in France that were raw after a 14 July truck attack in Nice that killed 84 people became more frazzled after the church in Normandy was attacked.

With the attack threat for the country ranked extremely high, Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said France is working to protect 56 remaining summer events and may consider cancelling some. Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said 4,000 members of the Sentinel military force will patrol Paris, while 6,000 will patrol in the provinces. They are being bolstered by tens of thousands of police and reservists.

One of the hostages at the church, an 86-year-old woman, said Wednesday that the attackers had handed her husband Guy a cellphone and demanded that he take photos or video of the priest  85-year-old Rev. Jacques Hamel  after he was slain. Her husband was then slashed in four places by the attackers and is now hospitalised with serious injuries.

The woman, identified only as Jeanine, told RMC radio that her husband played dead to stay alive. Two nuns were held hostage along with the couple and the priest.

"The terrorists held me with a revolver at my neck," she said, adding it was not clear to her now whether the weapon was real or fake. "He (the priest) fell down looking upwards, toward us."

The Paris prosecutor, Francois Molins, said the two attackers had knives and fake explosives  one a phony suicide belt covered in tin foil. He identified one of the attackers as Adel Kermiche, a 19-year-old who grew up in the town and tried to travel to Syria twice last year using family members' identity documents.

Kermiche was detained outside France, sent home, handed preliminary terrorism charges and placed under house arrest with a tracking bracelet, allowing him free movement within the region for four hours a day, Molins said.

A police official told The Associated Press that the bracelet was deactivated during those four hours, allowing Kermiche to leave the family home without raising alarms. The official was not publicly authorised to speak about the case.

The prosecutor's office said Wednesday the second attacker has not been formally identified. In addition, police detained a 16-year-old whom Molins said was the younger brother of a young man who traveled to the Syria-Iraq zone of the Islamic State group carrying Kermiche's ID. He was still being questioned Wednesday.

Hollande, meanwhile, presided over a defense council and Cabinet meeting in Paris after speaking with Roman Catholic, Orthodox, Muslim and Jewish leaders.

The archbishop of Paris, Cardinal Andre Vingt-Trois, called on Catholics to "overcome hatred that comes in their heart" and not to allow the Islamic State group "to set children of the same family upon each other."

The rector of the main Paris mosque, Dalil Boubakeur, said France's Muslims must push for better training of Muslim clerics and urged that reforming French Muslim institutions be put on the agenda. He did not elaborate.

Pope Francis, visiting Krakow, Poland, for World Youth Day celebrations, said of the slaying of the priest, "It's war, we don't have to be afraid to say this."

He then clarified to say, "I am not speaking of a war of religions. Religions don't want war. The others want war."

In the town of Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, young and old were stunned by the attack.

An 18-year-old neighbor said he had seen Kermiche just three days earlier in nearby Rouen wearing a long Islamic robe.

When he heard about the church attack, "I knew it was him, I was sure," the young man told the AP, identifying himself only as Redwan. He said Kermiche had told him and others about his efforts to get to Syria and "he was saying we should go there and fight for our brothers."

"We were saying that is not good. And he was replying that France is the land of unbelievers," Redwan said.

Candles were placed in front of the town hall as residents called for unity.

"We are scared," said Mulas Arbanu. "(But) be we Christians, Muslims, anything, we have to be together."

Another resident, Said Aid Lahcen, had met the slain priest.

"From the moment when you touch a religion, you attack the nation, and you attack a people. We must not get into divergences, but stay united as we were before," he said.
France: French Prosecutor Francois Molins said Tuesday that one of two jihadists who attacked a church in a Normandy town, and slit a priest's throat, was 19-year-old Adel Kermiche.

Kermiche was known to security services, having twice been arrested on his way to Syria, and was under house arrest and wearing an electronic monitoring bracelet at the time of the attack.

Molins said Kermiche and an unknown accomplice, armed with knives, had stormed the church in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, taking hostage the 86-year-old priest, three nuns and two worshippers.

One of the nuns managed to escape and call police, who, upon arrival, tried to negotiate with the hostage-takers through a small door.

Molins said police were unable to launch an assult on the church as three hostages were lined up in front of the door.

Two nuns and one worshipper then exited the church followed by the two attackers, one carrying a handgun, who charged police shouting Allahu Akbar (God is greatest)

Both attackers had on them a "fake explosive device covered in aluminium foil".

The priest was found dead with his throat slit, and an 86-year-old worshipper had severe knife wounds, said Molins.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi(right) meets with US Secretary of State John Kerry in Vientiane, capital of Laos, July 25, 2016. [Photo/Xinhua]

The South China Sea disputes, after so much fanfare, seem to be heading toward the right direction of peaceful settlement through bilateral negotiations.

The latest development appears encouraging, with US Secretary of State John Kerry saying, during a meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Monday, that Washington "is not taking sides on the substance of maritime disputes" and supports Beijing and Manila resuming talks.

Indeed, it is time for parties concerned to move away from the tensions and "turn the page", as Kerry reportedly said.

Yet sincerity is subject to proof. The United States must take concrete actions to repair the damage it has caused and show it means what it says.

The worry is understandable, for a joint statement issued by the foreign ministers of the US, Japan and Australia in Vientiane, Laos, on Monday, still harped on the same old string by pointing an accusing finger at China, trying to depict it as a troublemaker and a threat to countries in the region.

It takes much effrontery and hypocrisy for the three countries to continue to play their self-appointed roles as guardians of peace in the South China Sea.

Their trick of confusing right and wrong cannot cover up the fact that the regional bloc rejected the trio's proposal to even mention, in a statement after their foreign ministers' meeting, the award by The Hague arbitral tribunal in the case unilaterally initiated by the Philippines against China, let alone support it. It is noteworthy that it happened despite the trio pressing the issue with ASEAN members.

Instead, ASEAN called for the nations directly involved in the sea disputes to engage in bilateral negotiations, which matches the China-ASEAN stance on how to peacefully resolve the disputes between the respective disputing parties.

This is a resounding defeat for outside interventionism.

And it makes the trio's statement seem like a desperate attempt to save face, after their miscalculation and overestimation of their ability to manipulate and pit ASEAN members against China, or one another.

None of the three countries are claimants in the South China Sea disputes, nor are they directly involved in the disputes.

Their eagerness to feign righteousness under the pretext of protection of freedom of overflight and navigation while stoking tensions in the South China Sea stems from their own selfish agenda to contain a rising China.

But that ruse is no longer effective, as has been proved by the embarrassing situation the trio find themselves in at the ASEAN gathering.
PARIS/SAINT-ETIENNE-DU-ROUVRAY, France France's government faced criticism of its security record on Wednesday in the wake of revelations that one of the assailants who slit the throat of a priest at a church altar was a known would-be jihadist under police surveillance.

President Francois Hollande met interfaith leaders in an effort to promote national unity. But his predecessor and potential opponent in a presidential election next year, Nicolas Sarkozy, said the government must take stronger steps to track known Islamist sympathisers.

Tuesday's attackers interrupted a church service, forced 85-year-old Roman Catholic priest Father Jacques Hamel to his knees at the altar and slit his throat. As they came out of the church shouting "Allahu akbar" ("God is Greatest"), they were shot and killed by police.

The attack came less that two weeks after another suspected Islamist drove a truck into a Bastille Day crowd, killing 84 people. Opposition politicians have responded to the attacks with strong criticism of the Socialist government's security record, unlike last year, when they made a show of unity after gunmen and bombers killed 130 people in Paris in November and attacked a satirical newspaper in January.

"All this violence and barbarism has paralysed the French left since January 2015," Sarkozy, who is expected to enter a conservative primary for next year's presidential election, told Le Monde newspaper. "It has lost its bearings and is clinging to a mindset that is out of touch with reality."

With some conservative politicians warning of a "war of religions", Hollande sought to head off divisions in a meeting with Christian, Jewish, Muslim and Buddhist leaders.

"We cannot allow ourselves to be dragged into the politics of Daesh (Islamic State), which wants to set the children of the same family against each other," the Archbishop of Paris, Cardinal Andre Vingt-Trois, told journalists after the meeting at the Elysee presidential palace.

Pope Francis said the slaying of a priest and a string of attacks in Europe in past weeks were proof the "world was at war", stressing this was not a war of religion but rather one of domination of peoples and economic interests.

Sarkozy has called for the detention or electronic tagging of all suspected Islamist militants, even if they have committed no offence. France's internal security service has confidential "S files" on some 10,500 suspected or aspiring jihadists.

Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve rejected Sarkozy's proposal, saying that to jail them would be unconstitutional and counterproductive.

"What has enabled France to break up a large number of terrorist networks is keeping these people under 'S file' surveillance, which allows intelligence services to work without these individuals being aware," he said on Europe 1 radio.

Cazeneuve later said summer festivals that do not meet tight security standards would be cancelled, and announced a shift in the deployment of 10,000 soldiers already on the streets, saying more would now be sent to the provinces.

DEATH AT THE ALTAR

Islamic State's news agency on Wednesday posted a video it said showed the two church attackers pledging allegiance to the group's leader in Arabic.

The group has prioritised targeting France, which has been bombing the group's bases in Iraq and Syria as part of a U.S.-led international coalition.

Tuesday's attackers arrived during morning mass in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, a working-class town near Rouen, northwest of Paris, where Father Hamel had been celebrating mass. They took hostages, one of whom was badly wounded during the attack.

One of the attackers, named as 19-year-old Adel Kermiche by France's anti-terror prosecutor, was a local man known to intelligence services after he made two failed bids last year to reach Syria to wage jihad. [L8N1AC77W]

Kermiche was released from detention pending trial for alleged membership of a terrorist organisation in March. He had to wear an electronic tag, surrender his passport and was only allowed to leave his parents' home for a few hours a day.

Kermiche's tag did not send an alarm because the attack took place during the four-hour period when he was allowed out.

Investigators carried out DNA tests on the body of the second attacker on Wednesday. A judicial source said investigators believed the second assailant was a 19-year-old from southeastern France who was previously unknown to police.

He has been named so far only as Abdel Malik P., with the formal identification awaiting the result of the genetic test, the source said. His identity card was found at the home of Kermiche.

According to the justice ministry, there are just 13 terrorism suspects and people convicted of terrorist links wearing tags such as that worn by Kermiche. Seven are on pre-trial bail. The other six have been convicted but wear the electronic bracelet instead of serving a full jail term.

Since the Bastille Day killings in Nice, there has been a spate of attacks in Germany as well, creating greater alarm in Western Europe already reeling from attacks last year in France and this year in Brussels.

(Additional reporting by Andrew Callus in Paris, Ahmed Tolba in Cairo and Philip Pullella in Krakow; Writing by Andrew Callus and Richard Lough; Editing by Peter Graff and Hugh Lawson)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
BERLIN Authorities evacuated a shopping centre in Bremen, Germany, on Wednesday evening as police hunted for a 19-year-old Algerian suspect who had fled a psychiatric facility, police said, but they denied that it was an "anti-terror operation."

"There is no evidence of any danger and this is not an anti-terrorism operation," a police spokeswoman told Reuters.

She said the mall had been cleared of people and that the suspect was at large.

Germany's Bild newspaper initially cited police sources as saying the man had ties to extremist groups, but later attributed that information to security sources.

The police spokeswoman said she had no information about any such ties. She said the man could be a danger to himself or others, but gave no further details.

She said people at the Bremen mall had called police to report what they described as suspicious behaviour by a man. He was later identified as the missing patient, who had fled a facility in the nearby state of Lower Saxony.

Earlier, a suitcase exploded near a reception centre for migrants in southern Germany, but authorities said the blast may have been caused by an aerosol can, and there was no sign of any explosives involved.

Germany remains on edge following a spate of violent attacks since July 18 two of which involved attackers with links to Islamic State.

(Reporting by Ralf Bode; Writing by Andrea Shalal; Editing by Richard Balmforth)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. Scientists have long wondered why Jupiter's upper atmosphere has temperatures similar to those of Earth, even though the biggest planet in the solar system is five times farther away from the sun.

The answer may be The Great Red Spot, an enormous storm big enough to swallow three Earths that has been raging on Jupiter for at least three centuries, a study showed on Wednesday.

Using an infrared telescope at Hawaii's Mauna Kea Observatory, scientists discovered that the upper atmosphere above the Great Red Spot  the largest storm in the solar system - is hundreds of degrees hotter than anywhere else on the planet.

It could be a coincidence or a major clue, said Boston University physicist James O'Donoghue, lead scientist of the study published in the journal Nature.

The storm spans 13,670 miles by 7,456 miles (22,000 km by 12,000 km) and is located in Jupiter's lower atmosphere. The top of its clouds reach altitudes of about 31 miles (50 km).

By a process of elimination, the newly found hot spot must be heated from below, the study concluded.

The finding provides a strong link between Jupiter's upper and lower atmosphere, though the exact process by which heat is transferred remains unknown. The most-likely energy source is acoustic waves that provide heat from below, the study said.

Scientists also are unsure why the storm is brick red, nor why it has changed color over time. In a 1900 report in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, scientists described the oval storm as salmon pink. Recent images from the Hubble Space Telescope show it has become orange tinged and more circular.

Like a hurricane on Earth, the Spot's center is relatively calm, but farther out winds reach 270 mph to 425 mph (430 kph to 680 kph). Because there is no land on Jupiter, which is made almost entirely of hydrogen and helium, the storm can never make landfall and dissipate.

"The Great Red Spot is like a wheel that's wedged between two conveyor belts running in opposite directions," said planetary scientist Glenn Orton, with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.

"One is adding momentum to it at the top, and another is adding momentum at the bottom. Together, they feed the vortex and essentially keep it alive."

But the storm may not be alive much longer. It has been shrinking for the last 100 years, Orton said.

More information is expected from NASA's Juno spacecraft, which arrived at Jupiter on July 4.

(Reporting by Irene Klotz; Editing by Daniel Wallis and Alan Crosby)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
New York: Hillary Clinton, 68, is now officially the US Democratic presidential nominee, making history as the first woman ever to secure the backing of a major American political party.

In a sign of strong unity, Democratic runner-up, Bernie Sanders, the Socialist Senator from Vermont, moved the party to nominate Clinton by unanimous vote on the second evening of the Democratic National Convention. The nomination comes more than nine years after Clinton launched her first presidential bid.

"I move that all votes cast by delegates be reflected in the official record, and I move that Hillary Clinton be selected as the nominee of the Democratic Party for president of the United States," Sanders announced from the convention floor as delegates roared their approval.

It was largely an evening of unity after an opening night soured by resistance from spoilsport Bernie supporters who felt their candidate lost mainly on account of pro-Hillary shenanigans by party operatives.

Bill Clinton, the 42nd president of the United States, 69, will take the main stage at Phillys Wells Fargo Center on Tuesday night to show his support for his wife. Bills speech on Tuesday night will be unprecedented, to say the least. He will be the first former president to speak in support of a spouse running for president. Two decades ago, Hillary was the one getting ready to speak on her husbands behalf at the 1996 Democratic National Convention.

It smacks of irony. Male-dominated India had Indira Gandhi while neighbouring Pakistan had Benazir Bhutto. Yet America which prides itself on being progressive has never elected a woman to the White House and still associates the presidency with masculinity, say political scientists.

The US political system is so tipped in favour of rich, white men that even Clinton, who tried to parlay the female vote in an all-male field in 2008, quipped it is the "highest and hardest" glass ceiling.

It is still difficult for Americans to see a woman in that role because the office of the presidency is such a white male-dominated office, Lori Cox Han, the co-editor of the book Rethinking Madam President: Are We Ready for a Woman in the White House, told Firstpost.

We have this great man model of leadership which we rely on when we look at the presidency. It is how presidency is portrayed as muscular in pop culture, the movies and on television, she added.

Women face more difficulties in being elected in presidential systems. Historically, 69 percent of women leaders have been prime ministers with only 31 percent from presidential systems.

That executive-style of leadership is viewed differently from legislative leadership. If you are in Congress, you certainly have women who are successful. Take Nancy Pelosi who is the first female House speaker. Legislative leaders like Pelosi have to work with people, comprises are essential to getting things done  women are seen as good at this, said Han.

Executive-style leadership is much more a male model of leadership where a man is seen as decisive and able to take tough unilateral decisions, she added.

More than 55 percent of voters will be women in the upcoming November elections and Clinton is trying to reach those voters in her bid to get to the White House.

Clinton finally becomes the nominee of her party after a pair of grueling primary contests. Her first run for the presidency, announced in January 2007, ended in a bitter loss to Obama in a Democratic primary that stretched into the summer of the election year.

Calls for Democratic unity on Monday night from First Lady Michelle Obama, progressive hero Senator Elizabeth Warren and Sanders himself served to calm the Vermont senator's die-hard backers.
Philadelphia: Hillary Clinton became the first woman in history to win the White House nomination of a major US political party Tuesday, securing the backing of Democrats at a convention in Philadelphia.

The former first lady, senator and secretary of state took a monumental step on her quest to become America's first female president, by besting party challenger Bernie Sanders.

After a tumultuous convention opening which saw Sanders and Clinton supporters trade jeers and chants, cheers erupted as Clinton passed the 2,382-delegate threshold needed for the nomination, setting up a showdown with Republican Donald Trump in November.

"History," said a post on her Twitter account.

Although the outcome was virtually a foregone conclusion, the state-by-state vote saw rowdy displays on the convention floor.

A handful of diehard Sanders delegates expressed frustration with their candidate's defeat, but they were drowned out by ecstatic Clinton supporters.

After his delegates had been counted, Sanders took the floor and, in a bid to unify the party, called for a vote by acclamation.

"I move that Hillary Clinton be selected as the nominee of the Democratic Party for president of the United States," he said to deafening cheers and finally a chorus of "ayes."

Delegates thrust placards in the air, forming a mosaic of "H's" that coated the stadium floor.

"It's historic, I haven't taken it all in yet," an emotional Senator Tammy Baldwin told AFP.

Clinton's nomination was formally put forward by Senator Barbara Mikulski of Maryland, the longest serving woman in the history of the US Congress. Civil rights icon John Lewis, a congressman from Georgia, seconded the nomination.

'Show a little class'

The Clinton camp is now looking to unite the party's factions.

Monday saw disruptive protests and a rancorous fight over leaked emails that showed party bias against Sanders. Frustration boiled over as his delegates jeered speakers who mentioned Clinton.

Vice-President Joe Biden, who will address the convention on Wednesday along with President Barack Obama, dismissed concerns the party was not uniting behind Clinton.

"We've got to show a little class and let them be frustrated for a while. It's OK," he said of Sanders supporters as he toured the convention arena Tuesday.

Sanders meanwhile called on his supporters to get behind Clinton.

"In my view, it's easy  it's easy to boo, but it is harder to look your kids in the face who would be living under a Donald Trump presidency," he said.

Trump took the usual shots at Clinton during a speech to the Veterans of Foreign Wars in Charlotte, North Carolina, calling her "Crooked Hillary" and charging that her use of a private email account as secretary of state "put America's entire national security at risk."

A Clinton campaign official said Tuesday's convention events aim to draw a sharp contrast with Trump. The line-up of speakers will talk about her life-long fights to make a difference.

Chief among them will be former president Bill Clinton, who will take the stage during primetime to hail his wife as a "change-maker," the official said.

But Clinton and the others  including mothers who have lost children to gun violence or in clashes with police  will also have the unstated mission of mending fences with Sanders' army of vocal young activists.

'I'm with her'

Michelle Obama appeared to soothe some of the Sanders zealots Monday night, as she delivered a heartfelt endorsement from one first lady to another and hailed the inspirational prospect of a first female US president.

"In this election, I'm with her," Obama said.

She also praised how Clinton handled her defeat to Barack Obama in the Democratic primaries eight years ago.

"She didn't get angry or disillusioned. Hillary did not pack up and go home," she said. "As a true public servant, Hillary knows that this is so much bigger than her own desires and disappointments."

From 'political revolution' to revolt

Despite Sanders calling on his flock to get behind Clinton, his self-styled "political revolution" appears to have transformed into a revolt.

Sanders himself was booed by some sections of the audience when he told the crowd on Monday: "Hillary Clinton will make an outstanding president and I am proud to stand with her tonight."

Michigan delegate Charles Niswander, 28, said he and other Sanders delegates would never line up behind Clinton.

"None of them want her, the people who voted for Bernie," Niswander said.

The party is still reeling from leaked Democratic National Committee emails which show nominally neutral party staff trying to undermine Sanders' campaign and questioning his Jewish faith.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation said it was investigating the "cyber intrusion," which the Clinton campaign blamed on Russian hackers it said are bent on helping Trump.

Future first husband?

Bill Clinton's highly anticipated address could jump-start the party healing process.

The 69-year-old Democratic icon and two-term president remains a powerful force on the national stage, although he is more gaunt and his energy is no longer boundless as it appeared four years ago.

At the 2012 Democratic convention, he delivered closing arguments for why Barack Obama should be re-elected, a voice of experience explaining Obama's policies in clear, cogent detail and why he felt Republican policies were failing.
Karachi: A Hindu youth was shot dead on Wednesday as communal tension gripped a district in Pakistan's Sindh province following alleged desecration of a holy book by a man from the minority community who was arrested for blasphemy.

Tensions ran high in Mehran Samejo village in Ghotki district after a Hindu man, Amar Lal, who was said to be

mentally unstable, allegedly desecrated a holy book on Tuesday. According to reports, Amar, who has been arrested, was a drug addict and was living in a mosque after converting to Islam a few months ago.

After the incident, local religious leaders along with several agitated people took to the streets. During a protest, some men riding on motorbikes fired at two Hindu youths who were sitting outside a tea stall in Mirpur Mathelo. In the attack, one of the youths, Dewan Sateesh Kumar, 17, was killed while another was critically injured, Senior superintendent of police (SSP) Masood Ahmed Bangash said. Satesh was a businessman.

Local leaders of the Hindu community have demanded their lives and properties be protected in the wake of the

tension. Bangash said that police with the help of Rangers are trying to diffuse the tense situation.

According to reports, all towns of the Ghotki district remained closed on Wednesday. Leaders of local religious parties have demanded severe punishment for Amar, who has been booked for blasphemy and shifted to an undisclosed location by police.

Sindh has the biggest population of Hindus in Pakistan.
New Delhi: Amid the continuing unrest in Kashmir, India on Wednesday asked Pakistan to stop cross border terror activities and asserted it will take all necessary steps to safeguard national security and territorial integrity.

The government told Parliament that terrorism emanating from territories under Pakistan's control remained India's "core concern" and that the Pathankot attack and strikes in various places in Kashmir have highlighted the continued threat of cross border terrorism and infiltration.

"In response to Pakistan's recent statements in support of known terrorists killed in India, Government has asked Pakistan to stop all terrorism and anti-India activities in Pakistan or territories under its control," Minister of State for External Affairs VK Singh, said replying to a question in Lok Sabha.

He said Pakistan has been told that it cannot be in denial on the impact of terrorism on the bilateral ties, and it must expeditiously bring to justice all those guilty of Mumbai terror attack as well as of the Pathankot strike.

The Minister said the government remained continuously vigilant and "firm" in its resolve to take all necessary steps to effectively safeguard India's security and territorial integrity.

Singh said Pakistan has been in "illegal and forcible" occupation of approximately 78,000 square kilometres of Indian territory in Jammu and Kashmir. "China continues to be in illegal occupation of approximately 38,000 square kilometres in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir.

"In addition, under the so-called 'Sino-Pakistan Boundary Agreement of 1963', Pakistan illegally ceded 5180 square kilometres of Indian territory in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir to China," he said.

About infrastructure projects being implemented by China in PoK, he said the government was aware about it. "Government keeps a constant watch on all developments having a bearing on India's national interest and takes all necessary measures to safeguard it."

Replying to a separate question, Singh said the government was aware of reports that the Tibet Military Command's political rank will be elevated by China to one level higher than its counterpart provincial-level military commands, and that it will come directly under the leadership of People's Liberation Army (PLA).

"Government is also aware of infrastructural development in the border areas on the Chinese side. Government has seen media reports, which are not authenticated, that China plans to extend its rail link to Nepal which might involve building a tunnel under Mount Everest.

"Government keeps a constant watch on all developments having a bearing on Indias security and takes all necessary measures to safeguard it," he said.
Islamabad: Describing Kashmir as "unfinished agenda" of the United Nations, Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Wednesday vowed to raise the issue at every international platform and provide all sort of support to Kashmiris.

Sharif made the remarks while talking to newly elected lawmakers of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) after his party Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) won majority seats in 21 July elections to from the new government. "The issue of Kashmir is unfinished agenda of the UN and Pakistan would continue to support the people of Kashmir morally and diplomatically," he said.

"Right of self-determination is the basic right of the people of Kashmir under UN resolutions and we will raise this issue at every international platform," he said. He claimed that the people of PoK were "lucky as they enjoy full freedom" and vowed to support people of Kashmir.

"Our hearts beat with those people...and we are standing shoulder-to-shoulder with them," he said. He directed the newly elected lawmakers to provide all sort of support to the people on the other side of the LoC. Sharif said that newly elected assembly should focus on improving health education and infrastructure in the region.
Manila: US Secretary of State John Kerry on Wednesday urged China and the Philippines to exercise restraint and reduce tensions over their maritime dispute in the South China Sea. He was speaking during a one-day visit to the Philippines.

Kerry, in a joint press conference with Philippines Foreign Minister Perfecto Yasay, praised the government's measured response to the verdict by the Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague, that favoured Manila in its territorial spat with Beijing.

Kerry, who is expected to meet the country's new president Rodrigo Duterte, said the Philippines' responsible and restrained response to the PCA ruling was very significant.

The Beijing-Manila conflict culminated on 12 July when the PCA verdict came out in favour of the latter; while China refused to accept the verdict, the Philippines welcomed it but called for restraint and sobriety.

Kerry also said that the US wanted to stay neutral in the conflict, but added that Washington has an unwavering position when it comes to the protection of rights, freedoms and legal use of airspace and maritime waters as set out by international law.

The head of US diplomacy also underlined the PCA ruling as "binding" and hoped the two countries will respect it.

In January 2013, Manila brought a suit before the PCA saying China -- which had begun expanding into several areas of the South China Sea -- was occupying territory that was part of the Philippines exclusive economic zone.

Their dispute centres on the Scarborough Shoal and part of the Spratly islands -- which comprise over 750 reefs, islets, atolls and keys -- whose sovereignty is claimed wholly or partially by Brunei, Malaysia, Taiwan and Vietnam.

Tensions in the region have escalated in recent years amid altercations, exchange of accusations between respective governments, as well as a rise in Chinese military presence in the area.

Meanwhile, the Philippines has entered into strategic agreements with the US, Japan and Vietnam to counter Chinese presence in the region.
VIENTIANE/GENEVA The United States said on Tuesday it hoped to announce in early August details of planned military cooperation and intelligence sharing with Russia on Syria, and a U.N. envoy said he would also aim to resume peace talks next month.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Washington and Moscow, who support opposing sides in Syria's five-year-old conflict, had made progress in recent days towards working more closely together.

The proposals would have the two powers share intelligence to coordinate air strikes against the al Qaeda-affiliated Nusra Front and prohibit the Syrian air force from attacking rebel groups labelled as moderate.

Efforts to bridge the divide between the United States and Russia and bring Syrian government and opposition forces back to negotiations come after pro-government forces have effectively put rebel-held districts of Aleppo under siege.

Concern is growing for at least 250,000 people who have been trapped in rebel-controlled eastern Aleppo since early July, and the United Nations aid chief asked on Monday for weekly 48-hour pauses in fighting to allow food and aid to be delivered.

Syrian state television said on Tuesday the army had sent text messages to residents and fighters in eastern Aleppo, saying it will grant safe passage to whoever wants to leave and asking militia to put down their weapons.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said 25 people, including three women and eight children, were killed in the last 24 hours in the Mashhad quarter of rebel-held Aleppo, when it was hit by barrel bombs thrown from helicopters.

In Geneva, U.N. Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura said he aimed to convene a new round of peace talks toward the end of August, quietly scrapping a previous Aug. 1 deadline to reach agreement on a framework for a political transition.

"Our aim, let me say very clearly, is to proceed with a third round of intra-Syrian talks towards the end of August," De Mistura told reporters after meeting U.S. Syria envoy Michael Ratney and Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov.

De Mistura said he strongly hoped Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov would make concrete and visible progress because that would improve the situation on the ground and the environment for the peace talks, although such progress was not a precondition for talks.

U.S. SCEPTICISM

Kerry has defended the proposal despite deep scepticism among top American military and intelligence officials, including Secretary of Defense Ash Carter and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Joseph Dunford, over working with Russia.

"My hope is that somewhere in early August we would be in a position to stand up in front of you and tell you what we're able to do with the hopes it can make a difference to lives of people in Syria and to the course of the war," Kerry said after meeting Lavrov.

During the discussions, he and Lavrov outlined the next stage of implementing the plan, including a series of technical-level meetings to address concerns by the U.S. military and intelligence officers.

Kerry's State Department and White House allies say the plan is the best chance to limit the fighting that is driving thousands of Syrian civilians - with some trained Islamic State fighters among them - into exile in Europe, and preventing humanitarian aid from reaching tens of thousands more.

A senior Western diplomat said the lack of transparency of the U.S.-Russia talks was frustrating and - with what the diplomat said was increased targeting of civilians and hospitals on the ground - it was hard to foresee any deal.

"The Americans are risking a lot for a deal that is as unlikely to be honoured as previous engagements the Russians have made," the diplomat said.

Another diplomat said it was unlikely De Mistura would meet his new target of resuming talks in August. "In reality it means there will be nothing in August, it means September," the diplomat said.

"The window of opportunity is extremely limited after that ... Military cooperation has become a pre-requisite,(peace talks) wont advance without it".

"HORRENDOUS" SITUATION

Syria's government said on Sunday it was ready for further peace talks with the opposition and that it was intent on a political solution to the conflict.

Basma Kodmani, a member of the main Syrian opposition High Negotiations Committee, said the HNC was "open to going back to Geneva to discuss options" but added that there must be a reduction in the current level of violence.

"The situation is absolutely horrendous at this moment," she told Reuters. "What Mr De Mistura is probably hoping is that the agreement between Russia and the U.S. will result in a halt to the regime's raids, and Russian air raids as well."

Russia's military intervention in support of President Bashar al-Assad last year helped to turn the tide of the war after the government had lost ground to rebel fighters in the west of the country.

On Sunday Syrian government air strikes put four hospitals in Aleppo province out of action, while several people in the government-controlled ancient quarter of Damascus were killed when a mortar bomb hit a restaurant.

International humanitarian groups have condemned the tightening siege on rebel-held parts of Aleppo city.

"Food there is expected to run out over the next few weeks," a joint statement from international aid groups including Oxfam and Mercy Corps said on Tuesday. "A food warehouse was also targeted with almost 10,000 food parcels destroyed, while fuel ... is dangerously low," the statement said.

The United Nations said a 48-truck convoy of international aid organisations was heading to the besieged areas of Talbiseh in northern Homs province, carrying food aid for 40,000 people.

(Additional reporting by Tom Miles in Geneva and Dominic Evans and Lisa Barrington in Beirut; editing by David Stamp)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
KUALA LUMPUR Malaysia's Prime Minister Najib Razak will get sweeping security powers on Monday amid planned protests calling for his resignation over U.S. allegations that millions of dollars from a state fund wound up in his personal bank account.

The new National Security Council (NSC) Act, which comes into force on Aug. 1, allows Najib to designate any area as a "security area", where he can deploy forces to search any individual, vehicle or premise without a warrant. It also allows investigators to dispense with formal inquests into killings by the police or armed forces in those areas.

Najib's ruling coalition promoted the law as a means to counter threats to security in predominantly Muslim Malaysia, which has long dealt with a fringe element of radical Islamists.

But critics say the law's expansive powers threaten human rights and democracy in the middle-income emerging nation, and could now be used to silence critics of the One Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) fund scandal.

"The concern among the civil society and others is because the NSC can be used against anything that the government is unhappy with," said Wan Saiful Wan Jan, chief executive of the Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs, adding that it could extend to public rallies.

"It does give the PM a huge amount of power to declare emergency zones...," he said.

NO ROYAL ASSENT

The law was passed on the last day of the legislation session in December, surprising the opposition, as Najib came under mounting criticism over the multi-billion dollar scandal surrounding the 1MDB fund, which he founded and whose advisory council he chaired until recently.

The law was enacted without the customary royal assent from Malaysia's king, who had asked for some changes.

Pressure on Najib to step down mounted last week after the U.S. Justice Department filed civil lawsuits alleging that over $3.5 billion was misappropriated from 1MDB. The lawsuits seek to seize more than $1 billion of assets allegedly siphoned from the fund, saying they were part of "an international conspiracy to launder money".

The civil lawsuits do not name Najib, but refer to a high-ranking government official who received over $700 million of the misappropriated funds. A source familiar with the investigations told Reuters the official, named as Malaysian Official 1 in the lawsuits, was Najib. [nL4N1A629U]

Najib, who has denied any wrongdoing, has said Malaysia will cooperate in international investigations of the 1MDB case.

The ruling party suffered unprecedented losses in the 2008 general elections and then lost the popular vote in 2013 under Najib's leadership. The next general election must be called by 2018.

ANTI-NAJIB RALLIES

The NSC is coming into force amid growing complaints about assaults on civil liberties in Malaysia.

Najib has in recent months used the colonial era Sedition Act and other draconian laws to arrest government critics, jail opposition leaders and stifle free speech by suspending media groups and blogs.

"The likelihood of the NSC being utilized in order to crack down against any act of civil movement is likely to steadily increase as manoeuvring space for the PM decreases," said Sevan Doraisamy, executive director at Suaram, a human rights NGO.

Malaysia's opposition coalition is planning an anti-Najib rally on July 30. Pro-democracy group Bersih, whose street protests last year drew a 200,000-strong crowd, is also planning a separate rally, but has not set a date.

While rallies can still be organised under the Peaceful Assembly Act, the NSC can declare any area -- a building, a street or a city -- a "security area", where protests would be disallowed.

Inspector-General of Police Khalid Abu Bakar said on Monday he will not allow rallies that demand Najib step down from power.

"Red Shirt" supporters from Najib's ruling United Malays National Organisation have vowed to hold a counter-rally. They did so last September and it turned rowdy when participants breached security barricades and clashed with riot police.

"I think they (the government) are getting nervous about 1MDB and the reaction of the people," said civil rights activist and lawyer Ambiga Sreenevasan, adding that the public was also "very nervous" about the new security law.

(Editing by Bill Tarrant)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
BAMAKO Malian forces arrested a regional leader of Islamist group Ansar Dine in central Mali on Tuesday, after it claimed an attack in the region that killed 17 soldiers, the army spokesman said.

Ansar Dine laid claim to the attack last week by gunmen who fired on troop positions, burned buildings and pillaged shops, killing 17 Malian soldiers and wounded 35 on an army base in the central town of Nampala last week.

Army spokesman Modibo Naman Traore said the state security services arrested the commander, Mahmoud Barry - nicknamed "Abou Yehiya" - as he was travelling on a road between Nampala and the town of Dogofri.

"He is close to Lyad Ag Ghali, the chief of Ansar Dine," Traore said, adding that Barry had also planned an attack on the town of Nara that killed 12 people.

French forces intervened in 2013 to push back Islamist fighters who had hijacked a Tuareg uprising to take over northern Mali. But despite 11,000 United Nations peacekeepers deployed in the country since, insecurity has worsened and militants still launch frequent attacks across the vast desert country and its neighbours.

(Reporting by Tiemoko Diallo, writing by Tim Cocks, editing by G Crosse)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
Kathmandu: At least 57 persons have been killed and thousands forced to flee their homesteads due to landslides and floods in Nepal since Monday.

According to the Nepal's Ministry of Home Affairs, at least 20 people have gone missing and seven dozen houses have been destroyed by the floods and landslides across the country.

At least 14 districts of Nepal are hit by the flash floods and landslides. The worst hit is Pyuthan district where deaths touched 24 by Wednesday evening, according to local media reports.

Scores of houses and some bridges have been swept away in several parts of the country. Thousands of people have been displaced after flood waters inundated their settlements, the home ministry said in a statement.

Water level in the Saptakoshi river has been on the rise due to incessant rainfall for the past 10 days. Water flow in the river was measured at 277,410 cusecs on Wednesday morning, the highest for this year. Thirty-seven of the 56 floodgates have been opened.

The home ministry has cautioned the people about water-borne diseases. Medical teams have been deployed in the affected areas.
Paris: An internal probe has found the security contingent in Nice was "not undersized" on the night of the Bastille Day truck attack that killed 84 people, the French authorities said Wednesday.

Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve ordered the investigation as the government faced fierce criticism from the opposition over security for the 14 July event.

The head of the national police internal affairs division, Marie-France Moneger-Guyomarc'h, described the squabble as "the result of poor understanding and interpretation of information."

She said that 64 national police and 42 municipal police were deployed to secure a fireworks display on the Nice seafront for the 14 July national holiday.

A truck driven by Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel, a 31-year-old Tunisian, rammed into the revellers, killing 84 and injuring more than 300. Bouhlel was shot dead by police.

Opposition politicians had contested the figures for police deployment, with regional president Christian Estrosi slamming "state lies".

President Francois Hollande is facing mounting demands to improve security after a string of terror attacks, dating back to January 2015, left at least 230 people dead and hundreds injured.

Pressure on Cazeneuve intensified when a local police officer, Sandra Bertin, accused his ministry of trying to bully her into altering a report on police deployment on the night of the attack.

Bertin, who was in charge of the video surveillance system in Nice on the night of the massacre, said on Sunday she was told to describe a police presence that did not match what she had seen on the security camera system.

Bertin is a strong supporter of Estrosi and has fiercely criticised the Socialist government through social media networks, Le Parisien newspaper reported Monday.

Cazeneuve filed a lawsuit for libel against Bertin, saying her accusations were "likely to give birth in the public mind to the idea that the ministry and the minister have communicated false information" regarding the Nice massacre.
BERLIN A patient shot a doctor in a university clinic in Berlin on Tuesday before killing himself, but there were "no signs at all" of a link with Islamist militancy, police in the German capital said.

Germany is on edge because of a spate of violent attacks on civilians by men of Middle Eastern or Asian origin since July 18 that have killed 10 people. Islamic State militants claimed responsibility for two of those four attacks before Tuesday.

Berlin police said the doctor had sustained life-threatening injuries in the attack at the Benjamin Franklin campus of the Charite university hospital in the southwest of the city and died shortly afterwards.

They added that the situation at the hospital in Berlin's Steglitz district was now "under control" and investigators were on the scene to determine the background to the crime.

"There is currently no danger," police said on Twitter.

Winfrid Wenzel, a spokesman for Berlin police, said the crime took place in the jaw surgery area of an outpatient clinic where the doctor was in a treatment session with the patient.

"In the course of the consultation, the patient pulled out a gun and fired several shots at the doctor. The attacker then directly turned the gun on himself and died as a result of the shots," Wenzel told Reuters TV.

He said police did not yet have information on the suspect's background, history, personal details or motivation, but added:

"We do not have a single indication that this crime was motivated by extremism or Islamists."

(Reporting by Michelle Martin, Andrea Shalal, Hans-Edzard Busemann and Thorsten Severin and Reuters TV; editing by Mark Heinrich)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi has spoken to Britain's new Prime Minister Theresa May congratulating her on her assumption of office and discussed with her "stronger and closer" bilateral ties, including in trade and defence.

During the telephonic conversation on Tuesday, Modi also appreciated the UK's consistent support to India in various global fora, the MEA spokesperson said on Wednesday. Thanking Prime Minister Modi, May said she looked forward to working closely with him for developing stronger bilateral ties and enhancing cooperation in tackling pressing global challenges.

Modi also recalled his memorable visit to the UK last November. A statement from Downing Street in London said that trade and investment formed the central feature of the discussions between the two leaders during their conversation.

"Trade and investment featured strongly in the conversation with Prime Minister Modi who expressed his hope that the relationship would become even stronger and closer in the future, particularly given the shared values and common interest," the statement said.

May took over after the resignation of David Cameron following the UKs vote to leave the European Union (EU) in a referendum on 23 June. She sought to highlight London and the UKs continued importance within the India-UK relationship during her first official conversation with Modi.

"The Prime Minister [May] pointed out that the launch next month of the first rupee-denominated bond in London is a concrete example of our close and growing economic cooperation and underlines that the city remains a global hub for innovative finance," Downing Street said.

"The Prime Minister also emphasised the UKs continued commitment to our defence and security partnership and support for India's increasing role in international fora. Finally, both welcomed the valuable contribution of the Indian diaspora to the UK," the statement added.
Krakow: Pope Francis said "the world is at war" on a flight to Poland on Wednesday to take part in the World Youth Day celebrations in the city of Krakow.

"We should not be afraid to say it: The world is at war because it has lost peace," Francis said. "It is a war about interests, a war about money, a war about natural resources ... I am not talking about a war of religions." All religions want peace, he said.

The pope's Alitalia plane touched down in the southern Polish city for the event for which more than half a million pilgrims from 187 different countries have registered.

Organisers estimate there will be at least 1.5 million participants by the time the event ends on Sunday.

An attack on Tuesday by two self-styled Islamist extremists on a church in northern France when a priest was killed during Mass had shocked the public. Francis said he had spoken to French President Francois Hollande about the attack "like with a brother."

During the Argentinian-born pontiff's five-day trip he is expected to visit the Auschwitz-Birkenau former Nazi extermination camp and the Polish national shrine at Czestochowa, which houses the Black Madonna icon.
Turkey has ordered the detention of a further 47 journalists on Wednesday, a government official said, part of a widening crackdown on supporters of US-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, accused by Ankara of masterminding a failed military coup.

"The detentions cover executives and some staff including columnists of (the now defunct) Zaman newspaper, the Gulen movement's flagship media organisation," the official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told reporters. "Prosecutors aren't interested in what individual columnists wrote or said. At this point, the reasoning is that prominent employees of Zaman are likely to have intimate knowledge of the Gulen network and as such could benefit the investigation."

Critics of President Tayyip Erdogan argue he is using the failed coup as a pretext to muzzle dissent and tighten his grip on power. The clampdown has drawn criticism from the European Union, which Turkey aspires to join.

Authorities shut down Zaman in March, part of a crackdown on suspected Gulen supporters. They have sharply accelerated the crackdown since the 15-16 July coup attempt, suspending, detaining or placing under investigation more than 60,000 soldiers, police, teachers, judges, civil servants and others.

Gulen, 75, denies involvement in the abortive coup, in which at least 246 people were killed. An ally-turned-foe of Erdogan, he had built up an extensive network of schools, charities and businesses in Turkey over decades.

Wednesday's list of journalists to be detained includes some known for their leftist activism who do not share the religious world view of the Gulenist movement.

In the latest wave of detentions, police raided the home of Sahin Alpay around 6 am and held him after a 2-1/2 hour search of the property in a central Istanbul district, the Dogan news agency reported.

Alpay, who used to have a column in the Zaman newspaper, is a former official in Turkey's left-leaning, secularist main opposition CHP party.

On Monday, media reported that arrest warrants had been issued for 42 other journalists, including well-known commentator and former parliamentarian Nazli Ilicak. Of them, 16 have so far been taken into custody, Dogan said.
Manila: US Secretary of State John Kerry said that Washington wanted to avoid "confrontation" in the South China Sea, after an international tribunal rejected Beijing's claims to most of the waters.

Kerry made the remarks after meeting with Philippine foreign secretary Perfecto Yasay in Manila on Wednesday, where they discussed the Southeast Asian nation's sweeping victory in the arbitration case against China.

Washington's top diplomat said the United States wanted China and the Philippines to engage in talks and confidence-building measures. "The decision itself is a binding decision but we're not trying to create a confrontation. We are trying to create a solution mindful of the rights of people established under the law," Kerry said.

A tribunal based in The Hague earlier this month had ruled that China's claim to most of the strategic waterway was inconsistent with international law. The decision angered Beijing, which vowed to ignore the ruling. But Kerry said the US saw an "opportunity" for claimants to peacefully resolve the row.

"We hope to see a process that will narrow the geographic scope of the maritime disputes, set standards for behaviour in contested areas, lead to mutually acceptable solutions, perhaps even a series of confidence-building steps," he said.

Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan also have claims to the South China Sea, a vital waterway through which $5

trillion in annual trade passes. It is also believed to sit atop vast reserves of oil and gas. Kerry, who arrived in Manila on Tuesday after attending a regional summit in Laos, met with Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte after Yasay.

Kerry had said on Tuesday that he would encourage Duterte, who assumed office on 30 June, to engage in dialogue and "turn the page" with China. Kerry was also expected to raise with Duterte US concerns about human rights and the rule of law.

"The Philippines has an unhappy history of extrajudicial killings and violence (against) journalists and others," a US

official told reporters travelling with the secretary. "We hope to hear more from President Duterte about protecting human rights (and) maintaining the rule of law," he said.

Duterte has launched a bloody war on crime, urging law enforcers, communist rebels and even the public to kill criminals. Since he took office, police reported over 200 deaths while media tallies have said more than 300 have died, including suspected extra-judicial killings.

Even before he assumed the presidency, Duterte drew criticism from United Nations chief Ban Ki-Moon and human

rights advocates for his calls to kill criminals, as well as comments stating that corrupt journalists deserved to die.
Hillary Clinton made history on Tuesday when she became the first woman in US history to win a White House nomination of a major political party. Securing the backing of Democrats at the Philadelphia convention certainly is a milestone in women's history.

But Hillary didnt always have it easy in paving the way to history. This girl wanted to be an astronaut; NASA told her they didn't accept girls.

This girl wanted to be an astronaut; NASA told her they didn't accept girls. Tonight we nominate her for President. pic.twitter.com/Si4IgLDV13  Marv (@Marv_Vien) July 26, 2016

As she has often recalled, the words "We dont take girls" has been etched in Clintons memories. Hillary fondly remembers her early teens as her tomboy phase. She also remembers writing a letter to NASA when she was around 13 years old, and getting a polite but disheartening refusal for it!

My dream was to be an astronaut when I was about 13 or 14 years old and the United States was starting its space program. So I wrote a letter to the NASA space agency and asked how I could become an astronaut. And I got a letter back saying that they werent accepting women. Now, I have to be very honest with you. I could never have qualified. But it was a dream, and I have been thrilled to see young women follow that dream and do so with such skill, she recalled in a town hall event at Ewha Womans University in Seoul in 2009.

Sceptics have been quick to dismiss this story whenever she spoke of it, but even The Washington Post's fact checker series has confirmed that letters of this nature were sent by NASA in those times. They may not have been as dismissive in their letters, often encouraging young aspirants to be prepared for a change in the space organisations status quo, but it remains a fact that NASA only witnessed its first class of female astronauts in 1978.

This memory hasnt soured Clintons love for space. She has expressed her strong support for the organisation, even promising that she would reverse spending cuts imposed on NASA. Hillarys NASA dreams may not have been realised, but she sure has broken many glass ceilings to ensure that other women do!
Work is currently underway by three construction companies on the new Parklane Luxury Collection Resort & Spa which will replace the Le Meridien inLimassol.

Following the demands of Roman Nikitin, the major stakeholder in Emerald Coast Properties which owns 75% of the hotel, renovation work on the existing hotel, which was purchased from the Galatariotis Group, renovations on the hotel will be from the ground up.

The project has been designed by Harrods Design Studio and is estimated to cost 70 million, and expects to open its doors to guests towards the end of 2017.

The hotel is being built on 100.000m of sea front property, and will consist of 53 suites, each with its own private swimming pool and 222 luxurious rooms.

The hotel will also house a 2000m conference centre with a ballroom, ten restaurants, and bars, three outdoor swimming pools, one of which will be filled with sea water, a spa with suites for Russian baths, children's playground with a lake as well as a children's restaurant.

International chain

Parklane Luxury Collection Resort & Spa is a member of the Luxury Collection, of the international chain belonging to Starwood Hotels & Resorts (Marriott International).

According to Costas Tseriotis, CEO of L 'Union Nationale (Tourism and Sea Resorts) Limited, the hotel will turn to traditional touristic markets such as England, Russia, and the Middle East.

It is also believed that the hotel will benefit from the regular 60 million customers of the Marriott International chain, who receive coupons which they can redeem for holidays among the chains 5,500 hotels around the world.

"Our vision is to create the top luxury tourist resort in Cyprus based on international standards, where guests will love to spend the summer, experience personalised attentive service and enjoy fine gastronomic experiences," said Tseriotis.

Panos Thomakos

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Several years ago, when 33-year-old Angie Morelli was serving as a U.S. Marine in Afghanistan, she would have never guessed that she would be a delegate at the Democratic National Convention (DNC) in Philadelphia this week.

I grew up in a Republican household, she told VOA in an interview on her first day at the DNC. I am a U.S. Marine. I got out and own a small business. Im also Jewish, and these are all the demographics you see with a Republican.

Nevertheless, she is at the epicenter of the biggest Democratic party political event this election cycle, and she isnt a bystander. She is a participant. The reason comes down to one man.

When I found out that Bernie Sanders was running for President, I changed my voter registration from Republican to Democrat, and donated the first $100 I have ever donated towards a candidate.

That was almost a year ago, and shes been marching forward as an ardent supporter ever since.

Hurdles

But on this day of firsts for Morelli, a lot was in her way.

First, the weather.

Its supposed to be the hottest day of the summer in Philadelphia, she explained. Were from Nevada, and were not used to this humidity.

Then, the living arrangements.

Just having to try to finagle a bathroom schedule with the four other people I am staying with at this hotel.

She's staying at a hotel located in the center of Philadelphia, in a room that cost about $600 a night. Her day started on the 28th floor at what she thought was a breakfast meeting.

It was supposed to be a delegation breakfast, and that did not happen, she said, smiling. It was a meeting, but we did not get any food.

Lack of food, hot weather, challenging living arrangements -- she could cope with those after serving in a combat zone with the U.S. military.

But then there was the meeting itself. VOA was not allowed in, but Morelli said emotions were high between the Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders supporters within the Nevada delegation.

I thought for a very long time it was going to be a somewhat calmer convention, especially after Bernie came out and he endorsed Hillary, Morelli said. But I think that all kind of went away whenever we saw the Wikileaks come out.

Shifting emotions

Emails attributed to members of the Democratic National Committee that made their way on a searchable Wikileaks site have fueled claims by Bernie Sanders supporters, Morelli among them, that the primary campaign was rigged against Sanders.

But Morelli was encouraged by the prospect of a proposed future meeting with Democratic party leaders in Nevada to discuss some of her concerns. Chief among them: voter disenfranchisement as a result of the Wikileaks revelations.

As Morelli walked out of the meeting, the one absent of food, she received her credential to get into the DNC. She gleefully pried the envelope open to reveal her delegate pass.

This may have been the high point for Morelli on day one of the DNC.

It was right before the hotel elevator malfunctioned, forcing her and a handful of other delegates to briskly walk down the seemingly endless flights of stairs.

She got to the ground floor just in time to catch a shuttle bus that would deliver her to a meeting with Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders.

There, Morellis disappointment mounted as Sanders' efforts at party unity, urging delegates to vote for Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine, were drowned out by the boos of the majority in the room.

Morelli said she didn't boo, but you cant just go from 'rah, rah, Bernie' to 'rah, rah Hillary.'

When I make my decision as to who Im going to vote for, I dont look to see if its a capitol 'D' or capitol 'R', Morelli said, referring to Democrats or Republicans. I look at who the person is and who the person stands for, and whether or not I actually believe that they are going to fulfill the things they are promising they are going to do. And we need to start making a decision based on those lines, rather than just voting 'R' all the way down or 'D' all the way down.

Getting to the convention

Morelli left the Sanders event further deflated, yet glad to be a first time delegate about to attend her first national party convention. But first, she had to get there.

Which meant she needed to end her interview with VOA, grab her things and scramble to find a shuttle bus that could transport her the eight kilometers between her hotel and the convention site -- on time. It proved to be a difficult goal.

By the time she arrived outside the hotel at the shuttle stop, it appeared as if most of the buses had stopped running. After a 20-minute wait, a bus arrived, and everyone quickly boarded -- and then waited. And waited.

Traffic had ground to a standstill as the clock ticked down to the start of the convention. The bus wasnt moving.

This is kind of ridiculous. Im sure that all of these people are very upset, Morelli said, deciding, after nearly 30 minutes on the bus, to abandon it.

The orange line will take us all the way to the Wells Fargo Center, the convention center, another delegate on the bus explained.

Morelli decided to take the risk and find the train. Which meant getting to the right platform, and finding the right train, heading in the right direction.

Im so mad, she said, though still trying to smile.

It should have been a ten-minute journey. It ultimately lasted two hours. By the time Morelli finally arrived and reunited with the Nevada delegation, the convention was already well underway.

Sticking with Bernie

As soon as I got through the gates, there was an entire protest, Morelli said, suggesting that might explain the heavy traffic that started the chain reaction delaying her arrival.

Honestly, if I wasnt a delegate, I would have been one of those people out there, she said of protesting in support of Bernie Sanders.

She shrugged off the inconvenience. I think we missed, like, two votes, but they werent close.

Angie Morelli said her dizzying first day of the Democratic National Convention was simply par for the course as a Bernie Sanders supporter.

The entire process of being involved in politics, since I decided to get involved with Bernie, has been a complete disaster," she said. "So this is all the more reason I think I should be here. I still got here 45 minutes before the shuttle.

But she was still soaking in the moment on the floor of the convention at Wells Fargo Arena.

Its been pretty hectic and overwhelming, and its kind of strange to actually be here.

But here she was, still supporting Bernie Sanders despite the obstacles in the way -- and the reality that his chances of becoming the next president of the United States might have ended.

Even so, Morelli said shes still not sold on supporting Hillary Clinton, and she isnt sure she ever will.
Democrats are hoping that President Barack Obama will help presidential candidate Hillary Clinton energize the party when he delivers a highly anticipated speech Wednesday at the Democratic National Convention.



Obama is very popular among Democrats, but remains a divisive figure in the country at large, with only about one in two Americans approving of his job performance. Nevertheless, with substantial majorities disapproving of both Clinton and her Republican rival, Donald Trump, Obama's support is seen as a boon.

For the president, helping to elect Clinton will help protect many of his key achievements while in office, such as expanded access to healthcare and the Iran nuclear deal.

Republicans so far have been happy to tie Clinton to Obama's record. They believe widespread opposition to those policies will help propel their candidate to victory.

What Obama is expected to say



In an interview aired Wednesday on NBCs Today Show, Obama urged Democrats to stay worried about the possibility of a Trump win until all the votes are counted.



"It is the nature of democracy that until those votes are cast and the American people have their say, we don't know," he said.



White House officials say Obama will tell supporters in Philadelphia why he believes electing Trump would put the United States on a risky path, but he will also seek to deliver a more positive message.



I think the president will talk about who we are as a country and that we are better united than divided, and that were better together than apart, said deputy press secretary Eric Schultz on Tuesday. Obama will also recall what the grit, ingenuity and determination of the American people helped to achieve over the past eight years.



Obama is expected to carry forward the theme into campaign events for Clinton leading up to the November presidential polls.



Not just because it is a stark contrast between the two candidates on the ballot this year, added Schultz, but also because its a principle that has animated the presidents lifetime of public service.

Supporting candidate and party

Obama energized supporters during his first campaign appearance with Clinton in Charlotte, North Carolina, on July 5.

He portrayed his former secretary of state as an intelligent, highly qualified, hard-working, tough and passionate leader who will protect the nation, help working families, and promote American interests and values.

Several convention delegates said they hope Obama will speak about the Democratic Party as well as its candidate.

His election eight years ago wasnt about just electing Barack Obama. It was about the mission of our party, of progressives, said Yvonne Reeves-Chong, a Clinton delegate from Missouri. Were still on that mission. This is just the next leg.



Mary Lou Tevebaugh, a Clinton delegate from Texas, agreed that Obama "has to stick with the message that there has been a lot of progress. When he took office, things were so bad, she said, referring to the global economic meltdown that began in 2008.

Republicans run against Obama tenure



Trump, meanwhile, has enjoyed unexpected success in spite of a series of controversial remarks, largely by carping on what many Americans see as the failures of the Obama presidency. He and other Republicans have argued that Obamas policies have allowed the Islamic State terrorist group to thrive, killed American jobs, fomented racial divisions and created an out-of-control immigration system.



On the second day of the Democratic convention, Trump tweeted, Why aren't the Democrats speaking about ISIS, bad trade deals, broken borders, police and law and order.

Some changes likely under Clinton

Obama and Clinton have closely aligned visions for the future, including policies to promote job growth, make community college free, advance affordable child care and family leave.



While Clinton and Obama have disagreed on some issues, such as trade, a Clinton win would likely mean a continuation of his policies, an appealing prospect to Obama's most fervent supporters.



President Obama is one of the most inspirational, transformational figures weve ever had in the political world. The Hillary Clinton campaign needs him out there just inspiring Democratic voters to get out there and vote, said Andrea Dew Steele, president of a Democratic Party-aligned group that recruits more female electoral candidates.



Obama "really can be the person to help inspire the base, but he also just inspires Democrats, period, Steele added.
Convicted terrorists in the central Iraqi province of Babil will have their homes destroyed and their families forced out of the state under a new law passed by the provincial council.

The law, approved Tuesday, was the first such measure passed anywhere in Iraq since dictator Saddam Hussein was overthrown in 2003.

The council also demanded that Baghdad hand over terrorists on death row for public execution in Babil.

Babil is about 95 kilometers south of the capital, and council member Hassan Fadamm said provincial authorities would do what they had to do to stop terrorists.

"We have grown frustrated with the central government's efforts to maintain security and execute convicted militants," Fadamm said. "Nothing is deterring the terrorists, who realize once they are in prison, they only receive good treatment."

Iraqi government officials in Baghdad have not yet reacted to the new demolition law.

On Wednesday, meanwhile, militants killed at least 16 people, including police and civilians, in separate attacks in and around Baghdad.

The blasts took place at a police checkpoint, a shopping district and a refugee camp.

No one has claimed responsibility for the blasts, but Islamic State militants have stepped up such attacks in Baghdad after suffering setbacks in the battlefield and losing control of Iraqi towns.
When Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton announced her vice presidential choice, she referred to Virginia Senator Tim Kaine as a progressive who is "everything Donald Trump and Mike Pence are not.

Timothy Michael "Tim" Kaine was born on February 26, 1958, in St. Paul, Minnesota, but grew up in the metro area of Kansas City, Missouri. He is the eldest son of an ironworker and a home economics teacher. Kaine attended an all-boys Jesuit high school, joining spring mission drives to fund Jesuit activities in Honduras. He went on to earn a bachelor's degree in economics from the University of Missouri before entering Harvard Law School.

Kaine took time off from his law studies to work with the Jesuit Volunteer Corps in Honduras for nine months in 1980-81, helping Jesuit missionaries who ran a Catholic school in El Progreso. His time there reportedly helped form his support for citizenship for undocumented immigrants in the United States  a stance likely to attract Latino voters. He also learned to speak fluent Spanish, seen as a possible advantage with Hispanic voters.

At Harvard, Kaine met his wife, Anne Holton, the daughter of former Republican Virginia Governor Linwood Holton (1970-74), who desegregated the commonwealth's public schools. She now serves as Virginia's secretary of education. They have three children.

After law school, the Kaines settled in Richmond, Virginia, where he spent nearly two decades as an attorney focusing on civil rights and fair housing. He helped found the Virginia Coalition to End Homelessness and was a board member of the Virginia chapter of Housing Opportunities Made Equal.

Political beginnings

Kaine entered politics in 1994 when he was elected to the Richmond City Council, then became the city's mayor. Virginia's voters chose him as their lieutenant governor in 2001. Four years later, he ran for governor against Republican candidate Jerry Kilgore, a former state attorney general. Considered an underdog, Kaine trailed in polls for most of the election but won the race. He governed from 2006 to 2010.

After a stint as chairman of the Democratic National Committee, Kaine was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2012. As a senator, he has worked on several committees: Armed Services; Budget; and Foreign Relations. He also has served on the Special Committee on Aging.

Calls himself 'boring'

According to the New York Times, Kaine "is widely described by people in his political orbit as a likable, if less than charismatic, figure ... guided by moral convictions that flow from his deep Christian faith."

In an interview with NBCs "Meet the Press," the senator confessed to being "boring."

After Clinton's announcement last week, Jeff Flake, a Republican senator from Arizona tweeted: "Trying to count the ways I hate @timkaine. Drawing a blank. Congrats to a good man and a good friend."
On the 63rd anniversary of the end of the Korean War, lasting peace remains elusive as regional tensions have increased and relations between Seoul and Pyongyang have regressed over the Norths nuclear program.

On Wednesday, the South accused the North of floating bags of propaganda messages down river into Seoul. The leaflets contained threats to launch missile attacks and longstanding propaganda that the North won the Korean War.



The Korean Peninsula was divided into the Soviet-backed communist North and the American allied South after it was liberated from Japanese colonial rule at the end of World War II.

The Korean War, which began in 1950, escalated to include an American led United Nations coalition to defend the South against an attempted invasion by the North, and Chinese forces fighting in support of their communist ally.Approximately five million soldiers and civilians died in what became a war of attrition that never technically ended. On July 27, 1953 the warring parties signed an armistice to end hostilities, but never signed a peace treaty.

The fragile peace continues to hold today but North Koreas recent nuclear and ballistic missile tests have made the situation more volatile.

ASEAN security meeting

North Korea's Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho on Tuesday said that the possibility of further nuclear tests depends on the Untied States.

Speaking on the sidelines of an Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) meeting in Laos, Ri said North Korea was a responsible nuclear state and would not use its atomic arms unless threatened.



The North Korean foreign minister also said his country has proposed peace talks many times but the South Korean government has refused to engage.

South Koreas Unification Ministry Spokeswoman Park Soo-jin on Wednesday reiterated the position of both Seoul and Washington that Pyongyang must first halt its nuclear program before any talks to reduce tensions and end sanctions can occur.

I would like to tell you that the goal of our policy on North Korea is peaceful reunification of the Korean peninsula. For peaceful reunification, the priority task is for North Korea to make changes related to denuclearization, Park said.

In March, the United Nations imposed harsh new international sanctions on Pyongyang for again violating Security Council resolutions banning North Korea from developing nuclear and ballistic missile weapons.

South Korea also closed the jointly run Kaesong Industrial Complex, which employed over 54,000 North Koreans.The Kaesong project was the last remaining cooperative program developed to build trust between the two Koreas.



THAAD divides



Both Beijing and Moscow pledged to support the sanctions, but new strains over the deployment of an American missile defense system in South Korea could weaken their resolve.



China and Russia continue to voice strong opposition to the U.S. Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system to be deployed in South Korea, saying its purpose is to increase U.S. military power in the region and that the systems powerful radar will be used to monitor their military installations.

Chinas relations with North Korea have been strained by Pyongyangs nuclear provocations but in a sign of warming ties, the North Korean foreign minister met with his counterpart Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi at the ASEAN security meeting in Laos.



Under President Park Geun-hye, South Korea has worked to improve diplomatic and economic ties with China.



But Parks decision to side with Washington to deploy THAAD, over the objections of Beijing, may have pushed the limits of that relationship.



It was a valuable lesson for South Korea and China to a certain extent [to gauge] how much progress is actually possible by mutual cooperation and effort, said North Korea analyst Bong Young-shik, with the Asan Institute for Policy Studies in Seoul.



Abduction threats



South Korea also warned its citizens in China and Southeast Asia this week of the risk of "dangerous acts" by North Korea.



The warning came after South Korean media said the North had sent teams of agents to those places to harm or abduct South Koreans in retaliation for the South's granting of asylum to workers from a restaurant run by the North in China.
Thousands lined the streets of Kinshasa Wednesday to cheer and welcome home Congolese opposition leader Etienne Tshisekedi, who spent the last two years having medical treatment in Belgium.

The 83-year-old Tshisekedi did not address the crowds as he made his way from the airport. He plans to make his first public remarks at an opposition rally Sunday.

The opposition in the Democratic Republic of Congo hopes Tshisekedi's return will revitalize efforts to keep President Joseph Kabila from hanging on to power beyond the end of his two terms in December.

The DRC constitution bars him from running again. But the opposition says Kabila is looking to put off the November presidential election to avoid stepping down.

Opposition officials say they hope Kabila will give up power on December 19, no matter what happens.

Tshisekedi lost the 2011 presidential election. He remains the country's most popular opposition figure, despite spending the last two years in Brussels for treatment of an unspecified illness.
Norway is considering moving a mountain  or at least its peak  to neighboring Finland.

Anne Nordskog, a spokeswoman for Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg, said yesterday the government is contemplating a proposal to give the Halti peak as a gift to Finland next year as the Finns celebrate 100 years of independence.

Most of the mountain is on the Finnish side of their northern border but the peak of 1,331 meters is in Norway. The proposal would redraw the border to put the peak in Finland.

While mountainous Norway has several peaks that are higher, Finlands highest mountain is 1,325 meters.

Former Norwegian state surveyor Bjorn Geirr Harsson, who came up with the proposal, said it would be nice to give Finland an extra 6 meters.
China was the main destination for exports from Angola, mainly oil, in the first quarter of 2016, according to Angolan Finance Ministry figures.

In the first three months of the year, Angolan exports to China totaled USD1.16 billion, or a decrease of 50 percent over the amount recorded in the same period of 2015. China was also the second largest supplier of Angola in the same period. The value of imported products reached $418 million, an annual contraction of 47 percent.

Meanwhile, Angolas diamond production continued to demonstrate growth.

In June of this year Angola produced and marketed more than 760,000 carats of diamonds, valued at about $80 million, according to the Ministry of Geology and Mines (MGM).

According to a statement from the Ministry, production increased 2.28 percent and sales increased 5.35 percent compared to May.

The increase in volume was due to the fact that production at the Catoca mine registered a slight increase of 0.82 percent compared to the same period of 2015.

Production at Catoca accounted for 82 percent of the volume by carats and 56 percent by sales value.

The diamonds sold, at an average price of $150 per carat, were also from the Lulo, Somiluana, Camutue and Luo projects.

From January to March Angolan imports totaled $2.963 billion, an annual reduction of 41 percent and exports reached $2.741 billion, 51 percent less year-on-year.

In the first quarter of the year the United States was Angolas main supplier, overtaking China and pushing Portugal into third place, according to Portuguese news agency Lusa.

In the period US companies exported goods and services to Angola worth $485 million, mainly turbojets, turbopropellers and other gas turbines purchased by state power production company Prodel. MDT/Macauhub
The Parisian Macao, which is set to officially open on September 13, is currently allowing guests to book and enjoy a special promotional rate as part of its Grand Opening Package.

The Parisian Macao  Grand Opening Package is available from now until January 27, 2017 for stays from September 14 to January 27, 2017, according to a press release by Sands China.

The package rates start from HKD1,398, which includes accommodation for two in a Deluxe King Room; daily breakfast or lunch for two; Eiffel Tower admission tickets for two; and a Parisian Macao limited edition opening souvenir.

According to the statement, guests who book two nights will receive extra benefits including Macau to Hong Kong Cotai Water Jet Class one-way ferry tickets for two, amongst others.

The soon-to-open resort will offer a full array of integrated facilities including approximately 3,000 guestrooms and suites, of which at least one-third of the rooms will have views of the Eiffel Tower.

fado restaurant presents summer duo

The Fado restaurant of the Hotel Royal Macau is offering a Summer Duo, a sweet pairing of Pavlova with a special Royal Port & Tonic cocktail.

Luis Americo, executive chef of Fado, has incorporated different ingredients into his four variations on a traditional Pavlova: Egg Cream, Creme Brulee, Serradura and Port Wine Chocolate.

According to the hotels press release, the Pavlova with Classic Egg Cream and Roasted Almonds, is a must-try for egg-yolk dessert lovers, as it is an innovative mix-and-match of egg custard and crunchy meringue.

Hotel Royal is also introducing a special cocktail, Royal Port & Tonic. The cocktail is a combination of white port wine with tonic water, topped up with ice and fresh mint leaves, to perfectly complement the sweetness of the pavlova.

The Summer Duo is available at the restaurant from now until September 30.
The European Union Academic Programme in Macao (EUAP-M) recently organized an annual study trip to Europe for a group of 20 university students and faculty members.

The trip, which was mostly attended by students from the University of Macau (UM), was an opportunity for students to learn about the culture of Belgium and Ireland and to acquaint themselves with the European Unions main functions and institutions.

According to UMs press release, the highlights of the trip included meetings in Brussels, one with a representative of the European Commission on the role, functions and legislative process of the EU, and the other with officials of the

European External Action Service on its role and functions as well as EU-China and EU-Macau relations.

In addition to a visit to the Macau Economic and Trade Office to the EU, the delegation also visited the Parlamentarium (the European Parliaments visitors centre), where students were informed how decisions are made between the European Council and the European Parliament.

Students discussed the possible impact of Brexit on the EU, Ireland, and Sino-European relations with the professors of the Trinity College in Dublin, when they attended a master class on the EU-Ireland relations in the oldest university in Ireland. They also went to the Colleges library, where the Book of Kells, a world-famous medieval manuscript, is housed.

Moreover the group took a trip to Irelands Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and met with researchers from the Institute of International and European Affairs in Dublin.

The statement also mentioned that the students participated in a workshop at the Free University of Brussels titled EU-China Research and Teaching Cooperation, which was co-organized by the Institute for European Studies, ULB, and the Institute of European Studies of Macau (IEEM).

Established in 2012, the EUAP-M is a partnership between UM and IEEM, co-financed by the EU. It aims to help the general public in the region, particularly students at all levels, to understand more about the EU.
A southern Chinese court has sentenced four people, including at least two Hong Kong journalists, to prison on charges of running an illegal business after they reportedly sent copies of their sensitive political magazines to mainland China.

A court in Shenzhen said yesterday the four received prison sentences of up to five years each. The sentencing, following the high-profile temporary disappearance of five Hong Kong booksellers, raises questions about the semiautonomous territorys status as a free press haven for material banned on the mainland.

Two of those convicted in Shenzhen included Hong Kong magazine publisher Wang Jianmin and editor Guo Zhongxiao, who were arrested in 2014 in the border city, according to Hong Kong media. The two men published New Way Monthly and Faces, two journals that often delved into high-level Communist Party power struggles. Its unclear whether the two other convicted people were Hong Kong residents, or what role they played at the publications.

Reports cited Wangs lawyers as saying their clients were not running a mail-order business and had sent only eight copies of the magazines to friends in China. Wang was also convicted on collusion and bribery charges.

Hong Kong has served for decades as a clearing house for information about sensitive mainland topics, and publishers once considered themselves beyond Beijings reach.

But the free-wheeling scene has been chilled by a series of run-ins with mainland authorities in the past year, including the disappearance of the booksellers from the Causeway Bay firm Mighty Current. Publishers at an annual Hong Kong book fair, the largest of its kind in Asia, said this month that printers and distributors were increasingly unwilling to handle sensitive titles for fear of political repercussions.

The booksellers 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 and a fifth is still detained.

The Independent Commenters Association and the Hong Kong Journalists Association voiced concern in a joint statement and said Beijing has selectively targeted Wang and Guo, as well as Mighty Current and a third publisher called Morning Bell Press, to clean the origin of mainland political gossip in Hong Kong.

The groups urged mainland authorities to respect the rule of law and the principal of one country two systems, the agreement that outlines the former British colonys relationship with Beijing. Gerry Shih, Beijing, AP
Indonesian President Joko Jokowi Widodo announced a new Cabinet yesterday that puts a retired general linked to human rights abuses in charge of security and returns a popular reformist to the finance ministry.

Sri Mulyani Indrawati, who was finance minister from 2005-2010, is returning to the role from her current position as managing director at the World Bank, Jokowi said. In her first stint as finance minister, she was praised for overhauling a corrupt taxation department and guiding the economy through the 2008 global financial crisis.

The appointment is a coup for Jokowi and his efforts to reinvigorate the economy, but was overshadowed by a controversial military figure also joining the Cabinet.

Wiranto, head of the Indonesian military in 1999 when it committed atrocities in East Timor after Timorese voted for independence, was named the minister for security, political and legal affairs. Wiranto and other military men were indicted for crimes against humanity in 2003 by a U.N. tribunal, but successive Indonesian governments have ignored its findings.

Andreas Harsono, Indonesia researcher at Human Rights Watch, said Wirantos entry into the Cabinet shows a conservative backlash against Jokowis efforts to address Indonesias poor human rights record, including abuses in Papua, which has a long-running separatist movement, as well as investigating the militarys anti-communist massacres in 1965.

Wiranto has a lot of baggage, Harsono said. I think it is a setback for Jokowi and human rights.

Wiranto replaced Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan, an ally of Jokowi who, though a former general, had opened a landmark symposium earlier this year into the 1965 atrocities that historians estimate killed half a million people. He had been ordered by Jokowi to investigate mass graves that survivors say are scattered throughout Indonesia.

Pandjaitan becomes the chief minister for maritime issues at a time when Southeast Asian nations are at odds with China over its territorial ambitions in the South China Sea.

It is the second reorganization of Jokowis Cabinet since the maverick politician became president in 2014, after defeating an establishment candidate in a national election.

A total of 13 ministries were changed and nine of the ministers are new to the Cabinet. Many of the new appointments were in economy-related ministries, reflecting Jokowis focus on developing an economy that is one of the largest in Asia but suffers from weak infrastructure and entrenched poverty.

We have to resolve the poverty problem. We have to reduce the economic gap between the rich and the poor, the gap among regions, Jokowi said. We have to strengthen the national economy, we have to open job opportunities as wide as possible for the people.

Tobias Basuki, a political analyst at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Jakarta, said the new Cabinet is a very mixed bag reflecting crisscrossing priorities that included giving ministries to political parties that have joined Jokowis coalition in parliament.

Some of the more progressive and younger politicians were taken out of the Cabinet, he said, but the reshuffle also removed poorer performing ministers.

Jokowi is a pragmatic president and politician, so its not that he ignores human rights but at the same time its not a paramount principle for him, he has other pragmatic calculations, said Basuki. Stephen Wright, Jakarta, AP

Prison island readied for drug convict executions

Indonesia has beefed up security at Nusa Kambangan prison island as authorities prepare to execute people convicted of drug crimes for the third time since President Joko Jokowi Widodo was elected in 2014.

The head of prisons in Central Java province said Tuesday that about 1,000 police have been sent to Cilacap, the town nearest the maximum security island, and that the prison is waiting for the attorney generals order to carry out the executions.

The government hasnt announced a date for the executions or the number of people. An official familiar with the plans said 13 people would be executed by firing squad shortly after midnight tomorrow. The official requested anonymity because he wasnt permitted to speak publicly about the matter.

It would be the third set of executions under Jokowi, who campaigned on promises to improve human rights in Indonesia. His two-year-old administration has executed almost as many people as were executed in the previous decade.

The government says the death penalty is necessary for drug crimes because Indonesia is facing a drug epidemic, particularly affecting young people.

Lawyers and groups opposed to capital punishment have criticized plans for more executions. They say that the death penalty is not preventing the spread of drug use, and that some of the convictions are questionable because of police corruption and flawed courts.

Generally, executions for drug crimes enjoy wide public support in Indonesia, though about 20 people staged an anti-death penalty protest on Tuesday outside the presidential palace in Jakarta, the capital. MDT/AP
The Macao Foundation (FM) has published in the Official Gazette a list of the financial support it provided to individuals and institutions during the second quarter of 2016. The publically available data was provided by the FM on July 21, but does not include any of the payments relating to the controversial Jinan University donation, despite the fact that the Commission Against Corruption (CCAC) found them legal last month.

During the second quarter, the total amount distributed to various beneficiaries slightly exceeded MOP211.5 million, down from the MOP300 million donated in the first quarter of the year.

The two largest beneficiaries of the foundation in this period were the Kiang Wu Hospital Charitable Association and the City University of Macau, according to the report. The organizations were collectively granted MOP74.5 million.

The Kiang Wu Hospital received MOP38.5 million for the acquisition of medical and computer equipment and the refurbishment of the facility.

The City University of Macau, the second largest beneficiary on the list, was awarded MOP36 million by the foundation for a total of 25 items relating to financial support to fund studies, academic publications, teaching activities, equipment and grants to students of the university, [all] for the academic year 2015/2016.

Other significant bodies and associations that received substantial sums from the Macao Foundation were the Womens General Association of Macau (MOP12 million), the Macau University of Science and Technology (MOP11 million), the United Association of Food and Beverage Merchants of Macao (MOP10 million), Caritas Macau (5.25 million), House of Portugal in Macau (5 million) and the Macao Federation of Trade Unions (4.1 million).

A notable absence from the published list of FM beneficiaries is Jinan University, to which a RMB100 million (MOP120 million) donation has been promised. Early reports suggested that the first payment of RMB50 million is due at some unspecified point this year for the construction of a media studies center.

The donation came under fire earlier this year after it was alleged that the agreement had been compromised as a result of a conflict of interest by the Chief Executive Chui Sai On, who serves as both the president of the Board of Trustees of the Macao Foundation as well as a vice chairman of the Jinan University Council. However, the matter was cleared after a brief CCAC investigation in late-June, which found the donation not to be in breach of the law.

If the RMB50 million (MOP60 million) were included in the report for this quarter, it would easily outstrip the sums donated to the next two largest beneficiaries, Kiang Wu Hospital (MOP38.5 million) and the City University of Macau (MOP36 million). The donation is also considered to be the single largest donation to Jinan University since its reopening in 1978.

During the second quarter of 2016, the Macao Foundation separately organized a MOP80,000 donation to the Jinan University Alumni Association, as the final installment of ongoing financial assistance to support the expenses of drafting a 2015 business plan.

Additionally, the Association of Students of the Faculty of Life Sciences and Technology, Jinan University of Macau received MOP30,000 during the quarter, to partially cover the expenses of drafting a 2016 business plan.
Fitch Ratings kept its CC rating on Mozambiques long term credit in local currency and the short term rating in foreign currency at C, which means the countrys debt is not considered to be investment quality, the agency said.

In a statement issued last week, Fitch said it had also given a new rating of C on short term debt in local currency, which is considered junk.

The agency said neither of the two factors for the improvement of the credit rating are currently in place. These are indicators of strong public finances from foreign sources and previous preferential treatment of local investors in relation to foreign investors.

The CC credit rating means, according to the table prepared by Fitch Ratings, the debt issued presents a very high risk and the C rating that the issuer is expected to default on payment or is negotiating new terms with creditors.

Last week, the spokesman for Lazard Ltd. announced that the company had been hired by the government of Mozambique as a financial advisor to value its foreign debt and the Mozambican Minister of Economy and Finance, Adriano Maleiane, hired White & Case LLP as legal consultant to value foreign debt. MDT/Macauhub
The world is at war, but it is not a war of religions, Pope Francis said yesterday as he traveled to Poland on his first visit to Central and Eastern Europe in the shadow of the slaying of a priest in France.

The killing of an 85-year-old priest in a Normandy church on Tuesday added to security fears surrounding Francis five-day visit for the World Youth Day celebrations, which were already high due to a string of violent attacks in France and Germany. Polish officials say they have deployed tens of thousands of security officials to cover the event.

Francis spoke to reporters on the papal plane en route from Rome to Poland. Asked about the slaying of the priest, Francis replied: Its war, we dont have to be afraid to say this.

After greeting reporters on his papal plane he returned to the topic to clarify that when he speaks of war, he is speaking of a war of interests, for money, resources. [] I am not speaking of a war of religions. Religions dont want war. The others want war.

Upon arrival at Krakow airport a pensive Francis was greeted by Polands President Andrzej Duda, First Lady Agata Kornhauser-Duda and other state officials, and hundreds of faithful who had waited for hours to see him.

The Polish Army band played the anthems of the Vatican and of Poland.

The main welcoming ceremony with speeches is to be held later in the day at the Wawel Castle in Krakow.

In the evening Francis is to appear in the window of the residence of Krakow bishops, where he will be staying, and chat with some among the hundreds of thousands of pilgrims from around the world gathered for the World Youth Day celebrations that will run through Sunday.

Lets live WYD [World Youth Day] in Krakow together! the pontiff tweeted before departing from Rome for Krakow, southern Poland, yesterday afternoon.

Just hours before Francis arrival for the major Catholic event, groups of cheerful young pilgrims were seen in the streets of Krakow.

Relics of St. Mary Magdalene came to the church from France, for the duration of World Youth Day, and were displayed in a case by the altar.

Their presence helps us concentrate on our prayers and brings us closer to God, said Nounella Blanchedent, 22, from the French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe.

She was one of the volunteers helping with security and logistics at the packed St. Casimir Church, where a Mass was being held in French for pilgrims from France, Belgium and other countries.

Poland, a predominantly Catholic country is still proud of the late pontiff, St. John Paul II, who served as priest and archbishop in Krakow before becoming pope.

The sense of expectation was apparent in sunny Krakow on Wednesday with papal white-and-yellow flags and images of Francis and John Paul II decorating the streets. Stages were put up at many locations for concerts and other activities that are being held by and for the pilgrims in Krakow.

There was a heavy presence of police and other security forces across the city, as crowds were increasing everywhere.

I have never seen so many people in Krakow, its difficult to move around even though offices have closed [for the event] and many people have left the city, said Anna Gazda, 43, owner of a souvenir shop. Monika Scislowska, Krakow, AP
CHINA Shares plunged yesterday, with a gauge of smaller companies sinking 5.5 percent, as people familiar with the matter said the China Banking Regulatory Commission is discussing stricter curbs on wealth-management products. The markets exaggerated response shows whats at stake for Chinas watchdogs as they attempt to reduce risk in the financial system while avoiding going too far and provoking another crash.

PHILIPPINES The top U.S. diplomat shared a working lunch yesterday with the new Philippine president, who has criticized U.S. security policies and publicly made friendly overtures to China. President Rodrigo Duterte and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry discussed a range of issues, including the South China Sea disputes, battling terrorism and personal interests like motorcycles and hunting.

SYRIA A twin bombing struck a crowd in a predominantly Kurdish town in northern Syria yesterday, killing 44 people and wounding dozens more. The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for the attack.

VIETNAMs prime minister vowed to defend the countrys sovereignty in the South China Sea as he was re-elected by the rubber-stamp National Assembly. In his acceptance speech, Nguyen Xuan Phuc called on parties to respect and comply with international law and not to further complicate the situation.

GERMANY Bavarias top security official says its unclear whether the man who blew himself up at a bar in the town of Ansbach meant to detonate it at the moment he did. State Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann said yesterday that further investigation into the case is needed.

ICELANDs airport authority says the country briefly closed its airspace to flights because of a technical problem at its air traffic control center. Gudni Sigurdsson of airport operator and air navigation service Isavia said yesterday that we did not let more traffic into our area while a problem with the flight data processing system was being resolved. He said the problem has been fixed and services are returning to normal.

UNITED NATIONS Plummeting economies in Venezuela and Brazil are expected to drag Latin America into negative growth again this year, the U.N.s Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean reported on Tuesday. The commission projected a 0.8 percent slide in the regions overall gross domestic product for 2016, a bit worse than last years 0.5 percent dip.
Deciding where to conduct a banking transaction is no different from selecting a boarding school for an unruly child. Singapore has long been seen as a solid choice. It didnt smother innovation by throwing a thick carpet of rules over everyday commerce, and it didnt believe in punishing shareholders for bankers misdemeanors. While that second attraction still partly holds, the first is in doubt.

Banks know any management they hire will be naughty at times, and careless  or clueless  more often. Since the financial crisis, all three behaviors have become universally unacceptable. But while money centers like London and New York have dealt with delinquency by levying hefty fines, which end up hurting investors, Singapores strategy has been to punish the errant wards while sparing the guardians.

A good example of this came in 2013 when the city-state penalized 19 lenders for rigging currency benchmarks in a novel way. It asked them to set aside additional reserves with the Monetary Authority of Singapore at zero compensation. After a year, the MAS returned the SGD10 billion (USD7.4 billion) to the likes of UBS, Royal Bank of Scotland, Bank of America and Deutsche Bank. Not having the money at hand meant management had to work that much harder to maintain profitability, but the rap on the knuckles didnt bruise shareholders.

Three years later, its crime-and-punishment season again, and this time the offense involves that one area of banking where theres still some optimism left: serving the wealthy in Asia.

Allegations that billions of dollars have been siphoned out of 1MDB, a Malaysian state fund, have triggered a global probe. Last week, Singaporean authorities seized SGD240 million in assets tied to the 1MDB scandal, and the MAS said it was investigating Falcon Private Bank for serious breaches of anti-money-laundering regulations.

The regulator, which in May gave Swiss private bank BSI its marching orders in relation to the same case, has also put homegrown DBS, as well as the Singapore units of UBS and Standard Chartered, on notice for instances of control failings, which it said will be met by firm regulatory actions.

The threat of impending punishment gives financial institutions in the city a reason to groan, not because theyll be notifying their shareholders of big fines, but because the additional paperwork all bankers can now expect will make life at least as dull as it is in Hong Kong.

Bankers in Hong Kong grumble that their regulators insistence on treating private-banking clients as though they were retail customers has pushed more sophisticated trades to Singapore because the islands pragmatic approach was tailored to fit industry needs. In the aftermath of 1MDB, that perceived arbitrage opportunity will probably end.

Bank shareholders will have mixed feelings about this. The forecast for 11 percent annual growth in wealth accumulation by ultra-high-net-worth and high-net-worth individuals in the region is juicy enough for UBS to include in its most-recent annual report. But it could turn out to be a costly mirage if in chasing that prize, bankers step on dirty money. Even momentary lapses of reason would haunt investors.

On the other hand, ensuring discipline isnt cheap either. Standard Chartereds regulatory expenditure was $1 billion last year, a 40 percent increase from 2014 and 29 percent more than what it spent on premises. The $700 million HSBC forked out in compliance-related expenses in the first quarter equaled 70 percent of its pretax earnings from Europe.

Let financial firms moan about the extra homework in Singapore. Having already suffered the consequences of bankers behaving badly, shareholders now need to fret about how much more good behavior will cost them. Andy Mukherjee
The Idaho Freedom Foundation put out a report Tuesday highlighting how much some former lawmakers have benefited from a rule that lets them increase their pensions if they move on to full-time state jobs after leaving the Legislature.

The IFF, a conservative group that generally focuses on issues regulated to government spending and regulation, has been pushing for changing the pension law for a while now. Pensions are based on a person's highest-paying 42 months of work, and legislators, unlike other part-time public officials like mayors or City Council members, are given full-time credit by the pension system for their time as a lawmaker. (Legislators work full-time during the session and more sporadically the rest of the year.) Thus, a former lawmaker, especially one with many years of service in Boise, can see a big bump in their pension after they step down from the Legislature and spend a few years in a full-time state job.

The IFF put out an analysis of the effect of the rule Tuesday, which according to a news release the group put out was calculated by two IFF researchers using approved actuarial methods. In terms of the potential percentage bump in their pensions, their numbers say Joe Stegner, a former state senator from Lewiston who now works as special assistant to the president at the University of Idaho, could see the biggest spike, with his potential lifetime bump going from $110,080 based on his legislative service to $895,712, an 814 percent increase. Second is John Tippets, another former state senator who now heads the Department of Environmental Quality and who could see a 655 percent bump. Third was Dean Cameron, longtime Mini-Cassia senator who stepped down last year to become director of the Department of Insurance, who could see a 631 percent increase based on his new job, according to the IFF's calculations.

After studying these figures, I understand why lawmakers lack the political will to end this lucrative scheme, said IFF researcher Tiffany Stevens. I only hope lawmakers soon summon the courage to do the right thing and end this self-serving pension law.

A bill to change the pension calculation formula passed the House in 2015, narrowly surviving opposition from GOP leadership and a motion to reconsider after it passed  House Speaker Scott Bedke, R-Oakley, left his speaker's chair to debate against the bill, an uncommon occurrence in the Legislature. Opponents of the bill argued it was unconstitutional since the Citizens' Committee on Legislative Compensation has the power to change lawmakers' pay and benefits. Other supporters of the current law have said it helps the state to hire the most-qualified people for the job:

"I need to have a public policy that works and invites quality capable people at the prime of their career to be willing to make changes to do it," Senate Majority Leader Bart Davis, R-Idaho Falls, told Local News 8 last year. "Otherwise, what you're left with is a selection pool that are still good people, but they don't bring some of the experience that other candidates might be able to bring."

The bill was held in the Senate, and a new version was never introduced in 2016. The citizens' committee voted two months ago to ask lawmakers to revisit the issue, according to the Spokane Spokesman-Review.
SHOSHONE  A couple accused of driving with 10 children in a van while high on pain medication is now facing charges in a string of home burglaries in Lincoln County.

Michael Patrick VonBerndt, 35, and Lynn Marie VonBerndt, 32, were arrested Tuesday afternoon in Jerome after authorities earlier in the day asked for the publics help in finding the wanted couple.

These two individuals would approach a residence on the pretext of buying an item they had seen on the victims property, Shoshone Police Sgt. Rene Rodriguez said. Lynn VonBerndt would then ask to use the bathroom at the residence, and once the couple was inside, they would steal items.

Police contacted an attorney for the couple and requested they turn themselves in, Rodriguez said, but they had not done so by Tuesday morning, prompting police to seek the publics help.

They were arrested about 3:45 p.m., Rodriguez said. The sergeant did not elaborate on the circumstances of their arrest except to say they were captured and did not turn themselves in.

Before their arrests, a call went out to Magic Valley law enforcement on the police radio describing Michael VonBerndt as known to act aggressively toward law enforcement and warning police to use extreme caution.

According to the arrest warrants, the couple will each be charged with six counts of burglary, six counts of conspiracy to commit burglary and one count of possession of a controlled substance. Lynn VonBerndt will also be charged with three counts of petit theft.

The couple was identitied as the suspects in the string of burglaries after an extensive investigation by both the Lincoln County Sheriffs Office and Shoshone Police Department, Rodriguez said.

The couple was already facing charges in Jerome County stemming from their April 25 arrest when deputies, responding to the report of a reckless driver with 10 children in a van, found both VonBerndts incoherent and stopped on Idaho Highway 25. Authorities determined they were high on pain medications, Jerome County Sheriff Doug McFall said at the time. The children ranged in age from 13 years to 6 months.

In that case, Lynn VonBerndt is charged with one count of felony drug possession, one misdemeanor count of driving under the influence and 10 misdemeanor counts of injury to a child. Michael VonBerndt, whos also known by Michael Yundt, faces one misdemeanor count of possession of drug paraphernalia stemming from the April arrest.
BURLEY  A Cassia County man who sexually abused a 16-year-old who later had his child pleaded guilty Tuesday and will likely spend at least three years in prison.

Robert Gayle Andreason, 48, was charged in May 2013 with sexual battery by lewd or lascivious acts of a minor child, rape, battery and intimidating a witness.

Andreason originally pleaded not guilty to those charges but accepted a plea deal, admitting guilt on Tuesday to one amended charge: sexual battery of a minor 16 or 17 years old.

Police said that between May 2013 and October 2013, Andreason raped a then-16-year-old girl several times while she was staying at his house with her friend, his daughter. The girl told told police she believed he drugged her dinner and forced her into his bedroom.

After the first time he assaulted her, the girl told police, Andreason drove her home and threatened to kill her and hurt her family. She continued to stay at his house because she feared Andreason would carry through on his threats.

In court, District Judge Michael Crabtree went over Andreasons guilty plea form, asking him if he understood the amended sexual battery charge.

Yes, sir, Andreason said.

He did not explain his decision to plead guilty, only speaking to say yes, sir when Crabtree asked him to confirm the signatures on the plea form were his.

The girl gave birth to a child in 2014. It was fathered by Andreason, who threatened to kill her and the baby if she told anyone what happened to her, police said.

As part of his plea deal, the charges of rape, battery and intimidating a witness were dropped. The state will recommend a sentencing of no more than three to 15 years in prison, though the court can impose a longer term. Sexual abuse of a 16- or 17-year-old carries a maximum penalty of 25 years in prison, fines and costs of $50,000, sex-offender registration and DNA registration.

Crabtree ordered a psychosexual evaluation for Andreason and set his sentencing in Cassia County for Sept. 13.
BURLEY  The first shovels of dirt were turned over at the new John V. Evans Elementary on Tuesday as the community gathered to celebrate the long-awaited school.

The new schools name was chosen through a contest and in honor of the former state governor, a Democrat who served from 1977 to 1987. He died in 2014.

It is an incredibly humbling experience to have a school named after the governor, said John Evans Jr. He supported education all of his life.

The K-6 grade school will be built south of Burley on 50 West Road. Attendance zones for the school have not yet been established.

What a perfect name for the school, said Sen. Kelly Anthon, a Republican state lawmaker.

Construction on the new school will be completed within 12 to 15 months. It will have 60,000 square feet with 28 general classrooms, two computer rooms, a music room and a library.

Ryan Cranney, chairman of the Cassia County School District board, said the board could not have chosen a more perfect name for the school.

When Cranney was a senior in high school, he scored a political coup against John Evans as a delegate in the Democratic state convention.

Cranney brought all his friends to help him win the bid.

Afterwards, (Evans) was so gracious and kind and he invited me over to his house to work on a platform to take to the convention, Cranney said.

Cranney said Evans was a great man and leader and served as an example to us all.

Superintendent Gaylen Smyer said every where you look in the community is evidence of our forbearers hard work.

We will build this school in that same tradition, he said.

Smyer said it would not have been possible without community support.

Unity is part of community and thats what lets us accomplish these things, he said.

Cranney said the ceremony marked a special day on what he considers hallowed ground. He has farmed potatoes where the school is being built and called the soil Goose Creek gumbo.

If it was wet you would be taking some of that home with you on your shoes, he said.

Cranney said the event marked the culmination of a decade of work along with the beginning of the new school.
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This appeared in the Lewiston Tribune:

Earlier this month, Idaho Congressman Raul Labrador gave us  perhaps inadvertently  a glimpse into what it could mean to have him serving as Idahos next governor.

The occasion was the July 12 House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing on Labradors First Amendment Defense Act.

Labrador says his measure protects people who exercise a religious belief or moral conviction that marriage is the union of one man and one woman from federal reprisals such as the withdrawal of grants, contracts or tax breaks.

Now you could choose to dismiss arguments advanced by the American Civil Liberties Union that Labradors bill would empower federal officials to deny people grants, loans or even jobs on the basis of a sincerely held religious objection to their same-sex union.

As well, you can discount the ACLUs idea that Labradors bill could allow federal contractors to engage in discrimination on the basis of their own moral views.

And you may see as wildly overblown the idea that this bill not only targets same-sex couples for discrimination but single parents and cohabitating couples.

Certainly Labrador would agree with your skepticism. He has said those objections are exaggerated. The Pulitzer Prize-winning fact-checking service PolitiFact buttresses his interpretation. And just to be fair, his recent amendments protect the religious or moral views of same-sex couples in the same way.

But you cant ignore the callous timing.

House Oversight Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, brushed aside appeals to reschedule the hearing on Labradors billcoming one month to the day to the killing of 49 people and the wounding of 53 others at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Fla.

The hearing itself was divisive. For every James Obergefell, the successful plaintiff in the U.S. Supreme Court case establishing a same-sex couples constitutional right to marry, there was a Kristen Waggoner, senior counsel and vice president of the Alliance Defending Freedom.

Obergefell accused Labradors bill of permitting discrimination and harm under the guise of religious liberty.

Waggoner countered the government was hostile to those who believe that marriage is between one man and one woman.

This is political theater. Legislators have that luxury. Labrador is among 435 voices in the House and another 100 in the Senate.

But governors are executives. As the saying goes, the buck stops with them.

Theres no better example than Indiana Gov.and GOP vice presidential nomineeMike Pence.

Last year, Pence signed a religious freedom bill that promptly blew up in his face. Before he reversed himself, Pence was fending off pointed questions from This Week host George Stephanopoulous, facing the loss of 10 national conventions, contending with dismayed home-grown firms such as Eli Lilly and Cummings, and watching his own political support crumble.

Even Idaho Gov. C.L. Butch Otterwho went too far defending Idahos unconstitutional ban on same-sex marriageavoided Pences misstep. The closest Idaho came to passing a religious freedom bill was the measure Rep. Lynn Luker, R-Boise, promoted in 2014. It ran into a buzz saw of opposition, never to be seen again.

Virtually from the time he emerged on the scene, Labrador has been discussed as a potential governor. The charismatic conservative could have considerable advantages in the GOP primary, which for all intents and purposes is akin to winning election.

But even in conservative Idaho, society is rapidly transforming the way gays and straights interact.

Idahos 33rd governor will take office four years after the Supreme Courts Obergefell decisionand seven years after Sandpoint became the first of almost a dozen citiesincluding Lewiston, Moscow and Boiseto ban discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.

Congressman Labrador has wedded himself to a dated us-vs-them narrative.

Is that what we should expect from Gov. Labrador?
Refugee situation turns ugly

I have serious concerns about the attitudes of some of our citizens. Our history should have taught us something about the way we treated the Japanese citizens during World War II. We took people who had lived in our community for years, to live in a camp together because they were Japanese. We have done this in our America, where we say we can all live in peace. Those citizens did not threaten our lives because of the war between our countries. Neither did the people of German heritage cause us to segregate between them and us during this same war.

The current situation has some people are eager to disrespect immigrants and their Muslim neighbors, to condemn them and keep them from the freedoms we cherish. The reported incidents of hate mail, alleged crimes among the citizens, is grossly ugly.

In truth we are all immigrants trying to live our lives peacefully and in love, accepting others and wishing them well. I am not in government, but a caring concerned member of our valley who sincerely wants to love my neighbors, wherever they originated and welcome them to our neighborhoods, regardless of their religion, practices, mores, or color, who we can learn from and take pleasure in their friendship.

As a nurse who has worked in our community, all people need love, care and acceptance. We are all exactly alike under our outer covering of skin.

Please let us all love and respect each other.

Charlotte Maffin

Buhl
Paulin Makaya, the leader of the Congolese opposition party Unis Pour le Congo (UPC) has been sentenced to two years in prison on Monday by the Brazzaville High Court for inciting public disorder in the central African nation.

The Court found Paulin Makaya guilty of organizing and participating in an unauthorized demonstration against the constitutional referendum in October 2015. The vote allowed President Denis Sassou Nguesso to seek another term.

Paulin Makaya was also fined 2.5 million CFA francs ($4,135) by the cour.

The court finds Paulin Makaya is guilty of the offense he is charged for and condemned him to twenty-four months imprisonment and a fine of 2.5 million CFA francs, the President of the Criminal Chamber at the high court of Brazzaville, Valerian Endenga, pronounced.

His lawyers immediately rejected the verdict, calling the trial unfair and illegal. We will appeal in accordance with the Criminal Code Procedure and the case will be forwarded to the appellate court for retrial, his lawyer Yvon Eric Ibouanga told reporters.

Amnesty International said the sentence shows that freedom of expression is restricted in Republic of Congo. The NGO has called for Makayas immediate and unconditional release, calling him a prisoner of conscience.

In June, prosecutors had urged the court to jail Makaya for five years should he be found guilty.

President Denis Sassou NGuesso, in power for more than 30 years, was re-elected in March.

The long-serving leader is accused by critics of rampant corruption and nepotism and of stifling democracy.
President-elect Rodrigo Duterte speaks during a news conference in his hometown Davao City in southern Philippines, May 16, 2016. [Photo/Agencies]

In his first state of the nation address delivered on Monday, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said he will utilize the ruling in the country's international arbitration case to peacefully resolve the country's territorial disputes. This is widely seen as his attempt to maintain a low key approach to the maritime disputes with China.

Peaceful resolution to the South China Sea disputes has been and is China's consistent stance. When elaborating China's position on the South China Sea arbitration last week, Foreign Minister Wang Yi said China would like to work in unison with the Philippines if the new Philippine government is willing to resume dialogue and consultation, manage disputes and improve bilateral relations together with China.

On July 12, the arbitral tribunal ruled in favor of the Philippines in the case it had filed against China. The case, unilaterally brought by former Philippine president Benigno Aquino III, has plunged ties between China and the Philippines to a historic low.

Since his inauguration, Duterte has showed pragmatism and willingness to engage in bilateral negotiations with China. Soon after the arbitration ruling was announced, he said he intended to send former Philippine president Fidel Ramos to China to start negotiations on the South China Sea disputes.

This is the right approach to resolve the maritime disputes. If the Philippines sticks to this approach, China will respond positively, and thus, the tensions in the South China Sea will be dramatically eased, which, in turn, will cater to the interests of peace and stability in the region.

It still needs to be pointed out that the latest remarks from Duterte show the Philippine leader still harbors some illusions that the arbitration might be used as a bargaining chip when bilateral talks with China begin.

But even before the ruling was delivered, China made it clear the country would not negotiate with the Philippines on the basis of any ruling in the arbitration case, regardless of whether it was in favor of the Philippines or not.
An FDA approved drug to treat renal cell carcinoma appears to reduce levels of a toxic brain protein linked to dementia in Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases when given to animals. This finding is the latest from Georgetown University Medical Center's Translational Neurotherapeutics Program (TNP) examining tyrosine kinase inhibitors in the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases.

The study, to be presented at the annual Alzheimer's Association International Conference in Toronto, found that the drug pazopanib decreases levels of phosphorylated Tau (p-Tau) in animal models genetically engineered to produce human mutant tau throughout their brains.

The TNP lab previously demonstrated in animal models that tau is a critical part of the "garbage disposal system," in cells allowing them to clear accumulated toxic proteins. In humans, p-Tau describes tau that has been abnormally modified, leaving it unable to do its job.

"Our lab has shown that functional tau is required for the clearance of amyloid beta, which accumulates in sticky clumps called plaques. If tau stops functioning, the amyloid beta accumulation leads to cell death," explains Monica Javidnia, a pharmacology doctoral candidate at GUMC. "When tau is abnormally modified, it accumulates within neurons forming sticky tangles, and the when the cell dies, it and the amyloid beta spill out into the brain. These are the plaques and tangles that are the hallmark of Alzheimer's disease." P-tau is also involved in other neurodegenerative diseases.

Previous research from the TNP has shown that when tyrosine kinases are inhibited, the garbage disposal system begins working, allowing cells to once again clear toxic proteins. Pazopanib is a known tyrosine kinase inhibitor.

The TNP, led by Charbel Moussa, MD, PhD, has identified several tyrosine kinase, which appear to play a role in neurodegeneration, protein clearance and inflammation. This work has led to clinical trials with the cancer drug nilotinib in both Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease set to begin this summer. (Moussa is listed as an inventor on a patent application that Georgetown University filed related to nilotinib and the use of other tyrosine kinase inhibitors for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases.)

As Javidnia explains, there are two schools of thought in the Alzheimer's field as to the main culprit of the diseasetau or amyloid beta.

"Work from our lab and other groups shows tau pathology preceding amyloid beta. We believe tau is mainly responsible for dementia and exacerbates A-beta pathology," she says. "However, we are also studying the effects of pazopanib on amyloid beta to create a better understanding of how it works and what diseases it could potentially be used to treat."

Javidnia says analysis in this study shows pazopanib penetrates the mice's blood-brain barrier when given the equivalent of half of dose given for renal cell carcinoma treatment. Following treatment, the animal models showed significant decreases in levels of phosphorylated tau.

"In addition, the drug was safe and well-tolerated," Javidnia says. "Our next work will focus on the individual receptors pazopanib targets to better understand their role in protein clearance and inflammation."

Explore further Genetically engineered mice suggest new model for how Alzheimer's causes dementia

More information: Poster # 8677: Abstract: Pazopanib Is a Potential Therapeutic for Tauopathies
New evidence suggests that it would be appropriate to remove the diagnosis of transgender from its current classification as a mental disorder, according to a study conducted in Mexico City. The study is the first field trial to evaluate a proposed change to the place of the diagnosis within the WHO International Classification of Diseases (ICD).

The research, published in The Lancet Psychiatry journal today and led by the National Institute of Psychiatry Ramon de le Fuente Muniz, involved interviewing 250 transgender people and found that distress and dysfunction were more strongly predicted by experiences of social rejection and violence than by gender incongruence itself. The study is the first of several field trials and is currently being replicated in Brazil, France, India, Lebanon and South Africa.

"Stigma associated with both mental disorder and transgender identity has contributed to the precarious legal status, human rights violations and barriers to appropriate care among transgender people," says senior author Professor Geoffrey Reed, National Autonomous University of Mexico. "The definition of transgender identity as a mental disorder has been misused to justify denial of health care and contributed to the perception that transgender people must be treated by psychiatric specialists, creating barriers to health care services. The definition has even been misused by some governments to deny self-determination and decision-making authority to transgender people in matters ranging from changing legal documents to child custody and reproduction."

"Our findings support the idea that distress and dysfunction may be the result of stigmatization and maltreatment, rather than integral aspects of transgender identity," says lead investigator Dr Rebeca Robles, Mexican National Institute of Psychiatry. "The next step is to confirm this in further studies in different countries, ahead of the approval of the WHO revision to International Classification of Diseases in 2018."

Transgender identity is currently classified as a mental disorder in both of the world's main diagnostic manuals, the WHO's ICD-10 and the American Psychiatric Association's DSM-5. A major component of the definition of mental disorders is that they are associated with distress and impairment in functioning. The classification of transgender identity as a mental disorder is increasingly controversial and a WHO Working Group has recommended that transgender identity should no longer be classified as a mental disorder in ICD-11, but should instead come under a new chapter on conditions related to sexual health.

The study is the first field trial to evaluate the applicability of the proposed re-classification. It was conducted in collaboration with the Condesa Specialized Clinic, the only publicly funded specialized clinic providing transgender health care services in Mexico City. Researchers interviewed 250 transgender people aged 18-65 who were receiving health care services at the Condesa Clinic. Most participants were transgender women, assigned male sex at birth (199 participants, 80%).

Participants reported first becoming aware of their transgender identity during childhood or adolescence (ages 2-17) (table 1). During the study, they completed a detailed interview about their experience of gender incongruence in adolescence (e.g, discomfort with secondary sex characteristics, changes performed to be more similar to the desired gender, and asking to be referred to as the desired gender), and recalled related experiences of psychological distress, functional impairment, social rejection and violence.

Most participants experienced psychological distress related to gender incongruence during their adolescence (208, 83%), with depressive symptoms being the most common. Family, social, or work or academic dysfunction during adolescence related to their gender identity was reported by nearly all participants (226, 90%).

More than three-quarters of participants (191, 76%) reported experiencing social rejection related to gender incongruence, most commonly by family members, followed by schoolmates/co-workers and friends. A majority of participants (157, 63%) had been a victim of violence related to their gender identity (table 3) - in nearly half of these cases, violence was perpetrated by a family member. Psychological and physical violence were the most commonly reported, and some experienced sexual violence.

The researchers then used statistical models to examine whether distress was related to gender incongruence per se or if it was related to experiences of social rejection and violence. They found that none of the gender incongruence variables predicted psychological distress or dysfunction, except in one case where asking to be referred to as the desired gender predicted school/work dysfunction. On the other hand, social rejection and violence were strong predictors of distress and all types of dysfunction (table 4).

Although the study includes a relatively large sample of transgender people, the authors warn of some important limitations. For example, the study was a volunteer sample, so was not representative of the population and participants' experiences were based on their recollection of events, which can be subject to bias. However, the authors note that a similar study would be difficult to conduct prospectively as this would involve children.

"Rates of experiences related to social rejection and violence were extremely high in this study, and the frequency with which this occurred within participants own families is particularly disturbing. Unfortunately, the level of maltreatment experienced in this sample is consistent with other studies from around the world. This study highlights the need for policies and programs to reduce stigmatization and victimization of this population. The removal of transgender diagnoses from the classification of mental disorders can be a useful part of those efforts," says Dr Robles.

Writing in a linked Comment, Dr Griet De Cuypere, University Hospital, Ghent, Belgium and Dr Sam Winter, Curtin University, Perth, WA, Australia, say: "A prominent UN advocate has put it this way: 'Transphobia is a health issue'. This study prompts primary caregivers and psychiatrists to be aware of a 'slope leading from stigma to sickness' for transgender individuals, and to contribute to their mental health by a gender-affirmative approach." They also note that although the study provides evidence to support moving health-related categories related to transgender identity out of the classification of mental disorders in ICD-11, it does not address where in ICD would be the most appropriate place for the diagnosis, which should be a topic for future research.

Explore further Family rejection may more than triple suicide attempt risk by transgender individuals

More information: Rebeca Robles et al, Removing transgender identity from the classification of mental disorders: a Mexican field study for ICD-11, The Lancet Psychiatry(2016). Rebeca Robles et al, Removing transgender identity from the classification of mental disorders: a Mexican field study for ICD-11,(2016). DOI: 10.1016/S2215-0366(16)30165-1
Credit: Tasha (2015) via Pixabay, CC0 Public Domain

Recent studies reveal that approximately one quarter of pregnant women may suffer from obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), the recurrent cessation or limitation of normal breathing during sleep. In addition to being the cause of daytime fatigue, the consequences of untreated OSA include but are not limited to high blood pressure, high blood sugar, and heart disease.

In non-pregnant adults, protocols have been proposed for OSA screening, diagnosis and therapy, the mainstay being continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP). However, in pregnant women OSA is usually untreated, since it is still underdiagnosed, and not fully appreciated as a risk factor for negative outcomes for mother and baby.

Now, in an editorial in the International Journal of Obstetric Anesthesia, sleep researchers from Israel and the United States recommend a new diagnosis, gestational sleep apnea (GSA). This would allow health professionals to properly describe, diagnose and treat OSA in pregnant women, and would parallel other established transient diagnoses of pregnancy, like gestational hypertension and gestational diabetes mellitus.

"Currently there is a lack of uniform criteria to diagnose, treat and classify OSA in the pregnant population, which in turn complicates efforts to determine the risk factors for, and complications of, gestational sleep apnea," said Prof. Yehuda Ginosar, director of the Mother and Child Anesthesia Unit at the Hebrew University-Hadassah Medical Center and professor at the Hebrew University's Faculty of Medicine. Ginosar is currently Professor of Anesthesiology and Chief of the Division of Obstetric Anesthesiology at Washington University School of Medicine.

In terms of diagnosis, doctors and patients may attribute daytime tiredness to "just being pregnant" rather than to sleep apnea. In terms of treatment, some physicians and patients might consider the disease too temporary to warrant referral to a sleep-certified physician, which usually requires an overnight sleep study for diagnosis (although the recent increased use of home sleep studies should encourage more opportunities for diagnosis).

The researchers argue that establishing and coding for a specific diagnosis of gestational sleep apnea will require further investigation to determine criteria and therapies. But, like in the case of other gestational diseases, it will allow for more targeted surveillance of maternal and fetal outcomes, and facilitate epidemiologic research to monitor the course of the condition from its genesis to its possible path to chronicity.

"The time has come for our profession to wake up to the diagnosis of gestational sleep apnea. This will allow us to research obstructive sleep apnea in pregnant women more effectively, and to develop and implement more effective treatments," said co-author Dr. Suzanne Karan.

Explore further Gestational diabetes tied to seven-fold increase in sleep apnea risk

More information: Suzanne Karan et al. Gestational sleep apnea: have we been caught napping?, International Journal of Obstetric Anesthesia (2016). Suzanne Karan et al. Gestational sleep apnea: have we been caught napping?,(2016). DOI: 10.1016/j.ijoa.2016.03.001
Research presented today (Tuesday 26 July) at the Alzheimer's Association International Conference 2016 suggests that men with Alzheimer's may be more likely to be misdiagnosed than women with the disease. A second study highlights the number of misdiagnoses in over 1,000 people, where just over 20% had either not been given a correct diagnosis of Alzheimer's, or had been wrongly diagnosed with the disease.

In the first study, researchers at the Mayo Clinic in Florida looked at brain samples from 1,606 people who had been found in a post-mortem examination to have had Alzheimer's disease. They found that men with the disease tended to be younger, while more women were affected in later life. The analysis also showed that damage to the brain was more likely to affect the hippocampus  an important region of the brain for memory  in women than in men. Men in the study were more likely to have been diagnosed with other conditions such as aphasia  a condition that causes language problems  or corticobasal degeneration, which causes problems with movement, rather than being diagnosed with Alzheimer's.

In a second study, a team from Canada examined brain tissue from 1,073 people who had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease or another form of dementia before they died. They found that 78.4% had a correct diagnosis of Alzheimer's, with the hallmark features of the disease present in their brains. However, 10.8% were false positives  people who had been diagnosed with the disease and did not show these features  while 10.8% were false negatives  people who had not been diagnosed with Alzheimer's despite having the build-up of hallmark Alzheimer's proteins in their brains.

Dr Matthew Norton, Head of Policy at Alzheimer's Research UK, the UK's leading dementia research charity, said:

"We know that women are more likely to have a diagnosis of Alzheimer's than men, but the reasons for this remain unclear and this is an important emerging topic for research. These results suggest that the disease may be affecting men and women differently, and raise the possibility that the disease may be less likely to be recognised as Alzheimer's in men. Further research to explore the factors that may be driving these differences could provide useful insight to help inform efforts to treat and prevent the disease.

"This research further underlines the difficulties clinicians face in diagnosing Alzheimer's using currently available methods, and the need for better diagnostic tools to be made available. A timely and accurate diagnosis is vital for people to access the right care and treatments, and investment in research to improve diagnosis is crucial if we are to provide better outcomes for people with the disease."

Explore further Two in ten Alzheimer's cases may be misdiagnosed
Credit: Manchester University

New research by University of Manchester academics has revealed for the first time how harmful repeated racial discrimination can be on mental and physical health.

Several studies have already linked racial discrimination to poor mental and physical health but no study has ever studied the impact numerous attacks over time have on a person's mental health.

The study, published by Dr Laia Becares and colleagues in the American Journal of Public Health, was looking at the accumulation of experiences of racial attacks over time including being shouted at, being physically attacked, avoiding a place, or feeling unsafe because of one's ethnicity.

Dr Becares, Research Fellow in the University's School of Social Sciences and in the Centre on Dynamics of Ethnicity, said: "Studies that assess the association between racial discrimination and health, or examine exposure at a certain point in time, underestimate the harm of racial discrimination on the mental health of ethnic minority people and its contribution to ethnic inequalities in health."

In this research increased mental health problems were shown to be significantly higher among racial minorities who'd experienced repeated incidents of racial discrimination, when compared to ethnic minorities who did not report any experience of racism.

The study also found it was the fear of avoiding spaces and feeling unsafe due to racial discrimination that had the biggest cumulative effect on the mental health of ethnic minorities.

Dr Becares said: "This finding would suggest that previous exposure to racial discrimination over the life course, or awareness of racial discrimination experienced by others, can continue to affect the mental health of ethnic minority people, even after the initial exposure to racial discrimination."

The research used the ethnicity sample of Understanding Society, which is a dataset used to examine research questions with participants over time  this allowed the researchers to add up all experiences of racial discrimination that people have experienced across five years to find out whether these were associated with changes in mental health.

Dr Becares added: "Our research highlights just how harmful racial discrimination is for the health of ethnic minorities. We see how it the more racism ethnic minority people experience, the more psychological distress they suffer from. This is important in light of the documented increase of racist attacks after Brexit."

Explore further Interpreting racist internet memes

More information: Stephanie Wallace et al. Cumulative Effect of Racial Discrimination on the Mental Health of Ethnic Minorities in the United Kingdom, American Journal of Public Health (2016). Journal information: American Journal of Public Health Stephanie Wallace et al. Cumulative Effect of Racial Discrimination on the Mental Health of Ethnic Minorities in the United Kingdom,(2016). DOI: 10.2105/AJPH.2016.303121
Research conducted by Duke-NUS Medical School (Duke-NUS) and Duke University has associated low vitamin D levels with increased subsequent risk of cognitive decline and impairment in the Chinese elderly.

Produced primarily in the skin upon exposure to sunlight, Vitamin D is necessary for maintaining healthy bones and muscles. It is now believed to also play a significant role in maintaining healthy brain function. An increased risk of cardiovascular and neurodegenerative diseases has been observed in those with low vitamin D levels, and studies from Europe and North America have linked low vitamin D levels with future cognitive decline.

This study asks similar questions of vitamin D levels and cognition in the Chinese elderly. It is the first large-scale prospective study in Asia to study the association between vitamin D status and risk of cognitive decline and impairment in the Chinese elderly. 1,202 study subjects greater than or equal to 60 years of age from the Chinese Longitudinal Health Longevity Survey took part in this study. Their baseline vitamin D levels were measured at the start of the study, and their cognitive abilities were assessed over 2 years.

Regardless of gender and extent of advanced age, individuals with lower vitamin D levels at the start of the study were approximately twice as likely to exhibit significant cognitive decline over time. In addition, low vitamin D levels at baseline also increased the risk of future cognitive impairment by 2-3 times.

"Although this study was conducted on subjects from China, the results are applicable to regions in Asia where a large proportion of the elderly are ethnically Chinese, like Singapore," said Professor David Matchar, first author of the study and Director of the Health Services and Systems Research Programme at Duke-NUS Medical School.

These findings reinforce the notion that vitamin D protects against neuron damage and loss, and call for more intensive investigations into the effects of vitamin D supplements on cognitive decline. Better understanding of the mechanism by which vitamin D protects neurons may help identify effective interventions to stem the rapidly increasing prevalence of cognitive decline observed in ageing populations.

Explore further Low vitamin D level predicts cognitive decline in older population

More information: David B. Matchar et al, Vitamin D Levels and the Risk of Cognitive Decline in Chinese Elderly People: the Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey, The Journals of Gerontology Series A: Biological Sciences and Medical Sciences (2016). David B. Matchar et al, Vitamin D Levels and the Risk of Cognitive Decline in Chinese Elderly People: the Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey,(2016). DOI: 10.1093/gerona/glw128

Provided by Duke-NUS Medical School
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Israel May Smooth Legal Job Visa Quotas for Georgian Citizens

We believe that tourist inflows to Georgia from Israel will increase by 100%, Itsik Moshe, the President of the Georgia-Israel Business Chamber, told Business Morning.I have submitted a specific plan for the development of tourism between Georgia and Israel to the Tourism Minister of Israel. Today, many Georgian citizens visit in Israel with tourism visas, but then they remain in Israel for working and this is a real problem. Therefore, the Israeli government may smooth legal job visa quotas for Georgian citizens, Itsik Moshe said.Georgia-Israel tourism relations have intensified about ten times. Today more than 70 000 Israeli citizens visit Georgia a year and we are sure this figure may increase by 100%.As to investments, over the past years Israeli investments were not made in Eastern European countries, but these finances are coming to Georgia. For example, a new hotel will open in Tbilisi in several days. In the past year, we invited a 500 person delegation for introducing Georgia to them.Wellness tourism is also an important direction. This year, 500 tourists will arrive from Israel who previously were visiting Thailand. They will stay at Rixos-Borjomi.Bilateral efforts are required to boost investment inflows, including business forums. Israel does not have any friends in the Caucasus region besides Georgia. We should provide more jobs for Georgia, and both governments should take active efforts to reduce illegal Georgian immigration in Israel. Georgia should show more initiative. Israel is showing full readiness for cooperation.In the previous week, I met with the Israeli Tourism Minister and agreed a plan on how to boost tourism from Georgia to Israel. One direction implies the allocation of job visas to Georgian citizens in Israel. Georgian tourists will also be able to enter Israel more easily. Israel has carried out a lot of work to make it clear that a tourist represents our country outside of Israel.It is not a good moment when Georgian citizens enter Israel as tourists and then stay to work illegally. Israel remains at war, and there is much caution regarding illegal residents. We plan to increase job visa quotas to bring the mentioned issues to order, Itsik Moshe said.
Uzbekistan signs export contracts

Uzbekistan signed 270 contracts on the export of fruits and vegetables worth more than $2 billion during the first international fruit and vegetable fair in Tashkent on July 12-16.Uzbekoziqovqatholding said that some 27 percent of the total volume of products for exports will account for vegetables, 25 percent - grapes, 20 percent - fruits, 17.6 percent - dried and processed products, 8.4 percent - legumes, two percent - melons.More than 170 companies from all regions of Uzbekistan presented fruits and vegetables at the fair.Over 300 representatives of business circles from the US, UK, UAE, South Korea, Japan, Italy, France, Malaysia, India, Russia, Latvia, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Iran, Afghanistan, Kazakhstan and other countries also participated in the fair.The fair was organized in accordance with Uzbek President Islam Karimovs decree signed in early June 2016.As of 2015, the volume of fruit and vegetable production in Uzbekistan increased by 6.7 percent up to 12.6 million tons, melons and gourds - by 5.9 percent up to 1.8 million tons, grapes - by 11.4 percent up to 1.56 million tons.According to the Uzbek side, some 1.2 million tons of fruits and vegetables are planned to be exported in 2016, which is 2.5 times more compared to 2015.
Developments in Turkey will not affect Georgia-EU visa-free travel

By Messenger Staff

Georgias Ambassador to the European Union (EU), Natalia Sabanadze, claims the potential postponement of visa liberalization for Turkey will not affect Georgia.The Ambassador said that even though legislative proposals on the visa liberalization of Georgia, Ukraine, Turkey and Kosovo were submitted at the same time, "they are connected to each other only procedurally, and not politically"."Therefore, if a decision will be made on Turkey, it will not be directly related to Georgias visa liberalization and will not have any direct impact on it, Sabanadze said.According to her, consideration of the issue of Georgias visa liberalization will be resumed in the European Parliament from September.Guenther Oettinger, the European Commissioner, has said that the European Union would not likely be granting Turks visa-free travel as previously agreed upon due to Ankara's brutal crackdown after the failed military coup last week.The coup attempt left at least 232 people dead and 1,400 others wounded in Turkey.The Turkish interior ministry dismissed almost 9,000 police officers on Monday as part of a purge of officials suspected of involvement in the coup attempt on July 15.This had followed the arrest of 6,000 military personnel and suspension of almost 3,000 judges over the weekend.Meanwhile, Turkish top officials are speaking about the necessity of restoration of the death penalty, which has already been assessed negatively by European leaders and organisations.Foreign analysts believe if Turkey restores capital punishment it will close its door to the EU.Turkey has demanded visa-liberalisation with the EU in exchange for accepting more migrants in the frame of an EU-Turley deal.However, it has been highlighted that Turkey did not meet the various necessary preconditions for visa-free travel in the Schengen Zone.Now, as foreign media and analysts state, even more questions have arisen in terms of the human rights situation in Turkey.Turkey is Georgia's neighbour and partner; any confrontation in the country will be damaging for Georgia and the whole region.With regards to the concrete issue of visa-liberalisation, it would be fair to say that unlike Turkey, Georgia has met all the visa-free travel demands, and this success has already been recognised by the European Commission.Respectively, it will not be just if the current developments in Turkey negatively influence Georgias EU visa-free movement.
In a surprising call for a foreign power to use its hacking abilities to get involved in the U.S. presidential election, Donald Trump on Wednesday called on Russia to find Hillary Clintons missing emails from the time she was secretary of state.

Russia, if youre listening, I hope youre able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing, Trump said to a room full of TV cameras at Trump National Doral. I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press.

Trump said that he hopes that Russia does have her emails. Clintons lawyers had turned over work-related emails, but deleted thousands which she said were about personal matters.

They probably have her 33,000 e-mails that she lost and deleted because you'd see some beauties there, he said. So let's see.

A forceful and at times flippant Trump engaged with reporters for about an hour as he bashed Clinton over her emails stored on private servers in her New York home. FBI Director James Comey said earlier this month that Clinton should have known that some of the emails were classified, but concluded there wasnt enough evidence that she intentionally mishandled classified information.
Republican U.S. Senate candidate Carlos Beruff is closing in on having spent more than $8 million of his own money in his bid to defeat U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio for re-election.

Speaking to the Tampa Bay Times editorial board on Wednesday, Beruff said he's already spent between $7.5 million and $8 million and is expecting to spend between $12 million and $15 million to win the Republican primary.

Beruff said he's not against fundraising, but said he didn't feel right asking his friends to risk money on what he called "a gamble."

"I'd rather gamble with my own money," Beruff said.

In his latest campaign finance report filed earlier this month, Beruff reported donating and loaning his campaign $4.2 million of his own money.

Most of his spending is directed at a nearly $1 million a week advertising campaign that is running statewide.

Beruff's self funding makes him the second biggest self-funder in the nation for a seat in Congress this year. Only Maryland Democrat David Trone, founder of Total Wine, spent more of his own money on a primary. Trone spent nearly $10 million of his own money in a losing effort to win a U.S. House seat in the suburbs of Washington, D.C. earlier this year. No other U.S. Senate candidate in the U.S. has spent more of their own money to win a seat this year than Beruff.
via @AndresViglucci

Casino operator Genting, which has been seeking permits for a 50-yacht marina at its property at the old Miami Herald site in downtown Miami since 2013, has floated an unusual proposal to Miami-Dade County environmental regulators to goose approval of the slow-moving application.

Its asking the countys Department of Regulatory and Economic Resources to allow the company to transfer existing boat-slip permits from properties on the Miami River owned by a scion of the Matheson family  something county regulators say has never been done.

Under the countys manatee protection plan, which strictly limits construction of new powerboat slips in the river and bay to protect the endangered marine mammals and their habitat, Genting subsidiary Resorts World Miami is eligible for no more than eight slips at the Herald site, assuming that it could win approval from the hard-to-satisfy regulators.

In a July 5 letter to the county, though, Resorts Worlds consultant, Kirk Lofgren of Ocean Consulting, outlined a proposal to transfer 42 slip permits now attached to Austral Marina  which Lofgren owns  and three parcels owned by Finlay Matheson on which he operates a marina and has leased out space to Apex Marine, a repair and maintenance boatyard. Matheson is a prominent descendant of the family that gave the land for Crandon Park on Key Biscayne to the county in exchange for construction of the Rickenbacker Causeway, and that also donated a portion of the land for Matheson Hammock Park. Story here.
@PatriciaMazzei

PHILADELPHIA -- Tim Kaine dropped in unexpectedly into the Florida delegations Wednesday morning breakfast, giving the nations largest swing state a little more political love ahead of his Democratic convention speech.

It wasnt an accident that the roll-out of the ticket was in Florida, the vice-presidential nominee said. Were any of you at that event in Miami? So much fun!

Presidential nominee Hillary Clinton introduced him as her running mate Saturday at Florida International University.

Surprised delegates met Kaine with applause and hollers of, We love you! He arrived nearly 15 minutes before the scheduled start of the 8:30 a.m. breakfast at the Philadelphia Marriott Downtown. (This is a lesson: Don't be late to a Florida breakfast, Florida Democratic Party Chairwoman Allison Tant joked.)

I was kind of still half asleep when I walked in, Kaine admitted. But Im not half asleep now.

More here.
via @learyreports

PHILADELPHIA -- Florida Democratic Party Chairwoman Allison Tant, surrounded by fellow Democrats on the convention floor in Philadelphia, cast 163 votes for Hillary Clinton.

"Madam Secretary, on behalf of the state of Florida -- the great Sunshine State, the home of Senator Bill Nelson, the state that went blue for President Obama and it's going to go blue for Hillary Clinton -- I proudly cast 72 votes for Sen. Bernie Sanders and 163 votes for the first woman president of the United States of America, Hillary Clinton."

--ALEX LEARY, Tampa Bay Times
LOLO  M. Scott Miller wasn't used to canvases this large.

He'd spent three hours at it and still had more work to go.

"It's a big space to cover," he said.

Thankfully, Lady Lonza, a gaited horse with an apricot champagne coat, was cooperating Tuesday afternoon, as Miller painted her with neon paisley designs.

Miller, well known around town for his scenes of Missoula city lights after dark, said the design was inspired by Andy Warhol's renderings of pigs with flowers.

Nearby on Dunrovin Guest Ranch, picnickers from an entrepreneurial dinner nearby dropped in and help paint other horses as part of Dunrovin's unofficial first Equine Art Extravaganza.

Originally, Dunrovin owner SuzAnne Miller planned the event as part of the first Montana Festival of the Horse, which was canceled earlier this month due to financial setbacks.

Miller pressed ahead with her event. She envisions a full-fledged contest next year with professional artists and amateurs, with the proceeds going toward nonprofits. She's recruiting a board and working with local galleries.

"We're trying to have get an example of how a horse can be painted so people can begin to see a horse as an object of art and a canvas for decorating," she said.

"Horses are important to nearly all the major civilizations of the world and they celebrate them by decorating them," she said.

Miller has been trying to broaden the definition of a guest ranch with inclusive ideas and events to get people to enjoy the outdoors. The ranch is equipped with osprey nests and web cameras, which have drawn up to 800,000 unique visitors at a time. With a horse-painting contest held on site, voters from an international audience could cast their votes.

***

After the horses were completed Tuesday, photographer Pam Voth would shoot portraits. At future events, artists could incorporate their own photography and back-drops into the pieces.

"In many ways, the photograph is the only enduring piece of art that comes out of it," Miller said. "This is very ephemeral art."

That's because a horse painting is naturally temporary: M. Scott Miller was using tempura, which could wash off easily. It's all water-soluble paint that's safe for the animals.

"Really anything you can put on a person you can put on a horse," SuZanne Miller said.

On the other side of Lonza, who was stoically feeding from a bag of carrots, Miller's friend Jo Lopez was working on Lonza's rear right leg.

What advice would Miller give to others attempting to paint a horse?

"Be creative," he said. "And don't be afraid of a moving canvas."
This June, at the Aspen Ideas Festival, six former Food and Drug Administration commissioners agreed that the agency has been hobbled by red tape, special interests, partisan politics, and its own flawed structure. The FDA receives funding from USDA, but reports to the Department of Health and Human Services, which, like many agencies, tends to make a 180-degree turn every four or eight years. "The micromanagement from on top has probably gotten to the point where an independent agency is necessary," former FDA chief David Kessler said in Aspen, speaking for his colleagues as well as himself.

"But when you really count, there 150 people between us, commissioner and that President, and they all think they are your boss and that's the problem."

Another problem is the influence that private interests have in the evaluation process for new foods and drugs. The FDA curates a list of food additives that it generally recognizes as safe (GRAS). The GRAS list is supposed to help protect the public's food safety, but Kessler bluntly called it "a joke," because industry often gets to decide which substances get, and stay, on the GRAS list.

This process, so convenient for industry, is one reason why the joke might be on the consumer. There is a long list of substances that are legal in the U.S., despite being illegal in other countries. To be fair, just because something is banned somewhere doesn't immediately mean that the non-banning countries have it wrong. But when the watch dog is stuck in the dog house, what choice to we have but to be a little skeptical?

Some of the entries on the the legal here, banned there list sound scary. One, azodicarbonamide, can even be found in yoga mats. But weirdness does not equal toxicity. And there some cases, like the three discussed here, that make you wonder if maybe those former commissioners might be onto something about their former agency.

Olestra

Perhaps the most fitting example of FDA constipation can be found in the story of olestra-brand name Olean  the product of a $200 million investment by Proctor and Gamble into the development of a zero-calorie, fat-like polymer that tastes like fat but isn't digested. Instead it passes through you.

Oh, did it ever pass through you.

Soon after the product came to market in 1996, problems were evident. the coming years brought nearly 4,000 complaints filed to FDA, most of which for something the agency and company already knew. Kessler's FDA was at least able to affix a label to olestra-containing products that stated: "This product contains olestra. Olestra may cause abdominal cramping and loose stools. Olestra inhibits the absorption of some vitamins and other nutrients."

This carefully crafted statement was the result of a tedious push-pull between FDA and P&G. Two key words that didn't ultimately make the cut were "anal" and "leakage."

But even as the complaints piled up confirming this warning, the agency chose to drop the labeling requirement in 2003. While still illegal in Canada, the European Union and many other parts of the world, olestra continues to be used in some products like Frito-Lay Light chips. In 2006, the Center for Science in the Public Interest threatened a lawsuit against P&G. They settled when the company agreed to re-label its olestra-containing products.

David Kresser, the FDA commissioner who complained of having 150 bosses, declined to comment on olestra, which passed under his watch. But it's worth noting that it was finally approved one day before B&G's patent was set to expire.

That olestra remains on the GRAS list, despite its known side effects, speaks to the inertia that Kresser complained about.

Artificial Dyes

While Olestra was something of a sputtering flash in the pan, artificial dyes have been around for decades. This broad category is composed of several families of chemicals, some of which are more benign than others. But unlike olestra, even the worst of these can lurk silently in your body for years before any effects may be felt. Azo-dyes Yellow #6 and Red #40, for example, which are made from coal tar, break down in your body into aromatic amines. Aromatic amines have long been known to be carcinogenic - 25 percent of bladder cancers are thought to result from occupational exposure to these goodies.

These very same dyes can be found in Starburst candy, assuming it was purchased in the U.S. But in the E.U., on the other hand, those bright squares would be tinted with natural dyes like carotenes, because Azo-dyes are banned.

This discrepancy points to a subtle, but massive, difference between how potentially dangerous ingredients are regulated in Europe compared to the U.S. Across the pond, a rule of thumb called the precautionary principle guides the approval process. It basically means if something might be dangerous, take action.

In the U.S., on the other hand, the approval process is guided by what could stand up in court as proof of guilt. According to former FDA chief Dave Kessler, most decisions at the agency are put off until a lawsuit comes around to break the logjam.

The precautionary principle, in all likelihood, keeps certain things out of the food supply that probably wouldn't have harmed anyone. The U.S. litigation-driven process, meanwhile, probably allows certain unsavory elements into our food that shouldn't be there.

In the face of mounting evidence against artificial dyes, FDA still isn't forcing food processors to find less toxic alternatives. Luckily for consumers, the companies themselves are realizing just how bad some of these dyes are, and are switching to natural dies, on their own. It's as if we suddenly inhabit some free-market utopia where benevolent companies take action proactively to make their products safer, at their own expense, out of deep concern for their customers.

Or perhaps they just don't want to get sued.

There is just so much evidence out there, not just for cancer but organ damage, birth defects hyperactivity (which is ironic, given we're talking about candy) that companies like Nestle, Hershey's and Starburst parent company M&M/Mars are leading the charge of confection companies away from artificial colors, because the writing is on the wall, even if FDA is too impotent to do anything about it. And because, wouldn't you know it, there are natural alternatives to most of those artificial colors.

Luke Haffenden, a flavor chemist in Montreal, doesn't have an innate fear of hard-to-pronounce ingredients. But he's well-aware of the potential issues with fake dyes, and hesitates to let his own kids consume products that contain them. Many others in the industry quietly feel the same way, he told me. A dye, by its very nature, he explained, is designed to attach to things and permanently change them.

"In the food industry, in the last couple of years...you go to any of these huge conventions, and a significant portion of companies are manufacturing, selling and or distributing natural color options," Haffenden explained. "Some of these companies are making lots of noise because they think that it will be a marketing advantage. And some are quietly reformulating and hoping nobody notices."

Ractopamine

This food additive, which has been dubbed "FDA approved pork roids," is banned in Russia and China, but not here. All told the additive, which helps animals pack on lean muscle mass in their final weeks, is illegal in 160 countries.

For those who swing toward the precautionary principle end of the spectrum in their personal consumption decisions, the snubs from Russia and China might be reason enough to avoid ractopamine-fed meat.

Of course, it's entirely possible that the Chinese, being astute connoisseurs of fine pork, simply want nothing to do with lean pigs. But Russia? They certainly don't seem to have a problem with steroids.

All kidding aside, most of the studies on which FDA has based its approval of ractopamine were done by Elanco, the drug's maker. The majority of these studies focused on its efficacy in promoting lean gains, not safety. The safety data that does exist primarily focuses on the impact ractopamine has on the animals themselves, and finds that yes, it causes problems. Studies on the impacts of ractopamine on humans, meanwhile, are virtually nonexistent. Instead, safety concerns were apparently outsourced to Canada, as an FDA link brings us to a Health Canada web page.

Health Canada extrapolates that ractopamine-fed meat is safe for humans because it accumulates in very low levels in the animal parts that humans typically consume.

The E.U. meanwhile, as expected, chooses to err on the side of caution. But U.S. pork eaters don't have that choice.
Dinner at The Pearl Cafe.

Wings at Hooters.

A Walmart receipt that includes a personal item, Metamucil.

Car service identified as Shah's Limo in one place, a cab ride in another.

These costs are among the reimbursement requests from Mountain Water Co. and The Carlyle Group that the city of Missoula is quibbling with in its case against the water utility.

This week, Judge Karen Townsend heard the parties argue about which among the defendants' more than $7 million costs are "reasonable and necessary" for the city to pay  since the law notes the plaintiff foots the bill for "just compensation" in a couple of scenarios.

In a court document, the city proposes slashing the request to some $3.5 million, and for a variety of reasons. "Excessive" hours are just one of its justifications.

"Hours that are not properly billed to one's client are also not properly billed to one's adversary," said the city in its proposed order, its hope for how the judge will rule.

In court and expert reports, witnesses for the city have questioned the other side's expenses, and retired Montana Supreme Court Justice James Nelson went so far as to call one billed trip a "junket."

But the city itself has spent some $6 million and counting in legal and other fees, and its detailed receipts aren't included in court documents.

In its own court filings, global equity firm Carlyle and Mountain Water point to the city's known expenses, and at least one time referred to the municipality as the pot calling the kettle black in the hard-fought case.

"While the rates the city is paying its attorneys are not the touchstone of 'reasonableness' ... Mr. (Harry) Schneider charges the city $600 per hour  substantially more than any of Mountain Water's attorneys," wrote Mountain and Carlyle in their own proposed findings to the court.

"This fact is certainly probative of the reasonableness of the rates charged by Mountain Water's counsel."

Here's a sampling of some of the odd charges, and ones causing fireworks in the case  and some explanations.

***

Mountain Water's claim notes more than $7,800 for five executives from one firm, Montague, DeRose and Associates of California, to travel to Missoula, according to the city's court filing. "Attached to that claim are the five individuals' receipts for lodging at the DoubleTree Hotel, dining at The Pearl and Finn & Porter, and limousine service to and from the airport in San Francisco." Yet the city noted just one person from Montague testified in court.

The water company hired Baker Donelson, whose lead attorney for Mountain is based in Tennessee. "Associate attorneys made a combined total 14 round trips to Missoula, some for as long as four weeks," read the city's court document." For attorney fees alone (not including any travel costs), Mountain Water claims $104,212 for time its attorneys spent in transit between Chattanooga, Tennessee, and Missoula, Montana." In court, though, a witness for the defense noted a firm in Helena was originally tapped to be in the lead because lawyer John Alke is familiar with Mountain Water Co. However, the firm broke up partway through the case, the water company sought other expertise in condemnation, and found it in Baker Donelson.

One economist with a national profile testified in court for some 30 minutes about his own financial theories. However, Arthur Laffer, known as the architect of Reaganomics, didn't spend much time discussing the situation in Missoula. Laffer Associates billed for 28 full-time days of preparation in all, or more than one month of work. The total came to $61,400, and the city noted Laffer "did not submit an expert report and was not deposed." He charged some $10,000 a day for travel, according to the court document.

The bills include consultations that lawyers on the case had with big shots from Williams & Connolly, a law firm with a client list that's included Hillary Rodham Clinton and Oliver North. Carlyle's claim includes $3,281, according to the city's court filing: "Consultation with yet another team of out-of-state attorneys in the final stages of the case was not a necessary expense of litigation."

The city also notes a lengthy list of lawyers who billed time to the case. "Defendants' submissions in support of their claims for attorney fees identify 88 separate timekeepers who billed defendants for their time," read the court document. "These timekeepers include at least 15 attorneys at the Garlington, Lohn and Robinson firm, at least 10 attorneys at the Baker, Donelson ... firm, at least 30 attorneys at the Holland & Hart firm, and four attorneys from the Hughes, Kellner, Sullivan and Alke firm." In its own court filing, though, the defense notes most of the time was billed to a minority of the lawyers. Take Baker Donelson, for instance, with 27 timekeepers: "Fully 93 percent of the claimed attorneys' fees are associated with the above four attorneys (including a Garlington Lohn & Robinson partner) and one paralegal. Six of the timekeepers billed just 4.4 hours collectively."

***

The city's own expenses recently topped $6 million, and it also has sought out-of-state legal expertise. The court isn't reviewing the city's own expenses, though, and they aren't part of the court files.

At the same time, Mountain Water and Carlyle point to the city's actions as driving some of their own legal efforts in their proposed findings of fact and conclusions of law. The defendants also offered examples of where they've been conservative in spending.

" ... Mountain Water chose to claim only the federal per diem of $59 for its food and incidental costs, rather than actual cost," read the defendants' court filing. It noted the same is true for Carlyle.

On the other hand, Mountain Water and Carlyle pointed to the amount of work the parties generated that resulted in "the tremendous amount of litigation work."

The city disclosed 27 expert witnesses compared to Mountain Water's 18.

The city disclosed 28 fact witnesses compared to Mountain's 19.

The city served 105 requests for production on Mountain Water and 58 on Carlyle, not including sub parts; Mountain Water served 88 requests for production on the city, and Carlyle served 27.

"A condemnation case of this scale has been seen only once before in Montana's history, namely, the last time the city sought to condemn Mountain Water's property," the court filing said of the case the city lost in the 1980s.

In the court document, Mountain Water and Carlyle take issue with actions by the city, including the way it "fell short of its discovery obligations in its production of experts' files." It notes the emails of Roger Wood, an investment banker, as one example.

"While testifying in deposition, Mr. Wood acknowledged that (he) had only been asked by the city's counsel the day before his deposition to search for and produce responsive emails," the court document said. "Needless to say, because of the short notice, he did not produce any such emails at or before his deposition."

Only on the last possible day of a deadline set by a court-appointed special master did the city finally provide the information, some 2,751 pages of new documents, the defendants said.

The example demonstrates that Mountain Water's and Carlyle's "attorneys were required to engage in increased work and motions practice that would not have been necessary but for the city's discovery conduct."

***

Mountain Water president John Kappes declined to discuss the expenses billed by the defendants' lawyers and experts, citing the pending decision on attorneys' fees by Judge Townsend.

However, lawyers for the city addressed some of the questions about the city's $6 million fees, and its own use of out-of-state legal expertise.

In an email, Schneider, with Perkins Coie, said more than 95 percent of the fees billed by his firm are for work he himself performed.

"Generally speaking, the city used just one one-of-state lawyer on the litigation, and that was a deliberate choice," Schneider said. " ... One associate in Seattle performed limited and discrete legal research early on, but other than that, there were no out-of-state lawyers on the case other than me.

"Indeed, there were no out-of-town lawyers other than me."

As to the total amount, city communications director Ginny Merriam said it reflects the city's work on not only the eminent domain case in district court, but its participation in other proceedings. The figure accounts for the city's work at Montana Public Service Commission, another court case involving the Montana Consumer Counsel, as well as the appeal to the Montana Supreme Court.

Natasha Prinzing Jones, of Boone Karlberg in Missoula, said the defendants' maneuvers forced the city to spend legal time on matters that ended up being sideshows in the case.

"When they did that, they forced the city and its attorneys to participate and respond to their unreasonable and unnecessary activities," Jones said.

As just one example, she said Mountain Water submitted an expert report claiming it had excess water rights, and it argued it had the ability to sell Missoula's "most senior water rights." In response, she said, the city had to hire experts to "demonstrate the fallacy of those arguments."

The city also had to prepare to cross examine Mountain Water's expert, but the company never put the person on the stand, Jones said. Then, in the recent court hearing about fees, she said the defense abandoned the $32,000 claim related to the water rights expert.

"But we had to spend an enormous amount of resources on experts and attorney time to deal with this opinion that appears to have been completely unnecessary and unreasonable by their acknowledgement last Monday," Jones said.

She also said the defendants took 39 depositions, "an unprecedented number," contrasted with the city's eight. As a result, the city had to prepare witnesses, participate in the depositions, buy transcripts, and review them.

"It caused a huge amount of expense for the city's lawyers and cost to the city," Jones said.

Yet in trial, she said, the defense used only some 10 of those depositions.

Last year, the city won the right to use its power of eminent domain to buy the water system, and the decision is pending before the Montana Supreme Court. In the meantime, Carlyle sold the utility to Liberty Utilities, the subsidiary of a Canadian company.
POLSON  The owners of a dog kennel between Charlo and St. Ignatius whose website says they raise our puppies in the most loving, humane, clean environment possible are facing a potential felony charge of aggravated animal abuse.

Lake County Sheriff Don Bell said 11 of the more than 120 dogs at the kennel were seized Tuesday after deputies arrived at LDR Kennels with a search warrant after receiving a complaint.

The kennel is owned by Larry and Nadene Latzke, who were cited for aggravated cruelty to animals.

The Lake County Attorneys Office will decide what, if any, charges will be formally filed against the Latzkes, Bell said, after veterinary reports on the seized dogs are completed and prosecutors can review them.

The rest of the dogs remain at LDR Kennels, located off U.S Highway 93 on Dublin Gulch Road.

***

Bell said his office received a complaint asking for a welfare check on the dogs.

Deputies Taylor Bleazard and Clay Shoemaker were told there was a terrible smell coming from the kennel and that they had seen one dog with its hair matted and smelled like urine, and the dog did not look in good health, Bell said.

Bleazard did some digging, according to Bell, and discovered that the Sheriffs Office had received previous complaints about the kennel.

In the past the owners of the kennels would not let the officers check the dogs, the sheriff said.

Armed with that history, this time the deputies applied for, and were granted, a search warrant.

It was served at 7:53 a.m. Tuesday.

***

Life Savers Animal Rescue of Polson accompanied the sheriff, undersheriff and deputies to the location, and assisted with evaluating the 120-plus dogs at the kennel.

Some of the 11 seized for further evaluation and treatment were later returned, but others were not, Bell said.

The LDR Kennel website says Nadene Latzke has been raising puppies for 25 years, and Larry Latzke began working with her in 2002.

The website offers Chihuahua, Maltese, Yorkshire Terrier, Havanese and Shih Tzu breeds for sale. It claims the dogs are definitely loved and socialized.
The half-acre fire in a grass and hayfield apparently started when a Vermeer rake being pulled by a tractor caused a spark, according to a release from the Missoula Rural Fire District.

Two Missoula Rural Fire engines and a water tender fought the blaze. District firefighters urge people to be extra cautious because of the continuing hot weather.

Likewise, the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation, along with the federal Bureau of Land Management, and the Forest Service, reminded those harvesting to take extra care while operating equipment, and to have fire-suppression tools close by, as well as a tractor with tillage equipment for emergency line construction.
HAMILTON  A Ravalli County District Court judge has denied a request to delay the trial of Florence physician Dr. Chris Christensen, charged with providing patients with illegal prescriptions.

Christensen must either hire an attorney or represent himself at trial in the fall, according to District Court Judge Jeffrey Langton's order.

Christensen was arrested in August 2015 after allegedly providing hundreds of illicit prescriptions to his patients, two of whom died from overdoses. He faces 400 felony charges, including two counts of negligent homicide.

The Office of the State Public Defender moved to be taken off the case late last year after finding Christensen had too much money to qualify for state-funded counsel, a conclusion upheld by Langton.

Since his public defender was taken away in December, Christensen routinely claimed that he is seeking a lawyer, and also that he intends to file for bankruptcy to be able to have a public defender again. In the spring, Christensen asked that his trial, which had already been continued from February to October, be delayed for another year so he could obtain legal representation and prepare his defense.

In an order issued Monday, Langton said in the months since making those claims, Christensen has yet to file for bankruptcy and has not done enough to find a new attorney.

Although as a criminal defendant, Christensen is entitled to constitutional guarantees which include the right to be represented by counsel, such right does not include the right to sit back and take no initiative ... and then demanding that the proceedings stop until he obtains counsel, which may never happen, Langton wrote.

Christensen, 67, faces a prison sentence of up to 388 life terms, plus 135 years and a fine of up to $20 million if convicted on all charges.

He wrote in his requests that he has been prevented from filing for bankruptcy because he does not have access to financial information stored on hard drives seized by the prosecution, which would allow him to file his 2014 and 2015 tax returns. Ravalli Deputy County Attorney Thorin Geist said they would be willing to provide Christensen with copies of the drives if he requests them, which he has not done, but also informed the judge that none of the drives seized contained financial data.

When he requested the year-long trial delay in May, Christensen also asked for a six-month stay on his case to allow him to gather a legal team. At the time, he said he believed he would require three attorneys, three legal assistants, several law clerks, two secretaries and an office manager, as well as office space, utilities, van and video equipment rental and an in-house medical law consultant. He also believes he needs medical experts in at least 11 different specialties and what he termed ancillary personnel.

Christensen wrote that what he termed a boutique law firm could cost as much as $1,000,000 in public defense fees and might need to be a special appropriation by the Montana Legislature. If he did not receive the stay, which Langton denied in Mondays order, Christensen said he would stymie this case for years in appeals.

Although Christensen informed the judge he has met with at least three attorneys, Judge Langton wrote he had not shown that he was unable to afford to hire any of them.

The sticking point appears to be that Christensen wants an attorney but refuses to retain one at his own expense, Langtons order reads. To date, his conduct shows that his choice is to proceed pro se.

Langton also denied a request that Christensens $200,000 bond be exonerated. Christensens trial is set to begin Oct. 20. and is expected to last for one month.
RATTLESNAKE NATIONAL RECREATION AREA  Why flip burgers for a summer job in high school when you can wade out in a wilderness creek to take scientific measurements of water velocity, dig up old miners' cabins or learn how to identify native plants?

The nonprofit Watershed Education Network in Missoula is partnering with the Lolo National Forest this summer to give a group of high school students a head-start on careers in natural resource management.

The Youth Conservation Corps has spent five weeks monitoring weeds, measuring streamflow, conducting archaeological surveys and taking inventories of natural resources in the Missoula area. They will be presenting their findings for the Forest Service on Wednesday. For the kids, its a way to earn a paycheck  minimum wage for 40 hours a week  while avoiding the menial fast food jobs that so many of their peers turn to in the summer.

This is a really awesome partnership, said Rebecca Paquette, the WEN program coordinator. They get career-building opportunities and career exposure and go learn how to do different scientific data collection. A lot of people say this would be better than working at McDonalds or Burger King and I wholeheartedly agree. This gets them outside rather than having to work at a burger joint.

On Tuesday, the kids went a couple miles up Rattlesnake Creek from the recreation area trailhead and monitored the instream flows of the creek. They also spent time identifying dozens of plants in the area, including Lewis mock orange.

The Lewis and Clark expedition thought the flowers on this plant looked like orange blossoms, Paquette explained to the kids.

The Lolo National Forest contracts with WEN to pay the kids, and over the past three years 50 YCC crew members have completed the program, including 10 this year. Paquette said the Forest Service gets a benefit in return because that agency is short-staffed and the kids provide valuable data that otherwise may not get collected.

We get to employ, historically, eight crew members, Paquette said. But this year weve got 10, including kids from Helena and Stevensville. Weve been expanding our outreach to be able to reach more kids. We hope to have an eclectic group and have a great learning process.

This year, Paquette said they received 34 applications, and for many of the students it was their first professional job interview.

Paquette said the program is geared toward getting more high school students interested in environmental science without doing the typical summer camp structure.

We were thinking about the camp route but we also wanted to explore a different realm that the Watershed Education Network has never done before, she said. High school is tricky. A lot of testing requirements and standards make it hard for nonprofits like us to get involved in high school classes. So this is a great way that we could expand what WEN does and reach out to high schoolers that we dont necessarily get to reach.

***

Jesper Nash, a Helena high school senior, said he wanted to find a summer job that would allow him to see parts of the state he hasnt explored before and help him find a career.

My goal is to see as much of Montana as I can before I leave high school, he said. This definitely was a great opportunity. I think this is a good start for me because it gives me a taste of something I could go into.

Nash also said he wants to experience different jobs related to wildlife before he settles on a choice of a career path. He said this summer has opened his eyes to the possibilities of employment in natural resource management.

I knew about some of them but definitely didnt know about stream monitoring in detail, he said. I only knew bits and pieces of it. I didnt know about the archaeological thing. I didnt think that would be something that would be truly possible in Montana, really.

Paquette said that each of the kids has different responsibilities throughout the day. She added that shes never had kids roll their eyes or become bored during one of the YCC programs. Instead, they seem engaged and curious.

Alongside of getting outside and collecting data, were actually doing work, she said. So theyre actually gaining skills like reading topographic maps or being able to identify native and non-native plants. Theyre taking responsibility but also having a lot of fun doing it and being outside. I feel like theyre learning a lot during the summer, but it doesnt feel like school.

And the kids get to leave with a little cash in their pockets, which automatically gives the program a boost over a typical classroom.

Surprisingly, when you pay someone, that 8 a.m. start time isnt that bad, she said.
A man accused of calling his ex-girlfriend 42 times in a month, and attempting to persuade her to lie during witness testimony, saw his bond set at $20,000 Tuesday in Missoula County Justice Court.

Travis Dishman faces a felony charge of tampering with witnesses and informants, punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a $50,000 fine.

Dishman, 32, was already sentenced to five years in the Department of Corrections after he allegedly threatened to kill his girlfriends ex-boyfriend while on probation in Lake County.

That man told police he took a call from Dishman on March 8, in which Dishman threatened to slit his throat if he didnt leave Dishmans girlfriend alone, according to the affidavit. Dishman then allegedly went to the Southgate Mall, where the man works, and made the same threats, this time flashing a knife.

After Dishman was taken into custody for violating the terms of his probation, he made 42 phone calls to his girlfriend from Lake County Jail between March and April, according to the affidavit. In many of the calls, which were recorded, Dishman allegedly asked his girlfriend to lie about what happened at Southgate Mall.

Alongside the tampering charge, Dishman also was charged with assault with a weapon, a felony, and he faces a misdemeanor privacy in communications charge in Missoula County. His probation in Lake County was revoked on May 18 and he was committed to the DOC.

Although Public Defender Chris Daly said Tuesday that Dishmans DOC incarceration made the bond irrelevant, Justice of the Peace Landee Holloway set it at $20,000 in case Dishman is released early. She said it's imperative that Dishman remain in custody.

Dishman is prohibited from contacting any witnesses or victims in any way.
Evyr Sutherland slurped all of her grape juice in one gulp before she had her answer: "You get to learn stuff."

The 5-year-old said that's the best part of reading. She headed to Russell School on Tuesday morning with her sister, 8-year-old Eilidh, and her mother, Rachel. It's one of Missoula County Public Schools' daily summer lunch sites, but on Tuesday it was also a miniature bookstore  though all of the books were free.

Montana's Office of Public Instruction lugged about 500 books to the school. Each kid got to pick one free book to take home.

"It's a great way for them to keep up, rather than sliding," said Rachel Sutherland.

That's the idea behind OPI's Summer 6 Reading Challenge, an effort now in its fifth year that wants kids to read at least six books in the summer.

The state wants students to avoid the "summer slide."

In 1978, sociologist Barbara Heyns published a landmark study on summer learning, which found that children with socioeconomic disadvantages lagged academically when they returned to school in the fall. The study, "Summer Learning and the Effects of Schooling," also found that children who read at least six books over the summer maintained or improved their reading skills.

Last summer, OPI reported that more than 571,000 meals were served statewide. According to OPI, 43 percent of Montana students qualify for free or reduced-price meals. To learn more, go to opi.mt.gov/summerfood.

***

At a national meeting six years ago, The Council of Chief State School Officers challenged state education leaders to find ways to address the summer slide.

Montana Superintendent of Public Instruction Denise Juneau and her staff launched the Summer 6 Reading Challenge. Since the program began, about 3,000 children have signed up to participate.

"We've gone to Boys and Girls Clubs, powwows, summer eating sites like this one," Juneau said Tuesday as a group of Boys and Girls Club of Missoula County kids swarmed the piles of books.

There were too many options for 8-year-old Luca Khomenko to choose just one book to take home.

Khomenko is far past the six-book suggestion, more often than not picking up a book that his mother said he already read or owned.

"He loves to read. He gets so zoned in," said his mother, Danesa. "It's a wonderful way to distract kids from media, the screens and things like that. Because if he's offered a screen, he'll be just as zoned in to that."

There's more competing for kids' attention today, she said.

Reading in the summer is important, said the Lewis and Clark third-grader, so he can succeed in school this fall.

Long after other kids had found their book, Luca finally settled on the perfect one: "Hatchet," by Gary Paulsen.

***

The books were either donated or obtained through the Montana Striving Readers Project.

Russell School is MCPS' largest summer lunch site, with nearly 400 meals served every day.

Site supervisor Dawn Lenss said that's 200 lunches to the Missoula Family YMCA, about 80 to the Boys and Girls Club and the other 100 are children walking in.

"There's a huge need for it," Lenss said. "We know that because during the school year (when Lenss works in the Cold Springs cafeteria), we have the backpack program that gives out food to certain kids for the weekends."

Evyr wrapped up her lunch  or her chocolate milk, at least  and the Sutherlands were ready to go. Evyr grabbed her book, "The True Story of the Three Little Pigs," and Eilidh took hers, "Confessions of a Bitter Secret Santa."

"There's a lot of dead space in the summer," their mother, Rachel, said. "They can fill that with fighting or screens. Sometimes it takes some encouragement to get them to sit down and read, but once they start, they can read for hours."
Former Missoula County Attorney Fred Van Valkenburg said Wednesday that County Attorney Kirsten Pabst should apologize not only to me personally but also to the attorney generals office and the DCI investigators for wasting their time" looking into whether he swiped files from a secure area.

Van Valkenburgs statement came after the state Attorney General's Office released a letter Wednesday saying it found a total absence of evidence to support the accusation by Pabst, Van Valkenburg's successor. The allegation triggered a review by the state Division of Criminal Investigation (DCI).

I was confident all along that no other result would be reached, Van Valkenburg said. No fair-minded person would think that I did anything wrong, let alone commit a crime.

"I respect his decisions even when I don't necessarily agree," Pabst said Wednesday.

The county attorney said her office takes information security very seriously and "would have involved law enforcement regardless of who had gotten inside."

In May, she issued a news release saying that Van Valkenburg was suspected of stealing a box of unknown, original files and/or property from an area where confidential criminal justice information is kept.

Van Valkenburg said the box he found in the basement file room of the Missoula County Administration Building contained personal photos, birthday cards, bank statements, campaign finance reports, travel receipts and personal legal education material.

He said he found the items, which he said were boxed up when he swapped offices years ago, while looking for research about the history of past Missoula County attorneys.

After the Missoula Police Department investigated the incident, the case was passed along to the Division of Criminal Investigation. When Pabst declined to comment in May she said, "I will let the investigation, when complete, speak for itself."

After reviewing the DCI's findings, Assistant Attorney General Brant Light said in a letter dated July 18, and released Wednesday, that it does not appear a crime took place.

The investigation did not reveal anything other than Van Valkenburgs personal items being removed from the secure file room, Light said.

The DCI found that before entering the storage room, Van Valkenburg and Karol Jedrykowski received permission from the Missoula County Facilities Manager Larry Farnes, Light said in the letter. Farnes first consulted a legal advisor for the Missoula Board of County Commissioners.

A building supervisor escorted Van Valkenburg and Jedrykowski into the room, where the supervisor said Van Valkenburg grabbed a box with his name on it. He showed the supervisor what was inside before leaving with Jedrykowski and, according to the letter, the items appeared to be personal.

Pabst said Wednesday that as county attorney, "I have a responsibility to protect people's private data and former county attorneys should share those concerns. Finally, the law protects us all, and applies to all, even retired prosecutors. The investigation is complete and I will accept the conclusion and get back to the work of protecting our community."

In May, Van Valkenburg said he suspected Pabsts accusation was in response to his request to appear as a friend of the court in the Cody Marble case, which Pabst had filed a motion to dismiss.

Marble was originally sent to prison in 2002, during Van Valkenburgs time as county attorney, for raping a 13-year-old boy while they were in custody in a Missoula juvenile facility. Marble's accuser later recanted his testimony, and then recanted his recantation. In August 2015, the Montana Supreme Court remanded the case back to Missoula County District Court, asking it to re-examine retired Judge Douglas Harkins decision to deny Marble a new trial. Marble was released April 21.
As a lifelong Republican, I dont much care who runs the Democratic National Committee. But I am deeply disturbed by the way that Debbie Wasserman Schultz was forced to resign as the DNC head over the weekend. WikiLeaks released 20,000 stolen emails revealing a clear, if unsurprising, preference for Hillary Clinton over Bernie Sanders among Democratic officials. This appears to be a foreign intervention in American politics  and it may only be the beginning.

Last month, CrowdStrike, a cybersecurity firm hired by the DNC, traced the source of the leaks to two groups of hackers (Cozy Bear and Fancy Bear) associated with two Russian intelligence agencies. Moscows virtual fingerprints are all over this operation, including hyperlinks in Cyrillic and Internet protocol addresses linked to previous Russian hacks. In short, this appears to be a Russian intelligence operation designed to damage Clinton.

The Russians have every reason to sabotage the Democratic candidate. Her opponent, Donald Trump, is more pro-Russia than any previous presidential candidate. In 2015, Trump told MSNBC that Putin was a real leader, unlike what we have in this country, and that reports of Putin killing political opponents didnt bother him  Well, I think our country does plenty of killing also, he said.

The Trump-Russia links beneath the surface are even more extensive, as Franklin Foer has shown in Slate. Trump has sought and received funding from Russian investors for his business ventures, especially after most American banks stopped lending to him following his multiple bankruptcies. Trumps de facto campaign manager, Paul Manafort, was a longtime consultant to Viktor Yanukovich, the Russian-backed president of Ukraine who was overthrown in 2014. Manafort also has done multimillion-dollar business deals with Russian oligarchs.

Trumps foreign policy advisor Carter Page has his own business ties to the state-controlled Russian oil giant Gazprom. He recently delivered a speech in Moscow slamming the U.S. for its hypocritical focus on ideas such as democratization and praising Russia for a foreign policy supposedly built on noninterference, tolerance and respect. (Try telling that to Ukraine.) Another Trump foreign policy advisor, retired Army Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, flew to Moscow last year to attend a gala banquet celebrating Russia Today, the Kremlins propaganda channel, and was seated at the head table near Putin. Flynn is a regular guest on Russia Today; he refuses to say whether he gets paid.

Given the pro-Putin orientation of Trump and his circle, it is no surprise that his campaign quietly rolled back a call in the GOP platform for arming Ukraine to fight back against Russian aggression, as most Republican foreign-policy experts have advocated. Trump has more than once criticized NATO, the chief obstacle to Russian designs, as obsolete and has said he wouldnt necessarily come to the aid of the North Atlantic Treaty Organizations members if they are attacked by Russia. Trump also cheered Britains vote to exit the European Union, another institution that Putin sees as an impediment to his influence.

Trumps campaign  whose slogan might as well be Make Russia Great Again  presents Putin with a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to reorient American foreign policy in Russias favor. Without the countering influence of the U.S., Putin has a good chance to achieve his dream of undoing the collapse of the Soviet Union, which he has called a geopolitical catastrophe, by reswallowing Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and other former Soviet republics.

Putin may just be getting started in his campaign to elect Trump. Bloomberg reported in June the Clinton Foundation was breached by Russian hackers. The Russians may also have acquired the emails that Hillary Clinton sent as secretary of State. Putin might be holding back explosive material until October, when its release could ensure a Trump victory.

Such a development ought to alarm all Americans, even Republicans. The idea of a hostile foreign power interfering in a U.S. election is a threat to our democracy, one that Republican leaders would be condemning if they hadnt checked their principles at the gate in exchange for tickets on the Trump Train.

***

Max Boot is a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and a contributing writer to the Los Angeles Times opinion section.
Tick, tick, tick.

The GOP-led U.S. Senate is on a summer break. Count the days. For 54 days, from July 14 to Sept. 6, both House and Senate are on the longest summer break since those breaks were first established in the 1960s. What are they doing? Cant be just the presidential conventions  those will both be over by July 28.

These 54 days are dates of shame because of the important things the Congress could be doing but is not getting done. The list is long, so let me comment on the most egregious thing the Senate is not doing  a direct, constitutionally-required function. They are not holding hearings on and acting upon the nomination by President Obama of Merrick Garland for the vacant seat on the U.S. Supreme Court.

Tick, tick, tick to another number of shame: 126.

July 26 was the 126th day since the nomination of Merrick Garland was formally submitted to the Senate. On that day it became the longest unresolved Supreme Court nomination in the 227 years we have functioned under the Constitution  the longest time in U.S. history! Since 1789 the Constitution has read: [the President] shall  nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint Judges of the Supreme Court.

The respective duties of the President and the Senate are clear. The President nominates and appoints and the Senate provides advice and consent. The Senate, by refusing to even consider the nomination, is violating its duty to provide advice and consent. But even beyond that, many of them, including Montanas Republican Sen. Steve Daines, decline to even meet with the nominee. The Senate can say no if it wants, but the refusal to act  the refusal to meet  is a refusal of the GOP members of the Senate to fulfill their constitutional duty.

Maybe these days thats considered just politics. But its really more than that. Each member of the Senate has taken an oath of office. You will recognize the oath, where they each do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States  that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the sameand that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter: So help me God.

In a way, these are sacred duties, which include giving advice and consent (or non-consent) to the presidents nominees to the Supreme Court.

Tick, tick, tick. The Senate has now exceeded the record 125 days it took in 1916 to consent to the nomination of Louis Brandeis by President Woodrow Wilson. Although Wilson was a Democrat and the Senate was democratic, Brandeis, later considered one of the most outstanding justices in U.S. history, was at that time seen as a threat to the establishment. According to Justice William O. Douglas, who later served for the longest time in Supreme Court history, "Brandeis was a militant crusader for social justice whoever his opponent might be. He was dangerous not only because of his brilliance, his arithmetic, his courage. He was dangerous because he was incorruptible ... [and] the fears of the Establishment were greater because Brandeis was the first Jew to be named to the Court."

Tick, tick, tick. How does Merrick Garlands record 126 days (and counting) compare with the confirmation time for all the current court members, plus the late Justice Scalia? They averaged 77 days to confirmation.

So, the tick, tick, tick on Merrick Garland has now become shame, shame, shame. One of those who ought to be ashamed by his refusal to fulfill his constitutional duty and live up to his oath of office is Montanas Sen. Daines. You know, the one who always says he reveres the Constitution. As long as he is gallivanting around during the longest summer break in Senate history, you might ask him about this dereliction of his duty under the Constitution and his oath of office. The glib and evasive answer you will get  the song and dance and the political two-step -- will not change the facts.

Tick, tick, tick. Shame, shame, shame.

***

Evan Barrett of Butte, recently retired from 47 years at the top level of Montana economic development, government, politics and education. He currently writes columns and commentaries and produces Montana history films.
In April 2015, the Flathead Joint Board of Control (FJBC) filed a complaint in Montanas 20th Judicial District disputing the legality of the Montana Legislatures vote passing SB262, the CSKT Water Compact Bill.

The FJBC contended that that since SB262 conferred immunity from lawsuit on the state for monetary damages, court costs, and attorney fees, it required a 2/3rds majority of both houses of the Legislature per Article II Section 18 of the Montana Constitution. Neither house complied.

The issues was heatedly discussed in the House and after assurances from the attorney generals office that all was well, with a simple majority, the 53 members of House violated the state Constitution and passed SB262 53-47.

On Monday, July 18, 2016, Judge Manley ruled that SB262 did indeed confer new immunity on the state and therefore required a 2/3rds majority vote. Thus members of both houses of the Legislature violated the provisions of the state constitution.

This is clearly a victory for the irrigators represented by the FJBC. Further, the compact itself is full of constitutional violations. As the saying goes theres plenty more where that came from! So it is highly likely that more litigation, focused on the states lack of protection for all its citizens and their property rights, looms in the future.

It is my understanding that Judge Manley discussed the issue of severability and ruled that the offending clause could be severed from the compact, leaving the rest of the compact in place. I would expect that the severing action would have to take place in the Legislature since this is a revision to SB262 as originally presented to the lawmakers.

It is interesting to note that during the 2015 legislative deliberations, compact proponents were adamant that no amendments to the SB262 would be allowed. I guess that position will have to change in light of Judge Manleys ruling.

Jerry Laskody, Commissioner, FJBC,

St. Ignatius
BILLINGS  Criminal charges are being considered and federal officials are continuing their investigation Monday of a drone operator who interfered with firefighting aircraft Friday during a wildfire that threatened homes near Billings.

Yellowstone County Sheriffs deputies on Friday evening located the man controlling the unmanned hobby aircraft in the airspace above the fast-moving Fritz Fire.

The drone caused officials to ground firefighting aircraft for the day, which cost firefighters several hours of air support, said Yellowstone County Sheriff Mike Linder.

The sheriff said the drone operator seemed aware he was doing something illegal and a deputy seized the camera-equipped drone as evidence. This may be the first instance of a drone interfering with emergency operations in Yellowstone County, Linder said.

Weve always had concerns of drones potentially being a hazard, especially anyplace we might have manned ops or an emergency crew, Linder said. I think the FAA specifically states that you cannot be flying these things in any space where manned aircraft are being operated.

In addition to criminal prosecution, the man also faces civil fines up to $27,500, said Ian Gregor, public affairs manager for the Federal Aviation Administration.

The FAA has the drone operators name but Gregor didnt know if the drone was registered.

Registration requirements for unmanned aerial vehicles began Dec. 21, 2015. The FAA lists 257 hobby drones registered Yellowstone County and 1,701 in Montana.

Gregor said more than 500,000 drones have been registered nationally since the database started. The operators receive a safety briefing at the time of registration.

But unmanned aerial vehicles continue to cause conflicts with firefighting efforts across the country. The United States Forest Service reported 25 documented incidents of drones flying in or near wildfire operation airspace in California, Colorado, Oregon, Utah and Washington. In 10 of those cases, the encroachment temporarily halted aircraft firefighting operations.

A July 15 California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection news release said 57-year-old Eric Wasser was arrested in Placer County, Calif., for flying a drone over the Trailhead Fire. He delayed air operations on a fire that eventually burned about 5,600 acres.

The release said fire officials in California have seen a uptick in hobby drones around wildfires in the last two years but Wasser was the first operator to be arrested. He was charged with interfering with firefighting operations.
HELENA - A deep water recovery specialist has located the body of the Clancy man who sank while trying to stunt ride a motorcycle across the s
The state will move forward with its Parrot tailings removal plan while the county stalls on deciding where the vehicle and maintenance shops will go.

That could mean  if everything else goes smoothly from here on out  that shovels could be moving dirt on the ball field behind the Civic Center by early October, said Harley Harris, Natural Resource Damage Council program manager.

The shops must be moved because they sit upon the mining-contaminated Parrot tailings.

Butte-Silver Bow Chief Executive Matt Vincent said at a public meeting Monday that the county would not decide immediately on the new location of the shops. Public outcry at last Wednesdays commission meeting halted what appeared to be a hasty process of getting commissioners approval to relocate the shops north of Civic Center Road, across the street from the shops current location.

This seems to have pleased community group Restore Our Creek, which advocates for a meandering Silver Bow Creek from Texas Avenue to George Street, though its unclear where the water might come from. Restore Our Creek spokesperson Northey Tretheway told The Montana Standard that Vincents announcement to hold on the county shops future location was the right decision.

Its allowing the public to have a say in something that will have a long-term impact on Butte-Silver Bow, Tretheway said. Its slowing the process down to think things over a little bit.

The state spent $56,000 to evaluate all of the six original sites in 2014 and in 2015. The current projected location, north of Civic Center Road, was the states preferred spot, but the county desired two other locations instead. One was the Montana Pole Plant, a separate Superfund site south of Silver Bow Creek, and a private parcel on Centennial Avenue. The state pursued both, but neither site panned out.

Now with a wait on deciding the future location of the county shops, an element of uncertainty has been inserted into the project. This could lead to cost overruns and even greater delays on the overall construction, Harris said.

We dont have certainty on the key component of the project. I cant say it wont have risk of cost impacts, Harris said.

The removal and rebuild of the county shops is the biggest expense for the project. Overall, construction and excavation costs have previously been estimated to run between $18 million to $23 million. So far, the state is expected to have about $18.5 million to put toward the work.

The length of construction and excavation time has been estimated to last anywhere from two to four years. With the county shops up in the air, no one can now say how long the project could take.

The state announced late last year it will go it alone and remove the Parrot tailings  smelter waste buried as much as 50 feet deep behind the Butte Civic Center. Some of those tailings are underneath the current county shop location. The state has long argued that the source of the waste needs to be removed to protect the future of nearby Silver Bow Creek. The Environmental Protection Agency and Atlantic Richfield Company, the responsible party, disagree that removal is necessary.

Gov. Steve Bullock announced last year that shovels would be moving dirt by this summer. The at-times contentious pursuit of the future home of the county shops has been the primary reason for the delay.

Before Vincent said the county could take more time choosing a new location for the shops, there had been speculation  even some perceived pressure  that a site be chosen quickly with written approval of the state.

Thats because its an election year and nobody knows whether Bullock will defeat Republican Greg Gianforte on Nov. 8 to win a second term. Like any new president, new governors can stop all kinds of programs, projects or initiatives  even those long in motion  on day one.

The worry among some is that Butte is a Democrat-dominant city and a Republican governor will owe it no favors. Still, Gianforte says he is committed to removing the Parrot tailings.

While past cleanup efforts have helped downstream, it is important that we restore the creek in Butte, said Aaron Flint, Gianfortes communications director. We can do better for Butte and we can do better for Montana. Greg looks forward to continued discussions with folks in Butte working to make this happen.

Evan Barrett, who was the top economic development official for Democrat Brian Schweitzer when he was governor from 2005 to early 2013, said concerns about timing are legitimate.

First, a governor is the trustee of those funds and has full, complete authority over those funds so anything can happen, Barrett said. Number two, talk is cheap. Action means something; were appreciative of the action Gov. Bullock has taken. Hes acted. But its in the best interest of the community to get those tailings moving. Once they get moving, its going to be pretty hard to stop them.

But with the new, uncertain way forward, the state hopes to have shovels moving by October and hopes to have all the money it needs for construction costs. But nothing is crystal clear at this point.

We have finite restoration funding, Harris told The Montana Standard. Money is scarce.
Editor's note: This is the third in a series of stories about local people who are dealing with or have had cancer. The stories run daily through Saturday, when the Relay for Life will be held from noon to midnight at the Butte Plaza Mall.

When Chris Forsman, 81, was diagnosed with colorectal cancer in 2013, it didnt take long for her 55-year career of caring for others as a registered nurse to evolve into an unofficial advocacy for education and cancer screening.

At first, her efforts were directed at her family and friends.

I would encourage people to have a colonoscopy to screen for colorectal cancer, she said.

The main focus of her education campaign was her three adult children, all of whom are in their 50s. Im on them all the time to get screened, she said.

The American Cancer Society (www.cancer.org) reports men and women of average risk for developing colorectal cancer are advised to begin screening for cancer starting at the age of 50. Those with a personal history of cancer or precancerous polyps, inflammatory bowel disease, family history of colorectal cancer or polyps, or with a family history of genetic predisposition to cancer, should begin screening prior to age 50 and increase frequency of screenings based on their physicians recommendations.

Forsman had not taken advantage of cancer screening prior to her diagnosis. She had lost her husband to lung cancer 14 years ago, but her own health was good and, unlike her husband, she had no family history of cancer.

I never really thought it (cancer) would happen, she said.

She knows differently now.

It can happen to anyone, she said.

For Forsman, symptoms began with a few weeks of pain, discomfort and bleeding. According to the ACS (www.cancer.org), signs and symptoms of colorectal cancer include changes in bowel habits, rectal bleeding, abdominal pain and cramping, blood in the stool, weakness and fatigue and unintended weight loss.

When Forsmans symptoms failed to subside, she called her doctor. A colonoscopy and biopsy revealed that she had Stage III cancer.

The colonoscopy wasnt bad, really, she said.

Forsman went on to endure six weeks of radiation therapy to shrink her tumor. Radiation was followed by surgery to remove the tumor. An additional six weeks of radiation therapy, in conjunction with chemotherapy, were required for her treatment.

I got very tired, she recalled.

It was during this time when a friend made a donation to the ACS Relay for Life in her honor. When asked this year, Forsman, who is typically a more private person, agreed to share her cancer story to promote the Relay for Life and the ACS. Her hope is that her story will motivate others to schedule an appointment for colorectal screening and take advantage of the life-saving early detection it affords. Having been diagnosed at 78, she also wanted to encourage others in her age group to open a conversation with their physicians about their own risk of colorectal cancer.

Forsman has a good prognosis and in addition to spreading the word about cancer screening, she fills her life with quality time spent with her three children, eight grandchildren, 12 great-grandchildren, and one great-great grandchild.

I keep busy, she said.
A man was shot and killed by a Phillips County Sheriffs deputy Wednesday morning after stabbing the deputy multiple times.

The deputy was identified as Alan Guderjahn. Guderjahn is being treated in Great Falls and is in stable condition, according to a news release from John Barnes, spokesperson for Montana Department of Justices Division of Criminal Investigation.

The incident occurred after Guderjahn responded to a call of a suspicious man walking along U.S. Highway 191 near mile marker 122. The man pulled a knife on the deputy when he was confronted and stabbed him multiple times, the release said.

The release said Guderjahn shot and killed the man. Guderjahn is receiving treatment for his wounds in Great Falls.

Phillips County Sheriffs Office requested the Montana DCI investigate the incident. Montana Highway Patrol is also assisting with scene management. Drivers traveling on U.S. Highway 191 should expect delays while the scene is processed.

Mark Hebert, of The Phillips County News, told The Gazette southbound traffic on U.S. Highway 191 remains blocked as of 11 a.m. Wednesday. Traffic is rerouted to Junction 383 toward Wagner.

Hebert said via email a prayer vigil will be held for Guderjahn in Malta's Front Street Park at 6 p.m. Wednesday. Sympathy cards, cash and gift cards to support Guderjahn and his family will be accepted at that time.

Dan O'Brien, Phillips County deputy attorney, said to his knowledge the last officer related shooting in Phillips County occurred in 1997. In that case Deputy Brian Robinson responded to a report of a suspicious vehicle near a campground in Landusky. Two suspects shot and injured Robinson. He returned fire, killing both suspects.

O'Brien said Phillips County Sheriff's Office employs seven patrolling officers including Sheriff Scott Moran.
WASHINGTON -- Crucial political decisions often concern which bridges to cross and which to burn. Donald Trump's dilemma is that he burns some bridges by the way he crosses others. His campaign depends on a low-probability event, and on his ability to cause this event without provoking a more-than-equal and opposite reaction.

Extrapolating from recent elections, the turnout of non-college educated whites this November would be expected to be 3 percent smaller as a portion of the total turnout than in 2012, and college educated whites a 1 percent larger portion. The core of Trump's support consists of non-college educated whites, a cohort whose 2012 turnout was 60.4 percent. There is a low probability that Trump can motivate recent non-voters in this cohort to increase the turnout to 67 percent. There is, however, a high probability that the way he stimulates such people -- still more insult oratory and fact-free "policy" expostulations -- will cause other groups to recoil.

For the first time since at least 1952 -- the first election for which ample data is available -- Democrats probably will win a majority of voters with college degrees -- a large and growing group (In 1952, 6.4 percent of Americans had completed college; today, about 33 percent have.) Consider, particularly, women with post-bachelor degrees. This fast-growing group -- the percentages of women in law, medical and business schools' enrollments are 48.7, 46.9 and 36.2, respectively -- is already approximately 65 percent Democratic. Can Trump ignite a spike in the non-college white vote without causing a more-than-commensurate increase in the Democratic propensity of the college-educated?

Speaking of low-probability events, Trump's literary interests were hidden until his vice presidential search took him to Charles Dickens' "David Copperfield," where he found Mike Pence, whose sometimes unctuous affect resembles Uriah Heep's: So very 'umble. The adjective "oleaginous" might have been invented to describe Pence's performance with Trump on "60 Minutes":

Being chosen by Trump is "very, very humbling." Trump is "one of the best negotiators in the world" and will provide "broad-shouldered American strength." Trump -- "this good man" (what would a bad man look like to Pence?) -- "is awed with the American people."

Pence, a broad-spectrum social conservative saddened by our fallen world, can minister to the boastful adulterer and aspiring torturer who Pence thinks belongs in the bully pulpit. Actually, the sole benefit of Trump's election would be in making the presidency's sacerdotal role -- the nation's moral tutor -- terminally ludicrous.

In May, Pence endorsed Ted Cruz but larded his endorsement with lavish praise of Trump, who excuses Pence for buckling "under tremendous pressure from establishment people." In a year of novelties, now this one: A presidential candidate calls his running mate weak.

It will be interesting to see if Pence will defend his defensible opposition, as a congressman, to Medicare Part D, the prescription drug entitlement. When George W. Bush proposed this bit of "compassionate conservatism," House Democrats voted 195-9 against it, deeming it insufficiently compassionate to seniors and excessively compassionate to pharmaceutical companies. Nineteen House Republicans, including Pence, voted against it, largely because this was the first major entitlement enacted without provision for funding. To give the Bush administration time to twist arms and dangle enticements, Republicans held open the floor vote for 2 hours and 51 minutes, twice as long as the previous longest House vote. It passed 216-215.

If pharmacology had been as potent in 1965 as it has become, prescription drugs might then have been included in Medicare. Today, will a pliable Pence amend his convictions and repent his resistance to this now immensely popular entitlement? Trump, Pence's new lodestar, sees nothing amiss with the existing entitlement system and disparages those (remember the man who used to be Chris Christie?) who think trillions of dollars of unfunded liabilities are problematic.

Pence also has strongly favored free trade, including the North American Free Trade Agreement that Trump calls "the worst economic deal in the history of our country." Never mind. In 1980, George H.W. Bush denounced Ronald Reagan's "voodoo economics" until Reagan selected Bush as his running mate, whereupon Bush decided that it was very good voodoo economics. The malleable shall inherit the earth.

As Trump's campaign manager, Paul Manafort, says, Trump "has changed the face of the Republican Party" just as Ronald Reagan did. Indeed. A snarl has replaced the sunny Southern California smile. Trump, himself a brand, has completed the rebranding of the Republican Party.

George Will's email address is georgewill@washpost.com.

(c) 2016, Washington Post Writers Group
Like other Montanans, I enjoy recreating on streams and public lands with my family  its part of what makes Montana the last best place. As a candidate for the Montana Supreme Court, I am frequently asked about my position on access to Montanas waterways. In my opinion, the law is settled. Current law in Montana safeguards the publics right to use surface waters for recreational purposes while protecting the rights of riparian landowners.

Under early Montana law, the publics ability to use surface waters varied depending upon whether a waterway was navigable (capable, in its ordinary condition, for use as a highway for commerce) or non-navigable. Early law allowed the public to navigate, fish, and hunt on navigable waterways, but not on non-navigable waters.

Montanas 1972 Constitution added a provision declaring all waters within Montana as the "property of the state for the use of its people." Relying on this, the Montana Supreme Court in 1984 abandoned the long-standing distinction between navigable and non-navigable streams. It ruled that the public has the right to recreate, hunt, and fish between the high water marks on all waters in Montana that are capable of recreational use  regardless of navigability. But the Court emphasized that the public does not have a right to cross private property to get into the streams.

The 1985 Legislature codified these rights with adoption of the Montana Recreational Use of Streams Act. Recreationists must remain between the high-water marks of a stream and must access the water via recognized public land or existing easements. Landowners may construct fences across waterways to manage property or livestock. The public may portage around fences above the high-water mark in the least intrusive manner possible.

There have been some important developments after the 1985 Act.

 A 1987 court ruling clarified that the publics use of streambeds and banks is not unlimited; it must be of minimal impact and respect the property rights of riparian owners. For example, overnight camping or big-game hunting between the high water marks of a stream passing through private property is not allowed without landowner permission.

 2009 legislation confirmed that public bridges may be used to access surface waters. This legislation recognizes that landowners may fence up to a bridge to manage livestock or property, as long as a gate or other adequate passage is provided for public access to the water. The cost of materials, installation, and maintenance of these public passages is borne by the state.

In summary, current Montana law clearly recognizes the right of the public to use natural waterways that are capable of recreation. To protect landowners, the law requires the public to remain within the high-water marks of the waterway, unless an artificial barrier requires a portage above the high-water mark.

The law is a good balance between landowners ability to protect their property and the publics right to use the waters by requiring recreationists to access a stream through public access sites, which include public bridge rights-of-way. Private landowners statewide work in concert with Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks to lease public access sites at locations that are best suited to meet the publics needs.

Under Montana trespass law, a trespass is not criminal unless the landowner has posted no-trespassing signs or has marked the property with fluorescent orange paint. To seek the help of law enforcement authorities in preventing trespasses, a landowner should comply with these notice requirements. Even if a property is not posted, a landowner has the right to demand anyone trespassers found on the property to leave.

It is the responsibility of the judicial system to fairly, consistently, and impartially apply these settled laws to specific cases and facts. The courts will likely be called upon to determine whether a particular bridge is public or private, the width of bridge right-of-ways, and the location of the high-water marks on a stream. The courts do not have the authority to make changes to existing law  that authority is reserved to the Legislature under the Montana Constitution. So dont be fooled by those who are yelling wolf that the publics right to use waterways for recreation is somehow in jeopardy -- thats a distraction from the real issues surrounding the upcoming elections for the Montana Supreme Court.

-- Kristen Gustafson Juras of Great Falls is a candidate for the Montana Supreme Court. She has practiced law for 34 years and has taught for 16 years at the University of Montana School of Law, including stream access and property law. Juras uncle, Jack Galt, was one of the landowners involved in the 1987 case referred to above.
COLUMBUS JUNCTION, IowaSquawks, squeals, and smiles could be heard and seen in a small show ring in Columbus Junction Tuesday.

The chicken scramble, bunny scramble, coin dash, and mutton bustin' kept kids at the Louisa County Fair busy.

First, children up to three-years-old raced to the center of the arena to collect coins from a pile of hay, although several needed some assistance from their moms to reach the center.

After the coin dash, four to six-year-olds competed in the bunny scramble, where each child who caught a bunny in the arena was able to take it home, much to the consternation of some of the parents.

The chicken scramble was similar, as seven to ten-year-old children raced to catch small chickens to take home.

Mutton bustin', where children ages three to seven tried their best to hold on to the back of a sheep, was one of the favorite events. One sheep was placed across the arena from the group, to encourage the rest to run, and children held on to their fleece for as long as possible.

Seven-year-old Max Hernandez and his five-year-old sister Olivia said they were looking forward to the ride. Their older sister, nine-year-old Serafina, said they had some practice.

"Olivia rode on Mom's back and Mom tried to buck her off," Serafina laughed.

"That's why I'm not nervous," Olivia said.

While most of the times were two and three seconds, several children held on for close to eight seconds. Six-year-old Kalley Deese held on for six seconds, and said she rode for the fifth time.

The secret, she said, was holding on tight, and enjoying the experience.

"My favorite part is when it goes fast," she said.

Four-year-old Clay Clark said most of his experience was fun, but not all.

"Not when it bucked me off," he said.

Although some scrapes and bruises could be seen, most just seemed to want a second chance.

For more information about the fair or to see a schedule, visit www.louisacountyfair.com.
COLUMBUS JUNCTION, Iowa Laura Mincks was named Louisa County 4H and FFA Queen Tuesday evening and wore both her sashes and her crown with pride.

Mincks, 18, recently graduated from Columbus Community High School in Columbus Junction, and said she plans to study agricultural communications at Iowa State University in the fall.

"I want to become a public relations consultant for an agricultural company," she said.

Mincks said she used to show sheep, but couldn't this year because she had knee surgery, and she shows broiler chickens.

"I'm really involved in a lot of activities," she said.

She said hearing her name called as the queen Monday night was a great feeling.

"I'm still kind of in awe I guess, last night at the crowning it was an amazing experience," she said.

Mincks said the evening felt "surreal," but she is looking forward to going to the state fair.

"I'm honored to represent our county and compete at the Iowa State Fair," she said.

But one of her favorite parts about being Queen, she said, was talking to people. As she stood near the show ring where many children were gathering for the Tuesday evening activities, several of them had to stop and tell their queen how the day was going.

"It's exciting to be able to walk around the fair all day and be able to talk to all the little kids, and everyone's very friendly and supportive," Mincks said.

Eight-year-old Kaelyn Townsley is the Louisa County Fair Princess. A member of Clover Kids, Townsley said she is looking forward to participating in 4H.
MUSCATINE, Iowa  David Cooney of Muscatine is planting a tree on Saturday, July 30 to honor cities that have hosted the Register's Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa (RAGBRAI).

Cooney has planted nearly 100 trees in RAGBRAI communities over the years. Saturday's event will start at 2 p.m. at the Muscatine Arboretum. The public is welcome to attend.
If there were any doubt left that Donald Trump is a narcissistic, demonizing spinner of half-truths and outright lies, the case has been rested.

Closing arguments came in stunning performance by the 2016 GOP presidential candidate himself, live and televised. The Republican Party's choice for the next occupant of the White House intends to seize upon people's fears and transform the nation into an isolationist country, inwardly focused and always on the lookout for scapegoats. Trump fancies himself as some sort of dictatorial leader at the helm.

"I am your voice," he declared, addressing the "forgotten men and women" of America. Then he proceeded to tell them who they can blame for their woes: immigrants, foreign countries and, of course, Hillary Clinton.

Thursday night's address to the Republican National Convention was the most scripted, controlled, practiced and vetted speech from Trump so far. And it dug deeply into a philosophy that is antagonistic to the values our nation was founded upon. Trump showed a disturbing lack of insight and respect for the ideals that are carved in stone at the nation's landmarks and ingrained into our laws and constitution.

The creepiest part of Trump's speech was watching him seemingly struggle to read his own children's names off of the teleprompter. It wasn't that he doesn't love his family, or is forgetful. Rather, Trump was on lockdown.

He didn't dare stray too far from the prepared remarks, which were leaked ahead of time to media. Trump rogue wasn't going to be allowed at the convention closing. No matter. What he delivered was the truth of how he sees America and how he believes himself to be the superhero that will rectify the nation's woes.

Zap! Flash! Bam! After his coronation on January 20, 2017, violent neighborhoods will suddenly begin to be safe, millions will be employed and prosperous, crime will plummet, gangs will be no more and terrorism will be obliterated. Oh, and those awful undocumented immigrants, they will be sent packing, and Trump will slam the door in the face of anyone he deems to endorse violence, hatred or oppression.

Sometimes, the more a person talks about an issue, the more apparent it becomes how little he understands it -- or, in this case, how little he understands the people he claims to care about. For example, Trump listed some statistics on black and Latino unemployment and then blamed illegal immigration for the disproportions.

He mentioned the shooting deaths of 49 people at a gay club in Orlando, vowing to protect the LGBTQ community from terrorism and violence. But he made no mention of the problem they face daily -- namely, the type of discrimination that so many Republicans show when fighting same-sex marriage and other civil rights protections.

For Trump, unity is a matter of finding a scapegoat, some person or group we can all hate together. That makes it so much easier to avoid the messy complexities and moral ambiguities that inform actual policy making.

Yet leadership is about good policy. Any candidate can condemn the recent murders of police. It's something we all concur with. But what are you going to do about police training and oversight? How are you going to rebuild broken trust with communities? What are you going to do about entrenched poverty, addiction, child abuse, domestic violence and the myriad other factors that feed crime and despair? How are you going to reassure African-Americans and Latinos and poorer people of all races that they will be treated with the same consideration and justice as white people?

Trump doesn't say  a good indication he doesn't care.

To him, our nation's problems don't need collective solutions. Unity, solidarity and common burden aren't necessary. All we need is a strong leader. We're going to be so dazzled by the way he humiliates and punishes our enemies, he seems to tell us, that we don't need to worry about the details. "Believe me!"

Now it's onto the Democratic convention in Philadelphia and Hillary Clinton's moment to formally accept her party's nomination.

Clinton, for sure, has her own problems with authenticity and appeal. But she's never been possessed with a penchant to cast herself as a savior. And she's not standing atop a party platform that seeks to sort the nation into those who are inherently more worthy and those who are not. Maybe voters will decide that that makes Clinton too much of the same-old, same-old.

But that is also the point. America's problems are possible to tackle. Democracy is set up to function that way. If we want a better future, Americans must commit to honesty and diligence and common cause -- not to the strongman fantasy Trump is selling.

Mary Sanchez is an opinion-page columnist for The Kansas City Star. Readers may write to her at: Kansas City Star, 1729 Grand Blvd., Kansas City, Mo. 64108-1413, or via e-mail at msanchez@kcstar.com.
The horrifying thing about Trumps recent remarks about Saddam Hussein is not that he expressed admiration for the late Iraqi dictator  in fact Trump called him a bad guy three times. What is horrifying is that Trump seemed envious that Saddam could kill terrorists without due process  the most important element of which is the presumption of innocence, which places the burden of proof of guilt squarely on the governments shoulders. He killed terrorists Trump said of Saddam. He did that so good. They didnt read them the rights. They didnt talk. (Emphasis added.)

This should concern any Trump fans who believe that criminal suspects should be protected against the state. Trump was clearly signalling that he wants the government (which of course he aspires to run) to have the power to kill people suspected of planning or having committed politically motivated violence against noncombatants. Lets be clear: Trump wasnt endorsing capital punishment for convicted terrorists. (I ignore here the objections to state executions.) He was praising the killing of suspected terrorists without charge or trial in which the prosecution has the burden of proof. Dictators always find due process an obstacle to efficient and decisive action against threats real and imagined. But Americans supposedly believe that the rights of the accused are more important than the states convenience.

The securing of due process was the result of a nearly thousand-year struggle against western tyrants. It is certainly true that due process has been badly eroded, especially since 9/11. But this is the first time I can recall a presidential candidate celebrating a dictators freedom from due-process constraints at a campaign rally. This certainly distinguishes Trump from his predecessors and opponents. That the throng, wearing their Make America Great Again caps, responded enthusiastically is ominous indeed.

Trumps remarks are consistent with his earlier expressions of admiration for the strength of despots such as North Koreas Kim Jung Un and the Chinese rulers who slaughtered pro-democracy protesters in Tiananmen Square. The remarks also flesh out his promise to use water-boarding and more against terrorism suspects and his belief that the families of suspects should also be killed.

Throughout his campaign Trump has shown impatience with procedures that brake government activity. He often bashes politicians who are all talk and no action. So his envy of dictators should surprise no one.

Sheldon Richman writes for the Center for a Stateless Society.
Les blattes ou cafards (Blatta orientalis) sont des insectes qui appartiennent a la famille des Blattoptera. Ils se caracterisent par leur forme allongee, leurs ailes []
The City of Johannesburg and Microsoft South Africa have joined forces to train one million disadvantaged residents, free, on digital skills and literacy over a period of five-years.

The Citys Mayor Parks Tau announced this on Tuesday, in Johannesburg, saying registration commences early in August and the curriculum is expected to begin in September. The initiative is termed JoziMS1million.

He said 800 000 of the one million to benefit from the programme will be youth between 18 and 34 years of age, and the rest will be those above 35 but still need to access the job market at entry level.

The curriculum will cover five key topics including Computer Skills; The Internet, Cloud Services and the World Wide Web; Productivity Programmes (Microsoft Office); Computer Security and Privacy, and Digital Lifestyles.

Mayor Tau said the partnership was motivated by the realisation that youth would need digital skills to break barriers to entry into the job market.

He said this is a result of continuous engagements that the city has been conducting with various private sector companies.

The Mayor said reports show that by 2012, 50% of the already existing jobs required basic digital skills, and this trend is expected to increase to 77% by 2022.

He said the programme will be using the Vulindlele Jozi portal to register the 800 000 youth. For those above 35, the Mayor said she will go to the centres provided by the city for registrations.

We are breaking down barriers for the people of Johannesburg to get these jobs that will be available in the market that require skills.

The investments on the overall project come from the City of Johannesburg and Microsoft, the participants are not required to pay a fee. This is very important for those people who cannot afford to pay fees to acquire skills, said Mayor Tau.

Microsoft has invested about R200 million in the programme, and the companys Managing Director Zoaib Hoosen told SAnews that the initiative is a product of an engagement that the city had with Microsoft in the last three months, to see what is it that they can merge for the benefit of residents and to grow the economy.

He said without the partnership, both the City and Microsoft would not be able implement this programme and achieve the outcomes.

As the world continues to evolve more digitally, Hoosen says many companies are moving towards the digital environment and it will soon become a basic requirement for job seekers to have basic digital skills when applying for jobs. This is the case for entrepreneurs as well.

Certainly, the physical world and the digital world are coming together, and I think it is a very important channel to market. Everyone in business has to make sure that it [their product] resonates with the customers and audiences you are trying to reach. It is a platform that one cannot ignore, he said.

He said, in his observation, youth who use digital technology for business purposes are making huge amounts of profits, and successful businesses are investing in their products.

Young people around ages of 19 and 20 are starting businesses on the basis of digital platforms new industries are going to be formed, new jobs are going to come about, said Hoosen.

He said for more youth to be able to exploit the digital revolution, they have to acquire skills.

The announcement ceremony was graced by Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa, who said he will be an evangelist across the country preaching the works of the City of Johannesburg and encouraging other cities to be innovative in changing the lives of their residents.

Smart cities, smart towns, need to go beyond just provision of services to their citizens. They now need to move into improving the economic life of the city, and by so doing having a positive impact on the lives of the people who live in the city, said the Deputy President.

Applauding the city, Deputy President Ramaphosa said: This is truly economic democracy at work and opening the corridors of freedom of the city of Johannesburg. I have seen how many of these initiatives are living up to this dream, to this concept of economic democracy. What I saw today is how Johannesburg is unblocking the entrepreneurial capabilities and the spirit of the people of Johannesburg through provision of skills.

He said Johannesburg is the city where people can come and have their dreams fulfilled. He said he was glad that the city was giving people the tools to work on achieving their dreams.

I have categorised Johannesburg as a smart city, an intelligent city that is run by people who have a vision who also want to take the place and its people to places. This is the city on the move, the city that is going somewhere, he said.

SANews

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The Payments Association of South Africa (PASA) recently announced that the country is the first in the world to develop a national biometric standard for card payments.

Developed in partnership with MasterCard and Visa, the standard aims to give banks and merchants an interoperable biometric authentication framework.

While the standard enables a variety of biometrics such as fingerprint, palm, voice, iris, and facial verification, PASAs focus for the launch was fingerprint identification.

Fingerprint replaces PIN

PASA said the system is designed to replace PIN codes, as it believes biometrics represent a more secure form of authentication.

Because biometrics are secure, it said, it decided not to require both fingerprint and PIN authentication for card payments.

This is to keep the payment process quick and user-friendly.

You will probably need a new card

If your bank adopts fingerprint ID, PASA said you will probably need a new card with a new chip.

PASA said it will be possible to use new chips in old PIN-only card readers, but it may not be possible to use old chips to store biometric data.

Users biometric data will be encoded, encrypted, and stored on the new chip.

Liveness detection

To guard against criminals stealing your fingerprint, or cutting off your finger, PASA said it will require liveness detection on readers used in South Africa.

PASA said that although its standard does not specify minimum requirements for readers, minimum terminal specifications for every market will cover this.

These minimum terminal specifications still have to be defined for South Africa, but PASA said they will not impact the interoperability of the standard.

Fallback to PIN and signature

Should your fingerprint not work, your bank or other issuer will be able to allow your card to fall back to PIN.

As with chip-and-PIN cards, if the chip or reader is damaged and your PIN cant be verified, the bank may allow you to fall back to signature authentication.

Going global

PASA said its aspiration is for the standard it developed for South Africa to go global.

If banks, financial institutions, and those who process payments wish to adopt a fingerprint standard, they can do so on a PASA-approved platform.

More banking security news

South African fingerprint standard for card payments launched

SMS to be banned as two-factor authentication system in the US

Absa to launch world-first banking for Facebook Messenger

How your chip-and-PIN bank card gets skimmed and your money stolen

South African criminal reveals how they steal your bank card at an ATM
People wait outside the university clinic in Steglitz, a southwestern district of Berlin, July 26, 2016 after a doctor had been shot at and the gunman had killed himself. [Photo/Agencies]

BERLIN - A patient shot a doctor in a university clinic in Berlin on Tuesday before killing himself, but there were "no signs at all" of a link with Islamist militancy, police in the German capital said.

Germany is on edge because of a spate of violent attacks on civilians by men of Middle Eastern or Asian origin since July 18 that have killed 10 people. Islamic State militants claimed responsibility for two of those four attacks before Tuesday.

Berlin police said the doctor had sustained life-threatening injuries in the attack at the Benjamin Franklin campus of the Charite university hospital in the southwest of the city and died shortly afterwards.

They added that the situation at the hospital in Berlin's Steglitz district was now "under control" and investigators were on the scene to determine the background to the crime.

"There is currently no danger," police said on Twitter.

Winfrid Wenzel, a spokesman for Berlin police, said the crime took place in the jaw surgery area of an outpatient clinic where the doctor was in a treatment session with the patient.

"In the course of the consultation, the patient pulled out a gun and fired several shots at the doctor. The attacker then directly turned the gun on himself and died as a result of the shots," Wenzel told Reuters TV.

He said police did not yet have information on the suspect's background, history, personal details or motivation, but added: "We do not have a single indication that this crime was motivated by extremism or Islamists."
PARIS  More horrifying details emerged Wednesday about an attack on a French village church even as the countrys main religious leaders sent a message of unity and solidarity after meeting with President Francois Hollande in Paris.

Two attackers took five hostages Tuesday at the church in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray in northwest France and slit the throat of the elderly priest saying morning Mass. One of three nuns at the Mass slipped out to raise the alarm and both attackers, one of them a local man, were then killed by police outside the church.

Emotions in France are still raw after the July 14 Bastille Day attack in Nice that killed 84 people  and only became more frazzled Tuesday when the church in Normandy was attacked. With the attack threat for the country ranked extremely high, France is working to protect 56 remaining summer events and may consider cancelling some, Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said Wednesday.

An 86-year-old woman who was one of the church hostages said the attackers had handed her husband Guy a cellphone and demanded that he take photos or video of the priest  85-year-old Rev. Jacques Hamel  after he was slain. Her husband was then slashed in four places by the attackers and is now hospitalized with serious injuries.
SAINT-ETIENNE-DU-ROUVRAY, France  The Islamic State group crossed a new threshold Tuesday in its war against the West, as two of its followers targeted a church in Normandy, slitting the throat of an elderly priest celebrating Mass and using hostages as human shields before being shot by police.

It was the extremist groups first attack against a church in the West, and fulfills longstanding threats against crusaders in what the militants paint as a centuries-old battle for power. One of the attackers, who grew up in the town, had tried twice to leave for Syria; the second was not identified.

To attack a church, to kill a priest, is to profane the republic, French President Francois Hollande told the nation after speaking with Pope Francis, who condemned the killing in the strongest terms.

The Rev. Jacques Hamel was celebrating Mass for three nuns and two parishioners on a quiet summer morning in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray before the attack.
BLANTYRE, Malawi  Malawi police on Tuesday arrested a man who said he was hired by families to have sex with more than 100 young women, including children, in what was described as ritual cleansing.

President Peter Mutharika ordered the arrest of Eric Aniva, who told local and international media he had been paid to have sex with young girls. Aniva also told the media he was HIV-positive.

Aniva was charged with multiple cases of defilement, Malawi Police Inspector General Lexten Kachama told The Associated Press.

"Out of the many women he had sex with, most of them were under-aged children," Kachama said.

In interviews, Aniva claimed to be a paid sex worker, known as a "hyena," hired by families and village elders in southern Malawi to have sex with young girls once they reach puberty as a form of ritual cleansing.

In a statement, Malawi's president said it is unacceptable to commit such violations under the guise of culture.

Mutharika said that since the accused said he does not use protection in "his evil acts," he should be investigated for exposing young girls to HIV and "further be charged accordingly."

The president also ordered police to investigate all men and parents involved in what he called "this shocking malpractice."

A Malawi human rights lawyer, Chrispine Sibande, commended the president for the gesture but said arresting Aniva is not enough.

"The practice is very rampant in some of parts of the country," Sibande said, urging a broader effort to end it.
BERLIN  A 27-year-old Syrian asylum seeker who blew himself up at a bar in the southern German town of Ansbach was chatting online with a still-unidentified person immediately before the explosion, Bavarias interior minister said Wednesday.

Attacker Mohammed Daleel died and 15 people were wounded when his bomb exploded in a wine bar Sunday night after he was denied entry to a nearby open-air concert because he didnt have a ticket.

There was apparently an immediate contact with someone who had a significant influence on this attack, state Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann said on the sidelines of a party meeting in southern Bavaria, news agency dpa reported.

It wasnt clear whether Daleel was in contact with the Islamic State group or where the other person in the chat was, Herrmann said. He said investigators checking the assailants cellphone came across the intensive chat and that the chat appears to end immediately before the attack.

Because of witness testimony on what happened and also the course of the chat, there are indeed questions about whether he intended to set off the bomb at that moment, Herrmann said.

On Tuesday night, the online magazine of the Islamic State group said the attacker spent months planning the attack, once even hiding his home-made bomb in his room in a state-supported asylum shelter moments before a police raid.

The weekly Al-Nabaa magazines report added that Daleel had fought in Iraq and Syria with a branch of al-Qaida and the ISIS group before arriving in Germany as an asylum seeker two years ago.

Herrmann said a roll of 50-euro ($55) notes was found on the attacker. Its unclear where the money came from  but it is unlikely that it could have been paid for solely from what an asylum-seeker in Germany gets in the way of pocket money. He didnt specify how much cash was found in total.
ATLANTA  The Democratic National Convention speaker's lineup has highlighted an increasingly diverse country that could soon elect the first female president to succeed its first black chief executive.

Yet the stream of women, African-Americans, Latinos, gay Americans  from U.S. senators and celebrities to activists, rank-and-file citizens and, Thursday, Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton herself  also serves as a tacit reminder of Democrats' struggles to connect with a majority of heterosexual white men.

"It's just sad," says Dave "Mudcat" Saunders, a Democratic strategist turned Donald Trump supporter who says his party "has abandoned" culturally conservative white men like himself.

It's a long-developing gap that bolsters Republican control of Congress and most statehouses. It could play into the hands of Republican Trump, whose path to the White House depends on whites drawn to his blistering critiques of elitism and "political correctness" in the America of Clinton and Barack Obama.

White men still make up about a third of the typical presidential electorate, and will be crucial to Trump's fortunes in Rust Belt states that have seen a declining middle class. They also could tip the balance in battlegrounds like Virginia and Florida, states Obama won twice.

Saunders says both parties are "playing wedge and identity politics" on guns, gay rights and other issues.

Republicans emphasized "law and order" at their convention in Cleveland, while Democrats on Tuesday welcomed "Mothers of the Movement," black moms whose sons died at the hands of police. Republicans welcomed National Rifle Association leaders; Democrats are featuring families of gun violence victims.

Democratic pollster Mark Mellman described "a cultural gap" that leaves both parties playing to their advantages. But Saunders says Trump has tapped into a "legitimate" frustration acute among small-town and rural white men whose fathers and grandfathers once helped elect Democrats.

"They see no opportunity, no hope," continued Saunders, who advised John Edwards' presidential campaigns and Jim Webb's brief bid this year. "Then they see Democrats up there talking about diversity and trends and what we'll be like in 40 years. This country needs help now, and they know it."

Democrats insist they understand the sentiment.

Former President Bill Clinton, speaking Tuesday on his wife's behalf, told of campaigning this year in West Virginia  a now heavily Republican state that Clinton won twice in the 1990s  in front of coal miners who blame job losses on Democrats' energy and environmental policies.

"Hillary sent me to tell you that if you really think you can get the economy back you had 50 years ago ... vote for whoever you want to," the former president recalled telling miners. "But if she wins, she is coming back for you to take you along on the ride to America's future."

The white Pittsburgh police chief, Cameron McLay, told Democratic delegates Tuesday that police and the communities they serve can work together. The top organized labor leader, Richard Trumka, who is white, made the traditional appeal that Democrats are the party of workers.

Clinton's running mate, Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine, will speak Wednesday, and aides note he is well-regarded across his state, including in some rural, Republican pockets. Kaine speaks effusively of his family and Catholic faith.

Robby Mook, Clinton's campaign manager, said at a convention lunch sponsored by the Wall Street Journal that Clinton will address working-class issues in her speech.

In 2012, exit polls conducted for the Associated Press and television networks showed Republican Mitt Romney won 62 percent of white men to Obama's 35 percent. Measured another way, white men made up slightly less than a quarter of Obama's national popular vote, while they accounted for about 44 percent of Romney's vote.

Many current polls suggest a more pronounced gap this year, and those trends are evident on the ground.

In St. Clairsville, Ohio, not far from where both Clintons campaigned this spring, barber shop owner Kent Jenewein estimated that "more than 90 percent" of his clients, nearly all white men, back Trump  in a county Obama won in 2008. Asked about Clinton, Jenewein said, "She doesn't understand us."

Mellman, the pollster, predicts Democrats can make "marginal gains" among non-urban whites, including men, in the same way that Republicans are seeking marginal upticks in support from African-Americans and Latinos. Trump could also drive up his support among white men only to see Clinton buoyed with better support than Obama had from white Republican women who dislike Trump.

Clinton insisted during the primaries that she won't overlook white men. "Let's be honest," she said in her own Appalachia campaign stop. "Some (of you) find it hard to think about voting for any Democrats. ... But I'm going to keep trying to convince people otherwise."
WASHINGTON  Donald Trump encouraged Russia on Wednesday to find and make public missing emails deleted by his presidential opponent, Hillary Clinton, setting off an instant debate over hacking and his urging of a foreign government to meddle in American politics.

Shortly after Trumps extraordinary remarks, his Republican running mate, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, took a different tack and warned of serious consequences if Russia interfered in the election.

Democrats  and some Republicans  quickly condemned the remarks by the Republican presidential standard-bearer.

They came as the Democrats met on the third day of their national convention in Philadelphia, where Clinton will accept the presidential nomination Thursday night to face Republican Trump in November.

Trumps comments raised the question of whether he was condoning foreign government hacking of U.S. computers and the public release of information stolen from political adversaries  actions that are at least publicly frowned upon across the globe. His brief remarks managed to divert attention from an embarrassing leak of other hacked emails that exposed sensitive internal political communications that had divided Democrats.

Russia, if youre listening, I hope youre able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing, Trump said. He was referring to emails on Clintons private server that she said she deleted  because they were private  before turning other messages over to the State Department. The Justice Department declined to prosecute Clinton over her email practices, but FBI Director James Comey called her extremely careless in handling classified information as President Barack Obamas secretary of state.

The Clinton campaign called Trumps statement the first time that a major presidential candidate has actively encouraged a foreign power to conduct espionage against a political opponent.

At a news conference in Doral, Florida, after Trumps initial remarks, he was asked whether he had any qualms about asking a foreign government to hack into computers in the United States. Trump did not directly respond except to say, Thats up to the president. Let the president talk to them.

He later added: If Russia or China or any other country has those emails, I mean, to be honest with you, Id love to see them.

Trumps invitation was immediately contradicted by his running mate. Pence condemned any possible cyberespionage, breaking from Trump for the first time since being selected to run with him.

If it is Russia and they are interfering in our elections, I can assure you both parties and the United States government will ensure there are serious consequences, Pence said in a statement.

Brendan Buck, a spokesman for Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan said bluntly: Russia is a global menace led by a devious thug. Putin should stay out of this election.

A Trump campaign communications adviser, Jason Miller, sought to clarify Trumps statements, saying on Twitter that Trump never urged or invited Russia to hack Clintons emails. Instead, he said, Trump was clearly saying that if Russia or anyone else already had Clintons deleted emails they should share them with the FBI.

Trump never mentioned the FBI in his comments.

It was not immediately clear where or how Clintons deleted emails might be recovered, unless an adversary had previously hacked the computer server she operated in the basement of her home in Chappaqua, New York, before she had deleted the messages.

The Associated Press, which discovered the basement servers existence in March 2015, previously reported that it was connected to the internet in ways that made it more vulnerable to hackers. The FBI concluded it was possible hackers broke into her server but found no direct evidence.

Wednesdays exchange occurred hours after Obama identified Russia as almost certainly responsible for hacking the Democratic National Committee in a different case. WikiLeaks published on its website last week more than 19,000 internal emails stolen from the DNC earlier this year. The emails showed DNC staffers supporting Clinton when they were publicly promising to remain neutral during the primary elections between Sen. Bernie Sanders and her.

The head of the DNC, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, resigned over the disclosures.

Trump cast doubt on whether Russia was behind that hack. He said blaming Russia was deflecting attention from the embarrassing material in the emails.

Russia has no respect for our country, if it is Russia, Trump said. It could be China. It could be someone sitting in his bedroom. Its probably not Russia. Nobody knows if its Russia.

Obama traditionally avoids commenting on active FBI investigations, but he told NBC News on Tuesday that outside experts have blamed Russia for the leak. Obama also appeared to embrace the notion that President Vladimir Putin might have been responsible because of what he described as Trumps affinity for Putin. Trump said he has no relationship with Putin.

In Moscow on Wednesday, Putins spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said Russia would never interfere in another countrys election.

What the motives were in terms of the leaks, all that, I cant say directly, Obama said. What I do know is that Donald Trump has repeatedly expressed admiration for Vladimir Putin.

Obama said he was basing his assessment on Trumps own comments and the fact that Trump has gotten pretty favorable coverage back in Russia. He added that the U.S. knows that Russians hack our systems  not just government systems, but private systems.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said Tuesday on CNN that a lot more material was coming.

Trumps comments were not the first time he urged hackers to release information to damage a political opponent.

He tweeted in September 2014 about one of his favorite topics Obamas birthplace.

Attention all hackers: You are hacking everything else so please hack Obamas college records (destroyed?) and check place of birth, Trump wrote.
There is no mistaking a chardonnay for a gewurztraminer, a torrontes, or a muscat. The perfumed fruits of the latter three wines surround you before you even get your nose in the glass. These, as well as riesling, sauvignon blanc and countless others, are aromatic grape varieties; or what can be called your Type A grapes. Their natural fruit and floral aromas grab your attention.

While chardonnay is no wallflower, it is more of a Type B; a non-aromatic grape. Not that it is neutral  the best are far from it. Chardonnay will give you something when prodded, and it will shine when the winemaker goes the extra mile.

The chardonnay grape naturally provides green plums, green apple and citrus when grown in cooler climates. With a little warmth, youll coax out stone fruits and riper citrus flavors. Give it an extra shot of warmth and tropical fruits will flourish. Sometimes there will be an underlying mineral or stony characteristic. But it is the winemaking that can define a chardonnay wine the most. The grape marries well with oak-influenced flavors from barrel fermentation or aging; and it can also take on creamy, buttery flavors when allowed to go through malolactic fermentation (which happens right after alcohol fermentation.) Stir the wine on its lees, and the winemaker adds richness to the wines texture.

At its recent tasting of current chardonnay vintages (2013, 2014 and 2015), the St. Helena Star and Napa Valley Vintners Tasting Panel reviewed 25 wines and determined that local winemakers are going that extra mile, crafting wines with great complexity and texture.

The wines display really good winemaking, stated Brett deLeuze of ZD Wines. Across the board, they are really well made; well balanced. Stylistic choices were made [regarding oak use, malolactic fermentation, etc.], but they are all good.

Matt Reid, winemaker at Benessere Vineyards, commented, The oak is restrained; the fruit shines through.

Tom Rinaldi, a longtime winemaker in the valley agreed, noting, The oak is turned down. The wines are not as over the top as they used to be. The same goes for the residual sugar. The wines are more food-friendly.

Many of the wines are high in citrus notes, beautiful floral, even jasmine. They are not just residual sugar and oak bombs any more, added Ashley Broshius of Arkenstone Vineyards.

Napa Valley chardonnays have not always been known for their restraint. Often, the grapes natural aromas and flavors were lost in a sea of oak and butter. Rombauers wine gained particular attention during the tasting. Long known as the epitome of the highly oaked and buttery style of chardonnay, panelists noted Rombauers balance and restraint.

When it came to prices, they did not necessarily reflect panelists favorites. While the most expensive wine, a special commemorative chardonnay from Grgich, won first place in its flight, there were also winners in the $20 and $30 range.

Panelists top chardonnay wines are:

Grgich Hills Estate 2013 Paris Tasting Commemorative ($93)

There was lots of talk about what Mike Grgich would drink to celebrate his 90th birthday. We think this is the wine for his 100th. Wild yeast, 18 months in French oak, no malolactic fermentation, and the use of grapes from the best vineyard lots all define the final style of this wine, but it is the special, illustrated label that screams celebration.

OShaughnessy Estate Winery 2014 ($50)

This chardonnay was aged on its lees for 10 months, adding a richness to the wine while also keeping it fresh and lively. Aging was divided among oak and neutral vessels: 32 percent percent new French oak; 42 percent neutral barrels (barrels used several times previously so no oak flavors are imparted on the wine); and 26 percent in stainless steel. Grab a glass of this wine and scroll through the websites About section for a great read. (Youll feel like you know the crew).

Clos Pegase 2014 Mitsukos Vineyard Los Carneros ($30)

Winemaker Richard Sowalsky came to Clos Pegase with a diverse educational background including enology, medicine, and the culinary arts. (That likely makes for one healthy and well-fed family at home). This 2014 chardonnay has a refreshing lift of acidity with its lemon citrus, peach and fresh herb flavors.

Pine Ridge Vineyard 2014 Dijon Clones Los Carneros ($38)

Chardonnay is one grape that particularly benefited from the use of clones (exact copies of a vine that shows outstanding qualities). Growers in the valley used to eschew chardonnay as a stingy producer that cowered to disease easily. Once higher-yielding, virus-tested clones were used, chardonnays fortunes turned for the better. Dijon clones (a number of different clones coming from the French region of Dijon) are particularly celebrated for use in fine wines. Pine Ridges Dijon Clones Chardonnay has a rich, lemon zestiness to it.

Also winning favor in second place in each of their flights, were these Napa Valley chardonnays:

Andersons Conn Valley Vineyards 2013 Chardonnay ($50)

Todd Anderson was all about the dirt and rocks even before he jumped into the wine business. The problem with his previous career in geology was that he didnt actually get to touch the stuff. Todd and his team deftly marry fresh oak-influenced aromas and flavors with stone fruit, lemon citrus and an intriguing note of lemon curd.

JAX Vineyards 2014 JAX Y3 Chardonnay ($20)

The terms urban and fun come to mind when thinking about JAX, which has a chic tasting room in San Francisco. It looks like some pretty good parties go on there, but the family has vineyards in Calistoga. Winemaker Kirk Venge is the one to cheer for the wines richly textured body and juicy stone fruit flavors.

Frank Family Vineyards 2014 Carneros ($35)

Robert Parker has been giving lots of love to Frank Family wines lately. Whether that excites you or not, this chardonnay by longtime winemaker Todd Graff has generous sweet oak notes with pronounced lemon zest and sun-ripened peaches. The palate is rich and soft; a chardonnay for those who want a fully flavored and powerful chardonnay from Napa Valley.

Baldacci Family Vineyards 2014 Sorelle Los Carneros ($38)

Hired to build a stone wall at Stags Leap Wine Cellars, Rolando Herreras personality and talents caught the eye of proprietor, Warren Winiarski. Rolando would later be selected to work in the cellar, and then on to Cellar Master at the celebrated winery. Today, he is winemaker at Baldacci, making top wines such as this lemon and peach fruited, sweet vanilla and herb infused chardonnay.

Catherine Bugue, the Stars tasting panel columnist, loves writing about  and drinking  wine. You can contact Catherine at catbugue@gmail.com. Only wines from Napa Valley Vintner member wineries are accepted and tasted. Many wineries offer local residents discounts on their wines through the Napa Neighbor program, visit napavintners.com/programs and click on Napa Neighbor to learn more.
The sale of one property and the purchase of another winery brings with it possibilities that are exciting to a longtime Napa Valley winemaker who was instrumental in establishing the Diamond Mountain AVA.

Rudy von Strasser, who sold his Diamond Mountain Road property last year, is looking forward to building a new fermentation and barrel facility at the Lava Vine winery on Silverado Trail that he purchased earlier this year from Joe and Jill Cabral. Hes also looking forward to the opportunity to make wine from varietals other than cabernet sauvignon, he said.

Lava Vine is located in a commercially zoned area and carries with it a unique permit that allows wine production from grapes grown outside Napa Valley, a rare and unusual combination these days.

It allows me to do things I could never do, von Strasser said.

He did not sell the von Strasser label along with the Diamond Mountain property he sold to CTF International Development, the company that owns and is planning to build Calistoga Hills Resort (formerly known as Enchanted Resorts). The von Strasser label will remain cab and Lava Vine is slowly moving to be our non-cabernet label, he said.

He is buying back fruit from the Diamond Mountain property that includes cabernet sauvignon and gruner veltliner, which he will use for his von Strasser label. He was the first commercial producer of gruner veltliner grown in California.

Under the Lava Vine label, von Strasser said he is excited to be working with other varietals such as pinot noir from the Santa Lucia highlands, and Grenache and petite syrah from Mendocino County, and other interesting heritage grapes.

He would prefer to always work with 100 percent Napa-grown grapes, but there are few growers who grow anything but cabernet sauvignon, chardonnay or sauvignon blanc, he said. The price that cabernet sauvignon commands drives the business decision to focus on growing what brings in the most money.

Buying varietals from other regions gives him wines to sell that are more affordable to visitors.

The customer coming into the valley wants to try other things, von Strasser said.

The Lava Vine property also offers a tasting room that doesnt require appointments giving him a chance to interact with customers more often, too.

Though he and his wife, Rita, have moved to Napa, he still feels very connected to Calistoga and expects one day that they will move back to make Calistoga their home again. Hes in town every day and still feels like hes part of the community.

I feel like thats my community, he said.
The recent search for a suspected bank robber that put Calistoga in a shelter-in-place status brought to light the question of how residents receive notice of such events as they are happening.

Mitch Celaya, chief of Calistoga Police, recommends two free options: Nixle, a public safety communication service, and the newly launched Calistoga Police Department app.

Nixle provides real-time emergency alert communication through text, email, voice messages, social media and the Nixle app. It is used by more than 8,000 agencies including fire, police, schools, and hospitals nationwide, and locally by Calistoga Police and Fire departments. It is used for notifying residents and businesses about such things as fires, evacuations, severe weather events, safety hazards, security threats, road closures and traffic delays.

We try not to saturate (Nixle), Celaya said. We only use it for special events, crime and safety. Youre not going to get a dozen messages a day.

When registering for Nixle users can select the way they want to be notified, and it includes by telephone so those who do not have a cellphone or smartphone can opt to be called. If the phone isnt answered a voice message will be left.

You can put in preferences like push notification straight to your phone as a text, Celaya said. More importantly you can pick between English and Spanish. Thats the benefit for Nixle. Right now our app doesnt have a translation on it.

The Calistoga Police Department app, available on Android, Apple and Microsoft platforms, provides access to crime reports, police logs, notifications, bulletins, a calendar, photo gallery, surveys, and links to such things as Calistoga police contacts, resources, forms and services and how to pay a parking ticket.

The Police Department introduced the new app on June 30 on its Facebook page (facebook.com/CalistogaPOA) and said the app is a place to stay up to date with current information, make non-emergency complaints and give us feedback.

The app allows users to make non-emergency phone calls with a touch of a button, and praise a cop, as well as provide tips  anonymously if preferred  and view the departments weekly police log.

The good thing about the social media is you can leave feedback, and you can report anything, Celaya said. Its not meant to take the place of 911 though and is not recommended for reporting a crime in progress.

There are links to Calistoga Police Department contacts that include Celayas telephone number and email address as well as other officers in the department.

The links button also provides connections to other law enforcement agencies such as Napa County Sheriffs Office, California Highway Patrol, St. Helena Police Department, and more.

Information about other services such as Livescan and fingerprinting, and access and information about forms is found through the links section of the app.

The app also includes information about dog licenses and a link to lost-and-found animals at Petaluma Animal Services Foundation, Calistogas animal control service provider. Through the mobile app link people can see photos and other information about animals that have been picked up and are in custody.

During a threatening situation like the July 12 search for the alleged robber who was armed and considered dangerous, law enforcement was knocking on doors and alerting residents and businesses to the situation, but the main concern and focus at the time was to have personnel stay alert and find the man, Celaya said.

Celaya said Nixle and the Police Departments app are great solutions, but you have to subscribe to both and not everyone can or will do that. He believes the city needs a multi-disciplinary approach and is working toward that. They are looking into a reverse 911 method that could call everyone in a certain area to deliver the same alert at once.

To subscribe to Nixle go to Nixle.com, or from a cellphone text your ZIP code to 888777. Users are able to subscribe to multiple ZIP codes and select the way they would like to be notified. Nixle is also a tab on the citys website at www.ci.calistoga.ca.us.

The Calistoga Police Departments app can be downloaded the same way any other app is found on each smartphone through iOS, Android or Microsoft platforms.
Alzheimers workshops

Collabria Care, formerly Napa Valley Hospice & Adult Day Services, will host a series called Alzheimers & Dementia Caregiver Workshops in American Canyon starting on July 28. The workshops are geared towards caregivers living with loved ones who have moderate to advanced Alzheimers disease or related dementias. The presentation will be followed by a Q-and-A session. The topics to be covered are:

Thursday, July 28: What is Normal Aging vs. Dementia?

Learn the differences and inevitable changes.

Thursday, Aug. 25: Positive Approach to Brain Change

Teepa Snows training on the Gems Approach.

Thursday, Sept. 15: Learning to Speak Alzheimers

Learn tools and techniques for successful communication

The series is free and open to all. Workshops will take place at American Canyon Library, 300 Crawford Way, from 1-3 p.m. on the dates listed above. Pre-registration is required. To register or to request additional information, contact Jillian McNab at 258-9087 ext. 272 or via email at jmcnab@collabriacare.org. Course materials will be provided at no cost and light refreshments will be available.

Fed association meeting

National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association, Vallejo Chapter 16 will meet at 1:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 9 at the Florence Douglas Senior Center, 333 Amador St., Vallejo. The speaker will be Christina Snyder, executive vice president, Mare Island Dry Dock. Come and hear what is going on at Mare Island.

National Night Out

American Canyon will participate in National Night Out on Tuesday, Aug. 2 from 5-8 p.m. National Night Out is an annual event that encourages community-police partnerships, crime prevention and neighborhood camaraderie. Last year, more than 20 neighborhoods in American Canyon hosted block parties involving 500 residents. To schedule a block party for this years event, contact Officer Cecil Brown at 551-0600 or cecil.brown@countyofnapa.org.

Health Expo July 31

The 5th Annual Health Expo will take place at American Canyon High School, 3000 Newell Dr., on July 31 from 12-5 p.m. The event will include massages by certified massage therapists, blood pressure screening, body fat analysis, lung capacity test, physical endurance test, chiropractic assessment, dental health education, nutritional counseling, free food samples, natural remedies and more. For more information call 557-2113.
The unemployment rate in the Napa County was 4.2 percent in June, up from a revised 3.4 percent in May and unchanged from the year-ago estimate of 4.2 percent, according to data released Friday from the California Employment Development Department.

This compares with an unadjusted unemployment rate of 5.7 percent for California and 5.1 percent for the nation last month.

The Napa County economy continues to create jobs, said Jim Cassio, labor market specialist with the Workforce Alliance of the North Bay.

Junes rate means Napa is tied with Sonoma for the 5th lowest unemployment rate in the state, he noted.

From May to June, Napa added about 800 new jobs to its economy. This included about 100 farm jobs and about 700 non-farm jobs.

About 400 of the new jobs between May and June were in nondurable goods manufacturing, which in Napa is mostly wine and food manufacturing.

In fact, wine manufacturing alone provides about 85 percent of all of our manufacturing jobs and is a tremendous contributor to our economy, said Cassio.

Hospitality industries such as restaurants and lodging gained about 400 new jobs during this period.

In Napa, there is a particularly close relationship between wine and hospitality, he said. When one grows, the other usually grows as well.

Other job gains occurred in a variety of industry sectors including administrative and support and waste services, which includes industries such as employment services and business support services. In Napa, these industries gained about 200 jobs between May and June.

On the losing end was the retail trade and public education sectors, which both lost about 100 jobs between May and June.

Nationwide, unemployment rates ticked up noticeably in six states in June, even as employers continued to add jobs and the hiring outlook improved.

The unemployment rate in 21 states is now significantly below the national figure of 4.9 percent, while its higher in 14 states. In Colorado, the rate jumped 0.4 point from May to a still-low 3.7 percent as more of its population began looking for work without being hired, a positive for the economy as it suggests greater optimism that these people will find jobs.

A similar trend played out in five other states: Nevada and Oregon each saw a 0.3 percent increase, while rates went up 0.2 points in California, Maine and South Dakota. Those trends correspond with the national report that saw the unemployment rate rise from 4.7 percent in May to 4.9 percent as more workers started searching for jobs.

Employers added a significant number of jobs in 18 states last month, while three states lost a meaningful level of jobs. This also matches the national figures that showed an increase of 287,000 jobs in June, after lackluster hiring in April and May.

South Dakota had the nations lowest rate in June, at 2.7 percent, followed by New Hampshire, at 2.8 percent. Alaska had the highest unemployment rate at 6.7 percent.
Sheriff Citizens Academy accepting applications

The Napa Sheriffs Department will offer its 11th Sheriff Citizens Academy beginning on Aug. 31.

The Academy provides participants with an opportunity to interact with members of law enforcement (Sheriffs Department, Napa Dispatch Center, and other professionals in public safety) while learning and performing (through roleplaying) the job duties of a law enforcement officer. This class is not intended to prepare participants for a career in law enforcement.

Academy objectives include:

Increase communication and build a relationship of trust and understanding between the Sheriffs Department and the citizens of the community.

Provide education and insight to citizens concerning the job functions of a law enforcement officer.

Create a non-threatening setting for citizens to share concerns with Sheriffs Department employees.

Foster a pool of well informed graduates who will share knowledge and insight with others.

The Sheriff Citizens Academy will last for 13 weeks. The majority of classes will be three hours in length, and the first class begins on Aug. 31. The academy will be held in the Sheriffs Department building located at 1535 Airport Blvd.

To qualify for the academy, applicants must be 18 years of age, not have any prior felony or misdemeanor convictions that imply moral corruption, be able to handle graphic material and live or work in Napa County.

Interested applicants can obtain enrollment material at www.countyofnapa.org or telephone Pete Berg at 253-4504 regarding questions.

The application deadline is August 22.
A rare mouse that lives off salt water and a plant that feeds off its neighbors for nourishment were some of the endangered species American Canyon residents learned about last week at a new ecology workshop.

Wild American Canyon premiered at the American Canyon Library to an audience of 20 adults and children who came to hear about endangered species on a Wednesday evening.

The Napa County Conservation Resource District and the American Canyon Community and Parks Foundation organized the event, the first in a series intended to educate residents about wildlife in the region.

Were trying to connect people all throughout the valley with the natural world that were in, said Program Assistant Jemma Williams with the Napa County Resource Conservation District.

The agency has hosted similar library workshops in the city of Napa informing locals about beavers, otters, mountain lions and other species found in the Napa Valley.

For Wild American Canyon they turned to experts from the San Pablo Bay National Wildlife Refuge, located west of American Canyon along Highway 37.

Wildlife Refuge Specialist Melisa Amato and wildlife biologist Meg Marriott told those in attendance about three endangered species found in the refuge and along the Napa River near American Canyon.

The Salt Marsh Harvest Mouse, for example, lives in the low-lying areas of San Pablo Bay and has the distinction of being one of the few land mammal that ingests salt water for its survival.

This little guy forages on green vegetation and seeds, Marriott told listeners about the mouse, which she said was endemic to the Bay Area.

That means it is found nowhere else in the world except the Bay Area, she explained.

Those wanting to catch a glimpse of the Salt Marsh Harvest Mouse dont necessarily have to travel to the refuge, whose headquarters is located just off Lakeville Highway on the way to Marin County.

There is tidal marsh running up through Napa River, said Amato after the talk, indicating the mouse could be found in the American Canyon wetlands.

Marriott agreed the species could inhabit the area.

It is a safe assumption the mouse exists there in the wetlands, she said. With the Salt Marsh Harvest Mouse, they dont need as much room so they can exist in strip marshes along the river.

Marriott said it was unlikely the other two species they discussed  Ridgways Rail and Soft Birds Beak  were in American Canyon.

Ridgways Rail, formerly known as the California Clapper Rail, is a small bird on the federal endangered species list that requires a lot of space to survive, according to Marriott.

Because it needs about an acre of home range, she said, the bird probably wouldnt be found in American Canyon.

Ridgways Rail lives in the tidal marshes stretching from Humboldt Bay to Monterrey Bay and points in between, like San Pablo Bay.

The 23,000-acre wildlife refuge Amato and Marriott help look after  with only three other staffers  is also home to endangered plant species known as Soft Birds Beak.

It is a hemiparasitic plant, according to Marriott, which means it gains some of its nutrients from the roots of neighboring plants.

Soft Birds Beak, which produces small purplish flowers, grows only in California, where it inhabits areas between tidal marsh and uplands called the Estuarine-Terrestrial Transition Zone, the biologist explained.

Unfortunately for this species, much of its habitat has disappeared due to urbanization, said Marriott. It may be blinking out, she said, meaning it is vanishing.

There are only pin pricks of the plant in locations around the North Bay and Suisun Bay, Marriott said.

The biologist said they cant even be sure Soft Birds Beak is still growing in the San Pablo Bay National Wildlife Refuge. A lack of resources has kept them from conducting an official survey of the plant since the last one in 1982.

I dont mean to end the talk on a down note, Marriott told her audience, but the fact is were moving into an altogether different era of conservation biology.

At one time the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, to which Amato and Marriott belong, focused on restoring habitat to help species that depend on it.

But we can no longer do that because the major threat were facing at the refuge and the North Bay in general is climate change and sea level rise, said Marriott.

Their modeling and projections show the entire refuge will be underwater by 2100, she said.

With this in mind, the agency is finding innovative ways and strategies to make sure some portion of the refuge will still be around next century.

One of those strategies involves Skaggs Island, a large swath of land in South Napa County that once housed an important naval intelligence communications base during the Cold War.

After the U.S. Navy decommissioned and dismantled the base, it turned Skaggs Island over to the San Pablo Bay National Wildlife Refuge, which intends to use it as a last-stand against rising sea levels.

Skaggs Island is also below sea level at this time, Amato explained in an email to the Eagle. It is (and has been) kept dry because it is surrounded by levees and sea walls that were built by previous farmers and the Navy when it was a base.

Our long-term goal for Skaggs Island, she continued, would be to bring the elevation up to marsh plain elevation (where tidal marsh vegetation will growand thus provide habitat for our listed species). Because it is farther north than many of our marshes that lie along the bays edge, we hope that it would remain tidal marsh habitat for a longer period of time (allowing some marsh to keep up with sea level rise).
The U.S. Postal Service may have a new buyer for the earthquake-damaged Franklin Street post office, whose cracked brick facade has loomed over the 1300 block of Second Street for nearly two years.

After an initial attempt to sell the downtown landmark fell through, a second buyer for the property has stepped forward, the U.S. Postal Service reports.

We have signed a contract with a new potential buyer, Augustine Gus Ruiz, USPS spokesman, said on Tuesday.

The potential buyer is from the Napa area, said Ruiz, who would not disclose the identity. Neither the price nor the number of bidders was disclosed.

According to Ruiz, the new buyer has a 45-day due diligence period, ending Sept. 4, to inspect the building before fully committing to the purchase.

If they accept, they put down a non-refundable deposit and we proceed with the sale, he said. The deposit amount is confidential, Ruiz added. A closing date is not set yet.

We are hoping the buyer proceeds, said Ruiz. If he does not, we will reevaluate at that time as to our next actions.

In 2015, an initial buyer had signed a contract to buy the building but opted out of the purchase after inspections. The buyers name and reason for withdrawing were not provided.

Napas Holcomb family, and partners, have bought a number of downtown properties in recent years. However, they are not the buyer in contract with the USPS, said Michael C. Holcomb.

I am excited to hear that someone is going to do something with it, said Holcomb, who owns nearly a block of commercial properties on Second Street just west of the Franklin Street post office.

I just hope that the municipalities and governing parties do what they can to assist the development of that block because it is an important piece of downtown, he said. Too much red tape could make the property sit there for too long, he said.

Nothing has been submitted to the city from any potential buyer said Rick Tooker, director of the citys community development department.

The citys objective has been to retain the character of the historic resource, said Tooker. If there is an agreement with the Postal Service and a buyer, thats great  with the understanding that the building is going to be preserved, he said.

Im sure in the very near future there will be the beginning of an active dialog with the buyer and the city. We will look forward to working with them.

The building has been for sale for an undisclosed price since July 2015.

The post office, which was built in 1933 in the Art Deco style, was badly damaged in the August 2014 earthquake and has remained closed since then.

The USPS originally moved to demolish the building. The agency said that it would cost $8 million to repair quake damage, while it would cost only $500,000 for demolition.

After considerable public outcry, the agency decided to try selling it to a buyer who can repair the structure and preserve its architectural integrity.
The Napa Police and Napa County Sheriffs Office joint SWAT team arrested a convicted felon for having ammunition after serving a search warrant with the help of a robot in his Napa home on Monday.

Cecilio Rubio Garcia, 75, who is prohibiting from possessing firearms or ammunition, was found inside his residence on the 2000 block of Kaywoodie Street along with a box of ammunition, according to Napa Police.

Police said that the SWAT team first sent in a robot as a safety precaution before heading in themselves and detaining Garcia  the only person in the residence at the time.

Garcia was arrested and booked at the Napa County jail on suspicion of being a felon in possession of ammunition.
Shell Oil will pay thousands to the Napa County District Attorneys Office as part of a consumer protection settlement related to Shell gift cards and fuel rewards cards.

A consumer protection action was filed against the company in Alameda County by Napa, Alameda, Monterey, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Solano, and Sonoma counties.

District Attorney Gary Lieberstein said he is proud of the excellent work being done by our office, joining with other District Attorney offices throughout Northern California, to protect consumers from the unlawful business practices of corporations such as Shell Oil to take advantage of them in often subtle and unsuspecting ways. By this stipulated judgment, Shell Oil is taking measures to ensure that this particular situation does not occur again.

The complaint alleged that Shell failed to tell customers that some discounts for using gift cards and fuel rewards cards could not be combined, that advertised discounts on gasoline bought with a gift card were not being honored by all stations, failed to redeem gift cards with balances of less than $10 for cash as required by California law, failed to tell customers the limitations of the rewards program, and advertised that certain gift cards could be used like cash, when Shell knew or should have known some stations were charging customers the credit price for gasoline when purchasing with a gift card.

Shell agreed to pay $762,500 in civil penalties, costs, and restitution, and agreed to various provisions to ensure future compliance. Shell will pay the Napa County District Attorneys Office $18,066.26 for investigative costs and $80,000 in civil penalties, which will be used by the DAs Office to enforce consumer protection laws. Napa County Department of Weights and Measures will receive $495 from Shell for investigate costs.

Shell is also required to implement new technology at stations to address technical limitations that prevented advertised discounts from being combined, disclose limitations on advertised discounts, provide increased training materials to help stations address the issues in the complaint, and notify customers about their gift card redemption rights and where to call with questions or complaints about Shell gift cards or fuel rewards cards.
Three people, including one juvenile, were arrested after breaking into the home of a deputy sheriff while he was home for lunch on Monday, according to the Napa County Sheriffs Office.

While the sergeant was making himself a sandwich in the kitchen of his residence on the 2100 block of Monticello Road, out of the corner of his eye he noticed someone coming to the back door, in black clothing and wearing a mask, said Sheriffs Capt. Keith Behlmer.

Behlmer said that the masked individual was going to swing a crowbar at the door but noticed that it was open. He turned to two colleagues also in masks and went into the residence.

Freeze! Police! yelled the sergeant, pointing his firearm at them before they ran off, Behlmer said. He chased the three suspects and detained one of them, Jesse Reyes, 19.

The other suspects, Luis Kevin Flores, 19, and a juvenile, were located in the area by deputies who arrived on the scene, Behlmer said.

All three were arrested on suspicion of burglary, conspiracy to commit a crime and resisting arrest. Reyes and Flores were booked at the Napa County jail and the juvenile was taken to Napa County Juvenile Hall.

Reyes and Flores have been tied to at least two other residential burglaries on the east side of Napa County, Behlmer said.

The restraint he showed was incredible, Behlmer said of the sergeant, who has not been identified to protect his privacy. I want to commend my sergeant for the restraint he showed with a masked intruder coming through his back door, he said.

The investigation is ongoing. Witnesses or anyone with any information pertaining to the investigation is asked to contact Det. Ryan Woolworth at 707-299-1502.
THESSALONIKI, Greece

Greece: anarchists evicted from buildings

Greek police emptied three buildings in this northern city of illegal occupiers and made 74 arrests.

Police say they emptied the buildings, one belonging to the Greek Orthodox Church, a second to the University of Thessaloniki and the third to a private owner, evicting a total of 107 people.

The 74 arrested are self-styled anarchists or leftist militants, with several from Great Britain, Italy and Spain.

The remaining 33 were refugees who were directed to refugee camps or, if they chose so, private accommodations, police say.

MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay

Missing ex-Guantanamo Bay detainee reappears

Uruguays foreign minister says that a resettled former Guantanamo prisoner who had been missing since last month has appeared in Venezuela.

Syrian native Abu Wael Dhiab is one of six former Guantanamo prisoners who were resettled in Uruguay after being released by U.S. authorities in 2014, invited by then President Jose Mujica as a humanitarian gesture. His disappearance last month set off alarm bells in neighboring countries and recriminations by U.S. lawmakers.

Foreign Minister Rodolfo Nin Novoa said Wednesday that Dhiab appeared at Uruguays consulate in the Venezuelan capital.

GUATEMALA CITY

Guatemala orders probe of former president, ex-V.P.

A Guatemalan judge formally ordered prosecutors to investigate former President Otto Perez Molina and his ex-vice president in another corruption case.

Miguel Angel Galvez issued the decision Wednesday against Perez Molina and Roxanna Baldetti for possible charges of bribery and money laundering.

Its the second graft case against Perez Molina and the third against Baldetti.

ISTANBUL

Turkey fires 1,700 officers, closes media groups

Turkeys state run news agency says close to 1,700 officers have been formally discharged from the military following the countrys failed coup.

Anadolu Agency also says the government has decided to close dozens of media organizations, including 45 newspapers and 16 television stations.

The government says a U.S.-based Muslim cleric is behind the failed uprising by a faction within the military that led to some 290 deaths on July 15. Thousands have been detained for suspected links to the coup. Tens of thousands have also been purged from state institutions.

UNITED NATIONS

U.N. accuses Boko Haram of brutality

The U.N. humanitarian chief is accusing Boko Haram of almost unimaginable violence and brutality that has forced massive numbers of people to flee their homes and led to unprecedented number of people in need.

Stephen OBrien said the U.N. estimates that over nine million people across the Lake Chad Basin spanning parts of Nigeria, Niger, Chad and Cameroon need humanitarian assistance, including about 2.8 million who fled violent attacks in their towns and villages.

He told the Security Council that Nigeria is bearing the brunt of the crisis despite significant government efforts, with Nigerians accounting for seven million of the nine million people needing help.
BLOOMINGTON, Indiana  A cry for help prompted a McLean County deputy to open a storage tub in a rented moving truck Monday, finding two sweaty children as their parents traveled on Interstate 55 north of Bloomington.

Two women also were found in the cargo area, where the adults and children appeared to have been living.

Samuel Watson, 44, of Michigan, and his wife, Lapiera Watson, 54, of Tennessee, were arrested on initial charges of child endangerment.

The 2-year-old boy and 5-year-old girl have been taken into custody by the Department of Children and Family Services. Authorities said the children did not require medical treatment.

Assistant State's Attorney Jacob Harlow said the matter is under review for formal charges. Each parent posted $185 to be released on the misdemeanor charges.

Sheriff Jon Sandage said Deputy Jon Albee stopped the southbound moving truck near Towanda for following too closely and improper lane usage. Samuel Watson agreed to allow the officer and his police dog to search the truck, said the sheriff.

"During the search, the officer heard 'Help me' from inside a plastic tub that contained a small fan," said Sandage.

The children were "very sweaty" but uninjured, said the sheriff. Officers "were very concerned, given the heat that day," he said.

The parents told officers the children were put inside the box "to hide them from police" but offered no explanation for their action.

The cargo area included a bed, dresser and small refrigerator, according to police reports. Statements from the parents indicate that the children may have been placed in the tub after Albee stopped the truck.

The U-Haul truck was rented on July 6 in Michigan and was due to be returned July 7. The sheriff said U-Haul was getting ready to report the vehicle as stolen. A spokeswoman for U-Haul was not available to comment.
CMT today announced a 13-episode second season pickup of its hit series Still The King, starring Billy Ray Cyrus, Joey Lauren Adams and Madison Iseman. The one-hour season finale airs Sunday, August 14 at 9pm ET/PT. Season two will begin production this fall and is slated to premiere next year. Fans can catch up on this season now at CMT.com, on the CMT app and VOD.

The premiere of Still The King on June 8 marked CMTs highest rated original series premiere to date grossing more than 4.7 million total viewers (L+3) for a stellar 1.03 rating A18-49 rating across a 3 network simulcast (CMT, TV Land, Nick@Nite). The series is currently reaching nearly 4.5 million viewers each week.

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Working on the series has been a career highlight, said executive producer and star Billy Ray Cyrus. Thanks to [adinserter block=3] the fans for embracing these crazy characters and all of their beautiful flaws. Were going to take this mess to a whole new level next season.

The success of Still The King is a wonderful start for our move into scripted programming, said Jayson Dinsmore, EVP of development for CMT. Both charming and irreverent, this series is like nothing else on television and we cant wait to continue the journey.

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Still The King features Billy Ray Cyrusas Vernon Brown, AKA Burnin Vernon, a scandal-ridden washed up one-hit wonder who is kicked out of country music, only to emerge 20 years later as the second best Elvis impersonator. After crashing into an old country church outside of Nashville during a drunken bender, he is sentenced to return and perform community service. Instead, he pretends to be the congregations new minister and re-connects with a former one-night-stand (Joey Lauren Adams), only to discover he has a 15-year-old daughter hes never met (Madison Iseman).

The series is part of CMTs most diverse programming line-up to date, featuring a mix of scripted programs (including the forthcoming premieres of Nashville and Million Dollar Quartet), unscripted series (including I Love Kellie Pickler, Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders: Making The Team, and Broken Skull Challenge), original documentaries (including the forthcoming premiere of The Bandit) and music events (including CMT Music Awards, CMT Artists of the Year, and the forthcoming CMT Concert of the Summer).

Still The King is produced by HIDEOUT PICTURES with Billy Ray Cyrus serving as executive producer and writer. Shannon Houchins, Potsy Ponciroli and Travis Nicholson also executive produce. Julia Silverton and Jayson Dinsmore executive produce for CMT.

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For more information on Still The King and exclusive content, visit CMT.com, download the CMT App, like the shows official Facebook page, be part of the conversation with #StillTheKing and follow @CMT on Twitter and Instagram. Also, follow the cast on Twitter: @BillyRayCyrus, @JoeyLaurenAdams and @MadisonIseman.
Okay, Florida Georgia Lines Brian Kelley and Tyler Hubbard have released a full statement on Facebook in regard to the police story thats been going around the last few days.

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Benny Gantz: Future of Israel and Turkey is promising

EU Special Representative for South Caucasus arrives in Armenia

Cannes palm trees promenade named after Charles Aznavour

Pashinyan: Armenia agrees to work on basis of main principles proposed by Russia

Newspaper: Karabakh people to make appeal to Armenia authorities

Residents of Moldova asked not to go out into street in dark

Bloomberg reports fuel shortages in some parts of Europe

Lebanon, Israel sign deal on maritime border demarcation

Spanish prime minister twice mistakes Kenya for Senegal during his speech

Peskov: CSTO meeting to be held before Armenia-Azerbaijan-Russia summit

Putin says he is ready to negotiate with Ukraine

Putin compares Indian Prime Minister Modi to icebreaker

Putin warns Seoul about risk of ruining relations with Russia by supplying weapons to Ukraine

Interpol Secretary General visits Armenia

Putin: Russia will not abandon the historical legacy of the USSR and the Russian Tsarist Empire

Putin sees no point in nuclear strike on Ukraine

Olaf Scholz says solution can be found to curb speculative spikes in gas prices

Putin calls Russians and Ukrainians one people who find themselves in different states

Putin: We proposed Armenia give 5 districts

Putin: Washington version provides for recognition of Azerbaijan's sovereignty over whole Karabakh

Putin calls Erdogan consistent and reliable partner, although not easy one

Italy plans to double national gas production to 6 billion cubic meters a year

Putin: The West, as a minority, has no right to impose values on the world

Putin: As long as nuclear weapons exist, there is always a danger of their use

Putin outraged by US assassination of General Soleimani: What is this all about?

FM Abdollahian: Iran will not allow its interests to become plaything of terrorists

Mirzoyan and Lavrov discuss preparations for CSTO Collective Security Council

Putin proposes to discuss changing structure of UN and UN Security Council

Pashinyan's wife accompanied in Tavush by mothers of servicemen who died in first and last days of war

Shell reports almost $9.5 billion in profits

Putin calls on West not to shift blame on intrigues of Kremlin

Hungarian PM expresses readiness to buy electricity from Azerbaijan via Georgia

Newsweek: The biggest foreign threat to the U.S. is not Russia or China. It's the EU

Putin: In recent years, West has taken steps to exacerbate situation in world

Armenian Defense Minister and French delegation discuss possibilities of developing defense cooperation

Australia to send 70 soldiers to UK to help train Ukrainian troops

Scholz condemns Turkey's stance questioning Greek sovereignty

Armenian Defense Ministry: Azerbaijan hands over 10 bodies of killed servicemen to Armenian side

Dollar, euro lose value in Armenia

Turkish Central Bank raises inflation forecast for the end of 2022 to 65.2%

U.S. State Department official visits Tsitsernakaberd Memorial Complex in Yerevan

Prime Minister Pashinyan sends letter of condolence to Seyyed Ebrahim Raisi

Secretary of Armenian Security Council and representatives of French Ministry of Defense discuss cooperation prospects

Israel and Turkey to resume defense cooperation

Scholz says solidarity is the only way to deal with the energy crisis

Israeli and Turkish defense ministers meet in Ankara

Turkey to rewrite inflation forecasts again after rate cut

Azerbaijan does not want checkpoint on border with Armenia, it wants only 'corridor'

Putin plans to attend meeting of CSTO leaders

CSTO special session to be held Friday, assistance to Armenia to be discussed

Estonia urges Rishi Sunak to increase UK defense spending

Moscow perplexed by information about ban to enter Armenia for Konstantin Zatulin and Margarita Simonyan

Armenia PM honors October 27, 1999 parliament tragedy victims

U.S. and Western officials finalize plans to limit Russian oil prices

EU seeks Armenia-Azerbaijan peace for its own energy interests?

World economy is approaching recession

US Armenians demand Senate member candidate Mehmet Oz to stop his Armenian Genocide denial

Azerbaijan president, Russia deputy PM discuss prospects for unblocking South Caucasus communications

Armenia opposition MP: Azerbaijan attempting to fulfill much bigger task with its attacks of aggression

Armenia opposition pledges to become active again

Syria MFA: Terrorist attack in Shiraz shows that terrorism has become U.S. policy main tool

Lebanon and Israel approve maritime border agreement

Pashinyan to Sunak: Armenia attaches great importance to further development of cooperation with UK

U.S. accelerates deployment of modernized version of nuclear bomb at NATO bases in Europe

Armenian Foreign Ministry expresses condolences to Iran over Shiraz terrorist act

Premier: Armenia set new absolute record in income-salary jobs

Armenia premier: We need to ensure 7% economic growth in 2023 also

Gazprom: Creating gas hub will benefit Russia, Turkey, Europe and Azerbaijan

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European Parliament report amendment condemns Azerbaijan policy of erasing Armenian cultural heritage in Artsakh

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'Corridor' between Armenia and Azerbaijan becomes subject of heated debate in European Parliament

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EU calls on defense ministers of bloc countries to coordinate arms purchases

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CSUF alumnus Kelly Gallagher, a 32-year educator who teaches English at Magnolia High School in Anaheim, is one of the keynote speakers for the July 29 Better Together: California Teachers Summit. Gallagher hopes to instill the importance of teaching students to become better readers and writers.

Thousands of teachers will come together at 38 locations across the state  including at Cal State Fullerton and CSUFs Irvine Campus  for the second annual Better Together: California Teachers Summit on Friday, July 29, a unique day of learning led by teachers, for teachers.

The Association of Independent California Colleges and Universities, California State University and New Teacher Center are hosting the statewide event. Keynote speakers are Cal State Fullerton alumnus, teacher and author Kelly Gallagher 83 (B.A. communications) and actor Ernie Hudson of the original Ghostbusters movie. Hudson will speak at 9:15 a.m. and Gallagher at 2 p.m. The keynoters will deliver their addresses from the CSUF campus, with their talks live streamed to locations across the state  including the Irvine Campus.

Gallagher, who travels the world to speak to educators and others, will discuss Writing: the Cornerstone of Literacy.

I am concerned that writing has been put on the back burner in a lot of schools. I am hoping that teachers across all content areas understand why all of our students should be writing a lot more, said Gallagher, who has authored six books, including his bestseller, Readicide, which contends that American schools are furthering the decline of reading.

The EdTalk speakers and their topics at the CSUF main campus are:

9:45 a.m.  Holly Breanne Steele, a Fullerton School District teacher on special assignment for STEM, Belief in a Sea of Change.

1:45 p.m.  CSUF alumna Lizzette Barrios-Gracian, a Spanish teacher at Anaheim High School, Teaching Activism to Empower our Students. She completed CSUFs bilingual authorization credential program.

At the Irvine Campus are:

9:45 a.m.  CSUF alumnus Darin Nakakihara 03, 09 (B.A. communications-public relations, multiple-subject credential program), a fourth-grade teacher at Beacon Park School in Irvine, Its Time to Disrupt Education.

1:45 p.m.  Janet English, a biology and broadcast journalism teacher at El Toro High School, Three Powerful Steps to Optimize Learning.

Attendees also will engage in Edcamp discussions on timely topics such as the California Standards in English/language arts and math, and Next Generation Science Standards.

The free Teachers Summit will be held from 8:30 a.m. 3 p.m. in Cal State Fullertons Titan Gym, 800 N. State College Blvd., Fullerton, 92831; and CSUFs Irvine Campus, 3 Banting, Irvine, 92618. The Irvine Campus is at capacity and there is a waiting list. Registration is still available online for the CSUF main campus.
08:50

President Barack Obama is speaking at the Democratic Convention in Philadelphia in support of presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.





Here are some highlights of his speech:





* "A lot has happened over the years. And while this nation has been tested by war and its been tested by recession and all manner of challenges, I stand before you again tonight, after almost two terms as your president, to tell you I am more optimistic about the future of America than ever before.":





* "Fair to say, this is not your typical election. Its not just a choice between parties or policies; the usual debates between left and right. This is a more fundamental choiceabout who we are as a people, and whether we stay true to this great American experiment in self-government."





* "Most of all, I see Americans of every party, every background, every faith who believe that we are stronger together --black, white, Latino, Asian, Native American; young and old; gay, straight, men, women, folks with disabilities, all pledging allegiance, under the same proud flag, to this big, bold country that we love. Thats the America I know.





* And there is only one candidate in this race who believes in that future, and has devoted her life to it; a mother and grandmother whod do anything to help our children thrive; a leader with real plans to break down barriers, blast through glass ceilings, and widen the circle of opportunity to every single American -- the next President of the United States, Hillary Clinton.





* "We battled for a year and a half. Let me tell you, it was tough, because Hillarys tough. She was doing everything I was doing, but just like Ginger Rogers, backwards and in heels. Every time I thought I might have that race won, Hillary just came back stronger."





"But after it was all over, I asked Hillary to join my team. She was a little surprised, but ultimately said yes -- because she knew that what was at stake was bigger than either of us. And for four years, I had a front-row seat to her intelligence, her judgment, and her discipline. I came to realize that her unbelievable work ethic wasnt for praise or attention -- that she was in this for everyone who needs a champion. I understood that after all these years, she has never forgotten just who she's fighting for."
Goa Environment and Forest Minister Rajendra Arlekar on Wednesday welcomed the interim order of the Mhadei interstate water tribunal directing the Karnataka government not to divert 7.56 TMC water from the Mhadei river to the Malaprabha basin. "It has been upheld by the tribunal that our demand has got sanctity. This is an interim order and it will be confirmed in the future because our demand is just. Not simply from the perspective of law but also from the people's point of view. Our position on the Mhadei diversion issue is in the interest of the people of Karnataka and Goa," Arlekar said. Goa and Karnataka are currently battling out a dispute over the controversial Kalsa-Bhandura dam project across the waters of the Mhadei river at a central tribunal. Mhadei, also known as the Mandovi river, is known as a lifeline in the northern parts of the state. It originates in Karnataka and meets the Arabian Sea in Panaji in Goa. While the river traverses 28.8 km in Karnataka, it is 81.2 km in length in Goa. Karnataka plans to construct seven dams on the river, aimed at diverting the waters into its water-starved Malaprabha basin in north Karnataka. --IANS maya/vd ( 211 Words) 2016-07-27-17:56:01 (IANS)
As a new Harry Potter will appear on bookshelves after nine years, avid fans are leaving no stone unturned to welcome the much anticipated eighth saga. When "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child" hits the bookshelves on July 31 at 11.30 a.m. (global release), the fever will be at its peak going by the fanfare it has created. Once again this is going to be a publishing sensation as the magic continues from where it left off in book seven. The rave reactions from fans, post the London previews clearly indicate that this is another classic Harry Potter, said Thomas Abraham, Managing Director of Hachette India, the publisher. From fan events to parties in bookstores and popular hubs in metros to other cultural shows, Potter fans want to make it a memorable experience. The eighth story begins where the seventh book, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows concludes. While Harry grapples with a past that refuses to stay where it belongs, his youngest son Albus must struggle with the weight of a family legacy he never wanted. As past and present fuse ominously in the new book, both father and son learn the uncomfortable truth: sometimes darkness comes from unexpected places. While Delhi will see a series of events organised by Potter lovers, Chennai, Mumbai and Bangalore are also not lagging behind. For the fans, Hachette India is also organising a contest, and the two lucky fans will win a limited edition author-signed copy of "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child" Parts 1 and 2. The contest will end on August 5. While Cafe Red in Shahpur Jat is hosting "Harry Potter and the Fragrant Latte", an evening of board games, coffee, and magical conversations on July 31, KoolSkool in Gurgaon will be decked up to celebrate the release. Fans can drop in to buy a copy and attend the quizzes. For Mumbaikars, Landmark Bookstores will be celebrating with delectable cake and other activities and Crossword Kemps Corner has an exciting day planned for its customers. Fans can relish yummy Potter-themed cupcakes, magical music, quizzes and much more. Chennai fans can join Crossword in Alwarpet to celebrate the launch with exciting contests and a scavenger hunt. Starmark Bookstore and Phoenix Market City Mall are also pulling out the stops for Potter fans. Bengaluru's dedicated fans can look forward to an exciting evening party at Lightroom Bookstore in Cooke Town. --IANS pn/vm --- ----------------------- ( 411 Words) 2016-07-27-15:22:02 (IANS)
They said security forces challenged a group of militants in the woods in Kupwara early this morning.

However, the militants opened fire with automatic weapons, they said, adding security forces also retaliated and in the fierce encounter four militants were killed.

One militant, who identified himself as Bahadur Ali was captured alive, they said, adding all the slain militants were of Pakistan residents and belonged to Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT).

However, the defence ministry spokesman was not available due to suspension of mobile service in the valley since July 14.UNI ABS ADG VN1055

-- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0138-855316.Xml
Service chiefs of Army, Navy and Air Force were also present on the occasion.

The nation celebrates the day as "Vijay Diwas" to mark completion of 'Operation Vijay' which was launched to flush out Pakistani intruders in 1999.

Talking to reporters after paying his tributes, Mr Parrikar said the defence forces were trying their best to find leads about the IAF's AN-32 aircraft, which went missing five days ago with military personnel on board. UNI MK DS ADG 1135

-- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0177-855390.Xml
The Central Bureau of Investigation today arrested former Managing Director and former Director, both of Odisha based private group of companies in one of the cases related to alleged chit fund scam in Odisha.The accused were identified as Soubhagya Kumar Sehgal, Managing Director, Midas Touch Group of Companies and Nirupama Samal, Director of Midas Touch Group of Companies. According to CBI officials, the investigative agency had registered the case against former Managing Director; former Director, both of Odisha based private Group of Companies and nine others relating to alleged Chit Fund Scam in Odisha. Official said a charge sheet was filed on April 17, 2015 against the accused persons on the allegations of cheating the investors to the tune of Rs 16 crore (approx) and causing criminal breach of trust. Both the arrested accused have been absconding since registration of this case by the local police in 2013. The Special CJM, CBI Cases, Bhubaneswar had issued Non Bailable Warrants (NBW) against them. After tremendous efforts, CBI traced both the accused and arrested them from Gotri, District Vadodara (Gujarat) with the help of Vadodara Police.The arrested accused persons will be produced today before the competent court at Vadodara for issuance of transit remand to bring them for further production in the court of Special CJM, CBI Cases, Bhubaneswar.UNI SM RSA 1714 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0271-856060.Xml
The meeting of the Home Ministry officials held at the National Emergency Operation Centre decided the budget for immediate rescue, relief and rehabilitation of the victims, Xinhua news agency reported.

The amount will be distributed from the Central Disaster Relief Committee of the Home Ministry to the affected district administrative offices.

Earlier, the committee asked the Prime Minister Disaster Relief Fund to extend financial support to meet the crisis situation.

During the meeting, Deputy Prime Minister Bhim Rawal said that the government will act immediately to rescue the victims from hard-hit areas, relocating the risky settlements and provide necessary relief materials.

Issuing a statement on Tuesday about the latest update, the Home Ministry announced that 28 persons have lost their lives since Monday. However, according to local media on Wednesday, the toll has risen to over 50.

Thousands have been displaced, hundreds of houses have been waterlogged or swept away, especially in mid-western and eastern regions of the country.

--IANS sm/lok/vt

( 202 Words)

2016-07-27-21:20:03 (IANS)
LJUBLJANA, July 26 (Xinhua) -- Slovenian police detected 12 illegal migrants at the port of Koper on Monday aboard a cargo ship coming from Turkey, and have taken them to an asylum center on their wishes.

Of the 12 asylum seekers, the Koper Police Administration said, nine are Syrian and three Iraqi citizens. They boarded the ship with the help of two Turkish deck-hands, who were both taken into police custody and face criminal charges.

Slovenia has received 612 applications for asylum so far this year, mostly from nationals of Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq, granting asylum to 58 persons, Slovenian Press Agency (STA) reported quoting Interior Ministry data.

The wave of illegal migrations through Slovenia has stopped since the EU-Turkey deal effectively closed the Balkan migration route in March, but smaller groups of illegal migrants are still sporadically intercepted.

The STA also reported that a new group of 32 asylum seekers is expected to arrive in Slovenia under an EU-sponsored relocation plan in mid-August. Out of those relocated in May, 23 have been granted asylum.

Slovenia has agreed to accept a total of 567 refugees who are currently located in Greece and Italy this and next year, with arrivals in small groups.

The first group of 34 asylum seekers from Syria, Iraq and Eritrea arrived in Slovenia in May, with the next group, numbering 32, due from Greece in mid-August, the STA report said according to the Interior Ministry. Enditem
UNITED NATIONS, July 26 (Xinhua) -- UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday condemned the terrorist attacks in the vicinity of Somalia's Mogadishu International Airport.

Earlier on Tuesday, the twin suicide car bomb attacks took place near the airport, killing at least 13 people and injuring five others. The Al-Qaeda linked terrorist group Al-Shabbab has claimed responsibility for the attacks.

"The Secretary-General reaffirms that such criminal acts will not diminish the strong resolve of the United Nations to continue supporting the people and government of Somalia in their work to build peace and stability in the country," said a statement released by Ban's spokesperson.

Al-Shabaab militants have been targeting government bases and social gathering places, mainly hotels, in Mogadishu, capital of Somalia.

Somalia has launched several military operations to push the terrorist group out of the main towns it once controlled, but it remains to be a threat to the security of the local region. Enditem
VIENTIANE, July 26, 2016 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi(C) speaks to the press after the meetings in Vientiane, capital of Laos, on July 26, 2016. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said here on Tuesday that China and members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have exerted joint efforts to make the ministerial meetings focus on dialogue and cooperation. (Xinhua/Liu Ailun)

VIENTIANE, July 27 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said here on Tuesday that China and members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have exerted joint efforts to make the ministerial meetings focus on dialogue and cooperation.

Wang told the Chinese media after the meetings in the Lao capital that most of the foreign ministers from 27 countries came to Vientiane with desire for cooperation.

This year marks the 25th anniversary of China-ASEAN dialogue relationship.

"China and the ASEAN nations have agreed to build a closer community of common destiny," Wang said, adding that they have set six priority areas for further development of China-ASEAN ties.

China and the 10 ASEAN members agreed to jointly strive to boost cultural and people-to-people exchanges as the third pillar for their cooperation besides the other two pillars, political-security dialogue and trade and economic ties.

The top Chinese diplomat said the foreign ministers' meeting between China and ASEAN nations (10+1)has made preparation for a commemorative summit marking the 25th anniversary for their dialogue relationship in September.

The foreign ministers also discussed differences, such as the South China Sea issue.

China and the ASEAN nations have reached an important consensus in Laos that they agreed to return to the right track of solving their disputes through dialogue and consultation, Wang noted.

The so-called arbitration case unilaterally initiated by the Philippines has soured China-Philippines relations, adversely impacted regional stability and disturbed the process of implementing the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea (DOC) and accelerating negotiations for a Code of Conduct (COC) by China and ASEAN members.

ASEAN foreign ministers have made it clear that ASEAN as a whole will not take a position on the so-called arbitration case, which they believe is a bilateral issue between China and the Philippines, Wang said.

He also mentioned that China and the ASEAN nations issued a joint statement on full and effective implementation of the DOC, which stipulates that disputes should be resolved peacefully through negotiation between the parties directly concerned, and China and ASEAN countries should work together to maintain peace and stability in the South China Sea.

While firmly defending its territorial integrity, China is also ready to work with the ASEAN members to safeguard peace and stability in the region, and properly manage their differences so as to further promote their relations.

As for the ASEAN Plus Three (China, Japan and South Korea) or "10+3" mechanism, Wang said China proposed to build an East Asia Community based on the ASEAN Community.

China has clearly stated that the East Asia Summit (EAS) should serve as a "leaders-led strategic forum," for both political-security dialogue and economic cooperation.

According to the Chinese foreign minister, the 27-member ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) is mainly designed for preventive diplomacy and China will continue to play an active role in pushing forward its healthy development.
PARIS, July 26 (Xinhua) -- French President Francois Hollande on Tuesday reiterates calls for the nation's unity to win a long battle against terrorism in a brief televised address after two men claiming allegiance to the Islamic State (IS) slaughtered a priest in northern France.

Earlier Tuesday, two armed men with knives entered a church in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, north France during a morning mass and seized five people including the priest. The priest was killed by the two hostages takers who were later shot dead by police units. A second victim was in critical situation.

The Islamist militant threat to France and Europe has never been so severe as now, he said, pointing that the war against terrorism both abroad and at home will be long. "It is our unity that will make us strong. We need to form a bloc to win this war... but I assure you, we will win this war."

Denouncing "an unforgivable act," he insisted that the government will be determined to apply the anti-terrorist laws while respecting rights and freedoms.
UNITED NATIONS, July 26 (Xinhua) -- The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said Tuesday that the recent fighting in South Sudan has to date forced more than 37,000 people to flee the country to Uganda.

"This represents more refugee arrivals in Uganda in the past three weeks than in the entire first six months of 2016," Farhan Haq, the deputy UN spokesman, said at a daily news briefing here.

"The new arrivals in Uganda are reporting ongoing fighting as well as looting by armed militias, burning down of homes, and murders of civilians," he said.

Some of the women and children said they were separated from their husbands or fathers by armed groups, who are reportedly forcibly recruiting men into their ranks and preventing them from crossing the border, he said.

The humanitarian response to the influx of South Sudanese refugees is sorely lacking due to severe underfunding, with the inter-agency appeal being only funded at 17 percent so far, he added.

On July 25, an estimated 2,442 refugees were received in Uganda from South Sudan. Some 1,213 crossed at the Elugu border point in Amuru, 247 in Moyo, 57 in Lamwo and 370 in Oraba, UNHCR said, adding that another 555 were received at the Kiryandongo settlement.

The majority of arrivals -- more than 90 percent -- are women and children. People are coming from South Sudan's Eastern Equatoria region, as well as the capital Juba and other areas of the country.

UNHCR remains extremely worried about the situation. Daily arrivals were averaging around 1,500 just 10 days ago, but have risen to over 4,000 in the past week. Further surges in arrivals are a real possibility, the UN agency said. Enditem
RABAT, July 26 (Xinhua) -- Morocco and France signed in Rabat on Tuesday a cooperation agreement on urbanization and territorial development.

Inked by the Moroccan Urbanism Minister Driss Merroun and French Minister for Territory Development Jean-Michel Baylet, the agreement aims to encourage expertise sharing in public policies in the fields of urbanization and territorial development.

The agreement is part of a policy of openness and strategic operations carried out by Morocco and France to achieve sustainable and equitable development, officials told the press following the signing ceremony.

It will help enriching the two countries' experiences and make headway with policies of territorial development in France and Morocco, Baylet said.

The French minister, who is on an official visit to Morocco, held a working meeting with Merroun during which they examined bilateral relations, competitiveness, governance and territory sustainability, Merroun told the press. Enditem
UNITED NATIONS, July 26 (Xinhua) -- UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday announced the appointment of Major General Mohammad Humayun Kabir of Bangladesh as Force Commander of the UN Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus, known as UNFICYP.

Kabir will succeed Major General Kristin Lund of Norway, who will complete her assignment on July 29, Farhan Haq, the deputy UN spokesman said at a daily news briefing here.

The secretary-general pays tribute to Major General Lund's service with UNFICYP, the first female force commander in the UN, where her dedication, professionalism and leadership greatly contributed to the UN efforts in Cyprus.

Major General Kabir has more than 32 years of wide-ranging command and staff experience, and we have more on this in a biographical note in my office.

UNFICYP was originally set up by the UN Security Council in 1964 to prevent further fighting between the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot communities. After the hostilities of 1974, the Security Council has mandated the Force to perform certain additional functions.

In the absence of a political settlement to the Cyprus problem, UNFICYP has remained on the island to supervise ceasefire lines, maintain a buffer zone, undertake humanitarian activities and support the good offices mission of the secretary-general. Enditem
BRUSSELS, July 26 (Xinhua) -- The European Union (EU) on Tuesday refuted criticism from Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who accused Brussels of failing to disburse as much refugee fund as promised.

The saying of that Brussels fell behind its funding obligation was "simply not true," said Margaritis Schinas, the European Commission's chief spokesperson, a day after Erdogan reportedly complained that the EU failed to stick to its commitment.

The EU has mobilised 3 billion euros (3.3 billion US. dollars) to help refugees in Turkey, out of this, about 740 million has been already allocated, Schinas told a regular press briefing, adding that the commission, the bloc's executive arm, was about to adopt a special measure in addition of 1.4 billion euros to help refugees and host communities in Turkey.

Before the end of July, the EU would manage to bring total disbursement up to 2.15 billion euros, which would actually prove that Brussels has respected its commitment, the spokesman stressed.

He pointed out the EU fund was for refugees in Turkey but not for the Turkish government, emphasizing that the implementation of all EU assistance would strictly follow requirements of the EU financial regulation.

During an interview with German public broadcaster ARD on Monday, Erdogan criticized the European leaders were "not being honest."

Brussels agreed to allocate 3 billion euros to help refugees in Turkey in March but only delivered around one to two million euros as a symbolic sum, the Turkish president said. (1 euro = 1.10 U.S. dollars)
SAINT-ETIENNE-DU-ROUVRAY, July 26, 2016 (Xinhua) -- Police stand guard near the church where a priest was killed in Saint-Etienne du Rouvray, France on July 26, 2016. A priest was "assassinated," and another was seriously wounded on Tuesday after two armed men seized several hostages in a church in northern France, Pierre-Hernry Brandet, spokesman of the French Interior Ministry said. (Xinhua/Zhang Xuefei)

PARIS, July 26 (Xinhua) -- Paris Prosecutor Francois Molins on Tuesday said one of the church attackers was known to intelligence services and tried to join radical insurgents in Syria twice in 2015.

One of the knifemen who slaughtered a priest in a church northern France was "categorically identified" as Adel kermiche, 19, Molins told reporters.

He was arrested twice last year after being intercepted by German police in March and Turkish authorities two months later last year while he tried to reach Syria using the ID of his cousin.

Returning home, he had been under house arrest and had been wearing an electronic tag allowing police to monitor his moving.

The identification of the second attacker was underway, Molins added.

The two men armed with knives entered a church in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, on Tuesday morning mass and seized six people before killing a priest and seriously wounding another person.

Paris prosecutor also confirmed that a 16-year-old teenager was placed under custody in the investigation. He was believed to be the brother of someone wanted by police for trying to go to Syria in the previous year.

The two men shot dead by police had fake explosives and used nuns as human shields, he added.
SANAA, July 26 (Xinhua) -- A gunman threw grenades and opened fire on worshipers at a mosque in Yemen's southern capital Sanaa late on Tuesday, killing four people and wounding 15 others, a security official said.

"The Shiite gunman hurled two grenade bombs and opened fire on the worshipers in Bani Bahlol mosque during evening prayers, killing four and injuring 15 others," the official said on condition of anonymity.

The gunman fled, said the official, adding that the incident was apparently for "political and sectarian revenge from Sunni branch of Islam."

Sanaa, the capital of Yemen which has been under control of Shiite Houthi group since it overthrew the government in September 2014, is awash of gunmen, weapons and lawless acts after the judiciary system and security apparatus have been suspended.

Security in Yemen has deteriorated since March 2015, when war broke out between the Shiite Houthi group, supported by former President Ali Abdullash Saleh, and the government backed by a Saudi-led Arab military coalition.

The current security vacuum was exploited by terrorist groups which also took advantage of the ongoing civil war to expand its influence and control more territories in lawless parts of the country.

Last week, a grenade exploded outside a mosque in Sanaa, controlled by the Iran-allied Houthi group, as worshipers were leaving after midday prayers. There were no casualties.

The Islamic State branch in Yemen claimed responsibility last September for a bomb attack on a Shiite-controlled mosque in Sanaa that killed 10 worshipers. Enditem
BRASILIA, July 26 (Xinhua) -- Brazil's interim President Michel Temer vetoed on Tuesday an article in a new law, which would allow foreign investors to take 100 percent ownership of Brazilian airlines, according to the official Gazette.

The article is part of a law seeking to modify areas of the aviation sector, mainly in order to allow the state-owned airport infrastructure firm, Infraero, to restructure its debts.

While Temer has expressed support to open up the country's aviation sector to further foreign investment, he does not support their full ownership. For the moment, the existing 20 percent limit on foreign ownership remains in place.

The Gazette also said the government would draft a new law concerning foreign investment in the sector, and send it to Congress.

Such changes were first proposed by suspended president Dilma Rousseff in March, who suggested raising the ceiling to 49 percent. However, right-wing opponents in the Chamber of Deputies raised it all the way to 100 percent.

It met resistance in the Senate where a number of senators expressed their rejection of the full ownership clause, delaying a vote on the full law for several months.

While Temer vetoed this specific article, the rest of the law was passed, allowing Infraero to seek urgent debt relief.
Marina Hollands (top-R), an enviromental engineer in water services, inspects the dry cracked floor of Pejar dam, near the New South Wales city of Goulburn, with a population of 25,000 and just 100 kilometres (62 miles) from the national capital of Canberra, in this photo taken 08 July 2005. (AFP/File Photo)

SAN FRANCISCO, July 26 (Xinhua) -- A new Stanford University study recommends groundwater recharge and storage across the state of California as what it calls as "an affordable solution" against drought in recent years.

In addition to building more resilient water supplies in the Golden State, the study suggests that the process, known as "managed aquifer recharge," or MAR, can incorporate co-benefits such as flood control, improved water quality and wetland habitat protection.

"We find that MAR is an effective and affordable way to balance local groundwater decisions with regional and statewide management," said Debra Perrone, a postdoctoral scholar with Stanford's Water in the West program and co-author of the study published in San Francisco Estuary & Watershed.

The median cost of MAR projects is estimated to be 410 U.S. dollars per acre-foot, namely the amount of water required to cover an acre of level land at a depth of 1 foot, or about 30 centimeters, per year. By comparison, the median cost of surface water projects is five times more expensive - 2,100 dollars per acre-foot per year.

Groundwater supplies up to 60 percent of California's water supply during dry years. However, groundwater went largely unregulated until the 2014 passage of the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act.

While many local communities rely on statewide infrastructure to supplement their water supply, MAR allows for local water storage, access and management to a much greater extent than large surface water reservoirs, which are often managed by state and federal entities. Although excess surface water can be limited in some regions of California, treated wastewater and urban stormwater offer sources for MAR.

"Every year, California lets 1 million acre-feet of treated wastewater flow to the ocean," said co-author Melissa Rohde, previously a researcher with Water in the West. "Our research shows it would cost the state about 870 million dollars to build the necessary MAR facilities to recover and store this water. That's not a lot of money compared to the cost and energy required to transport water from large surface water projects or to desalinate ocean water."

As a changing climate, growing population and other factors put increasing pressures on water supplies, the need in California, as the largest and populous state in the United States, for long-term resilience will only intensify, the study noted. Therefore, it is likely that more water agencies will adopt MAR as a local management tool.
ALGIERS, July 26 (Xinhua) -- Algeria on Tuesday condemned the terrorist attack that targeted a church in France, as a priest was killed, while reiterating solidarity with France in this tragic circumstance.

In a message addressed to his French counterpart Francois Hollande, President Abdelaziz Bouteflika says "I was deeply affected when I heard the horrible news of the terrorist attack that targeted a church in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray."

"During these painful moments and after such unacceptable act committed at a sacred place, I express, on behalf of the people and the government of Algeria, and on my own behalf, our deepest condolences and our compassionate feelings," Bouteflika said.

"Socked by this attack, Algeria condemns in the strongest terms this act that no cause can justify," the Algerian head of state said, stressing that "Islam which sanctifies human life and ennobles other religions can in no way be tainted by such a barbaric crime."

French media reported that two men stormed a church in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray in the northernmost region of Normandy.

The attackers took several people as hostages, while killing Jacques Hamel, a 86-year-old Catholic priest, and seriously injured another person.

The two attackers were killed by counter-terrorism units when they left the church.

One of the suspects in this church has been identified via fingerprints as 19-year-old Adel Kermiche, a French anti-terrorism prosecutor, authorities said. The other suspect is yet to be identified.

The Islamic State has claimed responsibility for this attack, according to media reports.
United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon addresses a press conference at the UN headquaters in New York Oct. 20, 2009. Ban Ki-moon hailed Afghan President Hamid Karzai for his agreeing to take part in the second round of the country's disputed presidential election. (Xinhua/File Photo)

UNITED NATIONS, July 26 (Xinhua) -- The UN Security Council will hold its second straw poll on candidates vying for becoming the next UN Secretary-General on Aug. 5, Japan's Ambassador Koro Bessho told reporters here on Tuesday.

The Security Council held its first straw poll on Thursday behind closed doors and made no official announcement of the results.

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.

Strong competitors 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.

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.

Diplomats have said the purpose of straw poll is to inform the candidates of where they stand in the race and encourage those who don't do well to drop out.

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.

Ten years ago, before the 15-nation council made their final decision, it held four rounds of straw polls to select Ban as the single candidate and recommend him to the post of UN chief.
UNITED NATIONS, July 26 (Xinhua) -- The UN Security Council on Tuesday demanded all armed groups in the Central African Republic (CAR) "immediately and unconditionally" cease all forms of violence and release children from their ranks.

In a unanimously adopted resolution, the 15-nation council urged the CAR authorities to urgently implement reconciliation in the country, while noting the security situation in the country remains fragile due to the armed groups and ongoing violence.

The latest conflict in CAR broke out in December 2012. More than two years of civil war and sectarian violence has displaced thousands of people in the country.

Stakeholders in CAR are expected to complete the election process in August this year, which will hopefully facilitate the country's political transitional process.

The council also extended the mandate of UN peacekeeping mission in CAR, known as MINUSCA, until Nov. 15, 2017 and maintained its troop ceiling of 10,750 troops and 2,080 police, according to the resolution.

The mission was set up in April 2014 with the mandate to protect civilians from violence, support the country's transition process and facilitate humanitarian assistance.

In the resolution, the council called on all parties in the CAR to ensure safe and free movement of the MINUSCA to enable the mission to carry out fully its mandate.
PHILADELPHIA, July 26, 2016 (Xinhua) -- Supporters of Hillary Clinton cheer at the U.S. Democratic National Convention at Wells Fargo Center, Philadelphia, the United States on July 26, 2016. Hillary Clinton was formally anointed Democratic presidential candidate here on Tuesday, becoming the first woman to run for the White House on behalf of a major U.S. political party. (Xinhua/Bao Dandan)

PHILADELPHIA, the United States, July 26 (Xinhua) -- Hillary Clinton was formally anointed Democratic presidential candidate here on Tuesday, becoming the first woman to run for the White House on behalf of a major U.S. political party.

"Are we ready to make some history?" asked Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, secretary of the on-going Democratic National Convention (DNC) when a roll call vote by delegates began.

About one and half hour later, the 68-year-old former secretary of state, who enjoys near universal name recognition after almost four-decade public life, exceeded the 2,382-delegate threshold needed to clinch the nomination amid huge applause in the hall.

The tally included the overwhelming support by unpledged delegates or superdelegates for her. Superdelegates are party leaders who are free to vote at the party's convention.

However, her historic victory was overshadowed by the fallout of damaging leakage of internal emails revealing backroom bias against Clinton's rival Bernie Sanders during bitter primaries. The revelation sparked protests by thousands of Sanders supporters as the four-day convention kicked off here on Monday.
PHILADELPHIA, United States, July 26 (Xinhua) -- A group of Bernie Sanders supporters stormed into the media center of the Democratic National Convention to protest Hillary Clinton's nomination on Tuesday.

Minutes earlier, the formal secretary of state became the first woman to run for the White House on behalf of a major U.S. political party.
PHILADELPHIA, the United States, July 26 (Xinhua) -- Amid huge applause in the convention hall and angry protests outside, Hillary Clinton on Tuesday officially became the first woman to run for the White House on behalf of a major U.S. political party.

The 68-year-old former secretary of state, who enjoys near universal name recognition after almost a four-decade public life, easily exceeded the 2,383-delegate threshold needed to clinch the nomination during a roll call vote by delegates at the convention. The tally included the overwhelming support by unpledged delegates, or superdelegates, for her.

"We are going to win. This is a historic night," Rebecca Reed, a delegate from Missouri, told Xinhua.

"I move that Hillary Clinton be selected as the Democratic nominee for president," said Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, Clinton's archrival in the primaries. Sanders made the move as Vermont was the last state of the roll call.

One day earlier, Sanders delivered a powerful speech calling for his supporters to rally behind Clinton so as to beat the Republican challenger, Donald Trump.

However, minutes after the roll call, about 100 delegates supporting Sanders marched into the media center of the Democratic national convention, staging a protest against Clinton's nomination, waving posters and chanting "walk out" loudly.

"We are taken advantage of by the system. We know there is election fraud in some states and it's been ignored," Caitlin Glidewell, a 20-year-old alternate delegate from Colorado, told Xinhua.

The Democratic convention was rocky with apparent division following the fallout of leaked emails from staff of the Democratic National Committee, which showed that some committee members tried to tip the scales in favor of Clinton to win against Sanders in the primaries.

The email scandal has sparked protests by thousands of Sanders supporters in Philadelphia since Sunday, one day before the start of the four-day convention.
HAVANA, July 26 (Xinhua) -- Cuba held celebrations Tuesday to mark the National Rebellion Day and pledged to introduce all changes necessary to consolidate socialism.

Around 8,000 people turned out at the celebration in the central Sancti Spiritus Province, 355 km east of Havana, to mark the events of July 26, 1953, when Fidel Castro and over 100 of his followers attempted to take the Moncada Barracks.

Moncada was an important military fortress belonging to the regime of Fulgencio Batista. The goal was to seize weapons and start an uprising but the attack failed. Castro was sentenced to 15 years in prison but was released and exiled in 1955, prior to his return in 1956 to begin the revolution that led him to power.

At the celebration chaired by Cuban President Raul Castro, Vice President Jose Ramon Machado said that the Cuban government will introduce all changes necessary to make the country more prosperous and sustainable.

"Each of these changes will be the result of the sovereign decision of the Cuban people, and will not yield to external pressure seeking to underhandedly dismantle the revolutionary process," said Machado in a speech broadcast on public television.

Machado, also second secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba, said transformation to "update" the economic and social model would be characterized by popular participation "of unimaginable scale and depth compared to countries which proclaim themselves as paradigms of democracy."

As part of the widespread public debates since late June, Machado said 704,000 people have participated in about 22,200 meetings to discuss the agreements from the recent seventh Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba, related to the future of the country.

Machado also congratulated the leader of the Cuban Revolution and former President Fidel Castro, who will turn 90 on Aug. 13.

The National Rebellion Day is celebrated every year in a different province, and every five years the main event returns to the city of Santiago de Cuba, where the rebellion began.
SYDNEY, July 27 (Xinhua) -- An Australian state government on Wednesday has expanded its shark monitoring program in time for the summer beach season following a deadly year of attacks.

Following a spate of deadly attacks in 2015, the New South Wales state government implemented at 16 million Australian dollar (12 million U.S. dollar) program to protect beachgoers along the coastline, including expanded aerial surveillance, a shark meshing program and 'listening stations' using 4G technology to track tagged sharks along the northern coastline.

On Wednesday that program was expanded the state's most popular beaches along the southern coastline after two off-duty nurses saved the life of a 22-year-old Aussie surfer after he was mauled by a great white in March.

"When it comes to preventing shark attacks, we need to give beachgoers better information, and the fact hat listening stations provide real-time information of shark movements, means people can make informed decisions before getting into the water," NSW Minister for Primary Industries Niall Blair said in a statement.

"Listening stations will now be located up and down the state's coastline and are just one of the emerging technologies we are using to better detect and deter sharks on the NSW Coast."

The information picked up by the listening stations will be passed onto the public automatically via social media and the government's own shark smart app, Blair said.

The announcement comes after a white shark was spotted cruising through the waters in Ballina, a coastal town in northern NSW early Wednesday morning. It is not known if it is the same shark that knocked two surfers off their boards in a nearby location on Tuesday.

The NSW state government has already tagged 88 bull sharks and 29 great white sharks as part of the program, but the listening stations that can detect a shark up to 500 meters away will also pick up animals tagged in other programs, Blair said.
PARIS, July 27 (Xinhua) -- A priest was killed in a horrible way and another seriously wounded on Tuesday by two men armed with knives at a church in northern France.

WHO ARE THE VICTIMS?

The two men stormed into the church in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray during a morning mass and took nuns hostage. Jacques Hamel, an 86-year-old semi-retired priest, was forced to kneel down before his throat was cut by one of the men, according to a nun, Sister Danielle.

"They recorded it ... It was like they were performing a sermon in Arabic around the altar. It was horrific," she told French radio.

Although the two men were shot dead by police, their motive was not immediately clear.

WHO ARE THE ATTACKERS?

French anti-terrorist prosecution has taken over the investigation. One person was arrested on Tuesday on charge of having connections with the attackers.

French Prosecutor Francois Molins said that one of the attackers was identified as Adel Kermiche, a 19-year-old that was known to security services and had been arrested twice for trying to reach Syria to join the Islamic State (IS).

He had been under house arrest and had to wear an electronic tag that allowed the police to trace him. However the device was deactivated for a few hours each morning, Molins said.

The French prosecutor added that the identity of the second attacker has yet to be determined.

The BBC quoted a schoolmate of Kermiche as saying that he was "a normal teen who became radicalized after the 2015 attack on the Charlie Hebdo magazine."

"We tried to reason with him, but every time ... he would reply with some verse from the Quran, he would invent things," said the schoolmate identified as Redwan.

HOW DID THE FRENCH GOVERNMENT RESPOND?

French President Francois Hollande and Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve rushed to the scene of the attack, the second assault in 12 days after the Nice carnage that claimed 84 lives.

Hollande condemned the "heinous terrorist attack," saying the two assailants claimed links with the IS.

"The threat is very high. We are facing the group of Daesh, who declared war on us. We have to battle them with all means," he said, using another name of the IS.

Denouncing the "unforgivable act," he insisted that the government be determined to apply the anti-terrorist laws while respecting rights and freedoms.

However, his opponents said the government has not done enough to keep France safe. Former President Nicolas Sarkozy said the current administration needs to "thoroughly change" its strategy against the IS.

The IS claimed responsibility for the attack, saying two of its "soldiers" carried out the assault, the BBC reported.
CANBERRA, July 27 (Xinhua) -- Australia's Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop has said that former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd is "qualified" for the United Nations secretary-general position.

While Bishop did not explicitly endorse Rudd's candidacy, her comments came in the wake of fellow Liberal National Party (LNP) members of parliament saying Rudd was not qualified for the role.

"I believe that as the other candidates are former leaders, former prime ministers, former foreign ministers of their country, then he is qualified to be a candidate," Bishop told the ABC on Wednesday.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's Cabinet will meet on Thursday to debate whether the incumbent government will officially nominate Rudd for the post. Without that support, Rudd could not be considered for the role.

At least two of Turnbull's high-profile ministers have cast doubt over Rudd's qualifications for the role, with Cabinet Secretary Arthur Sinodinos saying that members of the center-right LNP would be hesitant to support Rudd.

"I'm not spilling any secrets to say there would be a lot of people on our side of politics to say they have reservations about supporting Kevin," Sinodinos said on Monday night.

"The politics of that era are still pretty raw and the idea that he could be on the world stage seeking to overshadow Australia in other ways does grate with some of my colleagues."

An Essential poll taken in April found that twice as many Australians supported former New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark for the UN top job over Rudd.

Rudd served as Australia's Prime Minister twice: from 2007 to 2010, then from June 2013 until his center-left Australian Labor Party (ALP) lost the election in September of the same year.

The first straw poll of the 12 candidates for the vacant UN position resulted in a clear win for former Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Guterres.
PYONGYANG, July 27 (Xinhua) -- The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) convened a national meeting Tuesday to mark the 63rd anniversary of the end of the Korean War, the official Rodong Sinmun newspaper reported Wednesday.

"It is the firm determination and will of the WPK (Workers' Party of Korea) to achieve the final victory in the anti-U.S. struggle and the building of a powerful socialist country," Minister of the People's Armed Forces Pak Yong Sik told the meeting.

If the United States should provoke another war on the Korean Peninsula, the DPRK would wipe out all the aggressors and accomplish the historic cause of national reunification, Pak warned.

Senior party, government and army officials attended the meeting.

The Korean Peninsula remains technically in a state of war because the 1950-1953 Korean War ended with an armistice rather than a peace agreement.
MANILA, July 27 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. does not take a position on the competing sovereignty claims to the land features of South China Sea, said U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Wednesday.

Kerry and the Philippine Foreign Secretary Perfecto Yasay held a joint press conference at the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs.
HANOI, July 27 (Xinhua) -- Vietnam has lured some 12.94 billion U.S. dollars of foreign direct investment (FDI) in the first seven months of 2016, up 46.9 percent year-on-year, according to Foreign Investment Agency (FIA) under the Ministry of Planning and Investment on Wednesday.

Specifically, as many as 1,408 FDI projects worth nearly 8.7 billion U.S. dollars were newly granted licenses in the period, up 31.8 percent in volume and 25.5 percent in value year-on-year.

Over 4.24 billion U.S. dollars was registered to add to 660 existing projects, up 125.7 percent in value and 93.5 percent in volume year-on-year.

During January-July period, the country is likely to disburse some 8.55 billion U.S. dollars of FDI, up 15.5 percent year-on-year, local Tien Phong (Pioneer) newspaper quoted the FIA as saying.

Manufacturing and processing industry continues to rank first among economic sectors, with 1,080 FDI projects worth over 9.1 billion U.S. dollars.

Real estate business ranks second with nearly 957 million U.S. dollars in 35 FDI projects, followed by expertise, science-technology activities with around 596 million U.S. dollars in 167 projects.

During the seven-month period, the FDI sector's export revenue, excluding crude oil, hits over 67.544 billion U.S. dollars, up 5.5 percent year-on-year while its import revenue reaches some 55.4 billion U.S. dollars, down 2.4 percent year-on-year.

Thus, FDI sector enjoys a trade surplus of over 12.144 billion U.S. dollars from January to July.
BEIJING, July 27 (Xinhua) -- The Supreme People's Procuratorate (SPP) announced on Wednesday that it has started an investigation of Yang Zhenchao, former vice governor of east China's Anhui Province.

Yang, who was a member on the Anhui Provincial Government's Communist Party of China (CPC) leadership group, "violated the Party's code of conduct in a serious manner," said a statement from the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection on Tuesday.

Yang, who was expelled from the Party and his office on corruption charges, was put under "coercive measures," said a statement from the SPP.
MANILA, July 27, 2016 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry (L, center) and Philippine Foreign Secretary Perfecto Yasay (R, center) attend a joint press conference at the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs in Manila, the Philippines, on July 27, 2016. The United States does not take a position on the competing sovereignty claims to the land features in the South China Sea, said U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Wednesday. Kerry made the remarks at a joint press conference with Philippine Foreign Secretary Perfecto Yasay, which was held here at the Department of Foreign Affairs. (Xinhua/Rouelle Umali)

MANILA, July 27 (Xinhua) -- The United States does not take a position on the competing sovereignty claims to the land features of the South China Sea, said U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Wednesday.

Kerry and Philippine Foreign Secretary Perfecto Yasay held a joint press conference at the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs in Manila.

At the press conference, Kerry stressed the importance of turning the page and initiating negotiations and talks among claimants.



Kerry said the U.S. encourages all claimants to exercise restraint.
LOS ANGELES, July 26 (Xinhua) -- As of Tuesday morning, wildfire fueled by high heat has charred 37,472 acres (around 152 square km), up 13 percent compared with Monday afternoon in the Santa Clarita Valley area near Los Angeles, in the western U.S. state of California, and over a dozen houses have been destroyed.

Twenty percent of the fire had been contained, aided slightly by improving weather conditions and lighter vegetation in some areas, which offered hope of increased containment of the blaze.

More than 3,000 firefighters were on the lines working to knock down the fire, which broke out at around 2 p.m. local time (2100 GMT) Friday near Sand Canyon Road in Santa Clarita, along the northbound Antelope Valley (14) Freeway.

The Los Angeles Fire Department sent a water-dropping helicopter to join the other four from the county Fire Department. Eight fixed-wing firefighting aircraft were also used to contain the blaze, according to authorities.

An estimated 20,000 people were evacuated as the fire raged, most evacuation orders were lifted at 7 p.m. Monday, but the orders still remain in effect in some places.

The coroner's office, meanwhile, identified a man whose burned body was found in a car in the driveway of a house. He was confirmed to be one refusing orders to evacuate the area.

The body of Robert Bresnick, 67, was discovered Saturday evening in a burning area, said coroner's Assistant Chief Ed Winter.

"Evidently, he did not want to be evacuated," Winter said. An autopsy was pending to determine the cause of the man's death, which was being classified as an accident.

Winter said Bresnick, whose hometown was not known, was visiting a friend at the location, and had been advised by authorities to leave. The friend left, but Bresnick did not, Winter said.

The fire has destroyed 18 homes, and two firefighters battling the flames have suffered minor injuries, according to county fire chief Daryl Osby.

The fire also destroyed a western town set on the Sable Ranch, a well-known filming location, according to authorities. Dry vegetation caused by a five-year drought was believed to have exacerbated the blaze.

Residents have reported smoke-filled air and falling ash in many parts of the greater Los Angeles area as a result of the fire.

A smoke advisory was issued at midnight Sunday for the valleys of San Fernando, San Gabriel and Santa Clarita, the San Gabriel Mountains, the Pomona Valley, and the central Los Angeles area, as smoke from the fire drifted southeast toward Los Angeles.

The South Coast Air Quality Management District recommended that people stay indoors and avoid using swamp coolers and wood-burning appliances.
SHIJIAZHUANG, July 27 (Xinhua) -- The company that supplies water to northern China's Shijiazhuang City, capital of Hebei Province, on Wednesday apologized for disrupted services in the city.

While issuing a statement to apologize for the inconvenience to citizens of the city, the company said last week's flood washed mud and sand into a reservoir, leading to a disruption of its regular production.

The incident has caused a water shortage and the company has made an emergency switch to using Yangtze River water, but the supply has not fully resumed.
PHILADELPHIA, July 26, 2016 (Xinhua) -- Supporters of Hillary Clinton cheer at the U.S. Democratic National Convention at Wells Fargo Center, Philadelphia, the United States on July 26, 2016. Hillary Clinton was formally anointed Democratic presidential candidate here on Tuesday, becoming the first woman to run for the White House on behalf of a major U.S. political party. (Xinhua/Bao Dandan)

PHILADELPHIA, the United States, July 26 (Xinhua) -- Hillary Clinton, who won the Democratic presidential nomination on Tuesday, has made history as the first woman to run for the White House on behalf of a major U.S. political party.

However, her victory was overshadowed by apparent party division following a damaging leakage of internal emails that suspected backroom bias against her former rival Bernie Sanders within the Democratic Party and amid growing fears that more harmful leaks may come.

"Are we ready to make some history?" asked Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, the secretary of the Democratic National Convention, when a roll call vote by delegates began.

About one and a half hours later, Clinton, the 68-year-old former secretary of state who enjoys near universal name recognition after almost a four-decade public life, easily exceeded the 2,383-delegate threshold needed to clinch the nomination amid huge applause in the hall. The tally included the overwhelming support by unpledged delegates, or superdelegates, for her.

"I move that Hillary Clinton be selected as the Democratic nominee for president," said Vermont Senator Sanders, suggesting to give Clinton the nomination by acclamation in a bid to bridge the divide between his backers and Clinton supporters. Vermont was the last state of the roll call.

"We are going to win. This is a historic night," Rebecca Reed, a delegate from Missouri, told Xinhua.

"I was so happy that I cried ... I remember when women first got to vote in America when I was about 9 years old," said Geraldine Emmett, a 102-year-old delegate from Arizona who announced the state's 51 votes for Clinton during the roll call.

"When I was young, I never dreamed to see a woman become the president of the United States some day," said Emmett, "I believe in her (Hillary Clinton) and I believe she could beat Donald Trump in November."

However, minutes after the roll call, more than 100 delegates supporting Sanders marched into the media center of the Democratic National Convention and staged a protest against Clinton's nomination, waving posters and chanting "walk out" loudly.

"The system is rigged. We are taken advantage of by the system. We know there is election fraud in some states and it's been ignored," Caitlin Glidewell, a 20-year-old alternate delegate from Colorado, told Xinhua in tears.

"We are here to give voice to those voters and those other people in our country that were silenced in the primary. Unfortunately, I don't think many Americans are surprised by that and because of our complacency, we will probably wind up with either Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton," said New Jersey delegate Michelle McFadden-diNicola.

Asked if they will vote for Clinton in November, some Sanders backers nodded reluctantly, some said they choose to vote for their conscience, and all answered they will not support Trump.

"I don't know what I would do in November ... but I do know that we need to keep rather than party unity in focus, we need to keep our country's unity in focus. And I can tell you now that I will not vote for Donald Trump," McFadden-diNicola told Xinhua.

The ongoing Democratic convention has been rocky with apparent division following the fallout of leaked internal emails from staff of the Democratic National Committee (DNC), forcing committee chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz to resign while sparking protests by thousands of Sanders supporters in Philadelphia since Sunday, one day before the start of the four-day event.

During his speech to the convention on Monday, Sanders called for party unity, urging his supporters to rally behind Clinton so as to defeat Trump in November.

"It is not just about electing candidates," he said. "It is about transforming the country."

"Based on her ideas and her leadership, Hillary Clinton must become the next president of the United States," said the widely respected senator.

Also on Tuesday, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said the website plans to release "a lot more material" concerning the U.S. elections.

"This is having so much political impact in the United States," he told CNN, referring to the leak of 20,000 internal DNC emails.

It's possible that more emails will go to the public at a time designed to inflict maximum political pain on the Democrats heading into the general election, said Jennifer Palmieri, communications director for Hillary.

Related:

Profile: U.S. Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton

Hillary Clinton becomes first woman nominated for U.S. president by a major party

PHILADELPHIA, the United States, July 26 (Xinhua) -- Hillary Clinton was formally anointed Democratic presidential candidate here on Tuesday, becoming the first woman to run for the White House on behalf of a major U.S. political party.
SEOUL, July 27 (Xinhua) -- Electricity consumption in South Korea rose in the second quarter due to industrial demand from chipmakers and oil refiners, a government report showed on Wednesday.

Power consumption reached 118 billion kilowatt-hours in the April-June period, up 1.5 percent from a year earlier, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy. During the first quarter, the electricity demand increased 1.8 percent.

Electricity demand in the industrial sector, which accounted for 58.9 percent of the total, reached 69.6 billion kilowatt hours in the second quarter, up 1.6 percent from a year ago. It was the fastest growth since the third quarter of 2014.

The fast growth came as power demand from chipmakers and oil refiners jumped 14.8 percent and 10.6 percent each in the quarter. Demand from steelmakers reduced 5.6 percent on the back of global slowdown, with those from carmakers and textile companies falling 2.4 percent and 2.9 percent respectively.

Electricity demand for general usage and household uses increased 2.4 percent and 0.8 percent each in the second quarter from a year ago. Power consumption among farmers climbed 3.6 percent, and those for educational purpose rose 1.7 percent.
This photo taken on Dec. 11, 2015 shows uniquely beautiful winter scenery of the Zhaoshu Island in the South China Sea. (Xinhua file photo/Zhao Yingquan)

by Xinhua writer Liu Chang

BEIJING, July 27 (Xinhua) -- Philippine Foreign Secretary Perfecto Yasay said Wednesday that resolution of dispute in the South China Sea is between China and his country only, a welcoming change in Manila's policy.

Now is the time for Manila to translate its words into action and start to fix its traumatized relations with China.

The top Philippine diplomat has also hinted the possibility of not mentioning the recent arbitration ruling in talks with China.

His words came not much of a surprise. They have echoed what his counterparts in the rest of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have pledged in a statement issued in the Laotian capital of Vientiane earlier this week.

In the statement excluding the arbitration outcome, China and the ASEAN members have pledged to resolve their territorial disputes by parties directly concerned, a policy China has always upheld.

The foreign ministers' meetings in Laos have also proved that any attempt to abuse international law and disturb regional unity, peace and stability would end up as a fool's errand.

In fact, the new Philippine government has expressed a number of times its intention to restart negotiations with China concerning the two sides' dispute in the South China Sea as it fully understands the gravity and necessity of having a functional relationship with the world's second-largest economy and the world's most populous market.

To honor its promise of having direct engagement with China, newly inaugurated Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte and his administration need to distance themselves with the practice of their predecessor's plot of internationalizing the two nations' maritime disputes.

For that end, Manila has to work to reject the meddling hands of Washington and its allies in the region, and refuse to be their cat's paw any longer.

As for Beijing, it would always open its doors for talks as long as China's sovereign rights and territorial integrity are respected.

If the Philippines recognizes such a precondition and puts away the arbitration ruling once and for all, then it is widely believed that it would be just a matter of time for the two sides to bridge their differences and rejuvenate their paralyzed relations.

Related:

China refutes joint statement by U.S., Japan, Australia on South China Sea

VIENTIANE, July 27 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Tuesday refuted a trilateral statement issued by the United States, Japan and Australia which touched upon the South China Sea situation, questioning the trio to be peacekeepers or troublemakers.

Wang made the remarks when attending the 6th East Asia Summit Foreign Ministers' Meeting held in the Lao capital Vientiane, in response to the statement issued by the three countries on Monday evening. Full story

Ramos accepts Duterte's offer to be special envoy to China

MANILA, July 23 (Xinhua) -- Former Philippine President Fidel Ramos told reporters on Saturday that he had accepted the offer of President Rodrigo Duterte to be special envoy to China, media reports said.
MANILA, July 27 (Xinhua) -- The United States does not take a position on the competing sovereignty claims to the land features in the South China Sea, said U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Wednesday.

Kerry made the remarks at a joint press conference with Philippine Foreign Secretary Perfecto Yasay, which was held here at the Department of Foreign Affairs.

Kerry stressed the importance of turning the page over the South China Sea disputes and initiating negotiations and talks among claimants.

He said that in all his recent meetings in the Lao capital Vientiane, there was a consistent focus expressed by everyone there to turn the page on the past confrontations.

In a separate press conference held earlier the day at the Department of Foreign Affairs, Yasay said it is now time for China and the Philippines to proceed with a diplomatic process.

The "legal basis" will now have to give way to the diplomatic process "that we have to pursue precisely for the peaceful resolution of these disputes," he said.

The former Philippine government, headed by Benigno Aquino III, unilaterally initiated the South China Sea arbitration against China in 2013.

The move has violated the Philippines' standing agreement with China to settle relevant disputes through bilateral negotiation, violated China's right to choose means of dispute settlement of its own will as a State Party to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), and abused the UNCLOS dispute settlement procedures.

The ad hoc tribunal issued an award on July 12, siding with Manila's cunningly packaged claims and denying China's long-standing historic rights in the South China Sea.

"The Philippines' territorial claim over part of Nansha Qundao is groundless from the perspectives of either history or international law," the Chinese government said in a white paper issued on July 13.

"The arbitral tribunal established at the Philippines' unilateral request has no jurisdiction over relevant submissions, and awards rendered by it are null and void and have no binding force," said the document.




HANGZHOU, July 27 (Xinhua) -- Every month, Singaporean businessman Phua Soo Huat takes two days off from his own business to work as a mediator in commercial disputes concerning foreigners in Yiwu.

A small-commodity distribution center in east China's Zhejiang Province, Yiwu receives over 400,000 overseas visitors each year. Some 15,000 people from over 100 countries live there.

Phua Soo Huat is among 16 foreign mediators from 15 countries in the city who help solve disputes involving foreigners.

In February 2015, a Pakistani businessman complained that a batch of plastic rings bought from a local seller were short in weight and demanded a full refund.

Phua, who planned to fly to Iran that night, immediately refunded his plane ticket. He explained to the complainant that the weight of the rings allowed for 1-percent error and suggested that the amount of the error be deducted from the refund and the two sides agreed on the refund.

During the past year, he has been involved in more than a dozen disputes. The key to successful mediation, he says, is patience, objectivity and relying on evidence.

Tirera Sourakhata from Senegal is also a part time mediator.

"Every time a foreign businessman enters the mediation office, I can see from their eyes that they are more at ease to see a foreign mediator," he said in fluent Chinese. Sourakhata believes foreign mediators are a simple courtesy to foreign business people.

Sudanese mediator Ahmed Abuzaid Alitirkawy recalled a Sudanese businessman vanishing after ordering commodities with a worth of more than 3 million yuan (450,000 U. S. dollars). Many sellers in Yiwu were not paid. Ahmed went to Sudan, found the man through his personal connections, and got the money back.

The foreign mediators are all volunteers and passionate about their work. As businessmen themselves, they are familiar with trade procedures and all speak good Chinese. Since the system was established three years ago, the team has resolved 287 disputes with a success rate over 96 percent.

The committee room is festooned with the 15 flags of the mediators' home countries. When the flag of Guinea could not be found locally, Guinean mediator Diallo Mamadou Saliou bought some cloth and made one himself.

"It is a great honor for me to be able to help those doing business in Yiwu, just like myself," he said.
ANTANANARIVO, July 27 (Xinhua) -- Malnutrition in Madagascar's prisons is worrying with one of two prisoners in Madagascar is suffering from moderate or severe malnutrition, officials from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said.

Since 2011, the ICRC has set up a program to fight against malnutrition in nearly half of the 42 prisons in Madagascar, identifying every year "extremely vulnerable malnourished within prisoners".

"Over 9,000 detainees were identified as malnourished and supported in 2015," the communication officer of ICRC office in Madagascar told Xinhua. "Approximately up to 30 percent of prisoners are already malnourished in custody," she added.

"Madagascar's government, hit hard by the economic crisis, has more and more difficulty to feed its approximately 22,000 inmates. The budget for the prison administration has dropped to about 70 percent since 2009 with a significant impact on the budget allocated to food for some 22,000 detainees," Narindra Rakotonanahary explained.

In its plan Madagascar's Ministry of Justice want to provide a daily individual ration of 750 grams of cassava, but actually it rarely exceeds 300 grams or less in some prisons.

Incarcerated since June 2015 into the prison of Toliara, 950 kilometers southwest of Antananarivo Madagascar's capital, Jacky Rambeloson suffered by malnutrition a month after his detention, "You die if you don't eat. This is what happens because we get so little to eat. And I can't stop thinking about my problems. So if there's no food either, it's certain death," he complained during a visit in June 2016.

Since June 2016, Jacky became very weak and was hospitalized in late June. Doctors suspected the presence of asymptomatic disease, hidden by his malnutrition.

"When my weight was normal, I never had any pain anywhere. But since December I'm always cold and I feel a tingling sensation all over my body. I quickly realized that I was losing weight," he said.

"It is completely insufficient, both quantitatively in terms of energy production and qualitatively," Brigitte Doppler, the ICRC nutritionist in charge of food program explained. "Prisoners should eat 750 grams per day but in Toliara prison, they get only 400," she added.

According to Doppler, "In the long term, if there is no other calorie intake, the inevitable outcome will be death."

Prison authorities of Madagascar recorded about 150 deaths in the prison population and more than two-thirds were related to malnutrition, more than fifty deaths in 2015, data from the Ministry of Justice showed.

"Besides food, poor access to medicines, the condition of a sick prisoner malnourished, already low, will get worse since he has no access to appropriate care," officials of ICRC talked also about "this very worrying situation for detainees' health."

"The poorest detainees, who don't receive food support provided by friends or family, are the worst off," ICRC officials disclosed.

"The families of inmates often live far from prisons, and are themselves poor and come only rarely or not at all," ICRC officials added.

The southwest part of Madagascar is among the most affected by drought, where 380,000 people were affected in 2015, the poverty rate exceeds the national average and more than 50 percent of municipalities are experiencing alarming vulnerability in the southwestern region, data from the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) said. Enditem
BAGHDAD, July 27 (Xinhua) -- At least two people were killed and eight others wounded on Wednesday in a suicide bomb attack targeting Iraqi police in northern Baghdad, an Interior Ministry source told Xinhua.

A suicide bomber wearing an explosive vest blew himself up in the morning at a police checkpoint in the predominantly Shiite district of Shula, the source said on condition of anonymity.

Several policemen were among the wounded, the source said, citing an initial police report as saying.

The toll could rise as ambulances and police vehicles continue to evacuate the injured people to nearby hospitals and medical centers, the source added.

Iraq has been hit by a new wave of violence since the Islamic State (IS) terrorist group took control of parts of Iraq's northern and western regions in June 2014.

A report by UN Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) estimated that 662 Iraqis have been killed and 1,457 others wounded in acts of terrorism, violence and armed conflict in June across Iraq.

Many blame the current chronic instability, cycle of violence, and the emergence of extremist groups, such as the IS, on the United States that invaded and occupied Iraq in March 2003.
JERUSALEM, July 27 (Xinhua) -- Israeli security forces killed a Palestinian man and arrested three others who allegedly carried out a deadly attack against Israelis earlier this month, the Israeli army said on Wednesday.

The Israeli army, along with the Shin Bet security agency, raided the Palestinian village of Surif, north of Hebron in the West Bank, overnight between Tuesday and Wednesday.

The raid comes after a "month-long pursuit" by security forces to arrest those responsible for a July 1 shooting attack that resulted in the death of an Israeli settler, Rabbi Michael Miki Mark.

"Following a month-long pursuit, security forces arrested three and killed one terrorist responsible for the terror attack on route 60, killing Rabbi Michael Miki Mark," the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement early Wednesday.

The Palestinian who was killed was identified as Mohammad al-Fakih (29). According to the Israeli military, he was killed as clashes ensued between Palestinians and the Israeli security forces.

According to the IDF, the Palestinians were members of a cell which was affiliated with Hamas, the Islamist militant organization.

Rabbi Michael Mark was killed on July 1 in a drive-by shooting on route 60 near Hebron in the West Bank, and his wife was seriously injured. He was a resident of the Jewish settlement of Otniel, in the southern Hebron Hills, where he ran an orthodox seminary.

Israelis and Palestinians have been mired in a wave of violence since October, which claimed the lives of 34 Israelis and 219 Palestinians.

Israeli victims were killed in shooting, stabbing and car-ramming attacks by Palestinians. The Palestinians were killed either in clashes with Israeli security forces during protests or after allegedly carrying attacks against Israelis.

Israeli leaders accuse the Palestinian Authority of inciting to violence amid the wave of unrest.

The Palestinians charge, on their part, the unrest is the result of 49 years of Israeli occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza Strip territories, where they wish to establish their own state.
by Shen Xiaobo

The gate in front of the Hall of Mental Cultivation (Web pic)

BEIJING, July 27 (Xinhua) -- The former imperial office in the Forbidden City, Yang Xin Dian, is under a major renovation, the first since a century ago, with all its budget covered by social donations, according to Shan Jixiang, curator of the Palace Museum.

The centennial renovation of Yang Xin Dian, or the Hall of Mental Cultivation, is part of the overall maintenance project of the Palace Museum, which is scheduled to finish in 2020, right in time for the Forbidden City's 600th anniversary.

The Hall of Mental Cultivation before its renovation (Web pic)

The hall, where many important decisions were made in the history of China's last dynasty of Qing, is home to about 2,000 precious cultural relics, including royal paintings, calligraphy collections and ancient books, said Shan. "Most of the relics have been in the rooms for centuries, and we are working to move them away for renovation."

First built in 1537, the hall gained the highest political significance when it served as the office and residence of the last eight Qing emperors, who also discussed major issues with their ministers there. In the late 19th century, the building also witnessed the early reign of Empress Dowager Cixi when she made decisions on state affairs in the name of Emperor Tongzhi and Emperor Guangxu from behind a screen.

The eastern chamber of the Hall of Mental Cultivation. The chamber is where Empress Dowager Cixi made decisions on state affairs in the name of Emperor Tongzhi and Emperor Guangxu from behind a screen. (Xinhua file pic)

The renovation is more of a scientific research endeavor than a construction project, said Shan. "The entire course is considered as a detailed research on ancient Chinese royal architecture. Different with the previous renovations, we've established 33 research projects related to the hall.The Palace Museum is exploring new mechanisms to conduct a research oriented renovation."

Shan said the research projects are expected to enrich the museum's experience in the conservation and maintenance of historical relics and, more importantly, to revitalize endangered traditional renovation skills among younger generations.

A craftsman is repairing a bronze ware in the Palace Museum. (Xinhua/Zhao Wanwei)

Shan also promised that after the renovation, visitors to Yang Xin Dian will be able to enter the rooms for closer views of the cultural relics. Previously, visitors were only allowed to see the rooms through windows due to the poor condition of the construction.

Social donations

It is estimated that the overall renovation of the Hall of Mental Cultivation would cost a total of 220 million yuan (about 33 million U.S. dollars), forming a financial challenge for the Palace Museum.

The emperor's bedroom in the Hall of Mental Cultivation (Xinhua file pic)

The renovation project for the hall started at the end of 2015 but was still in need of 80 million yuan. Shimao Group, a real estate developer, last week donated 80 million yuan to the Palace Museum, offsetting the gap. The museum previously had received two other donations, 100 million yuan from Ronnie Chan Chi-chung, chairman of the China Heritage Fund based in Hong Kong, and 40 million yuan from Cui Ruzhuo, contemporary Chinese painting master.

"It is the first time that the Palace Museum has accepted donations from society," Shan told media after the donation ceremony with Shimao Group.

Hui Wing Mau, chairman of Shimao Group, said that he hopes "our donation could raise corporate awareness to contribute to the larger course of the protection of Chinese history and culture."

Two workers are cleaning a chair in the Hall of Mental Cultivation before it is moved to another place to make way for the renovation. (Xinhua/Wang Jingqiang)

China has issued a series of policies in recent years encouraging social donations for cultural relics protection.

Shan noted that the ultimate purpose of social fund-raising is to raise the awareness of cultural conservation.

Shan Jixiang, director of the Palace Museum, accepts media interview (Xinhua/Shen Xiaobo)

As a World Cultural Heritage site, the Palace Museum receives an annual allocation of around 100 million yuan from the government, according to Shan. "But by opening the fund-raising channel to society, more people would get to know the status quo of this meaningful project," he said.

All donations are under the operation of the Palace Museum's cultural heritage conservation foundation, according to Shan.

A composite picture of the Palace Museum in the past and current time (Web Pic)
ABUJA, July 27 (Xinhua) -- Nigeria marked a symbolic progress of railway service on Tuesday when its first completed standard gauge railway modernization project assisted by China, was open for commercial operation.

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari flagged off the commercial operation of the rail service, linking the capital city Abuja and the northwestern state of Kaduna, following the smooth completion of the railway construction by China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC).

The completed project is part of the railway modernization initiative by the West African superpower which aims at replacing the existing narrow gauge system with the wider standard gauge system, while allowing high-speed train operations on the railway network.

With nine stations and a design speed of 150 km per hour, the Abuja-Kaduna rail line covers a distance of 186.5 km.

Buhari said the train service will provide the much-needed alternative transport link between the nation's capital city and Kaduna State, a corridor of growing labor force which has a huge potential for industries and agricultural activities.

"We are on the threshold of presenting to Nigerians a standard gauge railway train service that will be safe, fast and reliable," the Nigerian leader said.

Transport Minister Rotimi Amaechi said the project, partly funded by the Export-Import Bank of China, is a significant milestone in the history of Nigeria.

According to him, the completion of this project and the commencement of its commercial operation is a turnaround in the country's transport sector, particularly as it contributes to the development of the economy.

In an interview with Xinhua, Yuan Li, the chairman of CCECC, said the completed rail line would ease the traffic congestion between Abuja and Kaduna.

The railway will reduce the travel time between the two cities to one hour, he added.




French police stand guard near the church which was attacked in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, Seine-Maritime department, France, July 26, 2016. (Xinhua/Zhang Xuefei)

PARIS, July 27 (Xinhua) -- Two knife-wielding attackers, several hostages, and an elderly priest cut throat -- that's a few keywords of the latest terror attack that has rattled the nerves of millions in Europe and beyond, reinforcing the impression that the region is in the cross hair of terrorists.

The attack, which occurred Tuesday morning when churchgoers in the town of Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray in northern France were gathering for the morning mass, is also the latest atrocity claimed by the Islamic State (IS) terrorist group.

An 84-year-old priest named Jacques Hamal was killed and another was seriously wounded. The other hostages were unhurt.

The incident was brief as a police unit specializing in hostage situations responded quickly after receiving a call from an escaped nun and gunned down the two attackers as they tried to flee the church.

Despite low number of casualties, the attack still shocked France and Europe at large as it hit a small town far from bustling cities like Paris and Nice, prompting fears that terrorists have managed to penetrate deeper into the region.

Paris Prosecutor Francois Molins on Tuesday said one of the church attackers was known to intelligence services and tried to join radical insurgents in Syria twice in 2015.

One of the attackers was identified as 19-year-old Adel Karmic, Molins told reporters.

He was arrested twice in 2015 for trying to traveling to Syria using false ID.

Afterward, he had been under house arrest and had been wearing an electronic tag allowing police to trace him. However the device was deactivated for a few hours each morning, Molins said.

The identification of the second attacker was under way, Molins said.

The prosecutor also confirmed that a 16-year-old was placed in custody for investigation.

French President Francois Hollande rushed to the scene shortly after the incident. He condemned the attack as an "heinous crime" and pledged to use all means in the war against terrorism

"The threat is very high ... We are facing the group of Daesh (IS), who declared war on us. We have to battle by all means," he said.

Hollande also called for national unity, saying what these terrorists want is to divide the nation.

He announced earlier this month that he would send artillery to Iraq to reinforce local forces battling the IS.

In a related development, French media reported Tuesday that the police arrested two more people in connection with the massacre in the southern city of Nice.

Investigators were trying to determine if the two men provided logistical support to Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel, the Tunisian man who carried out the truck rampage in Nice, BFMTV reported.

Four men and a woman, who were believed to have been involved in the preparation of the attack, were already detained.

The IS has claimed responsibility for the Nice attack that killed 84 people and injured 300 others.

Related:

What we know about French church attack
BEIJING, July 27 (Xinhua) -- The State Administration of Cultural Heritage (SACH) will launch a campaign to crack down on criminal damage to the Great Wall.

The campaign will involve regular inspections and random checks on protection efforts by authorities in 15 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities.

The SACH will open a special tip line for information about violations and damage to the Great Wall from the public.

Built from the third century B.C. to the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), the Great Wall stretches over 21,000 kilometers from the northwestern province of Gansu to north China's Hebei Province.

According to SACH statistics, about 30 percent of a 6,200-km section of the wall built in the Ming Dynasty has disappeared, and less than 10 percent is considered well-preserved.

The Great Wall has faced threats from both nature and humans. Earthquakes, rain, wind and other natural elements have left the wall with many decayed and crumbling bricks.

Human activities, such as reckless development by some governments and theft of bricks by local villagers for use as building materials, as well as agriculture near the wall, have damaged the landmark, according to research by the China Great Wall Society.

A lack of protection efforts in remote regions and a weak plan for protection have also contributed to the damage, the society added.

In 2006, China released a national regulation on Great Wall protection. However, Great Wall experts have urged local authorities to draw up more practical measures to better implement the regulation.

This year, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region included Great Wall protection expenditures in its budget. The government of Fangcheng City, Henan Province, began a campaign for conservation experts and local residents to work together to protect the wall.
Philippine Foreign Secretary Perfecto Yasay speaks during a joint press conference at the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs in Pasay City, the Philippines, July 27, 2016. (Xinhua Photo by Rouelle Umali)

MANILA, July 27 (Xinhua) -- Philippine Foreign Secretary Perfecto Yasay said Wednesday it is now time for China and the Philippines to proceed with the diplomatic process.

"The legal basis for us to move forward in making sure that our disputes with China is concerned will be resolved peacefully...that legal basis will now have to give way to the diplomatic processes that we have to pursue precisely for the peaceful resolution of these disputes," Yasay told a news conference.

At the same time, Yasay expressed hope that "China will come up with a position that would allow this bilateral talks to proceed."

"We would hope that in the negotiations with China or engagement with China for bilateral talks we would be able to settle our dispute as regards to (South) China Sea within the ambit of international law and the 1982 UNCLOS," he said.

He added that "Whether you would like to say that it will make reference to the arbitral tribunal is something that may or may not happen."

In addition, Yasay said "the case we filed before the arbitral tribunal with respect to our dispute with China concerns China and the Philippines alone."

"And resolving that dispute within the context of international law on UNCLOS is a matter for China and the Philippines to resolve," he said.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry (L) and Philippine Foreign Secretary Perfecto Yasay attend a joint press conference at the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs in Pasay City, the Philippines, July 27, 2016. (Xinhua Photo by Rouelle Umali)
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 27 (Xinhua) -- Kuwait has given the Yemeni warring factions only two weeks to reach a peace deal or leave its land, but the Saudi-backed government and the Houthis have not reached any understanding even when the deadline is drawing near.

In fact, the talks have lasted more than three months, and there still seems no prospect for any breakthrough.

Meanwhile, crises including a humanitarian catastrophe are worsening, as battles near the Saudi-Yemeni borders and across the country are intensifying.

Observers argued that this political failure should be blamed on lack of goodwill from all sides, as it appears to be "a game of conflict and peace by international and regional players in the Middle East."

Ahmed Al-Jabr, a political analyst, said "the international community is not serious about putting an end to the conflict in Yemen. They have failed to execute the UN Security Council's resolutions, especially Resolution 2216."

"Moreover, the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) states are not serious about a military victory at the moment, as if the GCC states see that keeping a balanced military conflict will force the Houthis to accept a political deal," said Al-Jabr.

Practically, each side insists on demands that the other side won't accept.

"The Houthis will not accept disarmament and that is one of the most controversial points standing as a roadblock to any peace deal," Al-Jabr added.

Fuad Alsalahi, a political sociology professor at Sanaa University, said a key reason the peace talks are unproductive is that all sides don't put the country's interest above anything else.

"Yemeni factions are holding talks for one goal: quotas in power. They don't care about the interests of the people," he said.

"The problem is getting worse because the international community is backing this trend. All should give priority to what matters most: catastrophic crises. Just if they think like that, a breakthrough will be made," Alsalahi said.

Hassan Al-Warith, a political writer and analyst, said "Yemeni factions are walking in a vicious circle because they, along with international and regional players, are ignoring the main cause of the crisis in the country."

"There is a Yemeni-Saudi, not Yemeni-Yemeni crisis. The Yemeni government can't make its own decisions. Saudi Arabia makes decisions for it and directs what it should do and what it should not," Al-Warith explained.

Some observers argue that the two sides resumed talks under the pressure from the United Nations, which was a political maneuver rather than willingness to work for peace.

Observers say the UN and key international players are only trying to save face through peace talks, since military intervention has failed and brought catastrophic consequences, especially humanitarian crises.

REQUIRED ACTIONS

Observers argue that peace requires two immediate actions, and the first is to find a way to execute the UN resolutions on Yemen.

The other is to ensure that regional and international players act as facilitators of peace talks.

Actually, military escalation and more crises will ensue if political efforts for reconciliation fail.

Yaseen Al-Tamimi, a political writer and analyst, said "all international positions and efforts should be united to push for implementation of UN resolutions, or push all sides to accept a political solution based on these resolutions."

"But if both do not happen, there will be only one option left to solve the crisis: a military win by the government and the Saudi-led coalition," Al-Tamimi said.

Al-Warith, who sees there is a Saudi-Yemeni instead of Yemeni-Yemeni crisis, said holding Yemeni-Saudi talks could help establish a ground for permanent peace in the country.

"Objectively, foreigners must not be part of the crisis. They should help Yemenis reconcile and lift their country out of suffering. Saudi Arabia has become involved in the crisis directly, which is why there is a need for a Yemeni-Saudi dialogue," he added.

"Above all, Yemenis should rethink their actions. They need to depend on themselves. If Yemenis don't want peace, no one will bring it for them," Al-Warith said.

BACKGROUND

Yemen has been locked in a civil war since the Houthis seized power and overturned the Yemeni government in late 2014.

In March 2015, the Saudi-led coalition launched a bombing campaign to restore the legitimacy of the government. However, the military intervention has deepened the conflict and crises across the country.

The war, along with a blockade by the coalition, has left the country in the worst crisis in decades.

The UN says 82 percent of the total population, around 21 million, need basic aid, with 14 million lacking access to healthcare services and 19 million to safe water.

The war has also left three million displaced, who are now suffering at camps or host families. The latest warning from the UN was that Yemen is on the brink of an economic collapse and around 10 million people, maybe more, are "one step" from famine.
by Xinhua writers Zhou Xiaozheng, Zhu Lei, Lu Jiafei, Xu Jianmei

PHILADELPHIA, United States, July 27 (Xinhua) -- "I was so happy that I cried. I used to ask my God to let me live so I can see this," 102-year-old Geraldine Emmett kept telling reporters who lined up for brief interviews with her on Tuesday.

Just an hour ago, in a state-by-state roll call, the retired educator from Arizona, a delegate to the 2016 Democratic National Convention, announced that Democrats in her state had awarded Hillary Clinton 51 of their total 85 votes.

When the roll call ended, Clinton, the former U.S. first lady and secretary of state, officially won her party's nomination for the 2016 presidential election, becoming the first woman ever nominated for U.S. president by a major political party.

"When I was young, I never dreamed to see a woman become the president of the United States someday," recalled Emmett. The white-haired lady still remembers when women first got to vote in America.

"When I was about 9 years old, Arizona passed the law that women could vote for the first time ever. My mother and I, we were so happy," she said cheerfully.

The second night of the four-day Democratic National Convention was also a moment Clinton's campaign sought to heal the deep wounds in the Democratic Party after a bruising primary season fighting off challenger Bernie Sanders.

After South Dakota cast the decisive 15 votes putting Clinton over the threshold of 2,383 delegates required to clinch the nomination, Sanders made a motion to bring the party's presidential race to a close and formally nominated Clinton.

"Madam chair, I move that the convention suspend the procedural rules. I move that all votes, all votes cast by delegates, be reflected in the official record, and I move that Hillary Clinton be selected as the nominee of the Democratic Party for president of the United States," he said.

The convention burst into cheers as a sea of delegates waved signs with "Love Trumps Hate" logo, some falling into hugs and tears. But no sooner had an emotional Sanders left the convention than a group of about 100 angry and disheartened delegates chanted "Walkout! Walkout!" and stormed into the media pavilion.

Their abrupt walkout caught police officers off guard although tight security measures have preventing pro-Sanders protesters from swarming into the national convention in the wake of a new emails leak scandal plaguing the Democratic Party.

Nearly 20,000 emails leaked on Friday from the Democratic National Committee (DNC) showed that party officials who were supposed to remain neutral during the primary contest grew increasingly agitated with Sanders and his campaign. They even floated ideas to sabotage his candidacy.

Locked in arms, the protesters staged a sit-in protest in the temporarily pitched media tent, holding posters of "Bernie or Bust" and "DNC, You're Fired," and chanting "United together! No TPP! This is for Democracy." About half of the protesters wore a seal on their mouths, with letters of "Silenced by the DNC" written on it.

"We are taken advantage of by the system. We know there is election fraud in some states and it's been ignored," said Caitlin Glidewell, a 20-year-old alternate delegate from the state of Colorado, weeping.

Michelle McFadden-DiNicola, a New Jersey delegate for Sanders, said: "We are here to give voice to those voters and those other people in our country that were silenced in the primary."

"Unfortunately, I don't think many Americans are surprised" by the email scandal, which forced DNC chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz to resign, she said.

Sanders' supporters have long complained that the use of superdelegates and other ways in the primary nomination process were rigged against their champion of "political revolution."

With signature calls for free college tuition for all, universal health care and a hike of the federal minimum wage to 15 U.S. dollars per hour, Sanders has galvanized millions of Democrats throughout his hard-fought primary campaign with Clinton.

"Because of our complacency, we will probably wind up with either Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton. It's unfortunate that we are not angrier about being silenced," McFadden-DiNicola said with a Sanders headband.

"I don't know what I would do in November ... But I do know that we need to keep rather than party unity in focus, we need to keep our country unity in our focus. And I can tell you now that I will not vote for Donald Trump," she said.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry speaks during the joint press conference at the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs in Pasay City, the Philippines, July 27, 2016. (Xinhua/Rouelle Umali)

MANILA, July 27 (Xinhua) -- The United States does not take a position on the competing sovereignty claims to the land features in the South China Sea, said U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Wednesday.

Kerry made the remarks at a joint press conference with Philippine Foreign Secretary Perfecto Yasay, which was held here at the Department of Foreign Affairs.

Kerry stressed the importance of turning the page over the South China Sea disputes and initiating negotiations and talks among claimants.

He said that in all his recent meetings in the Lao capital Vientiane, there was a consistent focus expressed by everyone there to turn the page on the past confrontations.

In a separate press conference held earlier the day at the Department of Foreign Affairs, Yasay said it is now time for China and the Philippines to proceed with a diplomatic process.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry (L, center) and Philippine Foreign Secretary Perfecto Yasay (R, center) attend a joint press conference at the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs in Pasay City, the Philippines, July 27, 2016. (Xinhua/Rouelle Umali)

The "legal basis" will now have to give way to the diplomatic process "that we have to pursue precisely for the peaceful resolution of these disputes," he said.

The former Philippine government, headed by Benigno Aquino III, unilaterally initiated the South China Sea arbitration against China in 2013.

The move has violated the Philippines' standing agreement with China to settle relevant disputes through bilateral negotiation, violated China's right to choose means of dispute settlement of its own will as a State Party to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), and abused the UNCLOS dispute settlement procedures.

The ad hoc tribunal issued an award on July 12, siding with Manila's cunningly packaged claims and denying China's long-standing historic rights in the South China Sea.

"The Philippines' territorial claim over part of Nansha Qundao is groundless from the perspectives of either history or international law," the Chinese government said in a white paper issued on July 13.

"The arbitral tribunal established at the Philippines' unilateral request has no jurisdiction over relevant submissions, and awards rendered by it are null and void and have no binding force," said the document.
VIENTIANE, July 26, 2016 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi(C) speaks to the press after the meetings in Vientiane, capital of Laos, on July 26, 2016. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said here on Tuesday that China and members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have exerted joint efforts to make the ministerial meetings focus on dialogue and cooperation. (Xinhua/Liu Ailun)

VIENTIANE, July 27 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Tuesday called on regional nations to enhance dialogue on bilateral and regional issues and explore precautionary diplomatic models.

After meetings in the Lao capital, Wang said China and members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have exerted joint efforts to make the ministerial meetings focus on dialogue and cooperation, and most of the foreign ministers came to Vientiane with desire for cooperation.

China-ASEAN cooperation is an important platform for China to take part in regional cooperation, Wang said. This year marks the 25th anniversary of China-ASEAN dialogue relationship. The next 25 years will be a period of maturity for the bilateral ties.

"China and the ASEAN nations have agreed to build a closer community of common destiny," said Wang, adding that they have set six priority areas for the further development of China-ASEAN ties.

China and the 10 ASEAN members agreed to jointly strive to boost cultural and people-to-people exchanges as the third pillar for their cooperation besides the political-security dialogue and trade and economic ties.

Meanwhile, China supports the development of the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) with practical actions, calling on the ARF to further promote regional dialogue and cooperation, he said.

At the 23rd ARF, Wang said China always attaches great importance to the role of the ARF and actively participates in the dialogue and cooperation in the ARF framework.

China believes that the ARF should adopt the principle of building trust throughout its whole process and explore precautionary diplomatic models step by step based on consensus, Wang said.

With a generally stable situation, the Asia-Pacific region has gained more important role in the global situation, Wang said. However, the region also faces terrorism, natural disasters, transnational crimes and other forms of nontraditional security threats.

All parties of the ARF should further enhance dialogue and cooperation so as to increase mutual understanding and trust among countries in the region, he said.

China is willing to promote the ARF to make more contributions to regional peace and stability through more dialogue and cooperation with all parties, Wang said.

On the South China Sea issue, China and the ASEAN nations have reached an important consensus that they agreed to return to the right track of solving their disputes through dialogue and consultation, Wang noted.

ASEAN foreign ministers have made it clear that ASEAN as a whole will not take a position on the so-called arbitration case, which they believe is a bilateral issue between China and the Philippines, Wang said.

He also mentioned that China and the ASEAN nations issued a joint statement on full and effective implementation of the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea, which stipulates that disputes should be resolved peacefully through negotiation between the parties directly concerned, and China and ASEAN countries should work together to maintain peace and stability in the South China Sea.

Related:

Chinese FM says ASEAN ministerial meetings focus on dialogue, cooperation

VIENTIANE, July 27 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said here on Tuesday that China and members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have exerted joint efforts to make the ministerial meetings focus on dialogue and cooperation.

Wang told the Chinese media after the meetings in the Lao capital that most of the foreign ministers from 27 countries came to Vientiane with desire for cooperation. Full Story

China supports development of ASEAN Regional Forum with practical actions: FM

VIENTIANE, July 26 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Tuesday that China supports the development of the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) with practical actions, calling on the ARF to further promote regional dialogue and cooperation.
BEIRUT, July 27 (Xinhua) -- The Lebanese army has upped its security measures to counter any acts of sabotage that could be carried out by terror groups, al-Joumhouria daily quoted a senior military source on Wednesday.

Army Commander Gen. Jean Qahwaji will issue his Order of the Day marking Army Day on the first of August pinpointing the elements of danger that could be threatening Lebanon, the daily said, stressing that he will also issue guidance to the military force to maintain high alert to counter any potential menace.

In the same context, al-Mustaqbal daily reported that a senior army delegation visited the southern city of Sidon on Tuesday and surveyed the military units in the city and its suburbs.

The delegation, which was surrounded by tight security procedures, inspected of the army units and checkpoints at the entrance of the Palestinian refugee camp of Ain el-Hilweh and its surrounding.

Intelligence reports, received by the army, cautioned that terrorist groups are seeking to "create major chaos, destruction and terror in the various Lebanese regions, especially in Beirut and its southern suburbs, through targeting gatherings and densely-populated areas."

By long-standing convention, the army does not enter the twelve Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon, leaving the Palestinian factions to handle security themselves.

That has created lawless areas in many camps, and Ain el-Hilweh has gained notoriety as a refuge for extremists and fugitives.

But the camp is also home to more than 54,000 registered Palestinian refugees who have been joined in recent years by thousands of Palestinians fleeing the fighting in Syria.

More than 450,000 Palestinians are registered in Lebanon with the UN agency for Palestinian refugees UNRWA. Most live in squalid conditions in 12 official refugee camps and face a variety of legal restrictions, including on their employment.
CANBERRA, July 27 (Xinhua) -- FBI's investigation into the MH370 captain has offered no new clue to the crash site of the aircraft, the Joint Agency Coordination Center (JACC) said on Wednesday.

In its weekly report, JACC said it has noted recent media reports about the FBI's investigation into the MH370 captain's home flight simulator.

"Media coverage suggested the captain had plotted a course to the southern Indian Ocean and that the disappearance of MH370 was a deliberate planned murder/suicide."

"This type of scenario is not new and has been reported in the media previously," JACC said.

It said that the Malaysian investigation team has been considering this information and "it will be dealt with in its final report."

"The simulator information shows only the possibility of planning. It does not reveal what happened on the night of the aircraft's disappearance, nor where the aircraft is located."

JACC said the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB), the agency in charge of search operation, has worked closely with international experts in satellite communications, aircraft systems, data modelling and accident investigation to form the Search Strategy Working Group to determine the search area.

JACC said that for the purposes of defining the underwater search area, the relevant facts and analysis most closely match a scenario in which there was no pilot intervening in the latter stages of the flight.

"While the flight simulator data provides a piece of information, the best available evidence of the aircraft's location is based on what we know from the last satellite communications with the aircraft. The last satellite communication with the aircraft showed it was most likely in a high rate of descent in the area of what is known as the 7th arc. This is indeed the consensus of the Search Strategy Working Group."

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.

FBI's investigation finds that the flight's captain, Zaharie Ahmad Shah, had used a flight simulator program to fly an eerily similar flight path to that which MH370 ultimately took, less than a month before the aircraft disappeared.

Transport ministers from China, Australia and Malaysia agreed at a meeting on July 22 that the current search operation be suspended if the remaining less than 10,000 square kilometers is scoured and no new evidence emerges.
BEIJING, July 27 (Xinhua) -- Chinese PC maker Lenovo Group has reached a cooperation agreement with e-commerce giant JD.com, aiming to boost sales of its products on JD.com.

According to the contract signed on Tuesday, the two sides plan to sell 60 billion yuan (about 9 billion U. S. dollars) worth of Lenovo products through JD.com in the next three years. The two companies also agreed to work together in meeting demand, precision marketing and rural e-commerce.

JD.com is the largest retail channel for Lenovo products.

Under the agreement, Lenovo has promised to debut some new products on JD.com in the next three years, while JD.com has agreed to provide Lenovo with data analysis, marketing, warehousing, and technology support.

JD.com authorities said the two sides will also cooperate on big data, and share product research, production, sales, and service data.
A boys stands on July 18, 2016 amidst the rubble the house belonging to a Palestinian man accused by Israeli authorities in taking part in an attack in Jerusalem in which an Israeli policewoman was killed, after it was demolished overnight by the army in the village of Qabatiayh, in the occupied West Bank. Israel routinely demolishes homes of Palestinian assailants in what it says is a means to deter further attacks. (Xinhua/AFP Photo)

JERUSALEM, July 27 (Xinhua) -- Israeli authorities have demolished more Palestinian houses in the first half of 2016 than they have throughout the entire previous year, a human rights organization said Wednesday.

The report was compiled by B'Tselem, a human rights group advocating for Palestinians' rights in the occupied territories. It will be presented to the Israeli parliament on Wednesday, amid a conference on Israeli's policy in the West Bank.

According to the report, between January and June 2016, Israeli authorities have demolished 168 homes of Palestinians in the West Bank, leaving 740 Palestinians homeless.

In 2015, the report charges, Israeli authorities demolished 125 homes of Palestinian families, leaving 496 of them homeless.

The report also states that some residents had their houses demolished more than once.

The organization stated that overall in the recent decade, since the beginning of 2006 and up until June 30, 2016, at least 1,113 homes of West Bank Palestinians were demolished, turning approximately 5,200 Palestinians homeless.

According to B'Tselem, the demolitions were mostly carried out in "small, underprivileged communities", located far from Palestinian population centers, primarily in the Jordan Valley, South Hebron Hills and east of Jerusalem.

These demolitions took place in what is known since the 1995 Oslo Accords as Area C, West Bank territories that are under full Israeli civil and security control. Area C compromises 60 percent of the West Bank territories.

Israel occupied the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza Strip territories, home to more than 5 million Palestinians, in the 1967 Mideast War.

"The Israeli authorities impose an impossible daily reality on Palestinian communities by repeatedly demolishing their homes, constantly threatening further demolition and other violations of their rights," the report authors' charged.

The report also charges that the extensive demolitions are part of an Israeli policy intended to "serve Israeli needs" and "establish facts on the ground" that would be hard to alter in any possible future agreement between Israel and the Palestinians.

The demolition of houses mentioned in the report includes houses that were built without permits, the organization stated.

The figures do not include the demolition of homes of Palestinians who carried out attacks against Israelis. Israeli authorities stepped up the demolition of homes of attackers in the past several months amid a wave of unrest that started in October, claiming the lives of 34 Israelis and 219 Palestinians.

"This government policy, systematically implemented for years, constitutes the forcible transfer of Palestinians who are a protected population in an occupied territory, and as such breaches international humanitarian law," B'Tselem said in its report.
DAMASCUS, July 27 (Xinhua) -- Twin bombings rocked the predominantly-Kurdish city of Qamishli in northern Syria on Wednesday, killing six people and injuring 60 others, local media said.

One of the bombings was caused by a booby-trapped vehicle which went off near a headquarter of the Kurdish security force called Assayish in the western neighborhood of Qamishli, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The UK-based watchdog group said the target of the second blast is still unknown, adding that both bombings caused tens of wounded people and huge property losses.

Meanwhile, the state-run Syria TV said six were killed by the bombings, adding that the second blast was caused by an explosive-laden motorcycle.

Qamishli, which is largely controlled by the Kurds, has been the target of repeated bombings by the Islamic State (IS) terror group, due to the enmity and clashes between the Kurdish fighters of the U.S.-backed People' Protection Units and the IS.
LIMA, July 26 (Xinhua) -- Peru's president-elect Pedro Pablo Kuczynski will have to tackle the challenges of poverty, sluggish economy and rising crime, an economist said here on Tuesday.

"His first challenge is to reduce poverty," Maria Isabel Osterloh from Peru's Economic Research Institute told Xinhua two days before Kuczynski takes office on Thursday.

"During his campaign, many of those supporting Kuczynski were from the southern region, where a great number of people are living in poverty," noted Osterloh.

Some 7 million Peruvians, making up 25 percent of the entire population, live in poverty, according to official figures.

Social programs put in place by the outgoing government of President Ollanta Humala have failed to solve the fundamental problem, said Osterloh.

"Social programs can mitigate poverty, and perhaps reduce it, but they are not sustainable. I believe they have to create more jobs for the population," she said.

"The second challenge is economic growth, keeping in mind that we are going to grow about 3.7 percent," less than the average 5 to 6 percent growth Peru has seen in recent years, as a result of a lower demand for exports, she added.

Alfredo Thorne, Kuczynski's nominated economy minister, said he is concerned about the size of Peru's informal economy, taking up 70 percent of the entire workforce.

Kuczynski's campaign pledges and his experiences in the private sector -- working for international investment banks and a mining company, as well as the World Bank -- have raised hopes he can help jump-start the economy, said Osterloh.

However, promising to cut red tape to help boost economy, Kuczynski will have to face a political opposition that holds an absolute majority in Congress, said the economist.

The Popular Force party, though defeated in the election, could throw a wrench in the new administration's national plans for the 2016-2021 period.

Kuczynski has to seek a pollical coalition, said the economist, adding that "he has to make agreements in a smart way."

Primarily, in a bid to spur economic growth, Kuczynski announced his first official trip would likely be to China, in the hope of promoting Peruvian exports and attract foreign investment.

Thanks to a free trade agreement that took effect in March 2010, China has now become Peru's largest foreign market, with a bilateral trade volume of 14.4 billion U.S. dollars a year.

According to Osterloh, the third challenge is rising crime, one of the factors affecting the country's economic development.

In the past five years, an uptick in street crime has had a negative impact on investment and economic activity in general, she said.

A study by the Lima Chamber of Commerce showed that crime cost the state 6 percent of GDP in 2015, up by 1.5 percent year-on-year.

The first step to improve security is to make Peruvian National Police (PNP) more efficient by bolstering its crime-fighting capabilities, Osterloh believes.

The government needs "to work with the judicial branch" to provide a followup to police work, she added.
HANOI, July 27 (Xinhua) -- As many as 202 enterprises on average dissolve and halt operation each day Vietnam in the first seven months of 2016 in Vietnam, according to the Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI) on Wednesday.

In seven-month period, the number of companies completing dissolution procedures hits 6,422. Other 13,656 have registered to suspend business for a certain period while 22,550 halt operation and wait for dissolution, Vietnam's state-run radio VOV quoted the MPI as saying.

Most dissolving and operation-halting companies are small-scale with capital of less than 10 billion Vietnamese dong (448,430 U.S. dollars), accounting for around 92.4 percent of total figure, some 1.67 percent higher than that of the same period of 2015.

On contrary, some 16,706 companies have resumed operation in January-July period.

At the same time, a total of 64,122 companies are newly granted licenses with registered capital of 496.958 trillion Vietnamese dong (22.28 billion U.S. dollars). These firms are estimated to create 774,346 jobs during the period, said the MPI.
BUENOS AIRES, July 26 (Xinhua) -- The Argentinean government announced Tuesday that Chinese tourists, who have already owned a valid tourism visa for the United States or the European Union (EU), will no longer need a separate tourist visa for Argentina.

Instead, Chinese travellers will apply for an Electronic Travel Authorization, a document which is easier to obtain than a visa.

However, tourists without valid visas for the United States or the EU "must request their visas at Argentinean consulates, as stipulated in bilateral agreements," explained the statement.

"It seems reasonable to consider the usual checks carried out by Argentinean consulates as complete, if they (Chinese tourists) have obtained visas for countries with rigorous control criteria," a Gazette said.

In April, Argentina's Tourism Minister Gustavo Santos said that his country wanted to multiply by 10 the number of Chinese visitors in 2019, compared to the 40,000 seen in 2015.

Chinese ambassador to Argentina, Yang Wanming, told Xinhua that the new visa policies announced by the Argentinean government will attract more Chinese tourists.

"We hope these policies are implemented as soon as possible," added the diplomat.
BEIJING, July 27, 2016 (Xinhua) -- Liu Yunshan (L front), a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, meets with foreign representatives at the 2016 Media Cooperation Forum on the Belt and Road in Beijing, capital of China, July 27, 2016. (Xinhua/Rao Aimin)

BEIJING, July 27 (Xinhua) -- A senior Communist Party of China (CPC) official on Wednesday called on media organizations to create a sound environment for promoting the Belt and Road Initiative.

Liu Yunshan, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, made the comment when meeting with foreign representatives at the 2016 Media Cooperation Forum on the Belt and Road.

The Belt and Road refers to the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st-Century Maritime Silk Road, a trade and infrastructure network connecting Asia with Europe and Africa along ancient trade routes.

"Media organizations can enhance cooperation through personnel exchanges and sharing news products to increase understanding of people in countries along the routes," Liu told the representatives.

"Media organizations can work jointly to create a sound environment for building a green, healthy, intelligent and peaceful Silk Road," Liu said.

The conference, hosted by the "People's Daily," has attracted participants from 212 media institutions in 101 countries.
DAMASCUS, July 27 (Xinhua) -- Islamic State (IS) group claimed responsibility for the suicide bombings killing 31 people in Syria's northeastern city of Qamishli on Wednesday.

A short statement, released by its official Amaq news agency, said that one of its suicide bombers detonated an explosive-laden truck into a security compound of the Kurdish security forces of Assayish, in the western neighborhood of Qamishli.

Meanwhile, the national Syrian TV said 31 people were killed and over 170 others wounded by two blasts in Qamishli.

It added that the death toll is still preliminary, noting that the rescue teams are still removing bodies from under the rubble.

Qamishli, which is largely controlled by the Kurds, has been the target of repeated bombings by the IS terror group, due to the enmity and clashes between the Kurdish fighters of the U.S.-backed People' Protection Units and the IS.
BEIJING, July 27 (Xinhua) -- Severe flooding across large parts of the country has raised fresh concerns about food safety.

Since the rainy season began in early June, millions of domestic animals have been washed away in flooding, authorities said.

In Anhui Province, one of the worst-hit areas, about 80,000 pigs and more than 12 million chickens and ducks were carried off by floodwaters.

In Hubei Province, more than 80,000 pigs and over 3.6 million chickens and ducks died, while in Jiangxi Province, about 5.2 million chickens and ducks were lost.

Many are worried that the meat might find its way to markets around the country.

China's food safety credentials took a hit when high-profile food scandals shook consumer confidence, particularly in 2008 when melamine-tainted baby formula caused at least six infant deaths and made a further 300,000 ill.

In recent years, public anger has mounted over reports that illicit pork has found its way on to Chinese dinner tables. Illegal vendors reportedly salvage dead animals from rivers or lakes, before processing and selling the meat. Last year, police in southern China's Guangdong Province dealt with a case in which suspects sold more than 3,500 kg of tainted pork each day, according to the provincial public security bureau.

"There are floods everywhere, and I'm worried that I might accidently eat meat from drowned pigs or chickens," said Mao Xiaoli, a resident in Xinjian County, Jiangxi.

Some regions have properly handled the dead animals. In Xiushui County, Jiangxi, farmers buried pigs killed in recent floods.

"As required, the pigs were buried at least two meters deep. We used three giant excavators to dig the holes," said Zheng Guangcai, head of local veterinary services.

Others appeared more casual about carcass disposal. In Anqing city, Anhui, the head of a local farming cooperative said that about 2,000 drowned ducks were simply "thrown away."

"There are too many and it is impossible to handle them all properly," he said.

In Xuancheng City, Anhui, floods killed or washed away more than five million chickens and ducks.

"About 60,000 ducks in our village were washed away this year, and we still have not found them," said Hu Yiqun, a village leader in Xuancheng's Huaining County.

Last week, Anhui government issued a notice demanding supervisors prevent such meat from reaching the dinner table.

An Anhui government official said that illegal meat processing is difficult to spot because "there are too many places to check in a vast area."

"Some illegal processors just salvage the dead animals from the water and sell them direct to consumers," he said. "Some use the meat to make products like sausages."

Zhu Liangqiang, head of Anhui Provincial Center for Animal Disease Control and Prevention, said that it was essential for the government to prevent any illegal meat from entering the market by strict supervision of transportation, processing and sourcing of animals.

"Only with tight supervision can we guarantee food safety," he said.
LILONGWE, July 27 (Xinhua) -- Malawi President Peter Mutharika has ordered the immediate arrest of Eric Aniva, a Malawian who told BBC that he had slept with over 100 girls as young as 12, and women as part of a so-called traditional "cleansing."

Aniva, who is in his 40s, confessed to BBC that he has HIV yet he has been sleeping with the women and the girls without any protection as demanded by the "cleansing" tradition.

His story hit the international media over the past weekend and continues to make headlines across the globe.

According to the BBC's correspondent, Ed Butler, Aniva is nicknamed "hyena of the village" and as a hyena, his role of "cleansing" women and girls is acceptable in the society he lives in and he gets paid between 4 and 7 U.S. dollars for it.

President Mutharika, through a statement signed by his Press Secretary Mgeme Kalirani, ordered an immediate arrest of Aniva "the hyena," describing his acts as deplorable, disturbing and unacceptable.

"As the Malawi leader and Commander-in-Chief of the Malawi Police Service, the President has directed the Police to immediately arrest Mr. Eric Aniva, investigate him and take him to court forthwith for the defilement cases which he apparently confesses to," reads the statement.

The statement continues: "And since Mr. Eric Aniva confesses to be HIV positive and that he never uses protection in his evil acts against the innocent girls and women, he should further be investigated for exposing the young girls to contracting HIV and further be charged accordingly."

Mutharika has also directed the Police, the District Commissioner and Chiefs in the district to investigate all men and parents involved in the shocking malpractice and that all people involved in the malpractice should be held accountable for subjecting their children and women to the deplorable act.

"While we must promote positive cultural values and positive socialization of our children, harmful cultural and traditional practices cannot be accepted in this country," further reads Mutharika's statement.

Mutharika says the horrific practices, although done by a few people, also tarnish the image of the whole nation of Malawi internationally and bring shame to all Malawians.

Maximum sentence for defilement in Malawi is life Imprisonment with Hard Labor.
SUVA, July 27 (Xinhua) -- Fijian President Jioji Konrote received a sum of 500,000 Fiji dollars (240,350 U.S. dollars) Wednesday from Chinese Ambassador Zhang Ping for the repairs to the fence at the Presidential Compound, thanking China for the timely assistance.

"I thank you sincerely for your offer to help with the repair of the fence at the Presidential Compound. This assistance is of course in addition to the ongoing and deepening bilateral relations and cooperation between our two countries," Konrote said, adding that he is honored to receive the grant on behalf of the government and people of Fiji, a tropical island country vulnerable to natural disasters such as hurricanes.

The existing fence at Fiji's Presidential Compound was built in 2009, also through a grant from the Chinese government.

"You will certainly have seen the deteriorating state of the fence and this is why I am very grateful for your timely assistance," Konrote told Zhang.

The repairs project will bring a lot of pride to the people of Fiji upon its completion, said Konrote.

"I intend to open up the State House and the Presidential Compound when all the upgrading works have been completed so that interested Fijians may visit and appreciate the property, which in essence belongs to all Fijians. I am sure that tourists will also appreciate visiting Fiji's Presidential Compound and State House during the open days," Konrote said.

The Fijian president said he looks forward to strengthening the existing friendly relations, which will have a positive and fruitful effect on the people of the two countries.
BEIJING, July 27 (Xinhua) -- General Secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee Xi Jinping called for the building of strong armed forces through military reform Tuesday.

Xi presided over a meeting of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, focusing on national defense and military reform.

He said that the reform was a comprehensive and revolutionary change, and called for addressing systemic obstacles and policy issues in reforms, in a bid to build strong armed forces commensurate with China's international status.
LOME, July 27 (Xinhua) -- The tripartite talks bringing together Africa, China and the U.S., which in 2014 were only meant to discuss peace issues, will this year focus on maritime security and the blue economy.

Revelations in this regard were made on Tuesday by the Director for Political Affairs in Togo's Foreign Ministry, Dr. Bakayota Koffi Kpaye, during an interview with Xinhua.

The initiative by the Carter Center will be held on Wednesday and Thursday in Lome, in the run up to an extraordinary summit of the African Union (AU) on maritime security and development in Africa in October.

"There have been two editions of the tripartite talks but it is the first time they are taking place in Africa and it is good Togo was chosen to host them," Kpaye said.

He recalled that at the start, the tripartite talks initiated by the Carter Center, named after ex-U.S. President Jimmy Carter, were meant to end the war in South Sudan.

"They were meant to see how the Center could contribute through informal channels to the peace process in the country," he said, adding that the talks equally included "ways to fight epidemics such as Ebola which was spreading in parts of the African continent."

Kpaye said the Lome meeting will discuss maritime security and the blue economy in the Gulf of Guinea as well as peace issues in the Sahel region.

He noted that the themes of the talks will be discussed with a view of identifying areas of collaboration between Africa and China as well as the U.S.

The Lome talks were organized in collaboration with the Togolese government and the UN Bureau for West Africa and the Sahel.

"Today, the major concerns for our sub-region and the entire continent are issues of peace and security. When we speak of peace and security, we refer to issues of terrorism, organized crime and all forms of trafficking. In this regard, Togo is in the process of preparing an ordinary session for AU presidents on maritime security and safety as well as development," he said.

Speaking of the blue economy, Kpaye noted that "our seas and oceans contain enormous resources. The whole of Africa is surrounded by oceans but Africa has not managed to reap maximum benefits from resources within its seas and oceans, and instead oceans have become sources of insecurity and channels of trafficking."

It is in this regard, he said, that Togo was planing to bring all African leaders and policy makers to reflect on how to improve security in our seas and oceans, and how the continent could reap maximum benefits from the seas and oceans for its development.

Although the director for political affairs said Africa had began fighting against ills that had negatively impacted its development, especially insecurity, he acknowledged that there was persistent insecurity and the continent had not found lasting solutions to conflicts, banditry and all forms of trafficking.

He expressed confidence that the Lome tripartite talks will help to come up with ideal solutions to the challenges facing Africa. Enditem
ANKARA, July 27 (Xinhua) -- The total number of Fethullahist Terror Organization (FETO) terrorists in our military is 8,651, or 1.5 percent of the entire Armed Forces, Turkish General Staff stated on Wednesday.

There are 8,651 military personnel who belong to the Fethullahist Terror Organization (FETO) and were involved in the failed coup attempt, Turkish General Staff stated.

He added that 35 jets, 239 armored vehicles, 37 helicopters, seven tanks and three ships were used in the attempted coup, or 7 percent of jets, 8 percent of helicopters, and 2.7 percent of tanks of the entire army.

Meanwhile, an Istanbul prosecutor issued detention warrants for 47 former executives of Zaman which is a media group thought to be linked to the U.S.-based Islamic scholar Fethullah Guen.

The warrant issue was part of the FETO investigation, also blaming Zaman for the failed July 15 coup attempt.

Istanbul's counter-terrorism police forces have searched the residences of former Zaman executives and journalists during the early hours of July 27 following a direct order by the deputy public prosecutor, Fuzuli Aydogdu, to detain 47 suspects in the investigation.

The journalists are accused of belonging to the armed terrorist organization, attempting to overthrow the Turkish government and interfering directly or indirectly in state duties, in addition to receiving suspicious press release funds from the state whilst circulation was irregular.
BEIJING, July 27 (Xinhua) -- The former vice mayor of Zhangjiajie in central China's Hunan Province, Cheng Danfeng, has been formally charged with using his influence to receive kickbacks, the Supreme People's Procuratorate (SPP) said Wednesday.

Cheng is the son-in-law of Su Rong, the former vice chairman of the National Committee of Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, the country's top political advisory body.

He is accused of taking advantage of Su's influence as the Communist Party chief of Jiangxi province to secure illicit benefits for others, and in return received "extremely huge sum" of bribes, according to the procuratorate of Zhuzhou, another city in Hunan, where the case will be tried.

Su was charged with taking advantage of his positions to seek benefits for others, accepting a huge amount of bribes and abuses of power that caused "great losses" to the state, the SPP announced earlier this month.
NEW YORK, July 28, 2016 (Xinhua) -- The video on South China Sea is displayed on one of the giant electronic billboards at Times Square in New York, the United States, July 25, 2016. A video on South China Sea has been displayed recently on one of the giant electronic billboards at Times Square in New York City, explaining the historical and legal basis backing China's indisputable territorial sovereignty and rights in the region. (Xinhua/Qin Lang)

NEW YORK, July 27 (Xinhua) -- A video on South China Sea has been displayed recently on one of the giant electronic billboards at Times Square in New York City, explaining the historical and legal basis backing China's indisputable territorial sovereignty and rights in the region.

The video, produced by China Review Studio, also clarifies the truth behind the arbitration tribunal farce and reiterates that disputes in the South China Sea should be settled through negotiations.

The video shows the stunning scenery of Nanhai Zhudao (the South China Sea Islands), and narrates a history illustrating that China was the first to have discovered, named, explored and exploited Nanhai Zhudao and he relevant waters, and the first to have continuously, peacefully and effectively exercised sovereignty and jurisdiction over the area.

The video, which runs three minutes and 12 seconds, also features several experts and officials worldwide who defend China's position on the South China Sea disputes.

In the video, the President of China's National Institute for South China Sea Studies Wu Shicun said that China's indisputable sovereignty over Nanhai Zhudao has sufficient historial and legal basis.

Meanwhile, the Former Policy Director of Economic and Business Policy of London John Ross pointed out that arbitration should be between two parties who want to participate.

Both Catherine West, the shadow secretary of State for Foreign Affairs of the British Labour Party, and Masood Khalid, the ambassador of Pakistan to China, believed the best way to resolve the disputes is negotiations between the parties directly concerned.

Broadcast of the video came after a law-abusing tribunal in The Hague on July 12 issued an ill-founded award on South China Sea arbitration case unilaterally initiated by the former Philippine government.

China has reiterated its stance of non-participation in and non-acceptance of the arbitration. To fully respect international law and justice, China will never recognize the verdict and never be "forced" into accepting it.

The video, which is being played about 120 times a day from July 23 to August 3, has attracted many eyeballs, with some Chinese tourists in the Big Apple saying that it is necessary to let the world know the truth regarding the issue.

The video has also triggered strong approval among Chinese residing in New York.

Ma Yue, the President of China Council for the Promotion of Peaceful National Reunification in New York, said the video defines China's position towards the so-called South China Sea tribunal and facts will eventually disprove those fallacies presented by the tribunal.

Times Square is one of the most popular tourist spots across the world attracting hundreds of millions of visitors every year.

Related:

Chinese FM says ASEAN ministerial meetings focus on dialogue, cooperation

VIENTIANE, July 27 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said here on Tuesday that China and members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have exerted joint efforts to make the ministerial meetings focus on dialogue and cooperation.

Wang told the Chinese media after the meetings in the Lao capital that most of the foreign ministers from 27 countries came to Vientiane with desire for cooperation. Full Story

China supports development of ASEAN Regional Forum with practical actions: FM

VIENTIANE, July 26 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Tuesday that China supports the development of the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) with practical actions, calling on the ARF to further promote regional dialogue and cooperation.
DHAKA, July 27 (Xinhua) -- Police in Bangladesh capital Dhaka have released images of nine persons killed in a raid on a hideout of banned Islamist outfit Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) in capital Dhaka.

Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) published the images of the militant suspects, aged from 20 to 24, in its Facebook page and made a plea to the people to provide information on them.

Bangladesh law enforcers on Tuesday conducted the raid on the hideout of banned JMB, which is campaigning for establishment of Islamic rule in Bangladesh.

A.K.M. Shahidul Hoque, inspector general of Bangladesh Police, had earlier said the banned militant outfit plotted to carry out an attack similar to a July 1 attack in Dhaka's Gulshan diplomatic area in which 20 people were killed when armed gunmen stormed a restaurant, to boast about their existence.

Bangladeshi law enforcers has stepped up its efforts in fighting terrorism and militancy.
TALLINN, July 27 (Xinhua) -- Estonia confirmed on Tuesday that following Brexit, Estonia will hold the presidency of the EU place half a year earlier, in the second half of 2017, according to Estonian Public Broadcasting (ERR).

Estonian Prime Minister Taavi Roivas said that Estonia will take over the presidency of the Council of the EU when the union is faced with the task of making fundamental choices regarding its future.

"We will manage the coordination of the EU presidency occurring half a year early, just fine, and we will not make any concessions on quality," Roivas was quoted in the ERR report on Tuesday night, which however, failed to mention on what occasion the prime minister made the announcement.

It means that Estonia's presidency of the EU will no longer coincide with the nation's centennial as originally scheduled for the first half of 2018.

Shortly following British decision to leave the EU, Estonia said it would be ready to move up its scheduled presidency if needed. Preparations immediately began for the new period as well.

"The presidency (of the EU) is not something with which to play hot potato or haggle with its timing due to domestic affairs -- if necessary, then it must be done," stated the prime minister. "Now we have some final clarity and we can continue with already initiated preparations at an accelerated pace."

Downing Street confirmed on July 20, British Prime Minister Theresa May had told European Council President Donald Tusk that Britain will not take over the presidency next year.

Since a consensus could not be reached regarding the possibility for Belgium to take over British scheduled presidency, a proposal was made to shift all schedule forward by six months.

According to the new schedule, Estonia will be taking over the presidency from Malta, and will be followed in 2018 first by Bulgaria, then by Austria.

The presidency rotates between the 28 EU member states on a six-monthly basis, giving each the opportunity to shape the agenda.
JERUSALEM, July 27 (Xinhua) -- Israeli police arrested 52 Palestinians during an overnight enforcement operation in East Jerusalem between Tuesday and Wednesday, said Israeli police Wednesday.

700 Israeli policemen and border guards were involved in the overnight enforcement operation in the East Jerusalem Palestinian neighborhoods of Issawiya and Ras al-Amud, police spokeswoman Luba Samri said.

Those arrested are suspected of being involved in criminal activities, rock throwing at Israelis and other public disturbances, as well as drug and property offenses.

In addition to the arrested 52, a further 28 Palestinians were summoned for questioning.

Representatives from the National Insurance Institute, the Jerusalem Municipality sanitation and environmental services departments and the Israeli Tax Authority were also involved in the operation.

Samri explained in the statement that the operation, the third of its kind this year, is aimed to curb illegal activities in these neighborhoods and to improve infrastructure and services for law-abiding citizens.

"The goal of the operation was to firmly deal with those involved in criminal activities and violating public order, in addition to improving the quality of life for law-abiding residents," the police spokeswoman added.

300,000 Palestinians currently live in East Jerusalem.

Israel occupied East Jerusalem, along with the West Bank, Gaza Strip and Golan Heights territories, in the 1967 Mideast War.

It then annexed East Jerusalem in 1981, in a move deemed illegal by the international community.

Palestinians living in East Jerusalem suffer from poor infrastructure and inadequate services.

About 82 percent of Palestinians live in poverty in densely-populated neighborhoods with high crime rates, according to a recent report by the Jerusalem Institute, an Israeli research center.

They rarely receive municipality approval to construct new buildings, creating a severe housing problem there, and the municipality estimates the existence of 20,000 unauthorized residential units and public buildings in those territories.

Earlier this week, Israeli authorities tore down 20 illegal structures in the East Jerusalem Palestinian neighborhoods of Kalandia and Issawiya.
SANAA, July 27 (Xinhua) -- A bomb ripped through a crowded qat market in Yemen's government-held city of Marib on Wednesday, killing at least four people and wounding 20 others, a provincial official said.

The source said that the bomb was planted near the shops by unknown persons who apparently aimed to target loyalist soldiers buying qat at noon.

Qat is the leaves of a Yemeni shrub, which are chewed as a stimulant, and is mainstay of Yemenis social life.

Marib, 173 km east of the capital Sanaa, has been under control of Shiite Houthi rebels since 2014.

Houthis, on their media, blamed the blast on the "Saudi-led aggression's mercenaries," a reference to the Saudi-led military coalition-backed Yemeni government forces.

The latest violence comes as the gvernment and Houthi rebels have been in UN-brokered peace talks in Kuwait since April in bids to end a 15-month civil war in Yemen that killed over 6,400 people, half of them civilians.
BEIJING, July 27 (Xinhua) -- At least two people were killed and 19 others injured in a shooting incident at a nightclub hosting a teen party Monday in Fort Myers, Florida.

The shooting took place at a parking lot of Club Blu just after 00:30 a.m. local time (0430 GMT) on Monday morning.

Police have detained three people after the attack, but it is still unclear who is responsible for the incident.

It has been the second mass shooting incident in Florida this year. The first one took place last month, in which an Afghan-American man named Omar Mateen of Port St. Lucie attacked a gay club in Orlando on June 12, claiming 50 lives and causing 53 injuries.

The shooting began at around 2:00 a.m. local time (0600 GMT) on June 12. Mateen was found dead in the nightclub after a shootout with the police.

The terrorist group the Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the Orlando nightclub massacre, and the FBI was "highly confident" that Mateen had been radicalized online.

On July 7, a sniper named Micah Johnson, upset over the police shooting incidents in Louisiana and Minnesota on July 5-6 which caused the deaths of two black men, ambushed and killed five police officers and wounded seven others and two civilians in Dallas, Texas.

According to the group Mass Shooting Tracker, there have been as many as 207 mass shooting incidents in the United States so far this year, while the Orlando attack has been the deadliest in the U.S. history.

In the past five years, an average of about 33,000 people were killed by guns each year in the United States, according to the data released by the U.S. Center of Disease Control.

Due to an increasing number of shooting accidents, satisfaction with the country remains low, as only twenty-one percent of U.S. voters think the country is headed in the right direction, the lowest level of confidence in nearly three years of surveying, according to a new Rasmussen Reports survey released last Saturday.

Following the successive mass shootings, a debate over gun control has been aroused nationwide. According to the Rasmussen Reports survey, fifty-six percent of voters said the country needs stricter gun control, reaching the highest level of support ever. Still, voters were evenly divided over whether more gun purchase restrictions will help prevent future shooting incidents.

The gun legislation failed again as four gun-control measures were blocked by the U.S. Senate on July 20. The measures include whether to expand background check and to block the selling of firearms to anyone on federal government's terrorism watch list.
BEIJING, July 27 (Xinhua) -- Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi rolled out its first laptop on Wednesday, testing the waters in a market that has been eroded by premium productivity tablets.

The laptop, called Mi Notebook Air, sells for 4,999 yuan (around 749 U.S. dollars) for a 13.3-inch display. It runs on Microsoft's Windows 10 operating system and is powered by Intel's Core 5 processor, a discrete graphics card and expandable storage. A slimmed-down version for office use is also available for 3,499 yuan.

The laptop is priced at a discount compared to many models with similar specifications from leading brands such as Lenovo, Dell, HP and Apple. It is the Beijing-based firm's latest attempt to press ahead with its strategy of releasing top-spec devices at low prices.

"Xiaomi will continue to roll out budget devices with key components in the same league as those on premium devices," said Xiaomi co-founder Lei Jun during Wednesday's product launch in Beijing.

The company also launched a new phone under its budget smartphone line RedMi. The RedMi Pro is powered by MediaTeK's flagship processor Helio X25 and sells for between 1,499 and 1,999 yuan depending on specifications.

Xiaomi's chief domestic rival, Huawei, rolled out a tablet computer with Windows 10 and a detachable keyboard earlier this year.

Global PC shipments have declined for seven consecutive quarters as of the second quarter this year, according to tech consultancy Gartner. Lenovo, the world's top PC maker, reported a drop in shipments of 2.2 percent in the second quarter, while Apple, ranked fifth, posted a 4.9-percent drop in the same period. On the Chinese mainland, shipments slid 6.4 percent as a slowing economy bit into demand for PCs by both businesses and consumers, Gartner said.

Analysts have attributed part of the decline in the PC market to a shift to tablet computers that can handle productivity needs. Devices such as the Microsoft Surface tablet and Apple's iPad Pro have sought to replace PCs for consumers who seek a combination of productivity and mobility.

"As a device, the tablet is going through a period of recalibration as productivity becomes more important [and] enterprises purchase more touchscreen and mobile-first devices for a new generation of workers," said Eric Smith, an analyst at tech consultancy Strategy Analytics.

"We expect [PC] shipments to continue their slow decline over the next couple of years, during which the usefulness, quality, and average selling prices of tablets [will] grow," Smith added.

While its China release is scheduled for August 2, Xiaomi has yet to announce details about the availability of its laptop elsewhere. Huawei has been selling its Matebook tablet in Europe as well as China and other emerging markets. Both companies face hurdles in selling consumer electronic devices in the United States.

The duo has been locked in a breakneck battle over market share for consumer electronics, but the companies have employed increasingly different approaches. While Xiaomi has continued to push forward its strategy of packing impressive specs into budget devices, Huawei has sought to create premium products for higher margins.

Huawei said earlier this week that its consumer segment reported a revenue increase of 41 percent to 77.4 billion yuan on top of a 25-percent increase in shipments in the first half of the year.
JAKARTA, July 27 (Xinhua) -- Indonesia is set to execute 14 drug convicts including 10 foreigners and four Indonesians this week, attorney general office disclosed on Wednesday.

"A total of 14 people (are to face the execution)," Attorney General HM Prasetyo said at the attorney general office.

Prasetyo stressed that all the convicts for the death penalty have been transferred to the Nusakambangan prison.

Indonesia has beefed up security at Nusakambangan prison located in Central Java province and the preparations for the execution have been completed, the attorney general said.

The foreign nationals were from Nigeria, India, Pakistan, South Africa, and Zimbabwe, according to the office.

Indonesia executed 14 people convicted of drug crimes last year.

President Joko Widodo has declared war against drug crimes in the country which has been at an alarming level in recent years.

Around 50 people are killed every day by consuming drugs in Indonesia, according to Widodo.


Elephants are seen at the Maasai Mara National Reserve, Kenya, July 23, 2016. The Maasai Mara National Reserve, popularly known as Africa's Greatest Wildlife Reserve, is a great tourist attraction center as it offers visitors an opportunity to watch the Africa's "big five": lion, cheetah, elephant, buffalo, and rhino. (Xinhua/Pan Siwei)

KIGALI, July 27 (Xinhua) -- Environment experts from Africa and beyond have called on African governments to put much emphasis on the restoration of forests on degraded land as part of the global efforts to address climate change hazards.

They made the remarks on Tuesday while speaking at the Africa high level Bonn Challenge roundtable, and the international knowledge sharing meeting on forest landscape restoration (FLR) in the Rwanda capital Kigali.

Rwanda is hosting the forum from July 26 to 27, which seeks to boost global forest landscape restoration commitments to 150 million hectares by 2020.

The Bonn Challenge is a global ambition to restore 150 million hectares of the world's deforested and degraded lands by 2020 and 350 million hectares by 2030. It was launched by world leaders at a ministerial roundtable in Bonn, Germany, in September 2011.

Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the meeting, Luther Bois Anukur, regional director for Eastern and Southern Africa at International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) said that African continent has lost more than half its forests due to human encroachment which puts the continent in the dangers of climate change.

"We call upon our leaders and policy makers across Africa to ensure the global forest landscape restoration commitment is implemented. With their support, we are confident the ambitious targets of the Bonn Challenge will be achieved across the continent," he stated.

Bois Anukur pointed out that climate change will worsen conditions across Africa's dry lands in the next few years, which are already affected by desertification, if forests are not restored on time.

The Bonn Challenge event has brought together participants including ministers, environment experts and conservationist from more than 20 African countries that have demonstrated leadership on forest landscape restoration.

At the meeting, delegates are expected to deliberate key aspects for the success of the implementation of FLR including policy, finance opportunities, and assessment of restoration opportunities on-the-ground.

A lion rests at the Maasai Mara National Reserve, Kenya, July 23, 2016. The Maasai Mara National Reserve, popularly known as Africa's Greatest Wildlife Reserve, is a great tourist attraction center as it offers visitors an opportunity to watch the Africa's "big five": lion, cheetah, elephant, buffalo, and rhino. (Xinhua/Pan Siwei)

Nii Osah Mills, Ghana minister of lands and natural resources, emphasized on the importance of allocating more funds to forest restoration in degraded areas by African governments.

"We are talking about planting millions of trees on degraded lands in our countries, but we are forgetting to put into consideration the amount of money needed to ensure the success of this activity. We urge African government across the continent increase expenditures on forestry activities," he said.

Osah Mills noted that Ghana targets to restore about 2.6 million hectares by 2017.

According to meeting organizers, new pledges of forest restoration by individual African countries at the meeting are expected to take global FLR commitments to 150 million hectares.

Christine Sagno, Guinea minister of environment, water and forestry, her country will plant forests on two million hectares of land by 2020.

"If we act so fast, we can make our continent free from negative impacts of the worsening climate change. What we need now is a clear commitment to restore plant trees on millions of degraded lands in our countries," she noted.

Vincent Biruta, Rwanda minister of natural resources said that Rwanda has committed to restore 2 million hectares of deforested and degraded land by 2020.

"With the restoration of forests and land, we can overcome climate challenges and food security issues and help improve the wellbeing of our people. Our policies need to be translated into action and practitioners from all backgrounds must work together and share knowledge."

Topics to be discussed include participatory planning, landscape governance, institutional arrangements and regulatory frameworks, market mechanisms, funding and technical aspects of FLR operations on the ground.

The meeting is organised by the Rwanda ministry of natural resources, International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and Global Partnership for Forest Landscape Restoration (GPFLR).
MOSCOW, July 27 (Xinhua) -- The upcoming visit by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to Russia is unlikely to bring a dramatic turnaround in bilateral relations strained by the downing of a Russian warplane last November, Russian analysts say.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is scheduled to meet Erdogan in Russia' s second largest city of St. Petersburg on August 9, officials from both sides have confirmed.

Alexei Mukhin, director general of the Russian think tank Political Information Center, told Xinhua that he does not expect any "significant changes" in Russian-Turkish relations in the near future.

He is echoed by Amur Gajiyev, a research fellow at the Institute of Oriental Studies at the Russian Academy of Sciences.

"The personal meeting between Putin and Erdogan will take place after both sides have made many rather harsh statements, so it will be hard for both leaders to forget everything and start from scratch," said Gajiyev.

Putin, calling the downing of the Russian Su-24 jet by the Turkish air force near the Turkish-Syrian border a "stab in the back," has imposed a range of economic sanctions against Ankara.

Russia only agreed to restore ties with Turkey after Erdogan sent his apologies last month to Putin over the death of the Su-24 pilot.

Senior Russian and Turkish government officials met in Moscow on Tuesday to discuss resuming trade and investment programs ahead of the meeting between Putin and Erdogan.

Turkey' s Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Simsek said it is both necessary and possible for Turkey and Russia to normalize bilateral relations quickly.

Russian experts, however, do not expect a breakthrough.

"It is impossible to talk about a radical change in Turkey's foreign policy, but changes there will be," Gjiyev said.

He said Turkey may be ready to make some concessions as it is apparently willing to expand cooperation, but it is difficult to judge how sincere its intentions are.

On the other hand, the analyst said he views the prospects of relations between Moscow and Ankara with "cautious optimism" as the many problems that arose since their ties worsened need a solution.

"Erdogan's outstretched hand in fact only shows that we have started a very long and sophisticated game with this oriental figure," Mukhin said.

In his opinion, the Russian leadership "will be smiling at Erdogan, but will follow its own way" and will make the best use of the weakened position of the Turkish president in terms of his relations with the European Union and the United States.

Related:

Russian, Turkish officials meet in Moscow to set stage for Putin-Erdogan meeting in August

MOSCOW, July 26 (Xinhua) -- Senior Russian and Turkish government officials met on Tuesday in Moscow to discuss bilateral ties as the leaders of both countries are scheduled to meet in August. Full story

Erdogan, Putin due to meet in St. Petersburg on Aug. 9
BEIJING, July 27 (Xinhua) -- Zhou Haibin, a restaurant owner in east China's Shandong Province, is more than happy with his 41 percent tax cut, thanks to a policy rolled out across the country.

He used to pay 28,800 yuan (4,320 U.S. dollars) a month for business tax (BT), which was five percent of his revenue, but since VAT was adopted he now only pays 16,800 yuan (three percent).

Since China's transition from the BT system to VAT, which started in May, Zhou qualifies as a "small-scale taxpayer."

"We can either reinvest the 12,000 yuan we saved from tax cuts, or use it to improve our services," said Zhou.

Nationwide, the country expects the transition from BT to VAT to save businesses 500 billion yuan (74.9 billion U.S. dollars) in 2016, the State Administration of Taxation estimated.

China has made lowering the costs of doing business a priority to shore up its economy against continued downward pressure.

GDP grew 6.7 percent year on year from April through June, the lowest quarterly growth since the global financial crisis.

"The transition to VAT could play a significant role in lowering tax burdens to help businesses through these difficult times," said Hu Yijian, a professor at Shanghai University of Finance and Economics.

The VAT transition follows four years of experiments in designated sectors and areas, starting with transportation and certain service industries in Shanghai in 2012, and gradually expanding to cover more sectors and areas.

The taxation authorities said 5.92 million taxpayers were involved in the experiments through the end of 2015, with taxes reduced by 641.2 billion yuan compared with the BT system.

Beginning on May 1, the remaining four sectors -- construction, real estate, finance and lifestyle services -- switched over to VAT.

BT was calculated on businesses' gross revenue, while VAT allows taxpayers to deduct goods and services they purchase.

The main VAT rates in China -- 6 percent, 11 percent and 17 percent -- compare favorably with the average rate among OECD countries of 19.1 percent, according to a report by the accounting firm KPMG.

In particular, the VAT system benefits small-scale taxpayers like Zhou who are eligible for the three percent rate, who under the BT system had to pay five percent.

GLOBAL IMPLICATIONS

Many multinational companies in China will welcome the changes, given that the adoption of a broad-based VAT system is in line with indirect tax systems in approximately 160 countries around the world, said the KPMG report.

But China is among the first countries in the world to expand the VAT to all industries, including the financial services sector.

"To the best of our knowledge, there are only one or two relatively small economies in the world that have even tried this," said Lachlan Wolfers, KPMG China's head of indirect taxes.

Under the new tax system, every time a bank charges interest on a loan to a customer, or there is a gain made from trading in financial products such as stocks, bonds or foreign exchange transactions, or an insurance premium is levied on a customer, VAT applies.

"The European Union has spent years studying whether VAT could be applied to financial services, and have not been able to implement it. However, in applying VAT to financial services in China, it shows that it is possible. It would not be a surprise to see other countries follow suit if the Chinese do it successfully." said Wolfers.

China's expansion of the VAT system will be carefully watched around the world, said Li Junsheng, deputy dean of Central University of Finance and Economics, adding that global attention comes from not only an interest in the program's feasibility, but also the angle of tax competition.

As the world's second-largest economy reforms its tax system, the competitiveness of companies that pay taxes in China, as well as the tax burden of doing business in China, will be affected, therefore, it will be of interest to other economies wanting to attract business, Li said.
Undated photo shows a Chinese H-6K bomber patrolling islands and reefs including Huangyan Dao in the South China Sea. (Xinhua/Liu Rui)

NEW YORK, July 27 (Xinhua) -- A video on South China Sea has been displayed recently on one of the giant electronic billboards at Times Square in New York City, explaining the historical and legal basis backing China's indisputable territorial sovereignty and rights in the region.

The video, produced by China Review Studio, also clarifies the truth behind the arbitration tribunal farce and reiterates that disputes in the South China Sea should be settled through negotiations.

The video shows the stunning scenery of Nanhai Zhudao (the South China Sea Islands), and narrates a history illustrating that China was the first to have discovered, named, explored and exploited Nanhai Zhudao and he relevant waters, and the first to have continuously, peacefully and effectively exercised sovereignty and jurisdiction over the area.

The video, which runs three minutes and 12 seconds, also features several experts and officials worldwide who defend China's position on the South China Sea disputes.

In the video, the President of China's National Institute for South China Sea Studies Wu Shicun said that China's indisputable sovereignty over Nanhai Zhudao has sufficient historial and legal basis.

Meanwhile, the Former Policy Director of Economic and Business Policy of London John Ross pointed out that arbitration should be between two parties who want to participate.

Both Catherine West, the shadow secretary of State for Foreign Affairs of the British Labour Party, and Masood Khalid, the ambassador of Pakistan to China, believed the best way to resolve the disputes is negotiations between the parties directly concerned.

Broadcast of the video came after a law-abusing tribunal in The Hague on July 12 issued an ill-founded award on South China Sea arbitration case unilaterally initiated by the former Philippine government.

China has reiterated its stance of non-participation in and non-acceptance of the arbitration. To fully respect international law and justice, China will never recognize the verdict and never be "forced" into accepting it.

The video, which is being played about 120 times a day from July 23 to August 3, has attracted many eyeballs, with some Chinese tourists in the Big Apple saying that it is necessary to let the world know the truth regarding the issue.

The video has also triggered strong approval among Chinese residing in New York.

Ma Yue, the President of China Council for the Promotion of Peaceful National Reunification in New York, said the video defines China's position towards the so-called South China Sea tribunal and facts will eventually disprove those fallacies presented by the tribunal.

Times Square is one of the most popular tourist spots across the world attracting hundreds of millions of visitors every year.
BEIJING, July 27 (Xinhua) -- A telecom fraud suspect included on China's most wanted list has turned himself in, the Ministry of Public Security announced Wednesday.

Xiao Richu, 45, from southwest China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, surrendered to police in Nanning, capital of Guangxi, on Tuesday, the ministry statement said.

Xiao is the ninth of the 10 most wanted telecom fraud suspects to be taken into custody.

He is accused of cheating a financial department employee out of about 12 million yuan (1.8 million U.S. dollars) by masquerading as the company's financial chief on the messaging service QQ in August 2014, the police said.

Police froze a bank account holding about 7 million yuan and detained six of Xiao's accomplices, but he remained at large.

In April, the ministry put Xiao on its most wanted list.

Under heavy pressure from the police and persuasion from his family, Xiao decided to surrender, the statement said.

He is being held in Nanning. The investigation of his case continues.
FREETOWN, July 27 (Xinhua) -- Health authorities in the West African state of Sierra Leone have confirmed a case of lassa fever in the Kenema district in the east end of Sierra Leone.

The Secretary at Government hospital in Kenema told newsmen that the lady in question, Beindu Fofanah was referred to the Kenema hospital on July 17, pregnant.

Hospital sources told a local reporter that "she developed high fever while under treatment and later went into labour."

Following her delivery they noticed that she was bleeding profusely, which the doctor said was not common. Her blood samples was taken which came back positive for lassa fever.

Not too long the lady died, as a result all the nurses who helped to deliver her, about 11, were quarantined.

The Medical Superintendent in Kenema, Dr. Prince Masuba, informed local reporters that "the baby nor the 11 nurses are yet to show any signs and symptoms" of the disease.

A team of health experts headed by the by the District Medical Officer has been dispatched to Daru in the Kailahun district, where the lady came from to check if there are other cases of the fever.

Lassa fever is a kind of epidemic caused by Lassa virus. The disease was first found in Lassa Village in Nigeria.
MADRID, July 27 (Xinhua) -- The Spanish police on Wednesday arrested two brothers in Spain's northeastern city of Girona, the region of Catalonia, the Spanish Interior Ministry reported on Wednesday.

The two brothers, aged 22 and 33, were accused of helping fund the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). It was the first time the Spanish police was able to trace remittances to ISIS.

The brothers, who are from Morocco and living in Girona, are charged with financing terrorism, collaboration with a terrorist group and indoctrination, sending money to the ISIS administrators operating under false identities.

The Ministry said that a third brother was involved but he is believed to have died in Syria, where he went along with his wife and two sons in order to join Daesh (IS). Despite his death, the brothers continued to provide financial aid to the group.

After the two brothers were arrested, the police has searched their places.

The Spanish newspaper El Pais reported last year on how Spain had become a financial hub for insurgents in Syria and Iraq. A network of 250 phone call centers, grocery stores and butcher shops would help transfer money to fund groups such as ISIS, al-Nusra Front or Al Qaeda.

Spain raised its anti-terrorist level alert to level 4 on June 26 and the authorities have reported that hundreds of young residents in Spain, especially Moroccans, have joined ISIS.
BRUSSELS, July 27 (Xinhua) -- The EU will not impose financial sanctions on Spain and Portugal over their excessive deficits but will set out a new fiscal adjustment path for both countries, said Valdis Dombrovskis, vice president of the European Commission, on Wednesday.

Taking into account the efforts from Spain and Portugal and the current challenging economic environment, the college of EU commissioners cancelled the fine for both countries, Dombrovskis told a press briefing.

"Spain and Portugal made substantial efforts over the past six, seven years. Both countries consolidated substantially their public finances and undertook ambitious structural reforms. And we see that these reforms work. They bring about recovery, economic growth and job creation," said Dombrovskis.

Besides, both countries face "profound social challenges," he added. "Although jobs are being created, the unemployment levels -- especially youth unemployment -- are still too high."

"However, we also see that recently both countries lessened their budgetary efforts and therefore missed their budgetary targets," Dombrovskis warned.

Although Spain and Portugal could escape the fines, they have to await another possible punitive measure.

The Commission, the bloc's executive arm, is set to discuss with the European Parliament after the summer break on whether to suspend the structural funds supporting infrastructure construction in both nations.

The Stability and Growth Pact, a set of EU rules aiming to prevent members from encountering fiscal problems, requests governments to keep their deficits below 3 percent of gross domestic product (GDP).

If deficits go beyond 3 percent, the Commission and the Council of the EU set deadlines for reduction. But if governments fail to take effective action to meet the deadline, they could be fined.

Portugal was expected to cut its deficit below 3 percent of GDP last year, but the gap turned out to be 4.4 percent in 2015. Spain was expected to cut the deficit below 3 percent this year, but is predicted to remain above 3 percent also in 2017.

After Wednesday's decision, both countries will be set new deadlines.

The Commission said Portugal could gain one extra year to fulfill its deficit goal, meaning Lisbon has to cut its deficit below 3 percent by the end of this year. Madrid was granted another two years to address its excessive deficit by the end of 2018.

Meanwhile, both countries have to take effective action and report on it by Oct. 15.

The Commission said it would present its proposal to the Council of the EU for a final decision. "We believe these paths are realistic and both countries will be able to succeed in reaching them," Dombrovskis said.

The Commission's decision came as Europe faces multiple crises and anti-EU sentiment following the British vote to leave the bloc in a referendum.

Experts cautioned that possible financial sanctions would fuel eurosceptic leanings, particularly in Madrid and Lisbon. Besides, the EU ruling would seem "unfair" to both countries as France, which has repeatedly broken EU budgetary rules, was not faced with fines.

On July 12, the EU announced that Spain and Portugal had not taken effective action to correct their excessive deficits. According to EU rules, the two countries could have faced fines of up to 0.2 percent of GDP.

Both countries later submitted requests asking for the fine to be cancelled, while reaffirming their commitment to complying with the rules.
DAMASCUS, July 27 (Xinhua) -- The Syrian army on Wednesday urged armed rebels in the northern city of Aleppo to lay down their weapons, saying it's a "real chance."

"Emanating from our keenness to curb the bloodletting, we grant a real opportunity to all those who hold weapons in Aleppo's eastern part to settle their situation by laying down their weapons and stay in Aleppo, or to surrender their weapons and leave the city," the General Command of the Syrian army said in a statement carried by state-run SANA news agency.

"We urge everyone to have a prudence and put the national interest of restoring peace and security to Aleppo above anything else," it added.

The move comes as the Syrian army has completely laid a siege on the rebel-held parts in east of Aleppo city, after severing the last remaining supply route to those areas last week.

In the statement, the army said it had succeeded with the help of allied fighters to successfully complete their mission in northern Aleppo, by cutting all of the supply routes the rebels used.

It added that the military campaign came in the framework of restoring peace and stability to Aleppo.

The statement also urged the civilians to cooperate with the Syrian army in achieving a cessation of violence, and a return of tranquility to Aleppo.

A day earlier, the Syrian army offered safe exits to civilians in the rebel-held areas in eastern Aleppo.

The military's general command said the army had identified several routes and safe passages for civilians wishing to leave the rebel-held neighborhoods in the eastern parts of Aleppo, adding that maps of the routes were being sent to the cellphones of the civilians.

It urged the civilians in the areas to join the government-proposed reconciliations and expel the rebels out of their homes and neighborhoods.

Aleppo, located near the borders with Turkey, is Syria's largest city and once an economic hub. It 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, striking the economic nerves of the Syrian government, which has repeatedly accused Turkey of supporting the rebels.

After capturing several districts in eastern Aleppo city, the rebels repeatedly tried to expand their presence to government-controlled areas in the west.

They laid a siege on western Aleppo districts after cutting the international road to Aleppo in 2014, which was broken later by the Syrian army with the help of Hezbollah.




A policeman stands guard near the church where a priest was killed in Saint-Etienne du Rouvray, France on July 26, 2016. A priest was "assassinated," and another was seriously wounded on Tuesday after two armed men seized several hostages in a church in northern France, Pierre-Hernry Brandet, spokesman of the French Interior Ministry said. (Xinhua/Zhang Xuefei)

PARIS, July 27 (Xinhua) -- One day after a church attack in which an elderly priest was assassinated, French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve announced on Wednesday the deployment of 23,500 members of security forces to secure safety in summer holiday.

"This summer, we have 56 events to secure across territory. 23,500 police, gendarme, military and reservists will be deployed to ensure the good course of these events," Cazeneuve said.

The minister called on prefects to talk with mayors of concerned cities to evaluate security situation in order to implement adequate measures to avoid any possible incidents.

In a short joint press meeting, French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian pledged "greater distribution of sentinelle forces in provinces," with 6,000 planned to be sent to towns while 4,000 in the capital to ensure "the maximum security of our country," he said.

The defense minister also said French warplanes would intensify strikes against insurgents in Iraq and Syria by using more fighter jets from Jordan's and Saudi Arabia's military bases.

On July 14, a 31-year-old delivery man drove his heavy truck into crowd celebrating Bastille Day in Nice, south France, despite intensified security amid high terror risks. He killed 84 people and injured hundreds of others.

On Tuesday, a 19-year-old man, known to intelligence services and wearing an electronic tag allowing police to trace him, killed with another attacker a priest in a church, northern France.

The successive assaults claimed by the Islamic State (IS) fuelled critics over the government's security record.

"All this violence and barbarism has paralyzed the French left since January 2015. It has lost its bearings and is clinging to a mindset that is out of touch with reality," former French President Nicolas Sarkozy told the daily Le Monde.

Sarkozy who looks to compete in the right camp's primary to cruise to the 2017 presidential election, proposed electronic tagging of all suspected militants, even if they have committed no offense.

He also suggested to remand all those indicted for terrorism acts in custody while pending trails.

In the wake of the church attack, President Francois Hollande insisted that the government will be determined to apply the anti-terrorist laws while respecting rights and freedom.

"In the face of this threat that has never been greater in France and Europe, the government is absolutely determined (to fight) terrorism," he said.

Last week, French lawmakers approved to extend the period of emergency rules to late January 2017 which allow more power to police to search homes and arrest suspects without judicial warrant. It also permit them to dig freely their phones and computers.

Related:

French president calls church attack "heinous terrorist act," pledges all means to combat terrorism
An aerial photo taken on Sept. 25, 2015 from a seaplane of Hainan Maritime Safety Administration shows cruise vessel Haixun 1103 heading to the Yacheng 13-1 drilling rig during a patrol in south China Sea. (Xinhua/Zhao Yingquan)

LONDON, July 27 (Xinhua) -- China's sovereignty and maritime rights and interests in the South China Sea are part of the international order established after the Second World War, Chinese ambassador to Britain Liu Xiaoming has said.

"China's relevant claims have never exceeded the scope of the current international order; in this sense, China's rejection of the arbitration is to uphold the post-war international order," Liu said in a speech at the British think-tank Chatham House on Monday.

"It is to prevent the Convention from being politically hijacked; it is to protect the authoritativeness and the integrity of international law, including the Convention," he stressed.

Liu noted that the arbitration unilaterally initiated by the Philippines is "illegal in jurisdictional, procedural or substantive terms," and that "it has been nothing but an illegal political farce."

The tribunal has no right of jurisdiction over issues of territorial sovereignty and maritime delimitation, its arbitral proceedings are against the rules of UNCLOS, and its ruling is "an aberration from the fundamental purposes of the Convention," Liu said.

"The obvious bias of the tribunal has solved no problem or dispute," he told his audience. "Rather, it created problems and intensified disputes. The arbitration thus has no substantive justice."

He added that the arbitration has "zero possibility" to become a "watershed" in the developments in the South China Sea, "nor will it be allowed to disturb the overall peace and stability the region now enjoys."

The arbitration ruling will by no means affect China's territorial sovereignty and maritime rights and interests in the South China Sea, the diplomat said.

The arbitration ruling will by no means affect China's commitment to peaceful solution through bilateral negotiations and consultations, he continued.

"The momentum of cooperation between China and ASEAN has not been changed by the arbitration, either," Liu said.

The ambassador called on the new Philippine government to "consider the overall interests of China-Philippine relations and the common interests of both countries" and "come back to the track of dialogue and consultations."

He stated that "we are opposed to certain countries' 'gunboat policy' under the pretext of 'protecting the freedom of navigation and overflight' and 'maintaining regional peace'."

"We are opposed to them taking advantage of the arbitration to hype up or create tensions in the South China Sea," he said. "The South China Sea must not become an arena for some big power from outside the region to flex their muscles."

According to Liu, the South China Sea issue is left over from the history, but at the same time it concerns real interests of today, with geopolitics involved.

"Resolving this issue will take time, patience and the mutual understanding and respect between countries concerned."

"For a solution to be fundamental and enduring, it has to be peaceful, it has to go through equal-footed consultation and negotiation between countries directly concerned, it has to be based on respecting historical facts and international law," concluded the envoy.
ATHENS, July 27 (Xinhua) -- Eight Turkish military officers, who entered Greece in the wake of the failed coup in Turkey, were on Wednesday granted a postponement in the asylum process by the Greek authorities "to be better prepared for their interviews."

They will appear again before the asylum service in Athens between Aug. 19 and 25, one of their lawyers announced after Wednesday's short hearing.

The men who landed in the northern city of Alexandroupolis in a Turkish military helicopter have requested asylum in Greece.

Last week, after being given a two-month suspended sentence by an Alexandroupolis court for illegal entry into Greece, they received a one-week extension to give interviews and were transferred to Athens.

During their testimonies in court and through their lawyers, they said they had no involvement in the coup attempt and they fled fearing for their lives when their helicopter came under attack.

They fear for their own safety and the safety of their families in Turkey, Lia Marinaki, one of the lawyers, told Xinhua on Wednesday.

"It is very difficult in Turkey because everybody calls them traitors. Their kids have problems with their friends at school. Their wives got fired from their jobs," the lawyer said.

Once the interviews are complete, an asylum service employee will announce the primary-level decision. If asylum is refused, the applicants can appeal and their application is then reviewed again in a secondary process.

According to law experts, the process could take between a few weeks and two months.

Lawyers of the Turkish officers said in case the process ends inconclusively in Greece, the officers intend to request asylum in other countries.
PHNOM PENH, July 27 (Xinhua) -- Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister Hor Namhong has encouraged the parties directly concerned in the South China Sea issues to resolve their disputes through peaceful negotiations.

"Sovereignty claims are always resolved bilaterally by parties directly concerned, and if want to bring the dispute to court, only if both countries agree to go together," he said during an exclusive interview with a popular Bayon TV channel on Tuesday evening.

He said he hoped that all countries directly concerned will continue negotiations for a peaceful solution.

He said despite absolute objection from China, the former Philippine government unilaterally initiated the South China Sea arbitration against China in 2013.

The Philippines initiated the compulsory arbitration without informing or consulting with ASEAN, he said. "Therefore, I think that the dispute between the Philippines and China is a bilateral issue, not related with the ASEAN."

Hor Namhong, who is the ex-foreign minister, said Cambodia and ASEAN urged all parties concerned in the disputes to fully implement the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea (DOC) towards the early adoption of an effective Code of Conduct (COC).

Meanwhile, he called on powerful countries outside the region to cease their interference on the South China Sea issue, saying that their action could lead to an arms race in the region.

Hor Namhong also denied accusations by some countries that Cambodia sided with China on the South China Sea issue.

"This is unjust for Cambodia," he said. "For the South China Sea issue, Cambodia, as a non-claimant state in the dispute, does not side with China or claimant states in ASEAN, but the country wants all parties to fully comply with the DOC."
BRUSSELS, July 27 (Xinhua) -- The European Union (EU) decided on Wednesday to give Poland three months to address "systemic threat" to the rule of law "as a matter of urgency".

"Despite the dialogue pursued with the Polish authorities since the beginning of the year, the Commission considers the main issues which threaten the rule of law in Poland have not been resolved. We are therefore now making concrete recommendations to the Polish authorities on how to address the concerns so that the Constitutional Tribunal of Poland can carry out its mandate to deliver effective constitutional review," said European Commission First Vice President Frans Timmermans in Brussels.

The European Commission on Wednesday issued a recommendation to Warsaw, setting out EU's concerns and recommending how these can be addressed.

"The fact that the Constitutional Tribunal is prevented from fully ensuring an effective constitutional review adversely affects its integrity, stability and proper functioning, which is one of the essential safeguards of the rule of law in Poland," The EU's executive said in a statement.

The Commission earlier this year opened an investigation into whether the ruling party in Poland had undermined the rule of law.

After intensive dialogue between the EU and the Polish authorities, the Polish Parliament adopted on Friday a new Law on the Constitutional Tribunal to address the concerns but the opposition criticized the new move had not gone far enough.

A spokesman for the Commission said on Monday Poland's changes to the constitutional court law raised new concerns and might trigger a formal reaction by the EU executive.

The EU investigation could ultimately lead to the suspension of Poland's voting rights within the EU.
RAMADI, Iraq, July 27 (Xinhua) -- A total of 31 Islamic State (IS) militants were killed on Wednesday in airstrikes targeting the extremist militants in Iraq's western province of Anbar, a provincial security source said.

The international warplanes bombarded a convoy of five IS vehicles at a village in north of the town of Baghdadi, some 190 km northwest of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, destroying the vehicles and killing 16 IS militants, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

Another airstrike struck an IS position in Jazirat al-Khaldiyah area in northwest of the newly-freed city of Fallujah, some 50 km west of Baghdad, killing eight IS militants, the source said.

Also in the province, seven IS militants were killed when U.S.-led coalition aircraft attacked IS position in Albu Ali al-Jasim area in north of the provincial capital city of Ramadi, some 110 km west of Baghdad, the source added.

Government troops and allied militias have been fighting for months to reclaim key cities and towns from IS militants in the province of Anbar, including Ramadi and Fallujah, as militants attempted to approach Baghdad after seizing most of the province.

Iraq has witnessed worsening violence since the IS took control of parts of its northern and western regions in June 2014.
RABAT, July 27 (Xinhua) -- The Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ISESCO) on Wednesday strongly condemned the hostage-taking and murder of a priest in a Church at Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray in northwestern France.

ISESCO said the attack against a supposedly safe place where people can worship, killing its priest and terrorizing its occupants is a heinous crime which goes against Islamic teachings

Islam values the sanctity of souls and places of worship for Muslims and People of the Book alike, ISESCO said in a statement.

ISESCO also called for intensifying efforts on all levels to eradicate terrorism, it added.
LJUBLJANA, July 27 (Xinhua) -- Slovenian Prime Minister Miro Cerar on Wednesday convened a session of the National Security Council to assess the national security situation in the aftermath of a series of attacks across Europe.

Cerar said after the meeting that the situation in Slovenia is normal and the security threat level remains low. However, he highlighted the importance of vigilance and joint efforts by relevant agencies.

"We are all aware that we have to be very alert and watchful in light of events in our neighborhood and in Europe in general," he said after a debate by the body that advises the government on security issues.

He stressed to harmonize national security works and cooperation among intelligence agencies, government institutions and those within the EU and wider.

The National Security Council comprises top government officials as well as the heads of police, military and civilian intelligence.

Slovenian President Borut Pahor, as well as other officials and party leaders, attended the meeting.
WASHINGTON, July 27 (Xinhua) -- Charges against all remaining three U.S. police officers were dropped on Wednesday in the case involving the death of black man Freddie Gray in Baltimore, Maryland, local media reported.
A promotion for Guangdong 21st Century Maritime Silk Road International Expo held in Dubai on July 18. (Xinhua/Li Zhen)

DAR ES SALAAM, July 27 (Xinhua) -- The Tanzania Private Sector Foundation (TPSF) has urged Tanzanian business firms to participate in China's 2016 Guangdong 21st Century Maritime Silk Road International Expo.

Godfrey Simbeye, TPSF Executive Director, said the Chinese Expo will provide a golden chance for Tanzanian businesses to showcase and explore new business opportunities.

He said similar to the Dar es Salaam International Trade Fair, the annual 21st Century Maritime Silk Road International Expo will take place on October 27 in Dongguan city in southern China's Guangdong Province, where exhibitors will be given four days' hotel accommodation and free transport between hotel and the venue of exhibitions.

Several foreign businessmen participating in the first Guangdong 21st Century Maritime Silk Road International Expo observed a company's sand table model on October 31, 2014.(Xinuhua/Wang Ruiping)

"This is a golden chance for Tanzania's small, medium and big firms to learn the best practices from other exhibitors across the world," said Simbeye.

He said Tanzanian enterprises could also use the event to get new markets for their products as well as establish partnership contracts with other investors.

"This will enable our country to have an opportunity to exhibit business opportunities of investment, economic and trade cooperation among countries," he said.
ADDIS ABABA, July 27 (Xinhua) -- A conference on cancer in Africa was wrapped up on Wednesday with a call for scaling up regional efforts in the fight against cancer in general and cervical, breast and prostate cancer in particular.

The 10th edition of the conference has been held under the theme, "A decade of accomplishment, our enduring legacies and challenges ahead," from July 24 to 27 at the African Union Conference Center in Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa.

The Conference has noted with great concern the growing burden of cervical, breast and prostate cancer in Africa and its damaging effect on its communities, nations and the entire region.

It has acknowledged that the incidence of cervical, breast and prostate cancer is rapidly rising with some parts of the continent reporting the highest rates of cervical cancer of up to 40 cases per 100,000 women.

"This is further confounded with highest maternal mortality rate in the region resulting in unacceptably high number of women deaths," said Kebede Worku, Ethiopian State Minister of Health, while reading out the communique of the Conference.

Inadequate investments in the infrastructure for prevention, early detection, treatment and palliative care have been identified as the challenge in addressing cancer.

In his closing remarks, Demeke Mekonnen, Ethiopian Deputy Prime Minister, has emphasized the need to give political will, resources and skills of Africans to combat cancer on the continent.

It was noted during the opening of the Conference that cancer is increasing at an alarming rate in Africa, and it kills more people than HIV/AIDS, Malaria and Tuberculosis combined.

The communique calls for intensified public awareness with the participation of all stakeholders, particularly, religious and community leaders as well as civil society organizations and the media.

It also calls for exploration and promotion of using innovative technologies to advance cancer screening, diagnosis, treatment and palliative care.

"Invest in human resource development for cancer to create competent cancer workforce by taking advantage of experience sharing, knowledge transfer, networking, and by using available technologies."

"Mobilize and allocate resources for cancer control and care to as much level as the depth and magnitude of cancer deserves," says the communique of the conference.

A report published in 2014 showed that there were 847,000 new cases of cancer in Africa and 591,000 deaths in 2012, representing 6 percent and 7.2 percent of the world total, respectively.

Lack of awareness is one of the challenges on the continent that affected persons report the disease when it is already at an advanced stage.

Lack of equipped medical facilities, access to quality and affordable treatment still pose a challenge in African.

The Conference has also emphasized on the need to support the Forum of African First Ladies against Breast, Cervical, and Prostate Cancer in advocating for African governments to initiate, fund and implement national cervical cancer program.
Portuguese Finance Minister Mario Centeno speaks at the end of a debate on the 2016 state budget at the parliament in Lisbon, Portugal, March 16, 2016. (Xinhua/Zhang Liyun)

BRUSSELS, July 27 (Xinhua) -- The EU will not impose financial sanctions on Spain and Portugal over their excessive deficits but will set out a new fiscal adjustment path for both countries, said Valdis Dombrovskis, vice president of the European Commission, on Wednesday.

Taking into account the efforts from Spain and Portugal and the current challenging economic environment, the college of EU commissioners cancelled the fine for both countries, Dombrovskis told a press briefing.

The Commission, the bloc's executive arm, is set to discuss with the European Parliament after the summer break on whether to suspend the structural funds supporting infrastructure construction in both nations.

Portugal was expected to cut its deficit below 3 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) last year, but the gap turned out to be 4.4 percent in 2015. Spain was to cut the deficit below 3 percent this year, but is predicted to remain above 3 percent also in 2017.

The Commission said Portugal could gain one extra year to fulfill its deficit goal, meaning Lisbon has to cut its deficit below 3 percent by the end of this year. Madrid was granted another two years to address its excessive deficit by the end of 2018.

Meanwhile, both countries have to take effective action and report on it by Oct. 15.

The Commission said it would present its proposal to the European Council for a final decision.

The Commission's decision came as Europe faces multiple crises and anti-EU sentiment following the British vote to leave the bloc in a referendum.

Experts cautioned that possible financial sanctions would fuel eurosceptic leanings, particularly in Madrid and Lisbon. Besides, the EU ruling would seem "unfair" to both countries as France, which has repeatedly broken EU budgetary rules, was not faced with fines.

On July 12, the EU announced that Spain and Portugal had not taken effective action to correct their excessive deficits. According to EU rules, the two countries could have faced fines of up to 0.2 percent of GDP.

Both countries later submitted requests asking for the fine to be cancelled, while reaffirming their commitment to complying with the rules.
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 27 (Xinhua) -- Eight Turkish military officers, who entered Greece in the wake of the failed coup in Turkey, were on Wednesday granted a postponement in the asylum process by the Greek authorities "to be better prepared for their interviews."

They will appear again before the asylum service in Athens between Aug. 19 and 25, one of their lawyers announced after Wednesday's short hearing.

The men who landed in the northern city of Alexandroupolis in a Turkish military helicopter have requested asylum in Greece.

Last week, after being given a two-month suspended sentence by an Alexandroupolis court for illegal entry into Greece, they received a one-week extension to give interviews and were transferred to Athens.

During their testimonies in court and through their lawyers, they said they had no involvement in the coup attempt and they fled fearing for their lives when their helicopter came under attack.

They fear for their own safety and the safety of their families in Turkey, Lia Marinaki, one of the lawyers, told Xinhua on Wednesday.

"It is very difficult in Turkey because everybody calls them traitors. Their kids have problems with their friends at school. Their wives got fired from their jobs," the lawyer said.

Once the interviews are complete, an asylum service employee will announce the primary-level decision. If asylum is refused, the applicants can appeal and their application is then reviewed again in a secondary process.

According to law experts, the process could take between a few weeks and two months.

Lawyers of the Turkish officers said in case the process ends inconclusively in Greece, the officers intend to request asylum in other countries.
ACCRA, July 27 (Xinhua) -- Ghana's Supreme Court (SC) Wednesday jailed a local FM radio host and two panelists four months for contempt and threats to kill judges of the apex court.

They were additionally each fined 1,000 Ghana Cedis (263.16 U.S. dollars).

The panelists, Godwin Ako Gunn and Alistair Nelson, and show host of Montie FM radio, Salifu Masse as well as owners of the station were also found guilty of scandalizing the court and bringing it into disrepute.

The court slapped 30,000 Cedis (7,894.7 dollars) fine on the owner of the station, Harry Zakkour, and was given a day to pay up.

Presiding judge Sophia Akuffo, while accusing the guests or panelists of attacking judges with such recklessness, stated that the directors were irresponsible and careless because they were to direct the broad vision of the station.

Early this month, the Executive Director of the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA), Sulemana Braimah, had referred to the Supreme Court (SC)'s summon of the Montie FM host and panelists over alleged murder of judges comment as an avoidable act.

Braimah, who was speaking on private radio, Adom FM, over the comments of the jailed panelists, said if management of the station had heeded MFWA's repeated warning of abusive language on its airwaves, the brash with the apex court would not have occurred.

"If they had listened to our warning and management had taken drastic measures to deal with such presenters I'm not sure they will end up here," Braimah said.

The MFWA has expressed worry about growing insults and irresponsible comments of radio hosts and panelists during early morning discussion programs. Enditem
An Iraqi man searches for bodies of victims on July 4, 2016 inside a building damaged by a suicide-bombing attack which took place a day earlier in Baghdad's Karrada neighbourhood. (AFP/Xinhua)

RAMADI, Iraq, July 27 (Xinhua) -- A total of 31 Islamic State (IS) militants were killed on Wednesday in airstrikes targeting the extremist militants in Iraq's western province of Anbar, a provincial security source said.

The international warplanes bombarded a convoy of five IS vehicles at a village in north of the town of Baghdadi, some 190 km northwest of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, destroying the vehicles and killing 16 IS militants, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

Another airstrike struck an IS position in Jazirat al-Khaldiyah area in northwest of the newly-freed city of Fallujah, some 50 km west of Baghdad, killing eight IS militants, the source said.

Also in the province, seven IS militants were killed when U.S.-led coalition aircraft attacked IS position in Albu Ali al-Jasim area in north of the provincial capital city of Ramadi, some 110 km west of Baghdad, the source added.

Government troops and allied militias have been fighting for months to reclaim key cities and towns from IS militants in the province of Anbar, including Ramadi and Fallujah, as militants attempted to approach Baghdad after seizing most of the province.

Iraq has witnessed worsening violence since the IS took control of parts of its northern and western regions in June 2014.
BEIJING, July 27 (Xinhua) -- General Secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee Xi Jinping on Tuesday called for the building of strong armed forces through military reform.

Xi presided over a group study seminar of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, which focused on national defense and military reform.

He called the reform drive "a comprehensive and revolutionary change," and said obstacles and policy issues that may hold back reform measures must be addressed so as to build a strong armed forces commensurate with China's international status.

Cai Hongshuo, deputy head of the advisory team of the leading group for deepened national defense and military reform under the Central Military Commission (CMC), delivered a lecture on the issue and offered some suggestions.

Members of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee then discussed relevant issues during the study.

Xi said under the CPC's leadership, the armed forces have been constantly reformed and improved, adding that further military reform is needed to cope with the changing international situation and to develop socialism with Chinese characteristics.

After the 18th National Congress of the CPC in late 2012, Xi said, the CPC Central Committee has attached great importance to defense and military reform. After the third plenary session of the 18th CPC Central Committee, the CMC established the leading group, and later drafted a reform plan.

Based on the reform plan, the general command of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) Army, the PLA Rocket Force, and the PLA Strategic Support Force were established.

The previous seven military area commands were regrouped into five theater commands, and the four military departments -- staff, politics, logistics and armaments -- were reorganized into 15 agencies.

With those reforms, the PLA has a system in which the CMC is tasked with the overall administration of the armed forces, while theater commands focus on combat preparedness, and various armed services pursue development, Xi added.

These measures solved some deep-seated problems that many considered unsolvable, according to Xi.

The reform drive marks a historic change in the organization and structure of the PLA, he said.

By 2020, advances should be made in reforming the leadership and management system, as well as the joint battle command system, Xi said, citing the timetable outlined in the reform plan.

Significant progress should be achieved in optimizing scale and structure, improving policies and systems, and promoting the integration of military and civilian development, he said.

Xi underscored that the aim is to build a modern military with Chinese characteristics, which is able to win an informationized war and fulfill missions and tasks efficiently, while improving the socialist military institution with Chinese characteristics.

Military Party committees at various levels should fulfill their respective reform tasks to the highest standard, and military leaders, especially senior ones, should take the lead in implementing reform tasks, Xi noted.

Calling deepened national defense and military reform "a common cause for the whole Party and country," Xi called on all levels of governments and Party committees, as well as relevant parties, to support national defense and military development, to cooperate actively to fulfill reform tasks that involve multiple regions, and to integrate the adjustment of the economic layout with the improvement of national defense layout.

Moreover, Xi ordered that any military officers demobilized during the reform should be offered help and guidance to secure new jobs.
WASHINGTON, July 27 (Xinhua) -- The International Monetary Fund (IMF) said here Wednesday that the Chinese currency Renminbi (RMB) was broadly in line with fundamentals and desirable policies.

In its 2016 External Sector Report, the IMF said that developments through June this year don't suggest a change in this assessment.

Through June 2016, the RMB has depreciated by 6 percent from its 2015 average, while in 2015, the average RMB real effective exchange rate appreciated by about 10 percent against the 2014 average.

However, the IMF said that the assessment is facing uncertainties, such as diverging market views on the RMB outlook and shifts in portfolio allocation preferences.

Due to weak real import growth, China's current account surplus to gross domestic product ratio in 2015 was higher than 2014.

"China's current account position is stronger than warranted," said Luis Cubeddu, deputy division chief of the Regional Studies Division of the IMF's Western Hemisphere Department, at a teleconference.

He added that the surplus is expected to decline, with exchange rate policy and structural reforms playing a role.

As China's economy shifts further toward private consumption and away from external demand, the trade surplus is expected to narrow and the services deficit to rise with healthy outbound tourism over the medium term, the IMF said.

It is expected that pressure on China's foreign exchange reserves will remain manageable, as the volume of capital outflows is expected to be broadly steady with residents' portfolio rebalancing toward foreign assets due to the gradual opening of the capital account.

According to the report, the global external imbalances have widened again in 2015 after narrowing in the aftermath of the global financial crisis.

Three main factors contributed to the widening, including the diverging monetary policies adopted by advanced economies, the sharp decline in commodities prices, and the tighter external financing conditions in emerging markets.

"Uneven recoveries and expectations about monetary policies led to marked exchange rate movements across systemic currencies, supporting the widening of their external imbalances," the IMF said.

But the marked exchange rate movements won't necessarily call for coordinated currency policies among major economies, said Cubeddu.

The IMF called on countries to reduce reliance on monetary policy and focus on fiscal and structural policies to address the excess imbalances.
WASHINGTON, July 27 (Xinhua) -- Charges against all the three remaining U.S. police officers were dropped Wednesday in the case involving the death of black man Freddie Gray in Baltimore, Maryland, local media reported.

Chief Deputy State's Attorney Michael Schatzow told Judge Barry Williams at the start of a pretrial motions hearing for police officer Garrett Miller that the state was dropping all charges against the three remaining officers in the case, namely Miller, William Porter and Alicia White, The Baltimore Sun reported on its website.

Miller was the next officer originally scheduled to stand trial in the case, while Porter was to face a retrial in September and White was to be tried in October.

This ended the high-profile case without conviction of any of the six Baltimore police officers charged in this case that ignited protests and violence in the city last year.

Gray, a 25-year-old African-American, died last year in a Baltimore hospital after he was arrested on April 12 by police for possessing an illegal switchblade.

Gray fell into a coma first while being transported in a police van. His death a week later in the hospital was believed to be caused by injuries to his spinal cord.

His death triggered a series of violent protests by African-Americans in the city.

Thirty-four people were arrested and 15 police officers were injured in violent clashes between police and black protesters on April 25, 2015, while looting and burning of local businesses during another violent protest on April 27 held after Gray's funeral shocked the whole nation.

As a result, six police officers involved in Gray's death were indicted on charges including illegal arrest, involuntary manslaughter, second-degree murder and reckless endangerment.

The first trial of Porter in September 2015 ended in a mistrial in December. The second officer, Edward Nero, was acquitted in a bench trial by Judge Williams in May 2016.

Officer Caesar Goodson, who faced the most severe charges, was acquitted in June, while another officer, Brian Rice, was found not guilty on all charges in early July.

The state prosecution dropped the charges against the remaining officers probably because it acknowledged the unlikelihood that Judge Williams would convict any of the officers in the case, The Baltimore Sun reported.
CAIRO, July 27, 2016 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Military Attache Yu Haibo (C) delivers a speech during the reception celebrating the 89th anniversary of the establishment of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA), in Cairo, Egypt, July 26, 2016. The Chinese Embassy in Egypt celebrated on Tuesday evening the 89th anniversary of the founding of PLA in a ceremony held in Cairo. The ceremony was attended by more than 400 guests, including Chinese Ambassador to Egypt Song Aiguo, Chinese Military Attache Yu Haibo, Egyptian Minister of Military Production Mohamed Al-Assar and other senior diplomats and military attaches from Asian, Arab, African and Western states. (Xinhua/Meng Tao)

CAIRO, July 27 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese embassy in Cairo has celebrated the 89th anniversary of the establishment the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) in a massive ceremony in Cairo and attended by senior figures from different countries.

The ceremony on Tuesday evening was attended by more than 400 guests, including Chinese Ambassador to Cairo Song Aiguo, Chinese Military Attache Yu Haibo, Egyptian Minister of Military Production Mohamed Al-Assar and other senior diplomats and military attaches from Asian, Arab, African and Western states.

Also a delegating from the Chinese National University of Defense Technology, which is currently visiting Egypt, was present at the ceremony.

Chinese and Egyptian representatives made positive comments on China's national defense policy and its efforts to maintain peace and stability in the region and around the world, hoping for deepening practical cooperation between the military of both countries.

On the way to the ceremony hall, a gallery displayed posters of various land, air and naval activities of the Chinese army since its foundation, including troops, commanders, jets, tanks, vessels, missions and others on different occasions.

The ceremony also included colorful Chinese traditional dances and performances on stage, including a mask-changing dance, bamboo flute playing, acrobatic Kung Fu shows, balloon shaping and others.

The performances were done by artists who came to Egypt to take part in the 1st Afro-Chinese Arts and Folklore Festival held in Cairo from July 21 to 26.
BANGKOK, July 27 (Xinhua) -- Former Thai premier Abhisit Vejjajiva expressed on Wednesday his objection to a military-directed constitution on which a public referendum is approaching.

The leader of the Democrat Party, the country's oldest, gave a press conference to announce his opposition to the charter, drafted by an ad hoc committee all members of which were handpicked by Premier Prayut Chan-o-cha.

However, Abhisit maintained that it was merely his personal opinion, and what he said by no means manifest any view of the Democrat Party as a whole or any member of its rank and file on the issue.

The ex-premier called on his successor to consider reintroducing the constitution of 2007 if the draft charter was eventually rejected on August 7, the date set for the nationwide referendum and suggested that the premier stick to the so-called Roadmap in which a general election is tentatively scheduled for some time next year.

The ruling junta, concurrently led by the premier following the 2014 coup which he himself orchestrated, had set the Roadmap toward "national reforms" which were meant to feature ways and means to combat corruption in government.

Graft allegations had been cited as a major catalyst to the bloodless coup in which the National Council for Peace and Order, the official name of the ruling junta, overthrew an elected government under ex-premier Yingluck Shinawatra following months of Bangkok street protests.

Abhisit said he decided against the draft charter primarily because he believed it would probably otherwise lead to future political conflict and social division as had been the case over the last decade.

"Under the draft charter, the elected political sector would not be able to work effectually to meet the people's demands or solve their woes while the stepped-up roles of unelected senators would even raise higher possibilities of political and social conflict than before.

"The apparent difficulties in amending the draft charter would merely prompt future conflict like that which already occurred in previous years," said the ex-premier.

The draft charter seeks to increase the roles and powers of the bureaucratic circle while it apparently restricts the rights and freedom of the people and varied civil groups, according to the Democrat Party leader.

He said he doubted that a future government could effectually fight corruption if the draft charter was ever approved and enforced. Enditem
DAR ES SALAAM, July 27 (Xinhua) -- A Tanzanian High Court in the southern highland region of Iringa on Wednesday sentenced a police officer to a 15-year jail term after he was found guilty in the manslaughter of a journalist.

Paul Kihwelo, the High Court judge, jailed police officer Pificious Cleophase after he was found guilty of unintentionally killing the television journalist Daudi Mwangosi in 2012.

Delivering his verdict, Judge Kihwelo said the police officer confessed before a justice of the peace, an evidence which was admitted by the court.

The judge said the evidence brought before the court was too questionable to merit a murder conviction.

The late Mwangosi, a journalist with a private television station called Channel Ten and chairman of the Iringa Press Club, was killed during a confrontation over the arrest of another journalist during a political rally by an opposition party at Nyololo village in Iringa region.

Police maintained that in staging the rally the opposition party supporters defied an official ban on political demonstrations.

A police contingent attacked the journalist after he confronted them over the assault and arrest of his colleague, Godfrey Mushi, who had been photographing the demonstrations. Enditem
ROME, July 27 (Xinhua) -- Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi held talks over Brexit with his British counterpart Theresa May here on Wednesday.

Renzi appealed to the British government to set out "a precise timeline" for negotiating its leaving the European Union (EU).

"The Brexit was a decision of the British people, and we respect it, however painful it is," Renzi said at a join press conference after the meeting.

"At the same time, it is a difficult and unprecedented situation which requires much good sense, a precise timeline, and a certain path," he said.

Renzi's words followed those previously expressed by other leaders from EU major member states, and by EU representatives in Brussels, who urged the UK to move fast and clearly in negotiating its departure from the bloc, and to avoid prolonged uncertainty.

Italy would provide "its full cooperation and support" in order to make the UK-EU negotiations as effective as possible, the Italian prime minister added.

On her part, May explained the Brexit would mark Britain's exit from the EU, but not from Europe.

"We will still be part of Europe, and we want to turn the Brexit into a success," she said, adding cooperation with EU member states was crucial to achieve this.

The new British PM explained she had recently chaired the first gathering of a Cabinet committee in charge of preparing "an orderly departure" from the EU.

She added she hoped the economic ties between the two countries would be maintained, and even boosted, recalling that Italy was the UK's eighth largest export market with a bilateral trade worth some 24 billion pounds (31.5 billion U.S. dollars) in 2015.

The global threat of terrorism and the migration crisis were also discussed during their meeting in the Italian capital.

Both leaders declared Italy and the UK would keep working together as much as possible on the global issues of mass migration and terrorism.

May urged "a joint action at the EU and at the international level" against the threat of Islamic terrorism, especially when it came to strengthened intelligence cooperation and information exchange, after the recent attacks on European soil.

"Italy must avoid being overcome by anxiety and fear, and we all need a strong answer to the feeling of horror conveyed by terrorism," Renzi stressed.

"Nothing, whether Brexit or any other passage, would change this principle," he said.

Before meeting the Italian prime minister, May held Brexit talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Holland last week, and with her Irish counterpart Enda Kenny on Tuesday.
RIO DE JANEIRO, July 27 (Xinhua) -- Thomas Bach, the president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), arrived at Rio International Airport early on Wednesday morning and he expected an Olympic Games full of passion and joy.

Bach was greeted by his counterpart at the Rio 2016 Organising committee, Carlos Nuzman, and a host of smiling volunteers at the airport.

"You can already feel the Olympic energy here in the airport, in the city, with all the smiling volunteers full of excitement," said Bach as was quoated by Rio 2016 official website.

"There are high expectations because of the passion of Brazilians for sport, their joy of life, the fantastic venues we' re going to see - it will be a great Olympic atmosphere."

The IOC president also expressed confidence that the final details are being well looked after as the world arrives in the host city.

"There is always one issue or another to be solved in the last days before the Olympic Games," he said. "We're looking forward to a great Games and we've always have confidence in Brazil and the Brazilians." Enditem
NICOSIA, July 27 (Xinhua) -- Major energy companies submitted bids in the third round of licensing for offshore gas exploration in a Cypriot exclusive economic zone, Energy Minister Giorgos Lakkotrypis said on Wednesday.

He said eight companies, mostly participating in consortia, submitted a total of six applications for three offshore blocks.

He said ExxonMobil Exploration and Production Cyprus (offshore) Limited in association with Qatar Petroleum International Upstream O.P.C, submitted a bid for prime block 10, which is close to a mammoth Egyptian gas field known as Zohr, containing an estimated 32 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.

A second consortium, ENI Cyprus Limited and Total E&P Cyprus B.V. and one company, Norwegian Statoil Upsilon Netherlands B.V., also submitted separate bids for block 10, Lakkotrypis said.

He added that the ENI-Total consortium also submitted the sole application for block 6.

Block 6 is being contested by Turkey that claimed part of the block is within Turkey's exclusive economic zone.

Cyprus says the demarcation of its exclusive economic zone was done in line with the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, which Turkey has refused to ratify.

Lakkotrypis said two bids were submitted for block 8, one by Eni Cyprus Limited and the second by Consortium Capricorn Oil (Cairn Energy of Britain-Scotland) and Delek Drilling/Avner Oil Exploration (of Israel).

The Energy Ministry has said in a statement that the six applications will be evaluated by the competent Advisory Committee, which will then draft its opinion in a preparatory report.

Final awarding will be done in about three months by the Cypriot government on the basis of a recommendation by the Minister of Energy.

"The government is very pleased with the bidding by companies possessing economic and technical potential for offshore gas exploration, as this was in line with its planning," said Lakkotrypis

He said that commercial negotiations are at an advanced stage with Egypt for selling gas from the Aphrodite gas field discovered by Texas-based Noble Energy in association with the Israeli Delek company.

He added that consultations are also under way between Cyprus and Israel for possible joint development of adjoining gas fields.

Lakkotrypis said he and his Israeli counterpart will try to conclude an agreement by September. Enditem
TEHRAN, July 27 (Xinhua) -- Iranian Army and the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) have dispatched forces to Russia to participate in the International Army Games 2016, Tasnim news agency reported on Wednesday.

Seven Iranian military teams would participate in the army games to be held in Russia and Kazakhstan from July 30 to Aug. 13.

The teams will compete in various categories, including Sniper Frontier, Tank Biathlon, Suvorov Attack, Elbrus Ring, Airborne Platoon, Seaborne Assault and Depth, according to the report.

Military representatives from 17 countries, including Iran, Russia, China, Egypt, Venezuela, Belarus, and Kazakhstan will reportedly take part in the event. Enditem
WASHINGTON, July 27 (Xinhua) -- U.S. researchers said Wednesday they have identified antibodies that specifically protect against Zika virus infection in mice, an important step toward developing a vaccine, better diagnostic tests and possibly new antibody-based therapies.

Researchers at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis made the achievement by infecting mice with Zika virus, which allowed the animals' immune systems to produce anti-Zika antibodies.

Six antibodies were found, and from these, four were able to effectively prevent or treat Zika infection in cells and in mice, they reported in the U.S. journal Cell.

"Importantly, some of our antibodies are able to neutralize African, Asian and American strains of Zika virus to about the same degree," Daved Fremont, a professor of pathology and immunology and a co-senior author on the paper, said in a statement.

The study also showed that the antibodies bound exclusively to Zika and not to related viruses, which means they are specific enough to be used in diagnostic tests.

Then, they used a technique called X-ray crystallography to zero in on the binding site and found the two most protective antibodies bound to the same region of a particular Zika protein, the envelope protein that covers the surface of the virus.

"This is the first step toward optimizing current vaccine strategies and potentially developing antibody-based therapeutics as well as augmenting efforts for generating diagnostics that would specifically differentiate Zika viruses from other related flaviviruses," said infectious disease researcher Michael Diamond, the other co-author on the paper.

The researchers noted that the key question of whether Zika neutralizing antibodies could protect pregnant women and their developing fetuses remains to be answered.

Due to significant differences in gestational features between mice and humans, antibody protection studies may require experiments in other mammals, such as non-human primates, that allow for optimal transfer of antibodies from the mother to the fetus, as occurs in humans, they said.

Currently, there are no specific treatments for Zika virus infection, and women who become infected while pregnant are at risk of having babies with severe congenital abnormalities.
MADRID, July 27 (Xinhua) -- Spain's Banco Santander reported 2.911 billion euros (3.199 billion U.S. dollars) of profit in the first half of the year, a 32-percent decrease when compared with the same period of 2015, the bank said Wednesday.

According to the bank, the decline was "affected by one-offs and the depreciation against the euro of the currencies of the main countries where the group is present."

The bank reaffirmed its goal of increasing cash dividend per share by 10 percent and total dividend per share by 5 percent in 2016.

"Banco Santander improved the quality of its balance sheet, its solvency and its profitability," the bank said, which allows it to "end the year with an increase in earnings per share."

Europe contributed 57 percent to the group's profit, with Britain contributing 20 percent and Spain 15 percent, where ordinary attributable profit amounted to 616 million euros, an 8-percent rise when compared with the same period of a year earlier.

Meanwhile, the Americas contributed 43 percent to Banco Santander profit, with Brazil and Mexico contributing 19 percent and 7 percent respectively. (1 euro = 1.09 U.S. dollars) Enditem
BEIJING, July 18, 2016 (Xinhua) -- Undated photo shows a Chinese H-6K bomber patrolling islands and reefs including Huangyan Dao in the South China Sea . The People's Liberation Army (PLA) Air Force conducted a combat air patrol in the South China Sea recently, which will become a "regular" practice in the future, said a military spokesperson on July 18, 2016. The PLA sent H-6K bombers and other aircraft including fighters, scouts and tankers to patrol islands and reefs including Huangyan Dao, said Shen Jinke, spokesman for the PLA Air Force. (Xinhua/Liu Rui)

BEIJING, July 27 (Xinhua) -- China on Wednesday urged Japan, the United States and Australia to view and deal with the South China Sea issue in a right attitude.

None of the three nations are directly-concerned parties to the issue, said Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lu Kang in response to question on a trilateral statement issued by the three countries on Monday evening, which touched upon the South China Sea situation.

Lu said China urges relevant countries to respect the efforts of the directly-concerned parties to safeguard peace and stability in the South China Sea, and do right things to serve peace, stability and prosperity in the Asia-Pacific region.

China and members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have already set rules in the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea (DOC), he said.

During the foreign ministers' meeting between China and ASEAN nations (10+1), China and the ASEAN nations issued a joint statement on full and effective implementation of the DOC, which reiterates that disputes should be resolved peacefully through negotiation between the parties directly concerned, said Lu.

Japan, the U.S. and Australia have been citing international laws for some time, but in fact they have been adopting a double standard towards international laws, which they adopt only when the international laws fit their needs, said the spokesperson.

Lu reaffirmed China's non-acceptance of the illegal and void award issued by the Arbitral Tribunal in the South China Sea arbitration established at the unilateral request of the Philippines.

The award given by the Arbitral Tribuna is beyond the scope of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and has gravely violated the international law and the general practice of international arbitration, and it does not stand for the international law, he said.

China firmly opposes any proposition and action based on the award, Lu stressed.
BEIRUT, July 27 (Xinhua) -- Britain will continue its support for Lebanon, especially the vulnerable border communities, by backing the Lebanese Armed Forces and funding development projects that will improve their daily lives, British Ambassador in Beirut Hugo Shorter said on Wednesday.

Shorter paid a visit to al-Qaa village in the Lebanese province of Beqaa to show Britain's solidarity with the municipality and its people, the British embassy said in a statement.

The village has been a target of attacks from the Syrian government and anti-government forces.

"In response to security threats facing the Baalbek region, Ambassador Shorter gifted 4th Land Border Regiment (4LBR) with 1,000 sets of body armor and welcomed the ongoing mobilization of 4LBR," the embassy said.

According to the statement, Shorter also met with the governor of Baalbek-Hermel and lawmaker Emile Rahme.

He discussed several projects the UK is funding in the region through the United Nations Development Program and the Ministry of Social Affairs. Enditem
BEIJING, July 27 (Xinhua) -- Companies who seriously violate environmental laws will face restrictions to their future business endeavors, the Ministry of Environmental Protection announced Wednesday.

The ministry and 30 other central government agencies, including the People's Bank of China, authored the policy, according to the ministry statement.

These companies may be barred from entering certain businesses, blocked from applying for business permits or disqualified from loans. They will not qualify for preferential policies.

The policy lists 14 serious violations, including construction or operation without environment assessment or permits and discharging pollutants.

The ministry will manage a blacklist of companies with bad environment records and share it with other agencies.
JUBA, July 27 (Xinhua) -- South Sudan's peace monitors have been holding consultations with various parties over the country's political crisis after President Salva Kiir sacked his rival Riek Machar as First Vice-President.

The Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission (JMEC), which is overseeing the implementation of the August 2015 peace deal, said on Wednesday it was following carefully the recent political developments in South Sudan.

"Our only interest is to see a solution that promotes peace and a return to normality as well as security in South Sudan," said JMEC chairman Festus Mogae in a statement, vowing that JMEC will remain impartial.

The statement said Mogae had held productive talks with Kiir and Taban Deng Gai, a former peace negotiator that replaced Machar as vice president, as well as two members from Machar-led Sudan People's Liberation Movement In-Opposition (SPLM/IO).

According to JMEC, Kiir expressed his willingness to consider the deployment of a regional protection force to South Sudan in accordance with the recommendations of a recently-concluded Summit of African Union Leaders.

Machar left Juba after days of deadly clashes between his SPLM/IO forces and Kiir-led government troops in the capital city earlier this month.

Kiir issued an ultimatum last week demanding Machar return to Juba within 48 hours, followed by Gai's appointment on Tuesday.

There has been considerable debate in Juba as to whether the recent developments are in line with the peace agreement that led to the formation of a national unity government in April after more than two years of civil war between troops of Kiir and those loyal to Machar.

Mogae has also held talks with Ethiopian Prime Minister Haile Mariam Desalegn, who is the chairperson of Eastern African bloc IGAD that has been overseeing peace process in South Sudan, over the latest developments and the way forward for South Sudan.

"Due to the complexity of the issues involved, this is a matter that should be considered and deliberated upon by the JMEC members, both the South Sudanese and our international partners," the statement said.

Mogae has also met with officials from the UN and the African Union over the political impasse.

The JMEC plans to convene high-level discussions before making representations in front of the United Nations Security Council in August.

The UN on Tuesday warned Kiir that any political appointments must be consistent with the peace deal.

There are fears the resurgence of rift between Kiir and Machar could plunge the world's youngest country into full-scale war again. The civil war that erupted in December 2013 left tens of thousands dead.
ROME, July 27 (Xinhua) -- Italian President Sergio Mattarella said Wednesday his country should not enter the age of anxiety, after the latest spate of terrorist attacks in Europe.

The president made the remarks a day after the French church attack in Rouen, in which a priest was killed by armed men. "We must prevent the victory of fear. We cannot allow our country, and the whole of Europe, to enter the age of anxiety," he said during a ceremony here.

Italian Minister of Defense Roberta Pinotti on Wednesday said special forces of the army were collaborating with parts of the Carabinieri (national gendarmerie) and police in order to prevent terror actions in Italy. These units have carried out four drills and they have plans for the worst scenario in every city, Pinotti told a press conference for the national security.

"We are working, anyway, mainly to prevent this from happening. Then, as I have always said, no country is risk-free, it is evident from the manner in which these actions are performed," she said.

The defense minister also said people living in Italy must know the state is working for them. Law enforcement agencies, the army, intelligence services and the judiciary are doing everything possible to guarantee the safety and peace of those living in the country, she added.

Pinotti said Italian police had arrested two alleged Islamic fundamentalists. "This proves the work of our security forces, who pay attention to every signal. In that case, a photo had been published on the web through a cell phone, showing an Islamic fighter with his gun. I highlight this to say that every signal is taken into consideration in order to do the preventive work," she said. Enditem
OTTAWA, July 27 (Xinhua) -- A group of Canadian Army soldiers are to join in the multinational Exercise SABER GUARDIAN 2016 led by United States in Cincu, Romania from Wednesday until Aug. 7, according to the Canadian Defence Ministry Wednesday.

The military exercise will feature a computer-simulated exercise combined with a field training portion, leading up to a joint live-fire event. Thousands of soldiers from 11 countries will partake in the exercise designed to improve interoperability within a multinational brigade.

The Canadian Army will be taking a leadership role in the exercise, with key personnel overseeing combat support planning, as well as information and knowledge management processes.

"Canada will continue to prioritize building defence capabilities and nurturing partnerships in Central and Eastern Europe. Our participation in Exercise SABER GUARDIAN enables us to support our allies and help strengthen the resiliency of the region," said Canadian Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan.

Exercise SABER GUARDIAN is an annual, multinational exercise that rotates between locations in Romania, Bulgaria,and Ukraine. Enditem
Screenshot shows a communication from Geneva's public prosecutor on the false alarm on the Geneva Airport on July 27, 2016.

GENEVA, July 27 (Xinhua) -- The Swiss public prosecutor said Wednesday that an anonymous tip which had prompted heightened security checks at Geneva's international airport had been sent by a woman who wanted to prevent her husband from flying.

According to Swiss authorities, the woman made the call from the French town of Annecy located close to Geneva.

In a desperate attempt to prevent her husband from leaving, she had called the airport's Swiss customs last night, warning that a person carrying a bomb would be in the French sector of the airport Wednesday.

Against the backdrop of recent attacks in both Germany and France, Swiss law enforcement took the threat seriously.

The city's police force indicated that preventive checks had been carried out in the airport, with passengers having to incur longer waiting times before traveling.

The airport's spokesperson also told Xinhua that the airport remained operational while authorities verified the source of the call.

Security at the border located next to the airport between Switzerland and France was also increased.

Criminal proceedings against the woman have been started by both Swiss and French authorities.
DAMASCUS, July 27 (Xinhua) -- Syrian helicopters dropped thousands of leaflets over rebel-held areas in the northern city of Aleppo on Wednesday, urging rebels to lay down their weapons and the civilians to cooperate with the Syrian army.

"Aleppo is winning: to all those holding weapons in the face of the Syrian state, you have got to seriously think about your fate, as many of your leaders have fled with their money to Turkey," the leaflet read.

"Don't risk yourself, it's your decision, you don't have much time left," it continued.

Another leaflet was directed to the civilians.

"Our dear families in Aleppo, your sons and brothers in the Syrian army are sacrificing to rid you of the terrorism. Your cooperation with the army in terms of providing information about the location of the armed men will be conducive in returning security and stability to your areas," the leaflet read.

Earlier in the day, the army empathized on urging the rebels in Aleppo city to surrender, saying it's a "real chance."

"Emanating from our keenness to curb the bloodletting, we grant a real opportunity to all those who hold weapons in Aleppo's eastern part to settle their situation by laying down their weapons and stay in Aleppo, or to surrender their weapons and leave the city," the general command of the Syrian army said in a statement carried by state-run SANA news agency.

"We urge everyone to have a prudence and put the national interest of restoring peace and security to Aleppo above anything else," it added.

The move comes as the Syrian army has completely laid a siege on the rebel-held parts in east of Aleppo city, after severing the last remaining supply route to those areas last week.

In the statement, the army said it had succeeded with the help of allied fighters to successfully complete their mission in northern Aleppo, by cutting all of the supply routes the rebels used.

It added that the military campaign came in the framework of restoring peace and stability to Aleppo.

The statement also urged the civilians to cooperate with the Syrian army in achieving a cessation of violence, and a return of tranquility to Aleppo.

A day earlier, the Syrian army offered safe exits to civilians in the rebel-held areas in eastern Aleppo.

The military's general command said the army had identified several routes and safe passages for civilians wishing to leave the rebel-held neighborhoods in the eastern parts of Aleppo, adding that maps of the routes were being sent to the cellphones of the civilians.

It urged the civilians in the areas to join the government-proposed reconciliations and expel the rebels out of their homes and neighborhoods.

Aleppo, located near the borders with Turkey, is Syria's largest city and once an economic hub. It 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, striking the economic nerves of the Syrian government, which has repeatedly accused Turkey of supporting the rebels.

After capturing several districts in eastern Aleppo city, the rebels repeatedly tried to expand their presence to government-controlled areas in the west.

They laid a siege on western Aleppo districts after cutting the international road to Aleppo in 2014, which was broken later by the Syrian army with the help of Hezbollah.

Meanwhile, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said during an interview with a Greek TV that if the rebels wanted to "return to their normal lives, and abandon their weapons, they will get pardon."

"Pardon is a good option, I think, to help those people who held weapons for different reasons," he said.
RIGA, July 27 (Xinhua) -- During the first half of 2016, Latvia's budget revenue grew by 5.6 percent or 203.2 million euros (223.5 million U.S. dollars) against the first half of last year, Dace Peleka, acting head of State Revenue Service, said at a news conference Wednesday.

Latvia's tax revenue in the first half of this year totaled to 3.644 billion euros. This was 0.6 percent above target, which had been set at 3.624 billion euros, Peleka said.

In the first six months of 2015, Latvia's tax revenue totaled 3.436 billion euros.

Meanwhile, non-tax revenue came to 215.12 million euros in the first six months of 2016, falling 16.1 percent short of the target, which was 256.54 million euros. In the first half of last year, non-tax revenue in the Latvian budget reached 220.58 million euros.

Peleka said that tax payments had dropped at the steepest rate in the public sector, which in the first half of this year received significantly less construction services than a year earlier.

Also, revenues from customs duties fell as the value of imports from some countries plummeted in the first half of 2016. In monetary terms, imports decreased by 44 percent from South Korea, 40 percent from Belarus, 14 percent from China and 11 percent from Russia.

The acting director-general, however, voiced confidence that the budget revenue target will be met this year. Enditem
LAGOS, July 27 (Xinhua) -- The Nigerian Army on Wednesday charged every Combat Unit to remain focused until insurgency in the restive northeast is crushed.

The battle against insurgency in the North-East had thrown up a lot of challenges, Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen. Tukur Buratai, said while declaring close of a three-day training session for combat forces held at Maimalari Barracks in Maiduguri, Borno State capital.

The Army chief charged the units to explore the best ways of carrying out their roles by emphasizing synergy so as to maximize scarce resources.

Buratai, however expressed satisfaction that the efforts were yielding positive results.

"We should not rest on oars until the counter-terrorism and counter-insurgency operations are brought to a conclusive end and peace restored to the region and entire country," he said.

Nigerian soldiers in continuation of the clearance operations against the remnants of Boko Haram terrorists scattered across the Northern region have been recording milestone victories.

The group attacks in the northeast have declined over the last year.

Boko Haram, which seeks to impose strict Islamic law in northern Nigeria, has been blamed for some 20,000 deaths and displacing of more than 2.6 million people since 2009. Enditem
Smoke billows from buildings during an operation by Syrian government forces to retake control of the rebel-held district of Leramun, on the northwest outskirts of Aleppo, on July 26, 2016. (AFP/Xinhua)

DAMASCUS, July 27 (Xinhua) -- Syrian helicopters dropped thousands of leaflets over rebel-held areas in the northern city of Aleppo on Wednesday, urging rebels to lay down their weapons and the civilians to cooperate with the Syrian army.

"Aleppo is winning: to all those holding weapons in the face of the Syrian state, you have got to seriously think about your fate, as many of your leaders have fled with their money to Turkey," the leaflet read.

"Don't risk yourself, it's your decision, you don't have much time left," it continued.

Another leaflet was directed to the civilians.

"Our dear families in Aleppo, your sons and brothers in the Syrian army are sacrificing to rid you of the terrorism. Your cooperation with the army in terms of providing information about the location of the armed men will be conducive in returning security and stability to your areas," the leaflet read.

Earlier in the day, the army empathized on urging the rebels in Aleppo city to surrender, saying it's a "real chance."

"Emanating from our keenness to curb the bloodletting, we grant a real opportunity to all those who hold weapons in Aleppo's eastern part to settle their situation by laying down their weapons and stay in Aleppo, or to surrender their weapons and leave the city," the general command of the Syrian army said in a statement carried by state-run SANA news agency.

"We urge everyone to have a prudence and put the national interest of restoring peace and security to Aleppo above anything else," it added.

The move comes as the Syrian army has completely laid a siege on the rebel-held parts in east of Aleppo city, after severing the last remaining supply route to those areas last week.

Syrian civil defence volunteers, known as the White Helmets, carry a young boy after they dug him out from under the rubble of buildings destroyed following reported air strikes on the rebel-held neighbourhood of Al-Mashhad in the northern city of Aleppo, on July 25, 2016. (AFP/Xinhua)

In the statement, the army said it had succeeded with the help of allied fighters to successfully complete their mission in northern Aleppo, by cutting all of the supply routes the rebels used.

It added that the military campaign came in the framework of restoring peace and stability to Aleppo.

The statement also urged the civilians to cooperate with the Syrian army in achieving a cessation of violence, and a return of tranquility to Aleppo.

A day earlier, the Syrian army offered safe exits to civilians in the rebel-held areas in eastern Aleppo.

The military's general command said the army had identified several routes and safe passages for civilians wishing to leave the rebel-held neighborhoods in the eastern parts of Aleppo, adding that maps of the routes were being sent to the cellphones of the civilians.

It urged the civilians in the areas to join the government-proposed reconciliations and expel the rebels out of their homes and neighborhoods.

Aleppo, located near the borders with Turkey, is Syria's largest city and once an economic hub. It 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, striking the economic nerves of the Syrian government, which has repeatedly accused Turkey of supporting the rebels.

After capturing several districts in eastern Aleppo city, the rebels repeatedly tried to expand their presence to government-controlled areas in the west.

They laid a siege on western Aleppo districts after cutting the international road to Aleppo in 2014, which was broken later by the Syrian army with the help of Hezbollah.

Meanwhile, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said during an interview with a Greek TV that if the rebels wanted to "return to their normal lives, and abandon their weapons, they will get pardon."

"Pardon is a good option, I think, to help those people who held weapons for different reasons," he said.
LISBON, July 27 (Xinhua) -- The Portuguese government on Wednesday endorsed Brussels' decision not to sanction Portugal for missing its deficit target last year, pointing out it was in line with the EU spirit.

"It is good news for Portugal, for Europe and for the European spirit as well as for the spirit of the EU construction," Minister of Foreign Affairs August Santos Silva said on Wednesday at a press conference at the Necessidades Palace in Lisbon.

The European Commission on Wednesday decided to avoid sanctioning both Portugal and Spain, which are defined in the Stability Pact.

Brussels was intending to impose a fine on Portugal of up to 0.2 percent of GDP, a move likely to spark anti-EU sentiment after the Brexit vote.

Following intense criticism regarding the move, Brussels decided instead to impose tough targets on Portugal, namely reducing its deficit to 2.5 percent this year.

Brussels' decision is a victory both for the government and for the opposition, Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa said.

"The great lesson of the day is very simple: when we, the Portuguese, unite in favor of a just cause, we win," he said during a press conference at the Palace of Belem in Lisbon.

He added that the decision to cancel sanctions for Portugal was a victory for Europe, for Portugal and for "responsibility."

"The Portuguese, who endure and endured sacrifices, are the big winners of the day," he added.

Portuguese officials have in the past months pressured Brussels not to impose a fine, pointing to the efforts carried out by the country under its 78-billion-euro bailout signed in 2011.

In a letter sent earlier this month to Brussels, Finance Minister Mario Centeno warned that the proposed sanction would have a negative effect on Portugal's support of the European project.

Portugal's Prime Minister, Antonio Costa, also pointed out that such a fine would be "unjust" and "incomprehensible."

The European Commissioner for economic and financial affairs, Pierre Moscovici, on Wednesday acknowledged such claims, pointing out that sanctions would not be understood by populations which had made sacrifices in the past years.

Portugal was expecting to see a deficit of 2.2 percent this year and the country will now have to present extraordinary measures to Brussels by Oct. 15.

The Left Bloc on Wednesday also welcomed the decision and said it was a positive step. However the party, which backs the ruling Socialist party, also said there was still another battle on the horizon, involving the possibility of Brussels suspending structural funds from the EU budget. Enditem
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton gestures as she campaigns at East Los Angeles College in Los Angeles, the United States, May 5, 2016. (Xinhua/File Photo)

by Xinhua writers Zhou Xiaozheng, Zhu Lei, Lu Jiafei, Xu Jianmei

PHILADELPHIA, United States, July 27 (Xinhua) -- "I was so happy that I cried. I used to ask my God to let me live so I can see this," 102-year-old Geraldine Emmett kept telling reporters who lined up for brief interviews with her on Tuesday.

Just an hour ago, in a state-by-state roll call, the retired educator from Arizona, a delegate to the 2016 Democratic National Convention, announced that Democrats in her state had awarded Hillary Clinton 51 of their total 85 votes.

When the roll call ended, Clinton, the former U.S. first lady and secretary of state, officially won her party's nomination for the 2016 presidential election, becoming the first woman ever nominated for U.S. president by a major political party.

"When I was young, I never dreamed to see a woman become the president of the United States someday," recalled Emmett. The white-haired lady still remembers when women first got to vote in America.

"When I was about 9 years old, Arizona passed the law that women could vote for the first time ever. My mother and I, we were so happy," she said cheerfully.

The second night of the four-day Democratic National Convention was also a moment Clinton's campaign sought to heal the deep wounds in the Democratic Party after a bruising primary season fighting off challenger Bernie Sanders.

After South Dakota cast the decisive 15 votes putting Clinton over the threshold of 2,383 delegates required to clinch the nomination, Sanders made a motion to bring the party's presidential race to a close and formally nominated Clinton.

"Madam chair, I move that the convention suspend the procedural rules. I move that all votes, all votes cast by delegates, be reflected in the official record, and I move that Hillary Clinton be selected as the nominee of the Democratic Party for president of the United States," he said.

The convention burst into cheers as a sea of delegates waved signs with Clinton's "H" campaign logo, some falling into hugs and tears. But no sooner had an emotional Sanders left the convention than a group of about 100 angry and disheartened delegates chanted "Walkout! Walkout!" and stormed into the media pavilion.

Their abrupt walkout caught police officers off guard although tight security measures have prevented pro-Sanders protesters from swarming into the national convention in the wake of a new emails leak scandal plaguing the Democratic Party.

Nearly 20,000 emails leaked on Friday from the Democratic National Committee (DNC) showed that party officials who were supposed to remain neutral during the primary contest grew increasingly agitated with Sanders and his campaign. They even floated ideas to sabotage his candidacy.

Locked in arms, the protesters staged a sit-in protest in the temporarily pitched media tent, holding posters of "Bernie or Bust" and "DNC, You're Fired," and chanting "United together! No TPP! This is for Democracy." About half of the protesters wore a seal on their mouths, with letters of "Silenced by the DNC" written on it.

"We are taken advantage of by the system. We know there is election fraud in some states and it's been ignored," said Caitlin Glidewell, a 20-year-old alternate delegate from the state of Colorado, weeping.

Michelle McFadden-DiNicola, a New Jersey delegate for Sanders, said: "We are here to give voice to those voters and those other people in our country that were silenced in the primary."

"Unfortunately, I don't think many Americans are surprised" by the email scandal, which forced DNC chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz to resign, she said.

Sanders' supporters have long complained that the use of superdelegates and other ways in the primary nomination process were rigged against their champion of "political revolution."

With signature calls for free college tuition for all, universal health care and a hike of the federal minimum wage to 15 U.S. dollars per hour, Sanders has galvanized millions of Democrats throughout his hard-fought primary campaign with Clinton.

"Because of our complacency, we will probably wind up with either Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton. It's unfortunate that we are not angrier about being silenced," McFadden-DiNicola said with a Sanders headband.

"I don't know what I would do in November ... But I do know that we need to keep rather than party unity in focus, we need to keep our country unity in our focus. And I can tell you now that I will not vote for Donald Trump," she said. Enditem
A mouse stays in a hand during a cats and mice fair held in the southeastern Polish city of Lublin, March 12, 2006. Some 40 rare breeds of cats were displayed during the fair. (Xinhua/File Photo)

WASHINGTON, July 27 (Xinhua) -- U.S. researchers said Wednesday they have identified antibodies that specifically protect against Zika virus infection in mice, an important step toward developing a vaccine, better diagnostic tests and possibly new antibody-based therapies.

Researchers at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis made the achievement by infecting mice with Zika virus, which allowed the animals' immune systems to produce anti-Zika antibodies.

Six antibodies were found, and from these, four were able to effectively prevent or treat Zika infection in cells and in mice, they reported in the U.S. journal Cell.

"Importantly, some of our antibodies are able to neutralize African, Asian and American strains of Zika virus to about the same degree," Daved Fremont, a professor of pathology and immunology and a co-senior author on the paper, said in a statement.

The study also showed that the antibodies bound exclusively to Zika and not to related viruses, which means they are specific enough to be used in diagnostic tests.

Then, they used a technique called X-ray crystallography to zero in on the binding site and found the two most protective antibodies bound to the same region of a particular Zika protein, the envelope protein that covers the surface of the virus.

"This is the first step toward optimizing current vaccine strategies and potentially developing antibody-based therapeutics as well as augmenting efforts for generating diagnostics that would specifically differentiate Zika viruses from other related flaviviruses," said infectious disease researcher Michael Diamond, the other co-author on the paper.

The researchers noted that the key question of whether Zika neutralizing antibodies could protect pregnant women and their developing fetuses remains to be answered.

Due to significant differences in gestational features between mice and humans, antibody protection studies may require experiments in other mammals, such as non-human primates, that allow for optimal transfer of antibodies from the mother to the fetus, as occurs in humans, they said.

Currently, there are no specific treatments for Zika virus infection, and women who become infected while pregnant are at risk of having babies with severe congenital abnormalities.
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)

ANKARA, July 27 (Xinhua) -- A total of 1,684 military personnel, including generals, were discharged from Turkish armed forces on Wednesday with a statutory decree after the failed coup attempt, local media NTV reported.

Discharged military personnel were identified as members or related to the Fethullahist Organization.

The U.S-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen is accused by Ankara of plotting the July 15 coup attempt.

A total of 149 generals and admirals were dismissed from the army, according to the official gazette published on late Wednesday.

Meanwhile, 1,099 commissioned officers and 436 non-commissioned officers are among the dismissed.

Gendarmerie and coast guard command ships were also brought under control of the interior ministry.

According to the official gazette, three news agencies, 23 radio stations, 16 TV channels, 45 newspapers, 15 magazines and 29 publishing houses were also closed.

A total of 8,651 soldiers, which made up 1.5 percent of the military's total personnel, took part in the failed coup attempt, the Turkish general staff said on Wednesday.

So far, 10,012 soldiers have been detained as a part of the investigation into the coup attempt, which left at least 290 people, including more than 100 "coup plotters," killed, authorities said.
HELSINKI, July 27 (Xinhua) -- After years of cost cutbacks and layoffs, the Finnish media sector has reported positive trends.

The country's leading commercial media house Sanoma announced on Wednesday a 75 percent increase in its operating profit compared with the situation a year ago.

Sanoma's CEO Susan Duinhoven said on Wednesday that company's media operations in Finland were the biggest single factor behind the increased profitability. She attributed the turnaround to strict cost control and increased advertising sales.

Sanoma is the owner of Helsingin Sanomat, the largest newspaper in Finland. It has other newspapers, as well as radio and television channels.

Despite the improved profitability, turnover of Sanoma declined 4.1 percent from Q2 last year.

Only last week, another major newspaper house Alma Media said its profit for this year would increase.

Alma Media is the publisher of Tampere-based daily Aamulehti, national evening paper Iltalehti and business daily Kauppalehti. Alma Media's turnover for Q2 this year grew by 26 percent.

The news of the media industry has not been totally positive.

Leading Swedish language media house KSF announced earlier this year major cutbacks due to record loss. It publishes newspaper Hufvudstadsbladet. One of the reasons for KSF's loss was the decline in the Swedish speaking population in southern Finland.

Media in the Swedish speaking communities in Ostrobothnia, central western Finland, has been doing better and the publisher of Vasabladet has been able to turn losses into profits.

The future of the ailing national news agency STT-Lehtikuva looks better following a political intervention last month. An all-party working group said the state-owned national broadcaster Yle should start using the services of STT again.

Yle has not been a client of STT since 2006, as it chose to do news gathering on its own. Talks between Yle and STT have not begun yet, Yle said on Wednesday. Enditem
RIO DE JANEIRO, July 27 (Xinhua) -- Brazil's suspended president Dilma Rousseff and her predecessor Luiz Inocio Lula da Silva announced Tuesday that they would not attend the Opening Ceremony of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games on Aug. 5, local media reported.

The press secretaries of both politicians told the Globonews TV station that they would not attend, due to disagreements with the interim government of President Michel Temer.

Rousseff was suspended from office on May 12 by the Senate, pending a full impeachment trial, which the former leader described as a "coup d'etat."

She will be judged at the end of August for fiscal irregularities in the 2014 and 2015 federal budgets, and may be permanently impeached.

Lula, who was president from 2003 to 2010, and Rousseff were the captains of Rio's candidacy to win the Olympic Games in 2009.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) invited both presidents to attend, alongside all other living ex-presidents, but the Temer government ruled out letting Rousseff play any official part in the ceremony.

In a recent interview, Rousseff said she felt she had been "the mother of these Olympics" and Lula "the father".
UNITED NATIONS, July 27 (Xinhua) -- UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday voiced his concern over Turkey situation, but he said that he "trusts the government and people of Turkey will transform this moment of uncertainty into a moment of unity," a UN spokesman told reporters here.

When speaking over the phone with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, the secretary-general "expressed his concern over the extent of the recent governmental decree regarding the implementation of the state of emergency, which enlists a number of measures restricting the full exercise of individual rights," Farhan Haq, the deputy UN spokesman, said at a daily news briefing here.

Last week, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared state of emergency for three months following a failed coup attempt on July 15, which was crushed the next day.

At least 290 people, including more than 100 "coup plotters," were killed, authorities said.

While recognizing the extraordinary circumstances prevailing in the country following the coup attempt, the secretary-general expressed his expectation that Turkey adhere to its international human rights obligations, upholding fundamental rights and universal principles, including the freedom of expression, freedom of movement and peaceful assembly, independence of the judiciary and of the legal profession, right to fair trial and strict adherence to due process, Haq said.

Ban welcomed the announced release of 1,200 military detainees, but also noted worrying reports of mistreatment and abuse of some of those who are still in custody and their detention conditions, the spokesman said.

The UN chief also underscored his deep concern about the scope of continuing widespread arrests, detentions and suspensions, which reportedly cover many segments of Turkish society and government institutions, Haq said.

"Heartened by the government and opposition rallying around upholding the republic, the secretary-general trusts that the Government and people of Turkey will transform this moment of uncertainty into a moment of unity, preserving Turkey's democracy," he added.
A picture taken on March 9, 2015 shows Evalina, a South Sudanese victim of sexual abuse, pointing at Unity State in South Sudan, indicating the location where she used to live, during an AFP interview in the Sudanese capital Khartoum. Imprisoned by gunmen and sexually abused for two months, South Sudanese teenager Evalina has finally escaped the conflict wracking her country to her birthplace Khartoum. Now she has become one the first South Sudanese women to seek counselling under a programme for victims of sexual violence run by the UN refugee agency in the city. (AFP/File Photo)

UNITED NATIONS, July 27 (Xinhua) -- The UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) continued "to receive deeply disturbing reports of sexual violence" in South Sudan, and stepped up patrol to protect civilians in the world's youngest country, a UN spokesman told reporters here Wednesday.

The reports included "rape and gang rape, by soldiers in uniform and men in plain clothes against civilians, including minors, around UN House and in other areas of Juba," the capital of the war-torn country, Farhan Haq, the deputy UN spokesman, said at a daily news briefing here.

Since the start of the current violence in Juba, UNMISS has documented at least 120 cases of sexual violence and rape against civilians, Haq said. "It has stepped up its patrols in and around the Protection of Civilians sites, as well as in Juba city."

In addition, mitigating measures are in place where UNMISS force provides protection at designated times to women when they have to go out of the Protection of Civilians sites to collect firewood and procure other non-food items, he said.

"We have called on all parties to the conflict to take personal responsibility for the immediate sanctioning of their soldiers involved in these unspeakable acts of violence," Haq added.

UN officials said that the situation in South Sudan remains fluid and uncertain. The clashes between government and opposition forces took place in Juba early this month, leaving some 272 people dead, including 33 civilians.

The country again plunged into conflict in December 2013 after President Salva Kiir accused his deputy Riek Machar of plotting a coup, which the latter denied, leading to a cycle of retaliatory killings.
PARIS, July 27 (Xinhua) -- Policing inquiry into security measures set to secure celebration of Bastille Day in Rivera city of Nice were appropriate when a man drove with his truck into revelers and killed 84 people, the General Inspectorate of National Police (IGPN) said Wednesday.

"For an event that was not exceptional and without knowledge of any particular threat, the overall police operation was not inadequate," Marie-France Moneger-Guyomarc'h, IGPN director said.

"Clearly the security operation was not designed for this type of attack, the novelty and intensity of which were beyond all expectations," she added.

She also confirmed that 64 national police and 42 municipal police were deployed for the event.

On July 14, a 31-year-old man drove his heavy truck into crowd at Bastille Day celebration in Nice. He killed 84 people and injured 300 others.

Critics asked how it had been possible for a truck driving at high speed could careen two km through a crowd before being stopped by police units in a context of high terror alert.

Christian Estrosi, president of the Rivera region and former mayor of Nice, pointed the finger at the Socialist Party, accusing it of completely failing in Nice.

"When the interior minister says there were enough police, it constitutes a blatant lie," he told TV news channel iTele.
LIVERPOOL, Britain, July 27 (Xinhua) -- Pattie Boyd, former wife of the late Beatle George Harrison and Eric Clapton, Tuesday unveiled two of her iconic outfits which formed part of her exhibition "George, Eric and Me" at The Beatles Story in Liverpool.

One of the outfits, a jacket and short skirt, was made especially for Boyd by The Fool, while she bought the other outfit, a floaty Thea Porter dress, while in Italy on an Italian Vogue shoot in 1970.

Both outfits now join the exhibition, which features intimate portraits of Harrison and Clapton by the woman who shared both their lives. The fascinating collection also includes candid photographs of the musical icons and their rock'n'roll star friends such as The Rolling Stones' Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood.

Boyd Tuesday visited The Beatles Story and told Xinhua that it was natural to take photos for them as they were friends at that time.

"They were quite comfortable with me taking photos. So it is more like an intimate exhibition," Boyd told Xinhua.

Boyd was married to Harrison, one member of The Beatles, from 1966 to 1977. She was married to another musician icon Eric Clapton from 1979 to 1988.

Boyd first met George Harrison during filming of A Hard Day's Night in 1964 when she played a schoolgirl, but she was engaged to a photographer and initially declined Harrison's offer of a date.

Just a few days later, the pair went out to a club, chaperoned by Beatles manager Brian Epstein, and according to Pattie one of the first things George said to her was: "Will you marry me?"

George and Eric were close friends but during Pattie's marriage to the Beatle, Eric, who found fame in the 1960s with his rock group Cream and also as a solo artist, fell in love with her.

Boyd said: "The exhibition looks fabulous. Each picture tells a story and the whole collection really does give a glimpse into my life with George and my life with Eric. The exhibition also includes pictures that have never before been shown in the UK."

"I am delighted with the exhibition, which is complemented by the natural light that floods into the exhibition space at The Beatles Story. It's been a real honour to show my work here and to add these two special outfits, which will be on display for the remainder of the exhibition."

Boyd said she would love to display her images in China. "If a gallery in China asks me to, I would say yes."

Data showed there is a breakdown of the number of visitors to The Beatles Story from China.

The number of Chinese visitors to The Beatles Story was 9,460 in 2013, and it reached 11,297 in 2015.

"We are expecting the number of visitors from China to be even bigger in 2016 and China to become our first biggest market overtaking the U.S.," said one of the organizers. Enditem
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/File Photo)

WASHINGTON, July 27 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump on Wednesday said he hoped Russian hackers have obtained 33,000 emails that his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton deleted from her private email server.

"If they hacked, they probably have her 33,000 emails. I hope they do," Trump told reporters at a press conference in Miami.

"You'd see some beauties, so we'll see," Trump said, adding that Russia "will probably be rewarded mightily by the press" if obtaining these emails.

In a tweet posted online earlier Wednesday morning, Trump said "If Russia or any other country or person has Hillary Clinton's 33,000 illegally deleted emails, perhaps they should share them with the FBI."

Trump made the remarks at a time when Clinton is to accept the Democratic Party's nomination for president at the Democratic National Convention being held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

The convention is overshadowed by a scandal over some leaked emails from officials of the Democratic National Committee, which exposed that they worked in favor of Clinton against her rival Senator Bernie Sanders while they were supposed to remain neutral. The outcry over the emails led to the resignation of Democratic Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz.

This scandal further tarnished Clinton's already negative image while pushing away many of Sanders supporters, who the Clinton campaign hopes will shift their support to Clinton after Sanders' exit.

The Clinton campaign blamed Russian hackers for leaking the emails on the Wikileaks website, citing Moscow is trying to help Trump win the election because of his pro-Russian position. The Trump campaign has denied such accusations.

Clinton has been widely criticized by her use of a private email account and a private email server installed at her home while she was secretary of state in the first term of the Obama administration.

Clinton has handed over about 30,000 work-related emails to the State Department, but she deleted about half of her emails that were "personal" in nature.

Though declining to press criminal charges against Clinton, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) faulted her for being "extremely careless" in handling classified information.

The Clinton campaign on Wednesday blasted Trump for calling on Russia and other hackers to find Clinton's deleted emails.

"This has gone from being a matter of curiosity, and a matter of politics, to being a national security issue," Clinton's senior policy adviser Jake Sullivan said in a statement.
This file photo taken on May 7, 2016 shows a mosquito in Mexico City. Tens of thousands of babies may be born with debilitating Zika-related disorders in the course of the outbreak sweeping through Latin America and the Caribbean, researchers said on July 25, 2016. Mathematical projections suggest about 93.4 million people may catch the virus -- including some 1.65 million pregnant women -- before the epidemic fizzles out, a team reported in the journal Nature Microbiology. Eighty percent of people will develop mild symptoms or never even be aware they have the virus. (AFP/File Photo)

WASHINGTON, July 27 (Xinhua) -- U.S. health officials said Wednesday they are investigating two more possible non-travel related Zika virus cases in Florida, raising further fears that the virus has spread to mosquitoes in the continental United States.

The new cases are in Florida's Miami-Dade and Broward counties, where the investigations into two similar cases, announced last week, are still ongoing. No other such cases have been identified in the continental U.S.

"The investigations into the new cases will begin today and door-to-door outreach and sample collection are ongoing in all cases," the Florida Department of Health said in a statement.

"Residents and visitors are urged to participate in requests for urine samples by the department in the areas of investigation. These results will help the department determine the number of people affected," it said.

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.
UNITED NATIONS, July 27 (Xinhua) -- There must be a greater humanitarian access to the region of Lake Chad Basin to mitigate the humanitarian crisis facing the populations, said Wu Haitao, China's deputy permanent representative to the UN, on Wednesday.

Wu told the Security Council that the international community should help countries of the region to address root causes of the conflict and increase financial assistance to them so that they can build capacities to promote economic and social development.

Earlier, UN humanitarian chief Stephen O'Brien told the 15-nation council that violence and brutality perpetrated by Boko Haram is resulting in massive forced displacement, human rights violations, and severe disruptions to livelihoods in the Lake Chad Basin region.

Across the region, the UN estimates, over nine million people in Nigeria, Niger, Chad and Cameroon need humanitarian assistance, according to O'Brien.

"Children are particularly vulnerable," he noted, saying that 1.7 million children have been displaced in the region and they risk being forcibly recruited by Boko Harm to take part in violence.

The Nigeria-based extremist group Boko Haram seeks to impose strict Islamic law in northern Nigeria. Its insurgency has killed tens of thousands of people and has affected Nigeria's neighboring countries in the region.

Nigeria is heading up a multinational joint task force along with Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Benin to fight Boko Haram terrorists and bring back stability to the region.
BEIJING, July 26, 2016 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Vice President Li Yuanchao (7th R, front) meets with delegates attending the Youth 20 meeting (Y20) in Beijing, capital of China, July 25, 2016. (Xinhua/Rao Aimin)

Related

Chinese VP highlights role of youth in global economic growth

BEIJING, July 26 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Vice President Li Yuanchao on Monday called on young people from G20 to inject vitality into the world economy through entrepreneurship and innovation.
2 jailed in London/TT motorbike stealing racket

The cycles were expected to be shipped to Trinidad later that month. An estimated ?100,000 worth of stolen vehicles have since been recovered by authorities and attributed to the duos criminal network.

Since news of the arrest was made public, several used car dealers in Trinidad expressed concern over the frequency of stolen vehicles sometimes arriving in Trinidad.

Inshan Ishmael, former head of the Pre-owned Automobile Association yesterday said the issue of stolen foreign vehicles imported and sold locally is not a new problem and renewed calls for tighter measures to be implemented by the Ministry of Works and Transport together with the Customs and Excise Division. What is happening is for years we have spoken about not just motor bikes but cars and Range Rovers (a luxury type of SUV) that are coming in literally by the dozens, evading motor vehicle tax and other duties and have been reassembled here, with number plates going on it a week after its arrival, Ishmael said.

A popular used car dealer in Central Trinidad, echoed Ishmaels sentiments. He lamented the lack of proper security protocol at ports of entry and called for stricter measures to be implemented and enforced by the Customs and Excise Division and the Ministry of Works and Transport.

This is really nothing new in our business. There are a lot of foreign used cars dealers involved in this lawlessness. This poses a serious problem to reputable foreign used dealers such as myself. These guys have the vehicle scrapped wherever it is stolen and the parts are imported, reassembled and new number plates put on. It is then sold.
Judge calls for Medical Review Board

Krishna Naresh Jagessar sought to amend his claim after he was able to obtain an expert medical opinion earlier this year, from a United States-based physician on his wifes case. He complained of difficulty in obtaining a medical expert locally to assist him.

In his ruling, Justice Seepersad noted that no prejudice would be suffered if Jagessar is allowed to amend his original claim against the NCRHA and ordered that this be done before parties return to court in February of next year.

In his ruling the judge also that the patients had a burden to produce expert evidence to prove their claims. He said obtaining such witnesses would be extremely difficult for those who utilised the public health care system.

In this jurisdiction persons who avail themselves of public health facilities are often persons whose financial status does not enable them to seek private medical care. When allegations of negligence arise in relation to the treatment afforded at public health care institutions, the burden of proof rests on the shoulders of the claimant and medical evidence in required so as to establish that there was a breach of the requisite duty of care, he said, nothing that it was an insurmountable hurdle. He also noted that there was a tendency for medical professionals to band together and observed that very often there is an unwillingness by professionals to express opinions that condemn or criticise the work of fellow professionals.

The proper function of the public health care facilities in an issue of national importance and the public good requires and mandates that there should be adherence to the highest standards of medical care, the judge said, noting that the system was weighted against users of public health care facilities.

There is urgent need for the establishment of a body such as a medical expert review board that can objectively receive medical notes and advance a preliminary opinion as to whether or not there was a breach of the requisite standard of care. Such a service should form part of the public health care system, he said.

This type of facility, he added, would provide invaluable assistance and can lead to a more measured approach to medical negligence litigation and assist public health care institutions in the implementation of systems and protocols to address shortcomings so as to ensure the delivery of the highest possible standard of medical care, he noted.

According to Jagessars claim for damages, his wife Solange gave birth to her third child on September 30, 2009. Days later she was found unresponsive by her husband and taken to the Chaguanas Health Facility. By October 14, post partum eclampsia was suspected and a procedure was performed to remove the infected residual placenta. Solange remained in a medical induced coma from which she has never come out of to date. Joan Byrne and N Ramchandani appear for the Jagessars while Neal Bisnath and Ravi Nanga appear for the NCRHA.
Verbal abuse for mom in court

The woman, a mother of two, sat on a chair on Monday in the courtroom and was subjected to a torrent of verbal assault from male prisoners locked up in the courtrooms prisoner enclosure. The revelation came from social activist Inshan Ishmael and businessman Wazim Daniel who were in the enclosure awaiting their own case to be called.

Ishmael and Daniel faced the court on charges arising out of a protest last week outside the Chaguanas head-office of the Trinidad Guardian newspaper as they press for that newspapers editor in chief Orin Gordon and columnist Kevin Baldeosingh to be fired over what many Muslims have deemed as insensitive a column written by Baldeosingh and published in that newspaper on Eid ul Fitr.

The worst part of our ordeal was that there was a woman, charged with larceny, seated on a chair in the corridor.

Men were telling her what they wanted to do to her body. They were telling her things like, we would like to do so and so with you and how they will take turns.

That woman spent four hours on a chair taking that kind of verbal and mental abuse from those men. And she could not leave, Ishmael said.

Newsday learnt that the mother of two from Central Trinidad had earlier appeared in the First Court before Magistrate Sharon Gibson charged with larceny of cash from a dwelling house. The 27-year-old mother, represented by defence attorney Shiva Boodoo, pleaded not guilty to the offence which allegedly occurred sometime between July 10 and 19, at Orchid Drive in Chaguanas.

Sgt Mohammed of the Chaguanas CID spearheaded investigations and WPC Joseph charged the woman.

The accused mother was granted bail with a surety to re-appear on August 22. After bail was granted, police escorted her out of the courtroom and outside the cell block area, which contained male prisoners, as she awaited the bail bond documents to process. I dont care what crime she did.

What did she do to deserve four hours of this? Some of them (were) exposing themselves to her. Some told her the worst imaginable and we stood there and had to listen to that! When we spoke to a police officer about the, the officer stated to abuse him (Daniel), Ishmael said
CHURCH METAL SCANNERS

The Archbishops signal that the issue will have to be considered came as the president of the Inter- Religious Organisation (IRO) Bro Harrypersad Maharaj said all religious leaders will have to be on alert and warned that scanners at all places of worship may indeed soon become a reality in this country.

Yesterday, two men, deemed followers of militant terrorist group ISIS, invaded a church and slit the throat of Father Jacques Hamel near the altar as he was saying early morning Mass. As a nun looked on, then intruders also cut the throat of a parishioner, who came to worship, leaving him for dead. French President Fran?ois Hollande, called the savagery a vile terrorist attack and asked for unity. (See Page 23A) The knife-attack took place less than two weeks after a terrorist ploughed a truck into Bastille Day crowds at a beach-front promenade, killing 84.

In an interview with Newsday from New York, Archbishop Harris said all churches are places of sanctuary. But he conceded that discussions will have to be held among church officials on whether any special measures will have to be introduced.

Churches are open places, the Archbishop said. They are places of sanctuary and I have not spoken about this with my clergy. Before we take any decision, I would have to talk with them. But in general, we do not keep people out of churches. However, the Archbishop said even at the Vatican there are security measures.

Before you go to the Vatican you pass through (metal) scanners, the Archbishop said. I dont know whether we have any reason to do that in Trinidad and Tobago. I have not heard of any attack at a church in Trinidad. When I get back home we may speak about it. When I get back we will deal with the way forward. Harris said this country is a tolerant one and expressed hope that the use of metal scanners would not have to be adopted. It does not seem to be something that affects us and I hope Trinidad and Tobago never comes to that stage, the Archbishop said. We have lived a life in which we tolerate people.

We are a very tolerant people. I hope that continues. Of his own health, the Roman Catholic Archbishop yesterday disclosed he was undergoing medical checks and hopes these checks go well. This is not the first time that the Roman Catholic has faced a dilemma on how to respond to the changed security environment. In 2007, amid the spurt of a major crime wave, Fr Garfield Rochard drew criticism when he ordered a man, who had witnessed a murder, from entering the compound of the Church of the Assumption in Maraval.

At Sunday Mass at the church, Rochard pleaded with the man to stay away from the compound to prevent the killers from entering to engage in a shootout. He further told parishioners, Do not encourage the witness on the compound even though he is a member of the parish. I dont want people to come here to spray no bullets, Fr Rochard said. The man, Harold Joseph, 50, was later murdered outside a bar in Petit Valley.

IRO president Maharaj yesterday said, A situation like this puts you on alert as this can happen anywhere.

If you can attack a priest, who next? Maharaj further stated, More and more there is a need for security scanners wherever we go. We really have to be on the alert. There is need for more and more security - whether metal scanners or whatever might be necessary. You might think you dont need things but as soon as things begin to happen we have to step up our measures of protection regardless of where we are.
Mannings bodyguard now Marshal of Parliament

St Bernard took up official duty in May.

The office of the Marshal of the Parliament is responsible for leading and directing the safety and security of the Parliament, its precincts and staff, management of the Parliamentary Security Department, ceremonial functions connected with the sittings of the Houses, and protocol duties in relation to the presiding officers and parliamentary dignitaries.

The marshal carries the mace into the chamber at the start of each sitting. St Bernard was recently among many officials who paid tribute to Manning, lining up to see the body of the former Prime Minister when his body lay in State at NAPA, Port-of-Spain.

During Mannings tenure, St Bernard would often be seen close to Manning and often was charged with holding his speeches.

The protocol officer was among the officials who accompanied Manning on his trip to Cuba in 2008 for treatment for a cancerous kidney
Angry Sando Mayor blasts WASA over road repairs

Hosein, who rarely ever raises his voice publicly in anger, minced no words during the San Fernando City Corporations statutory meeting, instructing the Corporations corporate secretary to draft a harshly worded letter to the Authority, to compel it to effect road repairs. The Mayor said that driving along certain streets is akin to navigating between the Bocas islands during rough sea conditions.

Speaking during the corporations monthly statutory meeting at the council chambers in Harris Promenade, the Mayor said, I have been getting numerous complaints about WASA digging up the city streets and then leaving raodways covered in piles of rubble.He added, it is like driving through the Bocas and this has to stop! Hosein continued: WASA will continue to get the full support of this council in effecting their repairs but we want our roads fixed and repaired in a timely manner. He said as if to add insult to injury, the Authority - whose line minister is Ancil Antoine, had dug up a portion of road just opposite the San Fernando City Hall and left it unpaved, with only a strip of yellow caution tape to serve as a warning to unsuspecting pedestrians and motorists.

He said several of the affected streets were Royal road, Pointea- Pierre road and several streets in St Joseph village. Meanwhile, the SFCC passed a motion which would begin the process of designating certain landmarks within the southern city as designated heritage sites which could then be upgraded to tourist sites.

And in an effort to boost food tourism in the southern city, a committee headed by deputy Mayor, Junia Regrello, was formed to explore ways to transform the vendors strip at Cross Crossing into a food fest zone complete with a live steel band to encourage increased customers to the area. The zone currently houses burgers, hot dogs, gyros and other fast food vendors.
Lee accepts Fuads rent offer but...

The chairman said he would accept the offer but not to pay for Rienzi Complex. The funds would be for the rent of new premises.

The executive is grateful for MP Khans offer to assist with three months rent, Lee told Newsday. God is good and we were very fortunate to secure a building of much larger square footage and it is close to Rienzi.

As chairman I would be glad to use MP Khans offer to help with the rent in the new head office of the UNC. Khan and Lee contested the chairmanship in the 2015 UNC internal elections.

In a statement on Monday, Khan said, I have written to the general secretary of the UNC to pledge my entire salary, if necessary, to continue using the Rienzi Complex as the partys headquarters for the next three months until alternative arrangements can be made. He could not be reached for comment yesterday evening.

Lee also stated, I am also very thankful to the All Trinidad General Workers Trade Union (ATGWTU) and all its members over the past years for accommodation in their premises. We also hope that we can continue to work together for the good of the people of our great nation. While the UNC chairman appeared to be pouring oil over troubled water, the union yesterday expressed deep dissatisfaction with statements made by some members of the UNC and accused the party of politicisation of what the union deemed a landlord/ tenant issue.

ATGWTU president general Nirvan Maharaj said the UNC has, to date, failed to provide any documentation stating whether or not it is interested in a longterm lease agreement. He also scolded UNC Senator Khadijah Ameen, telling her she has no right getting involved in an issue she knows nothing about.

Maharaj said, That the union would have written to the UNC since 2010 and subsequently after that, with regard to organising a long-term lease and to date the UNC has never officially responded. In fact, the UNC continued to treat the union, the landlord, with scant courtesy by its refusal to meet concerning this issue. The union is ready to provide all documentation to this effect. He further said, By its silence and refusal to meet regarding this matter for over five years, the UNC implied that it was not interested in a long-term lease and was quite content to be a monthto- month tenant. He accused the party of making misleading statements in the media in order to play on the sympathy of an unsuspecting public and turn the issue into a political one rather than one of a landlord/tenant relationship. It is very ironic that UNC politicians will seek to accuse the president general of being political. Maharaj continued that while each has a democratic right to participate in the political process how each sees fit, no one individual or party has a God-given right to monopolise the political landscape of Trinidad and Tobago.

The UNC, therefore, in Maharajs view, is attempting to portray itself as a victim, rather than as tenant who by its own actions has no desire to remain at Rienzi Complex, but to leave as fast as possible.

The union is also calling on Ms Khadijah Ameen to stay out of business she has no idea about, since while accusing the president general of being political, she failed to mention that she is the only person to have ever been handed the safest UNC seat on a platter and went on to lose the seat and lose her deposit. Maharaj also took aim at Couva South MP Rudranath Indarsingh, saying he must also say whether the union was being political or not when it supported him in more ways than one, tangible and intangible, in 2010 when he became a candidate for the UNC.
Devise strategies on climate change

I do not feel or get this sense of heightened urgency within the Caribbean as it relates to climate change and coastal erosion at the level of Governments of the Caribbean and its citizenry...

You, our young people, must become the vanguard because your parents and your grandparents will not suffer from the negatives of climate change.

You, your children and your grandchildren are the ones that will suffer so you have a vested interest in doing right to this environment of ours, he said.

It can no longer be left up to adults who often are more concerned about political goals rather than human and environmental concerns, he added.

He noted that, at the 15th Meeting of Presidents and Governors- General of the Caribbean Region in Antigua and Barbuda, Antigua and Barbudas Ambassador on Climate Change and Director of the countrys Environment Department, Diann Black- Layne, said that by the year 2100, 149 Resorts, major revenue earners in the Caribbean, would be at grave risk of total inundation. The Adventurous Journey, one aspect of the Duke of Edinburgh International Awards, will take place in Trinidad and Tobago next week.

One hundred and fifty-one participants from various Caribbean countries, including Bahamas, Barbados, Cayman Islands, Grenada, Guyana, Bermuda, St Vincent, St Lucia and TT, will delve into this countrys rainforests as part of that journey.

Carmona expressed that hope that their journey into TTs rainforests would inspire them to flight for nature, in any small way they can, in their own countries.

Sustainable environment security must become an individual and collective responsibility of the young people Often, we tend to dismiss the power of one, but you can become an advocate for the environment in your home, schools, communities and your country inspiring real environmental change, he said.

Chairman of the Caribbean Award Sub-regional Council, Stephen Smith, noted that the Adventurous Journey was a requirement for the participants achieving a Gold in the Duke of Edinburgh International Awards.

He explained there were four components of each award  service, skill, community service, and sport  with varying time frames and degrees of difficulty which determine whether participants would achieve the Bronze, Silver or Gold Awards.
What you need to know about the Octagon Art Festival on Sunday in Ames

news
Poisoned: Declassified documents reveal Chemtrails are real

You didnt actually think you could trust the government, did you? Declassified documents have recently revealed that Army scientists conducted experiments on innocent, unwitting civilians in St. Louis for years during the Cold War.

It has been recognized that the government secretly sprayed the citys population with zinc cadmium sulfide to test chemical warfare technologies, but one researcher believes a radioactive compound was also in the mix.

Professor Lisa Martino-Taylor has collected detailed documents and photographs describing the testing conducted in the city. Professor Martino-Taylor believes that the information she has gathered proves that the government intentionally exposed the people of St. Louis to radioactive material.

In Corpus Christi, the same chemical was released over large portions of the city via airplane. In St. Louis, however, the spray was dispersed from the rooftops of buildings. Schools, public housing units and even station wagons were used as points of perpetration.

Even local politicians were not aware of the malevolent activities taking place within their city. The people of St. Louis were actually told that the government was testing smoke screens that would be used to protect them against Russian attacks. The reality couldnt be more opposite: their own country was using them as guinea pigs for something far more sinister.

During her research, Martino-Taylor uncovered the fact that most of the spraying had been conducted at the Pruitt-Igoe public housing unit. The unit was home to 10,000 low-income residents, and 70% of its population was made up of children under the age of twelve. The professor became especially interested in this information after learning of the reports of cancer from people who lived in those areas during that time.

Professor Martino-Taylor states, This was a violation of all medical ethics, all international codes, and the militarys own policy at that time.

Though the military maintains that the compound was safe, Martino-Taylor has found proof that the chemicals foisted upon these innocent communities was anything but.

She has linked the zinc cadmium sulfide testing in St. Louis to a now-defunct company known as US Radium. The company was subject to numerous lawsuits after many of its employees were exposed to hazardous amounts of radioactive material, found in the companys fluorescent paint.

In the Army documents, one of the compounds sprayed on the public was something called FP2266. Martino-Taylor also reports discovering this material was manufactured by US Radium, but called Radium226. It is the very same compound responsible for the death and sickness of many US Radium employees. The Army has admitted that a fluorescent substance was added to the zinc cadmium sulfide that was sprayed across St. Louis, but whether it was radioactive or not remains classified.

Professor Martino-Taylor has not been able to uncover any details or long-term studies on the health of the people of St. Louis, and the government demolished the Pruitt-Igoe housing area in 1972.

Despite the Armys insistence that what was sprayed on these unsuspecting people was safe, they recently dropped the site from their plans for the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. Without explanation, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers removed the Pruitt-Igoe site from their Final Environmental Impact Statement.

St. Clair County and Illinois state officials believe Pruitt-Igoe was removed due the potential toxic residue left behind from the chemical testing that took place decades ago.

Sources:

Omnisense.org

DailyMail.co.uk

BND.com

Submit a correction >>
Uma Bharti underlines the need for deciding the definition of surplus water of rivers

New Delhi, Wed, 27 Jul 2016 NI Wire

Ninth meeting of the special committee for inter-linking of rivers held

Union Minister for Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation Sushri Uma Bharti has underlined the need for deciding the definition of "Surplus water" of rivers once for all. Chairing the tenth meeting of the Special Committee for Inter-Linking of Rivers held in New Delhi today the Minister said that this issue has to be sorted out in consultations with the states. She said till this issue is decided the dispute about surplus water will continue to crop up time and again. The Minister said, for this we will require a detailed study of country's agricultural land including irrigated land, non irrigated land, agricultural produce and their market. The Union Minister said her Ministry will take a final decision on this issue after detailed deliberation with the states. Sushri Bharti that a Jal Manthan (Seminar on water related issues) will also be held to deliberate on this issue. Stressing the need for speedy implementation of inter linking of river projects, the Water Resources Minister said I hope that National Water Devlopment Agency will work with more vigour and will complete the delayed inter linking projects in a time bound manner.

Addressing the meeting, the Water Resources Minister of Bihar Shri Rajiv Ranjan Singh raised the issue of flood in the rivers flowing into Bihar form Nepal. He said keeping this in view the issue of inter linking of rivers in the state should be taken up on priority. He also suggested that the projects with the potential to irrigate more than two lak hect. of land should be declared as National Project. The Water Resources Minister of Uttar Pradesh Shri Surendra Singh Patel argued for starting the work on Ken-Betwa link at the earliest. He wanted to know the total cost of the project and his state's in share in the same.

Union Cabinet in its meeting held on July 24, 2014 approved the constitution of the Special Committee on ILR. Accordingly, Special Committee on ILR was constituted vide order dated September 23, 2014. The first meeting of the committee was held on October 17, 2014 and its last meeting was held on April 29, 2016. The committee, after considering the views of all the stakeholders, is proceeding ahead to expedite the objectives of the interlinking of rivers as per terms of reference. Vigorous efforts have been made for generating consensus with development of alternative plans and also setting out road maps for implementation of projects.

Source: PIB
WHO and Ministry of Health expand cholera response to minimize future risk

Juba, Wed, 27 Jul 2016 NI Wire

Juba, 26 July 2016 - In a move to prevent a cholera outbreak from spreading, the Ministry of Health of South Sudan with support from the World Health Organization (WHO) and health partners are ramping up disease surveillance and treatment efforts. Across the country, 271 cholera cases have been reported, including 14 deaths since 12 July 2016.

Cholera is an acute diarrhoeal disease that causes massive loss of body fluids and can be deadly within hours if not adequately treated. WHO is taking all the necessary control measures to support the Ministry of Health to respond to the situation urgently, and put an end to this outbreak, says Dr Abdulmumini Usman, WHO Representative to South Sudan.

This work is vital because the conditions are favourable for transmitting the disease. These include increased population displacement, overcrowding, poor hygiene and sanitation. WHO is working with the Ministry of Health and other partners on ground to contain and prevent further spread of the disease, added Dr Abdulmumini.

WHO has reinforced its cholera outbreak response capability to prevent the spread of the disease. A National Cholera Taskforce (comprising the Ministry of Health, WHO, UNICEF, MSF and other partners) has been activated and is providing oversight and coordination for the response to the cholera outbreak.

With more than 270 cholera cases, providing swift treatment is essential. WHO, with support from partners, has established a cholera treatment centre capable of treating 100 patients at Juba Teaching Hospital. To improve access to timely rehydration, eight oral rehydration points have been established by Health Link South Sudan with support from UNICEF. Priority locations for oral rehydration points in Juba include Gurei, Munuki, Kator, Lologo, Mahad, Nyakuron and Gumbo. Additional points are being set-up in El Sabah, Giada and Gorom.

WHO has strengthened disease surveillance and comprehensive disease investigation, including following up on people who may have come into contact with the disease.

As a proactive preventive measure, WHO along with the Ministry of Health and partners are planning to conduct an oral cholera vaccination campaign to reach over 14 000 people. The campaign is set to start on 26 July 2016 at various sites including communities in Gorom and Giada and special populations such as internally displaced people in Tomping.

Additionally, WHO and partners are supporting social mobilization and community engagement activities. The media is currently airing cholera prevention messages and a toll-free phone line to report cholera cases has been activated.

WHO and partners have delivered supplies including tents and cholera kits that provide treatment for 400 people. To improve case detection and treatment of cholera, WHO has also distributed cholera preparedness and response guidelines.

WHO is appealing to all partners to strengthen preventive and control measures before the disease spreads to other camps and host communities. This outbreak further exacerbates an already weak health system which is also battling malnutrition, measles and malaria.

The risk of further spread of diseases is a major concern. With the coming rains, it is realistic to expect an increase in malaria and water-borne diseases. Consequently, we can expect medical needs to increase in an environment where WHO and partners are already working hard to keep up with existing health needs, says Dr Abdulmumini.

With 4.4 million people in need of health assistance, funding is urgently needed to respond to the rising needs. The South Sudan Humanitarian Response Plan launched earlier this year requests US$ 110 million, of which US$ 31.3 million has been received (71% funding gap). Of this amount, WHO requires US$ 17.5 million for 2016, of which only US$ 4.3 million has been received. More funding will be required to respond to the additional needs arising from this recent crisis.

We have this opportunity to save, improve and protect the health of millions of people before it gets worse, says Dr Abdulmumini. WHO is committed to containing the cholera outbreak in South Sudan but, without urgent funding, we cannot implement most of the planned interventions. We need donors and partners to urgently fund our operations.
Maintain standards of education in Ambedkar University: Manish Sisodia

New Delhi, Wed, 27 Jul 2016 NI Wire

Dy CM & Education Minister vouches for the left out 1.25 lakh 12th pass out students in Delhi

New Delhi: More than half of 2.5 lakh students, who pass out of schools every year, are not able to make it to the colleges for higher studies. They either dropout, or make it to the colleges outside Delhi or get admission into the private colleges paying a hefty amount. How can we accommodate them, asked Dy Chief Minister Mr Manish Sisodia to the University officials while inaugurating the new campus of Ambedkar University of Delhi at Karampura on July 27, 2016.

The AUD campus has the capacity of accommodating 200 undergraduate students in four courses at the momentand will accommodate over 2200 students by 2019. It aims at becoming a multi-campus University with facilities across the city. Till now it has been operating from its campus at Kashmere Gate where 40 Undergraduate, Postgraduate and research programmes are offered currently. Two new campuses in Rohini and Dheerpurare are scheduled to function from 2020. The University focuses on research and teaching in social sciences and humanities.

Addressing the august gathering, Mr. Sisodia emphasized the need to scale up the capacity to accommodate more students and urged the teaching faculty and university officials to maintain the standards of education at all cost.

He said, The proportion of increasing the seats every year by 10 to 100 will not work. Over 2.5 lakh students out of 26 lakh, including that of 16 lakh from the Govt schools, pass out every year from the schools. He stressed upon improving the quality of education and at the same time increasing the seats. He challenged the teaching and student community to make this University a much sought after Institute. He emphasized on the need for creating an ambience to have research activities in the campus along with skill related courses.

Speaking on the occasion, Ms. Punya Salila Shrivastava, Secretary, Education, elaborated upon the key initiatives taken by the Delhi Government this year by opening Delhi Pharmaceutical Sciences & Research University, 9 polytechnics that were upgraded to Institutes of Technology and affiliated to IP University and are running B.Voc. courses with over 900 seats. Two ITIs have been made operational at Mangolpuri and Nandnagri (women). Two new private institutions have started offering undergraduate courses at Leelavati Munshi College of Education and Action for Autism in 2016.IP University has last year increased the enrollment by 4000 after streamlining the processes. This year it has increased the capacity by another 2000 by introducing two new institutions, colleges and also by expansion of courses.

Prof Shyam B Menon, Vice Chancellor shared the vision of Dr B R Ambedkar for social justice and transformation. He said, the university is specifically working in the area of Development studies, Public Policy, Disability studies, publishing, among others. The objective is to expand and diversify the classroom mode of education to the field exploring mode of education.
Moroccos state-owned phosphates company, OCP, is planning to open subsidiaries in 13 African countries in line with the Kingdoms strategy to boost economic ties and investments in the continent.

As announced in the official gazette, the OCPs board of directors approved the decision to establish 13 subsidiaries in the countries of Cote dIvoire, Senegal, Cameroun, Benin, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Angola, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Ghana and Ethiopia.

The new companies are part of OCP Africa which operates in the field of agricultural development in the continent. Through this largescale investment, the OCP group aims at boosting economic ties with African countries in tandem with Moroccos endeavor to promote its diplomatic influence in the continent.

The official gazette also confirms the news about the establishment of an OCP fertilizers factory in Nigeria which was announced earlier by several African media outlets following a visit to Lagos by Nasser Bourita, Minister Delegate to the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation.

The new plant will help Abuja boost its agricultural sector and food security with a strong potential for exports to West African countries.

In February 2016, the OCP inaugurated a fertilizers production unit worth 5.3 billion dirhams dubbed Africa Fertilizer Complex dedicated to African markets.

The creation of the new subsidiaries will help OCP Africa to get a foothold in several African markets where Moroccos phosphates giant exported 24% of its output in 2015.

These new investments will further bolster Moroccos economic and diplomatic ties with English speaking African countries. Recently, the African Bank for Development lauded Morocco for gearing 85% of its foreign direct investments to the African continent.
Members of the Security Council welcomed the deal between Morocco and the UN Secretary General to restore the MINURSO within the framework of its mandate, Moroccos Ambassador to the UN Omar Hilale said on Tuesday in New York.

The Security Council members expressed satisfaction regarding the deal to settle the crisis that broke out last March, Hilale told the press following a Council meeting on the MINURSO.

During the meeting, UN Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Herve Ladsous and Special Representative and Head of the MINURSO Kim Bolduc presented a briefing on the UN Mission in the Sahara, said Hilale adding that the Security Council members lauded Morocco for its efforts to reach the deal on restoring the MINURSO to its full functionality in line with its mandate.

The Council also congratulated Morocco for its commitment to implement the deal and for facilitating the MINURSOs mission despite the crisis, Hilale said.

In March, Morocco expelled the 84 international civilian personnel staffed on MINURSO, after verbal blunders by the UN Secretary General who visited the separatist rear-base of Tindouf where he referred to Moroccos retrieval of its southern provinces as occupation.

The MINURSO was established in 1991 to monitor a cease-fire and organize a referendum on the status of the Saharan provinces. The plebiscite never took place due to irreconcilable disagreements over who is eligible to vote. Since then, cease-fire monitoring as well as other military tasks constitute the bulk of the MINURSOs tasks.
The stage of the Democratic National Convention at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia. Photo: SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images

Welcome, I guess, to my New York live-blog of the two conventions of 2016. Settle in, calm your nerves (mine will be frayed enough for all of us), have a drink (or a joint), and enjoy!

If you want to send me your thoughts as the events proceed, email me at sully@nymag.com (if youre a recovering dishhead, you can also always use the old email address). Please refresh to update.

11:21 p.m. In an image:

made some tiny emoji art to mark this moment pic.twitter.com/Flk5ZT3Xp4  laura olin (@lauraolin) June 8, 2016

11:10 p.m. Well that was a well-done attempt to make the point of a history-making woman president, without having either Clinton tread too heavily on the theme. Ill leave you with this comment from a reader:

Remember when you hated the Clintons? Admit it. Youre an old softie.

Heh. Heres how Id put it. Im in the final stages of becoming a citizen of this country. I love this country with all my heart. And I want to help save it from the darkest, foulest demagogue Ive ever come across in a Western democracy.

The Clintons are flawed people. But they are our last hope. Thats all I need to know.

11:04 p.m. A reader writes:

Take heart. My guess, Andrew, is that Bloomberg will take on Trump from the perspective of his supposed acumen in business, and Tim Kaine will go after him on his idiotic foreign policy positions. Thats what Id do, if I were running the joint. Makes sense.

Some readers think Ive been too negative, even cynical, tonight. Believe me, I am utterly uncynical about this election. Im worried sick. We need to put behind us any lingering beefs, any grudges, any memories from the past  and you know how I feel about the Clintons past  in order to save liberal democracy. The only thing between him and us is her. So  against all my previous emphatic denials  Im with her now. As passionately as I ever was with Obama. For his legacy is at stake as well.

11:02 p.m. Im loving Meryl Streeps patriotic feminism.

11:00 p.m. Heh:

Compared to this Bill Clinton speech, I'm not sure any of the Trump family had ever actually met Donald Trump before last week #DemsInPhilly  Ian MacIntyre (@MrIanMacIntyre) July 27, 2016

10:59 p.m. Okay, this is an actress I can love.

10:56 p.m. I really like the choice between the real and the fake, the doer rather than the shower, the listener rather than the tweeter, the experienced pol rather than the untested strongman. Its time to expose Trump as fake, as all bluster. and Bill Clinton did it. It dragged a little in the middle there, and I desperately want someone to take on Trump politically with the skills Bill has. But as a reintroduction to this figure we know so well it was superb.

10:52 p.m. Now the payoff, as he ticks off the real choice in this election. And hes able to champion the police seamlessly with a plea for racial justice. Then he ends on an elegiac note, picking up the themes from the 1990s  thinking about tomorrow, and the future.

He tried to humanize her. And tried to shift the change mantle from Trump to Clinton. Again, he understands that this dynamic is essential in an election year when most think were on the wrong track.

10:46 p.m. One is real; the other is made up. Finally, he lets his political skills show. Hes now touting the real Hillary Clinton.

10:41 p.m. Its dragging a little  because hes telling us so much. Then he has a dig at Trump  man I wish he were doing more like that. Using him as a biographer is an interesting idea. But he can nail policy and politics  and thats not his given role tonight. Im grateful were in the Obama years now.

10:40 p.m. Nicely put:

A long speech, though its purpose is clear: he's painting an extended portrait of a human being, who's often talked about as if she isn't.  Steve Inskeep (@NPRinskeep) July 27, 2016

10:37 p.m. Now hes touting her ability to work with Tom DeLay. And, yes, this is Erick Erickson:

GOP shouldnt be questioning the motives of keeping a marriage together. They kept a vow that Trump broke twice.  Erick Erickson (@EWErickson) July 27, 2016

10:33 p.m. This is granular. Too granular? Hes making a case for her long career in public life. Its a better case than Ive heard elsewhere. Shes the best change-maker than anyone I have ever met in my entire life.

Hes using her boringness into an asset. Its achievement versus flash; granular work versus grandstanding. A nice counterpoint to Trump.

10:29 p.m. Will he go there?

I think Bill needs to admit he was unfaithful to make this portrait sound real.  Jonathan Chait (@jonathanchait) July 27, 2016

It would help her.

10:26 p.m.

This speech is a reminder that, before people called Hillary a centrist squish sellout, they called her a highly ideological left-winger.  Josh Barro (@jbarro) July 27, 2016

After she was a Goldwater girl.

10:22 p.m. Hes so good. Hes slowly building the case for a woman who has worked her whole life in public service, interspersed with his dating tips. He speaks with brilliantly varying pace, weaving anecdote and argument together. Hes telling us a story. Hes reintroducing this woman to America.

10:20 p.m. Now hes reminding people of her early work against segregation and in defense of Mexican migrant workers. Smart. Affecting.

10:17 p.m. Bill is telling stories and casting his usual spell. He reminds us that Hillary was once a Republican  and fleshes out her family.

10:14 p.m. A reader dissents:

I dont think there is any saving the middle-income, middle-aged, poorly educated white guy from Trump. Hes gone. Forget him, Andrew. What Hillary may  may  have a shot at is social justice Christians, and old-fashioned, moderate Republicans embarrassed by whats happening to their party.



So, appealing to moral issues that social justice warriors care about is a way in; appealing to sound foreign and domestic policy will appeal to moderates. She has to make THESE cases in these groups up for grabs, not muscle and flag waving bullshit.

Point taken. Im just worried as shit.

10:10 p.m. Bill is looking good tonight.

10:01 p.m. Finally, some kind of statement  from Albright  with regard to Putins open support of Trump (and vice-versa). But its still very weak. They are fighting a candidate who has trash-talked the U.S., who wants to start a trade war, who wants to disband NATO, who wants to allow Russia to pick off Eastern Europe and the Baltics.

And theyre letting him get away with all this, with only occasional demurrals so far. They have not so far spelled out the grave danger Trump poses to our national security and world peace. I hope at some point someone has the sense to go for the jugular. Bill?

This convention seems to me to be aimed squarely at the people who are already voting for Clinton. If it doesnt break out of this pattern, it will fail.

9:57 p.m. A reader writes:

We need a lot of red white and blue flag waving, and discussion of the US as the biggest superpower in the world. We need them to counter the claim from Trump that the US no longer scares our enemies or has the respect of our allies.

So far, theyve ceded that issue to the strongman. Tonight is a platform for Venus after a four day Trump-fest for Mars.

9:55 p.m. Readers keep assuring me that national security will be addressed tomorrow night.

9:52 p.m. Not sure an endorsement of playing the gender card is going to help. Trump can play that card back  and win. In fact, its partly why hes winning.

9:48 p.m. Im not sure that the campaign against sex trafficking  however noble and important  is going to swing many votes this November.

9:41 p.m. Theyre trying to make the case that Clinton brought peace to the Middle East after the Gaza assault in 2009. Oookay. Then her input at Copenhagen on climate change, and the crippling sanctions regime against Iran. Two fair points. And a summary of her foreign policy experience is probably a good idea considering the utterly untested Putin poodle which is the alternative.

No word, of course, on her worst decision: Libya

9:39 p.m. Another actress. Telling us how hard it was for Clinton to agree to be secretary of state. God this is lame.

9:38 p.m. The first mention of terrorism  from Howard Dean, tucked into a necessary and important argument about expansion of health insurance under Obama  and how it is at risk from a Trump victory. And then the best joke of the night  when Dean mimicked his famous Dean scream.

A little self-deprecation goes a long way, doesnt it? Trump is incapable of it. Most megalomaniacs are.

9:37 p.m. A reader writes:

This paean to Hillary has been going on for well over an hour listing in detail all of her efforts on behalf of children, gun reform, first responders, reproductive rights, etc. some of it might be overblown but I defy the RNC to put together 5 minutes demonstrating anything Trump has done for anyone other than himself.

9:31 p.m. Two big reasons Trump is ahead are terrorism and economic insecurity. Neither subject has been tackled tonight. Bad!

9:27 p.m. Another fricking actress. How many women work as actresses? Why do actresses have some premium on political wisdom?

9:26 p.m. Again, tonight, theres no mention of terrorism. After the horrifying murder of a priest in France today, it seems out of touch. They cannot risk handing this vital issue to the strongman. They need to get out of the defensive crouch, in which Clinton is so comfortable.

9:23 p.m. Given the latest revelations about Russias interference in this election on behalf of Putins poodle, Trump, it seems odd to me that DNC speakers have not repeated again and again the demand that Trump release his tax returns. Id demand it again and again and again. He cant pull a Palin on this one. And the media shouldnt let him.

9:20 p.m. The payoff: a New York congressman calls out Trump for making money off 9/11.

9:17 p.m. Are they trying to turn 9/11 against Giuliani?

9:13 p.m. A reader writes:

I am a female attorney. And I have a soft spot for Hillary. When I see Hillary, I am reminded of many of the women attorneys her age who I have been blessed to work with. If they are still working on this field, it means they persevered through the gauntlet of hostility and sexism that was commonplace in the workplace and in law when they started their careers. They had to clamor for every opportunity and I and other younger women in our field owe them a debt for their fortitude.



She hasnt been gracious at every turn  but what kind of standard is it to expect that she would be? She is not as charming as Michelle Obama  or as her own or Michelles husband. But shes a talented, scrappy, detail-oriented incrementalist who will be deliberate and thoughtful about her responsibilities. I agree with Ezra Kleins assessment. But in the male-centric worlds of law and politics, Hillarys talents fly under the radar.

Another writes:

Quintessential millennial woman here. Just want to report back that I find Lena Dunham insufferable. I do like America Ferrera though. Im finding a lot of women like me supporting Clinton. I think the Dunham-Ferrera pitch may appeal to the newer voters who are voting in their first election cycle. Other than that its a solid meh from this millennial on their presence at the convention stage.

9:11 p.m. New York cops are now being defended  because they were victims of air pollution after 9/11. Clinton helped the cops get their full health benefits.

9:07 p.m. Another movie actress, Debra Messing. This is getting a little much, dont you think? Who is talking to the anxious white working classes? Okay, weve got Joe Sweeney coming up 

9:02 p.m. Plus ca change :

Word just went out that there's no advance text on @billclinton speech. Because there's a good chance he is still writing it.  Karen Tumulty (@ktumulty) July 27, 2016

8:59 p.m. Barbara Boxer is now talking about Hillary as a loving aunt. Oy.

I understand why were getting this massive wave of female power and eloquence. Its worth noting, however, that Clintons major problem right now is with white working class men. I cannot see how Barbara Boxer will win them over in an Oscar dress.

8:54 p.m. Ross Douthat stuck up for the DNC today:

There was schadenfreude from the beleaguered folks in the Republican National Committee as they watched Debbie Wasserman Schultz twist in the wind this week. But Schultz went down, in part, for doing the kind of very normal thing that they so egregiously failed to do  steering the partys nomination away from the candidate of a passionate plurality and toward the candidate who (for all her many flaws) is closer to the partys center, its consensus and mainstream.



In other words: Schultz lost her job but kept her party; Reince Priebus kept his job but let a hostile takeover happen on his watch.

8:48 p.m. Lena Dunham is a 2, she notes. Im disqualified from disagreeing. But these two celebs  America Ferrera is the other one speaking  actually managed to deflect their celebrity and make a case for stronger together.

A potent line: Donald Trump is not making America great again; he is making America hate again.

This, I guess, is a way to reach out to the millennial women who have an understandably hard time embracing Clinton. Its pretty effective, although, of course, I am the last person on earth to judge what millennial women will be into.

8:47 p.m. A reader writes:

I was a little worried that the mothers moment might strike some people as similar to the Benghazi spectacle at the RNC . No need. The contrast could not be greater. There was no divisiveness, no bitterness, no demonization, no hatred. Just heartfelt calls for healing, understanding, and improvement. Perfect.

8:41 p.m. A devastating video montage of Donald Trumps foul remarks about women. It works because it shows the faces of women as you hear his voice. Then Cecile Richards of Planned Parenthood gives props to Tim Kaine. I have to say, however, that this slowly building case for the equality and dignity of women seems a strange way to lead up to Bill.

8:39 p.m. A reader adds:

One last bit about Hachi! Hachi is thrilled that his owner has returned, and not the least surprised that he can occasionally still be a hyperventilating dick.

8:37 p.m. And now a message from a useful idiot:

Worst protest sign in human history discovered in hands of Bernie hardliner at DNC: https://t.co/oEKO3WNrJ7 pic.twitter.com/vngKxa1vIy  Slate (@Slate) July 27, 2016

Seriously.

8:30 p.m. This is an inspired way to convey the necessity of racial justice in policing, while in no way attacking the police. Again, motherhood is being used as political weapon. But this time, no one is accusing a politician of being a murderer; no one is blaming anyone specifically for these lives cut short; no one is fomenting hatred or bitterness. The rhetoric is from the great African-American Christian tradition  and its more authentically Christian than anything we heard in Cleveland.

Its also  and not for the first time at this convention  a thoroughly female and maternal form of political suasion. Its affecting me more than I thought it would.

Ezra Klein talks more about this female politics:

Another way to look at the primary is that Clinton employed a less masculine strategy to win. She won the Democratic primary by spending years slowly, assiduously, building relationships with the entire Democratic Party. She relied on a more traditionally female approach to leadership: creating coalitions, finding common ground, and winning over allies. Today, 208 members of Congress have endorsed Clinton; only eight have endorsed Sanders.



This work is a grind  its not big speeches, it doesnt come with wide applause, and it requires an emotional toughness most human beings cant summon.



But Clinton is arguably better at that than anyone in American politics today.

8:25 p.m. Its amazing to see the second time in this convention when the place has stopped short to listen to an eloquent, passionate African-American woman. Michelle Obama and Donna Brazile now cede to this remarkable, devout, and honest human being. Im in tears again. This woman is amazing  because her grief is being filtered through hope, and because her oratory is so soaring and so poignant.

8:22 p.m. A stirring video about the mothers of those dead from police violence. I thought it was an interesting twist in the video to have Hillary ask the mothers to lead her in a prayer. And one of the mothers silences the rowdy crowd to give praise to God.

8:14 p.m. A police chief now speaks about the crisis of trust in the police in communities of color. Hes a model of nuance and calm, explaining how we wants minority citizens to feel safe and respected. Hes actually attempting to thread the needle of concern for the cops and racial justice. We can do both and we will do both.

Now compare this with the primary colors of fear and simplicity last week. This kind of policing nuance is what we desperately need. But Trump has managed to so distort the debate that it can barely be heard.

8:12 p.m. A reader writes:

As a recovering Dishhead, reading you live blog the RNC and now the DNC , I feel like Hachi, the dog who waited for his owner at the train station every night long after the fellow had died, except the guy actually does walk out of the train station in my case.

Aww. Great to be sharing this terrifying ride with yall.

8:10 p.m. And now we know why Eric Holder has never been elected to office. Donna Brazile had some serious mojo.

8:05 p.m. Heres one reason I find myself backing Hillary Clinton of all people without a shadow of a caveat:

If Cory Booker is the future of the Democratic Party, they have no future! I know more about Cory than he knows about himself.  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 26, 2016

Yes, I know every day, Trump reveals more about his foul character and authoritarian instincts. But imagine an actual president treating his opponents this way. Imagine Trump having access to the NSA, the FBI, and the IRS. Imagine him warning an opponent that he knows more about him than he knows about himself. These are the words of a mob boss, not a politician in a liberal democracy.

It is not so much that Vladimir Putin wants Trump to win, so they can divvy up Europe between them. It is that Trump intends to do to American democracy what Putin did to Russias fledgling democracy  turn it into an illiberal Potemkin democracy in which the strongman always gets the final say. Trump is not even trying to disguise this agenda. He has told us quite plainly that he will use the powers of his office to persecute his opponents and put them in jail; that he will purge the government of any neutral civil servants; that he will pursue anti-trust action against media challengers; that he will demonize and quarantine a free press; and that he will order criminal acts in the military.

Against this threat, his ludicrous policy proposals are almost irrelevant. Its our democracy he threatens. And our way of life.

8:00 p.m. I need me some vintage Bill Clinton tonight. Hes been a bit off his game the last few years, but he must surely understand why he is still needed at this point in history. His speech endorsing Obama in 2012 was masterful. And in this fight for our liberal democracy, we need all hands on deck.
Bill Clinton has a heated exchange with a protester during a rally for his wife in April 7. Photo: Ed Hille/The Philadelphia Inquirer via AP

Depending on your perspective, the fact that Bill Clinton will be addressing the Democratic convention on the same evening as the seven Mothers of the Movement  African-American moms who lost children to violence, mostly by police, and became inspirations for Black Lives Matter  might strike you as a little odd or uncomfortable. After all, Clinton has a complex legacy on racial issues. It was just a year ago in Philadelphia when he got into a verbal altercation with BLM activists. With the mothers speaking tonight, it will be the wrong evening for anyone else to strike a discordant note when it comes to race relations.

Not that he lacks credibility with black voters, of course. Bill Clinton was famously called the first black president by Toni Morrison. He has always commanded robust African-American support in his own election campaigns.

But, in his successful 1992 presidential bid, he made a display of returning to Arkansas to order the execution of Ricky Ray Rector, a lobotmized African-American man, allegedly to show his toughness. He also made a similar, if less lethal, symbolic use of black rapper Sister Souljah, whom the candidate dressed down at a Rainbow Coalition event for appearing to encourage black-on-white violence.

As president, Clinton conspicuously ordered a review of affirmative-action policies  but then announced he had decided to mend, not end them. He signed a welfare-reform law that disproportionately targeted unwed black mothers for work requirements and other sanctions. But he also fought to make work pay with major increases in the earned-income tax credit and other resources for the working poor. He was an important political resource in the reelection of Barack Obama in 2012. Yet, in 2008, the 42nd president came perilously close to igniting racial conflict in South Carolina by suggesting Obama was not qualified for the office and was just another minority protest candidate like Jesse Jackson.



In 2016, his policy record on criminal-justice issues has been under heavy scrutiny from the left, especially the crime bill he signed in 1994  the subject of his shouting match with BLM protesters a year ago.

But my guess is Bill Clinton will do just fine. His relationship with African-Americans is that of the first generation of southern white men who both experienced the Jim Crow system and deplored it and fought its legacy. His occasional sins against black sensibilities are those of a close, even intimate acquaintance, hailing from poverty, eating the same food, listening to a lot of the same music, and spending Sundays in similar, if not the same, Baptist and Methodist and Pentecostal churches. He will be forgiven things someone from California or New York or Wisconsin could not get away with. And like Obama, he also benefits from the hatred of conservatives for policies that just make good sense to black folks.

Bill Clinton has not been especially prominent in this election cycle, but now that his wife is on the brink of joining him in the ranks of Democratic presidential nominees, it would not be surprising to see him rise to the occasion. And listeners black and white will probably be moved by his tributes to her, and his reminders of how far theyve all come together.
Hillary Clinton with Sybrina Fulton, the mother of Trayvon Martin. Photo: Win McNamee/Getty Images

African-Americans have long accused the Democratic Party of taking their votes for granted. And for good reason. In the early 90s, the Democrats cut a path back into the White House that involved distancing itself from the black communitys concerns. The last time the party nominated a nonincumbent named Clinton, he ostentatiously performed his independence from African-American voters by overseeing the execution of a mentally handicapped black man and condemning the hateful lyrics of a black female rapper.

But the Democratic Party has changed a lot since 1992. And on the night it nominated its second Clinton, the party placed the concerns of African-American voters ahead of political expediency: On Tuesday, the Democratic National Convention devoted part of its prime-time program to highlighting the human costs of anti-black violence.

This isnt about being politically correct, Sybrina Fulton, the mother of Trayvon Martin, told the DNC Tuesday night. This is about saving our children.

Fulton is one of the nine Mothers of the Movement, an advocacy group comprised of women who have lost their black children at the hands of police, vigilantes, or random gun violence. On Tuesday night, the women offered heartrending testimonies to the weight of maternal loss.

You dont stop being a mom when your child dies, said Lucia McBath, the mother of Jordan Davis. I still wake up every day thinking how to protect him; how to ensure that his death doesnt overshadow his life.

Geneva Reed-Veal, the mother of Sandra Bland, recalled watching her daughter being lowered into the ground and thinking that shes on leave. Not administrative leave  permanent leave.

In such moments, the mothers presentation was the opposite of controversial, appealing to the universal human longing to protect those we love. But the women also insisted on the role of race  which is to say, racism  in their childrens deaths. Reed-Veal argued that her daughter would still be alive were it not for an unnecessary police encounter that was laced with racial hostility. McBath recalled warning her son about the hazards his skin color would bring him. These were sentiments that deserved to be spoken before a national television audience. But they arent sentiments that everyone in that audience wants to hear. Which made Mothers of the Movement an unusually brave bit of political programming.

There are many reasons why the Democratic Party might have opted to keep the mothers out of prime-time. To name just a few:

1. Donald Trump is on pace to win roughly zero percent of the black vote. Democrats have never had less reason to worry about protecting their grip on the African-American electorate.

2. But theyve rarely had more reason to worry about their standing with blue-collar whites. The latest CNN/ORC poll shows him leading Hillary Clinton by 39 points among that demographic. And police violence against black people is not necessarily one of the groups voting issues.

3. Just this month, two separate mass murders of police officers  committed by self-conceived black nationalists  have commanded national headlines.

4. After years of flirting with criminal-justice reform, the Republican Party readopted a tough on crime posture last week, as its 2016 standard-bearer declared himself the law and order candidate.

Its never been more true that black Democrats have nowhere else to go. The voters that the party needs to reach most are the same socially conservative whites that were once the apple of the DNCs eye. And yet, the Democrats spent one of their few opportunities to reach a national audience via free media by spotlighting the scourge of anti-black violence.

To be sure, this decision isnt bereft of strategic logic. If the mothers emphasized any message as strongly as the need for America to value black life, it was that voters need to value Hillary Clinton. This kind of endorsement could help Clinton boost turnout in swing-state urban centers like Philadelphia. Just because black voters have no interest in pulling the lever for Trump doesnt mean theyll be willing to stand in line for Clinton. Considering the margins Democrats enjoy with black and Hispanic voters, providing these demographics with every motivation to turn out in November makes some tactical sense.

Still, the decision to embrace cultural liberalism as muscularly as the party has done on its first two nights  highlighting the plight of the undocumented on Monday, that of black families torn apart by police violence on Tuesday  seems more principled than pragmatic.

Since exit polls tend to underrepresent white voters, the degree to which Barack Obama relied on blue-collar whites in 2008 and 2012 has been underappreciated. A recent analysis from the Upshots Nate Cohn suggests that blue-collar whites made up 34 percent of the Obama coalition in 2012  and 44 percent of the total electorate. The size of this demographic  combined with Trumps unusually high approval within it  is the only thing keeping this election close.

After Donald Trump delivered an RNC address centered on the threat of crime and the need to respect our police, his popularity among blue-collar whites reached new heights. In this political context, a purely pragmatic Democratic Party would not spend Tuesday night complicating Trumps narrative about policing in America.

But, like every political party ever formed by humans, the 2016 Democrats are not a purely pragmatic beast. The partys actions are determined by a multiplicity of factors, some of which are less than admirable (cue Bernie Sanders decrying the rigged campaign-finance system). But the party is also influenced by activists who work to put their communitys issues on its agenda. The various African-American social movements that were born in the wake of Trayvon Martins death  and matured in the wake of Michael Browns  have made black lives matter (more) to the Democratic Party.
Donald Trump calls in Russian cyberstrike. Photo: Evan Vucci/AP Photo

It is not clear exactly what kind of shady relationship Donald Trump has with Russia, but a few things are clear. He has repeatedly and lavishly praised its dictator. His closest Russia advisers are financially dependent on the Kremlin. He has promised to abrogate the NATO treatys foundational commitment to defend fellow members from an outside invasion (most likely from Russia). The Russian regime has a history of trying to influence elections overseas, and cyberwarfare experts both inside and outside of American intelligence are nearly certain Russia carried out the hack of the Democratic National Committees emails.

Now he is literally asking Russia, in public, to carry out a second attack:

Trump to Russia: I hope you find the missing Hillary emails (some of which could contain classified intelligence) pic.twitter.com/fy919ChGuE  Justin Green (@JGreenDC) July 27, 2016

This is Trumps response to the accusation that he is unduly close to a hostile foreign power: to ask its spies to break American law in order to help him win. Some leftists have mocked the notion that Trump is allied with a foreign power as McCarthyism.

But when hes openly calling on them to carry out espionage on your behalf, its not even a matter of speculation  its just simple fact.
Mark Warner. Photo: Pete Marovich/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders have put the fear of God (and/or populist revolt) into the Democratic Establishment. Typically, when pundits wish to illustrate the Democrats leftward drift, they excerpt the remarks of Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Sherrod Brown, or some other proud member of Team Blues progressive wing. But on Wednesday in Philadelphia, one of the Partys leading corporate shills offered a far more telling testament to the shifting center of Democratic politics.

During a discussion of economic policy hosted by Politico, Virginia senator Mark Warner railed against the decadence of a capitalist system in which record corporate profits are being channeled into stock buybacks and dividends, instead of long-term investment.

There needs to be a reexamination of corporate behavior, Warner said, suggesting that new regulations could encourage corporations to maximize stakeholder value, instead of shareholder value.

The senator then called on his party to acknowledge that the rise of the gig economy has undermined the social contract that the Democratic Party created in the 1930s, that was tied to workplace employment. With an expanding portion of the workforce locked out of the employer-based system of social benefits (health care, retirement accounts, unemployment insurance, workers compensation), Warner argued that the government should work to establish a portable benefit system.

Warners remarks were so uncharacteristically progressive, Pittsburgh mayor Bill Peduto mistakenly referred to him as senator Warren later in the panel.

Centrist @MarkWarner: "Modern capitalism is not working for the majority of Americans." This Ds are changing. #PoliticoCaucus #DemsInPhilly  Michael Grunwald (@MikeGrunwald) July 27, 2016

Warner had offered a similarly biting analysis of our economic system one day earlier.

Modern American capitalism is focused on short-termism, Warner said, during a panel hosted by the centrist think tank Third Way. Twenty-five years ago, businesses would invest over 50 percent of their profits. We invested in our work force  built new plants. Today  95 percent of the profits were spent on dividends and shareholder profits.

I believe in free enterprise, but weve got to make it work for all Americans, Warner continued. If a company offers stock options to its senior executives, it ought to offer stock options and profit-sharing for all its employees.

Expanded social insurance, profit-sharing, and government intervention to push corporate America into more socially useful investment: This is now the agenda of the Democratic Partys right wing.

Make no mistake, Mark Warner is no socialist gadfly. Rather, hes a former venture capitalist turned anti-debt crusader, who recently bemoaned his partys failure to cut Social Security  and then called for big business to play a more active role in our politics.

The sincerity of Warners call for drastic reform is uncertain. Both Warner and the Democratic nominee are committed to shrinking the deficit without raising taxes on the upper-middle class. How this goal can be reconciled with a significant expansion of social insurance remains unclear.

But the ascendance of both left-wing and right-wing populism, in the United States and across the Western world, seems to have whet Establishment Democrats appetite for egalitarian reform.

If we dont reframe capitalism for the 21st century, then the anger is going to become a movement that is going to disrupt what is working, Warner said Wednesday.

Earlier in the panel, CEO of the Center for American Progress Neera Tanden put this point in starker terms. After arguing that the failure to address wage stagnation could invite an illiberal challenge to Americas political system, Tanden observed, Democracies dont last forever. Look at Turkey.
The presidential pivot? Photo: Gustavo Caballero/Getty Images

Donald Trump, who is the Republican candidate for president, celebrated Hillary Clintons official nomination by asking a foreign dictator for help with his campaign, revealing that hes possibly confused about the identity of Hillarys running mate, and accusing Clinton aide Huma Abedin of sharing state secrets with her husband, sleaze ball Anthony Weiner, at a press conference at Trump National Doral near Miami, Florida on Wednesday.

Trump, after denying he told Putin what to do, expressly asks Russia to hack Clinton's server to find missing emails pic.twitter.com/QTokuPkZy5  David Mack (@davidmackau) July 27, 2016

If Russia or any other country or person has Hillary Clinton's 33,000 illegally deleted emails, perhaps they should share them with the FBI!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 27, 2016

The GOP nominee also said during the press conference that he wasnt sure that Russia was behind the hacks, and that China or somebody sitting in his bed could have done it. I dont know who Putin is, Trump explained. He said one thing about me. He said I was a genius. Trump did condemn Putin for reportedly using the n-word in reference to Obama, but got over it pretty quickly:

Trump talking Putin goes from "he called Obama the n-word" to "I hope he likes me" in 20 seconds. pic.twitter.com/u1iNXOpQmL  Elliott Schwartz (@elliosch) July 27, 2016

At one point, Katy Tur, a reporter for NBC, tried to press Trump on his Russian comments. Be quiet Trump interjected. I know you want to, you know, save her.

ICYMI: here's Trump telling a reporter asking about his Russia hack statement to "be quiet" pic.twitter.com/rQEHlVDQGO  Mic (@mic) July 27, 2016

The candidate spent a lot of time railing against what he calls the double email situation of the horrible DNC leaks. If I would have used language like they used about religion, about race, about everything else that they discuss in those emails, I would have had to run and hide and probably drop out of the race, said a man who has said this (and this and this).

Trump called the Democratic race totally rigged. Its about the things that were said in the emails. Terrible things. Talking about race. Talking about Jewish. It was Debbie Wasserman Schultz, and believe me, as sure as youre sitting there, Hillary Clinton knew about it. Debbie Wasserman Schultz couldnt breathe without speaking and getting approval from Clinton.

While Trump fired most of his attacks at Hillary, he tried to get a little jab at her running mate but was either confused about geography or doesnt actually know who Tim Kaine is. Tim Kaine, who by the way did a terrible job in New Jersey, he wasnt popular in New Jersey. First act he did in New Jersey was ask for a $4 billion tax increase, and hes not very popular in New Jersey. And he still isnt  which is probably pretty true, as Kaine was governor and a senator for Virginia. Finally, someone corrected him: I mean Virginia, he replied.

Tom Kean, a Republican, was the two-term governor of New Jersey until 1990, so its possible Trump was getting his terrible politicians messed up.

Trump says Tim Kaine did "a terrible job" in New Jersey. Tim Kaine was a mayor, governor and senator in Virginia. pic.twitter.com/SiwIZiqLEn  Mic (@mic) July 27, 2016

And no Trump press conference would be complete without reviving a sex scandal. But not the one youre thinking of. Nope, Trump went after Anthony Weiner  who recently said he could beat Trump Jr. like a rented mule in a New York City mayoral race  calling him a proven loser.

The topic naturally came up first when Trump was deriding Hillarys receipt of national-security briefings, which he said would be revealed. I mean, her No. 1 person, Huma Abedin, is married to Anthony Weiner, whos a sleaze ball and a pervert. And Im not saying that. I mean, thats recorded history, right?

.@realDonaldTrump calls out @HillaryClinton for her friendship w/ wife of "sleazeball and a pervert" Anthony Weiner pic.twitter.com/xjIi9RRoIZ  CBS News (@CBSNews) July 27, 2016

I dont like Huma going home at night telling Anthony Weiner these secrets, okay?

He added later, when answering a question about Don Jr. for Mayor (no intention of running): I mean, the poor guy, [Weiners] locked up in a room. They lock him up in a room, they dont let him out.

Heres the full press conference:
A Bernie bro? Photo: John Stillwell/AFP/Getty Images

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange refuses to say whether the Russians are behind the Democratic National Committee email hack, though signs point in the direction of a meddling Moscow that might prefer a Trump presidency. The Kremlin has denied the allegations, but whichever agents are behind the attack sound as if they have more catnip for the GOP candidate and many more headaches for Clinton.

Assange told CNN in an interview that he had a lot more material about the United States election campaign, in addition to the 20,000 DNC emails posted on WikiLeaks that show the Democratic National Committee strongly favored Hillary Clinton as the nominee over Bernie Sanders. He added that the Clinton campaigns rush to put the blame on Russia raised serious questions  about the natural instincts of Clinton that when confronted with a serious domestic political scandal she tries to blame the Russians, blame the Chinese, et cetera, Assange said. He added that instinct could cause problems if she were to take office.

The New York Times reports that Assange hinted in an interview with Democracy Now! that he had timed the DNC document release to coincide with the conventions start  which succeeded in scrambling the Democrats unity message after the convention got off to a tumultuous start and sparked the resignation of chairperson Debbie Wasserman Shultz. Assange explained the document dump:

Often its the case that we have to do a lot of exploration and marketing of the material we publish ourselves to get a big political impact for it. But in this case, we knew, because of the pending DNC, because of the degree of interest in the U.S. election, we didnt need to establish partnerships with The New York Times or The Washington Post. In fact, that might be counterproductive, because they are partisans of one group or another.

Assange also apparently dropped a red herring about the leaks earlier in a June 12 interview, in which he said that WikiLeaks had great emails related to Hillary Clinton pending publication. As the Times pointed out, many outlets reported on Assanges comment, but it sounded as if he were referring to that other big email scandal. Assange stressed that theres very strong material both in the emails and relating to the Clinton Foundation.

Assange, who has been openly critical of Clinton and what he sees as her anti-freedom-of-speech and pro-war tendencies, sounds a little bit like a Bernie or Bust bro. In another part of his Democracy Now! interview, he described Americas presidential choices: Well, youre asking me, do I prefer cholera or gonorrhea? Personally, I would prefer neither.
Photo: SelectALL/Cincinatti Zoo/Getty Images

What is so funny about dead animals? The answer is: Nothing. And yet Harambe, the gorilla who was shot and killed in May by security personnel at the Cincinnati Zoo after a 3-year-old boy climbed into his enclosure, has become in his death an all-purpose punch line across Twitter, Tumblr, and Facebook  a meme to be reckoned with.

We should not still be talking about Harambe. When I say should not, I dont even mean that its morally wrong to joke about Harambe. (Though more on that in a moment.) I mean that, as a running joke, Harambe should have had a shelf life of maybe two weeks. The meme should have died shortly after the animal did.

But it didnt. Last week at the Republican National Convention, Harambe (the meme) was spotted in the wild:

Memes about Harambe started popping up almost immediately after news of his death hit the web, at almost the same moment as the outrage over the tragic death of the gorilla. This is unsurprising: Memes will flower in the cracks of whatever is circulating on a given social network, and mass outrage, which seizes social media for hours at a time, necessarily provides a fertile ground. Whats surprising is that the outrage over Harambe has subsided, but the memes live on.

His name was harambe

from a zoo in cincinnati

slaughtered by the city

they had to discipline his body  leon (@leyawn) June 22, 2016

I miss the great 'Rambe

The living ape Rambe

Stayed in his cage Rambe

I hate the new Rambe

Shot by the zoo Rambe

Got us feeling blue Rambe  jgraf96 (@Jgraf96) June 23, 2016

my song came on the radio pic.twitter.com/ASnG4Y0N0s  demi adejuyigbe (@electrolemon) July 10, 2016

Muhammad Ali first day in heaven pic.twitter.com/XdGY47z0zM  Mike Ginn (@shutupmikeginn) June 5, 2016

Are Harambe memes offensive? Im not here to judge Harambe memesters, nor to absolve them. I am merely an observer. But it seems worth saying that the running joke of Harambe-the-punch-line isnt really predicated on its shock value. Harambe memes arent the topical equivalent of dead-baby jokes; theyre fairly standard internet non-sequitur nonsense humor.

Still, uh, what gives? Marx tells us: History repeats itself, the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce. And Harambe is not the first famous animal to die senselessly in the age of social media.

Cecil the Lion, as anyone who was online last year will remember, was the African lion lured out of his sanctuary and killed by the dentist Walter Palmer. The killing was a flash point for a weeks-long cycle of anger, outrage, and invective, much of it justified (Palmer had paid $50,000 for the opportunity to travel halfway around the world to kill a wild animal) and some of it, maybe, a little bit, disingenuous (the BBC reported that local Zimbabweans didnt really care about the incident). It dominated the social web for a month, and then, more or less, disappeared.

Even if the story didnt continue much past the inciting incident, it nevertheless created a framework for How We Talk About Senseless Big-Animal Death Online. When Harambe was killed, there was already an understanding of what would happen next, and how the story would play out over the next several weeks. And so Harambes ironic meme brigade tore out of the starting blocks like a rocket. Cecil memes happened as a response to Cecil outrage, but Harambe memes happened in anticipation of Harambe outrage. Harambe became a referendum on and a satire of social-media-outrage culture, his name a stand-in for everything wrong with the way social media reacts to news.

Cecil and Harambe fighting in heaven they are enemies pic.twitter.com/Vv0ADcc8LC  Normal Muscular Cowboy (@dudethings4guys) June 8, 2016

And, of course, once Harambe became a joke, his name was launched into the nonsense stratosphere in which all big memes orbit  the place where the word Harambe itself suffices for a punch line, without needing to mean much at all. Which has led us now to the current pervasive Harambe meme: dicks out for Harambe. Here is how (I think) it works: As a tribute to the primate, you get your dick out. Here is the actor Danny Trejo doing it. Im not sure what that accomplishes, but

So what happens next? It seems worth saying here, below Danny Trejo, that maybe the biggest reason Harambe has managed to survive this long is that it still carries the frisson of offensiveness, even if its hard to actually take offense at the jokes. In other words, its a meme that will never be co-opted by internet-literate corporate Twitter accounts or deployed by some hapless news anchor hoping for a viral moment. The internet feels less and less like a truly separate cultural space, and fewer and fewer such internet-only in-jokes exist (tongue-in-cheek 9/11 trutherism, beloved by teens, comes to mind). Its hard to come across cultural products online untainted by corporate advertisers or sponsors. Harambe is still a funny punch line because brands will never touch it.

Obviously, there are other ways to end the Harambe meme. Like writing a think piece about it.
Photo: Mahmut Serdar Alakus/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

Whatever else you might say about WikiLeaks, its hard to think of an institution that squanders goodwill more efficiently. Even the people most sympathetic to its aims and ideals have had a hard time defending it recently. Just over the last couple of weeks, whoever ran its Twitter account posted tweets that are either anti-Semitic or deeply weird (the fact that WikiLeaks founder and head Julian Assange ranted about Jewish reporters to a British journalist in 2011 certainly makes it harder to view the posts in a charitable light). Then it was revealed that some of the Democratic National Committee documents it leaked last week  timed intentionally to do maximum damage to Hillary Clintons presidential chances, according to Assange  contained personal information, including credit card and Social Security numbers, of DNC donors.

In the past, WikiLeaks has tended to defend itself against (frequent) charges of recklessness, indiscretion, and negligence by citing an absolute commitment to free speech and transparency. But these defenses are increasingly less credible, as WikiLeaks seems unable (or unwilling) to rigorously process its leaks  or even fact-check its own claims. The recent fiasco of the Erdogan emails (which, as well see, actually have very little to do with Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan in any meaningful sense) is a shocking demonstration.

Shortly after the attempted coup that rocked Turkey two weeks ago  in which a small subset of the Turkish military briefly and very unsuccessfully tried to seize power from President Erdogan and his ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP  WikiLeaks started amping up the hype for an document dump. Waiting for our new 100k+ doc release on the leadup to the #TurkeyCoup? tweeted WikiLeaks on July 18. Explore our past publications on #Erdogan https://search.WikiLeaks.org/?q=erdogan. Then, later that day, Coming Tuesday: The #ErdoganEmails: 300 thousand internal emails from Erdogans AKP - through to July 7, 2016.

As promised, the next day WikiLeaks published a page announcing the release of part one of the AKP Emails. The material was obtained a week before the attempted coup, the site explained. However, WikiLeaks has moved forward its publication schedule in response to the governments post-coup purges. We have verified the material and the source, who is not connected, in any way, to the elements behind the attempted coup, or to a rival political party or state. In response, Turkey swiftly blocked access to wikileaks.org, which some took as proof that the leaks contents were legit. How to authenticate a leak, tweeted Edward Snowden, linking to a Reuters article headlined Turkey blocks access to WikiLeaks after ruling party email dump. WikiLeaks offered the same interpretation of the governments actions, tweeting, Erdogan government officially orders WikiLeaks to be blocked after publishing 300k emails from his party, AKP.

For people who dont read Turkish, it was easy to leave it at that and take WikiLeaks claims at face value: The site had published a huge trove of emails from Turkeys ruling party, and Turkey had then blocked WikiLeaks to prevent people from viewing this newly aired dirty laundry.

This wasnt quite the case, however. Zeynep Tufekci, a Turkish sociologist with a focus on technology and censorship who is based at the University of North Carolina, was initially stranded in Turkey because of the coup, so, for the first day or so after the documents were posted, she didnt have much time to look into them. But soon she noticed that her fellow Turkish and Turkey-focused activists and researchers were tweeting that the WikiLeaks emails werent actually from the AKP or the government at all  and, worse, they contained private citizens personal information.

When she checked into what journalists in Turkey were saying about the leak on Twitter, and looked into the emails herself, she found that indeed, WikiLeaks hadnt actually released a trove of government emails. Rather, it had released what appears to be big chunks of archives from various far-from-top-secret online discussion groups. One such Google Group, called All Together for Turkey (Turkiye-icin-el-ele@googlegroups.com), has 77,000 members and is dedicated to general political discussion, she said. Elsewhere in the document dumps are thousands of mentions of other, similar-sounding Google and Yahoo groups  there are many emails containing the address eTurkiyeyizBiz@googlegroups.com, for example, which Tufekci said translates roughly to We are Turkey, and which looks like a forum dedicated to sharing news stories. Overall, Tufekci said, she and other activists have now been poring over the archives for a week and theres no sign anyone has found emails that werent taken from online discussion groups (though she was quick to add that she cant rule out there are more meaningful emails buried somewhere in the huge stash).

As with the archives of any big, sprawling discussion groups, the emails contain lots of nonsense, Tufekci said  jokes and conspiracy theories and recipes and so on. But whatever is in there, Its so clearly not government emails, she said. As soon as you start looking, you can tell, absolutely. Tufekci pointed out that just a tiny fraction of the emails contain an AKP address, akparti.org.tr, in the From field  she sent me a link to a search that revealed 683 such emails, a minuscule slice of the total stash of about 300,000. In some of these cases, she told me, people had simply posted to the discussion groups email responses they had gotten from AKP officials they were bugging about a job opening or whatever else. (When you put akparti.org.tr in both the From and To fields, the number dwindles yet further, to 275, with many of the results clearly spammy, even to a non-Turkish-speaker.) Once word of this spread among Turkish scholars and activists, some anti-censorship activists  the sorts of people who would have been excitedly lapping up a genuine link of AKP emails  began publicly expressing disgust at the document dump, which had no meaningful connection to the Erdogan or his ruling party.

After misleading people into believing it had leaked a giant cache of sensitive Turkish government emails, WikiLeaks dug itself deeper: Heres the full data for our Turkey AKP emails + more, the organization tweeted on July 21, linking to a since-deleted page. That page hosted multiple databases containing Turkish citizens personal information. One included about 10 million rank-and-file AKP members, Tufekci said. Even more shocking, another contained what appears to be information for every female voter in 79 of Turkeys 81 provinces  more than 20 million entries worth of addresses and cell-phone numbers. (Women who were AKP members appeared to have more information associated with them listed, Tufekci said.)

Disturbed by all of this, Tufekci took to Huffington Post to report her findings on Monday, highlighting both the misleading nature of WikiLeaks Erdogan emails claim and the mass doxing to which it had contributed: According to the collective searching capacity of long-term activists and journalists in Turkey, none of the Erdogan emails appear to be emails actually from Erdogan or his inner circle, she wrote. Nobody seems to be able to find a smoking gun exposing people in positions of power and responsibility. She pointed out that the mass doxing of women was particularly harmful in light of the fact that every year in Turkey, hundreds of women are murdered, most often by current or ex-husbands or boyfriends, and thousands of women leave their homes or go into hiding, seeking safety.

WikiLeaks responded to Tufekcis criticisms in a rather WikiLeaks-ian fashion: by accusing her, among other things, of shilling for a despot.

Catastrophic error in your story. WikiLeaks only published the emails so entirely baseless. Please correct immediately. @ariannahuff  WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) July 25, 2016

Fix your error. Acknowledge your error. You are the one that has opportunistically drawn attention to the content. No-one else.  WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) July 25, 2016

A journalist that cannot take responsibility for their errors, in this case, a catastrophic error, will not work in journalism again  WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) July 25, 2016

The story is entirely false. WikiLeaks did not publish the databases in question at any time. Please correct.  WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) July 25, 2016

You know full well we did not publish the database. You have seriously discredited yourself. Disgraceful. Correct the record.  WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) July 25, 2016

Here is your fabrication and attempted coverup for the record. Red=delete, green=insert. https://t.co/1V5ANevnlU @ariannahuff  WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) July 26, 2016

Correct your baseless story and stop running flak for Erodogan or we will file a formal complaint with HuffintonPost & others.  WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) July 25, 2016

Tufekci found the claim that she was running flak for Erdogan particularly amusing given her reputation as an anti-censorship, pro-human-rights voice on Turkey, and that it fit what appears to be the organizations overall aversion to fact-checking. Apparently they cant even Google, she told me. My New York Times article about censorship in Turkey is a week old. (In that column, she writes that Press and internet freedoms have taken an especially drastic turn under Erdogan in recent years.) Im gonna print [that tweet] and put it on my wall the next time Im in Turkey, she said.

Mostly, WikiLeaks complaints about Tufekci hinged on a technicality: In her article and her tweeting, she initially used the term dump to describe WikiLeaks actions, referring to both the emails the site hosted and the databases it linked to on its social accounts. WikiLeaks has latched onto the fact that while it hosted the (not actually) Erdogan emails, it merely linked to the doxing databases, providing easy access to them to millions of people. (Tufekci said her vague wording was intentional  she didnt want to make it too easy for her followers to find the databases.) The site tweeted out WikiLeaks did not publish the databases in question at any time. Please correct to Tufekci and various other various people. WikiLeaks blocked Tufekci on Twitter, she said, after she started tweeting into the organizations feed tweets from anti-censorship activists who were openly wishing the dump had never happened.

As bad as WikiLeaks mistakes were, they were only compounded by the respected outlets that uncritically echoed the organizations claims  or, worse, unwittingly distorted the emails contents with context-free selections. Take this tweet from Lee Fang, an accomplished, respected investigative journalist:

New @wikileaks email mentions Denny Hastert, former Speaker of the House turned lobbyist for Erdogan turned felon https://t.co/M7Oucnf9LR  Lee Fang (@lhfang) July 19, 2016

As Tufekci noted at the Huffington Post, Even a cursory Google search of a phrase from that particular email would have revealed that it was actually a copied-and-pasted 2014 news article speculating about a Turkish businessman visiting the U.S. Im not singling out Fang, an acquaintance, as a particularly bad actor, either: The Christian Science Monitor fell for WikiLeaks claims in a particularly amusing manner.

Tufekci wrote:

This kind of misreporting was widespread. Parroting WikiLeaks claim, the Christian Science Monitor reported that 1,400 of the emails were allegedly related to Fethullah Gulen, a cleric who leads a secretive global network and who the government blames for the coup. This batch of 1,400 emails was actually merely a keyword search for the phrase Gulen, which also means smiles or smiling in Turkey, so ads for vacations by the Mediterranean (Cesmes smiling face!) were included in these allegedly incriminating 1,400 emails along with pasted public news articles mentioning the name of the embattled cleric.

This sort of thing happened over and over as the rumors swirled out across Twitter, with journalists, cranks, conspiracy theorists, and other people who dont read Turkish holding up utterly pedestrian content from online discussion forums as proof of  something. Tufekci compared the English-language response to a hypothetical foreign group gaining access to an archive of MetaFilter threads, publishing them online, and a sleuth  non-English-speaking  then plucking out a few that contained a 9/11 truthers pasted emails to the government and presenting them as new evidence about the attacks true perpetrators.

Ultimately, Tufekci said, WikiLeaks apparent recklessness wont just impact the individuals who have been doxed. The leaks could also directly benefit Turkeys pro-censorship forces in their long-term goal to gain a tighter control over the information flow in and into the country. Especially relative to other Western, developed countries, Turkey has an abysmal reputation and record when it comes to press freedom and censorship, and in this case the censors can point to WikiLeaks and its philosophy of radical, heedless transparency doing very real harm to Turks  and its hard for the Zeynep Tufekcis of the world to argue with them.

If there is a bright side, its only that the cache of documents provided a prompt for gallows humor on Turkish Twitter during a stressful, uncertain time: For example, one of the leaked emails was a recipe for the tasty Turkish treat semolina halva, so Tufekci said that Turkish Twitter took to debating whether the recipe that WikiLeaks exposed had too much sugar.

***

WikiLeaks didnt respond to a Twitter request for comment, and an email to the organizations press address bounced back with a delayed delivery note (Ill update this story if WikiLeaks does eventually comment). Its impossible not to wonder what the hell happened here: WikiLeaks clearly thought it had on its hands a giant trove of AKP emails. Who told them that? Why? And what was the thinking behind spreading the links to the doxing documents? Did WikiLeaks even know what it was linking to and have a sense of why it was doing so? Whatever the motives of the people who leaked all of this material to WikiLeaks, this is a striking example of what can happen when a powerful and unaccountable organization operates with impulsivity and little due diligence.

The weirdest, most Orwellian aspect of all this, of course, is that there are a lot of people  maybe millions, given the size of WikiLeaks social-media footprint  who continue to think WikiLeaks graced the world with a trove of documents connected to Erdogan and his AKP inner circle. This belief has been reinforced by endlessly overhyped and undercooked reporting and social-media activity, with the net result being that WikiLeaks has been able to present itself  as always  as a brave force for transparency and democracy. It appears that hardly any of the people who think WikiLeaks has exposed malfeasance on the part of the Turkish government know that what it has actually exposed is millions of Turkish peoples private information, for no reason it has yet been willing to explain. And, perhaps unsurprisingly, WikiLeaks has not deigned to clarify the actual contents of the Erdogan emails, nor explain the pro-democratic, anti-authoritarian benefits of helping to dox tens of millions of people. But at least the sites fans have access to a new dessert recipe.
Bill Clinton speaks at the Democratic National Convention. Photo: Paul Morigi/2016 Paul Morigi

Bill Clinton did a thing on Tuesday night that I wasnt completely sure he was capable of: He moved deliberately, persuasively out of the spotlight and to the loyal side of his wife.

Going into Tuesday nights prime-time convention broadcast, more than a few Hillary Clinton supporters and campaign staffers were jittery. Bill, Hillarys magnetic, problematic husband of 41 years, a man who would have likely addressed the convention anyway as a former Democratic president of the United States, was scheduled to do so tonight in a history-making role. Hours after Hillary became the official nominee of her party  and officially the first woman ever nominated for the presidency by a major party  Bill would become the first man to speak at a national political convention in the role of aspiring First Spouse.

Eleanor Roosevelt was the first First Lady ever to address a national convention, when her husband was running as an incumbent in 1940. Pat Nixon was the first Republican wife to do it, in 1972, also when her husband was in office. Hillary herself did it in 1996. Most relevantly, Michelle Obama did it in 2008 and 2012, and carried a responsibility similar to Bills: easing America into a historic transition, helping voters accept a political partner who looks unlike those who have come before, in part, by humanizing that partner.

But Bill Clinton came into the night with a particular set of challenges. Certainly he remains one of the great political speechmakers of our time, and in 2012, delivered for Barack Obama a convention tour de force. But that speech had been perilously long, teetering on the razors edge between brilliance and parody. And too often in this election season, as in 2008, Bill has gotten in Hillarys way on the campaign trail, unable to resist defending even his most regrettable policy measures  welfare reform, the 1994 crime bill  when challenged by protesters. He sometimes seems to have a difficult time remembering that this election isnt about him.

Bill was reportedly working on his speech right up to the last minute, and the possibility that it could be a two-hour recap of his 1990s triumphs, or that he might get distracted by anti-Hillary hecklers in the audience, was all too real. Yes, the roar he received from the crowd in Philadelphia as he entered the arena was a reminder that this guy  this guy! this fuckin guy!  is Teflon; he can screw up and screw around and people still just love him. But there is the heart of the challenge: This convention is not about the fact that, even against its better judgment, America still loves Bill. It is about trying to persuade America to love Hillary.

And lo and behold, that is exactly where Bill Clinton started: with the story of falling in love with Hillary Rodham.

It was a risk  a big risk  for an epically unfaithful man, whose liaison with a young White House intern was an abuse of power that led to his impeachment, to begin his speech with the sentence, In the spring of 1971, I met a girl. But he went for it, with a self-aware grin that suggested he knew what he was doing: challenging the perception of his wife as sexless and his marriage as an empty sham based only on a shared will to power, by laying out a picture of a flesh-and-blood woman for whom he fell hard, more than 40 years ago. He was doing it, in part, by making the joke about his horn-dog impulses, and reminding people that he had once trained them on Hillary.

Its ironic that, in politics and other male-dominated public spheres, one of the roadblocks for women is objectification and sexualization, but when it comes to Hillary Clinton, whose ambition and brains have long rendered her bloodless in the American imagination, hearing her described as an object of desire could feel corrective and bizarrely just. So he did it. He recalled his attraction to this young woman with thick blonde hair, big glasses, and no makeup, who exuded this sense of strength and self-possession that I found magnetic. Bill told of wanting to touch her on the back, but how he held himself back because he knew it wouldnt be just another tap on a shoulder, and that he might be starting something I couldnt stop. He told of how finally, after days in which he stared silently at her, she finally approached him and introduced herself: Im Hillary Rodham, who are you? Bill described himself as so impressed and surprised by Hillarys bold move that believe it or not, momentarily, I was speechless.

And I dont believe it, exactly. I have read this story so many times; it has the ring of a meet-cute tale that has been repeated and embellished to the point of becoming more performed than remembered. But thats okay: Thats humanizing too. Its how our parents or grandparents tell their stories, again and again. There is a sentimental sweetness to this repetition, and the pleasure they both seem to take in it, that we dont usually associate with either Clinton, but which Bill put on full display tonight.

Bills story went on and miraculously continued to focus on Hillary in the most human, intimate terms. He spoke of how he remembered her wearing a long, white flowered skirt the next time he saw her, recalled how he heard her laugh that big laugh of hers. He described meeting her crusty, conservative father and her mother, Dorothy, and that getting to know the latter was one of the greatest gifts that Hillary ever gave me.

I married my best friend, Bill said. It was a classic, wifely line. He was doing a familial thing, a spousal thing. He talked, remarkably, about Hillarys water breaking and, many years later, the two of them moving Chelsea into her dorm room. It was so intimate, this view of a candidate whom we understand to be experienced and tough and prepared and all the other things its taken more than two centuries to convince America a woman can be, but whom we can now barely discern as human.

It was notable that Bill mentioned Michelle Obama so enthusiastically in his speech; in many ways, he was taking his cues from her, and he now hopes to share a category with her, a category once also occupied by his own wife  that of the brilliant and hugely overqualified presidential helpmate.

On this weird imbalance of marital power, Bill was thoughtful, describing how Hillary had decided to take a huge chance by putting her own professional prospects second to his, and following him to Arkansas. She moved to a strange place, more rural and more culturally conservative than any place shed ever lived before. Bill wasnt exactly expressing remorse about Hillarys choice to follow him, but in noting it as a risk and a sacrifice of her own ambitions, he was grappling more honestly than most men of previous generations with the subsidiary realities of wifeliness as it has historically been understood and practiced.

Bills speech was far quieter than most hes given. He didnt talk about himself, barely mentioned his own presidential administration, didnt outline policy or tear into Donald Trump. Instead, he described, in lengthy detail, Hillarys career, her achievements, her commitments. It was a speech that conveyed deep admiration and awe for his wife, and also a reckoning with the gendered inequities of their relationship. Again and again, Bill noted the work shed done, both as a professional and as a wife and mother, and held it up subtly against the more traditional public acclaim hes received. Speeches like this are fun, he said. Actually doing the work is hard. Women as workhorses, men getting the glory. Hillary, he said late in his speech, had done more positive change-making before she was 30 than many public officials do in a lifetime.

And then, at the end, the speech turned elegiac. Bill looked old on Tuesday night, and you could feel his mortality weighing on him, as it has for some years. I have lived a long, full, blessed life, he said, and it really took off when I met and fell in love with that girl. He went on, Those of us who have more yesterdays than tomorrows tend to care more about our children and grandchildren, and the reason you should elect her is that, in the greatest country on earth, we have always been about tomorrow.

This treacly crescendo was notable mostly for the familiarity of its frame: the speaker advocating for the spouse in comfortably familial terms, appealing to voters through references to children and grandchildren. But for the first time, the spouse wasnt a wife. It was a husband, who was managing, for once in his life, a moment of self-control and of submission. Bill was reversing the order of things by doing what Hillary had done for him so many years ago: putting himself and his ambitions and achievements and career second to hers.
No you did not. Photo: Courtesy of Twitter/NBCNightlyNews

History was made on Tuesday when Democrats unanimously voted to nominate Hillary Clinton  the first-ever woman candidate  for president of the United States. Clinton simultaneously accepted the nomination and encouraged young girls to follow in her footsteps, and even Bill took on a secondary role. Meanwhile on Wednesday, Donald Trump  the Republican nominee for president  told a female reporter to be quiet on live television.

The moment came during a press conference in which Trump discussed, among other things, Hillary Clintons emails. When NBCs Katy Tur asked Trump whether he had any qualms about asking a foreign government, Russia, China, anybody, to interfere, to hack into a system of anybody in this country, he talked loudly over her.

WATCH: Trump tells @KatyTurNBC to "be quiet" as she presses him on his hope that Russians have Clinton's emails. https://t.co/uBqOXeob3Y  NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt (@NBCNightlyNews) July 27, 2016

Tur pressed him, reading back one of his own quotes, to which he replied, Well, they probably have [the emails]. Id like to have them released.

Does that not give you pause? Tur asked.

Trump replied, No, it gives me no pause. If they have them they have them. Id like to have them released. As Tur continued talking, Trump said, You know what gives me more pause? That a person in our government  crooked Hillary Clinton  be quiet; I know you want to, you know, save her  that a person in our government, Katy, would delete or get rid of 33,000 emails  now if Russia, or China, or any other country has those emails, to be honest with you Id love to see them.

Tur asked no further questions, and Trump moved on. But dont worry, guys  despite blatantly belittling them on national television, Trump is doing really well with women.
Gave me secondhand embarrassment and I could have done without it.

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So cringe.

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i'm good thanks

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No Scott Baio, no care.

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god, I can't wait till this election is over. I can't believe they are allowed to last this long

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It was cute, but it bothered me that while most of the participants had a solid color background, some didn't. Why not be consistent? I realize they probably asked those people to send in their video from their homes but it was just a strange aesthetic. And it was kind of weird how some people were only in that big montage at the end, like, was their singing just terrible and insincere or was their audio unusable or what? And Cheno looked rough. :/ Probably not the thoughts I was supposed to have about it though.

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the people who sent in video who were not celebs were given a backing track to sing along to. my friend is in the video and was the first one to send one in and she posted her original submission last night.

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I'm not going to listen because these things are usually embarrassingly bad. But I do want to say that this is a large grouping of people I enjoy.



Kathy Najimy is gr9.

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Yeah...I'm not clicking that.

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mte

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i love this gif

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Isnt KCheno Republican tho?

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She has described herself as a "non-judgmental liberal Christian." She has appeared on traditionally conservative Christian programming but regretted it after she learned it upset her fan base. Her wikipedia page doesn't outline her voting history.

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She's donated to Obama before.

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I think she used to be and still has traditionally conservative values, but the GOP has legit moved away from actual conservativism, so she probably just decided to throw in her lot with her LGBT fans.

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Then he thought Kaine was the governor of New Jersey. lmao Chris Christie must be dying inside that Trump even forgot he governed New Jersey.



Trump says Tim Kaine did "a terrible job" in New Jersey. Tim Kaine was a mayor, governor and senator in Virginia. pic.twitter.com/SiwIZiqLEn  Mic (@mic) July 27, 2016

Is anyone watching Trump's press conference rn? I'm screaming. Said he wants Russia to hack Hillary's personal emails and to hack the FBI (wtf). Won't release his tax returns which is a massive problem. Talked about Putin using the n-word. Said people shouldn't travel to France.Then he thought Kaine was the governor of New Jersey. lmao Chris Christie must be dying inside that Trump even forgot he governed New Jersey.

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I'm speechless

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I would pay money to have seen Christie's reaction to that.

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Hello darkness my old friend..... Hello darkness my old friend.....

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he probably fell out of this chair....again.

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I bet he makes less money than he says. That is why he cant release his taxes.



And fuck him. Let the DNC have this week damn it.

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He knows that was his buddy Chris Christie right?

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I refuse to watch him speak BUT I cannot believe the media is not pressing him on the tex returns. Every candidate for president for the past 40 years has released tax returns. He said himself that Mitt Romney should have released his tax returns earlier. He demanded a birth certificate from President Obama. Like, the media should just press him about this in every single interview, and speculate about what they might show if he doesn't.

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it's so crazy to me that a foreign power hacking and attempting to influence our elections is not bigger news like what in the fuck.

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lmaoooooooooo

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How is he winning in the polls rn? He is more than a mess.

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omg... im laughing but wow this is so fucking crazy

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OMG, I'm watching now. He's gotten like everyones name wrong, he's just flat out making shit up. This is so fucking insane, he's a fucking Presidential candidate....

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He is so deranged.

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Said he wants Russia to hack Hillary's personal emails and to hack the FBI (wtf)



What in the actual fuck?



ETA: it's also pretty clear he's throwing the press conference because he's jealous of the DNC and how well the convention is doing. Night 2 of the convention beat Night 2 of the RNC convention in the ratings again.



Edited at 2016-07-27 03:44 pm (UTC)

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Donald Trump just argued that Anthony Weiner is a greater threat to national security than a state-sanctioned cyberattack from Russia  Elias Isquith (@eliasisquith) July 27, 2016

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oh my god????

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Honestly, Trump is not far from using the same fear tactics that Hitler used... we all know how well that went.

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who the fuck corrected him

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I wish this madness was for a movie or reality show he is secretly filming

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This is the creature who could appoint multiple Supreme Court justices.

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Omg when he said David Hinkley and the press room started laughing

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what the fuck

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lmao Chris Christie must be dying inside that Trump even forgot he governed New Jersey.



IKR??? This is fucking killing me, lmao. But that's what that idiot gets being Trump's lapdog.

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REAGAN 1987: Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall

TRUMP 2016: Mr. Putin, tear down that firewall  (((Yair Rosenberg))) (@Yair_Rosenberg) July 27, 2016



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lol wut

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How does he get away with this crazy shit all the time!? If any other politician ever tried this, it would fucking DESTROY them! I wonder if we'll ever see the breaking point where he finally hits some limit on how much insanity his voters can take.

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I've never felt any sympathy for Chris Christie until this moment.

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I thought this was cheesy but had the nerve to burst into tears when the screen shattered before her video address. LOL.

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That was a good moment. I understand.

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no that was a really good moment. i got really emotional too and i don't even like her

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same

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Same, same. No judgments.

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keep it

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It's full blown cringe, but I got a little emotional tbh.

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I might be crying at my desk at work. Won't confirm.



'Do you think Amy Schumer would like me?'



Y'all real are hitting me right in the heart, aren't you?



ALSO OP, here is the trailer from YT





Edited at 2016-07-27 06:41 pm (UTC)

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Looks painful... Just like the original.

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Thank you for this! Seems like Italian Netflix fucked up and deleted when they realized.

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Stars hallow looks the same, kudos to the set designer.

Rory finally sounds like an adult

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I love her "I'm with Human" shirt

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I love Lauren but you can see she hasn't spoken this fast in a while. It feels like S7 to me, hopefully it's just one clip.

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Rory's voice :o She's all grown up lol.



I will forever love them, idgaf

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LOL, I just tried to post this; should've known. Italian Twitter, really??



I swear the Gilmore Guys totally called that they'd drop an Amy Schumer reference. That's uncanny.



RORY'S VOICE IS NORMAL AGAIN HOLY SHIT

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Anyway op, the official GG twitter tweeted the trailer as well: I checked if it was posted, it wasn't, submitted it, then 1 sec later this post was approved lol.Anyway op, the official GG twitter tweeted the trailer as well: https://twitter.com/GilmoreGirls/status/758369081737170944 . The tweet you embedded has been deleted for some reason :(

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I think it's because the international netflix twitters released them early, Spain, France and Germany lmao

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"RORY'S VOICE IS NORMAL AGAIN HOLY SHIT"



omg ifkr that shrill bb voice she did in season 6 and 7 was not the business

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Can't wait for what else Demi and Kevin get right in the pop culture predictions.

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that felt like an SNL spoof of gilmore girls

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i'm freaking out at work ngl.



trailer is in english now!







aww i just posted this,i'm freaking out at work ngl.trailer is in english now!

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Idk if I want to watch Luke and Lorelai's negative romantic chemistry again. Maybe I'll just watch the scenes with Emily, Michael, the Kims and other townies tbh.

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i don't wanna see Emily as a widow :(

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I know! :( Kelly Bishop is going to kill it though.

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i know. emily is legit the hbic of the gilmore family, but i don't want to see her without richard. :( they were such a dynamic duo. rewatching the show rn and it makes me feel sad he won't be in this ending.

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this latest rewatch and perhaps the gilmore guys have made me stan Christopher way more than Luke. Luke is just better as your reliable friend, Christopher and her had chemistry and he talked with her banter. He got his shit together at the end. Luke was just a fat ass who treated her incredibly atrociously with that April shit.

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I started watching it this year for first time and just got exhausted by the time she graduated High school. Is s4-6 worth it?

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There are actually 7 seasons. 4 and 5 are good. 6 is a fucking nightmare. 7 is desperately trying to fix the nightmare of season 6 and failing miserably.

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Oh - I thought 7 was the one everyone hated, so I didn't bother including it. didn't know 6 was bad too :(

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the whining of which ivy league school she should go to dominating so much just really turned me off and seemed kind of dated, in a sense.

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Season 4 has some obvious transition issues with Lorelei and Rory being apart but it's not a total wash- season 5 is better, but the focus remains on them individually and not as a duo-- but Logan shippers love it. Unpopular opinion, but I actually don't mind season 6 at all... it's interesting to see Rory and the grandparents have a different type of relationship and see her have some "growing up pains" but season 7 is straight trash from beginning to end.

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unpopular opinion but I actually really love/enjoy S4-6 (S7 was meh). Like for me Rory became a lot LESS insufferable in the later seasons....

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i really like 4 and 5 even though it does transition into a different kind of show... seasons 1-3 are cute because they're nostalgic in the way your own childhood, before you move away to school is... very innocent and safe and contained.



stop after season 5 though.

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1-5 are glorious. I'd watch the rest with very low expectations.

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S1 to S5 are perfection. S6 is depressing (even tho it has its moments). S7 makes me angry but it's a direct result of the S6 mess so...I guess you can say they at least tried.

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Oh god. It's worse than I imagined. I am a huuuuuuuuuuge fan and have been bracing myself for this because almost all reboots are horrible and this scene solidified my fears.



Horrible acting. Horrible dialogue. What the fuck.

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yeah the scene was really bad but hopefully it's just a bad choice for a clip, that happens.

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it feels so sitcom-my. i think the acting is ok, they're just working with the material they have. just can't imagine lorelai actually saying those things... they're trying too hard to make it ~quirky

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It was 30 seconds, calm down

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I agree completely. I'm hoping this isn't a real scene, it's just like a teaser trailer that isn't part of the show.



And does anyone else think Lauren's face is painfully puffy and swollen looking? It was like that in Parenthood, too. I don't get it. It makes her hard to watch for me.

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It's been confirmed that this scene is not part of the show and was specifically filmed for promo.

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It's not part of the show - this was specifically filmed to be a promo and that's it.

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"It was literally like no time had passed," Lauren says of returning. "There was no sense of having to resuscitate something." #TCA16  Jarett Wieselman (@JarettSays) July 27, 2016



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wait , so they are definitely ending it on the original 4 words ASP wanted???

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Yes. After 84 years they're finally doing it.

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I wonder if that means it won't come back next year.

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i wonder if it's something like i love you rory

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I'm excited and nervous. DON'T SCREW THIS UP.

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I'm so fucking excited for this! Don't even care that the promo tells us literally nothing. Just glad to have a premiere date.

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Dude, really? Thanksgiving weekend? When I am going to be busy meeting my long lost relatives on the East Coast? What the fuck ASP?

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Something to do when you need to hide from fam drama.

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I hate my conservative family and how every year they feel the need to tell me my life is over because I'm not married and don't have kids... I'll be ignoring them and watching this.

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I'm going to be hosting at my house for the first time ever and my mom will be here so it's actually perfect for me, thank god. Sorry sis!

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Are they only doing this 4 part update of sorts or will this be the introduction of a reboot?

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Seems like it's only four parts because we'll finally hear the last four words ASP hasn't shut up about it (excited to hear them)!

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"11:42 am: AS-P: I really feel like the st in your family never really gets worked out. But thats whats so great about family. Thats why the show was a great show to write. Youre never going to run out of conflict.

11:45 am: AS-P not ruling out new episodes. This is what it is right now. We put these together, we told these stories and now we throw them out into the universe"



i heard on gilmore guys that AYITL ends on not really a cliffhanger but the door is left open for more stories

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I get the feeling that they do want to do more, some of the cast members have talked about being surprised at the last four words not offering the closure that they expected, whatever that means. I don't think it ends on a cliffhanger exactly, but it sounds like it will be very open-ended maybe?

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overrated crap

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https://www.yahoo.com/news/gilmore-girls-revival-tca-live-183230147.html



Live Blog of the TCA panel going on here



Its the most anticipated press conference of the year  and Im bringing it to you live!



Netflixs Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life panel  featuring stars Lauren Graham, Alexis Bledel and Scott Patterson, as well as series creator Amy Sherman-Palladino and exec producer Daniel Palladino  is currently underway at the Television Critics Association summer press tour, and Im live-blogging the highlights. Refresh for the latest!



11:31 am: Gilmore Girls release date announced! And you can watch the first teaser!



11:36 am: Were getting a first look at the first two minutes of Winter!



11:37 am: Its Lorelai and Rory at the gazebo with snow falling talking a mile a minute!!!



11:38 am: Panel has begun! Amy is wearing a hat!



11:39 am: Amy urges fans NOT to fast-forward to the final scene to hear the final four words. It will ruin the experience. It would be great if people who wanted to see the last four words first got some therapy first and got rid of that inclination. It really is a journey Its going to mean a lot less if you just flip to the last page. I would hope that people would want to take the whole trip. Its a fun trip. Its worth it.



11:40 am: It was like no time had passed It was the old show.  Graham on slipping back into the series Live Blog of the TCA panel going on hereIts the most anticipated press conference of the year  and Im bringing it to you live!Netflixs Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life panel  featuring stars Lauren Graham, Alexis Bledel and Scott Patterson, as well as series creator Amy Sherman-Palladino and exec producer Daniel Palladino  is currently underway at the Television Critics Association summer press tour, and Im live-blogging the highlights. Refresh for the latest!11:31 am: Gilmore Girls release date announced! And you can watch the first teaser!11:36 am: Were getting a first look at the first two minutes of Winter!11:37 am: Its Lorelai and Rory at the gazebo with snow falling talking a mile a minute!!!11:38 am: Panel has begun! Amy is wearing a hat!11:39 am: Amy urges fans NOT to fast-forward to the final scene to hear the final four words. It will ruin the experience. It would be great if people who wanted to see the last four words first got some therapy first and got rid of that inclination. It really is a journey Its going to mean a lot less if you just flip to the last page. I would hope that people would want to take the whole trip. Its a fun trip. Its worth it.11:40 am: It was like no time had passed It was the old show.  Graham on slipping back into the series

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11:38 am: Panel has begun! Amy is wearing a hat!



LOL, of course she is. I'm just sitting here waiting for her to say something messy. It's gonna happen.



Edited at 2016-07-27 06:55 pm (UTC)

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awww i want to see the first two minutes! also v excited to hear what the final four words will be, but there's no way i'm going to fast forward and ruin it

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Yeah, I've waited what, 9 years for those final four words. I can wait an extra 6 hours.

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I feel like she's wayyyy overhyping the last 4 words. I'm keeping my expectations low, I can't imagine how 4 words could live up to the buildup at this point???

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"do you think John Oliver would find me hot?"



that's an important question, tbh.

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i high key want him to mention this in this week's last week tonight episode lmao

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They brought it up on the interview he did with Colbert last night - it's on the Late Show YT channel

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i would pay so much money to see cher attack trump with fists



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You know that the DNC getting better ratings than the RNC and Trump being out of the headlines for two days was driving him insane... truly hope that his unquenchable thirst for attention has finally backfired in his orange face.



Tonight is going to be good.

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Tonight is gonna be amazing. Cry more Drumpf.

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hey hows your situation

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I wish I didn't have to work tonight. Hopefully things aren't too hectic that I can watch parts of the livestream.

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Seriously. He's basically throwing a tantrum.

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He hates not being the center of attention. But he should stick to his day job: Twitter Troll.

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no, i think he's doing this bc some of the media is asking him to produce his tax returns again



he does this every time his taxes get brought up - says something completely disgusting and outrageous so the press gets distracted

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Where's that one tweet about how america shouldn't elect a president, we should just go on a break for four years????

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When I don't want to talk politics with my conservative coworkers I tell them were just about to end our relationship with Obama, it was a wild ride for 8yrs, no harsh feelings but we need to be single for a while

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Lmao literally how? I mean, it'd be nice to just chill the fuck out with everything else and pause, leave us alone and let time roll by. Like, sure see you in 4 years after the break and we'll talk.

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That'd be a terrible idea, it would make Paul Ryan president by default

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I mean, Belgium had no government for 535 days once.

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not to be all conspiracy theorist but if the GOP were plotting to divide the democratic party so hilary wouldnt win by a landslide they succeeded

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i mean, why do you think trump keeps tweeting about bernie being robbed? not bc he actually believes that lmao

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it's also why people like Sean Hannity and sites like the Daily Caller were among the few complaining about racism in the DNC. Am I supposed to believe that they actually care that DNC staffers were making fun of a black woman's name? And lol @ Hannity misusing "slur." You get a slur, you get a slur, everyone gets a slur!



(the dnc should be held accountable for that ofc, i've been screaming that since day one, but i'm so frustrated with this disingenuous bullshit on both sides.)

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The sad part is the Bernsters falling for it even though Bernie is asking them not to vote for a third party.

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Donald Trump is now leading the polls in the race to be worlds most powerful person: https://t.co/JqDuVRxf2n pic.twitter.com/9CPtOXCuhT  New York Magazine (@NYMag) July 27, 2016



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I actually cannot believe this is something that is happening.

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"The self-reported net impact of the GOP convention was also negative. Overall, 51% of Americans say the convention made them less likely to vote for Trump, while 36% said it made them more likely to vote for him. This is the highest "less likely to vote" percentage for a candidate in the 15 times Gallup has asked this question after a convention. The previous "less likely" high was 38% after both conventions in 2012, and after the GOP conventions in 2004 and 2008." artificial bounce. he's gonna tank soon. from gallup: "The self-reported net impact of the GOP convention was also negative. Overall,, while 36% said it made them more likely to vote for him.The previous "less likely" high was 38% after both conventions in 2012, and after the GOP conventions in 2004 and 2008."

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is leading in OR, which is super surprising to me? Source: ^THIS^ Plus, in swing states (13 of them) it's 8-5, in favor of HRC. Heleading in OR, which is super surprising to me? Source: realclearpolitics

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Obama didn't receive any convention bump from the DNC in 2012 and he still beat the brakes off Romney.

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Dis white devil

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Don't overestimate this data. It's only if the election were today... not that's saying much keep watching Five Thirty Eight

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JFC. Dont fuck this up, America.

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Cher tweets like a 13 year old. Also, watch fox news excuse Drumpf by making slightly racist remarks about Obama.



Edited at 2016-07-27 06:56 pm (UTC)

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lol her tweets read to me like a lot of my friends moms that i'm friends with on fb tbh

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really? i think she tweets like a mom.

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yup lol

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she's not trying to be edgy, so not like a 13 y/o, more like a mom.

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Cher is dyslexic. She tweets like a dyslexic, that's why she uses a lot of emojis. Her mind thinks in graphic pictures rather than individual letters and words. Twitter wasn't created for dyslexics.

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this is sort of related but i can't believe the conspiracy theories that are coming out about the dnc employee that was shot and killed a few weeks ago, that the dnc did it bc he ~leaked the e-mails~ or ~discovered negative stuff about hillary~. it's disgusting what people will use to push their own narratives.

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you and the gifs every post are giving me such a RDJ boner again.

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i'm sorry

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get his taxes as well Putin!

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TERRIFIED



Also, YASSSS BERNIE

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2016/07/bernie-gives-supporters-red-light-on-green-party.html?mid=fb-share-di I am genuinely terrified for this country if Trump becomes president.TERRIFIEDAlso, YASSSS BERNIE

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Bernie sold out

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Meh. There's literally no way anything will happen with people voting third party this cycle other than the not-Trump crowds votes are split and Trump wins. I'm all for voting third party next time, but not while Donald Trump is an option honey.

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In a different election, I would agree. I honestly respect him more for taking Trump seriously and doing what he can to help the person closest to his own ideology win, rather than staying silent or pushing voters elsewhere. I think it shows he believes in public service, honestly.

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There's like a 1-2% difference between there platforms

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Tell it Bernie.



I'm sure the holdouts who think that Clinton pointed a gun at him or something will never give in, but I hope reasonable people will actually listen.

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Go Bernie.

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yess bernie

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Seriously, why does Trump get to do all this shit and his stupid "Patriot" fans don't bat an eyelash?



Oh well, his fans are fucking idiots.

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if they weren't stupid entitled racist fuckwits they wouldn't be trump fans in the first place!

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Sad but true. It's like they want to destroy this country and rebuild it to be an awful shithole.



WalMArtIran all over.

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I asked for you, answer was, "Putin is a badass and strong, we should be more like them, stop being a wimpy cry baby."

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I don't know. If it were any other candidate their run would have ended months ago. I blame the media for Trump. His silly antics gave them more viewers and they ran with it not thinking anyone would be dumb enough to actually agree with what he is saying. And here we are.

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Could you imagine if the media actually managed to remove a political candidate during the middle of an election?



The crazies on the right already don't trust the media or govt.

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He also said Hillary shouldn't get security briefings because she is close to Huma Abedin and Huma is married to Anthony Weiner... like ????? He essentially argued Hillary shouldn't get security briefings because Anthony said he'd run against Trump Jr.



THIS MAN IS INSANE

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http://ohnotheydidnt.livejournal.com/102728240.html?page=1#comments We're using this as a live post, sis

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i love cher referring to trump with just the toilet emoji. so concise and accurate

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I mean, his last name is slang for 'fart' so it works.

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It's really perfect for him.

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not treason, but definitely sedition. if all the american sovereignty loving patriots who stink up the republican party actually gave a shit about this country, trump would be roasting on a spit right now like the pig he is.

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seriously, i'm surprised more of them aren't freaking out about it, especially considering the history of america shitting itself over russia for a good part of the 20th century. now this shit breaks and it causes hardly a peep?

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someone needs to play the reagan card on these dumb fucks

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it is not a false dichotomy.

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yes it is :)

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she did that 

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By signing up to our newsletter, you agree for your email address to be shared with our third party mail providers.
If one follows the media coverage of Elon Musk, the overwhelming impression would be of a man in a huge rush. The last couple of weeks have been particularly crowded. It looks like wherever you look, theres news about Musk and his businesses, whether its the fifth successful landing of its Falcon 9 rocket after a supply mission to the International Space Station or the much-awaited release of the second part of Musks master plan, or a fresh price cut for its Model X crossover to stimulate demand.

Elon Musk has been having a busy year and now, a week before the release of Teslas second-quarter results, he plans to officially cut the ribbon on Teslas gigafactory in Nevada. The facility is perhaps one of the best demonstrations of Musks vision for Tesla as a world leader in not just electric vehicles but also power storage systems. The grand opening comes ahead of schedule, with production slated to begin later this year versus initial plans for the start of 2017.

According to Tesla officials, the purpose of the rush is to have the factory up and going before the launch of the low-cost Model S, which will carry a price tag of just 35,000, basically half of what Model S buyers pay to date. Demand is expected to be through the roof for the cheap sedan. But then again, demand was expected to be through the roof for the Model S and the Model X, and the expectations failed to meet reality. Not even after it lowered the price for the Model X by introducing a cheaper version earlier this month. Related: Libyas Oil Deal Turns Sour As Army Chief Threatens To Bomb Tankers

For two consecutive quarters Tesla has been missing its own sales targets, although the company remains upbeat about full-year figures. Tesla cited component shortages as the main reason for the discrepancy between planned and realized sales for the first quarter. In the second quarter, apparently, it still dealt with the consequences of supplier part shortages, ramping up production in June.

These are the cars that will need the batteries to be produced at the gigafactory. Musk expects annual production of the Model S alone to reach half a million vehicles in a few years. He also plans to go into electric trucks and buses as per Master Plan Part 2. Power storage systems that use lithium-ion batteries are also a priority. The future from his perspective looks bright but is it?

Along with announcing quarterly sales results, Tesla somewhat quietly added that it is scrapping its buyback program that offered buyers of Model S and Model X vehicles the option to re-sell the vehicle to Tesla at no less than 50 percent of the original price. The reason: it just doesnt have enough cash to afford to provide the cover.

Then, of course, there have been the investigations into its Autopilot program that have turned into a major headache for Musk and company, despite assurances that accidents are statistically rare. Statistics take a break when a fatal accident is involved. Related: Why Are Oil Producers Rushing To The STACK?

In August, Tesla is expected to report a loss per share of $1.15 for April-June 2016, up from a loss of $0.82 for the second quarter of 2015. It is also expected to get the go-ahead for its acquisition of SolarCity soon. It looks like Musk has a lot on his plate and, besides great visions, much of this lot is problems, practical problems.

The early launch of the gigafactory may look impressive and ambitious but it might turn out to be more about form than substance. Even if large-scale production of batteries starts before the years end, it remains to be seen whether demand for the Model S will live up to expectations and the same goes for power storage systems.

Elon Musks vision of a green-power, energy-independent future certainly makes a lot of sense. Its just that it makes long-term sense and the path to this future is uneven. Besides, success is not guaranteed, as the mismatch between expected and actual demand for Teslas cars shows clearly. If this mismatch persists, the gigafactory may turn out to be just another bubble. At least over the short-term.

By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
Although both nuclear and renewables are useful to reduce carbon emissions, nuclear is not included in the most ideal power mix due to its waste management, expensive decommissioning and inherent safety risks. While Germany and Japan consider these risks to be greater than the risk of increased carbon emissions, many other countries balance the risks differently.

Aesop wrote a fable called the Oak and the Reed, where the Oak spoke to the Reeds, saying that they are worse off, since any slight breeze will cause them to bend. The Reeds told him not to worry about them, as the wind would cause them to bow, but not to break, while the Oak could not bend to stronger winds. A hurricane came a little while later. The great Oak, while standing proud at the beginning, fell with a great thunder, as the Reeds bent in pity.

A great wind of change is happening in electricity markets, unlike any the utility industry has seen from its beginning. Natural gas has topped out coal in the U.S. for the first time, as EPA regulations and lower natural gas prices hack away at previous price advantages. With falling costs for renewables, more environmentally concerned customers, and governmental promotion policies, renewables are increasing their share of the energy mix and will only continue to do so.

On the demand side, the internet of things (IOT), home batteries and solar power, electric cars, and the opening up of many electricity markets are making customers more flexible, adaptable, and independent. Drives to improve the efficiency of electrical consumption also have the impact of increasing renewable penetration, as less electricity is used in total for the same installed renewable capacity.

With nuclear powers inability to adjust to power demand, it risks going the way of the great Oak. There are three ways to extend the life of nuclear in the energy mix: either lessen the wind by pricing in nuclear power at a different level, increase the flexibility of nuclear by allowing it to adjust to demand, or build smaller reactors that huddle under the wind, i.e. increase grid flexibility as each incremental reactor is smaller.

Lessening the wind: Pricing in nuclear through policies towards risk and carbon emissions

As the utility grid becomes greener, more flexibility and/or storage is required to allow for the intermittency of wind and solar. The first 5-10 percent can be handled relatively simply, using pricing strategies, flexibility in natural gas plants, and demand management at industrial and commercial facilities. However, once renewable penetration becomes large enough, these strategies cease to suffice.

Once the renewable penetration increases over 60 percent, the challenges related to further decarbonising the grid become exponentially greater, and this is where pricing nuclear makes sense. As Jesse Jenkins, an MIT researcher, points out, It's not really a fair comparison to say there's all this low-hanging efficiency fruit and we should do that instead of nuclear, we should be doing that instead of running coal plants.

The retirement of Diablo Canyon is one nuclear giant that will be affected by pricing metrics for renewables and intermittency in Californias energy market. Coming in at 2,200MW, Diablo supplies almost 1/10th of Californias power just by itself. While the decision has been highly politicized, PG&E has recently determined that after 2025, California would only need run Diablo Canyon intermittently.

The state hopes to produce 50 percent of its power from renewable sources by 2030.There is no doubt that a full decarbonisation of the electricity grid as quickly as possible should be the goal. Jesse Jenkins notes, If we want to be 60 percent overall, then that 60th percentage point of renewables is what you should be comparing to Diablo Canyon, not the first cheapest renewable plant you build, in most cases, those marginal plants are quite expensive.

At these percentages, there are fewer and fewer favourable locations to build renewable generation, more flexibility or storage required in the grid, which all translates into more expensive renewables, despite falling installation costs.

Bending in the wind: demand response in nuclear

As nuclear power plants require large numbers of staff to operate, it often isnt economically feasible to operate nuclear at 50 or 25 percent power. The portion of fixed costs are simply too high, and economically nuclear makes the most sense at 100 percent power. Related: What Will Happen To Turkeys Energy Security Following The Failed Coup?

However, many reactors were designed to operate to be load-following. A case in point is the Westinghouse PWR, which was designed to operate on a 12-3-6-3 daily cycle as required: 12 hours at 100 percent power, then a three hour ramp-down to 50 percent power, six hours at 50 percent, and finally a three-hour ramp-up again. Although uranium fuel is not burned as efficiently in this type of operation, it is better suited for the duck-shaped demand curve that California has. New Westinghouse designs such as the AP1000 have greater demand following capabilities than older designs. Nuclear can do the demand response dance, it just hasnt been asked to the floor.

Huddling under the wind: building small modular reactors

(Click to enlarge)



Related: Why Saudi Arabia Continues To Pump Crude At Record Levels

As older power reactors are retired, smaller reactors can provide greater flexibility in the grid that the larger designs from previous generations. Indeed, if older reactors are giant oaks, SMRs will be reeds. During load following operations plants like the Westinghouse SMR will be capable of performing 10 percent load changes at a rate of 2 percent per minute to support grid frequency response. Unfortunately, many of the new reactors currently being built will be larger ones, with only Russia, India, China, Pakistan, and Kazakhstan actively building SMRs.

Conclusion

If the goal is to decarbonise the whole electricity grid as quickly as possible, continuing the operation of nuclear reactors makes sense. Further, building new nuclear capacity makes sense at higher total clean power capacity. With todays technology, a grid completely run on wind and solar would be prohibitively expensive. It is a question of philosophy whether, in the coming decades, the difference is made up by nuclear or natural gas.

Gas meshes better with its ability to ramp up and down as required by the grid. However, it is not carbon-free. Shutting down nuclear plants today will cause challenges down the road, when we seek to completely green the grid. A nuclear plant may not follow demand today. But we do not have enough equivalent storage to compensate for the lost green power. It may make sense to curtail green intermittently now, as we build up the flexibility the grid requires to go completely green.

Japan restarting a considerable part of its nuclear fleet this August after its hiatus due to Fukushima shows how difficult even advanced economies are finding going fully green today without nuclear. Germany chose to delay full decarbonisation over stopping its nuclear fleet. The jury is out on how the rest of the world tackles greening its grid.

By Matt Slowikowski for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
Anadarko Petroleum Corp swung to a loss in the second quarter, but beat analyst estimates by reporting smaller-than-expected losses as it tried to offset low oil prices with cost curbs and asset sales.

Anadarko booked a net loss attributable to common stockholders of US$692 million in the quarter ended June 30, compared to a net profit of US$61 million in the second quarter last year. The US$692-million loss translates into a loss of US$1.36 per diluted share. Adjusted for extraordinary items, the second-quarter loss was US$0.60 per share. This is below the US$0.80 loss per share expected by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S, and lower than the average US$0.79 loss per share which 32 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg had forecast.



Anadarko cut costs and expenses to US$ 2.247 billion between April and June, from US$ 2.546 billion for the second quarter of 2015.

The group has generated some US$2.5 billion in monetizations so far in 2016, including proceeds in the second quarter from the secondary offering of Western Gas Equity Partners common units and divestitures of Wamsutter and non-core Permian assets. Anadarko targets to generate US$3.5 billion in total proceeds by the end of the year, chairman, president and CEO Al Walker said in the company statement. Back in March 2016, Anadarko had planned to monetize up to US$3 billion of assets in 2016.

Apart from higher proceeds from divestitures, the group also revised up on Tuesday its midpoint sales volume guidance for full-2016 by 2 million barrels of oil equivalent (mmboe), on the back of higher sales from the Gulf of Mexico, Delaware and DJ basins. In March, the group had set its initial 2016 sales volume expectations, adjusted for divestitures, at 282 million to 286 MMBOE.

In a bid to further curb costs, at the beginning of the year Anadarko slashed quarterly dividend to US$0.05 per share from US$0.27 per share.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
The Democratic National Convention has focused on an argument that goes something like this: Our children are watching and listening, and what are they learning from Donald Trump?

Answer: Not good things, and I agree with them on that. Theres no question that Trump is crass and has made racist comments that are completely unacceptable, such as by raising the heritage of the judge in the Trump University case. Hes certainly not been a paragon of virtue, either  stating it mildly.

However, this is the week of the Democratic National Convention, and I couldnt help but think: What have our children learned from Bill Clinton? That oral sex isnt really sex? Is he really the right person to showcase on a night about mothers?

Look, I get it. Hillary Clinton is running for president, and Bill Clinton isnt. Yet, it was just cringe inducing to listen to Bill discussing their relationship through rose-colored glasses. And there is also a very disturbing pattern when it comes to how Bill Clinton treats women. The fact that Hillary, minimally, ignores this and has even been accused of participating in the cover up, is disturbing.

I am not talking about the consensual stuff, nor do I particularly care about Gennifer Flowers or whichever other woman has pranced in and out of his life. Im not going to get on that soap box; we are all capable of falling, to be sure. Every persons marriage is a mystery to those outside of it (and perhaps even to those in it). Its really only Hillarys business when it comes to the consensual stuff.

What I am referring to here, though, are the allegations of non-consensual stuff and the proven case of an abuse of power.

Lets start with Monica Lewinsky. Yes, her relationship with Clinton was consensual. However, he was her boss. She was 22-year-old, and he was the much older guy in power  the Leader of the Free World. Yet, the feminist left trashed her and let him off the hook. Clinton took advantage of a very young intern and, worse, he showed a disturbing lack of empathy when he discarded her publicly to save his own skin.

He has shown a disturbing lack of empathy over how the scandal has continued to follow her and affect her life too. She is now a cyber-bullying advocate and for good reason. She has never married nor had children; she has said she finds it hard to get a conventional job, and she has been unable to completely shake off the shadow of scandal.

He doesnt seem to care, yet he was the guy in charge. It is an abuse of power for an older boss to have a relationship with  or, in this case, use  a much younger intern in his or her employ. Yet, Hillary doesnt seem to care, either.

Then theres the well-known Paula Jones sexual harassment case, the accusations of Kathleen Willey, and, most disturbingly, the allegations by a woman named Juanita Broaddrick. Broaddrick came public with them in the late 1990s. She recently tweeted, "I was 35 years old when Bill Clinton, Ark. Attorney General raped me and Hillary tried to silence me. I am now 72 and it never goes away."

Wrote National Review, "Broaddricks stands out. It remains not only the most credible accusation against Clinton and the most serious. It is also the one about which the Clintons have said the least."

There are issues with Broaddricks story  namely she said under oath that the attack did not happen. However, after being given immunity by Ken Starr during the Jones case, she then recanted that statement and claimed that Clinton had raped her in a Little Rock hotel years before. She claims the rape was violent, and Clinton bit her lip and then made a blase comment about it before he walked out.

This is not just a case of he said-she said. Its been widely reported that Broaddrick told several friends contemporaneously that Clinton had attacked her, and two of them saw her injured lip. One saw her right after the alleged rape. Wrote National Review: "Juanita Broaddricks claim was supported by not one but five witnesses and a host of circumstantial (though no physical) evidence. Broaddricks colleague Norma Rogers  says she found Broaddrick in her hotel room crying and in a state of shock on the morning of the alleged assault, her pantyhose torn and her lip swollen.

According to Rogers, Broaddrick told her that Bill Clinton had forced himself on her." Although Clinton commuted the sentence of the murderer of Rogers father, she was not the only person in whom Broaddrick contemporaneously confided, said National Review.

Broaddrick didnt seek fame or money; she avoided reporters inquiries for years. She also claims that Hillary Clinton made comments to her that implied she should stay silent. True, she didnt come forward for years, either. And, yes, people are innocent until proven guilty in America. Including Bill Clinton.

However, there is a pattern. There is a troubling pattern of Bill Clinton abusing women or being accused of abusing women. I dont understand, as a result, why a party trying to convince us that Republicans are warring against women props him up as someone to laud and respect. For destroying the life of a young intern alone  the incident he lied about and then admitted  I have no respect for him. Rand Paul was correct when, several years ago, he said this was an abuse of power. Thats what the issue was about, not the extramarital relationship (again, thats between him and Hillary). It was about the abuse of power. Or should have been, including back then.

The Clintons have said almost nothing about Broaddrick, by the way. Bill Clintons attorney has denied the allegations, but both Clintons have been very circumspect about what they personally say. This is troubling. Bill Clinton should be asked to respond directly to the allegations, as should Hillary, who opened the door when she tweeted that "Every survivor of sexual assault deserves to be heard, believed, and supported."

Bill Clinton is Bill Clinton, I guess (although do we really want to relive his exhausting scandals?). I know he has his strengths as well as his weaknesses. And on the Republican side, you have a guy, Trump, who calls women dogs and rates them. Yes, this election is a nightmare. However, when it comes to Bill Clinton, spare me the adulation.
Reprinted from Smirking Chimp

The prospects for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) are not looking very good right now. Both parties' presidential candidates have come out against the deal. Donald Trump has placed it at the top of his list of bad trade deals that he wants to stop or reverse. Hillary Clinton had been a supporter as Secretary of State, but has since joined the opposition in response to overwhelming pressure from the Democratic base.

As a concession to President Obama, the Democratic platform does not explicitly oppose the TPP. However it does include unambiguous language opposing investor-state dispute settlement mechanisms -- the extra-judicial tribunals that are an integral part of the TPP.

If the political prospects look bleak there also is not much that can be said for the economic merits of the pact. The classic story of gaining from free trade by removing trade barriers doesn't really apply to the TPP primarily because we have already removed most of the barriers between the countries in the pact.

The United States has trade deals in place with six of the 11 countries in the TPP, so tariffs with these countries are already at or very near zero. Even with the other five countries, in most cases the formal trade barriers are already low, so pushing them to zero will not have much economic impact.

In its analysis of the TPP, the non-partisan United States International Trade Commission (ITC) projected that the gains from the deal in 2032, when its effects will be mostly realized, will be 0.23 percent of GDP. This is a bit more than a typical month's growth. In other words, the ITC report implies that as a result of the TPP we can expect to be as wealthy on January 1, 2032 as we would be on February 10, 2032 without the TPP. That's not the sort of thing that would ordinarily be a cause for big celebration.

And the ITC model is explicitly a full employment model. It rules out the possibility that the TPP could lead to a higher unemployment rate as a result of increased imports displacing U.S. workers. The ITC analysis also failed to include the negative growth effects of stronger and longer copyright and patent protection.

Both of these are forms of protection which translate into higher prices for drugs, software, and other protected products. The losses from this increased protectionism can easily exceed the projected gains from the tariff reductions in the TPP.

The stronger patent and copyright protection are really at the core of the TPP. This is a deal that was crafted by and for the pharmaceutical industry, the software industry, the finance industry, the telecommunications industry, and other major industry groups. We essentially asked the major firms in these sectors to tell us what they wanted in a trade deal and then the Obama administration tried to get it for them.

That doesn't make the TPP look like a good trade pact to most people, which is why it faces such bleak political prospects. But there is a lot of money riding on the TPP, so the Obama administration is not about to let it die a quiet death.

On the one hand President Obama has made numerous appeals to Democrats in Congress not to embarrass him by blocking his deal. As a president who is enormously popular among Democrats, this appeal carries some weight.

The President is also pulling out the China card, arguing that the TPP is necessary to create a trading block as a counterweight to Chinese power. Furthermore, Obama is arguing that not approving the TPP will damage our credibility with countries in the region.

It is difficult to hear this argument and not think back to the Vietnam War. The original argument for the war was to protect the right of the people of South Vietnam to determine their own destiny. At some point it became apparent to everyone that the South Vietnamese government was hopelessly corrupt and had almost no support from the population.

When it was no longer possible to argue based on democracy and self-determination, the Johnson administration argued based on credibility. They tried to make the case that if we allowed the South Vietnamese government to collapse, it would be devastating to our credibility in the region and the world. This argument was used to justify a war that cost the lives of tens of thousands of U.S. soldiers and millions of people in Vietnam and neighboring countries. In the end of course, we left and the South Vietnamese government collapsed.

The Obama administration is now making its own credibility case about the TPP. If President Obama can't sell the TPP based on its economic merits, then it would be best to let it quietly die. "Credibility" is an ill-defined goal, and the quest for it can have very bad outcomes, as we saw in Vietnam. It's hard to see how we gain credibility by pushing a bad trade deal that was designed to serve the interests of our largest corporations. If we want a new trade deal with these and other countries, it would be better to go back to the drawing board and start from scratch.
Reprinted from Consortium News

True concern about the plight of America's poor and disenfranchised has been low on the priority lists of both the Republican and Democratic parties for many years, a challenge that Cheri Honkala, a long-time warrior for the poor and disenfranchised, has taken to the two conventions in Cleveland and Philadelphia.

As National Coordinator of the Poor Peoples' Economic Human Rights Campaign and the founder of the Kensington Welfare Rights Union, Honkala participated a Poor People's March through the streets of Cleveland at the Republican National Convention and, from her home base in Philadelphia, sought to bring the same issues to the Democratic National Convention.

I caught up with her in Cleveland on July 22 as she was poised to march through heavily guarded streets at the Republican convention "to send a strong message that we are against the racists and inhumane policies of the Republican National Committee, and are outraged at the idea of having Trump or Hillary for president in this country."

Dennis Bernstein: What kind of a president do you think Trump would make? How do you think he would impact on the poor?

Cheri Honkala: Well, ["] in all seriousness, if Trump becomes our president, we have to begin to get serious about organizing soldiers across this country to organize the New American Spring. Because we are currently not surviving in this country. And if either Trump or Hillary are elected, we're in big trouble.

And, so, we are out here on the streets. We are not going to be afraid of the police. We're not going to be afraid of, you know, people telling us that we have to choose one person of the lesser evil. We're going to go forward and lift our voices, and envision a different kind of world. We're going to make that new world.

DB: You're about to lead this march...in Cleveland. Could you talk about what are some of the multiple struggles that poor people face, that you represent? What are the kinds of everyday struggles we're talking about now?

CH: Well, a big thing that we're dealing with now is the nonprofit industrial complex, where many mega-organizations are getting multi-million dollar budgets and still can't find ways to house poor people in this country. And it's a question of greed.

And we need so many things. Healthcare -- we need single payer healthcare in this country. Most everybody I know, they are missing all of their back teeth because they had them pulled because they can't afford the dentist. Our children can't afford glasses. Adults are also going without glasses. I know somebody who had potential bladder cancer and the public health clinic didn't pay for that.

Most everybody I know in Kensington [neighborhood in Philadelphia], especially single males, are living on less than two dollars a day, but sometimes go weeks without a dollar. So, there's just no way to give justice, to describe what people are having to live with.

Not to mention that both of these major parties have allocated millions of dollars to add to the police state. And we continue to see young black lives shot down around this country, and we cannot sit by just as spectators and watch these things.

I'm very hopeful because I know that, as a mom, mothers out there, they love their kids. And they're not going to settle for a lower standard of living. It's inhumane and non-Christian. We're going to rise from the ashes and we're going to change this thing around.

DB: Could you talk a little bit about the way in which things seem to be progressing against the poor? Many people who have been dealing with the authorities, in recent years, around poor and homelessness find there's a move to really criminalize the poor, in a formal way. Could you tell us about that?

CH: In the 80's, you know, there was actually like a little bit of consciousness, [it was] kinda trendy. But now, if you're a poor person and you're homeless and you're on the corner and you put up a sign, you're pretty much going to get a brick thrown at your head. They institutionalized the institution under the other Clinton, Bill Clinton, they ended welfare as you know it. And like in my neighborhood, the number one source of income used to be welfare, and now the number one source of income is drugs. And so if peoples' lives are not exploitable, they're expendable.

And this is not the kind of world that I want for my children. And I say world, because I also care what's happening to the poor around the entire world. It's not okay for us to just focus and think about and focus on the poor here in this country. Whoever becomes president in our country is going to have impact on poor folks throughout the world. And, I'm tired, I'm tired of having a Democrat or a Republican continue to bomb and kill people around the world. I think it's time that we nurture and we give birth to an independent political party in this country.

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TravelTriangle, an aggregator of travel agents, has a timeline mapping its growth on its website. The story begins in 2012, rather typically: "Three IITians who were good old friends quit their swanky corporate jobs to make their hands dirty." And they began from an office "which was nothing more than a small room with bare minimum frills".

The story gets stronger in the third year when its top line crossed $3.5 million; Saif Partners invested $2 million. And in 2015, Bessemer Venture Partners, along with Saif, pumped in $8 million more. The start-up, by now, had served "over two lakh" travellers. In May 2016, the company did something atypical: it rented a boardroom in a five star hotel in Delhi to tell journalists that it was contribution-margin-net-of-marketing (CMNM) positive in five markets. CMNM underscores profitability at a unit level or of individual products and is calculated by subtracting variable costs from a product's price. More on this later.

It is unusual for a start-up in the consumer Internet business - TravelTriangle matches travel suppliers with customers through its website and app - to talk profitability, but then fancy metrics and customer acquisition at any cost went out of fashion end of last year as easy money dried up. This start-up's business model, nevertheless, showed promise very early on.

"The first thing that attracted us was that holidays is a higher-margin category compared to air tickets," Mayank Khanduja, Principal at Saif, says, explaining why he invested in TravelTriangle. "Then, 80-85 per cent of the market is serviced by individual agents. It is opaque, not clear for a traveller if he is getting the best deal or the best holiday experience. TravelTriangle was bringing all these fragmented agents together. In any market where you have a fragmented supply base and a fragmented consumer base, there is a huge value that a platform in between can create." Khanduja says the company has "grown in large multiples" since he invested. "They have also proven that if you become a big player in one geography, your ability to make money and improve margins goes up. There is better unit economics you can drive," he adds.

TravelTriangle today has more than 600 suppliers with an annualised GMV of about Rs 204 crore. Its average transaction size is Rs 80,400. The large transaction size is mostly because Indians are becoming more mature as travellers with more disposable incomes. According to a report by World Travel and Tourism Council, the direct contribution of travel and tourism to India's GDP was Rs 2,66,830 crore (2 per cent of total GDP) in 2015 - poised to rise by 7.1 per cent in 2016. Leisure travel spending generated 83.2 per cent of direct travel and tourism GDP in 2015. It is expected to grow 5.9 per cent in 2016.

Travel Triangle's Co-founder and CEO, Sankalp Agarwal, says he realised early on that holiday packages were both a commodity and a service. "It is costlier than a refrigerator and cheaper than a car. When they buy these, they meet multiple people. That is the problem we solved," he says. So, instead of hunting for travel agents on his own, a traveller can now rely on the company's algorithms. Once he specifies his requirements such as the destination, budget and dates, TravelTriangle reverts with a curated list of three agents with their quotes. This process can take between four to 24 hours, depending on how busy suppliers are. There's a logic to how suppliers are curated; Agarwal, though, didn't want to discuss it. "We give customers very good price discovery, capability to negotiate, and customise trips," he says. The start-up also offers a 'money safe guarantee'. "Whatever the supplier has promised, is ensured. The supplier, for instance, will compensate the consumer if the hotel promised doesn't turn out to be the same," the CEO assures.

"On MakeMyTrip, booking a flight or a hotel could be cheaper, but when you book packages, they turn out to be expensive. Travel Triangle is 5-10 per cent cheaper"

TravelTriangle's revenue model is simple - it is a percentage of the holiday booked, and can go up to 10 per cent in some geographies. It also supplies a customer relationship management solution to its suppliers. There's no fee for that yet. Meanwhile, efficient cash management has ensured a CMNM-positive stage for the company in its key geographies of Sri Lanka, Kashmir, Sikkim, Darjeeling and Himachal Pradesh. "We are a cash efficient company. Since we are not a fulfilment company (the supplier fulfils), we don't have fulfilment costs. We just have marketing costs," explains Agarwal. "Secondly, a lot of payments come to us first before getting disbursed to suppliers. We have built in the network effect, which keeps suppliers onto the platform. All of these things enable our business to grow at very low burn rates."

Will the start-up be able to maintain low burn rates with growing competition in the marketplace model? Today, a holidayer can go to a large offline agent like Cox & Kings; he can also go to an online player like MakeMyTrip. The latter, in fact, wants to ramp up its holiday package business. "Our hotels and packages business generally yields higher net revenue margins than our air ticketing business, and we intend to continue shifting our business mix towards this segment," MakeMyTrip states in its annual report.

According to a few travel agents Business Today spoke to, TravelTriangle appears to have an edge over the competition right now. Ajay Kumar runs TravelX365, a Delhi-based travel agency focused on holiday packages in the North-East. He says that during the "on-season", TravelTriangle provides up to 500 leads a month with a 10 per cent conversion rate on average. He doesn't pay for leads - the company only charges commission on the package sold.

"Most of the consumers are middle class. They require cheaper packages. On MakeMyTrip, booking a flight or a hotel could be cheaper, but when you book packages, they turn out to be expensive. TravelTriangle is 5-10 per cent cheaper in 70 per cent of the packages," he observes.

TravelTriangle must continue to find the right suppliers, train them, offer travellers more value on convenience, price and customised itinerary to win, going forward. Keep watching the timeline on its website.






This refers to your cover story on start-ups (The New Cool, July 31). The Coolest Start-ups package has revealed that the non-metro consumers, SaaS, fintech, healthtech, and edtech sectors will be most in demand in 2016. The phenomenal growth of start-ups - by 270 per cent over the past six years - will definitely generate more employment in the years to come. It is quite interesting to see even the high net worth individuals entering the arena with big investments lined up. The five-year-old startups (like Hike Messenger, OYO Rooms and Urban Ladder), and three-year-old start-ups (like Tracxn, CleverTap, Droom, and CloudCherry) have won numerous accolades for their excellent performance, even during India's economic slowdown. - Biswaranjan Mishra, Gurgaon

Boosting Job Prospects

This refers to your feature on retail (Shop Till You Drop, July 31). The Centre has drafted a new model law that allows movie halls, restaurants, malls, and shops to operate round the clock, which will boost employment generation. To achieve the goal of a healthy India and generating more employment, there should be strict rules for the number of hours a person can work in a day, say no more than six-eight hours. Also, the employers should be penalised for violating these rules, and licences to run their commercial establishment should be cancelled. - Mahesh Kapasi, New Delhi



Rajan's Strategies

This refers to your article on Raghuram Rajan (The Unfinished Agenda, July 17). He excelled as the Reserve Bank of India Governor. Indeed, Rajan has become a household name in India. He vigorously pursued reforms at the central bank. Several steps taken by him have made the Indian economy healthier and stronger. His timely interventions have insulated India from the economic slowdown in the rest of the globe. It was his initiatives that revealed the skeletons in the cupboards of public sector banks in the form of non-performing assets (NPAs). Banks are now working at cleaning up their balance sheets after prodding by the RBI. His detractors have targeted Rajan without any constructive suggestions. It's difficult to find fault with most of Rajan's policies. Most of his critics are desperate to sully his image. No doubt, India has a track record of humiliating qualified and competent professionals. This was obvious in the way we treated Sam Pitroda earlier, and Rajan now, to cite a few examples. Rajan deserves encomiums for his stupendous service to India, and his truncated tenure will leave the government with the tough task of finding somebody who can fill his big shoes. - B. Rajasekaran, Bangalore

Impact of Delayed Payments

This refers to your feature on financial stress due to delayed payments (Payment Blues, July 17). It shows a realistic situation in dealing with the government. A staggering Rs 80,000 crore is retained with the government, without any liability of interest costs to the exchequer. Infrastructure industries and services companies bear the brunt, but government should take steps to improve this sorry state of affairs. It's also important to ensure that the government does not lose its credibility, and economic activity in the country does not take a hit. - Pattapurathi Pattapu, through e-mail

The Shadow of Brexit

This refers to your article on Britain's exit from European Union (Minimal Impact, July 17). It's a nice piece and takes a look at the big picture. Educated people don't want to leave the EU; older and poor people opt to leave; and the richer class wishes to remain with the EU. Now it is a fact that no country can progress economically in isolation. Whether the British would lose or benefit after leaving the EU is another matter. We will get to know soon. - M. Kumar, New Delhi
Hillary Clinton became first women to win presidential nomination

PHILADELPHIA: Hillary Clinton became the first woman in history to win the White House nomination of a major US political party Tuesday, securing the backing of Democrats at a convention in Philadelphia.



The former first lady, senator and secretary of state took a monumental step on her quest to become America's first female president, by besting party challenger Bernie Sanders.



After a tumultuous convention opening which saw Sanders and Clinton supporters trade jeers and chants, cheers erupted as Clinton passed the 2,382-delegate threshold needed for the nomination, setting up a showdown with Republican Donald Trump in November.



History, said a post on her Twitter account.



A handful of diehard Sanders delegates expressed frustration with their candidate's defeat, but they were drowned out by ecstatic Clinton supporters.



After his delegates had been counted, Sanders took the floor and, in a bid to unify the party, called for a vote by acclamation.



I move that Hillary Clinton be selected as the nominee of the Democratic Party for president of the United States, he said to deafening cheers and finally a chorus of ayes. Delegates thrust placards in the air, forming a mosaic of H's that coated the stadium floor.



It's historic, I haven't taken it all in yet, an emotional Senator Tammy Baldwin told AFP.



Clinton's nomination was formally put forward by Senator Barbara Mikulski of Maryland, the longest serving woman in the history of the US Congress. Civil rights icon John Lewis, a congressman from Georgia, seconded the nomination.



The Clinton camp is now looking to unite the party's factions.



Monday saw disruptive protests and a rancorous fight over leaked emails that showed party bias against Sanders. Frustration boiled over as his delegates jeered speakers who mentioned Clinton.



Vice President Joe Biden, who will address the convention Wednesday along with President Barack Obama, dismissed concerns the party was not uniting behind Clinton.



We've got to show a little class and let them be frustrated for a while. It's OK, he said of Sanders supporters as he toured the convention arena Tuesday.



Sanders meanwhile called on his supporters to get behind Clinton.



In my view, it's easy, it's easy to boo, but it is harder to look your kids in the face who would be living under a Donald Trump presidency, he said.



Trump took the usual shots at Clinton during a speech to the Veterans of Foreign Wars in Charlotte, North Carolina, calling her Crooked Hillary and charging that her use of a private email account as secretary of state put America's entire national security at risk.



A Clinton campaign official said Tuesday's convention events aim to draw a sharp contrast with Trump. The line-up of speakers will talk about her life-long fights to make a difference.



Chief among them will be former president Bill Clinton, who will take the stage during primetime to hail his wife as a change-maker, the official said.



But Clinton and the others, including mothers who have lost children to gun violence or in clashes with police, will also have the unstated mission of mending fences with Sanders' army of vocal young activists.



Michelle Obama appeared to soothe some of the Sanders zealots Monday night, as she delivered a heartfelt endorsement from one first lady to another and hailed the inspirational prospect of a first female US president.



In this election, I'm with her, Obama said. She also praised how Clinton handled her defeat to Barack Obama in the Democratic primaries eight years ago.



She didn't get angry or disillusioned. Hillary did not pack up and go home, she said. As a true public servant, Hillary knows that this is so much bigger than her own desires and disappointments. - From 'political revolution' to revolt -



Bill Clinton's highly anticipated address could jump-start the party healing process. The 69-year-old Democratic icon and two-term president remains a powerful force on the national stage, although he is more gaunt and his energy is no longer boundless as it appeared four years ago.



At the 2012 Democratic convention, he delivered closing arguments for why Barack Obama should be re-elected, a voice of experience explaining Obama's policies in clear, cogent detail and why he felt Republican policies were failing.
Two military personnel gunned down in Karachi

KARACHI: Two military personnel were gunned down by four assailants riding motorcycles near Parking Plaza in the Cantonment area of the Sindh capital, police said on Tuesday.



The Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) claimed responsibility for the attack in an email to the media.



The military personnel were travelling in a jeep when they came under attack. They were rushed to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical College (JPMC) in a critical condition where Dr Seemi Jamali, director of the emergency department, confirmed their death.



According to the police, the deceased military personnel were identified as Lance Naik Abdul Razzaq and Havildar Khadim Hussain.



The assailants managed to flee taking advantage of the narrow lanes of the locality where the incident took place, senior police officer Raja Umar Khattab told the media. He said said the attackers approached the vehicle from the rear and attacked the personnel from the left side of the vehicle.



After the incident, security officials cordoned off the area. Forensic experts reached the scene and collected evidence for investigation.



Police officials said that 9mm pistol was used in the attack and they were investigating whether the weapon was used in a previous attack or not.



New M A Jinnah Road, where the incident took place, is a major artery of the metropolis and usually remains crowded at daytime. In December last year, two Military Police officials were killed when their vehicle came under a gun attack in the Cantonment area.



Our forensic experts are looking for fingerprints, empty bullet shells, closed-circuit television footage or any other clues, and we will inform the media as soon as there are any updates, a police official said.



Dr Kaleem Shaikh of the JPMC said that both men were shot in the head and face.



Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif condemned the terrorist attack on the military personnel in Karachi and vowed not to let terrorists derail the operation, which is being carried out to cleanse the city of such elements.



The prime minister directed the Ministry of Interior and the government of Sindh to hunt down the perpetrators. We will not allow the terrorists to derail the ongoing operation for restoration of peace in Karachi, the prime minister said in a statement released by his media office. He prayed for eternal peace to the departed souls and courage to the bereaved families.



President Mamnoon Hussain also condemned the terrorist attack on the military personnel and said the attackers would be brought to justice. The sacrifices of the martyred personnel would not go waste, a press release issued by the Presidency cited him as saying. The president said the operation against terrorists would continue in Karachi and other parts of the country till complete elimination of terrorists. He sympathised with the bereaved families and prayed for the departed souls.



Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah took notice of the attack and ordered investigation into the incident. Sindh Governor Dr Ishrat-ul-Ebad Khan condemned the attack and said that terrorists were trying to sabotage the peace of Karachi.



Later, funeral prayers for the late military personnel, Razzaq and Hussain, were offered on Tuesday night. Besides relatives and friends of the martyrs, Karachi Corps Commander Lt-Gen Naveed Mukhtar, Rangers Director General Maj-Gen Bilal Akbar, Sindh Home Minister Sohail Anwar Siyal, Sindh Police Inspector General A.D. Khowaja, Additional Inspector General of Sindh Police Mushtaq Mehar and senior officials of the Pakistan Army, Navy, Rangers and Sindh Police attended the funeral prayers.



On the occasion, the martyrs were given gun salutes and rose petals were showered on them. Later, their bodies were sent to their home towns in Dadu and Naushehro Feroze.
Earlier this year, France passed a labor reform law that banned checking emails on weekends. New researchto be presented next week at the annual meeting of the Academy of Managementsuggests other countries might do well to follow suit, for the sake of employee health and productivity.

A new studyauthored by Liuba Belkin of Lehigh University, William Becker of Virginia Tech and Samantha A. Conroy of Colorado State Universityfinds a link between organizational after-hours email expectations and emotional exhaustion, which hinders work-family balance. The results suggest that modern workplace technologies may be hurting the very employees that those technologies were designed to help.

Using data collected from 365 working adults, Belkin and her colleagues look at the role of organizational expectation regarding "off" hour emailing and find it negatively impacts employee emotional states, leading to "burnout" and diminished work-family balance, which is essential for individual health and well-being. The studydescribed in an article entitled "Exhausted, but unable to disconnect: the impact of email-related organizational expectations on work-family balance"is the first to identify email-related expectations as a job stressor along with already established factors such as high workload, interpersonal conflicts, physical environment or time pressure.

Previous research has shown that in order to restore resources used during the day at work, employees must be able to detach both mentally and physically from work.

"Email is notoriously known to be the impediment of the recovery process. Its accessibility contributes to experience of work overload since it allows employees to engage in work as if they never left the workspace, and at the same time, inhibits their ability to psychologically detach from work-related issues via continuous connectivity," write the authors.

Interestingly, they found that it is not the amount of time spent on work emails, but the expectation which drives the resulting sense of exhaustion. Due to anticipatory stressdefined as a constant state of anxiety and uncertainty as a result of perceived or anticipated threats, according to research cited in the articleemployees are unable to detach and feel exhausted regardless of the time spent on after-hours emails.

"This suggests that organizational expectations can steal employee resources even when actual time is not required because employees cannot fully separate from work," state the authors.

According to the study, the expectation does not have to be explicit or conveyed through a formal organizational policy. It can be set by normative standards for behavior in the organization. The organizational culture is created through what its leaders and members define as acceptable or unacceptable behavior.

"Thus, if an organization perpetuates the 'always on' culture it may prevent employees from fully disengaging from work eventually leading to chronic stress," says Belkin, associate professor of management at Lehigh's College of Business and Economics and coauthor of the study.

Organizational expectations

The authors looked at data collected from surveys of 385 participants from a wide variety of industries and organizations. The surveys were designed to measure organizational expectations, time spent on email outside of work, psychological detachment from work during off-work hours, level of emotional exhaustion and perceptions of work-family balance, among other factors. The largest industry groups represented were finance & banking (15%), technology (11%), and healthcare (8%).

In addition to the correlation between organizational expectations to monitor work email after-hours and emotional exhaustion as a result of the inability to "turn off," the researchers also found that people who prefer a strict separation of their work and family time have an even more difficult time detaching from work than those who are OK with blending work and home time.

"The anticipatory stress caused by organizational email-related norms is more dangerous for people who prefer highly segmented schedules," says Belkin.

The authors believe that this may be because people with less rigid separation between work and family time have "...an easier time disconnecting since their personal preferences do not conflict with organizational expectations." Belkin and her coauthors believe that a high-pressure environment may eventually lead to emotional exhaustion for "low segmenters" as well.

Balance matters

The authors cite previous research correlating the absence of work-family balance to a number of detrimental outcomes - for both the individual and his or her employer:

From the study: "Satisfaction with the balance between work and family domains is important for individual health and well-being, while individual inability to successfully balance roles in those domains can lead to anxiety and depression, lowered satisfaction with both work and family roles, absenteeism, decreased job productivity and organizational commitment and greater turnover."

"As prior research has shown, if people cannot disconnect from work and recuperate, it leads to burnout, higher turnover, more deviant behavior, lower productivity, and other undesirable outcomes," said Belkin.

What managers can do

The results of the study provide insights into what managers can do to mitigate employee chronic stress and emotional exhaustion caused by organizational expectations related to email.

"We believe our findings have implications for organizations, as even though in the short run being "always on" may seem like a good idea because it increases productivity, it can be dangerous in the long-run," said Belkin.

The authors suggest that if completely banning email after work is not an option, managers could implement weekly "email free days." Another idea is to offer rotating after-hours email schedules to help employees manage their work and family time more efficiently.

The authors write: "By making descriptive and injunctive norms that emphasize balance between work and non-work domains salient, organizations should potentially decrease the email-related stress."

The benefits may go beyond employee well-being.

From the study: "Such policies may not only reduce employee pressure to reply to emails after-hours and relieve the exhaustion from stress, but will also serve as a signal of organizational caring and support, potentially increasing trust in management, work identification, job commitment and extra-role behaviors."

The authors suggest that future research on the impact of communication media on employee behavior and well-being include how organizational expectations may be contributing to the outcomes.

Explore further Workplace flexibility benefits employees, study says
Quinoa crop. Credit: Essence Photography

The challenge posed by removing a chemical compound from their 'superfood' crop to create a market for WA quinoa led three innovative farmers to build Australia's largest quinoa processing plant in the state's south-west.

Highbury farmer Ashley Wiese, Dumbleyung farmer Megan Gooding and Narrogin agronomist Garren Knell began trialling quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa) in 2009 to diversify into a more profitable cereal.

C. quinoa originated in the Andean mountains and has been cultivated for thousands of years.

The grain's popularity surged between 2006 and 2013 after being touted for its nutritional value, with prices tripling and the United Nations General Assembly declaring 2013 International Year of Quinoa.

However, Mr Wiese says it's an extremely difficult crop to grow.

"Quinoa is very set in its wayyou have to give it what it wants or it will give you nothing," he says.

While Narrogin's winter is similar to an Andean summer in temperature and rainfall, quinoa won't set seed under hot conditions.

On the upside, quinoa is drought and frost resistant and has developed a chemical defence mechanism called saponin.

Saponin is a bitter coating that acts as a natural insect and bird repellent.

It's a soap-like substance and specific washing and drying processes are required to make the grain edible.

Three Farmers Ashley Wiese, Megan Gooding and Garren Knell. Credit: Essence Photography

Narrogin's low-lying altitude means the golden quinoa variety has high saponin levels, to protect the grain against more birds and insects than found at elevated altitudes.

The trio chose to build mainland Australia's first quinoa processing plantTasmania has a smaller facilityinstead of shipping their crop offshore.

The $1.5 million facility in Highbury, 15km south of Narrogin, began operations in January.

Mr Wiese says it's been a steep learning curve but rewarding.

"There's been a lot of trial and error in developing our own machines to remove the saponin without damaging the grain," he says.

Their system involves softening the saponin through scarification, removing about 70 per cent in a dry dust form, then washing, rinsing and drying the seed.

They currently process 400 tonnes of quinoa a year but have the capacity to expand tenfold.

Processed golden quinoa grain. Credit: Essence Photography

Their grower network of 16 farmers between Kununurra and Esperance has ramped up plantings from 200 hectares three years ago to 1700ha this year to meet growing demand.

Three Farmers' first quinoa hit supermarket shelves in April.

Since then, Coles has replaced imported quinoa with the WA product, which Mr Wiese says is very encouraging for the future of the emerging Australian crop.

Explore further Quinoa may be safe grain for people with celiac disease

This article first appeared on ScienceNetwork Western Australia a science news website based at Scitech.
Credit: Ruhr-Universitaet-Bochum

With the aid of platinum catalysts, it is possible to efficiently produce hydrogen. However, this metal is rare and expensive. Researchers have discovered an alternative that is just as good, but less costly.

The mineral pentlandite is a potential new catalyst for hydrogen production. As described in the journal Nature Communications, it works just as efficient as the platinum electrodes commonly used today. In contrast to platinum, pentlandite is affordable and found frequently on Earth.

A team headed by Dr. Ulf-Peter Apfel and Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Schuhmann of the Ruhr-Universitat Bochum describes the results together with colleagues from the Max-Planck-Institute for Coal Research in Mulheim an der Ruhr and the Technical University of Bratislava.

Producing hydrogen without precious metals

In addition to platinum, there are numerous other substances that can catalyse the reaction of water to hydrogen and oxygen and do not contain any precious metals. Among such compounds are the so-called metal chalcogenides. Usually, however, these non-metallic materials are distinctly poorer conductors of electrons and are thus inefficient catalysts.

Pentlandite consists of iron, nickel, and sulfur. Its structure is similar to the active center of hydrogenases, which are hydrogen-producing enzymes, as found, for example, in green algae. In the current study, the researchers compared the hydrogen production rate of naturally obtained and artificially produced pentlandite with platinum and other non-metallic catalysts.

Mineral pentlandite just as good as platinum

Artificial pentlandite and platinum prove to be equally good catalysts, with a performance that surpasses that of all the other materials tested. The mineral synthesized in the lab produced hydrogen much more efficiently than the naturally found variant. The reason: Inclusions of magnesium and silicon in natural pentlandite reduce its conductivity. The scientists called the output of artificial pentlandite "surprisingly high," and the rate of synthesis also remained stable for a long time.

The mineral has another advantage compared to other non-precious-metal materials. It has a greater active surface area to which the reacting substances can dock. In other non-precious-metal materials, this surface has to be created using complex methods by applying the catalyst to an electrode in the form of nanoparticles.

Explore further Hydrogen synthesiswhen enzymes assemble themselves in the test tube

More information: Bharathi Konkena et al. Pentlandite rocks as sustainable and stable efficient electrocatalysts for hydrogen generation, Nature Communications (2016). Journal information: Nature Communications Bharathi Konkena et al. Pentlandite rocks as sustainable and stable efficient electrocatalysts for hydrogen generation,(2016). DOI: 10.1038/NCOMMS12269
Credit: China Manned Space Agency (CMSA)

Last month, China signed an agreement with the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) to open the country's future space station for science experiments and astronauts from U.N. member states. According to a spokesperson from the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA), this cooperation heralds better accessibility to space for developing countries.

"The agreement will provide exciting opportunities to further build the space capacity of developing countries and increase awareness of the benefits human space technology can bring to humankind, and thus to promote the achievement of the sustainable development goals," Aimin Niu, CMSA spokesperson, told Astrowatch.net.

In particular, this agreement means that UNOOSA and CMSA will work together to give U.N. member states an opportunity to conduct space experiments onboard China's future space station, as well as to provide flight opportunities for astronauts and payload engineers.

"China is willing to provide training services for foreign astronauts. Funding support to their flight missions will be negotiated among and shared by partners," Niu said.

The station, named Tiangong 3 (meaning "Heavenly Palace 3" in Chinese), is currently under development and is expected to be operational around 2022. It will consist of a core module and two experimental modules, and can be expanded further. The modules are scheduled to be sent to space in the 20202022 time frame.

Tiangong 3 is will be visited by crewed Shenzhou vehicles as well as Tianzhou cargo vessels. It will be capable of accommodating three full-time astronauts and up to six during rotation periods. The station will also house the country's future Xuntian space telescope.

"Featuring advanced technology and multi-purposed onboard facilities, the station could provide opportunities for U.N. member states to conduct microgravity experiments on physics, biology, and life science as well as Earth observation," Niu said.

Both sides also agreed to promote international cooperation in human space flight and other space activities.

According to Niu, the implementation of the agreement will provide opportunities to build capabilities in developing countries under the framework of UNOOSA's Human Space Technology Initiative (HSTI), and in line with both the thematic priority of UNISPACE+50 on "Capacity-building for the 21st Century" and the High Level Forum pillar on "Space Accessibility."

The CMSA-UNOOSA agreement also opens doors to further multinational cooperation on space activities. The China Manned Space Agency hopes for broadened collaboration with other countries and international organizations under the framework of the agreement, on the principle of peaceful uses of outer space, equality and mutual benefit, and joint development.

"We believe that the implementation of the agreements will definitely promote international cooperation on space exploration, and create opportunities for United Nations member states, particularly developing countries, to take part in, and benefit from, the utilization of China's space station," CMSA Deputy Director General Wu Ping, said in June.

Explore further China on schedule for launch this year of 2nd space station
A*STARs Urban Systems Initiative is set to design the tools necessary to transform Singapore into a truly Smart Nation. Credit: Pat Law Photography/Moment/Getty

We live in a sea of information. Every day, 2.5 billion gigabytes of data are produced by our smartphones, sensors and satellites, among other sources. Much of this data is useless, but what if the disparate bits of meaningful data incidentally produced during the day-to-day operations of a city could be brought together and analyzed as an integrated whole to make the lives of urban dwellers flow more smoothly?

Singapore's Smart Nation initiative aims to have the separate elements of a city working in unison to improve the lives of its citizens. A big part of the challenge is designing systems that are capable of handling huge amounts of data in vastly different, often unstructured, forms and assembling it to extract usable information on everything from traffic congestion to land usage. The A*STAR Urban Systems Initiative (USI) is perfecting the art of big-data consolidation in the cityscape.

A data marketplace

Launched by the A*STAR Institute for Infocomm Research (I2R) in 2012, USI consists of five programs: Complex Systems, Urban Logistics, Integrated City Planning and Sense & Sense-abilities. But the initiative's backbone is formed by the A*STAR Data Analytics Exchange Platform, or A*DAX.

When Ng See-Kiong took over leadership of USI in November 2012, he realized that being able to combine data sets from multiple data owners would be the key to its success. "The city really is a complex system of systems," says Ng. "To understand transportation, for example, you can't just look at transportation; you also need to look at demography, job distribution, weather and other issues." This is where A*DAX comes into playan open-standards, cross-domain platform for data linking, sharing and analytics across Singapore's public and private sectors.

Simply making the data freely accessible was not an option since a lot of it was proprietary and subject to privacy considerations. A*DAX's solution was to provide a platform capable of bringing data owners together and allowing them to exchange and integrate information on a 'peer-to-peer' basis. "The platform itself is a controlled environment with strict user access controlsif you are the data owner or service provider you can give access to other users," explains Ng. In layman's terms, "you can think of it kind of like a data marketplace, where people come together and agree to exchange information in a safe and controlled environment."

Once the data buyers and sellers had agreed to do business, the platform designers then needed to ensure that the different types of datastructured, semi-structured and unstructuredcould be combined and extracted at the same time. In response, Ng's team created the A*DAX Fusion middleware, which allows a user to issue a single 'query' to any combination of multiple data sets of different data types based on a framework familiar to web service designers called RESTful APIs (representational state transfer application program interfaces).

User friendly

Having access to reams of data is one thing; being able to interpret and make use of it, is another. In a pivotal exchange between the team and some early adopters, the A*DAX team quickly learned that they also needed to develop the platform's analytic capabilities.

USI program director, Ng See-Kiong (seated, far right) and the A*STAR Data Analytics Exchange Platform team. Credit: A*STAR Institute for Infocomm Research

"We found that the users didn't want more datathey wanted more answers," Ng recalls. Generally, this meant helping users to find data, even when they couldn't articulate exactly what they were looking for. "The user typically has lots of data, knows they want to make use of it but doesn't know exactly what they can use it for," says Ng. "Oftentimes we would have to put ourselves in the shoes of the user and try to create some visual analytics routines to produce insights that they might want to see from the data. This would act as inspiration for users to tell us what they wanted. It's an iterative processwe have to enter this discovery journey together."

The team eventually honed in on the strategy. "We decided not to give away the raw data and instead provide people with a way to query it for less specific information, but more valuable insights such as aggregates or predictions." This had the added benefit of preserving a higher level of data security, while ensuring the data was still 'usable'a very difficult balance to strike.

One of the greatest joys for a researcher is seeing an idea they have conceptualized come to fruition in the real world. For Ng, A*DAX first came to life in the Jurong Lake District (JLD), Singapore's first smart city 'testbed'. A shared sensor and camera network was set up in the JLD, with A*DAX as the core data management system. Participating developers from different sectors have been able to use A*DAX's capabilities to enhance their own applications and trials within JLD. Examples include a web-based service that integrates environmental information to help urban planners monitor and measure microclimates, as well as an automated system that is capable of detecting people sneaking a cigarette into non-smoking zones.

Predicting the unexpected

A*DAX is designed to make predictions based on existing data, such as from public transport smart cards, taxi global positioning systems, and mobile phone locations. But not all human behavior is well documented, or easily foreseen. "In real life, there are many situations where there's no historical path for you to base your predictions on," says Ng. "This is where complex systems come into use modeling and simulations to help people prepare for the unexpected."

Christopher Monterola from the A*STAR Institute of High Performance Computing heads up the USI's Complex Systems arm. "We provide the modeling and simulation framework and perspective on how to understand the interactions and mechanisms of the various constituents that make up urban systemsit's a natural fit for the USI."

Specifically, the team contributes mechanism-based models to complement the data, visualization and analytics from the other USI programs. Monterola and his team have previously designed sophisticated 'agent-based' mathematical models that predict diverse urban-mobility parameters, from land use patterns for urban planning, through to train delays and traffic congestionessential capabilities for a 'smart city'. Combining the team's predictive models with A*DAX's data capabilities opens exciting possibilities for urban planners. These include being able to compare and contrast overlapping land use and travel infrastructure in different city designs, as well as handling traffic congestion due to a sudden surge of commuters in a given locality, and managing the 'pulse' of people in a citytheir spending patterns, energy consumption and travel preferences, says Monterola.

Moving forward

Employing A*DAX as a 'city dashboard' is a logical move in a tech-savvy country like Singapore. But, A*DAX has the potential to be applied in other sectors as well, such as finance. Ng and the team are exploring 'smart finance' applications, specifically the use of A*DAX to bring together financial models and natural cartography for the calculation of more accurate insurance risk models. "We're also hearing a lot about the Internet of things, industry 4.0, autonomous vehicles, the sharing economya lot of these will require data analytics exchange platforms similar to A*DAX," says Ng.

Now at the end of their initial five-year mandate, the USI team is set to continue making Singapore a 'smarter' nation. "We're definitely not closing shopwe've only just started!" says Ng.

Explore further New platform to help business tap full potential of big data
Credit: University of Nottingham

It's now 20 years since the birth of Dolly the sheep, the first mammal to be cloned. This groundbreaking scientific achievement was accompanied by warnings that Dolly might age prematurely because she had been cloned from adult sheep cells, whose "biological clock" had not been reset. Fears were heightened in 2001 when Dolly was diagnosed with osteoarthritis at five years of age (she died two years later). This was heralded as evidence of premature ageing, although the condition is actually very poorly described in sheep.

We wanted to better understand how the cloning process affected the health of the animals produced and so we've been studying a group of cloned sheep, including four of Dolly's "identical sisters". We found that most of the animals are actually in good health for their age. There was little sign of blood glucose problems, high blood pressure or osteoarthritis, all of which were highlighted as potential problems. This suggests that the cloning technique can, after all, produce perfectly normal and viable offspring that don't grow old before their time.

The technique used to produce Dolly is called somatic-cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) and involves reprogramming normal sheep cells into embryonic cells that can turn into any other specific type of cell in the body. This is done by effectively inserting the nucleus of an ordinary cell into an empty egg. The transformed eggs were then used to create embryos that were then implanted in a number of surrogate ewes, eventually leading to the birth of Dolly in July 1996.

But the Nature paper of 1997 announcing the creation of Dolly also highlighted inefficiencies with SCNT. It took 277 reconstructed embryos to produce one sheep. Analysing Dolly's DNA also suggested that her cells were biologically older than her chronological age. It's as if the cells still thought they were part of the original, older sheep from which she was cloned.

Health check

It was against this background that in 2015 we sought to formally assess the health of a group of 13 cloned sheep ranging from seven to nine years of age. Four of them were effectively clones of Dolly and shared the same DNA in the nuclei of their cells. We investigated three common age-related diseases in sheep: metabolic syndrome (problems associated with obesity), hypertension (high blood pressure) and osteoarthritis (joint pain and stiffness).

There had been some reports of diabetes in cloned mice, and kidney defects among previously cloned lambs that didn't survive birth, which we thought could lead to increased blood pressure in adults. Dolly herself was diagnosed with osteoarthritis at the relatively young age of five.

Despite their advanced age (sheep rarely live beyond ten years), our animals had normal blood glucose levels and found to be insulin sensitive, meaning they weren't suffering metabolic syndrome. Blood pressure was also normal and, although there was radiographic evidence of mild osteoarthritis in one or two joints in most sheep, no animal was lame and none required treatment. In the 12 months that followed these assessments, our sheep have remained largely healthy. Recently, one of the now nine-year-old Dolly clones has started to show clinical signs of osteoarthritis (being a little stiff in the morning).

Our findings suggest that cloning long-lived species such as sheep by SCNT generally produces no age-related detrimental health effects in the animals that are successfully born and survive beyond the first week or two. But what about the other embryos that didn't survive? What can their health teach us about the cell reprogramming process?

During natural conception, the sperm's DNA and associated proteins are packaged in such a way that the egg can easily dismantle and reassemble it. With SCNT cloning, the egg finds it much harder to reprogram the genetic material inserted from the original animal cell and has just a few hours in which to get it right.

So perhaps it is not surprising that in the majority of cases the egg is only partially reprogrammed. Part of the success of the team behind Dolly was in reducing the likelihood of DNA damage and abnormalities that can occur during reprogramming.

Making cloning more efficient

However, in the 20 years since Dolly's birth there have been significant advances in molecular genetics and cell biology that have greatly advanced our understanding of these early developmental processes. Professor Keith Campbell, who was part of the Dolly team, went on to improve the efficiency of SCNT so that 20% of cloned embryos developed to become live offspring, as opposed to the original 3% in the Dolly experiment. This work produced ten further Dolly clones in July 2007, seven of which lived beyond one week of age and four of which are alive today (and were part of our study).

Many embryos were still lost during pregnancy but, as with natural conception, the vast majority of these losses occurred before they were successfully implanted in the womb. Those clones that failed to survive much beyond the first week of life typically had defects in the heart, lungs or kidneys. However, these losses were of enough concern to the European Parliament that they contributed to its decision to ban farm-animal cloning for food production in September 2015.

Now that we know cloning can produce normal, healthy animals, we need to increase the survival rate of the embryos to levels similar to those of natural conception. There is reason to be optimistic that this is achievable. We now have a better understanding of the underlying molecular mechanisms involved in the remodelling of the clones' genetic material.

Scientists are attempting to do part of this reprogramming before the material is transferred to the empty egg so that it looks more like the genetic material delivered by a sperm during natural conception. If successful, this would allow the egg to more easily complete the reprogramming process, increasing the number of embryos that survive and hopefully reducing the related animal welfare concerns.

Explore further How much do you know about Dolly the Sheep?

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.


Bernie Sanders joined Gov. Andrew Cuomo at the breakfast meeting for New York delegates to the Democratic National Convention on Tuesday and both spoke about party unity, said Warren County Democratic Chairwoman Lynne Boecher, who is attending the convention as an observer.

Bernie pointed out the commanality with Gov. Cuomo, with Hillary Clinton, with where were going. It was energetic and it was inspiring, Boecher said in a telephone interview.

The common ground is what pulls us forward, she said.

Boecher said residents, convention volunteers and officials in Philadelphia have been welcoming.

The city of Philadelphia has embraced this convention. And I am going to give the largest shout out to the police, who are incredibly present, friendly, she said. It is so welcoming.

Boecher said the New York and Viriginia delegations are staying in the same hotel.

On Tuesday, she had lunch with an education policy adviser to Sen. Tim Kaine, the Democratic vice presidential candidate.

Boecher said she learned a lot about Kaine, including that he enjoys mountainous camping excursions.

I said, Now that hes (on the ticket) with Hillary Clinton, I better see him in the Adirondacks.

Boecher said she also met and spoke with Sen. Mark Warner, the senior senator from Virginia.
Former Glens Falls Mayor Vince DeSantis attended the city Common Council meeting on Tuesday and praised Mayor Jack Diamond and the Common Council for progress in the city.

"I just want to tell you how very, very good things seem to be in Glens Falls," he said, speaking during the public comment period. "Anything I can help you to do, I will do."

DeSantis, mayor from 1994 through 1997, recalled that many years ago his son wrote home from the Philippines about how much he appreciated growing up in Glens Falls.

"It's a result of every administration contributing to the bottom line, ,,, There's been a lot of work done in past years to get us to this point," Diamond responded.

DeSantis, 89, said he would not want anyone to misinterpret his appearance at the meeting as in indication he is throwing his hat in the ring for the 2017 mayor's race, two decades after he left office.

DeSantis said he went out to dinner with 5th Ward Councilman Jim Clark and 1st Ward Councilman Jim Campinell earlier in the evening, and they suggested he would enjoy coming along to the Common Council meeting.
They gather the last Monday in July every summer, a party that started as a low-key event on Lake George for workers who had Mondays off.

It has grown over the years to become a nightmare for law enforcement and emergency responders with hundreds of people on boats and land drinking, fighting and getting hurt in a remote area where there are no bathrooms or other amenities, and spotty cell phone service to call for help.

Even before a Lake George man, who police said was at the event, drove his boat into another craft Monday night, killing an 8-year-old girl, police who tried to keep the peace at this years event were grousing the gathering had changed for the worse.

There were at least 26 arrests and numerous injuries, at least one of them serious, and more than 50 tickets and criminal summonses for boating and driving offenses and underage possession of alcohol.

An online petition on the website change.org was started Tuesday calling for the event to be halted. And a number of local elected leaders were expressing similar sentiments, with a meeting already set up to talk about it.

Warren County Sheriff Bud York said he believes the event needs to end, and he said I will do everything in my power to shut it down.

There is nothing redeeming socially about what goes on there, York said. Too many people are getting hurt and causing trouble. Im for stopping it completely.

State Sen. Elizabeth Little, R-Queensbury, who is a friend of the grandparents of the girl who died, said she hoped the Lake George Park Commission, which oversees the lake, would take action on an event that has gotten out of hand and too large.

She said she was confident the Park Commission had the ability to limit boats in the bay, as has been done on other bays, but would consider legislative action if needed.

Warren County District Attorney Kate Hogan said a meeting was to be held Wednesday involving law enforcement leaders and representatives of the Lake George Park Commission to discuss whether more needed to be done to control the event, or whether it should be halted. She said she believed changes needed to be made.

Log Bay Day has constantly created problems for public safety, she said.

Washington County Sheriff Jeff Murphy said he would support efforts to end or limit the event on the Fort Ann side, where his office spends thousands of dollars annually to pay for officer overtime. He said the events in 2014 and 2015 werent particularly problematic, but this year there seemed to be a different crowd of people, many from outside the region.

The land there does not have the facilities and access needed to handle that many people, Murphy said.

I wouldnt be upset at all if they decide not to let it happen anymore, he said. I would support anything that could be done to limit it.

One of the issues is that there is no formal Log Bay Day event. It has long been an informal gathering, with no mass gathering permit issued or required. Log Bay is in the town of Bolton, while the adjacent shoreline is state-owned recreation area in the town of Fort Ann.

The town of Bolton could limit the number of boats allowed to moor in the bay, as has been done on other bays on the lake, including Sandy Bay and Paradise Bay. And the state Department of Environmental Conservation and police could limit the number of people allowed down Shelving Rock Road to access the shoreline.

While some have questioned whether boaters will simply move to a new bay if the event is scuttled, there are few  if any  bays on Lake George where there is public access with adjacent state land as there is at Log Bay.

David Wick, executive director of the Lake George Park Commission, said the commissions board met Tuesday and discussed Log Bay Day, though there was no discussion of any changes or end to it.

He said if there is interest among municipal leaders and law enforcement in talking of ending the event, Park Commission leaders would likely entertain a discussion of modifying or otherwise controlling the event.

Its a difficult question, but I think it merits some discussion, he said. Its an open question whether we can get rid of it.

At least 50 police and peace officers, including 15 boat patrols and 6 Park Commission personal watercraft, were minding the crowd on land and on the water this year. The sheriffs offices from Warren and Washington counties, Park Commission, State Police and state Department of Environmental Conservation provided manpower.

The petition, started by Glens Falls resident Ric Stafford, had garnered 71 signatures in a few hours Wednesday. Stafford said he and his family, including a daughter the same age as Charlotte McCue, the girl who died in the crash, boat on the lake.

My wife saw the victims picture and all she could see was my daughters face, he said.

One of the people to sign it was a woman who identified herself as the godmother of Charlotte McCue.

My beautiful goddaughter is a sweet angel in heaven now because of the recklessness of these kids, wrote Devon Conway of Scarsdale. My heart is broken from this one stupid act of irresponsibility.

The police investigation of Charlottes death was continuing Wednesday.
QUEENSBURY  The high school fell short of its goal to hit a 91 percent graduation rate, but student performance on state tests exceeded school officials expectations.

The districts graduation rate for the 2015-16 school year was 89.2 percent, according to Principal Damian Switzer. That is a slight decrease from the previous years 90.3 percent.

Switzer told the school board Monday that administrators and guidance counselors track at-risk students on a frequent basis, and during the end of the year, a daily basis.

Superintendent Douglas Huntley said the district hopes the graduation rate will tick upward in August after students complete summer school.

Some students drop out of school even before the start of the school year, according to Huntley. Those students still count against the district in their graduation rate.

But some of the dropouts go on to get their equivalency diploma or graduate after a fifth year, and that is not included in the statistic, Huntley said. He estimated that the completion rate is between 98 and 99 percent when those students are included.

Huntley said administrators know the at-risk students by looking at attendance and grades and at students who have failed a grade.

Among some of the goals the administrators are setting for 2016-17 are to reduce tardiness and absenteeism.

Assistant Principal Justin Hoskins said tardiness is an ongoing problem: The majority of those are the same kids every single day.

One student was late 70 times  usually by 5 minutes or so.

Hoskins said school officials are looking at solutions, such as reminder text messages and more meetings with families to stress the importance of being on time.

Huntley said family cooperation is the key.

Its not just the student behaviors that we have to change, he said. We have to change family members to make attendance a priority.

Students who failed classes participated in the online-based credit recovery programs to make up the credits needed to graduate.

Switzer is pleased with student performance on the Algebra 2 Regents, which he said is typically one of the most difficult Regents exams statewide. The proficiency rate was around 59 percent.

The math department has worked hard to put in place the Common Core standards, and this year, 72 percent of students passed.

Its not as high as we would like it, but at least were headed in the right direction, he said.

Huntley said the district also has been focusing on boosting its math program, so students do not have to take remedial classes in college.

When theyre placed into a remedial course, the odds of coming out of it are very low, he said.

The district wants to get them into credit-bearing courses immediately.

Ninety-six percent of students passed the Common Core English exams, according to Switzer.

These are outstanding results. Were very pleased with that, he said.

Students are also doing well on the advanced placement tests. About 72 to 74 students achieve proficiency, according to Switzer.

Students are also taking Project Lead the Way pre-engineering courses and participating in Early College High School programs in advanced manufacturing, information technology networking and new media, according to Switzer.
SARATOGA SPRINGS  A fan petition to see magician Steven Brundage on the live shows of this seasons "Americas Got Talent" was successful this week when the NBC show announced Brundages return as a Wild Card contestant.

Brundage will return for the Aug. 2 and 3 live episodes.

The Rubiks Cube Magician plans to wow America  and hopefully the judges  with a brand-new trick.

Theres a lot of pressure now because its live and Ive never done it before. The other tricks I can do in my sleep. Ive done them 10,000 times. But now I only have a week to prepare  its a little nerve-wracking, Brundage said in a news release.

Fans of Brundage and "Americas Got Talent" took to Change.org to petition the shows judges for the magicians return to the show. More than 2,500 supporters signed the petition.

To learn more, visit Brundage's website, stevenbrundagemagic.com, or find him on Snapchat (brundagemagic), Twitter, Instagram or Facebook.
Ted Wilson has received the endorsement of the Independence Party in the race for Warren County Family Court judge, but his opponent is questioning whether the endorsement process was fair.

Wilson also has secured the county Republican, Conservative and Reform parties committees endorsements as he seeks the judgeship that was held by the late Judge J. Timothy Breen before he died. The Independence Partys endorsements typically mirror the Republican endorsement in Warren County.

Wilson, a Queensbury resident and court attorney for state Supreme Court Justice Stan Pritzker, is running against Robert Smith for the 10-year spot on the Family Court bench. Smith, the Democratic candidate and also a Queensbury resident, works as court attorney for Warren County Judge John Hall, and will also be on the Green Party line on the ballot.

Frank McKay, chairman of the Independence Party, wrote in a prepared statement that Wilson was the most experienced and most qualified candidate in the race.

We are impressed by the work you have already done as an official court attorney in Family Court. We considered the thousands of cases you have worked on with very few reversals, McKay wrote.

Wilson worked as court attorney for Pritzker when Pritzker spent a decade as Washington County Family Court judge.

When learning of the endorsement, Smith questioned the Independence Party process, saying he reached out to McKay several times. He said he sent a resume.

I sent letters, emails and made phone calls and got no response, he said.

He pointed out that the Independence Party in Warren County has long been led by people who had held leadership positions in the Republican Committee as well.

Smith said he plans to run in the September primary for the Independence Party line.

Former Queensbury Supervisor Mark Westcott, who sent out a press release about the endorsement on Wilsons behalf, referred comment on the concerns raised by Smith to the state Independence Party. A call to the contact he suggested, Thomas Connolly, was not returned Wednesday.

Wilson said he did not meet with anyone from the party for the endorsement, but sent the organization materials documenting his qualifications, including a finding by the state Independent Judicial Election Qualification Commissions that he was highly qualified for Family Court judge.

The commission deemed Smith as qualified.

Wilson said he did not believe he was given more of an opportunity by the Independence Party.

We both submitted our information and they chose the candidate with the highest qualifications and most experience, Wilson said.
There are nine of us.

We are Joe and Ruth Tingleys grandchildren, and like the next generation of many families, we drifted apart as we went to college, started jobs and grew into adulthood. We often missed each others weddings and the births of our children, only to be thrown together by that inevitability of life  the deaths of our parents.

In those times, we cemented the bond Joe and Ruth started, and Phyllis, Ed, Bill and Bob fine-tuned with their own broods.

When my father died  the last of Joe and Ruths four children to pass  I remember wondering if this was it. Would we ever be together again?

But there, filling the last row of chairs at the back of the funeral home, was my family in all its unusual and diverse incarnations, laughing and story-telling and embracing each other like we never missed a beat, like we saw each other every day.

Someone suggested we should get together when there was not a funeral. It would be a great tribute to our parents.

So it was nice to be in Canada this weekend with my cousins again, carrying on the tradition we started almost 15 years ago.

We are a diverse, unusual group with unusual life experiences, and I dont pretend to know all the details of how we all got where we are today.

We are a combination of white- and blue-collar workers. More than half have college degrees; several have cobbled together jobs balancing family and church. Five of us are married and have children. Two lost longtime jobs during the Great Recession. And while I dont think any of us are rich, a couple are better off than the others, and I suspect several are struggling to make ends meet.

My cousins are regular people in so many ways, yet absolutely unique in other ways.

Id say most of them are very religious, far more than I am. I would describe them as more conservative than liberal, but not especially political.

I dont know if they are the average American families, but I know they face many of the same challenges regarding education, health care and retirement so many of us face.

With Donald Trumps acceptance speech still fresh in our minds this weekend, it was inevitable our discussions kept returning, not only to the election, but to Trump.

It was clear they were paying attention to the presidential campaign, that they were tired of the current politics, but most of all, it was clear they were taking Donald Trump seriously.

It makes me uncomfortable to talk about politics in social situations, especially since I spend a good part of my job in that world.

At first, I changed the subject when Trump came up.

Gradually, I tipped-toed around the issue and revealed my considerable concerns about a Trump presidency.

I agreed that his acceptance speech was excellent, but I pointed out that the fact-checkers found significant problems with the accuracy of the speech.

My cousins did not seem to know that.

Most told me they did not read a newspaper daily.

Several said they watched CNN and Fox News religiously, and took seriously what they read on social media without much skepticism.

In that way, I believe they are a lot like the rest of the country.

My frustration built over the weekend.

If you are going to be a good American citizen, and an informed voter, I told one of my cousins, you have to work at it. You have to put some time into it. You have to fact-check speeches and be skeptical when you are told things that seem hard to believe.

My voice was rising and I knew I was getting preachy. Several people left the table.

Someone finally changed the subject. We talked about our grandparents and parents, and the great memories we all shared.

We laughed the night away.

When the weekend was over, we all hugged and kissed each other. It had gone by too fast.

I was most of all thankful that Trump had not torn us apart.

At least, not yet.
Inventory needs to be managed and managed well, or you are going to get in recurring trouble, and lose your credibility and hard-earned conversions, whether 

Read more
News reaching Pulse.com.gh is that he would be buried later in the evening as Islamic custom dictates, with the funeral rites hosted at the Global Haulage premises at Achimota in Accra.Alhaji Idris Amadu was 72 years old and founded the Global Haulage Company, a renowned company in Ghana, which has been operational in Ghana since 1953.

READ MORE: In Sunyani JHS boy dies for love

Under the parent company, the Global Haulage Group Limited can boast of a number of subsidiaries like Royal Bank, Imperial General Insurance, Federated Commodities, Trans Royal Ltd, Cocoa Merchant, Royal Commodities, Isudam Constructions and Global Automobile Limited.
Mr Bedu-Addo's career has been in Public Policy, International Development, and Banking & Finance, joining the Standard Chartered Bank in the year 2000 and rose through the ranks to become the companys first Ghanaian CEO in 2010.

READ MORE: Standard Chartered Bank CEO breaks silence after weeks of negative publicity

Other senior roles he has held include Co-Head, Wholesale Bank in Zambia (2004) and West Africa (excluding Nigeria (2009) and was based in Singapore as a Program Director for a Global Project from 2007 to 2009.

He was a recipient of the prestigious Wholesale Bank Global Star Awards in 2007.

Mr Bedu-Addo's current role was expanded in 2015 to Chief Executive Officer, West Africa Cluster 2, which include Ghana, Gambia and Sierra Leone. He is also on the Africa - Middle East Regional Management Team.
According to him, government institutions like the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority and the Food and Drugs Authority must be weaned off government budgetary support by now.

Now things are catching up with us and we are beginning to see the absence of money for central government to do the things that it ought to do for the environment to be free and for the private sector to operate, Mr Kwarteng said.

Mr. Kwarteng further criticized the NDCs creation of additional constituencies and districts as one of the ways government spending has increased.
Unfortunately, the journalist as the gatekeeper feeds off the same figures presented by the Ministry of Finance and its agencies, implying that the role of the journalist as the gatekeeper is lost in the world of financial journalism.

"NPP accuses Governments conflicting figures on TORs debt, Minority is misleading Ghanaians on public debts  MP Benjamin Kpodo are some of the common headlines making the rounds in the media. But shouldnt journalists be presenting the true objective figures, rather than reporting the various confusing versions?

We cannot, however, blame financial journalists entirely for this, given that financial records of government expenditure, revenue generation, financial malfeasance amongst others, are deemed the property of the Ministry of Finance, the Bank of Ghana and their affiliates.

Journalists have to scrap and gnaw at the crumbs of information that slip through the cracks of the Ministrys non-transparent systems or rely on patriotic whistleblowers, who would, once in a while, leak one document or the other. It is only under these circumstances that the truth gets out.

Finance Minister, Seth Terkper on Tuesday released a set of figures on government expenditure, which stands at GHC14 billion for the first quarter of 2016, a deficit of 2.5% and debt accumulation rate of 63%, all of which paint a positive picture of governments economic performance in the first quarter of the year 2016.

How sure are we that these figures are true? Who can independently ascertain these figures? Certainly not Ghanaian journalists, because they dont have the legal basis with which to demand the breakdown and proper documentations of these expenditures.

Perhaps it is high time more pressure is applied for the passage of the Right to Information Bill in order to equip the media and any well-meaning Ghanaian to get access to public finance documents that would help ascertain figures put out by the finance ministry.

Civil Society Organisations have been asked to increase efforts for the passage of the Right to Information Bill which has been in draft since 1999, and has undergone several consideration stages and review.

Renowned Member of the Coalition on the Right to Information Bill, Mina Mensah, in her speech at the World Press Freedom Day celebrations in Accra, underscored the need for the Right to Information Bill as the singular most important tool for journalists at this point of Ghanas development.

The reason why journalists are always shocked at the rot revealed by the Auditor Generals reports and the Public Accounts Committee of parliaments sittings is due to the little information made available to journalists about the financial behaviour of public institutions.

Ms Mensah also urged the electorate to demand accountability from persons who controlled and administered state assets and resources on their behalf.

The Chairman of the National Media Commission (NMC), Mr Kwasi Gyan-Appenteng, noted that it was in the interest of politicians to pass the bill into law as it would facilitate easy access to information and discourage journalists from using unethical methods of obtaining information and resorting to speculative reportage.

For her part, Dr Doris Yaa Dartey, a Communications Consultant, charged the media to make the passage of the law a campaign issue.
The EPA is a trade deal between ECOWAS countries and the European Union (EU) which enjoins member states to open up 70 percent of their markets to European goods over a period.

ECOWAS countries will, in turn, have one hundred percent access to the European Market except for rice and sugar.

Speaking at the Graphic Business/Stanbic Bank Breakfast Meeting in Accra on Tuesday, Dr Anwti Danso said there is a "likelihood" the EPA may weakens ECOWAS integration drive.

"By the nature of the terms under the agreement, there may be the likelihood that we might lose that integration drive: However, I say strongly that we must ensure that we do not kill that regional integration because it is very important for us as a people, Dr Antwi Danso said.

The meeting discussed the implications of the Economic Partnership Agreement on Ghanaian businesses.

Dr Antwi Danso further urged caution in signing the EPA.

Job losses

The Third World Network warned against signing the agreement since it has the potential to cause 40,000 job losses.

The Coordinator of the policy think tank, Dr Yao Graham noted that the agreement is not beneficial to Ghana.

"Overall the term of the EPA are not beneficial for Ghana or West Africa. The EPA will lead to a loss of jobs and other means of livelihood

"In the manufacturing and other industrial sectors, the EPA will cost about 40,000 jobs in ten years.

We also anticipate that there will be a collapse of domestic industry, especially in the life manufacturing sector.
However, one of his management team members, Paa Debrah has confirmed the news and said they are 'working hard' to reclaim their account. "This account has been hacked. We are working hard to resolve the issue. Anything posted here, for the mean time, isn't from Pappy Kojo or anyone from his team. Thanks," Paa Debrah said in a statement.
According to anthropological evidence, it is believed that Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia) is the origin of these prints. Locals have long used this technique of wax-resist dying, by basically applying wax to a cloth, and then dying over that wax to create a pattern- to make batik.

In the mid-19th century, the Dutch enlisted a number of West African soldiers to beef up their army in Indonesia. The African soldiers when returning to their countries brought back beautiful Javanese fabrics to their wives, between 1810 and 1862. According to Mazuri Designs, African print became even more popular with Christian missionaries who used it to cloth converts to the church.

African prints therefore are originally not from the continent, its just an acquired taste!

The prints have become synonymous with the African race because of historical, cultural and other factors that have influenced the people's love for it. However the advent of the much adored vlisco print came after its Dutch manufactures in 1874 copied a cheaper version from its Belgian original manufacturers and flooded the African market with the wax print fabric.

For Ghana, there has been a recent renewal of this love after a long decline.

In 2007 Ghana's former president, H.E John Agyekum Kuffuor introduced the wearing of prints as National Friday wear.

Fast forward to 2016, and African prints are still a big trend on and off the runway, Ghanaian designers and stylists use the prints in most of their works. But there is still a problem of imitation by Chinese manufacturers, poor patronage and other economic challenges.

Ohene- Ba Yaw Boamah, the creative director behind the Aberantie brand who uses a lot of African prints to create designs for men, mentioned that most men would prefer to use European cuts when it came to their wear.

Coming from an African background he tried to find ways to inculcate the European designs by using African prints to create them.

He found that his designs that had African prints were mostly patronized by people who lived outside the country.

He realised this was a result of the non-nationals getting access to all the soft match foreign fabrics outside Ghana. What would make them stand out was to purchase made in Ghana products or adding a touch of African print in to their look, so he was selling more to Africans living abroad than at home.

But in recent times, West Africa has been trying to embrace it, unlike previously when the print was not so appreciated, now Friday wear has come to stay.

Most of our celebrities are currently embracing it thereby making people who look up to them accept and inculcate it in their wear, making it grow day by day, Boamah said.

Also the issue of marketing has become a challenge following the common usage of the African print.

He continued to say that western fashion houses like Maison Valentino and others have taken an interest in African fashion by creating pieces with African prints, thereby making it a challenge because Africans do not recognize that these prints are African, making marketing here in the country difficult.

Boamah creates his own print because it is unique and can also easily be attributed to him any day anytime, he revealed.

He also believed the African print is dying out slowly because of the mass importation of foreign fabrics. He went ahead to explain that it is very easy to access the print unlike before when you struggled to acquire a particular print. While it's more accessible now the quality is not up to standard.

The designer however mentioned that the future of African print is bright because its very easy to access them now in relation to all forms of colours, styles, sizes and shapes.
Zarif made the call after a meeting with President John Mahama in Accra on Tuesday, July 26, 2016.

READ MORE: President Mahama hails economic cooperation with Tehran

To facilitate relations in the private sector, we should facilitate some issues such as banking cooperation with Ghana, Zarif told reporters in Accra.

Zarif, accompanied by a delegation of 70 top business leaders from Iran to the Flagstaff House, said he sees no obstacle in expanding trade relations with Ghana and Africa.

"We see no obstacle to the expansion of relations with Ghana and Africa and welcome bolstering ties with these countries, the Iranian top diplomat said.

Zarif's visit to the Flagstaff forms part of his four-nation tour of West Africa to discuss possible ways of expanding relations.

He added that the Iranian businessmen are ready to expand trade ties with Ghana.

On his part, president Mahama said Accra and Tehran have the potential to improve cooperation in oil, gas, agriculture and education.

READ MORE: OPEC inches oil prices for second day

He added that Ghana is taking steps to operationalise the agreements reached in Iran during his visit to that country.
"When are you bringing Berla home? Oh please..oh I beg. that song dierr. EL shocked me. He was talking about his mummy, mummy!! Mummy said I should," Tinny said in response to E.L's song "Love God" which he released during the heated beef between Sarkodie and M.anifest.

Reacting to this, E.L dropped "Body Bags" yesterday, July 26 to attack Tinny.

In "Body Bags", E.L said he used to look up to Tinny, but now hes losing his respect, asking him to let a nigga shine. He jabbed him for turning his allies against him. "Why N*ggas wanna f*ck up the Franchise Turning my allies against me, I swear Im gonn bring out my best side," E.L spits.

He also asked Tinny what he knows about punchlines, telling him to quit criticising and rather produce hits.
The over fifty thousand CLOGSAG members would be out of work following governments refusal to pay them some allowances

According to the association, they have been left out of the payment of their interim premium while other public officials continue to benefit from it.

Though government has indicated it is doing everything to maintain the serenity of the industrial sector in the country, Public Relations Officer of CLOGSAG, Eddy Acquaye said government has shown no commitment in responding to their demands.

Speaking in an interview with Mr Acquaye said they will stay away from work until their demands are met.

Read more:CLOGSAG Group to lay down tools on July 27

We are staying home till our demands are met. If only government can work without is then they should ignore us he said.

CLOGSAG revealed that several petitions to the Ministry of Employment and Labour relations, as well as the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission over the same matter, have proved futile.

A national executive member of CLOGSAG, Ernest Tagoe, announced the strike at a press conference in Tamale on Tuesday, July 26.

The term "Interim Premium" was given to all the new allowances created during the implementation of the Single Spine Pay Policy (SSPP) pending the approval of market premium. This took place after the government issued a white paper on guidelines on implementation, but members of CLOGSAG have been left out
The theme of the workshop was social media for todays business woman. It was purposely focused on how business women can take advantage of new technologies and social media platforms as a marketing tool for their businesses, products and brands in Ghana and beyond.

Data Business Director at Airtel Ghana, Jean Claude Domilongo, who was also a speaker at the workshop indicated that social media has come to stay and everybody especially women must exploit it to their benefit. He said the overwhelming majority of women on social media mean that their online connectivity and influence in numbers is far-reaching, exposure to brands and their content is high. Thanks to social media, more and more women are finding their voice, confidence and careers online.

The event also educated the participants the new opportunities made available by technology for business growth. The participating women were also taken through the best ways to utilise social media in an actionable strategy using storytelling, engaging content generation and social media monitoring.

READ ALSO: Executive Women Network launches in Accra

Head of Digital Media & Innovations at Global Media Alliance-Ghana, Kwabena Okyire Appianing, who was also a guest speaker in his presentation said digital marketing continues to evolve and expand, making it important for business professionals especially women to understand how digital marketing can drive their businesses and their brands respectively. Leading businesses and business professionals are getting the skills they need in digital marketing for that matter social media to effectively make decisions, set strategies and implement campaigns and measure results.

He continued that the difference is that todays business woman has a lot of opportunities to market and grow her enterprise or better position her brand compared to her counterparts five years ago, thanks to social media tools to enable businesses to reach hundreds or thousands of potential customers online.

Meanwhile, the Executive Council of EWN encouraged participating women to use the vital tools of social media that will take their businesses to the next step.
According to him, the country could thrive if stakeholders including journalist imbibe professionalism in their line of duty. He said the code has, eighteen articles and chief amongst the articles in no particular order has to do with professionalism, article 2 is; monitoring and evaluation, then, objectionable broadcast material, we have bribery and corruption, integrity, right to rejoinder, editorial independence

There are sanctions that would be meted out to those who dont comply he added

George Foster who spoke on a Kumasi-based Kapital Radio stressed on the need for journalist to comply with the ethics of the profession and to be responsible in their reportage.

Make sure that whatever facts you are coming out with, whatever report you are coming out with, you have checked and then re-checked and then you should be in the position to defend it. Much more importantly, if you know that whatever it is you are going to spew out will incite people, would make people go combustible then you have to manage it and be very decorous in whatever you say, he said

Amongst the dignitaries who graced the occasion Chairperson of Electoral Commission (EC) Madam Charlotte Osei, President for National Peace Council Most Rev Prof. Emmanuel Asante, President of Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) Roland Affail Monney, Dr. Chief P. A Crystal Djiracko representing Council of Elders, the National Media Commission Chair, Kwasi Gyan Apenteng, and Head of Office at UNESCO, Tirso Dos Santos.

The Electoral Commission (EC) used the occasion to urge the media to support its work by educating the electorate on their role during the elections.

She added that the work of the commission would be meaningless if the electorates do not know their rights and responsibilities.

Madam Charlotte Osei threw more light on the role the media plays in the education of the electorate
Mark Anthony Vinorkor, apologised to Parliaments Privileges Committee after he reported that Parliament had covertly changed two Constitutional Instruments (CI) which were to regulate the general elections in December

Vinorkor who was before the privileges committee of the house said: Mr Chairman, I wish to render an unqualified apology to the leadership of parliament and to the entire house for those publications.

READ ALSO: Legislature bans Daily Graphic journalist from House

After my attention was drawn to the fact there were mistakes in those stories I did, I have realised that I cannot justify the content in those articles or those stories I did, he added.

He further explained that it was not his intention to misrepresent the proceedings of the house, I am very sorry, I didnt mean to put anything out there to suggest that parliament has done anything unconstitutional

Meanwhile, the committee has decided to meet in-camera arguing that they do not have to go through the process of inviting witnesses and making observations. They said they would rather prepare a report with recommendations for the house to consider.

Background

Parliament banned a Daily Graphic reporter indefinitely for inaccurate reportage. The House has therefore requested that the state-owned media replace their parliamentary correspondent.

The reporter, Mark-Anthony Vinokor, is alleged to have reported earlier that the CI 94 which will regulate the November polls was withdrawn on Friday and relaid on Monday. The report mentioned that a new clause was introduced in article 44 of the CI. His reportage, therefore, concluded that the 21 days maturity should, therefore, begin on Monday, not Friday.

But on Thursday, July 14, 2016, Parliament, said Vinokor had given an inaccurate report to the patrons of the story. They, therefore, called Vinokor into a meeting with the leaders of the house, where he was asked to publish a rejoinder in Fridays publication of the Daily Graphic but he failed to do that.
In the court's ruling, the owners of the radio station were also found guilty of contempt and thus fined GHC 60,000. The ruling stipulated that the amount be paid to the court by close of Thursday, 28th July 2016.

In default, the owners would be subjected to a one month jail term.

Salifu Maase, the host of the show, and Alistair Nelson, Godwin Ako Gunn panellists on the show who are loyalists of the incumbent National Democratic Congress (NDC) were all found guilty for issuing death threats to judges of the Supreme Court.

The sitting presided by Justice Sophia Akuffo also found the accused guilty of "scandalizing the court, defying and lowering the authority of the court and bringing it into disrepute."

Earlier, one of the panellists blamed his comments in which he and another panellist threatened to kill the judges to a disease called kpokpogbligbli.

According to Alistair Nelson, kpokpogbligbli is an unknown disease that takes over a persons body and controls what he says and does."

READ ALSO: Lawyer renders apology to Supreme Court judges

He said this when he appeared before the Supreme Court to explain why he and others should not be committed to prison for contempt of court, for scandalising the court, defying and lowering the authority of the court, and bringing the authority of the court into disrepute.

The Supreme Court also played in open court, audiotapes which contained alleged threats issued by two radio pundits despite pleas from the counsel of the alleged contemnors for it not to be played.

The two panellists, Nelson and Gunn told the court they were responsible for the comments and expressed regret.

The host of the said programme, Mugabe, even though admitting that he was liable to the offence, said that he could give reasons for his conduct.
The court sentenced the accused Alistair Nelson, Godwin Ako Gunn and Salifu Maase aka Mugabe to a four month jail term.

Owners of the radio station were also fined GHC 60,000 which is expected to be paid to the court by the close of Thursday, 28th July 2016.

The two radio stations owned by Network Broadcasting Limited have been off air for hours since the ruling was announced on Wednesday afternoon. The two radio brands are Radio Gold and Montie FM both in Greater Accra Region.
Two radio brands are Radio Gold and Montie FM both in Greater Accra. Earlier after the ruling Montie FM was playing songs until they went off air.

Around 2.30pm, on Wednesday July 27, both frequencies, 90.5MHz and 100.1MHz appeared to be jammed. At the time of publication (5.30pm) they were still off air.

A source at Radio Gold also told pulse.com.gh TV Gold was also off air.

The National Communication Authority (NCA) has said it is not responsible for the stations going off-air.

Director General of the Authority William Tevie said we have not taken them off, we know nothing about it.

Meanwhile, a source at Radio Gold told Pluse.com.gh they will be back on-air on Friday (July 29). He said we turned off the station ourselves because of the ruling. Management earlier asked that we play music only but they later ordered that we turn it off completely. They have asked us to come back to work on Friday. So we will be on-air Friday.

Pluse.com.gh has tried to contact Network Broadcasting Limited management for comment.

Background

Alistair Nelson, Godwin Ako Gunn and Salifu Maase aka Mugabe were sentenced to four months imprisonment by the Supreme Court following a case of contempt against the court's judges.

In the court's ruling, the owners of the radio station were also found guilty of contempt and thus fined GHC 60,000. The ruling stipulated that the amount is paid to the court by close of Thursday, 28th July 2016.

In default, the owners would be subjected to a one-month jail term.

Salifu Maase, the host of the show, and Alistair Nelson, Godwin Ako Gunn panellists on the show who are loyalists of the incumbent National Democratic Congress (NDC) were all found guilty of issuing death threats to judges of the Supreme Court.

The sitting presided by Justice Sophia Akuffo also found the accused guilty of "scandalising the court, defying and lowering the authority of the court and bringing it into disrepute."

Earlier, one of the panellists blamed his comments in which he and another panellist threatened to kill the judges to a disease called kpokpogbligbli.

According to Alistair Nelson, kpokpogbligbli is an unknown disease that takes over a persons body and controls what he says and does."

He said this when he appeared before the Supreme Court to explain why he and others should not be committed to prison for contempt of court, for scandalising the court, defying and lowering the authority of the court, and bringing the authority of the court into disrepute.

The Supreme Court also played in open court, audiotapes which contained alleged threats issued by two radio pundits despite pleas from the counsel of the alleged contemnors for it not to be played.

The two panellists, Nelson and Gunn told the court they were responsible for the comments and expressed regret.

The host of the said programme, Mugabe, even though admitting that he was liable to the offence, said that he could give reasons for his conduct.
According Afenyo Markin, the exercise in his constituency faced many challenges which prevented the EC from capturing as many names as possible.

The petition as drafted and signed by my good self at 8 pm yesterday [Tuesday], and the same was delivered this morning [Wednesday] and received by one John Okine at the ECs office, Afenyo Markin confirmed.

we have an exceptional situation in Winneba having 5,269 deleted registrants. It is not to be treated same as a constituency where they have 300, 100, 500 or even 1,000. For instance, yesterday, we had over 500 people there but they could only register 203 because of network challenges and rains. And as at close of work, over 100 people had filled their forms but could not take their pictures, he added he said.

He noted that such turn of events would amount to a breach of the constitutional rights of his constituents and expressed hope that the EC would give a positive answer to his petition.

Background

With just two days to the end of the voter re-registration exercise only 14,801 have been re-registered out of the 56,772 persons who registered as voters using the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) cards Director of Communications at the Electoral Commission (EC), Eric Kofi Dzakpasu, has revealed.

Eric Kofi Dzakpasu indicated that the Commission is worried many Ghanaian could be disenfranchised in this years general elections.

As at the close of work yesterday [Monday], out of the 56,772 deleted, 14,801 have re-registered. Those who are not coming, we will be expecting them to come in their numbers so that we can get them re-registered [in order] that they can vote but they are not coming as we expected them to come, he said

The least we can do under this circumstance is to reach out to them, intensify the publicity, help them to know that the exercise is ongoing so they should come back and re-register, he added

Speaking on an Accra-based Citi FM Mr. Dzakpasu stated that the commission has put in the necessary measures to get individuals whose names were deleted from the voters register to re-register before the exercise ends.
It quoted the Head of Corporate Sales at Airtel Ghana, Edmund Barwuah, as saying: We are particularly happy to be partnering with First Atlantic Bank to bring a world of convenience to our joint customers. As the leading and most innovative mobile money platform, Airtel Money continues to enter into strategic partnerships to enrich and simplify the lives of our cherished customers.

"This full partner bank integration offers the full suite of Airtel Money services to First Atlantic Bank customers on Airtel. They can move funds, make transactions, check mini statements and make enquiries directly from their phones.

"Together with FAB, we are further widening the channels through which customers can transact in a simple, fast and secured environment.

"Beyond these clear benefits to customers, this arrangement also expands the network of locations that Airtel Money agents and merchants can acquire E-value or exchange same for cash  further increasing float availability in the field for both subscribers and agents."

The Group Head of Electronic Business at FAB, Sebastian Yalley, said he was excited about the development because the partnership affords "our customers the opportunity to transact banking business at their own convenience anywhere in Ghana."

The partnership also seeks to extend First Atlantic Bank coverage through the over 20,000 Airtel Money agent points nationwide.
The Kardashian-Jenner clan gathered in San Diego for the celebrations which took place on Tuesday, July 26, 2016.

The family, including Kim, her daughter, North West, sisters, Khloe and Kourtney Kardashian, along with Kourtney's ex, Scott Disick and their kids, Mason, Penelope and Reign, joined Kris Jenner to celebrate her mom, MJ, at La Valencia Hotel in La Jolla, California.

Sharing moments from the party with her fans, Kim shared a video via her Snapchat account as she cradled Chyna's baby bump.

Although Rob was not seen anywhere on any of the family's Snapchat accounts, Chyna obviously filled in for both of them as she still spotted her engagement ring following the drama between the pair over the weekend.

ALSO READ: Pregnant model dazzles in white for 28th birthday bash
"I just want to tell u Sir that u promise 2 restore our light at Ogunmola close during ur campaign...u haven't Fulfilled That Sir," a fan wrote on Twitter over the weekend.

ALSO READ: Actor goofs around with twin sons in new photos

Desmond enlightening him on the extent of his influence as a lawmaker replied him saying, "Adeyi Samiat, I said I will do my best . Am not phcn my dear and I have been working hard at it . Patience and see."

Desmond who recently celebrated one year as a lawmaker however promised to work on it in due time. "I will work on it is what I said and that's what I'm doing. I am a career person in politics and giving the very best to the people of Surulere is my goal," he tweeted.

"I will never promised what l cant deliver,doing a palliative measure is easy but I am working on a permanent measure," he further added.

ALSO READ: Actor thrown surprise birthday party at the office

In 2014, Elliot moved into politics and joined the political party APC. The following year, 2015, he ran for a seat in the Lagos state of Assembly and shocked everyone by winning.
Now, OAP Freeze is adding his two cents to the ongoing drama surrounding Koffi Olomide who was jailed for kicking his dancer in the stomach.

The controversial Cool FM OAP took to Instagram today, July 27, 2016 to talk about the situation. According to him, this is an opportunity to speak out against violence.

He wrote,

"Although I sympathize with Koffi Olomide and his family as he begins his 1 year jail term, (this has not been confirmed) for assaulting a dancer, I feel the need to draw attention to the consequences of violence towards women.

Its a pity that Koffi Olomide has become a scapegoat for a crime many men are guilty of, however, such a high profile case would help enlighten the male public on the negative aftermath of such an action, and possibly serve as a deterrent for future offenders.

Perpetrators of violence against men too should seize this opportunity to realize that the end result of violence is never pleasant. - FRZ

ALSO READ: Pulse List 10 Nigerian celebrities that should be quiet for now
After successfully hiding baby Saint West most of the time since his birth seven months ago, reality Tv star, Kim Kardashian has decided to reveal her baby boy with the rest of the world.

Saint West joined big sister North and his cousins Kourtney's three children; Mason,Penelope and 19-month-old Reign but of course he was at the center of attention on their trip to San Diego.

This is the first time the baby has been publicly seen by fans, who apart from the occasional Instagram photo had previously only seen Saint briefly.

Its not every time the world gets to see the adorable son of Kanye and Kim so fans are glad to get a glimpse once in a while.

Recently, Kim showed off via her website, her six-months-old son closet which already boasts of custom designer pieces and a gold and diamond chain necklace.
The Hollywood actress took to her Instagram page yesterday, July 26, 2016, to apologise to her fans for her reaction to whatever really went on between herself and the 23-year-old Russian heir.

In the statement she shared, Lohan blamed her very public reaction on fear and sadness, adding that she had made mistakes before now which unfortunately, always ended up in the media.

Sharing a photo of herself on a boat, Lohan wrote:

Dear friends. I'm good and well. #ATM I am taking time for myself with good friends. I am sorry that I've exposed certain private matters recently.

"I was acting out of fear and sadness  We all make mistakes. Sadly mine have always been so public. I have done a lot of soul searching in the past years, and I should have been more clear minded rather than distract from the good heart that I have."

Going on to address previous Instagram posts where she accused Egor of cheating, before asking people to stay out of her business, Lohan said:

"Social media comes with the territory of the business and the world we now live in. My intentions were not meant to send mixed messages.

"Maybe things can be fixed... Maybe not.. I hope they can. But I am 30 years old and I do deserve a #GENTLEgiant Life is about love and light. Not anger. Thank you to those who stand by my side.

Lohans post seems to connote that things might not be totally irreparable between herself and Egor, even after she accused him of trying to strangle her and her father, Micheal Lohan, threatening to deal with him if anything happened to his daughter.

It seems hard to see how one could forgive any of these allegations but then again, we hardly know what led to these issues in the first place.

ALSO READ: Actress considering converting to Islam

Micheal has also revealed that his daughter has been keeping him up to date on the issues, telling Us Weekly that Tarabasov has been mostly unreachable since last weekend.

"She has been texting me back and forth that she's OK but Tarabasov is off the radar, and he has been off the radar since this happened.

"She said he cheated. I don't think she would say that if it wasn't true. Things happen. I don't know what their relationship is like. Relationships take twists and turns, what are you going to do?"
The luxury Japanese brand (Kenzo) is set to roll out a line of affordable pieces with Swedish retail giant (H&M) and the internet is going crazy-with mixed feelings- already.

A first look at the images released reveal heavy fierce prints, bold in-your-face colours, head turning logos and more super dramatic details from the clothing giants!

Set to release a more affordable pieces with the brand (H&M) Kenzo didn't take away the drama the brand is known for, making a case for its target market!

The offerings off the images reveal a lot of high waisted leggings, leather gloves (with logo rubber print in pink!), jacquard knitted socks, print jersey with roll neck top, colour block tiger print denims, woven scarfs and more interesting pieces.

The collection tends towards artsy, bold, colourful (understatement) and definitely traffic stopping (the prints are insane!)

Balmain recently collaborated with H&M for a limited edition collection that flew off the racks! All eyes on how the Kenzo X H&M collaboration goes.

The collection is set for release in November 2016 and will be available in over 250 H&M outlets.
This much was made known by the wife of the Ogun State governor, Olufunso Amosun, when she visited him at the Paediatrick Unit of the Federal Medical Center (FMC), Abeokuta, where he is currently receiving treatment on the bills of the state government.

Mrs. Amosun, told the elated boy that the First Lady has shown interest in his case and that he may be flown to the Federal Capital Territory, to meet with the 'Mother of the Nation'.

Her words;

I will like to place on record, because it is very important that the mother of the nation has followed this case from the very onset, even before it was officially declared in the newspapers.

She is passionate about this matter. Throughout yesterday, she interacted with me about the condition of the child and the action that have been taken.

I think this is worthy of note that the wife of our President is compassionate about happenings in various states.

We feel very reassured based on previous report we have heard. The child informed us of all that he had been subjected to.

I was actually worried that we are going to see a dejected, withdrawn, traumatised child. We are happy to the glory of God that Korede is very active."

"His mind is alert. In terms of growth, he seems smaller than what his age should be, but aside in my opinion, he seems to be recuperating very well, bearing in mind what he had been subjected to.
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ALSO READ: Camel mauls owner to death after being left tied under the sun all day

The footage shows the daughter come down from the vehicle and walked around it to the other side, at which time a tiger attacks and drags her out of the camera shot.

A man leaps out of the driver side of the car as well as a woman, the victim's mother, who comes out from the back seat of the car, as they try to save the lady.

Officials reveal that while the incident was now off camera, another tiger reportedly attacked, killing the mother.

ALSO READ: Pet dog mauls owner to death

Authorities have reportedly launched investigation into the incident, while the park has been closed for the time being.
According to ZimNews, Gase, a minister with the Johanne Masowe weChishanu Apostolic Church, allegedly raped and infected a female member of the church, more than three times, during a prayer session, and using threats to silence her and her family.

Gase, who, according to the reports, had infected his victim with HIV instead of giving her spiritual healing, pleaded not guilty to the three counts of rape but Mbobo opined that the prosecution had proven its case beyond reasonable doubts, and handed down the sentence on him, with six years suspended on condition of good behaviour.

The prosecutor, Mary Chapinda, had told the court that on January 12, 2016, Gase was approached by the complainants mother after she suffered from continuous menstrual cycle and he promised to perform healing sessions for three days.

Chapinda said the mother agreed to leave the girl in Gases custody but instead of offering prayers, Gase raped the girl on three occasions and thereafter threatened to bewitch the girls mother and other relatives if they dared reported the matter.
The sack letter signed by the Officer-In-Charge of Discipline in the Service, DCP Agun Olatunji, on behalf of the Controller-General of Prisons, opined that the dismissal of Ikenye came after an investigative panel had found her guilty of the offence after she was indicted.

The letter also stated that Ikenye was found guilty of negative activities which bordered on trafficking.

A statement by the Prisons Service Public Relations Officer, Francis Enobore, said the wardress action contravened the provisions of sections 14 (i) (a) and 82 (n) of Prisons Act, Cap P.29, LFN, 2004, and was punishable under sections 14 (i) (g) and 83 of the Act.

It noted that her offence posed a threat to the security of the prison formation, adding that the officer had been directed to hand over all government property, including her uniform and Service Identification Card to the authority before leaving.
It was gathered that the 28-year-old Adenuga, who also doubled as a guard in the estate, was sacked in May, 2016, due to his cantankerous and unruly behaviour, and warned not to enter the estate again, while the deceased worked as an electrician in the same estate.

However, on the day of the incident, Adenuga allegedly sneaked into the estate around 11am and went to a joint to drink with his friends.

Later on, Olorunsola arrived at the joint and reportedly questioned his friend on his reasons for coming into the estate after he had been banned from coming in, advising him to leave.

But the advice got the suspect angry and a deadly fight ensued between them, leading to the death of the victim.

An eyewitness narrated how the incident that led to the tragedy started:

During their quarrel, Gbenga (Olorunsola) snatched a cup of drink his friend, Adenuga, was holding and poured it on him. Other friends initially thought they were joking with each other.

But they started exchanging words and Gbenga threatened to beat Adenuga up. Before we knew it, Gbenga aimed a punch at Damilare, while Damilare brought out a knife which he used to stab him in the chest.

He fled after the attack, while Gbenga was rushed to the Ifako-Jaiye General Hospital where he was confirmed dead.

Another resident who identified himself as Kolawole, gave a different account, saying that the deceased had gone to meet the suspect after they had been separated, and told him to leave the estate.

Adenuga had been warned by the leadership of the estate to stop coming after he was relieved of his duty as a guard. But he has been coming here from time to time because he is an okada rider.

I think there was more between them than the immediate cause of the fight. It was amazing that such a minor disagreement could lead to a fight, let alone death, Kolawole said.

The State Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), SP Dolapo Badmos, said Olorunsolas corpse had been deposited at the Mainland General Hospitals mortuary, while the suspect has been arrested and is now in custody.

The CSO of Kayfarm Estate brought the suspect to the station and reported that he stabbed one Gbenga Olorunsola with a knife in his chest over an argument.
Honduran Health Minister Yolani Batres told reporters six of the cases of microcephaly were in the south of Honduras, one near the border with El Salvador and two more in the capital. Two other cases had been previously reported in Honduras.

Honduras has reported almost 28,000 Zika infections, including 493 pregnant women.

U.S. health officials have concluded that Zika infections in pregnant women can cause microcephaly, a birth defect marked by small head size that can lead to severe developmental problems in babies.

The World Health Organization has said there is strong scientific consensus that Zika can also cause Guillain-Barre, a rare neurological syndrome that causes temporary paralysis in adults.
The agency said it found people without water, food or sanitation in areas formerly in control of the Boko Haram terrorists, warning that tens of thousands of them may die if not urgently treated.

An international charity group, Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), had, last month, said that the condition of the Internally Displaced Persons in Bama camp, where 24, 0000 are living, is a catastrophic humanitarian emergency.

According to the group, nearly 200 refugees who fled Boko Haram attacks, have died of starvation and dehydration.

"Some 134 children on average will die every day from causes linked to acute malnutrition if the response is not scaled up quickly," Unicef's Regional Director for Western and Central Africa, Manuel Fontaine.

"We need all partners and donors to step forward to prevent any more children from dying. No-one can take on a crisis of this scale alone."

ALSO READ: Govt orders probe of alleged diversion of food meant for IDPs in Borno
Le Mer made the pledge on Wednesday in Abuja when he paid a courtesy visit to Controller-General of the NPS, Mr Ja'afaru Ahmed.

He stressed the need for collaboration with the NPS in order to share and compare notes on radicalisation and necessary counter narratives aimed at fighting terrorism.

Responding, the NPS boss, Ja'afaru Ahmed, thanked the envoy for the visit and emphasised the need for global partnership to defeat terrorism.

He called for relevant training opportunities especially in the various prisons training schools.
This was contained in a letter addressed to Jibrin by counsel to the speaker, Professor Joash Ojo Amupitan (SAN) on Wednesday, July 27, 2016.

According to the letter, Jibrin is expected to tender an unreserved apology to the speaker in all the print and electronic media where the allegations appeared.

The letter reads in part:

"The attention of our client has been drawn to a libellous press statement you issued on Monday 25th July 2016 which was made available to members of the press (print and electronic media) titled: THE CORRUPT SPEAKER YAKUBU DOGARA AND HIS 3-MAN CABAL.

"In the said publication, you published words concerning our client and three other principal members of the House of Representatives.

"The personal references are obviously directed at our client, and amount to a very serious libel."By the said publication and without putting to the public any shred of evidence, our client is portrayed as a criminal, corrupt, dishonest, fraudulent, dishonourable and unfit to hold the position of Speaker of House of Representatives."Our clients reputation has further been brought down in the estimation of right thinking members of the society and he has been thrown into public opprobrium, odium, scorn and ridicule."Consequently, we consider your publication on the matter as not only libellous but made in bad faith; an act of vendetta owing to your recent removal as the Chairman of House Committee on Appropriation.

ALSO READ: 'Jibrin is bitter,' Reps react to allegation of N40bn fraud against Speaker"The said publication is also aimed at causing disaffection between Nigerians and members of the House of Representatives."Sequel to the above, we have to request you to submit immediately to us a clear and unqualified apology and retraction of the publication in an equally conspicuous position in all the print and electronic media where the publication appeared."TAKE NOTICE that in the event of your failure/refusal to comply with the above mentioned demands within seven (7) days of your receipt of this letter, we have further instructions to institute a suit against you in a court of law. If we have to pursue this course, we shall be claiming aggravated and exemplary damages."
In a lengthy statement issued by the House spokesman, Abdulrazak Namdas on Tuesday, July 26, 2016, the House said Jibrin was removed on Wednesday, July 20, 2016 for "his incompetence, abuse of budgetary process and serial betrayal, including a proclivity to blackmail.

The House alleged that Jibrin had inserted funds for the Muhammadu Buhari Film Villagein his constituency in Kano without the consent or solicitation of President Buhari.

According to the statement, every time Jibrin gets up to speak on the floor of the House, there was spontaneous chorus of "ole! ole,! ole! or thief! thief! thief! Barawo! Barawo! Barawo!" from lawmakers.

The statement reads in part:

"It was also discovered that the former chairman, Appropriations, discreetly and clandestinely allocated monies for projects that are not clearly defined in the budget for the purposes of exploiting the ambiguities for personal gains.

"Furthermore, he was found to be responsible for some bogus allocations in the budget for projects that have no locations and were apparently never meant to be executed.

"Hon. Jibrins mishandling of the 2016 budget process nearly fractured the otherwise cordial relationship between the Executive and the Legislature and brought the National Assembly and the government to public ridicule.

"For reasons that were not noble and not in the Public Interest, Hon Abdulmumin had initially inflated the Budget by adding about N250b more to the total figure as submitted by Mr President. This, the National Assembly Leadership out rightly rejected as a form of financial recklessness and inability to appreciate the dwindling resources available to government necessitating that we act prudently. He was directed therefore to make even further cuts below Mr Presidents total figure.

"Hon Abdulmumin, in his desperation to ingratiate himself into the good books of the Presidency, unilaterally entered into commitments on the structure of the Budget, without the knowledge of the National Assembly Leadership, in the full knowledge, not only that he had no authority to do so, but dishonestly had no intentions of keeping to those commitments, having done the exact opposite in processing the budget details.

"He displayed crass ineptitude and general lack of capacity to handle the work, thereby serving as a clog in the appropriations process. He contributed significantly to the delays in the passage of the Appropriation Bill. No one, not even his Deputy and Members of the Appropriations Committee, could reach him at certain periods during the budget process.

"Confirming some of the reasons for his removal and true to type, Hon Abdulmumin has since after his sack, resorted to blackmail, his stock in trade. He has released documents from dubious sources in a desperate bid to lure gullible members of the public to his side. Mr Speakers inputs to the 2016 Budget was signed and delivered to him. If he has honour, let him release the signed inputs of Mr Speaker and not pieces of paper that bears no acknowledged authorship.

"The Leadership also observed with embarrassment that since his mismanagement of 2016 Budget process, every time Hon Abdulmumin gets up to speak on the floor of the House, there was spontaneous chorus of ole! ole,! ole! or thief! thief! thief! Barawo! Barawo! Barawo! from Hon. members which climaxed in a motion to have him removed as Chairman, Appropriations.

"It is regrettably true that Hon Abdulmumin was entrusted with critical aspects of the budget, but he is not the sole author of the budget as he appears to be portraying himself. Every reasonable person knows that it is a bare faced lie. His stories without corroboration from anyone who was deeply involved in the Budget process is, mere tales by moon light, a fitting story for bed time. If he has any witness, let them speak up in his support.

"Apparently, he doesnt know that no one can be convicted even in the court of public opinion based on the evidence of one man."

Namdas addressed issues regarding the allegation of padding in the National Assembly saying: "When therefore, the National Assembly appropriates funds in the budget, it CAN NEVER under any circumstances or guise be deemed or regarded as tinkering or padding."

He stated that the legislature is constitutionally incapable of padding the budget.
The sacked former Chairman, Committee on Appropriation, Mr. Abdulmumin Jibrin of the House had alleged that Dogara and others plotted to insert over N284 billion in the 2016 budget in the name of constituency projects among others.

The other accused officers are the Deputy Speaker, Mr. Yusuff Lasun; the Chief Whip, Mr. Alhassan Ado-Doguwa; and the Minority Leader, Mr. Leo Ogor.

Jibrin, who was sacked last Wednesday, said he was removed as Chairman of the committee because he opposed their several shady financial moves regarding the budget.

With the scandal plunging the House and it members into disrepute, it said the allegations will be referred to the Committee on Ethics/Privileges for investigation by September 13 - when the House would have resumed from the current annual recess.

The Chairman, House Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Mr. Abdulrazak Namdas, stated this when briefing news men in Abuja on Tuesday, July 26.

He said Jibrin will get a fair hearing from the committee to defend his allegations against the four principal officers, adding that the leadership of the House has also decided to invite the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and other anti-graft agencies to look into the matter, including allegations that Jibrin himself abused his office between 2011 and 2015 when he was the Chairman, Committee on Finance.

He was alleged to have aided the use of front companies that collected funds without executing most of the projects," he said.

The projects have been compiled and will be referred to the anti-graft agencies to establish why the projects were fully paid for and not executed. Who collected the funds and why has Jibrin not raised the alarm about the non-execution of the projects even now?
Buratai gave the charge on Wednesday while declaring close, the three-day "Combat Support Arms Training Week 2016", held at Maimalari Barracks in Maiduguri.

Buratai noted that the battle against insurgency in the North-East had thrown up a lot of challenges, but expressed satisfaction that the efforts were yielding positive results.

``We should not rest on oars until the counter-terrorism and counter-insurgency operations are brought to a conclusive end and peace restored to the region and entire country,'' he said.

He described the theme of the training, ``Countering Assymetric Warfare in the 21st Century: The role of the Combat Support Arms", as apt, pointing out that it was in line with his vision for a professionally trained army for effective discharge of its constitutional roles.

NAN reports that the army chief had earlier paid a condolence visit to the family of the late Borno elder statesman, Alhaji Shettima Ali Monguno, as well as the Shehu of Borno.
Three policemen attached to the Igando Police Division and two residents identified as Baba Victor and Adedokun were wounded in the gun battle, Punch reports.

The gunmen were said to have stormed the community around 6a.m through the waterways behind the Pacific Estate, Ikejiobi Avenue, Ewedogbon - they looted shops in the estate.

The police officers swung into action shortly after the incident was reported. One of them was shot in the head during the shootout but survived the attack, report said.

It was also reported that some of the residents, who were earlier abducted by the militants, escaped during the shootout.

Recounting the ordeal, a landlord in the area said there were women among the militants.

The attacks started in Fatoki community, Igando, on Saturday. We did not know it was our turn this morning (Tuesday). At about 6.30am, they came into the estate, shooting and moving around the streets," the landlord, identified as Olayinka, said.

Everyone ran inside and bolted the doors. They caught a resident, Baba Victor, on his motorcycle, and took him away. They cut him with machetes, but he escaped during the gun battle with the police.

They smashed the vehicles they found on the streets. They broke into shops and stole frozen foods, bags of rice and garri. They were about 15 men. The hoodlums did not cover their faces and there were women among them. Some of us were watching them from our houses.

ALSO READ: Niger Delta Avengers deny being in talks with FG

Over 200 panicking residents were said to have scampered to safety after the incident, with many taking refuge behind about thirteen police vans, two Rapid Response Squad armoured tanks and three OP MESA.
The medical charity, also known as Doctors Without Borders, urged the United Nations to set up emergency food transports to the area, where up to 800,000 civilians have been cut off for over a year, it said

"The situation is a large-scale humanitarian disaster.... There is a vital need to have a food pipeline in place to save the population that can be saved," MSF general director Bruno Jochum told a news briefing.

"We are talking at least about pockets of what is close to a famine."

Under military escort, a MSF team delivered some 40 metric tonnes of food last week to Banki, a town of 12,000 near the Cameroon border, including emergency supplies for more than 4,000 children.

It vaccinated children against measles, which can be deadly in under-fives.

The U.N.'s World Food Programme (WFP) also delivered 30 metric tonnes of food and other items there last week, in a cross-border operation from Cameroon. The U.N. says 3 million people in the northeast are in urgent need of food aid, but that some roads within Nigeria are unsafe for convoys due to mines.

"It is a situation of complete destitution, with hardly anything to eat," said MSF emergency programme director Hugues Robert who was part of the team in Banki. "What is extremely shocking is the level of severe acute malnutrition."

MSF, which carried out a rapid survey of the population in Banki, estimates "extremely high mortality rates of approximately four per 10,000 people per day - four times the emergency threshold," the agency said in a statement.

In the town of Bama, MSF teams estimate that 15 percent of children are suffering from life-threatening malnutrition.
The group said President Muhammadu Buhari should intensify efforts in the exploration of oil in the North East, adding that it will not allow the government export a drop of crude oil from the Niger Delta.

The Avengers stated this in a statement entitled, Your drones wont stop us and issued on Tuesday, July 26, by its spokesman, General Mudoch.

Also note that you will not be able to export one litre of crude in the Niger Delta, just intensify the oil exploration in the North East. As for the ones in the Niger Delta, forget about it because the Nigeria government wont export a drop from our land, the statement said.

The NDA intelligence agency gathered that the said peace talk or dialogue by the federal government is a delay tactic employed by the federal government to enable their purchased drones that are said to arrive latest end of August from the United State.

This whole thing makes us to wonder what kind of country is this. We can all see that President Buhari- led government is a fraud. They are not serious about any dialogue and made it seem the Niger Delta Avengers are the ones not ready for dialogue.

Mr. President you can purchase all the drones in Europe and Untied State. It will not stop the Niger Delta Avengers from bringing the countrys economy to zero. The worse you can do is to kill poor innocent people which the military is good at, but know the Nigeria Economy will suffer, the group added.
For years, Duru entertained movie lovers with classics like "Mama Sunday," "Rattle Snake," "Love Story" among others.

Today, July 27, is the veteran's birthday, and to celebrate him, we have put together five simple facts every true fan should know about him.

ALSO READ:

1. A native of Imo state, Duru was born in Cameroon.

2. In 2007, the actor received the United Nations Ambassador of Peace award for his positive influence on youths.

3. Francis Duru studied Theatre Arts at the University of Port Harcourt in Rivers State.

ALSO READ: undefined

4. The actor made his acting debut in 1989 in the film "Missing Mask," directed by the late Ndubuisi Oko.

5. Happily married, the actor is a proud father of three kids.
Makarfi stated this in an interview with Tribune in reaction to the staggering revelations which emanated from the ongoing $2.1 billion arms deal probe.

"Go to the $2.1billion arms money. $2.1billion is about N700 billion. If you total the money that was said to have been diverted into politics, its not even up to five per cent of this money," the Senator said.

"So, you have 95 per cent that the military and the bureaucracy should account for. Give credit to President Muhammadu Buhari, hes the only one looking at the military and the bureaucracy. And that is why when you see one General, what he is being charged for may be a totality of the majority of the politicians put together. And people dont see that point.

"They will only look at the politicians. Mind you, it is this military and bureaucracy that really knew right from the beginning that, that money was for arms. Those politicians were only given a task," he said

The arms fund was meant for purchase of arms for the military to further advance the fight against the Boko Haram sect, but the embattled former national security adviser, Sambo Dasuki, allegedly diverted the money.
Mr Timipre Sylva and his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) on Jan. 30 challenged his return as governor by the Independent National Electoral Commissions at the tribunal.

INEC had declared Dickson as winner of the Dec.5, 2015 and Jan. 9, 2016 re-run governorship election.

In his judgment, the tribunal Chairman, Justice Kazeem Alogba, held that there were no evidence to prove wide spread illegality during the election.

He also held that the allegations of various criminal and electoral offences which the petitioners stated affected the outcome of the election were not proved beyond reasonable doubt.

"The petition was not backed by proof of required standard and therefore lacks merit, he said.

Aloga also held that INEC was right and had the power to have cancelled the supplementary election conducted on Dec 6, 2015 with proved evidence of malpractices.

He further held that contrary to the petitioners contention, the decision to cancel the Dec. 6, 2015 poll was not unilaterally taken by the Resident Electoral Commissioner.

The tribunal chairman said evidence showed that the decision was taken by INEC National Headquarters.

"There was sufficient evidence that the earlier supplementary election scheduled to hold on Dec. 6, 2015, was marred by widespread violence, malpractices and irregularities, Aloga held.

"In the light of this, the petition filed against the victory of Mr Dickson Seriake in the Bayelsa State Governorship election fails.

"Seriake is therefore duly returned as governor having scored the highest votes in that election, he said.

Mr Sebastine Hon (SAN), counsel to Sylva had alleged widespread malpractices against the PDP in Southern Ijaw Local Government Area, during the Dec. 5 and Dec.6, 2015 governorship election, and the re-run held on Jan. 9, 2016.

He claimed that the Resident Electoral Commissioner erred by failing to complete the election process, which was declared inconclusive.

The petitioner had alleged that the election was marred by malpractices, intimidation of voters, hijacking of electoral materials, no-voting and non-collation of results in parts of the state.

Sylva argued that the impact of the illegality were substantial in parts of Sagbama, Yenogoa, Nembe, Ogbia,and Ekeremor Local Government Areas.

However, Mr Taye Oyetibo (SAN), counsel to Seriake had opposed the petition, and urged the tribunal to dismiss it.
Rep. James Faleke of the (APC) and former governor Idris Wada of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), had appealed the judgment of the Governorship Election Petition Tribunal.

The tribunal had upheld the election of Bello as duly elected governor of the state.

Justice Jumai Sankey led other four Justices to reserve the judgment after counsel to parties adopted their written addresses.

``The judgment in these appeals will be delivered on a date to be communicated to parties in the matter," she held.

Earlier, Chief Akin Olujimi (SAN), counsel to Faleke, urged the court to invalidate the decision of the tribunal, adding that the governor was not properly nominated by their political party.

He submitted that Bello did not undergo all the electioneering processes as required by law before he emerged as his party's candidate in a re-run election.

Olujimi also urged the court to allow the appeal and declare his client as the proper person for the governorship seat.

However, Mr Ahmed Raji (SAN), counsel to INEC, asked the court to uphold Bello's election.

Raji said that the governors name was submitted to his client by his party as a replacement to late Abubakar Audu.

Audu, the estwhile flagbearer of the party in the election, passed on during the election.

Also, Mr Joseph Daudu (SAN), counsel to Bello insisted that the issue of nomination of candidates for election was the sole responsibility of a political party.

Daudu told the court that Bello, having been nominated by the APC in compliance with the existing law and authority of the party remained the candidate of his party in the election.

He urged the court to dismiss all the appeals against his client and uphold the decision of the tribunal which had earlier held that Bello was properly nominated.

The tribunal had, in a judgment delivered on June 6 dismissed Faleke and Wada's petitions challenging Bellos election as governor the state.

The three-member panel, headed by Justice Halima Mohammed, held in a unanimous judgment that Faleke could not be declared governor as he was never the substantive candidate in the 2015 governorship election.

Mohammad held that the APC was right to have nominated Bello to replace late Audu as its candidate in the Dec 5, 2015 supplementary election.

She declared that Faleke had no locus-standi to have filed the petition in the first place.
The former president's statement however generated reactions from those directly involved, the lawmakers.

Speaking with journalists in Abuja on Tuesday, July 26, 2016, the deputy Senate leader, Bala Ibn Na'Allah dared the former president to prove evidence to back his claim.

The lawmaker stated that he had rejected Obasanjo's N50 million inducement to subvert the Constitution and provide a constitutional framework for the third term ambition of the former president.

"My attention has been drawn to a purported statement attributed to former president Olusegun Obasanjo where he made a sweeping statement that there are no men of integrity in the National Assembly," he said

I am respectfully taking exception to the statement which I express the hope is not true.

To start with, it is not in my character to join issues with elder statement who have had the privilege of superintending over the affairs of our great country Nigeria.

This exception has become necessary in view of the enormity of the alleged statement to my person and integrity.

If former president Obasanjo can come out with one proven record of corruption against me as a person I promised to vacate my seat as a senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

For the records I was the only member from Kebbi State who did not find it worthy at that time to collect the sum of N50 million as an inducement to subvert the Constitution and provide a constitutional framework for the third term ambition of president Obasanjo.

I find this statement if it is true to be reckless and terrifying. The implication of the statement is to say that the entire over 170 million Nigerians have not elected a single person with integrity among the 469 members of the National Assembly.

This is definitely rhapsodic and does not conform to commonsense and reason.

Meanwhile, the Senate on Tuesday commenced screening for the 41 ambassadorial nominees. The event however took a dramatic turn when two nominees failed the National Anthem test.
INEC had initially cancelled the election due to violence and fixed a new date, July 30, to conclude the poll, but on Tuesday, July 26, the Commission suspended the process again.

The latest cancellation has sparked outrage from rival political parties and the people of Rivers State.

In a statement by the state Commissioner for Information and Communication, Dr. Austin Tam-George, it call on the Federal Government to disband INEC, describing it as "incompetent."

He accused the Commission of colluding with the All Progressives Congress (APC) to prevent the election from taking place.

The government of Rivers State and people of Rivers State are shocked by the bare-faced collusion between INEC and the All Progressives Congress (APC) to subvert democracy in the state.

It is completely unacceptable that Rivers State would continue to be denied full representation in the National Assembly due to the incompetence and malpractices orchestrated by INEC, Tam-George said.

"We call on the presidency and the National Assembly to act urgently in the national interest to disband INEC as presently constituted, for its incompetence and open partisanship.

We call on the international community to initiate and maintain diplomatic pressure on the federal government, which continues to frustrate the independence of INEC, and the evolution of democratic diversity in Nigeria.

The people of Rivers state will continue to resist and defeat the medieval authoritarianism of the APC the statement said.

However, the Acting Inspector-General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, the Director General of State Service, Mr. Musa Daura, the Minister of Transport, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi and the Governor of Rivers State, Mr. Nyesome Wike, met on Tuesday night and signed a peace agreement to guarantee a violence-free and credible re-run election.
However, speaking to reporters aboard a plane taking him to Poland, the pope said he was not talking about a war of religion, but rather one of domination of peoples and economic interests.

"The word that is being repeated often is insecurity, but the real word is war," he said in brief comments to reporters while flying to southern Poland for a five-day visit.

"Let's recognise it. The world is in a state of war in bits and pieces," he said, adding that the attacks could be seen as another world war, specifically mentioning World War One and Two.

"Now there is this one (war). It is perhaps not organic but it is organised and it is war," he said. "We should not be afraid to speak this truth. The world is at war because it has lost peace."

About 15 minutes later, after greeting journalists individually, Francis took the microphone again and said he wanted "to clarify" that he was not referring to a war of religion.

"Not a war of religion. There is a war of interests. There is a war for money. There is a war for natural resources. There is a war for domination of peoples. This is the war," he said.

"All religions want peace. Others want war. Do you understand?" he said.

He called Jacques Hamel, the priest forced to his knees by Islamist militants on Tuesday who then slit his throat, "a saintly priest", but said he was just one of many innocent victims.
The association also added that it will take the anti graft to campuses by recovering all funds stolen by corrupt former public officials and civil servants.

In a statement by the Acting President/National Convention Chairman, Prince Miaphen, the group also noted that corruption had for long remained the bane of Nigerias development.

ALSO READ: NANS sign MOU to check corrupt practices in higher institutions

The statement read, We strongly commend the zest and diligence of the Buhari administration in the war against corruption as it has made it resoundingly clear that indeed a new no-nonsense sheriff is in town and there is no hiding place for any former or present corrupt official.

We are fully aware that some trepid and disgruntled corrupt individuals and organisations are stopping at nothing to discredit and sabotage the ongoing war against corruption."

Urging the president not to relent on the war, the statement said, We intend to partner with Mr. President by taking the anti-corruption war to the campuses.
In a report by New York Times, Pence reportedly said, The FBI will get to the bottom of who is behind the hacking. If it is Russia and they are interfering in our elections, I can assure you both parties and the United States government will ensure there are serious consequences.

Speaking further, he said, That said, the Democrats singularly focusing on who might be behind it and not addressing the basic fact that theyve been exposed as a party who not only rigs the government, but rigs elections while literally accepting cash for federal appointments is outrageous.

This is a national security issue now and the idea that youd have any American calling for a foreign power to commit espionage in the U.S. for the purpose of somehow changing an election, I think, that were now in a national security space, he said.

Following the call made by Trump, the Clinton campaign have accused the Republican nominee of encouraging Russian to meddle in the politics of the United States of America while also committing espionage against the country.

Clintons chief foreign policy adviser, Jake Sullivan said This has to be the first time that a major presidential candidate has actively encouraged a foreign power to conduct espionage against his political opponent. This has gone from being a matter of curiosity, and a matter of politics, to being a national security issue.
The group of 30 gunmen seized the police station on July 17, killing a police officer, wounding two others and taking hostage nine officers.

They have demanded the release of jailed opposition politician Jirair Sefilian and the resignation of President Serzh Sarksyan.

After negotiations with security forces, they released four remaining captives on Saturday, but refused to surrender.

One policeman and four gunmen were wounded in a shootout last night, police said. A policeman and two gunmen were taken to hospital, while two wounded gunmen stayed at the police station.

"The armed group took hostage the doctors sent to the police station to give medical aid to the wounded gunmen," the police said in a statement.

Armenia's national security service called on the gunmen to lay down their arms, free the hostages and surrender. It set no deadline.

Any police operation to storm the seized station would be complicated. Dozens of people are gathering nearby every day, demanding that bloodshed be avoided.

The U.S. Embassy said it was worried by the situation.

"We are especially concerned by media reports today that medical personnel have been detained in the Erebuni Police building," the embassy said in a statement. "Such actions are unacceptable, and if true, we call for the immediate and safe release of these individuals."

The gunmen said the doctors had been asked to stay rather than taken hostage.

"They just want the doctors to be there permanently to help the wounded guys," Alex Yenikomshian, a member of the opposition Founding Parliament movement, told reporters.

Their jailed leader, Sefilian, is accused by the ex-Soviet state's authorities of plotting civil unrest. Sefilian was jailed in June over allegations of illegally possessing weapons.

A former military commander, Sefilian has accused Armenian leader Sarksyan of mishandling a long-running conflict between Armenian-backed separatists in the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan and Azeri forces.
The council unanimously adopted a French-drafted resolution that extends the mission known as MINUSCA until November 15, 2017 and maintains the ceiling of 10,750 troops and 2,080 police.

The resolution expressed support for President Faustin-Archange Touadera who took office in March and said the protection of civilians remained a priority task for MINUSCA.

"Now that the transition has been successfully completed, we must now successfully complete the stabilization" of the country, French Ambassador Francois Delattre told the council.

France earlier this month announced the pullout of the last 350 remaining soldiers from the Sangaris force, which was sent to the Central African Republic in December 2013 to quell violence.

The mission, which involved nearly 2,500 French troops at its peak, is due to end entirely in October.

Council members noted that the security situation is improving but remains fragile as armed militias continue attacks and national security forces are too weak to confront them.

Earlier this month, Touadera marked his first 100 days since his election by declaring that entire regions of the country remained under the control of rebel groups and that "the country is in danger."

The resolution said MINUSCA must "support the rapid extension of state authority over the entire territory of the CAR" to secure main supply routes and help police redeploy to more remote areas.

It welcomed steps to enforce zero-tolerance of sexual abuse and exploitation by peacekeepers, following a wave of allegations against MINUSCA troops and police.

UN peacekeepers will be tasked with promoting human rights and helping ensure deliveries of humanitarian aid.

MINUSCA will support the new government's efforts to disarm the militias and reintegrate some of the fighters into the security and defense forces.

Delattre said the United Nations must ensure that MINUSCA has the proper equipment and technology to fulfill its mandate.

The resolution was drafted under Chapter Seven of the UN charter, which allows for the use of force and sanctions to enforce its provisions.

The Central African Republic descended into bloodshed between Christian and Muslim militias following a coup in March 2013 that ousted long-time leader Francois Bozize.
"Security issues, safety, any kind of emergency. The idea is to always be ready for an emergency response," US defense attache Colonel Scott H. Morgan told AFP at the training venue in Thies, east of the Senegalese capital, Dakar.

Around 200 troops from an infantry battalion based in Georgia and 200 Senegalese paratroopers took part in the two-week "Africa Readiness Training" exercise.

It is the latest sign of stepped-up military cooperation between the two countries.

A key point of the deal was to give US troops access to areas in Senegal, such as airports and military installations, in order to respond to security or health needs.

It also allowed for joint training so as "to be better prepared to respond together to the risks which threaten our common interests."

"We have been sharing a lot," said Lieutenant-Colonel Souleyman Kande, who commands the Senegalese paratroopers.

"They are changing. They adapted their way of doing things to ours."

After Ebola, which caused more than 11,000 deaths between late 2013 and this year in West Africa, diplomats say a future crisis could be another epidemic, a natural disaster calling for a humanitarian response, "or a terrorist threat".
"We cannot allow Libyan oil to be exported except via the National Oil Company in Benghazi," said General Abdulrazzaq al-Nadhouri, chief of staff for forces loyal to the rival government based in the eastern city of Tobruk.

"We will target any boat that approaches the Libyan coast without prior agreement with the NOC in Benghazi," he told AFP.

Oil is Libya's main natural resource with reserves estimated at 48 billion barrels, the largest in Africa. But production was hit hard in the wake of the 2011 revolt that ousted dictator Moamer Kadhafi.

Like many state institutions, the country's oil company was split into two as rival governments emerged.

Nadhouri's threat came as the UN-backed Government of National Accord (GNA) based in the capital Tripoli attempts to revive Libya's all-important oil sector.

His comments are a blow to hopes that the sector would be strengthened by an agreement early this month between rival leaders of the NOC to unify their ranks.

He said his threat was a response to an agreement between UN envoy Martin Kobler and Ibrahim al-Jadhran, the leader of militia set up to guard the country's main oil facilities, to reopen the key Ras Lanuf and Al-Sidra export terminals.

Jadhran's militia backs the GNA and has joined GNA-allied forces fighting the Islamic State group in Sirte, 450 kilometres (280 miles) east of Tripoli.

The terminals were closed after an attack by IS early this year.

In a statement released on Tuesday, the NOC in Tripoli said the Libyan oil and gas sector "should be kept aside from political conflicts".

It said NOC officials had met representatives of international oil companies including Italy's ENI and France's Total in Vienna between Thursday and Sunday.

Those present agreed on "the urgent need to end the closure of the oilfields and terminals without any conditions", the NOC statement said.
Ansar Dine laid claim to the attack last week by gunmen who fired on troop positions, burned buildings and pillaged shops, killing 17 Malian soldiers and wounded 35 on an army base in the central town of Nampala last week.

Army spokesman Modibo Naman Traore said the state security services arrested the commander, Mahmoud Barry - nicknamed "Abou Yehiya" - as he was travelling on a road between Nampala and the town of Dogofri.

French forces intervened in 2013 to push back Islamist fighters who had hijacked a Tuareg uprising to take over northern Mali. But despite 11,000 United Nations peacekeepers deployed in the country since, insecurity has worsened and militants still launch frequent attacks across the vast desert country and its neighbours.

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The Al-Qaeda aligned Shabaab group is blamed for a string of bloody assaults in Somalia and neighbouring Kenya, and is fighting to overthrow Mogadishu's internationally-backed government.

"At least 13 people were confirmed to have died in two explosions, one of the vehicles went off near a security checkpoint and another close to a UN compound," said Bishaar Abdi Gedi, a police official.

The attack was condemned by the African Union and the United Nations, which noted that none of its personnel were among the confirmed dead.

"This horrific incident is a fresh example of the extremists' desperate attempts to disrupt political progress", said Michael Keating, the UN's special representative for Somalia.

A Shabaab statement said it was a suicide attack by its militants.

An AFP journalist at the scene heard gunfire after the explosions tore through the area. A portion of the airport's boundary wall was partially destroyed by one of the car bombs.

The city's airport is heavily fortified and adjoins the capital's main base for AMISOM, the 22,000-strong force backing the government in the battle against Shabaab insurgents.

AMISOM troops were deployed to Somalia in 2007 to defend the government against attacks by the Shabaab.

"Around 9am there was an explosion outside one of our gates, about 200 metres away," mission spokesman Joe Kibet told AFP.

"It looks like an attack, they intended to attack. Now the situation is calm and our personnel is working on it," he added.

The African Union denounced on Twitter the "senseless" assault, intended "solely to disrupt and paralyse the lives of ordinary Somalians."

The Shabaab were forced out of the capital five years ago but continue to carry out regular attacks on military, government and civilian targets.

In recent months they have claimed attacks on AMISOM's bases as well as civilian targets including hotels.

This year is considered critical for the group, which is eager to disrupt an expected change of government leadership due in the coming months.

ALSO READ: Car bomb rams into Mogadishu's local government headquarters

Somalia was supposed to hold national elections this year but is instead going to hold what diplomats call a "limited franchise election" in which ordinary citizens do not participate.

The UN now hopes a one-person-one-vote election will be possible in 2020.

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Carrying the national flag -- now a symbol of protest -- the women walked through the second city of Bulawayo, singing songs denouncing the veteran leader.

"We are demonstrating to expose the injustices and police brutality and demand the government to engage us and deal with the socio-economic crises," said Jenni Williams, leader of Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA).

"Violence is the Weapon of the Weak" read some posters carried by the women.

The heavily guarded procession held a prayer at the statue of national hero Joshua Nkomo, one of the leaders of the country's fight for liberation against white minority rule.

Zimbabwe has been hit by a series of street protests - the largest seen in many years in the country, triggered by an economic crisis that has left banks short of cash and the government struggling to pay its workers.

Salaries for civil servants and soldiers have been delayed, fuelling discontent with the government.

Mugabe, 92, has often used his security forces to crush dissent since he came to power in 1980, but the growing revolt including the popular ThisFlag internet protest has seen more people speak out against the government.

A day-long nationwide strike three weeks ago in Bulawayo closed offices, shops, schools and some government departments.

In the capital Harare, dozens of citizens picketed at a magistrate's court demanding the release of Linda Masarira, an activist who is in custody on charges of public violence.
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.
Barb Shinbori had a bone to pick with me.

In this space, I tell stories about places and people related to the Quad-City food scene. So far this summer, I've written about the farmers market, new restaurants and a country cupboard on the side of the road in Donahue, Iowa.

But I had missed something, Shinbori said one day on the phone.

I had missed a "very authentic and very important" ingredient in the scene: Kurt's Green Acres.

"I was just yelling at my computer," Shinbori half-jokingly told me after she read one of my stories. "If you're going to write about all of this, you have to come out and see the real Iowa farmers, the real thing."

So I did.

She told me to wear sunscreen and get ready to sweat. And the day before our visit, she texted me "Don't wear heels!"

Shinbori is the self-described spokesperson for Kurt's Green Acres, a vegetable stand owned by Rick Mess and Mike Schwarz on Jersey Ridge Road in Davenport. About four miles away, you can drive to the farm where the produce, from corn and tomatoes to potatoes and melons, is grown.

She's also a spokesperson for vegetables, especially of the local variety.

"I love my vegetables more than the average person," she said. "I crave vegetables the way some people crave cigarettes."

You can tell by the "Got corn?" T-shirt and dangling corn-shaped earrings she wears.

Shinbori has worked behind the store's counter from early May to Oct. 31 for the past 12 or 13 years.

She handles its Facebook page, answers the phone, slings and swings stalks of corn and talks to everybody who walks in.

"My job is a little bit of everything," she said.

Shinbori used to spend $50 each trip at the Freight House Farmers Market, and couldn't say no to bundles of produce.

"I finally decided I couldn't afford that," she said. "I walked over to them and said, "I will work for vegetables."

She started helping out Mess and Schwarz, and became "their vegetable guru" at the farmers market.

"Whoever is with me at the market gets used to people saying, 'Hi, Barb' over and over," she said. "I've been here all my life, so I know a lot of people."

She calls herself a born-again farmer after careers at Rock Island Arsenal and Genesis Health System.

This year, working at the stand was getting to be too much, so she handed over her duties to her "vegetable guru in-training" Lauren Pearson, 15, who lives across the street from the stand.

"She asked me every year if she could help out," Shinbori said. "Now, it's her turn."

But even in semi-retirement, she's never too far away from the stand or farm. She's there to work the old cash register and to ask where customers are from. If they're from out of state, she makes a note on the white board.

"I like being around all the people," she said. "You don't get this kind of talk at the grocery store. It's just a good old-fashioned veggie stand."

As I pulled away, Shinbori told me to text her after I sampled my first bite of corn. She reminded me, one last time, not to overcook it.

"People will give you a lot of ideas for how to cook corn, but you don't need much," she said. "I guess I'm a purist when it comes to my vegetables."
Emergency response training at a Bettendorf church on Tuesday turned into a debate on allowing churchgoers to carry concealed weapons.

The argument began during a segment that dealt with responding to active shooters. The event was held at St. John Vianney Catholic Church.

"I do not want parishioners bringing guns into my house of worship," said the Rev. Christine Isham, pastor of Edwards Congregational United Church of Christ, Davenport. "It's God's house. I'm a non-violent person. There has to be another way."

Ken Brown, a member of Mount Zion Missionary Baptist Church, East Moline, and several others who spoke during the segment took a pro-concealed carry stance.

"It's coming to a time in this world we live in where you have to protect yourself now," Brown said.

Someone from the audience called out that at his church, people are encouraged to carry concealed weapons.

The debate spilled over during lunch. After hugging, Isham and Brown continued the debate.

"Times have changed," Brown said.

"It's the same God," Isham said.

"I don't think we have to agree," Brown said.

"It's more dangerous the more people have guns," Isham said.

During the seminar, there was no specific mention of Tuesday morning's deadly attack on a Catholic church in France  where two assailants professing allegiance to the Islamic State slit the throat of an 84-year-old priest  or last year's fatal shooting of nine people at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina. But references to an escalation of global gun violence were made by both speakers and participants at the Bettendorf event.

Mark Hilgendorf of Zion Lutheran Church of Clinton weighed in on the debate, saying he has no problem with an armed congregation.

"I don't want the Wild West," Hilgendorf said. "But I don't want the sticker on the window that says 'gun-free zone.' That makes the shooter think we're sitting ducks."

Bettendorf police officer Jeff Nelson, who led the scenario-based discussion on active shooter response, was asked what he thought about gun-free zones.

"They have good intentions," Nelson said. "But they only hold back law-abiding citizens. Iowa is a shall carry state; anybody can display a weapon on their hip. Bad guys do not adhere to the law."

Both Iowa and Illinois allow people to carry concealed weapons in public.

Nelson added the gun-free zone signs give a "false sense of security."

The signs are an invitation to "break the law," said Roger Vester, pastor of New Life Baptist Church, Davenport.

He added that, as pastor, his job is to "protect our people."

Nelson offered suggestions on how to respond to an active shooter, or an "active killer," as he put it, because not all mass casualty situations involve firearms.

Using materials from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, including a video, Nelson urged victims in those situations to either run or hide if at all possible, saying there is on average eight to 12 minutes from when the situation begins to when police make contact.

Fighting with the attacker is a last resort, Nelson said.

"Am I going to sit on the floor and wait to be executed or am I going to do something to save my life?" he asked.

If during a mass shooting situation a victim is able to seize the gun from the attacker, Nelson said, the victim should immediately discard the firearm in a garbage can or some container as the responding officers are looking for a suspect holding a gun. The scenario brought the concealed carry debate up again.

"My suggestion is to put it away as soon as possible," Nelson said. "Officers want to see everyone's hands."

He added that callers should let the 911 dispatcher know that members of the congregation are armed.
Cory Gregory, who pleaded guilty to the murder of Adrianne Reynolds more than a decade ago, wants a new sentencing hearing.

Gregory, 28, claimed in a handwritten petition for post-conviction relief filed in late April in Rock Island County District Court that his 45-year prison sentence is unconstitutional because he was 17 at the time of the offense.

Gregory pointed to a 2012 U.S. Supreme Court rulings that determined that a mandatory sentence of life without parole for juvenile offenders is unconstitutional and that they cannot be automatically punished the same as adults without considering their age and other factors.

In a later decision, the high court ruled that the 2012 decision was retroactive.

Gregory wrote in his petition that although he was sentenced to 45 years, the factors noted by the high court regarding juvenile offenders applies to him and a new sentencing hearing is required "in the interests of justice."

He further wrote that the sentence is excessive and essentially is a "de facto" life sentence. His projected parole date is July 2047, several months shy of his 60th birthday.

If he does survive the 45 years, he will in no way be restored to useful citizenship, Gregory wrote. He will be too old to gain employment. Even if he is physically able, there will be a 45-year gap in his resume.

Post-conviction relief proceedings are civil actions that challenge constitutional errors that occurred at the trial court level and on appeal. A previous petition for post-conviction relief was denied in 2011.

Rock Island County States Attorney John McGehee said Tuesday that he has not yet seen Gregory's petition and will be seeking clarification from a judge on how to proceed.

McGehee said he thinks Gregory had a fair sentencing hearing and we are going to do whatever necessary to contest him getting a new sentencing hearing.

Reynolds, 16, was strangled by Gregory, of Moline, and co-defendant Sarah Kolb, then 16, of Milan, during a struggle in Kolb's car while the teens were parked for lunch at a Moline Taco Bell on Jan. 21, 2005.

They recruited Nathan Gaudet, then 16, of Moline, to hide Reynolds' remains by cutting her body into several pieces. Gregory led police to two secluded locations where Reynolds dismembered remains were found.

Kolb's first trial in Rock Island County ended with a hung jury. Her second trial in Dixon, Ill., resulted in a conviction.

Kolb, now 28, was sentenced to 48 years in prison on a first-degree murder charge and five years for concealing a homicide.

Gaudet served about four years in a juvenile detention facility for his role in concealing Reynolds' death. He was killed in a car crash in 2012 in Indiana.

Gregory pleaded guilty in April 2006 to first-degree murder and concealment of a homicidal death. In July of that year, he was sentenced to 40 years in prison, of which he will have to serve 100 percent, on the murder charge and five years on the concealment charge.

The Illinois Third District Appellate Court denied his appeal in 2009.
MUSCATINE, Iowa  The courtroom held its collective breath Tuesday morning as former Muscatine Police Officer Tomas Tovar was told his fate after being convicted in June of third-degree sexual abuse.

District Judge Mark Lawson sentenced Tovar, 49, to up to 10 years in prison.

"You violated a public trust. Hopefully, this will send a message to the community that no one is above the law," Lawson said directing his remarks at Tovar.

Tovar was an on-duty officer with the Muscatine Police Department in February 2013 when he drove the victim, Shari Martin of Davenport, to the Clarion Hotel in Muscatine after her boyfriend was arrested for operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated.

Tovar than proceeded to have sexual intercourse with her. Martin testified she was intoxicated, and had little memory of the night.

Besides the prison term, Tovar was also ordered to register as a convicted sex offender, and pay a $1,000 fine. He will have 30 days to file an appeal. He was also given a special sentence prescribed by the Iowa Code under section 903B.

According to the code, a person convicted of a class "C" felony or greater offense shall also be sentenced, in addition to any other punishment provided by law, to a special sentence committing the person into the custody of the director of the Iowa Department of Corrections for the rest of the person's life, with eligibility for parole as provided in chapter 906. The board of parole shall determine whether the person should be released on parole or placed in a work release program. The special sentence imposed under this section shall commence upon completion of the sentence imposed under any applicable criminal sentencing provisions for the underlying criminal offense and the person shall begin the sentence under supervision as if on parole or work release.

The victim, Martin, spoke in the courtroom before Tovar's sentence was handed down.

She talked about the "battle" she had with her emotions after the incident occurred, and said she had difficulty leaving her house.

"I felt paralyzed for at least two years straight," Martin said.

Martin added that she would not "wish evil on anyone."

"I release you from any bitterness and anger so I can move on with my life," she said.

Martin fought back tears, and said while she would release him from her anger, he still should pay a price.

"There's earthly penalties for what has been done," she said.

Martin also said the incident didn't color her attitude towards all police officers.

"I don't think what you did should put a bad light on such an honorable profession," she said.

Tovar decided not to address the court prior to sentencing but he did ask that he be allowed to hug his wife before he was led out of the courtroom.

Denise Timmins and Robert Sand, with the Area Prosecutions Division of the Iowa Attorney General's Office prosecuted the case due to a conflict of interest with the Muscatine County Attorney's Office.

"I'm glad that this can all be done for Shari. It was a just sentence and well deserved," Timmins said.

Murray Bell, a Davenport attorney representing Tovar, declined comment following the sentencing hearing.
The Army Corps of Engineers has signed off on granting the final permits that were standing in the way of the Dakota Access interstate crude oil pipeline.

With permits approved earlier this year by the Iowa Utilities Board and the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, the approval by the Corps now means the controversial Bakken oil pipeline is green-lighted.

There are no issues in Iowa, all of Iowa is done, said Ward Lenz, regulatory branch chief for the Corps Rock Island District.

The $3.8 billion, 1,168-mile underground pipeline will begin in the Bakken region of North Dakota, cross a section of South Dakota, traverse 18 counties in Iowa and end in Illinois.

The project will place 346 miles of pipeline in Iowa, crossing the state on a diagonal from northwest to southeast.

Ward said the Corps will spot check certain portions of the pipeline during construction to ensure that wetland mitigation and permit conditions are met.

Lisa Dillinger, a spokeswoman for pipeline developer Dakota Access, a division of Energy Transfer Partners of Texas, said in a email Tuesday that approval of the remaining 63 Corps permits allows work on the pipeline to begin across the state. Approval also included crossings of the Missouri and Mississippi rivers.

Regulators in the other states crossed by the pipeline previously gave their approvals.

We can now move forward with construction in all areas as quickly as possible in order to limit construction activities to one growing season and be in service by the end of this year, Dillinger wrote.

The Corps approval was met with a mix of criticism and praise.

Todays decision from the Army Corps isnt a surprise, said a statement from Cherie Mortice, president of the Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement. It has been business as usual for Iowa and federal regulators  putting corporate interests ahead of the common good and our land.

Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement and Bold Iowa said in statements that they plan to pursue non-violent civil disobedience to delay and halt the pipeline.

Well continue to fight tooth and nail  this is not a done deal, Adam Mason, state policy director at Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement, said in the statement. We need to leave this oil in the ground and turn the corner to true renewable energies like wind and solar that will create good jobs, protect our environment and build our communities.

On the other hand, the Midwest Alliance for the Infrastructure Now coalition applauded the permit approvals.

As a local farmer, I have long supported construction of this project and am pleased that today it becomes a reality, the groups chairman, Ed Wiederstein, said in a statement. It will provide untold benefits to the security of our nation and our economic future. The agriculture industry, in particular, relies on affordable, easy to access energy and the Dakota Access project will provide value for decades to come for the thousands of farmers across our region.
PHILADELPHIA  As Cory Booker left a room full of Iowa Democrats, shaking hands and snapping selfies as he went, a man approached him and declared, I hope to work for you in 2024!

During this weeks Democratic National Convention, Booker has helped his already-rising political star among Democrats, including from first-in-the-nation voting Iowa.

The U.S. senator from New Jersey gave a well-received address to the convention earlier this week, and on Wednesday morning, he was similarly well received when he spoke to Iowa Democrats at their morning gathering.

Bookers political star has been rising for years on the national scene, starting with his work as mayor of Newark and then continuing in the Senate. Recent media reports included him in speculation of possible running mates for presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

Bookers various remarks and his reception among Democrats this week will only further speculation that he could run for president in the future.

I think in those speeches he really stuck the landing, said Iowa delegate Zach Wahls of Iowa City. People in the (Iowa) delegation, (Bernie) Sanders and Clinton supporters both seemed to really resonate with what he had to say.  I expect you might be hearing more from Sen. Booker in the coming years in Iowa.

Wahls described Booker as an interesting blend of New Jersey, Southern preacher and social media guru. Booker is known for his Twitter account, which has more than 1.7 million followers.

Josh Hughes, a 19-year-old Iowa delegate, said Booker seems approachable.

If he would ever decide to come to Iowa  I certainly think that he would fare pretty well, honestly, Hughes said. He seems down to earth. Hes very much a very personable guy, and I think that matters to a lot of people.

Bookers convention speech Monday night, in which he drew on the famous Maya Angelou poem, I will rise, drew rave reviews from Democrats, although shortly after, it was eclipsed by an even more roundly applauded address, by first lady Michelle Obama.

I feel like his speech kind of got overshadowed by Michelle Obama, who absolutely blew (her speech) out of the water, and its hard to compete with her, Hughes said. I think that when he spoke at the convention, he really put a lot of emphasis on the powers of unity and love as a country, as opposed to fear and division. And I think thats a really powerful message, especially in 2016, and I think thats something where Democrats are going to really be able to do well and resonate. So, I think that bodes really well for him.

One Iowa delegate apparently remembered well Bookers convention speech; he jumped Bookers closing line to the delegation Wednesday morning by interjecting, We will rise!

Booker noticed and joked about it.

If we do this, we will not just win an election, but we as a nation will do great things, Booker said. "And as they say in Iowa  where they steal my lines  we will rise."
U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley is trying to find out what the U.S. government is doing about reports the Russian government was involved in hacking into the Democratic National Committee's computer system.

Grassley, R-Iowa, in a joint letter with Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., cited media reports that hackers had broken into the DNC's system and seized an opposition research file on Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, as well as emails that were provided to WikiLeaks.

WikiLeaks released emails as the Democrats' national convention was getting under way this week showing that DNC staffers talked about undermining the presidential campaign of Bernie Sanders. The Trump file was leaked to media outlets last month.

In the letter to Attorney General Loretta Lynch and FBI Director James Comey, Grassley and Leahy said it's troubling enough that foreign intelligence agencies not only spied on American political organizations but then selectively published the information "in what appears to be attempts to affect our democratic process."

The senators added that "if foreign intelligence agencies are attempting to undermine that process, the U.S. government should treat such efforts even more seriously than standard espionage." The letter also asked whether existing laws were sufficient to address such a situation.

The Russians have denied any complicity in the matter.

Grassley is the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which has oversight over the Justice Department and FBI. Leahy is the ranking Democrat.

Grassley told Iowa reporters Wednesday that it's important that the public know about the Russian activities in this matter.

"If it's affecting our political process and they're trying to interfere in our election process and, particularly if it's to help one candidate over another, I think the public needs to know about it," Grassley said, according to a report on Iowa Public Radio.
PHILADELPHIA  Proudly, sometimes loudly and sometimes with trembling voices, Iowas 60 Iowa Democratic National Convention delegates cast their votes for a presidential nominee Tuesday morning.

The delegation officially will cast its ballot during the convention roll call this evening.

There were no surprises  30 votes for Hillary Clinton and 21 for Bernie Sanders, including super-delegates.

In announcing their votes, Clinton supporters extolled her leadership, toughness and resume. Sanders loyalists cited his integrity and progressive values.

Eleanor Taft of Iowa City put it bluntly: Hes not for sale.

For the most part, it was Iowa nice, but there were raw emotions and, in some cases, warnings from Berners that the party was heading down the wrong path.

In our view, a vote for Clinton is a vote for Donald Trump, Rebecca Mueller of Muscatine said. She expected Sanders supporters in the room to back Clinton, but others could vote for Jill Stein of the Green Party, Libertarian Gary Johnson or even Trump.

My vote for Hillary Clinton is not a vote for Trump, countered Tammy Wawro of Cedar Rapids, president of the Iowa State Education Association. Its a vote for our kids, the fifth-grade teacher said.

Citing a private conversation with Sanders, who he described as one of his closest personal friends, following the candidates Monday night address to the convention, retired Sen. Tom Harkin asked that regardless how they cast their roll call vote, they join him and Sanders in supporting Clinton in November.

Sanders told Harkin in a private conversation Monday night that he is committed to taking this revolution as he calls it, this movement, this progressive movement in America and continuing it onward by working with Wellstone Action and other progressive groups.

And he reminded delegates, many of them much younger, that he once was in their shoes.

I appreciate where you are coming from, Harkin said. I was one of you many years ago when I got out of the military in 1968 and had lost too many friends in Vietnam. I supported Gene McCarthy.

The Minnesota Democratic senator was sort of the Bernie Sanders of that time.

Like Sanders, he didnt get the nomination. But I think we made some progress in moving the Democratic Party more toward the progressive end of the spectrum.

Like Harkin, Chris Petersen of Clear Lake said he is old enough to remember those times. He supported Bobby Kennedy in 1968, who was assassinated during the campaign. This year, hes supporting Sanders.

Brent Oleson of Marion cast his vote for Sanders, too, but added, In November I will vote for the winner tonight.

For some Sanders backers it was not just the disappointment of losing the campaign. They were disappointed and angry about leaked emails that seem to confirm their suspicions that the Democratic National Committee might have been working for Clinton and against Sanders.

David Johnson of West Branch called for a housecleaning to extend beyond the resignation of DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz.

If not, we run the risk of losing young Democrats who will ask, What was the point? he said.

Gillian Popenuk of Burlington will stay and fight to pull the party back to the left where it belongs.

Clinton supporter Zach Wahls of Iowa City won applause when he acknowledged the frustration of the Sanders delegates who thought the primary system was rigged against their candidate.

After reading those emails, I agree, he said.
PHILADELPHIA  Vice presidential candidate Tim Kaine paid his respects to Iowa and the states delegation to the Democratic National Convention Wednesday and said hes looking forward to campaigning there again.

The Virginia senator who was selected to be Hillary Clintons running mate talked about his Iowa ties and praised Iowans small d and big D democratic tradition.

It always makes my heart soar when I get the chance to come out, he said during a five minute chat with the Iowa delegates at their daily breakfast meeting. That was long enough to mention his aunt and uncle in Fort Madison, riding RAGBRAI in 1996 and campaigning for Barack Obama in Iowa in 2008 and Clinton this year.

Kaine, who was accompanied by his wife, Anne Holton, who until Monday was Virginia secretary of education, also praise retired Sen. Tom Harkin, who was in the room, as one of my favorite public servants in the history of the world. He called Harkins signature legislation, the Americans with Disabilities Act, one of the pinnacle achievements of our nation.

He also drew on his Midwestern roots  he was born in Minnesota and raised in Kansas City  to bond with Iowans.

Growing up in his fathers Iron Workers-organized welding shop, Kaine, 58, said he never had reason to think he would be running for vice president.

If you had told me, or my parents  Albert and Mary Kaine, who are with him at the convention  that I was going to be here in July of 2016, they would have not believed it, he said. None of us would have believed it."

For the past 22 years, politics has been his world  first as a member of the Richmond City Council, then as mayor, lieutenant governor and governor before being elected to the U.S. Senate in 2012.

I havent lost a race, Kaine boasted. I specialized in nail-biters. Every race has been as close as can be, but I never lost one, and were not going to lose this one.

The 2016 presidential election may be less about the candidates than America looking in the mirror and deciding what we see there, Kaine said. The questions facing voters are whether after 240 years of religious tolerance the country is suddenly going to erect a religious test and treat people differently because of how they worship or choose not to.

Will the country bring back torture and make it OK to use words of disrespect against people who are disabled, Latinos, new Americans, against women.

Thats what this race is about, Kaine said.

Its ironic, he said that as GOP nominee Donald Trump is talking about re-evaluating the nations; commitment to NATO, his oldest son, a Marine Corps infantry commander is being deployed to train NATO forces.

Weve got a lot at stake, but I know you, I know your passion, I know your commitment to democracy, Kaine told the Iowans. Im honored to have a chance to stand with you as I have in the past and I cant wait to be out in Iowa campaigning with you.

Before he left, Kaine was invited to the Iowa State Fair and the northern Iowa Democrats Wing Ding fundraiser in August.
After a month on the job, touring county facilities and meeting the countys workforce, Scott Countys new administrator, Mahesh Sharma, said he likes what he has seen, especially in the employees.

Sharma, 52, and his wife, Meena, attended a meet-and-greet Tuesday at the Freight House in Davenport where several dozen people stopped by to visit with them.

In talking about county employees, Sharma said there is a "We take pride in our work" philosophy about which people and organizations often boast. But I have found that philosophy in action here, he said.

Many of the people working for the county have been in their jobs for years, and their dedication to doing their best every day is evident.

If there is huge employee turnover in an organization, then there is something fundamentally wrong, Sharma said. There is more than just the monetary aspect of a job, he added. Its also the atmosphere and the people with whom one works that help make the job special.

Sharma said he has attended several county meetings and has visited departments throughout the courthouse. He also has taken tours of the jail, the juvenile detention center and other county offices. He also has been able to meet city and county leaders in the Illinois Quad-Cities.

I havent come away from any of my meetings thinking, What have I gotten myself into? Sharma said. "Scott County is very well run."

Tim Huey, county planning and development director, said Sharma has shown himself to be a great team leader.

One of the first things he said to us is that local government is a puzzle, and that while he is a piece of the puzzle, he said that we are all pieces of the puzzle, working together, Huey said. That said a lot to me.

Scott Tunnicliff, director of the Hilltop Campus Village, had his first opportunity to meet Sharma on Tuesday. He seems very articulate, very methodical, Tunnicliff said. Hes got a high opinion of the staff hes responsible for so that bodes well.

Jim Hancock, county board of supervisors chairman, said Sharma is "going to be great."

"He has a lot of education and he has 25 years of experience as an administrator. He got here and hit the ground running.

"Hes going to be great for the whole Quad-City area."
A Rock Island man has claimed a $250,000 prize in the Illinois Lottery's Luck Day Lotto game.

David Evans claimed his jackpot prize recently in Springfield after matching all five numbers in the Wednesday, June 29, evening drawing, the Lottery said in a news release Wednesday.

I heard that a $250,000 winning Lucky Day Lotto ticket was sold in Rock Island, so I checked my ticket, and the winner was me, Evans said in the news release.

The release stated that Evans is a regular Lucky Day Lotto player, buying two or three Lucky Day Lotto Quick Pick tickets each week. He bought his $250,000 winning ticket at Hy-Vee Food Store, 2930 18th Ave., Rock Island. The retailer received a bonus of $2,500, or 1 percent of the prize amount, for selling a winning ticket.

I plan to use this money to pay bills and take my wife on a vacation, he said.

Lucky Day Lotto drawings are twice a day, seven days a week. For more information, please visit illinoislottery.com.
In the recent Quad-City Times article on how Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Virginia, could help Hillary Clinton appeal to moderates, I was surprised that your newspaper printed the Associated Press bullet points that purportedly showed Kaines position on the issues.

There were two points that were troubling. First, on the issue of Absolute right to gun ownership, the bullet point states that Kaine opposes this. This is blatantly false. He would like to see restrictions on ammunition and assault weapons. However, he supports the right to bear arms.

Second, on the issue labeled, Keep God in the public sphere, it states that Kaine strongly opposes. This is disingenuous because the issue should have been phrased Separation of Church and State.

I believe Kaine is a practicing Catholic. Just because he agrees with the Founding Fathers that church and state should remain separate, does not make him godless. God, who Christians believe is omnipresent, is already in the public sphere.

Gary Brecht

Le Claire
URBANDALE  Gov. Terry Branstad is floating a compromise he hopes will generate state money to address water-quality concerns while balancing future needs for school infrastructure and other conservation, resource protection and recreational purposes.

Branstad told members of the Westside Conservative Club he would be open to repurposing the penny sales tax for school infrastructure set to expire 2029 by continuing the tax and splitting the ongoing proceeds with five-eighths going to education and three-eighths going into a constitutionally protected natural resources trust that Iowa voters approved in 2010.

I throw that out as a possibility of what we could do and do it without raising taxes, he said. Id be willing to consider replacing it, so its not a sales tax increase  one expires and the new one could go 5/8ths for school infrastructure and 3/8ths for that. Then you would meet two commitments.

Branstad said he would support a plan that won bipartisan support in the Iowa House last session that proposed to shift $478 million over 13 years to water-quality projects from a water-metering tax and the gambling-funded state infrastructure account. Majority Senate Democrats balked at that plan, fearing it would shift money from other priorities, such as education.

Currently, Republicans control the Iowa House by a 57-43 margin, and Democrats hold the edge in the Iowa Senate with 26 members to Republicans 23 senators. Ocheyedan Sen. David Johnson has declared himself an independent with no party affiliation after ending his GOP membership. The future of water quality and some other state issues will be decided by the outcome of a November election that could shift the balance of power at the Statehouse.

At the start of the 2016 session, Branstad unveiled a plan to divert to water-quality programs some future revenue from the local-option sales tax devoted to school infrastructure projects. According to his offices estimates, the plan would have generated $4.7 billion over 32 years for water-quality programs.

But legislators of both political parties were cool to the proposal, because it dipped into a funding stream approved by voters for education.

Johnson, who is midway in a four-year Senate term, said the state faces major demands on the education and environmental fronts that need to be addressed next session.

If we dont make the environment the No. 1 issue this session, it will be a failed session. I consider last session a failure because we didnt take up anything substantial to deal with water quality, and the issue just gets worse and worse, Johnson said in an interview Tuesday.

Weve got to make some major moves, and that means funding. Theres going to be a tax increase somewhere this next session. I really believe it, added Johnson, who tried unsuccessfully last session to gain support for a revenue-neutral plan to raise the sales tax from 6 percent to 6.375 percent over three years for the natural resource trust fund while offsetting it with corresponding phased adjustments to the Iowa income tax filing thresholds.

On Wednesday, Branstad flatly rejected raising taxes to fund water-quality needs.

Im willing to look at options, the governor said in an interview, but not something that raises taxes.
PHILADELPHIA  Breakfast started with an apology, but Democratic Party leaders attempts to make peace with Bernie Sanders supporters who were excluded from the traditional convention roll call fell short of healing divisions in the Iowa delegation that were on full display Wednesday morning.

R.T. Rybak, a vice chairman of the Democratic National Committee offered a formal apology for the content of leaked emails written by committee staffers who didnt follow the strict, strict mandate to stay neutral.

We betrayed your trust, Rybak said at the Iowa delegations daily breakfast meeting. Were sorry.

Rebecca Mueller of Muscatine appreciated the apology, which is what Ive been waiting two days to hear. Like others supporting Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, Mueller wanted the party and party leaders to acknowledge those emails that seemed to indicate they intended to sabotage his campaign for the presidential nomination.

His apology and conciliatory words from 2nd District U.S. Rep. Dave Loebsack and others werent enough to make up for the feeling that Sanders backers were being excluded.

When Iowa cast its votes during the roll call of states Tuesday, the 30 votes for Hillary Clinton and 21 for Sanders were announced by four Clinton delegates. That angered Sanders delegates who pointed out that the elected delegates were nearly evenly split, 23-21.

You wouldnt let us stand next to you last night on the convention floor, said Jennifer Gernhart, a delegate from Fort Dodge. It was our victory, too. Were all the same party.

The votes were announced by Andy McGuire, the state party and delegation chairwoman, Vice Chairman Danny Homan, Loebsack and Sruthi Palaniappan, who was chosen by the Clinton delegates.

Ben Foecke, Iowa Democratic Party executive director, defended the selection, saying that its typical for states to give that duty to party leaders.

But it made Gernhart wonder, Are we part of the party or not?

You can nod your head in agreement now, but why couldnt we be a part of the action last night? she asked.

Jessica Fears, a state Central Committee member from Ames, didnt expect Sanders to win, but its going to be hard to go home and say lets work together to elect Patty Judge and Kim Weaver when weve been excluded from a part of the process.

She is having a fundraiser for Weaver, she added.

Sanders delegates and other Iowans who supported his campaign will have to put aside some of their differences with the partys Clinton backers, Fears said.

If we want the ideals we voted for, if we want this progressive platform enacted, were going to have to go back and work together, she said.

Attempts by Rybak and Loebsack to empathize with the Sanders delegates seemed to fall flat. Rybak talked about how late Sens. Paul Wellstone and George McGovern and Howard Dean all learned from losses in their political careers.

We each own our own part of the revolution, Rybak said.

Loebsack recalled that it was kind of tough to be on the losing end of the Bill Bradley-Al Gore nomination contest in 2000.

Be a good loser is not the message Sanders supporters want to hear, Mueller said.

The more the Bernie people hear, We voted for McGovern, we understand you position, be a good loser, the more we hear you want us to just shut up, she said.

Unity will start with hearing the voices of Sanders supporters, not silencing the people who still dont believe in Hillary, she said. Listen first.

At one point, McGuire interrupted the comments to say she wants the Sanders delegates to be a part of the process and there will be more discussion of differences.

Absolutely, we want you to be part of the party, she said.

Loebsack agreed the party has to continue the conversation with Sanders supporters either informally or at the State Central Committee level.

What a number of them said about they want to be heard, they dont want to be dismissed, makes a lot of sense, Loebsack said Wednesday afternoon. Im completely open to having that conversation.

He encouraged Sanders supporters to be persistent.

Dont quit. Stay there. Do what you can, Loebsack said. If you give up and walk away  even if you feel like you want to do that  then we cant have change, the kind of change that we need.
URBANDALE  Eastern Iowa will play heavily in GOP plans to land the state in Donald Trump's presidential column and give Republicans control of the Statehouse by ending Democrats 10-year grip on the Iowa Senate, Gov. Terry Branstad told a conservative group Wednesday.

Iowa Republicans are expecting Trump's visits to Davenport and Cedar Rapids on Thursday will fire up the party's base as well as draw support from independents and disaffected working-class Democrats who are feeling their party's elites have left them behind in a "rigged system" that has made Hillary Clinton their 2016 nominee, he said.

Also Thursday, Branstad's son, Eric, who serves as state director for Trump's Iowa campaign, told members of the Westside Conservative Club they can expect to see Trump and his vice presidential running mate, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, back in Iowa very soon after this week's visit.

"Mr. Trump loves the state, loves Iowa. He's going to be spending a lot of time in Iowa," Eric Branstad said. "Iowa is important to the campaign. We are a battleground state, and so they're certainly going to put the focus that's necessary and give Iowa what we deserve."

For his part, the governor said several 2016 pivotal races for the fight to control the Iowa Senate the next two years are in eastern Iowa in districts where Republicans hold registration edges and have recruited strong challengers to take on Democratic incumbents.

"I'd like to see us have a Republican Senate to go with a Republican House because that would give us an opportunity to do some unbelievable things, including reforming and reversing the tax and regulatory burden in our state and moving forward with the pro-life agenda as well as water quality and a number of other things that could make Iowa the kind of growing, prosperous state that I want to see for the long run," Branstad said. "I really believe that we have an extraordinary opportunity, and we don't want to miss it."

He said he thinks GOP candidates will be aided by Trump's cross-over appeal to independents and Reagan Democrats who feel betrayed by a Democratic Party controlled by "the media elite, the money elite, the Hollywood elite and the D.C. elite" who have lost touch with working Americans, farmers and others.

"Even though the Democrats have a formidable machine, there's a whole lot of working people that have historically supported that party that have had it," the governor said. "They've had it with this rigged system and the fact that they've been left behind."

For that reason, he said he thinks Trump will win in states such as Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan and Iowa as long as he stays focused on the issues and offers voters the "very clear choice" between his outsider's approach for restoring American greatness versus maintaining the status quo in Washington under Clinton.

Eric Branstad said the Trump campaign plans to open its headquarters in a Des Moines suburb next week and begin making some announcements that "are really going to turn heads" regarding staff additions, future visits and other developments.

"Everything that folks have been saying that they don't have the people, they don't have the A team, they don't have the organization," he said, "we're going to prove them very wrong very quickly."

He said the interest, excitement and momentum among Iowans has been overwhelming.

"Over the last three days, I'm about 1,840 emails behind, and I'm about 100 voicemails behind," he said. "This is the only campaign I've ever worked on where everybody is calling us. I've never felt that before, I've never seen that before, and it's real. We are going to use that excitement and use that momentum, and we're going to turn Iowans out, and we're going to win Iowa come November."

Kate Waters, Hillary for America's Iowa press secretary, said Trump has made statements that divide Americans, tear people down with "hateful rhetoric, and bully those who disagree with him"  reminding Iowans of Trump's question: "How stupid are the people of Iowa?" during a stop in Fort Dodge during the caucus season.

"Iowans face a very clear choice between Hillary Clinton, who believes that Americans are stronger together and that this country is at its best when we lift each other up, and Donald Trump's divisive rhetoric, dangerous polices, and erratic behavior," Waters said in a statement. "Hillary Clinton is a leader Iowans can count on while Donald Trump is a loose cannon they can't afford."
NATION

Girls to be tried as adults in Slender Man case

A Wisconsin state appeals court ruled Wednesday that two girls accused of trying to kill their classmate in an attempt to please the fictional horror character Slender Man should be tried as adults.

Investigators say the girls, who were 12 at the time of the attack in 2014, plotted for months before luring their classmate into some woods after a birthday sleepover and repeatedly stabbing her. The victim, who was also 12, was found along a road, bleeding from 19 stab wounds that nearly killed her.

The girls have been charged with attempted first-degree intentional homicide and if convicted could go to prison for up to 65 years. As juveniles, they could be incarcerated for up to three years then supervised until age 18.

Man playing Pokemon Go robbed, shot

Police say a man playing "Pokemon Go" in an Ohio park was robbed of his cellphone and shot three times.

Columbus police say 26-year-old Gregory Wheeler and a woman were playing the smartphone game Tuesday night when a 14-year-old boy asked to use the phone to call his mother.

Police say the teenager fled with the phone and Wheeler was first struck in the head by another person when he chased after the boy, then shot. Wheeler's condition wasn't immediately available Wednesday.

The Columbus Dispatch reports the 14-year-old was charged as a juvenile with aggravated robbery and felonious assault. They are searching for the other person, also believed to be about 14.

2 Zika cases reported in south Florida

Florida health officials are investigating two more mysterious cases of Zika infection that do not appear to be related to travel, bringing the total to four.

The cases have raised the possibility that mosquitoes in the U.S. have begun to spread the virus, although officials say they are still looking into the cases and have not come to a conclusion.

The four cases are in neighboring Miami-Dade and Broward counties.

WORLD

44 die in suicide truck bombing

A suicide bomber riding an empty livestock truck laden with explosives blew himself up Wednesday in a crowded district in the predominantly Kurdish town of Qamishli in northern Syria, causing massive destruction and killing 44 people in a new attack claimed by the Islamic State group.

Residents and activists describe a huge explosion in the western district of the town Kurds call the capital of their self-declared autonomous enclave in northern Syria.

Hours after the early-morning explosion, rescue workers continued to search for survivors under the rubble of buildings, some of them totally leveled by the powerful blast. Most of the victims were civilians, who were lingering in the district that also houses a station for the Kurdish security forces. It was not immediately clear if any Kurdish fighters were among those killed.

Germany: 15-year-old suspect of planning attack

German authorities have arrested a 15-year-old boy who they suspect of having planned a rampage and also believe was in contact with a teenager who killed nine people in Munich last week.

The boy was arrested on Monday night and subsequently sent to a psychiatric facility, prosecutors and police in Ludwigsburg, near the southwestern city of Stuttgart, said Wednesday.

A witness had told police that he came across an online chat between the suspect and the Munich shooter, who killed himself following his July 22 attack. He then looked at a social media profile on which the boy had posted photos and drawings that pointed to a possible rampage.

There's no suspicion that the 15-year-old had any knowledge of plans for the Munich attack, police spokesman Peter Widenhorn said.

Police searched the boy's family home and found small-caliber bullets, several knives and daggers, escape plans for his school, chemicals and instructions for making explosives.

In questioning, the 15-year-old said that he had considered carrying out a rampage "against the background of personal and school problems," police and prosecutors said in a statement. However, he told them that he had since given up on the idea.

Prosecutors ruled out a terrorist motive and said the boy was under investigation for unauthorized possession of weapons and explosives.
Summertime and the living is easy, and a cold glass of sauvignon blanc in hand makes it even easier. Sauvignon blanc is the sporty, fun kid on the block. Its bright and peppy, as well as smooth and fruity.

Pronounced So-Vin-YAWN-Blank, the name comes from the French words sauvage (wild) and blanc (white). Sauvignon blanc grapes along with cabernet franc grapes are the parent grapes of cabernet sauvignon.

Indigenous to southwest France, sauvignon blanc is now the most widely planted grape in the world. Its a chameleon grape with an ever-changing flavor profile from region to region.

There are two basic styles, and the one most of us are familiar with is stainless steel fermented. Sauvignon blanc fermented in stainless steel or concrete vats is known for its high acidity and herbaceous aromas of lime, grapefruit and gooseberry.

The other is barrel fermented sauvignon blanc. This style is aged on the lees (dead yeast cells), which results in a creamier texture similar to chardonnay. Barrel fermented sauvignon blanc may also be oak aged. Oak aging adds flavors of lemon curd, butter, lemon oil, and creme brulee.

Sauvignon blanc owes much of its popularity to Bordeaux and the Loire Valley of France. Within Bordeaux, sauvignon blanc is widely planted throughout the commune of Graves where it is usually blended with semillon to add complexity and body.

Bordeaux blanc, as it is commonly called, is dry, crisp and minerally with citrus notes and may show touches of oak. Some of these wines are creamy and complex with the ability to age, while others are meant to be consumed when young and fresh.

Sauvignon blanc thrives in the Loire Valley where it is the primary grape used to produce Sancerre and Pouilly-Fume. These appellations are separated by the Loire River; both produce exquisite whites with lovely acidity that are best consumed young and fresh. Uniquely the wine of Sancerre exhibits what can best be described as wet stone.

Sauvignon blanc is the grape that put New Zealand on the worlds wine map. Wine from Marlborough and Hawkes Bay are the regions most commonly found in the U.S. Sauvignon blanc from New Zealand is known for its citrus notes of grapefruit and lemon, passion fruit, and green pepper with touches of fresh cut grass and asparagus.

Chilean sauvignon blancs are hitting the wine scene with a splash. Most are from vineyards located in the Costa areas of Chile, cool valleys near the ocean. Chilean sauvignon blancs are usually quite affordable and are often considered to be great value wines. Primary flavors of grass, lime, green banana, and pineapple with high acidity makes these sauvignon blancs refreshing summer quaffers.

Over 15,000 acres of sauvignon blanc is grown throughout California. Sauvignon blanc is also grown in Washington state and in New York states Niagara Pennisula.

In Napa Valley sauvignon blanc is grown in St. Helena, Chiles Valley, Rutherford District, Mt. Veeder, Oak Knoll District and Los Carneros. These wines are crisp, intense, and classic. In addition to the common citrus characteristics of the grape, Napa sauvignon blanc oftens has hints of green apple, spicy notes, honeysuckle and tropical fruits.

Sonoma produces excellent sauvignon blanc as well with over 5,000 acres planted. The primary flavors prevalent in Sonoma sauvignon blanc are honeydew melon, pineapple, and green apple.

Sauvignon blanc is best served slightly chilled between 48 and 53 degrees, and pairs well with shellfish and nearly any seafood. It also goes nicely with savory cheeses and crunchy salads.

Sauvignon blancs own herbaceous notes make it a great pairing with basil, cilantro, parsely, Italian herbs, fennel, and bell peppers.

It is one of the few wines that can be enjoyed with sushi. I also recommend pairing sauvignon blanc with ham. The saltiness of the ham and the acidity of the wine seem to complement each other nicely.

Whether you like it citrusy, creamy, or minerally, celebrate summer in the Black Hills with this wonderful, bright changeling of a white wine  sauvignon blanc.
Lisa McNulty had a simple answer for what makes her theater company different from others: "Chicks!"

McNulty, who spoke with the Numad Group at The Garage on Tuesday morning as a part of their "Morning Fill Up" program, is the producing artistic director of Off-Broadway's Women's Project Theater. It is the nation's oldest and largest theater company dedicated to developing, producing and promoting the work of female theater artists.

"It was founded in 1977, and in 40 years things have progressed, but the numbers (of produced plays by female playwrights) hover at 20 percent," McNulty said. "It's progress, but it's disappointing."

That just fuels McNulty to find the most exciting artists she can, with 5 playwrights, 5 directors and 5 production artists serving a 2-year residency in their lab every season.

McNulty is entering her third season in the role after previously serving as artistic line producer in Broadway's Manhattan Theater Club. She has redefined the theater's mission as accepting all female-identified artists (with the group's first transgender artist starting this year) and has attracted high-profile artists such as Tony Award-winner Cherry Jones and Lisa Lampanelli, whose original play "Stuffed," about women's body and food issues, will premiere in September.

"The work women do is as interesting, as entertaining and as exciting as anything else being done," McNulty said. "We're stripping away the delusion that it's not as good."

Some of the artists who have participated in the Women's Project Theater have gone on to win major accolades, such as Lynn Nottage, who co-wrote "The Antigone Project" for the 2004-2005 season and in 2009 won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for her play "Ruined," about the civil war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo. Lab graduate Laura Eason, meanwhile, produced the Chicago '90s rock play "The Undeniable Sound of Right Now" for the WP Theater and is now a writer on the hit series "House of Cards."

"I love courageous people, artists and women, and I want to work with as many as possible," McNulty said. "I'm lucky to have a job that allows me to reward bravery."

Before she was a major producing and creative force behind the project, however, McNulty was a teenager who found a lifetime love for theater after taking a summer program with acting teacher Nancy Kindlan.

"I came to my life in theater because of a program when I was 16," McNulty said. "I got to engage in a way that felt meaty, important, very Method-y. We learned about the Group Theater and the Actors Studio."

McNulty chose not to go down the acting, directing or writing path, what she humorously calls "my gift to the American theater," but it undeniably left an impact.

"I wouldn't have left my tiny town in Massachusetts without it," McNulty said. "I saw other people like me, expressed this thing I didn't know how to express."

Because of that, McNulty strongly believes in encouraging future greats in the theater world, and in making sure women have a bigger piece of the pie. She's able to do that with her own talents as a theater artist.

"I'm bossy, and I like to read," McNulty said.

This drove her into "dramaturgy," essentially an editing position in theater in which plays are shaped into something that can be acted, and worked as the literary manager for the WP Theater from 1997-2000.

She has since moved on to a role that requires her to look over and approve most of the nuts and bolts of the day-to-day life in the theater, as well as bigger picture ways to shape the institution.

"It's a small institution, which means everybody wears multiple hats," McNulty said. 'I have final sign off on shows, in marketing, production, I run the lab ... there are so many moving parts."

That allows her to work with theater artists in many stages of their careers, from the beginning to their prime, and to push forward women artists (male playwrights cannot have their work in the WP Theater). They've also started the Pipeline Festival, which puts on five plays from the artists in the lab in a festival made up of new work.

"People say that there's no good work for women in the pipeline? Here's a pipeline," McNulty said.

The festival has been a success: four out of the five plays in the 2016 festival made Kilroy's List, a city-wide poll among theater artists of the best unproduced new plays by female and transgender playwrights.

"We're making work people want to see," McNulty said.

That's important to McNulty, who said that with these festivals and other venues, there's a greater focus on women's work.

"But it ends up ghettoized in festivals and smaller space theaters while plays by men get larger spaces," McNulty said.

McNulty said there's a simple solution to that problem, and to bringing up the number of female-driven plays up.

"Hire more women," McNulty said. "It's just not that complicated."

That's a lesson that could easily apply to cities smaller than New York, with McNulty making special mention of how much she's enjoyed her trip to Rapid City and the Black Hills.

"Everyone should come here," McNulty said. "It's a cosmopolitan city in the middle of a beautiful, special part of the country. I'm going to be an evangelist for South Dakota."

That should encourage female playwrights and theater artists to take after their New York counterparts, given that a healthy theater and arts scene is the sign of a thriving city.

"The numbers are so clear," McNulty said. "That industry is as important as construction services, but because it's something people think you do for free or for fun on the weekend, it's not a serious profession."

She added that working in a nonprofit arts organization requires a bit of bravery.

"Everyone who runs a nonprofit is a little brave," McNulty said.

But these works, especially those from distinctive perspectives, make a difference, with McNulty suggesting that the more specific the play, the more universal it seems. One play the WP Theater produced in the 2014-2015 season, "Bright Half Life," concerned two married women but wound up with the audience staying behind to talk about relationships.

"Art forces us to investigate what we think about things," McNulty said. "It's important to foster curiosity in the world."
Every Tuesday, Carlton Carson opens his door to a hot meal and a smile from delivery driver Tony Patterson and they chat for a minute about the news or the weather.

The Meals on Wheels program means the world to Carson, who otherwise might not get a hot lunch. And for other clients like Vicki Beck, Patterson might be the only person she talks to all day.

"This means a lot to a lot of people because a lot of people are going without meals, and it's something everybody should get," Carson, 74, said Tuesday. "The drivers are very courteous and they always have a smile for me and that's what I like about it."

The need for drivers like Patterson is growing.

The Western South Dakota Senior Services Meals Program, or Meals on Wheels, needs eight to 10 volunteer drivers to help with the routes.

The program has added four routes in Rapid City this year to make a total of 19 routes that are served five days a week. There also are eight sites where workers serve a buffet-style meal every weekday for a total of about 300 meals delivered every day.

This takes at least 95 volunteers to get the meals delivered every week, according to Cheree Pederson, community resource coordinator with Western South Dakota Senior Services, Inc.

"We have very loyal, dedicated volunteers," she said. "But with so many people coming into the program, we need more."

A new national campaign by Meals on Wheels is seeking business support that would allow employees to use their lunch hour to deliver meals.

"The campaign, 'America, Let's Do Lunch' is asking for people to donate their lunch hour to delivering meals," Pederson said. "We are hoping businesses will let employees take an hour once a week to deliver meals. And if an organization is big enough, maybe they can adopt a route and then each department takes a day of the week or something like that."

The entire process for delivery drivers takes about an hour to 75 minutes.

She also said there is another option for those without the time to deliver. A workplace could dedicate a day to bring a brown bag for lunch and use the money they would have spent on a meal out to donate that to the program.

But if someone has a big heart like Patterson and wants to make a personal difference in people's lives, the delivery driver role is very rewarding, Patterson said.

For the past year, he has volunteered as a driver every Tuesday. He does more than deliver meals and make small talk. He asks the clients about their health and does a quick assessment to make sure they are, in fact, doing OK.

He checked on his client Vicki Beck to make sure she was breathing OK when he delivered her meal Tuesday.

"I know when the humidity is up it bothers her because shes on oxygen," Patterson said after his visit with Beck.

"I'm not an EMT, but my mom and grandma said I should have been a male nurse because I like to take care of people."

This is only one of a few volunteer jobs for Patterson, who also serves as a volunteer firefighter with Black Hawk Fire Department.

And he loves the people on his route so much he was heartbroken when they had to split his route this year because it became too large.

"I made friends with all these clients, and sometimes their kids or grandkids are there visiting too."

Patterson's clients appreciate his caring way and the fact that he doesn't judge them and only has kind words.

"He is always good to you, and they never say anything harsh to you, just always there with a smile and a meal," Carson said.

"People live how they live," Patterson said. "It doesn't bother me. You can't change everybody. I just want to feed everybody."
The ink is hardly dry on Senate Bill 3264 sponsored by John Thune with the support of the entire South Dakota delegation and its already making needless enemies.

The bill would provide for a land exchange between the state of South Dakota and the Black Hills National Forest to enhance a state park and create a new one.

The Forest Service has not received a proposal for an exchange from the state. There has been no public process to consider the merits of the idea, but Sen. Thune wrote a strongly worded opinion column this week that missed the mark  whatever the outcome of the bill.

He should have stopped writing at paragraph six. Its perfectly OK to present a plan to the American people to take a few acres that belong to all of us to enhance state parks. For all the reasons the senator mentions, most people would be fine with it. South Dakota does a great job running our parks. Spearfish Canyon would make a great addition, and so would Camp Bob Marshall and Bismarck Lake as part of Custer State Park.

Whats not OK is using the underlying rationale of former Idaho Sen. Larry Craigs failed sage-brush rebellion as the reason. The Black Hills National Forest doesnt need to be held accountable for wrongdoing. What was the senator thinking?

In his column in the Journal, Sen. Thune implies the Black Hills National Forest is not taking care of Spearfish Canyon or making the public lands there available to the American people. Same with the National Forest System lands in Custer State Park. Thats absurd.

The producers of "Dances with Wolves," shot in part in Spearfish Canyon, would agree with me. Public access to federally reserved lands in the Black Hills is much better than access to the vast private preserve across most of the state and much better than the access provided in many state parks.

Another troubling facet of the proposal is the exchange of lands of equal value. The state is supposedly proposing transferring grasslands of little value to the Forest Service, whatever their monetary worth. Of course, there would be some measure of forage for wildlife and livestock. But it would be just another management headache, a solution to a problem that doesnt exist.

What is it about states rights advocates that they feel compelled to paint the federal government black in order to paint their own clear self-interest white? Its not either or in this case.

If I were writing the senators column, I would have said Take a look at state parks across South Dakota  wouldnt it be great to add a few acres that would really enhance those parks and let us focus even more strongly on what all Americans want and need  quality recreation and intensive interpretation of these national treasures? Of course it would, Sen. Thune. All for it.

So what is the political calculus that praises the Black Hills National Forest as the flag ship of the nation on the one hand and the inept purveyors of failed policies on the other, malefactors holding prime park lands until they can be transferred to more responsible adults in state government?

I would have appealed to all Americans to share a little federal land so the state could help defray rising federal recreation program costs, focus on protecting and enhancing already protected and stunningly beautiful lands, with the result being a win-win for all Americans and South Dakota would help.

Good job. Leave out the awkward land exchange and move forward on behalf of all Americans. It will fly.
Russian court to rule on detention of high-ranking investigator charged with bribery

MOSCOW, July 27 (RAPSI, Lyudmila Klenko)  The Moscow City Court had set the review of an appellation against detention of the head of Russian Investigative Committees Internal Security Directorate, Mikhail Maksimenko, suspected of receiving a large-scale bribe, for August 2, Yekaterina Krasnova, the courts press-secretary told RAPSI on Wednesday.

An appellation submitted by the lawyer representing the interests of suspect Maksimenko against a court ruling to detain him issued on July 19 will be examined by the Moscow City Court on August 2, the courts spokeswoman said.

Last Wednesday, the head of the Investigative Committees Internal Security Directorate Mikhail Maksimenko along with several of his high-ranking colleagues, including the First Deputy Head of the Investigative Committees Moscow Directorate, Denis Nikandrov, and Maksimenkos deputy Alexander Lamonov, were detained for one month and 27 days, i.e. till September 15. 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.

Last Tuesday, various media outlets reported that Maksimenko 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.
courtesy of the publisher

There was  a Russian folk tale about a rusalka, a mermaid, who loses her beloved to a foreign princess and goes to a witch for advice. The witch tells her to stab her love with a daggermade perfect sense to me. So writes Leigh Stein in her memoir, Land of Enchantment. Stein's book is about grief, death, love and yes, violence, too. The heart of the storythe tumultuous relationship between Stein and her then-partner, Jasonplays out in Albuquerque, the powerful desert landscapes providing a foil to the turbulence of their romance. The two meet in the Midwest and shakily push off into the dark waters of their relationship wherein Jason is charming and ambitious as well as surprisingly, memorably cruel. Their unpunctuated momentum eventually leads them to New Mexico. The deal is thus: They would live in Albuquerque for six months. Stein would write her first novel while Jason worked, and then they'd continue further west to LA, where Jason had dreams of becoming an actor.

Land of enchantment  became the perfect metaphor for the relationship because it has taken me a really long time to understand what our relationship was, Stein reflected.

It was in Albuquerque that the relationship consumed them. The stakes in our relationship were so high, everything was so dramatic.  We needed this dramatic landscape against which to play out our relationship, Stein explained over the phone from her current home in New York City. It informed everything. Trips to White Sands and El Malpais, cherry cider and green chile are interrupted by violence and manipulationunhinged qualities in Jason that begin to rule Stein's orbit in New Mexico as she becomes increasingly isolated in the apartment they shared near Kirtland Air Force Base.

Land of enchantment  became the perfect metaphor for the relationship because it has taken me a really long time to understand what our relationship was, Stein reflected. I didn't really know it was abusive until much later, or at least, if I did know, I denied it. In the book, the relationship is increasingly fraughtJason is imbalanced and reliant on the highs provided by drugs and alcohol, effectively worsening every aspect of the relationshipand Stein tries to keep pace. After all, Jason is a James Dean lookalike armed with charm and the lure of adventureand, I mean, of course he has a motorcycle, too. I thought  this is the most exciting thing that's ever happened to me. I won't sacrifice it for anything, no matter that other people see it as dangerous or bad or naive. Even when the fights between them escalated to physical violence, Stein remained powerfully enchanted.

Stein and Jason's eventual departure from New Mexico isn't the end of this story. In fact, Stein's book is organized so that practically the first thing we know about Jason is the context of his death. At the age of 23, Jason died in a motorcycle accident near his hometown of Little Rock 11 days after stabbing someone outside of a bar. The details beyond that are hazywe're left with the suspicion that Jason was in possession of some serious demons perhaps he was bipolar? Manic depressive? But in the wake of Jason's death what comes into sharper relief is the texture of Stein's own grief. This was the kind of violent act that I always knew he was capable of, Stein writes at the close of the first chapter, that I used to worry I would be the victim of. I didn't know what kind of woman that made me, if I still loved and missed a man like that. If I still wanted him to come back.

Immediately after his death, as the people who populated Jason's life left flickering candle GIFs on his Facebook page, Stein realized that she didn't have a single picture of them together, and began to feel invisible in the landscape of the tragedy, unseen among the many mourners. I was having so much trouble navigating the territory of modern mourning, she writes. I wish there were more books that talk about how we live online, Stein told me during our conversation. I think technology is changing so quickly in our lifetime. We need the stories to catch up. So with a profound attention to detail and a singular way of layering battling emotions, Stein is able to do just thatto animate the digital sphere with the IRL emotion she experienced as she navigated itand to breathe life into memories that finally illuminate the years she spent in the relationship.

When I asked her if she found writing Land of Enchantment to be therapeutic or painful, she described holding the first, uncorrected proof of the book in her hands. I read it front to back and thought, ohhh, that's why I was so in love with him, she explained. I had worked so hard on each little piece. I built each tree and [in reading the final product] I finally saw the forest. That was healing. A long interval passed before she added, Living it, it didn't make any sense at all. It took a lot of time to put it together.

But for Stein, New Mexico remains a magic place, despite the turmoil she may have experienced in her first tenure here. She'll be revisiting the state on Wednesday, August 3 for a reading at Bookworks (4022 Rio Grande NW) at 6pm, just one day after Land of Enchantment's official release date.
Guwahati, July 25 : Two hardcore militants belonging to NDFB(S) were gunned down during gun battle with security forces in Assam's Kokrajhar district on Monday morning, officials said.

Based on intelligence input, police and army had launched operation at Jharbari area in the BTAD district on Monday morning.

'We got information that some militants were moving towards Jharbari area and immediately launched operation at the area,aA an army official said.

As security troops reached the spot, a group of militant opened indiscriminate fire on the team.

The security personnel retaliated with controlled fire and neutralised two militants.

The slain militants were identified as PungkhaNarzary and JwngsrBasumatary.

'Both the militants were of 42 batch and were involved in numerous subversive activities including extortion, kidnapping and were planning to target Security Forces camps and convoys in the runup to Independence day'sA

the official said.

Security forces had recovered two Pistols, some ammunition, two Grenades and other warlike stores in possession from the militants.

In view of the high state of alertness being maintained due to inputs being received regarding movement by Anti National Elements to carry out serial blasts in the run up to Independence Day, Army and Assam Police are

maintaining a very high state of vigil.

(Reporting by Hemanta Kumar Nath)
[Posted below are two dissenting opinions (by Rahul Pandita and by Kunwar Khuldune Shahid) for Leftists to ponder over]

1.

firstpost.com - July 26, 2016

Burhan Wani-wali azadi? Leftists have succumbed to narrow view of Kashmir

by Rahul Pandita

From the discourse of the past two weeks on Kashmir, it would seem as if the people there have risen against India because of pellet guns. There is no doubt that these guns, used by the police and the paramilitary forces, have caused terrible injuries. Every act of cruelty undermines the legitimacy of the state even more, and fuels further radicalisation a and this is true of Kashmir as of anti-Maoist operations or operation against militants in the North East.

But it is also a fact that the security forces in Kashmir have had to deal with extremely hostile crowds. In the skirmishes of the last few days alone, over two thousand policemen and over one thousand personnel of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) have been injured. Two policemen have lost their lives, one of them after his vehicle was pushed into the Jhelum River from a bridge by protestors. One CRPF jawan, hit by protestors on his head with a brick, is in a critical state. Dozens of police stations and army posts have been attacked by frenzied mobs.

It is still understandable that in a display of anger against the Indian state, or because they support Burhan Wanias vision, many Kashmiris came out to protest his death. But it is baffling why a section of leftists in India, who are advocates of azadi in Kashmir, would mourn the death of the commander of a terrorist organisation that has not only killed security personnel but unarmed Kashmiris as well, including many from the Hindu minority, in several cases dragging them out of buses and shooting them dead in cold blood.

No matter what stories are attributed to Wanias reason behind joining the militant ranks, their tautology serves the same purpose: the Indian State and its troops, whose numbers in Kashmir are highly exaggerated in this discourse, are responsible for innocent, young men like Wani turning into jihadis.

But behind the decorous restraint of his father, the support for the path his son chose to adopt comes across very clearly. In comments after comments, including in this 2013 interview with the journalist Jason Burke, the senior Wani clearly says that he is proud of his son and that he is ready for him to die. In another interview, he says that Islam prepares them for only two things: victory or martyrdom, and that surrender could only be possible in front of Allah.

What do you say to such a man? Or to his son who, before he died, appeared in videos, asking young men to join him in his fight for establishing an Islamic caliphate?

It is one thing to be in favour of azadi, but do the leftists realise that azadi in Kashmir means Burhan-wali azadi? Between Khalistanism and Kashmirism, the leftists seem to have forgotten some important lessons. In the heyday of the Khalistan utopia, a few comrades were of the opinion that the Sikhs are the core of the Punjab nationality. They dreamt of sustaining independent Khalistanas economy by growing Gobi (cauliflower) and selling it directly to Pakistan. But then sense prevailed, and a majority of the leftist spectrum opposed the idea of Khalistan. Several comrades lost their lives while resisting Khalistani extremists.

But on Kashmir, the comrades failed to take into account that the pro-azadi sentiment is confined mostly to the Kashmir Valley, and there too among certain groups, and that the views of the other people in the state also need to be taken into account. While haranguing about the Kashmirisa right to self-determination, they forgot that the aselfa is not only a particular section of Muslims. As a result, they even forgot their own people in Kashmir who would have offered resistance to this amalgamation of religious and national identity. So, while communists in Punjab who sacrificed their lives resisting Khalistan were remembered, people like Abdul Sattar Ranjoor were forgotten (The veteran Kashmiri Communist leader was shot dead at his home in March 1990 on the orders of Hizbul Mujahideen a the same organisation to which Burhan Wani owed allegiance to).

As the azadi brigade in Kashmir led brutal ethnic cleansing against the minority Pandits, the communists remained silent. During Kashmiras Islamisation, hundreds of temples were vandalised or completely destroyed. There was not a whimper of protest on the exodus of 400,000 Pandits. Would the leftists be silent if four lakh Muslims or Dalits would be driven out of their homes and villages? And once they accepted religion as an ideological component of resistance, did they consider the fact that they would lose the moral grounds to oppose Savarakarite militarism?

With the Pandits gone, a wave of intimidation silenced saner and liberal voices in Kashmir. Was there any attempt by the leftists to reach out to these voices? Did they make an attempt to say a word about veteran Pandit communist leaders like Motilal Misri and NN Raina, who founded and nurtured the communist movement in Kashmir? Did they ever try to resurrect the memory of the young Pandit comrade, Somnath Bira, who died while saving a group of Muslims from a mob of Hindu fanatics between Bhadarwah and Doda in Jammu 1947?

Instead of fighting Kashmiras descent into Theo-fascism, the leftists find no contradiction in calling a man like the Kashmiri separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani to Delhi and elsewhere to their public meetings on democracy and civil rights a a man who has said publicly that he abhors socialism or secularism and that these are not meant for Kashmir, and that Islam alone will work there.

Look at a Facebook message posted by the pro-azadi filmmaker, Sanjay Kak on 9 July. He narrates an incident the morning after Wanias death when a Hindu man walked by a barricade in Kashmir manned by local policemen. The man was hoping to pass when he got slapped twice by one of the policemen who berated him for going to work on a day when Burhan Wani was amartyred.a (Quoting Kak: aItas only Saturday for you is it?a the cops said to him, atoday is the day Burhan Wani was martyreda ). Kak described it as an aanecdotal evidence to get a sense of the mood,a and it is clear that he approves of it.

Now, imagine a similar episode in Ahmedabad where a Hindu policeman is manning a barricade put up in the city immediately after the Godhra riots and slapping a Muslim worker. Actually, it is not a correct analogy. Imagine a Hindu policeman in Ahmedabad manning a barricade on the day Babu Bajrangi is being sentenced in the court and then slapping a Muslim worker saying, aItas only Saturday for you, is it? Today is the day when Babu Bajrangi has been sentenced to life imprisonment.a Is the slapping of a man by a policeman who thinks that a terrorist is a martyr a matter of upbeatness?

Are my pro-azadi friends okay with Kashmir becoming an Islamic state? When they say azadi for Kashmiris, do they even take into account the rights of the minorities in Kashmir, including the Pandits? When they felicitate their friend Geelani, do they ask him how the minorities will live in a place, which he says will be run not on secularism but according to Shariah?

In a recent, remarkable essay, the scholar Mukul Kesavan argues that the monument for Indiaas pluralism is its Constitution and that athis is a claim to Indian exceptionalism (as opposed to the common identity of South Asia) because Indiaas neighbours were either built on the wretched idea that nations are owned by religious communities or later succumbed to it.a

Why would those who claim to believe in Indiaas pluralism succumb to the wretched idea of Kashmir being owned by one religious community? But that is what, sadly, the leftists in India have largely succumbed to.

The author has written, among other books, Our Moon Has Blood Clots: A Memoir Of A Lost Home In Kashmir. He tweets @rahulpandita

o o o

2.

nation.com.pk - July 15, 2016

Disown jihadist afreedom fightersa in Kashmir

by Kunwar Khuldune Shahid

Burhan Muzaffar Wanias killing in an encounter on July 8 has resulted in absolute bedlam in the Kashmir Valley, with death toll rising to 39 as of yesterday evening. The 21-year-old commander of the Hizbul Mujahideen has been compared to Bhagat Singh a both to credit and discredit Wanias struggle, depending on whoas doing the juxtaposition. But notwithstanding the often ignored evolution of the moral spectrum on the use of violence in contrasting eras, the crucial differential between the two was their ideological positions.

Wani was the offspring of the global jihadist movement that emerged in the last quarter of the previous century, hammering Muslim-majority freedom movements into Islamist struggles wherever the occupying force was anon-Muslimaa including Palestine, Kashmir and East Turkestan. And the problem with any Islamist afreedoma movement is that it intrinsically contradicts the very idea of freedom.

Hizbul Mujahideen, whose supreme commander Syed Salahuddin had claimed responsibility for the Pathankot attack as the chairman of the United Jihad Council, is a jihadist organisation whose very vocal ambitions arenat limited to aliberatinga Kashmir from India. Hizb overlaps with Jaish-e-Muhammad and Lashkar-e-Taiba that in turn work in tandem with al-Qaeda and the Taliban, to lay a radical Islamic network from South Asia to the Middle East, with Turkistan Islamic Movement and its Syrian branch combining with Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan to fasten together this massive jihadist conglomerate. This expansionist jihadist superstructure feeds off movements like those in Kashmir and Palestine to discredit genuine struggles for self-recognition and battles for human rights.

The greatest partners in crime for Islamist terror-mongers masquerading as freedom fighters are often the left-leaning opinion-makers, the torchbearers of resistance against all kinds of colonialism, which (mis)use prevailing economic disparity and their dutiful obsession with demographical morality, to create alibis for violently imperialistic jihadism.

It is these same liberals a who might not have offered the same courtesy to Hafiz Saeed or Masood Azhar for example a that have bought the Islamist narrative making Wani the poster boy for Kashmirisa fight. If Wani is representative of Kashmiri Muslims, their Islamic supremacist movement shouldnat be confused with freedom-fighting. And if the Hizb commander does not reflect the average Muslim mindset, thereas no bigger disservice to the Kashmiri cause than extolling Wanias astrugglea.

Wani, like countless other youngsters, unfortunately fell prey to jihadism in a land becoming increasingly fertile for radical Islam. Losing elder brother Khalid Muzaffar Wani at the hands of the Indian Armyas brutalities last year pushed him further toward militancy. Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Geelani has reduced the probability of his relatives being victimised by Indian forces, with both his sons living hundreds of kilometers away from Kashmir in Rawalpindi and Delhi. Meanwhile in October last year, Hurriyat Conference Chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq warned Kashmiris to abeware of the expansionist plan of the Ahmadis in Kashmira in his latest call for Ahmadis to be declared non-Muslims in India, during the Friday khutba.

With Islamists like Geelani and Umar Farooq spearheading the Kashmir movement, and Wani becoming the face of resistance, little wonder that the struggle has continued to diminish in the recent past, mirroring the Palestinian movement being usurped by jihadism as well.

Just like Kashmiri leadersa Islamist fantasies, the Palestinian National Authority embedded Sharia as the amain source of legislationa in their Constitution framed after the Oslo Accords. In fact it is the Ottoman Land Code of 1858 a a persistent remnant of Palestineas Islamist colonial past a which paradoxically facilitated Jewish settlements in West Bank, East Jerusalem and Golan Heights.

Hamasa takeover of Gaza has further exacerbated the plight of Palestinian Christians that have already been reduced to around 1% of the Palestinian Arab population from 8% in 1946. This is similar to the Pandits expulsion from Kashmir, with 99% of the total Pandit population (150,000 to 160,000) believed to have left the Kashmir Valley by 1990.

Both Palestinian Christians and Kashmiri Pandits have been a and many still are a strong proponents of their respective nationas right to self-determination from Israeli and Indian occupation. But when those nations chose a and continue to choose a to define themselves along religious lines, the movement for freedom became a paradox.

The Kurdish struggle for autonomy in Turkey a oft ignored by the Muslim world owing to the identical religious identities of the occupier and the occupied a is a classic example of modern-day freedom struggles striving on political nous more than militancy. The militant Partiya Karkeren Kurdistaneas (PKK) achievements are nonexistent compared to pro-Kurdish Peopleas Democratic Partyas (HDP). Balochistan pragmatists have long suggested that the quest for Baloch autonomy should take a similar route.

That HDPas gains in June elections last year were undone by ISIS bombing the Turks into voting for the right-wing, security-driven Justice and Development Party (AKP) in the November reelections, perfectly outlines the discrepancy between political struggle for freedom and jihadist expansionism. A similar story can be found in the contrasting fates of the Hui and Uighur Muslims, despite the prevalence of East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM) in Western China.

None of this is to deny the brutalities and human rights abuse of Indian and Israeli (or Turkish, Chinese and Pakistani) occupations. But the geopolitical realities of the 21st century dictate that actual battles for freedom are fought in the political chambers, and not on the ground. Any struggle claiming to be a freedom movement would need to exhibit the ideals that it demands among its own ranks. Case in point: HDPas persistent support for secular and liberal causes and human rights a spearheaded by women and LGBTQ rights.

And so, actual well-wishers of Kashmiris and Palestinians should be vocal in their denunciation of any form of supremacism and bigotry instead of misrepresenting jihadism as fight for freedom and summoning apologia for terror-mongering. For, armed liberation attempts aided by jihadist neighbours have failed in both territories for the past 70 odd years.

Realism dictates abandoning the gun, and battling the opposition in the political arena. For, no occupier in the history of humankind has given up an inch of territory, just because it was the aright thinga to do.

About the author:

Kunwar Khuldune Shahid is a member of staff. He can be reached at khuldune.shahid[at]nation.com.pk.

[ see also:

A daily plebiscite - Kashmir, the Northeast and India by Mukul Kesavan http://www.telegraphindia.com/1160418/jsp/opinion/story_80644.jsp ]
Children from 8-12 years old attended the annual Junior Firefighter Youth program in Santa Maria held July 25-28th at Fire Station #2. The kids learned how to put out a fire, signal other firefighters, and more.

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There I was last night chatting with Dante Vescio, one half of the duo from the Brazilian horror flick The Fostering, and he tells me that they made a short, Blondie, that won the horror section of the online competition My RDE Reel.

Would the ScreenAnarchy community like to know about it?

Um. Yeah!

Two kids serving detention discuss the right way to summon Blondie, an old Brazilian urban legend. One of them tries. It works.

Turns out the Bloody Mary type of urban legend show up in other cultures as well. Vescio says that it varies from town to town, the way to summon Blondie varies from school to school, and it happens mostly in school bathrooms. What i think we are seeing here is a way by which Brazilian teachers keep their students in the classroom and not out wandering the halls.

Check it out below.
When I was a teenager and the internet was young, there weren't many resources readily available in suburban Sacramento for finding the weird, way-out films that made me smile. In fact, at the time, there was really only one place I could go to explore the darker side of my cinematic affinities, the video store.

In the mid-90s, my town had several independent video stores that hadn't quite been gobbled up by the Hollywood Video and Blockbuster chains. DVD hadn't quite arrived and "streaming" wasn't even a twinkle in Reed Hastings's eye, but there were videos aplenty to quench my thirst for the bizarre. At the time there weren't online reviews, YouTube trailers, or a massively connected worldwide community to help me make my decisions. All I had were video covers. Lurid, insanely misleading, glorious explicit video covers.

There were many contenders for the best VHS cover art in those days. Years of accumulated tapes often flowed out from the shelves and into piles on the floor, but one always seemed to have a kind of aura around it, setting it apart from the rest as the most beautifully ridiculous thing I'd ever seen. It was the Paragon Video release of Marino Girolami's Dr. Butcher, M.D.

That cover, seen above on the left, was the US theatrical art for a re-cut version of Girolami's Italian genre mash-up Zombie Holocaust. For probably a decade it was the only version of the film I know, and it wasn't until I jumped aboard the DVD bandwagon in the early 2000's that I even saw the original Italian cut of the film. There are some significant differences, but nothing that would be enough for me to ever declare an outright winner between the two. Perhaps it's nostalgia talking, but I have a very special affection for Dr. Butcher, M.D. in spite of some inherent faults.

The film, smashed together during the apex of Italian horror ripoffs in 1980, combines two of the most popular underground horror subgenres of the time, zombies and cannibals. Both Lucio Fulci's Zombie (Zombi 2) and Ruggero Deodato's Cannibal Holocaust were released theatrically in 1979, and each spawned its own wave of imitators over the next half decade, but very few films had the balls to combine the two subgenres the way that Zombie Holocaust did. Girolami took the jungle setting common to both -- as well as the New York City wraparound stories they shared -- and used these two seemingly separate genres to create a weird stew of live and undead flesh-eating mania that hasn't been seen since.

The plot to the film is largely inconsequential. In fact, if you've seen either of the films referenced above, you won't really see anything new in Zombie Holocaust. However, the gumption it took to cut and paste these weirdly simpatico elements from very different films into a single project is kind of a stroke of genius on the part of screenwriter Romano Scandariato. Zombie Holocaust is all about the the blood and guts, taking the best gags from each genre and reworking them in a way that is still pretty recognizable, but just different enough not to get sued. Cash-ins don't get much more blatant than this, but hey, who can blame them?

Dr. Butcher, M.D. features all of the gut-gobbling you could ever want, backed by the evil machinations of a mad scientist intent upon creating life after death. It is by no means a good movie, but it's hard not to be entertained. Fans of Italian genre cinema from this era with eat this film up, but if you aren't familiar with the particular rhythms and quirks of these movies, it may take a minute to get a foothold. For my part, I really enjoy this film in both versions, and there's no better way to experience it than with Severin Films' new Blu-ray release.

The Disc:

Zombie Holocaust, as I mentioned above, has a long and complicated history on home video. Once DVD came into the picture, it became very easy for people to see the film as it was originally intended, but the presentation has always been a bit of a problem. This is the third release of the film on Blu-ray in the English speaking world, and having owned all three, I can say that it is easily the best.

The two closest competitors are Severin's new version and the recently released UK version from 88 Films. Both discs were struck from new scans of original vault elements, but the 88 Films disc had some significant shortcomings. The most egregious problem with the UK disc was a baffling color scheme that left many high key outdoor sequences - in particular those shot on the beach - looking really, really yellow. I'm sympathetic to the struggles of recovering quality video from unideal elements, but those sequences were really awful. Thankfully, Severin Films have gone back, restored and color corrected a lot of the imperfections from the previous UK disc. Those beach sequences look like they were tough to wrangle, though, as it appears the film is very overexposed, which impresses me all the more with the work Severin have done.

One thing that is well worth noting is that Severin have gone through the arduous process of recreating the Dr. Butcher, M.D. cut of the film from original elements on different ends of the world. Not only that, they've given each version of the film its own Blu-ray disc which gives them more space to provide bundles of fascinating extras. Because the alternate cuts utilize different editing and soundtracks, there is no seamless branching version, they just give us the choice of which version we'd like to watch, along with the reversible covers seen above.

The discs look and sound great, but it's the massive wealth of extras that put this Blu-ray release into the running for best release of the year. Each disc is loaded down with hours of newly-filmed interviews and recollections regarding this film and the scene from which it emerged in the early '80s.

Appropriately, on the disc housing the American cut of the film, Dr. Butcher, M.D., the extras focus on the 42nd Street experience and American distribution of the film. We get an extended interview with Terry Levene of Aquarius Releasing, who was responsible for buying and distributing many of the cult classics film fans are familiar with today. It's a great interview with a very candid Levene, who doesn't hesitate to speak his mind. At one point Levene even mocks home video companies that approach him for HD transfers of his films - Dr. Butcher, M.D. is named specifically, along with Cannibal Holocaust - as wasting their time on garbage that doesn't rate the upgrade. Out of the hours of interviews included in this set, this one was the clear winner from me, as no one else had quite the bird's eye view on the entire process that Levene did.

The extras continue with a stroll down 42nd Street as described by Temple of Schlock's Chris Poggiali and filmmaker Ray Frumkes (writer of Street Trash, and contributor to the US cut of Dr. Butcher). This is an eye opening look at the history of a street that played home to many of the sleaziest cinemas in the world and the way it morphed into a family-friendly urban wonderland under the careful watch of ex-mayor Rudy Giuliani. The good stuff continues with interviews of Rick Sullivan of the Gore Gazette, the film's editor Jim Markovic, and an illustrated essay from Gary Hertz. All of these extras are worthwhile and an unusually candid look at the way films were marketed and sold in the early '80s.

The Zombie Holocaust disc moves the action to the other side of the Atlantic with interviews from the European contributors to the film. We get an interview with star Ian McCulloch, who describes his experiences in Italian films as troubling, though he now embraces them since they've provided a fan base that he wouldn't otherwise know of. There are a pair of talks with FX artists, first with Rosario Prestopino who talks about creating the mountains of gore featured in the film, and then Maurizio Trani adds to the conversation in his own separate interview.

We also get an interview with actress Sherry Buchanan, who describes her experience on the film, much of which was nude, as challenging. In my opinion, the most interesting piece on this disc is an interview with Enzo Castellari, legendary Italian genre filmmaker and director of films like The Inglorious Bastards (1978), who just happened to be the son of Zombie Holocaust director Girolami. He talks about his father's career and how surprised he was to hear that he'd made this horror film because that wasn't his usual modus operandi. The disc rounds out with some then and now footage of the NYC locations and an audio recording of McCulloch singing Down by the River.

Severin continues to knock it out of the pack with their Blu-ray releases and it's reached a point at which I feel as though their work is worth buying blind, no matter what the film. This is, unquetionably, the finest home video release of Zombie Holocaust to date, and more importantly, a fascinating window into the era from which it was spawned. Cult movie fans, this all region Blu-ray disc is an easy recommendation. Buy it.
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November 10, 2011

Three decades after shooting the President, John Hinckley's freedom still debated

As reported in this post from The BLT, "prosecutors are urging a judge in Washington to reject expanding the conditional release of John Hinckley Jr., the man who more than 30 years ago attempted to assassinate President Ronald Reagan." Here is more:

Judge Paul Friedman of U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia will preside over a hearing Nov. 28 to determine whether to allow Hinckley greater freedom, including some trips during which law enforcement officers would not know his whereabouts. Friedman in July 2009 granted Hinckley twelve visits to his mothers hometown in addition to allowing him certain periods of unaccompanied time. Earlier this year, the judge extended the current conditional release program, giving Hinckley, who lives at St. Elizabeths Hospital in Southeast Washington, the chance to continue to visit his mother. The hospitals lawyers with the D.C. Office of the Attorney General proposed in late July expanding Hinckleys conditional release. Hinckley, according to the U.S. Attorneys Office for the District of Columbia, would be granted two visits of 17 days and six visits of 24 days. The hospital also asked for sole discretion to place Hinckley on convalescent leave after the eight trips. The hospitals proposal for expanded conditions of release is premature and ill-conceived, assistant U.S. attorneys Sarah Chasson and Colleen Kennedy said in court papers (PDF). The proposal, prosecutors said, fails to adequately address the risks presented by Hinckleys clinical record. The government contends Hinckleys record reveals the persistence of several behaviors that universally have been recognized as risk factors for Hinckleys future violence. Hinckleys attorney, Barry William Levine, a Dickstein Shapiro partner in Washington, was not immediately reached for comment this morning. Levine has said that Hinckley no longer poses a danger to himself or others. Prosecutors concede that Hinckleys mental health is better. But the government maintains that his core psychiatric diagnoses, including narcissism, remain.

When I teach insanity law to 1Ls, I often use John Hinckley's confinement as an example of the possibility that the confinement consequences of being found not guilty by reason of insanity can sometimes be worse for a defendant than a guilty verdict. I suspect that Hinkley may have received a sentence of (much?) less than 30 years imprisonment for shooting President Reagan following a guilty verdict in the (pre-guidelines) 1980s or at the very least would have had a decent chance of being granted parole a few decades into his term even if he had gotten a longer prison sentence. Instead, he has been confined to a mental hospital for now nearly three decades.

Of course, spending decades in a mental hospital might be (much?) nicer than spending decades in prison, and Hinkley's treatment and development for his obvious mental issues might have been much better in the hospital than in prison. Still, it is interesting to speculate what might have become of Hinckley if he accepted a plea of guilty rather than sought (and won) an insanity acquittal. And, with similar types of issues abounding and already in the Jared Loughner Tucson shooting case, these issue remain very timely and relevant to defending persons with mental illness who commit terrible crimes.

November 10, 2011 at 09:38 AM | Permalink

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I suspect that in a regular prison Hinckley's chances of long term survival would have been very low. A guard, or prisoner or prisoner put up to it by a guard would have killed him long ago and Hinckley would be a forgotten footnote rather than an ongoing mess.

Also, wasn't federal parole already abolished by the time Hinckley shot Reagan? I thought that occurred in the late 1970s. If so I doubt he would be out now.

Posted by: Soronel Haetir | Nov 10, 2011 11:16:51 AM

Soronel -- Nope, November 1, 1987. http://www.justice.gov/uspc/

Posted by: Jay | Nov 10, 2011 11:27:38 AM

i have to agree. he's done 30 YEARS! time for the prosecutors to find a new DEAD horse to beat!

Posted by: rodsmith | Nov 10, 2011 12:44:06 PM

This is another county in the lawyer Twilight Zone, the insanity defense. The most dangerous people are defended and potentially released. Why? Because they generate massive government make work jobs.

This paranoid schizophrenic is far more dangerous than a contract killer. While he takes his medications, he really believes he should not have to, since there is nothing wrong with him. Once outside a structured setting, he would return to his prior psychotic state, and kill again.

These paranoid schizophrenics murder 2000 people a year. Thank the lawyer. It is the public that is crazy in accepting the self-serving policies of the lawyer. John Hinckley should have been executed after his fair trial.

Posted by: Supremacy Claus | Nov 10, 2011 9:15:34 PM

hmm

"While he takes his medications, he really believes he should not have to, since there is nothing wrong with him. Once outside a structured setting, he would return to his prior psychotic state, and kill again."

at that point he's proved he won't follow instruction not even to stay sane...and put a bullet through his head and move on. ONE bite at the old apple is the only one allowed.

Posted by: rodsmith | Nov 11, 2011 1:10:07 PM

"I suspect that Hinkley may have received a sentence of (much?) less than 30 years imprisonment for shooting President Reagan..."

You should mention that three others were shot that day.

Posted by: Robert | Nov 11, 2011 2:03:44 PM

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December 27, 2013

As fights over John Hinckley's fate continue three decades after his violent crime, what are enduring CJ legacies or lessons?

The question in the title of this post is prompted by this interesting recent Politico piece headlined "Hinckley home for the holidays." Here are the basics:

John Hinckley will almost certainly be home for the holidays, which will bring much joy to his 86-year-old mother but not to the U.S. Justice Department. No matter whether there has been a Democrat in the White House or a Republican, the Justice Department has argued against letting Hinckley out of the mental hospital where he has been incarcerated since 1982. His family, lawyers and a number of psychiatrists and psychologists who have treated Hinckley over the years say he has responded successfully to treatment, is no longer a danger to himself and others, and that he should be allowed more and more days outside the hospital. Hinckley had been allowed 10 days per month to visit his mother in Williamsburg, Va. He is not allowed to make visits in Washington because the president of the United States lives in Washington and the last time Hinckley came across a president, Hinckley shot him. Hinckley is also not allowed to visit his sister in Dallas, because the home of former President George W. Bush is a 10-minute walk away. Even in Williamsburg, Hinckley is trailed by Secret Service agents, and he must carry a GPS-enabled phone that tracks his whereabouts. On average, a person convicted of a violent crime in America serves about five years in prison. Hinckley has served 31 years in St. Elizabeths Hospital, even though he was found not guilty of any crime because a jury decided he was insane at the time he shot Ronald Reagan, press secretary James Brady, D.C. police officer Thomas Delahanty and Secret Service agent Timothy McCarthy.... Last week, a federal judge extended the amount of time Hinckley can spend outside St. Elizabeths to 17 days per month. The seriousness with which Hinckleys request for added visiting time was treated is indicative of how seriously the government still takes his case: Over a four-month period, lawyers battled for two weeks, and the judges decision was an incredible 106 pages long.... The hearing did provide some droll moments. In arguing that Hinckley was not fit to be outside of his mental hospital for a longer period of time, the government said one of his girlfriends at St. Elizabeths was floridly psychotic. To which Hinckleys lawyer replied: Who is he going to meet at St. Elizabeths? Hinckleys case contains some valuable lessons: The insanity defense is very rarely used in America and usually fails when it is used. Hinckley succeeded, but what has it gotten him? More than three decades in a mental hospital may be better than more than three decades in prison, but unlike a prisoner serving a sentence with a maximum number of years, Hinckley, 58, can be locked up in the hospital until he dies. Before Hinckley shot Reagan, he had been stalking Jimmy Carter. In October, 1980, Hinckley was arrested at Nashvilles Metropolitan Airport for concealing three handguns and 30 rounds of ammunition in his carry-on luggage. He paid a fine of $62.50 and was released from custody. Four days later, Hinckley, who had undergone psychiatric treatment for depression, went to Dallas, where he bought a gun and six bullets at a pawnshop for $47. Hinckley used this weapon to shoot Ronald Reagan, James Brady and the two law enforcement officers. Todays Brady law, which was enacted in 1993 and requires background checks for some gun purchases, is named for James Brady and might have prevented Hinckley from buying that gun. In 1988, his last full year in office, Reagan endorsed the Brady Bill, even though Reagan was not a fan of gun-control laws. His personal affection for Brady might have had something to do with it, but Reagan also said it was a good idea to see if a potential gun buyer had a record of any crimes or mental problems, or anything of that kind. The National Rifle Association condemned Reagans statement. St. Elizabeths, built in 1855 as the Government Hospital for the Insane, once housed 8,000 patients. As the hospital crumbled from neglect, and as laws and attitudes about mentally ill people changed, the population dropped to its current 300 and a new hospital was built in 2010. St. Elizabeths no longer needs all of its vast 350 acres, where feral cats still roam, some of which are cared for by Hinckley, who often visits PetSmart on his home visits right after he goes to Wendys. About 176 acres of the property will be used for the new $3.4 billion headquarters complex of the Department of Homeland Security.

As most criminal law professors know, one of the legal legacies of Hinckley's case was a significant retrenchment of insanity doctrines in many states. But as Hinckley's own case may highlight, perhaps that it is ultimately a blessing and not a curse even for mentally unstable criminal defendants. And, as most gun control advocates know, Hickley's crime created a uniquely potent person and symbol in support of gun control laws. But as recent high-profile deadly shootings highlight, there is reason to perhaps fear that the US is unable or unwilling to pursue gun control laws that would be likely able to prevent mentally unstable persons from having access to firearms.

December 27, 2013 at 02:30 PM | Permalink

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"St. Elizabeths ... Hospital for the Insane, once housed 8,000 patients ...[now] 300"

Maybe we'd be safer if more were housed thereat.

Posted by: Adamakis | Dec 27, 2013 4:20:53 PM

"Maybe we'd be safer if more were housed thereat."

They are housing the Department of Homeland Security on the grounds of the Government Hospital for the Insane. Seems fitting to me.

Posted by: Daniel | Dec 27, 2013 5:20:36 PM

I don't know why you would use a five-year average sentence for a generic "violent crime" as the comparator. Why not use the actual case histories of, for example, Squeaky Fromme and Sarah Jane Moore, both of whom tried to assassinate Pres. Ford but (unlike Hinckley) didn't manage to even wound the intended target (Fromme didn't get a shot off; Moore got one shot off which wounded a bystander). They both did more than 30 years of actual prison time, and I would think Hinckley but for the insanity defense would have gotten a similar sentence and still be in. Further confirmation might be seen from the case of Arthur Bremer who shot and wounded a candidate rather than sitting president (Wallace during the '72 primaries) and did 35 years before being released. (I think all three of those would-be assassins got life sentences and got out early under whatever discretionary rules govern the fate of federal prisoners who got life sentences way back in the '70's, although I haven't double-checked that.) The possibility that someone who mounts a successful insanity defense could end up institutionalized for longer than the prison time they would have done had the defense failed may be real, but I don't think this particular crime is a good example.

Posted by: JWB | Dec 27, 2013 7:00:48 PM

I thought the same thing as JWB and appreciate the data.

Another blog flagging the black woman who attacked Martin Luther King Jr. in the 1950s. The last thing people found suggested she might still be alive as of a few years ago, in a home for the mentally ill. It was unclear when or if she died.

Posted by: Joe | Dec 27, 2013 8:42:43 PM

Over time my views on violent criminals and their punishment has changed. I was formerly opposed to the killing of defendants because I believed it offends Christian belief and particularly the Sixth Commandment. But, having followed the comments here I have changed my mind. Those who shoot someone should be shot. Firing squad of six so as to flaunt the Sixth Commandment. This Demerol and poison thing is too gross and not fitting. Think what it costs to take care of this so called nutcase named Hinckley. Had he been shot dead years ago we would not spend time and money deciding if he can vacation in the President's home town to be with his Aunt DoeDoe.

In the past, some of you commenters ridiculed my Sixth Commandment stance. I don't blame you. I agree that Christianity is a farce and that "do unto others" is ok.

But if any of you think that killing nutcases like Hinckley is violative of Christian beliefs then you must keep going to church. Be honest with yourselves. I will accept your criticism. I was a believer once too.

Posted by: Liberty1st | Dec 27, 2013 11:49:12 PM

Lib: I like your sarcasm.

However, all mitigating factors are actually aggravating factors. So, yes, the insane murderers are the most dangerous of all, because they kill impulsively or for delusional reasons. In your sarcasm, not a single word about the 10% of murder victims killed by paranoid schizophrenics around the world. That fraction applies to high murder rate and to to low murder rate countries. So, in the US, they kill about 2000 people a year. One hears of their mass shootings, but not of the one by one murders of strangers, of family members, and of treatment teams. Why does the lawyer protect the insane, prohibits physical restraints, prevents involuntary treatment until a harm has happened followed by a trial employing 3 lawyers, a prosecutor, a defense lawyer, and a magistrate to decide on involuntary commitment? That insane person, you correctly, if sarcastically noted, generates massive government costs, and make work jobs for Democratic Party voters. These worthless jobs come at the cost of 1000's of lives a year, around the world. The self evident, that they are more dangerous than contract killers, is taboo.

Posted by: Supremacy Claus | Dec 28, 2013 9:45:16 AM

L's sarcasm aside, there are various Christian views on the d.p.

Cf. Scalia with "Jesus on Death Row: The Trial of Jesus and American Capital Punishment" by Osler, Mark (a friend of Doug Berman).

The statement was ridiculed since the same book that cites the commandment lists various capital crimes. Using the approach that Jesus used for other things -- e.g., the thing that go Jimmy Carter in trouble when he said he "lusted in his heart" and thus sinned, you can very well apply it strictly to ban the d.p.

It just is not a literal application of a command that given capital punishment was allowed was originally understood as "thou shall not murder." Or, kill in an illegitimate fashion.

Posted by: Joe | Dec 28, 2013 10:47:06 AM

It is etched in stone: Thou Shalt Not Kill. The thou shall not murder thing is from the Sears Roebuck bible. But, just because it was written in stone does not mean that it cannot be edited by Sears Roebuck. But my comment above was not meant to be sarcastic. If you believe in God, Christ and want to get into Heaven and avoid Hell or Limbo, then follow the Sixth. Me, I think we should shoot all shooters who kill. Rob all robbers. Rape rapists. Do unto others. You can castrate rapists but that might be beyond the Pale. But, be consistent. If you are a Christian do not take chances at the Pearly Gates and tell Saint Peter that you were reading the Sears Roebuck bible when you approved of your state's killing of criminals. He will scoff at the use of the words "execution of a murderer". But, take your chances. Maybe y'all can. But I believe if you kill somebody use a firing squad of six. None of this drug apCray.

Posted by: Liberty1st | Dec 28, 2013 12:54:40 PM

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As reported in this Reuters piece, "John Hinckley Jr., who wounded U.S. President Ronald Reagan and three other people in a 1981 assassination attempt prompted by his obsession with actress Jodie Foster, can be freed from a psychiatric hospital to live with his mother, a federal judge ruled on Wednesday." Here is more about this notable ruling in perhaps the highest-profile insanity case of all time:

U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman said Hinckley, 61, who was found not guilty by reason of insanity in a 1982 trial, no longer posed a danger to himself or others. He said Hinckley could be released from St. Elizabeth's, a government psychiatric hospital in Washington, as soon as Aug. 5, subject to nearly three dozen conditions. "Since 1983, when he last attempted suicide, he has displayed no symptoms of active mental illness, exhibited no violent behavior, shown no interest in weapons, and demonstrated no suicidal ideation," Friedman said of Hinckley in a 103-page opinion.

In addition to Reagan, Hinckley's attack wounded presidential press secretary James Brady, a policeman and a Secret Service agent. It helped launch the modern gun control movement, as Brady and his wife, Sarah, founded what is now known as the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence after he was left permanently disabled. The Bradys' support helped the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act become law in 1993, imposing federal background checks on gun purchases and a five-day waiting period.

The Hinckley verdict also led several states to rewrite their laws making it more difficult to use the insanity defense while the U.S. Secret Service tightened its protocols for presidential security.

Upon his admission to St. Elizabeth's, doctors diagnosed Hinckley with depression and psychosis - two maladies they say have been in remission for years. Friedman said Hinckley will be required to spend at least a year living with his mother, Jo Ann, 90, in Williamsburg, Virginia, about 130 miles (210 km) south of Washington, where he has been making increasingly long furlough visits for several years.

If Hinckley's treatment team approves, he may then move into his own residence by himself or with roommates, Friedman said. He also said if Hinckley's mother becomes unable to monitor him in her home, his brother or sister will be required to live there with him until the hospital determines an alternate plan. In a May story about Hinckley's life, Washingtonian magazine cited neighbors in her gated community who liked Mrs. Hinckley but did not want him living there.

Hinckley had unsuccessfully sought jobs in Williamsburg at places such as Starbucks and a Subway sandwich shop and tried to become involved in volunteer programs in the town, Washingtonian said. He eventually took a volunteer job in the library of a psychiatric facility in Williamsburg. Hinckley's behavior during his furlough visits has been unimpeachable aside from a few occasions, the judge wrote. Twice in 2011, Hinckley lied to hospital staff about where he had been.

Friedman's order imposes nearly three dozen conditions, including a requirement that Hinckley meet with his psychiatrist in Washington monthly and notify the Secret Service when he travels for the appointment. He is barred from making contact with Foster or her family, Reagan's family and relatives of the other victims, and he is required to either work or volunteer at least three days per week. He is restricted to a 50-mile radius of Williamsburg and must make information about his mobile phone, vehicle and Internet browsing history available to his treatment team and law enforcement.

The petition for release from Hinckley was supported by his doctors but opposed by U.S. prosecutors. A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's office in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment, nor did Hinckley lawyer Barry Levine. Hinckley was a 25-year-old college dropout with vague aspirations of a musical career when he fired at Reagan. He had become obsessed with Foster and the Martin Scorsese film "Taxi Driver" in which she played a teenage prostitute. Hinckley began to identify with the film's main character, Travis Bickle, who planned to assassinate a presidential candidate, and spent several years trying to make contact with Foster, who was a student at Yale University in Connecticut.

On March 30, 1981, Hinckley wrote Foster a letter detailing his plans to kill Reagan in an effort to win her over. Later that day, Hinckley approached Reagan outside the Washington Hilton Hotel and opened fire. Reagan suffered a punctured lung but recovered relatively quickly. Brady's death in 2014 was attributed to his wounds but federal prosecutors said the following year they would not charge Hinckley with his murder.

Foster has refused to comment publicly on Hinckley since addressing it in 1981, and a publicist for the Academy Award-winning actress did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.


Finally, after we got the individual day lineups, the comedy tent lineup, and the complete food lineup, we get perhaps the most important lineup of all: The GastroMagic Stage.

The stage, which started as a quirky new element of the massive fest two years ago, returns for its third go-round a week from Friday with a bunch of new and delightfully weird collisions of culinary and music stars. All the sets are just brief half-hours that you're meant to drop in on on your way between the food concessions and your next music set, and they generally feature some off-the-cuff fun times.

Once again, there will be a beignet brunch with New Orleans' own "Queen of Bounce" Big Freedia, and this year there will be a special Prince tribute with Humphry Slocombe ice cream. Also this year there's a bit more of a focus on cocktails (e.g. there's a Sunday Bloody Mary Sunday tasting of Bloodies with Padrecito, and bacon, and a U2 cover band), and Big Boi will be learning to skewer and barbecue stuff with State Bird Provisions chef Stuart Brioza and Los Angeles chefs Jon Shook and Vinny Dotolo (Animal, Son of a Gun, Jon & Vinny's).

The full lineup, as released, today.

CUESAs Trash Talk Redux with Bar Tartine, Calavera, 20th Century Cafe and Namu Gaji

2:55pm - 3:25pm

Trash has never tasted this good. CUESAs very own Marcy Coburn will guide San Francisco star chefs Cortney Burns, Sophina Uong & Michelle Polzine through an Iron Chef-style competition to create a winning masterpiece from food waste. Using discarded items from Outside Lands favorite food vendors, along with some of the ugliest produce the city has to offer, the chefs will attempt true culinary alchemy. DJ David Lee, one half of hip-hop duo Golden Age (and co-owner of Namu Gaji) will be keeping the kitchen hot with a tasty trash fire DJ set.

Every Little Thing She Does Is... Gastromagic with Chef Melissa King and Ra Ra Riot Covering The Police

4:15pm - 4:45pm

Members of Ra Ra Riot will be performing as A Humiliating Kick in the Crotch, their brilliantly named Police cover band alter ego. While the Brooklyn indie faves spin us some sweet serenades, Chef Melissa King (Top Chef) will show you all priceless tricks and tips necessary to create gastro magic in the kitchen.

Bay Area Hipster Chef Roast with Kyle Kinane, Paco Romane, Drew Platt, Richie Nakano and More

5:45pm - 6:15pm

A host of Bay Area comedians join together to roast, toast, and broil three time "James Mustache Award" winner, Chef Kale Hendrix. Featuring searing burns from Kyle Kinane, Kaseem Bentley, Krista Fatka, and Clare O'Kane, the show will be hosted by San Frans own adorably self-deprecating Paco Romane. As the comedians put Hendrix to the test, SFs Chef Richie Nakano will be roasting a dish of his very own.

Raspberry Beret: A Prince Tribute with Humphry Slocombe

7:25pm - 7:55pm

Express your inner Purple One as you indulge in the delights of Humphry Slocombe's limited edition Ube (purple yam) and Raspberry Ice Cream alongside a performance of Princes all-time classics.

SATURDAY, AUGUST 6

Beignets & Bounce Brunch with Big Freedia and Brendas Soul Food

1:30pm - 2:00pm

Straight from New Orleans, Big Freedia AKA the Queen of Bounce is back to shake and wobble during the Third Annual Bounce Brunch. Brenda's Soul Food beignets will be served to the best, bounciest twerkers in the crowd, so come ready to bust some serious moves.

Shark Bites with Jauz, Mother Of Pearl and Guittard

2:50pm - 3:20pm

New York Citys spirited mixologist Jane Danger of Mother of Pearl will craft her signature whiskey Shark Eye cocktail before your eyes. Paired with Guittard chocolate bites, its a combo you wont want to miss. The world touring, genre blending DJ Jauz will spin the beats for this party. It may not be Shark Week, but the water wont be safe.

Electric Beethoven Acid Test with The Electric Beethoven Band and Hampton Creek Innovator Ben Roche

4:10pm - 4:40pm

Futuristic food technologist Ben Roche, in conjunction with the Electric Beethoven Band will take you on the ultimate musical-culinary trip. Psychedelic tunes will echo throughout the forest while Roche provides a mysterious twist for your taste buds.

Culinary Olympics Throwdown with The Northern Chefs Alliance Team USA and Canada Judged By Jo Firestone

5:40pm - 6:10pm

All-star chefs from the USA and Canada, selected by San Franciscos own ChefsFeed, which has an inside connection to the best of food culture and the worlds top chefs, will battle it out on the GastroMagic stage to see who will take home the gold from these culinary games. Fierce competitors - to name just a few, Matt Jennings, Jose Enrique and Gabriel Rucker will give Jo Firestone the difficult task of naming the winner after seeing their mastery skills. With her decision, we will finally know whether its truly time for us all to move to Canada.

Skew It On The Bar-B with Big Boi, Animal's Jon Shook & Vinny Dotolo and State Bird's Stuart Brioza

7:00pm - 7:30pm

Jon Shook, Vinny Dotolo and Stuart Brioza, powerhouse chefs from Los Angeles and San Francisco, share the stage and key "skewing" tips with music icon Big Boi before he transfixes the audience with hip-hop magic.



SUNDAY, AUGUST 7

Sunday Bloody Mary Sunday with Zoo Station, Padrecito & Baconland

2:05pm - 2:35pm

It wouldnt be a Sunday without a Bloody Mary... or four. Padrecito will bring four fresh variations of the brunch-time cocktail to the Gastro Magic table. Taste them all: Classic Bloody Mary, Bloody Maria, Mezcal Mary, and the Red Snapper. Put some grease in your belly with bacon flights from the Baconland team. And of course, no better pairing for taking the edge off than a set from San Franciscos ultimate U2 cover band.

Chris Cosentino and Jillionaire from Major Lazer

4:25pm - 4:55pm

Find your Caribbean groove as one of San Franciscos most celebrated chefs, Chris Cosentino, roasts a full albacore to the global beats of Jillionaire, the Trinidadian born electronic mastermind known for mixing indie and house music with Caribbean rhythms, and a member of Major Lazer.

Breakdown Breakdance with Stephanie Izard, Belcampo Meat Co. and Beatz N Pieces

5:55pm - 6:25pm

Beats and meats what more could you want? B-boy dance troupe Beatz N Pieces will show you how to move ya body, while Stephanie Izard (Top Chef, Girl & The Goat) and butchers from Belcampo Meat Co. show you how to fill ya tummy! The scents of savory goodness will make your head spin, and the music might just make you spin on your head!

How To Make Your Yacht Rock with Mustache Harbor & Woodhouse Fish Co.

7:25pm - 8:05pm

Don your best captains hat and stache while you enjoy the high seas in this party straight out of the 70's & 80's. Enjoy custom cocktails, fresh lobster rolls from Woodhouse, and jam out to the smoothest soft rock classics, from Steely Dan to Kenny Loggins, performed by the well-dressed boys of Mustache Harbor.
Diego Deleo was first threatened with an Ellis Act eviction in 2013, a year after the death of his wife. He's been fighting ever since, and this week a rally in North Beach with poets and activists is planned to help his cause and call further attention to the crisis of evictions in San Francisco.

My name is Diego Deleo," the now 81-year-old told KALW at the time. "I live in North Beach, and I have been Ellis Acted about two months ago so I have another 10 months to stay, and then I move out. I have to."

I live in North Beach 40 years, 40 years," Deleo went on. "I moved in there with the wife. Now, she passed away. Im by myself. The doctor said find something to do, because I was too lonely. Its terrible to be alone. I started to write." And write he did. Fellow poet and housing activist Tony Robles says of Deleo that "he is the best kept secret in San Francisco poetry, praising his book "Encore."

Deleo was able to fight back eviction in 2014 with the help of lawyer Steve Collier, Beyond Chron recalled this month. It is like a death sentence," Deleo now says of his eviction, which he's still fighting to this day. "For one to be faced with eviction, at 81 years-old, in a city where the rent could be in excess of $4,000.00. It is such a travesty that elders are expelled from San Francisco, just so wealthy landlords can make a few dollars more.

Hoodline has it that Deleo's apartment is a Chestnut Street backyard cottage that's now owned by Martin Coyne, a man who according to the Anti-Eviction Mapping Project is the owner of North Beach bar La Rocca's Corner on Columbus. The Ellis Act is used in situations where a landlord is leaving the renting business, and Coyne has reportedly evicted other tenants in the Chestnut Street building, with Deleo a holdout. Deleo began renting the apartment under a different owner and his rent is fixed by an agreement between that owner and Coyne at no more than $800 per month.

While Deleo has a hearing next month, an event on Thursday will asks others to join in the fight. "The rally includes tenants who have experienced eviction, poets Jack Hirschman, Aggie Falk-Hirschman and members of the Revolutionary Poets brigade" A press release explains. "The rally is sponsored by Senior and Disability Action, Housing Rights Committee of San Francisco, Manilatown Heritage Foundation, Tenderloin Housing Clinic and the SF Anti-displacement Coalition. It will be held in Washington Square park at noon.

Related: North Beach Tenant Facing Eviction After Rent Increase From $1,800 To $8,000
David Campos has built much of his political career on loud calls to preserve housing stock and combat gentrification, and as he approaches the end of his final term as District 9 Supervisor, he's crafted a characteristic stand to crack down on short term rental violations. In April he proposed amendments to incentivize enforcement of existing short term rental laws by fining platforms, rather than users, like Airbnb as much as $1,000 per day per unregistered unit listed on their websites. That stand, however, has turned into a political gamble with looming lawsuits and potential pitfalls.

At first, Campos's colleagues were on board: In June, the Supervisors approved his changes unanimously, thus avoiding the possibility of a veto by fairly Airbnb-friendly Mayor Ed Lee. Deputy City Attorney Jon Givner said the amendment didn't appear to violate federal law  specifically the Communications Decency Act, which protects platforms from liability for content posted by their users. "This ordinance does not regulate the content of any posted information on the website of a hosting platform," Givner said at the time. "It regulates the business activities of the hosting platforms. It extends the type of information they must collect in order to engage in booking services and doesnt regulate the content of the website.

But Airbnb, for whom the financial damage of Campos' penalties could have proved painful, disagreed, arguing that the law would in fact violate the Communications Decency Act, the federal Stored Communications Act, and First Amendment rights  that last one by imposing a "content-based restriction on advertising rental listings, which is speech." In response, Supervisors Campos, Aaron Peskin, Eric Mar, and John Avalos pulled back and quickly began changing the law's language to try to avoid the suit. The revision focuses on Airbnb as a rental transaction company  rather than being fined simply for publishing listings by hosts who haven't registered with the city, the language now puts Airbnb on the hook for $1,000 per transaction once an illegal unit has been rented on the site.

Now, with the clock ticking and the lawsuit currently on hold for 60 days, Campos and progressive colleagues on the board like Peskin are fast-tracking the amended amendments. A report on the move will be heard at the full Board meeting today, with Board of Supervisors President London Breed waiving a standard 30-day analysis period on the adjustments. In their haste, it's looking like the newest version of the law would exempt existing competitors to Airbnb like Homeaway, based in Austin, and its subsidiary VRBO, sites that have been showing recent growth while Airbnb is under fire. Homeaway, for example, had 31 percent more listings this year than last according to recent analysis in the Chronicle. Homeaway claims a status similar to Craigslist as a sort of classified listings site that doesn't itself handle financial transactions between hosts and short term renters. "If a platform does not get a fee for booking services, it would be outside the purview of the revised law," Deputy City Attorney Robb Kapla tells the Chronicle. Boston-based Flipkey, meanwhile, may also be targeted because they process transactions much like Airbnb does.

This all may become a problem for other Supervisors. Discussing Campos's most recent measures in a Land Use Committee meeting yesterday, Supervisor Weiner emphasized a need to make policy inclusive. "I think its really important to [make sure] that we're regulating as broadly as possible," he said. "The measure that this amended, which I voted for, to try to improve and increase enforcement... to the extent that the amendments were to contract that, and start exempting out certain companies and focusing on other companies, that would be an issue for me."

As for the count that the changes will still violate federal laws, as Airbnb insists they do, at yesterday's committee meeting Peskin seemed to think he and Campos were in the clear. "After conferring with the city attorney about Airbnb's legal arguments after they filed litigation on the law we all passed last month, it is our desire to simultaneously address Airbnb's legal objections while fulfilling the intent of the original ordinance with these few modest revisions that are in front of us today."

Campos agrees, telling SFist, "I think a lot of people were surprised that [Airbnb] sued us... but in some respects, I feel like it's very responsible for us to do what we did. They filed their lawsuit, we read their brief, we said, you make a good point, so we're going to modify."

The Supervisor is comfortable making another stand, he says: "We feel very confident. We know that anything can happen in litigation, what we hear from the city attorney is that we have a strong case. We felt good from the very beginning, but i think that we want to have the strongest legal argument possible... we also know that Airbnb has hired a whole team of lawyers to figure out ways of finding weaknesses or holes in this argument."

Like Campos, Peskin is throwing down a gauntlet: "Let's be clear," Peskin said in yesterday's meeting, "the reaction by Aibnb and other hosting platforms to our amendments will speak volumes about their willingness to work reasonably and in good faith for this needed regulation or whether their real motivation is to flaunt our tourist rental laws with impunity." Campos also indicated that he doubted Airbnb wanted regulations at all. "Airbnb essentially wrote this law, they met with (then supervisor) David Chiu 60 plus times, and they're basically suing us over a law that they drafted." That's a strong political set up: According to that logic, if Airbnb sues, they're the bad guys.

Campos did not speak to the potential for competitor sites to be exempted from these penalties. His fight, it seems, is squarely with Airbnb, which feels important on a few levels. "I think it's important for us in SF to push back, in Airbnb's home city, where it started," he says. It's easier to avoid a simultaneous fight with Homeaway by leaving them out of the fray. But meanwhile, the city treasurer's office has twice subpoenaed Homeaway to collect taxes, and in June the City Attorney Herrera petitioned the San Francisco Superior Court to compel the company to comply. Clearly, their office knows, or should know, how Homeaway works and whether it would be exempt under Campos' amended legislation  and Homeaway's executives have openly acknowledged to the Chronicle that many of their users are flouting San Francisco law. Finally, Homeaway has a connection to Willie Brown: Expedia, Homeaway's owner, has allegedly had Brown, a practicing lawyer and consultant, on retainer for years, and earlier this month he penned this odd op-ed for the LA Daily News scolding the LA City Council for "taking steps to hinder the STR (short-term rental) industry  an approach not in line with our states history of forward-thinking governance."

As the intersection of tech and housing stock, Airbnb is a potent target for a supervisor like Campos, in his final term, who has held high the banner of housing. "I've said from the very beginning, Airbnb did not create this housing crisis but it did exacerbate it." It's also neatly in line with Campos's argument for the creation of a Public Advocate position at City Hall. San Francisco has "a strong mayor system, and it's not clear that even where the city has the ability to go and request certain information [from Airbnb] that they will... Whether it's this, whether it's some other issue, there's only so much the Board can do. You look even at the power of subpoena, for instance: The Board of Supervisors has power of subpoena, but to exercise that power, you need the majority of the board." That power is included in Campos's proposed measure to create the position, and it's something public advocates in other cities such as New York have used.

To Airbnb, of course, the aggressive focus on their platform with a disregard for competitors might be seen as an unfair and un-neighborly grudge against a company with a history of scuffles in its home city  though they are now in better compliance than their competitors and are contributing to the city's tax coffers. The company appears willing to come back to the table to figure out how best to enforce the existing law, but amendments like these, they say, are just bluntly forcing their hands for political gain  and they won't stand up in court. "The newest proposal continues to needlessly disregard important federal laws, and may even create loopholes for out-of-state corporations that refuse to work with the City or collect hotel taxes," says David Owen, Airbnbs head of policy strategy, referring of course to Homeaway. "We want to work with City officials to fix the cumbersome and broken registration process," Owen added, "and look forward to discussing real policy solutions."

Expect the political drama around this, however, to continue well past the Supervisors' annual August recess. We'll update you once we know how the discussion at the regular meeting of the Board goes today.

Previously: City Revises 'Airbnb Law' Additions To Avoid Airbnb Suing Them
An 18-year veteran of the San Francisco Police Department surrendered to officers Tuesday, after police say a year-long investigation revealed that he had manufactured and was in possession of a weapon prohibited by California law.

The San Francisco Police Department's Internal Affairs investigation into the activities of 50-year-old Officer Thomas Abrahamsen began in the summer of 2015, SFPD spokesperson Sergeant Michael Andraychak says, after "other Department members" tipped them off.

The year-long investigation, Andraychak says, revealed that Abrahamsen "manufactured and was in possession of a prohibited AR-15 style assault rifle and AR-15 receiver components."

California's Roberti-Roos Assault Weapons Control Act of 1989 banned Colt brand AR-15 rifles. California's Assault Weapons ban, which was enacted in 2000, further banned possession of AR-15 assault weapons that weren't owned and registered when the law took effect.

According to the CA Attorney General's Assault Weapons Identification Guide:

Any firearm of minor variation of the AK or AR-15 type (i.e., series weapon), regardless of the manufacturer, is a Category 2 (Kasler v. Lockyer) assault weapon under the original Roberti-Roos Assault Weapons Control Act of 1989. All AK and AR-15 series weapons had to be possessed before August 16, 2000 and must have been registered on or before January 23, 2001. The Department of Justice is required to identify these series weapons and includes in this publication a listing of dentified AK and AR-15 series weapons. It is important to note that removal of a firearms characteristics does not affect its status as a Category 2 assault weapon. A Category 2 assault weapon is still an assault weapon even if it has no Category 3 (SB 23 - generic characteristics) features. Category 2 assault weapons may be of any caliber, including .22 caliber rimfire.

Andraychak says that Abrahamsen, a resident of Berkeley, surrendered to the authorities Tuesday, and was booked into San Francisco County Jail " for one felony count of manufacture of an assault weapon in violation of 30600(a)PC and one felony count of possession of an assault weapon in violation of 30605(a)PC."

Abrahamsen has also been placed on unpaid administrative leave, Andraychak says.

According to a spokesperson with the San Francisco Sheriff's Department, as of Wednesday morning Abrahamsen remains in custody. The completed investigation is now in the hands of San Francisco's District Attorney's Office, Andraychak says, which will make the final determination on what charges Abrahamsen will face in court.
McCoppin Hub Plaza, the recently renovated public space on Valencia at McCoppin Street, is about to get a whole lot less welcoming. Mission Local reports that the plan to erect a giant fence and gate around the park  allowing it to be closed to the public whenever officials feel like it  is briskly moving forward with backing from Supervisor Jane Kim's office despite concerns that the move is anti-homeless.

City officials are expected to receive final contractor proposals this Friday, and the publication reports that the fence may take as little as three months to build. The design, now finalized, will leave the park completely enclosed with two vehicle gates and three pedestrian gates.

This fenced-off future for the park is far from its designers original intention. The plan was to have a public space that could host food trucks and events, but the trucks stopped coming shortly after the park reopened in 2014 and the events never really took off. Some vocal residents began complaining that homeless were making most use of the public space, and that's when Kim's office stepped in.

Jane got funding secured this year for [the] fence and our office has been pushing hard to get it done, Kim's legislative aide Ivy Lee is quoted by ML as explaining at a September public meeting last year.

Not everyone is in support of the fence, however, with one neighbor at the same public meeting expressing frustration at the idea. I walk past McCoppin Hub every day and I have never once felt unsafe said Jessi Reid. These are humans. Where are they supposed to go? This is a utility for the public. They are part of the public.

SFist reached out to Kim's office to determine if that support remains as strong today as it did last September, and how the Supervisor responds to charges the fence is anti-homeless, but has yet to receive a response.

Meanwhile, Kim continues to push a homelessness measure that would require the city give those living in tent encampments one week's notice before clearing their property.

Previously: Jane Kim Wants To Fence Off McCoppin Plaza After Complaints About The Homeless Hangout
An pedestrian was seriously injured Tuesday night, after a driver struck him as he used an Outer Richmond crosswalk.

According to the San Francisco Police Department, it was 9 p.m. Tuesday when a 66-year-old man crossed the street at 25th Avenue and Anza Street.

At that same time, a 35-year-old driver turned left from southbound 25th onto eastbound Anza, police say. The driver struck the pedestrian, leaving him with life-threatening injuries.

That intersection is governed by a four-way traffic signal. As of Wednesday morning, police were unable to confirm which party had the green light  but as in many cases of pedestrians struck by left-turning motorists, it's possible that they both did.

The victim was transported to San Francisco General Hospital for treatment of his injuries. The driver remained at the scene, police say, and was not arrested.
There was a time when a customer wrote a negative review of a business on Yelp, that business might reach out via email and try to gently persuade said customer to reconsider their choice of words. Not anymore. Some businesses have seemingly abandoned the polite approach in favor of something much more direct  threatening to sue Yelpers who talk trash on the platform. And it appears that Yelp will be having none of this. In a blog post Monday, Senior Vice President Vince Sollitto explained that the company has begun flagging businesses that go after their customers in court.

"Consumers have the right to share their opinions about their experiences with businesses, but there will always be a small handful of businesses who mistakenly think its a good idea to threaten consumers who exercise their free speech rights," wrote Sollitto. "As a result, we started a new type of Consumer Alert to warn people about businesses that issue questionable legal threats."

Spun as a "consumer alert," much in the way the company tags businesses with poor health scores, the warnings show up front and center on a company's page.

This business may be trying to abuse the legal system in an effort to stifle free speech, including issuing questionable legal threats against reviewers, the alert reads. As a reminder, reviewers who share their experiences have a First Amendment right to express their opinions on Yelp.

This move by the company comes in response to several business lawsuits, detailed in Sollitto's blog post, directed at reviewers. Interestingly, it comes barely a month after the company was determined by a California court to be responsible for removing reviews deemed to defamatory.

But don't worry all you negative Yelpers out there  not only does Yelp have your back, California courts do as well. As noted by Consumerist, non-disparagement clauses, even when the complaints are truthful, were outlawed in the state back in 2014.

So enjoy that burrito or whatever it is you're reviewing, and trash talk away.

Related: Yelp Is Responsible For Taking Down Defamatory Reviews, Court Rules
SIOUX CITY | Conflicts over the functioning of a regional agency delivering mental health services to low-income people have followed the 2014 creation of the Sioux Rivers Regional Mental Health and Disability Services. Another is at hand over use of a building.

The regional entity is composed of Woodbury, Plymouth and Sioux counties, and the governing Sioux Rivers Board of Directors has experienced growing pains as decisions have been made on funding and staffing. Sioux Rivers was formed when the state dictated that counties no longer individually provide services, and regional agencies were created across Iowa, set up with boards of directors that included county supervisors from each participating county.

The latest Sioux Rivers controversy involves usage of a building. On Tuesday, the Woodbury County Board of Supervisors voted 3-1 to begin informal mediation on the rental of a Sioux City building at 1211 Tri-View Ave., which was bought by the county several years ago to hold Social Services Department workers who at the time helped county residents get connected to mental health services.

The Sioux Rivers Board includes Woodbury County supervisors Mark Monson and Matthew Ung. Ung has been a particularly vocal critic of moves that he says have taken away county authority.

During the Tuesday meeting, Woodbury County Board Chairman Jeremy Taylor explained that the Sioux Rivers Board wanted to begin informal mediation to set a monthly rental fee to use the Tri-View building. Taylor said a common market value appears to run from $1,600 to $2,400.

Supervisor Larry Clausen voted against beginning the mediation talks, since he noted the Sioux Rivers Board had requested Taylor be part of the process. Clausen said he meant "no disrespect," but the controversies might abate if Monson or Ung weren't part of the discussions.

Taylor said Monson and Ung have repeatedly "gone to the 50-yard line," and the other Sioux Rivers leaders also need to come halfway in controversial discussions.

Taylor said Monson and Ung should be the mediation participants, since they would perform well.

"They can work that out," Taylor said.

During a February Woodbury County Board meeting, Supervisor Jackie Smith said the bigger issue is her worry that the Sioux Rivers Regional Mental Health and Disability Services entity could blow up, due to ongoing controversies. At that meeting, Taylor acknowledged there have been severe growing pains with Sioux Rivers.
WINNEBAGO, Neb. | Known as the "world's oldest powwow," the Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska's Annual Homecoming Celebration is reaching a milestone this weekend: 150 years.

Organizers say the homecoming celebration, which began Wednesday night and continues through Sunday evening, is an opportunity to celebrate the tribe's heritage and honors veterans of all wars.

The tribe's celebration commemorates the April 1866 return of the tribe's last war chief, Chief Little Priest, and some 75 members of the Fort Omaha Scouts Company A. In July of that year, Chief Little Priest's brother Grey Wolf held a celebration of his life and deeds, beginning the tradition that is now entering its sesquicentennial.

Chief Little Priest, who had been wounded in battle, died that September.

This year's celebration began at dawn Wednesday, as two of Chief Little Priest's descendants, Greg and James Neff, hoisted an 1866 replica flag to the top of its pole.

Powwow spokesman Randy DeCora said watching the Neffs, who are both military veterans, raise the flag their ancestor would have ridden under was a special moment.

"It was a heart-chilling moment," DeCora said. "To know that the descendants of not only our great war chief, but the scouts' descendants as well, are still here."

Flags representing 70 or more fallen veterans, including Little Priest, will continue to be raised each morning at 6 a.m. and retired at 5 p.m.

Winnebago Tribal Council member and Vietnam veteran Jim Snow said thousands come to the annual ceremony each year, hailing from dozens of states and Canada. He said military service runs deep in the tribe's heritage, as is recognizing those who have fought before them.

"We take great pride in honoring our vets," he said.

Events for the celebration begin 1 p.m. Thursday and continue through 7 p.m. Sunday. The lineup of events includes a competitive Wilderness Run, softball and horseshoe tournaments, vendors with Native American food, arts and crafts, and drumming, singing and dancing competitions.

Admission for the weekend is $5 and free for veterans with ID, senior citizens, Winnebago Tribe members and those 6 years old and under.
Winning the trust of small businesses is not always easy, but one brand that seems to have succeeded is WordPress. According to the new SMB Trust Index, WordPress is the most trusted brand for small businesses, with a Net Promoter Score of 50 in Q2 2016.

Languishing at the bottom of the list are Web.com (-62 NPS score) and Yelp (-65 NPS score).

Most Trusted Brands

Other brands that have scored big are email marketing company MailChimp (46 NPS score), Google (46 NPS score), and online payment gateway Authorize.Net (45 NPS score).

Whats worth noting is that these companies have consistently emerged as the most trusted brands among small businesses. MailChimps popularity however has dipped a little since the last quarter of 2015 when it had posted an NPS score of 48.

On the other hand Web.com has seen a further decline, dropping to -62 from a -61 ranking in 2015.

While revealing the rankings, Alignable CEO Eric Groves said in an official release, Were thrilled small business owners feel comfortable sharing their sentiment towards SMB brands on Alignable, in ways that help other business owners make great decisions and succeed.

All About Winning Trust

The report highlights the need for brands to establish a following of loyal business owners who can defend the company when negative comments appear. Interestingly, this holds true for the small and mid-sized businesses as well.

For small business owners, building a base of satisfied customers can play a big role in gaining new customers. Happy customers are the most reliable brand ambassadors companies can afford. Thats why small businesses should focus on keeping existing customers happy so that they can spread the word and bring in more business.

Its really all about dialogue  listening  and if these people are carrying your torch, thanking them for that and rewarding them in some way that makes them feel good, Karen Post, president of Tampa, Fla.-based Brain Tattoo Branding shares with Entrepreneur.

About the SMB Trust Index

The SMB Trust Index is a quarterly survey based on a ranking method called Net Promoter Score. The index comprises over 9,000 ratings from business owners across the U.S.

In order to be included in the SMB Trust Index, brands must receive at least 25 ratings. NPS scores are only shown for brands with 50 ratings or more.

The SMB Trust Index is conducted by Alignable, a Boston-based platform for local businesses.
Zoho came out with four announcements today. Among them is the launch of SalesInbox. Zoho calls it the first email client just for salespeople. SalesInbox prioritizes customer conversations, instead of displaying emails strictly in chronological order.

Also announced were upgrades to Zohos popular CRM system, as well as an expansion into the European market.

But perhaps the most broad ranging news from a strategic perspective is the launch of the Zoho Marketplace and Zoho Developers Program. In the Marketplace Zoho users will be able to buy extensions and custom-built applications to expand the capabilities of Zoho products, customize them for vertical markets, and integrate with other third-party software a company uses. And developers who create these applications can sell them commission-free in the Zoho Marketplace.

Zoho has been quietly and steadily growing since its founding two decades ago. Zoho now has 20 million users across its 30+ products. The company, based in Chennai, India but with a U.S. operations headquarters in Silicon Valley, has offices in Austin, China and Japan, and has over 4,000 employees.

Zoho made todays announcements against the backdrop of rolling out a wider strategy to penetrate more deeply into the midmarket. CEO Sridhar Vembu said during a recent analyst presentation that Zoho will continue to provide offerings to small businesses, while expanding its footprint among larger customers.

Heres a breakdown of the announcement details:

Zoho SalesInbox: First Email Client for Sales

Zoho SalesInbox uses customer data from Zoho CRM or Salesforce to organize emails automatically according to their importance. This organization enables salespeople to prioritize and focus on critical customer and deal-related communications, says the company. It works with Gmail, Microsoft Exchange, Yahoo Mail, Zoho Mail and other email hosting services.

Email clients have been horizontal for the last few decades  its the same email client for sales, marketing, accountants, consumers and families, said Raju Vegesna, chief evangelist at Zoho, in an email to Small Business Trends. For the first time, we are introducing a specialized email client, built from ground up, optimized for sales people.

He added, Email and CRM are the two pieces of software most critical for salespeople. Up to now, they havent worked together well. SalesInbox solves that problem.

Product highlights include:

Hands-free email prioritization and organization. SalesInbox uses a multi-column layout to organize incoming emails automatically based on the information stored in the users CRM account, so salespeople can easily spot messages that require immediate attention. The platform also allows them to sort emails by several criteria, including lead source and associated customer value.

Full context in every email. Salespeople can view a timeline of previous conversations with an individual contact, and see the size of their current and past deals, overdue tasks, missed calls, support tickets, social media mentions and other relevant information  all within the email client.

CRM updates right from the inbox. Instead of logging into the CRM, salespeople can now take customer- and sales-related actions right from their inbox. When an email comes in from an interested lead, the salesperson can simply drag and drop the email from one column to another, the announcement says.

Reminders and Response Watch. Salespeople can set a time limit by which they can expect to hear back from customers or prospects whenever they send an email. SalesInbox monitors incoming email using the Response Watch feature, If it doesnt detect a reply during the time specified, it lets the user know so they can follow-up.

Mobile client integration. Zoho CRM users can configure SalesInbox on their iOS and Android devices and map it to all popular email services, including Zoho Mail, Gmail, Yahoo Mail and Outlook.

Better email feedback. When integrated with Zoho CRM, users can receive reports on how well the emails they send are working. They can also see statistics about which email templates perform best and receive detailed metrics on how many emails have been opened, read or clicked through.

SalesInbox is currently available by request for all Zoho Enterprise customers and Salesforce users. It is free of charge for Zoho CRM Enterprise subscribers and $15 per user per month for Salesforce users.

However, Vegesna told Small Business Trends that any salesperson from any size organization could use it.

We include it by default for Zoho CRMs Enterprise Edition users, he said. Users of other editions can purchase SalesInbox separately. Similarly, we are launching SalesInbox for Salesforce as well, with no restrictions on business size.

Zoho Developer, Marketplace Help Create Partner Program

Zoho Developer is a program that provides independent software vendors (ISVs) and application developers with the tools and resources needed to create extensions and build custom applications, which are then sold via the Zoho Marketplace to Zoho users.

With Zoho Marketplace and Zoho Developer, Zoho evolves from a product suite into a platform, Vegesna said in the announcement. On one hand, Zoho Marketplace empowers our customers with tools, extensions and applications that complement their Zoho products so they can focus on their business. On the other, Zoho Developer gives ISVs and software developers a platform to develop solutions and access to Zohos vast user base, to whom they can sell these solutions.

Some of Zohos major partners for Zoho Marketplace include:

Zendesk, the customer service platform provider;

Eventbrite, the worlds largest self-service ticketing platform;

SurveyMonkey, the worlds leading survey platform.

For more information on the Zoho Marketplace, visit marketplace.zoho.com. To create extensions using Zoho Developer, visit developer.zoho.com.

See Also: Secrets for Using Digital Marketing to Drive More Inbound Sales Calls

Zoho CRM Updated to Reduce Friction

Zoho CRM is the industrys first multichannel customer relationship management software, says the announcement.

The platform builds on Zohos current CRM application and supports email, social media, live chat and phone communications, enabling salespeople to engage with customers and prospects across a range of channels.

Zoho has simplified the user interface to reduce friction in the sales process and help move prospects through the pipeline. Salespeople can see their customers historical data and interactions with their team all in one place, and view any upcoming assigned action items as well.

Today, every progressive sales team needs a CRM that connects with customers and prospects regardless of their preferred communication channel, Vegesna said in the announcement. Our aim with this release of Zoho CRM is to provide the multichannel support that connects salespeople, prospects and customers and provides the usability enhancements that close more deals.

Gamescope, a feature also being used with Zoho Projects, incorporates gamification techniques to let sales managers created contests and invite sales staff to play a game for a friendly wager. Sales activities, such as making calls and closing deals, permit employees to win points, trophies and badges.

The new version of Zoho CRM is available now and keeps the same pricing structure as the earlier version. It is free for up to 10 users. Paid plans begin at $12 per user per month.

Zoho Expands Footprint in Europe with New Data Centers, Website

Finally, Zoho has opened two data centers in Europe  one in Amsterdam and another in Dublin  to ensure that the data of its European customers stays within the continent, says the announcement.

Zoho has always been committed to protecting the privacy of its users and their right to use our products without intrusion, said Raj Sabhlok, President, Zoho Corp in the announcement. With these data centers, all the information that our European users trust us with will be stored securely within the borders of the continent.

Zoho also launched www.zoho.eu, to cater exclusively to the growing European customer base.
Maryland Sen. Barbara Mikulski takes the stage on the second night of the Democratic National Convention to officially nominate Hillary Clinton as the Democratic presidential candidate. (Photo: Hannah Klarner)

PHILADELPHIA

(July 27, 2016)Known as a "little general in pearls," a legendary Maryland lawmaker and just plain "Barb," the country's longest-serving female senator, Barbara Mikulski, is attending her last Democratic National Convention as a public officialand plans to go out with a bang.The small-statured politician formally nominated her friend and former Senate colleague Hillary Clinton for president on the Wells Fargo Center convention stage Tuesday, along with U.S. Rep. John Lewis of Georgia."It's not about a 'boo,' it's about a 'boo-hoo' if Donald Trump wins," the 80-year-old Mikulski told a roomful of Maryland delegates at their breakfast Tuesday. "Republicans know how to investigate and instigate, but they sure don't know how to legislate!"The Baltimore born-and-raised senator, known for her fiery temper, is also scheduled to speak Thursday in support of Clinton as part of a program featuring Democratic women senators."She was an early supporter of Clinton years ago," said fellow Maryland Sen. Ben Cardin, who has worked with Mikulski for years. "Barbara knows that she played a role in (Clinton's success)."Mikulski supported Clinton in her 2008 bid, serving as the chair of her campaign, and played a central role in 2012's party convention, speaking in support of President Barack Obama."I can't imagine it being anything other than a huge validation of Senator Mikulski's career if Hillary Clinton is the next president of the United States, which I hope and expect her to be," said Maryland Comptroller Peter Franchot in a phone interview.For Maryland Democratic delegate and state senator Susan Lee of Montgomery County, Mikulski has built a foundation for all female politicians, both in Maryland and nationally. The senator even endorsed Lee in her campaign for the Maryland House of Delegates."She's always been there for me," said Lee, adding that Mikulski endorsed her in 2002, which helped her success. "She supported me for my first primary in the House of Delegates. She always keeps her word, and she's always there for help."Lee, former executive director of the National Democratic Council of Asian and Pacific Americans, said that Mikulski "did all that she could to help" the organization and "understood" the challenges facing immigrants due to her personal history as the daughter of Polish immigrants."She was our ally and friend and we never forgot that," Lee said. "She led the way for many of us who didn't have a voice before."According to Lee and other Maryland politicians, Mikulski has always supported women "who had earned respect" and had a "strong track record" running for office, but did not just support them for being women."She's played a major role in the convention," Lee said. "We have a woman running for president, and she is going to win. I'm glad to be alive to see that."Referred to as the "dean of women" in the Senate, Mikulski has been known to host regular dinners and workshops for female senators in both parties.Her support for Clinton, then, only made sense. Mikulski dubbed her a "fellow trailblazer" in her 2007 endorsement speech.Supporting women outside of politics has been a focus for Mikulski as wellshe has been at the forefront of fighting for women's issues like healthcare and equal pay, along with creating legislation to help families and the elderly.Early on in her career, she fought against the dress code for women in the Senate, which originally limited women to dresses and skirts.She wrote the Spousal Anti-Impoverishment Act to help those burdened by nursing home costs, she worked on the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act for equal pay for women, and amended Obamacare to include mammograms and cervical cancer screenings for women."I have been an elected official for 30 years. Senator Mikulski has been in office longer than that," Franchot said. "She's very effective, and way out of my leagueshe's an iconic national figure."Mikulski also built a Baltimore legacy before claiming her Senate seat.She grew up in the Highlandtown neighborhood, obtained a bachelor's degree in sociology from Mount Saint Agnes College (now part of Loyola University) and a master's degree in social work from the University of Maryland.As a community activist, she was credited with helping to save East Baltimore from being torn apart by highway construction.Years later, in November, was Obama awarded her the nation's highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, he recalled that early battle in Baltimore."Back in 1966, plans were laid to lay a highway through some of Baltimore's most diverse neighborhoods," the president told a White House audience. "The new road seemed like a go. It was about to happen. That is, until it ran into a young social worker, and let's just say, you don't want to be on the wrong side of Barbara Mikulski."She won a Baltimore City Council seat in 1971 and served in that post for five years.She successfully ran in 1976 for the U.S. House of Representatives, where she served for 10 years before winning a Senate seat in 1986.During her extensive federal government career, she was not only known for her short stature and sassy nature but for also serving on prestigious committees, working her way up to become the first woman to chair the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee in 2012. After the Republicans took control of the Senate in 2014, she became vice chairwoman of the panel."The baton is being passed," Franchot said. "I'm sure there will be several victory laps taken by her in Philly, which is entirely appropriate because she's been such a spectacular success in politics."With this year being her last term in the Senate, and this week in Philadelphia, her last convention as an elected official, many Marylanders agreed that they will miss Mikulski.For Cardin, the convention is sure to be an "emotional" and "exciting" one.Mikulski admitted to the Maryland delegates that she would need them to cheer her on during her Clinton nomination speech, adding that she might get a little "choked up.""I'm ready to turn a new page because of who is coming after meCory (Booker of New Jersey), Elizabeth (Warren of Massachusetts), Chris (Van Hollen of Maryland)what a new wonderful crowd," the senator said to a room loud with whoops and applause. "You can't hold on because you don't want to hold anybody back."Congressman and DNC delegate Van Hollen is favored in his race against Republican Kathy Szeliga to replace Mikulski in the Senate after she finishes out her final term."My granddaughter, who is 8 weeks oldI'm delighted she's going to get to be an infant during the administration of the first woman president of the United States. To me, that's an inspirational message," Franchot said."Hillary Clinton is standing on the shoulders of individuals like Barbara Mikulski, and I'm sure she would say that," he said.
PRINCE FREDERICK, Md.

(July 27, 2016)The Board of Education of Calvert County Public Schools awarded the contract for the replacement of Northern High School to J.A. Scheibel, Inc. of Huntingtown . J.A. Scheibel has extensive public school construction experience, having built numerous schools in Maryland and Virginia, including in Calvert County.J.A. Scheibel proposed to build the project at a cost of $69,382,000, inclusive of the base bid and alternates. The offer is within the state and local government project budget.The phased construction of the 244,090 square foot building will be completed in 2019.The new school will be built next to the existing building, which will be demolished to make room for a parking area once the new construction is complete. The new building will seat 1,440 students, interconnect the core building with the Mary Harrison Cultural Arts Center and have a geothermal heating and cooling system. The project will include stadium upgrades and be certified as a LEED (Leaders in Energy and Environmental Design) silver building.The first phase, occurring over the next two years, will include construction of the core building, temporary student parking, geothermal fields and utilities. The second phase of construction will include the demolition of the existing high school, construction of the administrative area of the building, an addition to the Harrison Center and renovation of the instructional areas of the Harrison Center. The final phase will include bus and vehicular parking area improvements and site amenities. The estimated time of construction will occur over a 42-month period.The groundbreaking will take place on August 11, 2016.
Being gay is hard enough. Being a Donald J. Trump queer is yet another level.

Trump, a New York businessman, claimed the Republican Partys nomination last week in Cleveland. Here in South Florida, he does have support, but not without costs. Eric Gilbert, a Boca Raton resident and bisexual man, said he has received harsh treatment for his backing of Trump.

Most of the gays and lesbians have been very, very rude to me for not supporting Secretary Clinton and not being a part of the Democratic Party, Gilbert told SFGN. Its the worst, meanest, cruelest group of people.not understanding we have a democracy in this country and they should be glad that we can vote and support who we want to support.

In his victory speech in Cleveland, Trump made a passionate promise to protect LGBTQ Americans from terrorists.

Related: Republican National Convention

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, Trump said, adding Believe me.

Andy Eddy, a Broward County Republican, said he was very impressed with the Trump family during last weeks convention. Eddy, a member of the Log Cabin Club of Florida, said it was good to see Eric and Donald Trump, Jr. speak on behalf of their father.

The boys did a stunning job, Eddy said. I couldnt get over how much respect and commitment they showed for their father and, quite frankly, it was nice to see, Eddy told SFGN in a telephone call.

Meanwhile, Gilbert said he is receiving steady backlash from gays for openly supporting Trump.

People have defriended me on my Facebook, Gilbert said. Theyve called me names. Its not just me, its other GLBT supporters of Mr. Trump. They have the same issues too, lots of friends and people not talking to us anymore. 

Related: Democratic National Convention

And Milo Yiannopoulos is not tweeting anymore.

Yiannopoulos, a conservative gay activist and Trump supporter, was banned from using Twitter last week after allegations surfaced that he coordinated an attack on a Hollywood celebrity. The social network suspended Yiannopoulos account, reports the Los Angeles Times.

Last week in Cleveland, Yiannopoulos hosted a party to draw attention to his conservative political opinions. Of particular note, Yiannopoulos took aim at the Islamic State.

Growing up gay wasnt that fucking bad, lets be honest, Yiannopoulos told the Washington Blade. But, I still dont see the reason why the left-wing press mollycoddles and panders to an ideology that wants me dead.

Likewise, Gilbert cited terrorism and instability as reasons why he supports Trump.

We dont like whats happening in this country now, Gilbert said. Unemployment rate is very high. Wages are at 1990 levels. We have police killings all the time. We have to be fearful about what happened in Orlando. The biggest thing is this President is not really addressing the Islamic problem that we have in this country. With these terrorist groups that are coming in here and who have no problem just coming in here and killing people just like what happened in Orlando. Its definitely time for a change.
(WB) The second night of the Democratic National Convention proved historic as delegates made Hillary Clinton the first woman presidential nominee of a major U.S. political party.

Delivering the keynote address was former President Bill Clinton. Essentially auditioning for the role of first gentleman, he recalled meeting Hillary Clinton and the early years of their marriage, followed by her work seeking to improve the United States as a lawyer, first lady, a U.S. senator and secretary of state.

When I was president, I worked hard to give you more peace and shared prosperity, to give you an America where nobody is invisible or counted out, Bill Clinton said. But for this time, Hillary is uniquely qualified to seize the opportunities and reduce the risks we face. And she is still the best darn change-maker I have ever known.

At one point when the teleprompter stopped moving, Bill Clinton ad-libbed, Shes been around a long time, she sure has, and shes sure been worth every single year shes put into making peoples lives better.

Related: Bill Clinton Shouts Out LGBT Community in DNC Speech

Enumerating Hillary Clintons achievements as secretary of state, Bill Clinton recalled the 2011 speech in Geneva in which she pledged to make LGBT human rights part of U.S. foreign policy and declared, Gay rights are human rights and human rights are gay rights.

And as she had been doing since she went to Beijing in 1995 and said womens rights are human rights and human rights are womens rights she worked to empower women and girls around the world and to make the same exact declaration on behalf of the LGBT community in America and around the world, Bill Clinton said.

Joey Wasserman, a New York-based gay rights advocate who attended the convention, said the speech Bill Clinton delivered was amazing because it showed the breadth of Hillary Clintons character.

It was very unifying, Wasserman said. It was going to the heart of who Hillary is as a person, as a mother, as a leader  both in foreign affairs and domestic policy.

Related: A Word From Our First Lady

Among the other convention speakers was former Democratic National Committee Chair Howard Dean, who warned electing Donald Trump instead of Hillary Clinton would roll back advances in national health care, including the Affordable Care Act.

Lampooning the Dean Scream credited with bringing down his 2004 presidential campaign, Dean concluded with a battle cry along the same lines.

Help make history and volunteer because this race is going to be won on the ground, and its going to be won in Colorado, and in Iowa, and North Carolina, and Michigan, and Florida, and Pennsylvania, and then were going to the White House, Dean said.

Debra Messing, star of NBCs Will & Grace, was among the celebrities who appeared on stage to endorse Clinton, promoting the candidates work in securing federal funds to rebuild New York City after the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.

Nothing could divide us on that day, and indeed our shared humanity was all that mattered, Messing said. Christian, Jewish, or Muslim, black, white, Asian or Latino, gay, bi, trans or straight, we are one people.

Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, who signed executive orders implementing marriage equality and barring anti-LGBT discrimination among state workers, cited efforts to advance LGBT rights in his state.

Related: Democrats Ratify Most Pro-LGBT Platform Ever

We have fought Republican efforts to discriminate against LGBT Virginians, and we have stood up for a womans right to choose, McAuliffe said. And we are overcoming obstacles to deny hundreds of thousands of former felons the right to vote because history tells us that enemies of progress can slow the march toward justice and equality, but they cannot stop it.

Dems anoint Clinton as nominee

On the same day, delegates at the convention anointed Hillary Clinton as the Democratic presidential nominee following a roll-call vote among the delegations from all the states and jurisdictions.

The roll-call vote was officially the final act as a presidential candidate for Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who when Vermont was called sought a suspension of the rules to designate Clinton as the Democratic presidential nominee. His words echoed Clintons in 2008, when after she lost the primary to Barack Obama she called on delegates to vote for him on the floor.

At least four LGBT speakers represented their states during the roll call. Jim Obergefell, the lead plaintiff in the marriage lawsuit that won marriage equality before the U.S. Supreme Court, spoke on behalf of his home state of Ohio.

Im proud to be here with my fellow Buckeyes from the great state of Ohio, Obergefell said. This Ohio boy helped love win last summer, and this Ohio boy and my fellow Ohioans know this: Love trumps hate.

Related: Dem Platform More Aware of LGBT Voters as GOP Shunts Them

U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), the only out lesbian in Congress, spoke on behalf of Wisconsin when her state came up during the roll call vote.

Wisconsin is a state where workers still make things from ships, tools and paper, to cheese, brats and beer, Baldwin said. We are home to the Bucks, the Brewers and Americas team, the Green Bay Packers and we are home to future Senator Russ Feingold.

Raymond Buckley, chair of the New Hampshire Democratic Party, and Rick Palacio, chair of the Colorado Democratic Party, are both gay and represented their states during the roll-call vote.

The speaker representing the Massachusetts delegation recognized his state, among other things, for being the first state in the nation to pass equal marriage rights, and the speaker representing North Carolina pledged to elect Roy Cooper and repeal HB2, the recently enacted anti-trans law signed by Gov. Pat McCrory.

For Democrats Abroad, the speaker delivering the portion of the vote to Sanders was his brother, Larry Sanders, who said he was immensely proud to deliver support to the Vermont senator. Video coverage of Bernie Sanders as his brother spoke revealed the candidate becoming emotional.

But the failure of Sanders to claim the nomination after the roll call vote angered some in the Bernie or Bust crowd. They were seen bolting from the Wells Fargo Center in indignation. Sanders supporters stormed into the media tent near the convention site and held a sit-in protest over the result.

Mia Satya, a delegate pledged to Sanders from San Francisco and one of 28 openly trans delegates at the convention, fumed over Clintons treatment of the LGBT community immediately after the roll-call vote when asked by the Washington Blade an unrelated question about Donald Trump.

I think that Hillary Clinton will do a lot to undermine LGBT rights globally by continuing to bomb other countries in which LGBT people live, including our trans sisters, brothers and siblings in countries like Iraq, Afghanistan and Iran, Satya said.

Asked by the Blade whether Trump would be worse for LGBT people than Clinton, Satya replied, Were in the Democratic National Convention not the RNC, so Im talking about the DNC.
(PGN) Toward the end of his 40-minute speech, Bill Clinton highlighted his wife Hillarys famous quote, Womens rights are human rights and human rights are womens rights.

She makes the same declaration on behalf of the LGBT community, Clinton said during the second night of the Democratic National Convention.

He weaved his narrative of romance and raising a family over her resume of advocating for prekindergarten and the Childrens Health Insurance Program. The theme of the night was A Lifetime of Fighting for Children and Families.

Related: Democrats Ratify Most Pro-LGBT Platform Ever

Clinton also touted Hillarys tenure as Secretary of State, saying she put climate change at the center of her foreign policy and negotiated the first agreement in which China and India agreed to commit to reducing carbon emissions.

In a move that appeared calculated to quash Republican attacks that Hillary will be a weak president because of her weak marriage to a philandering husband, Clinton spent the first 15 minutes on vignettes of each time he asked Hillary to marry him.

The first time, he had taken her on a trip to London, her first time abroad. But she said no because she wanted to focus on her career. She was busy with social justice work the next time he proposed. The third time, Clinton decided to get a bit wonky, talking to her about the young Democrats in the 1970s.

They mean well and they speak well, but none of them are actually good at doing things to change peoples lives, he recalled telling her.

Related: Michelle Obama: Im With Her

Hillary switched to the Democratic Party in college because she opposed the Vietnam War and supported Civil Rights.

Over their years together, Clinton said hes seen Hillary become the best darn change maker I ever met in my entire life.

He said someone could rope her into any trouble spot, come back in a month and somehow shell make it better.

Clinton closed his speech on a note of inclusion, telling immigrants and Muslims, people who Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump routinely disparages, that they are valuable Americans.
There is a picture of me above this column.

Its 1968, and I am an 18-year-old college freshman from Hofstra University, on a bus to Rochester, New Hampshire, to campaign for Gene McCarthy, the insurgent Democratic candidate for President.

The Clean for Gene campaign stirred the conscience of American youth. He was the anti-war protest candidate, standing up to the establishment sending young men to a far off and distant war in Southeast Asia. He was Bernie Sanders before Bernie Sanders was Bernie Sanders.

McCarthys success was so electric that it induced Robert F. Kennedy to make a run for the presidency himself. The U.S. Senator from New York, he galvanized yet thousands of more young Americans, minorities and college campuses. We were going to take back our country.

Sadly, the dream we were seeking  a newer world  came to an abrupt end in Los Angeles on June 5, 1968, when Senator Kennedy was slain moments after winning the California primary.

Only two months before in April of 1968, Martin Luther King had also been assassinated, and nearly 100 American cities began rioting in anger, over poverty, inequity and social injustice. Every day, the national news would shake your conscience with stories of death abroad and violence at home.

An unpopular Republican, Richard Nixon, was emerging as their presidential candidate, with a secret plan to end the Vietnam War. Defeated for the presidency eight years before by John F. Kennedy, Nixon billed himself as the law and order candidate who would bring sanity to the streets and safety to your homes.

You see, its 1968 all over again. The Democratic Party establishment was running their own Vice President, Hubert Humphrey, once a civil rights leader, but tarnished nevertheless by his ties to an embattled administration escalating the conflict in Vietnam. The Tet Offensive by the North Vietnamese blew away the cover of how we were supposedly winning the war. If you will, the junior varsity showed up to be a lot stronger than the American military ever thought they were.

Remember how Trump capitalized on an incident where Iranians held 10 Marines at gunpoint earlier this year while on a U.S. boat? It was January of 1968 when the USS Pueblo and its Navy sailors were captured and taken hostage by the North Koreans. America was humiliated abroad again.

When it came time to nominate a Democratic presidential candidate, the convention was raucous, rowdy and unlike anything America had seen before. Tens of thousands of students gathered in Grant Park in Chicago to protest the war, the establishment and the rigged system promoting Humphrey to his inevitable nomination. Anyone promoting the opposition was gaveled down inside the house.

Outside the political halls, Mayor Daley wanted order in the streets. He allowed, directed and ordered his cops to beat and maim students senselessly, with Billy clubs and mace. There was warfare in the streets. It wasnt pretty. Over 100 students wound up in emergency rooms; double that in jails.

Meanwhile, a week before the convention, the Russians celebrated by invading Czechoslovakia. Here is the thing, though. America could not take it anymore. Watching the turmoil abroad and seeing the chaos at home, they disregarded the civil rights gains of the Democratic leaders at home. They elected Richard Nixon and his war machine of crooks and con artists, political panderers and plumbers.

Nixon only got 43.4 of the vote, but it outdistanced Vice President Humphrey, who earned 42.7 percent. The remaining 13.5 percent went to the Southern racist who was promoting segregation, George Corley Wallace. Thats the world we lived in. So I heard David Duke, Donald Trumps buddy, announced yesterday for Congress. Wonder if they will campaign together?

So here we are, in 2016, 48 years later. And what do we know? One, that those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. Two that the best indicator of future behavior is past behavior. Is America turning backwards? If we dont act, perhaps, very much so!

Mark me down then as one who is legitimately concerned that Trump, the all too mendacious, the very evil, can be elected. Its frightening, but true.

Trump is crude and condescending, belligerent and bombastic, a vile and vicious soul, degrading and demeaning. But he is a master of the media, and he toys with the press like one of his lackeys. He will take legitimate social protest and exploit it for his own political gain.

Trump is also one of two major candidates running for the presidency, and he is already brutalizing his opponent not with brashness, but outright bullying, callous lies and disgusting insults.

A campaign that was ugly already will get filthier tomorrow. Trump is more like the segregationist George Corley Wallace though, than he is the legitimate nominee. Even leaders of his own party hate him. They created a Frankenstein who they cant control. But neither can the Democrats.

Hillary Clinton did not mobilize the disenfranchised by naming Bernie Sanders as her running mate, and the protests in Philly are mild today compared to Chicago yesterday. Still, the truth is many of the markings of the past are present today.

We have uncontrollable violence abroad and spontaneous instances of chaos at home. We have a rebel Republican running against an establishment candidate for the incumbent party. Rumor and innuendo, emails and social media posts are damaging Hillary. Its relentless.

This is not going to be an easy election to win, not for Hillary, the Democrats, or this country. But we damn well better. As Bernie Sanders said last week, Hillary Clinton on her worst day is better than Donald Trump on any day.

Clinton has been a great spokesperson for our community and has fought for social justice her entire life, learning government and goodness at every level. Donald Trump has never fought for anything but himself. Now it is up to every one of us to fight against him.
Check out the latest news from around the world!

Society -- Father Sues School After Antigay Bullies Drove His Son to Suicide

Tristan Seehus was a 13-year-old boy who committed suicide after being taunted by bullies at a Minnesota school. The boys father is suing the school for failing to safeguard his son from being targeted as a gay freak, according to LGBTQ Nation.

According to the suit, the district failed to respond to the repeated complaints of bullying Tristan had been exposed to, including constant homophobic slurs including freak, homo, fag, emo and more.

The suit also states that Tristan did not conform to the traditional stereotypes of masculinity.

Tristan, as well as other boys, were called names, told they looked like a girl, physically abused, shoved in lockers and more in plain view of school officials and school surveillance cameras, according to the complaint.

The suit says that the only response to by district officials was to ignore, minimize and dismiss abusive behavior. Tristans suicide was a foreseeable result of Defendants failure to provide him a safe educational environment.

Related: Jason Collins: 'I Came Out Privately to the Clinton Family' Before Coming Out to the World

Legal -- Cleveland Mayor Signs Transgender Rights Bill

According to the Washington Blade, Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson signed a bill Friday that expands his citys nondiscrimination law to include transgender protections.

Ordinance 1466-13 amends Clevelands discrimination law to prohibit businesses from banning employees and customers from using restrooms consistent with their gender identity.

Cleveland is a place where we want to be welcoming to everyone and that everyone is the same and everyone is someone that has equity, Jackson said before signing the bill.

Jacob Nash, the transgender man who co-chaired the campaign in support of the proposal, said Ordinance 1466-13 makes Cleveland a more welcoming city for every individual.

It doesnt matter if you are gay or straight, cisgender or transgender, racial or white, he said. Cleveland has come together today to say we are ready for all people, we welcome all people and we would love for you to visit our city because our city is one of the greatest cities in the country.

Nash also noted that Ordinance 1466-13 passed against the continued outrage over a North Carolina law, which prohibits transgender use of public bathrooms consistent with their gender identity, and bans local municipalities from enacting LGBT-inclusive nondiscrimination ordinances.

We are seeing so much visceral responses to transgender people in restrooms, Nash told the Washington Blade. We have Cleveland thats saying no, we want transgender individuals to be able to use the restroom that aligns with their gender identity.

Related: Trans Nurse Denied Shower After Being Pepper Sprayed

Politics -- Hillary Clinton: It Is Still Dangerous to Be LGBT in America

According to the Advocate, presumptive Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton met last week with Orlando community leaders, friends and family of the victims of the Pulse nightclub shooting that claimed 49 predominantly LGBT and Latino lives on June 12.

We need to acknowledge and be very clear who this attack targeted: The Latino LGBT community, Clinton said to the Orlando Sentinel. What does that mean? Well among other things, it means that it is still dangerous to be LGBT in America.

Later during the meeting, Clinton said it was an unfortunate fact that LGBT community members are more likely than any other group in our country to be targets of hate crimes.

Clinton pledged to advocate for change at every level of government during a closed meeting at Holden Heights Community Center. She aims to promote the kinds of changes that will prevent this from happening to other people, other families, and other communities. She also cited a ban on assault weapons, as well as sensible gun reform to be among these changes.

Clinton ended her visit by leaving flowers at a memorial at the Pulse nightclub and met with first responders.

Related: Democrats Ratify Most Pro-LGBT Platform Ever

National -- Philadelphia Students Plan Pride Celebration

(PGN) A group of young adults has spent months planning the Youth Pride celebration, which is returning next month.

The second Youth Pride will take place noon through 4 p.m. on Aug. 6 at Palumbo Playground, 700 S. Ninth St.

Last year, Youth Pride was held in July due to a collaboration with Philly Pride Presents, and fell on a holiday weekend, but August was more convenient this year for organizers.

As the Ally Safe Schools Coordinator at the Mazzoni Center, Tasha Wirth keeps the youth organized, but they handle the bulk of the work.

I help to create spaces and move things along in the planning process, but its all youth-driven. Its students from our student leadership board as well as just students from other schools across the city who connected with us through other programs, Wirth said. But its all their vision, what pride means to them. And Im just sending the word along and making the purchase requests.

There will be some changes from last years Youth Pride. The workshops and drag performances will be replaced by more spoken-word performances by young people. There will be a variety of other activities such as crafts, water balloons and a dunk tank. Along with the carnival-themed activities, the event will even have its own Snapchat filter.

Youth Pride provides an opportunity for young people ages 13 through 24 to enjoy themselves and celebrate their identities in a non-alcoholic environment. It also recognizes the efforts of youth, who have tirelessly worked towards LGBT safety in schools.

I think that the work that young folks do is sometimes overlooked and this space specifically is for them to be able to let their hair down, to feel safe and to be recognized for the work theyve been doing, Wirth said.

Related: Drag Performers Welcome DNC to Philly

Culture -- Boy Scouts One Year After Easing Ban On Gay Adults

It has been nearly 12 months since the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) National Executive Board decided to end the long-standing ban on participation by openly gay adults. Youth membership, according to Edge, is on the verge of stabilizing after a long period of decline, and corporations that halted donations on the grounds of the ban have resumed their support.

The majority of units affiliated with conservative religious denominations -- such as the Roman Catholic, Mormon and Southern Baptist churches who were vocally dismayed at the decision -- have continued participation, still free to exclude gay adults if it matches with their religious doctrine.

Until last year, the Boy Scouts had carried a ban on gay adults for over three decades, even winning a Supreme Court case in 2000 on the issue. The 5-4 decision in favor of the ban only served to fuel protests by gay-rights supporters.

In 2013, the BSA allowed the participation of gay youth, but struggled with hiring gay adults to be a part of their leadership staff.

On July 27, 2015, a 45-12 vote by the BSA National Executive Board ended the ban on gay adult leaders, placing the decision to hire gay leaders on the individual groups so as not to challenge the religious doctrine of certain troupes.

One of the groups that campaigned against the BSAs ban on both youth and adults -- Scouts for Equality -- is trying to establish a national network of Scout units that publicly identify as welcoming gays, according to Edge.

Zach Wahls, co-founder of the program, said that it is active in 31 states, with more than 4,800 participating youths and 2,300 adults.

We still have a ways to go, said Wahls, 24 and an Eagle scout. Wahls was raised by lesbian mothers in Iowa.

Related: Local Gay Republicans React To Convention

National -- Gay Victim of Trump Rally Violence Sues San Jose

(EDGE) A gay Latino Republican is among the 14 people who filed a lawsuit last week against the city of San Jose, its mayor and police chief due to being attacked after attending a Donald Trump rally.

As the B.A.R. reported last month, Santa Clara resident Juan Hernandez was one of several supporters of the Republican presidential nominee who were punched by anti-Trump protesters after leaving the June 2 event held at the San Jose Convention Center.

Hernandez, 38, a rehabilitation counselor, suffered a broken nose and said he was contemplating suing the city. He has been vocal in his criticisms of how city leaders, particularly Mayor Sam Liccardo and Police Chief Edgardo Garcia, handled the incident.

Liccardo, while defending the actions of the police and city, also laid blame for the violence with Trump and his incendiary language he has used. The police have arrested 22 people accused of attacking the Trump supporters.

Nonetheless, Hernandez is the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit filed by attorney Harmeet K. Dhillon, a former chair of the San Francisco Republican Party. The plaintiffs are alleging their constitutional rights, including the rights to free speech, peaceful assembly and due process, were violated and are seeking unspecified damages and have requested a jury trial.

"My intention is someone needs to be accountable for it, either the mayor or the police chief," Hernandez told the B.A.R. about why he decided to join the lawsuit. "Also, I wanted to change the way rallies happen. Other cities need to be aware more. They need to protect their citizens no matter who they are voting for. This mayor failed because he let his political bias get in the way."

Related: Column: Two Times Zero Is Still Zero

Politics -- Democratic Convention Makes History With First Openly Transgender Speaker

Sarah McBride, HRC Foundation national press secretary, will make history at this weeks Democratic National Convention by being the first openly transgender individual to speak at the partys convention, according to Gay Star News.

The LGBTQ civil rights group made the announcement July 24 that McBride would be a featured speaker at the DNC. She will speak on the assemblys last day, July 28. The organizations president, Chad Griffin, will also speak on that day.

McBride is a volunteer for the steering committee Trans United for Hillary, the political group that supports the partys presumptive nominee, Hillary Clinton.

People must understand that even as we face daily harassment, tragic violence and an onslaught of anti-LGBTQ political attacks across the country, we are real people merely seeking to be treated with the dignity and respect every person deserves, McBride said in a statement. Im so proud to stand with the LGBT Caucus and speak out in support of Hillary Clinton, because we know she stands with us.

Griffin released a statement on McBrides participation in the DNC, stating, Sarahs inclusion in Thursdays program is a significant milestone for our community, and it sends a strong message that transgender people and their voices matter.

The HRC endorsed Clinton this past January, according to Gay Star News.
For his part, Viktor Aksyuchyts, a Russian philosopher and former politician, was more pessimistic, suggesting that the nature of present-day terrorism clearly carries with it a cultural and civilizational character.

"The terrorism plaguing nineteenth-century Russia demonstrated a phenomenon stemming from an illness of society. That is, 'gaps' emerged in society in which people collected, torn away from traditional culture, unable to adapt to the external environment in which they found themselves. Two centuries ago it was the [Russian] radical intelligentsia which found themselves in this position. In contemporary Europe it is migrants who have broken away from traditional Islam, and have found themselves in countries which are alien to them from the very beginning."

"In these lacunae," the philosopher explained, "people become susceptible to all kinds of radical ideologies, or, as I call them, ideological manias." This is especially the case "in the circumstances of today's information revolution, when access to the most varied information imaginable has become accessible to virtually everyone. And here these infectious ideas spread throughout the world via the internet, via the mass media, and infect people, those who are rootless in the cultural and civilizational sense. These people then begin a revolt against reality  in the most extreme form, by the killing of other people, and suicide."

Contemporary Europe, Aksyuchyts noted, is paralyzed by the phenomenon of terrorism, which has its roots in unbridled immigration. Europe, according to the philosopher, has demonstrated a fundamental "inability to digest immigration, and perhaps even to comprehend that the newcomers bring with them an alien civilization."

Essentially, the philosopher warned, "Europe has shown itself unprepared for the harsh challenge of history, not ready ontologically, including in the poor performance of its security services. But the main thing is that it is not prepared to face these new challenges on an intrinsic level; the disease in which Europe is now gripped is fatal for the continent."
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"Whether we conduct additional nuclear tests is entirely up to the United States, he said. The denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula went out of the window because of the United States."

Ri also blamed the new sanctions on Washington.

"The key factor damaging the situation is the United States hostile policiesand the problem is getting worse."

Adding to tensions is Washingtons plan to install a THAAD missile system in South Korea by the end of 2017. Ostensibly aimed at defending Seoul from a hypothetical attack from the North, both China and Russia have expressed outrage that the extended range of the missiles puts their own security at risk, and threatens regional peace efforts.

"This pact will inevitably lead to escalation in Northeast Asia and hinder settlement of the Korean Peninsula problem, including its denuclearization," Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Igor Morgulov said earlier this month.

"Moscow regards this step as a buildup of the US global anti-missile potential in Asia-Pacific and an attempt to change the existing balance of power."
NEW DELHI (Sputnik)  Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi reaffirmed the country's commitment to boosting its strategic partnership with the United Kingdom, the Prime Minister's office said Wednesday.

Modi held telephone talks with UK Prime Minister Theresa May on Tuesday.

"Prime Minister Modi recalled his memorable visit to the UK last November and affirmed Indias commitment to further strengthen the strategic partnership between both countries," the office said in a statement on its website.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  North Korea has 'floated' threats of missile attacks against the South by placing the propaganda leaflets in a river and sending them downstream, the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said Wednesday.

According to Yonhap news agency, the leaflets made their way down the Han River. Previously, North Korea has not used a waterway for leaflet distribution.

On July 22, the South Korean military collected numerous air-filled vinyl bags containing Pyongyang's leaflets with threats of North Korea's possible missile attacks on its southern neighbor, a JCS spokesman was quoted as saying by the agency.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Wednesday the country would come up with an economic stimulus package worth over 28 trillion yen (almost $266 billion) in order to mitigate the possible shocks of Brexit.

According to the Kyodo news agency, Tokyo is expected to boost public expenditure on building infrastructure and bolstering efforts to increase farm exports and attract more tourists from abroad.

Part of the package is expected to be covered by the government, while it will also be partially covered by investment programs and fiscal loans not based on the general budget.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  Russian Interior Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev has proposed a joint search operation to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations police chiefs association (ASEANAPOL), the Interior Ministry said Wednesday.

"The minister proposed that consideration should be given to introducing an international search operation under the auspices of ASEANAPOL. Earlier, the Russian side sent its outline to the organization's Secretariat and the leadership of the Secretariat asked for the details of the initiative. Vladimir Kolokoltsev outlined in detail all stages of the proposed operation," the ministry said in a statement.

The proposal was voiced at the 36th ASEANAPOL conference in Malaysia's capital Kuala Lumpur. Kolokoltsev noted that a total of seven Russian nationals accused of committing grave crimes have been handed over to Russian authorities by ASEAN member states so far in 2016. The minister also noted a high potential for developing dialogue between Russian and Southeast Asian law enforcement agencies.
Dr. John Short , political analyst and Professor of Public Policy at the University of Maryland, told Radio Sputnik that bilateral negotiations between Beijing, Manila and other parties to the dispute will be more effective in the medium- to long-term.

"We have to wait for a cooling-off period, especially inside debates in China, where people can say, 'I'm not sure this policy has helped our international position,'" Short said.

"I think (over) the next six to nine months everyone is particularly sensitive, I think the hopes are much better when things start to die down a bit and people take a more level-headed and rational approach to solving this problem."

The South China Sea is a highly-contested region through which nearly $5 trillion in international trade passes annually. In addition to China and the Philippines, overlapping claims have also been made by Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan, and Brunei.

These countries are all members of the Association of the Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Short said that the US has involved itself in the dispute to enforce its notion of freedom of navigation in the South China Sea, and believes that as the world's only superpower, it is better equipped to counter China than ASEAN.

"The US position is slightly undercut because it's not a signatory to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, but nevertheless it sees itself as a counterweight to China."

"ASEAN doesn't provide the counterweight to China's claims, whereas the US definitely does."

On Tuesday US Secretary of State John Kerry said that although Washington believes The Hague's ruling "is a binding decision," the US wants Beijing and Manila to resume bilateral talks aimed at solving the dispute.

On Sunday Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida intervened in the dispute, urging China to abide by the arbitration ruling. His statement provoked a furious reaction from China.

"Japan is not a party to the South China Sea issue, and considering its shameful history, it has no rights whatsoever to accuse China on the matter," responded Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang.
It also underlined their pledge to respect freedom of navigation and to solve territorial disputes peacefully, through negotiation in accordance with international laws, including the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.

Various media sources, including The Washington Free Beacon, have already called it a diplomatic victory for China.

The Association holds a central position in the regional cooperation and integration processes, Sumsky told Sputnik.

If the Association as a whole, and not some of its member states, unilaterally tends to [cater to] one of the key players  the US or China, it immediately loses its neutrality and, hence, its central position, the political analyst added.

Thus the ASEAN's cautious stance on the South China Sea dispute, the position expressed in Laos, is an expression of wisdom, he added.

Sumsky also said that this territorial dispute cant be resolved by deferring to the recent ruling by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague.

As long as ASEAN pursues its principle of basing its power on consensus, it remains a significant player in regional and global politics, he said.
India has tightened its child labor law in light of the increasing number of young children who have joined the labor force. Now employing a child below 14 years of age in any occupation or process, except in cases where the child is helping his family, will now warrant imprisonment for up to two years.

The Child Labor (Prohibition and Regulation) Amendment Bill which was passed by India's Lower House of Parliament on Tuesday defines children between 14-18 years as adolescents and instructs that they should not be employed in any hazardous occupations or processes. This bill was passed by the Upper House of Parliament on July 19.


MOSCOW (Sputnik)The foundation, called Reconciliation and Healing, will begin operating from July 28, and will financially compensate the co-called "comfort women" and rehabilitate them, Yonhap news agency said.

According to the Foreign Ministry, Japan will contribute some 1 billion yen ($9.5 million) to the foundation, the media outlet added.

The announcement regarding the launch of the foundation comes after Seoul and Tokyo reached a deal on December 28, 2015, to end the long-standing diplomatic feud over "comfort women," with both sides having agreed to set up a foundation for sexually enslaved Korean women under the deal.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  Australian doctors association filed a case in the nations high court on Wednesday challenging a law that punishes those speaking out on deteriorating conditions in refugee camps with jail terms.

A secrecy provision under section 42 of the Australian Border Force Act 2015 bans doctors, aid workers and other contractors from disclosing what is going on in island camps on Nauru and Papua New Guinea.

"Today, there has been a flurry of activity as we are filing a High Court challenge to the Border Force Act," Doctors for Refugees announced on Facebook.
It is very worrying. I have been saying that border vigilance should be increased. It was a good thing that they didnt touch an important canal in that area, Uttarakhand Chief Minister Harish Rawat told reporters.

He further added that, I believe the government will take necessary cognizance.

Minister of State for Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju said that the government has asked the Indo-Tibetan Border Police, which guards the 3488 km Indo-China border from Ladakh in Jammu and Kashmir to Arunachal Pradesh, to look into the matter.

We need to see how deep into our territory they came, Kiren Rijiju added.

The state of Uttarakhand shares a 350 km long boundary with China. The 80 sq km area has been agreed by the two countries as disputed since 1957 and was to be sorted out by the two countries.

There had been similar attempts of Chinese soldiers to enter in that part of the Indian territory in the past. In 2013, then Chief Minister of Uttarakhand, Vijay Bahuguna brought up the issue of Chinese violation of the international border at Barahoti after Chinese troops entered the area. Similarly, in 2013 and 2014 Chinese intruded into the Barahoti area.
Indian intelligence agencies have received credible inputs that Pakistan based terror group Jamaat-ud-Dawa is planning to gain entry into the Kashmir valley under the guise of doctors or charity workers, top sources in the Home Ministry told Sputnik.

Recently a Pakistani team of 30 members comprising doctors and charity persons applied for visas on humanitarian grounds.

As per the intelligence reports the Indian Home Ministry has decided not to give visas to the JuD members to visit Jammu and Kashmir.Intelligence agencies have also submitted a detailed report to the Home Ministry which clearly states that Pakistani based terror groups with the support of state machinery will try to aggravate the problem in the Kashmir valley. Intelligence reports also said that the Pakistan based terror group wants to keep unrest alive.
Kerry called on China and the Philippines to join in two-party talks to try to establish a compromise, one that will certainly leave Beijing with less regional control than they believe themselves entitled to.

"We hope to see a process that will narrow the geographic scope of the maritime disputes, set standards for behaviour in contested areas, lead to mutually acceptable solutions, perhaps even a series of confidence-building steps," said Kerry.

The statement comes in the wake of Beijing accusations that the US, Japan and Australia, all not parties to the dispute, are fanning the flames of regional tensions by making a joint statement on the South China Sea.

"Now it is the time to test whether you are peacekeepers or troublemakers," said Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi.

As Kerry looks to simmer tensions before they erupt into war, Loud & Clears Brian Becker sat down with author Patrick Lawrence and activist David Ewing to discuss the situation.
"A decision was made in Seoul a couple of weeks ago to accept the American offer to deploy THAAD," said Elleman. "It will probably take a year or two to bring it up to operational status because there are a couple of steps that need to be taken including training a crew to operate it and also building this particular system and shipping it to Korea to position it, so I dont expect it to be operational for at least 18 months."

What are China and Russias concerns about the THAAD system?

Chinas foreign minister said of the deployment of THAAD that the recent move by South Korea harms mutual trust between the two countries. Elleman said that Moscow and Beijings concerns is not based on the system itself, but rather that it sets a disturbing precedent against maintaining mutual deterrence.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  The announcement comes as the country suffers a severe shortage of foreign currency, caused mainly by the blow to its tourist sector following the crash of the Russian airliner over the Sinai Peninsula in October 2015, the Financial Times reported.

On October 31, an Airbus A321 operated by the Russian airline Kogalymavia crashed in the Sinai Peninsula while flying from the Egyptian resort city of Sharm El-Sheikh to St. Petersburg, killing all 224 people on board.

Russia, along with the United Kingdom and other countries suspended flights to Egypt following the incident when several intelligence services have suggested terrorists planted a bomb on board the Russian aircraft.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  Russia will open a trading house in Germany in order to facilitate Russian companies in entering the German market, Russian Economic Development Minister Alexei Ulyukayev said Wednesday.

"Russia will create a trading house in Berlin to provide services to Russian companies entering the German market We discussed implementing a joint fund to aid cooperation between German and Russian small and medium size enterprises," Ulyukayev told reporters after a meeting with German Agriculture Minister Christian Schmidt.

The two ministers discussed a range of economic and business cooperation issues, as well as the impact of the deterioration in Russian-EU relations on bilateral trade between Russia and Germany. Schmidt stressed that the two countries' businesses must continue to cooperate despite the difficult political situation.
Sergey Kashuba, president of the Russian Gold Producers, told Sputnik that Russia is ideally positioned to provide Chinese consumers with more gold, since the two countries have established trade links and Chinese investors have invested in four Russian gold mining start-ups.

He said that last year one company, Zijin Gold, invested around $100 million in the construction of a gold production plant in Tuva, southern Siberia.

Konstantin Bunin, general director of the gold mining company Karat, told Sputnik that his firm is hopeful of securing partnership with Chinese investors at Beijing's Gold Congress.

"This direction holds a lot of promise, because we have a lot of fields located within the Arctic Circle where the extraction is laborious and requires preliminary prospecting which costs a lot," Bunin said.

"At the moment there are few companies on the Russian market which can afford to do it, so partnership with Chinese investors is a real possibility."

"Furthermore, President Vladimir Putin recently signed a decree on the import and export of precious stones and metals. It expands and simplifies the conditions for the export of rough diamonds and precious metals. I think the conditions for collaboration with Chinese partners are developing well," Bunin said.

Song Xin, President of the China Gold Association, told the China Gold Congress on Tuesday that China's Silk Road initiative could also promote global integration of the gold production industry, and increase China's appetite for gold.

Transactions for most of the Silk Road infrastructure projects will be conducted in China's renminbi, which is increasingly used for global trade. In December 2015 it was included in the IMF's Special Drawing Right basket of currencies, expanding that number of basket currencies to five.

In July 2014 Song Xin, who is also General Manager of the China National Gold Group Corporation, wrote that China should aim to accumulate 8,500 tonnes in official gold reserves, more than the US, in order to support its bid to make the renminbi a global currency.

According to a report by Koos Jansen in BullionStar,com, Song wrote that gold will help support the renminbi to become an international currency as "gold forms the very material basis for modern fiat currencies."

Jenson reported Song's argument that in the short term the Chinese will not back the renminbi with gold (establish a fixed renminbi price for gold), but support it with gold so it has sufficient credibility for the world to accept it as a trade and reserve currency.
Earlier in the day, Vaezi spent thee hours in a meeting with his Russian counterpart Nikolai Nikiforov in Moscow. The Minister positively responded when asked if the possibility of removing the ban on Yandex in Iran was discussed.

"Four different committees will be set up after the meeting I had, and those which my deputies and delegation [members] have had. They will organize everything and will cover many issues, including Yandex," Vaezi said.
This is not the first time the Hungarian politician has spoken well of the US real-estate-speculator-turned-politician, calling him an upstanding American presidential candidate. In particular, Orban opined that Trump is the only one who knows how to fight terrorism in the Old World, adding, I, myself, could not have drawn up better what Europe needs.

Speaking about the Democratic platform and its candidate, Hillary Clinton, he criticized her partys migration policies and what he termed its practice of "democracy export," which, he said, is deadly for Hungary." Indeed, Orban has defied Brussels while gathering support elsewhere in Europe by erecting a fence along the country's southern border, which stretches from the Slovenian border to the Romanian border along the country's borders with Croatia and Serbia.

Clinton, who has won the Democratic nomination for the presidency, visited Hungary in 2011 as US Secretary of State. At the time she noted that Hungary suffered from a corrupt judicial system and a lack of free press.
"The policy of open borders cannot be tolerated any more given that terrorists were using the [refugee] routes to enter Germany, Seehofer said as quoted by The Guardian.

In a follow up to the Minister President's speech, Herrmann urged the deployment of the German army in a bid to deal with the attacks, saying it cant replace the police, but why cant well-trained members of the army work alongside the police in the event of an attack?"

He also called for the refusal to admit any refugees who cannot prove their identity and for the deportation of those who committed crimes.

The European Union is currently struggling to manage a massive refugee crisis, with hundreds of thousands of people leaving conflict-torn countries in the Middle East and North Africa to escape violence and poverty and seeking asylum in Europe. In 2015, more than 1 million migrants and asylum seekers arrived in Germany.
Carcaci, who represents the city of Liege, told Sputnik that the EU's sanctions against Russia were imposed illegally, and without the consent of national parliaments.

"In my opinion, imposing sanctions against Russia is unjust. I think the EU did not observe international norms and laws when it took these measures. That (imposing sanctions) is the prerogative of the UN Security Council, but that was done. In a word, this is illegal," Carcaci said.

The MP said that Russia was left with little option but to respond with counter-sanctions, which have harmed Belgian exporters.

"Russia, for its part, took necessary steps to compensate for the loss of trade agreements with the EU, and with Belgium."

"Our exporters of fruit and vegetables and hunting weapons are being punished because they are losing out on profit. These sanctions are useless and counterproductive, because they harm Belgian suppliers more than they do Russia," Carcasi said.

Carcaci added that Russia's important contribution to the fight against terrorism makes it even more imperative that the EU work with Moscow.

"Russia is our ally, we have a common culture, we are Europeans and we have common traditions. In addition, Russia is out best ally in the fight against terrorism."

"I urge the Belgian government to push the EU to lift the sanctions against Russia. Belgium could also say that we don't support anti-Russian sanctions, because they were not imposed according to international law which requires a meeting of the UN Security Council," Carcaci said.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  In November, the Catalan parliament put forward a resolution calling for a start of secession from Spain as the Catalans voted pro-independence in a 2014 referendum. So far, there has been little progress on the part of Madrid on the issue, and later this week, Catalonia is expected to debate the conclusions of a working group on sovereignty.

"The [Spanish state] has left us feeling that we just dont have an alternative We have always said that we would have preferred a Scottish-type scenario, where we could negotiate with the state and hold a coordinated and democratic referendum. We keep talking to Madrid, but all we get back from them is an echo," Catalan Foreign Minister Raul Romeva told The Guardian.

Romeva said the Spanish government could either accept the reality of Catalan independence or go with the neglect policy, which is "denying that reality in the belief that it can use the constitutional court and legal processes to stop it."
ROME (Sputnik)  The investigation started after a person from the Italian northern commune of Savona informed law enforcement authorities about the message she had received on WhatsApp from an unknown contact in Morocco, with a photo of a girl with a machine gun.

According to Il Messaggero newspaper, the two arrested, 27 and 44 years of age, were living in Savona for years. They have been charged with the recruitment of new members for the Daesh terrorist group, outlawed in Russia and many other counties.

Monitoring of social networks showed that the suspects had created profiles on Facebook, using the other people's phone numbers.
Feeling a little burnt over the two main Democrat and Republican choices for president? Well smolder no morethere are more than two presidential candidates to consider.

Nearly 50 percent of registered American voters say they would support a third party presidential candidate, according to a May Wall Street Journal/NBC poll. An Independent Voters Network survey showed nearly 91 percent of millennials canvassed want a viable alternative to the two parties.

Is Three a Crowd?

Third party candidates may not win many political seats but they can greatly influence the outcome of the elections. In 1848, former President Martin Van Buren did not get the Democratic nomination so he threw a fit, started the Free Soil Party and ran as its candidate. He was only able to garner about 10 percent of the vote but that was enough to assist Whig candidate Zachary Taylor to win the White House over the Democrat candidate.

In 1860, Abraham Lincoln faced two third party candidates that took nearly a third of the votes. Lincoln barely won with about 39 percent. Then there is Teddy Roosevelt who in 1912, in his second attempt at the White House, did not get the Republican partys nomination so he started and ran for president on the Progressive Party ticket. By running, Roosevelt was able to throw the election to Democrat Woodrow Wilson to spite the Republican party incumbent candidate William Taft. Talk about sour grapes.

A little more recently, the last third party presidential candidate to carry a state was in 1968 when American Independent George Wallace, himself a former Republican, tried to derail Richard Nixons eventual victory. In 1992, Ross Perot running as an independent candidate got about 18 percent percent of the vote. And lets not forget about 2000: Ralph Naders less than three percent of the vote was enough to impact the tight race between Republican George Bush and Democrat Al Gore. Bush won because progressives were drawn away from the Democratic ticket by Nader.

Crazy Train 2016

This years presidential race is an example of the need for other choices. The Republican party is represented by Donald Trump, who the Washington Post calls a unique threat to American Democracy, an issue that has caused many longtime members to flee the GOP ship like rats.

Some Democrats are still feeling Bernies burn despite his loss in the primaries and unequivocal support of Hillary at the Democratic National Convention. But Trump and Clinton are not the only presidential candidates. Here is a quick list of third party contenders. Also, there is always the option to write in your own personal choice for president.

Third party candidates may not win many political seats but they can greatly influence the outcome of the elections.

Libertarian Party

Gary Johnson , the former Republican governor of New Mexico, is pro-choice as long as abortion services are not taxpayer funded or late-term.

He strongly supports federal legalization of marijuana. The Libertarian Party, which he represents, stands for limiting government services and regulation, and the privatization of services currently under government stewardship. He ran in 2012 and got about one percent of the vote. Johnson is currently polling at about 12 percent with a goal of at least 15 percent so he can then participate in the fall debates.

Green Party

Gage Skidmore

Jill Stein is a doctor, pro-choice and an environmental activist. Her Power to the People Plan hopes to move the country from corporate capitalism to a human centered economy. She thinks basic needs like jobs, healthcare, food, water and housing are human rights. She is against fracking and extreme mineral and resource extraction techniques. She wants to cut military spending by 50 percent, close US bases on foreign soil and end financial/material support to Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Israel.

Constitution Party

Darrell Castle is a lawyer and a Vietnam veteran. The Constitution Party swears to follow the US Constitution, the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights. He and his wife founded a Christian mission helping homeless Romanian children. He is pro-life and says he will veto any bill to fund any abortion providers such as Planned Parenthood. Castle wants to end the United States membership in the United Nations and he would do away with the Federal Reserve Act. He opposes the war on drugs.

Independent American Party

Farley Anderson is a former Republican who ran as an Independent for governor of Utah. He agrees with repealing the Federal Reserve Act and is pro-defense but anti-NATO and UN. He also thinks it is the duty of all nations to recognize the God of Abraham.

Party for Socialism and Liberation

Gloria La Riva, who was born in Albuquerque, is the first vice president of Pacific Media Workers Guild, Communications Workers of America, Local 39521. She says a fair living income is a legal right and workers need to be paid fairly and that those who cant work be guaranteed a livable income. She says she would shut down all US Military bases around the world and reallocate the money back to the people.

Socialist Workers Party

Alyson Kennedy works at a Chicago Walmart, is a former coal miner and wants $15 minimum wage with assured full time work for those that want it. She opposes all US wars and wants the government to fund the things working people need to live and support their families.

Prohibition Party

James Hedges is a former US Marine Band member who opposes any and all drugs including alcohol, tobacco, cannabis, cocaine and heroin, except those regulated by the Federal Drug Administration. He would, however, help tobacco farmers and vineyard owners grow something else. He opposes free trade and wants a balanced budget amendment added to the Constitution. The Prohibition Party is the oldest third party platform founded as a right-wing party in 1869.

Veterans Party

Chris Keniston is a third-generation military veteran who was in the Air Force for over a decade. He wants to secure the southern border and is a little worried about Canada, too. He thinks the US is a bully and should not interfere in global affairs. He believes in the separation of church and state. Job creation is high on the list of priorities.

Nutrition Party

Ron Silva says he will be focused on addressing serious issues such as the increasing rates of obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure and other health related problems. So far only Colorado has qualified him to be on the ballot.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  Additional security checks have been put in place in Geneva Airport for an indefinite period, the Geneva police said Wednesday.

"Following information received and in the current context of tighter controls, preventive security controls are in place at the Geneva Airport site, for an indefinite period," the police said in a post on Facebook.

JUST IN: Security tightened at #Switzerland's Geneva airport after anonymous phone call, officials say https://t.co/MAQDLztGAe  The Straits Times (@STcom) 27  2016 .

The airport authorities advised passenger to allow additional time for check-in.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  The Geneva airport remained opened Wednesday, with longer check-in time, airport authoritys spokesman Bertrand Staempfli told Sputnik after reports of a possible security threat.

Additional security checks were put in place at the airport earlier today after Swiss police reportedly received an anonymous call.

"I can tell you that the airport is open, the passengers just have to arrive a little bit earlier than normally," Staempfli said.


MOSCOW (Sputnik)The Spanish Civil Guard arrested two brothers accused of funding the Daesh terrorist group, the country's Interior Ministry said on Wednesday.

"The structure [to which the detained are believed to be connected] used assumed identities to send funds to managers of the economic apparatus of Daesh in Syria and Iraq that were used for operational finance in conflict zones," the ministry said in a statement.

According to the statement, the two brothers, both of Moroccan origin, had a third brother who was also involved in the scheme and who had moved to Syria with his family and children. He subsequently died there but the illegal Daesh funding did not stop.
TBILISI (Sputnik)  As much as 48 percent of Georgians favor a pro-Western course for their country, and at the same time believe Georgia should maintain good relations with Russia, a poll conducted by the American National Democratic Institute (NDI) revealed on Wednesday.

The current result represents a 4-percent decline from March.

According to the poll, 72 percent of Georgian citizens would like the country to become a member of the European Union, with 64 percent believing that the liberalization of the visa regime with the bloc would be beneficial for Georgia.


MOSCOW (Sputnik)According to a new poll conducted by the Belgrade-based Institute for European Affairs, 49 percent of Serbians deem the Russian model of society suitable for Serbia, a local newspaper reported.

The survey results will be published in full on Thursday, the Blic newspaper reported on Tuesday.

Almost one third of respondents (29 percent) and as much as 59 percent of people aged 18-29 said Crimea should be recognized as part of Russia.
"We need more security in Germany. People are riled up, full of fear, and that is completely understandable. They need reliable answers from politicians and not endless debates and justifications," he added, in a swipe at the Chancellor.

Calls for Crackdown

The criticism came amid calls from Bavarian officials for a crackdown on a number of security and immigration measures.

Fronting a press conference with Seehofer, Bavarian Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann called for Berlin to re-think rules surrounding refugee deportations, saying the expulsion of a rejected applicant to some parts of the Middle East "should no longer be taboo."

#ISIS propoganda agency releases video of Afghan teen behind #GermanTrain attack. Named as Muhammad Riyad #Wuerzburg pic.twitter.com/AiqFTRhr2l  Jon Williams (@WilliamsJon) July 19, 2016

"We must push it to the edge of the envelope currently permitted under European law, and we have to think about whether the EU rules have to be changed," Mr Herrmann said.

The calls for a shake-up in deportation policies comes after it was revealed that the 27-year-old Syrian man who blew himself up with explosives in the Bavarian city of Ansbach had been spared deportation for more than a year due to medical reasons.

German prosecutors: Ansbach bomber Mohammed Daleel was directly influenced by an unknown person, who had significant influence on attack.  Bjorn Stritzel (@bjoernstritzel) July 27, 2016

Amid other changes, Bavarian officials said they would bolster police staffing and equipment, while they also renewed calls for federal restrictions on the surveillance of suspects to be eased.

Germany Needs More Than Talk
"Our exporters of fruit and vegetables and hunting weapons are being punished because they are losing out on profit. These sanctions are useless and counterproductive, because they harm Belgian suppliers more than they do Russia," Carcasi said.

Dimlovich, who is adviser to Russia's Foundation for Technological Development, told RIA Novosti that the unsuccessful sanctions are a weapon in an "economic war" started by the US, and expressed some sympathy for European economies.

"This is not sanctions, this is economic war which has been declared on Russia by the USA, and which the EU is a victim of."

"In financial terms, the West has lost more than $60 billion, and the EU has borne around 77 percent of that sum," Dimlovich said.

The EU Council first decided to impose anti-Russian sanctions in March 2014, after Crimea decided to join the Russian Federation following a referendum. Since then the EU has prolonged the sanctions against Russian individuals and entities, most recently deciding last month to prolong them until January 2017.

MP's in many EU countries, such as Belgium, France and Italy, have expressed discontent that national parliaments have not had a chance to debate the issue, and parliaments in Cyprus, Paris and four Italian regions have passed resolutions calling on national governments to pressure the EU to lift the sanctions.

Dimlovich said that the worst is yet to come for EU exporters, who have complained about losing access to the Russian market as a result of Russian counter-sanctions, first imposed in August 2014 and prolonged in step with the EU and US measures.

"In autumn when production in the EU exceeds demand, 'rivers of milk' will be flowing again in Brussels, Paris, Berlin and other European capitals, and the people will probably again tell the political leaders of those countries they need to take measures to stop this absolutely senseless economic war against Russia."

"I think EU countries can expect a very stormy autumn," said Dimlovich, who expects EU politicians to eventually pay the price for ignoring the interests of the electorate.

"Europe's current political elites are so disconnected from the national interest of their countries, that they will be gradually replaced by more nationally-oriented elites. But that won't happen until after the US elections," Dimlovich said.

Last autumn Finland's Central Union of Agricultural Producers (MTK) stated that Finnish farmers had suffered losses of around 400 million euros ($440 million) as a result of Russian counter-sanctions, half of which was borne by daily producers, Regnum reported.
CHISINAU (Sputnik)  The Moldovan Socialist faction drafted the proposal, which was supported by the Party of Communists and the Liberal Democrats.

The move was supported by 30 lawmakers. For a vote of no-confidence to be held it needs to have the support of at least 51 parliamentarians out of the 101-strong chamber.

The prime minister said that the authors of the current resolution on a vote of no-confidence were trying to stir chaos and instability, with the ultimate aim of forcing snap elections.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  Ukraines refusal to pay off its $3 billion debt carries appropriate consequences for Kievs financial obligations, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Wednesday, adding that Moscow reserves the legal right to respond with legal measures.

Ukraines Finance Minister Oleksandr Danilyuk outlined Kievs stance "that we shouldnt return the money" in an interview with local television earlier in the day, citing the reasoning that "it was a political credit which we were forced to take."

"No decision has been taken. Russia consistently articulates its position. We believe this is sovereign, public debt with the corresponding consequences for the financial obligations of Ukraine," Peskov told reporters.


BRUSSELS (Sputnik)The European Commission recommended on Wednesday not to impose fines on Portugal and Spain for missing their 3 percent GDP targets, EU Financial Stability Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis said Wednesday.

Taking into account past efforts of Spain and Portugal, the current challenging environment and arguments laid out in the recent request, the college agreed today to propose the cancellation of the fines for both countries, Dombrovskis told a briefing.
VILNIUS (Sputnik)  The international drills Baltic Bikini 2016 are expected to be held in Lithuanian territorial waters in the Baltic Sea on August 1-5, the country's Defense Ministry said in a statement Wednesday.

"During the training exercise, air crew  pilots, on-board technicians, operators and military medics  will practice water survival [tactics], as well as learn how to escape from aircraft after an emergency landing on water. The aircraft crews' ability to use safety equipment will also be checked," the ministry said in a statement.

Over 100 servicemen from Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia are expected to participate in the drills, according to the statement.


MOSCOW (Sputnik)The inquiry by the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network and the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project revealed an unprecedented flow of weapons sold by Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia and Slovakia to countries in the war-torn region.

"Since the escalation of the Syrian conflict in 2012, these eight countries have approved the shipment of weapons and ammunition worth at least 1.2 billion euros to Saudi Arabia, Jordan, United Arab Emirates, and Turkey," the report reads.

The projects cited data they obtained from media reports, monitoring air traffic, leaked arms contracts and other sources.


MOSCOW (Sputnik)According to the Kathimerini newspaper, citing the latest government data, 22,692 migrants are located in northern Greece, 2,279 in central part of the country, and 251 in the southern, while 9,140 people are spread around the eastern Aegean islands.

The media added that 10,168 refugees are residing in official centers for migrants built in the Attica region in the suburbs of the Greek capital, while 5,423 are living in makeshift camps.

It comes a day after Greece's Center for Disease Control and Prevention (KEELPNO) urged the government to close all reception centers for migrants in the country following official visits by its inspectors to 16 such centers which were all deemed to be a public health risk.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  Over 15,000 people have been detained in Turkey in the wake of the mid-July failed military coup attempt, Turkish Interior Minister Efkan Ala said Wednesday.

More than 10,000 of the detainees are military personnel, the minister said, as quoted by the CNN Turk channel, adding that 8,113 people were arrested on various charges.
He then analyzes what the chances were that voters would shift to Germany's main right-wing populist and Eurosceptic political party, Alternative for Germany (Alternative fur Deutschland/AfD), a key opponent to Merkels Christian Democratic Union (CDU).

The AfD has been a very strong critic of Angela Merkels open borders policy, the outlet says.

AfD gives voters mental support  recent events have greatly helped the party's political goals, the author says, citing the partys statements that they 'always said that uncontrolled immigration is dangerous'."

What makes the situation worse is that the Chancellor herself is currently on holiday in eastern Germany, in the Uckermark region where she grew up.

The hashtag #Merkelsommer, or Merkel summer, has been trending since early Monday on Twitter, with users slamming the chancellors open-arms refugee policy and lambasting the country's migrants.

Where the AfD is concerned, things could get interesting this September. In state elections in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Merkel's home state, the AfD could conceivably emerge as the strongest party. At this point, the CDU is still well ahead, but should there be more killing sprees or terrorist attacks, the distance could quickly decrease, DW therefore suggests.

Meanwhile, a recent poll conducted by Pew Research Center, the US-based think tank, revealed that the refugee crisis and the threat of terrorism are very much related to one another in the minds of many Europeans. In eight of the 10 European nations surveyed, half or more believe incoming refugees increase the likelihood of terrorism in their country.

This weeks' cover: Summer of terror. Europe's leaders can't handle the crisis they created, says @DouglasKMurray pic.twitter.com/Rc2B1AiR9O  The Spectator (@spectator) 27  2016 .

According to results, as many as 61% of Germans think that refugees will increase the likelihood of terrorism in their country, with 35% thinking that refugees in their country are more to blame for crime than any other group.

Anatol Lieven, director of Research on Terrorism and International Relations at Kings College, London, believes that the way things are going, Merkel is not going to last as the Chancellor of Germany for very much longer. Clearly, her decision over the refugees was extremely unpopular, and all of these events are making it still more unpopular.

Lieven expects major changes in Germanys political landscape.

What is going to happen soon is a much more radical, right-wing CDU in Germany, perhaps allied with Pegida and other new right-wing forces. At that point youll see Germany moving more in the direction of France. The first attack was not a terrorist attack, and the second one most likely was, but the German public will see both as terrorist attacks and react accordingly, he told the Valdai Discussion Club.


MOSCOW (Sputnik)Air travelers were asked to come to the check-in two hours earlier after police boosted presence at the airport over security concerns.

"The reinforced security measures at GVA airport will be progressively stopped," police tweeted.

The Swiss Office of the Attorney General, titled the Public Ministry, said the airport customs service received a phone call from a woman on Tuesday warning that a suicide bomber planned to show up at the airports French section the next day.
According to paragraph 11.3 of the new doctrine, direct military threats to the country include "the expansion (or creation) of military-political alliances in the European region in which the Republic of Belarus is not included," and/or an attempt by such alliances to carry out "global functions."

Paragraph 11.4, meanwhile, alludes to the threat posed by "the strengthening of the offensive capabilities of states (or coalitions of states), including the unilateral establishment of strategic missile defense systems, precision-guided weaponry equipped with non-nuclear warheads for attacks against the military forces and infrastructure of the Republic of Belarus," and other measures "leading to a disruption of the existing balance of forces, as well as the building up of military infrastructure by states bordering Belarus."
MADRID (Sputnik)  The Catalan parliament on Wednesday supported the conclusions of a commission created to study the process of the region's secession from Spain, local media reported.

Earlier in the day, the parliament discussed the report prepared by the parliamentary commission. The conclusions of the commission include the points of secession's terms and a referendum on a new regional constitution.

According to The Spain Report newspaper, the commission's decisions were supported by 72 lawmakers from the pro-independence Catalan Junts pel Si (Together for Yes) coalition and their allies from the left-wing Popular Unity Candidacy (CUP).
"I want to be able to guarantee their rights in the UK, I expect to be able to do that, I intend to be able to do that," May said after talks with her Italian counterpart, Matteo Renzi, in Rome.

"The only circumstance in which that would not be possible would be if the rights of British citizens living in other EU member states were not guaranteed," she added.


MOSCOW (Sputnik)The European Commission said Wednesday that it considers Frances decision to support a pilot tidal energy plant in the English Channel with state aid to be in line with the blocs rules.

The European Commission has found French plans to support a tidal energy plant to be in line with EU state aid rules. The measure will promote the production of electricity from renewable sources, in line with EU energy and climate goals, without unduly distorting competition in the Single Market, the Commission stated in a press release.

France plans to support the construction of the Normandie Energie PiloTe HYDrolien (NEPTHYD) tidal energy pilot farm at Raz Blanchard, west of Normandy's Cotentin Peninsula, through a direct grant and repayable advances, which will be reimbursed if the technology proves successful.
LUHANSK (Sputnik)  Journalists from two news agencies came under mortar fire from Ukrainian forces near the eastern Ukrainian town of Debaltsevo, local militia said on Wednesday.

"A group of journalists went to shoot a news story about soldiers living in the seventh detachment of the LPR [Luhansk People's Republic] People's Militia. Later, as they moved toward the LPR positions on the contact line, at that moment they came under mortar fire and unsighted sniper fire," LPR's People's Militia headquarters said, emphasizing that journalists were not injured.

The journalist were from two news agencies, Anna News and News Front. News Front is independent agency, officially registered in Simferopol, Crimea. Anna News is an Abkhazia-based media outlet.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  The situation in eastern Ukraine remains volatile as Kiev-led forces have intensified the shelling of settlements in self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk people's republics, Russian envoy to Contact Group on Ukraine Boris Gryzlov said Wednesday.

The Trilateral Contact Group, consisting of envoys and experts from Ukraine, Russia, and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), is holding a regular meeting in Minsk aimed at facilitating a diplomatic resolution to the armed conflict in Donbas.

"It is obvious that the situation in the conflict zone remains difficult. The intensified shelling of settlements, primarily by Kiev-led forces, causes grave concern," Gryzlov told reporters.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  The Austrian authorities are in contact with religious communities over protective security measures for places of worship following the attack on a church in northern France, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry told Sputnik on Wednesday.

On Tuesday, two armed men took five people hostage at a church in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, Normandy. The attackers were later killed, while at least one hostage was murdered and three people were wounded, one severely. Soon after the incident, French media reported that one of the attackers was extradited back to France after trying to go to Syria in 2015 and put under police supervision.

"Authorities are in contact with communities, individual measures based on needs assessment [are being taken]," Karl-Heinz Grundboeck said, when asked if religious communities have recently been consulted on measures to enhance security at places of worship.
MADRID (Sputnik)  Portuguese Foreign Minister Augusto Santos Silva said on Wednesday that the decision of the European Commission not to fine Lisbon for its failure to decrease budget deficit "good news."

Earlier in the day, the European Commission recommended not to impose fines on Portugal and Spain for missing their 3 percent GDP targets and proposed the Council of the European Union to give Madrid and Lisbon additional time to reach the 3-percent levels.

"The government has taken into consideration the recommendations made in the context of the supposed fine as for Portugal. We consider that it is very good news for Portugal, for Europe, for construction of Europe," Silva said, as quoted by the Jornal de Negocios newspaper.
On Tuesday, two armed men took five people hostage at a church in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, Normandy. The attackers were later killed, while at least one hostage was murdered and three people were wounded. Following the attack, the UK authorities urged churches to tighten security and warned about the possibility of terror attacks targeted at Christians and other faith groups in the West and beyond.

"There is no national measure [to increase the security measures for places of worships]. Question of churches is mainly the responsibility of local municipalities. We can advise on this, but safety measures like this  also including mosques and temples  are up to the local authorities to decide," Hekking said, in response to a question on whether the Netherlands may follow the United Kingdom's lead in tightening security at churches.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  Belgian producers have been the losing party from anti-Russian sanctions as Moscow had been able to find other partners and importers, author of the resolution on lifting anti-Russian sanctions and lawmaker from the Belgian Parti Populaire (People's Party) Aldo Carcaci told Sputnik Wednesday.

Late last week, Carcaci announced that he had drafted a resolution calling on the Belgian government to remove the anti-Russian sanctions as they are damaging business.

"The sanctions penalize above all, our fruit and vegetable growers, as the hunting weapon manufactures. While Russia found the sourcing solutions through other partnerships. Proving the inefficiencies of the measures taken. The only losers are our producers," Carcaci said.
He was then tracked down in Germany, while attempting to use his brother's identification card to travel to Syria.

After being returned to France, he then fled again, this time to Turkey, where he was arrested once again and held in custody until March this year.

One of the #ISIL "knife men" in attack @ Normandy church had an ankle tracking device; negotiated to turn it off for a couple hrs during AM.  aeronautic1  (@aeronautic1) July 26, 2016

Upon the terms of his release, Kermiche was fitted with an electronic bracelet, which reportedly allowed him to leave his house on weekdays for between four and five per day.

While Keemiche's uncle said he thought the 18-year-old "was going back to a normal life," others held different views, with an unknown acquaintance telling Le Parisien newspaper that Kermiche was a "ticking time-bomb."

Critics Slam Government Laws

As French President Francois Hollande defended measures that allowed Kermiche to leave his home for a certain period during the day, others have heavily criticized the government, accusing them of negligence.

"It should not be possible for someone awaiting trial on charges of having links to terrorism to be released," Frederic Lagache, deputy chief of France's police union said.

Kermiche, #Normandy killer, "only spoke about religion," remained in an IS bubble despite family doing "everything to try and get him out".  Kyle W. Orton (@KyleWOrton) July 27, 2016

This criticism was backed up by Mohammed Karabila, leader of the regional council of Muslim worship in Haute Normandie, in the area in which the attack took place.

"How could a person wearing an electronic bracelet carry out an attack? Where are the police?" he asked.

#BastilleDay is the 7th Terror Attack in France in 18 months.

All the security cameras and gun control laws did nothing!!#NiceAttack  CajunAsian (@RiflemansCreed) July 15, 2016

The latest attack has led to questions about the capability of France's law enforcement services to prevent further terror attacks in the country.

Despite introducing a series of laws aimed at cracking down on jihadists and potential terrorists, critics of the government say the measures haven't gone far enough, and have called on Hollande to place to grant more power to security and law enforcement agencies.
MOSCOW(Sputnik)  Inter-faith dialogue and unity among various churches across Europe is needed to overcome Islamophobia that is likely to rise after an attack on a church in the French region of Normandy, Erin Green, spokeswoman for Conference of European Churches (CEC), Europe's Christian churches union, told Sputnik Wednesday.

On Tuesday, two armed men took five people hostage at the Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray church in Normandy. The attackers were later killed, while at least one hostage was murdered and three people were wounded, one severely. Soon after the incident, French media reported that one of the attackers tried to go to Syria via Turkey in 2015 but was detained and extradited to France, where he was put in prison.

"What we can do is to do more in the area of peaceful reconciliation and in the area of inter-faith dialogue. Because what you often see immediately after these attacks is a really impulsive increase in Islamophobia and xenophobia," Green said.
Earlier, a member of the armed group, Alec Yenikomshian, had reportedly said beforehand that the medics had not been taken hostage but had been asked to stay to provide ongoing medical assistance to a wounded member of the group. He added, that the medics had not come to the station for three days.

"The doctors will be freed if the health minister comes personally and organizes [medical] operations on this territory," the group demanded in a written statement.
PRAGUE (Sputnik)  The Czech Republic intends to strengthen controls on its border with Germany amid fears that refugees who were not been granted the right to live in Germany might try to reach Czech soil, Czech Interior Minister Milan Chovanec said Wednesday.

"There are serious concerns that these people [refugees] might try to illegally cross the [German] borders with neighboring states. In this regard, we intend to strengthen security on the Czech-German border," Chovanec said.

According to him, the Czech Republic received information from several German politicians that hundreds of thousands of refugees who had not received permission to live in Germany would be expelled from the country.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  The IGPN director said that prior to the attack police had assessed the threat level as "classic." Contingent was enough for a scenario involving one or more assailants armed with guns or explosives.

"For an event that was not exceptionaland with no known threats, police forces were not undersized," Marie-France Moneger-Guyomarch told reporters.

A terrorist drove a heavy truck through a crowd of revelers marking the Bastille Day in the French city, killing 84 people and injuring hundreds more.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  French villages and towns across the country may cancel summer events in case local authorities rule that they can not guarantee adequate security, French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said Wednesday.

"I have asked local authorities that if the conditions are not met so that maximum security can be provided to go ahead and cancel them," Cazeneuve said as cited by the French edition of The Local newspaper.

France has already cancelled several summer events earlier in July, including open-air cinema in Paris, over fears that sufficient security could not been provided, the media outlet said.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  According to the German Stuttgarter Nachrichten newspaper, police was informed about the suspicious boy, who used to talk with the Munich shooter, as well as posted on the Internet photos and drawings that showed his possible interest in a new attack.

The newspaper added that police found during the search of the minor's house explosive materials, a number of knives, many bullets and evacuation plans of the detainee's school.

On Friday, an 18-year-old German-Iranian man opened fire in the crowded Olympia shopping mall and a nearby McDonald's restaurant, killing nine people before committing a suicide.
With just a few weeks until the Rio Olympics, Formala-1 boss, Bernie Ecclestone's 38-year-old Braziliam wife Fabiana Flosi, discovered that her mother Aparecida Schunck, 67 had been kidnapped.

The ransom demand is the largest in Brazilian history and is thought to have been requested in cash. The Brazilian magazine Veja reported that the ransom had been demanded in pounds sterling and divided into four bags. Mr Ecclestone, 85, married Ms Flosi in 2012, three years after meeting her at the Brazilian Grand Prix.

Brazil is hosting this year's Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro which start next week. Security has emerged as the top concern, including violence possibly spilling over from Rio's many slums. There has been no confirmation from Brazilian officials or from Ecclestone's staff in London.
MEXICO CITY (Sputnik)  The Paraguayan Foreign Ministry was informed of the decision in an official note sent by Uruguay, Gauto said as cited by El Universal on Wednesday.

Founded in 1991, Mercosur is a sub-regional economic bloc that includes Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay and Venezuela.

Uruguay is currently seeking to transfer the Mercosur presidency for this half of the year to Venezuela. However, there have been concerns over growing discord in Venezuela amid a political standoff between Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro and the opposition-dominated parliament.
ANKARA (Sputnik)  According to CNN Turk, citing a law enforcement source, there are opposition newspaper Zaman journalists among those ordered to be detained. The newspaper was placed under government control in March, with many journalists being fired.

The Tuesday Turkish media reports suggested that Turkish police had detained at least five of 42 journalists on the target list.

Turkey issues warrants for 42 journalists over failed coup https://t.co/4yCRZLPnwg  The Guardian (@guardian) 25  2016 .

The Committee to Protect Journalists called on July 26 on the Turkish authorities to stop the detention of journalists.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  Egypt has been in charge of an inquiry into the suspected downing of the A321 plane , which came down while en route to St. Petersburg from Sharm El-Sheikh. All 224 people aboard died.

"The prosecutor general of the Arab Republic of Egypt spoke of his readiness to provide the Russian Prosecutor Generals Office and other concerned agencies with information on the investigation into the catastrophe involving the A321 plane in October 2015," the Offices spokesman, Alexander Kurennoi, said.

Russian and Egyptian chief prosecutors met in Moscow earlier today to sign a memorandum of cooperation. "The sides also discussed various issues related to cooperation in the legal sphere and in fight against international crime," Kurennoi added.
MOSCOW(Sputnik)  A senior commander of the Nusra Front militant group was killed in clashes with Syrian government forces in the northern province of Homs, media reported Wednesday.

"Syrian soldiers stormed al-Nusra Front's strongholds in al-Rastan in Northern Homs, killing Amin Sameer al-Ruz aka Abu Malik, a field commander of the group and eight more militants," the Fars News agency reported, citing its own sources.


MOSCOW (Sputnik)Earlier this week, rights groups reported that Israel had plans to build 770 new settlement units in East Jerusalem, which caused concern in Palestine and the United Nations.

"The UK is concerned to see plans for 770 settlement units between Jerusalem and Bethlehem progressing. As we have previously made clear, all settlement activity is illegal under international law, and damages prospects for a two-state solution," Ellwood said in a statement.

He expressed "particular" concern over the possible impact of these settlements on Palestinian Christian minorities in the area, who are already affected by renewed construction of the Separation Barrier on Palestinian land in the Cremisan Valley.
EDINBURGH (Sputnik)  The European Union must hold Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accountable for human rights violations and crackdown on press freedom in the country after the failed coup attempt, President of the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) Philippe Leruth said in a statement Wednesday.

On July 15, a coup attempt took place in Turkey, which was suppressed the following day. Soon after the attack Turkish authorities started a media purge in the country. On Wednesday, Turkish prosecutors ordered the arrest of another 47 journalists.

"The European union must take a stand and hold President Erdogan accountable for breaching human rights convention and muzzling the press. Global journalists are highly concerned by the escalation of attacks against the press in a country that calls itself a democracy. This situation must end immediately," Leruth said.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  Kazakhstan has been admitted to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Competition Committee, the country's Ministry of National Economy said Wednesday.

"Kazakhstan's antitrust agency has been accepted as a member of the OECD Competition Committee. The vote took place on June 17, 2016. During the last stage, Kazakhstan was contested by Croatia and the Philippines," the ministry said in a statement.

Kazakhstan is not an OECD member, however, the organization's Competition Committee admits observers from non-member states in order to promote antitrust reforms.
Russian Turkish relations, the online newspaper recalled, have seen a dramatic turnaround over the last half-year. "As recently as November 2015, when the Turkish Air Force shot down a Russian Su-24, the two countries were on the brink of war. This was followed by a long period of cooling relations and economic warfare, with Turkey carrying the main losses from the latter. Then Erdogan seemed to have delivered the apology required of him."

"Then," the paper noted, "just the other day, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu thanked the Russian president for his support of the Turkish authorities during the coup attempt earlier this month. The Kremlin did not confirm the Turkish diplomat's statement. Nevertheless, Turkey is obviously set for a 'pro-Russian U-turn.' This is also evidenced by Turkish Economic Minister Nihat Zeybakchi's statement that 'political decisions have been made' on the Turkish Stream gas pipeline and the Akkuyu nuclear power plant projects, with the Russian and Turkish leaders' meetings expected to give the projects their 'final momentum' toward being realized."

Commenting on the very public talk of warming relations, Mikhail Alexandrov, a senior expert at the Center for Military-Political Studies at the prestigious Moscow State Institute of International Relations, explained that "Erdogan's behavior is only logical."

"He is in a difficult situation. Western countries organized a coup attempt against him which, fortunately, ended up failing. Now Erdogan has factually become isolated. He needs to destroy the pro-Western fifth column in the country; hence the large-scale purges in the army and among the civil service. The West, naturally, will not tolerate this, and pressure on Erdogan is growingThe Turkish president understands that he must look for some other point of support. Turkey may be a strong regional power, but it will be very difficult for it to survive on its own in today's world."
The Swedish media seems to be constantly inventing myths about Russias hybrid warfare against their home country, according to Swedish tabloid Aftonbladet.

The Swedes have been deceived into believing that Russia is constantly invading their home country by sea and by air, and that Sweden is constantly used as a target in Russias nuclear drills.

The outlet cites as an example the May reports that it was Russia behind a number of consecutive acts of sabotage of the countrys radio masts and an IT failure of gigantic proportions which "grounded half of Sweden's air traffic and made it impossible to book rail tickets through the website of the countrys railroad system."
Krutikov underscores that for a long period of time Ankara has regarded Greece as Turkey's major rival, regardless of the fact that both Turkey and Greece are NATO member states.

Given this, it is hardly surprising that a major part of Turkey's military force is concentrated on the country's western border. Whatever happens in Syria and Turkey's Kurdish regions, the traditional balance of forces remains intact, according to the journalist.

Taking a walk down the memory lane, Krutikov insists that during the Cold War the Turkish army had not boasted any major military success except its invasion of the island country of Cyprus in 1974.

Still, the Turkish army defeated the Cyrpriots mostly because of numerical superiority, according to the journalist. In general, there were a lot of flaws in Turkey's military operation: for instance, a maritime battle near Paphos where the Turkish air force attacked its own navy.

Interestingly enough, the Turkish Army underwent significant changes in the 1990s under Tansu Ciller, Turkey's first and only prime minister to date.
Citing a source close to al-Nusra Front in northern Syria, the media outlet noted that the announcement followed the US-Russian negotiations on teaming up in Syria in order to defeat Daesh and the al-Qaeda's branch.

"The US-Russian decision to attack Nusra in the north of Syria had pushed the Front to accelerate the announcement of its separation from Al-Qaeda through the social media, in order to protect itself from any attack Had the Americans and Russians not announced their decision to hit the organization, the rupture would not have been announced," the source said as quoted by the media outlet.

On the same day the Middle East Eye revealed that al-Nusra Front would change its name to Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, citing sources within the terrorist organization.

Interestingly enough, the sources also added that al-Nusra Front would lose its access to al-Qaeda's funds. However, the claim has been immediately thrown into question by experts.

The media outlet cited Mohamed Okda, an expert who has been involved in negotiating with Syrian rebel groups. Okda pointed to the fact that al-Nusra Front is mostly funded by private Gulf donors. He also stressed that the separation is not ideological but "organizational."

"They might be severing relations with al-Qaeda as an organization. [But] they are not breaking up with the ideology of al-Qaeda," he underscored, adding that the re-branding is aimed at attracting groups like Ahrar ash-Sham under its wing.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  Moscow is strictly against any preconditions on resumption of intra-Syrian talks as well as any attempts to impose external recipes on Syrians for conflict resolution, the Russian Foreign Ministry said Wednesday following Russia-US-UN talks on Syria in Geneva.

Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov represented Russia at the talks, which were held on July 26-27.

"The Russian side stressed the importance of the expedient resumption of intra-Syrian talks without any preconditions," the ministry said in a statement.
PHILADELPHIA (Sputnik)  Hillary for America campaign spokesman James Rubin argued on Wednesday that the United States will never broker a peace agreement in Syria because it lacks leverage.

I do not believe we are going to get a peace agreement in Syria. We are going to keep having these talks in Geneva, Rubin told foreign reporters at the Democratic National Convention.

He added that the Russians have leverage in the negotiations, but the United States does not because we have played such a modest role politically and militarily.
On this episode of "By Any Means Necessary" host Eugene Puryear is joined by Jodi Jacobson, Editor-In Chief of Rewire.News talks about what a VP Tim Kaine would mean for America as well as the opening days of the DNC. Eugene is also joined by Professor George Ciccariello Maher to talked about the politics surrounding the DNC and the mocking tone the Democrats have taken towards those who dare explore a 3rd party option.

And later in the show Ash Anderson, Democratic Candidate for Utah State Senate, discusses what it is like to run for office in a red state and the importance of local politics for Progressive Change.
As the Democratic National Convention enters its third day today and supporters of Bernie Sanders continue to protest both in and outside of the convention, will his call be heeded or will Sanders voters turn to third party candidates?

Russia and China have criticized the decision by South Korea to deploy an advanced U.S. anti-missile defence system. Seoul has said the THAAD system (Terminal High Altitude Area Defence) is necessary to counter threats from North Korea, but will it only inflame regional tensions? Joining Becker to discuss THAAD is Michael Elleman, Consulting Senior Fellow for Missile Defence at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in Washington, D.C. and a former UN weapons inspector.

Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte is meeting Secretary of State John Kerry today. The meeting comes weeks after a UN Court ruled in favor of the Philippines against China in matters related to the South China Sea, but is Duterte looking to ease relations? Becker speaks with author Patrick Lawrence and activist David Ewing about whether or not the South China Sea dispute is cooling.
Nepal's Prime Minister  KP Sharma Oli  stepped down this week just hours before he was due to face a vote of no confidence  what next for Nepal, and does it signal a tightening grip from neighbouring India? Were joined by the Editor of Republica, Subhash Ghimire.

A new report from the think-tank New America has helped to shed light on the diversity of foreign fighters in Syria. We speak to Phil Girsky in Canada, a specialist in radicalisation and home-grown Al Quaeda.

We also talk with Jay Burgess, musician involved in the Calais Sessions, an album of songs recorded in the Calais refugee and migrant camp known as the 'jungle'.
The aircraft took off from Ulan-Ude, a city to the east of Lake Baikal, and was heading to the Russian city of Yakutsk. However, one of the planes landing gears had apparently malfunctioned and failed to retract after takeoff, so the crew decided to make a forced landing in Khabarovsk, RIA Novosti reports

The Khabarovsk airport administration also confirmed that an aircraft with a stuck landing gear made an unscheduled landing there.

"A foreign aircraft made a forced landing in Khabarovsk. All emergency ground services have arrived on site. The flight landed safely at 3 P.M. local time," airport officials said.
"The cooperation with China was initiated in Spring 2016, when a delegation from China attended a wine degustation in Massandra. Chinese experts selected a range of wines for supply to their country themselves," Pavlenko said.

"The first lot of 17,600 bottles was loaded in mid-July. It included dry wines; white Chardonnay, red Merlot and Cabernet, and semidry ones; Pearl of Massandra and Muscat Massandra. Transported by sea, they will appear on the shelves of Chinese stores in the middle of August, according to our calculations."

The winery works with its Chinese partners on the basis of 100% prepayment. "We have received money for the first batch of goods a long time ago. Payment for the second container which will be shipped to China next week, was made on account few days ago. The second shipment consists of 17,760 bottles of wine, including dessert and Muscat types, which are particularly famous among Massandra's varieties," stated the head of the winery.
De Margerie died on the night from October 20 to October 21, 2014, when his business jet crashed in Moscows Vnukovo airport. De Margerie was the only passenger on board the aircraft. Three French crew members also died in the crash.

The prosecutor's office has brought charges against snowplow driver Vladimir Martynenko, whose vehicle hit against the plane during takeoff,provoking the crash, as well as senior shift engineer Vladimir Ledenev and air traffic controllers Roman Dunaev, Aleksander Kruglov and Nadezhda Arkhipova.
Iran is in negotiations to join the ITER (International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor) project, a collaboration to build the world's largest tokamak, a device which uses magnetic fields to achieve controlled thermonuclear fusion, Iran's IRNA news agency reported on Saturday.

Head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran Ali Akbar Salehi said that six ITER researchers from the Cadarache research center in southern France, where the tokamak is under construction, recently visited Iran as part of preparations for Iranian experts to join the team.

Salehi said that the negotiations are a result of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) agreed upon by Iran and the P5+1 group of countries (China, France, Russia, United Kingdom, and the United States plus Germany) in July 2015.
The spacecraft has taken the pictures more than 1.1 million miles away from the planet at a 112 degree angle.

According to NASA, the images were captured in visible light with a narrow angle camera in June. The rings, described as A and F, appear to bend where they intersect with the planet's border. The atmosphere in space acts like a lens.

"In its upper regions, Saturn's atmosphere absorbs some of the light reflected by the rings as it passes through," according to NASA.
Sanders supporters have been frustrated over the release of DNC emails by Wikileaks that show the supposedly neutral organization had a bias toward Clinton.

Earlier on Tuesday, Clinton was officially nominated as the party's presidential nominee, making her the first female candidate of a major US political party.
WASHINGTON (Sputnik)  The US government lacks evidence as to the motives behind the leaking of 33,000 Democratic National Convention (DNC) emails to WikiLeaks, but is possible that Russia is responsible, President Barack Obama said in an interview.

"What the motives were to the leaks and all that, I cant say directly," Obama admitted in an interview with NBC News, extracts of which were broadcast on Tuesday evening. "I know that experts have attributed this to the Russians."

However, Obama did not specify whether the anonymous "experts" he cited were official US government analysts or private individuals.
WASHINGTON (Sputnik)  On July 22, the whistleblowing website WikiLeaks published nearly 20,000 emails from the DNC. The campaign of Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton said Russian hackers could be behind the leak to help Donald Trump in the race for presidency.

"American intelligence agencies have told the White House they now have high confidence that the Russian government was behind the theft of emails and documents from the Democratic National Committee," the New York Times newspaper reported citing the well-informed federal officials.

However, the intelligence agencies are uncertain on the motive behind the hack, they do not know if it was an ordinary act of spionage, which the United States conduct as well, or a conscious attempt to meddle with the US presidential elections.
PHILADELPHIA (Sputnik)  Former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said Tuesday that Republican nominee Donald Trump's presidency would be "a gift" for Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The truth is that a Trump victory in November would be a gift to Vladimir Putin and given what we have learned about Russia's recent actions [alleged Russian participation in DNC email hack], Putin is eager to see Trump win. And that should worry every American, Albright said while addressing the Democratic National Convention (DNC) in Philadelphia.

On July 22, the whistleblowing website WikiLeaks published nearly 20,000 emails from the DNC. The campaign of Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton said Russian hackers could be behind the leak to help US Republican nominee Donald Trump in the race for presidency. Trump mocked Clintons campaign for that accusation.


MOSCOW (Sputnik)Such prominent celebrities as writer and director Shonda Rhimes, actors Mark Ruffalo and Neil Patrick Harris, writer and director Lena Dunham, actresses Kerry Washington and Olivia Wilde vowed in a letter, shown to the Mic media outlet, to "use the power of [their] voice and the power of [their] vote to defeat Donald Trump and the hateful ideology he represents."

"When dangerous and divisive leaders have come to power in the past, it has been in part because those of goodwill failed to speak out for themselves or their fellow citizens.Some of us come from the groups Trump has attacked. Some of us don't. But as history has shown, it's often only a matter of time before the 'other' becomes me," the letter reads, as quoted by the media outlet.

The launch of the campaign comes as a New York Times-CBS News poll released on July 14 put Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and Trump in a dead heat, with 40 percent of the vote each. As Trump is gaining more ground, a new urgency to derail him is needed, the media outlet added.
The decision was announced at a pretrial motions hearing for Officer Garrett Miller. Officer William Porters retrial was set to start in September, and Sergeant Alicia White was to go on trial in October, the Baltimore Sun reported.

BREAKING: Prosecutors have dropped ALL charges against ALL remaining officers in #FreddieGray case.  Kevin Rector (@RectorSun) July 27, 2016

Freddie Gray was arrested by Baltimore police officers on April 12, 2015 and died one week later after suffering a spinal cord injury while in police custody.
Why exactly Clinton and the US government more generally take such an approach toward Venezuela is the subject of such speculation.

However Dr Francisco Dominguez of the Venezuela Solidarity Campaign told Sputnik that:

"After the election of Chavez in Venezuela and the election of the Brazilian workers party in 2002, the region, especially Venezuela, started distancing itself from the United States, setting up its own bodies, largely regionally integrated, and because of this the United States is losing influence. Venezuela has been a main proponent of this, which is why the United States has been attacking the country so much."

While Clinton has expressed friendship toward Venezuela in public, this trove of leaked emails suggests a different intention toward the Latin American nation, something which Dr Dominguez expresses reservations about:

"Because the US has to take into account the regional feelings of the people, it pretends that it likes or favors good relations, but it will never stop destabilizing Latin America, or Venezuela."

https://t.co/GG4fsKyL6Q Killary emails: She formed a network of cut-outs like Spain, Honduras, Salvador to subvert Chavez regime deniably  agitpapa (@agitpapa) July 27, 2016

Clinton also expressed concern at a United Nations decision to condemn the military coup in Honduras in 2009, which Clinton supported. In 2009, democratically elected Honduran President Manuel Zelaya was toppled by the military backed by opposition parties. Despite the fact that the US' traditional allies  like the EU  condemned the coup, Clinton has confessed that at the time, she wanted to see a new government replace the leftist Zelaya administration, and, "restore order."

It's 2 bad we don't have ppl of Haiti, Honduras & Libya telling their stories abt Hillary Clinton & her criminal role as SoS #DemsInPhilly  GAPeach (@PoliticsPeach) July 26, 2016

The Venezuelan government was among regional actors that condemned the coup and subsequent crackdown on leftist activity. At the time, Clinton pejoratively asked why the UN was so concerned with Honduras, and not Venezuela: "Ok  but have they ever condemned Venezuela for denying press freedom?" she wrote to an official.

One of the leaked emails also recommends not spending any USAID funds on well-known leftist states like Venezuela, Cuba, or Nicaragua because such funds could "undermine real democratic development."

It also says that "any funds channeled to unreliable states" alluding to Venezuela, "must be accompanied by "human behavioural changes."

DNC has been digging for evidence of USAID corruption on Trump while Clinton & State Dept have been withholding hers pic.twitter.com/OMtRyPmePM  Keith Warren (@screenslaver) June 30, 2016

The Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), the US government-run organization behind Voice of America and various pro-American international radio stations has also been revealed as asking Clinton to provide more funding in order to "combat the public diplomacy efforts of America's enemies." The chairman of the board, Walter Isaacson, explicitly identifies these states as "Iran, Venezuela, Russia, and China."

Subsequently, the BBG's annual budget has been increased to around US$750 million, and has called for ramping up of activities in the aforementioned countries. Clinton responded to this in an emailing by saying: "Let the fun begin."

Any government/media watchdog do an analysis of ideas pushed by our foreign-language propaganda machine? BBG has a $750,000,000 budget.  Yasha Levine (@yashalevine) June 17, 2016

Dr Dominguez believes that the United States' ultimate objective is to see the overthrow of the Venezuelan government, currently led by former Chavez aid Nicolas Maduro, who enjoys popular support.

"The American government has hit the private sector in particular food distribution, holding back food which forces people to que up. By forcing them to que up people become discontent, the result is that people become very unhappy, particularly the poor. The idea, I think, is to undermine the base of support that the Chavez-Maduro government enjoys, and if they're able to undermine them, they think they will create the conditions to overthrow the government which is what they did in Chile in 1973," Dr Dominguez told Sputnik.

Since the early 1970s, the United States government has pursued various subversive policies in Latin America, aimed at undermining the democratically elected, and usually leftist, governments of the region.

This began in 1973 with the military coup against Chilean Prime Minister Salvador Alande and the imposition of General Augusto Pinochet. In 2001 and 2002, the US government ramped up funding for the Venezuelan opposition groups in an effort to create a viable opposition to President Hugo Chavez.

Such policies continue to the present day, and if Hilary Clinton becomes President, they are likely to remain unabated.
WASHINGTON (Sputnik)  Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump is emboldening international espionage against his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton, Clinton Campaign Policy Director Jake Sullivan said in a statement on Wednesday.

"This has to be the first time that a major presidential candidate has actively encouraged a foreign power to conduct espionage against his potential opponent," Sullivan stated. "Thats not hyperbole, those are just the facts. This has gone from being a matter of curiosity, and a matter of politics, to a being a national security issue."

On Wednesday, The New York Times published an editorial stating that Trump had spoken admiringly of Russian President Vladimir Putin. The editorial noted that Trump's campaign chairman Paul Manafort had extensive connections in Russia and Ukraine. Moreover, the editorial reiterated speculations that Russia may be behind the recent Democratic National Convention email hack.
WASHINGTON (Sputnik)  Asked whether he would recognize Crimea as Russias territory and if he would consider lifting anti-Russian sanctions, Trump said, "We'll be looking at that. Yeah, we'll be looking."

Since 2014, the United States, the European Union and some of their allies have imposed several rounds of sanctions targeting key sectors of the Russian economy, as well as a number of individuals and entities, over Crimeas reunification with Russia and Moscow's alleged involvement in the conflict in eastern Ukraine.

Russia has repeatedly refuted the allegations, warning that the Western sanctions are counterproductive and undermine global stability. In response to the restrictive measures, Russia has imposed a food embargo on some products originating in countries that have targeted it with sanctions.
Loud & Clear Host Brian Becker noted that what made Sanders so attractive to progressive voters was his call for a "political revolution." Becker asked Hurwitz how Sanders supporters reacted when he encouraged them to support Clinton during his address to his delegates at the Democratic National Convention on Monday.

Hurwitz recalled the speech. "At the moment that he made his statement about us supporting the Hillary campaign," she said, "the way the mass media has been spinning it, is that Bernies own people were booing him, and I take strong issue with that. The people in that room were not booing Bernie Sanders, they were booing Hillary Clinton, they were expressing their discontent with the idea of having to support someone they dont support. That was less than a minute of his entire presentation to us, and those folks continue to strongly support him, continue to strongly be behind him and his message and his views."

Hurwitz detailed her experiences on the rules committee and challenged the notion that the presence of Sanders supporters on delegate committees was a compromise between the two Democratic camps.

"It was not a compromise for Bernie to have representation on the committees, she said. These committees were appointed based on votes that he got during the primary. So he had rights to that representation."
WASHINGTON (Sputnik)  Two new cases of Zika infection in the US state of Florida, in which victims had not travelled to Zika infected areas, are being investigated, the state Department of Health reported in a bulletin.

"The department is expanding its ongoing investigations with two additional possible non-travel related Zika virus cases in Miami-Dade and Broward counties," the bulletin stated on Wednesday.

The first suspected case of non-travel related Zika was reported last week, also in Florida.
"I don't think they've done the work to address that, nor have they thought about what is their risk tolerance," said GAO International Affairs and Trade Director Thomas Melito.

"Absent assessments of fraud risk, implementing partners may not have all the information needed to design appropriate controls to mitigate such risks," Melito asserted. "In addition, state and USAID officials may not have sufficient awareness of the risk of threat or loss due to theft."

Melito underscored that US humanitarian aid reaches only 4 million of some 13.5 million people in need. Any case of fraud, he said, "is literally taking food out of the mouths of babies."

The GAO said USAID and the State Department have agreed to its recommendations, but Melito said that more can be done.
PHILADELPHIA (Sputnik)  Supporters of Senator Bernie Sanders at the Democratic National Convention (DNC) this week are being showcased in a false portrayal of the party as both fair and honest, delegate Werner Lange told Sputnik.

"This was not a convention at all. This was a coronation," Lange said on Wednesday about the nomination of Hillary Clinton as the Democratic Partys presidential candidate. "Bernie delegates were just here as props to give the facade of democracy."

Lange explained that documents released by the whistleblowing website Wikileaks revealed that the Democratic Party elite have supported Hillary Clinton against Sanders throughout the campaign season.
UNITED NATIONS (Sputnik)  The UN Security Council (UNSC) on Tuesday adopted the resolution 2300 extending the mandate of United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP) by January 31, 2017, a RIA Novosti correspondent reported.

The UNSC hailed the progress reached by the rival sides at the ongoing reconciliation negotiations, as well as the undertaken settlement efforts.

The Cypriot government has agreed to prolong peacekeepers' presence on the divided island.
Military and civil intelligence services are always watching the major movements of these military groups. However at the same very time, it turns out that they have no information on terror attacks being prepared nor on any of the individuals who were preparing these attack for years," he adds.

Now it is Germanys turn, the expert says, as it was once the turn of France and Belgium.

The attacks in Germany will continue, he forecasts, and will be even more serious. It will continue throughout Western Europe, he suggests, and the countries of the Western Balkans wont be spared either.

In order to prevent future attacks, Dzevad Galiashevich says that the authorities first need to eliminate all the factors which could facilitate them.

The basic weakness is, he says, is the safety control system within the EU. The European countries, he says, have sacrificed their own security for the sake of common safety. The member states have reduced their concepts of national security to nothing.

The respective agencies lost any interest in exchanging information with those which are now pursuing other interests in politics and security, he says.

You cannot defend your country if your security services do not have strict and clearly-defined boundaries for their work, or if you legislation insufficiently specifies the problems, Galiashevich says.

A member state cant rely on NATO alone for its security and expect the alliance to provide for its defense, the expert says. Nor can a country rely only on the security services of its NATO partners, if they pursue different geopolitical interests.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  Iranian Deputy Minister of Roads and Urban Development Mohammad Saeed Izadi called on Wednesday for the expansion of cooperation with South Korea

According to the IRNA news agency, the announcement was made during Izadi's meeting with South Korean Vice Minister for Land, Infrastructure and Transport Kim Kyung-hwan. The two officials met on the sidelines of the third session of the Preparatory Committee for Habitat III on July 25-27 in the Indonesian city of Surabaya.

The officials reportedly called for enhancing cooperation in science, infrastructure and urban development spheres.
On July 17, an armed group took several police officers hostage at a police station in the Erebuni district of Yerevan, demanding the release of Jirair Sefilian, an opposition politician and founder of the New Armenia Public Salvation Front.

Sefilian, who took part in the 1988-1994 Nagorno-Karabakh conflict with Azerbaijan, is accused of the illegal acquisition and possession of arms.

On July 23, a member of armed group, which seized police station in Armenian capital Yerevan, Varuzhan Avetisyan said that his organization will not give up until their requirements are fulfilled.
ST. PETERSBURG (Sputnik)  Joint efforts of the entire global community are necessary to fight terrorism, while special services should enhance cooperation, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday.

"The central topic of the agenda is fight against international terrorism, which has grown to an unprecedented scale and, in fact, challenges the whole civilization. I'd like to stress that in order to effectively repel this threat, it is necessary to take decisive and coordinated steps by the global community, with special services and law enforcement playing the central role," Putin said in a welcoming speech addressed to a meeting of special services heads in Saint Petersburg, read out by Director of the Russian Federal Security Service Alexander Bortnikov.

The issue of insufficient control over the Internet should be tackled in order to effectively fight against international terrorist groups using it to their advantage, Russian Federal Security Service Director Alexander Bortnikov said Wednesday.


MOSCOW (Sputnik)Late last week, Aldo Carcaci, a lawmaker from the PP in the Chamber of Representatives, lower house of the Belgium parliament, announced that he had drafted a resolution calling on the Belgian government to remove the anti-Russian sanctions as they are damaging business. A discussion of the draft resolution may be organized in October, after the parliamentary recess, according to Carcaci.

"We are sure that individually, many MPs are favorable to the suppression of the sanctions but they follow their party rules on it And their parties or the government are not strongly against Russia but they follow the fray in the European Union and NATO Difficult to find courageous politicians anywhere in Europe," Luc Rivet said.

According to him, recent statements by some NATO member-countries about the possibility of a Russian attack coupled with the recent NATO military reinforcement in Poland and the Baltic states further complicated things.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  Australian Federal Police Commissioner Andrew Colvin spoke to Russian Interior Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev, asking for help in the investigation into money laundering cases involving Russian citizens.

Colvin spoke at a meeting of the heads of special and security services and law enforcement in the Russian city of Saint Petersburg.


MOSCOW (Sputnik)The draft resolution calling on the Belgium government to put an end to the anti-Russia sanctions has almost no chance of being taken into account by the federal authorities, but it could raise nation awareness of the issue, a spokesman for the Belgian Parti Populaire (People's Party), which proposed the bill, told Sputnik on Wednesday.

We know that there is nearly no chance that the government will accept one of our proposals, and will not deliver any diplomatic results either, but it adds to the general perception, that these sanctions are not good for anybody, Luc Rivet said.

Late last week, Aldo Carcaci, a lawmaker from the PP in the Chamber of Representatives, the lower house of the Belgium parliament, announced that he had drafted a resolution calling on the Belgian government to remove the anti-Russian sanctions as they damaging business. A discussion of the draft resolution may be organized in October after the parliamentary recess, according to Carcaci.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  The United Kingdom's assistance provided to Nigeria's northern regions affected by crisis situation caused by activities of the Boko Haram militant group are insufficient, UK media reported Wednesday.

Earlier in the day, the Department for International Development (DFID) published a program on its activities in the African nation. The report describes inequalities within the country, particularly between its northern and southern regions.

The DFID's activities also were not able to tackle unemployment rates in northern regions, that could also result in recruitment of unemployed people by Boko Haram, The Guardian reported.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  The United Kingdom sold over 3 billion pounds ($3.9 billion) worth of weapons to Saudi Arabia during the first year of the Saudi-led intervention in the Yemeni conflict, UK media reported Wednesday.

Contracts worth 2.2 billion pounds for the supply of various manned aircraft and drones to Saudi Arabia were signed by the UK government between April 2015 and March 2016, and a further 1.1 billion pounds worth of bombs, missiles and other explosives and 430,000 pounds worth of armored vehicles and tanks were supplied in the same period, the Independent newspaper reported.

Yemen has been engulfed in a military conflict between the Aden-based government with the Saudi-led coalition backing on one side and Houthi rebels allied with the General Peoples Congress (GPC) and army units loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh on the other, for over a year. The coalition has been accused by the United Nations and humanitarian organizations of indiscriminately bombing civilians and killing hundreds of children.


MOSCOW (Sputnik)The terrorist threat has spread and evolved in the last decade to become one of the major global threats to international peace and security, UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) Executive Director Yury Fedotov said Wednesday.

Fedotov participated in the 15th Meeting of Heads of Special Services, Security Agencies and Law Enforcement Agencies held earlier in the day in Russian city of St. Petersburg.

"The terrorism threat has evolved and expanded, becoming increasingly decentralized and diffuse. Terrorism is now more of a threat to international peace and security than ever. Challenges range from the use of information technologies to spread violent extremist ideologies, to the flow of foreign terrorist fighters across borders," Fedotov said, as quoted in a UNODC press release.
WASHINGTON (Sputnik)  The United States is processing 20 credibility assessments that allege civilian casualties by the US-led coalition airstrikes in Iraq and Syria, US Central Command (CENTCOM) Media Operations Officer Michael Meyer told Sputnik on Wednesday.

"There are 20 allegations pending credibility assessment," Meyer said. "This includes 13 credibility assessments in Iraq and seven in Syria."

A credibility assessment is a preliminary investigation undertaken by the US military to determine if there were civilian casualties and if the US forces caused them.
WASHINGTON (Sputnik)  The Daeshs ideology will keep spreading to other parts of the world, requiring continued US military intervention once the terrorist group is destroyed in Syria and Iraq, Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter told US soldiers at a briefing on Wednesday.

When the US-led military campaign ends in Syria and Iraq, there will not be many Daesh fighters left, Carter said. "But nevertheless, the ideology and some of the people will spread."

Carter explained the terror group ideologys metastasis is already occurring in Afghanistan, where fighters have relocated or rebranded themselves as Daesh fighters, and in a number of locations in Africa.
Grounded Mi-17-1V helicopters will also be overhauled upgraded with the latest avionics, as negotiations are underway between India and Kazan Helicopters.

Is a Secret Deal underway between India & Russia for 46 new MiG-29M Fighter Jets?https://t.co/V2hPvLouV6 pic.twitter.com/9qKoYkWo2i  Defence News (@defence_news) July 24, 2016

Apart from this, an agreement for the S-400 air defense missile system could be signed very soon.

#Russia, #India sign contract to supply most advanced missile defense system S-400  Indian senior official. pic.twitter.com/zCpyhsuiUI  Military Advisor (@miladvisor) April 27, 2016

All these developments have happened within the last fortnight. This could be a defining moment in India-Russia relations as these deals are worth than any other deal struck by India with western countries.

Recently, media reported that India was leaning towards the US for its defense requirements. However, facts indicate otherwise. In March of this year Indian Minister of Defense Manohar Parrikar said, "During the last three years, 67 defense contracts have been signed with vendors from foreign countries, out of which 18 contracts are from Russia, 17 from the US, 13 from Israel, 6 from France and 13 are with others."

"One of the few major contracts signed by India during the last two years is with Rosobornexport for the Smerch Rocket Launcher System. It may not be as big a contract as the ones for Apache and Chinook in terms of the financial value, but it is significant all the same. It only establishes that while Russia may not be the major exporter of arms to India any more, it continues to be a serious player in India's defense market," Amit Cowshish, former financial adviser to Ministry of Defense, said.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  Earlier in the day, Russian Minister of Communications and Mass Media Nikolai Nikiforov and Iranian Minister of Communication Mahmoud Vaezi met in Moscow and discussed a number of issues.

"Vaezi accepted a proposal of Nikolai Nikiforov about cooperation in the sphere of demonopolization of software and is ready to consider the issue to become one of the partners of the international company developing SailFish mobile operating system," the statement said.

According to the statement, Nikiforov said during the meeting that the devices using SailFish, which was developing by the specialists from the BRICS states were operative in India and Finland and would be presented in South Africa later in the year.
Saturday evening marks the highlight of the Hanover Raceway season as the half-mile oval plays host to the 15th annual Dream Of Glory Trot.

"Not only is the field outstanding, it is probably one of the toughest Dream of Glory finals to handicap, said General Manager Gord Dougan.

The field includes some local interests, and two trainers with finalists entered already have their names on the Dream Of Glory Trophy.

Peter and Curtis Clements of Dobbinton each have a horse in the final, and trainers John Bax and Keith Jones know what its like to win the final.

Local fans will be cheering for P C Foreign Affair who drew post 1 for Curtis and Amy Clements and P C Cantore who drew post 3 for father Peter Clements.

Jones won the first ever Dream Of Glory Trot with Abbey Road C who went on to win over $2 million in earnings. Jones has two horses in the final. Pukka drew post 5, while Chestnut Schofield has post 6.

Bax, meanwhile, is nationally known as a top trot producer and has won the Dream Of Glory title three times in the past. Bax will team up with 4-time Dream Of Glory winning driver Steve Byron on Very Classy who drew post 2.

The $67,500 Dream Of Glory Final isnt the only reason to come to Hanover Raceway Saturday evening. The track will also feature five divisions of three-year-old colt pacers competing in the Ontario Sires Stakes Grassroots program.

Five of the top 10 colts in the Grassroots are taking part including leader Continual Hanover in Race 8. The son of Bettors Delight is owned by Jack Darling of Cambridge, Ont. and won his last start at Mohawk in 1:52.

Other top Grassroots colts include Derecho, Perseverant, Spirit Shadow and Flaherty.

Dream Of Glory day includes a Beef BBQ, a live band and a huge fireworks presentation after the races. Track officials are expecting a crowd upwards of 4,000, including some off duty Hanover Fire Personnel, as well as members of the Hanover Curling Club and Hanover Police departments to help out. Post time is 6:15 p.m.

(With files from Hanover Raceway)

To view entries for Saturday's card of harness racing, click the following link: Saturday Entries  Hanover Raceway.
Chief Justice Roy Moore Files Reply to Dismiss JIC Charges

MONTGOMERY, Ala., July 27, 2016 / Standard Newswire / -- Today, Liberty Counsel has filed its reply in the Court of the Judiciary (COJ) to dismiss charges brought by the Judicial Inquiry Commission (JIC) against Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore. The hearing is scheduled for August 8. Liberty Counsel and Judicial Action Group represent Chief Justice Moore.

"The JIC has tried to write a story that does not exist," said Mat Staver, Founder and Chairman of Liberty Counsel. "The focus of the JIC charge is Chief Justice Moore's January 2016 Administrative Order. In the 3 page order, Chief Justice Moore plainly states, 'I am not at liberty to provide any guidance to Alabama probate judges on the effect of Obergefell on the existing orders of the Alabama Supreme Court. That issue remains before the entire Court which continues to deliberate on the matter.' Moore never ordered the probate judges to disregard the U.S. Supreme Court's marriage opinion, but that is the slanderous narrative of the JIC. The JIC has no case and never should have filed the baseless charge," said Staver.

"The Administrative Order of Chief Justice Moore expressly said he could not provide guidance to the probate judges because the matter was pending before the Alabama Supreme Court. The JIC apparently wanted the Chief Justice to openly disobey the Alabama Supreme Court and to take matters into his own hands. The JIC's position is astounding and clearly wrong. It is no wonder why the JIC has no jurisdiction to render legal decisions. When it veers into this forbidden realm, it makes no sense," said Staver.

"We have asked that these baseless charges be dismissed," Staver concluded.

Liberty Counsel is an international nonprofit, litigation, education, and policy organization dedicated to advancing religious freedom, the sanctity of life, and the family since 1989, by providing pro bono assistance and representation on these and related topics.
Contact: J.P. Duffy or Alice Chao, Family Research Council, 866-372-6397



WASHINGTON, July 27, 2016 /Standard Newswire/ -- The last charge against pro-life activist journalists David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt in Harris County, Texas was dismissed yesterday by Judge Brock Thomas. The felony charge was for allegedly using fake drivers' licenses to conceal their identities during their undercover investigation of Planned Parenthood.

Family Research Council president Tony Perkins released the following statement:

"Justice in Texas has again prevailed. I am thankful that Judge Brock Thomas, like his colleague Judge Diane Bull, was able to see through the baseless, politically-motivated charges against David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt. We celebrate today that these felony charges have been dismissed and that the Left's desperate attempts at legal sabotage against Daleiden for uncovering Planned Parenthood's fetal tissue harvesting have not succeeded.

"I again urge California Attorney General Kamala Harris to follow the lead of Judges Thomas and Bull and return Daleiden's undercover footage exposing the sale of baby body parts, which was illegally seized by California authorities in violation of Daleiden's constitutional rights. Attorney General Harris must stop using her office to violate Daleiden's constitutional rights and to hide the truth about the sale of baby body parts in California. She must stop putting the politics of abortion above the interests of mothers and their unborn children. It's time we get back to the real issue at hand: Planned Parenthood and the abortion industry's contempt for the law and their exploitation of women and their babies' body parts," Perkins concluded.
Says 384 Christians Killed, 111 Injured so far in 2016 alone



Contact: Dr. Ade Oyesile, Executive Director, Christian Association of Nigerian-Americans, CANAN, 516-819-4355, Ade.oyesile@cananusa.org, cananusa@gmail.com

NEW YORK, July 27, 2016 /Standard Newswire/ -- Members of Christian Association of Nigerian-Americans (CANAN) strongly condemn the horrible killings of Nigerian Christians by Muslims across the country.

Speaking through the Executive Director, Dr. Ade' Oyesile, said, "we are saddened by the rapid occurrences of these atrocious killings without a corresponding accountability being meted to the growing list of perpetrators." CANAN now calls on the federal government to go beyond mere expression of shock at the vicious killings and set in motion practical steps to stem this ugly spectacle of continuous massacre of Christians.

As at July 20, 2016, our records show that at least 384 Christians have been killed and 111 injured in various parts of the country. With just weeks past midyear, this figure compares in a scaring proportion to a total of 431 deaths and 301 injured Christians in the entire 2015.

These killings, we noticed, are carried out either by tit-for-tat attacks, arson on properties especially churches or the targeted systemic killings of Christians perpetuated by the Boko Haram terrorist religious sectarian group.

Our figures of Christians killed and maimed by Muslims corroborates with documentation by "The Religion of Peace," a magazine that chronicles attack on Christians. The magazine gives even more details of the vicious killings in 2016 alone as follows:

On January 27, at least16 Christians were killed and 32 injured when a suicide bomber sent a shrapnel at a vegetable market in Chibok a Christian town in Maiduguri.

On January 29, in Adamawa, 10 Christians were killed and 28 injured when a suicide bomber detonates a bomb at a busy market near a church. All the victims were Christians.

On February 14 in Abbi community in Uzo-Uwani, Enugu State, Fulani herdsmen killed 2 Christians when a brother and sister were hacked down in a Christian dominated community. 19 people were injured.

On February 24 in Agatu, Benue State, the nation witnessed the merciless killings of at least 300 Christians by radical Islamic mercenaries including pregnant women.

In Enugu on April 25, 48 Christians were killed and 60 injured also perpetuated by Fulani herdsmen.

On April 30 in Dadawa, an outskirt of Sabongari in Kano State, a man and his daughter were burnt alive in a church by Boo Haram.

At Ninte village, in Jemaa local government in Kaduna State on May 31, just a month after, 3 Christians were burnt to death in a Pastors' home as they slept.

In Kano on June 2, a Christian woman was beheaded by Islamic fundamentalist after a minor argument.

On June 30 at Obi town in Nasarawa State, a Pastor was killed by a militant Muslim.

The July 9 incident were a female Pastor was hacked to death in the FCT by Muslim radicals traumatized every right thinking individual.

This dastardly killings of Christians in the country MUST stop. It is most disappointing that these unprovoked killings of Christians have continued despite the federal government condemnation statements.

There is palpable anger in the land and it is anger without answers from the federal government has a direct responsibility to secure the lives of all citizens.

This is more so as we Christians do not preach gospel of retaliation, we preach peace and peace we are seeking now.

Whatever the federal government is doing, if any, is either too slow or insignificant compared with the reoccurrence of the killings; the federal government needs to step up and take bold actions to give members of the Christian community in the country a sense of security and belonging.

We MUST all work hard to avoid these sectarian killings which in our very eyes have made countries embroiled in it to become failed nations. That should not be our portion in Jesus Christ name.

Dr. Ade Oyesile

Executive Director

Christian Association of Nigerian-Americans, CANAN

Ade.oyesile@cananusa.org, cananusa@gmail.com
Damage to the Chamber Way overpass above Interstate 5 southbound is so severe that the Washington State Department of Transportation will be removing a portion of the bridge Tuesday evening, according to a press release from WSDOT.

Drivers should expect delays through the area during the demolition. Beginning 8 p.m. Tuesday, a single lane will be closed in both directions of I-5. By 10 p.m., all traffic will be directed to the off- and on-ramps until 6 a.m. Wednesday.

The demolition will occur during this nighttime closure.

A truck carrying two excavators damaged the overpass Friday after striking it, according to the press release.

WSDOT structural engineers inspected the bridge and determined that the girders supporting the bridge's deck above the southbound lanes are irreparable, according to the press release.

The damage does not pose a threat to drivers, but another strike from an oversized load could create a safety risk.

"The safety of the traveling public is our highest priority," said WSDOT Southwest Regional Administrator Kris Strickler. "Welre taking immediate action to remove the damaged span, so we can keep traffic moving on I-5."

According to the press release, WSDOT is considering several short- and long-term solutions to re-establish access across the interstate by way of Chamber Way, according to the press release.

Meanwhile, the City of Chehalis and WSDOT are working together to optimize travel in the area. Drivers traveling east or west can use Mellen Street to Airport Road, Northwest West Street and West Main Street.
Editors note: Today we start a two-part report on candidates for the 19th District Position 1 House seat. Today we profile challenger Teresa Purcell and incumbent J.D. Rossetti. Thursday we will profile challengers Val Tinney, Tim Sutinen and Jim Walsh.

If any of J.D. Rossettis four challengers win, it would be the first time in decades that anyone would win a 19th District legislative seat through an election. The 19th District is unique in the state for its long record of officeholders entering office through appointment to a vacancy created when someone else stepped down.

Rossetti, a Longview Democrat, was appointed to the 19th District seat in October to replace former state Rep. Dean Takko, another Longview Democrat who moved to the Senate when state Sen. Brian Hatfield took a position at the governors office.

The 19th District  which includes all of Pacific and Wahkiakum counties and parts of Cowlitz, Lewis and Grays Harbor counties  has long been dominated by Democrats, who have used the appointment process to hold a firm grip on the district. All current 19 District legislators  Rossetti, Takko and Rep. Brian Blake  got in their positions through appointment.

So does his years crowded field of challengers to Rossetti reflect a rebellion against this practice or is it the natural consequence of having a freshman in office?

Its quite common that when somebody is appointed that they have a lot of credible challengers, said Toby Nixon, president of the Washington Coalition for Open Government. Usually the best time to defeat an incumbent is the first time they face re-election, and thats true with appointees as well.

All four challengers  Teresa Purcell, Tim Sutinen, Val Tinney and Jim Walsh  said voters would like a choice.

Teresa Purcell

Teresa Purcell thinks Cowlitz County can do better.

The Democrat contesting Rossetti for his seat in the Legislature is the only candidate in the race that has opposed the Millenniums plant to locate a coal exporting facility in Longview.

Coal is not going to solve our problems, Purcell said in a League of Women Voters candidate forum earlier this month. We cannot bank our future on an industry that is going out of business.

She has expressed support for the proposed methanol refinery in Kalama.

Since Purcell announced her candidacy in April, she has raised $56,000  $10,000 more than Rossetti  according to the state Public Disclosure Commission.

She said her success in small contributions of more than $1,000 speaks to the relationships she has developed with constituents in the district. She has experience as a lobbyist and communications person in the Legislature. And she said her relationships across the state and in Seattle would help her be effective immediately as a state representative for her home district.

Purcell moved back to Longview years ago to buy her parents home, which is located on Lone Oak Road and now placed on the National Historic Register.

She said she has been deeply involved in the community and has been struck by the lack of optimism in the area.

She sits more on the left than the majority of Cowlitz County voters on some issues. On gun control, Purcell said she fully supports the states Initiative 1491, which would prevent high-risk individuals from accessing firearms. She said the initiative was common sense gun safety.

Purcell is also against requiring a two-thirds supermajority for any tax increases. She said shes opposed to a state income tax and, like Rossetti, said she wants to address tax loopholes that exist in the state. She is opposed to the Initiative 1464, which would end the sales tax exemption for Oregonians in Washington state.

Purcell said when she faces votes that that pose conflicts between her opinions and those of her constituents, she would vote her conscience and make sure voters know the reasons for her vote.

There are no surprises in that context, she said. They know who I am. They know what I stand for, and they are basically saying ... OK, this is the person I want to see in office.

J.D. Rossetti

J.D. Rossetti said he hit the ground running as soon as he was appointed in his position last fall. Thats when the county commissioners of all five counties that make up the 19th district gave him the nod over Long Beach hotel owner Tiffany Turner, whom party precinct officers had recommended. (Turner is backing Purcell.)

Rossetti opposes Initiative 1491 on gun control and Initiative 1464 on Oregonians tax exclusion. He also opposes the two-thirds supermajority vote and said those who support the change know its unconstitutional.

Its just a bunch of political hoopla, he said.

Rossetti does not support the state income tax. As a Longview School Board member, Rossetti said one of his first priorities is to fund basic education through tax levy reform after the Supreme Court McCleary Decision. He said he wants to change the inequitable system in taxes by pushing for a flat levy reform that would let rural schools reserve funding for education.

Ive been talking about this since Ive been on the school board, he said.

Rossetti has endorsed Northwest Innovation Works methanol plant in Kalama and received a $950 contribution from Millennium Bulk Terminals-Longview LLC. But he said the money doesnt buy his vote.

I have not made any commitments to Millennium before or after I received a donation, Rossetti said.

But Rossetti said he doesnt think the appointment process is the reason he has so many challengers. Rossetti said hes a part of the 19th District legislative team and works well side-by-side with Dean Takko and Brian Blake.

I think we have one of the most effective delegations within the Legislature, Rossetti said. We work off each others strengths, we help each other out ... We can rely on each other to understand those issues and help each each of us as were going through it.

Rossetti said his supporters are diverse and run throughout the district. He said he sees the bigger picture in the area.

My ability to relationship-build is not centered around the Kelso-Longview area. ... I think its really important that we look at the whole district in its entirety, he said. We need to be representing the diverse stakeholders. I think I have done that.
Tugboats freed a freighter that went aground on the Oregon side of the Columbia River early Wednesday morning, according to the Coast Guard.

The Panamanian-flagged, 600-foot bulk carrier Ancash Queen was refloated shortly after 9:30 a.m., seven hours after the ship went aground opposite Cottonwood Island, the Coast Guard reported.

Coast Guard Petty Officer 3rd Class Amanda Norcross said the master of the vessel believed the ship had a dragging anchor, let out the anchor chain to prevent the dragging and ran the vessel aground with 20 people on board. No injuries and no pollution were reported, Norcross said.
As informed in previous articles, Xiaomi is hosting a surprise event on 27th July in Beijing, in which it is going to launch its latest Redmi Pro Smartphone, which will come with a dual camera setup and several high-end features. However, the rumors are also saying that in this event, Xioami is also releasing a new highly advanced Notebook named as Xiaomi Mi Notebook and recently few pictures of this forward-looking Notebook have leaked online.

Though there is no official confirmation about whether Xiaomi is releasing its latest Mi Notebook on 27th July or not, the leaked reports are firmly pointing towards the strong possibility of launching Mi Notebook at the Wednesday event.

Mi Pen

In addition to the rumoured notebooks to be launched tomorrow, Xiaomi launched Mi Pen yesterday. The pen doesnt have any computing tricks up its nib and is a common ballpoint pen instead. It uses an ink jet system which was developed in collaboration with the Swiss PREMEC. PREMEC is a company specialised in modern formulation of inks. The Mi Pen is 9.5mm in diameter with a 0.5mm tungsten tip. The pen will go on sale at approximately Rs 200 in China as reported by HBlog.it.

Expected specs of Xiaomi Mi Notebook

According to Gizmo China, the leading tech-site of China has posted some pictures claiming as the photos of Xiaomi Mi Notebook. The leaked images are suggesting that the upcoming Notebook of Xiaomi will feature a full metallic body with ultra-thin bezels. The photos are also strongly suggesting that this cutting-edge gadget will sport an advanced USB Type-C for faster charging which seems to be a USB 3.0 port.

It is rumored that the upcoming Mi Notebook will be available in two different variants. The first one will be a Pro model sported with superior hardware like a GTX 970 graphics card, 16GB of RAM, Core i7 processor, 512GB of storage and a 4K high-resolution display and this will cost 6,699 yuan (around Rs 40000 in India Currency).

The second variant will be a standard Mi Notebook, which will feature 8 GB RAM, a Core i5 processor, and 256GB of storage and will be available with the price tag of 3,999 Yuan (Approximately 68,000 in Indian exchange).
The halo was thought to be still for many years now. In a new research, astronomers found that the hot gas in the halo of the Milky Way galaxy is spinning continuously in the same direction as the two spiral arms of the galaxies are spinning. Now for the first time, astronomers have measured the speed of the halo and found it is spinning too, at a dizzying speed. The spinning speed measured for the halo is 400,000 mph while for the disk is 540,000mph.

It was measured by observing shifts in wavelengths of light, researchers measured the shifts around the sky using very hot oxygen, which would have caused due motion. The study was conducted at University of Michigans College of Literature, Science and the Arts (LSA).

Halo is composed of ionized plasma and is several times larger than the disk of Milky Way.

It was assumed that Milky Way spins around the hot reservoir of hot gas whereas the reservoir is stationary. The rotation of Halo could provide an incredible clue of how Milky Way is formed. It tells us that this hot atmosphere is the original source of a lot of the matter in the disk said Mr Hodges Kluck.

According to scientists, 80 percent of the matter in the universe exist in the form of dark matter that can only be detected by gravitational pull for now, as almost all galaxies, including the Milky Way, seem to lack most of the matter that they otherwise would expect to find. Out of rest of the 20 percent matter, some was also disappearing and was found to be in halo. Now, that they have learned about its speed and direction, they can find out that how the matter went to the halo in the first place.

The new NASA funded research used data gathered by XMM-Newton, an Esa telescope, and was recently published in the Astrophysical Journal.
tech2 News Staff

Dell launched its new range of Inspiron 2-in-1 notebooks in India on Tuesday, 26th of July. The company had earlier unveiled these products at Computex 2016 in May which include the Inspiron 3000 and 5000 series with the 7000 series arriving at a later period.

The new Dell Inspiron 3000 2-in-1 series includes an 11-inch notebook while the Inspiron 5000 2-in-1 series includes a 13-inch and 15-inch model. With prices starting at Rs 32,690, both laptop series offer touchscreen displays and can be folded into tablet mode.

The Inspiron 5000 Series 2-in-1 laptops comes loaded with a bunch of features including high quality-sound, backlit keyboard, and infrared camera for Windows Hello facial recognition. The 13-inch and the 15-inch variants can be configured with up to 6th-gen Intel Core i7 processor, wide-angled full HD display, 8GB DDR4 RAM and offer up to 9 hours of battery life. The new Dell Inspiron 13 5000 series starts at Rs 49,490 while the Inspiron 15 has not got a price tag yet.

The Dell Inspiron 11 3000 is a more compact option that was announced which will come in a configuration of either a quad core Intel Pentium or latest 6th-gen Intel Core m3 processor. The laptop also features an 11.6-inch display with a 1366x768 resolution, 4GB of RAM and 500GB as standard storage options and a battery life of close to 8 hours. The Inspiron 11 3000 will come in Bali Blue and Tango Red colour variants with pricing starting at Rs 32,690.

Alen Jose, Product Marketing Director, Consumer and Small Business, Dell India said, "The dynamics of computing in today's world is changing rapidly with users being more informed and selective about devices that cater to both professional and personal needs. The 2-in-1 form factor has been the winning choice, indicating that users desire a single device for all their computing requirements, be it content creation or consumption. The all new Inspiron 3000 & 5000 2-in-1 devices are available with a wide range of processor options and configurable features, enabling students, families and users looking for great value to connect, learn and achieve more."
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A driver killed on May 7 in a crash in a Tesla using the car's Autopilot software was speeding, the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board said on Tuesday in its preliminary findings. The preliminary report said the Model S was traveling at 74 miles per hour in a 65 mph zone at the time it struck a semi-truck hauling blueberries near Williston, Florida.

The report said the NTSB confirmed the Model S driver was using the advanced driver assistance features Traffic-Aware Cruise Control and Autosteer lane-keeping assistance at the time. The NTSB has not yet determined the probable cause for the crash. This was right after the U.S. highway safety regulators demanded that Tesla Motors Inc hand over detailed information about the design, operation and testing of its Autopilot technology following the crash.

NHTSA, investigating the accident that has increased scrutiny of automated driving technology, also wants to know what Tesla investigators have learned about the crash. The agencys nine-page letter dated July 8 was made public three weeks back. It required the Palo Alto-based automaker to file responses in the coming weeks. Earlier during the investigation, investigators found a laptop in the car.

Reuters
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Tesla Motors Inc's next strategic turn could cost the electric car maker "tens of billions" of dollars over the long term, but will likely require only a "modest" capital raise, Chief Executive Elon Musk said on Tuesday. Musk's comments during a media open house at Tesla's sprawling, battery "gigafactory" outside Reno, Nevada, come at a time when the automaker is losing money and dealing with investigations into a crash that killed a driver using its Autopilot driving-assist software.

Musk seemed unwilling to let such speed bumps slow him down. Last week he unveiled an ambitious plan to expand the company into electric trucks and buses, as well as car sharing. On Tuesday, Musk said because the plan will roll out over a number of years, it could be mostly funded from sales of vehicles, particularly the Model 3 sedan due to launch in 2017.

While some analysts have questioned how profitable the Model 3 will be, Musk on Tuesday said he expects the car to generate $20 billion in revenue per year and $5 billion in gross profit once it is up to full production of about 500,000 vehicles a year. "It's possible to fund quite a bit with that," Musk said, adding that not all the proposed new vehicles will happen simultaneously.

Musk said Tesla has finished engineering the Model 3 and he is confident it can launch production next summer. On Tuesday, Musk turned his attention to the $5 billion battery plant being developed with Japan's Panasonic Corp. Musk said the factory could ultimately support 1.5 million electric vehicles a year and he was confident the partners could eventually lower battery costs to $100 per kilowatt-hour by 2020.

Rival General Motors Co has said it expects to achieve battery costs of $145 per kilowatt hour with the LG Chem batteries used in its $35,000 Chevrolet Bolt. That vehicle is due to launch later this year, nearly a year ahead of Teslas similarly priced Model 3. Tesla will release its second quarter results Aug. 3. The company said earlier this month that its deliveries for the quarter fell short of its forecasts. Analysts will be looking for signs that the company is containing its costs and slowing its cash burn.

Tesla took another hit June 30 when U.S. highway safety regulators disclosed they were investigating the fatal May 7 crash involving Tesla's Autopilot system, which takes partial control of steering and braking. Musk on Tuesday again defended the technology, describing Autopilot as "unequivocally" a good thing. He said Tesla took a number of steps to "reduce complacency" among Autopilot users. Earlier in the day, the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board said the Tesla involved in the fatal crash was exceeding the 65-mile-per-hour speed limit.

Musk's broad new strategy for Tesla outlined last week also calls for combining with solar energy company SolarCity Corp, ramping production of Tesla vehicles to 500,000 a year by 2018 from 80,000 vehicles projected for this year, and expanding Tesla's vehicle product lineup to include pickup and semi trucks. Tesla is also gearing up for a substantial overhaul of its vehicle assembly plant in Fremont, California. Model S sedans and Model X sport utilities are currently built using two separate lines of welding robots. Tesla said earlier in July production, which also fell short of targets in the second quarter, is now averaging about 2,000 vehicles a week.

That's still about half the rate of a conventional auto assembly plant. During a tour on Monday, cars went past welding robots on carriers, with one empty carrier between each vehicle. Soon, company officials say, the current models will be built using one line of welding robots, so the other line can be reconfigured to build the Model 3. A new paint shop installed in the plant will be capable of processing 10,000 cars a week. Assembly of the powertrains for Tesla cars will be moved to the Reno gigafactory, Tesla officials said.

Reuters
Nimish Sawant

Xiaomi has just announced the much rumoured laptop that it was expected to launch since end of 2014. With the Mi Notebook Air, Xiaomi has entered the PC segment with two new laptops. With the naming convention used, it is no doubt as to where the inspiration comes from.

For all practical purposes, Xiaomi has given consumers an affordable Windows-based alternative to the Apple Macbook Air. The two variants of the Mi Notebook Air - with 13.3-inch and 12.5-inch Full HD displays - come in a metal body with the silver coloured one looking quite like a MacBook Air without the Apple logo, when seen from the front. The absence of any Xiaomi branding on the front flap could be due to the fact that the laptops are actually made by a Xiaomi subsidiary called Tian Mi. Both laptops run Windows 10 and weight less than 1.5 kg. One look at the slides shown during the launch will tell you that every comparison was made with the Apple MacBook Air: 13 percent thinner at 14.8mm; ultra thin bezel; 11 percent smaller body than a 13.3-inch MacBook Air and so on.

The 12.5-inch model with Intel Core M3 along with 4GB RAM and 128GB SSD storage costs RMB 3599 (approx Rs 36,200). The higher end 13.3-inch Mi Notebook Air comes with Intel Core i5-6200U processor, discrete Nvidia GeForce 940MX graphics solution, 8GB RAM and 256GB SSD storage is priced at RMB 4999 (approx Rs 50,200).

Looking purely at the price point on offer for the specifications on board, it seems to be a good deal. The build quality seems good from the photographs we have seen and the chiclet keyboard with backlit keys, slim form factor and light weight are definite incentives. Xiaomi is known for the aggressive pricing of its products and they have continued that approach in this new segment as well. But user experience is an altogether different matter and that can only be commented on, after actually using the product. Not to forget, Windows 10 is notorious for random bugs which can really ruin the experience at times.

So far, so good. But at a time when PC shipments are on the decline and laptop shipments are will see some fall over the years, as can be seen from the chart above, it is a bit surprising to see Xiaomi enter this new space. The laptop space already has a lot of incumbents, and the only new thing Xiaomi brings to the table is the economical price point.

Metal body laptops which are this thin and light, cost a pretty penny. Xiaomi would definitely have its eyes on prospective buyers looking at this category, but cannot afford the premium that is associated with it. In the 13.3-inch segment there are products such as the MacBook Air which is around Rs 65,000; Dell XPS 13 which is upwards of Rs 75,000 and HP Envy 13 which is again close to Rs 65,000. Xiaomis Mi Notebook Air at RMB 4999 (approx Rs 50,200) offers a better alternative to the other two Windows laptops.

With smartphones, Xiaomi really started the trend of getting affordable phones with great specs. If it is able to do that for the laptop segment, then that would be a feather in its cap. But one must keep in mind that players such as Dell, HP, Lenovo and others have been in operations for years and offer a much wider product portfolio. With just two laptop variants in its arsenal, Xiaomi certainly cant compete with the big boys in terms of market share.

Secondly, markets such as China or India where Xiaomi would expect to sell most of these laptops, also pose a hindrance. There is an increasing propensity for people in these parts, to bypass the PC/laptop altogether to go mobile first. According to IDC Research analyst Bryan Ma, Chinese notebook market will see a decline by 10.4 percent in 2016 as compared to a 9.3 percent decline worldwide.

Thirdly, Xiaomi has been trying to get into a lot of new product segments in its effort to create a Mi ecosystem of products. This year itself, Xiaomi launched the Mi Max, which is a 6.44-inch phablet which Xiaomi insists on calling a smartphone. Then there was the Mi Drone which was launched at RMB 2999 (approx Rs 30,200) with a 4K video camera and at RMB 2499 (approx Rs 25,200) for the Full HD camera. And now the two laptops.

It is really difficult to gauge whether Xiaomi intends to be in these segments for the long run, or it is just a means to pacify the investors, after it could not meet its sales and revenue targets for 2015. We had observed in the past how Xiaomi adopting the offline sales model now was a sign of its desperation to grab some lost marketshare. The Mi Notebook Air seems to be a really bold move to create a market share in a category that is on a steady decline.

Bottomline is, hardware sales numbers can just get you so far. And whats to stop other Chinese players or even the incumbents from launching their own laptop brands to cut Xiaomi on the pricing front - just like they did with the smartphones. The Mi Notebook Air will run on Windows 10 and apart from the Mi Sync and the ability to unlock the Mi Notebook Air with the Mi Band, there isnt much of a Xiaomi touch on the product. So unlike say the MIUI, there isn't much of the software or services play here. Maybe Mi Cloud can be a point of revenue with its cloud storage feature, but that's about it so far. Xiaomi says it wants to bridge the gap between performance and portability and make it easier for young adults to buy an affordable PC which can be used for productivity. All said and done, it is still an uphill task to really make an impact in the laptop segment, as Xiaomi did with the smartphones.
tech2 News Staff

Xiaomi has launched the much rumoured Redmi Pro at an event in China today. The metal clad Redmi Pro will come in three variants with different storage and chipsets. The base model priced at RMB 1499 (approx Rs 15,200) will have the Helio X20 chipset with 3GB RAM and 32GB storage. Then there is the mid-tier model priced at RMB 1699 (approx Rs 17,200) which will have Helio X25 chipset with 3GB RAM and 64GB storage. Finally the flagship model will be priced at RMB 1999 (approx Rs 20,200) will come with Helio X25 chipset with 4GB RAM and 128GB storage.

The Xiaomi Redmi Pro is expected to come in gold, silver and dark grey variants. It comes with a metallic build and has a USB Type C port at its base. The USP of the Redmi Pro is the presence of the dual rear camera setup. There is a 13MP Sony IMX258 sensor (to capture image data) which will work with the 5MP Samsung sensor (to capture depth data). There is a flash module placed between the two cameras. There is also a 5MP front-facing camera. Xiaomi is targetting this smartphone at photography enthusiasts.

On the inside, you get the deca-core processors with the Helio X20 and Helio X25 chipsets which are paired with Mali T880 GPUs. There will also be a fingerprint sensor on the home button, a 5.5-inch OLED display with 2.5D curved glass. It will come with a hybrid dual SIM configuration.

The phones will come with a 4050mAh battery capacity. Redmi Pro will launch in China on 6 August, and hopefully arrive in India soon. However, there is no official date for the India launch yet.
British Council in BD temporarily closed

The British Council has temporarily closed its offices in Bangladesh in order to review its security procedures. The British Council made the announcement on Wednesday in a press release. The organisation hopes to reopen its offices and resume normal services to the public once new security measures are in place, the release added. Barbara Wickham, Director of British Council Bangladesh said, We recognise that people in Bangladesh are increasingly concerned about safety and security in public places. The safety and security of our staff and customers are always our top priority. Therefore, weve taken the decision to temporarily close our offices in order to review our security practices. During this temporary closure, she said, their Customer Services will be responding to queries through email ([email protected]). The British Council is the UKs international organisation for cultural relations and educational opportunities, and it works in four key thematic areas -- the Arts, English, Education and Society. The organisation has been working in Dhaka since 1951. It offers a wide range of services and activities across the country, through its offices in Dhaka, Chittagong and Sylhet. -- Dhaka, July 27 (UNB)
Myanmar rebels hold rare meet as Suu Kyi yearns for peace

Leaders of the Arakan Army gather with other rebel leaders and representatives of various Myanmar ethnic rebel groups at the opening of a four-day conference in Mai Ja Yang near the Chinese border.

AFP, Mai Ja Yang :

Leaders of Myanmar rebel armies held talks in a war-hit border town Wednesday, state media reported, as they prepare for a major peace conference with a government desperate to end insurgencies that have plagued the country.

Myanmar has been racked for half a century by ethnic rebel wars in its resource-rich frontier states, leaving tens of thousands dead or displaced.

Some groups have signed ceasefires but several other rebel armies are still fighting the nation's army -- including in the northern state of Kachin, where Wednesday's talks were held.

Aung San Suu Kyi, the democracy activist leading the country's first civilian government, says ending the fighting is essential if Myanmar is to rise from the ashes of junta rule.

She wants to restart full peace talks within weeks.

This week's summit, held in a Kachin town ravaged by years of warfare, brought together "leaders representing 17 ethnic armed groups to search for common ground in working toward a federal system for the country", state-run Global New Light of Myanmar reported Wednesday.

The negotiators, many sporting traditional clothing, gathered in a hall in Mai Ja Yang, a town ringed by displacement camps on the border with China, which also sent an envoy to the talks.

Peace is hard to secure.

Distrust in the still-powerful military runs deep and the rebel groups themselves are divided -- with four pulling out of the Mai Ja Yang talks at the last minute.

The conflicts are complex and fuelled in part by the illegal trade in drugs, timber and jade, much of which is funnelled across the border to China. Rebels use the proceeds to buy guns.

The former military-backed government launched a peace dialogue but failed to secure a nationwide ceasefire with all groups.
Walton Plaza Home and Electrical Appliances Conference-2016 held

Strategic plan to expand market share emphasized

Economic Reporter :

With an aim to grab lion portion of the promising local electronic market, Walton Plaza Home and Electrical Appliances Distributor Conference-2016 held at Walton Micro-Tech Corporation premises at Chandra in Gazipur on Tuesday, according to a press release.

Walton Group Chairman SM Nurul Alam Rezvi inaugurated the day-long conference as the chief guest while the group's Managing Director SM Shamsul Alam, Walton Hi-Tech Industries Limited's (WHIL) Managing Director SM Ashraful Alam, Walton Group Director Tahmina Afrose Tanna, Executive Director and Chief Coordinator of Marketing Department Eva Rezwana, Senior Operative Director and WHIL's HRM, PR and Admin Head Lt. Col. (Retd.) Abdul Kader, Walton Micro-Tech Corporation's HRM and Admin Head Col. (Retd.) Shahadat Alam, Media Adviser Enayet Ferdous, among others, were present.

During the day-long conference, the participants formulated some strategic planning to grab significant share of the local home and electrical appliances market. The company officials informed that Walton is now manufacturing nine sorts of home and electrical appliances. Some other appliances would be added to the manufacturing process in near future. To capture lion portion of this promising sector, Walton has to take massive preparations right now, the participants said.

Thus, all respective bodies were urged to formulate strategic marketing planning by using their creative minds and experiences. In addition, the participants were also stressed on ensuring swift and world-class post sales services for the end users of Walton home and electrical appliances.

At the conference, the officials also informed that they are manufacturing world-class home and electrical appliances like blender, induction cooker, gas stove, table and ceiling fan, LED light, panel light, sealed lead acid rechargeable battery, switch-socket and remote control fan regulator. These products of Walton brand have gained popularity among the customers within a very short time.

They said, a team of very meritorious, skilled and experienced engineers are conductive massive product research and development activities to introduce new models of highest standard products. There such efforts are resulted in helping Walton in not only marketing huge number of products but also witnessing substantial increase of sales.

They also said, Walton made huge investment for installing state-of-the art technologies and machineries of Germany, Japan, Taiwan and other developed countries to produce international standard home and electrical appliances in Bangladesh. The company also build up a strong research and development centre with highly educated, intelligent and skilled technicians and engineers, who are continuously conductive massive research activities to produce 'Made in Bangladesh' labeled import substitute technology products in Bangladesh. The standard of International Electrotechnical Commission is followed during the manufacturing process of Walton brand's home and electrical appliances.




Floods destroy crops on 10,000 hectares: DAE

Economic Reporter :

The ongoing floods for the last one and half months in the eight north and northwestern districts damaged standing crops on 10,000 hectares of land .

Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) told The New Nation that as per the primary crop damage report the severe floods, caused by seasonal rainfall along with onrush of water from upstream, have submerged Aus paddy, Jute, Aman seedbed, bona Aman, transplanted Aman (T-Aman) and different vegetables on exactly 10691 hectares out of 1,46,914 hectares of land in the areas.

According to the report, flood water inundated Aus paddy on 2546 hectares of land out of 26,428 hectares, jute crops on 1600 hectares out of 21,013 hectares, Aman seedbed on 2038 hectares out of 24,899 hectares, Bona-Aman on 504 hectares, Transplant Aman or T-Aman on 3403 hectares out of 62,930 hectares of land and vegetables on 601 hectares of land out of 10,774 hectares of land have inundated due to the flood water.

The government has already taken up extensive multilevel plans of cultivation of late variety crops of the offset the damage.

"We have taken multi-level plans like preparation of the seed bed for late variety crops and cultivation of early robi crops to offset farmers crop loss caused by the flood", said Prodith Kumar Mondol, Director General (DG) of the DAE.

Besides, all the agriculture training institutions across the country have been asked to prepare seed on the late variety of summer crops and the early robi crops with a move to help the farmers suffering from crop loss at the flood affected areas, said top agriculture official.

In Kurigram, standing crops on 2326 hectares out of 27,909 hectares of land under nine upazilas of the district have been inundated. Crops on 491 hectares out of 16739 hectares of land already inundated due to floods in Gaibandha.

In Lalmonirhat, vegetables, Aman seedbed and T-Aman on 970 hectares of land submerged. Crops on 285 hectares land in Nilphamari, 125 hectares in Rangpur, 3530 hectares in Bogra, 686 hectares in Sunmaganj and 2278 hectares land in Sylhet have been inundated during the flood.

A final crop damage assessment will be prepared within 7 to 10 days after the flood water recession, said agriculture secretary Mohammad Mainuddin Abdullah, adding that it is a regular phenomenon and we have adequate preparation to face the crop loss of the farmers.

The worst flood affected districts are Kurigram, Bogra, Lalmonirhat and Sylhet.




Govt to be tough against hazardous child labour

Economic Reporter :

State Minister for Labour and Employment M Mujibul Huq on Wednesday said the government is set to take tough measures to eliminate hazardous child labour.

"Legal actions will be taken against the factory owners who will employ children in hazardous jobs," he said speaking as special guest on the second day of the conference of the deputy commissioners (DC) at the cabinet division at Bangladesh Secretariat, said an official release.

The state minister sought cooperation of the DCs to eliminate child labour.

He said employing any child bellow 18 years in hazardous jobs is punishable as per the law.

The government identified 36 jobs as hazardous in 2013, he said, adding that children above 14 years could be employed in jobs which are not hazardous.

The state minister urged the DCs to work as a bridge between the owners and workers to increase production in factories, particularly improving working environment in the garments industries.

He said initiatives have been taken to set up three more labour courts in Sylhet, Barisal and Rangpur in addition to existing seven courts and one appellate tribunal in the country.

The government has Sramik Kalyan Fund for the welfare of workers employed in the formal and informal sectors, he said and added that another central welfare fund has been formed for the workers employed in export-oriented garments industries.

Earlier, Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid spoke in the first session of the DC conference.

Presided over by Cabinet Secretary Mohammad Shafiul Alam, the conference was attended by secretaries of different ministries.




Cooking Show at DIU

Campus Report :

To encourage, motivate and share the practical knowledge on hospitality industry of Bangladesh, Department of Tourism and Hospitality Management of Daffodil International University (DIU) organized a seminar on "Culinary Arts and Live Cooking Show" at DIU Auditorium on Saturday.

Tony Khan, international celebrity chef and President, Tony Khan Culinary Institute and Hotel Management was present as the chief guest at the seminar. Presided over by Prof Dr Rafiqul Islam, Dean, Faculty of Business and Economics of DIU, the seminar was also addressed by Hamidul Haque Khan, Acting Vice Chancellor, Prof Engr AKM Fazlul Hoque, PhD, Registrar, Mahbub Parvez, Associate Professor and Head, Department of Tourism and Hospitality Management, Nazrul Islam Chowdhury, Manager-HR, Administration and PR and Mahbub Amin Nahiyan, Head of Marketing of Tony Khan Culinary Institute and of Hotel Management.

Tony Khan who is one of the renowned chefs of the world and has vast experience in the field of culinary industry shared his professional experience and practical knowledge of long time career in this sector and discussed the future career of this industry. He urged the students to gain proper knowledge, develop skills and change the attitude to become a professional chef. He said, the hospitality industry offers a wide variety of jobs surprisingly across a broad range of sectors, from hotels, restaurants and events to finance and luxury retail.

At this moment, around 40,000-employment opportunity prevails in this sector in Bangladesh, he added.


4-kid murder Confiscation of 3 accuseds assets ordered

UNB, Habiganj :

A court here on Monday ordered the authorities concerned to confiscate the assets of three fugitive accused in a case over the killing of four children at Sundratiki village in Bahubal upazila of the district.Habiganj Additional District and Sessions Judge Mafroza Parveen passed the order and fixed August 7 for next hearing. The three fugitive accused are Ustar Mia, Belal Mia and Babul Mia. The court also rejected the bail petitions of four accused-Abdul Ali Bagal, his sons Rubel Mia and Jewel Mia and Habibur Rahman Arju-when their lawyers filed separate petitions for their bail.

Besides, the court also asked the authorities of Bangladesh Road Transport Authority to immediately submit the report on identifying the owners of the two CNG-run auto-rickshaws seized after the killing incident. Earlier, on June 28, a Habiganj tribunal accepted a charge sheet against eight people in connection with the killing of the four children in Bahubal upazila of the district.

On May 25, the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) pressed charges against eight people in connection with the killing. Four schoolboys who had gone missing from Sundrateki village in Bahubal upazila on February 12 were found buried at the village on February 17.

Informed by locals, police recovered the bodies of Zakaria Ahmed Shuvo, 8, son of Wahid Miah, his two cousins-Tajel Miah, 10, son of Abdul Aziz, Monir Miah, 7, son of Abdal Miah-and Ismail Hossain, 10, son of Abdul Quadir.




Security, supervision committee meet held at IIUC

Dr. AKM Azharul Islam, VC, Islamic International University of Chittagong addressing a meeting at the Conference Room of the University on creating awareness about militancy yesterday.

Chittagong Bureau :

Vice Chancellor of Islamic International University Chittagong Dr. AKM Azharul Islam said that we must be follow the instruction of Education Ministerr and UGC over the security in the wake of recent militant attacks in the country.

A meeting was held yesterday at the Conference room of the University on the issue of militancy Prevent and awareness programmed and security and supervision Committee. Vice chancellor of the University was present as Chief guest and added that after the militant attack, members of IIUC teachers ,students and guardians become more conscious. We are providing quality higher education to build good human beings and always against and terrorism.

Pro Vice Chancellor (Current Charge) Prof. Dr. Mohammed Delwar Hossain presided over the meeting.

Dean of Arts and Humanities Department Prof. Dr. Abu Baker Rafique , Dean of Shariah faculty Prof. Dr. Giasuddin Hafiz,Dean of Business Studies department Professor Dr. Forid Ahmed Sobhani, Proctor of the university prof. Dr. shofiuddin Madani, Head of Law Department of IIUC Saidul Islam, Director Students affairs division AZM Obedullah, Provost of Hall AFM Nuruzzaman, Asst. Proctor Zahed Hossain Bhuiyan, Additional Director of Staff Development and Students Welfare Division Mohammed Mahfuzur Rahman was also present in the meeting.

It is mentionable that as per Govt. decision against the militant activities throughout the country a 32 members " security and supervision committee"was formed headed by Pro-Vice Chancellor and all the deans, departmental heads, proctor ,Registrar, Directors of the Divisions, students repsentatives were included in this committee.

The Vice Chancellor also said that a Muslim never can carry out terror attak and he urged the teachers and students to incrise their survillance to prevent the militant activities or getting involvement in such activities . He also urged to work for the welfare of the Country and the goodwill of this University as free of Session Jum,terrorism Free Campus and Sought cooperation from all. A humane chain,discussion meeting will be held on 1st august at the permanent campus at Kumira for the remembrance of Gulshan tragedy and Solakia attack said a press release.




Russian credit irks manifold questions



NEWS report said that Bangladesh signed a deal with Russia for the construction of Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant. For this purpose, Russia would lend $11.38 billion as supplier's credit in installments staggered over eight years beginning January 2017. It is the biggest single credit deal Bangladesh ever signed with any lender based on political consideration. Stakeholders however describe it as a milestone on the way to implementation of the first nuclear power station of Bangladesh, covering up abysmal power shortage that the country has been facing. But how Bangladesh will benefit from the big financial deal with Russia is a big question.

Bangladesh is going to be the middle income country with achieving its full-length developing country's character, which will increase the steadily demand for clean energy further. In this context, continuous electricity supply will be a challenge for Bangladesh if it cannot reach the sustainable electricity and energy security. Amidst this scenario the issuance of site license by Bangladesh Atomic Energy Regulatory Authority (BAERA) to Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant Project to start the main construction work is indeed a step in the right direction. But it raises question as to how much sensible the power plant and the deal with Russia for the construction of this power plant following the current context of Bangladesh. It may produce significant bucketful of radioactive wastes. Some studies also establish that the fear of nuclear energy from the health and environment perspectives is right.

Besides, the apprehension of environmental organizations such as the Greenpeace, about fear of radiation makes more sense that may affect the population. It is upsetting that all experts will be taken from Russia and India to construct the power plant as some report said. Now, it raises another question how Bangladesh will be the part to construct the power plant. However, given the history of Chernobyl Nuclear Plant melt-down in Ukraine and its devastating effects from which the country has yet to come out, we should be extremely careful while installing such nuclear plants. We simply cannot afford to face another Chernobyl disaster here.

Report said that under the terms of the agreement, Russia would provide the credit in installments over eight years beginning January 2017. To be repaid in 30 years with 10 years' grace period, the credit would carry 1.75 per cent interest plus LIBOR, abbreviation of London Interbank Offered Rate. The credit would be highly burdensome for Bangladesh. In this situation, we suggest to review the deal whether Bangladesh needs so much credit in the first place to buy machinery from Russia. It must particularly realize whether the big nuclear plant would be environmentally sustainable, economically affordable and technically manageable. In our view, the government should realize the harms of this plant. Outsiders' interest articulation may not be our goal.






7 slain militants identified

Arka, an American citizen and student of NSU, Jubayer of Noakhali College, Sabbirul of IIU in Ctg and son of AL leader: All received bullets in the backside: Autopsy report

Staff Reporter :Out of nine militants who were killed during Tuesday's joint forces raid in the city's Kalyanpur area, identities of seven were uncovered by the Dhaka Metropolitan Police [DMP] on Wednesday. They are: Md Jubayer Hossain, 20, son of Abdul Qayum, resident of Sudharam in Noakhali; Shahzad Rouf Morokko alias Arko, 24, son of Tawhid Rouf, resident of Bashundhara R/A in Dhaka; Abudllah, 23, son of Md Sohrab Ali of Nababganj upazila in Dinajpur; Abu Hakim Nayeem, 33, son of Md Nurul Islam, resident of Kalapara in Patuakhali; Taj-ul-Haque Rashiq, 25, son of Rabiul Haque, resident of Dhanmondi in Dhaka; Atiquzzaman Khan, 24, son of Saifuzzaman Khan, resident of Gulshan in Dhaka and Md Motiar Rahman, 24, son of Nasir Uddin Sarkar, resident of Tala upazila in Satkhira. "Police have confirmed their identities after verifying the fingerprints given in the national identity cards," Deputy Commissioner of DMP [Public Relations] Masudur Rahman said. Meanwhile, family members and relatives of three slain militants formally claimed that they were also missing from their educational institutions.A source close to the DMP said Shahzad Rouf Arka alias Morokko, 22, was identified as a student of BBA at North South University in Dhaka. He went missing on February 3. His family members filed a General Diary with Bhatara Police Station on February 6.Arka's father Towhid Rouf, a resident of house -304, block-C, Bashundhara residential Area in the capital, said his son was an American passport holder. Two of Arka's family members along with an official of American Embassy in Dhaka went to DMCH morgue after autopsy. But they did not talk to anybody. It is learnt that Arka was also a close friend of Nibras Islam, who was killed in a commando operation at Gulshan's Holey Artisan Bakery on July 1.Another militant was identified as Jubayer Hassan, 20, son of Abdul Qayum. He was a second year student of Political Science Department at Noakhali Government College. Jubayer's father Qayum is a van driver of Al-Amin Biscuit Factory. According to sources, Jubayer went missing two months ago. A general diary was lodged with Sudharampur Police Station in this connection on May 25.The third militant was identified as Sabbirul Haque Konic, son of Azizul Haque, resident of Anowara upazila in Chittagong district. Sabbirul was a student of Economy and banking Department at International Islamic University in Chittagong. He went missing about six months ago. But his family did not file any complaint with the concerned police station in this connection. Sabbirul's father is a former president of ruling party Awami League Barumchara Union.DC DMP Masudul Rahman said: "The Photo of Sabbirul Haque Konik was shown by his family members, but his finger print did not match with the national identity cards." Members of the law enforcement agencies went to their home on Tuesday midnight to inquire about Sabbirul. "We've talked with Sabbirul's family members. His parents had claimed that it was Sabbir's body," Abdul Latif, Officer-in-Charge of Anwara Police Station, said.Local sources said Sabbirul's father along with his family lives in Chittagong town. He is an employee of Chittagong City Corporation. His elder brother is a freedom fighter."Our whole family believes in the ideology of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. It is unimaginable that a member of such family can be misguided in such a way. It's a matter of great regret for us," Azizul Haque told local media.Meanwhile, the postmortem of nine slain militants was completed at DMCH yesterday morning. In the postmortem, it was found that all of the militants received bullets in their back. "Most of the bodies bore marks of seven to eight bullet wounds. They received the bullets in their backside. The bullets were in the heads, legs and hands," Dr Sohel Mahmud, Assistant Professor of Forensic Department at DMCH, said.Earlier a three-member team of forensic doctors, led by Dr Sohel Mahmud, conducted the autopsy that began at 11:00am. Two other members were Dr Pradip Biswas and Dr Sohel Kabir. Dr Sohel Mahmud also said that they have collected samples of blood from the bodies to know whether the militants took intoxicating drugs."So far as we know, Sejat Rouf Arka is also a US citizen. His father came to morgue with an official of US embassy. We have showed them the bodies to identify. He suspected that one the militants might be his son. But he is not hundred percent sure. So, we've asked them to conduct DNA test to ensure their identities," Dr Sohel said. Earlier on Tuesday, the joint forces launched an assault operation at a bachelor's mess in the city's Kalyanpur area and gunned down nine militants on the spot.
Floral life of Sundarbans at stake

Trees at Sundarbans mangrove forest are threatened with extinction as reduced upstream water-flow is increasing salinity in the Southwest coastal region.

Gazi Anowarul Hoque :

The flora and fauna of Sundarbans is at stake due to the increased salinity in the south-west coastal region, which is ultimately damaging the forest ecosystem, say experts and environmentalists.

They said also that the fall of the water level in the Padma that flows towards the Sundarbans through the Gorai-Rupsa-Pashur and the Bhairab-Kobadak tributaries is contributing to the rise of saline in the Sundarbans.

"The mangrove ecosystem of the Sundarbans has the capacity to tolerate a certain level of salinity, but the increased salinity in

the lands is ultimately damaging the forest ecosystem," said Dr Ataur Rahman, Professor of Water Resources Engineering of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology.

The saline tolerance of Sundarbans is 10 to 15 ppt (parts per thousand grams) while the current salinity level in the region is around 35 ppt.

He also said that the mangrove forest would be at risk in the future if the salinity level was not reduced to a certain level soon.

Ishtiaq Uddin Ahmed, Country Representative of International Union for the Conservation of Nature Bangladesh, said that two important factors - a certain level of salinity and siltation - are mandatory for the regeneration and sustenance of mangrove ecosystems, but both factors are nonstandard in the case of the Sundarbans in the Bangladeshi regions.

Besides the increased level of salinity, the Sundarbans is being adversely affected by the decreased siltation due to the unplanned establishments of infrastructure, like embankments in the coastal rivers, he added.

A study conducted by biodiversity specialist Dr. Md. Mizanur Rahman says, most of the tree species grown in the Sundarbans cannot tolerate high level of salinity and are seriously affected when salts concentrate within the root zone. Trees are severely affected where groundwater is close enough to the surface to discharge or concentrate salts.

A salt concentration of 20-40% is suitable for mangrove ecosystems, while 40-80% diminishes the number of species and their size. Only a few species can exist and grow in 90% salt concentration. Sundari, Bain, Kakra, Passur and Dhondul tree species are being quickly replaced by Gewa and Keora. Mixed forest stands are being converted into pure stands. The patchily distribution of mangrove date palm (Hanthol) is declining in the fresh swamp and mixed saline forests of Sundarbans.

Another research conducted by Md. Saidul Islam, Department of Geography and Environmental studies of Chittagong University says that approximately one million hectares of land in southern coastal areas of Bangladesh is at risk of salinity. In the recent years, the hydrological conditions have undergone a change in the southwestern part of the country following the commissioning of the Farakka Barrage by India.

At least three reasons are contributing to saline water intrusion: (1) Diversion of Ganges River flow by Farakka Barrage, (2) excessive use of freshwater and (3) Upstream withdrawal for irrigation of rice and others crops.

Abdullah Harun Chowdhury, Professor, Department of Environmental Science of Khulna University, told New Nation recently that the upstream fresh water flow should be ensured, otherwise salinity intrusion would spread.


US returns 45 illegal BD migrants

Staff Reporter :

A total of 45 Bangladeshi illegal migrants reached home from the United States in the wee hours of Wednesday.

"Their repatriation process was completed in collaboration with Bangladesh Embassy in Washington and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs," a deputy secretary of the ministry said.

A special Bangladesh Biman flight carrying the deported Bangladeshis reached Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka at 2am.

They were tortured in the custody and kept handcuffed in the flight too, the deportees alleged.

They said that, they reached at US after traveling 10 to 12 countries. They gave handsome money to the middlemen, but they cheated with them.

The deportees said, they were in prison in the US for several months. They were tortured severely in the US jails, which is the violation of International Human Rights Law, the deportees alleged.

Earlier on April 1 this year, Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal said that US would be sending back some "illegal migrants".




Some questions and DMP's replies

Staff Reporter :

The special anti-militant drive of joint forces have raised a bunch of questions among the concerned circle as most of the militants were killed in the shootout, but the none of the law enforcers got hurt. It's a big question whether it was a "gunfight" or a one-sided shootout. According to information provided by law enforcement agencies, the militants had only four pistols and some IED [improvised explosive device], also known as homemade grenades.

Is it possible to continue a gunfight for six hours against a strong joint force with theses arms-explosives?

There were other questions - did the militants go to bed wearing black pajama-panjabi and keds? And how could you label them as militants without knowing their name and address?

Chief of Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crimes Unit Md Monirul Islam, however, answered all the questions in a Facebook post yesterday [Wednesday].

Monirul Islam, also Additional Commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police said that those who could not accept the successful drive n Kalyanpur operation are now raising question about the authenticity of it. A section of people are now spreading conspiracy theories on social media claiming that Kalayanpur drive was a police set up.

"The entire social media is discussing that neighbours said people (militants) in that flat had chanted slogans in favour of so called jihad, IS flag was found in their room, huge books on extremism were found. Still, is there any research necessary to understand whether they are militants?" Monirul said raising counter question.

He also said that one does not need to be an intellectual to understand whether the militants had time to sleep, wear such dress in between around 1:00am to 5:50am.

In his facebook post, the CTTCU Chief also picked several questions and answered them refuting the statement of few people who are terming the drive as a police set up.


Join war against militancy

BSS, Dhaka :Information Minister Hasanul Haq Inu, MP, yesterday said "there is no scope for neutrality in a war-like situation and that is what we are going through now."He asked all citizens to join the war against militancy that aims to topple the government in the short-run and destabilize the nation in the long-run. "We've to win this war. There is no other option."The minister was speaking at a town hall style meeting, which was streamed live on Bangladesh Television and Bangladesh Betar, at the city's Osmani Memorial Auditorium where a cross section of people, including religious scholars, academics, students, professionals, businessmen and women had gathered.Chaired by Director General of Bangladesh Betar A K M Nesaruddin, the meeting was also addressed by Commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) Md Asaduzzaman Miah, Director General of Islamic Foundation Shamim Mohammad Afzal, Editor of leading Bengali daily, Samakal, Golam Sarwar and Mozammel Babu, proprietor and chief executive of leading television channel Ekattur. The speeches were followed by an open session where participants from the floor asked questions that were answered by the information minister in his speech. The minister congratulated the police for busting the militant network yesterday at Kalyanpur and reminded the great role of the people who not only gave valuable information but also provided proper guidance to the law enforcers."Without the great support of the masses it would not have been possible for the police alone to undertake the operation or to carry it out with surgical precision," he said.
Flood situation worsens further

Thousands take shelter on embankments

Photo of Kurigram\'s Chilmari Upazila shows that vast areas of croplands along with almost all tin shed houses submerged causing untold crises of food and drinking water. A woman is seen cooking rice on a banana raft on Wednesday.

M Faruque Hossain :The flood situation has worsened in different regions especially in Chilmari and Nilphamari. About 10 lakh people have been marooned as the flood situation showed no improvement in the last four days due to continuous flow of water from beyond the international borders. According to Flood Forecasting and Warning Center, the most affected districts are Gaibandha, Kurigram, Bogra, Sirajganj, Jamalpur, Manikganj, Manshiganj, Rajbari, Faridpur and Shariatpur. The water level in the rivers of the Padma, the Brahmaputra, the Jamuna, the Karotowa, the Teesta and the Dharola are above the danger level. The erosion and flood victims had taken shelter on the nearby flood control embankments with their belongings. They are passing their days miserably with poultry and cattle for want of food and drinking water. At least three children died in the floodwater in the Kurigram Sadar and Nageswari upazila. A man fell into the floodwater from a banana raft in Gaibandha district.In Kurigram, the flood situation deteriorated in last 24 hours. The local water management board sources said, the water in the river of Dharala at Dharola Bridge point is flowing 106 cm above the danger level. The Brahmaputra flows 88 cm above danger level at Chilmari point. New areas of Kurigram have gone under flood water. More than five lakh people have been marooned in the district. Though the district administration distributed dry foods among them, the quantity was not sufficient, said the locals.The communication system in Kurigram-Bhurungamari has been affected due to the inundation of roads. The inhabitants of Jatrapur people are fearful because the dam can be damaged any time. Large number of crops and vegetable lands have gone under floodwater. The Teesta is flowing above danger level at Nilphamari point. . More than 40 thousand people have been marooned with flooding of new areas. They are suffering from drinking water and foods. The district administration has cancelled the leave of all health officials. The flood situation deteriorated in Sirajganj, as the Jamuna is flowing 56 cm above the danger level. More than one lakh people from 30 unions have been stranded. Around 139-shelter centers have been opened in the district. The flood situation has remained unchanged in Sunamganj though the Surma was flowing above danger level. Around two lakh people have been affected.At Nayarhat of Chilmari, people are in distress. The affected people are living on the roofs of tin-shed houses under the open sky and cooking on banana raft. In Gaibandha, about 30 thousand people have taken shelters on high lands.. At Fulchhari, Saghat, Sadarganj and Sadar upazila, here are 157 shelter centers. The people of 80 villages under 22 unions in Saghata, Sadar and Sundarganj upazilas have been suffering form drinking water, dry food, straw and safety. The female members of the affected area are suffering from sanitation systems. The Konchipara, Gozaria, Fazalpur, Erendabari, Uria and Fulchhari sadar area are severely affected. The standing crops of 1,040 hectares of land are under flood water in Islampur, Dewanganj, and Madarganj upazilas of Jamalpur district. District Primary Education Office sources said, 159 primary had been closed.
Kalyanpur bldg owner's wife remanded

UNB, Dhaka :A court here on Wednesday placed Mamtaz Parveen, wife of the owner of Taj Manzil in Kalyanpur, where nine suspected militants were killed in a police operation on Tuesday, on a two-day remand.Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Nurunnahar Yesmin passed the orderwhen police produced Mamtaz Parveen before the court with a 5-day remand plea after showing her arrested under section 54 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.Police arrested Mamtaz and her son on Tuesday. The owner of the building Atahar Uddin Ahmed lives abroad.They were arrested for renting their house to the militants and hiding their information from police.
Darul Ihsan students can claim compensation: Nahid

UNB, Dhaka :

Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid on Wednesday said the affected students of Darul Ihsan University, which was closed by the government, can claim Tk 5 lakh each from the university as compensation.

"As their education has been affected due to the closure of the university,

its authorities will have to take their responsibility. The students whose academic life has been affected due to the decision can demand Tk 5 lakh from the authorities," he said. The minister was talking to reporters after the second session of the second day's DCs' Conference, 2016 at the Secretariat. The minister said the government will assist the affected students and help them get admitted to other universities. Darul Ihsan University had long been doing 'certificate business' by opening its branches in the capital, said Nahid adding.
Jail term against OC Helal upheld

Court Correspondent :

The Fifth Additional District and Session Judge's Court of Dhaka on Wednesday upheld a verdict of lower court that sentenced Helal Uddin, former Officer-in-Charge of Khilgaon Police Station to three years' imprisonment for torturing a Dhaka University student in custody.

Judge Md Jahidul Kabir of the court passed the order. On July 21, this court fixed July 27 to pronounce the verdict of the case on the appeal, Helal lodged. Before that on May 17, last year, another court had sentenced OC Helal to three years' imprisonment for torturing Abdul Kader, then a master's class student of Biochemistry at the university. The court also fined

Helal Tk 10,000, in default, he would suffer three months more in the prison. The appeal court also issued a warrant for Helal's arrest as he was tried in his absence.

According to the case statement, a team of plainclothes police of Khilgaon Police Station of the city hit Kader with sticks at Segunbagicha in the early hours of July 16, 2011 while he was returning to his dormitory, Fazlul Huq Hall, from a relative's house in Eskaton area.

Later, Helal, the then OC of the police station took Kader to his room and forced him to admit his involvement in various crimes that he had never committed. Helal also caused injuries to Kader's back, legs and other parts of body. At one stage, Helal hit Kader with a sharp machete causing wounds to his left leg.

Later, police filed two cases against Kader -- one for robbery and another for possessing of an illegal firearms with the police station and he was shown arrested in another false case filed with Mohammadpur Police Station for carjacking.

Teachers and students of DU and people from different strata of the society reacted sharply about the police torture on Kader. However, Kader secured bail on August 3, 2011 after 18 days of his arrest and later, a court acquitted him from the charges.

On January 23, 2012, Kader filed a case with Khilgaon Police Station against its former OC Helal Uddin for torturing him. On March 26, the same year, police submitted charge sheet of the case in the court against Helal in the case.

On May 31, last year, Helal surrendered to the court and sought bail, however, the court sent him to the jail refusing his bail plea.


Unicef concerned at N'ganj boy's death in torture

UNB, Dhaka :

Unicef Bangladesh has expressed grave concern over the recent incident of a 10-year-old child being subjected to violence and killed in a heinous way at his workplace in Narayanganj.

Unicef appealed to the government of Bangladesh, including the

Supreme Court, to take speedy legal actions against these violent incidents and bringing the perpetrators to justice. This is a serious violation of child rights, Unicef said on Wednesday and reiterated its apprehension of children being used as easy targets of violence and is concerned that child labour is still widespread both in the formal and informal sectors.
Businessmen seeking police protection for safety not enough

The death of Hassan Khaled, President of Dutch-Bangla Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DBCCI) in unknown circumstances and recovery of his body from Buriganga River in Keraniganj area on Tuesday has not only shocked the country's business community, it came as yet another reminder of the worsening law and order situation in the country in which uncertainly of life and unusual death now make people nervous at every level. The businessman disappeared from Dhanmondi area on Saturday as he went out of home to buy medicine and family sources said he had no known enemy to point finger on any suspect.

DBCCI mourned his death on Tuesday saying the incident is an alert to all businessmen and leaders of chamber bodies and trade associations for safety. In fact there is no more public safety at work and it appears everybody has to ensure his own safety. But how can one make his or her own safety if the state is failing to give safety to citizens where the government is persistently failing. The government has to find reasons for its failure, because terrorism is growing.

The simple solution of killing suspected terrorists without accountability or transparency is not working. The recent killing of nine suspected terrorists has raised serious doubts about the police version. But nine young ones lost their lives. There is no effective opposition to offer political leadership when political leadership is needed most. There is no democratic leadership to work transparently or in cooperation with others.

The government's dependence on police is absolute, but police alone cannot stop terrorism. The businessmen are an effective force to advise the government where it is going wrong if the country's economy is to be saved. Blaming police is not working.

A shocked President of Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI) Abdul Matlub Ahmad advised all businessmen and leaders of different trade bodies to ensure their safety first and stay alert to avoid any untoward incident. Expressing concern over the situation he also demanded protection from the government for all businessmen taking into account that if the situation slips out of control, the setback will not only affect domestic business but external trade as well. Hassan Khaled was President of DBCCI and naturally his death in mysterious conditions that yet need to be traced raised many questions. But one thing is true, his death will make the businessmen in Netherlands and other international trade bodies equally apprehensive in running business in Bangladesh and reluctant to make here new investments.

In our political vacuum the business community is in a stronger position to take up the public safety issue with the government more effectively than others. Most business leaders are closer to the ruling party and also party leaders at many levels. It appears that they don't want to take serious issues least the government leaders become unhappy with them. But the country's economy is in doldrums and businessmen are worst hit.

The business community cannot be so indifferent that they do not know how to suggest the government the ways of establishing political stability. Terrorism is not ordinary crimes it is connected with political stability and justice for which political thinking is necessary. That does not mean political thinking has to come only from political leadership. We have no effective political leadership and this is the hard reality.

If we are not wrong, terrorism is connected with political stability. The government is not succeeding in fighting terrorism with police and gun power  that is the truth.


The diocese said it was informed by state police on Wednesday of the arrest of the Rev. F. David Broussard, who served the church parish of St. Bernard

Broussard

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Lafayette says one of its priests has been arrested on a charge of possessing child pornography.

In a news release on its website, the diocese said it was informed by state police on Wednesday of the arrest of the Rev. F. David Broussard, who served the church parish of St. Bernard in Breaux Bridge.

The diocese said Broussard was placed on administrative leave. Neither the news release nor online court and jail records indicated whether he has a lawyer who could comment on the allegations.

State police have not released details on the arrest but said they would do so later Wednesday. The diocese said it was cooperating in the investigation and would release more information Wednesday afternoon.

The diocese released a statement early Wednesday:
Paris, TX (75460)

Today

Cloudy skies with periods of rain later in the day. Potential for heavy rainfall. High 58F. Winds NE at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall near a half an inch..

Tonight

Rain likely. Low 54F. Winds NNE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall possibly over one inch. Locally heavy rainfall possible.
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.

As India is a rather closed-minded country, it can be difficult to be open about ones sexual habits and values.

However, being faithful to ones desires by properly dissolving ones sexual desire is very effective for ones physical and mental health.

If this is your first time to learn about sextoy, or if you are interested in using sextoy, why not give it a try?

Indian Sextoys for ur best! will introduce you to sextoy and other trivia about sextoy, sexuality, and sexuality for men and women.

I want to read more! If you think its a great idea, please bookmark it.
The driver of a motorcycle that was injured in a crash Tuesday morning has been identified by Illinois State Police as Jason R. Hood, 30, of Herrin.

Hood, who was reportedly not wearing a helmet, was flown directly from the scene via air ambulance prior to an ISP Troopers arrival, according to a news release.

Illinois 148 was closed for about 45 minutes to safely land the helicopter, then reopened. Both vehicles, Hood's 2016 Harley Davidson Sportster and a 2016 Hyundai Sonata driven by Debra L. Johnson, were towed from the scene of the crash, at the north Herrin Walmart parking lot entrance.

Johnson was pulling out of the north Herrin Walmart parking lot onto northbound Illinois 148, and entered the southbound lanes, where she entered the path of the southbound motorcycle, according to the release. The motorcycle struck the left front corner of the Hyundai, ejecting Hood.

Johnson, 46, of Herrin, who was uninjured, was charged with failure to yield turning left. Hood was charged with no valid classification (no M Class for motorcycle) and operating an uninsured motor vehicle.

-- The Southern
An individual thrown from a motorcycle in a crash with a vehicle near the Herrin Walmart was airlifted to a regional hospital, Illinois State Police reported.

The condition of the motorcycle driver is unknown at this time, and was not identified in the ISP release sent to media on Tuesday afternoon, pending identification. ISP spokesman Christopher Watson said the motorcycle drivers name will be released on Wednesday.

The motorcycle driver was not wearing a helmet, the release stated.

Police said the driver of a Hyundai Sonata, Debra Johnson, 46, of Herrin, struck the motorcycle on Illinois 148 at the north Herrin Walmart parking lot entrance in Williamson County.

ISP said in a release that the accident occurred as Johnson was pulling out of the north Herrin Parking lot entrance onto northbound Illinois 148. As she entered the southbound lanes, her vehicle entered the path of the motorcycle, and the motorcycle struck the left corner of the car, ejecting the driver. Johnson was charged with failure to yield turning left.

The rider was flown directly from the scene via air ambulance, ISP reported. Illinois 148 was closed for about 45 minutes to safely land the helicopter, and then reopened. The car and motorcycle were towed from the scene.
Calhoun County is exploring the possibility of installing a solar energy project at the John Ford Community Center.

Officials say the project could bring savings to the county, if it ultimately decides to sign on.

We will have time to weigh in on the specifics of it later, but we have to move now if were going to reserve that part of SCE&Gs solar tax credits, Deputy County Administrator Ted Felder said.

Calhoun County Council on Monday gave county Administrator Lee Prickett permission to sign an application with SCE&G.

The solar panels will not cost to the county. All it will need to provide is the property.

The project comes as SCE&G moves to provide more renewable energy programs.

Andrew Carter, who represents the investing company Cantsink, said As the investor, we would maintain it. We would fence in the facility. It is safe. It is not going to create any harm to the community.

Through an incentive program, the investor and county will share a 22-cent return for each kilowatt generated with the investor receiving $.1675 and the county receiving the remaining $.0525.

The solar panels will be able to provide about 206 kilowatts of power, which will cut utility costs for the county.

Per year, the countys cost for utilities at the John Ford Community Center after reimbursements from tenants is $37,000.

If this solar project goes as planned, we will recoup about $17,000, bringing our actual cost down to $20,000 a year, Finance Director Denise Christmas said.

Carter said the solar facility has a life expectancy of more than 20 years.

At this stage, the county is not obligated to continue if it does not see fit.

If we move forward with the application and a month later its approved and county disapproves this, it just gets torn up, Carter said.

The obligation comes into play when council says, We want to move forward, the investor agrees to it and we have a lease agreement signed and its been approved to SCE&G for John Ford Community Center, he said.

Carter said the solar project will be financially rewarding for all and will show the county is moving forward.

We think that its going to teach your community that were a proactive county and were looking towards the future for the generations to come, he said.

Also in the meeting:

 Council member Pamela Claxton said residents near the magistrates office have complained about seeing prisoners being escorted into the Human Resources Building.

They didnt feel comfortable with interacting with prisoners, Claxton said. They felt that that would not be a healthy environment for children.

Council Chairman David K. Summers said it is a complaint he had never heard before.

Christmas added that most of the people entering would just be those going for traffic tickets.

The possibility of using a back entrance was brought up but council chose to stay with how things are operating now unless the situation arises again and action needs to be taken.

 Felder said the county is in the process of finding a qualified manager with experience to handle the courthouse renovations.

We ended up with eight responses and all eight have experience with historical buildings, he said.

Council authorized Prickett to begin negotiations with one of the manager candidates.
The South Carolina delegation to the 2016 Democratic National Convention cast its votes Tuesday.

S.C. Democratic Party Chair Jaime Harrison, an Orangeburg native, announced the delegation results. Below are his remarks, as prepared for delivery:

"We are South Carolina, the Palmetto State, the home of the first in the South primary, a state with a rich history of progressive struggle. South Carolina is the home of Gadsdens Wharf, a site where so many slaves disembarked that it is known as the African American Ellis Island. Our state was the home of John Laurens, an early abolitionist who fought to allow African Americans to serve in the Revolutionary War and who has been reintroduced to the world in the musical Hamilton. During the Civil War, South Carolina was the site of the Port Royal Experiment, the first pangs of our nations new birth of freedom. We are the state of the first African American to ever serve in the U.S. House of Representatives  Joseph Rainey  and the highest-ranking African American currently serving in the House of Representatives  Assistant Democratic Leader James E. Clyburn!

"A failed textile workers strike in Honea Path in 1934 led to the National Labor Relations Act the following year. Before there was Brown v. Board of Education, there was Briggs v. Elliott, a South Carolina case where federal Judge J. Waties Waring, in dissent, declared, 'segregation in education can never produce equality and ... it is an evil that must be eradicated.' Judge Waring was just one of many South Carolinians at the forefront of the Civil Rights Movement, alongside women like Septima Clark, known as the grandmother of the movement, and Sarah Mae Flemming, a 20-year-old African American woman who refused to give up her seat on a bus in Columbia 17 months before Rosa Parks did the same in Alabama. South Carolinas desegregation had its share of tragedies and turmoil like the Orangeburg Massacre, yet we were able to bridge divides due in large part to the progressive leadership of Democratic governors like Fritz Hollings, Robert McNair and John West.

"South Carolina produced Dick Riley, who served as an innovative governor in the 70s and 80s and as secretary of education for the full eight years of the first Clinton Administration, later being named by Time magazine as one of the ten best cabinet secretaries of the 20th Century. And South Carolina produced Joe Riley, whose 40 years as mayor of Charleston transformed it into the best city in the world, according to Travel and Leisure. And Charleston is also the home of Emanuel AME Church, which has led the struggle for civil rights through the darkest of times, from Denmark Vesey in 1822 to the Emanuel 9 in 2015.

"Through these centuries of triumph, tragedy and struggle, we South Carolinians have lived by our state motto  dum spiro spero, while I breathe I hope. 
A Columbia man has been sentenced to 15 years in prison for breaking into a female dorm at Claflin University.

Kabaris Abdul Daniels, 20, of 7902 Bailey St., pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree burglary.

He appeared on July 22 at Orangeburg County Courthouse before 1st Circuit Judge Ed Dickson, who sentenced him to two concurrent 15-year terms.

Dickson ordered a mental health evaluation and treatment for Daniels. He also ordered Daniels to comply with treatment recommendations.

In March 2015, law enforcement officers arrested Daniels and charged him with two counts of first-degree assault with intent to commit criminal sexual conduct, two counts of first-degree burglary and one count of second-degree burglary.

Daniels was a student at South Carolina State University when the incidents took place.

Two female students reported that Daniels broke into the Student Residential Center North.

Once inside the dorm, he allegedly entered one females room and did lift the bed covers off of the victim and did masturbate while looking at her, the warrant states.

He fled when the woman woke up.

At Daniels bond hearing, a female told the court that she was in a different room when Daniels entered and touched her buttocks.

She said that she screamed when Daniels touched her, then she chased him and injured herself on glass broken out of the doorway where Daniels entered the dorm.
There is a crack in the very foundation of the great country we all share. As law enforcement professionals, we reflect upon the events that have occurred around the nation that illustrate the challenges and perils of being a law enforcement officer. As with any profession, we recognize that there will be challenges. We as a nation must unite around common goals and agree to healthy dialogue and not divisive rhetoric.

Law enforcement is a vital function in our communities, and we are committed to serving and protecting all citizens. To help us accomplish these goals and address these challenges, we reflect upon the words of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who stated:

Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.

Today, as a unified coalition of law enforcement associations across South Carolina, we stand ready to bridge the gap between law enforcement officers and the communities we are sworn to protect and serve. This will require open and honest dialogue on both sides. These conversations will not always be easy but they must be had. Our hearts break for all of the families who have recently lost a loved one. One death, no matter how, is one too many.

Over the past 18 months, South Carolinians have shown the world compassion, understanding and forgiveness. We ask again for patience as we continue to implement programs across this state. Last year, with the support of the undersigned associations, we passed the first-in-the-nation body camera bill. We are in the process of funding thousands of body cameras for 168 agencies across South Carolina to show the great, but often difficult, work our law enforcement officers do every day. When issues arise, where policies or laws are broken, those cases will be dealt with accordingly.

On July 13, 2015, Gov. Nikki Haley signed Executive Order 2015-17 creating the Commission on the Advancement of Public Safety. Over the past year, law enforcement leaders from across the state have been meeting to identify the best practices within our profession.

The objectives of the commission are to study community relations, law enforcement hiring practices, law enforcement training, law enforcement wellness issues and case research. The commission continues to work diligently on these objectives and will be sending a report to the governor in due time.

We plan to reach out to city, county, state and national leaders from South Carolina to join us as we meet with community members in the weeks to come. Our goal is to hear directly from members of the communities that we serve about how we can better serve them.

As law enforcement officers, we are here to protect all citizens of South Carolina, enhance public safety, and to provide a safe place for us all to raise our families. This will require leadership from law enforcement professionals across South Carolina as well as citizens of all ages, races, genders and religions. It is important to the law enforcement profession that we provide a forum for positive interaction so we can all empathize with each other.

Across this state, law enforcement agencies have embraced community policing. Great work is being done by dedicated officers to collectively make this a better place for everyone. We see these programs slowly taking hold in cities of all sizes throughout South Carolina. Community policing requires police officers to have positive interactions, often outside of the patrol car, with the citizens they serve, creating bonds and trust that didnt previously exist.

It is clear that law enforcement provides a vital function in every community across this state and country. As with any profession, there are challenges, and we intend to meet those challenges head on. We will not allow the perception of our great profession to be wholly judged by the actions of a few. As we grieve the tragic loss of law enforcement officers, please know that we stand ready to answer the next call to help our fellow man when it is needed most.
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Azerbaijan is serious about the development of North-South transit corridor, Hossein Ashoori, vice president of operation and international transportation of Islamic Republic of Iran Railways told Trend.

He said that Iran, Russia, Azerbaijan hold a meeting every month to discuss the development of North-South corridor and Baku has taken a key role in this project.

Iran and India have also had two meetings during the current year, because one of the participanting transit countries in the mentioned route is India.

"We would launch combined transit system for now. The first experimental cargo transiting from India to Russia through Iran and Azerbaijan will be carried out in August. The cargo will be shipped from India to Bandar Abbas port by the Persian Gulf, then it will be transited via rail to the city of Qazvin, then carried by trucks to Azerbaijan's city of Astara near the border with Iran. Finally the cargo will be delivered to Russia though the Azerbaina-Russia railroad," said Ashoori.

Ashoori said that the only remained sector of the corridor is Rasht-Astara, which is expected to be completed in 4-5 years.

Qazavin-Rasht route, as well as the railway bridge with a length of 82.5 meters on the border of Azerbaijan and Iran over the Astarachay River as well as a pert of railroad in Azerbaijan (8 km) are expected to be completed in 6 months.

He said that the participant countries have defined two interim routes for combined transportation: Iran-Azerbaijan-Russia as well as Iran-Azerbaijan-Georgia (Batumi port).

Ashoori said that regarding the terror attacks on the Iran-Ankara-Europe rail route, the mentioned two interim routes can help Iran to have alternatives to Turkey route.

Ashoori added that trade and cargo transit through railroad between Iran and EU is expected to increase significantly in 2017 due to the result of elimination of sanctions on Iran in January 2016.

"Coning to Azerbaijan, the cargoes can be shipped in Iran's Amirabad port and be delivered to Alat or Baku ports, then they can be carried through railroad to Georgia. The second option is to load the cargoes in Astara to Azerbaijani trains and transporting to Georgia," he said.

Ashoori expressed hope that Azerbaijan will help with financing Iran's remaining section of the Rasht-Astara route.

Azerbaijan has agreed to allocate $500 million to the project. The agreement on the generalities has been achieved and the sides would start negotiations on the details on July 26.
/By Azernews/

By Laman Ismayilova

A delegation of the European Union (EU) jointly with "Park Cinema" discussed preparations for the European Film Festival 2016, Trend Life reported.

The Festival is scheduled to start on November 3. Given the growing number of countries-participants and spectators, the festival will last for 10 days.

"The meeting was a great opportunity to meet new cultural attaches. Embassy officials were informed about the growing interest in the festival as well as requirements for films, said Namiq Quliyev, director of cinema network "Park Cinema".

He went on to say that the embassy officials, in turn informed about the work conducted by the ministries of culture and foreign affairs, as well as implementation of PR for the upcoming festival.

"Embassies of the EU states will carry out propaganda of the event through their cultural centers, which cover a large number of people. In addition, the embassies have a wide range of connections with universities. So, they have various programs and projects which involve students. During each of these meetings, embassy officials will actively inform students about the festival", he said.

The information about the festival will be displayed on all monitors at Park Cinema ahead of the festival, he added.

Guests of the festival will have a chance to see films in various genres, including comedy, drama, fantasy, adventure, animation and documentary.

The European Film Festival is unique in that it draws upon the diverse and rich cultures of Europe.

The project have been organized by the EU Delegation in Azerbaijan since 2010 and serve to further building and strengthening the cultural links between the European Union countries and Azerbaijan contributing to better mutual understanding.

In 2015, the programme of festival included the screening of films from 16 European Union countries, including Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Romania, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom and Azerbaijan.

Park Cinema is the largest national cinema network in the country. Its first theater opened in Park Boulevard in 2010. All theaters are built, refurbished and equipped according to highest industry standards and have prime locations in popular shopping centers such as Park Boulevard, MetroPark, Zagulba Mall, and Bakus new symbol - Flame Towers.

Media partners of the event are Trend.az, Day.az and Milli.az
/By Azernews/

By Gunay Hasanova

Germany, during its presidency in the OSCE, has decided to focus on unresolved conflicts in the OSCE area, including Nagorno-Karabakh and Transnistria.

German Foreign Minister and Chairperson-in-Office of the OSCE, Frank-Walter Steinmeier made the remark after talks with Moldovan Prime Minister Pavel Filip in Chisinau on July 26.

Steinmeier said at the news conference that the OSCE has found itself in a very complicated situation.

There were a lot of new challenges, new conflicts in a situation, where even the old ones are not settled. The old conflicts, which we call "frozen", are not "frozen at all. There are always an escalation risks, transition of these conflicts into a hot stage. We have seen this in the example of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Therefore, the German chairmanship of the OSCE has set a goal to solve the "frozen" conflicts in order to exclude such risks", Steinmeier said.

The minister called for the settlement of the Transnistrian conflict through "giving the Transnistrian region a special status, respecting the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Moldova."

The German chairmanship earlier asserted that Germany favors the intensification of the negotiations under the auspices of the OSCE Minsk Group on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

While the OSCE Minsk Group acted as the only mediator in resolution of the conflict, it failed to make any move to achieve a breakthrough in the peace process.

Azerbaijan and Armenia fought a lengthy war that ended with the signing of a fragile ceasefire in 1994. Since the war, Armenian armed forces have occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan's territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding regions. More than 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed and over 1 million were displaced as a result of the large-scale hostilities.
dorma+kaba, a major player in opening solutions, has won a contract for The King Hussein Cancer Center (KHCC) expansion in Jordan.



The contract is valued at $1.4 million and will see dorma+kaba provide state-of-the art solutions from its complementary product portfolio.



dorma+kaba will be providing a detailed design and execution for all opening access solutions that will be compatible with all door types (hollow metal, wooden, aluminum, glass), said a statement.



Elias Jaalouki, country sales manager, MEA, said: dorma+kaba has over two decades of experience and a strong presence in the MEA region. We are extremely pleased to have won the KHCC project. Owing to our global expertise we are delighted to provide a broad range of security solutions from our wide range of healthcare sector portfolio.

KHCC treats over 3,500 new cancer patients each year. With such heavy flows of people, security is very important, and access control is a central concern. Selective, individualised access has to be granted to different security areas, and has to be designed in such a way that patients privacy and dignity is always guaranteed and that is what we are aiming at.



The King Hussein Cancer Center expansion will consist of an inpatient tower and outpatient building that will double the capacity of the existing centre and provide improved, integrated space for patient care, research and education.

dorma+kaba will design holistic solutions for all door functions which are open and accessible to a wide variety of people including patients, doctors, care staff, administrative personnel, visitors and suppliers for the planned expansion of the cancer foundation. - TradeArabia News Service


The real estate markets in the Saudi cities of Riyadh and Jeddah continue to maintain an overall slowdown in performance, according to a JLL report.



JLL, a leading global real estate investment and advisory firm, today released its Q2 2016 Riyadh and Jeddah Real Estate Overview reports assessing the latest trends in the office, residential, retail and hotel sectors.



Jamil Ghaznawi, national director and country head of JLL Saudi Arabia, said: We have witnessed a general softening of the residential market this quarter, with a marginal decline in rentals in Riyadh and sale prices in Jeddah. Further delays have been experienced in the completion of projects in Jeddah, despite increased efforts being made to address the shortage of affordable housing."



The continuing slump in residential transactions (with sale volumes down a further 5 per cent this quarter) shows the pace of demand growth is certainly now slowing, said the report.



"Riyadh is braced for an increase of housing supply, bringing the total stock of residential units to over 1 million units; whereas in Jeddah, supply remains stagnant in comparison to last quarters findings. However, with the white land tax being introduced earlier in June, the future development pipeline is likely to increase, which could push both land and housing costs down in 2017 and 2018, said Ghaznawi.



In Riyadh, the office market observed a marginal decrease in rental values in Q2 2016 and will continue to see downward pressure as new stock enters the market, especially in the King Abdullah Financial District (KAFD) and the Information Technology and Communications Compound (ITCC). Meanwhile in Jeddah, project completions managed to stabilise the office performance rates in Q2, the report said.



The fluctuation in oil prices throughout the quarter has led to reduced corporate demand and government spending which has negatively impacted the performance of the hotel sector in both Riyadh and Jeddah. Hotel occupancies have declined in both markets, with two new hotels opening in Jeddah that have increased competition, said Ghaznawi.



In regards to the retail sector, lease rates in both markets have stabilised over the second quarter.



The delivery of multiple projects in the coming quarters and slow demand evident by the decline of point of sales transactions in both cities, is likely to keep lease rates stable for the time being. However with Saudi Vision 2030 in place, foreign investment into the kingdom is likely increase, boosting the retail sector in Jeddah in particular, over the long term, he said.



"Even though there is mounting strain on both markets currently, the markets are likely to recover in the foreseeable future as Saudi government ambitiously takes new initiatives to stimulate the country, he added.



HIGHLIGHTS  RIYADH

 Office: Saudi Vision 2030 is encouraging economic diversification by allowing foreign companies to enter and invest in the kingdom. Such encouragement will help increase the demand for office space as foreign investors show interest in the Saudi market. However, this change is expected to require time as companies setup their strategy to enter the Saudi market. Also, the demand for office space from these companies is not expected to be significantly large until the economy stabilises and new rules and regulations are set in place, the report said.



 Residential: The Ministry of Housing has started implementing the first project to construct 7,000 villas in collaboration with the private sector on a 6.5 million sq m land in the eastern part of Riyadh. The East Gate project will consist of villas. Each villa will cost around SR640,000 and funds can be borrowed from the Real Estate Development Fund.

 Retail: Demand for neighborhood centres is still strong. Vacancy rates within plazas remain low due to its attractiveness for food and beverage, convenience and anchor tenants, especially supermarkets. Demand, from the aforementioned categories, remains strong as most tenants are still looking to expand to new locations within the capital. The newly introduced regulations associated to foreign ownership have made the kingdom appealing to retailers, especially with the strong pipeline for quality super regional malls. Riyadh is expected to be a hub for world class super regional malls developed by the top regional shopping centres developers attracting international retailers.

 Hotels: More than 8,000 keys could potentially be handed to the market by the end of 2018. However, substantial delays in delivery are expected as the materialisation rate of hotel developments have been relatively low in the past. These delays will soften the impact of new entrants, and decrease the pressure on occupancy and daily rates exerted by new hotels.



HIGHLIGHTS  JEDDAH

 Office: Saudi Vision 2030 was announced in April focusing on economic diversification and attracting foreign investment. This should increase demand for office space in Jeddah over the long run, which has traditionally relied on the construction and government sectors for demand.

 Residential: Increasing the Loan-to-Value Ratio (LVR) from 70 per cent to 85 per cent has yet to spur demand for residential sales as sale prices have continued to fall and demand remains soft. Data from the Ministry of Justice shows a decrease of almost 9 per cent in the number of residential transactions year to May.

 Retail: The Council of Ministers approved the relaxation of foreign ownership controls from 75 per cent to 100 per cent of retail businesses in June. This announcement is in line with the Saudi 2030 Vision to increase foreign investment in the kingdom. The first licence was issued under the new regulations in June to Dow Chemicals. Easier entry should encourage more international retailers to enter the market, which will assist in absorbing the upcoming supply.

 Hotels: A significant amount of new supply has opened over the past 18 months, attracted by the strong performance of the Jeddah market. Most of these new entrants are concentrated in the five-star category, increasing competition in the upscale segment where product differentiation will become an increasingly crucial success factor, the report said. - TradeArabia News Service
Dubai-based Nakheel, one of the worlds leading developers, today announced a net profit of Dh2.95 billion ($803 million) for the the first six months of 2016, representing a four per cent increase on the net profit of Dh2.83 billion in the same period in 2015.



Nakheel handed over 1,177 units to customers during the first six months of the year, with its retail, residential leasing and hospitality businesses all performing strongly and contributing to the results, which are in line with the companys forecast.



Nakheel reached a number of milestones during the first half of 2016, including the opening of Dragon Mart 2 and the first of a series of expansions at Ibn Battuta Mall, a statement said.



Combined, these increased Nakheels existing retail portfolio by 35 per cent (1.1 million sq ft), bringing the current operational total to 4.2 million sq ft. Nakheel also opened its first hotel  a 251-room property attached to Dragon Mart 2 and managed by Accor  during H1 2016.



Nakheel is on target to officially open new neighbourhood community centres  known as Nakheel Pavilions  at International City, Al Furjan and Jumeirah Islands in the second half of 2016. The company continues to grow its portfolio of retail and residential leasing assets: around 12 million sq ft of leasable retail space and 19,000 residential leasing units are currently under development at various locations across Dubai including Palm Jumeirah, Deira Islands, Jumeirah Village and Warsan Village, it said.



Nakheel is set to hand over more residential units to customers during H2 2016, starting at Azure Residences on Palm Jumeirah, with handovers at Jumeriah Park, Jumeirah Islands, Al Furjan and Warsan Village to follow.



Nakheel chairman Ali Rashid Lootah said: Our encouraging half year results reflect investor confidence in Dubai and its real estate sector. Over the next six months we will build on these positive figures with further improvements and better results as we continue with our strategy of creating more cash-generating assets and strengthening our asset base.



As ever, we thank our investors and the Government of Dubai for their ongoing trust and support as we continue to execute our business plan, in turn contributing positively to Dubais real estate sector in line with the Governments 2021 vision. - TradeArabia News Service
Higher Corporation for Specialized Economic Zones (ZonesCorp), the largest developer of industrial zones in Abu Dhabi, has appointed Saeed Eissa Al Khyeli as its director general.



Al Khyeli, who formerly served as ZonesCorp acting chief executive officer, brings to the role an in-depth knowledge of economic laws and regulations. As Acting CEO, Al Khyeli managed and oversaw the setting of the companys objectives and operational plans, monitoring its Key Performance Indicators, and also developed the companys policies and financial regulations.



Al Khyeli is also a board member of the Environment Agency  Abu Dhabi.



Ali Majed Al Mansoori, Zonescorp chairman, said: I am pleased to announce the appointment of Saeed Eissa Al Khyeli as the director general of ZonesCorp and I am confident that he will contribute to the success of the organisation and to achieving our vision of being the preferred regional destination of choice for industrial investments by 2020.



"I also look forward to working with him on realizing the companys goals of developing and managing diversified and sustainable industrial zones in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, he said.



Al Khyeli joined the company in 2002 and has worked in a number of roles. Prior to taking on the acting CEO role, Al Khyeli served as financial and administration executive director at ZonesCorp.



Al Khyeli holds a Masters in Business Administration with honours, as well as a bachelors degree in Financial Accounting, both from the United Arab Emirates University.



ZonesCorp was established in 2004 for planning, developing, operating and promoting specialised economic zones and labour cities in Abu Dhabi in line with the economic vision of the emirate and its five-year economic plan.



ZonesCorp has developed five industrial zones with a total area of nearly 50 sq km, providing ideal environment for local and international industrial companies. More than 500 industrial projects are located within the corporations zones in Abu Dhabi and Al Ain.



In addition to the economic zones, the corporation, in partnership with the private sector, has developed 27 world class labours cities aiming to provide decent accommodation for industrial and construction workers. - TradeArabia News Service
Malaysia Airlines said on Wednesday it had ordered 50 Boeing 737 MAX jets, with firm orders for 25 and rights to purchase 25 more.



Deliveries will begin in 2019 and the deal is worth $5.5 billion at list prices, the full-service carrier said in a statement.



Airlines typically receive a discount off the list prices.



The 737 Max is the re-engined and upgraded variant of Boeing's popular narrow-body model.



The new planes will cut operating costs and their longer range will allow the airline to fly to more destinations, chief executive Peter Bellew said in a statement.



This is the first major decision by the ailing carrier since Bellew took over from former chief executive Christoph Mueller on July 1.



The new planes will replace some of the airline's 56 Boeing 737-800s, which have an average age of 4.1 years according to airfleets.net. Malaysia Airlines has been struggling since the disappearance of flight MH370 and shooting down of flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine, both in 2014. The national carrier was taken private by state-fund Khazanah Nasional Bhd following the twin disasters as part of a restructuring plan, which included a shrinking of its network. Since then, the airline has cancelled all non-stop flights to Europe except those to London and ended several low-yield Asia-Pacific services.



Bellew told reporters the airline was aiming to tap capital markets by March 2019, adding that he was confident it would break even in 2018.



He said with the new planes, costs would go down by 40 per cent and operating expenses would drop by 15 per cent.



MAS has retired its long-haul Boeing 777s and signed an agreement to lease four Airbus A350s, which have lower operating costs, from 2018.



Its focus, however, is on the Asian market and narrow-body planes like the 737, which are used on short-haul routes of up to five hours, will help with that.



"Malaysia Airlines is now on a path to growth across the ASEAN region," Bellew said, referring to the 10-member Association of South East Asian Nations.



"This new aircraft order will set the stage for our continued recovery and success into the next decade." - Reuters
Knife-wielding attackers interrupted a French church service, forced the priest to his knees and slit his throat on Tuesday, a murder made even more shocking as one of the assailants was a known would-be jihadist under supposedly tight surveillance.



As the attackers came out of the church shouting "Allahu akbar" ("God is Greatest") they were shot and killed by police.



The men arrived during morning mass in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, a working-class town near Rouen, northwest of Paris, where the 85-year-old parish priest, Father Jacques Hamel, was leading prayers.



"They forced him to his knees and he tried to defend himself and that's when the drama began," Sister Danielle, who escaped as the attackers slayed the priest, told RMC radio.



"They filmed themselves. It was like a sermon in Arabic around the altar," the nun said.



Three other worshippers were held hostage until the assailants were killed, one of them was badly wounded during the attack.



News agency Amaq, which is affiliated with Islamic State, a group France is bombing in Iraq and Syria as part of a U.S.-led coalition, said two of its "soldiers" had carried out the attack. Police said one person had been arrested.



France's anti-terrorism prosecutor Francois Molins identified one of the attackers as 19-year-old Adel Kermiche, a local man who was known to intelligence services after his failed bids to reach Syria to wage jihad.



Kermiche first tried to travel to Syria in March 2015 but was arrested in Germany. Upon his return to France he was placed under surveillance and barred from leaving his local area.



But less than two months later he slipped away and was intercepted in Turkey making his way towards Syria again.



He was sent back to France and detained until late March this year when he was released on bail. He had to wear an electronic tag, surrender his passport and was only allowed to leave his parents home for a few hours a day.



The fact that he was still able to commit the attack will raise yet more questions over the intelligence services and legal procedures in a country still under a state of emergency.



It is less than two weeks since a Tunisian ploughed a truck into a crowd in the French Riviera city of Nice, killing 84 people, an attack claimed by Islamic State.



"In the face of this threat that has never been greater in France and Europe, the government is absolutely determined (to defeat) terrorism," President Hollande said in a televised address.



The White House condemned the attack and commended the French police's "quick and decisive response."



"NORMAL TEENAGER"



One former school acquaintance remembered Kermiche as a normal teenager who became obsessed with hardline interpretations of the Koran after the attack on the satirical Charlie Hebdo magazine in January 2015 and would later urge his friends to "fight for our brothers".



"He tried to indoctrinate us," said the 18-year-old, who gave his name only as Redwan.



A horrified local resident, Cecile Lefebre, said: "I have no words. How do you arrive at this point, killing people in cold blood like this? It's pure barbarity."



Since the Bastille Day mass murder in Nice, there has been a spate of attacks in Germany, some of which also appear to be Islamist-inspired.



"In the face of this threat that has never been greater in France and Europe, the government is absolutely determined (to defeat) terrorism," Hollande said in a televised address.



MERCILESS



But former president Nicolas Sarkozy, who is expected to enter a conservative primary for next year's presidential election, accused the Socialist government of being soft.



"We must be merciless," Sarkozy said in a statement to reporters.



"The legal quibbling, precautions and pretexts for insufficient action are not acceptable. I demand that the government implement without delay the proposals we presented months ago. There is no more time to be wasted."



The centre-right opposition wants all Islamist suspects to be either held in detention or electronically tagged to avert potential attacks.



Far-right National Front leader Marine Le Pen, who is also expected to run for the presidency, said both Sarkozy's and Hollande's parties had failed on security.



"All those who have governed us for 30 years bear an immense responsibility. It's revolting to watch them bickering!" she tweeted.



Hollande said France should "use all its means" within the law to fight Islamic State.



Pope Francis condemned what he called a "barbarous killing".



"The fact that this episode took place in a church, killing a priest, a minister of the Lord and involving the faithful, is something that affects us profoundly," Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said.



In a telephone call with the pope, Hollande expressed "the sorrow of all French people after the heinous murder of Father Jacques Hamel by two terrorists," and said everything would be done to protect places of worship, the presidential palace said.



Jean-Pierre Raffarin, a former conservative prime minister who now heads the Senate's foreign affairs committee tweeted: "Everything is being done to trigger a war of religions."  Reuters
Most organisations are unprepared for future strains of more sophisticated ransomware, a report said, highlighting that fragile infrastructure, and slow detection rates are providing ample time and air cover for adversaries to operate.



The struggle to constrain the operational space of attackers is the biggest challenge facing businesses and threatens the underlying foundation required for digital transformation, according to the newly released 2016 Midyear Cybersecurity Report (MCR) by Cisco, a global networking leader.



Other key findings in the MCR include adversaries expanding their focus to server-side attacks, evolving attack methods and increasing use of encryption to mask activity.



So far in 2016, ransomware has become the most profitable malware type in history. Cisco expects to see this trend continue with even more destructive ransomware that can spread by itself and hold entire networks, and therefore companies, hostage.



New modular strains of ransomware will be able to quickly switch tactics to maximize efficiency. For example, future ransomware attacks will evade detection by being able to limit CPU usage and refrain from command-and-control actions. These new ransomware strains will spread faster and self-replicate within organizations before coordinating ransom activities.



As organizations capitalize on new business models presented by digital transformation, security is the critical foundation. Attackers are going undetected and expanding their time to operate. To close the attackers windows of opportunity, customers will require more visibility into their networks and must improve activities, like patching and retiring aging infrastructure lacking in advanced security capabilities, said Mike Weston, vice president, Cisco Middle East.



As attackers continue to monetize their strikes and create highly profitable business models, Cisco is working with our customers to help them match and exceed their attackers level of sophistication, visibility and control.



Visibility across the network and endpoints remains a primary challenge. On average, organizations take up to 200 days to identify new threats. Ciscos median time to detection (TTD) continues to outpace the industry, hitting a new low of approximately 13 hours to detect previously unknown compromises for the six months ending in April 2016.



This result is down from 17.5 hours for the period ending in October 2015. Faster time to detection of threats is critical to constrain attackers operational space and minimize damage from intrusions. This figure is based on opt-in security telemetry gathered from Cisco security products deployed worldwide.



As attackers innovate, many defenders continue to struggle with maintaining the security of their devices and systems. Unsupported and unpatched systems create additional opportunities for attackers to easily gain access, remain undetected, and maximize damage and profits.



The Cisco 2016 Midyear Cybersecurity Report shows that this challenge persists on a global scale. While organizations in critical industries such as healthcare have experienced a significant uptick in attacks over the past several months, the reports findings indicate that all vertical markets and global regions are being targeted.



Clubs and organizations, charities and non-governmental organization (NGOs), and electronics businesses have all experienced an increase in attacks in the first half of 2016. On the world stage, geopolitical concerns include regulatory complexity and contradictory cybersecurity policies by country. The need to control or access data may limit and conflict with international commerce in a sophisticated threat landscape.



Attackers operating unconstrained



For attackers, more time to operate undetected results in more profits. In the first half of 2016, Cisco reports, attacker profits have skyrocketed due to the following:



Expanding Focus: Attackers are broadening their focus from client-side to server-side exploits, avoiding detection and maximizing potential damage and profits.



 Adobe Flash vulnerabilities continue to be one of the top targets for malvertising and exploit kits. In the popular Nuclear exploit kit, Flash accounted for 80 per cent of successful exploit attempts.

 Cisco also saw a new trend in ransomware attacks exploiting server vulnerabilities  specifically within JBoss servers  of which, 10 percent of Internet-connected JBoss servers worldwide were found to be compromised. Many of the JBoss vulnerabilities used to compromise these systems were identified five years ago, meaning that basic patching and vendor updates could have easily prevented such attacks.



Evolving Attack Methods: During the first half of 2016, adversaries continued to evolve their attack methods to capitalize on defenders lack of visibility.



 Windows Binary exploits rose to become the top web attack method over the last six months. This method provides a strong foothold into network infrastructures and makes these attacks harder to identify and remove.



 During this same timeframe, social engineering via Facebook scams dropped to second from the top spot in 2015.



Covering Tracks: Contributing to defenders visibility challenges, adversaries are increasing their use of encryption as a method of masking various components of their operations.



 Cisco saw an increased use of cryptocurrency, Transport Layer Security and Tor, which enables anonymous communication across the web.



 Significantly, HTTPS-encrypted malware used in malvertising campaigns increased by 300 percent from December 2015 through March 2016. Encrypted malware further enables adversaries to conceal their web activity and expand their time to operate.



Defenders Struggle to Reduce Vulnerabilities, Close Gaps



In the face of sophisticated attacks, limited resources and aging infrastructure, defenders are struggling to keep pace with their adversaries. Data suggests defenders are less likely to address adequate network hygiene, such as patching, the more critical the technology is to business operations. For example:



 In the browser space, Google Chrome, which employs auto-updates, has 75 to 80 percent of users using the newest version of the browser, or one version behind.



 When we shift from looking at browsers to software, Java sees slow migrations with one-third of the systems examined running Java SE 6, which is being phased out by Oracle (the current version is SE 10).



 In Microsoft Office 2013, version 15x, 10 percent or less of the population of a major version are using the newest service pack version.



In addition, Cisco found that much of their infrastructure was unsupported or operating with known vulnerabilities. This problem is systemic across vendors and endpoints. Specifically, Cisco researchers examined 103,121 Cisco devices connected to the Internet and found that:



 Each device on average was running 28 known vulnerabilities.



 Devices were actively running known vulnerabilities for an average of 5.64 years.



 More than 9 percent have known vulnerabilities older than 10 years.



In comparison, Cisco also looked across software infrastructure at a sample of over 3 million installations. The majority were Apache and OpenSSH with an average number of 16 known vulnerabilities, running for an average of 5.05 years.



Browser updates are the lightest-weight updates for endpoints, while enterprise applications and server-side infrastructure are harder to update and can cause business continuity problems. In essence, the more critical an application is to business operations, the less likely it is to be addressed frequently, creating gaps and opportunities for attackers.



Cisco advises simple steps to protect business environments



Ciscos Talos researchers have observed that organizations that take just a few simple yet significant steps can greatly enhance the security of their operations, including:

 Improve network hygiene, by monitoring the network; deploying patches and upgrades on time; segmenting the network; implementing defences at the edge, including email and web security, Next-Generation Firewalls and Next-Generation IPS.



 Integrate defences, by leveraging an architectural approach to security versus deploying niche products.



 Measure time to detection, insist on fastest time available to uncover threats then mitigate against them immediately. Make metrics part of organizational security policy going forward.



 Protect your users everywhere they are and wherever they work, not just the systems they interact with and when they are on the corporate network.



 Back up critical data, and routinely test their effectiveness while confirming that back-ups are not susceptible to compromise.  TradeArabia News Service
Fashion Forward Dubai (FFWD), the regions definitive fashion platform, has announced the launch of Empowerment Program through Industry Collaboration (Epic), an empowerment programme that provides business development opportunities to regional fashion talent through a series of initiatives.



In collaboration with Samsung Electronics MEena, Epic will deliver a calendar of events, workshops, sponsorship opportunities, influencer and scholarship programs, all made possible through the synergetic collaboration with industry partners who strive to achieve similar objectives.



The MENA Design Outlook, a report issued by DDFC, supported by d3 and in collaboration with Deloitte, found that the regions design industry is witnessing considerable growth, particularly in the fashion sector. However, to reach optimal level a series of gaps must be addressed including links between industry and academia, multi-disciplinary programs, access to investors and customers, as well as regional and international visibility. The empowerment programme is designed to bridge these gaps by engaging several layers of the industry in order to break down barriers faced by regional designers entering the fashion and retail landscape, thereby streamlining their path to greater commercial viability.



Ramzi Nakad, COO and co-founder of FFWD said, Building upon the success of Fashion Forward Dubai which has catapulted regional designers to attain international and regional visibility, Epic is designed to nurture talents, working as a catalyst for creatives to benefit from sought after industry resources while developing the skills and know-how needed to progress in an ever-growing and highly competitive landscape. Amplified through an extensive network of stakeholders and professionals, exposure opportunities and digital innovation rooted in the strategic partnership with Samsung, EPIC will promote the sustainability of the regional fashion economy and forge healthy competition.



Epic is a programme we at Samsung are particularly excited about. When we collaborated with FFWD, we did it with the aim of enabling the rapidly growing fashion industry in the region. Today, we are taking this goal to a new level by elevating the support through comprehensive industry collaboration, said Abdo Chlala, regional head of IT and Mobile Division at Samsung Mena. We look forward to working with multiple stakeholders to propel the regions most creative designers to greater success through the convergence of technology and fashion.



In 2016, Epic will focus on five key initiatives with the aim of maximising exposure, fostering partnerships, creating business and higher education opportunities, and offering practical tools that will enhance the brand.



A series of workshops will equip designers in the region with invaluable knowledge delivered by industry professionals and stakeholders. Topics of conversation include the advent of digital buying behavior and its impact on designer distribution strategies, how to leverage social media content and collaborations, and how to create stylized runway presentations using cutting edge trends that currently influence the industry.



Exposure opportunities, brokered by Epic, will facilitate partnerships between key influencers and FFWD designers, accessory and jewelry labels. In addition, selected regional designers will benefit from prestigious university scholarship opportunities to attend Master Level courses at Domus Academy in Milan, so they can further enhance their knowledge and skills.



Participants of the Epic programme will also benefit from regional and international exposure to the whos who of the fashion world at FFWDs showroom space in Paris during Paris Fashion Week, and in Dubai during FFWD Season 8. Further benefits from retail opportunities at Pop Up Stores located in commercial spaces across the region will also play a role in facilitating the reputation of fashion designers in the region.



Further information, event details and activity schedules will be announced soon, FFWD said in a statement. - TradeArabia News Service
Tesla Motors chief executive Elon Musk said on Tuesday that the company's Model 3 could generate $20 billion in revenue per year and an annual gross profit of about $5 billion.



A "modest capital raise" could be needed to fund Tesla's strategic plans, and new products in the plan could cost "tens of billions" over time, Musk said at a press conference at the official unveiling of Tesla's battery "gigafactory" near Reno, Nevada.



Last week Musk unveiled an ambitious plan to expand the company into electric trucks and buses, car sharing and solar energy systems.



Tesla has taken 373,000 orders for the Model 3, which has a starting price of $35,000, about half its Model S. It has said it would begin customer deliveries in late 2017.  Reuters
Foreign engineering companies have bid to build Saudi Aramco's clean fuels project at the state oil giant's Ras Tanura refinery, industry sources told Reuters.

The bid deadline was July 17 for the $2 billion-plus scheme which will remove sulphur from refined oil products and is part of a drive by the kingdom to meet stricter environmental standards in export markets.

The project is split into two packages, one which includes the clean fuels units and the other for the supporting utilities and offsites.

Companies which bid for both packages, sources said, were Japan's JGC, South Korea's GS, Hyundai Engineering and Construction and Samsung Engineering and Spains Tecnicas Reunidas.

Companies that only bid for the utilities and offsites package were UK's Petrofac and India's Larsen and Toubro.

Saudi Aramco does not discuss ongoing business plans, it said in response to a Reuters emailed query.

Both Samsung Engineering and Hyundai Engineering & Construction confirmed they had bid for both packages but declined to give other details.

A spokesman for JGC in Yokohama said the company is interested in the project, but declined to comment on whether or not it bid.

Petrofac and GS Engineering & Construction Corp declined to comment.

Tecnicas Reunidas declined to comment while Larsen and Toubro did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.

The Ras Tanura project, including a naphtha hydrotreater, was to be part of a second phase of upgrades to Aramco's refineries and was originally due to go on stream in 2016.

There had been fears the project would be scrapped, part of a long list of schemes scrapped by global oil majors which have been paring back investments to cope with lower oil prices.

This was not helped by the fact there have been at least three rounds of bidding for the project.

However, Saudi Aramco has said it is proceeding with its key projects. Chief executive Amin Nasser saying last week it was evaluating the project at its largest and oldest oil refinery in Ras Tanura.

Last week, Aramco signed deals to build a 50-billion riyal ($13.33 billion) plus gas project in Fadhili and has said more projects are in the pipeline to keep up with growing gas demand needs for power generation and industry. -- Reuters
Marka, the first public stock retail operator in the UAE, has announced the launch of the first Vicolo restaurant in the UAE.



Pioneering an Italian street food concept, the restaurant, a home-grown concept conceived by the Marka Hospitality Team, will open in Dubai Design District (d3). The inception of Vicolo will pave the way for many other outlets that will soon open across the Emirates, including the second opening of the restaurant in December 2016 at La Mer  the exclusive beachfront development by Meraas featuring spectacular views of the Arabian Sea.



Italian for a narrow city street, Vicolo will recreate the magical, bustling, lively, social culture of Italian street dining, through a focus on authentic regional recipes in a rustic setting. With indoor seating extending to 81 people and an outdoor capacity for 22 more, its menu will be an ode to secret recipes passed down through generations, designed for either a quick meal or a take-away, in true street food style.



The d3 venue is a homage to the Italian city streets, expressed through urban decorations incorporating genuine Italian artefacts and street pieces imported from the country which will, alongside its delicious menu, contribute towards a true recreation of the world-famous Italian street food experience. Even the most discerning of diners would acknowledge that to experience a perfect stuzzichini or pasta, there is no better place to go than those small roadside cafes and stalls for a variety of original and genuine flavours.



Marka Group CEO, Nick Peel said: The opening of Vicolo is a perfect fit for Marka and stands squarely beside its extensive portfolio of premium international sports, fashion and hospitality brands. Its first restaurant has been established in the innovative design epicentre of d3, which has a hospitable business environment and a savvy customer base keen to try new concepts. Were confident that Vicolo will prove to be an astounding success as we continue to open more branches across the UAE.



Marka Hospitality managing director Hesham Al Mekkawi said: We are delighted to announce the opening of the first Italian street food restaurant in the UAE. We have a menu with truly exemplary dishes which reflects our understanding of Italian flavours and culture, developed by our Italian head chef. We are certain that Vicolo will rapidly become a must-dine culinary destination for UAE diners, with an authentic and exciting menu full of flavour, which combines with a bold and striking interior design theme and style, to take diners on a culinary journey to the Italian side streets. It is a great addition to Markas portfolio of exciting dining concepts, and is perfectly positioned to satisfy a growing demand for original and real dining experiences. - TradeArabia News Service
A woman who wanted to stop her husband boarding a plane at Geneva has admitted making a false bomb threat, prosecutors said on Wednesday, after hours of tightened security that caused traffic chaos around the airport on the French-Swiss border.



"Yesterday in the evening, a woman called Swiss customs at Geneva airport. She said that today a person carrying a bomb would be in the French sector of the airport," the Geneva prosecutor's office said in a statement.

The Swiss authorities traced the number to Annecy in France, some 45 kms from Geneva, where French police raided an address.



"They found a woman who admitted to having made the call and explained that she wanted thereby to prevent her husband from leaving," the statement said.



Criminal proceedings have been opened against the woman, who was not identified, in both France and Switzerland, it said.



The hoax call caused French and Swiss police to massively scale up security at Geneva's Cointrin airport, which straddles the border.



Officers armed with machine guns were on duty around the airport, and vehicles were stopped on approach roads so that police could check people's papers, causing long tailbacks.



Most entrances to the airport were closed. Passengers were channelled through a few doors where heavily armed police again checked identity documents. But airport officials said the airport was open and functioning normally, despite the delays.



"We have received information that is serious enough to put in place preventive controls here at Geneva airport. We cannot give details of staffing numbers, nor on the information we have received, for obvious reasons of security," a Geneva canton police spokeswoman said before the alert was lifted.



Airport spokesman Bertrand Staempfli advised passengers to arrive early because of the extra checks but said there were no serious problems with access.



Security was also heightened on the French side of the border. France itself is on high alert after a series of Islamist militant attacks, including the killing on Tuesday of a Catholic priest during a church service in northern France by knife-wielding assailants.



The Tribune de Geneve paper said one of the assailants in that case was arrested at Geneva airport last year while trying to travel to Syria and was later extradited to France. - Reuters
The St. Regis Abu Dhabi, a luxurious property in the UAE capital, has appointed Erwin Rachim as its new chief concierge.



An Indonesian national, Rachim brings to the hotel over 16 years hospitality experience including 10 years specialising in concierge in the Middle East.



He is also a of the Les Clefs dOr, an association of the worlds top professional hotel concierge, and is just one of just 39 Les Clefs dOr members in the UAE.



Throughout his career Rachim has worked for a variety of esteemed hospitality companies including Sofitel, Radisson Blu, Jumeirah and Ramada. He holds a Rooms Division Diploma from Hotel & Tourism Training Academy Makassar in Indonesia as well as a Travel and Tourism Diploma and a Marketing and Promotion Diploma from Cambridge International.



It has been a dream of mine to work for St. Regis, said Rachim. I love being able to make someones day, make life easier for them, exceed their expectations  it really is my passion." - TradeArabia News Service
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 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 through Thursday. 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.

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.

Jonah Bank celebrates 10 years

Jonah Bank of Wyoming has been building a better Wyoming for 10 years. Come celebrate with us. Caspers celebration will take place from 4 to 7 p.m., on Thursday, August 11, at Jonah Bank on the Platte River (777 West First Street).

Jonah Bank of Wyoming was established in 2006 and continues to build a better Wyoming through support of Wyoming small businesses and their employees. The bank strongly believes in old fashioned, relationship-based banking where your banker is your neighbor, friend and most importantly, your partner in growing your business. Jonah Bank is dedicated to the communities it serves, with two locations in Casper (777 West First Street and 3730 East Second Street) and two in Cheyenne (2015 Central Avenue and 205 Storey Boulevard).

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.
A Texas man will serve three days in jail and pay fines for carving his initials into the historic Roosevelt Arch in Yellowstone National Park.

Dakota D. Tipton, 26, of Joshua, Texas, was sentenced Tuesday by U.S. Magistrate Judge Mark Carman, according to a news release. He appeared before the court at the Justice Center in Mammoth Hot Springs by phone.

On June 10, park dispatch received a report that a man was carving his initials into the keystone above a small walkway that passes through Roosevelt Arch. The iconic stone structure stands over the parks north entrance outside Gardiner, Montana.

When contacted by law enforcement officers, Tipton admitted to using a multi-tool to carve into the arch, according to the release. He called it a bad decision. Officers issued him a citation for vandalism.

Let this unfortunate act be a reminder to all that the cultural treasures of Yellowstone National Park require our care and protection to ensure that generations to come will enjoy their presence on the landscape, Yellowstone National Park Deputy Superintendent Steve Iobst said in the release.

Tipton will likely serve his jail sentence near his home in Texas. The U.S. Marshal Service or Bureau of Prisons will select the location. He was also ordered to pay $250 in restitution for repairs and $40 in court fees.

Roosevelt Arch was dedicated by President Theodore Roosevelt, who laid the cornerstone on April 24, 1903, and welcomed early Yellowstone visitors who arrived in Gardiner on the Northern Pacific Railroad. The arch is part of the Fort Yellowstone National Historic Landmark District.

The keystone of the central arch is engraved with the words, For the benefit and enjoyment of the people.
A University of Wyoming professor has been hired as dean of Yale Universitys School of Forestry and Environmental Studies.

Ingrid C. Burke, who has been director of the Haub School of Environment and Natural Resources at UW since 2008, will start at Yale in October.

Burke said she loves the impact the Haub School has had on natural resources decisions in Wyoming and the West. She hopes the position at Yale will allow her to be involved in similar types of decisions on a global scale.

I think I can help bring some of that real-world problem solving certainly to the education at Yale and hopefully to some of their outreach efforts as well, Burke said. It was hard to resist.

Burke is an ecosystem ecologist with a focus on semi-arid rangelands, according to her website.

The lack of open spaces is going to be a problem, frankly, for me, Burke said. Im going to try and capitalize on the water.

Yales statement noted that the Haub School was one of the top Western academic institutions focusing on natural resources and said Burke had helped build the schools global reputation.

She is a respected intellectual leader in the United States and internationally, Yale president Peter Salovey said in the release.

Burke received her doctoral degree in botany from the University of Wyoming and said she hopes to foster connections between UW and Yale.

I love everything about the state, the people, Burke said. I dont expect to leave Wyoming behind.
MEETEETSE  Long gone from these parts, black-footed ferrets still appear on Meeteetses town logo, in a bronze sculpture downtown and even on coffee mugs from a downtown restaurant, remembered for when the nocturnal weasels made their last stand in the nearby sagebrush hills.

On Tuesday, they made their triumphant return, as biologists released 35 captive-raised ferrets on two local ranches.

The release brought full circle a story that began in 1981, when a ranch dog named Shep brought home a dead black-footed ferret and let the world know the species wasnt extinct after all. Five years later, biologists captured the areas remaining wild ferrets for a successful captive-breeding program that since the 1990s has released hundreds of ferrets.

Its only fitting that we bring ferrets back to the place where they were last discovered, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service spokesman Ryan Moehring said Monday. This is a reintroduction unlike any other.

The Fish and Wildlife Service breeds black-footed ferrets at a facility near Fort Collins, Colorado. There, the young ferrets go through a boot camp where they learn how to hunt prairie dogs, their primary prey.

Ferrets have been released at 24 sites in Wyoming, Montana, Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, South Dakota, Arizona and Kansas, as well as Canada and Mexico. Recent release sites include the Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge near Denver last fall.

In Wyoming, black-footed ferrets were reintroduced to the Shirley Basin south of Casper in 1991. Additional animals have been released in the basin several times since.

Tuesdays event was the first ferret release in Wyoming in almost a decade. Last year, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service designated all of Wyoming as a zone for experimental, non-essential populations of black-footed ferrets.

The designation protects ranchers and landowners in case they accidentally harm any ferrets released on their property. More ranchers will agree to such releases if they are less worried about getting in trouble, the thinking goes.

The Lazy BV and Pitchfork ranches near Meeteetse, where the last wild ferrets were captured in the 1980s, have agreed to host ferrets once again in prairie dog colonies covering thousands of acres. Biologists flocked to the area after the ferret discovery, recalled Meeteetse Mayor J.W. Yetter, who worked in the local logging industry at the time.

There was a whole crew of university people and wildlife biologists in training quartered up at the timber creek ranger station. They were the ones charged with tracking, capturing, radio collaring and generally discovering the extent of that colony and getting biologic information about the members of that colony, Yetter said.

The Fish and Wildlife Service showed off the ferrets  and an older, ambassador ferret named Two Bit who doesnt get to be released  at Meeteetse School, where a crowd gathered Tuesday afternoon. Officials planned to screen a video of the actual release back in town later in the evening.

There seems to be a lot of excitement about it, Yetter said.

Biologists also have been preparing for the big day, treating vast colonies of prairie dogs with an experimental plague vaccine and insecticide to kill off fleas. Plague, a disease transmitted by fleas, can wipe out prairie dogs by the thousand.

Black-footed ferrets prey on prairie dogs, and wildlife officials want to do all they can to make sure the reintroduced ferrets have plenty of food, said Zack Walker, a Wyoming Game and Fish Department biologist.

You basically just spray it inside the burrow, a little bit in each burrow to reduce the flea load, Walker said.

Wildlife managers hope to treat 5,000 acres of prairie dog colonies on the Lazy BV and Pitchfork ranches with insecticide this summer.
Editor:

If it werent for the fact that Audrey Cotherman is running for the Wyoming Legislature to provide some common sense in that august body, I would be more disappointed that she is no longer writing her column in the Casper Journal.

I especially enjoyed a recent column in which she touched a nerve when she wrote about her own weakness for saving things and never throwing anything out lest it might come in handy someday. How well I could relate to that!

But Im willing to forego the enjoyment of reading her columns, at least for a while, if she can take some of her good ideas to the Legislature  ideas like helping more people get better health care by expanding Medicaid. After all, the majority of Wyomingites approve of that  why not the Legislature?

While its nice to see her columns in the paper, its more important to have a person like Audrey representing us. She will bring a fresh perspective to the House of Representatives. I urge residents in House District 57 to vote for Audrey Cotherman.
MEETEETSE, Wyo.  Long gone from these parts, black-footed ferrets still appear on Meeteetse's town logo, in a bronze sculpture downtown and even on coffee mugs from a downtown restaurant, remembered for when the nocturnal weasels made their last stand in the nearby sagebrush hills.

They're set to make a triumphant return.

On Tuesday, following a bit of ferret carnival at a school in Meeteetse, biologists planned to release 35 black-footed ferrets raised in captivity on two local ranches. The release will complete the circle of a story that began in 1981, when a ranch dog named Shep brought home a dead black-footed ferret and let the world know the species wasn't extinct after all.

Five years later, biologists captured the area's remaining wild ferrets for a successful captive-breeding program that since the 1990s has released hundreds of ferrets.

Now, those descendants of Meeteetse's ferrets will return to Meeteetse at last.

"It's only fitting that we bring ferrets back to the place where they were last discovered," U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service spokesman Ryan Moehring said Monday. "This is a reintroduction unlike any other."

The Fish and Wildlife Service breeds black-footed ferrets at a facility near Fort Collins, Colorado. There, the young ferrets go through a "boot camp" where they learn how to catch prairie dogs.

Ferrets have been released at 24 sites in Wyoming, Montana, Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, South Dakota, Arizona and Kansas, as well as Canada and Mexico. Recent release sites include the Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge near Denver last fall.

In Wyoming, black-footed ferrets were reintroduced in the sparsely populated Shirley Basin in the southeast part of the state in 1991. They've been released in the basin several times since.

This will be the first ferret release in Wyoming in almost a decade. Last year, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service designated all of Wyoming as a zone for "experimental, non-essential" populations of black-footed ferrets.

The designation indemnifies ranchers in case they accidentally harm any ferrets released on their property. More ranchers will agree to such releases if they are less worried about getting in trouble, the thinking goes.

The Lazy BV and Pitchfork ranches, where black-footed ferrets lived in the Meeteetse area, have agreed to host ferrets once again in prairie dog colonies covering thousands of acres. Biologists flocked to the area after the ferret discovery, recalled Meeteetse Mayor J.W. Yetter, who worked in the local logging industry at the time.
MAKE-BELIEVE BARON ENDS LIFE AT LOCAL SANITARIUM

Correspondence Regarding Proposed South Sea Island Trip Shows Nevada, Ia., Youth Planned to Travel as Peer  Ill Health Probable Cause

No cause aside from continued ill health could be discovered for the suicide of Benjamin W. Eckels, of Nevada, Ia., who shot himself twice through the heart in his private bathroom at the Tucson-Arizona sanitarium at 10:15 yesterday evening.

Icicles appeared to be all right during the day and patients and nurses at the hospital did not notice anything peculiar about his behavior. He spent the greater part of the day reading and after 9 oclock went to lie down on his bed on the porch onto which his room opened.

About 10:15 oclock Miss Alice Frantz, a nurse, was awakened by the sound of a shot from the bathroom. She heard a groan and then immediately another shot. She aroused Mrs. Harrison, another nurse, and they hurried to the bathroom but found the door locked. They then went outside and looked through the window into the lighted bathroom and found Eckels lying on the floor in a pool of blood, dead. He was dressed in palm beach trousers, and shirt and had slippers on his feet.

Coroner Comstock was notified and with Sheriff Forbes went to the scene of the suicide and made a complete investigation. Icicles was about 18 to 20 years of age and had been at the sanitarium for two months, living at St. Marys before that time. He was a quiet fellow and never talked much, the nurses said, but always paid his bills promptly and appeared to have plenty of money.

He did the shooting with a 38-caliber special Colts revolver, a new weapon that had never been fired before and which he had evidently purchased for the purpose. Three shells, two of them empty, were found in the gun.

Icicles had evidently stood facing the small bathroom window and fired twice in rapid succession, falling backwards. Apparently, he died almost instantly.

There was nothing left by Eckels to indicate the cause of his act. A letter was found addressed to Siuster Annie Josephs, of St. Marys hospital. It is expected that this letter, when opened, will throw some light on the cause of the suicide.

Icicles had intended to go Los Angeles Friday, so he told Dr. Mead Clyne, his physician. A letter was found in his trunk from the Where-To-Go travel bureau addressed to Baron Benj. Wadsworth Eckels in regard to a proposed trip to Australia, Tasmania and the South Sea Islands. It was evident from the letter that Eckels intended to assume the title of Baron on the trip. It was stated by the company that they had communicated already with the governor of Tasmania in regard to his visit.

A report car from the Nevada high school for 1912 was found in the trunk.It was evident from articles found in the room that he had resided at Albuquerque before coming to Tucson.

His parents, Mr. and Mrs. F. J. Eckels, reside at Nevada, Ia. A postcard to him from his brother, F. J. Eckels, Jr., was found. It was mailed from Sapulpa, Oklahoma, in 1912, when he was living at Nevada.

The remains were removed to the Parker Undertaking company rooms and his father notified by wire. Although the inquest may disclose some other motive, it was believed yesterday evening that the suicide of the young man was due to ill health, heart trouble and tuberculosis.
Several Tucson businesses and homes were raided by authorities Wednesday morning, as part of a multi-city operation with the DEA targeting the synthetic drug "spice," officials said.

Officials served 32 federal search warrants in Tucson, Denver and Long Beach, California, and 18 people were arrested, said Erica Curry, a spokeswoman with the Drug Enforcement Administration. It's unclear how many of those arrests were in Tucson.

"The DEA led multiple enforcement operations in Tucson and the surrounding area this morning as part of a long-term federal investigation involving the sales and distribution of synthetic cannabinoids, also known as "spice," Curry said.

More than $350,000 in cash, 600 pounds of synthetic cannabinoids and several luxury vehicles were seized in the raids. In addition, law enforcement was able to dismantle a possible spice lab, she said.

Those arrested will be facing federal charges, Curry said.

The effects of synthetic cannabinoids range from feelings of euphoria to altered perception and psychosis, according to the National Institute of Drug Abuse. They can also lead to violent behavior and suicidal thoughts.

Since May 1, the Tucson Fire Department has responded to 192 calls for spice overdoses, said Capt. Barrett Baker, a department spokesman. In June and July of 2015, the department reported 60 calls for spice overdoses.

Baker said it's an "ebb and flow" from month-to-month, with slower months averaging 30 calls. But, the monthly average of spice overdoses recently has been upward of 65 per month.

This operation will be instrumental in restoring the quality of life for the neighborhoods impacted by the effects of the spice epidemic," said Tucson Police Chief Chris Magnus, whose officers also took part in the raids.

More than 100 federal, state and local law enforcement officers assisted in the operation, Curry said.

The DEA did not list where the raids took place, but federal agents and local law enforcement officers were seen raiding the Chihuahua Market on South 12th Avenue near West Irvington Road. Tucson police officers and Border Patrol agents were seen outside the Blue Moon Smoke Shop in the 4300 block of South Sixth Avenue.

Meanwhile, Tucson City Councilman Steve Kozachik said he would ask the council to consider a ban on the sale of the substances, which are often sold as "incense" or "potpourri." His request is already backed by a second member of the Council, Regina Romero.

Calling the various substances "nasty" drugs that ruins lives, Kozachik says he wants to give law enforcement the tools to curb its use.

"Law enforcement is like a cat chasing it's tail trying to keep up with how the stuff is manufactured. We owe it to residents, public safety and public health workers to craft as broad an ordinance as we can so anybody caught selling or distributing these synthetic drugs are busted," he said.

In a memo to staff, Kozachik suggest a potential ban on the sale, distribution, or possession with the intent to sell spice or any related products.
Three people were killed and four injured in a rollover crash on Interstate 10 near Willcox early Tuesday, officials said.

Seven people in a silver SUV were thrown from the vehicle in the wreck, said Trooper Kameron Lee of the Arizona Department of Public Safety. None were wearing seat belts, he said.

All were male  five were adults and two were teen-agers.

A motorist reported the crash shortly before 3:30 a.m.

The SUV was traveling west on I-10 when it went off the interstate into the median and rolled, Lee said.

The driver, age 20, was pronounced dead at the scene. A 25-year-old died en route to Banner-University Medical Center Tucson, and a 17-year-old died at the hospital, said Lee.

A 51-year-old and a 39-year-old were transported to Banner-UMC Tucson.

Three of the victims, who left the scene, were found about a half-mile away from the crash site, and were transported to a hospital to be treated for their injuries.

Two, ages 16 and 19, were taken to Northern Cochise Community Hospital in Willcox. The third in the group was the man, age 25, who died en route to Banner-UMC Tucson.

Border Patrol agents helped locate the injured by tracking their footprints, Lee said. He said he did not know if the injured or deceased were undocumented immigrants.

"We are trying to find out who they are so we can notify their next of kin," said Lee, adding that investigators were not able to interview all the survivors yet because of their injuries.

The investigation is continuing, Lee said.

The crash closed eastbound I-10 lanes for about 90 minutes.
Seven of TUSD's high schools marching bands took to the field at Pueblo High School to strut their stuff for each other, October 26, 2022.
PHOENIX  Tribes are apprehensive, cities are more upbeat and farmers stand somewhere in between over a proposed plan to cut CAP water deliveries to keep Lake Mead from falling to dangerously low levels.

At separate meetings here this week, tribal officials, attorneys and irrigation officials grilled Central Arizona Project officials about the proposal. It would require a 33 percent cut in water deliveries once the lake dropped another 4 or 5 feet below where its expected to be at the end of this year, and cuts of up to 40 percent later. City officials, who stand at the top of the priority list for CAP water, asked few questions.

The drought-contingency plan is being discussed by Arizona, California and Nevada as a way to avert catastrophic cuts later.

Some tribes are concerned because they agreed in water-rights settlements many years ago to give up their historic rights to other water supplies and take CAP water to compensate.

Farmers would take by far the largest share of the cuts at first. An attorney for four irrigation districts made it clear at the farmers meeting with CAP on Tuesday that they want access to other water supplies or money to compensate for their water losses.

Arizona Department of Water Resources officials hope to get all interest groups on board for the drought plan in a series of meetings starting next month, and to take the plan to the Legislature in early 2017. California and Nevada officials also must approve the plan. Congress would have to give the U.S. interior secretary the ability to OK it. The plan would take effect by 2018.

Heres an overview of whats proposed :

CAP reductions

Under current guidelines, the CAP will lose 320,000 acre-feet  about 20 percent of its supply, and enough to serve roughly 600,000 homes for a year  when the lake drops below 1,075 feet . Thats unlikely to happen this winter, but could by 2018. Even a 2018 shortage might be forestalled because the project has left 200,000 acre-feet of its water in the lake for the past two years, project officials said.

Once shortages start, theyll escalate to 400,000 and ultimately 480,000 acre-feet as the lake drops to 1,050 and 1,025 feet, respectively.

Under the proposed plan, the project would lose 200,000 acre-feet a year at first, before Mead hits 1,075. Then the cuts would hit 520,000 acre-feet a year. At 1,025 feet, around 720,000 acre-feet would be cut.

The Colorado River is in a fragile state due to years of drought, CAP general manager Ted Cooke told the farmers gathering Tuesday. Its delicate. It doesnt mean critical. It doesnt mean its beyond hope. It still will respond to some care from us.

If the states dont approve a plan, the interior secretary will decide what happens when Mead drops below 1,025 feet, Cooke said.

Thats something nobody wants, Cooke said.

Tribal losses

Historically, tribes and cities stood at the end of the line for major cuts in CAP deliveries. But in more recent water-rights settlements, tribes, including the Tohono OOdham, have taken blocks of what had been called non-Indian agricultural CAP water that once belonged to farmers.

That water is subject to cuts in deliveries much sooner, particularly under the new drought-contingency plan. Plus, state officials have said theyd like to strike a grand bargain among all users, having tribes and cities give up some water to spread the pain around.

Officials with the Gila River Indian Community, by far the largest CAP water holder, were noncommital . Tribal attorney Jason Hauter said the tribe could be substantially affected by CAP cuts, particularly since it has rights to more than half the non-Indian agricultural water. The Gila River community is still open to discussion  it doesnt know what other stakeholders are thinking, he said.

Another tribal attorney, Joe Sparks, wasnt sympathetic to tribal CAP cuts. He represents the San Carlos and Tonto Apache tribes.

My view has been for the entire time Ive been in Arizona since 1961, that the state is not living within its means. It promotes growth but it doesnt have the water to sustain that growth without retiring agriculture entirely, which I dont think is a good idea, Sparks said.

In water-rights struggles that led to congressionally approved settlements, tribes had the choice of taking water from local sources such as the Santa Cruz and Gila river basins that were already overcommitted, or taking CAP water that wasnt being used much, he said.

Now, other users are implying that to be fair, the Indians should take some share of the reduction in Colorado River supplies, when they already took reductions in accepting CAP, he said.  Were asking you to be a good sport and chip in, is what theyre saying, when the whole state needs to look at its entire supply.

Tribes have been frustrated over water issues because they werent allowed at the table for the three-state Colorado River negotiations, and arent represented on Gov. Doug Duceys new Water Augmentation Council, said Robyn Interpreter, attorney for the Pascua-Yaqui Tribe and the Yavapai-Apache Nation.

If cuts are made in tribal CAP supplies, tribes such as the Gila and Oodham that made water-rights settlements could end up suing on the grounds that settlements were breached, she said.

At the same time, Were always hopeful that folks would listen to the tribes. We think we could come up with good, collaborative results, she said.

Farms

Farmers dont want the entire burden of protecting the lake and river, said Paul Orme, an attorney for four irrigation districts, speaking after Tuesdays meeting. But it appears the impacts on farms would be sped up under the drought-contingency plan because more of whats now in the agricultural CAP pool would be cut off when Lake Mead drops below 1,075 feet.

The main purpose of this plan is to protect the long-term allocations of cities and tribes, Orme said.

The farms hope for access to alternative water supplies that are being stored and not slated for direct use for 40 or 50 years, he said. It could be municipal or tribal water, commonly known as in lieu water, thats stored underground and earns credits that allow its owners to pump groundwater elsewhere.

If we cant find the water, or ADWR and CAP cant find the water, there may be some form of economic mitigation through helping fund conservation on farms, Orme said. This whole plan is not meant to protect agricultural supplies. It poses additional threats to us.

In the short run, farmers understand that keeping water in Mead now prevents the lake from dropping below 1,075 feet, he said, and we see that as a favorable outcome.

Its way too early to say we absolutely oppose this, or support it, he said.
A Tucson man was sentenced to nearly 26 years in prison for sexually abusing a relative, authorities said.

Pima County Superior Court Judge Casey McGinley sentenced Lee Holman Lacey to 25.75 years for sexual abuse and aggravated assault of a minor.

A jury convicted Lacey of the charges on June 17, according to the Pima County Attorney's Office.

McGinley found that Lacey had eight prior felony offenses. Lacey was sentenced to the Arizona Department of Corrections.
The firings of two Tucson police officers have been upheld by the Civil Service Commission, while another officer was reinstated to the force, records show.

The commission, a citizen panel that reviews the appeals of terminated city employees, has heard three cases involving Tucson police officers in the first half of 2016.

Firing upheld

On April 7, the panel reviewed the case of Jaime Gutierrez, who was fired from the Tucson Police Department in January, after an internal-affairs probe determined that he lied to superiors and violated a number of other department policies, according to the citys record of minutes from the meeting.

In May 2015, Gutierrez was called to investigate a domestic violence assault case that started at a business, records show.

Gutierrez located a pair matching the description provided by the 911 caller, and applied force on the man while detaining him, according to the records.

TPD policy dictates that after applying force using hard hand control, an officer must report it to a superior, according to the department handbook.

Gutierrez didnt contact his supervisor within the allotted 30 minutes and waited until the man was released without being charged, city records show.

The other officers at the scene discussed charging the man with trespassing, disorderly conduct and failure to identify himself, but Gutierrez released him without consulting anyone else.

During internal-affairs interviews, Gutierrez contradicted himself and lied about reporting the incident to his sergeant and why the man was released.

Gutierrez maintains he would have taken him to jail, but that it was (another officers) case, she was in charge, she made the decision and had told him to release the male from custody, records show.

The patrol cars audio and video system recorded the incident and found that Gutierrez had not been truthful about his involvement in the investigation and what took place at the scene.

The internal-affairs investigation found Gutierrez had violated five department policies, and he was fired in January.

After more than five hours of hearing testimony and reviewing evidence, the Civil Service Commission voted 2-1 to uphold Gutierrezs termination.

Firing overturned

On May 4, the commission overruled the firing of Officer Jose Olivares and reinstated him to the department with an 80-hour suspension, city records show.

Last month the Arizona Peace Officers Standard and Training Board voted to initiate proceedings to suspend or revoke his certification, said Sandy Sierra, a board spokeswoman.

Olivares was fired in February for failing to pay for a burrito during an October visit to a local Mexican restaurant, according to board documents.

Olivares ordered a burrito and drink from a Viva Burrito, took his food and left the restaurant without paying for his meal, documents show.

The next day, one of the employees told a Tucson police lieutenant about the incident, when the officer came in to order food, leading to the opening of an internal investigation.

Security footage from the restaurant disproved Olivares claims that hed forgotten to pay, as the footage shows him reaching toward his pocket at least four times, board documents show.

With a determination that Officer Olivares committed theft under Arizona law while in uniform and on duty, I believe there is a critical adverse impact on the professional image of the department, Assistant Police Chief Mark Timpf wrote in his review of the case.

Although an internal-affairs probe determined that Olivares violated four department policies, the Civil Service Commission ruled there was not just cause for the discipline that was imposed.

Olivares was allowed to return to work after serving his suspension, but Tucson police did not respond to questions regarding his position in the department.

Firing upheld

On June 29, the commission voted to uphold Daniel Atkinsons firing in April for disobedience, misconduct, insubordination and failure to follow an order, according to city records.

Atkinson was placed on a conditions of continued employment program in November 2014 and ordered not to perform any special duty jobs, records show.

The conditions dictate that any violations of its conditions can result in firing, but Atkinson still performed two special duty jobs  both of which paid overtime  and signed up for a third, scheduled for last November.

Days before, a sergeant discovered he had signed up for the job and ordered him to cancel it. Atkinson refused but ultimately canceled the job after a lieutenant insisted he do so, city records show.

He was fired in April after an internal-affairs investigation found he violated multiple policies.

The Civil Service Commissions decision to uphold his firing was unanimous, records show.

Any time an officer is fired, Tucson police must report it to the Arizona Peace Officers Standard and Training Board.

The board will vote in upcoming months on whether to initiate proceedings against Atkinson and Gutierrez.
Help India!

By A Mirsab, TwoCircles.net,

New Delhi: In yet another violence caused due to suspicion of possessing beef, two Muslim women were thrashed and abused by Hindu Dal activists in Madhya Pradeshs Mandsaur district. A crowd beat them up over the rumours that they were carrying beef.

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The incident comes close on the heels of Dalits beaten up in Gujarat by cow protection group that has created uproar in the parliament. Similar incidence has now taken place against Muslim women in the BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh.

The women were slapped and kicked by a group of men and women at the railway station even as railway cops tried to stop them.

Soon a video of the incident taken by one of the spectators went viral showing the policemen making only a half-hearted attempt to stop the attackers. The women were thrashed for nearly half an hour before the police drove them away.

Later, local police claimed to have recovered around 30 kg of meat from the women. However, a preliminary veterinary report indicated it was buffalo meat and not meat of bovines.

This was confirmed by state Home Minister Bhupinder Singh to news agency ANI.

Regarding action against the mob that assaulted the women, Singh told ANI, If the women register a complaint, then action will be taken against the attackers. Reports have indicated that no action has been taken in the case so far.

On September 29, 2015 Mohammad Akhlaq was dragged from his house in Uttar Pradesh and was beaten to death over rumours that his family had eaten beef. Incidences of violence against Muslims and Dalits under the pretext of beef have increased ever since the BJP came to power in May 2014.

Uproar in Rajya Sabha

Opposition parties including BSP and Congress today created uproar in the Rajya Sabha and registered strong protest against the beating up of two Muslim women in Madhya Pradesh in the pretext of cow protection.

BSP supremo Mayawati upped the ante against BJP as soon as the working of Rajya Sabha initiated and said after beating of Dalit youths in Gujarat, Gau Raksha groups beat up two women in Madhya Pradesh over suspicion of possessing beef.

The BJP, on the one hand, talks of protecting the girl child and giving dignity and honour to women but on the other unleashes goons on them, Mayawati alleged.

Mayawati asked Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi to respond to targeting of women of his community in the name of cow protection.

Soon BSP members trooped into the Well of the House, shouting anti-government slogans and were joined by Congress members.

Anand Sharma (Congress) asked why Prime Minister Narendra Modi has not responded to attacks on Dalits in name of Gau Raksha. He has done Chai-pe-Charcha (talk over tea) and Mann-ki-Baat (straight talk from heart) but why not on this issue, he asked.

Ghulam Nabi Azad said the Congress was not principally against cow protection but was against targeting of Dalits and Muslims in the name of gau raksha. Let it be very clear. We are not against gau raksha. But in the garb of it, targeting Dalits and Muslims is something we are against, he said.
Help India!

By Nasim Yousaf for Twocircles.net

Pakistan recently lost another icon, Abdul Sattar Edhi, who died in Karachi at the age of eighty-eight. Edhis services for Pakistan shall be long remembered and he joins the ranks of other great South Asian icons, including the late social scientist Dr. Akhter Hameed Khan. This piece highlights the contributions of Mr. Edhi and Dr. Khan, who shared many similarities and were recognised around the world for their social service.

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Dr Akhter Hameed Khan



Like Mother Teresa, Edhi and Dr. Khan were both respected and legendary humanitarians who spent their lives helping the underprivileged. The two men shared much in common. Both were born in British India, Edhi in 1928 in Bantva (Gujarat) and Dr. Khan in 1914 in Agra (United Provinces, now Uttar Pradesh). Edhi arrived in Pakistan in 1947 and Dr. Khan in 1950. Motivated to help their fellow citizens, Edhi opened his first clinic in 1951. Meanwhile, in 1950, Dr. Khan established The Comilla Cooperative Karkhana in Comilla (a poverty stricken area in East Pakistan [now Bangladesh]). Later, in 1957, Edhi launched the Edhi Foundation (EF). Dr. Khan founded his Pakistan (Bangladesh) Academy for Rural Development in 1959 and later the Orangi Pilot Project (OPP).

EF and OPP often filled gaps in services that the state had either ignored or failed to provide for the people. For example, EF currently runs a wide range of services and facilities, including ambulances, morgues, graveyards, hospitals, educational services, marriage bureaus, orphanages, centers for the abandoned, bread plants and more. Meanwhile, Dr. Khans OPP focused on healthcare, sanitation, housing, microfinance, education, research and training, rural development, etc. Millions benefit from Edhi and Dr. Khans services and their respective organisations have received world recognition for their contributions.

Along with their professional similarities, both men had a lot in common personally as well. They were known as honest and humble individuals who provided a beacon of hope for Pakistan. They led a simple lifestyle, despite having resources and contacts at high-levels. Both were non-sectarian and non-communal and believed in serving all members of their communities across faiths.





Edhi sahab



Despite their noble missions and nature, the two men faced adversity and threats at times. Edhi received threats from the Taliban, who declared him an infidel for his love for people of all faiths. Meanwhile, Dr. Khan was accused of blasphemy and court cases were filed to have him convicted (Pakistans blasphemy laws carry a potential death sentence); posters appeared denouncing Dr. Khan and some demanded that he be hanged.

In honour of their services, both Edhi and Dr. Khan have been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. And both received many prestigious awards, including the Ramon Magsaysay Award (considered to be the Nobel Prize of Asia) and the Nishan-e-Imtiaz (Edhis award was recently announced), the highest civil award in Pakistan. Pakistans Beach Avenue has been renamed after Abdul Sattar Edhi, while the Akhter Hameed Khan Resource Center and Akhtar Hameed Khan National Centre for Rural Development have been named after Dr. Khan. Separate books have also been published on both men by a well-known Pakistani publisher under its The Azeem Pakistani (Great Pakistanis) series; the series highlights the achievements of renowned Pakistanis in various fields in order to inspire people, particularly the younger generation.

These men served their country for decades and dedicated themselves to the cause of the nation. Dr. Khan died on October 09, 1999 and Edhi passed away on July 8th, 2016. Their deaths were widely mourned. Dr. Khan was buried in the compound of the Orangi Pilot Project and Edhi in the Edhi Village. These two individuals earned the respect of both the East and West for their services to the humanity. Their exemplary lives are a source of inspiration not only for Pakistanis, but the entire world. Their selfless services and commitment to the human spirit shall live on forever in the hearts of people.

Nasim Yousaf is a researcher based in the USA. He has written 15 books and digitised files of rare documents related to South Asian history.
China funds new graphene research program in UK Updated: 2016-07-26 19:01 By Cecily Liu(chinadaily.com.cn)

Graphene, seen by researchers as the world's thinnest, strongest and most conductive material, could revolutionize aircraft manufacture, and a Chinese funded research program in the UK is now pioneering this process.

The five-year research program announced on Monday is a collaboration between the Beijing Institute of Aeronautical Materials (BIAM) and the National Graphene Institute (NGI) at The University of Manchester, with a goal to help aircraft, high speed trains, and other industrial equipment become simultaneously lighter in weight and more robust in performance.

Traditional manufacturing material would be replaced with graphene, one of the most interesting inventions of modern times. As a thin layer of pure carbon, it is tougher than a diamond, yet very lightweight and easily conducts electricity and heat, researchers say.

More specifically, this research will focus on composites with enhanced performance in the field of mechanical, electric conductive and thermal conductive behaviour, as well as the compatibility of graphene and the matrix materials.

Graphene was first isolated from the graphite mineral at the University of Manchester by Andre Geim and Kostya Novoselov in 2004. The achievement earned them the Nobel Prize for Physics in 2010. Owing to its short history, its commercial potential is yet to be unlocked.

China is now at the forefront of commercializing graphene's applications potential, and has made it a strategically important new material in its 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-20), which sets out the country's development objectives for the period.

China has also been keen to work with the UK on graphene. In October 2015, Chinese President Xi Jinping visited the NGI, during which time the Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei Technologies Corp signed a deal with NGI. In December, BIAM also reached a deal to work with NGI on transport sector graphene research, the success of which led to the larger five year project announced this week.

"We had a very good communication on the first collaborative project. Now a long term partnership would benefit us to broaden the research area on graphene materials, to enhance the collaborative research, as well as to exchange experience and expertise on graphene," said Shaojiu Yan, principal investigator of graphene projects from BIAM.

Robert Young, a professor of polymer science and technology, who leads the project, said the use of graphene in the transport industry could mean significant benefits.

"Graphene is a strong light weight material and in the transport industry it's important to save weight and become fuel efficient," said Young.

Young said China's high technology manufacturing industry, ability to invest heavily into the graphene sector and its abundance of highly qualified graphene industry talents all contribute to its advantages in the graphene industry.

Young said currently one key area of challenge in further commercialization of graphene industry is the lack of universal standards. Currently the NGI and NPL are working towards developing a set of standards applicable and acceptable to the graphene industry, which can then be used to certify quality .

James Baker, Graphene Business Director at the NGI, said cooperation with China grew rapidly since Xi visit in October, and expects it to accelerate.

"The level of interest from Chinese companies keen to work with us has really taken off since the state visit, and we received so many enquiries. We are keen to work with any organizations who have the resources and potential for investment into the graphene industry, so that technology can be commercialized faster," Baker said.

"For the NGI, whilst we are focused on research, we are keen to increase the impact and value that the outcome of our research can bring, therefore working with big industry partners in China can make sense as well as companies from UK and other nations," Baker said.

China's graphene market is estimated to grow to 200 million yuan ($30.7 million) in 2018, compared with the projected global market of $65 million, according to the Beijing-based market intelligence firm ResearchInChina. In comparison, the global market in 2015 was only worth $24.4 million.

To contact the reporter: cecily.liu@mail.chinadailyuk.com
Making poverty history in one of China's poorest provinces Updated: 2016-07-27 07:29 By Zhang Yuchen(China Daily)

Liu Xiaoyang, a vegetable farmer in Chengxian, Gansu province, works in his greenhouse alongside fellow villagers. Zhang Meng/Xinhua

A raft of measures has been introduced to raise living standards in the remote, mountainous area. Zhang Yuchen reports from Tianshui, Gansu province.

A bright smile played across Fang Najia's tanned, wrinkled face as she explained the measures being taken to help her family escape the poverty trap.

The 50-something from Yawan, a village in Gongchang county in the south of Gansu, one of China's poorest provinces, is one of millions of beneficiaries of a poverty-alleviation program that began in 2013.

Few outsiders would describe Fang's family of four, whose details were entered in a poverty database last year, as impoverished. Unlike their less-prosperous neighbors, the family's courtyard contains three straw-and-mud houses, but as average villagers their combined income is only about 3,000 yuan ($450) a month.

While that's just about enough to live on, it isn't enough to lift the burden of the 8,000 yuan Feng's daughter has to pay every year to attend a university in the eastern province of Jiangxi.

After Gongchang's leaders had collected information about the situations of households across the county to compile the poverty database, Fang's family was deemed eligible to receive aid from a program designed to help people who are being pushed into poverty by the cost of higher education, or through illness and disability.

Under the program, Fang's daughter is permitted to collect an annual loan of 10,000 yuan from a special education aid program operated by the county government. The loan, which will be interest free until she graduates and starts work, means she can continue her studies.

For their part, Fang and her husband can claim a low-interest, five-year loan of 50,000 yuan. If they invest the money in a mushroom-cultivation project in the village, the family will receive 4,000 yuan at the end of the year. When the contract expires, the family can repay the original sum, plus a small amount of interest, and arrange another loan. Together, the programs account for 15 percent of the county's annual budget.

Lasting solutions

Zhang Wengang, deputy head of Gongchang, said that before the project began, every person in the county classified as impoverished was allotted the national 100 yuan minimum monthly living allowance, which was a drain on resources and provided no lasting solutions.
US agrees it's time to 'turn the page' Updated: 2016-07-27 01:53 By Zhang Yunbi in Vientiane, Laos, and Wang Qingyun in Beijing(China Daily)

Kerry says he will encourage Manila to pursue negotiations with Beijing

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi(right) meets with US Secretary of State John Kerry in Vientiane, capital of Laos, July 25, 2016. [Photo/Xinhua]

Washington agrees with Beijing that "the time has come" to move away from the tensions in the South China Sea and to "turn the page", US Secretary of State John Kerry said, adding that he will encourage the Philippines to pursue dialogue and negotiation with China in their dispute.

He made the comments to reporters in Vientiane, the capital of Laos, while recalling his meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Monday.

Both Wang and Kerry attended a range of multilateral meetings of the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations from Sunday to Tuesday.

Kerry told a news conference on Tuesday that "we don't take a position, as I said earlier, on the claimants" in the South China Sea issue. He said the US "would like to see a process of dialogue" between Beijing and Manila.

"I will be leaving to the Philippines this afternoon, meeting with President (Rodrigo) Duterte tomorrow, and I would encourage President Duterte to engage in dialogue and in negotiation," he said.

The consensus between Kerry and Wang surprised many observers, since Washington has publicly pressed Beijing to accept the recent ruling by the Arbitral Tribunal of The Hague in a case unilaterally initiated by Manila in 2013.

Wang told China Daily on Tuesday night that the three-day meetings were a success, and "the biggest consensus between China and ASEAN this year is to return to the track of resolving disputes through dialogue and consultation" after the arbitration ruling.

Wang said that since ASEAN said during the meetings that it takes no position as a whole on the arbitral ruling, the hyping about the South China Sea did not resolve the issue, but instead "offered excuses to forces outside the region to impose intervention".

Chen Qinghong, a researcher on Southeast Asian and Philippine studies at the China Institutes of Contemporary International Research, welcomed Washington's milder tone. "The possibility cannot be ruled out that Washington may require Manila to make the ruling a condition for future talks with China, while this condition has been refused by Beijing," Chen added.

On the sidelines of the meetings, Foreign Minister Miroslav Lajcak of Slovakia, which assumes the chairmanship of the European Union this year, told China Daily that the EU believes the South China Sea issue should be solved "in a direct dialogue of parties affected".

He said that "we are pleased by the joint communique" achieved on Monday in the meeting between ASEAN member states and China, which renewed commitment to managing the disputes.

"We believe that this is a step in the right direction, and we believe that in this spirit, the progress will continue in the future," he added.

Zhou Fangyin, a professor of Chinese foreign policy at Guangdong Institute for International Strategies, said the meetings "set a tone" for ASEAN's future South China Sea policies, and ASEAN's not taking a position on the arbitration ruling "will be a restraint for Manila".
Taiwan leader hedges on Consensus Updated: 2016-07-27 16:04 By Cao Yin(China Daily USA)

A Chinese mainland official urged Taiwan to adhere to the one-China principle and accept the 1992 Consensus, in response to a recent interview by overseas media of the island's new leader.

Ma Xiaoguang, spokesman for the State Council's Taiwan Affairs Office, said on Friday that the 1992 Consensus is the political foundation for peaceful cross-Straits ties.

The remarks followed the publication of an interview with Taiwan's leader Tsai Ing-wen in The Washington Post on Thursday.

Asked whether the mainland has a deadline by which the Chinese central government wants her to agree to the 1992 Consensus, Tsai said it's unlikely that Taiwan will accept a deadline for conditions that are against the will of the people.

Taiwan media organizations said it was the first time that Tsai had in any way clarified her stance on the issue since she took office.

In his statement on Friday, Ma reiterated that only by sticking to the 1992 Consensus and its core meaning - that both sides of the Taiwan Straits belong to one and the same China - can the two sides ensure the peaceful and stable development of cross-Straits relations.

"Mainstream public opinion on both sides of the Taiwan Straits supports maintaining peaceful ties," he said.

"Only by recognizing this political foundation, which embodies the one-China policy", can institutional communication continue between the two sides, he said, pointing specifically to the liaison and communication mechanism between the Taiwan Affairs Office and Taiwan's mainland affairs authority, and the consultation and negotiation mechanism between the Beijing-based Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits and the Taipei-based Straits Exchange Foundation.

Liu Xiangping, head of the Institute of Taiwan Studies at Nanjing University, said Tsai's attitude toward the 1992 Consensus in the interview will inflame tensions with the mainland. He said Tsai's statements will further distance the two sides and may hamper cross-Straits economic ties.

The mainland will continue to observe Tsai's behavior and words, but with stricter standards - "which means that the space for flexibility is diminishing", Liu said.

Xinhua contributed to this story.

caoyin@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily USA 07/27/2016 page4)
Stunning performance brings Genghis Khan to life Updated: 2016-07-27 07:27 By Xing Yi And Yuan Hui In Hohhot(China Daily USA)

Some 800 years ago, Genghis Khan united most of the Mongolian tribes with his then invincible cavalry.

Nowadays, Forever Genghis Khan, an equestrian show in a natural setting, is performed by some 50 horsemen from Mongolia.

The show is staged at the Shenquan ecological tourist site in Togtoh county, about 90 kilometers southwest of Hohhot, the capital of the Inner Mongolia autonomous region.

Amid the neighing of horses, the clanging of swords and axes and the yelling of soldiers, the 50-minute performance, which comprises six acts, tells the story of the rise of Genghis Khan.

The show opens with the childhood friendship between Temujin, later acknowledged as Genghis Khan, and his chief rival Jamukha. The boys play together, and both dream of becoming the ruler of the Mongolian steppe.

When the two boys grow up, they both become the leaders of their tribes. When Temujin's wife is kidnapped by an enemy, Jamukha helps Temujin.

But the friendship between the two young men starts to break when Temujin is chosen to become the Khan, and battles ensue.

During a key battle, Jamukha is betrayed by his followers, and is captured by Temujin.

Although Temujin offers to renew his friendship with Jamukha, the latter asks for death, saying there is room for only one sun in the sky, and one lord for Mongolia.

"We performed the show in Jeju island in South Korea from 2008 to 2012," says Uurtsaikh, 39, who is the head of the equestrian team Khaadiin Khaan, which means king of kings.

Together with other Mongolian horsemen, Uurtsaikh and his team performed for Chinese President Xi Jinping, during his state visit to Mongolia in 2014, and received high praise from Xi.

The following July, Uurtsaikh's team was invited to perform in Hohhot.

Chen Jun, the manager of the Shenquan ecological park, then watched the performance and was also impressed by the team's equine prowess.

After negotiations, Chen introduced the performance to the park.

"The show promotes a cultural exchange between China and Mongolia," says Chen. "And we are trying to find more opportunities for the show."

In order to showcase authentic Mongolian culture, all the props and costumes are from Mongolia.

However, the horses used in the performance are from Inner Mongolia, so the riders had to spend weeks to get familiar with the animals before the show was launched in China.

"The most important thing about the performance is that the man and the horse should be one," says Uurtsaikh.

Though the performers are between 17 and 27 years old, some of them have more than 10 years experience of horseback acrobatics.

The show is performed twice daily between May to October.

Meanwhile, Chen and Uurtsaikh hope to take the performance to the southern provinces of China.

As for other plans, Uurtsaikh says: "We will put on a new show this September, featuring the historic Battle of the Thirteen Sides between Temujin and Jamukha."

In that battle, Temujin and Jamukha organize their troops and allies into 13 groups.

Speaking of the crowd response to the show, Uurtsaikh says: "In South Korea, Mongolia and China, the audiences are different, but the response of applause is the same. "And that's what encourages us the most."

xingyi@chinadaily.com.cn

The equestrian show Forever Genghis Khan, staged by performers from Mongolia in a natural setting, tells the story of the king's rise.Provided To China Daily

(China Daily USA 07/27/2016 page8)
Time to turn the page in South China Sea Updated: 2016-07-27 07:13 (China Daily)

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi(right) meets with US Secretary of State John Kerry in Vientiane, capital of Laos, July 25, 2016. [Photo/Xinhua]

The South China Sea disputes, after so much fanfare, seem to be heading toward the right direction of peaceful settlement through bilateral negotiations.

The latest development appears encouraging, with US Secretary of State John Kerry saying, during a meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Monday, that Washington "is not taking sides on the substance of maritime disputes" and supports Beijing and Manila resuming talks.

Indeed, it is time for parties concerned to move away from the tensions and "turn the page", as Kerry reportedly said.

Yet sincerity is subject to proof. The United States must take concrete actions to repair the damage it has caused and show it means what it says.

The worry is understandable, for a joint statement issued by the foreign ministers of the US, Japan and Australia in Vientiane, Laos, on Monday, still harped on the same old string by pointing an accusing finger at China, trying to depict it as a troublemaker and a threat to countries in the region.

It takes much effrontery and hypocrisy for the three countries to continue to play their self-appointed roles as guardians of peace in the South China Sea.

Their trick of confusing right and wrong cannot cover up the fact that the regional bloc rejected the trio's proposal to even mention, in a statement after their foreign ministers' meeting, the award by The Hague arbitral tribunal in the case unilaterally initiated by the Philippines against China, let alone support it. It is noteworthy that it happened despite the trio pressing the issue with ASEAN members.

Instead, ASEAN called for the nations directly involved in the sea disputes to engage in bilateral negotiations, which matches the China-ASEAN stance on how to peacefully resolve the disputes between the respective disputing parties.

This is a resounding defeat for outside interventionism.

And it makes the trio's statement seem like a desperate attempt to save face, after their miscalculation and overestimation of their ability to manipulate and pit ASEAN members against China, or one another.

None of the three countries are claimants in the South China Sea disputes, nor are they directly involved in the disputes.

Their eagerness to feign righteousness under the pretext of protection of freedom of overflight and navigation while stoking tensions in the South China Sea stems from their own selfish agenda to contain a rising China.

But that ruse is no longer effective, as has been proved by the embarrassing situation the trio find themselves in at the ASEAN gathering.
Duterte can create conditions conducive to resolving disputes Updated: 2016-07-27 08:00 By Wang Hui(China Daily)

President-elect Rodrigo Duterte speaks during a news conference in his hometown Davao City in southern Philippines, May 16, 2016. [Photo/Agencies]

In his first state of the nation address delivered on Monday, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said he will utilize the ruling in the country's international arbitration case to peacefully resolve the country's territorial disputes. This is widely seen as his attempt to maintain a low key approach to the maritime disputes with China.

Peaceful resolution to the South China Sea disputes has been and is China's consistent stance. When elaborating China's position on the South China Sea arbitration last week, Foreign Minister Wang Yi said China would like to work in unison with the Philippines if the new Philippine government is willing to resume dialogue and consultation, manage disputes and improve bilateral relations together with China.

On July 12, the arbitral tribunal ruled in favor of the Philippines in the case it had filed against China. The case, unilaterally brought by former Philippine president Benigno Aquino III, has plunged ties between China and the Philippines to a historic low.

Since his inauguration, Duterte has showed pragmatism and willingness to engage in bilateral negotiations with China. Soon after the arbitration ruling was announced, he said he intended to send former Philippine president Fidel Ramos to China to start negotiations on the South China Sea disputes.

This is the right approach to resolve the maritime disputes. If the Philippines sticks to this approach, China will respond positively, and thus, the tensions in the South China Sea will be dramatically eased, which, in turn, will cater to the interests of peace and stability in the region.

It still needs to be pointed out that the latest remarks from Duterte show the Philippine leader still harbors some illusions that the arbitration might be used as a bargaining chip when bilateral talks with China begin.

But even before the ruling was delivered, China made it clear the country would not negotiate with the Philippines on the basis of any ruling in the arbitration case, regardless of whether it was in favor of the Philippines or not.
US Senator Corey Booker may have joined the fray in the 2016 presidential arena Monday night with a barnburner speech, but he could be in for an even bigger fight on a different front.

American fishermen are gearing up to challenge a bill Booker and others have put before the Senate Commerce Committee that would shut down the last vestiges of the harvest of shark fins, an ingredient of soup and medicine prized in Asia.

The traditional method of "finning" sharks is a gruesome business. Sharks are pulled from the water, their dorsal and pectoral fins hacked off while they're still alive and they're thrown back in the water, where, unable to swim, they drown.

Finning has been illegal in the US for years, but there is a loophole in the ban: Fishermen can still catch sharks and remove their fins while processing the entire fish on land.

The new law would be an outright ban on possession or sale of shark fins under any circumstances.

"America can become a global leader by shutting down the domestic market for shark fins," Booker told The Associated Press.

Fins from as many as 70 million sharks end up in the global market each year, the New Jersey Democrat said, and completely removing the US from the trade would tell the world that it needs to stop.

There are more than 400 permitted shark fishermen in the US, from Maine to Texas, most in Florida and Louisiana. In 2014 they brought more than 600 metric tons of sharks to land, where they are processed for their meat, as well as their fins.

The new bill would allow fishermen to keep harvesting sharks for their meat, but not their fins, a measure many in the business call wrongheaded. Most of the value in the business is the fins, not the meat. A lawyer for the shark fishermen said not being able to sell the fins would be devastating.

"Other countries that are less likely to be as sustainable as us will fill our void," said Jeff Oden, a former shark fisherman from North Carolina who said the legislation was well-intentioned but could actually increase pressure on sharks.

According to Booker's office, the US shark fishery was worth about $2.5 million in 2014, a small fraction in a worldwide trade estimated to be in the hundreds of millions.

Earlier this month, a confiscated haul aboard a COSCO ship arriving in Hong Kong (the capital of the world's shark fin trade) from Panama gave an idea of the breadth of that trade - 1,940 pounds of fins from endangered hammerhead sharks with an estimated value of $100,000.

The largest seizure came back in 2014 - 2,162 pounds of fins on a vessel arriving from Colombia.

After the recent seizure, WildAid's Alex Hofford wrote to COSCO urging the company to "follow its industry competitors by acting legally, ethically and morally" and ban the transport of shark fin.

Within a week, COSCO, China's largest shipping and logistics firm, said it would impose a ban on shark fin transport, but did not give a time frame.

When COSCO gets on board, 68 percent of the world's shipping will be committed to stopping the transport of shark fins, although some, such as Taiwan's Evergreen Line, still ship fins from sharks that are not endangered.

Only about half the world's shark fin trade moves through Hong Kong but it is upwards of 6,000 metric tons.

American fishermen are allowed to harvest several different species, including tiger sharks, bull sharks and some hammerheads. Conservationist group Shark Savers said that 14 kinds of shark most prevalent in the international fin trade are threatened or nearly threatened with extinction.

Eleven states in the US have laws banning the sale of shark fins, although shark fin soup can still be found on many Chinese restaurant menus.

Corey Lee, a former chef at The French Laundry - a Michelin three-star restaurant in Napa Valley - told the New Yorker magazine that he wanted to challenge himself by creating a faux shark-fin soup.

Chicken and ham bouillon, aromatics, Shaoxing wine, hydrocolloid gums for "jellyfish" texture all went into the brew that completely fooled Cecelia Chiang, "the revered chef and restaurateur who is credited with introducing Northern Chinese cooking to America." She had no idea it was faux, Lee said.

Contact the writer at chrisdavis@chinadailyusa.com.
LeEco will buy Vizio for $2 billion Updated: 2016-07-27 11:34 By Lia Zhu in Los Angeles(China Daily USA)

Jia Yueting (left), founder and CEO of LeEco, and William Wang, founder and CEO of Vizio, announce LeEco's $2 billion acquisition of Vizio at a joint press conference on Tuesday in Hollywood, California. LIA ZHU / CHINA DAILY

Chinese tech company LeEco announced on Tuesday that it will acquire Vizio, a major TV brand in the US, for $2 billion in cash as it expands globally.

It took the two companies three years to reach the agreement, under which Vizio's hardware and software businesses will be operated as a wholly owned subsidiary of LeEco, while the data business - Inscape- will operate as a separate, privately owned company. LeEco Global will own a 49 percent stake of Inscape, and William Wang, founder and CEO of Vizio, will own a 51 percent stake.

The transaction, which is expected to close in six months or so subject to regulatory approval, will have a three-year Vizio "earnout" for an additional payment of $200 million, with revenue and profit thresholds for a potential total consideration of $2.25 billion, said Winston Cheng, LeEco senior vice-president, global head of corporate finance and development.

An earnout agreement states that the seller of the business, in this case Vizio, will receive enhanced compensation if it reaches certain financial thresholds.

LeEco will retain all current Vizio employees and enter into a 10-year licensing agreement with Inscape. The Vizio brand and its products will continue to be sold through their existing distribution channels.

With the acquisition, LeEco is expected to have more than 20 million big-screen users, which will provide a solid foundation for the Beijing-based company to expand its presence in the US and realize its global strategy, Jia Yueting, founder and CEO of LeEco, said at the press conference in Hollywood.

Vizio, based in Irvine, California, is the second-largest smart TV vendor in the US after Samsung. Known for its affordable flat-screen TVs, Vizio has factories in Mexico and China.

After the acquisition, Vizio will provide LeEco approximately 8 million newly installed connected TVs annually as well as major North American retail channels, and LeEco will support Vizio with its internet, technology, content and cloud services, Cheng said.

He said Vizio was a "critical part of LeEco's entry into the North American market" and LeEco Global was committed to spending 10 percent of revenue on research and development in the future and provide R&D capabilities to Vizio.

The two companies had combined revenue of more than $4 billion in the first half of 2016, and the group expects double-digit revenue increases over the next few years, said Cheng.

liazhu@chinadailyusa.com
Hollande urges unity to win 'long war' against terrorism Updated: 2016-07-27 09:22 (Xinhua)

French President Francois Hollande (R) and Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve (L) leave the city hall after two assailants had taken five people hostage in the church at Saint-Etienne-du -Rouvray near Rouen in Normandy, France, July 26, 2016. [Photo/Agencies]

PARIS -- French President Francois Hollande on Tuesday reiterates calls for the nation's unity to win a long battle against terrorism in a brief televised address after two men claiming allegiance to the Islamic State (IS) slaughtered a priest in northern France.

Earlier Tuesday, two armed men with knives entered a church in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, north France during a morning mass and seized five people including the priest. The priest was killed by the two hostages takers who were later shot dead by police units. A second victim was in critical situation.

The Islamist militant threat to France and Europe has never been so severe as now, he said, pointing that the war against terrorism both abroad and at home will be long. "It is our unity that will make us strong. We need to form a bloc to win this war... but I assure you, we will win this war."

Denouncing "an unforgivable act," he insisted that the government will be determined to apply the anti-terrorist laws while respecting rights and freedoms.
FBI investigation on MH370 captain offers no new clue to aircraft location: JACC Updated: 2016-07-27 17:06 (Xinhua)

CANBERRA - FBI's investigation into the MH370 captain has offered no new clue to the crash site of the aircraft, the Joint Agency Coordination Center (JACC) said on Wednesday.

In its weekly report, JACC said it has noted recent media reports about the FBI's investigation into the MH370 captain's home flight simulator.

"Media coverage suggested the captain had plotted a course to the southern Indian Ocean and that the disappearance of MH370 was a deliberate planned murder/suicide."

"This type of scenario is not new and has been reported in the media previously," JACC said.

It said that the Malaysian investigation team has been considering this information and "it will be dealt with in its final report."

"The simulator information shows only the possibility of planning. It does not reveal what happened on the night of the aircraft's disappearance, nor where the aircraft is located."

JACC said the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB), the agency in charge of search operation, has worked closely with international experts in satellite communications, aircraft systems, data modelling and accident investigation to form the Search Strategy Working Group to determine the search area.

JACC said that for the purposes of defining the underwater search area, the relevant facts and analysis most closely match a scenario in which there was no pilot intervening in the latter stages of the flight.

"While the flight simulator data provides a piece of information, the best available evidence of the aircraft's location is based on what we know from the last satellite communications with the aircraft. The last satellite communication with the aircraft showed it was most likely in a high rate of descent in the area of what is known as the 7th arc. This is indeed the consensus of the Search Strategy Working Group."

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.

FBI's investigation finds that the flight's captain, Zaharie Ahmad Shah, had used a flight simulator program to fly an eerily similar flight path to that which MH370 ultimately took, less than a month before the aircraft disappeared.

Transport ministers from China, Australia and Malaysia agreed at a meeting on July 22 that the current search operation be suspended if the remaining less than 10,000 square kilometers is scoured and no new evidence emerges.
A Nigerian delegation is in Beijing for a Coordinators' Meeting on the implementation of deals forumulated at the Forum on China Africa Cooperation's (FOCAC) Johannesburg Summit, held late last year.

President Muhammadu Buhari's visit in April further bolstered Nigeria's participation in the 10 critical areas covering industrialization, agricultural mechanization, infrastructure development, financial cooperation, green development, trade and investment facilitation, poverty reduction, public health, cultural and people-to-people exchange, and peace and security.

Recently, Nigeria identified priority projects which will top discussions led by the Minister of Budget and National Planning, Senator Udoma Udo Udoma. It comes as the oil-rich country's economy experiences turbulence due to falling oil prices and slowing global growth.

The Johannesburg Summit, held in December, identified 10 critical areas of cooperation between China and African countries. The Chinese government pledged a $60 billion assistance package to African countries to develop and grow their infrastructure and human development capacities. Of that, $35 billion was set aside for concessionary loans, $10 billion for the China Africa Fund for Production capacity and $5 billion each for no-interest grants, the China Africa Development Fund and special loans for the development of Small and Medium-scale Enterprises (SMEs).

The delegation is also expected to fine-tune and strengthen the relationship between the two countries by ensuring the faithful implementation of the bi-lateral agreements signed during the State visit of President Buhari to China early this year.

Udoma said the successful implementation of Nigeria's identified projects under FOCAC was expected to further enhance the relationship.
Prison system in focus in Philly Updated: 2016-07-27 11:34 By Chen Weihua in Philadelphia(China Daily USA)

Nicholas Lash, from Las Vegas, Nevada, holds a poster calling to end mass incarceration in the United States in a protest on Tuesday afternoon across the street from the Philadelphia City Hall. The Democratic National Convention is being held in the city this week and the reform of criminal justice system is a key presidential campaign issue. A row of cells (right) in Eastern State Penitentiary, which is now a museum. photos by Chen Weihua / China Daily

Penitentiary turned-museum holds lessons for presidential candidates of both parties

The Eastern State Penitentiary in downtown Philadelphia looms prominently on the tourist map for people coming to the 2016 Democratic National Convention, but its doors are wide open. The first penitentiary in the US was shut down in 1971 and reopened in 1994 as a museum.

Aside from displays describing its long history since 1829, there is an exhibit titled Prisons Today: Questions in the Age of Mass Incarceration.

Since the 1970s, the US prison population has jumped more than 600 percent to well over 2 million. In terms of percentage of the population, more Americans are locked up today than in any other nation on the planet.

The message the exhibit seems to convey is that the mass incarceration system is broken, and to the nation's woe.

The penitentiary was set up through the advocacy of US founding fathers like Benjamin Franklin and a group of reformers known as the Philadelphia Society for Alleviating the Miseries of Public Prisoners. Their approach was a departure from the previous policy in the US, moving from punishment to promoting penitence.

But that approach diminished by the early 1900s as the system had to house more and more prisoners, including the notorious Al Capone.

On Tuesday noon, elementary school students were on a guided tour of the prison, listening to a guide talk about everything from Al Capone's cell to a synagogue and the exercise yard.

America's high incarceration rate and reforming the criminal justice system have been hot issues on the 2016 presidential campaign trail.

Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders has been decrying the criminal justice system for the past year. Speaking on Monday night at the Democratic National Convention, he said the election was about the leadership to repair a broken criminal justice system.

"It's about making sure that young people in this country are in good schools and at good jobs, not in jail cells," he told an audience that included many of his supporters.

The 2016 Democratic Party Platform, heavily influenced by Sanders, also calls for reform of the criminal justice system and an end to mass incarceration.

"Something is profoundly wrong when almost a quarter of the world's prison population is in the United States, even though our country has less than 5 percent of the world's population. We will reform mandatory minimum sentences and close private prisons and detention centers," the platform says.

"Whenever possible, Democrats will prioritize prevention and treatment over incarceration when tackling addiction and substance use disorder," it goes on.

Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and her husband Bill have taken a lot of heat for their records on mass incarceration.

The 1994 crime bill signed by then President Bill Clinton and pushed also by then first lady Hillary Clinton is widely regarded to have worsened the mass incarceration dilemma in the US with its harsh sentencing guidelines.
As the old adage goes, oftentimes real life can be more inspiring than the movies.

For Hong Kong actress Kara Wai, that truth is a double-edged sword.

"I started begging on the streets when I was 3 years old," said Wai.

Her rags-to-riches story has culminated in a tribute to her iconic film career at this year's 21st Made in Hong Kong Film Festival, hosted by the Freer|Sackler Gallery, in Washington.

Kara Wai stars in Happiness as Auntie Fen, an older woman suffering from Alzheimer's. The film was premiered as part of the "Made in Hong Kong Film Festival" on July 15 in Washington. Provided to China Daily

The festival kicked off on July 15 with the world premiere of Kara Wai's newest film, Happiness, a poignant story about Chan Kai-yuk (Carlos Chan), a young man who moves to Hong Kong after his mother's death to look for his father.

After living on the streets, Chan is taken in as a tenant by Auntie Fen (Kara Wai), an older woman with early onset Alzheimer's who also has no family to speak of.

One of the film's underlying themes is the tragedy of Alzheimer's, a topic that Wai is quite familiar with, as her own mother suffered the grim fate.

"This is exactly what my mother would do and the challenges my mother was facing in her real life," said Wai. "So I just wanted to stay true to the role through the story, and reenact what people like my mother would suffer and the challenges they face."

The personal connection that Wai has with the character she portrays in the film presented an emotional challenge during filming, but led to an acclaimed performance by Wai on the screen.

"Every now and then I would be very sad getting into the role, because I saw my own mother in it," she said. "In fact, my mother no longer recognized people around her. So through this role, I wanted to portray the challenges they face so that more people will pay attention to people who suffer from the disease."

Wai's mother began to show symptoms of Alzheimer's around the age of 50, but she went undiagnosed for years. Wai simply thought she was being forgetful and air-headed.

"We didn't know that was a disease," Wai said. "We found it very annoying, she kept being forgetful, getting lost, and the police had to bring her home from time to time. We just found it annoying and were not very understanding."

In retrospect, Wai said, "I greatly regret the way I treated my mother during her years with Alzheimer's. I just hope that by seeing this movie, other people will not be as foolish as we were."

Wai used her mother as inspiration. "How I portrayed this role had to be true. With dialogue, no matter how brief the line is, it had to portray how people with Alzheimer's act," she said. "There is no overacting or faking it."

Wai emphasized this point to the audience before the film's world premiere at the Warner Brothers Theater in the National Museum of American History.

The premiere was the first of several of Wai's films to be shown during the festival. Last week's opening weekend featured a tribute to Wai, who became internationally known through her roles in Shaw Brothers Studios kung fu films of the 1970s and '80s.

My Young Auntie, for which Wai received her first Hong Kong Film Award in 1982, was shown last Sunday as part of the festival's tribute.

Wai said she was honored by being recognized in the US, as the part of Hong Kong she grew up in was home to many US soldiers who helped her struggling family during the Vietnam War era.

"For me to come to the United States to receive this honor is exciting. It's as if my family is recognizing my achievements. So I am happy to share this moment with people I consider my family," said Wai.

The Made in Hong Kong Film Festival, which is free and open to the public, runs from July 15 through Aug 21.

Some of the most popular recent films out of Hong Kong will be screened, including Stephen Chow's record-breaking comedy The Mermaid, Johnnie To's musical comedy Office and Ten Years, the subversive low-budget sci-fi movie that became a hit on the China mainland and Hong Kong.

Allan Fong in Washington contributed to the story
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The Ministry of Trade and Industry (MoIT) is urging local footwear makers to further invest in support industries instead of depending excessively on imported raw materials and losing out on profits and competitiveness.  Photo cafebiz.vn

HA NOI  The Ministry of Trade and Industry (MoIT) is urging local footwear makers to further invest in support industries instead of depending excessively on imported raw materials and losing out on profits and competitiveness.

MoITs data shows that the countrys export revenue from leather and footwear products in the first six months of 2016 reached nearly US$6.3 billion, an increase of 8.8 per cent over last year.

This figure is expected to grow once the Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) come into effect, substantiallly reducing or phasing out import taxes. The FTAs, such as the Viet Nam - EU Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA), Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), Viet Nam - Korea Free Trade Agreement (KVFTA), are predicted to provide new opportunities for Viet Nams leather and footwear companies to develop in both scale and quality. Under the agreements, the current tariff of 1745 per cent will drop to zero per cent by 2018, helping footwear companies to boost exports.

In 2015, the United States spent nearly $4.1 billion on Viet Nams leather and footwear products, up nearly 50 per cent and equal to 33.9 per cent of the sectors total exports. The US has surpassed the EU to become the largest importer of Vietnamese footwear in the world. The EVFTA is forecast to boost exports by 50 per cent in 2020 and 93 per cent in 2025.

FTAs will help develop the support industry since foreign investors will invest in manufacturing materials to enjoy preferential origin. As a result, Viet Nam can improve the supply of raw materials and increase its localisation ratio.

Phan Thi Thanh Xuan, General Secretary of the Viet Nam Leather, Footwear and Handbag Association (LEFASO) said most key materials for leather shoe production are imported since domestic leather and leatherette supplies meet only 30 per cent of production demands. Many businesses have invested in developing raw material factories, he said, but the leather and footwear companies are still small and lack equipment and product designers.

In addition, increased raw material costs, wages, electricity and water rates pose additional difficulties for the industry, given that Vietnamese footwear makers have to compete with producers from Cambodia and Indonesia.

To deal with these difficulties, the Government should offer preferential tax policies, develop a centralised industrial zone and implement the master plan for the leather and footwear industry adopted by the MoIT, says Nguyen uc Thuan, LEFASO chairman.

Vietnamese enterprises should also invest in new technologies to increase their productivity, said Thuan. -- VNS
A HCM City products fair will be held in Moscow from September 9 to 14 at the Hanoi-Moscow Culture-Trade Complex (Incentra).  VNS Photo

HCM CITY  A HCM City products fair will be held in Moscow from September 9 to 14 at the Hanoi-Moscow Culture-Trade Complex (Incentra).

The major products to be showcased during the week are garments, leather footwear, handicrafts, wood products, agricultural products, and tourism and financial services.

Nguyen Phuong ong, deputy director of the HCM City Department of Industry and Trade, said the event would be a good opportunity for city enterprises to introduce their quality goods to Russian consumers and explore investment opportunities in that market.

The exhibitors will receive support for participation, with Incentra sponsoring all booth rentals and providing rooms in its hotel at half price besides urging Vietnam Airlines to offer a 50 per cent discount on cargo rates and two tickets for each company.

Firms have been told to register before August 10 for participation.

An exhibition of high-quality Vietnamese goods was held last November at the venue and attended by 163 Vietnamese firms, including 42 from HCM City, with many businesses managing to find long-term business partners. A Ha Noi products fair will be held there from October 6 to 14.

According to the fairs organisers, Russia is among Viet Nams traditional markets and has high demand for apparel, footwear, handicrafts, farm produce, processed foods and wooden products.  VNS
Passengers enter Vietnam Airlines aircraft. Firms operating 11-30 aircraft on international routes must have at least VND1.3 trillion in registered capital.  Photo sggp.org.vn

HA NOI  Airlines using up to 10 aircraft on international routes are required to have minimum investment capital of VN700 billion (US$31.3 million) to establish and maintain its airline service.

According to a new decree issued by the Government on qualifications for businesses in the civil aviation sector, VN300 billion is listed as the minimum capital to be held by businesses that only operate domestic air routes.

Firms operating 11-30 aircraft on international routes must have at least VN1.3 trillion in registered capital. For those offering only domestic routes, the amount is VN700 billion.

The minimum capital to establish and maintain businesses offering aviation services is VN100 billion.

Businesses with foreign investors have to meet two conditions: The capital provided by foreign partners cannot exceed 30 per cent of the registered capital, and there must be at least one Vietnamese individual or Vietnamese legal entity holding the largest part of the registered capital.

The transfer of a stake or contribution capital to foreign investors will be permitted two years after the business receives its business licence.  VNS
HA NOI  The Government should not adjust the economic growth target of 6.7 per cent even though it is unlikely to meet it this year, experts said during a conference in Ha Noi yesterday.

I suppose it is good that the Government keeps the target intact, Nguyen inh Cung, Director of the Central Institute for Economic Management (CIEM), said as the agency issued its economic update for the second quarter of 2016.

By not adjusting it, we will have things to dissect at the end of the year  why we failed to achieve the goal. We need to seek measures and opportunities rather than to sit clapping hands [for attaining a lower target], he said.

The report of the CIEM, an agency advising the Government on economic management policies, reiterated that Viet Nams aim for a 6.7 per cent growth rate is almost unfeasible  just like expert forecasts reported by local media earlier this year.

Cung said the country had not regained the momentum for gross domestic product (GDP) growth, which was around 5.5 per cent in the first half of the year.

The country continued to witness significant impact from global and regional fluctuations, while it needed more time to resolve inherent problems in its growth model, he said.

According to Cung, the agriculture-forestry-aquaculture sector improved very slightly in Q2, growing by 0.06 per cent quarter-over-quarter.

Export value totaled US$82.1 billion in the first half of 2016, an increase of 5.7 per cent over the end of 2015  the lowest H1 growth level in the last few years. Export growth was mainly driven by foreign direct investment enterprises.

Bad debts in the economy increased slightly to 2.62 per cent at the end of March.

Economist Nguyen Quang Thai agreed with Cung, saying that an unchanged growth target will force the country to try harder.

Foundations for growth remain fragile, especially with declines in agriculture and manufacturing. It is necessary to increase revenues and reduce spending, restructure public investments and improve employment and incomes, he said.

Another economic expert, Le ang Doanh, said Viet Nam was likely to see more economic fluctuations in the face of global uncertainties.

While a British exit from the European Union might affect the Vietnamese economy in an indirect way in the long term, ongoing territorial water disputes over the East Sea would definitely affect trade in Southeast Asia, he said.

Domestically, Cung said there were bases for more sustained economic growth, as the new Cabinet sent a series of messages about stimulating the business climate and creating a business environment that is easier to be anticipated.

Achim Fock, the acting country director for the World Bank (WB) in Viet Nam, said during an economic review in Ha Noi last week that the countrys medium term outlook remained positive.

WB economists said that while the country was facing stronger global headwinds, its GDP growth was expected to reach 6 per cent this year.  VNS
Corporate governance reform became a priority for both regulators and companies in Viet Nam recently when firms tried to improve their competitiveness amidst closer economic integration in the region.  VNA/VNS Photo

BANGKOK  Corporate governance reform became a priority for both regulators and companies in Viet Nam recently when firms tried to improve their competitiveness amidst closer economic integration in the region.

These comments were made by Nguyen Vu Quang Trung, deputy CEO of the Ha Noi Stock Exchange, at the two-day corporate governance workshop that began on July 26 to update the regional media on effective practices among public companies.

The workshop was hosted by IFC, a member of the World Bank Group in Bangkok.

Two dozen business editors and reporters from Cambodia, China, Indonesia and the Lao Peoples Democratic Republic, as well as Mongolia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Thailand and Viet Nam attended the workshop, where the key corporate governance issues discussed included company structure, board leadership, risk management and environmental and social standards.

Chris Razook, IFC Corporate Governance Lead for East Asia and the Pacific, said the media could help champion transparency and accountability in public firms, so having a deeper understanding of what constitutes good and bad corporate governance practices would improve journalists ability to spot red flags and uncover stories that are of public importance.

The establishment of the ASEAN Economic Community last year was expected to boost economic integration in the region. In response, companies in the Community needed to improve market transparency and corporate governance practices to raise their performance and competitiveness.

The IFC official added, Well-run companies are more profitable and sustainable and can attract more foreign investment.

Also during the conference, IFC met with representatives from the China Securities Regulatory Commission and the stock exchanges in Ha Noi, HCM City, and Shenzhen to discuss the challenges of promoting good corporate governance in their home markets.  VNS
HA NOI  The number of international tourists arriving in Viet Nam reached over 800,000 in July, a 41.2 per cent year-on-year increase, the Viet Nam National Administration of Tourism said.

More than 5.5 million foreign tourists have visited the country since the beginning of this year, a 24 per cent year-on-year increase.

It is estimated that most Vietnamese tourist markets have expanded, the largest increases being in the number of visitors from Hong Kong and mainland China. The number of tourists from European countries for whom visa-free travel to Viet Nam is permitted such as those from Italy, Spain and Britain has also increased by 30.4 per cent, 24.2 per cent and 23.4 per cent, respectively.

The only decline has been in the number of Cambodian tourists, which fell 17.6 per cent.

Meanwhile, the number of domestic tourists rose in the first seven months of this year, reaching more than 38.2 million, leading to an increase in the gross income from tourism.

The Viet Nam National Administration of Tourism is finishing a project for orienting Viet Nams tourism towards the key economy of the nation, which include implementing various methods such as enhancing the effectiveness of Vietnamese tourism promotion through the establishment of tourism development funds or offering easier immigration procedures.  VNS
Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh at the 49th ASEAN Foreign Ministers Meeting (AMM 49) in Laos. VNA/VNS Photo

VIENTIANE  Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh held meetings yesterday with his counterparts on the sidelines of the 49th ASEAN Foreign Ministers Meeting (AMM 49) in Laos.

At a meeting with Thailands Minister of Foreign Affairs Don Pramudwinai, the diplomats gave positive evaluations to the progress in the two countries strategic partnership and agreed to convene a joint committee meeting at the end of 2016 to discuss concrete measures to improve cooperation efficiency.

Deputy PM Minh mentioned the July 7 and 9 shootings at Vietnamese fishing boats in Thailands waters, asking Thailand to coordinate with Viet Nam in investigating the cases in line with their respective laws and the laws of the international community, in order to prevent such cases in the future.

The Thai FM affirmed his country work with Viet Nam on the issue.

The Deputy PM also met with Philippine Foreign Affairs Secretary, Perfecto Yasay, during which the two sides agreed to promote the comprehensive and win-win cooperation between Viet Nam and the Philippines within the framework of their strategic partnership.

They agreed to continue supporting each other since Viet Nam will host the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum and the Philippines will become Chair of ASEAN in 2017. They pledged to strengthen co-ordination within the ASEAN mechanism and regional and international forums, to promote peace and development.

Earlier yesterday, Deputy PM Minh met with Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Korea (RoK), Yun Byung-se, after attending the 6th Mekong-Republic of Korea (RoK) Foreign Ministers Meeting.

The two ministers expressed their satisfaction at the development of their countries strategic cooperative partnership and agreed to work together closely to propel bilateral collaboration forward, including the effective implementation of the cooperation discussed by Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc and President Park Geun-hye on the sidelines of the recent Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) Summit in Mongolia.

Deputy PM Minh suggested both nations enact measures to forge economic links and proposed that the RoK support Viet Nam in implementing the Viet Nam-RoK Free Trade Agreement effectively, and encourage Korean enterprises to make long-term investments and develop support industries in Viet Nam .

He asked the RoK to help Viet Nam gain access to preferential loans by the International Development Association (IDA) after 2018.

The two sides agreed to enhance coordination at the ASEAN-RoK cooperation mechanism, the East Asia Summit, and at regional and international forums.

At a meeting between Deputy PM Minh and Australian Minister of Foreign Affairs Julie Bishop, the two sides expressed their delight at the remarkable strides in various fields in the two countries partnership, and agreed to maximise efforts to bring relations to a new height.

Deputy PM Minh proposed that Australia continue facilitating the imports of Vietnamese farm produce and seafood. The Australian side agreed to speed up risk management procedures so that Vietnamese dragon fruit could be sold there.

Julie Bishop said Australia hopes to assist Viet Nam with human resources development. She stressed that Viet Nam is the priority of Australia in educational partnerships in the region.

She asserted that Australia supports Viet Nam in spending financial resources to push economic restructuring and sustainable development forward. She will persuade Australias relevant agencies to support Viet Nam at the World Banks sessions on cooperation and development.

Meeting focuses on infrastructure

The 9th Lower Mekong Ministerial Meeting took place in Vientiane, Laos yesterday on the AMM-49 sidelines, which focused on developing sustainable infrastructure to serve social-economic development in harmony with environmental protection in the Mekong sub-region.

Ministers agreed on boosting cooperation with member partners of the Friends of the Lower Mekong (FLM) regional organisations, to promote sustainable development and narrow the development gap between regional countries.

Besides six priority sectors of health, education, agriculture and food security, regional connection, environment and water resources, and energy, the ministers agreed that the Lower Mekong Initiative (LMI) will focus on the fields Mekong countries need to address such as climate change, water resources, energy, food security, gender equality and female empowerment  to achieve balanced and sustainable development in the region.

Speaking at the meeting, Deputy PM Minh put forward fields of cooperation the LMI will need to promote. Those include supporting Mekong countries to apply a water, energy and food inter-sector approach in building and implement socio-economic development policies; ensuring balance between development and environmental and natural resources protection; boosting cooperation on climate change adaptation; and sustainably manage and use water resources, including Mekong water.

The ninth meeting, under the chair of US Secretary of State John Kerry, saw the participation of foreign ministers of Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Viet Nam and ASEAN Secretary General Le Luong Minh.  VNS
Foreign ministers of ASEAN member states and 10 counterparts from partner countries at the 9th Mekong-Japan Foreign Ministers Meeting held in Vientiane, Laos.  Photo AFP

VIENTIANE  Viet Nam has reiterated its stance on protecting peace, security, stability and maritime navigation and aviation in the South China Sea (East Sea) at separate meetings between ASEAN foreign ministers and their counterparts from partner countries in Laos.

Addressing the ASEAN+1 events, which took place within the framework of the 49th ASEAN Foreign Ministers Meeting on Monday, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh also expressed Viet Nams views on the Permanent Court of Arbitration which was formed in accordance with Appendix VII of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

Expressing his concern over developments in the East Sea, the official underscored the need to exercise restraint, not take actions that complicate the situation, not use or threaten to use force, and observe principles of international law and the UNCLOS.

Viet Nam called on concerned parties to accelerate bilateral and multilateral consultations and negotiations and abide by the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea while working towards the early formation of a Code of Conduct in the East Sea.

Viet Nam also appealed to partners and the international community to back endeavours to settle disputes peacefully, respect legal and diplomatic processes and contribute to maintaining and promoting peace, security and stability in the East Sea and the region, he said.

Regarding relations between the ten-member group and partner countries, the Vietnamese delegation proposed a host of measures to foster result-oriented co-operation, particularly in areas like economy, trade, investment and information-technology, as well as in the fight against terrorism, cross-border crimes and climate change.

They suggested the partners provide more support for the bloc in building the ASEAN Community, carrying forward its central role in the region and contributing to regional peace, security and development.

At the meetings, many countries also expressed their concern over the complicated situation in the East Sea, which they said undermine trust and threaten peace, security and stability in the region. Countries stressed the common interest and the significance of keeping peace, stability, security and safety and freedom of maritime and over flight activities in the waters, and respecting international law.

Several countries reiterated their stance as stated in the past regarding the lawsuit filed by the Philippines at the PCA.

The foreign ministers also compared notes on regional and international issues of shared concern, including the situation on the Korean peninsula, terrorism, maritime security, climate change, migration and human trafficking.

The partners welcomed the official establishment of the ASEAN Community on December 31, 2015 and pledged to continue backing ASEANs central role and its efforts in realising the ASEAN Community Vision 2025.

They agreed to step up cooperation with the bloc through the effective implementation of plans of action.

Dialogue partners of the ASEAN are China, the Republic of Korea, Canada, Japan, India, Australia, the US, the EU, Russia and New Zealand.  VNS
Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh meets Norwegian FM Borge Brende on the sidelines of the 49th ASEAN Ministerial Meeting (AMM-49) and related meetings in Vientiane, Laos.  VNA/VNS Photo Pham Kien

VIENTIANE  Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh met his counterparts from Norway, New Zealand and Canada yesterday on the sidelines of the 49th ASEAN Ministerial Meeting (AMM-49) and related meetings in Vientiane, Laos.

FM Minh and Norwegian FM Borge Brende agreed on steps to improve the efficiency of bilateral co-operation. The Vietnamese leader was committed to close collaboration to foster bilateral ties, saying that Viet Nam would provide all possible support for Norwegian firms in Viet Nam in the fields of climate change, renewable energy, shipbuilding technology, marine transport, oil and gas, and aquaculture.

Minh and New Zealand FM Murray McCully expressed their pleasure at the practical development of bilateral ties and the positive growth of two-way trade and tourism with the opening of a direct flight service. The New Zealand side positively took note of Viet Nams proposal to open the market for its farm produce.

Meeting Canadian Foreign Minister Stephan Dion, Minh wished to reinforce co-operation with Canada in diverse areas, and expressed hopes that Canada would raise its voice to maintain peace and stability in the region and the world.

FM Dion spoke highly of Viet Nams role in the region and took note of Viet Nams request to access international development assistance beyond 2018.  VNS
HCM CITY  Doctors at the HCM City University Medical Centre are set to perform laparoscopic colorectal cancer surgery using indocyanine green (ICG) fluorescence for the first time in Viet Nam, the head of the hospitals science and training department has said.

Nguyen Huu Thinh said the two surgeries would be performed at the end of this month.

ICG fluorescence imaging will be used with assistance from German doctors.

The use of ICG fluorescence, a dye, would enhance treatment outcomes of colorectal cancer surgery, Thinh said.

The hospital is the first unit in the country to get approval from the Ministry of Health to use ICG in colorectal cancer surgery and treatment of other diseases.

The incidence of colorectal cancer has increased significantly in the last 10 years.

Nearly one fourth of colorectal cancer incidence is in advanced stages.

The HCM City University Medical Centre treats around 500-700 patients with colorectal cancer every year, few of them at early stages.

Young-onset colorectal cancer increasing

The incidence of colorectal cancer and mortality rates have been increasing among younger people in the past few years.

Patients below 50 years accounted for 15 per cent of the total number reported at the hospital every year, Thinh who is also deputy head of the gastrointestinal surgery department, said.

In the early stages, key symptoms could go unrecognised, he said.

When young adults have symptoms like unexplained persistent rectal bleeding, anaemia and abdominal pain, they should have a thorough check, he said.

While there are no epidemiologic studies on the increasing young-onset colorectal cancer, risk factors such as unsafe food, sedentary lifestyle, obesity, and diabetes are increasing.

The start of average-risk screening is generally recommended at 50 years of age, but high-risk individuals should begin earlier, Thinh said.

In Viet Nam, colorectal cancer is the third most lethal of all cancers.  VNS
Cai Mep-Thi Vai receives large container vessels which travel directly to Europe and the US without the need to transit through a third country.  Photo nld.com.vn

BA RIAVUNG TAU  Infrastructure around the Cai MepThi Vai port cluster, the only port cluster that can receive large container vessels in Viet Nam, is expected to be upgraded so that it can become a major national and international port.

Cai Mep-Thi Vai receives large container vessels which travel directly to Europe and the US without the need to transit through a third country.

Though cargo volume through the port has risen 16 per cent annually over the last five years, insufficient infrastructure, including connecting roads, has slowed growth, according to a report from the Ba Ria-Vung Tau Provinces Peoples Committee.

Road 965, for example, is the only road that connects to National Highway No. 51 and to roads leading to industrial parks near the port cluster.

While roads inside the port cluster are now being built, construction of the Phuoc Hoa-Cai Mep Road and 991B Road are only in the planning stages as there is a capital shortage.

To expedite travel and meet demand, Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province authorities have asked the central government to speed up construction of Bien Hoa-Vung Tau Expressway which links Cai Mep-Thi Vai with several southern provinces.

Though the port system can accommodate the worlds biggest vessels, the Vung Tau-Thi Vai navigation channel has not been dredged effectively.

During a meeting with Deputy Prime Minister Trinh inh Dung, who led an inspection delegation to the port cluster last weekend, provincial leaders suggested that the government dredge Vung Tau-Thi Vai navigation according to the 16-metre standard used to receive large vessels.

Dung told local leaders that the Cai Mep-Thi Vai port cluster was an important international transit port contributing greatly to socio-economic development and that it had received investment priority for high-tech equipment that would help increase cargo-loading capacity.

However, Dung said the port cluster still faced limitations, including zoning, connectivity and transport infrastructure, mostly due to poor management of the port cluster zone.

The Ministry of Transport cant be responsible for everything, said Dung, adding that infrastructure connectivity both inside and outside the port system was badly needed.

He suggested mobilising capital from various sources, including the private sector, to improve connections between Cai Mep-Thi Vai and HCM City and other localities in the region.

In response to suggestions from the local authorities, Deputy PM Dung has asked ministries and sectors to conduct a feasibility study on navigation dredging for very large vessels.

Nguyen Van Trinh, chairman of Ba Ria-Vung Tau Provinces Peoples Committee, said the effectiveness of the port remained low, at 1.2 million TEUs a year, equivalent to 18 per cent of the port clusters capacity.

Original plans called for Ba Ria-Vung Tau to have a total of 57 seaports. Twenty-eight of them have been built with US$2 billion. All of the built ports are in use, with total annual loading capacity of 98.9 million tonnes.

At the Cai Mep-Thi Vai port cluster, 17 ports are in use, with total annual loading capacity of 93 million tonnes. There are an additional 35 projects in the planning stage.

In addition, a number of container ports at Cai Mep-Thi Vai, worth VN27 trillion, opened in 2009, with annual loading capacity of 6.8 million TEUs.

Every week, there are 20 turns of vessels over 80.000 DWT, including an average of two with loading capacity of 160,000 DWT, departing from the port cluster.

With the advantages of deepwater ports, the travel time between Viet Nam and other countries is shortened, leading to better service quality and cost effectiveness.

However, in recent years, the supply of goods shipped through the port system has not reached the predicted figure, despite great investments in high-tech equipment from many ports.

According to the Viet Nam Marine Administration, services at the port cluster have not developed well, and along with underdeveloped infrastructure, the port complex has been unattractive to transport firms.

The Cai MepThi Vai port complex opened in late January 2013 after four years of construction.

The project was financed by Japans Official Development Assistance (ODA) loans and reciprocal capital from Viet Nam. VNS
HCM CITY  A national four-year programme to improve doctors awareness of screening and treatment of congenital metabolic disorders among children, begun in 2014, has helped reduce the mortality rate from 50 per cent to around 10 per cent.

More than 700 obstetricians and paediatricians received specialised training through workshops in early recognition and care to save children using advanced nutrition therapies.

The project is carried out by the Department of Mothers and Childrens Health in co-operation with the National Hospital of Paediatrics and dairy company Mead Johnson Nutrition Viet Nam.

The rate of children with congenital metabolic disorders in the country is one per 500, well above the global average of 1/2,000.

According to health experts, it is a difficult disease to diagnose and develops very rapidly.

It is often diagnosed late, leading to high mortality rates among children, causing a heavy burden on families and society.  VNS
A solemn memorial service and burial ceremony for 351 sets of remains of revolutionary Vietnamese martyrs was organised yesterday at 82 Hill Martyrs Cemetery in the southeast province of Tay Ninh, which borders Viet Nam and Cambodia.  Photo kinhtenongthon.com.vn

TAY NINH  A solemn memorial service and burial ceremony for 351 sets of remains of revolutionary Vietnamese martyrs was organised yesterday at 82 Hill Martyrs Cemetery in the southeast province of Tay Ninh, which borders Viet Nam and Cambodia.

Of the number of volunteer revolutionaries, 344 sacrificed their lives on the Cambodian battlefield.

At the ceremony, Nguyen Thanh Ngoc, deputy chairman of the provincial Peoples Committee, said the Party Committee, authorities and the public had co-operated since 2000 with Cambodia to look for the remains and repatriate them back to the province.

About 3,881 sets of remains have been buried at the 82 Hill Martyrs Cemetery.

A ceremony for 28 sets of remains of people who died in Cambodia was also held yesterday at Binh Phuoc Provinces martyrs cemetery.

There are a total of 2,552 sets of remains buried at the cemetery, including 2,263 repatriated from Cambodia.

During the 2015-2016 dry season, 748 sets of remains were sought in Cambodia, according to the Ministry of Defense.  VNS
QUANG NINH  All cruise ships in the northern Quang Ninh Province have been banned from sending tourists offshore to visit Ha Long Bay from 6am today.

This has been done to ensure safety as storm Mirinae is approaching the northern provinces.

Storm Mirinae, the first to strike Viet Nam this year, battered Tonkin Gulf this morning, including Bach Long Vi, Cat Hai, Co To and Van on islands of Quang Ninh Province and Hai Phong City.

The Peoples Committee of Quang Ninh Province ordered the owners of 473 cruise ships to move the vessels to safe shelters and to anchor them down tightly to avoid any damage that might be caused by the storm.

About 2,000 tourists on Co To Island were moved to safety ashore as of 5pm yesterday.

However, 647 tourists, five of whom are foreigners, are still on the island. Co To Island District authorities asked tourist agencies to provide accommodation to the tourists.

ang Huy Hau, standing Vice-Chairman of Quang Ninh Provinces Peoples Committee, asked relevant agencies to urgently contact more than 40 offshore ships and boats to ask them to move to safe shelters, while evacuating households in areas prone to floods and landslides, especially those in mountainous areas.

The preparations to deal with the storm must be completed before 4pm today, he said.

According to the National Centre for Hydro-meteorological Forecasting, the storm was centred at about 19.5 degrees north and 108.5 degrees east, about 200km to the southeast off Thai Binh and Ninh Binh provinces at 8am today.

The storm is expected to move in a west-northwest direction in the next 12 hours, at a speed of up to 20kmph and hit the Red River Delta region this evening before weakening into a tropical depression.

The north-eastern and northern mountainous areas are expected to experience heavy rains this evening.  VNS
HA NOI  Health departments throughout the country have been ordered to publish the winning bids for the supply of medical equipment to public hospitals.

The move aims to ensure consistent prices of medical equipment in the market, avoiding price hikes for the benefit of suppliers or hospitals, said Vu Minh Tuan, head of the Department of Medical Equipment and Construction under the Ministry of Health at a recent meeting in Ha Noi.

The meeting was designed to explain Decree No 36 about medical equipment management, that went into force this month, to health departments and companies supplying medical equipment.

Statistics from the Viet Nam Medical Equipment Association show that there are about 10,500 types of medical equipment in the market, 90 per cent of which is imported from countries like Japan and China. Most medical equipment used in health clinics is not checked and maintained periodically, according to the association.

Deputy Minister Nguyen Viet Tien said shortcomings were found in the management of medical equipment in hospitals, such as the use of substandard equipment or rare use of equipment, causing waste.

Using substandard medical equipment is very dangerous for examining and treating patients, he said.

Under the new decree, companies importing medical equipment must assume responsibility for its quality, preventing the smuggling of substandard equipment or medical equipment without clear origin, he said.

According to the decree, devices implanted into the human body must be tested in clinical trials on human beings before being used.

Only then can a device be issued a registration number, which would be revoked if the device was found to cause damage.

Tuan, head of the Department of Medical Equipment and Construction, said the decree offered a stricter legal framework to get rid of companies supplying substandard medical equipment.  VNS
Heartbreaking family update after mother-of-six was killed in horror crash Hannah Fraser's father and stepmother are trying to make it from the United Kingdom to Australia in time for their daughter's funeral.

Firefighter unions latest message to Andrews Government More than a hundred fire trucks in Victoria will carry pointed messages about the Andrews Government as part of a union campaign in the lead up to next month's state election.

Family of Aboriginal teen who died in apparent suicide after sexual abuse back calls for inquiry Police believe 15-year-old Layla Leering took her own life after being raped in the Northern Territory community of Bulla in 2015.

Duttons declaration to voters amid Labors big mess The Opposition Leader said the Prime Minister "might write me off" but he believes Australians will vote the Coalition back into power in 2025 to clean up "the big mess" Labor will leave behind.
FLOYD  Officials are looking at whether safety improvements are neeeded at the site of a fatal crash in Floyd.

T.J. Houdek, 23, of Charles City, was killed on the Avenue of the Saints when the motorcycle he was riding was hit by a semi at the junction of Quarry Road and U.S. 218 on July 18.

State troopers say he pulled in front of the big rig, whose driver also was injured.

In the wake of Houdeks death, state Sen. Mary Jo Wilhelm, D-Cresco, and state Rep. Todd Prichard, D-Charles City, want to hear what the community thinks should be done about the intersection, which some local officials have considered hazardous for years.

Wilhelm, who says she frequently drives through the intersection, says many worry the conditions could become worse due to the construction of a Loves truck stop on the north side of the road.

The people that use that intersection a lot think that theres poor visibility because of all the cross traffic, she said. And now with the potential increase of usage with Loves, I think thats a big concern too.

Some think an overpass with on-ramps and off-ramps may be the answer.

An online petition calling for the Iowa Department of Transportation to build an overpass at the intersection has garnered more than 2,800 signatures since July 18.

Because the site involves state roads, any changes would be approved and executed by the Iowa DOT.

Although the DOT has not approved an interchange, state transportation officials have taken the first steps to make that a reality in case officials determine one is needed, said Pete Hjelmstad, DOT field services coordinator.

It has explored several design alternatives and last month completed a required environmental impact study.

It began the study due to the traffic volume, including the amount of trucks, Hjelmstad said.

We dont have any decisions on it now, he said. Its something we looked at and, if that is something we needed, we wanted to be ready. Thats why we did this study and thats why were moving through the process.

The next step is for the agency to present a preferred design alternative at a public meeting. That is tentatively slated for Nov. 9.

If an interchange is approved, it would take another three years for construction to start, Hjelmstad said.

The current cost is pegged at approximately $18 million.

Floyd County Sheriffs Office Chief Deputy Jeff Crooks hopes an interchange is built, saying the site remains a problem in spite of changes the Iowa DOT made several years ago to increase safety.

Its better than it used to be, but cars and semitrailers in the middle still block traffic and people still seem to get confused once they get into the middle of the divided highway, he said.

Sheriffs Office data shows 35 crashes have been reported at the intersection since June 1, 2011.

Sixteen of those were injury accidents, including two fatalities.

We just cringe every time that a call comes out to (that intersection) because you just fear the worst when youre there, because we know what kind of mess that intersection is to start with and the amount of traffic thats there, said Crooks, who plans to attend Tuesdays meeting. And the speeds that are involved  normally its a car that isnt moving very fast versus a car that is moving very fast.
WATERLOO -- The Waterloo Municipal Band will celebrate the final concert of its 90th season at 7:30 p.m. Thursday at the RiverLoop Amphitheatre downtown .

The concert is free and open to the public.

In celebration of 90 years, the band will perform music from the 1920s through present day. The concert will feature a march written by the Waterloo Municipal Bands conductor and musical director of 35 years, Bill Shepherd, a novelty number written in 1927 and narrated by Bard Mackey and an original piece written for this occasion by Les Aldrich, "Ninety Years and Counting."

In the case of rain, the concert will be moved inside the Waterloo Center for the Arts. For more information, go to www.waterlooband.org.
PHILADELPHIA  As Cory Booker left a room full of Iowa Democrats, shaking hands and snapping selfies as he went, a man approached him and declared, I hope to work for you in 2024!

During this weeks Democratic National Convention, Booker has helped his already-rising political star among Democrats, including from first-in-the-nation voting Iowa.

The U.S. senator from New Jersey gave a well-received address to the convention earlier this week. On Wednesday morning he was similarly well received when he spoke to Iowa Democrats.

Booker burst on the national scene years ago, first as mayor of Newark and then in the Senate. He was mentioned as a possible running mate for presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

Bookers remarks and his reception among Democrats this week will only further speculation that he could run for president in the future.

I think in those speeches he really stuck the landing, said Iowa delegate Zach Wahls of Iowa City. People in the (Iowa) delegation, (Bernie) Sanders and Clinton supporters both seemed to really resonate with what he had to say.  I expect you might be hearing more from Sen. Booker in the coming years in Iowa.

Wahls described Booker as an interesting blend of New Jersey, Southern preacher and social media guru. Booker is known for his Twitter account, which has more than 1.7 million followers.

Bookers convention speech Monday night, in which he drew on the famous Maya Angelou poem Still I Rise, drew rave reviews from Democrats, although shortly after it was eclipsed by an even more roundly applauded address by first lady Michelle Obama.
CHARLES CITY  The Iowa Court of Appeals on Wednesday upheld the conviction of Casey Frederiksen in the 2005 slaying of 5-year-old Evelyn Miller.

Frederiksen was found guilty of first-degree murder and first-degree sexual abuse in a 2015 trial and sentenced to two life terms.

Now 37, Frederiksen argued there wasnt sufficient evidence to back the conviction. He also said the trial judge shouldnt have excluded out-of-court statements and shouldnt have allowed evidence of his use of child porn.

The Iowa Court of Appeals sided with the state in an opinion filed Wednesday.

When viewed in its totality, we find the states evidence was sufficient for a reasonable jury to determine beyond a reasonable doubt that Frederiksen sexually assaulted and murdered (Evelyn), Judge Mary Tabor wrote in the opinion, which was rendered by a three-judge panel.

Frederiksen had been babysitting Evelyn, who was his girlfriends daughter, in July 2005 when she disappeared. She was found dead in a nearby river days later.

The appeals court also noted porn found on Frederiksens computer involved girls in Evelyns age range and portrayed acts that were striking similar to abuse she suffered. The court said evidence of Frederiksens attraction to young girls backed the prosecutions theory he acted on his sexual arousal, which caused injuries to Evelyn.

The state theorized, because Frederiksen knew he could not send (Evelyn) on a weekend visitation with her father in that condition, he fatally stabbed her to secure her silence before dumping her body in the river to wash away any DNA evidence, the opinion states.

Frederiksen also said the trial judge should have allowed jurors to hear an acquaintance, Randy Patrie, misled investigators about what clothing he was wearing when he visited Frederiksen on the night of Evelyns disappearance, the time he went to bed that night and his description of the girls disappearance as terrible or tragic before she was discovered dead days later.

The court of appeals said if Patries statements were improperly excluded from trial, their exclusion was harmless.
CEDAR FALLS  A former University of Northern Iowa professor has been arrested in Arkansas.

And now Cedar Falls police are investigating his time in Iowa.

Officers with the Bella Vista Police Department arrested 77-year-old John Clifford Longnecker on charges of rape and four counts of second-degree sexual abuse on Monday. The incidents involve three neighborhood children ages 5 to 8, and Arkansas authorities asked for information on other possible victims.

Lt. Barb Shrum with the Bella Vista department said she has received calls from more than one person in Iowa and has forwarded that information to the Cedar Falls Police Department. She said the callers are now female adults with allegations of misconduct.

Longnecker is currently in the Benton County Jail in Bentonville, Ark.

Longnecker had been an assistant math and computer professor at the University of Northern Iowa, where he had been chairman of the faculty senate. He retired in 2000 after 33 years at the university.

Shrum said Longnecker moved to Bella Vista about 16 years ago and had worked small jobs with a printing business and a restaurant.
WATERLOO  Police in Waterloo and Cedar Falls are asking residents to secure their vehicles after numerous cars have been rummaged through in recent nights.

People need to keep their car doors locked, said Capt. Mike Hayes with the Cedar Falls Police Department.

Around 2 a.m. Wednesday, Waterloo patrol officers noticed parked vehicles with their doors open in the area of Progress Avenue. At least seven had been gone through, although five didnt appear to have any items missing.

In Cedar Falls, police received reports of burglarized vehicles in the 1500 block of Lilac Lane and McClain Drive on Wednesday morning.

Hayes said there has been an uptick in similar crimes in the past four weeks. Laptop computers, change and other items have been taken. Usually, the vehicles involved werent locked, Hayes said.

Hayes also said residents should be alert for anything out of the ordinary.

If residents see something, please give us a call, Hayes said.
WATERLOO  Cedar Valley Crime Stoppers is offering a reward for information leading to an arrest in the case of a Waterloo man who was shot and killed last week.

Otavious Donte Brown, 21, was outside in the 800 block of Logan Avenue at about 5:40 p.m. July 17 when someone, possibly in a passing vehicle, began shooting. Four or five shots rang out, according to witnesses. Brown was struck in the chest and later died at UnityPoint-Allen Hospital.

Two others injured in the shooting, 22-year-old Aundrey F. Roberts Jr. and 17-year-old Dewon C. Campbell, survived and were released from the hospital a short time later. Roberts had been shot in the foot, and Campbell was shot in his left side, according to police.

No arrests have been made, and on Monday Crime Stoppers announced a $1,000 reward for information in Browns death. Authorities said they believe there are people with information on the incident based on the time of day and location.

Lt. Greg Fangman with the Waterloo Police Department said officers are still investigating the slaying. Officers searched homes on Elm and Warneka streets in connection with the investigation last week.

Anyone with information is asked to call the Waterloo Police Department at 291-4340 ext 7 or Cedar Valley Crime Stoppers at (855) 300-8477. Tips also may be left at WWW.CVCRIMESTOP.COM, with TipSoft or by texting the word CEDAR plus the information to CRIMES (274637).
WATERLOO  One year ago, Cindy Ireland was struggling to get by. She was taking care of her elderly mother and only able to work part-time.

Now, nothings different, but everythings changed. Ireland isnt just getting by, shes finally getting ahead.

She credits her success to the pilot program Getting Ahead in the Cedar Valley  a nine-week course developed by poverty expert Ruby Payne that focuses on the up to 11 resources lacking for people who are having financial and other difficulties.

Basically, the class changed my life, probably forever, because you learn to think about things differently and see things differently, so every day, then, is different, Ireland said. Its a whole new life.

Ireland doesnt have words to describe how the program works, but her story is a testimony to the programs success. While her schedule is still the same, Ireland now has time to volunteer, has some savings and has returned to a spiritual life shed once abandoned.

It totally changed my life. Its hard to even describe how, Ireland said.

Irelands success story isnt the only one from the first class of the pilot program. In fact, many have stayed involved in the program in some way.

Ireland helped with the dishes, as each class begins with a shared meal. Rachel Oddoye, another of the inaugural 12 graduates, became a facilitator for the program to help with the second Getting ahead class.

Tom Marrah, a member of the Getting Ahead advisory board, also explained how the first class helped recruit the second class.

When we tried to do the first class, we printed up 625 brochures; we went to every church, every organization, every neighborhood picnic, and we only got about 40 people to even fill them out, Marrah said.

So, the initial 12 graduates said theyd take the responsibility for finding the next class. The board printed up just 50 brochures and they went directly to those friends and family of the first class.

Every single one of the 14 people of the second graduating class  the dinner and ceremony were held late last month  was a referral from the first class. About a half-dozen of the first class showed up to the ceremony to congratulate the second group.

Among those recruits was Irelands son Travis Ireland and daughter-in-law Rebekah Ireland.

Travis Irelands story is not his mothers  his life is completely different after starting the class. Travis didnt have a job, which led to heavy drinking and drug use. It was a cycle hed done before and itd often found him spending time in prison.

This time, though, he joined the Getting Ahead program.

During the nine-week course, he found another job, quit drinking, quit smoking and is starting to save money for his childrens future.

Everything just worked out really well, Travis Ireland said. We were really struggling financially when we started, and I think something that we learned through this is that a lot of the reasons we were struggling financially were our own fault.

He said the information he got from the class didnt lead to an a-ha moment, but did make him think more consciously about the decisions he and Rebekah were making. And he now has a circle of support to help.

I need to have other people around that are going to motivate me to keep going forward, Travis Ireland said. Its a new start.

Like his mom, Travis said this program is not just a new start but also a new way of life.

He and Rebekah know they still have work to do, but now they know theyre making smarter decisions to start to get ahead. Though Travis doesnt rave about the program quite like Cindy Ireland and her hindsight, his desire to give back speaks volumes.

Its in the works possibly to become a facilitator for the next group, Travis said, but added it is a time commitment for someone working full-time. But its definitely something that I believe in, so its worth giving back to.

The Irelands were among the 14 graduates at a late-June ceremony. ONeita Mister, of Waterloo, summed up the sentiments of so many on that day.

As she sat back down after receiving her certificate, Mister said with tears running down her face, I am so proud of myself. Ooh, Im so proud of myself.

As to the future, graduate Sarah West summed that up as well.

It was about what I learned, how to survive, West said. My self-worth had been beat up. Everybody had told me I wasnt going to be nothing, and Im something. Im something, and I can do anything, and I dont plan on giving up.
A roundup of items from the Democratic National Convention:

No bacon

Iowa delegates to the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia are missing their bacon.

Breakfast at the downtown Marriott Hotel where delegates are paying about $500-a-night for rooms is hearty with eggs, potatoes, fruit and pastries.

But no bacon.

Iowa Democratic Party Chairwoman Andy McGuire said the hotel told her it would be another $700 to put bacon on delegates plates.

Although she knows Iowans love their bacon, McGuire said the money could be spent on campaigns this fall.

Slovenian solidarity

Melania Trump isnt the only one who has Slovenian ancestry.

Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar, who spoke the Iowa delegations breakfast meeting Tuesday, joked her ancestors came from a place about a half-hour away from where the ancestors of the wife of GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump emigrated.

You can see the resemblance, she said.

We think we have enough Slovenians, Klobuchar said, referring to my fellow Slovenian Sen. Tom Harkin.

Their ancestors came to this country from Slovenia to work in the mines  Harkins in the Iowa coal mines and Klobuchars in the Minnesota iron mines.

Second home

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and former Maryland Gov. Martin OMalley visited the Iowa delegation Tuesday to pay homage to the hosts of the first-in-the-nation presidential caucuses.

I spent so much time in Iowa it almost feels like home, said Sanders, who spent 54 days in Iowa ahead of the Feb. 1 caucuses.

OMalley, who spent 64 days in Iowa, said it was wonderful to be with friends again and called Iowans salt of the earth people  youre what America is all about.

I feel like Iowa is my second home, he said. The towns and the places and the people of Iowa will always be very, very dear to my heart and the hearts of my family. I have so many stories and so many good friends.

Midwest pride

Klobuchar sought to assure Iowa Democrats they can have confidence in Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine, Hillary Clintons running mate.

Kaine has Midwest roots, she said. Not only did he grow up in Kansas City, the son of an iron worker, he was born in St. Paul, Minn.

With our rich history of vice presidents, with Hubert Humphrey and Walter Mondale, Minnesota is truly a state  and Tim Kaine will now add to this tradition  where moms bounce their babies on their knees and say, One day you can grow up to be vice president.

That is our Minnesota tradition, she said.

Harkin on unity

Tom Harkin, Iowas former Democratic U.S. senator, used a history lesson to implore Bernie Sanders supporters from Wisconsin to vote for Hillary Clinton in November.

Harkin spoke at the breakfast gathering of the Wisconsin delegation Tuesday morning at the Philadelphia Downtown Marriott.

Sanders defeated Clinton decisively in Wisconsins Democratic primary, 57 percent to 43 percent.

Clinton supporters have spent the first days of the convention attempting to foster party unity and ensure Sanders supporters will vote for Clinton this fall.

Harkin did the same Tuesday, using the 1968 election as an example of how party division may have hurt Democrats.

Harkin said he thinks supporters of Eugene McCarthy and Robert Kennedy may not have done as much as they could have to help primary winner Hubert Humphrey in the general election. Humphrey lost to Republican Richard Nixon.

Imagine what our country would have been like without eight years of Richard Nixon, Harkin said. So I say to you (Sanders supporters), look, weve got to come together. The other side is way too scary.
WATERLOO  The city has the technology to deploy a system of public surveillance cameras.

But Safety Services Director Dan Trelka said leaders need to find more money and proceed cautiously in determining where they would be placed throughout the community.

Weve got a strong foundation to build off of already with our fiber optics, Trelka said. Its just going to take funding, quite frankly, so its up to those that hold the purse strings if you would like to proceed with this.

Trelka was speaking Monday during a meeting of the City Councils public safety committee, which was just beginning to investigate a request from some residents to install cameras to help deter acts of violence in the community or catch those responsible.

No cost estimates for cameras had been developed yet.

Trelka and Police Capt. Joe Leibold visited Dubuque last week to see what Trelka described as an impressive and robust system of public surveillance cameras.

The Dubuque system grew out of traffic monitoring cameras at intersections that were later utilized by law enforcement to help track crime. Most of Dubuques 924 cameras are still run by traffic engineers at intersections, but the city has started rolling out cameras at public parks and around buildings.

The Waterloo Traffic Operations Department currently has 28 cameras at intersections, which are used by engineers to monitor traffic flows but have been utilized by Waterloo police to investigate crashes.

Traffic Operations Superintendent Sandie Greco said the fiber optic lines and wireless system is in place to handle many more cameras if the council authorized funding to buy and install them.

While some residents have urged the city to put up cameras to monitor neighborhoods with a history of shootings, Trelka suggested the city start by putting up more traffic intersection cameras.

If youre going to proceed with this initiative it shouldnt be spearheaded by the police department because the perfect platform, the infrastructure, is in the hands of the traffic engineers, he said.

Most of our shooters in our cities throughout Iowa are in cars, so theyll typically be able to track them to and from the shooting, Trelka added.

While council members generally supported moving forward with the plans, Councilmen Jerome Amos Jr. and Patrick Morrissey said they wanted to ensure the city wasnt trampling on civil liberties.

If were going to move forward with this I really think we need to make sure that peoples rights are protected, Amos said.

Morrissey said hes heard concerns cameras would be placed in a discriminatory fashion targeting certain neighborhoods over others.

Trelka said he shared those concerns, which is why he thought utilizing the traffic cameras was preferable to putting up neighborhood watch cameras.

I dont want any municipal employees to have the ability to be prying into private areas of peoples lives, he said.

Mayor Quentin Hart said said the idea of public safety cameras was only one part of a larger challenge we need to deal with to reduce violence in the community.

But he said he would work with council members to set up a task force and pursue the idea.

Councilman Tom Lind urged his colleagues and staff to take the next steps to get cameras in place.

I think the cameras will make people feel safer, Lind said. I know theyre not going to solve all crimes.  Cameras would just be one more thing to help (the police) department do their job.
PHILADELPHIA  Proudly, sometimes loudly and sometimes with trembling voices, Iowas 60 Iowa Democratic National Convention delegates cast their votes for a presidential nominee Tuesday morning.

The process was repeated on the convention floor Tuesday night.

There were no surprises  30 votes for Hillary Clinton and 21 for Bernie Sanders, including super-delegates.

In announcing their votes, Clinton supporters extolled her leadership, toughness and resume. Sanders loyalists cited his integrity and progressive values.

Eleanor Taft of Iowa City put it bluntly: Hes not for sale.

For the most part, it was Iowa nice, but there were raw emotions and, in some cases, warnings from Berners the party was heading down the wrong path.

In our view, a vote for Clinton is a vote for Donald Trump, Rebecca Mueller of Muscatine said. She expected Sanders to back Clinton, but others may vote for Jill Stein of the Green Party, Libertarian Gary Johnson or even Trump.

My vote for Hillary Clinton is not a vote for Trump, countered Tammy Wawro of Cedar Rapids, president of the Iowa State Education Association. Its a vote for our kids, the fifth-grade teacher said.

Retired Sen. Tom Harkin asked that regardless how they cast their roll call vote, delegates join him and Sanders in supporting Clinton in November.

Sanders, who he counts as one of his closest personal friends, told Harkin in a private conversation Monday night he is committed to taking this revolution ... this progressive movement in America and continuing it onward.

Brent Oleson of Marion cast his vote for Sanders, but added, In November I will vote for the winner tonight.

Some Sanders backers were angry about leaked emails that seem to confirm their suspicions the Democratic National Committee may have been working for Clinton and against Sanders.

David Johnson of West Branch called for a housecleaning to extend beyond the resignation of DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz.

If not, we run the risk of losing young Democrats who will ask, What was the point? he said.

Gillian Popenuk of Burlington will stay and fight to pull the party back to the left where it belongs.

Clinton supporter Zach Wahls of Iowa City won applause when he acknowledged the frustration of the Sanders delegates who thought the primary system was rigged against their candidate.

After reading those emails, I agree, he said.
DES MOINES  For Tim Roberts, chief financial officer of ABCM Corp., the shift to Medicaid managed care has meant denied payments and long waits.

The Hampton-based organization, which has more than 30 skilled nursing facilities, long-term care centers and independent and assisted-living facilities across the state, is owed more than $3.3 million in Medicaid claims.

We have had to lay off about 20 people already, and that could grow if the shortfall continues, Roberts said during a four-hour Senate Human Resources committee meeting at the Capitol on Tuesday. This shift has placed a huge burden to providers by not giving them the cash flow they desperately need.

Legislators heard testimony from health care providers, Medicaid beneficiaries and the three managed-care organizations now providing health care for more than 560,000 Medicaid enrollees.

Iowa handed over its $5 billion Medicaid program to the three private insurers April 1.

At the heart of Tuesdays meeting was provider payments. MCOs and the state say the majority of claims are being paid in a timely fashion. Providers testified otherwise.

According to state data, the three MCOs  Amerigroup Iowa, AmeriHealth Caritas Iowa and UnitedHealthcare of the River Valley  paid a total of $899.3 million to providers from April through June.

Of the more than 4.9 million claims submitted:

About 3.4 million were paid.

1.2 million were denied.

300,000 were suspended.

101,000 were rejected, meaning claims were missing information.

State officials said the three MCOs were paying at least 95 percent of claims within 21 days.

No major health care transition goes perfectly, Iowa Medicaid Director Mikki Stier said. But we are confident that members can access the services they depend on and the majority of providers are being paid. There are still challenges that come about in a change of this magnitude.

Stier said many payment issues stem from moving away from paper claims to a more automated system in managed care. The most likely reasons claims are denied or rejected include duplicate claims, missing information, invalid service dates or services are not approved.

But representatives from hospitals, not-for-profit agencies, individual home health providers and nursing homes said billing codes have been incorrect, payments have been inaccurate and payments have lagged.

JoEllen Arends, a nurse and case manager in Franklin County, said shes heard from several smaller providers they may drop Medicaid patients because they are owed too much money. She cited one small provider owed $58,000.

There is a disconnect between the data and this testimony, said Sen. Liz Mathis, D-Cedar Rapids, Human Resources committee chairwoman.

For more than an hour, senators grilled the three MCO leaders  Kim Foltz of United Healthcare, Cheryl Harding of AmeriHealth and Cynthia MacDonald of Amerigroup. They asked how much longer these struggles may play out.

We are in the very beginning of a transition of a very significant program change, AmeriHealths Harding said. It is always difficult to go through change. We feel the hardship and certainly reach out to providers in these situations.

I would not say the first three months have been perfect, but there are positive stories along with negative stories. We have worked quickly to respond and address problems. Its tough at the beginning, but it gets better and better as time goes on.

All three MCOs said they were working diligently to pay claims and thought the number of rejected claims will level off once providers become more comfortable with the new process.

But some senators remained skeptical.

I have no doubt that Kim (Foltz), Cynthia (MacDonald) and Cheryl (Harding), (and) Mikki (Stier)  are very smart women who know what theyre doing and are trying to move this along, Mathis said. But we have fallen short in this transition.

You all have a vision, you know what it is supposed to look like. Lets work toward that in the next 30 days.
PHILADELPHIA  Breakfast started with an apology, but Democratic Party leaders attempts to make peace with Bernie Sanders supporters who were excluded from the traditional convention roll call fell short of healing divisions in the Iowa delegation Wednesday morning.

R.T. Rybak, a vice chairman of the Democratic National Committee offered a formal apology for the content of leaked emails written by a committee staffer who didnt follow the strict, strict mandate to stay neutral.

We betrayed your trust, said Rybak said at the Iowa delegations daily breakfast meeting. Were sorry.

Rebecca Mueller of Muscatine appreciated the apology, which is what Ive been waiting two days to hear. Like others supporting Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, Mueller wanted party leaders to acknowledge those emails seemed to indicate they intended to sabotage the Sanders campaign.

His apology, and conciliatory words from 2nd District Rep. Dave Loebsack and others, werent enough to make up for the feeling Sanders backers were being excluded.

When Iowa cast its votes during the roll call of states Tuesday, the 31 votes for Clinton and 21 for Sanders were announced by four Clinton delegates. That angered Sanders delegates who pointed out that the elected delegates were nearly evenly split, 23-21.

You wouldnt let us stand next to you last night on the convention floor, said Jennifer Gernhart, a delegate from Fort Dodge. It was our victory too. Were all the same party.

The votes were announced by Andy McGuire, the state party and delegation chairwoman, Vice Chairman Danny Homan, Loebsack and Sruthi Palaniappan  who was chosen by the Clinton delegates/

Ben Foecke, Iowa Democratic Party executive director, defended the selection, saying its typical for states to give that duty to party leaders.

But it made Gernhart wonder, Are we part of the party or not?

Jessica Fears, a state Central Committee member from Ames, didnt expect Sanders to win, but its going to be hard to go home and say Lets work together to elect Patty Judge and Kim Weaver when weve been excluded from a part of the process.

Attempts by Rybak and Loebsack to empathize with the Sanders delegates seemed to fall flat.

Be a good loser is not the message Sanders supporters want to hear, Mueller said.
National unrest has swelled after young black men have died during well-publicized interactions with police. The targeting of police officers in other communities has intensified crisis.

With those situations as a backdrop, we can take pride members of our community in Waterloo are reaching out to each other in a proactive way.

Last weekend, community members and law enforcement officials came together in Sullivan Park for a picnic and discussion about improving relations locally.

This event, bringing Waterloo together, is about squashing the stereotypes, said Kris Jones, chief organizer for the event. And theyre present on both sides.

About a dozen officers from the Waterloo Police Department as well as the Black Hawk County Sheriffs Office interacted with adults and kids. They passed out stickers and participated in discussions over a hot dog or hamburger. Waterloo Fire Rescue personnel also were on hand.

Sheriff Tony Thompson spoke to those in attendance, contrasting reports of police violence in major cities with relatively few reports here in the Cedar Valley.

We recognize the value of what we have in the Midwest, he said. We ask that you dont hold us accountable for things out of our control.

Some community members spoke out about their fear of being pulled over and dealing with law enforcement. Thats good. We need that dialogue both locally and nationally. We also believe the leaders of our municipal police and county sheriffs departments are quite capable of dealing positively with the current national narrative.

It should be noted this event was planned long before incidents in Baton Rouge, La., St. Paul, Minn., and Dallas in which citizens and officers lost their lives. We hope it can be an example for others to follow. And we hope this event, and others like it, can happen more frequently in Waterloo and the Cedar Valley.

The timing couldnt be better, Dan Trelka, Waterloo Safety Services director, said prior to the event. I want some dialogue. I want people to show up and see myself and officers and firefighters in uniform, and lets have a conversation.

We all know it is going to take a lot more than a single event. But knowing many of our community members and law enforcement personnel are willing to work toward greater trust gives us hope.

Arquel Baskerville, 18, of Waterloo, said hes considering the police force as a career.

I want to be part of the change in my community, he said. I know people my age who are locked up and wont be out for a long time.

There are bad stereotypes out there, not just where we are, he added. I want to be the police officer who understands what its like to be black. I want to show people like me that not all cops kill.

Thats a refreshing outlook. One we believe is fostered by continuous dialogue.

Wed like to thank Kris Jones for spearheading this event, as well as all law enforcement and fire personnel who participated. We thank those businesses and individuals who helped sponsor Operation Public Relations.

Lets take this momentum and continue working toward optimal communication, respect and trust.
SWALEDALE  A Waterloo man received minor injuries in a rollover accident Monday morning on Interstate 35 near Swaledale.

Deputies from the Cerro Gordo County Sheriffs Office responded to a report of a single-vehicle rollover accident about 5:30 a.m. near mile-marker 182 northbound on the interstate.

Deputies found a pickup on its top in the ditch, according to a press release from the Sheriffs Office.

The driver, Victor Gonzales, 25, sustained minor injuries in the accident and was transported to Mercy Medical Center-North Iowa in Mason City by the Mason City Fire Department. A hospital nursing supervisor said Gonzales was treated and released.

Gonzales was charged with failure to maintain control and no valid insurance, the Sheriffs Office said.
Search of Mayfield home snares alleged meth trafficker and two others
By The Associated Press

By The Associated Press Jul. 25, 2016 | 08:13 PM | LOUISVILLE, KY

If Louisville doesn't want its century-old Confederate monument, other towns are willing to take it.

The Courier-Journal reports the city's Commission on Public Art held a special meeting on Monday to consider the monument's relocation.

Brandenburg Mayor Ronnie Joyner told the commission that his city holds a re-enactment every two years and would be a good place for the monument.

While most speakers offered suggestions for relocation, including to the Perryville Battlefield State Park, some speakers suggested it should be destroyed.

Dwayne Bell, who is African-American, offered to help drop it in the Ohio River.

Other speakers, like Stacy Grimm, said the monument should stay in Louisville. Grimm told the commission that preserving history is not about taking sides in the Civil War.

___

Information from: The Courier-Journal, http://www.courier-journal.com
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With her one-word tweet, Hillary Clinton captured the significance of the moment on Tuesday night when she became the Democratic nominee for president of the United States.

Women have run for president dating to 1872, when Victoria Woodhull sought the office as the candidate of the Equal Rights Party. But heading the ticket for one of the two major parties, as opposed to a third party, is different. As First Lady Michelle Obama said in her speech to the Democratic Convention in Philadelphia on Monday night: I wake up every morning in a house that was built by slaves. And I watch my daughters, two beautiful, intelligent, black young women playing with their dogs on the White House lawn. And because of Hillary Clinton, my daughters and all our sons and daughters now take for granted that a woman can be president of the United States.

And that is the point. It doesnt matter what a persons political affiliation is or whether a person is liberal or conservative. It doesnt matter whether a voter will cast a ballot for Clinton in November. This is a moment that can be celebrated simply because it shows how far women have come in the United States and how much young girls can aspire to.

The 19th Amendment to the Constitution, giving women the right to vote, was ratified on Aug. 18, 1920. And 96 years later, Clinton has broken a political glass ceiling.

In the 1970s and 80s, when women were entering careers that traditionally had been only for men, many of the pioneers were written about in newspapers and magazines. A common refrain was that women would have made significant gains when their career achievements were not accompanied by media coverage noting the first for women.

In this hard-fought election season, Clintons gender has been far down the list of issues being covered by the media. So that is another indicator that women have reached another milestone.

More months of tough campaigning lie ahead, and a Hillary Clinton presidency is not a foregone conclusion. But this is a moment in time when Americans of all political persuasions can take pride in knowing that women can run for the highest office and campaign on issues and the record, not gender.
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.
Jul 27, 2016 | By Tess

A team of researchers from the 3D Printing Lab at the Korea Institute of Science and Technology have conducted a hands on study to see whether 3D printed learning aids could help improve literacy and writing skills for visually impaired children. The research project was conceived of after the researchers noticed a lack of literary tools and resources for visually impaired or blind children.

3D printing technologies have come to play a big part in the development of new and innovative educational devices for the visually impaired, as theyve opened up virtually limitless possibilities for what can be manufactured in three dimensions. Exciting projects like 3D printed tactile art, 3D printed tactile music notation, 3D printed maps, and 3D printed childrens picture books have created a whole new educational landscape for the visually impaired as well a new way of experiencing the world.

Traditional literary aids on paper

The recent research project, led by research scientist Jang Hee I, was aimed at developing and testing the effectiveness of 3D printed tactile learning tools for helping visually impaired children to both read and write. According to the research, 3D printing could allow for the creation of customized writing tools which could in turn help children to visualize, understand, and learn to write Hangul, the Korean alphabet.

The research project was divided into three main parts. First, the team studied and examined young students from the Seoul National School for the Blind to see where learning resources needed improvement, and they then designed a set of literacy tools to be 3D printed. Finally, the 3D printed tools were tested on three kindergarten students to see whether they helped them learn to write Hangul, a skill which could come in handy for communication, and for simple tasks like writing one's name.

The Hangul single consonants letters

As the report lays out, the research team designed a set of 24 3D printed learning tools, one for each letter of the Korean alphabet. Each 3D printed tool consisted of two sections: a large scale embossed Braille representation of the letter and a debossed indentation of the letter itself, which was to function as a writing guide for the students, similar to a stencil. In creating the 3D printed letter guides, the research team was hoping to improve on existing visually impaired learning resources, which typically consist of lightly embossed and debossed paper.

After testing the 3D printed learning tools and hearing feedback from the students, the research team found that the solid 3D tools offered a number of advantages over more traditional paper-based resources. For instance, the hard plastic material of the stencils (which were printed in PLA) helped the students to keep them steady and to trace straighter lines for each character, as opposed to paper guides which were flimsy and often moved or ripped. Additionally, unlike paper templates, the plastic 3D printed ones can easily be reused ultimately cutting back on costs and materials.

Hangul writing skills before the 3D printed aid

Notable improvements using the 3D printed tools

Of course, a number of improvements were also noted for the 3D printed tools, including making the Braille embossings slightly smaller and making the 3D printed stencils more tactile-friendly with less sharp angles and edges. The potential for customized tools was also highlighted, as the research team explained, For future iterations of the literacy tools, we will consider building each tool according to the visual ability of the student so that they are able to feel the tool better. If the students sight is strong, then it would be logical to decrease the width of the debossed holes. If the students sight is weak, then it would be appropriate to increase the width of the debossed holes.

With the initial success and obvious potential of their project, there is little doubt the research team from the 3D Printing Lab at the Korea Institute of Science and Technology will continue its hard work. In fact, while they are currently working on the Korean alphabet, they have also stated the potential to expand their project into other languages, including English as well as into other areas, like teaching children how to identify traffic signs.

Posted in 3D Printing Application

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Jang Hee I wrote at 7/29/2016 5:48:30 AM:Thanks! Please let me know if you have any questions. jhicobrix@gmail.comHelder wrote at 7/28/2016 10:59:33 AM:This is great! In my blog one of the best posts i have is about learn korean, http://www.lingholic.com/how-to-learn-korean-a-complete-guide-a-to-z/ I will try to include some of the information that i have just read here regarding this technology.




Jul 27, 2016 | By Tess

For those who have scoured the internet for a comprehensive set of regulations and tips for 3D designing and 3D printing but have consistently come up short, a recently launched website might be just the thing you were looking for. The website, called 3D Printing Info: Everything you need to get started in 3D printing, is the product of extensive research compiled by a team of staff from the University of Melbourne. And its purpose is essentially guide new 3D printing users and aspiring makers through the rights and responsibilities that surround the additive manufacturing technologies.

The website was an effort by the School of Culture and Communications at the University of Melbourne and the project was led by Dr. Luke Heemsbergen and Dr. Robbie Fordyce, who were driven by the goal of offering consumers and makers a comprehensive and accessible guide to both take advantage of 3D printing technologies and its potentials and to keep work and intellectual property safe.

The online guide consists of a number of different sections, which include a scorecard to help users determine which 3D printing website it best suited for them and their needs; a Rights and Responsibilities section which lays out privacy, copyright, patent, and other safety information relevant to 3D printing; a step-by-step guide to learning to 3D print; as well as a resource section to facilitate further education about 3D printing technologies.

Dr. Heemsbergen, who has focused his research on the intersection of technology and the political, explains in a press release, The free resources are the result of extensive multidisciplinary research in Australia, and beyond, that identified emerging issues and trends within the consumer 3D printing space such as who owns the designs you share, the ones you modify and how they can be used by others.

To compile the extensive online guide, the team of researchers combined information from a number of different sources, including expert interviews, academic research, and data analyses from various 3D printing file websites. From there, they conducted a number of focus groups to see what questions still arose for people about 3D printing. Through them they discovered that people who were interested in 3D printing still had a lot of unanswered questions and uncertainties, such as what the laws surrounding 3D prints and files are, where to find good designs and 3D printing files, how much to pay for a 3D printer, and where to learn more.

3D printing is a social practice that is built on a specific set of technologies, how people 3D print, what they print, and how society understands and decides this becomes a social and political concern, explained Dr. Heemsbergen. Worrying about copyright and other Intellectual Property Rights is necessary, but not sufficientthere are ethical, cultural and social aspects of what we made that tell us who we are as a society.

Robbie Fordyce and Luke Heemsbergen

With their recently launched website, the Australia-based team of researchers are hoping to offer users and interested parties a free and easy-to-use platform to learn more about 3D printing services, laws and regulations surrounding the technology, and where to find more in depth information.

Dr. Fordyce added, We are used to viewing thingsanything and everythingout in cyberspace, but when that barrier breaks down, and the digital is made physical in your own home, people have new concerns. By launching the website, he is hoping to illuminate these concerns and offer solutions to them through learning.

The research and website were funded by the Australian Consumer Communications Action Network (ACCAN) Grants project.

Posted in 3D Printing Technology

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Alice Gregory at The New Yorker:

Last September, in Guadalajara, an American conceptual artist named Jill Magid and a pair of gravediggers convened at the Rotonda de los Jaliscienses Ilustres, a monument where the most celebrated citizens of the state of Jalisco are entombed. With them were two notaries and a handful of bureaucrats. It was just after eight in the morning, and the area was nearly silent. The quiet was disturbed by the sound of chisels striking stone. The gravediggers removed a metal plaque, then a cement wall, and, finally, a brick facade. More than an hour later, they hit what they were looking for: an oxidized copper urn, filled with the ashes of Luis Barragan, one of Mexicos greatest architects, who died in 1988. They removed the urn from the cavity, brushing off dust and ants. Then they opened the vessel and presented it to Magid, who scooped out half a kilo of what looked like dirt and transferred it to a plastic bag, which she then put into a box. The next day, with the box in her carry-on, she flew home to New York.

In April, a diamond2.02 carats, rough-cut, with one polished facetarrived in Manhattan. It was sent overnight from Switzerland, and Magid had been tracking its shipping status hourly online. The package was delivered to her husbands office, and after work he took it to Brooklyn, where they live with their two young sons. Magid did not open the small black box containing the jewel for hours, and, when she finally did, she cried. It was way more emotional than I expected, she told me.

more here.
Eileen Townsend at The Paris Review:

If youve ever taken I-81 north through Virginia, youve passed the town of Natural Bridge, in Rockbridge Countyhome to a ninety-foot limestone arch that extends over a gorge, a geological anomaly probably formed by an ancient underground river. Natural Bridge is an anachronism from the Route 66 era of highway travel, a place where you can pay twenty dollars to look at a rock, eat a rock-themed lunch, and then buy a shot glass illustrated with a picture of that same rock. As any respectable tourist trap must, the town hosts a constellation of other attractions: a petting zoo, a dinosaur/Civil War theme park, and the Natural Bridge Wax Museum (now closed, and former home to a ghoulish Obama tribute). Best of all is the featherlight, faux prehistoric monument known as Foamhenge.

As its name suggests, Foamhenge is a one-to-one scale replica of Stonehenge, made of foam. It is identical to the original, save the flecked gray paint, the accompanying statue of a deadhead-ish Merlin, and the fact that it was erected several millennia later. For the past twelve years, the henge has been the most public of Natural Bridges draws, garnering a steady stream of visitors and enough press to be mentioned in the same breath as the areas actual ancient rocks. Its creator, an artist named Mark Cline, calls it his foam-nomenon: the unlikely culmination of his career as a sculptor of roadside attractions.

more here.
Your guide to the tastiest foodie happenings going down this week. Bon appetit!







La Taqueria Opens a New Location in Turlock

La Taqueria, home of America's best burrito, is opening up a second location on Thursday. But as splendid and amazing as this news is, you'll be sad to know that the new location is in Turlock, a small town near Modesto and a two hour drive from San Francisco. The second restaurant will run by the owner's daughter, Irene Gonzales, and will have the same recipes and secret menu as the original. There will also be more meats on the menu: al pastor, grilled chicken, and shrimp, as well as a shrimp cocktail (which just may be reason enough to make the trek). // Open daily, 2151 W Main St. (Turlock), facebook.com/lataqueriaturlock





Central Kitchen Remodels and Revamps Their Menu

A newly remodeled Central Kitchen reopened earlier this week. In an open letter posted on Facebook, chef-proprietor Thomas McNaughton revealed that the remodel would include a kitchen redesign that would allow for "increased efficiency" and a "few new fun things to play with." What this means: there's now a shared larder with adjacent Salumeria's cure box for more raw and fermented things, there's a new expanded pasta section, and most notably, there's now a hearth to grilled things (hello bone-in ribeye). // OpenMonday-Saturday 5:30-10 p.m., 3000 20th St. (Mission), centralkitchensf.com









Miki Pop-up at Pinhole

Canele queen Mikiko Yui (co-pastry chef at Statebird Provisions and The Progress) will be popping up at Pinhole Coffee this Sunday. If you haven't tasted her delicious renditions of the tender and custardy French pastry, this is your chance. She usually has a few versions, but according to her IG, there'll definitely be an earl grey canale with peaches and cream. // Sunday, July 31,10 a.m.sold out, 231 Cortland Ave. (Bernal Heights), instagram.com/miki.sf





CUESA's Picnic on the Plaza

Join a city-style picnic in front of the Ferry Building today hosted by CUESA. The pop-up will have cocktails from the Bay's best bars (15 Romolo, Blackwater Station, Penrose, Whitechapel) and small bites from some of its best restaurants (4505 Meats, Lazy Bear, Wise Sons Jewish Delicatessen, and more). Now that's our kind of picnic. // $60, Wednesday July 27, 5:30-8 p.m., One Ferry Building Plaza (Embarcadero), Get tickets here.




SANTA FE  Funeral services are scheduled for today in Albuquerque for Bruce Donisthorpe, a Republican political consultant and pollster whose long and varied career included working for former Gov. Garrey Carruthers and the late U.S. Rep. Joe Skeen, R-N.M.

Donisthorpe, 56, died Sunday at his Albuquerque home, apparently of a heart attack, according to his friend and colleague Joe Monahan.

Donisthorpe did polling for Monahans political blog, as well as polling and consulting for candidates, issues and governmental entities at the federal, state and local levels.

He worked extensively with the Republican Party of New Mexico, and he and his valuable insight on the political environment in New Mexico will be dearly missed, state GOP Chairman Debbie Maestas said in a statement.

Monahan described him as a very bright, able guy with a wide range of knowledge about New Mexico. He was liked and respected, very effective in negotiating, brokering and bringing people together, Monahan said.

Carruthers, for whom he served as press secretary in 1987-88, said in a statement that Donisthorpe was a friend and a lifelong student of the body politic in which he has been a central figure for many years.

I am proud to have known him and very sorry to hear of his untimely passing, said Carruthers, who is president of New Mexico State University.

Donisthorpe also worked in the U.S. House from 1989 to 2000, as legislative director for Skeen  who represented southern New Mexicos 2nd Congressional District  as well as a political strategist and consultant for him.

A native of Bloomfield, Donisthorpe was from a political family. His mother, Christine Donisthorpe, who survives him, was a Republican state senator from San Juan County from 1979 to 1996 and a Republican national committeewoman.

His late father, Oscar L. Donisthorpe, was an attorney, farmer and seasoned political strategist, according to the family.

Albuquerque pollster Brian Sanderoff knew Donisthorpe for 25 years and called him one of the most knowledgeable people in the state regarding campaigning, politics and elections.

He had an encyclopedic mind regarding New Mexico political history and was admired by Republicans and Democrats alike for his knowledge, Sanderoff said.

So many political consultants become jaded after a while; he was not one of them. He always kept an open heart and he tried to stay positive and upbeat, and I admired him for that, Sanderoff said.

Services will be held at 3 p.m. today at the Legacy Church East Campus, 4701 Wyoming NE, with a reception to follow in the Legacy Church gymnasium.
The SWAT team found no one home after negotiating for hours with a man they believed was inside an apartment near San Mateo and Kathryn Tuesday afternoon, according to a spokesman for the Albuquerque Police Department.

Mike Schroeder said around 4:45 p.m. officers were called to at the 1000 block of Valencia SE for a domestic dispute. When they arrived they found a woman who had been in an altercation, he said.

They rendered aid to her, and she said the male subject was still inside the residence, Schroeder said.

SWAT officer attempted to get the suspect to surrender by making announcements and using other means and then eventually entered the apartment, Schroeder said. It was empty.

Detectives have the offenders information and will continue their work on this case, he said.

Schroeder didnt know the extent of the womans injuries or if she was taken to the hospital. He didnt identify the suspect.
Its tempting to believe that scientific discoveries can be weighed for their value to society. Then the good ones could be pursued and the bad ones set aside.

Thats obviously hard to do. Think about progress that happens by accident. Whos to judge whether its eventual use is most likely for healing or killing?

Thats the situation that followed a serendipitous discovery a few years ago. Chemists in Germany were looking for a way to separate compounds when they stumbled upon a finding that could lower the cost of making fuel for nuclear power  or lower the technological barriers to making nuclear weapons.

In 2010, with commercialization looming, the American Physical Society petitioned the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission to assess this new technique, which employs lasers to separate isotopes of uranium. The physicists hoped such an assessment would alert those trying to stop the proliferation of nuclear weapons and encourage a more careful adoption of the technology for peaceful uses.

The NRC said no, and the technology was licensed to Hitachi and General Electric, but a Princeton University physicist has now done an independent assessment. He says the laser technique might be attractive to states seeking a clandestine weapons program.

If this takes off we could have a serious problem, said Ryan Snyder, who works for the universitys program on science and global security. He published his assessment in the current issue of the journal Science and Global Security.

To make natural uranium into bomb-grade fuel, the ratio of two naturally occurring isotopes, Uranium-235 and Uranium-238, have to be skewed so theres a higher concentration of U-235. Scientists had realized for decades that the two isotopes would absorb laser light at different frequencies, and that this could be exploited to concentrate the far more explosive U-235.

Teams at the national labs at Livermore and Los Alamos had tried to develop the technology back in the 1980s, said Snyder, but no one had figured out how to make it economical. It was easier to exploit the weight difference between U-235 and U-238 using centrifuges to separate them.

The serendipitous German discovery could change things. Laser light can be tuned to cause the U-235 to vibrate. By adding some inert carrier gas, he said, they can get molecules of the gas to stick to the U-238 but not to the vibrating U-235. That magnifies the weight difference, making it much easier to separate the two forms.

The German researchers were trying to separate other compounds, but an Australian company recognized the potential to separate uranium.

That company eventually licensed the technology to Hitachi and General Electric for use in creating enriched uranium for power reactors. That effort has stalled for economic reasons, but groups trying to make weapons may be more interested in stealth than economy.

The details of laser enrichment are proprietary, but Snyder was still able to conduct his own assessment. It took him about three weeks to get a general idea of how it would work. Eventually he could see how it could be configured to make weapons-grade fuel, he said.

Producing nuclear fuel that way might require less space and less energy than the standard practice of using centrifuges, he said. Importing the lasers might give away a clandestine program, he said, but detection would be tricky, given the number of other reasons a country would import lasers.

It cant hurt to be more aware of alternatives to centrifuges. In the late 1980s, Iraqi facilities were enriching uranium with one of the technologies developed in the Manhattan Project but never used since. Called electromagnetic isotope separation, it relies on giant magnets to separate isotopes.

Weapons inspectors werent on the lookout for the magnets needed to do this, said Princeton physicist and arms control expert Frank von Hippel, and so the program was able to go on for several years undetected. By the 1990s, U.N. weapons inspectors did eventually discover the Iraqi program and force its dismantlement.

Its impossible to prevent scientists around the world from figuring out the science of nuclear weapons. So far only nine countries have the bomb, thanks in part to luck, monitoring and the fact that most countries dont want one.

One year ago, Iran entered a nonproliferation agreement with the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China and has since then shipped nuclear fuel out of the country and dismantled some of the centrifuges used to refine it.

While the Iran deal has many critics in the United States, theres a consensus among physicists that it will accomplish the promised goal of preventing Iran from producing a nuclear weapon within a year.

Laser enrichment would change that, since inspectors might not be able to detect it. More generally, it opens up more routes to acquiring a nuclear bomb. That increases the odds that Iran or any other nation or group wanting nuclear weapons could find scientists with the necessary expertise.

Keeping nuclear weapons from proliferating is like chasing a moving target, but one we cant afford to miss.

Faye Flam writes about science, mathematics and medicine. She has been a staff writer for Science magazine and a columnist for the Philadelphia Inquirer.
Democrats believe that were greater together than we are on our own  that this country succeeds when everyone gets a fair shot, everyone does their fair share, and everyone plays by the same rules.

 Democratic National Committee website

Apparently, that lofty statement doesnt apply when party bosses need to rig the system to help a Clinton, even promising federal appointments to big donors before the votes are in.

So while the DNC would have the focus of its email scandal be on who leaked them  they say no less than minions of Russian President Vladimir Putin  the real focus should be on the emails. And what is in them.

For presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, together and fair shot are not. DNC documents released by WikiLeaks show that although party leadership was supposed to remain neutral during the primary, high-ranking DNC officials spent more than a year floating ideas to sabotage his candidacy. They include:

 Painting his campaign as a train wreck. (The DNC National Secretary wondered 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.)

 Questioning his party loyalty. (The DNC chairwoman emailed his criticism of the partys actions was spoken like someone who has never been a member of the Democratic Party and has no understanding of what we do.)

 Disputing his religious beliefs. (The DNC CFO emailed my Southern Baptist peeps would draw a big difference between a Jew and an atheist.)

 Seeking legal advice from his competitor. (DNC staff included Hillary Clintons campaign lawyer in an email blast about claims the Clinton campaign was using its joint fundraising committee with the DNC to benefit itself  he advised push back DIRECTLY at Sanders and say that what he is saying is false and harmful to the Democratic Party.

 Mocking demands for debates to get Sanders more exposure. A Sanders campaign release on an additional California debate got an lol from the DNC communications director. The debate did not happen.

 Promising donors and fundraisers appointments to federal boards and commissions. Ken Boehm, the chairman of the National Legal and Policy Center, a government watchdog group, told the Daily Caller the emails sure look like the potential Clinton administration has intertwined the appointments to federal government boards and commissions with the political and fund raising operations of the Democratic Party. That is unethical, if not illegal.

Even Virginia governor Terry McAuliffe, who chaired the DNC in 2008 and is a Clinton loyalist, says, I made it very clear as soon as I saw (the leaked email story), people need to be fired immediately. Im sorry. Just, if Id been chair, they would have been fired within 5 minutes.

New Mexico Rep. Ben Ray Lujan, who chairs the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said, Those emails at the DNC should have never been written, they have no place in our discourse, and they are just wrong.

Dont expect that kind of reaction from Hillary Clinton. She said she had no idea about any of these shenanigans done on her behalf  quite possibly at her direction  and that she hadnt been briefed so she couldnt answer questions.

While others apologized to Sanders, Hillary promptly named disgraced DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz as her honorary national campaign co-chair. Too much baggage to gavel the convention to order, but not to take a lofty role in Hillarys campaign. Fascinating.

Meanwhile, the FBI is investigating the hack, and Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta is alleging a kind of bromance going on between Putin and Trump. That must mean Vlad has moved on after his country and Hillary famously hit the reset button when she was secretary of state.

Meanwhile, disillusioned American voters are further resigned to a system that seems rigged from the get-go, await an investigation by an agency that found no crime in classified emails being stored on an unsecure home server but which clearly exposed Hillary as a serial liar, and are third wheels in an ongoing political romance that involves the rich and powerful.

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.
At least one officer with the Artesia Police Department shot an killed an armed man around 11 a.m. Tuesday, according to a spokesman for the New Mexico State Police.

Sgt. Elizabeth Armijo said officers were called to W. Runyan street in Artesia to investigate fired shots.

As Artesia Police Department officers arrived on scene they encountered a male subject who was armed with two firearms, Armijo said. During this encounter, shots were fired at the armed subject by at least one officer.

Juan Reynaldo Duran, 36, of Artesia, died on the scene.

Armijo said the names of the officers involved would be released after interviews have been conducted.
SANTA FE  The New Mexico State Investment Council signed off Tuesday on a settlement agreement with a New England real estate investment firm that will mean $4.9 million for the state and a legal cooperation agreement, in exchange for all claims against the firm being dropped.

The settlement with Eastern Real Estate Development LLC is the second-largest entered by the State Investment Council as part of an ongoing lawsuit aimed at collecting money lost in politically connected investment deals.

In 2005, the SIC pledged to invest $90 million with the firm, formerly known as Northstar, in a real estate deal. Although that full amount was never invested, the state ultimately lost about $30 million in the deal, according to internal records.

Northstar was also among the financial firms that paid placement fees to New Mexico broker Marc Correra, son of Anthony Correra, a political fundraiser and close friend of then-Gov. Bill Richardson.

In all, Marc Correra shared in more than $22 million in fees from firms seeking investment dollars from the SIC and the states pension fund for teachers, the Educational Retirement Board. His attorney has maintained his client did nothing wrong.

The State Investment Council has already entered a number of other settlements with financial firms and investment consultants as part of its legal effort. Some of those agreements have been challenged in court, including a $24 million settlement between the SIC and Vanderbilt Capital.

The state investment body has described the past settlements as prudent agreements for state taxpayers, but the attorney for former state pension fund officer-turned whistleblower Frank Foy, who has filed competing pay-to-play lawsuits under the state Fraud Against Taxpayers Act, has challenged the legality of the settlements and described them as sweetheart deals.

The latest settlement stipulates that Eastern Real Estate Development will assist in the SICs legal effort, in part by making the firms present and past officials available for testimony and questioning in the states case.

After a lengthy discussion behind closed doors, SIC members voted 10-1 Tuesday in favor of the settlement, which includes a mutual nondisclosure agreement. State Land Commissioner Aubrey Dunn cast the no vote.
New Mexico State Police have identified the man shot and killed by officers in Gallup Sunday as 29-year-old Alvin R. Sylversmythe.

Sgt. Chad Pierce, a NMSP spokesman, said officers with the Gallup Police Department were called to the 300 block of Arnold in Gallup to investigate after people reported Sylversmythe was threatening others with a knife.

Upon arrival the officers encountered Mr. Sylversmythe, who was armed with two knives, on the west side of Arnold Street in the alley, Pierce said.

He said officers shot him and he was taken to the Gallup Indian Medical Center, where he died.

Pierce said they are still investigating the events leading up to the shooting.


She pulls two plump red tomatoes from a sack in her shopping cart as if she were handling two precious rubies.

For Shirley Stevens, fresh produce is nearly that.

Tomatoes are my favorite, she coos.

Stevens, whos a few weeks shy of turning 81, shows me some of the other grocery swag shes about to cart away. A whole chicken. A chunk of ham. Granola. Pudding. Bottled water. Canned goods. Dog food. Toilet paper. But its the fruits and vegetables, which besides tomatoes include a generous sack of oranges and a bunch of bananas, that merit my extra attention, she says.

You need to underline the fresh produce, she says. Thats the best part of this. Thats the thing some of us might not be able to afford on our own.

Thats something you hear as the seniors wheel around their carts selecting from among the grocery items  everything from rib-eyes to chewing gum  provided for free by Silver Horizons, a nonprofit organization that for 35 years has served low-income seniors in the Albuquerque area with food and help with utility bills, home repairs and improvements.

Its a wonderful program, says Dixie Kessler, 74. These folks donate their time, efforts and all this to get us what we need. If not for this, there would be serious hardships.

Both Kessler and Stevens were among the 75 or so residents of the AHEPA apartment complex on Albuquerques West Side who showed up Monday for the monthly Silver Horizons pantry, a sort of farmers market where the seniors choose the items they need to supplement their limited food budgets. This pantry sets up in one of the day rooms of the complex, making it easy for residents to walk to.

Silver Horizons bridges that gap for our seniors with access to nutrition, says Mary Shortell, service coordinator for AHEPA, short for American Hellenic Educational Progressive Associations National Housing Corp., which provides affordable housing for low-income seniors and disabled people. Every resident here qualifies as low-income. Many have mobility issues, poor vision, arthritic hands. With all those deficits, you can see how a program like Silver Horizons is so valuable.

Pantries are held in senior centers and apartment locations across Albuquerque, Valencia County and Rio Rancho, with plans to open a monthly pantry in Bernalillo by September and Santa Fe in the near future.

Mondays pantry at AHEPA was the third one of the day for Ron Hidalgo, executive director and Silver Horizons only staff person. The folks helping out at the pantries are volunteers, often employees of Walgreens, a big supporter.

Pantry items come from food drives and donations from community partners, which brings down the cost for providing food to some 1,400 seniors each month to about $2 a senior, Hidalgo said.

We actually buy very little of the food we distribute, he said.

In one year, Hidalgo says, the program provided food to more than 10,720 folks ages 62 and older who live on a fixed income that averages about $7,500 annually. It also assisted more than 370 senior households with utility bills. And in conjunction with the city of Albuquerques Department of Senior Affairs, it purchased enough materials to make more than 650 home repairs and 300 home safety modifications such as access ramps and grab bars for low-income residents ages 55 and older.

Today, it remains the only nonprofit organization in the state focused solely on addressing senior poverty.

All this good work, and few have heard of Silver Horizons.

Nine out of 10 people dont know who we are, Hidalgo said.

Hes trying to change that.

Thirty-four years ago, this was a very small mom-and-pop grass-roots project, serving about 70 seniors monthly  a drop in the bucket, Hidalgo said. Yet, thousands of New Mexico seniors have to rely on food banks. Many of these seniors have no safety net, no pension, savings. Just a Social Security check and maybe food stamps, which dont go nearly far enough.

About a year ago, Hidalgo was hired, and a website and Facebook presence were stepped up. The number of seniors served jumped to about 1,400, he said.

This August, Silver Horizons will host a 35th anniversary gala with a Downton Abbey theme aimed at not only raising funds but raising awareness of the program and, it is hoped, expanding the programs reach to more seniors.

Shirley Stevens, our tomato fan, likes that idea. In her younger days, she took care of other peoples children in a day-care center she ran in her home. It was a business that provided no pension, retirement fund or nest egg. Because of Silver Horizons, she now has people to take care of her.

Its just a terrific thing they do for us, she says. And you just cant beat a fresh tomato.

UpFront is a daily front-page news and opinion column. Comment directly to Joline at 823-3603, jkrueger@abqjournal.com or follow her on Twitter @jolinegkg. Go to www.abqjournal.com/letters/new to submit a letter to the editor.

More information

35th Anniversary Gala: To increase visibility of both Silver Horizons and the plight of thousands of seniors, the nonprofit is holding a special 35th anniversary gala with a Downton Abbey theme. Event is 5:30-7:30 p.m. Aug. 26, Cathedral of St. John, 318 Silver SW, and includes silent auction, high tea, live music from the period. Tickets $30 or $50 for two; only 350 tickets to be sold. Contact Autumn Gray at (505) 259-3055 or autumnabq@comcast.net.

To learn more about Silver Horizons (food pantries and assistance, volunteer, donate): Call 884-3881, silverhorizons.org or Silver Horizons New Mexico on Facebook.
SANTA FE  Human remains found along the Rio Grande north of Cochiti Lake on July 18 have been confirmed as those of Randy Bilyeu, a Colorado man who went missing while looking for the treasure that Santa Fe collector and author Forrest Fenn says hes hidden in the Rocky Mountain region.

Bilyeu, 54, was reported missing Jan. 14 after he hadnt been heard from for about 10 days. Bilyeus Nissan Murano was located west of Santa Fe, at the end of Buckman Road near the river, and searchers later found his dog, Leo, and an inflatable raft nine miles downstream.

Bilyeu, who lived Broomfield, Colo., came to Santa Fe to look for Fenns antique treasure chest, said to hold more than $1 million worth of gold coins, jewels and artifacts.

In 2010, Fenn published his The Thrill of the Chase memoir that includes a poem said to contain clues to the loots whereabouts. Interest in Fenn and his treasure has ballooned around the country amid national news coverage and with theories and tidbits about the search thrashed out daily on websites dedicated exclusively to the treasure hunt.

Bilyeus ex-wife, Linda Bilyeu, said via telephone Tuesday that she was thankful for search-and-rescue efforts and the scores of volunteers who helped look for any sign of Randy over the last six months. But she said the father of her two daughters died looking for something that she doesnt believe even exists.

Were disappointed that he lost his life because of a treasure hunt, Linda Bilyeu said. Theres no treasure  its not real. He lost his life for a hoax.

Fenn said from his Santa Fe home via telephone Tuesday that he was sorry to hear the news confirming Bilyeus death. Fenn chartered a helicopter for three days to help volunteers look for Bilyeu in January.

Thats very unfortunate, and Im sorry, Fenn said. I dont know what to say. Its terrible.

Fenn also said Tuesday that the hidden treasure is not a hoax. He has said in the past that the chest is not hidden in a dangerous place, and he told the Journal in January that no one should search in a place where an 80-year-old man could not hide it.

The treasure is real, the story is real, Fenn said Tuesday.

Sacha Johnston, an Albuquerque Fenn enthusiast, organized volunteer searches after New Mexico Search and Rescue suspended its efforts for a lack of fresh clues and set up a GoFundMe page to help Bilyeus family. She and others combed the area around the Rio Grande south of Santa Fe on the ground and in the air with drones. The search was updated daily on dalneitzel.com, a site dedicated to the treasure hunt, but the posts dropped off in late January.

Interest in Fenn and the hunt blew up after a Today Show feature in 2013. Its believed that thousands have come to the Santa Fe area to look for the treasure. A Texas woman had to be rescued at Bandelier National Monument three years ago after she got lost looking for the chest.
The Albuquerque Police Department SWAT team is negotiating with a man holed up in a house on Girard near Gibson SE Tuesday night, according to a department spokesman.

Mike Schroeder said police were called to a home on the 1700 block of Girard SE around 8:45 p.m. for a domestic dispute.

The female half was transported to the hospital for non-life threatening injuries, he said. The male half barricaded himself in a residence.

The man faces felony charges and the Crisis Negotiation Team and SWAT officers are trying to take him into custody, Schroeder said.
Hillary Clinton becomes nations first female nominee for president

PHILADELPHIA  New Mexicos Democratic delegates  some weeping for joy  cast the majority of their votes for Hillary Clinton on Tuesday night in Philadelphia, capping a historic primary election campaign that resulted in the first major-party female nominee for president in U.S. history.

New Mexicos delegates cast 27 ballots for Clinton and 16 for Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, with Sen. Tom Udall and New Mexico Democratic Party Chairwoman Debra Haaland sharing the celebrated role of announcing the states votes as the convention hall cheered.

The Wells Fargo Center erupted in even louder cheers moments later as Sanders made it official when the roll call got to his home state of Vermont  an important show of unity for a party trying to heal deep divisions.

I move that Hillary Clinton be selected as the nominee of the Democratic Party for president of the United States, Sanders declared, asking that it be by acclamation.

It was a striking parallel to the role Clinton played eight years ago when she stepped to the microphone on the convention floor in support of her former rival, Barack Obama. For Democrats, it was a jubilant start to a night that was to include former President Bill Clinton taking the convention stage to deliver a personal validation for his wife.

Udall began New Mexicos proclamation of votes by honoring the Navajo Code Talkers, who helped the U.S. in World War II, then he lauded the states national nuclear laboratories and urged, Entrepreneurs, come join us!

Haaland then stepped to the microphone to finish the job.

As the first Native American state party chair in our country, and on behalf of our diverse citizenry, our delegation proudly casts 16 votes for Sen. Bernie Sanders and 27 votes for the first woman president of the United States, Hillary Rodham Clinton! Haaland said.

Afterward, Haaland, along with former New Mexico Lt. Gov. Diane Denish and other women in the delegation, became teary-eyed and hugged and high-fived one another as the enormity of the historic moment overcame them.

Thinking about the fact the she is a woman and how hard women have fought in this country to get where they are, it meant a lot, Haaland said.

Ive been a fan of Hillarys, but Ive also been a fan of progress for women all of my life, Denish said. Its an important day for women in my generation.

A night before, Sanders delegates from New Mexico and around the country booed Hillarys name and expressed deep displeasure with a Democratic Party political process that they viewed as stacked against them by the partys establishment. But on Tuesday, several Sanders delegates said they would support Clinton over Republican nominee Donald Trump.

John Padilla, a Sanders delegate from Albuquerque, said he became emotional Tuesday morning when the realization sank in that Sanders historic campaign was over after more than a year of hard work. But Padilla vowed to move his support to Clinton, as Sanders asked his delegates to do during his speech Monday.

I went to every Hillary delegate and I shook their hand and congratulated them, Padilla said. Ill vote for Hillary in the fall, because we cant have Trump.

The roll call of states was one more opportunity for Sanders supporters to voice their fierce loyalty to the senator from Vermont. Sanders sat in the arena soaking in the cheers and waving to the crowd.

Although some Sanders delegates vowed to support Clinton, others left the arena in protest after the roll call of states.

Clintons campaign hoped the night of achievement, personal stories and praise could chip away at the deep distrust many voters, including some Democrats, have of the former secretary of state, senator and first lady. Much of the conventions second night was being devoted to introducing voters to Clinton anew, including three hours of speakers highlighting issues she has championed for years, including universal health care and advocacy for children and families.

Bill Clinton spent his hour on stage Tuesday night praising the Democratic nominee as a wife, mother and leader.

Shes the best darn change-maker I ever met in my entire life, the former president said. This woman has never been satisfied with the status quo on anything. She always wants to move the ball forward. Thats just who she is.

Clinton aides believe focusing on policy can rally Sanders supporters. Although the opening night was interrupted by boos and chants of Bernie, there were fewer signs of discord Tuesday.

Sanders had implored his supporters not to protest during the convention. Still, several hundred people gathered at Philadelphias City Hall under a blazing sun Tuesday, chanting, Bernie or bust.

Trump cheered the disruptions from the campaign trail. In North Carolina, he told a convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars that our politicians have totally failed you.

When Trump mentioned Clintons name, the group answered with shouts of Lock her up!  an echo of the chants at last weeks Republican National Convention.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
FARMINGTON  A 22-year-old man has been accused of stealing an Ignacio, Colo., policemans squad car and crashing it near the New Mexico-Colorado border.

Jonathon Richard Clark has been charged in Aztec Magistrate Court with vehicle theft, vandalism, possession of a firearm by a felon and two petty misdemeanors.

Police continued to search today for Clark.

Clark allegedly stole the squad car after he was arrested Saturday night in Ignacio on an outstanding warrant, according to an arrest warrant affidavit.

Ignacio police officer Miguel Perez told a deputy with the San Juan County Sheriffs Office that he transported Clark to the Ignacio Police Department and went inside to submit evidence, the affidavit states.

Another officer then advised Perez that Clark had crawled through the partition of his squad car and drove away in the vehicle, according to the affidavit.

The Ignacio Police Department did not respond to requests for comment.

Perez told the deputy that Clark was handcuffed when he stole the vehicle, according to the affidavit.

Police found the vehicle shortly after midnight crashed into a tree on County Road 4027, the affidavit states. The vehicle had only minor damage, but a dashboard camera inside the vehicle was destroyed.

Police searched the surrounding area, but did not find Clark.

The camera was valued at $3,000, the affidavit states.

Clarks bond is set at $10,000.

Anyone with information on Clarks whereabouts can contact non-emergency dispatch at 505-334-662. Tips can also be made to San Juan County Crime Stoppers at 505-334-TIPS.

Steve Garrison covers crime and courts for The Daily Times. He can be reached at 505-564-4644.



2016 The Daily Times (Farmington, N.M.)

Visit The Daily Times (Farmington, N.M.) at www.daily-times.com

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FORT COLLINS, Colo.  A $15 million federal grant will help fund the expansion of a stretch of Interstate 25 in northern Colorado.

The Coloradoan (http://noconow.co/2achP8g ) reported the funding, announced Tuesday by U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet, will help add a tolled express lane in each direction between Fort Collins and Loveland, bringing the total number of lanes to six.

The grant supplements a pool of $25 million from local communities. The total cost of the project is estimated at $235 million.

Colorado Department of Transportation spokesman Jared Fiel says federal and state transportation funding will cover the balance.

Bennet says congestion on I-25 is stifling economic growth and hurting peoples quality of life. Sen. Cory Gardner, who also pushed for the grant, praised the move.

CDOT hopes the project can begin next fall.

___

Information from: Fort Collins Coloradoan, http://www.coloradoan.com
VIENTIANE, Laos  Daring to take on China in a territorial dispute in the South China Sea, the Philippines went to an international tribunal for justice, and won big. But it turned out to be a pyrrhic victory.

Beijing came back with such ferocity and manipulative diplomacy that other Southeast Asian countries that have similar disputes with it are apparently backing down.

One by one, their positions became clear at meetings this week of Asia-Pacific and Southeast Asian nations, a gathering that was supposed to unanimously call out China for a host of actions in the resource-rich South China Sea  building artificial islands and military airstrips, sending warships, staging live-firing exercises and shooing away fishermen from other countries.

And so, the four-day conclave in Vientiane, the Laotian capital, ended Tuesday with Chinas muscles bulging more than ever, and the vaunted unity of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations in disarray.

Neither China nor ASEAN emerged from the Vientiane meetings with honor, said Ian Storey, a senior fellow at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, a Singapore-based think tank. Its a sad state of affairs when expectations of ASEAN being able to do anything to lower tensions in the South China Sea are zero, and instead the focus is on whether it can get its act together.

Philippine Foreign Secretary Perfecto Yasay Jr. sought to put a positive spin on the developments.

Whether or not you will say that this is a triumph of China or a triumph of the Philippines, or a defeat of China or a defeat of the Philippines, the fact is clear, he told reporters in Manila on Wednesday. This is a victory for ASEAN for upholding the very principles of international law and  more importantly, pursuing our negotiations in the dispute in a peaceful manner.

Be that as it may, the actual resolution of this dispute between China and the Philippines is a matter between China and the Philippines, he said, reflecting a position that suits China perfectly.

The first coup de grace China dealt was at an ASEAN foreign ministers meeting, where it successfully prevented a joint communique from mentioning the July 12 ruling by the Hague-based arbitration panel in favor of the Philippines. While the communique did express concerns about the tensions in the South China Sea, it did so without naming China.

A millstone around the neck of ASEAN  Southeast Asias main grouping  is that it can issue statements only when there is consensus among all 10 members. China leveraged that by ensuring that Cambodia and Laos would not provide that consensus. Both countries receive massive aid from China, which recently announced a $600 million package to Cambodia.

As an association, ASEAN loses power and relevance when it punts on the most important regional issues, said John Ciorciari, a Southeast Asia expert at the University of Michigan. Yet ASEAN operates by consensus, and when push comes to shove, national interests tend to trump regional solidarity.

Aid has won China some close friends in Southeast Asia, and Cambodia in particular has been quite willing to cast vetoes on communique language inimical to Chinese interests, he said.

China does not accept the arbitration panels ruling, and says all disputes should be settled bilaterally through negotiations. It did not participate in the panels hearings, and insists that almost all of the South China Sea, which is ringed by claimants China, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, the Philippines and Taiwan, belongs to it historically.

It also accuses outside parties  the United States, Japan and Australia  of needling ASEAN countries and raising tensions. After ASEANs failure to rebuke China, those three countries issued a joint statement in Vientiane saying they strongly oppose any coercive unilateral actions that could alter the status quo and increase tensions.

China lashed out at them on Wednesday, with Foreign Minister Wang Yi saying in a statement that the three countries were fanning the flames of regional tension.

Now it is the time to test whether you are peacekeepers or troublemakers, he said.

Diplomats who attended the Laos meetings said it was interesting to see that claimant countries appeared less enthusiastic than others in wanting to rebuke China. Even the Philippines was not too forceful in asking for strong language in the joint ASEAN statement. It repeatedly pointed out that the ruling by the arbitration panel was the result of its unilateral lawsuit, implying that ASEAN should not get involved.

Malaysias foreign minister didnt even show up for the meetings. At a later meeting of ASEAN and Asia-Pacific nations, Brunei took pains to praise Chinas leadership, according to diplomats who attended the meeting.

And on Tuesday, Vietnams deputy foreign minister, Le Hoai Trung, told The Associated Press that his country prefers bilateral dialogue with China, which Beijing wants.

The Philippines is in a tight spot because even though it went to the tribunal and won, that was under the previous government of Benigno Aquino III. President Rodrigo Duterte, Aquinos successor, has made friendly overtures to Beijing and is leaning toward bilateral negotiations.

But the bottom line is that the tribunals decision, although legally binding, is non-enforceable. The arbitration panel didnt take a position on who owns the disputed territories, which include reefs and rocky outcroppings in the vast sea. It concluded only that many of them are legally rocks, even if theyve been built into islands, and therefore do not include the international rights to develop the surrounding waters.

Now it is up to China to decide what concessions it wants to make, and how much pressure the smaller countries can take.

At this point, it (the ruling) is not a magic stick  its not a solution to everything, but rather it needs to be combined with other measures, said Tran Viet Thai, deputy director of the Institute of Strategic Studies, a Vietnamese government think tank.

China is showing no signs of slowing down its efforts to exert control over the South China Sea.

State-run companies are joining forces to offer luxury cruises in the waters. Three companies dealing in shipping, tourism and construction will contribute to running as many as eight cruise liners by June 2017 to service a region through which an estimated $5 trillion in global trade passes each year. Theyre also building four docks, which will be able to handle 2 million passengers a year.

One of Chinas main cellphone carriers, China Telecommunications Corp., has extended 4G service to several disputed South China Sea islands. Its competitor China Mobile Communications Corp. already offers similar services.

Along with creating new islands by piling sand on top of coral reefs, China has built airstrips, harbors and lighthouses that is says will benefit fishermen and ship owners who transit the strategic waterway.

Clearly, China is not giving up the sea  tribunal or no tribunal  yet the ruling will continue to hang over it like a dagger.

Its impossible for (the ruling) to be irrelevant, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry told reporters in Manila, where he made a stop after the Laos meetings.

But we are not trying to create a confrontation. We are trying to create a solution, he said.

___

Vijay Joshi is the APs Southeast Asia news director. He has covered the region for 18 years.

___

Associated Press writer Jim Gomez in Manila, Philippines, contributed to this report.
As if being the man in charge of water resources in one of the nations driest states were not a big enough challenge, New Mexico State Engineer Tom Blaine now finds himself taking on Mighty Mouse.

Mighty Mouse is what Blaine calls the endangered New Mexico meadow jumping mouse, a creature that, although only a few inches long, has become a big problem for the state engineer.

Thats because federal employees are fencing off areas, such as stretches in the Jemez Mountains in the Santa Fe National Forest, to protect the mouses habitat from intrusion by cattle on adjacent federal grazing allotments.

They are fencing off streams that were available to livestock, Blaine said during a presentation Wednesday morning to business leaders at an Economic Forum meeting at Hotel Albuquerque.

That places me in the middle. The ranchers want me to remove the fences. But thats not in my playing field. I have no authority to move fences to make that water available to ranchers who are grazing the land. And ranching is a huge industry in New Mexico.

Blaine said that what he can do is pipe water from fenced-off streams to places where the water is accessible to livestock, an effort that was not necessary before the mouse was listed as endangered.

I can make sure the ranchers get the water, he said. But environmental issues are becoming more and more constraining on projects. It takes longer and longer to get things done.

He said its difficult administering water use in a state where water is scarce and where people with older claims to water get priority over those whose claims dont go back as far.

When you have to send water past junior users to service senior users, people dont understand, Blaine said. They say, Well, theres water there. 

In New Mexico, people do not give up water without a fight. Blaine said a proposal a while back to pipe water from the Plains of San Augustin in western New Mexico to another part of the state drew 900 protests.

Blaine himself is not inclined to give up water without a battle, and he said Wednesday that a lawsuit filed by Texas in 2013 threatens New Mexicos rights to state groundwater, the water beneath its own soil.

Actually, New Mexico filed suit first because then-Attorney General Gary King believed a compact that required New Mexico to deliver Rio Grande water to Texas was unfairly slanted in the favor of Texas. Texas responded by filing a suit claiming New Mexico was not delivering the amount of water it is required to under terms of the compact.

And then the federal government jumped into the suit on the Texas side, arguing that groundwater pumped in the southern part of New Mexico is tapping an aquifer that would otherwise flow into the Rio Grande and on to Texas and Mexico.

A special master assigned by the U.S. Supreme Court recently recommended the rejection of New Mexicos motion to dismiss the Texas lawsuit, which means it may proceed through the court system. Some New Mexicans are concerned that if New Mexico loses the case, it will not have enough water to make up what Texas claims it is owed. And that could mean New Mexico would have to pay up to $1 billion in damages to make up the difference.

Blaine is particularly disturbed by the suggestion that New Mexico groundwater is part of the water package the state owes to Texas.

The special master indicated in his response that groundwater is considered to be (compact) water the same as surface water, Blaine said Wednesday. Thats unacceptable to us. It is an overreach on behalf of the United States, giving control of that water to the U.S. instead of to the state where it belongs.
SANTA FE  A 21-year-old man was charged Monday for a hit-and-run accident that left two pedestrians dead north of Espanola last week, and State Police say more charges are possible.

Joseph A. Roybal faces two felony counts of leaving the scene of an accident with great bodily harm or death and a misdemeanor count of failing to give immediate notice of an accident, according to online court records.

State Police spokesman Chad Pierce said additional charges may be filed once a criminal investigation is complete.

Santa Fe County jail records indicate that Roybal is not currently booked there and a Rio Arriba County jail official said Tuesday that Roybal was not incarcerated there either. Pierce said he didnt know if Roybal had been remanded into custody.

According to a search warrant affidavit for DNA and other evidence on the suspect vehicle filed in Santa Fe District Court Tuesday, State Police responded to a pedestrian crash involving two people on U.S. 84 in the community of Hernandez north of Espanola at 9:30 p.m. July 20.

Joey Romero, 49, of Hernandez, was treated at the scene but later died at Presbyterian Espanola Hospital. Beverly Trujillo, a 43-year-old Santa Fe woman, was killed on impact.

Officers found a blue mirror and other car parts strewn about the roadway that were determined to be from a Toyota truck, based on their parts numbers.

The next day, police received a call from an attorney representing Roybal who said the vehicle involved in the crash was at a house on Highland Loop in southwest Santa Fe.

The blue 2009 Toyota Tacoma parked in the driveway had damage that matched evidence at the crash scene, and there was suspected blood on the driver-side bumper, according to the police affidavit. The truck was seized and taken to State Police headquarters until it could be legally searched.

Investigators later spoke with Roybals mother, who said her son was coming home from Abiquiu Lake with his wife and a friend the night of the hit-and-run. She told police she got a call from him around 9:30 p.m. during which Roybal said he hit somebody, but then she corrected herself and said he told her only that he had hit something, according to the affidavit.

She said she asked what he had hit and he said he didnt know. She said she was afraid for him and told him to come home to Santa Fe.

Roybal is scheduled to be arraigned in Espanola Magistrate Court Aug. 8.
WASHINGTON  The Latest on the hacking of the Democratic National Committee (all times local):

1:15 p.m.

A senior adviser for Hillary Clintons campaign is accusing Donald Trump of encouraging a foreign government to spy against his opponent.

During a news conference, Trump addressed Russia and said he hoped the country could find Clintons missing 30,000 emails that were deleted from her personal server while she was secretary of state. When asked if he had any pause about encouraging a foreign government to hack into U.S. computers, he said Thats up to the president.

Clintons senior policy adviser Jake Sullivan said in an emailed statement: This has to be the first time that a major presidential candidate has actively encouraged a foreign power to conduct espionage against his political opponent. Thats not hyperbole, those are just the facts. This has gone from being a matter of curiosity, and a matter of politics, to being a national security issue.

___

1:05 p.m.

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump says that if foreign governments have the 33,000 emails deleted from Hillary Clintons private email server, they should make them public.

I will tell you this. Russia, if youre listening, I hope youre able to find the 30,000 e-mails that are missing, Trump said. I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press.

At a press conference Wednesday in Doral, Florida, Trump was asked whether he had any pause about asking a foreign government to hack into computers in the United States. Trump did not directly respond except to say, Thats up to the president. Let the president talk to them.

Trump complained anew that Clinton had deleted roughly 33,000 emails from her private server before turning over the rest to the Obama administration.

That gives me a problem, Trump said. Now, if Russia or China or any other country has those e-mails, I mean, to be honest with you, Id love to see them.

___

12:45 p.m.

A spokesman for House Speaker Paul Ryan says Russian President Vladimir Putin should stay out of the U.S. presidential election.

The brief statement from Brendan Buck on Wednesday comes as Democrats blamed Russia for hacking the Democratic National Committee. Republican Donald Trump called for Russia to infiltrate Hillary Clintons email, an unprecedented suggestion to a foreign power to conduct cyberspying on a presidential candidate.

Buck said in a statement: Russia is a global menace led by a devious thug. Putin should stay out of this election.

Ryan is backing Trumps candidacy though he has been tepid in his endorsement, calling out the nominee on immigration and other issues.

___

12:30 p.m.

Donald Trumps running mate, Mike Pence, says there should be serious consequences if Russia is found to be interfering in the U.S. electoral process.

In a statement Wednesday, Pence said both parties and the United States government will ensure there are serious consequences to the hacking.

But in a press conference moments earlier, Trump declined to speak out against the breach to Democratic National Committee computers, which the Democrats have blamed on Russia.

Instead, he called on Russia to find the missing emails from Hillary Clintons personal server, since they probably contain some beauties.

Trump said he has no relationship to Russian President Vladimir Putin and does not know if Russia or some other country is responsible for the DNC breach.

__

11:10 a.m.

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump says statements that Russia was responsible for hacking the Democratic National Committee were far-fetched, so ridiculous. He said blaming Russia was deflecting attention from the embarrassing material in the emails, which WikiLeaks published last week on its website.

Trump said Wednesday at a press conference in Doral, Florida, Russia has no respect for our country, if it is Russia. It could be China. It could be someone sitting in his bedroom.

Trump said the emails, which showed DNC staffers behind the scenes supporting Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, demonstrated that the primary elections were what he called a fixed race.

It was a rigged race, totally rigged, Trump said.

___

10:50 a.m.

The head of a cybersecurity firm says no one should be shocked that a foreign nation would want to break into a digital trove of American political communications.

Paul Kurtz is the chief executive officer of TruSTAR Technology and a former White House cyber adviser.

He says its not surprising that a country like Russia would have an interest in penetrating a system like that of the Democratic National Committee. He says past political campaigns also have been targeted.

Kurtz says it can sometimes make sense to publicly identify the culprit of major hacks. But he said it can often make more sense to broadly share information about how the hack occurred, so as to prevent and deter future attacks.

__

10:45 a.m.

Hillary Clinton is alarmed by the possibility that the Russian government was involved with the theft of emails from the Democratic National Committee.

Top campaign aide Jake Sullivan says Clinton does not view this as a political issue but as a national security issue.

On Tuesday, President Barack Obama implied that Russian President Vladimir Putin may have reason to facilitate the attack.

Clinton, who has spent the last few days at her New York home, was briefed on the attack, says Sullivan. She has not commented on the incident. Top campaign officials have previously suggested that the goal of the hack was to benefit GOP rival Donald Trumps campaign.

__

10:35 a.m.

Russian President Vladimir Putins spokesman, while not directly denying Russian involvement in the hack, says Moscow would never interfere in another countrys election.

President Putin more than once has said the Russia would never interfere and does not interfere in the internal affairs of other countries, especially in the electoral process, Dmitry Peskov told journalists Wednesday in a conference call.

Peskov also criticized the willingness to accuse Russia of wrongdoing. If we talk about some sort of suspicions against a country, then it is necessary at a minimum to be precise and concrete, the spokesman said. He said speculation in this case does not show a constructive attitude.

___

10:23 a.m.

President Barack Obamas decision to identify Russia as almost certainly the culprit in hacking the Democratic National Committee and releasing politically embarrassing emails fits his administrations new penchant for openly blaming foreign governments for such break-ins.

Even as the U.S. continues to secretly hack its own adversaries, Obama is raising the stakes for countries caught behind the keyboards engaging in cyber espionage. That includes even major powers like Russia and China.

Obama traditionally avoids commenting on active FBI investigations. But he told NBC News that outside experts have blamed Russia for the leak and appeared to embrace the notion that President Vladimir Putin might have been responsible.

The developing U.S. strategy, unofficially dubbed name and shame, is intended to raise diplomatic consequences for foreign governments involved in state-sponsored hacking.
The American Indian Alaska Native Tourism Association has received the Presidents E Award for Export Service, the first Native American organization to earn the distinction.

Albuquerque-based AIANTA is a nonprofit made up of Native American tribes and tribal businesses and established to advance Indian Country tourism according to its website.

The U.S. Department of Commerce notes that visitation to Indian Country by overseas travelers grew by almost 1 million between 2007 and 2014. The department estimates that Indian Country tourists spent about $7 billion in 2014 and such spending will grow to $9.5 billion by 2020, according to a news release.

There were a total of 123 E Awards given out in 2016, and AIANTAs was celebrated with a ceremony Tuesday at the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center.

The Commercial Service is proud to see AIANTA grow tourism opportunities throughout New Mexico and the nation for Native American tribes, and to see them recognized for their efforts is very exciting, Robert Queen, director for U.S. Commercial Service in Santa Fe, said in a news release.
GRETNA, La.  A Louisiana sheriff on Wednesday called his deputy one of the luckiest men in America after a suspects weapon malfunctioned as he pointed it at the officer.

In a news conference Wednesday, Jefferson Parish Sheriff Newell Normand said his deputy could easily have been killed in a confrontation with a 17-year-old theft suspect late Tuesday. Normand compared the encounter between his deputy and Devon Martes to an O.K. Corral shootout.

Surveillance video captured the fatal shooting and shows Martes pointing what appears to be a gun at a sheriffs deputy inside a warehouse of The Times-Picayune newspaper in a suburb of New Orleans.

The video, posted on the Nola.comThe Times-Picayune website, is somewhat blurry but appears to show the suspect twice raising a gun before being shot.

Normand said the shooting happened as deputies responded to calls just before midnight Tuesday of suspicious activity on the Interstate 10 service road in Metairie, near a new car storage lot. He said the callers reported seeing two people rolling tires down the street.

Normand said deputies flooded the area and that Dalton pursued Martes into the newspaper warehouse. Inside the warehouse, the deputy and suspect met, he said. Martes raised his gun to shoot Dalton and the gun did not fire, the sheriff said.

But for the fact that the gun malfunctioned, I might have a dead officer, Normand said. He was going to act out as a cold-blooded killer.

Dalton drew his service weapon and fired six shots at Martes, he said. The suspect was pronounced dead on the scene. Dalton is white and Martes was black.

Normand said the suspect was armed with a 9 mm handgun and the weapon was on display at the news conference. Normand said Martes, of Metairie, had a long criminal record.

My deputy is one of the luckiest men in America this morning, Normand said. It was, he said, very much the shootout at the O.K. Corral.

Normand added that a split-second decision by his deputy on which way to go inside the warehouse also helped save his life. If not for that, the sheriff said Martes might have been able to shoot his deputy in the back.

The sheriff said the other suspect remained at large Wednesday.

This has been a difficult year for the Jefferson Parish sheriffs office. On June 22, David Michel Jr., a nine-year veteran, was killed after he was shot three times during a pedestrian stop. In January, another deputy, Stephen Arnold, was shot during a drug raid at a home in the Lower 9th Ward neighborhood of New Orleans.

Normand said the encounter between Dalton and Martes illustrated why officers are on edge.

And people have the audacity to ask why the police have fear, the sheriff said. Really? And people ask why the police are on edge. Really?

He warned that a growing number of guns have been seized by law enforcement in the parish, which makes up a large portion of the suburban area of metropolitan New Orleans.

___

This story has been corrected to reflect that the suspects last name was Martes, not Montes.
ATLANTA  The Democratic National Conventions lineup of speakers has highlighted an increasingly diverse country that could soon elect the first female president to succeed its first black chief executive.

Yet the stream of women, African-Americans, Latinos, gay Americans  from U.S. senators and celebrities to activists and, on Thursday, Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton herself  also serves as a reminder of Democrats struggles to connect with most heterosexual white men.

Its just sad, says Dave Mudcat Saunders, a Democratic strategist turned Donald Trump supporter who says his party has abandoned culturally conservative white men like himself.

Vice President Joe Biden confronted the reality Wednesday, telling delegates in Philadelphia that Trumps claims of being a middle-class savior are malarkey and that the Republican presidential nominee and billionaire real estate mogul doesnt have a clue about the middle class. Earlier in the day, Biden told MSNBC that Democrats have done the right thing for white working-class voters, but still havent spoken to them.

Its a long-developing gap that bolsters Republican control of Congress and most statehouses. It could play into the hands of Republican Trump, whose path to victory depends on whites drawn to his blistering critiques of elitism and political correctness in the America of Clinton and Barack Obama.

White men still make up about a third of the typical presidential electorate and will be crucial to Trumps fortunes in Rust Belt states that have seen a declining middle class. They also could tip the balance in battlegrounds like Virginia and Florida, states Obama won twice.

Saunders says both parties play wedge and identity politics on many issues. Republicans emphasized law and order at their Cleveland convention, while Democrats on Tuesday welcomed Mothers of the Movement, black moms whose sons died at the hands of police. Republicans heard National Rifle Association leaders; Democrats are featuring families of gun violence victims.

Democratic pollster Mark Mellman described a cultural gap, with both parties playing to their advantages. But Saunders says Trump taps into a legitimate frustration acute among small-town and rural white men whose fathers and grandfathers once helped elect Democrats.

They see no opportunity, no hope, continued Saunders, who advised John Edwards presidential campaigns and Jim Webbs brief 2016 bid. Then they see Democrats up there talking about diversity and trends and what well be like in 40 years. This country needs help now.

Democrats insist they understand the sentiment.

Former President Bill Clinton, speaking Tuesday on his wifes behalf, told of campaigning this year in West Virginia  a now heavily Republican state the former president won twice  in front of coal miners who blame job losses on Democrats policies. If she wins, she is coming back for you to take you along on the ride to Americas future, Clinton recalled telling voters.

The white Pittsburgh police chief, Cameron McLay, told Democratic delegates that police and their communities can work together. The top organized labor leader, Richard Trumka, who is white, made the traditional appeal that Democrats are the party of workers.

Democrats vice presidential nominee Tim Kaine, who is white, pitched his middle-class values Wednesday, touting his upbringing in Kansas City, the importance of his family and the influence of his faith, which he called his north star for orienting my life. Clinton aides have touted Kaines standing across Virginia, including some conservative, rural pockets.

Robby Mook, Clintons campaign manager, said Wednesday that Clinton will address working-class issues in her nomination acceptance, as well.

In 2012, exit polls showed Republican Mitt Romney won 62 percent of white men to Obamas 35 percent. Measured another way, white men made up less than quarter of Obamas national vote, compared to about 44 percent of Romneys total.

Current polls suggest a more pronounced gap this year, a trends evident on the ground.

In St. Clairsville, Ohio, not far from where both Clintons campaigned this spring, barber shop owner Kent Jenewein estimated that more than 90 percent of his clients, nearly all white men, back Trump  in a county Obama won in 2008. Clinton, Jenewein said, doesnt understand us.

Mellman, the pollster, says Democrats can make marginal gains among non-urban whites, including men, in the same way Republicans are seeking marginal upticks in support from African-Americans and Latinos. Trump could also drive up his support among white men only to see Clinton buoyed with better support than Obama had from white Republican women who dislike Trump.

Clinton insisted during the primaries that she wont overlook white men. Lets be honest, she said in her own Appalachia campaign stop. Some (of you) find it hard to think about voting for any Democrats.  But Im going to keep trying to convince people otherwise.

___

Associated Press writer Catherine Lucey contributed to this report from Philadelphia.

___

Follow Bill Barrow on Twitter at https://twitter.com/BillBarrowAP
This past Tuesday, 27 individuals met to discuss opportunities to disburse hundreds of millions of dollars in economic development loans and grants to New Mexico community projects.

The meeting was the FundIt gathering, a quarterly event hosted by the New Mexico Department of Economic Development. It was held at the Breece mansion on Copper Street downtown, now the headquarters of the Mid-Region Council of Governments.

Gov. Susana Martinez announced the creation of FundIt in 2014, describing it as a mechanism for helping communities fully fund their economic development projects and use tax dollars efficiently. Since then, the program has funded 11 projects, almost all of them this year. According to the programs website, eligible proposals include those focused on business, infrastructure or community development, as well as housing and downtown revitalization projects.

Johanna Nelson, a finance development specialist with the Economic Development Department, said the goal of the meeting was to provide comment on local project proposals, in the hopes of guiding communities toward funding by one or more of the government agencies also at the meeting.

The purpose of this group is to collaborate and brainstorm, Nelson said.

Nelson also said the state and federal agencies involved in FundIt  the New Mexico Finance Authority, the U.S. Small Business Administration and the U.S. Department of Agriculture among them  represented hundreds of millions of dollars in funding opportunities for New Mexican communities.

The projects proposed at the meeting were modest in comparison to those opportunities. The city of Carlsbad asked for $2.5 million toward the renovation of a historic theater. Socorro wanted funding toward a $900,000 industrial park redevelopment. Raton sought $600,000 for street and parking improvements downtown, and Belen requested $175,000 to turn a former National Guard armory into a business incubator.

At least one project seemed likely to be funded in the near future. After Socorro presented its proposal, Trisha Korbas of the U.S. Economic Development Administration, said she would follow up with the city to get the ball rolling.

This is a pretty typical EDA project, Korbas said.

In response to Belens pitch, Korbas noted that her agency had seen a huge failure rate of business incubators. Juan Torres, finance director of the New Mexico Economic Development Department, said Belen could consider becoming a state-certified business incubator, which would allow the city to access additional state funds for the project.

Torres told all the cities represented at the event that their proposals would benefit from additional information.

This is a theme with a lot of these projects, said Torres. We need to see a lot more detail.

Nelson told a Journal reporter there are usually only two project proposals discussed during a meeting, but the number of projects submitted to the Fundit program is slowly increasing.

I think people are hearing more about it, she said.
The new lease accounting standard will have an impact beyond the usual suspects of airlines and retailers, with even cloud computing providers taking a hit, thanks to their leases of computer servers.

What people dont seem to realize is that theres actually a lot of metal in the cloud and somebodys got to pay for it, said Tim Gaumer, director of fundamental research at Thomson Reuters.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board approved the new lease accounting standard in February (see FASB Releases Lease Accounting Standard). It will take effect for public companies for fiscal years, and interim periods within those fiscal years, beginning after Dec. 15, 2018. For private companies and not-for-profits, it will take effect for fiscal years beginning after Dec. 15, 2019, and for interim periods within fiscal years beginning after Dec. 15, 2020.

The new standard will have the effect of moving operating leases onto the balance sheet for the first time for many types of companies. Operating leases are currently disclosed in the footnotes to financial filings. For businesses that have large numbers of operating leases, the new standard could make them appear more highly leveraged, decreasing profitability ratios such as return on assets and lowering earnings per share due to depreciation expenses.

This is a form of financing thats still pretty popular and it doesnt show up on anybodys balance sheet, said Gaumer, who is a Chartered Financial Analyst. Theyre clearly disclosed in the footnotes, but its an off balance sheet method of financing, and hence its popularity.

He pointed to a quote from Sir David Tweedie, the former chairman of the International Accounting Standards Board, who often joked, One of my great ambitions before I die is to fly on aircraft that is on an airlines balance sheet.

An analyst who follows airlines closely wouldnt find this surprising at all when the rule is enacted in mid-December of 2018, said Gaumer. They mentally and in their spreadsheets have been incorporating this information because its not hidden; its in the footnotes. They can build that into their own model of how leveraged the company is. I wanted to focus on companies where it will be more of a surprise perhaps to the casual investor, and thats what led me to tech. Most people dont find technology companies that have a lot of leverage. Historically they havent. But operating leases have been used for a long time by retailers, airlines and hospitality companies.

He pointed to companies like Amazon.com, whose Amazon Web Services unit sells unused server capacity for cloud computing. Not all of this is in servers, but if you just look at their balance sheet, theyve got about $8 billion in long-term debt, but they also have an additional $6 billion in long-term capital leases and $6.5 billion in operating leases, said Gaumer. So all of a sudden it looks like they have a lot of debt. Now they can manage it. Theyve got a lot of cash flow. Theyve got $65 billion in total assets. But when that six and a half billion dollars, or whatever it is in 2018, move onto the balance sheet, suddenly its going to look like a lot more leverage.

He sees a similar impact on Salesforce, the online customer relationship management software provider.

A lot of this is probably going into real estate, said Gaumer. Here in San Francisco, they seem to be putting their name on all of the buildings downtown. Theyre growing rapidly, but their annual report in 2015 showed just $1.3 billion in long-term debt. Theyve got another half billion in capital lease obligations, so it doesnt look that leveraged, but theres another $2.3 billion lurking in the footnotes in operating lease obligations.

Another tech company example is Box. Box is one of the pure-play cloud storage solution companies, said Gaumer. Its not profitable. It doesnt even have a positive EBITDA, so generally you dont go to the bank in a situation like that. But theyve been effective in getting a lot of operating leases, $272 million worth. That compares to just $138 million in shareholders equity. They also have $41 million in debt, and some in long-term capital leases. You add that all up and the total debt to equity would be 2.3 times. Thats considered highly leveraged. Most companies, unless theyre in a really stable business, have a hard time leveraging over one times equity.

However, he does not believe the cloud companies will take a big hit in the stock market once they make the necessary accounting changes.

I think its just going to be a bit more of a surprise to technology investors perhaps than it would have been to somebody who follows airlines, said Gaumer. The thing that may hurt a little bit more is when you start to apply ratio analysis for operating efficiency. Look at return on assets. Not only does this add the amount of the lease to the liabilities side of the balance sheet, theres a corresponding asset that gets recorded. So if youre looking at a measure of operating efficiency like return on assets, now that denominator is increased, so generally theyll be comparing something like pre-tax income or operating income to total assets. Well, you increase the asset side because now this has moved onto the balance sheet, and that return on assets declines quite a bit in some cases. Any investor who is running a screen looking for companies that generate good returns, some of these companies may fall off that screen, and not make it through anymore.

So far, most companies are just in the preparatory stages of getting ready for the accounting change. Many will need to weigh whether it makes sense anymore to continue to lease their assets.

If this is on the balance sheet, now its no more attractive or appealing than ordinary debt, said Gaumer. If ordinary debt is less expensive, they might replace it with that and just let this run off. I imagine theyll choose whatever is the least expensive form of financing, whether thats equity, debt or leases.

The old lease versus buy decision may soon take on another dimension for many tech companies.

It all comes down to the economics, said Gaumer. Now they are going to have to record depreciation under either scenario, so that reduces earnings again. What it does do is it takes operating leases out of its historical advantaged spot of being not recorded on a balance sheet.
New Jersey Society of CPAs CEO and executive director Ralph Albert Thomas is encouraging CPA firms and other businesses to expand their diversity and inclusion efforts.

During a speech Wednesday in New York at a meeting of the Accountants Club of America, Thomas stressed that CPA firms need to reflect the changing demographics in the U.S. population and within their own clients businesses. He pointed out that out of the 550,000 CPAs in the U.S. only 14 percent of the profession is people of color. Meanwhile, for the first time in the nations history, the majority of babies born in the U.S. are children of color.

Thomas is involved with the American Institute of CPAs Diversity and Inclusion initiative, and he also praised the work being done by the New York State Society of CPAs and his own group in New Jersey, the NJCPA.

Were working to move the needle on diversity and inclusion, he said. But he added, Were not going to get there overnight on diversity.

He noted that the profession has been working on the diversity issue since 1968 but has barely moved the needle, although he praised the work being done by the Big Four firms in promoting diversity and inclusion in recent years.

Expand our minds beyond where we are today, he urged.

Thomas pointed out that accountants are in a people business and they have to look beyond human beings surface features. Dont miss out on the richness of all those characteristics below the water line, he said.

Thomas believes diversity is an imperative going forward for the profession. When you have a diverse team, you get smarter decisions, he said. Having diverse teams really yields better solutions.

Demographic shifts in the business world may force more CPA firms to diversify. Between 2002 and 2007, the number of minority-owned businesses grew 46 percent compared to 16 percent for all U.S. firms, Thomas pointed out in his presentation. Minority-owned businesses employed approximately 5.9 million people in 2007, up from 4.7 million in 2002.

The statistics are telling us we need to change, but are we ready to change? Thomas asked. We have some work to do in the culture of our firms to make sure intolerance and discrimination arent prevalent.

Thomas urged accountants to avoid lazy brain tendencies and make conscious efforts to understand those around them. They should develop more of a global mindset and develop multicultural dexterity.

Diversity also helps CPA firms with their efforts at recruiting younger accountants. Putting together a diversity strategy is what we needed to do at the AICPA with the Pipeline Project, said Thomas.

However, Thomas stressed that diversity is not the same thing as affirmative action. Its not about the numbers of how many do you have, he said.

He encouraged firms to develop more sponsorship programs for younger accountants that go beyond traditional mentoring. He praised the NYSSCPAs Career Opportunities in Accounting Profession (COAP) program for encouraging high school students, particularly minorities, to develop an interest in pursuing careers in accounting. Thomas said he would also like to see more CPAs get involved in teaching accounting in college rather than leaving the job to PhDs. He encouraged CPAs to get involved as adjunct professors at their local colleges.
Premium ice cream brand London Dairy is celebrating International Ice Cream Month all of July. Making the most of this occasion, London Dairy decided to reach out to its consumers through a campaign on social media and on-ground activations. The idea behind this campaign  #LondonDairyIceCreamMonth  was to make consumers indulge in the extensive London Dairy range of ice creams and help them relish their special moments. The brand has also urged the consumers to share their special moments through London Dairy ice creams on social media.

As part of the campaigns on-ground activation, the brand devised a London Dairy Squad in Mumbai and Delhi, where the Men In Tux from London Dairy barged into the coolest busy offices of the city, asking everyone to freeze and stop their work. The Squad then explained how work can get very monotonous and how one must indulge in things they love the most  in this case, ice cream. The London Dairy Squad then opened up tubs of London Dairy Ice Creams and surprised the employees with a variety of flavours to engage them in the merriment as they turnedaround a boring and monotonous day into an indulgent experience.





Shweta Shrivastava, Marketing Head, London Dairy, said, On the occasion of International Ice Cream Day, the London Dairy Squad reached out to young working professionals in an attempt to break the monotony of a regular work day and enthrall them with an indulgent London Dairy experience. Throughout the ice cream month, we had a lot of activities for our consumers, celebrating this theme and indulging our consumers the true London Dairy way.

London Dairy also engaged with consumers on social media like Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, inviting them to join the celebrations as they celebrated July 17, 2016 as World Ice Cream Day and became one of the first premium ice cream brands to get this culture here in full swing. The hashtag #LDIceCreamDay was trending at No. 2 in India throughout the day.

Giving further insights into the insights, Shweta Shrivastava, Marketing Head, London Dairy, said

Apart from the London Dairy Ice Cream Month, what other initiatives/ campaigns have you undertaken in recent times to engage the consumers?

Being a pioneer in the premium ice cream segment, the brand task has been to grow the segment within the larger ice cream market in India. Hence, creating integrated campaigns around relevant themes and occasions has been the key to our success.

The key initiative this year was the #SummerOfIndulgence campaign by London Dairy. With the onset of summers, began our #SummerIsComing teaser campaign on Game of Thrones and digital media platforms, which finally culminated with the launch of #SummerOfIndulgence film at Times Holi Fest, where London Dairy was the Presenting Partner.

The summer campaign was further integrated on TV with London Dairy as the Powered By partner of the highly awaited Game of Thrones Season 6 on Star World Premier HD, which witnessed tremendous traction across mediums.

The summer campaign was taken to the point of buying with whole new initiatives like Dessert Festivals and Ice Cream Fests with retail partners like Godrej Natures Basket and Hypercity. The overall integration of the campaign across all mediums and participation in high profile events like Sulafest as their Indulgence Partner, gave a strong drive to the brands salience amongst the right audience.

With summers over, the Ice Cream Month was a fantastic way to indulge our consumers with the London Dairy experience throughout the month with innovative ideas, be it the London Dairy Squad breaking into offices on a regular work day or raining offers at point of buying this monsoon season. The campaign witnessed strong traction on ground and on social media with the #LDIceCreamDay trending #2 in India on Twitter.









Its been three years since London Dairy entered India. How has the growth been like? What percentage share of the ice cream market does the brand have today?

London Dairy is a Rs 40+ crore consumer brand, growing at 35+ per cent year-on-year and plans to double the volumes in the next three years. On the other hand, the premium ice creams segment is growing at 18-20 per cent.

While the ice cream category is about Rs 4,000 crore, the premium segment is only about Rs 150 crore. Being the pioneer of the ice cream segment, the task for London Dairy is category creation rather than share gain. Category creation is a high gestation project. It requires investment, serious intent and most importantly, patience. Ever since our launch in India, upgrading the consumer into a much higher price point of 300-400 per cent premium has been our key task.

Which regions in India have been the biggest growth areas for London Dairy?

We are present in 28 cities across India with Delhi, Mumbai, Kerala, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Kolkata being our big volume contributors.

We also reach to our consumers through the London Dairy express stations which are present across key malls and multiplexes. Currently we have 18 such London Dairy express stations retailing our impulse range and signature creations.

London Dairy expects to touch Rs 100 crore by 2020. What would be the factors driving this growth?

There would be several factors driving this growth, which would be a mix of market dynamics, consumer preferences and in the way we leverage London Dairy brand strengths.

First, the luxury segment in the country is pegged to witness exponential growth due to the evolving Indian consumer. The modern consumer is more aware of international brands, is well travelled and has a discerning palate. Such a scenario makes international brands like London Dairy a preferred choice vis-a-vis other brands given our superior product experience, brand imagery and international flavours.

Secondly, the eating-out culture is on the rise, not just in restaurants & hotels but also in retail, malls & multiplexes. The consumer today is not averse to paying for premium brands, especially when they are out indulging with their peer groups. Hence, significantly enhancing the presence of London Dairy at such touchpoints would be a driver of our growth.

Thirdly, London Dairy has plans to significantly ramp up distribution across the cities of its presence across 5,000 outlets by 2020. With the brand having a large impulse range of bars and cups, availability within arms length distance of the consumer will give this range a significant spurt and more people buying into the brand franchise.

Fourthly, usage of technology and e-commerce will be a big enabler for brands like London Dairy to reach out to consumers since the brand is currently distributed very selectively and hence, has a huge unmet demand.

Finally, the strength of London Dairy lies in augmenting its already innovative range in keeping with the changing trends in the market, be it demand for sugar free offerings or fusion ice creams.
Its a burger with the goodness of a pizza or a pizza that just looks like a burger  whichever way you look at it, Dominos is out to give the best of both indulgence in its newly-launched BurgerPizza. It has the goodness of pizza instilled in it  from oven fired buns to fresh veggies to goodness of Mozzarella cheese.

To support the launch, Team Contract Advertising, Gurgaon has conceptualised a new campaign, #TheGoodOven, where everything that goes through it, comes out with pure baked goodness.

The TVC shows a young boy demanding a burger at a Dominos outlet, only to be told that Dominos doesnt make burgers and that it is not good. But still the child keeps insisting on having his burger. Hearing this, a young chef remembers a legend where anything put into a good oven is transformed into something magical. So the chef puts some flour, cheese, herbs and veggies into a tray and puts it into the oven at Dominos kitchen and out comes a pizza that looks like a burger. The boy gets his burger and Dominos gets a new addition to its menu.

On the concept behind the new addition to the menu, S Murugan Narayanswamy, Senior Vice President Marketing, Dominos Pizza India, explained, The BurgerPizza is different from conventional burgers in many ways. Instead of using fried ingredients, the BurgerPizza has oven-baked ingredients. It is made with generous fillings of herbs and vegetables, tomato sauce, mozzarella cheese and soft buns, all oven baked together to perfection, adding a touch of Pizza Goodness. It is this Pizza Goodness that will be at the core of our marketing strategy. We aim to address the desire for a burger through a new kind of pizza, the BurgerPizza.

Elaborating on the insight behind the campaign, a Contract spokesperson said, Very true to an Indian context, the act of passing through the fire (of the oven) is considered an act of purity and thus, it became the spark for the communication. It led to the idea, that its not an oven but a good oven that exists at Dominos. And the ritual of passing through it can change not just the burger, but the world for the better. The film thus sets up the problem of how Dominos cant make burgers as they arent good by a child asking for it and then goes on to tell the tale of the mythical oven that made everything good. A young chef at Dominos, who remembers this legend, realises she too has the good oven in her store. And with that she can transform the burger into something that is filled with all the goodness of a pizza.
The Red Arrows will help promote the best of British by performing in up to 20 locations from the Middle East to the Asia-Pacific.



Crown Copyright



Defence Secretary Michael Fallon has announced that the RAFs display team will perform their world-famous aerobatics with displays and flypasts for the first time ever in China, and are due to perform in countries including India, Malaysia and Singapore.



Planning is under way to finalise details of the Red Arrows deployment, which follows an invitation for the aerobatic team of Hawk T1 aircraft to perform at the Zhuhai Airshow as part of the UKs GREAT campaign.



The Strategic Defence and Security Review made clear the UKs commitment to the Asia Pacific region, and to building relationships to address global challenges. Following visits to Japan in January and Singapore in May, Mr Fallon confirmed that RAF Typhoon jets will take part in the joint exercise Bersama Lima from Malaysia, which forms part of the UKs commitment to the Five Power Defence Arrangements (FPDA).



The Typhoons will then deploy around the region for joint exercises with allies, demonstrating the UKs commitment to exercise with allies across the globe.



Defence Secretary Michael Fallon said: "Our RAF Red Arrows and Typhoons represent the best of British. The Red Arrows will fly the flag for Britain in key export markets while our RAF Typhoons will exercise with our allies.
Airmen drive RPA innovation with new electronic combat officer course

In an effort to neutralize the enemy and their ability to impact combat operations, Airmen have created the Air Forces first MQ-1 Predator and MQ-9 Reaper remotely piloted aircraft Electronic Combat Officers (ECO) course.



Weve been working for the last year and half or so to build the ECO course for the RPA community, said Capt. Craig, a 26th Weapons Squadron MQ-9 pilot and ECO course creator. Its very fulfilling to see its finally coming into fruition.



Squadron members joined with Airmen from the 57th Wing and 432nd Wing/432nd Air Expeditionary Wing to establish the course.



Since the insatiable demand for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capability grew faster than the Air Force could produce qualified MQ-1/9 aircrews; the reality of low manning, platform sustainability and training became a constant concern.



As MQ-1/9 aircraft require satellite signals to operate, it becomes extremely important for aircrews to train toward mitigating potential signal interruptions. RPA ECOs integrate with the affected MQ-1/9 aircrews, the relay site, space command, and others at the air operations center to mitigate signal interruptions.



I had this vision back in 2013, when I wrote the syllabus for the first time, Craig said. I didnt think it would end up turning into an actual ACC (Air Combat Command) course.



Craig, who previously served as a formalized training unit instructor at Holloman Air Force Base, New Mexico, was deemed the most knowledgeable about the satellite communications (SATCOM) threats and how to combat them. He spent the next three years laying the groundwork for the course.



Due to a manning shortage, Craig developed new tactics, techniques and procedures that would allow the current manning to act in a dual-hatted position thus reducing the risks to RPAs.



After taking the course, Airmen will return to their units as trained experts on RPA use of the electromagnetic spectrum to include, but not limited to: area of operation non-kinetic threats, radio communications, GPS, remote-split operations, SATCOM, and Link 16 -- a tactical data exchange network .



It came to a point where I felt that we will no longer be fighting in a permissive war and it couldnt just be me that knows how to fight against it, so I drafted up a syllabus on how I would train an ECO to fight a threat, Craig said. At the same time the 556th Test and Evaluation Squadron was testing how to fight against SATCOM contested threats. I was just at the right place at the right time.



Since Air Force regulations dictate that every wing or squadron weapons and tactics office will have graduated and certified electronic combat pilots, electronic warfare officers or ECOs, the demand for a certified ECO course for MQ-1 and MQ-9 squadrons grew.



(U.S. Air Forces Central Command) are in the demand phase for information, Craig said. They want to learn what the RPA capabilities are. Leaderships mindset of the Predator and Reapers capabilities in a non-permissive fight are shifting now that we have proven new innovative solutions.



The newly created ECO course is designed to be a three-phase system and walks the students through 15 days of rigorous training.



The course offered realistic training and challenging missions, said Maj. Joseph, an ECO student. It would do us no good to practice in theory without real-world, realistic training scenarios that will mirror future/present threats that we may face.



The first phase begins with the academics portion of the course and teaches students to plan and prepare against a jamming threat.



Next, the students learn to integrate RPAs into the SATCOM during simulated flights, followed by the final hands-on portion in which students execute tactics, techniques and procedures in support of airborne RPA flight operations in the Nevada Test and Training Range.



One student will sit in the seat and experience what its like to receive a jamming signal while flying another student acts as the ECO and supports the pilot who has received the threat, Craig said. They swap roles and do it all over again so they both get to experience those perspectives, from both the pilot and the ECO.



In addition, students received help from the 26th Space Aggressors Squadron from Schriever AFB, Colorado, who replicate enemy threats to space-based and space-enabled systems during tests and training exercises.



Getting to interact with the aggressors was incredible, Joseph said. We learned about friendly and adversary capabilities and mindsets, challenges and weaknesses. This program is about preparing for a more advanced adversary, so it's important to train against the best.



By using GPS and SATCOM jamming techniques, the 26th WPS provides Air Force, joint and coalition military personnel with an understanding of how to recognize, mitigate, counter and defeat these threats.



Still, developing Airmen with the skills needed to win todays fight and prepare for tomorrows threats without directly engaging the enemy doesnt come without its own challenges.



One of the misconceptions we have is that, were already critically manned, Craig said. We cant divvy out any more bodies to be only ECOs, or deploy them to be a part of this fight at the relay site. The truth is, units dont lose a pilot or an instructor, but using the current manning to do both they gain an expert in the squadron.



Being one of only a handful of trained ECOs is something the only fully certified Air Force RPA ECO is set on changing.



Im the only RPA ECO in the Air Force community, meaning I dont have other ECOs that I can go to and ask questions, Craig said. Since we only have one dedicated instructor, myself, the ratio is one to four. There will be four students, four times a year and as we continue to train ECOs we will grow in size until we have two to three ECOs in every unit.



The course, which was conducted jointly between Creech and Nellis AFBs, recently graduated a beta class of five Airmen assigned to the 432nd WG.



Although the training currently focuses on officers, enlisted Airmen in RPA career fields may also attend a modified ECO course prior to deployments.



In a time when Airmen are asked to find vulnerabilities, develop a course of action and implement change to mitigate threats through innovation, Craig offered one final piece of advice.



We are definitely preparing for tomorrows fight through innovation, 100 percent, he said. Id say to other Airmen not to give up on their innovation. Be persistent, perfect your theory, and get it to the right people with influence who will be able to help you in developing that innovation. I wouldnt have been able to do it alone.
Total force AWACS ops support world's largest naval exercise

Nearly 150 Airmen from the 513th Air Control Group and 552nd Air Control Wing are behind a total force effort to provide AWACS missions for the worlds largest maritime exercise.



Rim of the Pacific 2016, or RIMPAC, has grown to involve 26 nations, more than 40 ships and submarines, over 200 aircraft and 25,000 personnel. It involves forces in and around the Hawaiian Islands as well as Southern California.



While the AWACS Airmen from Tinker Air Force Base, Oklahoma, have supported RIMPAC before, this year marks the first time active-duty and Air Force Reserve crews have worked together to provide consistent AWACS support to the exercise.



Weve accomplished some fantastic total force integration training, said Maj. Anne Ridlon, a RIMPAC liaison officer assigned to the groups 970th Airborne Air Control Squadron, the Air Force Reserves only AWACS flying squadron. Although were able to work this closely with the 552nd back home, deploying together to a different location gives us more opportunities.



In the missions flown so far, Ridlon said that RIMPAC has given the aircrews quite a few challenges not seen on a typical training sortie.



Weve had some great link communication training as well as experience for our electronic combat and air weapons officers, she said.



In the next few days, Ridlon said the 513th and 552nd crews are looking forward to working closely with local F-22 Raptors as well as Navy P-3 Orion aircraft as the exercise develops.



Right now were in the phase zero, or crawl phase, of the exercise, said Staff Sgt. Haley Sherman, an intelligence specialist assigned to the 513th Operations Support Squadron. When exercise coordinators determine, RIMPAC will move into phase one and the multinational force will be one step closer to the culmination of the exercise: all-out war against a fictional country.



Keeping the E-3 Sentry aircraft in the air and in the exercise doesnt happen on its own; it takes the work of more than 30 active-duty and Reserve maintenance Airmen, as well as specialized equipment airlifted from Tinker AFB, according to Senior Master Sgt. Alphonzo Glover, an accessories flight chief assigned to the 513th Maintenance Squadron.



I think were doing really well on the maintenance side, he said. Its unique having two detachment commanders and two different flying squadrons here, but communication has been really good.



While the Reserve and active-duty units each brought the same number of maintenance Airmen, they opted to blend together for the morning and afternoon shifts to provide the best support as well as practice building new teams.



We wanted to get our maintainers to a point where theyre comfortable no matter who they work with, Glover said. We wont always know the people were deployed with, but well still have the same job to do.
At least 44 are dead after an attack Wednesday on the town of Qamishli in north-eastern Syria, a hospital official said.





The initial number of the victims of the blast that targeted the eastern district of the town also includes 140 injuries, while there are still dead bodies under the debris [that have not been retrieved yet], Qamishli National Hospital Director Omar Al-Qaqoub said.

A car bomb targeting the Justice Department and Kurdish internal security force in the town located in al-Hasaka province, the head of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Rami Abdel Rahman said.

Activists in the area said a truck laden with explosives blew up at the entrance of the street housing the headquarters of the Asayish forces, killing and wounding mainly civilians, as well as inflicting heavy material damage.

Earlier reports said there were two bombings. But there were no immediate details on the other blast.

Islamic State claimed responsibility for one of the two bombings, saying that a suicide bomber driving a booby-trapped truck targeted the Kurdish Peoples Protection Unit (YPG) headquarters in Qamishli.

The claim was made via its mouthpiece, the Aamaq News Agency, on the Telegram messaging app.

YPG controls swathes of north-eastern Syria, including most of al-Hasaka province.

The extremist group cited a security source as saying 100 were killed in the blast and dozens others were wounded.
Clean-up marshals extract money on the pretext of fining people who litter at public places.

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporations initiative to appoint clean-up marshals to prevent pedestrians from littering the streets has drawn flak from Mumbaikars. There have been reports about marshals harassing citizens and asking them to pay hefty fines. Offenders have to pay a fine of Rs 1000 for erecting illegal banners, Rs 200 for spitting, Rs 200 for littering and Rs 200 for peeing in public places. Even though the civic body has fixed these rates but marshals continue to overcharge citizens. People have also complained that marshals are misbehaving with them. Four people have already been suspended for indulging in corruption activities and a case has been registered against them.

Clean-up marshal AnilKumar Viswakarma had caught a rickshaw driver for peeing near the junction of Akurli road and Western Express Highway, Kandivali (E). He then collected a fine of Rs 100 and failed to issue him a receipt. Our photographer had clicked Anils photo who threatened him to delete the photos or face dire consequences. Anil also abused our photographer. When our photographer asked Anil to furnish his identity card and produce receipt he refused. He then asked photographer to accompany him to Samata Nagar police station. Later Anil called his senior official from BMC. The official arrived at the police station and inquired with our photographer who narrated about the entire incident to him. After knowing the truth he said that Anils contract will be terminated.

Damaji Harale, Sub Inspector of Samata Nagar Police station said, If somebody files a complaint about extortion then we will register a case against them after conducting a probe.

Earlier clean-up marshals had targeted the builder lobby and extracted huge amount from them. They had targeted drivers transporting constructing materials and used to demand money from them. Marshals had even harassed doctors and had imposed fine on them by questioning about the manner in which they dispose bio-medical waste. This time they are visiting shops and asking shopkeepers whether they possess licence for erecting signboards. However they dont have any right to question shopkeepers about signboards as its the function of BMC officials.

The scheme which was started by BMC in 2007 has been discontinued twice in 2011 and 2014 amid complaints of corruption and highhandedness by marshals.

Hitesh Shah a businessman from Kandivali said, Clean-up marshals are overstepping their authority hence the BMC must take strict action against them. They should allow us to run our business.

Naveen Seth a Borivali resident said, Marshals are only bringing disrepute to the BMC which had taken a right step to maintain cleanliness in the city. Their only intention is to earn quick bucks by overcharging people. Most of them dont even issue receipts to offenders.
An alarming incident was reported on Wednesday morning in Uttarakhand, where the Chinese intruded disputed Barahoti area of Chamoli district. The incident has now been confirmed by the Chief Minister Harish Rawat, who has called the incident worrisome.



Rawat said that he is assured that the Centre will take take note and act upon the issue. Good thing is the Chinese have not touched an important canal there, said Harish Rawat.

The state of Uttarakhand shares a 350 kilometer long boundary with China and there have been similar attempts on several occasions in the past. There have been reports in past when Chinese troops entered the area and scribbled the word China on rocks near Mana Pass in Chamoli.

It is being reported that a helicopter belonging to Chinas Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) violated the Indian airspace in Uttarkhand on July 19.

Minister of State for Home Affairs, Kiren Rijiju said, We have to check whether this incident was intrusion or not, only then can any action be taken.

After hovering over the Indian airspace for nearly five minutes, the helicopter disappeared and flew back into the Chinese airspace.

Indo Tibetan Border Police Force (ITBP) had sent a report to the Union Home Ministry on the latest Chinese incursion.

The incident comes a month after a Chinese fighter-bomber jet violated the Indian airspace in the Aksai Chin area near the Indo-China international border.

On June 9, a fresh incursion by the Chinese troops into Indian territory in Arunachal Pradesh led to a minor scuffle and triggered tension between the two sides.

However, the issue was resolved soon and the Chinese offered chocolates as a gesture of peace and returned back. According to reports, around 250 Chinese troops transgressed to the Indian side in the Yangtse sector, approximately 650 metres east of Shankar Tiki, an area where Indian soldiers are stationed in a sizeable number.

Joshimath district team visited Barahoti to monitor relief work after rains, during which Chinese troops were spotted in the area. The Chinese troops thereafter chased away the district administration team.

Barahoti in Joshimath is a grazing land. Even last year, the Chinese troops had put the area on fire to make temporary shift huts of Indian shepherds.
French Open champion Garbine Muguruza of Spain pulled out of her opening match at the WTA hardcourt tournament in Montreal on Tuesday minutes before she was to take on Britain`s Naomi Broady.



Muguruza, the world number three who is seeded third in a tournament already hit by the withdrawal of Serena Williams, cited a gastrointestinal illness.

World number one Williams pulled out with inflammation in her shoulder over the weekend.

I`m pretty disappointed, I practiced a lot for this tournament, Garbine said. Since yesterday, I have kind of been feeling weird and I spoke with the doctor and everything. I thought today I was going to feel better, but in the last moment I didn`t feel good enough to go on court and give my best.

Although it was a second-round match, Muguruza enjoyed a first-round bye. Organizers filled her place in the draw with lucky loser Varvara Lepchenko of the United States, who stepped in at the last minute against qualifier Broady.
Since November 2000, Irom Sharmila has been on an uncertain fast, refusing to eat or drink after soldiers from the Assam Rifles shot dead 10 civilians. She was charged with attempt to suicide, repeatedly arrested, detained and force-fed through nasal tubes. However, she has continued on the path of protest even when the state has shown no signs of surrendering. Her fast was a shame on us. The fact that she chose to end her fast now is just the last straw. It is our failure. It means, we have been unable to listen to our own citizens. It also means that we failed to address their anguish and forced them to choose the path that she never intended.

For years, she was on a hunger strike. Her illusion gave her reply that the peaceful protest was no longer going to work. If she has to bring the change, she should adopt politics. Her peaceful and painful act of protest and self-denial would push the state towards diminishing the draconian Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) from Manipur. Sharmila, who was 28 at the time of Malom Massacre, began to fast in protest. Her primary demand to the Indian government has been the repeal of the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA). She began her fast in Malom on 5 November, and vowed not to eat, drink, comb her hair or look in a mirror until AFSPA was repealed.

Three days after she began her strike, she was arrested by the police and charged with an attempt to commit suicide, which was unlawful under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) at that time, and was later transferred to judicial custody. Her health deteriorated rapidly, and nasogastric intubation was forced on her from 21 November in order to keep her alive while under arrest. Sharmila has been regularly released and re-arrested every year since her hunger strike began.

By 2004, Sharmila had become an icon of public resistance. Following her procedural release on 2nd October, 2006, Irom went to Raj Ghat, New Delhi. Later that evening, Sharmila headed towards Jantar Mantar for a protest demonstration where she was joined by students, human rights activists and other concerned citizens. Thirty women protested naked in support of Sharmila in front of the Assam Rifles headquarters. They held a banner saying Indian Army Rape us and all of them were imprisoned for three months.

On 6th October, she was re-arrested by the Delhi police for attempting suicide and was taken to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, where she wrote letters to the Prime Minister, the President, and the Home Minister. At this time, she met and won the support of Nobel-laureate Shirin Ebadi, a human rights activist, who promised to take up Sharmilas cause at the United Nations Human Rights Council. In 2011, she invited Anna Hazare to visit Manipur. Hazare sent two representatives to meet her but he did not go.

In October 2011, All India Trinamool Congress announced their support for Sharmila and called on party Chief Mamata Banerjee to help repeal the AFSPA. The Communist Party of India (MarxistLeninist) (CPI ML) also stated its support for her and for repeal of AFSPA, calling for nationwide agitation. In November, at the end of the eleventh year of her fast, Sharmila again called on then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to repeal the law. On 3rd November, 100 women formed a human chain in Ambari to show support for Sharmila, while other civil society groups staged a 24-hour fast in a show of solidarity. She has only met her mother once since the start of the fast as seeing her mothers anguish may break her resolve. On March 28, 2016, she was released from judicial custody as a local court in Imphal rejected a charge against her. Her battle between court, jail and protest continued till today but now it has taken a new twist. Finally, she ended her fast for the cause and to contest Manipur Assembly elections.

The issue she raised all these years is quick to be forgotten by the media and the people of our country by and large with very few exceptions. I hope, she will fulfil her goals through the electoral process and improves the lives of Manipuri people.

We wish her all the best for her goals ahead and great future in politics.

(Inputs from Agencies)

(Any suggestions, comments or dispute with regards to this article send us on feedback@afternoonvoice.com)
WASHINGTON, July 27, 2016  General Mills is expanding its recall of raw flour to include flour produced on more dates after new illnesses possibly linked to the product were reported. This is the third time that the recall, first announced in May, has been expanded.

In an announcement on the companys website, General Mills said the recall includes raw flour two kinds of cake mixes. Previously announced recalled flour production dates ranged from Nov. 4 through Dec. 4, 2015. The expansion announced today includes select production dates through Feb. 10, 2016.

A General Mills release says several subtypes of E.coli have been detected in a small number of General Mills flour samples.

Did you know Agri-Pulse subscribers get our Daily Harvest email and Daybreak audio Monday through Friday mornings, a 16-page newsletter on Wednesdays, and access to premium content on our ag and rural policy website? Sign up for your four-week free trial Agri-Pulse subscription.





The release added that its not currently known if we are experiencing a higher prevalence of E. coli in flour than normal, if this is an issue isolated to General Mills flour, or if this is an issue across the flour industry.

Consumers are advised that there have been no issues with fully cooked products, and the reported illnesses appear to have come as a result of eating or handling uncooked dough or batter made with raw flour.

#30

For more news, go to www.Agri-Pulse.com
July 27, 2016

Tehran public prosecutor Abbas Jaffar Dowlatabadi sat down with reporters and divulged new information about the corruption cases that have rocked Iran in recent weeks.

On the arrests at Bank Mellat, Dowlatabadi said that it was related to the movement of 800 billion toman (approximately $258 million at todays exchange rate). Reiterating comments by the judiciary, he added that four people in total have been arrested but a number of other suspects are outside of the country. The Intelligence Organization of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) recently arrested the former managing director of Bank Mellat, Ali Rasteghar Sorkhei, and his deputy. IRGC commander Brig. Gen. Mohammad Ali Jaffari said that Rasteghar Sorkhei was linked to an organized group of banking corruption.

Dowlatabadi did not explain what the movement of money entailed but said that the development and investigation into such a case is one of the challenges that judicial authorities have. He added that the prosecutors office had requested that Minister of Economic Affairs and Finance Ali Teyebnia and governor of the Central Bank Valiollah Seif present reports about the actions of the accused.

Dowlatabadi also asked regulatory authorities, particularly at the Central Bank, to take steps to prevent future violations of this kind, saying, When the regulatory officials of the banks, financial and credit institutions do not perform their basic duties, the courts have no choice but to get involved and defend the people.

Jaffari had previously said other officials were involved, though it is not clear how deep into the administration the charges will go. Conservative media have for months been trying to link President Hassan Rouhanis brother and special advisor, Hossein Fereydoun, to various corruption allegations. Just after Rasteghar Sorkheis removal at Bank Mellat and just before his arrest, Tasnim News Agency wrote that Fereydoun and Rasteghar Sorkhei were long-time friends and his appointment at Bank Mellat was at the urging of Fereydoun. In another article, Tasnim News Agency lamented that the corruption at Bank Mellat has been overshadowed by the news of exorbitant salaries.

Hojat al-Islam Musa Ghazanfarabadi, head of Tehran Revolutionary Court, made headlines July 27 when he accused Fereydoun of being involved in the Bank Mellat corruption case. I do not have exact information, Ghazanfarabadi told Basij News, but there is news that indicates that Fereydoun is linked to this banking corruption network. He said the scale of corruption is so large that one hopes its not true.

Ghazanfarabadi said it is difficult for people to tolerate seeing the brother and special adviser to the president abuse his access in so many fields. He said the president should ask the judiciary to seek life in prison for his brother.

Mohammad Bagher Nobakht, spokesman for the Rouhani administration, announced July 26 that the administration has taken a number of steps in response to the exorbitant salaries. The administration has identified 13 directors and removed them from their positions, said Nobakht. He said they also introduced salary caps of 10 million toman ($3,200) for government officials and 18 million toman ($5,800) for economic bodies. Nobakht said regulatory officials will also conduct monthly inspections.
July 26, 2016

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has a point. The mainstream Israeli media loathes him and wishes for his downfall. Senior analysts seek flaws in his actions. Leading opinion writers find fault with his decisions. The media's attitude toward Netanyahu is reminiscent of the joke told about a Washington Times report that former President Bill Clinton's boat had sunk in the ocean and that he had walked on water all the way to safety. The headline of the report screamed, "Bill Clinton can't swim."

Here are two fresh examples of good news in the diplomatic arena for which Netanyahu did not get an iota of credit. Except, of course, from his cheerleading Israel Hayom newspaper, to which we will get to back later.

For the first time in the history of the state, a delegation of Saudi academics and businessmen, headed by the director of the Institute for Strategic Studies, retired Gen. Anwar Eshki, openly visited Israel. In addition to meetings with government officials  Director General of the Foreign Ministry Dore Gold and the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, Maj. Gen. Yoav Mordechai  delegation members met with a group of lawmakers from the Meretz Party and Zionist Camp, and even had their photo taken with them. A visit by Saudi citizens to Israel, officially considered an enemy state, could not have taken place without the blessing of the royal palace. If former President Shimon Peres had been sitting in the prime minister's chair, his name would have made banner headlines about "a breakthrough in relations with Saudi Arabia." Netanyahu's name was sidelined, along with reports about the special visit.

That same week, on July 20, Gold inked an agreement renewing diplomatic ties with the Republic of Guinea (Conakry), the first country to sever relations with Israel after the 1967 Arab-Israeli War. The echoes of the criticism directed at the Netanyahu government's settlement policy by the Middle East Quartet (does anyone remember that report?) must have missed Conakry. True, Guinea carries little diplomatic and economic weight, but given the international boycotts and condemnations of Israel, is the expansion of its diplomatic circles not worthy of a fleeting pat on the shoulder of the prime minister, who is also the foreign minister? This time, too, Netanyahu was forced to make do with a flattering report and large photo in Israel Hayom.

With the hand of a consummate PR artist, Netanyahu has turned the media's alleged hatred against him from a curse into an asset. Not only do the slings and arrows of criticism whiz over his head, they help him portray himself as a persecuted underdog.

Thus, Netanyahu had used "freedom of expression" in the same way he treated "freedom of construction." The prime minister turned himself from victimizer to victim: He announced in April 2016 the establishment of a new Jewish neighborhood in the heart of the West Bank, came in for a hail of criticism from the political left and condemnation by the international community and then portrayed them as traitors and hypocrites. Such was the case when the prime minister came out with the decision to put off the launch of a new public broadcasting corporation, causing damage to hundreds of employees and the state coffers in the process. He came under fire from all directions and then portrayed his opponents, among them some Cabinet colleagues who expressed concern for freedom of the press, as lacking integrity.

"It doesn't square with their attempts [reference to a bill on limiting printed cost-free press] to shut down Israel Hayom at any price. [That's] not exactly freedom of the press, so it looks like they are motivated by other considerations," Netanyahu stated.

Regarding that last sentence, it is worth reminding the prime minister that people who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones. The proposed legislation regarding Israel Hayom did not seek the closure of the free daily newspaper, but only called for banning its free distribution. The economic threat to other Israeli newspapers by the freebie, which is funded by the money that gamblers lose at casinos owned by Netanyahu's patron Sheldon Adelson, is one of the reasons for Israel's decline in the Freedom House freedom of press rankings. Israel's status was downgraded this year from "free" to "partly free." Freedom House, the US organization that ranks freedom of the press around the world every year, gave Israel 32 points out of 100  ranking it 65th out of 200, the lowest grading Israel has received since the index was launched in 2003.

The second reason for Israel's downgrading, as cited in the report, is the expansion of paid content (native advertising) by private firms and government offices into the content pages of newspapers and news sites in the guise of news. In this regard, authors of the index singled out the Ynet website, owned by the Yedioth Ahronoth Group.

On July 20, the Knesset voted on a preliminary version of proposed legislation initiated by Knesset member Micky Rosenthal of the Zionist Camp, which was designed to fix these distortions. The proposal included a requirement of transparency that would enable the reasonable consumer to understand that some content includes advertisements masquerading as news. Despite Netanyahu's support, and perhaps because of it, 48 Knesset members voted against the law and only 28 voted in favor.

Just as Netanyahu argued that he does not believe his detractors on the issue of the new public broadcasting corporation were guided by principles of press freedom, so opponents of the proposed bill did not believe that his support stemmed from concern for the needs of the media. The prevailing wisdom in the Knesset and the media has it that Netanyahu was motivated by the desire to hurt the wide-spread Yedioth Ahronoth, and to turn Israel into an Israel Hayom state.

A ratings report published on July 25 indicates that the state is indeed moving in that direction. Israel Hayom's weekend distribution has caught up with Yedioth Ahronoth, the daily newspaper for years considered the "paper of the state" by exposure. Israel Hayom's exposure on weekdays has reached 39.7%  compared to 34.9% for Yedioth Ahronoth.

"Not everything that Netanyahu supports is automatically flawed," Rosenthal said after his proposal fell through. Nonetheless, Netanyahu deserves this reputation. The image of the Netanyahu couple as a punching bag for the "leftist media" he despises helped elect him to office four times and hold on to the job of prime minister for almost 10 years.

If the law enforcement and legal systems don't get in his way, Netanyahu has an excellent chance of winning the public's trust for a fifth term  a public which, paradoxically, has lost its faith in the purity of its leader's motivations and the sincerity of his intentions.
July 27, 2016

Amid accusations that Egypts prisons have become tombs for dissidents, members of parliaments Human Rights Committee are preparing to investigate first-hand.

Egypt has long faced international condemnation for allegedly torturing prisoners and making people disappear. On July 13, Amnesty International issued yet another report  some have called it damning  accusing Egypts National Security Agency (NSA) of abducting, torturing and forcibly disappearing people to intimidate opponents and wipe out peaceful dissent.

The human rights organization says an average of three to four people per day are seized, usually after heavily armed security forces led by NSA officers storm their homes. Many of the victims are held for months and often kept blindfolded and handcuffed for the entire period.

Egyptian authorities were annoyed by the report and denied any instances of torture or enforced disappearances. Egyptian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Ahmed Abu Zeid slammed Amnesty International for the report and accused the group of being motivated by political efforts to defame Egypt.

In an official statement the day the report was released, Abu Zeid accused Amnesty International of relying on biased sources, including the enemies of Egypt, and of ignoring that the judiciary handles all cases based on clear legal principles and the constitution.

Despite Egypts severe financial crisis, President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has approved 16 new prisons, some which have opened, while others are still under construction.

According to the Arab Organization for Human Rights, Egypt has 42 prisons and 282 detention facilities in police stations. AOHR said that many Egyptians have died of torture in secret prisons in camps and intelligence headquarters.

The overall count of prisoners in Egypt is 100,000, 10% of which are political prisoners and 15% debtors, Atef Makhalif, deputy of parliaments Human Rights Committee, told Al-Monitor. Makhalif said he obtained the data from the Prisons Authority.

He added that the committee will visit prisons and police stations, starting with Al Mazraa, one of four facilities in the Tora prison complex. The committee will develop in upcoming meetings a full plan for the next field visits.

Sisis administration denies that the new prisons are needed because of the rising number of inmates. Rather, the facilities are being built to reduce the number of prisoners per cell and provide space for more visiting rooms and exercise, officials say.

Activists and families of prisoners recently used a Twitter hashtag that translates to QanaterSnakes to describe prison conditions. Yasmin Abdel Fattah, a Facebook user, wrote about the presence of snakes that terrorize inmates at El Qanater womens prison. According to Abdel Fattah, prison administrators refused to remedy the problem and threatened the women with solitary confinement if they mentioned it again.

Female prisoners at El Qanater have long complained about snake eggs in the cracks inside the cells and the large snakes they couldnt kill, Salma Ahmed, a relative of a prisoner, told Al-Monitor.

She added that prisoners families are willing to cover the costs of getting rid of the snakes, cleaning the cells and filling the cracks so the snakes would not come back again. However, the prison administration was indifferent and took no action.

Khaled Sahloub, a mass communications student, has become another example of the conditions in Egypts prisons. He was arrested Jan. 1, 2014, and faced charges of possessing a camera, in what is known as the Marriott Cell case. He was sentenced to three years in prison, and his name was added as a suspect in the Helwan Brigades case.

According to El Nadeem Center for Management and Rehabilitation of Victims of Violence, Sahloubs health deteriorated severely after he was jailed in El Aqrab Prison and lost about 80 pounds. He also suffers from cartilage erosion in his spine and the lumbar vertebrae, osteoarthritis in the left knee and a heel spur. He cannot stand for more than a few minutes. He also suffers from a gastric ulcer, toothache and bone pain all over his body.

Meanwhile, the Prisons Authority website publishes a compendium of prisoner's rights that is totally contradicted by the reality of what is happening, according to testimony from prisoners families.

According to Makhalif, prison regulations Law No. 396  including amendments Sisi made in 2015  is a good law, but it is not enforced. Most policemen working in the Prisons Authority have their own rules and conventions that have nothing to do with the prison regulations, he said. And unfortunately, wardens follow precedents, not state-established laws, he added.

Makhalif told Al-Monitor the Human Rights Committees visits to prisons and police stations will aim, ultimately, to enforce the law. He added that he intends to present amendments to the prison regulations through the parliament, including one concerning visiting time for families. The Prisons Authority will be compelled to allow visits once every 15 days, with a minimum of 30 minutes and a maximum of 90 minutes per visit. The current allowance is 60 minutes, but that isnt being met because of an inadequate number of meeting rooms.
July 26, 2016

TEHRAN, Iran  Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has come under mounting criticism over what critics call his governments inability to improve the economy and create jobs, despite having reached the nuclear deal and gotten sanctions lifted.

As Iran was negotiating over its nuclear program, Rouhani and his administration repeatedly stated that resolving the nuclear issue would pave the way for foreign investment, which in turn could play a crucial role in boosting the economy.

However, over a year after the signing of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action and more than six months after its formal implementation, the president and his economic team are under mounting pressure from opponents and the public alike, who feel that little has changed.

In an interview with Al-Monitor, former senior Iranian diplomat Mohsen Shaterzadeh stressed that despite the high number of foreign delegations that have visited Iran, no significant foreign investment has been realized. Shaterzadeh further told Al-Monitor that he believes potential foreign investment will be lost given the lengthy processes involved in realizing it. Offering a gloomy outlook, he added, The stated Foreign Direct Investment [FDI] targets set by the government and parliament seem unachievable.

In May, Rouhani announced that $3.4 billion in FDI had been attracted in the four months after the January 16 implementation of the nuclear deal, and that licenses had been issued for a further $3.5 billion worth of investment projects.

Of note, Minister of Economic Affairs and Finance Ali Tayebnia said in February that some $15 billion in FDI and $45 billion in foreign financing would be sought for the current Iranian year ending March 20, 2017. However, some officials have lowered expectations, saying that the projected annual FDI for the current Iranian year is only about $8 billion.

Al-Monitors attempts to obtain the latest FDI figures from the Organization for Investment, Economic and Technical Assistance, which oversees all foreign investment in Iran, were left unanswered.

United Nations report

According to the latest report from the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, FDI inflows to Iran consistently declined while the country was negotiating over the future of its nuclear program. Indeed, annual FDI dropped from $4.662 billion in 2012 to $2 billion in 2015. The UN report has been widely used by Rouhanis opponents to argue that the presidents eagerness to forge closer ties with the West has only resulted in a practical decline in foreign investment.

While the UN report indicates a slide of FDI in Iran until 2015, a more recent report by the Financial Times reveals that the removal of nuclear-related sanctions in fact made Iran a top destination for foreign investment in the Middle East in the first quarter of 2016. Indeed, Iran, which ranked 12 out of 14 regional nations from 2003 to 2015 in terms of FDI inflow, has now climbed to third place, straddling the UAE and Saudi Arabia, with a record high of 22 projects, the Financial Times report added.

Economist Mehrdad Emadi of UK-based Betamatrix consultancy told Al-Monitor, There has been some success in attracting foreign investment in certain sectors such as automotive, oil and liquid gas, transport [railroad, highway and ports] and tourism. Emadi further suggested that he would give a satisfactory grade to the Iranian government for its performance, adding that it has a very distinct possibility of excelling in a year or two  if endemic corruption and opacity are reduced.

While the Financial Times report indicates an increase in FDI inflows into Iran this year, the UN report paints a gloomier big picture in which global investment is expected to slow because of high political risks.

Main obstacles

Indeed, despite the recent upward trend of FDI inflows to Iran, some say the amount of investment is still far away from the earlier forecasts in the governments plans.

Claiming that less than 10% of the Rouhani administrations investment goals have materialized in the first four months of the current Iranian year, Shaterzadeh said that in terms of foreign investment in oil, energy, industry or even infrastructure projects, none of the investment targets will be fully achievable.

Al-Monitor also spoke with Majid Tehrani, an organization development adviser in trade, transport and finance industries. Unlike other Iranian experts, who see obstacles to FDI as mainly rooted in technical or political issues, Tehrani believes that despite the potential the nuclear deal has created for attracting foreign investment, the view of foreign investment in the countrys political culture has not changed. He told Al-Monitor, It is excessive to expect a radical change in the field [of foreign investment] as long as the concept is controversial for the top influential elites.

Tehrani also stressed that Iran has not made its strategic decision about FDI pragmatically. The elites have mixed the whole concept of foreign investment with ideological analysis such as economic liberalism and economic infiltration. Therefore, some elites support the idea of foreign investment while others are doubtful.

This is while economists such as Emadi look at the challenge of attracting FDI as related to multiple barriers, such as the significant presence of business entities owned by the security and intelligence forces, uneven treatment of tax payments and widespread corruption  including bribe-seeking by officials.

Meanwhile, there are officials such as Shaterzadeh, who previously served as ambassador to Brazil, who believe that the countrys lack of access to US dollars in the global banking system, uncertainties about the outlook of US sanctions and investors' lack of trust in terms of the stability of the rules and regulations in Iran are among other major factors hindering foreign investment.

Another important obstacle is the continued use of traditional methods of attracting foreign investment instead of proposing modern methods such as PPP [Public-Private Partnership], Shaterzadeh told Al-Monitor.

Irans FDI outlook

Despite all the criticism of Rouhani, his government has been able to attract a significant amount of foreign investment compared with previous years and is taking new measures to encourage further investment of $250 billion in 12 outlined sectors.

Nonetheless, the truth is that it will take some time before ordinary Iranians will actually be able to see the impact of these new projects on their daily lives. Still, a close look at the amount of investment needed to achieve the economic growth envisioned in the countrys sixth five-year development plan indicates that putting all bets in the basket of FDI is not a wise decision.

With presidential elections upcoming both in the United States and Iran, which are increasing political uncertainties in both countries, it is fair to say that the Rouhani administration faces a tough road ahead in coming months in its fight against corruption as well as its plans for reform of the banking system and providing necessary guarantees to win the trust of foreign investors.
July 26, 2016

TEHRAN, Iran  Just as the Iranian judiciary was preparing to put those who stormed the Saudi Embassy in Tehran earlier this year on trial, former Saudi intelligence chief and diplomat Prince Turki al-Faisal Al Saud appeared to step up the campaign against Iran by appearing at the July 9 annual conference of the exiled Iranian opposition group Mujahedeen-e-Khalq (MEK) in Paris.

Iran has listed the MEK as a terrorist organization since the 1980s, blaming it for the deaths of over 12,000 Iranians, including civilians, politicians  and in recent years  nuclear scientists. The MEK notably fought on the side of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein during the Iran-Iraq War (1980-88), and also later helped Saddam suppress an uprising by Iraqi Shiites and Kurds.

At his 30-minute speech in Paris, Faisal expressed admiration for the people of Iran, while lambasting the Islamic Republic and particularly its late founder Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. Indeed, he accused Khomeini of trying to export the Islamic Revolution.

Irans Foreign Ministry spared no time in reacting to Faisals appearance at the MEK gathering, not to mention his remarks. What seemed to have infuriated the Iranians the most was that he repeated the crowds chants  in Arabic  of the popular Arab Spring slogan The people want the fall of the regime.

One anonymous source at the Iranian Foreign Ministry told the Tehran Times on July 10 that Faisals statements showed Saudi Arabias stupidity, indecency and political frustration. Other Iranian officials have referred to the former Saudi spy chiefs remarks as further proof of Riyadhs support for terrorism.

In an interview with Fars News Agency on July 10, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, who until recently served as deputy foreign minister for Arab and African affairs, said that he had previously told the Saudis that it is impossible to use terrorists as a tool to make the region insecure and at the same time expect calm within the kingdom.

Al-Monitor asked Seyed Mohammad Houshisadat, a professor of political science at Tehran University and visiting researcher at the Center for Scientific Research and Middle East Strategic Studies, whether Faisal was voicing his own views or Riyadhs official stance.

Houshisadat said, Prince Faisal is an influential figure from the conservative branch of the Saudi ruling family. He was the director of the General Intelligence Directorate for 23 years and served as ambassador to the United Kingdom and the United States. His role and key positions leave no doubt that those remarks are Saudi Arabias official line. Therefore Iranian authorities and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps see his speech in the framework of the kingdoms policy vis-a-vis Iran.

Houshisadat added, The Saudis have been seeking to topple the Islamic Republic since 1979; they backed Saddam Hussein in the war with Iran despite having grave ideological differences with him. Their relationship with the MEK dates back to the 1980s. However, the events over the past two years and the increased Iranian influence in the Middle East prompted them to drop the ambiguity and pursue the policy of regime change in Iran with more transparency.

When asked about the recent remark by Ali Younesi, the presidential aide for ethnic and religious minorities affairs, that Riyadh is making the same mistake Saddam made when he used the MEK in his war against Iran, Houshisadat replied, The Saudis are trying to revive threats  by activating several opposition groups, including the MEK, or Kurdish militants in Iraqs semi-autonomous Kurdistan Region and Baluch militants in Pakistans Baluchistan province. In the long run, this policy will backfire  as it did for Saddam Hussein  but for the time being, the MEK has turned into Saudi Arabias instrument to bash Iran.

Al-Monitor also discussed Faisals appearance in Paris with Beirut-based Iranian political analyst Mohammad Sadeq al-Husseini. He said he believes "Riyadh has significantly shifted its regional policy by increasing hostility toward Tehran and growing friendly ties with Israel. In this vein, Husseini told Al-Monitor, Prince Faisals statement is the official declaration of a previously hidden agenda.

Al-Monitor also asked Houshisadat what Tehrans response might be to Faisals call for regime change in Iran. He said, There are two camps in Iran: One promotes direct confrontation with Saudi Arabia and the second camp favors dialogue. Iranian policymakers have always sought to de-escalate tensions and negotiate with Saudi Arabia. Considering that fact, Tehran will not confront Riyadh directly because it knows only too well that the region cannot stand another war  this time between its two powerhouses. Besides that, the current world order would not support an all-out war that would endanger Western financial and political investments in the Middle East and divide it along two hostile lines.

Husseini, who is one of the founders of the popular Arabic news channel Al-Mayadeen, similarly dismissed the possibility of war between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Islamic Republic of Iran. However, he told Al-Monitor, The United States and Israel are encouraging Saudi Arabia  and in fact would support it  if Riyadh launched a war against Iran.

He added, But Tehran is not walking into that trap and instead responds to the Israelis, the Americans and the Saudis on the ground in Syria and Iraq. In this vein, Husseini predicted that in the coming months, we will witness an escalation of regional violence and tensions related to Saudi Arabias aggressive attitude. Saudi Arabia is  using any means to put pressure on Iran. However, he said that he doubts such a policy will achieve its desired results.

Most of all, Amir-Abdollahian perhaps expressed the most ominous concern, saying, Saudi Arabias strategic mistake to employ terrorists will eventually cause irreversible losses not only to the kingdom but to all of us.
July 26, 2016

Iranian media outlets have asked authorities to reconsider their nearly seven-year ban on Twitter so that Iranian users can answer in greater force to the millions of Saudi Arabian Twitter users who have begun anti-Iranian hashtags in recent months.

"The issue of Iran's weakness and the small number of Iranians on Twitter and the activity of anti-Iranian forces, especially Saudis on Twitter, in recent days has made the news and has made the topic of removing the block on this media important once again," wrote Pooria Asteraky in Hamshahri newspaper July 25.

Asteraky wrote that since Saudi Arabia's war in Yemen began in 2015, accounts belonging to Saudis would every so often begin an organized campaign of anti-Iranian hashtags, particularly on Fridays. Soon the activities from Saudi users became so common that small protests in Iran or even a fire in a petrochemical plant were being celebrated by Saudis and given their own Arabic hashtag. The article continued that some of the hashtags to trend worldwide, such as blaming Iranian pilgrims for the 2015 hajj stampede that killed 474 Iranians, could easily have been organized by Saudi institutions and are not indicative of individual users.

While Iranian users have responded to these hashtags, their numbers were too small and ultimately unsuccessful, according to Asteraky, who believes in Iran there are approximately 1-1.5 million active users, meaning that they use it at least once a month. Saudi Arabia has nearly 9 million active users, according to a mid-2015 estimate.

A July 14 article on the Tabnak news site, which is linked to secretary of the Expediency Council and former commander in the Iran-Iraq War Mohsen Rezaei, also questioned the block on Twitter: "Saudi's media war against Iran on Twitter has peaked such that Iran, where this site is blocked, has a relatively weak presence, and has not given a firm response to this psychological operation."

The Tabnak article reported that Saudi Arabia has invested heavily in recent months in social media campaigns against Iran, even with ridiculous hashtags such as one blaming Iran for the Nice attack. The article warned that before the Saudis dominate this arena, Iran should become active and urged the authorities to review and reconsider the block on Twitter, which it called "an effective media and an extremely strong loudspeaker at the international level."

Iranians on the whole are relatively new to Twitter. During the 2009 post-election protests, Iranian authorities blocked Twitter, as well as Facebook and YouTube, for fear of protests being organized and aired. Facebook had previously been more popular and had essentially replaced personal blogs as the preferred choice for Iranians. Twitter's rapid rate of publication and limiting characters had yet to catch on for Iranian users.

However, in recent years, as Iranian politicians from the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to President Hassan Rouhani to former nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili have joined Twitter, Iranians, too, have circumvented the country's censors, joined the social media website in greater numbers and become more active. Nearly all Iranian news agencies and newspapers now have Twitter accounts, though some remain more active than others. Given that media companies rely heavily on government subsidies, traffic numbers from social media are not a top priority for publishers.

While Iranians have sensed they are being restrained by their own government in this new social media war between Iran and Saudi Arabia, it seems unlikely for now that Iran would lift its ban. One of Irans main concerns has been that the servers for social media sites are overseas. Kamal Hadianfar, the head of Iran's Cyber Police, recently recommended Iranians not use the messaging service Telegram due to its servers being overseas. Up to 14 million Iranians are currently using Telegram, and today it is perhaps the most popular platform for Iranians.
July 27, 2016

The rumor mill has been churning steadily ever since Baghdads man in Washington decided to call it quits a couple of months ago.

Did he rub someone the wrong way? Is he gunning for higher office?

In an exclusive exit interview this week with Al-Monitor, Lukman Faily insisted the truth is quite different: Hes become convinced that the superficiality of the US-Iraqi relationship is one of the reasons the Islamic State (IS) was allowed to run rampant for as long as it did. And he doesnt think he can change things from the inside.

One of the key reasons Im leaving the service  is our inability to work with each other enough to prevent the tragedies that took place, Faily told Al-Monitor. And we had to pay the casualties for it.

To prevent that from happening again, Faily plans to continue shuttling between the two countries as he leverages his unique talents and experience to help create a true strategic partnership between the two countries. Hes staying tight-lipped for now about the specifics, but said hed be announcing very soon a new venture that he promised will prove "very exciting, and I hope very productive.

I dont want to get out of the seat, Faily said. I want to change the chair.

With IS on the defensive throughout Iraq, Faily credited President Barack Obama's administration for finally waking up to the threat. But Faily said his governments increasingly dire warnings went unheeded for almost a year, starting with his visit along with then-Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari to Joint Chiefs Chairman Martin Dempsey at the Pentagon in August 2013.

We said, 'We need you to hit [IS] camps.' The prime minister [Nouri al-Maliki] came here [in October 2013] and said it again, Faily said. Even after Mosul fell to IS in June 2014, We kept saying it."

Without recrimination and without naming names, Faily coolly described a trio of factors he blames for the slow response: The United States first viewed IS as an Iraqi domestic problem rather than a global geopolitical threat (Obamas infamous jayvee team put-down); cuts to the US Embassy staff in Baghdad went too deep; and Obamas White House had a mental block when it came to seeing Iraq as a project to invest in. And Faily bluntly confirmed a long-lasting suspicion that the United States had made it clear that it would not act until Maliki was on his way out the door.

It gave us a clear example that there is what you might call conditionality in this global fight against [IS], Faily said. Here the issue is not just playing with politics, but playing with peoples lives.

A former tech sector manager and longtime Saddam Hussein opponent, Faily served as ambassador to Japan for three years before taking his Washington posting in 2013. He said he had little interest in the ritzy lifestyle, and met with Al-Monitor in a deserted hotel hallway in between visits to the State Department and the Aspen Security Forum.

I'm not seeking high office in any way, shape or form. That doesn't make me tick, Faily said in a wide-ranging, hourlong interview. But making people aware of the challenges  that's what I want to contribute."

US-Iraqi relations, he said, are too dependent on individual relationships that dont allow for follow-through on big decisions. He sees himself as ideally suited to help build more sustainable bridges between the two countries.

The Americans like one-on-one. It's easier, I get that. But it doesn't help us in Iraq. It doesn't help the team orientation we need," he said. There are tons of opportunities that were lost because we did not work as a team, on both sides.

Faily remains convinced that post-Saddam Iraq has a chance, with US help, to build a new, more stable society. But the project is a long-term challenge, he warned, and cannot succeed without an equivalent investment.

"We don't want our children and our grandchildren to face the kind of challenge we have, which is an identity challenge, which is a generational challenge, which is an Arab Spring challenge and so on. That's what I'm working on. Not just the now," he said.

A certain culture "has been ingrained in our DNA, he said. Such as, you need to be a Kurd, you need to be a Sunni, you need to be X, Y, Z to get this position. That's the wrong way of building a state."

What Iraq desperately needs, he said, are founding fathers  selfless men and women who can see beyond their narrow ism and their next election and create a new society.

After the state collapsed following the US invasion in 2003, he said, "a new social contract had to be defined between the state and its citizens."

"We still don't know what that social contract is. We're still discovering it," he said. We have the opportunities, we have the resources, we have the history  but we need to get the right social contract with the right founding fathers moving forward.

Part of that social contract, Faily insists, is keeping the country together. Although hes a Kurd and his father was a confidant to the late Kurdish leader Mustafa Barzani, Faily believes the current Kurdish push toward independence is a mistake.

Strategically, a referendum [on Kurdish independence] would be a sign of detachment. And that's a dangerous message to convey to all," he said. "It's dangerous. It's dangerous because we are tribal-oriented. It's dangerous because we have other challenges. It's dangerous because IS is trying to put a wedge in our community. People should not play with fire until they fully understand the ramifications."

Rather, he said, Baghdad and Erbil must forge a bond that goes deeper than the mostly transactional relationship that characterizes so much of Iraqi politics today.

If anybody tells you that the current formula we have  whether its the constitution, the political institutions  is good enough for Iraq, then they are substantially missing out on really understanding the casualties weve paid, Faily said. At this moment, the return on investment is not there.
July 27, 2016

CAIRO  In a lengthy letter to a recent African Union (AU) summit in Rwanda, King Mohammed VI of Morocco declared his countrys intention to once again become a member of the union. Morocco withdrew from the AUs predecessor, the Organization of African Unity (OAU), 32 years ago in protest of the group's support for the Polisario Front separatist movement and OAU's recognition of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR).

The kings July 17 message wasnt void of reproach and blame toward the AU for its support of SADR, which has been a conflict zone since the Polisario was founded in 1973 to liberate Western Sahara from what it deemed Moroccan colonialism. However, the king did not explicitly call for the suspension of SADRs membership as a condition of Moroccos return to the AU.

Referring to Moroccos anger over the AUs support for SADR, Mohammed said, That immoral fait accompli, that coup against international legality, led the Kingdom of Morocco to seek to avoid the division of Africa, and the price Morocco had to pay was the painful decision to leave its institutional family. Yet, the king wrote, On reflection, it has become clear to us that when a body is sick, it is treated more effectively from the inside than from the outside.  Morocco firmly believes in the wisdom of the AU and its ability to restore legality and correct mistakes along the way.

An official at the AU general secretariat told Al-Monitor, on condition of anonymity, The AU general secretariat is concerned that Morocco wants to return in order to argue the SADR issue from within the AU. The official added, Of course the African family welcomes Moroccos return, but no one wants any debates or diplomatic disputes between member states. We want to work together for the benefit of the continent.

The official added, Morocco has now realized the AUs importance and strength as a strong and influential entity and that leaving it is a significant diplomatic loss for any African country."

Morocco suspended its AU membership to pressure African countries, the official said. "It might be counting on [convincing] 16 African countries to withdraw their recognition of SADR and form a front to expel SADR from the AU. However, such action is neither recognized in international law nor in the AU charters.

On the same day the Moroccan king conveyed his message to the AU, 28 of the union's 53 member countries signed a statement and had it delivered to AU Chairman Idriss Deby asking him to take legal action to suspend SADR's membership, to enable the AU to contribute to the United Nations' efforts to solve the regional dispute. At the same time, AU Commission Chairwoman Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma reaffirmed the AUs support for Western Sahara's independence.

Despite Egypt and Tunisias links to Morocco by virtue of a common Arab identity and geographic location, the two countries did not sign the statement to suspend SADR, nor did they issue any statements or official comments regarding Moroccos return to the AU.

In this regard, Moroccan Foreign Minister Salaheddine Mezouar noted in a July 21 press conference in the country's capital, Rabat, Friends of Morocco need some time to determine their position.

Meanwhile, Algeria rejected any attempt to suspend SADRs membership, with Prime Minister Abdelmalek Sellal saying in a press statement, Demanding SADR to leave is impossible. Algeria does not have any problem with Morocco returning to the AU, as long as it does so without conditions.

Statements given by officials in Morocco and Algeria revealed a new diplomatic disagreement between them over Western Sahara and place each in the awkward diplomatic position of picking sides within the AU.

For instance, the Moroccan press fiercely attacked Cairo, describing Egypts position as a shock. Although the Moroccan foreign minister had visited Cairo ahead of a summit on July 10 and informed the political administration of Moroccos intention to return to the AU, Egypt remained silent during the entire summit.

Meanwhile, Mona Omar, former assistant to the Egyptian foreign minister on African affairs, told Al-Monitor, Egypt had never recognized SADR, but Algeria strongly supports it, and Egypt is committed to taking neutral positions when it comes to Algeria and Morocco.

Political science professor and expert on African affairs Hamdi Abdel-Rahman said the statement signed by 28 countries to expel SADR from the AU expresses a political value rather than a legal action.

The political bonds between Egypt, Algeria and South Africa explain why Cairo did not sign, he said.

Abdel-Rahman told Al-Monitor, Egypt may see that cooperation with Algeria and Tunisia is more important at this stage, particularly with regard to joint coordination when it comes to the Libyan issue [the divided government and rise of the Islamic State], which directly threatens Egyptian national security. However, he stressed that Moroccos return to the AU will have major repercussions, especially since it is a pivotal country in Africa and has strong relations and a significant influence in the Western African region. Morocco is not only important on political and economic levels, but from a cultural and religious perspective. Some Muslim countries in Western Africa praise the king of Morocco in Friday prayers as the caliph of the Muslims.

Abdel-Rahman added, Morocco adopts the stick-and-carrot policy in the dispute over the Sahara. First, it threatened to withdraw troops from peacekeeping missions in Africa and then pressured countries close to it to mobilize political positions to expel SADR from the AU. But such policies will be confronted by major African powers, most notably Algeria, South Africa and Nigeria, which believe in and defend the rights of the Sahrawi people.

Meanwhile, Sabri al-Haw, a Moroccan expert in international law, told Al-Monitor, The issue of unity and the dispute over the Sahara are the heart of Moroccan politics, and the decision to return to the AU was necessary to break the African consensus in support of the Polisario Front and protect Moroccan interests in Africa.

Haw considers the statement signed by the 28 countries asking the AU to expel SADR to be a major political win for Morocco. This statement shows a wide division within the AU and a lack of a deep-rooted doctrine to support Polisario, Haw said.

It seems that Moroccos new political and diplomatic orientation to return to the AU not only expresses its desire to exercise influence within the African institution, but also highlights a political maneuver through which Morocco is trying to undermine and restrict SADR since several countries have withdrawn their recognition of it during the past 10 years. This is bound to open a new chapter in the Moroccan dispute over the Western Sahara.
July 26, 2016

If one needs to define what is going on in Turkey in the aftermath of the failed July 15 coup attempt, besides the arrest of the actual putschists, here is an accurate term: The de-Gulenification of Turkey. Just like the de-Baathification process in post-occupation Iraq, the aim is to cleanse the whole public sector from a cadre that is considered to be the enemy of the state.

First, lets see how Turkey came here. The infiltration of state institutions  especially strategic ones such as the police, the judiciary and the military  by the Gulen community is a fact harped on by secular journalists for decades. When President Recep Tayyip Erdogans Justice and Development Party (AKP) came to power in 2002, the infiltration went even further, for Erdogan considered Fethullah Gulen a key ally.

With the defeat of the common secular enemy, these two Islamic powers began to dispute and ultimately resent each other. The AKP had the legitimacy of popular support, while the Gulenists had the cultish self-confidence that they know everything better.

When political war between these two groups broke out in late 2013 with a Gulenist-orchestrated corruption investigation, I took a nonaligned position: The corruption was real, so the AKP had to be honest about it. Meanwhile, it was clear that the Gulenists had indeed created a parallel state within the state that had to be cleansed, but their civic wing, (schools, charities, media and economic assets) had to be respected. Among the political leaders of the time, only Abdullah Gul seemed to support that position. After the bloody coup attempt of July 15, however, it is impossible to pursue such nuances in Turkey. Even the civic institutions of the Gulen community are being seized by the state, for they are seen  not so wrongly so  as breeding grounds for, or the facades of, the dark side within the state.

The reason for this massive purge must be understood first, before being criticized. The coup plot of July 15 was, arguably, the greatest assault the nation has ever seen since its founding in 1923. In no previous coup or coup attempt was the nations parliament bombed or its civilians crushed by tanks. Moreover, not just the government, but also the chief of staff, the National Intelligence Organization, all major opposition parties, mainstream secular media, many anti-Erdogan journalists and most nongovernmental organizations seem to all agree that this coup was mainly a Gulenist operation, as a last-ditch effort to topple Erdogan, who had become the Gulenists No. 1 enemy.

One may wonder why this national consensus in Turkey is not reflected at all in Western media. My answer is that while Erdogans authoritarianism, of which I have been quite critical, is all blatant and clear, Gulenist operations are always stealthy, covered nicely by successful public relations and insistent denial of involvement. That is why many Western journalists keep on believing that the only problem in Turkey must be Erdogan and everybody who opposes him must be good guys. This even makes them open to anti-Erdogan conspiracy theories, such as that he orchestrated the coup just to get political credit, which is totally ridiculous given the fact that the coup was very well-organized and nearly succeeded.

Of course, the truth can come out only at the end of a fair trial, as I argued in The New York Times. But even at this point, the Turkish state has the right to defend itself by outing the people in its ranks who are suspected to be members of the Gulenist network. Being a member of the movement in itself, however, cannot be considered a crime. Hence, I agree with Ali Bayramoglu, the prominent secular liberal who first exposed the parallel state in 2010 and who has lately been critical of Erdogan as well, who wrote:

It is inevitable that government employees about whom there are serious suspicious of being a Gulenist will be demoted to passive positions or will be fired. Legislation for this end will be only natural. But this logic cannot be used in prosecutions. It cannot be a crime to work in Gulenist institutions or to have relations with Gulenists. Being a member of the Gulen community is not a crime either. It is only a crime to be within the illegal organization and the illegal actions of the group. Even then, principles such as the presumption of innocence and individual criminal responsibility have to be upheld.

But will these principles be really upheld by the government, which is not only alarmed by but also furious about the Gulenists?

There are some worrying signs. First of all, the recent report by Amnesty International suggesting that some of the suspects may have been subject to torture, even rape, is horrifying. The government must prevent all such crimes against the detainees, no matter how guilty the suspects may be, and give independent monitors access to detainees, as Amnesty International demanded.

Second, those who are to be detained now include journalists who have merely written in pro-Gulen media outlets, either as Gulenists themselves or merely as Erdogan opponents who have no religious connection with the group. This is unacceptable, unless there are serious signs that the journalists in question knew about the coup plot and tried to help it. It is only good news that one such journalist, the renowned human rights defender Orhan Kemal Cengiz, who has no religious ties with Gulenists, has been released after being detained for three days.

Third, there is clearly a furious mood among Erdogans supporters, which may turn the prosecution of the coup plot into a crackdown on all traitors, which for them may easily include mere Erdogan critics. The government must not give in to this zeal, or take advantage of it. Quite the contrary, it should use this opportunity to build a broad democratic consensus in Turkey, as most mainstream commentators are rightly calling for.

Western media, nongovernmental organizations and governments can help Turkey in this critical period by calling for restraint and lawfulness and by criticizing human rights violations. But in order to be taken into account, they first must understand the severity of the coup plot and the complexity of the religious group that seems to be behind it.
July 27, 2016

Mind-boggling details gradually unearthed about the July 15 failed coup attempt show how close Turkey came to the edge of the abyss that night.

When one scrutinizes the WhatsApp messages and lists of coup plotters who would have been appointed to critical posts of the country, it's beyond doubt that the attempt was the brainchild of members of the Fethullah Gulen movement, known in Turkey as the Fethullah Gulen Terrorist Organization (FETO).

The violent coup attempt sought to take over civilian rule, launch attacks and assassinate politicians. The strategic brains behind this scheme were the FETO members at the command floor of the chief of staff headquarters on the night of July 15. Who are these FETO loyalists? How were they recruited and indoctrinated? How could they, without hesitation, give up their families and bright futures in the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK)? How did they manage to keep their posts without attracting suspicion?

A profile of alleged coup plotter Lt. Col. Levent Turkkan provides answers to these questions. Turkkan first put on a uniform as a military high-school cadet in 1989, when he was but 14 years old. He joined the army as a lieutenant in 1997 and wore his officer uniform for 19 years.

Between 2011 and 2015, Turkkan was junior aide-de-camp (ADC) to then-Chief of General Staff Necdet Ozel. In August 2015, when Gen. Hulusi Akar took over as head of the TSK, Turkkan was appointed as his senior ADC. Those who are familiar with military life know well that an ADC is the officer closest to the superior commander. An ADC knows everything that goes on, arranges all meetings and the daily schedule of the commander. He sees and processes all the incoming information and documents. He transmits verbal and written orders from his superior to others. In rigid armies like the TSK that pay close attention to internal hierarchy and discipline, whatever the ADC says is treated as his commander's word.

But what if the heart and mind of that ADC belong to another commander? This is why the first testimony of Turkkan to the public prosecutor came as a shock.

In his testimony, Turkkan said his first contact with FETO was in 1989 when his "older brothers"  FETO members who befriended him  prodded him to become an officer. Turkkan said he was supplied in advance with questions of the entrance examination for military high school.

"In military high school I stayed in touch with older brothers Serdar and Musa. We were meeting once a month to pray and chat. We read Fethullah Gulen's books. My brothers even taught to me how to perform ablution before prayers without being detected, which could have given away my affiliation," he said.

His contacts with FETO continued every two to three weeks, but when he was at the Military Academy in Ankara, these meetings were disrupted for seven or eight months, he said, because he had a girlfriend in the freshman class.

Turkkan said he was not directed toward any political ideology and he usually voted for the Justice and Development Party. "When I was in military schools, they didn't assign me any duties. We were told that our only mission was not to be identified," he added.

When Turkkan was commissioned as an infantry lieutenant in 1997, his academic performance was not outstanding, but he was recognized as a serious and disciplined officer. Until 2010, he wasn't given any important tasks by FETO and thus avoided attracting attention. His military career started to move after he was assigned to the Support Units Command of the chief of staff headquarters. Turkkan said his outstanding performance attracted notice when in 2010-2011 he was the officer running the military canteen attached to the Support Units Command. It was then he was nominated as Ozel's junior ADC. His FETO brothers began tasking him after 2011. It is not yet clear if FETO had a role in his assignment as the junior ADC to the No. 1 position at the TSK.

"I became a full-fledged ADC during the last three months of the term of Gen. Ozel. I was regularly recording his conversations. An 'older brother' whose name I can't remember gave me the bugs and told me to record everything Gen. Ozel said. I did that every day and passed on the recordings to an 'older brother.'"

Turkkan said in his testimony that while he was serving as an aide to Ozel and Akar, and then to Gen. Yasar Guler (the current deputy chief of general staff), "My friend Maj. Mehmet Akkurt served as their ADC. Akkurt is also a member of the Gulen movement. We did the recordings together."

Turkkan said there is absolute secrecy in the movement. Everyone only knew his "older brother," did his own work and carried out tasks, but didn't know anything more and didn't ask. What was interesting to note was his absolute loyalty to Gulenists whose names he didn't even know, simply calling them "older brothers."

Of course it wasn't a surprise when FETO's demands on Turkkan increased sharply after he was appointed Akar's senior ADC. Turkkan said he carried out tasks without questioning them, such as recording conversations of commanders and obtaining personal details of generals. He even was ordered to detain and mistreat his own commander during the coup. He told the prosecutor that FETO attached importance to compartmentalization and maintaining its cell structure within the TSK. FETO-affiliated officers did not know each other.

Turkkan, like senior Islamic State militants, did not hesitate to modify his behavior to avoid detection. He drank alcohol and did not fast during the holy month of Ramadan, to show he was not religious.

On July 15, Turkey learned through bitter experience what a revolutionary, radical religious movement with a charismatic leader can produce. Only now are we learning how skilled this movement was in concealing its infiltration of the TSK and the extent of its influence on officers of all ranks.

The country saw how a good officer, a good father and a good husband could shirk all those responsibilities to carry out the orders of the Gulen movement. Until now we all thought this only happened in movies. Now we know.
July 26, 2016

Many analysts believe Turkey and NATO are on a collision course. One end of their argument hinges on the belief  apparently shared to an extent by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the Turkish government  that the United States and NATO played a role in the unsuccessful coup attempt July 15.

Minister of Justice Bekir Bozdag, who heads for Washington soon to try to negotiate the extradition of Fethullah Gulen, the Pennsylvania-based Turkish cleric accused of masterminding the coup, has laid Turkeys position on the line.

The US knows Fethullah Gulen carried out this coup. Mr. Obama knows this just as he knows his own name. I am convinced that American intelligence knows it, too. I am convinced the State Department knows it.  Other countries know it, too, because every country has an intelligence agency, Bozdag insisted during a TV interview.

Bozdags remarks, which imply that Washington and NATO knew what was coming and did nothing, are being echoed by the pro-Erdogan Islamist media in Turkey, which is essentially anti-Western and sees NATO as the enemy of Islam.

Remarks such as those by Bozdag are eliciting equally harsh responses from the West. Gregory Copley, a strategic analyst, appears to have no doubt that Turkey has now formally declared the US (and therefore NATO) as its enemy and is exhorting the alliance to act accordingly.

The other end of the argument regarding a collision in the making between Turkey and NATO hinges on the belief that Erdogan is using the failed coup attempt to initiate a massive purge against his opponents in order to further strengthen his hold on power. It is being suggested that an undemocratic Turkey has no place in an alliance based on democratic principles.

US Secretary of State John Kerry encouraged this view when he appeared to hint that Turkey could not remain in NATO if it strayed from democracy and the rule of law as it seeks those behind the failed coup attempt.

NATO also has a requirement with respect to democracy, Kerry told reporters in response to a question on Turkey during a press conference in Brussels with Federica Mogherini, the EUs foreign policy chief.

He added that the level of vigilance and scrutiny with regard to developments in Turkey would be very significant in the days ahead.

If Kerrys remarks are meant to sound a warning, they are falling on deaf ears in Turkey where a campaign against Turkeys NATO membership is also gaining steam. Former senior officers from the military, like retired Rear Adm. Cem Gurdeniz, are among those questioning this membership.

In an interview with daily Hurriyet, Gurdeniz said there had always been a struggle between Atlanticists and the Eurasia camp in the military. He said if the coup was successful, Turkey would have become part of Atlanticist plans to its detriment.

The losses incurred would have included the declaration of an independent Kurdistan, autonomy [for Kurds] in southeastern Anatolia and the loss of Cyprus, he said. Gurdeniz said Turkey should play a balancing role between the Atlantic and Eurasia, arguing that it was patently clear NATO did not serve Turkeys interests anymore.

He went on to question whether NATOs advanced radar systems in Kurecik, in eastern Turkey, deployed under its Ballistic Missile Defense program, was in Turkeys interests. He also asked why NATO was keen to conduct military exercises in the Black Sea and was pressurizing Turkey for a permanent presence there, pointing out that this was something NATO never did during the Cold War.

Gurdenizs remarks point to the kind of confusion reigning in Ankara with regard to NATO, because it was Erdogan, during the recent NATO summit in Warsaw, who called on the alliance to bolster its presence in the Black Sea to prevent this sea from becoming a Russian lake.

Turkey being a country of bitter ironies, Gurdeniz  a staunch Kemalist secularist  was among those arrested under the so-called Balyoz (Sledgehammer) case, while still serving in the military, and was convicted to 18 years in prison in 2013 for allegedly plotting to overthrow the government led by Erdogan.

He was released after Erdogan and his onetime Islamist ally Gulen became enemies. Gurdeniz accused Gulen supporters in the judiciary, who are now being rounded up as coup plotters, for his own incarceration as a coup plotter.

Whatever is being written or said on either side of the fence today, the truth is that Ankaras NATO membership was never threatened following successful coups in Turkey in the past, when the Cold War was raging, and NATO could not endanger the strategic advantages Turkey provided against the Soviet Union.

Turkeys place on the map remains equally important today for NATO, if not more so. Retired Ambassador Unal Unsal, a former Turkish permanent representative to NATO, believes it would be difficult for the alliance to turn its back on Turkey at a time when the Middle East and the Black Sea region is in turmoil, when there is the possibility of a Trump presidency and when the EU is struggling with its Brexit debacle.

The going in Turkey may not be good, but a Turkey out of NATO would cause more complications, especially if Ankara slides toward Russia, Unsal told Al Monitor.

Acknowledging that the NATO charter has conditions regarding democracy in member states, Unsal nevertheless pointed out that this had not prevented Portugal from becoming a founding member of the alliance in 1949, even though it was being ruled by authoritarian Antonio de Oliveira Salazar.

Unsal indicated that what is being said today about NATO membership in conjunction with democracy and rule of law in Turkey has to be said for the sake of appearance. He added that expelling a country from the alliance would require consensus in the Atlantic Council, which would be difficult to secure under current circumstances.

Unsal did not discount the possibility, however, that Erdogan, in one of his many huffs, may decide to pull Turkey out of NATO, and suggested that the consequences of this might not be as dire for Turkey as it appears at first glance.

Maintaining Turkeys strategic ties with the US is what will ultimately remain crucial for Ankara, rather than its ties with NATO, and everyone knows that the US means NATO, Unsal said.

Copley, who claims Ankara has declared the United States and NATO its enemy, nevertheless ended his analysis for Oilprice.com by underlining the alliances dilemma regarding Turkey.

No one in NATO or the senior member states has actually done the calculation as to how to structure global and regional strategies without Turkey, or how to remove Turkish officers from NATO facilities  how to manage the region without Turkey, he wrote.

The West does not appear to be well-poised currently to do this calculation, which makes the suggestions that Turkey be expelled from NATO ring hollow, given what is transpiring in the world.
Thanksgiving Shopping 091126

Old Navy at the Summit's last day open is July 26, 2016. It's shown in this file photo on Thursday, November 26, 2009. (File/Birmingham News Photo / Jeff Roberts)

(JEFF ROBERTS)

One of the Summit's original tenants has closed its doors for the final time.

Old Navy - one of the tenants at the center's opening in late 1997 - closed Tuesday evening. In May, the brand's parent company Gap announced it would be closing 75 under-performing stores.

At the time of the shopping center's opening, the Summit was the only shopping center in the country to feature all four of the Gap's concepts: The Gap, Gap Kids, Banana Republic and Old Navy Clothing Co. The remaining concepts are all still open at the Summit.

There's already a new tenant lined up for the space - Arhaus, a home furnishing store that will take up 15,000 square feet. It'll open in 2017. Arhaus currently has five stores, and this will be its first in Alabama.

There are several other stores in the works:

Lizard Thicket

Alex and Ani

Taco Mama

Nothing Bundt Cakes

American Threads

Birmingham's Bayer Properties manages the Summit, which is at the crossroads of Interstate 459 and U.S. 280. It totals more than 1 million square feet of retail, restaurants and office space

Click here for more Alabama retail news.
Delivery of first Airbus A321 to JetBlue

Hundreds attended a ceremony for the first delivery of an Airbus A321 to JetBlue at Mobile, Alabama's Airbus U.S. Manufacturing Facility on Monday April 25, 2016. (Sharon Steinmann/ssteinmann@al.com)

(Sharon Steinmann/ssteinmann@al.com))

JetBlue Airways has ordered 30 Airbus A321 jetliners to be made at new Airbus plant in Mobile. Even better news for Airbus - and by extension, Mobile - was the company's $30 billion in orders taken at the recent Farnborough Air Show.

The summer hasn't been that exciting for small businesses, but they are looking forward to Alabama's coming sales tax holiday. It's coming up.

Read those stories and more below, and follow all of Alabama's business news here anytime.
Oxford police have arrested a man identified as a "sovereign citizen" on charges similar to those he was convicted of one week ago.

Everett Leon Stout, 74, was arrested at Safe Harbor RV Park in Riverside Tuesday on three counts of crime in connection with a sham legal process and one count of perjury. He is being held on $45,000 bond and has a court date of Sept. 1.

Stout may be the first person in Alabama charged under the statute, which make it a crime to issue or distribute unlawful instruments, such as summons, subpoenas, liens, arrest warrants, or other documents.

Calhoun County Assistant District Attorney Tim Burgess said Stout's charges stem from his attempt to serve members of the prosecutor's team with documents pertaining to a phony lawsuit in front of the jury during his trial last week.

As to the perjury charge, it was brought on by his testimony during the trial.

"It's for lying on the witness stand," Burgess said.

Last Wednesday, a Calhoun County jury found Stout guilty of second degree extortion after a three-day trial that saw Stout represent himself in court with sometimes chaotic results. The jury deliberated about 40 minutes before finding him guilty. His sentencing is set for Aug. 11.

Stout was arrested in 2014 in Oxford when authorities said he tried to buy a motor home from Dandy R.V. Superstore with paperwork claiming Regions Bank owed him $10 billion. According to earlier testimony this week, Stout filed liens against Dandy R.V. and all banks in Oxford and Anniston to "lock them down."

At the time of his arrest, Stout was identified as a "sovereign citizen," or one of a group of individuals who do not believe in federal laws, taxation, or state or federal entities but use court filings to tie up the legal system. The movement is largely fragmented but stretches nationwide. They are also known for filing false documents in probate court with large liens to disrupt the credit histories of public officials.

Stout and his common law wife, Miriam Claire Shultz, who was also arrested with him in 2014, have also been arrested for filing false documents against public officials.

On the day of his conviction, he was cited twice for contempt of court and questioned the validity of the court.
The Southern Poverty Law Center is calling for an OSHA investigation into a Guntersville poultry plant it says maintains unsafe conditions.

The SPLC also says two workers at the plant were fired for whistleblowing.

The Montgomery-based group announced it has filed two complaints against Farm Fresh Foods, alleging its plant forced sanitation workers to carry and unpack 80-pound crates of chicken under threat of suspension or disciplinary action.

According to the complaints, workers risked injuries from slipping and falling as they "raced to grab crates of raw chicken" on threats of discipline for workers with no immediate tasks, "even when there were no more crates to carry."

Two workers who complained about the conditions in June were suspended, along with 14 others. The company initially refused to pay them their final checks, the SPLC said, though the money has been paid since.

"Farm Fresh needs to listen to workers rather than retaliating against them," said Naomi Tsu, SPLC deputy legal director. "We've seen this happen again and again in the poultry industry - these companies must stop putting their bottom line before workers' health and rights."

Attempts to contact Farm Fresh for comment were not immediately successful.

It's not the first time activists have alleged unsafe working conditions in Alabama poultry plants. Earlier this year, a global development group released a report claiming workers in poultry plants throughout America are being denied bathroom breaks at risk to their health and dignity for the sake of speed.

The SPLC has also filed complaints dealing with poultry workers being forced to operate at unsafe speeds. Alabama workers kill and harvest a billion chickens annually and the industry has a $15 billion annual economic impact in the state.

This newest complaint alleges the same thing, with SPLC saying workers at Farm Fresh were denied bathroom breaks outside of a 30-minute break within their eight hour shifts.

"Even when workers at Farm Fresh Foods were given permission to use the bathroom, a supervisor would often stand outside the restroom and time their breaks," the group stated.

In addition, the third-shift sanitation crew was required to unload raw chicken for the following shift without getting a chance to wash their hands or change out of the clothes they wore while cleaning the plant. Concerns about chicken contamination were ignored, the complaints allege. Workers were also required to quickly sweep out waste water from chicken processing rooms, with the water often washing into their mouth and eyes.

The complaints call for inspections and confidential worker interviews.
A verbal altercation between neighbors turned into a shooting at an apartment on 46th Street North, Birmingham Police said.

Sgt. John Green said a male was shot in the arm and a female was shot in the hand. The two are in a relationship together. Witnesses said the two were arguing with a guy next door.

The male and female were taken UAB Hospital and are expected to survive their injuries.

Police are still searching for a black male, who is the neighbor.

No arrest has been made yet, Greene said. Police are still trying to figure out what started the shooting and who shot who.

Officers are on the scene collecting evidence and talking to witnesses.
Four people were injured, including two children, in a Tuesday night shooting in the Panola community of Sumter County, authorities said.

A 3-year-old suffered a minor grazing-type gunshot wound in the incident that occurred in the 400 block of Piney Grove Drive, according to the State Bureau of Investigation and District Attorney Greg Griggers.

A juvenile, believed to be 12 or 13, suffered a minor gunshot wound to the arm, Griggers said.

A woman is now in stable condition after being shot in the neck, he said. A man suffered a gunshot wound to the chest. His injuries remain life threatening.

The Tuscaloosa News reported Leonard Lockett, 27, was arrested and charged with first-degree assault, shooting into an occupied dwelling and attempted murder in connection with the shooting.

The SBI is investigating the shooting on behalf of the Sumter County District Attorney's Office.

Both the SBI and Griggers declined to release the circumstances behind the shooting. No one at the Sumter County Sheriff's Office could be reached for comment.
Sanders followers are having a hard time believing that he has lost, and Hillary Clinton does not seem like a legitimate alternative.

Philadelphia, USA  On Tuesday night, just as soon as the roll call vote ended and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders endorsed Hillary Clinton for the Democratic Partys nomination, his supporters walked out of the convention and staged a sit-in at the media tent, where I and hundreds of other journalists were filing stories.

His hardcore disciples could not fathom how, after months of supporting the socialist senator and his message, he could ask them to support Clinton.

They held up signs calling for a revolution and chanted, This is what democracy looks like.

With policemen standing behind them silently in formation, two women who had black cloths over their mouths to symbolise their lack of voice at the Democratic National Convention (DNC) held a sign saying, No justice, no peace.

READ MORE: Leaked emails appear to show DNC hostility to Sanders

I spoke with Rashane Handy, 25, a single mother from Kansas. Visibly shaken, and sitting on the floor with other supporters, she said she was tired of being misrepresented.

We need progressives on the ballot. Our healthcare is suffering and our education is suffering. Sanders didnt just bring out political people; he brought out people like me, single moms, black people, Latinos. If we vote for Hillary, wed be voting for the lesser of two evils, said Handy.

In the past few days, while covering the protests being held on the sidelines of the DNC, I spoke to many Sanders followers.

Young and old, men and women, most called Clinton a warmonger. A common theme among them was their belief that she had close ties with Wall Street  an issue they felt strongly about.

All but one said they felt they were being made to choose between the lesser of two evils; that Donald Trump, the Republican nominee, was essentially a boogeyman they were being threatened with in order to cast their ballot for Clinton.

Many were instead thinking of voting for Jill Stein, the Green Partys presumptive nominee. Along with Jill, Not Hill, DemExit, [a play on Brexit] was another common slogan at rallies, held up by people threatening to leave the party, in the hope that Sanders would run as an independent.

Two girls I spoke with said they were ashamed of Clinton. Their reasons included her role in Benghazi, her endorsement of the Trans-Pacific Partnership [one of President Barack Obamas big trade deals], and for paying women in her office less than men during her time in the US Senate.

They also criticised the DNC for denying independents the right to vote for their president, voter suppression and fraud, and for conspiring against Bernie Sanders.

Many held signs that read, Im not with her, and Bernie, Never Hillary.

Chelsea Sarnecki, a young woman from Indiana, told me she felt that Clinton had political and corporate ties that would not be in the best interests of the country.

When asked whether Trump was a better alternative, she didnt really have an answer. Replying to that same question, others said it would not be their fault  but rather the rigged systems  if Trump were to win in November.

Sanders followers are having a hard time believing that he has lost  fair and square.

The recent leaked cache of emails, showing the DNC chairwomans bias against the Vermont senator, has supported their theory that the party conspired against the Jewish socialist in favour of the establishment candidate.

His disciples know that people think theyre spoilers, who will usher in a Trump presidency. But to them, this is bigger than Sanders himself. They booed him the last time he told them to support Clinton and her vice presidential candidate Tim Kaine.

To them, this is about everything he promised would be part of America should he become president: better healthcare and education, more jobs, and a fairer justice system.
A female-run clinic in Afghanistan is providing free, life-changing surgery to women suffering from fistula.

Kabul, Afghanistan  With 2,000 babies delivered each month, the Malalai Maternity Hospital in Kabul buzzes with a joyous kind of bedlam.

Clipboard-wielding nurses power walk through the hallways. New mothers coo at tiny newborns. Every so often, a woman in labour is rushed through the throng towards the delivery room.

But at the end of a long hallway, away from the chaos, is a wing where women lie silent and downcast, swaddled in heavy blankets, and the only laughter comes from a Turkish soap opera playing on a television set.

Over the entrance a sign reads: Fistula Clinic.

Inside, 44-year-old Kobra, who has beautiful, strong features worn by years of tough rural living, sits on a bed covered with a plastic sheet.

I have thought to myself every night, she says, stretching her hands out, palms up, why did this happen to me?

Explained in medical terms, fistula, as dealt with at Malalai Hospital, is a hole between the vagina and the bladder or rectum, or sometimes both. It is often, but not always, obstetric  the result of a difficult, lengthy childbirth. There are many other causes too, including trauma from sexual assault and prolonged infections.

It has been all but eliminated in developed countries. When it does occur, it can nearly always be cured by inexpensive, uncomplicated surgery.

But in countries such as Afghanistan, it is destroying thousands of womens lives.

Psychological trauma

A woman with fistula suffers chronic incontinence. She constantly leaks urine or faeces through her vagina, forcing her into a never-ending, futile battle to stay clean, made all the more difficult for the many without ready access to clean water. Some endure burns on their legs from acid in the urine.

But above all, fistulas greatest impact is psychological. The chronic incontinence emits a foul smell, bringing the woman intense, constant shame.

Kobra has had fistula for seven years. She has iatrogenic fistula from a botched hysterectomy.

She counts herself lucky to have a supportive family, but has not held her young children in her arms for years: shes afraid theyll recoil from her  her clothes are often soiled and wet.

Her poverty has only exacerbated the toll of her fistula. With incontinence, she is unemployable. Her husband earns only a small daily labourers wage  just enough to cover the basics for a family of seven, but not for a modicum of comfort.

Unable to afford incontinence pads, she would make three trips to the bathroom every night, but would still soak her sheets. I would wake up ashamed, Kobra says.

WATCH 101 EAST  Afghanistan: Medics Under Fire

Maternal health



Ninety percent of the fistula cases I see are because of poverty, says Dr Nafiza, the chief surgeon at the Malalai fistula clinic. Malalai is Afghanistans only public hospital providing fistula surgery. For those who can afford it, there are a few private clinics providing treatment for fistula.

Afghanistans limited access to healthcare, lack of skilled birth attendants such as midwives, and poor education create a perfect storm for fistula, Nafiza explains.

Other factors are cultural: Women in Afghanistan are often deprived of choice in family planning and even their own healthcare.

Early marriage is another problem.

Despite laws banning marriage under the age of 16, many Afghan girls are married in their early teens, often before their pelvises are fully developed to cope with childbirth.

Ninety percent of the fistula cases I see are because of poverty by Dr Nafiza, chief surgeon, Malalai fistula clinic

Giving birth so young often leads to obstructed labour where prolonged pressure on the pelvic bone cuts off blood supply to the surrounding tissue. That tissue dies, gradually wasting away, creating a hole between the bladder, or less commonly the rectum, and the birth canal.

We see a lot of girls, maybe around 70 percent, who come in [with fistula] because they gave birth too young, says Nafiza, noting that she often has patients as young as 15.

Afghan girls, particularly from rural, impoverished areas, often suffer stunted growth due to poor nutrition, meaning their teenage bodies are even less prepared for childbirth.

While no reliable statistics exist, an estimated 3,000 women in Afghanistan have fistula, according to Dr Bannet Ndyanabangi, the country director for the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) in Afghanistan, which works to improve maternal and reproductive health.

One indicator is maternal health, Ndyanabangi says.

When maternal mortality is high, then the prevalence of fistula is high.

Today, Afghanistans maternal mortality rate is about 327 per 100,000 live births, according to UNFPA. Its a dramatic reduction from the 1,600 per 100,000 live births recorded in 2002, but it is still high.

That means you have 12 women a day in Afghanistan dying in childbirth, Ndyanabangi says. Fistula cases could be three or five fold that.

READ MORE: The female surgeons of Somalia

Shunned by society

For an injury so prevalent, fistula remains so poorly understood in Afghanistan that it is known by several different names across the country.

It is also common for local doctors to send patients away with medicine, which does little but give the afflicted woman temporary false hope.

Farida*, a 44-year-old from Takhar, a remote northeastern province, was one of the many women who received nothing but useless medicine for her fistula.

In the recovery ward at the Malalai fistula clinic, she explains that before her surgery 10 days prior, she had unsuccessfully sought help from doctors for 16 years.

But recently, a doctor in Takhar, having received basic UNFPA-funded fistula training from Nafiza, finally referred Farida to Malalai, where she was quickly diagnosed and admitted for surgery.

Farida had obstetric fistula as a result of childbirth. Like many poor Afghan women, she had no prenatal care, and attempted to give birth at home without a skilled attendant.

After 20 days of labour, her husband finally summoned a local doctor, who gave her an injection to abort her stillborn baby.

Fifteen days later, still grieving for her lost child, Faridas constant leak of urine began. She was fortunate to have an understanding husband, she says, but felt mortified by her evening ritual of bathing immediately before bed. After having sex with her husband, she would sleep in a separate room, the sheets slowly soaking with an acrid smell. I used to cry all night, she says.

I used to cry all night by Farida, Malalai patient who had fistula for 16 years

Farida also felt like a social outcast. Though cured, she breaks down in tears as she recalls her humiliation whenever she attended a wedding.

I would wear my nicest clothes and [incontinence] pads, she remembers in a quiet voice.

I would sit among the other guests and eventually I would notice them holding their noses because of my smell.

The extreme stigmatisation and shame often stems from a deep misunderstanding of how the injury is caused.

I hear a lot from my patients that they believe [their fistula] is a punishment from God, Nafiza says.

Families and communities often share this belief. It is not uncommon, Nafiza says, for husbands to accuse wives afflicted with fistula of adultery or other sinful behaviour.

Often their husbands divorce them and theyre forced to go back to their parents, she says. Once we had a patient at the hospital for two-and-a-half years and she didnt have a visitor that entire time.

WATCH: The Cure  Liberia after Ebola: Turning midwives into surgeons

The women-run clinic

The Malalai fistula clinic is staffed entirely by women.

Nafiza heads a small all-female team of doctors, nurses and support staff, serving hundreds of patients every year. UNFPA funds 150 obstetric fistula surgeries each year.

The cost of the surgery is covered, as is travel and accommodation and the majority of food and medicine, which comes to $1,200 for each patient.

Perhaps surprisingly, the surgery for such a debilitating injury can take as little as 30 minutes.

Many of the female doctors count decades of medical experience, but like millions of other Afghans, left during Taliban rule. Dr Pashtun Kohestani, 48, worked at Malalai in the maternity ward throughout the Taliban period, one of only a handful of women allowed to work under suffocating conditions.

Today, each of the doctors file in to Nafizas office, wearing vibrant, sequin-studded coats, one carrying a leopard-print bag, greeting each other with hugs and cheek kisses.

Nafizas office doubles as a tiny changing room. They each change into scrubs in their favourite colour. Nafiza is decked out in all pink, Kohestani wears forest green, Dr Gulbibi Totakhail Yare, ice blue.

With Kobras consent, I am invited to watch Kohestani, with Gulbibi supporting, perform surgery to cure her fistula. Gulbibi has her own private clinic but has come in to assist Kohestani. The two doctors have been friends for 20 years.

Lots of patients come to me with fistula, Gulbibi says.

So I thought that I should increase my knowledge [and] experience to be more supportive and helpful to my patients.



READ MORE: The midwife who fled Boko Haram

Life-changing surgery

Fistula patients at Malalai receive a local anaesthetic. As we enter the operating theatre, Kobra grunts quietly with pain as a spinal injection is administered, before she lies down on the operating table, her legs eased into stirrups by the nurses.

Look, Kohestani says, pointing to a slow stream of urine running from Kobras body, dripping off the plastic sheet-covered table into a surgical bin at the end of the table, thats fistula.

As her injury is located higher than usual inside the birth canal, Kobra is scheduled for a gruelling four-hour surgery.

A blue dye is gently pumped into the urethra, and immediately runs out of the birth canal  a final, definitive confirmation of her condition. From there, using a metal catheter, Kohestani begins to locate the fistula.

The surgery is a study in frustration and patience. The banter between the doctors and nurses fades as everyone watches Kohestani work, alternately sitting and standing to ease the cramps in her legs.

After 90 minutes, complaining of the heat but unable to wipe away the sweat on her brow, the surgeon finally eases the metal catheter through the fistula. The nurses cheer. Once the metal catheter is in place, the team proceeds to close the hole with medical sutures. A nurse constantly suctions away the pooling blood.

READ MORE: Mother Justice  the Congolese lawyer waging a war on rape

Kobra is awake but woozy for the surgery, and whispers prayers quietly. She looks often at me, glassy-eyed, for just a second, before closing her eyes.

When Kohestani angrily debates with nurses over whether the hospital has a particular size of surgical suture, Kobra tries to lift her head for just a second, perceiving the commotion.

Kohestani holds up a needle she complains is of inferior quality.

Two hours into the surgery, Kohestani sighs as the electricity in the surgery room cuts out. Only one emergency plug in the theatre works.

After briefly using mobile phones to light the room, Kohestani orders a spotlight to be turned on, forgoing the suction to remove the blood.

Gulbibi and an assistant nurse begin to swab the blood with medical gauze. Another nurse is ordered to massage Kohestanis cramping shoulders.

Despite the frustrations, Kohestani says it is greatly rewarding to work with fistula patients.

Malalai has a 95 percent success rate of curing fistula, changing the lives of women who have faced so many problems and heartaches, she explains.

I feel even happier than the patients themselves, Kohestani says. I cry with them when its time to say goodbye.

After nearly four hours of surgery, Kohestani, applying disinfectant to her patients sutured fistula and legs, announces: Kobra, its finished.

Kobra tries to raise her head, but still finds it too difficult under the weight of the anaesthetic.

She instead turns to look at me, raising her eyebrows, as though to ask if the surgery has been a success. I smile, nod and give her a thumbs up. A slow, wide smile spreads across her face.

READ MORE: Using technology to empower women in Afghanistan

*Farida is a pseudonym used at her request

Additional reporting by Nazi Karim

You can follow Danielle Moylan on Twitter at @danielle_jenni.
A twin bomb blast claimed by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) has killed at least 50 people and wounded many more in the northeastern Syrian city of Qamishli, near the Turkish border.

The attack, which hit near a Kurdish security forces headquarters, was the deadliest of its kind in the city for years, the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

More than 280,000 people are estimated to have been killed throughout the five years of bloodshed, according to the Observatory. Efforts to negotiate a lasting ceasefire have collapsed time and again.

More than 4.8 million Syrians have become refugees displaced from their homeland, while more than 6.5 million people are internally displaced within the countrys borders.
The ongoing purge in Turkey needs to mobilise public opinion against the rogue army faction that attempted the coup.

Ahmed al-Burai is a lecturer at Istanbul Aydin University. He worked with BBC World Service Trust and LA Times in Gaza.

The government is in control, Turkeys President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told a crowd of people gathered upon his call in Istanbuls Ataturk International Airport in the early hours of Saturday, July 16.

He added We are not going to compromise  we will continue to cleanse the virus from all state institutions.

Without hesitation, in the following days, the Turkish government vehemently embarked on an unprecedented massive crackdown to purge the military of mutineers.

Erdogan pledged a conclusive army overhaul. However, the operation toll surpassed 50,000 civil servants, including judges, prosecutors, academics, deans, and journalists.

Some were suspended, others were asked to resign, while the rest were immediately taken into custody.

Moreover, eight top-level officials in the Turkish parliament have been suspended, while two others were rotated.

All are believed to have direct links to the self-exiled cleric in the United States, Fethullah Gulen, who is blamed for orchestrating the foiled coup on July 15.

Maintaining the historic national unity

Indisputably, in the aftermath of such a brutal coup that has claimed the lives of more than 265 innocent people, destabilised a democratic sovereign state, unprecedentedly attacked its parliament and presidential compound, and provoked horror among its citizens, precise deterrent measures have to be decisively taken.

The purge procedures should be cautiously carried out, primarily to maintain the historic national unity that was uprightly manifested during the anti-coup public resistance.

Turkey is not a banana republic, and as far as it holds on to its promising democracy, Fisk and people like him need not worry. by

It also needs to mobilise public opinion solely against that rogue faction of the army that instigated the coup endeavour. Otherwise, an excessive operation may backfire and the purge may lead to social unrest against the government.

Robert Fisk, the Middle East correspondent of The Independent, wrote an article titled Turkeys coup may have failed  but history shows it wont be long before another one succeeds.

OPINION: The West fails the coup test in Turkey

Although his deductive reasoning seems to be no more than misgivings about Turkeys man who would recreate the Ottoman Empire, Fisk completely lost his objectivity when he designated Erdogan as one of the potentates and dictators who changed the constitution for his own benefit and restarted his wicked conflict with the Kurds and went on denying the 1915 Armenian genocide  one needs to wonder whether this has anything to do with the military coup.

Nonetheless, this shall not preclude one from pondering how realistically Fisk is foreseeing the future.

Double standards

Internationally, the ongoing crackdown has fuelled growing criticism. Amnesty International called upon the Turkish government to show restraint and respect to human rights, as the sheer figures of detentions and suspensions are alarming.

Turkey was also warned by European leaders that it could face international isolation and even a probable suspension of its membership of NATO if Erdogan overplays his hand after the botched coup.

On the other hand, Turkey expectedly declared a state of emergency for three months, ignoring the European Unions warnings, resulting in mounting bashful criticisms against it.

But people forget that it was France which also declared a state of emergency for six months in the aftermath of the November 13 attacks in Paris.

Yet Austrian Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz was acutely critical of Turkeys imposing the state of emergency, claiming that it would lead to strengthening authoritarianism.

Division over the death penalty

The straw that will break the camels back is Turkeys mulling over reinstating the death penalty, which might jeopardise Turkeys EU accession efforts.

Constitutionally the step necessitates the approval of 367 politicians in the Turkish parliament. Legislators must also approve the enforcement of capital punishment verdicts retroactively.

Article 15 of the Turkish constitution stipulates that even under the conditions of war, martial law or state of emergency, crimes and punishments cannot be imposed retrospectively. Thus, the perpetrators of the purported coup attempt would be legally exempt.

That wouldnt extinguish the rage of the families of martyrs. Also, it wouldnt satisfy Erdogan, who is unequivocally determined to severely punish the putschists.

OPINION: Turkey  the night of the ordinary hero

Even with the promised support of the 40 MPs of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), along with the votes of the 317 MPs of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), they wont be able to secure constitution amendment simply because both the main opposition Republican Peoples Party and the pro-Kurdish Peoples Democratic Party (HDP) proclaimed their reluctance to introduce capital punishment.

The available democratic tool is to call for a national referendum, and that requires the approval of 330 MPs  a figure that seems conceivably feasible.

Should the referendum fail, another snap election would be inevitably the last democratic resort to guarantee the threshold necessary for a constitutional change.

Latest developments in the aftermath of the coup attempt, the expected colossal retreat in the popularity of the HDP, the rift among the leaders of MHP, and the public momentum that is impatiently eager to punish traitors, would possibly secure a landslide victory for the AKP in any coming election.

Turkey is not a banana republic, and as far as it holds on to its promising democracy, Fisk and people like him need not to worry. They are rather advised to change the set of history books they have recently read.

Ahmed al-Burai is a lecturer at Istanbul Aydin University. He worked with BBC World Service Trust and the LA Times in Gaza. He is currently based in Istanbul and is mainly interested in Middle East issues.

The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial policy.
Police say gunmen who have been barricaded in a police station for 10 days have taken an ambulance crew hostage.

Armed men locked in a prolonged standoff with police in the Armenian capital, Yerevan, have taken four medics hostage, according to officials.

The gunmen seized the police post on July 17, demanding freedom for a jailed opposition figure, and took those inside hostage. The last of those held were released on Saturday.

Armenia standoff: Last four police hostages released

On Wednesday, police said an ambulance crew was held after entering the compound to treat two gunmen wounded in clashes that also left two attackers and a police officer hospitalised.

The doctors who went into the captured territory to assist two members of the armed group who refused to go to hospital have been taken hostage, police spokesman Ashot Aharonyan wrote on Facebook.

The police are taking steps to free the doctors through negotiations.

Gunmen demands

The hostage-takers main demand is the release of Jirair Sefilian, an opposition leader accused by Armenian authorities of plotting civil unrest and the resignation of President Serzh Sarkisian.

Sefilian, the leader of a small opposition group named the New Armenia Public Salvation Front, and six of his supporters were arrested in June and accused of preparing to seize government buildings and telecoms facilities in Yerevan.

A critic of the government, he was previously arrested in 2006 over calls for a violent overthrow of the government and jailed for 18 months. He was released in 2008.

READ MORE: Armenia protesters, police clash over hostage crisis

The lengthy standoff has sparked clashes between police and protesters furious over the handling of the incident.

Demonstrators reportedly attacked police deployed outside the police station.

Many protesters were beaten and held without food and water for hours after being taken to police regiments not designed as detention centres, human rights activist Zara Hovhannisyan told Al Jazeera last week.
Former secretary of state makes history to become the first woman to lead a major party towards the White House.

The Democratic Party has made history by nominating Hillary Clinton to run for US president as the first woman to head a major partys presidential ticket.

Speaking via videolink from New York after her nomination on Tuesday night, Hillary Clinton told the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia that she was honoured to have been chosen as the partys nominee.

I am so happy. Its been a great day and night. What an incredible honour that you have given me. And I cant believe that weve just put the biggest crack in that glass ceiling yet. Thanks to you and everyone who has fought so hard to make this possible, she said.

And if there are any little girls out there, who have stayed up late to watch, let me just say: I may become the first woman president, but one of you is next.

We just put the biggest crack in that glass ceiling yet. Hillary https://t.co/mYkaLIv861  Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) July 27, 2016

Delegates erupted in cheers throughout the roll call of states on the floor of the convention earlier in the evening.

Shes got it. She has the numbers that are needed, Al Jazeeras James Bays said from the convention when Clinton passed the 2,383 votes needed to secure the nomination.

We knew this was going to happen because obviously we knew she was the presumptive nominee and that she had all the votes that she needed from the primaries. But what happened here was a roll call, state by state announcing their votes. How many for Bernie Sanders. How many for Hillary Clinton. And a great deal of drama in the room.

The best darn change maker

In nominating Clinton, delegate after delegate at the convention made the point that the selection of a woman was a milestone in Americas 240-year-old history. US women got the right to vote in 1920.

Clinton promises to tackle income inequality and rein in Wall Street if she becomes president, and is eager to portray Republican Party presidential nominee Donald Trump, a billionaire businessman and former reality TV show host, as too unstable to sit in the Oval Office.

Trump, who has never held elective office, got a boost in opinion polls from his nomination at the Republican convention last week and had a 2-point lead over Clinton in a Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll released on Tuesday.

After the roll call of states formalising Clintons nomination, Bill Clinton, the former US president, took the stage for a history-making appearance of his own convention.

Former presidents often vouch for their potential successors, but never before has that candidate also been a spouse.

Telling the story of their life together, Bill Clinton summed up his wife: Shes the best darn change maker Ive ever met.

So proud of you, Hillary. #DemsInPhilly  Bill Clinton (@BillClinton) July 26, 2016

He also gave a spirited defence of his wifes tenure as secretary of state, telling the convention that Hillary Clinton was instrumental in protecting American interests, combating terrorism and advancing human rights.

She put climate change at the centre of our foreign policy and backed President Barack Obamas decision to go after Osama bin Laden, the former president said.

Bill Schneider, a US political analyst, told Al Jazeera: There was a clear message [in Bill Clintons speech]  one word: change. A very important word because voters dont believe she is the candidate of change. They think she is the candidate of the status quo.

Healing deep divisions

Clintons campaign now hopes to move past the dissent that marked the conventions opening day on Monday, when supporters of Bernie Sanders, Clintons primary rival, repeatedly interrupted proceedings with boos and chants of Bernie.





Sanders took the DNC podium on Monday to urge his supporters to come together and vote for Clinton.

Delegates erupted in cheers as Sanders helped to make Clintons Tuesday night victory official when the roll call got to his home state of Vermont  an important show of unity for a party trying to heal deep divisions.

I move that Hillary Clinton be selected as the nominee of the Democratic Party for president of the United States, Sanders declared, asking that it be by acclamation.

Sanders endorsement was a striking parallel to the role Clinton played eight years ago when she stepped to the microphone on the convention floor in support of her former rival, Barack Obama.

Not all Sanders supporters were as conciliatory.

A large group signalled their displeasure with Clintons nomination by walking off the convention floor and holding a demonstration at the nearby media workspace, Al Jazeeras Kimberly Halkett said.

Holding a sit-in inside the media tent, several Sanders supporters had their mouths taped shut to symbolise their lack of voice at the convention.

READ MORE: Muslims at the DNC take a stand against Islamophobia

Essentially what they are trying to say is that the media is responsible for squashing their voice throughout this nominating contest, Halkett said.

In some way influencing the results, and as a result what they are calling this protest is no voice, no unity. They feel this process, this nominating contest, was not democratic.





Rashane Handy, 25, a single mother from Kansas who took part in the protest, said she felt that the party had pressured Sanders supporters to support Clinton by holding up the spectre of a victory for Donald Trump if they dont get behind Hillary.

Im tired of being misrepresented. We need progressives on the ballot. Our healthcare is suffering and our education is suffering. Sanders didnt just bring out political people; he brought out people like me, single [mothers], black people, Latinos. If we vote for Hillary, wed be voting for the lesser of two evils, Handy told Al Jazeera.

Earlier in the night, it looked like the dispute between the Sanders and Clinton supporters had turned a corner.

In many ways, the person who managed to unite the party was the one who started his movement and then had to actually calm down the people that he ignited, and that was Bernie Sanders, Al Jazeeras James Bays said.

I think Bernie Sanders and the speech of Michelle Obama, the first lady, brought a degree of unity that certainly wasnt here at the beginning of day one. Yes, there are still people who feel hurt by whats happened. There are still people who are going to continue not supporting Hillary Clinton, but I think they look like theyve won over the majority.

READ MORE: Trumps anti-Clinton rhetoric could divide the US

Speaking at the conventions opening on Monday, the first lady announced her support for Clinton. She also offered a thinly veiled jab at Trump while discussing how her family has had to adapt to the shrill tone of todays politics.

We insist that the hateful language they hear from public figures on TV does not represent the true spirit of this country, Obama said.
While some are motivated by a genuine desire to help, others have come seeking personal glory, fighters say.

Tel Eskof, Iraq  In the small, northern Iraqi town of Tel Eskof, a white pick-up truck rolled down the dirt road towards a nearby frontline, carrying part of a new medical unit.

The men in the truck waved as a tall soldier standing at the roadside, clad in combat gear and dark Ray-Bans, bellowed in an unmistakable southern US drawl: Welcome to Tel Eskof, yall!

Spanning various ages and nationalities, the fighters here comprise part of a small yet well-known contingent of foreign volunteers who left their homes thousands of kilometres away to help the Kurds battle the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant group (ISIL, also known as ISIS).

They come to help us. Its good that theyre here, but I dont know why they would leave their homes for this, Ahmed, a soldier with the Kurdish Peshmerga, told Al Jazeera in hushed tones.

OPINION: The real threat of foreign fighters in Syria

To many Peshmerga soldiers, these new fighters are a complicated ally, and fear of any negative international attention means that those who arrive with the sole intention of fighting ISIL are often held back from the frontlines  leading some to cross the border into Syria to fight instead with the Kurdish Peoples Protection Units (YPG), where soldiers can move from unit to unit with fewer restrictions.

As many come from civilian backgrounds with no military training, and without local language skills, these volunteer forces are sometimes viewed as a hindrance by those whom they are coming to assist. At least 10 foreign fighters in Iraq and Syria have died within just over a year.





Erwin Stan, a former US soldier who fought with both the Peshmerga and the YPG for close to a year in total, says foreign fighters are sometimes used merely to foster a good public image for the Kurds.

My small group was with the Peshmerga for a few months when we decided to cross into Syria, Stan, 28, told Al Jazeera. Fighting had slowed down quite a bit, and when there were fights, it seemed like the Peshmerga were keeping us away from them. We seemed to be brought around cameras and reporters more than the frontline.

Stan says he was motivated to fight in Syria after a gunman attacked two military institutions in his hometown of Chattanooga, Tennessee, killing four marines and a sailor. The gunman was reportedly displeased with the US war on terror.

Stan, who is also a veteran of the Iraq War, said that the motivations of some of the foreign volunteer fighters were mixed.

I met plenty of volunteers who did have good intentions. They went for the revolution. They went to help in the medical field, he said, noting that others were not as well-intentioned. Ive heard plenty of volunteer combat stories that went public that were completely false. Ive seen some volunteers getting internet famous, and they never left the wire.

Some foreign volunteers operate social media accounts featuring glossy, digitally altered images of them in battle  a phenomenon criticised by other fighters, who believe the priority should be the fight on the ground.

Hannah Bohman, a former Canadian model who left her home in February 2015 to the join the female brigade of the YPG, often features in photographs beside heavy machine guns, such as Dushkas and Kalashnikovs  but she rejects the criticism that some foreign fighters are not taking the task sufficiently seriously.

Some people skydive, some people race cars, and some people like to fight. Who cares what their motives are? by Hannah Bohman, foreign fighter

Were painted as lost souls or thrill seekers, but so what? Bohman, 47, told Al Jazeera. Some people skydive, some people race cars, and some people like to fight. Who cares what their motives are? I would instead ask those people who question our motives why it bothers them so much.

This strange kaleidoscope of foreign fighters, who drift back and forth along the porous Iraq-Syria border, are often caught up in broader ideological tensions between Iraqi Kurds and the YPG.

Earlier this year, three foreign fighters  who had been smuggled into Syria by the YPG  were arrested by Peshmerga forces upon trying to cross back into Iraq. Despite proclaiming their joint goal of defeating ISIL, they were asked to pay a fine of 5,000 euros ($5,500) for breaking visa regulations, in an incident that highlighted the schism between Erbil, the capital of Iraqs Kurdish region, and the newly self-proclaimed Syrian Kurdish capital of Qamishli.

Joshua Molloy, a 25-year-old British former soldier who was among those arrested, said he felt as if he was being held to political ransom for joining the YPG.

They werent interested in gathering intelligence on ISIS. They just asked how much money we had, and who brought us over to YPG, Molloy told Al Jazeera. It was like we were being held to some strange political ransom. It was clear that this intolerance of foreign fighters in Syria was a new development, and they were only concerned about money.

READ MORE: Tunisia  Why foreign fighters abandon ISIL

A YPG-linked Facebook page called Lions of Rojava, which was largely seen as a recruitment tool for foreign fighters, began losing steam in recent months after many volunteers found themselves waiting in Iraq for contacts who never materialised.

Former foreign fighters told Al Jazeera that despite the media attention their presence generated, they have felt increasingly unwelcome in both Syria and Iraq. In Iraqs Kurdish region, there have been regular reports of arrests by the Peshmerga of foreigners attempting to cross in and out of Syria. And this past April, Kurdish Foreign Minister Falah Mustafa warned that foreigners could complicate matters in the region, advising those who might have been considering joining the Peshmerga to stay at home.

Stan, who is now back in the United States, said that his time fighting with both Iraqi and Syrian Kurds left him conflicted about the role of foreigners in the ongoing conflict.

In the beginning, I did what many did. Fight em here so we dont have to fight em at home  all that kind of of talk. Then I realised that this wasnt really my fight, he said.

As I said to the Kurds, ISIS is just another enemy in a long list of enemies who were endangering Kurdish independence. Thats not my fight. Though I support the Kurds fully, I cant fight their battles for them.
Babil officials say the families of fighters will also be deported under new rule, the first such decision since 2003.

The homes of convicted attackers will be demolished and their families banished from an Iraqi province, under a new proposal by the council of Babil  an area home to more than 1.6 million people.

Its the first such decision in Iraq since the 2003 US-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein.

Approved by authorities in Hillah, the capital of Babil province, the decision applies to terrorists who have exhausted all possibilities of appealing against their convictions, council member Hassan Fadaam said on Wednesday.

The rule will be applied to, among others, those suspected of carrying out attacks against security forces.

We will consider any means that could help deter terrorism and this is one of them, Fadaam said.

We have grown frustrated with the central governments efforts to maintain security and execute convicted militants. Nothing is deterring the terrorists who realise once they are in prison, they only receive good treatment.





The decision also called on Baghdad to hand over people who are on death row for attacks carried out in other provinces, so that they can be publicly executed where they committed the crime, Fadaam said.

Public anger against the government has mounted since the July 3 bombing in Karada, a mainly Shia neighbourhood in central Baghdad, when more than 281 people were killed and hundreds wounded.

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) group claimed responsibility for the attack.

Many Iraqis blame their political leadership for security lapses, which they say have allowed explosives to pass through checkpoints into residential neighbourhoods.

In an attempt to show its commitment to security, the government executed five people who were sentenced to death for other attacks, days after the Karada bombing.

Shula blast

In a separate development on Wednesday, a suicide bomber killed at least six people at a police checkpoint south of Baghdad.

The attacker detonated his vest at a post in the Shia neighbourhood of Shula, killing three policemen and three civilians, and wounding at least 15 others, a police officer said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but ISIL has claimed previous attacks against security forces in areas where Shia Muslims live.

The group overran large areas north and west of Baghdad in 2014, but has since lost ground to Iraqi forces backed by US-led air strikes and other assistance.

ISIL has responded to the battlefield setbacks by striking civilians, particularly Shia Iraqis.

Experts have warned that there may be more bombings as the group continues to lose ground.
Israeli military says Mohamed Fakih, killed in firefight near Hebron on Tuesday, murdered Rabbi Michael Mark in July.

Israeli soldiers have killed a Palestinian man the military had accused of shooting dead an Israeli rabbi, after an exchange of gunfire in the occupied West Bank.

Mohamed Fakih, 29, died on Tuesday after a shootout in the village of Surif, which is north of the West Bank Hebron city of more than 200,000 Palestinians.

During the operation to stop Mohamed Fakih, who carried out the attack, he was killed during an exchange of fire with soldiers, a statement from the army said, which described as him as terrorist who assassinated Rabbi Michael Mark earlier in July.

The 48-year-old rabbi was killed and three members of his family were injured this month when the suspect opened fire on his car, south of Hebron.

This particular incident followed another incident where a 13-year-old girl was stabbed to death in her bed by a Palestinian man in a settlement close to Hebron, said Al Jazeeras Stefanie Dekker, reporting from West Jerusalem.

House demolished

Hamas, the Palestinian group, said the slain Palestinian man was a member of its military wing, the al-Qassam Brigades.

The house in which Fakih was hiding out was damaged during the fighting and then demolished by an Israeli bulldozer, Reuters news agency reported.

Three others were arrested during the raid.

An Israeli army spokesperson said that a Palestinian woman sustained minor wounds during the military attack and was taken to a hospital for treatment.

The Palestinian Maan news agency quoted the spokesperson as saying that a Kalashnikov machine-gun and a grenade were found in Fakihs house.

Witnesses told the news agency they saw Fakihs body in the bucket of an Israeli army bulldozer that pulled him out of the rubble.

Maan reported, citing the Palestinian Ministry of Health, that five Palestinians were shot with rubber-coated bullets during clashes in Surif.

Tightly guarded enclave

Hebron, occupied by several hundred Jewish settlers who live in a tightly guarded enclave in the heart of the city, has been a persistent source of tensions.

When we talk about Hebron, it really is a microcosm of this conflict, our correspondent said.

It is an area in the occupied West Bank where settlers live very closely together with Palestinians  Its patrolled very tightly by the army. Palestinians will tell you they have no freedom of movement.

Elsewhere in the Palestinian territories, reports said that the Israeli Defence Forces shot and wounded an 18-year-old Palestinian woman at Qalandiya checkpoint on Tuesday.

READ MORE: Israeli checkpoints  We live under colonisation

Images and video posted to social media showed the teenager having fallen to the ground after the attack, as she wailed in pain.

Qalandiya is the main checkpoint between the northern West Bank and Jerusalem.

Police said she failed to respond to the calls of the Israeli security personnel, adding that they had found a knife in her belongings, according to the Haaretz newspaper.

Violence in the Palestinian territories and Israel since last October has killed at least 217 Palestinians, 34 Israelis, two Americans, an Eritrean and a Sudanese, according to an AFP count.

Most of the Palestinians killed were suspected of carrying out knife, gun or car-ramming attacks, according to Israeli authorities.
Prosecutors in Baltimore drop remaining charges against police officers in the death of African American Freddie Gray.

Prosecutors have dropped all remaining charges against the three Baltimore police officers awaiting trial in the case of Freddie Gray, an African American man whose death in police custody last year triggered riots across the US.

Wednesdays decision means that no one will be held criminally responsible for the death of 25-year-old Gray, whose neck was broken while he was unrestrained in the back of a police van in April 2015.

But in a fiery defence of her case, prosecutor Marilyn Mosby said she stood by the medical examiners determination that Freddie Grays death was a homicide, adding that there was a reluctance and an obvious bias among some officers investigating the case.

Weve all been witness to an inherent bias that is a direct result of when police police themselves, she said.

Police investigating police, whether they are friends or merely their colleagues, was problematic.

A spokeswoman for the Baltimore police had no immediate comment on Mosbys remarks.

Grays mother, Gloria Darden, stood by Mosby, saying police lied. I know they lied, and they killed him, she said.

Activist Sharon Black, an organiser for the Peoples Power Assembly, which has been holding rallies and protests in Baltimore, told the Associated Press that she believed the anger will build in the community again because police were not being held accountable.

Know your history: Understanding racism in the US

Earlier on Wednesday, Chief Deputy States Attorney Michael Schatzow told the judge on Wednesday that prosecutors were dropping the charges against officer Garrett Miller, as well as the two other officers.

Miller had faced assault, misconduct in office and reckless endangerment charges.

A judge had already acquitted three other officers, including the van driver who prosecutors considered the most responsible, and another officer who was the highest-ranking of the group. A mistrial was declared for a fourth officer when a jury deadlocked.

High-energy injury

Last week, the prosecutors failed for the fourth time to secure a conviction against a police officer in the case, and Baltimores police union called on prosecutors to drop the charges against three officers still awaiting trial.





In May, a US court cleared a police officer of assault and other charges relating to Grays death.

Gray suffered a severe neck injury after his arrest on April 2015, apparently while being transported in the back of a police van.

He complained about breathing difficulties, fell into a coma and died one week later. The 25-year-old had been taken into custody for carrying an illegal switchblade.

According to an autopsy, Gray suffered a high-energy injury that was most likely caused when the police van he was riding in suddenly slowed down.

Grays death was one of several recent killings of African American men by police officers that triggered nationwide demonstrations and stoked a national debate about police brutality against minorities..

The incident also sparked the growth of the Black Lives Matter movement in the country.

Following the protests, the prosecutor had vowed to go after those involved in Grays death.

Al Jazeeras Patty Culhane, reporting from Washington DC, said: Obviously right now, the country is in a very sensitive place when it comes to relations between communities of colour and police officers, after more police-involved shootings.

Black Lives Matter protests

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 captured on a mobile phone and circulated online, sparking outrage and then protests.

Sterlings 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 Castiles 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.
In an exclusive interview with Al Jazeera, Riek Machar says he is around Juba and he is still first VP of South Sudan.

South Sudans former vice president and prominent opposition leader Riek Machar has told Al Jazeera that his replacement by President Salva Kiir is illegal.

In an exclusive phone interview on Wednesday, Machar said: Im still the first vice president of the republic of South Sudan. The appointment made yesterday by President Salva Kiir is illegal.

It has no basis because the peace agreement does not give him the powers to appoint a first vice president under the current circumstances.

READ MORE: UN warns South Sudans Kiir over Machar replacement

Kiir replaced Machar on Monday with General Taban Deng Gai, after a sharp surge in violence earlier this month between government and opposition fighters threatened to send the worlds youngest country back to all-out civil war.





Machar fled the capital, Juba, more than two weeks ago and has been in hiding ever since.

Im around Juba

Machar told Al Jazeera that he is currently around Juba, adding, however, that he will only return to the capital when an outside force intervenes.

I am waiting for the international community and regional body to say they will deploy troops to Juba and once they do that, I will return to implement the [peace] agreement. he told Al Jazeeras Sami Zeidan.

South Sudan: A man-made catastrophe

But Machar said that if the international community failed to intervene, he might order his followers to make a move to march towards Juba in the future.





As long as the international community and the regional third-party force are being waited to deploy, we will not disrupt that, he said.

But if they fail, this will be an indication that the whole agreement is forsaken by the international community and the regional body that brokered the peace agreement.

South Sudan is better off with Taban

On Thursday, Machar was given a Saturday afternoon deadline by Kiir to return to Juba and work together towards rebuilding peace.

But, with Machar missing, his party convened on Saturday in Juba and came up with a resolution to replace him with Taban.

On Tuesday, the UN warned Kiir that any political appointments must be consistent with last Augusts peace deal that ended nearly two years of civil war  under the agreement, the vice president must be chosen by the South Sudan Armed Opposition.

Yet, speaking also to Al Jazeera, South Sudans presidential spokesman Ateny Wek Ateny said that Machars own SPLM-IO group had backed Tabans appointment, adding that Machar should address this issue within his party.

Taban became the first VP on the ticket of the SPLM-IO. Dr Riek has to address that issue within the SPLM-IO. This is not the business of anybody in South Sudan, Ateny said on Wednesday.

I want to assure you that South Sudan will be more peaceful with Taban and Kiir instead of Riek Machar, he added.

UN: South Sudan refugees could soon hit one million

Machar, however, told Al Jazeera that the appointment of Taban  is not acceptable because he has defected and joined the faction of President Salva Kiir.

He cannot appoint someone who has defected to replace me.

Cycle of violence

South Sudan was founded with optimistic celebrations in the capital on July 9, 2011, after it gained independence from Sudan in a referendum that passed with nearly 100 percent of the vote.

The country descended into conflict in December 2013 after Kiir accused Machar of plotting a coup.

Civil war broke out when soldiers from Kiirs Dinka ethnic group disarmed and targeted troops of Machars Nuer ethnic group.

Machar and commanders loyal to him fled to the countryside, and tens of thousands of people died in the conflict that followed. Many civilians also starved.

The pair of rivals signed a peace agreement late last year, under which Machar was once again made vice president.

The latest setbacks are putting the fragile peace plan at risk.
Death toll from two explosions feared to rise as ISIL claims attack targeting Kurdish area Qamishli.

Two explosions have struck a predominantly Kurdish town in northern Syria, killing at least 50 people and wounding dozens.

Syrian state TV said a truck loaded with explosives blew up on the western edge of the town of Qamishli, near the Turkish border, on Wednesday. Minutes later, a motorcycle also packed with explosives blew up in the same area.

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) claimed responsibility for the attack.

READ MORE: Twin blasts rip through Qamishli

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the explosion targeted a centre of the local Kurdish police and a nearby government building.

Amid the wreckage, people searched for survivors even as fire still burned around them.

Oh my son, what did they do to you?, a grieving mother said at the scene. They burned you, and they burned the country.

Those wounded were rushed to hospitals where doctors raced to save their lives.

I saw a terrible thing, a wounded young man said. I was next to the security headquarters when the explosion happened.

ISIL has carried out several bombings in Kurdish areas in Syria in the past. The predominantly Kurdish US-backed Syria Democratic Forces have been the main force fighting ISIL in northern Syria and have captured wide areas from the hardline fighters.

This was a large attack, said Al Jazeeras Mohammed Jamjoom, reporting from Gaziantep in Turkey, which is close to the Syrian border. The death toll could significantly rise throughout the day.

The latest attack comes amid intense fighting in Aleppo, Syrias largest city, where more than 50 people have been killed in recent days.

As the war drags on towards its sixth year, there is a renewed international push to restart the stalled Syria political talks next month.

Speaking in Geneva, Switzerland, on Tuesday, following a closed-door meeting with US and Russian officials, Staffan de Mistura, UN special envoy to Syria, said Washington and Moscow had been discussing ways to work towards the reintroduction of a ceasefire.

De Mistura said that a third round of intra-Syrian peace talks is set for August.

In the context of the bilateral meeting today, it was also agreed that we, the UN  the facilitator, the mediator  should continue preparing proposals for addressing difficult issues that are related to the [talks], he said.

The Syrian Observatory estimates that more than 280,000 people have been killed throughout the five years of bloodshed. Efforts to negotiate a lasting ceasefire have collapsed time and again.

More than 4.8 million Syrians have become refugees displaced from their homeland, while more than 6.5 million people are internally displaced within the countrys borders.
No way to bring anything into Aleppo, as US says it will formally probe Syrian civilian deaths in coalition strikes.

The Syrian army says that pro-government forces have cut off all supply routes into the eastern, rebel-held part of Aleppo in the countrys north.

According to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, eastern Aleppo has been under effective siege since July 11, and advances in recent days by forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad have strengthened their control of the only route in.

Today there is no way at all to bring anything into Aleppo, Observatory Director Rami Abdel Rahman said on Wednesday.

READ MORE: Air strikes pound Aleppo as UN eyes new Syria talks

Once Syrias largest city, Aleppo has been roughly divided between government control in the west and rebel control in the east since mid-2012.

Taking full control of the city would be a significant victory for Assad.

An advance by pro-government forces around the only remaining supply route into the eastern sector this month enabled them to fire on it at close range, making the battlefront Castello road too deadly to use and putting at least 250,000 people in rebel-held districts under siege.

Were hearing from activists and witnesses that regime forces are taking more and more of that area, said Al Jazeeras Mohammed Jamjoom, reporting from Gaziantep on the Turkish side of the Syria-Turkey border.

That is posing a real precarious problem for rebel fighters because the city is being increasingly encircled by regime forces.





On Tuesday, the general command of the Syrian army called on opposition fighters in eastern Aleppo to lay down their weapons, the government-run SANA news agency reported.

In text messages to civilians and fighters, the army urged residents to join the national reconciliations and expel the mercenary outsiders from the areas where the citizens reside, SANA added.

State media also said humanitarian corridors have been created for residents who want to escape the besieged areas of the city.

Opposition activists are saying they are facing more dire circumstances  that the siege is creating a humanitarian crisis in and around the city, said Jamjoom.

Intensified fighting

In the past few days, dozens of Syrians have been reportedly killed in separate attacks across the divided city.

On Tuesday, Syrian government helicopters targeted the al-Mashhad neighbourhood in the rebel-held half of Aleppo, killing at least 18 people, according to the Observatory.

On Monday, more than 42 civilians were reported to have been killed and dozens more wounded in air strikes launched by the Syrian government in al-Atareb, a city in Aleppo province in the countrys northwest.

The latest attacks came as the United Nations said it hoped to restart stalled peace talks in August.

Previous attempts at a diplomatic solution to end Syrias five-year-old civil war collapsed in April, partly owing to an increase in violence in Aleppo.

Manbij investigation

In separate events, the US army said on Wednesday it had enough evidence to start a formal investigation into allegations that US-led coalition air strikes killed civilians near Manbij, a city in the Aleppo governate.

After examining internal and external information, the coalition determined that there was sufficient credible evidence of civilian victims to open a formal inquiry, said spokesman Colonel Chris Garver.

According to witness reports, between 56 and 167 civilians died in attacks north of Manbij on July 19.

The US has been conducting military activity in Syria as part of an international coalition set up to battle the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) armed group

The formal investigation is now under way, Al Jazeeras Rosiland Jordan, reporting from Washington DC, said.

READ MORE: Syria war  dozens killed in US-led strikes on Manbij

While an investigation of this kind typically takes between three and six months, this particular case may extend beyond that, Jordan added.

In Syria, the US does not have permission to be on the ground  They cant go to the scene [of the attack], said Jordan, explaining that the nature of the US intervention in the country made the probe more complicated than others.

They will have to talk to non-governmental organisations and monitoring groups that are keeping track of these incidents, and see if these organisations will put them in contact with witnesses so they can try to get the information that way.

The US-led coalition has been supporting mostly Kurdish opposition forces in and around Manbij since May, in the hope of breaking ISILs hold on the region.

The Syrian conflict began as a mostly unarmed uprising against Assad in March 2011, but it quickly escalated into a full-blown civil war between the government, armed opposition fighters and hardline groups such as the Islamic State.

The Observatory estimates that more than 280,000 people have been killed throughout the five years of bloodshed. Efforts to negotiate a lasting ceasefire have collapsed time and again.

More than 4.8 million Syrians have become refugees displaced from their homeland, while more than 6.5 million people are internally displaced within the countrys borders.
US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has urged Russia to find the missing emails of Hillary Clinton, while she was secretary of state, drawing condemnation from his Democratic rival.

Russia, if youre listening, I hope youre able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing, Trump told reporters in Miami on Wednesday. I think youll probably be rewarded mightily by our press!

Trump was referring to emails on Clintons private email server that she deleted because she said they were private before she turned other messages over to the State Department. The FBI declined to prosecute Clinton over her email practices but its director said she had been extremely careless handling classified materials.

Leaked emails appear to show DNC hostility to Sanders

Clintons campaign quickly responded to Trumps latest statement, calling it the first time that a major presidential candidate has actively encouraged a foreign power to conduct espionage against a political opponent.

This has gone from being a matter of curiosity, and a matter of politics, to being a national security issue, Clintons campaign said in a statement.

But shortly after Trumps comments, his running mate, Indiana Governor Mike Pence, took a different stance and warned of serious consequences if Russia interfered in the election.

If it is Russia and they are interfering in our elections, I can assure you both parties and the United States government will ensure there are serious consequences, Pence said in a statement.

Russia has brushed aside suggestions it was involved. I dont want to use four-letter words, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told reporters on Tuesday.

WikiLeaks emails

In the same news conference on Wednesday, Trump dismissed suggestions that Russia had sought to influence the US election by engineering the theft of Democratic Party emails released by WikiLeaks last week.

The Democratic Party chairwoman, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, resigned on Sunday after the leaked emails showed party leaders favouring Clinton over her rival, Senator Bernie Sanders, for the presidential nomination.

Al Jazeeras Kimberly Halkett, reporting from Philadelphia, where the Democrats are holding their presidential convention, said Trumps latest statement could help Clintons party deflect the criticism and internal dissent they had been facing following the leaks.

This seems to be a welcome gift for the Democratic Party, given the fact that they are trying to distance themselves from the content, which shows that they colluded in favour of Hillary Clintons candidacy over Sanders, Halkett said.

Representatives from Clintons campaign have previously claimed that Russians hacked computers belonging to their party, and released those emails on the eve of the partys convention to benefit Trumps candidacy.

Serious consequences

But Trump dismissed the claims of his role in the leak, saying it was not clear who hacked those emails, and describing the incident a sign that foreign countries no longer respected the US.

Trump, whom Democrats have accused of having cozy ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin, repeatedly declined to condemn the actions of Russia or any other foreign power of trying to intervene in the a US election.

He also has downplayed his affection for Putin and said he would treat the Russian leader firmly, though he said he wanted to improve relations with Moscow.





Elie Jacobs, a cyber-security expert from the Truman National Security Project, said it was likely that Russia was involved with the hacking  but doubted links to Trump.

I think this was purely an act of cyber warfare, and thats really the larger story, and less about what it has to do with the political cycle right now, Jacobs told Al Jazeera.

US President Barack Obama, meanwhile, said anythings possible when asked during an interview whether the Russians could be working to sway the election toward Trump.

Donald Trump has repeatedly expressed admiration for Vladimir Putin, Obama said during the sit-down with NBC News that aired on Tuesday.

And I think that Trumps gotten pretty favourable coverage back in Russia.
The Turkish government issues a new decree shaking up security forces and media in wake of failed coup attempt.

The Turkish government has issued a new decree ordering the closure of scores of media organisations as it widened its crackdown in the wake of a failed coup attempt earlier this month.

According to the government decree, which was published in the official gazette of the republic late on Wednesday, three news agencies, 16 television channels, 23 radio stations, 45 daily newspapers, 15 magazines and 29 publishing houses have been ordered to shut down.

Among them are Zaman Newspaper, Samanyolu News Channel and Cihan News Agency, which have previously been accused of supporting the movement of Fethullah Gulen, the US-based cleric and businessman blamed by the Turkish government for the failed coup bid on July 15.

A total of 1,684 members of the armed forces, including 127 generals and 32 admirals, were also being dismissed from the Turkish military as result of their alleged connections to the Gulen movement, according to the decree, the second to be issued under the powers of the state of emergency.

Interior ministry takes over key security force

In one of the most significant institutional changes since the coup attempt, the decree also announced that the gendarmerie and the coast guard 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. Its removal is seen as a blow to the armed forces clout.

The decree will now move to parliament, which is dominated by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogans Justice and Development Party (AKP). The legislature has oversight powers on such decrees, adopted as part of the state of emergency which entered into force on Thursday.

The new decree will come in to affect on July 29, according to Turkeys state owned Anadolu Agency.

READ MORE: Turkey in shake-up of security forces after failed coup

Last week, Erdogan issued another decree to close 2,341 institutions  including schools, charities, unions and medical centres  which are suspected to have connections to Gulens movement.





Since the failed coup attempt, 15,846 people, including soldiers, judges, prosecutors and civil service workers, have been detained. Of them, a total of 8,133 have been charged, according to the latest interior ministry figures.

The rapid pace of arrests since the failed coup has worried many of Turkeys allies, who say they see the country going down an increasingly authoritarian road.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday expressed deep concerns about the ongoing wave of arrests in Turkey following the attempted coup.

In a phone conversation, Ban told Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu that credible evidence must be presented swiftly so that the detainees legal status could be determined by a court of law.

Ban has spoken out repeatedly on the need for Turkey to respect freedom of speech and assembly and to uphold due process.

The UN chief trusts that the government and people of Turkey will transform this moment of uncertainty into a moment of unity, preserving Turkeys democracy, Bans spokesman Farhan Haq said..

Turkeys Prime Minister Binali Yildirim, on the other hand, warned that the crackdown and purge unleashed after the coup attempt was not over.

The investigation is continuing. There are people who are being searched for. There could be new apprehensions, arrests and detentions, Yildirim told Sky News, according to the networks translation of his remarks.

The process is not completed yet, he added.

Turkey to close all army high schools

The Turkish government is also set to issue another decree to close down military high schools and restructure war academies in the wake of the failed coup attempt.

After the publication of the new decree on Thursday, all military high schools will be shut, and all cadets will be transferred to regular state schools, Al Jazeera Turk reported on Wednesday citing government sources.

A total of 8,651 soldiers took part in the failed coup attempt and 1,214 of these soldiers were military students, according to the Turkish military.

READ MORE: Arrest warrants issued for 42 journalists in Turkey

Immediately after the failed coup attempt, a total of 62 students at Kuleli Military School, the oldest such establishment in Istanbul, were arrested by Turkish authorities.

The cadets, aged between 14 and 17, were accused of having connections to the movement of US-based cleric and businessman Fethullah Gulen, who Erdogan blames for the failed coup bid.

Their relatives have since denied the youths were willing participants in the coup attempt, saying they were summoned to school from vacation by commanders who duped them into taking part in the rebellion and deployed them on to Istanbuls streets.

But, Turkish authorities continue to believe that the militarys educational institutions are mostly controlled and occupied by Gulen supporters.

Government officials told us that some military cadets may not be connected to the Gulen organisation, but, they said at this stage it would be impossible for them to determine who is connected and who is not, said Al Jazeera Turks Didem Ozel Tumer.

They believe the [Gulen] organisation has been distributing answer keys for the military schools entrance exam.

READ MORE: Turkey investigates those who say coup attempt was hoax

Turkish war academies, which offer university level education to prospective military officials, will also be affected by the new decree, expected to be issued on Thursday.

After the shake-up, these academies will continue to exist, but they will fall under the defence ministry and not the army, according to the Turkish pro-government daily Star.
UN express alarm at planned executions of convicts, including citizens from Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Pakistan and Senegal.

The UN human rights chief has urged the Indonesian government to stop the looming firing squad executions of 14 people for drug offences.

The group of convicts, including foreigners, have been given notice of their executions and could be put to death as early as Friday.

Zeid Raad Al Hussein, the High Commissioner for Human Rights, expressed alarm on Wednesday at the planned executions.

The increasing use of the death penalty in Indonesia is terribly worrying, and I urge the government to immediately end this practice which is unjust and incompatible with human rights, he said in a statement.

The death penalty is not an effective deterrent relative to other forms of punishment, nor does it protect people from drug abuse.

Indonesias dramatic executions hide the real problem

Security has been tightened at Nusa Kambangan prison island in preparation for the executions.

Those who would be executed include citizens of Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Pakistan and and Senegal, Attorney General Muhammad Prasetyo told reporters at the state palace on Wednesday.

Other reports said at least four Indonesians and an Indian would also be executed.

Cruel practice

It would be the third set of executions under President Joko Widido, who campaigned on promises to improve human rights in Indonesia.

If the government sticks to its plans, his administration will have executed more people in two years than in the previous decade.

Jokowis predecessor ended a moratorium on executions in 2013.

Australias ABC television reported on Wednesday that the Pakistani government has protested against the planned execution of one of its nationals, calling it unfair and alleging torture by police.





Lawyers and rights groups have raised serious doubts about the legitimacy of the convictions in several of the death row drug cases.

On Tuesday, Amnesty International said Jokowis presidency was supposed to represent a new era on human rights in Indonesia.

Sadly, he could preside over the highest number of executions in the countrys democratic era at a time when most of the world has turned its back on this cruel practice, said Josef Benedict, a senior official of Amnesty in Asia.

The death penalty does not deter crime. Carrying out executions will not rid Indonesia of drugs. It is never the solution, and it will damage Indonesias standing in the world.

Human Rights Watch described the death penalty as a barbarity and warned of potential diplomatic firestorm against Indonesia, if the executions went through.

Last year, Indonesia executed 14 people convicted of drug crimes, mostly foreigners, sparking an international outcry.

According to the latest government report issued by Indonesias ministry of law and human rights, 133 were on death row as of January 2015. They include 57 drug trafficking cases and 74 for murder and robbery.
Wiranto, implicated by UN in atrocities in East Timor during occupation and 1999 separation, to oversee five ministries.

Indonesias president has appointed a controversial former military chief, Wiranto, as the countrys top security minister.

Wednesdays cabinet shake-up is President Joko Widodos attempt at strengthening the Southeast Asian countrys struggling economy.

General Wiranto had been accused of committing atrocities during Indonesias occupation of East Timor.

He was in charge of the military when the Indonesian army and paramilitaries carried out deadly assaults after East Timor sought independence from Indonesia in 1999.

About 100,000 people are estimated to have been killed, mainly by Indonesian forces and their proxies, or died of starvation and illness during the occupation.

Wiranto was among other senior officers indicted by UN prosecutors over human rights abuses during the 24-year occupation period.

Despite evidence gathered proving his role in the killings of 1999, Wiranto denies any wrongdoing and has never faced court over the atrocities.

Wiranto will be overseeing five ministries including foreign, interior and defence.

READ MORE: Indonesia rejects ruling on 1960s mass killing

Activists called this recent cabinet reshuffle a step backwards for human rights.

It is a setback, Andreas Harsono, Indonesia researcher for the Human Rights Watch organisation, told AFP news agency.

The message might be that Jokowi is not going to be as progressive as before in pursuing his human rights agenda.

Struggling economy

Wiranto replaces Luhut Panjaitan as chief security minister.

Observers suggest that the military elite and religious groups were concerned when Panjaitan began taking unprecedented steps to probe a 1960s purge of communists and their supporters.

This cabinet shake-up is Jokos attempt at boosting efforts to strengthen the countrys struggling economy.

READ MORE: After the massacre  Indonesias first step in healing

He said there are difficult challenges facing the government, including tackling poverty, reviving the slowing economy and reducing unemployment.

Those challenges require us to work faster, he said.

Among the newly appointed members is Sri Mulyani Indrawati, currently the World Bank managing director, who has been named the new finance minister.

She previously held the post in 2005-10.
A look at life on both sides of the barriers dividing two warring communities.

It matters little what they are called  walls, barriers or fences  the intention is the same: to redefine human relations into us and them.

The Walls of Shame series is about division, and about the barriers that men erect, in calculation or desperation, to separate themselves from others, or others from them. When diplomacy and conciliation fail, this is the alternative, and not since medieval times have walls been so in demand around the world.

Tens of new walls, barriers and fences are currently being built, while old ones are being renovated. And there are many types: barriers between countries, walls around cities and fences that zigzag through neighbourhoods.

This series looks at four examples of new and extended walls around the world. It examines the lives of those who are living next to them and how their lives are affected. It also reveals the intention of the walls designers and builders, and explore the novel and artistic ways walls are used to chronicle the past and imagine the future.

Taking its name from John F Kennedys reference to the Berlin Wall in his state of the union address in 1963, this series examines four new walls: the one on the American-Mexican border, the West Bank wall, the Spanish fence around Ceuta, and the walls inside the city of Belfast in Northern Ireland.

Belfast: The Troubles of Two Communities

The modern history of Northern Ireland has been dominated by one thing, The Troubles  a violent, bitter conflict, both political and religious, between those claiming to represent the predominantly Catholic nationalists and those claiming to represent the mainly Protestant unionists.

But what Northern Ireland has now is not so much peace as an absence of conflict after the Good Friday Agreement was signed in 1998. Far from disappearing, the walls have grown. Instead of reconciliation, there is partition  an ill-tempered stalemate of separate identities and separated lives.

Broadly speaking, the nationalists  also called Republicans  want Northern Ireland to be unified with the Republic of Ireland while the unionists want it to remain part of the United Kingdom, along with England, Wales and Scotland.

This episode of the Walls of Shame series looks at life on both sides of the barriers between the warring communities.

Update: Al Jazeera returned to Belfast, almost a decade after this film first aired in 2007, to touch base with Catholic muralist Danny Devenny. As the walls of separation  or protection, as some view the barriers  start to come down, much of Danny and his muralist friends work is also being destroyed, with calls to reimagine their art.

The government has vowed to destroy the walls but the community is reluctant, scared and not appreciative of attempts to gloss over a difficult past.
A series of recent attacks around the world have once again brought the issue of mental health to the forefront.

This year has seen a series of so-called lone-wolf attacks that have killed hundreds of people around the world.

Some have been linked to the kind of violent ideology promoted by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS). Others have not.

From Orlando to Nice to Munich, relatives of some of the attackers have come forward and talked about a history of mental illness.

But the role of mental health is often missing in the discussion about the possible motives for these mass killings.

So, is there a link between violence and mental health? And what are governments doing to deal with it?

Presenter: Sami Zeidan

Guests:

Raj Persaud  Consultant psychiatrist and a Professor at Gresham College, London

Peter Yaro  Executive director of Basic Needs Ghana
Update 8:00 p.m. 

GPD has issued an update saying the car was found parked and not crashed, as originally reported. A replica gun was found nearby.

"GPD Investigators are working some additional leads that may lead to smaller-scale searches throughout the night," according to a report posted by GPD on Facebook.

Update 8:19 p.m. 

The suspect has been taken into custody by GPD.

The original story is below.

Authorities are still searching for a man who robbed the Campus USA Credit Union on Archer Road on Tuesday afternoon.

The man, who is currently believed to be 31-year-old William Rossignol, walked into the bank at about 1:40 p.m. wearing khaki shorts and a black T-shirt with a skull on the front, Gainesville Police spokesman Officer Ben Tobias said.

The man then pulled up his shirt to show the teller a handgun, Tobias said, and the bank called police shortly after.

Rossignol is suspected of robbing a Wells Fargo bank Wednesday, July 20, and he was arrested Nov. 4, 2015, for stealing an iPad from the Hall of Heroes, a room at GPD headquarters, according to multiple press releases.

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Soon after Tuesdays robbery, a GPD sergeant chased a gray Honda Accord, which Rossignol is known to drive, until it crashed at Phase Two of Lexington Crossing Apartments. The driver then ran away.

We know that hes a drug user; we know that hes desperate, Tobias said.

By about 4 p.m., nearly 20 people waited down the road from the apartments, where authorities took turns blocking the entrance as the search continued.

Lindsay Gamble, an 19-year-old UF public relations sophomore, held an orange and blue umbrella in temperatures that reached more than 90 degrees.

Thats pretty scary because I live there, so hopefully they catch him, she said.

Further down the road, Gainesville Police, Alachua County Sheriffs Office deputies and University Police lined Southwest 28th Terrace, where authorities searched several spots, including a home where an alarm was triggered, Tobias said.

Cars began to line each side of Southwest 35th Place as people watched the search or waited to drive to their homes in the neighborhood.

CeAra Anderson waited nervously to enter the neighborhood, where she said her young niece was possibly home alone.

They told me that its not safe for me to go home, so I dont think its safe for her to be at home, she said.

Anderson, an 18-year-old Santa Fe College political science sophomore, said she works at SunState Federal Credit Union, and that she had heard about last weeks Wells Fargo robbery.

Authorities later reopened the Southwest 28th Terrace neighborhood and focused mainly on Lexington Crossing Apartments, according to a press release.

I wanted to go home after work, make my pancakes and clean up my house, Anderson said.
           2005     ..        
In South Sudan thousands of people have fled the recent hostilities between rival political factions. These new outbreaks of violence have compounded the already considerable humanitarian needs in the country. Switzerland has decided to provide an additional CHF 2 million to alleviate the suffering of the local population. Switzerland is concerned about the fate of []http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Appa-sourceTheAfric...
To bankers, Donald Trump's comments Wednesday encouraging Russian hackers were a bit like someone tweeting out the address to an already-packed party.

As it stands, the cybersecurity climate is an all-hands-on-deck situation, so one more threat  even one prompted by one of the loudest voices in the country  may not matter much.

"We know that our community bank is attacked every day by Russian, Chinese and North Korean cyber hacker teams and it is my understanding that every community bank and credit union in the U.S. is under a similar relentless daily attack," said Stephen Lange Ranzini, president of the $140 million-asset University Bank in Ann Arbor, Mich. "These attacks won't increase or decrease based on anything Donald Trump says."

For those unfamiliar with the Republican presidential candidate's controversy du jour, Trump said Wednesday he hopes Russia hackers find 30,000 of Hillary Clinton's emails from when she was secretary of state. Political pundits pondered whether the remarks were treasonous or simply another example of Trump's bombastic style.

Like Ranzini, other bank executives said cybersecurity is an always-on priority, not one reactive to various threats.

"Cybersecurity is not like physical security where you can put more people on it," said Tim Lenhoff, chief technology officer at the $5.3 billion-asset Dime Community Bancshares. "Your cyber defense is your cyber defense and you can't ramp it up based on a news story, it should be ramped up all the time."

But others say banks should care about the Trump comments for that specific reason. Banks are already overwhelmed by threats  they certainly don't want someone actively encouraging an attack to the U.S. government.

"We're in the midst of a growing epidemic of cybercrime. To have anyone solicit this type of criminal activity against an individual or an organization is unlawful and appalling," said Edward J. McAndrew, a partner at the law firm of Ballard Spahr, who served for a decade as a federal cybercrime prosecutor and national security cyber specialist at the Department of Justice. "If this doesn't cross the line, it walks right up to the line of soliciting a serious federal felony."

Trump's comments related to emails from Hillary Clinton's personal server during her time as secretary of state, and were said in response to questions about Russia's potential involvement in hacks to the Democratic National Committee and posted by WikiLeaks last week.

That breach should matter to banks, too, McAndrew said.

"In that instance, we aren't just talking about emails concerning issues of political interest  these emails included social security numbers, credit card numbers and other personal information that is protected from disclosure by numerous federal and state laws," he said.

Others IT execs chalked Trump's comments up to sarcasm.

"It doesn't worry meIf he was actively doing something dangerous from a cybersecurity perspective I would have a different opinion," said an IT executive at a community bank in the Midwest. "When politicking I think everything needs to be taken with a grain of salt."

The executive added that the private email server Clinton had was more worrisome to him.

"The bigger cybersecurity concern to me is having an established political leader claiming ignorance and actively engaging in dangerous activity such as a private email server," the executive said. "If you took the [political affiliations] out of it and asked security professionals if having a private email server housing confidential information is concerning, everyone would say yes."


If blockchain technology accomplishes nothing else in the capital markets, it is at least drawing attention to an unsettling fact: In the United States, publicly traded stock does not exist in private hands.

It is not owned by the ostensible owners, who, by virtue of having purchased shares in this or that company, are led to believe they actually own the shares. Technically, all they own are IOUs. The true ownership lies elsewhere.

While private-company stock is still directly owned by shareholders, nearly all publicly traded equities and a majority of bonds are owned by a little-known partnership, Cede & Co., which is the nominee of the Depository Trust Co., a depository that holds securities for some 600 broker-dealers and banks. For each security, Cede & Co. owns a master certificate known as the "global security," which never leaves its vault. Transactions are recorded as debits and credits to DTC members' securities accounts, but the registered owner of the securities  Cede & Co.  remains the same.

What shareholders have rather than direct ownership, then, "is a [contractual] right against their broker," said Marco Santori, a partner at Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman who leads the firm's blockchain technology team. "The broker then has a right against the depository institution where they have membership. Then the depository institution is beholden to the issuer. It's [at least] a three-step process before you get any rights to your stock."

This attenuation of property rights has made it impossible to keep perfect track of who owns what. In fact, discrepancies between the records of various counterparties occur every day, though they are usually resolved without incident. But in a crisis, when liquidity dries up and the system seizes, these discrepancies could mean that more securities are outstanding than were actually issued  leaving some investors out of pocket and with nothing to show for it.

Another risk pertains to settlement. Within the three-day period required for securities transactions to settle, those securities travel through the balance sheets of multiple intermediaries. If one of them goes bust  as Lehman Brothers did, as MF Global did  somebody who thought he was buying 1,000 shares of Apple, say, instead winds up being a creditor of a bankrupt firm. "They're still trying to figure out what companies Lehman Brothers owned," Santori said.

While such disasters are rare, the DTC system introduces needless counterparty risk, some argue. "It really doesn't matter  until it's the only thing that matters," said Caitlin Long, a blockchain advocate who recently left Morgan Stanley after 22 years on Wall Street.

An effort is now underway in the state of Delaware, where most publicly traded American companies are incorporated, to offer a competing system based on blockchain technology. Its proponents claim that it will provide all the benefits of electronic trading while restoring direct ownership to investors. An amendment to state law making this possible is set to pass next year.

[Get up to speed on distributed ledgers, cryptocurrencies and the bleeding edge of fintech at American Banker's third annual Blockchains + Digital Currencies conference July 28 in New York. Click here to read the agenda and register.]

In the meantime, most holders of stocks and bonds have no idea that some other entity owns their assets. Their misapprehension is understandable. Even many brokers are unaware of Cede & Co.'s existence, Long said.

"This thing is so critical. It's at the center of the economy. And no one knows about it."

'PAPER BLIZZARD'

"From time immemorial, your broker held your shares," said Patrick Byrne, the founder and longtime chief executive of the online retailer Overstock, who has studied this issue with singular intensity.

The current system, by contrast, has its origins in the great "paper blizzard" of 1970, a crisis afflicting the back offices of New York brokerage firms. In those days, paper certificates changed hands when trades were made, and couriers rode around the city with burlap sacks full of stocks. Transfer agents kept everybody honest.

During the 1960s, however, trading volume on the New York Stock Exchange more than quadrupled, and securities firms found it impossible to settle transactions and get the paper out quickly enough.

"If things get logjammed badly enough, it ripples out and people don't know who owns what," Byrne said.

The NYSE did its best to help firms catch up, switching to a four-day week with abbreviated market hours, but it was no use. As a result of the crisis, more than 100 brokerages were forced into bankruptcy or were swallowed up by stronger rivals.

The following year, the Securities and Exchange Commission held a conference to discuss possible solutions. One was to go fully electronic, "dematerializing" the stock. That would have required getting all 50 states to change their laws to allow uncertificated shares. Most financial firms were in favor of this option, but they didn't think it could be implemented quickly enough. (The available technology was also a limiting factor.)

And so the other proposal won the day, in which paper certificates would be "immobilized" in a central depository. Interests in the securities  claims against the depository, the registered owner  would be traded, not the securities themselves.

Either solution would have meant radically changing the system  eliminating the need to deliver physical shares  but only dematerialization would have allowed stockholders to retain full ownership of their stocks and bonds.

The development of the present system proceeded gradually, by a series of milestones  which Byrne calls a "road to perdition"  but the final step was a 1994 amendment to the Uniform Commercial Code, enshrining the system of indirect securities ownership in the law of all 50 states.

It should be noted that this system is far superior to having a bunch of couriers schlep bundles of paper all over town. "There's no doubt that the current system is better than the system in place in 1977. It's because of this system that we have highly efficient capital markets," Santori said. "By and large, they are much more efficient than they were in the Seventies, and it's thanks largely to this system. But it brings problems of its own."

One of these is related to a practice called "rehypothecation," in which, as Long has written, "market players re-use their securities as collateral over, and over, and over again, multiple times a day, to create credit. Multiple parties' financial statements therefore report that they own the very same asset at the same time."

In the so-called repo market, hedge funds and banks and broker-dealers post collateral to one another  predominantly Treasury bonds and mortgage-backed securities. Where things get tricky is that firms are allowed to re-post to another party collateral they have received  so Bank A posts to Bank B and B posts to C and C posts to D, creating "collateral chains" of unknown length. The counterparty exposure is tough to track.

"At a systemic level, it creates double-counting in the records," Long said.

As a regulator, said Santori, "you can't tell what's being traded and re-traded and how many times.  You have no transparency into the system. There are of course reporting requirements, and regulators can engage in auditing, but none of that is done in real time. And none of it is ultimately verifiable."

Drawing on the research of International Monetary Fund economist Manmohan Singh, Long estimates that only one in three parties who think they own a U.S. Treasury bond actually does.

"There could be many times more people than the number of chairs," said Byrne, "and you never know when the music is going to stop."

DELAWARE

The case for transforming this system is not only a practical but a philosophical and even a moral one, driven by the imperative to restore property rights to their true owners. But as long as financial firms continue to benefit from rehypothecation and slow settlement times, they have no incentive to change. "You can't change this in the markets," Santori said. "You have to change it in the law."

Since 2015, his firm has been working to do just that. It is preparing an amendment for the state of Delaware that would update its version of the UCC to create a new type of security  distributed-ledger shares.

These shares "would be born, they would live, they would die all on a blockchain," said Santori. They would be cryptographically authenticated by the state of Delaware. And they would not merely be representations of securities; they would be the securities themselves.

Delaware's technology partner in this initiative  announced at a blockchain conference in May 2016  is Symbiont, a smart-contracts startup that has taken aim at capital markets.

Mark Smith, Symbiont's CEO, describes these "smart securities" as impossible to forge, duplicate or subdivide into more pieces than has been authorized. They will make it clear who owns what and enable fast trades while keeping ownership in the hands of the actual owners.

"The DTC is really a share-registry system," Smith said. "They're responsible for maintaining who the ultimate IOU holders are. But with a distributed ledger, you now have the ultimate share registry. There is no longer a need to cede your ownership to Cede & Co. to get the electronic benefit."

The Depository Trust & Clearing Corp., the parent company of the DTC, did not respond to a request for comment for this story. The DTCC itself has shown interest in blockchain technology in the past six months. Its executives have spoken at blockchain conferences and have joined the advisory boards of Coin Center and the Chamber of Digital Commerce, two tech advocacy groups in Washington. In March, the DTCC hosted a "blockchain symposium" for finance professionals in New York.

If state law is amended in 2017, as expected, companies incorporated in Delaware will have the option to issue their shares on Symbiont's blockchain rather than using the DTC system. More than half of publicly traded American companies and 66% of the Fortune 500 are incorporated in Delaware. If this initiative is only the first step toward making blockchain securities universal for American companies, it would be a very big step.

It remains to be seen, however, whether any companies will choose to abandon the devil they know for this alternative system. And while Symbiont has already gotten smart contracts running on its blockchain, it has yet to create any securities. Another smart-contracts platform, Ethereum, has recently become embroiled in controversy over the spectacular failure of its flagship contract and the resulting bifurcation of its blockchain into two competing systems.

Smith said he isn't worried. At the governor's request, the Delaware Bar Association will be proposing the amendment to the state legislature, which has enacted close to 100% of recommended amendments to the UCC. So he has every confidence that blockchain securities will be fully legal starting next year.

"The governor has signed off on this," Smith said. "The secretary of state has signed off on this. This is a done deal. There's no going back."


Norma Patricia Esparza, a Hispanic psychology professor who has been a cause celebre in feminist circles, was finally sentenced to six years in prison earlier this month for her involvement in the April 1995 murder of Gonzalo Ramirez. The 24-year-old construction worker was abducted by several people in a white van after they rear ended him. The next day his body was found in Irvine, California. He had been hacked to death with a meat cleaver. Esparza was one of five people implicated in the brutal murder. She pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter.

The murder was revenge for the alleged rape of Esparza, then a 20-year-old student at Pomona College. The comments to news stories on this sentencing seem to find some common ground between left and right, with each side upset for different reasons that Esparza is now a convicted felon. The feminists are angry because they see this as punishing a rape victim who was too ashamed to report the crime. Some on the right seem to approve of vigilantism against rapists rather than waiting until a police report has been filed. And there is evidence a rape did take place.

Those who have watched the two hour documentary the case that runs occasionally on the Investigation Discovery Channel know both sides do not seem to be paying attention to certain key details. Indeed, as a conservative I was appalled that Esparza's version of events is a game of 52 pick up, with a deck that contains every card in the feminist victimization playbook. I know that by the end of the program, I didn't believe a word Esparza said.

In April 1995, police initially contacted Esparza because the victim's phone records showed several calls to her number. They were immediately on alert because while Esparza admitted knowing Ramirez, she did not ask why the police had called her. Then she related how she had met Ramirez in a club. He had escorted her home and after asking to come in for a glass of water, Esparza said he had raped her. No she had not reported the rape to the police. Yes, she had told her "ex-boyfriend" of the incident because she badly needed some consolation. She was initially insistent she had not told him any details that would allow him to locate her alleged attacker and she had urged him not to act. When the police learned the ex-boyfriend drove a van that matched the description of the one used in the abduction they figured the case was solved except for nailing down the details.

In fact, it was Esparza's story that never seemed to get nailed down. Indeed, the prosecution had to be dropped entirely when it was learned Esparza had secretly married her ex-boyfriend and thus could not be a witness against him. The prosecutors bided their time, occasionally searching divorce records. In 2004, they thought they had gotten lucky after they learned Esparza had divorced. Then they learned she had moved to France with a new husband. (The couple had met working together on a Democrat political campaign.) The next step was to put her name on a Homeland Security watch list and wait some more

In the meantime, the authorities learned that far from being a passive witness in the abduction and murder, Esparza had not only fingered Ramirez for her boyfriend and his accomplices, she had been present during part of the attack.

In 2012, Esparza was taken into custody upon her return to the United States and the murder prosecutions proceeded.

Why am I skeptical of Esparza's story? I wish I had tallied up the number of times in the two hour documentary that Esparza used the phrase "I was traumatized by." Born a poor Hispanic girl, she claims she was traumatized as a child by repeated sexual abuse. She was then traumatized by a rape she reported to neither the police nor the campus medical staff, who she went to see the next day for the morning after pill. She was then forced into a loveless, sham marriage with her ex-boyfriend because the idea he and his friends were capable of such violence traumatized her all over again.

The details of her exact level of involvement in Ramirez's murder changed with each retelling with only one constant: her refrain that she had been traumatized by it all. She even claimed that she was made to view the bloodied but still alive Ramirez because her ex-boyfriend and his accomplices wanted to punish her for having been raped as much as they wanted to kill Ramirez in revenge. She sees a man being hacked to death and she can only think of her own trauma levels?

Then when her past catches up to her, Esparza is traumatized once again by being charged with a crime. She is to be seen as a blameless victim who was frozen with shame and fear. Or so say her on-line champions. Finally she played the ace of feminist victim cards: a prison sentence means her four year old daughter will be without a mother during the formative years and that's just not right.

Gonzalo Ramirez also has children. They have no memories of him. I heard no words of remorse for his family from Esparza.

Nor are the Ramirez family the only lives wrecked by Esparza's failure to report her alleged rape. Her ex-husband, Gianni Van, was convicted of murder in 2015 and is now serving a life sentence. One of his two male accomplices killed himself in a standoff with police when they attempted to arrest him in 2012. That accomplice's wife was sentenced last week to four years after pleading guilty to voluntary manslaughter. The other male accomplice pleaded guilty to murder and was sentenced to 25 years to life.
If the Obama administration needs any more clarity on what radical Islamic terrorism is all about, it was provided by Islamic State butchers in a Catholic Church in Normandy, France when they beheaded 86-year-old French priest Jacques Hamel as they chanted  wait for it Allahu Akbhar (God is great) As the Daily Mail reports:

Two ISIS knifemen who stormed a church in Normandy forced an elderly priest to kneel before filming themselves butchering him and performing a 'sermon in Arabic' at the altar, a terrified witness has revealed. The attackers, claimed as 'soldiers' by ISIS, were both known to French police before they cut the throat of 84-year-old priest Jacques Hamel at the church in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray near Rouen. Both were shot dead by police marksmen as they emerged from the building shouting 'Allahu Akbar' following the attack that also left a nun critically injured. French President Francois Hollande, who visited the scene today, said the country is now 'at war' with ISIS after the terror group claimed responsibility for the attack.

It is a war between civilizations and cultures. It is also a war between religions, although we like to tip-toe around the politically correct religion of peace argument. As Christians, even those President Obama called less than loving, are being slaughtered around the world, and a French priest is beheaded, it might be time to ponder that Christian tenet, by their fruits ye shall know them.

The war on Christians by Islamist fanatics worldwide by ISIS and its associated groups has been documented by Robert Spencer at Jihad Watch:

We have seen this before on several occasions in Kenya. In September 2013 at Nairobis Westgate Mall, Muslims murdered people who couldnt answer questions about Islam. In June 2014, Muslims murdered people who could not pass an Islam quiz. In November 2014, Muslims murdered 28 non-Muslims who couldnt recite Quran verses. In April 2015, Muslims screaming Allahu akbar stormed Garissa University College, and only shot those who couldnt recite Quran.Now we see it in Mali. And this is coming to the U.S.

As for religious tests, as President Obama has condemned for admitting Moslem refugees, one is imposed by radical Islamic terrorists constantly, such as the one imposed on the residents of a luxury hotel in Mali. As BizPac Review reported:

Islamic terrorists shouting Allahu Akbar have stormed a hotel in Mali, Africa, freeing only those who can recite the Quran. The gunmen, who took over the Radisson Blu Hotel in Malis capital of Bamako early Friday morning, have killed at least three people and taken 170 hostages, the Associated Press reported.

Theres a religious test for you, Mr. President, one you dont care to point out or condemn. Some 30 people failed the religious test imposed by radical Islamic terrorists. You tell us such attacks have nothing to do with Islam, yet the radical Islamic terrorists always shout Allahu Akhbar before they kill those who are determined not to be Christian.

Administration indifference to the war on non-Muslims by radical Islamic terrorists, who just might want to slip into the U.S. amidst a flood of refugees as they have already in Europe, has been well documented. As Investors Business Daily has pointed out:

we could find no such sentiment or statement by Obama condemning as a religiously motivated hate crime in the September 2014 beheading of an Oklahoma Christian woman by a former co-worker for not heeding his demand to convert to Islam or die. Dare we say it depends on whose ox is being gored? Obama -- who apologized to the United Nations after the Benghazi terrorist attack, saying a video offensive to Muslims prompted it -- also said, "The future must not belong to those who slander the prophet of Islam." That declaration would seem to include the staff of the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, who were accused of doing just that before a terrorist attack killed eight journalists. The massacre at Fort Hood was "workplace violence, "not a jihad terrorist attack by Maj. Nidal Hasan against Western "crusaders." The lives of the four Jews killed in a kosher market in Paris were dismissed by Obama as "a bunch of folks in a deli" shot "randomly" as they happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Detect a pattern here?.... Nor was the mass beheading of 21 Egyptian Coptic Christians by Islamic State terrorists in Libya, a failed state brought about by administration bungling and failure to acknowledge who our enemies are and why they're trying to kill us.

Hillary Clintons State Department refused to designate Nigerias terrorist group Boko Haram as an Islamic terrorist group for two years.

For two years on Hillary Clinton's watch, the State Department refused to designate a Nigerian Islamist group as a terrorist organization. This group has murdered thousands as it wages a real war on women When the Global Terrorism Database of the University of Maryland's National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism compiled its list of terrorist organizations and ranked them by the number of their terror acts in 2012, Afghanistan's Taliban came in first. Boko Haram was not far behind. The world's attention is now focused on the kidnapping of some 300 girls from the Chibok Government Girls Secondary School in Lagos, Nigeria. "I abducted your girls," a man claiming to be Abubakar Shekau, the group's leader, said in a video seen by the Guardian newspaper. "I will sell them in the market, by Allah. I will sell them off and marry them off. There is a market for selling humans.". Yet for two years, the State Department refused to acknowledge the growing threat and barbarism of Boko Haram. As Josh Rogin at The Daily Beast reports, the Clinton State Department "refused to place Boko Haram on the list of foreign terrorist organizations in 2011" after the group bombed the United Nations headquarters in Abuja, Nigeria.

We saw the worldwide war on Christians in the capture of Mosul in Iraq by ISIS and the decimation of its Christian population:

Chaldean Catholic patriarch Louis Sako, who heads Iraq's largest Christian community, told Agence France-Presse: "Christian families are on their way to Dohuk and Arbil (in Kurdistan). For the first time in the history of Iraq, Mosul is now empty of Christians." From Nigeria to Egypt to Afghanistan and back, this story of Christian persecution continues without much notice from the White House. To his credit, British Prime Minister David Cameron, up against a political correctness and a rising Muslim population, said during his annual Easter reception at 10 Downing Street, that "our religion is now the most persecuted religion around the world" and "we should stand up against persecution of Christians and other religious groups wherever and whenever we can, and should be unashamed in doing so."

Perhaps the murder of a French Catholic priest at the hands of radical Islamic terrorists from ISIS will finally cause President Obama to stand up and condemn this worldwide war on Christians. Then again, dont expect a miracle.

Daniel John Sobieski is a freelance writer whose pieces have appeared in Investors Business Daily, Human Events, Reason Magazine and the Chicago Sun-Times among other publications.
Everyone admires the intriguing puzzles and solutions in the stories of Sherlock Holmes. In The Adventures of Silver Blaze, the curious incident of the dog that did nothing  did not bark  in the night was the clue toward solving the mystery. Sherlock is needed to solve the mystery of why, on July 25, 2016, at the first day of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, the 61 speeches may have been full of bite, but none uttered a whisper, let alone a bark, about the menace of ISIS and Islamist terrorism.

The mystery deepens with the appalling news a few hours after the end of that first day that two Islamist terrorists, armed with knives, had entered a Catholic Church in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, a few miles from Rouen in Normandy, France, during morning service on July 26, 2016. They forced the octogenarian priest, Father Jacques Hamel, to kneel and filmed his death as they slit his throat. They took nuns and others hostage before they were killed by French police. ISIS promptly called them "two soldiers of the Islamic State."

Another terrorist referred to in the incident by the French police is a 24-year-old Algerian computer student named Sis Ahmed Ghlam, known to the authorities since he was arrested in April 2015 after he had called for an ambulance after he shot himself in the leg. He was arrested on suspicion of planning "imminent" terror attacks. In his car, the police discovered weapons including Kalashnikovs, a police-issued pistol, and bulletproof vests. Even more important, they found plans for terrorist attacks on other churches, including the Sacre-Cur Basilica in Paris. This terrorist is in prison charged with the murder of a 32-year-old woman who was shot three times in the head.

The barbarity committed in the church in Normandy is now added to the list of horrors executed by Islamist terrorists and followers of ISIS. It does not take a Sherlock to remember them, in London, Toulouse, Paris, Brussels and the Maelbeek metro station, Nice, Munich, Cologne, Wurzburg, and Ansbach.

The world, particularly the West, is facing a major threat to civilization and the way of life of democratic societies. British authorities have recently made it known that they disrupted seven plots to attack the U.K. in the last 18 months. French president Francois Hollande has again, after the murder in the church, declared that ISIS has declared war on the West and must be fought using all means possible. Indeed, ISIS is fomenting a war of religions, boldly announcing that a major target is Christians across the world and even aiming at the assassination of Pope Francis.

Presidential candidates and political party conventions in the U.S. as well as authorities in European countries must devote their attention to and prepare solutions for the continuing terrorism of contemporary barbarians who are now within our gates, not simply at them.

Western democratic systems are based on tolerance and respect for others and on honorable efforts to eliminate or at least limit prejudice in society. With societies based on free speech and expression, this has always been difficult to sustain, but it has become much more difficult with the prevalence of social media. Those defending the West recognize that new and changing technologies make it difficult for them to obtain sufficient accurate information to forestall planned terrorist attacks.

Strong, immediate action by the West is crucial. At bottom, Western leaders, especially those in the White House, must recognize the enemy, "radical Islamist terrorism," not evade the truth by euphemisms or political correctness. This means the use of forceful methods  plainly speaking, war  against the enemy so relentlessly anxious to destroy the West.

Greater accuracy in security arrangements is essential to prevent terrorist plans from succeeding. It is disturbing that both of the murderers of the priest were on the French anti-terrorist watch list and were known to the authorities. In fact, one of them, 19-year-old Adel Kermich, had been arrested in 2015 after being expelled from Turkey for trying to join ISIS in Syria. He had become a potential jihadist after the Charlie Hebdo massacre in January 2015. He was jailed in France but then freed by judges against the advice of prosecutors, fitted with an electronic tag, and subjected to a curfew. Nevertheless, he was able to commit the murder before the hour of the curfew began.

U.S. presidential candidates, like leaders everywhere, must now tackle a number of issues and propose solutions to overcome and stop not only hate speech, but also all incitements to adhere to Islamist terrorist appeals prevalent especially on the internet and social networks.

A few suggestions may be allowed. First is the difficult problem for democracies that must be tackled. Should expressions of hate and incitement to commit terrorism be limited by law and public policy, and by private agreement, in order to prevent future atrocities? Islamist extremism can be promoted not simply by Islamic authorities in mosques or madrassas, but now mainly in the home simply by looking at a screen.

Second, though the task for police and security personnel is understandably now increasingly formidable because of the number of potential jihadists and technological changes, intelligence must be improved, and those thought likely to commit terrorist acts must be dealt with severely. The jihadists must be regarded less as criminals and more as enemy fighters and must be dealt with accordingly.

Third, Islamic clerics should not be allowed to preach hatred against the West or encourage violent action. Their rhetoric used in mosques must be observed and censored if it incites violence. Authorities might consider expulsion of irresponsible imams.

Fourth, in connection with this previous point, Muslim leaders who claim to be moderate, truly interested in harmonious relations with non-Muslims, and honestly opposed to Islamist terrorism must speak out forcefully and often against the perpetrators.

Above all and finally, the immigration issue that has disconcerted all European countries, and to a considerable degree accounts for the success of Brexit in the U.K., must be confronted in the U.S. as it is being confronted in Europe. Two problems arise. One is whether potential jihadists, and if so how many, are claiming refugee and asylum status in the West. The other is that it is an open and complex question, and one hotly disputed politically, whether the majority of would-be immigrants can be successfully immigrated into Western countries.

National party leaders in the U.S. should discuss these issues.
The scientific method is one of the greatest contributions of Western civilization. The scientific method, limited representative government, and capitalism were the West's winning hand that created the modern world. All three are now under attack by the left. In this article, their assault on the scientific method is examined.

Critical Race Theory Overview

A Brown University orientation pamphlet for the 2015 freshman class suggests an alternative tool to the scientific method for the formulation and testing of hypotheses:

As you might learn in your time at Brown [University], research and academics have often emphasized and valued quantitative data, statistical information, and documentation through written word. Our goals through our research are to push back on this systematic oppression through valuing our personal experience, oral and creative histories and the celebration of collaboration and community. (6:42 min. into the YouTube video "Is the University Killing Free Speech and Open Debate")

The social justice warriors at Brown University are describing an "analysis tool" that has come to be known as critical theory. When refined to address racial issues (primarily African-American), its name is critical race theory (CRT).

The theoretical framework of CRT was developed in the mid- to late 1980s to better understand black oppression in the United States. Its major themes now include white privilege and micro-aggression. It is taught in nearly every grievance department in the country (women's studies, African-American studies, Hispanic studies, and ethnic studies). The white privilege theme was first introduced in a 1988 paper by Peggy McIntosh. Ms. McIntosh suggested that issues involving Band-Aid color and free hotel shampoo, rather than education deficiencies and a breakdown in the family structure, are impediments to black progress in America.

Offshoots of CRT have been developed for other marginalized groups. They include Latino critical race studies (LatCrit), Asian-American critical race studies (AsianCrit), and American Indian critical race studies (TribalCrit).

An example of CRT methodology as applied to FDA drug testing

Clarification of CRT methodology can be by gained from DrugCrit, the author's interpretation and description of how critical race theory methodology would be used to secure FDA approval of a new drug to treat breast cancer. 1) The pharmaceutical company informs the FDA that it has developed a new drug effective in the treatment of breast cancer. 2) The company reminds the FDA that 250,000 new cases of breast cancer are expected to be diagnosed in 2016. 3) Case studies are presented that might, for example, describe the emotional toil of the disease and the impact of a mother's death on her children. The FDA approval would be granted once the company established that the treatment of breast cancer is important and that a new treatment is desirable.

My profession and training in applied physics (Caltech Ph.D., 1978) fuel my contempt and disgust that CRT has become so widely accepted as a serious analysis tool (primarily in university grievance departments and far left law schools). Calling one another scholars and inventing pretentious names are not enough to validate a methodology that has no place in a modern world. It's tragic that white liberal college administrators were so cowed by possible charges of racism and so determined to increase the size of grievance departments (satisfy racial quotas for the faculty) that CRT was accepted as a scholarly endeavor. One may state without exaggeration that the actions of the school administrators are comparable to hiring astrologers for the astronomy department and witch doctors for the medical schools.

The application of CRT to support legal arguments has been rejected by a number of judges. For example, Judge Richard Posner of the United States Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals concluded that CRT is a tool used by the "lunatic core of radical legal egalitarianism." He stated that it turns its back on the Western tradition of rational inquiry and replaces it with fictional, science-fictional, and quasi-fictional anecdotes and storytelling Critical Race Theory is Irrational.

Case Study Comparison of the Scientific Method and CRT Methodology

We now present a comparison of CRT methodology and the scientific method as applied to answer an important racial/economic question: can the poverty and lack of economic development in Africa today be, at least partially, attributed to the slave trade spanning the 500-year period between 1400 and 1900? (Historical note: The trans-Atlantic slave trade was outlawed in the United States after 1807.)

CRT Analysis: One trained in CRT can immediately answer the question in the affirmative. This conclusion is then supported by delineating features of the slave trade that were detrimental to Africa, such as its brutality and the profits made by slave traders and slave owners. The psychological impact on those who remained in Africa could also be used to support the conclusion.

Scientific method analysis: Nathan Nunn, a Harvard economist, used the "western approach" to reach his conclusion. He collected data that allowed him to generate plots of the per capita GDP of 52 African countries as a function of slave trade activity in each country over a 500-year period. He employed two different metrics for slave trade activity: 1) number of slaves taken per square mile in each country; 2) fraction of estimated population that was enslaved (normalization needed to adjust for size differences in African countries).

A plot of some of his results is shown below. Nunn claims that his regression analysis demonstrates with 95% certainty (p-stat = 0.05) that the slave trade is responsible for some of the poverty in Africa today. The large spread in the data points (R2 = 0.31) suggests that other factors are also in play.

In summary, critical race theory (as applied to demonstrate black oppression in America today) offers the following advantages for liberal research over the scientific method: 1) flexibility to reach any desired result, since the conclusion is the first step in the analysis; 2) personal life experiences can be used in place of actual data to support the conclusion; 3) expertise can be realized by those afflicted by dyscalculia; 4) implicit acceptance and recognition of Western analysis methods can be circumvented.

The author believes he has presented a fair and balanced summary of critical race theory, without misrepresentation or exaggeration.
I live in Maale Adumim, Israel. Some call it a West Bank Settlement but actually its a beautiful municipality of about 40,000 Jews. It has a mall with typical womens shoe stores, places to eat, jeans stores, ACE hardware and more. Its about 30 minutes east of Jerusalem by bus.

Maale Adumim was almost given away to the PA by either PM Barak or PM Ohlmert in one of the land-for-peace deals that were turned down by the Arabs because 95% of what they asked for wasnt enough. They can get way more dollars and euros complaining about an imaginary plight than by having their own state.

Between us and Jerusalem are Palestinian villages. Actually theyre townships with 8 to 12 story residential apartment buildings. There are large signs at the entrances to these townships warning Jews not to make a wrong turn and accidentally enter them. The signs say its dangerous to your life.

Israel is different than most countries; its immigrants are Jewish. First they sell their houses in America, France, South Africa, the former Soviet Union and other countries. Then many arrive with good amounts of cash. Not all have money, but enough to drive up the prices of apartments. The prices are alright for some but difficult for many children of those whove immigrated in the past decades and marry in their 20s.

In the Jerusalem area land is expensive and rents are high. New construction advertises luxury apartments and old buildings are constantly being renovated. But theres lots of land around Maale Adumim. Its desolate. Its desert. Its comprised of rolling hills barren of vegetation.

Our mayor has been asking for permission to build on outlying land for years but the Israeli government had not given permission because of international pressure.

Its been called Palestinian land but a Palestinian people never existed. The land was Jordanian or it was part of the Ottoman Empire. The desolate land around us never had a recognizable population. Most of todays so-called Palestinians originally came from Jordan and Egypt for jobs. Yasser Arafat was Egyptian.

Palestine never existed beyond a map at British headquarters.

There is much written about the formation of modern Israel and how the land was bought, won or abandoned. When the British pulled out there was a war for the strategic high places, rural civilian centers and the Old City. In the end the Jews won control and the Arabs complained. Now the world objects to any change.

A book by Arthur Koestler written in 1949 describes the time civilization changed hands.

The discussion about the problem of Palestine for the last two decades has been a classic example of semantic confusion aggravated by emotional bias. The fact is that historic justice cannot be measured by absolute standards. As the process of history is irreversible, all judgement becomes a function of time. Yesterdays act of violence is to-days fait accompli and to-morrows legal status-quo. Which, then, is the zero hour for Palestine? Its forcible conquest by the Hebrew tribes from Canaanites, Jebusites and Philistines? The expulsion of the Jews from it after Bar-Kochabas revolt in the second century? Its conquest by Arab nomads in the seventh, or by the Ottoman Turks in the 16th? The entry of Allenbys troops in 1917 with the Balfour Declaration in one pocket and Wilsons fourteen points in the other? The British White Paper of 1939, or the British recognition of Israel in 1949?

The good news today is Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman recently approved the construction of 560 new housing units in so-called disputed areas around Maale Adumim. Some in the international community have already condemned the act. Nobody here cares. We want our children to live closer in a place they can afford. Still theres one nagging thought by Koestler.

Into this stagnant country the Jews burst like an explosion. They gained control of the land, not by force or fraud, but because they were the harbingers of the twentieth century in a country which had virtually stood still since the fifteenth. They did not dispossess or victimize or exploit its native owners, but substituted themselves for the former by virtue of a historic fatality. They did not come, as others Europeans had come to dark continents before them, with shotguns, glass beads and fire water; nor with missionaries either. They meant no harm to the Arabs; nor were the benefits which the latter reaped intentional on the part of the Jews. They came pressed by persecution and by hunger for a land of their own: and though the methods of their conquest were ethically less objectionable than any previous conquest in history, this was due more to the force of circumstance than to subjective merit. They were relatively decent and humane executors of the amoral workings of history

Ron Kean is retired and living in Israel.
My guess is that Mrs. Clinton knows that she's going to disappoint much of her party if she wins. In other words, the next president will have to fight the war against terrorists with a lot more energy and aggresiveness than President Obama did. Incredibly, President Obama has been allowed to kick the can forward and leave all of this to his successor.

The Democrat convention is all about turning Trump into a racist and sexist monster. Unfortunately, the real monster who just killed a priest in France was overlooked

Some delegates are defending the lack of ISIS saying that there is a theme nightly and terror was not on Monday's agenda, as Tyler Pager explained:

Based on our searches of C-SPAN closed-captioning text, Congressional Quarterly transcripts and other video archiving services, we couldnt find any speaker who mentioned "ISIS," "Islamic" "terror," "terrorist," or "terrorism" during the first day of the convention, Politifact wrote. The fact-checking website did add the caveat that the Democrats still have three days to discuss terrorism at the convention and the first day of the convention was not meant to focus on foreign policy. Additionally, Hillary Clinton on Monday called for action against ISIL at a rally in Charlotte, North Carolina. We need to lead other countries in stopping ISIS, Al Qaeda, and other radical jihadist groups, she said. "We shouldnt leave that to the rest of the world to figure out on their own. That wont keep us safe."

Frankly, I don't buy this nonsense about scheduling. I think that Democrats have concluded that their delegates would rather hear about free tutition than the threat of ISIS.

Let me say it again. Democrats are going to be very disappointed when # 45 has to go after ISIS, and that means ground troops. Mrs. Clinton has to know that and her anti-war pandering to the left is reckless and irresponsible.

The Democratic Party is in a state of denial. They should read today's Telegraph editorial about Germany:

Western democracies are now frequently experiencing political events that were previously considered unthinkable, at least by their political elites. If there is a common theme to Brexit, the candidacy of Donald Trump and the rise of the Front National in France, it is that political establishments which ignore and ridicule voters concerns about issues including immigration and cultural cohesion are simply storing up trouble for the future. Such concerns do not go away just because politicians refuse to acknowledge them, instead erupting unpredictably.

To avoid these eruptions, those worries must be addressed sensibly and calmly by mainstream politicians..

And the threat of ISIS is not going away either because we engage in silly arguments about motives or whether the killer was or was not radicalized.

P.S. You can listen to my show (Canto Talk) and follow me on Twitter.
The level of media bias in reporting the Democratic National Convention is as high as I have ever seen outside of North Korea and the old Soviet bloc. The GOP convention was declared a disaster many times during its four-day run, but the DNC, reeling from revelations of the rigging of the primary contests, is getting far more benign descriptors, as the media avert their eyes from unpleasant realities.

Among the most unpleasant realities for Democrats and the media is the anger of Bernie supporters now that it is clear the campaign into which they threw their hearts and souls was fixed all along. Somehow, that anger must be minimized, trivialized, and eventually extinguished if Donald Trump is to be stopped. And in the eyes of the media, that threat is so overwhelming that no restraints whatsoever are justified in making the case against him as propagandists rather than honest observers and reporters.

So the focus last night at the DNC was history being made, (no Y chromosomes at the top of the ticket) and a soft focus look at Hillarys record as a left wing activist using children as a front for demanding leftist policies and selected aspects of her personal relationship with Bill Clinton, the most popular living Democrat (if you ask Democrats).

As propaganda, it was skillful. The Dems, after all, have 10 times or more the access to high level Hollywood talent than the GOP does. But there was an awkward reality to be minimized, the walkout by angry supporters of Bernie. M.J. Lee of CNN reported on it:

Bernie Sanders fans are staging a walkout now after Hillary Clinton is nominated #DemsInPhilly pic.twitter.com/HTBrmcK6x7  MJ Lee (@mj_lee) July 26, 2016

Some Bernie Sanders supporters have walked out in protest. Now in press tent #DemsInPhilly pic.twitter.com/LUlDqXHPrM  MJ Lee (@mj_lee) July 26, 2016

Bernie walkout has turned into a mostly silent sit-in. #DemsInPhilly pic.twitter.com/J15MosdSM2  MJ Lee (@mj_lee) July 26, 2016

Here is some footage from Fox Business Network covering the walkout:

This is footage of the #DNCwalkout and #Demexit from Fox Business. They are describing thousands outnumbering cops. pic.twitter.com/b0rZkzv7T3  #Demexit (@acynicalvoter) July 27, 2016

It wasnt all kumbaya:

Dave Weigel of the Washington Post estimated the number delegates who walked out at 150:

There are around 1900 Bernie delegates; looks like 150 or so walked out, obscured by media. pic.twitter.com/jQlrbDHN1l  daveweigel (@daveweigel) July 26, 2016

But the crowd looked bigger to others. No doubt once outside the arena, more people joined them.

But the same reporter noticed some amusing theatrics among the Oregon delegation:

Oregon delegates walk out wearing black gags pic.twitter.com/Tndw1E6Lz7  daveweigel (@daveweigel) July 26, 2016

Imagine, for a moment, that Ted Cruz delegates had walked out on the GOP convention. Would the media have interrupted its coverage of the convention floor to follow the out and give them plenty of air time to speak their minds? Or, would they have just chilled?
These words come from Hillary Clintons speech, entitled United We Can Build A Better America.

Tonight we need to remember what a Presidential election is really about. When the polls have closed, and the ads are finally off the air, it comes down to you -- the American people, your lives, and your children's futures

Jobs lost, houses gone, falling wages, rising prices. The Supreme Court in a right-wing headlock and our government in partisan gridlock. The biggest deficit in our nation's history. Money borrowed from the Chinese to buy oil from the Saudis.

Putin and Georgia, Iraq and Iran.

I ran for President to renew the promise of America. To rebuild the middle class and sustain the American Dream, to provide the opportunity to work hard and have that work rewarded, to save for college, a home and retirement, to afford the gas and groceries and still have a little left over each month.

To promote a clean energy economy that will create millions of green collar jobs.

To create a health care system that is universal, high quality, and affordable so that parents no longer have to choose between care for themselves or their children or be stuck in dead end jobs simply to keep their insurance.

To create a world class education system and make college affordable again.

To fight for an America defined by deep and meaningful equality - from civil rights to labor rights, from women's rights to gay rights, from ending discrimination to promoting unionization to providing help for the most important job there is: caring for our families. To help every child live up to his or her God-given potential.

To make America once again a nation of immigrants and a nation of laws.

To bring fiscal sanity back to Washington and make our government an instrument of the public good, not of private plunder.

To restore America's standing in the world, to end the war in Iraq, bring our troops home and honor their service by caring for our veterans.

And to join with our allies to confront our shared challenges, from poverty and genocide to terrorism and global warming.

Most of all, I ran to stand up for all those who have been invisible to their government for eight long years.
One of the frontlines in the jihadi campaign to destroy America is on our college campuses, where jihadi front groups find a congenial home protected by left-wing academics, and with a vulnerable population of young Jews to attack. Antisemitic incidents on campus doubled in 2015  including 56 violent assaults - and doubled again in 2016.

A study released today by the Amcha Initiative reports:

There were nearly 100 more antisemitic incidents in the first six months of 2016 compared with the same time period in 2015. The number of incidents involving the suppression of Jewish students freedom of speech and assembly approximately doubled from 2015 to 2016. The consideration of anti-Israel divestment resolutions in student government or by the student body was strongly linked to a surge in antisemitic activity. The number of incidents opposing Israels right to exist nearly tripled from 2015 to 2016 and was highly correlated with behavior that targeted Jewish students for harm.

Few Americans are aware of that the Muslim Brotherhood is active on their childrens college campus.

Harvard, Columbia and Brandeis are among 10 American universities cited by the David Horowitz Freedom Center as among the most friendly in the nation to Islamic terrorists against Israel. Citing the Muslim Students Association (MSA) and Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP)  both created by members of the Muslim Brotherhood, godfather group to al-Qaeda and Hamas  Horowitz charged that the universities provide financial and institutional support to organizations on their campuses that support the agendas of these terrorists and spread their propaganda lies.

Universities hire and promote pro-jihadi professors, often in exchange for huge cash gifts from Saudi extremists.

At Columbia, the course catalog indicates that this spring the anthropology professor, Nicholas DeGenova, who called for "a million Mogadishus" and said "the only true heroes are those who find ways that help defeat the U.S. military," will be teaching a graduate class on "The Metaphisics of Antiterrorism." At least he isn't teaching spelling. At the University of South Florida, our Josh Gerstein reports elsewhere on this page, there's talk of rehiring Sami Al-Arian, whose lawyers conceded during a recent trial that he had "an affiliation" with the people in Palestinian Islamic Jihad. That is a deadly terrorist group.

The Muslim Students Association was the first Muslim Brotherhood organization to be established in the U.S. It is an influential lobbyist for the Wahhabi extremists and is on 600 campuses across the country.

it is a radical political force telling students that America is an imperialist power and Israel an oppressor nation. MSA speakers routinely spew anti-Semitic libels and justify the genocide against the Jews which is promoted by Islamic terrorist organizations like Hamas and Hezbollah and by the government of Iran. Meanwhile, Harvard and Georgetown universities announced this week that they had received $10 million each from a Saudi Arabian prince, Alwaleed bin Talal, to fund Islamic studies. Alwaleed, the so-called Saudi Warren Buffett, has also amassed sizable stakes in Citigroup and in Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, owner of Fox News Channel and of the New York Post. The prince became notorious when Mayor Giuliani turned down a $10 million gift from him after September 11, 2001, because the gift came with a statement saying that America should tilt its foreign policy more in favor of the Palestinian Arabs.

Discoverthenetworks.org profiles 200 peace studies programs that teach students terrorists are heroes oppressed by the evil United States.

On university campuses across the U.S., tenured radicals teach their students that one mans terrorist is another mans freedom fighter, and that America is the worlds greatest terrorist state. The Middle East Studies Association and more than 200 Peace Studies programs share the view that Americas terrorist enemies are in fact the voice of the worlds oppressed, and that by challenging the United States they are advancing the cause of social justice. The views of such professors dovetail seamlessly with those of influential, well-funded student organizations that view America as the chief cause of strife between the West and the Islamic world.

In addition to professors, every campus has its pro-jihadi student organizations, often secretly affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood.

The RESOURCES column on the right side of this page contains a link to profiles of college- and university-student organizations that may be classified as "fellow-traveling" or "apologist" groups that aid and abet the jihadist or Islamo-fascist movement. Fellow-traveling organizations are those that accept the goals -- such as the implementation of Sharia in the U.S. -- of the Islamists or jihadists, though not necessarily the methods that are often used to achieve those goals. "Apologist" organizations do not necessarily share the goals of the Islamists and jihadists, but they offer excuses, rationalizations, and justifications for those goals and for the methods -- e.g., suicide bombings and rocket attacks -- used to achieve them.

These pro-jihadi organizations are funded by student fees, that is, by unwitting parents. These are the same campuses that find Christian groups offensive and force them off-campus following complaints by gay students.

Todays brainwashed college students are tomorrows Democrat voters, happy to believe that jihadis are misunderstood freedom fighters, that it is wrong to support Israel, and that Obama and Hillarys pro-Muslim Brotherhood policies will lead us to peace. Freedom of speech does not force us to support and pay for Islamic propaganda to our children.
As noted here a few days ago, Secretary of State John Kerry informed the international climate change scaremongers:

The use of hydrofluorocarbons is unfortunately growing. Already, the HFCs use[d] in refrigerators, air conditioners, and other items are use[d] in refrigerators, air conditioners, and other items are emitting an entire gigaton of carbon dioxide-equivalent pollution into the atmosphere annually. Now, if that sounds like a lot, my friends, its because it is. Its the equivalent to emissions from nearly 300 coal-fired power plants every single year.

Well, okay, Secretary Kerry  let's do something about it. As I suggested over two years ago, Hypocrisy, Thy Name Is John Kerry:

In the interests of avoiding climate change and contributing to WMDs, not to mention doing something about that Democratic bugaboo of income and housing inequality, Kerry should convince his one per cent wife Theresa Heinz-Kerry to convert and sell her four carbon dioxide emitting mansions into public housing for minimum wage workers while he sells his Beacon Hill abode in Boston. They can then take up residence in a simple 2000 square foot apartment suitable for all the entertaining necessary for his job. (snip) Or perhaps Kerry will be willing to sacrifice his $7,000,000 yacht -- which he docked in neighboring Rhode Island to avoid his home state's $500,000 luxury tax which he voted for before moving against it.

However, John Kerry still has his four carbon dioxide-polluting climate-changing mansions. And his polluting yacht. Yeah, I'm surprised, too.

Oh, and not so by the way, John Kerry now also works in air conditioned comfort in steamy summery Washington, D.C., totally oblivious to the "gigatons of carbon dioxide-equivalent pollution in the atmosphere" emitted by the machines he deems evil. What to do? Let's encourage Kerry to practice what he preaches by getting rid of them. Here is a petition at Change.org asking Kerry to do just that.

I'm sure that once Kerry receives the petition with all the signatures, he'll immediately turn off his home and office air conditioners while conducting official business from his sweltering office on (highly secured, of course) computers while drastically reducing the number of his overseas trips on large, luxurious government planes and flying tourist class. And all the State Department employees will happily follow his lead. And of course he'll do something about his multiple mansions and boats now that he knows what he's talking about.

Sure, he will.

His talk is cheap, its consequences expensive.
A new report released by the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund shows an alarming increase in the number of shooting deaths of police compared to the same period last year.

The report also shows a big increase in ambush-style attacks on police.

Fox News:

Shooting deaths of law enforcement officers spiked 78 percent in the first half of 2016 compared to last year, including an alarming increase in ambush-style assaults like the ones that killed eight officers in Dallas and Baton Rouge, according to a report released Wednesday. However, data from the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund shows that firearms-related deaths of officers in the line of duty are still lower than they were during previous decades like the 1970s. Thirty-two officers died in firearms-related incidents so far this year including 14 that were ambush-style attacks, according to the report. During the same period last year, 18 officers were shot and killed in the line of duty including three that were considered ambush attacks. "That's a very alarming, shocking increase in the number of officers who are being literally assassinated because of the uniform they wear and the job that they do," said Craig W. Floyd, who heads the organization. The organization usually releases a mid-year report tracking incidents for the first six months but decided to extend the period due to the July attacks in Dallas and Baton Rouge against police officers. So the report goes from the beginning of January to July 20 and compares it to the same period last year. On their website, the organization also keeps a running tally of officers who died in the line of duty. Those figures through July 26 show that 33 officers have been shot and killed so far this year. The report comes at a time of heightened tension between communities across the country and police officers. Two police officers and one sheriff's deputy were shot and killed during an ambush on July 17 in Baton Rouge by a black gunman who was later killed by responding officers. In Dallas, a black gunman opened fire on police during a July 7 protest against recent police shootings of black suspects; the gunman killed five officers before being killed by authorities.

The blame for this can be placed squarely on activists for Black Lives Matter who have accused police of deliberately targeting blacks for death. The cops are referred to as "terrorists." I don't see how one can avoid the conclusion that this kind of incitement leads directly to violence against police.

When you tell black people that the cops are out to kill you, it elicits the kind of reaction we've seen from Minneapolis to Baton Rouge; black men resisting arrest who are subsequently killed by police. How else are they supposed to respond when they've been propagandized to believe their lives are in danger because cops hate blacks and want them dead?

Whether the shootings are justified or not, the rhetoric of Black Lives Matter is toxic to the relationship between police and the communities they serve.
The Democrats are desperately diverting attention away from their rigging the nomination fight by charging that Russia is interfering in our election. But there was a time when going to Moscow to help defeat the other party didnt seem to disturb Democrats. In fact, with the help of friendly media, the entire incident has been sent to the memory hole. Once upon a time it was revealed, but nobody outside of the conservative ghetto remembers.

But Betsy Newmark of Betsys Page remembers: (hat tip: Instapundit):

As the Democrats struggle to turn the story of the DNC hacks into an attack on Trump by arguing that the Russians are behind the hack and that Putin is trying to help Trump get elected, let's remember when a prominent Democrat actually went to the Soviets for help in defeating Reagan. In 1984 Ted Kennedy approached the Soviets who were then led by the former KGB head, Yuri Andropov, and tried to negotiate help in opposing Reagan. We found out about Kennedy's efforts when Yeltsin opened up the Soviet archives in 1991. Sean Davis links to the story as reported in Forbes. Picking his way through the Soviet archives that Boris Yeltsin had just thrown open, in 1991 Tim Sebastian, a reporter for the London Times, came across an arresting memorandum. Composed in 1983 by Victor Chebrikov, the top man at the KGB, the memorandum was addressed to Yuri Andropov, the top man in the entire USSR. The subject: Sen. Edward Kennedy. On 9-10 May of this year, the May 14 memorandum explained, Sen. Edward Kennedys close friend and trusted confidant [John] Tunney was in Moscow. (Tunney was Kennedys law school roommate and a former Democratic senator from California.) The senator charged Tunney to convey the following message, through confidential contacts, to the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Y. Andropov. Kennedys message was simple. He proposed an unabashed quid pro quo. Kennedy would lend Andropov a hand in dealing with President Reagan. In return, the Soviet leader would lend the Democratic Party a hand in challenging Reagan in the 1984 presidential election. The only real potential threats to Reagan are problems of war and peace and Soviet-American relations, the memorandum stated. These issues, according to the senator, will without a doubt become the most important of the election campaign.

This is open, self-initiated collaboration with a rival power, and theres a name for that sort of thing, treason. But that word is not associated with any Kennedy (at least not since Joe was Ambassador to the UK) because of the studious ignoring of the story coming from the Soviet archives.

Compared this reliable evidence, the case against Trump is made of air. We dont know who did the hacking, and the bits of code that supposedly incriminate the Russians could well be a false flag operation, as argued by intelligence expert Michael Ledeen. There is no evidence at all of any Trump business in Russia, and he has denied having any investments there. There is, in other words, nothing to connect Trump to the leaks, much less to Russia.

The amount of attention paid to the non-evidence of Trump versus the studied avoidance of the conclusive evidence of Ted Kennedy soliciting enemy collaboration against a domestic political rival is the epitome of our propaganda media.
Samsung has once again successfully maintained its top spot in the mobile market, and recent reports indicate that the top 4 popular smartphones in the world throughout the first half of 2016 were the Samsung Galaxy Note 5, the Galaxy S6 and its Edge counterpart, followed by the Samsung Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge. Needless to say, Samsungs mobile business appears to be doing very well, but were only halfway through 2016 and by the end of the year, the South Korean tech giant expects even better results. Reportedly, Samsung is now looking forward to shipping 350 million smartphones in 2016, up from last years shipments of 324 million units.

Throughout the first quarter of the year, Samsung managed to ship 81.9 million smartphones, out of which 10 million units were accounted for by Samsung Galaxy S7 shipments in March alone. In the second quarter of 2016, Samsung shipped 77 million smartphones, and by the end of the first half of the year, the tech giant shipped 27 million Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge units. This accounts for a total of 158.9 million smartphones shipped in H1 2016, which means that Samsung has to ship another 191.1 million units by the end of the year in order to meet its target of 350 million shipments. The question is whether or not Samsung will succeed, and while we dont have a clear answer for that, industry watchers predict that the Galaxy S7 series will continue to contribute to the companys goal. Furthermore, the Galaxy Note 7, expected to debut on August 2nd, should also help the smartphone giant to back up its forecast. But besides the flagship market segment where Samsung seems to have everything under control, industry sources also predict that the Samsung Galaxy J series will greatly contribute to reaching 350 million smartphone shipments in 2016. The Samsung Galaxy J5 and Galaxy J7 were unveiled earlier in March, and the new Samsung Galaxy J2 featuring a unique Smart Glow LED notification system, was introduced in India at the beginning of July. Moreover, shipments could also surge in the second half and towards the end of the year during the holiday shopping season.

Assuming that Samsung will meet its own expectations and ship 350 million units throughout the year, this will ensure the companys spot at the top of the Android food chain once again. Should Samsung pull this off, were also looking at a 7.8% increase in shipments year-on-year, compared to 2015.
Independent research and analysis company, Canalys, has produced Q2 2016 smartphone sales figures that on the face of it, look as though sales have recovered. The second quarter sales grew slightly from a disappointing first quarter with total global shipment breaking the 330 million unit point. The good news here is that sales are up from the first quarter and from the same time last year, but the bad news is that sales growth is modest at best. The market has been expecting modest to flat sales growth as the top device manufacturers jostle among themselves.

The market leader  Samsung  shipped around 80 million devices, which represents both an increase from Q1 2016 and from Q2 2015. However, Canalys is keen to point out that this growth is in both cases from a low base: Samsungs Q1 sales are typically sluggish because this has been in the past the quarter before the new Galaxy S handset is released, although in 2016 the Galaxy S7 and S7 edge were released towards the end. Second quarter numbers look encouraging because shipments for the same period last year were disappointing. Canalys reported that Samsungs average selling price, or ASP, has increased because of a combination of strong flagship Galaxy S7 sales and fewer low end devices being sold. Tim Coulling, Canalys Senior Analyst, explained that Samsungs push into virtual reality (VR) technology has helped the manufacturer sell devices.

The second placed company when it comes to sales is Apple and the iPhone shipped 40 million units. As such, Q2 2016 recorded the second quarter of decline for the iPhone. Here, Apples latest device  the smaller, cheaper iPhone SE  has failed to reduce falls in sales. Canalys attribute this decline in sales to the high price of the iPhone models, which customers in Apples target markets (the developing smartphone countries including China and India) find difficult to afford. Instead, local consumers opted for local brands that are considered much better value. In third place is Huawei, shipping 31 million devices and showing strong growth in its domestic Chinese market. Of Huawei, Canalys explained that despite this strong start the business will need to continue recording record sales if it is to meet its annual shipping target of 140 million devices.
Today, Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi hosted an event in Beijing, where it took wraps off its latest tech products, including the Xiaomi Redmi Pro smartphone, and the all-new Xiaomi Mi Notebook Air lineup. Indeed, after various rumors and almost a year of waiting for Xiaomi to spill the beans, the company is now finally ready to join the notebook PC market with a couple of models bearing the Xiaomi Mi Notebook Air moniker.

The Xiaomi Mi Notebook Air is described by the company as a thin, light and powerful high-performance notebook, and while some tech enthusiasts might be skeptical in regards to Xiaomis expertise in the notebook PC market, according to the press release, the team that was responsible for developing the Mi Notebook Air series has on average over 10 years of industry experience. The series consists of two variants, with a 13.3-inch model representing their top of the line. The Xiaomi Mi Notebook Air 13.3 makes use of an Intel Core i5 processor coupled with an NVIDIA GeForce 940MX graphics card, it has 8 GB of DDR4 RAM, 256 GB of SSD storage, and packs a battery that should last for 9.5 hours on a single charge, according to the manufacturer. Other key features include a USB Type-C connector, two USB 3.0 ports, and one HDMI connector. It will be available in gold and silver, and overall, the 13.3-inch model weighs 1.28 kilograms, and measures 309.6 x 210.9 x 14.8 millimeters.

The second Xiaomi Mi Notebook Air in the series has a 12.5-inch display, which contributes to a lighter (1.07 kilograms) and slightly more compact package (292 x 202 x 12.9 mm). Inside beats the heart of an Intel Core M3 CPU with on-board graphics, coupled with 4 GB of RAM. It has 128 GB of SSD storage, a battery rated at up to 11.5 hours of usage on a single charge, and not unlike the 13.3-inch model, it will be available in gold and silver. Both notebooks run Windows 10 out of the box, and both have been manufactured by Inventec and Wistron. According to the press release, the Xiaomi Mi Notebook Air series will be available for purchase in China, online and through Mi Home brick & mortar stores, starting August 2nd. According to Xiaomis Twitter, the 12.5-inch model will have a starting price of 3,499 Yuan (~$524), whereas the 13.3-inch variant will be available for 4,999 Yuan (~$749). Very competitive prices without a doubt, which could ensure a successful entry in this new market niche for the company. However, Xiaomi has yet to reveal a launch date outside of China.
Father Jacques Hamel: the front pages and a Daesh murder mystery

How do you report the murder of Father Jacques Hamel in a Normandy church?

The International Catholic News Weekly reports: The nun  who did not want to be named  told Le Figaro newspaper: They entered brusquely and took over. They spoke in Arabic.'

Any ideas what the men wanted?

The Telegraph is clueless: The men shouted Daesh and cut the priests throat before being neutralised, police said. Le Figaro newspaper reported that the priest died after his throat was cut. The mens motives are still unknown.

What did they want? Any clues?

As the Press muse on what two self-declared Islamists murdering a priest in France could possibly mean, lets look at the front pages?

The Metro nails it.

The Star is also good. Scum is the language we can all understand.

The Express is conniving. The murder of an elderly unarmed man in a church is juxtaposed alongside a story of migrants.

The i relays the words of the French President. Daesh has declared war on France.

As the tabloids get it, the broadsheets miss. The Guardians story is poor. It talks of the killing of Father Jacques Hamel. No, he was murdered. This killing shocks France. It appalls every sane one of us. It shocks the West. But Christians under persecution in places like Egypt, Iraq, Yemen and Pakistan will be less shocked.

Coptic Priest Father Rafael Moussa was killed instantly when a man shot him in the head in North Sinai capital El-Arish in June. This month, Coptic pharmacist Maged Attia was stabbed and beheaded in Tanta. Five Coptic Christian homes have been torched in Abu Yacoub, Minya, after rumours spread that a church was being constructed in the area. The Archangel Mikhail Coptic Church was burned to the ground in village of Naj al-Nassara in Madamoud. And a 27-year-old Coptic Christian man stabbed to death in the village of Tahna al-Gabal, Minya, where the local priests family was also attacked His Grace Bishop Angaelos, General Bishop of the Coptic Orthodox Church in the United Kingdom, has issued the following statement:  What must be considered very clearly and with great concern however is that an attack on any individual member of a society is an attack on that same society and what it stands for, so our prayers are not only with those who have suffered these unspeakable and horrid violations, but for the society that is undermined and made more vulnerable with each and every one of these incidents. The system of law and order in Egypt is not one for Christians, Muslims or any other individual group of people, but it is for all Egyptians, and so when violated this violation is against all.

The Times leads with news of a religious war and fears over one. France is not at war with Islam. the President did not say that. France is at war with Islamic State and the nihilists who adhere to it doctrines.

Anorak

Posted: 27th, July 2016 | In: Reviews Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
(ANSA) - Rome, July 27 - New British Prime Minister Theresa May said Wednesday that the rights of Italians living in post-Brexit Britain will be guaranteed only if Italy does the same for Britons living here. "I can guarantee the rights of the Italians who live in Britain will not be touched, and I will guarantee it, but I cannot do that if the British citizens do not have the same guarantees," she told a press conference after meeting Italian Premier Matteo Renzi in Rome.

Renzi said at the end of the bilateral meeting that he is "truly happy to welcome the new British prime minister".

The Brexit "requires a lot of common sense on everyone's part, a clear timetable, and the certainty of a path to follow," Renzi said. "We're particularly interested...in working together, in providing maximum collaboration and support, and in making this difficult process as effective as possible".

He added "it is in the interests of all to have a specific time line to make the process easier and provide certainty. This is true for those remaining in the EU. The (Brexit) referendum result posits a great question...: how do we imagine the EU of the future....We must take the opportunity to try to relaunch the European ideal: the ancient Romans used to say 'ex malo bonum' (good can come of ill)".


(ANSA) - Rome, July 27 - President Sergio Mattarella said Italy must not be frozen by fear in a time of Islamist terrorism. "We must prevent fear from winning," Mattarella said at the so-called fan ceremony before parliament's summer recess.

"We cannot allow our country to enter the age of anxiety. "This must be a time of responsibility and responsibility demands common commitment above divisions and greater cooperation between States against terrorism". The head of State described terrorism as a "challenge from the existential outskirts of our urban societies, in Europe, and at the same time, from the outskirts of the world".

He also reiterated that fostering culture and values was the best way to combat violence.


Italy's Islamic Center calls for radicalism to be extirpated After Rouen attack, 'words seem useless but silence worse'

(ANSAmed) - ROME, JULY 27 - The head of the Islamic Center of Italy, which runs the Rome's Grand Mosque, said efforts would be stepped up to wipe out ''the radicalism that fosters terrorism''. Secretary General Abdellah Redouane noted that ''this war does not spare anyone''. He added that he ''firmly condemned'' the murder of the Rouen priest and underscored that ''in such circumstances of horrendous violence, which are happening almost daily, words seem useless but silence is worse''.



''We are pained and we share in the mourning of the French population,'' Redouane said. (ANSAmed).




Turkey: U.S. army, charges of involvement in coup absurd 'Anti-ISIS operations from Turkey almost back to normal'

(ANSAmed) - ISTANBUL, JULY 27 - US General Joseph Dunford, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, has denied allegations made by pro-Erdogan Turkish media that retired general John Campbell was involved in the organization of the attempted coup in Turkey on July 15, on behalf of the CIA.



Gen. Dunford called the allegations ''absurd'', saying Campbell is a personal friend who is involved in many things, which do not include planning a coup in Turkey.



He also said he had spoken twice with his Turkish counterpart Hulusi Akar, who was seized by the putschists on the night of the failed coup, who reportedly reassured him that Ankara would maintain its involvement in the fight against ISIS.



Gen. Dunford said operations underway in Turkey are almost back to normal. (ANSAmed).




EU opts not to fine Spain and Portugal on deficit 'Sanctions would not have been understood by the public'

(ANSAmed) - BRUSSELS, JULY 27 - The European Commission on Wednesday decided not to fine Spain and Portugal for failing to reduce their deficit and thus violating Stability Pact rules. The decision was made by a commission that took economic difficulties and efforts made by the two countries into account, the institution's vice-president for the euro Valdis Dombrovskis and finance commissioner Pierre Moscovici said. The Commission has asked Portugal to bring its deficit to below 3% before the end of the year and Spain to do the same by 2018. Both countries will have to make additional efforts by October 16, 2016. Spain will have to make additional efforts totaling 0.5% of GDP in 2017 and 2018, while Portugal will have to achieve 0.25% ones by the end of this year.



The decision will now have to be approved by Ecofin. If the countries comply with their commitments and make the efforts requested, a possible suspension of EU funds foreseen by regulations may be cancelled. The issue will be discussed in September. Moscovici said that cancelling the fines was the best possible solution and would not threaten the credibility of Stability Pact regulations.



''Sanctions, even symbolic ones, would not have been understood by the public,'' Moscovici said at a news briefing.



''It is not the best approach at a time when doubts are widespread in Europe.'' The EU executive could have imposed fines of up to 0.2 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) against Madrid and Lisbon.



(ANSAmed).




77,000 migrants left from Libya this year, says UN envoy 'Strengthen state to counter traffickers'

(ANSAmed) - CAIRO, JULY 27 - UN Special Envoy for Libya Martin Kobler said Wednesday that over 77,000 migrants had left the country since the beginning of the year.



He added that 235,000 refugees were in the country, and that larger numbers were expected to try to leave the country this summer. The UN envoy's comments came during an interview with a German radio station.



He said that human traffickers could be contrasted by reconstructing the central power of the state. Kobler announced that training courses would be held for the Coast Guard.



On 'Operation Sophia', the EU anti-migrant smuggling operation in the Mediterranean Sea, he said that it could not bring migrants back to Libya, since it only works in international waters and not Libyan ones. (ANSAmed).




ANSAmed - Tomorrow's events in the Mediterranean

(ANSAmed) - ROME, JULY 27 - The following are some of the main events scheduled in the Euro-Mediterranean area for tomorrow: MADRID - Spanish king Felipe VI will continue consultations with party leaders in view of possibly forming a new government to avoid early elections. SAINT-ETIENNE-DU-ROUVRAY (FRANCE) - a march in white will be held to pay homage to Father Jacques Hamel, an 86-year-old priest whose throat was cut in a terrorist attack on Tuesday as he was officiating over morning mass in the village near Rouen.



HAMMAMET - Internationl festival of music, ballet and theatre (to August 20) (ANSAmed).




MADRID - The regional parliament of Catalonia on Wednesday approved a resolution to begin seceding from Spain, in open defiance of the Constitutional Court. The decision was approved by 72 regional MPs out of 135. Ten MPs from the CSP group linked to Podemos, Partido Popular and Ciudadanos walked out of the assembly and the Socialists did not vote. A recent poll shows that 48% of the Catalan population currently supports independence compared with 43% against it.

The Spanish government under outgoing prime minister Mariano Rajoy announced it would be filing an appeal with the Constitutional Court against the resolution passed earlier by the Catalan government. Deputy Prime Minister Soraya de Santamaria said that the announcement by the Catalan MPs was a ''very serious matter'', coming as it did despite a veto placed on it by the central government, adding that the appeal would be approved by the government on Friday.



Spain's Constitutional Court had in recent days prohibited the regional parliament in Barcelona from voting on it. The resolution was presented by the pro-secessionist groups Junts Pel Si and CUP. The anti-secessionist parties - PP, Ciudadanos and PSC - have spoken out against the ''illegality'' of the decision. PP parliamentary chief Xavier Garcia Albiol has said that the act is tantamount to a ''coup'' against the government in Madrid and warned that there will be a price to pay for it. Catalan regional president and pro-secessionist Carles Puidgemont instead says that the position taken by the regional MPs is ''legitimate'' and has in recent months confirmed that the goal is to achieve an independent ''Catalan Republic'' by the end of 2017.
BRUSSELS - Counterterrorism efforts will be effective only if there is greater cooperation at the European level, Commissioner for Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship Dimitris Avramopoulos told ANSA on Wednesday. ''We have made considerable and constant progress in advancing the European agenda on security, which was launched last year. We must go beyond: fragmentation is what makes us vulnerable and the truth is that European efforts against terrorism will never be truly effective unless Member States are prepared to cooperate with each other,'' he said in an interview with ANSA. ''They are trying to destabilize our societies and create a climate of fear. We cannot give up. Faced with the worst possibilities, we must remain faithful to ourselves because we are democratic, plural, open and tolerant societies. And this resilience, this humanity, makes us 20 times stronger than the Islamic State (ISIS) will ever be,'' Avramopoulos said. The commissioner reiterated the EU position concerning the welcoming of refugees after the latest attacks in France and Germany.



''The gates of Europe are open to those fleeing war and persecution and seeking asylum. But we will defend ourselves against attacks on our lifestyles,'' he said.


Over 2 mln sign up for Palestinian municipal elections Hamas will not boycott vote in October

(ANSAmed) - RAMALLAH, JULY 27 - Over two million people have signed up to vote in Palestinian municipal elections slated for October, which will be held for the first time in ten years in both the West Bank and Gaza. There will be at least indirect participation by Hamas, which had previously been against the idea. ''It has been a success,'' ANSA was told by Fareed Taamallah, the public relations director for the Central Election Committee (CEC). ''Yesterday alone over 50,000 people signed up. Four million people have visited our site.'' The CEC said that two thirds of the voters are under age 40.



Some 14 parties have signed up thus far including Fatah, the Marxist Left and two centrist parties, one of which led by former prime minister Salam Fayyad. Hamas, which in the past has called for election boycotts, this year issued a statement saying that it would support ''technocrat candidates'' active in civil society organizations, volunteer organizations and academia. It is not yet clear whether the Islamic Jihad will take part.



To ensure that the elections are held in a correct manner, the CEC has begun registering local, independent and media observers. (ANSAmed).




CAIRO - Refugees hosted in camps in Libya tend to be traumatized after losing their relatives, UN Special Envoy to Libya Martin Kobler said Wednesday.



In speaking to Deutsche Welle radio, he added that he had listened to the story of a Senegalese man who had lost his family during the desert crossing. ''These people are in shock and want to return to their countries. Others would like to continue their journey towards Europe,'' he said. Kobler added that the situation in reception centers was very poor and underscored the need for a ''single national unity government and a unified army''.

Kobler said that over 77,000 migrants had left the country since the beginning of the year. He added that 235,000 refugees were in the country, and that larger numbers were expected to try to leave the country this summer. The UN envoy's comments came during an interview with a German radio station. He said that human traffickers could be contrasted by reconstructing the central power of the state. Kobler announced that training courses would be held for the Coast Guard. On 'Operation Sophia', the EU anti-migrant smuggling operation in the Mediterranean Sea, he said that it could not bring migrants back to Libya, since it only works in international waters and not Libyan ones.
CAIRO - Ahmad Al-Tayyib, the grand imam of Al-Azhar, the most prestigious institute of Sunni Islam, on Wednesday condemned the terrorist attack on a church in France's Normandy region the previous day.

''Those behind this barbarian attack have lost the values of humanity and the tolerant principles of Islam, which preaches peace and orders its followers not to kill the innocent,'' he said. ''Islam obliges respect for all non-Muslim places of worship,'' he added, calling for everyone to join together to fight ''the cancer of terrorism''. ''Al-Azhar intends to continue its fight against extremist ideology to eradicate terrorism,'' he was quoted by MENA as saying, ''and sends it condolences to President Francois Hollande, Rouen archbishop Dominique Lebrun, the victim's family and the French Republic, as well as the French government and people.''


Spanish central gov't to appeal Catalan resolution Region votes to separate from Madrid 'in defiance'

(ANSAmed) - MADRID, JULY 27 - The Spanish government under outgoing prime minister Mariano Rajoy on Wednesday announced it would be filing an appeal with the Constitutional Court against a resolution passed earlier in the day by the Catalan government. The resolution officially starts a process for the region's ''separation'' from Madrid. Deputy Prime Minister Soraya de Santamaria said that the announcement by the Catalan MPs was a ''very serious matter'', coming as it did despite a veto placed on it by the central government, adding that the appeal would be approved by the government on Friday. (ANSAmed).




Turkish parliament sets up commission to investigate coup All parties involved, possibility to interrogate detainees

(ANSAmed) - ISTANBUL, JULY 27 - The Turkish parliament has voted unanimously to establish a commission of inquiry into the recent failed coup attempt, reported state-run Anadolu on Wednesday. The body will include representatives from all four parties in the Assembly and will be able to interrogate those suspected of involved in the coup attempt, including detainees. (ANSAmed).




The Space Agencys participation in the programme, which is to be held between 30th July and 7th August 2016, aims to encourage students to continue studies in space sciences and astronomy.



The Space School includes a number of interesting lectures and interactive workshops. A range of topics will be covered, such as the composition of the solar system, planets and their atmospheres, as well as the history of space exploration. The program also addresses the black holes, radiation and other relevant areas of space and astronomy.



The school features scientific experiments and tests, such as building and launching rockets and developing satellites, in addition to planetary and stellar observation events. The Space School also includes visits to a number of advanced space centers and companies, including The National Space Centre and Airbus.



HE Dr Khalifa Al Romaithi, Chairman of the UAE Space Agency, said: Attracting and preparing national cadres to become pioneers in the field of space science, is a part of the UAE Space Agencys strategic objectives and its efforts to build the human capital necessary to lead the national space sector and contribute to a knowledge-based economy.



Al Romaithi added: This type of summer school represents a great opportunity to realize the Agencys plans. Through such events, we are working to inspire students to take up studies in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, which form the basic building blocks for success and innovation in space and astronomical fields.



For his part, HE Dr Mohamed Al Ahbabi, Director General of the UAE Space Agency, said: This summer school supports the capabilities and creativity of students interested in space sciences, as well as developing teamwork skills with counterparts from around the world, which is one of the most distinguishing features of the space sector. The educational and training activities will definitely allow students to achieve their full potential, and to gain knowledge about space that will lay the groundwork for the future of this important sector.



Rashid Al Masoud, one of the students participating in the event, said: After I finish my studies, I aspire to become a mechanical engineer in the space sector, especially since I will graduate in 2020, coinciding with the launch of the Hope Probe mission to Mars.



Al Masoud added: Thanks to the opportunity to participate in the space school that the UAE Space Agency provided me, I will be able to develop my knowledge about space sciences, astronomy and physics. These are especially relevant to communications and security fields, in which I hope to work.



Another student, Lolowa Al Kindi, said: My interest in all things related to space emerged during tenth grade at secondary school. Thats when I began studying astronomy in my free time, and became fascinated with planetary movements. Since then, Ive wanted to be a part of the UAE space sector, and work to develop the regional impact on space sciences, exploration and research and development.



She added: Im ready for this camp, especially since it will allow me to get practical experience and get to know influential people within the global space sector.



The UAE Space Agency is cooperating with a number of prestigious local and international educational organizations to organise summer camps that develop students knowledge of space-related fields. These include visits to various facilities in the national space sector and visits abroad to renowned space centres.
YEREVAN, JULY 26, ARMENPRESS: The members of the armed group that have seized the Patrol Police station in Yerevan on July 17, shot in different directions today. Armenpress reports that the head of the Press Department of the Armenian Police Ashot Aharonyan has made a statement in this regard on his Facebook page. The members of the armed group, which has seized the Patrol Police station, shot in different directions threatening the security of the law enforcement officers and the local residents of the area, Aharonyan wrote.
YEREVAN, JULY 27, ARMENPRESS. The Armenian Police announces that the gunmen took hostages the doctors who came to show medical assistance to the wounded in the Police Patrol Station.

Head of the Public Relations and Press Department of the Police Ashot Aharonyan issued a statement over this issue which says: This night the gunmen reported that there are two more wounded in the Police Patrol Station. The law enforcement agencies urged to provide those persons with necessary medical assistance, but they were rejected.The relatives of the wounded have also urged to take them to hospital. The law enforcement agencies have provided all the necessary conditions.

Later the gunmen called the doctor stating that the conditions of the wounded are critical, and after the doctors arrived in the Police station, they have been held hostages by the gunmen. The law enforcement agencies take measures to release the doctors from hostage through negotiations, Armenpress reports, Aharonyan writes.
YEREVAN, JULY 27, ARMENPRESS. As a result of the incident at the Police Patrol Station, on July 27 by 10:00 in the hospitals of Yerevan 14 people receive medical treatment, from which 6 are policemen, and 3 are gunmen, press service of the Armenian Ministry of Healthcare informed Armenpress.

The doctors say the two wounded, who were taken to Erebouni medical center as a result of firefight last night, are in critical but stable condition. The hospitalized policemans condition is stable.

The policeman, who has been hospitalized on July 17, is in critical, but stable condition, there is a vivid positive dynamic in his health condition. All the suffered people receive proper medical assistance. Two gunmen were transferred to the prisoners hospital. No rally participant has applied to hospitals for medical assistance.
YEREVAN, JULY 27, ARMENPRESS. The medical community of Armenia condemns the gunmens taking hostage the two doctors Norayr Tevanyan and Salvador Khechoyan, paramedic Davit Tonoyan, nurse Malina Margaryan who came to show medical assistance to the wounded in the Police Patrol Station.

Armenpress reports, the Healthcare Ministry issued a statement: It is a worldwide unacceptable, condemnable phenomenon when an attempt is being made to raise a hand towards the professionals while they are conducting their humanitarian mission. The entire medical community of Armenia strictly condemns this immoral act and demands doctors immediate release from hostage without any precondition. Even the gunmen did not take into account the fact that from the very start of this incident till now these doctors are providing the necessary medical assistance to the gunmen as well.

In the morning of July 27 the Armenian Police announced that last night there were two more wounded in the Police Patrol Station. The law enforcement agencies urged to provide those persons with necessary medical assistance, but they were rejected. The relatives of the wounded have also urged to take them to hospital. The law enforcement agencies have provided all the necessary conditions.

Later the gunmen called a doctor stating that the conditions of the wounded are critical, and after the doctors arrived in the Police station, they have been held hostages by the gunmen. The law enforcement agencies take measures to release the doctors from hostage through negotiations
YEREVAN, JULY 27, ARMENPRESS. The OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs expect a progress to be achieved in the Nagorno Karabakh conflict settlement process during the possible meeting between the Presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan, Armenpress reports, OSCE Minsk Group Co-chair James Warlick (USA) said in an interview with RIA Novosti.

The Vienna and St. Petersburg meetings have played a role on the relative stability and the reduction of tension in the line of contact, as well as in the Armenian-Azerbaijani border. The Presidents expected meeting must show the sides willingness over maintaining the ceasefire regime. We also expect the next meeting will contribute to achieving progress in the negotiation process, as well as will enable to continue the works aimed at easing the tension between the sides. We expect the sides will adhere to the Presidents readiness towards the maintenance of the ceasefire regime, Warlick said.
YEREVAN, JULY 27, ARMENPRESS. Healthcare Minister Armen Muradyan has attempted to enter the seized police precinct.

The Healthcare Ministry says the Minister wanted to discuss the treatment of the wounded people in the precinct and the release of the medical personnel who are held hostage.

Law enforcement agencies, however, did not allow the Minister to enter the area. The Minister has already returned, the ministry said.

Earlier it was reported that two people are wounded in the police precinct. Law enforcement agencies urged the gunmen to let paramedics assist them, but were refused. Relatives of the gunmen also urged to hospitalize the wounded gunmen.

Later the gunmen demanded a doctor, stating the condition of the wounded people is serious, and later held the paramedics hostage.

Law enforcement agencies are taking measures to release the hostages via negotiations.

Paramedics have suggested to hospitalize the wounded gunmen, however were refused.

The gunmen demanded Healthcare Minister to arrive at the scene and organize surgery on spot.
YEREVAN, JULY 27, ARMENPRESS. Police have mistakenly detained Canadian-Armenian actress and producer Arsine Khandjian in Khorenatsi Street, Yerevan. She has been released.

Ashot Aharonyan  head of the Public Relations and Press Service of the Police told ARMENPRESS : There has been a misunderstanding, yes, she has been detained, but was released in a very short period of time, there is no problem, she is not at the Police now.
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Works of art get lost for many reasons, but there is a suspiciously high destruction rate for those involving nudity. Leonardo da Vincis Leda and the Swan was one of the first openly carnal depictions of myth in art, delighting in a big-bosomed, curvy-hipped Leda. Today, this painting is only known through drawings and copies. A French owner probably destroyed it deliberately.
by Vincenzo Faccioli Pintozzi

There are numerous Middle Eastern delegations in Krakow: Flags from Lebanon, Palestine, Jordan and even an Iranian flag. Iraqis are mostly from Baghdad and Erbil: They read of the attacks in Rouen and Nice "with sorrow and solidarity". But the World Youth Day is "the right setting to send a message of hope: do not be overwhelmed by hatred." Also in the Iraqi capital today, "the attacks are more and more often the work of marginalized and antisocial, lone wolves,who only want chaos."

Krakow (AsiaNews) - The French and other European nations affected by terrorism "must not give in to fear. Listen to those of us who live with terror every day: the real weapon against these massacres is the smile that comes from hope. On the other hand, Christ is with us every day, and this is the real guarantee for the world", says Fatima Kassid, a young Iraqi from Baghdad who came to Krakow for the XXXI World Youth Day speaking to AsiaNews.

The two million young pilgrims estimated to visit the Polish cultural capital seem to be confirmed. The Pope arrives in Wawel Castle to meet the political authorities, the president of Duda and local bishops. The area around the episcopal see of the city is a military zone: Mariacki Square (see photo) is stationed with armored cars that - even if they have the symbol of the Red Cross - inspire fear. Except for the Middle Eastern groups, who now consider them a part of their usual scene.

Fatima also notices this, "the fear I see in my peers before the armored cars and tanks makes me think about how different we are. For us missiles, walls riddled by gunshots, rubble is now the norm. Here they are reminiscent of some kind of disaster. This is nice because it means that war and hatred have not yet prevailed in the world, despite the terrible news events of recent days".

The murder of the parish priest of Rouen has provoked a very strong sense of discomfort in the Iraqi delegation: some French young, drunk, accused them on the street of "pampering the terrorists."

Fatima in response started to cry: "We have them at home, it is true, but we certainly do not protect them. And the authors of the attacks in Europe are not from the Middle East fleeing their country to sow terror, but children of Europe. The words of those young people hurt me, but my friend Samir stopped them and talked with them explaining who we are and where we come from. After we went to have a beer together.

During this exchange, Fatima invited the young people - from Lyon  to a catechesis that took place this morning in the Arabic language in a church just outside the center of Krakow. At the end of the reflection, they had lunch together: "I told them not to be afraid, because fear strengthens whoever causes it. A smile, this is the only response of young Iraqi Christians to the threats of the fundamentalists. With a simple smile we can disassemble any fundamentalism. Although often these attacks are not children of an ideology even in Iraq.

In her country, she explains, "more and more often we discover that behind the suicide massacres are not fanatics of Islam, but misfits and loners. Many are duped by promises, but more and more people agree to kill for money. There are no jobs and there is little hope for the future, so if added to the money is some vague promise of paradise you will find many people ready to commit suicide. At least tto help their family".

Taking up the "motto" of St. John Paul II - the "do not be afraid" that accompanied the entire pontificate of John Paul II - Fatima concludes: "If you keep Jesus Christ at the heart of everything, it also becomes easy to smile in the face of evil. Christ is with us every day, and this is the real guarantee for the world. I lost many friends and relatives, in the wars and the following years, and I hated it. Now I'm here and I try not to hate anymore. The mercy of Pope Francis for me is not just about forgiving, but not hating. It is very difficult, but I think that this, this really can change the world".
The men were part of ''royal army of the Sultanate of Sulu "which in 2013 attacked Borneo to demand Islamic rule. After six weeks of guerrilla warfare and 70 deaths, Malaysia managed to drive off the attackers and captured a few. Eight others were sentenced from 10 to 18 years in prison.

Kuala Lumpur (AsiaNews / Agencies) - Nine Filipino Islamic militants were sentenced to life imprisonment by a Malaysian court for crimes committed in 2013, when together with 200 companions they landed on the coast of Borneo declaring war on Kuala Lumpur and trying to take over part of 'island. Eight others were sentenced from 10 to 18 years in prison.

The incursion of '' royal army of the Sultanate of Sulu "(Mindanao, southern Philippines) held the Malaysian army in check for six weeks. Guided by the self-styled "sultan" Jamalul Kiram, the militia waged a guerrilla war that caused at least 70 deaths. After being surrounded by the Malaysian Army, the Islamists fled but many of them were captured.

Prior to today's rulings, nine other Filipinos had been sentenced to death for having "declared war" on the Malaysian king. The Court of Sabah spared their lives because there was no evidence that they had pulled the trigger and killed someone.

Among those sentenced to life imprisonment is Amir Bahar Hushin Kiram, 53 year old nephew of Jamalul and heir of the Sultanate of Sulu, a stronghold of Islamic fundamentalism. Esmail his father died in 2015 after fighting for years for the recognition of the Sultanate and his claim to part of the southern Philippines and the island of Borneo.

Since the fourteenth century, the south of the Philippine archipelago and the territory of Sabah (now Malaysia) were under the rule of the Sultan of Sulu. However, four centuries later European colonial forces wrested control of the whole area. After the Second World War and the end of colonialism, Malaysia annexed the territories and since 1963 these also include the State of Sabah.
by Pierre Balanian

Parliamentarians call on the UN and the international community to have every country recognise this as a crime against humanity. Turkey is accused of being "colonialist at its base, founded on gigantic crimes". Egypt had documents showing the Ottoman Empire's intention to eliminate the Armenians, but they were torched in Alexandria on Erdogans direct orders.

Cairo (AsiaNews)  As the post-coup gap grows wider between Turkey and the United States and Saudi Arabia, repercussions are starting to be felt across the region.

Yesterday, a motion was tabled in the Egyptian Parliament calling on the government to recognise officially the Armenian Genocide perpetrated by the Ottoman Turks in the years 1915-1923.

The proposal calls on the United Nations and the international community to take the necessary steps to gain recognition from all countries for this crime against humanity, deliberately ignored for far too long, and acknowledge the undeniable historical truth.

MP Mostafa Bakri presented the motion to recognise the Armenian genocide, backed by Mohamad Salah Abou Hamila, head of the Republican People's Party parliamentary caucus who said that "Turkey is a country that is colonialist at its base, founded on gigantic crimes committed against other countries."

The genocide move comes seven days after Turkey launched an anti-Egyptian campaign. For lawmaker Salah Abou Hamila, "Turkey has adopted an anti-Egyptian policy and is opposed to the Egyptian state. The (Turkish) President is constantly attacking Egypt and trying to denigrate it. The Egyptian Parliament has to react against everything that Turkey does against us."

Such an anti-Turkish position is boosted by the fact that the Turkish president continues to harbour and support the Muslim Brotherhood, who were ousted from power in Egypt with the downfall of Mohamed Morsi.

The recognition of the Armenian genocide thus appears to be more politically motivated than stemming from a deep sense of conscience and moral responsibility as was the case in Germany.

Until recently, Egypt held important archival material documenting the Ottoman Empires plans to eliminate the Armenians. During the Egyptian Spring, these rare documents were torched in Alexandria, on the direct orders of Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The imam who was paid and instructed to do so confessed to this.

Armenians around the world have waited a long time for Muslim nations to recognise the genocide of Christians in Muslim lands. Egypts move could rekindle the conscience of some and raise awareness about the issue in order to prevent similar attempts against other minorities.

So far, Lebanon (a country that can hardly be called Islamic) and Syria (an Arab country, but rather secular) were the only Arab countries to recognise, without political overtones, the genocide by launching awareness campaigns to ensure that these crimes are not repeated.

Lawmaker Fayez Barakat said that "the signatures (of 336 Egyptian lawmakers) collected for the recognition of the Armenian genocide are an attempt to react to abuses by Turkish authorities against the Egyptian state and its repeated attempts to interfere in our internal affairs. At the same time, they are a message to Recep Tayyip Erdogan that we too can strike at those who try to interfere in our internal affairs."

"The recognition of the Armenian genocide by Egypt, he added, would have major repercussions on Turkey's position in the world."

For her part, lawmaker Suzy Nashed focused on the issues legal-moral context, defining what "the Turks did against the Armenians a crime of international concern. Even if it was committed in the past, it remains relevant today since Turkey continues to deny it. Hence, the importance of Egypts recognition."
by Christopher Sharma

Heavy monsoon rains have hit Nepal, leaving the authorities powerless to rescue stranded residents. Bridges and homes have been swept away, roads have been blocked, and river waters are at their highest levels, putting thousands at risk. Some have been forced to live on the roof of their homes; others have found shelter in trees.

Kathmandu (AsiaNews)  Heavy monsoon rains have battered Nepal in the past few days, sweeping away houses and huts.

At least 39 people have died so far with 28 missing, as rescue teams struggle to reach the flooded areas.

In central Nepal, Parbat District Deputy Chief Prabin Dhakal appealed to residents to leave their homes for safer areas because the local authorities are unable to provide them with safety.

The districts of central southern Nepal are the most affected. Heavy rains have flooded the lower floors of many homes and destroyed the weakest, already affected by slow post-earthquake reconstruction.

Jitbir Bal lost his father, Man Bahadur, and his home, "swept away by waters. We knew the rain was coming but did not expect such intensity."

"We were sleeping when the rain hit and killed my children, aged 9 and 7, said Gopal Bahadur Rana, Gulmi district. We found their bodies only later."

Only brick houses survived, the authorities report. According to Jhapa District Police Chief Dhan Bahadur Karki Saptari, those "who lived in brick houses now have set up makeshift tents on roofs. Others have put up tents on the trees or moved to higher ground. People have no food or clothes to cover themselves."

The latest report notes that 200 houses are under water in Setibeni bazaar, Parbat District. More than 3,000 people have been displaced in Jhapa District. Another 2,000 fled the villages of Bhadrapur, Prithvinagar, Kechana, Pathamari and Kumarkhed.

Rains have brought down bridges and blocked main roads, including the Siddhartha Highway, the countrys most important road, which connects the Terai region in the south to the northern mountainous regions.

The army, the police and local teams are working to clear the roads. The authorities are concerned about rising river levels and are constantly monitoring the territory as thousands are still at risk.
On the plane taking him to Krakow for the 31st World Youth Day, Pope Francis spoke about the murder of Father Jacques Hamel, the priest killed in Saint Etienne du Rouvray. The issue of migration requires a supplement of wisdom and mercy to overcome fears and achieve the greatest good. At the same time, we must encourage international collaborations and synergies in order to find solutions to conflicts and wars.

Krakow (AsiaNews)  Pope Francis spoke about the murder of Fr Jacques Hamel, the priest killed in Saint Etienne du Rouvray, on the plane taking him to Krakow for the 31st World Youth Day, where he was set to arrive at 4 pm (local time).

The world is at war, said the pontiff, a war for real, one about (economic) interests, money, natural resources and the domination of peoples." However, this is not a war of religions because All religions, he said, "desire peace. It is Other people [who] want war."

"The word that is repeated so often is security, but the real word is war. The world is at war, a piecemeal war, Francis explained. "There was one in 1914, then that from 1939 to 1945. In the world now there's this. Perhaps it is not so organic, so organised, but it is war. This holy priest, who died at the very moment in which he offered the prayer for peace, he is but one. Yet how many Christians, how many innocent people, how many children [have died] . . . Think of Nigeria, for example. We say: but that is Africa! It's war. We are not afraid to tell this truth, the world is at war because it has lost the peace," and, he added after landing in Krakow, we must encourage international collaborations and synergies in order to find solutions to conflicts and wars."

Francis also spoke the young people at the WYD. "The youth always tells us about hope. Let us hope that young people can tell us something that is a bit more hopeful this time.

When he arrived at John Paul II International Airport KrakowBalice, the pope was welcomed by Polish President Andrzej Duda and the Archbishop of Krakow, Card Stanisaw Dziwisz, who served as John Paul IIs personal secretary.

Right after the arrival and the welcome ceremony, Pope Francis went to Wawel Castle (pictured), the historic fortress overlooking Krakow. In the courtyard, he met the authorities, representatives of civil society and members of the diplomatic corps accredited to Poland. He paid a courtesy visit to the Polish President in the Bird Room, and finally, went to the Cathedral of Saints Stanislaus and Wenceslaus where he met the bishops.

In the only public address today, in the courtyard of Wawel Castle, Francis said we need to be willing to accommodate those fleeing from wars and hunger" and show "solidarity to those who are deprived of their fundamental rights, including that of professing their faith in freedom and security. "

In this first speech since his afternoon arrival in Poland, in Krakow, where tomorrow he will join the 31st World Youth Day, Pope Francis told the countrys authorities that they must meet the challenges of the time with "the courage of truth and a constant ethical commitment" so that human dignity is always respected, which is a principle that touches every human activity, including "managing the complex issue of migration.

"This requires a supplement of wisdom and mercy to overcome fears and achieve the greatest good. One needs to identify the causes of emigration from Poland, helping those who wish to return. At the same time, one must be willing to accept those fleeing from wars and hunger, and show solidarity to those who are deprived of their fundamental rights, including the right to profess freely and safely their faith. Likewise, we must encourage international collaborations and synergies in order to find solutions to the conflicts and wars that force many people to leave their home and homeland. It is a question of doing everything possible to alleviate their sufferings, without tiring to work with intelligence and continuity for justice and peace, factually bearing witness to human and Christian values."

In his address, the pope also noted that " awareness of identity, free from any superiority complex, is essential to organise a national community on the basis of its human, social, political, economic and religious heritage, to inspire society and culture, and keep them faithful to tradition and at the same time open to renewal and the future. From this perspective, we recently celebrated the 1,050th anniversary of the Baptism of Poland. This was certainly a high point of national unity, which confirms how concord, despite a diversity of opinions, is the sure way to achieve the common good of the entire Polish people.

"Even the fruitful cooperation at international level and mutual consideration ripen through conscience and respect for ones own identity and that of others. There can be no dialogue if everyone does not start from their own identity. In the daily life of every individual, as in that of every society, there are, however, two types of memory: the good and the bad, the positive and the negative. The good memory is what the Bible shows us in the Magnificat, the Canticle of Mary, that praises the Lord and his salvational work. The negative memory is instead the one that focuses the mind and the heart obsessively on evil, first of all on the one committed by others.

Looking at your recent history, I thank God because you have been able to favour the good memory; celebrating for example 50 years of mutual forgiveness, offered and received, between the Polish and German Bishops' Conferences, after the Second World War. The initiative, which initially involved the Church communities, also triggered an irreversible social, political, cultural and religious process, changing the history of the relations between the two peoples.

In this regard, le us remember the Joint Declaration between the Catholic Church in Poland and the Orthodox Church in Moscow. This deed started a process of rapprochement and brotherhood not only between the two Churches, but also between the two peoples. Thus, the noble Polish nation shows how one can develop the good memory and drop the bad one. For this reason, one requires a firm hope and trust in the One who guides the destinies of peoples, opens closed doors, turns difficulties into opportunities, and creates new scenarios for things that once seemed impossible."

Last event in Pope Franciss first day in Krakow will be a meeting with 130 Polish Bishops, as an informal exchange. After this, the Holy Father will travel by car to the Archbishops Residence, where he will reside for the next few days.
Located in northwestern Iran, on the border with Azerbaijan and Turkey, the monastery was built, according to tradition, in 68 AD after the martyrdom of the Apostle of Christ. Hundreds of Armenians from Iran and Armenia gather each July to baptise their children, as well as eat and sing together.

Maku (AsiaNews/Agencies)  Hundreds of Assyrians, Armenians and Catholics from Iran and other countries are expected to travel to the monastery of Saint Thaddeus (also called Qara Kelisa) to honour the saints memory and celebrate for a few days in late July.

The place of worship is one of the oldest surviving Christian monuments and is located in Irans West Azerbaijan Province, some 20 kilometres form Maku, near the border with Azerbaijan and Turkey.

According to tradition, Qara Kelisa is the first church built in the world, by Saint Thaddeus the Apostle during his visit to Armenia and the Persian Empire (45 AD).

The saint converted King Abgar V of Edessa, but in the 66 AD, his son, Ananum, sentenced him to death. Sandokht, daughter of the king converted to Christianity, was martyred along with Thaddeus. According to legend, the church was dedicated to the saint in 68 AD.

Every year, in the second half of July, the local Church organises special events to commemorate the death of Saint Thaddeus and his fellow Christians.

The festivity is especially important for Armenians living in Iran. For a whole week, people from cities such as Tabriz, Urmia, Tehran, Isfahan and Qazvin, converge on Qara Kelisa, in groups and families.

The rituals include the baptism of children and youngsters, who can wait in some cases up to the age of 20 before receiving the chrism in the oldest church in the world with solemn promises.

For many Armenians, the festival is also an opportunity to take a holiday and visit distant relatives. Near the church, feasts and banquets are held with traditional songs and dances.

The church consists of two parts: a black structure (the original structure was black, and Qara means black in Turkish), and a white structure, the main church, which was added to the original buildings western wing in 1810.

Not much appears to remain of the original church, which was extensively rebuilt in 1329 after an earthquake damaged the structure.

Nevertheless, some of the parts surrounding the altar apse date from the 10th century. A great part of the church was destroyed in the year 1230 during the attack of Genghis Khan.
by Pierre Balanian

Ahmad Al Tayyeb offers condolences to the French president, the archbishop of Rouen, the victims' families and to the whole of France. The assailants "devoid of any sense of humanity." In Islam "there is the order to respect the sacred places of worship and the sanctity of non-Muslims. Counter terrorism means also fighting extremist thought in Islam.

Cairo (AsiaNews) The Grand Imam of Al Azhar, Ahmad Al Tayyeb, the highest Islamic authority in the Sunni Muslim world, has condemned "the terrorist attack that took place in the Saint Etienne church near the city of Rouen in the north-east of France, which has caused the death of the priest and the injury of others during a raid on the church and the taking of hostages".

"Those who carried out this savage attack" - he continued in his statement released just hours ago - are devoid "of any sense of humanity and all the values and principles of Islamic tolerance, which invite us to peace and to avoid the bloodshed of innocents, without any distinction of religion, color, gender, or ethnicity. The leader stressed that Islam "commands believers to respect the sacred places of worship and the sanctity of non-Muslims".

The Grand Imam of Al Azhar calls for an "intensification of efforts and joint initiatives to deal with the cancer of terrorism that now threatens the entire world, destroys innocent souls and threatens world peace.

He confirmed that the Mosque of Al Azhar will continue "its path in the struggle againstextremist thought by reforming the lexicon used in religion until terrorism is completely uprooted and withered at its source".

Al Tayyeb finally expressed his "sincere condolences to the President of the French Republic Francois Hollande, the Archbishop of Rouen Msgr. Dominique Lebrun and to the families of victims" as well as extending his sorrow to our friend the entire French people.

The Imam of Al Azhar met Pope Francis at the Vatican last May, after several years of chilly relations (see photo).
The publisher Wang Jianming and editor Guo Zhongxiao sentenced to five years and three months and two years and three months. The episode brings to mind the disappearances and detentions of the five book publishers. Beijing fears Hong Kong freedoms can "pollute" Chinese society. The principle "one nation, two systems" belittled.

Hong Kong (AsiaNews / Agencies) - Two Hong Kong journalists were sentenced yesterday by a court in Shenzhen (China) for "illegal trade" of newspapers. Publisher Wang Jianming, 60, (see photos), and editor Guo Zhongxiao, 41, who worked in the magazine "New-Way Monthly" and "Multiple Face", which published topics of politics and gossip and curiosity about Chinese leaders. The articles were published in Hong Kong, but some copies were marketed in China.

Wang was sentenced to five years and three months in prison; Guo to two years and three months. The latter will be released soon because both had been arrested in 2014, while they were in Shenzhen. Since then the two newspapers have been closed.

For the Association of Hong Kong Reporters the ruling is another blow to press freedom in the territory.

Yesterday's ruling follows the story of the five publishers-booksellers in Hong Kong who were kidnapped by Chinese special forces and who then disappeared, detained in China. One of them is still in prison; others were freed after "confessing" their crimes on video and have vowed that they would not denounce anyone. Even these publishers were publishing books that were satires or were critical of some aspects of the lives of Chinese leaders.

According to the Court of Shenzhen, Wang and Guo illegally profited by selling thousands of copies of their newspapers; according to the defense lawyers they only eight copies had been distributed in China to friends and acquaintances.

The court sentenced the two without even specifying the amount earned by their "illegal trade." According to the defense lawyers they had earned less than $ 66 thousand Hong Kong (about 7600 euro): less than half of the minimum amount required in China to be accused of "illegal trade (150 thousand yuan).

China fears that the freedoms of Hong Kong will "pollute" society on the mainland and is increasing control of the media in the territory, in breach of the principle "one country, two systems," under which Hong Kong would be entitled to a lifestyle different from that of the motherland.
Mgr Julian Leow Beng Kim, archbishop of Kuala Lumpur, leads the group. He will walk with them and share their meals. Despite economic difficulties, the faithful have been responded generously. For catechist, "We must all learn that it is not about money, status, popularity, or any other idols in the world.

Kuala Lumpur (AsiaNews/Agencies)  Some 700 young people left Malaysia and Singapore for World Youth Day, which runs until Sunday (31 July) in Krakow (Poland).

More than 400 Malaysians and 200 Singaporeans registered for the event in their respective diocesan offices and parish groups. About a hundred travelled privately.

Mgr Julian Leow Beng Kim, archbishop of Kuala Lumpur, led those who left on 22 July for Warsaw, the Polish capital, where Pope Francis is scheduled to arrive today.

"Archbishop Leow said he would walk with the youth, share their accommodation and food and forgo the special treatment accorded to him by organisers," an official at his diocese said.

In addition to young people, some older people are also travelling to Krakow.

Adeline, for example, is 50. "This is my third World Youth Day event, she said, and each pilgrimage has further strengthened my faith and renewed me.

A single mother has arranged for her two children to go on the pilgrimage to strengthen their faith. "It is the least I can do," she said.

A childless couple in their 30s, who celebrated their fifth marriage anniversary recently, said they hope they will be blessed. "What motivates me? We want a child; maybe this time he will bless us," said the husband.

Steven, a catechist acting as a chaperon, said the event is a good reminder on what life is really about.

"We must all learn that it is not about money, status, popularity, or any other idols in the world," he explained. "We want to be open to the life that God wants to give us and offer our lives for God.

"World Youth Day is a testimony of affirmation to the truth of what the church preaches to the nations," he added.

"It will be a chance for them (youth) to meet people of their age from all parts of the world and thus be able to share their faith experiences to their mutual edification."
Canadian mining companies operating in the Philippines have a right to be concerned with the policies of new President Rodrigo Duterte and his recently appointed environment chief, Regina Lopez, an outspoken critic of mining.

Although Duterte has been quoted as saying, Lopez is an ardent [advocate] for responsible mining, statements she has said betray her lack of understanding of the science and engineering of mining, said Resource World, an industry publication based in Vancouver.

The Asian Pacific Post and Filipino Post reported last month, that Canadian mining companies are jittery of a promised overhaul of laws and permits in The Philippines by incoming president Rodrigo Duterte, who wants to ensure their operations are not destroying the environment.

Duterte has also offered the post of Environment secretary to Gina Lopez, chairperson of ABS-CBNs charitable arm Lingkod Bayan Foundation and an outspoken critic of mining. Lopez, who campaigned against mining in Palawan, has accepted the post.

A day after Duterte announced his offer to Lopez, mining and oil stocks fell by more than 4 percent, a development attributed to investors anxiety over the next administrations policies.

Dutertes spokesman Ernesto Abella, however, maintained that the next president is not anti-mining.

There are more than a dozen Canadian companies with projects in the Philippines

Resource World said Lopez lack of understanding is reflected when she said that Open pit mining, as in the use of explosives, is horrific for the environment. Its a cheap way to extract. And for the top-most country vulnerable to climate change its madness to even consider it.

These statements dont even make sense. Whether a mine is an open pit operation or underground, generally speaking, explosives are the only way to break up the billions of interlocked crystals that make up a mineral deposit. Does she know of a better way? asked Resource World.

Lopez must think some robber baron in a far off glass tower is thinking of cheaping out by building an open pit mine. It doesnt work that way. Low-grade ore bodies must be open pitted to be economically viable. Higher-grade ore deposits can be mined by the more expensive underground mining methods. How can responsible foreign mining companies wishing to operate in the Philippines deal with an environmental minister with such a lack of basic mining knowledge?

Even more concerning is President Dutertes comment that he prefers that mining assets be owned by locals, rather than foreign companies. Just what does he mean by this? Is he saying that after a mining company raises millions of dollars to find, explore, build and operate a mine that it will be nationalized or given to locals? How could locals possibly afford to buy a multi-billion dollar mine?

Perhaps Duterte is unaware of the long, expensive and complicated process to get a mine in operation  they dont just suddenly appear. Here in Canada, over many decades the mining industry has built the star-making machinery behind the mine building process, to use Joni Mitchells phrase. This comprises Canadas excellent universities and technical schools that train geologists, geophysicists, corporate lawyers, accountants, auditors and mining engineers and consultants. Then there are the mining-friendly stock exchanges such as the TSX, TSXV and the CSE, environmental consultants, assayers, diamond drilling companies, mining technicians and more. It is this sophisticated and interlinked infrastructure mainly based in Toronto and Vancouver that has resulted in Canada being the worlds leading mineral explorer and mine builder.

Perhaps Duterte is saying that once a promising mineral showing is discovered, the locals will somehow raise millions of dollars for exploration and development of this mining asset? This hardly seems possible  never mind the lack of professional talent and the behind-the-scenes mining infrastructure noted above. Or will locals be handed a viable operating mine once it has proven successful? This scenario is enough to scare off any mining investment by a foreign company.

Of course Duterte is right in that mining in the Philippines must be carried out in an environmentally responsible manner. And Canadian companies are doing exactly that, for example, B2Golds successful Masbate Mine on the island of Masbate, 360 km southeast of Manila. Canadian mining companies do more than mine minerals responsibly. At the Masbate Project, B2Gold has supported the development of vegetable farming in areas that did not traditionally support this activity. So far, over 940 people have benefited from B2Golds efforts to alleviate poverty in a sustainable manner with agricultural projects, fishing, sewing and livestock production.

The islands of the Philippines are host to valuable mineral deposits that can be developed and mined in an environmentally responsible manner while providing well-paid jobs for thousands and generating significant taxes and royalties for the government. It would be a shame if Dutertes stance on mining drives these real economic opportunities away.
Commentary by Kareem El-Assa,

Special to The Post

Canada is expected to welcome up to 305,000 immigrants this year.

The last time Canada admitted that many newcomers was in 1913, when a staggering 401,000 immigrants arrived in the country.

With immigration minister John McCallum recently announcing that Canada intends to have a three-year immigration plan by November, it is worth exploring what the right level might be for Canada.

Historically, Canadas immigration levels have been determined by:

 demographic and economic factors

 public policy

 Canadas ability to absorb newcomers

 trends in international migration

 Canadas capacity to process immigrant applications

 public support for immigration

Factors in play

Demographic and economic considerations are at the heart of Canadas immigration decisions. Sustained economic growth and prosperity are only possible with a healthy population size.

This means having enough people to meet Canadas current and future labour force needs, and the needs of the provinces and territories, and industry.

Public policy, namely Canadas objectives of admitting immigrants for a range of purposes, including non-economic factors, also influences annual immigration levels. These include reuniting families, providing protection to those in need, and ensuring Canada reaps social and cultural benefits from immigration, such as by admitting Francophones.

Canada must also assess its ability to absorb new immigrants.

This requires allocating enough settlement and integration supports for immigrants, such as language training and employment services. Other essentials such as good housing and health care services must also be available to Canadians and newcomers.

It also entails ensuring that enough good jobs are available for newcomers and that our labour market information systems are strong so that they can find the jobs.

The push and pull factors that influence global flows of migrants also impact Canadas immigration levels, as shown, for example, by the countrys recent response to the events in Syria. As a member of the global community, Canada acts when others need help.

Ensuring immigrants meet Canadas eligibility requirements requires time, money and effort, which affects how many applications can be processed and how many newcomers can be admitted each year.

Finally, public confidence in Canadas immigration system is crucial, since Canadian governments are expected to respond to the will of the people.

So, what is the right level?

Canada achieves the right level of immigration when it balances the aforementioned considerations prudently. Arguably, Canada does a pretty good job of that already.

In spite of the country regularly welcoming over 200,000 immigrants each year, Canadians are becoming increasingly supportive of immigration, according to polling evidence. An annual Environics survey, for instance, shows that Canadian support for immigration has grown since the 1990s.

According to the Conference Boards Long-Term Economic Forecast, Canada will need to bump its immigration levels up to one per cent of its population within the next two decades (it is currently around 0.80 per cent) in order to sustain a healthy level of economic growth across the country.

While higher levels of immigration will not offset Canadas aging population trend, it will help keep the countrys population growing by 0.9 per cent annually and add capacity for the productivity and innovation gains that we so badly need.

Of course, higher levels of immigration will mean that more supports will be needed to ensure both Canadians and newcomers are able to find good jobs and continue to access good services. This will help keep Canadians supportive.

Canada can only admit hundreds of thousands of immigrants each year if the public is on board. The evidence suggests that they are.

Canada at 150

Next year, Canada turns 150. Canada admitted all of 11,000 immigrants in its year of confederation.

In 2017, Canada will welcome that same number of immigrants every two weeks. Not bad, eh?

This October, the Conference Board hosts Minister John McCallum at a major meeting in Toronto to discuss the future of Canadas immigration system.

In December 2016, the Conference Board hosts Canadas first ever Entrepreneur & Investor Immigration Summit in Toronto. This national two-day event is discussing the value of business immigration programs to the Canadian economy, as well as their social implications, and how these programs can be improved.

In May 2017, we are hosting our third annual Canadian Immigration Summit in Ottawa, a major two-day event that attracts participants from across the country.



Kareem El-Assal is a research associate for Education & Immigration at the Conference Board of Canada.

This piece was originally appeared in New Canadian Media (newcanadianmedia.ca).

See http://newcanadianmedia.ca/item/37501-deciding-on-the-right-level-of-immigration-deciding-on-the-right-level-of-immigration
Actor, comedian, sketch artist and improv actor David C. Jones was the master of ceremonies for event raising funds for Go to Positive Living BC July 22.

The pre-event was at La Pentola (350 Davie Street).

The main event was at Bar None (1222 Hamilton Street). Some of the performers included are Marilou Catanjal Mina Mercury, Tiffany Desrosiers, Saras Fusion and Sara Wang. Also fashion shows displayed designs by Atelier Grandis, Bikini Empre and Trash Lingerie. Dean Thullner, producer of SHINE Charity fundraiser wraps up the event.

The after party was at The Refinery at 1115 Granville St, Vancouver, between Davie St. and Helmcken St.
If OMNI Television succeeds in its application to operate a new national multilingual and multicultural channel called OMNI Regional, it will be the first of its kind in Canada.

The national channel would have four feeds: Pacific, Prairies, and East, which would mirror OMNIs local stations in those regions. If approved, OMNI Regional would have priority access to basic TV packages. Current local OMNI stations in Toronto, Edmonton, Calgary, and Vancouver would continue to operate as free over-the- air channels, as would ICIs local station in Montreal.

We believe our application offers a win-win solution: Canadians get low-cost access to quality news and information programming in their language of comfort no matter where they live, and OMNI and its community and production partners get a stable revenue source that we can use to build a strong and relevant voice for ethnic audiences in Canada, said Colette Watson, Vice President, Broadcast and TV.

Viewers invited to show their support at www.supportomnitv.ca
Photo caption: Despite not qualifying as citizens, about 600 Chinese-Canadians served in the military during the Second World War. Here, soldiers from Vancouver await repatriation to Canada.Photo Credit: Canada Dept. of National Defence / Library and Archives Canada

By Beatrice Paez,

Special to The Post

July 1, 2016 marks 93 years since the Chinese Immigration Act came into force, which marked the culmination of a decades-long initiative to limit Chinese immigration to Canada.

The Chinese head tax already existed to discourage immigration. By 1903, migrants were required to pay a$500 head tax, equivalent to two years worth of wages, to gain entry into Canada.

In the second half of the 19th century, many young Chinese men were sent to Canada with the hopes of earning enough money to support families back home and, eventually, to send for them. Though the head tax stemmed the flow of immigration, almost 100,000 still arrived from 1885 to 1923.

The 19th century was highly mobile, perhaps as mobile as now. Chinese migrants would work overseas and regularly go back to visit, says Henry Yu, a history professor at the University of British Columbia.

In order to stop the influx, the government passed the Chinese Immigration Act, which limited entrance to only merchants, scholars, diplomats and Canadian-born Chinese returning after educational pursuits abroad.

It would take 24 years for the Act to be lifted, a period during which only 15 Chinese immigrants were allowed into Canada.

Initial Chinese immigration to Canada

Famine and economic deprivation propelled many in China to leave in search of opportunity, or head to Gold Mountain, as British Columbias gold rush came to be known, says John Atkin, co-chair of the Chinese Canadian Historical Society in B.C.

They eked out a meagre living  relative to their white counterparts  working on the railroad, in fishing, forestry, among other industries.

Still, the prospect of steady employment far outweighed concerns about racial discrimination and hostile attitudes toward them. Villages cobbled their resources together to cover the head tax so that one of their own could emigrate, says Atkin.

A lot of these workers would try to bring their families over, says Jan Ransk, a researcher at Pier 21.

Growing hostility and the Chinese Immigration Act

With the head tax deemed an ineffective deterrent, Canadians demanded that the federal government end Chinese immigration. The nativist response originated in B.C., the front lines of immigration, where many felt their economic livelihood was under threat as they sought employment in the same trades as immigrants, says Ransk.

Their perceptions were largely coloured by notions of immigrant desirability, with Asians being deemed inferior, he adds.

Its from a period of time that, from our perspective, is so hard to comprehend how normal it was just to discriminate automatically against a whole class of people, says Atkin.

The Chinese Immigration Act was enforced on July 1, 1923, coinciding with Dominion Day, which commemorated the formation of Canada as a Dominion in 1867. But for Chinese-Canadians, what was marked with parades and fireworks was a stinging reminder of their second-class status, and they called it Humiliation Day.

They abstained from participating or holding celebrations that day, until the acts repeal in 1947.

Effects on the Chinese-Canadian community

Yus maternal grandfather settled in Vancouver in 1923, just before the implementation of the Act.

It was only in 1965 that Yus family could be reunited in Vancouver, but even then his mother, as an adult, needed to apply for special consideration.

This sort of exclusion perpetuated what had become a bachelor society in the Chinese-Canadian community. Census data from 1911 reveals that there were 2,800 Chinese men for every 100 Chinese women, as reported in Arlene Chens book The Chinese in Toronto from 1878.

Exclusion had a devastating effect because for those already here, those generations after generations were cut off, says Yu. If you werent married already before 1923 and you had no family, it was harder both to create one and to bring family members over.

The community was also forced to wrestle with the prospect they would be deported. The immediate effect was that the folks that were here didnt want to leave  they might not be allowed back in, says Atkin.

What emerged in response were Chinese schools to educate children on their heritage and to prepare them for life in China should they be forced to return.

The repeal of the Immigration Act and the necessity of remembering

Apart from the efforts of community leaders, what ultimately paved the way for the lifting of the Exclusion Act were Chinese immigrants wartime contributions. They were one of the largest purchasers of war bonds during the Second World War, notes Atkin. Despite not qualifying as citizens, about 600 Chinese enlisted in the war.

[Their military service] brought their efforts to the fore, says Ransk. The fact that theyre seeing women donate time, selling baked goods, made [Canadians] realize that pre-war notions of exclusion and thinking this community was unpatriotic, was complete nonsense.

On June 22, 2006, the Harper government issued a formal apology to Chinese-Canadians who had paid the head tax; their survivors or spouses were given $20,000 in compensation.

For Yu, the apology was bittersweet and long overdue. By 2006, it didnt do those who actually paid the head tax any good, he says. Most of those people had long passed away.

Suk Yin Ng, a librarian at the Toronto Public Library, immigrated from Hong Kong as a student in the 1970s. She is now leading an effort within the library to collect and establish a physical Chinese-Canadian archive, from 1878 up to today.

Ng will be collecting a range of ephemera, from diaries and old photographs to head tax certificates and grocery bills.

Its difficult for them to part with their [family documents], says Ng. But they realize that this is the right thing to do before they disappear. I think theyre happy to find a good home, to let people know the contributions of their grandparents.

This piece was originally appeared in New Canadian Media (newcanadianmedia.ca).

See http://newcanadianmedia.ca/item/36951-reshaping-populations-reflecting-on-the-chinese-immigration-act
Man Wins Micronesian Island Resort In Raffle

Trending News: The World's Luckiest Man Bought A Tropical Island Resort For $65

Why Is This Important?

Because this must be the best raffle prize in history.

Long Story Short

An Australian man has won the lease to a resort on the Pacific paradise island of Kosrae in Micronesia after the former owners decided to raffle the Nautilus Resort off instead of selling it.

Long Story

At some time or another many of us have experienced the joy of winning a raffle, but generally speaking the prize tends to be something pretty banal, like a cuddly toy or a coupon for a haircut. But an Australian man is celebrating winning a resort on a beautiful tropical island in the Pacific after his number was drawn in a very special raffle.

The Beitz family decided to sell the Nautilus Resort on the island of Kosrae in Micronesia but rather than do it the usual way they instead sold tickets for a drawing at $65 per entry.

A computer program then chose entrant number 44,980, who ABC reports is a man from New South Wales called Jason. Judging by the number of the winner it would seem the sellers, who built the resort in 1994, did some shrewd business and it gave people around the world a few days to dream of owning a piece of paradise.

The high-end resort has 16 rooms and is located on the oceanfront on the sleepy island of Kosrae - one of the Federated States of Micronesia along with Pohnpei, Yap and Chuuk.

The lucky new owner will have a lease of over 20 years and will take over a holiday destination for tourists who are keen to get well off the beaten track. Kosrae is accessed via an island hopper flight from Guam via Chuuk and Pohnpei and flights can cost as much as $2000 returning from the U.S. mainland.

However, before Jason gets any ideas about a massive housewarming party, its worth noting that the island of Kosrae is well known for its quiet, religious inhabitants and even wearing shorts in the main village is frowned upon. That yacht of supermodels may have to wait well off the shoreline, unfortunately.

Own The Conversation

Ask The Big Question

Given the community's restrictions, should the winner just sell the resort?

Disrupt Your Feed

Why is it that whenever I win a raffle I get some useless junk but this guy has won a tropical paradise?

Drop This Fact

It is illegal to drink alcohol on a Sunday in Kosrae between midday and midnight.
All Charges Dropped Against Officers In Freddy Gray Killing

Trending News: No More Police Will Be Prosecuted For The Death Of Freddie Gray

Why Is This Important?

Because authorities who are charged with abusing their power are rarely convicted.

Long Story Short

No police officer will be convicted in the death of Freddy Gray, an African American man who died in police custody, as prosecutors drop charges against the three remaining officers who arrested him.

Long Story

Baltimore prosecutors dropped all charges against the last three of six officers involved in the death of Freddy Gray, leaving nobody criminally liable for his death.

In April 2015, Gray, a 25 year old black man, was arrested, handcuffed and placed in the back of a police van without a seatbelt on. His neck broke as the van tossed him around while he was shackled, resulting in the spine injury that lead to his death. According to the autopsy report from the State Medical Examiner's Office, Grays death was deemed a homicide.

The death of Freddie Gray ignited the national debate on excessive police violence targeting African Americans. Grays high-profile death was shortly followed by nationwide protests, adding even further momentum to the Black Lives Matter movement.

Homicide, but no killers. Outrage, but no justice. Sadness, but no surprise. #FreddyGray https://t.co/67FDBca2fp  Arisa Cox (@arisacox) July 27, 2016

Shortly after the announcement of the officers acquittal, Gloria Darden, mother of Freddy Gray, spoke to the press. "It was wrong what [the officers] did to my son, they lied, I know they lied, and they killed him," she said.

Baltimore states attorney Marilyn Mosby, the passionate prosecutor who was hoping to see the case through to the end, acknowledges that there is an inherent bias whenever police police themselves.

In what I thought was her most searing comment, @MarilynMosbyEsq rebukes the criminal justice system: pic.twitter.com/YTZKW7JzMD  Justin Fenton (@justin_fenton) July 27, 2016

She revealed in a statement:

After much thought and prayer it has become clear that without being able to work with an independent investigatory agency from the very start, without having a say in the election of whether cases proceed in front of a judge or jury, without communal oversight of police in this community, without substantive reforms to the current criminal justice system, we could try this case 100 times and cases just like it and we would still end up with the same result.

Although the trial has lead to no convictions, reports suggest that officers might still face administrative disciplinary measures.

Own The Conversation

Ask The Big Question

Should criminal cases involving police be tried by an independent body?

Disrupt Your Feed

Justice is a luxury for the privileged.

Drop This Fact

When police go to trial, they are convicted in only 33% of cases and incarcerated in 12% of cases, whereas the general public is convicted 68% of the time and incarcerated 38% of the time for cases that go to trial.
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By Laura D'Olimpio, Senior Lecturer in Philosophy, University of Notre Dame Australia

Warner Bros

Consider this: right now, you are not where you think you are. In fact, you happen to be the subject of a science experiment being conducted by an evil genius.

Your brain has been expertly removed from your body and is being kept alive in a vat of nutrients that sits on a laboratory bench.

The nerve endings of your brain are connected to a supercomputer that feeds you all the sensations of everyday life. This is why you think youre living a completely normal life.

Do you still exist? Are you still even you? And is the world as you know it a figment of your imagination or an illusion constructed by this evil scientist?

Sounds like a nightmare scenario. But can you say with absolute certainty that its not true?

Could you prove to someone that you arent actually a brain in a vat?

Deceiving demons

The philosopher Hilary Putnam proposed this famous version of the brain-in-a-vat thought experiment in his 1981 book, Reason, Truth and History, but it is essentially an updated version of the French philosopher Rene Descartes notion of the Evil Genius from his 1641 Meditations on First Philosophy.

While such thought experiments might seem glib  and perhaps a little unsettling  they serve a useful purpose. They are used by philosophers to investigate what beliefs we can hold to be true and, as a result, what kind of knowledge we can have about ourselves and the world around us.

Descartes thought the best way to do this was to start by doubting everything, and building our knowledge from there. Using this sceptical approach, he claimed that only a core of absolute certainty will serve as a reliable foundation for knowledge. He said:

If you would be a real seeker after truth, it is necessary that at least once in your life you doubt, as far as possible, all things.

Descartes believed everyone could engage in this kind of philosophical thinking. In one of his works, he describes a scene where he is sitting in front of a log fire in his wooden cabin, smoking his pipe.

He asks if he can trust that the pipe is in his hands or his slippers are on his feet. He notes that his senses have deceived him in the past, and anything that has been deceptive once previously cannot be relied upon. Therefore he cannot be sure that his senses are reliable.









Shutterstock





Down the rabbit hole

It is from Descartes that we get classical sceptical queries favoured by philosophers such as: how can we be sure that we are awake right now and not asleep, dreaming?

To take this challenge to our assumed knowledge further, Descartes imagines there exists an omnipotent, malicious demon that deceives us, leading us to believe we are living our lives when, in fact, reality could be very different to how it appears to us.

I shall suppose that some malicious demon of the utmost power and cunning has employed all his energies in order to deceive me.

The brain-in-a-vat thought experiment and the challenge of scepticism has also been employed in popular culture. Notable contemporary examples include the 1999 film The Matrix and Christopher Nolans 2010 film Inception.

By watching a screened version of a thought experiment, the viewer may imaginatively enter into a fictional world and safely explore philosophical ideas.

For example, while watching The Matrix, we identify with the protagonist, Neo (Keanu Reeves), who discovers the ordinary world is a computer-simulated reality and his atrophied body is actually suspended in a vat of life-sustaining liquid.

Even if we cannot be absolutely certain that the external world is how it appears to our senses, Descartes commences his second meditation with a small glimmer of hope.

At least we can be sure that we ourselves exist, because every time we doubt that, there must exist an I that is doing the doubting. This consolation results in the famous expression cogito ergo sum, or I think therefore I am.

So, yes, you may well be a brain in a vat and your experience of the world may be a computer simulation programmed by an evil genius. But, rest assured, at least youre thinking!

Laura D'Olimpio does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond the academic appointment above.

Originally published in The Conversation.
Half of all departures from New Zealand between 1979 and 2016 were to Australia, this according to the latest data from Statistics New Zealand.Open migration access has always been a part of New Zealand's long-standing links with Australia, which for the most part allows an unrestricted flow of citizens between the two countries. Historically, more people have migrated from New Zealand to Australia than vice versa. The latest data shows that approximately seven out of eight people were New Zealand citizens, while one in five emigrant arrivals in New Zealand were from Australia. Of those individuals, two out of three were already New Zealand citizens.Figures from June 2015 showed an estimated 611,400 New Zealand-born people were living in Australia and 653,800 New Zealand citizens had made their home in Australia.The dominant historical flow of migrants across the Tasman is New Zealand citizens moving from their home country to Australia. Between June 1979 and June 2016, this averaged 27,600 arrivals per year. However, there were considerable fluctuations, often within periods of a few years. For example, there have been 20,200 departures as of June of this year. 2012 saw another huge influx - a total of 48,600 new arrivals.Over the past three years, an average of 15,800 New Zealand citizens have migrated from New Zealand from Australia, compared with an average of 8,900 a year between June 1979 and June 2013. Since 1979, Australian citizens have contributed an average of 3,800 every year to trans-Tasman arrivals. That number reached 5,000 as of this June. Some of these Australian citizens are children of New Zealand citizens.The report concludes that overall, the pattern of trans-Tasman migration has been one of volatility, driven by New Zealand citizens. Australian citizens make a relatively small contribution to trans-Tasman flows, while the contribution of other citizens has historically been a small part of trans-Tasman flows.However, more than 3,000 non-New Zealand and non-Australian citizens and residents arrived in either country over the past three years. Three quarters of these migrants were citizens of the U.K., Ireland and other European countries.Despite a reversal in trends since 2012, there are still more New Zealand citizens departing to Australia than arriving from Australia. However, the net loss has shrunk from 39,700 four years ago to 3,500 in 2016. This deficit was more than offset by small net gains of 3,000 Australian citizens and 2,400 other citizens so far this year - an overall net gain of 1,900 people.
Hi all,



as title says, i m exploring some ways to sponsor my brother to come to Australia on permanent bases if possible.



so he is married with two kids and lives in UK as a permanent resident, he is working in health care center so does his wife.



about myself, i'm holding permanent resident visa and eligible for Australian citizenship (haven't done it yet ! ).



not sure this is sufficient information.



as always, thank you so much for your input.



regards
The course commencement date won't have any impact, as they will still only process applications based on the date they were submitted. Many students have to defer their course start dates if their visa isn't granted by the commencement date. DIBP generally recommends students apply 3 months ahead of their course start date, although still some applicants end up waiting 4+ months for a visa.



If you reach the standard processing time and still haven't heard anything, you could perhaps contact DIBP to see if they need anything else to finalise your application.
we are dating for a while now, and about to get married and apply for a partner visa. but my partner was granted a partner visa itself and hence received a PR and due for a citizenship ceremony.



currently my partner is divorced but her application is only 3 years old.



as she was granted PR on a partner visa, can she sponsor me? we both live in Australia the only thing is i am on a regional visa.



as i read online it says the following..

"A person who themselves were granted a partner or prospective marriage visa is also prevented from sponsoring a partner or prospective marriage visa applicant until at least five years have passed since they made their own visa application."



can anyone please clear us this confusion.



thanks in advance.
TUV300 is likely to get a new top-spec T10 variant, while the KUV100 will get mild styling changes and added equipment.

Mahindra is set to update the TUV300 and KUV100 this month. For the TUV300, the carmaker is likely to introduce a top-spec T10 variant to the line-up. Sources also tell us that the new T10 variant will get two dual-tone paint shade options and an upgraded infotainment system equipped with Android Auto, navigation and the Mahindra Blue Sense app integration. Powering the TUV300 T10 will be the 100hp version of the 1.5-litre diesel engine, and it is likely to get an AMT variant as well.

The second launch from Mahindra this month will be the refreshed KUV100. Changes include sheet metal changes to its rear doors and tailgate in order to make it looks more appealing. On the inside, higher variants are likely to get a textured dashboard and more features. Mahindra could also include a touchscreen infotainment system. Engine options are expected to be the same but they will be tuned for better fuel efficiency. The KUV100 facelift is likely to hit the showrooms on September 21, 2017.

Mahindra is also readying two new products that will launch in the coming months. The first will be the TUV300 Plus which is essentially a long-wheelbase variant of the TUV300. It will feature three-row seating with forward-facing seats for the third row as well. The second all-new product is the U321 MPV which will take on the likes of the Toyota Innova Crysta.
Fortunately for shareholders and the Tesla company in general Elon Musk does not plan on spending billions right away. Instead, he suggested the plan he outlined is more of a guide for the future of the corporation, and he expects the company to accomplish the objective some day.Musks comments arrive after it is has become than evident that he wants Tesla Motors to take over SolarCity. By the merger of these companies, Musk wants to create an eco-friendly solar empire.Unfortunately, shareholders did not see the move with Elons eyes, and Tesla stock suffered a drop in value after the announcement regarding its intentions of taking over SolarCity, Bloomberg notes.Over the course of the same discussion, Elon Musk expressed his dissatisfaction with the buzz raised by the fatal accident that occurred this May and involving a Tesla.Elon stated that he was frustrated by the media coverage of the crash in Florida, and the companys CEO underlined the fact that its cars are safer thanks to the Autopilot Mobileye, the manufacturer of chips and software for Teslas key components for the Autopilot system and much more, has announced it will not extend its cooperation with the automaker after the ongoing contract expires. Elon Musk responded to the situation in an unusually polite manner, saying that the separation was not surprising and inevitable.The latest news from Elon Musk does not come from his Twitter account, but from a tour of the Gigafactory. According to the company, progress in the factorys construction process has reached 14%, and it will cover an astounding surface.Tesla will invest $5 billion in the facility, and it will make batteries for both cars and the Powerwall storage system. Once Tesla buys SolarCity, Elon Musk will be able to sell electric vehicles, solar panels, and home electricity storage solutions through the same business, an objective that is evidently on his mind.
Benchmarking is a common habit in the automotive industry, and most manufacturers do it. If they do not, they should get going.

163 photos
HP

ABS

The British automaker calls it the Lotus Elise Race 250, and it is so hardcore that it ditches headlights for a set of blanking plates. This model is built so that it is eligible and compliant with multiple racing classes around the world, and it comes with performance-oriented features as standard.The 1.8-liter supercharged four-cylinder engine provides 246at 7,200 rpm, while peak torque is 250 Nm (184.4 lb-ft) between 3,500 and 5,500 rpm. The unit is mated to a six-speed manual transmission, and they can propel the British race car at speeds of up to 248 km/h (154 mph).The exterior features a full aerodynamic package, and the car has a maximum downforce of 155 kilograms at its top speed. At 100 mph (162 km/h) the rear wing generates 66 kg (145 pounds) of downforce. The cabin has a fire extinguisher, an FIA-approved carbon fiber racing seat, a front FIA-approved roll-cage section, a battery isolator, a removable steering wheel, a polycarbonate rear windscreen, and a six-point racing harness.The car has been optimized to be as light as possible, and its dry weight is less than 900 kilograms (1,984 pounds). According to Lotus , the best time achieved around their Hethel test track was 1 minute and 33.5 seconds, making it 0.5 seconds faster than the previous Elise Cup 220 R . The automaker from Hethel also states that this time is also the best achieved by a race variant of the Elise.Concerning rolling gear, the Elise Race 250 comes with an adjustable front anti-roll bar, one-way adjustable dampers from Nitron, Eibach coaxial coil springs, and a double-wishbone suspension. The front brakes come from AP Racing in the form of two-piston calipers, while the rear features Brembo single-piston calipers.Thehas been maintained, and it must slow down a set of ultra-lightweight forged alloy wheels, available in 16 inches for the front axle, and 17 inches for the rear axle. This car leaves the factory with a set of Yokohama AO48 tires.In the USA, excluding local taxes, a Lotus Elise Race 250 starts at $76,200, but we believe it can do more than most of its drivers. In the UK, including a VAT of 20%, it starts at 53,500 GBP. Refer to your local Lotus dealer for availability in other markets.
It's not just power plants that use atomic energy, but also vehicles. Submarines have been doing it for quite a while, taking advantage of the immense range provided which allows them to remain at sea for very long periods of time. So why not use it for personal transportation solutions as well?There was this song that Bob Marley used to sing - and then, later on, punk rock legend Joe Strummer - called "Redemption Song," and one of its verses said "Have no fear for atomic energy, 'cause none of them can stop the time." Well, that's technically true, but what good is the passage of time when there's nobody left to acknowledge it?The fact is, generating atomic energy using nuclear fusion isn't simple, and it also requires some highly radioactive chemical elements you wouldn't want to spend too much time around unless you like having three arms and no kids. But apart from that, it's one of those situations where the slightest mistake or malfunction can have catastrophic results. See the recent Fukushima disaster or, a little further down the road, the 1986 Chernobyl incident.Which makes it somewhat funny that the one person who thought making a nuclear-powered car was a good idea comes from Russia, the country that was running the Chernobyl plant at the time (that was before the USSR broke). His name is Grigory Gorin and he chose Audi to be the brand that pioneers this solution.Grigory is a car designer, but his sketch of the Audi Mesarthim F-Tron Quattro concept contains a somewhat detailed structure of the vehicle's insides, with every bit that makes the wheels spin having a very clearly defined place.The design itself is best described as odd-futuristic, with the two seats pushed very far up front and a rear that looks like the carcass of a goat after three hungry tigers finished playing with it. Or maybe something else. But the best part has got to be the glass canopy that lifts and slides forward, easing the access into the car that wasn't helped at all by the diminutive doors.Like all devices that use atomic energy, it is actually a glorified steam engine. Unlike the previous locomotives, the water vapors don't generate motion directly, but spin a turbine instead that powers a generator. So, yes, the Mesarthim is essentially an electric vehicle.We'll let you try to decipher all the components of the powertrain from Grigory's pictures - be warned, the terrible font won't make it easy - but just before you start imagining the multitude of mushroom clouds that would pop up everywhere each time there was a crash, you can forget about it. The costs to build such a car would be way too high. On the other hand, it could power the whole neighborhood on its own, so you would be making money off it.
Those of you who feel a little clever might point out that Lamborghini used to build the LM002, the Hummer-like pickup that had more in common with the vehicles that Lamborghini used to make before it got into the supercar business. Oh, you're right, seeing a bunch of farm animals getting driven around behind an extremely rare classic car isn't weird at all. As a matter of fact, I do that every day.Even so, this isn't the LM002, nor a Urus that traveled back in time: it's the now defunct Murcielago, the pride and joy of the Italian brand. It wasn't the cheapest of all Lamborghinis, and even if it were, it wouldn't have made this any less of a sacrilege. It's like saying there is nothing wrong with giving you kid a Picasso sketch to doodle on because it's not one of the expensive paintings.But is there really anything wrong with what he's doing? Well, to be perfectly honest, it all started the moment he decided to equip the car with a towing hook. The person who helped him do it is just as guilty. There should be a law that would prevent this from happening, just like any dentist will not extract a healthy tooth unless he has written permission from an orthodontist. It's against nature, and it shouldn't be done.With the hook in place, there was nothing left to stop him. Nothing except people's reaction, but he doesn't seem to care too much about that. The man has a Lamborghini , so why should he be bothered with what all the Ford Toyota or Holden drivers think of him? And if you're wondering what the hell is a "Holden," maybe we should have made it clear earlier that all this isn't happening in some third-world country or Russia, but in the sunny Australia.On the other hand, maybe he just loves his goats very much. Maybe he wasn't going to a slaughterhouse or a market, but they were actually his pets. With only two seats and the wife insisting on coming along, what else was the man supposed to do? Buy another Lamborghini and give one of the goats the keys? Now that would make an even more ridiculous YouTube video.
Photo courtesy of The Hertz Corp.

Rick Frecker has been appointed executive vice president and general counsel for Hertz Global Holdings Inc. Frecker has served as the company's acting general counsel since April.

"Rick has performed exceptionally throughout his eight years with the company and is held in high regard throughout our organization," said John Tague, president and CEO of Hertz Global Holdings. "Heading our general counsel office over the past several months, Rick has proven himself extremely capable leading complex transactions, such as the separation of our equipment rental business, while also providing valued counsel to the senior leadership team. I am very pleased to see Rick take this next step at Hertz Global Holdings."

Frecker, who joined the company in 2008, previously served as vice president and deputy general counsel. In that role, he was responsible for all corporate securities matters and served as head legal counsel on treasury and corporate development activities together with responsibility for corporate compliance, according to Hertz. Additionally, he has had responsibility for legal activities related to the company's franchise agreements.

Frecker received his legal degree from the Fordham University School of Law and a bachelor's degree in business administration from Western Michigan University.
Roanoke-Blacksburg Regional Airport has added a customer facility charge for rental car customers, according to a report by WDBJ 7. The fee will help build a new rental car facility and upgrade the parking lot.

The fee is about $3 per car per day, totaling nearly $800,000 a year, according to the report.

Currently, the on-airport rental companies have the customer service counters in the airports lobby and the maintenance is off-site, according to the report. The airport wants to combine it all to make it easier for the rental companies and their customers.

(Customers) would be able to pick the car up at the centralized facility, Brad Boettcher, regional airport marketing director, told WDBJ 7. Right now sometimes people get a little confused as to where to pick up the cars because the current pickup lots are blended in with the short-term parking, and that can be a little bit confusing.

The new quick turnaround maintenance facility will include space for washing and fueling the rental vehicles, says the report.

Click here for the full WDBJ 7 report.
The just-introduced CubCrafters XCub has enjoyed strong initial sales success, with the first 20 aircraft already sold, the company said this week at AirVenture 2016. It also announced a new factory training program for buyers that will allow them to get the most of their new airplanes, especially if theyre coming from nosegear aircraft.

CubCrafters has looked for a long, long time for a training partner, someone to refer our customers to where they can get quality training in our particular aircraft, said John Whitish, CubCrafters marketing director. The airplanes we sell are tailwheel aircraft and many of the customers who come to us are already flying a Bonanza or a Baron or whatever, and they need to get comfortable in a tailwheel airplane, preferably our tailwheel airplane, he added.

The program will be provided by TacAero. Whitish said it was fantastic for us that TacAero has agreed to provide transition training for all of the CubCrafters line. In this exclusive AirVenture podcast, TacAeros Jeremy Young explains the five-day certified program the company developed specifically for CubCrafters. For a view reivew of the XCub, see AVwebs coverage here.
The CEO of Icon Aircraft says he believes his company has moved past the controversy that resulted from its initial stab at a purchase agreement for the Icon A5. Kirk Hawkins told AVweb in an interview at AirVenture 2016 that a revised agreement released in June has been generally well-accepted. The first document, a 43-page litany of legalese that appeared to limit the rights of and impose responsibilities on owners raised eyebrows among customers and the general aviation industry as a whole.

The revised document eased many of those concerns and Hawkins admits the introduction of such a different owner/OEM was mishandled. He said he still believes fundamentally that the relationship between customer and manufacturer is partnership that requires respect and responsibility on both sides but the points have been made and the controversy has died down. I think weve moved through the worst of that, he said.

The company is now fully focused on creating its training program and on getting its production issues ironed out. Hawkins said that some deposit holders cancelled their orders but others filled the void. Net, net were about the same, about 1850 orders, he said. It will be some time before most of those position holders will see their airplanes as Icon refreshes its approach to tackling that backlog. The plan to build 200 aircraft in 2016 was unrealistic and the company will spend the year getting ready for full production. You have to build the machine that builds the machine, he said.

Instead of 200, the company intends to build 20 A5s this year and distribute them among at least three training centers in Florida, Texas and at its home base in Vacaville, California. The facility at Vacaville headquarters is operating and training pilots, including some who are not buyers. Customers have the priority but well train [others], he said. The goal, he said, is to get people flying in a simple regime that will fill the pipeline for the future aviation market.

Hawkins said becoming a competent all-weather pilot is a huge undertaking and what most aspiring pilots want to do is simply put 1,000 feet between themselves and the ground. He said most new pilots have no practical purpose for flying. They just want to. Lets get you flying, he said. The company has designed new training materials aimed at creating safe, responsible pilots who fly for fun. Since the airplane is an amphib and will naturally be used away from aviation infrastructure, pilots will have to be resourceful and self-reliant and the training covers that.

Hawkins said his investors have committed to fully funding the program and they are a diverse bunch from North America, Europe and Asia. He said they see huge market potential for a resurgence in recreational flying. There is massive latent market demand, he said.
Innova Aerospace has two new upgrades available for King Air 90 series aircraft owners, the company announced this week at EAA AirVenture. Those in need of a cockpit overhaul can choose a full avionics retrofit with the AeroVue integrated flight deck by BendixKing. Replacing the old engines with two new GE H80s brings a significant reduction in operating costs, Innova says, while also reducing the required maintenance. Our focus is really on performance enhancement, Innova spokesman David Meske told AVweb this weekin a podcast interview.

The new engines deliver better performance and easier maintenance, Meske said, and the new all-glass cockpit gives you everything you could want, and adds value to the airplane. The modifications are available now for many models, and for all of the fleet by the end of the year, Meske said. The upgrades are on display all this week at EAA AirVenture, with one King Air, with the new engines, displayed near the Textron pavilion, and another one, with the AeroVue flight deck, parked close to BendixKing.
Roller-coaster stories are not unusual in the world of general aviation, but Mooneys history is extra-packed-full of ups and downs  and this week at Oshkosh, the company is celebrating its latest resurgence, declaring that success building upon success is their new mantra. Mooney has two new models on display this week at EAA AirVenture, the M20V Acclaim Ultra and the M20U Ovation Ultra. And back in Texas, the new all-composite M10T that first flew last December continues in flight-test mode. It has been an incredible year  a pretty close to perfect one, in fact, said Mooney COO Tom Bowen.

The two new Ultra models both include a pilot-side door  a first for Mooney  plus a composite cabin  also something new for the traditionally all-metal Mooneys  plus clean-sheet redesigns for the interiors, and upgrades to the panel. We are on the cusp of certifying the best M20 models ever  the new Ultras  [and] we also have the next-generation M10 family well into flight test, Bowen said. Its all a wonderful testament to the hard work of everyone involved, and most importantly, the amazing support of our customers. Mooneys airplanes will be open for inspection all week at EAA AirVenture.
Maybe it was just the madhouse of arrivals Sunday afternoon when we landed, or maybe its that I skipped working the show last year, but this show feels busyin a good way. Heres an interesting observation: Jim Alpiser of Garmin told me how he usually gets to the show at 7:30 a.m. and expects a short wait in traffic. It took him 30 minutes to get into the show Monday. Thats before most of the public comes to the show and there was nothing unusual about the traffic flow. EAA has that dialed down to a science.

I had a similar experience an hour later. Who are all these people? It would be interesting to know if there was an uptick in vendors, or the staff they brought. Or is it an upswing in visitors? Alpiser said the Garmin booth was packed all day. GA camping in the North 40 had wrapped around the approach end of Runway 9, which is indicative of healthy fly-ins. Were told Fond du Lac is similarly packed. Ill say from the swivel-head, tight-knuckle seat I had on the FISKE arrival there were plenty of people heading in  all at the same time. The image is the ADS-B display on ForeFlight.

Pilot Proficiency Center

It warms my heart to see the EAA Pilot Proficiency Center hopping with pilots as I did the times I poked my head in. If youre at the show and have a pilot certificate in your pocket, you owe yourself the favor of hitting the PPC. Where else can you get free instruction from experienced CFIs on 30 different scenarios ranging from canyon flying to IFRwith live ATC no less? You can see the full list here.

Real proficiency training is still a gaping hole in the light GA world and there needs to be more of it in a way thats accessible to all pilots. I was recently talking with Paul Ratte of USAIG about a program for corporate flight departments that pays in full for the pilots to attend additional scenario-based training beyond their six-month aircraft work. The insurance company does it because saving even one claim per year in cabin-class turbine aircraft would pay for the entire program. What can we do in GA?

At its heart, this is a cultural thing, which means changing mindsets is key. (I wouldnt object to tying training to airplane insurance premiums, but Id call it paying a surcharge for not training rather than a discount to train.) However, theres a simple accessibility problem as well. Cirrus has the right idea with integrated, online training that includes a follow-up flight syllabus. Pilot Workshops also has their IFR Mastery program of you-are-there scenarios that work the mental juices each month. (Full disclosure: I help develop the Mastery scenarios.)

This isnt enough, though. We need programs like the PPC that pilots can do at home. That means pilots need access to presentations, simulators and instructors in real time. Those simulators need realistic avionics that accurately represent equipment we use in our cockpits and systems for the instructors to analyze their clients performance.

Some of this exists today; some is still wanting. However, I have yet to see a serious program targeting GA pilots in general for ongoing proficiency using scenarios and simulation. This would be a monthly, proficiency in pieces as my friend Frank Robinson calls it. Each month a digestible chunk is handled on a Saturday morning. Over the course of a year, all the key points get addressed. Its like a phase inspection program replacing an aircraft annual for those who are familiar. It would involve both automated and liveif remotely locatedinstruction. Any takers?

Theres one more component thats critical: It needs to be fun. People build habits around things that reinforce the behavior. The carrot of some cash savings only goes so far. The yoke of its good for you never works in the long run. But make it fun, generate some competition, reward involvement with enjoyment and recognition, and now youve got a chance of building a habit. And a safety habit is really what we mean when we talk about building a safety culture.

In the meantime, come have some fun at the PPC if youre in Central Wisconsin this week. Well have a video on the PPC tomorrow.
27 July 2016 11:55 (UTC+04:00)

Rashid Shirinov

The Khorenatsi Street of Yerevan near the police patrol station, which was seized by the armed group Sasna Tsrer, is still crowded. Many people keep gathering there to support the protests against the authorities.

The police earlier warned the demonstrators to move the rally to another place. In order to prevent a threat to lives and health of the protest participants, as well as public safety, nothing else can be done other than to move the meeting to another place. Otherwise, the police will have to use other means, in accordance with the law, to stop the rally, their statement reads.

However, the demonstrators refused to obey the police and did not moved away from the Khorenatsi street. After that, they launched a march along Yerevan streets to the police and National Security Service buildings.

The police detained numerous citizens in Khorenatsi street in late night. Gyumris Asparez Journalists Club President Levon Barseghyan is among them. The task force police officers have torn away the poster installed in the street, which required Serzh Sargsyans resignation.

Following a shootout in the territory of the police station, two members of the armed group Gagik Egiazaryan and Aram Akopyan  have surrendered to police. Being wounded, attackers Pavel Manukyan and his son Aram were transferred to the hospital. Other members of the Sasna Tsrer still stay in the station resisting the police.

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 demanded 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.

Following the long-lasting talks, the armed group on July 23 released all of the hostages. Nevertheless, they refuse to lay arms down and surrender to the authorities.

From the first day of the seizure, Armenian people started their protest actions against authorities by gathering on the Khorenatsi street and some other main venues of the capital. Every evening they conduct rallies in front of the police cordon to stop the implementation of a special operation against the armed group.

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Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
27 July 2016 13:04 (UTC+04:00)

By Rashid Shirinov

An armed group, which earlier seized a police building in Yerevan, took hostage of doctors, who arrived to assist the wounded in the shootout.

Despite the recent surrender of two members of the Sasna Tsrer group, now the armed group took 4 ambulance doctors hostage.

On July 26 night, the police opened fire from behind a fence near the seized patrol station, shooting two of the group members. After the shootout, Gagik Egiazaryan and Aram Akopyan  have surrendered to police. Being wounded, attackers Pavel Manukyan and his son Aram were transferred to the hospital. Other members of the Sasna Tsrer still stay in the station resisting the police.

The armed group reported that there are two wounded on the territory of the PPS regiment. Law enforcement officers proposed to assist the wounded and were refused.

Later, the armed group demanded a doctor stating that the condition of the wounded is heavy. The arrived doctors, who arrived to help the wounded, have been taken hostage, the head of the Armenian Polices press service Ashot Aharonyan claimed.

Currently, the law enforcement officers are taking measures to release the doctors through negotiations.

The group of 31 people armed with assault rifles and pistols, seized the building of the police station in Yerevan on July 17. During capture of the building, one policeman was killed and six people, including five policemen, were injured.

The group demanded the resignation of President Serzh Sargsyan and the release of the leader of the radical opposition movement in Armenia Jirair Sefilyan, who was arrested in late June on charges of illegal possession of weapons.

Following the long-lasting talks, the armed group on July 23 released all of the previous hostages.

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Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov

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27 July 2016 16:00 (UTC+04:00)

By Rashid Shirinov

The investigation, which has been instituted into the criminal case on the fact that Armenia used chemical weapons during the April fighting, continues.

Azerbaijans Military Prosecutor Khanlar Veliyev made the statement at an enlarged joint meeting on July 26.

Terribly violating international humanitarian legal norms, Armenian Armed Forces subjected to intense bombardment from large-caliber weapons, mortars, grenade launchers and artillery guns the civilian targets and settlements located not only along the line of contact, but also far from the combat zone.

Due to the intentional homicide on the ground of national hostility and hatred by the Armenian armed units to servicemen of the Azerbaijani army, the Azerbaijani Military Prosecutor's office instituted criminal proceedings on several articles along with creating an operational-investigative group to research these crimes.

For a short period of time, the group conducted numerous investigations including examination of killed soldiers bodies. All actions were implemented with great professionalism and on time, with the use of a medical examination, complex judicial-ballistic examination and other kinds of expertise.

Veliyev stressed that Armenian armed forces used internationally prohibited chemical ammunition with regard to Azerbaijani civilians. As evidence of this, he mentioned an unexploded ordnance that Armenian Armed Forces used during their shelling of the civilian population of Azerbaijan.

The mentioned 122-millimeter ordnance consisting of chemical code of white phosphorus was detected in village Askipara of Tartar region. It is well known that weapons containing white phosphorus are extremely toxic when inhaled, ingested, or absorbed through burned areas and can have severe negative impacts on human health. If landed on the densely populated part of the village, the projectile would have inflicted serious casualties and injuries among the civilians.

Special Investigation Unit of the Azerbaijani Military Prosecutors Office inspected the territory of the ordnance. Following that, the Office initiated a criminal case upon this fact under the following articles of Azerbaijan's Criminal Code: Article 29,120.2.7 (attempt to kill two or more people), 29,120.2.12 (attempt to kill on ethnic, racial or religious grounds) and 116.0.16 (use of weapons, means and methods of warfare prohibited by interstate agreements during an armed conflict).

By committing such violations, Armenia roughly breaks international conventions including 1949 Geneva Conventions for the Protection of War Victims, 1980 Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons and 1992 provisions of the UN Convention banning the production and use of chemical weapons. Azerbaijan urges the international community to condemn Armenia for such blatant violations of international law.

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Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov

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27 July 2016 20:33 (UTC+04:00)

By Anatole Kaletsky

How should the European Union respond to the narrow decision by voters in the United Kingdom to leave? European leaders are now focusing, rightly, on how to prevent other countries from leaving the EU or the euro. The most important country to be kept in the club is Italy, which faces a referendum in October that could pave the way for the anti-euro Five Star Movement to take power.

Europes fear of contagion is justified, because the Brexit referendums outcome has transformed the politics of EU fragmentation. Before, advocates of leaving the EU or euro could be ridiculed as fantasists or denounced as fascists (or ultra-leftists). This is no longer possible.

Brexit has turned Leave (whether the EU or the euro) into a realistic option in every European country. Once Britain gives the Union formal notice (by invoking Article 50 of the Treaty of Lisbon), that option will enter the mainstream of political debate everywhere. Research by the European Council on Foreign Relations has found 34 anti-EU referendum demands in 18 other countries. Even if each of these challenges has only a 5% chance of success, the probability of at least one succeeding is 83%.

Can the genie of disintegration be put back in its bottle? The EUs breakup may well prove unstoppable once Britain leaves; but Britain has not yet invoked Article 50. The bottle could still be sealed before the genie escapes.

Unfortunately, Europe is using the wrong threats and incentives to achieve this. France is demanding that Britain accelerate its exit. Germany is playing the good cop by offering access to the single market, but only in exchange for immigration rules that Britain will not accept. These are exactly the wrong sticks and carrots.

Instead of rushing Brexit, Europes leaders should be trying to avert it, by persuading British voters to change their minds. The aim should not be to negotiate the terms of departure, but to negotiate the terms on which most British voters would want to remain.

An EU strategy to avoid Brexit, far from ignoring British voters, would show genuine respect for democracy. The essence of democratic politics is responding to public dissatisfaction with policies and ideas  and then trying to change the judgment of voters. That is how numerous referendum outcomes  in France, Ireland, Denmark, the Netherlands, Italy, and Greece  have been reversed, even when deeply emotional issues, such as abortion and divorce, were involved.

If European leaders tried the same approach with Britain, they might be surprised by the favorable response. Many Leave voters are already having second thoughts, and Prime Minister Theresa Mays uncompromising negotiating position will paradoxically accelerate this process, because voters now face a much more extreme version of Brexit than they were promised by the Leave campaign.

May has stated unequivocally that immigration control is her over-riding priority and that Norway or Switzerland can no longer be models for Britains relationship with the EU. Her new Brexit Ministry has defined Britains main objective as tariff-free access to Europe and free-trade agreements with the rest of the world. That means abandoning the interests of Britains financial and business services, because services are unaffected by tariffs and are excluded from most free-trade deals.

As a result, the new government will soon be politically vulnerable. In fact, most British voters already disagree with its negotiating priorities. Post-referendum polls show voters giving priority to single-market access over immigration restrictions by a two-to-one margin or more.

Making matters worse for May, her slender parliamentary majority depends on disgruntled Remain rivals. As the British economy sinks into recession, trade deals prove illusory, and legal and constitutional obstacles proliferate, May will find it hard to maintain the parliamentary discipline needed to deliver Brexit.

A strategy to avert Brexit therefore has a good chance of success. The EU could advance this strategy by calling Mays bluff on Brexit means Brexit. May should be told that only two outcomes are possible: either Britain loses all single-market access and interacts with Europe solely under World Trade Organization rules, or it remains an EU member, after negotiating reforms that could persuade voters to reconsider Brexit in a general election or a second referendum.

This binary approach, provided EU leaders showed genuine flexibility in their reform negotiations, could transform public attitudes in Britain and across Europe. Imagine if the EU offered constructive immigration reforms  for example, restoring national control over welfare payments to non-citizens and allowing for an emergency brake on sudden population movements  to all members. Such reforms would demonstrate the EUs respect for democracy in Britain  and could turn the tide of anti-EU populism across northern Europe.

The EU has a long history of adapting in response to political pressures in important member states. So why is this strategy not being considered to counter the existential threat of Brexit?

The answer has nothing to do with supposed respect for democracy. The Brexit vote is no more irreversible than any other election or referendum, provided the EU is willing to adopt some modest reforms.

The real obstacle to a strategy of persuading Britain to remain in the EU is the EU bureaucracy. The European Commission, once the EUs source of visionary creativity, has become a fanatical defender of existing rules and regulations, however irrational and destructive, on the grounds that any concessions will beget more demands. Concessions to British voters on immigration would inspire the southern countries to demand fiscal and banking reforms, eastern countries would seek budget changes, and non-euro countries would demand an end to their second-class status.

The Commission is right to believe that demands for EU reform would extend well beyond Britain. But is this a reason to resist all change? That type of rigidity broke up the Soviet Union and nearly destroyed the Catholic Church. It will destroy the EU if the bureaucracy remains incapable of reform.

It is time for Europes politicians to overrule the bureaucrats and re-create a flexible, democratic EU capable of responding to its citizens and adapting to a changing world. Most British voters would be happy to remain in that kind of Europe.

Copyright: Project Syndicate: Reversing Brexit

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27 July 2016 10:00 (UTC+04:00)

By Bo Lidegaard

This week, Hillary Clinton will address the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia to accept her partys presidential nomination and present its platform. When she does, she will define her vision of, among other things, the social contract in America.

It will be a crucial moment. The relationship between Americans and their government is a burning issue today, and two of Clintons fellow candidates  Donald Trump, the Republican nominee, and Bernie Sanders  have, each in his own way, challenged her on it.

When Sanders defended Denmarks social-welfare state during a Democratic primary debate in October 2015, Clinton scoffed, We are not Denmark. True, the United States is not Denmark. But Sanders was not wrong in asking what makes Scandinavian welfare economies so successful, and what Americans learn from them.

The short answer is that Scandinavian countries provide their people with work that pays a decent enough wage to sustain healthy and happy lives. One need not be an economist to understand that a countrys wealth depends, to a large extent, on the proportion of the population that is doing productive work in high-value jobs.

According to OECD country rankings by employment, the top seven countries worldwide have welfare economies. Four of them are Nordic countries: Iceland, Sweden, Norway, and Denmark (the other three are Switzerland, New Zealand, and Germany). Whats more, in only five OECD members do more than 70% of women participate in the workforce: the four Nordic countries and Switzerland.

Specifically, welfare economies have been successful in expanding the scope of work, and of the labor market, to make jobs available to segments of the population that otherwise would have lacked access to well-paid employment. Some measures give workers more opportunities; others ensure that workers are freed up to pursue those opportunities.

For example, welfare-economy countries provide free education for all and skills training for any age, so that workers can move up the labor-market value chain; social security for the unemployed, so that a temporary loss of work does not become a personally catastrophic event; and highly developed systems of care for children, the elderly, and vulnerable members of society, so that workers do not have to choose between employment and caring for loved ones.

These economies capacity to provide work is not undermined by their strong social safety nets. On the contrary, precisely because temporary unemployment is not a disaster for those affected by it, the labor market is more flexible and predictable. This makes it easier for employers to hire and fire, and easier for employees to seek out the best job for the best pay.

This flexicurity-based labor market is a key defense against the full effects of globalization and open borders. It may well be true that the fully open exchange of goods and services benefits an economy as a whole; but experience from recent decades shows that, in most countries, the benefits are not evenly distributed. This sense of unfairness has fueled growing discontent and frustration among those who have seen their real wages fall, their jobs disappear, and their social benefits shrink because of tax evasion or a larger pool of recipients that includes immigrants.

And now, that anger over the effects of globalization is boiling over and rattling the very foundations of Western societies. Seen in this light,Brexit, the growth of populist parties throughout Europe, and the surge of support for Trump and Sanders in the US should not be a surprise. After all, it is a virtue of democracy that those who suffer from growing inequality and vanishing opportunities can express their grievances in elections.

Scandinavian welfare societies are not immune to populism, nationalism, or nativism, and each country has its political extremes. But with higher employment and lower inequality, challenges to the social contract itself are far more rare than they are elsewhere  particularly the US.

Of course, extended social-welfare systems require higher taxes to finance a larger public sector, the scope of which is constantly debated. But the electorates in these countries generally support the central idea  and they do so for a good reason. These systems level the playing field and allow individuals to pursue their dreams. This, fundamentally, is why so many Scandinavians are employed and why so many want to hold on to the current system.

Social welfare makes the American dream come true. Clinton should take a second look; she might find something to learn from Denmark after all.

Copyright: Project Syndicate: Hillary Clinton and the Scandinavian-American Dream

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27 July 2016 18:03 (UTC+04:00)

By Nigar Abbasova

Azerbaijans Azerishig OJSC and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) have signed an agreement on allocation of the bank loans first tranche to improve the power distribution system in Azerbaijan, ADB Baku office told Trend on July 27.

The agreement has been signed by Azerishig head Baba Rzayev and ADB country director in Azerbaijan, Nariman Mannapbekov. The amount of the first tranche of the loan, which has been allocated for 25 years, is $250 million.

Rate of interest will be formed on the basis of London interbank rate (LIBOR) with low level of margin of 0.4 percent.

The funds are expected to be directed to the purchase of necessary equipment in substations as well as purchase of meters for the population of the country. ADB signed a guarantee agreement with Azerbaijan as the state is a guarantor of a debt.

The first tranche investment activities scheduled to run from mid-2016 to the end of 2018.

ADB Central and West Asia Department director general Sean O'Sullivan earlier said that the program will help to provide round-the-clock and reliable electricity to households and entities in secondary cities and rural areas in Azerbaijan.

ADB and Azerbaijan have signed a memo on the mutual understanding on the investment program worth of $1 billion in May 2015, the document envisages reconstruction and modernization of the countrys power supply system.

The investment program project envisages allocation of funds with the amount of $750 million in 3 stages ($250 million in each stage), another $250 million will be provided by the government of Azerbaijan.

Azerbaijan has become a member in 1999, the countrys share in the banks capital amounts to 0.5 percent.

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27 July 2016 14:14 (UTC+04:00)

By Nigar Abbasova

The construction of Baku-Tbilisi-Kars (BTK) railway's Turkish section is complete by 87 percent, IHA agency quoted Ahmet Arslan, Turkish minister of transport, shipping and communications as saying.

The minister said that the BTK is being constructed on schedule, adding that two bridges are being built over the Kars river. He stressed that the project is of particular importance for Turkey.

A 79 kilometer-BTK railway section stretches through Turkey, 58 kilometers accounting for the Kars province. Turkey is also planning to construct a logistics center in the Kars province within the framework of the project.

Earlier the minister said that Turkey is intended to speed up the construction of BTK railway in its territory mentioning that the project will contribute to turning Kars province into a trade center in Turkey, TRT Haber news channel reported.

Previously, Nadir Azmamedov, spokesman for the Azerbaijan Railways told that the countries, involved in the project, are currently seeking to hold a trilateral meeting for defining service conditions and tariff policy for the project.

Being constructed under a Georgian-Azerbaijani-Turkish intergovernmental agreement, BTK is expected to expand multi-modal transportation opportunities, ensure the growth of passenger and freight transportation and boost the transit potential of the regional countries.

The project is expected to further strengthen the neighborly and fraternal relations among Turkey, Georgia and Azerbaijan, and enable the countries to supply domestically produced goods to the world markets.

The State Oil Fund of Azerbaijan (SOFAZ) which is financing the project has already allocated two loans worth $775 million for the construction of the Georgian section. The fund finances the project in accordance with the Azerbaijani president's decree 'On the implementation of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars project activities', dated February 21, 2007. The funds are transferred to the account of the Marabda-Kartsaxi Railway through the International Bank of Azerbaijan

The peak capacity of the railway will be 17 million tons of cargo per year.

Earlier, Javid Gurbanov, head of Azerbaijan Railways said that the railway will transport five million tons of cargo a year once it is commissioned but the figure is expected to rise up to 17 million tons in the future.

He added that the Georgian section of the BTK railway will be constructed by late 2016.

BTK project is expected to open a new rail corridor from the Caspian Sea to Europe via Turkey, excluding the need for sea transportation.

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27 July 2016 15:08 (UTC+04:00)

By Nigar Abbasova

The World Bank (WB) is working with the government of Azerbaijan to reduce the number of bad loans in the banking sector of the country, Mercy Tembon, World Bank Regional Director for the South Caucasus told Trend news agency.

Currently, the bank is rendering technical support to the financial sector of the country. We have a relevant team that assists the country in the development of the banking sector. The government switched to the floating rate of the national currency (manat) following the double devaluation, which occurred in February and December 2015. Moreover, certain number of banks has been closed in the country due to liquidity problems. Therefore, the bank is working with the government on the reduction of the number of bad loans, which in its turn will allow mitigating the problem of shortage of liquidity, she said.

She also mentioned that the support is rendered by means of the International Finance Corporation (IFC), which is a member of the World Bank Group. The corporation is the largest global development institution focused exclusively on the private sector in developing countries.

IFC cooperates closely with banks to raise funds as the banks need capital to increase the level of liquidity. It is necessary to acquire a working system, which will allow augmenting the capital. IFC team works with certain banks, which are in need of recapitalization. The corporation also works to attract investors so that they invest financial means in the private sector of the country, she added.

Earlier, Tembon said that the government of the country is in the right direction in its bid to tackle problems connected with bad loans and liquidity of banks.

The volume of overdue loans in May 2016 amounted to 1,381 billion manats ($876.5 billion manats). The figure is 10 percent higher than the rate shown in April 2015, according to the Central Bank of Azerbaijan (CBA).

The volume of overdue loan increased by 34 percent as compared with the rate fixed in January 2015 (prior to the first devaluation of manat). Overdue loans account for approximately 7.36 percent of the credit portfolio of the banks operating in the country.

Currently, 33 banks possess licenses for the implementation of banking activity in the country. CBA abolished licenses of EuroBank and Azerbaijan Credit Bank in 2015. Licenses of six banks including AtraBank, Caucasus Development Bank, Bank Technique, Ganja Bank, Bank of Azerbaijan and United Credit Bank were cancelled in early 2016. Recently, the licenses of DekaBank, KredoBank, Parabank and Zaminbank have been revoked due to their failure to meet necessary requirements specified in the relevant legislation.

CBA switched to a floating rate of manat, on December 21, 2015 following intensified external economic shocks. The bank abandoned its dollar peg thus allowing the currency to tumble by almost a third. The exchange rate between the manat and U.S. dollar changed from 1.0499 to 1.5500 after the shift. The decision was triggered by the necessity to bring the currency market and the exchange rate of the manat into line with oil prices. The value of manat is currently determined by demand and supply on the forex market.

Azerbaijan joined the World Bank in 1992. In addition to financing several developmental projects, the bank is also providing the country with analytical and advisory services.

Official exchange rate of the Azerbaijani manat against the U.S. dollar was set at 1.5787 manats for July 27

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27 July 2016 10:40 (UTC+04:00)

By Gunay Camal

The Azerbaijani Military Prosecutor's Office has filed a criminal case under several articles of the Criminal Code in connection with the premeditated murder and attempted premeditated murders of Azerbaijani servicemen by the Armenian Armed Forces, said Khanlar Valiyev, Azerbaijani Lieutenant-General, Military Prosecutor

Valiyev announced about this while addressing an extended board meeting on July 26,further adding that investigative group was also established, the Azerbaijani Military Prosecutor's Office said.

He added that the Armenian Armed Units grossly violated the ceasefire and the requirements of international law in April 2016.

Valiyev reminded that the Armenian armed units fired on the settlements in the contact line and the settlements and civilian facilities which are not located close to the contact line by using the large-caliber weapons, mortars and rocket-propelled grenades.

Long-simmering tensions between Armenia and Azerbaijan flared again on April 2 when the Armenian side began to shell the Azerbaijani positions and settlements along the frontline. This resulted in the killing of two civilians and injuring of 10 another, including a 13-year-old child. More than 10 houses as well as local people`s property were also damaged.

To protect civilian population, the Azerbaijani Armed Forces launched counter attacks and repulsed the enemy forces back. On April 5, the two sides agreed on a ceasefire.

The hostilities in the contact line of troops renewed on April 24 as a result of the Armenian provocation. Despite the Russia-brokered agreement achieved on April 5, Armenia violated ceasefire with Azerbaijan by shelling its positions and civilians using prohibited weapons.

Baku called on Armenia to abstain from violence, but Yerevan ignored all the appeals for several days.

Armenia captured Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding districts from Azerbaijan in a war that followed the Soviet breakup in 1991. More than 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed and nearly 1 million were displaced as a result of the war. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the occupied territories.

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27 July 2016 14:28 (UTC+04:00)

By Gunay Camal

The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group, established to mediate between the sides to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, expect progress at the next meeting of the presidents of Azerbaijan and Armenia.

James Warlick, U.S. co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group, made the statement while talking to RIA Novosti on July 27.

The meetings in Vienna and St. Petersburg played a role in ensuring relative stability and reducing tensions on the contact line of troops and Azerbaijani-Armenian border.

The expected meeting between the presidents should demonstrate the will of the parties to adhere to the ceasefire. We also expect that the next meeting to facilitate progress in the negotiations process, as well as allow to continue activities aimed at reducing tensions between the parties, said Warlick.

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.

The Nagorno-Karabakh talks held in St. Petersburg between the Armenian and Azerbaijani presidents and mediated by the Russian president were deemed useful and important by observers, while Baku called it constructive.

He further added that Presidents Ilham Aliyev and Serzh Sargysan have agreed on the expansion of the OSCE monitoring group on the contact line in Nagorno-Karabakh and Azerbaijani-Armenian border.

The co-chairs of the OSCE MG are actively working towards the implementation of the commitments undertaken by the Presidents at the meetings in Vienna and St. Petersburg, to reduce tensions and to further promote the process of negotiations for a peaceful solution to the conflict. The presidents agreed on the expansion of the OSCE monitoring group on the contact line and Azerbaijan-Armenian border, he said.

Warlick has reiterated plans to continue extensive negotiations to resolve the conflict with the involvement of senior officials from each side.

The progress in the diplomatic direction is necessary to reduce the tension between the parties, added Warlick.

Warlick earlier noted that the co-chairs have not stopped working with the sides over the investigation mechanisms.

For over two decades, Azerbaijan and Armenia have been locked in conflict which emerged over Armenia's territorial claims against its South Caucasus neighbor. Since a war in the early 1990s, Armenian armed forces have occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan's territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding regions.

Two decades of talks mediated by the OSCE MG group have failed to produce a breakthrough, and the renewed hostilities, the worst since the ceasefire deal signed in 1994, were assessed as the result of inactivity of the international community.

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27 July 2016 17:16 (UTC+04:00)

Results of the Referendum on amendments to Azerbaijans Constitution will be announced before October 21, Azerbaijans Central Election commission said during its meeting on July 27.

The Referendum was scheduled for September 26.

The referendum merely needs 25 percent turnout of voters to be passed. The last constitutional referendum in the country was held on March 18, 2009.

President Ilham Aliyev signed a decree on submitting the draft Referendum Act "On Amendments to the Constitution of Azerbaijan to the Constitutional Court on July 18. The amendments propose to introduce positions of first vice-president and vice-president in Azerbaijan. The changes envisage that these appointments will be made by the president of the country. It is also proposed to eliminate the minimum age limit for a presidential candidate, which is now set at 35 years and to extend the office term of the president from 5 years to 7 years. The changes also envisage that the president will be able to declare extraordinary election of the president of Azerbaijan.

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.

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27 July 2016 17:51 (UTC+04:00)

By Nigar Abbasova

France plays an important role in strengthening of the educational system of Azerbaijan, French Ambassador to Baku, Aurelia Bouchez said while addressing a meeting held afterwards the entrance exam to the newly-established University of France-Azerbaijan (UFAZ).

She mentioned that the cooperation in the education field started with the establishment of the French lyceum in Baku.

It is pleasant that the cooperation has already reached a new, higher level. UFAZ is a project realized between the two countries and two universities. Earlier, Azerbaijans Minister of Education Mikayil Jabbarov met with the rector of Strasbourg University of France, Alain Beretz. The sides are expected to sign an agreement on the functioning of the University, she said.

Deputy Education MinisterJeyhun Bayramov, in turn, informed that applicants, who scored 500 points (which is considered to be a high grade) at national entrance exams in the first group of specialties, were eligible for participating in the UFAZ exam.

He mentioned that the project has already aroused big interest in the country adding that the University will positively influence the cooperation between France and Azerbaijan.

The project UFAZ will be implemented jointly by the Azerbaijan State Oil and Industry University (ASOIU) and the French Universities of Strasbourg and Rennes on the initiative of the Azerbaijani and French presidents

An international academic staff of high qualified French and Azerbaijani professors will deliver lectures mainly in the English language, while the French language will be gradually integrated.

Opening of the UFAZ in Baku will be beneficial primarily to students, as they will be provided with a double diploma.

In 2016/2017 academic year, ASOIU will start teaching in four specialties including Chemical Engineering, Computer Science, Geophysical Engineering and Development and exploitation of oil.

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27 July 2016 10:21 (UTC+04:00)

By Rashid Shirinov

Pharmaceutics remains one of the industries yet to be developed in Azerbaijan as the country is almost fully dependent on imports of medicines. In this regard, some business agreements on construction of new medical plants have already been signed between Azerbaijani and foreign companies, while many are expected to be inked.

The country has favorable preconditions for development of own drug production -- there are two operating Azerbaijani factories, Azerfarm and the Baku Chemical Plant that produce respectively 5 and 45 types of drugs. Nevertheless, the population needs more local-medicines supply with cheaper prices. To this end, the production capacity of these two enterprises should be increased, and more medicines-producing plants constructed.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev focused on this topic on July 10, speaking at the meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers dedicated to the results of socioeconomic development in first half of 2016 and objectives for the future. He mentioned that the Azerbaijans Ministry of Economy and the Ministry of Health have been engaged in this issue for over a year.

As a result, the prices of medicines have dropped significantly. At the same time, there is already strict control over quality. () But the time has come for Azerbaijan to begin the production of medicines, the President claimed.

Appropriate instructions have been issued and currently, negotiations with several foreign companies are under way. Their interest is linked with quite a large volume of the Azerbaijani market and number of population that makes up about 10 million people.

At present, a serious program for the production of drugs is being designed. A cluster must be created. Thus, we will develop industrial potential in this area too and reduce dependence on imports. At the same time, we will be able to provide our citizens with high-quality medicines, President Ilham Aliyev said.

This year, the construction of new pharmaceutical factories is expected. Azerbaijan negotiates with several companies from Turkey, Ukraine, Germany and Switzerland for the joint production of medicine products. Currently, there are agreements with two of them  Iranian Tamin Pharmaceutical Investment Company and Russian R-Pharm.

In April, Tamin Pharmaceutical Investment Company signed a Memorandum of understanding with Azersun Holding. This provides for the production of drugs in the Sumgayit Chemical-Industrial Park. That will result in opening of 60 new jobs, and production of 84 local vitamins, antihistamines, diabetic, anti-infection drugs, medicines on diseases of the nervous system and gastroenterological illness.

The Protocol with R-Pharm was signed in June by Azerbaijan Investment Company and Vita-A. The joint business will open 200 jobs, providing population with antibiotics and cures against cancer, neurological, mental illness, hepatitis and AIDS.

Furthermore, Egypt and Hungary are also curious on cooperation with Azerbaijan. Egypt has expressed interest in the opening of a plant on production of medical equipment and drugs in Azerbaijan, in particular medicines against hepatitis C. The country has already got the permission to deliver some drugs to Azerbaijan.

All this is expected to make a positive impact on the Azerbaijani economy and population  the prices will go down, and the production of drugs will provide Azerbaijan with additional capital inflow.

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27 July 2016 09:59 (UTC+04:00)

A new print edition of the AZERNEWS online newspaper was released on July 27

The new edition includes articles about: Azerbaijan to hold Constitutional Referendum; Ambassador: Settlement of Nagorno-Karabakh conflict important for Turkey; Depositors of closed banks can receive compensations from August; SOCAR to increase investments in Turkey, etc.

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.

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27 July 2016 10:04 (UTC+04:00)

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev signed a decree on July 26 on the establishment of the state commission in connection with the explosion at the Araz arms plant owned by the countrys Ministry of Defense Industry.

An explosion occurred at Araz arms plant in Azerbaijans Shirvan city July 26 and some people were injured as a result of the accident.

The state commission will be established to investigate the causes of the accident and eliminate its consequences.

Yagub Eyyubov, Azerbaijani first deputy prime minister, will be the chairman of the commission.

The commission will consist of the following members:

Yaver Jamalov, minister of defense industry

Zakir Hasanov, defense minister

Zakir Garalov, attorney general

Madat Guliyev, head of the State Security Service

Vilayat Eyvazov, first deputy interior minister

Salim Muslimov, minister of labour and social protection of population

Faig Taghizade, deputy minister of emergency situations

Abbas Valibayov, deputy minister of health

Mardan Jamalov, head of the executive power of Shirvan city

According to the decree, the state commission must determine and take urgent measures to eliminate the consequences of the accident, investigate its causes and conditions, provide the treatment and render other necessary assistance to the injured.

The state commission must also inform President Aliyev on the conducted work.

According to the decree, the Azerbaijani General Prosecutor's Office together with the countrys interior ministry and the ministry of emergency situations must take urgent measures to investigate the causes of the accident.

The decree will come into force from the date of signing.

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27 July 2016 13:56 (UTC+04:00)

By Gunay Camal

The Trans-Caspian Pipeline Project (TCP), a much desired pipeline in the Eurasia contingent, seems to reoccupy the agenda of European policy-makers as well as global energy companies as its participant-states expected to meet to accomplish the project realization.

The subsea pipeline project, envisaging the Turkmen gas delivery through the Caspian Sea to Turkey and further to European countries, is expected to be mulled during the summit of heads of the states of Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan and Turkey by late 2016, Trend reported citing a source close to the talks.

Baku, Ashgabat and Ankara are periodically discussing an opportunity of supplying the Turkmen gas to Europe, and the matter rests in the ways of implementing the project of laying the Trans-Caspian gas pipeline to the coast of Azerbaijan, which will deliver it further to Turkey.

Turkmenistan is home to the world's fourth-largest reserves of natural gas, making it an enticing source of gas for the Old Continent that is in search of alternative supplies to Russian gas.

The EU has long ago recognized the geopolitical importance of the Caspian region, thus assessing Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan as a strategic corridor linking itself with the Caucasus and Central Asia. While acknowledging the hydrocarbon potential of the Caspian basin, Europe also realized that the region could allow to secure its future energy supplies.

Brussels has already secured gas supplies from Azerbaijan thus gaining access to the Caspian Seas energy deposits and decreasing Europes reliance on Russian energy imports. Furthermore, it launched direct talks with Baku, Ashgabat and Ankara on the TCP that will provide the flow of substantial energy supplies from the Caspian basin to the European market.

The European Commission is still committed to realizing the Ashgabat Declaration of 2015 on cooperation in the energy sector with Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan and Turkey, a source in the European Commission told Trend on July 27.

Earlier, a working group was established on the basis of this declaration at the level of deputy ministers to address the organizational, legal, commercial, technical and other matters to ensure the supply of Turkmen gas to Europe.

"As I understand, there is an intention to hold another meeting of the working group in the current year, the source said, adding that however, the date of the next meeting of the working group has not yet been determined.

The TCP could be joined to the European Union and Azerbaijan's Southern Gas Corridor, meant to transport natural gas from the Caspian area to Europe, bypassing Russian territory and natural gas supplies.

Turkmenistans strategic long term objective is to export available large volumes of gas to the EU. Ashgabat is interested in the different routes of its gas export, including the ongoing TAPI gas pipeline project and the TCP.

Gas can be exported via the Trans-Caspian gas pipeline from the western area of the country and via the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India pipeline from the eastern area, while the TCP is named as the best route for this supply.

In November 2014, Turkmenistan took a step to reach this goal by signing a framework agreement with Turkey to supply gas. Later in May 2015, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan and Turkey have signed a declaration with the European Union in the energy sphere.

Realization of the TCP could deepen the energy relations between Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkmenistan, Turkey and EU.

Nonetheless, the Caspian Sea status and position of Iran and Russia remain the main obstacles to the project realization. The flow of Caspian gas supplies to Europe would harm the plans of Russia, which owns a lions share in the EU natural gas market, and Iran, which owns the worlds second largest natural gas reserves, has improved ties with the West and seeks to supply its gas to the European customers.

Also, Moscow and Ankara sent signals that they may realize the Turkish Stream project, a pipeline to Turkey with potential control of a gas hub at the Turkish-Greek border for sales to Europe.

In light of the current global financial situation along with low oil and gas prices and geopolitical developments, it is hard to predict how the Turkmen gas will be a new gas source for the EU in the near future.

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27 July 2016 14:44 (UTC+04:00)

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is looking to support financially the development of the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), which is to bring Azerbaijani gas across the Balkans and on to Italy, said EBRD President Suma Chakrabarti.



Chakrabarti made the remarks during a meeting with Albanias Prime Minister Edi Rama, Associated Press reported.



The EBRD president said that the TAP pipeline project is of great interest as it will help the regions energy security and is deemed environmentally sustainable.



In the energy sector, the EBRD is well aware of the need to secure energy for Europe which is affordable and acceptable from the point of view of climate change, noted Chakrabarti. In this context, we are positive about the Trans Adriatic Pipeline, a project that develops the three characteristics of energy security, energy access and environmental sustainability.



The EBRD also confirmed it has started negotiations for 500 million euros in direct financing and plans to attract up to 1 billion euros from a syndicate of commercial banks, said the report.



Riccardo Puliti, the EBRDs energy and natural resources head, said negotiations started in April and may take 12 to 15 months.



The bank is analyzing the technical, economic, financial, social, environmental terms and more to see if they are consistent with its policies, said Puliti. We expect that process is over in April next year.



TAP project envisages transportation of gas from Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz gas and condensate field to the EU countries.

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27 July 2016 19:08 (UTC+04:00)

SOCAR-AQS, an integrated drilling and well services management company in Azerbaijan, has completed drilling a new well at the Guneshli field in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea.

The drilling of the well #30 at the Guneshli field was carried out from the fixed offshore platform #11, the company told Trend. The wells actual depth is 4,094 meters.

The customer of the drilling work is Azneft production association of Azerbaijans state oil company SOCAR.

SOCAR-AQS LLC was established in 2007 by SOCAR and Absheron Drilling as a joint venture, providing integrated services for drilling and well servicing. Currently, the enterprise is conducting drilling work at the Guneshli, Western Absheron, Umid and Bulla Deniz fields.

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27 July 2016 10:26 (UTC+04:00)

The Turkish Parliament on Tuesday unanimously approved forming a commission to investigate the July 15 failed Gulenist coup attempt.

The commission will be made up of parliamentarians from all four of Turkey's main political parties -- the ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party, the Republican People's Party (CHP), the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP).

It will be able to question suspects, including those in detention, as public prosecutors are able to. The commission is aimed at establishing the facts surrounding the attempt to overthrow the government.

Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag warned parliament of the need to take precautions to guard against the "countdown of a new coup attempt".

Engin Altay, the deputy chairman of the CHP, said the "nation, parliament and media repulsed this coup and the tanks" and called for the coup plotters to receive the "maximum level" punishment.

MHP Deputy Chairman Erkan Akcay said: "We cannot act as if nothing happened. Of course, the traitors who attempted the coup will be put on trial and get the punishment they deserve."

Mithat Sincar, an HDP lawmaker, said the state had the duty to fairly investigate and judge the coup plotters.

At least 246 people, including civilians and security personnel, were killed, and nearly 2,200 people were injured during the July 15 failed coup attempt carried out by Gulenists within the military.

Prior to the July 15 coup attempt, operations against Gulenists had revealed that members of the movement had infiltrated the police force, judicial system and military with efforts to overthrow the democratically elected government while illegally wiretapping thousands of people, including the prime minister, journalists and other prominent figures.

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27 July 2016 10:33 (UTC+04:00)

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan late Monday railed at Germany for its indifference to the PKK and U.S.-based Gulenist Terror Organization (FETO) members and questioned the European Union's contribution to the anti-terror fight.

Speaking on German state broadcaster ARD Monday night, Erdogan slammed the EU and Germany in particular, on the fight against terrorist organizations. "The PKK runs wild in Germany. [PKK] terrorists display images of the head [of the PKK] in Strasbourg, Brussels, European Parliament and around the European Human Rights building," Erdogan said, asking how the EU helps the counterterror fight this way.

Continuing his staunch criticism of Berlin's insufficient fight against the PKK, Erdogan said that most PKK terrorists have fled to Germany. "Germany lends these [terrorists] very significant support. I gave Chancellor [Angela Merkel] 4,000 documents regarding this. When I asked her about what they have done, she said that the judicial process was continuing," he said, adding that late justice is never justice.

Stressing that PKK terrorists live in Germany, France, Belgium and the Netherlands, Erdogan said these countries do not extradite them despite Turkish intelligence providing necessary information.

Asserting that EU countries will find themselves in grave danger should they further fail to collaborate with Turkey, Erdogan said the world should work together to tackle terrorism.

DEATH PENALTY A DEMAND OF THE PEOPLE

Upon a question regarding the recent debates in Turkey about a possible return of the death penalty for coup plotters, Erdogan said Turkey is a democratic country where the demands of the people are heard.

Dismissing criticism from the EU that threatened Ankara with the suspension of its EU membership bid should Turkey reinstate capital punishment, Erdogan said: "Look, we have been at the door of the EU for 53 years. We abolished the death penalty. What has changed? If you are in a democratic state, who has the say? The people have the say, right? What do the people say? The death penalty."

EU NOT KEEPING PROMISES AS PART OF MIGRANT DEAL

Erdogan also said the EU is failing to keep its promises regarding the migrant deal, adding that Turkey delivers on its side of the bargain.

"I want to say one thing quite clearly: On the refugee issue, we will stand behind our promises," Erdogan asserted.

"What we have promised to date applies. But a question to the Europeans: Have you stuck to your promises?" he asked, saying the EU had failed to provide Turkey with sufficient aid. "The West has unfortunately not been sincere thus far," he said.

On May 4, the European Commission proposed visa-free travel in the Schengen zone for Turkish citizens on the condition that Turkey fulfill the five remaining benchmarks, including measures to prevent corruption, data protection in line with EU standards, cooperation with the EU's Europol law enforcement agency and judicial cooperation on criminal matters with all EU member states.

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27 July 2016 10:53 (UTC+04:00)

The U.S. Embassy in Yerevan has informed its citizens that various social media outlets are calling for daily protests for the foreseeable future in Yerevan at or around Freedom Square and in the Erebuni District beginning in the evenings. These protests are in response to the armed attack on the Armenian Police Yerevan City Patrol Regiment Building and subsequent release of hostages.

Additional protests should be expected for the foreseeable future in the following locations in Yerevan: Freedom Square, Republic Square, Mashtots Ave, Amiryan Street, Northern Ave, and Khorenatsi Street. Expect a heavy police presence throughout the country in response to any protests. Roads and any surrounding areas will likely be congested. Recent protests have seen more than 3,000 people.

"Even demonstrations intended to be peaceful can turn confrontational and escalate into violence. You should avoid areas of demonstrations, and exercise caution if in the vicinity of any large gatherings, protests, or demonstrations," the embassy said.

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.

During the seizure of the building one policeman was killed and four were injured. For almost a week, the attackers held 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.

Following the long-lasting talks, the armed group on July 23 released all of the hostages. Nevertheless, the armed group refuses to lay arms down and surrender to the authorities.

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27 July 2016 14:20 (UTC+04:00)

Irans Guardian Council has dismissed media reports on the date of the next round of presidential elections.



Accoring to the council's message, Abbas Ali Kadkhodaei, the spokesman of the Guardian Council did not reveal any details about the next presidential elections in interviews, IRNA news agency reported.



Earlier today, several Iranian media outlets quoted Abbas Ali Kadkhodaei that the next round of presidential elections will be held on 19 May 2017.



Irans Guardian Council is a constitutional watchdog body and vets laws as well as election candidates.

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27 July 2016 14:50 (UTC+04:00)

Turkeys President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has decided to withdraw all the lawsuits filed against the leaders of the countrys oppositional political parties, the TRT Haber news channel reported on July 27.

The president made this decision after the meeting with head of the oppositional Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) Devlet Bahceli and leader of the Republican Peoples Party (CHP) Kemal Kilicdaroglu.

Erdogan filed a lawsuit against MHP and CHP leaders in May for the personal insult.

Leaders of all political parties in Turkey supported the countrys authorities during the 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. Turkeys President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that the death toll as a result of the military coup attempt stood at 246 people excluding the coup plotters and over 2,000 people were wounded.

Erdogan declared a three-month state of emergency in Turkey on July 20.

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27 July 2016 15:07 (UTC+04:00)

Russia is in talks on the Turkish Stream and other gas pipeline projects with European partners, keeping in mind the feasibility and mutual political trust in its decision-making, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on July 27, Sputnik reported.

Earlier, Turkeys Economy Minister Nihat Zeybekci said that there are political decisions on the construction of the Turkish Stream gas pipeline and Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant and it is expected that Russian and Turkish leaders will give an impetus to the two projects implementation during their meeting on August 9.

Work is underway in different areas. And you know that alternative routes are worked on and being discussed with our European partners, said Peskov answering a question on the possible revival of the Turkish Stream gas pipeline project.

He stressed that an environment of political trust served as the best guarantee for Russia in selecting energy routes into Europe.

It is a matter of viability, an issue of commercial terms and a political climate of trust, which in fact is probably the best guarantee for creating attracting economic conditions, noted the spokesman. Therefore, the issue is complex, but of course no one is moving away from discussions of this project, and everyone is interested in discussing its feasibility.

Russia suspended the South Stream project, designed to supply Russian gas to Europe bypassing Ukraine, in December 2014. Russia said "the EU's non-constructive position" was the reason for the project's suspension.

Then it was decided to build the Turkish Stream through the territory of Turkey, instead of the South Stream. But the project came under threat in late 2015 due to sharp deterioration of relations between Moscow and Ankara when Turkey shot down a Russian Su-24 bomber with two pilots on board.

On June 27, Turkeys President Recep Tayyip Erdogan sent a letter of condolences to Putin over the death of Russian Su-24 pilot and expressed regret over the incident.

Earlier, Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim, commenting on the improvement of relations between Turkey and Russia, thanked Azerbaijan for its contribution to normalization of the relations.

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Global ingredients company, Taura Natural Ingredients will celebrate its 20th anniversary with the news that its European sales are on target to increase by 20% this year.

With companies all around the world, it has become Europes leading supplier of speciality functional fruit-based ingredients for bakers.

A year ago, global ingredients company Frutarom recognised Tauras potential and purchased the company in a deal worth $70 million.

Taura CEO Peter Dehasque, who is based at the companys headquarter in Ohen, Belgium, said: When Taura arrived in Belgium in 1996 our plan was to target a category that didnt yet exist in Europe: healthy snacking.

He added: Taura is very excited about what the future holds in store.

Healthy snacking is one of Europes most active categories, said the company.

In April 2014, Taura appointed Peter Forceville as head of sales and marking for Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
The third year of Dawn Foods National American Sweet Bakery Week was embraced by UK bakers and deemed a success by the Evesham-based bakery ingredients supplier.

Dawn developed new recipe ideas to add a touch of the USA to baking for the week, which took place from 1-7 July. Bakers who registered online sent out point-of-sale (POS) packs that included flags, bunting, balloons and a toolkit with prizes for running in-store competitions.

Bakers were encouraged to make American-style goodies, share pictures via social media and decorate their outlets in an American theme.

Warings Bakery, The London Bread & Cake Company and Peters Homemade Bakery were just some of the high street bakeries that got involved with the initiative, which marks a great sales opportunity for bakers to theme their retail bakeries and drive sales with American style products, according to Dawn.

Warings Bakery said it planned to extend its American sweet bakery specials throughout this month (July), due to an increase in consumer demand.

Jacqui Passmore, marketing manager UK and Ireland for Dawn Foods, said: We have received really positive feedback from UK bakers this year and the online conversations and interaction have been brilliant. Bakers have reported an increase in sales and a heightened response on their social media accounts.

This month Dawn launched two new fondants suitable for coating doughnuts, pastries, eclairs and desserts.
Former astronaut Mark Kelly is scheduled to speak at the Democratic National Convention Wednesday.

So far, neither party has not really talked about NASA's future

Former astronauts are making efforts to get a conversation going

But he's expected to talk about guns, not space.

While an important issue, the topic of space has been neglected so far in this presidential election.

Theres only a few lines in each party's platform this year about NASA and nothing specific about their visions for the future of our space program.

So Space Florida's  an independent special district of the state of Florida  Dale Ketcham is heading to Chicago, hoping to get space into the campaign conversation.

Representing Florida, he's meeting with aerospace leaders from Ohio, Virginia and Colorado.

Collectively those four states represent most of the electoral college, votes that are up for grabs in the campaign, said Ketcham. And we all have key interests in space. So for the first time were working collaboratively to maintain communication to take advantage of opportunities.

So far, there haven't been many opportunities to talk space.

Neither Donald Trump nor Hillary Clinton have said much about their vision for the future of NASA: Will they continue with planned manned launches from Florida's Space Coast next year? And what about the agency's goal to use the Orion spacecraft to send humans to Mars in the decades ahead?

I think for the most part (my goal is to) just increase the attention and recognition of the importance of space in leading the United States to continued economic prowess, economic competitiveness, national security, inspiring our youth, said Ketcham.

Former Astronaut Eileen Collins spoke last week at the Republican National Convention, but again no details were provided on goals for space.

We need American leadership that will make Americas space program first again, said Collins.

While the space industry employs thousands on the Space Coast, Ketcham isnt worried that the issue hasnt come up yet.

Either campaign is going to recognize that you cant make America great again without a great space program, said Ketcham. I mean thats a big part of what it is to be an American. And were going to drive home its a big part of what it is to capture Floridas voters.
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After two-plus years of speculation, ExxonMobil's planned upgrades to its two Beaumont complexes are coming into focus, with one of the area's largest employers introducing dozens of new jobs even as it falls short, for now, of a more-ambitious goal.

The company on Tuesday announced a $450 million expansion to its Beaumont refinery, the second wave of growth at that property that will together increase capacity by 17 percent.

Those projects are separate from the company's proposed $1 billion-plus polyethylene plant at its petrochemical complex on the city's western outskirts. That would entail 40 new permanent jobs, according to a tax abatement agreement with Jefferson County.

Combined, the three announced or publicly known projects will cost the company in excess of $1.5 billion.

"Southeast Texas is a great place to do business," ExxonMobil Beaumont spokesman Patrick Trahan said.

Construction of the 40,000-barrel-per-day addition announced Tuesday is expected to start this year and be finished by 2018, the company said in a press release. The segment will produce ultra-low sulfur fuels in line with EPA gasoline standards that go into effect next year.

"This project represents the largest capital investment in our Beaumont refinery operations in more than a decade, and will benefit the local economy with both temporary and full-time jobs," Fernando Salazar, the refinery's manager, said in a press release.

It will complement a 20,000-bpd expansion already underway to handle the light variety of U.S. crude unlocked from shale plays at such a volume that it has helped sink trading prices.

ExxonMobil's Beaumont growth ExxonMobil is planning two expansions - one at its Beaumont refinery and a new polyethylene plant at its petrochemical complex. The run-down below does not include a separate, ongoing 20,000-bpd expansion at the refinery: Ultra-low sulfur unit

Where: Beaumont refinery

Capacity: 40,000 bpd

Investment: $450 million

Construction jobs: 750

Permanent jobs: 5

Est. completion: 2018 Polyethylene plant

Where: Alongside existing polyethylene plant on U.S. 90

Capacity: unknown

Investment: $1 billion-plus

Construction jobs: 1,400

Permanent jobs: 40

Est. completion: January 2020 Source: ExxonMobil and Jefferson County public records See More Collapse

Those low prices, according to the wire service Reuters, cut into ExxonMobil's capital budget, postponing plans to double the refinery's capacity to 850,000 bpd. That would have made the refinery the largest in the U.S. and among the world's biggest.

The two refinery expansions would boost ExxonMobil to a daily capacity of 405,000 barrels, about two-thirds of capacity at Motiva's Port Arthur refinery, currently the largest in the U.S.

ExxonMobil's Beaumont refinery would still rank eighth in size in the U.S., fourth in Texas and second in Jefferson County.

The news came one day after ExxonMobil and Sabic announced plans for a jointly owned, multi-billion dollar ethane cracker. The companies are looking at sites in Texas and Louisiana, according to a press release, but it does not appear Beaumont-Port Arthur is on their radar.

Jefferson County commissioners agreed to abate 100 percent of new property taxes for 10 years to help entice development they hope will be on the tax rolls for several decades.

ExxonMobil also worked out a deal with Beaumont to pay annual lump sums in exchange for promises the city won't annex the properties.

At its two complexes, ExxonMobil employs more than 2,000 workers and 1,000 contract workers in a county where total employment was 101,000 in June.

The company and economists say expansions and the permanent jobs they create cascade throughout the area's broader economy.

ExxonMobil is also one of Southeast Texas' largest polluters.

The refinery and polyethylene plant emitted a combined 2,100 tons of volatile organic compounds in 2014, or about one-fifth of all VOCs released in the three-county area that year, according to TCEQ records.

VOCs, depending on the specific compound, range from being extremely toxic to having no health impacts, according to the U.S. National Library of Medicine.

EBesson@BeaumontEnterprise.com Twitter.com/EricBesson_news
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After a tense debate between Texas delegates for Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders Tuesday morning at the Democratic National Convention, local delegates and Democratic leaders said they are hoping for unity going forward.

"It was a very strange occurrence," said Gilbert Adams, one of two delegates from Jefferson County attending the convention in Philadelphia this week.

Adams said the incident happened at Tuesday morning's breakfast for members of the delegation.

State Rep. Joe Deshotel, D-Beaumont, who is also attending the convention, said that Sanders' supporters "declared they were going to continue supporting him."

During the event, Sanders' supporters were brought on stage to make a "unity statement," but Russell Lytle of Denton County said that though they planned to work together, "we want to be clear, we are currently condemning our current presumptive nominee," underscoring ongoing tension between the two campaigns' supporters.

Adams, who was at the breakfast and has attended various Democratic Conventions since 1960, said he had never seen anything like it.

"There's never been a time that I've been involved in politics where a candidate lost the election," he said.

The fact that Sanders' "followers didn't abide by his request that those delegates follow his recommendation and support the winner" was a surprise, said Adams.

Sanders endorsed Clinton on July 12, and again urged delegates on Monday during the first night of the convention to support her. Both delegates from Jefferson County, Adams and Georgine Guillory, are pledged for Clinton.

Adams also emphasized that the tension is based in a "small minority" of the party.

Deshotel is not a delegate, but is one of nine Texans on the Rules Committee, which taking action on issues such as superdelegates. Superdelegates are not obligated to vote for either candidate based on popular vote results, which has led to points of contention in the party throughout the nominating process.

"We met on Saturday and adopted a number of rules, probably the most significant being the Unity Commission that was talked about (Monday night) and adopted by the whole convention," Deshotel said.

That decision is intended "to reduce the number of superdelegates," he said, following discussion about tthe undue influence some of them have that kind of disenfranchise the electorate." The goal is to have a solution in place by 2018, he said.

The Rules Committee also debated open primaries, rather than separate Democratic and Republican primaries, Deshotel said, but motions to move to those were defeated.

Within the Texas delegation, disagreements are "just part of the process," he said.

"People worked really hard on both sides for their candidate, it's not easy to say, I fought your candidate and now I'm going to support (them)," he said. "There's some adjustment, some bruised feelings that developed during the election."

Current Jefferson County Democratic Party Chairman Cade Bernsen, who is not attending the convention, said "the Democratic Party is a family, we bicker, we argue like any family members."

"At the end of the day, we still love each other," said Bernsen.

Despite the ongoing tension between delegates, which Adams said was "very unusual," the convention stands out more than any he's attended before because of the historic nomination of a woman as the presidential candidate, he said. He compared it to the atmosphere to that of Barack Obama's nominations in 2008 and 2012.

"It's very, very exciting, of all the things I've been involved, I don't think there's anything that could be more significant than this," he said.

LTeitz@BeaumontEnterprise.com Twitter.com/LizTeitz
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SAN ANTONIO  Two men were arrested last weekend for allegedly robbing two men who were playing Pokemon Go in a parking lot on the South Side.

Alfred Estrada, 23, and Ruben Cancino, 27, were both arrested Sunday and charged with aggravated robbery, a first-degree felony. They are being held on a $75,000 bond and remain in custody as of Tuesday morning, police said.

RELATED: For $20 an hour, San Antonio man offers to be the very best 'Pokemon Go' driver

The alleged victims, aged 28 and 29, were playing Pokemon Go in a vehicle when they saw two people in a black Saturn pull up into the parking lot in the 700 block of VFW Boulevard, according to a preliminary arrest report.

Estrada, the driver, started doing donuts in the parking lot, which caused Cancino to be thrown from the vehicle, police said.

The two alleged victims drove to see if Cancino was injured, but Estrada got out of the car and approached their vehicle with a knife, the report said. He put the knife up to the drivers neck and demanded money and his car, according to the report.

RELATED: Johnny Manziel caught playing Pokemon Go at an L.A. nightclub

Cancino approached the front passenger side of the vehicle and demanded the other victims cellphone and money, police said. Victim 1 suffered two small cuts on the left side of his neck and the suspects stole money from both of the victims, according to police.

The suspects fled on foot, but were apprehended that day.

RELATED: Nintendo slumps by most since 1990 on dashed Pokemon Go hopes

If convicted, the suspects face five to 99 years in prison.

twhite@mysa.com

Twitter: @tylerlwhite
Anthem plans to fight the Department of Justice's lawsuit against its $25 billion Cigna acquisition, according to Reuters.

Here are five things to know:

1. Anthem revenue reached $21.46 billion during the second quarter, a 7.2 increase from $20.57 billion during the second quarter of 2015.

2. The payer had earnings per share hitting $3.33, surpassing analysts' average estimates by $0.10.

3. For 2016, Anthem expects membership to exceed last year's total by 1 million members to 1.2 million members.

4. The company accrued a higher benefit ratio of 84.2 percent, up from 82.1 percent in 2015, due to Affordable Care Act individual insurance business losses.

5. "To be clear, our board and executive leadership team at Anthem is fully committed to challenging the (U.S. Department of Justice's) decision in court," Anthem Chief Executive Joseph Swedish told analysts on a conference call, according to Reuters.

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The following hospital and health system CEO moves were reported by Becker's Hospital Review in the last week. They are listed below, beginning with the most recent.

1. Manchester, N.H.-based Elliot Health System appointed Gary Muller interim CEO.

2. Mark Bernard, CEO of St. Joseph Medical Center in Houston, will leave his position to accept the CEO role at Resolute Health Care in New Braunfels, Texas.

3. Beaufort (S.C.) Memorial Hospital named Edmond Russell Baxley III president and CEO, effective Sept. 12.

4. Nicki Will, CEO of Lower Keys Medical Center in Key West, Fla., resigned.

5. Friend (Neb.) Community Healthcare System named Chad Thompson as CEO.

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In a friend-of-the-court brief filed Friday, 11 state attorneys general backed the Federal Trade Commission's effort to block Downers Grove, Ill.-based Advocate Health Care and Evanston, Ill.-based NorthShore University HealthSystem's merger plans.

In a redacted order issued June 14, U.S. District Judge Jorge Alonso denied the FTC's request to block the proposed merger. He said the government did not provide enough evidence that the partnership would harm competition in the region. The FTC appealed the federal judge's decision.

In their brief filed Friday, the AGs of Connecticut, Idaho, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana, Oregon, Pennsylvania and Washington ask the appeals court to overturn Judge Alonso's order. The AGs argue that the lower court's analysis of the geographic market was flawed. "The legal standard applied by the district court is erroneous and would lead to an unduly broad geographic market that does not reflect the North Shore area's market realities," the brief states.

The AGs further contend that if the district court's decision stands, it will set a "dangerous legal precedent with far-reaching policy implications," as health systems across the nation will aggressively pursue partnerships and use the decision to assert that consolidation will have a minimal effect on competition. Courts that follow this precedent will grossly underestimate the anticompetitive effects of certain transactions, according to the brief.

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Physician will pay $8M for giving healthy patients chemo
A federal judge in Florida has dismissed a whistle-blower lawsuit against Health First that accused the Rockledge, Fla.-based health system of defrauding the government by providing kickbacks to physicians for patient referrals.

An unidentified whistle-blower brought the case against Health First, a nonprofit health system that owns four hospitals. According to the suit, Health First paid various forms of kickbacks to physicians for patient referrals from 1999 to 2013. Health First allegedly billed Medicare for services provided to patients who were referred as part of the illegal kickback scheme.

The qui tam suit alleged Health First violated the Anti-Kickback Statute, Stark Law, the federal False Claims Act and Florida's False Claims Act.

On Friday, U.S. District Judge Roy B. Dalton dismissed the whistle-blower suit, holding that the amended complaint failed to satisfy the minimum pleading requirements for qui tam actions.

Under the court's order, the whistle-blower may file a second amended complaint on or before Aug. 22.

More articles on healthcare industry lawsuits:

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Two medical groups filed a lawsuit against two state medical agencies over an interpretation of a Vermont state law that allegedly requires physicians to help patients commit suicide, according the Washington Times.

South Burlington, Vt.-based Vermont Alliance for Ethical Healthcare and Christian Medical & Dental Associations in Bristol, Tenn., filed a lawsuit against two state medical agencies over their interpretation of Act 39, which was passed into law in Vermont in 2013.

According to the lawsuit, the agencies interpret Act 39 as a requirement for healthcare professionals to discuss the option of assisted suicide with patients if they ask about it. If physicians are not willing to counsel patients, they must refer them to a physician that will discuss the option, according to the Washington Times report.

Opponents of the law argue that the law violates the First Amendment and specific regulations in the Affordable Care Act.

However, proponents of the law suggest that the groups' concerns should instead be directed at the state's Patient Bill of Rights, which requires physicians to inform patients of all options available to them. Act 39 does not require physicians to counsel patients on assisted-suicide specifically.

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The man who attempted to assassinate President Ronald Reagan will be released from Washington D.C-based St. Elizabeths Hospital as early as next week after 35 years, according to The Hill.

A federal judge ruled that John Hinckley, 61, could be released into the care of his mother in Virginia. Mr. Hinckley will not be allowed to contact his victims, their relatives or travel to areas where current members of Congress or the president are present, according to the ruling.

The judge also ruled that Mr. Hinckley may live on his own or in a group home after a year.

According to the report, the judge presiding over the case said Mr. Hinckley's depression and psychotic disorder are in full remission and have been for more than 20 years.

In an attempt to impress actress Jodie Foster, with whom he was obsessed with, Mr. Hinckley shot President Reagan outside of a hotel in 1981. A police officer, a secret service agent and President Reagan's press secretary were also injured in the shooting.

A court found Mr. Hinckley not guilty by reason of insanity.
Democrats addressed the nation's growing opioid crisis during the first day of the Democratic National Convention Monday night, according to Forbes.

Pam Livengood, a mother from Keene, N.H., spoke about her daughter's opioid addiction during the first night of the convention. She said she explained her connection to the epidemic to Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton and said Ms. Clinton was the only politician who "took action [and] came up with a plan," according to the report.

Throughout her campaign, Ms. Clinton has detailed a five-point plan to curb opioid misuse, abuse and overdose.

New Hampshire Senator Jeanna Shaheen followed Ms. Livengood's speech to explain how the epidemic has affected her state.

According to Forbes, there were nearly 18,893 deaths involving prescription opioids nationally in 2014. Deaths from drugs like fentanyl and tramadol increased by 79% from 2013 to 2014. President Obama passed a law Friday addressing the crisis despite funding concerns.
A nurse on the psychiatric unit at AtlantiCare Regional Health Care's City Campus in Atlantic City, N.J., has been suspended after being caught on video stabbing an autistic boy repeatedly with a hypodermic needle. The registered nurse, Naomi Derrick, agreed to surrender her license while she is under investigation.

Ms. Derrick reportedly stabbed the disabled patient six times with the hypodermic needle in his leg, arm and knee in an attempt to control the 10-year-old's behavior. In addition to being caught on video, fellow employees reportedly witnessed the assault. Ms. Derrick is also accused bending back the child's finger, stepping on his bare foot with her shoe and causing him to fall by shoving away a chair he was using for stability.

Acting Attorney General of New Jersey Christopher S. Porrino said, "A developmentally disabled child, confined to a psychiatric ward under the supervision of nurses, is as vulnerable a patient as you can find. Instead of caring for this boy and protecting him from harm, as was her duty, Naomi Derrick allegedly used her position of authority to bully and assault him. There is no place in the healthcare profession for this kind of barbaric behavior."

The criminal investigation into Ms. Derrick's actions is ongoing.

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Medtronic invested in Mazor and the robotic spine technologys new product, Mazor X. However, the robot is still expensive for providers in a value-based world. In a Seeking Alpha report, Avinash Menon discusses the shift toward features-based pricing.

1. So far, Israel-based Mazor shareholders have relied on the number of Renaissance robotic spine surgery systems installed per quarter to gauge performance. From the first quarter of 2010 when there was nine systems installed, the company has grown to 108 systems installed by 2015 internationally.

2. The deal with Medtronic strengthened Mazors position as a player in the spinal surgical robot market. Mr. Menon suggested a move to feature-based pricing while continuing the current core model could be beneficial.

3. Mazor currently has a premium pricing strategy with a high price for reliability and quality. However, this strategy could flounder as new technologies enter the market. Medtechs ROSA Spine is priced significantly lower  at $700,000  compared with Mazors $849,000.

A second system, the Alf-X from Transenterix, plans to compete on a cost-basis in Europe.

4. Mazor announced an optional brain module at $129,000, which could move toward features-based pricing. The company could cross-sell advanced features to its larger client base.

5. Increased competition could create demand for surgical robots resulting in smarter, smaller and cheaper technology.
From left: Nigel Smyth, Steven Altmann-Richer, and David Gavaghan, all of CBI, Angela McGowan of Danske Bank, Michael Neill of A&L Goodbody, and Nigel Harra, BDO Northern Ireland

Business people in Northern Ireland think Brexit will bring no benefit to the economy here for the next five years, a survey has said.

In a snap poll of more than 100 business people at a CBI seminar yesterday, none could identify a positive impact for the province.

And just under 90% said the vote to leave the EU would have a greater economic impact on Northern Ireland than the UK as a whole.

And 92% said they felt that Brexit would have a negative impact on the economy here in the next five years.

But David Gavaghan, chairman of the CBI in Northern Ireland, said members recognised there was a need to get on with the task of Brexit.

"Many businesses in Northern Ireland are asking what Brexit means for them and, critically, what to do now," he said.

"For the majority of our members they highlighted the benefits of a single market and ready access to labour and talent.

"Whatever the actual outcome of the negotiations over the next period, our members recognise the fundamental need to get on with it."

Mr Gavaghan said business now needed to work with the Executive and society.

"We need to work together to identify the key economic priorities and ensure that we do everything we can within our power to make this a great place to invest and do business - recognising the central role of our principal cities to attract productive investment will be important," he said.

Business leaders from sectors including agri-food, ICT, manufacturing and energy were at yesterday's breakfast seminar.

A panel of speakers included Danske Bank chief economist Angela McGowan - who will succeed Nigel Smyth as regional director of the CBI in October.

Ms McGowan said businesses were facing challenges.

"Flexibility, collaboration and a relentless focus on growth and competitiveness will be needed," she added.

Nigel Harra, a senior partner at business advisers BDO who also took part in the panel discussion, said: "Many businesses are nervous about the long-term implications of the UK leaving the EU in the months and years ahead, but for now the demand for local goods and services has not disappeared.

"Our trade partners have not lost confidence in our expertise and experience.

"On the whole, we remain competitive and must use this time to take stock of how we can best adapt to a changing trading environment."

One-third of business people at the event said Brexit would have a negative impact on their operations. Just 2% thought it would have a positive impact on their firms, while just under 60% said they were still assessing the impact on their operations.

Around half (52%) said Brexit would have a "strongly negative" effect on the economy over the next five years, while 40% said it would be "slightly negative".

But none said that the impact would be positive - and just under two-thirds (64%) said they felt Northern Ireland should be granted some special status within the EU that would allow it to remain.

And almost all believed that Northern Ireland should have its own trade representative in negotiations over Brexit.

Michael Neill, a partner at law firm A&L Goodbody, said that the changes arising from Brexit would evolve over time.

"These changes will affect a range of areas, including regulated finance, energy, procurement and employment law and many others," he added.

Percentage of business people at the CBI seminar who believed that Brexit would have a "strongly negative" effect on the economy over the next five years
Antrim firm Mivan was awarded the 2.5m contract to fit out Ireland's first luxury sleeper train, Belmond Grand Hibernian

Antrim firm Mivan was awarded the 2.5m contract to fit out Ireland's first luxury sleeper train, Belmond Grand Hibernian

Antrim firm Mivan was awarded the 2.5m contract to fit out Ireland's first luxury sleeper train, Belmond Grand Hibernian

Here is a taste of the luxury that could be yours on Irelands answer to the Orient Express.

A carriage for the Belmond Grand Hibernian measuring 22m is being transported on a 22m flatbed truck from Antrim to Dublin today as the launch date for the train draws closer.

Sixty craftsmen at Antrim fit-out company Mivan  known for its work on luxury London penthouses and cruise ships  carried out the 2.5m work to update former Irish Rail carriages. Routes on the Belmond Grand Hibernian include a trip to Northern Ireland, covering Belfast, Bushmills and the Giant's Causeway.

That is the cost per person of a two night trip into what Belmond calls the realm of giants  from Dublin to Belfast for a visit to Titanic Belfast, and on to Bushmills and the Giants Causeway.

Neil Ward, chief executive of Mivan, said: We are delighted to have completed this prestigious project for Belmond, an iconic name in rail travel, and to demonstrate yet again the superb skills offered by Northern Ireland trade and craft workers.

Mivan, like Belmond, is a strong performer on the global stage and has a work force which has grown to 150 since 2014. We aim to employ 200 skilled staff by the end of 2017 and to prove, through projects like this, that we can deliver superlative results.
Northern Ireland is set to get its first charity 'superstore' when Cancer Research UK unveils a massive new shop in Belfast - but it won't face a hefty rates bill like its shopping centre neighbours.

Cancer Research UK is opening a huge 5,000 sq ft store at Cityside retail park at York Street in the north of the city.

But, unlike other retailers at the popular shopping centre, it won't face a rates bill amounting to thousands of pounds each year, due to its charitable status.

A number of other shops in the area said they were "not concerned" about having to pay rates while the new charity store would avoid the annual bill.

One shop manager said: "I wouldn't have any problem with it ... but if it was me paying the bills it could be different."

Cancer Research UK shops sell items donated by the public.

Goods include books, toys, clothes and homeware, with proceeds going towards the charity's research.

And it's the charity's first ever superstore in Northern Ireland, creating five new jobs.

It's also trying to find volunteers to help out at the store, adding a further 300 hours of support work each week.

The new store is roughly five times the size of a normal Cancer Research UK shop.

And Costa coffee is also set to open up at Cityside. Colleen Fox of letting agents Savills said that "demand from the major coffee houses at Cityside was very strong given the strong fundamentals of the scheme and the gap in the market".

"We are also delighted to facilitate Cancer Research's first ever Northern Irish superstore."

Glyn Roberts of the NI Independent Retail Trade Association said: "Charity shops have their place on the high street, and are an important part of town and city centres. What we would raise is that they make some contribution to rates."

Mr Roberts launched a joint campaign with Hospitality Ulster earlier this month aimed at reforming business rates across Northern Ireland.

"The joint scheme with Hospitality Ulster is our main scheme. Charities will make their own commercial decisions and where they operate and how they retail," he said.

Speaking about the growth of the Cityside development, Mr Roberts said: "A lot of these shopping centres are going through a period of big change, such as the likes of Forestside and other places, which are doing well, while others are struggling.

"I do think, like all retail, it's a constant process of change and innovation."

Coffee giant Costa has taken over a 2,000 sq ft unit close to GinoNV and Poundworld. It follows the announcement in March that Cityside was undergoing a 2m revamp.
Energy giant EDF is set to make its long-awaited final investment decision on the planned nuclear power station at Hinkley Point, ending doubts over the massive 18 billion project.

The French firm's board is meeting in Paris on Thursday and is expected to give the go-ahead for the first nuclear power station to be built in the UK for a generation.

UK unions will warmly welcome the much-delayed decis ion, saying workers were "raring to go" - with 25,000 jobs set to be created.

But environmental groups such as Greenpeace will criticise the go-ahead, calling for investment in home grown renewable energy like offshore wind.

Fresh criticism is also expected on the Government's promise to pay EDF 92.50 for each megawatt hour of energy it generates.

Hinkley Point C (HPC) will provide 7% of the UK's electricity over its estimated lifetime of 60 years and is scheduled to begin generating power in 2025, several years later than planned.

The main reason for the delay has been worries over the financing of the project by EDF, which is 85% owned by the French government, with French trade unions warning it could ruin the company's finances.

China General Nuclear Power Corporation (CGN) is set to be confirmed as taking a 33.5% stake in the project.

Ahead of the decision, EDF said: "HPC is a unique asset for French industry as it would benefit the whole of the nuclear industry and support employment in major companies and smaller enterprises in the sector.

"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."

Unite national officer for energy Kevin Coyne said: "We urge the EDF board to give the financial go-ahead on a project which will generate thousands of decent skilled jobs and help meet the energy needs of the UK for generations to come.

"The cost of not doing so could result in the lights going out in Britain and the West Country missing out on the much needed economic boost which this major infrastructure project would bring.

"Unite has already done a lot of preparation in reaching agreements with contractors over pay and skills, as well as safeguards against blacklisting on the site. Workers are shovel ready and raring to go, all they need is the green light from the EDF board."

Garry Graham, deputy general secretary of the Prospect union, said: " Energy margins for the UK continue to decline and we need to take the practical steps which ensure that we keep the lights on and transition to low carbon generation.

"A final investment decision will be good for jobs, good for consumers, good for the environment and good for the economy."

John Sauven, executive director of Greenpeace, said: " Every time EDF has tried to build a reactor like Hinkley, it has failed. There isn't a shred of evidence that Hinkley can be built on time or on budget, and if it hits the same problems as its predecessors, it can't be relied on to keep the lights on in the UK.

"The UK Government doesn't have to sign the contract with the French and Chinese state- owned nuclear companies.

"We need to invest in reliable home grown renewable energy like offshore wind which is powering other northern European countries more cheaply than Hinkley, even taking into account the back-up cost when the wind doesn't blow."

Justin Bowden, national officer of the GMB union, said: "This decision is an acid test for Theresa May's claims that the UK is open for business after Brexit with tens of thousands of jobs on the line. We've heard lots of warm ministerial words about the UK's commitment to nuclear power, but these will remain hollow unless they are backed by a decision to invest that keeps the lights on, our homes heated, and the economy functioning.

The final investment decision on Hinkley Point C is fundamental to a balanced energy policy - something the country desperately needs and which the Government has patently failed to provide."
The Curran Court Hotel has gone into administration

The Curran Court Hotel has been in operation for more than 40 years,

The Curran Court Hotel has been in operation for more than 40 years,

The Curran Court Hotel has been in operation for more than 40 years,

A well-known family hotel in Northern Ireland has been placed into administration.

The Curran Court Hotel has been in operation for more than 40 years, initially on the Curran Road in the town before moving to its current location on Redlands Road.

A new buyer is currently being sought for the business.

A spokesman for the hotel said it had been placed into administration, but added that it remains "business as usual" in the meantime.

The administration is being handled by Belfast finance firm Ernst and Young (EY).

A spokesman confirmed: "It is business as usual as administrative receivers review operations."

The Curran Court is owned by local businessman Crawford Leitch who also has an interest in The Bodega bar in Larne.

It is located closed to the Port of Larne and describes itself as a long-established family run hotel offering 33 en-suite bedrooms. It first opened for business on the Curran Road in 1975, and has attracted generally positive reviews on the website Trip Advisor.

One patron who contacted the Belfast Telegraph claimed that while visiting the hotel yesterday she was told she could not use vouchers she had received as a gift to pay for her meal, and was also told the hotel was going into administration.

She said that staff seemed shocked by the news, adding that she hoped the hotel will remain open.

The hotel later clarified on Facebook that gift vouchers could be used.

They said: "Thank you for all your positive comments. There has been some confusion around gift vouchers, just to confirm we continue to accept gift vouchers and to trade as normal. We appreciate your continued custom."

Hundreds of customers posted messages of support on social media, praising the food and staff at the hotel.

"Can't believe this news," one post said, "We travel over 30 miles to eat and stay here. Food is excellent and accommodation second to none and best of all the staff are excellent. Nothing is a problem to them - they always go the extra mile to make sure you're looked after. Hope a buyer is found and the staff stay the same as they are the heart of this hotel."

Doreen Wilson added: "Absolute devastating news. Hopefully a new buyer will be found and the hotel run as it is now. Thinking of all the amazing staff and those others business who will be effected by this if the hotel does close and also the worry they will have in the interim period during this uncertain time."

Margaret Wolde said: "Can't believe it. Where will I go for my Sunday lunch. Very bad news."

Earlier this year the Balmoral Hotel in west Belfast was placed in administration.

Accountants from KPMG said it was "business as usual" after they were appointed to run Balmoral Hotel on Blacks Road.

Meanwhile, last year Belfast city centre boutique hotel Ten Square went into administration.

It opened in Donegall Square South in 2000 and eight years later was bought by property developer John Miskelly.

Ten Square was sold to property developer Paddy Kearney for slightly more than 6m last December.
A 344 million expansion programme at London City Airport has been given the go-ahead by ministers who hope it could provide a 1.5 billion boost to the British economy by 2025.

The plans include an extended terminal, a new aircraft taxiway and parking spaces for planes, as well as upgraded public transport links.

London City Airport estimates the scheme will allow it to handle up to 32,000 more flights per year and create 1,600 jobs for staff, together with 500 construction jobs.

The announcement comes amid continued delays over a decision on the expansion of Heathrow or Gatwick.

David Cameron was expected to make a decision on the rival expansion projects shortly after the European Union referendum.

But his resignation following the victory for the Leave campaign means the decision has been left for his successor as Prime Minister, Theresa May.

Chancellor Philip Hammond hailed the investment at London City Airport as a "vote of confidence in the resilience of our economy".

The planning decision was formally approved by Transport Secretary Chris Grayling and Communities and Local Government Secretary Sajid Javid.

The Government said the airport would provide a " generous" compensation package to local residents affected by increased air traffic.

Mr Hammond said: "London City Airport's ambitious growth plans will boost international connections, strengthening the City of London's links to destinations across the world, and send a clear signal that Britain is open for business.

"Making it easier to visit and do business in the City of London will help drive forward our economy and further strengthen the city's status as the world's leading financial centre."

Mr Grayling commented: " London City Airport is an engine for growth in the City, serving the community in which it operates and providing a vital link to our regional airports and the rest of the country."

But John Stewart, chairman of Hacan East, which campaigns against aircraft noise, claimed residents face a "double whammy".

He said: " Earlier this year London City concentrated all its flight paths. Today the people under these flight paths face the prospect of more and larger planes.

"The airport claims that the expansion will create over a thousand jobs. That is in the realm of speculation. What is certain is that residents' quality of life will get worse."

Green Party London Assembly member Caroline Russell described the decision as "reckless", adding that people in east London are "really going to suffer" due to noise and pollution.

London City Airport's chief executive Declan Collier insisted the Government has " shown it is ready to act in the best interests of the British economy".

He went on: "As the airport serving by far the highest proportion of business travellers in the UK, who do some 11 billion of trade in Europe annually, today the Government has sent a strong message that London and the UK are very much open for business. I welcome the decision and look forward to delivering new airport capacity for the South East by 2019."

He said the expansion would allow the airport to accommodate the new generation of short haul aircraft which have a larger wingspan, such as the Bombardier C-Series, whose wings are built in Belfast.

"We handle about 80,000 flights per year," Mr Collier said,

"We can generate probably another 30,000 to 32,000 extra flights per year through these new facilities."

London Mayor Sadiq Khan praised the decision on expansion, saying it would bring " much-needed new employment" to the area and show that " London is open to trade and commerce globally".

He added that he was pleased " conditions have been put in place" to limit the impact on noise and air quality.

A Heathrow spokesman said the announcement " signals the Government is committed to ensuring Britain has the 21st century infrastructure it needs", while Gatwick claimed it demonstrated "what can be done when an expansion scheme that is deliverable is chosen".
Peter Allen said that maintaining consumer confidence would be crucial to the health of the economy following Brexit

Northern Ireland consumers became more worried about job security following the EU Referendum, according to new research.

Deloitte's consumer tracker said concerns about job security were at their strongest since 2011, when they carried out the survey between June 24 and June 27.

The measure of anxiety about jobs went from -8% in the first quarter of the year to -21% in the second quarter.

Peter Allen, partner at Deloitte in Northern Ireland, said: "Although the initial shock of the vote has receded, the outlook for growth has dimmed and this has been reflected in the concerns for job security in Northern Ireland.

"UK activity is set to soften in the next year and the government faces an unparalleled task in shaping a post-EU settlement.

"The complexity, scale and importance of the negotiations that will take the UK out of the EU mean that uncertainty is here to stay.

"But, by providing a compelling vision of the UK's long term economic future, the government can provide important reassurance to consumers and business," he added.

Despite the concerns over job security, the overall measure of consumer confidence in Northern Ireland was fairly steady at -13% in quarter two, to -11% in quarter one.

But Mr Allen said that maintaining consumer confidence would be crucial to the health of the economy following Brexit.

"Consumer spending is the engine of UK growth, accounting for about two thirds of activity," he added.

"Maintaining consumer confidence, and spending, will be crucial to keeping the economy growing as the process of exiting the EU gets under way."
More British workers looking for a new job than their European colleagues

Only half of Britons feel settled in their job and are more likely to be looking to move on than their European counterparts, a study shows.

A survey of more than 4,000 adults in the UK, France, Germany and the Netherlands showed that almost one in four in this country had looked for a new job in the last month, 10 per cent more than others.

Workers, aged between 18 and 36, were more likely to be considering a move, the study by jobs site Monster discovered.

Andy Sumner, managing director for Monster, said; "There is clearly a restlessness amongst workers in the UK, with a quarter searching for a role in the last month. Even the most satisfied workers have itchy feet.

"Our research found a real disparity between what employees want, and what employers thinks matters. While pay, flexibility and work-life balance are important, it's essential for all organisations to think about how they can nurture the skills of their people, provide strong leadership, and really articulate their business' purpose, values and goals - especially for the younger demographic."
Santander was hit with a 475 million euro (398 million) restructuring charge linked to the closure of around 450 branches in Spain

Profits at Santander were cut in half in the second quarter as the bank was hit by continued restructuring costs.

The Spanish lender said net income fell 50% to 1.28 billion euros (1.07 billion) in the period compared with 2.54 billion euros (2.13 billion) last year. Net interest income, a key profit driver for banks, fell 8.6% to 7.57 billion euros (6.35 billion).

The bank was hit with a 475 million euro (398 million) restructuring charge linked to the closure of around 450 branches in Spain, which affected 1,380 employees.

In the UK, first half net profits fell 12% to 843 million euros (707 million), with Santander pointing the finger at a new bank tax.

Group executive chairman Ana Botin said: "We continue to deliver on our commitments and reaffirm guidance of an increase in earnings and total dividend per share in 2016, despite worse than expected economic conditions.

"We are investing in our people and improving digital and branchbased personal services for all our customers."

Net earnings across the group were down 32% to 2.91 billion euros (2.44 billion).
Chuckle Brothers: Ian Paisley with Martin McGuinness, the dream team as First Minister and Deputy First Minister

A scene from the new movie The Journey, starring Timothy Spall as Ian Paisley and Colm Meaney as Martin McGuinness

How actor Timothy Spall could look in his role as Ian Paisley

The film telling the story of the unlikely friendship between the late Ian Paisley and Martin McGuinness is to be shown at the Toronto International Film Festival.

Staring Timothy Spall as First Minister Paisley and Colm Meaney as his counterpart Martin McGuinness, the film tells the story of how the one-time enemies came together to herald the beginning of a new power-sharing agreement between the DUP and Sinn Fein in Northern Ireland.

Set before the 2006 St Andrews Agreement the two are forced to take a short journey together in which they will take the biggest leap of faith and change the course of history.

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Toby Stephens plays prime minister Tony Blair while Freddie Highmore is cast as Jack, a young government employee tasked with driving Paisley and McGuinness on their journey.

Oscar-nominated John Hurt stars as Harry, an accomplished veteran political fixer overseeing the St Andrews Agreement.

The film, a fictional account of the time, is directed by Belfast-born Nick Hamm and written by acclaimed Co Down author Colin Bateman. Production begin in September last year in parts of Northern Ireland and Scotland.

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Bateman took to Facebook to announce the film has been selected for the Toronto International Film Festival.

The festival is in its 41st year and will show almost 400 films between September 8 and 18. It is widely regarded as the kick-off for the Hollywood awards season.

It is one of the most prestigious events on the film festival calendar with hundreds of thousands of people regularly attending. It has been touted as being "only second to the Cannes film festival".

Chariots of Fire, The King's Speech and Argo, are among its most notable films to have had their screening debut at the event.

The Journey will feature as part of the festival's special presentations.
The verdict that cleared Led Zeppelin stars Jimmy Page and Robert Plant in a plagiarism dispute over their hit Stairway to Heaven has been appealed against.

The veteran rockers were cleared by a jury earlier this year of plagiarising the song's famous guitar intro.

The jury in Los Angeles found the musicians did not lift the opening chords of instrumental track Taurus, written by American band Spirit, for their 1971 hit.

An appeal has now been made by Michael Skidmore, who filed the original lawsuit, the trustee of Spirit guitarist Randy Wolfe.

Wolfe, who was known as Randy California, drowned in 1997 having never taken legal action over the song.

Following a week-long trial, a jury found that Taurus and Stairway To Heaven were not "extrinsically similar".

After the verdict, Page and Plant said the origins of Stairway To Heaven had been put "to rest".

Lawyers for Mr Wolfe's trust had asked for him to be given a third credit for the hit song, which has earned millions of pounds since it featured on the album Led Zeppelin IV.

The court heard that Page and Plant had earned 58.5 million dollars (40 million) from Stairway To Heaven and other Led Zeppelin songs over the past five years.

After the verdict, Mr Skidmore's lawyer Francis Malofiy said he was "disappointed" with the jury's ruling and "justice wasn't served".

"There are obviously issues that can be appealed," he said.

Mr Malofiy said the lawsuit had been brought 45 years after the release of Stairway To Heaven because of a change in the law in 2014.

Speaking outside court, Mr Skidmore said: "Money has triumphed over common sense."
The course of true love never did run smooth, as the great Bard eloquently put it, and so it was with Mairead and I, in the beginning, at least, with more than two hearts initially involved in our nascent real life love story.

Given that we would go on to launch Lovebird Books, a bespoke publishing company enabling couples to celebrate milestone anniversaries or weddings by having their romantic journeys written for posterity, it is, however, apt that we first met while working in Belfast's Linen Hall Library.

In the months previous, we rarely made eye contact as we went about our daily business - I typing away contentedly as editor of arts website Culture Northern Ireland, she happily front of house and up to her elbows in books.

We never once fell into conversation, despite being only four years apart.

To Mairead, I was merely the young man who walked too fast, always rushing into the cafe for my mid-morning coffee. To me, she was the girl with the skulls on her jeans and a penchant for Whitesnake T-shirts, as far removed from the repressed librarian cliche as it was humanly possible to get.

We were properly introduced on the occasion of another staff member's leaving do and Cupid's arrow splintered and struck over pints in the nearby Garrick Bar, I enamoured with her wicked sense of humour, she with my prematurely greying beard. The South Down boy smitten by the earthy Derry princess.

One by one, all other suitors (for suitors they were, silent and steadfast and deadly when challenged) eventually conceded defeat and we were left alone to smoke our cigarettes in the chilly evening rain.

Summoning up the type of courage that can shape a man's entire existence, I proffered the cheesiest line I could muster, and was rewarded with a kiss. But one was all I would get - even if I gifted Mairead 12 yellow roses every day for a week - for she was promised to another, and I was promised, too.

"Thinking back, it really was a thorny situation," Mairead now contends. "We each had to break hearts in order to be together, but sometimes you have to make these choices, even if everyone else tells you that it may not be the smartest thing to do. But I think, when it comes to love, we have to go with our gut."

The following Monday morning, although our hearts told us otherwise, we went with our heads and agreed to leave well alone. It was for the best, after all, we convinced ourselves. No one would get hurt. Everything would continue as normal and the kiss on Montgomery Street be consigned to history.

This virtuous resolve lasted no less than four solid days, during which time we skipped outside the Linen Hall library for innumerable clandestine cigarette breaks, found reason to visit each other's work stations for the flimsiest of reasons, and finally broke under cover of darkness as the inevitable tide took us out to sea. We became official on September 21, 2009, and were married exactly two years later.

Our love of literature brought us together, and it is that enduring passion, in part, that has kept us together. We named our first-born, Patrick Seamus, after Mairead's father and Mr Heaney, the late Nobel Laureate, who we were honoured to meet in his Dublin home - hallowed ground for bibliophiles like us - while on assignment to promote the erstwhile Belfast Festival at Queen's in 2012.

"We have very different tastes in literature," says Mairead, a die-hard Stephen King fan who loves nothing more than to jump into another of the American horror writer's formidable tomes, although by now there are few that she hasn't read.

"I grew up surrounded by horror stories in my parents' house in the country, with my brothers big influences on my taste, and I spent every Friday after school handing over 2 to the proprietor of my beloved Foyle Books for another well-worn Eighties copy of King from the archives.

"I love nothing more than to rearrange and dust down my collection, which is added to every year on my birthday."

I, on the other hand, have moved from fantasy to crime fiction by way of 'literary' writers such as John Updike and Jack Kerouac, but share Mairead's love of children's literature, which we're actively attempting to instil in our boy.

The story of our proposal is without an elegant country house backdrop, but that does not make it any less true, honest, authentic, and we hope to tell many stories like it in the years ahead.

I asked Mairead to marry me over an M&S steak dinner in our former flat in Stranmillis on an otherwise uneventful Wednesday evening. The ring was affordable, our wedding small but perfectly formed, and we required our wedding photographer to capture the first images of us as husband and wife not on a beach, or up a mountain, or locked in an embrace on a cliff overlooking the ocean, but in Foyle Books, to the delight of the proprietor and the vexed consternation of a few bookish customers.

In 2014, we enthusiastically made the move back to Mairead's cherished Maiden City, and it was there where the idea for Lovebird Books took hold.

The year previous, I fulfilled a lifelong ambition when Blackstaff Press published my first factual book, Belfast Taxi: A Drive Through History, One Fare at a Time, and since relocating West, Mairead too has had work published professionally, writing children's stories for the Newry-based company Wee Wonders, but we were moved to create something for ourselves, something that we own, something that will hopefully last a lifetime and enable us to buy the wedding ring that Mairead truly deserves in Lovebird Books.

"In our previous jobs, everything relied on government funding," Mairead explains. "But when austerity bit, and the funding dried up, a lot of people were forced to look at the arts in a different way. Monetisation became a buzzword; support for the arts that existed before now seems to be a thing of the past.

"So I came up with the idea of putting the two things that mean so much to us together - our love of a good story and our wedding day, our own love story - and came up with the concept behind Lovebird Books, which we launched, after many months of hard work, in July of this year."

In the digital age, most of us have few physical memories of our times spent together. We have Facebook posts, of course, WhatsApp conversations and Snapchats to flick through - a plethora of messages, filtered images, likes and emoticons - but little if any paper trails documenting our trajectory through life.

Love letters so beautifully written by previous generations are now, very sadly, few and far between, but with Lovebird Books it is our intention to create something tangible for couples to cherish and pass on to their loved ones when time inevitably concludes their love stories for good.

We have so far written and published two Lovebird Books - one for close friends and another for a Dubai-based couple, as commissioned by international destination wedding photographer Brett Florens - and are currently writing two more, which we were privileged to accept.

Unlike other publishing companies, we design each Lovebird Book ourselves and have them printed by wedding album producers. Each is hardback, linen-covered and laser-etched, and can feature as many images from the clients' lives as they would like.

Those about to be married can also feature their Lovebird Book on their wedding day by including a guestbook end-section to which family and friends can add their own messages and memories on the day.

"We greatly enjoy interviewing real couples and interpreting their stories in 5,000 words," adds Mairead.

"It's a challenge to pick out the major episodes that shaped their relationship and put them down on paper.

"My only regret, when I look back at our wedding day, or my parents' 40th wedding anniversary, for example, is that we didn't have something similar to help make the occasion.

"Those who love books will understand how special it is to hold one in your hand and while away the hours reading, but maybe one day we'll sit down and write our own story."

Are we romantics? Aren't we all? Even the most hard-nosed, barrel-chested alpha male can enjoy a good romcom, though he may never admit to it. Our favourite films tell heart-warming stories about believable characters in love - When Harry Met Sally, Annie Hall, The Princess Bride, to name but a few - and when it comes to literature, we find endless inspiration in everything from Heaney's poignant poem, Scaffolding, to Shakespeare's tragic play, Romeo and Juliet.

To those who think that their real life love story is not worth telling, you will never know until you try.

There is magic in the details, if you know where to look.

Find out more about Lovebird Books, visit lovebirdbooks.com, on Twitter @YouLovebirdBooks or the Facebook page Lovebird Books
Flowers left at the scene where Michelle McStravick and Lorraine Clyde died in a road accident

Floral tributes have been left at the spot where two women lost their lives while out doing job they loved.

Michelle McStravick (35), from Randalstown, and Lorraine Clyde (56), from the Antrim area, were killed in a morning car crash on Monday.

It is understood that both women worked as care assistants for Homecare Independent Living in Coleraine.

Heartfelt messages and flowers were placed at the junction of the Church Road and the Moneyrod Road in Randalstown, where the crash happened.

A tribute posted online from staff at the One 2 One domiciliary care company described their deaths as heartbreaking.

It is a very sad day for our industry, the statement read. We are so very sorry and devastated to hear that two community care workers were killed in a car accident while out doing the job they loved.

Our thoughts and prayers are with both families as they received this heartbreaking news. May the two of you rest in peace.

Michelle McStravick had a teenage daughter and was also a popular fitness competitor, winning trophies for body-building.

Lorraine Clyde was married with children and was well-known in Antrim as a patrol lady for St Comgalls Primary School.

A friend of Lorraines visited the scene of the crash yesterday, where she left the heart-felt message: You are in my thoughts and always will be.

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A man and a woman travelling in a silver Ford Focus suffered non-life threatening injuries in the incident.

Officers have appealed for anyone who witnessed the collision to contact police in Antrim.
Tributes have been paid to a young Northern Ireland man who died suddenly in Malaysia.

Gareth Wetton, from Stewartstown, was found dead on Monday in the south east Asian country.

The cause of his death is being investigated.

His girlfriend had appealed online for help to find him after he failed to get on a flight in Kuala Lumpur on July 22, but he was found dead a short time later.

He had been living in Melbourne, Australia, for several years but grew up in Co Tyrone and had been a pupil at Dungannon Integrated College.

Friends have paid tribute online to the popular young man.

One said: "Still cannot believe my friend Gareth Wetton is gone. I'm still speechless about it, very sad, RIP my friend and will see you in the other life, rest easy and God bless." Another added: "There are very few people that have graced this planet with their presence that are genuinely good souls and you my friend were one of the best.

"Going to be missed more than you'll ever know.

"My heart goes out to all his family and friends."

An online appeal has been set up by friends in Australia to help with the costs of bringing his body home.

The appeal has raised more than $13,000 (around 7,500). Gareth's family have distanced themselves from the appeal, but thanked his friends for their support.

In a statement, his family said: "The family of Gareth Wetton is coming to terms with the news of his sudden death.

"We would like to express appreciation for the kindness and generosity shown to date, however, we wish to treat this as a private family matter, which is not associated with any public campaign or appeal. We request that our wishes are respected at this very difficult time."

They are currently being assisted by the Kevin Bell Repatriation Trust.

The fund was set up by Colin Bell in memory of his 26-year-old son Kevin who was killed in a suspected hit-and-run in New York in June 2013.

The charity has helped to bring home more than 100 Irish people who have died abroad in the past three years.
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

Leonard Collins and Joanne Meadows at home after their dog Hank was seized by Belfast City Council

The owners of a dog seized because it "looked like a pit bull" have claimed Belfast City Council have ceased communication with them.

Hank was seized by Belfast City Council two weeks ago after a member of the public reported him.

Owners Leonard Collins and Joanne Meadows have had Hank since he was a puppy.

The family pet was confiscated under the Dogs (NI) Order 1983 amid a heavy presence of eight police officers and four dog wardens.

A Facebook page set up to support the owners' campaign has more than 65,000 followers and a fundraising page set up to help pay legal costs has raised 17,733 at time of writing.

On Wednesday the owners claimed that Belfast City Council are "refusing" to speak to the owners about Hank, after they phoned for an update.

They said they were "Hurt, angry and appalled at the latest development".

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The post read: "I phoned the council this morning for an update on Hank. They have informed me that they are now refusing to speak to me regarding Hank. They will provide me no information on Hank, his condition, his assessments or anything at all. The only communication I have now is through my solicitor. This means a delay of several days to find out even the most basic of information.

"At the beginning of this I wanted to give Belfast City Council the benefit of the doubt, I was keen to keep this campaign as positive as possibly yet every step of the way BCC have show just how little regard they have for Hank and Joanne and I.

"We are hurt, angry and appalled at this latest development."

The campaign has been supported worldwide and has made headlines across major media outlets.

Update

Belfast City Council has now issued an update. In a statement to the Belfast Telegraph it said: "The council has a statutory duty to enforce breed specific legislation, which is not set by us, but by the Northern Ireland Executive.

"We acknowledge the interest expressed in Hanks case and are working very hard to complete this assessment, using appropriate experts, as quickly as possible; we will, of course, inform Hanks owners of the outcome of this assessment as soon as it has been completed.

"Some coverage of this case has omitted any reference to the behavioural part of the assessment, creating the impression that a finding that Hank is a pit bull terrier type will inevitably result in him having to be euthanised.

"This however is not the case. Since an exemption scheme became available, the council has been able to return ten out of the eleven dogs it has found to be pit bull types to their owner, under appropriate conditions sanctioned by the courts.

"Hank is being well looked after, and his medical and dietary needs are continuing to be met. We have written to Hanks owners to update them on his current welfare, and clarify the assessment process. We have also explained that we will continue to keep them informed, via their legal representatives, about the outcome of his assessment and what option we intend to pursue, once this has been completed.

"The council has received a large volume of correspondence in relation to this issue. As the assessment process is still ongoing, it would be inappropriate to comment further on specific details of this case."

The full statement can be read below.

Belfast City Council statement to Belfast Telegraph in full

Belfast City Council wishes to clarify some matters in relation to the case of Hank the dog.

The council has a statutory duty to enforce breed specific legislation, which is not set by us, but by the Northern Ireland Executive. Our principal duty in relation to this legislation is protecting the health and safety of the public, a duty carried out across the city by our dedicated and experienced officers.

Under the Dogs (NI) Order 1983 as amended, both the dogs characteristics and behaviour must be assessed to determine whether it is a banned breed and, if so, whether it poses a danger to the public.

A full assessment is being undertaken to ascertain whether Hank is a pitbull terrier type dog, which are banned under the legislation.

The legally accepted test is by way of assessment against a breed standard, partly due to the fact that it is recognized that DNA testing is not an adequate indicator to assess this type of dog. The assessment is a two-part test, in relation to both Hanks physical characteristics and his behaviour.

We acknowledge the interest expressed in Hanks case and are working very hard to complete this assessment, using appropriate experts, as quickly as possible; we will, of course, inform Hanks owners of the outcome of this assessment as soon as it has been completed.

There are three options open to the council:

if the dog is not a banned breed, i.e. a pit bull terrier type, it is returned to its owner;



if the dog is deemed to be of a banned breed, but judged not to be dangerous, it may, with court approval and conditions attached, be placed on the councils exemption scheme and returned to its owner, with conditions attached which the owner must comply with; or



if the dog is deemed to be of a banned breed, i.e. a pit bull terrier type, and judged to present a danger to the public, the matter is referred to the courts for a magistrate to decide whether a destruction order should be issued.

Some coverage of this case has omitted any reference to the behavioral part of the assessment, creating the impression that a finding that Hank is a pit bull terrier type will inevitably result in him having to be euthanized.

This however is not the case. Since an exemption scheme became available, the council has been able to return ten out of the eleven dogs it has found to be pit bull types to their owner, under appropriate conditions sanctioned by the courts.

Welfare

Hank is being well looked after, and his medical and dietary needs are continuing to be met.

All animals in our care are kept in DAERA-approved facilities. Hank has been attended daily to facilitate settling in, and his welfare is also being met through veterinary examinations, and the use of toys and bedding, supplied by his owners.

While we were unable to walk him initially during the settling in period, staff have worked very hard to build a sound relationship with Hank, and he is now being walked, with staff hoping to continue this on a daily basis.

Visits from dog owners are not permitted  this is to help with the settling in process, and to ensure the security of all those animals in our care, as well as the health and safety of staff.

We have written to Hanks owners to update them on his current welfare, and clarify the assessment process. We have also explained that we will continue to keep them informed, via their legal representatives, about the outcome of his assessment and what option we intend to pursue, once this has been completed.

Feedback

The council has received a large volume of correspondence in relation to this issue. As the assessment process is still ongoing, it would be inappropriate to comment further on specific details of this case.

All feedback has been received and logged, but it is our priority, as well as our responsibility, to ensure that we carry out our duties under the current legislation, as well as maintaining our duty of care towards staff employed to carry out these duties, and continuing to provide a good level of service to our ratepayers.

Social media, in particular, has become a key means of updating people about, and responding to queries in relation to all our services and facilities, and we will continue to apply our house rules to these channels in order to provide our usual service.

We respectfully remind users to please read these rules before using our pages, as repetitive and spam-like comments will be removed. Abusive, disruptive and threatening posts will also be removed and persistent offenders will be reported to both Facebook and the PSNI.
Experts and officials working on reforming Northern Ireland's abortion laws were named last night as Health Minister Michelle O'Neill moved to counter claims of secrecy.

The special panel, which has met only once so far, includes the chair of the group, chief medical officer Michael McBride, as well as chief nursing officer Charlotte McArdle, chief social services officer Sean Holland, Department of Health secondary care directorate official Jackie Johnston, Hugh Widdis of the departmental solicitor's office, and Brian Grzymek and Amanda Patterson from the Department of Justice.

Official Opposition leader Mike Nesbitt previously slammed secrecy around their identities as a "slap in the face" to those advocating legal changes taking account of fatal foetal abnormalities in abortions.

"Even though the panel has been established and has met, the Department of Health would not release the names of the panel members when contacted," the Ulster Unionist Party leader said.

"Further, there is no formal mechanism for people to input their views to the panel. What a slap in the face to those seeking to take account of fatal foetal abnormalities."

His attack came as Justice Minister Claire Sugden confirmed that the working group had met for the first time.

Ms Sugden said her officials had attended the first meeting of the body on July 14.

In a written Assembly answer to Sinn Fein's Catherine Seeley, meanwhile, the Health Minister said the panel was due to report by the end of September.

"It is intended that the group will undertake its work on an outreach basis to engage with the women and families directly impacted by fatal foetal abnormality and with health care professionals with experience in this area, including the Royal Colleges," the Sinn Fein MLA explained.

"In accordance with established process, the Executive and the Health Committee needed to be informed in advance of information relating to the working group being placed into the public domain.

"Both were advised of the establishment, terms of reference and membership of the group earlier today."

Mrs O'Neill disclosed in the Assembly in June that the working group, which was due to be established in February, had still not met.

Prior to that, First Minister Arlene Foster asked the previous Health Minister, her party colleague Simon Hamilton, to establish the panel with the aim of examining the means by which cases of fatal foetal abnormalities could be dealt with. The group was due to report back by the end of June.

The row around abortion law has raged for many years, but it was brought into sharp focus two years ago through the case of Sarah Ewart.

The mum-to-be was 20 weeks' pregnant when a hospital scan failed to detect any sign of her baby's head. Afterwards, she and her husband were told the baby had anencephaly, meaning no skull had formed.

Despite the fatal abnormality, the law forced her to travel to England for an abortion.

In England, Scotland and Wales, the 1967 Abortion Act permits terminations up to 24 weeks of pregnancy on grounds that include risk to the physical wellbeing or mental health of the woman or existing children in the family.

Unlike in Northern Ireland, it also covers abnormalities that could lead to a child being seriously handicapped.
London and Dublin are agreed there will be no return to a "hard border" between Northern Ireland and the Republic, Irish Taoiseach Enda Kenny insisted after Downing Street talks.

Mr Kenny said that he and Prime Minister Theresa May are both against creating a post-Brexit string of customs posts on the island of Ireland.

"I do not favour, and would not agree to, a hard border with a whole range of customs posts, and neither does the prime minister.

"There will be no hard border from Dundalk to Derry in the context of it being a European border, and by that I mean customs posts every mile along the road.

"We are both agreed very firmly there will be no return to a hard border as existed," Mr Kenny said to reporters outside Number Ten following the meeting.

Speaking earlier at a joint briefing with Mr Kenny, the Prime Minister said she was determined to maintain "the closest possible relationship" between the UK and the Republic following Britain's withdrawal from the EU.

Mrs May said there was a "strong will" to preserve free travel across the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic after Britain leaves the EU, and suggested that this could involve a common approach to the use of data on passengers arriving from outside the British Isles.

"I recognise that one of the biggest concerns for people is the common travel area. We benefited from a common travel area between the UK and the Republic of Ireland for many years before either country was a member of the EU.

"There is a strong will on both sides to preserve it and so we must now focus on securing a deal that is in the interests of both of us.

"Alongside this, we should continue our efforts to strengthen the external borders of the common travel area; for example, through a common approach to the use of passenger data," the PM said.

The outcome of last month's Brexit referendum will not undermine the peace process in Northern Ireland, the Prime Minister insisted.

On the peace process, Mrs May said: " It is in all our interests to work together to safeguard our national security and the outcome of the referendum will not undermine it.

"We are both fully committed to working together in support of the Northern Ireland Executive to build a better, stronger, safer future for the people of Northern Ireland.

"Indeed, it is vital that we keep up the momentum on tackling paramilitary groups and building a shared future.

"And today we have reaffirmed our commitment to establishing a new Independent Reporting Commission by the end of this year, which will support these efforts."

At the joint briefing, Mr Kenny said: "We both recognised that Ireland is the only EU member state that shares a land border with the UK. We are in agreement that we don't wish to see any return to the borders of the past on the island of Ireland."

Following her talks with the leaders of Germany, France and Ireland, Mrs May is continuing her round of whirlwind diplomacy with a visit to Rome to meet prime minister Matio Renzi on Wednesday.

This will be followed on Thursday by a trip to Slovakia and Poland, where she will hold discussions with Prime Ministers Robert Fico and Beata Szydlo, as part of her drive to engage with European leaders on Brexit.

A Number 10 spokesman said Mrs May wanted an early visit to Italy after becoming PM earlier this month, because of the close relations it has with the UK.

Thursday's trip to eastern Europe may prove more awkward as Slovakia and Poland are among the EU states most insistent on maintaining free movement of labour, and have also voiced concern about the rights of their nationals currently in the UK.

The countries are part of the Visegrad Four group within the EU which has called for the pace of integration to be slowed in the wake of Brexit.

Slovakia currently holds the six-month rotating presidency of the European Council and will host a summit of the remaining 27 states in Britain's absence in September to discuss their approach to the UK's planned withdrawal.

Mrs May also received "congratulatory" phone calls from the leaders of New Zealand, Japan, India, Pakistan and Jordan on Tuesday.

A Number 10 spokeswoman said: "A common theme that emerged in the phone calls from Prime Minister Key of New Zealand, Prime Minister Abe of Japan, Prime Minister Modi of India, Prime Minister Sharif of Pakistan and King Abdullah of Jordan is the importance that they all attach to their partnership with the United Kingdom and their wish to further strengthen co-operation, whether on trade, security or across the board."

She added that John Key said he wanted discussions on a free trade agreement between New Zealand and the UK to begin early on.

Mr May also offered Shinzo Abe her condolences following the knife attack at Sagamihara.
An investigation file into the killing of a prison officer in Belfast is expected to be completed by the end of the month, a judge was told.

Prosecutors provided the update as Christopher Robinson appeared back in court on a charge of murdering Adrian Ismay.

Mr Ismay, 52, suffered serious leg injuries when a booby-trap bomb exploded under the van while he was driving in the east of the city in March.

He had been recovering, but died following a return to hospital 11 days later.

Robinson, 46, of Aspen Park in Dunmurry, faces a further charge of possessing explosives with intent to endanger life.

He is allegedly linked to the bombing by CCTV footage of a car believed to have been used to plant the device at the victim's Hillsborough Drive home early on March 4.

Forensic examination of the car revealed traces of RDX, an identifier in high explosive material, on its rear floor and seats, a previous court was told.

Robinson was said to have known Mr Ismay through working together as volunteers with St John Ambulance.

The accused, who is out on bail, attended Belfast Magistates' Court on Wednesday for a progress report on the case against him.

A Public Prosecution Service lawyer said a full investigation file is still outstanding, but is due to be submitted by the end of the month.

Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Previous Next Close Family at the funeral of prison officer Adrian Ismay, who was injured in a bomb attack Getty Images Scene of the explosion BELFAST, NORTHERN IRELAND - MARCH 22: Family members of Adrian Ismay comfort one another outside Woodvale Methodist church as the funeral of the murdered prison officer takes place on March 22, 2016 in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Mr Ismay was seriously injured after a booby-trap device exploded under his van in east Belfast earlier this month. The 52 year old was thought to be recovering well from his injuries but died following a heart attack due to complications following the bomb attack. The new IRA, a dissident terrorist group have claimed responsibility for the murder. (Photo by Charles McQuillan/Getty Images) Getty Images BELFAST, NORTHERN IRELAND - MARCH 22: Family members follow the remains of murdered prison officer Adrian Ismay as his funeral takes place on March 22, 2016 in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Mr Ismay was seriously injured after a booby-trap device exploded under his van in east Belfast earlier this month. The 52 year old was thought to be recovering well from his injuries but died following a heart attack due to complications following the bomb attack. The new IRA, a dissident terrorist group have claimed responsibility for the murder. (Photo by Charles McQuillan/Getty Images) Getty Images BELFAST, NORTHERN IRELAND - MARCH 22: A police officers salutes the hearse on arrival at Woodvale Methodist Church as the funeral of murdered prison officer Adrian Ismay takes place on March 22, 2016 in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Mr Ismay was seriously injured after a booby-trap device exploded under his van in east Belfast earlier this month. The 52 year old was thought to be recovering well from his injuries but died following a heart attack due to complications following the bomb attack. The new IRA, a dissident terrorist group have claimed responsibility for the murder. (Photo by Charles McQuillan/Getty Images) Getty Images BELFAST, NORTHERN IRELAND - MARCH 22: A piper leads the cortege as the funeral of murdered prison officer Adrian Ismay takes place on March 22, 2016 in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Mr Ismay was seriously injured after a booby-trap device exploded under his van in east Belfast earlier this month. The 52 year old was thought to be recovering well from his injuries but died following a heart attack due to complications following the bomb attack. The new IRA, a dissident terrorist group have claimed responsibility for the murder. (Photo by Charles McQuillan/Getty Images) Getty Images Adrian's wife Sharon looks to the sky as the family walk behind the coffin. Liam McBurney/RAZORPIX Copyright  Kevin Cooper Photoline NUJ: A piper played a lament at ICTU Silent Vigil for Prison Officer Adrian Ismay was on Tuesday 22 March 2016 at Belfast City Hall. Peter Bunting, Assistant General Secretary, lead the Silent Vigil for Prison Officer Adrian Ismay, while piper played a lament. Over 200 people gathered at Belfast City Hall In silent reflection at the murder of Prison Officer Adrian Ismay, with trade union banners in solidarity, politicians, members of the public and trade union members from across the trade union movement. ICTU Silent Vigil for Prison Officer Adrian Ismay was on Tuesday 22 March 2016 at Belfast City Hall. Kevin Cooper Copyright  Kevin Cooper Photoline NUJ: NIPSA at ICTU Silent Vigil for Prison Officer Adrian Ismay was on Tuesday 22 March 2016 at Belfast City Hall. Peter Bunting, Assistant General Secretary, lead the Silent Vigil for Prison Officer Adrian Ismay, while piper played a lament. Over 200 people gathered at Belfast City Hall In silent reflection at the murder of Prison Officer Adrian Ismay, with trade union banners in solidarity, politicians, members of the public and trade union members from across the trade union movement. ICTU Silent Vigil for Prison Officer Adrian Ismay was on Tuesday 22 March 2016 at Belfast City Hall. Kevin Cooper People attend a short vigil in Belfast city centre to remember murdered prison officer Adrian Ismay, whose funeral took place today. PA PACEMAKER BELFAST 22/03/2016 Sharon (wife) is comforted with Family and Friends During The funeral cortege for murdered prison officer Adrian Ismay arrives at Woodvale Methodist Church this morning. Mr Ismay died 11 days after being seriously injured in an under car bomb planted by a group calling itself the ONew IRAO on the 4th of March this year. Photo Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker Press / Facebook

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Based on that disclosure, defence counsel Sean Devine pressed for a further review next week.

But raising an issue over forensic reports, District Judge Fiona Bagnall instead adjourned proceedings until August 24 for confirmation that work has been completed.

She also resisted a request for Robinson to be excused from attending court again on that date.

"It would need to be (a reason) that he's not capable of coming down," she said.

"So I would expect him to be here."
Queen's University has been blasted as "deeply irresponsible" for suggesting student fees could rise to 6,300 a year.

It came after an official document from the university proposing the increase, in response to the Stormont Executive's draft programme for government, was leaked to the BBC.

A drop in public funding - from 214m in 2009-10 to 185m in 2014-15 - was cited as the main reason for the hike.

With tuition fees here currently set at 3,925 a year, student leaders reacted with outrage to the proposed rise.

NUS-USI president Fergal McFerran said: "The arguments against fees are clear - socially, morally and even economically.

"You do not build a strong economy by lumping debt on students. You cannot enhance social mobility by creating more barriers to tertiary education.

"It saddens me to say it, but Queen's is losing touch with its purpose in our society.

"Maybe Queen's University should reflect on the grossly inflated salary its vice chancellor receives - which is more than double that which a First Minister receives - instead of trying to dump more debt and higher fees on students.

"NUS-USI will simply not tolerate any increase in tuition fees, and the student movement is ready and willing to oppose any such move."

Queen's Students' Union president Sean Feaon added: "The Queen's University proposal to increase tuition fees will only drive the export of our school leavers to universities elsewhere.

"Tuition fees are not affordable for our young people or for the region, with graduates this year starting out in life burdened by nearly 20,000 in debt."

The Unite union, meanwhile, warned that the proposal, if passed, could force working-class children out of higher education.

"It is completely indefensible to argue for a further substantial increase in fees while management receives inflated, six-figure salaries and students are left coping with five-figure debts," said regional officer Sean Smyth .

"There is mounting evidence that young people coming from working-class or lower-income households are put off higher education opportunities by the exorbitant fees being charged by universities in England and Wales. And now Queen's University appears to want to go down the same path."

A statement from the University said it was, "Committed to working in partnership with the Executive to achieve a solution to the current structural funding deficit that exists in the higher education sector".

"Presently, some 35% of our 18 to 19-year-olds leave Northern Ireland to be educated in England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland and further afield," the statement added.

"We are the only region in the UK that exports our young people, and we must reverse this brain drain.

"The university reviewed the options contained in a Department for Employment and Learning paper, Securing a Sustainable Solution for Higher Education in Northern Ireland, in order to assess the best solution to address the structural deficit.

"We will continue to work with all stakeholders in order to find a resolution to this important issue.

"Finding a solution is critical to underpinning the growth of the knowledge economy and realising the ambition of the new draft programme for government framework and the Fresh Start Agreement."
A virtual border using technology could be the solution to maintaining an open flow of people between Northern Ireland and the Republic, Taoiseach Enda Kenny has said.

After his first meeting with new Prime Minister Theresa May, Mr Kenny ruled out the possibility of a hard border in the strongest terms yet.

I would not agree to a hard border with a whole range of customs posts and neither does the prime minister, he said outside Downing Street.

There are other ways of dealing with modern technology in terms of checking trade, the Taoiseach added.

Mr Kenny has indicated that he was open to exploring models such as those implemented in Canada, whereby vehicles registration plates are screened automatically as they approached a border. Yes, I think these are things that need to be looked at creatively and imaginatively. But we are both agreed very firmly that there will be no return to a hard border as existed previously, he said.

His comments came as reports in London last night suggested that Mrs May and chancellor Philip Hammond have yet to be convinced that the advantages of leaving the customs union would be offset by the liberty to negotiate it would bring.

Trade Secretary Liam Fox is pushing for the UK to cut free from the agreement which ensures there are no tariffs on goods. Such a move is likely to add significant administrative costs and delays to trade crossing the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic

Meanwhile, Ms May continued to avoid the use of the phrase hard border when discussing her meeting with the Taoiseach but emphasised the need to preserve the common travel area and secure a deal that is in the interests of both of us.

Alongside this, we should continue our efforts to strengthen the external borders of the Common Travel Area; for example, through a common approach to the use of passenger data, she said.

This would suggest it could become more difficult for people outside the UK and Ireland to travel to the Common Travel Area, if new agreements were reached surrounding tougher borders. But any such move would likely be met with strong resistance from the EU. Mr Kenny insisted he has secured full agreement with the Prime Minister about the border issue as he moved to dampen concerns about the prospect of checkpoints being re-erected.

A hard border, in normal circumstances, means customs posts and customs checks on a very regular basis. There will be no return to the hard border of the past.

The hard border between the Republic and Northern Ireland in the past included towers, obviously military equipment for many reasons, Mr Kenny said.

The Taoiseach twice dodged questions about the prospect of a united Ireland.

Asked specifically whether he would like to see a 32-county Republic in his lifetime, Mr Kenny hesitated, before replying: My focus today is on confirming that there will not be a return to a hard border, by that I mean customs posts all along the way.

Obviously, the Prime Minister favours that very strongly with me. So we both agree  no return to a hard border.
The former president of the European Parliament has called for a rethink of "speculative" fears of a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic.

Dublin-born politician Pat Cox was a member of the legislature for 15 years and said the EU had already recognised existing travel arrangements between the UK and Ireland.

British prime minister Theresa May has said nobody wants to return to the heavily fortified border of the past between Northern Ireland and the Republic.

Mr Cox told businessmen in Newry, Co Down, that the authorities in Belfast, London and Dublin had committed to maintaining the common travel area (CTA) which allows free movement of people between Britain and Ireland.

He said: "If the primary parties to the CTA, the UK and Ireland, share these views, Ireland is entitled to rely on existing EU law, custom and practice as a point of departure in its dialogue with the EU institutions and the twenty-six other member states.

"Recalibrating the political debate from speculative expressions of fear and anxiety about hard borders to anchoring it in established EU rights and practice could be a useful point of departure."

Mr Cox acknowledged uncertainty created by last month's Brexit vote.

But he said: "The EU already, both politically and legally, formally has recognised the CTA between Ireland and the UK. It has accepted that established custom and practice and the balance of convenience of Irish and British citizens were served by its continued existence.

"It has permitted in law a UK and Irish opt-out of the standard Schengen arrangements. The UK has now voted to opt out of the EU itself, which will be a rupture with the past, but Ireland remains fully committed to its membership, which signals a continuity with the past."

He said the prospect of Ireland becoming a soft back-door entry point to the UK through its land border with Northern Ireland posed a valid question but added it had been dealt with by the British and Irish governments five years ago.

The aim of the initiative was to facilitate the movement of legitimate travellers within the CTA and p revent individuals intent on abusing the arrangement from travelling to the area.

Mr Cox added those objectives were to be achieved through working on common standards, data and information sharing, e-border initiatives and reinforced co-operation between the UK Border Agency and the Irish Naturalisation and Immigration Service.

"These are the cornerstones for future bilateral negotiations with the UK and this is a wheel that already exists and does not need to be reinvented.

"Between existing EU law, custom and practice and already established systems of co-ordination between Ireland and the UK on the CTA, it is high time to dial back the volume of anxiety and angst-driven comment and commentary and to begin the less voluble but ultimately more productive pathway to progress, established on the solid foundations of our legal and institutional inheritance, bilaterally with the UK and multilaterally with the EU."
Queen Elizabeth meets cast members of the HBO TV series 'Game of Thrones' Lena Headey and Conleth Hill as she views some of the props including the Iron Throne on the set of Game of Thrones in Belfast's Titanic Quarter (Photo by Jonathan Porter - WPA Pool/Getty Images)

A dispute between two business partners about an official Game of Thrones Iron Throne replica, which is being commercially showcased all over Ireland, has been resolved, the Circuit Civil Court was today told.

Mark Russell, of Block A, Smithfield Market, Smithfield, Dublin, had claimed that business partner Stephen Cronin Saleh planned to remove the throne from the country.

Russell claimed that he and Cronin Saleh had last March agreed to purchase and exploit the HBO licensed replica of the throne used in the fantasy drama TV series Game of Thrones.

The court had heard that Russell bought the throne for 15,000 from a seller in Canada. It had then been licensed to Cronin Saleh, who was granted an option to buy the throne, and both parties had agreed to a profit share arrangement.

When the matter previously came before the court, barrister Stephen Moran, counsel for Russell, said the initial agreement stated that the throne was to remain his clients property until Mr Cronin Saleh had repaid the 15,000. The ownership of the title would then be transferred to Mr Cronin Saleh.

Russell claimed they had also agreed to incorporate a company, Fancosmic Ltd, and that he would get 35% of its shares. He had been registered as a director of the company.

The court heard that the throne was to be displayed at events and shopping centres in Ireland and in the UK, where members of the public would be given the opportunity to sit in it and have their picture taken for a 10 to 25 fee.

Mr Moran, who appeared with McHale Muldoon solicitors, said Mr Russell also lent Mr Cronin Saleh a further 5,000 to fund working capital. The court heard that Cronin Saleh removed him as a director of Fancosmic Ltd last June. He had also removed his access privileges and cancelled all his permissions regarding the company.

Russell alleged that Cronin Saleh, of Hazelwood Avenue, Glanmire, Co Cork had refused to speak to him since last May and had failed to return the throne to him. Cronin Saleh had also failed to repay the 20,000 sum.

The court heard that Russell believed that Cronin Saleh intended to remove the throne from the country and Russell had sought an injunction against him and against Fancosmic Ltd, of Upper Pembroke Street, Dublin.

The judge had last week accepted an undertaking by Cronin Saleh not to remove the throne from the country until the full hearing of the application today.

Today Mr Moran told Circuit Court President Mr Justice Raymond Groarke that following talks between the parties, the matter had settled. Terms of the settlement include payments of money by Cronin Saleh to Russell, who will relinquish his rights to the throne.

The court heard that when the throne was displayed at the Mahon Point shopping centre in Cork last April, Fancosmic Ltd generated 7,500.

Irish Independent
Heather Clatworthy with husband Ian and daughter Lily before she began her 13-mile swim from Stroove to Portstewart

A charity worker has become the first swimmer in almost 90 years to cross a 13-mile stretch of sea between two coastal beauty spots off Ireland's north coast.

Mother-of-two Heather Clatworthy, 34, emerged from the Atlantic as only the second person to traverse the waves between the idyllic Stroove beach on Co Donegal's Inishowen peninsula and the seaside resort of Portstewart in Co Londonderry, Northern Ireland.

An inquisitive pod of dolphins joined her on part of her challenge, jumping alongside as she powered on toward Portstewart, her childhood home.

"Two hours in I just didn't think I was going to do it," she said.

"I just felt so ill, I was getting really beaten by the waves. They weren't that big but it was very choppy.

"I am just so pleased I did it."

The swim was first completed in 1929 by famed English channel swimmer Mercedes Gleitze, who was asked to take on the challenge to help promote tourism on the scenic coastline.

Charity manager Heather achieved the feat in a remarkable four hours and 15 minutes, having originally predicted it would take between eight and 10 hours.

She was hugged by her husband Ian as she walked on to the rocky shore at Portstewart. Crowds of well-wishers cheered and clapped, among them her proud children Lily, five, and Basil, two.

An official from the Irish Long Distance Swimming Association monitored the attempt while volunteer sea kayakers and a support board accompanied her for every stroke.

"I just want to thank everybody for the support because I couldn't have done it without everybody here and all the guys on the boat and kayaks," she said.

"It's amazing."

Heather had been training and planning for the challenge for 18 months, during which time she made contact and befriended Mercedes Gleitze's 81-year-old daughter.

She was raising money for Portrush RNLI and a fund she had established to promote outdoor recreation in Portstewart.

For more information visit: www.swimforportstewart.com
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".

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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."
Theresa May is reportedly being urged to leave the customs union by her trade secretary Liam Fox

Mounting pressure on Theresa May to leave the customs union could put Anglo-Irish trade ties at risk, it has been reported.

According to the Financial Times, Ms May is being urged to leave the union by her trade secretary Liam Fox so that he will receive maximum freedom to negotiate new trade deals.

As part of the customs union the EU negotiates trade deals with external partners and then sets an identical rate for every member state.

Mr Fox wants the UK to leave the customs union as part of Ms May's Brexit strategy. The trade secretary believes the union has stifled trade.

The Treasury warned that goods crossing from Northern Ireland into the Republic could face various forms of customs control and their liability to duty determined according to complex rules or origin.

Mr Fox urged the Prime Minister to leave the union on Wednesday where he said the UK has nothing to fear from breaking out.

Whether or not to leave the trade union remains a key point of the UK's exit strategy from the EU and it is understood Ms May will decide on the matter before the end of the year.

Quitting the union would not preclude the UK staying within the ESM.

Irish Independent
Homer Simpson gets in on the ALS challenge, with a little help from Bart

Lady Gaga doesnt flinch as she does the ALS challenge Generated thumbnail

Lady Gaga doesnt flinch as she does the ALS challenge Generated thumbnail

Two years ago, videos of the ice bucket challenge filled our social media feeds - but now, the online craze has helped to fund a breakthrough.

Around 17 million people uploaded videos of themselves pouring ice cold water over their heads to encourage donations to the ALS Association in the US and the Motor Neurone Disease Association in the UK.

The ALS Association said that the $115m (87.7m) raised through the challenge has helped to fund six research projects.

One of the projects at the Massachusetts University Medical School identified the role of a gene called NEK1 in the disease and may now be able to develop a gene therapy to treat it.

Project MinE was the largest ever study of inherited ALS and involved more than 80 researches in 11 countries.

Dr. John Landers, the leader of Project MinE, said in a statement: Global collaboration among scientists, which was really made possible by ALS Ice Bucket Challenge donations, led to this important discovery.

It is a prime example of the success that can come from the combined efforts of so many people, all dedicated to finding the causes of ALS. This kind of collaborative study is, more and more, where the field is headed.

Expand Expand Previous Next Close Ice bucket challenge - Donald Trump George W Bush first declines the offer before his wife, Laura Bush, gleefully surprises him by emptying a bucket of ice water over his head. / Facebook

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Project Mine founder Bernard Muller added:"The ALS Ice Bucket Challenge enabled us to secure funding from new sources in new parts of the world.

"This transatlantic collaboration supports our global gene hunt to identify the genetic drivers of ALS."
Republican US presidential candidate Donald Trump has encouraged Russia to meddle in American politics with a stunning recommendation to uncover and make public hacked emails that might damage his opponent, Hillary Clinton.

Shortly after Mr Trump's remarks, his running mate, Indiana governor Mike Pence, took a different tack and warned of "serious consequences" if Russia interfered in the election.

The developments came as Democrats met on the third day of their presidential convention in Philadelphia, where Mrs Clinton will claim the party's nomination on Thursday night.

Mr Trump's extraordinary comments raised the spectre of whether he was condoning foreign government hacking of US computers and the public release of information stolen from political adversaries - actions that are at least publicly frowned upon across the globe.

"I will tell you this. Russia, if you're listening, I hope you're able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing," Mr Trump said.

He was referring to emails on Mrs Clinton's private email server that she deleted because she said they were private before she turned other messages over to the US state department. The FBI declined to prosecute Mrs Clinton over her email practices but its director said she had been "extremely careless" handling classified materials.

The Clinton campaign called Mr Trump's statement the "first time that a major presidential candidate has actively encouraged a foreign power to conduct espionage against a political opponent".

At a press conference in Doral, Florida, after Mr Trump's initial remarks, he was asked whether he had any pause about asking a foreign government to hack into computers in the United States. Mr Trump did not directly respond, except to say: "That's up to the president. Let the president talk to them."

He later added: "If Russia or China or any other country has those emails, I mean, to be honest with you, I'd love to see them."

Later, Mr Pence said in a statement there should be "serious consequences" if Russia is found to be interfering in the US electoral process.

The exchange occurred after US president Barack Obama identified Russia as almost certainly responsible for hacking the Democratic National Committee (DNC).

WikiLeaks published on its website last week more than 19,000 internal emails stolen from the DNC earlier this year.

The emails showed DNC staffers actively supporting Mrs Clinton when they were publicly promising to remain neutral during the primary elections between Mrs Clinton and rival candidate Senator Bernie Sanders.

The head of the DNC, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, resigned over the disclosures, which disrupted this week's convention.

Mr Trump cast doubt on whether Russia was behind that hack. He said blaming Russia was deflecting attention from the embarrassing material in the emails.

"Russia has no respect for our country, if it is Russia," Mr Trump said. "It could be China. It could be someone sitting in his bedroom. It's probably not Russia. Nobody knows if it's Russia."

Mr Obama traditionally avoids commenting on active FBI investigations, but he told NBC News on Tuesday that outside experts have blamed Russia for the leak. Mr Obama also appeared to embrace the notion that President Vladimir Putin might have been responsible because of what he described as Mr Trump's affinity for Mr Putin. Mr Trump said he has no relationship to Mr Putin.

In Moscow on Wednesday, Mr Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said Russia would never interfere in another country's election.

"What the motives were in terms of the leaks, all that, I can't say directly," Mr Obama said. "What I do know is that Donald Trump has repeatedly expressed admiration for Vladimir Putin."

Mr Obama said he was basing his assessment on Mr Trump's own comments and the fact that Mr Trump has "gotten pretty favourable coverage back in Russia". He added that the US knows that "Russians hack our systems - not just government systems, but private systems".

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said his organisation would not disclose who provided it with the stolen material. WikiLeaks said on Twitter that it timed its publication of the emails - days before the Democratic convention was starting - "when our verification, research and formatting process was complete and on a day likely to generate interest". On Tuesday, Mr Assange said on CNN that "a lot more" material was coming but provided no details.

AP
Police officers conduct a search in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, Normandy, France, following an attack on a church that left a priest dead, Tuesday, July 26, 2016. Two attackers invaded a church Tuesday during morning Mass near the Normandy city of Rouen, killing an 84-year-old priest by slitting his throat and taking hostages before being shot and killed by police, French officials said. (AP Photo/Francois Mori)

French police officers stand guard in front of the Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray's city hall, Normandy, France, after an attack on a church that left a priest dead, Tuesday, July 26, 2016. Two attackers invaded a church Tuesday during morning Mass near the Normandy city of Rouen, killing an 84-year-old priest by slitting his throat and taking hostages before being shot and killed by police, French officials said. (AP Photo/Francois Mori)

French policemen stand outside a house during a search in a house on July 26, 2016 in the Normandy village of Saint-Etienne du Rouvray after a priest was killed in the latest of a string of attacks against Western targets claimed by or blamed on the Islamic State jihadist group. French President said that two men who attacked a church and slit the throat of a priest had "claimed to be from Daesh", using the Arabic name for the Islamic State group. Police said they killed two hostage-takers in the attack in the Normandy town of Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, 125 kilometres (77 miles) north of Paris. / AFP PHOTO / MATTHIEU ALEXANDREMATTHIEU ALEXANDRE/AFP/Getty Images

In this grab made from video, police officers speak to a driver as they close off a road during a hostage situation in Normandy, France, Tuesday, July 26, 2016. Two attackers seized hostages in a church near the Normandy city of Rouen on Tuesday, killing one hostage by slitting their throat before being killed by police, a security official said. The identities of the attackers and motive for the attack are unclear, according to the official, who was not authorized to be publicly named. (BFM via AP)

In this grab made from video, police officers close off a road during a hostage situation in Normandy, France, Tuesday, July 26, 2016. Two attackers seized hostages in a church near the Normandy city of Rouen on Tuesday, killing one hostage by slitting their throat before being killed by police, a security official said. The identities of the attackers and motive for the attack are unclear, according to the official, who was not authorized to be publicly named. (BFM via AP)

French soldiers stand guard near the scene of an attack in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, Normandy, France, Tuesday, July 26, 2016. Two attackers invaded a church Tuesday during morning Mass near the Normandy city of Rouen, killing an 84-year-old priest by slitting his throat and taking hostages before being shot and killed by police, French officials said. (AP Photo/Francois Mori)

French police officers prevent the access to the scene of an attack in Saint Etienne du Rouvray, Normandy, France, Tuesday, July 26, 2016. Two attackers invaded a church Tuesday during morning Mass near the Normandy city of Rouen, killing an 84-year-old priest by slitting his throat and taking hostages before being shot and killed by police, French officials said. (AP Photo/Francois Mori)

French soldiers stand guard as they prevent the access to the scene of an attack in Saint Etienne du Rouvray, Normandy, France, Tuesday, July 26, 2016. Two attackers invaded a church Tuesday during morning Mass near the Normandy city of Rouen, killing an 84-year-old priest by slitting his throat and taking hostages before being shot and killed by police, French officials said. (AP Photo/Francois Mori)

In this grab made from video, French President Francois Hollande shakes hands with police and security services personnel after arriving at the scene of the hostage situation in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray Normandy, France, Tuesday, July 26, 2016. Two attackers took hostages inside a French church during morning Mass on Tuesday near the city of Rouen, killing an 86-year-old priest by slitting his throat before being shot and killed by police, French officials said. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack. (France Pool via AP)

French policemen stand in the street during a search in a house on July 26, 2016 in the Normandy village of Saint-Etienne du Rouvray after a priest was killed in the latest of a string of attacks against Western targets claimed by or blamed on the Islamic State jihadist group. French President said that two men who attacked a church and slit the throat of a priest had "claimed to be from Daesh", using the Arabic name for the Islamic State group. Police said they killed two hostage-takers in the attack in the Normandy town of Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, 125 kilometres (77 miles) north of Paris. / AFP PHOTO / CHARLY TRIBALLEAUCHARLY TRIBALLEAU/AFP/Getty Images

A French policeman stands near an armoured vehicle of the French Research and Intervention Brigade (BRI) police during a search in a house on July 26, 2016 in the Normandy village of Saint-Etienne du Rouvray after a priest was killed in the latest of a string of attacks against Western targets claimed by or blamed on the Islamic State jihadist group. French President said that two men who attacked a church and slit the throat of a priest had "claimed to be from Daesh", using the Arabic name for the Islamic State group. Police said they killed two hostage-takers in the attack in the Normandy town of Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, 125 kilometres (77 miles) north of Paris. / AFP PHOTO / MATTHIEU ALEXANDREMATTHIEU ALEXANDRE/AFP/Getty Images

French policemen stand near an armoured vehicle of the French Research and Intervention Brigade (BRI) police during a search in a house on July 26, 2016 in the Normandy village of Saint-Etienne du Rouvray after a priest was killed in the latest of a string of attacks against Western targets claimed by or blamed on the Islamic State jihadist group. French President said that two men who attacked a church and slit the throat of a priest had "claimed to be from Daesh", using the Arabic name for the Islamic State group. Police said they killed two hostage-takers in the attack in the Normandy town of Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, 125 kilometres (77 miles) north of Paris. / AFP PHOTO / MATTHIEU ALEXANDREMATTHIEU ALEXANDRE/AFP/Getty Images

Police officers stand in front of a building during a search operation in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, Normandy, France, following an attack on a church that left a priest dead, Tuesday, July 26, 2016. Two attackers invaded a church Tuesday during morning Mass near the Normandy city of Rouen, killing an 84-year-old priest by slitting his throat and taking hostages before being shot and killed by police, French officials said. (AP Photo/Francois Mori)

Hooded Police officers conduct a search in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, Normandy, France, following an attack on a church that left a priest dead, Tuesday, July 26, 2016. Two attackers invaded a church Tuesday during morning Mass near the Normandy city of Rouen, killing an 84-year-old priest by slitting his throat and taking hostages before being shot and killed by police, French officials said. (AP Photo/Francois Mori)

People attend a mass at the Notre-Dame cathedral on July 26, 2016 in Paris, in memory of a priest killed earlier today in the Normandy city of Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, in the latest of a string of attacks against Western targets claimed by or blamed on the Islamic State jihadist group. French President Francois Hollande said that two men who attacked a church and slit the throat of a priest had "claimed to be from Daesh", using the Arabic name for the Islamic State group. Police said they killed two hostage-takers in the attack in the Normandy town of Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, 125 kilometres (77 miles) north of Paris. / AFP PHOTO / GEOFFROY VAN DER HASSELTGEOFFROY VAN DER HASSELT/AFP/Getty Images

A vehicle of anti-terror Vigipirate plan, dubbed "Operation Sentinelle", is parked outside Saint-Jerome church in Toulouse, southwestern France on July 26, 2016, during a mass in tribute to the victims of the attack in the Normandy city of Saint-Etienne du Rouvray's church in which a priest was killed in the latest of a string of attacks against Western targets claimed by or blamed on the Islamic State jihadist group. French President said that two men who attacked a church and slit the throat of a priest had "claimed to be from Daesh", using the Arabic name for the Islamic State group. Police said they killed two hostage-takers in the attack in the Normandy town of Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, 125 kilometres (77 miles) north of Paris. / AFP PHOTO / ERIC CABANISERIC CABANIS/AFP/Getty Images

This picture obtained on the website of the Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray parish on July 26, 2016 shows late priest Jacques Hamel celebrating a mass on June 11, 2016 in the church of Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, Normandy. AFP/Getty Images

A nun has described how an 84-year-old priest was forced to kneel on the floor before his throat was slit at a church in Normandy in France.

The two attackers killed the clergyman celebrating Mass and gravely injured one of the few worshippers present before being shot dead by police.

The Sister, who escaped, said she saw the attackers video themselves and "give a sermon in Arabic" around the altar at the church near Rouen.

The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the first attack on a church in the West.

Police rescued three other people in the building - including a second nun - in the small north-western town of Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, said Interior Ministry spokesman Pierre-Henry Brandet.

A regional Muslim leader said one of the two attackers - both killed outside the church - was known to police. A police official said he had tried to go to Syria.

It was the first known attack claimed by IS inside a church in the West. A church outside Paris was targeted last year, but the attack was never carried out.

A statement by the Islamic State-affiliated Amaq news agency said the attack was carried out by "two soldiers of the Islamic State" in response to calls to target nations in the US-led coalition fighting IS in Iraq and Syria.

The statement echoed claims in other recent attacks in France and neighbouring Germany. It repeated its threat to Western "crusaders". The RAID special intervention force searched for possible explosives in or around the church.

The nun said the priest was forced to the ground before his throat was slit.

Identified as Sister Danielle, she told BFM television: "They forced him to his knees. He wanted to defend himself, and that's when the tragedy happened."

She said the attackers recorded themselves. "They did a sort of sermon around the altar in Arabic. It's a horror."

Dominique Lebrun, the Archbishop of Rouen, confirmed the death of 84-year-old Rev Jacques Hamel. "I cry out to God, with all men of goodwill. And I invite all non-believers to unite with this cry," Rev Lebrun wrote in a statement from Krakow, Poland.

"The Catholic Church has no other arms besides prayer and fraternity between men."

French President Francois Hollande, arriving at the scene, called it a "vile terrorist attack" and one more sign that France was at war with the Islamic State group, which has claimed a string of attacks on the country and two in Germany.

Town mayor Hubert Wulfranc, in tears, denounced the "barbarism" and, breaking down, pleaded: "Let us together be the last to cry."

A police official said one of the attackers had been turned back after trying to go to Syria. The official said the man was under police supervision and wore an electronic bracelet to monitor his movements. Mohammed Karabila, head of the Regional Council of the Muslim Faith for Haute-Normandie, said French security services knew the name of one of the attackers. "The person who committed this odious act is known and he has been followed by the police for at least one-and-a-half years. He went to Turkey and security services were alerted after this," he said.

The Pope condemned the attack in the strongest terms.

Vatican spokesman the Rev Federico Lombardi said Pope Francis expressed his "pain and horror for this absurd violence, with the strongest condemnation for every form of hatred and prayer for those affected".

France is on high alert and under a state of emergency after an attack in the southern city of Nice on Bastille Day - July 14 - that killed 84 people and was claimed by Islamic State, as well as a series of attacks last year which killed 147 others around Paris.

Islamic State extremists have urged followers to attack French churches and the group is believed to have planned at least one church attack earlier.
US president Ronald Reagan was wounded by John Hinckley Jr in an assassination attempt outside a Washington hotel in 1981

The man who tried to assassinate US president Ronald Reagan will be allowed to leave a Washington mental hospital to live in the community.

John Hinckley Jr will be allowed to live full-time at his mother's home in Virginia after a ruling by Judge Paul L Friedman.

The ruling that Hinckley is ready to live in the community comes more than 35 years after the March 30 1981 shooting outside a Washington hotel in which then-president Reagan and three others were injured.

Doctors have said for years that the now 61-year-old Hinckley, who was found not guilty by reason of insanity in the shooting, is no longer plagued by the mental illness that drove him to shoot Mr Reagan.

For more than a year he has been allowed to spend 17 days a month at his mother's home where he will now live full-time.

AP
A bomb has gone off close to a migration office in Zindorf according to German media (File photo)

A bomb has detonated near a migration office in Zirndorf near Nuremberg, according to German media reports.

A spokesperson for Middle Franconia Police said the explosion was reported shortly after 2.15pm local time (1.15pm BST).

German broadcaster Bayerischer Rundfunk reported that a suitcase filled with aerosols was detonated.

The explosion is thought to have been small and Bavarian broadcaster BR24 reported that there were no injuries.

Eyewitnesses described hearing a loud bang and spotted a burning suitcase.

No evidence has yet been found that an explosive device was detonated inside the suitcase, a spokesperson said.

It is possible that aerosol cans stored in the suitcase caused the explosion in question.

It appears that no one was in danger at any time. No injuries have yet been reported to the police.

Officers were searching the area for two people seen with the suitcase shortly before the incident.

The area is in northern Bavaria, which has seen two attacks claimed by Isis in the past 10 days.

A Syrian blew himself up outside a wine bar, injuring 15 people.

The 27-year-old, who authorities have not identified, set off a backpack laden with explosives and shrapnel on Sunday night after being refused entry to the nearby festival in the Bavarian city of Ansbach because he did not have a ticket.

It was the fourth attack to shake Germany in a week - three of them carried out by recent migrants.

The Isis-linked Aamaq news agency said the man carried out the attack in response to calls by the group to target countries of the US-led coalition that is fighting IS.

The bombing was the latest of the recent attacks that have heightened concerns about how Germany can deal with the estimated one million migrants who entered the country last year.

Those fears waned as the numbers of new arrivals had slowed this year dramatically, but already the nationalist Alternative for Germany party and others have seized on the attacks as evidence that Chancellor Angela Merkel's migration policies are flawed.

A 17-year-old Afghan asylum-seeker injured five with an axe before being killed by police near Wuerzburg last week in an attack that was claimed by Islamic State.

On Sunday, a Syrian man killed a woman with a knife in the south-west city of Reutlingen before being captured by police in an incident that authorities said was not likely to be linked to terrorism.

In between, the 18-year-old son of Iranian asylum seekers went on a rampage Friday night at a Munich mall, killing nine and wounding dozens. Authorities say he was undergoing psychological treatment and had no known links to terrorism.

The attack in Ansbach, a serene city of about 40,000 west of Nuremberg, came near the end of the closing night of a popular open air festival being attended by about 2,000 people.

Following the Munich mall shooting, city officials ordered extra security and bag checks at the entrance of the venue, but the man never got that far, being turned away for lack of a ticket, said Mayor Carda Seidel.

Roman Fertinger, the deputy police chief in Nuremberg, said there likely would have been more casualties if the man had not been turned away.
Police officers conduct a search in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, Normandy, France, following an attack on a church that left a priest dead, Tuesday, July 26, 2016. Two attackers invaded a church Tuesday during morning Mass near the Normandy city of Rouen, killing an 84-year-old priest by slitting his throat and taking hostages before being shot and killed by police, French officials said. (AP Photo/Francois Mori)

French police officers stand guard in front of the Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray's city hall, Normandy, France, after an attack on a church that left a priest dead, Tuesday, July 26, 2016. Two attackers invaded a church Tuesday during morning Mass near the Normandy city of Rouen, killing an 84-year-old priest by slitting his throat and taking hostages before being shot and killed by police, French officials said. (AP Photo/Francois Mori)

French policemen stand outside a house during a search in a house on July 26, 2016 in the Normandy village of Saint-Etienne du Rouvray after a priest was killed in the latest of a string of attacks against Western targets claimed by or blamed on the Islamic State jihadist group. French President said that two men who attacked a church and slit the throat of a priest had "claimed to be from Daesh", using the Arabic name for the Islamic State group. Police said they killed two hostage-takers in the attack in the Normandy town of Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, 125 kilometres (77 miles) north of Paris. / AFP PHOTO / MATTHIEU ALEXANDREMATTHIEU ALEXANDRE/AFP/Getty Images

In this grab made from video, police officers speak to a driver as they close off a road during a hostage situation in Normandy, France, Tuesday, July 26, 2016. Two attackers seized hostages in a church near the Normandy city of Rouen on Tuesday, killing one hostage by slitting their throat before being killed by police, a security official said. The identities of the attackers and motive for the attack are unclear, according to the official, who was not authorized to be publicly named. (BFM via AP)

In this grab made from video, police officers close off a road during a hostage situation in Normandy, France, Tuesday, July 26, 2016. Two attackers seized hostages in a church near the Normandy city of Rouen on Tuesday, killing one hostage by slitting their throat before being killed by police, a security official said. The identities of the attackers and motive for the attack are unclear, according to the official, who was not authorized to be publicly named. (BFM via AP)

French soldiers stand guard near the scene of an attack in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, Normandy, France, Tuesday, July 26, 2016. Two attackers invaded a church Tuesday during morning Mass near the Normandy city of Rouen, killing an 84-year-old priest by slitting his throat and taking hostages before being shot and killed by police, French officials said. (AP Photo/Francois Mori)

French police officers prevent the access to the scene of an attack in Saint Etienne du Rouvray, Normandy, France, Tuesday, July 26, 2016. Two attackers invaded a church Tuesday during morning Mass near the Normandy city of Rouen, killing an 84-year-old priest by slitting his throat and taking hostages before being shot and killed by police, French officials said. (AP Photo/Francois Mori)

French soldiers stand guard as they prevent the access to the scene of an attack in Saint Etienne du Rouvray, Normandy, France, Tuesday, July 26, 2016. Two attackers invaded a church Tuesday during morning Mass near the Normandy city of Rouen, killing an 84-year-old priest by slitting his throat and taking hostages before being shot and killed by police, French officials said. (AP Photo/Francois Mori)

In this grab made from video, French President Francois Hollande shakes hands with police and security services personnel after arriving at the scene of the hostage situation in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray Normandy, France, Tuesday, July 26, 2016. Two attackers took hostages inside a French church during morning Mass on Tuesday near the city of Rouen, killing an 86-year-old priest by slitting his throat before being shot and killed by police, French officials said. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack. (France Pool via AP)

French policemen stand in the street during a search in a house on July 26, 2016 in the Normandy village of Saint-Etienne du Rouvray after a priest was killed in the latest of a string of attacks against Western targets claimed by or blamed on the Islamic State jihadist group. French President said that two men who attacked a church and slit the throat of a priest had "claimed to be from Daesh", using the Arabic name for the Islamic State group. Police said they killed two hostage-takers in the attack in the Normandy town of Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, 125 kilometres (77 miles) north of Paris. / AFP PHOTO / CHARLY TRIBALLEAUCHARLY TRIBALLEAU/AFP/Getty Images

A French policeman stands near an armoured vehicle of the French Research and Intervention Brigade (BRI) police during a search in a house on July 26, 2016 in the Normandy village of Saint-Etienne du Rouvray after a priest was killed in the latest of a string of attacks against Western targets claimed by or blamed on the Islamic State jihadist group. French President said that two men who attacked a church and slit the throat of a priest had "claimed to be from Daesh", using the Arabic name for the Islamic State group. Police said they killed two hostage-takers in the attack in the Normandy town of Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, 125 kilometres (77 miles) north of Paris. / AFP PHOTO / MATTHIEU ALEXANDREMATTHIEU ALEXANDRE/AFP/Getty Images

French policemen stand near an armoured vehicle of the French Research and Intervention Brigade (BRI) police during a search in a house on July 26, 2016 in the Normandy village of Saint-Etienne du Rouvray after a priest was killed in the latest of a string of attacks against Western targets claimed by or blamed on the Islamic State jihadist group. French President said that two men who attacked a church and slit the throat of a priest had "claimed to be from Daesh", using the Arabic name for the Islamic State group. Police said they killed two hostage-takers in the attack in the Normandy town of Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, 125 kilometres (77 miles) north of Paris. / AFP PHOTO / MATTHIEU ALEXANDREMATTHIEU ALEXANDRE/AFP/Getty Images

Police officers stand in front of a building during a search operation in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, Normandy, France, following an attack on a church that left a priest dead, Tuesday, July 26, 2016. Two attackers invaded a church Tuesday during morning Mass near the Normandy city of Rouen, killing an 84-year-old priest by slitting his throat and taking hostages before being shot and killed by police, French officials said. (AP Photo/Francois Mori)

Hooded Police officers conduct a search in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, Normandy, France, following an attack on a church that left a priest dead, Tuesday, July 26, 2016. Two attackers invaded a church Tuesday during morning Mass near the Normandy city of Rouen, killing an 84-year-old priest by slitting his throat and taking hostages before being shot and killed by police, French officials said. (AP Photo/Francois Mori)

People attend a mass at the Notre-Dame cathedral on July 26, 2016 in Paris, in memory of a priest killed earlier today in the Normandy city of Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, in the latest of a string of attacks against Western targets claimed by or blamed on the Islamic State jihadist group. French President Francois Hollande said that two men who attacked a church and slit the throat of a priest had "claimed to be from Daesh", using the Arabic name for the Islamic State group. Police said they killed two hostage-takers in the attack in the Normandy town of Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, 125 kilometres (77 miles) north of Paris. / AFP PHOTO / GEOFFROY VAN DER HASSELTGEOFFROY VAN DER HASSELT/AFP/Getty Images

A vehicle of anti-terror Vigipirate plan, dubbed "Operation Sentinelle", is parked outside Saint-Jerome church in Toulouse, southwestern France on July 26, 2016, during a mass in tribute to the victims of the attack in the Normandy city of Saint-Etienne du Rouvray's church in which a priest was killed in the latest of a string of attacks against Western targets claimed by or blamed on the Islamic State jihadist group. French President said that two men who attacked a church and slit the throat of a priest had "claimed to be from Daesh", using the Arabic name for the Islamic State group. Police said they killed two hostage-takers in the attack in the Normandy town of Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, 125 kilometres (77 miles) north of Paris. / AFP PHOTO / ERIC CABANISERIC CABANIS/AFP/Getty Images

This picture obtained on the website of the Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray parish on July 26, 2016 shows late priest Jacques Hamel celebrating a mass on June 11, 2016 in the church of Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, Normandy. AFP/Getty Images

Following the awful events of yesterday morning at St Etienne-du-Rouvray, with the death of the priest, Jacques Hamel, people I have met here in Paris during the past hours are in deep shock and not sure what the future holds.

The first reaction of most people is to pray for the priest who has died and for those who are injured in this awful attack. This man has served people as a priest for almost 60 years.

The event yesterday morning leaves people feeling very vulnerable, especially following recent events in Nice on July 14 and since then in Germany.

France has been targeted in a sustained way by those who have perpetrated these horrific deeds for reasons of wanting to punish France for its policies at home and abroad.

Others have elaborated these policies in some detail.

Attacking innocent people, wherever it takes place, is never justified. Indeed, there are rifts within French society that will not be easily overcome.

Over the past eight years at St Joseph's I have been privileged to try to bring into unity over 40 nationalities.

Then, each year I have met with people, French and immigrant, who have requested to enter the Catholic Church from different religious traditions, including Muslims. These have been fascinating to meet over the year that the classes last.

In fact, the next class after the November 13, 2015 killings in Paris, the Muslims present gave a very moving account of their sorrow at killings in the name of religious belief.

In a school near Paris where I serve as a chaplain, there is a mix of Christians, Jews and Muslims who study and play together.

There is a huge distance to travel and a lot of praying to be done, if evil is to be overcome and peace is to be given a chance.

Fr Aidan Troy, formerly of the Holy Cross Church in Ardoyne, has been working in Paris for the past eight years
We have seen so many horrors on the international landscape already this summer that it is easy to overlook, or fail to pay sufficient attention to, some shocking things on our own doorstep which do not make world headlines.

It doesn't mean that we care less about the plight of our suffering sisters and brothers in Nice, Baghdad, Munich or Tokyo if we ask some searching questions of ourselves about some incidents nearer home that we, as individuals and as a community, can with some thought and resolve do something about - both in the short and longer term.

Take two quite appalling incidents which happened within a short time of each other in Belfast at the weekend. Both had a common denominator. They were, for whatever reason, perpetrated by violent criminals and they violated sacred space and represented an assault on the wider community.

But both acts of violence brought out the best in the victims and the triumph of the human spirit in the face of adversity.

I am referring to the aggravated burglary of a priest, who was held up at gunpoint in his parochial house adjoining a Catholic church, and the arson attacks which severely damaged a Presbyterian church.

It is especially concerning that one of the lines of enquiry being pursued by the PSNI in its investigation into the Presbyterian church attack is that it was a sectarian hate crime.

There was a time not that long ago when a burglary or armed robbery on a member of the clergy in their home would have been unthinkable in this community - whatever other horrors churches, Orange halls and GAA clubs endured (and sometimes still endure) from the perpetrators of sectarian hate crime.

Thankfully, direct attacks on clergy are still rare, although one recalls an assault on a priest in an aggravated robbery at St Peter's Cathedral in Belfast, and the robbing of two priests at gunpoint at their parochial house in Omagh just about a year ago.

The two most recent incidents were not just serious crimes, they were acts of sacrilege which repel anyone with a modicum of decency and an adherence to the verities to which we should still hold dear as a society.

While it is tempting - and indeed right - to ask if nothing is sacred any more, such behaviour is perpetrated by a statistically very small number of people, but that does not mean we should not move Heaven and Earth to address it.

One does not have to be a person of faith, nor an adherent of any religion, to appreciate the depth of hurt and of violation involved and to recognise how such egregious actions represent an attack not just on the faith communities directly affected, but on the community as a whole and on the values which should mark us out as decent and tolerant people.

Although there was no loss of life, one should be under no illusion as to the seriousness of such incidents, and so it is instructive to recount briefly what happened.

Fr Denis Ryan (70), from Melbourne, Australia, is providing holiday cover at St Michael the Archangel Church in Finaghy Road North.

Two men forced their way into the presbytery at gunpoint and ransacked the house before making off with cash and a set of keys.

One can only imagine the trauma Fr Ryan must have gone through, and a police officer said he was "badly shaken by his ordeal".

Yet Alex Maskey MLA, who spent some time with him afterwards, reported that the priest insisted on preparing for a funeral Mass the next day and, risking his own health, he went on to take the service in an example of extraordinary service and devotion to those in his spiritual care.

Pope Francis, who in a homily last month exhorted priests to be "stubborn shepherds who take risks ... in doing good", would be proud of Fr Ryan.

Then there was the despicable double arson attack on Saintfield Road Presbyterian Church: a less-serious attack on Friday followed by a much more serious incident - the breaking into the church and main hall under cover of darkness in the early hours of the Sabbath Day and the starting of fires, which caused considerable damage, forcing the cancellation of the normal Sunday service.

Mercifully, a vigilant PSNI patrol spotted the fire and raised the alarm, so preventing the destruction of the church and, amid their anguish, the congregation summoned the strength to hold an open-air service outside their desecrated church on Sunday afternoon.

One cannot underestimate the distress caused by such a sacrilegious act perpetrated on a much-loved church at the heart of the local community, and new Secretary of State James Brokenshire did well to rush out a statement condemning the attack. At such a time words of solidarity can be some consolation.

Despite the horrors of our recent history, we must never be inured to an assault on the things people hold to be sacred.

What was particularly striking were the words issued by Saintfield Road Presbyterian Church itself within a short time of the attack on Sunday morning.

In its moment of pain, it drew from the well of grace to say: "We are sad that someone carried out these acts, but we are a forgiving people and will pray for them.

"As a Christian community, we have experienced the forgiveness of God and while these events are difficult to understand, we forgive those who did this."

Those are words which will stand the test of time for many of us when we have been deeply hurt.

But how can we bear down on crime of the kind that made Fr Ryan and the congregation in Saintfield Road victims this past week?

There is no panacea, and it is a huge issue that raises searching questions.

First and foremost, as parents and grandparents, are we actively instilling the concept of what is right and wrong into our children and grandchildren?

Are we, as citizens, truly alive to our moral responsibility to be the eyes and ears of the PSNI and pass on any information that may assist in prevention and prosecution?

As citizen-electors, what do we propose to do by way of getting our MLAs, those we pay to run this place, to put flesh on the bones of the draft Programme for Government (PfG) 2016-21 once the Assembly returns in September?

The 112-page draft PfG (not counting various appendices) has many laudable goals or outcomes. One reads: "We have a safe community where we respect the law and each other", and just one of several tasks of the Executive in relation to that would be "tackling poverty and disadvantage and reducing the negative impacts of alcohol and illegal drugs".

Another stated outcome: "We have a shared society that respects diversity" and, elsewhere, there are helpful references to improving mental health and reducing offending and reoffending, and measures to combat paramilitary activity.

What appears to be missing is a clear commitment to joined-up government, a truly inter-departmental, cross-cutting holistic approach led by the Executive Office across, say, Education, Justice and Health to tackle the type of crime visited on Fr Ryan and Saintfield Road Presbyterian Church.

Martin O'Brien is a journalist and communications consultant, and a former award-winning BBC producer
Indian Hindus take part in a demonstration in Bangalore in support of a Karnataka state bill to ban the slaughter of cows, July 20, 2010.

Family members of a day laborer who was lynched by a Hindu mob in northern India over rumors that he kept beef in his house struggle to overcome their trauma 10 months later.

Our lives have been irreparably damaged. Our fellow countrymen have hurt us immensely and the wounds are too deep to heal, Danish Khan, the 22-year-old son of Mohammad Akhlaq, who was killed by the mob in Uttar Pradesh (U.P.) state in late September, told BenarNews.

Danish was beaten when he tried to save his father from the angry crowd.

The lynching in Dadri, a district of U.P. about 45 km (28 miles) from New Delhi, forced the Muslim family to leave their home village of Bisada  which is majority Hindu  and move to the safer national capital, Khan said.

His mother, Ikraman, remains traumatized by the killing and his teenaged sister, Shaista, has yet to resume her high school studies, the young man said.

Khan was preparing for his Civil Services Examinations (CSE) when the nearly 100-strong mob attacked their house on Sept. 28. He could not sit for the tests because of severe head injuries from the beating, which forced him to be hospitalized for nearly five months.

And if that wasnt enough, on July 15 police charged the family under the Prevention of Cow Slaughter Act, which carries a maximum prison sentence of five years, after a forensic report confirmed that meat recovered from Akhlaqs house was that of a cow or its progeny.

Cow vigilantism on the rise

The slaughter of cows  which are considered holy in Hindu culture  and beef consumption is banned in most states of officially secular India, including Uttar Pradesh.

Although the Prevention of Cow Slaughter Act has been in place since 1955, vigilantism carried out on behalf of cows has frequently grabbed headlines since the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came to power in 2014.

The latest incident took place on Tuesday, when two Muslim women were publicly assaulted by a mob of self-styled cow protectors in central Indias Madhya Pradesh state for allegedly carrying beef. A witness filmed the assault, which occurred in the presence of at least one policeman, and posted the footage on YouTube.

About 30 kg (66 pounds) of meat was recovered from the women, according to an NDTV report, which quoted unnamed police sources. However, the meat belonged to a buffalo, not a cow, the report said.

The incident came close on the heels of a similar attack earlier this month on four lower-caste Hindu tannery workers who were publicly flogged for skinning a dead cow in the state of Gujarat. That incident helped bring about widespread protests by the historically marginalized Dalit community.

Rubbing salt on our wounds

Khan rejected the findings of the forensic report, which was released in May, saying that it had been concocted to shift focus from the brutal killing of my father.

[There is] not even an iota of truth in the claim that we had consumed or stored beef. The meat stored in our house was of a goat, not a cow, he said.

Reacting to the charges brought against the family, Khan said: This is like rubbing salt on our wounds. They are going on talking about a cow being slaughtered, but what about the brutality with which my father was slaughtered? No one is concerned about that. There is neither any remorse nor any trace of repentance among the Hindu fundamentalists who attacked us on the basis of a mere rumor.

Nineteen people, including two juveniles, were arrested for the attack, which triggered national outrage. While the two juveniles have been released on bail, the 17 other suspects remain behind bars, police said.

Danish Khan [Courtesy of Danish Khan]

Demand for attackers release

Advocate Thakur Shishpal Shisodia, who is defending the 19 accused, said he wants the charges of murder and attempted murder against his clients dropped and members of Akhlaqs family arrested for cow slaughter.

It is now forensically proven that they [Akhlaqs family] had consumed beef. So, we want all 17 people jailed for the attack released. We want the Akhlaq family arrested after a thorough investigation. If the probe is not conducted fairly, we will approach the appellate court, Sishodia told BenarNews.

Police ruled out any immediate arrests of Akhlaqs relatives.

Following a court order on July 14, we have registered a FIR (first information report) against the family. This is just the beginning of the investigation. We are recording statements of all concerned parties. Any arrest would be made only after the conclusion of the probe, Dadri Senior Superintendent of Police Dharmendra Singh told BenarNews.

As the investigation threatens to drag on, Khan said it would be hard for his family to move on.

After the attack, the government compensated us with 3 million rupees ($44,662) and an apartment in the Delhi outskirts. Apparently thats the price for snatching away a human life here, for uprooting his family and their happiness, he said.

And now, with the police case against us, there is a good chance it will be concluded that we indeed killed a cow. But that wont be the truth. To find the truth, someone first needs to probe who switched the meat sample allegedly recovered from our house. And no one is investigating that, Khan said.
Human trafficking survivor Ima Matul Maisaroh speaks at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, Pa., as U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar looks on, July 26, 2016.

Nineteen years after arriving in the United States, then suffering abuse and slavery-like conditions as a domestic servant, Ima Matul Maisaroh made history Tuesday by becoming the first Indonesian to address a mass meeting where U.S. presidential candidates are selected.

Ima spoke about her experiences before thousands of people who had gathered to nominate former senator and secretary of state Hillary Clinton as candidate for president at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, Pa.

Never in my wildest dreams could I have imagined that I would share a stage with so many leaders and visionaries, Ima said after being introduced by U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar.

I grew up in a poor village in Indonesia. When I was 17 years old, I was brought to Los Angeles with the promise of a job as a nanny. Instead, I spent the next three years in domestic servitude being abused, she said.

After escaping, she went on to work for the organization that helped her recover, the Coalition to Abolish Slavery and Trafficking (CAST). In December 2015, U.S. President Barack Obama appointed her to the United States Advisory Council on Human Trafficking, a new task force charged with helping the U.S. government formulate anti-trafficking policy.

Human trafficking is not just happening overseas; it is happening right here in our backyard. Every day I hear stories just like my own. Still, I have hope, Ima said.

There's a growing awareness about the devastating impact of human trafficking. There's a growing embrace of survivors in our communities and businesses and churches. And there's a growing commitment to finding innovative solutions to make sure this generation of survivors will be the last.

The scars are still visible

In her native village of Kanigoro, in Malang Regency of East Java province, her parents  both farmers  spoke with quiet pride of the amazing life journey of their eldest daughter.

Turiyono (right) and Alimah show pictures of their daughter Ima Matul Maisaroh at their home in Malang, East Java, July 25, 2016. [Heny Rahayu/BenarNews]

Ima dropped out of high school due to an arranged marriage with a man 12 years her senior. The marriage ended quickly, her father, Turiyono, 65, told BenarNews during a recent visit to his home.

Five months later, in 1997, she registered to become an overseas domestic worker at an employment agency in the nearby city of Malang.

She was placed for training with a family in Malang where her boss offered her a position working for a cousin in the United States at a salary of $150 a month, Turiyono said. Ima chose to go, abandoning the path laid out for her by the employment agency.

I sold grain to pay shelter and travel costs to America, Turiyono said.

Once there Ima, who could not speak English, was abused by her employer, her parents said.

The scars are still visible on parts of her body, said her mother, Alimah, 52.

Eventually, American neighbors helped her escape.

"When I finally had the courage to escape my trafficker, I found a home at the Coalition to Abolish Slavery and Trafficking. After I got the support I needed, I found the strength to organize survivors from across the country."

Turiyono sent her diploma from a local madrassa so Ima could continue her education.

Agustin Hariwati, the head of Khairudin High School, which Ima briefly attended, said his staff were still looking for her school records. Teachers there have concluded she spent less than a year at the school before getting married.

In the 1990s, a lot of students dropped out because they had to work or get married. One of them was Ima, he told BenarNews.

Working in America is hard

Ima has married in the United States and has three children, according to Alimah. But she comes home to Indonesia from time to time.

When she comes home she often tells her siblings and cousins not to test fate by going to America because they may experience the same kind of suffering she did. Working in America is hard, especially if you are unskilled, she said.

Many people in Malang regency go overseas to find work to overcome economic hardship at home, local officials said. The Malang Manpower Office has no record of Ima travelling to the United States 19 years ago.

There is almost no data about Indonesian laborers going to the United States. Indonesian does not have a migrant labor agreement with the U.S., said Sukardi, head of manpower placement and transmigration for Malang Regency.

In a July 25 statement, the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta confirmed that Ima had become a U.S. citizen and lives in Los Angeles.
Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak is poised to broaden his powers under a national security law that will take effect Aug. 1, while critics warn that the embattled leader could use it to crush dissent.

The National Security Council (NSC) Act will give the executive branch power to declare an emergency without having to go through Malaysias king  as guaranteed by its constitution, legal experts say.

The law also empowers the NSC to authorize stops, searches and arrests of people, as well as searches of and seizure of private property without a warrant  all in the name of protecting national security  they say.

The implementation of the National Security Council (NSC) Act comes at a time of heightened political tensions in Malaysia and amid renewed calls by the opposition for Najib to resign over a financial corruption scandal known as the 1MDB affair.

The laws implementation is unusual because it was done without royal assent from the countrys Conference of Rulers, critics point out.

The Malaysian parliament passed the NSC bill without amendments in December, and the Conference of Rulers  a body of sultans, rajas and governors, which normally grants royal assent to a bill 30 days after it is presented to the king  never consented to it, according to civil liberties lawyer Syahredzan Johan.

In February, the rulers issued a statement indicating that some of the laws provisions needed to be refined, he noted.

I personally do not know why the Conference of Rulers asked for a review of the bill, but this law would allow the government to bypass the Yang di-Pertuan Agong (king) altogether, Syahredzan told BenarNews.

The National Security Council consists of the prime minister, who chairs the council, the deputy PM, who serves as its vice chair, the ministers of defense, home affairs, communications and multimedia, the chief of the armed forces, the national police chief and the governments chief secretary.

Under the new law, the prime minister is empowered to declare any place a security area for six months at a time, subject to renewal. The NSC may then order the deployment of any security forces or other government personnel to the area in question.

They also have the authority to stop and search individuals, enter and search any premises, and take possession of any land, building or movable properties, Syahredzan told BenarNews.

Within the declared security area, Syahredzan added, security forces may arrest anyone alleged to have committed any offence under any written laws, without requiring a warrant.

The law also empowers the NSC to appoint a director of operations, who is only answerable to the council and has unrestricted powers, the lawyer claimed.

Najib: Deliberately misinterpreted

In a speech on Tuesday to a conference of national police chiefs representing members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Najib mentioned the new law as he defended his government against criticism from human rights advocates over its use of security laws.

He said these laws were needed to protect the nation from threats posed by trans-national terrorist groups such as Islamic State (IS). According to Malaysias police chief, IS was behind a grenade attack that injured several people at a nightclub on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur last month.

[M]y government will never apologize for placing the safety and security of the Malaysian people first, Najib told the ASEANAPOL Conference in Kuala Lumpur.

These laws were necessary and other countries have since been following our lead, he said, referring to the NSA Act, the Security Offenses (Special Measures) Act  or SOSMA, the Special Measures against Terrorism in Foreign Countries Act, and the Prevention of Terrorism Act.

Since last year Malaysian authorities have arrested dozens of suspected IS members, and have warned that Malaysians returning from combat stints with IS in Syria or Iraq could launch terrorist attacks on home soil.

These laws have aided the authorities in monitoring possible terrorists and Daesh (IS) sympathizers.

In a post on his blog, Najib shot back Wednesday at critics of the National Security Act. He accused them of twisting some of its provisions.

We were criticized for passing these laws, including by some who fear mongered for political reasons, the prime minister wrote. The National Security Council Act in particular has been deliberately misinterpreted. It is not the same as a declaration of national emergency  that power remains with His Majesty the Yang di-Pertuan Agong  and Parliament remains sitting with oversight on any security area declared.

It can easily be misused

Legal observers, however, question whether another anti-terror law is necessary and warn that its broad language defining national security could be used to arrest people who criticize the government.

At a time when we have ample terrorism laws already in force to deal with real threats, it is highly questionable that the PM sought to widen his executive powers in such manner, Melissa Sasidaran, coordinator for the Lawyers for Liberty, a local NGO, told BenarNews.

Since Najib became engulfed last year in allegations of corruption linked with the troubled state investment fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), his government, among other actions, blocked websites of local news organizations that were reporting on the scandal and those of grassroots groups that were organizing massive street demonstrations calling for his resignation.

Officially they want the NSC to fight against terrorism and foreign incursions. But it can easily be misused to shut down dissent, Azmi Sharom, a Malaysian political analyst and law professor, told BenarNews.

Malaysias opposition bloc is planning to stage an anti-Najib demonstration on Saturday, in light of a dozen new lawsuits filed by the U.S. Department of Justice last week, and which seek to recover more than $1 billion in assets paid for with money allegedly stolen from 1MDB, according to reports.

The likelihood of the NSC being utilized in order to crack down against any act of civil movement is likely to steadily increase as maneuvering space for the PM decreases, Sevan Doraisamy, who directs local human rights NGO Suaram, told Reuters.
Although Thailands junta has banned public criticism of a draft charter in the weeks leading up to next months constitutional referendum, the Election Commission suddenly has set aside some time and money so that Thais can debate the crucial vote.

The commission this week announced that it had allocated a seven-day block, which would expire on Aug. 3  so that limited debates on the charter could take place in the countrys 77 provinces.

Should they happen, the debates would unfold against a backdrop of boycotts of the Aug. 7 referendum by leading parties and a series of arrests of opponents of the proposed charter.

Election Commissioner Somchai Srisuthiyakorn told reporters on Monday that the EC would allocate funds for debates in each of the provinces on or before Aug. 3.

We do expect a total of some 400 participants from both pro- and anti-charter camps, to debate on the stage for a maximum of three hours, he said.

Somchai addressed a news conference during a commission-sponsored trip to Samut Prakarn, south of Bangkok, where he observed the printing of ballots for the referendum.

Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-cha, the leader of the Thai junta, had requested that the EC sponsor the debates, Somchai said.

The debates could help turn around public opinions of the draft charter.

According to a recent poll by the National Institute of Development Administration, some 60 percent among 1,500 respondents nationwide have not decided how they will vote in the referendum. About one-third of respondents said they would vote for it while a small percentage said they would vote no.

Ban on criticism

The debates would follow a series of arrests of people opposed to the charter. In the run-up to the vote, the junta had imposed a ban on public criticism of it through a new law prohibiting misleading or rude speech.

On Wednesday, seven local politicians based in Chiang Mai, were arrested on charges of sedition and distributing misinformation about the draft charter, according to media reports.

Kachen Jiakkhajorn, the mayor of Chang Peauk sub-district, his wife and five others were taken to the 11th Military Circle in Bangkok to face interrogation. The detention stemmed from a confession by a mayoral driver that he was hired by local politicians to disseminated anti-charter leaflets, according to government officials.

In Bangkok, Tassanee Buranupakorn, a former MP with the opposition Pheu Thai party and sister of Kachens wife, was also detained by the military as she traveled to meet the police chief over the incident.

Skepticism

A majority of yes votes on Aug. 7 would enable the military to tighten its grip on power even though Prayuth and the generals last year pledged to stage general elections by the middle of 2017, observers said.

However, the charters aim is to curb corruption among politicians, said Meechai Richuphand, who headed the Constitution Drafting Committee.

Skeptics point out that the charters provisions would allow the junta to handpick 250 senators, six reserved for military top brass and the police chief. The senators will pass laws and pick members of independent bodies.

Loyalists of fugitive former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was toppled in a 2006 coup, have staged anti-charter campaigns despite the strict prohibition.

Members of Pheu Thai Party, a third iteration of the political party aligned with Thaksin, also made it clear in March that they would not accept the charter.

Many parts of the draft constitution conflict with the virtue of democracy and it will create more problems to the nation, a party statement said.

On Wednesday, former Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, who leads the Democrat Party, also voiced his displeasure about the referendum.

I dont accept the draft charter. Repeat, there are no mentions of electoral system and political parties, he said in a Facebook post. I dont accept it because it does not respond to the problems the country has. There are no rules and regulations for the country to get out of the same old troubles.

Questioned about Abhisits statement, Prayuth told reporters: He looks down on the people as not knowing things or what? Was he meant to insult the intellectuality of the people? People can think and I want them to be strong and independent.
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For Immediate Release, July 27, 2016 Contact: Anne Hawke, Natural Resources Defense Council, (202) 289-2263, ahawke@nrdc.org

Jaclyn Lopez, Center for Biological Diversity, (727) 490-9190, jlopez@biologicaldiversity.org

Alison Zemanski Heis, National Parks Conservation Association, (202) 384-8762, aheis@npca.org

Jennifer Hecker, Conservancy of Southwest Florida, (239) 262-0304 x 250, jenniferh@conservancy.org

Alan Septoff, Earthworks, (202) 887-1872 x 105, aseptoff@earthworksaction.org

Matthew Schwartz, South Florida Wildlands Association, (954) 993-5351, southfloridawild@yahoo.com Lawsuit Filed to Stop Oil, Gas Exploration in Florida's Big Cypress National Preserve Seismic Testing Threatens Endangered Florida Panther, Water Resources FORT MYERS, Fla. A lawsuit filed today by a coalition of local and national environmental groups would prevent extensive seismic exploration for oil and gas in the Big Cypress National Preserve, which is home to endangered species like the iconic Florida panther and recharges an important source of drinking water for many South Floridians. The preserve also serves as a major watershed for Everglades National Park to the south. Oil and gas companies have no place in our national parks and preserves, said Alison Kelly, a staff attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council. Oil exploration and development in Big Cypress could push the rare Florida panther toward the brink of extinction, threaten wetlands and safe drinking water for thousands of people and damage a popular destination for outdoor lovers. The federal government should protect Big Cypress for the American people and not allow a dirty energy company to transform it into an industrial zone. The Natural Resources Defense Council, Center for Biological Diversity, National Parks Conservation Association, Conservancy of Southwest Florida, Earthworks, and South Florida Wildlands Association today filed suit against the National Park Service for violating the National Environmental Policy Act earlier this year when it approved the Texas-based Burnett Oil Companys proposal to explore for oil and gas in more than 110 square miles (70,000 acres) of the preserve  an area five times the size of Manhattan  without adequately considering the environmental impacts. While the surface of this land is owned by the federal government, much of the minerals underground are privately owned.



The impacts to wetlands, wildlife and cypress trees caused by these colossal trucks pounding the ground are unacceptable, said Jaclyn Lopez, Florida director at the Center for Biological Diversity. And if they eventually end up drilling for oil or gas, this last remaining intact habitat for rare and threatened wildlife will be put at tremendous risk. The groups filed their lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida. Last week, the groups also sent a notice of intent to sue the National Park Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service over the impacts the oil and gas exploration would have on endangered and threatened animal species in the preserve. Burnett Oils exploration plans include driving enormous thumper trucks  weighing more than 60,000 pounds each  through roadless parts of the preserve, more than 80 percent of which are wetlands. The trucks would flatten everything in their path and press large vibrating steel plates onto the ground to create seismic signals. The company would also use other intrusive off-road vehicles and low-flying helicopters to survey the preserve. The preserve provides some of the last intact habitat for imperiled species like the Florida panther, which is the most endangered mammal in the eastern United States, with fewer than 180 remaining in the wild. It is also home to other threatened species, including the Florida bonneted bat, the eastern indigo snake, wood storks, red-cockaded woodpeckers and more. The Big Cypress National Preserve is one of the most biodiverse pieces of public land in North America, said Matthew Schwartz, executive director of the South Florida Wildlands Association. Not only is the preserve ground zero for the highly endangered Florida panther, but it provides habitat for hundreds of other native plants and animals  many federally or state protected  in a rapidly growing part of Florida. It is unconscionable for the National Park Service to have approved 70,000 acres of seismic testing without a full environmental impact statement. We are hoping that this legal action will lead directly to that required review  and to a new approach from the service which puts resource protection first. The extreme noise and disturbance from seismic survey activities in the area could be catastrophic for the panther and other native wildlife  threatening increased displacement, mortality, reproductive failure and stress levels. A healthy Big Cypress ecosystem is essential to the health of nearby coastal estuaries, which are home to endangered manatees, sea turtles and countless fish. Big Cypress provides nearly half of the water that flows into Everglades National Park, and recharges important underground drinking water sources. This includes portions of the Biscayne Aquifer, which provides most of the fresh water for homes and agriculture in southeast Florida. The Big Cypress National Preserve is an environmentally sensitive and important part of the Western Everglades, said Jennifer Hecker, director of natural resource policy for the Conservancy of Southwest Florida. Expanding oil and gas activities in this area, especially in light of the onset of fracking in Florida, poses enormous risks to water resources and threatens to undermine the substantial public investment being made to protect and restore a national treasure  the Everglades  which depends on sufficient amounts of clean freshwater. Additionally, the preserve is an economic generator for the state and a popular destination for outdoor recreation, from hiking, to bird-watching, kayaking and camping. Nearly 1.2 million people visited Big Cypress last year and spent nearly $90 million in and around the surrounding communities.



The seismic activity approved in May is only the beginning. Burnetts broader plan includes three additional phases of exploration. The first, approved phase alone rivals the largest seismic testing operations ever to occur in a national park unit. If all four phases are approved, the area affected would ultimately encompass about one-third of the preserve (366 square miles or 234,000 acres), an area larger than many national parks, including Shenandoah, Acadia, Crater Lake, Biscayne and Zion. On top of that, seismic exploration could be just the first step in destructive oil development in the area. If Burnett finds oil or gas in the preserve, it will likely lead to harmful oil or gas development such as drilling, fracking or acidizing  and the roads, pipelines and more that go with it, bringing even greater disturbance and risks to wildlife, habitat and water supplies. The National Park Service has failed to uphold its fundamental duties to protect one of Americas prized national park units and its endangered wildlife, said Nick Lund, senior manager for conservation programs for the National Parks Conservation Association. Instead, theyve greenlighted a project that would have massive physical impacts to the preserve with minimal environmental review. Once exploration of this magnitude begins, the landscape and native wildlife will forever be changed. The Park Service must keep our lands and resources in trust for us and future generations, said Aaron Mintzes, policy advocate at Earthworks. Allowing oil and gas development is fundamentally incompatible for a place we call a preserve. A copy of the complaint is available here. A copy of the notice of intent letter is available here. ### The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) is a nonprofit environmental organization with more than 2 million members and online activists. Since 1970, our lawyers, scientists, and other environmental specialists have worked to protect the worlds natural resources, public health, and the environment. NRDC has offices in New York City, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Bozeman, and Beijing. Visit us at www.nrdc.org and follow us on Twitter @NRDC. The Center for Biological Diversity is a national, nonprofit conservation organization with more than 1 million members and online activists dedicated to the protection of endangered species and wild places. www.biologicaldiversity.org Since 1919, the nonpartisan National Parks Conservation Association has been the leading voice in safeguarding our national parks. NPCA and its more than one million members and supporters work together to protect and preserve our nations natural, historic, and cultural heritage for future generations. For more information, visit www.npca.org. Earthworks is a nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting communities and the environment from the impacts of mineral and energy development while seeking sustainable solutions. The Conservancy of Southwest Florida was formed in 1964 when citizens in SW Florida banded together to prevent a road from being built through Barrier Island, Rookery Bay National Estuary and Research Preserve. The Conservancy is a regional organization covering 5 counties, working at the local, state, and federal level. Its mission is protecting our land, water, wildlife, and future in Southwest Florida. The Conservancys top priorities include environmental education, wildlife rehabilitation, scientific research, and policy and advocacy. South Florida Wildlands Association (SFWA) is a nonprofit environmental organization incorporated in the State of Florida to protect remaining wildlife habitat and wilderness in the Greater Everglades. We focus on private and public lands alike - protecting the large undeveloped areas which still exist outside of South Floridas urban boundaries.


For Immediate Release, July 27, 2016 Contact: Jeff Miller, (510) 499-9185, jmiller@biologicaldiversity.org PSA Campaign: Who Really Belongs on California's Flag? OAKLAND, Calif. The Center for Biological Diversity today launched a series of public service announcements as part of its Bring Back the Bears campaign aimed at returning grizzly bears to parts of California. Videos are available for media use. The campaign, developed by gyro San Francisco, features the California state Bear Flag, but without the iconic bear. California grizzlies have been missing from California for nearly a century, read the ads. Help us return these endangered bears to their native home  where they belong. (In the remote Sierra Nevada, not your backyard, silly.) In four short videos, California archetypes make their case to be featured on the flag in place of the bear. The spots encourage Californians to speak out in favor of grizzlies and sign a petition urging the California Fish and Wildlife Commission to consider bringing these bears back to their native home in the Sierra Nevadas, where there are 8,000 square miles of prime habitat. Grizzly bears lived in California long before it became a state, and they deserve a home here today, said the Centers Jeff Miller. Returning these incredible animals to remote portions of our state would be a key step in rewilding parts of California and saving one of Americas most iconic animals. Its time to bring back the bears. The petition is at www.bringbackthebears.org.The site provides additional information about the cause, as well as facts debunking famous myths about grizzlies. Its absurd that our state flag features an animal that hasnt resided in the state for almost a century, said Ronny Northrop of gyro San Francisco. Were proud to help drive awareness for the mission of the Center for Biological Diversity. Grizzly bears once roamed across California for centuries, from the state's mountains to its valleys and beaches. But decades of persecution drove them off the landscape, and the last grizzly in California was shot in 1924. Grizzlies today survive in just a few pockets in the Rocky Mountains  roughly 4 percent of their historic range in the lower 48 states. If these endangered bears are going to recover, they need to be returned to more of their native homes in the American West (remote places typically far away from people). The Center for Biological Diversity is a national, nonprofit conservation organization with more than 1 million members and online activists dedicated to the protection of endangered species and wild places.
The SABC will not say whether the four journalists who won their case in the Labour Court on Tuesday, 26 July 2016, will be allowed to return to work.

In a resounding defeat for the broadcaster, the Labour Court on Tuesday ordered that four dismissed employees are entitled to return to work.

The four were dismissed for objecting to the public broadcaster's ban on the broadcast of violent protests showing the destruction of public property. The ban was widely condemned and found to be invalid by the Independent Communications Authority of SA (Icasa), which ordered the SABC to reverse it.

The reinstated journalists - Foeta Krige, Suna Venter, Krivani Pillay and Jacques Steenkamp - hope to return to work on Wednesday.

"The question will be, will we be allowed to go back because obviously the SABC can appeal and they can keep us outside until the appeal is heard," Steenkamp said. "We'll see tomorrow if we (are) allowed (back)."

Pillay said she was looking forward to getting back to work and was confident they would be allowed in.

"The courts have spoken and we have work to do. We are in the business of news and we've got a week to go to elections and we have a lot of work, not only to catch up on, but to get going," she said.

Labour Court Judge Robert La Grange found the journalists' dismissals to be invalid as they breached their contracts of employment, which entitled them to a formal hearing before being fired.

SABC spokesman Kaizer Kganyago would not comment on the judgment or say whether the journalists would be allowed back into the building on Wednesday.

"We (are) still studying the judgment. It's a long judgment. All they read was the order, therefore we need to study it, our lawyers are looking at it. We (are) not going to comment until we know what the way forward will be."

Trade union Solidarity, which represented the four journalists, said the SABC had to adhere to the judgment otherwise it would be in contempt of court.

"The order is quite clear. If the SABC does not adhere to this specific order " we will then definitely go back to court. Contempt of court is a serious thing," CE Dirk Hermann said.

In his finding, La Grange referred at length to the journalists' argument that their dismissals breached their Constitutional right to freedom of expression.

He said in argument the journalists' counsel Steven Budlender had acknowledged that freedom of expression did not entitle employees to say whatever they wanted about their employer, which might put their employer in a bad light.

But the SABC had "exceptional features". It was the public broadcaster and "the public has an interest in how it is run". Journalists also had ethical and constitutional obligations, "which they must at least aspire to".

Codes of conduct that regulate the media required news to be reported truthfully, accurately and fairly, he said. These duties applied particularly to those journalists who worked at the public broadcaster, because of its special mandate.

La Grange also said the case was indeed urgent because "it cannot be reassuring" for journalists currently working at the SABC to know that their colleagues remained dismissed even while the SABC had agreed not to enforce the ban.

It was also important that the SABC's "will and ability to fulfil its mandate" would not be questioned "at a time when the role of the SABC will be in the spotlight in the course of the imminent local elections".

Solidarity said that if the SABC appealed the judgment, it would approach the court again on an urgent basis asking that the order stand pending the outcome of other legal proceedings.

Asked if the journalists were worried about being victimised by SABC management when they returned, Hermann said the union would keep an eye on this.

"The Labour Relations Act is very clear on victimisation and we will do everything in our power to make sure that we protect them."

Some of the journalists were emotional, shedding tears of relief after the order was handed down.

Eight journalists were suspended for questioning an editorial decision taken to ban the footage of violent protests where public property was being burned. Following this seven of the eight were fired.

The eight journalists are still proceeding with a Constitutional Court application. Steenkamp said the journalists would meet on Tuesday afternoon to discuss the way forward in the Constitutional Court matter.

Another three of the journalists - Lukhanyo Calata, Busisiwe Ntuli and Thandeka Gqubule - will challenge their dismissals in the Labour Court on Thursday.

Source: BDpro via I-Net Bridge
In Johannesburg, it's the year of Mayor Parks Tau: His face is all over the city. The DA claims the ANC is using city resources for an election scam, while the city and the ANC say it's part of normal government business.

Johannesburg Mayor Parks Tau and DA mayoral candidate Herman Mashaba at The Gathering 2016.  Greg Nicolson  Daily Maverick

A month ago, Herman Mashaba told journalists at a Rosebank press conference that the City of Johannesburg had been misusing state money to finance Mayor Parks Taus re-election campaign. In April and May, the city spent R13.8-million on advertising, 65% of which promoted city officials, including Tau and Finance MMC Geoffrey Makhubo, Mashaba claimed. He said R4.7-million was spent on advertising the state of the city address, R3.2-million on the citys budget speech, and R1.1-million on the Moodys upgrade.

Thats a lot of money, but Mashabas team hadnt done the maths on how it compared to previous years advertising spend. Without context it was a lot of money spent by a government that regularly spends a lot of money. DA spokeswoman Phumzile van Damme said the allegation of misusing state resources was based on the prominence of the message  the billboards, the newspaper ads, Taus image being a lot more prominent in an election year. The mayor has been more visible in advertising this year, but the allegations werent much to go on.

On Monday, Mashaba announced he had irrefutable evidence of the ANC-run City of Joburgs abuse of public resources to promote the ruling party and their mayoral candidate, Parks Tau ahead of the upcoming election. He said the city spent R26-million on advertising between May 2014 and April 2015 and R62-million between May 2015 and April 2016. Thats a significant increase. The city spent an additional R15-million on ads in May 2016. In perspective, the city spent more on advertising in April and May 2016 than in the entire 2014-2015 financial year, according to Mashaba.

This wasteful expenditure of taxpayers money amounts to over R36-million worth of lost opportunities to create jobs for the 869,000 unemployed people of this city. In fact, while Tau highlights his tenure as a success, 180,000 additional people have joined the ranks of the unemployed since he came into office in 2011, said the DAs candidate for mayor of Johannesburg.

The DA commissioned Nielsen to compile the citys advertising spend and its breakdown includes all city entities and what was spent in various media sectors  newspapers, internet, magazines, radio, TV, and outdoor advertising. The DAs Tony Taverna-Turisan said Nielson has a trusted system to evaluate advertising spend.

With regard to outdoor, internet, direct mail and cinema, Nielsen receives direct files from companies indicating the value of media bought  [for example] Primedia provides this information with regard to billboards and Ster-Kinekor provides this information with regard to cinema advertising, Taverna-Turisan said. With regard to TV, radio and print, Nielsen uses each platforms rate cards which are uploaded into their system. Nielsen manually captures the data according to rate cards for each media house, television network and radio station. He claimed Nielsons data gathering provides an acceptable global measure of ad spend over a period of time.

The Nielson data provided by the DA shows various fluctuations among the citys property, power, parks, library, road, and water entities, as well as the city municipalitys spending between 2014-15 and 2015-16. While the City of Johannesburgs entities spendings vary, the municipality itself incurred huge increases in advertising costs on newspaper, outdoor and radio ads in the last year, according to the figures. It doubled the newspaper spend and spent R9.9-million on outdoor advertising, compared to R326,000 the year before. It spent R18-million on radio ads, while in 2014-15 it spent only R2.3-million on the airwaves.

The DA has laid a complaint with the IEC, with Mashaba saying, This is clearly an excessive and gratuitous depiction of an office-bearer of the city and clearly creates a perception that the advertisement promotes the mayor as an individual. He specifically noted a radio advert which noted Taus successes and ended, Clearly, the City of Joburg is in good hands.

It is patent from the advertisement that it is not an advertisement in support of the CoJ in the normal course of legitimate municipal expenses, but has solely for its purpose the advertising of the current mayor, Parks Tau, who is the mayoral candidate for the ANC in the forthcoming 2016 local government elections, said Mashaba to the IEC, complaining about an abuse of the Electoral Code, which limits the abuse of privilege, influence and employment authority over an election.

Daily Maverick wasnt able to get official comment from city spokesperson Nthatisi Modingoane on Monday, but the city has on multiple occasions refuted the claims. Its defence has been that it has a duty to inform citizens on an ongoing basis, in line with the law. The city disputes this allegation. The advert is a mere standard and annual communication of successes and achievements of the previous financial year of a metropolitan municipality led by a competent administration  with a visionary and strategic council and an executive led by Mayor Parks Tau, mayoral spokesperson Phindile Chauke has been quoted as saying.

It is disingenuous of the DA  having failed to discredit Mayor Tau against his strong record of service delivery in the past five years  to resort to dragging the IEC into its desperate campaign to mislead Johannesburg residents, Chauke continued. Chauke also said the advertisement in question had been playing since March, suggesting the DAs recent complaint was politically opportunistic, and was aimed at instilling confidence among residents and investors.

Who is Tau trying to fool? the DA asked in response.

ANC Johannesburg regional spokesperson Jolidee Matongo on Monday said the party has its own election strategies and adverts and has nothing to do with the citys advertising spend. Administrations are elected on manifesto promises and are required to report on the progress, he added. Government reports all the time in all sorts of ways. Its government reporting; its got nothing to do with our campaign, Matongo said. He claimed Mashaba was trying to tap into emotive issues by comparing reasonable government expenses to non-related service delivery issues.

While the issue is in front of the IEC, both the advertisements and the response from the DA fit into ANC and DA election strategies in Johannesburg. Tau may lack charisma but is strong on policy and has been punted as a leader who knows what he is doing and has put the city on the right path.

The DA has hit out against Taus reputation as a capable leader. I dont want to call anybody a liar but the term spin doctor has good currency, said the DAs Gauteng veteran Mike Moriarty recently on the citys boasting of rating upgrades from both Fitch and Moodys. The DA claims Johannesburg is failing in invoicing and collections for services and is underspending on service delivery.

In an advertisement in The Star on Monday, with an image of the mayor, the City of Johannesburg boasted of the achievements under the current administration. It said its audits from the Auditor-General have improved, it has received multiple credit rating upgrades, over 220,000 jobs had been created through the Expanded Public Works Programme, and capital expenditure had increased by almost three times.

*This article first appeared on the Daily Maverick.

Note that Bizcommunity staff and management do not necessarily share the views of its contributors - the opinions and statements expressed herein are solely those of the author.*
A new potent antimalarial development candidate with the potential to both treat and prevent of malaria has been identified by the University of Cape Town's (UCT) Drug Discovery and Development Centre, H3D.

The compound, referred to as UCT943, is the second preclinical candidate to come out of the collaboration led by H3D involving the Switzerland-based Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV) and an international network of partners.

Promises to block person-to-person transmission

Developed to strengthen the parasite enzyme phosphoinositide 4-kinase inhibitor programme, UCT943 has the same molecular target as MMV048, a promising new compound researched by an international team led by H3D and selected for development in 2012.

The data so far shows that UCT943 has promise to be more potent against the parasite, and to be easier to formulate, although these aspects will be the subject of the next studies, and ultimately will need to be validated in humans.

Like MMV048, UCT943 acts against all stages of the malaria parasite life cycle and has the promise to block transmission of the parasite from person to person and, as such, could contribute to the eradication of malaria, a disease that claims the lives of around half-a-million people every year, says Professor Kelly Chibale, founder and director of H3D.

The preclinical assessment of UCT943 is expected to take around 18 months, after which the hope is that it will progress into safety studies in human volunteers, he says.

Given the threat of drug-resistant strains of malaria its important to have a strong pipeline of new types of molecules, says Dr Timothy Wells, MMVs chief scientific officer. Kelly Chibale and his team have made huge progress over the last four years. We look forward with great enthusiasm to following the development of UCT943.

The minister of science and technology, Naledi Pandor, says: This research is proving to be a valuable resource for the country and a vital asset in the training of the African scientists who will lead our continents research and development in years to come.

Creating a sustainable industry

H3D is Africas first integrated drug discovery and development centre. When it was first launched in 2010, it comprised a team of five academic postdoctoral research scientists, which has now grown to more than 50, attracting industry-experienced drug discoverers from pharmaceutical companies based in India, the USA and Europe.

It is also helping to train a new generation of African scientists, creating strong foundations for the future. This transformation has also allowed the transfer of key skills and technology to South Africa: from medicinal chemistry to biology and pharmacokinetics. The H3D portfolio also includes projects targeting tuberculosis drug discovery and is now expanding to address the serious threat of antimicrobial resistance, specifically resistant Gram negative bacteria.

We are creating an industry that wasnt in South Africa before, discovering exciting new molecules that are being developed into medicines. This industry we are creating is contributing to the DSTs bio-economic strategy. It will also increase our ability to create science jobs and use science for the development and benefit of our people. Weve managed to attract millions of dollars of foreign direct investment and create career opportunities for graduates, says Chibale.

UCT vice-chancellor, Dr Max Price, says: Delivering two preclinical candidates within five years is an outstanding record by international standards especially for a drug discovery centre based at an academic institution. The value of a second candidate signals that the first compound was not a once-off, but part of a sustained and systematic programme.
Tyler Solomon is the first recipient of the Cape Town-based film production and animation studio, Sunrise Productions' bursary.

The bursary, in partnership with The Animation School, offers a full scholarship to one student for one year of study. Thanks to this bursary, Solomon is able to complete the third and final year of his animation studies this year. The bursary also offers him an internship position at the company during his school holidays.

The Animation School welcomes Sunrise Productions for this valuable initiative. Opportunities of this kind are clearly in line with the transformation goals of South Africa and we hope this inspires more employers to take action and support the next generation with education opportunities, says Nuno Martins, principal of The Animation School.

Sunrise Productions CEO, Phil Cunningham, adds, We value fresh South African talent and we are delighted Tyler will join us during his holidays and further his skills and experience in animation.

For more information, go to www.sunrise.co.za.
NEW YORK - McDonald's' "All-Day Breakfast" fueled firm sales gains in the second quarter despite weak growth across the fast food industry, the company reported Tuesday.

But net earnings continued to suffer from the costs of selling off company-owned restaurants to franchisees in a multi-year strategy to trim overhead costs.

Net income for the quarter to June 30 fell 9.1 percent from a year ago to $1.09 billion, as a solid reduction in operating expenses failed to offset a 3.6 percent fall in revenues.

The company, which is in the middle of an effort to sell off 4,000 company-owned stores to franchise operators, said that comparable sales globally rose 3.1 percent, helped by menu changes.

But bottom-line results, in which earnings per share fell only one cent to $1.25 owing to a significant share buyback operation, reflected a $230 million charge from refranchising operations and tepid growth across markets.

"We're making steady progress on transforming our business to satisfy the needs of our customers around the world, despite a challenging environment in several key markets," said chief executive Steve Easterbrook, who was promoted to revive the flagging fast food chain in March 2015.

"I am confident in our system's ability to stay the course and execute our turnaround plan to achieve our goals," he said.

McDonald's, which operates 36,504 restaurants across 120 countries, cut its company-operated outlets by 519 from a year ago to just 6,137. While that has helped cut costs, revenues from franchised restaurants have not offset the decline in sales from company restaurants.

In the United States, second quarter comparable sales rose 1.8 percent helped by the All Day Breakfast and McPick 2 promotions, both innovations under Easterbrook which have turned around a long slump. The US operations are adding more breakfast sandwiches to the All Day Breakfast menu to build on that.

Internationally, sales growth was strongest in China, Russia, Britain, Canada and Australia, the company said.
Empowerment pioneer Marcel Golding and well-heeled investor Hugh Roberts have failed to sew up a significantly bigger stake in fashion retailer Rex Trueform (RexTru).

In April, a consortium  headed by Golding (formerly executive chairman of empowerment powerhouse Hosken Consolidated Investments) and Roberts  bought up empowerment group Brimstones influential shareholdings in Rextru and its pyramid holding firm, African & Overseas (Af&Over) Enterprises.

The deal triggered a mandatory offer to all Rextru and Af&Over shareholders. But a Sens statement showed only scant interest from both Rextru and Af&Over shareholders to sell their scrip to Golding and Roberts.

The consortium received acceptances from Rextru ordinary shareholders holding just 4,315 shares (0.148% of the issued shares) and 185,190 low voting N shares (1%).

A mere 23 Af&Over shares were offered to the consortium with 240,557 N shares being surrendered (representing almost 2.4% of this class of shares).

The disclosure confirms the Shub family, which has held artificial control at Rextru for generations via the N share and pyramid holding company structure, retains its influence despite holding a far smaller economic stake than the consortium of Golding and Roberts.

The consortium now holds a 31.2% economic stake in Rextru, and a 78% economic stake in Af&Over.

Golding said the consortium was never sure what might transpire in the mandatory offer.

Asked whether it was problematic holding such a large economic stake when power effectively rested in the hands of a minority shareholder, Golding said it was still early days and that the consortium would need to discuss the next stage of the investment plan.

"It was never hostile  we saw value in participating in the company."

Brimstones travails as a significant shareholder at Rextru have been well documented, including open confrontation at annual general meetings in recent years.

Brimstone believed that Rextrus main assets  the Queenspark fashion chain and its properties in the increasingly hip Cape Town precinct of Salt River  held much potential.

But the empowerment company sold out after being consistently frustrated in its efforts to accelerate the unlocking of value from these assets.

Independent analyst Syd Vianello said the Golding-Roberts consortium found itself in the same situation as Brimstone.

"Possibly, they believe that somewhere down the line the control structure can be cracked?

"Or that the Shub family might sell out at some stage?"

But Vianello believed that the biggest opportunity for the consortium could come if Rextru ever ran out of money.

Any issue of new shares for cash could considerably strengthen the position of the biggest economic shareholder.

At this point, though, the conservatively managed Rextru has a stout balance sheet.

Vianello, however, believed Rextru could still prove a rewarding investment for the Golding-Roberts consortium if an international retailer was looking for a foothold in SA.

"Queenspark is just the right size to be sold to a foreign retailer looking for a presence locally.

"It is not about the profitability of Queenspark, but rather that the stores are in great locations in prime shopping malls."
Massmart's planned hearing at the Competition Tribunal began with a hitch on Tuesday, after the parties it sought to bring action against asked the tribunal not to listen to the matter.

The retailer  which owns local brands such as Game, Makro, and Builders Warehouse  is attempting to bring action against Spar, Pick n Pay, and Shoprite-Checkers, as well as the South African Property Owners Association. At issue are provisions in lease contracts by these parties, which allegedly block the sale by competitors of certain types of perishable food and dry groceries.

In their arguments, Spar and Shoprite told the tribunal that the matters raised by Massmart were already under investigation through the grocery retail market inquiry.

Anna Annandale SC, representing Spar, said if the tribunal were to hear the matter there would be two parallel processes at play.

"The panel conducting the inquiry will examine the effects  both positive and negative  of long-term lease agreements. This submission (by Massmart) is unnecessary. If the tribunal allows Massmart to exercise its rights now, there is a real danger of far-reaching and unintended consequences. The panel would have finished its work by May next year. A stay of 10 months does away with any of these unintended consequences."

Jeremy Gauntlett SC, representing Shoprite, said Massmart had also failed to meet the requirements for the matter to be heard by the tribunal. "The Competition Act says one has to say in material terms what the complaint is about, which Massmart has failed to do. Massmart has been given a magnificent opportunity through the market inquiry to address the broad issues it has spoken about."

Mike van der Nest SC, representing Massmart, said the agreements had the effect of lessening competition. "The expansion into fresh groceries is being continually constrained by these agreements. A credible sustainable new national player will promote competition, even at a local level."

Massmart first filed a complaint with the competition authorities in September 2014, which the commission refused to investigate. Massmart has now directly approached the tribunal, which has the power to set aside such exclusivity clauses.
A power outage, which left most of Namibia in darkness last Friday night, also damaged the refractory lining of Dundee Precious Metals' Ausmelt furnace, to the extent that it needs to be completely replaced.

According to the Canadian company, cooling water entered the furnace at its Tsumeb processing facility because the back-up power and water-cooling systems did not come on line as expected, which affected the integrity of the lining. The replacement is expected to take three weeks.

This outage is expected to reduce 2016 concentrate throughput by approximately 20,000 tonnes. The vast majority of the costs associated with repairing the physical damage are expected to be covered through the company's insurance programme.

The response taken by operations management during this event ensured that no one was placed at risk during the outage. A full investigation is currently being led by Tsumeb's management.

This is the third major blackout in Namibia this year, and Nampower, the countrys energy utility, says the Auas/Kokerboom 400kV line, one of the major transmission lines that feeds power to the central parts of Namibia, tripped.

Last month, most of Namibia was left without electricity for 20 minutes when the Aries/Kokerboom line - Namibia's main route for electricity from Eskom tripped. While in April, most parts of the country also experienced a power outage for about two hours during the commissioning of generator two (one of four generators) at the Ruacana Power Station in the Kunene Region, a report in The Namibian says.
BRUSSELS, BELGIUM: European data protection authorities on Tuesday, 26 July 2016, said they will give a new EU-US internet privacy deal a year's grace period, minimising chances of new legal challenges during that time.

The deal was adopted in Brussels earlier this month after the EU's top court last year struck down a previous arrangement, leaving internet giants such as Google and Facebook unsure whether they could transfer data back to their operations in the United States.

The 28 national EU data protection authorities meeting in Brussels on Monday found that the new Privacy Shield system has stronger safeguards on data transfer and better filters to prevent US intelligence agencies from conducting bulk collection of personal information.

"All of this is progress and real progress. Nevertheless we still have concerns remaining," Isabelle Falque-Pierrotin, who chairs the so-called article 29 group, told reporters in Brussels.

The data protection authorities said in a statement they regretted the lack of concrete assurances against mass and indiscriminate collection of personal data.

They also want stricter guarantees for the independence of a US ombudsman to be named to tackle complaints from EU citizens.

"The glass is not sufficiently full but let's give it a chance and accept the testing period until the first annual review," Falque-Pierrotin said.

"At the joint review, we want to be provided with additional clarification, additional evidence, possibly changes in the legislation," she said.

The annual review, which is required under the new deal, is set to take place in around a year, Falque-Pierrotin said.

She said the EU data protection authorities would not launch legal action "from our own initiative" in the next year. However, they would have to deal with complaints "on a case-by-case" basis if they receive them.

EU and US officials say the Privacy Shield system lays down tough rules to prevent US intelligence agencies accessing European data, with companies facing penalties if they do not meet EU standards of protection.

The European Court of Justice threw out the earlier "Safe Harbour" arrangement after Austrian activist Max Schrems sued Facebook in Ireland, citing US snooping practices exposed by former US intelligence contractor Edward Snowden.

Companies wanting to transfer data from Europe to the United States must now "self-certify" as being compliant with the new deal with the US government from 1 August, the EU said.

If they fail to do this, they can face fines and removal from the list.

Top US companies including Facebook, Google and Microsoft in particular have been eager to end the legal void so as to protect massive data transfers from their European subsidiaries to their headquarters in the United States.

Source: AFP via I-Net Bridge
On Thursday, 28 July 2016, from 6.30-8.30pm at the Johannesburg City Hall, the #2X roadshow will present its final youth dialogue under the theme, "Fixing the spatial inequality that kills the hustle: How do the different political parties plan to build a youth-inclusive city?"

The focus will be on the Corridors of Freedom Programme, which intends to transform the apartheid spatial patterns that have continued to entrench inequality in the City of Johannesburg. This will also be an opportunity to assess whether the political party representatives in the top five parties contesting local government elections (ANC, DA, EFF, IFP and UDM) appreciate what challenges young people are faced with in Johannesburg.

The aim of this dialogue will be to answer, amongst other questions, the following:

Has this programme improved the lives of young Joburgers and are there other alternatives?



How does the Corridors of Freedom project address the particular concerns of young Joburgers, and are we seeing a real improvement in the quality of youth lives?

#2X is a campaign aimed at amplifying young peoples voices in the real and digital worlds. It aims to galvanise young people to champion their own local issues and bring those issues to elected representatives doorsteps. The campaign falls under youth engagement and social impact agency Livity Africas Voting Is Power (VIP) platform.

Launched in the lead up to the 2014 national and provincial elections, the VIP platform was conceived as a proactive response to voter apathy and democratic disengagement among young people. With almost half the population made up of young people, VIP bridges the gap between politics and the youth, ensuring that they take ownership of civic engagement and become the champions of the unique agendas they set.

Using digital, media and live engagements, the national platform centralises the social, cultural, economic and political themes of young peoples lives in interpreting, interacting with and monitoring South African politics, governance and policy. Since the lead up to the first voter registration weekend in March #2X has travelled throughout the country, engaging with young people about their part in the democratic process and particularly, the importance of their issues and their vote.

For more information, go to www.viplive.co.za.
I earn my living from talking to people. Between 1995 and 2007 I booked 500 small events at hotels and conference venues in SA, each three hours long with 50 seats.

Since 2007, I have booked 5,000 hours in online webinars, mostly covering marketing and selling, each one hour long with between 5 and 500 seats.

An online webinar delivers a live presentation to many PCs, tablets and smartphones simultaneously. It combines voice, video, screenshares and slides.

In 2016, just one of a swathe of webinar providers, GoToMeeting, delivered 56 million online meetings.

Events vary infinitely:

Small self-organised events (like mine);

Department-wide gatherings for training as much as for networking;

International events for networking more than training;

Product introductions;

Weddings, birthdays, dinners, 

Big events make the news, but the small events, the bread and butter, feed the venues.

While the focus tends to be towards how a conference venue can attract more delegates, we should rather ask How can a conference venue attract more events?

Delegates do not attend a venue. They attend an event at a venue. No event means no visitors, no matter how great the facilities.

In 2001, I told a group of travel agents that big challenges loomed because the web allowed the rest of us to book flights and hotels directly. They disagreed vehemently. They assured me that booking complexity would prevent that.

Complex trips remain difficult to book online. But their bread and butter business vanished online fast. Regular travellers preferred the easier, more responsive, and much faster buying experience. The buyers decided the fate of the agencies.

The bottom of the venue industry sees this happening now. Small, solo organisers are crossing over to digital delivery in droves.

Ten years ago, I needed to schedule live events six months in advance. Now I can easily reserve a live venue one week ahead of time.

Arranging a physical event is complex enough to warrant intermediaries. That speaks volumes.

Each venue operates to a different cast-in-steel tune. Their one common theme: Our way or go away.

A simple tour of four events across SA six months hence, each to the same spec, demands five hours transacting with each venue to confirm the details.

The venue demands the deposit within 14 days of booking, no matter how far in the future the gathering. The agreed details often bear no resemblance to the room one encounters on the day.

An online session, on the other hand, costs five minutes to arrange. Instead of four events to cover SA, just one suffices. People from smaller towns like Alicedale can attend, opening a whole new market.

But what about the experience?

The person paying to attend determines whether this webinar process will gain traction or not. Thats not the organiser. Thats the paying client, and a big chunk of their ticket price pays for the room, their seat, and the costs of the speaker(s) getting to the venue.

In the online environment, none of these costs apply.

None of us would abandon live events if the economics worked better.

A brief explanation about online events

The speaker arrives at a PC 15 minutes before the event starts. The delegate joins via a PC or tablet or smartphone a few minutes before the event starts. Thats it.

Dozens of firms offer webinar services or even simple screen-sharing services.

Skype and Google Hangouts, both free, offer an easy introduction to the genre.

GoToWebinar, close to the top end, starts at $89/month for 100 simultaneous delegates.

In my case my annual GoToWebinar bill, allowing up to 24 hours of webinars each day, costs less than a single evening event of 50 seats at a Johannesburg hotel.

The online presentation process removes all the business risk from an organiser/speaker. There is no travel cost and no time away from the office.

Attendees experience it differently, not worse. They attend at home or office without the time and cost of driving to the venue. No uncomfortable seat, too far from the screen, in a room either too cold or too hot. The entire experience costs much less.

Every webinar service offers a recording service. Each delegate gets a video of the event shortly afterwards. This beats speakers notes hands down.

SA internet access is good enough for both broadcasters and delegates. The replay video afterwards guarantees that your message will get through.

Paying delegates, not organisers, will decide how much online webinars will encroach on physical venue, because theyre paying the bills. Physical venues are already feeling the fallout.

Note that Bizcommunity staff and management do not necessarily share the views of its contributors - the opinions and statements expressed herein are solely those of the author.*
On the next Biz Takeouts Marketing & Media radio show on Thursday, 28 July 2016, from 9-10am, show host Warren Harding is joined by Simon Cranswick, managing director at Anana Africa, to chat about the rapid evolution of customer experience management and the annual CEM Africa Summit taking place on 17 and 18 August in Cape Town.

We also speak to Mike Jones, strategic planning director for NATIVE VML in Johannesburg about the NATIVE trends report, a monthly document released by the agency, focusing on what to look out for in marketing, advertising, tech and more.

Tune into Biz Takeouts every Thursday from 9am-10am live from the 2oceansVibe Radio studio in Cape Town as we discuss the topics that matter in Marketing & Media.

How to listen

Comments or questions

Podcast

A podcast of the show will be available in the Biz Takeouts special section on Biz later during the week.
If you're planning on heading north on your next trip in South Africa, you're likely to experience the popular wildlife and fascinating heritage which wait in the inspiring province of Limpopo.

Limpopo borders Zimbabwe, Botswana, and Mozambique, making travelling into other great Southern African destinations easy from this location. The province is great for any kind of road trip, whether you are hiring a car in South Africa or are taking your own, there always seems to be a fun-filled activity awaiting in this magical part of the world.

Mapungubwe World Heritage Site

Mapungubwe Hill

This UNESCO World Heritage Site is believed to have been the region of an ancient civilization and country which harbored literally hundreds of towns in its borders around the year 1050 AD to 1270 AD.

Today it has captured the imagination of archaeologists the world over, who discovered skeletons and fossils there who were believed to have been the descendants of royalty. Other objects recovered include beads, ivory, animal fossils, pots, and gold. Its said that more than one day is needed to experience the magnitude of the area and if you would like to camp it will cost around R200 a night or R950 a night for a cottage.

Visit this website for more information.

Take a boat trip on the Limpopo River

Taking a cruise down the Limpopo River is just one of the great ways in which travellers and explorers can enjoy the immense wildlife on offer. There is a great option at Olifants (Elephant) River where patrons can ride the Kambaku houseboat whilst experiencing a wide variety of wildlife including crocodiles, buffalo, hippos, and waterbuck. Olifants River safaris have an extensive two-hour river safari in one of the most impressive rivers in the Kruger National park. Visit this page for more.

Spring Festival

This annual festival happens every year around the 24 September until 4 October (late spring) which is a time of year that the area becomes fully in bloom with the wonderful cherry blossoms and apple trees the region is famous for.

However, this isnt the only activity on offer as the town comes alive with music events, craft markets and a general spring swing in its step type exuberance. Its a great time to visit Limpopo province. Visit this website for more.

Polokwane Art Museum

The museum prides itself in having a vast collection of South African art. The establishment focuses on bringing the province of Limpopo to the fore, hence it has a deep focus on the art of the province. Its believed that there are over a 1,000 artworks on display with styles ranging from ceramics, sculpture, and photography. Artists featured are said to have a strong connection to the mythology of the area. Visit this website for more.

Moholoholo Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre

This is one of leading tourist attraction in the town of Hoedspruit and its believed to be an inspiring and eye-opening experience. The facility is well respected and accredited for providing homes for wildlife that has been poisoned, injured or left behind by their friends or family.

They have a wide selection of recovering animals including lion, leopard, serval, cheetah, hyena, honey badger, eagles and vultures to mention a few. Visit this website for more.
Moe Gyo Sulphuric Acid Factory, erected in 2007 adjacent to Kankone locality in Sagaing region of northwest Burma (Myanmar) continues spreading smelling emissions causing respiratory, skin and eye problems to the villagers.

It came to light during a recent AI research mission to Myanmar, when the residents of Kankone village informed the AI representatives about their health related ailments. Slowly the emissions have damaged the soil and also crops in the area.

Myanmars government must intervene immediately and stop the operations of the Sulphuric acid factory. The factory must be relocated to an area where it cant endanger anybodys health, said AI business & human rights researcher Mark Dummett, who visited the Burmese village last month, in a statement.

The said Sulphuric acid factory was the subject of an investigation committee led by Aung San Suu Kyi in 2013, where the committee found that the factory was built without necessary permission from local authorities. The company that runs the factory is owned by the Myanmar military.

It is a criminal offence in Myanmar to operate a factory without permission but the government failed to open an investigation into this matter, and imposed no sanction on the owners for illegally operating the factory from 2007 to 2013, added the AI statement.

The newly elected municipal authorities recently decided not to renew the factorys annual license to operate pending an assessment of its health and environmental impacts. According to the villagers, the factory stooped from functioning for some weeks, but soon resumed its operations on 15 June without renewing the license.

The Myanmar government needs to stop the operations of the factory and move it to a safe location. It also should ensure that any negative impacts caused by the factory are fully assessed, disclosed and remediated, asserted Mark Dummett.
Sai One Hlaing Kham, a deputy from the Shan Nationalities League for Democracy (SNLD) party, submitted the proposal to take more effective action against drug gangs who sell heroin and methamphetamine also known as yaba.

Sai One Hlaing Kham also proposed building a rehabilitation centre for drug users with Shan state budget funds, the report said.
In the letter posted on the Burma Partnership website, Thwel Zin Toe, a steering committee member of the Womens League of Burma, said: We believe that with the experience and skills gained on the border we can support and help strengthen the process of national reconciliation, peace building and the democratic transition.

After fleeing to border areas following political oppression under the former military government, many activists from ethnic, youth, women and democracy groups found their citizenships revoked.

Thwel Zin Toe urged the government to set necessary guidelines so that those affected can get their Burmese citizenship as soon as possible, calling for the removal of names of activists on the blacklist.

Nai Kasauh Mon, director of Human Rights Foundation of Monland, explained that with support from the UN and international community, border-based CSOs have worked tirelessly on campaigns to free political prisoners and establish a democratic government in Burma. Additionally, educational and health services not offered in Burma were developed in border areas for the many refugees and migrant workers.

Nai Kasauh Mon said: We, border-based CSOs, wish to take part in various roles during the transition and utilize our skills that we have been learning for many years to rebuild a better country.

The idea for the open letter came during a consultation meeting discussing the roles and participation of border-based CSOs in democratic transitions in Burma.

Reporting by M.N.A.

Translated by Thida Linn

Edited by BNI staff
Normal Things That Science Cannot Explain Pulse oi-Syeda Farah

Every day we come across many things in life, sometimes normal and at times highly surprising.

However, if you sit down to analyse the scientific reasons behind these facts, it might surely surprise you to know that even Science doesn't have an answer to this.

Here, in this article, we are about to share the list of normal, regular things that Science cannot explain about.

These are the things that will surely surprise you as to how can even Science not have an explanation for it.

From the migration of birds to the mystery of the Bermuda Triangle, there are many such facts that need an explanation, which you can get to read about in this article that still remain unsolved!!

So, find out more about the theories and explanation about the things that just look regular; however, have no scientific base to it.

Read on for the normal phenomena that Science has no answer to, here!

Migration Of Birds It is quite confusing to see that birds migrate during a particular season. The best part about this is they reach their destination even without using any tracker or navigation signs. How do they possibly do it!?! Animals That Can Survive Without Oxygen! Did you know that there are certain new species of bacteria and organisms that require no oxygen for their survival? Well, yes, these species can grow in conditions that are devoid of oxygen, which Scientists are still researching on. Instincts Do you realise that your gut feeling is always right? Well, it is most of the times; and it has been a mystery to psychologists, as there is no specific study to prove on how intuitions work. Ghosts This will always be a hot debate among believers and non-believers since years and it will still continue to go on. While science believes that it's a mental phenomenon, people on other hand claim to have witnessed the appearance of ghosts in their lives. Alien Existence Though many people have claimed to seeing flying saucers and aliens, their existence is still a mystery that still remains unsolved, even by Science. Magnetic Poles This is an unexplained mystery of Science. No matter how small you break the magnet into, it would still have a north and a south pole! Amazing, isn't it?? Image Courtesy Yawning Yawning is one of the signs of being bored or tired. The actual reason of it getting triggered is something unexplainable. Though people believe it as a sign to show lack of oxygen in the body, there has been no proof until now regarding the same. Bermuda Triangle Mystery There have been various cases of aeroplanes and ships going missing in this death-trap triangle! Many scientists who have gone to find out the actual cause for it are missing as well. It is considered to be one of the most mysterious locations on Earth.

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Story first published: Wednesday, July 27, 2016, 12:57 [IST]
WASHINGTON  The Securities and Exchange Commission is arguing it can't fight a lawsuit challenging a revised rule to curb municipal securities pay-to-play activity because the fiscal 2016 appropriations act prohibits it from spending money on any rules governing political contributions.

The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati, where the suit is pending, has responded by halting proceedings until it can issue an order on the SEC's motion for dismissal of the suit. The SEC is arguing that the restrictions, along with federal statutes, prevent the three state Republican parties from challenging it over the latest revisions of the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board Rule's G-37 on political contributions.

Under the changes to Rule G-37, municipal advisors, similarly to dealers, will be barred from engaging in municipal advisory business with an issuer for two years if the firm, one of its professionals, or political action committee controlled by either the firm or an associated professional, makes significant contributions to an issuer official who can influence the award of municipal advisory business.

The revised rule contains a de minimis provision like the original rule. It would allow a municipal finance professional (MFP) or a municipal advisor professional (MAP) to give a contribution of up to $250 per election to any candidate for whom he or she can vote without triggering the two-year ban.

The Tennessee Republican Party, Georgia Republican Party, and New York Republican State Committee claim Rule G-37 is unconstitutional because its political contribution language forces municipal advisor and dealer employees to choose between doing their jobs and exercising their right to support political candidates. The state parties also argue that Congress did not empower the SEC or MSRB to regulate political contributions and instead made such regulation the exclusive jurisdiction of Congress and the Federal Election Commission.

In bringing their suit against the SEC and MSRB, the three state GOP groups relied on a provision of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 that allows for appeals court review of a "final order" of the commission, according to the SEC lawyers. The parties also cited sections of the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) that would allow for court review of the MSRB rule if it can be proved that an SEC "agency action" took place.

The SEC's motion to dismiss the suit argues that there was neither a "final order" from the commission nor any "agency action" leading up to the rule's approval.

The Dodd-Frank Act states the SEC has 45 days after the date a proposed MSRB rule is published to approve, disapprove, or decide to take more time to decide on the rule. If the commission does none of those, the rule is deemed approved at the end of the 45-day period.

SEC lawyers said the commission, after publishing the proposed changes, did not take further action on the rule because of the restrictions in the fiscal 2016 appropriations act. The act prohibited the SEC from using any funds to "finalize, issue, or implement any rule, regulation, or order regarding the disclosure of political contributions, contributions to tax exempt organizations, or dues paid to trade associations."

But under Dodd-Frank, the SEC's inaction meant the revised rule was subsequently deemed approved 45 days after the commission published it. It is scheduled to take effect on Aug. 17.

"The commission did not approve or disapprove the proposed rule change, nor did it institute proceedings to determine whether to disapprove it, within the relevant time frame," said the SEC lawyers. "The commission did not issue an order regarding the amendments to Rule G-37 and it did not publish any further notice regarding the rule."

The commission never met the definition of "agency action" as laid out in the APA, according to the commission's lawyers. The act defines agency action to include "the whole or a part of an agency rule, order, license, sanction, relief, or the equivalent denial thereof, or failure to act."

"Except for 'a failure to act'  each 'agency action' requires an affirmative and discrete act 'of an agency,'" the SEC lawyers argue, something that did not happen during the course of approval.

The lawyers defended against the possible applicability of the "failure to act" portion by pointing to three Supreme Court cases that determined a failure to act means the agency did not take an action it was required to do and could be compelled to do by a court.

The definition does not apply to the SEC in this case because the state Republican groups are not asking the court to force the commission to take an action and even if they were, the court could not do so because of the appropriations act, the SEC's lawyers wrote.

A lawyer for the three Republican state groups said they plan to file a response within the next few days and do not believe the court will grant the SEC's motion.

The MSRB has maintained that Rule G-37 is a "vital measure promoting the integrity" of the muni market and has said it intends to "vigorously defend the policies it believes should be in place to address quid pro quo corruption and the appearance of this type of corruption."

Rule G-37 was previously challenged after the SEC first approved it for dealers in 1994. Alabama bond dealer William Blount filed suit against the MSRB and SEC, arguing the rule violated his constitutional right to free speech. The D.C. Circuit Court rejected that argument in a 1995 ruling, saying the rule was "narrowly tailored to serve a compelling government interest." The Supreme Court declined to take up Blount's appeal after the ruling.

The Republican groups from New York and Tennessee that are currently opposing G-37 also unsuccessfully challenged an SEC-approved pay-to-play rule covering investment advisors. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia dismissed that lawsuit in August 2015 on a technicality, finding the two groups missed the 60-day deadline to challenge the rule after it went into effect.


A file photo.

KOLKATA (PTI): Texmaco Rail & Engineering on Tuesday said it has signed a pact with ROSOBORONEXPORT (ROE), the sole state intermediary agency for Russia's exports/imports of defense-related and dual use products, technologies and services for Defence production.



The MoU has been signed for cooperation in carrying out joint projects for modernization of Armoured Vehicles operated by the Indian Army; co-production of BMP-3; research, development and production of futuristic models and spare parts etc. at texmaco industrial facilities, a Texmaco statement said.



The cooperation will enable the two entities to provide cost-effective upgraded solutions for in-service Amoured Vehicles, as well as latest state-of-the art Russian technologies for building futuristic Armoured Vehicles under Make-in-India programme.



ROE is ranked amongst the leading operators in the international arms market.


Air France, which faces a cabin crew strike at the height of the summer holiday season, is warning of pressure on its finances amid concerns about France as a tourist destination following deadly attacks.

The company reported a 5.2% drop in second quarter sales to 6.22bn compared with last year, and about 40m in losses from strikes.
Jeff Henningfield owns a farm in southeast Iowa , 40 miles west of the Mississippi river - as he puts it, "essentially in the middle of nowhere".

Last month, he was doing a bit of digging when he found, of all things, a keyring from Radio Kerry dating from the 1990s.
A lone yachtsman has been rescued from an overturned sailing boat off the Wexford coast.

The alarm was raised at around 8pm last night when the sailor's personal locator alarm was picked up by search and rescue.
Supreme Court judge Mary Laffoy will head up the new Citizens' Assembly which will examine the Eighth Amendment and other issues, writes Elaine Loughlin.

Cabinet today appointed the judge, who previously presided over the Commission of Inquiry in Child Abuse, as chairperson of the Citizens Assembly.
A senior company executive who beat and began strangling a cyclist for riding his bike on a Dublin city-centre footpath, has been spared a criminal record and a possible sentence.

David Corcoran (aged 51) with an address at Collinswood, Whitehall, in Dublin, had pleaded guilty to assault causing harm to Philip Fitzgerald who suffered dental injuries during the incident at Clanwilliam Terrace in D2 on July 1 last year.

The case was struck out after he complied with a judge's order to pay 3,930 in compensation and to give 2,500 to charity.

Judge Michael Walsh had said earlier that Corcoran's actions were completely disproportionate but he ruled that he can avoid a criminal record and a possible sentence by covering Mr Fitzgerald's medical expenses and new false teeth, and by donating money to the Capuchin Day Centre in Dublin which helps people in need.

Garda Brian Cleary had told Dublin District Court that Corcoran was walking along Clanwilliam Terrace when a cyclist approached on the footpath.

Gda Cleary said Corcoran shouldered Mr Fitzgerald off his bicycle causing him to fall to the ground.

The incident happened at about 10.30am.

The businessman punched the cyclist in the face and head and got him into a headlock and kneed him while he was in a headlock.

The attack was stopped when members of the public intervened and broke up the fight.

Mr Fitzgerald suffered dental injuries and his face was scratched.

He had told Judge Walsh he has recovered and the court had heard he faced 3,930 in medical expenses.

Pleading for leniency defence solicitor Eugene Dunne had said at an earlier hearing that his client was a senior company executive who had no prior criminal convictions.

He had said cyclists using the footpath had been a problem in the area.

Vans were parked on the side of the path and his client leaned in and the hit the bike causing the cyclist to come off, the solicitor said.

But Judge Walsh said the businessman went further than that and had used the strap of the victim's helmet to try and strangle him, the effect was strangulation.

The defence solicitor had said Corcoran was apologetic for his behaviour and prepared to pay the cyclist's out-of-pocket expenses and to donate money to charity.

Judge Walsh noted Corcoran first saw Mr Fitzgerald approaching on his bike when he was 20 feet away and he said the company executive could have stood back to let him pass.

The judge accepted it can be annoying but said we live in a congested city and sometimes needs must.

Judge Walsh noted his remorse but described Corcoran's actions as disproportionate.

It was not more than a very temporary minor nuisance, we have it on every street of the city but we do not get someone by the throat and try and strangle them, the judge had said, adding that it was a very serious offence.

Gda Cleary had confirmed that Corcoran was co-operative and that the victim was happy if he got his dentures replaced he would be able to put it behind him.
A young father from Co Offaly has been jailed for eight years for his part in the killing of 47-year-old Christy Daly two years ago.

Ross Allen of Kilmonaghan Lodge in Clara suspected him of stealing a bag of drugs and played a role in two assassins being brought down from Dublin.

Ross Allen did not pull the trigger, but a jury felt he did have a hand in the brutal death suffered by Christy Daly, whose body was found in a drain near his home outside Clara in Jan 2014.

A burnt-out car containing 9mm bullets similar to spent bullets found at the scene was found at a nearby quarry.

Mr Allen (aged 26) left a bag of drugs near Mr Dalys caravan and suspected him of stealing it when he returned to retrieve it.

The drugs belonged to a criminal referred to as 'Mr X' during the trial and his suspicions ultimately led to two assassins being called in from Dublin.

Mr Allen facilitated the killing by retrieving a car and a sawn-off shotgun and by acting as a lookout.

He was convicted of manslaughter in May and handed a jail sentence today.

Mr. Justice Patrick McCarthy described what it as a very grave offence but said he had to offer him some light at the end of the tunnel and suspended the final two years of a 10-year sentence.
A retired guesthouse owner has been jailed for 18 months for the sexual molestation of his 11-year-old niece when she visited from America.

John Prior (aged 68) molested the child on two occasions in 1985 while she was on summer holidays visiting Irish relatives in Leitrim and Dublin.

Mr Prior, of Orchard Lane, Herbert Park, Ballsbridge, Dublin had denied five counts of indecent assault of the victim at Hartley House, Merrion Road, on dates between July 1 and August 31, 1985.

After a trial earlier this month a jury at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court convicted him of two counts but failed to reach a verdict on the three remaining charges.

On the first occasion, the girl asked to accompany her uncle to the shops to get food for guests at the bed and breakfast he owned.

During the car journey to the shops, Prior began asking the victim about sex and told her that women were sl**s and were like rabbits, she told the trial.

She said he became aroused and grabbed her wrist and put her hand on the outside of his trousers. Afterwards he told her they would have a special relationship.

On another occasion, Prior was watching a programme about a girl who had been raped when the child was present. He put his hand down her underwear and rubbed her.

The now-42-year-old victim gave evidence during the trial and was cross-examined on the basis that Prior said none of these things happened.

She was not present for the sentence hearing today, but Seamus Clarke BL, prosecuting, read her victim impact report.

She said suffered post traumatic stress disorder from the abuse and was hospitalised with a panic attack a year later.

Detective Garda Stephen Homan told the court that Prior has no other convictions.

Judge Nolan said this was a tragic case involving assaults which have had profound effects on the victim.

He said the events have led to great disharmony within the family.

The judge said that every sexual assault is a serious assault but Prior's offences couldn't be deemed the most serious.

John OKelly SC, defending, said his client had been a very successful businessman.

He said the widower had shared his success by dividing his pension among a number of charities.

Judge Nolan said that Prior was a charitable man but he had abused his position of trust and had isolated the victim.

Mr Clarke told the court that the victim was waiving her right to anonymity.
Irish Rail has said that the blockage to driver training must be addressed by trade unions.

The two sides in the dispute entered talks at the Workplace Relations Commission today.

Drivers are looking for a reduced working week.

They have threatened to go on strike unless their hours are brought in line with train drivers in the UK and Northern Ireland.

This would mean cutting their working week from 43 to 35 hours.

There is a continuing organised withdrawal of cooperation by drivers with the training of new drivers, which must be addressed by trade unions, Iarnrod Eireann stated.

Nine trainees in DART are being prevented from completing training, affecting the companys ability to respond to the needs of customers in the future.

Already trade unions have withdrawn cooperation with 10-minute DART frequency, and non-cooperation with training has emerged on multiple occasions as we seek to increase the number of drivers to meet future service requirements.

It added: These are crucial areas on which we wish to engage, but continuing frustration of training is unsustainable if we are to progress issues of concern to our drivers.

A joint statement from the National Bus & Rail Union and Siptu read: "Both unions today agreed at the WRC to also discuss the issue of driver training as part of the agenda set by the Labour Court Commissioned Report with the understanding, similar and consistent with industrial relations norms, that nothing is agreed until everything is agreed, we will as a matter of course return to the WRC tomorrow morning in the hope that the company will engage on the comprehensive agenda set out in the report, failure to so do will result in an immediate ballot of our members for industrial action."

Talks will continue in the morning.
Irish Rail train drivers are threatening more industrial action unless their hours are cut.

The drivers' unions are entering talks with management at the Workplace Relations Commission today.

They want their working week brought into line with train drivers in the UK.

Dermot O'Leary of the National Bus and Rail Union says it is time the drivers' pay and conditions were improved.

Mr O'Leary said: "We're always optimistic on the trade union side, we always put our best foot forward.

"Our members across Irish Rail haven't had a pay rise in over eight years.

"Train drivers have been 10 years looking for an improvement in their terms and conditions and again, as was evidenced last October, unless those improvements are forthcoming they will unfortunately have to engage in industrial action again."
A 44-year-old woman who has been on hunger strike for nearly 16 years in protest at alleged brutality by India's military has said she will end her fast and run in state elections.

Irom Sharmila told a court in the north-eastern state of Manipur that she will give up her fast on August 9 and stand as an independent candidate in elections early next year.

Ms Sharmila has not eaten any food voluntarily since November 5, 2000, when she began her protest against an Indian law that suspends many human rights protections in areas of conflict.

Three days earlier, 10 civilians had been killed by paramilitary troops in Malom, a small town on the outskirts of Imphal, the Manipur state capital.

Three days after she started her hunger strike, she was arrested on charges of attempting suicide - a crime in India - and prison officials at a government hospital in Manipur have since force fed her through a tube in her nose.

"The only way to bring change is electoral process. I will stand as an independent candidate from Malom constituency," Ms Sharmila told reporters outside the court, according to a statement from Amnesty International.

She said the single issue on her agenda would be the removal of the law that allows the military to act with impunity.

The Armed Forces Special Powers Act is in effect in Indian-ruled Kashmir and north-eastern areas dogged by separatist insurgencies. The law says troops have the right to shoot to kill suspected rebels without fear of possible prosecution and to arrest suspected militants without a warrant. It also gives police wide-ranging powers of search and seizure.

It prohibits soldiers from being prosecuted for alleged rights violations unless granted express permission from the federal government. Such prosecutions are rare.

Ms Sharmila has spent most of her detention in hospital, where doctors make sure her condition is stable. She is also required to report to a local court every 15 days.

Her long hunger strike has garnered support from across the world, and Amnesty International has called her a prisoner of conscience.
A 27-year-old Syrian asylum seeker who blew himself up in the southern German town of Ansbach was chatting online with a still-unidentified person immediately before the explosion, Bavaria's interior minister has said.

Attacker Mohammed Daleel died and 15 people were wounded when his bomb exploded outside a wine bar on Sunday night after he was denied entry to a nearby open-air concert because he did not have a ticket.

"There was apparently an immediate contact with someone who had a significant influence on this attack," state interior minister Joachim Herrmann said in Bavaria, news agency dpa reported.

It was not clear whether Daleel was in contact with Islamic State or where the other person involved in the conversation was, Mr Herrmann said.

He said investigators checking the assailant's mobile phone came across the "intensive chat" and that "the chat appears to end immediately before the attack".

"Because of witness testimony on what happened and also the course of the chat, there are indeed questions about whether he intended to set off the bomb at that moment," Mr Herrmann said.

On Tuesday night, the online magazine of IS said the attacker spent months planning the attack, once even hiding his homemade bomb in his room in a state-supported asylum shelter moments before a police raid.

The weekly Al-Nabaa magazine's report added that Daleel had fought in Iraq and Syria with a branch of al Qaida and IS before arriving in Germany as an asylum seeker two years ago.

Mr Herrmann said a roll of 50-euro notes was found on the attacker. It is unclear where the money came from - but it is "unlikely that it could have been paid for solely from what an asylum seeker in Germany gets in the way of pocket money". He did not disclose the total value of the cash.

The Ansbach explosion was the last of four attacks in Germany in a week, two of which were claimed by IS. Islamic extremism was not the motive in the other two - including the deadliest, Friday's shooting in Munich in which nine people were killed.

The German government said US president Barack Obama offered his sympathy to Chancellor Angela Merkel over the attacks in a phone call on Wednesday. Both stressed their will to continue fighting international terrorism together and with determination, the government said.

The attacks have brought Mrs Merkel's policy of welcoming refugees - more than one million last year - under renewed criticism.

A senior figure in the nationalist Alternative for Germany party, which has no seats in the national parliament but saw its popularity surge after last year's migrant influx, suggested that there should be "a halt to immigration for Muslims to Germany" until all asylum seekers now in the country have been registered, checked and had their applications processed.

"For security reasons, we can no longer afford to allow yet more Muslims to immigrate to Germany without control," Alexander Gauland, a deputy party leader, said in a statement. "There are terrorists among the Muslims who immigrated illegally and their number is rising constantly."

But interior ministry spokesman Johannes Dimroth said that "for some time" all new arrivals have been registered and checked against security databases.

As for whether people could be treated differently depending on their religion, "as I understand it that simply would be incompatible with our understanding of freedom of religion", he said.

Conservative politicians have called for an increased police presence, better surveillance and background checks of migrants - and new strategies to deport criminal asylum seekers more easily.

Al Nabaa's Arabic-language report on the attacker said he initially fought against government forces with al Qaida's branch in Syria before pledging allegiance to IS in 2013. He also helped the group with its propaganda efforts, setting up pro-IS accounts online.

In Germany, he started making the bomb, a process that took three months, al Nabaa wrote.

IS earlier claimed the Ansbach attack, publishing a video it said was of Daleel pledging allegiance to the group and vowing that Germany's people "won't be able to sleep peacefully anymore". It appears to be the same video as the one found by German investigators on the suicide bomber's phone.

Daleel unsuccessfully sought asylum in Germany and was awaiting deportation to Bulgaria.

The bloodshed in Germany began on July 18, when a 17-year-old from Afghanistan wielding an axe attacked passengers on a train near Wuerzburg, wounding five people before he was shot dead by police. IS claimed responsibility.

German train operator Deutsche Bahn said it would invest heavily in increased security and hire hundreds of security staff to control trains and train stations across the country.

The city of Munich said it is re-evaluating security for the annual Oktoberfest and is considering banning backpacks from the popular beer festival.
The remaining charges against three Baltimore police officers awaiting trial over the death of black man Freddie Gray have been dropped.

Prosecutors blamed police for a biased investigation that failed to yield any convictions.

Mr Gray was 25 when his neck was broken while he was handcuffed and shackled but left unrestrained in the back of a police van in April 2015.

His death added fuel to the growing Black Lives Matter movement, setting off massive protests in Baltimore and leading to the worst riots the city had seen in decades.

The decision by prosecutors came after a judge acquitted three of the six officers charged in the case, including the van driver who the state considered the most responsible and another officer who was the highest-ranking of the group.

A mistrial was declared for a fourth officer when a jury reached deadlock.

The case led the police department to overhaul its use of force policy, and all officers will soon be equipped with body-worn cameras.

The US Justice Department has also launched an investigation into allegations of widespread abuse and unlawful arrests by the department.

The officers have sued State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby, saying she intentionally filed false charges against them.

Mr Gray's family received a settlement of $6.4m from the city.

A defiant Ms Mosby held a news conference shortly after the announcement, saying there was "a reluctance" and "an obvious bias" among some officers investigating the case.

"We do not believe Freddie Gray killed himself," she said, standing in the neighbourhood where Mr Gray was arrested, a mural of him on a wall over her shoulder.

"We stand by the medical examiner's determination that Freddie Gray's death was a homicide."

She walked up to the podium as people chanted "We're with you" and her remarks were punctuated by shouts of support.

Mr Gray's mother, Gloria Darden, stood by Ms Mosby, saying police lied.

"I know they lied, and they killed him," she said.

Attorneys for the officers also planned a news conference.

The day started with a pretrial hearing for Officer Garrett Miller - who had faced assault, misconduct in office and reckless endangerment charges.

But chief deputy state's attorney Michael Schatzow told the judge that prosecutors were dropping the charges against Officer Miller and the rest of the officers.

Prosecutors had said Mr Gray was arrested illegally after he ran away from a bike patrol officer and the officers failed to buckle him into a seat belt or call a medic when he indicated he wanted to go to a hospital.

Ms Mosby wasted little time in announcing charges after Mr Gray's death - one day after receiving the police department's investigation while a tense city was still under curfew - and she did not shy from the spotlight.

She posed for magazine photos, sat for TV interviews and even appeared on stage at a Prince concert in Mr Gray's honour.

The city's troubles forced Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, who has taken a prominent role on the podium at the Democratic National Convention, to fire her reform-minded police chief and abandon her re-election campaign.

Many feared that the acquittals could prompt more protests and unrest, but they never happened and the streets appeared mostly calm on Wednesday.

The Gray case has not fit quite so neatly into the narrative of white authorities imposing unfair justice on minorities.

Three of the officers who were charged are white and three are black. The victim, judge, top prosecutor and mayor are African-American, as was the police chief at the time of Mr Gray's death.

No reputations hinged on the case's outcome as much as Ms Mosby and her husband, Nick Mosby, a councillor for Baltimore's west side who announced his mayoral candidacy shortly after Ms Rawlings-Blake pulled out.

Marilyn Mosby said: "We've all bore witness to an inherent bias that is a direct result of when police police themselves."
Pope Francis has urged Poland's leaders to overcome fear and show compassion to migrants at the start of his five-day visit to the country.

Fears run deep in the strongly Catholic nation that Muslim refugees could endanger the nation's security and erode its Christian traditions.

Francis, noting that many Poles have emigrated, spoke of the need to facilitate their return if any hope to repatriate, and understand the reasons that caused them to leave.

He added: "Also needed is a spirit of readiness to welcome those fleeing from wars and hunger, and solidarity with those deprived of their fundamental rights, including the right to profess one's faith in freedom and safety."

Last year Poles elected the right-wing Law and Justice party, which supports the Catholic church but has a strong anti-migrant message at odds with the pontiff's calls for mercy for people of other religions fleeing conflict.

Francis spoke in the southern Polish city of Krakow shortly after arriving at the airport and was welcomed by hundreds of singing and cheering people.

He was greeted by President Andrzej Duda and by first lady Agata Kornhauser-Duda and prime minister Beata Szydlo, who kneeled and kissed the papal ring in Poland's traditional way of greeting high Church officials.

He will join hundreds of thousands of young people from around the world for a major Catholic gathering.

Francis was also greeted by first lady Agata Kornhauser-Duda and prime minister Beata Szydlo, who kneeled and kissed the papal ring in Poland's traditional way of greeting high Church officials.

Mr Szydlo's conservative government openly declares attachment to the Catholic faith.

A military band played the anthems of the Vatican of Poland and the crowd waved the white-and-yellow flags of the Holy See and white-and-red flags of Poland.

.@Pontifex arrives in Krakow, Poland, for international Catholic youth jamboree ahead of #WorldYouthDay https://t.co/Z7myEg6ga1  Sky News (@SkyNews) July 27, 2016

Despite visibly tight security the pontiff waved from an open car window to the cheering crowd.

An official welcoming ceremony with speeches was to be held shortly later, at the royal Wawel Castle in Krakow.

It is the first time that Francis has visited an East European nation.

He earlier told reporters that the world is at war, but it is not a war of religions.

Francis spoke on the papal plane en route to Poland in the shadow of the slaying of an 85-year-old priest in France.

Asked about the killing, Francis replied: "It's war, we don't have to be afraid to say this."

He said that when he speaks of war, he is speaking of "a war of interests, for money, resources, dominion of peoples."

"I am not speaking of a war of religions. Religions don't want war. The others want war," Francis said.

The killing of the priest in a Normandy church on Tuesday added to security fears surrounding Francis' visit for the World Youth Day celebrations.

These concerns were already high due to a string of violent attacks in France and Germany.

Polish officials have deployed tens of thousands of security officials to cover the event.

Francis was greeted on arrival by the Polish Army band playing the anthems of the Vatican and of Poland.

He then travelled in an open car through the city, waving at crowds as he headed to the Wawel Castle for the main welcoming ceremony.

He is due to appear in the window of the residence of Krakow bishops, where he will be staying.

Francis will chat with some among the hundreds of thousands of pilgrims from around the world gathered for the World Youth Day celebrations running until Sunday.

"Let's live WYD (World Youth Day) in Krakow together!" the pontiff tweeted before departing from Rome, where he was bid farewell outside his Santa Marta residence by 15 refugees, new arrivals in Italy.

Groups of cheerful young pilgrims were seen in the streets of Krakow just hours before Francis' arrival.

Relics of St Mary Magdalene came to the St Casimir Church from France for the duration of World Youth Day, and were displayed in a case by the altar.

"Their presence helps us concentrate on our prayers and brings us closer to God," said Nounella Blanchedent, 22, from the French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe.

Ms Blanchedent was one of the volunteers helping with security and logistics at the packed church, where a Mass was held in French for pilgrims from France, Belgium and other countries.

Poland remains proud of the late pontiff, St John Paul II, who served as priest and archbishop in Krakow before becoming pope.

A sense of excitement was apparent in sunny Krakow on Wednesday with papal white-and-yellow flags and images of Francis and John Paul II decorating the streets.

Stages were put up at many locations for concerts and other activities that are being held by and for the pilgrims in Krakow.

There was a heavy presence of police and other security forces across the city, as crowds were increasing everywhere.

"I have never seen so many people in Krakow," said souvenir shop owner Anna Gazda.

"It's difficult to move around even though offices have closed (for the event) and many people have left the city."
Distribution of the assets of a scheme to compensate Jimmy Savile's victims has received final approval from a High Court judge.

Lawyers acting for the executors of Savile's estate say 166 individuals are receiving a total of 2.3 million from the scheme and other sources.

Law firm Osborne Clarke says 1.16 million is being paid to 78 of those claimants directly out of the estate, which was worth 4.3m when the paedophile DJ died in 2011, aged 84, without facing prosecution.

Critics have expressed "disappointment" at the level of individual awards, reported to average 13,000, though it has been stressed settlements vary in amounts.

Osborne Clarke, who acted for NatWest bank in its role as estate executor, has become the target of criticism after charging total legal fees exceeding 1m.

But Mr Justice Warren, sitting in London, ruled the fees were reasonable and no item of expense was improper.

The judge said: "I consider that the bank has acted properly and for the due administration of the estate in operating the scheme and that the work carried out by Osborne Clarke has been appropriate. From what I have seen, I think their charges have been reasonable."

Osborne Clarke said it had advised on the management and distribution of the Savile estate from December 2011 until its winding up this month and dealt with 271 claims involving numerous court hearings.

Its fees over four-and a-half years came to just over 1.2 million and were charged at rates discounted by more than 50%.

Any funds remaining from the estate are to be divided among defendants such as the BBC, the NHS and Barnardo's, which have already paid out damages.

But critics expressed disappointment with the level of compensation authorised by the High Court.

Gabrielle Shaw, chief executive of the National Association for People Abused in Childhood (NAPAC), said "Survivors will be disappointed by this ruling.

"The money in cases like this is most often used by survivors to support their recovery through therapy and other interventions, and this recovery often takes years.

"We know that state resources are tremendously stretched, with GPs and others who survivors look to for support struggling to cope with the demand".

Labour MP John Mann, who has campaigned against child sex abuse, said: "Yet again the legal profession is ruling that the legal profession should make huge profit out of people's suffering."

Victims launched compensation bids after Savile became the subject of an ITV television programme broadcast a year after his death.

Savile, who worked at the BBC, had been accused of being a ''serial child abuser and sex offender'' - and was alleged to have abused people in hospitals.

According to reports, Savile sexually assaulted victims as young as five at NHS hospitals during decades of unrestricted access.

He abused 63 people, who were aged between eight to 40, connected to Stoke Mandeville Hospital from 1968 to 1992, according to a Stoke Mandeville report.
The new British Prime Minister is continuing her whirlwind diplomacy tour of Europe with a visit to Italy.

Theresa May will meet Italy's prime minister Matteo Renzi in Rome today as part of her drive to engage with European leaders on Brexit.

This will be followed tomorrow by a trip to Slovakia and Poland, where she will hold discussions with Prime Ministers Robert Fico and Beata Szydlo.

It follows yesterday's talks with the leaders of Germany and France last week and Ireland.

A Number 10 spokesman said Mrs May wanted an early visit to Italy after becoming PM earlier this month, because of the close relations it has with the UK.

Thursday's trip to eastern Europe may prove more awkward as Slovakia and Poland are among the EU states most insistent on maintaining free movement of labour, and have also voiced concern about the rights of their nationals currently in the UK.

The countries are part of the Visegrad Four group within the EU which has called for the pace of integration to be slowed in the wake of Brexit.

Slovakia currently holds the six-month rotating presidency of the European Council and will host a summit of the remaining 27 states in Britain's absence in September to discuss their approach to the UK's planned withdrawal.

Following Downing Street talks yesterday, Taoiseach Enda Kenny said London and Dublin are agreed that there will be no return to a "hard border" between Northern Ireland and the Republic.

Mr Kenny said he and Mrs May are both against creating a post-Brexit string of customs posts on the island of Ireland.

Mrs May said she is determined to maintain "the closest possible relationship" between the UK and the Republic following Britain's withdrawal from the EU.
Police in England have closed a major road after a lorry crashed into a house in Shropshire.

A second goods vehicle is believed to have failed to stop at the scene of the smash on the A41 at Shakeford, near Sutton Heath.

The scene of the crash this morning. Pic via @OPUShropshire.

Emergency crews were sent to the scene shortly before 10.45pm on Tuesday and the road was closed in both directions as fire crews worked to make the affected building safe.

The road is expected to remain closed for several hours, and police are advising motorists to take alternative routes where possible.
Turkey has issued warrants for the detention of 47 former executives and senior journalists of the Zaman newspaper, allegedly associated with a US-based Muslim cleric accused over the failed coup, according to the state-run news agency.

The Anadolu agency said at least one journalist, former Zaman columnist Sahin Alpay, was detained on Wednesday.
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BERLIN: The world must not squander time but help Ukrainians rebuild their country swiftly, European Commission...
A son and his mother have spoken of the devastating and indelible effects of child sexual abuse at the hands of a trusted family member.

Willem Bowen Scheeren abused his nephew, Antony Vote, when Mr Vote was a young boy in Canberra during the late 1980s.

The abuse had such an impact on Mr Vote, 39, he still finds it difficult to meet people without thinking about what happened.

And Mr Vote's mother, Robin, has laid bare her "greatest guilt" and despair, blaming herself for not protecting her son from her brother.

At a hearing in the ACT Supreme Court on Wednesday, Mr Vote and his mother addressed the court, detailing the impact Scheeren's abuse had on them as he sat before them.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced plans for more than 28 trillion yen ($354 billion) in economic stimulus in an effort to prop up the economy, Kyodo News reported.

The plan will include 13 trillion yen in "fiscal measures," according to Jiji News, without specifying what that meant. There was no report of how much of the package would be new spending. Abe, speaking in the southern city of Fukuoka on Wednesday, said the package would be compiled next week, Kyodo said.

The landslide election victory by Japanese incumbent PM Shinzo Abe bought with it the promise of more economic stimulus. Credit:Bloomberg

In the days after Abe's ruling coalition won a big victory in the upper-house election on July 10, he ordered that a stimulus package be compiled as he seeks to again revive the economy. Abe met former Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke earlier this month and told him he wants to speed the nation's exit from deflation, underscoring his commitment to stimulus.

Japan's Topix stock index has risen more than 9 per cent since the election victory and the yen has weakened almost 5 per cent amid anticipation over the plan. Some economists have criticised the idea of a new spending package, saying the heavily indebted nation needs structural economic reforms and deregulation more than updated infrastructure.
Chicken giant Nando's allegedly used private security guards to take over a restaurant as part of a war against its largest franchisee over expensive upgrades.

The ugly fight has now landed in court, throwing the company into turmoil, with Nando's franchisees around the country refusing to bow to head office's authority and renovate their stores until the dispute is resolved.

Chicken chain Nando's is copping heat from franchisees who say they are being pressured into costly upgrades. Credit:Jessica Aquilina

The issue came to a head at two Nando's stores in Narre Warren and the Wareca centre in Clayton on January 11, 2016, about 11.35pm, an hour after the chicken fryers had been turned off and the stores closed for the day.

Alarms at both premises went off, activating a warning at the stores' private security base.
Jointly, Bridgewater and Tarui asked in March to withdraw the complaint from consideration by the Connecticut human rights commission. No reason was given by either party for the request, which halted the investigation. Bridgewater's employment agreement requires employees to settle disputes through binding arbitration. In a related action, the National Labor Relations Board recently filed a separate complaint against Bridgewater. The new complaint says that the company "has been interfering with, restraining and coercing" Tarui and other employees from exercising their rights through confidentiality agreements that all employees are required to sign when they are hired. Both Tarui's harassment complaint and the labour board's filings were obtained by The New York Times through Freedom of Information Act requests. "While it is difficult for our management team to independently judge the merits of this claim, we are confident our handling of this claim is consistent with our stated principles and the law," Bridgewater said in an emailed statement. "We look forward to operating through a legal process that brings the truth to light." Secrecy at Bridgewater is so tight that in some units employees are required to lock up their personal mobile phones each morning when they arrive at work

Tarui's assertions about Bridgewater's surveillance culture and its chilling effect were echoed in interviews with seven people who are former employees or who have done work for the firm. The people were not permitted to speak publicly because of the confidentiality agreements they had signed with Bridgewater. It is routine for recordings of contentious meetings to be archived and later shown to employees as part of the company's policy of learning from mistakes. Several former employees recalled one video that Bridgewater showed to new employees that was of a confrontation several years ago between top executives including Dalio and a woman who was a manager at the time, who breaks down crying. The video was intended to give new employees a taste of Bridgewater's culture of openly challenging employees and putting them on the spot. The firm no longer shows the video, the people said. Managing billions These former employees said other behaviour had raised concerns within the company. At an off-site retreat in 2012 with several top executives - including Greg Jensen, Bridgewater's co-chief investment officer - employees got drunk and went swimming naked, prompting complaints from some other employees in attendance.

Founded in 1975, Bridgewater manages billions of dollars for some of the biggest pension funds and sovereign wealth funds in the world. Its founder, Dalio, 66, is a celebrity in his own right - he has been a speaker at exclusive conferences like the World Economic Forum in Davos, and recently attended a White House state dinner. Steady performance for years has led institutional investors around the world to give Bridgewater money. For a time, James B. Comey, the current director of the FBI, was the company's general counsel, adding to its lustre. But over the last two years, the firm has lost billions of dollars for investors as a result of mixed performances and has begun to slow its hiring. And questions have arisen about Bridgewater's unusual culture. Tarui has been on paid leave from the firm since January 6, two days before he filed his harassment complaint. The labour relations board said in its separate complaint that Tarui was suspended after he "threatened to file a charge with the board." Douglas Wigdor, Tarui's lawyer, declined to comment and said his client would not comment.

Bridgewater, in a legal filing with the labour relations board, said its employment agreements were "tailored specifically to protecting Bridgewater's legitimate business concerns, including confidentiality interests that are unique to the financial services industry." A Bridgewater employee for five years, Tarui was responsible for meeting with large public pension funds. He previously worked for PIMCO, the bond giant, based in Newport Beach, California. 'Itch to scratch' In his complaint, Tarui said the sexual advances began during a business trip to Denver in May 2014, when his supervisor "caressed the small of my back" while the two men were seated on a couch in the supervisor's hotel room. Tarui said the incident made him feel uncomfortable and he immediately left the room. But the supervisor continued to pursue him, Tarui said in his complaint. On one occasion, he said, his supervisor confided in him that he had an "itch to scratch," and then asked Tarui whether he had ever "thought about being with other men." Tarui said he told his supervisor he "was not wired that way." But his supervisor persisted, Tarui said, adding that his boss then "specifically asked whether I would consent to having a sexual experience with him."

Tarui said he again rejected his supervisor's advances but his supervisor continued to make overt and subtle sexual overtures well into last summer. Tarui said in the complaint that he did not report the conduct out of fear it would become public because of the firm's policy of videotaping confrontations between employees. Eventually, Tarui did complain after his supervisor gave him a bad job performance rating even though he had been promoted and given a pay raise just a few months earlier. He said in the complaint that during a meeting in November 2015, he told a Bridgewater human resources representative and another top manager about the repeated sexual harassment by the supervisor. As is the case with every meeting at Bridgewater, the meeting was recorded. So was a later meeting with several top executives at Bridgewater including David McCormick, the firm's president. Tarui said recordings from those meetings were "widely shared" with managerial employees at Bridgewater. The firm promised an investigation. But in his complaint Tarui said that Bridgewater's management tried to persuade him to withdraw his allegations.
"There should be no further subsidies paid for an intermittent and unreliable power source that can be seen as as proven failure," Senator Chris Back is quoted as saying, in an apparent attempt to prejudge the inquiry he is calling for.

As Victoria gives the green light for a massive $650 million wind farm with up to 104 turbines at Dundonnell, 200 kilometres west of Melbourne, and with talk of more wind farms in NSW a Liberal senator has been calling for a moratorium on new turbines until the Productivity Commission examines what they are doing to prices.

First they were supposed to be destroying birds, then sleep. Now wind turbines are being blamed for destroying the Australian electricity market and pushing prices as high as $14,000 per megawatt hour.

On the face of it, it's an odd idea: that adding a new and very cheap source of power should push up prices (wind turbines cost next to nothing to operate). And for the record, it's not true. South Australia has more wind turbines than any other state. They supply more than one-third of its power. Yet a graph prepared by the Australian National University's Hugh Saddler shows that South Australia's average electricity price was much higher when they only provided 10 per cent.

Pacific Hydro's Challicum Hills wind farm, near Ararat, the biggest such farm in the Southern Hemisphere. Credit:John Woudstra

The complaint is about spot prices, those instant short-lived prices the big industrial users have to pay if they haven't insured against sudden movements, as a lot have not. Spot prices did indeed jump into the stratosphere a week or so back when the wind wasn't blowing. The typical spot price facing an industrial customer is $100 per megawatt hour. Suddenly they faced $14,000  a more than 100-fold increase. Ever since South Australia closed its last coal-fired power plants and mothballed its newest and most efficient gas plant it has had to import extra power from interstate when the wind has been low.

Normally, this isn't much of a problem, but as it happened the main cable used to import power from the eastern states was operating way below capacity when the wind dropped. It was being upgraded from a maximum capacity of 460 to 650 megawatts. That'll mean fewer problems in the future, but it created an awfully big problem at the time. So much so that the South Australian government directed the Pelican Point gas-fired power near Adelaide to get back on line.

It had been closed because the owner could make more money selling its gas contracts to exporters. So South Australia faced special circumstances. The gas export boom had closed one backup power supply and work on upgrading a line had closed another.
Trump's analog is: "Trust me." Leading up to his "I alone" moment at last week's convention was a long string of assertions by Trump that we just have to trust him - trust him to solve problems and implement even implausibly ambitious programs like rounding up 11 million undocumented immigrants. When challenged during the primaries for programs or plans on how he would carry out his extreme policy proposals, he habitually fell back on "trust me" or variations such as his "unbelievable ability" to "get things done."

"There has to be a trust," he told reporters in Michigan who asked for details about his programs. Several times this campaign, he has opened a window on his belief in himself as a unique repository of wisdom by claiming that "I predicted terrorism." (After the shooting in Orlando that killed 49 people last month, Trump tweeted his thanks to people for congratulating him for being right about such attacks.) Citing one of his books, Trump explained his unique ability to sense terrorism coming when all others are blind: "I predicted terrorism because I can feel it. I can feel it like a good location."

Trump's claim of singular powers was on display in an interview with Time shortly before the convention. He accused Germany, Japan and South Korea of playing the United States "for suckers" on defense spending and asserted: "They should pay us, pay us substantially, and they will if I ask them. If somebody else asks them, they won't."

Deflecting calls for specifics with assertions of superior ability is a technique that Hitler used, too. He increasingly monopolised the Nazi movement during the 1920s until "the idea", as his followers called National Socialism, was identical with the man. Likewise, Trump likes to call his juggernaut a movement, but it is really a one-man show. In business, Trump wrote in his 1987 memoir, "The Art of the Deal", "everyone underneath the top guy in a company is just an employee". So it would seem in Trump's political movement, as well, and so one would expect it in a Trump administration. (Trump's ghostwriter recently denounced the book as mostly invented, but Trump fervently defended the book's contents as his own.)

Hitler saw himself as singularly endowed to avert Armageddon and reach national greatness. For Hitler, there was no middle ground between the "total downfall" threatening Germany at the hands of a Jewish-Bolshevik world conspiracy and his vision of a renewed German glory - a vision of an instant "leap from despair to utopia," as historian Fritz Stern put it. Trump, too, posits a pending American cataclysm that can be averted only through his election, which will lead directly to reclaimed greatness.
Some would be dissatisfied with the state government's explanation that it was a "systems failure" that tragically killed one newborn baby and seriously injured another when the wrong gas was connected to an outlet in the operating theatre of a Bankstown hospital.

But, NSW Secretary of Health Elizabeth Koff was right when she said "we failed as a system". It is systems, not individuals, that are responsible for devastating errors in complex organisations like hospitals. And it is also here that potential solutions lie.

It is difficult to imagine circumstances more devastating than the needless death or injury of a newborn child. For every serious error that occurs in our hospitals, particularly one that takes a life, a "no stone unturned" investigation or inquiry is, of course, essential, as is the support of all those affected.

Yet, when things go seriously wrong in our modern healthcare systems we tend to respond in the same knee-jerk, but ultimately ineffective, way. We want to "find and fix" the error. We devote considerable resources to reverse engineering exactly what went wrong with the worthy intention of learning from our mistakes, so that something similar will never happen again.
Sir Roger Moore has paid tribute to his step-daughter Christina Knudsen after her death from cancer.

The former Bond actor, 88, posted the news alongside photographs of her on Twitter. He wrote: "Our beautiful daughter Christina (aka Flossie) lost her battle with cancer July 25 at 10am. We are heartbroken."

Actor Roger Moore and partner Kiki Tholstrup and her daughter Christina Knudsen. Credit:Florian Seefried/Getty

Ms Knudsen was the daughter of Sir Roger's fourth wife, Kristina "Kiki" Tholstrup. Thought to be aged 47 at the time of her death, Ms Knudsen was previously married to investment banker Nikolaj Albinus.

The couple's high-profile wedding in the south of France was featured in Hello! magazine, but their marriage lasted only 13 months.
The Greens have scraped into the final Senate seat in Tasmania and the Australian Electoral Commission has confirmed the return to Parliament of Labor's Lisa Singh, who has been re-elected on a wave of public support after being dropped to an otherwise "unwinnable" spot on the ALP ticket.

The AEC announced the 12 elected senators on Wednesday, with Green Nick McKim's success coming at the expense of Liberal minister Richard Colbeck - another Tasmanian who fell victim to party power plays.

Nick McKim has pipped Liberal Richard Colbeck for the final Tasmanian Senate seat. Credit:Peter Mathew

Senator Colbeck fell short when One Nation candidate Kate McCulloch overtook him and very nearly toppled Senator McKim.

The difference between the Greens' success and One Nation's failure to take the 12th seat was just 141 votes in a state of 350,000 voters.
Urban Dictionary, the Oxford of internet lingo, defines "mic drop" as: "When a performer or speaker intentionally drops/throws the microphone on the floor after an awesome performance."

A photo of First Lady Michelle Obama, on stage at the Democratic Convention, wearing a royal blue Christian Siriano dress should be used to illustrate the mic drop. A sartorial mic drop.

While these conventions are not about the clothes, they have offered up many fashion moments.

The most powerful so far was the outgoing First Lady. Obama's simple cap sleeve cobalt frock matched the blue backdrop, and allowed her appearance to take a back seat while she eviscerated Hillary Clinton's opponent without even mentioning his name. However, it is just the second time she has donned a gown by Siriano, a Project Runway winner who has made a career out of designing for women of all shapes, sizes and ages.
Police are investigating multiple allegations of child abuse against Australia's most senior Catholic cleric, Cardinal George Pell, including that he touched the genitals of children while swimming in a public pool in Ballarat in the late 1970s.

The allegations have now been referred by Victoria Police to the Office of Public Prosecutions for advice, the ABC reports.

The ABC's 7.30 program has revealed that Taskforce Sano has been examining allegations from complainants in Ballarat, Torquay and Melbourne for more than a year, and is looking into incidents that allegedly happened during Cardinal Pell's time as Archbishop of Melbourne in the 1990s.

The program has obtained eight police statements from complainants, witnesses and family members who are helping the taskforce with its investigation. The allegations were repeated on 7.30 on Wednesday night, and include:
A knife and a male DNA profile could prove crucial to solving the brutal murder of a homeless man under a Bathurst bridge.

Reginald Mullaly's body was found nestled in his sleeping nook under Dennison Bridge on September 20, 2015.

The 69-year-old homeless man had been bashed in the head before being stabbed at least 11 times.

Detectives revealed on Wednesday a small group of people had been identified as persons of interest in the killing with some thought to have played more integral roles than others.
Queensland scientists have warned that drug residues from medicines are finding their way into drinking water.

James Cook University's Dr Michael Oelgemoeller said that newer drugs "now persist longer and in more powerful concentrations," in waterways.

Modern medications are proving harder to remove from water supplies. Credit:Louie Douvis

Dr Oelgemoeller said the increase in the use of anti-depressants in Far North Queensland after Cyclone Yasi in 2011 could have had a negative impact on both humans and the Great Barrier Reef.

He said studies have shown "serious concerns" regarding the effects of drug residues on humans and animals and there was evidence that even the most modern water treatment systems were unable to completely remove residues.
Police have given the all-clear for a Milton site where reports of a bomb threat had come through earlier on Wednesday.

Workers returned to the construction site just after 11am.

A Railway Terrace work site was scoured after reports of a bomb threat. Credit:Jonathan Lea/Twitter

EARLIER

Police with sniffer dogs are scouring a Brisbane construction site amid reports of a bomb threat.
A neighbour heard a "huge scream" the night a pregnant McDonald's worker was fatally attacked as she walked to a shift, a Queensland court has heard.

Andrew Michael Burke has pleaded not guilty to the rape and murder of Joan Ryther on May 21, 2013, as well as killing her unborn child.

Joan Ryther was eight-weeks pregnant when she was allegedly murdered. Credit:Facebook

He's accused of viciously attacking Ryther, who was about eight weeks pregnant, as she walked to her evening shift at the Logan Central fast food outlet.

A Brisbane Supreme Court jury on Wednesday heard a couple who lived across the road from Mrs Ryther and her husband Cory recalled hearing a woman's scream on the night.
A bicycle was stolen almost every day in the past month in Brisbane's south as police reported an increase in bicycle theft in the area.

Police said bicycle theft had risen 30 per cent in Brisbane's south in the past 12 months, with 26 bikes stolen in the past 30 days.

A bike has been stolen nearly every day in the past month across Brisbane's south. Credit:Louie Douvis

Eighteen mountain bikes were stolen from Annerley, East Brisbane, Kangaroo Point, Sunnybank Plaza and Southbank Parklands.

Also, eight bikes were pinched from West End, Balmoral, Hawthorne and Eight Mile Plains.
It's been a year peppered with bad news stories and depressing debate about immigration and refugees.

"What we so often hear is that migrants and refugees are coming here and taking our jobs," says SBS executive producer Whitney Fitzsimmons.

"All I want viewers to do is smile at the end of the show"  Ricardo Goncalves of Small Business Secrets with Whitney Fitzsimmons.

"But what we know for a fact is that they're the most entrepreneurial, that they often actually create businesses that employ people and they take risks. As the show mentions, they make up around 30 per cent of sole traders."

Fitzsimmons's new show on the public broadcaster is called Small Business Secrets. Hosted by Ricardo Goncalves, the show will focus on everything from start-ups to franchises and established family businesses.
One of the more anxiety inducing thoughts for a parent is how and when to introduce technology to a child. Depending on the sources you read, handing an iPad to a small child is akin to throwing them a packet of cigarettes. Even the language is similar; reports describe children becoming addicted to screens, and having withdrawals when the device is taken away.

Much of the anxiety can be linked back to American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) "two and two" guidelines that suggest no more than two hours screen time for children, and no screen time for children under two.

Tablets can be good tools for play and learning, provided you get the right apps. Credit:Peter Rae

It's been pointed out before now that these guidelines were written long before the iPad, and were designed to limit the time a child spent passively viewing television, not interacting with a learning device.

And while it is clearly important to find a balance between screen time and green time, it's not as simple as saying one is inherently good for your child, the other inherently bad.
Police are urging members of the public to help identify a man at the centre of a vicious bashing that took place on a Melbourne train last month.

The assault occurred at 9.45pm on Wednesday 29 June, shortly after the train left Camberwell station.

The victim was slapped in the face, before having his head slammed into the carriage window.

The aggressor then got off the train at Canterbury railway station, but immediately reboarded - running at the victim and punching him in the face.
Arresting aerial imagery has revealed both the beauty and instability of WA's coast, showing properties under threat from the Coral Coast to Perth.

Coastal erosion is a hot topic after the recent devastation to New South Wales properties in storm surges; at home, the state government has shelled out more than $30 million for coastal protection works in Busselton and Seabird, with tens of thousands more going on sand replenishment at tourist beaches.

But Nearmap, which snapshots urban (that is, largely coastal) areas for government and businesses to monitor environmental trends, has provided a fresh perspective.

Survey planes have taken data-rich photos, as high resolution as seven centimetres per pixel, identifying rapid erosion in some urban areas, and contrasting rehabilitation work in others.
A Perth film based on a disturbed couple with striking similarities to David and Catherine Birnie has been selected to premiere at the Venice International Film Festival  one of the top three international festivals in the world.

The kidnap thriller, Hounds of Love, began shooting in Western Australia earlier this year, drawing its storyline from a number of infamous local and international crimes.

Emma Booth and Stephen Curry in Perth film, Hounds of Love. Credit:Australia on Screen/Jean-Paul Horr

Award-winning Perth film maker Ben Young created the film, which stars Emma Booth, Stephen Curry and Ashleigh Cummings.

It is the second WA film to ever be accepted into the Venice International Film Festival.
Cilacap: Fears that innocent people will be killed in Indonesia's looming executions are intensifying, with a former senior government official revealing an internal investigation he conducted into a condemned Pakistani man suggested he was innocent.

The former director-general of human rights in the Ministry of Law, Hafid Abbas, said an investigation he had conducted more than a decade ago was never acted upon by former president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

Pakistani death row prisoner Zulfiqar Ali is transferred from hospital to Nusakambangan in preparation for his execution. Credit:Wagino

"The report found Zulfiqar Ali was a victim of conspiracy and was innocent," Dr Hafid told Fairfax Media.

Fourteen death row prisoners from Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Pakistan, India and Indonesia were on Tuesday told they had 72 hours to live.
Latest News Westpac announces major partnership with NRL, NRLW Funding designed to grow sport for both women and men

Westpac predicts another RBA double hike If it is correct, an average borrower with a $500k loan could be paying an additional $800 a month, expert says

ASX-listed fintech company, Rubik Financial has announced the appointment of a new mortgage executive.



Jay Ellis has been appointed as the tech companys national account manager, mortgages. Ellis brings expertise in strategic sales across mortgage platforms and aggregation services to the role, which includes working with some of Australia's leading businesses in the mortgage industry.



Most recently he was the strategic partnerships manager at Plan Australia, where his role was helping national mortgage groups achieve their growth and sales targets, with a key focus on leveraging technology.



While at Advantedge he worked on the national migration of brokers onto the Podium Broker Portal across PLAN, Choice and FAST aggregation businesses. This included responsibility for the national roll out of an extensive training programme on a range of courses, such as managing your business and CRM essentials.



Jays intimate understanding of the needs of Australian mortgage brokers and the technology to support them is highly relevant to our mortgage business. Importantly, his experience in training delivery is critical to our clients as we continue to expand the number of clients and broker networks using Rubik technology, Rubik CEO, Iain Dunstan, said.



Rubiks mortgage solutions clients include ANZ, Vow Financial, Rams, Loan Market, and Astute. Ellis will be based in Rubiks Melbourne office.


Latest News Westpac announces major partnership with NRL, NRLW Funding designed to grow sport for both women and men

Westpac predicts another RBA double hike If it is correct, an average borrower with a $500k loan could be paying an additional $800 a month, expert says

The head of a Sydney real estate network has labelled Generation Y uncompromising and materialistic, saying they are at fault for cutting themselves out of home ownership.



At a time when housing affordability and home ownership  in particular the comparison between Generation Y and their Baby Boomer parents  is dominating headlines, Malcolm Gunning, principal of Gunning Real Estate said Gen Y are missing out because they aren't prepared to make sacrifices.



There are lots of young people who are complaining that it is too hard to buy in Sydney, however they won't forgo their material possessions, Gunning said.



More and more we are seeing a victim mentality associated with the high cost of property, yet this 'generation selfish' sees wide screen TVs, designer clothes, international holidays and eating out as every day essentials. They simply won't do what is necessary to cut their lifestyle in order to save a deposit.



They also aren't prepared to invest in a stepping stone property, in a less desirable location, they want the Surry Hills pad, right now and won't modify their expectations.



But findings from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia Report (HILDA) tell a different story. The comprehensive 13-year survey showed that entry-level properties are more expensive than ever. The HILDA report reignited this battle of the generations when it revealed this, suggesting that the chances for young Australians to own their own home are falling.



According to the report, the 10th percentile of homes  or the cheapest in the market  grew 108% in value between 2001 and 2014, compared to a 47% growth for 90th percentile properties at the top of the market.



On top of this, household incomes are dropping. While mean disposable household income had grown by $21,434 between 2001 and 2014, the report showed the median household income fell slightly between 2009 and 2014.



The HILDA report also found that people aged over 65 are the wealthiest and that the 45-to-54-year-old age group holds the largest share of investment properties. A surge in demand for investment properties has commonly been blamed for driving up house prices and undermining financial stability  so much so that the banking regulator, APRA, enforced an annual limit of 10% on this type of lending in December 2014.



But according to Gunning, members of Generation Y residing in Sydney have themselves to blame the most.



While we must recognise that government incentives have been reduced to new properties and the issue of bracket creep is an important one, Sydneysiders are those who have the biggest problem, he said.



Young people in regional areas, who are not bringing home as big a pay packet, are making sacrifices to get into the property market. They recognise that getting onto the property ladder should be a priority and do everything they can to ensure they are saving to get to their end goal.



However, it is worth noting that house prices have risen the most substantially in Sydney. House price data from CoreLogic shows home values in Sydney have been rising for four years, and have increased by a cumulative 59% over this growth cycle. In Melbourne, the second biggest capital city for capital growth, prices have moved 41% higher over the growth cycle to date.


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Take a trip to yesterday!

A new exhibit whisks Brooklynites back in time to see how their sunshine-loving ancestors traveled to Coney Island. The New York Transit Museums Five Cents to Dreamland: A Trip to Coney Island gives visitors a taste of commuter life from the horse-drawn carriage to the super speedy subway days, says the shows curator.

The idea is the show is tracing what a trip to Coney Island was in different time periods, said Rob Del Bagno.

Beach bums can now jump on the F, Q, D, and N trains to get to the seaside amusement park, but it was once a more arduous journey. Sun seekers once journeyed to the island via horse and buggy, trundling across a creek paved with oyster shells until 1823, when engineers built a bridge to the mainland, according to Del Bagno.

Exhibit guests can view pictures and mementos from the neigh-days, and as well as photos from the 1840s, when people voyaged from Manhattan to Coney via steamboat. The vessels were a popular way to see the sights, said Del Bagno, but railroads sped up the process in the 1860s, making the trip quicker than ever, and leading to a boom in amusement parks that led to the nickname Sodom by the Sea.

The introduction of the subway system in 1918 made getting to the Peoples Playground a breeze  people could zoom to Coney Island on the trains for five cents a pop, causing the beaches to fill with thousands of New Yorkers in their bathing caps, according to Del Bagno.

It became the place that everybody could afford to go, he said. It became more and more popular.

Transit enthusiasts can relive that subway trip to Coney on the museums two-hour-long Nostalgia Ride to the island on July 31. A train from the 1930s will zoom visitors from the Transit Museum to the beach and back. Del Bagno said the trains  which still boast the same ads and interiors from their era  are just as good as they were 80 years ago, and actually go faster than modern cars because they do not have to stop at stations along the route.

Five Cents to Dreamland: A Trip to Coney Island at New York Transit Museum (Boerum Place at Schermerhorn Street Downtown, www.nytra nsitm useum.org ). Open through Dec. 4, TueFri, 10 am4 pm, Sat, Sun, 11 am5 pm. $7.

Nostalgia Ride to Coney Island July 31 at 11 am. $50 ($25 kids). Tickets must be bought in advance here.

Reach reporter Lauren Gill at lgill @cngl ocal.com or by calling (718) 2602511. Follow her on Twitter @laurenk_gill
Alice Springs is full of indigenous Australians with nothing to do and nowhere to do it. Amongst those who live in what is called the "town camp", alcohol and drug abuse is rife and violence, especially against women, is endemic.

It is in this context that I am compelled to reflect upon the words of Rashmii Bell, who once again has favoured us with an intelligent and thoughtful article .

I HAVE just returned from a week spent in Alice Springs in central Australia. I went there with some reluctance because I find the town profoundly depressing.

Most depressing of all, the children are often subject to sexual abuse, absenteeism from school is normal and effective parenting frequently non-existent.



These people are truly fringe dwellers in their own country.

Enormous resources have been and continue to be devoted to the remote indigenous communities in what have so far proved to be vain attempts to ameliorate the worst excesses of what are very dysfunctional communities.

Huge sums of money and vast amounts of goodwill have produced few positive results. There are large numbers of burnt out and despondent doctors, nurses, teachers, social workers, child protection workers and police, whose idealism has been crushed under the sheer weight of their experience working in these communities.

I mention this because, as Rashmii rightly observes, Australia has a simply woeful record in dealing with its indigenous community.

The very recent emergence of evidence of the astonishing brutality in the Northern Territory's juvenile justice system [photo] is just the latest ghastly example of how badly we are doing.

The Australian Way, whatever it is, clearly is not doing much good for many indigenous people.

The granting of land rights, the issuing of formal apologies for past sins, the solemn intoning of acknowledgements of traditional land owners, the relentless promotion of indigenous culture and granting of large amounts of compensation have seemingly done little or nothing to help.

Despite our manifest failures, however, I do not think that we can or should be disqualified from pointing out the failings of others, especially the venal, corrupt and incompetent Papua New Guinea government.

It is a government that is failing not merely one comparatively small part of the community, but the whole of it.

The Melanesian Way, whatever it is, is clearly doing no good for the vast majority of Papua New Guineans.

A major qualitative difference between the circumstances of indigenous Australians and Papua New Guineans is that the latter are truly in charge of their own destiny. The colonial past is but a distant memory for a rapidly declining number of people: most only know an independent PNG.

So, while I accept Rashmii's proposition that I and others can appear to be commenting from a "plane of superiority" about PNG, I am not sure we actually are doing so.

We are aware of our own foibles and failings which, I think, someone speaking from a "plane of superiority" would not be.

Rather, my impression is that we tend to comment from a "plane of weary and somewhat despondent equivalency", wishing fervently that PNG should not repeat the common mistakes and misjudgments that have blighted so much of the post-colonial world, let alone some of our home-grown disasters.

If our words are sometimes harsh, I hope that Rashmii and others will accept that our hearts are in the right place.
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84th Precinct

Brooklyn HeightsDUMBOBoerum HillDowntown

Selfie struck

Police arrested a man who they say beat a guy with a selfie stick on Lawrence Street on July 18.

The victim was arguing with another person by Willoughby Street at 9:55 pm when the suspect allegedly bashed the victim on the arms and back with the camera-holding device, according to authorities.

Fright night

A pair of goons threatened to shoot a woman if she didnt hand over her pocketbook on Livingston Street on July 23  but got scared off by her screams for help.

The victim told police she was near Clinton Street at 9:55 pm when a man and a woman started pulling on her purse. She pulled back, at which point the lady thief flashed a gun and said, Give me your pocketbook or Im going to shoot you.

The victim then screamed, and the miscreants ran off empty-handed.

Stick up

Cops cuffed one of two men who they say knocked a guy to the ground and beat him with a stick on Smith Street on July 18.

The victim was near Fulton Street at 6:24 pm when he got into an argument with the two suspects, and one of them then pushed him to the ground while the other took a stick the victim was holding and whacked him several times all over the body, authorities said.

One of the suspects then took the victims phone, and both ran off, officials stated.

Police later cuffed one of the suspects, but are still searching for the phone thief.

Bling fling

A cat burglar broke into a womans Warren Street apartment on July 22 and stole her jewelry while she was out doing grocery shopping.

The victim left her abode near Fourth Avenue at 1:30 pm to pick up some produce, locking the door behind her, police said.

But when she returned home, she discovered the baddie had removed her bling from her dresser and scattered it on her bed, but several items  including her wedding band and diamond rings  were gone, cops said.

Blow hard

The boys in blue slapped cuffs on a man who they say tried to steal a guys phone and threatened to beat him up on an A train on July 19.

The victim told police he was traveling on the Downtown-bound train at 3:05 pm when the suspect started smoking in the car, blowing smoke into his face  so the victim snapped a photo of the suspect and the pair got into an argument.

The suspect then allegedly tried to take the victims phone, snarling Im take your phone and f you up when we get out the train, but was not successful, according to a police report.

 Lauren Gill
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68th Precinct

Bay RidgeDyker Heights

Cutthroat cretins

A pair of good-for-nothings robbed a guy at knifepoint on 62nd Street on July 22, according to a police report.

The guy told police he was near Eighth Avenue just before 2 am when the bandits approached from behind. One put the knife to his throat and the other blocked him from running, a police report stated.

The knife-wielding lout told the victim to cough up all you got, and the guy handed over his wallet with $200 inside, according to the report. The pair fled towards Fort Hamilton Parkway, police said.

Burning up

Two galoots stole a bunch of over-the-counter heartburn medication from a Third Avenue pharmacy on July 19, according to police.

They walked into the pharmacy near 93rd Street at 9:12 pm  one acted as a lookout while another stuffed five different kinds of indigestion medicine into his pockets.

It took them only five minutes to complete the caper, authorities said.

Basement break-in

A burglar broke into a 92nd Street home on July 18 and stole an array of jewelry, police said.

The family members told cops they were out of the house between Ridge Boulevard and Third Avenue by 8 am, and when the kids returned around 4:40 pm, they found the lock on the basement door broken and the door wide open. When the mother came home she found her bedroom ransacked, police reported.

The thief grabbed three bracelets, a brooch, a necklace, and a pillow case  presumably to stuff the goods in, according to a police report.

Tools nabbed

A freebooter broke into a mans commercial truck parked on 92nd Street on July 19, authorities said.

The guy parked on the street near Seventh Avenue around 10 pm and returned at 8 am the next day to find the lock popped on the rear passenger-side door, according to police. A power washer, drill, a sawzall, and a grinder were missing, police said.

Easy grab

A thief snuck into a guys car parked behind an Ovington Avenue building on July 16 and stole his wallet, police said.

The victim told police he parked behind the building at Fifth Avenue around 9:15 am and left it unlocked, he told police.

He came back an hour later to find his wallet  containing his credit and debit cards  was missing.

 Dennis Lynch
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.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo is sticking around in Philadelphia for a second consecutive day to participate in Democratic National Convention events.

Cuomo was scheduled to speak Wednesday morning at the New York state delegation breakfast at the Loews Hotel.

Later in the day, Cuomo will be a guest speaker at the Democratic National Committee's Labor Caucus meeting. And he will attend the convention session tonight, although it's unclear if he will be speaking.

If he doesn't speak tonight, Cuomo will deliver remarks Thursday night.

Cuomo arrived in Philadelphia Tuesday. He led the New York delegation in casting votes for Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, who officially became the party's nominee.
Syracuse Mayor Stephanie Miner, a superdelegate at the Democratic National Convention, only needed one word to describe the difference between her party's gathering in Philadelphia and the Republican National Convention held last week in Cleveland.

"In a word, substance," Miner said in a phone interview. "And also dignity to show that we, as Americans, have always worked best when we work together, when we listen to each other, not when we demonize each other. And that the problems that we have in our country need solutions that require all of us to play a part in that."

The first two days of the Democratic convention have featured numerous speakers focusing on a range of mainly domestic issues, whether it's criminal justice, the economy, health care and immigration.

For example, in a speech Monday, U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand said if Hillary Clinton is elected president, she will work to establish a national paid leave program and support equal pay for women workers.

That type of policy discussion is what Miner thinks sets Democrats apart from Republicans.

One of the issues Miner is spending a lot of time discussing this week is infrastructure. In New York, she has been a leading advocate for increased investments in infrastructure.

At the convention, she participated in separate discussions about transportation and infrastructure and water infrastructure.

Shortly after arriving in Philadelphia, she was watching television when a campaign ad was shown. It was a commercial for Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, who was pledging to Pennsylvania voters that his administration would ensure American steel is used to rebuild bridges.

The 30-second ad, Miner said, lacked substance and offered no policy ideas other than using American-made steel for bridges.

"It's more complicated than that," she said.

"As somebody who's been involved in infrastructure for years now, I have never heard Donald Trump or anybody from (the Republican Party) talk in any substantive way about infrastructure or talk about it in a way that makes sense."

On infrastructure, Democrats have made it a key part of their platform. The party's platform includes 21 mentions of the 13-letter word.

The GOP's platform mentions "infrastructure" three times and doesn't contain specific proposals on how to address the nation's crumbling bridges and roads.

Miner said that shows how Democrats have been "more thoughtful" about addressing infrastructure needs.

"We've been more consistent about it," she said. "Because we're putting forward substantive ideas and solutions to real policy problems. We're not scapegoating other people. We're not putting out 30-second commercials and thinking that can solve our very complicated problems."

The Syracuse mayor has been a staunch Clinton supporter. When the Democratic presidential nominee visited New York ahead of the state's primary, she held a roundtable discussion with Miner in Syracuse.

Miner also spoke at a rally for Clinton at the Central New York Regional Market.

When it comes to who's best equipped to handle infrastructure, Miner believes Clinton will make it a top priority.

"One of the things that she can do and has been pointed to throughout her career is that she works very hard," she said. "She's very smart and she's committed to getting the job done. And at this point in our country, I think that's exactly what we need."

The Democratic convention continues Wednesday with speeches by President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden and Clinton's running mate, U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine.

On Thursday, Clinton is scheduled to deliver her acceptance speech after officially receiving the Democratic presidential nomination.
Campus News

Lake outing offers students chance to enjoy the water while practicing their English

Students in the Intensive English Program explore Lake LaSalle in canoes and kayaks. Program administrators say excursions like this offer students the opportunity to have fun while practicing their English-language skills in a social context. Photo: Douglas Levere

Students and staff gather on the shores of Lake LaSalle. From left are Jin Chen, Arwa Alobaid, Wen Guo, Lori Hossain, Stephen Caldiero, Junhao Zhang, Siyuan Liu, Bote Shi, Zhenhao You, Colleen Maloney-Berman, Kirsten Reitan, Wawarat Khuansiri and KwanYee Hung. Photo: Douglas Levere

By CATHLEEN DRAPER

When I first tried, it was amazing, you know. I hadnt tried in Saudi Arabia. 

On a warm July Wednesday, 30 international students approach the boat launch at Lake LaSalle, the water sparkling in the abundant summer sunshine. The students excitedly chat in their native languages as they gather near the dock, ready to canoe and kayak for the first time.

Does anyone here know how to walk on water? jokes Russ Crispell, director of outdoor pursuits in the Office of Student Life.

Students look to each other and laugh. They shake their heads and Crispell begins his presentation, lifting a life jacket from one of the size-ordered piles on the ground next to him.

Most of the students have never been on the water before; some dont know how to swim. Crispell emphasizes the importance of wearing the flotation device, showing students how to adjust the straps for a secure fit.

He then grabs a canoe paddle, indicating the proper way to hold it. He does the same with a kayak paddle, showing students how to steer the respective vessels.

For Nouf Alosaimi, the demonstration serves as a refresher. She came to the United States from Saudi Arabia almost two years ago, and she kayaked for the first time last summer.

When I first tried, it was amazing, you know, Alosaimi says. I hadnt tried in Saudi Arabia.

Colleen Maloney-Berman, program director of the Intensive English Program in UBs English Language Institute, organized the excursion for students as part of IEPs Warm Weather Wednesdays, a spinoff of a past university-wide summer program that organized activities to encourage students, faculty and staff to enjoy the North Campus during the summer months.

Maloney-Berman says the IEP had taken part in those Warm Weather Wednesday events to give our students a chance to use English with native speakers in social contexts that might be novel for them.

The IEP helps students improve their English language skills before they begin their studies at UB or at other American colleges and universities. This years summer session includes 60 students from China, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Yemen, Brazil, Taiwan, Vietnam, Japan and Democratic Republic of Congo.

IEPs Wednesday programs give students a break from the classroom  where they spend five hours a day  to enjoy the Buffalo summer and experience a facet of American culture they havent tried before.

One Saudi Arab woman, who couldnt wait to paddle a canoe for the first time, told me that Lake LaSalle was the largest body of water shed ever been on, Maloney-Berman recalls from one of the Warm Weather Wednesday events last summer.

IEP students earlier this summer created multicolored sand art and took part in a sidewalk chalk activity. On Flag Day in June, they crafted wrist bands featuring their home countries flag colors. Upcoming events include Yoga for ESL and calligraphy lessons taught by IEP students whose first languages  among them Arabic, Chinese, Persian and Japanese  feature calligraphy in their written forms.

As Crispells crash course in water safety comes to an end, students leave their bags on a nearby picnic table and strap on life jackets. A majority of the students approach the dock and get into a canoe or kayak.

They paddle  hesitantly, at first  toward the center of the lake. Most stop to simply float and chat while admiring picturesque views of Greiner Hall, Letchworth Woods, the pillars at Baird Point and the academic spine.

Alosaimi stands back from the dock, and Maloney-Berman asks her to go for a canoe ride. As they launch into the lake, Pam Khuansiri successfully steers her canoe to the shoreline, climbing out of the boat.

She looks like a professional, Crispell remarks.

Khuansiri, a native of Thailand, unstraps her life jacket and laughs as her classmates and instructors congratulate her on a successful landing.

In my country, they have canoeing, but I never tried, Khuansiri says.

She says she was only a little bit nervous when she first got into the boat, but it was smooth sailing once on the water.

As Khuansiri gathers her bag to head back to class, Crispell mentions that canoeing and kayaking are free to students, along with faculty and staff, throughout the year.

Crispell turns back to the water, counting the canoes and kayaks as students return to shore. He notices one is unaccounted for, and Maloney-Berman spots two backpacks remaining on the picnic table.

Together, they realize two students are still on the water  and out of sight. Crispell sets out to look for the students, who likely turned a corner and lost track of time.

Soon, a canoe appears from underneath the bridge on the Audubon Parkway, where Lake LaSalle stretches behind Greiner Hall and the Ellicott Complex. The intrepid students, both from China, paddle to shore and recount finding the end of the lake.

Their adventure is surely the first of many on campus, and their shared excitement can only mean theyll be back on the water soon enough.
The Grosvenor Estate is engaged in a controversial bid to redevelop Newsons Timber Yard on Pimlico Road, Belgravia. The developer plans to convert the 175-year-old timber yard into high end residential and large retail units.

This will mean the closure of the oldest functioning timber yard in the country, the loss of six independent retailers and will potentially put more than 30 local jobs at risk. Newsons Timber Yard is the oldest functional timber yard in the UK still operating on its original site; protestors against the redevelopment argue that it should be protected as a national architectural asset.

They say that the timber yard has been vital to the livelihoods of those that work there, with staff having accumulated a combined total of 168 years local service, and one employee having served over 32 years at the yard.

The Belgravia Society, The Belgravia Residents Association and The Pimlico Road Traders Association are all against Grosvenors redevelopment and have written letters in support of the Belgravia Societys application for Newsons Timber Yard to be made an Asset of Community Value.

Travis Perkins have engaged with the local community and have set up Save Newsons Timber Yard, a campaign to appeal against Grosvenors plans. The campaign is urging residents and the business community to sign a campaign petition and write letters objecting to the redevelopment to Westminster City Council.

A spokesperson from Travis Perkins said: We have played an important role in maintaining the continuity of the Pimlico Road timber yard in its original function from its inception 175 years ago and want to continue this service.

It is unsustainable planning policy to push out successfully operating businesses from communities that need them. The yard plays an integral role in supplying local craftsmen, businesses and independent retailers in Belgravia and should not be forcibly closed in favour of large retail units that are not wanted locally.
Terex Construction has appointed Jon Beckley to the role of national accounts relationship manager for its UK manufacturing facility in Coventry.

In his new role, Mr Beckley will manage Terex Constructions national client portfolio, with a principal goal of developing strong relationships with existing accounts and supporting their equipment requirements. Going forward, he will also play a role in further expanding the companys national and international presence with major fleets.

Paul Macpherson, sales and marketing director of Terex Constructions UK manufacturing facility in Coventry, said: As we continue our ambitious growth, we are delighted that Mr Beckley has taken on this new role, which will help us to consolidate relationships with existing customers and further develop opportunities with new partners.
What you need to know to sign up for NJ Obamacare this year
The backyard of the Auburn home where human remains were found last weekend was used as a prison inmate burial ground more than 100 years ago, historical records and newspaper articles state.

The Auburn Police Department said Wednesday it is continuing to investigate who is responsible for the remains discovered behind the home at 63 Fitch Ave. and their reburial, and the Onondaga County Medical Examiner's Office is testing the bones to determine their age, how many people may be associated and anything else it can discover.

Police disclosed Monday that human bones were discovered at the property on Saturday when excavation work was being done in the backyard.

Records show that the land was at one time owned by the state of New York and used as a place to bury the unclaimed remains of executed prisoners. Newspaper articles dating back to the late 1800s and early 1900s describe pre-dawn burials arranged by secretive prison wardens, and next door neighbors peeking through their curtains to catch a glimpse of a grave digger pouring lime over the bodies in pine wood caskets.

According to the text of a New York state law passed on April 26, 1898, warden Louis E. Carpenter had acquired the property in 1873 as an agent of the prison. The law was giving him the authority to sell the property.

The law describes the parcel as "occupied by said prison as a burial lot for deceased convicts," and says the proceeds from a sale of it would go toward searching for and buying property outside of the city of Auburn for a new place to bury inmates.

It's not clear, however, when that took place.

City directories show that the state of New York, labeled as "SNY," still owned the land in 1897, and maps show the lot as empty, jutting up against Fort Hill Cemetery, with neighboring lots lined with houses.

An article from The Auburn Bulletin dated Aug. 8, 1890, described the inmate burial ground as "next to the Fitch avenue entrance to Fort Hill cemetery." The reporter, who covered the final hours of an inmate, William Kemmler, wrote that the burial took place between 4 and 5 a.m.

One of the grave diggers told the reporter that Kemmler's grave was the first to be dug in 10 years, and that he "laughed at the idea of keeping it secret, and half tenderly, half regretfully, he threw on a few more shovels of earth and rounded off the grave."

The cemetery was described as "neglected and has more of the appearance of a misused farmyard than that of a Christian burial plot. About the center of the yard are ten or a dozen bee hives. The greater part of the yard is at present overgrown with wild carrot."

Nearly 20 years later in 1909, a brief article in The Auburn Citizen dated March 19, says, "At 3:30 o'clock the remains of Randazzio, executed at the prison this morning, had not been claimed by relatives and they were taken to the convict burying grounds in Fitch avenue and buried."

Records show that at some point in 1909, J.H. Woodruff, manager of Auburn Button Works, claimed ownership of the parcel, which for many years carried the address of 47 Fitch Ave.

Jump forward nearly 100 years later, and the house that currently resides on 63 Fitch Ave. was built in 1996, county real property records state. It was bought by Cayuga County Habitat for Humanity in 2003. In the property's most recent deeds, there are no mentions of an inmate cemetery.

The APD said it could not comment at this time about the land's history or the status of the investigation.
AUBURN  A small community focus group questioned Auburn Fire Chief Jeff Dygert at a special meeting Tuesday in the search for the next city manager.

Nearly all of the nine panelists took turns interviewing the interim city manager in a public forum at city hall; one of the members could not attend the meeting.

When asked why he should be chosen to fill the full-time position, as opposed to an external candidate with more experience in public and business administration, Dygert highlighted his local connections and positive relationship with the community.

"It would take a lot longer for an outside candidate to connect with the community and learn who's who," he said, noting that he has been a resident of Auburn for most of his career. "And I think my past performance will speak to my future performance."

The 46-year-old moved to the city in 1994 when he was hired as a firefighter with the Auburn Fire Department. Since then, Dygert has worked in every rank at the department, from lieutenant in 2001 to chief in 2011.

Dygert also mentioned his history with the firefighters union, serving as its president for two years.

"With the firefighters union, we had a good, open communication-type relationship," he said. "The city manager needs to have a proactive relationship with the unions and, as a whole, we've got to improve our communication and collaboration."

In regard to the budget, Dygert said he wants to make sure all departments are well-represented early on, suggesting a "year-long process" to reduce stress during the budget season.

The focus group  appointed in April to provide feedback to the Auburn City Council, which ultimately approves the hire  also asked Dygert about his experience as interim city manager so far.

"It's been eye-opening," he said, adding that his hardest task has been conflict resolution. "This is definitely a challenge ... but I like a challenge."

In addition, Dygert said he likes "consistency, uniformity and fairness," which is what the city can expect should he be hired. He also hopes to focus on what he feels are the three biggest issues facing Auburn right now: funding, future development planning and an aging infrastructure.

City Council members did not attend the meeting Tuesday. According to City Clerk Chuck Mason, the community group "wanted a discussion without interference from the council." However, the forum was recorded for the council to review, Mason said, and they hope to come to a decision at the end of August.

"In the end, it's all about communication and trying to get everyone working together toward a common goal," Dygert said. "It's as simple as that."
It's almost six months since the government imposed a minimum import price (MIP) of $341-752 a tonne on certain steel items but imports continue at prices lower than these, alleged the industry.
The net profit of the countrys top mobile operator, Bharti Airtel, for the June quarter dipped 31 per cent to Rs 1,462 crore against Rs 2,113 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous year, mainly on account of higher spectrum costs and adverse foreign-exchange loss due to devaluation of the Nigerian currency, naira.
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Shanghai (Group) Co will sign a definitive agreement on Wednesday to buy a controlling stake in India's Gland Pharma in a $1.4 billion deal, the Economic Times newspaper reported, citing a source with direct knowledge.

In May, Shanghai Fosun had made a non-binding proposal to buy Gland Pharma, which is backed by KKR & Co , to boost its drug manufacturing and research and development capacity.

Fosun did not immediately comment, when contacted by Reuters. Gland Pharma made no immediate comment on the report.

The paper said KKR declined to comment.

(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.)
AUBURN  After the preliminary public hearing on the Cayuga County Legislature's proposed motor vehicle tax, Legislator Mark Farrell beat the agenda to the punch, making a motion to table the tax.

Legislators agreed 10-5 to postpone action. Legislators Tim Lattimore, Paul Pinckney, Michael Didio, Tucker Whitman and Terry Baxter wanted to proceed, with Whitman hoping to vote down the tax altogether.

The Tuesday night public forum included eight speakers, none of whom were for the proposed tax. The tax would charge people $5 per year on passenger vehicles and $10 per year on commercial vehicles. That translates to $10 during a car's registration and $20 during a commercial vehicle's registration. Revenue generated would bring the county approximately $425,000. Currently, 38 counties in New York state have a motor vehicle tax.

Chris Jorolemon of Page Trucking in Weedsport, said of the approximately 700 vehicles his company registered in New York state last year, about 600 of them were registered at the local Cayuga County Department of Motor Vehicles. Page Trucking operates out of other states, but employs 85 people specifically in Cayuga County, he told legislators. But, Jorolemon said, his company has begun to consider moving its base out of state.

"My concern, or our concern as a business is, we employ 85 people who reside in Cayuga County, and it's more of a business climate issue in New York state as a whole," Jorolemon said. "It's decisions that keep coming down from a state level and more recently a county level that make us seriously consider things like that."

Jorolemon suggested the Legislature consider exemptions for businesses, since there are some exemptions on agricultural equipment in the proposed law.

J. Michael Currier, of Auburn, brought a house "for sale" sign to the meeting and told legislators that despite his 60 years living in Cayuga County, he was considering moving out of state. As a private citizen on a fairly fixed income, the taxes and fees imposed between the city and county have cost him about $500 more per year, he said.

Dale Bush, also an Auburn resident, said that while he's totally against the tax, if it does go forward, he'd like to see the money go toward fixing roads and bridges.

Former Chairman of the Legislature Mike Chapman and former Legislator Hans Pecher both spoke out against the tax, calling for the county to make cuts instead.

"I complement you on your concerns about budget at this time of the year," Chapman said. "Regardless, this type of tax is a band aid. The monies collected will be deposited in the general fund. Unless given dedication and tracked as such, would end up just like the monies resulting in the 4 percent home heating fuel tax that the county charges and that generates about $1 million each year. Creating a new tax should receive thorough review including expectations and probable outcomes."

Pecher said he'd like legislators to consider cutting funding to the county's Soil and Water Conservation District and the Cornell Cooperative Extensions, since they are not under the control of the county.

Prior to the hearing, a short budget presentation was made by Deputy Treasurer II Jennifer Indelicato and the county's Budget Director Lynn Marinelli, giving a predicted glimpse into the county's future finances.

Indelicato explained that the projected fund balance, which is essentially the county's savings account, would be about $18,688,429 by the end of the year. Historically, the county's fund balance has decreased over the years except for some unexpected revenue including the closing of the county's nursing home.

Marinelli said the projected sales tax numbers are off the mark, too, as the county has always relied on an increase. While she included increases in the projections, she recommended that those not be relied upon. Overall, the county is projected to use about $1.5 million from the fund balance to balance its bills this year.

County Administrator Suzanne Sinclair also explained some of the state mandates the county is currently facing including funding defense counsel for those who cannot afford an attorney. She said in New York state, counties contribute about 15 percent to the state's budget, whereas in many other states, counties contribute between 1 and 2 percent.

After the public was heard, Farrell motioned to table the vehicle tax so legislators could look into exemptions and designating funds.

"I think that the discussions were good," said Chairman of the Legislature Keith Batman. "I think people raised a number of questions, most of which frankly we have thought about and talked about, but not all of them. So I think it makes sense to consider everything people have said, consider our finances to see what we don't want. No one, I guarantee wants to impose a new tax if we have alternatives, so that's what we're going to be looking at. I would add, our department heads have cut close to $1 million in this year's budget, so they are aware of it and are working at it. I'm hoping we can find more cuts, but there's a point at which cuts take time. What you can do in two, three, four, five years sometimes you can't do in six months. That's going to be our challenge."
in India can create 12 million new jobs by 2025, said a report by HSBC. Business-as-usual estimates suggest that India could have a shortfall of 24 million jobs over the next decade; could fill half that gap.
IDFC Ltd is in talks with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to look at the possibility of doing businesses that are in compliance with regulations, senior officials of the company said.
Sajjan Jindal-led reported a better-than-expected net profit of Rs 1,109 crore in the June quarter, the highest-ever quarterly bottomline churned by the company, on the back of increased volumes and significant reduction in cost even as realisations remained a tad up. In the corresponding period last year, the Mumbai-based company had reported a net profit of just about Rs 21 crore.
On Thursday, shareholders of Century Textiles and Industries will vote on a resolution which seeks to charge shareholders for documents they seek from the company.
Public sector (SBT) has reported a net loss of Rs 742.89 crore for the June quarter due to higher NPAs.

Its net profit during the corresponding quarter in last financial year stood at Rs 81.32 crore, the bank said in a statement.

On account of higher provisions of Rs 1,170 crore for NPA (Non-Performing Assets) and additional prudential provisionsor other stressed accounts, the bank has faced losses.

The Gross NPA stood at 9.38 per cent, while Net NPA was 5.99 per cent as onJune 2016, it said.

The bank, however, has recorded an operating profit of Rs 426.65 crore during the quarter under review.

SBT  one of the Kerala based-banks  is proposed to be merged with State Bank of India (SBI).

The Kerala Assembly had recently passed a resolution asking the Centre and RBI to revoke the decision for merger. Staff Unions of SBT had also protested against the merger. Both ruling CPI(M)-led LDF and Congress headed UDF had supported the resolution.

The other income also grew by around 35 per cent to Rs 351.37 crore during the three-month period as against Rs 260.72 crore in June quarter of the preceding financial year, on the back of robust growth of 142 per cent growth in profit from treasury operations.

While total deposits grew by Rs 10,255 crore mainly driven by a robust CASA growth of Rs 5,669 crore representing more than 55 per cent of total deposit growth.

The trend is also reflected during the current quarter of this financial year with a CASA growth of Rs 1,954 crore out of the total deposit growth of Rs 3,028 crore representing 65 per cent of total deposit growth during this quarter.

"The bank has been consistently growing CASA Deposits and replacing high cost deposits and bulk deposits with retail deposits to cut interest costs.

SBT's Current and Savings (CASA) deposits ratio stood at 31.84 per cent as on March 31, 2016 as against 29.79 per cent as against the corresponding period last year.

"The high cost deposit and bulk deposits came down sharply from 13.24 per cent to 9.34 per cent," C R Sasikumar, MD, SBT, said.

Total advances stood at Rs 68,276 crore as on June 2016 as against Rs 68,411 crore as on June 2015, the release said.

SBT has a total of 1,178 branches and 1,742 ATMs in 16 states and three Union Territories.

The bank has 851 branches and 1,370 ATMs in Kerala alone.
Riding high on overwhelming response to V15, is now gearing up to dominate value segment 150 cc motorcycle market. The company is already considering the launch of 2 new bikes under the V brand by the end of the 2017-18 fiscal.
has doubled its market share to 2.8 per cent in June over the corresponding month last year. Jet Airways saw the sharpest fall among all airlines during this period.
NILES  State police are investigating a possible theft at a Niles farm after a couple reported their horse had gone missing.

Rodger and Suzanne Head, of 4098 Route 41A in the town of Niles, said they first noticed the registered American paint mare was missing Tuesday morning when Suzanne went out to feed her.

According to Suzanne, when she, her husband and a hired hand could not find the 30-year-old horse  nicknamed Guernsey  they called police.

"They checked the whole fence line and there was not a hair on it anywhere," Suzanne said, explaining that police thoroughly searched the two-acre fenced-in pasture where Guerney went missing. "Usually when a horse gets out there's hair somewhere on the fence or hoof prints or something, but there was nothing."

Trooper Jon Austin was put in charge of the investigation. While police would not comment on the case at this time, Suzanne and Rodger said they tend to believe Guernsey was taken.

"She could've gotten out, but she's been in this pasture now for a good eight or nine years and she's never tried to get out or escaped the pasture before," Rodger said. "I think somebody saw her and wanted a horse or somebody like a horse dealer picked her up and took her to an auction."

Suzanne said Guernsey is white and brown, 14 and two hands tall and 1,200 pounds. She has owned the horse for 25 years and never had a problem with her before.

"She's usually a really easy-going horse ... but now she's just disappeared," Suzanne said, noting that Guernsey was last seen at the couple's barn Monday morning. "You hear these stories, but you never think they'll happen to you. I just want to find her, and I don't want this to happen to someone else."

Anyone with information is asked to call Suzanne and Rodger at (315) 430-2622 or state police and the Cayuga County Sheriff's Office at (315) 253-1222.
The government was on Wednesday helped by several regional parties to nudge the Congress to drop its insistence that take up a private members Bill on providing a special package for Andhra Pradesh. This, coupled with governments backchannel talks with Congress leaders, led to a truce that not only allowed the House to transact normal business after two days of Congress disruptions but also take up the contentious compensatory afforestation Bill.
Fifteen years after civil rights activist began a fast seeking the repeal of AFSPA, she is set to end it on Tuesday. She has also announced her decision to fight elections as an independent candidate in the Manipur polls, early next year.
The Maharashtra government has got a boost with the Centre clearing the Rs 6,880-crore trunk infrastructure development plan for the Shendra-Bidkin industrial area, close to Aurangabad, part of the proposed Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC).
The empowered committee of the finance ministers of states on Tuesday reached an agreement that the revenue-neutral rate (RNR) would not be specified in the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Constitution amendment Bill, raising hopes that it would be passed by the Rajya Sabha next week.
Industry body Indian Chamber of Commerce (ICC) will prepare a vision document on for Odisha, as it has done for the state of West Bengal.
UK Minister for Asia and the Pacific, Alok Sharma, says Britain is open for business, and is thriving on the world stage. In an interview with Sanjay Jog, he says the collaboration between the UK and India will further grow despite recent referendum.
No subsidy is provided by the government on the export of beef or cow meat since its export is not permitted, Union Commerce and Industry Minister told the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday.

"No subsidy is provided on the export of cow meat. According to the existing foreign trade policy, export of beef (meat of cows, oxen and calves) is prohibited," she said in a written reply.

Replying to a separate question, she said 33 seafood consignments meant for export were rejected between January and June due to the presence of pathogenic bacteria (Salmonella) and banned veterinary drug residues (antibiotics) in aquacultured shrimps.

Remedial measures taken by the Marine Products Export Development Authority to bring down the number of rejections include operating a nationwide network of sophisticated quality control labs, extension of services to all stakeholders in shrimp aquaculture and appropriate training in Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point System, among others, the minister said.

Moreover, the Export Inspection Council (EIC), which has regulatory oversight over the marine exports, have signed confidentiality agreement with the USFDA (United States Food and Drug Administration) for sharing all related information that will help find the root cause of import rejection, Sitharaman said.
Rajasthan Industry Minister Gajendra Singh Khimsar on Wednesday called upon industry captains to spur economic development in the state. Singh was receptive to the idea of setting up an industry council in the state.
Alarmed by issues such as supply of sand, stones, salt, bricks and even mud in lieu of chemicals, silicon carbide, aluminium ingots, plastics and polymers, the Indian embassy in Beijing has issued a trade advisory for dealing with Chinese companies after a gap of over three years.
The ministry is likely to strengthen its debt management arm, known as the middle office, by giving it greater say in the Reserve Bank of Indias decisions on issuance of government bonds, treasury bills (T-bills) and open market operations.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has imposed a combined Rs 27-crore penalty on 13 public and private sector banks  including Canara Bank, IndusInd Bank and RBL Bank  for violating Know Your Customer (KYC) and anti-money laundering (AML) norms.
Directorate General of Anti-dumping & Allied Duties (DGAD) conducts anti-dumping investigations on the basis of duly substantiated petitions filed by domestic industry alleging dumping of goods into the country causing injury. The basic intent of the anti-dumping measures is to eliminate injury caused to the domestic industry by the unfair trade practices of dumping and to create a level playing field for the domestic industry vis-a-vis dumped goods by re-establishing a situation of open and fair competition in the domestic market. .

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DGAD initiated an anti-dumping investigation in respect of imports of Purified Terephthalic Acid (PTA) from China PR, Iran, Indonesia, Malaysia & Chinese Taipei on 18.6.2015. Based on DGADs final findings dated 9.6.2016, Department of Revenue has imposed anti-dumping duty in the range of US$ 85.87 to 168.76 per MT on imports of aforesaid chemical from China PR, Iran, Indonesia, Malaysia & Chinese Taipei on 5.7.2016. .

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This information was given by the Minister of State (Independent Charge) in the Ministry of Commerce & Industry Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman in a written reply in Rajya Sabha today. .

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The State Government of Jammu and Kashmir has been requested to identify suitable land in the Kashmir Valley, where the Kashmir migrants could be rehabilitated. .

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A variety of measures have been taken over the years by the Government for rehabilitation of Kashmiri migrants. Under the Prime Ministers Package 2004, 5242 two room tenements have been constructed in Jammu (Purkhoo, Muthi, Nagrota and Jagti) and 200 flats at Sheikhpora in Budgam district (Kashmir Valley) and have been allotted to the migrants. .

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A comprehensive Package was announced by the Government in 2008 for return and rehabilitation of Kashmiri migrants, which provided for 3000 state government jobs, financial/assistance for purchase/ construction of house, construction of transit accommodations, continuation of cash relief to migrants, scholarship to students, assistance for self-employment, assistance to the agriculturists and the horticulturist, waiver of interest on unpaid loan, etc. The package is being implemented by the State Government of Jammu and Kashmir. So far state government jobs have been provided to 1719 Kashmiri migrants and 505 Transit accommodations have been constructed in the Kashmir valley. .

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Besides, the Government has approved another package, on 18th November, 2015, for providing additional 3000 state government jobs to the Kashmiri migrants and construction of 6000 transit accommodations in the Kashmir Valley. .

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The State Government of Jammu and Kashmir has been requested to identify suitable land in the Kashmir Valley, where the Kashmiri migrants could be rehabilitated. .

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This was stated by the Minister of State for Home Affairs, Shri Hansraj Gangaram Ahir in a written reply to question by Shri Sanjay Raut in the Rajya Sabha today. .

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The Government of India has issued the Resolution dated 10th June, 2016 amending the original Resolution dated 3rd March 1987 relating to constitution of the Public Enterprises Selection Board (PESB). The amendments made inter-alia includes the following: .

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Candidates from State Public Sector Enterprises and Private Sector subject to fulfilling the eligibility criteria will also be considered as non-internal candidates along with the candidates of other Public Sector Enterprises for a period of five years from the date of this Resolution." .

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Further, the guidelines issued earlier provide inter-alia that the Ministry/Department concerned shall finalize/modify the job description/qualifications/eligibility conditions and communicate the same to the PESB, three months in advance of the stipulated period of one year. In the event of such a job description/qualifications/eligibility conditions not being received by the stipulated time, the PESB shall finalize the same, on the basis of existing description so that the schedule for advertising vacancies is adhered to strictly. .

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This was stated by the Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Development of North-Eastern Region (DoNER), MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh in a written reply to a question by Shri Mohite Patil Vijaysinh Shankarrao, Dr. Heena Vijaykumar Gavit, Shri Dhananjay Mahadik, Shri Rajeev Satav and Smt. Supriya Sule in the Lok Sabha today. .

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The interim ban on sale of new Diesel Cars of 2000 cc and above in the National Capital Region (NCR) has been directed by the Honble Supreme Court of India on 16th December 2015. Department of Heavy Industry, Government of India has submitted an affidavit to Honble Supreme Court with request to modify the order dated 16th December 2015 imposing ban on sale & registration of new diesel vehicles of engine capacity more than 2000 cc. The Department also submitted that BS IV emission norms is the most stringent emission norms in country and to ban a category of vehicle which is meeting the stringent emission regulations and all other laws and regulations of the country, is unjustified. .

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A circuit Bench of Southern Bench of Green Tribunal had already banned sale of new 2000cc and above Diesel Cars in the State of Kerala in May 2016. However, a stay on the same was granted by the Honble Kerala High Court. The matter is again to be heard in Kerala by the NGT Circuit Bench. .

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Decisions on new investments in the entire automotive sectors across the country has certainly stopped for the last six months as it seems Auto Industry is skeptical on the sustenance of the existing policies of the Government in light of the recent direction by Honble Courts and Tribunals. .

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The Department of Heavy Industry, Ministry of Heavy Industries & Public Enterprises submitted application for impleadment in the matter of Vardhman Kaushik & Ors vs. UOI & Ors [OA No. 21 of 2014, 95 of 2015 and 303 of 2015] before the Honble National Green Tribunal on 28th May 2016 with the request Honble Tribunal may not apply any restrictions on sale and registration of new vehicles, which are complying with the Statutory emission norms irrespective of fuel used, in any city. .

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This information was given by Minister of State In the Ministry of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises Shri Babul Supriyo in reply to a written question in the Rajya Sabha today. .

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PM's telephonic conversation with Prime Minister of UK

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Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi spoke to UK Prime Minister Theresa May on telephone on Tuesday. He congratulated Prime Minister May on the assumption of her new responsibility. .

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Prime Minister Modi recalled his memorable visit to the UK last November and affirmed Indias commitment to further strengthen the strategic partnership between both countries. Prime Minister also appreciated UKs consistent support to India in various global fora. .

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Prime Minister May thanked Prime Minister. She looked forward to working closely with Prime Minister for developing stronger bilateral ties and enhancing cooperation in tackling pressing global challenges. .

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The latest terror attack where two Islamic State militants stormed a church and killed an 84-year-old priest in Normandy, France, on Tuesday, has rattled the nerves of millions in the Europe and beyond, reinforcing the impression that the region was in the cross hair of terrorists.

The police unit specialising in hostage situations responded quickly after receiving a call from an escaped nun.

The terrorists were gunned down by the police as they tried to flee the church, Xinhua news agency reported.

Despite low number of casualties, the attack still shocked France and the Europe as it hit a small town far from bustling cities like Paris and Nice, prompting fears that terrorists have managed to penetrate deeper into the region.

One of the attackers was identified as 19-year-old Adel Karmic, arrested twice in 2015 for trying to travel to Syria using false identity card, Paris Prosecutor Francois Molins said.

Afterwards, he was under house arrest and made to wear an electronic tag allowing the police to trace him. However, the device was deactivated for a few hours every morning, Molins said.

The identification of the second attacker was not known yet, the prosecutor said.

President Francois Hollande rushed to the scene shortly after the incident. He condemned the attack as a "heinous crime" and pledged to use all means in the war against terrorism.

Hollande also called for national unity, saying what these terrorists want was to divide the nation.

The President earlier this month announced that he would send artillery to Iraq to reinforce local forces battling the IS.
India has become among the fastest growing markets for . While that might seem stellar considering that iPhone sales have been declining globally, the growth is only in line with that of the overall smartphone market in the country.
She is private; he is public. She studies bulging policy briefing books to look prepared; he studies them to look spontaneous. She has the gift of iron discipline; he has the gift of gab. Hillary Clinton regards a crowded auditorium as hostile territory; Bill Clinton regards it as his sweet Arkansas home.

"Bill is a big-picture guy but isn't as disciplined as she is," says former Gov. Edward G. Rendell of Pennsylvania, a onetime Democratic National Committee chairman who has observed both at close range. "He's incredibly bright and a very fast learner, but she's more detail-oriented."

For the third time in a quarter-century, the Democrats are gathering to nominate a Clinton for president. But the Clinton who now begins her general-election campaign is seeking the White House in a different century and, in many ways, in a different country from the one her husband governed.

This third Clinton campaign comes in an age when the Democrats have virtually abandoned the free trade Bill Clinton espoused, when their constituent groups are rethinking his views on crime and welfare, when they are re-examining the Wall Street ties that in the 1990s were refreshing symbols of a new approach to business.

This Clinton campaign, coming after a grueling struggle against Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, has elements  the student-loan crisis, income disparity, global warming  not even on the table during Bill Clinton's administration. Moreover, the political atmosphere is completely different.

The surge of Donald Trump and the persistence of Sanders speak to the appeal of a populism Bill Clinton seldom expressed and an anger incongruous with his optimism. And because it targets the blue-collar workers who blame the very trade and immigration policies the Clintons used to champion, Hillary Clinton is especially vulnerable in a campaign that seems  from the couple's longstanding cozy relationship with Wall Street to her use of a private email server  to underline her vulnerabilities.

Principals in the most significant American marriage since Eleanor and Franklin Roosevelt, perhaps since Abigail and John Adams, the Clintons have long shared a creed and a confetti-speckled destiny. But this campaign has created an unusual dynamic, offering the husband as a model for the wife even as it provides the wife with a chance to get right what the husband got wrong.

"I feel confident about Bill and our ability to express our views," she told me in an interview in 1991, weeks before her husband declared for president and 16 months before he was elected. She spoke in the first-person plural then, and she is living in the first-person plural now.

Yet the two Clinton campaigns are being conducted in parallel universes. Bill Clinton had the advantage in 1992 of being the sentinel of a new generation, packed with potential, while Hillary Clinton in 2016 has the disadvantage of being the symbol of a tired generation, pockmarked by familiarity, even failure. The verities of the 1990s, especially on international commerce, crime and national security, seem antiquarian: hoary artifacts from another age.

Against this background, the Clinton creed  which, like scores of Broadway shows, had its debut in New Haven, in this case in the whispery study carrels of Yale Law, where the couple met  is being polished for a revival.

And though Hillary Clinton is more a figure of admiration than adulation, as opposed to her husband, who was bathed in adulation but was not always admired, they share the view that opportunity is the principal American idea, that government with a light touch rather than a heavy hand can offer an outstretched arm to the poor and striving, and that the United States is, as Bill Clinton's secretary of state, Madeleine Albright, put it in a much-maligned phrase, "the indispensable nation" in world affairs.

Both believe in the ennobling power of personal tolerance and national diversity. Bill Clinton said America didn't have a person to waste. In an unmistakable jab at Trump but an immutable statement of the Clinton creed, Hillary Clinton often says she prefers tearing down barriers to building walls.

Yet what was right for the Bill Clinton years of 1993 to 2001 no longer seems so right.

He saw the North American Free Trade Agreement as a model trade pact. In today's environment, NAFTA is regarded as more a burden than a boom to the American economy.

While her husband weaved between the two parties with what was known as "triangulation"  the political equivalent of the old halfback plunge into a hole in the middle of the line  Hillary Clinton has had to adopt a political spread formation, ranging both to the left (to accommodate the Sanders partisans) and the right (to address voters vulnerable to Trump's entreaties).

"Her proposed policies would do little to change (the wealth gap), compared with Bernie Sanders' proposals," said Clinton administration Labor Secretary Robert B. Reich, who endorsed Sanders but who knew Hillary Rodham as a college student. "And she won't reinstate the Glass-Steagall Act, tax financial transactions or break up the biggest banks at this stage."

Both Clintons have been forced by their black allies to revisit the 1994 crime bill, which was explicitly supported by the then-first lady and which lengthened mandatory sentences and sent more Americans, particularly minorities, to prison, often for nonviolent drug crimes.

What endures in 2016 is a centrist impulse befitting a 1964 "Goldwater Girl" who, in a remarkable undergraduate Wellesley commencement speech, made it clear that she had inhaled the liberal if not radical air of the college campus of 1969. Today, she has settled in to a sensible-shoes middle ground, leaving some Democrats unsettled but perhaps appealing to GOP moderates uncomfortable with Trump.

Yet Hillary Clinton enters the 2016 campaign with advantages her husband didn't possess in 1992.

Bill Clinton ran as a wunderkind governor of tucked-away Arkansas  Republicans sought to dismiss him as "the failed governor of a small state"  while Hillary Clinton runs as a former senator from New York (tied with Ohio for being home to the most presidents) and a former secretary of state (a launching pad for six presidents, including Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and James Monroe).

But any candidate like her who speaks, or lives, in the first person plural has to speak to, and live with, not only the plural achievements but also the plural burdens produced by the first person in the family to win the presidency.
US Secretary of State John Kerry on Wednesday urged China and the Philippines to exercise restraint and reduce tensions over their maritime dispute in the . He was speaking during a one-day visit to the Philippines.

Kerry, in a joint press conference with Philippines Foreign Minister Perfecto Yasay, praised the government's measured response to the verdict by the Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague, that favoured Manila in its territorial spat with Beijing.

Kerry, who is expected to meet the country's new President Rodrigo Duterte, said the Philippines' responsible and restrained response to the PCA ruling was very significant.

The Beijing-Manila conflict culminated on July 12 when the PCA verdict came out in favour of the latter; while China refused to accept the verdict, the Philippines welcomed it but called for restraint and sobriety.

Kerry also said that the US wanted to stay neutral in the conflict, but added that Washington has an unwavering position when it comes to the protection of rights, freedoms and legal use of airspace and maritime waters as set out by law.

The head of US diplomacy also underlined the PCA ruling as "binding" and hoped the two countries will respect it.

In January 2013, Manila brought a suit before the PCA saying China, which had begun expanding into several areas of the South China Sea, was occupying territory that was part of the Philippines exclusive economic zone.

Their dispute centres on the Scarborough Shoal and part of the Spratly islands, which comprise over 750 reefs, islets, atolls and keys, whose sovereignty is claimed wholly or partially by Brunei, Malaysia, Taiwan and Vietnam.

Tensions in the region have escalated in recent years amid altercations, exchange of accusations between respective governments, as well as a rise in Chinese military presence in the area.

Meanwhile, the Philippines has entered into strategic agreements with the US, Japan and Vietnam to counter Chinese presence in the region.
AG's $14.7 billion settlement of its US diesel emissions cheating scandal cleared another legal hurdle on Tuesday, as a federal judge gave the automaker preliminary approval to buy back up to 475,000 vehicles.

US District Judge Charles Breyer in San Francisco set an October 18 hearing for final approval. Preliminary approval means will soon enable owners of the 2.0 liter diesel-powered vehicles to access a website to learn how much they are eligible to receive.

The settlement, announced in June, centers around the largest-ever automotive buy-back offer in the US. Coupled with possible vehicle repairs and payments to governmental agencies, that component of the settlement carries a $10 billion price tag.

said it continues to work with regulators to get fix approvals. Volkswagen told dealers last week that a planned fix could consist of software upgrades and some new catalytic converters.

Volkswagen also plans to offer a new proposal to fix 85,000 polluting 3.0 liter vehicles after regulators rejected an earlier plan, a Justice Department lawyer said on Tuesday. Earlier this month, the California Air Resources Board rejected as insufficient a plan to fix the vehicles, which include VW and Audi luxury cars from model years 2009-2016.

At the hearing, Justice Department lawyer Joshua Van Eaton said the German automaker had been meeting with regulators in recent weeks and planned to offer a new fix proposal in August.

Breyer said he wants another update on the 3.0 liter vehicle talks at an August 25 hearing.

VW plans to hire between 250 to 300 people in Michigan to process settlement claims and will be overseen full-time by 40 VW Group of America employees. If needed VW could double the number of people it is hiring to process claims, said VW lawyer Sharon Nelles. VW is contracting for storage space to house vehicles it repurchases, she said.

VW admitted in September that it installed secret software that allowed US vehicles to emit up to 40 times legally allowable pollution.

Under the Justice Department deal, VW will provide $2 billion over 10 years to fund programs to promote construction of electric vehicle charging infrastructure and development of zero-emission ride-sharing fleets and other efforts.

VW also agreed to put up $2.7 billion over three years to enable government and tribal agencies to replace old buses or to fund infrastructure to reduce diesel emissions.

Separately, VW reached a settlement with 44 US states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico that will cost at least $600 million, bringing the total to as much as $15.3 billion.

Last week, three states filed new lawsuits, saying that VW violated state environmental laws and seeking hundreds of millions in additional penalties.
pared early gains to slip into negative terrain as investors turned cautious ahead of the outcome of the US Fed meet and expiry of July derivative contracts on Thursday.
The Monsoon Session of Parliament continues. So, does earnings season and negotiations about GST. But, major investors will be more focussed on news-flow from central bank meetings. The US Fed and the Bank of Japan (BoJ) are both due to make policy statements this week. The GST legislation is entering endgame: Either it passes in the Monsoon Session or it is effectively shelved until the next general elections. Obviously there will be a strong rally if GST does go through the Rajya Sabha.
Fortis Healthcare launched 'More to Give' campaign on the occasion of Kargil Diwas on July 26.

The nationwide campaign is aimed at sensitizing people on the concept of organ donation as well as encouraging them to pledge their organs in an effort to save precious lives and positively impact the well-being of the nation.

Campaign brand ambassador Irrfan Khan launched the campaign with Mr. Malvinder Mohan Singh, Executive Chairman, Fortis Healthcare, Mr. Bhavdeep Singh, CEO, Fortis Healthcare and Dr. Avnish Seth, Director, Fortis Organ Retrieval & Transplant, Fortis Healthcare. This was followed with a panel discussion on a television channel.

Speaking passionately for the cause, Mr. Malvinder Mohan Singh, Executive Chairman, Fortis Healthcare, said, "The 'More to Give' campaign is critical for a country like ours as very little is known about organ donation and the many lives it can save. We are seeking a cultural change that will elevate the cause of organ donation and position it as one of the greatest self-less acts by an individual, that could give a fresh lease of life to a number of terminally ill patients. A gracious gift to make, even in ones passing. The objective of this campaign is to create widespread awareness and encourage more and more people to register as organ donors as each one of us has the power to give and save lives."

Campaign Ambassador Irrfan Khan said, "On Kargil Divas, we salute the spirit of all the countrymen who have fought and are fighting for our nation without caring for their lives. I am proud to be associated with the 'More to Give' organ donation initiative as it encourages people to support many more lives and stay alive in many generations to come. I urge all fellow Indians to support the cause and pledge to donate their organs."

Mr. Bhavdeep Singh, CEO, Fortis Healthcare shared that, "The demand for organ transplant has greatly increased over the years due to higher instances of organ failure in patients on the one hand and improvement in transplant outcomes on the other. However there is a deep chasm between demand and supply due to lack of knowledge and priority given to it. We believe this campaign will touch people's hearts, and prove to be a game changer for organ donation in India."

Dr. Avnish Seth, Director, Fortis Organ Retrieval & Transplant, Fortis Healthcare shared that, "We are presently faced with serious organ shortage with patients dying while waiting for transplants. For instance, only 15000 kidney transplants are carried out against the demand of nearly 2, 20,000 and only 2000 liver transplants are carried out in India whereas over 100,000 patients die due to fatal liver diseases. This unique campaign aims to take the lead to further the cause of organ donation with public and stakeholder support."

The cause of organ donation does not enjoy a prominent place in the minds of Indians. Each year thousands of people die while waiting for a transplant, because no suitable donor can be found in time for them.

The Fortis 'More to Give' campaign aims to aims to address the existing negative perceptions and a general lack of actionable concerns that are the biggest challenges in the way of increasing donor numbers, It will activate the nation's conscience by sharing stories of disabled war veterans who have actually pledged to donate organs.

By enlisting war veterans into the cause of organ donation and making them the ambassadors for this cause, the campaign will motivate more citizens to register for organ donation.
An Australian streaker has been fined and jailed for a week after running onto the field during the first day of the opening Test between Sri Lanka and Australia at Kandy's Pallekele.

According to news.com.au, the naked ground invader was put behind bars for 'indecent exposure' and was also handed a fine of 3,000 Sri Lankan rupees for being intoxicated.

During a rain delay, the man ran towards the playing surface naked and slid along the covers brought on to protect the ground from rain.

Although he successfully evaded the tackle attempt by an armed police commando on the ground, he was arrested later.

Streaking at sporting events is considered as offensive in Sri Lanka, which is predominantly a country following Buddhism.
The head of the Dhaka Medical College Hospital forensic team on Wednesday said the nine militants killed in Kallyanpur's raid died of gunshot wounds, most of those in their backs.

"All the militants died of gunshots. We have recovered seven bullets from four bodies while the other five had bullets penetrated through their bodies. Most of the wounds were sustained in the backs," the Dhaka Tribune quoted assistant Professor Sohel Mahmud, as saying.

He added, "We have collected hair, blood, urine and thigh tissues as samples from the bodies to send to labs for further investigation. We will also find out if they were on any kind of drugs."

The autopsy which began at 11.30 a.m local time ended at 2 p.m. in the DMCH morgue.

The three-member team began the procedure after receiving inquest report from Mirpur police.

Law enforcers stepped up their presence in the hospital to avert any untoward incident.

Meanwhile, three families have identified two of the militants killed in Kallyanpur raid as their sons.

However, there remains confusion over one militant who is being claimed as the son of two people.

While one family from Noakhali is naming him as Jubayer Hossain, another family from Chittagong is claiming him to be Sabhirul Hoque Konik.

Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) Deputy Commissioner Masudur Rahman said the police have asked the families to come to Dhaka for confirmation.

"The bodies will be handed over to the families only if their DNA matches," he added.

Yesterday, a joint force drive in Dhaka's Kalyanpur area named operation 'Storm 26' neutralised nine militants and arrested one after an overnight standoff.

Reports suggest the detainee claimed that he was a militant of the Islamic State, but Bangladesh's Police chief A.K.M. Shahidul Hoque said the terrorists belonged to the banned Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) outfit.

The police said that these militants had a lot in common with those terrorists, who attacked Holey Artisan Bakery in Dhaka's diplomatic zone on July 1 and Sholakia Eidgah on Eid.
The Indian Army on Wednesday asserted that the Chinese incursion in Uttarakhand was not alarming adding that the incident did not last for more than few minutes and was handled as per mutual agreed drills between both nations.

According to Army sources, transgressions continue to happen along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) on account of differing perceptions of the border.

In the current Barahoti incident in Uttarakhand, a small detachment of China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) troops came across an Indian patrol in the area.

The incident was handled as per mutually agreed drills and did not last for more than few minutes.

Meanwhile, the Centre has also asserted that the incursion was not a very serious issue and they will resolve it on ground level.

"The briefing that we have received from DG of the Indo Tibetan Border Police Force (ITBP) according to that some incident of incursion has been witnessed there. But that is not a very serious issue," Minister of State Home affair, Kiren Rijiju said.

In the context of air violation by the Chinese Army Rijiju said, "Air violation was there but up to the border area and the face off was not that serious issue. There is no demarcation between China and India, due to that little tiffs take place over there."

Earlier today Rawat confirmed an incursion by Chinese troops into Chamoli district of Uttarakhand.

"The state revenue authorities were there for mapping of our land and they noticed their presence. Earlier, there were sporadic incidents, but this time it is happening at a larger scale. However, I think that there is nothing to be alarmed as the activities were noticed in Chinese territory," Rawat told ANI.

However, later in the day Rawat, made a somersault saying there is an increase in the number of Chinese troops along the Indian border, but ruled out any incursion into Indian territory.

Uttarakhand shares a 350 kilometer long boundary with China and similar attempts at Chinese incursions have been reported in the past.

The last reported Chinese incursion in the state was when the word 'China' was inscribed on rocks near Mana Pass in Chamoli district of Uttarakhand.
Curfew and restrictions were re-imposed in South Kashmir and parts of Srinagar on Wednesday in view of a march called by the separatists.

As per reports, curfew will remain imposed in Anantnag and Kulgam districts, while restrictions under Section 144 have been imposed in Shopian and Pulwama districts.

Police and paramilitary forces have been deployed to maintain the law and order situation.

Protests erupted on Tuesday after authorities lifted the curfew from Srinagar, South Kashmir districts and other areas.

Meanwhile, the mobile internet services were restored in the Jammu region on Tuesday after remaining suspended for 17 days in view of protests in Kashmir valley following the death of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Muzaffar Wani.

Fearing a backlash in Jammu region after the start of protests in the valley, the authorities had decided to snap mobile internet services across 10 districts of the region.

Barring BSNL post-paid mobile connections and landlines with broadband connections, the authorities suspended mobile telephony and mobile internet services across the valley following protests.

With communication snapped, Kashmiris outside the state have been expressing concerns over their families' welfare with some students complaining that they were running out of money.
A three-member team of doctors today began autopsy on the bodies of nine militants killed in a fierce battle with the lawmen in Kalyanpur neighbourhood at the Dhaka Medical College Hospital.

Assistant Professor Shohel Mahmud of the forensic department said they began the autopsy at 11:30 a.m. local time, reports the Daily Star.

Shohel Mahmud along with his colleagues Kabir Shohel and Prabir Biswas are conducting the examination.

However, no case has yet been filed in connection with this case as the autopsy is on.

Yesterday, a joint force drive in Dhaka's Kalyanpur area named operation 'Storm 26' neutralised nine militants and arrested one after an overnight standoff.

During the raid, thirteen locally made grenades, around five kilogrammes of gel, 19 detonators, four 7.62mm pistols, seven magazines of 7.62mm pistols, 22 bullets, three commando knives and 12 guerrilla knives and two black flags with Arabic letters were found.

Reports suggest the detainee claimed that he was a militant of the Islamic State, but Bangladesh's Police chief. said the terrorists belonged to the banned Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) outfit.

The police said that these militants had a lot in common with those terrorists, who attacked Holey Artisan Bakery in Dhaka's diplomatic zone on July 1 and Sholakia Eidgah on Eid.
What just happened in Dallas is proof of what happens because poor judgment is being made by a few "bad apples" who also resort to aggressive policing. Their tactics jeopardize the lives of those police officers and prison guards who are good people and who also do their job in a correct manner!

Poor judgment on what David Hewitt  a prison guard  wrote in his recent letter to the editor illustrates to me that he is unable to deal with opposing stories in his own head! His statement accusing me of loving "what James R. Moore did is an example of just that! (If he knew me, he'd know differently!)

Most everyone would agree with me that the crime my husband committed was a horrendous one!

However, the fact that there were chemicals he was using as a landscaper that were later discovered as the mitigating circumstances to what happened, needs to be considered!

This was also a crime that could have easily been prevented had the psychiatrist treating him  prior to the crime  committed him to a mental institution!

Hewitt may well remember my husband. But he would have to agree that James Moore was not a problem inmate during the 20 years he was in "honor company" while inside Auburn prison.

James Moore held the job as head clerk to Mr. Lee Jewitt, superintendent of industry, who never wrote a letter recommending any inmate for parole but he did so in my husband's case! Later, when he was transferred to Eastern prison, he was given the head clerk's job with Mr. Jewitt again.

David Hewitt's letters  past and present  often contradict what is the truth about both my husband and me. Hewitt even passes judgment, saying he believes that James R. Moore will never see God. (He may be wrong though because God forgives and even reminds us all not to throw stones!)

Hewitt's allegation that there were numerous rapes is not only untrue, but there is no evidence that confirms it!

As in life generally, every policy has the vices of its virtues. Aggressive policing cuts crime but it also increases brutality. There is no escape from trade-offs and tragic situations. The only way forward is to hire people who are capable of holding opposing stories in their heads at the same time, and to reject those who cant.

Only when we weed out the "bad apples" will the madness stop!

Joyce Hackett Smith-Moore

Auburn
The foundation stone for the Memorial of late former President A P J will be laid at Peikarumbu, his burial site in Rameswaram Island on Wednesday.

To mark the first death anniversary of former president, the Ministry of Defence has planned to host a number of events.

This includes the foundation stone-laying for a Memorial of Kalam, unveiling his life-size statue and a 3-D model of the memorial. An exhibition named "Mission of Life" depicting the life of Kalam and his achievements towards nation building will also be inaugurated.

Minister for Urban Development and Information and Broadcasting M Venkaiah Naidu and Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar will grace the occasion by unveiling the statue and the memorial model.

Kalam passed away on July 27, last year while delivering a lecture at the IIM-Shillong in Meghalaya. He suffered a massive cardiac arrest.
The Fourth Home Minister level talks between India and Bangladesh will be held here tomorrow as the talks are expected to further strengthen and enhance the excellent cooperation between the two countries on security and border management matters.

Bangladesh Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan is leading a high level delegation to India from 27th July to 30th July.

During this visit, the Bangladeshi delegation will call on President Pranab Mukherjee and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

On July 28, there will be Home Minister level talks between delegation led by Bangladesh Home Minister and Home Minister Rajnath Singh.

The Indian delegation will consist of Security Advisor Ajit Doval, Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi and officers of Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), Border Security Force (BSF), Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), Coast Guard and others.

During these talks, there will be review of Land Boundary Agreement implementation, security and border management and related issues.

The delegation will also be visiting Udaipur and Kolkata during stay in India.
US President Barack Obama has said it is 'possible' that Russia could be attempting to tip his country's presidential election towards republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.

Obama's remarks came after the US officials said there is strong evidence that the Democratic National Committee data breach was carried out by hackers working on behalf of the Russian intelligence.

When asked in the NBC interview whether Russians could be working to influence the contest between Trump and Democratic rival Hillary Clinton, he said, "Anything's possible."

"Donald Trump has repeatedly expressed admiration for Vladimir Putin. And I think that Trump's gotten pretty favourable coverage back in Russia," CNN quoted him as saying.

Reports suggest Democrats have been alleging that Putin is seeking to alter the White House race following WikiLeaks release of damaging emails from the organisation's staff after the hack.

The Democratic National Committee (DNC) breach took place around the same time as breaches occurred at the US government systems at the State Department and the White House.

After the investigators tracked the IP addresses and other data from the Democratic National Committee, they found it matched attacks around the same time at other federal agencies.

Officials said evidence points to at least one group of hackers that is familiar to the US counter-intelligence.

The same group was reportedly involved in hacking into non-classified systems email systems at State, White House and other federal agencies.

The investigators believe the Russian intelligence is behind a wave of cyber attacks on political organisations and think tanks in Washington.

Though the timing of the release has raised suspicions among the US intelligence that this was aimed at influencing the election, WikiLeaks has denied that the Russian Government provided the documents to the group.

It, however, did not say where they came from.
Japanese cuisine has developed through centuries of social and economic changes.

With an aim to promote the Japanese cuisine the world over, the Washoku World Challenge is being organized by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries of Japan. The event saw participation of foreign Washoku chefs.

"It is unprecedented Washoku boom. But currently sophisticated skill and

some elements are not inherited. This is the 4th competition. There are many excellent chefs more than Japanese chef. We would like to introduce them all over the world," said Head of Judge Washoku World Challenge, Kihachi Kumagai.

Washoku World Challenge has been established as the biggest and authorized Japanese cuisine competition. The judge of this competition, Yukio Hattori, runs a cooking school.

"In this school, there are more than 130 overseas students from Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam and other Asian countries. There are around 100,000 Washoku restaurants in the world. Unfortunately some of them are disappointed. Utilizing ingredients of soup is the key issue to cook Washoku.

In this competition the subject is treating soup, soy sauce and mirin (sweet sake for seasoning)," said Judge Washoku World Challenge, Yukio Hattori.

The hotel provides all comfort and facilities to the guests including multiple drawers, a safe, large refrigerator and even microwave. Its interiors are designed to suitable for foreign guests. The guests can also enjoy the great view from the restaurant on the top floor while having breakfast.

"We would like to welcome the guests not only from Japan, but also from the rest of the world. We also want our guests to know more about the Toyoko Inn from Japan," said Director GM Toyoko Inn (Cambodia) Co., Ltd., Yuki Fukushima.

In areas such as Southeast Asia and Africa, water shortage and water quality remains a major concern.

Yamaha Motor has been contributing in providing safe drinking water to the villagers in Indonesia.

The Clean Water System of Yamaha Motor has a simple build based on the "Slow Filtration" purification functions from the nature which can be operated by local residents.

The residents have even started water related businesses such as selling drinking water to nearby villages and areas.

In future, along with further market research and developing products that are suitable for various areas, we strive to make improvement on the local water supply situation and to assist enrich local residents' life.

Yamaha has developed different equipments that are suitable for the specific locations and aims for further expansion.
New Delhi, July 27 (ANI): Varun Dhawan and John Abraham have been promoting their upcoming film 'Dishoom' pretty well but what is making headlines every now and then is their bromance.

During the shoot of the film, the actors have bonded with each other so well that often we have heard them comparing themselves to a hit bromance duo on-screen and off-screen.

While John admitted that his on-screen chemistry with Varun is like of Akshay Kumar and Saif Ali Khan from the 1994 release 'Main Khiladi Tu Anari', Varun said that he came across the unbelievably naughty side of John during the shoot of 'Dishoom'.

When asked as to whom would he prefer to see opposite 29-year-old Varun if a sequel is made of the 2008 hit 'Dostana', the 'Rocky Handsome' actor called himself selfish and answered "me".

"The question is pointless to ask. Of course, it would be me next to Varun if ever the sequel happens," the 42-year-old actor told ANI in an exclusive conversation.

In fact, John wants 'Dishoom' to be successful so that the makers of this film can create a franchise out of it and he gets to work with the 'Dilwale' actor yet again.

The film, which has been directed by Varun's director-brother Rohit Dhawan, is all set to go 'Dishoom' at the box-office on July 29.
New Delhi, July 27 (ANI): India observed the 17th Kargil Vijay Diwas yesterday to honour the sacrifices made by Indian soldiers in a war for which the country was not prepared.

The high altitude mountain war fought by two nuclear armed neighbours in the summer of 1999 lasted longer than the earlier three wars that India fought with Pakistan (1948, 1965 and 1971).

The Kargil War taught the country many lessons, which have still not been fully absorbed.

India was complacent when the war erupted, as it broke out soon after Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee undertook a bus ride to Lahore to open a new chapter in India Pakistan relations.

General Pervez Musharraf, who had been appointed Pakistan's Chief of Army Staff by then Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif even though he was ranked third in terms of seniority and in the line of succession to the coveted post, planned the 'war', supposedly without the knowledge of his Prime Minister.

General Musharraf claimed that he had briefed Sharif, but the details that have emerged suggest that Sharif was unaware about the movement of troops till the war broke out.

That General Musharraf was not telling the truth was evident when on June 11; India released intercepts of a conversation between him and Chief of General Staff, Lt. Gen. Aziz Khan while Musharraf was on an official visit to China. That intercepted conversation revealed that Musharraf wanted to know Sharif's reaction to his decision to move units of the North Light Infantry across the Line of Control (LoC) and occupy the Kargil Heights. The war had begun.

A boastful General Musharraf later claimed that he wanted Pakistan to hold India by the throat by occupying the Kargil Heights which overlooked a road that connected Srinagar to Leh.

As far as the Indian Army was concerned, it emerged that the division commander under whose jurisdiction the Kargil sector came was busy 'developing' areas around Leh and had not released funds to pay the workers whose job it was to gather information in the winter when the army vacated the posts.

The sense of complacency was justified later on the premise that due to the warm exchanges between Prime Ministers Vajpayee and Sharif; nobody thought about the Pakistan Army simultaneously moving its troops into Indian Territory.

Some Indian intelligence agencies had information about unusual activities taking place in areas vacated by Indian troops in the winter, but that input wasn't taken seriously. There was little sharing of facts in the Joint Intelligence Committee.

During the first week of May 1999, India received reports of infiltration in the Kargil sector. Initially, it was claimed that the infiltrators were Mujahideen, and then Defence Minister George Fernandes confidently said they will be 'thrown out' soon. Soon more accurate facts emerged and he was informed that regular Pakistani armed forces had occupied heights overlooking the Srinagar-Kargil Road.

The Indian Army tried to reoccupy the posts overlooking the Srinagar-Leh Road, but faced gunfire from Pakistani forces. There was also heavy shelling by the Pakistan Army and the number of infiltrators increased in Dras, Kaksar and Mushkoh sectors.

The then Indian Army Chief, General Ved Prakash Malik, was abroad on an official visit when he was informed of the actual facts related to the infiltration. On his return, an assessment was made and it was realized that the Pakistan Army had occupied the posts vacated by the Indian Army during winter. These posts overlooked the road between Leh and Srinagar. Thereafter, the Indian Army prepared for the conflict and decided to shift troops from the rest of Kashmir into the area around Dras.

The shifting of troops took time. Meanwhile, the help of the Indian Air Force was sought and it went into action. One IAF combat aircraft and a helicopter were shot down by the Pakistan on May 28.

The fiction that those who occupied the Kargil Heights were 'Mujahideen' was exposed when India released documents captured from Pakistani soldiers on June 5.

On the defensive, the Indian Army suspended access to media outlets while troops were being inducted into the area. However, Gaurav Sawant, a correspondent representing a New Delhi newspaper, stayed back and was in Kargil for nine weeks, during which he reported on the war and his experiences. He has since written a book titled "Dateline Kargil: A Correspondent's Nine-Week Account from the Battlefront".

India's losses during the war were 527 soldiers killed, 1,363 wounded and one captured.

It was only after the induction of army formations from the rest of Kashmir, that media organisations were taken to visit Kargil.

Indian television coverage, which provided a near live telecast of events, proved beyond a shadow of doubt that the Pakistan Army had occupied posts vacated by the Indian Army during the winter.

Initially, the battles were fought by the Indian artillery, which deployed Bofors guns, which proved effective and saved the day for the county.

The Indian Army started recapturing the Kargil Heights steadily, but suffered heavy casualties. Tololing was recaptured on June 13, Point 5060 and Point 5100 on June 29 and Tiger Hill on July 4.

When the facts of Pakistani intrusion became known the world over, and that too after Atal Behari Vajpayee's attempt to establish better relations with Pakistan, Sharif tried his best to defend his country's actions. There was a fear that a nuclear conflict may erupt.

On the defensive, Sharif said he had been kept in the dark by General Musharraf, while Musharraf maintained that he had briefed the Pakistan Prime Minister.

Then United States President Bill Clinton rang up Sharif on June 15 and told him to pull his troops out of Kargil. Sharif rushed to Washington to explain Pakistan's actions, but was firmly told to pull out his troops.

A joint statement issued by President Clinton and Prime Minister Sharif underlined that the Line of Control (LoC) would be respected and that Pakistan had agreed to pull out its troops from the posts along the Kargil Heights. The crisis officially came to a close on July 26.

Following the two-month-long war, a report on it was prepared by the renowned strategic thinker K. Subrahmanyam. Later a Group of Ministers, headed by then Home Minister L. K. Advani, suggested changes to enable the country to face and counter future challenges. The changes recommended included reorganisation of the armed forces into unified commands and the appointment of a Chief of Defence Staff.

One of the reports suggested changes in the releasing of defence information.

Many of the suggestions made on the Kargil conflict remain in cold storage. Initially, there was reluctance to call the Kargil conflict a "war". After many years, it has been accepted that the day the 'war' ended be observed as a Vijay Diwas.

Mr. I. Ramamohan Rao is a former Principal Information Officer (PIO) of the Government of India. He can be reached on his e-mail raoramamohan@hotmail.
Congress leader Raj Babbar has alleged there is a conspiracy by the Centre to keep communist issues alive in Uttar Pradesh.

When asked about Akhlaq's family claiming fabrication of lab reports of beef found in their home, he said, "The issues which divide society keeping them alive is the conspiracy of the Centre."

Taking a stand on the beef controversy, Raj Babbar said, that Uttar Pradesh Government is deliberately keeping communal issues alive in the state.

"Keeping the communist issues like Dadri, Kirana or Muzzafarnagar alive in the state is a failure of the state", Raj Babbar told ANI.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has been cornered on issues related to consumption of beef in states where the BJP is in power.

Yesterday, Hindu Dal activists roughed up two women in Mandsaur district in Madhya Pradesh for allegedly carrying beef.

Madhya Pradesh Home Minister Bhupendra Singh said on the Mandsaur incident that action will be taken against those who take law into their own hands.

This news comes two weeks after four Dalit men were publicly thrashed for allegedly skinning a cow in Una, Gujarat. The incident led to protests across the states and was raised in Parliament.
Management Development Institute (MDI), India's premier schools has joined hands with the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Development (CII-CESD) with an aim to promote transparency in decision-making in the private sector as well as increased public participation.

A pioneering effort by CII, the CII-ITC Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Development (CII-CESD) is an institution that creates a conducive, enabling climate for Indian businesses to pursue sustainability goals.

It creates awareness, promotes thought leadership, and builds capacity to achieve sustainability across a broad spectrum of issues. It enables Indian businesses become sustainable, and channels the potential of Indian industry to power India's agenda for inclusive growth and sustainable development.

CII-CESD nurture companies to compete expand opportunity and excel in today's dynamic environments

MDI's collaboration with CII-CESD incorporates cooperation and mutual assistance in raising awareness for Responsible Practices by Corporates in India. The assigned project, i.e. "Promotion and Adoption of Responsible Business Practices by Corporates in India", under Siemens Integrity Initiative (The Siemens Integrity Initiative is a global project undertaken by the Siemens AG aimed at increasing awareness of responsible business ethics and values) will entail preparation and documentation of case studies on business ethics, organizing conferences/ workshops/ seminars on business ethics.

"MDI has been known for its continuous efforts towards promoting responsible businesses practices among corporate and business management students. Through this MOU, we intend to carry forward this legacy and join hands with CII in reaching out to a greater number of people," said Acting Director MDI Gurgaon, Prof. C. P. Shrimali.

"The MoU between MDI and CII-CESD also aims to facilitate superior research studies in the realm of transparency and accountability in industrial governance, and publishing them to aid future enthusiasts in this field," added C. P. Shrimali.

"CII has always endeavored to bring a positive change in business administration by working closely with the government on policy issues. We are looking forward to collaborating with a prestigious educational institution such as MDI in developing good case material/studies on business ethics which will help in promotion and adoption of ethical business practices by corporate in India," said Executive Director-CII-CESD, Seema Arora.

The MoU has been agreed upon for a period of three years with a set of competent representatives being chosen from either side. These representatives will be entrusted with the project responsibility and will successfully execute the same.
A roundtable conference on "Bamboo regulatory regime and transit access in northeast India" was held here recently at Nagaland Bamboo Resource Center.

Representatives from Tripura and Mizoram also participated the seminar initiated by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).

Opening the conference, Nagaland minister for Forest, Environment and Wildlife Dr. Neikiesalie (Nicky) Kire said that it could be an important component for development and an effective means to improve the livelihood of the people.

He also assured that the present government would work towards evolving a conducive policy for furtherance of bamboo sectors in Nagaland and the enterprisers and at the same time support the farmers to build up a strong local economy.

Kire also shared that relaxation of entry fee on transit from one state to another will enhance the movement of bamboo and reduce transportation cost.

Parliamentary secretary for Industries and Commerce, Amenba Yaden also opined the necessity 'to put heads together' to formulate a standard norm, whereby all hindrances pertaining to free movement of bamboo and its products are curtailed.

Advisor to Nagaland Bamboo Development Agency (NBDA), Naiba Konyak also spoke at the inaugural session and highlighted the Naga tradition and customs on the use of bamboo.

It may be mentioned here that despite its classification as a species of grass, bamboo is still considered as a forest product under Indian law (Indian Forest Act of 1927), and thus is treated as equivalent to wood product. Over the years, several voices have emerged calling for review of this policy and to exclude bamboo from the list of forest product.

The northeast region whose combined territory constitutes only 8 percent of the country is producing 66 percent of India's total annual bamboo production.

During the technical sessions, resource persons dwelt on topics like - Govt of India guidelines on bamboo transit, taxes and regimes on bamboo transit, use of bamboo for livelihood, key issues for development and export of bamboo products, etc

It may also be mentioned that presently, Nagaland Bamboo Resource Center is providing trainings to young entrepreneurs on the use of bamboo. Furniture, basketry, decorative items, bamboo charcoal, etc are being produced at this center.
The police have said the parents of a British woman of Pakistani origin along with her former husband and two others have been booked for killing her in a village near Mangla in Pakistan's Jhelum district.

Syed Mukhtar Kazim, the husband of 28-year-old Samia Shahid, alleged that his wife was killed by her family in the name of so-called honour as she married him against the will of her parents.

Kazim lodged an FIR on July 23 against Samia's father Chaudhary Shahid, mother Imtiaz Bibi, sister Madiha Shahid, cousin Mobeen and the deceased woman's former husband Chaudhary Shakil under Sections 302 (premeditated murder), 34 (common intention) and 109 (abetment) of the Pakistan Penal Code, reports the Dawn.

Samia's death was reported by her father to the Mangla Police on July 20.

The suspects, who have so far denied the charges, insist that Samia died of cardiac arrest.

Meanwhile, a police official said the body samples of the deceased have been sent to the forensic laboratory in Lahore and the result was awaited.

Samia, a beauty therapist from Bradford, was previously married to her cousin Shakil but the couple reportedly parted ways after divorce in May 2014.

She then married Kazim of Taxila in September 2014 and the couple started living in Dubai.

Kazim has in the FIR claimed that Samia had been killed by her relatives, who had refused to accept their relationship because he did not belong to their community.

He added that his mother-in-law phoned Samia on July 11 asking her to come to Pakistan to see her ailing father.

Samia arrived in the country on July 14.

Kazim said that his wife's phone was switched off on July 20 and he contacted Mobeen, her cousin, who told him that she had suffered a heart attack.

He then reached Pakistan on July 21.

Reports suggest that Naz Shah, a member of British Parliament from Bradford, had asked Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to intervene in the matter.
Rep. Katko does indeed have a strong record of bipartisanship in his less than two years in Congress. ('Miles': Rep. John Katko touts record in Congress, bipartisanship in first TV ad of 2016 election, July 19). And one area where there is clear potential for future bipartisanship and for which a majority of his constituents support action is on climate change. That is why it was very encouraging that in the last week Rep. Katko joined 13 other Republicans in co-sponsoring Rep. Chris Gibsons climate resolution (H.Res, 424).

This resolution states that humans are causing global warming and that a solution should be found. Through this resolution and at least one other public statement, Rep. Katko is now on record as saying action on climate change is important. Rep. Katko should be thanked for this significant step by all of his constituents who are concerned with climate change. Central New Yorkers should let the Congressman know that he will be rewarded with their votes if he supports an effective, market-based climate solution that contrasts with the poll-tested, top-down policies often offered by the opposition party.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has congratulated his British counterpart Theresa May over telephone on assumption of her new responsibility.

Prime Minister Modi had on July 13 tweeted: "Congratulations to @theresa_may on taking over as the new UK PM. Looking forward to working with her for stronger India-UK ties @Number10gov."

Conservative Party Theresa May became United Kingdom's second female Prime Minister, shortly after David Cameron tendered his resignation.

Taking over as Prime Minister, May said that the mission of her government is to forge a positive role for UK in the world as it leaves the European Union.

"When we take the big calls, we will not listen to the mighty but you. We will do everything we can to help everyone. We'll make Britain a country that doesn't work for privileged few but everyone of us. And together we'll build a better Britain. When it comes to taxes, we'll prioritise not the wealthy, but you. When it comes to opportunity, we won't entrench the advantages of the fortunate few, we will do everything we can to help anybody, whatever your background, to go as far as your talents will take you," she had said.
In a volte face, Uttarakhand Chief Minister on Wednesday made a somersault saying there is an increase in the number of Chinese troops along the Indian border, but ruled out any incursion into Indian territory.

Earlier in the day, he told ANI that there was an incursion by Chinese troops into Chamoli district, located in Northeast corner of Uttarakhand.

"The state revenue authorities were there for mapping of our land and they noticed their presence. Earlier, there were sporadic incidents, but this time it is happening at a larger scale. However, I think that there is nothing to be alarmed as the activities were noticed in Chinese territory," Rawat told ANI.

"We are alert and that is why we noticed those movements. Besides, the Central government is also aware of this fact," he added.

Rawat, however, said as a country we should be alert and think about infrastructural development and increase connectivity in our border area.

When asked if the Government of India should take strong action, the chief minister said: "The Government of India is alert and will take necessary measures at the right time."

Meanwhile, MoS for Home Kiren Rijiju said appropriate action would be initiated after going through a detailed report in this regard.

"The Indo Tibetan Border Police Force (ITBP) personnel are monitoring the border area. We need to assess the extent of intrusion. We will seek a detailed report and then see what is to be done," Rijiju told media persons outside the Parliament.

Meanwhile, former Union Home Secretary and BJP MP R K Singh said the Line of Actual Control (LAC) is not defined, adding that is the root cause of the problem.

He said that there has been no cooperation from the Chinese side despite India's repeated call to define the LAC.

"It was agreed with China that we will set up a group to clarify the LAC. And we have been asking those groups to complete their exercise, but the Chinese have not been cooperating," Singh told ANI.

"Expecting a friendly relationship with China is not something a sensible person will do," he added.

According to sources, the ITBP had sent a report about this incident to the Ministry of Home Affairs on July 19, which was the date of incursion.

Uttarakhand shares a 350 km long boundary with China and similar incursion attempts by the Chinese have been reported in the past.

The last reported Chinese incursion in the state was, when the word 'China' was inscribed on rocks near Mana Pass in Chamoli district of Uttarakhand.
In a volte face, Uttarakhand Chief Minister Harish Rawat on Wednesday made a somersault saying there is an increase in the number of Chinese troops along the Indian border, but ruled out any incursion into Indian territory.

Earlier in the day, he told ANI that there was an incursion by Chinese troops into Chamoli district, located in north east corner of Uttarakhand.

"The state revenue authorities were there for mapping of our land and they noticed their presence. Earlier, there were sporadic incidents, but this time it is happening at a larger scale. However, I think that there is nothing to be alarmed as the activities were noticed in Chinese territory," Rawat told ANI.

"We are alert and that is why we noticed those movements. Besides, the Central Government is also aware of this fact," he added.

Rawat, however, said as a country we should be alert and think about infrastructural development and increase connectivity in our border area.

When asked if the Government of India should take strong action, the chief minister said, "The Government of India is alert and will take necessary measures at the right time."

Meanwhile, Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju said appropriate action would be initiated after going through a detailed report in this regard.

"The Indo Tibetan Border Police Force (ITBP) personnel are monitoring the border area. We need to assess the extent of intrusion. We will seek a detailed report and then see what is to be done," Rijiju told media persons outside the Parliament.

Meanwhile, former union home secretary and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP R.K. Singh said the Line of Actual Control (LAC) is not defined, adding that is the root cause of the problem.

He said that there has been no cooperation from the Chinese side despite India's repeated call to define the LAC.

"It was agreed with China that we will set up a group to clarify the LAC. And we have been asking those groups to complete their exercise, but the Chinese have not been cooperating," Singh told ANI.

"Expecting a friendly relationship with China is not something a sensible person will do," he added.

According to sources, the ITBP had sent a report about this incident to the Ministry of Home Affairs on July 19, which was the date of incursion.

Uttarakhand shares a 350 kilometer long boundary with China and similar incursion attempts by the Chinese have been reported in the past.

The last reported Chinese incursion in the state was when the word 'China' was inscribed on rocks near Mana Pass in Chamoli district of Uttarakhand.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday adjourned hearing into the defamation case filed against Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) over his alleged remarks on the Mahatama Gandhi killing till August 23.

Hearing the matter, Justice Dipak Mishra raised questions on the procedure followed by the magistrate in the defamation case.

The apex court said the trial court had asked the police for a report following a defamation complaint against Gandhi instead of examining the evidence.

The court said the police have no authority to conduct inquiry into a criminal defamation, adding that only a magistrate inquiry can be conducted in such cases.

The apex court also said after its judgment in Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Subramanian Swamy's case, where the criminal defamation was upheld, the police have no authority to conduct an investigation.

Signalling major trouble for Gandhi, the apex court earlier on July 19 rapped the Congress vice-president, saying he must face a trial.

Gandhi, who was charged with defamation over his statement, accusing the RSS of the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi, had earlier urged the apex court to quash the case against him.

The Congress vice-president has maintained that his statement on RSS' involvement in the Mahatma Gandhi killing was a historical fact and his counsel has asserted that his statement was within his right to free speech.

The case was by filed by RSS worker Rajesh Kunte against Gandhi in a Maharashtra court for allegedly blaming the RSS for Mahatma Gandhi's assassination.

On May 7 last year, the apex court had stayed the proceedings against the Congress vice-president, pending before a magisterial court in Bhiwandi of Maharashtra's Thane district.

It was alleged by Kunte, the secretary of Bhiwandi unit of RSS, that the Congress vice president told an election rally at Sonale on March 6 that "RSS people killed Gandhiji".

He said the Congress leader had sought to tarnish the reputation of the Sangh through his speech.

Following the complaint, the magistrate's court had initiated proceedings and issued notice to Gandhi directing him to appear before it.

The Congress leader then approached the high court seeking exemption from appearance and quashing of the complaint.

Gandhi's lawyers had argued that complaint was motivated and malafide and deserved to be quashed.
An odour identification test can tell whether or not your loved one is at risk of Alzheimer's disease, suggests a recent study.

Two studies from Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC), New York State Psychiatric Institute and NewYork-Presbyterian suggested that the University of Pennsylvania Smell Identification Test (UPSIT) may offer a practical, low-cost alternative to other tests.

In one study, researchers administered UPSIT to 397 older adults (average age of 80 years) without dementia from a multiethnic population in northern Manhattan. Each of the participants also had an MRI scan to measure the thickness of the entorhinal cortex-the first area of the brain to be affected by Alzheimer's disease.

Four years later, 50 participants (12.6 percent) had developed dementia, and nearly 20 percent had signs of cognitive decline.

The researchers found that low UPSIT scores, but not entorhinal cortical thickness, were significantly associated with dementia and Alzheimer's disease. (Low UPSIT scores indicate decreased ability to correctly identify odors.)

Low UPSIT scores, but not entorhinal cortical thickness, also predicted cognitive decline, although entorhinal cortical thickness was significantly associated with UPSIT score in those who transitioned to dementia.

"Our research showed that odor identification impairment, and to a lesser degree, entorhinal cortical thickness, were predictors of the transition to dementia," said presenting author Seonjoo Lee. "These findings support odor identification as an early predictor, and suggest that impairment in odor identification may precede thinning in the entorhinal cortex in the early clinical stage of Alzheimer's disease."

In another study, researchers evaluated the usefulness of UPSIT and tests that measure the amount of amyloid in the brain (in higher amounts, the protein forms plaques in the brains of those with Alzheimer's disease) in predicting memory decline.

The researchers administered UPSIT and performed either beta amyloid PET scanning or analysis of cerebrospinal fluid in 84 older adults (median age of 71 years). Of these, 58 participants had mild cognitive impairment. The researchers followed the participants for at least six months.

At follow-up, 67 percent of the participants had signs of memory decline. Testing positive for amyloid with either method, but not UPSIT score, predicted cognitive decline. However, participants with a score of less than 35 were more than three times as likely to have memory decline as those with higher UPSIT scores.

"Our research suggests that both UPSIT score and amyloid status predict memory decline," said neurologist William Kreisl.

The study has been presented at Alzheimer's Association International Conference.
Corporate focused skill development company STC Group has unveiled the launch of STC SKILLS as its skill service brand to create a 'skilled India' through an array of innovative workforce solutions.

Founded by Thirumal Raj, Saran Vel and Madhu Saran, the company is funded training partner of National Skills Development Corporation (NSDC) upholding the Indian Government's vision.

The company is also associated with Modi Government's Skill India scheme wherein the Government proposes to train 10 million students by 2020.

Over 200 experienced faculty works with STC skills to impart the latest set of knowledge and they will regularly update curriculum designed to target varied needs of audiences with diverse backgrounds.

STC Group has a vision to be one of the leading provider of training services and play a key role in delivering skilled industry-ready workforce to the market.
External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj has offered help to Tajikistan Zohana, who married a boy from Haryana's Fatehabad district, as her three-month tourist visa is set to expire by the end of this month.

Zohana met the boy Tinu on a social networking site and got married to him earlier this year as per Hindu rituals.

Swaraj took to Twitter to offer her help and wrote in a typical Haryanvi dialect, "Bhau ka visa badhane khatir arjee dakhil kar di ho toh manne copy de doh." (If you have given an application for visa then give a copy of it to me.)

The expiry of visa has now become a major concern for the couple.

The love between the couple is said to have blossomed during their interaction on social networking site following which they decided to get married.
U S Secretary of State John Kerry has assured Sartaj Aziz, the Foreign Affairs Advisor to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, that Washington is ready to improve and expand its multidimensional partnership with Islamabad.

The remarks were exchanged when Kerry and Aziz met on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Regional Forum (ARF) Ministerial Meeting being held in Laos.

The duo also exchanged views on the regional situation with special reference to Afghanistan.

A communique issued in Islamabad said both Aziz and Kerry agreed on the importance of promoting the Afghan-led reconciliation process.

"I would like to visit in the near future to review bilateral cooperation and discuss regional issues," the Dawn quoted Kerry as saying.

He also appreciated Islamabad's determined efforts to eliminate terrorist groups in the tribal belt of the country.
Russian president Vladimir Putin has declared that his country's track and field athletes are victims of 'discrimination', insisting that they will not accept the campaign to project the embattled country in bad light.

More than 100 athletes have been expelled from the 387-strong Russian Olympic team in the wake of the World Anti-Doping Agency's damning report into the country's sport.

Addressing athletes at a Kremlin send-off ceremony, which also included dozens of banned sportspersons, Putin said that medals won by other nations at the Rio Olympics will have 'no taste at all', the Guardian reported.

While Russia avoided a blanket ban from the International Olympic Committee, around 68 track and field athletes were ruled out after their appeal against the ban was dismissed by the Court of Arbitration for Sport last week.
New Delhi, July 27 (ANI): The film is all set to do 'Dishoom' on screens but if you have not given much attention to its first look then you might have missed out on the point that the character sketch of the male leads, John Abraham and Varun Dhawan, is slightly similar to the character of Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith from 'Men In Black.'

While John plays a strict and serious cop just like Tommy Lee, Varun plays a chilled out cop like Will.

During the exclusive conversation with ANI, John and Varun were surprised to have such an interesting comparison and said it is just the chemistry that is similar in both films.

"It is just chemistry that might look similar in both the films. The story of Dishoom is very different and interesting but our chemistry makes it more special," John said.

Adding to John, the 'Dilwale' actor said, "That is a very interesting comparison but we have a different plot and 'Men in Black' deals with a completely different world. The film revolves around how the two different characters come together on the journey of solving a case."

The plot of the film revolves around the rescue of a top Indian batsman, who is kidnapped before India's final match with Pakistan.

While many speculate the film to be anti-Pakistan, John explained the purely entertaining film has no references that suggest it to be anti-pakistan.

"Nothing is controversial about the film. It is pro-India but not anti-Pakistan as well. Whether it is the dialogue in which Varun says 'Tune toh Honey Singh ko thok diya' or where he says he follows what PM Modi says, we have just tried to be realistic rather than playing safe," the 42-year-old actor told ANI.

John and Varun were in their full forms to promote the film but one of the most important characters of the film, Akshaye Khanna has been missing from every promotion.

"He plays an extremely important role in the film. He adds the spice to the story. We are extremely glad that Varun and I have got the chance to work with an actor like him. I really think he is one of the finest actors of India," the 'Rocky Handsome' actor said.

The action-comedy genre film has been able to create buzz about its release, but let us see if it can do 'Dishoom' at the box-office on July 29.
After Minister of Asia and Pacific affairs Alok Sharma's assertion on the restitution of 'Kohinoor' diamond, Advocate Nafis Siddiqui, the petitioner of the case, said on that he will file a new application and if Britain doesn't return the gem still, he will then appeal in the UNESCO and in the UN.

"New application will be filled in the Supreme Court to send the advocated commissioner to Britain and request the British government to return the property of India and to get a stay on the selling or auctioning of the diamond. We will get it back, if not, we will appeal through the UNESCO or through UNO," said Siddiqui.

Earlier, in the Supreme Court Centre said that Britain did not steal the 'Kohinoor' but rather it was gifted to them.

Taking a jibe at this statement Siddiqui questioned "How can they say that they gifted our asset?"

Referring to UNESCO declaration of 1970 and 1978, he added that UNESCO has mentioned to return everything that has been looted from the colonial ruled country back to them. France, America and even Australia did so, Britain must also.

Siddiqui said, "The External Minister of India should try their best to bring the property of India back. They should not show leniency on such issue considering any diplomatic or politics aspects."

"The international law and UNESCO is supporting us we. We will bring our property which is there in the Victoria Library, Albert Museum and the Kohinoor Diamond which is embedded in the Queen's crown," he added.

UK Minister Alok Sharma on Wednesday said his government does not believe that "there is any legal ground" for restitution of the diamond.

"It is a longstanding position of the U.K. Government that we don't believe that there is any legal ground for restitution of diamond," said Sharma, the first British Minister to visit India since Brexit.

After the subjugation of Punjab in 1849 by the British forces, the properties of the Sikh Empire were confiscated and the Kohinoor was also transferred to the treasury of the British East India Company in Lahore.

Later, the diamond was shipped to Britain and was handed to Queen Victoria in July 1850. It was cut to improve its brilliance and was mounted into Queen Victoria's crown. The diamond now sits in the tower of London along with the Crown Jewels.

The people of India have been demanding the return of the 105-carat diamond, which the British Government rejected in 2013.
Cochin Shipyard has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Government of India for the financial year 2016-17. The Memorandum of Understanding was signed by Shri Rajive Kumar, Secretary Shipping and Shri Madhu S Nair, Chairman & Managing Director, Cochin Shipyard.

The MoU broadly consists of the performance evaluation parameters and targets for Cochin Shipyard for the ensuing year. The MoU will be reviewed by the Ministry on a regular basis and the performance of PSU would be evaluated and ratings awarded at the end of the financial year. The targets agreed in the MoU are in line with the aggressive growth plans of CSL in line with the Ministry of Shipping's ambitious plans and the Government of India's 'Make in India' policies.

CSL has posted an excellent performance during the last financial year, despite very difficult market conditions. In the year ended 31st March 2016, CSL has posted a record turnover of Rs.1995 crores (provisional) surpassing the MoU target for the year. This is an increase of 7.3% over the previous year.

The provisional PBT and PAT figures are Rs. 424 crores and Rs. 275 crores respectively representing an increase of 15.4% and 17 % respectively over the previous year.

In 2015-16, CSL has won new building contracts for building 5 vessels. The contracts for two 1200 pax cum 1000 T Cargo Vessels and two 500 pax cum 150 T Cargo Vessels for the A&N Administration and one Technology Demonstration Vessel for Defence Research & Development Organisation are worth about 1675 Crores.

CSL is proceeding with two major expansion projects at a total cost of Rs.2800 Crores. An International Ship Repair Facility based on a 6000T shiplift and allied transfer facilities in approx 42 acres of land leased from Cochin Port Trust in Kochi is being setup. When commissioned, this facility will help the yard substantially increase its ship repair capacities and position Kochi as a major ship repair hub. A new Large Dry Dock of 310x 75/60 m size will be constructed within CSL's premises in Kochi, which will provide the yard the capability to build large modern vessels like LNG vessels, large aircraft carriers etc in addition to undertaking repairs/ construction of jack up rigs, semi submersibles etc. Government approval has been accorded for both the projects.

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Dr Reddy's Laboratories slumped 9% to Rs 3,024 at 10:22 IST on BSE, with the stock extending yesterday's slide triggered after a slew of brokerages cut their ratings on the stock following weaker-than-expected Q1 earnings.

Meanwhile, the BSE Sensex was up 198.05 points, or 0.71%, to 28,174.57.

On BSE, so far 2.01 lakh shares were traded in the counter, compared with an average volume of 33,494 shares in the past one quarter. The stock hit a high of Rs 3,070 and a low of Rs 2,995 so far during the day. The stock hit a record high of Rs 4,382.95 on 20 October 2015. The stock hit a 52-week low of Rs 2,750 on 21 January 2016. The stock had underperformed the market over the past one month till 26 July 2016, rising 5.48% compared with 5.98% rise in the Sensex. The scrip had also underperformed the market in past one quarter, gaining 6.51% as against Sensex's 7.57% rise.

The large-cap company has an equity capital of Rs 85.35 crore. Face value per share is Rs 5.

Shares of Dr Reddy's Laboratories' (DRL) dropped 4.37% to settle at Rs 3,322.85 yesterday, 26 July 2016 after the company's consolidated net profit fell 77.2% to Rs 146.20 crore on 14.1% decline in total income to Rs 3289.50 crore in Q1 June 2016 over Q1 June 2015. The result was announced during market hours yesterday, 26 July 2016.

At the time of announcing Q1 June 2016 result, DRL said that its top and bottom lines were impacted by a decline in volume growth, particularly in the US market and the loss of business in Venezuela. The company also faced a number of challenges in Q1 June 2016 including price erosion and delayed launches as a result of the warning letter, which significantly impacted its earnings.

In a conference call held after market hours yesterday, 26 July 2016, DRL's executives reportedly indicated a tough Q2 September 2016, as price and volume erosion of some key products is expected to continue in the absence of any significant new generic approvals. Also there are concerns that competitive pressures in the US, may linger for the balance of the year, reports indicated. The company is losing a key contract supply account of McNeil Consumer Healthcare from its Shreveport facility, Louisiana, which is set to have an impact of $25 million on net profits of the company in coming quarters, reports said.

Dr Reddy's Laboratories is an integrated global pharmaceutical company. Through its three businesses - Pharmaceutical Services & Active Ingredients, Global Generics and Proprietary Products - Dr Reddy's offers a portfolio of products and services including active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), custom pharmaceutical services, generics, biosimilars and differentiated formulations.

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India today asked Bangladesh to utilize the services of Indian Companies in executing telecom projects in the neighbouring country. New Delhi has already offered line of credit worth two billion US dollars to Dhaka and Indian companies including Tejas have successfully completed pilot projects in connecting 100 Union Parishads (Gram Panchayats) in Bangladesh and has pitched for executing 1000 such projects. This was conveyed to the visiting Bangladeshi delegation led by State Minister for Posts and Telecommunications Ms. Tarana Halim, who called on the Union Minister of Communications Shri Manoj Sinha.

It is to be pointed out that unlike other foreign companies operating in Bangladesh in the telecom sector, Indian companies have also offered to share technology and to impart skill training. Shri Sinha said that through technology transfer, C-DoT could help strengthening Bangladesh telecom network and rural population encouraging local manufacturing. It is to be underlined that C-DoT has recently developed technologies to build broadband infrastructure for next Generation Services and it is instrumental in designing the core enabling technology and network architecture of BharatNet-National optical Fiber Network connecting villages and panchayats of the country.

Apart from this Gigabit Passive Optical Network (GPON) is also cost effective technology for broadband penetration in rural areas.

Shri Sinha suggested to Ms Halim that there is a need for an increased number of postal surface mail exchange points between the two countries as at present surface mails are exchanged only at one point ( Petrapole-Benapole), while other exchange points like Akhaura-Agartala, Tamabil-Karimgong, Burimari-Changrabandha, and Hilli-Hilli may be considered. This was already discussed in a bilateral meeting in February this year.

Shri Sinha thanked Bangladesh for its cooperation and support in commissioning 10 Gbps internet bandwidth link via Agartala to provide internet services in the North Eastern region. It is to be recalled that Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi had commissioned the services in March this year. India has suggested to Bangladesh to look into pricing part to enable BSNL procure additional bandwidth.

Both the sides stressed the need for effective cooperation considering the borderless nature of cyber threats and issues and similar challenges faced by the two countries. India suggested that a Nodal officer may be nominated from Bangladesh for effective and timely cooperation on cyber security matters.

Earlier, the Minister of Communications Shri Mnaoj Sinha strongly condemned the recent terrorist attacks in Bangladesh and conveyed heartfelt condolences to those who have lost their loved ones and wished speedy recovery for the injured. Both the sides reiterated their commitment to jointly fight the menace of terrorism.

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On 4 August 2016

Motor & General Finance will hold a meeting of the Board of Directors of the Company on 4 August 2016, for approval of Notice for AGM, Fixation of date for convening the Annual General Meeting and/or any other matter with the permission of the Chair.

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Big investment by M/O Tourism in Tourism Infrastructure in the country

The Ministry of Tourism, in last 18 months, has sanctioned projects worth Rs. 2333 Crore under Swadesh Darshan and PRASAD, the flagship schemes of the Ministry of Tourism. These projects envisage world class infrastructural development of the sites with special emphasis on Tourist Facilities including Tourist Facilitation Centres, way-side amenities Parking, Public convenience, Illumination, Sound and Light Shows and Theme Parks.

In the meeting of the National Steering Committee (NSC, the apex committee for steering these schemes) held yesterday under the Chairmanship of Dr. Mahesh Sharma, Minister of State (I/C) for Tourism and Culture, the status was reported by the Mission Directors of Swadesh Darshan and PRASAD Schemes. In his inaugural address Dr. Sharma stressed on the need of proper coordination / convergence of schemes with Central Ministries for proper development of Infrastructure in the country.

Speaking on occasion Union Tourism Secretary Shri Vinod Zutshi emphasized upon the need for proper Rail, Road & Air connectivity with places identified under various Circuits.

11 projects in Amravati, Kamakhya Temple, Patna Sahib, Patna,Vishnupad Gaya, Shri Jaggannath Puri, Amritsar,Ajmer-Pushkar,,Varanasi,Mathura-Vrindavan, Kedarnath Dham Uttarakhand for Rs.284.53 have been sanctioned so far under the PRASAD scheme. They include 2 Projects worth Rs.36.96 Crore approved for Varanasi River Cruise and Dwarka and 3 Projects viz Laser show on Ghats of Varanasi and projects of Kanchipuram, and Vellankanni .are under active consideration of the Ministry..

Thirteen themes tourist circuits of Buddhist Circuit, Ecotourism Circuit, Wild life, Himalayan, Spiritual, North East India, Tribal, Krishna, Rural, Coastal, Heritage , Desert, Ramayana have been identified to attract both domestic and international tourists having special interest of visiting such places. Swadesh Darshan is a Mission Mode project of Ministry of Tourism, Government of India.From January 2015 till date 25 projects for Rs. 2048 Cr. have been sanctioned. They include EcoTourism Circuit in states of Uttarkhand,Telangana,Kerala, Tribal Circuit in Nagaland, Chattisgarh, Telangana, Coastal Circuit in Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Pudicherry,West Bengal, Maharashtra, Goa, Buddhist Circuit in Bihar and Madhya Pradesh, Himalayan Circuit in Jammu and Kashmir, Desert Circuit in Rajasthan, Wild Life Circuit in Madhya Pradesh & Assam and North East India Circuit in Arunachal, Sikkim, Manipur, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Tripura under Swadesh Darshan.

Five Pan India Mega Circuits have been also identified namely, Ramayana-Krishna- Buddhist Mega Circuit, Himalayan & Adventure, World Heritage, Coastal and Wild Life Circuit identified for development under Swadesh Darshan to showcase India as a Land of Buddha and destination for Spiritual and Religious Tourism.

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Ninth meeting of the special committee for inter-linking of rivers held

Union Minister for Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation Sushri Uma Bharti has underlined the need for deciding the definition of Surplus water of rivers once for all. Chairing the tenth meeting of the Special Committee for Inter-Linking of Rivers the Minister said that this issue has to be sorted out in consultations with the states. She said till this issue is decided the dispute about surplus water will continue to crop up time and again. The Minister said, for this we will require a detailed study of country's agricultural land including irrigated land, non irrigated land, agricultural produce and their market. The Union Minister said her Ministry will take a final decision on this issue after detailed deliberation with the states. Sushri Bharti that a Jal Manthan (Seminar on water related issues) will also be held to deliberate on this issue. Stressing the need for speedy implementation of inter linking of river projects, the Water Resources Minister said I hope that National Water Devlopment Agency will work with more vigour and will complete the delayed inter linking projects in a time bound manner.

Addressing the meeting, the Water Resources Minister of Bihar Shri Rajiv Ranjan Singh raised the issue of flood in the rivers flowing into Bihar form Nepal. He said keeping this in view the issue of inter linking of rivers in the state should be taken up on priority. He also suggested that the projects with the potential to irrigate more than two lak hect. of land should be declared as National Project. The Water Resources Minister of Uttar Pradesh Shri Surendra Singh Patel argued for starting the work on Ken-Betwa link at the earliest. He wanted to know the total cost of the project and his state's in share in the same.

Union Cabinet in its meeting held on July 24, 2014 approved the constitution of the Special Committee on ILR. Accordingly, Special Committee on ILR was constituted vide order dated September 23, 2014. The first meeting of the committee was held on October 17, 2014 and its last meeting was held on April 29, 2016. The committee, after considering the views of all the stakeholders, is proceeding ahead to expedite the objectives of the interlinking of rivers as per terms of reference. Vigorous efforts have been made for generating consensus with development of alternative plans and also setting out road maps for implementation of projects.

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Plans to shift Bangalore cinema exhibition operations to new premises

Vision Cinemas announced that the Bangalore multiplex cinema operations of the Company was being conducted from a leased premises. Upon expiry of the lease period, the Company was negotiating for an extension of the lease with the land owners. Ultimately, the owners decided to sell the land to private real estate developers and declined to renew the lease.

The Company is now in the process of shifting its Bangalore cinema exhibition operations to a new premises and operations in the new premises is expected to commence shortly.

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With conciliation meeting between the United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU) that has given a strike call on July 29, the Indian Banks Association (IBA) and the central government failing on Tuesday, the strike call stands, said a top leader of All India Bank Employees' Association (AIBEA).

In a statement issued here, AIBEA General Secretary C.H.Venkatachalam said while the union representatives put forth their views on the various issuses nothing came out from the side of IBA or government representatives.

He said the IBA or the government representatives did not assure or indicate that the government policies would be reviewed and reversed, rather, only sought to justify them.

The conciliation meeting was called by the Chief Labour Commissioner (Central), in the Labour Ministry in New Delhi.

Representatives of all nine constituent units of UFBU viz. AIBEA, AIBOC, NCBE, AIBOA, BEFI, INBEF, INBOC, NOBW, NOBO, were present in the meeting, said Venkatachalam.

"Accordingly, 10 lacs of employees and officers of public sector banks, old generation private banks and foreign banks in more than 80,000 branches all over the country will observe the strike on 29th July, 2016 to express our opposition and protest against these unwarranted banking reform measures," he said.

--IANS

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At least 28 persons were killed and scores of people were injured in floods and landslides triggered by incessant monsoon rain in Nepal on Tuesday, said the country's Ministry of Home Affairs.

The whereabouts of 24 people were still unknown after the landslides, which were triggered by incessant rainfall in various parts of the country, Xinhua news agency quoted the Ministry as saying in a press statement.

As many as 75 houses collapsed in some 10 districts due to the floods, Ministry officials told Xinhua, adding that the death toll might rise further due to the torrential rains.

The 10 worst-hit districts by floods are namely Pyuthan, Gulmi, Palpa, Baglung, Makawanpur, Rupandehi, Kathmandu, Arghakhanchi, Dolakha and Sarlahi, according to local media reports. The Ministry said that local police have been deployed in rescue operations in those districts.

"The district relief committees have been instructed to carry out rescue and relief operations in coordination with local police," the Ministry said in the press statement.

--IANS

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Check out the new trails system at Rogers Lake County Natural Area with a free guided hike or guided mountain bike ride Saturday, July 30. Coconino County Parks and Recreation staff will lead a 4-mile round-trip hike to a viewing area, as well as a 6-mile round-trip bike ride that uses both trails, the 2-Spot Trail and Gold Digger Trail. To join either group, meet at the south  or second  trailhead on Woody Mountain Road this Saturday at 9 a.m.

For more information, visit facebook.com/coconinoparksandrec/.

Help Special Olympians compete and travel

Help raise money for Special Olympics Arizona athletes from Flagstaff, Prescott, Sedona and surrounding regions at the 12th annual Bare Aspen Wine and Beer Tasting event. There will be food prepared by John Connelly of Salsa Brava and Fat Olives, along with wine and beer tastings. The event will be held Aug. 13, from 1-5 p.m. at the Arizona Nordic Village.

In addition to wine provided by Breakthru Beverage, guests can also sample craft beer from local breweries such as The Lumberyard Brewing Company, Flagstaff Brewing Company, Historic Brewing Company, Left Hand Brewing Company and Barrio Brewing Co.

During the tasting, attendees can take part in silent and live auctions that will include items from local Special Olympics Arizona artists, with proceeds directly supporting the local Special Olympics programs and athletes. Auction items include four one-day Disneyland Park Hopper tickets, a group laser tag session, a private Grand Canyon tour for four with All-Star Grand Canyon Tours and more than 50 other items.

During the auction, Special Olympics Arizona will also introduce the mountain areas three athletes who will be traveling to the 2017 World Winter Games in Austria as part of the Special Olympics USA team.

Tickets for the event are $35 per person, or $60 for two adults, with tickets for children 12 and younger available for $5. For more information on the event and to buy tickets, visit specialolympicsarizona.com.
AAP legislator from Narela Sharad Chauhan was questioned by the Crime Branch on Wednesday over party worker Soni's suicide, police said.

"Our team has questioned Aam Aadmi Party legislator in the case," Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime Branch) Ravinder Yadav told IANS.

Soni allegedly committed suicide by consuming poisonous substance at her house in outer Delhi's Narela village on July 19.

Earlier during the day, the police arrested AAP volunteer Ramesh Wadhwa on charge of harassing Soni.

Wadhwa was arrested by the Crime Branch, which took over the case from local police after Soni allegedly committed suicide on July 19.

Soni, mother of two daughters, left behind a self-shot WhatsApp video in which she claimed "I was denied justice".

According to police, in her video clip the woman accused Wadhwa, Amit Kumar and Rajni Kanth of torturing her to withdraw a sexual harassment complaint she filed against Wadhwa on June 2.

Wadhwa was arrested on June 3 but granted bail the very next day.

The case was registered under Sections 506 (criminal intimidation) and 509 (word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman) of the Indian Penal Code, police said.

In her police complaint, Soni had alleged that Wadhwa harassed her continuously and asked for sexual favours. She even raised the matter within the party but no action was taken against him, she said.

--IANS

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Republican Party of India (RPI) leader and Union Minister of State for Social Justice Ramdas Athawale on Wednesday said there has been a consistent demand to raise the creamy-layer limit for OBC to Rs 10 lakh, and that he would discuss the matter with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

"There has been a consistent demand on this. I can raise the issue and discuss with Prime Minister Modi," Athawale told reporters outside Parliament.

At present the "creamy layer" income limit for Other Backward Classes (OBC) is Rs 6 lakh a year.

Athawale said the demand to raise the cap is genuine as the incomes of the people are increasing.

The hike, if brought in by the government, will bring more OBC people with higher income bracket within the reservation net.

The "creamy layer" is the group with income beyond the Rs 6 lakh a year ceiling, that excludes relatively wealthier and better educated members of the OBC from seeking reservation in government colleges, institutes and jobs.

The "creamy layer' criteria was defined as earning more than Rs 1 lakh per annum in 1993, and subsequently the limit was revised to Rs 2.5 lakh in 2004, Rs 4.5 lakh in 2008, and Rs 6 lakh in 2013.

However, in October 2015, the National Commission for Backward Classes recommended that for the OBCs an annual family income of up to Rs 15 lakh should not be considered as the "creamy layer".

--IANS

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Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday accused the BJP of sponsoring the auto and taxi strike in the national capital saying its "goons" were forcibly stopping autos and taxis from plying.

"See this. BJP goons stopping autos and taxis from plying. BJP wants to cripple Delhi. Active support from LG (Lt. Governor) and Delhi Police," Kejriwal tweeted, posting pictures of some people forcibly stopping autos and e-rickshaw from plying.

His remark came after reports that a section of strikers in different parts of the city were forcibly stopping auto drivers from plying their vehicles and asking them to join the strike being observed on Wednesday.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)-led Delhi government termed the strike as sponsored by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Delhi Transport Minister Satyendar Jain accused the Delhi Police of not taking action against strikers forcibly stopping other auto drivers from plying their vehicles.

"Goons stopped autos and other passenger vehicles with BJP support. Why no action by Delhi Police," Jain asked on Twitter.

Passengers had to suffer a lot due to hooliganism by a section of auto strikers.

"I had to reach ISBT Anand Vihar from New Ashok Nagar in east Delhi but some people stopped the auto I was travelling in near Gazipur. They asked the driver not to ply the auto and join in the strike," Praveen Yadav, a medical student, told IANS.

He added, "I had to leave the auto in Gazipur and reach the bus station with the help of a friend."

Similar incidents of auto drivers forcibly stopping the others from plying their autos and taxis and asking passengers to get down were reported in Saket, Bhajanpura, Sarojini Nagar and Kondli areas of the city.

Around one lakh drivers of auto-rickshaws and taxis went on an indefinite strike On Tuesday and several of them are not plying their vehicles on Wednesday.

The protesters said the indefinite strike was against the increasingly popular app-based taxi services. They are demanding the Delhi government fix rates for the app-based taxi services.

About 90,000 auto-rickshaws and 15,000 traditional yellow-top taxis ply in Delhi.

Not long ago, the auto rickshaw drivers were the mainstay of the ruling Aam Aadmi Party's campaigns and poster wars against the central government.

--IANS

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Even though there is no major terror threat along the India-Bangladesh border, border forces of both countries are maintaining a strict vigil, Border Security Force and Border Guards Bangladesh officials said here on Wednesday.

"There is no major problem along the India-Bangladesh borders. Trans-border crimes along these borders have reduced drastically. However, we are tightening the security along the India-Bangladesh borders," Additional Director General of Border Guards Bangladesh (BGB), Brigadier General Mohammad Habibul Karim told reporters after a four-day BSF-BGB border coordination conference.

"For better guarding of the borders, the Border Guards Bangladesh is setting up 35 new border outposts. We have a plan to set up 50 more such posts along the frontiers with northeastern states of India to check trans-border movement of inimical elements. The new posts are being set up at those places that have remained unguarded for 40 years," he added.

Karim, who led a 19-member BGB delegation to the conference, said the relation between the BGB and Border Security Force (BSF) is excellent and there is no problem between the two forces.

Karim, however, said the Bangladesh government has taken steps to bolster security along the 400km Bangladesh-Myanmar border.

"The BGB is setting up 17 new border outposts along Bangladesh-Myanmar border. The unfenced 400 km border with Myanmar is problematic at times," he added.

The BGB deputy chief said cattle smuggling from India is a cause of concern for Bangladesh.

"Due to cattle smuggling from India, Bangladeshi cattle farms are incurring loss. We have requested the Border Security Force officials to take appropriate steps to curb cattle smuggling," Karim said.

BSF's Inspector General in Meghalaya, P.K. Dubey, led the Indian delegation.

Dubey said the BSF is also setting up 508 new border outposts in addition to over 1,200 existing posts along the 4,096-km India-Bangladesh border in West Bengal, Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Tripura to curb trans-border movement of militants and to check crimes.

"Crimes along the India-Bangladesh border have drastically reduced. However, we would not be complacent and continue to increase security," Dubey told reporters.

He said of the 1,880-km border in the northeastern states of Tripura, Assam, Meghalaya and Mizoram, there are nine places where border fencing is required to be erected along the 'zero line' instead of 150 yards behind the border.

--IANS

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British Prime Minister Theresa May, visiting key European capitals, held talks with Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi over Brexit here on Wednesday.

Renzi appealed to the British government to set out "a precise timeline" for negotiating its leaving the European Union (EU), Xinhua news agency reported.

"The Brexit was a decision of the British people, and we respect it, however painful it is," Renzi said at a join press conference after the meeting.

"At the same time, it is a difficult and unprecedented situation which requires much good sense, a precise timeline, and a certain path," he said.

Renzi's words followed those previously expressed by other leaders from major EU member states, and by EU representatives in Brussels, who urged Britain to move fast and clearly in negotiating its departure from the bloc, and to avoid prolonged uncertainty.

Italy would provide "its full cooperation and support" in order to make the UK-EU negotiations as effective as possible, the Italian Prime Minister added.

On her part, May explained the Brexit would mark Britain's exit from the EU, but not from Europe.

"We will still be part of Europe, and we want to turn the Brexit into a success," she said, adding cooperation with EU member states was crucial to achieve this.

The new British Prime Minister explained she had recently chaired the first meeting of a Cabinet committee in charge of preparing "an orderly departure" from the EU, XInhua news agency added.

She added she hoped the economic ties between the two countries would be maintained, and even boosted, recalling that Italy was Britain's eighth largest export market with a bilateral trade worth some 24 billion pounds ($31.5 billion) in 2015.

The global threat of terrorism and the migration crisis were also discussed during their meeting in the Italian capital.

Before meeting the Italian Prime Minister, May held Brexit talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande last week, and with her Irish counterpart Enda Kenny on Tuesday.

--IANS

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The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved the amendment in relevant clauses of the Central Agricultural University Act (CAU), 1992 to include Nagaland under the jurisdiction of CAU, Imphal, an official statement said.

"After inclusion of Nagaland under jurisdiction of the Central Agricultural University, Imphal, the College of Veterinary Sciences in Nagaland will produce the much-needed professional manpower in the fields of animal husbandry, which will facilitate socio-economic growth in the region," an it said.

"The new college will help familiarise the farmers with new techniques, thereby contributing to the production and productivity of domestic animals in Nagaland," it added.

--IANS

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The telecom story in India, generally speaking, has been a "success story" the vexed issue of "call drop" has hit it like a black spot, new Telecom Minister Manoj Sinha told parliament on Wednesday

Replying to supplementary questions from members during question hour in Lok Sabha, Sinha, who was recently given independent charge of the crucial ministry, however asserted that the "black spot will be removed certainly".

"Telecom story in our country has been a success story. But there is a black spot. We will certainly remove this," he said, adding that in the next 3-4 months, there will be positive results on this front.

Stating that he has already held a detailed meeting with telecom operators, he said, "with the progress made in last 45 days, it is apparent that the operators have kept their words. They will have to keep the words even in future also".

"I want to assure you all that consumer will be satisfied. Then only we can say the government is working, the department is working," he said.

He said necessary instructions have been given to telecom operators to improve the situation on call drops issue.

Sinha further said the telecom operators will invest around Rs 20,000 crore to improve their infrastructure and install one lakh base transceiver station to offer better services to customers.

Raising supplementary queries, Congress' Sushmita Dev expressed concern on the menace of call drop.

"In the month of October 2015, the TRAI had passed a regulation to impose a fine or a penalty on telecom companies for call drops up to Re.1 to a maximum of three call drops in a day. But that has been struck down by the Supreme Court saying that the TRAI does not have the power to impose penalties," she said.

She was supported by her party colleague Jyotiraditya Scindia, who said a recent study revealed that the operators have limitations in providing services in states like Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Delhi and Rajasthan.

--IANS

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The Uttarakhand government said on Wednesday that Chinese troops had been spotted within its territory on July 19 by local officials who were asked to return. Army sources however said the incident took place on July 22.

The defence ministry however maintains that there are no incidents of "incursion" by Chinese troops and the "transgressions" occur due to different perception of borders.

Senior state government officials said the incursion was spotted in Badahoti in Chamoli district. District Magistrate Vinod Kumar Suman told IANS that he had sent a report to "appropriate authorities" but refused to elaborate.

Uttarakhand Chief Minister Harish Rawat also confirmed the incursion, saying he had reported the matter to the Union Home Ministry. "It is a serious matter. I am sure the central government would look into the issue," he added.

Uttarakhand shares a 350-km-long boundary with China and incursions have been reported in the past too. Only last year some boys grazing cattle were beaten up by Chinese troops and asked to retreat.

Sources said the administration sends teams to Badahoti, which lies in very tough terrain over 100 km from Joshimath, thrice a year -- twice in summer and once in winter.

The area can only be reached on foot. A team of 19 government officials, led by Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM) Yogendra Singh had on July 19 left for the "summer inspection".

The team is said to have spotted the "presence of Chinese soldiers on the soil". When they engaged in eye-to-eye contact with the soldiers, the Chinese troopers asked them to leave and go back, an official said.

The team retreated to Rimkhim and informed the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) teams posted there. They then informed the district magistrate who passed the information to the chief ministers office. The Chinese retreated to their own side after spending 40 minutes on Indian soil.

The defence ministry has meanwhile maintained that there are no incidents of 'incursion' by the Chinese side, referring to different perceptions of boundary.

Responding to questions in the Lok Sabha last week related to intrusion in Indian territory by Chinese troops, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar said: "There have been no instances of intrusion by troops of China or Pakistan into Indian territory.

"However, as there is no commonly delineated Line of Actual Control (LAC) between India and China, there are areas along the Indo-China border where both sides have differing perception of LAC. Due to both sides undertaking patrolling upto their perception of the LAC, transgressions do occur."

The minister also said in a written replies that the government "regularly takes up any transgression along LAC with the Chinese side through established mechanisms including Flag meetings, Border Personnel meetings, meetings of Working Mechanism for Consultation and Coordination on India-China Border Affairs and diplomatic channels".

He added that the two sides have appointed Special Representative (SR) to explore the framework for a boundary settlement from the political perspective of the overall bilateral relationship.

The 19th Round of SR Talks on India-China boundary question was held in China from 20-21 April, 2016.

--IANS

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Burning the midnight oil were not the only stress factor this year of candidates aspiring for the limited number of seats at the country's medical colleges.

These were compounded by a dress code, a long list of banned items and strict do's and don'ts.

From candidates being forced to wear low heels and slippers, to full-sleeved shirts and kurtas being banned to girl candidates being asked to untie their hair and not wear any clips or bands -- the agencies, including the Central Board of Secondary (CBSE), conducting the test this year forced the candidates to prepare for a lot more than only studying.

With several cases in previous years of hi-tech equipment being used by unscrupulous candidates to crack the medical entrance examination, the authorities were forced to put strict measures in place this time.

Sample this.

For the NEET-2 (National Eligibility cum Entrance Test), which is mandatory for an all-India ranking for medical colleges, the dictat was: "Candidates will wear slippers, sandals with low heels and not shoes."

Conducted on Sunday (July 24), over 425,000 candidates of the 475,000 registered appeared for NEET-2. Over 600,000 candidates had appeared for NEET-1.

"How do low and high heels make a difference to cheating in exams. And who decides on what is the size of low heels? Becoming a doctor is any way tough. The serious candidates are being punished for the misdeeds of others," Meghna Arora, a candidate from New Delhi, told IANS.

"Light clothes with half-sleeves not having big buttons, brooch/badge, flower etc with salwar/trouser" was another strict instruction the CBSE clearly gave for the NEET.

Candidates had to give a signed undertaking that they will make themselves "available for compulsory physical frisking".

While mobile phones, Bluetooth devices, health bands, wrist watches and other electronic equipment were a big no-no, candidates were cautioned against carrying even ATM cards, goggles, belts, caps, remote keys or food items and water bottles.

That is not all.

Candidates were clearly told that disobeying the instructions will lead to their being barred from taking the test. On being caught bringing the barred items to the examination centre, the candidates were threatened with criminal cases.

"You are cautioned not to bring barred items at the NEET centre. You will be frisked by special teams in three security levels with specialised electronic equipment detectors. If you are caught, FIR will be lodged and you will be debarred from NEET forever. Wear suggested dress for NEET. If instructions are not complied with, you may not be allowed to appear in NEET. Reach on time - OSD-NEET," SMSs and mails received by candidates clearly stated.

"The medical entrance test this year was a real pain. The serious students hardly bothered to read the instructions on dress code and the like. The result was that they had to face difficulty, humiliation and harassment at the entry gates to exam centres. Boys and girls with long sleeves were forced to tear or cut them.

"Those coming in shoes had to go bare feet to get inside. Girls were forced to untie their hair and get strands checked by the staff for any communication equipment that might be hidden inside and be used for cheating," Arushi Gupta, a candidate from Chandigarh, told IANS.

Candidates pointed out that they had to face "harassment and humiliation" at most centres.

"I was told that full sleeve kurtas are not allowed. I had to tear off the sleeves at the entrance itself in front of so many people to take the exam," Sonali Singh from Ludhiana said.

While girl candidates had a tough time, it was not easy for the boys too.

"I had to take the examination bare feet as I went in my shoes by mistake. The sleeves of my shirt had to be cut with scissors. My belt, wallet and other items were all taken away. It left me so upset and concerned just before the tough test," candidate Amulya Bansal from Panchkula said.

(Names of candidates have been changed to protect their identities).

(Jaideep Sarin can be contacted at jaideep.s@ians.in)

--IANS

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Hillary Clinton wrestled her way into history on Tuesday becoming the first woman to be nominated by a major political party for the President of the United States and was hailed by her husband, former President Bill Clinton, as "the best darn change-maker I ever met".

Her insurgent rival in the Democratic Party, Bernie Sanders, put a dramatic end to a fractious campaign by personally having her nominated unanimously by acclamation at the party convention here.

Hillary came on a video link to thank the Democratic convention delegates and said, "I can't believe we just put the biggest crack in the glass ceiling yet."

If she is elected in November, she will join Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, Prime Minister Theresa May of Britain and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina of Bangladesh as women leading major nations -- 50 years after a woman, Indira Gandhi, became India's Prime Minister.

Her nomination came 24 years after her husband's and eight years after her first bid. In 2008 she was thought to have an easy road to the White House, but President Barack Obama emerged virtually out of nowhere to walk away with the nomination and eventually made history by becoming the first African-American to win the presidency.

The convention that started on Monday in disarray with the party chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz having resigned over the weekend after a leak of internal emails showed the leadership undermining Sanders, and his supporters trying to disrupt the meeting, hit a high note on Tuesday by the time Bill Clinton spoke. The boos and jeers of Sanders' supporters faded away and the popular President was greeted with a standing ovation.

In a sentimental speech that began with being drawn by her magnetism when he first saw Hillary at Yale University in 1971, Bill Clinton traced their courtship and their life that took them once to the White House and her, afterwards, to the Senate and the State Department. "We have been through good times and bad, through joy and heartbreak," he said.

Bill Clinton spoke of the two rejections he received when he proposed marriage to her and the third time he got lucky when she accepted him after he had bought a house she had fancied. He recounted her career as an activist for the causes of children and for civil rights and her eventual rise to Secretary of State. She is trusted and respected by world leaders, he added.

"Knowing her is one of the greatest gifts she ever gave me," he said.

In keeping with the tradition of the nominee not coming on stage till the last day of the convention, Hillary Clinton spoke by a video link. "If there are any little girls out there who stayed up late to watch, let me just say I may become the first woman President but one of you is next," she said.

When the voting results of all the states and territories were announced, Sanders asked to suspend the process and nominate her by acclamation without counting the delegate votes. The convention immediately approved the nomination with loud cheers.

However, some of his supporters persisted in opposing Clinton and shouted their opposition.

The formal nominating session began with Tulsi Gabbard, the first and only Hindu to be elected to Congress, invoking Mahatma Gandhi to formally nominate Sanders, the progressive with broad appeal.

Gabbard spoke of the revolutionary changes Sanders brought to the political discourse with his progressive, anti-establishment agenda, and said the movement would continue. She quoted Mahatma Gandhi, "A small body of determined spirits fired by an unquenchable faith in their mission can alter the course of history."

"We will fight for the change we need and we will never forget our leader," she said.

Gabbard resigned as the Vice Chair of the Democratic Party in February to openly work for the election of Sanders.

In the November election, Hillary Clinton will be locked in a nasty race with Republican Party's Donald Trump, who has been accused of being anti-woman.

He loomed as an ominous presence at the Convention as speaker after speaker hit out at his opposition to abortion rights and maternity benefits, his unabashedly sexist remarks about women, and what they asserted were his extremely negative statements about immigrants and Muslims.

Trump and the Clintons, though, were once friends as fixtures on New York's social scene. They even attended Trump's third wedding to Slovenian immigrant Melania. But once he began running for President, Trump has unleashed a torrent of vitriol against Clinton whom he now calls "Crooked Hillary".

Earlier as the counting of delegate votes from states and territories was underway, a young Indian woman, Sruthi Palaniappan introduced Iowa's vote announcement. India West newspaper reported that Palaniappan, an 18-year-old high school student, is the youngest Indian American delegate at the Convention. Her father, Palaniappan Andiappan, is a member of the Convention's credentials committee, the newspaper said.

Sanders won the majority only in 11 states and territories although he polled 12 million votes to Clinton's 15.8 million in the primaries and caucuses.

His state, Vermont, passed on its alphabetical turn to announce its vote and after all the states had announced theirs, its leaders took their turn and announced a majority for him. Sanders then dramatically asked to suspend the vote and nominate Clinton by acclamation.

But the party still has to get all his supporters on board as some have persisted in opposing the Clinton nomination. Despite calls for unity from Sanders, his diehard supporters held up a banner predicting a defeat for the party because it rejected Sanders.

(Arul Louis can be reached at the Democratic Party Convention in Philadelphia at aru.l@ians.in)

--IANS

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Flagstaffs representative to the Republican Convention in Cleveland is back in town.

Joy Staveley was one of 28 at large delegates from Arizona attending the convention last week. This was the first national convention she has attended and found the event interesting and enjoyable.

It went pretty much the way I expected, she said.

She was disappointed in and surprised by Sen. Ted Cruzs speech and the actions of those who were extremely loyal to his candidacy. She thought his speech was pretty good, right up until the end when he started talking about voting your conscience.

I think that once the party picks a nominee, you should support them or not speak at all, Staveley said.

She though Cruzs remarks hurt himself more than anyone else.

She was also disappointed that Ohio Gov. John Kasich didnt welcome the delegates to the state, after fighting so hard to the get the convention in Cleveland.

Staveley said many of the other speakers at the Republican Convention were very good, especially former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, Donald Trump, Jr. and the Benghazi survivors.

Some of the speakers gave her a better insight into Donald Trump, she said. She still didnt like the way Trump communicates to the public, but some of the speakers who have known him for several years, especially his family, presented a different side of the Republican nominee -- one that might have a more balanced approach than what Trump was currently presenting to the public.

Staveley still didnt agree with Trumps ideas on trade or the Northern Atlantic Treaty Organization. She thought that NATO was a good idea. She agreed with Trump that the U.S. should withdraw from the United Nations. That organization has only been destructive and is constantly being financed by the U.S., she said.

She also felt that Trump, whatever his faults, would be better for small business, the economy and public safety than Clinton.

Staveley still wishes that someone other than Trump had won the nomination.

She also thought that people made too much of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christies mock trial of Hillary Clinton. She thought the speech was done in a light-hearted manner.

It was good, clean fun, maybe not for the other side, Staveley said. It was a way of letting off steam. It wasnt meant to be dark or evil.

The people who were shouting Lock her up were responding to rhetorical questions by Christie, she said. There are many people who believe that Clinton is responsible for the attack on the Benghazi, Libya diplomatic compound and was let off lightly for having a private server for her emails when she was the U.S. Secretary of State.

Staveley said she was glad she went. But she wished that the state or national party would make a stronger effort in the future to make sure that delegates were well versed in the rules, process and platform of the convention.

It was really hard to know and understand all of the rules before you left, she said. Thats why Cruzs followers and the Vote Your Conscience group had such a hard time.

The Vote Your Conscience group originally had the votes to take its request to unbind the delegates to the floor of the convention, but the different state party whips bullied delegates into taking their names off the list of supporters, Staveley said.

I would have liked to see that vote come to the floor, she said. I dont think it would have passed but it would have helped the Cruz folks understand and shown good faith. Its never good to stifle those types of things.

Staveley said she might try to go to another Republican National Convention.

It depends on how active I stay in politics, she said. It may depend on the candidate. It was fun but kind of exhausting.
Actor Arshad Warsi has shot down rumours of leaving the promotions of forthcoming film "The Legend Of Michael Mishra" in the lurch. He says he is "not the kind of actor who backs out of his commitment".

There were reports that now that the Aditi Rao Hydari, Arshad and Boman Irani-starrer film is ready to release two years after being completed, the cast is "in no mood to promote it". But the stars have a different story to narrate.

"I am not the kind of actor who backs out of his commitment. 'Michael Mishra...' is my film... Why would I refrain from promoting it? I have had to request the producer of 'Bhaiyyaji Superhit' to push my dates so that I could promote 'Michael Mishra'," Arshad said in a statement to clear the air around the "baseless information".

Despite having prior commitments, the actors are promoting the film, which is releasing on August 5.

Manish Jha, who has directed the film, also shared that the "promotions of the film have just kicked in and I am in constant touch with my cast and crew".

He said: "They all are extremely excited about the project and you will see them promoting the film at various promotional events. The rumours doing the rounds in the media about their unavailability for the film is utterly baseless and will be proved wrong in the coming days."

"The Legend of Michael Mishra" is a complete Patna-Bihar romance-comedy. Arshad plays a Patna-based gangster Michael who falls in love with Varsha (Aditi). Varsha wants Michael to change his lifestyle and thus, he decides to live a clean life which is not easy as his past keeps haunting him.

--IANS

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Scientists at the Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa have proposed an innovative system for harvesting safe drinking water from air.

Capturing atmospheric moisture is not a new invention in itself because atmospheric water generators for commercial and domestic use already exist. But the new device requires less energy to produce high-quality water from air compared to existing systems, according to the report in American Chemical Society's journal "Environmental Science & Technology."

Atmosphere contains water vapour in amounts comparable to all the surface and underground water on the planet. But current machines that collect water from the atmospheric reservoir have major limitations. They use electrical refrigeration to cool the air and condense the vapour and that consumes a lot of energy.

The new system designed by Israeli scientists uses a liquid desiccant to first separate the water vapour from air and then cool only the vapour. Their calculations show that this approach would result in 20 to 65 per cent energy savings over the standard system.

"We show that the liquid desiccant separation (LDS) stage that is integrated into atmospheric moisture harvesting (AMH) systems can work under a wide range of environmental conditions using low grade or solar heating as a supplementary energy source, and that the performance of the combined system is superior," the report says.

Desalination of seawater by reverse osmosis is also a potential source of fresh water, but it is not applicable in countries that do not have access to the sea. Besides, desalination requires large capital investments in piping and pumping infrastructure and in its operation and maintenance. "Atmospheric moisture is accessible essentially everywhere," says the report.

The atmosphere contains about 13,000 cubic kilometres of freshwater, 98 per cent of it in the form of water vapour, says the report. The vapour must be condensed to liquid water. The existing atmospheric moisture harvesting (AMH) systems, where standard electrical compression-expansion refrigeration unit is used, can save significant energy by first separating the vapour from the bulk air before it enters the condenser, such that only the vapour is cooled rather than the entire air bulk.

In the new design, separation of water vapour from the air is achieved by using a liquid desiccant. The water vapour absorbed by the desiccant can be liberated using low-grade or solar heat.

The liquid-desiccant vapour separation (LDS) subsystem was designed to operate continuously in a closed-cycle, says the report. "The product of this subsystem is pure water vapour, which is then condensed by a standard refrigeration system without the burden of cooling the air."

In general, the combined LDS-AMH system is expected to save up to 65 per cent of the energy expenses of water production relative to off-the-shelf direct-cooling AMH systems, the scientists claim. "Scaling up the LDS system to produce larger amounts of freshwater is possible simply by installing additional absorbing units around a single desorber-condenser core."

Another important advantage, according to the report, is that the water coming out of the LDS-AMH system will be free of airborne bacteria since "the coil of the condenser does not come into contact with the ambient air but only with pure vapour that has been liberated from the desiccant solution."

(K.S. Jayaraman can be contacted at killugudi@hotmail.com)

--IANS

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Rome, July 27 (IANS/AKI) Police in northwest Italy on Wednesday arrested two Moroccans accused of recruiting on social media for the Islamic State and of proselytizing for the jihadist group.

Cell phones, cocaine, 5,000 euros in cash and ID documents were seized from the suspects who were arrested at locations in the province of Savona in Italy's Liguria region, police said.

The Moroccans were held after an investigation triggered by a WhatsApp message from a Moroccan cell phone which a 15-year-old girl mistakenly received, according to police.

The girl reported the WhatsApp message to police after she noticed that the sender's profile showed a fighter pointing a machine gun at the camera.

A third Moroccan suspect is under investigation after anti- police opened a probe.

The three suspects are aged between 27 and 44, have been resident in Italy for "several years" and have previous police records for drug dealing, assault and fraud, investigators said.

The suspects created a string of false Facebook profiles using mobile phone numbers registered in other people's names as well as profiles on Arabic language websites.

Besides closely monitoring the suspects' social media activities online, investigators also wiretapped their phone conversations, police said.

Following the recent spate of attacks in France and Germany, Italy is on 'level two' terror alert, the highest possible in the absence of a direct attack.

Close to 100 suspects have been expelled from Italy since the beginning of 2015.

--IANS/AKI

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Governor of Italy's Lombardy region has urged the Pope to fast-track the awarding of sainthood to the elderly French priest slain by Islamic State (IS) terrorists on Tuesday.

"Father Jacques Hamel, whose throat was slit so horribly, like an animal, by two Islamist terrorists in his church should immediately be made a saint," tweeted Roberto Maroni, who is Italy's former Interior Minister.

"A prayer for a martyr of the faith and request to Pope Francis: Make Father Jacques a saint straight away #padrejacquessantosubito," Maroni wrote on Facebook.

Shortly after his appeal, the hashtag, which translates as "sainthood immediately", began trending on Twitter.

84-year-old Hamel was allegedly beheaded on Tuesday by two armed men in his church in the Normandy town of Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, near Rouen, which was claimed by IS.

In the case of a martyr, only one miracle is needed for sainthood after beatification and a declaration by the Vatican that the person died for the faith.

The regular canonisation process is a lengthy one involving two miracles attributed to the candidate.
A simple, low-cost odour identification test may prove useful in predicting mental decline as well as help in detecting Alzheimer's disease during its early stages, reveals a study.

The Smell Identification Test (SIT) developed by the University of Pennsylvania in the US, may offer a practical, low-cost alternative to other tests, the researchers said.

A low SIT score indicated decreased ability to correctly identify odours and also predicted mental impairment.

"Our study adds to the growing body of evidence demonstrating the potential value of odour identification testing in the detection of early stage Alzheimer's disease," said D.P. Devanand, Professor at Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC) in New York, US.

The findings showed that the participants who scored less than 35 in SIT were likely to have more than three times memory decline than those with higher scores.

Further, participants whose brain scans showed a thinning in entorhinal cortical -- the brain area that plays a role in memory and the first brain region affected by Alzheimer's -- were more likely to develop Alzheimer's.

"The study showed that odour identification impairment, and to a lesser degree, entorhinal cortical thickness, were predictors of the transition to dementia," said Seonjoo Lee, Assistant Professor at CUMC.

"Odour identification testing, which is much less expensive and easier to administer than PET imaging or lumbar puncture, may prove to be a useful tool in helping physicians counsel patients who are concerned about their risk of memory loss," added William Kreisl, Assistant Professor at CUMC.

For the study, the team administered 397 older adults with an average age of 80 years to SIT, without dementia.

Four years later, 50 participants (12.6 per cent) had developed dementia, and nearly 20 per cent had signs of cognitive decline.

In another experiment the researchers evaluated the usefulness of SIT and other tests that measure the amount of amyloid in the brain in higher amounts in predicting memory decline in 84 older adults with a median age of 71 years.

At follow-up, 67 per cent of the participants had signs of memory decline.

The study was presented at the Alzheimer's Association's International Conference in Toronto, Canada, recently.

--IANS

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John W. Hinckley Jr., the man who shot President Ronald Reagan in 1981, will be released from a government psychiatric hospital over 35 years after the assassination attempt, a US federal judge ruled on Wednesday.

The 61-year-old Hinckley no longer poses a danger to himself or others and will be allowed to leave St. Elizabeth's Hospital in Washington on August 5, although he will be subject to treatment and monitoring conditions, Judge Paul L. Friedman said in a ruling.

Hinckley shot Reagan in the chest on March 30, 1981, outside the Washington Hilton hotel, where the then President had just given a speech, Efe news reported.

Three others were also wounded in the attack, including White House Press Secretary James Brady, who was shot in the head and left paralysed.

When Brady passed away in 2014, his death was ruled a homicide and deemed to be directly related to the gunshot wound he suffered in the 1981 assassination attempt.

Brady became a staunch gun-control advocate following the attack, which occurred just over two months into Reagan's presidency.

Reagan (1911-2004) suffered a punctured lung and was hospitalised, but he made a full recovery after surgery.

After an eight-week trial, Hinckley was found not guilty by reason of insanity on June 21, 1982, a decision that sparked public outrage, Efe news added.

Hinckley said he had been motivated by a desire to impress Jodie Foster after compulsively watching the 1976 film "Taxi Driver", in which the American actress, then 13, portrayed a teenage prostitute.

--IANS

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi has congratulated British Prime Minister Theresa May on the assumption of new responsibility, an official statement said on Wednesday.

"In the telephonic conversation Modi (on Tuesday) recalled his memorable visit to Britain last year in November and affirmed India's commitment to further strengthen the strategic partnership between both the countries," the statement said.

Modi also appreciated Britain's consistent support to India in various global fora.

"May looked forward to working closely with Modi for developing stronger bilateral ties and enhancing cooperation in tackling pressing global challenges," the statement said.

--IANS

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Villagers of wrestler Narsingh Yadav, who tested positive in a dope test and was subsequently disqualified for the Rio Olympics, have come out in support of the "son of the soil", after his family alleged a conspiracy.

Hundreds of people in Ajgara village of Varanasi have started a demonstration in development block Sholapur demanding a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the whole issue.

Narsingh's father Pancham Yadav and mother Bhoolna Devi said their son, a free style wrestler in 74 kg category, was innocent and did not even consume tea, forget taking steroids to boost up his energy levels.

The family alleged that wrestler Satpal and Sushil Yadav have conspired to get his son out of the Olympics.

Narsingh's family said they will hold a rally and demonstrate outside Prime Minister Narendra Modi's office in Varanasi, in case justice was not served to their son. Modi is Lok Sabha MP from Varanasi.

Several village heads, local sportspersons and politicians have lend their support to the agitation, saying Narsingh had a fairly clean record so far and if the family alleged a conspiracy there should be a fair probe into the whole matter.
American on-demand streaming website Netflix is developing a movie about the Panama Papers scandal with John Wells and Claire Rudnick Polstein as producers.

Netflix has acquired the rights to the book "The Panama Papers: Breaking the Story of How the World's Rich and Powerful Hide Their Money", written by German journalists Frederik Obermaier and Bastian Obermayer, reports variety.com.

It's the second Panama Papers movie to be unveiled this month. Steven Soderbergh, Lawrence Grey's Grey Matter Productions and Anonymous Content are producing an untitled project based on Jake Bernstein's upcoming book "The Secrecy World".

Obermaier and Obermayer, who write for German newspaper Suddeutsche Zeitung, based their reporting on access from an anonymous whistleblower to 11.5 million documents from the offices of Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca. The papers provided details on how the wealthy and powerful used the firm to take finances offshore to avoid tax liabilities.

The documents were leaked by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, a global group of reporters and publications, which began revealing their findings in April.

Obermaier and Obermayer will work with producers Wells and Rudnick Polstein, and executive producer Zach Studin of John Wells Productions. Marina Walker and Gerard Ryle of the ICIJ -- which oversaw more than 400 journalists in 76 countries on the release of the Panama Papers -- are also collaborating on the film in an unspecified capacity.

"We are confident that between the expert investigative work of Obermaier and Obermayer, the only journalists in touch directly with John Doe, the ICIJ, and the master storytelling of John Wells Productions, we will be able to deliver a gripping tale that will deliver the same type of impact as the Panama Papers when they were first revealed on the world's front pages," Netflix Chief Operation Officer Ted Sarandos said.

No director or actors are attached to the project yet.

--IANS

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PHILADELPHIA  A divided Arizona delegation cast 51 of its 85 convention votes for Hillary Clinton as she wrapped up the Democratic presidential nomination Tuesday after a surprisingly tough, and sometimes bitter, battle with Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.

The battle was still bitter for some Sanders supporters, who traded chants with Clinton delegates on the floor of the Democratic National Convention during the roll call of the states. Some protesters even penetrated the security perimeter around the convention arena shortly after the nomination was made final.

But Arizona delegates, including some who are Sanders supporters, were looking forward Tuesday.

Im more encouraged than upset, because I thought the way the campaigns came together on the platform to move new rules forward will have a much longer and meaningful impact, said Adam Kenzie, a pledged Sanders delegate from Arizona who said he will now stand strong behind Clinton as the nominee.

When Arizonas turn came, Rep. Ruben Gallego, D-Phoenix, announced that the state had 85 total votes, 34 of which went to Sanders. He then deferred to Jerry Emmett, the 102-year-old honorary chairwoman of the Arizona Democratic delegation, who awarded the states remaining 51 votes to the next president of the United States, Hillary Clinton.

At that point, most of the Arizona delegation members stood up, cheering and holding signs that said, Love Trumps Hate.

The crowds roared as the nomination speeches and roll call votes were announced on the convention floor here Tuesday evening. But the mood was still raucous, with many of the nominating speeches ending with chants of Bernie and an opposing chorus of Hillary, each trying to drown the other voice out.

Clinton, who needed 2,382 votes to win the nomination, ended the night with 2,838 to Sanders 1,843.

To Flagstaff city councilmember and Bernie Sanders delegate Eva Putzova, the full nominating roll call was the best way to ensure the historical record will reflect the varying views within the party.

To me, this was kind of an honest way to go about nominating Hillary Clinton, Putzova said. I think its more democratic and reflective of where we are as Democrats.

Allowing the delegates to cast their vote for Sanders was cathartic, said Joe Bader, a Flagstaff resident and alternate delegate for Sanders.

The Bernie people needed to have their day in terms of their vote, Bader said.

Putzova and Bader did not participate in a walkout staged by some of the Sanders supporters during the roll call, but they both said they respected that move.

This is great thing about recognizing the fact that theyre able to do that and have media observe that action and the Democratic Party took notice. I think those are important. Its important for democracy.

Joe Longoria, a Clinton delegate, said he got involved with the Democratic Party six years ago in heavily Republican Mohave County. He said this is the first time Mohave County has sent four delegates to the Democratic National Convention.

Im very excited to be here, its something Ive wanted to do since 1960, Longoria said. I remember very vividly watching John F. Kennedy on TV at 6 years old. Ive always had a dream of being at a convention.

He believes that Democrats should stand together now without hostility or bitterness  but said he can empathize with the Sanders delegates who watched their candidate lose.

I was a Hillary supporter in 2008. I can feel for Bernie Sanders supporters because I was them, Longoria said. But I do remember when Sen. Obama got the nomination, then quickly as Democrats we moved over to supporting him and followed our leader.

Now Im proud of being part of this history in nominating the first woman as president, he said of Clintons historic nomination.

Kenzie and others remained hopeful that Clinton would take a more progressive approach if she becomes the next president.

He believes Clintons position on marijuana is reasonable, for example, and thinks Clinton is following in Sanders footsteps to take a more aggressive approach to combat climate change and transition to clean energy.
Curfew continued in south Kashmir districts on Wednesday while only restrictions were imposed in parts of Srinagar city and elsewhere after it was lifted on Tuesday in the tense valley.

"There will be no curfew in the Kashmir Valley today (Wednesday) except in Anantnag, Shopian, Kulgam and Pulwama," a senior police official said here.

"Restrictions will, however, remain imposed at places where breach of peace by anti-social elements is apprehended," the official said.

Restrictions were enforced in Rajouri Kadal and adjacent areas in old Srinagar city where a 61-year-old man died in Eidgah area on Tuesday after he lost control on his two-wheeler vehicle during clashes between stone-pelting mobs and security forces.

The separatists had asked people to start normal activities from Tuesday afternoon, but angry youths showed up at various places in Srinagar and elsewhere forcing the shops to remain shut.

Many masked youths placed obstructions on old city roads and the outskirts to ensure the separatists' call to resume half day's normalcy was defied.

The separatists had called for a valley wide shutdown till July 29, except for opening of businesses so that people could buy essentials from 2 p.m. onwards on Tuesday.

Clashes broke out between stone-pelting protesters and the security forces at more than 40 places across the valley after curfew was lifted from Srinagar city and other districts on Tuesday.

Security forces did not use firearms to quell angry mobs anywhere during the clashes.

Over 50 people have died in clashes between demonstrators and the security forces as Kashmir Valley is on edge since July 9, a day after Hizbul commander Burhan Wani was killed by security forces in Kokernag area of Anantnag district.

--IANS

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The parents of a Pakistani-origin British woman along with her former husband were booked for killing their daughter in Punjab province, police has said.

Syed Mukhtar Kazim, the husband of 28-year-old Samia Shahid, said his wife was killed in Jhelum district by her family for "honour", Dawn online reported.

Samia married Kazim against her parents' will, police said on Tuesday.

Kazim lodged an FIR on July 23 against Samia's father Chaudhary Shahid, mother Imtiaz Bibi, sister Madiha Shahid, cousin Mobeen and her former husband Chaudhary Shakil.

Samia's death was reported on July 20 by her father, who denied the charges and insisted that his daughter died of cardiac arrest, police said.

The police had detained her father but set him free after an initial inquiry.

According to a police official, body samples of the woman were sent to the forensic laboratory in Lahore. Results were awaited.

Samia had previously been married to her cousin Shakil but the couple divorced in May 2014. The woman lived in Dubai after marrying Kazim in September 2014.

Kazim claimed that Samia was killed by her relatives who had refused to accept their relationship because of their different communities.

Samia's mother, in a phone conversation on July 11, asked her to come to Pakistan to see her ailing father. She arrived in the country on July 14.

She told Kazim over phone that her father was alright and she was feeling insecure and threatened.

Samia's phone was switched off on July 20. Kazim contacted Mobeen, her cousin, who said Samia had suffered a heart attack.

According to a report in The Guardian, the deceased woman's family denied Kazim's claims.

Her father termed the allegations "lies". "An investigation is under way and if I am found guilty I am ready for every kind of punishment," he said.

Naz Shah, a member of British parliament from Bradford, had asked Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to intervene.

Shah in a letter to Sharif, said: "Should this be [an honour killing] case then we must ensure justice is done for Samia and we must ensure this never happens again."

The British High Commission in Islamabad was in contact with the authorities in Jhelum regarding the developments in the case, the report said.

--IANS

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New British Prime Minister Theresa May has reaffirmed Britain's strong bilateral ties with India following her country's exit from the European Union (EU), the External Affairs Ministry said on Wednesday.

She said this on Tuesday during a phone conversation with Prime Minister Narendra Modi who called her to congratulate on the assumption of new responsibility.

"Modi recalled his memorable visit to Britain last November and affirmed India's commitment to further strengthen the strategic partnership between both countries," External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Vikas Swarup said.

Modi also appreciated Britain's consistent support to India in various global fora, Swarup said.

Theresa May succeeded David Cameron, who hosted Modi last year, after the former Prime Minister resigned following Britain's sensational exit from the EU on June 24.

In a referendum last month about 52 per cent Britons voted to exit from the EU against 48 per cent who opted to stay.

Following the result, the Indian High Commission in London held a meeting with representatives of various sectors of Indian businesses in Britain to understand their reaction to the referendum's outcome.

There are over 1.5 million people of Indian-origin in Britain, including around 20,000 students.

India has asserted that it would continue to boost its good ties with both Britain and the EU after the country's exit from the 28-member bloc.

According to Swarup, in Tuesday's conversation, May thanked Modi and said she looked forward to working closely with him "for developing stronger bilateral ties and enhancing cooperation in tackling pressing global challenges".

--IANS

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Tata Steel on Wednesday said the Quebec provincial government of Canada has announced a financial contribution of 175 million Canadian dollars to Tata Steel Minerals Canada (TSMC) to support a direct shipping iron ore project (DSO project) at Schefferville.

The Tata Steel Group has invested an amount in excess of C$1 billion in the DSO project.

"...the award of a government financial contribution of C$175 million to Tata Steel Minerals Canada to support the achievement at Schefferville of a direct shipping iron ore project (DSO project) in which Tata Steel Group has invested an amount in excess of C$1 billion," the steel producer said in a filing to Bombay Stock Exchange.

According to the statement, the financial contribution includes equity stake of C$125 million through the Capital Mining Hydrocarbons Fund and a loan of C$50 million from Investissement Quebec, acting as an agent of the government.

"Tata Steel has demonstrated its willingness to do business in Quebec by committing up to C$1 billion in the development of the DSO project, which stands out for the innovative process it uses. Our government is proud to support such initiatives, which will have positive spinoffs for Quebec and could eventually lead to new mining projects," said Quebec government's Minister for Mines, Luc Blanchette.

Steel producer's Group Executive Director Koushik Chatterjee said this is a challenging time in the global iron ore industry due to soft underlying steel demand, over capacity in the steel industry and volatile foreign exchange fluctuations.

"We will continue to work closely with the Government of Quebec and other stakeholders to do all that we can do to improve the competitiveness of the Canadian iron ore business and make it more sustainable for the future," he said.

Founded in 2010, TSMC is an indirect subsidiary of Tata Steel Ltd, with equity participation from New Millennium Iron Corp. (NML), a TSX listed company headquartered in Montreal, to develop the DSO deposits located in Quebec and Newfoundland and Labrador.

TSMC forecasts annual production of over 6 million tonnes of iron ore.

Quebec government's Deputy Premier and Minister responsible for Small and Medium Enterprises, Regulatory Streamlining and Regional Economic Development, Lise Theriault, said this project would have significant benefits for our economy, creating up to 550 quality jobs in Quebec.

--IANS

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A 26-year old Mumbai youth lost his life following an argument over change of Rs 2 with an auto-rickshaw driver here early Sunday, officials said here on Wednesday.

The incident occurred when the victim, Chetan Archinerkar, arrived on a flight from Goa and hopped into an auto-rickshaw from Mumbai Airport.

On reaching Archinerkar's residence at Godrej Colony in Vikhroli, driver Kamlesh Gupta demanded change of Rs 2 or forfeit Rs 8 for paying the fare of Rs 172.

An altercation ensued and Archinerkar went home upstairs to get the change.

Even then driver Gupta allegedly returned only Rs 20.

Meanwhile, Archinerkar's father came down and told his son to forget the balance Rs 8, when the driver allegedly abused him and drove off.

Enraged, Archinerkar chased the auto-rickshaw and managed to grab the metal frame of the running vehicle which suddenly lost balance and overturned.

The auto-rickshaw fell on Archinerkar who suffered severe injuries. He was later declared dead in a hospital.

Archinerkar's father watched the incident but could do nothing to save his son.

Later, he lodged a complaint with Vikhroli police who quickly nabbed Gupta and arrested him on the charge of culpable homicide not amounting to murder.

He has been remanded to police custody and is lodged in Thane Central Jail, an official said.

Archinerkar had recently graduated in management and had gone for a job interview to Goa. He is survived by a younger brother and parents.

--IANS

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The Tamil Nadu government has moved the Supreme Court for a review of its verdict of December 2 last year holding that for remission of sentence and release of a convict in a case probed by the CBI, consultation with the Centre meant concurrence.

A five-judge Constitution Bench by its verdict on December 2, 2015, had said that "consultation" with the Centre meant "concurrence" for the grant of remission of the sentence of the convicts in the cases investigated by the CBI.

The top court had pronounced this while answering in affirmative the question "Whether the expression 'Consultation' stipulated in Section 435(1) of the Code of Criminal Procedure implies 'Concurrence'?"

The issue arose after the Centre challenged the Tamil Nadu government's decision to grant remission of sentence and release of V. Sriharan alias Murugan, A.G. Perarivalan alias Arivu and T. Suthendraraja alias Santhan who were convicted in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination conspiracy case.

The Tamil Nadu government decided to grant remission of sentence and release V. Sriharan alias Murugan, A.G. Perarivalan alias Arivu and T. Suthendraraja alias Santhan after the top court by its February 18, 2014, verdict commuted their death sentence to life imprisonment on the grounds of inordinate delay of 11 years in deciding their mercy plea by the President.

The court said that delay of 11 years was unreasonable and de-humanizing.

The others who were sought to be released included Jayakumar, Nalini and Ravichandran.

The day after the apex court verdict, the Tamil Nadu government in a suo motu decision on February 19, 2014, wrote a letter to the Centre proposing to remit the sentence of convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination conspiracy case.

The decision of the Tamil Nadu government to grant remission and release the convicts was contested by the Centre, which said the state government could not release the convicts in cases investigated by the CBI without its nod.

The three-judge bench headed by then Chief Justice P. Sathasivan (now Governor of Kerala) referred to the Constitution Bench the seven questions, including whether "consultation" with the Centre meant "concurrence" if the State government wants to grant remission of sentence and release the convict in a case investigated by CBI.

--IANS

pk/rn/vt
At least two people were killed and eight injured in a suicide bomb attack targeting police in northern Baghdad on Wednesday.

The bomber who wore an explosive vest blew himself up at a police checkpoint in the predominantly Shia district of Shula, Xinhua news agency reported.

Several policemen were among the injured, a police report said.

The toll could rise further as ambulances and police vehicles continued to evacuate the injured people to nearby hospitals and medical centres, the police said.

A report by UN Assistance Mission for Iraq (Unami) estimated that 662 Iraqis have been killed and 1,457 wounded in acts of terrorism, violence and armed conflict since the Islamic State militant group took control of parts of Iraq in June 2014.

Many blame the current chronic instability and the emergence of extremist groups on the US due to its invasion of Iraq in March 2003.
The cooperation between the US and India in the fight against the scourge of terrorism is "extremely strong and robust", the US State Department has reaffirmed.

"They (India) understand this issue and our cooperation  law enforcement, counter-terrorism, countering violent extremism  is extremely strong and robust," Elizabeth Trudeau, Director in the US State Department Press Office, said in the daily press briefing here on Tuesday.

Without referring to any particular case, Trudeau said, "the US and India have a joint commitment to fighting against violent extremism, the kind that impacts the people of India or anywhere around the world".

"India, unfortunately, has suffered at the hands of terrorists," she said.
Second seed Stan Wawrinka headlined the seeded players to advance on the second day of action in Rogers Cup Main Draw tournament at Aviva Centre here.

The 31-year-old Swiss battled Russia's Mikhail Youzhny in a two-hour match that went to tie break in both sets on Tuesday. Wawrinka won 7-3 in the first tie break and 8-6 in the second to secure his spot in the third round of the tournament, reports Xinhua.

In the only other second round match on Tuesday, No. 5 seed Tomas Berdych of Czech Republic overcame a first set loss to beat Borna Coric of Croatia in three sets.

Tuesday saw three seeded French players in first play. No. 10 seed Gael Monfils and No. 13 seed Lucas Pouille were victorious while No. 14 seed Benoit Paire was bounced in straight sets by 37-year-old Czech Radek Stepanek, who reached the main draw as a qualifier.

The final seeded player in action, Steve Johnson of USA, the No. 15 seed fell in straight sets to Italian Fabio Fognini.

Tuesday also featured Canadian Vasek Pospisil, one of six Canadians in the Main Draw. The 26-year-old was victorious over Frenchmen Jeremy Chardy, who was forced to retire with a right foot injury in the opening game of the second set.

Of the 30 remaining players in the tournament, five are Canadian. No. 4 seeded Milos Raonic will play his opening match Wednesday evening, his first match since losing to Andy Murray in the finals of Wimbledon earlier in the month.

In doubles action, World. No. 1 ranked Novak Djokovic and partner Nenad Zimonjic fell in three sets to the Canadian team of Philip Bester and Adil Shamasdin.

--IANS

ajb/vm
As the sales of Apple iPhones went through a global slowdown barring in India, the Cupertino-based tech giant's CEO Tim Cook has announced to soon open retail stores in the country -- a move that brings to the fore the global importance of the burgeoning Indian smartphone market.

Apple's third-quarter net income plunged 27 per cent to $7.8 billion on a decline of iPhone sales. It sold 40.4 million iPhones in the quarter, compared with 47.5 million in the same period of 2015.

But sales of the Apple devices in India rose 51 per cent in the last three quarters compared with a year earlier, Cook said on Tuesday.

"India is now one of our fastest growing markets. In the first three quarters of this fiscal year, our iPhone sales in India were up 51 percent year on year. We're looking forward to opening retail stores in India down the road and we see huge potential for that vibrant country," The Wall Street Journal reported, citing Cook.

The announcement was made on the sidelines of Apple's Q3 2016 earnings call.

India is expected to overtake the US as the second-largest smartphone market next year with robust annual growth, a Morgan Stanley report said recently.

"After realising the increasing importance of India to its core businesses, Apple is now turning its India-entry plans into reality. Having its own stores will help provide better user experience to its prospective customers which, in turn, will help Apple spruce up the business," Vishal Tripathi, Research Director at global market consultancy firm Gartner, told IANS.

"Having said that, Apple will also need to work very closely with their existing partners to understand the finer nuances and maximise the returns," he added.

Revenue for the third fiscal quarter contracted by 14.6 per cent to $42.36 billion compared with revenue of $49.6 billion in the same period last year because of the drop in iPhone sales for the second consecutive quarter, Efe news reported.

Earnings per share were $1.42, above the analysts expected earnings of $1.38 per share and revenues of $42.1 billion.

The company reported that its gross profit margin was 38 per cent.

"Today we're pleased to report third quarter results that reflect stronger customer demand and business performance than we anticipated just 90 days ago," Cook added.

Meanwhile, Apple's chief financial officer Luca Maestri said the results had exceeded their expectations in a quarter marked by currency fluctuations and comparisons between iPhone's latest model, the 6S, and the best-selling iPhone 6.

Apple's profits suffered the first decline in 13 years in the quarter ending March 26 and iPhone sales contracted for the first time in history, a setback that halted the meteoric rise of the tech giant.

One of the problems is the slowdown of the company's businesses in China which Apple sees as the next growth engine.

Services including the App Store and cloud storage (iCloud), among others, generated revenue of $6 billion, a 18.9 per cent increase compared to a year ago.

Apple also expects a gross margin between 37.5 and 38 per cent during the current quarter ending September and anticipates revenues of between $45.5 billion and 47.5 billion.

Apple shares currently are down 8.2 per cent since the start of the year.

Cook, who visited India in the sweltering heat of May announced the first development centre in Hyderabad to work on Apple Maps and an app design and development centre in Bengaluru that will support the Indian developers creating mobile apps for its iOS mobile platform.

In his much awaited meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the 55-year-old Apple head stressed the possibilities of manufacturing and retailing Apple devices in the country.

Bullish on India's upcoming 4G revolution, Cook told an Indian TV channel that 4G is critical for India's progress -- thus setting up the roadmap for a possible alliance with some big players to help Apple open more retail stores in the country.

"I am looking at India holistically and we are here for the next thousand years," Apple CEO Tim Cook had asserted.

According to Faisal Kawoosa, lead analyst with CyberMedia Research (CMR), a nod to import and sell refurbished iPhones at a cheaper price would have put Apple in a very advantageous position in the country.

"At a time when its revenues have taken a hit globally, selling its products in mid- and low-price segment would give the company an upper hand," he had told IANS.

Tripathi added. "It will benefit to buy from an Apple store if the cost and alternative buying options like EMI are the same as compared to partner stores."

--IANS

na/bg
The following editorial appeared in The Sacramento Bee on Tuesday, July 26:

Supporters of Bernie Sanders have had a big impact on the Democratic agenda. They have pushed through the most liberal party platform in recent memory. The $15 minimum wage, single-payer health care, debt-free college  these and other progressive priorities are getting attention they havent received in generations. What a waste it would be if Americans failed to elect a Democratic president.

Unfortunately, electing Donald Trump is exactly what some Sanders partisans appear to be bent on with their dogmatic and destructive demonization of Hillary Clinton. Perhaps they missed it, what with all the booing of every voice of reason they encountered Monday in Philadelphia, including that of Sanders, but as the Democratic National Convention opened, polls were showing Trump and Clinton in a dead heat.

Thanks in part to progressive sour grapes, Clintons once healthy lead has all but evaporated. This week dawned with Trump now leading her by 5 percentage points in a CNN poll, by 4 points in a USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times poll and by 1 point in a CBS News poll, and taking all but three of 11 battleground states. The polling site Fivethirtyeight.com found that if the election were held today, Trump would win.

It is true that Clinton is more moderate than their man, and less a rebel. Emails hacked from the Democratic National Committee confirmed suspicions that DNC officials preferred her and discussed undermining him, though theres no proof that they ever deployed party resources to those ends.

But most of America is more moderate than Sanders. And DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz quickly stepped back from the convention and promised to resign after WikiLeaks posted the emails. Though Sanders backers can feel wounded, they might also ask who, exactly, benefits from the email hack, which appears linked to the Russian government.

In 1968, when disappointed liberals failed to unite behind dull Hubert Humphrey, the nation ended up with President Richard Nixon. In 1980, Ted Kennedys refusal to cede to Jimmy Carter put Ronald Reagan in the White House. In 2000, leftist votes for Ralph Nader sucked air from Al Gores candidacy and turned it into the wind beneath the wings of George W. Bush.

Sanders supporters have everything to win if Clinton is elected  and a lot to lose if Trump ends up in the White House. Knowing this, some spent Monday recklessly sowing chaos; a few reportedly even picked up the Trump camps Hillary-hating lock her up chant. Perhaps they are so stung by DNC leaks that they cant imagine who else might get locked up with a law and order authoritarian in the White House.

Michelle Obamas speech rises above muck, mire

I already miss first lady Michelle Obama.

Her inspiring speech at the Democratic National Convention Monday night was one of the few times in this long chaotic political season that I actually felt hopeful that somehow, some way this country might actually rise above the hateful rhetoric and tragic pall weve been under.

Clearly, she was there to try to get Hillary Clinton elected. Yes, she spoke in support of protesters and police officers.

But in about 14 minutes, she eloquently got to the heart of what we all have in common: wanting the very best future for our children.

The words that resonated the most were about how she and President Barack Obama have had to teach their daughters not to listen to the hateful things people have said about their fathers citizenship and faith.

And boy have people said some vile and racist things about both their parents. Crazy disrespectful stuff people go to great lengths to try to shield their children from. Its heartbreaking to imagine what those girls have probably heard and seen.

Our motto is: When they go low, we go high, Michelle Obama said. Let those words sink in a minute.

Thats the definition of grace and dignity. When people are cruel or negative, dont wallow in the muck with them. This is the foundation on which many of us were raised. Its a message we all needed to hear right here and right now.

Many political observers pointed out correctly that Michelle Obama stole the show on the DNCs first night. Its a given that people will throw partisan rocks and pick apart each word of her speech. Her candidate is not their candidate. Thats fair game.

But I urge people to carefully listen to that speech again no matter who you favor in November.

Michelle Obama spoke of a country of people who have overcome obstacles. Of the greatness of a country in which a black family has lived in the White House for eight years that was built by slaves. Of inclusiveness and accepting differences. Of listening to each other when crisis strikes. Of gender equality.

No wonder shes so popular. Quite frankly, shes an optimistic breath of fresh air. Shes been a steadfast advocate for women, children and veterans.

Democrat or Republican, shes represented all of us well. Heres hoping well still hear lots from her  even after shes left 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

Leona Allen is a columnist for the Dallas Morning News. Readers may email her at ldallen@dallasnews.com

Democrats now have their own convention hullaballoo

Debbie Wasserman Schultz did the right thing, the only thing she could have done, by resigning her post as head of the Democratic National Committee.

I just wish she would have gone a little further and resigned immediately instead of waiting until the end of the convention.

With the release of emails showing DNC staffers favored Hillary Clinton over Bernie Sanders  the DNC should be neutral about candidates  the congresswoman from Florida had to go.

Whether she did anything wrong  and the emails seem to show more snarkiness and entitlement and arrogance more than anything  Wasserman Schultz is the DNCs top person. In a lot of ways, she became the face of the Democratic Party.

As such, she shouldnt be a distraction at the Democratic Convention. The attention should be on Hillary Clinton.

But all the TV talk shows on Sunday and Monday were dominated by the email issue (as a side issue, you wonder why people dont use the phone more often rather than putting sensitive comments into emails).

Had Wasserman Schultz resigned immediately, the story might have switched back to Clinton and the convention. Now, Wasserman Schultz will be a big part of the story all week.

She has been a loyal soldier for Democrats, working tirelessly for the party and doing good work. She became the face of the Democratic party after President Barack Obama. And she has done good things for her district, although she faces her first ever primary challenger this year in Tim Canova. Sanders has supported Canova.

There figures to be demonstrations and booing and lots of distractions this week that the Democrats wanted to avoid. Even if staffers under Wasserman Schultz were responsible for much of the problem, she is the lightning rod who will get the attention. She should have resigned fully before becoming a bigger distraction.

Gary Stein is a columnist for the Sun Sentinel. Readers may email him at gstein@Sun-Sentinel.com

Why I just quit the Republican Party

The Republican Party nominated Donald Trump as its candidate for president of the United States  and I responded by ending my 44-year GOP membership.

Heres why I jumped ship:

First, Trumps boorish, selfish, puerile and repulsive character, combined with his prideful ignorance, his off-the-cuff policy making, and his neo-fascistic tendencies make him the most divisive and scary of any serious presidential candidate in American history. He is precisely the man the founders feared, in Peter Wehners memorable phrase. I want to be no part of this.

Second, his flip-flopping on the issues (everything is negotiable) means that, as president, he has the mandate to do anything he wants. This unprecedented and terrifying prospect could mean suing unfriendly reporters or bulldozing a recalcitrant Congress. It could also mean martial law. Count me out.

Third, with honorable exceptions, I wish to distance myself from a Republican Party establishment that made its peace with Trump to the point that it unfairly repressed elements at the national convention in Cleveland that still tried to resist his nomination. Yes, politicians and donors must focus on immediate issues (Supreme Court justice appointments) but party leaders like GOP committee chairman Reince Priebus, House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell wrongly acquiesced to Trump. As columnist Michael Gerson wryly notes, Trump attacked the Republican establishment as low-energy, cowering weaklings. Now Republican leaders are lining up to surrender to him  like low-energy, cowering weaklings.

Fourth, the conservative movement, to which I belong, has developed since the 1950s into a major intellectual force. It did so by building on several key ideas (limited government, a moral order, and a foreign policy reflecting American interests and values). But the cultural abyss and constitutional nightmare of a Trump presidency will likely destroy this delicate creation. Ironically, although a Hillary Clinton presidency threatens bad Supreme Court justices, it would leave the conservative movement intact.

Finally, Trump is an ignorant, amoral, dishonest and manipulative, misogynistic, philandering, hyper-litigious, isolationist, protectionist blowhard in the words of Republican donor Michael K. Vlock. That charming list of qualities means supporting Trump translates into never again being able to criticize a Democrat on the basis of character. Or, in personal terms: How can one look at oneself in the mirror?

And so, with Trumps formal nomination, I bailed.

For the Republican Party to recover its soul, Trump needs to be thumped in November. Purged of his influence, the party of Lincoln and Reagan can rebuild.

In the meantime, I shall support other Republican candidates. As for president? Either the libertarian Gary Johnson, a write-in candidate or no one at all.

Daniel Pipes has served in five presidential administrations. He wrote this for The Philadelphia Inquirer.
Rome, July 27 (IANS/AKI) The conflicts afflicting the world are about wealth, power and control of natural resources, not religion, Pope Francis said on Wednesday.

"It's warfare over interests, money and natural resources, I am not speaking of a war of religion," Francis said after knifemen beheaded an 86-year-old priest at a church in northern France on Tuesday in an attack claimed by the Islamic State jihadist group.

"Religions don't want war. The others want war," he added.

He made the remarks to reporters during a flight from Rome to Krakow, where he was due to kick off a five-day visit to Poland by attending the city's World Youth day celebrations taking place till Sunday.

"We shouldn't be afraid of telling the truth: the world is at war because it has lost the peace," Francis added.

Poland's Interior Minister says more than 39,000 police and other security officers will be ensuring security as Francis meets hundreds of thousands of young pilgrims from around the globe in southern Poland.

The papal visit includes open-air masses and prayers with around 1.5 million World Youth Day participant, visits to the site of the former Nazi death camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau and to Jasna Gora, Poland's holiest shrine.

It is the first visit by Francis to Poland, one of Europe's most Catholic nations, which produced late Polish pope, St. John Paul II.

--IANS/AKI

vd
Given the "selfish gene", rare are men and and women who fight at their own cost for public causes. Irom Sharmila is one such figure. She has taken it upon herself to protest against the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act and has become a symbol of the struggle for human rights.
Conrad K Sangma, the newly elected member of Lok Sabha from Meghalaya, was one of the three Young Turks, among other members of Parliament, to highlight the havoc caused by floods in their respective home states.
In one sense, Peugeot deserves a gold star. The French carmaker is cutting costs neatly. PSA Group Chief Executive Carlos Tavares has lifted the automotive division's operating profit margin from 5 to 6.8 percent - well above the 6 percent he is targeting by 2021 and ahead of analyst expectations. Yet a radical shakeup in the car industry means getting up to speed with fuzzier stuff like self-driving cars, electric vehicles and new mobility services.
At least 14 people, including five children, were killed and several others injured today in rain related incidents and road accident in northwest Pakistan.

A spokesman for the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Disaster Management Authority said three children were killed when roof of their house collapsed in Abbottabad district.

Separately, two children drowned due to flood in the River Panjkora near Warai area in Upper Dir district.

The body of one child was recovered while search was going on to recover another.

Similarly, bodies of a man and a woman were recovered from Shakhel Khwar in District Batagram.

At least seven persons were killed in a road accident in Upper Dir district after a passenger vehicle plunged into deep ravine. The rescue teams and police rushed to the accident site and retrieved the bodies and injured persons.

The ill-fated vehicle was going from Shireen Ghar to Lamotai area, when it plunged into deep ravine.
Two CRPF jawans were today injured in a pressure bomb blast triggered byNaxalson an under-construction road in Chhattisgarh's insurgency-hit Dantewada district, police said.

The incident took place when a team of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel was patrolling to ensure security of the under-construction Aranpur (Dantewada)-Jagargunda (Sukma) road which passes through the restive dense forests, under Aranpur police station limits, a CRPF official told PTI.

When the security men were cordoning-off a patch near Kondapara village, two personnel inadvertently stepped over a pressure IED, triggering the blast.

Constables Umashankar and Aman, belonging to CRPF's 231st battalion, were injured in the blast, he said.

Reinforcement was rushed to the spotand the injured were being taken to Dantewada from where they will be airlifted to Raipur for further treatment, the official said.

Troopers have many a times suffered losses due to pressure IEDblastson this route in recent past, he said.
As many as 3,550 security force personnel and 2,309 civilians were injured following severe protests and stone pelting incidents in Jammu and Kashmir till July 25 this year, Rajya Sabha was told today.

Minister of State for Home Hansraj Ahir said there were 1,029 incidents of severe protests and stone pelting in Jammu and Kashmir so far this year in which 48 civilians and two security personnel were killed.

There were 730 incidents of severe protests and stone pelting in the entire 2015 in which five civilians were killed and 240 injured while 886 security forces personnel were also injured.

Ahir said, replying a written question, that various steps have been taken by the police authorities which include organising police-public meetings to avoid such incidents.

Security forces were also advised to strictly adhere to the SOP and resort to use of non-lethal weapons while handling law and order situations.

Ahir said there were 152 incidents of terrorist violence in the state till July 17 this year in which 30 security force personnel lost their lives.

In the entire 2015, there were 208 incidents of terrorist violence in which 39 security force personnel were killed.

The Minister said there have been 90 attempts of infiltration by terrorists from Pakistan to Jammu and Kashmir of which 54 were successful while 10 militants were killed and 26 militants fled.

Ahir said India is engaged with Pakistan to address core concern of terrorism emanating from there and territories under Pakistan's control and challenges posed by such terrorist acts on the normalisation of India-Pakistan relations.
Three persons, including a Sri Lankan Tamil refugee, were today arrested at nearby Pamban for attempting to smuggle a sand boa, a species protected under the Wildlife Protection Act.

Police said two residents of Pamban had offered to sell the snake to the Lankan Tamil, residing in the refugee camp in Mandapam, for Rs ten lakh.

On a tip-off, police arrested the three persons and retrieved the sand boa and handed it over to forest department personnel, they said.
As many as 33 seafood consignments were rejected during January-June period this year on reasons like presence of antibiotics, Parliament was informed today.

In 2015, the total number of consignments refused was 43.

"Main reasons for such import refusals/rejections are presence of pathogenic bacteria and banned veterinary drug residues (antibiotics) in aqua cultured shrimp," Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sithraman said in a written reply to Rajya Sabha.

She said the ministry has taken remedial measures to bring down the rejections and the steps include operating a nationwide network of ELISA labs and sophisticated quality control labs.

Replying to a separate question, she said India has demanded special and differential (S&D) treatment in fishery subsidy disciplines being negotiated at the WTO so that small and marginal fisherman get exempted.

In the negotiations, she said: "India and some of the WTO member countries have reiterated the need for S&D provisions as an integral part of fishery subsidy discipline."



Replying to another question, the minister said the intellectual property right chapter in the proposed Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) agreement has not yet been finalised.

The 16-member bloc RCEP comprises 10 ASEAN members (Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines, Laos and Vietnam) and their six free trade agreement partners -- India, China, Japan, Korea, Australia and New Zealand.

RCEP negotiations were launched in Phnom Penh in November 2012. The 16 countries account for over a quarter of the world's economy, estimated to be more than USD 75 trillion.
Al-Ahram Weekly. Read on here.

The suppression of last weeks coup in Turkey will lead to a multitude of losers and only a single winner, writes Azza Sedky

A dear friend, hours into the Turkish coup detat, asked how many articles are being written right now on Turkey entitled the Egyptian Model? My friend neednt have worried. Invoking a comparison between the Egyptian Model and what happened in Turkey recently doesnt add up since the similarities do not exist.

I usually dont meddle in other countries affairs, but since Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan himself made the comparison on, what else, the TV channel Al-Jazeera, I have the green light to meddle too.

Erdogan referred to the Egyptian president as a coup plotter, just like those who attempted the coup in Turkey. He overthrew the president elected by the people with the use of weapons while he was still the minister of defence. Can we respect this behaviour, Erdogan asked. All this cuts short the Turkish presidents lame efforts of the previous few weeks to improve relations with Egypt and confirms beyond a shadow of a doubt his blind, irrevocable bias.

Comparisons set aside, it is necessary to look at the picture in Turkey today. Some questions remain unanswered, such as whether the coup was staged, or simulated, or if the Turkish preacher Fethullah Gulen, living in the US since 1999 and a former ally of Erdogan, had a hand in it.

Other queries may be easier to resolve. How far will Erdogan go to purge the country of all opposing factions to secure his grip on power? More importantly, who will lose and who will gain from what happens in Turkey today? And what kind of effect will the coup ultimately have on Turkey and the Middle East?

A few hours after the coup, Erdogan regained power and the purges began. According to Erdogan, again on Al-jazeera, some 9,000 people are being kept in pre-trial detention, and 1,033 have been arrested. So hastily did the retaliatory measures take place, that it as if the list of opposition figures was prepared prior to the coup.

Hours into the coup, the police literally cornered army officers and conscripts, humiliating some and killing others. Army and police generals were arrested. All in all, some 8,000 police officers were fired and 6,000 soldiers were arrested.

The retribution seemed indiscriminate, though there must have been a systematic pattern to the madness. Not only did the widespread clampdown hit the security apparatus, but also civil servants and professionals, the cream of Turkish society. Erdogan suspended 6,000 judges, revoked the licences of 21,000 teachers, and discharged 492 personnel from the religious affairs sector in Turkey, including imams and muftis.

Hundreds of employees in public broadcasting were, and still are, being investigated. And as the world gasped in bewilderment, every university dean in the country was asked to resign. All in all, 59,000 and counting professionals were given their pink slips.

A three-month state of emergency went into effect. Calls for the restoration of the death penalty echoed on the streets of Ankara and Istanbul. Turkey today is looking into allowing its citizens, the loyal ones, to carry weapons to protect themselves.

In the short term, the winner in all this is definitely Erdogan himself. Even if he may not have staged the coup, he will exploit it to the full. In an unprecedented show of unity, Turks went out onto the streets to support Erdogan against the attempted coup, leaving him basking in glory for having suppressed it and free to initiate change.

The presidential system that Erdogan has been calling for in Turkey for some time to replace the countrys current parliamentary system will now likely pass without a hint of disgruntlement.

The coup first and the support second will also allow Erdogan to crush all opposing factions in the country, such as the Gulen Movement, secularists, intellectuals and liberals. Turkey has become Erdogans oyster.

The losers are many, however. The most troubling loser is the Turkish security apparatus and its remaining generals. The Turkish army and army intelligence were struck a harsh blow and humiliated to an unprecedented degree, leaving its top overseers humbled. Taking this mortification sitting down may not be at all to the taste of the army officers. It remains to be seen how the army and the police will react.

The second loser is secularism. Erdogans Islamist predisposition regained much power as the coup failed. Those thrashing the victimised conscripts and army officers on the streets of Ankara and Istanbul were unquestionably Islamists, and those calling for the resurrection of the death penalty were also Islamists. They have now been given carte blanche to intensify their raids on liberal thinkers. Secularists and liberals will now be closely monitored if not pursued.
At least 39 people have been killed and several others missing as floods and landslides triggered by heavy monsoon rains wreaked havoc in Nepal displacing thousands of people.

Scores of houses and some bridges have been swept away in several parts of the country as incessant rains have swelled rivers, posing a threat of massive flooding and causing panic among the local population.

So far 39 people were killed and 28 others missing in the past 24 hours in floods and landslides, officials were quoted as saying by Kathmandu Post.

Thousands of people have been displaced and hundreds of houses have been waterlogged after floodwaters gushed into their settlements.

Many of the deceased were earthquake victims who were living in a quake-damaged house after repair, police said.

Tens of thousands of Nepalese are still living in tents following the last year's devastating earthquakes that killed nearly 9,000 people.

Pyuthan is among the 14 worst-hit districts where at least 11 people were killed.

In Gulmi, separate incidents of landslide have claimed at least seven lives, while five houses and three bridges have been washed away.

A swollen Tinau river destroyed a suspension bridge at Butwal-13. Around 6,000 people are at risk.

Flooded Mechi river has swept away an embankment on the Indian side. After the incident, Naksalbari, Panitanki and other Indian markets have been waterlogged, said police.

Water levels were close to dangerous levels in Saptakoshi, Narayani rivers.

Water flow in the Saptakoshi river has crossed this year's highest mark after continuous rainfall for the past 10 days.

Water flow in the river was measured at 277,410 cusec yesterday morning, the highest for this year. Thirty-seven of the 56 floodgates have been opened.

Water levels at Narayani river have also crossed the danger mark. Local administration has mobilised security personnel to warn people living near the river.

The government has launched rescue and relief operations in 14 of Nepal's 75 districts that have been affected by the floods.

Soldiers and volunteers used rubber boats to rescue people marooned by the flooding, while helicopters were being used to drop food supplies.
At least 54 people have been killed and several others missing as floods and landslides triggered by heavy monsoon rains wreaked havoc in Nepal displacing thousands of people.

Scores of houses and bridges have been swept away in several parts of the country as incessant rains have swelled rivers, posing a threat of massive flooding and causing panic among the local population.

At least 54 people have died in different parts of the country over the last two days, police said.

Pyuthan is among the 14 worst-hit districts where at least 26 people have died in floods and landslides.

The toll increased in the district after 17 people who were earlier reported missing following a landslide were found to be dead.

Thousands of people have been displaced and hundreds of houses have been waterlogged after floodwaters gushed into their settlements.

Many of the deceased were earthquake victims who were living in a quake-damaged house after repair, police said.

Tens of thousands of Nepalese are still living in tents following the last year's devastating earthquakes that killed nearly 9,000 people.

Water levels were close to dangerous levels in Saptakoshi and Narayani rivers.

Water flow in the Saptakoshi river has crossed this year's highest mark after continuous rainfall for the past 10 days.

Water flow in the river was measured at 277,410 cusec yesterday morning, the highest for this year.

All sluice gates in the Gandak Barrage bordering India have been opened after the water level in Narayani river crossed the danger mark.

The gates were opened to allow release of water so that the risk in the barrage and upstream region could be minimised



About 34 houses were inundated in Nawalparasi district due to the swelling river.

A swollen Tinau river destroyed a suspension bridge at Butwal-13. Around 6,000 people are at risk.

Flooded Mechi river has swept away an embankment on the Indian side. After the incident, Naksalbari, Panitanki and other Indian markets have been waterlogged, said police.

The government has launched rescue and relief operations in 14 of Nepal's 75 districts that have been affected by the floods.

Soldiers and volunteers used rubber boats to rescue people marooned by the flooding, while helicopters were being used to drop food supplies.

(Reopens FGN22)



Nepal today decided to allocate 750 million Nepalese rupees (around USD 7.4 million) for the relief and rehabilitation operations, Home Ministry officials said.

The meeting of the Home Ministry officials held at the National Emergency Operation Centre decided to disburse the money for immediate rescue, relief and rehabilitation of the victims.
At least 64 people have been killed and several others missing as floods and landslides triggered by heavy monsoon rains wreaked havoc in Nepal displacing thousands of people.

Scores of houses and bridges have been swept away in several parts of the country as incessant rains have swelled rivers, posing a threat of massive flooding and causing panic among the local population.

The number of those killed in the flood and landslide across Nepal has climbed to 64 after recovery of 10 more bodies in Pyuthan district of western Nepal, police said.

Pyuthan is among the 14 worst-hit districts where at least 36 people have died in floods and landslides.

The toll increased in the district after 17 people who were earlier reported missing following a landslide were found to be dead.

Thousands of people have been displaced and hundreds of houses have been waterlogged after floodwaters gushed into their settlements.

Many of the deceased were earthquake victims who were living in a quake-damaged house after repair, police said.

Tens of thousands of Nepalese are still living in tents following the last year's devastating earthquakes that killed nearly 9,000 people.

Water levels were close to dangerous levels in Saptakoshi and Narayani rivers.

Water flow in the Saptakoshi river has crossed this year's highest mark after continuous rainfall for the past 10 days.

Water flow in the river was measured at 277,410 cusec yesterday morning, the highest for this year.

All sluice gates in the Gandak Barrage bordering India have been opened after the water level in Narayani river crossed the danger mark.

The gates were opened to allow release of water so that the risk in the barrage and upstream region could be minimised



About 34 houses were inundated in Nawalparasi district due to the swelling river.

A swollen Tinau river destroyed a suspension bridge at Butwal-13. Around 6,000 people are at risk.

Flooded Mechi river has swept away an embankment on the Indian side. After the incident, Naksalbari, Panitanki and other Indian markets have been waterlogged, said police.

The government has launched rescue and relief operations in 14 of Nepal's 75 districts that have been affected by the floods.

Soldiers and volunteers used rubber boats to rescue people marooned by the flooding, while helicopters are being used to drop food supplies.

Nepal today decided to allocate 750 million Nepalese rupees (around USD 7.4 million) for immediate rescue, relief and rehabilitation of the victims, Home Ministry officials said.
Police officials probing the death of Aabesh Dasgupta after being allegedly hit by a broken alcohol bottle, have seized mobile phones of his friends, present at the party where the incident happened, to check messages exchanged among them on social media.

The cyber section of the Kolkata Police will conduct an examination of the mobiles to examine messages exchanged among those friends on Whatsapp, Snapchat and Facebook before and after the death of the 17-year-old on Saturday, a senior police officer said today.

It was learnt that out of the 15 persons present at the party, a few have "deleted" some of their messages as well as their posts on social media, he said.

"Our Cyber crime section is working on retrieving those deleted messages using some specific software. These posts can be crucial to give us an idea of what was going on after the death of Aabesh," the officer said.

Meanwhile, Kolkata Police sleuths have called some of Aabesh's "friends" again today for another round of grilling.

Seven "friends" and writer Amit Chaudhuri and his daughter were questioned in connection with the matter yesterday.

Police also visited a south Kolkata club, where the birthday of Amit Chaudhuri's daughter was celebrated on Saturday and spoke to the officials there.

CCTV footages of the club were also seized for further investigation, another officer confirmed.

Guests at the birthday party of Chaudhuri's daughter, all teenagers, had gathered at the club before going to the author's apartment complex in upscale Ballygunge where Aabesh died.

Aabesh, a class XI student, died of wounds inflicted by glass shards and the police registered a murder case against "unknown persons" on the basis of his mother's statement.
Ramesh Bhardwaj, the accused in the AAP woman activist suicide case that had triggered a war of words between BJP and the Aam Aadmi Party, has been arrested from Haryana, Delhi Police today said.

A senior official said Crime Branch of Delhi Police arrested him late last night.

The woman had consumed poisonous substance at her home in north west Delhi's Narela and died during treatment at LNJP Hospital on July 19.

The woman had filed a complaint against Bhardwaj for allegedly touching her inappropriately and a case of molestation was registered in June. The accused was arrested and later released on bail.

On July 20, Delhi Police had registered a case of abetment to suicide and handed over the entire matter to a Special Investigation Team.

The family members of the woman had claimed that she had gone into depression after her alleged molester Bhardwaj, an AAP colleague, was released on bail.

She had also alleged that the accused was being protected by the local AAP MLA.

Delhi BJP had held the AAP dispensation "responsible" for the death of the 28-year-old woman, drawing sharp reaction from the AAP which accused it of playing "politics over corpses".
Expressing solidarity with the ongoing protests against the amendments made to rules under the Advocates Act, nearly 800 lawyers today urged the state Bar council to suspend all of them till the rules are revoked.

Advocates led by senior lawyer R Vaigai wrote a letter to the Chairman of Bar Council of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry demanding their enmasse suspension pursuant to the suspension of 126 advocates statewide by the Bar Council of India.

"We the undersigned members of the Tamil Nadu and Puducherry Bar request to be suspended from practice, until the said rules are revoked. We also demand that the suspension orders against 176 advocates passed from 2015 till today in connection with agitations be revoked and the arrested advocates be released", the letter said.

Meanwhile, the Madras High Court Advocates Association in its general body meeting decided to participate in the General Body meeting of Joint Action Committee of Advocates Association of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry tomorrow at Thanjavur. It also decided to take further action as per the decision taken there.

It also demanded that no criminal action be initiated against those who participated in the "peaceful agitation" on July 25 and release of all advocates remanded by the North Beach Police Station for participating in the protest.

In a resolution, it also demanded that the suspension orders and disciplinary proceedings passed by BCI and BCTP against the advocates of Tamil Nadu, who participated in various agitations during 2015-16 be withdrawn unconditionally.

It also urged Tamil Nadu government to withdraw pending FIRs against the lawyers filed for participating in protests.

Hundreds of lawyers from across Tamil Nadu had on July 25 laid a virtual siege to Madras High Court campus demanding withdrawal the amendments to the Advocates Act.

The Bar Council of India had on July 24 suspended 126 lawyers of Tamil Nadu and prohibited them from practising in any court or tribunal in the country pursuant to its warning that it will suspend lawyers who indulge in boycott and other activities.
Air Pegasus today cancelled all its scheduled flight operations, sparking concerns over the future of the regional carrier.

The airline has been facing some financial issues and recently also came under the lens of aviation regulator DGCA for violating safety norms.

Sources said the airline today cancelled all its scheduled flights.

It could not be ascertained whether the operations have been cancelled indefinitely.

Officials of Bengaluru-based Air Pegasus could not be immediately contacted.

The carrier operates flights from Bengaluru to at least seven destinations in South India. It has services to Chennai, Cuddapah, Hubli, Madurai, Mangalore, Puducherry, and Trivandrum, as per latest data available with DGCA.

Air Pegasus started operations in April 2015.

Recently, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) suspended five pilots of Air Pegasus for serious safety violations.

The regulator had also warned that the regional airline would be barred from flying new routes unless the lapses are addressed at the earliest.

At that time, a senior Air Pegasus official said that it has already addressed the issues raised by the regulator.

A safety audit of Air Pegasus, conducted in late April, showed serious safety violations by some of its flights.
As many as 22 primary school children today escaped with minor injuries as an alert driver of the van which they were travelling in drove the vehicle into a heap of sand to avoid plunging into a 500-feet deep gorge.

The children, studying in class I to III, were on their way to the Cantonment School at Wellington about 20 km from here when the van developed brake failure near Kalpuli, police said.

Showing presence of mind despite losing control of the van, 38-year old Vicent brought it to a halt by steering it into a heap of sand on the other side of the road.

Had he not brought it to a halt, the van could have skidded down the gorge resulting in a major mishap, they said.

However the van turned sideways and the students and the driver suffered injuries, they added.

The injured have been shifted to the Cantonment Hospital and Government Lawley hospital, police said.
Ambedkar University, the state funded varsity in the national capital today got its new campus today with the government planning to come up with two more by 2020.

BR Ambdekar University, which was established by Delhi Government in 2008 is a state funded university with a student strength of 1800. So far, the varsity has been operating from its campus in Kashmere Gate where 40 undergraduate, postgraduate and research programmes are offered.

"More than half of 2.5 lakh students, who pass out of schools every year, are not able to make it to the colleges for higher studies," said Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia at the inauguration of the campus in Karampura area.

"They either dropout, or make it to the colleges outside Delhi or get admission into the private colleges paying a hefty amount. How can we accommodate them?," he added.

Two new campuses in Rohini and Dheerpurare are scheduled to function from 2020.

Sisodia, who is also the Education Minister, emphasized the need to scale up the capacity to accommodate more students and urged the teaching faculty and university officials to maintain the standards of education at all cost.

"The proportion of increasing the seats every year by 10 to 100 will not work. Over 2.5 lakh students out of 26 lakh, including that of 16 lakh from the Government schools, pass out every year from the schools," he said.

He also stressed upon improving the quality of education and increasing the seats.
Troubled auto component maker Amtek Auto today said it is considering selling non-core business and minority stake in its overseas companies in order to deleverage its balancesheet.

"The company is considering various means to deleverage the balancesheet by selling of non-core business, minority stake in its overseas companies and sale of industrial real estate assets within the group business," Amtek Auto said in a regulatory filing.

However, as on date, nothing has been finalised as yet, the company added.

Last year, the company had appointed Morgan Stanley as an advisor to assist in its debt reduction plan.

The Amtek group is understood to owe over Rs 26,000 crore to 32 banks, including State Bank of India, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, Bank of Baroda, Bank of India, IDBI Bank, Bank of Maharashtra and UCO Bank.

Besides the financial problems, Amtek Auto has been facing investigation by Sebi into alleged share price manipulation at its subsidiary, Castex Technologies, with role of banks, mutual funds and rating agencies also coming under the scanner.

The stock today ended at Rs 50.65 on BSE, down 1.84 per cent, from its previous close.
Andhra Pradesh government has requested the Centre to release Rs 7,269.46 crore central sales tax compensation to the state pending since 2012-13.

State Finance Minister Yanamala Ramakrishnudu made this plea to Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley at the Empowered Committee meeting of Finance Ministers in New Delhi, a press release from the state's Information and Public Relations Department said.

Andhra Pradesh is scheduled to get Rs 935.74 crore for 2012-13 fiscal year, Rs 2,247.98 crore for 2013-14 and Rs 618.19 crore till June in 2014-15 fiscal before the bifurcation of the state.

"Andhra Pradesh's share of CST compensation before the bifurcation (in June 2014) is Rs 3,801.92 crore.

"Post-bifurcation, we have to get Rs 1,467.54 crore (July 2014 to March 2015) and approximately Rs 2,000 crore in 2015-16," Yanamala said.

"The Union Finance Minister promised to release the first of the two instalments for 2012-13 shortly. We have requested him to release the balance amount also at the earliest," Yanamala added.

At the Empowered Committee meeting, Andhra Pradesh pointed out that Clause 19 of the 122nd Constitution Amendment Bill (for GST), passed by the Lok Sabha, raised doubts that the states might not be compensated for the revenue losses for five years.

"Hence it should be modified such that Parliament passes a law providing compensation for minimum five years.

"States have a bad experience in getting CST compensation promptly from the Centre. We insist that the compensation for revenue loss due to introduction of GST shall be granted in a time-bound manner every month or at least once in a quarter.

"Otherwise, it will have a huge impact on the ways and means position of the state government," said Yanamala.
The current wave of flood has claimed 12 lives and affected nearly 16 lakh people across Assam, the state Assembly was informed on Wednesday.

Making a statement on the flood situation, Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal declared an ex-gratia of Rs 4 lakh to the families of each of the deceased and said the amount will be paid this week.

"Flood is the most burning problem of the state. The current flood has affected almost all constituencies and has become a serious problem. It has claimed 12 lives so far and hit nearly 16 lakh people across 19 districts," he told the Assembly.

The government is closely monitoring the situation and has been holding regular discussions with officials of various departments, mainly those responsible for flood relief and rehabilitation, Sonowal said.

"We have specifically directed the DCs and SDOs to depute officials for flood-related works and do a detailed study of the situation. Health and Veterinary departments have been asked to go to the people and evaluate the situation," he added.

The government has asked the authorities concerned to provide all necessary support to the people living in the relief camps, the Chief Minister said while making his statement during the Budget Session of the Assembly.

"As soon as the flood problem hit the state, we released funds to all the DCs (Deputy Commissioners). Earlier, all DCs used to complain about lack of funds, but this time it will not happen," he added.

Sonowal also informed about his discussion with Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, who had yesterday assured all possible help from the Centre in tacking the problem.

He also said BJP MPs met the Prime Minister yesterday and "he has assured them that the Centre is with Assam at this hour".
In an unprecedented move, the Assam Assembly was today adjourned for the next three days for allowing MLAs to visit flood-affected constituencies and give a report to the Chief Minister.

As soon as the House assembled this morning, both ruling and opposition MLAs raised the matter and appealed to the Speaker to adjourn the House so that they could visit the flood-hit areas in their constituencies.

After getting support from Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal on the issue, Speaker Ranjeet Kumar Dass held an urgent meeting of the Business Advisory Committee (BAC) by adjourning the House for 30 minutes after the Question Hour.

"The flood situation at present is very serious. With support from all MLAs of the House, BAC decided to adjourn the House till July 30," Dass said, announcing adjournment of the House with immediate effect.

As per the BAC recommendation, the Budget Session has been extended by a day till August 13, he informed the House.

The Speaker said the House will next meet on August 8 as the scheduled recess after the Budget Session will remain as per earlier programme from July 30 to August 7.

Earlier, BJP MLA Topon Kumar Gogoi said all the members are willing to visit flood-affected areas in their respective constituencies.

"Therefore, I request the Speaker to adjourn the House immediately for some days," he said.

Congress MLA Rakibul Hussain extended his party's support to the request.

Supporting the MLAs, Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal said: "It is good that our MLAs are wanting to stand by the people...I request the Speaker to consider this because we should be with the people when they need us the most...I also request all the MLAs to give me a report after visiting their constituencies...When we will send a memorandum to the Centre, we will incorporate their suggestions".

Congress MLA Sherman Ali Ahmed pointed out that while people affected by flood are usually compensated by the government, nobody looks after those who lose everything due to erosion.

"So I request the Chief Minister to help those people and declare erosion as a state problem," he added.
In an exemplary action, the District Magistrate of Bihar's Aurangabad has reinstated a Dalit widow as the midday meal cook at a school and also shared the food prepared by her with the students.

DM Kanwal Tanuj also ordered suspension of school headmaster Govind Kumar Yadav who had sacked the cook after her husband passed away.

Moved by the complaint registered by the hapless woman Urmila Kuwar, Tanuj himself paid a visit to Batura middle school under Rafiganj block here yesterday and ate the midday meal prepared by the woman at the school with other students.

"My humanitarian instinct compelled me to do justice with the woman. Besides, I also wanted to give a strong social message against caste and social ills of distancing from widow to the people," the DM told PTI today.

The school headmaster who had sacked the widow has been expelled and a new headmaster took charge of the school today, he said.

Departmental inquiry has been initiated against the headmaster on instruction from the DM to the district education officer Yaduvansh Ram.

The woman, whose husband died recently was solely dependent on a paltry Rs 1,000 she used to get from cooking the meal at the school. She was fired on Monday, the DM said quoting from her complaint.

From this meagre income of Rs 1,000 she was feeding four minor children and deprivation of it forced her to petition the DM against the injustice, he added.

Tanuj said the students were very happy on return of the cook.
Austria is to hand over to France two suspected members of the same Islamic State group unit who massacred 130 people in Paris last November, officials and media reports said today.

Austrian authorities believe the Algerian and the Pakistani, aged 34 and 28 at the time, travelled to Greece along with two men involved in the attacks, posing as refugees.

While the assailants continued on to France and died after conducting their massacre on November 13, the other two were detained by Greek authorities for 25 days because they had falsified Syrian passports.

Once let go, they made it to Salzburg in western Austria at the end of November -- after the Paris atrocities -- and Austrian police arrested them at a migrant centre on December 10.

Following a French request, a court in Salzburg approved at the beginning of July their transfer to France, but the Pakistani appealed, the Austria Press Agency reported on Wednesday.

A higher court in the city of Linz rejected this appeal today, a spokesman told AFP.

The man, hands and feet in cuffs and surrounded by eight masked and heavily armed police, told the court in northern Austria that he feared for his safety in France and that he would not get a fair trial.

The Algerian had not appealed and it is possible he is already in France. A spokesman for state prosecutors in Salzburg declined to comment on the pair's current whereabouts.

Officials in France were not immediately available for comment.

Austrian prosecutors said in April that they were looking into "leads" suggesting that the Pakistani may have been involved in attacks in 2008 in the Indian city of Mumbai that killed 166 people.
Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today termed as a "political gimmick" Punjab Congress chief Amarinder Singh's remark that Congress MLAs will resign en masse in case of an adverse verdict on the Sutlej-Yamuna Link (SYL) canal.

Badal instead asked the Congress Lok Sabha MP why he did not resign when the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi laid the foundation of this canal to "rob" the waters of state.

Addressing a public gathering during 'Sangat Darshan' in Bhadaur assembly segment, Badal said the people who were the perpetrators of "this grave conspiracy against Punjab and its people" were now trying to attain the status of a martyr.

When the former chief minister and other Congress leaders were welcoming Gandhi for laying the foundation stone of the SYL in the 1980s the entire Akali leadership was courting arrest



to safeguard the interest of state, Badal claimed.

"(The) Captain can't just run away from the onus of being hand-in-glove in a conspiracy to deprive the state," he said.

The PCC president had said on Sunday that Congress MLAs in Punjab will resign en mass in case the Supreme Court verdict on the Sutlej-Yamuna Link canal case goes against the state.

Badal dared the state Congress chief to tell the people that it was the Congress which had planned and dug the canal.

"Every Congressman from state was a part and parcel to this conspiracy and Amarinder was not an exception to it," he said.

Assailing the Captain for misleading the people on SYL canal issue, Badal said the PCC chief's remark on resignations of Congress MLAs was keeping in mind the assembly elections.

He said the people of Punjab must remain assured that Shiromani Akali Dal would protect the waters of the state.

"We had, we are and we will not allow any single drop of water to go to any other state," Badal said.

He said even the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) was following in the footprints of Congress by adopting an anti-Punjab stance.

He said an affidavit by the Delhi government, run by AAP, in Supreme Court on SYL termed Punjab's stand on the issue as unconstitutional and anti-national.

Badal said as Kejriwal hailed from Haryana so he was naturally inclined to safeguard the interests of his state.

"Kejriwal has no affection with Punjab or its people and his sole intention is to wrest political power in the state to benefit his native state Haryana," added Badal.
A suicide bomber targeted a police checkpoint in a Shiite neighborhood in Baghdad today, killing at least six people.

South of the Iraqi capital, a provincial council approved a decision allowing authorities to demolish homes of convicted militants and banish their families from the province.

The Baghdad attacker, who was on foot, blew up his explosives-laden vest at a police checkpoint in the northern neighborhood of Shula, a police officer said. Three policemen and three civilians were killed and at least 15 people were wounded in the explosion, the officer added, speaking on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to talk to the media.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, which bore the hallmarks of the Islamic State group. The Sunni militant group has claimed previous such attacks against security forces and public places mainly in Shiite-dominated areas.

Meanwhile, the decision by the Babil Provincial Council reflects attempts by local authorities to try independently of the central government in Baghdad to rein in militant attacks in municipalities and provinces across the country battered by years of war.

Hassan Fadaam, a Babil Provincial Council member, told The Associated Press in a phone interview that the council decision was approved yesterday in the provincial capital of Hillah, 95 kilometers south of Baghdad.

It's the first such decision in Iraq since the 2003 US-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein. Earlier, some pro-government Sunni tribes have demolished houses of those they accused of cooperating with the Islamic State group after the militants' 2014 blitz captured large swaths of land in western and northern Iraq.

The decision will only apply to convicted militants who have exhausted all possibilities of appealing their convictions. A court order also must precede the demolishing of a house, Fadaam said, without clarifying where a family of an offender would go to, once banished from the province.

The decision also calls on Baghdad to hand over militants who are on death row for attacks carried out in a province to provincial authorities. A convict would then be executed in public in the province where he committed the crime, Fadaam added.

"We will consider any means that could help deter terrorism and this is one of them," he said. "We have grown frustrated with the central government's efforts to maintain security and execute convicted militants. Nothing is deterring the terrorists who realize once they are in prison, they only receive good treatment."



Public anger against the government has mounted since the July 3 massive bombing in Baghdad's busy commercial area of Karradah that killed nearly 300 people and wounded hundreds.

Demands for execution of hundreds of convicted militants on death row have also grown. In an attempt to absorb public anger, days after the Karradah truck bombing, the government executed five militants, sentenced to death for other attacks.
Aam Aadmi Party leader Preeti Sharma Menon today alleged that BJP leader Ashish Shelar's company has received huge sums through "share application and unsecured loans from dubious entities" despite not conducting any "visible" business, a charge dismissed as a "political conspiracy" by the MLA.

Demanding a probe into the "source of money trail", the AAP spokesperson said a similar "modus operandi" was adopted by NCP leader Chhagan Bhujbal, who was arrested earlier this year by Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with a money laundering case pertaining to Maharashtra Sadan scam.

Shelar is the Mumbai unit chief of BJP.

"Shelar formed a company 'Sarveshwar Logistics Pvt Ltd' in 2010, along with two other directors Mahesh Baldi and Rajendra Singh Chauhan.

"His company conducted no visible business and its annual revenues for the last five years have been paltry sums of Rs 0, Rs 12,867, Rs 10,000, Rs 10,000 and Rs 14,500, respectively. However, in its first fiscal year in 2010-2011, it (the company) immediately received share application money of Rs 3.6 crore and loans and advances of Rs 26 lakh," Menon alleged in a press conference.

"Shelar's firm also purchased property worth Rs 3 crore and in the very next year it received an unsecured loan of Rs 6 crore without any collateral or business model to show," she added.

The AAP leader said, "One wonders how come a start-up, with no business operation and no revenue, received such a high amount of share application money."



She said the "trend" continued and "at the end of fiscal year 2014-2015, the long-term borrowings of the firm stood at Rs 14.24 crore."



She claimed that the company now owns property worth Rs 18.46 crore "whereas its balance sheet still shows no business being conducted and no revenues realised."



Menon said she has written to Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, state Governor, Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB), Economic Offences Wing (EOW), and the ED to probe the matter and ascertain the "source of money trail".

She further claimed that Shelar's PA Prakash Patil, "who is his co-director in Ridhi Dealmark Pvt Ltd Company, was a part of the Kolkata Web of Companies."



Menon alleged that Shelar was also director of Ridhi Dealmark Pvt Ltd Company, but he did not divulge this information in his election affidavit in last Assembly elections.

She said she has filed a complaint with Election Commission in this regard.

"Shelar started his company with a paltry sum and with no turnover, no operations, no revenue and a loss making company received vast sums of money as share application and today it now owns property worth Rs 18.46 crore, which is clear cut case of corruption," she alleged.
Britain will enter EU exit talks in a strong position, finance minister Philip Hammond declared today, after data revealed economic growth unexpectedly accelerated in the run-up to the Brexit referendum.

Gross domestic product (GDP) grew 0.6 per cent in the second quarter, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said in a first estimate for April-June, which included the shock EU exit vote towards the end of the period.

That beat market expectations for 0.5-per cent growth, as activity was boosted by rebounding industrial production, and followed 0.4-per cent expansion in the first quarter.

"Today's GDP figures show that the fundamentals of the British economy are strong," said finance chief Hammond.

"In the second quarter of this year our economy grew by 0.6 per cent -- faster than was expected.

"Indeed we saw the strongest quarterly rise in production for nearly twenty years, so it is clear we enter our negotiations to leave the EU from a position of economic strength."



Britons had voted on June 23 to leave the European Union in a surprise vote that sent markets tumbling and the pound slumping in its aftermath.

Also today, European Commission head Jean-Claude Juncker appointed veteran French politician and former EU commissioner Michel Barnier to lead the exit negotiations with Britain.

Juncker said Barnier was a "skilled negotiator with rich experience in major policy areas relevant to the negotiations (and) ... Has an extensive network of contacts."



Conservative Prime Minister Theresa May, whose predecessor David Cameron resigned after losing the referendum, has already signalled however that London will not be rushed into EU exit talks -- and will most likely will begin the negotiations early next year.

"Those negotiations will signal the beginning of a period of adjustment, but I am confident we have the tools to manage the challenges ahead, and along with the Bank of England, this government will take whatever action is necessary to support our economy and maintain business and consumer confidence," added Hammond today.

British economic activity in the second quarter was driven by particularly strong growth in industrial production -- which expanded by 2.1 per cent.

That compared with a 0.2-per cent decline in the previous three months and matched figures last seen in the third quarter of 1999, according to the ONS.

The services sector meanwhile grew 0.5 per cent in the second quarter, but this was offset by falls in agriculture and construction.

Scotiabank economist Alan Clarke said the second quarter was not rocked by "intense" worries over Brexit -- because many had expected Britain to stay.
The Cabinet today cleared changes in the Constitutional Amendment Bill, dropping 1 per cent manufacturing tax and providing guarantee to compensate states for any revenue loss in the first five years of rollout of the proposed indirect tax regime.

The Cabinet, headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, decided to include in the Constitutional Amendment Bill that any dispute between states and the Centre will be adjudicated by the Council, which will have representation from both the Centre and states.

With states on board and the Cabinet approving the amendments, the government is hopeful of passage of the long-pending Goods and Services Tax (GST) Bill in the ongoing monsoon session of Parliament, which ends on August 12.

The Bill, with the changes approved by the Cabinet, could come up in the Rajya Sabha as early as this week, but certainly by next week.

The changes approved by the Cabinet are to the Constitutional Amendment Bill that was approved by the Lok Sabha in August last year. Once the Rajya Sabha approves the legislation, the amended Bill will have to go back to the Lok Sabha again for approval.

"The amendments to the GST Constitutional Amendment Bill have been cleared," a top official said after the meeting of the Union Cabinet chaired by Modi.

The amendments were taken up by the Cabinet after Finance Minister Arun Jaitley's assurance to state finance ministers to include in the Bill the mechanism of compensating states for all the loss of revenue for five years.

The Bill, in its present form, provides that the Centre will give 100 per cent compensation to states for first three years, 75 per cent and 50 per cent for the next two years.

However, the Select Committee of the Rajya Sabha had in its report recommended 100 per cent compensation for probable loss of revenue for five years.

As per the amendments, the Centre will now constitutionally guarantee states any loss of revenue from the GST subsuming all indirect taxes, including VAT, in the first five years of introduction.

By doing away with the 1 per cent inter-state tax over and above the GST rate, the government has met one of the three key demands over which Opposition Congress has been blocking the Bill in the Upper House.

The other demands of including GST rate in the statute and a Supreme Court judge-headed dispute resolution body has not been accepted. It remains to be seen if meeting of its demands halfway will persuade the Congress to support the legislation.

There is a talk of mentioning the GST rate in one of the two supporting legislations that need to be passed after the Constitution is amended, a move that may pacify the Congress.

The government plans to roll out GST by April 1, 2017, and is working overtime to build consensus to get the Bill passed in the ongoing session.

With the Congress demand of getting GST rate capped in the Bill delaying its passage, the Centre yesterday built a broad consensus with the states that the rate should not be mentioned in the Constitution and instead could figure in GST law.

It was also assured that the tax rate in the new regime, which is to be decided by the GST Council, will be less than what it is at present.

"The amendments will pave the way for political consensus and early passage of the Bill in the monsoon session," EY National Leader (indirect tax) Harishanker Subramaniam said.

In the new regime, there will be one Central GST or C-GST and State GST or S-GST. States levy sales tax or VAT on goods sold within their jurisdiction and get a Central Sales Tax (CST) on sales made outside their territories.

This CST will no longer be available in the new regime and a 1 per cent additional tax was proposed to make up for that.

GST being a constitutional amendment requires to be passed by Parliament with two-thirds majority and after that, 50 per cent of state assemblies will have to pass the legislation.

Thereafter, the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha will have to pass the central GST Bill and the states have to pass their own GST Bills.

After the legislative procedure gets over, the GST Council, which will be the decision-making body on all issues, including rates of the new tax, will come into play.

The Council will be chaired by Union Finance Minister, but Centre's voting share will be one-third and all decisions of the council would be taken by 75 per cent majority.

Terming compensation guarantee as a very big development, Chairman of the Empowered Committee of State Finance Ministers Amit Mitra had yesterday said appropriate wordings on compensation would give confidence to the states regarding the Centre's intention.

"I cannot go into details of the wordings, I can only give you spirit of it. States are satisfied that in the constitutional amendment, the wording (will be provided) by which states will be guaranteed five years of compensation if there is any loss of revenue," Mitra said.

The GST Bill, which intends to convert 29 states into a single market through a new indirect tax regime, was earlier planned to be introduced from April 1 this year, but the deadline was missed as the legislation to roll it out remains in limbo in the Opposition-dominated Rajya Sabha.
Spiritual head of Syro-Malabar church Cardinal George Alencherry today condemned the murder of a priest in a church in northern France by Islamic State, voicing concern over religious radicalism "misleading and inspiring youth to do anti-national activities in India."



"The brutal killing of Fr Jacques Hamel as he held a church service has sent shock waves throughout the world," he said here.

Two attackers yesterday slit the throat of the 86-year-old priest celebrating Mass in a church in France, killing him and gravely injuring one of the worshippers present, before being shot dead by police.

Alencherry said the incident occurred as France was already reeling under the killing of 84 people in Nice this month and a string of other deadly attacks which claimed several lives.

The Cardinal also expressed concern over incidents in India wherein people following Christianty were "weaned away" from it to join the extremist ideologies.

"It should be seen seriously that hectic activities are on to wean away people who follow Christian faith, radicalise them and inspire them to join anti-national activities," he said.

His statement assumes significance in view of reports of alleged forcible conversion to Islam at the behest of terror outfit Islamic State.

Some Keralite Christian youths, including a girl Merin Jacob from Kochi, had converted to Islam before they went missing in Middle East.

The senior priest also urged the government to step up efforts to ensure the release of a Keralite priest, Tom Uzhunnalil, from the captivity of extremists in Yemen.

Condemning the terrorist attacks targeting Christians in many parts of the world, Alencherry directed that special prayers be held in all Syro-Malabar churches on July 31 in the wake of challenges posed against world peace and Christian faith.
One of the 10 most wanted fraudsters in China accused of cheating a financial department employee of USD 1.8 million has surrendered, the government said today.

Xiao Richu, 45, from southwest China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, surrendered to police in Nanning, capital of Guangxi yesterday, the Ministry of Public Security said.

Xiao is the ninth of the 10 most wanted telecom fraud suspects to be taken into custody. He is accused of cheating a financial department employee out of about 12 million yuan ( USD 1.8 million) by masquerading as the company's financial chief on the messaging service QQ in August 2014, the police said.

Police froze a bank account holding about 7 million yuan and detained six of Xiao's accomplices, but he remained at large, state-run Xinhua agency reported.

In April, the ministry put Xiao on its most wanted list. Under heavy pressure from the police and persuasion from his family, Xiao decided to surrender, the statement said.

He is being held in Nanning. The investigation of his case continues, it said.
China will launch a campaign to crackdown on criminal damage to the country's historic treasure -- the Great Wall -- which has faced decay in many places.

The campaign will be launched by China's State Administration of Cultural Heritage (SACH) which will involve regular inspections and random checks on protection efforts by authorities in 15 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities.

The SACH will open a special tip-line for information about violations and damage to the Great Wall from the public, state-run Xinhua agency reported.

Built from the third century BC to the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), the Great Wall stretches over 21,000 kilometers from the northwestern province of Gansu to north China's Hebei Province.

Over a four million tourists visit theGreatWallevery year as it is the centre of China's tourism campaign. Each tourist pays about USD 17 to visit different places, specially in Beijing.

According to SACH statistics, about 30 per cent of a 6,200-km section of the wall built in the Ming Dynasty has disappeared, and less than 10 per cent is considered well-preserved.

The Great Wall has faced threats from both nature and humans.

Earthquakes, rain, wind and other natural elements have left the wall with many decayed and crumbling bricks.

Human activities, such as reckless development by some governments and theft of bricks by local villagers for use as building materials, as well as agriculture near the wall, have damaged the landmark, according to a research by the China Great Wall Society.

The lack of protection efforts in remote regions and a weak plan have also contributed to the damage, the society said.

In 2006, China released a national regulation on Great Wall protection.

However, Great Wall experts have urged local authorities to draw up more practical measures to better implement the regulation.

This year, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region included Great Wall protection expenditures in its budget.

The government of Fangcheng City, Henan Province, began a campaign for conservation experts and local residents to work together to protect the wall.
Making the "biggest crack" in a glass ceiling, Hillary Clinton today scripted history by winning the Democratic presidential nomination to become the first woman flag-bearer of a major US party as she set up an epic clash with Republican rival Donald Trump.

Clinton, 68, who has been secretary of state, first lady and a Senator from New York, secured her nomination at the Democratic National Convention here after a majority of the 4,764 party delegates formally backed her.

If elected in the November 8 polls, Clinton would become America's first female president and commander-in-chief.

In an electrifying end to the Democratic convention's second night, Clinton appeared by video from New York, saying, "What an incredible honour that you have given me and I can't believe we just put the biggest crack in that glass ceiling yet."



"Thanks to you and to everyone who's fought so hard to make this possible," Clinton told thousands of her supporters at an indoor stadium here. Many of her supporters were seen crying.

As she spoke, her image appeared over a breaking glass ceiling. "This is really your victory. This is really your night. And if there are any little girls out there who stayed up late to watch, let me just say I may become the first woman president but one of you is next," she said.

Her rival from the primaries, Bernie Sanders moved a resolution for her nomination when the roll call got to his home state of Vermont -- sending out a vital message of unity for a party struck by deep divisions.

"I move that Hillary Clinton be nominated as the Democratic Party's presidential candidate of the United States," Sanders said as he called for suspension of rules to pave the way for unanimous nomination of Clinton as the party's presidential candidate.

Moments later, the Democratic delegates nominated Clinton as the party's presidential candidate, setting up a high-stakes showdown with 70-year-old Trump.

"This moment is for every little girl who dreams big. #WeMadeHistory," tweeted Clinton.

"Stronger together," she said in another tweet.

Making a strong case for his wife Hillary's presidency bid, charismatic former US president Bill Clinton narrated his personal story with "a girl" he met in 1971 to emphasise that she is "uniquely qualified" for the top job and the "best change-maker" he has ever known.

"Hillary will make us stronger together. You know it because she spent a lifetime doing it," Bill said in his address to the convention.

"She is still the best darn change-maker I have ever known," the 69-year-old former president said in a mesmerising speech, asking his countrymen to vote and elect Hillary as the next US president.

Bill also narrated his personal story of how he met his



wife to highlight her qualities.

"In the spring of 1971 I met a girl," Clinton told his cheering Democratic supporters in this city.

In the next 42 minutes, Bill, through the little-known personal stories with Hillary, tried to carve out a picture of his wife as one who could be the most qualified person to lead the country for the next four years.

Clinton's nomination was proposed by Congresswoman Barbara A Mikulski, the first Democratic woman elected to the Senate, and the first woman to chair the powerful Senate Committee on Appropriations.

"It is with a full heart that I am here today as we nominate Hillary Clinton to be the first woman president," she said.

"Many of you have broken barriers. You were the first to go to college. You were the first to start a business. Maybe the first to be a citizen. But you knew when you broke a barrier you didn't do it for yourself. You did it so others would not have to face them again. That's what Hillary wants to do. She wants to break down all the barriers to opportunity," Mikulski said.

Legendary civil rights leader and Congressman John Lewis seconded Clinton's name as the Democratic presidential nominee.

"Eight years ago, our party nominated and elected the first person of colour to ever serve in the White House not just for one, but two terms. Tonight we will shatter that glass ceiling again. We're the party of tomorrow, and we will build a true democracy in America," Lewis said.

Lewis talked about Clinton in glowing terms, saying she has dedicated her life to public service and building a better America.

"I have known Hillary Clinton for many years. She is one of the most qualified candidates to ever run for president. She is a leader, sometimes sailing against the wind to break down the barriers that divide us. She's smart, just smart. She could have done anything with her life, but she decided long ago she didn't want to just do well, she wanted to do good," he said.

Clinton is scheduled to deliver her acceptance speech tomorrow. Last week she selected Virginia Senator Tim Kaine as her running mate.

As the first lady she had launched several key initiatives in health care and women's rights.

A proponent of clean energy, Clinton is known for being a strong advocate of Indo-US ties.

As a New York Senator, she was instrumental in the launch of the Senate India Caucus -- the only country-specific Senate Caucus, and was its founding co-chairman.

Clinton also has several Indian-Americans in key positions in her campaign including Huma Abedin, Neera Tanden, Shefali Razdan Duggal and Aditi Hardikar.
Goa Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar was today cornered by Oppositionin the state Assembly for allegedly allowing foreigners to purchase agricultural lands and own businesses like night clubs, which they claimed to be in violation of Foreign Exchange Management Act.

Legislators, including BJP MLA Michael Lobo, Leader of Opposition Pratapsinh Rane, Congress member Digambar Kamat, Goa Vikas party's Fransisco Miccky Pacheco and Independent MLA Vijai Sardesai criticised the Chief Minister for allowing violation of FEMA.

Lobo, during the Question Hour, claimed that a German national was allowed to purchase an agricultural property at Arpora village in north Goa and was also granted excise licence by Excise department, headed by Parsekar.

The BJP MLA claimed that the excise licence given to the foreigner, who also owns a night club, was in violation of norms of FEMA.

Responding to Lobo, Parsekar said that the foreign national concerned was Person of India Origin (PIO) card-holder.

He, however, did not clarify how agricultural lands were allowed to be purchased by foreigners, which evoked sharp reaction from the Opposition benches.

Trying to calm them down, Parsekar said the government was contemplating to amend the State Excise Act by making 25 year domicile compulsory for the grant of licences.

He said three foreign nationals were granted excise licence in the state and that it would be reviewed.

"Let us take opinion from the Law department on the licences allotted to foreigners," he said.

The Chief Minister admitted that several foreigners were running businesses in the coastal belt by getting the restaurants sublet with the help of locals.

"There are few Goans who sublet their premises to foreigners. The original licence owner is Goan but business is run by a foreigner, which is illegal. I appeal Goans not to allow such illegalities," Parsekar, who represents Mandrem constituency, said.
Jharkhand Chief Minister Raghubar Das today thanked Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar after getting the first consignment of state's map from the neighbouring state.

Congratulating Das, Revenue, Registration and Land Reforms Minister Amar Kumar Bauri said the chief minister's effort had fetched the map, an official release said here.

The first consignment came after the Inter-Zonal Council meeting in Ranchi on June 27. The Home Minister chaired that meeting, in which Kumar was also present.
Cochin Shipyard Ltd has entered into a pact with the government for the ongoing fiscal under which targets agreed are in line with aggressive growth plans of the public sector firm.

"Cochin Shipyard Limited (CSL) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Government of India for the financial year 2016-17," Ministry of Shipping said in a statement.

"The targets agreed in the MoU are in line with the aggressive growth plans of CSL in line with the Ministry of Shipping's ambitious plans and the Government of India's 'Make in India' policies," it said.

The MoU was signed by Shipping Secretary Rajive Kumar and Cochin Shipyard Ltd Chairman & Managing Director Madhu S Nair yesterday.

The pact, which broadly consists of the performance evaluation parameters and targets for Cochin Shipyard for the ensuing year, will be reviewed by the government on a regular basis and the performance of PSU would be evaluated and ratings awarded at the end of the financial year.

In the year ended March 31, 2016, CSL posted a record turnover of Rs 1,995 crore (provisional) surpassing the MoU target for the year. This is an increase of 7.3 per cent over the previous year.

CSL is proceeding with two major expansion projects at a total cost of Rs 2,800 crore. In 2015-16, CSL won new building contracts for building 5 vessels.
Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal blamed Lt Governor Najeeb Jung for the plight of Delhites and accused him of "supporting the BJP" to "cripple" the city as commuters continued to suffer, with the strike against app- based cab services by auto and taxi unions entering the second day today.

The commuters were left stranded at various places including railway stations, ISBTs, airport and metro stations as thousands of autos and taxis remained off the city's roads due to the strike called by the Joint Action Committee (JAC) of 20 auto and taxis (yellow-black) unions.

Though some auto-rickshaws and taxis were seen ferrying passengers, most of them remained off the capital's roads. Regular commuters and those visiting the city had a harrowing time. The strain on public transport system was immense.

Transport minister Satyendar Jain, who called a meeting with representatives of some auto and taxi unions to discuss their demands, claimed 17 unions have called off the strike.

But JAC member Rajendra Soni refuted Jain's claim and said they will not end the protest until their demands were met.

Soni, who is the general-secretary of Delhi Autorickshaw Sangh and Delhi Pradesh Taxi Union, said that the strike will continue tomorrow.

There were reports of protesters not allowing other taxi and auto drivers to run their vehicles on the Outer Ring Road, Kondali. They also broke windscreens of taxi and autos at some places.

The Transport Minister questioned Delhi Police's "inaction" against "BJP-supported goons".

"BJP goons stopping autos and taxis from plying. BJP wants to cripple del. Active support frm LG n Del policem (sic)," Kejriwal tweeted.

Members of the Joint Action Committee today sat on a



hunger strike outside the residence of Kejriwal, demanding action against app-based taxi services.

"The JAC formed by 20 unions of auto and taxi unions has not called off its indefinite strike. The representatives of unions who earlier in the day met Jain were affiliated to the Aam Aadmi Party. We will continue our strike tomorrow as well.

"The operations of Uber and Ola are illegal as they don't have permits to run their taxis in Delhi but despite that the government is allowing them to take away our livelihoods," Soni said.

He also said that the JAC has sought an appointment with Union Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari tomorrow to raise their demands as the city administration has completely "failed" to address their issues.

Meanwhile, the Delhi chief minister retweeted a video in which an auto driver could be seen saying he feared that their vehicles may be damaged and that they were not running their vehicles. He also claimed that the police had not made security arrangements for them.

Kishan Verma, president of All Delhi Auto-Taxi Transport Congress Union (ADATTCU), said drivers of yellow-black taxis and auto-rickshaws have been asked not to operate their vehicles tomorrow as well.

Yesterday, the Delhi Transport Minister had termed the strike as "BJP-sponsored".
The Delhi High Court today sought response of the Centre and the AAP government on an issue that in legal proceedings related to administration of the national capital, Delhi government was not required to be made a party.

The issue was raised before a bench of justices Badar Durrez Ahmed and Ashutosh Kumar by a lawyer who said he wanted to remove Delhi government as a party from all the petitions he has filed in view of section 52(b) of the Government Of National Capital Territory Of Delhi Act, 1991.

As per the section, all suits and proceedings in connection with the administration of the capital shall be instituted by or against the government of India, advocate Anil Aggarwal said.

The court listed all the connected petitions of the lawyer for hearing on September 7 after the counsel for Delhi government said that a bench of the Chief Justice was going to deliver a verdict on whether the elected government or the Lieutenant Governor would administer the national capital.

In his petitions, Aggarwal has challenged constitutional validity of various authorities, including Delhi Development Authority, Delhi Jal Board, Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board, among others, saying that the problems handled by these bodies are to be managed by the municipal corporations.
With a sudden spike in dengue cases in the city, Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia today asked all stakeholders to marshal resources to combat the menace on a "war footing" and prepare a communication plan to prevent panic among people.

"We must prepare on a war footing. So, let us start at all levels now and devise methods to stop the panic over dengue. Panic is one of the challenges we are facing.

"We must prepare a communication plan to let people know about dengue in detail. We must have a quick response team which will communicate with the people of Delhi," he said.

Speaking at a meeting called to review the preparedness to handle the outbreak of dengue, Sisodia stated he will monitor the situation closely and asked the health officials to send him a daily report in this regard.

The meeting was attended by the Chief Secretary, Delhi, officials of the health, education and urban development departments, New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC), members of three corporations, Divisional Commissioner, all district magistrates, and officials of Delhi Health Services.

The Deputy CM enquired about the schedule of distribution of dengue awareness pamphlets, door-to-door visits of health workers and preparedness of hospitals in battling the disease.

Officials from health and revenue departments and corporations, and other stakeholders said they were geared up to handle the dengue menace and were preparing to meet any emergency situation.

Health department officials said they have had meetings with RWAs, corporations and schools in this regard. They said the department was ready with community awareness kits and plans to reach out to 45 lakh households.

They also informed the minister about the 355 fever clinics which the government has planned to open to tackle the disease.

Sisodia enquired about the number of beds being increased for dengue patients.

The Revenue Department said it will seek report from the hospitals in their areas about the disease.

The Deputy CM asked the district magistrates to send teams for surprise checks to hospitals to assess their preparedness and position with regard to dengue patients admitted to hospitals.

Officials from the corporation said they have started issuing challans against owners of premises where mosquito-breeding was found.

Sisodia also offered the corporations to make available officials, if required, for issuing challans and asked for the raw and comparative challan data from them.

He asked the officials to work out a coordination programme between the Delhi government and the municipal corporations for handling the dengue situation, awareness drive and issuing of challans over mosquito-breeding.

At least 90 cases of dengue have been reported in the national capital this season. Last year, the city saw a staggering 15,867 dengue cases, the worst in 20 years, with the disease claiming 60 lives, as per municipal reports.
Former MP D P Yadav was today arrested by Delhi Police in a case of MCOCA registered last year in connection with a betting racket busted in north east Delhi's Bhajanpura area.

Yadav who was in an Uttarakhand jail was arrested by the local police on a production warrant issued by a city court, said a senior police officer.

Yadav, also a former UP government minister was brought here by Uttarakhand police team and his custody was handed over to north east Delhi Police, said the officer.

The betting racket was busted in Bhajanpura area in August last year.

Ten persons were arrested by the police in connection with it and the accused had alleged that Yadav was extending "protection" to the racket, added the officer.
The Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC) Trust has given approval to Rs 6,414 crore worth of contracts to initiate the construction process in the Bidkin Industrial Area in Maharashtra.

"The DMIC Trust has given its approval to start the phased procurement of Engineering, Procurement and Construction contracts worth Rs 6,414 crore for the Bidkin Industrial Area in Maharashtra," DMIC said in a statement.

The decision was taken during a meeting chaired by the Secretary in the Department of Economic Affairs, Shaktikanta Das, yesterday.

Approval was granted for the implementation of trunk infrastructure for roads and utility services, water pipeline from source and a water and sewerage treatment plant, solid waste management and ICT works, it said



The Bidkin project is spread over 31.79 sqkm and is Phase II of the Shendra Bidkin Industrial Area (SBIA) of DMICDC's Maharashtra node.

The development is is scheduled to be completed by 2020- 21.

The industrial activities in SBIA are expected to generate nearly 1,50,000 direct and indirect jobs once the project is complete and fully functional in the next 15-18 years, it said.

The total area of SBIA, measuring 84.17 sqkm, has been divided into two parts. Part-I consisting of an area of 40.18 sqkm and is further divided into two phases.

SBIA is one of eight industrial nodes the Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor Development Corporation Ltd (DMICDC Ltd) is proposing to develop in the first phase of India's biggest infrastructure project.

The DMIC project has been planned as a global manufacturing and investment destination around the high speed 1,483 km length of western dedicated freight corridor of the railways as the backbone.

The project envisaged to provide modern infrastructure through smart futuristic and sustainable industrial cities across six states including Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan.
International human rights organisation Amnesty International has appealed to the Manipur government to drop charges against activist Irom Chanu Sharmila before she ends her 16-year-old fast on August 9.

In a statement, it said the state government must immediately and unconditionally release the 44-year-old activist and drop all charges against her.

Arijit Sen, project manager at Amnesty International India, said Sharmila's iconic fight against the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA) was bound to take a new course with her decision which was announced yesterday.

Amnesty has described her as a "Prisoner of Conscience" as she has been under arrest for her fast which is seen by the police as an attempt to commit suicide.

"This also comes at a time when the Supreme Court has ordered 1,528 cases of alleged extra-judicial execution in Manipur over the last two decades to be investigated. Now the government needs to do its part to pave the way for the repeal of AFSPA," Sen said.

The "Iron Lady" of Manipur yesterday said she would end her fast on August 9, get married and take the political route to fight for the repeal of AFSPA.

She will fight as an Independent candidate from Malom constituency in the state Assembly polls due next year.
A 20-year-old engineering student was electrocuted in his college here following which angry students blocked the NH-24 near Vijay Nagar bypass today, police said.

Harshit Srivastav, a resident of Allahabad, was found dead stuck to a live electric pole this morning in the premises of ABES college, SP (City) Salman Taj Patil said.

He was rushed to the district hospital where the doctors declared him brought dead, he said.

Harshit was pursuing his second year in B Tech and lived in the hostel of the college.

After the incident came to light, agitated students gathered inside the campus and thereafter blocked the NH-24 protesting against the college management.

They alleged that the management was negligent and no watchman or guard was present there.

Police later reached the spot and cleared the highway for traffic movement, Patil said.

An FIR has been lodged against the college management based on the complaint by victim's uncle, he said.

Even though it appears to be a case accidental death, but police is probing the case, he added.
A former prime minister whose party supported Thailand's last coup lambasted the junta's new constitution today before a referendum on it, a rare blow to the army from within its own political camp.

Abhisit Vejjajiva, who was appointed prime minister from 2008-2011, leads the Democrats, Thailand's second biggest party.

They have failed for two decades to win an election but carry major clout within the Bangkok establishment that rallied behind the May 2014 overthrow of Yingluck Shinawatra's elected government.

The army has held the country in lockdown since its coup, banning protests, muzzling dissent and even outlawing campaigning against the charter before the August 7 vote.

The junta says the new document is crucial to ending a decade of political turmoil that has frequently spilt into violence.

But critics say it will straitjacket democracy with clauses calling for a fully-appointed senate and unelected premier -- both of which could help the military keep its allies in power.

"I do not approve of the draft constitution," Abhisit told AFP in a rare attack on the junta from within the powerful establishment.

"It goes against the basic principle of what we believe in... Democracy," he said, adding that the document "will trigger new conflict".

He urged the junta to rewrite the charter.

Abhisit, a smooth speaker educated at top British fee-paying school Eton, is a serial election loser.

He lost elections in 2007 but was appointed prime minister by parliament a year later as the Shinawatra-allied government was hit by a legal ruling.

He lost another vote in 2011 which swept Yingluck into power, and also led his party in boycotting elections in 2006 and 2014.
The family of an AAP activist who allegedly committed suicide last week has told the National Commission for Women that the woman was asked to make "compromises with her body" if she wanted to rise in the party, NCW Chairperson Lalitha Kumaramangalam said.

"She was told you should stop loving your body so much and compromise, unless you do that you will not rise in the party. The last straw was when the man threatened to abduct her two daughters," according to Lalitha Kumaramangalam.

NCW chief also alleged that the saga led all the way up to the Delhi president of the Aam Aadmi Party.

The family also complained to the Commission that they were being harassed and that the school access of the 28-year-old woman's two daughters had been stopped.

AAP worker Soni had committed suicide last week. According to her family, she had gone into depression after her alleged molester, a party colleague, was released on bail.

AAP spokesperson Deepak Bajpai reacted to the allegations saying "the accused has never been associated with the party even as a primary member. It was only on the insistence of the party and Delhi goverment that the case was registered and the accused was arrested."



The NCW chairperson said she was told that the family is being harassed. "The daughters' admission to school has been stopped and the local Aam Aadmi Party MLA was behind it...

"I have spoken to HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar and he has assured me that he will get both the girls admitted to a school."



The family also had concerns about the security provided to them and the NCW has requested the Crime Branch to ensure 24-hour security for the family.

Delhi Police crime branch today arrested Ramesh Bhardwaj from Haryana in connection with the case.
Two former Virginia Tech students were indicted in the slaying of a seventh-grade girl who was found dead last January days after authorities say she sneaked out of her window to rendezvous with the older teens, a county prosecutor said.

Nineteen-year-old David Eisenhauer was indicted by a grand jury on charges of first-degree murder, abduction and hiding the body of 13-year-old Nicole Lovell, Montgomery County Commonwealth's Attorney Mary Pettit said in a statement yesterday.

Natalie Keepers, also 19, was charged with being an accessory to kidnapping and murder and with helping hide the body, the commonwealth's attorney said.

Trial dates in March were set Tuesday in both cases, Pettitt said. Eisenhauer and Keepers both face up to life in prison, she said.

Eisenhauer will not face the death penalty because there's no physical evidence he had sexual contact with Lovell the day she was killed, Pettitt said in an email.

Prosecutors would have had to show he abducted her with the intent to sexually defile her in order to pursue a capital murder charge against him, she said.

Attorneys for Keepers and Eisenhauer did not immediately respond to messages left at their offices and emails seeking comment yesterday.

Authorities have not provided clues about a motive. But a friend of Eisenhauer told The Roanoke Times in May that Eisenhauer texted him about meeting a teenage girl at a party and later learning that she was underage.

Bryce Dustin of Pulaski, whose phone was seized by police, said Eisenhauer feared the girl would "expose" him and asked if he knew where he could hide a body.

A neighbor told The Associated Press in February that Nicole told 8-year-old friends before she vanished from her mother's home that she planned to sneak out to meet her 18-year-old "boyfriend," who she said was named David.

Lovell's disappearance in January set off a massive, days-long search. The girl, who suffered from bullying at school and online over her weight and a tracheotomy scar, needed daily medication after surviving a liver transplant, lymphoma and a drug-resistant bacterial infection as a child.

At a preliminary hearing in May, Blacksburg police Detective Ryan Hite said Keepers told investigators she and Eisenhauer discussed several ways to kill Nicole: drugging her, making it look like suicide and knocking her unconscious and leaving her to die of exposure.
The four Dalit victims of Una incident, who were discharged from Rajkot civil hospital yesterday after "improvement" in health condition, were admitted to the civil hospital here this evening after they developed "serious complications".

The four youths-- Ashok Sarvaiya, Vashram Sarvaiya, Bechar Sarvaiya and Ramesh Servaiya-- all residents of Mota Samadhiyala village of Una taluka of Gir-Somnath district, were brutally thrashed by cow vigilantes at Una over two weeks ago that led to large-scale protests across the state.

Rajkot civil hospital superintendent D Vatsraj had yesterday said that the youths were discharged as their condition had improved. However, their relatives rushed them to Ahmedabad civic hospital today after their condition became serious.

"After they reached their home last evening, some of them started vomiting, while others complained of severe body pain," Ahmedabad civil hospital superintendent M Prabhakar said, adding that all four of them have been admitted there.

Meanwhile, officials of CID-Crime have arrested four more persons, allegedly involved in thrashing the Dalit youths, taking the total number of arrested in this case to 20.

"They were nabbed from Samper village of Una taluka early today morning," said Deputy SP of CID KG Saradava, who is heading the probe.

According to Prabhakar, some of the Dalit youths developed complications and started vomiting and complained of severe body pain. Their relatives brought them here.

"We admitted them and started treating them immediately. We found that two of them are severely ill, as foam was oozing out from their mouth. We will do everything possible to improve their condition," the superintendent said, adding that after some initial treatment, their condition is stable now.

On July 11, these Dalit youths were beaten up by cow vigilantes for allegedly skinning a dead cow. On July 14, they were referred to Rajkot civil hospital from Una for further treatment.

Meanwhile, several Dalit leaders as well as senior Congress leader Shankersinh Vaghela visited the hospital alleging that these youths were discharged from Rajkot hospital before they fully recovered.

"Although these Dalits were in serious condition, they were discharged from Rajkot hospital. This is matter of probe as to why the superintendent allowed them to go home and who has pressurised him to do so," president of 'Gujarat Dalit Panther' Chirag Rajvansh said.

Vaghela alleged that it was an inhuman act by the doctors



of Rajkot hospital at the behest of political or government pressure.

After his visit, Vaghela said, "It is clear that these Dalits were forced to leave the hospital in serious condition. This is an inhuman act by the superintendent. He should not have thrown them out due to the pressure from government or political party. If something happens to them, we will definitely seek answer from him."



Those arrested for allegedly thrashing the Dalit youths were identified as Vipul Jadav, Bhavesh Godhaniya, Balu Gohil and his son Vinu Gohil.

"All of them are residents of Samper. They were arrested based on the statements of eye-witnesses. With these arrests, the total number of accused nabbed by police has touched 20. We may also arrest some more as probe progresses," said Saradava.
French religious leaders today called for authorities to boost security at places of worship after jihadists killed a priest in a Normandy church.

"We deeply desire that our places of worship are the subject of greater (security) focus, a sustained focus," said French Muslim leader Dalil Boubakeur, after meeting with President Francois Hollande.

Hollande gathered with the leaders of the country's main religions a day after two attackers stormed a church in the northern town of Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray during morning mass, slitting the throat of an 86-year-old priest.

Boubakeur, speaking in the name of French Muslims, voiced his "deep grief" at the attack which he described as a "blasphemous sacrilege which goes against all the teachings of our religion."



The attack, claimed by IS jihadists, comes less than two weeks after Tunisian Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel ploughed a truck into a crowd in the Riviera city of Nice, killing 84 people and injuring over 300.

The third major strike on France in 18 months prompted a bitter political spat over alleged security failings.
The Cabinet today approved signing of the Bilateral Investment Treaty (BIT) with Cambodia, the first agreement to be inked on the basis of the model BIT text.

The decision was taken during the cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The treaty seeks to promote and protect investments from either country in the territory of the other country with the objective of increasing bilateral investment flows, an official statement said.

It said that the treaty encourages each country to create favourable conditions for investors of the other country and to admit investments in accordance with its laws.

It "is the first Bilateral Investment Treaty in accordance with the text of the Indian Model BIT, approved by the Cabinet in December 2015," it added.
The government today gave its nod to the setting up of a new AIIMS at Bhatinda in Punjab, saying this will provide super specialty healthcare to the people and create a large pool of doctors.

The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave its approval to the AIIMS which will be established under the Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana (PMSSY) and have a capacity of 750 beds.

This will include emergency and trauma beds, AYUSH beds, private beds and ICU speciality and super speciality beds.

In addition, there will also be an administration block, AYUSH block, auditorium, night shelter, hostels and residential facilities.

"The new AIIMS at Bhatinda will provide super specialty healthcare to the population while creating a large pool of doctors and other health workers in this region that can be available for primary and secondary level institutions being created under National Health Mission (NHM).

"The institute will also conduct research on prevalent regional diseases and other health issues and provide for better control and cure of such diseases," an official statement said.

The cost of the project will be Rs 925 crore. However, the above cost estimate does not include recurring costs (wages and salaries and operation and maintenance expenses).

The 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 Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

The project will be completed in a period of 48 months from the date of the approval. It comprises a pre-construction phase of 15 months, a construction phase of 30 months and stabilisation and commissioning phase of three months.

"The population in Punjab and adjoining regions will be benefited by this AIIMS," the statement said.

Under PMSSY, AIIMS have been established in Bhubaneshwar, Jodhpur, Raipur, Rishikesh, Bhopal and Patna while work of AIIMS Rae Bareli is in progress.

Also, three AIIMS in Nagpur (Maharashtra), Kalyani (West Bengal) and Mangalagiri in Guntur (A.P) have been sanctioned in 2015.

Meanwhile, the Cabinet deferred its decision on the amendments to the Mental Health Bill which, sources said, was on the agenda.

Modi had recently laid the foundation of a new AIIMS in Gorakhpur after the Union Cabinet gave its nod for the establishment of the institution there.
Government today decided to repeal a decision of the UPA government to establish Concurrent Evaluation Office (CEO), an independent entity mandated to assess the impact of social sector schemes, including MNREGA.

In March 2013, then Cabinet had approved the proposal to set up CEO to critically assess the government programmes and find out whether they were reaching to the people or not.

The CEO office was envisaged to work in tandem with Independent Evaluation Office (IEO) of the erstwhile Planning Commission.

"...Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has decided to rescind the earlier decision of the government to set up the Concurrent Evaluation Office (CEO) for managing Concurrent Evaluation Network (CENET) in Ministry of Rural Development," an official statement said.

It will pave the way for a need based strengthening of the economic and monitoring wing of the Rural Development Ministry for managing and carrying out evaluation studies of rural development programmes, the statement added.

Originally, the idea was mooted by former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in 1985-87 when he was a member in the Planning Commission.

According to the proposal, CEO was supposed to be a lean organisation headed by a scholar in economy and policy research.
Multinational lubricant major Gulf Oil Lubricants today said it is aiming at robust organic growth over the next few years and planning to pump Rs 150 crore in its new facility in Chennai.

The company also said that it will sharpen its focus on passenger automotive segment.

"We are aiming for strong growth in India. We are putting up our second greenfield plant at Chennai at a cost of Rs 150 crore to augment the capacity in the next 18 months to 1.35-1.40 lakh MT capacity," Gulf Oil managing director Ravi Chawla said.

The company had ramped up its first plant at Silvassa to 90,000 MT from 75,000 MT recently at a capital expenditure of Rs 40-45 crore.

Speaking about the company's strategy, Chawla said they are trying to focus sharply on the passenger automotive segment where its market share is low to 4.5 per cent.

"Our focus is on passenger car segment. Our current market share is 4.5 per cent. We have able to grow at 12-13 per cent in the last one year but we are aiming to double the growth from present levels in car segment," he said.

Indian lubricant market set to grow at 2.5 per cent while Gulf Oil was aiming at 7 per cent growth, he said.

"We are trying to increase our share to 9-10 per cent from 7 per cent from the open market sales segment," Chawla said.

Lube market size stands at around 2-3 million MT, and of which 40 per cent is cornered by the three PSUs and rest by the private players.

Asked about margins, Chawla said last fiscal the margin was 16.5 per cent but maintaining it in the current fiscal could be difficult as costs were rising.

The company is striving to maintain the margin with combination of quality, branding and pricing.
Social activist Anna Hazare today said the state government should consider imposing total prohibition in Maharashtra, and blamed liquor consumption for rising accidents.

Hazare, who met Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis at the Vidhan Bhawan here, said prohibition can be implemented if the government and people take it up strongly.

"In my village at Ralegaon Siddhi there were 40 liquor distillation plants and we removed them all and for the past 20 years, no one in my village drinks alcohol, or consumes tobacco," Hazare said.

"If the people's will is strong and the government gives support, it is possible to implement total prohibition," he added.

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The roots of incidents like gangrape and murder in Kopardi - where a minor girl was gangraped and murdered brutally by three men - were in alcoholism, Hazare said, adding that due to increasing alcoholism, crimes were on the rise.

Police have failed to curb illicit liquor supply, he said, after his around half-an-hour meeting.

"I told the chief minister that village protection squads should be set up in all villages and a bill on the same should be tabled in Legislature," the social activist added.

To a query on allegations of corruption against several ministers in the state government, Hazare said, "I won't speak on this issue without any proof. If people have evidence against these ministers, they should send it to me and I will speak later.
The Madras High Court has passed an interim order to TANGEDCO to do away with the written examination for recruitment to the post of Assistant Engineers.

Justice T S Sivagnanam had passed an interim order on about 40 petitions challenging the December 28, 2015 notification of TANGEDCO, requiring the petitioners to undergo the written examination for selection to the post of Assistant Engineers.

While modifying an earlier court order, which had prevented the TANGEDCO from publishing the results of the written examination, the judge directed it to publish the same.

However, the judge restrained it from proceeding with the selection process till the final orders.

The petitioners had submitted that in case some of the ex-apprentices of TANGEDCO, failed in the examination conducted by it, their right to contest the writ petitions should not be hindered.

They also contended that if results are published, the TANGEDCO should not be permitted to proceed with further selection process and fill up vacancies till the writ petitions are heard and disposed of.

In response, Advocate General AL Somayaji who appeared for TANGEDCO, submitted that the company will not proceed further with the selection process and would await final orders.

The AG further submitted that publication of results would in no manner prejudice the rights of the petitioners to contest the writ petitions on merits.

But, if a direction is issued to publish the results and if the candidates, who seek recruitment by appearing for the written examination, are found to have not cleared it, then they would be out of the zone of consideration and may not be required to be heard in the matters, he said.

Recording the submission of the Advocate General that the results will be published within a week's time, the judge posted the matter for further hearing on August 8.

On January 28, the Madras High Court had directed around 80 petitioners, who worked as apprentices in TANGEDCO to appear for the January 31 examination conducted by it for the post of Assistant Engineers, but had also ordered that the results be kept on hold till February 16.
The Delhi High Court today sought the Centre's response on a PIL seeking formation of a committee of experts to review environment and wildlife protection laws in the wake of the recent culling of nilgai and elephants, which were declared as vermin by the government.

A bench of Chief Justice G Rohini and Justice Sangita Dhingra Sehgal issued notices to the Centre and the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, seeking their replies within two weeks.

The court has fixed the matter for hearing on August 19.

The plea has sought a direction to the Centre to provide devices, developed by Indian Agricultural Research Institute, to farmers to keep away vermin including nilgai, elephants and wild boars, instead of killing them.

The plea, filed by Salek Chand Jain, said the Constitution says state shall endeavour to protect and improve environment to safeguard forest and wildlife and alleged that the National Board for Wildlife has failed to discharge its duties.

Referring to the recent culling of animals, the petition claimed over 500 nilgai and over 100 elephants were killed on the ground that they were posing threat to human and crops.

It alleged that following a 2015 notification of the Centre declaring Nilgai and wild boars as vermin in Bihar for a year, nearly 500 nilgai were killed in last six months by hunters "unscientifically".

"Wildlife activists are shocked and say Bihar's culling is unscientific and sets a bad precedent and will bring back the 'shikaar' (hunting) culture.

"Respondents (Centre and MoEF) are handing out licences to kill without surveying the problem. They need to understand local aspects of the problem before declaring animals as vermin across the country," it said.

The petitioner also appealed to the court to direct the



government to provide the device, called 'Harmony Q Series', to farmers so that they can use it to scare away animals and birds.

"The device can cover four acres and has to be installed at least one feet above the crop. It does not have any harmful effect on humans, animals and birds," it said.

The first notification issued by the Ministry, dated December 1, 2015, declared nilgai and wild boar as vermin in some districts of Bihar for one year.

The second notification, dated February 3 this year, declared wild boar as vermin in some districts of Uttarakhand for one year, while the third notification issued on May 24 declared rhesus macaque (monkey) as vermin in certain districts of Himachal Pradesh.

Earlier, the Supreme Court had asked the animal rights activist and NGOs, who had sought quashing of these three notifications of the Centre, to approach the High Court.

The apex court had said that High Court had jurisdiction to decide the issue.
The Allahabad High Court has asked the Uttar Pradesh government to file a status report on criminal cases pending against MPs from the state as well as against members of the state legislative assembly and state legislative council.

A Division Bench comprising justices Arun Tandon and Sunita Agrawal passed the order on a PIL filed by advocate Ashutosh Gupta who alleged that criminal cases were pending against 36 MPs of the state, in addition to 182 MLAs and 22 MLCs.

The petitioner further alleged that the failure of the state to expeditiously decide criminal cases against the lawmakers tantamount to non-compliance of a Supreme Court order of 2014 wherein it has been laid down that trial in cases lodged against MPs, MLAs and MLCs must be decided within a year of framing of charges.

The court has fixed August 4 as the next date of hearing in the matter.
The NDA government has given highest priority to provide help and assistance to distressed Indians abroad, including those who are defrauded in marriage, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said in Lok Sabha today.

Swaraj said her Ministry has been receiving petitions from Indian women stating that their non-resident Indian spouse has hidden the fact that he is already married or has a partner.

She said such complaints pertain to abandonment of the Indian women either in India or in the foreign country by the NRI spouse after the marriage.

Since the NRI spouse resides outside India, following legal and other constraints are faced while addressing this complex issue, she said.

Swaraj said inspite of all these constrains, the External Affairs Ministry is taking various steps to provide assistance to the aggrieved women.

"Our government has given highest priority to provide help and assistance to distressed Indians abroad, irrespective of their castes, creed and religion," she said in reply to a supplementary related to community-wise break-up of distressed Indians.

The Minister said since the launch of her Ministry's grievance redressal portal 'MADAD' on February 2015, as many as 246 grievances under "marital dispute" category have been received of which 172 have been addressed.

Since January 2016, the External Affairs Ministry has received another 362 petitions by post and email related to NRI marriages of which 344 have been addressed, she said.

Swaraj said under a special scheme launched by the



External Affairs Ministry, legal and financial assistance has been provided to nearly 85 Indian women whose husbands reside in 13 countries -- the US, the UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Iraq, Singapore, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

The amount provided enables them to initiate legal proceedings against the spouse, avail counselling and for sustenance, she said.

The External Affairs Ministry is providing information about legal options available to the Indian women; procedures to be followed for serving of judicial summons on the NRI husband; and lawyers and NGOs in foreign countries who can assist the petitioners. This information has been posted on the Ministry's website.

Many Indian Missions have designated 'Open House' meetings during which any distressed Indian national can approach the Mission for assistance and guidance, she said.

Swaraj said Ministry of Women and Child Development has recently set up an Inter-Ministerial Committee which will submit recommendations about the legal and procedural hurdles faced by Indian women married to NRIs.
today made history by clinching the Democratic White House nomination, becoming the first woman to lead a major party in the US Presidential race.

Clinton, who has been Secretary of State, First Lady and Senator from New York, secured her nomination at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia after a majority of the 4,764 party delegates formally backed her.

Her rival from the primaries, Bernie Sanders was one of those to move a resolution for her nomination when the roll call got to his home state of Vermont  sending out a vital message of unity for a party struck by deep divisions.

"I move that be nominated as the Democratic Party's presidential candidate of the United States," Sanders said towards the conclusion of the roll call.

Moments later, the Democratic delegates nominated Clinton as the party's presidential candidate, setting up a high-stakes showdown with Republican Donald Trump.

"This moment is for every little girl who dreams big. #WeMadeHistory," tweeted Clinton, who will turn 69 in October.

"Stronger together," she said in another tweet.

Clinton's nomination was proposed by Congresswoman Barbara A Mikulski, the first Democratic woman elected to the Senate, and the first woman to chair the powerful Senate Committee on Appropriations.

"It is with a full heart that I am here today as we nominate to be the first woman president," she said.

"Many of you have broken barriers. You were the first to go to college. You were the first to start a business. Maybe the first to be a citizen. But you knew when you broke a barrier you didn't do it for yourself. You did it so others would not have to face them again. That's what Hillary wants to do. She wants to break down all the barriers to opportunity," Mikulski said.

Legendary civil rights leader and Congressman John Lewis seconded Clinton's name as the Democratic presidential nominee.

"Eight years ago, our party nominated and elected the first person of colour to ever serve in the White House not just for one, but two terms. Tonight we will shatter that glass ceiling again. We're the party of tomorrow, and we will build a true democracy in America," Lewis said.

Lewis talked about Clinton in glowing terms, saying she has dedicated her life to public service and building a better America.

"I have known Hillary Clinton for many years. She is one of the most qualified candidates to ever run for president. She is a leader, sometimes sailing against the wind to break down the barriers that divide us. She's smart, just smart. She could have done anything with her life, but she decided long ago she didn't want to just do well, she wanted to do good," he said.

Clinton is scheduled to deliver her acceptance speech on Thursday (July 28). Last week she selected Virginia Senator Tim Kaine as her running mate.

Her husband, the charismatic and controversial Bill Clinton was the President of the United States from 1993-2001.

As the first lady she had launched several key initiatives in health care and women's rights.

A proponent of clean energy, Hillary Clinton is known for being a strong advocate of Indo-US ties.

As New York Senator, she was instrumental in the launch of the Senate India Caucus  the only country-specific Senate Caucus, and was its founding co-chairman.

After being sworn in as the Secretary of State in January 2009, Clinton was instrumental in launch of annual India-US Strategic Dialogue.

She appointed Indian-Americans to the State Department like Raj Shah, head of USAID, and Richard Verma as the Assistant Secretary of State. Verma is now the US Ambassador to India.

Clinton also has several Indian-Americans in key positions in her campaign including Huma Abedin, Neera Tanden, Shefali Razdan Duggal and Aditi Hardikar.
A Hindu youth was today shot dead as communal tension gripped a district in Pakistan's Sindh province following alleged desecration of a holy book by a man from the minority community who was arrested for blasphemy.

Tension ran high in Mehran Samejo village in Ghotki district after a Hindu man, Amar Lal, who was said to be mentally unstable, allegedly desecrated a holy book yesterday.

According to reports, Amar, who has been arrested, was a drug addict and was living in a mosque after converting to Islam a few months ago.

After the incident, local religious leaders along with several agitated people took to streets.

During a protest, some men riding on motorbikes fired at two Hindu youths who were sitting outside a tea stall in Mirpur Mathelo area.

In the attack, one of the youths, Dewan Sateesh Kumar, 17, was killed while another was critically injured, Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Masood Ahmed Bangash said.

Satesh was a businessman.

Local leaders of the Hindu community have demanded protection of their lives and properties in the wake of the tensions.

Bangash said that police with the help of Rangers are trying to diffuse the tense situation.

According to reports, all towns of the Ghotki district remained closed today.

Leaders of local religious parties have demanded severe punishment for Amar, who has been booked for blasphemy and shifted to an undisclosed location by police.

Sindh has the biggest population of Hindus in Pakistan.
:WelfareMinister M Kandasamy led the Union Territory of Puducherry in paying homage to former President A P J Abdul Kalam on his first death anniversary.

At a function got up on the occasion,the minister handed over saplings to students.

Deputy Speaker V P Sivakolundhu, legislators of ruling Congress and DMK legislator R Siva were among those present.

Various outfits and organisations held events to observe the death anniversary.

Pondicherry Heritage Round Table 167 held elocution and essay contests for students of Manimegalai Government Higher Secondary school in neighbouring Nellithope today.

Parliamentary Secretary to Chief Minister A John Kumar who paid homage at the portrait of the former President on the premises of the school, recalled the humane qualities, accessibility and simplicity of Kalam and said he was a staunch patriot and an ardent visionary.

John Kumar also said that the former President had ignited the imagination of youth through his speeches and writings.

Chairman of the Pondicherry Heritage Round Table 167 N. Venkataramani presented a special address on the 'Missile Man' and referred to his inspiring qualities.

Prizes were distributed to students proficient in the elocution and essay competitions on Kalam.

A class IX student of the school Vinodhini was felicitated for her skill in making an image of Kalam on a chart paper which was displayed on the occasion.
Leader of Opposition in Punjab Assembly Charanjit Singh Channi today called upon Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal to honour the commitments made to the families of the Dina Nagar attack martyrs.

Speaking at the Congress workers meeting at Dina Nagar near here, Channi demanded government jobs to the kin of the families of the martyrs and those injured in the terror attack.

He honoured the families of Gulam Rasool and Nirmala Devi who were killed in the attack. Besides, the injured civilians-Kamlajit Matharu, Sarvjit, Varun Bhagat, railway gateman Darshan and milkman Satpal Singh were also honoured on the occasion.

"All his life, Badal has practised the politics of opportunism and deceit and making false promises to the people. He can't treat families of the martyrs on the same lines. This amounts to showing disrespect to the martyrs. Why should it take one year for the Badal government to award President's Police Medal posthumously to Superintendent of Police Baljit Singh who laid down his life while fighting terrorists in the attack on Dinanagar police station last year," he said.

Castigating Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal, who also holds the home portfolio, for alleged deteriorating law and order situation in Punjab, Channi asked him why the investigation of the Dina Nagar attack was not given to any "neutral" central agency like the Pathankot attack.

"Today, after formation of three investigation teams by the Punjab police in one year, we are heading nowhere," the Congress leader said.

In a pre-dawn attack on July 27 last year, three terrorists, believed to have come from Pakistan, attacked passengers in a moving bus and stormed Dina Nagar police station killing seven persons, including the SP. Later all the terrorists were killed after a day-long operation.
The country's second largest car manufacturer Hyundai Motor India expects to ship about 1.65 lakh units in 2016-17, almost same as last year, a top company official said today.

"We are very successful in domestic and export markets. We started Make in India products from 2000 and today our cars are exported to 92 countries. Latin America, Africa, Middle East are the major export markets for us," Hyundai Motor India MD Y K Koo told reporters here.

The company, which made its maiden shipment of just 768 cars to Algeria from Chennai Port, exported 1.67 lakh units in 2015-16. "This year (2016-17) we are expecting to export about 1.65 lakh units," he said.

After receiving a cheque of Rs 19.69 crore as refund of wharfage from Chennai Port Trust Chairman Cyril George here, Koo said, "HMI (Hyundai Motor India) is export hub for Hyundai Motor Company".

"We have been the largest (auto) exporter in this country since 2004," he said.

George said the Korean automaker had exported two million cars since 2006 and received Rs 165 crore as refund of wharfage.

"Chennai Port Trust is considering to expand storage facilities and soon we will be a clean and green port. We are going to modernise our operational area," George said.

Hyundai Motor India registered a 7 per cent rise in total sales in June at 55,713 units.

The company, which has two manufacturing facilities at Sriperumbudur near Chennai, had sold 52,062 units in same month last year.

Exports in June 2016 marginally rose to 15,907 units from 15,762 cars shipped in same month last year.
IL&FS Engineering and Construction Company has bagged a Rs 532.67-crore contract from Nagpur Metro Rail Corporation (NMRC) to construct elevated metro stations.

The company has received a Letter of Acceptance (LoA) from NMRC, a joint venture of the Maharashtra government and the Centre, for constructing metro stations for the Nagpur metro project, a statement issued here said.

The project involves construction of seven elevated metro stations and three 'at-grade' stations -- Congress Nagar to Khapri and related works, it added.

As per the statement, the project is expected to be completed in 110 weeks from the date of issue of LoA.

IL&FS Engineering Services is presently executing four metro rail projects' contracts valued at Rs 1,100 crore in Bengaluru for Bengaluru Metro Rail Corporation, in Gurugram for Rapid Metro Rail Project, Phase-II (RMRG), in Kolkata for Rail Vikas Nigam (RVNL), and in Ahmedabad for Metro-Link Express for Gandhinagar and Ahmedabad (MEGA) Company.
The 19-year-old cadet of the Indian Naval Academy, who collapsed and died during physical training on July 25, had succumbed to an undetected congenital heart defect, the postmortem report has said.

As per the postmortem done at Pariyaram Medical College Hospital, the cadet had congenital heart defect by birth which was not detected by the medical checks done during his induction into the Academy, a release from the INA said today.

Cadet Pranay Shivcharan Lanjewar hailing from Maharashtra's Bhandara district had joined the Academy in Ezhimala in neighbouring Kannur district on July 10.

During a physical conditioning training, he suddenly collapsed. Though he was administered Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation by the PT instructor and rushed to Indian Naval Hospital Ship 'Navjivani' inside the campus, he was declared brought dead by the doctors.

Meanwhile, a ceremonial military farewell was accorded on the Cadet today. Wreaths were placed by Rear Admiral N M Suresh, Deputy Commandant, on behalf of the Chief of Naval Staff and also by officers and personnel of INA.

Cadets of various courses at the Academy also paid their homage by laying wreaths.

The body of the cadet was handed over to his father Shivcharan Mansaram Lanjewar after all legal and medical procedures, the release said.

The Academy had made arrangements for the body to be flown from Mangaluru to Nagpur, accompanied by two officers, it added.
India has approved a USD 318 million loan for Sri Lanka Railways to upgrade its communications system and rolling stock in the Tamil-dominated north.

Sri Lankan government spokesman and minister Gayantha Karunathilake said that the money will be used to improve the signal system from Maho to Anuradhapura in the north central province and from Anuradhapura to Omanthai in the north.

It will also be used to buy six power sets with air-conditioned carriages, 10 engines and 160 carriages, 30 wagons with oil tanks and 20 container carrying wagons.

The Cabinet had approved a proposal by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe to enter into an agreement with Exim Bank of India for the loan.

India has already given loans of about USD 996 million to develop Sri Lanka's railway service which were used to improve northern and southern railway lines and buy engines and power sets.
India is more than capable of achieving its 100 Smart City goal but needs a "collaborative" and focussed approach to complete the ambitious plan, a top executive of a leading global Financial services company has said.

"With its ambitious plan, it is more crucial than ever for India to stay realistic and focused. (For) Smart city planning and development, India needs a collaborative approach of shared technology, expertise, learning and governance. That is what India needs to keep focused on to meet their 100 Smart City goal," said Hany Fam, executive vice president, Enterprise Partnerships, Mastercard.

He noted that India was working towards leveraging the smart city experience and technology available across the globe to drive the transformation it needs.

Fam, however, cautioned that it was also important not to overlook the current problems plaguing society while they ambitiously work on developing India's future.

"In order to unlock cities' full potential, they (India) need to remain focused on simultaneously developing basic services and infrastructure," Fam said.

India needs to keep its smart city vision in mind while it addresses issues such as sanitation and transport, in order to achieve its 100 Smart City goal.

"It needs time, patience and work, but with a solid plan, governance and focus, India is more than capable of achieving it," he stressed.

The major concern for India is tackling the implications of urbanisation, with people moving from countryside to cities in unprecedented numbers, Fam said.

"This is a trend that has global impact and is not specific to developing economies. So now, more than ever, there is a need to come up with technology that can be applied to the challenges cities face in order to make cities smarter, enabling business growth and quality of life," he advised.

A collaborative approach is needed with regards to shared technology, expertise and learning in order to recognise the potential in future cities and deliver truly impactful transformation, Fam said.

"The Indian government has ambitious plans and recently announced 20 priority cities that will be the focus for the first phase of its smart city investment," he said.

"By taking into account the experiences citizens have with the city they live in, and applying technology to transform these interactions, we (Mastercard) can help to develop cities that are dynamic, liveable and sustainable," he said.

Mastercard is already working with 50 cities from all over the globe. In September last year, the company launched the Urbanomics Mobility Project, a new data analysis platform to fuel smarter, more inclusive cities.
India today signed an over USD 1 billion deal with American defence and aerospace major Boeing for procuring four additional 'Poseidon-8I' long-range maritime surveillance and anti-submarine warfare aircraft.

The contract is a follow-on order to eight P-81 planes already bought by India in a direct deal with the firm worth USD 2.1 billion, defence sources said.

The contract was inked during the ongoing visit of US Under Secretary for Defence on Acquisition Frank Kendall, and is seen as a sign of growing Indo-US defence ties, they said.

India had last year signed a USD 3 billion contract with the US through Foreign Military Sales route for 22 Apache and 15 Chinook helicopters.

With today's deal, the total value of defence deals signed with the US in the last one decade comes to around USD 15 billion.

India is also working on a deal to get 145 pieces of M777 light-weight howitzers from the US, the sources said.

The acquisition of additional 'P-8I' will be a shot in the arm of the Indian Navy as the country has been building up its naval surveillance capabilities.

Armed with deadly Harpoon missiles, lightweight torpedoes, rockets among others, the Navy is extensively using the P-8I to keep a strict vigil over the Indian Ocean, which has seen numerous Chinese submarine forays, including docking of a nuclear sub in Sri Lanka.

The Navy will also be able to drop and monitor sonobuoys, being used in the search for the missing AN32 aircraft of the Indian Air Force, they said.

Incidentally, India was 'P-8''s first international customer and was also Boeing's first military sale to India.

The P-8I fleet is based at the Naval Air Station Rajali in Tamil Nadu. The long-range maritime reconnaissance aircraft has an operational speed of 450 miles per hour and a range of 4,500 nautical miles.

The planes will provide strategic blue water and littoral undersea warfare capabilities as well as armed intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance to the navy, the defence sources added.

Based on Boeing's Next-Generation 737 commercial airplane, P-8I is the Indian Navy variant of the P-8A Poseidon that the American defence has developed for the US Navy.

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During Kendall visit from July 25-28, he took part in



the semi-annual Defence Technology and Trade Initiative (DTTI) and had fruitful meetings with his counterparts at the Defence Ministry here.

Kendall and his delegation met with Secretary, Defence Production Ashok Gupta and his team to discuss and review progress on current DTTI efforts, as well as to determine the way ahead for the new Pathfinder Projects and Joint Working Groups that were agreed to during Secretary Carter's visit to India and Prime Minister Modi's visit to the U.S.

The next DTTI meeting will be held in Washington in January 2017.
Continuing his outreach with American political leadership, Indian Ambassador to the US Arun K Singh has met top Democratic lawmakers, including officials of the Hillary Clinton campaign, to underline the importance India attaches to the bilateral ties.

At a time, when the entire Democratic leadership is camping here to prepare for the crucial November general elections, the top Indian diplomat was given rare access to the top leadership of the party, reflecting the importance the party, its lawmakers and the Hillary campaign attaches to the India-US relationship.

He met Senator Patrick Leahy, Ranking Member of Senate Judiciary Committee, who is also Ranking Member of the crucial Senate Appropriation Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations and Related Programs, and Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi.

John Podesta, chair of Hillary Clinton's Campaign and former Counsellor to US President Barack Obama met the Indian Ambassador, indicating the significance a Clinton Administration would attach to India-US ties.

Singh had interactions with top Democratic lawmakers Nita Lowey, Frank Pallone, and Joe Crowley, who is Vice Chair of Democratic Caucus and former Co-Chair of House India Caucus.

The Ambassador had a meeting with Congressman Ami Bera, the only Indian American lawmaker in the US House of Representatives.

Top Indian American community leaders attending the four-day national convention held a reception for Singh, "Chai and Chaat" which among others was attended by Senator Corry Booker, Ranking Member of Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Subcommittee on Oceans, Atmosphere, Fisheries and Coast Guards.

In his address, the Ambassador underscored the important role being played by Indian American community in strengthening India US ties.

Raja Krishnamoorthi, who is running for House of Representative race in Illinois, Raj Goyle, former Democratic Member of Kansas House of Representatives, were present at the event.

It was also attended by a number of politically connected Indian Americans -- Sunil Puri, Deepak Raj, Mahinder Tak, Anurag Verma, Priya Dayananda, Mini Timmaraju and Shekhar Narsimhan.

Singh also addressed another event titled "South Asians for Hillary".

He also attended a diplomatic reception by American Jewish Committee (AJC) and made brief remarks.

On the sidelines of the convention, the Indian Ambassador met Kesha Ram, Vermont State Representative, who is running for the position of State Lt Governor.

The Indian Ambassador had made a similar outreach with the Republican leadership during last week's Republican National Convention in Cleveland.
An Indian-origin orthopaedic is facing a medical tribunal over allegations that he harassed and misbehaved with three female colleagues.

Dr Kalyana Saripalli would appear before the UK General Medical Council's (GMC) Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service in Manchester this week.

The alleged harassment dates back to September 2011 whilst he was working at Guy's and St. Thomas' Hospital Trust in London and then when he moved to Stoke Mandeville Hospital, in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire.

Opening the case for the GMC, Tom Gilbart told the tribunal: "Colleague A began working as a nurse in August 2011 she was employed by a company that provides nurses and she complained about advances being made by the doctor."



Saripalli is accused of sending the woman, known only as Colleague A, text messages and harassing her despite requests to stop.

The 39-year-old doctor admits to sending messages but denies there was sexual motivation behind them.

In one of the messages he reportedly likened himself to Matt Damon's spy character in the Jason Bourne franchise of films: "I'm Jason Bourne in reality, I will find you, as I said before, you are my destiny."



Saripalli then started sending text messages to another nurse, referred to as Colleague C, who was on placement at Guy's and St Thomas'.

She text him making it clear she only wanted him to speak to her about work, during work hours.

Besides A and C, the doctor is also accused of harassing a Colleague D with similar text messages.

"Colleague D would have nightmares and wake up sweating. His behaviour was harassing and that matter has been admitted. An investigation was conducted by Buckinghamshire Health Trust, he was interviewed and notes were taken," the tribunal was told.

The hearing is expected to last a few weeks.
Over 800 Shakespeare scholars from more than 48 countries including Indiawill gather in Stratford Upon-Avon and London for the 10th World Shakespeare Congress from July 31 to explore and honour the Bard's work some 400 years after his death.

The Congress, will take place from July 31 to August 6 in Stratford. Plenaries featuring leading writers, theatre practitioners and critics along with seminars and workshops will be divided evenly across the both venues.

"In both locations, the 2016 Congress will offer unequalled opportunities to engage with the current state of play in Shakespearean criticism, pedagogy, theatre history and performance studies, and to connect with Shakespeareans from across the globe," the organisers said in a release today.

It is the first time the event has been co-hosted in two locations that were integral to both the personal and working life of William Shakespeare.

With an overarching theme of 'Creating and Recreating Shakespeare', the Congress will look at the continuing global relevance of Shakespeare's work through a varied programme of lectures, seminars and workshops.

Shakespeareans from around the world, including the US, Canada, New Zealand, Malaysia, Brazil, UAE, Egypt, France, Australia, Japan, China, Italy, Singapore, South Africa, Mauritius, Portugal and India, will take part in seminars and panel discussions, exploring different aspects of the Bard's work and the global cultural legacy he continues to have around the world.

Speakers at the 2016 World Shakespeare Congress include internationally renowned actor Adrian Lester. He will discuss his early exposure to Shakespeare and his recent performance as Othello at the National Theatre, as well as his ability to move between big-budget films and small scale live performances.

Booker Prize-winning novelist Howard Jacobson will be discussing his novelistic adaptation of The Merchant of Venice and the role Shakespeare played in the history and form of the novel.

Gregory Doran, artistic director of the Royal Shakespeare Company, will be in session exploring the company's artistic life and history.

Shakespeare's Globe's Founding Director of Theatre Music, Claire van Kampen will be joined on stage by Bill Barclay, Globe Director of Music and an ensemble of early music players.

The Congress is co-hosted in Stratford by the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, and the Shakespeare Institute, of the University of Birmingham.

In London, Shakespeare's Globe and the London Shakespeare Centre, at King's College London play host to the international delegation.
Militants unleashed a series of attacks Wednesday in and around Baghdad, killing at least 18 people, officials said.

South of the Iraqi capital, a provincial council approved a decision allowing authorities to demolish homes of convicted militants and banish their families from the province.

The deadliest attack killed three policemen and three civilians when a suicide bomber on foot blew up his explosives-laden vest at a police checkpoint in Baghdad's Shiite neighbourhood of Shula, a police officer said. At least 15 people were wounded in the explosion, he added.

In the town of Youssifiyah, 12 miles south of Baghdad, a bomb explosion in a commercial area killed at least three shoppers and wounded nine others, another police officer said.

Elsewhere three intelligence officers affiliated to the Interior Ministry were gunned down by drive-by shooters armed with pistols fitted with silencers in the northeastern suburb of Rashidiya, police added.

Another bomb explosion in a commercial area in the capital's southwestern Saydiya neighbourhood killed two civilians and wounded five .

Also today, a mortar attack on a camp for displaced civilians south of Baghdad killed four and wounded eight, according to Iraqi officials.

The United Nations issued a statement on the attack, the third such attack on the camp in the past three months, calling it "cowardly." The UN statement said four children were injured and no one was killed. The discrepancy could not be immediately reconciled.

"Displaced Iraqis who arrived here had already fled conflict and violence. They regarded the camp as a place of safety, where they and their families could feel protected," said Bruno Geddo, the representative for the UN refugee agency.

Medical officials confirmed the casualty figures. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorised to talk to the media.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attacks, most of which bore the hallmarks of the Islamic State group. The Sunni militant group has claimed previous such attacks against security forces and public places, mainly in Shiite-dominated areas.

Meanwhile, the decision by the Babil Provincial Council reflects attempts by local authorities to try independently of the central government in Baghdad to rein in militant attacks in municipalities and provinces across the country battered by years of war.
Maharashtra Legislative Council was adjourned for a third consecutive day today without conducting any business after the Opposition insisted on a judicial probe against "tainted" ministers while the BJP-led government refused to bow down to their demand.

As soon as the House assembled, Narayan Rane (Congress) sought to know why was the BJP-Shiv Sena coalition government "scared" of ordering an inquiry against "tainted" ministers if it has nothing to hide.

"We have submitted all proofs we had against the corrupt ministers. Why is the government scared to accept our demand if they are as clean as claimed by 'Mr Clean' Devendra Fadnavis (the Chief Minister)?" he said.

He said a probe under the Commission of Inquiry Act will prove the veracity of claims of Fadnavis, who has refuted charges of wrongdoing by his Cabinet colleagues.

"How can Fadnavis, who has approved the files, thereby making him responsible for his ministers' corruption, give a clean chit to them? On top of it, these ministers are replying to our charges and absolving themselves," Rane said.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Girish Bapat stood up to reply to Rane's charges but Council Chairman Ramraje Nimbalkar adjourned the House when Opposition members started shouting slogans against the government.

When the House reassembled, Bapat expressed displeasure over the bedlam and said after the ministers facing charges have given statements and clarified their position, it was not right to disrupt the House.

"Please let the House function. All answers have been given to the Opposition," Bapat maintained.

However, the Opposition did not relent and the din continued, leading to another adjournment.

On reassembling, Rane harped on the Opposition demand.

"If you say you are transparent and want a corruption- free India, make Maharashtra corruption-free first. We are not satisfied with the replies of your Ministers and hence want an inquiry to be conducted," the former Chief Minister said.

When the members once again raised slogans against the Government, the House was adjourned for the day.

Opposition Congress and NCP have highlighted alleged "wrongdoing" by nearly half-a-dozen Ministers, who have denied the charges, and sought an inquiry against them by a sitting High Court Judge.
The Income Tax department today conducted searches on the premises of AAP MLA Kartar Singh Tanwar on charges of alleged tax evasion, drawing angry reaction from Aam Admi Party which accused the Modi government of targeting its MLAs out of political vendetta.

IT officials said the searches are being carried out on at least three premises of the Chhatarpur MLA in the national capital by teams having 40 income tax and police officials.

The officials said the department had received "actionable inputs" with regard to the MLA's transactions and hence the operation was launched.

The party termed the development as "political vendetta" by the Centre against AAP MLAs.

Reacting to the development, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisoida said, "Modi ji you deploy, the CBI, Delhi Police, IB, ED and Income Tax, but we will keep on with our work."



Senior AAP leader Ashutosh said Singh's residence was gheraoed as if Singh was a terrorist. He also accused the Delhi Police of "misbehaving" with arrested AAP MLA Amanatullah Khan's wife.

Eleven AAP MLAs have been arrested in different cases since the party came to power in Delhi for a second time in February last year.

Delhi Police had on Sunday arrested Okhla MLA Amanatullah Khan in connection with allegations by a woman that he had tried to mow her down with his car while Mehrauli MLA Naresh Yadav was arrested by Punjab Police in connection with the alleged Malerkotla sacrilege incident.

AAP's Raghav Chahda said it is only his party MLAs and leaders who are fcaing action while tainted leaders of other parties were going scot-free.

"There are several cases where the BJP leader were involved in several cases, but they were not even summoned by the police. Whereas in the AAP's case, its MLAs and leaders are immediately arrested.

"NDMC vide-chairman Karan Singh Tanwar was never arrested by the Delhi Police in the MM Khan murder case while R P Singh, a former BJP MLA who was accused of assaulting a DJB engineer, was never summoned," Chadha said.

He claimed, "Of the 78 ministers in the Narendra Modi government Cabinet, 14 face criminal charges. Of the 282 BJP MPs, 98 have criminals charges.
Scriptwriter Salim Khan has criticised Naseeruddin Shah for his comments that superstar Rajesh Khanna was responsible for bringing "mediocrity" in Bollywood in the '70s.

Recently, in an interview, Shah said that '70s was the time when mediocrity came in Hindi films and also when Khanna joined the industry, who according to him was a "poor actor".

Calling Khanna the first and the last superstar of his times, Salim said an actor has to be extraordinary to rule the industry and people's hearts for long.

"An actor passed my house and saw a big crowd waiting for Salman. He called me up to say he has not seen anything like this before. I told him I have seen bigger crowds many times outside Rajesh Khanna's house," Salim wrote on Twitter.

"He was the first and the last superstar of the millennium. Anyone calling him a mediocre actor should know that no one can reach these heights unless he has something extraordinary to offer," he continued.

In an apparent reference to Shah, the "Sholay" writer said, "Frustration and bitterness are difficult to cure but carrying the same for such a long time is unheard of."



Salim, 80, is the latest celebrity to slam Shah for his remarks after stars like Khanna's daughter Twinkle and filmmaker Karan Johar criticised actor.
Jammu and Kashmir government has been requested to identify suitable land in the Kashmir Valley where the migrants could be rehabilitated, the Rajya Sabha was informed today.

This was stated by Minister of State for Home Hansraj Gangaram Ahir while replying to a written question by Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut, who had asked about the status of government's plan for setting up a 'composite township' for displaced Kashmiri Pandit migrants.

There are 62,000 registered Kashmiri migrants who had to leave the Valley due to militancy in early 1990s. Of these, 40,000 families are in Jammu, 20,000 in Delhi and remaining 2,000 in rest of the country.

"The state government of Jammu and Kashmir has been requested to identify suitable land in Kashmir, where the Kashmiri migrants could be rehabilitated," the minister said in his reply.

He said a variety of measures have been taken over the years by the government which includes providing two-room tenements at four places in Jammu and 2,000 flats at Sheikhpora in Budgam district in Kashmir as part of the 2004 Prime Minister's package.

He said as part of a comprehensive package in 2008, 3,000 jobs in the state were to be provided, besides announcing a financial assistance for construction of houses in the Kashmir Valley and building transit accommodation.

"The package is being implemented by the state government and so far 1,719 jobs have been provided to Kashmiri migrants besides construction of 505 transit accommodation," he said.

Ahir said another package was announced in November 2015, under which another 3,000 jobs were approved besides construction of 6,000 transit accommodation in the Kashmir Valley.
Japanese police today searched the home of the suspect in a mass stabbing spree that left 19 people dead at a facility for the mentally disabled.

The suspect, 26-year-old Satoshi Uematsu, was transferred earlier in the day from a local police station to the prosecutor's office in Yokohama.

The attacker left dead or injured nearly a third of the approximately 150 patients at the facility in a matter of 40 minutes early yesterday, Kanagawa prefectural authorities said. The fire department said 25 were wounded, 20 of them seriously.

Uematsu turned himself into police about two hours after the pre-dawn attack in Sagamaihara, a city about 50 kilometers west of central Tokyo.

He had worked at the facility until February, when he delivered a letter to Parliament outlining a bloody plan to attack two facilities for the handicapped and saying all disabled people should be put to death.

Kanagawa prefecture welfare department official Shogo Nakayama said that officials from the Sagamihara facility confronted him about the letter a few days later, and Uematsu quit.

His head and shoulders hidden with a blue jacket, the suspect was led out of a police station in Sagamihara on Wednes and into the back of an unmarked white van with emergency lights on top. Photographers and video journalists swarmed the van as it pulled away.

At his house in Sagamihara police took in cardboard boxes to carry out any evidence. Parts of the property were sealed off with yellow police tape.

The parents of one of the seriously injured residents of the facility told Japanese television network NTV that their son is unconscious and on artificial respiration.

"I feel anger that he was a former worker," the mother said of the attacker. NTV did not identify the parents or show their faces.

Uematsu broke into the Tsukui Yamayuri-en facility by shattering a window at 2:10 a.M., according to a prefectural health official, and then set about slashing the residents' throats.

Sagamihara fire department official Kunio Takano said the dead were 10 women and nine men, ranging in age from 19 to 70. All those killed were residents, said Tatsuhisa Hirosue, another Kanagawa welfare division official.

Further details of the attack, including whether the victims were asleep or otherwise helpless, remained unclear today.
British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson's cat has made a dramatic bid for power by sneaking into Prime Minister Theresa May's 10 Downing street residence while the chief mouser there was away but was unceremoniously evicted by police officers.

Johnson inherited a new feline colleague at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office as well as his new role in the Cabinet -- and his cheeky streak appears to have rubbed off on the cat.

Palmerston took his Downing Street ambitions further by sneaking in to Theresa May's new residence while no one was looking.

10 Downing Street chief mouser Larry is believed to be "away" for a few days and power hungry Palmerston took the opportunity to dash into the home, media reports said.

The black-and-white cat, who was appointed Chief Mouser to the Foreign Office earlier this year after being adopted from Battersea Dogs and Cats Home, was unceremoniously evicted by police officers, The Telegraph reported.

He then sat outside the building, looking furious and even appeared to have a stand-off with a police officer.

Amid the post-referendum upheaval within the government, Palmerston and his No. 10 rival Larry have been at each others'



throats recently.

One violent clash outside the Foreign Office is thought to have resulted in a paw injury to Larry which required veterinary treatment.

No. 10's cat was put on bed rest for a few days as he licked his wounds.

It has been thought that Larry may be missing his mentor David Cameron and be facing stress due to the move-in of the May family.

Although recent comings and goings in Downing Street have been linked with the feline skirmishes, Larry does have a history of troubled relations with his neighbours.

He often came to blows with the cat from No. 11, Freya, who was then exiled to the countryside.

Police were previously forced to step in to break up a cat fight between Larry and Freya, former Moggy of the Treasury.

Larry arrived at No. 10 in 2011, having been picked out by staff from Battersea Dogs and Cats Home.
"Dope" actress Kiersey Clemons will play the female lead, Irish West, in the upcoming "The Flash" movie.

Insiders reveal that the actress will portray the tough journalist and love interest of Ezra Miller's Barry Allen aka The Flash, according to Variety.

Clemons reunites with "Dope" director Rick Famuyiwa on the movie. She previously appeared in "Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising" alongside Chloe Moretz.

She can next be seen in "Little Bitches" and "Flatliners". The 22-year-old actress will reportedly make her debut as Iris West in Zack Snyder's upcoming "Justice League", which is currently being filmed in London.

The filming of "The Flash" is expected to begin sometime this year. Geoff Johns is attached to produce the film along with Alex Gartner, Dan Mazer and Charles Roven. "The Flash" will hit US theatres on March 16, 2018.

In the film, while working in his lab during a storm one night, a bolt of lightning strikes a tray of chemicals soaking police scientist Barry Allen with its contents.

Now able to move at super-speed, Barry becomes The Flash protecting Central City from the threats it faces.
The Kremlin today denied Moscow was interfering in the US election campaign after President Barack Obama refused to rule out that Russia could be trying to sway the vote in favour of Donald Trump.

Hillary Clinton's campaign has blamed Russia for an embarrassing leak of emails from the Democratic National Committee, propelling the Kremlin to the heart of American political debate as tensions between Moscow and Washington linger months before the historic vote.

Trump denied allegations of ties with Moscow today, telling voters in Florida that he had "nothing to do with Russia."



"I said (Russian leader Vladimir) Putin has much better leadership qualities than (US President Barack) Obama, but who doesn't know that?" he said.

Trump's statement came after the Kremlin reiterated that it was not meddling in US internal affairs.

"President Putin has repeatedly said that Russia has never interfered and does not interfere in internal affairs, especially in the electoral processes of other countries," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

Peskov had earlier dismissed as "absurd" claims that Russia was involved in the hacking of emails that were released by WikiLeaks.

"Moscow has carefully avoided any actions, any words that could be interpreted as direct or indirect influence on the electoral process," Peskov said.

"If you talk about some suspicions regarding our country, then you need at the very least to be precise and concrete," he added.

In an interview with NBC set to air on Wednesday, Obama said that "anything was possible" following suggestions that Russia could have been behind the hack.

Obama told NBC he could not speak about the precise motive for the hack or subsequent leak but was aware of Trump's comments about the Russian leader.

"What we do know is that the Russians hack our systems. Not just government systems, but private systems," Obama said.

Russian political analysts say that the Kremlin has always preferred working with Republican politicians.

"The Kremlin has traditionally considered that a Republican administration is more convenient because it is more pragmatic," independent analyst Nikolai Petrov told AFP.

The Republican candidate has often said he believes he would "get on" with Putin and on Wednesday wrote on Twitter that the Kremlin strongman had called him a "genius."



In December last year, Putin praised Trump as "a very striking man, unquestionably talented".

Trump today said he had never met Putin but cast doubt over accusations that Moscow was behind the hack.
The Karnataka Region Economic Trade Organisation (KRETO) today said it plans to issue 3,000 E-Tourist Cards this year to encourage potential investors from Estonia who visit the state as tourists. The card is aimed at potential investors who visit the state as Tourists.

Every potential investor visiting as a tourist will be exposed to quality offers that give them a taste of the local culture and tradition, KRETO Executive Director Asif Iqbal told reporters here.

"This will enable them to also savor local cuisine with the help of well-informed recommendations, an opportunity to visit local homes and to stay in villages," Iqbal said. The process promises to create employment opportunities for tourism in the smaller cities and villages of Karnataka and also the opportunity for visitors to enjoy the local culture in turn, he said.

The card has been conceptualized and developed with strategic support from Estonia who have provided advisory support, since they already have their own E-citizen card which is operational and hugely successful for the first time in the world, he said.

KRETO also signed an MoU with the Asian Arab Chamber of Commerce for setting up an innovation centre in United Arab Emirates, Iqbal said.

"It has been designed to help midsized investors from Karnataka to have a permanent space to display their products and to also benefit from marketing support to attract investors from Europe and the Middle East," he said. Mid-sized companies will enjoy a support system in the UAE at nominal costs along with a representation service which is free of charge, he added.

"I want to provide the people of Karnataka a facility toshowcase their services and products at a nominal cost, and to encourage the state with whom I have been personally doing business with for the last 6 years. With the Karnataka diaspora already present in the UAE, I see immense potential and opportunity for cross border transactions and growth," AACC President Princess Fay Jahanara said.

KRETO also signed an MoU with the Bosnia and Herzegovina governments to screen Kannada films in an exclusive Kannada panorama in the upcoming Sarajevo film festival, KRETO Deputy Chairperson Shabeena Sultana said.

"This is the third largest film festival in Europe after the festivals in Cannes and Rome. This unique initiative will ensure that Kannada films get maximum thrust by being showcased in foreign countries," she said.
The Delhi High Court today termed as "serious" police's claim that calls to emergency telephone number 100 often go unanswered as these do not reach them due to lack of bandwidth and priority from telcos, including MTNL, and sought the Centre's response.

Delhi Police told a bench of justices Badar Durrez Ahmed and Ashutosh Kumar that if calls to 100 are heard to be ringing it need not mean police were not attending to them as often it has not even reached them due to lack of dedicated bandwidth for the emergency number and lack of priority to it as it is a free service.

Noting it was a "serious matter", the court issued notice to the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology (MoCIT) asking it to be represented so that appropriate orders can be passed on this issue.

"We are told that 100 number for reaching police is not a dedicated line for police nor does it have priority. This is a serious matter. We are told it is due to insufficient and dedicated bandwidth given to the number by MTNL and other telecom service providers," the court noted.

The court observed that this issue can be controlled by giving dedicated bandwidth to the police which can be worked out with MTNL and other telecom service providers (TSPs).

It also noted that the Centre was yet to take action on Delhi Police' request to it for dedicated bandwidth and location-based services and details from TSPs.

The issue came to light when the court was informed about the response times of police, ranging from two to 37 minutes, to distress calls made to the police control room (PCR).

Senior advocate Chetan Sharma and advocate Shailendra Babbar, appearing for the police, said the problem of unanswered calls occurred during peak hours and because priority is not give to 100 by TSPs as it is a free service.

The bench termed it as "startling" and said crime does not wait for peak and non-peak hours.

The court was hearing a PIL initiated by it after the December 16, 2012 gangrape case, in which it has been giving directions from time to time with regard to improving crime investigation and protection of women in the national capital.

Police told the court that it carried out a study from



June 1 to June 30 regarding response times to distress calls received during 24 hours of the day and found that in 78.05 per cent of cases the response time was between two to five minutes.

In 19.8 per cent of the calls, response time was 5-10 minutes and in the rest approximately two per cent, 10-37 minutes, police told the court.

Praising the effort made by Delhi Police, the court directed the agency to write to the police commissioners of the major cities of the world regarding their response times and to inform the bench on the next date of hearing on August 24.

During the hearing, the court was also told by police that it proposes to reduce the beat area of PCR vans to one square kilometre and induct more vehicles to increase its response time.

It said it has 1,000 vehicles in its fleet, apart from 140 PCR bikes for areas where four-wheelers cannot enter.

It also told the court that it required real time location details from TSPs regarding their customers so that response time can be improved. Police said that TSPs had to provide location details under the licence conditions.

On the issue of forensic lab vans, while Delhi Police said it does not have any and was not aware of the presence of any such service in the national capital, the AAP government said it has two such vehicles which visit crime scenes everyday.

The Delhi government said it was in the process of acquiring two more such vans and that there was a dedicated number to call for the vans and this was informed to all police stations.

On the aspect of mobile crime investigation teams, the court was informed by Delhi Police that it has 11 such teams in Delhi and in which the sub-inspectors have been trained at the Central Detective Training Schools, while others have been trained in fingerprint lifting, its analysis and photography.

Police also said that these teams are also provided with all the necessary equipment and materials.

To this, the court remarked that if this was the true state of affairs, "then level of investigation should see a quantum jump" and added that in the past it has seen that criminal investigation was not up to the mark.

It expressed hope that future judges will be provided the scientific evidence so that they do not have to rely on oral statements to decide cases.

On the issue of presence of forensic pathologists in all hospitals run by the Centre and the Delhi government, the court was informed that forensic pathologists were present in all hospitals under the central government.

The Delhi government said it will inform the court on the next date on whether forensic pathologists are available in hospitals run by them.
Voicing concern over reports that journalists in Kerala were being restricted from entering various courts including the High Court, the International Press Institute (IPI) today demanded that scribes be allowed to report on court proceedings without interference.

The restrictions come after a section of lawyers of the High Court clashed with journalists on July 19 and 20 at the Court over a report published in a local daily criticising Kerala High Court Bar Association of failing to issue a statement unanimously deploring the arrest of a legal practitioner accused of molesting a woman on a city street, the IPI said in a statement.

The man, Government Pleader Danesh Mathew, was arrested on July 14, but lawyers involved in last week's clashes say the case is "fabricated", the statement added.

Mathew was granted bail and on July 19 filed a petition to quash the case.

After a group of advocates confronted journalists at the High Court on July 19, a scuffle ensued, the IPI said adding that some participants reportedly used abusive language and reporters subsequently boycotted a Bar Association press conference.

Last Wednesday, advocates at the High Court reportedly threatened reporters again, and, after the journalists were prevented from using the media room in the court complex, the media staged a sit-in in front of the High Court, the statement said adding that another clash followed, and several journalists were allegedly injured.

"Following the clashes, journalists have reportedly been denied entry to the media room in the High Court. Journalists were also prevented from accessing the media room in Thiruvananthapuram District Court, where reporters were reportedly also attacked," the statement said.

Journalists can now only receive information issued to them by the High Court's public relations officer, IPI added.

IPI Director of Advocacy and Communications Steven M Ellis called the developments troubling.

"While their positions differ in many aspects, both lawyers and journalists play a key role in promoting and protecting rights. IPI calls on court officials to take immediate action to ensure that journalists in Kerala can report on court proceedings and matters of public interest without fear of attack or other undue restriction," he said.

(REOPENS DES 69)



"Violence against journalists is always unacceptable, but this latest incident, coming as it does within the premises of a court, is particularly worrying," Ellis said.

The IPI statement also said that reporters covering the High Court have filed a written complaint before the acting chief justice of Kerala and the advocate general.

Last week's clashes are the second instance of violence between lawyers and journalists in India this year. In February, similar clashes took place in New Delhi amid a sedition case against the president of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU)'s student union, the statement added.
Actress Lindsay Lohan took to Instagram to apologize her fans for social media rant over fiance Egor Tarabasov.

The 30-year-old "Mean Girls" actress shared several now-deleted posts on Instagram, Snapchat and Twitter over the weekend accusing her fiance of cheating on her when he didn't return home after a night of partying.

In her latest post Lohan told her fans she is ok and apologized for the outburst.

"Dear friends. I'm good and well #ATM (At the moment), I am taking time for myself with good friends. I am sorry that I've exposed certain private matters recently. I was acting out of fear and sadness... We all make mistakes. Sadly mine have always been so public.

"I have done a lot of soul searching in the past years, and I should have been more clear minded rather than distract from the good heart that I have. Social media comes with the territory of the business and the world we now live in. My intentions were not meant to send mixed messages," she wrote.

The "Freaky Friday" star also shared hopes of working on her relationship. "Maybe things can be fixed... Maybe not.. I hope they can. But I am 30 years old and I do deserve a #GENTLEgiant. Life is about love and light. Not anger. Thank you to those who stand by my side.
Actress Lindsay Lohan has reportedly called off her engagement with businessman Egor Tarabasov, days after claiming her fiance was cheating on her.

Earlier this week, the actress shared several now-deleted posts on Instagram, Snapchat and Twitter over the weekend accusing her fiance of cheating on her when he didn't return home after a night of partying.

The 30-year-old "Freaky Friday" actress is now taking a break from her relationship after Tarabasov was seen moving out of her London apartment, reported the New York Post.

"They are taking a break, she didn't want him trespassing in her apartment, but he went in and took all his possessions," a source close to Lohan said.

The actress moved to London in 2014 following difficult times in the US and managed to start a new life, and friends are worried about her going off the rails again now she's not with Tarabasov, 23.

"After moving to London and meeting Egor, Lindsay felt like she'd finally moved on from the chaos of her youth. She was really ready to settle down and start a family. Sadly, for her, she is losing much more than just a boyfriend," added a friend.
External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj today said government was making last minute efforts to save an Indian man facing execution tomorrow in Indonesia in a drug related case.

Gurdip Singh (48) was found guilty by Indonesian authorities of trying to smuggle drugs into the country.

"Gurdip Singh is facing death sentence in a drug case in Indonesia.

"We are making last minute efforts to save him from execution on July 28," Swaraj said in a series of tweets.

Singh was reportedly given death sentence by a district court in Indonesia's Tanggerang Banten province.

Singh, who hails from Jalandhar in Punjab, is among 14 people who are facing execution after the authorities decided to resume implementing death penalties. The decision was criticised by human rights organisations.
A Mali intelligence official says authorities have arrested a jihadist leader whose group claimed responsibility for an attack on an army base in central Mali that killed at least 17 soldiers.

Modibo Naman Traore, spokesman for Malian intelligence, said today that Mahmoud Barry, known as Cheikh Yahya, was arrested near the Wagadou forest yesterday. He said Yahya has since been taken to Bamako, the capital.

Yahya is from the Peul ethnic group and head of Katibat, which is a part of the al-Qaida-linked Macina Liberation Front, which has been staging attacks in central Mali since 2015.

Two separate organisations linked to the Peul ethnic group claimed responsibility for the July 19 attack that also wounded more than 30 in the city of Nampala.
A man convicted of killing his girlfriend in her dorm room at a Pennsylvania university will spend 20 to 40 years in prison.

A Lancaster County judge sentenced 21-year-old Gregory Orrostieta today to the maximum possible penalty.

He was convicted in May of third-degree murder in the death of Millersville University freshman Karlie Hall in February 2015.

Orrostieta told authorities he got into a fight with her over spilled noodles, but he said she had been drinking and fell and hit her head.

Prosecutors say he beat and strangled her.

Orrostieta was found trying to administer CPR to Hall after calling 911, but authorities say he was faking that and she had been dead for hours.

The killing was the first at the school in its 161-year history.
A 25-year-old man was shot dead by two unidentified assailants in northwest Delhi's Mukherjee Nagar area, police said today.

Amit (25) was returning home when he was shot at by the two bike-borne assailants at Indira Vikas colony in Mukherjee Nagar area late last night, police said.

"The accused fired six rounds of which one hit the victim. Police rushed him to a nearby hospital where doctors declared him brought dead," said DCP (north west) Vijay Singh.

Amit had shifted here reportedly after some rivalry at his native village in Jhajjar of Haryana, in which one person was murdered, police said, adding he was living with his sister and brother-in-law and ran a shop.

"A case of murder has been registered and investigation is underway," Singh said.
A 30-year-old man, wanted in two murder cases, has been arrested from Indore, police said today.

Police raided several places in Delhi, western Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Haryana but Mundra managed to escape, they said.

On July 17 police received a tip-off about his whereabouts, following which the accused along with his associates were arrested by a team of Delhi Police from Indore, police said.

During interrogation, Mundra confessed to have shot dead one person in broad daylight "to prove their supremacy" in the area. In October last year he shot dead a body-builder near CRPF camp following a case of road rage, police claimed.

In March, he along with his associates went to Kair village toll gate and fired upon the staff there as the commercial vehicles of his acquaintances and relatives were not allowed to pass through the gate without paying toll tax, they said.
A Maoist was today shot dead in a fierce gun battle with security forces in Sukma district of the state on the eve of Naxal's "Martyr's week", police said.

"The skirmish took place in forests under Polampalli police station limits (in south Bastar) between a joint team of security forces and ultras," superintendent of police, Sukma, Indira Kalyan Elesela told PTI.

On the eve of 'Martyrs Week' to be observed by Maoists from tomorrow, the alert was issued to all police stations and camps to maintain extravigil to prevent and counter any attack or sabotage activity, he said.

"After receiving specific inputs about the presence of a huge group of cadres near Polampalli under the leadership of Maoist commandersAapu Pada and Bhima, a composite squad of Special Task Force (STF) and District Reserve Group (DRG) were pressed into action immediately," the SP said.

When security forces were cordoning offinterior jungles, a group of around 60 insurgents opened indiscriminate fire on them, triggering a heavy gunfight between the two sides, the SP said.

"During the search conducted following the encounter, the body of a naxal, a country made gun (with double barrel), and pamphlets were recovered from the spot," he said.

The operation is still going on in the area and further details are awaited, he added.

Meanwhile, security has been heightened across the naxal-affected Bastar division which comprises districts of Dantewada, Bijapur, Bastar, Narayanpur, Kondagaon, Sukma and Kanker in view of the 'Martyrdom Week'.

According to a senior police official, naxal pamphlets and posters asking their cadres and people to observe "martyrdomweek" were recovered from some places in Bijapur, Sukma and Kanker districts.

Police have increased patrolling in the border areas neighbouring Odisha, Telangana and Maharashtra, the official added.
Actress Margot Robbie, who is currently dating Tom Ackerley, believes being in love is "awfully painful" and "terrifying".

The 26-year-old Australian actress - who is currently dating British boyfriend Tom Ackerley with who she has been in a relationship with for three years - said she has found the experience of falling in love upsetting.

Speaking about her love life in a clip posted on Calvin Klein's Instagram account, Robbie, who stars in the luxury brand's Autumn Winter 2016 campaign alongside Bella Hadid, which was photographed by Tyron Lebon, said, "Yes. It was awfully painful. Terrifying.
Country's largest car maker Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) will start selling its first Light Commercial Vehicle (LCV) under the Super Carry brand priced up to Rs 4.11 lakh from the end of next month, marking its foray into the segment in the domestic market.

Initially, the vehicle will be sold in three cities - Ahmedabad, Kolkata and Ludhiana - priced at Rs 4.03 lakh, Rs 4.11 lakh and Rs 4.01 lakh respectively, MSI said in a statement.

"Super Carry is designed and developed on basis of detailed research and understanding of customer requirements. We are confident Super Carry will enhance the profitability of our customers," MSI Executive Director (Marketing & Sales), R S Kalsi said.

The vehicle will be retailed through a dedicated 'Commercial' sales channel, he added.

The company has invested about Rs 300 crore towards the development of Super Carry.

It will be available in diesel fuel option powered by a new technology 793 cc diesel engine with 5 speed manual transmission. The company claims it delivers a fuel economy of 22.07 km/litre. The new LCV has a payload of 740 kgs.

The Super Carry will enter a segment dominated by Tata Motors' runaway success Ace.

MSI had already started export of the Super Carry to South Africa and Tanzania in May this year ahead of its launch in the domestic market.

The LCV from the stable of the country's largest car maker in the domestic market has been delayed. When it announced plans to enter the LCV segment in July 2013, MSI had said it expected to launch the vehicle within two years.

The launch of Super Carry LCV in India was part of MSI's original agreement with parent Suzuki in 1982 but it was shelved due to poor response from the market at that time.
Mexico's government has said it will soon transfer aging drug lord Ernesto Fonseca Carrillo to house arrest after 31 years in prison for the killing of a US undercover agent.

Interior Minister Miguel Angel Osorio Chong yesterday said the National Security Commission exhausted all legal options for "this criminal to remain in prison" following a court ruling that granted him house arrest.

The 86-year-old drug capo, alias "Don Neto," was convicted for the 1985 murder of US Drug Enforcement Administration agent Enrique "Kiki" Camarena, a crime that strained US-Mexican relations at the time.

Last year, a federal court approved Fonseca Carrillo's request to serve the final years of his 40-year sentence under house arrest for health reasons.

"It's an obligation imposed on us by a judge and that we have to comply with," Osorio Chong told reporters, adding that the transfer was "imminent."



The move would come three years after one of Fonseca's accomplices, veteran drug baron Rafael Caro Quintero, was released by a judge on a legal technicality with 12 years left in his 40-year sentence.

Caro Quintero's release in 2013 angered the US government, which is seeking his extradition to put him on trial in US court over Camarena's murder.

Caro Quintero, who is in hiding, denied killing the DEA agent in an interview that was published by Mexican magazine Proceso on Sunday. He also rejected allegations that he is back in the drug business.

Fonseca Carrillo, Caro Quintero and Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo, who is also in prison over Camarena's murder, founded the now defunct Guadalajara drug cartel, which was dominant in the 1980s.

They are considered the forefathers of Mexico's modern drug cartels.

Camarena's murder was considered a vendetta by the Guadalajara cartel for the DEA agent's investigations that led to the seizure of a massive marijuana field in the northern state of Chihuahua.
Prime Minister has spoken to Britain's new Prime Minister Theresa May congratulating her on her assumption of office and discussed with her "stronger and closer" bilateral ties, including in trade and defence.

During the telephonic conversation yesterday, Modi also appreciated the UK's consistent support to India in various global fora, the MEA spokesperson said on Wednesday.

Thanking Prime Minister Modi, May said she looked forward to working closely with him for developing stronger bilateral ties and enhancing cooperation in tackling pressing global challenges.

Modi also recalled his memorable visit to the UK last November.

Downing Street said that trade and investment formed the central feature of the discussions between the two leaders during their conversation.

"Trade and investment featured strongly in the conversation with Prime Minister Modi who expressed his hope that the relationship would become even stronger and closer in the future, particularly given the shared values and common interest," a Downing Street statement said.

May took over after the resignation of David Cameron following the UK's vote to leave the European Union (EU) in a referendum on June 23.

She sought to highlight London and the UK's continued importance within the India-UK relationship during her first official conversation with Modi.

"The Prime Minister [May] pointed out that the launch next month of the first rupee-denominated bond in London is a concrete example of our close and growing economic cooperation and underlines that the city remains a global hub for innovative finance," Downing Street said.

"The Prime Minister also emphasised the UK's continued commitment to our defence and security partnership and support for India's increasing role in international fora. Finally, both welcomed the valuable contribution of the Indian diaspora to the UK," the statement added.
The capital will witness a mega event to mark the Independence Day with the Modi government deciding to hold a cultural spectacle spanning six days from August 12, nearly two-and-half-months after it organised an extravaganza to celebrate its second anniversary at India Gate.

The event 'Bharat Parv' will be held in the heart of the national capital at Rajpath to celebrate India's Independence and promote the spirit of patriotism among citizens and is likely to be attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Tourism Ministry officials said.

There will be as many as 100 stalls set up to display cuisine and handicraft of various states.

However, unlike the 'two-year celebrations' in May where ministers and mega Bollywood stars like Amitabh Bachchan took part, the 'Bharat Parv' will see participation of local artistes from different states.

The event would also have performance by armed forces bands. The historic India Gate would also be kept illuminated during the event, which will be inaugurated on 12th August 2016 at 5 PM. The celebrations will conclude on August 18.

The 'Bharat Parv' will seee display of culture, cuisine and handicraft of various states through their regional associations, 'sangathans', cultural and social organisations, the ministry officials said.

There will be 50 stalls dedicated to cuisine of various regions of the country and 50 more stalls will display the colourful handicraft and handloom items.

In addition, there will be 12 to 15 separate pavilions



earmarked for states to display their tourism products, culture & heritage, achievements, development progress etc, the officials said.

"The states of Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Assam, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Nagaland, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Odisha, Haryana and Kerala will bring local association and sangthans to showcase diverse yet united flavours of the country," they said.

This is first-of-its-kind celebrations to mark the Independence Day, they added.

Besides Tourism Ministry, which is nodal ministry for this event, other ministries like Textiles, Culture and Defence have also pitched in to make the programme a success.

To review the arrangements, Tourism Secretary Vinod Zutshi recently chaired a meeting which was also attended by representatives from various central government ministries, representative from state governments/UTs, authorities from Police, health and CPWD.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has spoken to British Prime Minister Theresa May congratulating her on her assumption of new responsibility and affirmed India's commitment to further strengthen the strategic bilateral partnership.

During the telephonic conversation on Tuesday, Modi also appreciated the UK's consistent support to India in various global fora, the MEA spokesperson said today.

Thanking Prime Minister Modi, May said she looked forward to working closely with him for developing stronger bilateral ties and enhancing cooperation in tackling pressing global challenges.

Modi also recalled his memorable visit to the UK last November.

Theresa May was sworn in as Britain's new prime minister on July 13, succeeding David Cameron who resigned after the country voted in favour of exiting the European Union.
In a setback to Monsanto, CCI has rejected pleas by the US biotechnology major and its group entities challenging a probe into the role of their top officials in a case relating to alleged unfair business practices in the Indian seeds market.

While rejecting as many as six such applications filed by various Monsanto entities, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) also asked them to co-operate in the investigation so that the probe is completed "without undue delay".

Earlier this year, CCI ordered a detailed probe against US-based genetically-modified seed major Monsanto after finding prima-facie evidence of violating competition norms.

After ordering probe in February, the regulator clubbed three more complaints against the company in June.

In a rare order, CCI said a proceeding under the Competition Act has genesis in the investigation ordered under Section 26 (1), which envisages that it shall direct the DG to cause an investigation to be made into the matter.

"There is no suffix, no prefix, no proviso, no explanation, and no caveats of any form attached to the word 'matter'. Hence, it obviously means that the DG needs to investigate into the matter at one go in all its dimensions comprehensively," the regulator said.

"The said Section does not envisage either for the Commission or for the DG to investigate into the matter in phases, unless it is necessitated by circumstances."



Rejecting the applications, the watchdog also asserted that these provisions are time tested and the superior courts have always gone ahead with proceeding simultaneously in respect of the conduct of the company and its person in- charge.

The applicants challenged the directions of CCI to probe the role of the officers/persons in-charge of the company. The pleas were on the ground that it was not permissible for the regulator to issue any directions to look into the role of the persons responsible for the conduct of business unless violation of competition norms is made out.

In the 26-page order, dated July 26, CCI said it would prefer to decide "the applications on merits as the contention raised herein is being raised in several cases by some or the other parties".

The applicants include Mahyco Monsanto Biotech (India) Ltd (MMBL), Maharashtra Hybrid Seeds Company Ltd and Monsanto Holdings Private Limited (MHPL).

Among others, complaints against Monsanto were filed by the Agriculture Ministry and the National Seeds Association of India (NSAI).
Morocco today announced the arrests of 52 suspects planning to set up a branch of the Islamic State jihadist group and carry out attacks in the North African country.

The suspects have been detained and will go on trial once an investigation has been completed, the interior ministry said.

"The arrested individuals planned to set up a vilayet (province) in Morocco affiliated to Daesh," it said, using an Arabic acronym for IS.

It said the arrests had foiled "terrorist plots at a very advanced stage of preparation on prisons, security establishments, festivals and leisure centres in several cities of Morocco, apart from assassinations of security officials, soldiers and tourists".

The suspects had been using social media to drum up propaganda for IS and to enrol young recruits to join up and travel to conflict zones, the ministry said.

It said raids on homes had unearthed documents on the fabrication and use of explosives and firearms, as well as books inciting suicide attacks.

Rabat says 159 "terrorist cells" have been busted since 2002, including 38 over the past three years with ties to jihadists in Iraq and Syria.

A study by the US-based Soufan Group said last December that at least 1,200 Moroccans had travelled to fight alongside IS in Iraq and Syria in the previous 18 months.
Some current and former Members of Parliament from different political parties and Constitution experts today pitched for introducing reforms in the functioning of the Upper House to avoid obstructionism.

"Chamber of Rajya Sabha is required to ensure the bills passed by Lok Sabha are studied properly and without any hurry before approving them.

"But the problem occurs when for instance...Out of the 17 days of Monsoon Session until now, 82 hours were filled with chaos. So, there should be some reform in this direction," BJP's former Rajya Sabha member Tarun Vijay said.

He was speaking during a round table discussion on 'Bicameralism and Role of Upper House in Indian Parliament' organised by Vivekananda International Foundation (VIF) here.

BJP's Sanjay Jaiswal, who represents Paschim Champaran constituency in Bihar, underscored the importance of Rajya Sabha but observed many of the Upper House members don't take up issues pertaining to the states they represent.

Rajya Sabha MP of NCP DP Tripathi and Secretary General of Lok Sabha Subhash Kashyap echoed the view.

"Efforts should be made to achieve what was envisaged in Constitution. Rajya Sabha is a Council of State. It is supposed to represent states. But we see someone who has never stayed in a particular state, doesn't know people there, is unaware of culture there, becoming that state's representative in Rajya Sabha...So, this is a contradiction," Kashyap said.

Tripathi said the need for introducing people with expertise in different domains as members of Rajya Sabha was envisaged while it was being formed and the need for giving the MPs adequate time to raise and discuss issues.

"Hence, there is a need for improvement, rules need to be amended. The House should function properly, there should be no obstruction. There should be debates," Tripathi said.

Noting the Rajya Sabha gives an opportunity to "non- political talent" to perform, Independent Rajya Sabha member Rajeev Chandrasekhar said the only reform required is to see political parties use veto right for the right purpose than for obstruction.

Former Union Minister Kishore Chandra Deo, MPs Bhartruhari Mahtab (BJD), MV Rajeev Gowda (Congress) and Shivkumar Udasi (BJP) also took part in the discussion which was moderated by Prasar Bharti chairman and VIF distinguished fellow A Suryaprakash.
Senior Congress leader Narayan Rane today said his induction into the Maharashtra Legislative Council was a "sudden" decision taken by party Vice President Rahul Gandhi.

"I was on a visit to Delhi to meet madam (Sonia Gandhi) and was initially supposed to return immediately after the meeting. However, she advised me to meet Rahul ji as well before my return. My wife, who was travelling with me, also told me to stay back and seek an appointment with him, which I did," Rane said while speaking to select media-persons here.

"I cancelled my afternoon flight as I got a 4 PM appointment with him. During the meeting, we discussed about politics in Maharashtra, which then shifted to the Council elections. I told him to send an aggressive person in the Council as the party desperately needed it," he added.

Rane said he told Gandhi that he was ready to get inducted into the Council if given a chance.

"As soon as he heard this, he told me that he would be happy if I become a Council member. Hence, the credit of my induction goes to the sudden decision taken by Rahul," he said.

Rane was among ten candidates, who were elected unopposed in the Maharashtra Council polls held in June.

The former Maharashtra chief minister also said senior state party leaders, who wanted to get their own candidates selected, too were not aware of Gandhi's decision.

"These people refused to tell the media about my induction and only spoke about P Chidambaram's induction into the Rajya Sabha despite the AICC issuing a notification," he said.

Taking a dig at Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, Rane said he has changed after assuming the post.

"Recently, we met at an event, where I asked him how he was doing and told me with folded hands that he is doing well because I am not there in the House," he said.

"Then I reminded him how he came to me for advice when he was in the opposition and said you have changed a lot and have become arrogant after becoming the CM. He once again told me with folded hands to scold him as much as I want but after the function gets over," he added.

Rane said certain people in his party are against him and have gone on the backfoot due to his aggressive style of functioning.

"I do not care who thinks what and whether somebody consults me or not. I will go on with my 'one-man show' if I do not get response from my party leaders and not let the government breathe easy. I have nothing to hide and therefore am not scared," he said.
A BJP member today demanded that private sector banks should be nationalised if they fail to carry out the agenda of financial inclusion and do not help the common man.

Raising the issue during Zero Hour in Lok Sabha, Chintaman Malviya alleged that banks like ICICI, Kotak Mahindra, Yes and Axis have become "organised racket of profiteers" which have nothing to do with implementing schemes like the Jan Dhan Yojana.

He said these banks work "100 per cent" in English and do not conduct their business in the state language (Raj Bhasha).

He wanted the banks to be nationalised if they do not implement the agenda of financial inclusion.

Raising another issue, M B Rajesh (CPI-M) demanded that the government withdraw the move to merge the State Bank of Travancore with State Bank of India as it would go against the interests of the people of Kerala.

Rajesh, who was supported by members of other parties from the state, said the State Bank of Travancore has been having 850 branches in the state and was in robust financial condition.

Its merger with SBI would have "serious implications" on the economy of Kerala, he said adding that the state Assembly has passed a near unanimous resolution seeking withdrawal of the move.
Scurrying for funds, embattled Sahara group has got a USD 1.3 billion offer from a new suitor for its three prized overseas hotels including the Grosvenor House and Park Plaza.

A consortium of family office investors, comprising of Jesdev Saggar-led 3 Associates of the UK and others from the Middle East, has made the offer to acquire Sahara group's majority stake in the three marquee hotel properties -- the famed Grosvenor House in London, Park Plaza and Dream Downtown hotels in New York.

When contacted, Saggar, Managing Director at 3 Associates, told PTI they have made a "very compelling offer" and it was a long-term investment opportunity for them.

"This is a long-term investment opportunity for us. We have submitted a very compelling offer. It is now up to the Supreme Court and the Roy family," he said.

While there were no immediate comments from Sahara group on whether it considered the latest bid to be good to be accepted, it may trigger a bidding war as the beleaguered Indian group was already in talks with Qatar-based investors for a potential deal for these hotels.

3 Associates founders and its Multi Family office network has completed over 314 million pounds worth transactions since 2014, including hotels and commercial offices in the UK, UAE and India.

It claims to have "access to one of the largest pools of family office equity in the Middle East".

When asked whether they were looking at more assets in the UK and other places of other distressed Indian groups, Saggar said, "We are focused on the UK".

Sahara group, whose chief Subrata Roy was in jail for over two years in connection with a long-running dispute with markets regulator Sebi and is currently out on parole, has been trying hard to raise funds including through refinancing of loans on its overseas hotels.

In March last year, Bank of China had put Grosvenor House



under "administration" for recovery of its loans from Sahara after declaring "an event of default" on the US loans due to some technical breaches in the financial covenants.

The loan on Sahara's three hotels -- Grosvenor House in the UK and the two prime hotels in New York -- from Bank of China was "cross collateralised and cross guaranteed".

Subsequently, Sahara reached a USD 850 million (Rs 5,500 crore) refinancing deal with India-born billionaire brothers David and Simon Reuben and averted the 'default-triggered' sale of Grosvenor House hotel property.

Grosvenor House, a landmark on London's Park Lane and designed by acclaimed architect Sir Edwin Lutyens, was bought by Saharas in 2010. The two US hotels were purchased later.

The three hotels were acquired between 2010-2012 at an estimated valuation of USD 1.55 billion.

The 110-year-old Plaza in New York is situated off Central Park and its ownership has changed hands several times. Currently, Sahara has about 75 per cent and remaining 25 per cent is with Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal of Saudi Arabia.

In the past, its owners included real estate tycoon and the current US Presidential candidate Donald Trump, who married his second wife Marla Maples in this hotel.

The hotel, which has 282 rooms in addition to several condos, restaurants and shops, had hosted the famous Plaza Accord to devalue the US dollar in 1985.

Sahara group has been engaged in a legal battle with Sebi for a long time over a case involving raising of funds from investors to the tune of over Rs 24,000 crore. Sahara, however, claims it has already repaid 95 per cent of the investors' money directly.
The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has imposed an environmental compensation of Rs 15 crore on a charitable hospital in Dwarka here for beginning construction without environmental clearance (EC).

A bench headed by NGT Chairperson Justice Swatanter Kumar said that Human Care Charitable Medical Trust, owner of the hospital, would be liable to pay 5 per cent of the project cost which is Rs 300 crore.

The 380-bed Human Health Care Charitable Hospital has a total built-up area of more than 46,000 sq metres on a plot of 9,545 sq metres.

The green panel had constituted a committee comprising Member Secretaries of Central Pollution Control Board and Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) and others and directed them to submit an inspection report within four weeks.

"The amount of compensation shall be deposited with DPCC and would be utilised for restoration and restitution of environment and ecology, subject to orders of the Tribunal," the bench said and directed the hospital to stop any further construction.

"The project proponent will not raise any further construction till specific orders of the Tribunal and would also not part with possession or use any part of property for any purpose whatsoever, without the order of the Tribunal and in accordance of the report of the Committee," it said.

The Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Notification of 2006 made it mandatory for all construction projects above 20,000 sq metres to obtain prior EC. However, the hospital claimed it was not aware of the requirement as Delhi Development Authority did not raise such an objection earlier.

Last year, the state expert appraisal committee (SEAC) had found that the project was in advanced stages without obtaining EC from the competent authority.

The state environment impact assessment authority (SEIAA), in its meeting on January 14 this year, had decided to prosecute the Trust under Section 19 of the Environment Protection Act. The Trust had already constructed more than 39,000 sq m till January, 2015 and also increased its floor area ratio.

The Trust had applied for EC to SEAC in April, 2015. At that time, there were two office memorandums by the Environment Ministry, dated December 12, 2012 and June 27, 2013, that said environmental clearance could be granted in cases where the construction activity had already started.

But in July last year, the NGT had declared all these office memorandums, dealing with issue of clearances for major and minor projects, as "ultra vires" and quashed them making prior environmental clearance mandatory.
With many areas of Bihar inundated, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar today held a review meeting with senior officials on the flood situation and relief work being carried out.

After his return from New Delhi this evening, Kumar held a review meeting on flood situation with Chief Secretary Anjani Kumar Singh and other officials, an official statement said.

He will make an aerial survey of the flooded areas tomorrow and hold a review at Purnea to take stock of pace of relief and rehabilitation work.

In today's meeting, the secretary in-charge of inundated districts including Purnea, Katihar, Araria and Kisanganj were ordered to immediately rush to the districts to supervise the relief work, the statement said.

Rains in catchment areas of rivers in Bihar and discharge of water from swollen rivers of Nepal have deluged many areas of Kosi region in particular.

Meanwhile, a release from NDRF (National Disaster Response Force) said its nine teams are engaged in rescue of people in most sensitive flood areas.

Vijay Sinha, Commandant of Bihta-based 9th battalion of NDRF said around 4,000 have been transferred to safer areas from inundated areas of Darbhanaga, Supual, Purnea, Araria, Kisanganj, Gopalganj and Muzaffarpur.

The NDRF team is distributing medicines and also providing treatment through river ambulance and mobile hospital in the flood-hit areas of Bihar, he said.
The BCCI top brass is yet to "formally inform" the Supreme Court appointed Lodha Committee about the scheduled meeting that is going to take place on the implementation of the reforms post the apex court verdict.

In another development, the Special General Meeting that was convened on August 5 in Mumbai has been shifted to Delhi as the Parliament is in session at the moment which means that BCCI president and BJP parliamentarian Anurag Thakur along with Congress MP Rajeev Shukla need to be in the capital.

On the BCCI-Lodha panel meeting, till Wednesday afternoon, the panel members have not received any official intimation about the meeting date of August 9, which has been making rounds.

"There are reports in the media about August 9 being the date when BCCI official is going to meet the panel but there has been no official intimation till date. Also it must be mentioned that there were two e-mails sent to the office-bearers regarding the implementation of SC verdict but none of the BCCI top officials replied to the two emails sent," a source close to the Panel told PTI today.

The BCCI members are set to meet in the national capital next Friday to decide the future course of action and also take the viewpoints of the various state associations who still have not got the conceptual clarity about the nine-year tenure as an office-bearer and the subsequent cooling off period.

(REOPENS SPD13)



According to sources, the SGM will be followed by the marketing committee meeting in Delhi on August 5.

No agenda has been fixed for the marketing committee meeting, it was learnt.
A notorious criminal, who stabbed to death a police constable and grievously injured another in June 2012, was today sent to jail for his entire life by a court here.

The Principal Sessions Court judge handed over this sentence to 52-year-old Varghese alias 'Aadu' Antony for stabbing to death officer Maniyan Pillai and another 15 years on various counts, which would run concurrently.

However, the judge made it clear that in the event of the government granting him remission, the 15 years prison term would operate consecutively from that date and he should have to undergo it separately.

The judge, who had on July 20 convicted Varghese, also imposed a fine of Rs 4.45 lakh on him.

He was charged with killing Pillai and grievously injuring Assistant Sub-Inspector K Joy when the two were on night patrol duty in the wee hours of June 26.

The fine amount would be distributed equally to Pillai's family and that of Joy, who was hospitalised for a year after the attack.

Varghese started off his crime graph by indulging in theft of livestocks, computers and is said to have married at least 20 women from various parts of the state by duping them.

After committing the murder, Antony, said to be involved in over 100 cases, went into hiding and was arrested by a special police team in October 2015 from Gopalapuram on the Kerala-TN border after a massive manhunt was launched across the country and Nepal to trace him.

A look out notice was issued by police and a 'Justice for Maniyan Pillai' campaign was launched on social media to trace the accused.

"This is a victory of team work of Kerala police," a senior official, who was part of the investigating team, said.

Former DGP T P Senkumar, during whose term the accused was arrested, said this was a challenging case.

Efforts of thousands of police personnel had borne fruit when the accused was nabbed three years after he committed the crime.

Reacting to the verdict, Pillai's wife Sandhya said the family was expecting a death sentence.

"The accused should not be freed at all," she said.

Prosecution produced 71 evidences and 52 witnesses to nail the accused.

Today also, media personnel were not allowed inside the court premises by the advocates as part of their agitation against media over coverage of a molestation case involving a government pleader at Kochi.
Opposition parties in West Bengal have complained of discrimination against their MLAs with regard to nomination of legislators to various government committees involving public interest.

"We want the same rights (as given to MLAs of the ruling party). If we are not given equal rights, we will launch a protest," West Bengal Opposition leader Abdul Mannan told reporters here today.

On behalf of opposition parties, including the Left and the Congress, the LoP has written to chief minister Mamata Banerjee complaining against alleged discrimination by the state government in the matter of nominating MLAs to different committees of state government formed for implementation and supervision of government programmes involving public interest.

He cited examples of committees relating to ICDS project, Geetanjali housing project and patient welfare committees of different hospitals besides development authorities like SJDA, ADDA, HDA, Paschimanchal Unnayan Parishad, Uttar Banga Unnayan Parishad, etc and complained that some political leaders who lost elections have been made heads of some such committees.

Mannan demanded equal treatment to all MLAs, irrespective of party affiliation.

"I will, therefore, request you to kindly review the policy and associate all MLAs equally in the implementation of state government programmes ensuring due respect to parliamentary democratic practises," Mannan said in the letter.

Left Front Legislature Party leader Sujan Chakraborty has also written a separate letter to the chief minister complaining that there have been attacks against the Left parties at the panchayat and municipal bodies level.

"We will have to start protests by coming out on the streets if these attacks do not stop," he said.

Congress leader Mannan also demanded a free and fair enquiry into the death of Kolkata youth Aabesh Dasgupta, who died after being allegedly hit by a broken alcohol bottle.

"People who are close to the chief minister are trying to influence the investigation. We want the truth to come out," he said.
Rajasthan government has rechristened the names of 63 schools after martyrs.

"The state government had take the decision to name the government schools after martyrs and various proposals from districts were received by the government," state Education Minister Vasundev Devnani said.

After reviewing the proposals, the orders to rechristen the schools have been issued, he said.

Those 63 schools are located in Jhunjhunu, Jodhpur, Jaipur, Alwar, Barmer, Churu, Hanumangarh, Jaisalmer, Karauli, Dausa, Nagaur, Sikar and Ajmer.
Pakistani police have launched a probe after registering a murder case against parents and relatives of a British-Pakistani woman who died under mysterious circumstances during her visit to the country, raising suspicions that she was a victim of "honour killing".

According to her family, 28-year-old Samia Shahid died on July 20 due to cardiac arrest in Mangla area of Jhelum district of Pakistan's Punjab province.

But her husband Syed Mukhtar Kazim registered FIR on July 23 against Samia's father, mother, sister, cousin Mobeen and her former husband for allegedly murdering her as they were not happy with the marriage.

Police briefly detained the father of the woman but later released him after finding no evidence against him. It has now launched proper probe after the FIR.

Her father has rejected the charges insisting that Samia died of 'heart attack'. The body samples has been sent to the forensic laboratory in Lahore.

Samia, a resident of Dhok Pandori village, Jehlum, some 230 km from Lahore, had come to Pakistan from Dubai about two weeks ago to see her ailing father.

A beauty therapist from Bradford, Samia had previously been married to her first cousin Shakil but the couple parted ways after divorce in May 2014. She then married Kazim of Taxila in September 2014 and both started living in Dubai.

Kazim claimed in the FIR that Samia had been killed by her family who refused to accept their relationship because he was an outsider.

"Samia's mother phoned her on July 11 and asked her to come to Pakistan to see her ailing father. Samia arrived in Pakistan on July 14. She told me by phone that her father was all right and now she was feeling threats to her life.

"On July 20 his wife's phone was switched off and he contacted Mobeen, her cousin, who said that Samia had suffered a heart attack and died," Kazim said.

He said he reached Pakistan on July 21 and got a murder case registered against his in-laws.

"An investigation is under way and if I am found guilty I am ready for every kind of punishment," her father said.

"My daughter was living a very peaceful and happy life. She had come to Pakistan on her own and was not under any pressure from her family," he said.

A British MP Naz Shah was first to raise the issue when she wrote this week to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to order probe as Samia might have been killed for "honour".

In a letter written on Sunday to Sharif, Shah wrote: "Should this be [an honour killing] case then we must ensure justice is done for Samia and we must ensure this never happens again."



The British high commission in Islamabad was in contact with the local authorities in Jhelum as well as the family of the deceased woman regarding the developments in the case.

"I am sure my wife is killed by the family," Kazam said.

Honour killing is common in Pakistan. Last week, social media sensation Qandeel Baloch was killed by her younger brother as he objected to her photos and videos.
A Palestinian man accused of killing an Israeli rabbi has died in an exchange of fire with Israeli soldiers in the West Bank, the military said.

"A terrorist behind the attack in which Rabbi Michael Mark was assassinated on July 1 was killed last night during exchanges of fire with soldiers," the military statement said.

"During the operation to stop Mohamed Fakih, who carried out the attack, he was killed during an exchange of fire with soldiers."



Mark, 48, was killed and three members of his family were injured this month when suspected Palestinian gunmen opened fire on his car, south of Hebron.

Last night's shoot out took place in the village of Surif, north of the West Bank city of more than 200,000 Palestinians, the army said.

The area, where several hundred Jewish settlers live in a tightly guarded enclave in the heart of the city, has been a persistent source of tensions.

Violence in the Palestinian territories and Israel since last October has killed at least 217 Palestinians, 34 Israelis, two Americans, an Eritrean and a Sudanese, according to an AFP count.

Most of the Palestinians killed were carrying out knife, gun or car-ramming attacks, according to Israeli authorities.
The Philippines today said it had "vigorously" lobbied Southeast Asian nations to take a united stance critical of Beijing's claims to most of the South China Sea, but insisted a diluted statement remained a victory.

After initially denying doing so, Foreign Secretary Perfecto Yasay said he lobbied his counterparts at a meeting of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Laos this week to refer to the verdict in a statement issued on Monday.

The statement avoided mentioning this month's ruling by a UN-backed tribunal in The Hague that Beijing's claims to almost all of the strategic waterway had no legal basis, instead calling merely for "self-restraint".

Asked at a conference in Manila if he pushed for ASEAN to refer to the ruling, Yasay said: "Yes, vigorously".

However, he said the statement was a "victory" for ASEAN, as it referred to upholding principles of international law.

The Philippines, under the previous administration of Benigno Aquino, launched the legal challenge in 2013 against China's claims to most of the sea.

China insists it has sovereign rights to nearly all of the sea, including waters approaching ASEAN members the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei.

Efforts to forge a united ASEAN front on the issue have crumbled in recent years as China has successfully lobbied Cambodia and Laos, which are members of the bloc but Chinese allies.

The Philippines has also adopted a more moderate stance on China under the new government of President Rodrigo Duterte, who has courted closer Chinese economic and political ties since taking office on June 30.

Yasay initially said on Tuesday he had not asked ASEAN members to refer to the ruling in its end-of-meeting statement.

"No. Never, never did. Please don't put words into my mouth," Yasay told reporters in Vientiane when asked if he had called for a reference.

"The other countries are not part of our filing of the case before the arbitral tribunal so why would we insist that it be put in the ASEAN statement?"



Back in Manila today, Yasay denied making those comments.

"I never said those things, all right? And please don't put words into my mouth," he told reporters.

A recording of Tuesday's interview in Vientiane by an AFP reporter confirmed Yasay's initial comments.

When asked to explain why Yasay denied lobbying, a foreign affairs spokesman said Wednesday he was unable to clarify.

Diplomats attending the meeting also told AFP that Yasay had pushed for a reference to the tribunal's verdict.

Adding to the confusion, Cambodia's foreign ministry spokesman Chum Sounry said his nation had not vetoed Philippine efforts.

He said Yasay withdrew his request for the tribunal mention, after discussions in which Cambodia made clear it wanted to remain "neutral".

"The Filipino foreign minister himself decided to remove (it) and not to mention the ruling," Chum Sounry said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi might get me killed, Delhi Chief Minister said on Wednesday, as he asked the Aam Aadmi Partys members of Legislative Assembly (MLAs) to be ready for an ultimate sacrifice in the wake of an unprecedented crackdown by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government.

Referring to a series of arrests of AAP MLAs and workers in the past 18 months, Kejriwal dubbed Modi as the mastermind behind the cycle of oppression against them and alleged that he was hell bent on vanquishing the party.

Accusing Modi of acting in a perpetual state of rage and anger, the AAP chief wondered if the country was in safe hands. Calling the current period critical, Kejriwal told AAP volunteers, MLAs and Delhi government ministers that things will get worse in the coming days and exhorted them to leave for now if they are not strong enough.

I want to tell all the volunteers, MLAs and ministers that this is a very critical period. This is going to get worse in the coming days. He (Modi) can go to any extent and may get us killed. He may get me killed as well. All the MLAs will anyway have to go to jail. If you are ready, then stay with us or if you have weaknesses, then leave, he said.

Kejriwals attacks came in the wake of arrests of two AAP MLAs taking the total to 11 and filing of FIRs against Delhi Commission for Women Chief Swati Maliwal and Income-Tax raid on Chhattarpur legislator Kartar Singh Tanwars premises.

The BJP hit back at the shameful attack on the Prime Minister and asked Kejriwal to not blame Modi for his failures and instead act against his party leaders involved in various crimes. [Kejriwal] used to harp on morals and spoke against corruption but has been unmasked. He now stands for protecting his corrupt colleagues, many of whom are involved in various crimes, including trying to cause riots to grab power, BJP national secretary Shrikant Sharma said.

Kejriwal said the country would be in danger if the Prime Minister starts taking decisions guided by no rhyme or reason but anger.

"For me, the biggest reason to worry is the fact that if a country's PM starts taking decisions in anger then the country will be in danger. Who knows he might be doing the same when it comes to many such decisions." he said.

"The important question is whether the country is in safe hands or not? Important thing is not the arrests of our MLAs. Is the country in safe hands ?" Kejriwal asked.

The Delhi Chief Minister referred to arrests of 10 MLAs, income tax raids on one legislator and attempts to disqualify 21 MLAs appointed as parliamentary secretaries to ministers through "false allegations".

"You must have seen the attempts to crush the AAP. 10 MLAs have been arrested, IT raid has been conducted on one, and attempts are being made to disqualify 21 MLAs through false allegations of office-of-profit.

"This is like a cycle of oppression. I was wondering why is this happening. People question as to why I blame Modiji. I want to know who is the mastermind behind the raids by CBI, IT etc. Someone has to be the mastermind behind them. Who is the mastermind?



"Amit Shah, Modiji, PMO. All of them are together. Shah is doing it on Modiji's prodding but it is happening from one source.

"Insiders say that Modiji is extremely angry with us and he is not thinking logically about it. Because daily arrests make no logic. Especially when all of them get bail within days and they could not prove a thing.

"He is not using his brain while dealing with us. Few people say he has been unable to digest the good work in Delhi, others say the defeat in Delhi, while the rest say it is due to the support we are getting in Punjab, Goa and Gujarat," the Delhi CM said.

Kejriwal said Modi, in his "relentless pursuit" of power, had taken the route of "crushing" his opponents as he and the BJP have "failed" to fulfil a single poll promise, thus angering various sections of the society.

The Delhi Chief Minister claimed Modi was "frustrated" as he has "failed to crush the courage of AAP despite putting the entire government machinery" after it.

"He unleashed the ACB, police, CBI, IT after AAP. But he could not crush our courage. We have refused to bend. So he is frustrated and does not know what to do next.

"There are two ways to capture power. One is to do good work like us. But BJP and Modiji have failed on all the fronts. All sections of the society are angry including the dalits, minorities, farmers, jewellers and the youth," he said.

Kejriwal said Congress' "silence" had also got to do with Modi's attempts to muzzle the voice of Opposition.

"The second way is to crush your opponents. And he is doing it now. He has crushed all the parties. Do you ever see the Congress raising its voice? Or any other party?," he said.

Kejriwal said India's "souring" relations with its neighbours such as Nepal and Pakistan was also due to Modi's inconsistency.

"The more I think about this, the less I am being able to sleep. Is it the reason India's age-old relations with Nepal have soured, or with Pakistan?" he asked.
Pope Francis said today the world was at war but argued that religion was not the cause, as he arrived in Poland a day after jihadists murdered a Catholic priest in France.

In his first speech after touching down in the city of Krakow, the pontiff said the way to "overcome fear" was to welcome people fleeing conflict and hardship.

Opening doors to migrants demands "great wisdom and compassion" he said, chastising a rightwing government that has refused to share the burden during Europe's worst refugee crisis since World War II.

"We must not be afraid to say the truth, the world is at war because it has lost peace," the pontiff told journalists on the flight out from Rome.

"When I speak of war I speak of wars over interests, money, resources, not religion. All religions want peace, it's the others who want war."



The brutal killing of the elderly priest during mass in France yesterday, in an attack claimed by the Islamic State group, has cast a shadow over Francis's trip to headline World Youth Day, a gathering of young Catholics from across the globe.

"This holy priest who died in the moment of offering prayers for the church is one (victim). But how many Christians, innocents, children?" Francis said.

"The word we hear a lot is insecurity, but the real word is war. The world has been in a fragmented war for some time. There was the one in 14, one in 39-45 and now this," he said referring to World War I and II.

A string of terror attacks targeting civilians in Europe appears to have dampened turnout for the World Youth Day festival, a week-long faith extravaganza dubbed "the Catholic Woodstock".

Flag-waving crowds of youngsters nonetheless turned out in force to cheer on the pope as he sped to the Wawel Royal Castle in his open-top popemobile, defying security fears.

"It's an incredible experience," said one Krakow resident who gave her name as Danuta.

"I greeted pope John Paul II on all his trips here and pope Benedict too," she said.

Around 200,000 pilgrims attended the opening mass on yesterday, according to Krakow police, while organisers had expected around half a million.

The French priest's murder has also complicated Francis's aim to champion migrants, while emboldening Polish Prime Minister Beata Szydlo and her right-wing government who have refused to take in refugees for security reasons.

Poland is on high security alert, deploying over 40,000 personnel for the visit. Authorities also charged an Iraqi man on Monday with possessing trace amounts of explosive material.

"World Youth Day is a great celebration and we hope the attack in France will not ruin it," said Marcin Przeciszewski, head of Catholic Information Agency KAI, as worshippers gathered yesterday to pray for the fallen French priest.
The world is at war, but it is not a war of religions, Pope Francis said today as he traveled to Poland on his first visit to Central and Eastern Europe in the shadow of the slaying of a priest in France.

The killing of an 85-year-old priest in a Normandy church yesterday added to security fears surrounding Francis' five-day visit for the World Youth Day celebrations, which were already high due to a string of violent attacks in France and Germany.

Polish officials say they have deployed tens of thousands of security officials to cover the event.

Francis spoke to reporters on the papal plane en route from Rome to Poland.

Asked about the slaying of the priest, Francis replied: "It's war, we don't have to be afraid to say this." After greeting reporters on his papal plane he returned to the topic to clarify that when he speaks of war, he is speaking of "a war of interests, for money, resources. ... I am not speaking of a war of religions. Religions don't want war. The others want war."



Upon arrival at Krakow airport a pensive Francis was greeted by Poland's President Andrzej Duda, First Lady Agata Kornhauser-Duda and other state officials, and hundreds of faithful who had waited for hours to see him.

The Polish Army band played the anthems of the Vatican and of Poland.

The main welcoming ceremony with speeches is to be held later in the day at the Wawel Castle in Krakow.

In the evening Francis is to appear in the window of the residence of Krakow bishops, where he will be staying, and chat with some among the hundreds of thousands of pilgrims from around the world gathered for the World Youth Day celebrations that will run through Sunday.

"Let's live WYD (World Youth Day) in Krakow together!" the pontiff tweeted before departing from Rome for Krakow, southern Poland, this afternoon.

Just hours before Francis' arrival for the major Catholic event, groups of cheerful young pilgrims were seen in the streets of Krakow.

Relics of St. Mary Magdalene came to the church from France, for the duration of World Youth Day, and were displayed in a case by the altar.
The total power subsidy burden on the state exchequer in Punjab will jump by 14 per cent as power regulator PSERC has worked out subsidy including free power to farmers to the tune of Rs 6,364.49 crore for current fiscal 2016-17.

"The total amount of subsidy for 2016-17 has been worked out at Rs 6,364.49 crore," Punjab State Electricity Regulatory Commission, Chairman, D S Bains said here today while announcing new power tariff for 2016-17.

Last fiscal, the total power subsidy burden was worked out at Rs 5,599.61 crore comprising free power to farmers at Rs 4,709.91 crore.

With Punjab government bearing the entire subsidy burden on account of free supply of power to farmers, the subsidy to Agriculture Pumpsets (AP) has been worked out at Rs 5,196.77 crore.

Power regulator has kept agriculture power consumption at 11,327 million units for 2016-17 as against consumption of 10,264 million units for 2015-16.

Notably, SAD-BJP regime has been doling out free power to farmers, which has been considered as major vote bank for Akalis.

The government has also committed to pay subsidy amounting to Rs 1,167.02 crore for free supply of up to 200 units per month to SC domestic consumers per month and non-SC BPL consumers with conneted load up to 1000 watts.

In addition to it, the government will also bear subsidy of Rs 70 lakh on account of free supply of energy to dairy, fish farming, goat farming and pig farming.

The state government has also committed to pay subsidy to the new industries which came up through progressive Punjab summit for the difference in tariff applicable to relevant industrial category and special tariff of 499 paise per unit.

"The day a new industry is set up and starts consuming power, it will be charged 499 paise a unit and the difference between 499 paise and prevailing tariff rate will be borne by the state government," said Chairman.

In order to attract new investments, Punjab government during progressive Punjab summit had announced last year to offer power to industry at 499 paise a unit.

Besides, the state government is yet to pay pending subsidy of Rs 1,233 crore to power utility Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL).

"The government will have to pay interest on the pending subsidy," he said.

Meanwhile, referring to centre's Ujwal DISCOM Assurance Yojana (UDAY) scheme, Bains said that Punjab government would takeover about Rs 20,000 crore debt of PSPCL.

"Punjab government will take over Rs 13,381.49 crore on account of working capital and Rs 2,246.77 crore on account of long term loan. It will take over about Rs 20,000 crore of loans. As a result of this, the interest burden will come down from 11.54 per cent to 9.34 per cent. The total impact of UDAY scheme will be about Rs 270 crore which will be passed on to consumers," said Bains.

Besides, the Commission has also fixed transmission charges for open access at 23 paise a unit and wheeling charges of 132 paise per unit in the new power tariff.
Americans are now preparing to shatter the highest and strongest marble ceiling in the country, Democrat leader Nancy Pelosi said after the Presidential nomination of Hillary Clinton at the party's national convention here.

Her sentiments were echoed by a group of Democratic women lawmakers who hailed the party's "historic" decision.

"In 1776, not very far from here, our founding fathers created our nation. Ninety-six years ago, America's women first won the right to vote...We are preparing to shatter the highest, strongest, marble ceiling in our country, by electing Hillary Clinton President of the United States," Pelosi said.

She is the first woman to be elected as the Speaker of the US House of Representatives.

Moments after Clinton was nominated as the first women presidential candidate of a major party, Pelosi and a group of women lawmakers took the podium to celebrate the historic occasion.

"When women succeed, America succeeds," they said one after other in brief speeches.

Americans need Clinton in the White House, said California Senator Barbara Boxer. "Are you ready to elect the first woman President of the United States? I am beyond ready!" she exclaimed.

"We need Hillary in the White House! We need a president who knows it's just plain wrong that women make 79 cents for every dollar paid to a man. And yet her opponent refuses to support equal pay because 'the marketplace is going to make sure of it. Well, its 2016 and we're still waiting!" Boxer said.

"Democrats are fighting back against the Republicans anti-woman crusade. Its 2016, and American women are not going back, we are moving forward," said Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky from Illinois.

"Women of colour, and women veterans are quickly transforming the face of entrepreneurship in our country. They need the capital to grow and the tools to thrive," said Congresswoman Nydia M Velazquez.

"Hillary Clinton has a plan that will ensure all of America's small businesses can compete and succeed in the global economy. Because Hillary sides with the little guy, that is why I am with her," she said, repeating Hillary's campaign slogan.

Congresswoman Bonnie Watson Coleman said: "Democrats led by Hillary Clinton, know that we must make college more affordable and lift the crushing burden of student debt, that weighs on the futures of many young Americans and their families. America is stronger when everyone has a chance to succeed.

"As Democrats, we believe that we have a responsibility



to insure every veteran gets the support, the healthcare, the education and the job training he or she needs to succeed.

"And we're proud to stand by Hillary Clinton, a candidate with clear plans to improve the lives of our veterans," said Congresswoman Lois Frankel.

For Congresswoman Katherine M Clark, Clinton's nomination meant a stronger America that is free from the grip of the gun lobby.

"Ninety-one Americans are killed by gun violence every day. Republicans and the big money gun lobby shouldn't be blocking common sense legislation to keep guns out of the wrong hands. We held a sit-in but now it's time to stand up and stand together to demand change,"" she said.

Stephanie Murphy, a Congressional candidate from Florida said Democrats know a stronger America means confronting the threats abroad without blinking and without undermining their value.

"Democrats are strengthening our fight against terror, by working with our allies, not abandoning them. Democrats know, we need to be strong and smart, to destroy ISIS and protect America, not reckless and rash.

"Democrats are insuring our military has the resources they need to do their job and our military know how to do their job better than anyone else in the world," she said.
Indonesia will be "on the wrong side of history" if it proceeds with a fresh round of executions this week, rights groups warned today, as authorities confirmed 14 prisoners, including from India, will face the firing squad.

A group of drug convicts including foreigners have been given notice of their executions and could be put to death as early as Friday, though authorities remain tight-lipped about specific details.

Attorney-General Muhammad Prasetyo said today that 14 people - including prisoners from Nigeria, Pakistan, India and Zimbabwe - had been put in isolation and would be executed this week.

"They still have the right to see their family. We have also asked what their last requests are," Prasetyo told reporters.

Family members and embassy officials visited the condemned prisoners today on Nusakambangan island, home to a high-security prison where Indonesia conducts executions.

Indonesia - which has some of the toughest anti-drugs laws in the world - executed 14 drug convicts, mostly foreigners, in two batches last year.

Activists intensified pressure on Indonesia's leader this week, urging him not to proceed with the third round of executions since he took office in October 2014.

"Indonesian President Joko Widodo, popularly known as 'Jokowi', will be putting his government on the wrong side of history if he proceeds with a fresh round of executions," Amnesty International said in a statement.

"Sadly, he could preside over the highest number of executions in the country's democratic era at a time when most of the world has turned its back on this cruel practice," added the group's Southeast Asia head Josef Benedict.

Human Rights Watch urged Widodo to call off the executions and avoid a "potential diplomatic firestorm", referring to the global criticism Indonesia attracted when it put to death eight drug convicts in April 2015, including two Australians and a Brazilian.

Citizens from Indonesia, Nigeria, India, South Africa, Pakistan and Zimbabwe would be executed in this round, said lawyers from the Jakarta-based Community Legal Aid Institute, who had visited some of the inmates in prison this week.

Lawyers for some of the condemned inmates have been making last-minute bids to save their clients from the firing squad.

A letter from Indonesian convict Merri Utami to Widodo asking for clemency was sent on Tuesday. Activists lobbying on behalf of Pakistani prisoner Zulfiqar Ali said they would also consider making a final appeal, despite alleging their 52-year-old client was tortured into confessing.

"We've seen how Indonesia's legal system is full of flaws. Jokowi can actually put a moratorium on executions, he has the right to do so," said Al Araf, the director of Indonesian rights group Imparsial.
Protests have erupted inseveral parts of North Karnataka on reports that the MahadayiWater Dispute Tribunal's interim order is adverse to theinterests of the state, the issue over which the stategovernment has locked horns with neighbouring Goa.

Several parts of north Karnataka like Gada, Dharwad, Naragunda, Navalagunda, Gajendragad and Belagavi among other places saw protests with a few government offices coming under attack.

Mahadayi Water Disputes Tribunal, in its oral interim order passed today, rejected Karnataka's plea to divert 7.56 tmc water from Mahadayi basin to Malaprabha river.

Karnataka government had petitioned the tribunal seeking the release of 7.56 tmc of water for theKalasa-Banduri Nala project.

The tribunal had reserved its order for today after hearing arguments from both Karnataka and Goa side. Commenting on the issue, Water Resources Minister M BPatil said he is yet to go through the copy of the order.

"We will discuss it in the cabinet, also as thisis the issue concerning the interest of the state so we willdiscuss with all parties and we will decide on further courseof action," he said.

Protests were on by several organisations and farmers across districts of North Karnataka demanding implementation of Kalasa-Banduri project for about a year now.

The Kalasa-Banduri Nala (diversion) project, whichwill utilise 7.56 tmcft of water from the inter-state Mahadayi River, is being undertaken by Karnataka to improve drinking water supply to the twin cities of Hubballi-Dharwad and the districts of Belagavi and Gadag.

It involves building barrages across Kalasa and Banduri, tributaries of Mahadayi River, to divert 7.56 tmc to Malaprabha river which supplies drinking water needs of the twin cities.

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah had led an all-party delegation to the Prime Minister seeking his intervention for out-of-court settlement of the issue.

Earlier, Goa government had rejected Karnataka's attempt for out-of court settlement of the dispute statingthat the people of the state felt it was more prudent to settle the dispute through the Tribunal.

Rural Development Minister H K Patil said today'sinterim order has disappointed Karnataka. He said "we will continue our legal and political struggle to get justice to the state, we will do all that ispossible being united."



The minister also said Karnataka's contribution to Mahadayi is 45 tmc out of 200 tmc and the state would have to get its share of water and wondered whether central government is showing "carelessness" on this issue.
Pledging to take the Mahanadi river water issue to its logical end, Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik today dubbed as "unfortunate" the statements of Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh and Union Minister of State for Water Resources Sanjeev Balyan on the matter.

"The statement of Honourable Chief Minister, Chhattisgarh on Mahanadi water issue yesterday is most unfortunate," Patnaik told reporters while reacting to Singh's statement.

Singh had yesterday said his government would go ahead with the projects despite the stiff resistance put up by the Odisha government.

"Chhattisgarh is taking water after getting nod from the CWC (Central Water Commission). In fact, we have the right to take more water. Nobody can prevent us from going ahead with the construction. We are currently using only 25 per cent of the water," Singh had said.

Denouncing Singh's statement, Patnaik said, "It violates the cardinal doctrine of inter-state river water sharing between co-basin states and our federal governance."



The Odisha Chief Minister, who has already sought intervention of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the dispute over Mahanadi water, also sharply reacted over Union Minister Balyan's statement in Parliament yesterday.

"What is more unfortunate is the false and misleading statement of Balyan, minister of state, water resources, on the floor of Parliament yesterday," Patnaik said.

Meanwhile, the Union Government has convened a joint meeting between Odisha and Chhattisgarh on July 29 to discuss the sharing of Mahanadi water.

Stating that he has requested the Raman Singh government



to stop all construction on the upstream of river Mahanadi till the issue is resolved, Patnaik said, "Mahanadi is the lifeline of our state. We shall not allow Mahanadi to dry out because of the unilateral and blatant action of Chhattisgarh state."



As the ruling party leaders, including ministers, have already launched a fortnight-long agitation against the Chhattisgarh's alleged unilateral construction of projects on upstream of Mahanadi, Patnaik said, "I assure the people of the state that my government will take up the issue at various levels and leave no stone unturned to establish justifiable rights over the water of Mahanadi."



The state government has been alleging that as many as 15 of the 30 districts of Odisha, would be severly affected if the Chhattisgarh government completed projects on upstream of river Mahanadi. Patnaik said about 65 per cent of the state's population would suffer due to "unilateral" action of Chhattisgarh government.

Upping the ante on the construction of barrages on the upstream of Mahanadi, the Chhattisgarh Chief Minister had said, "This issue is being unnecessarily politicised. Our government started the construction of projects in the Mahanadi basin only after getting approval of CWC. When we have a discussion, we will ask for a greater share of water due to us, which we will use for irrigation and other purposes.
Commemorating the first death anniversary of former president Dr A P J Abdul Kalam, his life-size statue was unveiled here today, while the Centre also announced inclusion of his hometown Rameswaram under AMRUT as a tribute to the 'People's President'.

While Prime Minister Narendra Modi said Kalam had left a an irreplaceable void, Union Urban Development Minister M Venkaiah Naidu said the Centre has decided to include Rameswaram in Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) by relaxing norms as a tribute to the former president.

Rich tributes were paid to Kalam at a huge function organised here by Defence Research and Development Organisation, with which he was associated for long, the Defence Ministry and Ministry of Urban Development.

Defence Minister Manohar Parikkar and MoS Road Transport and Highways Pon Radhakrishnan were among the dignitaries present when Naidu unveiled the statue at Peikarumbu here.

Modi on Twitter said, "Its been a year since our beloved Dr A P J Abdul Kalam left us & created a void that is irreplaceable (sic). My tributes to this great personality."



Naidu said it's difficult still to believe Dr Kalam had passed away.

"Dr Kalam will live forever in our minds and hearts. His thoughts continue to be with us all the time," he said.

On the Centre's decision to include the town under AMRUT by relaxing the norms of eligibility, he said while cities with a population of one lakh and above are included in the scheme, Prime Minister Modi included the town, with a population of 45,000, as a tribute to Dr Kalam.

Naidu said the Centre has approved projects worth Rs 48 crore for Rameswaram under AMRUT. Of this, Rs 45 crore would be used to improve sewerage networks and rest on developing parks and open spaces.

"This is a token of what the minimum we could do for the memory of Dr Kalam", he said.

Naidu thanked Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa for allotting the land to construct the memorial in memory of the former President.

"When I met her last week, she assured me that whatever needs to be done for a befitting memorial would be done by the state government," he said.

"The vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi is federal cooperation where the Centre and states work in harmony. This memorial is an example of his vision. I thank the Chief Minister for her cooperation," he said.

Tracing Kalam's ascension to presidency, Naidu said as the



then BJP chief he was associated with discussions when the NDA government led by A B Vajpayee considered the matter.

"Quite a few were not sure if a hard core scientist with no experience of public life or even public interaction could be the right choice, but...Our decision in his favour, subsequently proved to be the best one. He emerged as the most loved president of our country," he said.

On the memorial, he said it would be a grand monument to perpetuate the memory of Kalam "who lived not for himself but for all us and the country" and a small tribute to him.

A sand sculpture of the former president, depicting only his face, was unveiled by one of Kalam's family members.

Naidu urged all political parties to cooperate and work towards completion of the memorial as Dr Kalam "belonged to the nation and not any political party".

Parrikar, who laid a wreath as a tribute to the former president, recalled Kalam's visit to Goa when he was chief minister of the state.

"When I was chief minister of Goa, he visited. We had a very long discussion on his vision of India in 2020," he said.

On the memorial being set up by the DRDO, Parrikar said its design was in the final stage and the work was expected to commence in coming months.

"The design of the memorial is in the final stages and I expect the work to commence in full scale in the coming months. The memorial will be completed in record time," he said.

"The concept of completing a project in time was the highest priority of Dr Kalam", he said.

Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley hailed Kalam as a true patriot, scientist and a statesman.

"Bharat Ratna Dr Kalam was a true patriot, scientist & statesman. We remember this son of India & pay our tribute on his death anniversary," he wrote on Twitter.

BJP President Amit Shah said Kalam was the "epitome of simplicity, hard work and morality".

"His teachings and vision will continue to inspire generations to come," he said.

Kalam passed away on July 27 last year after suffering a massive cardiac arrest while delivering a lecture at IIM- Shillong in Meghalaya.
Scientists have identified a rare new species of beaked whales with a size of up to seven metres that ranges from northern Japan across the Pacific Ocean to Alaska's Aleutian Islands.

Japanese whalers call the enigmatic black whales "karasu," the Japanese word for raven. The new species is darker in colour and about two-thirds the size of the more common Baird's beaked whale, but so scarce that even whalers rarely see them, researchers said.

A DNA analysis of 178 beaked whales from around the Pacific Rim found eight known examples of the new species.

"The challenge in documenting the species was simply locating enough specimens to provide convincing evidence," said Phillip Morin from US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries' Southwest Fisheries Science Centre.

"Clearly this species is very rare, and reminds us how much we have to learn about the ocean and even some of its largest inhabitants," said Morin.

An earlier Japanese study had suggested that the black whales, sometimes considered a dwarf form of Baird's beaked whale, might represent a new species, researchers said.

That sent Morin in search of additional genetic samples to definitively answer the question and better understand the range of the elusive species.

He turned first to the Southwest Fisheries Science Centre's marine mammal tissue collection and found two samples that appeared to represent a new species.

One came from a whale found in Alaska's Aleutian Islands in 2004. Then Morin and his colleagues pursued additional DNA samples from museums, research institutions and Japanese markets where whale meat is sold.

In 2014 scientists found a dead beaked whale on St George Island in the Bering Sea. Genetic tests later showed it to be the new species.

DNA analysis shows that the new species and Baird's beaked whale are each more closely related to Arnoux's beaked whale from the Southern Hemisphere than they are to each other.

The genetic differences and smaller size indicate that the black whale is distinctive enough to represent a new species, the scientists found.

Official recognition and naming of the species awaits a formal review of the animal's characteristics and differences from other beaked whales.

Beaked whales remain among the least known whales in the ocean, with several species identified only in the past few decades.

They have beaks like dolphins, diving thousands of feet into deep underwater canyons and basins to feed on squid and bottom fish. Japan hunts Baird's beaked whales, the largest of the beaked whales reaching lengths of up to 11 metres long.

The findings were published in the journal Marine Mammal Science.
Cabinet expansion in Uttarakhand is set to get delayed with the Congress high-command yet to give the go-ahead for it.

Replying to a question about expansion, Chief Minister Harish Rawat said he has expressed his readiness to the party high-command for it and will conduct the exercise whenever he gets the permission.

"I have told Soniaji that I am ready for a Cabinet expansion and will do it whenever I get her permission," Rawat said on his return from New Delhi where he met Sonia Gandhi.

Pradesh Congress president Kishore Upadhyay had recently said the exercise should not be inordinately deferred in view of the assembly elections due early next year.

In fact he had even suggested that the Cabinet can be expanded on July 23, a day after the conclusion of the two-day session of the state Assembly.

Apart from Rawat there are nine Cabinet ministers while two ministerial berths are vacant.
Deutsche Bank blamed today a weak economic environment and its complicated restructuring for a 98 per cent plunge in its second quarter net profit.

Net earnings in the second quarter totalled 20 million euros (USD 22 million), compared with 796 million in the same period of 2015.

Deutsche's performance fell well short of the average of 188 million euros expected by analysts surveyed by Factset.

"Our results show that we are undergoing a sustained restructuring," chief executive John Cryan said in a statement, adding that he was "satisfied with the progress we are making".

But the CEO warned that "if the current weak economic environment persists, we will need to be yet more ambitious in the timing and intensity of our restructuring".

Shares in the bank fell by more than two per cent in the first minutes of trading on the the Frankfurt stock exchange today.

Pre-tax profits stood at 408 million euros -- a fall of 67 per cent compared with 2015's second quarter -- on revenue of 7.4 billion euros, down 20 per cent.

Revenues at Deutsche's brokerage division -- the bank's biggest source of income -- slumped by 28 per cent, or 924 million euros.

And the investment banking and wealth management units each saw drops, with revenues falling 12 percent and 11 percent.

Cryan is battling to convince markets and regulators that Deutsche is on course for recovery after it was described as a "major systemic risk" by the International Monetary Fund in June.

Its share price has slumped this year, sapped by fears over Britain's vote to quit the EU and weakness in the Italian banking sector.

In early July the US Federal Reserve revealed that Deutsche's US arm had failed two sets of stress tests in a row.

Cryan is seeking to steady the ship, selling Deutsche's stake in the Chinese Hua Xia bank as part of efforts to boost its capital ratio.

"We've continued to de-risk our balance sheet, to invest in our processes and to modernise our infrastructure" over the second quarter, Cryan said.

European Banking Authority stress test results -- set for release on Friday -- will provide an initial indication of whether Deutsche's restructuring is convincing regulators.
Incidents of theft of foodgrains from trains stationed in yards have decreased marginally from 41 in 2013 to 38 each in 2014 and 2015, Lok Sabha was informed today.

Railways has taken steps to prevent theft of foodgrains from trains in yards, Minister of State for Railways Rajen Gohain said in a written reply.

He said Railway Protection Force (RPF) personnel are deployed round-the-clock to prevent theft of goods and railway property from vulnerable yards.

Based on intelligence, raids are also conducted on those procuring stolen railway property, in coordination with local police, and the arrested are prosecuted under provisions of the Railway Property (Unlawful Possession) Act, he said.

Railways is maintaining close coordination with local police and Government Railway Police (GRP) to prevent theft from yards, he said.
A remotely piloted aircraft (RPA)of the Indian Navy on a routine training mission from Naval Air Station, INS Garuda here, ditched into the sea nine miles from Kochi tonight, Navy said.

The incident occurred at about 7:30 pm.

"The aircraft had got airborne 06:35 pm but developed critical engine malfunction and a controlled ditching was undertaken at sea. Other IN and ICG Aircraft flying in the vicinity were immediately diverted to search for the ditched aircraft,"a Navy release said.

The wreckage has not yet been sighted. Aerial search by IN Dornier and ALH is in progress, it said.

Meanwhile ships at sea with divers and other necessary equipment have also been diverted to the crash area which has a depth of 24 metres to locate and recover the RPA.

"No personnel were injured in the incident," it said.

A Board of Inquiry has been ordered to investigate the incident, Navy added.

To put it in perspective, Airbus, the world's largest



aircraft-maker, has made only 10,000 planes so far.

The aircraft on the world tour has two Pratt & Whitney piston engines, Agullo said, adding that it has flown 74,500 hours. Engines of this make have to be changed after every 1200 hours, he said.

The DC-3 was also the first plane to complete the US east-west journey with just one stop. Out of the 16,000 DC-3 built, 10,000 were in the US, 487 in Japan and the rest in Russia.

The Breitling DC-3 World Tour will end in Geneva in September after covering 24,000 nautical miles.

Bezeley said the plane chose Nagpur for a halt because the city is at the heart of India, and also because the 'aviation gas', its fuel, is not available at large airports.

On Wednesday the plane will fly off to Chittagong in Bangladesh, from where it will head to Bangkok, Singapore, Hong Kong, China and Japan.

It will be stationed in Japan for a month before heading for the west coast of the US. In Tokyo, the plane will offer a joy ride to the child victims of the 2013 tsunami.

Civil DC-3 production stopped in 1942 with 607 aircraft made. However, the production of its military derivative, the C-47 Skytrain (designated as Dakota by the UK's Royal Air Force), and the Russian and Japanese versions continued till 1950.
Denouncing the Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) as "anti-Punjab", Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal today claimed that the ruling SAD-BJP combine has been the "harbinger of record progress" during the last nine years.

He said the ruling combine was adopting a "developmental approach" while alleging that both the Congress and the AAP did not "care a fig" about Punjab and had a "single-point agenda of grabbing power" for which they were even ready to cause destruction of the state.

Addressing a Sangat Darshan programme of 56 panchayats of Banga, Sukhbir claimed the state government had successfully implemented various welfare schemes to uplift the standard of living of the people, besides making Punjab a power surplus state and transforming the road infrastructure.

Touching upon schemes such as atta-dal, free power, 'shagan' and health insurance, he said the recently-launched free health insurance scheme has taken 40 lakh people within its ambit.

The Deputy Chief Minister said development-centric works were being speedily executed now as the same combine was ruling the state and at the Centre and thus, the SAD-BJP should be given the third chance in Punjab to continue the "chain of development".

He claimed the state witnessed a developmental phase only after the ruling combine assumed power under the leadership of Parkash Singh Badal.

Later, during his interaction with reporters, Sukhbir accused AAP convenor and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal of trying "to vitiate the atmosphere of the state" and of "deliberately defaming" Punjab and Punjabis.

He alleged that Kejriwal was "ignorant" of the glorious history, culture and traditions of Punjab and was trying to "befool" Punjabis because of his "greed".

Mounting an attack on the Congress, Sukhbir accused former chief minister and current state unit chief of the party Amarinder Singh of not initiating even a "single development-oriented project" during his tenure.

He alleged that the successive Congress regimes at the Center always "discriminated" against Punjab.

He refused to comment on the emotive Sutlej Yamuna Link (SYL) canal issue as the matter was sub-judice but asserted that the Akalis were ready for any sacrifice to protect the interests of the farming community in Punjab.
Sahara group today rejected a new USD 1.3 billion offer from a group of investors for its three prized overseas hotels, terming it a "devious attempt" to lower the price and disturb the sentiment of other bidders making "much higher" offers.

In a strongly worded reaction to the offer made by a group of family office investors, led by Jesdev Saggar-led 3 Associates, Sahara group said it was "a malicious and non-serious act of some wrong people".

Replying to a query about the offer made by 3 Associates, a Sahara spokesperson told PTI, "The said proposal is baseless. It is a devious attempt to benchmark the price much lower than the actual market value of the properties in order to ruin the market and disturb the sentiment of the actual bidders who are bidding at market value which is much higher.

"Please note that it is a malicious and non-serious act of some wrong people."



Sahara, however, did not disclose any details of other offers it has got for the three hotels.

Asked for comments on Sahara's rejection, Saggar, Managing Director of 3 Associates said: "We have followed the process and submitted in a compliant manner. If the bid is rejected then they should use the same process to communicate."



Earlier in the day, Saggar had said his proposal was a "very compelling offer" and it was a long-term investment opportunity for them.

"This is a long-term investment opportunity for us. We have submitted a very compelling offer. It is now up to the Supreme Court and the Roy family," he had said.

The consortium of family office investors, comprising of 3 Associates and others from the Middle East, has made the offer to acquire Sahara's majority stake in the three marquee hotel properties -- the famed Grosvenor House in London, Park Plaza and Dream Downtown hotels in New York.

Among others, the beleaguered Indian group was earlier said to be in talks with Qatar-based investors for a potential deal for the hotels.

As per the website of 3 Associates, its founders and Multi Family office network have completed over 314 million pounds worth transactions since 2014, including hotels and commercial offices in the UK, the UAE and India.

It also claims to have "access to one of the largest pools of family office equity in the Middle East".

Sahara group, whose chief Subrata Roy was in jail for over two years in connection with a long-running dispute with regulator Sebi and is currently out on parole, has been trying hard to raise funds including through refinancing of loans on its overseas hotels.
Bernie Sanders loyalists protested inside and outside the Democratic National Convention site and clashed with police after Hillary Clinton won the party's presidential nomination.

Despite Sanders' calls for them to support Clinton, thousands of activists have taken to the streets during the convention this week to voice support for the liberal Vermont US senator and his progressive agenda.

Moments after Clinton became the first woman to be nominated for president by a major US political party, a large group of Sanders delegates and supporters exited the Philadelphia convention site to hold a sit-in inside a media tent.

Some had their mouths taped shut. A few spontaneously sang the chorus of the folk song "This Land is Your Land," and a banner read "we the people." They said they were holding a peaceful protest to complain about being shut out by the Democratic Party.

"This was not a convention. This was a four-day Hillary party. And we weren't welcome," said Liz Maratea, a New Jersey delegate at the media tent protest. "We were treated like lepers."



In the streets outside, Sanders supporters who had spent the day protesting began facing off with police. Protesters began scaling 8-foot walls blocking off the secure zone around the arena parking lot, and several were detained. An officer sprayed one of the protesters.

The protests continued into the night with Sanders supporters and anti-police brutality protesters joining together. They marched in the street outside of the Wells Fargo Center. Later, someone set an Israeli flag on fire while people chanted "long live the intifada."



Others then came together for a candlelight vigil. Unmoved by Sanders' plea for party unity, the Bernie or Bust protesters walked miles in the stifling heat again Tuesday to make their case for him. They held a midday rally at City Hall, then made their way down Broad Street to the convention site. By early evening, a large crowd had formed outside the subway station closest to the arena.

"We all have this unrealistic dream that democracy is alive in America," said Debra Dilks, of Boonville, Missouri, who said she wasn't sure she'll vote in November. "Hillary didn't get the nomination. The nomination was stolen."



The crowd consisted of an assortment of protesters espousing a variety of causes, but mostly Sanders supporters and other Clinton foes on the left. College student Cory James said he expects the Democratic Party to split over the nomination.

"I suspect we are witnessing an event that will fundamentally change American politics," said James, of Flint, Michigan.

Earlier in the day, participants at the rally charged that Sanders was cheated out of the nomination, and they said they weren't swayed by his Monday plea to his supporters to fall in line behind Clinton for the good of the country.
The Supreme Court today directed the National Buildings Construction Corporation (NBCC) to inspect and submit a report on real estate major Supertech's Emerald Towers whether the two 40-storey buildings were built in green area in violation of the sanctioned plan.

A bench comprising justices Dipak Misra and R F Nariman asked the state-owned NBCC to submit its report within four weeks.

It also asked the competent authority of NBCC to issue notice to the parties to send their nominees during the time of inspection of the buildings in Noida's Supertech Emerald Court.

The bench also observed that the home buyers should not be made to suffer on account of ongoing litigation and their money should be refunded if they want them.

"Whether the buildings remain or not that will be seen later but if the home buyers want to get out of it, then they can't be stopped. You just pay them," the bench said.

It posted the plea of home buyers seeking refunds from the real estate major for further hearing on August 9.

Earlier, it directed the company to deposit Rs five crore in its Registry as a part of refund to homebuyers for the project in which Allahabad High Court had ordered demolition of twin towers.

The Allahabad High Court had on April 11, 2014 ordered demolition of the two 40-storey residential twin towers -- Apex and Ceyane -- in Noida while directing Supertech to refund money to homebuyers with 14 per cent interest in three months.

The two towers have 857 apartments in total. Of these, about 600 flats have already been sold.

The apex court had on February 16 last year directed Supertech to refund money to the flat owners, saying, "Developers can't take investors for a ride."



Earlier, it had directed Supertech to give back money to flat owners who had sought refund of their investments, after the towers were directed to be demolished by the Allahabad High Court.

Holding that flat owners cannot be forced to remain in limbo and wait indefinitely due to litigation, the bench had also directed the company to pay compound interest at the rate of 14 per cent per annum to allottees by end of October 2014.

It had turned down the plea of Supertech which had contended that it was not in a position to pay back the money as the interest part has grown more than the principal.
Scotland Yard today issued specific advice to places of worship in the UK and asked them to review their security arrangements following the killing of an 84-year-old priest in a church in France.

The Metropolitan Police's counter-terror unit said its has circulated "specific advice" to churches across the UK amid fears of a similar attack in the UK.

"Following recent events in France, we are reiterating our protective security advice to Christian places of worship and have circulated specific advice today. We are also taking this opportunity to remind them to review their security arrangements as a precaution," said Neil Basu, Scotland Yard's Indian-origin deputy assistant commissioner.

"There is no specific intelligence relating to attacks against the Christian community in the UK. However, as we have seen, Daesh [Islamic State] and other terrorist groups have targeted Christian as well as Jewish and other faith groups in the West and beyond," said the senior Met Police chief in charge of the UK's protective security.

Father Jacques Hamel was murdered in the church of Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray in Normandy, France, yesterday by two so-called "ISIS soldiers".

"While the threat from terrorism remains unchanged at severe, we urge the public to be vigilant," Basu added.

Britain's heightened state of security comes asimages threatening attacks in London and other major world capitals were reportedly posted on Telegram, a messaging app used by extremists.

One picture shows New York's Statue of Liberty engulfed in flames but with the caption "Washington soon" - referring to the US capital 225 miles (362.102 kms) away.
Security has been beefed up along the Mizoram-Bangladesh international border after the Union Home Ministry instructed the state government to maintain strict vigil on border areas, a senior police official said today.

The instructions have been issued to the district SPs of Kolasib, Mamit, Lunglei and Lawngtlaim sharing border with Bangladesh to intensify security in their respective districts, the official said.

BSF personnel deployed in the areas were also instructed to intensify patrolling along the 319 km-long Mizoram- Bangladesh border, he added.

Security was already tightened after recent terror attacks in Bangladesh.
Separatists in Kashmir today called for a social boycott and ostracising of mainstream politicians of the state, saying they were "collaborators and loyalist abettors" of the Centre and equal partners in the "crime" against people of the Valley.

A statement issued by Hurriyat Conference factions led by Mirwaiz Umer Farooq and Syed Ali Shah Geelani and JKLF chief Yasin Malik said since the mainstream politicians claim to represent people whom they have "gravely betrayed", it is time that people hold them accountable and answerable and pressurize them to vacate.

"They have simply stopped being human. And when they are out of power, they degrade further, exploiting the sacrifices of freedom seeking people for furthering their political ambition of assuming power," the separatists said.
Describing Kashmir as "unfinished agenda" of the United Nations, Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif today vowed to raise the issue at every international platform and provide all sort of support to Kashmiris.

Sharif made the remarks here while talking to newly elected lawmakers of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) after his party Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) won majority seats in July 21 elections to from the new government.

"The issue of Kashmir is unfinished agenda of the UN and Pakistan would continue to support the people of Kashmir morally and diplomatically," he said.

"Right of self-determination is the basic right of the people of Kashmir under UN resolutions and we will raise this issue at every international platform," he said.

He claimed that the people of PoK were "lucky as they enjoy full freedom" and vowed to support people of Kashmir.

"Our hearts beat with those people...And we are standing shoulder-to-shoulder with them," he said.

He directed the newly elected lawmakers to provide all sort of support to the people on the other side of the LoC.

Sharif said that newly elected assembly should focus on improving health education and infrastructure in the region.
Six police personnel were injured and their jeep was damaged when they were attacked with stones by mob during local election in Kanadi village, police said today.

The incident occurred on Monday when the police personnel tried to stop a group of villagers from approaching Panchayat Office in the village during the election to posts of Sarpanch and deputy Sarpanch, police said.

Intermittent clashes had broken out between two groups of villagers recently ahead of the poll.

"While the police team was on duty and controlling the group of villagers who were approaching the Panchayat Office, the mob got wild, manhandled the policemen and also pelted their jeep with stones. The police personnel were attacked with iron rods and sticks," stated an official press release.

The injured cops were admitted to hospital.

Police have registered a case under various sections of IPC, Bombay Police Ac and Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act 1984.

Police have not arrested anybody so far.
Six final year students,including three girls,of a private college near Vadakara here have been arrested on charges of ragging and abetting the suicide of a junior student of the same college, police said today.

The final year students of B.Sc. Computer Science discipline in Malabar Higher Education Society (MHES) at Cherandathur were arrested last evening under section 306 (abetment of suicide) of IPC and Kerala Prohibition of Ragging Act, 2009, Vadakara Circle Inspector, Viswambaran said.

Later, they were produced before the Judicial Magistrate at Vadakara who remanded them in 14 days judicial custody, he said, adding that their bail applications would be heard tomorrow.

On July 23, Hasinaz Hameed (19), a second year B.Sc Microbiology student of the same college, was found hanging inside the bathroom of her house in Thodannur.

Her relatives had filed a complaint alleging that she had taken the extreme step following ragging by her seniors.

However, the college management denied any instance of ragging on the campus.

Students belonging to ABVP had boycotted classes in various colleges in Vadakara taluk on July 25, demanding action against those involved in the alleged ragging incident.

Members of Students Federation of India had also taken out a protest march towards the college campus demanding a fair inquiry into the incident.

On June 2, a 19-year-old Dalit girl of Malappuram district, was admitted to the Kozhikode Medical College Hospital here with severe stomach problems after she was allegedly ragged by her seniors, police had said.

The girl, who was studying in a nursing college in Karnataka, was allegedly forced to drink toilet cleaning solution by eight of her seniors, who also belonged to Kerala, in the college hostel, in May, they had said.

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The allocation process of coal blocks and 2G spectrum was "tampered with" leading to ineligible people becoming beneficiaries and this has been "universally accepted", Central Vigilance Commissioner K V Chowdary said on Wednesday on the alleged scams under the UPA.

"If we look at two most controversial matters of recent times -- allocation of spectrum and allocation of coal, as of today there has not been a conclusive proof of X giving money to Y. The matter is under trial. What has been universally accepted is that the process was tampered with," he said at a function.

Chowdary also said the tampered processes led to "ineligible people getting the allocation and the more eligible people missing the opportunity".

CBI is looking into allegations of corruption in allocation of second generation (2G) spectrum to telecom companies, besides coal block allocation.

He said it is essential that all conditions are laid down properly in the tender documents and tendering processes are transparent.

Chowdary was speaking at the '10th public procurement summit on enhancing transparency, efficiency and accountability', organised by industry body Assocham.

He said about 30% of India's Gross Domestic Product (GDP), which is about Rs 25 lakh crore, comes out of tendering of goods and services being procured by the government.

The CVC noted that tendering processes in a few cases take one to three years which need to be cut down.

Chowdary said there was a need to apply certain checks on the issue of L-1 or a lowest bidder in any tendering process.

"By and large, it is believed that L-1 is the best. But there may be several other issues," he said, suggesting that the authorities need to look at other aspects of this provision.

Chowdary said that the Commission is in the process of finalising a discussion paper to look into all the aspects of tendering and recommend a comprehensive guidelines.

Chowdary said while L-1 is a good thumb rule, there is a need to look at and devise methods as to how and when it should not be the best method in the interest of the person who is issuing the tender.

"Whether it could be quality, delivery standard or it could be anything, probably we need to work more on how to get an alternative decision mechanism other than L-1 and subject to qualification," he was quoted as having said in a press release issued by Assocham.

Highlighting that a lot of people find difficulty on L-1 issue in particular, Chowdary said, "There are several issues that come which we need to kind of have a scientific way in which we evaluate them and then build it to the theme."



"So the major thing that we need to keep in mind is how do you draft or build your Notice Inviting Tender (NIT), if I have not built all these possible issues in my NIT then I am open to a lot of discussion, debate and allegations, so my suggestion is that you as a tenderer please look at the NITs very carefully as that ultimately determines your consequences, profits-losses, your obligations," the CVC said, addressing the gathering which included industry leaders.

On the issue of e-tender and e-procurement, he said these have brought in a lot of transparency and have made things easy to an extent but one needs to be equally cautious in seeing how this process is working.

"You need to build very robust audit and inspection mechanisms otherwise it is much easier to fool people in a e-process because others cannot even see what is being filed, unless these trails are really followed and they are verified you are likely to be fooled either," Chowdary said.
Uttarakhand Chief Minister Harish Rawat has asked Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh to expedite work on setting up low power solar battery-operated mobile towers in the border districts of the state, considering their strategic location.

Rawat also reiterated the state's old demand for new satellite phones in view of its vulnerability to natural disasters.

Setting up these mobile towers in the border districts of the state, located mostly in hilly terrain will lead to a much more dependable mobile connectivity, which is a must considering their strategic location, Rawat said at a meeting with the Home Minister in New Delhi yesterday.

The Home Ministry proposes to set up low power solar battery-operated mobile towers at ITBP and SSB checkposts along the international border in Uttarakhand.

Citing the state's vulnerability to natural disasters, Rawat also asked the Home Minister to expedite the process of providing satellite phones to the state for the sake of better co-ordination among different departments in crisis-like situation.
Syrian government air strikes and artillery fire killed at least 16 civilians today in rebel-held neighbourhoods in the east of Aleppo city, a monitor said.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said seven people had been killed in the Sakhur neighbourhood and another seven in Al-Ansari district.

Two more were killed in the Sukari and Bustan al-Qasr neighbourhoods, the monitor said, adding that the toll could rise because people were still trapped under the rubble.

The renewed strikes came as Syria's army officially announced it had surrounded the rebel-held east of the city.

Opposition neighbourhoods of Aleppo have been effectively besieged since July 7, when government troops advanced to within firing range of the sole remaining supply route into the east.

They have continued to advance, seizing the road itself and at least one rebel-held neighbourhood in the north-west of the city.

"Our armed forces... Cut all the supply routes and crossings used by terrorists to bring mercenaries, weapons and ammunition into eastern neighbourhoods of Aleppo," the army said in a statement carried by official media.

It added that "in order to stop the bloodshed" fighters were being offered the opportunity to lay down their arms, "settle their situations" and remain in or leave Aleppo.

A day earlier the military said it had sent text messages to residents and fighters in Aleppo urging rebels to lay down their weapons and identifying "safe passages" for civilians wishing to leave.

Once Syria's economic powerhouse, Aleppo has been roughly divided between rebel control in the east and government control in the west since mid-2012.

More than 280,000 people have been killed in Syria since the conflict began in March 2011 with anti-government protests that were met with a regime crackdown.
The Delhi government is in talks with private players and assessing various models to bring the entire national capital under Wi-Fi network in "a year or two", an official said today.

Gajendra Haldea, a member of the Dialogue and Development Commission of Delhi (DDC), said the government should be more of an "enabler" in rolling out projects such as Wi-Fi.

DDC is an advisory body to the government.

"We are in dialogue with various private players, if any model is affordable then the universal Wi-Fi can be rolled out in Delhi in a year or two," he said at a seminar on 'ICT Solutions for Digital and Smart Delhi' organised by FICCI here.

Haldea also referred to the Delhi government's plan to introduce an "universal healthcare card" in the next five months to ensure free treatment to the marginalized section of the population.

Providing free Wi-Fi across the national capital was one of the key poll promises of the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).

DDC vice-chairman Ashish Khetan recently announced that over 500 locations across East Delhi will be made Wi-Fi zones by the year end, allowing access to free internet till a pre-determined limit daily.

"The government's role in this is that of an enabler, a facilitator. In order to do so, the government should engage with the private sector. Their role is critical," he added.
The National Border Patrol Council criticized presumed Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton for giving a DNC speaking slot to an illegal immigrant after she took pride in violating federal immigration laws.

Union president Brandon Judd shared with Breitbart Texas in a written statement that Clintons decision to give illegal immigrant Astrid Silva a national stage was poor judgment and reckless. He added that providing platforms for illegal aliens to share their successes in dodging law enforcement will not only encourage more of the same behavior, but deepen the personal risks that Border Patrol agents face in trying to uphold federal laws.

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Every day, Agents put their lives on the line to protect our borders from illegal immigrants, drug smugglers and others intending to harm our citizens. Mrs. Clintons embrace of lawlessness disrespects the sacrifices made by the men and women in uniform, Judd argued.

VIDEO: CLINTON'S VP PICK: TIM KAINE

Silva, a Nevada resident and graduate of Nevada State College, told the Democratic Convention that her familys illegal crossing into the United States was driven by their desire to enjoy the American Dream while still having to live largely in hiding. Her speech offered accolades to prominent Democrats for protecting her family from law enforcement and derided those hoping to uphold existing immigration statutes as people who are ripping families apart.

My family and I are here because of people like Senator Harry Reid, mi abuelito (My Grandfather), who put themselves in our shoes and helped us. While President Obamas immigration action protected me, we live in constant fear that my parents could be taken away from their grandson, Noah. So when Donald Trump talks about deporting 11 million people, hes talking about ripping families apart  Hillary Clinton understands that this is not who we are as a country. I have seen her comfort children  I know that she will fight to keep our families together.

The Border Patrol union claimed that the Clinton campaigns decision to feature speakers like Silva and others demonstrates a disconnect between the Democratic establishment and the American electorate at large.

It is unfortunate that Mrs. Clinton and the Democrats are so tone deaf that they cannot hear the voices of hard working Americans who demand border security, Judd added. Instead of choosing to honor the heroes who rush in when everyone else is running out, they choose to highlight those who violate our laws.

28-year-old Astrid Silvas speech has been made available for replay below.

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Logan Churchwell is the Assistant Editor and a founding member of the Breitbart Texas team. You can follow him on Twitter @LCChurchwell.
The Delhi High Court today wanted to know the "factual position" regarding the security cover given to Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray even as the Centre said that the Maharashtra government was taking care of his security.

A bench of Chief Justice G Rohini and Justice Sangita Dhingra Sehgal said this while hearing a petition which sought withdrawal of the security cover given to Thackeray.

The plea also sought a direction to the Centre to frame guidelines about the security cover given to private persons who are engaged in hate speech or having criminal cases pending against them.

During the hearing, the petitioner told the bench that Thackeray has been given security cover by the Maharashtra government.

When the court asked about it, the central government's standing counsel Anil Soni said that security was given to him by the state and not by Centre.

He, however, said he would look into the issue and would seek instructions.

"What is the factual position, we would like to know," the bench said and posted the matter for hearing to August 26.

The petitioner, Mithilesh Kumar Pandey, has alleged in his plea that persons who are involved in hate speeches and have the means to hire private security guards should not be given security cover on taxpayers' money by the government and a guideline should be framed on the issue.

He has also alleged that Thackeray is neither holding a constitutional post nor he is a lawmaker so he should not be given security cover by the government.

The plea sought a direction to the central government to frame guidelines while referring to the ratio of policemen and civilians in India.

According to the petitioner, Thackeray is provided with 'Y' category security cover.
The special Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) court here is likely to deliver the verdict in the 2006 Aurangabad arms haul case tomorrow.

The 22 arrested accused in the case include Lashkar-e-Toiba operative and key plotter of the 26/11 terror attack case Sayed Zabiuddin Ansari alias Abu Jundal.

"The court has completed the hearing of final arguments and is likely to give judgement tomorrow," a police officer said.

On May 8, 2006, a Maharashtra ATS team chased a Tata Sumo and an Indica car on Chandwad-Manmad highway near Aurangabad and arrested three terror suspects and seized 30kg of RDX, 10 AK-47 assault rifles and 3,200 bullets.

The Indica, allegedly driven by Jundal, managed to give police the slip. Jundal, who hails from Beed district of Maharashtra, drove to Malegaon and a few days later he escaped to Bangladesh from where he fled to Pakistan, according to the state police.

He was deported to India from Saudi Arabia in 2012.

The special court here framed charges against the 22 arrested accused in August 2013. During the trial, the prosecution examined 100 witnesses while defence lawyers examined 16.

The trial was stayed by the Supreme Court for a while after one of the accused challenged constitutional validity of certain provisions of MCOCA. The stay was vacated in 2009.

In August last year, the Bombay High Court directed the lower court to expedite the trial.
Goa Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar today said the Mahadayi Water Disputes Tribunal has rejected Karnataka's plea to divert 7.56 TMC water from the Mahadayi basin to Malaprabha river and termed it as an "important decision for the bright future of Goa".

"Mahadayi Water Disputes Tribunal, in its oral interim order passed today, rejected Karnataka's plea to divert 7.56 TMC water from Mahadayi basin to Malaprabha river. We have won the battle, but war lies ahead," Parsekar told reporters today after tribunal gave its order in New Delhi today," he said.

"Our advocate and additional solicitor general Atmaram Nadkarni has done good study and research over the issue. I congratulate him and also the state water resources department officers. This is an important decision for the bright future of Goa," Parsekar added.

Goa Forest Minister Rajendra Arlekar said, "I am very happy that our contention has been upheld by the tribunal. This interim order will give sanctity to our fight," he said.

Arlekar said Goa government's demand not to allow the diversion of Mahadayi river water is legitimate and in the interest of Goan and people from Karnataka.

Mahadayi Water Tribubal has been hearing the petition filed by Goa against Maharashtra and Karnataka against the diversion of water.

The coastal state (Goa) has contested that diversion would adversely affect the ecology.
A top Democratic lawmaker has accused Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump of cashing in on the 9/11 terror attacks even as he applauded Hillary Clinton's role as the New York senator in the aftermath of the tragedy.

"Where was Donald Trump in the days, and months, and the years after 9/11? He didn't stand at the pile. He didn't lobby Congress for help. He didn't fight for the first responders. No," Congressman Joe Crowley asked in his address to the Democratic National Convention here.

"He cashed in, collecting USD 150,000 in federal funds intended to help small businesses recover, even though days after the attack, Trump said his properties were not affected," Crowley said.

On the other hand, Hillary, the Democratic presidential nominee sought those funds to help local mom and pop shops get back on their feet, he said.

"Donald Trump saw it as a payday for his empire. It was one of our nation's darkest days, but for Trump, it was just another chance to make a quick buck," he said.

"Hillary has never and will never forget the reality of that day, and that is why she will never give up on making us a better and stronger nation," said Crowley, who is a former Co-Chair of the Congressional Caucus on India and Indian Americans.

Crowley said Hillary Clinton, as the then Senator from New York understood the pain of the 9/11 families.

"She fought to help our city rebuild, and she delivered. People forget, but the assistance package that was first proposed didn't have a dime, not a dime for New York. Hillary helped turn that around, securing USD 20 billion we need to help get New York going again," he said.

"But she didn't stop there. Hundreds worked on the pile in the days after 9/11. First, they came to find survivors, but eventually searched for remains. They didn't worry about their own health. They were told the air was fine, but it wasn't," he added.

"And when health issues emerged years later, Hillary Clinton was still by their side. She brought families and first responders to Washington. She took them door to door, never letting her colleagues forget the consequences of that terrible day," Crowley said.

"For almost a decade, Hillary never gave up, and she was there with us when the 9/11 Health and Compensation Act was finally passed," he said.
In a scathing attack on the Republican presidential nominee, US Vice President Joe Biden today said Donald Trump knows nothing about foreign policy.

"The truth is, Donald Trump knows nothing about foreign policy," Biden told MSNBC.

"I don't see any attempt for him to go out and get people who really know on the Republican side to be aware of what this whole thing about NATO," he said and alleged that Trump is playing into the hands of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"Now everybody's making a big thing, and saying he's a friend of Putin's. I don't buy that. But here's what he's doing. He's playing directly into the hands of a guy who says his overarching goal with Putin is to break up NATO and to fracture Europe, makes him stronger," Biden alleged.

"So here you've got someone coming along and saying unless Latvia pays their bills - first of all, they're paying their bill. But unless Latvia pays the bill, I'm not sure we're going to honor Article 5 of a treaty that is the single, most significant treaty in the history of mankind, lasted over 60 years, is absolutely central to our security," said Biden, who is considered as the foremost foreign policy expert.

Biden, who was Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee before becoming Vice President, said: "I don't think he knows what Article 5 is, and nor does - should anybody here know what Article 5 is."



"Some of the things he says, like for example, I know he's trying to be tough but he's going to go out and carpet bomb. You want to make friends and influence people in the Middle East? So you're going to go carpet bomb innocent people and bad people at the same time, and that's going to help us fight against ISIS and Daesh?" Biden alleged.

Trump dismissed the attacks, calling Biden "not very bright".

"Our not very bright Vice President Joe Biden just stated that I wanted to 'carpet bomb' the enemy. Sorry Joe, that was Ted Cruz!" the Republican presidential nominee tweeted.

"The things he says make absolutely no sense. I shouldn't guess his motive. But it worries me. I promise you every place I go - I've now traveled over 1,200,000 miles. I've met every world leader in the last 35 years. I don't think there's a single world leader I haven't met and got - I mean, ended up close to a first name basis with them.

"OK? Every place I go, whether I'm reaching across the table and trying to solve a problem with Xi in - the president of China, or I'm down in New Zealand with the prime minister. And they go, tell me, this Trump's not going to - I mean, that -- that can't happen, can it?" Biden said.
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump today slammed his rival Hillary Clinton and her Democratic party leadership for not speaking about ISIS and not displaying American flag on the stage during their national convention.

"Not one American flag on the massive stage at the Democratic National Convention until people started complaining-then a small one. Pathetic," Trump tweeted.

He also was critical of the mainstream American media for praising Clinton despite her not holding a conference.

"It's been 235 days since Crooked Hillary Clinton has had a press conference and you as reporters who give her all these glowing reports should ask yourselves why. I'll tell you why: despite the nice platitudes, she's been a mess," Trump said.

"Honestly, the reason is there's no reason she can answer questions because the job she has done is so bad," he said.

The 70-year Republican faces Clinton in a do or die battle in November.

In another post on his Facebook page, Trump alleged for months, the Democratic National Committee (DNC) has scoffed while both him and Senator Bernie Sanders relentlessly contended that the primaries were rigged in favor of Clinton.

But now there is evidence to prove that they were right, evidence that calls the legitimacy of the entire Democratic Party primary process into question, he alleged.

Trump slammed the Democratic Party leadership for not mentioning ISIS in their speeches.

"The Democratic Convention has paid ZERO respect to the great police and law enforcement professionals of our country. No recognition - SAD!" he said.

"Hopefully the violent and vicious killing by ISIS of a beloved French priest is causing people to start thinking rationally. Get tough!" he tweeted.

"Crooked Hillary Clinton wants to flood our country with Syrian immigrants that we know little or nothing about. The danger is massive. NO!" he alleged.
Turkey's prime minister on Wednesday warned that the crackdown following a failed coup was not over, as authorities issued arrest warrants for dozens of former newspaper staff.

A senior minister also revealed that a major army shake-up had been planned just before the putsch -- suggesting elements in the military made the dramatic move because they knew they were about to be purged.

Since the attempted power grab on the night of July 15, more than 15,000 people have been detained and more than 8,000 of them remain in custody, according to the latest interior ministry figures.

"The investigation is continuing, there are people who are being searched for. There could be new apprehensions, arrests and detentions," Prime Minister Binali Yildirim told Sky News, according to the network's translation of his remarks.

"The process is not completed yet," he said.

In the attempted coup, renegade soldiers sought to topple President Recep Tayyip Erdogan but were stopped by crowds of civilians and loyalist security forces.

At least 270 people were killed on both sides.

blames the botched putsch on US-based preacher Fethullah Gulen, who strongly denies the accusations and demands that the United States resist calls for his extradition.

But Yildirim said was "determined" to secure his removal.

"We shared all the details with them and, from this point on, the task falls on the shoulders of the US government," the prime minister said.

Energy Minister Berat Albayrak, who is Erdogan's son-in-law, said Turkish authorities had been planning a major purge of the military and other institutions to remove Gulen-linked elements ahead of the coup attempt.

He suggested parts of the armed forces had wanted to act against the government as they knew they were about to be expelled.

"They were going to take really important steps to remove Gulenist officers and generals from the armed forces. We were already working on this," said Albayrak, who was with Erdogan on the coup night.

today issued arrest warrants for 47 former staff of the once pro-Gulen Zaman newspaper suspected of links to the reclusive cleric.

An official who declined to be named said the swoop covered "executives and some staff including columnists", describing Zaman as the "flagship media organisation" of the Gulen-led movement.
Warning of humanitarian catastrophe in Nigeria and the Lake Chad region, the UN's aid chief today called for scaling up efforts to address Africa's fastest growing refugee crisis.

More than 2.8 million people have been displaced in northeastern Nigeria and parts of Cameroon, Chad and Niger, fleeing attacks by Boko Haram Islamists who have ransacked villages across the poverty-stricken region.

"If we do not act now, the human suffering will only get more extreme," Stephen O'Brien told a Security Council meeting called to discuss the crisis.

"We have to stop this - we can with will, money, urgency and coordination."



More than nine million people are in need of urgent food aid in the region - seven million of them in Nigeria.

The UN under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs stressed that Boko Haram's violent campaign "is as much or now even more a humanitarian catastrophe as it is a security priority."



Boko Haram has coerced more than 50 children to carry out suicide bombings from January to June of this year, said O'Brien.

He expressed frustration with the lack of international attention to the plight of those affected by Boko Haram's campaign.

"I have been shouting into what feels like an empty room to highlight the dire situation in the Lake Chad Basin," he added.

O'Brien renewed calls for donor funding to support humanitarian efforts.

Only 28 percent of the UN's appeal for USD 279 million in funding has been pledged, and requests for funds to help Niger, Cameroon and Chad are also underfunded, he said.

The medical charity Doctors Without Borders also raised alarms, saying its teams had recently found extremely high levels of malnutrition in Nigeria's northeastern Borno state.

The group called for a major humanitarian response and said the crisis should be declared a "level 3" emergency - the most severe and large-scale according to the United Nations.
A delegation from the University of Southern California today met Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain to discuss the functioning of mohalla clinics and polyclinics set up by the AAP government.

The delegation, comprising teachers and students, visited the Peeragarhi Mohalla Clinic and Pashchim Vihar polyclinic and studied the working of those and interacted with the staff and patients there, a senior official said.

They also discussed the visions of the Arvind Kejriwal led-Delhi government regarding the health sector, the official said.

The students of the delegation are pursuing their courses in global medicine. They also extended an informal invite to the Health Minister to visit their campus and speak on the healthcare initiatives being taken by the Delhi government.
US Secretary of State John Kerry today said Washington wanted to avoid "confrontation" in the South China Sea, after an international tribunal rejected Beijing's claims to most of the waters.

Kerry made the remarks after meeting with Philippine Foreign Secretary Perfecto Yasay in Manila where they discussed the Southeast Asian nation's sweeping victory in the arbitration case against China.

America's top diplomat said the United States wanted China and the Philippines to engage in talks and "confidence-building measures".

"The decision itself is a binding decision but we're not trying to create a confrontation. We are trying to create a solution mindful of the rights of people established under the law," Kerry said.

A tribunal based in The Hague this month ruled that China's claim to most of the strategic waterway was inconsistent with international law. The decision angered Beijing, which vowed to ignore the ruling.

But Kerry said the United States saw an "opportunity" for claimants to peacefully resolve the row.

"We hope to see a process that will narrow the geographic scope of the maritime disputes, set standards for behaviour in contested areas, lead to mutually acceptable solutions, perhaps even a series of confidence-building steps," he said.

Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan also have claims to the South China Sea, a vital waterway through which USD 5 trillion in annual trade passes. It is also believed to sit atop vast reserves of oil and gas.

Kerry, who arrived in Manila yesterday after attending a regional summit in Laos, met with Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte after Yasay.

Yesterday, Kerry said he would encourage Duterte, who assumed office on June 30, to engage in dialogue and "turn the page" with China.

Kerry was also expected to raise with Duterte US concerns about human rights and the rule of law.

"The Philippines has an unhappy history of extrajudicial killings and violence (against) journalists and others," a US official told reporters travelling with the secretary.

"We hope to hear more from President Duterte about ... protecting human rights (and) maintaining the rule of law.

"Duterte has launched a bloody war on crime, urging law enforcers, communist rebels and even the public to kill criminals.

Since he took office, police reported over 200 deaths while media tallies have said more than 300 have died, including suspected extrajudicial killings.

Even before he assumed the presidency, Duterte drew criticism from United Nations chief Ban Ki-Moon and human rights advocates for his calls to kill criminals, as well as comments stating that corrupt journalists deserved to die.
WHO today said viral hepatitis kills more than three lakh people every year in South East Asian region, including India, even as it asserted that it will release the first hepatitis testing guidelines this year to scale up the testing and treatment of the disease.

Noting that the disease continues to be an acute public health challenge worldwide, the global health body said viral hepatitis kills approximately 3,50,000 people every year in South East Asian region.

"It is responsible for more deaths than HIV and malaria together, and is second only to tuberculosis as a major cause of death among communicable diseases.

"Globally, and in the region the number of deaths due to viral hepatitis are increasing. There is a need for immediate and urgent action to arrest the spread of hepatitis," Poonam Khetrapal Singh, WHO Regional Director for South-East Asia, said.

In the South-East Asia region, viral hepatitis is driving rates of liver cancer and cirrhosis and is causing premature death and disease with over 100 million people chronically infected with hepatitis B and hepatitis C.

These numbers are unacceptable as there is an effective vaccine and treatment for hepatitis B, and over 90 per cent of people with hepatitis C can be cured with treatment, she said on the eve of World Hepatitis Day.

"Increasing access to hepatitis testing is key to scaling up hepatitis treatment and care. WHO is releasing its first hepatitis testing guidelines this year which provides guidance on who should be tested, and recommends simple testing strategies to help scale up hepatitis testing, treatment and care," she said.

Noting that one of the main challenges to addressing hepatitis is that 95 per cent of people with chronic hepatitis do not know they are infected and less than 1 per cent have access to treatment.

To address these issues, people and countries need to be better equipped and enabled to "know hepatitis" and "act now"- the theme of this year's World Hepatitis Day, she said.

"One of the main reasons for complication due to Hepatitis B is mother-to-child transmission, which can be prevented by administering the Hepatitis B vaccine within 24 hours of birth, followed by two to three doses in the first six months of life," Singh said.

She said safe injections, blood transfusions and other



healthcare procedures can further prevent the spread of hepatitis B and C, while promoting hygienic and clean food and water can reduce the risk of hepatitis A and E infection.

"Adequate use of the existing powerful tools and new guidelines can help prevent and treat hepatitis. National strategies and action plans should optimally utilise these tools and step up efforts at all levels to address the growing threat of hepatitis," Singh said.

At the World Health Assembly this year, WHO adopted the Global Health Sector Strategy for Hepatitis that calls for eliminating the disease by 2030.

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) 3.3 includes specific mention of the need to strengthen efforts to combat hepatitis.

"The World Hepatitis Day is an opportunity to review and reiterate our commitment and resolve to eliminate hepatitis and save lives," she said.

WHO's South-East Asia region comprises of Bangladesh, Bhutan, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, India, Indonesia, Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Timor-Leste.
Amidst a tussle with Odisha over the origin of the famous sweetmeat 'Rasgulla', West Bengal has clarified that they are not seeking claim over the dessert but only over 'Rasogolla', a particular variety prepared in the state.

Officials of the state science and technology department has clarified that they have sought Geographical Indications (GI) tag only for 'Rasogolla'.

"There is no conflict with Odisha. What we want is to protect the identity of our Rasogolla. Their product is different from ours both in colour, texture, taste, juice content and method of manufacturing," an official told PTI.

In a recent letter to the Geographical Indications Registry office in Chennai, the state department of food processing industries and horticulture said the way the dessert is made in the state is different from that of other states.

"The preparation of light sugar syrup is unique and it contributes towards the taste of Rasogolla. Light syrup adds to the unique mouth-fill characteristic which is traditional in nature and well documented in different books unlike other similar products," the letter said, adding the quality of the dessert from West Bengal is unique.

Even during its original application before the Intellectual Property office last year, the state government had sought the GI tag on what they call it as "Banglar Rasogolla" (Bengal's Rasgulla).

"For example we have Darjeeling Tea and Himachal has Kangra Tea. Both are tea but the taste is different. Both can have GI tags," officials said.

Odisha has claimed that the sweetmeat originated from the Jagannath Temple in Puri, where it is a part of the religious rituals since the 12th century. Odisha calls it 'Pahala Rasgulla'.

In West Bengal, confectioner Nobin Chandra Das is widely known as the one, who created Rasgulla in the 1860s.

Bengal has told the GI registrar office that the one in



Odisha is a different variety.

The Bengal one is off white or light cream coloured, spherical in shape while in other states, it varies from brown to other colours.

"The concentration of sugar syrup is light while in Odisha it is highly concentrated. When taken in mouth, their Rasgulla is chewy and sticky unlike ours. The texture is also different. Ours is soft and foam type while theirs is hard and sticky," officials said.

The geographical indication (GI) of goods acts as the "claim to fame" for a state. It identifies a product as originating from a particular location and conveys an assurance of quality and distinctiveness that is essentially attributable to the fact of its origin.

Once granted, the GI tag prevents unauthorised use of the geographical indication and boosts exports by giving it a unique identity.

'Rasogolla', a dessert, made from ball shaped dumplings of Indian cottage cheese i.E "channa", is cooked in light syrup which is made of sugar.

Officials said the sponge characteristics of the sweetmeat is linked with the human skill of sweet makers of Bengal.

"People all over India and even outside the country know Bengal Rasogolla. It is very famous. We have around one lakh sweet makers all over the state involved in making it. Not only does our Rasogolla go outside the state but we also export it," they said.
Narsingh Yadav's chances of representing India at the upcoming Olympics might have diminished further after a second failed dope test but the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) is still hopeful of a favourable verdict by the NADA panel, saying that his lawyers today presented a strong case.

"Narsingh's lawyers have presented strong arguments in his favour in front of the NADA committee. They have filed a 600-page affidavit. The panel took note of the arguments and considered the points made by the lawyers. Narsingh and his lawyers seem to be happy with the way things went at the hearing today," WFI president Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh told PTI.

"The application on the second dope test (taken on July 5) that has also turned out to be positive, was also submitted," said Singh.

NADA will be put forward its argument tomorrow, following which a decision on the matter is likely to come out.

During the hearing that lasted three and half hours, Narsingh and his battery of lawyers presented their side of the story in front of the NADA committee and pleaded innocence.

Although Narsingh's food supplements which were claimed to be tampered with are found be perfectly fine, a teenage wrestler suspected to have spiked his food was identified and is being questioned.

"The lawyers also told the NADA panel about the suspected teenager," the president said.

It has been learnt that brother of wrestler Sumit, who trains at Chhatarsaal, has allegedly spiked Narsingh's food.

Earlier today Narsingh filed an FIR at the Sonepat Police Station naming two fellow wrestlers, one of them a 17-year-old, and persisted with his demand for a CBI probe into the scandal.

The WFI yesterday named Narsingh's replacement Parveen Rana in the squad for the Rio Games, so that India has a representation in 74kg category.

"If Narsingh is proved innocent, we will have the category with us and will be able to fight his case to send him to Rio. Narsingh is one of our brightest medal prospects at," Singh said.

Narsingh had tested positive for banned anabolic steroid - methandienone, following which he cried foul and said it was a conspiracy against him.
A Wisconsin state appeals court ruled that two girls accused of trying to kill their classmate in an attempt to please the fictional horror character Slender Man should be tried as adults.

Investigators say the girls, who were 12 at the time of the attack in 2014, plotted for months before luring their classmate into some woods after a birthday sleepover and repeatedly stabbing her.

The victim, who was also 12, was found along a road, bleeding from 19 stab wounds that nearly killed her.

The girls have been charged with attempted first-degree intentional homicide and if convicted could go to prison for up to 65 years.

As juveniles, they could be incarcerated for up to three years then supervised until age 18.

Anyone 10 or older charged with first-degree attempted homicide is automatically considered an adult under Wisconsin law. But defense attorneys have argued that the case belongs in juvenile court, saying the adolescents suffer from mental illness and won't get the treatment they need in the adult prison system.

Experts testified that one of the girls has schizophrenia and an oppositional defiant disorder that requires long-term mental health treatment.

The other girl has been diagnosed with a delusional disorder and a condition known as schizotypy, which a psychologist testified made her vulnerable to believing in Slender Man.

In a pair of rulings yesterday, the 2nd District Appeals court affirmed a lower court's determination that it was reasonable to try both girls as adults.

Citing the ruling last year, the appeals court said if the girls were found guilty in the juvenile system they would be released at age 18 with no supervision or mental health treatment.

It also noted that the evidence showed the crime was not accidental or impulsive, but planned out and violent. Given the serious nature of the offence, it would not be appropriate for the trial to take place in juvenile court, the appeals court ruled.

The girls could appeal the rulings to the Wisconsin Supreme Court. Maura McMahon, the defense attorney for one of the girls, said she was "disappointed and sad" with the ruling and was reviewing it to decide whether to seek further appeal.

Kevin Osborne, the assistant Waukesha County District Attorney, said he was pleased with the decisions, but declined further comment because he has not yet read them.
A 21-year-old woman was killed



allegedly over dowry demand at Aliganj tehsil here following which her husband and five others have been booked, police said today.

Priyanka's father Ved Prakash, a resident of Farrukhabad, lodged a complain yesterday alleging that her daughter was being harassed and tortured by her husband and in-laws since her marriage on February 12.

Priyanka was married to Shanoo of Aliganj tehsil on February 12, 2016.

Prakash claimed Priyanka's in-laws were demanding a vehicle in dowry and used to harass her.

Seven days ago they threw her off the roof, he alleged.

Priyanka was taken to Delhi for treatment where she succumbed to injuries on Monday, he said.

Kotwali Station Officer Dinesh Kumar said police are investigating the matter but no arrest has been made so far.

Meanwhile, a woman was allegedly raped by three persons at her house at Kanshiram Colony under Jaitheraon Kotwali here Monday night.

Ram Baboo, along with two other persons, entered her house while she was alone and allegedly raped her at gun point, police said.

The victim's husband has lodged a complaint but no arrest has been made so far, police said.

In another incident, 30-year-old Sanjoo died after the auto-rickshaw he was travelling in collided with a speeding tanker head on near Bagwala village.

An case has been registered against the driver of the tanker and police are investigating the matter, police said.
Rajasthan State Legal Services Authority (RSLSA) will hold a two-day state level workshop for the stakeholders under Juvenile Justice system to discuss various aspects, issues and changes in Juvenile Justice Act.

The workshop, which will be held at the state Judicial academy in Jodhpur on July 30 and 31st, will be attended by Supreme court judge Anil R Dave, Rajasthan High court judge Navin Sinha, experts from UNICEF and other stakeholders, member secretary of the authority said here today.

The workshop will comprised of panel discussions on child rights- legal framework, children in conflict with law, crime against children, children in need of care- and child protection, he said.
President Xi Jinping today called for more reforms in the PLA, the world's largest military, to cope with changing international situation as tensions deepened over the disputed South China Sea after an international tribunal struck down China's claims over the area.

"Reform is a comprehensive and revolutionary change, and obstacles and policy issues that may hold back reform measures must be addressed so as to build a strong armed forces commensurate with China's international status, Xi, who consolidated hold over the military to emerge as the most powerful Chinese leader, said.

The ruling Communist Party of China (CPC), the armed forces have been constantly reformed and improved, he said presiding over a group study seminar of the Politburo of the CPC which focused on national defence and military reform.

"Further military reform is needed to cope with changing international situation and develop socialism with Chinese characteristics," he was quoted as saying by the state-run Xinhua agency today.

Xi, 63, who is also the General Secretary of the CPC, called for the building of strong armed forces through military reform.

His comments came as China braced for a more tensions specially with the US in the South China Sea following this months verdict by an international tribunal which struck down China's claims over the area. China has rejected the verdict.

The Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan countered China's claims over all most all of the South China sea.

The 2.3 million strong People's Liberation Army (PLA) has undergone major structural changes since Xi took over in 2013 including massive anti corruption campaign in over 40 retired and serving Generals were indicted.

Based on the reform plan, the PLA Army, the PLA Rocket (missile) Force, and the PLA Strategic Support Force were established.

The previous seven military area commands were regrouped into five theatre commands, and the four military departments -- staff, politics, logistics and armaments -- were reorganised into 15 agencies.

With those reforms, the PLA has a system in which the Central Military Commission (CMC) is tasked with the overall administration of the armed forces, while theatre commands focus on combat preparedness, and various armed services pursue development, Xi said.

These measures solved some deep-seated problems that many considered unsolvable, Xi said.

The reform drive marks a historic change in the organisation and structure of the PLA, he said.

The reforms included measures to trim down the PLA by down sizing it by retiring three lakh troops by next year to make leaner force.

REOPENS FGN 20



Elaborating on the leadership structure of the party, the CPC communique said members should unite under the party leadership with Xi at "core".

Xi currently heads a seven-member Standing Committee of the party which virtually rules China.

The seven members looking after various aspects of governance included Premier Li Kiang.

The Standing Committee embodies collective leadership in CPC parlance.

Since taking over as the leader of the party in November 2012 and as President and chief of the military in 2013, Xi has been regarded as the most powerful leader after Mao wielding enormous powers, thus reducing the importance of the Standing Committee.

Ahead of the sixth plenary, official media said the party needed a strong leader like Mao, and Xi fitted the bill speculating that the collective leadership may be dispensed away with.

The plenum which concluded its four day meeting here today said members should resolutely safeguard the authority of the CPC and its central, unified leadership while pushing forward the comprehensive and strict governance of the party.

The communique also urged them to become more aware of the need to uphold political integrity, keep in mind the bigger picture, follow the CPC as the core of the Chinese leadership and act consistently with CPC Central Committee policy.

"Together we must build a clean and righteous political environment, and ensure that the party unites and leads the people to continuously open up new prospects for socialism with Chinese characteristics," it said.

It also endorsed the expulsion of former party chief of Liaoning Province and senior national legislator Wang Min and former Beijing deputy party chief Lyu Xiwen.

It also confirmed the expulsion of former senior military officials Fan Changmi and Niu Zhizhong.

They were expelled as as part of massive anti-corruption campaign carried out by Xi after he took over as CPC head.

Over 1.01 million officials of the 88.75 million-strong CPC were punished in the anti-graft campaign amid allegations that Xi has also used it to consolidate his hold on the party.
The gig economy is expected to generate $204 billion and grow 17% by 2023, according to a 2019 Mastercard study, and the drone piloting market is expected to grow substantially along with it.

Commercial drone pilots serve industries like insurance, agriculture, and media, making the work high in variety and potential profit.

You must take certain key steps to become a commercial drone pilot, including taking courses, getting a drone license, purchasing drone insurance and choosing the right drone for your business.

This article is for prospective freelance drone pilots interested in working in the burgeoning and lucrative new industry of drone piloting.

As the gig economy continues to grow around the world, new professions have arisen to service the changing technological and economic demands of multiple industries. One such job is commercial drone pilot.

According to a Research and Markets report, companies across myriad industries will spend over $16 billion on drones and drone services and catalyze the drone service market to create 100,000 new jobs by 2025. For prospective drone pilots who are enterprising enough to leap into this novel occupation, work that is both thrilling and profitable awaits.

What does a commercial drone pilot do?

At the most basic level, commercial drone pilots fly drones for companies in a range of industries for varying purposes. Some companies use drones to take aerial photos and videos for marketing purposes, while other companies use drones for aerial surveillance. Commercial drone pilots execute different drone needs for different businesses.

Our research found that most companies hire drone pilots for freelance jobs. Many companies dont employ full-time drone pilots, but bring people in to fly drones for specific projects. This can require a significant amount of travel to work sites.

Whats the difference between a drone, a UAV and a UAS?

A UAV is an unmanned aerial vehicle. Another common term used in this industry is UAS, which refers to unmanned aircraft systems. You may see different terminology depending on the source. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) frequently uses UAV to refer to drones, while most mainstream media outlets use the term drone, as its better known to the average reader. For the most part, those terms are used interchangeably.

UAS, on the other hand, refers to more than just the aircraft. A UAS includes the whole system, including steering and the pilot, so the UAV is a part of the UAS.

If you want to get technical, UAVs are more advanced versions of drones. A $100 drone for recreational purposes wont be referred to as a UAV, but an expensive UAV can be considered a drone. As we mentioned, the FAA uses the term UAV frequently, and thats the official term for what commercial drone pilots use.

How much money does a commercial drone pilot make?

The salary of drone pilots varies, especially since many pilots work as freelancers. The hourly rate also varies by project and industry. Glassdoor lists the 2022 annual salary of drone pilots at $70,000. However, per a DroneU survey, rates can land between $800 and $1,200 for a single day of work for the highest earners. Its hard to get an exact estimate of how much a drone pilot will make, but there is potential to earn hundreds of thousands of dollars per year. Achieving that goal means taking on a significant number of projects, of course.

Tip: To become a commercial drone pilot, you will need three things: a drone pilot license, professional drone insurance and a drone.

Steps to become a commercial drone pilot

1. Get a drone license.

The first step in becoming a drone pilot is obtaining a drone license. Selling drone photos without a license could earn you a $1,100 fine from the FAA. The government has mandated that anyone who flies a drone for a commercial, non-recreational or governmental purpose must have a special license to do so. This license is called a Part 107, named after the rule that governs it.

To get this license, you have to register with the Integrated Airman Certification and Rating Application (ICARA), then register online for the written test, which costs $175 and can be taken at an FAA-approved location. These are often local flying clubs or airports. This test involves 60-plus multiple-choice questions that cover setting up, operating and safely using a drone. You must answer 70% of the questions correctly to pass.

Applicants must be at least 16 years old and have a government-issued picture ID. Additional requirements from the FAA include the ability to speak, read, write and understand English, as well as being in the physical and mental condition necessary to complete a drone flight. Depending on your location, you may be placed on a waiting list for a few weeks before taking the test. There are about 700 testing locations in the United States.

To give you some idea of the tests difficulty level, heres a sample question: A stall occurs when the smooth airflow over the unmanned airplanes wing is disrupted and the lift degenerates rapidly. This is caused when the wing:

Exceeds the maximum speed. Exceeds the maximum allowable operating weight. Exceeds its critical angle of attack.

The FAA offers an online study guide and a free two-hour training course, which you must preregister for. If thats not enough, there are plenty of sites that can teach you the rules and regulations of flying a drone, such as Remote Pilot 101 and UAV Ground School. The latter offers to pay the fee for your Rule 107 test if you dont pass. Taking practice tests is a good way to increase your knowledge and feel more comfortable when the actual test rolls around.

After you take the test, your score will be uploaded in 48 hours. Then you can apply for your Remote Pilot Certificate. You must pass a background check from the TSA before you can print out a certificate.

The FAA summarizes its process for becoming a drone pilot in six steps. The first three are the most noteworthy:

Schedule your drone test through a Knowledge Testing Center. Pass the aeronautical knowledge test. Complete FAA Form 8710-13.

After you complete those tasks and pass your background check, you will receive an email notification. Your remote pilot certificate will be mailed to you. Keep your certificate with you when flying your drone.

2. Purchase drone insurance.

The next thing you will need is professional drone insurance. Dont assume that your home, personal or professional insurance will cover this. Most modern policies exclude drones from coverage. Instead, get a professional drone insurance policy from a company such as AIG or Avion that offers sufficient coverage for any accidents. This should include coverage for your equipment, the cameras that you attach to your drone, and enough to protect you if your drone crashes into something or somebody (which is probably inevitable).

FYI: One interesting and usually lower-cost option is Verifly. This company offers policies that you can buy on the spot and provide up to $10 million in coverage. Theres even an app that allows you to buy on location for a fixed amount of time. You can purchase drone insurance for intervals as short as one hour.

3. Pick a drone.

Finally, youll need the drone itself. If you are shooting video for a client, they will want professional-looking footage that has sharp detail and bright, clean color. Although you might be able to get away with a cheap drone like the $789 DJI Mavic Air, you would be better off investing in a larger, more flexible drone, like the DJI Inspire 2 combined with a camera like the Zenmuse X5S. This combination will allow you to shoot the same smooth 4K video that you see on nature documentaries. It isnt cheap, though: This combination will cost you about $5,000.

Whichever drone you decide on, register it. The FAA requires anyone who flies a UAS or drone that weighs between 0.55 and 55 pounds to register their device. Registration costs $5, and you must renew it every three years.

4. Get flying.

Youll need to abide by certain rules as a commercial drone pilot. According to the FAA, the following rules require a waiver.

Screenshot from FAA.gov

Before you start flying, make sure youre either following all of the Part 107 rules or that you receive a waiver for the above specifications. Look for hands-on training as well, as youre unlikely to land many high-paying projects without proving that you have more than the basic knowledge to pass your drone license test.

A quick Google search should yield dozens of potential in-person training options. Its worth spending the money to take one and learn how to fly your drone properly, rather than trying to become a commercial drone pilot without hands-on training.

Upon following the rules and completing training, you should feel comfortable flying your drone commercially. The more experience you get once you start flying and completing commercial projects, the more money you will be able to charge for your services.

Cool business uses for commercial drones

So far, businesses have used drones largely in video and photography, especially for marketing purposes, but there are many other applications of UAV technology that might surprise you, like agriculture or emergency services.

Heres how some pilots are already using drones, and how they might be used in the future.

Agriculture: Farmers can benefit from drones in several ways. Many in the UAV industry cite agriculture as an enormous area of opportunity for drone technology. Not only can drones save farmers money by helping them identify failing plants early and take inventory of crops, but the machines can also be used to map and study the farmland and its irrigation systems.

Farmers can benefit from drones in several ways. Many in the UAV industry cite agriculture as an enormous area of opportunity for drone technology. Not only can drones save farmers money by helping them identify failing plants early and take inventory of crops, but the machines can also be used to map and study the farmland and its irrigation systems. Architecture and construction: Architectural firms and construction contractors are also benefiting from the use of drones. Architects can use images and footage of a property to create 3D renderings of the structures they intend to build.

Architectural firms and construction contractors are also benefiting from the use of drones. Architects can use images and footage of a property to create 3D renderings of the structures they intend to build. Delivery: Drone-based delivery services constitute one of the most obvious applications. While still restricted to a low maximum load-bearing weight (55 pounds, including the drone itself), delivery by drone is yet another promising application.

Drone-based delivery services constitute one of the most obvious applications. While still restricted to a low maximum load-bearing weight (55 pounds, including the drone itself), delivery by drone is yet another promising application. Emergency services: Using drones for emergency response services, particularly for medical needs, presents new opportunities for life-saving measures. Using drones to get eyes on a difficult situation, or to deliver medical supplies to stranded victims, could enhance the ability of emergency response physicians to offer care in difficult situations.

Using drones for emergency response services, particularly for medical needs, presents new opportunities for life-saving measures. Using drones to get eyes on a difficult situation, or to deliver medical supplies to stranded victims, could enhance the ability of emergency response physicians to offer care in difficult situations. Engineering: Engineering firms are also using drones for projects like oil pipelines, transmission cables and maintenance inspections.

Engineering firms are also using drones for projects like oil pipelines, transmission cables and maintenance inspections. Environmental monitoring and conservation: Much like how farmers use drones to monitor crops and animals, drone technology can be used to keep tabs on ecological environments. UAVs are discreet and can monitor animal populations without disturbing them. This type of monitoring offers important insights into conservation efforts, migration tracking, habitat management and flood assessment, which is particularly useful on the coasts.

Much like how farmers use drones to monitor crops and animals, drone technology can be used to keep tabs on ecological environments. UAVs are discreet and can monitor animal populations without disturbing them. This type of monitoring offers important insights into conservation efforts, migration tracking, habitat management and flood assessment, which is particularly useful on the coasts. Media: Another obvious use for drones is in media coverage. Previously, aerial shots were available only to large news corporations that could afford a news helicopter. Now, local journalists and small-scale media outlets can easily capture aerial footage for news coverage.

Another obvious use for drones is in media coverage. Previously, aerial shots were available only to large news corporations that could afford a news helicopter. Now, local journalists and small-scale media outlets can easily capture aerial footage for news coverage. Training: New technologies mean the need for education and training. Companies like DARTdrones not only train people on how to fly UAVs, but also educate them around FAA regulations and specific use cases.

New technologies mean the need for education and training. Companies like DARTdrones not only train people on how to fly UAVs, but also educate them around FAA regulations and specific use cases. Online drone courses: For drone pilots with a wealth of experience behind the controller, producing online courses for those interested in drone piloting could be an inexpensive and high-revenue business strategy. Experienced drone pilots can build a curriculum based on topic, industry and level of expertise while generating a steady passive income.

For drone pilots with a wealth of experience behind the controller, producing online courses for those interested in drone piloting could be an inexpensive and high-revenue business strategy. Experienced drone pilots can build a curriculum based on topic, industry and level of expertise while generating a steady passive income. Drone rental services: If you are a drone pilot with a top-of-the-line drone or collection of drones, consider renting your drone out to pilots, companies or other interested parties. Peer-to-peer marketplaces like Fat Llama and Up Sonder provide a forum for drone rental businesses.

If you are a drone pilot with a top-of-the-line drone or collection of drones, consider renting your drone out to pilots, companies or other interested parties. Peer-to-peer marketplaces like Fat Llama and Up Sonder provide a forum for drone rental businesses. Insurance claim processing: According to FAA data cited by Deloitte, 17% of commercial drones are used for insurance claim processing. The crux of this business model lies in the relationships drone pilots forge with local insurance companies and adjusters. Strong business partnerships between drone pilots and insurance professionals can expedite photographic damage assessment and draft reports in record time, allowing adjusters to turn their attention to those who have suffered from loss or damaged personal property.

This year is a good time to become a commercial drone pilot, and the field can be lucrative. It will, however, take some money to purchase the equipment, training courses and insurance necessary to become a pilot. If you want to become a commercial drone pilot, you have to be committed to the startup costs.

Bennett Conlin and Richard Baguley contributed to the writing and research in this article.
A New York City photographers popular Facebook page is inspiring Southeast Community College.

SCC will start photographing and interviewing SCC students, faculty and alumni this year and featuring the individuals stories and portraits on its Facebook page, Instagram account and likely on its website.

SCC social media specialist Jennifer Snyder said she thought of the idea because she is a fan of the same concept by Brandon Stanton, a photographer in New York City.

Stantons Facebook page, Humans of New York, has nearly 18 million followers. Nearly each day, Stanton posts a photograph of a stranger whom he approaches on the streets of New York City, along with the persons quotes, comments, thoughts or story they choose to tell. Sometimes the person speaks briefly; other times the person explains his or her biggest life struggle.

Ive wanted to do this for so long, Snyder said. It takes time. I want to do it well.

Snyder said she and SCC marketing specialist Andrea Haggar will interview the individuals at SCC campuses in Beatrice, Lincoln and Milford. Chad Green, a photographer the college works with, will shoot the portraits.

The features will spotlight the individuals and how their experiences at SCC affected their lives.

You never know where an interview will take you, Snyder said. What I want to get out of these is to show how SCC has helped them in their career and to show any advantages of going to college at SCC.

Snyder gave an example of an SCC-Milford students story of choosing an SCC program because it was one of few recognized by the military.

Its more to highlight that SCC is a good deal and that it does help you with your career goals, she said, adding that its a place of community and new friendships. We want to show how the college experience shapes the person you become and how those stories happen.

Campus leaders are helping Snyder and Haggar find students, faculty and alumni to feature.

I think people think we have to highlight the best students, Snyder said. But anybody has a story. One woman at Christmas time was able to find a van because she was having troubles getting from the Peoples City Mission to the 88th and O campus (in Lincoln). Thats a story in and of itself. Every type of person has a story.

The team will visit each campus on a single day and interview and photograph as many individuals as possible  maybe 10 to 20, Snyder said.

Then well have them in a bank to use, Snyder said. Ill be taking video, too. ... The People of SCC will be a small snippet and the video will be a longer version. The goal is for each person to have a video.

Snyder said there are many possibilities for the produced content. Not only will the features be posted on social media, but they could also be used for promotional purposes. The subjects will have to sign a consent form recognizing the information may end up on other SCC outlets.

Snyder said she and the team hope to start the process in August and have the collection started online by the end of the year.

Snyder and Haggar started in December 2015 and January 2016, respectively. Their positions were newly created at that time using increased funding from the college for the purpose of new staff.
Apple CEO Tim Cook on Tuesday announced that his company is "looking forward" to setting up retail stores in India, which is also Apple's fastest growing smartphone market .

"India is now one of our fastest growing markets. In the first three quarters of this fiscal year, our iPhone sales in India were up 51 per cent year-on-year," Apple CEO Tim Cook said during Apple's fiscal year Q3 2016 earnings call.

"Apple has just announced first-of-its-kind design and development accelerator to support Indian app developers, as well as the new office in Hyderabad to accelerate maps development," Cook added.

On his India visit, Cook had discussed issues including manufacturing and setting up retail stores in the country with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. In May, Commerce minister Nirmala Sitharaman had said that the government is not in favour of Apple selling refurbished iPhones in India.

"On a personal note, during the past quarter I visited China and India, and I am very encouraged about our growth prospects in those countries," he said.

The new FDI reforms which relax restrictions on foreign investments in single-brand retail are expected to benefit Apple as a three-year relaxation introduced on local sourcing norms with an extension of up to five years possible if it can be proven that products are "state of the art" and "cutting edge".
JSW Steel's pipe mill in the US is near to a shut down as its capacity utilisation has fallen to just 3 per cent in the first quarter of this financial year due to the gloomy oil and gas industry in the country.

The capacity utilisation at the plate mill also fell to 16 per cent during the period. The capacity utilisation was a bit higher in the last financial year at 10 per cent for pipes and 21 per cent for plates, respectively. It produced 37,859 net tonne of plates and 4,598 net tonne of pipes in the June quarter, while the sales volumes was lower at 27,542 net tonne of plates and 5,618 net tonne of pipes. It reported an EBITDA loss of $5.45 million (Rs 36.62 crore) for the quarter.

For the entire FY 2015/16, the US mill's performance has been severely impacted due to lack of orders for pipes from the hydrocarbon sector. The unit produced 197,408 tonne of plates and 54,262 tonne of pipes in the last financial year. In view of the continuing losses at the plate and pipe mill operations, JSW Steel USA had carried out an impairment assessment of its fixed assets (at Rs 905 crore) in the third quarter of the last financial year. The US mills posted a net loss after tax of Rs 1,361 crore in 2015/16 after provisioning of impairment charges, compared to Rs 302 crore in the previous year.

In 2007, Sajjan Jindal's JSW Steel bought three steel mills in the US, controlled by his elder brother Prithvi Raj Jindal, at an enterprise value of $900 million. It planned to sell the excess steel slabs from its Indian plant, convert them into pipes and sell them at $1,500-1,600 a tonne in the US. The revenues target was $800 million in 2007/08 and $1.5 billion in 2008/09. But it became a drag, largely because of poor demand, despite being located in the heart of the US oil and gas industry located in the Gulf of Mexico. They enjoy the advantage of their own barge unloading facility and good rail and truck transportation facilities.

JSW group posted a net profit of Rs 1,109 crore for the June quarter as compared to Rs 21.19 crore in the same period last year. Total income marginally increased to Rs 12,919.23 crore from Rs 12,683.60 crore same period last year. The share price of JSW Steel rose 6 per cent after the result and closed at Rs 1,738.30 on Bombay Stock Exchange.
Ajay Piramal, Chairman of the Piramal group, has been through several avatars. There was the passionate businessman, when he - along with wife Swati - acquired Nicholas Laboratories and built it bit by bit through acquisitions and organic growth as Piramal Healthcare, India's third largest domestic pharma firm; the dispassionate businessman when he sold Piramal Healthcare's flagship formulations business to US pharma major Abbott for $3.8 billion (Rs 18,000 crore then); the White Knight when he became Vodafone's India investor alongside Max group's Analjit Singh when it needed at least 26 per cent equity to be held by Indians; even the start-up man when he floated Piramal Realty in 2012 and a few weeks ago, invested in Aircel's C. Sivasankaran's start-up cab aggregator Utoo.

But nothing sticks in public memory more than his most recent avatar - Ajay Piramal, the investor. The risk taker. Alike Warren Buffett. The contrarian, who is placing big bets on businesses ranging from financial services to healthcare on one hand, and drug discovery and realty on the other. He even bid for Lafarge's cement business in India before losing out to Nirma. "We are planning to enter one more business sector in India and let's see how it pans out. I have not set any targets or timeframe for it," Piramal told BT. Over the years, India has seen several investors/ financiers/ arbitrageurs, starting with Sivasankaran himself. Max group's Singh has been through several investment cycles. And his nephews Malvinder and Shivinder also invested heavily in healthcare before pulling back. But nobody has reached the scale at which Ajay Piramal operates.

"I have not come across any parallels like Ajay Piramal in family businesses, though there are many entrepreneurs who have moved out and built their own businesses," says Kavil Ramachandran, Executive Director, Thomas Schmidheiny Centre for Family Enterprise, Indian School of Business (ISB). "His primary intention is to create wealth by aggressively acquiring or identifying niche business areas, investing in them, and selling off for a big value."

Flush with cash after sale of the formulations division to Abbott in 2010, Piramal confounded analysts and markets with a slew of seemingly eccentric and unconnected investment decisions. The market, however, continued to show faith as his group's valuation rose from $2 billion (when Piramal Healthcare was sold in 2010) to $5 billion today. Next stop: $20 billion by 2020!

From the sale proceeds and earnings thereafter, he first bought an 11 per cent stake in Vodafone India for Rs 5,863 crore in two tranches in August 2011 and February 2012. Then, Piramal Healthcare spent Rs 4,583 crore in three deals to acquire minority stakes in Shriram Capital, the holding company of Chennai-based Shriram group, Shriram Transport Finance and Shriram City Union Finance. The deals made him the chairman of the group.

Piramal's investment binge is backed by substantial growth in the company's and his personal wealth (through dividends). Piramal Healthcare netted Rs 15,000 crore from Abbott in four years after taxes and dividends, another Rs 3,037 crore from Vodafone's entry and exit, Rs 600 crore from sale of his diagnostics business to SRL Ranbaxy, and another Rs 756 crore in net profits in the past five years. The sale proceeds, dividends and his personal wealth now add up to a mind-boggling investible corpus of Rs 23,500 crore.

Method in the Madness

It is hard to digest that his shrewd business brain didn't see an opportunity in sunrise sectors such as power, renewables, infrastructure or defence, which are all drawing large corporate houses in droves.

After all, Piramal has always kept economics above emotions, listening to his mind rather than his heart. Five years before he exited Piramal Healthcare, in 2005, he divested his inheritance Morarjee Gokuldas Spinning & Weaving Mills, India's oldest surviving composite mill, at a time when organised mills were closing down mainly due to trade union strikes. In 2010, he divested his pathology lab chain to SRL Ranbaxy for Rs 600 crore, citing lack of big growth prospects. In 2015, he discontinued drug discovery research, which his scientist-wife and Vice Chairman of the Group Swati Piramal passionately spearheaded for 15 years. In 2016, he sold off BST CarGel, a cartilage regeneration product developed for global markets. Next, he could sell off the loss-making imaging business.

But Piramal sees future for a business only if it has the potential to generate revenue growth in excess of 20 per cent a year and profit growth in excess of 20-30 per cent. Almost all his acquisitions were brands or companies owned by MNCs, in which investments - hence, growth - had come to a standstill. Like Nicholas Laboratories, he acquired them, invested in them, grew them to unlock value, and then sold them at the right time and price to jump into another business.

He chose to put money in unheard of businesses - such as acquiring healthcare information management (IM) firm Decision Resources Group (DRG) of the US for $635 million (Rs 3,906 crore) in 2012 and Bayer's molecular diagnostic or imaging business. Meanwhile, Piramal Healthcare became Piramal Enterprises (PEL) and part of the money was invested in an unrelated area - financial services - by floating an NBFC to fund infrastructure and real estate sectors.

Analysts had begun giving up trying to find a method in the madness. The initial years after the sale to Abbott were a struggle. What remained with the listed Piramal Healthcare was a struggling contract manufacturing business, an over-the-counter (OTC) consumer product business, a Rs 200-crore, not-so-profitable path lab chain, a drug discovery arm that was eating away Rs 200-250 crore a year, and a small critical-care business unit - all with revenues of less than Rs 2,000 crore. The formulations division contributed nearly Rs 2,000 crore out of Piramal Healthcare's consolidated revenues of Rs 2,990 crore in 2010/11. Besides, another listed company, Piramal Glass, was also struggling to make profits due to high energy costs.

Though PEL made a profit of Rs 3,037 crore or 52 per cent over the investment within three years by exiting the Vodafone deal, life without the formulations business was a struggle. Revenue grew at nearly 30 per cent in the past five years to reach Rs 6,610 crore by FY16 (group revenues are about Rs 9,000 crore). However, margins suffered due to the large financial play. In FY12, net profits were only Rs 112 crore. The next two years were worse - losses of Rs 227 crore and Rs 501 crore, respectively. In 2014/15, the company turned around to post Rs 421 crore net profit. In FY16, PEL posted a decent net profit of Rs 951 crore.

Piramal says he is now committing to some really large bets. First, listed entity Piramal Enterprises will carve out two other listed entities within the next 18 months - Piramal Healthcare and a financial services arm. Each PEL shareholder will become a shareholder in these two entities as well. Then, DRG will be spun off and listed in the US. Besides, the group is trying to enter another new area of business. Piramal's largest playground will be in two areas - financial services and Piramal Realty - where he will invest over Rs 16,000 crore in four to five big projects within the next four years with the aim to become one of the top three real estate developers in India. "Most of my personal investments (Rs 1,216 crore alone from dividends) are in real estate," says Piramal, who has entrusted the family office investment responsibilities to Khushru Jijina, Managing Director of Piramal Fund Management. "There is much sense in what Ajay Piramal is now trying to do, to regroup his businesses for further growth," says ISB's Ramachandran.

The Contrarian

Ajay Piramal has the knack of making 'abnormal returns' through abnormal risks. "We have always been contrarian. That is why we did not invest in infrastructure when everybody was investing. Nobody was investing in the US when we did. That is a judgement call and till now it has been proved right," says Piramal.

Having taken over as chairman of the group in 1984 at the young age of 29 following the sudden demise of his eldest brother Ashok and his father's death two years earlier, he turned around Morarjee Gokuldas Spinning & Weaving Mills in two years and divested it in 2005 as part of a family asset split.

"I have not come across any parallels like ajay piramal in family businesses, though there are many who have built their own businesses"

The group entered glass packaging in 1984 by acquiring Gujarat Glass, followed by Ceylon Glass in 1999. Piramal Glass has grown to be Asia's only specialty glass packaging company supplying to 17 of the top 20 clients across the globe. Then, what was the reason for delisting Piramal Glass? "In the last three to four years, energy costs were hurting the profits of Piramal Glass and we always felt the markets did not value the business to its potential," says Vijay Shah, Executive Director Piramal Enterprises.

His entry into pharma was also at the right time in 1988, when MNC drug companies were exiting India, and domestic companies were reluctant to buy their assets due to high overheads and costs. Piramal bought the Austrian MNC Nicholas Laboratories' Indian arm for just Rs 16 crore, ignoring expert advice not to do so. At that time, Nicholas was ranked 48th in the Indian pharma industry. A decade later, it was in the top five and by 2010, the third largest in domestic formulations business. He sold that business at a time when Indian pharma was projected to grow at a rate of 15-16 per cent a year (which now is in single digits for many leading companies).

At a time when the realty market was going through a slump, the group floated Piramal Realty in 2012. Earlier, in 1999, Piramal experimented with realty to build India's first retail mall Crossroads and first organised office space Peninsula Corporate Park. "Our goal is to create world-class residences for our customers rather than becoming the largest or biggest player in terms of units sold," says Anand Piramal, Ajay's son and executive director of Piramal Group.

F for Financial Services

Shriram-Piramal Financial Services will be the pivot around which the finance business will revolve. While Piramal is into wholesale lending, Shriram has an extensive retail lending network across India with 60,000 employees in 3,000 offices and Rs 90,000 crore of assets under management (AUM). "We have various options available; it all depends on what the Shriram board decides and what we decide. We see them as a long-term partner," says Piramal. Having started with a loan book of Rs 13,000 crore at Piramal Finance, the combined loan book of Shriram City Union (which operates in microfinance, gold and two-wheeler loans with disbursements of Rs 19,576 crore by March 2016) and Piramal will be over Rs 33,000 crore. Shriram Transport, Indias largest vehicle financier, has over Rs 72,760 crore AUM.

In FY12, income from financial services (mainly lending to real estate sector) was a meagre Rs 82 crore for PEL. It has grown to Rs 2,017 crore by FY16, thanks to a loan book of Rs 13,048 crore in wholesale lending to real estate and special situation projects, Rs 8,717 crore AUM, which are third-party fund investments in real estate such as structured debt, construction finance and mezzanine equity or pure equity and special situations (like funding renewables, transportation or cement companies), and a strategic investment of Rs 4,583 crore in Shriram Group. In fact, the loan book jumped 174 per cent from Rs 4,766 crore in FY15, the highest in the sector. Compared to this, the nearest competitors are Indiabulls, which grew it by 32 per cent and YES Bank by 30 per cent, says a company investor presentation. The fund management has 145 transactions with 81 developers and the average yield on loans is 17 per cent with a gross NPA ratio of 0.9 per cent.

Realty Play

Jijina says that the entry into construction finance helped them scale up; it now accounts for 42 per cent of the loan book (as of March 16). Adds Piramal: "We financed (ranging) from land acquisition to construction finance and sometimes equity. And often, we do the last stage apartment funding. We have the whole project in control. Secondly, we fund only the top developers."

"(Delisted Piramal Glass because) we always felt the markets didn't value the business to its potential"

Piramal Realty is setting up big residential projects - a 32 acre project in Thane, a seven-acre land near Byculla zoo with a 70-plus storied tower, three 50-60 storied towers in Mulund, a 20-storied building in Worli, and a 16-17-acre project in Kurla including 2-3 million sq. ft office space. Altogether, over 8,000 units will be on offer, entailing an investment of over Rs 16,000 crore.

These projects are likely to be completed in four to five years, says Anand Piramal, who got a big boost last year when Goldman Sachs and Warburg Pincus invested Rs 2,760 crore in Piramal Realty, the biggest real estate PE funding in India.

Meanwhile, Ajay Piramal is planning to extend the business to other areas of real estate lending, besides floating a distressed assets fund with a foreign partner. It recently launched Piramal India Resurgent Fund with a corpus of Rs 6,000 crore to acquire stressed loans.

Abbott and After

PEL now has four businesses - pharma solutions or contract manufacturing for MNC drug companies, critical care/ imaging business, OTC, and IM. From Rs 939 crore revenues in FY10, pharma solutions has grown to Rs 2,290 in FY16. It was struggling for a few years prior to FY10, but capacity was ramped up with acquisitions, debottlenecking and capacity expansion. "More than the acquisitions and capacity expansions, we focused on quality and customer partnership, which helped us grow better than the industry," says Vivek Sharma, Chief Executive Officer, Pharma Solutions of PEL.

Piramal aims to grow pharma solutions 15-20 per cent every year, which is double of industry predictions. The global contract (bio) pharma manufacturing market is predicted by market research firm Visiongain to reach $79.24 billion by 2019.

Critical Care, or inhalation anaesthetics, is headed by Piramal's son-in-law Peter De Young. The global market for this is valued at around $1.2 billion and Piramal is already among the top three companies in the field after US-based AbbVie (formerly part of Abbott) and Baxter.

The Piramals entered this space in 2002 and revenues have grown at a CAGR of 18 per cent in the past five years to reach Rs 876 crore in FY16. Now Piramal's global market share is about 12 per cent, but it has about 30 per cent of the US business where margins are high. "We are also pursuing acquisition opportunities for faster growth," says DeYoung.

Ajay Piramal is also betting big on consumer healthcare. In 2007, Piramal Healthcare had dissolved its joint venture with Boots to float an independent OTC business, which was ranked 40 in India. In two years, it improved to 17. During the sale to Abbott, this division was retained. Thereafter, PEL did five acquisitions in OTC - contraceptive i-Pill from Cipla, skin care Caladryl from Inova Pharma, five brands in gastro care from Organon India and MSD, baby-care brand Little, and four popular brands of Pfizer including Waterbury's Compound. Now its OTC business has top-selling brands like the Rs 131-crore Saridon pain killer, Rs 50 crore i-Pill, the second largest emergency contraceptive, largest anti-allergic Caladryl and Lacto, the leading calamine lotions in India with sales of Rs 46 crore. OTC revenues also have grown from a modest Rs 124 crore in FY09 to Rs 393 crore in FY16 at a CAGR of 18 per cent.

Besides, Piramal's OTC products today reach 350,000 outlets including 220,000 chemist shops across more than 1,500 towns. "In the recent past, we have acquired many heritage brands with good potential and are re-investing to grow these brands," says Nandini Piramal, Ajay's daughter, and Executive Director of PEL.

"Our entry into construction finance helped us scale up; now it is 42 per cent of our loan book"

In healthcare, the biggest growth came from IM, a new area the Piramals entered in 2012 with the acquisition of DRG (revenues: $139 million). The company serves nearly all leading life science and insurance companies, and 75 per cent of revenue is recurring. After the buyout, DRG bought six small IM companies - Abacus International, Relay Technology, Activate Networks, HealthHiway, HBI and Adaptive Software . As a result, revenues have grown to $178 million (Rs 1,156 crore) in 2015, a growth of 13.4 per cent over 2014. Piramal says IM was just a $2-billion global market in the past, but is over $6 billion now. With more solutions in consulting, research, data and analytics, this is poised to grow to over $16 billion in future.

Healthcare accounted for 80 per cent of PEL's Rs 2,009-crore revenues in 2010/11, which has fallen to 54 per cent of Rs 6,610 crore by FY16, thanks to its forays into financial services (28 per cent) and IM (18 per cent).

Time for Professionals

Critics have often attacked Piramal for his reliance on family members, rather than professionals, in running businesses. He disagrees: "No other company board can boast six Padma awardees." The PEL board includes Siddharth (Bobby) Mehta, former president and CEO of Transunion; Deepak Satwalekar, former MD and CEO of HDFC Standard Life; Blackstone senior executive Gautam Banerjee; former ICICI chairman N. Vaghul; former HUL chairman Keki Dadiseth; scientists R.A. Mashelkar and Goverdhan Mehta; and S. Ramadorai, former vice-chairman of TCS. In addition, Swati Piramal, Nandini, and Vijay Shah, who has been with the group for 25 years, are also on the board.

Following the sale of the formulations business, Ajay Piramal had formed a strategic management council (SCM) and floated a company, IndUS Growth Partners, for investing the Rs 15,000 crore in various businesses. Since the investments are now done, IndUS Growth Partners has folded into DRG, with its MD Jonathan Sandler taking over as CEO of DRG and Vivek Sharma becoming the CEO of pharma solutions business. There is Jijina, too, who has been with the group for over 14 years.

Besides, Piramal has floated independent informal boards for each business. Healthcare has a pharma operations board; real estate lending, real estate asset management, and special situation transactions have independent investment committees with experts and one or two board members. Similarly, IM has an information management board, with people like PwC Partner Ashish Dalal, former HDFC senior executive Harish Engineer, former Warburg Pincus MD Rajesh Khanna, HDFC Securities Chairman Bharat D. Shah, among others.

Shah says Piramal Glass is back on track, posting over Rs 2,000 crore revenues. Piramal says the group's expansion in India will be restricted to OTC, financial services, real estate and one more sector (cement); contract manufacturing, critical care and IM will be powered by Europe and the US. "In the past five years, we created a value of Rs 18,000 crore. From 1988, we have created value Y-o-Y of 28.5 per cent," says Piramal. "There are not many stocks in which you invested Rs 1 lakh in 1988 that gives you Rs 11 crore today."

After the sale to Abbott, Piramal had the time and resources to buy mansions, yachts or private jets. Or, hang up his boots and retire on a private island. But the youthful-at-61 Piramal believes he has a long way to go. "Our belief is to create maximum shareholder returns and in the process earn our share as the largest promoter," he says.

The only luxury he allowed himself was buying a mansion from the King of Sangli at Mahabaleshwar, which the Piramals use as their weekend getaway. He is also building a new house for himself - a four-storied bungalow - on the Worli sea face in Mumbai. Piramal Realty had acquired the plot from HUL a few years ago. Sure, the vast ballroom in the ground floor of the corporate headquarters, Piramal Towers, has been modified and a velvet room awaits his guests, but his eyes are on quadrupling the group's valuation to $20 billion in four years. Manoeuvring such a portfolio will be a herculean task. It's nothing like anything he has done before but Piramal is convinced he has found the method in the madness, even if the analysts couldn't.


Country's largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki India will kick start the sale of its much-awaited Light Commercial Vehicle (LCV) - Super Carry in Ahmedabad, Kolkata and Ludhiana markets next month at a retailed price of Rs 4,03,000 to Rs 4,11,000.

Super Carry will mark its entry into the highly-competitive LCV segment dominated by Tata Motor, Mahindra & Mahindra and Italian automaker Piaggio in the domestic market.

Maruti has launched Super Carry as a high performance vehicle with bigger loading capacity of 740 kg and better safety features. It will have a 793cc engine mated to a five-speed manual gear box, delivering a mileage of 22.07 kmpl.

RS Kalsi, Executive Director (Marketing & Sales), Maruti Suzuki said: "Super Carry is designed and developed on the basis of detailed research and understanding of customer requirements. It offers best of both the worlds - power and strength - as well as carrying capacity. We are confident Super Carry will enhance the profitability of our customers."

Maruti has invested about Rs 300 crore towards the development of Super Carry that will be available in diesel option and two in colours - white and silver. The company will put up the new commercial sales channel for selling Super Carry with outlets designed to cater to the very specific need of the LCV target customers that will be set up in Ahmedabad, Kolkata and Ludhiana in the first phase.

The company has loaded Super Carry with front disc brake and Load Sensing Proportioning Valve (LSPV) braking system that provides better stability during braking. Bigger and wider wind screen, ORVMs (driver & co-driver), additional rear reflectors, headlamp leveller and robust packaging of electrical parts enhance the safety of the occupant. For added safety, high tensile material limits intrusion inside cabin. The galvanised material in the chassis area provides better rust resistance.
YES Bank, India's fifth largest private sector bank, on Wednesday said it has got an in-principle nod from capital markets regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) to sponsor mutual funds business and to venture into the asset management in India.

"Yes Bank receives in-principle approval from Sebi for setting up of Mutual Fund, Asset Management and Trustee Co," the bank said in a filing on stock exchanges.

ALSO READ: Now, transfer money instantly via SBI ATM without debit card

In October 2015, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had granted approval to YES Bank to set up a mutual fund, asset management company (AMC) and a trustee company.

"The Bank has already identified senior leadership and technology architecture to establish this business, and will commence operations within 12 months," said YES Bank in a filing to BSE.

"The AMC will further strengthen YES Bank's expertise in wealth management solutions, debt capital markets and gain from its significant and growing customer base & distribution network, and overall execution expertise, to build a large and profitable Fund Management franchise."

Shares of YES Bank were trading nearly 1 per cent lower on the BSE in Wednesday's trade.


The Central Bank today published a Discussion Paper in a bid to seek views on the risks and benefits to the consumer posed by brokers.

In a bid to regulate further the brokers and intermediaries that operate between financial companies and the consumer the bank calls on all interested parties to respond to questions in its paper.

The Central Bank describe in its Discussion Paper that It is important that the remuneration structure for staff of both financial services providers and financial intermediaries is designed to encourage responsible business conduct, fair treatment of consumers and to avoid conflicts of interest.

Responses to the Discussion Paper will be published on the Central Bank website and will be used to inform the Central Banks policy in relation to the paying of commission to intermediaries.

The Banks says that responses will also contribute to our engagement on this topic in domestic, EU and international fora and any technical advice to Government on the legislative framework for the regulation of financial services.

Interested parties are invited to respond to the questions posed in the paper by 18 October 2016.

Source: www.businessworld.ie
The Central Bank Quarterly Bulletin was released this morning with wide ranging reporting discussing Irish mortgage figures, unemployment, Brexit, on-shoring and balancing sheet reclassification.

The Bank forecasts an improving labour market, indicating that the Irish unemployment rate will continue its downward projection from 11.1% in 2014, to 9.4% currently, falling further to reach 7.9% in 2016 and 7.2% in 2017.

In terms of Brexit the report states Assessing the outlook for the economy is further complicated by the outcome of the Brexit referendum in the UK. The close relationship between the Irish and UK economies creates a particular exposure for the Irish economy from Brexit. Both in the short-term and in the longer-term, the economic impact of Brexit on Ireland is set to be negative and material.

GDP growth of 4.9% is forecast for 2016, a marginal downward revision of 0.2% from the previous projection. The forecast for GDP growth in 2017 is 3.6%, down 0.6% from the previous forecast.

Mortgage arrears has been a commanding topic since the boom, the report indicates that on an aggregate level, arrears have been declining since mid-2013, overall about 1 in 6 mortgage accounts has received some form of restructuring arrangement. The majority (circa 85%) of these restructured accounts are meeting the terms of their new arrangement.

The Central Bank take a long term view on Euro to Sterling, forecasting that the EUR/GBP exchange rate will settle back to 84c across 2016 and 2017 from 73c this June.



Source: www.businessworld.ie
US based software company PTC will create 50 new jobs at its newly established research and development centre in Dublin.

PTC is a global provider of technology platforms and solutions that transform how companies create, operate, and service the things in the Internet of Things (IoT).

The Company's technology is primarily used by manufacturers to design, operate and maintain complex products in the IoT sphere.

The 50 positions will be filled by the end of 2018. Initial positions include DevOps Engineers, Cloud Architects and Security Architects.

The PTC Academic Program is already part of the curriculum in academic institutions such as Trinity College Dublin, DIT, ITT Dublin, GMIT, AIT, and University of Limerick, all of which teach PTCs 3D modelling software solution, Creo.

The investment is supported by the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation through IDA Ireland.

Minister Mitchell OConnor TD commenting on the announcement, said, "I am delighted that PTC is establishing an International Headquarters in Dublin creating 50 new jobs. Ireland has developed extensive expertise in ICT generally, particularly in software development. We have a very strong position in a range of IT specialities and we are very much aware that the 'Internet of Things', involving a world of connected devices, represents a new wave of potential and of growth opportunities."

Craig Hayman, Group President, IoT Solutions Group, PTC said, PTC is a recognised leader in the Internet of Things and in helping companies around the world design, build and service great products. Ireland is a strong location with a well-established technology sector well suited to complement the work we will be doing at our IoT Solutions research and development facility. The establishment of the Irish operation is key to PTCs global growth strategy.

Source: www.businessworld.ie
Though the kids will be back in school soon, there is still plenty of time to make summer memories. Family vacations are a great way to connect and make memories that can last a lifetime, but they can be pricey. Having fun as a family is possible at a fraction of the cost by taking staycations  vacation activities close to home that reduce the need for hotel stays and travel costs. Staycations = vacation fun for less money.

Because home is often considered base camp, it may be helpful to set some ground rules as a family to help your staycation feel like a true vacation. Consider these tips:

* <strong>Decide on a budget.</strong> Deciding ahead of time how much you can afford to spend can help you determine which activities wont create financial stress or debt.

* <strong>Make a plan.</strong> Decide when your staycation begins and ends and which activities you will all enjoy. No matter what you choose to do, remember that staycations are about spending time together and making memories.

* <strong>Pretend you arent home.</strong> Although you may sleep or eat some meals at home, pretend you are not at home. For example, if you were on vacation you probably wouldnt do chores, go to a friends house or check work emails, so the same rules should apply to the designated time for your staycation.

* <strong>Keep it simple.</strong> Staycations may mean a full day of travel and activity or even staying overnight somewhere. However, for families with young children, going to a museum or waterpark close to home and then coming home for naptime or nightly routines may make a much more enjoyable vacation than full-day adventures.

Staycation ideas are virtually endless and depend on your location, interests and budget, but consider these 10 ideas to get you started:

1. Get beachy at Bear Lake. Relax on the beach, play in the water, make sandcastles or rent a kayak. While you are in the area, watch a play, go for a bike ride, check out Minnetonka Cave or get a famous raspberry shake.

2. Go river rafting on the Colorado River, Green River or another river close to home. There are many guided tours available and lunch or admission to other attractions is often included.

3. Turn Salt Lake City into a large scavenger hunt as you complete challenges and solve clues to discover overlooked gems in the city and learn about local history. See <a href=http://www.visitsaltlake.com/listings/Amazing-Scavenger-Hunt-AdventureSalt-Lake-City/62850/ target=_blank>http://www.visitsaltlake.com/listings/Amazing-Scavenger-Hunt-AdventureSalt-Lake-City/62850/</a> for more information.

4. Play in Park City for the day. Take a tram to the top of a mountain to enjoy the view and then hike, zip line or slide down. Check out the Utah Olympic Park freestyle shows and museum or go shopping at the outlets.

5. Enjoy a tasty day on a Cache Valley food tour <a href=https://www.explorelogan.com/food-tour.html target=_blank>https://www.explorelogan.com/food-tour.html</a>. While in Logan, check out some historical sites, go for a hike in Logan Canyon or visit the Willow Park Zoo.

6. Plan a year of fun with the Connect Pass which allows entrance to 13 select attractions including Discovery Gateway, Thanksgiving Point, Hogle Zoo, Clark Planetarium, The Leonardo, Natural History Museum of Utah, Snowbird Resort and more. See <a href=http://www.visitsaltlake.com/things-to-do/connect-pass/ target=_blank>http://www.visitsaltlake.com/things-to-do/connect-pass/</a> for more information.

7. Visit Heber Valley to snorkel, swim or soak in the geothermal spring. While youre in the area, take a tour of the Heber Valley cheese factory.

8. Check out reduced price days at local arcades/fun centers or movie theatres. Many have special pricing on attractions for the summer months.

9. Enjoy local free offerings such as movies, art, science, music in the park, farmers markets or free days at local attractions. Check out these links for additional information in the Ogden area: <a href=http://ogdenamphitheater.com/ target=_blank>http://ogdenamphitheater.com/#</a>, <a href=https://scienceintheparks.org/ target=_blank>https://scienceintheparks.org/</a>, <a href=http://www.webercountyutah.gov/ramp/ target=_blank>http://www.webercountyutah.gov/ramp/</a>.

10. Enjoy the great outdoors. Utah is full of state and national parks, not to mention all the beautiful canyons, lakes and mountain areas. Go for a hike, a bike ride, have a picnic and explore what people come from all over the world to see. Check out the free entrance days at the national parks August 25-28 at <a href=https://www.nps.gov/planyourvisit/fee-free-parks.htm target=_blank>https://www.nps.gov/planyourvisit/fee-free-parks.htm</a>.
In Concert

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In this ongoing treatise on the performing arts, we examine the best performing musicians upon the stage.
PROVIDENCE  Minor changes were made to the ordinance regarding what is legal when it comes to off-highway vehicle (OHV) use in city limits, but further discussion is expected.

The ordinance previously allowed an OHV on city streets if it had a safety flag or headlights and taillights, but the City Council voted unanimously Tuesday night to amend the ordinance to require headlights and taillights, regardless of a safety flag.

The amended ordinance came after discussions during previous meetings over whether OHV use should be banned. Motorcycles, ATVs and other OHVs are allowed, but operators are required to either possess a drivers license or a Utah OHV education certificate if on city streets. Those less than 16 years old must have adult supervision, speed limits must be followed and protective headgear is required for passengers and drivers less than 18 years old.

According to multiple claims, those laws are being broken, and many residents are annoyed or feel unsafe. There have been complaints from residents  especially from those that live near the entrance to Providence Canyon  of excessive noise and reckless driving from OHV operators.

(Parents) put these vehicles in their kids hands while they are at work, Providence resident Annette Drew said in a June meeting. And these kids are running around all day long with RZRs, dirtbikes and whatever else they have.

Whether or not a complete or partial ban on OHV use will take place is yet to be seen. Providence resident Paula Anderson spoke out during Tuesday nights meeting and said she believes the issue comes down to enforcement of the current ordinance rather than new laws.

Why not enforce it now and give it a try? she asked the council. Thats my feeling, if it is not being enforced now what is going to change if you take it and make it illegal?

Anderson said she enjoys being able to legally use OHVs to travel to and from the canyon, and that having to use a trailer to transport them can be very inconvenient.

The people that are breaking the rule now are going to be the people that still break the rule, she said. If it is not getting enforced now, who is to say it is going to get enforced then?

Mayor Don Calderwood suggested requiring all OHVs to be street-legal based on state law if operated in city limits.

What that means is it has to have turn signals, he said. It has to have a horn, it has to have proof of insurance, it has to have a license.

Council member John Drew disagreed and said he believes the current ordinance is appropriate if enforced.

Just changing the ordinance to street-legal or not street-legal is not going to change one thing on this issue, he said. I guarantee no one is going to read this ordinance before they go purchase a vehicle.
50 years ago, Uzbekistans capital Tashkent hosted a summit ending the India-Pakistan war of 1965, resulting in the Tashkent Declaration. It was, so to speak, a Soviet Camp David aimed at bringing two antagonists  India and Pakistan  to peace. The SCO summit of June 2016 was, symbolically speaking, a second  multilateral  platform created in the same place, Tashkent, for the same two states to restore peace. Yet this summit did not appear to be a second Tashkent Camp David, but rather a challenge for the SCO itself.

BACKGROUND: Article I. of the 1966 Tashkent Declaration says: The Prime Minister of India and the President of Pakistan agree that both sides will exert all efforts to create good neighborly relations between India and Pakistan in accordance with the United Nations Charter. They reaffirm their obligation under the Charter not to have recourse to force and to settle their disputes through peaceful means. Article IX says: The Prime Minister of India and the President of Pakistan have agreed that the two sides will continue meetings both at the highest and at other levels on matters of direct concern to both countries. Both sides have recognized the need to set up joint Indian-Pakistani bodies which will report to their Governments in order to decide what further steps should be taken. That was a breakthrough in diplomacy and peacemaking reminiscent of the Camp David process.

Since then two more wars, a number of armed conflicts, skirmishes, incidents and even a nuclear arms race have taken place between these two states. India and Pakistan met once again in Tashkent in June 2016, this time within a multilateral format to engage with the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO)  the structure that for 15 years has been declaring values of peace, cooperation, mutual trust and so on, all sealed in the SCO Charter.

The 1966 Tashkent Declaration was adopted in the clear context of conflict between two rivals but did not help prevent their future deadly conflicts. The 2016 Tashkent Declaration was adopted in the context of a much more ambitious and expanding organization but also a much more uncertain geopolitical environment.

To some extent, the role of the joint Indian-Pakistani body mentioned in the above mentioned Article IX will be transferred to the SCO. However, the last two SCO summits (in Ufa and Tashkent) revealed more concerns than optimism regarding the new mission of the organization, burdened with ever more geopolitical tasks than before the expansion. This is exactly what Uzbekistans President Islam Karimov has repeatedly pointed out between the previous summit and the recent one.

IMPLICATIONS: In his speech at the SCO summit, Karimov mentioned the precipitously changing world and indicated three highly important challenges facing the organization. First, it is important to preserve the SCOs openness and its character as a non-alliance. Thereby, he hinted to Tashkents wish to have free hands and pursue a relatively independent foreign policy.

Second, the course towards a large expansion of the SCOs composition launched with the admission of India and Pakistan undoubtedly means that the SCO reached a new level and entered a new and more complicated phase of its activity. He pointed out that the SCO will from now on face more difficulties in achieving consensus during decision making on basic issues on the organizations agenda, taking into account the sometimes diametrically opposite approaches of some states towards current international and regional developments.

Third, with the current protracted situation in Afghanistan, there is a serious and real danger that instability can spill over to neighboring countries and regions. Karimov repeated his old vision of peacemaking in Afghanistan: peaceful political negotiations between major belligerent groups under the UN aegis, including a revitalization of the negotiation process between the government and the Taliban, without preliminary conditions. Although the last point seems unrealistic and conceptually invalid, the message was addressed to the SCOs expanded family. It sounded like a stipulation of Uzbekistans consent on the admission of India and Pakistan, with assurance that peace and stability in Afghanistan must be achieved.

From now on, given the institutionalized summits of the SCO, Indias and Pakistans leaders will meet annually, not occasionally, which hopefully will contribute to a broader climate of mutual confidence between these two permanent rivals. Particularly Pakistan, where terrorist and extremist groups find sanctuary and regularly destabilize Afghanistan, will have to take stricter and more rigorous measures against them. If such a new trend would contribute to stable peace and the defeat of terrorism in Afghanistan, this would be the SCOs greatest achievement, with profound implications for Central Asia.

Meanwhile, the SCOs compositional innovation related to the admission of India and Pakistan contrasts the old tradition of what can be called cloning twin declarations. Especially if the SCOs previous 2015 Ufa Declaration is compared to the latest Tashkent Declaration of 2016, they indeed look like identical statements. Probably no other international organization, except the UN, has been as anxious to make common, axiomatic expressions of positions about the wide range of major problems the world is facing nowadays  from fighting terrorism and drug traffic to the situation in the Middle East and Ukraine, from nuclear non-proliferation to the role of the UN, from information security to the militarization of space, from the world financial crisis to anti-missile defense systems.

Why is SCO cloning its declarations? This is likely a manifestation of the SCOs China-centrism. The more concerns that are expressed in different parts of the world and different mass media about a rising China, the more persistently the SCO reiterates its good will and cooperative agenda even in identical expressions. It is noticeable, in this regard, that both the Ufa and Tashkent Declarations display member-states support of the Chinese Silk Road Economic Belt initiative. However, having embraced numerous key international issues, neither the Tashkent, nor the Ufa Declaration mentioned the ambitious Eurasian Union, initiated by Russia. Although the China-centric character of the SCO has been fairly clear in light of its hitherto limited membership, it is an open question whether this character will be sustainable after the organizations expansion, which therefore constitutes a challenge both for China and for the SCO itself.

CONCLUSIONS: The SCOs latest main document is named the Tashkent Declaration of the 15th Anniversary of SCO. This year is also symbolically important as the 50th Anniversary of another Tashkent Declaration adopted in the wake of the war between India and Pakistan. But if 50 years ago the summit yielded great optimism and positive expectations, the SCOs 15th anniversary yielded less optimism and more concerns, particularly expressed by Uzbekistan.

Until recently, the SCO has focused primarily on Central Asia. In connection with the SCOs expansion, the question arises why so many countries from Turkey and the Caucasus to Sri Lanka and East Asia has begun to gravitate towards the SCO? Is this organization replicating the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Measures in Asia (CICMA)? Will it resemble an Eastern OSCE? Or are Eurasian, Central Asian, South Asian and East Asian countries just pivoting towards a rising China?

Interestingly, Slavic, Christian, Turkic, Muslim, Confucian, Hindu and Persian civilizations are well represented within the SCO, which is evolving as a platform for peace of civilizations, not clash of civilizations, yet one civilization remains unrepresented  that of the West.

In connection with the SCO expansion, the political unity of Central Asians themselves is more actualized than ever before, as they become exposed to more geopolitical challenges and subjected to diverse influences in a highly complex structure that is becoming more multilateral and more ambitious.

AUTHORS BIO: Dr. Farkhod Tolipov holds a PhD in Political Science and is Director of the Education and Research Institution Knowledge Caravan in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.

Image Attribution: images.indianexpress.com, accessed on July 21, 2016
Civitas Institute

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The vision of the Civitas Institute is of a North Carolina whose citizens enjoy liberty and prosperity derived from limited government, personal responsibility and civic engagement. The mission of the Civitas Institute is to facilitate the implementation of conservative policy solutions to improve the lives of all North Carolinians.
Just how much safety is Texas buying by spending $800 million on beefing up state patrol forces on the U.S.-Mexican border?

Or are Texas taxpayers just paying for a political campaign that can boast about keeping Texas safe?

Last week at a House Appropriations Committee hearing the head guy for the Department of Public Safety, Col. Steve McCraw, told legislators that "what happens on the Texas border affects the whole nation" not just Texas.

That's why the DPS, he said, is trying to, as rapidly as possible, bolster its trooper numbers in the Lower Rio Grande Valley. The Valley, which is the hottest area for human and drug smuggling, is the priority for the DPS, even if it means, as the DPS chief admitted, that other areas of Texas are being shorn of DPS officers.

But when $800 million also can be used to fund a statewide prekindergarten program, or to bolster K-12 public education or get a running start to achieve excellence at public colleges, the question becomes one of priorities.

But the Texas-Mexican border issue never has been one solely about public safety. The U.S.-Mexican border has been useful as a launching pad for a lot of political campaigns.

A Republican Congress has, over the length of his two terms, used their cry of "secure the border first" to bludgeon President Barack Obama, despite a surge in federal agents, soaring apprehensions and waves of deportations.

Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry used the border to help launch two presidential bids. It was his 2014 executive order that originally sent the Texas National Guard to the border. Present Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick used the border to fuel their own campaigns, promising to extend Perry's surge with additional DPS troops.

Abbott signed the $800 million appropriation for 2016-2017 biennium that is now funding the surge of DPS officers and new technology.

And now Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, he of the "big beautiful wall," has found that the Mexican border makes a nice political whipping boy.

McCraw told legislators at the July 19 committee meeting that the DPS is coming closer to the goal of hiring 250 troopers that would be permanently based in the lower Rio Grande Valley.

But, McCraw said, the DPS is now having to draw troopers from other parts of the state to fulfill its mission in the Valley.

"Are any of our other areas being left without adequate protection?" State Rep. Helen Giddings, D-Dallas, asked the DPS commander.

"Yes, ma'am," he said.

Giddings' concern was about adequate law enforcement. But she could have just as easily have asked whether the state's educational resources are being stripped for the sake of "securing the border."

Or whether the $800 million being spent on border security, a federal mission, was leaving gaps in the state's responsibility toward the uninsured, given that the state's leadership has refused to accept federally supported Medicaid funding?

Or whether the $800 million being spent to bolster the DPS couldn't be better used to repair the state's roads and bridges and thus bolster its economy?

Don't blame McCraw for spending the money. He is merely following the Texas Legislature's direction. And give an extra $800 million to any state agency and it will figure out a way to spend it.

But it's well to remember that governing is about setting priorities. Abbott, Patrick and House Speaker Joe Straus have already sent word to state agencies to lop off four percent off their next two-year budgetary requests.

But that directive pointedly excluded the border security project.

What Texans are getting for their $800 million isn't quite clear yet. McCraw told the legislators that his office is moving closer at arriving on measures for success. He has been singed before for counting the arrests and confiscations done by the federal government as well as local police departments and sheriff's offices among his figures.

Is the Texas-Mexico border a security concern? Undoubtedly. The security threat comes from the criminal organizations that operate along the Rio Grande. That's why the federal government has thousands of Border Patrol agents and tons of electronic monitoring equipment in place in the Valley, probably more than at any other section of the U.S.-Mexican border.

The state has a role to play, just as local police departments and sheriff's departments do. The question that has yet to be asked is what role is appropriate for the state.

In the alternative, Abbott and Patrick, just as Perry, have done the one thing that they never do with any other responsibility: just throw money at it.

Nick Jimenez has worked as a reporter, city editor and editorial page editor for more than 40 years in Corpus Christi. He is currently the editorial page editor emeritus for the Caller-Times. His commentary column appears on Wednesdays and Sundays.
Contributed photo Alien Ant Farm will headline a concert Friday night at Boneshakers on Weber Road.

SHARE Contributed photo Led by Machy De La Garza, Mexican is gaining local notoriety as a high-concept project that incorporates hip-hop, rock, mariachi and electronica to create a potent musical stew. The band also features Roro "Beatzilla" Gutierrez and De La Garza's husband, Ryan "Rhino" Whiteside on drums.

By Richard Guerrero of the Caller-Times

Alien Ant Farm is headlining at Boneshakers, but Corpus Christi act Mexicana could be the main attraction for many in the audience.

Alien Ant Farm  an early aughts alternative rock act whose cover of a Michael Jackson hit has racked up 79 million views on its Vevo  is the top draw, but Mexicana has created significant local buzz on the strength of a pair of singles and accompanying music videos.

Mexicana, led by Machy De La Garza, is a high-concept project that incorporates hip-hop, rock, mariachi and electronica to create a potent musical stew. The band also features Roro "Beatzilla" Gutierrez and De La Garza's husband, Ryan "Rhino" Whiteside on drums.

"Rhino, he likes rock  he used to be in the band iH-5," De La Garza said. "Roro played with a bunch of bands  he's played with DJ Kane, Jennifer y Los Jetz and he's been playing with La Conquista, too."

De La Garza said the group came together after she decided to start a solo project after leading La Conquista for several years.

"I always wanted to do something that was 100 percent me," she said. "Even though I write all the songs for La Conquista, I wanted to do something different  on my own."

The band's first single, "Super Peligrosa," features a slick performance video worthy of MTV's golden age of production. A second video, "Malo," features collaborators DJ Kane and Dapper Don. Both clips can be viewed at www.mexicanamusic.com.

De Le Garza said Mexicana is a character-driven project that requires a high level of production value. As a result, the band, which has been working together since 2015, is only now starting to accept bookings.

"We have to have production  the way we're coming out, it's not like, 'Let me just go and connect and play, you know?'" she said. "We gotta do it all the way  if not, we're not going to do it. The clothes, the stage, the music  they all go together."

Show promoter Patrick Basaldu said Mexicana's unique sound is the key reason he booked the band for the concert.

"I went over to their house and (Machy) played their tracks for me," he said. "It's like an energized pop rap (style) or something like that  but in Spanish, you know. It's catchy music; I think once people from the metal scene or the hip-hop scene listen to that, it's gonna bring them back. Her music is gonna catch on, once it's released."

Headliner Alien Ant Farm is no stranger to Corpus Christi audiences, Basaldu said, adding the band has played at several venues around town during its golden years.

Best known for its rendition of the Michael Jackson single, "Smooth Criminal," the band has continued to release albums over the years, including the 2015 release, "Always and Forever."

Basaldu said social media interest has been strong for the show.

"I didn't know what to expect because (Alien Ant Farm) are an older band, but from the feedback, the people's posts and likes  you know, social media  I noticed that there was a pretty good response. So I thought, 'Let's go ahead and do it,' " he said.

The show, which features six bands on two stages, includes support from The Beat Dolls (Austin), Morningside (Austin), Bloodline (Dallas), Perish Lane (Utah) and Robstown-based act Zombie King.

IF YOU GO

What: Alien Ant Farm, Mexicana and more

When: 8 p.m. Friday

Where: Boneshakers, 4522 Weber Road

Cost: $15 (advance), $20 (day of show)

Information: 361-334-5585 or www.facebook.com/boneshakers.corpus
GABE HERNANDEZ/CALLER-TIMES Connor Flynn (left) and Cynthia Perry perform a scene from "Measure 4 Measure" during a dress rehearsal Tuesday, July 26, 2016, at the Wilson Theatre at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi.

SHARE GABE HERNANDEZ/CALLER-TIMES Katia Mendizabel (right) and Thomas Valdez perform a scene from the "Measure 4 Measure" during a dress rehearsal Tuesday, July 26, 2016, at the Wilson Theatre at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi. GABE HERNANDEZ/CALLER-TIMES Ben Hudson (right) and Connor Flynn perform a scene from "Measure 4 Measure" during a dress rehearsal Tuesday, July 26, 2016, at the Wilson Theatre at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi. GABE HERNANDEZ/CALLER-TIMES Cynthia Perry (from left), Connor Flynn and Katia Mendizabel perform a scene from "Measure 4 Measure" during a dress rehearsal Tuesday, July 26, 2016, at the Wilson Theatre at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi. GABE HERNANDEZ/CALLER-TIMES Cynthia Perry (front) and Thomas Valdez perform a scene from "Measure 4 Measure" during a dress rehearsal Tuesday, July 26, 2016, at the Wilson Theatre at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi. Related Photos Measure 4 Measure Dress Rehearsal

By Beatriz Alvarado of the Caller-Times

Clad in a brown long-sleeve button-up shirt, deputy badge and cowboy hat, Thomas Valdez's face lit up when he began describing his theatrical role in a Shakespearean comedy.

The 21-year-old Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi student and seven others will travel to Scotland next month to perform "Measure 4 Measure" at the largest arts festival in the world.

"The Provost is a jailer," Valdez said of one of his characters. "I like the role because I get to bring some Texas to international theater."

Valdez is among five actors from the university's department of theatre and dance who will perform the 55-minute production in which five actors play 15 characters. The cast and crew and assisting faculty leave Aug. 2 for the festival and on Saturday will make one last push to raise funds for the unique opportunity.

"Measure 4 Measure" follows a series of promiscuous misfits in Vienna, Austria, as they try to save the life of Claudio, who has been unjustly sentenced to death.

Alison Frost, who is an associate professor of theatre at A&M-CC, said participating in the international festival makes for good exposure the young actors.

"Not every actor has the opportunity to do the Fringe Festival in Edinburgh," she said. "I've been teaching quite a number of years and this is my first time so that fact that these eight students are being afforded the opportunity to do this is indeed really special."

Corpus Christi native Katia Mendizabal plays Pompey, a pimp, and Mariana, a girl a girl from a New York City borough who likes to wear red and show off her cleavage, she said.

The 21-year-old said she's looking forward to "being able to make a living off your passion (acting)" and said the festival is a step in that direction for the crew.

"I'm genuinely pleased to have been cast for this," Mendizabal said. "This festival opens doors in terms of worldwide theater ... to be a part of that is incredible."

Twitter: @CallerBetty

IF YOU GO

What: Shakespearean Comedy 'Measure 4 Measure' benefit show

When: 7:30 p.m. Saturday

Where: Texas A&M-CC's Wilson Theatre in the Center for the Arts, Building No. 4

Cost: $10

Information: www.corpusstage.com
John Locke Foundation Guest Editorial

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JLFs Mission: The John Locke Foundation employs research, journalism, and outreach programs to transform government through competition, innovation, personal freedom, and personal responsibility. JLF seeks a better balance between the public sector and private institutions of family, faith, community, and enterprise.
GABE HERNANDEZ/CALLER-TIMES Kent Cooper (left) and Marcus Sanchez talk about the seventh annual Classic Rock 104.5/Edwards Law Firm Rock & Ride during a news conference Tuesday.

SHARE GABE HERNANDEZ/CALLER-TIMES People gather during the seventh annual Classic Rock 104.5/Edwards Law Firm Rock & Ride news conference Tuesday. GABE HERNANDEZ/CALLER-TIMES Buttons are passed out during the seventh annual Classic Rock 104.5/Edwards Law Firm Rock & Ride news conference Tuesday.

By Esther Hackleman, Esther.M.Hackleman@caller.com

The Marcus Sanchez standing in cowboy boots with black hair slicked back into a ponytail was a stark contrast from the man who was deployed to Iraq with combat boots and Marine regulation hair.

Sanchez commanded the attention of those gathered at the seventh annual Rock & Ride ribbon cutting Tuesday night.

Now the marketing manager for Convergent Broadcasting, Sanchez is one of the biggest proponents for this year's Rock & Ride event because of it's impact on service members. The event will benefit Operation: Cigar for Warriors, a nonprofit that sends cigars to those serving overseas. Sanchez knows that impact firsthand.

The retired Marine hospital corpsman shared his memories of receiving a care packet from the nonprofit filled with cigars, cigar cutters and lighters. The free package allowed he and his unit to enjoy a weekly Thursday night cigar as a relief from combat.

"It let everyone be human for a day before they had to go back to work," Sanchez said. "You're always connected to your brothers and sisters at arms, and it's a great feeling to give back."

The ribbon cutting marks the kick off for this year's Rock & Ride, which will be from Aug. 25-27. Every year, motorcyclists tour Corpus Christi and pull a playing card out of a deck at six locations starting at Corpus Christi Harley-Davidson and ending at Brewster Street Ice House. The playing cards are stamped at each stop, and revealed at the end of the night. The participant with the highest poker hand at the end of the ride receives $500 and a trip to Las Vegas, and the player with the worst hand receives $250.

"One hundred percent of registration fees go to the military benefiting Operation: Cigars for Warriors," Convergent General Manager Kent Cooper said. "We're just hoping to make it bigger and better.

Last year, Rock & Ride raised almost $12,000 for the nonprofit, according to a news release.

The ride, currently the biggest fundraiser for Operation: Cigars for Warriors, has extended its event from two days to three, kicking off the weekend Aug. 25 with a Cigars On the Patio event at Gaslight Square, Cooper said.

Packet pickup and a free concert will be at Brewster Street Ice House on Aug. 26, but the real fun starts Saturday, Aug. 27.

The ride will begin at 9 a.m. Aug. 27 with each rider receiving free breakfast, a Rock & Ride logo patch, admission to the 2017 Bikefest and more.

Tickets are available online at rocknride.cigarsforwarriors.org.

Twitter: @Caller_Esther

IF YOU GO

What: Seventh annual Rock & Ride

When: Aug. 25-27

Where: Ride will start at Corpus Christi Harley-Davidson and end at Brewster Street Ice House

Cost: $30, early registration single rider; $35 double riders

Information: rocknride.cigarsforwarriors.org
Contributed Rendering The Texas Transportation Commission in Austin on Thursday unanimously approved naming a team led by Flatiron Constructors Inc. and Dragados USA Inc. the winning bidders for designing and erecting a new Harbor Bridge that officials have called a "100-year bridge." Rachel Denny Clow/Caller-Times file The Harbor Bridge

SHARE Rachel Denny Clow/Caller-Times file The Texas Department of Transportation wants to move and raise the Harbor Bridge, which links Corpus Christi's Northside with North Beach, to serve taller vessels through the Corpus Christi Ship Channel.

By Chris Ramirez of the Caller-Times

Deciding to sell a home is one thing.

Residents living near where a replacement for the Harbor Bridge will soon be built learned Tuesday it's quite another to get through the appraisal process.

Officials for the Del Richardson & Association consulting firm on Tuesday held an informational meeting at the Oveal Williams Senior Center. Its goal was to update residents who are considering moving about how their homes would be appraised as part of a state-funded volunteer relocation effort.

"Appraisers are not going to just pick a number. They have a scientific formula for arriving at" a home's value, said Del Richardson, the consultant group's CEO. "We have to manage people's expectations."

The Port of Corpus Christi hired the California group in March to guide the relocation of potentially hundreds of residents and their families from Hillcrest, one of Corpus Christi's last remaining historically black neighborhoods.

The Northside community is expected to be the most impacted by the Texas Department of Transportation's plan to replace the Harbor Bridge. The port has authorized up to $20 million to buy Hillcrest properties and relocate neighborhood residents who want to move.

A snag in the process so far has been a lack of qualified appraisers to evaluate their homes.

Terms of the relocation plan stipulate homeowners can be moved to a home that is deemed "comparable," based on a variety of factors, such as size and amenities. That means an appraisal factors heavily into not only nailing down the value of a qualified owner's property, but also in sizing up where they can move to once they vacate their home.

Richardson said efforts are being made to recruit more appraisers, but the professionals need to be additionally certified by the transportation department to help with the relocation efforts.

A total of 128 property owners have shown interest in selling since the relocation program kicked off in May. So far, 21 property appraisals have been requested, said Frank Jordan II, a senior associate and outreach manager for the consulting firm. The firm announced Tuesday that two appraisals had been scheduled.

Qualified property owners have up to three years to decide whether to move, said Rosie Collin, director of community relations for the port.

Ground breaking for the $898 million bridge replacement is slated for Aug. 8. Construction is expected to run five years.

Twitter: @Caller_ChrisRam

HARBOR BRIDGE

REPLACEMENT

PROJECT TIMELINE

Summer 2016 Ground breaking, construction of Interstate 37 interchange gets underway

2016-2020 Construction continues

Early spring 2020 Construction of Crosstown Expressway/I-37 starts

Late spring 2020 Construction of new bridge complete, demolition of old Harbor Bridge begins

Spring 2021 Demolition of old Harbor Bridge complete
Contributed photo San Patricio County is one of three communities in the running to become home to an Exxon Mobil steam cracker.

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By Chris Ramirez of the Caller-Times

San Patricio County is on the shortlist of communities to become home to the world's largest steam cracker plant.

Exxon Mobil Corp. and Saudi Arabia Basic Industries Corp., a Riyadh-based petrochemical company, announced in a joint statement Tuesday they plan to build a complex together on the U.S. Gulf Coast.

Victoria and St. James Parish, Louisiana also are in the running.

The companies say the region interests them because of its abundant supply of natural gas, and that their planned facility intends capture competitive feedstock of the commodity.

"We're trying very hard to get that project to come here," said Foster Edwards, president/CEO of the San Patricio County Economic Development Corp. "We've got a lot of vacant land they could use. There's a lot of good qualities they could take advantage of here."

Edwards hoped the community's close ties with the Port of Corpus Christi and the efforts made in recent years to improve the LaQuinta Terminal would help it stand apart from its competitors.

In a statement, Exxon and SABIC said the facility, when finished, would be capable of producing 1.8 million tons per year of ethylene and would feed a monoethylene glycol plant and two polyethylene plants.

Monoethylene glycol can be used to make polyester for clothing and polyethylene terephthalate for beverage bottles and containers. Polyethylene can be used in a range of applications, including packaging, consumer and industrial products, agricultural film, and building and construction materials.

A common thread shared by each community is their availability of undeveloped land and water access. The parcel St. James Parish is offering is in an unincorporated area along the banks of the Mississippi River. Victoria, which has had relationships with petrochemical companies for more than six decades, recently added liquid and dry bulk cargo docks and improved roads at its port.

It also has beefed up industrial training programs at Victoria College in hopes of building up its workforce.

"Projects of this scale are transformational for any community," said D. Dale Fowler, president of the Victoria Economic Development Corp.

Margaret Ross, an Exxon Mobil spokeswoman, said officials are in the early stages of the process and plan to study each area extensively before making a final decision.

San Patricio County's proximity to the Eagle Ford Shale, along with its growing industrial workforce and the infrastructure the port provides, may be among its greatest advantages, energy expert Ray Perryman said.

Many believe the 3,000-square-mile Eagle Ford Shale energy play contains about 20 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and more than 3 billion barrels of oil.

The port also is in the final stages of a $28 million expansion of its railroad system and is building several new docks. Last year, the port authority also issued $115 million in revenue bonds both to buy land and to help finance a variety of capital projects over the next decade.

"Corpus Christi offers the right combination of nearby feedstocks and the right infrastructure and should definitely be considered for the ... project," said Perryman, CEO of The Perryman Group, an economic and financial analysis firm in Waco. "The area has attracted billions of dollars of similar investments in recent years, which is a testament to its competitiveness."

Twitter: @Caller_ChrisRam
Rachel Denny Clow/Caller-Times Heriberto Saenz waits for a status hearing before 347th District Court Judge Missy Medary on Wednesday. Saenz had been convicted of capital murder for the killing of 17-year-old Clarryssa Silguero, but it was overturned due to ineffective council. His new trial date has been set for November.

SHARE Rachel Denny Clow/Caller-Times Sylvia Gonzalez wipes tears from her eyes during a status hearing for Heriberto Saenz in the 247th District Court on Wednesday. Saenz had been convicted of capital murder for the killing of Silguero's daughter, 17-year-old Clarryssa Silguero, but the conviction was overturned due to ineffective council. His new trial date has been set for November. Rachel Denny Clow/Caller-Times Mike Silguero wipes tears from his eyes during a break in a status hearing for Heriberto Saenz in the 247th District Court on Wednesday. Saenz had been convicted of capital murder in connection with the killing of Silguero's daughter, 17-year-old Clarryssa Silguero, but it was overturned due to ineffective council. His new trial date has been set for November. Rachel Denny Clow/Caller-Times Donna Watkins (from left), founder of the Homicide Survivors Support Group, Sylvia Gonzalez and Jerry Gonzalez rejoice after 347th District Court Judge Missy Medary said the retrial of the capital murder trial in which Heriberto Saenz is accused of killing their daughter and stepdaughter, 17-year-old Clarryssa Silguero, will happen this year during a hearing Wednesday. Rachel Denny Clow/Caller-Times Defense attorney Milan Marinkovich (left) meets with Heriberto Saenz before a status hearing before 347th District Court Judge Missy Medary on Wednesday. Saenz had been convicted of capital murder in connection with the killing of 17-year-old Clarryssa Silguero, but it was overturned due to ineffective council. His new trial date has been set for November.

By Krista M. Torralva of the Caller-Times

Sylvia Gonzalez's body shook as the man once convicted of killing her daughter was led into a Nueces County courtroom.

Tears streamed down Gonzalez's cheeks, and her knee bounced but she didn't take her eyes off Heriberto Saenz, 25.

Saenz was convicted in 2010 of murder in the death of Clarryssa Silguero during a drive-by shooting Sept. 30, 2009. He was sentenced to 70 years for the killing and 20 years for aggravated assault for injuries to others.

But earlier this year, the state's highest criminal appeals court overturned Saenz's convictions. The Court of Criminal Appeals decided Saenz's trial attorney failed to challenge evidence used to identify Saenz as the shooter, according to the 25-page decision.

Saenz maintains his innocence. During a hearing Wednesday, 347th District Judge Missy Medary set his bail at $1 million. Medary was not the judge at his original trial.

Silguero had been standing outside with a group in the 1100 block of Sabinas Street when witnesses say shots were fired from a red Ford F-150 pickup. Corpus Christi police have said the shooting was gang related.

Saenz's family hired Houston-area defense lawyer Milan Marinkovich, a former Nueces County prosecutor. Several members of Saenz's family sat in the courtroom to support him but declined to speak with media.

Saenz's trial is slated for Nov. 14.
Area news

SHARE Jesse Seballos

By Julie Garcia of the Caller-Times

Police said a man killed his mother early Wednesday.

About 7:45 a.m., Beeville police arrived at a home in the 1300 block of South Tyler Street to find Michelle Seballos injured. Seballos, 41, was taken to Christus Spohn Hospital Beeville, where she died. Police have requested an autopsy to confirm her cause of death.

Seballos 21-year-old son, Jesse Seballos, was taken into custody at the scene. He was arrested on suspicion of murder with no bail set yet, according to Bee County jail officials.

Detective Sgt. Greg Baron called the home a known address. He said Jesse Seballos has a history of mental illness that police has dealt with before.

Weve been dealing with him since he was a kid. His behavioral issues stemmed from mental illness, Baron said. We do know of other (violent) instances, some reported and some not reported, Baron said. The subject is known to us.

Baron said he could not release whether Seballos confessed to the crime.

The 21-year-old had recently moved in with his mother and younger sister, Baron said. The juvenile sister was not home at the time of the incident and is staying with a friend and her grandmother. Police are working to set up a counselor for the girl through the assistance of the Womens Shelter of South Texas and will help with funeral arrangements, he said.

Child Protective Services have been notified of the incident, he said.

Her maternal grandparents are dead, and we dont know anything about her father and her sibling is incarcerated, he said. Were aggressively working on setting up a network for the child.

Twitter: @Caller_Jules
SHARE CONTRIBUTED PHOTO Miles

By Krista M. Torralva of the Caller-Times

A man accused of prostituting a child is on trial this week in Nueces County.

Jovan Miles, 28, is charged with five counts of trafficking a child and 12 counts of sexual assault of a child over the course of two months last year.

Miles will likely testify in his defense, lawyer Stephen Giovannini said.

Miles, of Missouri City, rented a room at a local motel for the girl to have sex with men for money and advertised the girl on a classifieds website, according to investigators who testified Tuesday in 94th District Judge Bobby Galvan's court.

Twitter: @CallerKMT
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Wow, how about that Eva Longoria!

That was not a partisan observation about the speech by Corpus Christi's famous native daughter at the Democratic National Convention. Anyone who takes pride in being from Corpus Christi, regardless of their politics, should be proud of Longoria and supportive of what she felt compelled to say Monday night.

Her declaration that "I'm with her" notwithstanding, what we heard from Longoria was not a partisan political speech. All we heard  all that matters  was an eloquent, spirited defense of herself, her family, her heritage, her hometown, women, veterans, people with disabilities and just basic human decency.

No one with a conscience should choose sides against any of that. What Longoria said was too personal and human to be written off as politics. She took deeply moral positions and being on the wrong side of them is Donald Trump's fault.

Our one quibble with this memorable speech is from a Chamber-of-Commerce perspective. We take exception to being described as a "small town." It has been a "town" of more than 200,000 people all of Longoria's life and now is comfortably north of 300,000.

But it's a minor quibble. Longoria goes out of her way to promote her hometown and her hometown appreciates her for it. Much more important was what Longoria said about her family. Trump has managed to attack each member of the Longoria family, including Eva, in a deeply personal way, not just because it is a family of Mexican origin.

Longoria described herself as ninth-generation American, noting that Texas used to be part of Mexico. "My family never crossed a border," she said. "The border crossed us."

That was just one of many zingers she delivered in three minutes. She noted that her father not only isn't a criminal, but is a military veteran; that when Trump mocked a physically challenged reporter, he also was mocking her special-needs sister "and many like her;" and that when Trump described wives who work outside the home as a dangerous thing, he was attacking not only her but her mother, who worked 30 years as a special education teacher and raised four children "while being a wife."

We learned from this speech that Eva Longoria is just one member of this impressive American family. She is just the one who has attracted the most attention. We have it on good authority that, demographically, Corpus Christi is overrun with families like the Longorias.

Eva Longoria said a lot of things that have needed to be said in response to Trump. They were the obvious things to say, and even if left unsaid, they should have ended his candidacy from the start. It's unfortunate that such a speech would be viewed through a partisan political prism. That she was at the Democratic National Convention, speaking to Democrats and endorsing Hillary Clinton should be ancillary details. She didn't cross the Republican Party or Trump. They crossed her.

They also crossed each member of her family and every family in Corpus Christi like the Longorias. All of those families, minus the Corpus Christi families Trump hasn't attacked, still add up to a pretty good-size town.
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Richard Ramirez

GOP convention in review

The Republican convention is over. Donald Trump has been crowned the candidate to the chant of "lock her up." I watched most of the proceedings and I must have missed the part where any of Donald's promises were not rooted in fear and hate. The fact-check of his statements revealed wrong numbers, cherry-picked statements and outright lies. Donald continued with his bogus wall, deportation of 11 million aliens, refusing to let in any Muslim refugees.

When a candidate is elected, the people who didn't vote for the candidate are still under his or her care. I can't help getting the feeling win or lose Donald's backers will continue the hate program they were raised with.

Give this a little thought: The top leaders of the GOP have written off 2016 and are thinking about 2020 with the exception of Blake Farenthold and his wreck-the-government tea party buddies. Do you hear change coming up behind you, Blake? The first step toward ending your gerrymandered district was the ruling against the bogus voter ID law. The same voters you agree with Donald are murderers, rapists and drug smugglers have been given the right to vote that your party worked so hard to take away.
Press Releases: Candidates seeking political office

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Beaufort County Now will publish every press release, which is within their power to do so, from every candidate seeking political office, irrespective of political party.
| BY Ricki Green |

Premium Tasmanian beer James Boag via Infinity Squared, has launched its latest brand campaign in partnership with Tourism Tasmania and collaborating partners Land Rover, Canon and MJ Bale to communicate its brand positioning of Harnessing Rugged Tasmania for people to savour.

The premium beer brand, refined from the purity of the rugged Tasmanian elements, is championing its Tasmanian roots, through a series of initiatives to inspire adventure and discovery of Australias most southerly state.

Says Malcolm Eadie, marketing manager, James Boag: We know our target consumer lives a fast paced urban lifestyle but the idea of returning to rugged captures the true essence of James Boag in savouring the purity of the Tasmanian elements.

To launch the activity, James Boag sent city-based, influential photographers on a expedition to Tasmania to document, through their lens and channels, their own experiences of the Tasmanian wilderness. One photographers journey, Perth based Jarred Seng, has been documented in a cinematic film entitled Return To Rugged. The film will be promoted via James Boag and the partners social and digital channels as well as featuring in Qantas Lounges.

Says Eadie: Partnering with Tourism Tasmania, Influencers and local Tasmanian operators seemed like the obvious route as we both share a passion for harnessing for the rugged elements of Tasmania to create refined experiences, for people to savour.

The expedition took in some of Tasmanias most iconic wilderness experiences; from scaling Cradle Mountain, fly fishing with Riverfly 1864 in the Western Lakes, shucking oysters at Barilla Bay and soaring above the Tassie wilderness with Par Avion.

Tourism Tasmania CEO John Fitzgerald said their partnership with Tasmanian premium beer icon James Boag on this brand project was a natural one.

Says Fitzgerald: Going behind the scenery to uncover the real character and rugged beauty of Tasmania is what our tourism brand is very much about, and this has been captured brilliantly in James Boags latest brand campaign.

Other photographers, including Jason Charles Hill, Ben Leo Davis, Gabe Hutcheon, David Sark, Benjamin Lee and Vinh Pham, have documented their experience via their social channels and campaign hashtag #ReturnToRugged.

Says Tom Phillips, managing partner, Infinity Squared: We needed to create something unique and authentic. The simple premise behind our approach, was that actions speak louder than words  collaboration and partnerships being fundamental to this.



A broader selection of photographs from the expedition will be shared via the brands social and digital channels over the coming months.

The activity is supported by a series of bespoke rugged-lux wilderness travel itineraries, created in partnership with Tourism Tasmania, so that James Boag drinkers can plan and book their own rugged adventures.

James Boag has been brewing out of Launceston with the finest of ingredients since 1881, staying true to the original vision, to craft Australias most revered beverage. Inspired by the land it is from, James Boag harnesses rugged Tasmania for people to savour.

The Campaign was developed and produced by Infinity Squared.

Client: Lion  James Boag (Amy Dreverman & Caroline Wood)

Collaborators: Jarrad Seng & Tourism Tasmania

Strategy Director / Managing Partner: Tom Phillips

EP / Founder: Dave Jansen

Creative: Melvin J. Montalban

Director: Dylan Duclos

DOP: Christopher Miles

Sound Designer: Josh Beattie

Colourist: Matt Fezz

Project Manager: Gwendolyn Jimenez

Talent Manager: Vinh Pham

Producer: Annie Schutt

Production Manager: Morgan Taylor
| BY Ricki Green |

The AME Awards for the Worlds Best Advertising & Marketing Effectiveness has appointed Deb Ryan, executive director of the AME Awards.

Says Michael ORourke, president, New York Festivals: New York Festivals is thrilled to appoint Deb Ryan to lead the AME Awards; we look forward to her leveraging her strategic marketing skills and executive experience to increase the competitions profile across all regions.

In her new role as executive director of the AME Awards, Ryan will take on dual roles, responsible for leading both the Midas Awards for the Worlds Best Financial Advertising, as well as the AME Awards. Ryan brings 15 years of brand building experience to the AME Awards; her depth of experience includes leadership positions in marketing, account management, corporate communications, new business and sponsorship development.

Says Ryan: For the past 22 years, the AME Awards have honored inspiring creative work that utilizes effective solutions to achieve measureable results. I look forward to continuing that impressive legacy while expanding the reach of the competition in all five regions.

As executive director, Ryan will lead all strategic initiatives to expand the AME Awards global presence, including recruiting the international AME grand jury comprised of interactive and multidisciplinary marketers, media planners, strategy directors, social media experts, and creatives assembled into five regional juries (North America, Latin America, Europe, Middle East & Africa and Asia Pacific).

Says Ryan: AMEs world class jury is paramount to the success of the competition, Im grateful to all who have participated in previous years, and I am currently in the process of recruiting additional executives from all regions to participate on the 2017 jury.

Previously Ryan served as director of business development for TVSquared; guiding prominent brands on their ad spend strategy and its impact. She has also held the following positions: director, digital marketing and advertising partnerships for Smith Hanley Associates, one of the leading big data analytics and IT recruitment agencies and digital account director, for Affinion Group, the leader in global customer engagement. In addition, Ryan served as account director at Story Worldwide where she led strategic content management and brand strategy for such brands as Green Giant, Skippy, Bertolli, and Promise.

Founded in 1994, the AME Awards honors international work that demonstrates ground-breaking solutions to challenging marketing problems. The AME Awards for Advertising & Marketing Effectiveness will open for entries on August 1, 2016.
| BY Ricki Green |

It is a great sadness to announce that yesterday Colin Fraser, a pioneer who made a significant contribution to the advertising industry in Australia, passed away at the age of 94.

Frasers career in advertising really started with the introduction of television in Australia. After being sent over to the US to learn how television worked on behalf of HSV-7 and in working as the stations program manager he faced the task of getting companies to use TV for advertising. Because almost no-one knew how it worked, it he literally wrote the book on it  How to Use TV Advertising.

After some years working for HSV-7 he joined George Patterson, where, as a creative director, he wrote the original VB ad in 1967 (adapted from a commercial fellow Patts CD Bruce Jarrett had written a few years before for Bulimba Beer in Queensland) before becoming managing director and then vice-chairman. He remained at Patts until the mid-1980s.

After leaving George Patterson he joined Samuelson, Talbot & Partners as joint chairman where he worked for another 25 years  right into his 80s.

Click here to read an article in the The Australian which talks about his role in the introduction of TV in Australia.




The Hood Territory

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It is a land where individual freedoms are celebrated, and the raising of an individual's taxes are not.
Tuesday, July 26, 2016 at 8:55PM

Tesla and Mobileye, which created the collision-avoidance technology for the automaker, are parting ways after their contract ended. Mobileye wants to protect its reputation, according to CTO Amnon Shashua. There is much at stake here, to Mobileyes reputation and to the industry at large, Shashua says. Tesla has been under scrutiny following a fatal crash that happened with a Tesla Model S that had Autopilot engaged.

But Tesla isnt worried about the end of the partnership. According to a statement from Tesla CEO Elon Musk, "MobilEye's ability to evolve its technology is unfortunately negatively affected by having to support hundreds of models from legacy auto companies, resulting in a very high engineering drag coefficient," he said. "Tesla is laser-focused on achieving full self-driving capability on one integrated platform with an order of magnitude greater safety than the average manually driven car."

However, Mobileye isnt exactly out of the autonomous driving industry. They have partnered with Intel and BMW to roll out an autonomous car by 2021.

Source: ZDNet
If you see any accidents or have any info on the morning commute, let us know whenever it is safe to do so. Email morningblog@canberratimes.com.au or tweet us @canberratimes.
Keep Canberra Open contacted its supporters to confirm a planned rally this weekend would still go ahead, and sought a written guarantee from the government that the changes, dubbed "lockouts by stealth", had been dropped permanently.
Turnbull hoped to bring about a new Senate with most of the so-called troublemakers gone and a small, manageable cross-bench. However, the new cross-bench seems certain to be not just larger, in fact a record size, but even more diverse. There will be two teams, Xenophon and Hanson, not just Palmer United, to deal with, one of which should be more centrist, but the other more unpredictably extreme. Some of the old cross-bench, as well as Nick Xenophon and Jacqui Lambie, seem likely to be returned and there will also be the outspoken Derryn Hinch from Victoria.
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 Harwich Police Department blocked off Harwich Center on Tuesday for an hour while Fire Department personnel waited for National Grid personnel to come and address a major gas leak there. Personnel from town hall and the Albro House were evacuated. WILLIAM F. GALVIN PHOTO

HARWICH  Municipal services were on the blink on Tuesday as town hall and the Albro House were evacuated when a maintenance accident severed a gas line. Brooks Free Library was also closed when a lighting inverter failed leaving the facility in the dark.

For the second time in less than a year Brooks Library was closed to the public because of a faulty insulated-gate bipolar transistor which controls lighting and the emergency lighting system. Library director Genny Hewitt announced Tuesday morning the library will be closed for the next few days.

For approximately an hour on Tuesday morning Main Street in Harwich Center was closed from Oak Street west for a couple of hundred yards, including the intersection with Bank Street, while a major gas leak was addressed.

It was definitely a serious situation, Town Administrator Christopher Clark said.

The town maintenance department was preparing to finish work on the east side of the Albro House and had brought in a scissor lift for assistance. Facilities maintenance director Sean Libby said the ground was soft so a sheet of plywood was used to stabilize the lift.

When the lift was being moved the plywood shot out from under the tires and caught the gas pipe feeding into the meter on the side of the Albro House, severing the meter and releasing gas into the air. Fire Chief Norman Clarke said the shutoff was on the meter side of the pipe and a secondary one could not be located. The air in that section of the village was became with a gas smell. The adjacent town hall filled with gas. Deputy Fire Chief David LeBlanc said they received a 911call at 10:48 a.m. and responded. Both town hall and the Albro House were evacuated.

National Grid was called in and a cork was placed in the pipe until the secondary shutoff could be located. Main Street remained closed to traffic for an hour and at noon town hall personnel, who were instructed not to start their vehicles which would generate an ignition source, were allowed back into town hall after fire department testing showed gas had diminished to acceptable levels.

The resolution for conditions at Brook Library was not as easy. Libby said it appeared to be an electrical spike in the system, similar to the one last October that closed the library for an extended period. Libby said on Tuesday he was waiting for a call from a technician to examine conditions.

Last October the library was closed for 10 days when a new bipolar transistor, or inverter, had to be shipped from California and there were delays in getting a technician to install the equipment. Hewitt put selectmen on notice Monday night that there was another problem with the emergency lighting.

If emergency lighting is not operable, it's a life safety issue and the building can't be occupied, Building Commissioner David Requinha told The Chronicle on Tuesday. If there are a very limited amount of people in the vestibule, I can't see any inherent danger in that.

Hewitt told the board she was not hopeful there would be immediate recovery when the system is rebooted. If we can't reboot it, we'll be closed, she said.

She said the library would be operating a Library in the Lobby, which allows patrons to check out books and movies from a small browsing collection in the lobby at the back of the building. Patrons will also be able to come and pick up items placed on hold.

The Library in the Lobby will be open normal library hours Monday through Thursday 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Friday and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Hewitt told selectmen arrangements would be made to relocate programs, including using the community center. In her announcement of closure, Hewitt said children and families can bring their summer reading logs to the Main Street entrance of the children's room where they can pick up their prizes and select from a small collection of books to take home.

Tuesday's StoryTime was scheduled to take place in Brooks Park and StoryTime with the Harwich Mariners and the evening Writers Group and Literary Diners program were relocated to the community center. Library staffers were also busy arranging to move other programs for this week to other locations.

Requinha said from reading the emails sent to him the problem appears to be the exact same issue the library experienced in October. At that time, the insulated-gate bipolar transistor was fried. Selectman Peter Hughes, an electrical engineer, suggested at that time it was caused by over-voltage or out-of-balance voltage.

Libby also said the problem was likely caused by a power spike and he cited the thunder and lightning storms that rolled through on Friday night as a potential cause. He also mentioned the potential for brown outs with recent weather conditions.

The transistor is part of the library's inverter system, which controls electrical flow to lights and emergency lighting. The town followed the advice of an electrical engineer in 2012 and switched to this system. The inverter acts as a circuit breaker directing power to the normal lighting and switching to emergency lighting when required.

In October, it took time for a new transistor to be sent by OnLine Power, Inc. from California, and a field technician also had to be sent from Minnesota. Upon the technician's arrival, it only took a couple of hours to replace the equipment. The new inverter board cost $8,000.

Hughes, at that time, recommended OnLine Power, Inc. evaluate the transistor to determine the cause of the failure. Clark said that request was made, but the company never responded.

Clark cited uneven electricity flow issues that occur here. He said that was a problem with the HVAC system at Monomoy Regional High School. Libby had discussions with Eversource and they replaced a transformer there. Libby has also had discussions with Eversource about the situation at Brooks Library, Clark said.

The recent heat wave has been playing havoc with town buildings. The air conditioning was not working in two hearing rooms in town hall on Monday night and three rooms in the community center also lost air conditioning.
Stupid as Charged

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News Services

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At BCN, we sparingly rely on news services for the bulk of our articles; however, on occasion, we find it helpful to employ their service, and provide a back-link to the original source.
Our Promise: Welcome to Care2, the world's largest community for good. Here, you'll find over 45 million like-minded people working towards progress, kindness, and lasting impact.

Care2 Stands Against: bigots, racists, bullies, science deniers, misogynists, gun lobbyists, xenophobes, the willfully ignorant, animal abusers, frackers, and other mean people. If you find yourself aligning with any of those folks, you can move along, nothing to see here.

Care2 Stands With: humanitarians, animal lovers, feminists, rabble-rousers, nature-buffs, creatives, the naturally curious, and people who really love to do the right thing.

You are our people. You Care. We Care2.
The Daily Haymaker Guest Editorial

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Our GUY IN CHARGE - editor and publisher Brant Clifton - has marched to the beat of a different drum from very early in life. The grandson of a Democrat party machine boss, Mr. Clifton registered Republican at 18 and campaigned for Ronald Reagan and George Bush. He worked for the late U.S. Senator Jesse Helms in Washington during and right after college.Mr. Clifton took on the liberal media as an analyst with The Media Research Center, then jumped into a lengthy career with the "drive-by media". His work has appeared in local newspapers in The Carolinas. He has done on-camera work for ABC's Good Morning America, and print work for national publications such as US News & World Report and People magazine. Mr. Clifton has also worked as a correspondent for AP, UPI, Reuters and Agence France Presse.
Sometimes its good to be reminded of just how good a car is by giving it go once more. In the case of the Mitsubishi Xpander, its the smal...
Outlying Politics

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In the elective process, other counties from regions far away, there is government, and there are politics.We examine both here.
North Carolina History

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By using outstanding resources, such as the John Locke Foundation sponsored North Carolina History Project, and photos by our publisher, Stan Deatherage, BCN will endeavor to help make history real for our readers, and try to afford them some small measure of understanding where we come from here in the Old North State.
The parent company of Mercedes revealed today the Urban eTruck along with their plans to launch an all-electric heavy truck five years from now.



The Mercedes prototype is based on a heavy-duty three-axle distribution truck, but with a totally revised drivetrain.

The conventional components have been replaced by an electrically driven rear axle with a pair of electric motors mounted directly to the wheel hubs. Maximum power is set at 335hp (2x125kW) with peak torque at 737lb ft (1000Nm).

The battery pack consists of three modules of lithium-ion batteries with a total capacity of 212 kWh, giving the Urban eTruck a driving range of up to 124 miles (200km), enough for a typical days delivery round. Thanks to the modularity of the battery pack, Mercedes will be able to add or remove batteries depending on the desired driving range.

The Urban eTruck can be connected to a charger using the Europe-wide standardized Combined Charging System (CCS) Type 2 connector. Thanks to the 100kW charging power, the batteries can be fully charged from empty in two to three hours.

A proper production version is estimated for launch by the start of the next decade, offering a payload as much as 26 metric tons.

At the same time, the company announced that the Fuso Canter E-Cell electric light-truck has completed successfully fleet trials in Portugal and Germany and its almost ready to enter regular production under the Fuso eCanter nameplate.

Thanks to its 48 kWh battery packs mounted on the left and right sides of the frame, the Fuso Canter E-Cell offers over 62 miles (100km) of driving range. Power comes from a 147hp (110kW) electric motor with 479lb ft (650Nm) of peak torque. Using the same standardized connector with the Urban eTruck, the electric Fuso can be fast-charged to 80 per cent of its total battery capacity in just one hour.

PHOTO GALLERY
Photo: Getty Images

Panic is a word that brings to mind chaos and fear.

It is easy to picture terrorized people running in all directions as well as general noise and disruption from several sources.

For people who experience panic disorder, these kinds of feelings are descriptive of what they live through in their own bodies and minds.

As the name implies, panic disorder involves repeated and unexpected panic attacks.

In order for panic disorder to be diagnosed, at least one of these attacks must also be followed by a month or more of distress about the panic attack  worry over what it might mean or that it will happen again.

Panic attacks are, by definition, very frightening experiences lasting anywhere from a few minutes to an hour or more.

Symptoms include extreme fear as well as physical sensations such as a racing heart, sweating, hyperventilating, dizziness, shaking and nausea. Many people in the midst of a panic attack believe they are having a heart attack or that they are dying or going crazy.

Many people experiencing a panic attack will go to the hospital convinced they are in serious medical distress. Symptoms subside on their own eventually.

Although many people may experience a panic attack in response to a particularly stressful event, true panic disorder affects just under three per cent of adults. It typically begins in early adulthood although it can occur at any age.

About a third of people who develop panic disorder also experience agoraphobia  a crippling fear of being in any place or situation where escape might be difficult or help unavailable.

Often, those with agoraphobia become housebound and severely limit their activities and interactions.

Although the exact cause of panic disorder is unknown, it is believed to have both genetic and environmental influences like most psychiatric conditions.

We do know it tends to run in families, is linked with other anxiety disorders and often begins during a particularly stressful period in a persons life.

Fortunately, panic disorder is treatable. Cognitive behaviour therapy is very effective with this condition as are SSRI medications.

In addition, education surrounding panic attacks can help to take away the fear of the unknown.

Some simple lifestyle changes may also be helpful in managing anxiety. These include limiting caffeine and alcohol use, getting regular and adequate sleep, and exercising.

Getting appropriate care early on is important in panic disorder. The sooner the condition is recognized and treated, the less likely a phobia will develop and the less damage done in the brain.

Unfortunately, stigma and lack of awareness about mental illness often leads people to delay seeking help. Sometimes, the physical symptoms associated with panic disorder can also cause confusion and people go several years before receiving an adequate diagnosis.

If you or a loved one are experiencing panic attacks, speak with your doctor about it. Effective help is available.

This article is written by or on behalf of an outsourced columnist and does not necessarily reflect the views of Castanet.
Photo: Carmen Weld

Kelowna RCMP Supt. Nick Romanchuk agrees with Mayor Colin Basran when it comes to the cause of the recently reported spike in crime.

I think people have to understand what those crime stats mean, says Romanchuk.

Certainly we know, and we've made no secret about it, that our crime rate is increasing in Kelowna right now. We are the fastest growing community in the country, we have a high unemployment rate  there are a number of issues that contribute to crime.

He notes police are well aware increased crime is an issue, but he does not believe residents need to be overly concerned.

Crime will go up, it will go down and right now we are in an increasing pattern, says Romanchuk.

The Crime Severity Index crime pegged the Central Okanagan as the second worst in Canada. The crime rate is set at 8,170 per 100,000 population in 2015. That's an increase of 10 per cent over 2014 figures.

There is certainly an increase, says Romanchuk. We do not like to see the crime rate rising for sure. We have a whole bunch of very dedicated people who work extremely hard every day to try to make sure that doesn't happen.

Romanchuk argues that the crime stats are calculated in a way that can make Kelowna seem worse than it is. As Kelowna is one of the smaller communities on the list of 33 metropolitan areas with a population exceeding 100,000 in Canada that made the list, crime can seem statistically worse.

We are one of the lowest populations within the census metropolitan areas, so our lower population has a bigger impact when compared to the same amount of offences in a bigger area with a larger population, says Romanchuk.

This is not to make excuses or anything. There is a lot going on in this community for sure and we are working very hard to address it.

He adds that increased police enforcement can also skew the numbers to appear as if there is additional crime, when in fact it is just more enforcement.

We are very active in terms of certain areas of our work, says Romanchuk.

One of the things we are actually quite proud of, and we think makes a difference, is the level of drug enforcement conducted here. We have one of the highest rates in the country, if not the highest rates, in terms of drug enforcement, but that also has an impact on the Crime Severity Index as drug offences tend to rate higher.

If I was to flip a switch and say no more drug enforcement, we would have a low-drug enforcement rate, but we would also have a low Crime Severity Index. Doesn't mean we don't have a problem, but this is an argument about how our actions can influence the numbers.

He adds that the stats are based purely on those 33 metropolitan areas with a population exceeding 100,000, and excludes many smaller towns.

There are many, many more communities in B.C., and some very close to us, that have much higher crime rates than we do here.

While Romanchuk recognizes the unfavourable title as second worst in Canada, he does not believe local residents need to be that concerned.

I don't think people are freaking out about the numbers, says Romanchuk

If you go downtown, people are walking around freely, they are enjoying themselves, there is no shortage of people downtown at 10 a.m. or 10 p.m. at night. I think if it was truly an unsafe community, people wouldn't be there.

He believes police, government and society have to work together to combat crime.

The biggest driver for us is property crime and we need to look at the cause of that. I think certainly unemployment is, mental health issues, addiction issues, a number of things are the root causes of these crimes.

These issues are not always going to be dealt with by policing alone. What is the answer? I don't know. I think collectively as a society we have to look at some of those areas, those root causes, to be able to have an impact on what's happening.

Romanchuk is proud of work done in the downtown area and the work done by his officers and he wants Kelowna to know they are working hard to keep the streets safe.

I am not making excuses for the numbers, not at all, but there are reasons why, says Romanchuk.
Photo: UBC

Will a new tax imposed on foreign property purchasers in Vancouver cause housing prices in Kelowna and the Okanagan to skyrocket?

It could according to Tom Davidoff, an associate professor at UBC's Sauder School of Business.

The province has brought in a 15 per cent property transfer tax on all foreign real estate buyers.

The measures only affect real estate purchases in Vancouver, where foreign investors have helped make Vancouver real estate the most expensive in Canada.

The new tax comes into effect next Tuesday.

At 15 per cent on some pretty expensive, multi-million dollar properties, Davidoff said the tax can be pretty onerous.

Some investors, said Davidoff, may look at alternatives.

One of those would be to involve friends or family members already living in Vancouver as either citizens or permanent residents.

"Play number two is, 'I still want to invest in B.C.,' now Victoria and Kelowna are really looking cheap because they don't have this 15 per cent tax," said Davidoff.

"I want to be in B.C. so, forget it, I will go to Kelowna, or Victoria."

Even if that is the case, Davidoff said it's unclear whether that will lead to an increase in property values.

A third scenario, Vancouver or bust, could actually lead to a decrease in prices.

"It's somewhat complicated, but my guess is on balance, the net effect is to raise prices in other major markets in the province, but it's not totally clear."

According to Finance Minister Mike de Jong, 86 per cent of the more than $1 billion spent by foreign buyers in the province over a six-week period ending in mid-July was purchased in Metro Vancouver.

He added a similar tax in other countries have resulted in a levelling of the market.

Davidoff said he's not saying for a moment the tax is a bad idea. In fact, he said it could work out to be a brilliant concept if foreign owners continue to do what they have been doing and pay the tax.

That's the best case scenario, he said.

"And, why not spread this around the province. Vancouver getting choked on the demand, it's unaffordable for working people.

"If you can spread the benefit of foreign investment to areas that are better able to absorb that, I wouldn't call that a bug, I would call that a feature."

Davidoff said the one problem could be a 15 per cent tax in Vancouver and nothing anywhere else in the province.

Maybe, he said, it should have been 15 per cent in Vancouver and maybe four per cent everywhere else.

"The question is are there any foreign buyers going anywhere else in the province. I expect the answer is yes."

Davidoff said things will become more clear over time. The province has promised monthly updates on foreign real estate investment in the province.

In a non-scientific poll, 83 per cent of respondents said foreign home buyers in the Okanagan should also pay an additional tax.
Photo: CTV

UPDATE: 11:25 p.m.

A man who targeted 15 families with firebombings and shootings because he thought they had links to a training centre for emergency responders in British Columbia has been sentenced to 13 years and six months in prison.

Forty-three-year-old Vincent Cheung of Langley pleaded guilty last week to 18 of 23 charges stemming from attacks in 2011 and 2012.

The Crown had asked for a 15-year prison sentence, while Cheung's lawyer recommended a 10-year term, saying that his client was a drug addict at the time of the attacks.

At the man's sentencing hearing, court heard that Cheung either hired associates or may have personally carried out the crimes after tracking down people who parked their vehicle at the Justice Institute of British Columbia in the Vancouver area where police and first responders are trained.

Nine victim impact statements were read out to the court in which people reported emotional trauma, depression and sleep deprivation after their homes or cars were shot at or set on fire.

ORIGINAL

A man who orchestrated a series of firebombings and targeted shootings aimed at people with a connection to the British Columbia Justice Institute will be sentenced today.

Forty-three-year-old Vincent Cheung of Langley pleaded guilty last week to 18 of 23 charges including arson and firearms offences stemming from attacks on 15 families in 2011 and 2012.

The B.C. Supreme Court heard that Cheung hired associates or may have personally carried out the crimes after tracking down people who parked their vehicle at the institute in the Vancouver area where police and first responders are trained.

Crown attorney Joe Bellows argued the man's mental health and substance abuse challenges did not meet the bar as a mitigating factor and called for a 15 year prison sentence.

Cheung's lawyer, Martin Peters, asked for a 10-year sentence, telling court his client was consuming drugs at the time of the attacks but no one chooses to be an addict.

Court heard nine victim impact statements in which people reported emotional trauma, depression and sleep deprivation after their homes or cars were shot at or set on fire.
Photo: UBCO Prof. Stephen Porter

It appears you can hide your lying eyes  in a rounder face with higher eyebrows, according to UBC Okanagan researchers.

Experts have determined that certain facial features, not a person's expression, influence whether others think someone is trustworthy.

Two recently completed studies show people often make judgments of trustworthiness based solely on the face, according to Stephen Porter, who teaches psychology at UBCO, and Alysha Baker, a PhD student.

"Our findings in this and our past studies suggest that your physical appearance can have major implications for your assumed credibility and other character traits, even more powerful than the manner in which you behave and the words you speak, said Porter. The implications in social, workplace, corporate and criminal justice settings are enormous."

In the studies, the researchers asked participants to watch a video, listen to audio-only pleas or examine a photo of people publicly asking for the return of a missing relative. They then asked for personal perceptions of general trustworthiness and honesty.

A lot of information that feeds into our impressions about ones trustworthiness is deduced from the face, said Baker, who conducted much of the research. More specifically, there are certain facial features considered that make an individual look more trustworthy  higher eyebrows, more pronounced cheekbones, rounder face.

She added that other features give the opposite impression, including downturned eyebrows or a thinner face.

The studies cited two real criminal cases, one with an 81-year-old woman and one with a father of a missing nine-year-old girl, both pleading for the return of a missing relative.

People believed the elderly womans public appeal for justice, even though it was later determined she had killed her husband. Many judged the father to be lying, based on his facial features, even though he later proved to be innocent, researchers said.
Photo: Wayne Moore - Castanet File Photo

A last ditch effort to find a landing spot for the Fintry Queen in West Kelowna has mostly fallen on deaf ears.

Andy Schwab, who was then the principal owner of the vessel, wrote the city earlier this month, asking that council again consider allowing the vessel to be moored next to the CN Wharf.

The idea was studied, and voted down, back in 2013.

"My opinion hasn't changed in three years," said Coun. Rick de Jong.

"At this point in time, I see a venture that is struggling financially and not something I want to put more staff time and tax dollars into."

Fintry Queen ownership did get some support from two councillors who were not on council during the time of the original investigation and discussion.

Coun. Rosalind Neis asked that the city not dismiss the idea out of hand, but instead, keep the door open, with the understanding the city would put no money into any venture.

She received support from Coun. Rusty Ensign, who said he would be happy to look at any proposal they came up with.

"The Gellatly Bay Master Plan does have a commercial component to it. I could see the Fintry Queen taking the place of the restaurant complex shown on this plan. If it was to work, there is an economic benefit," said Ensign.

"If they can come up with the services and they want to make the investment. The only real obstacle is parking. Without parking, it isn't going to happen anyway."

The idea was voted down.
North Carolina Health

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A healthier North Carolina is the ambition of our state's wise citizens to live a more fulfilling life, while reducing the cost of overall health care.
Photo: CTV

Three teens had to be rescued from a popular cliff-jumping spot in North Vancouver, Tuesday evening.

The boys called 911 after getting stuck on a ledge under a suspension bridge in Lynn Canyon.

It is frustrating, Fire Chief David Franco told CTV.

Every year, firefighters are called to rescue people from the cliffs or the fast-moving waters of Lynn Creek. And almost as often, thrill-seeking youths lose their lives.

Franco urges swimmers to stay out of the canyon, especially when water levels are as high.

Earlier this year, a teenager drowned after leaping from the cliffs and getting swept away.

 with files from CTV Vancouver
Photo: Contributed

RCMP have arrested a man suspected of taking a photo of himself with an iPhone they say was stolen in Nanaimo.

Const. Gary O'Brien says in a news release that the 39-year-old was arrested less than 48 hours after the selfie was circulated on social media.

The man, who hasn't been named, is charged with theft under $5,000.

Police say the case began July 5 when a man grabbed a woman's purse, containing her iPhone.

Police say the woman purchased a new phone the next day and it automatically uploaded photos from her old phone, including one of the man.

O'Brien says the "infinite wisdom" of uploading the photo, as well as the resulting attention on social media, helped officers make an arrest.
Photo: Contributed

British Columbia is asking the federal government to help it crack down on fentanyl overdoses that have been classified a public health emergency in the province.

Premier Christy Clark wants the federal government to restrict access to devices, such as pill presses and tableting machines, and to pursue stronger penalties against people who import and traffic in fentanyl.

Clark also wants Ottawa to ask the Canada Border Services Agency to search small packages for fentanyl to stop the drug coming into the country.

Recent statistics from the coroner's service in B.C. show there were 371 deaths in the first six months of this year, about a 74 per cent increase compared with the same period last year.

The service says the proportion of deaths where fentanyl was detected in toxicology tests jumped to about 60 per cent and that the drug was either used alone or in combination with other drugs.

British Columbia declared a public health emergency in April when overdose deaths surged to an alarming rate in the first few months of this year.

Clark says the province is also planning to improve access to treatment programs including its opioid substitution program.

"Drug overdoses are absolutely senseless deaths, every one of them is a preventable tragedy that families feel in the worst possible way," she told a news conference at a hospital in Vancouver on Thursday.

"Some have lost their lives to a tainted pill at a party, they didn't know what they were taking. Others were taken by that needless burden of addiction that they can't kick. We need to support all of them."

The B.C. Centre for Disease Control also released measures it believes will help tackle the problem after a meeting between public health officials and the coroner's service.

It wants to expand the availability of naloxone to reverse overdoses, expand access to opioid substitution treatments like Suboxone and methadone, and to increase checks on street drugs, among other things.
Photo: Getty Images

There's nothing like seeing a problem lay at your own front door to get your attention.

After telling residents whose property had been infested with rats that it was not a municipal problem, the city may end up looking into the matter after all.

This comes as West Kelowna is forced to spend $35,000 to make emergency repairs to one of its portables after the stench of dead rats in the walls forced finance department employees to evacuate the premises.

During a debate as to whether to repair the portable or buy a new one, Coun. Rusty Ensign wondered if it was time the municipality tried to do something.

"If the rats are starting, can we still stop them is the question? I think it's a debate that we should have," said Ensign.

"We could just ignore it and let them get worse, but here we are, affected by it ourselves."

Ensign said it may be akin to closing the gate after the horse has left the barn, but suggested municipalities in the Okanagan should get together to at least discuss it.

"I wonder if it should go to SILGA next year, or discuss it at strategic priorities."

Staff was asked to make a note of the topic and include it as part of council's strategic priorities discussion in November.

Meanwhile, council agreed to spend $35,000 to repair the infested portable.

The portable, which is nearly 40 years old, was purchased from the regional district in 2008 for $50,000. It houses seven employees within the city's finance department.

While it was decided to make the repairs rather than spend an estimated $250,000 for a new portable, Coun. Rosalind Neis questioned the figures, and wondered why a cheaper alternative wasn't presented to council.

"I don't believe we can't buy a new trailer, get rid of that piece of junk, and give our staff a new ... working environment for $25,000," said Neis.

"I don't feel staff were directed enough to delve into this. I know it's an emergency, but I can't understand throwing good money after bad."

Neis said in just two minutes, she was able to find cheaper options online.

"This is a temporary fix. It will last as long as we do need it. The desks are there. The office spaces are there," said CAO Jim Zaffino.

"I did get emails that you could buy this for $50,000 or $60,000, but you have to hook up to sewer and water, then you need to have a carpenter build the offices."
Photo: Contributed

The Central Okanagan Refugee Committee is hosting an award-winning Canadian author to speak this September on being "Gay and Brown and Totally Relevant."

Kamal Al-Solaylee will be speaking in Kelowna on Sept. 30 on topics the committee says are significant and relevant.

Born in Yemen, but exiled to Beirut and Cairo, Al-Solaylees first book, Intolerable, is a memoir of extremes about growing up in the Middle East as a member of the LGTBQ community.

Intolerable was a contender for the 2015 Canada Reads Competition.

His second book, the very recently published Brown, is a compilation of two years of studying the challenges facing the brown race, including low wages, poor working conditions and racial and religious profiling.

Both subjects closely align to CORCs most recent co-sponsorship of a Syrian refugee from the LGTBQ community, a private sponsorship with co-operation and support from Rainbow Refugee.

Being gay adds another layer of persecution to already vulnerable individuals. CORC knew immediately that we wanted to participate in this sponsorship, and Kamal Al-Solaylee is the perfect speaker to reflect on these issues, says Jodine Ducs, treasurer for CORC.

The evening is a fundraising event for CORC that will consist of a reflection and Q&A period, followed by a wine reception, wine-themed silent auction and book signing.

Al-Solaylee will also be available during the reception to further discuss his research and experiences.

Tickets are $25 and are available at kelownatickets.com.

The evening will be hosted at Kelowna First United, 721 Bernard Avenue, with doors opening at 6 p.m.
Photo: BC Wildfire Service

BC Wildfire Service crews are battling a 14-hectare wildfire burning in a protected area, near the junction of the Homathko River and Mosley Creek.

Twenty-nine firefighters and two helicopters are working on the fire about 220 kilometres southwest of Williams Lake  with more support from air tankers, according to Natasha Broznitsky with the Cariboo Fire Centre.

The fire is in a remote area and no communities or structures are being threatened at this time, said Broznitsky.

Although there has been recent rainfall in parts of the Cariboo Fire Centre, the fire danger rating where the fire is burning remains high.

Fire danger ratings have increased throughout the Cariboo Fire Centre over the last few days and will likely continue to do so in response to the hot and dry weather forecasted for the region.
Bas Van Steenbergen is one of the world's best bike-handlers.

Kelowna-based, Van Steenbergen is a Red Bull Rampage alumnus and an advocate of using slalom riding to sharpen his ability to change direction.

Now the world-renowned mountain bike rider has created a challenging downhill track by Silver Star Road full of his favourite twists and turns.

Dream Slalom is described as a twisting, jumping, hipping and ripping run through dense Canadian forest.

Half BMX dirt jumps, half MTB singletrack, the best slalom tracks can only be navigated with total bike control, emphasizing a rider's ability to turn equally with jumping ability.

"I like technical riding, the type of riding where you have to be perfect over everything," says Van Steenbergen. "Riding slalom, you have to land on all the backsides perfect to connect the next section. With Dream Slalom, I wanted a trail you couldn't just cruise through and land wherever. You have to be precise to even hit the next jump. That's what's entertaining to me when I ride."

In a Red Bull-sponsored YouTube video, Van Steenbergen shows how it is done in an amazing display of skill, speed and control.
Photo: Google Street View Rudy Johnson Bridge

A search is underway of the Fraser River near Williams Lake after a 24-year-old man fell off the Rudy Johnson Bridge Tuesday night.

Just after midnight, several people were hanging out on the bridge when the man accidentally fell off into the river below.

Police were called, but a search of the area couldn't begin until daylight.

We have the local search and rescue and we also have the RCMP Kodiak plane doing a fly over, said Staff Sgt. Del Byron of the Williams Lake RCMP.
Photo: Contributed

A Kelowna teacher has now started the fight of his life.

Kevin Littlechilds, 40, has been diagnosed with a brain tumour.

The loving father of two children  Hayden, 9, and Isla, 6  had a seizure last week at his home while watching TV with his family. He was taken to Kelowna General Hospital by ambulance.

Littlechilds has taught at Okanagan Adventist Academy for his entire teaching career.

"We are asking those who are able or have known someone with a brain tumour to send prayers, good vibes, healing thoughts, whatever their modality of love is," says his friend Angie Clowry.

"It's times like this when our faith is tested, when we need to slow down and focus on what is important and just be there for our friends. Focus on time with family, surrounding ourselves with friends and allowing those to help and take care of us."

Friends have started a GoFundMe page in hopes of alleviating some of the immediate financial burdens and to keep people up to date with the latest information on Littlechilds' prognosis.

"This way (his wife) Dawn is able to be with Kevin at the hospital and we can all chip in and financially take care of them and their children," said Clowry.
If you have just started your journey in an online casino or are looking for a new site to play,...
Carolina Journal

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Public Utilization

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The Federal and independent state governments of these States United are purposefully tasked with enforcing certain guidelines and statutes that walk a tight line between the public domain and the free markets of a healthy republic.
A Commissioner's View

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We will provide an opinion, through the experience of 4 term county commissioner Stan Deatherage, that will provide an insider's approach to problem solving through governing.
Clarion Call

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There are times in one's life, should they hear the call, when seemingly complex issues become clear; and should one heed that call, it is incumbent upon them to express their knowledge of the truth as best they can, as often as they are able and willing to do so. You can also visit Stan's Governing /Political knowledge here: https://beaufortcountynow.com/category/343/stans-well-considered-rant.html
Across North Carolina

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Stan Deatherage takes pictures all over North Carolina, from the mountains to the coast and very much in between. Here, we explore what goes on within the photographer's eye of this Tar heel traveler, who valiantly shoots first and uploads later.
Individual History

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A small, but very real history originates with every new story of each person's life, thus building an interlinking system of experiences - learned and taught.
Views from the Right Seat

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The opinionated musings from a Georgia Cracker, who tends to boldly know stuff that is valuable to the curious and the wise.
Politics with Rod Eccles

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Rod Eccles is the Host of The Nationally Syndicated Radio Show The Rod Eccles Show. He is The Coolest Most Politically Incorrect Conservative Black Man on the Planet and he is being dubbed the new Black Rush Limbaugh of our time. He is one of the leading voices in the Conservative Movement.He just published his first book titled The Conservative ECCLESiastes: Logic and Wisdom from the Coolest, Most Politically Incorrect, Conservative Black Man on the Planet. This year his show was added to the list of Top Talk Conservative Radio Show Hosts on Top Talk.com. Currently, Rod is traveling around the country making Key Note Speeches to Tea Party and Republican Organizations to fire up the base for the 2016 elections.
Film Reviews

Immortals A few minutes into the movie and I got a little worried. The dialogue, especially during the first few scenes really made me want to cringe. By: Kevin Swann

Search Terms: mickey roarke Search Terms: immortals

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Current films that can be reviewed by our reviewers at the theater of their choice on the big 'silver screen' that is an incomparable experience ... if the film is good.
For Love of God and Country

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Diane Rufino does not pull punches: She tells it straight and builds her case to express her keen sense of reality. If "keeping it real" is an imperative, you are advised to read Diane's opinions on the promise of past accomplishments bestowed on future generations.
Regional Health System

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In Short: The Beaufort County Hospital Board.
Beaufort County Community College

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Beaufort County Community College, located 6 miles east of Washington, NC, keeps the region informed through their press releases, and they use Beaufort County NOW as their way to communicate on the internet.
Vidant Beaufort Hospital

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We endeavor here to express to the community the events that are ongoing at the Vidant Beaufort Hospital here in Washington, North Carolina in Beaufort County.
County Commissioners

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This body politic is the governing board that all other boards must at some time answer to.
A self-sustaining option - Public-option advocates say that seed money and membership premiums will make the program a self-sustaining success. Some of those advocates said the same thing about Obamacare's consumer-operated and oriented health plans - otherwise known as the "co-ops." Those co-ops replaced the initial proposal for a public option during final congressional negotiations prior to the law's passage in 2010. Half of them turned out to be a financial disaster. Poor business management, sweetheart deals, and boards full of friends have instead forced almost 1 million co-op consumers to enroll in other health plans. So much for consumer protection. Ironic, given that their mission statements stress "patients over profits." Lower-cost plans - For the public option to keep visible costs lower than competing private coverage, the government will strong-arm its way into setting price controls equivalent to Medicare rates. Public option proponents also say that public payers like Medicare and Medicaid have much lower administrative costs compared to private insurers, so a public plan is critical to slow down rising health care expenditures.

"The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services estimates that about $9.8 billion in erroneous payments were made in the fee-for-service program in 2007, a figure more than double what CMS spent for claims processing and review activities. ... The significant size of Medicare's erroneous payments suggests that the program's low administrative costs may come at a price."

An equal, level playing field - This catch phrase that's being thrown around by public-option backers really is a euphemism for "a way to further destabilize the private health insurance market." When you have a government-supported plan in the mix that comes with artificially lower premiums and a Medicare ceiling payment structure, private insurers will be forced to pass on artificially higher premiums to consumers. Why? Because hospitals and providers will try to negotiate higher payment rates from private carriers to make up for reimbursement that doesn't adequately cover the cost of care from the public option and other government insurance programs. This vicious cycle has been happening for years with Medicare and Medicaid paying medical professionals below market value.

Thanks to President Barack Obama's debut as a contributor for the Journal of the American Medical Association, the " public option " has made its way back into the great health care debate. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton approves of it as well.Why not make Obamacare's health insurance exchanges more robust by offering a public health plan that can compete alongside private health plans? In the words of our president, it will "help keep the private sector honest."For those who want to move more quickly toward a single-payer health care system, implementing a public option is the way to do it. For the rest of us who are fed up with Obamacare's misleading promises, here are three reasons why the proposed benefits of a public option would create more problems for patients and providers.Don't be fooled by the perception that government-funded health plans may be more efficient due to the low-admin-cost argument. Yes, the government spends less on marketing, advertising, and overhead and doesn't have to worry about profit motives to please shareholders like private carriers do. But what about the indirect admin costs that go overlooked? Take the costs of handling false claims. The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission explains:In other words, the percentage of admin costs is artificially lowered when billions in false claims are added to the denominator of total Medicare spending.I'll give President Obama credit for owning up to some major flaws in his signature health care law, but his JAMA recommendations - like the public-option proposal - will only exacerbate the affordability factor.The scholarly article was published not too long after Speaker Paul Ryan and the GOP House released their latest Obamacare repeal-and-replace proposal. It's a 37-page document full of market-oriented ideas in which patients will ideally have more choice and affordable options for their health insurance. It's a conversation starter for reforming Medicare's depleting trust fund and restructuring Medicaid's financial flaws.While some ideas are hailed by Obamacare opponents, such as expanding health savings account contributions, other ideas are criticized for being strikingly similar to the status quo - like keeping intact health insurance subsidies.So, what is a true (and unfortunately not all that politically feasible) libertarian way to change how Americans access and pay for health care? See here and here
Back a million years ago  OK, it was the 90s  my family used to vacation up in Canada, a chilly northern bizarro-land for a budding car-spotter. There were Asunas, which were rebadged Geos, Ladas from Russia, and these strange little Acuras everywhere. Up front, this Acura looked like a contemporary Toyota Camry, but from the A pillars back, it was unmistakably a Honda Civic. Known as the EL, the car never made it to America, unless of course a Canadian driver took a wrong turn near the border and ended up in Niagara Falls, Sault Ste. Marie, or Poker Creek, Alaska.

But it was an interesting car, slotting below the now-legendary Integra and serving as the gateway to Hondas premium brand. In 2005, the EL became the CSX, and for fear that the average American buyer would confuse it for a freight train (probably), it was again sold only in the Great White North. By 2012, Honda thought we were ready for a Acura-badged Civic, and launched the ILX, a car thats sold on both sides of the border.

Of course, there was one big problem: ILX was based on the new ninth-generation Civic, which was one of the most disappointing cars in Hondas history. When it was refreshed for 2013, the Civic was blasted by critics for its shockingly (for Honda) cheap interior, indifferent fit-and-finish, and harsh ride. This led to one of the most comprehensive single-year redesigns in recent memory, and by 2014, the Civic (and ILX) were largely back on track.

That was a generation ago, and today, the Civic is flying especially high. Which brings up another problem: With a five-door hatch to augment the sedan, red-hot Si model, and the specter of the Type-R looming over the lineup (its coming stateside eventually) the Civic lineup is arguably the best its ever been. But is it so good that it eclipses the Acura? Thats what well find out in this weeks Buy This, Not That.

Tale of the tape

Honda worked hard to help the public forget the mistakes of its ninth-generation Civic, and its done all that and more. Theres something for just about everyone here, but unfortunately, customers may need to wait a few months to get exactly what they want. The 2016 North American Car of the Year is available as both a sedan and coupe for now, ranging from the sub-$20K LX model, to the Touring, which tops out at around $30K with all the option boxes ticked. From here the only way for the Civic is up; the Si model will arrive to scare the bejesus out of the Volkswagen GTI and Ford Focus ST in early 2017, and will likely be priced along the lines of the Touring. The five-door hatch will probably bow at around the same time, and giant-slaying Type-R is expected to arrive before 2018, and be priced to compete with the Ford Focus RS in the $35-$40K range.

Power comes from a pair of four-bangers  a 154-horsepower 2.0-liter i-VTEC on LX and EX models, and a turbocharged 1.5-liter that puts out 178 horsepower. For now, the LX is the only model offered with Hondas fantastic six-speed manual transmission, but itll also be available on the sportier, and more powerful, Si and Type-R models. For everyone else, gear shifts come from the companys smooth dual-clutch eight-speed automatic, one of the best in the business.

Inside, fit and finish is Honda quality  that is it punches well above its weight. The deluge of cascading screens and buttons of previous generations has been replaced with a simple, elegant dash, dominated by a big touchscreen and digital instrument layout. The HondaLink infotainment system is simple and intuitive, and the Civic is available with virtually every convenience and safety aid in the Honda arsenal. And on the outside, the cars aggressive yet inoffensive new sheetmetal should appeal to most customers while making the rival Toyota Corolla look as boring as, well, a Toyota Corolla.

On the other hand, the 2016 ILX has a simpler story  one of something lost, something gained. Facelifted for 2016, the Acura has ditched the aging 2.0-liter base engine and five-speed automatic transmission, and made Hondas 201-horsepower, 2.4-liter Earth Dreams (yes, thats its official name) the sole powerplant. The good news is: Power is up somewhat. The old base car made 150 horsepower and 140 pound-feet of torque, while the new mill is good for 201 horses  same as the old range-topping 2.4  but has 10 more pound-feet of torque. Its mated to Hondas smooth dual-clutch eight-speed automatic, making for a comfortable and responsive drive.

Unfortunately, premium sedans in the ILXs segment (in the $28-$35K range) are expected to be a little sporty, and this is where the Acura falls short. Where it once was the industry leader in bringing upscale performance-minded cars to the masses, Acura pulled the ILXs six-speed manual transmission option in 2014, and its suspension is set up for comfort, not corner-carving. And as decent as the Earth Dreams fuel economy is (24 city/35 highway), a lack of a hybrid option (a mark against the Civic too), may keep green-minded buyers away too.

Inside, the ILX is comfortable and well-appointed, but no more so than a well-optioned Honda. Fit-and-finish, and overall quality are superb, but with its heavily hooded infotainment screen (at 7 inches, its the same size as the Civics), and acres of black plastic, it looks dated where the Civic looks chic and modern. That theme continues to the outside, where despite Acuras lovely trademark jewel-eye headlights, the ILX is clean, handsome, but ultimately uninspiring.

The verdict

The ILX is by no means a bad car, but it has three big problems that just cant be ignored: Its easily overshadowed by the car its based on, its a sporty sedan that lacks the performance needed to set it apart in a cutthroat segment, and finally, its been put in the awkward position of competing with Lexus, BMW, Mercedes, Audi, and well-optioned Civic Touring models. And once Hondas performance Civics hit the streets, that in-house competition will only increase. In a perfect world, the ILX would be the spiritual successor to the Integra: rakishly sporty, comfortably upscale, and a legitimate sport sedan bargain. Nobody who loves cars has ever mistaken an Integra for a Civic; the ILX wont have that luxury unless big changes are made. The new Civic is unquestionably world class. In our opinion, Acuras entry-level car deserves to be too. Add this one to the growing list of accolades for the latest Civic.
Staying fit while traveling usually means hitting the hotel fitness center or going for a run using a map provided by the concierge. If you plan your next trip wisely, the location may provide all the physical activity you could ever want thanks to tough trails that run along mountains, canyons, and other rugged terrain. Youll also get to check out some fantastic views while hiking.

Though some might be tempted to brush off hiking as effortless, the activity can pose a substantial challenge to even the most active guys. According to Backpacker Magazine, a 180-pound man sporting a 40-pound backpack scorches around 600 calories per hour. Its all about finding the right trail because the more difficult the terrain, the harder youll have to work.

The next time youre in need of a little time away, head for one of these seven hikes. You may actually return from vacation fitter than when you left.

1. Besseggen Ridge (Jotunheimen National Park, Norway)

One of the most popular hiking trails in all of Norway, Besseggen Ridge also happens to be one of the most difficult. According to Visit Norway, this trail can take up to seven hours to hike thanks to a 2,953-foot elevation change and rocky footing that will require you to use your hands at least a few times. Your efforts will be rewarded with stunning views, particularly when youre high up between the Gjende lake and the Bessvatnet lake. National Geographic said the best way to get started is by taking the ferry that sets out from a mountain lodge on the other side of the Gjende lake.

2. Mount Katahdin (Baxter State Park, Maine)

The Appalachian Trail features quite a range of paths, but Mount Katahdin is one of the most difficult. According to REIs official blog, this rocky climb ascends 4,162 feet over 5.2 miles and features metal rungs for particularly difficult areas. Make sure to allow plenty of time to linger at the top because the scenery is pretty fantastic. And be mindful of both the weather and trail closings, both of which you can track on the Baxter State Park website.

3. Tararecua Canyon (Copper Canyon, Mexico)

The confusing thing about Mexicos Copper Canyon is its actually comprised of six canyons in the Sierra Madre Occidental mountains. While you have plenty of options, head for Tararecua Canyon. MSN Lifestyle recommended heading for this 40-mile path in the spring or fall for a true wilderness experience. The area features a number of hot springs, which are typically a fun stop for visitors.

4. Devils Path (Catskill Mountains, New York)

The name says it all for this destination. NewYorkUpstate reported this climb features 14,000 feet in elevation change over the course of its five, yes five, peaks. The story said to expect the entire journey to take about three days, which you can break up with a stay at Devils Tomb Campground. Amenities are pretty sparse, but ReserveAmerica said youll have access to an information center, picnic tables, and firewood.

5. Inca Trail (Machu Picchu, Peru)

Even folks who are relatively new to hiking probably recognize the name of this famous path, which offers great views of the surrounding ruins. Though the trail is only about 25 miles long, the high altitude leaves many huffing and puffing so hard that they require a total of four days to make it to Machu Picchu. In fact, one reporter for Bloomberg who completed the trek said he lost four pounds along the way. The toughest part is probably Huayna Picchu. According to Outside Online, this path ascends 1,000 feet in less than a mile. It can be dangerous if you arent careful, so take your time and take rest breaks when needed.

6. Angels Landing (Zion National Park, Utah)

Thrill seekers looking for a real challenge should head to Angels Landing for a one-day trip while visiting Utah. According to ZionNational-Park this 5-mile trek typically takes about five hours due to tough terrain that ascends 1,488 feet. As challenging as the route is, its pretty well maintained and features chains and rails to help you along the way. Still, its not for the faint of heart. The Salt Lake Tribune listed some important reminders that all hikers should look over.

7. GR20 (Corsica)

Rounding up our list is Corsicas rocky, steep, incredibly long, but also stunning GR20. Unlike many other hikes that can be done over the course of a few days, GR20 pretty much is the vacation at 104 miles. Lonely Planet reported the trek takes about 15 days and showcases everything from forests to snow-topped mountains. Because the excursion takes so long, youll need to plan on staying in the modest huts along the way. According to The Guardian, these stays are a little more than mattresses, but they also keep this vacation affordable.

Follow Christine on Twitter @christineskopec



More from Culture Cheat Sheet:
Moisture can destroy mortar over time  for example when cracks form as a result of frost. A team of scientists at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) has found an unusual way to protect mortar from moisture: When the material is being mixed, they add a biofilm  a soft, moist substance produced by bacteria.

Oliver Lielegusually has little to do with bricks, mortar and concrete. As a professor of biomechanics at the Institute of Medical Engineering (IMETUM) and the Department of Mechanical Engineering, he mainly deals with biopolymer-based hydrogels or, to put it bluntly, slime formed by living organisms.

These include bacterial biofilms, such as dental plaque and the slimy black coating that forms in sewage pipes. Biofilms are generally considered undesirable and harmful. They are something you want to get rid of, says Oliver Lieleg. I was therefore excited to find a beneficial use for them.

Inspiration from a conversation

During a conversation with a colleague at TUM, Lieleg came up with the idea of using biofilms to alter the properties of construction materials. Professor Christian Groe holds the Chair of Non-destructive Testing. Among other things, he investigates self-healing concrete whose cracks close autonomously. One variant of this concrete contains added bacteria. Activated by the ingress of moisture, the bacteria close the cracks with metabolic products containing calcium.

For his own project, Lieleg used mortar instead of concrete. Instead of mending cracks after damage has occurred, he wants to prevent moisture from penetrating into mortar in the first place. Such invading water can cause serious problems, for example by inducing the growth of mold or widening existing microcracks through freeze-thaw-cycles. To prevent such water ingress, he takes advantage of the fact that some bacterial films are highly water-repellent. In the journal Advanced Materials, Lieleg and his colleagues describe how to make a moisture-resistant hybrid mortar.

A soil bacterium produces the bio-supplement

The key ingredient in the new material is biofilm produced by the bacterium Bacillus subtilis. Bacillus subtilis normally lives in soil and is very common microorganism, Oliver Lieleg explains. For our experiments, we used a simple laboratory strain that grows rapidly, forms plenty of biomass and is completely harmless. Lielegs team bred the bacterial film on standard culture media in the lab. They then added the moist biofilm to the mortar powder.

In the generated hybrid mortar, water was significantly less able to wet the surface compared to untreated mortar. To evaluate this surface property, the scientists measured the contact angle between water droplets and the surface. The steeper this angle, the more spherical the drops are, and the less likely the liquid is soaked into the material. Whereas this angle is only 30 degrees or less on untreated mortar, it is three times as high for drops on the hybrid mortar. Water droplets on polytetrafluoroethylene, better known by the trade name Teflon, have a similarly high contact angle.

Nanostructures in the mortar

An explanation for the water-repellent properties of the hybrid mortar can be found in electron microscope images: The surface is covered with tiny crystalline spikes. This results in what is known as the lotus effect, which also occurs on the leaves of the lotus plant. The small uniform structures on the surface ensure that only a small part of a water droplet is actually in contact with the leaf surface. The surface tension of the droplet therefor is stronger than the forces that make it adhere to the leaf. Consequently, the droplet easily rolls off the leaf when the leaf is tilted. A cross-section of hybrid mortar shows that crystalline spikes are not only evenly distributed on the mortar surface but can also be found throughout the bulk volume of the mortar. This reduces the capillary forces that are normally responsible for the uprise of water in mortar when the material is immersed into liquid.

Although similar spikes also occur on untreated mortar, they are too long, rare and scattered for the lotus effect to occur. The researchers assume that the added biofilm stimulates uniform crystal growth throughout the volume of the hybrid material.

To find out if the hybrid mortar is resistant enough to actually be used in construction applications, it is currently undergoing mechanical tests in Christian Grosses department. If the mortar is in fact suitable, there should be no problem for companies to produce it on a large scale, Oliver Lieleg says. Both the bacterial strain used and the culture media are standard and relatively inexpensive. Weve also discovered in our experiments that freeze-dried biofilm can be used equally well. Then, in a powder form, the biological material can be stored, transported and addedmuch more easily . In the future, the scientists want to examine whether the biofilm can also be used to protect concrete against water.
Celebrating jailhouse recovery Audio Article Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle Sears paid a visit to the Chesterfield County Jail last week, meeting with over 50 of the men and women participating in the HARP (Helping Addicts...

An icons legacy memorialized Audio Article Enon Library was dedicated in memory of the Rev. Wyatt Tee Walker on Friday, Oct. 21. Board of Supervisors Chair Chris Winslow, right, was joined by Walkers daughter, Patrice Walker...
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks July 27, 2016, during a news conference in Doral, Fla. Trump gave his support to a minimum hourly wage of "at least $10." (Evan Vucci / AP)

Eclipsed perhaps by his apparent sanctioning of Russian cyber espionage, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump at a news conference on Wednesday voiced his support for a minimum hourly wage of "at least $10" because "people have to be taken care of."

This wasn't as surprising as Trump's nominating convention platform last week calling for a separation of commercial banking from investment banking by resurrecting the Glass-Steagall Act.

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But these positions, the sort of challenge to business interests perhaps expected from a Democrat, are no more traditional Republican stances than Trump himself is a traditional Republican.

Just the fact the nominee of one major party was holding a news conference while the other major party's convention was going on was a break from custom. But Trump sought to spotlight Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton's reluctance to hold news conferences herself.

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There also presumably was the hope of building on his own post-convention bounce to win over Bernie Sanders followers and others disenchanted with Clinton.

They would have to believe Trump's sincerity in challenging sacred cash cows. It's not always clear whether people mean things the way they sound.

Trump did hedge a bit on the minimum wage, saying "states should really call the shots" because the cost of living in, say, New York is not the same as other places.

"But what I'm really going to do with minimum wage, it has to go up," he said.

Some may recall Trump was asked at a November GOP debate in Milwaukee about protesters calling for a $15 minimum wage. He said workers' wages were "too high" for the United States "to compete against the world."

Pressed specifically by Fox's Neil Cavuto, Trump flatly denied he would raise the minimum.

"I hate to say it," the real estate mogul said, "but we have to leave it the way it is."

Since it became evident he would win the Republican nomination, however, that resolve has softened. When raising the $7.25 federal minimum hourly wage was brought up in May, Trump told CNN, "people have to get more."

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On Tuesday, talking to Fox News Channel's Bill O'Reilly, Trump initially seemed reluctant to specify how much he thought the federal hourly minimum wage should be. Eventually he said $10.

This may have been eclipsed by controversy ignited by a Tuesday commentary by O'Reilly, reflecting on first lady Michelle Obama's Monday convention speech mentioning of slaves who helped build the White House.

"Slaves that worked there were well-fed and had decent lodgings provided by the government," O'Reilly said.

He really said that, whether he meant it the way it sounded.

But back to Trump and a minimum wage that, in 2016, is more than meals and a place to sleep.

"You need to help people," Trump said. "I know it's not very Republican to say."

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It's also not very Republican to hope Russia hacked into the U.S. secretary of state's email.

In the course of trying to shoot down reports alleging Russia played a role in hacking and making public Democratic Party emails to boost Trump's campaign against Clinton, Trump said at his news conference it wasn't clear who hacked the Democrats. He said that he would be firm with Russian leader Vladimir Putin but also try to be friendly. He said a foreign power hacking the Democrats would be a sign of disrespect toward U.S. leadership.

And at one point, alluding to the Clinton home email server controversy, he addressed the Russians directly.

"Russia, if you're listening, I hope you're able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing," Trump said. "I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press. Let's see if that happens. That would be nice."

He really said that, whether he meant it the way it sounded.

He also said: "I'm going to bring jobs back to this country so people can start working again, so that the $10 and the $15 and the numbers you're talking about are going to literally be peanuts compared to what people can make."

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How did that sound to you?

philrosenthal@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @phil_rosenthal
Baxter International, which last year spun off its drugs unit to form Baxalta Inc., beat analysts' second-quarter earnings estimates and raised its 2016 guidance after what it said was a strong first half of the year.

Earnings, excluding certain items, were 46 cents a share, beating the 40 cents average of analysts' estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Earnings for the full year will be $1.69 to $1.74 a share, it said in a statement Tuesday, up from the $1.59 to $1.67 the company predicted in April.

Baxter has been attempting to refocus its business and in 2014 announced it would spin off its drugs unit and form Baxalta, leaving it to focus on kidney care and hospital products. Baxalta was bought by Shire Plc in June for $32 billion.

Revenue for the quarter grew 4.4 percent $2.59 billion, beating analysts' $2.52 billion estimate. Sales of its hospital products rose 6.2 percent to $1.62 billion. Renal sales grew 1.7 percent to $965 million.

Vijay Kumar, an analyst with Evercore ISI, said investors expected the company to beat expectations. "The key debate for investors was the magnitude of the beat and whether shares would react favorably," he said in a note to clients. "This reaffirms our thesis for turnaround."

The company traced its growth for the quarter to its U.S. Fluid Systems franchise and its Sigma infusion pumps and IV-related products. Anesthesia products and hospital pharmacy compounding services also contributed to growth, Baxter said.

Net income at the Deerfield, Illinois-based company was $1.21 billion, or $2.19 a share, up from $332 million, or 13 cents, a year earlier. Of that, $1.1 billion was from the sale of shares of Baxalta held after the spinoff.
A custom shelving unit Andrew Burden Swanson of Cygneture-Woodworks built and designed is seen in Chicago on July 25, 2016. Swanson designs for multipurpose display, allowing clients to frame possessions as well as store books. (Kristen Norman / Chicago Tribune)

Comedian George Carlin once observed that the entire meaning of life is "trying to find a place for your stuff. That's all your house is  a place for your stuff."

But the nature of the stuff changes over time. And so designing places for the stuff must, as well.

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For almost 20 years and through 10 books, residential architect and author Sarah Susanka has advocated the "not so big house" as a philosophy and practical way of life for people who, for a variety of reasons  economic limitations, concern about environmental sustainability or a desire for a house that reflects daily life  prefer smaller homes.

In a phone interview, Susanka says, "What I was trying to say in the 'Not So Big' series and in all my books is that you could build a little less space if you design it like a well-tailored suit. A lot of our generic mainstream builder houses have a lot of space, but they're not very well-distributed. They have storage, but it's amorphous."

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David Brininstool, co-founder of Chicago architectural firm Brininstool + Lynch, notes that even multiunit housing developments have shown "changes and adaptations and evolutions over the past decade or so. On the one hand, people have streamlined. They don't seem to have quite as much stuff. But the stuff they do have? People seem more driven to have spaces specifically designed to accommodate it."

Andrew Swanson of Cygneture-Woodworks poses for a portrait at his studio in Chicago. (Kristen Norman / Chicago Tribune)

Take closet space  that holy grail of home must-haves  as an example. Says Brininstool, "Fifteen years ago, it was about how many linear feet of closets you had. Now it's economics and people are adapting more to scaling down. So with closets today, it's more specifically designed for built-in drawers and shelves  specific places for specific things."

On the kitchen side, Brininstool says, "It so much reflects where the culture is with the artisanal, farm-to-table movement. People now shop more selectively for their food and they are willing to shop more often. So the idea of having a lot of kitchen square footage for groceries that you're not sure when you're going to consume them is going away."

However, real estate agent Connie Abels, who has worked primarily in Rogers Park for the past 20 years with Re/Max North Coast, disputes that: "Everybody wants a Costco room. That's what we call them." Abels adds that, when it comes to storage deal-breakers for a home, "the kitchen is where people are least likely to compromise. With the cooking shows, the online shopping shows, people are getting more kitchen equipment."

In the age of the e-reader and digital media, one might suspect that built-in bookcases are no longer a hot commodity. Susanka says, however, "there are still a very large number of people who love books and they need lots of shelving," adding that the built-ins "aren't just for books, but for objects, like beautiful ceramics."

The kitchen in the "not so big house" as designed by Sarah Susanka in Libertyville. (Shaun Sartin / Chicago Tribune)

Residential architect Steve Vasilion of Batavia-based Vasilion Architects notes that "your favorite books are representations of who you are." But so too are the other things we collect. Vasilion, who himself lives in an older Craftsman-style home, says "We have lots of windows, which means that the books compete with artwork for wall space." One solution he's devised are sliding barn doors over bookcases that can display artwork when the books aren't in use. Scattering small reading nooks throughout the home  whether on stair landings, tucked away in a master bedroom or in window seats  also helps provide places to store and display favorite tomes.

Designer and carpenter Andrew Burden Swanson specializes in building furniture and built-ins from reclaimed lumber. (Full disclosure: I hired Swanson a year ago to build pieces to accommodate the bibliophilic tendencies of myself and my partner.) Swanson, who is 28, notes that "I deal a lot with people my age and even younger, and they move a lot."

Andrew Swanson of Cygneture-Woodworks sands a door outside his studio in Chicago. (Kristen Norman / Chicago Tribune)

What they need, he says "are things that can come with them. I can do a lot of things that are smaller storage pieces  little shelves that can unclick from the wall and come with them." Particularly for renters who have limited options for redecorating their homes outside what Swanson calls "the vanilla box," these pieces can add personal touches and character.

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Like Vasilion, Swanson designs for multipurpose display. His signature "oddball" shelving units, which do not have backing walls, allow his clients to "frame those possessions, essentially. You can have two or three paintings of extreme sentimental value and maybe 50 or 100 books" contained in the same unit.

Swanson also does larger pieces for condo owners that reflect their aesthetics. A recent client, who was raised in Turkey, wanted a low bench-style daybed, similar to what many homes in her native country incorporate, in the living room. Swanson's design added a desk at one end and a shelf at the other for a comfortable and functional workspace that also had some storage possibility.

Abels says that "people are looking for creative ways to utilize their storage," and notes that Pinterest boards devoted to inventive storage ideas abound. She also says that, for multiunit buildings, there is a growing trend to have "bedroom-sized storage lockers" in common areas that can also serve as workrooms. "One of my next-door neighbors has her kiln down there."

And though the younger generation may not have the glass knickknacks that their grandmothers cherished, space for collectibles is still important.

Vasilion notes that he recently had a client whose basement recreational area was lined with shelves for his extensive collection of "Star Wars" memorabilia. Brininstool says that his clients in the custom single-family market collect everything from artwork to vintage guitars. "They have a lot of these specific things of interest, but then their clothes could basically fit inside a wardrobe. Which is interesting, considering these are multimillion-dollar houses."

Formal dining rooms still exist, of course  though few people entertain in the grand style, meaning that the storage required for formal china can feel passe. Vasilion says "A lot of people still have the one family heirloom  and it's often a buffet piece. And they will ask me to create an alcove for it." Once again, he finds that combining built-ins with display works well for maximizing the visual impact and practical storage needs. "I'll suggest glass doors to show off pieces. Or you can use the top (of the buffet) as a serving counter and the space above it for artwork."

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So often, decisions about stuff come down to creating space for how you actually live, rather than how you think you should live.

Susanka says, "I used to see it all the time. Often when people are designing a new house, they are designing for an imagined world where it's perfect. And we're not perfect. In the last couple of decades, since the advent of HGTV and 'This Old House' and things like that, people are able to see that it's OK not to live formally or even pretend that they're going to live formally. And it gives them the courage of their convictions to live as they want."

In other words: Your stuff. Your rules.

Kerry Reid is a freelance writer.

ctc-realestate@chicagotribune.com
Dr. Dre was handcuffed outside his Malibu home Monday after a motorist initiated a private person's arrest, alleging the music mogul brandished a gun at him at the Pacific Coast Highway residence, authorities said.

Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies cited Dre, whose real name is Andre Young, and released him. Deputies found no evidence that Dre had pointed a gun at the man, nor did they recover a weapon, officials said. Dre told deputies the man was blocking his driveway and denied making threats, officials said.

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Sheriff's Capt. Chris Reed said that under the law, an individual can request a private person's arrest be made when a deputy hasn't witnessed an alleged misdemeanor crime. Dre was given the citation but not formally taken into custody.

Deputies responded to a report of a man brandishing a firearm in the 22000 block of Pacific Coast Highway about 11:15 am. The man claimed he was stopped in front of a home when the person later identified as Dre "ordered him to leave and produced a handgun."

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"Due to the nature of the call, the person was searched, handcuffed, and briefly detained in a patrol car while deputies investigated the incident," Reed said.

According to the deputies, Dre was cooperative, consented to be searched and denied having a gun.

Dre told deputies the man was parked directly in front of his residence blocking his driveway when he asked him to leave. He told deputies the man left but immediately returned and parked near the same location in the center median in front of his house. Dre said he then pulled out his cellphone to begin recording the incident and the man drove away.

A source familiar with the investigation said Dre also claimed the man had followed him from a freeway where the pair had been involved in a road-rage-type incident.

richard.winton@latimes.com
A glass of Sliced Nectarine IPA sits with books from Chicago's Siebel Institute. The books will be shelved near a fireplace at Moody Tongue's new tasting room. (Erin Hooley / Chicago Tribune)

Forget the cheeseburger. The beet salad with goat cheese. The locally sourced, humanely raised kale chips. Just two food items will appear on the menu at the forthcoming Moody Tongue Brewing tap room.

Oysters. And German chocolate cake. And that's it.

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"Salty and sweet," brewery founder Jared Rouben said. "The perfect pairing."

What seems eccentric winds up making perfect sense when considering Rouben and how he has distinguished his Pilsen brewery since 2014.

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Looking more like a lawyer than a brewer, Rouben has no beard. No tattoos. He has a propensity to tuck in his shirts. He asks his six employees to wear their branded Moody Tongue polo shirts to work every day (though don't worry, they aren't required to tuck them in). He trained at The Culinary Institute of America, and his beer often features food as key ingredients. Sometimes very, very nice food  who can forget last year's $120 Shaved Black Truffle Pilsner?

Moody Tongue founder Jared Rouben says his new tasting room, opening in August, will feature his four core beers, including the Sliced Nectarine IPA he is holding, plus a roating cast of smaller-scale beers. (Erin Hooley / Chicago Tribune)

Rouben's taproom, which is expected to open in late August, will reflect the clean-cut refinement of his brewery. In an old industrial building flooded with natural light, guests will be seated by a host or hostess at a booth or bar of white marble and served Moody Tongue beers in lithe glassware that is mouth-blown in Austria. Oh, and don't call it a taproom.

"It's a tasting room," Rouben said.

What will be familiar to Chicago drinkers are the beers on draft. Across the 12 taps, Moody Tongue's four core beers will be poured: Caramelized Chocolate Churro Baltic Porter, Sliced Nectarine IPA, Steeped Emperor's Lemon Saison and Applewood Gold. A rotating cast of smaller-scale beers will be served, too, including saison, stout and barleywine currently aging in an array of second-use wine and spirits barrels. Rouben also indicated that a return of the Shaved Black Truffle Pilsner is likely.

Rouben has long aimed to merge elements of finer dining and beer, all the way back to his collaborations with notable chefs when he was brewmaster at the Goose Island brewpub on Clybourn Avenue. At the Moody Tongue taproom  ahem, tasting room  the elegance will be reflected even in the five different glasses, which feel strikingly light and refined in the hand.

Whiskey barrels are used to age beer that will be featured at Moody Tongue's new tasting room. (Erin Hooley / Chicago Tribune)

"I want the most beautiful vessels possible to hold my beer," Rouben said. "And I want the glassware that will allow the beer to share the best aromatics and flavor profile."

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(Rouben said he isn't worried people will steal his fancy glassware; "When you give people great things, they take care of it," he said.)

Though the marble bar will act as the heart of the operation, Moody Tongue is building a gas fireplace surrounded by dark wood bookshelves, inherited from the Siebel Institute of Technology (where Rouben studied brewing), to hold former Siebel brewing textbooks. Siebel also gave Moody Tongue a one-barrel, wall-mounted brewing system that Rouben said he'll use to experiment with "educators, restaurant staff and anyone (in the industry) who wants to learn more about beer."

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Employees work at the Moody Tongue brewery Tuesday, July 26, 2016, in the Pilsen neighborhood of Chicago. The brewery will add a tasting room in August (Erin Hooley / Chicago Tribune)

Head brewer Brian Musinski will often be found behind the bar to guide guests through food and beer pairings. Or, in this case, the intersection of German chocolate cake, oysters and beer, a combination Rouben began to dream of nearly 10 years ago, when the thought of his own brewery was just a dream.

"This will be beer and food pairing at its most focused," he said.

Operating hours and an opening date are expected to be announced in August.

jbnoel@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @jbnoel






At Nicky's The Real McCoy, the Big Baby is a bun toasted on the flat top griddle, topped with pickle, ketchup and mustard, then two burger patties sandwiching a slice of American cheese, the whole crowned with grilled onions then the bun top. (Abel Uribe / Chicago Tribune)

The Big Baby, the double cheeseburger defined by a crown of grilled onions and widely beloved by generations of Chicago South Siders, has a documented history that dates back nearly 50 years, so why has it been denied the title of the Chicago-style burger?

Although the Chicago-style hot dog is well-known, and most Chicagoans can recite the ingredients without thought, there's no burger associated with the city. And yet, the Big Baby arguably deserves the title. And if you ask at least one fan who has studied the burger's origins, the fact that it was invented on the South Side, and not the North, is to blame.

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What is the Big Baby?

"A Big Baby is a double cheeseburger grilled on a flat top with ketchup, mustard, pickle and grilled onions," said Manoli Marneris, 25, son of the owner of Nicky's The Real McCoy. The elder Marneris, Jimmy, was on vacation in Greece, from where both his parents emigrated. The restaurant on the corner of 58th Street and Kedzie Avenue was founded by the younger Marneris' late grandfather Nicky Marneris in 1969. They added "The Real McCoy" to distinguish it from the many other Nicky's in Chicagoland.

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We challenged the chefs behind some of Chicago's biggest, craziest, messiest burgers to eat the monsters they've created. Read the story behind the video here. (Chicago Tribune)

Manoli Marneris claims his grandfather invented the Big Baby in 1969 to compete with the Big Mac, which debuted in 1968 nationwide, including at the McDonald's across the street.

Third-generation Marneris started working in the family business when he was 8 years old, "at the pop machine," he said, and knows the Big Baby well. He recites not only the ingredients but assembly with ease, like replies at church during Mass.

"From the top down, you get bun, and then the grilled onions, and then one patty, the slice of American cheese, the second patty, and then pickle, ketchup and mustard on the bottom," he said. "And it's always a sesame seed bun that has to be toasted on the griddle. You can't toast it on anything else." For 47 years, they've cooked every Big Baby on the original cast iron griddle.

But what fat and seasonings do they use for the signature onions? When you taste them alone, there's something there. "We can't really give out that secret recipe," said Marneris, laughing.

Angelo Lilas, who co-owns Nickys Hot Dogs at Archer and Austin avenues with his father, Jim, revealed some tips for cooking a Big Baby at home, but he won't tell you the secret to their grilled onions. (Abel Uribe / Chicago Tribune)

At Nicky's Hot Dogs, no relation, at the corner of Archer and Austin avenues, co-owner Angelo Lilas makes what's widely considered a consistently exemplary historic version of the burger. "A Big Baby is a double cheeseburger on a sesame seed bun with ketchup, mustard, pickle, grilled onions and a slice of cheese," said Lilas with conviction, "That's it."

Some innovators add lettuce and tomato, defiling the canon.

Lilas owns the small 1960s-vintage storefront with his father, Jim, who also happened to be on vacation in Greece, their home country as well.

The younger Lilas revealed secret ingredients, and even home cooking tips, but added a caveat.

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"We use Vienna beef patties," he said, "We have for 30-plus years."

How could fans make a Big Baby at home, if they had to?

"First, I'd grill the onions," said Lilas, "Get those onions nice and going, because they're going to take a little bit, especially if you're pan-frying. Throw a little bit of oil, maybe a tad bit of garlic oil. Once those are done, maybe add a little bit of salt or garlic salt."

"But the thing is no matter how much you cook it at home, it won't taste like this," he warned. "I've taken these (ingredients) home. It looks like it but doesn't taste like it."

For Big Baby context and history, you have to talk to Peter Engler, a former University of Chicago genetic research scientist perhaps best known for his television appearance with Anthony Bourdain as the expert on the mother-in-law sandwich, another South Side specialty. Engler, a longtime South Sider, has studied the Big Baby for nearly 15 years  and has lost count of the number he's eaten.

He's spoken with half a dozen people who claimed to have invented it. "The Big Baby is a burger style that arose in Chicago around Midway Airport sometime in the 1960s," said Engler. "A lot of places around the Southwest Side continue to serve it with varying similarities to the original model."

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"It's two griddled burger patties," he said. "Very often, a sixth of a pound each, very common, commercial, small, usually frozen patties, griddled on a flat top. It comes on a toasted sesame seed bun. Almost every place will lightly toast the bun on the griddle as the burger is cooking. When the burger is almost finished cooking, the bottom of the bun will be taken off and dressed with ketchup, mustard and, usually, two or three pickle coins. Then the two burgers will be taken off with a piece of American cheese sandwiched between, and then that burger-cheese-sandwich will be placed on the bottom bun. Then everything is topped with a tong-full of sauteed onions, pretty greasy, not browned but colored, and then the top of the bun goes on. The order of the assembly at the authentic places is really invariant."

When asked why the Big Baby has not been accepted as the Chicago-style burger, Engler hesitates before answering. "Basically the Big Baby, it has been pointed out to me, is just a double cheeseburger," he said.

"But it's a real blue-collar burger," he added, "with the name, which is always important, all just quietly sitting there on the South Side getting eaten by thousands and thousands of people for decades. But for some reason, people on the North Side have never heard of it."

"And the reason is," he adds, "it's on the South Side. A lot of North Siders never make it down. I have a feeling a lot of the Southwest Side people who live around Midway Airport who've been eating Big Babys all their life would be surprised that the rest of the city is so deprived, that they don't have this great creation, one of the best burgers in Chicago, to hear them tell it."

The Big Baby has inspired at least two gourmet versions, one by Ryan Poli. The Southwest Side native was chef at Perennial and Tavernita in Chicago, then traveled the world cooking and is now the chef at the critically acclaimed Catbird Seat restaurant in Nashville.

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"It's the quintessential burger," he said of the original. As for his Big Baby, which he featured at the now closed Little Market Brasserie, "I tried to keep true to the original, but we used a brioche sesame seed bun, spicy mayo, and Dijon mustard. Everything else was the same. I even kept the American cheese," said Poli. "But we made our own patties, ground our own beef trim from dry-aged beef. And we made our own pickles."

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In his opinion as a globe-trotting chef, does his childhood burger deserve the title of the Chicago-style burger? "Yes," he answered, "If the Big Baby didn't deserve the title, then what would?"

"It's not just one place," Poli added, "Multiple, multiple places named Nicky's make it, and they don't stray too far from the original."

Which Big Baby was better, his or the original? "The original, by far," he said laughing, "Mine was a cheap impostor. You just can't match it, served wrapped up in that thin yellow wax paper. You just can't compete."

Nicky's The Real McCoy, 5801 S. Kedzie Ave., 773-436-6458; Nicky's Hot Dogs, 6142 S. Archer Ave., 773-585-3675

lchu@tribpub.com

Twitter @louisachu






Baja fish tacos come together easily with a quick and easy batter. Finish them with salsa, slaw and a squirt of lime. (Chicago Tribune)

When we say fish tacos, you probably think: Beer. Or a margarita. Great choices both. But consider wine for a minute. A crisp, chilled white, rose or sparkler can complement the flavors and textures in the Baja fish tacos here. We have three choices to get you going.

MAKE THIS

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Baja fish tacos

Combine 3/4 cup flour, 1/4 cup cornmeal, 1 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon cayenne in a large bowl; stir in 1 cup Mexican lager. Cut 1 pound firm-fleshed fish fillets (cod or halibut) into thick strips or cubes. Heat 2-3 inches of oil in a cast-iron skillet to 375 degrees. Dip each piece of fish in beer batter; add to oil, being careful to avoid crowding. Fry until golden, turning if necessary. Remove from oil; transfer to a paper towel-lined tray. Season with salt; serve at once in warm tortillas with salsa, slaw and lime. Makes: 4 servings

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Recipe by Lisa Futterman

DRINK THIS

Pairings by sommelier Aaron McManus, of Oriole, as told to Michael Austin:

Laherte Freres Ultradition Brut Champagne, France: Sparkling wine is amazing with fried food. This Champagne, a blend of pinot meunier, chardonnay and pinot noir, has notes of limes, pears, peaches, yellow plum, orange blossom, bread dough and a chalky minerality. Its citrus flavors will complement the limes, which you can squeeze on right before eating, and the yeasty flavors will complement the beer flavors in the batter.

2014 Claude Riffault Sancerre Les Denisottes, Loire Valley, France: Made of 100 percent sauvignon blanc, this wine has flavors of green apple, lemon zest, grapefruit, herbs, seashells and small pebbles. It has a liveliness that will cut through the fat in the fish, and its herbal notes will match the herbs in the salsa. Plus, the wine's salinity on the palate, along with its distinct aromas of seashells, will make you crave more fish.

2015 Proprieta Sperino Rosa del Rosa, Piedmont, Italy: This rose is a blend of nebbiolo and vespolina, and has a beautiful salmon color. It smells of rose petals and strawberry, grapefruit, melons, dried Italian herbs, apricot, tomato leaf, mushrooms and pepper. It is a little fuller-bodied than many roses, with a little tannin. It will stand up to the richness of the dish, and the tomato leaf and herbs will complement the flavors in the salsa.

Twitter @pour_man
Federal Plaza has never looked so festive ... or so gross.

Paramount Pictures released a trailer Tuesday for "Office Christmas Party," which stars Jason Bateman, Olivia Munn and Jennifer Aniston in a tale of a workplace celebration that goes off the rails and into Federal Plaza.

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"Merry Christmas, Jeremy," Bateman says to Rob Corddry's character, who is shown with his pants around his knees as he "waters" downtown plants.

The movie, due out Dec. 9, was mostly filmed in Georgia, but some scenes were shot in Chicago in April. Fake snow and decorations were brought in to simulate the holidays.

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And yet, it's tough to shake that morning-after-hangover feeling watching the trailer. At the end, a group approaches T.J. Miller dressed as Santa.

"Hey Santa, wanna party?" one of the woman asks as Miller takes a swig of champagne next to a Divvy bike-share station.

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Expand Autoplay Image 1 of 122 Sophie Turner as Jean Grey, anger management student, in "Dark Phoenix." The film, the latest in the "X-Men" franchise, costars James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender and Jessica Chastain. Read the review. (Twentieth Century Fox)
Amidst DNC convention, jihadist acts and war on cops, Obama disarming police

With the events occurring last week in Cleveland, Ohio, during the Republican National Convention and then this week in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania during the Democrat's already controversial convention, the news media have taken the opportunity to keep Americans in the dark about news reports that could conceivably harm the Democratic Party's valued presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.



At the same time that European Union countries and the United States are maintaining an alert posture in the aftermath of Islamic terrorist attacks, President Barack Obama is pushing his administration to strictly enforce his already issued executive order to take certain weapons and equipment away from local police and sheriff departments throughout the nation, according to the National Association of Chiefs of Police.



High-tech weapons, equipment and vehicles are being confiscated from law enforcement agencies across the country by the Obama administration despite the country's sheriffs and lawmakers complaining that the equipment is more than ever necessary to protect communities from violence including incidents perpetrated by jihadists who are expected to attempt a repeat of attacks occurring in France, Belgium and other countries.



During the GOP Convention in Cleveland, Ohio, sheriffs such as Arizona's Joe Arpaio and Wisconsin's David Clarke have complained that losing armored vehicles and other equipment that are defensive not offensive, will place police officers and sheriffs' deputies, in addition to their communities, at risk from violent crime, riots and terrorism.



"These things are useful tools and the president taking them away will put more officers in jeopardy and at risk of harm or even death. I don't know how he can sleep at night knowing his actions will have those repercussions," argues Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Alabama.



"The do-gooders were more concerned about the rioters and looters than about the officers who had to face them and worry about how they used their weapons and equipment," said former police officer and attorney Joseph Fitzgerald.



"In fact, Obama and his Attorney General at the time [Eric Holder] took action even before the investigation that followed the shooting of a black man by a white officer was completed. By the way, the verdict in that case was that the officer was correct in his use of deadly force against a 6'8 300 lbs. assailant," explained Fitzgerald.



Progressives in the Democratic Party and their fellow travelers - Rev. Al Sharpton, Rev. Jesse Jackson, Eric Holder, the NAACP and others - were angry over the so-called "1033 program," which the Defense Department initiated during the Clinton administration in 1997. Ironically, it's President Bill Clinton's wife who is supporting the so-called "de-escalation" program including the Pentagon's confiscation of their equipment given to local police.



The 1033 program allowed the Department of Defense to send military surplus equipment such as armored tracked vehicles, camouflage uniforms and weapons to local law enforcement agencies at no cost to the departments or to the taxpayers. The program saved money and also gave agencies the ability to deal with criminals and terrorists who use advanced weaponry especially IEDs (improvised explosive devices) and WMD (weapons of mass destruction) such as chemical, radioactive and biological weapons.



The list of the now banned items includes armored tracked vehicles, weaponized man or unmanned aircraft and vehicles (drones), .50-caliber rifles and ammo, and camouflage equipment. Most of the equipment -except for items such as the Barrett .50 caliber sniper rifle - is meant to protect responding officers and first-responders.



Sheriffs - who are elected by voters as opposed to police chiefs who are appointed and controlled by politicians - using the equipment are visibly outraged, saying that the main complaints were against the armored tracked vehicles which have saved lives in crisis situations, and double as rescue vehicles. For example, the New York City Police Department uses armored military vehicles - which they call bearcats - for responding to suspected chemical, radiological and biological weapons.



The Obama administration hasn't banned departments from using such equipment; it only prohibits those distributed by the Pentagon as part of the 1033 program. But many of the agencies got their vehicles free-of-charge and cannot afford to pay for replacements, which will reduce the safety of police officers and deputies.



Congressman Rogers also added, "Less than a week after the horrific attacks on civilians in Paris, it seems more urgent than ever to ensure our law enforcement have the best equipment we can provide to counter any attack. It is just baffling to me that the president would weaken the possible security and safety of our local citizens."


Ron Thom, a top-selling real-estate broker in Yellowstone County, died Sunday at his Billings home. He was 59.

Thom spent the past 18 years at Billings-based Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Floberg Realty, formerly known as Prudential Floberg Realtors.

In 36 years in the business, his specialty was high-end homes, and he was known in the industry locally as an innovator who embraced new technology like drone pictures of homes and a well-designed, sleek website.

He was an icon that everyone looked up to, said Dana Wagenhals, broker/owner of Metro Realtors and president of the Billings Association of Realtors, on Tuesday.

A cause of death has not been determined. The Yellowstone County Coroners Office says it is conducting an autopsy and does not suspect foul play.

Linda Parker, manager partner of the Berkshire Hathaway office, said agents are very sad this week after Thoms death.

He was the best-selling agent in the office and was willing to help others grow in their careers, Parker said.

Ron was a wonderful mentor to the younger agents. He had wonderful advice, caring about them and their success. He was the ultimate professional, Parker said.

She added that his wife, Audre, was a key member of Thoms team, adding her computer savvy to help him succeed. Thom was known for highlighting homes with descriptive names  Rimview Retreat, Screen Gem and Sweet Elixir were three recent ones he sent on email.

Berkshire Hathaway is the areas largest brokerage, and the loss of Thom will hurt, said Billings Mayor Tom Hanel, who is also broker/owner of the firm.

Rons clients will be looked after very carefully, and they will receive the utmost attention that they should expect and that Ron would deliver, Hanel said Tuesday.

While the office is still grieving, Hanel said the ownership group is reviewing Thoms files and contacting clients.

Thom was born Dec. 14, 1956, in Billings, according to his obituary. He graduated college in Phoenix, Ariz., and moved to California briefly before returning to Montana to resume his real-estate career.

A celebration of life ceremony will be held 11 a.m. Friday at the Red Lion Hotel and Convention Center, known until recently as the Billings Hotel and Convention Center.
Montana Gov. Steve Bullock did not answer the call during Tuesdays roll call delegate vote to nominate presidential candidate Hillary Clinton during the Democratic National Convention.

A superdelegate, Bullock sat out the nominating convention. Hes one of only three Democratic governors not attending.

He wanted to stay in state, said Jason Pitt, Bullocks campaign spokesman. Hes got an important job making sure we remain the most prudent state in the country and standing up for public lands.

Pitt said Bullocks skipping the debate has nothing to do with the governor, who is seeking re-election, not wanting to be associated with Hillary Clinton.

Clinton lost the Montana primary to Bernie Sanders. She received 44 percent of the vote. Scant public polling in the state suggests that Trump has a sizable advantage over Clinton in Montana, as well.

Earlier this month, the 538 Blog by New York Times pollster Nate Silver, gave Trump a 21.4 percent lead over Clinton in Montana. Trump actually did 7.8 points better in Montana over his Democratic adversary than Mitt Romney did over President Barack Obama in 2012.

Of the 16 states where Republicans did best in 2012, there were only two so far, according to 538, where Trump is currently polling better than Romney did in the last presidential election: Montana and West Virginia.

Bullock was in Helena on Tuesday, where he announced several new research grants for businesses.

West Virginia was devastated by a once-in-a-thousand-years flood at the end of June that killed at least two dozen people. Communities are still recovering. Like Bullock, Tomblin wanted to stay in state, according to West Virginia staff.

Lolo M. Moliga, the Democratic governor of American Samoa, was also unable to attend.

Of the governors attending the Democratic National Convention, most had speaking parts or played roles on panel discussions about government issues. All of them, under Democratic Party rules, had superdelegate status, meaning they werent bound to vote for a specific candidate based on the primary results in their states. Absentee votes aren't allowed.

Bullock was chairman of the Democratic Governors Association. His term expired in December 2015.

Montanans voted for Clinton 14 to 12, with Sanders falling two short, despite winning the state primary. That means the states superdelegates put their support behind Clinton.

U.S. Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., did attend. He spoke to Montana delegates at a Tuesday morning breakfast and then spoke at the Democratic National Committees Rural Council about agriculture, energy, infrastructure and education.

"This convention is about uniting around the important issues facing middle class families., Tester said in a statement to The Gazette. From ensuring folks have good-paying jobs to making college affordable and health care accessible, this convention provides an exciting opportunity to come together and rally support for strong Montana values."

Bullock did get a shout-out from the Montana delegation during the roll call vote.

"The home of our great Gov. (Steve Bullock), who is protecting our public lands and all of our rivers that run through it," the delegation said, introducing the state. The clip played live on CSPAN.
A craftsman reproduces an antique weapon at a themed exhibition held in Heilongjiang Museum in Harbin, capital of northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, July 26, 2016. Over 100 pieces of antique traditional Chinese weapons were exhibited here on Tuesday. (Xinhua/Wang Song)
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As China's economy faces continued downward pressure and settles into a "new normal" stage, supply-side structural reform becomes ever more important, according to a statement released by the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee after meeting Tuesday.

China's economy held steady in H1, and supply-side structural reform has seen progress, noted the statement.

"However, the downward pressure facing the economy remains, and potential risks deserving attention still exist," it noted.

The statement underlined the importance of proactive fiscal policy and prudent monetary policy, as well as the careful management of the speed and direction of macro-economic policy.

China's GDP expanded 6.7 percent in Q2, the lowest growth rate since the global financial crisis in early 2009.

The economy is widely expected to follow an L-shaped path as downward pressure continues and new growth momentum is yet to pick up.

The statement said credit structures should be optimized to support the real economy. The yuan's exchange rate is expected to remain stable at a reasonable and balanced level.

As the economy cools, falling demand has led to excess industrial capacity, which is seen as one of the most urgent issues facing the Chinese economy.

The statement said cutting stockpiles and overcapacity were key tasks in the latter half of the year. To achieve this the country should deepen the reform of state-owned enterprises and push forward urbanization.

At a meeting of senior political advisors Monday, Chinese President Xi Jinping called for confidence and resolution on implementing economic strategy.

He asked political advisors to provide practical suggestions for the implementation of supply-side structural reform.

Xi also underlined the importance of poverty relief, which is a key factor in China building a well-off society. He hoped political advisors would closely monitor the poverty relief effort.
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The Supreme People's Procuratorate (SPP) announced on Wednesday that it has started an investigation of Yang Zhenchao, former vice governor of east China's Anhui Province.

Yang, who was a member on the Anhui Provincial Government's Communist Party of China (CPC) leadership group, "violated the Party's code of conduct in a serious manner," said a statement from the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection on Tuesday.

Yang, who was expelled from the Party and his office on corruption charges, was put under "coercive measures," said a statement from the SPP.
Although it's wise not to venture out when the outside temperature is reaching boiling point, staying indoors 24/7 is also not possible. So what's the solution? Well, like everything else in life, internet seems to have the answer.

Fengyoujing. [Photo from web]

Apart from joking that they would live forever anywhere that has air conditioning and Wi-Fi, online users are also sharing and saving "magical" solutions that can beat the scorching heat.

Some traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) recommendations stand out not only because those in China swear by them but also because those living abroad believe in them.

Dragon & Tiger balm is one such ointment. It contains many herbal formulas, such as menthol, camphor and mint oil, that its fans claim keep their skin cool.

The balm is commonly applied on temples to keep the body cool and refreshed. Some also use it as a mosquito repellent due to its strong smell and also to ease carsickness.

Many foreigners also love the balm. On Amazon.com, several claim it helps in reducing shoulder pain, migraine and Sciatica.

A user called "Liz Hart" praising the medicine said: "[It] has changed my life. It helps in Sciatica like nothing else."

The ointment is widely known from Asia to Africa where heat and mosquitoes are eternal companions.

Many people online said their Asian and African friends enthusiastically buy lots of balm in China and take it back home as gift.

But the balm is not the only 'hot' summer item. The best seller is Chinese brand Liushen florida water.

It has a long history of dominating the domestic market as mosquito repellent and eliminating prickly heat.

In case you are wondering how can water repel mosquitoes or eliminate prickly heat, trust us it's not a joke.

Many internet users shared their experience on Sina Weibo of using the Liushen water, which contains menthol and ethanol, to cool off in summer.

A user said: "I poured half a bottle into my bath. Then I started shivering as it had turned the water so cold. And the shivering didn't stop even when I went outside in 40 degree Celsius."

Another said: "I applied it on my body when I was using shower gel. It worked so well that I had to wrap myself in a blanket to keep warm while it was 40 degrees outside."

However, foreigners have a completely different take.

On an online perfume forum in Iowa, most online users thought it was cologne or even aftershave.

Someone was shocked when they discovered that the water was actually advertised as a mosquito repellent, a pitch that made the product more mysterious.

Similar to Liushen florida water, Fengyoujing is also menthol water, although not as expensive as Liushen.

Many Chinese working abroad began buying it as gift when Fengyoujing accidentally became popular in Libya.

Last but not least, there's still a product people can use to beat the heat, especially sunstroke.

But the ultimate honor when it comes to beating the heat, especially sunstroke, goes to a product that is a nightmare for millions of Chinese.

Huoxiangzhengqi water, a kind of TCM concoction made by many herbs, has tested the will of millions of people with its bitter and spicy taste.

It is claimed that it's the best medicine to fight diarrhea and emesis in summer.

Try these four "magical" solutions, and then tell us how your summer went.
The Chinese Public Security Ministry screened a 70-minute video illuminating police "dos and don'ts", at a conference on law-enforcement regulations, on Tuesday July 26, 2016, Beijing Youth Daily reports.

A file photo shows police officers in law-enforcement training. [Photo: Xinhua]

The video clarified that photographing, as long as it does not affect the law-enforcement process, is a proper way of public monitoring; and law-enforcers should willingly accept the monitoring of cameras.

The ministry indicated that photographs of law-enforcers and incidents taken by the public could also be used as reference.

Practical solutions on how to handle civilians who tightly hug the legs of police, how to manage civilian attacks, and how to check suspicious vehicles were also detailed in the video.

The video was created using real-life experiences and with expert opinions, to further clarify the existing regulations on law-enforcement.

The ministry also plans to release other corresponding measures and mechanisms in addition to the regulations, to better regulate law-enforcement.
The State Administration of Cultural Heritage (SACH) will launch a campaign to crack down on criminal damage to the Great Wall.

The campaign will involve regular inspections and random checks on protection efforts by authorities in 15 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities.

The SACH will open a special tip line for information about violations and damage to the Great Wall from the public.

Built from the third century B.C. to the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), the Great Wall stretches over 21,000 kilometers from the northwestern province of Gansu to north China's Hebei Province.

According to SACH statistics, about 30 percent of a 6,200-km section of the wall built in the Ming Dynasty has disappeared, and less than 10 percent is considered well-preserved.

The Great Wall has faced threats from both nature and humans. Earthquakes, rain, wind and other natural elements have left the wall with many decayed and crumbling bricks.

Human activities, such as reckless development by some governments and theft of bricks by local villagers for use as building materials, as well as agriculture near the wall, have damaged the landmark, according to research by the China Great Wall Society.

A lack of protection efforts in remote regions and a weak plan for protection have also contributed to the damage, the society added.

In 2006, China released a national regulation on Great Wall protection. However, Great Wall experts have urged local authorities to draw up more practical measures to better implement the regulation.

This year, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region included Great Wall protection expenditures in its budget. The government of Fangcheng City, Henan Province, began a campaign for conservation experts and local residents to work together to protect the wall.
Participants pose for a group photo before the 6th East Asia Summit Foreign Ministers' Meeting in Vientiane, capital of Laos, July 26, 2016. (Xinhua/Liu Yun)

As foreign ministers from China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) wrapped up their meeting on Monday in Vientiane, the Laotian capital, the conferees have proved that these countries, despite demagoguery and discord, are committed to a lasting peace in the region.

Earlier this month a law-abusing tribunal in The Hague issued an award in favor of the Philippines' unfounded claims in the South China Sea. In a statement released by the ministers after their meeting, there was no mention of the tribunal's award, illustrating the determination of both sides to settle their differences and not exacerbate tensions.

Also welcomed is the committment by China and ASEAN to resolve their territorial and jurisdictional disputes peacefully through friendly negotiations. China firmly believes that resorting to force is not the way forward.

These reassuring results have not come lightly.

Several days ago, the ministers walked into the meeting at a time when the atmosphere surrounding the South China Sea issue was highly-charged. That was a direct result of the former Philippine government's efforts to internationalize its maritime dispute with Beijing by launching an arbitration case in The Hague before a tribunal that has no jurisdiction over sovereign matters.

China has reiterated its stance of non-participation in and non-acceptance of the arbitration. To fully respect international law and justice, China will never recognize the award and never be "forced" into accepting it.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry in a meeting with the Lao foreign minister, urged ASEAN to issue a joint statement on the recent South China Sea ruling, according to the U.S. State Department.

But by not mentioning the invalid award, the statement didn't given in to pressure by those intent on challenging China's sovereign rights in the Asia-Pacific and disrupt Beijing's relations with ASEAN members.

The major reason the ASEAN avoided mention of the tribunal award in its statement is simple: many member states realize that China has been a solid security and economic partner. They understand that unity and cooperation are essential in the face of hardship.

Though it has failed to put pressure on China in Vientiane, Washington nonetheless realizes that an Asia-Pacific in turmoil or a degenerating China-U.S. relationship doesn't jibe well with its own vital national interests.

That's why U.S. President Barack Obama sent his national security adviser Susan Rice this week to Beijing to reassure the Chinese leadership that China's success was in America's interest, and that the two nations can work together on major global issues.

Also, before John Kerry flew to the Manila to meet with New Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte late Tuesday, the top U.S. diplomat hoped that China and the Philippines would "turn the page" and hold talks over their disputes in the South China Sea.

Now that China and the nations of ASEAN have promised to work toward resolving their differences, Washington should keep its word and stay neutral regarding the South China Sea issue. After all, China and its neighbors can manage their own affairs.
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South Sudan on Tuesday formally endorsed Taban Deng Gai as the first vice president in a power-sharing government.

The swearing-in followed the sacking of Riek Machar on Monday, throwing a peace deal signed in August 2015 into tatters amid fears that the world's youngest country could slide back to civil war.

President Kiir on Monday appointed Gai, a former chief negotiator of the former rebels Sudan People's liberation Movement in Opposition (SPLM-IO) after a faction of senior SPLM-IO members in Juba on Saturday endorsed Gai as head of the movement following Machar's exit from Juba after days of clashes between his forces and those loyal to President Kiir.

In his acceptance speech, Gai said he opted to step in as the leader of the SPLM-IO to fill a vacuum created by Riek's absence and also to save the August 2015 pact.

"Today I'm swearing in as the first vice president of this country. I have never struggled or dreamt of it, but circumstances forced us to fill a vacuum so that we save our nation. I assure the nation that will help you in moving forward this country," said Gai.

President Kiir last Thursday gave Machar a 48-hour ultimatum to return to Juba to join him with the implementation of the peace agreement.

Machar, however, declined the request insisting that he will only return to the capital Juba if a neutral regional force is deployed to separate the two rival army factions that clashed on July 7 leading to death of more than 270 people, mostly soldiers.

President Kiir on Tuesday defended his actions to appoint Gai as his deputy, maintaining that he followed recommendations from senior opposition leaders in Juba to get a replacement for Machar.

"The move taken by the SPLM-IO is a legal move. This was a decision from the top leadership of the opposition. So you have to talk to everybody in the country and internationally," Kiir said.

"What I want from you is to silence the guns and stop the war. Let us move forward and implement the peace agreement that we have signed because our people need peace," Kiir said.

The South Sudan leader also said he will not allow additional foreign troops to enter his country, adding that he is ready to work with the SPLM-IO and the international community to implement the peace agreement.

"The agreement did not stop the war. I want us really to see where we go wrong. Let us continue to look for the loopholes so that we fill them with whatever is needed so that our people remain in peace," he said.

A spokesperson for Machar, James Gatdet Dak, said the removal of Machar as the opposition's leader was 'illegal', adding that right procedures and party rules were not followed during the leadership change.

South Sudan just recovered from more than two years of conflict following the formation of transitional unity government in April were Machar was put as first vice president before his sacking by President Kiir Monday evening.
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Senior Russian and Turkish government officials met on Tuesday in Moscow to discuss bilateral ties as the leaders of both countries are scheduled to meet in August.

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich met on Tuesday with his Turkish counterpart Mehmet Simsek to discuss a number of projects hit by restrictions imposed by Moscow on Ankara after the downing of a Russian fighter jet by Turkey.

Local media reported that the two sides discussed resuming the building of a stream pipeline for Russian natural gas to be sent to Turkey and construction of Turkey's first nuclear power plant.

They also discussed issues related to resuming charter flights between the two countries, the lifting of visa restrictions and the ban on imports of Turkish agricultural products.

After consultations between the Turkish delegation and various Russian ministries, Dvorkovich said, "A solid basis for the planned meeting of the heads of states will be prepared."

Russian Minister of Economic Development Alexei Ulyukayev and Turkey's Economy Minister Nihat Zeybekci also met on Tuesday to discuss measures to help Turkish companies return to the Russian market, and resume trade and investment cooperation programs.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan in St. Petersburg on Aug. 9.

"This will be the first meeting for quite a long time, the first after the two leaders have managed to turn the page, so there will be no shortage of topics for discussion," Peskov was quoted as saying by RIA Novosti news agency.

Contact between the Russian and Turkish governments have already resumed with the aim to mend bilateral trade and economic relations, soured by Turkey's dawning of a Russian Su-24 bomber in November near the Syrian-Turkish border.

Russia agreed to restore ties with Turkey after Erdogan sent his apologies last month to Putin over the death of the Su-24 pilot.
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Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi attends the 6th East Asia Summit Foreign Ministers' Meeting in Vientiane, capital of Laos, July 26, 2016. [Xinhua]

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Tuesday refuted a trilateral statement issued by the United States, Japan and Australia which touched upon the South China Sea situation, questioning the trio to be peacekeepers or troublemakers.

Wang made the remarks when attending the 6th East Asia Summit Foreign Ministers' Meeting held in the Lao capital Vientiane, in response to the statement issued by the three countries on Monday evening.

Wang Yi said the China-ASEAN meeting was held in an amicable and harmonious atmosphere. A joint statement on fully and effectively implementing the Declaration on the Conduct (DOC) was announced at the end of the meeting by the 11 foreign ministers.

All parties pledged in the China-ASEAN joint statement to return to the right track of resolving specific disputes through consultations by parties directly concerned.

It sends out a positive message that China and the ASEAN will jointly maintain stability in the South China Sea, Wang said.

However, regrettably, late last night, the U.S., Japan and Australia jointly issued a statement, further playing up the South China Sea issue and regional tension targeting China, the Chinese foreign minister said, adding that considering the damage this trilateral statement has done, China has to make a response.

Wang Yi said since Monday, on the one hand, regional countries are determined to enhance cooperation and want to see the South China Sea situation cool down. On the other hand, this trilateral statement is fanning the flames.

On the one hand, regional countries resist taking sides on the arbitration case, believing that it is a bilateral issue between China and the Philippines. On the other hand, the trilateral statement asserts that the so-called ruling which is highly contentious is binding, Wang continued.

On the one hand, more than 70 countries have shown their understanding and support to China's legitimate stance in various ways. On the other hand, the trilateral statement still, directly and indirectly, places the blame on China, he said.

"This trilateral statement came at a highly inappropriate time and conforms in no way with the development of the situation," Wang said, adding that the trilateral statement is inconsistent with the efforts being made by regional countries to safeguard stability in the South China Sea, inconsistent with the aspiration of regional people to lower the temperature surrounding the South China Sea situation, and inconsistent with the constructive role that non-regional countries should play."

"If you truly want stability in the South China Sea, you should support the efforts by China and the ASEAN in implementing the DOC and the settlement of the dispute through dialogue and consultation by countries directly concerned."

"Now it is the time to test whether you are peacekeepers or troublemakers, " Wang said.
A Phillips County Sheriffs deputy shot and killed a man after the man stabbed the deputy multiple times early Wednesday.

The deputy was identified as Alan Guderjahn.

Guderjahn is being treated in Great Falls and is in stable condition, according to a news release from John Barnes, spokesman for Montana Department of Justices Division of Criminal Investigation.

The incident occurred after Guderjahn responded to a call of a suspicious man walking along U.S. Highway 191 near mile marker 122. The man pulled a knife on the deputy when he was confronted and stabbed him multiple times, the release said.

Guderjahn shot and killed the man, the release said.

Phillips County Sheriffs Office requested the Montana DCI investigate the incident. Montana Highway Patrol assisted with scene management.

U.S. Highway 191 between Malta and its intersection with State Route 66 was closed until midafternoon while the scene was processed.

Mark Hebert, of The Phillips County News, told The Gazette via email a prayer vigil will be held for Guderjahn in Malta's Front Street Park at 6 p.m. Wednesday. Sympathy cards, cash and gift cards to support Guderjahn and his family will be accepted at that time.

Dan O'Brien, Phillips County deputy attorney, said to his knowledge the last officer-involved shooting in Phillips County occurred in 1997. In that case Deputy Brian Robinson responded to a report of a suspicious vehicle near a campground in Landusky. Two suspects shot and injured Robinson. He returned fire, killing both suspects.

O'Brien said Phillips County Sheriff's Office employs seven patrolling officers including Sheriff Scott Moran.
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Medical personell transport a dead body at the Benjamin-Franklin Hospital in the southwestern district of Steglitz in Berlin, Germany, July 26, 2016. [Xinhua]

Two people were killed in a shooting at a clinic in Berlin on Tuesday.

A gunman killed himself after shooting a doctor at the clinic in southwestern Berlin on Tuesday afternoon, local police said.

The doctor was seriously injured and died later despite intensive medical care.

"No evidence of other injured people and more perpetrators" was found, according to the police. The gunman was a patient of the clinic.

Security forces have arrived at the clinic and controlled the situation. There is no danger at the location, said the police, asking the public not to speculate and spread rumors.

"We have currently no evidence of a terrorist background indeed," the police said. Investigation was ongoing.

Germany was shocked by four violent attacks within last week in southern part of the country.

On Sunday, a 27-year-old Syrian blew himself up and wounded 15 people outside a music festival in Ansbach, a city in southern German state of Bavaria.

It happened just hours after a 21-year-old Syrian refugee killed a pregnant Polish woman and injured two people with a machete in Reutlingen, a city in Baden-Wuerttemberg.
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The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said Tuesday that the recent fighting in South Sudan has to date forced more than 37,000 people to flee the country to Uganda.

"This represents more refugee arrivals in Uganda in the past three weeks than in the entire first six months of 2016," Farhan Haq, the deputy UN spokesman, said at a daily news briefing here.

"The new arrivals in Uganda are reporting ongoing fighting as well as looting by armed militias, burning down of homes, and murders of civilians," he said.

Some of the women and children said they were separated from their husbands or fathers by armed groups, who are reportedly forcibly recruiting men into their ranks and preventing them from crossing the border, he said.

The humanitarian response to the influx of South Sudanese refugees is sorely lacking due to severe underfunding, with the inter-agency appeal being only funded at 17 percent so far, he added.

On July 25, an estimated 2,442 refugees were received in Uganda from South Sudan. Some 1,213 crossed at the Elugu border point in Amuru, 247 in Moyo, 57 in Lamwo and 370 in Oraba, UNHCR said, adding that another 555 were received at the Kiryandongo settlement.

The majority of arrivals -- more than 90 percent -- are women and children. People are coming from South Sudan's Eastern Equatoria region, as well as the capital Juba and other areas of the country.

UNHCR remains extremely worried about the situation. Daily arrivals were averaging around 1,500 just 10 days ago, but have risen to over 4,000 in the past week. Further surges in arrivals are a real possibility, the UN agency said.
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The UN Security Council will hold its second straw poll on candidates vying for becoming the next UN Secretary-General on Aug. 5, Japan's Ambassador Koro Bessho told reporters on Tuesday.

The Security Council held its first straw poll on Thursday behind closed doors and made no official announcement of the results.

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.

Strong competitors 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.

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.

Diplomats have said the purpose of straw poll is to inform the candidates of where they stand in the race and encourage those who don't do well to drop out.

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.

Ten years ago, before the 15-nation council made their final decision, it held four rounds of straw polls to select Ban as the single candidate and recommend him to the post of UN chief.
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Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Tuesday that China and members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have exerted joint efforts to make the ministerial meetings focus on dialogue and cooperation.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi (C) speaks to the press after the meetings in Vientiane, capital of Laos, on July 26, 2016. [Photo/Xinhua]

Wang told the Chinese media after the meetings in the Lao capital that most of the foreign ministers from 27 countries came to Vientiane with desire for cooperation.

This year marks the 25th anniversary of China-ASEAN dialogue relationship.

"China and the ASEAN nations have agreed to build a closer community of common destiny," Wang said, adding that they have set six priority areas for further development of China-ASEAN ties.

China and the 10 ASEAN members agreed to jointly strive to boost cultural and people-to-people exchanges as the third pillar for their cooperation besides the other two pillars, political-security dialogue and trade and economic ties.

The top Chinese diplomat said the foreign ministers' meeting between China and ASEAN nations (10+1)has made preparation for a commemorative summit marking the 25th anniversary for their dialogue relationship in September.

The foreign ministers also discussed differences, such as the South China Sea issue.

China and the ASEAN nations have reached an important consensus in Laos that they agreed to return to the right track of solving their disputes through dialogue and consultation, Wang noted.

The so-called arbitration case unilaterally initiated by the Philippines has soured China-Philippines relations, adversely impacted regional stability and disturbed the process of implementing the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea (DOC) and accelerating negotiations for a Code of Conduct (COC) by China and ASEAN members.

ASEAN foreign ministers have made it clear that ASEAN as a whole will not take a position on the so-called arbitration case, which they believe is a bilateral issue between China and the Philippines, Wang said.

He also mentioned that China and the ASEAN nations issued a joint statement on full and effective implementation of the DOC, which stipulates that disputes should be resolved peacefully through negotiation between the parties directly concerned, and China and ASEAN countries should work together to maintain peace and stability in the South China Sea.

While firmly defending its territorial integrity, China is also ready to work with the ASEAN members to safeguard peace and stability in the region, and properly manage their differences so as to further promote their relations.

As for the ASEAN Plus Three (China, Japan and South Korea) or "10+3" mechanism, Wang said China proposed to build an East Asia Community based on the ASEAN Community.

China has clearly stated that the East Asia Summit (EAS) should serve as a "leaders-led strategic forum," for both political-security dialogue and economic cooperation.

According to the Chinese foreign minister, the 27-member ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) is mainly designed for preventive diplomacy and China will continue to play an active role in pushing forward its healthy development.
 Flash

The United Nations envoy mediating a resolution to the five-year crisis in Syria said Tuesday he aims to convene a new round of intra-Syrian peace talks towards the end of August, and expressed hope that the United States and Russia would make "concrete progress" in order to improve the atmosphere for the resumption of the discussions.

"Today, as you know, we had a meeting in Geneva at the UN premises here with both American and Russian senior officials. The subject was related to the urgent need of progress on the cessation of hostilities, on the humanitarian access, on counter-terrorism and, indeed, political transition," Staffan de Mistura, UN Special Envoy for Syria, told reporters in Geneva.

Mr. de Mistura said the meeting coincided with the gathering that took place in Laos between Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and United States Secretary of State John Kerry, during which they discussed ways to build on the understanding that had been reached in Moscow last week.

"We have made some progress today frankly, but more details need to be worked out in the next few days, particularly between the American and the Russian side, but we are there to support too," the Special Envoy said.

"Our aim, and we say it very clearly, is to proceed with the third round of the intra-Syrian talks towards the end of August," he added.

Previous rounds of talks this year stalled as fighting has escalated in Syria, particularly around Aleppo. More than 280,000 people have been killed since Syria's conflict erupted in 2011, and millions of people have been forced to flee the country. Earlier this month, the World Health Organization (WHO) said it has reports of up to 40 confirmed attacks on health-care facilities across Syria in 2016, and nearly 60 per cent of public hospitals in the country closed or are only partially functional.

The Special Envoy said that progress on the understanding between Mr. Kerry and Mr. Lavrov will create the "right atmosphere," both on the ground and for the intra-Syrian talks.

"This is not a pre-condition, but we all know, we all agree, that if such steps take place, and we hope so, will have indeed a strong positive effect on the environment surrounding the talks," Mr. de Mistura said.

He noted that in the context of the trilateral meeting today, the UN, as facilitator and mediator, was asked by the co-chairs  Russia and the United States  to continue preparing proposals for addressing "difficult issues" related to the talks, which it would do while preparing for the end of August.

Asked whether the resumption of the peace talks had to wait until the end of August when the situation in Aleppo has worsened, the Special Envoy said the bombing, the rockets and the shelling in central Damascus, and the "horrible events" taking place in hospitals in Aleppo were "very much on the radar screen."

He expressed the hope that while negotiations are under way to restart the talks, that  "tomorrow, the sooner the better"  the situation in those two war-torn cities could see some improvement.
 Flash

Punjab, Pakistan's largest province in terms of population and economy, inked seven agreements and 17 memorandums of understanding (MoU) with Chinese enterprises, in Beijing Tuesday, during Chief Minister of Punjab (CM) Shehbaz Sharif's ongoing China visit.

Pakistan's Punjab signs agreements with Chinese enterprises in Beijng on July 26. [Photo by Guo Xiaohong]

The deals involved the industry of energy, textiles, water treatment and steel and were also related to the establishment of industrial estates, training of master trainers in different skills, and the promotion of trade fairs and exhibitions.

At the signing ceremony, Shahbaz Sharif urged Pakistan entrepreneurs to take opportunities to improve cooperation with Chinese firms.

On the same day, the chief minister revealed the development of projects in Punjab under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) when meeting the press. He said the pace of implementation of these projects in Pakistan was unprecedented.

As a top leader in Punjab, the chief minister credits the rapid growth of Punjab to the efforts of people from all walks of life in his province, when some Chinese officials gave the chief minister a thump up by putting forward the term "Punjab speed" to describe the pace of projects in Punjab.

As the most populous and industrially developed province that accounts for 57 percent of Pakistan's GDP, Punjab has the duty to contribute more to Pakistan's development, said the chief minister. Punjab would work closely with other provinces to bring progress to Pakistan.

In addition to economic cooperation with China, Punjab pays high attention to cultural and educational exchanges, especially young talent training, between the two countries.

Shahbaz Sharif said 66 Pakistani students are learning a two-year Chinese course at Peking University now. Chinese companies in Punjab also help cultivate local engineers and technicians by picking up and training students from universities in the province.

Pakistan is grateful to the Chinese leadership for the unconditional and consistent support to Pakistan, reiterated the chief minister, when talking about the time-honored friendship between the two countries. "We can only return China's kindness in the form of blessings for China's wellbeing."

Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli, Minister of the International Department of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Song Tao, and Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Zhang Yesui met Shahbaz Sharif in Beijing at separate meetings before the chief minster headed for his second stop, east China's Shandong Province.

Follow China.org.cn on Twitter and Facebook to join the conversation.
China Aid

Translated by Carolyn Song. Written in English by Brynne Lawrence.

Updated on Aug. 4, 2016, at 10:45 a.m. to revise translation





(Guiyang, GuizhouJuly 21, 2016) A pastor imprisoned in Chinas central Guizhou province on a falsified divulging state secrets charge penned a letter to his wife on June 30, thanking God for the chance to rest after serving as a pastor for 23 years.

This is a good place to rest, where I am cut off from the rest of the world and brought closer to God, Li Guozhi, a pastor at Huoshi Church who goes by the pseudonym Yang Hua, wrote of his jail cell. I can no longer hear the clamorous noise, but can better listen to the Lords voice.

Government personnel took Yang into police custody on Dec. 9, 2015, after he attempted to prevent them from confiscating one of the churchs hard drives. They sentenced him to five days in administrative detention a day later for the crime of obstruction of justice. On Dec. 15, authorities charged him with gathering a crowd to disturb social order and extended his sentence five more days.

When his wife came to collect him on Dec. 20, she saw officials herding him into an unlicensed vehicle as he donned a black hood. Upon inquiry, she learned that his charge had changed, and that he was being transferred to criminal detention for illegally possessing state secrets. On Jan. 22, his relatives received a notice that he had been formally arrested for divulging state secrets.

In an interview with his lawyers, Chen Jiangang and Zhao Yonglin, Yang disclosed methods the prosecutors used to torture him when he refused to confess to his charges, including standing on his toes and threatening to kill him and bring harm to his family. As a result, Chen and Zhao sued the prosecutors for using torture to extort a confession and asked that they be dealt with according to the law.

Despite these circumstances, Yang writes, Genuine rest has nothing to do with the environment. No matter if the waves are quiet or the sea roars, our hearts rest in [God], just as a weaned child sleeps in its mothers arms. I want to thank God for using this special method to give this special gift to our household. Let us accept and enjoy it with a thankful heart.

A full translation of the letter can be read below, with breaks added for legibility.

China Aid launched a campaign to free Yang Hua to confront the unjust incarceration and expose abuses he and his family have suffered. To learn more about Yangs case, sign the petition for his release and donate to support the persecuted and their families, please visit www.freeyanghua.org.

______________________________________________________________________________

Dear wife: Everythings fine!

I received your letter on June 30. I am thankful. Suddenly, I thought of a song, but I couldnt recall all the lyrics. Theres a part that goes like this: The path we walk has laughter and tears; this is the Lords grace. You can sing it. [Its] Sheng Xiaomeis Marks of Grace.

The first page of Yang Huas letter to his wife.

(Photo: China Aid)

About our friends concern and desire to establish a website to write articles, I dont think they should consider it at this time. You can tell them that its my opinion. Thank them for being so caring and concerned. I remember a section from the Bible that even the young, strong lions are still starving. You can look up the rest of the [verse].

You dont have to go to photo studio since I have already got your photos. It is not necessary [for you to go].

Dont be too thrifty. Buy some meat, chicken and fish for our sons to eat. They are currently growing; buy some suitable snacks for them. The money I have can support me until October. There are many newly-built convenience stores near me. I have enough to eat. I just received 800 Yuan [U.S. $120]. You dont have to come to the detention center twice a month. Once a month is enough. Dont transfer too much money. 600 Yuan [U.S. $90] a month is more than enough. Psalm 23 says, The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. You should copy the whole chapter.

I want to share what Ive received with you. God has given me a year of rest after 23 years of hard work. Previously, when I was out of [jail], things were always coming down incessantly, because there were many different kinds of affairs [to attend to]. The Israelites worked every year for six years and rested on the seventh. This is a good place to rest, where I am cut off from the rest of the world and brought closer to God. I can no longer hear the clamorous noise, but can better listen to the Lords voice. The LORD sits enthroned over the flood; the LORD is enthroned as King forever [Psalm 29:10] (You Sit on the Throne, a hymn). Genuine rest has nothing to do with the environment. No matter if the waves are quiet or the sea roars, our hearts rest in [God], just as a weaned child sleeps in its mothers arms. I want to thank God for using this special method to give this special gift to our household. Let us accept and enjoy it with a thankful heart.

After this period of time, my spiritual life will be even more distinctive from the song that says A crowd flooded into my kingdom, but they did not want to bear the cross. You can sing the song.

The second page of Yangs letter to his wife.

(Photo: China Aid)

Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is Gods will for you in Christ Jesus [1 Thessalonians 5:16-18]. You must always pray. Think of when Peter called out in John 21. Three times the disciples showed their weakness and three times they answered Jesus. The apostles were full of the Holy Spirit and witnessed for the Lord, leading people back to him. Do not live in weakness and confusion; this is Satans scheme. Be full of the Holy Spirit and leave spiritual predicaments. Seek [to fulfill] all of the Lords decrees. Remove all of the negative thoughts and voices from your life. Amen.

Listen to more of Pastor Wangs preaching. It will help a lot. Let the words of God make you stronger. This is incomparably good; that you encourage each other with the words of God. Thank my mother and aunt for me. They are our familys angels, always helping us. Say hello to everyone for me. Gods decrees will certainly be fulfilled. Lets talk next time. Keep the letters. Dont throw them away. In regards to Xiangen practicing his musical instrument: he should study lightly. He shouldnt have pressure, either from you or from himself. Dont participate in any examinations. Any amount of studying is fine. He can improvise an accompaniment. Let Muen practice his instrument half an hour a day after school ends so as not to forget. You can eat and have fun with Xindes mother. Be happy. Good night! Mail a photo of my aunt. Itll be useful.

Jehovah-nissi, Emmanuel [Editors Note: These two phrases are Hebrew for The Lord is my banner and God with us]

Your husband, who received the favor of God with you:

Li Guozhi

The evening of June 30

China Aid Media Team

Cell: (432) 553-1080 | Office: 1+ (888) 889-7757 | Other: (432) 689-6985

Email: [email protected]

For more information, click here
A customer looks at gold bracelets in a Chow Tai Fook jewelry store in Hong Kong. [Photo/Agencies]

Hong Kong-based retailer saw net income slump as mainland tourists go elsewhere

Chow Tai Fook Jewelry Group Ltd plans to expand in the US market by selling diamonds to retailers there, as it seeks to offset effects of a slowdown in China that has hurt luxury sales and led profits to plunge.

The world's largest publicly traded jewelry chain plans to start the new US wholesale business within a year and has set up a team to conduct feasibility studies, Chow Tai Fook Managing Director Kent Wong said. Unlike the company's US unit Hearts on Fire, which mainly sells its own-branded diamond jewelry to franchisees, Chow Tai Fook will sell polished and rough diamonds to other retailers, he said.

"We are interested in the US market because it has the largest demand for diamonds in the world. It contributes 40 percent of diamonds sales," Wong said.

Chow Tai Fook in 2014 bought Hearts on Fire for $150 million in a bid to introduce the US luxury diamond brand to China, a move that's met challenges as the country's slowdown damped the buying habits of high-end consumers. The Hong Kong-based retailer saw net income slump 46 percent for the year ended March 2016, as mainland tourists also began to skip the city for other shopping destinations.

Low margins

Chow Tai Fook's venture into the US may come with challenges, said Hannah Li, a senior analyst in UOB Kay Hian Ltd based in Hong Kong. She said its strategy reflects the jeweler's "lack of confidence" in the China market.

"The company's not expanding into a familiar market but it's considering a lower-margin, wholesale business in a new market where it needs a lot of time to expand its business networks."

Hong Kong-listed Chow Tai Fook rose as much as 1.4 percent in Hong Kong trading on Tuesday. It has gained 18 percent this year, after plummeting to a record low in January. The city's benchmark Hang Seng Index was little changed.

Since acquiring Hearts on Fire, the company has expanded the brand in the China market with about 140 sales locations, Chow Tai Fook reported in June. About 80 percent of Hearts on Fire's revenue are from its wholesale business to franchisees, according to the company.

Rather than breaking into a brand-new retail market on its own, the new wholesale business will allow Chow Tai Fook to test the waters, said Wong. "We will seek to partner with local retailers who know the market well."

Bloomberg
MEETEETSE, Wyo.  A nocturnal species of weasel with a robber-mask-like marking across its eyes has returned to the remote ranchlands of western Wyoming where the critter almost went extinct more than 30 years ago.

Wildlife officials on Tuesday released 35 black-footed ferrets on two ranches near Meeteetse, a tiny cattle ranching community 50 miles east of Yellowstone National Park. Black-footed ferrets, generally solitary animals, were let loose individually over a wide area.

Groups of ferret releasers fanned out over prairie dog colonies covering several thousand acres of the Lazy BV and Pitchfork ranches. Black-footed ferrets co-exist with prairie dogs, living in their burrows and preying on them.

In the weeks leading up to the release, biologists made extra sure the ferrets will have plenty of prairie dogs to eat by treating the local prairie dog population with insecticide and plague vaccine. Plague, which is spread by fleas, can kill off prairie dogs by the thousand.

Scientists recently found plague had killed some prairie dogs in the area but not nearly enough to interfere with the release. In fact, the pattern of prairie dogs killed by the disease suggests the plague vaccine works, said Zack Walker, a Wyoming Game and Fish Department biologist.

More plague control will be needed as wildlife officials plan more black-footed ferret releases next year and the year after.

"In the early years, it's going to be important to keep it up," Walker said.

The release completed the circle of a story that began in 1981, when a ranch dog named Shep brought home a dead black-footed ferret in the Meeteetse area. Local ranchers took the carcass to a taxidermist, who alerted them it was no ordinary weasel but a very rare specimen, indeed.

Five years later, biologists rounded up the remaining wild ferrets to launch a successful captive-breeding program. Tuesday's release, in other words, brought the descendants of the last Meeteetse ferrets back to Meeteetse for the first time.

"We thank the ranch owners for their commitment to recovery of black-footed ferrets. The decades of hard work from Game and Fish and our numerous partners show in these recovery efforts," Wyoming Game and Fish Department Director Scott Talbott said in a release.

The Fish and Wildlife Service breeds black-footed ferrets at a facility near Fort Collins, Colorado. There, the young ferrets go through a "boot camp" where they learn how to catch prairie dogs.

Ferrets have been released at 24 sites in Wyoming, Montana, Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, South Dakota, Arizona and Kansas, as well as Canada and Mexico. Recent release sites include the Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge near Denver last fall.

This was the first ferret release in Wyoming in almost a decade. Last year, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service designated all of Wyoming as a zone for "experimental, non-essential" populations of black-footed ferrets.

The designation indemnifies ranchers in case they accidentally harm any ferrets released on their property.

Biologists flocked to the Lazy BV and Pitchfork ranches in the 1980s to learn more about the last remaining black-footed ferrets in the wild, recalled Meeteetse Mayor J.W. Yetter, who worked in the local logging industry at the time.

"There was a whole crew of university people and wildlife biologists in training quartered up at the timber creek ranger station. They were the ones charged with tracking, capturing, radio collaring and generally discovering the extent of that colony and getting biologic information about the members of that colony," Yetter said.
Ren Hongbin, chairman of China National Machinery Industry Corp. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Call for standard contract treaty, criteria to support private capital investments

The infrastructure task force of the Business 20 summit will urge G20 leaders to encourage development banks and institutes to support private investments in infrastructure projects, the task force's chairman said on Tuesday.

Ren Hongbin, the task force's chairman and chairman of China National Machinery Industry Corp, said G20 governments should jointly establish a standard contract treaty and criteria for the public-private partnership model, to further protect the rights of private investors.

The Boston Consulting Group predicted that G20 countries could potentially add an extra $2 trillion of new business and 30 million jobs per year in the long term with the right policies and their effective implementation to develop the infrastructure sector.

"China is well-poised to take on future infrastructure projects with the establishment of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, as well as the Belt and Road Initiative," said Ren.

The infrastructure and trade network proposed by China in 2013 envisions a Silk Road Economic Belt and a 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, covering about 4.4 billion people in more than 60 countries and regions in Asia, Europe and Africa.

Sinomach, the Chinese conglomerate with businesses in industrial tool making, construction equipment, agricultural equipment and infrastructure construction, already operates in 35 countries and regions in the two trading routes.

China National Heavy Machinery Corp, a subsidiary of Sinomach, is a prime example of a company actively involved in infrastructure projects. It is set to sign a contact with the Cambodian government, between August and September, to build its eighth power transmission network in the country for about $100 million.

The project will cover Cambodia's eastern provinces and supply power to more than 50,000 homes previously without electricity. The Sinomach subsidiary will run the country's Tatay hydropower plant for 37 years, after gaining franchise rights in June last year from Cambodian government, under the build-operate-transfer business model.

The Sinomach subsidiary will also build its biggest EPC project in Laosan integrated coal mine and power stationby the end of this year. The project will take a total of 48 months to build. The group currently has four power-related projects in Laos.

EPC projectsor engineering, procurement and construction projectsare a common form of contract in the construction industry.

Sinomach, which has a total workforce of more than 110,000 employees, has more than 40 subsidiaries and 180 overseas service agencies. The company has a market presence in over 170 countries and regions throughout the world.

"Infrastructure is one of the few areas identified by the International Monetary Fund as having the potential to deliver strong productive gains across all kinds of countries, from the least developed to emerging, and developed nations," said Lin Guijun, professor of international business at the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing.
A Brazilian businessman (center) shops at a market in Yiwu, Zhejiang province. [Photo provided to China Daily]

HANGZHOU - Every month, Singaporean businessman Phua Soo Huat takes two days off from his own business to work as a mediator in commercial disputes concerning foreigners in Yiwu.

A small-commodity distribution center in east China's Zhejiang Province, Yiwu receives over 400,000 overseas visitors each year. Some 15,000 people from over 100 countries live there.

Phua Soo Huat is among 16 foreign mediators from 15 countries in the city who help solve disputes involving foreigners.

In February 2015, a Pakistani businessman complained that a batch of plastic rings bought from a local seller were short in weight and demanded a full refund.

Phua, who planned to fly to Iran that night, immediately refunded his plane ticket. He explained to the complainant that the weight of the rings allowed for 1-percent error and suggested that the amount of the error be deducted from the refund and the two sides agreed on the refund.

During the past year, he has been involved in more than a dozen disputes. The key to successful mediation, he says, is patience, objectivity and relying on evidence.

Tirera Sourakhata from Senegal is also a part time mediator.

"Every time a foreign businessman enters the mediation office, I can see from their eyes that they are more at ease to see a foreign mediator," he said in fluent Chinese. Sourakhata believes foreign mediators are a simple courtesy to foreign business people.

Sudanese mediator Ahmed Abuzaid Alitirkawy recalled a Sudanese businessman vanishing after ordering commodities with a worth of more than 3 million yuan ($450,000). Many sellers in Yiwu were not paid. Ahmed went to Sudan, found the man through his personal connections, and got the money back.

The foreign mediators are all volunteers and passionate about their work. As businessmen themselves, they are familiar with trade procedures and all speak good Chinese. Since the system was established three years ago, the team has resolved 287 disputes with a success rate over 96 percent.

The committee room is festooned with the 15 flags of the mediators' home countries. When the flag of Guinea could not be found locally, Guinean mediator Diallo Mamadou Saliou bought some cloth and made one himself.
ABUJA - Nigeria marked a symbolic progress of railway service on Tuesday when its first completed standard gauge railway modernization project assisted by China, was open for commercial operation.

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari flagged off the commercial operation of the rail service, linking the capital city Abuja and the northwestern state of Kaduna, following the smooth completion of the railway construction by China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC).

The completed project is part of the railway modernization initiative by the West African superpower which aims at replacing the existing narrow gauge system with the wider standard gauge system, while allowing high-speed train operations on the railway network.

With nine stations and a design speed of 150 km per hour, the Abuja-Kaduna rail line covers a distance of 186.5 km.

Buhari said the train service will provide the much-needed alternative transport link between the nation's capital city and Kaduna State, a corridor of growing labor force which has a huge potential for industries and agricultural activities.

"We are on the threshold of presenting to Nigerians a standard gauge railway train service that will be safe, fast and reliable," the Nigerian leader said.

Transport Minister Rotimi Amaechi said the project, partly funded by the Export-Import Bank of China, is a significant milestone in the history of Nigeria.

According to him, the completion of this project and the commencement of its commercial operation is a turnaround in the country's transport sector, particularly as it contributes to the development of the economy.

In an interview with Xinhua, Yuan Li, the chairman of CCECC, said the completed rail line would ease the traffic congestion between Abuja and Kaduna.
YouGov, a polling and research firm, has just published the 2016 Mid-Year Best Brand Ranking for China based on YouGov Brand Index data.

The index, a daily measure of brand perception among the public, tracks many brands across multiple sectors simultaneously. Twice a year, the firm consolidates its data and publishes the Best Brand Ranking across the globe. These 2016 Mid-Year Rankings compare Brand Index Buzz scores for over 750 brands in China, revealing the brands with the most positive buzz in the first half of the year.

No 10 Tsingtao

Score: 34.1
An employee demonstrates a MediaPad M1 8.0 device during a Huawei Technologies Co news conference ahead of the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain. [Photo/Agencies]

Huawei Technologies Co Ltd grew its half-year smartphone shipments 25 percent to 60.56 million units, thanks to its increased efforts to expand global retail channels and the growing popularity of its high-end devices in overseas markets.

The robust performance highlighted that the world's third-largest smartphone vendor has maintained strong momentum despite the slowing global demand and the mounting competition from rivals such as Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, experts said.

The Shenzhen-based company said on Tuesday that its consumer business unit raked in 77.4 billion yuan ($11.6 billion) in revenue in the first six months, up by 41 percent compared with a year earlier.

Yu Chengdong, CEO of Huawei's consumer business unit, said: "Our revenue growth outpaced that of smartphone shipments. This means we are selling more expensive handsets and Huawei is gaining further ground in the premium sector."

The company said its overseas sales revenue growth is 1.6 times as fast as that in China, as it ramps up resources to do international marketing. "We are growing rapidly in both European countries and emerging economies such as North Africa, Latin America and Central Asia," Yu said, adding it will focus on these markets for future growth.

As of May, Huawei has set up 35,000 self-owned retail stores across the world, marking a year-on-year growth of 116 percent.

The Chinese technology conglomerate aims to ship 140 million handsets in 2016, which it hopes can boost the annual revenue of its consumer business unit to $28 billion.

Xiang Ligang, a telecom veteran and CEO of the industry website cctime.com, said it is highly possible for Huawei to meet the ambitious target, especially since it shipped more than 100 million handsets last year.

"Smartphone shipments usually surge in the second half when many holidays, especially Christmas, take place, spurring consumers to buy new handsets. Also, students tend to replace their smartphones in September and October when the new school year starts."

Huawei announced on Monday that the whole group had grown revenue 40 percent to 245.5 billion yuan in the first six months. But, due to heavy investments and competition, the operating profit margin narrowed to 12 percent from 18 percent in the same period last year.

CK Lu, principal analyst at consulting firm Gartner Inc, said China remains the most important market for Huawei, but overseas markets are the key for growth.
The logo of Intel is seen during the annual Computex computer exhibition in Taipei, June 1, 2016. [Photo/Agencies]

Intel Corp's upgraded chip factory in Dalian, Liaoning province, will help it better tap into China's growing demand for memory chips, but the United States giant needs to be wary of rising competition from local rivals, as the country speeds up efforts to reduce its reliance on foreign technology, experts said.

The Dalian plant, in which Intel said it would invest $5.5 billion, has been converted to produce advanced memory chips such as 3D NAND chips, which can store data without using power and be widely used in smartphones and tablets.

Roger Sheng, research director at consultancy Gartner Inc, said as an increasing number of consumers prefer digital devices with bigger storage capacities, the supply of 3D NAND chips is currently failing to catch up with the growing demand.

"The Dalian plant will give Intel an upper hand in pouncing at the strategic opportunity," Sheng said.

"Mass production of 3D NAND chips will help lower the cost and promote the development of the global semiconductor industry."

Intel said the Dalian facility has formally gone into operation late in the second quarter of the year, ahead of schedule. It was one of the largest investments made by Intel in China and part of its efforts to seek new revenue streams while its main PC chip business faltered.

The company did not disclose the plant's annual production capacity.

Intel's move came as chips are becoming national strategic assets almost as valuable as oil. Researcher TrendForce estimated China consumed $6.67 billion worth of NAND chips in 2015, or 29 percent of global NAND industry revenue.

Fu Liang, an independent industry expert, said Intel will need to fight off competitions from local players, as China is ramping up resources to cultivate homegrown chip giants.

China's largest chipmaker Tsinghua Unigroup Ltd said earlier it will invest $30 billion into making memory chips.
"Confucius" (551-479 BC) is the Latinized version of Kong Fuzi, or "Master Kong".

His real name was Kong Qiu, and he lived during the Spring and Autumn Period (770-476 BC) when the Zhou kingdom had disintegrated into many de facto independent feudal states which were subject to the Zhou kings in theory only.

Like many other members of the educated elite, Confucius traveled widely among the states, offering his services as a political advisor and official to feudal rulers and teaching to earn a living.

Although his career as a petty bureaucrat was unsuccessful, Confucius left his mark as a teacher and philosopher. A few generations after Confucius' death, first- and second-generation students collected accounts of his teachings and philosophical musings to form the basis of his most famous work, which is widely known in English as The Analects.

In his work, Confucius argued strongly in favor of family loyalty, that children should respect their elders and wives respect their husbands, and that good people should worship their ancestors. From this base, he further propounded his belief that the family unit was the perfect template for successful government.

While many people in China regard Confucianism as a quasi-religion, scholars are divided: some believe that the values he espoused were too secular to allow them to harbor religious undertones, while others argue that the secular nature of his work overshadows the fact that it contains many religious themes. Some academics argue that although Confucius discusses the afterlife and speaks vaguely of a place that could be interpreted as a form of heaven, he rarely talks about spirituality in the accepted modern sense.
Some equate being a left-behind child to being a problem or mentally disturbed, and say that it would be difficult for them to move up the social ladder.

But 27-year-old ZhangJuan is challenging those stereotypes.

Born in Guiping county, Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, Zhang used to be a typical left-behind child.

Her parentstwo of China's 277 million migrant workerstook Zhang and her elder brother to Guangzhou, Guangdong province, when they were babies. The parents couldn't find work, so they sold rice door to door without a business license.

When Zhang was 6 years old, her father had to take her back to Guiping because the tuition for migrant workers' children was more than 5,000 yuan ($770) a year, well beyond their reach.

When Zhang entered fifth grade, her father left for Guangzhou again, as the family could barely afford tuition for two children.

Zhang and her brother had to survive on their own.

"Once I had a fever after midnight. I had no one around but my brother," Zhang recalled. "In darkness, he just put me on the back seat of his bike and rode about half an hour to the emergency room."

When summer came, Zhang and her brother had to go to Guangzhou to help their parents sell vegetables in wholesale markets. They also cooked for their parents.

"We used to stay through the night in huge vegetable wholesale markets," Zhang said. "There was no place to sleep. So we just put some gunnysacks together and took a nap on them."

Despite these challenges, Zhang now works for the Beijing Children's Legal Aid and Research Center, China's first NGO dedicated to offering free legal services to children.

Zhang is in charge of a public welfare program, which helps left-behind children in kindergarten by providing training to teachers and giving them free computers and projectors.

Zhang said the biggest secret is "effective communication".

"No matter where my parents are, they always keep in touch with us," Zhang said. "Even in the early days, when making phone calls was not convenient, we would talk at least once a week."

The talk was more than a daily greeting. Zhang and her brother discussed in detail their progress and concerns in their studies. And unlike many parentsnot just migrant workersZhang's would also tell them specifically what they encountered in Guangzhou, about their rice and vegetable sales, about their happiness and sorrow, about everything, she said.

"Through talks like that, I learned that my brother and I were not abandoned. We were loved," Zhang said. "Our parents worked hard to put food on the table and keep us in school. We want to study hard."

So they did. Zhang got into Northwest University of Political Science and Law, with a major in criminal investigation. Her brother entered Dalian Maritime University and became an engineer at Guangdong Electric Power Design Institute.

Zhang's father is no longer working, while her mother works as a housekeeper.

Zhang has invited some 350 kindergarten teachers to the training program in Beijing for the past three years. This year she added something new to her projectencouraging parents to do video chats with their children more often, an inspiration that came from her own experience.
Families of all but one victim of a tour bus fire in Taiwan have signed settlement agreements with insurance companies, officials said on Tuesday. But some relatives expressed outrage, saying they had been left with no choice but to sign.

Twenty-four people from the mainland were killed in the fiery bus crash last week.

An investigation is underway.

Chang Shi-chung, deputy director-general of the "Ministry of Transportation and Communications Tourism Bureau" said on Tuesday that families of 23 victims had signed cremation and settlement agreements.

One victim's family entrusted the case to lawyers and declined to sign, Chang said, adding that the bureau "fully respected the decision".

Chang said that 52 relatives and 19 Chinese officials returned to Liaoning province late Tuesday afternoon.

Relatives of the 24 mainland victims will be provided compensation of around NT$6.64 million ($210,000) each, Chang said.

According to Wang Yi, the brother of one victim, most of the families had not wanted to sign the agreements until the investigation yielded answers.

But because their visit permits expire on Thursday, after which their accommodation fee would not be covered by the travel agency, the families were "left with no choice but to settle", Wang said.

Frank Fan, "deputy minister of transportation and communications", said the authorities would be asked to be lenient regarding entry permits if the families needed more time to consider their options. If the families wish to extend their stay in Taiwan, travel agencies will pay for their accommodation, he said.
Penguins in a zoo in Shandong province have ice to cool them down. Zoo workers in different areas are helping the animals when high temperatures are recorded. [Photo by Zhang Jun/China Daily]

Animals, especially those from polar regions, may have to rely on ice and air conditioning for a few more days as high temperatures could continue to affect southern areas of China.

On Tuesday, Liangliang, a giant panda, sat in a twin-room panda house at Hefei Wildlife Park awaiting breakfast.

The temperature had risen above 33 C outside but remained at 24 C indoors, thanks to two air conditioners installed in each of the rooms.

"The air conditioners keep working 24 hours a day," said Jiang Lei, who bred the panda.

"For most of the day, the panda will stay indoors to enjoy the cool, and only very early in the morning will it take a stroll in the yard."

Air conditioners are also being enjoyed by animals including red pandas, monkeys, Peruvian penguins, Siberian tigers and an Asian elephant.

Jiang Hao, deputy head of the zoo, which has more than 2,000 animals from about 120 species, said, "Some of the animals will also be given ice cubes and fruit, such as watermelon, which are delivered to them twice a day."

Eastern and southern areas have been experiencing a heat wave since last week, with temperatures in Shanghai reaching 40 C during the weekend.

The Central Meteorological Observatory on Tuesday continued to issue an orange alert for the heat, the second-highest level in the national four-tier system. It said the heat would persist in eastern areas until Thursday.

Forecasters said the highest temperatures would be up to 41 C in some eastern areas, such as Zhejiang and Jiangsu provinces, and in Sichuan province and Chongqing in the southwest.

In Ji'nan, Shandong, keepers are striving to ensure the indoor temperature remains at -3 C for penguins by keeping air conditioners running all day. Polar bears can enjoy colorful ice cubes made from various fruit juices, according to media reports.

Li Guofeng, manager at an ocean world, was quoted as saying: "It's so hot and polar bears are reluctant to move. Colorful ice cubes can attract the bears to play with them and help them to do more exercise."

However, Jiang from the Hefei Wildlife Park said the use of air conditioners had contributed to a 30 percent increase in daily electricity consumption, compared with other seasons.
Hu Guangzhi is awarded the national third-highest citation for bravery for his heroic actions in fighting with a drug ring. Provided To China Daily

He pushed bystander out of harm's way first

Looking down the barrel of a homemade handgun at point blank range, officer Hu Guangzhi knew he might die in the next few seconds.

But instead of cowering or pleading for his life, Hu pushed a bystander out of harm's way and took two bullets to the chest and left arm.

The officer fired his weapon at almost the same time as the gunman, who was wounded and later brought to justice for dealing drugs.

"I didn't know how badly I was hurt when the bullets hit me. After I chased the gunman for one or two minutes I collapsed," said Hu, a member of the Huarong county Public Security Bureau drug squad in Hunan province.

The confrontation occurred on Nov 3, after police received a tipoff about a seven-member drug ring based in a residential building in Huarong. Two officers were stationed near the entrance and a six-hour stakeout ensued, as they waited for the gang members to arrive.

When Hu spotted and tried to apprehend the ringleader, three of his accomplices arrived and began striding toward them.

"One of guys pointed a gun at me covered in a black plastic cloth. I fired as he pulled off the cloth and took aim at me," he said.

After a 10-hour manhunt, Hu's colleagues apprehended the seven suspects with more than two kilograms of illicit drugs and three firearms in their possession.

Hu recovered from his wounds, but it is not the first time that he has been hurt throughout his 13 years of service with the police department.

"I survived the firefight and was fearless because in my previous duties I have had a gun pointed at my face. But when I woke up at the ICU in the hospital I feared I could never see my wife and son again," said Hu, who has received the national third-highest citation for bravery four times, won 18 awards of various types for valor in more than 80 major operations, which lead to upward of 2,000 suspects being apprehended.

He was hired by the Public Security Ministry as a general training officer for his extraordinary records in a national competition in 2011.

"Many people ask me what was on my mind on that day," Hu said. "It all happen so suddenly. I had no time to think about anything. All I did came from my instincts as a police officer."

Hu never flinches when his own life is in danger, what concerns him most is the threat of drug dealers targeting his family.

His wife, who asked not to be identified, said she understood and supported her husband and "would never complain to him about how difficult it is being a wife of a narcotics officer".

"I was attracted to him by the uniform when I married him a couple of years ago. He has my full support and trust to honor this noble calling. What I can do for him is to bury the complaints and be supportive," she said.

Life at home can be put under strain by Hu's job, and he rarely makes it home in time for dinner with the family, his wife said.

"You cannot expect regular meals and time to sleep if you work as a narcotics officer. Now, he doesn't even have to call me when he is coming home late. I am used to that," she said.

Contact the writer at zhang_yi@chinadaily.com.cn

Liu Jiangwa contributed to this story.
SHIJIAZHUANG - Even though Yang Zhensheng has no memories of his own of the earthquake that flattened his hometown shortly before his birth, the disaster will forever be part of his life -- he is named after it.

In his given name, "zhen" means earthquake and "sheng" means birth. He was the first baby born in the rubble of Tangshan, a city that lies more than 150 kilometers to the southwest of Beijing, after the 7.8-magnitude event which claimed more than 242,000 lives on July 28, 1976.

Chinese parents commonly mark historical events in the names of their children, and many of those who will soon turn 40 have the Chinese character "zhen" in their given names. Zhensheng and Kangzhen (quake resistant) are among the most common.

"We didn't experience the horror ourselves, but it left a permanent mark on us," Yang said.

Perhaps due to his link to the disaster, after graduation Yang went to work in the local civil affairs bureau, the department in charge of disaster relief, and has been head of the Tangshan sanatorium for paraplegia for 11 years.

The powerful earthquake 40 years ago left 3,817 survivors paraplegic, more than 800 of whom are still alive. In the sanatorium, patients receive free treatment, food and accommodation, as well as living allowance.

"Born the day of the tragedy. I'm happy to care for them," Yang said.

As the fish loves the water

At noon on Aug. 4, Yu Fengrong gave birth to a daughter in a temporary shack, not long after she was pulled from the debris. She still remembers her misery as, without even the most basic necessities, she held her baby and wept as rain poured through the roof. The desperate mother felt a small measure of relief to see soldiers arrive with hot porridge and boiled eggs -- the traditional food for new Chinese mothers.

For the next month, the soldiers helped the family through their hardest of times, visiting them nearly every day with milk powder, noodles and anything else they could find.

Yu Fengrong and her husband Yu Zhanshui showed their gratitude to their saviors in the name of their daughter, Yu Shuiqing.

The pronunciation of her name is the same as the Chinese idiom to mean literally "the affection between fish and water," which is usually used to describe the rapport between the military and civilians.

Shanghai surprise

Also on Aug.4, Sun Hu was delivered in a tent without water or electricity by Dr. Zhou Juanhua, a member of a rescue team sent by a Shanghai hospital.

Sun's mother had a difficult labor, and Zhou knelt on the ground for seven hours to deliver the baby.

Sun was given the name "Hu," the abbreviation for Shanghai, the commercial and financial hub on the east China coast, to express admiration for the woman doctor.

The lesson of history

The children of the Tangshan earthquake, born among the rubble and squalor, have been taught the true meaning of gratitude by their parents.

Following the catastrophic Wenchuan earthquake in southwest China's Sichuan Province in 2008, more than 270 Tangshan people named Zhensheng or Kangzhen together visited the Tangshan quake monument in downtown Tangshan, Hebei Province, and made donations for the victims in Sichuan.

"We can't just sit idly by. It was only through the kindness of people all over the country that we are alive today," Yang said.
In a move widely praised by internet users, the Ministry of Public Security announced on Tuesday that people can take photos or shoot videos of on-duty police officers.

As long as it does not interfere with law enforcement work, police should not stop onlookers from recording the police work, the ministry said during a police training course.

If the cases are related to state secrets and juveniles, police should tell people not to take shoot and to delete the footage voluntarily, otherwise, they will be held responsible.

Lots of internet users praised the new regulation. They said the ministry has announced steps that are in line with modern times, will improve police work and boost transparency of law enforcement.

On Sina Weibo, a Twitter-like service, Chinatodt said: "I support this new regulation, it is good. The law enforcement is becoming more modern."

The people should be held accountable if they spread photos or videos that reveal state secrets or spread rumors, said user Liu Yong pku.

In the past, there have been cases where law enforcement authorities have brutally forced onlookers to stop taking photos or videos during police work. The heavy-handedness has been one of the major factors that has hurt police image.

According to law, police are supposed to record all events, but in many cases they either do not follow the rules or are unable to provide the records.

The ministry reiterated Tuesday that police should record their work and keep the records for possible queries.

In May, police could not provide video footage of a man who was detained on suspicion of visiting prostitutes in Beijing. The man later died in custody. The case is under investigation.

The 70-minute video training also focused on how police check individual's ID card. Police in plain clothes should first show their identification and police in uniforms should show their identification when asked.

Police are asked to control their emotions during the course of their duty and avoid inflammatory words.

An online video showed that a policeman in uniform showed bad temper when dealing with two young women on the way to a police station. He said he could keep them in a cell of AIDS/HIV patients.

A police investigation showed that this happened over a dispute over the policeman's checking of women's ID cards. They said the policeman did not show his police identification.

The video training told police how to save people who are drowning and how to use police weapons.

The ministry has asked local authorities to research specific law enforcement behaviors to improve their capabilities.
HANGZHOU -- Every month, Singaporean businessman Phua Soo Huat takes two days off from his own business to work as a mediator in commercial disputes concerning foreigners in Yiwu.

A small-commodity distribution center in East China's Zhejiang province, Yiwu receives over 400,000 overseas visitors each year. Some 15,000 people from over 100 countries live there.

Phua Soo Huat is among 16 foreign mediators from 15 countries in the city who help solve disputes involving foreigners.

In February 2015, a Pakistani businessman complained that a batch of plastic rings bought from a local seller were short in weight and demanded a full refund.

Phua, who planned to fly to Iran that night, immediately refunded his plane ticket. He explained to the complainant that the weight of the rings allowed for 1-percent error and suggested that the amount of the error be deducted from the refund and the two sides agreed on the refund.

During the past year, he has been involved in more than a dozen disputes. The key to successful mediation, he says, is patience, objectivity and relying on evidence.

Tirera Sourakhata from Senegal is also a part time mediator.

"Every time a foreign businessman enters the mediation office, I can see from their eyes that they are more at ease to see a foreign mediator," he said in fluent Chinese. Sourakhata believes foreign mediators are a simple courtesy to foreign business people.

Sudanese mediator Ahmed Abuzaid Alitirkawy recalled a Sudanese businessman vanishing after ordering commodities with a worth of more than 3 million yuan ($450,000). Many sellers in Yiwu were not paid. Ahmed went to Sudan, found the man through his personal connections, and got the money back.

The foreign mediators are all volunteers and passionate about their work. As businessmen themselves, they are familiar with trade procedures and all speak good Chinese. Since the system was established three years ago, the team has resolved 287 disputes with a success rate over 96 percent.

The committee room is festooned with the 15 flags of the mediators' home countries. When the flag of Guinea could not be found locally, Guinean mediator Diallo Mamadou Saliou bought some cloth and made one himself.

"It is a great honor for me to be able to help those doing business in Yiwu, just like myself," he said.
The Institute of Science and Technology for Brain-Inspired Intelligence at Fudan University released the results of its most recent research project on July 25. The project earns Fudan the distinction of becoming the first university to map out the brain functional network, Xinmin Evening News reported.

Feng Jianfeng, president of the institute, explained that the research was originally intended to study the dynamic variation of the brain in mental diseases such as dissociation and depression. However, the research unexpectedly made a breakthrough on the analysis of human intelligence.

According to the research, the areas of the brain responsible for studying and memory are highly changeable. Meanwhile, the areas weakly correlated with intelligence include the visual, auditory and sensorimotor areas, which all have low changeability and adaptability. The research shows that high changeability leads to high intelligence and creativity.

These findings are poised to have a revolutionary impact on the development of artificial intelligence. Currently, artificial intelligence devices are neither changeable nor adaptable. Now, the institute's brain functional network graph can be used to build advanced artificial neural networks, which would enable computers to study, grow and adapt. The discovery will also help in the treatment and prevention of mental illnesses.
Item from July 27, 1998, in China Daily: People's Liberation Army soldiers carry sandbags to fortify the embankments of the Jingjiang section of the Yangtze River, in Hubei province, which is being threatened by surging water. The Yangtze is unleashing the worst floods in 44 years on Central and East China's provinces, and a rainbelt still lingers over vast tracts.

China has suffered frequent extreme weather events such as droughts and floods in the past few years due to climate change.

The recent heavy rain left 164 people dead and 125 missing in North China, according to the Ministry of Civil Affairs. Rainstorms led to the collapse of 126,000 houses and forced the evacuation of more than 514,000 people, causing direct economic losses of about 31 billion yuan ($4.6 billion).

Despite the heavy rain, officials say China is unlikely to experience massive flooding like the summer deluge of 1998, as the flood control capacity of large rivers has been considerably improved.

However, urban planning experts are calling for improving drainage systems.

Last year, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development launched a program called Sponge City, which aims to turn urban areas into "sponges" to absorb and recycle 70 percent of rainwater. It will cover 20 percent of China's urban areas by 2020.

Special coverage: Rainstorms cause widespread flooding across China
Chinese people have made remarkable progress on global height ranking over the past century. [Photo/IC]

People on the Chinese mainland have made significant progress in the global ranking of height over the past century, new research shows.

The average height of men on the Chinese mainland (171.8cm) is ranked 93rd globally, while women (160cm) have come in at 87th, according to the research published in the journal eLife on Tuesday.

The study has tracked the growth trends of human height over the past century. It measured the height of more than 18.6 million participants born between 1896 and 1996 in 200 countries and regions.

The survey shows that men on the Chinese mainland born in 1896 stood at 161cm, ranking 130th globally, while women (150.2cm) ranked 134th.

Compared to their neighbors, men on the Chinese mainland are slightly taller than Japanese (men: 170.8cm; women: 158.3cm), but smaller than people from the Republic of Korea (men: 174.9; women: 159.8) and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (men: 172cm; women: 159cm).

Across the world, men in the Netherlands (182.5cm) and women in Latvia (170cm) are the tallest, while the smallest men on earth are found in East Timor (160cm) and the shortest women in Guatemala (150cm).

When it comes to change in height, Iranian men and South Korean women recorded the largest gain over the past century, growing taller by 16.5cm and 20cm.

Adults in the US have seen a major decline in their global height ranking, with men dropping from 3rd to 37th and women from 4th to 42nd.

The research was carried out by the NCD Rick Factor Collaboration, a network of health scientists which provides data on risk factors for non-communicable diseases.

It said that taller people generally live longer, and are less likely to suffer from heart disease or stroke. However, they are more likely to develop some cancers.

Next page: Figure for adult height.
The Neurological Hospital of the Chinese Armed Police Force in Tianjin successfully completes the first transplantation surgery in the area of regenerated medical treatment to heal spinal cord injuries on Jan 16. [Photo/Xinhua]

Medical degrees are gradually losing appeal among collage candidates on the Chinese mainland, with none of the 36 top scorers in this year's national college entrance examination (gaokao) is willing to be a doctor, according to a thepaper.cn survey.

The survey shows more than 60 percent of the surveyed top scorers, from 22 provinces, tended to choose majors related to economy, followed by management (33 percent) and philosophy (8 percent).

Agriculture, medicine and military were at the bottom, with no interest at all.

When asked about their ideal professions, more than 30 percent of the gaokao champions selected industries related to banking, bonds and capital funds. About 19 percent chose education and scientific research. Another 11 percent said they wanted to practice law.

Meanwhile, three out of the four top scorers in Hong Kong's Diploma of Secondary Education (DSE) said they would like to be medical professionals.

A survey, jointly conducted by Beijing News, China's National health and family planning commission and the National Bureau of Statistics, indicates that from 2010 to 2014, 600,000 mainland citizens received qualifications to practice medicine, but only one sixth of them decided to be medical workers.

The most popular majors for top Gaokao examinees during the same period were business administration, economy, electronics and information engineering. Those who chose medicine accounted for only 1.2 percent of the total.

Not only are doctors unhappy with their jobs  they are discouraging their children from following in their footsteps.

The Chinese Medical Doctor Association found that 78 percent of the 3,700 doctors it surveyed in March 2011 said they didn't want their children to study medicine, while in 2009, 62.5 percent of the 3,200 subjects surveyed expressed the same opinion.

This may be a result of their increasingly tense relationships with patients in recent years.

In the latest serious case, Chen Zhongwei, a dentist in Guangzhou, South China's Guangdong province, died on May 7 after being stabbed 38 times by a former patient. The case aroused nationwide attention and put violent conflicts between doctors and patients in the spotlight again.

A medicine teacher surnamed Tong said that besides doctor-patient relationships, income was another reason for the falling interest. "Compared with USA and China's Hong Kong, the incomes of doctors in Chinese mainland haven't reach a standard recognized by the society," he said.

Medical degrees, which usually take a longer time to complete than other majors, bring incomes that hardly match the heavy workload, according to a report on employment by education research company MyCOS Institute. In 2014, the average monthly income for new doctors ranged from 2,710 yuan ($406) to 3,066 yuan ($459), significantly lower than new game designers' 5,273 yuan and Internet developers' 5,147 yuan.

In Hong Kong, medical students need to spend six years at school and then one year as an intern before becoming qualified doctors, with an average salary of 50,000 HKD in public hospitals and even higher in private ones. The average salary for other majors is about 10,000 HKD.

Zhou Qi, a medical master graduate, said that if given another chance, she wouldn't choose clinical medicine as her major.

"It takes one more year for medical students to get a bachelor's degree and major hospitals often require a PhD, which may take up to ten years to get. That's too much input," she said.
"Even a wise judge have trouble settling family disputes." This Chinese adage perfectly embodies the trickiness of resolving domestic court cases.

For decades, courts have been the go-to solution. From 2013 to October 2015, China's court system handled more than 4 million domestic cases, 1.6 million in 2014 alone, according to the Supreme People's Court.

Courts handling domestic cases are severely overburdened. Luckily, they are also testing programs to address the issue.

On Wednesday, Beijing's Second Intermediate People's Court initiated their new civil mediation pilot program to increase efficiency and credibility. The program is called the "3 Shi 1 Tuan Family Dispute Resolution Project".

"3 Shi" means psychologists, social workers and lawyers are working together to solve family conflicts without necessarily resorting to the court, said Wang Jinshan, the intermediate court's vice-president.

For large and complicated cases, the court will establish "1 Tuan", a 7-to-9-member hearing group randomly selected from all sectors of society. "This will create a more open and transparent court environment," he said.

"The purpose of this program is to utilize resources from both the court and society, creating an interdependent system in which the judge's ruling authority and public's consensus are in unity."

The program is yet to hear any cases, but most of the core procedures are in place. "Before the trail, if we noticed litigants have emotional discords, we would offer psychological counseling to calm them," said Zuo Feng, 46, the deputy presiding judge for the sixth tribunal in the intermediate court, which specializes in domestic cases.

"During the trail, the hearing group will hear the cases and give their constructive opinions to the judge for reference. Having a neutral perspective can reduce judge's biases and ease litigants' anxiety."

After the trial, social workers in the program will provide additional support for those in need. Throughout the entire process, lawyers will focus their assistance in legal areas wherever necessary, Zuo said.

Lawyers and judges have welcomed the pilot program. "It really hit the nail on the head, and that is resolving the family emotional conflict within domestic cases before taking it to court," said Zhu Chuntao, a member of the judicial committee of the Beijing Higher People's court.

"Some might argue that taking this extra step will increase cost and waste time. But in reality, bringing support from society and having professionals to quell emotional turmoil can actually save time and make trails more efficient."

According to the Ministry of Civil Affairs, the national crude divorce rate has tripled since 2002 (from 0.90 percent to 2.8 percent), with 3.84 million couples ending their marriages in 2015. This inevitably leads to more court cases on divorce, child custody and property inheritance.

"Some couples took their marriage dispute to the court when they don't necessarily need to," Zhu said. "There is a big difference between marriage crisis and marriage death, the latter definitely needs legal remedy, but the former actually needs a more human touch, like counseling or interventions."

Sometimes judges have trouble resolving disputes because the evidence is unquantifiable. "A young man once argued that he should get more inheritance because he contributed more to the family by working harder. It sounds morally right, but in fact it has no legal basis," Zuo said. "If the court decided to split the property evenly, then someone is bound to be dissatisfied."

In partnership with the Beijing YueQun Yi Zhong Social Work and Services Center, the intermediate court will fill positions in the pilot program from the center's talent pool. Over the next five months, the court will trial eight to 10 cases and publish its comprehensive findings by the end of the year, Zuo said.
A man mourns his mother, a victim of the earthquake, at a memorial park in Tangshan, Hebei province. Tangshan lies in ruins after the devastating earthquake in 1976. An earthquake monument stands at the edge of a pond in the rebuilt Tangshan. PHOTOS BY WANG ZHUANGFEI / CHINA DAILY AND XINHUA FILE PHOTO

Editor's note: Today marks the 40th anniversary of the Tangshan earthquake, which claimed more than 240,000 lives. China Daily talks with two people, brought together by the injuries they suffered, who have spent four decades rebuilding their lives.

Forty years ago, when Gao Zhihong had just graduated from college, the then-25-year-old returned home to visit her family. The joy of reunion didn't last long: 10 hours after Gao's arrival in Tangshan, Hebei province, the city was hit by a massive earthquake that caused more than 240,000 deaths.

That night, Gao's life was turned upside down.

She arrived in her hometown at about 6 pm on July 27. "My whole family was so happy to see me. My sister and I planned to go shopping the next day," the 65-year-old recalled, her memories not dimmed by the intervening years.

The sisters' shopping expedition never materialized. At about 4 am, a magnitude-7.8 earthquake hit Tangshan. Gao's father and sister were killed, while she and her mother were left paralyzed. Her two younger brothers were luckier, escaping with superficial injuries.

More than 240,000 of the city's 1 million urban inhabitants died in the quake, regarded as one of the most destructive in history. In addition, 160,000 people were seriously injured  more than 3,800 were paralyzed  and more than 4,200 children were orphaned.

"My mother shook me awake when the quake occurred. My father ran toward the door, and I saw a concrete beam fall from the roof and hit him. I got up and ran to him, but I was hit by another falling beam. I was wedged between two of the beams, unable to move. I saw my father die," she recalled, her voice choked with emotion.

"It was so dark. I heard my brothers shouting my name, but I couldn't move and I was too weak and in too much pain to respond."

Gao was buried under the debris of the family home for about 10 hours until one of her brothers managed to free her.

Shortly after the quake, Gao Zhihong was transferred to Xuzhou, Jiangsu province, and then Cangzhou in Hebei for treatment on her legs. She did not return to Tangshan until 1980.

Gao's boyfriend broke off their relationship when he learned she would never walk again. "I was desperate, I cried myself to sleep every night for several years," she said.

At the time, she was unaware that her future husband was in the same position. Yang Yufang, then 26, was also paralyzed in the quake, and was sent to larger cities for medical treatment. He found it hard to accept that his life had changed for good.

"When I returned to Tangshan, I put some clothes over my head, so I couldn't see the destruction in the city. Also, I was afraid to be seen; I was so ashamed of being crippled," said Yang, whose father and brother died in the quake.

Although it took a long time, he was eventually able to accept the reality of the situation. "What happened had happened. I couldn't rewrite history. There were only two paths in front of meto live or to die. I chose to live," he said.

"There was no use being angry or resentful. Once I had chosen to live, I had to face reality, to accept it and make the best of it."


Chinese President Xi Jinping, who is also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC), speaks after listening to a work report of the PLA army during an inspection of the army's headquarters on July 27, 2016. [Photo/Xinhua]

President Xi Jinping told the People's Liberation Army on Wednesday to improve its ground force's mobility and joint operations capability.

Xi, also chairman of the Central Military Commission, urged the military to accelerate its ground force's transformation and reform.

He said the Army's management and development methods will be overhauled while its structure and combat capability will be extensively upgraded.

Xi told the Army to adopt realistic combat simulations in its training and drills and to enhance precision and efficiency in reconnaissance, command and control, logistics support and strike operations.

The Army must improve when launching air-land operations, responding to emergencies, making long distance deployments, engaging in special warfare as well as performing "strategic assaults", the president said.

Xi was making a morning inspection tour of the PLA Army Headquarters in Beijing. It was the first time that he had visited the headquarters, which was established in late December along with the PLA Rocket Force and PLA Strategic Support Force.

Previously, the PLA's ground force did not have a headquarters, as its units were under the direct control of the Central Military Commission. Regional military commands were in charge of the detailed operations of ground units stationed within their jurisdictions.

Gao Zhuo, a military observer in Shanghai, said Xi's remarks indicate that the PLA Army has begun to place more emphasis on honing its ability to launch special operations.

"As far as I know, a lot of existing special operations units under the ground force have been expanded and promoted, while some new units were set up recently," he said.

"Special warfare requires a high level of collaboration and coordination among different military branches, so the ground force is striving to improve its joint operations capability."

On Tuesday afternoon, Xi called for a stronger PLA to be built through ongoing military reform as he presided over a group study seminar of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, which focused on the massive reform of China's national defense and military.

He said the reform would bring comprehensive and revolutionary changes to the PLA, and its ultimate goal is to build a strong military commensurate with the nation's international status.

Based on the reform plan that was approved by the Central Military Commission at a conference in November, the previous seven regional military commands were regrouped into five theater commands.

The four top military departmentsGeneral Staff, Political, Logistics and Armamentswere reorganized into 15 agencies directly under the Central Military Commission.

Xi said the reform has resolved some long-standing problems as well as many tough issues that were regarded as being impossible to solve, describing it as a historic move in the PLA's history.

By 2020, major changes and upgrades to the PLA will have been accomplished, he added.


As diplomats strode the red carpet at Laos' landmark - the spacious National Convention Center in the capital Vientiane - hurrying to meetings, they benefited from China's courtesy.

The center forms part of China's aid to Laos. Chinese workers completed its construction in only 10 months in 2012, well in time for the Asia-Europe Meeting held there that year.

This year, the venue hosted a range of annual meetings from Sunday to Tuesday involving foreign ministers from all 10 member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and their international counterparts, such as those from China, Japan, the United States and the European Union.
A young Japanese man went on a slashing rampage on Tuesday, killing 19 people at a facility for the mentally disabled from which he had been fired, police said.

The attack came months after he gave a letter to a member of parliament outlining his plan and saying that all disabled people should be put to death.

When he was done, Satoshi Uematsu, 26, had killed or injured nearly a third of the almost 150 patients at the facility in a matter of 40 minutes, in the deadliest mass killing in Japan in decades, authorities said. Twenty-five were wounded, 20 of them seriously.
According to the Chinese solar terms, it's Major Heat now, when most parts of China experience the hottest days of the year. During the scorching summer, we modern people can enjoy cold drinks in an air-conditioned room to escape the heat. But how did ancient people cool down without these modern-day technologies?

Icehouse and ice ticket

Ancient people collect natural ice in winter. [File photo]

As early as Pre-Qin Dynasty (2100-221 BC), people used natural ice to keep food fresh and make cold drinks. According to the record in the Confucian classic Zhou Rites, the Zhou royal court had a specialized department called the "ice administration" which had 80 employees. The department collected natural ice blocks each December, and then transported them to the ice house for storage.

Some senior officials were awarded ice cubes by the Zhou royal court, which was a big honor during that time. The system of granting ice lasted until the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties. During the Qing Dynasty, "ice tickets" were distributed to officials instead of sending the ice directly to them.
Tourists escaping summer heat at the Rain Room in Shijingshan Amusement Park. [Photo/IC]

Beijing Shijingshan Amusement Park is welcoming visitors with its Rain Room, which proves to be popular among kids and adults alike.

The rain in the Rain Room is different from the rain falling from the sky. It is intelligently designed to avoid falling on people.

Developed by Ramdom International, the Rain Room made its first presence in London in 2012, and exhibited at New York's Museum of Modern Artand in 2013.

The idea of the Rain Room evolved from the idea of offering a contemplative and creative space where children could explore and play as they might on a rainy day at home.
The dress worn by Queen Elizabeth II during her visit to the Great Wall in 1986, is on display during a special exhibition at Buckingham Palace to celebrate her 90th birthday. Wang Mingjie / China Daily Queen Elizabeth II visits the Great Wall with Prince Philip in October 1986. Provided To China Daily

To celebrate Queen Elizabeth II's 90th birthday, a special exhibition of the British monarch's wardrobe is on display through Oct 2 at Buckingham Palace.

The exhibition, Fashioning a Reign: 90 Years of Style From The Queen's Wardrobe, includes two outfits that the queen wore during her historic state visit to China in October 1986. Exhibitions also are scheduled for her two other official residences.

"The pink silk evening dress embroidered with sprays of tree peony blossoms, the national flower of China and a revered symbol in Chinese art and culture, was worn for a state banquet in Beijing," said Caroline de Guitaut, curator of the Royal Collection, which manages public events at the queen's official residences.

"The queen was the first British reigning monarch to visit China on a state visit, and it is a very key piece of her wardrobe on display here," she said.

Another piece that has a strong connection to China is the purple ensemble designed by the late Hardy Amies, a leading couturier who worked for the queen.

The queen was photographed wearing this ensemble when she visited the Great Wall of China with Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, in 1986.

The show at Buckingham Palace, featuring more than 80 dresses and 60 fashion accessories, examines how clothes and fashionable dresses have supported the queen in various roles as head of the state, head of the armed forces and head of the Commonwealth.

It presents the fashions of 10 decades, from the 1920s to the present, showing the unique requirements of royal couture. The Buckingham Palace exhibition, which opened on Saturday, includes ceremonial attire as well as outfits worn at family celebrations, such as weddings and christenings.

Wardrobes from the queen's early childhood, her wedding to the Duke of Edinburgh and her coronation, as well as outfits created for royal tours and state visits, also are represented.

Also on display is the dress she wore for the Thames River Pageant, part of the celebrations marking the queen's Diamond Jubilee in June 2012.Another very recognizable outfit is the one she wore when she appeared at the opening ceremony of the London Olympic Games in 2012.

Related:

Unveiling the secrets of Elizabeth II's wardrobe
Editor's note: Objchina, our blogger from Nigeria, shares his top 9 things that foreigners should avoid doing in China while interacting with the Chinese in order to save them from "certain embarrassment and possibly even outright humiliation." What do you think about the list? Welome to join us for discussions.

Objchina (Nigeria)

1. Never get upset in public

Public displays of anger are frowned upon by the Chinese and are most uncomfortable for them to deal with  especially if the people getting angry are foreign tourists, for example. This goes right along with making someone (usually the Chinese host) lose face, which you should avoid at all costs. The Chinese place a premium on group harmony, so foreigners should try to swallow hard, be polite, and cope privately.
Screen shots show a tourist being attacked by a Siberian tiger in Badaling Safari World in Beijing, July 23, 2016. [Photo/IC]

Recently there has been heated debate online about the incident in Badaling Wildlife Park in northern Beijing, in which tigers killed one woman and injured another after the women got out of their car in the park. Xinhua Daily Telegraph commented on Tuesday:

In the field of public opinion, when something happens, even when they only possess a fraction of the information or believe in hearsay, many people will try to conclude the root cause and assign responsibility.

In this incident, some people have attributed it to problems arising from the women' irritability and made assertions such as "do not get married to people who get angry easily", even though there is no information about whether or not the woman who first got out of the car was quarreling with her family.

Media reports say the husband denies they were quarreling, but still the rumor they were has spread on the internet.

Some people, under the illusion that they know exactly what happened, focus only on interpreting facts that suit their conclusion ignoring any that might lead to another.

But in doing so, their conclusions go beyond the extent permitted by the evidence. The true facts can only be judged to such extent that they permit. So before we jump to any more false conclusions about this incident, we need more facts.
Anxiously, the world held its collective breath when China announced its 2016 second quarter GDP growth rate, and then collectively exhaled with great relief when it was again 6.7 percent, the same as in the first quarter. The steady growth, slightly beating forecasts, signaled that Chinas economy is well and on course. Stock markets worldwide need not panic.

The initial anxiety and the subsequent relief are both misguided. Neither is entirely justified. At best, GDP growth rates tell only part of Chinas economic story.

Consider the widespread displeasure over Chinas slowing growth. How terrible is this? Ten years ago, in 2006, when Chinas growth rate was a robust 12.7%, everyone was happy  count on China to drive world economic growth! Now everyone is on edge about China. But consider this: the GDP base is far bigger. In 2005, Chinas GDP was $2.3 trillion, and 12.7% growth meant an increase of under $300 billion in 2006. Fast-forward ten years. In 2015, Chinas GDP was $11 trillion, and 6.5% growth would mean an increase of over $700 billion in 2016  more than twice the absolute amount the economy grew in 2006 when the growth rate was that happiness-engendering 12.7%. And since Chinas population in 2016 is only marginally more than it was in 2006, the absolute amount of GDP growth per capita will be well more this year than it was a decade ago.

Thats the good news. But theres complexity, pulling in the opposite direction.

What are the components of the growth rate? What sectors are driving it? Investment looms large, so we must ask: how productive are those assets being formed? Massive industrial overcapacity is Chinas most serious economic impediment. Debt-fueled investments in fixed assets  particularly via government stimulus programs (needed for economic stability)  have rendered some investments unproductive or even counterproductive (they cost money to maintain).

While we cannot know in real time how much unproductive assets are embedded in each years GDP growth rate, we do know for sure that some of the growth of past years now sit as overcapacities  coal, iron, steel, cement, glass, heavy equipment, chemicals, housing, etc.

So, on the one hand, the GDP growth rate on a much larger base continues to impress, but on the other hand, some of that growth is unproductive. Yet, there is real growth in consumer products, e-commerce and service industries.

It is difficult to figure out what is really going on.

Obviously, we need GDP growth rates for standardization and benchmarking, but we should not deify them. Its no surprise that they dominate discourse. GDP growth rate is a simple, single number, seemingly easy enough to understand. Thats its power. Thats also its problem.

How else to assess the economy? I follow Chinas national policies, seek indicators to discern progress (or not).

Supply side structural reform is critical for reducing overcapacity and corporate debt. Progress in the former could be assessed by, say, an increasing number of corporate bankruptcies  closing down zombie enterprises would be a good thing, not a bad thing. Its no state secret that some state-owned enterprises (SOE) are moribund, and so a leading indicator that the government is willing to make hard choices and endure short-term pain to achieve long-term gain would be an uptick in the number of SOE bankruptcies. Similarly, progress in reducing corporate debt would be an increase in debt-for-equity swaps.

Another indicator is the percentage of non-performing loans (NPL) issued by banks, largely to SOEs. Analysts estimate the real NPL rate to be between 10% and 20%. To me, a positive indicator of economic progress would be an increase in officially reported NPLs, because it would mean that the government is ready to clean up the financial system, which is necessary for sustainable growth.

I also focus on Chinas overarching guidelines for economic and social transformation. Put forth by President Xi, the Five Major Development Concepts are the highest-level drivers of national policy: innovation, coordination, green, openness and sharing.

So, take note of the quarterly GDP, sure, but watch other indicators as well.

Robert Lawrence Kuhn is a public intellectual, political/economics commentator, and international corporate strategist. He is the host of Closer To China with R.L. Kuhn on CCTV News.
[Photo/Xinhua]

The Argentinean government announced Tuesday that Chinese tourists, already owning a valid tourism visa for the United States or the European Union (EU), will no longer need a separate tourist visa for Argentina.

According to the government's official Gazette, President Mauricio Marci signed into law a decree stating that Chinese travellers must have an Electronic Travel Authorization for either of those two regions, which costs 50 US dollars.

Those without such a document "must request their visa at the relevant Argentinean consulates, as stipulated in bilateral agreements," said the statement.

The government considered that the new norm "was adapted to the requirements of migratory policy" and "sought to generate more agile and simplified processes for entry to the national territory."

"We have taken into account the control mechanisms carried out by certain countries to emit visas. It seems reasonable to consider the usual checks carried out by Argentinean consulates as complete, if they (Chinese tourists) have obtained visas for countries with rigorous control criteria," said the Gazette.

In April, Argentina's Tourism Minister Gustavo Santos said that Argentina wanted to increase ten-fold the number of Chinese visitors in 2019, compared to the 40,000 seen in 2015.
Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May (L) and Irish Taoiseach Enda Kenny hold a joint news conference inside 10 Downing Street, London, Britain July 26, 2016. [Photo/Agencies]

LONDON - British Prime Minister Theresa May said Monday a way must be found to resolve the question of the border separating Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic once Britain leaves the EU.

May paid her first visit as Prime Minister to the Northern Ireland Monday, spending 90 minutes at Stormont Castle meeting Northern Ireland's First Minister Arlene Foster and Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness.

Downing Street later issued a statement on behalf of May after her talks with the two leaders.

The visit to Northern Ireland came after May's visits to Scotland and Wales to reassure leaders they would be fully involved in Brexit negotiations.

Once Britain finally leaves the EU, the border with Ireland will be the only stretch of EU border within Britain.

The border between the Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic has been open, allowing free passage for peoples on both sides of the border since a treaty was signed almost a century ago.

May said:" I recognize the particular circumstances in Northern Ireland because of course it has a land border with a country that will be remaining in the EU. We've had constructive talks about the will that we all have to find a way through this in the best interest of Northern Ireland and the best interest of the UK as a whole."

"We'd had a common travel area between the UK and the Republic of Ireland for many years before either country was a member of the EU."
Jia Yueting (left), founder and CEO of LeEco, and William Wang, founder and CEO of Vizio, announce the $2-billion acquisition at a joint press conference on Tuesday in Hollywood. LIA ZHU / CHINA DAILY

Chinese tech company LeEco announced on Tuesday that it will acquire Vizio, a major TV manufacturer in the US, for $2 billion in cash as it expands globally.

It took the two companies three years to reach the agreement, under which Vizio's hardware and software businesses will be operated as a wholly owned subsidiary of LeEco, while the data business - Inscap - will operate as a separate, privately owned company. LeEco Global will own a 49 percent stake of Inscape, and William Wang, founder and CEO of Vizio, will own a 51 percent stake.

The transaction, which is expected to close in six months or so subject to regulatory approval, will have a three-year Vizio earnout for an additional payment of $200 million, with revenue and profit thresholds for a potential total consideration of $2.25 billion, said Winston Cheng, LeEco senior vice-president, global head of corporate finance and development.

An earnout agreement states that the seller of the business, in this case Vizio, will receive enhanced compensation if it reaches certain financial thresholds.

LeEco will retain all current Vizio employees and enter into a 10-year licensing agreement with Inscape. The Vizio brand and its products will continue to be sold through their existing distribution channels.

With the acquisition, LeEco is expected to have more than 20 million big-screen users, which will provide a solid foundation for the Beijing-based company to expand its presence in the US and realize its global strategy, Jia Yueting, founder and CEO of LeEco, said at the press conference in Hollywood.

Vizio, based in Irvine, California, is the second-largest smart TV vendor in the US after Samsung. Known for its affordable flat-screen TVs, Vizio has factories in Mexico and China.

After the acquisition, Vizio will provide LeEco approximately 8 million newly installed connected TVs annually as well as major North American retail channels, and LeEco will support Vizio with its internet, technology, content and cloud services, Cheng said.

He said Vizio was a "critical part of LeEco's entry into the North American market" and LeEco Global was committed to spending 10 percent of revenue on research and development in the future and provide R&D capabilities to Vizio.

The two companies had combined revenue of more than $4 billion in the first half of 2016, and the group expects double-digit revenue increases over the next few years, said Cheng, adding that the combined company has more than 28 million cumulative smart connected TVs installed.

Like LeEco, Vizio shares a similar vision of creating premium products with the latest innovations and making them accessible for everyone, Wang said.

"I'm excited to see how LeEco's global reach and resources will elevate Vizio as we continue to bring great technology, innovation and value to our consumers," he said.

LeEco has set its sights on the US market in recent months. In April, it opened a North American headquarters in San Jose, California, with the objective of tapping into Silicon Valley's talent and innovation. The facility houses the company's autonomous driving research center - the LeFuture AI Institute, in partnership with Faraday Future.

It recently completed the acquisition of Yahoo's nearly 50-acre development site in Santa Clara, California, with a payment of $250 million, according to a report by Silicon Valley Business Journal last month.

"Within three months, LeEco will formally enter into the US," said Jia, who called it a "big bang plan".
The Eastern State Penitentiary in downtown Philadelphia looms prominently on the tourist map for people coming to the 2016 Democratic National Convention, but its doors are wide open. The first penitentiary in the US was shut down in 1971 and reopened in 1994 as a museum.

Aside from displays describing its long history since 1829, there is an exhibit titled Prisons Today: Questions in the Age of Mass Incarceration.

Since the 1970s, the US prison population has jumped more than 600 percent to well over 2 million. In terms of percentage of the population, more Americans are locked up today than in any other nation on the planet.

The message the exhibit seems to convey is that the mass incarceration system is broken, and to the nation's woe.

The penitentiary was set up through the advocacy of US founding fathers like Benjamin Franklin and a group of reformers known as the Philadelphia Society for Alleviating the Miseries of Public Prisoners. Their approach was a departure from the previous policy in the US, moving from punishment to promoting penitence.

But that approach diminished by the early 1900s as the system had to house more and more prisoners, including the notorious Al Capone.

On Tuesday noon, elementary school students were on a guided tour of the prison, listening to a guide talk about everything from Al Capone's cell to a synagogue and the exercise yard.

America's high incarceration rate and reforming the criminal justice system have been hot issues on the 2016 presidential campaign trail.

Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders has been decrying the criminal justice system for the past year. Speaking on Monday night at the Democratic National Convention, he said the election was about the leadership to repair a broken criminal justice system.

"It's about making sure that young people in this country are in good schools and at good jobs, not in jail cells," he told an audience that included many of his supporters.

The 2016 Democratic Party Platform, heavily influenced by Sanders, also calls for reform of the criminal justice system and an end to mass incarceration.

"Something is profoundly wrong when almost a quarter of the world's prison population is in the United States, even though our country has less than 5 percent of the world's population. We will reform mandatory minimum sentences and close private prisons and detention centers," the platform says.

"Whenever possible, Democrats will prioritize prevention and treatment over incarceration when tackling addiction and substance use disorder," it goes on.

Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and her husband Bill have taken a lot of heat for their records on mass incarceration.

The 1994 crime bill signed by then President Bill Clinton and pushed also by then first lady Hillary Clinton is widely regarded to have worsened the mass incarceration dilemma in the US with its harsh sentencing guidelines.
Despite recent tensions in the South China Sea, Washington has made it clear to Beijing that President Barack Obama wants a stable transfer to the next US leader of the progress made on ties with Beijing during his eight years in office.

US National Security Advisor Susan Rice brought the message during her latest visit, a source with the Foreign Ministry told China Daily on Wednesday.

"Rice spent roughly 70 percent of her time in meetings here discussing cooperation, and only 30 percent on other issues," said the source, who requested anonymity.

Rice was in China from Sunday to Wednesday, mainly to prepare for Obama's attendance at the G20 Leaders' Summit in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, in September. She met with President Xi Jinping and other Chinese officials, including State Councilor Yang Jiechi.

The visit came amid tensions in the South China Sea after Beijing rejected a July 12 arbitration ruling in a case unilaterally brought by the Philippines over maritime disputes with China.

"Both sides agreed that we won't let disputes define the relations," the source said.

News releases issued by both sides afterward focused on bilateral cooperation, without directly mentioning the South China Sea issue.

However, the source said the two sides did discuss issues including the South China Sea and the advanced missile defense system that the United States and the Republic of Korea decided to deploy in the ROK, a move that has drawn strong opposition from China and Russia.

"We made our stances clear that the US should not cite the tribunal ruling on the South China Sea issue and that inappropriate handling of the THAAD anti-missile system will overshadow China-US relations," he said.

Rice spent a long time discussing anti-terrorism cooperation in meetings with Chinese officials, and she also touched on many other topics, including a bilateral investment treaty and military cooperation, he added.

"She also said that President Obama is glad to see a prosperous China, which is in the interests of the US, and that Washington is willing to work with Beijing to ensure a successful G20 summit," the source said.

Liu Youfa, former vice-president of the China Institute of International Studies, said, "Rice's remarks sent a signal to some Asian countries that the US-China relations are not only about the South China Sea.

"It is also a warning that these countries' plan to take advantage of conflicts between the US and China to seek their interests is unsustainable and shortsighted."

Jin Canrong, dean of the School of International Studies with Renmin University of China, said that US Secretary of State John Kerry took a similar low-profile stance on Monday while meeting with Foreign Minister Wang Yi at the ASEAN Foreign Ministers' Meeting.

"Washington has noticed the anger in China against the US on the South China Sea issue, not only from the government but also the ordinary people. They know that is not good for US interests."
Officials have discussed a dollar amount for Bank of North Dakota profits that may be used to help plug the states budget shortfall when the Legislature meets in special session next week.

Lets suppose we would like to access approximately $100 million of the Bank of North Dakota (profits), Gov. Jack Dalrymple said, throwing out a number during a meeting of the North Dakota Industrial Commission.

The bank has posted record profits for 12 consecutive years, with a profit of $130.7 million in 2015.

Bank of North Dakota President Eric Hardmeyer said bank officials ran the numbers and believe that if the state took $100 million in profits, the bank would still be very strong through the biennium ending June 30, 2017.

The bank is extremely strong in capital, Dalrymple said.

Bank of North Dakota profits were mentioned earlier this month as a potential source to draw from when Dalrymple called for a three-day special legislative session, which is set to begin next Tuesday. Lawmakers will be tasked with addressing a budget shortfall of roughly $310 million for the current biennium.

We sat down a few weeks ago and had a theoretical discussion, Hardmeyer said.

He said the $100 million figure is in the ballpark of the final amount that will be included in a comprehensive budget bill to be voted on during the special session.

The banks leverage ratio was being specifically discussed when Dalrymple interjected to talk about using bank profits for the budget shortfall.

A banks leverage ratio is calculated by dividing tier one capital by the average assets for the quarter. Hardmeyer said tier one capital is basically the states ownership stake in the banks total assets.

For the second quarter of 2016, the bank was at a 11.05 percent leverage ratio; its benchmark is 8.5 percent.

We still would be north of 10 percent, Hardmeyer said, even with allocation of the $100 million.

The Bank of North Dakotas average total assets for the second quarter of 2016 was $7.32 billion, down from an average of $7.87 billion during the same period in 2015.

Tier one capital has increased from $749 million at year-end 2015 to $809 million for this year to date.

Changes have been made to this story to more correctly reflect the status of discussions on possible use of Bank of North Dakota profits to remedy budget shortfall
A draft home rule charter for the city of Lincoln was advanced to the Lincoln City Council after a public hearing on Tuesday held by the committee tasked three months ago with creating the document.

The charter, modeled after other North Dakota communities of similar size, would allow the council to create a city sales tax of up to 1 percent, dedicating 25 percent of the revenue to parks. The remaining 75 percent would be spent at the council's discretion.

After a brief presentation of the charter proposal before a light audience of seven, the committee finalized the document's wording and forwarded it to the Lincoln City Council to set a ballot date. The hearing lasted about 30 minutes.

"We passed it. It could be a good deal for Lincoln," Hagen said. "The biggest thing is, it will give Lincoln more control and power over its future. We wouldn't have to rely on the Legislature and the county as much."

The issue will go before the Aug. 4 Lincoln Council meeting. Under state law, the city council cannot amend the document the committee drafted, but can set the election date. Council Member Tom Volk said the board favored putting it to the voters as soon as possible, in the November election.

Council members may set an election date 60 days to two years after the charter is submitted by its committee.

Lance Hagen, chairman of the Lincoln Home Rule Charter Committee, said the document met some questions from the small number of attendees, but no opposition. Among those attending were Mayor Gerarld Wise and Council Member Karen Daly.

"They asked about how the 75 percent would be spent. The council would put it in the general fund," Hagen said of the audience.

Ultimately, Lincoln's voters will decide whether the home rule charter passes.

Money collected from a sales tax could result in water, sewer and infrastructure upgrades, said Hagen.

"Lincoln has reached the level where we should be providing it better services," he said.
Usually, political conventions are attempts to tell a story  a story about what a party stands for, a story about where its presidential candidate came from, a story about what kind of chief executive he would be.

The Donald Trump National Convention in Cleveland (technically the Republican National Convention, but lets be real) wasnt really much for storytelling. Its messages were muddled, its shared agenda boiled down to hating Hillary Clinton, many of its speakers didnt want to talk about the candidate, and one declined even to endorse him.

But if the convention didnt tell, it definitely showed: It was less an advertisement for Donald Trump than a perfect synecdoche for his entire ascent, with every element of the Trump phenomenon distilled into four strange days of drama.

First, it was a showcase for the institutional failure of the Republican Party in the face of Trumps assault. The partys past presidents were absent, and many of its younger politicians also. The ones who did appear found varying ways to cover themselves in dishonor  some with pained, phoned-in endorsements, some with opportunistic zeal, and some by simply being good apparatchiks and squashing the last attempt at delegate dissent.

Almost none of these figures made a positive case for Trumpism or attempted to explain how his ethno-nationalism fits with their professed Reaganite worldview. But then that worldview also seemed threadbare  a concatenation of cliches so rote and unconvincing that its abandonment by Trumps voters looks almost inevitable in hindsight.

Meanwhile the convention was also a showcase for Trumps unique political style, which is basically ramshackle and improvised and which treats the controversies that most politicians fear as part of the fun, part of the show, a reason for voters and viewers to tune in. Trump literally said this, after his wifes speech bizarrely plagiarized Michelle Obama and his campaign even more bizarrely let the controversy spin for days: Good news is Melanias speech got more publicity than any in the history of politics, he tweeted, especially if you believe that all press is good press!

And he does. How else to explain the stage-management of Ted Cruzs deliberate non-endorsement, a striking and admirable moment of defiance that Trumps campaign actually seemed to hype  by apparently whipping boos against Cruz from the floor and by having Trump show up in the hall as the speech wrapped, as though the two men might stage a WWE confrontation.

That this reality-television approach is poorly suited to an office with the powers of the presidency is, well, obvious enough. But not content to let us draw the inference, Trump also used the convention week to offer a case study in the damage a reckless president can do, by giving an extended interview with this newspaper in which he casually undercut the United States commitment to our NATO allies in the event of Russian aggression in the Baltics.

One need not be any kind of Russia hawk to recognize that this is the kind of thing that encourages brinkmanship, aggression, war. (It also dovetails, rather creepily, with Trumpworlds conspicuous Russian ties, Vladimir Putins history of backing right-wing European parties, and Russian televisions conspicuous pro-Trump propaganda.) And nestled amid the whole ramshackle convention, it was a reminder that the greatest danger of a Trump presidency might not be his transparently authoritarian tendencies, but rather the global chaos that a winging-it Great Man in the Oval Office could unleash.

But then, finally, there came the Great Mans acceptance speech itself, which was everything that critics charged  exaggerated in its law-and-order fear-mongering, free of policy beyond the promise of quick fixes and delivered with a strongmans permanent shout  while also pulsing with an ideological message whose power will outlive Trumps wild campaign.

That message was a long attack, not on liberalism per se, but on the bipartisan post-Cold War elite consensus on foreign policy, mass immigration, free trade. It was an attack on George W. Bushs Iraq war and Hillary Clintons Libya incursion both, on NAFTA and every trade deal negotiated since, on the perpetual Beltway push for increased immigration, on the entire elite vision of an increasingly borderless globe.

No recent presidential nominee has given a speech like it. But it gave full voice to sentiments that are widely held on both sides of the Atlantic  sentiments rooted in the broken promises of both right and left, in 15 years of economic disappointment and military quagmire, in the percolating threat of globalized jihad, in an ever-more-balkanized culture governed by an ever-more-insulated elite.

At his convention as in his entire rise, Trump was a walking spectacle, a carnival barker, a man without normal caution or foresight or restraint. And those flaws should doom him in the end.

But his speech wasnt just a spectacle. And after this strangest of elections is over, Trumpism will come around again.
(Photo : Takashi Aoyama/Getty Images) A police officer puts up yellow tape at an alley in the Golden Gai district of Kabukicho in Tokyo, Japan.

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Nineteen people have been confirmed dead, and 26 more are injured after a knife-wielding man attacked people at a care home for people with disabilities. The attacker had reportedly been fired from the facility.



CNN reported that the facility has been identified as Tsukui Yamayurien. It is located west of Tokyo, specifically in Sagamihara. It is 40 kilometers west of the capital. Officer Satomi Kurihara of the Sagamihara Fire Department confirmed the deaths and the number of injured people from the stabbing spree.



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The attack has been dubbed as one of the deadliest mass killings in Japan since World War II. The suspect has been identified as 26-year-old Satoshi Uematsu. He reportedly broke into the facility through a window around 2 a.m. (local time) on Tuesday. Kanagawa Prefecture officials said that they received a phone call from an employee reporting the stabbing.



Hours after the attack, Uematsu turned himself into authorities at the Sagamihara police station. He was carrying a knife that had bloodstains on it as well as a cloth. He reportedly confessed and explained that he attacked the facility because he was angry about losing his job. "It's better that disabled people disappear," he allegedly said.



The injured people have been transported to nearby hospitals for treatment, The Washington Post reported. Around a dozen of the 26 people injured are said to be in serious condition. It is unclear if any employees at the facility were also stabbed during the attack. The identities of the fatally stabbed victims, as well as those who survived the incident, have not been revealed.



The facility was reportedly built by the prefectural authority and is run by a social welfare service organization called Kanagawa Kyodokai. Around 149 people are reported to live in the facility and are aged 18 to 75.



In Japan, since gun ownership is restricted, mass stabbings and poisonings are common. In 2001, eight children were killed after a former janitor broke into an elementary school in Osaka and stabbed students at random. Seven years later, a man ran over a group of people with his truck then stabbed 18 others. He killed a total of seven people during the attack.







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TagsJapan knife attack, 19 people killed, 26 injured, facility for disabled people, fired from job, Tokyo, Tsukui Yamayurien, 26-year-old Satoshi Uematsu
(Photo : YouTube Screenshot) The new refillable Mi Pen costs 19 yuan ($2.85).

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A new refillable Mi Pen from Mijia, a sub-brand of Chinese-based manufacturer Xiaomi, has been launched with a price tag of 19 yuan ($2.85).



Unfortunately, the Mi Pen is not a smart pen and does not magically store all that is written with it. However, it utilizes Swiss PREMEC Refills and features a quick-drying Japanese mikuni ink that does not fade easily. Also, the ink does not dry up if the pen is not used for a long period, according to Mijia .



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According to Mobile Scout, the Mi Pen comes in two color variants, namely, black and white. It has a 120-degree spin that shows or hides the 0.5 mm high-precision ball tip made of tungsten. Its diameter is 9.5 mm. The connector is made of metal. The rotating member is made of copper that can last up to approximately 50,000 rotations.



The Mi Pen is a great gift to purchase for kids and friends going to college. It is like a normal pen but has a better build quality at a low price, Gizmo China reported.



Xiaomi started with smartphones and then expanded to other categories which generally lie under the smart home. The company announced approximately four months ago that all its smart home Mi-branded products would be made under the new Mijia brand name. Among the products released are the Mi induction heating pressure rice cooker that has Wi-Fi compatibility and a companion app as well as a portable, cheap electric mosquito repellent that can be attached to a smartphone or a power bank.



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TagsXiaomi, Mijia, Mi Pen, Swiss PREMEC Refills, Mi, Mi rice cooker, Xiaomi mosquito repellant
Illustration of the top secret U.S. Mentor or Advanced Orion spy satellite,the largest satellites in orbit.

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Russia plans to publish a list of all United States' in-orbit satellites, even secret spy satellites not acknowledged to exist by the U.S., as part of an effort to "level the playing field" in space. This list might be made public in 2017.



Russia said it's already revealed the existence of all its commercial and military satellites and this data is already public knowledge. Russia believes the U.S. should do the same in the interests of transparency.



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The U.S. is known to have in-orbit military spy satellites whose existence it neither confirms nor denies. It might also have what are called "dark satellites," which seem to be military satellites to be activated in case of a war. Russia in the past has alleged these satellites exist and are actually anti-satellite (ASAT) satellites.



Russia also proposes all data about satellites, whether operational or derelict, be stored in a database to be protected and managed by the United Nations. It suggests this database be used for collecting, systemizing, sharing and analyzing information on objects and events in space.



Media reports said Russia made these proposals at a meeting of the recent UN Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS) in Vienna. COPUOS was set up by the UN General Assembly in 1959 to govern the exploration and use of space for the benefit of all humanity: for peace, security and development.



Russia also said it will make public the database of satellites it's tracking. This database will also include information about military satellites used by the U.S. and its allies.



Russia claims its telescopes and tracking systems can detect 40 percent more space objects than those in databases made public by the Americans. This means the Americans are hiding many of its military satellites and refusing to acknowledge them.



There are anywhere from 1,000 to 1,400 operational in-orbit satellites. Russia estimates 149 of these sats are U.S. military or are "joint use" satellites that can have either civilian or military applications.



Israel has nine military satellites; the UK, seven; France, eight and Germany, seven. Russia has an estimated 75 military and joint use satellites. China might have some 35 milsats.



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TagsRussia, United States, Satellites, ASAT, UN Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space
(Photo : YouTube Screenshot) China Southern Airlines has reached a deal with the South Australian government to launch a direct flight from Guangzhou to Adelaide thrice a week.

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China Southern Airlines is set to launch a direct flight between the mainland and South Australia's Adelaide, the government announced on Tuesday.



The South Australian government has reached an in-principle agreement with China Southern Airlines to set up direct flights from and to China's Guangzhou thrice a week. The airline will operate an A330 model, with business, premium, and economy classes to be offered.



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The deal is expected to be inked in Guangzhou later this week. China Southern Airlines is expected to begin flying the route as early as December.



"This is incredibly exciting news for South Australia, having three direct flights from the most populous region, the region with the most international connections with the world, one of the great hubs of the world, for not only tourism but also trade is an extraordinary boon for South Australia's economy," Premier Jay Weatherill said.



He added that the recent deal with China Southern Airlines would open more job opportunities beyond the airport with an expected 135 positions to be made available. It will also boost the tourism and hospitality sector, noting that Chinese visitors are Australia's most valuable guests. "They actually spend more and they stay longer than other visitors," Weatherill said.



South Australia has reportedly contributed an unspecified amount to make the deal with China Southern Airlines possible. It refused to divulge the amount, explaining that the government is also in talks with different airlines and "these are things that we do keep commercial in confidence."



China Southern Airlines will be the second airline to launch a direct international flight out of Adelaide this year after Qatar Airways launched direct flights to Doha, Qatar, in May.



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TagsChina Southern Airlines, Adelaide, south australia, Premier Jay Weatherill, flights, Airlines
(Photo : Getty Images) Joe Hinrich, President, the Americas at Ford Motor Company, introduces the new Ford F150 Raptor at the North American International Auto Show (NAIAS) in Detroit, Michigan.

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China is allowing pickup trucks to travel in select urban areas for the first time, according to Bloomberg.



In February, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and two other agencies relaxed or lifted the pickup bans in four provinces including Liaoning, Henan, Hebei and Yunnan. The amendments began on May 1 and would take effect in the aforementioned provinces by October 1.



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"The four provinces were selected out of a balance of interests," Zhang Zhiyong, an independent auto analyst in Beijing, said. "Pollution isn't the main concern for the MIIT and local governments when they make policy decisions. What they want is to help the auto industry prosper when the market is relatively gloomy."



Meanwhile, pickup owner like Wei Chenglin from Dalian, where some areas restrict him from using his Ford F-150, was happy to hear about the relaxed policy. "We applauded the good news in our WeChat group of pickup fans. Quite a few of them have reached out to importers to place orders in the past couple of months. Pickups have great potential in China."



Pickup trucks remain an untapped segment of China's auto market. For decades, they were banned from being used in urban cities as China is facing terrible traffic congestion and smog.



In June, the sales of trucks increased by 36 percent from a year earlier. However, according to the China Passenger Car Association, the figure is still small compared with the United States. With only nearly 329,000 pickup units sold in China in 2015, these trucks made up just 1.3 percent of the country's more than 24 million vehicle deliveries.



In April, Ford announced it would be importing its F-150 Raptor to China in 2017, hoping to "inspire a new generation of off-road enthusiasts."



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Tagspickup, pickup trucks, pickup ban, china
(Photo : USAF) The Block 10 Pathfinder SBSS satellite

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The U.S. Air Force has confirmed the first of four satellites of its Space Based Space Surveillance (SBSS) system that will better defend the U.S. military's most important in-orbit satellites will launch in 2021.



The SBSS/Block 20 constellation will include four satellites. It will replace the current SBSS satellite, the Block 10 Pathfinder (a single satellite) equipped with a Space-Based Visible (SBV) sensor. Pathfinder was launched in 2010 into a sun-synchronous, low Earth orbit.



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Pathfinder's role is to improve the ability of the Air Force to detect deep space objects by 80% over the Advanced Concept Technology Demonstration of the Mid-Course Space Experiment/Space-Based Visible (MSX/SBV) sensor system.



On the other hand, the Block 20 constellation will provide timely and much improved space situation awareness to meet future space control operations. It will detect and track space objects such as satellites and orbital debris, generating data the Department of Defense will use in support of military operations.



SBSS/Block 20 will conduct timely detection and tracking of all space resident objects in orbit around the Earth. This task includes collecting, processing and communicating satellite metric and Space Object Identification data.



SBSS/Block 20 will monitor the geosynchronous orbital belt located 36,000 kilometers above the Equator that is home to the Air Force's most important satellites. The Pentagon has placed a high priority on the SBSS program since it views with increasing concern the growing anti-satellite (ASAT) capabilities of China and Russia in GEO orbit.



For this year, the U.S. Congress appropriated some $27 million for projects related to space situational awareness systems, of which nearly the entire was set aside for SBSS/Block 20.



The Pentagon sees SBSS as a significant stepping stone toward future of space superiority and a functional space-based space surveillance constellation.



A team from Boeing and Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corporation was awarded a $189 million contract by the Air Force for SBSS.



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TagsSpace Based Space Surveillance, SBSS, U.S. Air Force, SBSS/Block 20 constellation, Block 10 Pathfinder
(Photo : Getty Images) U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has backed efforts to resume stalled dialogue between China and Philippines over the South China Sea dispute.

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U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Tuesday said that the U.S. supports the resumption of dialogue between China and Philippines to resolve the South China Sea dispute, Reuters reported.



Tensions between the two claimants have exacerbated in recent weeks, following the Permanent Court of Arbitration's ruling against China's claim over the disputed maritime territory.



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Kerry's comment came on the sidelines of an ASEAN foreign ministers meeting in Laos, where he met with China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Monday. During the meeting, Wang asked for the support of the U.S. to restart the stalled peace talk between Beijing and Manila.



"The foreign minister (Wang Yi) said the time has come to move away from public tensions and turn the page," Kerry told a news conference. "And we agree with that ... no claimant should be acting in a way that is provocative, no claimant should take steps that wind up raising tensions."



Commenting on the meeting between Wang and Kerry, the Philippines Foreign Minister Perfecto Yasay said that Manila is equally supportive of resumption of peace talks with China. "We would like to pursue bilateral relationships in so far as the peaceful resolution of the dispute is concerned that is between the China and the Philippines," Yasay told reporters.



According to Reuters, a top official from Philippine Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday that newly elected President Rodrigo Duterte has appointed former President Fidel Ramos to visit China and start informal talks over the maritime dispute.



John Kerry's Visit to the Philippines



John Kerry left for the Philippines late on Tuesday. This is Kerry's first visit to the Philippines since Rodrigo Duterte took office earlier this year. The two leaders are scheduled to meet in Manila on Wednesday.



Speaking about his visit in Laos, Kerry said that he would encourage Philippine President Duterte to engage in dialogue with Beijing.



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TagsJohn Kerry, china, China and Philippines, South China Sea
(Photo : Getty Images) Aerial view of Lujiazui Financial and Trade Zone in Shanghai, China.

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Natural disasters in China have killed at least 1,074 people and left 270 others unaccounted for since the start of the years, an official revealed on Tuesday.



According to Yang Xiaodong, deputy head of the disaster relief department of China's Ministry of Civil Affairs, most of these events are floods, heavy winds, hail, and other geological disasters.



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The Chinese government estimates that these calamities caused economic losses amounting to 298 billion yuan ($44 billion) in the first seven months of this year alone. Furthermore, about 400,000 houses were destroyed, and more than six million people were left homeless and forced to relocate.



Since June, 833 people have reportedly been killed in natural disasters, and 233 others are missing. The is the largest number of casualties from natural disasters in China compared to the same period in 2011. The worst-hit regions include Anhui, Fujian, Guizhou, Hebei, Hubei, Jiangsu, and Jiangxi.



In Hebei, four government officials were suspended for dereliction of duty in coping with the deadly flood that left more than 200 people dead. The officials were suspended from their duties because they were "ineffective in flood prevention and rescue and relief work."



At least 114 people were killed, and 111 are missing in Hebei province on Saturday after torrential rains hit China's northern part this week.



Meanwhile, the government also sacked three Minqing County officials from their duties last week. Minqing County was severely affected by the Typhoon Nepartak, with 73 people dead, 17 missing, and 11 towns and townships without electricity and telecommunication services.



The Ministry of Civil Affairs said that the central government has allocated over 1.67 billion yuan ($250 million) this year to aid victims of natural disasters with emergency relocation, resettlement, reconstruction of damaged houses, and assistance of lost loved ones.



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Tagschina, natural disaster, calamities, Nepartak, torrential rains
Some Spokane, Wash., political leaders want to fine railroad companies $261 per rail car carrying crude oil through the city. They see the oil as a threat to the community and want to use the fines to prompt railroads to find a different route.

The Tribune Editorial Board believes the proposal is an overreaction to railroad accidents that have occurred over the last few years. While community safety always should be a priority, fining your way to a safe world doesnt seem feasible.

Usually federal law governs rail transport, but a unique local danger could give Spokane an opening to levy the fines. 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. Rail 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. Two to three trains pass go through the city daily with the possibility of an additional four trains daily should a proposed oil terminal be built in Vancouver, Wash. A threat to the aquifer could qualify as a unique danger.

The proposal needs the approval of the city council and then it would go to a citywide vote in November.

Its understandable that some residents might be concerned by the oil traffic. Some of the accidents that have occurred were terrifying. However, numerous steps have been taken to improve rail safety. Oil isnt the only hazardous product being shipped across the U.S. Does Spokane plan to limit the fines to oil or expand the system to cover other products? In the past, cities wanted railroads and built around them. Now, many dont see them as convenient or safe.

The same holds true of other forms of transportation. There are critics of pipelines and trucking who fear damage to the environment and the highways. Unfortunately, accidents happen in all modes of transportation. Its possible for a plane to crash into a city.

Oil trains move through the downtown of Bismarck. If an accident occurred there could be tremendous damage, but that doesnt mean residents have been living in fear. We know safety procedures are in place and the odds of a catastrophe are miniscule.

The BNSF Railway and the North Dakota Petroleum Council both object to the proposal and see it as a threat to commerce.

Breean Beggs, a member of the Spokane City Council, said if residents voted for the proposal they would be sending a message to the nation. Whether that message would be Spokane wants to safeguard itself or Spokane doesnt like oil, remains to be seen.

The proposal is an extreme measure that would raise economic and legal questions.

The Spokane City Council should drop the idea of fining railroad companies for carrying crude oil and work with them to improve safety concerns.
(Photo : Getty Images) Wang Jianmin and Guo Zhongxiao published magazines that reported on political gossip in China.

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Two senior Hong Kong journalists have been jailed in China on charges of running an "illegal business."



The two journalists, publisher Wang Jianmin and editor Guo Zhongxiao, worked for political magazines New-Way and Multiple Face, which published rumors and gossip stories on Chinese leaders, according to the Straits Times.



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Even though they published the magazines in Hong Kong, they were found guilty of sending copies to the mainland. Wang, 63, was jailed for five years and three months while Guo, 41, was handed down a jail sentence of two years and three months at the Shenzhen Nanshan district court on Tuesday.



Both journalists were arrested in Shenzhen in May 2014 and pleaded guilty in November 2015. The pair will not file an appeal against the court's decision.



The move is being seen as another attempt by Chinese authorities to restrict the influence of Hong Kong media in the mainland and will once again raise tensions between both countries after China's recent crackdown on HK booksellers.



Last year, five Hong Kong booksellers who published gossipy news about top Chinese authorities went missing, only to found in detention in China. One of the booksellers, Lam Wing-Kee, managed to return to Hong Kong and revealed explosive details about his time in captivity.



"The jail terms were very heavy. The publications were in fact printed in Hong Kong by registered companies here," Hong Kong Journalists Association chairwoman Sham Yee-lan told the South China Morning Post about the sentencing "It appears that the Chinese government has intensified its crackdown on such publications."



Human Rights organizations have also urged the Hong Kong government to take decisive action and help its citizens.



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TagsHong Kong journalists, Hong Kong, china, jail, Hong Kong journalists jailed, Hong Kong booksellers, Wang Jianmin, Guo Zhongxiao
(Photo : (Photo by Lintao Zhang/Getty Images) China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi has criticized the US, Japan, and Australia for "fanning the flames" of tensions in the South China Sea region.

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China's Foreign Minister, Wang Yi, on Wednesday chastised Australia, Japan, and the US for making the situation worse in the South China Sea region after the three nations released a joint statement on the recent ruling of the Hague-based arbitral court.



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Wang criticized the three nations for "fanning the flames" of regional tensions. He said the joint statement issued by the three nations had come at a wrong time and was destructive.



"This trilateral statement is fanning the flames," he said.



"Now is the time to test whether you are peacekeepers or troublemakers," Wang added.



Halt constructions



The three countries, in their joint statement, urged Beijing to halt its construction and land reclamation projects in the disputed waters. The joint statement is seen as a major show of support for rival claimants to the contested maritime territory.



The three allies issued the joint statement on Monday following the failure of the ten-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to tackle the issue in its closing statement on Sunday. ASEAN foreign ministers failed to mention the South China Sea dispute in their closing statement due to divisions among ASEAN foreign ministers.



The foreign ministers of Japan, Australia, and the US issued their joint statement on the sidelines of a series of the ASEAN meeting in Laos.



PCA ruling



On July 12, the Hague-based Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) ruled that there is no legal basis for China's claims of "historic rights" of ownership over a large portion of the South China Sea.



The ruling slammed Beijing's nine-dash line concept, on which China's territorial claims to the islands and reefs in the disputed sea is based.



According to the PCA, Beijing violated the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and the rights of the Philippines to explore its exclusive economic zone by constructing facilities on the Mischief Reef.



Special envoy



Beijing has said it does not recognize the court's jurisdiction and boycotted the entire court proceedings.



China dismissed the PCA's ruling as "illegal" and "null and void," insisting that it would only hold bilateral talks with rival claimants to resolve the South China Sea dispute.



On Monday, China welcomed Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte's announcement that Manila will send ex-President Fidel Ramos as a special envoy to negotiate with China to peacefully resolve the South China Sea dispute.



Ramos, 88, has accepted the appointment. He said he has been cleared by his doctors although he admitted that he is still undergoing treatment for his heart condition.



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Tagsforeign minister Wang Yi, trilateral statement, South China Sea, PCA ruling, ASEAN, special envoy, china
(Photo : Getty Images) Xiaomi has released several new products, including the Mi Capsule Earphones, Mi In-Ear Headphones Pro Gold model and the 10,000 mAh Power Bank.

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Xiaomi celebrated its second anniversary in India last week. The company offered a three-day sale to its customers with crazy discounts and flash deals.



While the promotion is now over, the company introduced several new products during the sale that are still available now. These products include the Mi Capsule Earphones, Mi In-Ear Headphones Pro Gold model, and the 10,000 mAh Power Bank.



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The Mi Power Bank comes in business card-size, wrapped in a premium-looking aluminum case with 10,000 mAh LG/Panasonic battery cells, LED indicator lights, micro USB input and output ports, and a power button. It weighs 207 grams and takes about 5.5 hours to fully charge with the use of a 5V/2A plug. It can fully charge a device with a 3,000 mAh battery twice. The Mi Power Bank can be purchased on the Mi website for Rs. 1,299 ($19).



The Mi Capsule Earphones, on the other hand, comes with a call connect and disconnect key, volume control buttons and a mic. The black and white color variants of the earphones are both priced at Rs 999 ($15), while the Mi In-Ear Headphones Pro Gold variation costs Rs. 1,799 ($27).



On a side note, a new report claims that Xiaomi will ship only 300,000 Mi Notebook in 2016. According to the report, the Chinese company postponed its laptop launch by a couple of quarters, so it had to lower shipment estimates for this year. The Xiaomi Mi Notebook is expected to come in 12.5-inch and 13-inch models and both models. The company is expected to start shipping the device at the end of this month.



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TagsXiaomi, Mi Capsule Earphones, Mi In-Ear Headphones Pro Gold, Xiaomi power bank, Mi Notebook
(Photo : Getty Images) Express courier inventory in the flooded of South Lake Community in Wuhan, Hubei Province of China.

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China's e-commerce solutions provider 4PX is set to create more than 400 jobs in Dunstable, after real estate firm Prologis on Tuesday announced a 240,000 square feet lease agreement at Prologis Park.



4PX, which teams up with giant online selling platforms such as Alibaba, Amazon, and eBay, is expanding its operations across the United Kingdom. The new distribution warehouse will serve as the import, storage, and distribution center for its UK and European operations.



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"With the growth of e-commerce in the UK there is an increasing demand for our one-stop e-commerce service, and we are delighted to have secured this new building," Henry Qi, 4PX's Regional General Manager for Europe, said. "Dunstable has a skilled logistics workforce and Prologis has provided a distribution center that is exactly the right size and specification of our business."



Operations at 4PX's new distribution center will begin in time for the December holiday. Furthermore, 4PX expects the new facility to create up to 400 jobs in the town by early next year.



Meanwhile, Andrew Griffiths, Prologis UK's managing director, said that the company has a strong relationship with 4PX and its shareholders in the Far East.



"We believe that Dunstable is a strong location for the logistics sector, and we have invested in the town because it offers some of the best opportunities for our customers in the South East market," Griffiths said.



Meanwhile, Jason Longhurst, director of regeneration and business at Central Bedfordshire Council, said: "4PX's investment will bring hundreds of new employment opportunities to the area, further demonstrating Central Bedfordshire's strength as a great place to invest."



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Tags4PX, china, Dunstable, distribution warehouse
(Photo : Getty Images.) The Philippines has dismissed the perception that the failure of ASEAN foreign ministers to include the South China Sea verdict in a joint statement is a victory for China.

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The Philippines said on Tuesday that the failure of foreign ministers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to include the Permanent Court of Arbitration's (PCA) verdict on the South China Sea dispute in their joint statement following a recent meeting in Laos, must not be seen as a victory for China, Reuters reported.



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ASEAN foreign ministers on Monday unilaterally agreed that the joint statement of the 49th ASEAN Foreign Ministers' Meeting would not make any direct reference to the South China Sea verdict. A deadlock over the statement was broken only after the Philippines dropped its demand that the international arbitration court's verdict and China's need to respect it is categorically mentioned in the statement.



"I am just saying this to dispel the reports that have been said that China came out victorious in the ASEAN meeting because we precisely agreed to not mention the arbitral award," the Philippines Foreign Minister Perfecto Yasay told reporters in Manila. "But that (was) not the object of our meeting in ASEAN. The arbitral award is a matter between China and the Philippines."



Yasay insisted that the joint communique must be seen as a victory for China. Instead, he said that South East Asian countries showed their commitment to remain united to ensure peace in the region.



The Philippines' demand to include the PCA ruling in the ASEAN joint statement was backed by Vietnam and other claimants within the 10=member ASEAN group. The demand was strongly backed by the U.S. as well.



However, Beijing's main ally Cambodia came to China's rescue, as it strongly protested the demand. Cambodia's protest led to a deadlock on the joint statement on Sunday. The deadlock was broken on Monday after hours of negotiation.



The joint statement issued on Monday was devoid of any mention of the South China Sea Verdict. However, without naming China, the statement specifically said that it is concerned about land reclamations and escalation of activities in the disputed maritime territory.



Many experts were quick to describe Monday's statement as a major diplomatic victory for China. China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi later publicly thanked Cambodia for its support.



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Tagschina philippines dispute, south china sea verdict, ASEAN, china, China and Philippines
(Photo : US Navy) Illegal Chinese military installation on Johnson Reef.

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The recent meeting between the two top admirals in the U.S. Navy and the People's Liberation Army Navy has failed to defuse tensions over the South China Sea worsened by China's refusal to abide by an international court ruling that labeled as illegal its claim to own the South China Sea.



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Admiral John Richardson, U.S. Navy Chief of Naval Operations, came away from his five-day visit to China telling media the Obama administration made it "absolutely clear" to China the U.S. will continue engaging in flights and naval activities in the disputed waters despite China's objections.



Adm. Richardson also warned China it would view with concern any attempt by China to declare an air identification zone (ADIZ) over the South China Sea, or any Chinese attempt to build artificial islands in the Scarborough Shoal, which is owned by the Philippines but which was seized by China in 2012.



He also said Washington will stand by its allies in the region -- the Philippines and Japan -- to whom it is bound by mutual defense treaties.



Adm. Richardson said he "made it absolutely clear" to the Chinese that Washington will look after its "interests in the area and commitments to allies."



His stern warnings came after his PLAN counterpart, Admiral Wu Shengli, said China will "never stop" work on building more man-made islands in the South China Sea.



Chinese intransigence has led Washington to state it will continue the Navy's freedom of navigation operations in the South China Sea.



China has ignored the historic July 12 ruling by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague that handed a major victory to the Philippines by explicitly rejecting China's claims to own most of the South China Sea. The court said China's territorial claims in the South China Sea have no legal basis under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) that China ratified in 2006.



China has said it would exit from UNCLOS but has not had the nerve to do so since this action will make it an outlaw state flouting the rules-based international order that is the norm among nations.



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TagsAdmiral John Richardson, U.S. Navy Chief of Naval Operations, South China Sea, Philippines, Japan, Admiral Wu Shengli
(Photo : YouTube Screenshot) Typhoon Mirinae made landfall in China on Tuesday night.

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Typhoon Mirinae made landfall on Tuesday in south China's Hainan Province as the National Meteorological Center issued a blue alert, according to Xinhua News Agency.



Typhoon Mirinae, which evolved from a depression in the East Vietnam Sea on Monday, landed in Dongao Town, Wanning City at 10:20 p.m. on Tuesday. It was packing winds of up to 100.8 km per hour, according to the Hainan provincial meteorological observatory. This is the third storm to hit the country this year.



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Before Typhoon Mirinae made landfall, local authorities started to prepare for the upcoming storm. Over 25,000 fishing vessels returned to harbor in Hainan. Train services between Hainan and Guangdong were also stopped on Tuesday because of the train ferry service suspension. All passenger ships across Qiongzhou Strait, between Hainan and Guangdong, were also asked to suspend their scheduled trips as of Tuesday noon to ensure everyone's safety.



China Daily reported that the typhoon is expected to bring torrential rains and strong gales to Hainan, the Leizhou Peninsula, Guangdong Province, and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, with more than 20 flights at Meilan Airport in Haikou expected to be affected.



After crossing China's Hainan Island, Mirinae is expected to impact seawater and land in the northern part of Vietnam on Wednesday night. Mirinae with packing winds between 60 and 90 kph. It is expected to lash northern provinces and cities and bring heavy rainfalls as high as 400 millimeters, making flash floods and landslides eminent in mountainous regions.



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(Photo : Getty Images) Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical is set to acquire a controlling stake in India's Gland Pharma.

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Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical (Group) will sign an agreement on Wednesday to acquire a controlling stake in Indian pharmaceutical company Gland Pharma, Economic Times reported, citing inside sources.



Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical, owned by Chinese billionaire Guo Guangchang, will be paying $1.4 billion for the entire transaction. The deal marks the first major FDI from a Chinese pharmaceutical company into India's Pharma sector.



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"We will be signing the deal later today at Hong Kong and an official announcement will be made to the Chinese exchanges later," said a source familiar with the matter.



According to reports, Shanghai Fosun will acquire 96 percent of Gland Pharma, which includes shares held by the company's founder Ravi Penmetsa and his family as well as India's private equity giant, KKR & Co LP. However, Shanghai Fosun and Gland Pharma are yet to release an official statement about the deal.



If the deal is signed, it will be subject to regulatory approvals from Indian authorities. Since the deal involves a Chinese company, Indian regulators are expected scrutinize the deal far more strictly.



The deal comes in the wake of recent strain in the diplomatic ties between India and China. However, sources claim that Gland Pharma's promoters and KKR officials are confident about getting regulatory approval.



In June, Indian media reported that Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical (Group) has emerged as the frontrunner to acquire Gland Pharma after US giant Baxter and private equity company Advent backed out from the race.



Shanghai Fosun reported a revenue of revenue of $1.9 billion in 2015, while its market valuation stood at roughly $8.3 billion as of 31 December 2015. The company has been aggressive on the acquisition front to fuel its growth, making 17 deals worth $1.6 billion since 2010.



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Iran is experiencing a Christian revival despite the Christian persecution that exists there, reports ChristianToday.com.

Gathering together to worship the Lord is prohibited in Iran, but that isnt stopping God from working. Many believers are connecting with a Christian community online.

The main church is my house, and through the Internet I connect to everybody," said one believer named Reza. "That's why it's become like an Internet church."

Through the internet, believers connect to churches in the United States, Canada, Germany, and Malaysia via Skype.

Reza said that many of the Christian converts came to Christ after they had a vision or dream. He shared that he himself had a dream of Jesus calling him, saying Come to me.

"And in all of my life, He was helping me and I didn't know who was this person, Reza said. Suddenly Jesus Christ was over there and He said, 'Come to me.' And I came to that side and He accepted me.

In 1994, there were about 100,000 believers in Iran. Currently, the number of Christians in the country has risen to about three million, despite the fact that persecution against Christians has also increased, and Iran is ranked ninth on Open Doors World Watch List for Christian persecution.

Many of the Christian converts are leaving Iran for Turkey where persecution is less severe. In Turkey they hope to gain refugee status and eventually emigrate to other countries.

Reza urged Christians around the world to pray for believers in Iran:

"And I'm just begging, really, from the other believers, from other sisters and brothers from all over the world, to pray for Iran and to all the people of Iran to find new God and be familiar with God, with Jesus Christ," he said.

Publication date: July 27, 2016
The 26 July killing of a Catholic priest in his church in St. Etienne du Rouvray, France, once again has pushed jihadist violence into the headlines. The so-called Islamic State claimed responsibility for the murder, committed by two knife-wielding attackers who were shot and killed by police.

What pushed the story onto Europes front pages was its location  France, which, since the January 2015 mass shooting at the Charlie Hebdo magazine office in Paris, has suffered nearly 240 deaths in more than 10 attacks by people claiming allegiance to IS. Though Christians, of course, are among the victims of those attacks, the 26 July murder of Rev. Jacques Hamel as he celebrated mass was the first to target Christians specifically, in a church.

This tragic attack, so close to home and following other recent horrors, is another example of the persecution we see all too often in countries around the world, said a statement released 26 July by Open Doors UK, the British arm of Open Doors, a global ministry that supports Christians who live under pressure because of their faith.

Open Doors International - in its World Watch List 2016 - documented reports of more than 7,000 Christians killed and more than 2,400 churches attacked globally in a single year alone  the 12-month period ending 31 October 2015. Here are examples of just a few of the times and places - in Africa alone - where Christians have been specifically targeted.

NIGERIA

Recent weeks and months have seen an upsurge of attacks targeting Christians and Church leaders in Africas most populous country.

 18 July, suspected Fulani herders attacked and killed the traditional ruler of the Ron/Kulere tribe (in the Bokkos Local Government Area) in Nigerias central Plateau State. Sir Lazarus Agai, a Christian, was attacked on his way home from his farm. He is the third Christian district-head killed by Fulani herders this year.

 9 July, a female preacher was hacked to death near Nigerias capital, Abuja. Eunice Elisha, 42, and a mother of seven, had gone out to preach as was usual, but her lifeless body was later found by the police.

 30 June in the town of Obi, in the central state of Nasarawa: father of seven, Rev. Joseph Kurah, was ambushed by two armed men after he arrived at his farm. His severely mutilated body was later recovered from the scene. Ethnic Fulani herdsmen are suspected in the killing.

Other killings and acts of violence have been reported.

 8 June in Kaduna state, Francis Emmanuel, a 41-year-old carpenter, was waiting for food when a gang of six Muslim youths stabbed him. It was Ramadan, and he was not fasting.

 2 June, Bridget Agbahime, 74, wife of Mike Agbahime, pastor of Deeper Life Bible Church in Kano, was ambushed by angry mob for allegedly blaspheming against Islams prophet. In June, at least 133 people were killed in recent attacks by ethnic Fulani in Logo and Ukum areas of Benue state in central Nigeria. More than 76 churches were ransacked and burned.

 30 May in Niger state: Methodus Chimaije Emmanuel, 24, was attacked and killed by a mob, after allegedly posting a blasphemous statement about Muhammad on social media. Three other people, including a police officer, lost their lives as a result of violence that followed the killing. A church and a house were burnt down and 25 shops were looted.

Incidents targeting Christians are the result of growing intolerance and radicalism among Nigerian society, said Atta Barkindo, a researcher and doctoral candidate at the London School of Oriental and African Studies. For a very long time, the focus has been on the Islamist Boko Haram insurgency in Nigerias north-east, Bakindo said. But apart from Boko Haram, there are a number of extremist Islamic groups, who recruit from a large pool of uneducated young people migrating toward central Nigeria from the northern cities of Kano and Sokoto, and they operate with little fear of punishment.

KENYA

This East African country has witnessed a growing radical Islam which has resulted in violent attacks against Christians, notably along its border with Somalia where the radical Islamist group Al Shabaab is active.

 1 July, a pastor was among six killed when gunmen attacked two buses in Kenyas north-eastern region of Mandera, near the Somalia border. Pastor John Njaramba Kiruga, was returning home from facilitating a training on pursuing peace between Christian and Muslims in Garissa and Mandera, a volatile region where attacks by Al Shabaab are frequent.

 In March 2015, on the eve of Easter, 149 mainly Christian students were killed when a University in Garissa was attacked by a number of Islamist extremists. The attackers went from room to room, and those who could not affirm the Muslim Shehada were killed; others were spared.

EGYPT

Egypts Christians, more than 10 per cent of the population, have faced serious violence since May 2016, including a priest killed, angry mob attacks in Minya and Alexandria, which destroyed homes and displaced families. Reflecting what most Copts see as the country turning a blind eye to increased violence against its Christian minority, the Coptic Churchs Bishop Makarius tweeted on 17 July "reminding" president Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi that Copts "are Egyptian citizens", and that his diocese of Minya "falls within the countrys jurisdiction".

 17 July, an assault at Egypt priests home kills 1 and injures 3, said a statement by the Diocese of Minya, 240km south of Cairo. "The family of two priests of Minya were subject to assault involving clubs and knives," said the statement about the attack, which took place on Sunday evening (17 July) in the village of Tahna el-Gabal. A 27-year-old man was killed in the assault "due to a stab to the heart", while two more were seriously injured: the priests father and a brother of the second priest.

 30 June, a Coptic Orthodox priest was shot dead in Egypts Sinai Peninsula by Islamist militants. Fr. Raphael Moussa, 46, was shot four times in the head from a passing taxi as he stood next to his car in Arish, the capital of northern Sinai. The priest was returning home from leading mass at the Mar Girguis (St. George) Church. Moussa is the second priest in Arish to have been assassinated by the jihadists. Fr. Mina Aboud Sharubim was shot dead in July 2013, just three days after Islamist President Mohamed Morsi was toppled by the Egyptian military.

NIGER

In the aftermath of the Charlie Hebdo attacks in Paris, the churches in the predominantly-Muslim West African nation of Niger experienced the worst attacks in their history. On the weekend of 16-17 January 2015, hundreds of angry Islamists attacked and ransacked dozens of properties and churches, shouting Allahu Akbar (Allah is the greatest).

Ten people lost their lives during that weekend; more than 70 churches were destroyed, as well as numerous Christian schools and organisations, including two orphanages. At least 30 Christian homes were also looted and burnt down.

The motive of the violence was said to be anger at the presence of Niger President in Paris in what was perceived to be support for an anti-religious magazine. The memorial issue of Charlie Hebdo, showing the Prophet Mohammad weeping, reinforced this anger and triggered the protests, which quickly turned into anti-Christian violence.

The violence was the expression of a growing intolerance in Niger society, aggravated by the rise of Islamism, noted analysts.

DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO

While attention has been focused on Nigerias radical Islamist group Boko Haram, a relatively unknown militant group has intensified attacks in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), raising fears of the emergence of a new jihadist organisation in central Africa.

A group of militants originally rooted in a rebel movement to overthrow Ugandas government and replace it with an Islamist fundamentalist state, but forced to re-locate over the border into DRC, has been carrying out murders of local people, far from the attention of most of the worlds major media. Attacks including murder, looting, abduction and rape are carried out on an almost weekly basis.

 16 October, 2014, one attack decimated an entire community, including Pastor Kanyamanda Jean Kambale, his wife Odette and two of their children.

 19 October, 2012, three Catholic Assumptionist priests, P. Jean-Pierre Ndulani, Edmond Kisughu and Anselm Wasukundi, were kidnapped from their home in the town of Mbau, in Beni. Local journalists reported that they were taken by an armed militia. According to local newspaper Les Coulisses, and Radio Kivu 1, they were killed a year later because they refused to convert to Islam, but there is no proof of this, and their whereabouts remains unknown.

SUDAN

Christians in Sudan live beneath a blanket of fear since South Sudan seceded on July 9, 2011. After the South voted for independence from the predominantly Islamic North, pressures on churches and Christians have increased, with Muslim groups threatening to destroy churches, kill Christians and purge the country of Christianity.

As a result there has been a marked increase in harassment of ethnic Christian groups and individuals. Authorities have shut down Christian educational institutes and harassed and arrested employees and church members.

Five months since his initial detention, Sudans intelligence agency has re-arrested a local pastor. Rev. Kuwa Shamal joins at least two more Christian leaders in prison, awaiting charges that could carry the death penalty. He was re-arrested on May 24 by members of the National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) in Khartoum, reported Christian advocacy group Middle East Concern (MEC). Together with fellow Sudan Church of Christ (SCC) pastor Hassan Abduraheem Taour and a Christian convert from Darfur identified as Abdulmonem Abdumawla Issa Abdumawla, the newly jailed pastor is expected to face serious charges including espionage and undermining state security.

Rev. Shamal, who is the SCC head of missions, was first detained for three days on 18 Dec. He later had to report daily to the NISS for several hours and for no obvious reason  a routine lifted in mid-January but re-imposed a month later.

Both Shamal and Taour are from the Nuba people group, native to the border region with the now independent South Sudan - and among the groups resisting ethnic and religious rule from Khartoums Arab Islamist regime.

CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC

Beset by a three-year crisis from December 2012, when a coalition of Muslim-dominated rebel groups, called Seleka moved through the country to eventually take power in March 2013. Christians paid a heavy price in that conflict, with dozens of clerics killed and an undetermined number of properties, including churches, defaced and ransacked  mostly by Seleka rebels.

The violence targeting Christians led church leaders to denounce a rebellion characterised by religious extremism, by evil intentions for the programmed and planned desecration and destruction of Christian buildings, and in particular Catholic and Protestant churches.

As Selekas influence waned, following the resignation of their leader, and the rebels retreated to the north, local Muslims, perceived as accomplices of Seleka, faced attacks by self-defence militias known as anti-Balaka (anti-machete). The confrontation between Seleka and Anti-Balaka created a cycle of reprisals.

 September 2015: one of the top three religious leaders, who won global recognition for his efforts to end the conflict, escaped an assassination attempt. The President of CARs Evangelical Alliance, Rev. Nicolas Guerekoyame-Gbangou, was targeted in an attack apparently triggered by the death of a young Muslim motorbike taxi driver. On 26 September, angry Muslim youths armed with automatic weapons and machetes, entered the Elim Church compound, where his house was, asking for him. But they learned that he had already left the house. The assailants killed two people before leaving.

 January 2015: Two aid workers (including a cleric) kidnapped at gunpoint on Jan. 19. Claudia Priest and Rev. Gustave were released on Jan 23.

 October 2014: a Polish priest was abducted by members of a rebel group called the Democratic Front of the Central African People, in the extreme west of the country, near the Cameroon border. Rev. Mateusz Dziedzic, of the diocese of Tarnow, in Baboua, was released weeks later.

 September 2014: two pastors were among 100s killed by rebels. Pastors Thomas Ouanam, 60, and Pierre Bapteme, 46, were killed in two separate attacks nearly a week apart, attributed to Seleka rebels.

 February 2014: Pastor and son killed. Rev. Pierre-Severin Kongbo, 52, his son Dieubeni were killed on Jan. 28 by former members of the disbanded Seleka group in the Begoua church compound in northern Bangui, the capital.

 December 2013: three pastors were among those killed in Bangui, the capital. Raymond Doui, 46, Elisha Zama, 33, and Jean-Louis Makamba, 48, were killed on Dec. 5 as members of the disbanded Seleka rebel forces went on a rampage following an offensive by Christian-dominated anti-Balaka militias.

Courtesy: World Watch Monitor

Publication date: July 27, 2016
The California State Board of Education unanimously approved the implementation of a law that will require the states public schools to include LGBT history in their curriculums for social science and history classes.

On July 14, a new History-Social Science Framework for California Public Schools was adopted by the board which will include lessons covering key historical figures of the LGBT movement, different family structures, gender roles, as well as the 2015 Supreme Court ruling that legalized same-sex marriage across all 50 states. Inclusion of these topics will start as early as second grade and will take effect immediately.

Peter Tira, an information officer for the state's Department of Education, says that the goal is to have the updated curriculum in place by the 2016-2017 school year and updated textbooks by 2017, CNSNews reports.

Randy Thomasson, president of SaveCalifornia.com, helped lead opposition to the bill and has spoken out against its passage.

"SB 48 has no parental opt-out. The only way parents can opt-out their kids from this immoral indoctrination is to opt them out the entire public school system, which is no longer for morally-sensitive parents and their children, Thomasson said in a statement.

"This is a priority when fewer than 3 out of 10 kids in California public schools are taught to read proficiently? he asked.

In 2011, Gov. Jerry Brown signed the Fair, Accurate, Inclusive and Respectful (FAIR) Education Act, which mandated the inclusion of LGBT history in the context of the history of California and the United States. Though the bill took effect in January 2012, the implementation of the bill was stalled by opposition and failed attempts to repeal the law, along with budget cuts.

The law also includes an update to Californias current education code to also cover ...a study of the role and contributions of both men and women, Native Americans, African Americans, Mexican Americans, Asian Americans, Pacific Islanders, European Americans, persons with disabilities and members of other ethnic and cultural groups, to the economic, political, and social development of California and the United States of America.
Contact: J.P. Duffy or Alice Chao, Family Research Council, 866-372-6397



WASHINGTON, July 27, 2016 /Christian Newswire/ -- The last charge against pro-life activist journalists David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt in Harris County, Texas was dismissed yesterday by Judge Brock Thomas. The felony charge was for allegedly using fake drivers' licenses to conceal their identities during their undercover investigation of Planned Parenthood.

Family Research Council president Tony Perkins released the following statement:

"Justice in Texas has again prevailed. I am thankful that Judge Brock Thomas, like his colleague Judge Diane Bull, was able to see through the baseless, politically-motivated charges against David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt. We celebrate today that these felony charges have been dismissed and that the Left's desperate attempts at legal sabotage against Daleiden for uncovering Planned Parenthood's fetal tissue harvesting have not succeeded.

"I again urge California Attorney General Kamala Harris to follow the lead of Judges Thomas and Bull and return Daleiden's undercover footage exposing the sale of baby body parts, which was illegally seized by California authorities in violation of Daleiden's constitutional rights. Attorney General Harris must stop using her office to violate Daleiden's constitutional rights and to hide the truth about the sale of baby body parts in California. She must stop putting the politics of abortion above the interests of mothers and their unborn children. It's time we get back to the real issue at hand: Planned Parenthood and the abortion industry's contempt for the law and their exploitation of women and their babies' body parts," Perkins concluded.
CANAN Decries Killings of Christians in Nigeria

Says 384 Christians Killed, 111 Injured so far in 2016 alone



Contact: Dr. Ade Oyesile, Executive Director, Christian Association of Nigerian-Americans, CANAN, 516-819-4355, Ade.oyesile@cananusa.org, cananusa@gmail.com

NEW YORK, July 27, 2016 /Christian Newswire/ -- Members of Christian Association of Nigerian-Americans (CANAN) strongly condemn the horrible killings of Nigerian Christians by Muslims across the country.

Speaking through the Executive Director, Dr. Ade' Oyesile, said, "we are saddened by the rapid occurrences of these atrocious killings without a corresponding accountability being meted to the growing list of perpetrators." CANAN now calls on the federal government to go beyond mere expression of shock at the vicious killings and set in motion practical steps to stem this ugly spectacle of continuous massacre of Christians.

As at July 20, 2016, our records show that at least 384 Christians have been killed and 111 injured in various parts of the country. With just weeks past midyear, this figure compares in a scaring proportion to a total of 431 deaths and 301 injured Christians in the entire 2015.

These killings, we noticed, are carried out either by tit-for-tat attacks, arson on properties especially churches or the targeted systemic killings of Christians perpetuated by the Boko Haram terrorist religious sectarian group.

Our figures of Christians killed and maimed by Muslims corroborates with documentation by "The Religion of Peace," a magazine that chronicles attack on Christians. The magazine gives even more details of the vicious killings in 2016 alone as follows:

On January 27, at least16 Christians were killed and 32 injured when a suicide bomber sent a shrapnel at a vegetable market in Chibok a Christian town in Maiduguri.

On January 29, in Adamawa, 10 Christians were killed and 28 injured when a suicide bomber detonates a bomb at a busy market near a church. All the victims were Christians.

On February 14 in Abbi community in Uzo-Uwani, Enugu State, Fulani herdsmen killed 2 Christians when a brother and sister were hacked down in a Christian dominated community. 19 people were injured.

On February 24 in Agatu, Benue State, the nation witnessed the merciless killings of at least 300 Christians by radical Islamic mercenaries including pregnant women.

In Enugu on April 25, 48 Christians were killed and 60 injured also perpetuated by Fulani herdsmen.

On April 30 in Dadawa, an outskirt of Sabongari in Kano State, a man and his daughter were burnt alive in a church by Boo Haram.

At Ninte village, in Jemaa local government in Kaduna State on May 31, just a month after, 3 Christians were burnt to death in a Pastors' home as they slept.

In Kano on June 2, a Christian woman was beheaded by Islamic fundamentalist after a minor argument.

On June 30 at Obi town in Nasarawa State, a Pastor was killed by a militant Muslim.

The July 9 incident were a female Pastor was hacked to death in the FCT by Muslim radicals traumatized every right thinking individual.

This dastardly killings of Christians in the country MUST stop. It is most disappointing that these unprovoked killings of Christians have continued despite the federal government condemnation statements.

There is palpable anger in the land and it is anger without answers from the federal government has a direct responsibility to secure the lives of all citizens.

This is more so as we Christians do not preach gospel of retaliation, we preach peace and peace we are seeking now.

Whatever the federal government is doing, if any, is either too slow or insignificant compared with the reoccurrence of the killings; the federal government needs to step up and take bold actions to give members of the Christian community in the country a sense of security and belonging.

We MUST all work hard to avoid these sectarian killings which in our very eyes have made countries embroiled in it to become failed nations. That should not be our portion in Jesus Christ name.

Dr. Ade Oyesile

Executive Director

Christian Association of Nigerian-Americans, CANAN

Ade.oyesile@cananusa.org, cananusa@gmail.com
home World Muslim Imam converts to Christianity in Uganda; Resulting persecution sees him lose family, home and business

A former imam in eastern Uganda lost his family, home and business after his family and relatives found out he had become a Christian.

The 53-year-old Kuluseni Iguru Tenywa of Budhagali village, Jinja District said he escaped through a back door of his home after hearing the plans of his 45-year-old brother-in-law, Isa Nsaja, and relatives who gathered outside his house on the night of June 27.

"I heard people talking outside my house around 8 p.m., saying that they wanted to take away my life and said, 'We cannot watch the whole family turning to Christianity,'" he told Morning Star News.

The father of four children, ages ranging from 10 to 17, said his conversion to Christianity enraged his relatives and even his wife, Fatiyah, who started referring to him as an infidel and refused to give him food. He said his relatives also tried to prevent him from running his business and ruined his red pepper plantation on June 6.

Even after losing everything he once had, Tenywa said his family still attempted to hex him.

"The family even tried to bewitch me," said Tenywa. "But God protected me."

Tenywa, who attends Elim Church Budhagali, said Jesus rebuked an evil spirit that had been tormenting him for years.

"I was prayed for in the power of Isa [Jesus] and invited him into my heart, which broke the strength of the evil spirit that was troubling me," he shared. "I remember my vision got blurred and I felt faint. The pastor authoritatively, using some commanding words in Isa's name, finally delivered me."

According to the former imam, standing for what Jesus did for him gave him strength to resist his family and relatives who tried to talk him into turning back to Islam.

The eastern African country witnessed increasing incidences of Christian persecutions at the hands of Muslim hardliners.

A Muslim mob murdered a Christian woman in Naigobya village of Luuka District last month after refusing to allot her property for the building of a Muslim mosque. The Muslim in-laws of a Christian woman in Busandha village also in Luuka District poisoned to death her infant daughter for eating in the daytime of Ramadan.
WATFORD CITY  A four-lane highway heading south of Watford City is critical for improving safety and promoting economic development for the region, several said during a public meeting Tuesday.

But others urged planners of a four-lane U.S. Highway 85 to do more to minimize impacts to the Badlands and Theodore Roosevelt National Park.

The North Dakota Department of Transportation held a meeting in Watford City Tuesday to get feedback on proposed options for expanding Highway 85 between Watford City and Belfield.

Several at the meeting recalled recent vehicle fatalities and countless close calls on that stretch of Highway 85, which accommodates agriculture and oil traffic with few passing lanes.

I always told people, Whatever you do, dont pass, said Curt Glasoe of Dickinson, who drove that area frequently until he retired from the U.S. Forest Service.

Others emphasized the economic benefits of having a four-lane highway, including the impact to agriculture.

Slow-moving ag equipment is very dangerous and that industry needs to be protected here as well, said Gene Veeder, a rancher and McKenzie County economic development director.

The 62-mile expansion would include special design considerations in a 7-mile stretch through the Badlands, including a median as narrow as four feet wide instead of the standard 20-foot width. Wildlife crossings are also proposed for that area, as well as further south, to minimize impacts to bighorn sheep, pronghorn antelope and other animals.

We need to fit within the context of whats out there, said Troy Ripplinger, project engineer with KLJ.

In addition to crossing the boundary of the North Unit, the expansion would affect roughly 9 miles of public lands managed by the U.S. Forest Service, said Shannon Boehm, district ranger for the Medora District. The expansion comes close to the Maah Daah Hey Trail at some points, Boehm said.

Laura Anhalt of Bismarck encouraged transportation officials to consider the noise impacts of a four-lane highway through the North Unit and suggested that traffic be slowed down before entering the park.

Please respect the park experience so people will just hear the buffalo, the birds and the wind in the cottonwood trees, Anhalt said.

Matt Linneman, project manager with the North Dakota Department of Transportation, said different pavement types or surface treatments that can mitigate tire noise are being considered. In addition, a noise study will be part of an environmental impact assessment, Linneman said.

Tracy Potter of Bismarck questioned whether it will be possible to expand the highway south of the Long X Bridge and suggested keeping some two-lane stretches.

I think its an engineering miracle if youre going to put a four-lane highway there, Potter said. And if youre going to do it, its going to be with extreme environmental damage to that area.

But others at the meeting said switching between four-lane and two-lane sections could create more chances for traffic accidents.

I feel its important to keep the four-lane in there so you dont have the lane shifts, said Vawnita Best, a McKenzie County commissioner. Thats one of the more important safety pieces.

One aspect of the project that seemed to have universal support is a proposed multi-use trail that would connect the North Unit to Watford City for bicyclists, pedestrians and horseback riders.

The project, estimated to cost $830 million to $1 billion, does not have a funding source identified, other than the rehabilitation or replacement of Long X Bridge.

Public comments on the options can be sent to Linneman through Aug. 26 at mlinneman@nd.gov or through the project website, www.nddotwilliston.com/85-project-watford-city-i94.
home World Jailed pastor in China writes: God gave me a 'good place to rest' in prison

Yang Hua, the imprisoned pastor of a persecuted house church in China, revealed in a letter that he found rest in prison and was even brought closer to God.

"God has given me a year of rest after 23 years of hard work," wrote Yang, whose real name is Li Guozhi, in a letter translated to English and published by China Aid on Thursday.

The pastor recalled that he often attended to a lot of things when he was still out and free and that he found being behind bars brought him rest he never afforded himself before. He even likened his situation to the Israelites who worked incessantly for six years and rested on the seventh.

"This is a good place to rest, where I am cut off from the rest of the world and brought closer to God," said Yang in a letter dated June 30 in response to the letter he received from his wife earlier in the day. "I can no longer hear the clamorous noise, but can better listen to the Lord's voice."

The pastor shared that rest doesn't have to be based on one's circumstance but that it could be found just within oneself.

"Genuine rest has nothing to do with the environment. No matter if the waves are quiet or the sea roars, our hearts rest in [God]," continued Yang. "I want to thank God for using this special method to give this special gift to our household."

Authorities arrested Yang and four other members of Huoshi Church, the largest house church in Guiyang in Guizhou province, as they discovered a confidential document revealing a state-run command center created for the sole purpose of persecuting Christian churches in the communist state.

Yang also revealed in a sworn testimony that state prosecutors had threatened to go after his family and tortured to extort him to confess for his alleged crimes. His lawyers Chen Jiangang and Zhao Yonglin filed a lawsuit against the state prosecutors for breaking the law.
home US Mike Huckabee: Hillary Clinton's VP Tim Kaine's faith is 'real'

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee said Sen. Tim Kaine, who was named as Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's running mate, is an "honorable" man with a "real" faith.

Huckabee, who was one of the 2016 presidential hopefuls under the Republican nomination but later on withdrew his candidacy in February, said that from personal knowledge, Kaine appeared to be "an honorable guy."

"By that I mean that when I have been around him, his faith is real," Huckabee told Fox News.

Huckabee also said there was something authentic about Kaine, which is the exact opposite of Clinton.

"There's an authenticity about him," Huckabee continued. "That's good because there's not much authenticity about Hillary. So in many ways, he is the polar opposite of Hillary. He does actually believe what he says. He's not somebody who puts away his faith when it's inconvenient for him."

He recounted several instances when he witnessed Kaine in action, such as after hurricane Katrina and during a Habitat for Humanity house painting event. Huckabee said Kaine was not present in these instances for a simple photo op, giving him the impression that Kaine was a "genuine guy."

However, he criticized Kaine's pro-abortion stance. He said Kaine may hold personal anti-abortion sentiments, but as a public servant, he displays pro-abortion vote.

"Let's be clear, Tim Kaine is definitely a liberal. And even though he says he's personally against abortion, he still always governs with a pro-abortion vote," Huckabee said, adding that he wasn't sure what the whole thing meant.

On Friday, July 22 Clinton announced via Twitter that she has chosen Kaine to be her running mate and urged her supporters to welcome him to the team.

She reportedly called Kaine and Pres. Barack Obama before making the announcement. She also texted the announcement to her supporters.

Kaine was chosen over Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and Sen. Cory Booker, who were strong contenders for the position, according to Christian Today.
home US Mississippi fights for religious freedom bill; Appeal is filed

U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves may have struck down the religious freedom bill minutes before it was to take effect on July 1, but the fight is not yet over.

Drew Snyder, who represents Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant, filed a motion early this month in the U.S. District Court that he would be appealing the judge's decision. The motion also asked that Reeves stay his preliminary injunction, pending appeal, according to The Clarion-Ledger.

The religious freedom law, or House Bill 1523, gives government employees and businesses the right to refuse services, such as those involving same-sex marriage, that would violate their beliefs while ensuring that those who seek the services can obtain them elsewhere.

For example, state clerks can have the freedom to not issue a marriage license to gay couples. This way, they can still practice their convictions without being forced by the law to oppose their deeply held beliefs.

The religious freedom bill was supposed to take effect on July 1, but Reeves blocked the bill through an injunction issued late evening of June 30, just minutes before midnight.

Reeves said the bill favored certain religious beliefs over others, violating the Equal Protection Clause.

"The State has put its thumb on the scale to favor some religious beliefs over others," Reeves wrote. "Showing such favor tells 'nonadherents that they are outsiders, not full members of the political community, and ... adherents that they are insiders, favored members of the political community.'a"

Bryant expressed disappointment over Reeves' decision and said HB 1523 merely gives "religious accommodations granted by many other states and federal law," as reported by The Clarion-Ledger.

Snyder said HB 1523 is constitutional and that the court "erred" by not allowing section 3(1)(a) to be enforced.

"Although we respect this court and its decision, we believe that the court's preliminary-injunction order is unlikely to survive appellate review," Snyder added.

Meanwhile, investigations revealed that the bill was drafted with the help of Alliance Defending Freedom, a nonprofit organization that advocates for people's right to live according to their faith.
home US Mormon church president Thomas S. Monson issues deposition subpoena for sexual abuse lawsuits

Thomas S. Monson, president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, was issued a subpoena for deposition in sexual abuse lawsuits.

The subpoena orders Monson to appear in court on Aug. 4.

It was filed by lawyers of four people a two men and two women a from Navajo Nation, who claimed they had suffered from sexual abuse during a placement program sponsored by the Mormon church that ran in the 1960s and 1970s.

Under the program, called the "Indian Student Placement Program," Navajo youths were put in the care of LDS foster families after being baptized as Mormon. They stayed with their forster families for the school year and returned home in the summer.

According to the lawsuit, the four plaintiffs suffered from sexual abuse while they were in their foster families. Some of them said they reported it to church officials, who allegedly did not take appropriate action.

One of the plaintiffs said the program was part of the church's goal to convert Navajo children to the Mormon faith.

Craig Vernon, an attorney for one of the victims, believed Monson could provide "unique information" that could help the case, thus it it necessary for him to testify in court.

"What President Monson knew or didn't know about this and child sexual abuse within this program in general, is relevant," wrote Vernon, according to Fox 13. "If President Monson claims no knowledge, that too is relevant to what the Church knew or should have known about Lee and his ability to lead this program within the boundaries of the Navajo Nation and protect Indian Placement Program's children from sexual harm."

Vernon was referring to George Lee, former church general authority of LDS who was excommunicated in 1989 on grounds of sexual abuse.

On July 21, lawyers from the LDS church filed a motion to quash the subpoena, saying requiring Monson to testify in court is "improper."

The motion stated that Monson's only connection to the case was that he was a senior church leader when the alleged abuse took place.

"[The attorneys'] subpoena should be seen for what it is a a tactical maneuver calculated to burden the apex leader of the LDS Church in a misguided attempt to create leverage in the litigation," the motion said, as reported by Deseret News.
home World MP Haitham El-Hariri calls for law enforcement on perpetrators of Christian-related violence

Egyptian member of parliament (MP) Haitham El-Hariri took to social media his condemnation on the continued violence against Egyptian Christians.

On July 20, he took to Facebook to say that "reconciliation sessions" are unconstitutional and illegal, which, he said is just "burying heads in the sand."

As reported by The Daily News Egypt newspaper, El-Hariri emphasized on his Facebook post that "The law should be applied on any violators, without arresting innocent people just for the sake of making balanced cases."

Several activists and politicians have expressed that they would like the law put into action especially in cases of sectarian violence against Christians living in Egypt who identify themselves as Coptic Christians.

Mina Thabet, programme director for minorities and vulnerable groups with the Egyptian Commission of Rights and Freedoms, said, according to France24, that violence on Christians has intensified. In July alone, a Christian pharmacist was beheaded; a priest's relative was stabbed; and a kindergarten school was burned after a rumor that it will be turned into a church. No one was prosecuted for these crimes.

"It is escalating in a very short time," Thabet said.

Thabet said that several factors contribute to the issue of violence on Christians. Illiteracy rate is the foremost reason. In the town of Minya, Radical Islamists have stronghold in the governorate, they control schools as well as preach ideology against Christians.

"They are all factors," Thabet said, adding, "You can't separate the economic and social factors from the equation. It's a complicated equation."

In late May, according to Independent, a 70-year-oldy Coptic woman in Minya was beaten in front of 300 Muslim men. Forced to take the consequence in behalf of her son, who had been rumored to be having a relationship with a Muslim woman, the woman nakedly paraded for two hours. When police arrived, the mob has already dispersed.

Earlier this month, as reported by Express, Naim Aziz Moussa was taken into custody when he offered his home in Amreyya, Alexandria to fellow Christians who gathered there for worship. When a Coptic priest visited his residence, a Muslim mob rallied outside his house, threw stones, destroyed vehicles, looted and burned two other neighboring homes.

"They were crying out: 'Islamic! Islamic! We don't want churches in Amreyya!'" said Moussa.

Moussa complained to the police who arrived during the violence, but he said, "The police did nothing to protect the Christians."

Moussa, along with six other Christians, were arrested, and charged with building [a worship center] without permission. They were later released on bail; however, Moussa cannot return to his home unless he reconciles with his opponents.

According to Breitbart, the biggest problem, say activists, is the lack of prosecution. The perpetrators are only given menial consequences like a slap on the wrist, points out Sherif Azer, Egyptian civil rights activist and PhD researcher at the University of York in United Kingdom.

Azer explains that instead of pressing charges, local authorities pressure Christians into "reconciliation" sessions. The opposing parties negotiate a settlement, wherein Christians are bound to surrender their legal rights and sometimes even forced to leave their communities.
home Faith Greg Laurie marks anniversary of son's death, thanks those who've supported his family

Eight years after the death of their son, Pastor Greg Laurie and wife Catherine thanked supporters who've been there for them as they grieved through their loss.

The 63-year-old senior pastor of California-based Harvest Christian Fellowship in Riverside and Harvest Orange County in Irvine, took to Facebook on Sunday, July 24 to mark the eight year anniversary since the death of their son, Christopher.

Laurie shared a message his wife wrote for the people who supported them, describing as much as she could how the people helped them through the tragedy.

"Thank you to the ones who stayed," wrote Catherine. "To you who listened. Who watched me cry awkward tears."

The pastor's wife also thanked those who patiently listened to her and didn't tell her "meaningless things." She thanked those who sat with her in the church, held her hand, walked with her and didn't leave her side. She thanked those who spared her "simplified theological statements like 'It was the will of God.'" She thanked those who wrote her notes and even helped in the "almost impossible task of choosing a casket, a grave site."

Their 33-year-old son, who had served as art director at Harvest Church for three years, died in a car accident on his way to the church.

A few days after the tragedy, Laurie showed up in his church's Sunday service and declared he continued to believe in God and that there's no place he'd rather be than at church to worship the Lord.

He admitted he had spoiled his son growing up and described him as a prodigal son who had found his way back in his last years.

"We were marveling at what God was doing in his life. He couldn't have been in a better place spiritually," Laurie told his congregation then, as reported by The Christian Post.

He considered his son's death as the most devastating day of his life but comforted himself with the belief that his son has gone up to Heaven.

"So I just said, 'Lord, he's yours. I dedicated him to you when he was a little boy and I dedicate him back to you,'" said Laurie.
home Faith Pope Francis sets new rules for life in monasteries

The contemplative women should be able to achieve their vocation with the set of new rules released by the Vatican on Friday, July 22, the feast day of St. Mary Magdalene.

Pope Francis signed his approval for the 38-page document "Seeking the face of God" on June 29, the feasts of Sts. Peter and Paul.

The Holy See officially released the document on the feast of St. Mary Magdalene, the patron of contemplative life, converts, glove makers, hairdressers, penitent sinners, people ridiculed for their piety, perfumeries, pharmacists, sexual temptation, tanners and women, according to Catholic Online.

According to the new set of guidelines, monasteries should now align themselves with some form of federation based not just confined to geographical considerations but also extended to similarity of spirit and tradition. Monasteries that cannot be part of a federation should explain and seek approval from the Holy See.

Monasteries should also live according to the cloister the Holy See chooses for it as well as maintain prayer as central to their daily lives.

The new apostolic constitution on cloistered life that added 14 new articles also outlined 12 guidelines on how the contemplative religious can further fulfill their vocations as well as address the legislative gaps of the previous one.

The new rule requires that juridical autonomy should be maintained by keeping the minimum number of sisters and that "the majority are not elderly, the vitality needed to practice and spread the charism, a real capacity to provide for formation and governance, dignity and quality of liturgical, fraternal and spiritual life, sign value and participation in life of the local Church, self-sufficiency and a suitably appointed monastery building."

The pope praised the contemplative women as being able to "more closely" follow Jesus' path "with an undivided heart." He also likened them to "Mary Magdalene on Easter morning, announce to us: 'I have seen the Lord!'"

While the pope helps women in monasteries to live as beacons to the world, other religious women aspire to serve as deacons.

This came as a request from around 900 senior nuns who attended the triennial assembly of the International Union of Superiors General at the Vatican in May asked the pope to create an official commission to study how they could serve as women deacons to the church. The pope responded affirmatively but released nothing concrete just yet.
home World US bishops urged to defend human rights, religious freedom by Syriac Catholic Patriarch

Patriarch Ignatius Youssef III Younan from the Syriac Catholic Church of Antioch said living conditions in Syria and Iraq have gone from "bad to worse," and he urged U.S. bishops to fight for human rights and religious freedom in Syria.

The patriarch described how ISIS has uprooted many believers from their hometowns and are now forced to stay in refugee camps in Lebanon, Kurdistan and Jordan.

"They are all gone, uprooted from their ancestral lands, by the Daesh invasion," the patriarch told National Catholic Register, using the Arabic synonym for ISIS.

In 2014 alone, 150,000 Christians fled from Mosul and the Nineveh Plain, places where majority of the Christians resided.

He said he would visit them in the refugee camps, where he would find them waiting to be sent back home. The people's morale appeared to be "way down," he said.

The patriarch also thanked U.S. bishops for sending humanitarian aid, but reminded them that it's not what the people need. He urged the bishops to defend human rights and the practice of religious freedom.

"I keep telling the U.S. bishops, 'I thank you for your humanitarian aid, but it is not really what we need,'" he said. "We need them to stand up for the values of the Founding Fathers, defending human rights, religious freedom and the truth, while talking to those countries where Muslims make the majority."

Without mincing words, the patriarch said Western governments "still instigate the prolongation of an absurd war in Syria out of geopolitical opportunism."

He urged the Catholic Church to speak out against the "lying, hypocrisy and manipulation of public opinion" that is happening in Western countries, which were apparently hiding the true conditions in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon.

"We need Catholics to stand up a no more silent majority; since you live in a democratic country, you have to tell the truth," he said, adding that they should expose the truth first to the Church, then to the media.

Youssef is one of five patriarchs in Antioch. Two more are from the Catholic Church, while the other two are from the Orthodox Church.

Earlier this month, Youssef met with Orthodox Patriarch Mor Ignatius Aphrem II to talk about the condition of Christians in the Middle East, particularly in Syria and Iraq.

The meeting was also hoped to strengthen the ties between the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church in the midst of great persecution.
home US Ted Cruz labeled 'Lyin' Ted' and 'not a Christian man' after refusing to endorse Donald Trump

Sen. Ted Cruz's refusal to endorse Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump backfired as evangelicals and Trump supporters labeled him as a lying un-Christian man.

Rev. Darrell Scott, senior pastor of New Spirit Revival Center Ministries and a Trump supporter, slammed the 45-year-old Texas senator, who branded himself as a Christian conservative, for turning back on his word. Rev. Scott considered Cruz's act un-Christian.

"Not only did Ted Cruz a John Kasich did the same thing," said Rev. Scott on Fox News' "Hannity." "But listen: These are the Christians [air quotes] of the convention. Part of their platform was: 'I am a Christian. I am a conservative Christian.' You turned out to be a liar. You're a conservative liar."

Cecilia Cdebaca, a delegate from New Mexico, also expressed her astonishment for what Cruz just did and touted his new name.

"I can't believe he didn't endorse him, because he claims to be a Christian, and maybe Donald Trump was right," Cdebaca told Philip Rucker of The Washington Post. "Maybe he is 'Lyin' Ted.'"

She suggested that Cruz's Christian faith might only be superficial as he's unable to practice the Christian virtue of forgiveness.

"The Bible says you know them by their fruits," she added. "Tonight, Ted Cruz has no fruits. Tonight, he was not a Christian man."

Social media soon followed a frenzy that criticized the senator's professed Christianity.

Cruz contributed to the uproar during Wednesday's Republican National Convention after he adamantly refused to endorse Trump for GOP presidential contender despite having given his word to support the candidate the party chooses.

The audience booed Cruz onstage as he went on talking about the conflict between Israel and Hamas, apparently making it clear he had no intention to express his support for the party's chosen candidate and former rival before he dropped from the presidential race.

Cruz later admitted that he didn't consider his pledge to the party as binding after Trump publicly maligned Cruz's father Rafael for having something to do with the assassination of former President John F. Kennedy, as well as for slandering the appearance of Cruz's wife, Heidi.
home Entertainment Tim LaHaye dead: 'Left Behind' series author dies aged 90

Tim LaHaye, the r espected evangelical leader and New York Times best-selling co-author of the "Left Behind" book series, passed away Monday morning, July 25 at the age of 90.

LaHaye's family announced through his official Facebook page that he passed away in a hospital in San Diego after suffering a stroke.

"Tim was one of the most godly men I have ever known," Christianity Today quoted David Jeremiah as saying.

Jeremiah, the founder of Turning Point Radio and Television Ministries, replaced LaHaye as senior pastor of the former Scott Memorial Baptist Church, now known as Shadow Mountain Community Church. Jeremiah also said he believes LaHaye would continue to influence many Christians through his books, organizations and the people he touched.

"Whose life hasn't been affected in some way by this man?" wrote the two-year-old Oklahoma-based ministry Prophecy Watchers on LaHaye's passing. "This is a great man of God and if the Lord takes him home, he leaves behind a wonderful legacy. In the words of Steve Green, 'May all who come behind us find us faithful.'"

The late pastor founded Tim LaHaye Ministries, Pre-Trib Research Center, and two accredited Christian high schools. He also helped Dr. Henry Morris establish the Institute for Creation Research.

He also wrote scores of books both in fiction and non-fiction genres and co-authored with Jerry B. Jenkins the widely popular apocalyptic series, "Left Behind."

While Christianity Today ranks the "Left Behind" series among the most influential books on evangelicalism, The Washington Post praised the books as great literature for both Christian and non-Christian readers.

The popularity of the series spawned into multiple movie adaptations, video games and graphic novels.

"Thrilled as I am that he is where he has always wanted to be, his departure leaves a void in my soul I don't expect to fill until I see him again," said Jenkins in an obituary for his co-author.

He also wrote a tribute for LaHaye, describing him as someone who "had a pastor's heart and lived to share his faith."

He said that LaHaye's absence from the autograph table or the green room of a television network would only mean he's somewhere praying for someone else, even if they had only just met.
It wasnt an all-time high, but North Dakotas state-owned flour mill posted a healthy $9.3 million profit in fiscal year 2016 as record shipment volumes helped offset tough wheat market conditions, President and General Manager Vance Taylor said Tuesday.

The State Mill and Elevator in Grand Forks reported unaudited profits of $9,336,618 for the year ending June 30, down 44 percent from a record $16.7 million in fiscal year 2015.

It was the lowest annual profit since the mill cleared $8 million in 2012, reflecting depressed wheat prices that shrank the mills profit margins.

I think were feeling like it was a good year with the market conditions that we had to deal with, Taylor said. Our prices go right up and down with the wheat markets.

Shipment volumes reached a record 12.99 million hundredweight, up from 12.5 million hundredweight in 2015, mostly driven by increased demand from current customers, Taylor said.

Our customers are doing well and asking for more flour, he said.

The mill posted profits of $13.4 million in 2014, $11.9 million in 2013 and $16.1 million in 2011. The last year in which the mill posted a loss was 2009.

The 2016 profit resulted in a transfer of about $4.4 million to the states general fund and $466,831 to the Agricultural Products Utilization Commission.

These have all been very good years, said Karlene Fine, executive director of the North Dakota Industrial Commission, which oversees the mill and received the transfer report during its meeting Tuesday.

Taylor said the mill is still calculating bonuses for employees, who last year received an average annual bonus of $13,693 for meeting performance, profit and safety goals. Hell deliver his full 2016 operations summary to the commission next month.

A $27 million expansion of the mill, which will boost production capacity by about 30 percent and make it the single largest milling operation in the country, is expected to start operations in late August or early September, Taylor said.

The mill remains the only state-owned flour mill in the country, created in 1922 to give North Dakota farmers a better price for their wheat by avoiding freight costs associated with shipping it to Minneapolis.
home US Donald Trump re-dedicated his life to Jesus Christ a decade ago, says Pastor Jentezen Franklin

Pastor Jentezen Franklin revealed that Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump confessed to rededicating his life to Christ just a decade ago.

The 54-year-old senior pastor at Free Chapel Worship Center in Gainesville, Georgia said Trump made this admission when he met with his evangelical executive advisers in the business mogul's Trump Tower in New York City.

"He did say 'I don't wear my religion on a sleeve and I'm not, by any means, a saint,'" recounted Franklin in an interview with gainesvilletimes.com.

Trump appeared with his mother's Bible on hand and said his family raised him a Presbyterian Christian and took him to world-renowned evangelical preacher Billy Graham crusades. He also claimed to have rededicated his life to God when he turned 60.

"But [Trump said], 'What America needs now is not a preacher in the oval office a it needs a leader,'" Franklin added.

He also thought that Trump proves himself as "an easy lift" as compared to political rival Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, who he said "has done nothing but just, in my view, [been] anti-everything that we stand for and believe."

Similarly, Michele Bachmann, former congresswoman of Minnesota and also serving as evangelical advisor to Trump, shared that she thinks "the most high God may have lifted up Trump" in this political campaign.

"Because very possibly, he's the only one that could defeat Hillary Clinton this fall. And if that's the case, it's good enough for me," Bachmann said on Jan Markell's radio program "Understanding the Times."

Franklin, who also appears on his TV program "Kingdom Connection," praised Trump's move to create an evangelical advisory bloc and identified this as the missing link of another GOP presidential hopeful in 2012, Mitt Romney.

In addition, the preacher praised Trump's listening ability. He said Trump clearly portrayed himself as someone who's shown interest and care for the evangelical community who's been sidelined and silenced for the longest time.

However, Franklin maintained he's not formally endorsing Trump as he serves in the advisory committee but rather he's providing a voice to the rest of the evangelical community.
Beacon of hope: Israel, the only country in Middle East where Christians live in peace and security

Islamic radicals have been persecuting, driving out and even slaughtering hundreds of thousands of Christians in the Middle East.

But there is one country in the region that stands as the only safe haven and beacon of hope for Christians. That country is Israel, CBN News reports.

In fact, Israel is the only place in the Middle East where Christianity is on the rise, according to Father Gabriel Naddaf, an Israeli and a Israeli Greek Orthodox priest.

Speaking at the 11th annual Christians United for Israel conference in Washington D.C., last week, Naddaf pointed out that Christianity is on the wane in most parts of the region amid the continuing conflict, bloodshed and Muslim persecution.

However, there is hope, Naddaf said.

"Today, there is just one country in the Middle East where Christians live in peace and security. In Israel, they have freedom of speech and religion, they can exercise their faith freely, and they have democratic rights," he said.

Naddaf called on Christians in the United States to stand more firmly with Israel and support its cause.

"Israel is something we need to protect," Naddaf said. "We need to protect its freedom, we have to protect the cradle of Christianity."

An Israeli Arab, Naddaf said he and many other Christian Arabs love Israel even though it has a predominantly Jewish population. He said the same Muslim terrorists who are hunting down and murdering Christians also want to destroy the Jewish state.

Although a priest who is supposed to limit himself to performing religious duties, Naddaf is doing something more out of his love for his country: He is actively working to enlist Israeli Arabs in the Israeli Defense Force (IDF), according to CBN News.

So far, his efforts have resulted in more than 100 Christian Arabs from his Nazareth hometown committing to protect the only Middle Eastern country that protects their right to believe in Christ even if they have to sacrifice their own lives.

For what he is doing, Naddaf is facing threats to his life and those of his family members. Despite this, he has committed himself "to protecting the Jewish state one soldier at a time," CBN News says.
Church-state separation is OK, but 'there should never be separation between God and state'  Philippine President Duterte

He once slammed the Catholic Church as "the most hypocritical institution" in the Philippines. He even called some prelates "sons of whores."

But on Monday, newly proclaimed Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte made clear he is not against religion, including the Christian faith, but only on some church leaders who he perceived to be corrupt.

During his first State of the Nation Address, Duterte even pointed out the need for a union between God and state.

Addressing religious leaders, Duterte said, "Let me assure you that while I'm a stickler for the principle of separation between Church and state, I believe quite strongly that there should never be a separation between God and state," Rappler reports.

Following his presidential inauguration, Duterte has shown openness toward some religious leaders. He recently welcomed to the Malacanang presidential palace Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle and retired Cebu Archbishop Ricardo Cardinal Vidal, even kissing the hands of the two top prelates in a traditional form of respect.

Catholic leaders are among those criticising the daily extrajudicial killings going on in the Philippines even as the Duterte administration pursues a relentless campaign against illegal drugs. Some critics have accused the Duterte administration of violating human rights, including those of drug suspects.

However, during his state address on Monday, Duterte vowed to uphold human rights but said this should not be used as an excuse to destroy the country, the Philippine Daily Inquirer reports.

"Human rights must work to uplift human dignity. But human rights cannot be used as a shield or excuse to destroy the country," he said.

Duterte then vowed to continue his war against drugs. "We will not stop until the last drug lord, the last financier, have surrendered, put behind bars or below the ground if they so wish," he said.

Aside from his iron-fisted campaign against drugs, Duterte could find himself facing church opposition in another front. During his state address, he also vowed that the country's Reproductive Health Law must be implemented to curb the country's skyrocketing population growth and assist the poor in family planning.

"The implementation of the Reproductive Health Law must be put in full force and effect so that couples especially the poor will have freedom of informed choice on the number and spacing of children," he said.

The law is being opposed by the Catholic Church and other pro-life groups.

In laying down his plans for the next six years, Duterte promised a clean leadership.

"I assure you, this will be a clean government," the President said.

He also vowed to punish crooked government officials. "Those who betrayed the people's trust shall not go unpunished. They will have their day in court," he warned.
Churches offer hope after Baton Rouge shooting: 'What Satan intends to destroy and divide, God will use to unite'

Following the deadly shooting in Baton Rouge, Louisiana that left three police officers dead and three others injured, the community is turning to their faith to overcome the tragedy.

"In the midst of our sorrow there is hope that God will redeem even this for His good purpose," said Jeff Ginn, pastor of Istrouma Baptist Church, according to the Baptist Press and Christian Telegraph. "What Satan intends to destroy and divide, God will use to unite," he added.

The church was to start its first morning service on July 17 when Ginn learned of the shooting perpetuated by suspect Gavin Long. It immediately changed the service to focus on prayer for the situation.

Ginn said the service for that day was different from most Sundays.

"There was an air of heaviness over the services," he said. "One of the points I made in my message was [that] Jesus had joy in spite of the sorrow He experienced. So we pressed on, remembering those who were suffering."

Ginn said if the church does not act to offer hope in such situation, it was unclear who will.

"Hope rests in the Lord. The church is the one who speaks His Word to the watching world. We have to be His voice in this moment," he said.

The child of Montrell Jackson, who was of the three slain officers, attended a daycare centre at Florida Boulevard Baptist Church in Baton Rouge.

"Our hearts are heavy as we learn the loss of one of our daycare families. Our prayers and thoughts go out to their families and all involved," the church's daycare centre wrote on its Facebook page.

Pastor Thomas Shepard of the Church of Addis and church members took time to minister to the family of Matthew Gerald, another police officer who was killed.

"I prayed with the sister-in-law. We let her know we could meet with her sister [Gerald's wife] or their children to provide grief counselling and whatever else they might need," he said.

Shepherd urged members to pray for the local police.

"After this morning's unfortunate events, I would like to call our people to prayer," said Shepard. "The officers affected in this tragedy are a lot closer to home than we expected. Some of our member officers were on the scene when several suspects were picked up in Addis for questioning in connection with the shooting."

Louisiana Baptist Convention Executive Director David Hankins lamented that the U.S. now experiences tragedies like the Baton Rouge shooting often.

"Jesus reminds us that the thief, Satan himself, comes to steal, kill and destroy. Tragically we're seeing this play out before our eyes in ways we've never imagined. However, Jesus concludes His response by stating He comes to give life," he said.
Doctors sue Vermont over assisted suicide law that violates their right of conscience

Health care professionals have filed a lawsuit challenging Vermont's assisted suicide law, saying the latter compels them to counsel patients about the option to end their lives in "violation of the right of conscience."

The lawsuit was filed by the Vermont Alliance for Ethical Healthcare and Tennessee-based Christian Medical and Dental Association on July 19 against the Vermont Board of Medical Practice, Vermont Secretary of State James Condos and the Office of Professional Regulation regarding their interpretation of Act 39 or the Patient Choice and Control at End of Life Act, Christian News Network reports.

According to the lawsuit, although it was "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."

In its FAQs on Act 39, the Vermont Health Department said, "Do doctors have to tell patients about this option? Under Act 39 and the Patient's Bill of Rights, a patient has the right to be informed of all options for care and treatment in order to make a fully-informed choice. If a doctor is unwilling to inform a patient, he or she must make a referral or otherwise arrange for the patient to receive all relevant information."

Plaintiffs said the government's interpretation is that physicians have a duty to inform patients on the availability of assisted suicide.

Through Act 39, they said, Vermont became the fourth state after Oregon, Washington and California to legalise assisted suicide but the first state to mandate all health care professionals to participate in the practice.

"The provisions of Act 39 require Plaintiffs' members to promote the State's view that physician assisted suicide is indicated in all instances of 'terminal conditions' and force them to counsel patients for physician assisted suicide in violation of the right of conscience, and threaten them with professional, civil and criminal consequences for holding opposing views," the lawsuit added.

It said the law "imposes a substantial burden on Plaintiffs' members' religious beliefs."

They are asking the court to declare the law as "facially overbroad, vague and ambiguous in violation of the First and Fourteenth Amendments" and Church Amendments and the Affordable Care Act.
French Bishops call for day of fasting in response to Jacques Hamel killing

The French Catholic Bishops have called for a day of fasting on Friday in response to the murder yesterday of the 86-year-old priest Jacques Hamel in Normandy.

"I invite all the Catholics of France to participate in a day of fasting and prayer for our country and for peace in the world this Friday," said Msgr Olivier Ribadeau Dumas, secretary general of the French Bishops Conference.

Speaking to journalists in Krakow at the World Youth Day gathering, Dumas said: "What happened in France had happened in other countries before, and actually we see Christians laying down their lives in the interests of their faith. They die because they are objects of hate and this for a fact gives us an additional motivation to live the life of fraternity we are called to."

Speaking after the attack on the church in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, where the priest was celebrating Mass with two nuns and two other worshippers, Dumas said: "A priest is a symbol of peace and fraternity, and he was an old priest, more than 50 years as a priest in France, so...we are sad and we are shocked by this".

He went on to call for a maintained dialogue with people of different faiths in France: "[We] are also something which is very strong. We want to maintain and develop dialogue between the different people in our country. We need peace, we need fraternity, we need to build a society where people love each other, and we will continue this path. The Catholic Church in France wants that...We should see the horizon, the horizon of peace, of joy, brotherhood and prayer. We are rooted in our faith and in Christ and we believe that evil and violence will not have the upper hand."

Around 300 youth gathered in Poland are from the Diocese of Rouen - site of the church where Hamel was attacked - out of 3,000 French pilgrims in total.

Despite its start being overshadowed by the killing, Dumas stressed that World Youth Day needs to go forward "with even greater intensity."

He noted that many Muslims are also killed around the world. "Many more Muslims than Christians are killed because they are Muslims, so we pray and we are going to pray at Mass in a few minutes for peace and for all those who are killed because they believe in God," he said.

On fostering dialogue between people of different faiths, he added: "It's a bit hard, difficult, so we do it with hope. It's a Christian attitude because we think that the Catholic religion can involve all of our society, and that is very important for us. Violence is not the answer, the only answer is really love. We cannot do anything else. Love, love and love. Dialogue and dialogue. And also have mercy for all those who are totally distracted by violence."

Pope Francis has responded to the murder by condemning "every form of hatred" and the Vatican spokesman said the Pope "participates in the pain and horror of this absurd violence."

Archbishop Dominique Lebrun of Rouen also reacted to the attack. Also in Krakow, he said: "I cry out to God, with all men of good will. And I invite all non-believers to unite with this cry ... The Catholic Church has no other weapons besides prayer and fraternity between men."
Hillary Clinton victory heralds a new day for women, says Tony Campolo

Evangelical preacher and social activist Tony Campolo used his closing prayer at the Democratic National Convention last night to pray God would break down barriers and deal with prejudice.

In words markedly less partisan than the ones used at the Republican National Convention by Pastor Mark Burns, who was widely criticised for describing the Democrats as the "enemy", Campolo said: "We are a nation that needs healing. Break down the barriers of race and ethnicity that separate us. Cure the sexism and homophobia that denies the dignity of so many of our fellow Americans. Help us to overcome our fears of refugees and show us how to love our enemies and overcome evil with good."

He prayed God would "Imbue our religious leaders with your love so that they will teach us how to transcend our differences and become one people" and "Teach us how to beat our swords into plowshares and learn war no more."

He also highlighted the needs of the poor, an enduring theme of his own ministry, praying that the next US president would use the country's vast resources to help them.

Campolo said: "May all of our political leaders be committed to making America into a people that strive to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, provide care for all the sick, speak justice on behalf of the oppressed, and make room for refugees, remembering Your own Son who was once a refugee in the land of Egypt."

In his only direct reference to Hillary Clinton, he said: "May her candidacy send a message to women everywhere that the glass ceiling that has held so many of them down is being broken, and that a new day is dawning not only for women but for all people everywhere."

Campolo, Professor Emeritus at Eastern University, Philadelphia, is a founding member of the Red Letter Christian movement. He was a spiritual adviser to Bill Clinton during his presidency and has been an outspoken supporter of Hillary. He said in an article for Religion News Service that although Clinton is pro-choice, she has a plan to cut the abortion rate "by at least 50 per cent" and reiterated that she is a "committed Christian". He also countered her vote for the 'War on Terror' by blaming former vice president Dick Cheney's allegations of weapons of mass destruction.
Holy Spirit over Iran: Revival results in 3 million new believers today from just 100,000 in '94

A great revival is going on inside the Islamic Republic of Iran, Christian believers who have planted an "Internet church" in that heavily restricted Middle East country have disclosed.

"Right now you can see the results of the Holy Spirit," Reza, one of the believers, told CBN News in Turkey where he was interviewed. "From 1994, there were about 100,000 believers. Right now, there are 3 million. You can see what the Holy Spirit is doing with the people," Reza said.

He said this is happening despite the constant threat, danger, and risk for the believers.

Reza explained that since churches are banned in Iran, believers use the Internet to connect to churches in the United States, Canada, Germany, and Malaysia via Skype.

"The main church is my house, and through the Internet I connect to everybody," Reza said. "That's why it's become like an Internet church."

He said many of the new believers embraced Jesus Christ after having a dream or vision of Him.

He himself dreamt of Jesus a "long time back" and since then Jesus has been with him. "And in all of my life, He was helping me and I didn't know who was this person. Suddenly Jesus Christ was over there and He said, 'Come to me.' And I came to that side and He accepted me," Reza told CBN News.

He said many of the believers have fled to Turkey for fear of their own lives. Despite the hardship they are facing at the moment, the believers exude joy as they remain hopeful that they would eventually achieve refugee status and immigrate to other countries, he said.

Some of the Iranian refugees who have fled to Turkey said they are glad to have "come out of the darkness."

As he waits for the U.N. office to grant him refugee status, Christian Afshin told CBN News that he can now do things in Turkey that he could not do in Iran like speaking about "God's Word to other guys," freely praising the Lord and attending church service.

Afshin said he attended the church led by American Pastor Saeed Abedini, who languished for years in an Iranian prison. That church was disbanded following Abedini's arrest in 2012, he said.

"As a result, I came out of Iran because day by day it was more difficult and it was more risky for me also," he explained.

Reza is urging Christians worldwide to pray for the Church in Iran.

"And I'm just begging, really, from the other believers, from other sisters and brothers from all over the world, to pray for Iran and to all the people of Iran to find new God and be familiar with God, with Jesus Christ," he said.
Indian Christian forced to 'reconvert' among Hindu extremists' crackdown

An Indian Christian was forced to reconvert to Hinduism as extremists continue systematically to target Christians and other religious minorities.

"Neeraj"  whose name is protected for security reasons  has spoken about months of beatings, harassment, arrest and torture after he converted from his native Hinduism to Christianity. He was forced to deny his newfound faith as part of a national crackdown on Christians in India.

Rajeshwar Singh is one of the leaders of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a militant Hindu nationalist group, whose political wing, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is in government. He has promised to make India free of Christians and Muslims by 31 December 2021 through forced conversions and a state-wide assault on religious freedoms.

The Indian government is proposing a national anti-conversion law, which is already in place in five of India's states, according to the anti-persecution charity Open Doors. The British-based charity said the laws are used disproportionately against minorities.

Governing Hindu nationalists see Hinduism as the true religion of India, so when an Indian person converts or returns to Hinduism, it is not seen as a conversion but a 'ghar wapsi' or 'homecoming'. As a result they are exempt from the anti-conversion laws.

After Neeraj became a Christian, he was consistently beaten by religious leaders in his village and even his own father hit him with a brick. But the violence escalated further in December 2015 while preparing for Christmas.

He was ambushed by Hindu radicals and was beaten for four hours along with two friends, according to Open Doors. They locked the three Christians up and brandished knives, saying: "If you deny your faith in Jesus, you can go home." Neeraj refused and said, "No, He is my Lord. I will never leave Him."

But the next day they were taken to the local police station and accused of trying to convert local Hindus  an act which contravenes the state's anti-conversion laws.

A mob gathered outside and demanded their death as police began to threaten them: "We will strip you naked and treat you with electroshocks."

After an entire night of beatings and threats, the Christians agreed to give up their faith in Christ  first one of Neeraj's friends, then the other, and finally, Neeraj. "I was so afraid that I decided to obey them," said Neeraj.

After his forced reconversion Neeraj was allowed to return to his wife Ritu. But he said he "wept bitterly" at being made to change religion and has since fled, despite death threats, to live with his Christian uncle in another town. "I asked him if we could stay because I did not want to betray Jesus again and I cannot go back to my village," he said.

Open Doors, which ranks India as the 17th worst country to be a Christian, has supported Neeraj and Ritu with supplies and legal assistance. You can find out more here.
Iranian pastor Youcef Nadarkhani rearrested and told to find $33,000 to secure freedom

The Iranian Christian pastor who became an international symbol of the fight for religious freedom when he was sentenced to death for apostasy, and then acquitted, has now been charged again  this time with "acting against national security".

Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani was summonsed to court in Iran and given just one week to find bail of $33,000 or be arrested, according to Christian Solidarity Worldwide.

He was accused of being a Zionist and told he was banned from evangelism.

He and his wife Tina were also both arrested last May when Iranian security staff raided their home among 10 other Christian homes they targeted in Rasht. The Nadarkhanis were released then but three members of their congregation, Mohammadreza Omidi, Yasser Mossayebzadeh and Saheb Fadaie, were forced themselves to post bail of $33,000 to secure their release.

The three men are yet to be informed of the charges levelled against them.

Pastor Nardarkhani was initially arrested in 2009. He had challenged the Muslim monopoly on religious education for children.Related

He was charged with apostasy and sentenced to death in 2010 then released two years later after his acquittal for apostasy but found guilty of evangelising. He returned to prison to complete his sentence and was released again in 2013.

Mervyn Thomas, chief executive of Christian Solidarity, said: "It is deeply troubling to hear of the renewed harassment of Pastor Nardarkhani.

"The national security charges levelled against him are spurious and an indication that the authorities persist in criminalising the Christian community for exercising their right to freedom of religion or belief. We urge the Iranian government to dismiss the charges against him and to cancel any pending charges against Mohammadreza Omidi, Yasser Mossayebzadeh and Saheb Fadaie.

"The international community must press the Government of Iran to uphold its obligations to respect the right of its citizens to freedom of religion or belief, as outlined in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which it is signatory, and in Iran's own constitution."

Meanwhile, according to Mohabat News, another Christian, Maryam Naghash Zargaran, who is serving four years in prison and is 20 days into a hunger strike, has had her request for release on health grounds turned down by an Iranian court.

A convert from Islam, she was arrested in connection with her work at an orphanage alongside Saeed Abedini, who was also imprisoned but released in January this year.

A member of the Zargaran family told Mohabat News: "Maryam hasn't left her bed in four days. She is burning with fever and has been on hunger strike to raise her protest against prison authorities' indifference toward her health. She is suffering from serious health issues. Before going on hunger strike, she had lost 25kg and her health issues had intensified. Authorities do not show the slightest concern over Maryam's health. In addition, she is suffering from depression and takes medication for it."
Mike Huckabee says faith of Hillary Clinton's VP Tim Kaine is real

Former Republican presidential candidate and Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee shared his thoughts on Tim Kaine, Democratic bet Hillary Clinton's choice for vice president.

In Huckabee's opinion, Kaine should be lauded for his Christian faith but criticised for his pro-abortion stance. "Let's be clear, Tim Kaine is definitely a liberal. And even though he says he's personally against abortion, he still always governs with a pro-abortion vote," Huckabee tells Fox News, adding that he doesn't know "what that's supposed to mean."

Huckabee also says he's gotten to know Kaine personally, and he likes him because he is "a genuine guy" and "an honourable guy." After Hurricane Katrina struck in 2005, Kaine was "part of a group that went down there and painted houses for the group from Habitat Humanity."

He appreciates that Kaine went to help not just for a photo op. Thus, Huckabee can say with certainty that Kaine's "faith is real."

The Democratic party should appreciate Kaine's "authenticity," continues Huckabee, because the same cannot be said of Clinton.

"That's good because there's not much authenticity about Hillary. So in many ways, he is the polar opposite of Hillary. He does actually believe what he says. He's not somebody who puts away his faith when it's inconvenient for him," says Huckabee.

When Clinton introduced her running mate last Saturday, she praised Kaine for being "everything that Donald Trump and [vice presidential bet] Mike Pence are not."

However, Trump's senior advisor said that picking someone who is "the clearest contrast against the Trump-Pence ticket" is not a good thing.

"If you think Crooked Hillary and Corrupt Kaine are going to change anything in Washington, it's just the opposite. It's only fitting that Hillary Clinton would select an ethically challenged insider like Tim Kaine who's personally benefited from the rigged system," senior Trump communications advisor Jason Miller tells CNN.
Pope Francis: The world is at war but not a religious one

The world is at war but not a religious one, Pope Francis said as he travelled to Poland for a five-day trip in celebration of World Youth Day.

The pontiff spoke to reporters on the papal plane amid a cloud of unease and tension after a priest had his throat slit in a terrorist attack in northern France. ISIS claimed the two assailants, shot dead by police, were their "soldiers" after they took five hostages, seriously injuring one as mass was celebrated in the small town of Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray.

"It's war, we don't have to be afraid to say this," said Pope Francis, as the killing threatened overshadow the entire trip.

But he later insisted he was speaking of "a war of interests, for money, resources. ... I am not speaking of a war of religions. Religions don't want war. The others want war."

After he arrived in Poland, Francis used his first speech of the trip to urge Poland's right-wing government to welcomes migrants and refugees. He spoke from Krakow's Wawel Castle after a meeting with the president, prime minister and other leaders. He said Poland needed "a spirit of readiness to welcome those fleeing from wars and hunger, and solidarity with those deprived of their fundamental rights, including the right to profess one's faith in freedom and safety".

He urged politicians to do "everything possible to alleviate the suffering" and called of Polish people to "favour a climate of respect between all elements of society and constructive debate on differing positions".

He concluded: "Life must always be welcomed and protected. These two things go together  welcome and protection, from conception to natural death. All of us are called to respect life and care for it."

Poland is proud of its strong Catholic heritage and the pontiff will fly into an airport named after Polish Saint John Paul II.

But Pope Francis' outspoken support for refugees puts him at odds with the governing Law and Justice Party in Poland. The right-wing party does not share the pontiff's outlook on refugees nor his outspoken stance against climate change.

Security concerns were high as the Pope landed in Krakow and interior minister Mariusz Blaszczak said more than 39,000 police and other security officers would ensure the safety of the Pope and hundreds of thousands of young people throughout the week-long celebration.

The pontiff will visit the Auschwitz concentration camp on Friday.
Syria: Dozens killed in deadly ISIS blast

Almost 50 people are dead and dozens more wounded after ISIS militants hit the Syrian city of Qamishli with a deadly truck explosion on Wednesday morning.

The death toll is expected to rise because of the number of people seriously wounded, according to the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. It is the deadliest attack on the city, which lies in north-east Syria near the Turkish border.

At least 48 people are dead, although state media puts the figure at 44. The explosion was near a base for Kurdish security forces, who have been fighting the militant group.

Kurdish forces control much of Hasaka province, after capturing vast areas from the jihadist group last year. The Kurdish YPG militia, which has proved the most effective partner for a US-led coalition battling Islamic State, is also involved in fighting the extremists farther west, in Aleppo province.

Islamic State claimed responsibility for what it said was a suicide truck bomb attack, and added that it targeted Kurdish security forces. The group has carried out a number of bombings in Qamishli, which is in Hasaka province, and in the provincial capital, Hasaka city.

State TV rolled footage purportedly from the scene of one blast, showing large-scale damage to buildings, vast amounts of rubble strewn across the road and plumes of smoke rising.

The explosion was so powerful it shattered the windows of shops in the Turkish town of Nusaybin, directly across the border. Two people were slightly hurt in Nusaybin, said one witness.

In April a suicide blast killed six members of the Kurdish internal security force, known as the Asayish. And in July an Islamic State suicide bomb killed at least 16 people in Hasaka.

The YPG is now involved in a US-backed offensive that has advanced against the jihadists further west near the Turkish border.

The assault against Islamic State in the city of Manbij has put it under pressure, cutting off all routes out of the city. Fighters from the US-backed alliance have in recent weeks made incremental advances as they try to flush out the remaining IS fighters in Manbij.

Territory that Islamic State controls in that area was a major supply route to the outside world via the Turkish-Syrian border, through which it moved weapons and fighters.

Additional reporting from Reuters.
The blood of the martyrs: Why the death of Fr Jaques Hamel mustn't be wasted

ISIS, through its gullible inadequates searching for significance in religious nihilism, struck again yesterday in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray. Fr Jaques Hamel is dead and a second victim is fighting for life.

The attack is the latest in a growing list of atrocities on European soil. It's understandable that Paris, Nice and Ansbach get more attention in Western media than attacks in Kabul or Baghdad, though these claim far more lives. Inevitably, what's closer to us seems more urgent; it doesn't make us bad people that we seem to care more. But all these deaths are the same. They spring from the same perverted ideology, they leave grief and trauma behind them and we run out of things to say.

But not in this case. The death of Fr Hamel is different because of who he was and when and where he died. He was a priest slain at his own altar as he was saying mass. In Iraq and Syria priests are regularly targeted. This is the first time a Christian minister has been killed by Islamic State in a church in Europe. It was a deliberate attack on what they see as the rival religion that stands behind all the assaults on Muslim nations by the West. And because of that, it has been extraordinarily shocking.

Images of Fr Hamel have been everywhere on the internet. Millions have seen pictures of crosses and crucifixes, images of Mary and grieving Christs. Bible texts about "greater love" and "blessed are the peacemakers" have been shared by people with very little religious faith. The frail, white-haired old priest who died for his faith has probably touched more lives in his death than he ever did in his life. There are already calls for Fr Hamel to be officially declared a martyr, which would allow him to be made a saint without the usual long-drawn-out process the Church requires.

And while this is genuinely moving, and in some ways quite lovely, it has to make us think very hard about what we are doing with this death. Because it is so loaded with symbolism in a way that random terrorist deaths by knife, bomb or bullet are not, we face an enormous responsibility to use it well.

In a perceptive comment yesterday, the Dean of Worcester said: "What an end for someone who had been a priest for nearly sixty years: and yet where else would a priest choose to die but at the altar of God?" In a sense, martyrdom is just what Christians do. Out of the deaths of saints springs new life. Tertullian, the early Church father, famously said that the blood of the martyrs was the seed of the Church.

But how that seed grows depends on how it is fed and watered by Christians.

So Fr Hamel's martyrdom must not become a rallying-point for those seeking revenge. Calls on social media for 'Christian jihadis' to carry the fight to the 'enemy' have to be resisted.

It must not be used to divide people into opposing Christian and Muslim camps. France is not, in fact, a particularly religious country, and there is a strong anti-clerical feeling among many of the intelligentsia in particular. But it's their own French clerics and French Catholicism they oppose, and their first instinct is solidarity with their old enemy against their new one. And in the wider world, the death of Fr Hamel could be used to whip up hatred and set one faith against another.

In John 9, Jesus heals a man born blind. In tune with the opinion of the time that disability was the result of sin, his disciples ask him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" (verse 2). In other words, they are looking for a reason for what happened to him. In his answer, Jesus implies the reason lies in the hands of human beings as they seek to cooperate with the purposes of God: "Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life" (verse 3).

So the question becomes, how can the work of God be displayed in the life and death of Jacques Hamel? And nothing that smacks of anger, hatred or revenge can be part of the answer. Instead, this terrible sin should be used to turn people to the loving and forgiving Christ, who was also unjustly sacrificed.

Pope Francis said through his secretary of state that he was "particularly upset that this act of violence took place in a church during Mass, the liturgical act that implores God's peace for the world". And yes, it is deeply upsetting. But at communion we recall another act of violence, the crucifixion of Christ, his broken body and shed blood. This violence is transformed into a symbol of reconciliation through love and forgiveness. So must the violence that took Fr Hamel be.

Follow Mark Woods on Twitter: @RevMarkWoods
#ThisFlag campaigner Pastor Evan Mawarire under threat, says Amnesty

Amnesty International has said it fears for the safety of Pastor Evan Mawarire, who started the #ThisFlag protest movement against the regime of Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe.

Mawarire is currently in South Africa, where he has said he will remain for the foreseeable future after being publicly denounced by Mugabe.

Amnesty is encouraging supporters to write to Zimbabwean authorities urging them to ensure Mawarire's safety and wellbeing, reminding them states have an obligation to prevent abuses against human rights defenders and asking them "to end the harassment, arbitrary arrest and unlawful detention of human rights defenders and activists and perceived opponents of the ruling party ZANU-PF".

It says human rights defenders and activists in Zimbabwe have been receiving threats and are subjected to arbitrary arrests, illtreatment and attempted abductions.

In an interview with Studio 7, Mawarire said he would return to Zimbabwe once he is assured of his and his family's safety.

"I have to ensure that my family and I are safe before I return home following President Robert Mugabe's address at the Heroes Acre where he accused me of being a fake pastor sponsored by the West," he said.

He added that after the president's remarks he has received threatening calls while in South Africa and people have been asking about his whereabouts, making him fear for his life.

The #ThisFlag campaign spread rapidly among social media users angry and frustrated at Zimbabwe's descent into poverty, lawlessness and economic chaos under Mugabe's inept stewardship. Mawarire was summoned to a Harare police station and arrested, accused of "incitement of public violence". He was freed on the same day when a magistrate dropped the charge. He has since received death threats and says he has fought off an attempted kidnap.
UK churches insist they are 'open to all' after priest's murder

UK churches insist they remain "open to all" despite the murder of a French Catholic priest while celebrating mass on Tuesday.

Father Jacques Hamel had his throat cut by two men who entered his small church in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray. The attackers held the five members of the congregation hostage before being shot dead by police. One other person was seriously wounded in the incident.

ISIS has since claimed responsibility and the French President, Francois Hollande, said the country was "at war".

But British churches remained defiant in the wake of possible "copycat attacks" in the UK.

A spokesman for Cardinal Vincent Nichols, the head of the Catholic Church in England and Wales, said "of course" churches would remain open. "Everyone is welcome," he told Christian Today. He added the Church would follow any security advice issued by the police but would not be adding any security procedures of their own.

A spokesman for the Church of England said that despite the threat Church buildings would remain "open to all".

He said in a statement: "Where there are known risks, churches take measures to ensure the safety and security of worshippers and visitors."

A new 2.4m fund for security measures in places of worship was made available on Tuesday in a pre-planned announcement by the Home Secretary. The CofE welcomed the move and added: "All public ministry involves being vulnerable to others, so security measures are good sense in uncertain times."

Churches can apply to the fund for security equipment such as CCTV, bollards and gates but not security personnel.

Police urged British churches to review their security after the attack near Rouen, northern France. Neil Basu, the Metropolitan police's deputy assistant commissioner, said there was no specific threat to UK Christians but told believers to be "alert".

Using the Arabic acronym for Islamic State, he said: "As we have seen, Daesh and other terrorist groups have targeted Christian as well as Jewish and other faith groups in the west and beyond. Following recent events in France, we are reiterating our protective security advice to Christian places of worship and have circulated specific advice today. We are also taking this opportunity to remind them to review their security arrangements as a precaution."

He added: "While the threat from terrorism remains unchanged at severe, we urge the public to be vigilant. Be alert and not alarmed and report any suspicious activity. The UK police service is working tirelessly with our partners to confront the threat and protect all our communities."

In specific advice sent to churches, it is believed police have suggested churches review when public can enter the buildings and when they should be locked.

Meanwhile in France leaders from different faiths called for more security at their places of worship after a meeting with President Hollande on Tuesday night.

Muslim leader Dalil Boubakeur, rector of Paris's Grand Mosque, expressed "profound sorrow" after the attack which he described as a "blasphemous sacrilege".

He said religious leaders "deeply desire that our places of worship are the subject of greater [security] focus, a sustained focus", as even "the most humble place of worship" can be targeted.

The Archbishop of Paris, Andre Vingt-Trois, praised the good relations between France's religions.

"We must not let ourselves get pulled in to Daesh's political games," he said and added the group wanted "to set children of the same family against each other".

Release International, a Christian persecution charity, said the attack was a "wake up call" for churches in the UK and urged churchgoers to "refuse fear and to value, cherish and celebrate the freedom we have".

Chief executive Paul Robinson said: "The terrorists' intention is to stir up hatred and division and to rob us of our freedom. But what Release has seen around the world time and again is something much more powerful than hate. We have seen the words of Jesus lived out in the lives of ordinary Christians  love your enemies.

"The message of persecuted Christians around the world is to refuse to hold hatred in your heart. Forgive, love and continue to walk in freedom. Love kills hate."
Who's backing Trump and who's for Clinton? The battle for evangelical endorsements

The evangelical constituency in the US is a political prize fought over by both Republicans and Democrats. White evangelicals are voting Trump by a huge margin  76 per cent are on his side  while black and hispanic voters tend to favour Clinton. According to Pew, 89 per cent of black Protestants, two-thirds of whom are evangelicals, will vote for Clinton in November.

So endorsements from leading evangelical pastors and opinion-formers are prized, because they can influence the followers of these Christian leaders. "So-and-so thinks Trump is a good guy? Well, maybe he's right."

And so far, Trump is way ahead in the evangelical endorsement stakes. In a smart move, he's also set up a faith advisory board which includes prominent evangelicals. Endorsing him is not a condition of membership, but it lends colour to his claim to be representing them  and muffles any criticisms of him they might feel inclined to make.

Here are some of Trump's evangelical backers.

Wayne Grudem, the Southern Baptist ethicist and theologian, said voting for Trump was a "morally good choice". In an article for Townhall, he admitted that Trump was egotistical, bombastic, brash, had mistaken ideas such as bombing terrorists' families and was insulting and vindictive. "These are certainly flaws, but I don't think they are disqualifying flaws in this election," he said, referring to the probable consequences for conservative causes of a Clinton victory.

James Dobson was a huge coup when he endorsed Trump on July 22. He founded the conservative Focus on the Family organisation and the Family Research Council, both highly influential in conservative circles. He is an outspoken campaigner for traditional views of marriage and against abortion.

Jerry Falwell Jnr is the president of Liberty University and son of one of the founders of the Moral Majority movement. He won notoriety for carrying a gun when he addressed Liberty students after the San Bernardino shooting and advocating "more good people" carrying weapons.

Robert Jeffress, pastor of First Baptist Church, Dallas, has been careful not to say he endorses Trump, but he has arguably done so implicitly. He serves on Trump's advisory board and has said Republicans who refuse to support him are "fools" motivated by pride. Referencing Trump, he said he wanted the "meanest, toughest son of a gun I can find" to be president.

Paula White has also fought clear of an explicit endorsement but is known to be close to Trump and his campaign. According to Politico, the televangelist and prosperity preacher says she has frequently discussed faith with Trump and that his faith is genuine. On the other hand, her influence within evangelicalism may not be great: Southern Baptist leader Russell Moore tweeted: "Paula White is a charlatan and recognized as a heretic by every orthodox Christian, of whatever tribe."

Mark Burns runs a Christian TV network. He has been an active campaigner for Trump and prayed a controversial prayer at the beginning of the Republican National Convention in which he referred to Hillary Clinton and the Democrats as "the enemy".

Jack Graham, pastor of the Prestonwood Baptist megachurch in Plano, Texas, has said he will "champion Donald Trump" after attending a meeting with more than 900 evangelical pastors and activists with him. He said: " "I know that I feel very convinced that it's not just 'Oh, we got to stop Hillary Clinton,' which we do, but that we can champion Donald Trump," Graham said. "I am convinced he is going to make a great president of the United States."

Eric Metaxas is an author, speaker and radio host who has written biographies of Wilberforce and Bonhoeffer. He said: " Not only can we vote for Trump, we must vote for Trump, because with all of his foibles, peccadilloes, and metaphorical warts, he is nonetheless the last best hope of keeping America from sliding into oblivion, the tank, the abyss, the dustbin of history, if you will." A conservative public intellectual, he has been accused of serious errors of fact in his work.

Tony Perkins is the head of the Family Research Council and offered a full-throated endorsement for Trump at the Republican National Convention. The conservative and family values standard-bearer said: "I will be voting for Donald Trump in November, and I will urge my fellow Americans to do the same."

On Hillary Clinton's side there are fewer big names.

Max Lucado wrote a stinging post about Trump entitled Decency for President. However, he has not publicly backed Clinton and wrote last week of a "strange dream" in which she and Trump together "get down on their knees and ask heaven to send mercy to our land".

Deborah Filkes, executive adviser to the World Evangelical Alliance, condemned Trump's behaviour to minorities and women, and said: "Hillary Clinton is the leader who people of faith are looking for and we are praying that Sister Hillary and not Mr. Trump will be elected in November."

Thabiti Anyabwile, pastor of Anacostia River Church in Washington, DC, wrote a blog post for The Gospel Coalition referencing Stalin and Hitler but saying it was necessary to make a choice in a way that "attenuates the evil". He would vote Clinton because she was more predictable, he said.

The lack of enthusiastic endorsements for Clinton encapsulates her difficulty with a constituency to whom she ought to be far more attractive. She is a sincere Christian with vast political experience. However, her relatively liberal position on abortion makes her suspect and her reputation for untrustworthiness, however weak its foundations, makes her an unpopular candidate.

Follow Mark Woods on Twitter: @RevMarkWoods
World Youth Day: Hundreds of thousands of young Catholics welcome Pope Francis to Poland

Pope Francis can expect a warm welcome from hundreds of thousands of young Catholics when he arrives in Poland for the a five day visit to World Youth Day in Krakow.

According to Crux, Krakow will be a feast of visual pageantry, culminating in a Saturday evening vigil and Sunday morning Mass with the Pope which will rival Broadway and West End productions of Cats and Evita for music, show and style.

Many youths, such as the young people at the festival's 'eco village', are waiting eagerly to meet him. But before he can relax into the friendship, Bible studies, pastoral visits and prayer that he loves so much, the Pope's first duty is at Wawel Castle where he will make a speech to an audience of diplomats and local dignitaries. He will also meet the devoutly Catholic President Andrzej Duda in private.

Poland is economically dependent on its coal industry. Many Polish leaders will be seeking reassurance from Pope Francis about his encyclical on the environment, Laudato Si, which calls for limits on the use of fossil fuels.

The festival, which by its end will see more than 1.5 million young people in and around Krakow, is the biggest media event in Poland for decades, if not in its entire history, with thousands of journalists accredited.

Some of the young people attending are keeping video diaries for the BBC.

In the opening Mass, Krakow Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, former secretary to St Pope John Paul II, called on young Catholics to read a "message of divine mercy".

The Cardinal, who is expected to retire soon - leading to speculation that the Pope will use some of his time in Poland to sound out bishops and senior laity about his successor - said according to the Catholic News Agency: "We come from every nation under heaven, like those who came in great numbers to Jerusalem on Pentecost Day, but there are incomparably more of us now than 2000 years ago, because we are accompanied by centuries of preaching the Gospel."

Cardinal Dziwisz continued: "We bring experience of various cultures, traditions and languages. But what we also bring are testimonies of faith and holiness of our brothers and sisters, followers of the risen Lord, of past generations as well as the current generation."

In spite of heavy rain, there were about 200,000 pilgrims from 187 countries in Krakow's Blonia Park. Nearly 50 cardinals, 800 bishops and 20,000 priests from around the world are expected to be at World Youth Day this week.
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Warren Buffetts margin of safety just got erased.

The billionaire investor spent about $10.9 billion three years ago amassing a stake in IBM Corp. and has since bought more. The computer-services companys surprise announcement Monday that it was abandoning its 2015 earnings forecast caused the stock to plunge, wiping out Buffetts paper profit on the holding.

He usually tries to give himself a big margin of error, said Cliff Gallant, an analyst at Nomura Holdings Inc., who follows Buffetts Omaha, Neb., company, Berkshire Hathaway Inc. He must have believed that he was buying at a price where there was room for disappointment.

IBM has struggled to transform its business fast enough as more customers seek to store data and software on cloud-computing networks, rather than on site. The shift has reduced the need for the companys mainframes and servers.

Chief Executive Officer Ginni Rometty banked on a strong second half of the year, and instead faced weaker-than-expected software sales and lower productivity in services in the third quarter. Shares plunged 6.7 percent to $169.85 at 11:36 a.m. in New York, the biggest intraday decline in a year, and closed at $169.10, down $12.95.

Almost all of Berkshires holding was accumulated at an average price of $171.47, according to the companys most-recent annual report, which showed the cost of that investment was $11.7 billion. Buffett had 70.2 million shares of IBM at the end of June.

The investment was a departure for the billionaire, who has long said that he avoided buying stocks of technology firms for Berkshire because it was hard for him to understand their business plans and forecast their prospects. In April, after the company reported another quarter of revenue declines, he dismissed speculation that he had soured on IBM.

Thats not true, he told CNBC, according to a transcript on its website. I have not been surprised by what theyve reported.

Buffett, 84, didnt respond to a message left with an assistant Monday seeking comment. He has previously said that he wanted IBMs stock to decline in the short term so that the company could repurchase more of its shares.

IBM is focusing on returns for investors who look beyond quarterly results, Rometty said Monday on CNBC. She declined to comment on her conversations with the billionaire.

Another Berkshire investment, Tesco PLC, has also faltered recently, prompting Buffett to reduce the stake. The retailers shares are down by almost half this year as it struggles to recover from overstated profit forecasts, lost market share and an overhaul of top management.

Gallant said hed be surprised if Buffett changed his thinking about IBM after Mondays announcement. Berkshire had a stock portfolio valued at $119.2 billion at the end of June and a record amount of cash. Buffett has larger stakes in Wells Fargo & Co. and Coca-Cola Co.

Berkshire shares were little changed Monday, and have climbed 15 percent this year.

It doesnt upset the apple cart in any way, Gallant said of IBMs slump. Right now, Id say the more pressing concern is that hes got $50 billion of cash that he needs to deploy.

Noah Buhayar is a Bloomberg writer. E-mail: nbuhayar@bloomberg.net
JOHAN ORDONEZ/AFP/Getty Images

Public officials from Houston and Texas are embarking on a trade mission to see the expanded Panama Canal and discuss its prospects for business opportunities.

The trade mission, beginning Sunday, will be led by Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and Ambassador Juan B. Sosa, consul general of Panama in Houston. It was organized by the U.S.-Panama Business Council and other business organizations.
Authorities are searching for a Houston man convicted of sexual contact with a teenage girl in Michigan.

RELATED: Montgomery County Crime Stoppers most wanted: July 21

Cody Brentson Birdwell's last known address was in the 10900 block of Beaumont Highway in Houston.

Before he moved to Houston, Birdwell was convicted in 2004 in a Michigan case involving a 13- to 15 year-old girl. He was sentenced to 25 years in prison.

Birdwell was issued a warrant by the Harris County Sheriff's Office for assaulting a family member. According to Crime Stoppers of Houston, he is also wanted for a parole violation.

Birdwell is described as 5 feet 9 inches tall, weighing about 145 pounds and has hazel eyes and brown hair. He also has tattoos on his left calf, chest, abdomen, back and head.

Crime Stoppers will pay up to $5,000 for information that leads to Birdwell's arrest. Call 713-222-TIPS. All tipsters remain anonymous.
Drenching thunderstorms are possible Wednesday throughout much of the Houston region.

Most areas likely will see about a quarter-inch to a half-inch of rainfall but some spots could see up to 2 inches, said Nikki Hathaway, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.
Police are searching for two suspects who shot and killed one lawn care worker and wounded another Tuesday afternoon outside a motel in southeast Houston.

The shooting happened about 3:30 p.m. outside the Airport Inn and Suites at 8115 Easthaven Boulevard near Laskey Street, according to the Houston Police Department.
Dear Abby:

I'm 30 and have lived with my boyfriend, "Shane," for two years. We spend lots of time together, our families socialize and we have a good relationship.

My problem is Shane's use of social media. He takes a lot of pictures and posts them online while we're together, but I am never in them and he never mentions that I'm there.

Example: We took trips to Las Vegas, New York and Jamaica. He posted dozens of pictures of himself but none of us together.

When we go to nice restaurants, he shoots pictures of the food and solo selfies but never mentions that I'm there, too.

He has female friends I have never met who comment on all his fabulous adventures.

It appears to me that Shane has created an online image as an exciting, jet-setting single guy. But when I say that, he tells me I am being "immature."

I am considering ending the relationship because of this. What do you think?

Out of the Picture

Dear Out of the Picture:

When a couple has been living together for two years and spends the majority of their time together, their friends usually know they are involved.

That Shane has cultivated an image of himself online as fancy-free seems strange to me, too. It may be that he is self-centered or that he's not as committed to your relationship as you would like him to be.

When you tell a person something bothers you, and that person not only doesn't do something about it but blames you, it's a red flag. But if everything else in the relationship is as fine as you say, it doesn't have to be a deal-breaker.

I assume you have a social-media presence of your own. I suggest that you fill it with lots of pictures of Shane, the two of you together and the places you're going together.

DearAbby.comDear Abby P.O. Box 69440 Los Angeles, CA 90069 Universal Press Syndicate
One of the most beloved children's books started out as a letter to a sick child.

Beatrix Potter didn't intend to become a children's book author, but the world had other ideas.
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Clear Lake Shores Civic Club's Barktoberfest-11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Oct. 15 at Jarboe Bayou Park, 815 Birch Road-will raise funds for Bay Area Pet Adoptions.

Plans include a silent auction, dog shows and pet competitions as well as Octoberfest food, drink and music.

Visit CLSCivicClub.com/Barktoberfest for information.

UTMB leader named to head America's Essential Hospitals

Donna K. Sollenberger, executive vice president and chief executive officer of The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston's health system, has been named board chair-elect of America's Essential Hospitals.

She will become board chair in July 2017.

Business development agency appoints membership head

The Economic Development Alliance for Brazoria County has promoted Holly Schroedter to the newly created position of director, membership relations.

Schroedter previously served as the organization's executive administrative assistant.

For information, call 979-848-0560 or visit www.eda-bc.com.

YMCA's annual school supply drive continues through Aug. 12

Operation Backpack, a program of the YMCA of Greater Houston, has launched a month-long school supply drive.

In its 11th year, Operation Backpack aims to give a full set of school supplies inside a new backpack to 100,000 youngsters whose families struggle to make ends meet.

Through Aug. 12, shoppers can make a monetary donation or purchase prepackaged school supplies and a backpack at any participating H-E-B. Visit www.ymcaoperationbackpack.org for a list of supplies needed or to make a monetary donation.

Historical museum to feature 'Texas Zydeco' author

The Brazoria County Historical Museum will feature Roger Wood, author of "Texas Zydeco" at 6:30 p.m. Aug. 4.

To most people, zydeco is associated strictly with Louisiana and more specifically with New Orleans.

Wood's book, "Texas Zydeco," puts that myth to rest and gives Houston the recognition it deserves for its role in shaping modern zydeco.

For proof, Wood and photographer James Fraher spent years traveling the zydeco corridor, interviewing and photographing musicians, dancers, club owners and aficionados along the way. "Texas Zydeco" is the outcome of the collaboration between Wood and Fraher

The museum is located at 100 East Cedar St. in Angleton.

Limited quantities of the book, "Texas Zydeco," will be available for purchase that evening. Admission is free, and light refreshments will be served courtesy of H-E-B. For details, visit www.bchm.org or call 979-864-1208.
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The Bay Area Harbour Playhouse, 3803 Texas 3, Dickinson, presents "Finian's Rainbow," a Broadway musical about Irishmen, leprechauns and a pot of gold, as it starts its 25th anniversary season.

The musical runs through July 31. Performances are at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday and at 2 p.m. Sunday.

For details, visit www.harbourtheater.com or call 281-337-SHOW (7469).

The cast features two Dickinson High School students who are triple threats - they sing, dance and act.

Eleventh-grader Maggie Bledsoe has a lengthy resume that includes Olive Ostrovsky in "The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee," Scout in "To Kill A Mockingbird" and roles in "Little Mary Sunshine" and "The Doctor in Spite of Himself." Her first role was as a cop in "Arsenic and Old Lace." Her current role is Sharon, the daughter of Finian, who has stolen a pot of gold from Og, the leprechaun, played by tenth-grader Cameron Vega.

Both teens have similar starts to their acting career. Bledsoe accepted a friend's invitation to participate in the summer camp offered by Bay Area Harbour Playhouse. "That got me started," said the junior, who participates in theater at school.

Acting since fifth grade, Vega took a theater class at middle school and then attended the playhouse summer camp and "fell in love with acting."

Bledsoe prepares for her roles by studying her lines, reading articles about the show/play and watching what other actresses have done with the role.

"I find what I have in common with that role and it becomes part of me," said Bledsoe.

Once she reaches that point, it's no longer acting but she's become the person she was asked to play. Then it's "lots and lots of practice and rehearsing."

There's no problem in memorizing lines, but sometimes it's difficult in "keeping the lines in order."

Like Bledsoe, Vega has had previous roles in "Carnival," "Little Mary Sunshine," "Lion King," "Our Town" and four other musicals, but Og is his first major role.

"I've never had a big role before," he said. "It feels great. The best part for me is it's a comedic role so I get to have fun with it."

Vega admits "I'm a very shy person. It's hard to get out of my shell."

But over time and practice, he said he's learned to be less self-conscious.

Both teens have learned under the guidance of artistic director Bennie Nipper, 87, a longtime drama teacher, who concluded her 38-year career in education at Friendswood High School, where she joined the staff in 1978 and took over as theater director.

She and her husband, Oscar Nipper, who died two years ago, began restoring and remodeling "The Hollywood," a 1941 movie theater, in 1990 and it reopened as the Harbour Playhouse in 1991 presenting live productions and offering classes.

"I've been doing what I do all my life," said Bennie Nipper. When she wasn't involved in producing or acting herself, she said she would take her kids to see someone else on stage.

Her theater holds open auditions for productions. Many cast members are graduates of her Children's Theater, like Chad-Alan Carr, who owns a theater in Gettysburg, Pennslyvania, and will return to Dickinson to direct the Aug. 13 anniversary show "A Night on Broadway" featuring more than 50 Playhouse veteran performers and alumni. The fundraiser will include wine and hors d'oeuvres during an opening reception, a silent auction and a catered dinner.

"It's a good homey place," Nipper said of the Playhouse. "The acting is good. The music is good."

Instead of watching the same old reruns on television, she extends an invitation to people to attend community theater.

Though she has done "Finian's Rainbow" several times in her career, including in the 1962-63 season at Pasadena Little Theater, she said it's not a common production for local community theaters and thinks audiences would enjoy the show.

"Finian's Rainbow" is a musical with a book by E.Y. Harburg and Fred Saidy, and lyrics by Harburg and music by Burton Lane. The 1947 Broadway musical ran for 725 performances. The 1968 movie "Finian's Rainbow" is the first major film directed by Francis Ford Coppola and featured Petula Clark as Sharon and Tommy Steele as Og.

Baytown

Rogers and Hammerstein's "South Pacific," sponsored by Baytown Little Theatre, is staged July 29-31 at Lee College's Performing Arts Center, 805 W. Texas Ave., Baytown.

Performances begin at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday and at 2:30 p.m. Sunday.

Under the direction of Jim Wadzinski, the musical is set in an island paradise during World War II and tells two parallel love stories threatened by the dangers of prejudice and war.

Favorite songs include "You've Got to be Carefully Taught," "Bali Ha'i," "I'm Gonna Wash That Man Right Outa My Hair," "Some Enchanted Evening," and Happy Talk."

The musical won 10 Tony Awards, including Best Musical, Best Score, and Best Libretto. It also won a Pulitzer Prize in 1950.

Tickets are available at www.lee.edu/pac/. All seats are $20. Visit www.baytownlittletheater.org or call 281-424-7617.

Friendswood

"Movies in the Park" is sponsored by the Friendswood Rotary Club and the City of Friendswood Parks and Recreation Department.

Friday night movies will be shown at the Evelyn B. Newman Amphitheater in Centennial Park, 2200 South Friendswood Drive. They begin at dusk (between 7:30 and 8 p.m.) Popcorn, smoothies, and other treats are available for purchase, or bring your own (no glass containers, please).

The movies are July 29 "Zootopia" (PG) sponsored by HomeTown Bank. Aug. 5 "Home" (PG) sponsored by Nightlight Pediatric Urgent Care, and Aug. 12 "Courageous" (PG-13) sponsored by Operation Redemption.

The Aug. 19 presentation is a "Dive-In" movie at 8 p.m. at Stevenson Park Pool featuring "Minions" (PG), sponsored by Texas Emergency Care Center. Contact the Friendswood Parks and Recreation Department at 281-996-3220 or rec@friendswood.com for details

Deer Park

Dow Park Pavilion, 610 E. San Augustine in Deer Park, features summer concerts starting at 7 p.m. Thursdays through Aug. 11.

The Silver Shoes are scheduled to play Aug. 4 and Sol Flair on Aug. 11. Concessions will be available for purchase from the Deer Park Citizens Police Academy.

Visit www.facebook.com/deerparktx.parksandrecreation.
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Three years since nonprofit organization Be An Angel started offering free American Sign Language classes in Houston, plans are in the works for a reunion.

The gathering will be for those who have completed all three levels - beginning, intermediate and advanced - of the ASL classes, which are taught to hearing persons by volunteer instructor Sheila Johnstone.

Currently, the advanced class has 100 alumni.

"They're always wanting to get together," Johnstone said. "They've bonded so well; it's lovely."

Plans for the reunion are still being finalized, but the gathering probably will take place in September or October at the Tanglewood/Memorial-area Starbucks, where Johnstone and an acquaintance at the time, Richard Tyler, developed the idea for community ASL classes in 2011.

"I mentioned to him that I was interested in teaching ASL in my retirement, and since he'd been a director of the board of Be An Angel, he suggested talking with their current board about the possibility," said Johnstone, who has a background in molecular biology, ran her own business as a medical/legal research consultant, is a dancer and plays piano.

Johnstone is not deaf, or related to someone who is, but the dancer in her fell in love with the ASL movements the first time she witnessed them. She later went on to complete the highest proficiency possible in the language.

When she approached Be An Angel, which serves children who are profoundly deaf and/or have multiple disabilities, its board embraced the idea of the free ASL classes. Tyler offered to be the program underwriter, and the first class, for beginners, met in October 2013.

Not only did the course fill up almost immediately, Be An Angel had to develop a waiting list - a list that has averaged about 200 people since.

"All I can say is it's wildly popular," said Russ Massey, program director for Be An Angel.

As students completed the beginning course, Johnston started getting requests for continued instruction. In response, she gradually developed intermediate and advanced courses in response to alumni demand.

"It's hard for me to turn that down because I'm a teacher," Johnstone said. "Teachers like to teach."

Initially, T. H. Rogers School, home to the Program for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing for Houston Independent School District, contributed instruction space for the classes.

After the school started renovating its building, Johnstone moved the classes to their current home at the Hope and Healing Center & Institute, 717 Sage. Chief Executive Officer Matthew Stanford is a strong supporter of the classes, Johnstone said.

The program also has had the ongoing support of Tyler, who continues to underwrite the classes so students can take them at no charge.

"Richard Tyler comes to every graduation," Johnstone said.

"He is a motivator par excellence."

Tyler said he tries to provide perspective on how people succeed in life.

"The students see, as with anything you succeed at, you have to be committed to it. You have to be focused on it, and you have to expect bumps in the road."

Several deaf ASL interpreters and instructors work with the advanced students in addition to Johnstone, including Kathy Ladell, Rachelle Guidry and Matt Dickens.

"I like my students to see other hand framing, different styles of sign language," Johnstone said. "It's all the same vocabulary, but everyone signs differently."

Advanced students are expected to complete a final exam devised by Johnstone: an evening out at a restaurant as a class. There's no talking or writing allowed; students communicate with each other, while eating, in ASL.

"If they speak, it's a dollar a word," Johnstone said.

"I've made as much as $5 for a class, but with this group (her most recent class), not a penny. It has really, really worked, and they'll never forget that dinner."

It has been exciting, Johnstone added, to see how alumni put their training to use. Students have included nurses, therapists of all kinds and special education teachers, who use their training on the job, along with students who want to enhance their communication with friends and family.

Students also have been going on to take ASL interpreter training and pursue university degrees in deaf education.

"I feel very proud to be a part of the Houston community that helps the profoundly deaf and hard of hearing," Johnstone said.

"Of course, I'm teaching the people who hear, but they go forward in the community. What I do is give them a foundation and confidence."

One advanced ASL graduate, Cheryl Crawford, said word about the quality of the classes has spread, and that has contributed to continuing demand for them.

"Sheila is fun and obviously a brilliant person," Crawford said. "This is one of the many things she's done in her life, and this is her passion.

"Nothing is boring in this class, but Sheila does expect you to work. You have to do your homework and practice. By the end, you really learn ASL."

Also volunteering as classroom assistants are Aileen Riley and Monica Guy.

Be An Angel will offer beginning, intermediate and advanced ASL courses again after Labor Day. For details about any of these 10-week classes, email russ@beanangel.org.

For more information about Be An Angel, visit beanangel.org.
A 30-year-old Humble man has been accused of robbing a bank earlier this month in Fort Bend County.

William Henry Dean is charged in the robbery that happened July 14 at a Bank of America in the 6800 block of Fry Road in the Katy area, according to the Fort Bend County Sheriff's Office.

Deputies said Dean was arrested July 20 on unrelated charges in Harris County and is being held in the Harris County Jail.

Dean is expected to be extradited to Fort Bend County to face the robbery charge in the bank heist.
A woman is being sued by a Houston law firm after she wrote negative reviews of the firm on Facebook and Yelp.

Lan Cai, 20 years old, hired the Law Offices of Tuan A. Khuu and Associates to represent her after she was hit by a drunk driver. But when Cai felt the law firm failed to work with her after she hired them, she vented her frustration online which spurred the law firm to sue her.

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"I wouldn't even give this law firm a star," Cai wrote of the law firm on Yelp on July 7. "When I first start (sic) talking to them they were very pushy. When I try to reach them, no one would answer my call or email. Please, don't waste your time here."

Cai later updated her review to include "If you say a bad thing about this law firm they will try to sue you! So you better (sic) out, you better not cry, this attorney will come for you!"

READ MORE: Photographic proof that driving is more dangerous than ever

Cai wrote on June 30 in the Facebook group Vietnamese Americans in Houston,"...they came to my house and into my room to talk to me when I was sleeping in my underwear. Seriously, it's super unprofessional! After that I found someone else to switch to... I came in the office to meet with my previous attorney, but he literally ran off... So please DON'T waste your time..."

When the three-car collision that injured Cai occurred isn't clear. Cai did not respond to requests for an interview on Wednesday.

Keith Nguyen, an attorney with Tuan A. Khuu, said what Cai posted online isn't true but wouldn't explain what was false about it.

READ MORE: $3 million lottery winner invested money in crystal meth ring

"She made disparaging remarks about the law firm and we asked her to retract the original post. We told her to post the truth online," Nguyen said. "She decided to keep trash talking and didn't heed my warnings. I told her we'd have to sue her if she didn't stop."

The law firm filed suit July 15 in Fort Bend County's 240th State District Court.

According to KPRC, Tuan A. Khuu is asking for $100,000 to $200,000 in damages.

Nguyen said the firm is working with Cai to resolve the issue.

Houston attorney Michael Fleming on Wednesday said he's representing Cai to get the lawsuit dismissed.
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Three Elkins High School students-Alan Cummins, Bryanna Godfrey and Matthew Whaley-attended the Gulf Coast Hugh O'Brien Youth Leadership Seminar in June to participate in service-learning and motivation-building activities.

They joined several high school students from the Gulf Coast area to take part in the seminar at Texas A&M University in Galveston.

At the event, Whaley was selected as the male Texas Gulf Coast ambassador for the 2016 World Leadership Congress, July 23-30 at Loyola University in Chicago.

LCHS student honored at thespian festival

Carolin Wootres, a 2016 Lamar Consolidated High School graduate, was crowned a national champion at the International Thespian Festival in June at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Wootres' theater marketing concept for the Mustang Playhouse's fall 2015 production of "Noises Off" earned her a Superior ranking.

Aaliyah Jenkins, 2016 salutatorian, earned a Superior ranking for her stage management of "Noises Off."

Case for Kids joins national community

The New York City-based coalition Every Hour Counts has selected the Center for Afterschool, Summer and Enriched Learning for Kids, or Case for Kids, as one of 13 organizations nationwide that will launch a national learning community.

The initiative promotes access to quality learning opportunities, particularly for underserved students. Case for Kids, a division of Harris County Department of Education, provides resources for students in after-school programs throughout the county.

Visit www.afterschoolzone.org or www.hcde-texas.org for information.

Arc of Fort Bend honors Frost group

The Arc of Fort Bend County recognized a group of Frost Elementary School teachers and administrators for their work serving students with disabilities at its recent annual awards dinner.

The advocacy organization named 11 Outstanding Educators at the event: Principal Shannon Hood; teachers Lori Gallegos, Jennifer Heath, Karen Naivar and Nina Pustejovsky; special education campus coordinator Jewlon Morris; educational diagnostician Alexandria Blackmon; speech pathologist Emily Easily; occupational therapist Roberta Olivares; and in-home trainers Julia Byars and Melissa Jacobs.

FBISD names student leadership director

The Fort Bend Independent School District board of trustees has selected Audra Ude as its director of student leadership.

Ude will guide leadership development through such student-led organizations as Leadership 101 and 102, student council, National Honor Society, Superintendent Advisory and other programs.

FBISD graduates earn merit scholarships

Seven graduating Fort Bend Independent School District seniors are among 3,000 winners of 2016 College-Sponsored Merit Scholarships.

U.S. college and university officials selected the winners from among the finalists in the 2016 National Merit Scholarship Program. The award provides between $500 and $2,000 annually for up to four years of undergraduate study.

The winners include: Madison McClendon, Austin High School and Baylor University; Andrew Tao and Rohan Walawalkar, Clements High School and Trinity University; Archibald Cruz, Dulles High School and University of Houston; Devon Kulhanek, Dulles High School and Texas A&M University; Doan Le, Dulles High School and Texas A&M University; and Premini Nagesh, Travis High School and University of Texas at Dallas.

Fluor Foundation funds STEM in LCISD

The Fluor Foundation has donated $20,800 to the Lamar Educational Awards Foundation for science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM, programs.

"It's encouraging to see the results of the STEM program at Lamar CISD," said Tim Palmore, senior project manager for Fluor. "I was invited to meet with the students enrolled in this program at Lamar Consolidated High School and see firsthand how it is preparing these students for college and/or future careers. The students were truly excited about what they are learning and how it is preparing them for the future."

Visit www.facebook.com/search/243786655642157/local_search?surface=tyah for information.

Sienna Plantation schools see big gains

Fort Bend Independent School District schools serving Sienna Plantation students saw a marked increase in the annual rankings recently released by Children at Risk, a nonprofit organization that publishes reports on the performance of Texas schools.

Four of the schools serving Sienna Plantation experienced gains of 25 percent or more over 2015 rankings, including Heritage Rose Elementary School, which saw a 160 percent climb in the rankings list from last year.

Baines Middle School marked a 78 percent year-over-year increase in the rankings list, and Sienna Crossing Elementary School saw a 31 percent increase. Scanlan Oaks Elementary School's ranking increased 25 percent in 2016 compared to the 2015 list. First Colony Middle School and Schiff Elementary School were ranked near their 2015 tally.

Ridge Point High School was included on the Children at Risk rankings for the first time this year, placing No. 21 among Houston's 171 high schools and No. 64 among the 1,159 Texas high schools included on the report.

Five of the schools serving Sienna Plantation-First Colony Middle School, Ridge Point High School, Scanlan Oaks Elementary School, Schiff Elementary School and Sienna Crossing Elementary School-received an A& on the report, based on student achievement, campus performance, test score improvement and more. Baines Middle School earned an A, and Heritage Rose Elementary School received a B&.

For information, visit www.siennaplantation.com.

CASE for Kids director earns fellowship

Lisa Thompson-Caruthers, director of the Center for Afterschool, Summer and Enrichment for Kids, or CASE for Kids, has been selected for the White-Riley-Peterson Policy Fellowship.

The Sugar Land resident will work to build networks with after-school professionals and gain a working knowledge of pertinent issues in the state. The fellowship requires her to develop an after-school policy with action projects to share at the end of 10 months.

"Fellows will participate in a year-long process, including an intensive, week-long fall workshop in Greenville, South Carolina, that will create a cohort of entrepreneurial, networked leaders capable of strengthening policy in support of after-school and expanded learning opportunities," fellowship program director Cathy Stevens said.

Visit www.afterschoolzone.org or www.hcde-texas.org to learn more.
Open Mic: Birds of a Feather  Birding and Pokemon

At the Mic: Steve Schultz

Its hard to be a birder. Or rather, its hard to explain to someone why Im a birder. Whether its at a cocktail party, describing hobbies and interests during the dreaded workplace get to know you exercise, or when responding to a roadside inquiry as to what are you looking at, describing to a non-birder the allure of birdwatching can be challenging. Say to someone, my hobbies are fishing and cigars and little else needs to be said. Get a knowing nod and then maybe move into a discussion as to whether Cohibas will still retain their mystique once Cuba opens to commerce, or lament on how there just arent as many fish out there as there were in the good old days. But the response to Im a birder is often puzzled silence. After all, do people really just roam around and look for little animals to add to their virtual creel?

But now I have an easy comparison to which most folks can immediately relate. I simply say that birding is like Pokemon Go, but replaces virtual pocket monsters with real feathered animals. (For folks not connected to the internet, or who have not ventured outside recently, Pokemon Go is a smartphone game app that became the summer of 16s hottest fad. Users travel to physical locations to capture virtual cartoon monsters that are displayed overlapped on the users live video display through use of augmented reality.)

When Pokemons latest craze swept across the world in mid-July, millions of folks discovered the excitement and sense of accomplishment of navigating to seemingly random locations to capture creatures to add to ones menagerie. That, in a nutshell, is birding; or at least my version of it. Drive to a place Ive never been before, follow the directions on my smartphone, look across the field, and bang, I add a Says Phoebe to my list. Or I might strike out on my own to discover what unknown birds may be lurking in forest or fen a field trip in birding parlance. Eerily similar to roaming the local park for cute pink and yellow monsters, except that my feathered friends actually exist, and I dont have to buy any power balls to secure my sighting. Although that pair of expensive German binoculars might seem rather lavish to the Pokemon user able to power up for a dollar or so.

So birders enjoy getting outside, visiting new places, adding sightings to our lists, and meeting people with similar interests. Pokemon users enjoy getting outside, visiting new places, adding creatures to their lists, and meeting people with similar interests. Finally! I can succinctly explain my free-time pursuits in a way that generates continued conversation and reduces the changes of obtaining a blank stare when trying to explain birding. I just simply say that Im playing Pokemon Go, but substituting birds for pocket monsters.

And will some of the millions of folks enjoying the great outdoors while playing the app discover that a real-world Pokemon Go exists? I hope so! For birding offers many of the same benefits of exercise, visits to new places, exploration of the natural world, the excitement of capturing a shiny new sighting, and satisfying the itch to collect the full set.

The next time you spot a pocket monster collector roaming your neighborhood, consider sharing the allure of birding you might win a convert and make a new friend!

-=====-

Steve Schultz of Raleigh, North Carolina, is an active birder in the North Carolina Triangle and beyond, and a member of the NC Bird Records Committee.
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The Federal Emergency Management Agency has extended the deadline for Texas residents to register for disaster assistance following the April storms.

Residents have until July 29 to apply for federal disaster assistance for damage that occurred between April 17 and 30.

"Our state over the past few months has experienced a number of severe weather events that have destabilized many areas across Texas," U.S. Rep. Al Green said. "It is my hope that this additional time will allow more affected Texans to apply for the disaster aid that they need."

FEMA disaster assistance is available to residents of Anderson, Austin, Cherokee, Colorado, Fayette, Fort Bend, Grimes, Harris, Liberty, Montgomery, Parker, San Jacinto, Smith, Waller, Wharton and Wood counties.

Disaster survivors may register at www.disasterassistance.gov or by calling 800-621-3362. To find the nearest disaster recovery center, visit asd.fema.gov/inter/locator.

Employees coordinate flood-victim donations

Kelsey-Seybold Clinic employees recently rallied around community members in Fort Bend, Brazoria and Montgomery counties affected by recent flooding and donated more than 1,500 pounds of needed items to four organizations.

Diapers, apparel, cleaning supplies, food, pet supplies and personal grooming items were collected for the Multi-Agency Recovery Center in Fort Bend, Brazoria County Dream Center, Interfaith of The Woodlands and SPCA of Brazoria County.

"Everyone pitched in and donated what they could to make this campaign a success," said Dr. Tony Lin, chairman of Kelsey-Seybold Clinic. "We hope that our contributions help those affected by the floods."

Kelsey-Seybold employees donated more than 100 cans of baby formula, 500 bars of soap, 300 containers of shampoo, 1,700 diapers and more than 100 rolls of paper towels.

My House Fitness opens in Richmond

My House Fitness welcomed the Central Fort Bend Chamber and more than 30 guests to its ribbon-cutting ceremony July 6 at 8019 W. Grand Parkway S.

The studio offers one-on-one fitness programs, small and large group training, nutritional counseling and weight-loss programs.

Visit www.myhousefitness.com or www.CFBCA.org for information.

First responders receive drone

Following the 2016 Memorial flood event and in an effort to assist emergency personnel, Gary Gillen of Gillen Pest Control has donated a drone to the city of Richmond.

Gillen purchased the drone from Vincent Ostera of Xtreme Guns & Ammo at cost. Ostera will help train users to pilot the drone.

Seniors celebrate talents, independence

Fort Bend Seniors Meals on Wheels beneficiaries and staff recently gathered at the Bud O'Shieles Community Center in Rosenberg for a talent show and Fourth of July celebration.

Kathleen Qualia won first place with a comedy performance. Second place went to seniors from the FBS Fifth Street Community Center in Stafford for a group performance. Additional talents included artwork, needlework, singing, drumming, dancing and storytelling.

Visit www.fortbendseniors.org for information.

Surgeon reserves time for military service

If you get an out-of-office message from Dr. Kulvinder "Vinni" Bajwa, there is a good chance he is out of the country on a military deployment.

Sugar Land resident Bajwa, 47, is an assistant professor and a member of Minimally Invasive Surgeons of Texas at McGovern Medical School at UTHealth. He also is a colonel in the U.S. Army Reserve.

Past deployments include stints with combat support hospitals and forward surgical teams in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"I've always wanted to be a physician, and I've always wanted to serve my country," said Bajwa, who provides surgical care to patients at Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center. "The Army Reserve allows me to do both."

Bajwa is just back from a 90-day deployment at the Soto Cano Air Base in Honduras, where he participated in joint medical readiness exercises and missions with other branches of the military. Bajwa and his mobile surgical team treated underserved residents in La Paz, Tegucigalpa, San Pedro Sula and San Marcos.
Katy High School's Jasmine Mack traveled to New York City's Carnegie Hall with eight other Harris County students in June for the 2016 National Scholastic Art & Writing Awards.

Mack, who graduated this year, was selected as a gold medalist for her art piece "Musician."
June 3 marked Joe Sosa's last day as an educator in the Katy Independent School District.

But after working 42 years in special education in Wisconsin and Texas, Sosa isn't retiring from being an advocate for teachers, students and their parents. He talks of continuing volunteer efforts and lobbying in the Legislature on their behalf as a member of the Katy Area Retired Educators, which is part of the Texas Retired Teachers Association.

"We, the state, have a lot of money. It's always a battle as to who gets the money," he said.

He's concerned about voucher schools competing for funds against public schools.

Voucher supporters say it provides more options for parents but opponents say the program diverts funding from public schools.

"They (voucher schools) don't produce better students than public schools," said Sosa, who turned 66 in July. He added that voucher schools lack accountability.

Sosa likely will find that among lobbying issues as Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick says a top priority for him when the Legislature meets next year will be private-school voucher legislation to provide school choice for all children with state funding.

Sosa said he's already met Patrick and found him to be an advocate for charter or private schools but not public schools or public school teachers.

"Charter schools don't operate under the same mandates as public schools," said Sosa. "There's no proof they are as effective as public schools."

Public school critics contend that throwing more money at public education won't help, continued Sosa, who added that more money is needed by public schools that also need to be fiscally responsible and manage funds properly.

Sosa's public education career started in Wisconsin. He taught emotionally disturbed high school students in Oshkosh beginning in 1974.

The next year, President Gerald R. Ford signed the Education for All Handicapped Children Act, which Sosa describes as being "the Bill of Rights for students with disabilities, mandating them to be educated in public school for the first time in history."

Parents applied political pressure on the federal government, borrowing from the Civil Rights movement that separate is not equal, he said, resulting in public education no longer being able to turn away a special education child.

Moved to Texas

Leaving behind his pilot Wisconsin program, Sosa moved to Texas in the late 1970s and began teaching in the Spring Branch Independent School District. He continued teaching secondary emotionally disturbed students at the junior and senior high level and became the coordinator for the district's first alternative school for the special needs secondary students.

Spring Branch was notable for another reason. During a staff meeting, he met another educator who became his wife. Married 32 years, he and Randi Lou have two sons. She continues to teach at Winborn Elementary in Katy ISD. Their son Alan is a high school science teacher in Austin. The other son, Ryan, teaches martial arts in Los Angeles. The family of teachers includes an uncle, who's now retired from teaching, added Sosa, who taught 31 years in the Katy ISD, the last 13 assigned to Morton Ranch Junior High School.

Mark McCord, principal at Morton Ranch Junior High School, talked of Sosa's contributions to the school in an email.

"First and foremost, Joe was an excellent teacher," said McCord, who's known Sosa since 2009. "He put students first and worked hard to support their success."

McCord said Sosa also had his successes at the district level where he sat on a variety of committees to represent the voice of Morton Ranch Junior High and teachers in general.

"He maintained an awareness of legislative issues and how they might potentially effect public education. He did such a notable job in this role, Leonard Merrell, former KISD superintendent came by in May to celebrate Joe's retirement," said McCord.

At Katy ISD, Sosa piloted the Life and Positive Approach for Student Success programs and taught more than 1,000 hours of crisis intervention to teachers and administrators.

Other education-related roles included service on state-level committees and teaching for the Region IV Education Service Center Alternative Teacher Preparation program. He lectured in Mexico City to prepare Mexican nationals to teach in Texas to help with the shortage of bilingual teachers.

Reflecting on his education career, he said, "My ability to work with children with disorders - exceptional students - is something I'm very proud of."

Time to retire

But the time is right to retire.

"After 42 years in education, I'm finding the changes more and more difficult to live with. The only thing constant in education is change. The time is right to ride into the sunset," he said.

"Katy ISD is a premiere school district not only academically but also for special programs for exceptional children," he said.

The special education program is growing faster than other programs, he said, and he doesn't see it slowing down. When parents with exceptional children want to move to the Houston area, they do their research and they'll come to Katy, he said.

According to the Katy ISD website, special education students represented 9.7 percent of the district enrollment of 70,646 in 2014-15 or 6,937 students. A decade before, Katy ISD had 4,384 students enrolled in special education, representing 8.6 percent of total enrollment.

In a 2013-14 Katy ISD Special Education Highlights report, officials said that autism programs began in 2001 with one classroom for five students. By 2012-14, Katy ISD had 1,188 students with autism.

But those are numbers and Sosa is known as a people person.

"Joe went above and beyond what is expected as a classroom teacher," said McCord. "Whether he was organizing a trip to the Holocaust Museum, or dressing up as Santa for a Life Skills celebration, Joe demonstrated his love for his role and our students.

"The first thought that comes to mind when I think of Joe is the warm way he greets everyone," added McCord. "He is quick with a smile and a firm handshake. He acknowledges others and makes them feel valued."
The Humble school district is one of hundreds of Texas school districts that will share $116 million to fund pre-kindergarten programs.

The district was awarded a $468,000 grant as part of a prekindergarten initiative.

"To receive the grant, Humble ISD demonstrated that it met enhanced quality standards related to curriculum, teacher qualification, academic performance and family engagement," said Humble ISD Communications Director Jamie Mount.

The funding was made possible by House Bill 4 during the last legislative session in 2015.

The $116 million will fund about half the state's 1,200 school districts.

The pre-kindergarten program serves four-year-olds who live within the district's boundaries and meet eligibility criteria established by the state.

The district is projecting to have 675 pre-kindergarten students enrolled for the 2016-17 school year.

"The additional funding will allow Humble ISD to reduce staff-to-student ratios in Pre-K classes, expand programming, provide additional classroom technology, extend the contract with ReadyRosie so parents continue to have access to the online early education tool, provide consistent instructional materials in each classroom, and expand professional learning for all Pre-K staff," Mount said.

ReadyRosie, according to its webpage, is an early education tool that helps schools and communities across the nation deepen parental engagement by videos and mobile technology. Meanwhile, the funding from House Bill 4 for state-wide pre-K programing received support from the Texas Education Agency earlier this month.

"Implementation of this important grant program, which remains a priority of Governor Abbott, provides important educational support to our youngest Texans," said TEA Education Commissioner Mike Morath.

"By working to ensure and expand high quality prekindergarten programs across our state, we take an important step toward ensuring every child is prepared for the classroom from the very first day."

Registration

Registration for Pre-K students district-wide will be 9 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Aug. 3, and 9 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Aug. 6, at Park Lakes Elementary School, 4400 Wilson Road. To learn more about the Humble ISD pre-K program, go to www.humbleisd.net
AUSTIN  Montgomery County's chief executive on Tuesday asked a Texas panel to lift his suspension while he fights charges that he violated the state's open meetings law.

Montgomery County Judge Craig Doyal told the State Commission on Judicial Conduct that he didn't think he did anything wrong in trying to galvanize support for a $280 million road bond package passed by voters last fall. Doyal, two other county commissioners and an adviser were indicted by a grand jury last month on charges that they circumvented the Texas Open Meetings Act by talking in private about the potential structure of a bond plan before placing it on the ballot.
HOUSTON (AP)  Commissioners who run the Port of Houston have given up the idea of using the site as a cruise ship base after spending $108 million on the project since 1999.

Port commissioners voted Tuesday to authorize sale of the gangway system used by passengers to board the few ships that chose to sail from the Bayport Cruise Terminal.
In a recent article titled George Washingtons Constitutional Morality, Samuel Gregg explores the views of the first President on the founding principles and guiding influences of the United States. Gregg identifies three key elements of Washingtons political wishes for the new nation:

Washington identified a distinct set of ideas that he thought should shape what he and others called an Empire of Libertyclassical republicanism, eighteenth-century English and Scottish Enlightenment thought, and above all Revelation.

Washington, like many of the Founders, had a great deal of admiration for Greek and Roman philosophers and statesmen. In drawing from Greco-Roman concepts of morality, he emphasized the importance of good citizenship and virtue in public service. Comments Gregg:

The prevalence of civic virtue among politicians and citizens doesnt of course guarantee societys liberty. Nonetheless, Washington clearly doubted whether a republic awash in vice could endure.

The second aspect of Washingtons view of a moral constitutionalism was the influences of English and Scottish Enlightenment philosophy. Gregg notes that John Locke, Adam Smith, and Edmund Burke were among his favored thinkers, rather than French thinkers like Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Voltaire, indicating Washingtons adherence to only certain schools of Enlightenment thought:

Washingtons emphasis on liberty under law is a motif that permeates the eighteenth-century English and Scottish Enlightenments and distinguished them from continental Enlightenment admirers of enlightened absolutism. This concept of freedom manifests itself in themes such as consent as the only legitimate foundation for political authority, happiness as the purpose of government, and the states responsibility to protect natural rights.

Finally, A revealed God completed Washingtons perspective on the founding. Gregg holds that Washington attributes the highest place in Americas political culture to Revelation and an active deity. This focus on Revelation allowed him to stress religions importance for American public life for Protestants, Catholics, and Jews alike and to grant religion an important role in the guidance of the nation.

Gregg calls Americans to consider the principles and philosophy guiding todays leaders and molding the country. His reflection, in the end, is optimistic:

For those who believe that America has wandered far from the core beliefs shaping the Founding, exploration of Washingtons views on these matters confirms their fears. Yet the same inquiry also reminds us of the resources to which Americans can look if they ever choose to begin a process of renewal.

Read the entire piece here.
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Tuesday night, legendary astronaut Buzz Aldrin tweeted his travel voucher reimbursement documents, claiming just $33.31.

The documents show Aldrin's NASA Project Apollo path starting in Houston.

From Houston, Aldrin flew to Cape Kennedey, Fla., and his second stop is labeled simply, "Moon." Other legs of the historic trip include an arrival in the Pacific Ocean. Aldrin traveled to Hawaii before ultimately returning to Houston via a U.S. Air Force plane. (Story continues below.)

The documents read, "Government meals and quarters furnished for all the above dates," with the range starting from July 7 through July 27, 1969, with the method of transportation labeled "Gov. Air."

The Apollo 11 mission was the first that landed humans on the moon, on July 20. Aldrin walked onto the lunar surface about 20 minutes after Neil Armstrong took the first steps.

The total amount Aldrin claimed for the historic trip? A total of $33.31.

The estimated total cost of the Apollo 11 trip in 1969 dollars was about $25.4 billion. That's an estimated $150 billion today.
 Turkey Cracks Down on Academics, Anti-Israel Scholars Silent | Main | Los Angeles Times Whitewashes Murder of 3 Israelis 

July 27, 2016

A New York Times Round-Up Omits Anti-Israel Terror

Twice in one week, CNN inexplicably omitted anti-Israel attacks in its overviews of terrorism around the world. And although the broadcaster later updated both articles to mention Palestinian attacks on Israeli civilians, many readers couldnt help but wonder what was behind the omission in the first place. How could any well-versed journalist not remember that Israel has been a primary target of terrorists?

With todays New York Times feature that fails to refer to anti-Israel attacks, readers may ask the same question. To be sure, the primary focused of the feature on a two-week period in March during which no Israelis were killed. And a paragraph in the introduction refers to a more recent week of mass casualty attacks in Iraq, Turkey, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Somalia, Cameroon, and Saudi Arabia, a week in which two Israelis were killed in separate, individual-casualty attacks. But the pieces introduction is more sweeping, referring to

an endless stream of terror attacks. Orlando and Beirut. Paris and Nice and St. Etienne-du-Rouvray, France. Germany and Japan and Egypt. Each bomb or bullet tearing holes in homes and communities.

The bullets targeting Israelis at Tel Avivs Sarona Market this summer also tore holes in homes and communities, and took four lives. Israel was not mentioned, despite the attack causing more casualties than the recent attack in Etinee-du-Rouvray, or this summers attack on a police officer in Paris that the feature appears to reference.

And while still, this passage doesnt purport to be an exhaustive list of all of this summers terror attacks, the question again arises: Is The New York Times letting politics dissuade it from including anti-Israel terror attacks among those targeting civilians of other nationalities?

Although this one case doesnt allow for a clear answer, it is an appropriate question, especially considering the newspapers documented tendency to downplay Palestinian violence against Israelis (see chapter four of CAMERAs six month study here). The newspapers public editor in 2014 felt the need to remind her colleagues that Palestinians are more than just victims.? Perhaps they should also be reminded that Israelis, all too often, are victims of international terror.

Posted by GI at July 27, 2016 01:19 PM

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This is a moderated blog. We will not post comments that include racism, bigotry, threats, or factually inaccurate material.

Post a comment
John Gray, event organizer and president of the TEXXXAS adult expo, was scrambling last week to find a new venue for his adult film-star-laden event after it was booted from its Hilton location.

The TEXXXAS fan event was due to kick off Aug. 17 and run through Aug. 20, at the Hilton Houston Southwest in the Galleria area. After-parties were also planned at strip clubs near the hotel that week.

RELATED: TEXXXAS adult expo coming to Houston in August

But the Hilton hotel cancelled the booking, saying that the decision was made in the best interest of other guests at the hotel.

On Monday night, Gray told the Houston Chronicle that he had booked a new venue for the expo.

The event will now be held at a Holiday Inn location in Southwest Houston, according to Gray, just outside Beltway 8 near West Bellfort.

"Our new venue is only five minutes away from the original one. I am also happy to announce a reduced fan rate for our fans at my expense," Gray said Tuesday.

Gray also said that he had added porn stars Evan Stone, Mia Vallis and Aysia Garza to the mix of stars coming to Houston.

Stone made headlines recently for starring as a Donald Trump-type character in a Hustler Video production. Yes, Donald Trump porn exists, as Rule 34 of the Internet never fails.

It was previously announced that female porn stars Cherie Deville, Olivia Austin, Dillion Harper, Brett Rossi, plus male star Mick Blue and others will be on hand to meet fans and sign autographs. Rossi is likely best known to mainstream audiences as a former fiancee of actor Charlie Sheen.

Stars from porn's past, such as Ron Jeremy and Nina Hartley, are also scheduled to appear.

The National Center on Sexual Exploitation sent out an email Friday morning saying it had expressed its concerns to Hilton that the convention would bring an increased demand for prostitution and sex trafficking. That group took credit for convincing Hilton Worldwide and Hospitality Ventures Management Group (which runs the Galleria hotel) to cancel Gray's expo booking.

In a statement to the Houston Chronicle, general manager Maggie Rosa with the Hilton location that booted Gray said Friday that the decision was made in the best interest of other guests at the hotel.

RELATED: Upcoming Houston adult expo booted from hotel venue after advocacy group pressure

"After careful consideration, our Hilton Houston Galleria Area Hotel made the decision not to host this event and regret if it has unintentionally offended any individual or organization. Our goal is always to provide quality accommodations and a welcoming environment for guests, employees and members of our community visiting our hotel," Rosa said.

Meanwhile the national anti-exploitation group tells the Chronicle that it is holding an event of its own soon in Houston. The 2016 Coalition to End Sexual Exploitation Summit is set to take place Sept. 29 through Oct. 1 at the Omni Houston Hotel Westside.

Gray had some parting words for Hilton and that advocacy group.

"I would like to ask my former venue and the coalition one question. Are they going to try to urge all hotels to cancel the Super Bowl next year? That event has a historical record of bringing more sex trafficking and prostitution to their host city than any other event."
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The Houston school board voted unanimously Wednesday to name the superintendent of San Francisco public schools as the lone finalist for the top job here.

Richard Carranza, 49, known for his charisma and commitment to equitable education for all students, would inherit a tough task in Houston, where test scores are lackluster and finances are tight. The former teacher and principal has had a relatively smooth tenure during his four years leading the diverse California system, about a quarter the size of the Houston Independent School District.

RELATED: Grier out as HISD superintendent

The board's unanimous vote for Carranza represents an important public show of unity among trustees, who have been particularly divided along ideological and racial lines this year.

"We have come together as a team," said board vice president Wanda Adams. "We have agreed to disagree on issues. But at the end we were able to cross the finish line."

Board members said Carranza's devotion to equity, his willingness to listen and his support of the arts -- he is a noted mariachi musician -- as qualities that stood out among the 35 applicants.

Carranza said in a brief phone interview that he sees Houston schools as ripe for improvement. He touted his efforts in San Francisco to focus on students' social and emotional needs, in addition to academics.

"We never lower the bar for children, but we raise the level of support," said Carranza, who described himself as a "blue-collar superintendent," the son of a sheet metal worker and a hairdresser who was influenced by public school teachers to attend college.

"I believe the role of the superintendent is to be in the community," Carranza added. "People are going to see me and are going to understand I'm approachable."

Carranza said he is ready to accept the job and expects to schedule a trip to Houston soon. Houston board members also plan to visit San Francisco before the 21-day waiting period expires.

Under Texas law the school board will have to wait 21 days to make Carranza's hiring official. They also must agree on contract terms.

RELATED: HISD fires superintendent search firm

Carranza, who grew up speaking Spanish in Arizona and learned English in school, would be the Houston district's second Hispanic superintendent. Abelardo Saavedra, at the helm from 2004 through 2009, was first.

Board president Manuel Rodriguez Jr. said early in the superintendent search that he hoped the new chief would speak Spanish, as more than 60 percent of the 215,000 students in the district are Hispanic. About three-quarters of the children are low income.

Roughly half of San Francisco's 55,000 students are economically disadvantaged. The demographic breakdown is 36 percent Asian, 27 percent Hispanic, 13 percent Caucasian, 8 percent African American, and 16 percent other or not reported.

RELATED: San Francisco schools leader top contender for HISD leader post

The Houston Federation of Teachers expressed "cautious optimism" about working with Carranza. The union has been opposed to Houston's use of student test scores in teachers' job evaluations  a practice Carranza pledged not to support in San Francisco.

"Houston is different from San Francisco in some ways, and there will be a learning curve to understanding our community, but Carranza's track record of social justice will provide an important foundation on which to bring equity to our public schools," union president Zeph Capo said in a statement.

Carranza would succeed Terry Grier, who retired at the end of February after a controversial six-and-a-half year tenure marked by fast-moving reform efforts and high staff turnover. Grier came to Houston from the 130,000-student San Diego district.

Ken Huewitt, the district's former chief financial officer, has been serving as interim superintendent and had interviewed to keep the job. On Tuesday, the district's chief academic officer, Drew Houlihan, accepted a superintendent's job in North Carolina.

The board had hoped to hire a new superintendent by July 1, but got a late start after ousting its first headhunting firm and summer schedules complicated the timing. Students return to class in less than four weeks.
PHILADELPHIA  Former presidential candidate Bernie Sanders told Texas delegates at the Democratic National Convention Wednesday that it was time to put away their differences with newly-anointed nominee Hillary Clinton.

"It goes without saying that in the next three months we've got to defeat Donald Trump and elect Hillary Clinton," Sanders said to a hotel ballroom filled with cheering delegates. "Donald Trump is the worst candidate in the modern history of this country."

Sanders' appearance at the Texas delegates' hotel came 24-hours after their breakfast meeting broke up in dissension between young, die-hard Sanders supporters and older Democrats who called for the party to rally around Clinton.

The mood had calmed noticeably since Tuesday morning, though some Sanders supporters expressed their suspicions about a microphone malfunction as Sanders spoke.

But all the delegates cheered Sanders' arrival, giving him standing ovations both before and after his 20-minute speech. He was also given with a rally sign signed by all the Texas delegates. It was presented by Clarissa Rodriguez, 17, a Sanders supporter and the convention's youngest delegate.

Sanders made no mention of the fracas the day before, turning instead to a recitation of his campaign's accomplishments and what he sees as the dangers of a Trump presidency.

"What makes Trump different and worse," Sanders said, "is that he is a demagogue. The cornerstone of his campaign is not economics. The cornerstone of his campaign is bigotry. It is bringing one group of Americans against another group, whether it is Latinos and Mexicans, whether it is Muslims, whether it is insulting women, or whether it is insulting African Americans."

Sanders recalled some of Trump's earliest forays into national politics questioning President Barack Obama's birth in Hawaii. "I want everybody here not to forget that before Trump became a candidate for president, he was a leader of the so-called birther movement," he said. "What the birther movement was about was not disagreeing with Barack Obama. That's called democracy. We can disagree with anybody. What it was about was trying to undermine the legitimacy of the first African-American president in our history."

He pleaded with his supporters to stay involved:

"We have got to bring our people together, black and white, Latino and Asian American. We have got to bring our people together, whether they are gay or straight, male or female. Whether they were born in America or whether they came to America. Bring our people together to create the kind of country that we must become."

Sanders also recalled some of the highlights of his travels to the Lone Star State, which broke for Clinton in the March primary by a lopsided margin of 65 percent to 33 percent. "I know we didn't do great in the state of Texas," he said, "but I want to thank all of you for your support."

He talked about a meeting in an Austin union hall last year when he was still considering a presidential bid: "We're driving in and there was this damn traffic. There was a real traffic jam. And I said 'Damn it, we're going to be late to this meeting,' and I wondered what this traffic jam was about. It turns out it was people getting into the meeting."

The moral of the story: Democrats are motivated in Texas and they "have got a chance to do well around the country."

He also called out the young people who voted for him by wide margins in many states. "Why that is important is by definition," he said. "Young people are the future of this country, and they are the future of the Democratic Party."
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has said a few eye-opening things during his pursuit of office.

After accepting the Republican presidential nomination on Thursday, Trump continued to wonder if Rafael Cruz, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz's father, was somehow connected to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1963.
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Joaquin Castro, a second-term congressman from San Antonio, is not ruling out a run against failed presidential candidate Ted Cruz for his U.S. Senate seat come 2018, he told "CBS This Morning" Tuesday.

The Castro twins are in Philadelphia this week for the 2016 Democratic National Convention, where the party plans to officially nominate Hillary Clinton for president. Joaquin Castro will speak Thursday night, a part his brother Julian played four years ago in North Carolina preceding first lady Michelle Obama.

RELATED: Joaquin Castro, not Julian, to speak at the 2016 Democratic National Convention

Julian Castro, former San Antonio mayor, told CBS Tuesday it wasn't in the brothers' plan to "run in Texas" against Cruz, who "used to be the most popular politician in Texas, and his standing has fallen fairly far."

"He's speaking for himself, he's not speaking for me on this one," Joaquin Castro said. "I'm going to take a look at in 2018, I'll take a look at that and other opportunities. I've never been somebody that said, 'In two years, I've absolutely got to run for Senate or governor,' but I will take a look at it."

RELATED: Joaquin Castro appointed to Intelligence Committee

The brothers have often spoken of turning Texas, a historically red state, blue  a task proved difficult in 2014.

Cruz responded on Twitter Tuesday afternoon urging followers to donate money to help him "fight back against the Castro brothers and any attempt by the media or establishment to turn Texas blue!"

In a fundraising email that afternoon, Cruz said: "Despite any record of achievement and a liberal ideology out of touch with the majority of Texans, the Castro brothers have the full support of the mainstream media and Washington establishment willing to do everything in their power to turn Texas blue."

"In order to stop the Castro brothers attempts to bring their liberal ideology to the halls of the U.S. Senate  I need you by my side," he added.

Former state Sen. Wendy Davis, D-Fort Worth, was the last Democrat to run for governor in Texas. Despite a fan base bolstered by her 11-hour filibuster in 2013, she was defeated by now-Gov. Greg Abbott a year later by a large margin.

RELATED: The Castro brothers through the years

Julian, who was rumored to be on Clinton's shortlist for vice president before she announced her running mate as Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va), is now refuting the idea of him taking over for Debbie Wasserman Schultz who resigned her position as chair of the party after an email leak exposed bias toward Clinton over the weekend.

"I have no interest in that," Julian Castro said.

But for Joaquin?

"Never say never," he said. "But it hasn't been on my radar."

kbradshaw@express-news.net

Twitter: @kbrad5
-- SHOT: Dems Make Hillary Clinton a Historic Nominee, by The New York Times Patrick Healy and Jonathan Martin

The convention underwent a notable shift as the evening went on: Mr. Sanders was barely mentioned, a deliberate decision by the Clinton campaign officials who organized the lineup of speakers. Advisers said that, with Mrs. Clinton now the nominee, they wanted to focus on her character and political record, and on taking the fight to Mr. Trump, rather than continuing to nod to Mr. Sanders and his primary fight.

-- CHASER: Unity still a tough sell for some Sanders supporters, by the Houston Chronicles Kevin Diaz and Bill Lambrecht of the San Antonio Express-News

Alone in a small holding area with two of their aides, Leticia Van de Putte and Clinton's former rival embraced. I said thank you and he looked at me and said, it's time to move on.

You could see that hurt of defeat, she recalled Tuesday. And I am no stranger to the hurt of defeat.

Tempers flared at the Texas Democrats' breakfast meeting after a Sanders supporter calling for dialogue suddenly went negative on Hillary Clinton, sparking a burst of shouting, boos and tears.

-- DNC TONIGHT: Tim Kaine, the self-described "boring" Virginia senator, will give the speech of his life Wednesday as he introduces himself to the country as Hillary Clinton's running mate at the Democratic National Convention. His first appearance Saturday as Clinton's vice presidential pick received largely positive reviews -- perhaps because the expectations were so low.

He has earned -- and embraced -- an image of a low-key, less-than-dynamic stage presence, and his record as a public speaker has been somewhat uneven. But he'll have less breathing room when he takes center stage at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, writes CNNs Ryan Nobles.

-- Sandra Bland's Mother Back Hillary Clinton, by The Texas Tribunes Abby Livingston

Geneva Reed-Veal, the mother of Sandra Bland, noted that Monday marked the one-year anniversary of her daughter's burial after dying in a Waller County jail. Three days after she was arrested after a traffic stop, Bland was found hanged in her cell. Her death has been ruled a suicide.

-- Cecile Richards to Texas Dems: 'We only get the justice that we fight for,' by The Dallas Morning News Tom Benning

"For our young Bernie organizers who ... were speaking from the heart earlier, the moral of this is that we only get the justice that we fight for," Richards said. "And everything that we believe in is on the line in this presidential election."

>> 5 takeaways from the night Clinton made history, by POLITICOs Glenn Thrush

Bill Clinton has always been a wear-you-out (if flashes-of-genius) talker, and those tendencies only become more pronounced with age. But his prolixity actually illustrates a bigger problem that afflicts the candidate herself as she struggles to find a pithy, appealing message to voters.

Clintons aides were intent to give Sanders something Donald Trump was never willing to offer Ted Cruz  dignity and respect in defeat, a graceful exit, an evening to bask in his accomplishments. It worked.

-- Analysis: A Temporary Hitch in Plans for Some of Texas Political A-List, by The Texas Tribunes Ross Ramsey

Some of the rising stars in Texas  Ted Cruz and Julian Castro  have left their predictable political orbits for uncharted journeys. Theyre not cooked yet, and although youll hear otherwise, its silly to say theyll never get up.

But 2018 could be an interesting political environment. If Donald Trump wins the presidency in November, the election would happen two years into his term. Thats often a low point in a presidents political popularity and offers voters an opportunity to critique an administration. Cruz, a bitter rival, would be unlikely to get any love from a Trump White House even if things are going great.

SPEED READ

Charges dismissed against Planned Parenthood videographers, Houston Chronicle

Indicted Montgomery County judge asks panel to let him return to work, Houston Chronicle

State officials work to shut down casino-style gaming in East Texas, Fort Worth Star-Telegram

Texas leads nation in deaths of law enforcement officers, AP

Mexican-American history textbook already being sold, despite controversy, Houston Chronicle

Officer says he wasn't allowed to testify in Bland case, Houston Chronicle

The Armed Civilian Who Helped Stop UTs Tower Sniper 50 Years Ago, Texas Tribune

After Tower Shooting, UT Pioneered Services to Heal and Defend Campuses, Texas Standard

Lawmaker Asks Ken Paxton to Step In on Car Registration Spat, Texas Tribune

Texas is far behind the conversation on paid leave, Houston Chronicle

Galveston County Judge Says He Wont Consider Plea Bargains For Those Who Threaten Or Endanger Police Officers, Texas Monthly

New Texas womens health program has family planning focus, AP

CAPITOL DAYBOOK: No meetings scheduled

RACE TO THE WHITE HOUSE

-- Spy Agency Consensus Grows That Russia Hacked D.N.C., by NYTs David E. Sanger and Eric Schmitt

In an interview with Savannah Guthrie of NBC News on Tuesday, President Obama stopped short of accusing the Russian agencies from seeking to manipulate the election but said, Anythings possible.

Obama noted that on a regular basis, they try to influence elections in Europe. Asked on Tuesday at the Democratic convention in Philadelphia whether theres more to the Trump/Russian relationship that hasnt come out, John Podesta, the Clinton campaign chairman, said, Well, he certainly has a bromance with Mr. Putin, so I dont know.

-- Convention shows how Democrats have learned to love gun control, by The Washington Posts Philip Rucker

By spotlighting gun control during their partys biggest showcase, Democrats are marking a significant evolution in presidential politics. For the past two decades, Democrats have been timid and even paralyzed when it comes to guns, afraid of agitating the powerful gun lobby and alienating owners of firearms. But several years of tragedies  one horrific mass shooting after another, coupled with the spate of police shootings  have presented what Democrats see as a political opening to appeal to suburban women in particular with calls for stricter gun regulations.

>> Southern liberals have a fondness for Hillary Clinton, CNN

>> Trump accuses Sanders of lying about him at DNC, POLITICO
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.
Audio Transcript

Aaron Renn: Hello, I'm Aaron Renn, contributing editor at City Journal. I'm very excited to be joined here in the studio today by America's guru of parking policy, Donald Shoup. Dr. Shoup, thanks for joining us.

Dr. Donald Shoup: Well thanks for inviting me.

Aaron Renn: Donald Shoup is a Distinguished Research Professor in the Department of Urban Planning at UCLA. He is the author of the book, The High Cost of Free Parking, and he is the editor of Access, which is a magazine that translates academic transportation research into articles the average person can actually understand. And you can find that online at AccessMagazine.org. He is a great writer and thinker on all matters parking, but today, Dr. Shoup, what I'd like to discuss is your work on on-street parking. I admit I don't own a car today because I live here in New York, but when I owned a car back in Chicago, I hated cruising for parking, which could be tough. But yeah, just putting some quarters in the meter or maybe a couple extra blocks out of my way to search for a free spot on the street. What's wrong with the setup we have today in on-street parking?

Dr. Donald Shoup: Well, everyone wants to park free, including me. But that doesn't mean that on-the-street parking should be free. I agree with you that it's nice to be able to pull up to a meter, put a little bit of money in and do your business and come back and leave without a ticket. The problem is that when the parking is free or too cheap, all the curb spaces are full and you get to where you are going and there's no place to park. The only thing worse than paying for parking is not having any parking at all. So I think the ideal price for parking is the lowest price the city can charge and still leave one or two vacant spaces on every block, so that everybody will have great parking karma. When you get to where you are going, you'll see an open space waiting for you, which is just what we want. And I think if one or two open spaces are available on every block, nobody can say there's a shortage of parking. But the parking is also well-used, because almost all the spaces are full. So if you get the price right on a block, the spaces will be well-used, but readily available. And I think that's as good as you're going to get for on-street parking on any street.

Aaron Renn: Wouldn't the price you would need to charge for that vary by time of day, though?

Dr. Donald Shoup: It does. And when San Francisco tried this starting, I think, in 2011, a very surprising result happened - that more prices went down than up. And that's because almost all of the parking had been at too high a price in the morning. If you have the same price all day long, it can be too high at some times and too low at others, so San Francisco charged different prices at different times of day. Before noon, noon to three, and after three can have different prices. And I think that something like 17% of all prices in San Francisco went down to twenty-five cents an hour in the morning, starting out from two dollars an hour. So although some people claim that this was going to be another money grab for the city, it was just the opposite happened - that the prices went up in the afternoon but the average price declined by 4% after San Francisco began adjusting prices up and down to achieve this Goldilocks price of not too high and not too low, but just right. And just right meaning the lowest price they can charge and have one or two open spaces on every block.

Aaron Renn: That's interesting. And I thought that was the most surprising thing when I read your write-up on this research. Because it seems like if we were charging the most efficient price and there's now spots free instead of spots occupied all the time, that the price would have gone up, but the price actually went down on kind of a blended rate basis. Does this mean there were actually like a bunch of empty spots in the morning nobody was using?

Dr. Donald Shoup: That's right. There were a lot of empty spaces in the morning. And in that situation the only thing the city can do, or ought to do, is to reduce prices. It took about two years to get down to twenty-five cents an hour, because the prices only moved by twenty-five cents an hour. Every month they look at all the occupancy in the previous month and look at the blocks where the price ought to be nudged up and where it ought to be nudged down, but only by twenty-five cents. So if you start out at, say, three dollars an hour, it takes four months to get down just one dollar. And I think that the average price declined about 4%, which means really that it didn't change at all. So the important result, I think, is it shows the city was not trying to maximize revenue, it was trying to optimize occupancy. That's a very different issue. I think the city could get more money if it began raising prices higher than they are now, but they have stated a principle that no other city had done before, say this is how we set prices. We look at the results. And I think that's the only good way to set prices, to look at the results. And if the results show that there are a lot of empty spaces, we reduce prices. If there are no empty spaces, we raise them. It's a principle that they have stated. And it depoliticizes the price of parking, because most people don't even know that it's happening. See if you are a tourist in the city and you go to Fisherman's Wharf and you want to find a place to park, you're just happy to see a space waiting for you. You don't know that it's cheaper or more expensive three blocks away. You are just happy with what you get. For people who live in the city, by experience, they learn where the cheaper prices are. And it's all on the web. If you really are concerned about the price of parking, look on the web and see which are the cheap blocks. And many people now find that they can get a real bargain if they are willing to walk four or five blocks, which I think is good for everybody. It's good for the driver, who gets some exercise, it's good for all the merchants that they pass to and from, and it's especially beneficial because if you really are concerned about saving money, now you can in San Francisco. In the past if it's all three dollars an hour, you can't save money on curb parking. But now you can save a lot of money by being willing to think ahead and walk three or four blocks so you can pay twenty-five cents an hour.

Aaron Renn: Well that's very interesting. And the thing that you seem to be hinting at in what they did, versus what a lot of other cities are doing, is that they are treating parking meter pricing as a tool, not as a tax. Is that really a sea change in how cities think about it? Do most cities think about it as just another way to grab cash?

Dr. Donald Shoup: I think it's a bit of both. Say in Los Angeles there was a big cash crunch about four years ago and they doubled the price of parking everywhere in the city after it had been left set for 17 years. So it was clear that the goal of the increase in the parking meter rates was to get more revenue. But now L.A. has followed along with San Francisco - a somewhat similar program, although less widely publicized, and the same thing happened in LA. that the average price went down but the occupancy went up. When you lower prices in the morning and get more cars in the street, the occupancy went up and the total revenue went up. Just because the average price went down doesn't mean that the total revenue goes down, because you get higher occupancy. And they also learned that they should extend the meter hours in the evening. If you have this principle that you are going to set the right price, it doesn't go to zero at 6:00 p.m., the way most meters were. It's quite obvious that if you've been adjusting prices in the daytime and then there's not a single occupancy after 6:00 p.m., well, then you go extend the meter hours, and they did that in L.A. It goes until 8:00 or 10:00. In Hollywood, I think, it's up to 2:00 a.m., because if there's still a high demand it means the right price, or the price that yields one or two vacant spaces, can occur at any time of day.

Aaron Renn: Shifting gears a little bit, the old-school parking meters that I knew for so much of my life were the little stand and you put the quarter in and you turn the dial. Then a few years ago we got these multi-space kiosks that take credit cards, and now there's places where I can pay with my cell phone. What is the future of parking meter, if you even want to think of it as a meter, technology and how we pay? And how is that going to change things?

Dr. Donald Shoup: Well, I've made so many wrong predictions in the past I shouldn't make any new ones now, but I think that most meters on American streets are almost identical to the ones installed in 1935, when the parking meter was invented. As you put your money in the meter and you hope to get back before your time runs out. And people bitterly opposed meters when they were new. They said it was an infernal combination of a slot machine and an alarm clock, because you were gambling. And I think that the method that we now have for paying for parking is fundamentally wrong, is that you have to pay in advance and hope to get back before your time runs out. New technology allows you to pay for just the time you use, like a long-distance telephone call in the old days, is you start paying when you start talking and you stop paying when you stop talking. So the new meter technology allows you to pay just for the time you use, and so there's no overtime ticket. You are simply paying for as long as you are there. When you come back you stop paying. So I think that most parking technology will move in that direction. That if cars can drive themselves, they'll certainly be able to pay for parking themselves. In fact some of the industry leaders think that these on-street meters will disappear because the navigation systems of cars will be able to pay for parking. I mean they are constantly in contact with the web as to show where they're going, and what turn they should make, and things like that. So they could also pay for parking. And you can pay for parking with your telephone now, so - and you can pay for exactly the time that you park, so I think that we'll get more used to the idea that you simply pay for what you use and you don't pay for what you don't use.

Aaron Renn: Dr. Donald Shoup, thank you very much for joining us today.

Dr. Donald Shoup: Thank you.
GULFPORT, Mississippi -- A man is in custody in connection with Wednesday morning's armed robbery of a Gulfport bank.

According to Gulfport Sgt. Damon McDaniel, police responded to a bank alarm at 9:21 a.m. After arriving, officers were told a suspect -- wearing a hooded jacket, hat and carrying a book bag -- had entered the bank armed with a black handgun.

The suspect -- later identified as 23-year-old Byron Michael Fairley of Gulfport -- pointed the handgun at a teller and demanded money. After obtaining an undisclosed amount of cash, the suspect fled the scene.

The incident was captured on surveillance video and it was later determined the suspect was armed with a BB gun.

Officers later located a suspect matching the description of the robber in the area of Clarence Drive and Klein Road. The suspect attempted to flee on foot, but was apprehended in a wooded area west of Harris Drive. He was unarmed at the time of his arrest.

According to McDaniel, Gulfport police were already familiar with Fairley after he had posted a rap video on Facebook which contained anti-police jargon and threats towards law enforcement. The video had been filed in front of the Gulfport police department beside a marked patrol unit.

Fairley is being held at the Gulfport Municipal Jail under a $200,000 bond set by Harrison County Justice Court Judge Louise D. Ladner.
Achizitie de Servicii Tehnice de creare a plantatiilor forestiere de protectie din cadrul primariei Andrusul de Jos si a primariei Vadul lui Isac, r. Cahul
Donald Trump has relied on an unusually nasty rhetorical style to steamroll opponents and even some potential allies this election season. He assailed war hero and fellow Republican John McCain, mocked Republican candidate Ted Cruzs wife, made fun of disabled New York Times reporter Serge Kovaleski, and regularly calls Hillary Clinton Crooked Hillary on Twitter.

Despite Trumps mudslinging style, one person remains untouched by Trump and his surrogates: First Lady Michelle Obama.

From the confines of Twitter, Trump heckled most of the speakers at the DNC on Monday evening, lamenting Bernie Sanderss surrender and endorsement of Hillary Clinton, and criticizing Elizabeth Warren while referring to her as Pocahontas. But he had nothing to say on Twitter about Obamas widely praised speech, which celebrated Americas greatness and called for a leader (Hillary Clinton) who can be a role model for the next generation.





If there were such a thing as a bipartisan consensusamong candidates, pundits, and journalistsit would be that Obamas performance was one of the best of the political conventions thus far. Even Trump agreed in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter: I thought her delivery was excellent.I thought she did a very good job. I liked her speech. Trump called Obamas speech the only highlight of Monday night at the DNC. The Washington Post speculated that Trump might actually admire the first lady.

The lack of criticism from Trump, and praise for Michelle Obama from other Republicans, may have empowered the media to broadly praise a convention speech in a fashion thats rare in such a divisive political environment. Absent was the usual parsing of style and substance faced by most convention speakers. Its worth noting Obamas speech had an above-the-fray quality, avoiding heavy political subjects or Democratic ideology, opting for an optimistic tone that contrasted with the implications behind Trumps Make America Great Again slogan. Theres also a tradition of deference to First Ladies by the press and political operatives, though Hillary Clinton probably would argue she wasnt extended the same courtesy during her husbands eight years in office.

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Obamas speech also was credited with calming some of the divide between Clinton and Sanders supporters. Here are some examples of media reactions to the speech:

Fox News analyst Howard Kurtz:

First, though, Michelle Obama gave a lovely speech that caused the pundits to swoon. I didnt find it that warm toward Hillary, who had that tough primary against her husband eight years ago, but I seem to be in the minority. The first lady did connect her familys groundbreaking journey to the former first ladys potential to make history if she beats Donald Trump.

CNN anchor Christine Romans:

The day began with a sense that it might be dominated or even overshadowed by those disgruntled Bernie Sanders supporters. Oh, no. But it ended with a stirring speech by Michelle Obama, a speech that some are placing in the convention halls of fame.

CBS Newss Reena Flores:

Unlike many of those with speaking roles at either the Republican or the Democratic convention, Obama offered a positive, uplifting vision of America. While she acknowledged obstacles ahead, she celebrated how far the country has come, unlike Trump, whose slogan suggests that greatness has come and gone.

NBC culture reporter Adam Howard:

First Lady Michelle Obamas emotional and expertly delivered address at the Democratic National Convention on Monday is receiving near-universal praise, and it also may have more effectively made the case for Hillary Clintons candidacy than the presumptive nominee has herself to date

The Atlantic senior editor Yoni Appelbaum:

Most convention speeches are forgotten almost before theyre finished. But tonight in Philadelphia, Michelle Obama delivered a speech that will be replayed, quoted, and anthologized for years. It was as pure a piece of political oratory as this campaign has offered, and instantly entered the pantheon of great convention speeches.

FoxNews.com:

Michelle Obama, speaking hours and countless disruptions later, seemed to draw a more positive response, eliciting applause during her lines on Clinton. The audience remained visibly divided during her remarks, however, with one man being shushed for saying, We love you, Michelle.

Associated Press TV writer David Bauder:

CNNs Wolf Blitzer said first lady Michelle Obamas speech was by far the best of the night. ABCs George Stephanopoulos called it polished, passionate and personal. NBCs Brokaw and Fox News Juan Williams used the same phrase. It was about as pitch-perfect an endorsement as you can get, Brokaw said. Williams said, The framing of the speech in terms of her children was so pitch-perfect.

Fox News pundit Tucker Carlson provided a lonely exception to the broad praise for Obamas speech:

I know were required by law to pretend it was great and uplifting. It was a nasty, partisan speech posing as a speech about family. And theres a kind of moral blackmail involved when she speaks. Shes the presidents wife. Shes a mother of two attractive daughters. Seems like a good mother. So youre not really allowed to tell the truth, which is shes a nasty, bitter partisan. And thats what she is.

Obamas wild popularity also may account for the positive response. Her overall approval ratings stand at 66 percent93 percent among Democrats, 61 percent among Independents, and 43 percent among Republicansaccording to a 2014 Gallup poll. Additionally, she was ranked the most favorable Democratic party figure in a 2016 Gallup poll conducted roughly two weeks prior to the convention.

Obama is one of the most popular first ladies in recent times. She ranks third of the last eight first ladies, just behind Barbara Bush (77 percent) and Laura Bush (73 percent).

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Carlett Spike is a freelance writer and former CJR Delacorte Fellow. Follow her on Twitter @CarlettSpike.
Shifting from the RNC in Cleveland to the DNC in Philadelphia, the press working to cover the Democrats inside the convention hall have to battle for less space, bigger crowds, and a security perimeter so wide, it nearly extends to New Jersey.

Absent are the well-marked delegate areas, the ability to move freely up and down the aisles, the sanctuary of relative calm in the upper tiers of Quicken Loans Arenathe ingredients that made conditions at the RNC bearable.

Instead, the DNC is a loud, sweaty mess. Television reporters and photojournalists, floor passes in hand, stand four to five hours a day crushed together for a glimpse at the speakers, continuously ushered along by security and told: You cant stand here.

On Tuesday night, the fire marshals shut the convention floor.

The visual signature of the two conventions are also quite different. The RNC was mainly red, of course, while the DNC is mostly blue. The RNC featured multiple large screens looming above the convention hall, LCD ticker tape slogans and Twitter hashtags scrolling endlessly along the perimeter, and a large space right in front of the stage for pool press.

The DNC has few screens, but the stage is noticeably larger and a bit higher than that at the RNC, and it extends deep into the floor spacea configuration more appropriate for a Taylor Swift concert than speakers at a podium.

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The physical layout and security perimeters in the convention hall also make it far more difficult for solo journalists to cover events both inside and outside. Photographers and TV crews must enter security gates more than a mile away from public transportation stations and taxi drop-off points.

Some photographers estimate that a typical work day is 14 hours, while walking the equivalent of eight miles, much of it outside in more than 90-degree heat.

Yet, despite the conditions, the conventions offer the priceless opportunity to get up close and personal to senators, governors, and members of Congress, who are also packed into the hall like sardines, with nowhere to run.

These photos will also be featured on CJRs freshly launched Instagram account. Follow us @columbiajournalismreview.

See our photos from the RNC here.

Washington Post Reporter Robert Samuels interviews North Carolina delegate Veleria Levy during the roll call vote on the convention floor.

US Senator Cory Booker is interviewed by New Jersey press at the NJ delegation on the convention floor.

Illinois delegate Olivia Love Hatlestad, 19 years old, on the convention floor. She says shes with Bernie but not Bernie or bust. 

AP photographer Mark J. Terrill works a 600mm lens and several remote cameras. He is one of more than a dozen shooters for the AP at the convention.

Time photographer Ben Lowy on the convention floor with his Ricoh Theta 360-degree camera pointed down to photograph himself and his surroundings

US Senator Mark Warner from Virginia is prepped and readied to be interviewed.

Broadcasters cram onto the floor of the DNC at Wells Fargo Arena during the roll call vote for the presidential nomination.

US Senator Charles Schumer on the convention floor

MSNBC Hardball host Chris Matthews

MSNBC Hardball host Chris Matthews

A delegate waves a Hillary Clinton fan.

Democracy Now Amy Goodman on the convention floor

Broadcasters cram on to the floor of the DNC at Wells Fargo Arena during the roll call vote for the presidential nomination. Fire marshals closed the floor at one point. The DNC is far more crowded than the RNC with less room for press.

NPR reporter

US Senator Barbara Boxer of California at the California delegation

Fans spray cool mist on delegates arriving at the convention. TV and photo media, meanwhile, were forced to enter far from the convention hall. Temperatures in Philadelphia were in the 90s.

Pro-Bernie Sanders protesters outside the DNC convention hall after Hillary Clinton was officially nominated as the Democratic presidential candidate.

Wells Fargo Arena

America signs are passed around on the convention floor.

Former US President Bill Clinton speaks about his wife Hillary Clinton at the DNC on the night she was officially nominated.

Bernie Sanders announces Hillary Clinton as the Democractic candidate for president during the roll call tally of delegates.

Vermont delegates react after Bernie Sanders announces Hillary Clinton as the Democratic candidate for president.

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Nina Berman is a photographer and an associate professor at Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism
The 320 dogs who were rescued had been on this truck for 12 hours at least, enduring the summer heat, with no access to food and water. Photo by CAPP

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China is at the center of the dog meat industry, with as many as 10 million dogs slaughtered each year for human consumption. We are committed to abolishing the whole cruel, unscrupulous practice and enterprise, and last weekend, we put yet another dent in that rickety facade. Members of China Animal Protection Power, a coalition of local groups organized by Humane Society International, rescued 320 dogs in a truck bound for Jilin, the second largest dog meat market in China.

The dogs had been on the truck for 12 hours at least, enduring the summer heat, with no access to food and water. All were friendly and social, says Peter Li, HSIs China specialist, suggesting they could have been household pets who were very likely stolen. Activists found that four of the dogs had already delivered premature puppies on the truck.

The rescue operation was significant for many reasons: the truck was stopped very close to the dog meat market and  in an unusual development  the activists persuaded the trader to sign the dogs over to their care without paying him a penny. This is also CAPPs first successful rescue operation so close to Jilin, a major hub of Chinas dog meat industry where dog meat traders have a strong presence. The rescue was completed within 24 hours because it was efficiently and successfully coordinated by activists from several cities in China.

The number of Chinese who actually eat dog meat is far from a majority of the people in the worlds biggest nation  an HSI poll showed that 70 percent of Chinese have never once eaten dog meat. China does not have dog farms and the industry is at best opportunistic and at worst criminal  with most of the dogs slaughtered for food consisting of stolen pets. But even while the percentages are small, the total amount of killing is too large to fathom. The much publicized Yulin dog meat festival is just a tiny piece of the countrys dog meat trade. To make a real difference, our fight against the dog meat trade goes on year round  a task undertaken by CAPP with HSI support  by confronting dog meat traders, meat markets, and trucks bound for slaughter. Last week, our partner groups in China succeeded in getting the mayor of Yulin barred from a high-profile forum in Beijing, in protest of his failure to end the mass dog slaughter in the city.

The rescue in Jilin comes on the heels of our work in June to end the Yulin festival where we rescued 171 dogs and five cats from slaughter in the meat markets. Elsewhere in Asia, our work to shut down dog meat farms in South Korea continues, with five meat farms closed and hundreds of dogs rescued so far and many adopted out to homes in the United States and Canada. HSI India recently launched a campaign to end the dog meat trade in Nagaland, a state in India where 30,000 stray and stolen pets are sold in live markets and beaten to death with wooden clubs.

The dogs rescued from the truck bound for slaughter in China are now being cared for at a facility where they are receiving medical care and will eventually be placed for adoption within China. The nightmare for these dogs is over, but we will not rest until we have made sure that no dog anywhere in the world dies a cruel death on the butchers block.
Bernie Sanders rode a wave of populist support that nearly upended former shoo-in Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination for president. Are there lessons to learn from his campaigns social-media strategy that explain why the Bernie movement gained so much traction but ultimately came up short?

A review of hundreds of the candidates messages on Twitter and Facebookusing data* from Illuminating 2016, a project supported by the Tow Center for Digital Journalism and Syracuse Universitys Center for Computational and Data Sciencessuggests the candidates took very different approaches to the digital medium in the month before Clinton clinched the nomination.

Sanderss feed had fewer negative messages, relying more on calls to action than Clintons feed. And despite his success with small donations, Sanders was more focused on getting out the vote than urging supporters to donate money on social media. Clintons strategic use of calls to action was focused on digital engagementand attempts to create an open and collaborative campaign environment by inviting supporters to engage with policy discussions online.

The numbers

On average, Sanders posted calls to action on social media roughly four times a day, while Clinton posted twice. His efforts were more focused on Twitter, while Clinton used both Facebook and Twitter more evenly.

Total calls to action for Sanders and Clinton, respectively, from May 7 to June 7, 2016. Source: Illuminating 2016.

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Sanders also relied on calls to action almost twice as much as Clinton. These are messages that engage supporters in activities that align with campaign goals. They range from traditional forms of engagementsuch as donating money, buying campaign merchandise, attending local events and watching the candidate on TVto online engagement, mostly focused at getting supporters to spread the word about the candidate among social networks, sign up for campaign updates and mailing lists, and demonstrate support in digital ways (sending pictures, creating videos, etc).

Clinton posted nearly two negative messages for each of Sanderss negative posts.

That Sanderss campaign used social media to mobilize and engage voters in strategic ways using calls to action helps explain why his campaign was so successful in building a substantial network of grassroots supporters. The Vermont Senator was running as an outsider with few connections to or alliances with the Democratic Partys typical large contributors. These large donors and their Super-PACS have grown in prominence and power in the last five years. Sanders, who eschewed large donors and Super-PAC money, had to drive campaign contributions a different way if he was to have any hope of running a viable campaign.

An overview of Clintons messages, on the other hand, demonstrates that calls to action are not as central to her social media strategy. Most of her messages during the observed period fall into what Illuminating 2016 calls advocacy (35 percent)messages aimed at constructing a positive imageand attack (36 percent) messages, while calls to action account for only 13.1 percent of her social media presence.

Total message activity for Hillary Clintons Twitter and Facebook accounts, broken down by message type. Source: Illuminating 2016.

A visualization of Sanderss social media posts presents a very different picture: while the most used message type is advocacy (41 percent), calls to action are used second most often, accounting for 24 percent of all messages within the period. Attack follows with 17 percentmeaning that Clinton posted nearly two negative messages for each of Sanderss negative posts.

Total message activity for Bernie Sanderss Twitter and Facebook accounts, broken down by message type. Source: Illuminating 2016.

These percentages suggest not only that Sanders values calls to action twice as much as Clinton, but also that attacks are more central to the former Secretary of States campaign strategies on social media than creating opportunities to engage supporters. In other words, Sanderss campaign appears to be more focused on motivating citizens to join his movement and spread the word about his campaign using social media than Clinton, who instead appears to be focused on constructing a positive image for herself with advocacy messages and downplaying her competitors with attacks.

Strategic differences

Drilling down further, we can see that Clinton used a mix of types of calls to action, ranging from calls to share pictures and stories, watch campaign activities online, share campaign content, and participate in Q&As. Digital engagement accounts for 55 percent of Clintons calls to action, which Clinton used in creative ways, such as asking followers to participate in a quiz about her qualifications to be a candidate and share personal stories related to policy issues.

Traditional engagementsuch as asking supporters to attend to campaign events was the second most used type of call to action, accounting for 20 percent of all messages in this category. Getting out the vote and sharing the vote on social media is a distant third, with 13 percent, and calls to support her campaign by donating money (4 percent) or buying campaign merchandise (5 percent) accounted together for 9 percent of her calls to action.

Heres a couple examples:

While Clintons campaign demonstrated a balanced mix of strategies and focused on presenting policy proposals around specific issues, Sanderss team was more focused on getting people to join the campaign in traditional waysby voting, attending campaign events and supporting Sanders in their own communities. His campaign also presented some innovation in terms of opportunities for engagement with a dedicated app. (Clintons campaign released their app only last week.)

In fact, 30 percent of Sanderss messages on both Facebook and Twitter were related to voting, including pledges for supporters to register to vote in state primaries, go to the polls and take family and friends along, and engage with the campaign to get more people to the polls. Thirty-two percent of Sanderss messages were for digital engagement. Those include invitations to watch campaign events and rallies online, and messages with generic and policy-related pledges to join the campaignor the movement.

The candidate also used social media to ask supporters to download the campaigns appwhich contains a number of ways for people to join the campaignas well as visit his own website, read and watch policy-related materials and go door-to-door to talk to neighbors and spread the word about Sanders.

Some examples:

Even though Sanderss campaign was backed by a strong fundraising strategy based on small donors, asking people for donations was not among his priorities on social media.

By May 31, Sanderss campaign committee raised $222,191,766, with small individual contributions accounting for roughly 60 percent. But his campaign actually made few pledges for donations on Twitter and Facebook during the last month of the primaries: only 3 percent of messages asked supporters to chip in, while 1 percent promoted campaign merchandise. The lack of pledges for donations on social media might suggest that his campaign was using other tools to reach supporters such as email.

On Clintons side, small contributions accounted for only 20 percent of the $229,202,008 raised by May 31. Fundraising was not thed focus for her either; she only asked for donations in 4 percent of her calls to action during the observed period. A closer look at campaign strategies in other digital venues, such as website and email, as well as through text messaging, might reveal more details on candidates fundraising than social media.

It is also interesting to note that several messages from the Sanders campaign were posted on both Twitter and Facebook, suggesting the campaign was not as concerned with exploring the possibilities of Twitter and Facebook as Clintonswho, at least during the observed period, did not repeat the same message on both platforms.

Clintons and Sanderss campaigns are larger than just their social media presence, so we have to be careful claiming that one campaign was more participative. But this analysis does suggest that Clintons campaign was more open to citizens inputs than Sanderss. This is counterintuitive, since Clinton represents the establishment.

The fact that Sanderss team was more focused on getting supporters to help the campaign in various ways makes sense for a candidate who was an insurgent and needed to beat the oddsand the Democrat establishmentto become a viable nominee. Clinton, with a larger campaign structure and with the support of big donors of the Democratic Party, was more focused in making the case for her candidacy and criticizing her opponents, leaving calls to action as less important among her social media communication strategies.

* A note on methodology: The Illuminating 2016 data tracks the Twitter and Facebook feeds of active presidential campaigns, looking at the number of messages each candidate sends and coding each by message type. The messages were classified using computational approaches. While the computational approaches are not 100 percent accurate, they perform at better than 80 percent accurate, which is more accurate than humans analyzing similar messages. CJR also ran a piece on the social media campaigns of Ben Carson and Carly Fiorina.

This post has been updated.

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Patricia Rossini is a PhD Candidate in Communication Studies at the Federal University of Minas Gerais (Brazil), and a research assistant at the Center for Computational and Data Sciences at Syracuse University. Her research focuses on political talk, social networking sites, online campaigns, deliberation, and participation.
Solera to Acquire Enservio

Solera Holdings, Inc., a global provider of cognitive technologies for the automotive and home ownership ecosystems, announced a definitive agreement to acquire 100 percent ownership of Enservio, Inc., a U.S. provider of SaaS-based software and services to the property contents insurance marketplace. The transaction, which aligns accretively with Soleras proprietary Invent & Acquire (I&A) strategy, will accelerate the delivery of next-generation digital home applications for Soleras partners and property owners worldwide.

The announced acquisition of Enservio will add yet another component to Soleras expanding capabilities in the digital protection of all assets.

The acquisition of Enservio is subject to certain closing conditions and is expected to close during the quarter ended September 30, 2016.

AIR Worldwide Expands Global Pandemic Model

Catastrophe risk modeling firm AIR Worldwide (AIR) announced a significant expansion of its Global Pandemic Model to include outbreaks of six additional diseases. The model now explicitly accounts for nine pathogens, including bacterial and viral diseases, in addition to previously modeled influenza, coronaviruses (such as those responsible for SARS and MERS), and filoviruses (including Ebola and Marburg). AIR Worldwide is a Verisk Analytics business.

The AIR Global Pandemic Model update includes the addition of two pathogens from the Bunyaviridae viral family [Rift Valley fever virus (RVFV) and Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever virus (CCHFV)], Lassa (hemorrhagic) fever (LHF) from the Arenaviridae viral family, and bacterial-pathogens-associated cholera (Vibrio cholera), plague (Yersinia pestis), and meningococcal meningitis (Neisseria meningitidis). All simulated outbreaks in the AIR model can originate anywhere in the world, and AIR models the impact to 24,000 municipalities covering all corners of the world.

AIR also announced that it is collaborating with the World Bank on the expected launch of the Pandemic Emergency Financing Facility (PEF), an innovative, fast-disbursing global financing mechanism designed to protect the world against deadly pandemics. The PEF includes an insurance window, which combines funding from the reinsurance and/or insurance-linked securities markets, as well as a complementary cash window. This is expected to be the first time the World Bank issues a financial instrument to combat infectious diseases. According to the World Bank, in the event of an outbreak, the PEF is expected to release funds quickly to countries and qualified international responding agencies.

The Global Pandemic Model is currently available in the CATRADER Version 18 catastrophe risk management software.

Allianz Launches Transactional Liability Program in North America

Allianz Groups specialist corporate insurer Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty (AGCS), announced that it is launching a Transactional Liability unit in North America to help clients face inherent risks posed by M&A transactions. This new practice will offer financial protection specifically to protect against inaccuracies made about target companies or businesses in connection with mergers, acquisitions and divestitures. This will be the first phase of a wider regional rollout for AGCS, to include Asia and Europe in the near future.

AGCS, in partnership with several other carriers, is aligning with Euclid Transactional, LLC as its Managing General Agent (MGA). Specializing in the underwriting of representations & warranties, tax liability, contingent liability and other transaction insurance coverages, Euclid employs top experts in M&A deals.
The recent release of Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) rules for drones weighing less than 55 pounds will allow drones to be used in more commercial applications, like during claims inspections of individual homes.

Susan Williams, content strategist with CoreLogic, discussed the FAAs recent issuance of commercial drone rules and their impact on the insurance industrys use of the technology in a podcast interview with Claims Journal.

Prior to the release of the new rules, some insurers were already testing the use of drones for claims handling.

Williams explained that current insurance drone testing programs are operating under the FAA section 333 exemption, which is valid for two years. When the current exemptions expire, carriers can decide if they want to continue to operate under the exemption or under the new Part 107 Rule.

The new rules, which go into effect on August 29, will not impact insurers as much as it will impact the insurance market in general.

It [the new rules] will make it easier for insurers and other third party vendors in the insurance market, like inspection companies or independent adjusters, who dont already have any kind of a drone program to begin working with drones, said Williams.

She explained that the 333 exemption was actually a barrier for some companies wanting to test drones because of its complicated process.

Both share many of the same restrictions, Williams said. Operators will still be required to maintain visual line of sight during the day, keep drones below 400 feet and obtain special permission to operate drones within five miles of an airport. Eventually, Williams said, pre-programming of flight paths and geo-fencing could mean some of these restrictions will be lifted in the future. However, that type of advanced technology is still being honed, she said.

Even with the newly released rules, Williams expects that insurers will integrate drones into their operations by using a hybrid approach. Because the new rules dont make it any easier to collect data over a wide area using drones  something that would require waivers  Williams expects that drone use will complement other resources such high resolution aerial imagery and field adjusters. This will allow claims departments to desk-adjust most claims, while reserving boots-on-the-ground and drone data collection for complicated or questionable claims that need additional research, she said.

There are obvious benefits in using drones for specific functions, she said. Insurers can offer more responsive customer service and deploy resources appropriately.

Even with the benefits, limitations in the use of drones in claims handling still exists. For example, Williams said drones can only be used for analysis of exterior claims.

Also, they cant really replace any kind of activity that requires physical interaction with a structure. So, collecting samples or using any kind of a tool tolift shingles to look at the substructure of a roof, explained Williams.

Their small size makes them more vulnerable to weather and limited battery life limits range and flight time. In addition, landscape features like trees and powerlines can hinder a drones ability to collect data. Technological limitations related to data capture, processing and storage on a macro scale also exist.

In catastrophic events, like tornadoes or hurricanes, Williams said a carrier might need a fleet of drones in which case aerial imagery may be more cost effective.

To put it into perspective, if you think about Hurricane Andrew in Florida, it covered about 1500 square miles when it struck Florida. You can imagine having to cover that, even with fleets of drones working for weeks, said Williams.

Other scalability issues include imagery which cant be downloaded or geo-corrected in flight, rather it can be done only after a drone has landed. Aerial imagery, on the other hand, is available within hours of capture. The use of drones in a catastrophe setting could cause interference with first responders, Williams explained.

The CoreLogic content strategist doesnt think drones will take over claims handling entirely, rather the technology offers the potential for more efficient processing of claims.

Drone imagery and super high resolution aerial imagery will be an increasingly large and important part of the claims adjusters tool kit that will end up changing the whole dynamic of the claims settlement process, Williams said. With so many tools to choose from I expect that in the future, carriers will end up developing guidelinesby risk type for what the appropriate tools are to use, explained Williams.
Jet engine exhaust from airliners endangers human health and adds to climate change, the government found Monday in taking the first step toward regulating those emissions.

The Environmental Protection Agency said it will use its authority under the Clean Air Act to impose limits on aircraft emissions.

Jet engines spew significant amounts of greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide and methane, into the upper atmosphere, where they trap heat from the sun. But proposed rules such as imposing fuel-efficiency standards have faced stiff opposition from aircraft makers and commercial airlines.

Aircraft emissions were not addressed as part of the landmark global climate agreement agreed to in Paris in December.

Addressing pollution from aircraft is an important element of U.S. efforts to address climate change, said Janet McCabe, EPAs acting assistant administrator for air and radiation.

McCabe said aircraft are the third largest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. transportation sector, and that is expected to increase. Cars and trucks already are regulated.

The EPAs findings do not apply to small piston-engine planes or to military aircraft.

A U.N. panel in February recommended new emissions standards for international flights that require an average 4 percent reduction in fuel consumption during the cruising phase of flight. The new regulations from the International Civil Aviation Organization require that new aircraft designs meet the standards beginning in 2020, and that designs already in production comply by 2023.

Environmental groups have criticized those new international standards as too weak to actually slow global warming. Planes burn the most fuel during takeoffs and landings. Cruising at high altitudes is the most fuel-efficient period.

Environmentalists say aviation accounts for about 5 percent of global greenhouse emissions, though the U.N. and EPA cite studies concluding its actually less than 2 percent.

The EPA finding announced Monday is expected to result in fuel-efficiency standards for domestic carriers, which critics call long overdue. The EPA acted after a coalition of environmental organizations filed notice of their intent to sue the agency over its inaction.

People should not have to choose between mobility and a healthy climate, said Marcie Keever, legal director for the environmental group Friends of the Earth. Now its time for the Obama administration to issue a strong rule, to hold the aviation industry accountable.

Though environmental groups are pushing EPA to adopt stricter standards, the airlines and aircraft manufactures want to U.S. to adopt the more modest reductions proposed for international routes.

U.S.-owned airliners account for nearly one-third of all aircraft pollution worldwide. While carbon emissions from land-based sources are largely in decline, pollution from airplanes is projected to triple by 2050 without stricter limits.

A spokeswoman for the aviation industry said U.S. air carriers have already been making strides to burn less fuel and generate less harmful exhaust.

As aviation is a global industry, with airlines operating internationally and aircraft manufacturers selling their aircraft in international markets, it is critical that aircraft emissions standards be set at the international level and not imposed unilaterally by one country or set of countries, said Jean Medina, of the group Airlines for America.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
CSU housing study

Richey Piiparinen, co-author of a new housing study performed by the Center for Population Dynamics at Cleveland State University, says Cleveland could capitalize on growth in its housing market by adding new for-sale townhouses and detached houses to persuade educated millennials to stay in town and raise families here rather than decamping for suburbs.

(Steven Litt, The Plain Dealer)

CLEVELAND, Ohio - After decades of population losses, the city of Cleveland achieved an important tipping point over the past five years by gaining more housing units relative to its suburbs and outlying counties.

That promising fact, identified by Cleveland State University's Center for Population Dynamics, could lead to overall growth if the city can add new housing in depopulated neighborhoods to retain young new residents as they age and raise families.

"Cleveland can make its own fate, but this requires dismissing the oft-stated notion that there are parts of the city fated to decline," said the new report (embedded below), entitled "Population Loss and Development Trends in Cleveland."

Over the last five years, the report states, Cleveland has gained 4,733 housing units while Cuyahoga County suburbs have lost nearly 7,000 and the surrounding counties of Geauga, Lake, Lorain and Medina have remained virtually flat.

Diverging from the suburbs

To Richey Piiparinen, a senior research associate at the CSU center and co-author of the new analysis, the numbers mean that Cleveland could be turning the corner from population loss to growth.

"The re-urbanization is pivoting back into the urban core," Piiparinen said Monday in an interview. "We're returning to where we came from. The donut hole is filling in."

A previous study by the CSU center detailed how Cleveland owes its "back-to-the-city" movement to its nationally high level of growth in college-educated millennials between ages 25 and 34.

Another previous study mapped the neighborhoods affected by the pattern.

The new report cites an analysis from Transport Politic that shows that between 1960 and 2014, Cleveland regained 69 percent of its 1960 peak population, within 1.5 miles of City Hall.

Of the six cities in that analysis, only Chicago, where downtown population gained 149 percent over the 1960 baseline, did better than Cleveland, which bested Columbus; Charlotte, North Carolina; Pittsburgh; and St. Louis.

"We all tout Columbus' population growth," Piiparinen said. "But Columbus is performing pretty poorly in its urban core. All its population growth is through sprawl and annexation. Ours is through infill [housing] and [large] scale [development]. Cleveland is doing really well. We need to keep that going and pushing out [into nearby neighborhoods]."

Life-cycle housing needed

Piiparinen says new data on housing indicates that Cleveland needs to build on its success not just by attracting educated young workers but also by creating new "life-cycle" housing, for sale, in which new residents can eventually settle and raise families.

"We know those millennials are going to have kids," Piiparinen said.

But he said the city's housing market is ill-prepared to provide the next level of housing for young residents who want to stay and raise children.

"Do we have the next product? I would say no, we don't have that product," he said.

"We have to take some millennials from living downtown in rentals and allow them to move two miles away [in for-sale housing] instead of to Bay Village and Avon," he said.

Keeping the millennials

That means building not just more high-rise apartments, but for-sale townhouses and single-family houses.

It also means, Piiparinen said, that the city and private-sector developers need to be looking at how to redevelop city neighborhoods that have the most available land because they suffered the greatest population losses.

Piiparinen said it's important to continue to encourage new housing in Tremont, Ohio City and other successful neighborhoods and adjacent areas such as Clark-Fulton on the city's West Side.

Where growth could occur

But he also pointed to the East Side neighborhoods of St. Clair-Superior and Hough as strong candidates for redevelopment because of their abundance of empty lots.

Piiparinen indicated that Cleveland's Health-Tech Corridor along Euclid Avenue, where the Cleveland Clinic is growing, is driving demand for housing.

And he indicated that the long-fallow 70-acre Scranton Peninsula on the Cuyahoga River, controlled by Forest City Enterprises and the Scranton Averell Trust, could soon be ripe for development.

He called Scranton "the land jewel of the city."

An upcoming study in the works at the CSU center will examine more closely where demand for new housing in the city is highest.

Piiparinen described the new residents who might want to stay in the city and raise families as "knowledge workers," including nurses, nursing assistants, medical scientists, doctors, "people from all over the world living in Cleveland, who want walkable access to employment."

He said such new residents "don't have the psycho-geographic prejudices most Clevelanders have" against neighborhoods such as Hough, which erupted in race riots 50 years ago.

The new residents "want to live where amenities are, close to work," Piiparinen said.

He pointed to strong residential neighborhoods in Pittsburgh, near Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh, as an example to follow, along with that of residential areas near Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.

Examples to follow

A key factor in the new CSU analysis is that it draws a distinction between population loss per se, and the parallel decline in the size of Cleveland households.

Nationally, household size has shrunk in the United States from 3.14 people in 1970 to 2.54 people today. In Cleveland, household size dropped from 3.44 in 1950 to 2.37 today.

That means that a significant amount of the city's population loss can be attributed not simply to out-migration, but to the decline in family size.

The lesson, Piiparinen said, is that new housing in the city needs to take into account the decline in the number of residents per household.

Developers should consider, for example, the high number of Clevelanders who live solo, or that have smaller families with fewer children.

"We have to plan for a city that is probably far less dense," Piiparinen said.

At the same time, he said, the city may want to consider slowing the pace of demolition of vacant and abandoned housing.

"Knocking down houses induces non-demand," he said. "It ensures no one can live there."
27DARCY-CLINTON2.jpg

The Clintons support of trade deals like NAFTA could hurt Hillary Clinton's chances of beating Donald Trump.

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- In his DNC speech, Bill Clinton was effective in trying to combat weak areas hurting Hillary's candidacy. But one of the problem areas Bill Clinton didn't tackle was his support of NAFTA and Hillary's TPP flip flop.

Bill Clinton sought to erase negative perceptions of Hillary being a status quo, harden, out of touch, money grubbing politician who can't be trusted.

Knowing that Donald Trump is seen positively as the anti-establishment, anti-status quo,change candidate, Bill skillfully portrayed Hillary as the real "change maker" throughout her long career in public service. Bill said Hillary has "never been satisfied with the status quo" and that she's "always trying to move the ball forward," rattling off a list of examples.

Hillary Clinton has not polled well among women between the ages of 18 and 40. As I noted in my previous post, the string of Sanders' supporters who I saw tell reporters they wouldn't vote for Hillary because they didn't think she was genuine, were all women under 40. Women like them were the target audience when Bill Clinton talked about the young, idealistic, politically active Hillary Rodham he met and fell in love with. The woman, who as a young mother, worked to better the lives of endangered children in her adopted state of Arkansas.

There's an entire generation who will be voting in this election who either weren't born or were in grade school and high school when the Clintons were in the White House. Bill reintroduced Hillary Clinton to them. Detailing her early public service work in her twenties and her long list of accomplishments up through her time as a U.S. Senator and Secretary of State.

When Bill recalled how Hillary picked out their first 1,100 square foot, non air conditioned home in Arkansas, he did so in part to refute the perception that Hillary's just a Wall Street tool who can't relate.

Another humanizing moment in the speech was when Bill recalled he and Hillary moving Chelsea into her college dorm room. Bill described himself looking out the window, trying to hold back the tears and Hillary on the floor trying to line one last dormer drawer with paper liner. It's an experience any parent who moved their kid into a dorm can relate to. It's an experience anyone who was moved into their dorm room by their parents can relate to.

Bill Clinton argued that the opposition has reduced Hillary to a two dimensional cartoon character. Bill said in reality she's the three-dimensional real deal who's not afraid to take on real problems and has done so successfully the entire time he's known her.

Bill's right about Hillary having been reduced to a cartoon character. But so has Donald Trump. And both Hillary and Trump drew some of the lines of those caricatures of themselves. The FBI investigation into Hillary's email practices found that much of what she and her surrogates had claimed was false. James Comey's rebuke wasn't a Saturday morning cartoon.

When Bill Clinton's on his game, like he was in his DNC speech, he can be a great asset to Hillary. But he's also a potential liability. Rust belt states Ohio, Pennsylvania and Michigan are all in play because they are filled with blue collar workers who feel burned by NAFTA and fear TPP will bring more of the same. It's the U.S. Brexit effect. NAFTA was on Bill Clinton's watch. And Hillary has flip-flopped on TPP.

While there are voters who weren't even born or were in school, when the Womanizer-in-Chief entered the White House, there are plenty of voters who remember the Clinton scandals. And those voters may not relish a second trip down that other Clinton memory lane.
GARFIELD HEIGHTS, Ohio -- Investigators are searching for a man charged in an attack that left a teen paralyzed in Garfield Heights.

The 15-year-old victim is paralyzed from the waist down after being attacked April 20 on East 131st Street near Rexwood Avenue. He is recovering from neck surgery but it's unclear if he will walk again, police said Wednesday.

Valemar Blade, 25, of Garfield Heights, is accused of felonious assault in the incident, according to an arrest warrant obtained by the Garfield Heights Police Department.

Blade punched the teen in the face, causing him to fall off his bicycle and hit his head on the pavement, according to a police report.

Blade initially took the bike but soon abandoned it on East 131st Street near Christine Avenue, the report says.

Blade's criminal history includes convictions for domestic violence and attempted felonious assault, according to Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court records.

In 2011, he was sentenced to 18 months in prison after pleading no contest to domestic violence, attempted abduction, attempted felonious assault, vandalism and attempted carrying concealed weapons in three separate incidents.

Detectives posted Blade's photo on social media Tuesday and are asking anyone with information on his whereabouts to call the Garfield Heights Detective Bureau at 216-475-5686.
E. 185 St. bank robbery collage

The FBI released these surveillance images of the woman accused of robbing a bank Tuesday afternoon on Cleveland's East Side.

(FBI)

CLEVELAND, Ohio - Law enforcement officials are asking for the public's help to identify the person who robbed a Cleveland bank Tuesday.

The FBI released surveillance images of the robbery, which took place about 3 p.m. Tuesday at the Huntington Bank branch on the 900 block of East 185th Street. The female robber walked into the bank and handed a demand note to the teller, FBI spokeswoman Vicki Anderson said.

The note stated that the robber was armed and that two armed men were outside the bank as well, Anderson said. No weapons were seen.

The teller complied with the demand note, and the robber left the bank. No one was injured, Anderson said.

Two possible getaway vehicles - a tan SUV, possibly a Buick Rendezvous, and a white sedan - were seen outside the bank, but it's unclear in which direction they traveled, Anderson said.

Anyone with information about the robbery is asked to call Cleveland police at 216-621-1234 or the Cleveland FBI at 216-522-1400. Tips can remain anonymous, and reward money is available for tips that lead to the successful prosecution of the responsible party.

If you'd like to comment on this post, please visit the cleveland.com crime and courts comments section.
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A man convicted in 15 felony cases since 1998 is now accused of threatening to kill a woman who reported to police that he robbed and attacked her on an RTA bus.

Marcus Boyer, 37, is charged with intimidating a crime victim and kidnapping.

He is jailed on $35,000 bond set Wednesday at his first court appearance.

Boyer went to his ex-girlfriend's apartment about 10:30 p.m. Sunday after RTA police went to his mother's house to question him about allegations that he robbed and attacked someone on the bus. Boyer has not been charged in connection with any incident on an RTA bus.

Boyer accused the woman of "snitching" on him.

"I'm going to kill you because I'm not going back to prison," Boyer said, according to police reports.

The woman told the man she never spoke with RTA police about the incident, but Boyer didn't believe her. He threatened to punch her teeth out and harassed and degraded her for about 30 minutes, according to police.

She convinced Boyer to let her take the garbage out while Boyer waited at the top of the stairs for her to return. She hid in the basement after taking a light bulb out of the socket so Boyer would have trouble seeing her.

Boyer found her and again threatened to kill her, police said. He dragged her by the hair out of the hiding spot and continued dragging her upstairs. The woman pushed the Boyer out of her apartment while he still held onto her hair. She eventually was able to get free from his grasp and shut the door, police reports say.

Cleveland officers went to the home of Boyer's mother in the 15800 block of Damon Avenue. Officers reported seeing Boyer run around the house shutting off the lights.

Officers called for back up and surrounded the home. Boyer's mother eventually came outside and told police Boyer was in the home and unarmed. She gave the officers permission to go in her home to arrest her son, according to police reports.

Officers broke down the door to Boyer's room and arrested him.

Boyer's criminal history includes convictions in 2003 for holding a woman down while another man sexually assaulted her and for punching an EMS employee.

Other convictions are for leading police on a car chase, grand theft, drug possession, vandalism, escape and failing to register his address as a sex offender.

If you wish to discuss or comment on this story, please visit our crime and courts comments section.
Philadelphia

Former President Bill Clinton on Tuesday made his wife Hillary Clintons work on behalf of children, including her education advocacy as first lady of Arkansas, the centerpiece of the case for electing her president, on the night she officially became the Democratic Partys nominee.

Building on the message of a succession of speakers throughout the night, the former president told delegates to the Democratic National Convention that his wife has been interested in childrens issues for as long as hes known her, recounting her work over several decades.

Among those efforts: investigating school desegregation in the South, bringing an Israeli early-childhood

education to Arkansas when she served as the states first lady under his governorship, and helping, during his presidency, to create the Childrens Health Insurance Program, which helps cover health care costs for low-income children.

And, he said, Hillary Clintonwho became the first woman to clinch a major partys nominationhas reached across the aisle to help children and youths. For instance, he highlighted her work with former Rep. Tom DeLay, R-Texas, a major Clinton political adversary, on legislation to help foster and adoptive children.

Shes the best darn change maker Ive ever met in my entire life, he told a roaring crowd at Wells Fargo Center here.

The former presidents stories presented a softer side of Clinton, who is sometimes painted as cold and hard-edged. At the same time, he portrayed his wife as a champion of historically disadvantaged and marginalized groups. That seemed like an open appeal to supporters of her opponent in the primary, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who ran as a defender of lower- and middle-income people and at times cast her as too cozy with corporations.

As a young woman, her husband said, Hillary Clinton was greatly influenced by Marian Wright Edelman, the founder of the Childrens Defense Fund, a child-advocacy group. He recalled the work his wife did for the organization in her twenties, and the long-ranging impact it had.

On behalf of CDF, Hillary Clinton investigated juvenile justice in South Carolina, where minors were sharing jail with adult offenders, her husband recalled. And, pretending to be a parent looking to enroll her child in school, she called around to so-called segregation academies in Alabama, helping to bolster Wright Edelmans case that the Nixon administration was giving private schools that refused to enroll children of color tax exempt status. (More background in this New York Times story .)

She got so involved in childrens issues that she actually took an extra year in law school working at the [Yale] Child Study Center to learn what more could be done to improve the lives and futures of poor children, Bill Clinton said.

After graduating, she went to Massachusetts to figure out why so many students in special education were showing up on the census but werent enrolled in school. Her research on that issue eventually informed the first Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, Bill Clinton said.

She never made fun of people with disabilities, she tried to empower them, he said, an obvious reference to his wifes opponent, Donald Trump, who mocked a reporter with a disability last year.

And, Bill Clinton, who himself was an early leader in the standards-based education redesign movement, talked about his wifes work on K-12 education as first lady of Arkansas, home to woefully underfunded schools that were the worst in America, he said.

Hillary Clinton traveled to every corner of the state, Bill Clinton recalled, and ultimately recommended that the Arkansas become the first state in the nation to require elementary school counselors in every school, as well as raise teacher pay and bolster academic standards. She even sold her plan to the legislature, prompting one lawmaker to joke that Arkansans had elected the wrong Clinton.

Student outcomes in Arkansas improved dramatically as a result, he said. Thats because of those standards that Hillary developed, he claimed.

Hillary Clinton has made expanding access to early-childhood education a central part of her campaignshe has a plan to move toward universal prekindergarten and ramp up home-visiting services for at-risk children. That started, Bill Clinton, told the crowd, back in Arkansas, when Hillary Clinton brought the Home Instruction Program for Parents of Preschool Youngsters to the state. Started in Israel, HIPPY offers home-visiting services to low-income parents.

Next thing I know Im being dragged around to all these little preschool graduations, Bill Clinton said.

He even talked about her work at the School of Law at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville. She wouldnt let her students off the hook, he said, even if they said they didnt think they were up to her standards because they were from Arkansas

Hillary Clinton would say Dont tell me thatyoure as smart as anybody, youve just got to believe in yourself and set high goals, Bill Clinton recalled.

Beyond Bill

Other speakers testifying to Clintons work as a childrens champion included Anton Moore, who founded and runs a nonprofit that works to bring awareness to gun violence; and Thaddeus Desmond, a child advocate and social worker in Philadelphia.

Former Sen. Tom Harkin of Iowa, an author of the Americans with Disabilities Act, kicked off the night talking about Hillary Clintons advocacy for people with disabilities, including children.

Donna Brazile, the incoming chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee, who worked with the nominee at the Childrens Defense Fund, said that as a young woman, Clinton didnt want to talk about anything other than how to make childrens lives better.

And Dustin Parsons, a 5th grade teacher from Arkansas, talked up Clintons efforts to expand access to rigorous coursework and give schools access to more resources when she served as first lady of the state. She subjected schools to the Chelsea test, he said, meaning that if they werent good enough for her own daughter, they werent good for any child.

Also taking the stage: Jelani Freeman, who grew up in foster care and took an internship slot that Clinton reserved in her office for foster children.

Hillary had this ridiculous notion that every child had a right to live up to their God-given potential, Freeman said. And in 2003, I got that spot. ... Hillary has taught me that there is a high cost for low expectations for our kids. ... Hillarys love ... lifted me to a place I never had the courage to imagine. Freeman now works with at-risk students.

Tuesday night also featured students from the Eagle Academy, an innovative school in New York City that serves boys of color, and which Hillary Clinton advocated for when she served in the Senate.

Delegates also heard from Mothers of the Movement, a group of seven women whose children were killed due to gun violence or excessive use of force by police, including Sybrina Fulton, the mother of Travon Martin, who was shot while out in his neighborhood in 2012; and Lezley McSpadden, the mother of Michael Brown, who was killed by a police officer in 2014, spurring protests across the country.

Those protests helped give rise to the Black Lives Matter movement, which has caused schools nationwide to examine implicit bias"unconscious prejudicein discipline practices .

So did the big education push work?

Some in the audience who were already in Clintons corner seemed even more fired up. A self-described Hillary gal, Lucia Baez, a high school literature teacher at Miami Beach Senior High School in Miami-Dade County schools, said Clintons biography makes it clear she will be good for schools.

She has the vision and the courage to support our children, our schools, and most important our families to gain the economic and political resources they need, said Baez.

But, in the midst of the speeches Tuesday night, Chuck Pascal, a Pennsylvania delegate, a former school board member, and a member of the Badass Teachers Association, a union splinter group, said he still trusts Sanders more on K-12 issues.

This party has moved beyond that position of privatizing and charterizing right now, Pascal said, adding that while Clinton is moving in the right direction, shes doing so glacially.

Assistant Editor Andrew Ujifusa contributed to this report.

Follow us on Twitter at @PoliticsK12 .
Sean Gallup | Getty Images

A new special club is forming, as a tiny part of the U.K on the very end of the Iberian Peninsula has engaged in talks with the government of Scotland in the hope that a post-Brexit U.K. can be "re-defined."

Considered a distant rock on the southern tip of Spain, Gibraltar is a sometimes overlooked outpost for many Brits. But, the impact of last month's vote to leave the European Union has been problematic for the territory  mainly due to its neighbors. Gibraltar voted overwhelmingly in favor of the U.K. remaining a part of the EU, with 96 percent of citizens backing the status quo. This rendered the territory the U.K.'s most pro-EU district. Gibraltar's Chief Minister, Fabian Picardo, has made his views on Brexit explicit, writing in Politico before the vote that, "Modern Gibraltar is locked in a Europe of free services and free movement of persons." He added, "Losing the ability to freely provide services to the single market of 520 million people would be an existential threat in economic terms." Spain has long held claim to Gibraltar, though the British took over the area in 1704. Picardo has insisted that the territory  regardless of whether the U.K. remains part of the EU  would not submit to Spanish territorial claims as a result of the vote.





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Undoing Brexit

The government of Gibraltar confirmed to the BBC in late June that Picardo had discussed the possibility of remaining in the EU with Nicola Sturgeon, Scottish First Minister and leader of the pro-independence Scottish National Party. The Scottish electorate also voted to remain in the EU. The Gibraltarian government's press office told CNBC via e-mail on Monday that, "It may be possible for the U.K. to be re-defined for EU purposes with those parts that want to stay in doing so." In securing an exemption from Brexit, the government of Gibraltar cites the "Greenland precedent" as a potential option. Greenland gained autonomy from Denmark in 1979, ultimately withdrawing from the EU in 1985 following a referendum. "The reality is that any option is possible provided that the political will is there," asserts the Gibraltarian government to CNBC. Sturgeon has, post-Brexit, claimed that Scotland ought to have a second referendum on independence in the coming years. Gibraltar does not quite share this nationalistic sentiment, as Dr. Chris Grocott, a lecturer in economic history at the University of Leicester, says.

"Traditionally, the political line in Gibraltar is that it is best to try and get on as well as possible with the U.K.," he told CNBC over the phone. He adds, "Ten years ago, the idea of independence was niche. Now, there are a significant number of people supporting the idea, though ultimately, it's viewed as a last resort." Nonetheless, Gibraltarians have long stressed their commitment to the U.K.: Two referendums, in 1967 and 2002, unanimously backed remaining British.

Gibraltar's role for the U.K. is more than merely symbolic, hence its strategically important military base. Financial services and online gaming companies are clustered in the territory. Importantly, the British government has an obligation to serve the interests of Gibraltar. Thomas Lake, Political Risk Analyst at BMI Research, poured cold water on the idea of realigning the U.K.'s constituent parts around the Brexit vote. Lake said in an e-mail to CNBC that attempts to negotiate different statues for different regions would be "Fraught with great complexity in their implementation as to render them almost impossible." He also suggests that any attempt made by the U.K. to gain concessions for Gibraltar as part of its exit package is, "Likely to be blocked by Spain unless significant concessions are made by Britain."

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Southern Spain's saving grace?
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Companies reporting on Tuesday unveiled earnings that were just "good enough" for Jim Cramer, yet those were the companies that triumphed above all in the market. "There are more companies that are reporting in-line and therefore disappointing numbers right now, and that is not good enough. Hence the suboptimal performance of the averages," the "Mad Money" host said. Twitter delivered what appeared to be good earnings to Cramer, but its forecast was terrible, so he put it in the "distinctly not good enough category." It's time for CEO Jack Dorsey to make a choice between Square or Twitter, Cramer said.

The ultimate good enough stock was Apple , which reported a 15 percent decline in revenue. Yet, the stock soared after hours on Tuesday. How the heck could a decline be bullish? "Simple, because there were many worries, even among the bulls, that it would be worse, maybe far worse than that," Cramer said.

Spencer Platt | Getty Images

This year has not been a good year for initial public offerings. Despite the downturn of overall IPOs, Cramer highlighted Acacia Communications as a star for its incredible moves on the tape recently. At the end of July 2015, there were 121 companies that came public, raising a total of $21.2 billion, according to Renaissance Capital. There are currently just 48 IPOs this year, which have raised only $8.6 billion. Acacia came public in May at $23 a share and shot up to $29 on its first day of trading. On Tuesday it closed at $59, up 177 percent from its IPO price. "Acacia Communications has run up a lot, but the IPO never should have been priced so low in the first place, considering the company's remarkable growth," Cramer said. The hot conversation on Wall Street Tuesday was whether oil will bounce back rapidly in a V-shaped recovery, or more slowly in a U-shape. Cramer determined he's with the U-shape crowd. "I think the proponents predicting what will happen with oil actually have gravitas for once. That said, I'm going with the U," he said.

Alain Le Garsmeur | Getty Images
PHILADELPHIA  Don't stay at home this November, former President Jimmy Carter said Tuesday night.

This "will be a very important election, one that will define for a generation who we are as a nation and as a people," the 39th president said in a video address at the Democratic National Convention. "At a moment when it's become more important than ever to lift people up,  we see a Republican candidate who seems to violate some of the most important moral and ethical principles on which our nation was founded."



"We can, and must, do better," he said.



Before Carter's address was delivered, Hillary Clinton officially became the Democratic nominee, making her the first woman in a major U.S. political party to win the nomination.

On the road to her historic nomination, she overcame the fierce challenge by Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont during the primaries.
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The Philippines "vigorously pushed" for the inclusion of a arbitration ruling in a joint statement among Southeast Asian countries but its failure to secure that was no diplomatic win for China, Manila's foreign minister said on Wednesday. The Philippines had not sought support from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) or the international community in its arbitration case against Beijing over the South China Sea, and did not want to press the issue to provoke China, Perfecto Yasay said. Yasay was speaking after returning from a meeting of foreign ministers in Laos, during which ASEAN dropped a U.S.-backed proposal to mention the landmark July 12 court ruling, which nullified Beijing's claims to most of the South China Sea. "I am just saying this to dispel the reports that have been said that China came out victorious in the ASEAN meeting because we precisely agreed to not mentioning the arbitral award," Yasay told a news conference. "But that (was) not the object of our meeting in ASEAN. The arbitral award is a matter between China and the Philippines." Yasay said the issuance of a joint communique was a victory for ASEAN, which was divided but showed it was united on the need to stick to international law and ensure peace.

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The Philippines and Vietnam both wanted the ruling and a call to respect international maritime law to feature in the communique, but Cambodia rejected the wording on the ruling, diplomats said, backing instead China's call for bilateral discussions. Manila backed down to prevent the disagreement leading to the group failing to issue a joint statement after a meeting for only the second time in its 49-year history. Yasay said the Philippines did not want to gloat over the win, or rock the boat with ASEAN. Yasay also said he wanted China to take a position so that dialogue could happen but did not say whether the Philippines would insist that the arbitration ruling be discussed. Yasay met with U.S. counterpart John Kerry on Wednesday in Manila, during which Yasay thanked him for Washington's support on the court decision. Kerry meets with Philippine's President Rodrigo Duterte later on Wednesday and will discuss how to move ahead following the ruling, a U.S. official said.

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Kerry said on Tuesday he supported the resumption of talks between China and the Philippines on the issue. China did not participate in and has refused to accept the July 12 ruling by the Permanent Court of Arbitration, based in The Hague, in which U.S. ally Manila won an emphatic legal victory. China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi had asked Kerry to lend his support for bilateral talks to restart between Manila and Beijing in a meeting between the two in the Laos capital of Vientiane on Monday. "The foreign minister said the time has come to move away from public tensions and turn the page," Kerry told a news conference. "And we agree with that ... no claimant should be acting in a way that is provocative, no claimant should take steps that wind up raising tensions." Duterte has already appointed former President Fidel Ramos to visit Beijing and begin informal talks to resolve the dispute, a Philippine Foreign Ministry official said on Tuesday.

The court ruling has exacerbated tensions between the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), which are pulled between their desire to assert their sovereignty while fostering ties with an increasingly assertive Beijing.

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China appeared to score a diplomatic victory on Monday when ASEAN dropped any reference to the ruling from a joint statement at the end of the bloc's foreign ministers' meeting, in the face of resolute objections from Cambodia, China's closest ASEAN ally. Yasay told reporters in Vientiane that the dispute was not between China and the United States but between China and the Philippines. "We would like to pursue bilateral relationships in so far as the peaceful resolution of the dispute is concerned that is between the China and the Philippines. The others are not concerned with that dispute," Yasay told reporters. Peace and stability

Wang, who met Kerry on the sidelines of the ASEAN gathering in Laos, said on Tuesday he would welcome Ramos' visit. The Chinese foreign minister also told his U.S. counterpart that China and ASEAN had agreed the dispute should get back on to the "correct" track of being resolved by direct talks with the parties concerned, according to a foreign ministry statement released on Tuesday. China "hopes the United States side takes actual steps to support the resumption of talks between China and the Philippines, and supports the efforts of China and ASEAN to maintain regional peace and stability", Wang said. Beijing claims sovereignty over most of the South China Sea, through which more than $5 trillion of trade moves annually. Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam have rival claims.

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China has repeatedly blamed the United States for stoking tensions in the region through its military patrols, and of taking sides in the dispute, accusations Washington denies. In an address to foreign ministers, including Kerry, at the gathering in Vientiane, Wang criticized the United States, Japan and Australia for a joint statement on the issue they released late on Monday. The statement "continued to hype up the South China Sea issue and play up tensions," he said. "Now is the time we will test whether you are protectors of peace or agitators." Speaking to reporters on a conference call, a senior U.S. administration official said at the end of a visit to China by National Security Adviser Susan Rice that she had emphasized all parties should take steps to reduce tensions and use the ruling to reinvigorate regional diplomacy. Rice also told Chinese officials, including a top military officer, that U.S. military operations were designed to contribute to peace and stability, including in the South China Sea, the U.S. official said. "Those operations are lawful, they will continue, they've been longstanding, and again they're designed to impart confidence and stability," he added.

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Philadelphia

The nearly eight years of the Obama administration havent exactly been a cakewalk for the National Education Association. But the unions president, Lily Eskelsen Garcia, thinks things are looking up

First, Congress passed the Every Student Succeeds Act, which seeks to broaden accountability beyond tests and bars the federal government from interfering with teacher evaluations, school turnarounds, and more. And now the Democrats have nominated Hillary Clinton, a candidate that Eskelsen Garcia believes will be in the unions corner.

Shes going to listen to a lot of people. But were going to be in her ear first, talking about things like what English-language learners need, what students in special education need, and what a test measures and what it doesnt measure, Eskelsen Garcia told me as she bounced from one event to another here.

The union will no longer be sitting at the childrens table, after the adults, or the people that think that theyre the adults, the decision and then were the first to know about it, she added.

Over the past eight years, NEA has had to swallow a slew of policies it didnt really like, especially teacher evaluations based on test scores, and work with former U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, whom some NEA members here have described as trainwreck.

But Eskelsen Garcia thinks that the Democrats who supported many of those ideasteacher merit-pay, charter schools, alternative routes into the teaching professionare in a tight spot these days.

The corporate model is crumbling of its own absurdity, Eskelsen Garcia said."Now the [Democrats for Education Reform] are in town and they are having a real hard time this time making any kind of case. ... Its all about vouchers and charter schools and Teach for America. ... They cant point to one success. Wherever theyve said This will move the needle, it didnt.

Of education reformers, she said, their balloon is pffft! (she made a deflating sound) and then joked Im not sure how youre gonna spell that. (Probably unsurprisingly, Education Reform Now, the non-profit think tank affiliated with DFER, a political action committee, sees all these things very differently. Check out what it had to say here .)

Endorsement Drama

Thats not to say the Democratic National Convention is all sunshine and puppies for the NEA. A vocal contingent of delegates remain really, really unhappy with the unions decision to endorse Clinton early, without giving her primary opponent, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, a chance to catch fire, or at least to extract more policy promises from Clinton.

And the American Federation of Teachers, the other national teachers union, is feeling some of the same heat. Case in point: Mindy Rosier, a 10-year special education teacher in New York City schools and alternate delegate for New York state, said, even eight months after the endorsement, the sting hasnt gone away for many like her. A lot of teachers, they dont want Hillary, they dont like her, said Rosier.

Whats more, plenty of teachers, even those who say they plan to support Clinton, worry that shes going to follow President Barack Obamas lead on education policy, which, in their view, isnt a good thing.

But Eskelsen Garcia, who started out as a school lunch lady before becoming a teacher, and finally a union president, sticks by the move. After all, she said, the union stayed neutral during the primary in 2008, and ended up with a president with whom it often clashed on K-12 policy.

For me it was OK, so we found someone who will be good on our priority issues and will respect us. So we

say to ourselves, when is it most advantageous to do that process? At the end? Like we did with President Obama? Or at the beginning? If were really going to do this right, we find the right candidate, and we get in early so that we can have our voice heard and respected.

And most NEA members shes met here are as pumped about Clinton as she is, she said. Our members are very excited that we are with Hillary, the majority of them, she said.

Who does Eskelsen Garcia want to see as secretary of education? Its premature to start naming a cabinet, she said.

Thats not to say teachers here arent curious. Some of her members have told her that, Ill support Hillary when I know who her secretary of education will be.

Eskelsen Garcia noticed their Bernie buttons and asked, Who did Bernie tell you his secretary of education was going to be? And they went, Oh well, you know, thats different.

Some teachers here have told us they want someone with classroom experience. Eskelsen Garcia agrees thats a great quality, but she also pointed to Bill Clintons secretary, Richard Riley, who was a governor, not an educator, before taking the job. He was a great secretary of education, she said.

So whats it like to be a union president at the Democratic National Convention? Exhausting, apparently.

Eskelsen Garcia was up at 5:45 a.m. Tuesday for an interview with CNN. That was after going to bed at almost 2 in the morning, following a night of celebrating with other labor leaders. Then she was at a brunch for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committeewhich, as the name implies, is in charge of getting Democratic senators elected. (That event It was closed to press.)

Then, she headed to three more events in the roughly two hours I spent with her.

First came a luncheon hosted by the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, which seeks to put party members in state legislatures. It took place on the top floor of a restaurant with panoramic views of the city. She urged the group to consider what sorts of factors beyond test scores their states might measure in gauging school performance, noting for instance, that states could choose to incorporate access to advanced coursework. She snapped a picture with a couple of state lawmakers from Tennessee.

Then she swung by an event sponsored by the Democratic Governors Association (again, closed to press), and then one aimed at getting out the Latino vote.

How does Eskelsen Garcia stay fueled? Fast food, especially Happy Meals, which are easy to eat with one hand when shes on the go. Shes also a big fan of Wendys frosties.

Photo: NEA President Lily Eskelsen Garcia greets Oregon Gov. Kate Brown, a Democrat, near a Democratic Governors Association in downtown Philadelphia. Deanna Del Ciello for Education Week.

Follow us on Twitter at @PoliticsK12 .
Singapore's policymakers have long battled the country's low birth rate, and even a recent helping hand from start-ups may not be enough to offset looming economic pressures.

Dual-income families are the norm in the pricey city-state and the lack of time for family is frequently cited as a significant factor influencing couples' decisions on how many children to have, if they have any at all.

Singapore law provides for four months of paid maternity leave and in recent years the government has offered cash incentives of up to $18,000 for parents who have five children or more, and also legislated for a second week of paid paternity leave, but the measures have met with little success. Singapore's total fertility rate was 1.24 in 2015, far below the ideal replacement level of 2.1 needed to keep the population from shrinking.

Entrepreneurs like Tjin Lee are stepping in.

Lee is the co-founder of Trehaus, a child care center that's integrated with a co-working space. Launched this year, the facility was designed for working parents who wanted to stay close to their children.

"The truth is none of us want to have children and not be able to spend time with them," Lee says. "One thing [the government] could do is to incentivize or to compensate companies or to give them ways to help employees find a way to work from satellite locations that children can be near them."

Taking a long view, Lee hopes to operate the Trehaus concept as a business-to-business (B2B) platform, and encourage corporate sign-ups. But to effect a real change in Singaporean workers' mindset and encourage couples to take up parenting, Lee believes it will take more corporate participation and similar start-ups that encourage working while parenting.

"With more such working spaces, we could develop a community of co-working outfits that become island-wide and with close proximity to companies, they are more likely to approve of employees working from remote locations," Lee says. "With more flexibility, women will be encouraged to have more children." Lee adds.

Birth dearth in Asia

Singapore is not alone in the fight to raise the number of births. Across Asia, governments are attempting to tackle flagging birth figures, amid concerns about a shrinking future labor force and weaker economic growth prospects.

In Japan, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has pledged to raise the country's birth rate to 1.8 children per woman as part of his "three arrows" of economic stimulus. China, meanwhile, has abolished its decades-long one-child policy to allow couples to have two children.
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Activist investors' appetites have gotten bigger in recent years, and it's sending some of them looking for change in the management of public companies. A toppy market has big shareholders backing activists' longer-term initiatives, such as forcing spinouts, strategy shuffles and executive replacements. After years of getting easy dividends and buybacks from boards eager to avoid a fracas, cheap money driven by central bank policies has forced some hedge fund investors to shift strategies. And the market has taken note. "They're engaging more with the activists," said PwC governance insights center leader Paula Loop. "They're willing to listen to them." Activists' elevated profiles are allowing them to take on bigger targets, and to push for more complex deals. Sometimes they're doing it on the back of a smaller stake in the target company than would have been typical in previous years.

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Many other large corporations have been chased by big activists for a bigger payout sooner in the form of a dividend or buyback. But a lawyer who represents hedge funds that pick billion-dollar battles says the activist strategy of nudging boards toward simple payouts  largely facilitated by cheap money easily accessed by corporations with solid ratings  may be about to go the way of the dodo. "I think that's not a trend that's going to continue forever," said the attorney, Steven Wolosky.

Many activist targets for buybacks and dividends have already been squeezed for cash, and it's not clear whether a flurry of post-crisis payouts can keep growing. Data compiled by Factset show that the $166.3 billion spent on buybacks in the first quarter of 2016 is the most since the third quarter of 2007, when companies spent $178.5 billion. Activist funds are employing new strategies to boost returns, including forcing executives out, seeking M&A  be it an outright sale or a spinoff. The latest activist target is Buffalo Wild Wings . After activist Marcato Capital Management revealed a stake in the company via a 13D filing, the stock jumped several percentage points.
Federal criminal investigators have opened a new front in a probe of diagnostic testing company Alere , according to a new report that comes as the firm continues trying to sell itself to in a multibillion-dollar deal.

The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday afternoon that Alere was hit was a subpoena seeking patient-billing records in June by the criminal-fraud section of the U.S. Justice Department.

The subpoena sought information about Alere's alleged "efforts to collect copayments from patients, as well as forms submitted on their behalf to government programs such as Medicare," according to the Journal, whose story cited sources familiar with the probe.

Alere shares plummeted by more than 28 percent to close at $31.60 on the heels of the news. In after-hours trading, the stock recovered some lost ground.



The newspaper, which noted that federal law prohibits health-care companies from covering medical payments for people insured by government programs such as Medicare, also said that prosecutors are looking into whether Alere gave doctors any money or "delivered items of value" to physicians.

In March, Alere revealed that the Justice Department served the company with a subpoena seeking information about sales practices overseas. That probe relates to the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
Air France-KLM is the latest European airline to warn of a sharp impact to earnings this year amid a spate of terrorist attacks in Europe that are hitting demand for travel. The Franco-Dutch airline group reported Wednesday a 5.2 percent drop in second-quarter revenue from a year ago and said it was concerned over the "high level of geopolitical and economic uncertainty, increasing pressure on unit revenues and special concern about France as a destination."

French police officers patrol at the Marseille Provence airport in Marignane on March 22, 2016. BERTRAND LANGLOIS/AFP/Getty Images

Neil Wilson, an analyst at ETX Capital, said in a note on Wednesday that Air France-KLM's "warning today about the future of European air travel is a stark reminder that this is a sector under pressure." There were reports on Wednesday that police in Geneva had tightened airport security after receiving information about a possible threat. The security scare turned out to be based on a hoax call but nonetheless signaled that authorities remain jumpy about another potential high-profile attack after a spate of attacks in France and Germany. Aside from the labor disputes hampering Air France-KLM's operations, it is operating in amid a wider ongoing "state of emergency" in France. The latest high-profile terror attack occurred in the country yesterday in which a Catholic priest was killed by two men claiming to be members of the terrorist group that calls itself Islamic State. The attack comes just weeks after 84 people died in a terrorist attack in Nice. In 2015, too France was rocked by an attack on the staff offices of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in January and in November, a mass terrorist attack in Paris in which 130 people died that prompted the government to introduce a state of emergency.

'War on several fronts'

ETX Capital's Wilson said that Air France-KLM "may be more exposed than others as it is fighting a war on several fronts, not least because there is 'special concern' about France as a destination."

"Firstly terror attacks in Europe are biting into demand and France in particular is bearing the brunt of this. Secondly, in an attempt to compete with low-cost carriers the firm's aggressive restructuring has run into turbulence with unions and strikes are hitting revenues. The next walkout is on August 2nd." There have also been several terrorist attacks in France on a smaller scale, all serving to heighten societal and political tensions in France as well as hitting the country's tourist industry. The number of both French and foreign arrivals in Paris last year fell by 0.5 and 1.6 percent respectively, its tourist board said in a data release last week. Speaking after the attack in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray on Tuesday, French President Francois Hollande said that "French people must know that they're under threat, that they're not the only country - Germany is too, as are others - but that their strength depends on their cohesion."

UK warning

Low-cost British carrier easyJet said in a trading statement at the end of June that "significant external events" had prompted a 2.6 percent drop in total revenue in the third quarter to 1.1 billion ($1.43 billion) . Specifically, it said "commercial and operational performance during the quarter was impacted by the Brussels attack and Egyptair tragedy."

It noted that the U.K.'s decision to leave the European Union was also weighing on the airline's outlook. "More recently currency volatility as a result of the U.K.'s referendum decision to leave the EU as well as the recent events in Turkey (a terrorist attack at the airport) and Nice continue to impact consumer confidence," easyJet said. The airline's main competitor, Ryanair , also said this week there was "ongoing market volatility arriving from terrorist events" and other European carriers have warned of similar concerns and the expected impact on earnings.

Trouble in Germany
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Apple 's forecast-beating earnings Tuesday left some analysts worried it's selling too many of its lower cost iPhone SE model and needs to diversify its current portfolio of smartphones.

"Margins went down, they sold a lot more iPhones SE than they had expected to, and Apple needs to be very careful of that," Moor Insights & Strategy's Patrick Moorhead told CNBC Wednesday.

The technology giant reported earnings of $1.42 per share on revenues of $42.4 billion. Despite beating estimates, that was down against the comparable year-ago figure of $1.85 per share on $49.61 billion in revenue. It shipped 40.4 million iPhones in the third fiscal quarter, also above estimates.

'Apple needs to do something else'

Chief Executive Tim Cook said in a conference call that the strategy of launching the lower cost iPhone SE was working and attracting customers to Apple's ecosystem. However, some are wary of this bright spot in the report and suggest a popular cheaper model means tighter margins and less consumers buying the more expensive products.

Track Apple shares here.

"(They were) very good numbers. However, they show that Apple needs to do something else," Francisco Jeronimo, research director for European mobile devices at analysis firm IDC, told CNBC Wednesday.

"The price point shows that they need to do something else in terms of the entire (iPhone) portfolio because the market is not growing anymore. And if it's not growing, or even if it's only growing in emerging markets where most consumers cannot afford the top of the range, they need to move towards lower price ranges and that's basically what the iPhone SE did this quarter to Apple," he added.

"They sold more iPhones SE than iPhone 6 or 6s which is a very strong indicator that they need to do something in that space."

Moorhead believes that if Apple releases a next-generation iPhone 7 this year then that could lead to a much "better balance" for profit margins at the Cupertino, California-based company. "They need to watch it very closely as the SE is a drop," he said.



'Bear case is less compelling'

David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Whiskey poured into a glass Getty Images

Wednesday may be National Scotch Day, but the American spirit is taking over. Sales of U.S. made whiskeys  things like Kentucky bourbon and Tennessee whiskey  are outpacing other types, including Scotch. So whisky makers in Scotland (where they spell it without the "e") are trying to get themselves off the rocks. "Everybody's trying to do something a little different to increase the number of 'expressions' on the shelf for their brand," said Ray Pearson, a brand ambassador for various Scotch whiskys. According to the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States, the overall spirits market is growing, with sales growing 4 percent last year to $72 billion. Hard liquor continues to take market share from beer. The most interesting news is that the biggest growth is high-end sales. Bottles over $20 now account for a fifth of total liquor volume in the United States. While whiskey had another good year, it was due in large part to sales of "brown spirits" like bourbon, which grew much faster than Scotch whisky. Bourbon and Tennessee whiskey are catching on overseas, as exports topped $1 billion for the third year in a row. Irish whiskey "continues to explode."

QUICK LESSON ON WHISKEYS:

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Scotch whisky is made from malted (toasted) barley, water and yeast. It is distilled twice and aged in used barrels, usually bourbon or sherry barrels. A single malt whisky comes from a single distillery, versus a blend like Johnny Walker, which comes from several Scottish distilleries. Blended whisky remains far more popular than generally more expensive single malts. Irish whiskey is similar but distilled three times. Bourbon is almost entirely made in Kentucky, mostly from corn, and it has to be aged in new oak barrels. In other words, barrels are only used once and then usually sold to other whiskey makers. Tennessee whiskey is like bourbon, except after it's distilled, the liquid is filtered through charcoal. There are also whiskeys made mostly from rye, and Canadian whisky can be a blend of many things. Pearson said Scottish distilleries are trying to promote Scotch sales with an increasing number of brand ambassadors. Many distilleries are now selling single malts that have no age on them, to give them more flexibility in creating flavors. Levels of peat in the malting process are being varied to provide different results. Still, he said, "there's a lot more experimentation in the bourbon area than there is in the Scotch area."

BARREL BUST?
San Francisco Unified Superintendent Richard Carranza is the lone finalist for the top job in Houston, the nations seventh-largest school district, the Houston Chronicle reports.



The Houston school board on Wednesday announced Carranza as their pick to lead the 215,000-student district, the newspapers report. As required by Texas law, the school district will wait 21 days before making his appointment final.

Carranza would step in as the permanent replacement for former superintendent Terry Grier , who stepped down in February after six years at the helm. Houstons deputy superintendent and chief financial officer Ken Huewitt has served as interim school chief since Griers departure. Huewitt applied for the permanent job.

Carranza has led the 53,000-student San Francisco Unified since 2012. He was among Education Weeks 2015 class of Leaders to Learn From for his work with English-language learners.

That experience may have helped Carranza, a former ELL, land the job in a district that has already had success with helping students to learn English . Houston has the sixth-largest enrollment of ELLs in the nation, according to a 2015 Migration Policy Institute report .
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Sometimes the market isn't straightforward. The Federal Reserve hinted that it could raise rates in September, and the price of oil cascaded lower. Yet, Jim Cramer still didn't see enough reasons for stocks to sell off on Wednesday.

Investors who held the stocks of Panera Bread , Buffalo Wild Wings , Caterpillar and Boeing were all surprised with earnings, and gave them no reason to sell. That meant short-sellers got the short end of the stick and had to scramble to cover their shorts. "Short-sellers set up an ambush for the owners ... but these ambushes failed because the companies didn't give you a reason to sell. When there are no short-sellers, there is no way a short-seller can make money," the "Mad Money" host said. The worst performing stocks of the entire market, Cramer said, were the airline stocks. That meant Boeing had a horrendous set-up going into its quarter, especially with the massive $2 billion account charge it took last week. But then Boeing crushed the numbers with both a top and bottom line beat and reaffirmed full-year guidance. The result was a huge move to the upside, as there was no reason to sell the stock. "That is a long, not a short. In fact, it's a good short spoiled," Cramer said.

Buffalo Wild Wings Restaurant David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images

When the stock of the biggest company on earth, Apple , rallied more than 6 percent on Wednesday  it was clear to Jim Cramer that analysts got it wrong. Somehow the company that just sold 1 billion iPhones managed to fake-out almost everyone on Wall Street. "I think I have solved the mystery. The chief pillar of the bearish case on Apple was the looming shortfall in cellphone sales," Cramersaid. When Cramer sat down and read through the commentary from analysts, he found it filled with what he called "faux buy recommendations." These were analysts who already had one foot out the door, and made the assumption that because Apple hadn't ordered enough chips to make a lot of phones, there must not be demand. Waste Management reported a strong quarter on Wednesday, yet the stock sunk almost 2 percent in response. Both Cramer and the CEO David Steiner were stunned by the stock's drop, as they couldn't find a single piece of hair on the quarter. "We don't manage this business for one-day stock moves; we manage it for the long term. So, if we keep producing quarters like we produced today the stock will definitely take care of itself," Steiner said. Waste Management is the No. 1 garbage disposal company in North America that serves over 21 million customers in the U.S. and Canada. It has 249 landfills and more than 100 materials recovery facilities. Cramer likes to keep this company on his radar to provide clarity on the state of the economy.

The silhouette of Tim Cook, chief executive officer of Apple, during the Apple World Wide Developers Conference (WWDC) in San Francisco. David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images
The second: To show the country that history was being made by a real flesh-and-blood woman not the two-dimensional public figure Americans have known for a quarter century, and now say they don't trust.

The first: To make history by nominating the first woman to become America's first major party presidential candidate.

Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton addresses the Democratic National Convention via a live video feed from New York during the second night at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, July 26, 2016.

That was President Bill Clinton's job. And even at age 69, he did it with the skill that twice got him elected to the White House.



Clinton painted an intimate portrait of Hillary Clinton as a girlfriend, wife and mother. He cast her as a lifelong champion of social justice, in ways and in places that most people have never seen. And he attempted to align her with the public demand for change that, from a dramatically different direction, has propelled the candidacy of her Republican opponent Donald Trump.



"If you believe in making change from the bottom up, if you believe the measure of change is how many people's lives are better, you know it's hard and some people think it's boring," Bill Clinton said. "She's been around a long time, she sure has, and she sure been worth every single year she's put into making people's lives better.



"If you were sitting where I'm sitting and you heard what I have heard, at every dinner conversation, every lunch conversation on every long walk  you would say this woman has never been satisfied with the status quo in anything," he added. "She always wants to move the ball forward. That is just who she is."



After Bill Clinton, the convention saw a visual montage of past presidents  all men  and a digital shattering of the glass ceiling. Hillary Clinton briefly thanked delegates by satellite from New York.



Wednesday the convention will offer a more political, less personal case for her election. Her running mate, Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia, will make his debut on the biggest stage.



Vice President Joe Biden, her rival for the nomination in 2008 who declined to run this year, will speak. The anchor of the program will be President Barack Obama in the most-watched 10 p.m. EDT hour.



Even as her husband described her in soft focus, controversy over an issue revived questions about her candor. Her friend and longtime ally, Gov. Terry McAuliffe of Virginia, predicted she would eventually flip-flop back to supporting the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal.



During the primaries, she renounced the deal she once called "the gold standard" under pressure from anti-trade rival Bernie Sanders. The Clinton campaign called McAuliffe wrong and said she would not reverse herself on the issue.
Facebook is expected to continue its trajectory of growth when it announces it earnings after Wednesday's closing bell, thanks to its dominance in mobile and digital advertising.

"We're really not seeing any signs of any challenges at Facebook," eMarketer analyst Debra Williamson said. "Everything is looking to us up and to the right. That would include both ad revenue and usage. The company has done a really remarkable job of establishing advertising products for any kind of advertiser, small or large, and any kind of objective."

Analysts are expecting Facebook to report $6.02 billion in earnings, according to the Thompson Reuters consensus estimate. Earnings per share are pegged at 82 cents.

The social media network reported adjusted first-quarter earnings of 77 cents per share on revenue of about $5.38 billion.

The social media platform had 1.65 billion monthly active users as of March, with more than 1 billion people accessing it daily. Many daily active users access Facebook through mobile devices, which bodes well for its advertising revenue. Mobile ads are considered to be future of digital advertising.

"The marketplace is shifting to mobile," said Jonathan Adams, chief digital officer at Maxus Global Media. "I wouldn't say it was faster than expected. We've been expecting this to come for a while. Facebook is very well positioned to do well in that space."

Adams said part of what makes Facebook's ads so valuable is an improved location-based targeting, meaning brands can reach people who are in vicinity of their products. He said Facebook was hesitant to release these features in the past because of concerns that users may object to being targeted. However, with brands like Google and Foursquare increasing location-based ads, Facebook was forced to develop them.

"Facebook has always known exactly where you and your phone are," Adams said. "They're only now tapping into that data to allow advertisers to serve the most relevant ads."

Advertisers and agencies have increasingly been talking about how effective Facebook ads have become for their campaigns, a vast improvement from a few years ago, Williamson added.

Deutsche Bank analyst Ross Sandler wrote in his market research report that he expected Facebook momentum to continue in Q2. He said ad revenue growth should be "consistent," and he recommended the stock as a buy.

However, up-and-coming Snapchat may pose a threat to Facebook's dominance, especially among youth. One media buyer mentioned that while the digital ad budget is growing, some brands are moving ad dollars away from Instagram toward Snapchat. They pointed out that Facebook is still the best place to reach the masses online, and Instagram tends to trend younger. However, Snapchat is "growing at everyone's expense."

Williamson is still optimistic on Facebook. She said that despite reports that younger users are flocking to other apps, Facebook usage rates are trending higher. She believes the de-emphasis on publisher-created posts in lieu for posts created by friends has encouraged people to stay on Facebook longer.

In addition to Instagram still being the dominant photo-based digital ad platform, Williamson said Facebook is also developing products that may be able to compete with Snapchat. Facebook Messenger recently announced it hit 1 billion users. In March, the company purchased the Masquerade app, which puts filter-like "masks" on people's photos. The product is similar to Snapchat's "lens" offering.

Williamson added that Facebook has yet to release ads on Messenger, which could provide another revenue stream. However, a source with knowledge of Facebook's plans said the company has no plans to announced Messenger ads this year.
A woman uses the Chromebook from Google Source: Google

Google became the most valuable internet brand through its ubiquitous search engine and smartphone software. Finding comparable success within the corporate walls has been a challenge. The company's web-based applications for creating documents and spreadsheets are popular among small businesses, but less so within large enterprises. And Google got a late start in the cloud infrastructure market, where Amazon Web Services has built a wide lead with companies looking to offload their data storage and computing needs to outside data centers. Google's quest to crack the enterprise market is now getting a major lift from an unexpected source: laptops. Built on its homegrown operating system, Google's Chromebooks outsold Apple Macs in the first quarter and are gaining the trust of some big-spending clients. For evidence, talk to Chuck. Charles Schwab , the 45-year-old financial services company, has been replacing paper forms at roughly 250 branches and loading up on Chromebooks. Through a secure digital session, customers can open an account, add a family member or sign up to the firm's automated investing service. All that data is automatically wiped off the computer after the client logs off. Schwab started with a rollout of about 1,000 Chromebooks early last year and has since doubled that number, said Ed Obuchowski, Schwab's senior vice president of advisor technology solutions. This is just the start. Over time, Obuchowski says, the Google brand is quite likely to show up in a variety of other places inside Schwab.

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"Google has a relatively compelling offer in a number of different areas," said Obuchowski, who is based in Phoenix, though the company is headquartered in San Francisco. Along with devices and apps, "their cloud platforms are pretty intriguing," he said.

Heading into Google parent Alphabet's second-quarter earnings report on Thursday, investors are looking for evidence of revenue diversification. Online advertising accounted for 90 percent of Alphabet's $75 billion in sales last year, even with a $10 billion capital expenditure budget focused largely on building out data centers. Analysts are projecting revenue growth of 17 percent in the quarter to $20.8 billion from $17.3 billion a year ago, according to a survey by Thomson Reuters. Adjusted earnings per share in the period ended June 30 likely increased to $8.04 from $6.99.

Alphabet shares have jumped 16 percent this year, closing on Tuesday at $757.65. The focus remains on advertising and how efficiently Google can generate revenue from smartphones, where behavior is very different from traditional desktop search. While Google remains the dominant player in digital advertising, Facebook has shifted to smartphone ads more rapidly, and there's the perpetual risk that search will lose relevance as mobile apps get smarter. Last year, Google's founders changed the company's structure, creating Alphabet as a holding company of sorts. Core Google is where all the money is made, and a separate category called "Other Bets" includes projects like Google Fiber, Nest thermostats, science initiatives Calico and Verily and the investment arm Google Ventures. Android phones and Chromebooks are part of Google's main business, and beyond that the company says little about how well they're selling. Gartner predicted last year that sales of Chromebooks in 2016 would increase 9.1 percent to 8 million units, following a 27 percent jump in 2015. Worldwide PC shipments, meanwhile, are falling, with a 5.2 percent drop in the second quarter to 64.3 million units, according to Gartner. Like with Android phones, Google supplies the operating systems for Chromebooks and counts on manufacturers for the hardware. Schwab, for example, went with a computer from Samsung, though Dell and HP are among other suppliers. Google makes money by selling device management for $50 a year per computer. Google's technology runs behind the scenes, quickly and securely pushing data to the cloud to avoid having information stored on the machine. And earlier this year, Google turned on Android apps for Chromebooks, making it easier to use productivity software from vendors like Microsoft , Evernote and Dropbox on the devices.

Charles Schwab Scott Eells | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Ian Ziering is busy marketing "Sharknado 4," but the actor nearly turned down the opportunity to play action hero Fin Shepard in the franchise that became a cultural phenomenon.

"I had an argument with my wife. I said, this will be a misstep in my career," he told CNBC's "Squawk Box" on Wednesday ahead of this weekend's premier of "Sharknado 4."

Instead, the SyFy channel's 2013 made-for-television movie "Sharknado"  which revolves around a shark-spewing tornado  became a surprise social- media sensation and spawned a series of annual summer sequels that air around the world.

"I did a press tour for South America. I spoke to every country, a round table, for every press opportunity down there," he said. "I did the same thing for Asia. I do the same thing for Europe."

Disclosure: CNBC and CNBC.com are owned by NBCUniversal, the parent company of SyFy.
Japanese game-maker Nintendo , which owns a stake in the developer of the wildly popular "Pokemon Go" mobile game, said on Wednesday that it had slumped to an operating loss in the quarter that ended June 30, 2016.

Nintendo's group operating loss in the April-June quarter stood at 5.13 billion yen ($47.33 million), compared to an operating profit of 1.15 billion yen in the same period a year earlier.

Net sales dropped 31.3 percent to about 62 billion yen, compared to 90.22 billion yen a year ago.

The Kyoto-based company said a combination of a decline in gaming hardware sales, fall in download sales as well as a stronger Japanese yen affected its earnings. Nintendo said yen strength resulted in exchange losses totaling 35 billion yen.

For the full fiscal 2017, Nintendo said it expects its operating profit to increase 36.9 percent to 45 billion yen.

Investor focus on the storied gaming company has been heavy in recent weeks, as it reaped the rewards of "Pokemon Go."

Nintendo, which produces the Wii gaming console and has created famed video game characters such as Mario, has seen its shares rocket since the app's launch in the U.S., Australia and New Zealand on July 6, reaching a high of 32,700 yen on July 19 as investors and analysts hoped for a boost to Nintendo earnings.



Nintendo owns stakes in The Pokemon Company, which owns the Pokemon characters, as well as in Niantic, the U.S. gaming company that created the game.



Since the initial boost, however, the stock has been on a roller-coaster ride, amid rumors over trouble with the Japan launch of the game before finally launching in the country on July 22.

A number of investors have increased their short positions on the stock, in part due to an announcement from Nintendo on Friday in which it said "Pokemon Go" would have a limited impact on its income.
Millions of shoppers will have a chance to stick it to the government over the next few weeks, as 17 states and Puerto Rico prepare for their respective sales tax holidays. Yet in several places across the country, these events will be noticeably more muted this year  if they're held at all.

After initiating exemptions for its residents in 2004, Massachusetts will sit out its annual sales tax holiday for the first time since 2009. Government leaders cited budgetary constraints as the reason for its decision.

Florida will once again offer exemptions on clothing and school supplies, but it will be harder for shoppers to capitalize on these deals. The Sunshine State is trimming its event from 10 days to three, and eliminating computers as a qualifying purchase.

And in Louisiana, which earlier this year passed some "fairly substantial" changes to its sales tax rules, the government will offer a reduced tax rate of 3 percent, said Charles Maniace, director of tax research at Sovos Compliance. That compares with its typical 5 percent rate.

"This is the first time that I can recall a sales tax holiday with a limitation on the rate," Maniace said. States typically add caveats to the items that are exempt  for example, limiting them to school supplies or clothing  or put in place a certain spending limit, to help plug the hole in lost revenue.
San Francisco Unified Superintendent Richard Carranza is the leading contender for the top job in Houston, the nations seventh-largest school district, the San Francisco Chronicle and Houston Chronicle report .

The Houston school board is expected to announce a single finalist or present a pared down list of candidates Wednesday, the newspapers report.

in January, Carranza, 49, was among the contenders for the top job in Los Angeles, the nations second-largest district, but withdrew from consideration prior to the school boards selection.

The Board of Education has met and we are prepared with a plan in the event that he leaves, Matt Haney, San Francisco school board president, told the San Francisco Chronicle. We have a strong foundation, a newly refreshed strategic plan, tremendous leadership in our schools and our district, and we are confident our progress will continue.

The move to Houston would represent a significant step up the career ladder for Carranza. San Francisco has roughly 53,000 students; Houston has 215,000.

If selected, Carranza would step in as the permanent replacement for former superintendent Terry Grier , who stepped down in February after six years at the helm. Houstons deputy superintendent and chief financial officer Ken Huewitt has served as interim school chief since Griers departure.

A former English-language learner, Carranza has led San Francisco Unified since 2012 after a stint as a regional superintendent in the Clark County, Nev., schools. He was among Education Weeks 2015 class of Leaders to Learn From for his commitment to ensuring that English-language learners in San Franciscos public schools not only become fluent in their new language, but also have the opportunity to become fully fluent and literate in their native one.

That experience could come in handy in Houston: roughly 25 percent of students, about 55,000, in the district are ELLs, according to a 2015 Migration Policy Institute report .

Grier was also a member of Education Weeks 2015 class of Leaders to Learn From , along with Lenny Schad, the districts chief information technology officer.

Heres a look at a video profile of Carranza from Education Week.
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Norwegian energy giant Statoil posted a slump in second-quarter earnings on Wednesday, as low oil prices continued to weigh on the industry. Statoil reported net operating income of $180 million and adjusted earnings of $913 million for the second quarter of 2016. Analysts polled by the company had expected adjusted earnings before tax of $1.365 billion, with earnings after tax seen at $313 million. "The main driver is the continued low oil and gas prices," Statoil CEO Eldar Stre told CNBC on Wednesday after the earnings release. Stre forecast near-term volatility in oil prices, as the market rebalanced from a period of very levels of storage globally. "In the medium-term, we are very confident we will see a higher price level," he told CNBC. Oslo-listed shares of Statoil fell by more 3 percent on the day on Wednesday.

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BP also posted a sharp drop in second-quarter earnings when it reported on Tuesday. It was the first publicly listed oil giant to post results, with Royal Dutch Shell out on Thursday and Exxon Mobil on Friday. BP's underlying replacement-cost profit came in at $720 million, down from $1.3 billion in the same period in 2015.

"We are delivering significant improvements to the business that will stick at any oil price," BP chief executive, Bob Dudley, said in a news release on Tuesday.

WTI light crude futures for September are up 15 percent since the start of the year, following a partial rebound in prices. However, at below $43 per barrel, they are far off the peaks around $110 reached before the two-year oil rout. Plus, oil prices have been on a downward run for the last seven weeks.

Energy commodities

Energy Futures



Despite the weak earnings, Statoil will pay a dividend of $0.2201 per ordinary share for the second quarter. BP also announced an unchanged dividend on Tuesday.

"We think it is very important to sustain our dividend," Statoil's Stre told CNBC on Wednesday.

Statoil also cut capital expenditure guidance for 2016 to $12 billion from $13 billion and exploration guidance to $1.8 billion from $2 billion.

"We see a cost reduction of 80 percent year-on-year," Stre told CNBC. Statoil is the largest energy company operating in Norway, controlling 70 percent of the country's oil and natural gas production, according to the U.S. Energy Information Agency. The company is headquartered in Stavanger, Norway and employs around 22,000 people worldwide. It is also listed on the New York stock exchange.

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Grand Theft Convention.



No, that's not a new video game. But it is what we just saw Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump do to the Democrats and Hillary Clinton, and the Democrats and Hillary Clinton are helping him do it!

During about an hour-long news conference earlier Wednesday, Trump was asked repeatedly about allegations that the Russian government is behind the hacked and leaked Democratic National Committee's emails that embarrassed the party on the eve of their national convention in Philadelphia. Trump quickly pivoted to also discussing Clinton's private email-server controversy and the 30,000-plus emails the former Secretary of State had deleted from her private server under questionable explanations and circumstances.

Advantage Trump.

Then came the money quote, or the bait, when he said: "Russia, if you're listening,I hope you're able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing; I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press."

That comment was sure to grab headlines all on its own, but then the Clinton campaign incredibly took the bait and had a top policy advisor respond with this statement: "This has to be the first time that a major presidential candidate has actively encouraged a foreign power to conduct espionage against his political opponent."

Advantage Trump.

Yep, the Clinton team actually said that. Instead of ignoring Trump's already deft stealing of the headlines away from their convention, the campaign hyped the distraction even further. Sure, they meant to make Trump out to be some kind of dangerous traitor. And Trump campaign spokesman Jason Miller has indeed issued a series of Twitter statements insisting Trump did not literally ask Russia to commit espionage. But the real result is that the words "Hillary Clinton," "emails," "hacking," "espionage," and "national security" are back in the headlines again.

Instead of ignoring the story or simply scoffing at the obvious distracting attack, the Clinton campaign has fallen into the same kind of trap all those Republican candidates Trump defeated in the primaries fell for: misdirection. Most of the news media seems to have fallen for it, too, as the tone of most of the stories covering Trump's comments seem to indicate this could be the serious gaffe everyone was expecting Trump to make in this election.

Trump's ability to steal headlines with outrageous comments and survive the process is well-documented, but no one seems to have come up with an antidote for it. And, as for trying to make Russia into some kind of villain here and thus tainting Trump for any connection to that country or it's leader Vladimir Putin, ask Mitt Romney how much the voters care about Russia. He found out the answer the hard way in 2012, didn't he?

And guess what no one is talking about right now? All those "historic" stories about Clinton being the first woman to win a major party nomination are off the news sites now. Major lead-up stories to President Obama's big speech at the convention on Wednesday night are almost non-existent now. And no one is talking about Clinton running mate Tim Kaine's speech tonight at all.

Advantage Trump.

A lot of Clinton supporters and even some more objective observers might think that Trump's theft of the attention isn't all that great for his campaign. But those people are making a mistake that plagues so many people who follow elections. They forget that emotions are more powerful than facts in politics and the best persuaders play on our emotions. So speaking of those emotions, are you personally scared of Russia at all right now? You and Mitt Romney already knew the answer was "no."

And in the emotions game, you can't win without getting our attention first. Is Hillary Clinton or her campaign capable or even willing to do the things that could garner a similar amount of attention? So far, all we know is her team is capable of helping Trump shine more of a light on himself. No wonder he's ahead in the polls despite being massively outspent on advertising by Hillary Clinton.

Advantage Trump.

So again, what we're witnessing here is a presidential candidate stealing the other party's thunder just when it needs your attention the most.

Grand Theft Convention isn't a game, it's the real thing. And Trump just won it.
When talking about Latino and Hispanic voters, the main issues that come to mind are the economy and, of course, immigration. But health care is another key matter for Latino voters that has not been in the spotlight as much.

According to a Pew Research poll conducted earlier this month, 82 percent of Latino voters said health care is a very important issue to their vote, behind only the economy and immigration.

"One of the things we have to think about is health care in this country is very expensive," Tony Payan, director of the Mexico Center at Rice University's Baker Institute. "Obamacare has provided a window of opportunity for Latinos to get health-care coverage," but Republican nominee Donald Trump has vowed to repeal it.

Nearly 13 million Latinos are registered to vote in the U.S., according to the Census.

"As the campaign moves forward and Republicans continue to reiterate [their stance] on Obamacare, Latinos are going to be more concerned about health care," Payan said.
Donald Trump took a wild turn at a news conference Wednesday, saying he hopes Russia finds emails deleted by Hillary Clinton from her time as secretary of state.

"Russia, if you're listening, I hope you're able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing, I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press," the Republican presidential nominee told reporters.

After the news conference, Trump campaign Senior Communications Advisor Jason Miller clarified to NBC that Trump wasn't calling on anyone to intervene, but instead was pushing anyone who has them to hand them over to authorities. Trump tweeted as much minutes after the news conference.

"I think it's also important here to not let Hillary off the hook for why we're even having this talk," Miller said. "Because she illegally bungled 33,000 emails from her home server, and now the DNC had their anti-Sanders smear campaign emails shared with the world."



The Clinton campaign was quick to respond to the initial comments.

"This has to be the first time that a major presidential candidate has actively encouraged a foreign power to conduct espionage against his political opponent," top policy advisor Jake Sullivan said in a statement.

"This has gone from being a matter of curiosity, and a matter of politics, to being a national security issue."

Tweet 1



Tweet 2

Brendan Buck, a spokesperson for Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan, said in a response statement that "Russia is a global menace led by a devious thug. Putin should stay out of this election."

However, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich seemingly defended Trump's remarks in a tweet, writing that the "media seems more upset by Trump's joke about Russian hacking than by the fact that Hillary's personal server was vulnerable to Russia".

Tweet 3

The remarks came as the consensus within the American intelligence community grows that Russia was behind the recent hack of the Democratic National Committee's servers, The New York Times reported.

Trump said he was not certain Russia was behind the hack, but said, "if it is Russia, it's really bad for a different reason, because it shows how little respect they have for our country when they would hack into a major party and get everything."

Tweet 4

Speaking at the Florida news conference, Trump also tore into top Clinton aide Huma Abedin's husband  former Rep.  while questioning Clinton's ability to receive security briefings.

"[Clinton's] number one person, Huma Abedin, is married to Anthony Weiner, who is a sleezeball and a pervert," Trump said. "I don't like Huma going home at night and telling Anthony Weiner all of these secrets, OK? So, how can Hillary Clinton be briefed on this unbelievably delicate information when it was just proven that she lied."

"I don't think that it's safe to have Hillary Clinton in light of what just happened and in light of what we just found out, I don't think it's safe to have Hillary Clinton be briefed on national security because the word will get out," he added.



As the conference came to an end, he returned to criticizing Clinton, noting her limited number of press conferences.

"I think it's time for Hillary Clinton to do a news conference because its almost a year now, and it would be interesting to see how she does," Trump said.

As he wrapped up, he answered one last question about any advice he may have for President Barack Obama as he addresses the Democratic Convention Wednesday night in Philadelphia.

"Might as well just tell him to have a good time, he has done one bad job," Trump said.

The remarks came in the middle of the Democratic National Convention, and may have been calculated to draw attention away from the party gathering, according to Princeton political historian Julian Zelizer.

"All of that is an effort to mix up, and to confuse and to stifle this choreographed Democratic production," Zelizer told CNBC.com. "With him, the more dramatic the statement the better the coverage."



NBC News contributed to this report.
Workers know they should do a better job of hitting their savings targets. Many of them want their employers to lead the way. In fact, 75 percent believe they ought to save at least 10 percent of their pretax salary for retirement, according to a recent JPMorgan Asset Management survey of 1,000 individuals. Of those, 76 percent are falling short of the target.



Image Source | Getty Images

To help them, employees said they want more help at the workplace, the survey found, including automated savings features to help them boost their 401(k) contributions.

"It's clear that participants know they should be saving more," said Catherine Peterson, managing director at JPMorgan Asset Management. "When you look at what the employer can do to get participants into the plan: auto-enrollment is a powerful feature," she said. Fully 96 percent of those surveyed said they were satisfied with that option.



Why aren't people saving?

Workers also said everyday obstacles deterred them from socking away enough. Nearly half cited debt repayment, and 36 percent said they aren't earning enough to increase their salary deferrals. And more than a quarter said they have other spending priorities. "Many times it's just inertia, fear," said Peterson. "People don't know what to do, so they don't do anything."

Indeed, employees want help overcoming those hurdles. Nearly 6 in 10 in the survey labeled themselves as "do it for me" investors  that is, they prefer to leave their investment strategies and decision-making to professionals. Even more of them  about 75 percent  preferred automatic enrollment into their retirement plan and automatic yearly escalation of their contributions.
TYRE, N.Y.  Jerry Moran has been named senior VP of human resources (HR) at del Lago Resort & Casino in Tyre, which is getting ready to open next year.

He has nearly 30 years of experience in recruitment, employee relations, learning and development, and benefits/compensation administration, according to a Del Lago new release. Moran has specialized in the casino and hospitality industry.

Moran is working with area partners on initiatives to help find employees for the hundreds of positions that will be available at the resort and casino.

I am thrilled to be a part of such a vibrant Finger Lakes region, Moran said in the release. Since coming onboard, Ive met with Finger Lakes Community College, Finger Lakes Workforce Investment Board and the Board of Cooperative Educational Services (BOCES) to explore potential employment partnerships, and within the next few months, we will be announcing upcoming job fairs and employment opportunities for the many talented job candidates in the Finger Lakes community.

The casino is scheduled to open in early 2017 and the hotel and spa will open later next year.

Moran most recently was corporate director of HR at LTD Hospitality in Chesapeake, Virginia. He was responsible for overseeing HR for 14 hotels with 850 associates in four states. Prior to LTD Hospitality, Moran was VP of HR at Colwen Management in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, where he provided HR services and consulting to owners and executives at 25 hotels with 1,300 employees in five states.

Moran has also held HR leadership positions at Mohegan Sun Casino and Foxwoods Resort Casino in Connecticut, Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York, and Caesars World and Sheraton Desert Inn in Las Vegas.

Moran received a masters degree in organizational psychology from Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas, and a bachelors degree in psychology from SUNY Cortland.

Contact The Business Journal News Network at news@cnybj.com
The Perth Mint has announced sales of 10 million of the 2016 Australian .9999 fine silver Kangaroo $1 bullion coin.

Australias newest silver bullion coin is one of the worlds most popular.

The Perth Mint announced July 20 that the 2016 Kangaroo silver coin had reached sales of 10 million coins, ranking it among the top five world silver bullion coins.

The newest addition to the Australian bullion coin program was introduced in September 2015 and has doubled projected interest of 5 million coins, according to the Perth Mint.

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Traditionally, sales of Australias silver bullion issues have been particularly strong in North America and Germany, as both regions perceive the country as an exotic destination with some of the worlds most fascinating wildlife, according to a statement from the Perth Mint.

With this insight, we expected that the U.S. and Germany would generate the greatest demand, said Perth Mint chief executive officer, Richard Hayes.

Hayes projected that sales for the 2017 coin will exceed 12 million coins, based on current popularity.

Leading world bullion sales is the United States Mint with its silver American Eagle, followed by the Royal Canadian Mints silver Maple Leaf, although the RCM no longer discloses mintage or sales figures.

Australias Philharmonic and Chinas Panda are contenders, with the Perth Mint, for the third spot, and the Royal Mints change in the Britannia series has improved that coins standing in recent years, leading the Royal Mint to add a bullion coin press and extend production to three shifts.

The Perth Mint issues several silver bullion coins, each of which showcase an animal icon, the Australian Kookaburra, Koala, and Australian Lunar series. While those programs combine to offer investors wide choice, with coins ranging from 1/2 ounce to 10 kilograms, the 1-ounce sizes continually sell out their limited annual mintages.

Because of this, the Kangaroo coin is offered only in the 1-ounce size. It will be issued with an unlimited mintage.

We made sure that the new Kangaroo satisfies investors key aims  to secure an asset which features an Australian icon  to secure silver at an affordable price  to add .9999 fine silver to their portfolio  and to stack precious metals in convenient one ounce coins, Hayes said.

The 2016 Kangaroo silver bullion coin and the complete suite of Australian bullion coins are available from the Perth Mints Bullion trading desk.

For additional information, or to order, visit the Perth Mints dedicated website.

Two mints for Australia, two different Kangaroo programs

Two government-operated mints operate within Australia  the Royal Australian Mint and the Perth Mint.

The Royal Australian Mint (in Canberra, owned by the federal government) is charged with producing Australia's circulating coins. It also issues collector coins.

The Perth Mint, in the state of Western Australia, is owned by that state's government. It issues bullion and collector coins.

The Perth Mints Kangaroo silver bullion coins should not be confused with the Royal Australian Mints Kangaroo silver coins, which that agency has issued since 1993. The Royal Australian Mint considers its Kangaroos collector coins and not bullion coins.
Heritages July 7 to 10 auctions held in conjunction with the summer Florida United Numismatists convention in Orlando realized $6,583,780. The top lot was a 1915-S Panama Pacific International Exposition round gold $50 commemorative coin graded Mint State 64 by Numismatic Guaranty Corp. that brought $88,125.

This year marked the tenth installment of FUNs summer show, which is smaller than its annual January show. Next years winter FUN show is set for Fort Lauderdale, Jan. 5 to 8, and the 2017 summer FUN is scheduled in Orlando, July 6 to 8.

Here is one of three coins from the sale we're profiling in this week's Market Analysis:

The Lot:

1797 Draped Bust, 15 Stars, Small Eagle half dime, MS-64+, CAC

The Price:

$47,000

The Story:

Another handsome coin also formerly in the Gardner Collection was this 1797 Draped Bust, 15 Stars, Small Eagle half dime graded by Professional Coin Grading Service MS-64+ with CAC sticker that sold for $47,000.

The half dimes especially rich provenance goes back to the Richard B. Winsor Collection and then to the Chapman Brothers in 1895. It would pass through the hands of J.M. Clapp and into the collection of Louis E. Eliasberg Sr.

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In its 1996 sale of the Eliasberg Collection, Bowers and Merena wrote, Incredible Gem 1797 15 Stars. Finest Seen. The obverse and reverse are weak at the centers with strong peripheral detail. Intense frosty light silver luster with mottled pink and green iridescence. A few very minor abrasions are noted with the aid of magnification. To summarize: Wow!

When it last sold at Heritages June 2014 sale of the Gardner Collection it was graded MS-64 by PCGS without the Plus grade, but with a CAC sticker. At that sale, the coin  carrying technically a lower grade  brought a strong $70,500.

Keep reading this summer FUN focused Market Analysis:
The number of homeless children attending U.S. schools has grownroughly doubling between 2006-07 and 2013-14and schools must work to adequately identify and support these students, the U.S. Department of Education said in revised guidance Wednesday.

The guidance clarifies the requirements of schools under the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act , which was reauthorized when Congress replaced the No Child Left Behind Act with the Every Student Succeeds Act, or ESSA, at the end of 2015. It includes stronger requirements for identifying homeless students , which can be a challenge for schools, and professional development requirements for teachers.

Homeless students are more likely to be chronically absent and less likely to earn a high school diploma than their peers, U.S. Education Secretary John B. King Jr. said in a conference call with reporters.

Working together, we can change these odds, King said.

As Education Week has previously reported, the new federal education law includes first-time requirements related to some vulnerable student populations. For example, states will have to break out the student achievement data and graduation rates of these homeless students, children in foster care, and children from military families just as they have done in the past by race and ethnicity.

The McKinney-Vento Act has always required students to help homeless students maintain their school of origin, by providing additional transportation for students so that they are not required to constantly switch schools as their families move in and out of attendance boundaries. Under ESSA, the requirement is expanded to include district-run preschools and Head Start programs under the definition of school of origin, the guidance says.

The McKinney-Vento Act strongly emphasizes the importance of school stability for homeless children and youths, it says. Changing schools multiple times significantly impedes a students academic and social growth. The research on highly mobile students, including homeless students, indicates that a student can lose academic progress with each school change.

Under the new law, schools must create procedures to ensure transfer of both full and partial academic credit for homeless students, the guidance says.

Additionally, the McKinney-Vento Act now has a strengthened emphasis on the unique needs of, and supports for, unaccompanied homeless youths, such as through the verification of independent student status for the purposes of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) and improved coordination with other federally funded homeless assistance programs for which these youths may be eligible, the guidance says.

Among the other requirements outlined in the guidance:



Schools must identify preschool-aged homeless children and ensure that they have access to programs and services they are eligible for, including school-administered preschool programs and the Early Intervention Program for Infants and Toddlers with Disabilities.

Schools must work to collaborate with other agencies to help meet the needs of homeless students. Those agencies include public and private child welfare and social services agencies; law enforcement agencies; juvenile and family courts; agencies providing mental health services; domestic violence agencies; child-care providers; runaway and homeless youth centers; providers of services and programs funded under the Runaway and Homeless Youth Act; and providers of emergency, transitional, and permanent housing, including public housing agencies, shelter operators, and operators of transitional housing facilities.

Schools must remove enrollment barriers, including barriers related to missed application or enrollment deadlines, fines, or fees; records required for enrollment, including immunization or other required health records, proof of residency, or other documentation; or academic records, including documentation for credit transfer.

In recent student feedback sessions at the Education Department, homeless students shared stories about struggling to find places to store their books and supplies outside of school and finding it difficult to do routine tasks, like washing clothes and taking showers, King said.

Advocates for homeless students said the new guidance may help schools address the concerns of a sometimes invisible student population.

It really takes a very dedicated, focused, specific, and intentional effort to assist homeless students, said Barbara Duffield, director of policy and programs at the National Association for the Education of Homeless Children and Youth. Duffield praised ESSAs emphasis on the full continuum of learning, from pre-k to college, for homeless students.

Photo: Getty Images

Further reading on homeless students and ESSA:

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A divided federal appeals court has upheld a school resource officers arrest and handcuffing of a New Mexico 7th grader for disrupting his class with fake burps.

A panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit, in Denver, ruled 2-1 that the officer was immune from liability because it was not clearly established that the students classroom disruptions were not in violation of a New Mexico law that prohibits interference with the educational process at any public or private school.

The majority also upheld qualified immunity for the officer regarding his use of handcuffs when he took the 13-year-old, identified in court papers as F.M., to a juvenile detention center.

The incident at Cleveland Middle School in Albuquerque, N.M., began in May 2011 when F.M. disrupted his physical education class, which was meeting in a regular classroom on the day in question because students were giving presentations.

Court papers say teacher Margaret Mines-Hornbeck had ordered F.M. into the hallway because of his fake burps and other distractions. The student leaned into the classroom doorway and continued to make burping noises and causing his classmates to laugh.

At that point, the teacher radioed to the school resource officer, Arthur Acosta of the Albuquerque Police Department, to come to the hallway. The teacher asked Acosta to remove F.M. because she could not control him.

Acosta brought the student to the school office, but soon after decided to arrest him for violating the state statute about interfering with school. Although F.M. was handcuffed and taken to the juvenile justice center, it appears that his mother picked him up soon after, and he faced no juvenile charges. F.M. was suspended for a day for the incident, and he did not return to the school that academic year.

F.M.'s mother, identified as A.M., filed a lawsuit after a second incident in which the student, who returned to the middle school the next year, was suspected of selling marijuana to classmates. School employees had searched F.M., including an inspection of his waistband, but found no marijuana. The mothers lawsuit said the search was unreasonable under the Fourth Amendment. But a federal district court and the 10th Circuit court panel, unanimously, upheld immunity for school officials in the search.

As for the arrest and handcuffing in the classroom disruption incident, the lawsuit alleged that Acostas actions violated settled law because the students behavior was not the serious interference with school contemplated by the New Mexico statute.

At worst, F.M. was being a class-clown and engaged in behavior that would have subjected generations of school boys to an after-school detention, writing lines, or a call to his parents, the suit said.

But the district court ruled that the officer had immunity, and the appeals court majority agreed.

In its July 25 decision in A.M. v. Holmes , the 10th Circuit court said the effect of F.M.'s conduct was not merely to disturb the good order of Ms. Mines-Hornbecks classroom; rather, it was to bring the activities of that classroom to a grinding halt.

The majority rejected arguments that the officer should have been guided by a 1974 New Mexico appeals court ruling that had interpreted a state statute about disrupting colleges as requiring interference with a school as a whole, rather than a single classroom, to be a violation. The language of the statute about college disruptions was nearly identical to that regarding K-12 schools, but the majority said the 1974 ruling didnt interpret the K-12 law.

In sum, we hold that it would not have been clear to a reasonable officer in Officer Acostas position that his arrest of F.M. under [the New Mexico statute] would have been lacking in probable cause and thus violative of F.M.'s Fourth Amendment rights, Judge Jerome A. Holmes wrote for the majority.

Holmes said the majority was neither oblivious nor unsympathetic to the potential future consequences to a child, such as F.M., of an arrest or other law-enforcement sanction for seemingly non-egregious classroom misconduct, but it ultimately is not our place to question or undermine the New Mexico legislatures policy choice to criminalize interference with the educational process.

Because F.M.'s mother sued only the officer (and the school administrators in the search incident) and the courts ruled that the defendants were immune, that is likely the end of her case, unless the full 10th Circuit court or the U.S. Supreme Court take it up.

Writing in dissent, Judge Neil M. Gorsuch said that a students classroom disruption that would have once resulted in a trip to the principals office and detention is now leading to the involvement of the police.

And maybe today the officer decides that, instead of just escorting the now-compliant 13-year-old to the principals office, an arrest would be a better idea, Gorsuch said. So out come the handcuffs and off goes the child to juvenile detention. My colleagues suggest the law permits exactly this option. ... Respectfully, I remain unpersuaded.
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
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.
Its convention time for both the Democratic and Republican parties, and Ill take turns discussing their education platforms. Several people Ive consulted on this have pointed out that platforms arent that important and that the nominees ignore them. Thats true, but they are useful windows into the current status of political debates and harbingers of compromises to come.

Ill start with Democrats. Full disclosure: I am a long-time Democrat and supporter of Hillary Clinton, though any regular reader of my columns and other work knows that I dont toe the party line. Also, since the Democratic platform isnt finalized, Im working off the draft in Valerie Strauss Washington Post article .

Four things stand out to me:

(1) In many ways, the Democratic platform basically follows the two-decade-old Washington Consensus on school-level standards and accountability--with some useful course corrections. The platform reads: We will hold schools, districts, communities, and states accountable for raising achievement levels for all students. The school piece of this has been a staple of deferral policy for decades, so nothing new there. The reference to communities reinforces the reality that student outcomes are heavily driven by non-school factors. This, along with the reference to districts and states, is intended to share responsibility more broadly so that educators on the front lines dont take all the blame when things go wrong (or all the praise when things go right). That strikes me as reasonable even if community and state accountability will almost certainly never become concrete policies.

The platform also wisely mentions multiple measures. This is perfectly consistent with the idea of strong accountability. We expect a lot from schools. If the measures of performance dont reflect that, then accountability will fail.

The broadening of school goals is also reflected in the references to discipline and restorative justice. That too makes sense. Incarceration rates, especially for black males, are at crisis levels, and there is a real need for attention to this at the school level. Data from the U.S. Department of Education shows huge numbers of schools with police officers but no counselors.

(2) The specific combination of support for accountability and opposition to testing made in the platform makes no sense. First, there is the blanket criticism of testing: We oppose high-stakes standardized tests that falsely and unfairly label students of color, students with disabilities and English Language Learners as failing. Then there is the opt-out provision: We also support enabling parents to opt their children out of standardized tests without penalty for either the student or their school.

You cant hold anyone accountable for raising achievement levels if students dont take some measure of achievement. Without that, we couldnt measure the achievement gaps that the platform elsewhere expresses concern about. Supporting accountability while opposing testing doesnt make sense without also proposing alternative measures or methods, which are completely absent.

(3) The platform signals an almost complete reversal of the last decade of teacher evaluation and accountability. The above quote on accountability doesnt mention educators at all, and elsewhere it reads: We oppose . . . the use of standardized test scores as basis for refusing to fund schools or to close schools, and the use of student test scores in teacher and principal evaluations. Almost none of the recent teacher accountability systems rely solely on student test scores. In most cases, classroom observations and other measures represent a clear majority of the evaluation. Nevertheless, the antipathy for value-added is understandable and deep-seated, and this has become a major distraction from the larger goal of effective evaluation and accountability. I have argued for a lesser focus on teacher value-added and even more so principal value-added for some time.

Its unfortunate, though, that the platform writers didnt couple their opposition to teacher value-added with an affirmation of teacher evaluation and accountability generally. To their credit, teacher unions have long complained about the lack of feedback teachers receive. They also talk a lot about due process based on performance, which requires effective evaluation. Where do we stand on this fundamental issue of teacher evaluation? The platform is silent.

Reading further in the platform draft, we see themes of recruiting high-quality teachers, professional development and capacity-building, reinforcing the shift away from teacher accountability. Those are good themes, though capacity and accountability shouldnt be viewed as opponents. On the contrary, they are complementary. We need both.

(4) The shift in charter language is interesting, though not nearly as negative as charter advocates have suggested. Democrats are also committed to providing parents with high-quality public school options and expanding these options for low-income youth. We support democratically governed great neighborhood public schools and high-quality public charter schools. This statement is positive and affirms charter schools.

As charter advocates have been quick to point out, the messages are not all positive: We believe that high quality public charter schools should provide options for parents, but should not replace or destabilize traditional public schools. This is perhaps the most interesting quote because it opposes something that few charter leaders ever thought possible. The original idea was that charters would create some degree of choice and competition, allow some schools more autonomy, facilitate innovation and diversify options. Replacing traditional public schools was almost never part of the conversation. Yet, this is exactly what is happening in New Orleans, Detroit, and some other cities (albeit to very different effect ), so its no surprise that the platform writers are drawing this line in the sand.

The concern that charters might destabilize traditional public schools is interesting because destabilization is part of the point for charter advocates--that is, part of the charter argument is that school districts need to be shaken up to do a better job. But I think the main intent here is to avoid sending traditional school districts into a death spiral where funding declines so quickly that even a strong leadership team would not be able to provide a quality education in the remaining district schools. The boundaries on this are unclear. Where does putting pressure on public schools end and destabilizing begin? Im not sure, but they are writing a platform, not a legal brief, so its a reasonable point.

Charter schools must reflect their communities, and thus must accept and retain proportionate numbers of students of color, students with disabilities and English Language Learners in relation to their neighborhood public schools. Hillary Clinton had commented on this previously, after the got to go list controversy at Success Academy . Here, the platform writers did not go far enough. Most neighborhoods are so segregated that reflect their communities just means more segregation. Its a low bar. More charter schools should pursue integration .

Finally, the latest draft adds democratically elected to the language describing traditional public schools. See my earlier post on this where I argue that charter schools have to have less democratic governance than traditional public schools if they are going to have the autonomy and performance-based accountability that define charter schools. This doesnt mean no democratic accountability, just less.

There is more to the platform. For example, it affirms school choice (providing parents with high-quality public school options and expanding these options for low-income youth) and doesnt mention the words vouchers, teacher tenure, bargaining, or union. Im a bit surprised by the omission of vouchers, given the grand compromise where teacher unions go along with support for charters so long as Democratic opposition to vouchers continues. Also, the recent evidence on vouchers has been negative , and this would have drawn more attention to those studies.

I am not surprised that the teacher unions seem happy with the platform--they have taken a beating for at least the last 16 years. Any move in their direction will feel like, as Randi Weingarten put it, a sea change. At the same time, there are no real policy victories for them in here. You dont win policy debates by throwing bricks alone. You also have to use bricks to build new policy ideas, and thats whats missing here. Maybe this is the first step and some new policy ideas are coming, but Im not so sure. The unions have struggled for the past two decades to rally around ideas that are politically feasible.

It is also easy to see why Democrats for Education Reform isnt happy with the revised platform. The bricks are being thrown at them. But the platform does affirm school choice and provides reasonably nuanced support for charter schools, as well. It also includes some things I wish the reformers more actively supported like multiple measures and doesnt include any ideas that could reasonably replace the existing reform approach. The reform building is standing in tact.

All the signs here still point in one direction. The reform movement will slow down a little, but there are still no signs yet of a reversal.

Douglas N. Harris is professor of economics, the Schleider Foundation Chair in Public Education, and founder and Director of the Education Research Alliance for New Orleans .

You can follow him on Twitter .
July 26, 2016 - Bill Clinton speaks at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia. (photo by Sean M. Fitzgerald, USA TODAY NETWORK)

By Joel Ebert and Joey Garrison , USA Today Network  Tennessee

PHILADELPHIA  A strikingly personal speech from former President Bill Clinton that wove together past anecdotes to humanize his polarizing wife Hillary Clinton was met with strong reviews from leading Tennessee Democrats.

Bill Clinton refrained from referencing Hillary Clintons Republican presidential opponent Donald Trump  or the election at all  for much of his highly anticipated Democratic convention speech Tuesday night. Instead, he talked about her career in law and social justice causes, the first time they met, the three proposals it took for her to marry him and the birth of their only child - Chelsea.

President Clinton really told the story of Hillary Clintons life and how she is the real thing who has been fighting for real change in peoples lives the last 40 years, said state Sen. Jeff Yarbro, D-Nashville. "She did more before she was 30 than Donald Trumps done in his entire career.

I think a lot of people learned a lot about Hillary Clinton tonight that they didnt know and I think youre going to see a lot more people give her a second chance, a lot more people (will) decide that shes the right person to lead the country.

Clarksville Mayor Kim McMillan, a Clinton delegate, said Hillary Clintons early personal life is not something most voters know about.

I think its important for all of us to know what kind of a real person she is and what she means to people who have been in her life for so long, McMillan said. I think it really humanizes her and makes her somebody that we can all truly believe in, not just for her achievements in her public life.

Clintons speech was an effort to offer a glimpse of the human and private side of an oft-debated public figure who has been in the national public life for three decades.

People say, 'She's been around a long time, Clinton said. She sure has. And she's spent every year working to make people's lives better."

Though the speech went in chronological order  beginning with the time he first met Hillary while standing in line to sign up for class in law school  Bill Clinton did not reference the time his marriage was challenged the most: his public scandal with Monica Lewinsky after he had sexual relations with the White House intern.

In tracing her public service as a U.S. senator from New York and later Secretary of State, Bill Clinton called Hillary Clinton the best darn change-maker Ive ever known. He also highlighted the difference between the "real" Hillary Clinton versus the "fake" one described at the Republican National Convention last week.

Good for you, Clinton said. You nominated the real one.

Knoxville Mayor Madeline Rogero applauded the speech, saying it was filled with stories that shes read about but that voters havent heard in years.

It showed the very personal side in terms of her as a [wife] and as a mother, raising Chelsea, Rogero said. When you get on the national stage in politics, people who dont like your policies then try to devalue your entire life or what youre about.

Democratic Rep. Brenda Gilmore, also of Nashville, said each of the speeches so far in the DNC has taken viewers to a different level.

And it reveals more and more about Hillary Clinton and why shes uniquely qualified to be the president of the United States, not just the first woman, but to be a great president of the United States.
Woman Faces Life in Prison for Fake Rape Fantasy Ad Responses

Some people can't take a break up and they want to make their exes pay when their love doesn't last. But a 29-year-old California woman is learning the hard way that revenge is a dish best not served at all.

Michelle Hadley could spend her life in state prison after responding to rape fantasy advertisements on Craigslist in the name of her ex-boyfriend's wife, according to a statement from the Orange County District Attorney's Office. She is charged with numerous felony offenses, including six counts of attempted forcible rape.

What Went Wrong

Michelle Hadley dated a U.S. Marshal, who then decided to marry another woman. In June, the miffed Hadley sent numerous emails to the marshal's wife threatening her and making disparaging remarks about her husband. A restraining order was issued and Hadley was charged criminally for the threats. She was released on $100,000 bail pending resolution of the criminal case.

But the criminal consequences must not have seemed real at that point because Hadley upped the ante. She began, according to Orange County prosecutors, to respond to rape fantasy ads on Craigslist in the name of the other woman, referred to only as Jane Doe in the statement.

Dangerous Fantasies

In a scenario not unlike a recent Law and Order episode, Hadley told the strange men on Craigslist where Jane Doe lived and details about her daily routine. This led to several attempts at contact and one attack on Jane Doe that was successfully thwarted.

The Orange County DA's press release states, "Hadley is accused of telling the responders that the victim wanted the responders to have forcible sexual intercourse with her, even if she screamed or resisted. Several of the responders showed up at Jane Doe's residence with the intention of raping the victim but did not succeed. One responder arrived at Jane Doe's residence and physically attacked the victim before she was able to call for help and the man fled the scene."

The jilted Hadley now has much more to deal with than a broken heart. She is charged with multiple felony offenses, including stalking, criminal threats, and six counts of attempted forcible rape. If convicted, she could spend her whole life in state prison, according to the DA's press release.

Accused?

If you have been charged with a crime, don't delay. Speak to a lawyer today. Many criminal defense attorneys consult for free or a minimal fee and will be happy to assess your case.

Related Resources:
Jul 27, 2016; Philadelphia, PA, USA; Rep. Raumesh Akbari receives instructions during rehearsal before the beginning of the 2016 Democratic National Convention at Wells Fargo Arena. Mandatory Credit: Michael Chow-USA TODAY NETWORK

By Joel Ebert, USA TODAY NETWORK  Tennessee

PHILADELPHIA  Hours before Hillary Clinton formally accepts the presidential nomination of the Democratic Party, Tennessee will be in the spotlight when a 32-year-old Memphis attorney will take the stage and stump for the former secretary of state.

State Rep. Raumesh Akbari is well aware that when she speaks Thursday from inside the Wells Fargo Center that she will hardly have the most highly anticipated speech.

But that doesn't matter to her. She's just thrilled to be here.

"I wanted to be an amplifier for the needs of my community," Akbari said this week.

Akbari's ascent has been swift. She first entered politics in 2013, elected to fill the seat held by the late Lois DeBerry, who represented Memphis from 1973 until her death in 2013.

DeBerry had an almost legendary status in Tennessee. DeBerry was active in the civil rights movement and participated in the March on Washington in 1963 before running for office, eventually becoming the first woman to serve as Speaker Pro Tempore.

Akbari won a crowded primary election before defeating an independent candidate in a head-to-head matchup in the fall of 2013. In 2014, she beat a challenger in the Democratic primary and defeated a Republican opponent in the general election.

This year, no other Democrats decided to challenge Akbari but she will have a Republican opponent in November.

Akbari, who is attending her first political convention and is an alternate Clinton delegate, said being with motivated Democrats in Philadelphia gives her an opportunity to recharge her political batteries before heading back to Tennessee, where the legislature is dominated by Republicans outside of the state's big cities.

The main focus of her speech, which is scheduled for 4:30 p.m., will be an appeal those 35 and under, she said.

"The young Democrats and a lot of the ones who are undecided," she said. "I want try to explain to them why I am a strong Clinton supporter and why I think they should work hard to get Secretary Clinton elected as President Clinton."

Akbari attended Washington University in St. Louis for her bachelor's degree and got a law degree from St. Louis University, though she's a native of Memphis and has been intrinsically tied to it.

Her parents, Lisa and Hooshang, have had a business in Memphis since before she was born. They started with a hair salon and now own a cosmetology school  Lisa Akbari's Cosmetology Institute  and a hair product line: Lisa Akbari's Hair Nutrition System.

A graduate of Cordova High School, Akbari said she always wanted to be an attorney. She said she was "super inspired" by Claire Huxtable, the fictional character on "The Cosby Show."

"On career day, I would carry a briefcase and dress up as a lawyer and my sister would wear a white jacket and dress up like a doctor," she said.

Memphis is also home to her twin sister, Raumina, who is a fourth-year medical student at the University of Tennessee at Memphis; her grandmother, Clara Macklin and her two dogs, a toy poodle named Sasha Fierce Obama Akbari and a Chihuahua known as Dr. Dre Akbari.

Akbari lives in the Cooper-Young neighborhood in Midtown.

Macklin, who lived with the family for the first two years of the twins' lives, was especially proud when Akbari ran for office, the lawmaker said.

"She has her regional voter registration card from 1962. That was before the Voting Rights Act," Akbari said. "For her to be able to vote for me, it's amazing."

Although she would've liked to bring more people to Philadelphia to see her speech in person, Akbari said she was only able to invite her mother, who was hoping to bring campaign signs and wave them inside the Wells Fargo Center during her speech.

In Philadelphia, Akbari is easy to spot among the Tennessee delegation. She's frequently found with a big smile and decked out in red, white and blue and wearing Clinton stickers and buttons.

Her colleagues are excited to have a Tennessean  the first since Al Gore spoke at the Democratic National Convention in 2008  on stage to deliver a prime-time address.

"For her to be out there with some of the other amazing lineup of speakers that have been here the last two or three days is certainly good for our caucus, good for the legislature and certainly good for her constituents, Shelby County and the entire state of Tennessee," said House Minority Leader Craig Fitzhugh, D-Ripley..

Tennessee Democratic Party chairwoman Mary Mancini and State Rep. Brenda Gilmore, D-Nashville, both said Akbari's inclusion as a speaker suggests that Clinton understands that she might be able to compete in the state in a general election.

"I think Secretary Clinton realized how important Tennessee is to this election," said Gilmore.

Noting that Bill Clinton twice won the state, Mancini said Akbari's involvement is highly motivating to Democrats in Tennessee.

Although some may wonder how she solidified the speaking slot, her colleagues are hardly surprised given her skills as a leader in the community.

"She understands that she is a public servant," Mancini said, adding that Akbari shares several qualities with the Democratic nominee. "She's smart, kind, funny and loved by her colleagues."

Akbari's ties to Clinton have become closer in recent months  she introduced the former secretary of state during a Memphis tour last year and traveled with her to a few churches on a separate visit. She cites Bill Clinton's administration as an early influence, in addition to watching the nightly news with her father.

Gilmore said people closely watched Akbari when she first entered office because she was replacing DeBerry. Gilmore, who serves as chairwoman of the Tennessee Black Caucus of State Legislators, has worked closely with Akbari, who is the caucus's vice chairwoman.

"She stepped into some very big shoes," Gilmore said. "She's just gone beyond our wildest expectations. I think she's going to create her own legacy."

Watch party in Memphis on Thursday

Raumesh Akbari's family, friends and supporters will be at a watch party during the speech starting at 4 p.m. Thursday at Broadway Pizza, 629 S. Mendenhall, hosted by the Democratic Women of Shelby County.
John Locher/Associated Press Stage is reflected on a glass window on the suite level at Wells Fargo Arena as Timmy Kelly sings the national anthem before the start of the second day session of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, Tuesday, July 26, 2016. (AP Photo/)

By Associated Press

PHILADELPHIA  Taking on the role of devoted political spouse, former President Bill Clinton declared his wife Hillary Clinton an impassioned "change-maker" as he served as character witness on the night she triumphantly became the first woman nominated for president.

She put an electrifying cap on the night, appearing by video from New York and declaring, "We just put the biggest crack in that glass ceiling yet,"

Minutes earlier, the former president said, "She's been worth every single year she's put into making people's lives better." First lady for his presidency, she's now the Democratic Party's standard-bearer in the race for the White House.

His deeply personal address underscored the historic night for Democrats, and the nation. If his wife wins in November, the Clintons also would be the first married couple to each serve as president.

She will take on Donald Trump, who won the Republican nomination a week ago. Trump, who campaigned Tuesday in North Carolina, mocked the former president's speech in advance, calling him "overrated."

At Trump's convention last week, Clinton was the target of blistering criticism of her character and judgment, a sharp contrast to the warm, passionate woman described by her husband. Seeking to explain the vastly different perceptions of his wife, Clinton said, "One is real, the other is made up."

The former president traced his relationship with his wife back decades, recalling in great detail the first time he spotted her on a law school campus and the impact she had on pushing him into politics. He took voters back to a time when their relationship wasn't the subject of intense public scrutiny, including during his affair that led to his impeachment as president.

Clinton closed the second night of the Democratic convention, a jubilant celebration of Hillary Clinton's formal nomination for president. In an important move for party unity, her primary rival Bernie Sanders helped make it official when the roll call got to his home state of Vermont, prompting delegates to erupt in cheers.

She leads a party still grappling with divisions. Moments after Clinton claimed the nomination, a group of Sanders supporters left the convention and went to a media tent to protest what they said was their being shut out of the party.

At the same time, protesters who had spent the day marching in the hot sun began facing off with police. Protesters scaled 8-foot walls blocking off the secure zone around the arena parking lot, and several were detained.

Trump cheered the disruptions from the campaign trail. In North Carolina, he told a convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars that "our politicians have totally failed you."

Indeed, Clinton's long political resume  secretary of state, senator, first lady  has sometimes seemed an odd fit for an electorate deeply frustrated with Washington and eager to rally around unconventional candidates such as Trump and Sanders. Many voters have questions about her character and trustworthiness, suggesting she's used her access to power to her personal advantage.

President Clinton spoke after three hours of testimonials from lawmakers, advocates, celebrities and citizens who argued otherwise. Each took the stage to vouch for her commitment to working on health care, children's issues and gun control.

"Hillary Clinton has the passion and understanding to support grieving mothers," said Sybrina Fulton, whose son Trayvon Martin was killed in 2012. "She has the courage to lead the fight for commonsense gun legislation."

The significant time devoted to the testimonials underscored the campaign's concerns about how voters view Clinton. Public polls consistently show that a majority of Americans don't believe she is honest and trustworthy. That perception that was reinforced after the FBI director's scathing assessment of her controversial email use as secretary of state, even though the Justice Department did not pursue charges.

President Clinton complicated the email controversy last month when he met privately with Attorney General Loretta Lynch in the midst of the FBI investigation. Republicans cast the meeting as a sign that the Clintons play by different rules, while Democrats bemoaned that at the very least, it left that impression.

The former president has campaigned frequently for his wife during the White House race, but mostly in smaller cities and towns, part of an effort by the campaign to keep him in a more behind-the-scenes role. His convention address was his highest-profile appearance of the campaign.

Clinton's landmark achievement saturated the roll call with emotion and symbols of women's long struggle to break through political barriers. Jerry Emmett, a 102-year-old woman born before women had the right to vote, cast the ballots for Arizona.

Martha McKenna, a Clinton delegate from Maryland, said the night felt like a celebration for Sanders' campaign as well as Clinton's. She added, "The idea that I'm going to be here when the first woman president is nominated is overwhelming."
SHARE The Commercial Appeal files Master Sgt. Robert P. "Curly" Head, a 56-year-old veteran of 29 years' Army duty and two world wars, has been ordered to the Far East in September. Here he looks over the announcement of the July 27, 1953, armistice in Korea as reported in The Commercial Appeal. Currently, he is assigned to the Army and Air Force Recruiting Main Station at 254 Madison Avenue.

July 27

25 years ago: 1991

NASHVILLE  Tennessee students generally did worse this year than last on the state's achievement test, according to results released Friday by the state Board of Education. Memphis students bucked the trend and did better than a year ago, but city scores remained well below state averages. Shelby County students showed little or no improvement, but their scores remained well above their peers across the state.

50 years ago: 1966

The City Commission voted 4-0 yesterday to start toward the Program of Progress proposal to change Memphis' commission form of government toward a November vote by the public. Mayor William B. Ingram, who made three changes in the proposal as submitted by POP, abstained from voting. He said he would reserve his vote until the ordinance is presented in final form, backing up his threat to veto the measure after the third and final reading if it is not to his liking.

75 years ago: 1941

WASHINGTON  Senator Norris (Ind., Neb.) yesterday credited the Tennessee Valley Authority's vast electric program with saving England from defeat, through speedy production of aluminum for airplanes.

100 years ago: 1916

NASHVILLE Complete assurance that the Tennessee troops would be sent to the border was given Governor Rye by Maj. Gen. Wood when the former sent a personal letter to the general regarding the movement of the troops.

125 years ago: 1891

JACKSON, Tenn.  John Brown, the Negro who shot and mortally wounded John Gardner, the Illinois Central Railroad switchman, as reported in this paper, was taken from the jail by 500 masked men night before last and lynched.
SHARE

Twenty people want to replace Republican Stephen Fincher of Frog Jump, Tennessee, as the representative from Tennessee's 8th Congressional District. Fincher is stepping away from the seat in the overwhelmingly Republican district that he first occupied in 2010.

Because of the district's GOP leaning, the winner of the Aug. 4 Republican primary election is likely to win the general election in November.

On the Republican side, this is a race where the candidates, including most of those who will run as independents in November, are touting their conservative bona fides. There is a strong career-politicians-have-ruined-Washington theme streaming through the platforms of many of the candidates. They have a point, since partisan wrangling in Congress has prevented agreement on issues such as immigration reform and sensible legislation to keep firearms out of the hands of people who should not have them.

The candidates' hard-line positions on issues regarding gun rights, universal health care and immigration reform conflict with our institutional stances on these issues. So for us, our recommendation goes to the candidate we think will go to Washington with a willingness to work with the opposite party to get things accomplished. MARK LUTTRELL, in his roles as Shelby County sheriff and Shelby County mayor, has demonstrated the ability to do that.

The 15-county 8th Congressional District includes much of rural West Tennessee, along with portions of East Memphis and Memphis' eastern suburbs, plus Jackson-Madison County.

The GOP candidates on the August primary ballot include Shelby Countians George Flinn, Raymond Honeycutt, state Sen. Brian Kelsey, former U.S. Attorney for West Tennessee David Kustoff, Shelby County Register of Deeds Tom Leatherwood and David Maldonado.

Other GOP candidates on the primary ballot are Ken Atkin of Mason; Hunter Baker, Dave Bault, Brad Greer and George Howell, all of Jackson; and David Wharton of Union City

In the Democratic primary, Gregory Frye of Newbern and Rickey Hopson of Hickory Withe are battling to be on the November ballot.

When the new Congress convenes in January, the district's new representative will be one of 435 House members either returning as incumbents with carry-over agendas or newbies trying to gain a toehold, so they can make a difference in their districts and in how the nation is governed.

Over years, Luttrell consistently has demonstrated he can collaborate with members of the opposite party for the good of the community, especially on issues such as health care, crime prevention, workforce training, education and economic development. The latter especially are critical in some parts of the district where economic growth has been stagnant.

He was willing to take heat from some party faithful for accepting an unusual invitation to sit in first lady Michelle Obama's guest box when the president delivered his final State of the Union in January. The White House said Luttrell was chosen because, throughout his career in public service, he has built partnerships with local, state and federal agencies, and because of his focus on criminal justice reform.

Like most of the GOP candidates, he would like to see the demise of the Affordable Care Act. However, he supported Gov. Bill Haslam's unsuccessful effort to get the legislature to pass the governor's alternative health care plan, Insure Tennessee, that would give 280,000 low-income working Tennesseans without health insurance access to primary care doctors and healthy lifestyle initiatives.

Luttrell's ability to collaborate with different entities for the greater good is why we feel he should be on the November ballot.
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By Anne Applebaum

The emails of Sony employees. Top-secret diplomatic cables. The addresses of married people who used a confidential dating service. Every time "secret" information is made public, the focus of attention is always, immediately, on the sensational details. The motives of the hacker, the leaker or the person in possession of the secret tapes are rarely examined. But what to do when that person has an ulterior motive quite far from "the public's right to know"? And what if that person's motive is to help throw an American election?

I am not asking this question in a vacuum. All available evidence now points to direct Russian involvement in the hack of the Democratic National Committee's email system. The evidence has been described by Eli Lake (he quotes Trump campaign adviser Mike Flynn saying he "wouldn't be surprised" if Russia were responsible) and laid out in meticulous detail by Thomas Rid of Motherboard.

The FBI is investigating, too.

Nevertheless, most people who are covering this story, especially on television, are not interested in the nature of the hackers, and they are not asking why the Russians apparently chose to pass the emails on to WikiLeaks at this particular moment, on the eve of the Democratic National Convention.

They are focusing instead on the content of what were meant to be private emails, some of which are sarcastic or cynical, some of which seem to indicate that the DNC didn't want to be subject to a hostile takeover by Bernie Sanders, but none of which seem to me remotely surprising: This is how people communicate when they are in the heat of a presidential race. I have absolutely no doubt the staff of the Donald Trump campaign, or indeed the Sanders campaign, write to one another in the same way.

Nevertheless, read coldly, in newsprint, these missives seem to shock people. More to the point, they preoccupy journalists, who are poring over them in search of juicy details. And this, of course, is exactly what was meant to happen. Those who leaked them, and the WikLeaks operatives who facilitated those leaks, understand extremely well the dynamic of democratic political campaigns and have deliberately sought to disrupt this one.

How would the Russians know that the emails, rather than the identity of the hackers, would capture the public imagination? Because this kind of trick has been played before. In several post-communist countries  Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, Ukraine  secretly taped conversations have been used to destabilize democratic governments and, in some cases, coincidentally or otherwise, to replace them with populist or anti-European governments more to Russia's liking. (They are briefly described as part of this paper by Anton Shekhovtsov for the Legatum Institute, the think-tank where I work).

In Poland, hundreds of hours of tapings of political figures were arranged by a businessman who traded coal with Russia; to make them, he used waiters, one of whom later testified that he was explicitly promised a reward when a new government came to power. They were published by a magazine run by an ex-con who spent five years hiding from police in Russia in the 1990s. And yet just as in the United States, the Polish media focused almost exclusively on the details of the conversations, the bad language and jokes  none of which revealed any genuine corruption  rather than the motivations of the people who had taped and released them. Believe me, I know this story well: My husband was one of the politicians on the tapes.

Why would the Russians do this in the United States? That's easier: You do not need to think conspiratorially to understand why the Russian government badly wants Trump to win this election. His deep business connections to Russia have been documented. As I have written, his stated policy positions  temper U.S. support for NATO, stop advocating democracy, withdraw support for Ukraine  are exactly what Russia wants. Russia's primary foreign policy goals are to weaken the European Union, soften up NATO and make the European continent safe for corrupt Russian money. President Trump would make all of those things possible.

Of course, Hillary Clinton might win anyway. But since vastly more attention will be paid to Debbie Wasserman Schultz than to Vladimir Putin, there doesn't seem to be a downside to this leak. It might not work  but if you were Putin, wouldn't you try?

Anne Applebaum writes a biweekly foreign affairs column for the Washington Post. She is also the Director of the Global Transitions Program at the Legatum Institute in London.
You might want to check if your wireless keyboard is on a list of vulnerable devices, since researchers warned that hackers can read your keystrokes from at least 250 feet away. In other words, a hacker could snag your passwords, credit card numbers and any other private information in clear text.

The Bastille Research Team discovered that flawed and inexpensive keyboards do not use any encryption when wirelessly sending keystrokes to the USB dongle. Researcher Marc Newlin warned, This makes it possible for an attacker to both eavesdrop on everything a victim types, as well as transmit their own malicious keystrokes, which allows them to type directly on the victims computer.

Some keyboard manufacturers opted to save money by skipping over Bluetooth and instead have their wireless keyboards connect to computers using generic and undocumented transceiver alternatives. Those cheap transceivers wirelessly transmit keystrokes to the USB dongle without any encryption.

Bastilles chief research officer Ivan OSullivan told Wired, We were stunned. We had no expectation that in 2016 these companies would be selling keyboards with no encryption.

Bastille is the same security firm that previously warned people about the MouseJack vulnerability which could allow attackers to inject keystrokes in millions of wireless mice and keyboards models from a distance up to 328 feet. But the newest KeySniffer attack goes beyond MouseJack since victims would not know they were being hacked; users wouldnt even have to be using their computer as attackers could inject keystrokes while the keyboard is idle.

Newlin explained:

The keyboards vulnerable to KeySniffer use USB dongles which continuously transmit radio packets at regular intervals, enabling an attacker to quickly survey an environment such as a room, building or public space for vulnerable devices regardless of the victims presence. This means an attacker can find a vulnerable keyboard whether a user is at the keyboard and typing or not, and set up to capture information when the user starts typing. In addition to eavesdropping on the victims keystrokes, an attacker can inject their own malicious keystroke commands into the victims computer. This can be used to install malware, exfiltrate data, or any other malicious act that a hacker could perform with physical access to the victims computer.

Newlin previously presented (pdf) the techniques he used to reverse engineer the shoddy transceivers at the Hack in the Box security conference in Amsterdam. An attacker could do the same with equipment that costs less than $100.

The KeySniffer attack works from several hundred feet away, the researchers say; Network World reported, While this attack works at 250 feet line-of-sight it does work at greater distances, but they cite 250 feet because at that distance it works with 100% accuracy all the time.

Wireless keyboards vulnerable to KeySniffer

The list of KeySniffer affected devices only include the keyboard models the research team tested, meaning there could be more. For now, the researchers are sure that keyboards manufactured by the following eight vendors are vulnerable: HP, Toshiba, Kensington, Insignia, General Electric, EagleTec, Radio Shack and Anker.

There is no way for the firmware to be updated in order to patch the vulnerability. If you own one of the flawed devices, then researchers advised tossing it out and going with a wired keyboard. If you use a Bluetooth keyboard, then dont sweat it. If you want to stay wireless, then Bluetooth is the way to go.
And So the King of Good Times came to an end!

I find it amusing that a man who can spend his money on lavishing himself beyond a rich mans imagination, can find it difficult to pay his employees' salary.



His son Sidharth 'Sid' Mallya is famous in his own rite; he keeps making a fool of himself by thoughtless tweets and comments.



Mallya received substantial press coverage that focuses on his lavish parties, villas, automobiles, Force India, Royal Challengers Bangalore and his yacht the Indian Empress.



The Kingfisher Airlines been suffering from ill health and the Mallyas did nothing but drank and made merry, now its on the verge of dying or rather its just dead the Father and Son duo has been asking the government and other investors to save it.



Since the government and other investors left him to himself, he decided to let KFA rot in the open along with, the people who spent years working for him.



I think there seems to be no end to the father and son duo foolhardiness, just the other day I saw or happen to stumble upon on one of Sids shows. The Kingfisher calendar contest, He was talking like nothing happened, if I was him Id hide my face in shame, for not paying thousands of people their hard earned salaries and here he watches half naked women stand in front of him with their bosoms almost on his face.



Siddharth Mallya was educated at Wellington College in Crowthorne followed by Queen Mary College, University of London. I wonder what he is doing here in India, besides making a hoodwink of himself trying to get cheap publicity by moving with Bollywood crowd.



I think Vijay Mallyas companies need to be liquidated and the 7000 cr debt needs to be cleared along with his employees salaries of course. I see no reason why he should be let off the hook. Its high time he took responsibility.



I will humbly request Vijay Mallya to pay back his debt and the airlines employees dues. They need money for reasons greater than your parties.
May gives firm line to McGuinness on Brexit

The Prime Minister rebuffed attempts by the Deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland to push for a separate deal for Northern Ireland as Britain leaves the EU, according to the News Letter.

Like the SNP, Sinn Fein have tried to use the fact that Ulster voted Remain to seek to break away from the United Kingdom, preying on concerns about the future of the UK-Irish border.

However, during her visit to the Province this week Theresa May ruled out any return to a hard border. Lets hope that this most explicitly unionist of Prime Ministers continues to take a pro-active interest in Northern Ireland.

as Jones seeks a back-door veto

The First Minister of Wales, has called for the final Brexit deal to require ratification by all the devolved chambers, as well as Parliament, before being passed.

Carwyn Jones, who heads Labours fifth-term administration after Mays elections, did his best before the vote to stoke fears of a constitutional crisis and hasnt let the fact that Wales voted Leave slow him down for long.

The question is, of course, what would happen to the deal were Cardiff, Edinburgh, or Belfast to refuse to ratify it. If that caused the deal to fall wed be leaving on World Trade Organisation terms, which would almost certainly be worse.

Alternatively if the result was that we somehow stayed in the EU than that would break the Prime Ministers very clear stance that no devolved chamber has a veto.

SNP to debate changing the voting system

The Herald reports that a motion has been proposed to the Scottish Nationalist conference to change the voting system at Holyrood elections.

In place of the current hybrid system of first-past-the-post constituencies with a regional top-up list, the Scottish Parliament would instead be elected wholly under the STV system.

The Scottish Government can try this because the latest tranche of powers allows it to define its own electoral system  a feature entirely absent from actually federal countries like the US and Germany, which maintain national electoral systems.

It apparently isnt clear whether this would profit the SNP much, but it may be intended to hinder the Conservatives  the theory being that anybody unwilling to vote Tory on the first ballot is unlikely to back them at all.

However, fresh leadership ratings from YouGov find Ruth Davidson not only almost as well-perceived as the all-conquering Nicola Sturgeon, but with commanding scores amongst those who voted Labour and Liberal Democrat in 2015.

Even after Mays very good results, her bid to consolidate the unionist vote may have further dividends yet to pay  even with Scottish Labour ruling out support for a second independence referendum.

Senior Plaid figure criticised for lobbying role

One of the senior members of the Welsh Nationalists has come under criticism from others in her own party for her role in a lobbying firm.

Nerys Evans, a former member of the Assembly, serves both as vice-chair of the party and a director of Deryn, a firm which has helped Associated Community Training (ACT) win more than 110m worth of Welsh Government contracts, according to Wales Online.

She also chairs ACTs governance committee and owns a ten per cent stake in a connected company, Portal Training. Neil McEvoy, a nationalist AM who is campaigning for a Welsh lobbying register, has attacked this network of roles as a conflict of interest.

North Sea oil workers launch first full-day strike in three decades

The commodity which is supposed to underwrite the glittering, post-independence future promised by the SNP suffered a fresh crisis this week after workers voted for the first 24-hour strike in 30 years.

The Scotsman reports that around 400 workers are involved in the dispute, which has been organised by the Unite and RMT trades unions after allegations that pay and allowances face cuts of up to 30 per cent following the industrys downturn.

Meanwhile Sir Ian Wood, whose Wood Group employs the striking workers, has urged the Scottish Government not to call another independence referendum.

Sir Ian, who voted Remain, argues that Scotland would inherit very little of the UKs influence on the bloc, and that the long and complex accession process would spell further trouble for the oil and gas industry.
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The Arakan chief minister attended a meeting at Ann town-hall on 19 July and during his visit to the area, the locals call for their compensation. The design of oil & gas pipeline in Ann Township crosses through 37 villages under 9 village tracts. However, most of the affected villagers were yet to get adequate compensations.

We had requested our chief minister to resolve the issue of the farmers, who lost their lands to oil & gas pipeline project. The chief minister informed that a committee would be formed very soon to resolve the matter, said U Myo Lwin, chairman of Ann local oil & gas watch-out activity group.

The investigation committee will be led by the deputy district administration officer and he would submit the report to the government within two weeks.

Earlier, the Ann Township Administration Officer formed a committee to investigate the matter. However, oppositions from CNPC and MOGE were emerged. Then the locals sent a request letter to the government at Sittwe for necessary actions.

The State Chief Minister was accompanied by the State Security & Border Affairs Minister Colonel Htin Linn along with other ministers namely U Minn Aung, U Kyaw Lwin and Dr Aung Chan Thar during his trip to Ann Township.
Netsweeper sells "internet filtering technology"  a tool that spies on users' internet traffic and censors some of what they see  that is used by governments to control their populations, including the government of Yemen, which uses it to block its citizens' access to material critical of its policies.

In 2015, the University of Toronto's Citizen Lab (previously) published a characteristically excellent, careful report on Netsweeper's role in Yemeni censorship. Netsweeper  who had declined to comment on the report prior to its publication, despite being given a chance to do so  retaliated by filing a punitive defamation suit under Canada's notoriously censorship-friendly libel laws.

But Ontario has recently enacted an Anti-SLAPP statute called the Protection of Public Participation Act, which made this kind of suit much harder to make stick. It seems unlikely to be a coincidence that Netsweeper has dropped its legal action, which sought $3M in "general damages"; $500K in "aggravated damages"; and "unascertained special damages."

Netwsweeper isn't the first cyber-arms dealer to contemplate retaliation against Citizen Lab; the dump of internal emails from the disgraced surveillance/censorship company Hacking Team showed that they consulted with a law firm over a plan to "hit [Citizen Lab] hard." But Netsweeper does have the distinction of being the first company to be dumb enough to actually file suit against Citizen Lab.

One point bears underscoring: it is an indisputable fact that Citizen Lab tried to obtain and report Netsweeper's side of the story. Indeed, we have always welcomed company engagement with us and the public at large in frank dialogue about issues of business and human rights. We sent a letter by email directly to Netsweeper on October 9, 2015. In that letter we informed Netsweeper of our findings, and presented a list of questions. We noted: "We plan to publish a report reflecting our research on October 20, 2015. We would appreciate a response to this letter from your company as soon as possible, which we commit to publish in full alongside our research report." Netsweeper never replied. We expect that Citizen Lab research will continue to generate strong reaction from companies and other stakeholders that are the focus of our reports. The best way we can mitigate legal and other risk is to continue to do what we are doing: careful, responsible, peer-reviewed, evidence-based research. We will continue to investigate Netsweeper and other companies implicated in Internet censorship and surveillance, and we will continue to give those companies a chance to respond to our findings, and publish their responses, alongside our reports.



On Research in the Public Interest

[Ron Deibert/Citizen Lab]
Crime lab technicians process the scene of an officer involved shooting Monday night. Michael Anthony Adams / IndyStar

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By Vic Ryckaert, Michael Anthony Adams and Jill Disis, USA TODAY NETWORK, Indy Star

The intensity of Monday night's gunbattle between police and an armed man can be illustrated by the numbers: 16 officers fired 200 rounds over four minutes in a small space between the mouth of an alleyway and the road it connected to on Indianapolis' southeast side.

That was after a lengthy pursuit that started on the northwest side and stretched across the city. During the 25-minute chase, police said the man fired multiple rounds at officers who pursued him. By the end, one officer was shot, another was injured and the suspect, 32-year-old Jeff Cornell Tyson, was dead.

It was a harrowing scene that, to those listening over police radio traffic, made the hairs on the backs of their necks stand up, said Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Major Richard Riddle.

The ordeal started at 6:40 p.m. when police pulled over an older Oldsmobile at a gas station near Georgetown Road and 71st Street. The officer recognized the car, believing it to be connected to a July 21 armed robbery.

A video, captured by a witness at the gas station and later posted to social media, showed officers approaching Tyson's vehicle, demanding he leave the car. When Tyson refused to leave, one officer launched pepper-ball cartridges through the driver's side window, filling the car with smoke.

A passenger left the car and ran. She was captured a short while later. The woman, who has since been released from custody, told police she was Tyson's wife.

Tyson drove away in the car, leading officers on the chase. As Tyson traveled south on Georgetown Road, police said, he made a quick U-turn and started firing at the pursuing officers as they came parallel to him.

The officer who initiated the traffic stop took a bullet to the right ankle; another round grazed the back of his head. The officer riding with him was injured by debris but did not require medical help. Instead, she applied a tourniquet to the wounded leg of her partner, who also was her classmate at the police academy. The wounded officer was released from IU Health Methodist Hospital on Tuesday morning but will require surgery, police said.

Following the first shooting, Tyson made another U-turn and continued southbound on Georgetown before heading west on 56th Street and onto I-465. Indiana State Police troopers joined the chase, and Tyson began firing at them through the window of his car, police said. Officers tried disabling Tyson's car with spike strips, but he continued driving, even after a tire blew out.

The chase traversed five of the department's six service districts, finally ending in a hail of gunfire near the intersection of South Rural Street and Newton Avenue. It was the first time, Riddle said, that police had fired their weapons at Tyson during the chase.

As police officials updated media about the shooting on Tuesday afternoon, the Indianapolis Fraternal Order of Police held a briefing of its own  one during which they asked for criminal code enhancements and updated safety and tactical equipment designed to protect police officers.

Local FOP President Rick Snyder said hes calling on Indianapolis officials to provide emergency funding for body armor vests, Kevlar helmets and trauma kits, which would come out to about $2,000 for each IMPD officer. There are about 1,600 officers on the force, although some already have equipment.

Our call is for our community and our police department to be prepared, not scared, Snyder said. While he said Tuesdays press conference was not prompted by Monday's shooting, he added that recent attacks on officers around the country have spurred the FOP to be more aggressive about asking for such measures quickly. We are facing an imminent threat, really, from evil.

Snyder also suggested giving officers additional less-lethal equipment, such as beanbag rounds.

Body armor vests and helmets are not standard equipment for all officers here. And Snyder acknowledged that such gear likely would not have stopped the Monday shooting from happening. However, Snyder said, any additional officers called to help during an ongoing attack need to be able to wear a helmet or vest if they have an opportunity.

The use of body armor, helmets and other heavy gear by police isnt without controversy. Pictures of police using such equipment in other cities has fueled a national discussion about whether police in the United States are becoming too militarized.

Snyder, however, said the supplies he is asking for may be necessary for officers in some scenarios  for example, police providing backup for another officer who has been injured by a still-at-large shooter.

Its incumbent upon us to provide the absolute best safety for those officers, Snyder said. If folks are worried that this is too militaristic, what else is there beyond this?

Its unclear if the Indianapolis City-County Council would consider additional funding. City-County Councilor LeRoy Robinson, a Democrat who chairs the public safety committee, did not immediately return a request for comment Tuesday afternoon.

Snyder also said the FOP is calling on state officials to expedite revised criminal code enhancements for people who target and attack officers. While some criminal charges, such as battery, allow the state to upgrade the charge to a more serious one if an on-duty officer is attacked, those charges dont include enhancements when an officer is attacked but is not on the clock.

And the states criminal recklessness charge, which was filed recently against a man accused of shooting an off-duty IMPD officers home and car, doesn't contain an enhancement for when an officer is the target in any circumstance.

State Sen. Jim Merritt, R-Indianapolis, said he will announce legislation addressing such issues next Tuesday. Merritt told IndyStar this month that he supports changes to state law aimed at protecting officers and their families because police are especially vulnerable to attacks. Many officers, he said, drive their marked cars home and can be easily identified as targets by those who wish to hurt them.

We cant have this targeting anymore, Merritt said Tuesday.

While speaking with reporters Tuesday, Snyder also said the FOP recommends updated training for police that focuses on how to handle ambush attacks like the ones seen this month in Dallas and Baton Rouge, La. He said officers also should be trained to address large-scale terror attacks like the one in Nice, France on July 14, when a truck slammed into a crowd of people celebrating Bastille Day.

Monday's incident wasn't the first time Tyson had run-ins with the law.

In September 2014, while driving on I-70 through Missouri, Tyson was pulled over by a Missouri Highway Patrolmen for speeding. During a search of the vehicle, officers said they found heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine, pills, and marijuana, as well as cash and a loaded .357-caliber Magnum revolver, according to court documents.

The arresting officers also noticed Tyson had prior convictions in Indiana for robbery and armed robbery in Marion and Hamilton counties from 2004 to 2007, and charged him with drug dealing, possession, and unlawful possession of a firearm.

Court documents show he was placed on probation following the Missouri charges. He violated probation in March, according to court documents.

The investigation into Monday's shooting is ongoing. The 16 officers who fired their weapons have been placed on administrative leave during the investigation.

Police have recovered at least one handgun they believe Tyson used in the shooting, but are also looking into the possibility that a rifle may have been used.
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By Mark Wilson of the Courier and Press

A trial in Vanderburgh Circuit Court is expected to conclude Thursday for a man who is accused of dragging a dog to its death behind a truck on Evansville's West Side.

The prosecution concluded its case against Brandyn Cox, 24, of Mount Vernon, Indiana, on Wednesday.

Cox is charged with four counts of animal cruelty, as well as intimidation using a deadly weapon and attempting to interfere with reporting a crime for his alleged actions against a fellow motorist on Pearl Drive who tried to stop him from leaving the area before officers arrived.

Prosecutors have also filed sentence enhancements alleging Cox is a habitual offender, which could add more years to his sentence if he is convicted.

The case is being tried by attorney Susan Odoyo, who serves as special prosecutor for the animal cruelty task force of the Vanderburgh County Prosecutor's Office.

Also charged in the incident is Jamie Lee McFarland, 44, who is accused of having tied the dog to the truck, according to an affidavit of probable cause.

Cox is accused of driving the truck from McFarland's Old Henderson Road residence to Pearl Drive on the West Side of Evansville on May 3, reportedly dragging the dog  a Great Dane mix named Hank  more than five miles, according to the Vanderburgh County Sheriff's Office.

According to arrest affidavits in the case, the dog belonged to a friend of McFarland's who was supposed to be watching his house. However, according to investigators, that person left the home because of a death in the family the day before the incident and left the animal behind. Investigators believe McFarland was upset with the dog because it had defecated and urinated inside his residence.

At a court hearing in May, McFarland claimed he tried to alert Cox that the dog was tied to the truck, and told the judge that he ran after the truck for three miles.
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By Shannon Hall of the Courier and Press

The Bosse High School band teacher fired in May was let go because he admitted to having an "inappropriate relationship" with a student.

According to a personnel file document obtained by the Courier & Press, Kevin Hulsey admitted to EVSC Superintendent David Smith in May that he had "an inappropriate relationship with a student."

Hulsey was one of two teachers suspended in April. He was later fired at a May school board meeting.

"The EVSC promptly notified the proper authorities when it became aware of this incident. The decision as to whether or not to file criminal charges rests with those authorities, not the EVSC. State and federal law prohibits the EVSC from discussing anything relating to the student," EVSC spokesman Jason Woebkenberg wrote in an email to the Courier & Press.

After the EVSC notified the public about a suspended teacher, the Evansville Police Department sent the following statement:

"The details of the incident have been reviewed by an EPD investigator and as of this time, no evidence of a violation of Indiana Criminal Statutes has been uncovered. Unless additional facts are presented that show probable cause of a criminal act, the incident will not be handled as a criminal case."

Smith's letter, which was to the school board trustees, recommended firing Hulsey immediately on the grounds of "immorality, insubordination, neglect of duty, and good and just cause."

The letter was added to Hulsey's personnel file after a May meeting with Smith. The Courier & Press originally obtained Hulsey's file through an open records request in April.

Since 1996, Hulsey had worked as an EVSC teacher and music instructor. He got the job at Bosse in 1998, and is a 1991 graduate of the school.

In 2012, Hulsey was named high school teacher of the year in the Outstanding Educators of the Year awards, sponsored by the Courier & Press. According to Indiana Gateway, Hulsey's total compensation for 2015 was almost $80,000.

Hulsey's contact information was redacted from his file, and past attempts to reach him at his home were unsuccessful.
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By Zach Osowski, zach.osowski@courierpress.com

INDIANAPOLIS  In his first Evansville-area ad of the general election, U.S. Senate hopeful Todd Young goes after Evan Bayh, criticizing his new opponent for his new post-political career.

The ad, which will start airing today, says Bayh changed during his time in Washington D.C. and calls him a "superlobbyist" who "made millions" during his career after leaving the Senate in 2010.

In contrast, the ad reminds viewers Young is a former Marine and a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, and credits Young with the "backbone to stand up to the Clinton-Obama agenda."

Young and Bayh are facing off for Sen. Dan Coats' U.S. Senate seat. Bayh was just recently added to the ballot after former Congressman Baron Hill dropped off.

Since Bayh has expressed interest in a return to politics, Young and his camp have been going after Bayh's career as a lobbyist and have questioned his residency.

Bayh, a former senator and Indiana governor, has made the race much closer. He said he is getting back into politics to help clean up the gridlock in Washington  the same reason he decided not to run for re-election in 2010.

Bayh has said he wants to help create more jobs in Indiana and make higher education more affordable for students.

Last Friday, Bayh said he is planning to focus on the issues of the race and not focus on Young's attacks.
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James Bandoli

Evansville

A recent letter to the editor lamented the media derision of the Ark Encounter theme park in Kentucky. While I appreciated the tone of the letter, two points it raised need to be addressed, one scientific and one political.

The lament that evolution 'remains a theory and has not been proven as fact' is, unfortunately, a commonly-held but erroneous view of how science works. In common use, a theory is a best guess, an untested hypothesis. In science, a theory is an explanation (or collection of related explanations) that, while it can never be completely proven, has survived rigorous testing and is considered to be a valid explanation for how a particular aspect of the universe works. Einstein's theory of relativity has been tested and supported numerous times  your GPS devices would quickly become inaccurate without compensating for relativity  but is a theory, not a fact.

The political point, and a major reason why the media has focused on the Ark Park, is that it will receive millions of dollars in road improvements and tax incentives from the state of Kentucky despite the fact that (1) park creator Ken Ham requires employees to sign a statement that they adhere to his fundamentalist interpretation of the bible (clearly a form of employment discrimination), and (2) a primary mission of the park is proselytization. Many consider this to be state support of religion.

The writer correctly pointed out that the park and the allied Creation Museum are expressions of belief in biblical creationism and should not be treated differently from secular amusement parks. But I am sure that if Disney applied for tax incentives to build a park in Indiana but said they will only hire non-Christians, the media would deride Disney, too  and rightly so.
Nick Kapur spotted this gem in an old newspaper: "A Wal-Mart store pulled a popular T-shirt proclaiming "Someday a woman will be president" off its shelves, saying it was offensive to some shoppers."

"It was determined the T-shirt was offensive to some people and so the decision was made to pull it from the sales floor," Jane Bockholt said. She refused to reveal the nature of the customer's complaint. Ann Moliver Ruben, the 70-year-old psychologist who designed the shirt and sold them to the store, said the retailer's response means "that promoting females as leaders is still a very threatening concept in this country.

A buyer at the company reportedly said that the shirt "goes against Wal-Mart's family values," but it didn't respond to press inquiries other than to confirm a customer complaint about the shirt and their removal from the store in which they were being sold. At the time, the United Kingdom, Israel and Pakistan were among countries to have elected women leaders.

After the story hit the papers, though, the company admitted its mistake.

"We made a mistake," Jay Allen, a Wal-Mart spokesman, told the Associated Press. "In this case, we overreacted."

The shirt appears to pop up on Ebay and Etsy often.

Correction: 1995, not 1985.

Update: Walmart Director of Corporate Communications Danit Marquardt spotted this doing the rounds and sent an email: "Wow, it still pains us that we made this mistake 20 years ago. We're proud of the fact that our country  and our company  has made so much progress in advancing women in the workplace, and in society."
James Allison has left Ferrari as technical director with immediate effect in what is seen as a joint decision, with Mattia Binotto promoted from head of power units to the new chief technical director.

Allison returned to Ferrari three years ago to head up the Italian manufacturer's major restructuring and the first car built under his design won three races in 2015.

Despite considered gains this year Ferrari has struggled to reach the heights of the previous campaign and Allison's departure comes at a key time with focus shifting towards next season ahead of the 2017 regulations revamp.

Allison says he has personally thanked his Ferrari team while wishing them success for the future.

"During the years I spent at Ferrari, at two different stages and covering different roles, I could get to know and appreciate the value of the team and of the people, women and men, which are part of it," Allison said. "I want to thank them all for the great professional and human experience we shared. I wish everybody a happy future with lots of success."

Ferrari team principal Maurizio Arrivabene said: "The team would like to thank James for his commitment and sacrifice during the time spent together, and wishes him success and serenity for his future endeavours."

Allison rose to prominence as head of aerodynamics at Ferrari during Michael Schumacher's span of F1 dominance between 2000 and 2004, before switching to Renault as deputy technical director, overseeing Fernando Alonso's two titles in 2005 and 2006.

Ferrari president Sergio Marchionne has recently undergone thorough internal restructuring in a bid to reinvigorate the struggling Italian manufacturer.

With Allison departing from Ferrari a host of F1 teams are expected to target the 48-year-old's services, with McLaren having been keen to sign him in 2013 before he opted to return to Ferrari.
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Avnet Creates Specialized Business Units To Drive Software Sales

Michael Novinson

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Avnet is rolling out business units with dedicated staff around data center, cloud, security, analytics, mobility and education to accelerate growth of software-driven technologies.

The Phoenix-based distributor is familiarizing partners with consumption and subscription-based sales motions as the next generation of data center technology becomes increasingly software-driven, said Gavin Miller, vice president of marketing and strategy for Avnet's Technology Solutions division.

"Being an expert in the infrastructure technologies isn't enough anymore," Miller told CRN.

[RELATED: Partners Hope CEO Change at Avnet Will Supercharge Cloud Investment]

The six global business units will be supported by 450 solution specialists who previously had been working with partners on an ad hoc, rather than a dedicated, basis, according to Jeff Bawol, president of Avnet Technology Solutions' Americas region. Bawol told CRN the new structure will make it easier for Avnet to take the best regional practices around a specific technology area and spread them globally.

"As the industry continues to evolve and change, we know we need to offer more value to our partners," Bawol said. "We need to invest and focus the partners we have in this direction."

North American partners in the coming months will benefit from Avnet's network and data center security prowess in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), which Bawol said is a far more mature practice than Avnet has anywhere else in the world. Best practices will be extracted from Avnet's EMEA security practice, Bawol said, and brought over to the Americas.

Similarly, Bawol said Avnet is looking to replicate the success of its North American cloud business  which includes a Cloud Marketplace and dedicated support staff  in other parts of the world.

Work on Avnet's new business structure was already well under way by July 11, Bawol said, when Avnet announced that the immediate resignation of CEO Rick Hamada and appointment of ex-Lenovo CEO Bill Amelio as his interim successor. Since Amelio has been a member of Avnet's board of directors since 2014, he had already been briefed by Avnet Technology Solutions President Patrick Zammit on the new business units.

"This was not because of the CEO change," Bawol said. "It was in motion regardless of the change."

The new business units will have dedicated technical and sales support teams. They will specialize in: education solutions (EMEA and Americas only); data center solutions; cloud solutions; security and enterprise networking solutions; data analytics, cognitive computing and Internet of Things solutions; and mobility solutions.

Avnet's new approach will allow Flagship Solutions Group to deal with a single point person when crafting a solution that contains components from several different IBM silos, according to Mark Wyllie, CEO of the Boca Raton, Fla.-based Avnet partner. Previously, Wyllie said Flagship had to deal with separate hardware, software and services people at Avnet when attempting to craft a holistic solution.

"This will allow us to get proposals and solutions delivered to customers sooner and more completely," Wyllie told CRN.

Avnet's new business units align well with Flagship's heavy focus on infrastructure and analytics, Wyllie said, as well as its expertise around the data center, hybrid cloud, managed services and security.

"This is a very big step to move toward a cross-brand solution focus, which is how customers are buying," Wyllie said.
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CRN Exclusive: Ixia Inks Distribution Relationship With Arrow To Reach Larger Partners

Michael Novinson

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Ixia has added Arrow Electronics as a distributor to reach larger solution providers who have well-established relationships with networking and security vendors.

The Calabasas, Calif.-based network testing, visibility and security technology vendor said the new relationship with Centennial, Colo.-based Arrow will expand on Ixia's existing distribution relationship with Fremont, Calif.-based Synnex and result in the company reducing its use of direct sales to partners, according to Lori Cornmesser, Ixia's vice president of global channel sales.

"Arrow complements Ixia's partner solutions much differently than Synnex does," Cornmesser told CRN exclusively. "Our partners will have two options."

[RELATED: MobileIron Confirms Arrow Distribution Partnership Has Been Terminated Four Months After Its Launch]

Cornmesser said adding Arrow will create synergy in Ixia's go-to-market strategy by enabling partners to jointly sell Ixia products alongside products from Riverbed Technology, Splunk and Palo Alto Networks, all of which work closely with Arrow.

Cornmesser said Ixia has leveraged Synnex's great relationships with Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Fortinet and Check Point Software Technologies to generate cross-selling opportunities. She emphasized that the new relationship with Arrow is about growing the size of the solution provider pie, and not about shifting relationships from one distributor to another.

Arrow declined to comment due to being in a pre-earnings quiet period, while Synnex officials were unavailable for comment.

Cornmesser said Ixia still has a small number of partners procuring products directly from the vendor due to historical relationships or the size or complexity of their business. But as 2016 goes on, Cornmesser said Ixia is looking to reduce its direct relationships in the U.S. and fully leverage its distribution partners.

Revenue for Ixia partners is primarily project-based since it's tied to hardware sales, Cornmesser said, though resellers have the opportunity to sell into the same customer multiple times as their business scales.

Ixia will initially work with Arrow only in the United States, though Cornmesser said Ixia is looking to expand the relationship into other parts of North America. Ixia's relationship with Synnex covers the United States and Canada, Cornmesser said.

Ixia has worked with Arrow for the past month on getting the distributor's technical staff trained, Cornmesser said, which included training 25 engineers at the Arrow site. Partners can begin sourcing Ixia products through Arrow immediately, though Cornmesser expects it will take the distributor six to 12 months to get fully up to speed and cover territorial or skillset gaps among Ixia's current partner base.

Nonetheless, Cornmesser said Arrow's technical expertise has enabled the distributor to develop strong training tools and support for building pipeline and closing deals.

"We have the basics down, and we'll continue to build on that," Cornmesser said.

Ixia will be managed out of Arrow's security group, and Cornmesser said any of Arrow's networking, virtualization and security partners would be a good fit for the vendor. Ixia's existing partners range from major systems integrators to small solution providers, Cornmesser said, and service federal government, education and commercial markets.

Ixia's offering will come into play for clients spanning physical and virtual IT environments, according to Dave Casey, vice president of Tulsa, Okla.-based PeakUpTime, No. 470 on the CRN Solution Provider 500.

Casey told CRN that Peak UpTime has a strong virtualization practice and is currently transitioning many clients to hybrid or pure cloud platforms. In addition, Peak UpTime uses Palo Alto Networks as its lead security product and sees opportunities to integrate it with Ixia.

"Having the handle on visibility architecture that Ixia has would make a difference for us," Casey said. "It definitely would fit well."
Faced with increasingly troubling attacks on its cyber infrastructure, the United States has outlined new measures intended to help it respond more effectively to attacks that might compromise public safety or its national security interests.

On Tuesday, President Obama approved a directive that lays out how federal agencies will respond to significant cyber incidents," with the FBI to be formally in charge of investigating.

Although the President has made cybersecurity a priority, the U.S. continues to confront attacks targeting the private sector and the federal government, the White House said.

Some of these include significant cyber incidents which the President defines as attacks that will likely harm the U.S.s national security, economy, civil liberties or public confidence.

Cyber incidents are a fact of contemporary life, he wrote. And significant cyber incidents are occurring with increasing frequency.

As part of his directive, the President is ordering the FBI to take the lead in investigating and dealing with perpetrators of major cyber attacks.

The Department of Homeland Security, meanwhile, will be in charge of lessening the damage and patching any vulnerabilities from the attack.

Both the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security already investigate many major cyber crimes, but Tuesdays directive better clarifies their roles.

Obama approved the directive weeks after hackers stole confidential documents from the Democratic National Committee. Those documents have now leaked to the public and could influence the outcome of the U.S. presidential election.

Although private security firms suspect that Russian state-sponsored hackers are behind the intrusion, the FBI is still investigating the matter and the President is waiting for the results.

Tuesdays directive doesnt provide clarity on what Obama might do if the FBI finds that Russia was involved with the DNC breach. But the private sector has been asking the White House for a guideline on the federal governments role in fighting cyber crimes.

While existing policies can handle more minor threats, the U.S. needs a unified response to deal with severe attacks, the President said in his directive.

The White House has also come out with a color-coded scale that federal agencies will use to judge the severity of cyber incidents. It runs from zero to five, and threats evaluated at level 3 or higher will be deemed significant and trigger the FBI to investigate.

In addition, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence will function in a support role to both gather intelligence and even degrade the perpetrators capabilities.

In a statement, U.S. Representative Michael McCaul, a Republican from Texas, said he approved of the directive and called it an important step to ensuring that federal agencies can respond to domestic cyber attacks.

However, he also said that the President should clarify the rules of engagement for cyber warfare. That might mean the U.S. defining when a cyber attack should be construed as an act of war.

U.S. lawmakers have proposed a bill, still under review, that would direct the President to design such a policy.
Aside from the efforts of security researchers and antivirus companies, malware victims can sometimes also benefit from the fighting between rival cybercriminal groups.

That happened this week when the creators of the Petya and Mischa ransomware programs leaked about 3,500 RSA private keys allegedly corresponding to systems infected with Chimera, another ransomware application.

In a post Tuesday on Pastebin, Mischa's developers claimed that earlier this year they got access to big parts of the development system used by Chimera's creators.

As a result of that hack, they obtained the source code for Chimera and integrated some of it into their own ransomware project, according to the Pastebin message.

This had already been confirmed by researchers from Malwarebytes, who reported last month that Mischa shares some components with Chimera.

There's no confirmation yet that the newly leaked RSA keys actually work to decrypt files affected by Chimera, but there's a big chance that they're legitimate.

"Checking if the keys are authentic and writing a decryptor will take some time  but if you are a victim of Chimera, please dont delete your encrypted files, because there is a hope that soon you can get your data back," the Malwarebytes researchers said Tuesday in a blog post.

The Chimera ransomware program appeared in November and stood out because it threatened to leak users files on the internet in addition to encrypting them if they didn't pay up. There's no evidence its creators actually delivered on this threat and it was most likely intended as an intimidation tactic to increase the chance that victims will pay.

Mischa, on the other hand, is a newer threat. It first appeared in May and is typically bundled with another ransomware program, called Petya, that encrypts the master file table (MFT) of hard disk drives.

Since Petya's form of encryption requires admin access, Mischa is used as a backup when the needed privileges cannot be obtained. Mischa acts like most other ransomware programs, encrypting the victim's files directly.

Also on Tuesday, Petya and Mischa's creators launched an affiliate system, essentially turning their malware combo into ransomware as a service. This means other cybercriminals can now sign up to distribute these malicious programs for a portion of the profits.

"Unfortunately, this will most likely lead to a greater amount of distribution campaigns for this ransomware," said Lawrence Abrams, the founder of tech support forum BleepingComputer.com, in a blog post.
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A sexual-harassment claim at Bridgewater Associates provided a rare glimpse into the secretive hedge fund, with a client adviser alleging top managers at the firm attempted to use to privacy clauses in the workers employment contract to dissuade him from filing legal action.

Christopher Tarui, 34, in February accused a male manager at the Westport-based firm of propositioning him for sex amid other harassment for more than a year. Bridgewater denied wrongdoing in a response to a complaint filed with the National Labor Relations Board by its law firm Jones Day.

According to the complaint, Tarui was placed on paid leave in early January; his LinkedIn page indicates he has worked for Bridgewater as a client adviser since June 2011.

In its own complaint, the National Labor Relations Board accuses Bridgewater of suspending Tarui in retaliation for his filing an NLRB action.

Bridgewater Associates, widely known for its secretive nature, has topped Institutional Investor Alphas annual list of the worlds largest hedge funds for six straight years, with $104.2 billion under management entering 2016, a 16 percent increase from last year. Founder Ray Dalio, of Greenwich, is estimated by Forbes to be the wealthiest resident of Connecticut with a $15.6 billion fortune.

While generally keeping a low profile, Dalio has contributed to a number of causes in his hometown, including helping to finance the Greenwich Town Party and donating money to refurbish local parks and facilities.

In addition to its Westport headquarters, Bridgewater lists offices in Stamford and Norwalk.

Bridgewater finds itself in the headlines even as Greenwich resident Gretchen Carlson pursues a sexual-harassment suit against Roger Ailes, former chairman and CEO of the Fox News Channel, whom Carlson accuses of making unwanted advances during her tenure as a news anchor.

Gary Phelan, an employment-law attorney and partner with Mitchell & Sheahan, said he has noticed an uptick in queries from potential plaintiffs when high-profile cases emerge, dating to 1991, when Anita Hill accused Clarence Thomas of harassment after he was nominated to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Harassment and retaliation claims are among the most difficult to pursue, however, given potential implications for ones livelihood in going after an employer. Phelan said while many firms will settle to avoid the embarrassment of the claims playing out in public view, that is not always the case.

As I always tell clients, if a firm has enough money to settle, then it has enough money to litigate, said Phelan, a past chairman of the Connecticut Bar Associations section on employment and labor law. Litigating employment cases, some people think of it as the new lottery. But its hard fought; its David versus Goliath. It is you against everybody.  Colleagues who have been friends go silent or turn against you. If you want to step into the employment-law arena, you need courage, patience and thick skin.

For the past five years, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has tracked a decline in sexual-harassment claims, but a huge increase in reports of employers retaliating against workers after they filed allegations of workplace misconduct.

In the NLRB complaint, first reported in The New York Times on Tuesday, Tarui claims managers attempted to coerce him into silence, with Bridgewater stating it sought to enforce privacy clauses in Taruis employment contract. Right-to-privacy arguments are becoming more common in employment lawsuits in the media and financial industries, according to Phelan.

It is the explosion of social media with people oversharing  You have a whole lot more information becoming public, Phelan said. Its very common for employers to say you cant discuss confidential information with respect to trade secrets and clients. Thats been expanded to essentially any information you learn in the workplace.

Over the last three years, the NLRB has been at the forefront of challenging employer policies that prohibit employees from communicating on social media or in the other public forums about issues in the workplace, he said.

Alex.Soule@scni.com; 203-354-1047; www.twitter.com/casoulman
SEYMOUR  The former St. Augustine Church priest accused of taking almost $30,000 from the parish coffers has repaid the money and plans to return to his native Congo.

Honore Kombo was granted a form of pretrial probation during a Superior Court hearing Tuesday in Milford, and will not have a criminal record if he successfully completes the two-year, accelerated rehabilitation program, a court official said.

His case file was sealed after the hearing, and the next hearing in the case is scheduled for July 26, 2018.

Kombo, 52, of Catbrier Road, Weston, was charged with first-degree larceny. He was arrested in February after officials discovered that $27,000 given to the parish through bequests or checks written to the church was missing.

Kombo was placed on administrative leave last July by the Archdiocese of Hartford, which advised him in November that he could no longer serve as a priest.

Representatives from the Hartford Roman Catholic Diocesan Corp. and officials of St. Augustine Church told police they had information that Kombo misappropriated money willed to the church by a deceased parishioner.

The parishioner had willed five annuities to the church, but only four were reported to church officials. The police investigation found that Kombo filed the paperwork to obtain the proceeds for the fifth annuity, according to Assistant Chief Paul Satkowski, the Seymour police spokesman.

On May 6, 2013, a check was made payable to St. Augustines, but allegedly deposited by Kombo into a bank account he created, police said. He then transferred portions of this account, as well as checks written to the church, into his personal account, according to police.

Additionally the police investigation found that on Oct. 18, 2013, Kombo opened a line of credit in the churchs name at a bank and began depositing money from it into his own account.

Satkowski said Kombo cooperated with detectives during their investigation.
PHILADELPHIA Giving a high-profile speech to fellow Connecticut delegates at the Democratic National Convention Wednesday was just the latest step in the redemption of Bridgeport Mayor Joe Ganim.

Ganim, who was re-elected to his old job in November after spending seven years in federal prison for corruption, shared the spotlight with a lineup of luminaires, from civil rights icon John Lewis to the eldest grandson of the late Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, Joe Kennedy III. Both Lewis and Kennedy are in Congress.

We have the heart and soul of America in this party and this leadership, Ganim told the delegation during a breakfast at the DoubleTree Philadelphia Airport hotel.

His position as mayor of the states largest city earned him the speaking engagement, party officials said.

Ganim spoke immediately before Lewis, a revered figure in the party who rose to prominence for his role in the 1965 Alabama civil rights marches from Selma to Montgomery. Lewis was also a central figure in last months sit-in by Democrats on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives to protest the inaction of Congress on gun violence. The show of civil disobedience followed a filibuster led by Sen. Chris Murphy and walk-out by Rep. Jim Himes  both of Connecticut  during a moment of silence in the House for victims of gun violence.

A moment of silence isnt enough, Ganim said, adding that mayors like himself are on the front line of the epidemic on behalf of their constituents. They want answers. So I hope the rest of the country gets it.

Sitting in the audience for Ganims break-through moment was Mario Testa, Bridgeports Democratic boss and a delegate for Hillary Clinton.

Its like the old times back in the 90s, Testa said.

Testa credited Ganim, who was the only speaker to step out from behind the podium to engage the audience, with cracking down on crime in Bridgeport.

Since he took over, violence has been going down, Testa said. Hes going in the right direction.

Ganim seemed eager Wednesday to show his fealty to the Clintons, who he said were helpful to Bridgeport during his first stint as mayor.

If anybody thought that it was just (Bill Clinton) alone in the White House for eight years and Hillary wasnt by his side or leading, you were reminded last night that this woman by her history, by her commitment, is going to be the next great president of the United States, Ganim said.

Just days before Connecticuts Democratic primary in late April, Ganim landed in the dog house of Hillary Clintons campaign when he was spotted backstage at a city rally for Donald Trump. Ganim, who partnered with Trump on a failed city casino project in the 1990s and attended Trumps wedding to Marla Maples, has said he was just being polite to Trump.

That was because of his friendship in the 90s, Testa said.

When Ganim sat back down at his breakfast table, he took a cloth napkin and wiped sweat from the back of his neck.

neil.vigdor@scni.com; 203-625-4436; http://twitter.com/gettinviggy
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Bridgeport  First time students to Housatonic Community College are being asked to attend a New Student Orientation on Wednesday, August 17.

Orientation activities are planned from 2 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
MONROE  Stratfords former EMT head Bruce Bean Connery, accused of sexually assaulting two young Monroe girls whom he was teaching to play piano, will not be serving any prison time.

When my husband died suddenly, my daughter used the piano as a way to help with her grieving, sometimes playing for hours at a time, one of the victims mothers said in a statement that was read in court by Assistant States Attorney Tatiana Messina. The victims mother sobbed as Messina read the statement to state Superior Court Judge Earl Richards.

She turned to Connery as Messina continued, You stole that away from her. Only you and God know how many others you have harmed.

The 70-year-old Connery showed no emotion, telling the judge he had nothing to say.

Richards agreed to impose the penalty set out in a plea bargain  a suspended three-year prison term and three years of probation. He ordered Connery to register as a sex offender for 10 years.

At the urging of Messina, the judge agreed to prohibit Connery from having any unsupervised contact with children.

He should never be allowed to teach music to children again, the prosecutor said.

Neither Connery nor his lawyer, Susan Hankins, would comment as they left the Golden Hill Street courthouse in Bridgeport.

Connery, of Greenwood Lane, Monroe, previously pleaded guilty to risk of injury to children and reckless endangerment.

An investigation in the case began after the father of a 10-year-old girl told police his daughter had been inappropriately touched by Connery while Connery was giving her piano lessons at her home. Police said the girl later told them Connery would often rub her back under her shirt during her lessons, to the point where she would tuck her shirt in and wear a belt to secure it in order to avoid his advances.

A few days later, police said, the parents of a 16-year-old girl came forward after learning about the other girls allegations.

Connery had been giving piano lessons to the older girl for about 10 years, police said. The girl told police in October 2013 Connery began putting his hands under her shirt during her lessons and would, feel around front, according to the arrest warrant affidavit. She told police the last time she took lessons with Connery was just two weeks before coming to police, and his hands had been underneath her clothing the entire lesson.

The affidavit said Connery told the girl she was his favorite student and explained his touching by saying, Sorry, Italians are very hands-on people.
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OPPOSITION Zimbabwe People First (ZimPF) leader Joice Mujuru has accused Zanu-PF ministers of frustrating several multi-million-dollar investors keen to invest in the country by demanding bribes.Addressing a campaign rally at Rudhaka Stadium in Marondera on Saturday, the former Vice-President said the economy was bound to continue nosediving as long as the "corrupt Zanu-PF government remained in power"."Mashonaland East, Mashonaland Central and Mashonaland West Provinces used to produce enough food for this nation even during droughts, but that is no longer the case, because these people have failed. We told them of some companies that wanted to do the Kunzvi Dam project and they said John Mapondera is a thief," she said."The Nigerians then came to do the same project, and they (ministers) said they are thieves as well, all because they did not receive kickbacks. And today, they have brought that (Nigerian) man, who deals in cement; Aliko Dangote has come, where is he from Mr President?" she asked rhetorically, drawing applause from the gathering.Dangote, who visited the country earlier this year, promised to set up a $400 million cement manufacturing plant by the end of last month, but nothing tangible has been done yet.Mujuru also blasted Zanu-PF stalwart, George Rutanhire, for seeking to trash her liberation war credentials."In fact, we never saw him during the liberation struggle. He did not do much. He should stop lying because I can expose whatever happened each time he drank mudzepete (an illicit alcoholic drink made of wild fruits)," she said.Rutanhire is famed for leading the exhumation and reburial of fallen liberation war fighters' remains.
Roger Ailes started in television as a prop assistant for The Mike Douglas Show in 1962. He rose to become the most powerful figure in television news.

Beyond that, he has had a tremendous impact on American politics and, I believe, on our culture in general.

Ailes enforced an in-your-face style at the Fox News Channel and, in my opinion, contributed to the widespread polarization in our society:

Conservatives vs. liberals, whites vs. people of color, average Joes vs. elites, older vs. younger, native-born vs. immigrants, middle income vs. low income, politically rude vs. politically correct, pro-gun vs. anti-gun, pro-life vs. pro-choice; gut vs. brain.

In short, us vs. them.

Ailes, 76, lost his job as chief of Fox News after being accused of sexual harassment by Fox host Gretchen Carlson and other women who worked for him.

He has been replaced temporarily by Rupert Murdoch, 85, whose 21st Century Fox owns Fox News.

Ailes grew up in Warren, Ohio, the son of a factory maintenance foreman.

After graduating from Ohio University, he took an entry-level job with The Mike Douglas Show, a local talk and variety program in Cleveland. When the show went national, he was already executive producer.

Ailes chatted off-camera with a guest, Richard M. Nixon. The next year, Ailes brought his TV know-how to Nixons 1968 campaign for president.

Ailes framed the stiff Nixon as a nice guy in friendly conversations with carefully selected voters.

In 1984, he worked in President Ronald Reagans re-election campaign.

In 1988, as an adviser to the George H.W. Bush presidential campaign, he co-wrote the script for the Revolving Door Ad, which portrayed Democratic candidate Michael Dukakis as soft on crime.

He produced the Rush Limbaugh radio talk show.

In 1993, Ailes helped NBC start CNBC, a financial news channel, and the short-lived Americas Talking channel.

In 1996, he was hired by Murdoch to launch the Fox News Channel. They agreed it should be a conservative alternative to the liberal media.

Fox News was a lot different from CNN, the first cable news channel. CNN followed the example set by broadcast TV news - calm and neutral. Under the micromanaging Ailes, Fox was brash and partisan.

Much of the programming consisted of right-leaning talking heads, jazzed up by bold graphics and swooshing sound effects.

Most of the shows were devoted not to the news, but to the hosts opinion of what was in the news. Bill OReilly and Sean Hannity achieved stardom by delivering diatribes against liberals.

Fox News became the voice of the Republican Party. It put prominent Republicans, such as Sarah Palin and Karl Rove, on the payroll. It consistently heckled Democrats.

Women hosts looked as alluring as models. Ailes insisted they wear short skirts and sit behind transparent desks.

From a business point of view, this was a successful approach. Ratings soared. So did profits.

Following the lead of Fox News, cable news competitors CNN and MSNBC added shouting, and newscasts on over-the-air networks ABC, CBS and NBC added pizzaz.

I believe Ailes deserves the credit - or the blame - for Donald Trumps victory in Cleveland.

Yes, Trump and Ailes had squabbled over moderator Megyn Kellys aggressive questioning of Trump in the first Republican presidential debate. But Trump was clearly the Fox favorite among the GOP rivals, receiving by far the most time on camera.

Trump accepted the Republican presidential nomination the same day Murdoch announced that Ailes was out as Fox chairman.

Paul Janench, of Bridgeport, was a newspaper editor and taught journalism at Quinnipiac University. His weekly Memo on the Media can be heard on wqun.com. Email: paul.janensch@quinnipiac.edu.
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Cleric Mawarire, the face of the #ThisFlag campaign says he will remain in South Africa out of concern for his safety after President Robert Mugabe effectively declared him persona non grata in Zimbabwe.Mawarire said he will not be returning to Harare for a while adding that he was not running away.He said that he had not expected to be harassed by State security agents just for speaking out against injustices.
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by Thobekile Zhou

President Robert Mugabe has again issued another chilling warning on Pastor Evan Mawarire saying he was inviting real trouble.The latest warning comes as Mawarire of the #ThisFlag movement has indicated that he was not returning to Zimbabwe anytime soon.Mawarire has been in South Africa for close to two weeks spending most of his time conducting media interviews.According to media reports from South Africa, Mawarire said he was left "shaken and scared" by his arrest.As a result, he said he resolved to stay in South Africa, depending on the situation in Zimbabwe.Today, Mugabe told thousands of war veterans that Mawarire should be careful.Below is his statement:I want to warn this Mawarire and others very strongly that ZANU PF will not tolerate any nonsense, any nonsense that is done in name of religion.So keep to your religious side and we will respect you.Once you begin to interfere with our politics you are causing real trouble, real trouble.We know how to deal with our enemies who have been trying all along to bring about regime change in the country.We have the means to defend and protect our hard won freedom, that's crucial to us.
Windber-Portage renew rivalry in Week 10 Heritage-WestPAC crossover

Check out what to watch on Friday night in Somerset County as the high school football regular season comes to a close in Week 10.
Faculty Senate approves no-confidence vote on Sasse as UF president

The UF Faculty Senate held an emergency meeting about the choice of Senator Ben Sasse from Nebraska as the sole finalist for university president.
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Suspected rebellious war veterans are reportedly being rounding up by Zimbabwe Republic Police for withdrawing their support for President Robert Mugabe.National Liberation War Veterans Association spokesperson, Douglas Mahiya is said to have " handed himself over to police after they went to his house looking for him".Today, Mugabe vowed to mete drastic action on the 'rebels' saying they are being used by the British and French embassies.Mugabe said "During the war we had rebels; we punished them hard. We didn't kill them. Some of them we detained underground, feeding them there"During a solidarity meeting with Mugabe today, some war veterans called for the arrests of the 'rebels'.A representative from Mashonaland Central said "arrest rogue war veterans now. Kusunga munhu ndokupedza nyaya,"Mashonaland Central chairman Dickson Mafios called for those with Presidential ambitions to declare their interests today and call for a special congress.At their Thursday meeting last week, the war veterans issued a damning communique, accusing Mugabe of dumping them and embracing party youths to drive his re-election campaign. They also accused the 92-year-old Zanu PF leader of digressing from the party's founding principles and privatising it.
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The First Secretary of Zanu-PF, President Robert Mugabe says as long as he still has the energy, the life and the blessing of God, he will continue to lead the country because he was given the mandate to lead by the people.The 15th Zanu-PF annual people's conference that was held in Victoria Falls in December last year, saw all 10 provinces endorsing Mugabe as the party's presidential candidate in 2018.Addressing the war veterans solidarity meeting in Harare today, President Mugabe said he was elected by the people and he will continue to be governed by the wishes of the people.Mugabe told some sections of the media, which are western sponsored to push the regime change agenda to tell their handlers that he is still in power despite all their attempts to push him aside." We're people oriented, so journalists be warned, tell those you're representing that i am still going strong," he said.Observers say the turnout at the war veterans solidarity meeting this Wednesday sends yet another clear demonstration to the prophets of doom that the people of Zimbabwe are firmly behind President Mugabe.
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The next day I woke to find myself in a WhatsApp group titled Quordle is Awesome!! A small group of three. There was no getting out of it now.
News / National

by Staff reporter

President Robert Mugabe has reminded foreign embassies that are clandestinely involving themselves in Zimbabwe's internal politics to adhere to rules that govern them.He also warned churches to refrain from meddling in politics and causing disharmony among the people, saying the country has means to protect its hard won independence.When the church starts being political, Zanu-PF will regard them as political creatures and the party will not fold back its hands, President Mugabe told thousands of people who attended the war veterans solidarity meeting at the party headquarters in Harare today.He warned that the party will not tolerate mischief that is done in the name of religion.Some foreign embassies, mostly those from Europe and the west are alleged to be behind demonstrations that were held in the past few weeks to destabilise the country and Mugabe reminded the foreign diplomats to stick to their mandate.Some foreign diplomats attended Evan Mawarire's court hearing, while some are alleged to be working with opposition parties in a bid to effect illegal regime change.
The way people treat gulls is despicable, writes LIZ JONES. I agree with the outrage over the death of Cecil the lion, but at least he had a lovely life, which is more than can be said for our animals.
Wedding dress shopping should be a happy and exciting occasion for brides-to-be.

But newly engaged Jordan Constable, 22, from Redhill was left in tears when she tried on gowns after deciding to take her 'very opinionated' aunt along with her.

Anna Marie De-Castro, who has been engaged five times herself but never married, said she 'had to give her honest opinion' when her niece modelled potential wedding dresses to her and her mother Juanita Collman.

Bride-to-be Jordan Constable was left in tears while wedding dress shopping after her aunt made hurtful comments about her appearance in Say Yes To The Dress

This led to her voicing some very mean comments about her slim niece's figure as the recruitment consultant tried to pick her dream dress on TLC'S new show Say Yes To The Dress UK.

As Jordan tried on a number of dresses at the Confetti and Lace bridal boutique in Essex with the help of designer David Emanuel, Anna Marie became increasingly more rude and even called her niece fat.

When Jordan first tried on a 1,647 strapless gown by Christine Dando, she admitted she wasn't sure if the princess style dress suited her as it made her 'feel like a wedding cake decoration'.

Anna Marie De-Castro (pictured) told her niece that her 'shoulders look like a rugby player' when she tried on the dress in Confetti and Lace bridal boutique in Essex

Anna Marie also told her niece that her legs looked 'fat' in the 1647 fishtail gown

Jordan was left in tears by her aunts cruel comments even though she believed she was 'heading in the right direction' with her style

Her aunt brutally told her it didn't flatter her figure, telling her 'your shoulders look like a rugby player'.

When Jordan then tried on a slinky fishtail gown she thought was 'heading in the right direction', her aunt once again body shamed her and told her in no uncertain terms exactly what she thought.

'Eww, no I haven't even got anything nice to say,' she said of the backless dress with lace detailling.

'My mother taught me if I haven't got anything nice to say, don't say anything,' she added.

Anna Marie didn't hesitate in telling Jordan: 'It comes back to the rugby player thing about your thighs now.'

Dress designer David Emanuel comes to the bride-to-be's rescue reassuring her that she had 'the most divine little figure'

Jordan's mother also tried to reassure her daughter she thought she looked great and to ignore her aunt

However, when pushed she didn't hold back telling Jordan: 'It comes back to the rugby player thing about your thighs now.'

When Jordan's mother intervened to tell Anna Marie not to be such a 'cow', reassuring her daughter she thought she looked great, her aunt stood her ground and hurled further insults.

'Her legs look fat in it, they do! I have to give my honest opinion,' she said.

The negative assessment led Jordan to burst into tears back in the changing room.

When trying on the princess style dresses Jordan says that she didn't think they suited her saying she thought she looked like 'a wedding cake decoration'

'My aunt is being a bit brutal and personal with her comments about my figure, it is making me feel uncomfortable,' she sobbed.

'I feel overwhelmed and upset. I do regret inviting her to come.'

David had to come to the rescue to reassure Jordan she had 'the most divine little figure'.

The fashion expert, who famously co-designed Princess Diana's wedding dress told her: 'Darling, don't cry. We will find the right dress for you, it is our job.'

Jordan eventually decided to ignore her aunt and chose this 1,600 Christine Dano strapless dress with a fishtail skirt to wear on her December wedding day

Realising she had previously gone too far by making her niece cry, Anna Marie conceded: 'It is lovely. If you love the dress, it is your day not mine'

He said Jordan's experience highlights just how important it is for brides to pick the right entourage when they go dress shopping.

'She is basically being bullied and my heart goes out to her,' he said.

'When a bride comes for her first visit it is vital who she brings, should it be your mum, bridesmaids? The trouble is if you please your whole entourage you are not going to win.'

Jordan learnt this lesson and decided to go with what she wanted. She loved the third dress she tried on, a 1,600 Christine Dano strapless dress with a fishtail skirt.

Jordan loved the third dress she tried on, even though it showed off her shoulders which her aunt had previously told her looked like a rugby player's

Jordan confirmed it would be the perfect gown for when she married fiance Claudio, 24, in December

'I do love it, it is my favourite one,' she said, although she admitted she was worried about what her aunt thought.

When David told her it was her opinion and how the dress felt on that mattered, Jordan confirmed it would be the perfect gown for when she married fiance Claudio, 24, in December.

Realising she had previously gone too far by making her niece cry, Anna Marie conceded: 'It is lovely. If you love the dress, it is your day not mine.'

Jordan and her family appear on the first episode of the new reality show airing on TLC in August.

An American version of the show has already been a big hit on the channel so they have now made a new series featuring British brides getting style advice from royal designer David.

Also featured in the episode is Penny Buchan who had her decision complicated by taking along not one but three mothers to help her decide.

Her mother, Nasreen Buchan, step mother Catherine Buchan and future mother-in-law Janet Leach all had very different opinions on what would suit her.

Competitive Nasreen Buchan said she should have the biggest say as 'my opinion counts the most as I am the real mum'.
As women experience hours of pain and stress during the birth of their children, their overwhelmed and somewhat helpless partners are often beside them facing challenges of their own.

Alisha Baxter, 23, from Brisbane, found this out first hand when her husband Jive's nerves became immediately clear during the birth of their baby girl, Blakely.

Ms Baxter's cousin took a photo during the birth, which showed the 26-year-old father-to-be grasping his wife's hand and pulling a terrified face.

Staying strong: Alisha Baxter, 23, from Brisbane, shared a photo of her terrified husband, Jive, (pictured) during the birth of their baby girl - the picture taken as she was starting to push after 24 hours of labour

'At the time of the picture I was starting to push after nearly 24 hours of labour,' Ms Baxter told Daily Mail Australia.

'He wasn't saying anything, he was just really nervous. Before we were in the birthing suite he had a little moment crying because he couldn't help me through the pain.

'Once he finished having his moment and it came close to me pushing he was great.'

'He wasn't saying anything': 'He was just really nervous. Before we were in the birthing suite he had a little moment crying because he couldn't help me through the pain (the pair pictured with baby girl, Blakely)

'Just be there and do as you're told or you will end up hurt': Jive said that the best advice he can give to other nervous fathers-to-be is to just stay quiet and go with it

Ms Baxter said in the moment the photo was taken, her beau was 'concentrating on taking the pain I was giving him.'

She added: 'At the time my mum told him to look because the baby's head was crowning and he didn't really want to look.'

The new mother posted the photo on Facebook where it has since had over 20,000 likes.

'Us blokes go through a lot of pain as well. As you can see in my face haha,' Jive commented on the picture.

'She's also the biggest dad's girl already': Despite minor complications during the birth, little Blakely was born healthy and happy and is now six-days-old

Jive told Daily Mail Australia that the best advice he can give to other nervous fathers-to-be is to just stay quiet and go with it.

'Just be there and do as you're told or you will end up hurt,' he said.

Despite minor complications during the birth, little Blakely was born healthy and happy and is now six-days-old.
He has also published two books off the back of the popular blog

The account posts photos alongside witty captions of why the kid is crying

Reasons My Son Is Crying sees submissions from all over the world

Greg Pembroke, from New York, is the creator of a popular Tumblr account

Since he started his popular Tumblr page in 2013, Reasons My Son Is Crying, father Greg Pembroke from Rochester, New York, has gone on to become a published author, as well as someone in possession of thousands of fans.

And while the blog was started as a way for the father-of-two to take photos of his mid-tantrum infant sons, Charlie and William, which he uploaded with tongue-in-cheek captions, Reasons My Son Is Crying has since become a worldwide phenomenon.

At present, it sees parents from all over the world submit snaps of their crying infants, which Mr Pembroke curates and posts from his popular account.

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Internet hit: The popular Tumblr account, Reasons My Son Is Crying, was launched by father of two, Greg Pembroke, from New York, in 2013 - it shows pictures of children having meltdowns with witty captions

Recent hilarious tags include the caption: 'She thinks she has Pokemon on her', which came from a parent in Texas, as well as a witty submission from Kildare in Ireland that reads: 'I told him not to throw my glasses into the toilet'.

Some of the most popular posts are Mr Pembroke's early posts, that include the lines: 'I broke his cheese in half', and: 'The neighbour's dog isn't outside'.

The upstate New York dad, Greg Pembroke, shot to fame in 2013 with a Tumblr he initially started for a bit of fun.

However, he soon found himself publishing two books in quick succession as well as being featured on Good Morning America.

Worldwide phenomenon: The Tumblr account has become a hit all over the world, with parents from places sending in photos to Mr Pembroke, which he then publishes on his blog and Facebook page (pictured)

Kid logic: The blog is universally appealing, because, as Mr Pembroke says: It doesn't matter where in the world you are, the universal culture of toddler is the same'

Mr Pembroke's combination of kids in the middle of epic meltdowns alongside funny (but realistic) reasons for their meltdown is universally appealing.

'I wouldn't open his beer for him,' is one humorous recent entry from a parent in Nottingham, United Kingdom.

'She had to brush her teeth,' captions another mother from Washington.

'The sweet potatoes are all gone,' is a particularly popular post from the United Kingdom in recent months.

Tongue in cheek: This humorous post from a parent in Nottingham, United Kingdom, did well on social media - Mr Pembroke has published two books from his funny idea

Quelle horreur! Mr Pembroke initially started the blog merely featuring his two infant sons, but it soon proved to be a viral hit and other people started submitting their own entries

Going strong: And despite the blog being more than three years old, Mr Pembroke's desire for capturing the funnier moments of being a parent is still as strong as ever

Each post is also uploaded to Mr Pembroke's public Reasons My Son Is Crying Facebook page, where they are often liked and commented on by thousands of people.

And despite the blog being more than three years old, Mr Pembroke's desire for capturing the funnier moments of being a parent is still going strong.

Speaking previously to the Daily Mail, Mr Pembroke said: 'I started it for a bit of fun, and it got big completely by accident...

'The best bit is that I've been getting emails from all over the world from people saying they find it so relatable. It doesn't matter where in the world you are, the universal culture of toddler is the same.'
The Australian model recently opened up about her depression

She is intending to train as a practitioner and says she is much happier

Ms Braakensiek says it helped her to identify all sorts of ills in her body

She recently came clean about her battle with depression.

And now, Australian model, Annalise Braakensiek, has opened up even further about her health problems, explaining how she overcame chronic fatigue via the alternative solution of Bicom therapy.

The unusual, holistic therapy has become increasingly popular in recent years.

It works by analysing the electromagnetic waves or frequency patterns that are emitted by different people's bodies, and examines whether they are good or bad for you.

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Jumping for joy again: Australian model, Annalise Braakensiek, has opened up about her ongoing health problems, and chronic fatigue, which she cured via the alternative method - Bicom therapy

And according to the 43-year-old model, she has been totally 'blown away by the results'.

'Since contracting Dengue Fever three years ago, Ive never been completely on top of my health,' Ms Braakensiek wrote for The Carousel in a new column.

'Frustrating and debilitating are understatements, especially as I take good care of myself, with the best supplements and utilising the best holistic care.'

Blown away: The 43-year-old model says she has been extremely impressed with the results - the method works by analysing the electromagnetic waves or frequency patterns emitted by different people's bodies

However, the Sydney-born model believes she has come up with a solution for anyone who 'suffers from lethargy, insomnia, depression, allergies, food intolerance, migraines, chronic fatigue, or irritable bowel syndrome', and it comes via Bicom therapy sessions at a Potts Point-based centre in Sydney.

BICOM  Bioresonance Method by Petra  offers 60-minute sessions that identify any stressors, toxins or allergies in a person's body.

For Ms Braakensiek, while she didn't know it, she was in fact the owner of 'an abundance of heavy diseases and viruses I had no idea I was carrying'.

Happy and healthy: After six months of treatments, the model confesses that she is nearly back to her former self, before she contracted Dengue Fever a few years ago

Alternative method: She has even added that she intends to become a practitioner for the alternative healing therapy

As well as being bitten by a tick when she was just nine, and a funnel-web spider at age three, the model was also told that she had had Dengue Fever, Ross River Fever and Glandular Fever for years unknowingly, which all contributed to her chronic fatigue.

After six months of treatment I feel much more like my old pre-Dengue self...not looking eight months pregnant after unknowingly ingesting wheat

While the diagnoses might sound a bit hocus pocus, Annalie Braakensiek swears that her symptoms are being reversed and she is now happier and healthier than ever:

'After six months of treatments I feel much more like my old pre-Dengue self jumping with joy instead of dragging my tootsies, and not looking eight months pregnant after unknowingly ingesting wheat,' she says.

She even adds that she intends to become a practitioner for the alternative method.

Coming clean: Earlier on this month, Ms Braakensiek opened up about her ongoing battle with depression - she posted a candid shot on Instagram and said that: 'Sometimes I feel pain so deeply I'm immobilised by it'

Though from her glamorous lifestyle and impeccable Instagram feed, it would be easy to assume that the famous model's life is pretty much perfect, Ms Braakensiek has always been keen to convey that there is always a darkness lurking behind closed doors.

Earlier this month, she posted a candid photograph to her Instagram profile that read:

'Sometimes I feel pain so deeply I'm immobilised by it. Depression is something so misunderstood and has such stigma attached to it...
Decisions around how to deliver a child are among the toughest faced by expectant parents.

And while mums have long had to choose between either a natural vaginal birth or a caesarean, there is now another way.

The latest trend to emerge among mothers is a mixture of both types of birthing methods.

A video posted to Facebook by childbirth educator Sophie Messager shows a woman delivering her son by 'nautral caesarean' - and the results are incredible.

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Natural birth: A woman from the United Kingdom has delivered her son through the process of a natural caesarean, the latest birthing trend among mothers - a video of the birth has been watched 1.6 million times

The video shows the baby effectively delivering himself, progressively wriggling his way clear of his mother's stomach through an incision made during the caesarean.

Doctors and nurses look on as the newborn slowly emerges, removing his head followed by his shoulders and then the full body.

'Oh look at him,' the mother can be heard to say as her son emerges from within her.

Posted by Ms Messager on behalf of a friend on Tuesday, the video has since gone viral, receiving more than 1.6 million views and 25,000 shares.

In her post she outlined how the mother had wished to have a natural caesarean, but after having some of her individual wishes for the pregnancy refused, she was forced to change hospitals.

'A friend had the most gorgeous gentle caesarean yesterday - it was quite a journey because her local hospital refused to entertain any of her wishes,' Ms Messager wrote.

Wriggling clear: The baby removes himself from his mother's stomach by slowly moving his body clear through an incision made during the caesarean

Phenomenally successful: Posted by Ms Messager on behalf of a friend on Tuesday, the video has since gone viral, receiving more than 1.6 million views and 25,000 shares

Online sensation: Childbirth educator Sophie Messager posted the video on behalf of a friend and described the birth as 'gorgeous'

Science stuff: A recent diagram showed what happened when a natural caesarean is performed (pictured)

'So she had to move to another hospital where she found the most supportive consultant (Dr Andy Simm at Nottingham City hospital), who not only agreed to support all her wishes but filmed the birth to use it to educate other health pros.

'I especially loved watching the baby walking himself out of the womb,' she said.

According to Ms Messager, the doctors at the hospital listened to all the mother's stipulations including the fact that there be no drapes, no weighing or measuring until the family is ready and 'even waiting until the cord had finished pulsating before clamping it'.

Repeat performance: In May this year, another video of a mother undergoing a natural caesarean garnered the attention of the world

Home based: The woman from Devon was unable to give birth naturally and so delivered her son Leo using a similar mix of 'gentle caesarean' birthing methods

In May this year, another video of a mother undergoing a natural caesarean gained worldwide attention.

Sarah Saunders, from Devon, was unable to give birth naturally and so delivered her son Leo using a similar mix of 'gentle caesarean' birthing methods.
Rosie Huntington-Whiteley proved she's not just a pretty face as she flew out to Lesotho to meet children and families affected by the worst drought in decades.

During the model's visit, a make-up free Rosie saw and heard how the two years of erratic rain and drought, combined with one of the most powerful El Nino events in 50 years, have wreaked havoc on the lives of those already left vulnerable by poverty and HIV.

The government in Lesotho has declared a state of emergency and more than 530,000 people - one in four of the population - are estimated to be affected.

Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, model, actress and Unicef UK supporter at the Unicef-supported Sentabale Youth Club in Motsekuoa, Mafeteng district, Lesotho. Rosie met children affected by the current drought in the country, and saw how the children are using activities including song, dance and drama to deal with issues such as HIV/AIDS, violence and poverty

Speaking about her trip, the 29-year-old said: 'From the moment I arrived in Lesotho it was immediately obvious just how much of an impact the drought is having on families here, many of who were already struggling with poverty and the effects of HIV.

'Already hugely vulnerable, these families are struggling to cope with the added burden brought by the lack of food and water.'

Rosie, who is engaged to Jason Statham, travelled with Unicef, for whom she is an ambassador, to meet just some of the 26.5 million children across the region who are at risk from hunger, water shortages and disease.

During her trip to Lesotho, where 60 per cent of the population live on less than 1.45 a day and life expectancy is just over 50 years, Rosie visited a health centre and met children suffering from malnutrition, as well as meeting children and families affected by HIV.

Rosie Huntington-Whiteley visited Lesotho in Southern Africa to meet children and families affected by extreme drought which has led to severe water and food shortages across east and southern Africa

Rosie meets students and teachers at Tsakholo High School in Mafeteng district of Lesotho. During the drought many schools have experienced severe water shortages

Rosie also spent time with children at the Unicef supported Sentebale youth club.

Prince Harry established Sentebale, which means forget me not, in the African nation with its Prince Seeiso, in memory of their mothers.

The 31-year-old royal built the Mamohato Childrens Centre to support vulnerable children through healthcare and education.

Children at the youth club, some of who are HIV positive, use activities such as dance, drama, poetry and singing to discuss, explore and address the challenges they face, including those exacerbated by the drought and food crisis.

Prince Harry founded a charity called Sentebale in 2006, which provides healthcare and education to vulnerable children in Lesotho, Southern Africa

Rosie said: 'Many of the families I met have literally nothing left. If the rains don't come soon then the situation will become even more devastating. Children are going to bed hungry, night after night, week after week.

'For months now families have been doing everything they can to survive but the crisis only looks like it will get worse. One mother I met told me how even providing enough food for her daughter is a daily struggle.

'Unicef is working tirelessly with the government and partners to keep children safe and reduce the impact of the drought but they simply do not have the resources needed.

'This crisis might not be on the news, but having seen the reality for children here I'd urge everyone to do what they can to support Unicef's work for children, in Lesotho and across the region.'
News / National

by Staff Reporter

Caption

These photographs were shared (today) on Twitter by Minister of Higher and Tertiary Education, Professor Jonathan Moyo.: "Sights of meeting today with Japanese envoy to Zim Yoshi Tendai Hiraishi to explore science & technology exchanges!"
A Jennifer Aniston lookalike battling breast cancer has told how she would love for her idol to play her in a movie.

Jennifer Sullivan, 46, from Texas, said: 'My ultimate number one would be [for Jennifer Aniston]... to play me in a movie as a celebrity lookalike single mum fighting cancer, which is a long shot but you never know what will happen.'

In the meantime the mother-of-one, who had a partial mastectomy last year, has been ticking a number of other things off her bucket list, including traveling around the world.

Jennifer Sullivan, a Jennifer Aniston lookalike who is battling breast cancer, has told how her dying wish would be for her idol to play her in a movie

Undercover: To try to separate normal life from role playing, Jennifer, pictured in Venice, dyes her hair dark to keep people from stopping her in the street

Despite their facial and body likeness, Jennifer maintains she's very different from the real-life celebrity (above, on her bucket list tour at Playa Del Carmen, Mexico)

So far, the celebrity doppelganger has visited more than 50 countries with her daughter, in a bid to build 'lots of amazing memories together'.

Together they have visited Amsterdam, Malta, Brussels, Cambodia, Laos, Taiwan, Australia, Fiji, London, Caribbean, Mexico, Ireland, Hawaii, Copenhagen and other places.

Jennifer said: 'I want to give my daughter a lot of memories, that way if I don't beat cancer she'll have a lot of memories with her Mum, the Jennifer Aniston lookalike.'

Although Jennifer has seen some incredible sites, from hiking Machu Picchu to visiting the Blue Lagoons in Iceland, she says at the top of her bucket list is meeting her celebrity idol.

Mirror image: Jennifer is pictured left when she started Jennifer Aniston lookalike work in 2006 at 36. The actress herself is picture right while she was still starring in Friends

Ongoing battle: Jennifer was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2009, she was given the all clear but then it returned last year (above, before her lumpectomy)

All smiles: Jennifer with her breast reconstruction surgeon Dr. Scott Harris

She added: 'I've never met the real Jennifer Aniston but amusingly some tabloids have used my picture online instead of hers in the past, they used one of my photos with the headline "Jennifer Aniston is having John Mayer's baby".

'Up until the age of six my daughter believed it was me on the front covers of all the magazines instead of Jennifer Aniston and always used to ask why I wasn't with her dad, which was sweet.'

Jennifer started working as a doppelganger a decade ago after being constantly asked for pictures by strangers who thought she was the real Friends star.

Since then she's appeared in magazines, the Eminem video 'We Made You' and was even been booked by a Swedish Royal Couple who wanted to pretend they were best friends with Jennifer Aniston.

The lookalike charges up to $5,000 for an appearance and at her peak was getting as many as 20 bookings a year.

In the meantime the mother-of-one, who had a partial mastectomy last year, has been ticking a number of other things off her bucket list, including traveling around the world (above at Westminster Abbey, London)

Jennifer says she wouldn't change her looks and her likeness to the A-list actress has allowed her to 'live life to the fullest' and fly to lots of different places (above, at the Angkor Wat Temple Siem Reep, Cambodia)

To try to separate normal life from role playing, Jennifer dyes her hair dark to keep people from stopping her in the street.

When she's booked for jobs, she then gets changed into one of her many blonde wigs.

Commenting on her unusual career path, Jennifer said: 'I never aspired to be a lookalike, I have two graduate degrees and work in finance, so being Jennifer Aniston is like my double life.

'I go from doing very mundane meticulous work to the glamour of being a celebrity for a few hours.

'I try to live a normal life out of the spot light, I get confused for her whether that's in restaurants, on the street, in airports everywhere.

'Once in Istanbul six teenage boys came up to me, I thought they wanted me to take a picture of them, but because they thought I was Jennifer Aniston each of them wanted a photo with me.'

Despite their facial and body likeness, Jennifer maintains she's very different from the celebrity she mimics.

All done up: When she's booked for jobs, Jennifer gets changed into one of her many blonde wigs

The grand reveal: Jennifer taking off her Aniston wig

She added: 'By nature I'm more of an introvert and very calm, whereas Aniston has high energy and is very demonstrative so I had to condition myself to be more like her.'

Her agent Denise Vlasis attribute's Jennifer's success to nailing the star's sense of humour, mannerisms and glamour.

Denise, of Tribute Productions, said: 'Jennifer has an amazing amount of determination, drive, courage and faith and I deeply admire her.

'I have watched her journey and can only say how incredibly inspiring she is to not only the lookalike industry, but to everyone who knows her.'

Spot the difference: Lookalike Jennifer, left, wearing a blonde wig at the start of her cancer in 2010 and the real Jennifer, right, pictured on the red carpet

Jennifer says her uncanny likeness to an A-list actress has allowed her to 'live life to the fullest' and fly to lots of different places.

She is currently just three flights away from visiting 100 countries.

Six years ago Jennifer reinvigorated a bucket list that she started in her younger years after finding a grape-sized lump under her arm that would later be diagnosed as breast cancer.

After undergoing a lumpectomy to remove the deadly cells she was given the all clear but unfortunately the disease returned last year.

She says doctors are more concerned this time around because of the cancer reoccurring in the same area.

Talking about her ongoing cancer battle, Jennifer said: 'I don't know how long I have left but I'm not going to let it stop me.

'The cancer scares have made me realise how short our lives are and you never know what's going to happen, so you have to live life to the fullest.

'Some people never leave their hometown and don't really live, they just exist, I realised life is short so I'm trying to do as much as I can.

'Since being diagnosed with cancer I am more determined to experience all I can and live to the fullest, I want to make memories with my daughter in case I do pass away.'

It's estimated that there are one in eight women will develop breast cancer in their lifetimes, the risk is significantly increased if a mother or sister has had it.

Looking forward with gritted determination, Jennifer concluded: 'I have an insatiable bucket list and it will not end until I pass.

'We've been to see the wonders of the world, waterfalls, mountains, beaches and experience various cultures wherever we go; I don't intend to stop.
Two men who have spent thousands of pounds on public surgery procedures to look like Kim Kardashian and Kylie Jenner have been involved in a very public spat on Facebook.

Lip filler addict Jordan James Parke, 25, from Birmingham, and surgery obsessive 22-year-old James Holt from Bury, Greater Manchester, were caught bickering on the social media site.

The arguments began after James Holt posted a photo of a magazine article about himself, along with the caption: 'I'm happy for a two page spread in America, like anyone would be obviously, but why are they trying to make that Jordan relevant in the corner of my story?'

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James Holt has splurged 10,000 on his lips alone  with 30ml of filler currently in his pillowed pout

Lip filler addict Jordan James Parke, 24, from Birmingham, and surgery obsessive 22-year-old James Holt from Bury, Greater Manchester, were caught bickering on the social media site

To this, Jordan responded: 'When someone hates you, and you unknowingly pop up and steal the limelight! #ByeBoo #Oftenimitatedneverduplicated'.

He later added: 'Three Sugar Daddies apparently, yet still looking like something from Shameless on Benefits', referring to James' recent revelation that his procedures are funded by older 'Sugar Daddies'.

Jordan then said: 'Get a nose job and hair cut and then come back, or better why not try and match my TV and magazine work', to which James replied: 'What's with the competition? You intimidated Jordan?'

Aside from lip fillers, make-up artist Jordan tattooed cartoonish eyebrows and he's undergone laser hair removal and Botox injections

He then wrote: 'Why you so obsessed with me Jordan Parke? You're that desperate to be in a little article you pick up the phone and give quotes for free.

'We are two very different people clearly. You just concentrate on your revision and I'll do me honey.'

James added: 'I don't need to prove myself to someone like you you dog ruff Jordan, you wished you had a head of hair like mine'.

The arguments began after James Holt posted a photo of a magazine article about himself, along with the caption: 'I'm happy for a two page spread in America, like anyone would be obviously, but why are they trying to make that Jordan relevant in the corner of my story?'

Desperate to emulate his idols, Khloe and Kylie, James has splurged 10,000 on his lips alone  with 30ml of filler currently in his pillowed pout.

He has forked out 3,000 on Botox, 2,000 on cheek filler, filler under his eyes, and filler on his jawline and even said he is willing to have six ribs removed to achieve his ideal hourglass shape.

Now, five years after his first procedure, James has transformed from an unremarkable teenager to a head-turning doll-lookalike.

James Holt has forked out 3,000 on Botox, 2,000 on cheek filler, filler under his eyes, and filler on his jawline and even said he is willing to have six ribs removed to achieve his ideal hourglass shape

There are clear similarities between James and Jordan, who in 2015 admitted he 'couldn't really move' his face following nearly 50 plastic surgery procedures - reportedly totaling over 100,000 - over the last four years.

Aside from lip fillers, the make-up artist has tattooed cartoonish eyebrows and he's undergone laser hair removal and Botox injections.

Jordan, who appeared on an episode of E! series Botched, said: 'I was 21 when I got my lips done. I went in there and I was like, "You know you need to make me look natural. I want just a little bit of definition." And they just got bigger and bigger.'

Jordan admitted in 2015 he 'couldn't really move' his face following nearly 50 plastic surgery procedures - reportedly totaling over 100,000 - over the last four years

He added: 'Sometimes filler can leak out of the sides. It's quite scary. They need fixing.

'I'm worried if they keep leaking I'm going to end up with small lips again, and that wouldn't be me.

'My lips have really changed me as a person and I'd be so normal and boring without them.'

Speaking about the spat, Jordan told the Manchester Evening News: 'Its not the first Facebook war weve had. Hes always trying to drag me down.

'Its so funny to me. He tried to take me down for the first interview I did with a national newspaper and hes gone and done the exact same thing.
Trip will focus on the East Coast including a trip to Quebec and Montreal

Couple last visited after their 2011 wedding on their first foreign trip

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have announced that they plan to visit Canada this autumn.

It's five years since the royal couple last touched down together on Canadian soil - in July 2011 - on what was their first tour as a married couple having wed just two months prior.

It's unclear as to whether Kate, 34, and William, 34, will be joined on the trip by Prince George, three, and Princess Charlotte, one.

Scroll down for video

Five years and two children on: Kensington Palace today announced that Kate and William, both 34, will travel back to Canada again this autumn - five years after their first visit together

A statement released by Kensington Palace today said: 'Their Royal Highnesses have been invited to visit by the Government of Canada. They will visit British Columbia and the territory of Yukon as part of their tour.'

The note added that the couple were 'delighted' to be returning to Canada.

It read: 'They hold very happy memories from their visit in 2011 - their first overseas tour as a married couple. They are really looking forward to seeing other parts of this beautiful country and having the opportunity to meet many more Canadians along the way.'

The couple will be the guests of His Excellency the Right Honourable David Johnston, Governor General of Canada.

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge arriving at Calgary Airport in Yellowknife, Canada back in 2011, shortly after they were wed

Yee-ha! William and Kate got into the swing of West Coast life back in 2011

Roll out the barrel: Prince William throws a barrel into the back of a chuckwagon during his visit to Calgary, Alberta in 2011

Canadian cowgirl: Kate will be the guests of David Johnston, the country's Governor

Of his guests, Johnston said: 'Sharon and I will be delighted to welcome Their Royal Highnesses The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge to Canada. Their Royal Tour will take them to the beautiful province of British Columbia and the scenic territory of Yukon.

'Once again, our true Canadian pride and spirit will shine and be at the very heart of this visit so they can feel at home.'

Last time the couple visited the country, they had just wed and prompted the kind of reaction that might ordinarily be reserved for pop stars.

Just the two of us: The couple famously canoed across Blatchford Lake in the Northwest Territories and even spent a night in a hidden forest retreat

The Toronto star reported on how the Duchess was clearly a natural at royal life, reporting: 'In a matter of hours, Catherine, the Duchess of Cambridge signalled to the world that she has the makings of an international fashion icon'

Their 11-day tour in early July 2011 saw them visit Canadas Capital Region, Montreal, Quebec City, Charlottetown, Summerside, Yellowknife, Slave Lake and Calgary.

The royal family continues to hold Canada dear, with the Queen reigning as the country's sovereign since 1952.

William has been a frequent visitor to the North American country famed for its beautiful wildernesses and outdoor life. In 1991, joined Charles and his late mother Diana on a royal tour of the country.

William pictured with his late mother, the Princess of Wales, during a royal tour of the country back in 1991. Also pictured is Prince William
Victoria's Secret Angel Elsa Hosk may have one of the most enviable bodies in the business, but the Swedish stunner has revealed that she hated her famous derriere so much as a teen that she would try to hide it underneath sweaters.

The 27-year-old model joined fellow Angels Lily Aldridge and Stella Maxwell to launch the brand's 'Easy' collection from Body By Victoria in New York City on Tuesday, and while she looks flawless in the new campaign for the line, Elsa admitted that she once felt insecure about the shape and size of her backside.

I used to hate my butt  like hate it,' she told Daily Mail Online at the event. 'In school I used to cover it up. I felt like it was too big like I felt like I needed to wear a sweater over it. It was awful.'

Strike a pose: Elsa Hosk admitted that she used to 'hate' the size of her butt when she was younger

Flaunting it: The 27-year-old Swedish model said Victoria's Secret helped her learn to embrace her derriere, and now she frequently shares photos of her toned backside on Instagram

Squad goals: Elsa was joined by fellow Victoria's Secret Angels Lily Aldridge (center) and Stella Maxwell (left) to launch the brand's 'Easy' collection in New York City on Tuesday

However, Elsa said that working with Victoria's Secret helped her embrace her derriere, and now it is one of her favorite assets.

'I would never show my butt, and now working with Victoria's Secret it is very celebrated to have curves, so I am now really proud of my butt,' she explained. 'All the members in my family are very gifted in that area.

'Even my brothers, who are really skinny, they have kind of shapely butts and it is really cute. Now I love it. I am proud of it.'

Stella, 25, also recalled having similar insecurities when she was younger, noting that she used to have braces.

Key to confidence: Both Lily, 30, and Stella, 25, agree that you get more comfortable in your own skin when you get older

So close: Lily said her fellow Victoria's Secret models are a great support system, and she talks to at least one of them every day

'Everyone has their awkward phase,' she said. 'I think everything passes, and that is key to remember  none of us looked like this when we were younger.

'It's only like a little time in life and then it will l pass,' she added. 'And everybody grows into themselves and you learn about yourself.'

Lily, 30, also believes that age makes all the difference when it comes to how you view yourself.

'I just feel like as you grow older you realize it is silly to be insecure about things because we are all different,' she explained. 'We all have different bodies. We all have our things that aren't perfect, and you can't worry about that. Life is too short, and it is to be lived.'

'Revolutionary': Elsa, who is pictured modeling a bra from the Body By Victoria 'Easy' collection, said the new lingerie line is so comfortable women that will want to sleep it

Feels natural: Stella and Lily are also fans of the bras, which come in three different styles and feature adjustable straps and a memory foam fit

And while it may be shocking for some to think that a Victoria's Secret model would ever feel insecure, Elsa stressed that 'nobody is perfect'.

'Victoria's Secret Angels, we also wake up [after] having binged on pizza the morning before and like we're bloated from having our periods. You just have to snap out of and realize it doesn't matter what you body looks like. If you're not perfect that day you know who cares?'

Elsa insisted that what people are really going to notice is 'your positive outlook or your aura or that you're happy'.

Lily agreed, explaining that confidence is all about your 'attitude and how you feel'.

Famous curves: 'All the members in my family are very gifted in that area,' Elsa said of her famous backside. She is pictured on the Victoria's Secret runway last November

Catwalkers: Lily (left) and Stella (right) are pictured strutting their stuff during the runways show last year

'It's so easy to snap yourself out of a bad mood if you really think about it and think where you are, and how blessed your life is and what's going on,' she said. 'I try to always snap myself out of a bad mood.'

Meanwhile, Stella's approach to keeping her confidence up involves waking up and facing the day after after getting 'a lot' of sleep.

'I think sleep is really important for mental well being,' she said. 'And get up and have a shower. I think showers are really refreshing and kind of cleanses you in the morning and will wake you up.

She added: 'It is all about getting outside and getting fresh air and just feeling well mentally.'

Model off duty: When it comes to go-to outfits, Elsa and Lily both agreed that jeans and T-shirts are go-to items

Beating the heat: Lily took her daughter Dixie to the Central Park Zoo earlier this month

When it comes to looking and feeling their best, all three models gushed about the Victoria's Secret bralettes, which come in a variety of styles.

Elsa said her go-to look is a pair of jeans and a bralette worn under a nice T-shirt, and Lily agreed that you 'can't go wrong' if you are wearing a 'great fitting pair of jeans and a tank top'.

'When I'm comfortable, I feel really sexy,' Stella said of wearing the brand's 'Easy' bras, which come in three different styles and feature adjustable straps and a memory foam fit.

Elsa said the design is 'revolutionary', insisting that that women will want to sleep in the bras because they are so comfortable.

Blonde beauties: Stella can be seen striking a pose with Elsa while donning athletic wear

Laid back: Stella, who is pictured with Lily's 24-year-old sister Ruby, said she feels sexiest when she is comfortable

'I keep talking about it because it is so awesome,' she said. 'It gives you a push up, but it has no hooks and wires, and it is so, so soft. It is probably the most advanced technology a bra will get.'

And with the temperature rising, Lily suggested pairing a bralette with a pair of high-waisted shorts to beat the heat while being 'on trend'.

However, Elsa admitted that she can't stand being outside when it is unbearably humid like it has been in New York over recent weeks.

'I don't know [how to beat the heat]. Please, if anybody knows tell me,' she said. 'I am very sweaty and hot out there. I hate this heat. I am not from this heat. I am from Sweden and it's the opposite of this. There is no humidity.
With more airlines charging holidaymakers extra to carry luggage in the hold (its an eye-watering 50 at the gate for oversized cabin baggage if youre flying Ryanair), theres never been a better time to pack smart.

Provided you keep all your away-from-home essentials within the designated weight allowance, you can carry your case into the cabin and not part with an extra penny.

Youll also avoid that laboriously long wait at the baggage carousel.

With more airlines charging extra to carry luggage in the hold, theres never been a better time to pack smart

Weight limits differ from airline to airline, but with the minimum weight allowance coming in at 7kg, packing light for a two-week holiday could admittedly prove a challenge for the style-conscious traveller.

A challenge, yes. But it can be done, says Femail Style Editor, Dinah van Tulleken, who has scoured the High Street for canny buys that wont weigh you down.

1. ULTRALIGHT CABIN CASE FOR HOLIDAY WARDROBE

Rimowa Salsa Air Ultralight Cabin four-wheel suitcase The average carry-on suitcase weighs 3.5kg which means you lose valuable weight before youve even started packing. Not so with the Rimowa Salsa, which weighs only 1.7kg, but is spacious enough to hold a two-week holiday wardrobe with room to spare for duty frees. From Selfridges. Shop

2. ROLL-UP MAXI AND QUICK DRY SUNDRESS

Floral maxi dress This light cotton dress can be dressed up with wedges or worn with flip-flops, but best of all, you can roll it up to travel and it will spring back into shape on arrival - and it only weighs 222 g. From Marks & Spencer. Shop Double layer dress The breathable cotton sundress, 273g, meanwhile, is quick dry so you can pop it on over a wet swimsuit and be beach bar ready after five or ten minutes in the sun. From Gap. Shop

3. FOLD 'N' STOW HAT AND SUNGLASSES

Straw fedora A hat is essential for sunny climes, but is tricky to transport. This fedora style can be scrunched up and stored in the darkest corner of your suitcase and weighs 173g. From F&F at Tesco. Shop Ray Ban Clubmaster Folding Collection Folding sunglasses will slip into a jacket pocket and only weigh 45g without the case, 75g with. Shop

4. FEATHERLIGHT DAY-INTO-NIGHT BASICS

Slubby tank top A vest top that can be paired with anything is invaluable and this one is crease-proof, extremely fast drying and only weighs 130g. Was 37 now 21, from American Vintage. Shop 360Cashmere jumper For chilly evenings, a summer knit is a must, but can be hefty. Not so with this summer-weight cashmere jumper which is ultra light at 121g and is now in the sale. An investment you wont regret. Was 160 now 100, from Fleur B. Shop Monsoon Rhianna embroidered top A lightweight tunic top will double up as kaftan and weighs 101g. Shop

5. PJs YOU CAN WEAR TO THE BEACH

Pyjama set Light enough to wear at night in balmy climates, the pretty pyjama top in this set doubles up nicely as a casual vest top and wont weigh down your case as it tips the scales at 80g. From Accessorise. Shop

6. REVERSIBLE SWIMSUIT AND VERSATILE BIKINI

Topshop reversible swimsuit Bright zesty orange or failsafe black? The choice is yours if you snap up this handy two-way swimsuit which has a flattering cut that will suit most body shapes and it only weighs 112g. Shop Twisted front wired multiway bikini top and bottoms Or you can vary your beach look each day by buying a bikini with multi-way straps, 187g. From halterneck to traditional straps to strapless, there are eight ways to wear it so you will never get bored on the beach. Twisted-front, wired, multiway bikini top, 22.50, bottoms 16, from Marks and Spencer Shop

7. MULTI-TASKING MINI TOILETRY ESSENTIALS

Stock up on multitasking miniatures that weigh less combined than a full-sized bottle of shampoo

From a moisturiser that also has UV protection, to a texturising salt spray that means you dont need to pack a hairdryer and a two-in-one shampoo and conditioner, stock up on multitasking miniatures that weigh less combined (total weight 654g) than a full-sized bottle of shampoo.

Plus, they are all small enough to go in hand luggage.

Soak wash travel size To get clothes fresh for the second week, snap up a bottle of Soak. Just one teaspoon of this rinse-free formulation added to four-and-a-half litres of cool water is enough to freshen up your favourite holiday clothes. Shop

Just add a foldaway toothbrush, and collapsible hair brush, 40g.

8. TOWEL THAT DOUBLES UP AS STYLISH SARONG

Striped hamam towel This cotton Turkish bath towel is nowhere near as thick and bulky as your standard beach towel weighing in at 259g plus its floaty and flexible enough to be worn as a sarong dress. From Rae Feather Shop

9. MIX 'N'MATCH SANDALS AND SLIP ONS

Slinks sandals Slinks sandals are ingenious - interchangeable straps (36g for a pair) can be attached and detached to the lightweight sole (270g) so that you can pack multiple pairs of shoes for the weight and space of one. Slinks sandals, pictured: Sole 34.99, pom-pom upper, 28, gladiator upper, 38. Shop Cork sliders The 10 cork sliders are comfy for sightseeing, but not clumpy at 430g. From Tesco. Shop

10. SPACE-SAVING SMALLS IN LITTLE PACKAGES

Product title These super space saving smalls come rolled up in tiny packages you can tuck inside your shoes when you pack. Seven pairs weigh 91g. From Fig Leaves. Shop

11. FLATTERING FINE LINEN TROUSERS AND SHORTS

12. JEWELLERY THAT'S LIGHTER THAN CHOCOLATE

Bracelet, pendant and earrings Leave the family jewels at home - these gold plated pieces flatter sunkissed skin and the total weight combined of pendant necklace, bracelet and earrings comes to 15g - thats less than a 45g chocolate bar. Chakra Gold Chain Bracelet, 69, pendant, now 27 and drop gold stud earrings, 89. Shop

13. CLEVER BRAS FOR TRICKY OUTFITS

Multi-way bras A two-pack bra set, 136g for both, is a good buy - especially as both have multiway straps that can be adjusted to work beneath every type of frock and top from racerback, strapless, and halterneck to asymmetric. From Marks and Spencer Shop

14. HOLLOW HEELS FOR PERFECT NIGHTS OUT

Jani block-heeled sandals These stylishly chunky wedges are much lighter than they look at only 430g and come in a versatile tan colour. From Dune. Shop

15. TWO-IN-ONE BAG AND TRAVEL-SIZE CLUTCH

Striped shopper Bright stripes on one side and beige linen on the other, a lightweight double-sided bag, 402g, gives you two looks in one and has sturdy leather straps, making it the ideal travelling companion. From Marks and Spencer. Shop Tan clutch bag A travel-size clutch weighing just 138g will safeguard cash and phone on a night out in style and can be worn across the body in the daytime as it comes with detachable strap. Shop

TOTAL WEIGHT: 6.5KG
A RECIPE FOR DISASTER! ARE YOU BRAVE ENOUGH TO TAKE ON HESTON'S CHALLENGE?

INGREDIENTS

Orange Biscuit with Feuillitine:

290g plain flour

2.5g fine table salt

1g vanilla seeds

2.5g baking powder

250g unsalted butter, cubed and at room temperature

166g golden caster sugar

75g egg yolks

16g finely grated orange zest

50g feuillitine Pate a Bombe:

37.5g water

200g white caster sugar

200g egg yolkCrystallised Coffee:

150g white caster sugar

50g water

15g Nespresso Espresso ground coffee

7.5g Nescafe Gold Blend freeze dried coffeeParfait:

2.5g powdered gelatine

12.5g water

112g Verjus du Perigord

25g Citrus Reduction

100g unsweetened creamy Greek yoghurt

150g pure cream

150g Pate a Bombe

25g Curacao Triple Sec

20g Crystallised CoffeeVerjus Egg Yolk:

440g Borion Mandarin Puree infused with thyme

160g Citrus Reduction

60g Curacao Triple Sec

90g 8 Brix Verjus

50g white caster sugar

1g Malic Acid

3.3g Gellan FCoconut Panna Cotta:

8.3g powdered gelatine

142g coconut water

150g milk

125g coconut cream

30g golden caster sugar

300g creamy Greek yoghurt

44g coconut milk

canola oil sprayHoney Tuile Nest:

325g isomalt

135g golden syrup

135g honey

33g water

20g bicarbonate of soda

0.2g Verjus du PerigordButter Mixture:

150g clarified butter

150g icing sugar

150g honey

120g Nudie orange juice

30g lemon juice

10g orange blossom waterKataifi Nest:

50g Butter Mixture

8g finely grated orange zest

100g Kataifi pastryKabosu Jelly:

8.6g pectin jaune

200g fructose

337g kabosu juice

66.5g liquid glucose

4g citric acid

8.3g waterMilk Chocolate Egg Layer:

150g Valrhona cocoa butter, pre-melted in water bath at 55C

1.5g red powder colouring

2g yellow powder colouring

5.5g titanium oxide white powder colouring

500g Valrhona 33% Tanariva milk chocolate, pre-melted in water bath at 45CWhite Chocolate Egg Layer:

88g Valrhona cocoa butter, melted in water bath at 55C

6g titanium oxide white powder colouring

600g Valrhona 33% Opaly white chocolate, melted in water bath at 45COrange Candy Zest:

Peel of 1 orange, peeled into thick strips

125g golden caster sugar

125g water

31g honeyVanilla Salt:

2 vanilla pods

10g sea saltTo create the egg shell and assemble the egg:

Kirsch Brown Speckle Effect spray

Kirsch Black Speckle Effect spray

Picked lemon thyme leavesTo assemble the Egg:

Half egg chocolate shells

Egg shaped moulds with Coconut Panna Cotta and Verjus Egg Yolk

Half spheres frozen Parfait

Small bowl of liquid nitrogen

Reserved Milk Chocolate Egg Layer, melted

Reserved Kirsch Brown Speckle Effect spray

Reserved Kirsch Black Speckle Effect spray

Kataifi Nest

Honey Tuile Nest

Kabosu Jelly cubes

Orange Biscuit with FeuillitineTo assemble the dish:

Reserved Verjus Egg Yolk

Orange Biscuit with Feuillitine

Kataifi Nest

Orange Candy Zest

Picked Lemon Thyme Leaves

Honey Tuile Nest

Kabuso Jelly

Assembled Egg

Vanilla Salt

METHOD

1. Preheat oven to 150C. Fill sous vide machine with water and set to 70C.

2. For the Orange Biscuit with Feuillitine, combine flour, salt, vanilla and baking powder in a bowl and whisk well to combine.

3. Place butter and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Start the machine on low for about a minute until the butter and sugar begin to combine. Increase the speed to medium until the mixture is pale and creamy, about 3 minutes.

3. Reduce the mixer speed to low, add the egg yolk and grated orange zest, and mix until well combined. When combined, slowly add the flour mixture and mix until just combined. Be careful not to overwork the dough. Once mixed, form the dough into a disc, wrap with cling film and place into the fridge for 1 hour.

5. Once chilled, remove the dough from the fridge. Roll out a portion of the dough between 2 sheets of baking paper to 2mm thickness, then place the dough, still between the baking paper, on a baking tray and transfer to the freezer for 15 minutes.

6. Remove the sheet of dough from the freezer and peel away the top layer of baking paper. Sprinkle the surface of the dough with feuillitine flakes, then bake in the preheated oven for 14 minutes.

7. Remove the biscuit from the oven and, using a 4cm round cutter, cut out several discs of biscuit. Place the biscuits on to a freshly lined baking tray, ensuring they remain flat. Place the tray in the oven to finish baking until biscuits are golden brown, about 6-8 minutes. Once baked, remove from the oven and allow to cool on the tray for 5 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack until required.

8. To make the Pate a Bombe, place the water and sugar in a small saucepan and heat until the temperature reaches 118C.

9. Meanwhile, place the egg yolk in the bowl of a stand mixer and whisk at medium speed until light and creamy.

10. Once sugar syrup is at temperature, remove from the heat and, with the stand mixer on medium speed, gradually add the syrup to the whipped egg yolk by pouring in in a slow and steady stream down the side of the mixing bowl. Continue to whisk until the mixture has cooled and is a stiff, yellow foam.

11. For the Crystallised Coffee, place the sugar and water in a medium saucepan and heat up to 150C.

12. Remove from heat and immediately whisk in both coffee powders, Whisk vigorously until the mixture crystallises, about 2-3 minutes, and achieves a dry sand-like texture. Transfer to a tray and set aside on the bench to cool until required.

13. For the Parfait, firstly combine the gelatine powder and the water in a small bowl and set aside to bloom.

14. Place the verjus in a small saucepan, and reduce to a viscous syrup.

15. Meanwhile, measure out the Citrus Reduction into a small bowl and set aside until required.

16. When verjus is reduced, remove from heat and add to the Citrus Reduction stirring well to combine. Add the gelatine mixture and mix well until dissolved. Transfer to a bowl and set aside to cool until needed.

17. Place the yoghurt and the cream in a bowl and whisk by hand until soft peaks form.

18. Meanwhile, in a large, clean bowl, place 150g of cooled Pate a Bombe, add the cooled verjus reduction mixture and fold gently to combine. Then fold in the whipped yoghurt and cream mixture and the Triple Sec.

19. Add the Crystallised Coffee and fold through until evenly distributed.

20. Spoon the mixture into a piping bag. Place a 3cm diameter silicone semi-sphere mould on to a baking tray and pipe the Parfait mixture into the moulds. Cover the moulds with cling film. Place the tray of parfait filled moulds into the blast chiller to freeze until firm.

21. To put the first layer of speckle effect on to the chocolate egg shells, use the Brown Kirsch Speckle Effect spray. Holding the atomiser about 30cm from the poly carbonate half egg moulds, in several quick, sweeping motions, spray directly on to the surface of the moulds. Reserve this mixture for later use when finishing the egg. Set the moulds aside on the bench at room temperature to set completely.

22. For the Verjus Egg Yolk place the infused mandarin puree, citrus reduction, Triple Sec and verjus in a large bowl and mix well to combine.

23. Measure out 500g of the mandarin and verjus mixture into the jug of a Thermomix. Add the caster sugar and Malic Acid into the jug, set to 85C and speed 3 for 7 minutes. Turn on the machine and allow the mixture to come to temperature. If temperature has not reached 85C, continue to add time, 2 minutes at a time, until 85C is achieved.

24. In the meantime, prepare a metal bowl over an ice bath.

25. When the mixture reaches 85C, turn the machine off. Remove the lid and add the Gellan F. Replace the lid and begin blitzing the mixture at low speed for 1 minute, then blitz on high speed for 10 seconds. Stop the machine, lift the lid and scrape down the sides of the jug and blades. Set the machine to speed 8 and blitz for a further 2 minutes or until the mixture is fully incorporated.

26. Put the mixture into a clean metal bowl and cool over an ice bath. Stir the mixture regularly until it is cold and fully set to a firm gel.

27. Once the gel is fully cooled and set, place the gel into a clean Thermomix jug. Turn the machine on and gradually increase the speed to 8 then blitz on speed 8 for 2 minutes, scraping the lid and sides of the jug down every 30 seconds until the gel is completely smooth and combined. Rub a little of the gel between your fingers to check for any remaining graininess. If the gel is still slightly grainy, blitz for another minute and check again.

28. Once the fluid gel is completely smooth, transfer to a medium metal bowl and place the bowl directly into a vac pac machine set on to the vacuum program. Close the lid and allow the fluid gel to rise to the top of the bowl, then press stop. Repeat this process until the fluid gel no longer bubbles and all air is removed.

29. Once all the air is removed from the fluid gel, remove from the vac pac machine. Transfer to a piping bag and store on the bench until needed.

30. To make the Coconut Panna Cotta, first mix the gelatine with 42g of the coconut water until gelatine has dissolved. Set the mixture aside to bloom.

31. Place the milk, the remaining 100g of the coconut water, 25g of the coconut cream and the caster sugar in a medium saucepan over low heat and heat to 60C.

32. Once at temperature, take the mixture off the heat and add the bloomed gelatine mixture. Use a silicone spatula and mix until the gelatine is fully dissolved. Set aside to cool slightly until needed.

33. Meanwhile, place the yoghurt, coconut milk and the remaining 100g of coconut cream in a large bowl. Blitz with a stick blender for 30 seconds or until the ingredients are fully combined.

34. Add the warm coconut mixture to the yoghurt mixture and stir with a silicone spatula until fully combined.

35. Pass the mixture through a fine sieve and set over an ice bath to cool.

36. Spray the blue silicone egg shaped moulds with canola oil spray. Place a silicone cup cake mould on to a deep baking tray. Sit the blue silicone egg shaped moulds in each hole, lining the holes with enough paper towel to keep the egg moulds upright. Once the panna cotta mixture is cool, fill the blue silicone egg shaped moulds to  full. Fill the baking dish with iced water level with the top of the cup cake mould. Place the tray into the fridge and allow the Panna Cotta to set, about 40 minutes. Remove bowl of remaining mixture from ice bath to prevent setting and set aside on the bench until required.

37. When the Panna Cotta in the moulds is set, remove from fridge. Use a small parisienne scoop, dipped in hot water, to take out several scoops from the centre of the panna cotta. Leave about 5mm of panna cotta all the way around the top edge of the mould.

38. Pipe the Verjus Egg Yolk into the hollowed out panna cotta to the top of the hole. Cover over the yolk with reserved panna cotta mixture, filling the egg mould to 5mm from the top. Return the tray with the panna cotta moulds to the fridge until set, about 1 hour. Reserve any remaining Verjus Egg Yolk for assembly.

39. To put the second layer of speckle effect on to the chocolate egg shells, use the Black Kirsch Speckle Effect spray. Holding the atomiser about 30cm from the poly carbonate half egg moulds, in several quick, sweeping motions, spray directly on to the surface of the moulds, over the Brown Speckle Effect. Reserve this mixture for later use when finishing the egg. Set the moulds aside on the bench at room temperature to set completely.

40. To make the Honey Tuile Nest, first prepare the honeycomb. Place the isomalt, golden syrup, honey and water into a 7 litre saucepan and heat over medium heat to 160C. Brush down the sides of the saucepan with a wet pastry brush to prevent crystallisation.

41. Once temperature is reached and while still on stove top, add the bicarbonate of soda and the verjus, whisking continuously as the mixture foams up. Remove the saucepan from the heat and pour the foaming mixture on to a silicon mat.

42. Use a palette knife to spread the mixture evenly over the silicon mat and remove any bubbles. The surface of the honeycomb should be completely smooth. Allow the mixture to harden for about 5 minutes.

43. Break off several chunks of honeycomb and transfer to a silicone mat under sugar lamps. Allow the honeycomb to sit on the mat under the lamps for about 15 minutes to soften.

44. Once soft and pliable put on cotton gloves covered with latex gloves to handle the sugar lump. Use the silicone mat to push and fold the honeycomb over on to itself. Continue kneading the honeycomb with the mat until it no longer sticks to the mat. Then continue to knead with gloved hands, until a shiny, golden colour.

45. Once the honey tuile mixture is a shiny, golden colour, use gloved hands to stretch and fold small amounts of the mixture at a time until it resembles a golden, shiny mass.

46. Pull very small amounts of the tuile mixture into very thin threads and wind the threads gently around three fingers. Gently push the nests off your fingers and push the threads into a circular shape, about 3.5cm in diameter, to fashion into a nest.

47. Place the nests on a tray lined with a silicone mat and place on the side to dry and set. Once dry enough to handle, carefully transfer the nests into an airtight container containing silica gel and set aside until needed.

48. For the Butter Mixture, firstly melt the clarified butter. Place the rest of the ingredients into a large bowl and add the now melted, clarified butter and mix well to combine. Pass through a sieve into a clean bowl in preparation for the Kataifi Nest.

49. To make the Kataifi Nest, place 50g of the Butter Mixture into a large bowl. Add the orange zest and stir together until well mixed.

50. Add the kataifi pastry. Wearing latex gloves, gently mix the pastry into the butter mixture by hand until well coated. Place the entire nest mixture into a sous vide bag and vacuum seal. Place the sous vide bag into the water bath at 70C for 10 minutes.

51. Meanwhile, line a baking tray with baking paper. Remove the nest mixture from the water bath, remove the pastry threads from the bag and using your fingers, break down the threads and shape into round nests, about 5cm in diameter, with a hole in the centre.

52. Place the nests on to the baking tray and bake in the pre-heated oven for about 15 minutes, rotating the tray occasionally to ensure the nests are evenly baked and golden brown. Once baked, remove from oven and set aside on the baking tray to cool until needed.

53. For the Kabosu Jelly, mix the pectin and fructose in a small bowl until well combined. Make a shallow well in the mixture and add the glucose. Set aside until needed.

54. Place 333g of the kabosu juice, into a medium saucepan over low heat. Add the pectin mixture and bring the mixture to 105C.

55. In the meantime, combine the citric acid and water in a small bowl and allow to dissolve. Once the glucose mixture has reached 105C, remove the saucepan from the heat and whisk in the citric acid mixture until well combined.

56. Pour the mixture on to a 30 x 20cm tray lined with baking paper. Place the tray into the fridge to set, about 1 hour.

57. Once the jelly has set, cut into very small cubes, 5mm x 5mm. Place the jelly cubes into an airtight container. And the remaining kabosu juice to the container and mix gently to coat the jelly cubes. Store the jelly in the fridge until needed to assemble the dish.

58. To create the Milk Chocolate Egg Layer, remove the melted cocoa butter from the water bath and place in a medium bowl. Add the 3 food colours and use a stick blender to blend well until the colours are fully incorporated.

59. Remove the melted milk chocolate from the water bath and add to the bowl of coloured cocoa butter. Stir well with a spatula to combine.

60. To temper the chocolate mixture, pour  of the warm, melted chocolate mixture on a clean, dry work surface. Agitate the mixture by scraping the chocolate back and forth along the surface until it thickens and reaches a temperature of 27C. Once at temperature, return the mixture to the bowl of remaining chocolate and continue to stir until it reaches 32C.

61. Pass the mixture through a fine sieve and immediately pour the chocolate into an electric spray gun. Spray the chocolate directly on to the speckled egg shaped moulds, in a very thin layer. Scrape the excess chocolate away with a scraper. Turn scraped mould onto a cooling rack, upside down for 30 seconds, turn back upward, scrape again with a clean scraper and set aside on the bench.

62. Reserve the milk chocolate mixture for later use when finishing the egg. Set the moulds aside on the bench at room temperature to set completely.

63. To create the White Chocolate Egg Layer, remove the melted cocoa butter from the water bath and place in a medium bowl. Add the titanium oxide and use a stick blender to blend well until the colouring is fully incorporated.

64. Remove the melted white chocolate from the water bath, add to the melted cocoa butter mixture and mix well with a spatula to combine.

65. To temper the white chocolate mixture, pour  of the warm, melted chocolate mixture on a clean, dry work surface. Agitate the mixture by scraping the chocolate back and forth along the surface until it thickens and reaches a temperature of 27C. Once at temperature, return the mixture to the bowl of remaining chocolate and bring to 32C.

66. Once the Milk Chocolate Egg Layer has set completely, fill the egg moulds to the top with the tempered white chocolate. Lightly tap the side of the mould to realease any air bubbles. Turn the moulds upside down on a cooling rack and tap the sides of the mould gently to allow the excess chocolate to run off.

67. Turn the moulds back over and scrape off the excess chocolate by running a metal scraper along the surface of the mould. Turn the moulds upside down once again to drain off excess chocolate for 30 seconds. Turn upright again and use a scraper to scrape clean the mould and neaten edges. Place the moulds upside down on a cooling rack. And place in the freezer for 10 minutes.

68. Once the chocolate eggshells are set, carefully turn upside down onto a clean tray, gently tap mould to unmould eggshells and place them in a lined, uncovered, airtight container for about 5 minutes to allow to come to room temperature. Then cover until needed to finish the egg.

69. To make the orange candy zest, ensure there is no pith remaining on the orange peel, then finely slice the orange peel into 1mm strips.

70. Bring two small saucepans of water to the boil. Prepare a bowl of iced water. Once water is boiling, blanche the julienned orange peel for 5 seconds. Strain off then refresh the zest in iced water. Repeat this process once more with the second fresh batch of boiling water.

71. In a separate saucepan, add the caster sugar, water, honey and blanched orange zest over a medium heat and cook to 114C.

72. Remove the mixture from the heat and allow the zest to cool in the syrup. Once cool, transfer the zest and syrup into an airtight container and store in the fridge until required.

73. To make the Vanilla Salt, scrape the seeds from the vanilla pods and discard the pods.

74. In a small bowl, place the vanilla seeds and the salt and, using your fingers, rub together until the seeds are completely distributed through the salt. Set aside in an airtight container until required.

TO ASSEMBLE THE EGG

1. Place a metal oven tray in a warm oven and allow to warm gently, before removing from the oven.

2. Wear disposable gloves to assemble the egg.

3. Remove the warm baking tray from the oven and sit on the bench top. Place one half chocolate egg shell, hollow side down, onto the warm tray for 1 second only, to melt the edges slightly. Then sit the half egg shell, with hollow side facing up, on a paper lined tray. Clean the tray and return to the oven.

4. Remove the filled panna cotta in the egg shaped moulds from the fridge. Unmould the panna cotta by carefully squeezing the base of the moulds to release and, while doing so, lay the panna cotta directly into the top half of the chocolate egg shell, leaving space at the base of the egg for the parfait half sphere.

5. Unmould the half spheres of frozen parfait and carefully dip them briefly into the bowl of liquid nitrogen.

6. Place the frozen parfait into the base of the egg shell and push gently to join it to the base of the panna cotta.

7. Remove the warm baking tray from the oven and sit on the bench top. Place the other half of the chocolate egg shell hollow side down onto the warm tray for 1 second only, to melt the edges slightly and seal the shell with the other half, enclosing the egg completely.

8. Gently heat the reserved Milk Chocolate Egg Layer under the sugar lamps and carefully patch up the seal where the two halves of the egg shell join, ensuring there are no holes in the egg shell. Stand the finished egg in one of the silicone cup cake moulds and place in the blast chiller for 30 seconds.

9. Stand the finished egg on to a small round cutter. Hold a metal sieve approximately 10cm above the egg and spray lightly with the Brown and Black Speckle sprays through the sieve all over the egg.

TO ASSEMBLE THE DISH

1. Place a dot of the reserved Verjus Egg Yolk in the middle of the bowl.

2. Place an Orange Biscuit on top of the gel.

3. Gently place the Kataifi Nest on top of the biscuit and position 3 pieces of orange candy zest within the nest so that they are still visible.

4. Use tweezers to place several picked lemon thyme leaves between the strands of the nest.

5. Top the Kataifi Nest with a Honey Tuille Nest.

6. Drain some of the Kabosu Jelly cubes on paper towel to remove excess liquid. Place some of the jelly cubes around the nest. Drizzle a little of the kabuso jelly liquid from the container around the nest.

7. Place the assembled egg on the nest.

8. Place the Vanilla Salt in a ramekin to serve on the side.

9. Just before serving the dish, dizzle about 5ml of liquid nitrogen directly on to the egg to help the egg shell to harden so that it cracks when struck with a spoon.
The highly anticipated dessert looks and tastes like a drop of water

The jiggly treat is then decorated with chocolate chips to look like seeds

The dessert is made from watermelon juice, the fruit's skin and jelly

Harajuku Gyoza has added the 'Jelly Watermelon' to their menu

In May, Australian restaurant Harajuku Gyoza introduced the famed 'Raindrop Cake' into the country.

Now, the popular restaurant has introduced yet another creative Japanese-inspired dessert: The Jelly Watermelon.

Launched at the restaurant's four locations in Brisbane and Sydney on Tuesday, the jiggly dessert, which looks just like an actual watermelon, has already caught the attention of thousands on social media.

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Just like the real thing: Australian restaurant Harajuku Gyoza has introduced yet another creative Japanese-inspired dessert: The Jelly Watermelon.

'So yum': Launched at the restaurant's Brisbane and Potts Point outlets on Tuesday, the jiggly dessert, which looks just like an actual watermelon, has already caught the attention of thousands on social media

'So excited about our new dessert now available,' the company wrote on Facebook.

'It's our Jelly Watermelon made with the juice of the watermelon and served in the actual melon skin. So fun. So yum.

'There is also a vodka version in our Fortitude Valley restaurant if you want to get happy happy. #hellojellywatermelon.'

The vodka version is also available at the Potts Point store.

Pretty: The unique dessert is also decorated with chocolate chips to create the illusion of watermelon seeds

The first wobbly hit: The restaurant's other hit treat, the Raindrop Cake, which was a popular dessert in the US, arrived in early May after staff at the restaurant recognised a gap in the market for Japanese desserts

The unique dessert is also decorated with chocolate chips to create the illusion of watermelon seeds.

A video of the wobbly dessert has earned over 14,000 views, with hundreds of customers expressing their excitement in the comments.

Harajuku Gyozas general manager, Andrew Jeffreys, told Daily Mail Australia that the regular Jelly Watermelon will cost $10 and the vodka version will be $12.

The restaurant's other hit treat, the Raindrop Cake, which was a popular dessert in the US, arrived in early May after staff at the restaurant recognised a gap in the market for Japanese desserts.

Claim to fame: Much to the delight of customers, Harajuku Gyoza introduced the incredible cake to their menu and gave it their own unique flavour

Much to the delight of customers, Harajuku Gyoza introduced the incredible cake to their menu and gave it their own unique flavour.

The cake was originally created by US cake maker Darren Wong using mineral water and agar and looks and tastes like a giant raindrop.

It is inspired by traditional Mizu Shingen Mochi from Japan.

While Mr Wong flavoured his cake with molasses and nuts, Harajuku Gyoza used berries and condensed milk.

Take on tradition: The dessert was inspired by the traditional Japanese dessert Mizu Shingen Mochi

'Have you tried our Raindrop Cake yet?' The restaurant wrote on Instagram.

'So yum in this new flavour with fresh strawberry, raspberry and blueberry and served with condensed milk, kinako and chopped peanut.'

Harajuku Gyozo also sells the original flavour, which sees the Raindrop Cake served with kinako (a roasted soy bean powder), sesame powder and kuromitsu which is similar to molasses.

Melt in your mouth: Harajuku Gyozo also sells the original flavour, which sees the Raindrop Cake served with kinako (a roasted soy bean powder), sesame powder and kuromitsu which is similar to molasses

Delicate: The cake is so fragile it would melt within 30 minutes, and simply dissolves in your mouth

The cake is so delicate, it melts within 30 minutes.

On his website, Mr Wong said the Raindrop Cake has the texture of water.

'It kind of reminds me of that scene from A Bug's Life where they drink water drops off the leaves,' he wrote.




A pensioner who fell and broke her pelvis whilst protesting outside an A&E was taken 15 miles to another casualty department for treatment.

Joan Carpenter, 82, was protesting outside Chorley Accident and Emergency department - which was temporarily closed due to a shortage of doctors.

When she fell she wasn't able to be taken into the nearby hospital, and instead received first aid from the fire service who were passing by.

Then, she waited 10 minutes for an ambulance which took her 15 miles to Royal Preston Hospital, where she is still recovering there.

Joan Carpenter, 82, fell and broke her pelvis whilst protesting outside Chorley A&E - which was temporarily closed due to a doctor shortage

Though she was right outside Chorley A&E, Miss Carpenter was driven 15 miles to Royal Preston Hospital

Her son David, 58, said it is 'absurd' his mother had to be driven for 30 minutes to another hospital - further away from her friends and family.

But hospital chiefs insist Miss Carpenter would have been taken there anyway because her injury was considered a major trauma.

Chorley Hospital in Lancashire was downgraded to an urgent care centre in April due to a doctor shortage, after a pay cap on agency staff was imposed.

Mr Carpenter and his mother have been protesting since the department's closure.

Despite not having left the house much after major heart surgery in March Mr Carpenter, a lecturer, said his mother was feeling well enough to join the demonstration on Saturday 14 July.

He said: 'We could see the hospital from where she fell. We could have walked her on a stretcher in five minutes to Chorley.

Her son David, 58, said it is 'absurd' his mother was driven 15 miles to a hospital further away from her friends and family. He is pictured protesting against the A&E closure with his mother

'The fire service was going past and stopped to apply first aid and gave her some oxygen.'

He continued: 'It must have taken half an hour to get her to Preston and there were about five ambulances with patients waiting.

'The corridors were full with people and stretchers. It was like musical chairs.'

Mr Carpenter said on first arriving in Royal Preston Hospital A&E she spent two hours in a children's bay because everywhere else was full.

He said: 'She was taken to the trauma unit in Preston, but put in the gynaecology unit the next day along with another lady who is in a similar situation.

'They are getting really well looked after, but it just seems a bit odd when they are fracture cases to be in that ward.

'It's very busy there.The car park is heaving.

'The whole time I have lived here, which is nearly 30 years, Chorley has provided such a good service.

'It seems absurd.'

Mr Carpenter, who has been involved with the campaign to reinstate the A&E service since it started, said his wife has been treated twice for breast cancer.

They have also 'sewn him back together' after he had a car crash and injured his neck.

He said his mother would have been more comfortable in Chorley, where she would be closer to her friends and family.

He said: 'She would be comfortable in Chorley and it means her friends would be able to go and see her more often.'

Karen Partington, chief executive at LancashireTeaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, said since 2013 major trauma patients have been treated at Preston after the service was reorganised.

A fractured pelvis is considered to be a major trauma.

Mrs Partington said: 'The emergency department at Chorley has been temporarily downgraded to an urgent care centre, which is open from 8am to 8pm and can treat a wide range of conditions such as minor chest and back injuries, burns and scalds and minor fractures.

'The majority of people who previously attended the emergency department at Chorley have conditions that can be treated safely and appropriately by an urgent care service.'
Existing drugs for dementia simply address the symptoms of the disease

The drug targets tangles of proteins that destroy nerve cells in the brain

LMTX slows the rate at which the brain shrinks in dementia patients

A breakthrough drug could slow the progress of Alzheimers disease, experts claim.

Scientists say they have been able to significantly slow the rate of mental decline in patients who took the twice-daily pill.

The drug, called LMTX, even slows the rate at which the brain shrinks in dementia patients, according to results presented at the worlds largest Alzheimers conference.

In some cases, patients have shown extraordinary recoveries, the researchers said.

The drugs inventor, Professor Claude Wischik of Aberdeen University, said the remarkable results will allow him to apply for a drugs licence as soon as next year.

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The drug, called LMTX, slows the rate the brain shrinks in dementia patients if it is taken twice a day (stock)

If all goes well, the pill could be available on the NHS within three or four years, his team hopes.

Experts last night said the breakthrough represented a significant event in the history of dementia.

But they are cautious, pointing to failures in the trial process that meant only 15 per cent of the results could actually be used.

Academics said the results certainly showed promise  but called for further trials to prove that LMTX works as well as the early results suggest.

The findings, presented at the Alzheimers Association International Conference in Toronto, raise hopes of the first real treatment for the disease, which affects 500,000 people in Britain.

Slowing the development of dementia would allow people to live independently for longer, delaying the point at which they have to give up work and go into care.

Existing drugs for dementia simply address the symptoms of the disease, without tackling the underlying causes.

Several international drugs companies are racing to become the first to develop a drug which actually slows the advance of the underlying cause of the disease.

But the new drug  which is being marketed by a small company called TauRX spun out of Aberdeen University  looks like it might beat those of the international pharmaceutical giants.

The drug approaches the problem in a completely different way to other treatments, being the first to target the tangles of proteins that destroy nerve cells in the brain.

It dissolves the protein, which is called tau, and stops more tangles forming.

The drug approaches the problem in a different way to other treatments, being the first to target the tangles of proteins that destroy nerve cells in the brain

Most other companies are instead focusing on a brain-clogging protein called beta-amyloid, but a series of high-profile failures have left some experts questioning whether they are pursuing the right target.

Professor Wischik, who has led the search for a tau drug since he wrote his PhD dissertation at Cambridge 30 years ago, said: This is the first glimmer of what a disease-modifying drug looks like in practice.

We have really remarkable results.

COULD AN EYE TEST DIAGNOSE DEMENTIA? Simple eye tests could be used to spot Alzheimers disease years before people begin to lose their memory, research suggests. Two teams of scientists in the UK and Canada have come up with new ways to identify warnings signs of the disease. The breakthroughs, announced yesterday at the worlds biggest Alzheimers conference, raise the prospect that opticians could soon look for signs of dementia during annual eye checks. Scientists said the back of the eye is a window to the brain, displaying signs of changes at the same time as they are taking place deep within the brain circuits, many years before symptoms start to appear. The first team, from Moorfields Eye Hospital in London and Oxford University, found they could use eye scans to measure, in minute detail, the thickness of a layer of neurons on the retina at the back of the eye. Scientists measured this layer among 33,000 British patients aged 40 to 69  while also carrying out a series of tests on memory, reaction time and reasoning. They found people who had a thinner layer of neurons were more likely to perform poorly on the cognitive tests  a clear warning sign they might be undergoing the early stages of dementia. The scanning machine - an OCT scanner which uses light waves to draw a detailed picture of the back of the eye - is already used by many ophthalmologists and could easily be built into a standard eye exam. Advertisement

In tests on memory and the ability to carry out daily tasks, patients who took LMTX showed an 85 per cent slower decline over 15 months than those on placebo dummy pills.

Brain scans showed they also lost about 38 per cent less brain matter.

Nobody has come to this point before, Professor Wischik told the Daily Mail.

It is not just a big clinical effect, it is a hard-edged effect on the rate of brain shrinkage.

We have seen an 85 per cent reduction in progression for mild to moderate Alzheimers disease, slowing down the disease from progressing over 15 months.

That is huge effect, and some patients actually improved.

We also have delayed shrinkage of the brain - that is a huge, huge thing, nobody has done that before.

But others met his claims with scepticism.

They highlighted his drug had only been truly tested on about 135 people in the latest trial.

His trial involved 891 people in all  seemingly a good trial size - but the drug failed to work for 85 per cent of them because they were taking other dementia drugs at the same time, which Professor Wischik later realised had stopped the LMTX drug from working.

In the remaining 15 per cent - those who took the LMTX pill alone - the results were dramatic, but experts called for him to rerun the tests using a bigger sample.

Professor Wischik said: It would have been much easier if it had been a straight home run, if there was not this interference with current treatments.

But it is important to know this drug is useless in combination with existing treatments, especially as 85 per cent of patients are taking these.

Dr David Reynolds, chief scientific officer of Alzheimers Research UK, said: If you take this on face value, it shows there is a benefit to patients of LMTX but only for patients not taking other dementia drugs such as Aricept and Namenda.

It is encouraging that brain scans show a reduction in brain matter loss.

Clearly, we need to understand more about how LMTX is working and hopefully additional analysis will provide a fuller picture about how beneficial LMTX is in Alzheimers patients.

Several international drugs companies are racing to become the first to develop a drug which actually slows the advance of the underlying cause of the disease (stock)

Dr Maria Carrillo, chief science office of the Alzheimers Association, added: It is a significant event in the history of Alzheimers and dementia research that this phase three anti-tau trial has been completed.

In Alzheimers, the most likely scenario for successful future treatment is addressing the disease from multiple angles.

Having a drug that targets tau complete a phase three trial is a very hopeful sign.

Dr Doug Brown, director of research at the Alzheimers Society, said: There are still lots of questions to answer before we know how promising this new treatment could be  why it doesnt appear to work in those who are already taking other medications for Alzheimers disease?

Only 82 people in the trial took LMTX on its own, so further trials will be needed before we will know whether it is the first drug to slow down the brain damage that occurs in Alzheimers disease.

After years of failure, we are now starting to see glimmers of hope for dementia drug trials.
Lugdunin is almost as potent as the strongest-known drugs for superbugs

An antibiotic able to wipe out MRSA and other hard-to-beat bugs has been hiding right under our noses.

German researchers have shown a germ that lives naturally in the human nose makes a powerful antibiotic.

In fact, lugdunin, as it has been called, is almost as potent as the strongest-known drugs.

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A germ that lives naturally in the human nose makes a powerful antibiotic, according to German scientists

This could make it a much-needed new weapon in the war against antibiotic resistance, which has seen once minor infections become deadly after finding ways of evading the drugs.

With no new type of antibiotic hitting the market for some 30 years, experts have warned healthcare could soon be dragged back into the 19th century.

Dame Sally Davies, the chief medical officer, has described an 'apocalyptic scenario' in which, in just 20 years' time, routine operations such as hip replacements become deadly because minor infections can't be treated.

The University of Tubingen researchers analysed bacterial samples from the human nose for bugs that naturally make antibiotics.

While the idea of looking in the nose might seem odd, many bacteria and fungi naturally make antibiotics to keep themselves safe, and most that we use today have their roots in nature.

And because it is wet, dark and sticky, the nose is a popular hiding place for many different types of bacteria.

The tests revealed that a bacteria called Staphylocccus lugdunensis makes a chemical that is able to kill a range of bacteria, including the deadly MRSA hospital superbug.

Importantly for any company thinking about producing a new drug, the journal Nature reports that the bacteria did not develop resistance to the compound.

The research, unveiled at the ESOF science forum in Manchester paves the way for a new antibiotic pill.

In fact, lugdunin, as it has been called, is almost as potent as the strongest-known drugs to treat MRSA

Another option is a probiotic treatment, packed with friendly Staphylocccus lugdunensis bacteria.

Researcher Andreas Peschel said: We talk about probiotics when yoghurt is supposed to change your intestinal microbiota, why not move the concept to other parts of the body?

Of course one would have to consider this very carefully.

What we are trying to understand is why certain persons are colonised by these bacteria and why is it the nose and not other parts of the human body, and what are these bacteria doing there  why they are going there.
News / Regional

by Thobekile Zhou

President Robert Mugabe has vowed to take drastic, painful action on authors of a controversial "treasonous" war veterans letter.He said the punishment would be similar to that meted out to sellouts during the struggle.However, he said they won't be killed.Thousands of war veterans are gathered at the headquarters of the ruling ZANU-PF party in the capital, Harare, to show support for the 92-year-old Mugabe, who has faced growing dissent in recent weeks."The letter they wrote is now being used by our enemies Britain to say regime change has finally come," he said."They (Britain) are not aware that Zanu PF cannot be destroyed by a mere paper."The West was trilled by the letter" he said in a live broadcast on ZTV.He said thorough investigations are in full swing to sniff out the culprits."Top party members are investigating the source of the letter and those who distributed it."If found they will be punished and the party punishment is painfull, you know."We did that in the struggle but we did not kill them".War veterans met last week and issued a damning communique describing Mugabe as "a genocidal, manipulative and divisive leader, who has singlehandedly benefited from the liberation war effort".The communique has rattled the very foundations of Mugabe's administration, which has responded with desperate rebuttals, as well as denials that the former freedom fighters would never ever reject the veteran 92-year-old former guerilla leader.The war veterans' hard-hitting communique issued last week also accused Mugabe of being the G40 godfather.Mugabe urged war veterans to be vigilant and guard against being used by the British and French.
Scientists say their findings will dispel the belief cannabis is harmless

inhaling second-hand fumes may cause the arteries to harden

Body takes much longer to recover from breathing in cannabis smoke

One minute of second-hand cannabis smoke may damage blood vessels, new research shows.

It also suggests our bodies may take three times longer to recover than after breathing in ordinary tobacco fumes.

And scientists say their findings on rats will further dispel the widespread belief cannabis is harmless.

They are also worried breathing-in second-hand fumes on a regular basis may cause the arteries to harden, increasing the risks of heart attacks and strokes.

Bodies may take three times longer to recover than after breathing in ordinary tobacco fumes, scientists say

Cannabis or marijuana is by far the most commonly taken banned substance in the UK and around 2.3 million adults and teenagers use it a year.

And many academics and medical professionals say the Government it should be legalised, claiming it has numerous health benefits including alleviating pain.

Researchers from the University of California looked at blood vessels of rats before and after they were exposed to second-hand tobacco and cannabis smoke.

Their arteries which transport blood to organs were impaired for an average of 90 minutes after smoking cannabis compared to tobacco for 25 minutes.

Dr Matthew Springer, lead author, said the plant materials from cannabis were even more harmful on blood vessels than the nicotine and tobacco from cigarettes.

He also pointed out rats blood cells are very similar to humans so the effects would likely be the same.

Dr Springer said long-term exposure to second-hand cannabis smoke could harden and block the arteries.

He added: Many people still assume that marijuana second-hand smoke is benign.

While the public health community has strongly advised people to avoid tobacco second-hand smoke for many years, it has not made comparable pronouncements about marijuana second-hand smoke.

The publics perception of risk from marijuana second-hand smoke has thus been limited to a few publicised studies.

And experts say their findings will further dispel the widespread belief cannabis is harmless. But campaigners argue it has long term pain relief and can prevent cancer and diabetes

Increasing legalization of marijuana makes it more important than ever to understand the consequences of exposure to second-hand marijuana smoke.

Canada will legalise cannabis from next year and Italy could soon follow suit, and a debate began in their parliament this week.

Campaigners claim this would cut crime as the sale would be properly regulated and medical experts say there are numerous health benefits.

These include relief for long term pain and there is even evidence it may prevent cancer, diabetes and obesity.

But a 20-year study into its effects published in 2014 concluded it was highly addictive, caused mental health problems and opens the door to hard drugs.
While cases for anaphylaxis have increased by 615 per cent since 1992

In the past decade the number of cases of food allergies have doubled

Asthma will be the most prevalent chronic childhood disease by 2025

Half the UK population will be suffering from hay-fever, asthma or some other kind of allergy by 2026 if current trends continue, experts have warned.

About one in four people are now suffering from at least one allergy and each year the number of sufferers increases by an extra five per cent.

Half of all sufferers are children and by 2025 asthma alone will represent the most prevalent chronic childhood disease, with one of the highest healthcare costs.

Traffic pollution, different types of pollen and a cleaner home environment with fewer childhood infections are all thought to play a role in the dramatic rise in allergies.

About one in four people are now suffering from at least one allergy and each year the number of sufferers increases by an extra five per cent

Allergies of all kinds have spiralled in recent years and in the past decade cases of food allergies have doubled.

Hospital admissions for anaphylaxis, the most severe form of allergic reaction, have increased by 615 per cent between 1992 and 2012.

Sheena Cruickshank, senior lecturer in immunology at Manchester University, told the ESOF science forum: 'Allergy is really common and it's thought to be increasing.

'It's not something we saw a hundred years ago and maybe in ten years' time 50 per cent of us are going to be suffering from hay-fever, asthma, or food allergy.

'Basically we are looking at that kind of trend year on year. We are certainly seeing more young people affected by an allergy and we do see adults develop it in later life.

'Why is this happening? There are lots of theories, such as the fact we are very clean now so our immune system doesn't get properly educated.

'Or the types of infection we get exposed to are very different, and again makes our immune system misfire.

'But of course the other thing is our atmosphere has very much changed.

'We are farming different crops and on a different scale so there are different pollens, and more of them. And there are the invisible pollutants we are exposed to.'

A project called Britain Breathing is trying to find the causes of respiratory allergies with the help of a mobile phone app.

It will link a person's symptoms to their location, along with pollen and pollution levels recorded at the time of an allergic attack, Dr Cruickshank said.

Traffic pollution, different types of pollen and a cleaner home environment are all thought to play a role in the dramatic rise in allergies

She added: 'The real issue in trying to understand the cause-and-effect is the lack of good quality data.

'If you think about the average person with hay-fever, the only time they will go a doctor or a hospital is when they are very unwell.

'We have no data whatsoever on the day-to-day symptoms people are living with. We don't know when the symptoms are starting and when they are starting to have difficulties.

'The only way to get data is to work with the public, and that's what we've been doing.'

Professor Gordon McFiggans, an atmospheric researcher, said: 'Our work is all about finding the level of data needed to make good policy decisions.

'If we are going to tackle the issue of pollution, we need more integration between policy makers and scientists.
San Francisco is the cannabis capital of America, new data shows.

In fact, the entire West Coast has far more pot smokers than the rest of the country, and a more positive opinion of what the drug does to your body.

Once you reach 12, you are far more likely to light up a joint in California, Colorado, Oregon and Washington than anywhere else in the United States.

Southern Texans, meanwhile - particularly those living near the Mexican border - are less enamored by the drug.

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Pot hot spots! Marijuana use in the past month among people aged 12 or older, by substate region. The data is based on a federal survey conducted over two years from 2012 to 2014, showing a buzz on the West Coast

The findings have emerged in a new report by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) compiling federal about marijuana smokers between 2012 and 2014.

In the survey, 204,000 respondents described their cannabis use.

The figures have now been mapped out to give a picture of where weed has taken off in the states.

Over 15 per cent of San Franciscans above the age of 12 smoke cannabis each month.

In contrast, less than four per cent of people in South Texas smoke cannabis.

The national average is somewhere in between: around 7.7 per cent of Americans (20.3 million people) will have smoked weed in the past month.

That is an increase of around 1 per cent since the previous report (2010-2012).

It comes amid a national conversation about legalizing medical and recreational marijuana.

But according to SAMHSA's statisticians, there hasn't been a widespread uptick in appreciation for the drug.

People are most concerned about the risks of regular marijuana use in Florida.

Just under half of residents in Miami-Dade County and Monroe County fear that it could have detrimental affects.

That figure may go some way to explaining the fierce debate over marijuana in Florida at the moment.

California and weed: This data shows that people in northern California and San Francisco smoke the most (above) and people in Los Angeles are the least concerned about what the drug could do to your body (below)

Opinion of weed: This map shows the perceived great risk of harm from smoking marijuana across the US

Just this week Florida opened the state's first medical marijuana dispensary in Tallahassee.

It followed two years of disputes and attempts by the medical community to legalize dispensaries.

But even after the center opened - with another 19 expected to follow - Florida-based anti-drugs groups were storming Twitter with their anger.

People are least concerned about the health affects of cannabis in in Ward 3 of Washington, D.C., where just 14 per cent of people harbor concerns.

Recreational use of marijuana is legal in five of the areas that showed high rates of marijuana use - Alaska, Colorado, Oregon, Washington state and the District of Columbia.

Medical marijuana is legal in another 20 states.

'This report provides a very detailed understanding of marijuana use and perception patterns in communities across the nation,' said Fran Harding, director of SAMHSA's Center for Substance Abuse Prevention.
BJP leader Subramanian Swamy said on Tuesday that Mahatma Gandhi could have survived after being shot had he been hospitalised in time, sparking a fresh controversy over the assassination.

The Rajya Sabha members remarks came days after the Supreme Court pulled up Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi for his allegation that RSS people killed the Independence icon.

Swamy quoted an archival letter from Indias first home minister Vallabhbhai Patel, saying the Sangh was not behind Gandhis death.

He said there was a dispute regarding the number of bullets fired at Gandhi. Nathuram Godse said he fired two bullets, but the public prosecutor said three bullets were fired.

Subramanian Swamy, BJP leader (left) says Gandhi (right) could have survived after being shot and questioned why an autopsy was not conducted.

Some newspapers said four bullets were fired at him. Swamy also asked why an autopsy was not conducted.

There was an option of rushing him to Delhis Willingdon Hospital, now known as RML Hospital, but instead Gandhi was kept in Birla House, the MP said.

Swamys attempt to raise the issue in the Rajya Sabha during Zero Hour led to a heated exchange between him and Congress members.

The BJP leader said the Narendra Modi government has placed most of the files regarding the assassination in the National Archives.

The former Union minister maintained that he had a chance to go through the files - and, in an apparent dig at Rahul - he said a lot of scurrilous comments were being made and even parliamentarians are making these remarks. And the Supreme Court has had to pull them up and give them a stern warning.

Last week the top court had rebuked the Congress V-P for his collective denunciation of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, saying he may have to face trial. It gave him until July 27 to submit his arguments in connection with the defamation case filed against him by the RSS.

Swamy ventured to point out three basic facts, which had come out of his reading of the archival records.

As he was about to make his first point in the Upper House, Anand Sharma, Deputy Leader of the Opposition from the Congress, rose to say something but could not be heard.

Deputy Chairman PJ Kurien told Sharma that Swamy had been permitted to raise the issue, even as the BJP leader alleged that the Congress MP was questioning the Chair.

Kurien advised Sharma to hear Swamy before objecting.

Anand Sharmaji, unless you hear what he says, how can you object, the Deputy Chairman said.

Kurien also said that Swamy had only spoken about the Supreme Court making some observations and had not named anybody.

He asked Swamy to continue with his statement, but not take anyones name.

To this, the BJP MP said, I am not taking any name except that of Mahatma Gandhis. I will not take any other Gandhi name.
A tourist was seriously injured in the head when he was hit by a stone that fell from one of the minarets of the Taj Mahal on Monday.

Nisar Ahmed, a resident of Tamil Nadu, was struck in the head by the stone which fell from a height of 133 feet. He was immediately rushed to a private hospital in an ambulance.

By sheer good luck, Nisar's infant son - who he was carrying in his arms - was not hit by the stone.

Before the scaffolding: The Taj Mahal is being repaired by the Archaeological Survey of India

It has been several months since the Archaeological Survey of India started large-scale beautification and repair of the Taj Mahal.

Since then, several lakhs of tourists have visited the monument and photographed the minarets of the monument, which are covered in ugly scaffolding.

It is feared this ongoing face-lift could pose a threat to the the lives of tourists visiting the monument - as was illustrated on Monday.

Questioned about the incident, ASI Superintending Archaeologist Dr Bhuvan Vikram said that the ASI takes all necessary precautions to prevent any tourists from getting injured during the renovation of the monument, and it was still being investigated how Ahmed got so close to the minaret that he got hit by the stone.

He said that ASI staff have been posted near the minarets now to warn the tourists to stay away from them.

Agra Tourist Welfare Chamber Secretary Vishal Sharma said that it was appalling that incidents of stones falling in the Taj Mahal and other monuments were increasing, despite the renovation of these monuments by the ASI.

He said it might be time that experts from western countries were brought in to help conserve Agra monuments, especially the Taj Mahal, where several similar incidents have happened recently.
Diksha stood proud as she looked at the tricolour flying high at the Kargil war memorial in Drass. There was both pain and pride in her eyes.

She insisted she did not want to cry, because her father Major CB Dwivedi always made her smile when he was alive.

Diksha was barely eight years old when Major Dwivedi, a gunner officer, made the supreme sacrifice in the Kargil conflict.

Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar (far left) pays homage at Amar Jawan Jyoti on Kargil Vijay Diwas in New Delhi

Seventeen years later, accompanied by her mother and sister Neha, Diksha Dwivedi visited the exact spot where her father was killed by the Pakistan Army counter bombardment.

Diksha told India Today: For us this is a pilgrimage. This is the place where our father and so many brave Indian soldiers chose the nation above the family".

Diksha is a writer and she beats back tears to say her fathers memory always brings a smile back, so no tears.

Indian soldiers patrol in the Kargil sector against a Pakistani-backed armed intrusion into India's side of Kashmir in 1999 (file picture).

This is the first time we have come on Kargil Vijay Diwas. It is wonderful that the army remembers its brave, but it really hurts to have come here in the cover of darkness hiding like thieves, says Neha angrily.

The two sisters - accompanied by their mother - were received by the Army at the Srinagar airport. But given the curfew, stone-pelting and agitation in Kashmir, the Army took no chances ferrying the families of martyrs and war heroes to Drass during daytime.

India lost 527 troops when Pakistani soldiers and Kashmiri militants took up positions on the Indian side of the Line Of Control (file picture)

We were brought here like thieves at night. Our father chose India above us but the only message I want to give to the stone-pelters and Pakistan-sponsored separatists is - that a lot of blood has been shed in protecting our borders and we will never let Pakistan win, she adds, pride writ large on her face.

Bhavya Pundir, the daughter of late Squadron Leader R Pundir, agrees that coming to Drass at the base of Tololing hill-top is nothing short of a pilgrimage.

I am very proud of my father. He knew he was flying his helicopter in a very difficult mission. But he chose his love for India above his love for his family, she said.

An Indian Air Force Mi-17 helicopter attacks Pakistan-backed guerrilla positions in the Kargil sector of India (file picture)

Sqn Ldr Pundir was one of the pilots of the Mi-17 helicopters that was shot down by a Pakistan Army soldier firing a stinger missile over Tololing.
Rabbit and hare may become the fifth category of meat that can be legally consumed in India after fresh amendments to food safety laws.

The changes relate to the Food Safety and Standards (Food Products Standards and Food Additives) Regulations, 2011.

A new category for Leporids that refers to rabbits - both wild and domestic - was introduced after the PMO received several representations from Kerala, a state where rabbit meat is a delicacy.

Hilly areas in Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and the Northeast rear rabbits for their fur, while their carcasses are diverted to the meat industry

At present, only ovines (sheep), caprines (goat), suillines (pig) and bovines (the cattle family, including buffalo and bison) are included the list.

This is authorised by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), which categorises animals as hygienic or non-toxic for human consumption.

A senior FSSAI officer, who preferred to speak anonymously, told Mail Today: We believe several representations came to the Prime Ministers Office (PMO) last year. They said livelihoods of at least 10-15,000 families in Kerala alone depend on rabbit farming. Its considered a delicacy there. Restaurants claim it as a specialty. Their business was also hurt. The PMO referred their case to us and we decided to put Leporids or rabbits in the list, he said.

Notably, a debate has already broken out on whether the small mammal should be allowed to be slaughtered.

Certain states like Kerala and Goa have developed farm rabbits over the past few years, which are bred and killed commercially, like poultry.

Hilly areas in J&K, Himachal, and the northeast also rear rabbits for their fur. The carcasses are then diverted to the meat industry.

Animal activists, on the other hand, argue that the Indian Hare or Black-naped Hare is, in fact, protected under Schedule IV of the Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972. They say its inclusion in the FSSAI list is a gross mistake.

Back in 2014, the FSSAI had clamped down on the slaughter and meat consumption of unlisted animals in the southern State. It had issued strict orders against the killing of rabbits, cats, dogs and camels following such reports.

Rabbit farmers had protested against it, saying its the most economical meat available.
Sources with knowledge of the Islamic Research Foundation (IRF) have alleged that controversial televangelist and IRF chief Zakir Naik is on the Saudi payroll for performing religious conversions.

PA Inamdar, the president of the Maharashtra Cosmopolitan Education Society at Punes Azam Campus, hosted a 2008 event where Dr Naik supposedly converted 12 Hindus and Jains to Islam on the spot after a public debate.

Inamdar recalled he had expressed his reservations to the IRF chief over those instant conversions.

Allegations have arisen that controversial televangelist and IRF chief Zakir Naik is receiving funding from Saudi Arabia for performing religious conversions

That's what I am telling you, that I spoke with him the moment we stepped down (from the podium) that whatever you are doing (is inappropriate), Inamdar told an India Today TV crew.

Those who want to convert and convert with full understanding, they need no public platform. According to me, that was all stage-managed, he remarked.

The Azam Campus president shared another grave concern, saying Dr Naiks proselytising could be his tactic to attract foreign funding.

Second way of looking at it is about getting money from the countries who take interest in these activities," Inamdar claimed.

He was apparently referring to the Arab country that is currently hosting Dr Naik.

Last year, Dr Naik received Saudi Arabia's most prestigious Service to Islam award from King Salman.

In 2013, he was honoured with the Islamic Personality of the Year title by UAE PM Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum.

Police also suspect that Dr Naik and his IRF are misusing funds from countries like Saudi Arabia to carry out illegal conversions in India.

As many as 800 such cases of proselytising traced to them are driven by coercion and allurement, claim the Mumbai Police.

Senior cleric Mufti Manzoor Ziayee has alleged that Dr Naik offered benefits to converts. Over the past 12 years, Khan's company in Mumbai has been providing technical support to the IRF for setting up studios and other logistics.

"They were formally paid and got converted," the cleric alleged.
Failed by the system: There have been more 'Nirbhaya' cases, many times over

What does it take to awaken the conscience of a nation?

I thought in 2012 that it was what came to be known as the "Nirbhaya case".

I was living in Burma at the time and the only access to television news was the BBC, which telecast the protests in New Delhi.

One winter day, a friend watching with me asked what was going down in India?

The visuals were dramatic, and I could understand why he would ask such a question.

But I could not adequately explain to him why these protests meant so much to me, an Indian woman in a foreign land, miles away, even a reality away.

She stoked the latent anger that resided within, shattered the social conditioning that accepted excesses small and large.

She awakened us all. She even changed our politics when one witnessed the indignant response of leaders and especially youth leaders. Made us all say never again.

But there has been an again, many times over. We have failed her, and we have failed ourselves, and we have failed the future.

Last week in Delhi, a 14-year-old child was repeatedly raped and forced to consume juice with acid mixed in it. It burnt her insides, peeled them raw.

She spoke of her helplessness in between purges of blood. She died. Decimated by the system from the inside out, from her bruised and blackened arms and chest, to her bleeding organs.

Her helpless parents, sweepers in a hospital now sitting at her bedside, watched her suffer till she suffered no more.

But there is no release from this incident. And there must not be. A collective failure such as this will need to be confronted.

In the prevalent narrative of this country there has been a tendency to appropriate causes that suit political ends - a gruesome rape in Kerala is protested by some, but not by others.

Politicians go on atrocity tours, their itinerary and interactions carefully chosen; victims on standby are re-admitted to hospital for visiting political dignitaries.

'Caste atrocities do take place, but their opportunistic use defeats attempts to erase them' says Advaita Kala. (Pictured: Rahul Gandhi meeting a Dalit victim attacked last week in Rajkot district).

Media reports suggest that a relative of the victims was planted to meet Rahul Gandhi when he visited a hospital in Rajkot. The photo ops, the embrace - its a circus, and its appallingly insincere.

I wish one could say this was fiction. Its bizarre enough to be, but then as Tom Clancy said presciently, Fiction has to make sense. Facts owe no loyalty to truth or reality, but only opportunity.

And what of the oppressed? The fact is that identity politics has become a thing to be introduced into every atrocity, even if the victim doesnt claim it to be. Like with the 14-year-old child, when there was an attempt to convert the brutality into a caste atrocity.

There is no denying that caste atrocities take place, and are a scourge - but their cynical, opportunistic use defeats the attempt to erase them, dividing people into camps, into taking offensive and defensive positions without considering the facts of the case.

It is repeatedly done. Take the recent case of molestation in Aligarh that has people taking sides on community lines.Was it not, before identity was introduced into the narrative, a case of a criminal thug who happened to belong to a certain community and needed the tough hand of the law, rather than a reverse majoritarianism narrative or defence?

Will this conscience not rise for the victim and not the identity, and how it fits into the narrative we want to create - a narrative that divides and perpetuates hate.

All crime dehumanises the victim, male or female, Brahmin or lower caste, Hindu or Christian or Muslim or Sikh.

The perils of playing with identity are plentiful, with politicians waiting on the sidelines to jump in when it is politically convenient for them.

Dignity does not result from re-emphasising caste or religious identity in situations where it isnt a factor. Instead it is reductionist, reducing the victim to a statistic and eventually negating the crime by making it about identity alone, moving the discussion on to another plane.

This is not how a national identity is built; it is how it is destroyed.

It is not how justice is delivered or accountability set, it is how ownership of a tragedy is lost and the status quo maintained.
Jammu & Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti is house-hunting in Lutyens Delhi, and the PDP-BJP government wants her predecessor Omar Abdullahs estranged wife to make way.

The state of Jammu and Kashmir is faced with an extremely piquant situation, in as much as it does not have an appropriate residence to house its Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti, befitting her position and her security imperatives, the state government told the Delhi High Court in an affidavit.

The court was hearing a petition moved by Payal Abdullah, who is seeking a stay on an eviction order from the Centres directorate of estates. She has been asked to vacate the sprawling bungalow on Akbar Road where she lives with her two sons.

Former J&K CM Omar Abdullah pictured in 2009 with his estranged wife, Payal Abdullah

The house was allotted to National Conference leader Omar Abdullah when he was a central minister, and he continued staying there when he took over as J&K chief minister.

When the eviction notice was sent to Omar Abdullah, in his response he mentioned that he is no longer in occupation of the premises and the estate office is free to take whatever steps that are considered necessary to take over, said the affidavit.

The matter will be taken up on Thursday.

Payal has the option of moving to a 2,300 sq ft private residence on Rao Tula Ram Marg, but in her petition she said the flat is insufficient for making elaborate security arrangements.

Jammu & Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti is house-hunting in Lutyens Delhi

The 53-year-old mother of two sons - Zahir (17) and Zamin (18) - is living at 7, Akbar Road, and was asked to move out of the house by June 30.

Payal told the court that her two sons have Z+ category security and her private residence is not equipped to house the nearly 100 security personnel who protect them. She herself has Z category security cover.

Ninety-four security personnel are deputed to secure these three protectees, whose protection is very crucial for the nation and their own lives and the same cannot be done in a small accommodation, her lawyer Amit Khemka said in court this month.

The lawyer cited the example of BJP leader Subramanian Swamy, Congress chief Sonia Gandhis daughter Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, and others who have been given government accommodation on security grounds without holding any government office.

The state said that it and the local police will ensure there is no breach in security if the family moves to other accommodation. It cited the example of Omar Abdullah and his father Farooq Abdullah, who had moved to their private residences of 5,000 sq ft and 2,300 sq ft, respectively, in the Capital and are being provided with appropriate security.

The Delhi High Court had asked J&K authorities and the Centre to respond to the plea that the petitioners should not be evicted, or that a suitable alternate accommodation be allotted to them where they can be effectively protected.

In the previous hearing, additional solicitor general Sanjay Jain argued that after Omar left the chief ministers office, Payal and her two sons had no right to retain the government accommodation. The court had granted a stay on the eviction order.
Opinion / Columnist

President Morgan Tsvangirai today chaired a meeting of the full-standing committee that also welcomed the two new Vice Presidents that were appointed into office last week.Advocate Nelson Chamisa and Engineer Elias Mudzuri were part of the new-look standing committee that met in Harare today. The two VPs were given a warm welcome by the other members of the committee, which had a full attendance.The standing committee is a sub-committee of the national executive.President Tsvangirai also advised that the national executive committee and the national council will convene again in the next few days and one of the key businesses will be to tie up the constitutional amendments adopted by the 4th Congress in Harare in 2014.The Executive and Council will also deliberate on the pressing national issues affecting the people of ZimbabweLuke TamborinyokaPresidential Spokesperson and Director of CommunicationsMovement for Democratic Change
Days after Bollywood star Salman Khan was acquitted of poaching endangered animals in Rajasthan back in 1998, a key witness emerged on Wednesday to claim publicly that the actor had shot the black bucks.

India Today TV tracked down Harish Dulani, the driver of Khans Maruti Gypsy during his 1998 hunting trip in Jodhpur, to discuss the case.

I gave my statement to the court 18 years ago and stand by it, Dulani said.

Bollywood megastar Salman Khan was acquitted of poaching endangered animals in Rajasthan, but many have questioned the ruling

In his initial court statements, Dulani had insisted that Khan and others had hunted down the chinkaras. The star, one of Bollywoods most bankable, and seven others were charged with killing a gazelle and two antelopes over two days in Rajasthan.

One of the animals, the prosecution said, was killed at Bhawad on the outskirts of Jodhpur on September 26, 1998, and the others at Ghoda Farms two days later.

On Monday, the Rajasthan High Court overturned Salman Khan's conviction and acquitted him of the charges, citing inadequate evidence.

In his interview with India Today TV on Wednesday, the driver denied claims he had gone missing from Jodhpur.

I havent gone anywhere. I stay in Jodhpur and have been living here for years, Dulani said.

He alleged that his father had received death threats, but did not elaborate.

The verdict is given by the court. I respect it and dont want to say anything on this matter, Dulani maintained.

But the driver reiterated that he stood by his 18-year-old testimony, based on which the whole trial was launched.

The witness was examined by the court of the chief judicial magistrate on January 20, 2002, lawyers say. He appeared again two months later, but Khans lawyers were reportedly not able to cross-question him that day.

After that, he allegedly went missing in further sittings. Case lawyers say he didnt appear even after numerous summons.

On April 4, 2005, the court finally stopped calling him. A year later, the magistrate convicted Khan.

The court also ordered prosecution proceedings against Dulani and another witness. Dulani is regularly attending the court dates in connection with the counter-case against him. The next hearing is scheduled on August 10.

Meantime, the superstars acquittal has been met with widespread shock, disbelief and sarcasm, with many asking if the wheels of justice will ever turn against the rich and the powerful.
The Centre has begun a massive exercise to overhaul the road infrastructure in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K), in the wake of recent attacks on the armed forces.

Fifty roads are being redeveloped in the state after they were identified as a major hurdle during the movement of security forces.

Experts said potholed roads, particularly highways, slow troops down and make them vulnerable to terror attacks like the one in Pampore on June 25, where militants attacked a CRPF convoy killing eight personnel.

There have been six attacks on the Indian armed forces in the last eight months in J&K.

According to the Ministry of Road, Transport and Highways, work is in progress for the redevelopment of 50 roads, including some in the sensitive areas. The cost of the work is nearly Rs 450 crore.

Some of these roads fall in areas like Akhnoor, Samba, Budgam, Tral, Sopore, and Shopian.

A transport ministry official said construction of these roads is being taken under the Central Road Fund (CRF) scheme.

According to the government, more than Rs 165 crore has already been disbursed for the projects.

In another development, the Centre has directed the Border Road Organisation (BRO) to expedite construction of nearly 70 roads in J&K.

An official said the Centre has also taken up the matter with the state government by setting up an empowered panel to oversee the execution of these projects.

Officials said these road projects along the international border in J&K have mainly been delayed due to problems over forest and wildlife clearance, limited working season, difficulties in the availability of construction materials, and delays in land acquisition.

Sources said the construction of roads in the state would pick up pace given the BJP-PDP alliance government in J&K.

The centre has been aggressively pushing for road infrastructure in bordering areas, particularly Jammu and Kashmir, Uttarakhand, and the northeastern states.

Some of these projects are in the strategically crucial Ladakh region, where face-offs between the Indian and Chinese troops have become rather frequent in recent times.

Sources said the security establishment has often raised concerns over the issue.

These road projects are crucial to support the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), which guards the Indian territory in the region.
Chinese troops crossed the border on land and by air in Chamoli district of Uttarakhand earlier this month, it is claimed.

China's men allegedly stationed themselves in a dimilitarised zone, and its helicopters flew in Indian air space for over five minutes.

Official sources said the incident took place on July 19 in Barahoti area, prompting the security establishment to review the security along the 350-kilometres border with Tibet, official sources said.

A Chinese helicopter had hovered over the ground for nearly five minutes before returning to its side, sources said. (Picture for representation only).

While Uttarakhand CM Harish Rawat termed it as something to worry about, hoping the Centre will pay heed to his request for increased vigil, Union Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju said the ITBP had been asked to look into the matter.

According to the sources, Chinese Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) troops were seen in the area when state government officials accompanied by ITBP personnel were making a civil visit to Barahoti ground.

The sources said that the civilian team was sent back by Chinese People's Liberation Army troops, who claimed the land was theirs and recognised it as Wu-Je.

Later, it was found that a Chinese helicopter had hovered over the ground for nearly five minutes before returning to its side, sources said. They expressed apprehension that it could have carried out aerial photography of the area during its reconnaissance mission.
Oil giant BP will continue to pay a dividend despite racking up a huge 47billion for the 2010 Gulf of Mexico explosion and oil spill.

The tumbling oil price in the past 18 months and costs linked to the Deepwater Horizon disaster have hit the firms profitability and share price.

BPs second-quarter profit was 550million, down 45 per cent on the same period last year.

Troublesome time for BP: The price of oil fell below $30 earlier this year, having hit $115 in summer 2014

It reassured investors by maintaining its quarterly dividend at 10 cents a share (7.6p) and said it will still go ahead with three new projects this year.

BP halted its dividend in 2010 after the oil spill. When it reinstated the payment in 2011 it was nearly half what it had been.

The price of oil fell below $30 earlier this year, having hit $115 in summer 2014. It is currently around $44.5 and the oil majors need the price of Brent crude oil to approach $60 to break even.

Chief executive Bob Dudley, said: Were going to choose our projects really carefully and the cost reductions and re-engineering of the projects has really brought them down to what I think is a very attractive [price range].

Analysts were disappointed with the money it made from its stake in Russian oil producer Rosneft and the 47billion cost of the Gulf of Mexico disaster.

Nicholas Hyett, equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said: While there has been some recovery in the oil prices since the lows seen earlier this year, it is still about $5 to $10 shy of where it needs to be for BP to break even.

Chief executive Bob Dudley, said that the firm was going to choose their projects 'really carefully'

If prices do recover, BPs lower cost base will serve it very well, and profits ought to recover rapidly, but for now, cost cutting is simply serving to limit the damage.

BP is ploughing ahead with the expansion of its Tangguh liquefied natural gas plant in Indonesia and the Atoll offshore gas project in Egypt.

Next on the list could be a gas project in India, the second phase of the Mad Dog deepwater oil field in the Gulf of Mexico and a Trinidad project.
Brewing giants face a revolt over a 79billion takeover despite offering more money to angry shareholders.

Anheuser-Busch InBev raised its offer for SABMiller to placate investors after the fall in the pound.

The worlds largest brewer had offered 44 a share for SAB, but after a revolt from a number of activists yesterday raised that to 45.

Raise: Anheuser-Busch InBev increased its offer for SABMiller to placate investors after the fall in the pound

The deals share-and-cash structure was also improved by increasing the cash element by 88p a share.

Fund giant Aberdeen Asset Management argued that two major shareholders in SAB, Altria and Bevco, are willing to accept unlisted stock as a way to lower their tax liability and will wave through the takeover offer.

An Aberdeen spokesman said: In the absence of an improved offer we would be more than happy to remain committed long-term shareholders in SABMiller.

Analysts at Exane BNP Paribas said there was still a degree of uncertainty surrounding the deal.

Liberum analyst Alicia Forry said the new bid could succeed as it throws a small bone to activist investors.

A number of activist investors, including Elliott Capital Advisors, bought stakes in SABMiller to voice concerns that the cash deal was now less attractive.
Frankfurt-based Deutsche Borse wants to seize control of the 215-year-old British institution

A German takeover of the London Stock Exchange scraped through as shareholder enthusiasm waned.

Frankfurt-based Deutsche Borse wants to seize control of the 215-year-old British institution in a 21billion deal.

The move has been overwhelmingly backed by 99.9 per cent of LSE shareholders. DB had until midnight yesterday to convince 60 per cent of backers, and a final tally at 5pm showed 60.35 per cent approved.

Both sides call the takeover a merger of equals but DB shareholders will get a 54.4 per cent controlling stake and its chief executive will be in charge of the business.
Tonic water maker Fevertree Drinks reported a 69 per cent rise in revenues to 40.6million for the first half of the year as drinkers bought premium spirits and mixers in ever-increasing numbers.

Profits jumped 79 per cent to 11.8million and the company, whose soft drinks include elderflower tonic water and Sicilian lemonade, almost doubled its interim dividend to 1.54p a share.

Chief executive Tim Warrillow hailed exceptional UK growth, as sales rose by 108 per cent to 15.8million. Shares rose 4.5p to 812p, a record high, and are now up more than 500 per cent since listing on the stock market in London in November 2014 at 134p.

Chief executive Tim Warrillow hailed exceptional UK growth

Warrillows 7.68million shares in the firm are worth around 62.5million, while his co-founder Charles Rolls, who is executive deputy chairman, owns 17.43million shares in the company worth 141.5million.
Shares in British property companies rose after builder Taylor Wimpey and housing website Rightmove brushed off fears of a post-Brexit slowdown.

FTSE 100 company Taylor Wimpey said it was 'encouraged' by the first month of business since the vote to leave the EU on June 23.

Chief executive Pete Redfern added 'there has been no material change to date' on the housing market in the UK since the referendum.

Shares in British property companies rose after builder Taylor Wimpey and housing website Rightmove brushed off fears of a post-Brexit slowdown

The boss of FTSE 250 property website Rightmove also played down the prospect of a downturn in business.

'Trading in July has been in line with the strong monthly revenue achieved in the first half of the year,' said chief executive Nick McKittrick.

The twin updates sent shares in companies linked to the UK housing market higher.

Taylor Wimpey was up 6.7pc or 9.7p to 154.6p while Barratt Developments rose 6.8pc, Persimmon 5.7pc and Berkeley Group 4.9pc.
Standard Chartered has appointed top economist Jose Vinals as its new chairman.

Vinals, 62, will replace Sir John Peace when he stands down on December 1 after more than nine years at the British bank.

The new chairman is currently head of financial stability at the International Monetary Fund  a role that he has held for seven years.

tandard Chartered has appointed top economist Jose Vinals, above, as its new chairman

The Spaniard was previously deputy governor at his countrys central bank.

He studied at the University of Valencia and the London School of Economics. Vinals will be paid 1.3m a year, plus benefits.

The IMF said he was moving back to Europe for family reasons but no further details were given. It follows a long search for a candidate to replace Peace, amid concerns that top banking roles are increasingly hard to fill due to red tape.

The former chairman announced he would be stepping down in February last year, the same time it was revealed that American banker Bill Winters would replace Peter Sands as chief executive due to the ongoing shareholder concern about profits.

Senior independent director Naguib Kheraj led the quest to appoint Peaces successor and will become deputy chairman in the new regime.

The new chairman is currently head of financial stability at the International Monetary Fund

Although Vinals has never worked in private sector banking, Standard Chartered stressed he had extensive knowledge of the industry.

While at the IMF, he has spoken out about the economic risks in China.
The boss of crisis-hit Deutsche Bank has warned staff of further pain after profits crashed amid mounting concern for Europe's beleaguered financial sector.

Profit at Europe's biggest lender plunged 67 per cent to 341.5m in the second quarter of 2016, while revenues dropped 20 per cent to 6.2bn.

After tax, profits were down 98 per cent to 16.7m. It prompted a further sell-off of shares by nervous investors at the lender, which has seen its value fall by 58.5 per cent, or nearly 20bn, in the last 12 months.

The boss of crisis-hit Deutsche Bank, John Cryan, above, has warned staff of further pain after profits crashed amid mounting concern

The International Monetary Fund has warned that Deutsche was so closely entwined with other big banks, its failure could bring the global system crashing down.

And a US arm of Deutsche Bank failed a Federal Reserve stress test for the second year running, due to balance sheet weaknesses.

The lender has a derivatives portfolio of 35trillion  more than half the size of the global economy  which some analysts fear is a ticking time bomb.

Deutsche brought in Yorkshireman John Cryan last July to turn things around, and he has since announced 35,000 jobs will be cut.

But the chief executive yesterday told staff: 'If this weak economic environment persists, we will need to be still more ambitious in our restructuring.

Profit at Europe's biggest lender plunged 67pc to 341.5m in the second quarter of 2016

'We will do everything in our power to accelerate the measures we have already planned.

'We recognise that we are asking a lot of you and that this will continue for the foreseeable future.' Cryan stressed the bank was fundamentally strong and said doubts over its future were unjustified.

If this weak economic environment persists, we will need to be still more ambitious in our restructuring

Yesterday's results throw a spotlight on the Continent's troubled financial system as investors nervously await results of a European Banking Authority stress test.

The report, due out tomorrow, is likely to deliver a damning verdict on Monte dei Paschi di Siena  Italy's oldest bank.

The country's lenders are buckling under the strain of a 307bn pile of bad debt.

Last-ditch efforts are now under way to save Monte dei Paschi with a private rescue fund. In Italy, many ordinary savers own bank bonds and Prime Minister Matteo Renzi is desperate to prevent them from taking a hit. He fears alienating the public ahead of a referendum on political reform in autumn, and is likely to resign if he loses the vote.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has refused to show flexibility on a rescue. However, there is little doubt that Germany would step in to save the bank if necessary  regardless of EU law.
Opinion / Columnist

The Good Book on Mark 6 verse 4 says "A prophet is not without honor except in his own town, among his relatives and in his own home." This saying is proving too true in the case of the revolutionary leader, President Robert Mugabe, who misplaced individuals who do not constitute the majority of Zimbabweans are calling for him to step down when he commands respect throughout Africa and the world for his gallantry and visionary leadership.President Mugabe has been given an ultimatum to "leave office" by the 31 August 2016 by the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) youth executive fronted by Chairperson Happymore Chidziva. If this ultimatum was not so silly as it is inappropriate, one would be laughing his lungs out. How old is Chidziva to even utter those words to the stature of President Mugabe? This follows Acie Lumumbas' insult of President Mugabe with unprintable words, a case he has to answer before the courts.What are our youths coming to when they no longer have respect of their elders? No country can be built with such caliber of youths who seem to misconstrue such impertinence for courage. They seem to be equating themselves with the courageous men and women who took up arms to fight the yoke of colonial oppression, but the glue does not stick and it's even an insult to make such a comparison. As we speak, pastor Evan Mawarire of #thisflag campaign has taken himself to a self-imposed exile in South Africa, it that the kind of courage these spineless foulmouthed youths are taking about.President Mugabe has been nothing but loyal and selfless to the people of Zimbabwe. He has the vision of seeing our political emancipation commensurate with economic emancipation, a reality which has eluded Africa. Under his tenure Zimbabwe embarked on the land reform programme and instituted the indigenization law, all in the hope of empowering the people of Zimbabwe to be owners of their own destiny and cease relying on the begging bowl to the West, a situation the majority of African countries have accustomed themselves with no weaning in sight.Mugabe has receiving standing ovation at different foras with the recent being at the African Union summit in the beginning of the year. Yes, President Mugabe has been an inspiration to Africa and the majority of Zimbabwe. There is going to be no other leader like him as he is the last of his contemporaries, men like Julius Nyerere, Nelson Mandela, Samora Machel, Jomo Kenyatta, Kwame Nkrumah. These men envisioned a liberated Africa politically, socially, economically and intellectually, a vision which have brought President Mugabe at loggerheads with the West, who would want nothing better than to see Africa continue in this penury state.Who has called for the African Union to be independent of foreign funding than President Mugabe? Who has been calling for the United Nations reforms than President Mugabe? Who has been calling for Africa to benefit from its vast resources by beneficiation? He remains a fearless leader, who does not shy away from calling a spade, a spade. How many of such leaders do we still have in Africa? President Mugabe remains an iconic leader, whose footsteps will be difficult to follow.The writer wants to concur with Amai Grace Mugabe who once said "There will come a day when [president] Mugabe will not be there and people will regret and miss his leadership," "Not many people are able to make the sacrifices he [Mugabe] makes. He puts his all to represent his people. He is someone who wants the best for the present and future generations".It is a usual African custom to honour someone when they have departed from this earth. But Zimbabweans have an opportunity to honour the legendary President Mugabe whilst he is still with us. President Mugabe has prioritised education of his people, hence Zimbabwe remains one of the African countries with a high literacy levels. This is not an end in itself but it is a strategy to secure the future of the country whereby those educated minds will contribute to the socio-economic-political development of the nation. Do we need Africa or outsiders to should us how exceptional our leader is?President Mugabe might have made some mistakes along the way like any imperfect being and who amongst the 13 million Zimbabweans without blemish is willing to cast the first stone. The best that Zimbabweans can do is to learn from those mistakes with a view of taking the country forward.President Mugabe will eventually leave office when he has completed his mandate as bestowed on him by the people of Zimbabwe. If the people do not want his leadership anymore they can air their voices in 2018 and only then will we have leadership change. The current malcontents who are calling for President Mugabe to "step down now" are misguided elements who want to disturb our cherished prevailing peace. The pockets of protests calling for Mugabe's ouster are deluded and suffering from delusions and those machinations to subvert the will of the people will come to naught as others before it.President Mugabe remains in power and let's honour him whilst we still have the opportunity.----------Mandla Nsingo
A dump truck driver who said he had a bomb deliberately smashed his truck through a security gate of the FBI's offices on Tuesday, but no bomb was found and there appeared to be no connection to terrorism, authorities said.

The driver, Thomas Richard Ross, of New Waterford, Ohio, was injured in the crash, but nobody else was hurt, they said.

The truck was moving erratically and ran eight or nine red lights before a Pittsburgh police officer pulled it over late Tuesday morning near the FBI building on the city's South Side, authorities said.

A dump truck driver who said he had a bomb deliberately smashed his truck through a security gate of the FBI's offices on Tuesday, but no bomb was found and there appeared to be no connection to terrorism, authorities said

The driver, Thomas Richard Ross, of New Waterford, Ohio, was injured in the crash, but nobody else was hurt, according to authorities

The driver initially refused to surrender and was 'acting erratically, claiming to have a bomb,' and although he later acted as though he was going to surrender he instead floored the gas pedal and rammed the gate, the Pittsburgh public safety department said.

The truck was disabled by security barriers meant to prevent vehicles from driving into the fenced-in office complex.

The barriers include a large steel panel that rises out of the ground at the gate, which caused the truck to go slightly airborne before slamming into a light pole in a parking lot, FBI special agent Gregory Heeb said.

The driver, who appeared to have hit his head on the windshield, was tackled moments later, Heeb said.

FBI agents checked the truck for bombs and other weapons that might signal an intended attack and found nothing.

'There's no nexus to terrorism at all from what we know now,' Heeb said. 'There's no reason to believe that was the case.'

FBI agents checked the truck for bombs and other weapons that might signal an intended attack and found nothing

Ross faces numerous charges including aggravated assault, recklessly endangering another person, fleeing and eluding and various driving offenses, the Pittsburgh public safety department said

Ross was hospitalized briefly for treatment of minor injuries, but afterward, while being escorted to a police cruiser, he tried to escape, authorities said.

He was taken to Allegheny County jail, where he couldn't be reached for comment. No telephone listing for him could be found, and it was unclear whether he had an attorney.

Ross faces numerous charges including aggravated assault, recklessly endangering another person, fleeing and eluding and various driving offenses, the Pittsburgh public safety department said.

The US attorney's office said he had been charged with damaging government property, with the FBI estimating damage in excess of $1,000.

Local authorities said they were working with the FBI on the case. Heeb said the main focus was the driver's mental state and his history.
Angela Merkel's open door policy to refugees is no longer welcomed in Germany following four savage Muslim attacks in a week.

Attitudes to Syrians seeking asylum has hardened after ISIS suicide bomber Mohammad Daleel blew himself up outside a wine bar in the quiet in the quiet Barvarian market town of Ansbach.

Other violence over the space of four days in the last week has left Germans feeling vulnerable and afraid. A new survey found that 83 per cent of Germans see immigration as their nation's biggest challenge - twice as many as a year ago.

More than 200,000 failed asylum seekers like Daleel remain in the country - and many Germans blame Merkel for inviting more than a million refugees into the country in the past year without adequate background checks.

The mood sweeping Germany was summed up by mother of two Anna Lissner who said she now feared for her children's safety.

Fears: The week of violence on the streets of Germany has led the country to have second thoughts about Angela Mrkel's 'open door' policy on migrants. Student Sophia Stigler, 21, said she had friends who were harassed by refugees and since the violence she is not feeling as warm hearted to the new arrivals

Concern: Anna Lisser added: 'The suicide bombing has proved we don't know who we have invited in. It was right to accept refugees but we now realise we do not know where they are from and what they will do.'

'The suicide bombing has proved we do not know who we have invited in.' said the 47-year-old who lives in the town of Ingolstadt, which is located on the River Danube, southern Germany.

'We have to be humanitarian and it was right to accept refugees but we now realise we do not know where they are from and what they will do.

'More checks should have been made before anyone was allowed to settle.'

A bloody week of violence that rocked Germany began on July 18th when Pakistani teenager Riaz Khan Ahmadzai, 17, posing as an Afghan refugee, hacked at passengers on a train in Wurzburg with an axe, wounding five. He was shot dead by police.

Four days later mentally unstable German-Iranian teenager Ali Sonboly shot nine people dead during a rampage through a shopping centre in Munich before taking his own life.

Sonboly claimed he was taking revenge for being bullied at school with no political motive to the murderous rampage.

Two days later a Syrian refugee, 21, hacked a pregnant woman to death in Reutlingen and on the same night Daleel, 27, injured 12 people when he detonated a rucksack packed with metal shards and screws.

Daleel carried out the attack on behalf of the terror group ISIS and had planned to kill hundreds by detonating him bomb at an open-air music festival.

He was only thwarted after being turned away by security guard Pascal Bohm and instead detonated his rucksack bomb outside a wine bar.

And today it emerged a gang of six men stormed a swimming pool stormed into a German swimming pool yelling 'Allahu Akbar'.

The gang, in their twenties, spat at women and children because they were swimming in the nude and called all the females 'sluts' in the town of Geldern in the North Rhine-Westphalia region.

Evil: ISIS jihadi Mohammad Daleel, a failed Syrian asylum seeker, blew himself up outside a wine bar in Ansbach after he was turned away from a music festival for not having a ticket

Video: Daleel, who injured 12 people in the attack, appeared in a chilling video pledging his allegiance to ISIS. His claim for asylum was rejected and he was one of 200,000 in the country awaiting deportation

Concert: Daleel, 27, would have possibly killed hundreds of people had he got into the music festival in Ansbach, southern Germany. Just 30 minutes later he detonated his rucksack packed with metal shards

Carnage: Daleel was turned away from the concert by security guard Philip Bohm, 25, who said the terrorist was staring at him nervously. His blast has heightened fears in Germany over border controls

Search: Police raided the asylum centre in Ansbach where Daleel had been staying as he awaited deportation back to Bulgaria - the first safe country he arrived in from Syria

Barvaria: The explosion took place in the city of Ansbach, 50 miles west of Nurenburg, in southern Germany

Fears were first raised about the influx of refugees at the start of the year when hundreds of women were sexually assaulted by 'mobs of foreign men' in the city of Cologne during New Year celebrations.

The culmination of the this week's bloodshed has led to calls from politicians for Merkel to take back control of its border - and cut immigration.

Sahra Wagenknecht, leader of the far-left Linke party, said the German Chancellor's statement 'wir schaffen das' (we can manage) when she opened the country's doors to those fleeing war zones had been found wanting.

Wagenknecht said the 'intake and integration of a large number of refugees and immigrants is accompanied by considerable problems.'

And even one of Merkel's deputies admitted Germany cannot control the number of migrants crossing their borders insisting the country needs its sovereignty back.

Stephan Mayer called immigration a 'big challenge' for law enforcement, and said the government were not able to register and control.

'We have to regain sovereignty and we have to regain the rule of rights. There's a lot of space for improvement,' he said.

'We were not able to register and control all the migrants that crossed the German border.'

MailOnline visited a major city, town and small country village to gauge the mood among the people after the most terror attacks.

In Nuremberg, one of the oldest cities in Germany, women interviewed said they were now afraid for their safety.

'It is terrible what has happened and after the suicide bombing by a Syrian refugee I think those here now should be checked,' said 26-year-old Lina Kielaite.

'I think it is going to be a big problem. I was for the refugees being allowed into Germany as I am originally from Liuthiania, but we have to know where they have come from and if they are here because they want to be.'

Anger: The week of bloodshed has fuelled concerns the government there isn't doing enough to integrate refugees. In Nuremburg, Isabel Bleicher said: 'They do not see any hope and that is why they turn to groups like ISIS. More has to be done to help them otherwise there are going to be more attacks.'

Nuremburg: Scene of the WWII Nazi war trials, the city has one of Germany's largest universities with young people supporting Merkel's decision to allow one million refugees into the country. But there remain concerns

Businessman Oliver Schollmayer, 37, who declined to be photographed, said he was disgusted by Merkel's open door policy and said it should be changed.

'We were told they were fleeing war, but its now apparent most are here for economic reason,' he said.

'That was not why we opened out borders. I think the problem will spiral out of control.'

Eric Bohunsky, who operated a cycle taxi service for tourists, said uncontrolled immigration into Germany was creating problems.

He said he admired Britain for voting for Brexit and securing control of their borders.

'The British people have done well to stand up to Brussels and those who dictate who can come into their country,' said the 50-year-old.

'We are heading for problems here, but I just hope there are no further attacks.

'The problem is not knowing who we have let in and what they might do.'

Nuremberg, the site of Nazi party rallies and the scene for the war trials at the end of the Second World War, has a 500,000 population with over a third made up of immigrants.

It is the the closest city to Ansbach where Daleel died on Sunday night in his failed bid to kill revellers at the open-air concert.

Famed for its Christmas market which attracts over one million visitors a year the city is estimated to have taken in thousands refugees.

It is also home to one of Germany's largest universities with University of Erlangen-Nuremberg where almost 40,000 students study.

Young people in Germany are more likely to have to supported Merkel's decision to allow one million refugees into the country.

Hitting back: In Kipfenberg, unlike the major cities its population has not been swelled by asylum seekers with the 1,700 residents more likely to see tourists walking the streets. But the people here have witnessed the terror attacks around them and have blamed Merkel for failing to do proper checks on new arrivals

Sceptical: Philippe Fochs, 31, a teacher, said he had supported the decision to throw open Germany's doors to those in need. But he added: 'It would be wrong to say all the Syrian refugees are terrorists because they are not, but it is fair to say we do not know who they are.'

Uined: Dominic Bauer was emphatic that no more refugees should be allowed in. He said: 'It has to stop and stop now. I never agreed with Merkel's decision to let in a million and we are seeing the problems it will cause.'

But many now said her Government had not done enough to help the refugees settle into a new country and blamed the lack of help for the current violence.

'I think a lot of the people coming here are having a terrible time and that is the fault of the Government,' said 21-year-old student Isabel Bleichner.

'They do not see any hope and that is why they turn to groups like ISIS. More has to be done to help them otherwise there are going to be more attacks.

'What has taken place over the last week has left me scared. I want to feel I can walk the street safely and not worry about being blown up.'

A 40 minute drive away though the lush Bavarian countryside is the small town of Kipfenberg, a popular destination with tourists who visit the hillside castle and fortress.

Axe attack: The bloody week of violence in Germany began with Pakistani teenager Riaz Khan Ahmadzai, 17, posing as an Afghan refugee slashing passengers on a train in Wurzburg, wounding five

Carnage: Gruesome pictures taken in the hours after the attack showed the blood-soaked interior of the train. Ahmadzai, who appeared in a chilling ISIS video, was shot dead by police

Paryy boy: ISIS fanatic Ahmadzai had been living with foster parents for two weeks before going on an axe rampage on the train. On his Facebook page he was pictured wearing a pink wig at a music festival

Unlike the major cities its population has not been swelled by asylum seekers with the 1,700 residents more likely to see tourists walking the streets.

Dominic Bauer, who works in a family run cafe in the centre of town, was emphatic that no more refugees should be allowed in.

'It has to stop and stop now,' said the 29 year old. 'I never agreed with Merkel's decision to let in one million and we are now seeing the problems it will cause.'

'I dont like what Mrs Merkel has done to the country... it is ruining Germany.'

It has to stop and stop now. I never agreed with Merkel's decision to let in one million and we are no seeing the problems it will cause. Dominic Bauer, 29

Philippe Fochs, 31, a teacher, said he had supported the decision to throw open Germany's doors to those in need.

But like many said he was concerned that no checks had been made on those entering the country.

'It would be wrong to say all the Syrian refugees are terrorists because they are not, but it is fair to say we do not know who they are,' said Mr Fochs.

'Without question it was right to let them in, but more needs to be done to get information on them. I am surprised that didn't happen as we Germans are very good at filling out forms.'

Last year Ingolstadt made headlines when 'Amadeus' nightclub banned refugees after several women complained they were assaulted.

The town council introduced mentors who would help the men understand the etiquette and how to behave towards women while at the club.

Policy: One of Merkel's deputies has admitted Germany cannot control the number of migrants crossing their borders insisting the country needs its sovereignty back

Attack: One of Merkel's deputies Stephan Mayer (pictured) said the 1.1million migrants Germany let in last year represent a 'big challenge' for law enforcement

The incident caused outrage as refugee activists said it violated Germany's Law for Equal Treatment that prohibits discrimination based on race, ethnicity, gender, religion or sexual orientation.

The town, which has a population of 127,000 people, was one of the first stop for migrants flooding into Germany via countries like Hungary.

There are an estimated 4,000 asylum seekers in the town that sits on the River Danube.

Student Sophia Stigler, 21, said she had friends who were harassed by refugees and since the bombing and other violence was not feeling as warm hearted to the new arrivals.

'It does scare me that this can happen and as a country we have to look at why,' she said.

'We have had problems with refugees and it is right that Angela Merkel reviews her policy of letting more into the country.'

Her friend Taffy Geiss, a sales assistant, added: 'I am Merkel's biggest fan, but I think most people in Germany will now say enough is enough.'

Complaints: Last year Ingolstadt made headlines when 'Amadeus' nightclub banned refugees after women complained of being sexually assaulted. Mentors helped men understand how to behave towards women

Groping: Sophia Stigler said her friends were harassed by refugees. She added: 'It does scare me that this can happen and as a country we have to look at why.' Pictured: 'Amadeus' nightclub where women have complained of being groped. None of the women in this picture have complained

Enough: Taffy Geiss, a sales assistant from Ingolstadt, said: 'I am Merkel's biggest fan, but I think most people in Germany will now say enough is enough.'

Anne Lissner, who has sons aged 18 and 19, said she is now fearful when they attend music festivals after the failed suicide bombing.

'As a mother I am now scared for the safety of my children. It is summer and they want to go to festivals and travel on the train.
An Oregon man and woman have been arrested following a short police chase in California for allegedly carjacking a woman and her two sons at gunpoint and shooting an elderly man in a separate incident.

Authorities said Edwin Enoc Lara, 31, and Aundrea Elizabeth Maes, 19, were taken into custody on Tuesday after they were pursued by police on Interstate 5 at speeds of more than 100mph.

On Monday, police in Bend, Oregon, said they were looking for Lara as a 'person of interest,' now a suspect, in the disappearance and of 23-year-old Kaylee Sawyer from Bend.

On Tuesday, authorities said they arrested 31-year-old Edwin Lara and 19-year-old Aundrea Elizabeth Maes, both from Oregon, following a violent crime spree in Yreka, California. Police in Oregon said on Monday they were looking for Lara as a 'person of interest' in the disappearance of 23-year-old Kaylee Sawyer (right)

Sawyer, described as having blonde hair and blue-green eyes, was last seen around 1am on Sunday near her apartment, located near Central Oregon Community College where Lara worked as a campus security guard.

She was wearing a black dress and brown boots, and was carrying a green purse, police said.

Her family reported her missing on Sunday just after 7pm.

Earlier reports indicated Sawyer has a cell phone but authorities believe it was turned off, and the Bend Bulletin reported she is not a student at the Central Oregon Community College.

Family members also said her car was still in the parking lot of her apartment.

A short time after news of Sawyer's disappearance was made public, a newly-hired Bend Police Officer Isabel Ponce-Lara reported her husband, Lara, may be involved, Redding.com reported.

Not long after, Lara was named as a person of interest.

Sawyer, (pictured left and right) described as having blonde hair and blue-green eyes, was last seen around 1am on Sunday

She was last seen near her apartment, located near Central Oregon Community College (pictured) where Lara worked as a campus security guard

Just before midnight on Monday, Bend police said they were changing their investigation from a missing person to a homicide and described Lara, from Redmond, as likely armed and dangerous.

Lt. Clint Burleigh of the Bend Police Department said Sawyer's body has not been found, and declined to say what information caused detectives to make it a homicide investigation.

'There is a lot of information coming out, quickly,' he told AP. 'It is very fluid.'

Lara had worked as a part-time public safety officer at the community college since December 2014, said Ron Paradis, executive director of college relations.

'We're cooperating with the police as best we can,' Paradis said, declining to comment further.

On Tuesday, Lara and Maes were booked into the Tehama County jail on charges including attempted murder, kidnapping, carjacking and burglary, the Yreka Police Department said.

An officer pictured at the scene of a Super 8 Motel in Yreka, California. The mayhem erupted near dawn on Tuesday in Yreka when a man was shot in the stomach at the motel at around 5am

Five minutes after police got the call about the shooting at the motel, a man called from a Mobil gas station (pictured), saying his car had been taken with his family still inside

Yreka, a former gold mining town of about 7,500 people in Siskiyou County, is where the mayhem erupted near dawn on Tuesday.

It started when a man was shot in the stomach at the Super 8 Motel in town at around 5am.

The man, who has not been identified, was taken to Fairchild Medical Center in critical and unstable condition.

Five minutes after police got the call about the shooting, a man called from a Mobil gas station, saying his Honda Accord had been taken with his family still inside.

TIMELINE OF VIOLENT CRIME SPREE IN YREKA, CALIFORNIA Tuesday, July 26 5.00am - Yreka Police Department receives a call about a shooting victim at Super 8 Motel on 136 Montague Road in Yreka Officers on scene and contacted victim who had been shot in the stomach The victim was transported the victim to Fairchild Medical Center 5.05am - Police receive a call from a male located at Mobil gas station on 735 N. Main St. who reported his car was taken with his three family members still inside the car Officers from several agencies searched the area for the suspect/suspects 5.41am - Police receive a 911 call from the three victims who reported they were dropped off on Interstate 5, north of the Weed rest area and were unharmed Officers responded to the area and transported the victims to the Yreka Police Department 6.18am - Police received information about a cell phone being pinged with a possible location of the suspects on Intestate 5, north of Redding 7.01am - Red Bluff CHP advised that they had two suspects, Edwin Lara and Aundrea Maes, in custody and the victims vehicle Advertisement

'The man had come out of the gas station to see his dog running around and his car gone,' Yreka Police Chief Brian Bowles told The Associated Press.

He said Lara allegedly forced, at gunpoint, one of the man's sons to drive.

The mother and two sons were later dropped off at a rest stop at around 5.41am along the interstate about 30 miles south of Yreka, near the town of Weed.

Law enforcement officers were pinging three cell phones to get the location of the stolen car, Bowles said.

A highway patrol officer in Red Bluff, 100 miles south of Weed, saw a car speeding on the interstate and tried to pull it over.

When it did dot comply, officers gave chase, the highway patrol said in a statement.

Police from the nearby town of Corning joined in before Lara pulled over and was arrested at around 7.01am, along with Maes.

'We have got crime scenes at a motel, a gas station and in Red Bluff more than 100 miles away,' Bowles said.

'We're a small department and stretched beyond our resources right now.'

Maes' grandmother told KATU that her granddaughter did not come home from work on Monday evening and believes she might have been taken against her will.
Authorities found the bodies of a mother and her two children inside a home in suburban Phoenix on in what police are considering a murder-suicide.

Lisa Gerhart, 45, found dead inside her home with the bodies of her 17-year-old son Kyle and 12-year-old daughter Emily is believed to have shot her two children to death before turning the gun on herself, authorities said on Tuesday.

Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio said on Tuesday that deputies found a handgun near the mother's body.

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Lisa Gerhart, 45, (pictured left with a third daughter) was found dead inside her Arizona home with the bodies of her 17-year-old son and 12-year-old daughter on Monday. She is believed to have shot her two children to death before turning the gun on herself, authorities said on Tuesday

Gerhart pictured with her son Kyle. Arapaio said deputies were awaiting autopsy results before making a final determination on the deaths

Crime scene tape blocks the entrance to thje family's home in Gilbert, Arizona on Tuesday

Arapaio said deputies were awaiting autopsy results before making a final determination on the deaths.

'We're almost sure this is a murder-suicide, but we haven't closed the case,' the sheriff said.

'We're leaving a little part open just in case someone else could have caused these three deaths.'

On Monday night, a family friend reported seeing a car backed up to a home in an unincorporated area of Gilbert, east of Phoenix.

A hose attached to the vehicle's exhaust pipe went into a window of the two-story, A-framed home, he said.

Arpaio said sheriff's deputies donned protective clothes before entering the carbon-monoxide filled property and quickly located the three bodies, all of whom he said had suffered gunshots.

Responding officers found the two children upstairs and the mother's body in another undisclosed area.

Kyle (left) and Emily, when she was younger, (right) pictured above. Responding officers found the two children upstairs and the mother's body in another undisclosed area

Meanwhile, a dog discovered inside the house was uninjured, according to AZ Central.

On Facebook, a woman identifying herself as a good friend of Gerhart said she had found the car running with tubes from the exhaust pipes going into the home.

'My dearest friend committed suicide last night and took her 12 year old and 17 1/2 year old w/ her,' Paula Testa wrote, according to Heavy.com.

'I found the car running w/ tubes from exhaust pipes into the home. called 911. not sure how long it was running but the dog survived. all 3 are gone.

'Devastated isn't a strong enough word to describe anything right now.'

In a subsequent post, she commented writing that Gerhart was 'an amazing mom.'

Investigators believe that Gerhart and her husband, David, (pictured with her left and right) were having marital problems and may have been living apart at the time, authorities said. The husband was not home at the time of the incident

'This is not characteristic of her at all,' Testa wrote.

Arpaio called the incident a 'sad situation.'

The sheriff said it will be up to the county medical examiner's office to determine if the children died from gunshot wounds or carbon monoxide from the car fumes.

Authorities have contacted the children's father and investigators were interviewing neighbors and checking records to see if the couple had any history of domestic violence.

Several neighbors told reporters that Gerhart's husband, David, who was not home at the time, had recently moved out of the family's home in the community of ranch properties and she was devastated by it.

A crime scene investigator works outside the home on Tuesday afternoon in Arizona

A Maricopa County Sheriffs Deputy lets a crime scene van past the police tape outside the home

Neighbor Connie Rivere told AZ Central that Gerhart had been talking to everyone 'trying to get people to know that she was having problems and that he [her husband] left her.

'It's horrible... she didn't want to live through that,' Rivere said. 'There wasn't anything anybody could do for her.'

The family's social media accounts showed the couple with three children, including another daughter who appears to be the oldest of the three children.
President Barack Obama said in an interview set to air Tuesday night that it's 'possible' Vladimir Putin could be orchestrating a recent computer hack of Democratic National Committee emails in order to help Donald Trump win America's presidential election.

Trump tweeted that the idea was 'crazy,' shortly after Obama's comments surfaced.

Evidence is mounting that hackers aligned with Russia's government were responsible for stealing the DNC's computer files and airing the party's dirty laundry with help from the Wikileaks website.

The public relations damage from messages showing the party trying to sabotage Sen. Bernie Sanders' candidacy has been significant, and led to the resignation on Monday of the party's chairwoman.

Trump was his usual filter-free self on Twitter, writing: 'In order to try and deflect the horror and stupidity of the Wikileaks disaster, the Dem[ocrat]s said maybe it is Russia dealing with Trump. Crazy!'

'For the record,' he wrote in a follow-up tweet, 'I have ZERO investments in Russia.'

Russia's foreign minister Sergei Lavrov sternly dismissed the idea on Tuesday as well.

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Fueling fears: Obama told NBC that he couldn't say for sure what Putin is up to, but left the door wide open for conspiracy theories

Tactical attack: 'What the motives were in terms of the leaks, all that  I can't say directly,' Obama told NBC News. 'What I do know is that Donald Trump has repeatedly expressed admiration for Vladimir Putin.'

President Barack Obama told NBC News' Savannah Guthrie in an interview set for broadcast Tuesday night that it's 'possible' Russian President Vladimir Putin is pulling the strings on the Democratic Party's email hacking scandal in order to help Donald Trump win the November election

Trump isn't impressed with Obama's contention, tweeting that it's a 'crazy' conspiracy theory

Russian fingerprints are all over the DNC hack, computer security experts say, but it's too soon to know whether the prints belong to Putin

At the site of a diplomatic meeting in Laos, reporters asked him about his country's involvement in the controversy.

His only response was 'I do not want to use four-letter words,' according to the Associated Press.

Obama told NBC that he couldn't say for sure what Putin is up to, but left the door wide open for conspiracy theories.

'What the motives were in terms of the leaks, all that  I can't say directly,' Obama told NBC News. 'What I do know is that Donald Trump has repeatedly expressed admiration for Vladimir Putin.'

Hillary Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook claimed Tuesday morning that news reports have established Russians stole Democratic Party documents and emails and 'turned it over to the Wikileaks and other hackers to push out, to harm Secretary Clinton and help Donald Trump.'

That suggestion  that the Russian president fears a Clinton White House more than a Trump administration, would be a powerful argument for the former secretary of state to use in her fall campaign.

'I am basing this on what Mr. Trump himself has said,' Obama added. 'And I think that Trump's gotten pretty favorable coverage back in Russia.'

But a New York Times analysis found that the earliest hacking attempts linked to the current DNC crisis dated back to the middle of 2015, long before Trump became a viable Oval Office hopeful.

Trump's campaign chairman Paul Manafort mocked the allegation on Monday, calling it 'pure obfuscation' and saying Clinton and her handlers 'don't want to talk about what is in the emails.'

Obama administration officials don't believe the Russian government's denials, CBS News reported.

That's because the computer intrusion was similar to others conducted in the past by Russian agents, including distinctive methods that point straight to Moscow.

Hillary Clinton's campaign manager Robby Mook said media reports have established a connection between Russian hackers and the Democratic National Committee leak

'We understand how hack groups use the Internet to attack. The pattern and launch point used before by Russians is similar to the DNC attack,' an intelligence official told CBS.

The AP also quoted Fidelis Cybersecurity expert Michael Buratowski, who said that after an investigation into the hack he was nearly certain that Russians were behind it.

Buratowski cited 'Russian internet addresses, Russian language keyboards, and the time codes corresponding to business hours in Russia, as well as the sophistication of the hack.'

One official told CBS that the Democratic National Committee was given warning ahead of this week's national convention 'that something was going on.' But tthey took some time to respond.'

Another said the Obama administration is basing its conclusions in part on the fact that the hackers 'left all kinds of fingerprints.'

Some of those fingerprints apparently were also left on emails sent to The Hill, an inside-the-beltway Washington, D.C. newspaper, by a hacker who calls himself 'Guccifer 2.0'  the anonymous person who allegedly last week gave 19,000 DNC emails to the Wikileaks website to publish.

The Hill reported Tuesday that emails from the hacker showed signs of being run through an identity-masking technique that operated in the Russian language.

Guccifer 2.0 has denied being a Russian agent, saying he couldn't recognize or read Russian writing.

Virtual Private Networks are standard tools for hackers and other online denizens who want to mask their identities.

By using a VPN to connect to websites  including free email providers  minimally skilled computer users can obliterate evidence of who and where they are.

The website Vocativ reported Tuesday that a commercial data analysis established that when Guccifer 2.0 used an AOL account in France to communicate with reporters in one case, he piggybacked on a VPN that in large part operates in Russian.

The out-of-the-ordinary private French VPN is used by criminals including text-message scammers.

The Hill reported that the website of the VPN, called 'Elite,' is written in Russian. While English translations are available for much of it, some parts of the website  including the entire signup process  are Russian-only.

Guccifer 2.0 has claimed to be Romanian, but in one interview with the computer-expert website Motherboard, he fumbled with the Romanian language and claimed he had no working knowledge of Russian.

Adding to the intrigue, the Elite VPN uses payment services that are popular in Russia. The Hill reported that its website 'also includes a link to a long-defunct Costa Rican payment processor that was seized by law enforcement in 2013.'
Federal Indigenous Affairs Minister Nigel Scullion has admitted he was out to dinner when horrific footage of boys being stripped naked and tear-gassed in detention centres was aired and did not watch it until he received an 'agitated' call from the prime minister.

Senator Scullion is understood to have been made aware of allegations of abuse at the Don Dale Youth Detention Centre in Darwin ahead of it airing on Four Corners on Monday, but he still went out to dinner with the family of a staff member.

He admitted he didn't watch the footage until he received an 'agitated' phone call from Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull who instructed him to 'go home and see it'.

The Northern Territory-based minister also claimed that while he had heard reports of abuse in the past, he didn't intervene because it had not 'piqued his interest'.

Malcolm Turnbull launched a royal commission less than 24 hours after footage aired on Four Courners of boys being stripped naked and strapped to a restraint chair at Don Dale Youth Detention Centre in Darwin

Senator Scullion said on Tuesday that the footage aired on the ABC shocked him to the core.

'It was some of the most disturbing footage I have ever seen,' he said.

Mr Turnbull launched a royal commission less than 24 hours after the footage aired of boys being stripped naked, tear-gassed and held in solitary confinement.

The program also showed one boy, Dylan Voller, 17, being shackled to a 'mechanical device' chair before being left alone for two hours and another being tackled, lifted and hurled across a room.

Senator Scullion claims that he was not aware of the extent of abuse at Don Dale, some of which occurred six years ago, despite a police investigation and a series of reviews on systemic abuse of inmates in detention.

Several media outlets reported allegations of the tear-gassing of six young males following a report by the NT children's commissioner in September last year.

Federal Indigenous Affairs Minister Nigel Scullion has admitted he was out to dinner when horrific footage of boys being stripped naked and tear-gassed in detention centres was aired

Senator Scullion has claimed that he was not aware of the extent of abuse at Don Dale Youth Detention Centre in Darwin

The program also showed one boy, Dylan Voller, 17, being shackled to a 'mechanical device' chair before being left alone for two hours

Senator Scullion admitted he'd heard media reports about the centre but said he didn't intervene because it had not 'piqued his interest'.

He said he assumed the NT government was dealing with any problems.

Senator Scullion defended his decision to go out to dinner as the program was airing, saying it was for a 'private sensitive matter involving one of my staff and family'.

Four Corners journalist Caro Meldrum-Hanna, who was behind the damning story, was shocked to learn Senator Scullion went out to dinner instead of watching the program.

'Minister Scullion says he didn't watch #4Corners until @TurnbullMalcolm alerted him? I spoke with his office at around 1pm yesterday,' she tweeted.

'I spoke to Scullion's office yesterday lunchtime. They knew about the story & STILL didn't watch. What's going on?

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has called for a royal commission into Northern Territory's youth detention system after footage revealed abuse at the Don Dale Youth Detention Centre (pictured) in Darwin

Four Corners journalist Caro Meldrum-Hanna, who was behind the damning story, was shocked to learn Senator Scullion went out to dinner instead of watching the program

Senator Scullion admitted he didn't watch the footage until he received an 'agitated' phone call from Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull who instructed him to 'go home and see it'

'Scullion's office asked me for an advanced copy of the #4Corners program yesterday. He went out to dinner last night instead of watching?'

Senator Scullion and other ministers are expected to face further pressure to explain how nothing was done about brutal abuse of teenagers in detention centres.

NT Chief Minister Adam Giles also insists he was not aware of the extent of the abuse at the Darwin facility.

Mr Giles said processes, like using spitmasks and restraint chairs, were put in place in detention centres to protect guards and children from themselves.

But he took umbrage at footage of a corrections officer hitting a child and says all processes will be looked at by the commission.
The brother of a Kings Cross one-punch victim has revealed he has been in the 'same position' as Stuart Kelly who died on Monday after becoming the target of anti-lockout law bullies.

John Christie's brother Daniel died after being struck in the head on New Year's Eve 2013. Thomas Kelly was killed the previous year by a single punch.

Stuart, Thomas's younger brother, was found dead this week at the age of 18 with friends claiming he took his own life after suffering unrelenting abuse for his campaigns against alcohol-fuelled violence.

On Wednesday Mr Christie, 24, said he had been in the 'same strange position' as he pleaded with trolls to reserve their harsh comments against the families of coward punch victims.

'RIP Stuart Kelly. I know how It feels to be caught In the same strange position,' he wrote.

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Stuart Kelly died on Monday after becoming the victim of vile abuse from bullies who blamed him and his family for Sydney's lockout laws

John Christie, whose own brother Daniel died in 2013 in similar circumstances to Stuart's brother Thomas, said he had been in the 'same strange position' himself

John, 24, (left), lost his brother Daniel (right) in 2014 after he was attacked in Kings Cross in eerily similar circumstances to the death of Stuart's brother Thomas

'To be a proverbial "buoy", awash in a sea of motives & agendas, of people our age, business owners, and MPs trying to find a solution.

'Do we, as family members of victims innately have an answer? No I dont think we do, we are just very unfortunate individuals who lost the ones which we love.

'I commend you Stuart for trying to make the city a safer place, and for your strength and courage,' he added.

The Christie family has previously shared its support of tougher drinking laws. Daniel's father Michael previously said while he agreed a change had to be made, he called for a more 'sophisticated' plan for an international city such as Sydney.

Stuart's sister Madeleine also took to social media to share her grief after the death of a second brother.

The student shared a tragic tribute to both her siblings, sharing a photograph of the three of them as children.

'You are both so loved. My beautiful brothers, I'll cherish our memories forever,' she said alongside it.

Daniel Christie (left) was just 18 when he was punched on New Year's Eve 2013. He had his life support switched off days later as did Thomas Kelly (right) who died the previous year in identical circumstances

Stuart (left, with his brother when they were children) struggled to overcome the abuse of bullies and left university to go back to the school where the boys had grown up

The 18-year-old's parents Ralph and Kathy (above with him at his school graduation in October) have also been the victims of lockout law critics

Mr Christie (above with his father Michael and brother Peter (left) said he did not have the answer to solve violence because his brother had been a victim of it as others presume

Ralph and Kathy Kelly, the boys' parents, were too grief-stricken to speak on Wednesday as details of the last few months of Stuart's tragic life emerged.

The 18-year-old had returned to The King's School in Parramatta, western Sydney, where he was receiving 'significant' pastoral support from staff after abandoning his university degree.

He had planned to pursue a marine biology course at St Paul's College at the University of Sydney but left after spending just one night on campus earlier this year.

Friends say the departure was due to abuse he was receiving from anti-lockout campaigners who were sending him hateful emails and messages.

The university insisted that no such abuse had come from any of its students, insisting he had 'a lot of friends' all of whom were saddened by his death.

The Kelly family have been the target of vile attacks centred around the lockout laws in the past.

A memorial to Thomas and Daniel Christie in Kings Cross has been desecrated twice in less than a year.

Madeleine Kelly, Stuart's sister, shared this heartbreaking tribute to her 'beautiful brothers' on Wednesday

In a similar photograph, John and his brother Daniel are seen playing as babies

The boys' mothers previously met to share their heartbreaking experiences. Above, Kathy Kelly (right) with Daniel's mother Maureen last year

Stuart (left) was a vocal advocate for changes in the law following the death of his brother (right) who he described as his 'best friend'

Madeleine Kelly (above) said she would 'forever cherish' memories of her 'beautiful brothers''

Ralph Kelly previously revealed some of the threats made against the family on their Facebook page were enough for him to seek legal advice.

There were also blogs claiming a link between the Thomas Kelly Foundation and the city's casino operators and numerous threats.

In March the family revealed the had been the targets of a hate campaign by anti-lockout campaigners flooding the foundation's Facebook page and website with angry messages.

'The Lock out laws have nothing to do with these two young lives, who were taken so young, for no reason,' Ralph and Kathy Kelly said in a statement at the time.

'To the person or people who did this, you have no shame.'

A month earlier amid a reignited public discussion of the NSW lockout laws, the family were targeted by a number of people online including the Surely Not blog.

The piece accused Mr Kelly of having a vested interested in the outcome of laws given his job as the Managing Director of a hospitality company.

It also called into question the relationship between The Thomas Kelly Youth Foundation and Sydney's Star casino which has hosted a number events for the charity. The casino, which is not bound by the lockout laws, is one of the few venues which can still profit from late-night drinking.

A tribute to Thomas and Daniel in Kings Cross has been desecrated several times by protesters (above)

Ralph and Kathy Kelly became the victims of critics who questioned the integrity of their charity, The Thomas Kelly Youth Foundation

Mr Kelly has also been forced to defend the $125,000 salary he received from the Thomas Kelly Youth Foundation after it was revealed he was paid about half of what the charity earned that financial year.

According to The Thomas Kelly Youth Foundation's latest financial reports, the charity's annual revenue for the 2014-2015 financial year was $243,373.

Of that revenue 51 per cent was paid in employment benefits to Mr Kelly, the report independently audited by Pricewaterhouse Coopers revealed.

Mr Kelly was the only employee paid by the company, and still holds his role as Managing Director of Hemisphere Hospitality Solutions.

He previously worked at Accor Hotels, which is one of the supporters of the foundation.

At the time Mr Kelly confirmed his salary, however he said numbers in the annual report did not take into account $540,000 given to the Salvation Army to help fund the Take Kare Safe Spaces program from December 2014 to February 2016, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.

Kieran Loveridge is serving a minimum ten-year jail sentence for manslaughter for punching Thomas Kelly in July 2012. His sentence was doubled after public outcry and a campaign led by the Kelly family.

Shaun McNeil, who punched Daniel Christie the following year, was given the same sentence a year later.

For confidential help, call Lifeline at 13 11 14 or Beyond Blue on 1300 224 636.
Britain faces a post-Brexit surge of EU immigration unless the Prime Minister imposes a cut-off date for new arrivals swiftly, a report by MPs warns today.

Hundreds of thousands of people could flock to the UK before negotiations to leave the EU are completed, says the Home Affairs Select Committee.

Such a situation would be regarded with deep suspicion by the British electorate which made clear in the referendum that it wanted an end to uncontrolled immigration.

Cabinet minister Liam Fox said this week Britain would leave the EU in 2019 and there are fears that hundreds of thousands of people from Europe will flock to the UK before that date

Cabinet minister Liam Fox yesterday suggested that Britain will leave the EU in 2019, ahead of an election the following year.

MPs on the cross-party committee believe Theresa May should set a date after which new arrivals would not have an automatic right to stay in Britain.

In a bid to avoid a surge in applications, this should be the date of the EU referendum on June 23, the date Article 50 is triggered, or the date the UK finally leaves the EU, the report suggests.

EU migrants already living and working here could be forced to register to establish they had the right to permanent residence, says the committee.

It adds that Home Office chiefs must be braced for heavy extra demands on immigration officials because of the fallout from the historic Brexit vote: In the short-term, more people might seek to move to the UK before any migration rule changes and in the longer term as new immigration arrangements are implemented.

Past experience has shown that previous attempts to tighten immigration rules have led to a spike in immigration prior to the rules coming into force.

Leave campaigners, including Boris Johnson, made much of the threat of immigration during the campaign. So it would be extremely embarrassing if the Brexit vote actually increased immigration

The Government must move quickly so people are told where they stand if new rules on free movement change significantly, says the report.

Keith Vaz MP, chairman of the committee, said: There is a clear lack of certainty in the Governments approach to the position of EU migrants resident in the UK and British citizens living in the EU.

'Neither should be used as pawns in a complicated chess game which has not even begun. We have offered three suggested cut-off dates, and unless the Government makes a decision, the prospect of a surge in immigration will increase.

David Davis, the Cabinet minister in charge of Brexit, said he wanted to secure a generous settlement for EU migrants living in the UK and British citizens living in Europe.

But he warned that setting a firm date now could itself mean a rush of people coming to Britain.
People smugglers are making a laughing stock of Britains porous borders, a withering report concludes today.

Damning evidence shows the Home Offices failure to crack down on immigration abuse, as well as how easy it is for rule-breakers to avoid penalties.

In the latest example, it was revealed that more than a third of fines issued to lorry drivers for carrying illegal immigrants into Britain are never paid.

Migrants jump out of a lorry after being discovered by French border control officers. But many refugees do make it to Britain and many truck drivers fail to pay fines when stowaways are found

Drivers of heavy goods vehicles (HGVs)  the overwhelming majority of which go through Calais  were hit with penalties totalling 11.4million after stowaways were found between 2012 and 2015.

But only 6.8million was handed over  meaning 4.6million, or 41 per cent, was evaded, according to explosive figures uncovered by the Home Affairs Select Committee.

Keith Vaz, Labour chairman of the committee, said: The inability to collect penalties from those who breach our immigration law, who smuggle illegal migrants, makes a laughing stock of our border controls.

For so many fines to remain unpaid is shameful, and if the Government is serious about deterring people smuggling it may need to consider making this a criminal offence.

People smugglers are offering increasing sums to traffic migrants across the Channel after security was bolstered. There are fears that it could leave Britain open to Islamic State jihadis sneaking into the country and wreaking carnage.

Under rules operated by the Border Force, drivers can be fined up to 2,000 for each migrant found at the British border.

They can appeal against it by proving that reasonable care was taken to secure their vehicle.

The chairman of the committee, Keith Vaz MP, pictured, said the inability to collect penalties from those who break immigration laws makes Britain a 'laughing stock'

But todays scathing report by the committee found that a third of lorries arriving do not have the standards of security advised by the UK, equating to around 750,000 vehicles a year.

Many of these are foreign truckers who turn a blind eye to the Home Office guidance  or simply never read it.

It also said that more than 3,600 stowaways, many from the Calais shanty town known as the Jungle, were discovered around Dover in just three months last summer.

The figures echo findings by the borders watchdog last week that the number of illegal immigrants caught slipping into Britain had almost trebled in 12 months.

Some 6,427 migrants were found in Britain between April and October last year.

The committee report says: The civil penalty system will not be an effective means of deterring people from smuggling migrants if hauliers and drivers can simply evade fines.

Over the past three years, drivers of HGVs have been hit with 6,335 penalty notices, but only 449 went to Britons.

Many foreign drivers simply disappear back over the border without paying  with Border Force chiefs failing to chase them up.

Charlie Elphicke, Tory MP for Dover, said: Hard-working truckers in Dover have had migrants sneak into their lorries and are furious they have to cough up while so many foreign truckers dont pay and get away with it.
One potential juror was dismissed after disclosing knowledge of procedure

Judge had ordered all tattoos on his head, face and neck to be covered

A white supremacist showed up in court with all of his Neo Nazi tattoos covered up on Monday, as per a judge's orders.

Bayzle Morgan, 24, is accused of stealing a mans motorcycle at gunpoint in Las Vegas, Nevada, in May 2013.

He has tattoos on his head, face and neck, which include the words 'Baby Nazi', a swastika and an Iron Cross.

A panel of potential jurors previously said they wouldn't be able to treat Morgan's case fairly because of the markings, prompting a district judge to require them to be covered.

Morgan showed up in court on Monday covered in concealer - and when his attorney said the make-up had started wearing off, the judge agreed to delay jury selection, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported.

Bayzle Morgan (pictured left in a mugshot and right without his tattoos), 24, is accused of stealing a mans motorcycle at gunpoint in Las Vegas, Nevada, in May 2013

A courtroom cosmetologist has been tasked to apply make-up on Morgan's face every day during his robbery trial, before jurors can see him.

In the courtroom, Morgan will appear in street clothes, uncuffed and tattoo-free, the Review-Journal wrote.

Morgan is to remove the make-up after each day in court before he returns to the Clark County Detention Center.

Potential jurors didn't appear to see Morgan's tattoos underneath the concealer on Monday, but one of his attorneys, Dan Bunin, said in the early afternoon that two of them had started showing up.

A judge ordered that Morgan's tattoos be concealed after a panel of potential jurors said they wouldn't be able to treat his case fairly. Pictured, a courtroom make-up artist covers Morgan's tattoos in Monday

Morgan has tattoos on his head, face and neck, which include the words 'Baby Nazi', a swastika and an Iron Cross. Pictured, a make-up artist conceals the markings on Monday

In the courtroom, Morgan (pictured Monday) will appear in street clothes, uncuffed and tattoo-free. The make-up artist recommended he wear a brown shirt instead of a white or black white for future court dates

A courtroom cosmetologist has been tasked to apply make-up on Morgan's face every day during his robbery trial, before jurors can see him. He is pictured in court on Monday

One was the 'Baby Nazi' inscription on Morgan's neck and the other was a teardrop tattoo below his right eye.

Teardrop tattoos can have several meanings. Some signal that the wearer has killed someone, has been in prison, or was part of a gang.

District Judge Richard Scotti allowed a cosmetologist to touch up Morgan's makeup, delaying jury selection by 30 minutes Monday.

The make-up artist recommended he wear a brown shirt instead of a white or black white for future court dates.

One potential juror said on Monday that she had read about Morgan's tattoos and the judge's order to cover them in the press. She was dismissed.

Morgan will face another trial next month, this time for capital murder. He is accused of killing 75-year-old Jean Main and faces the death penalty.

Another judge will have to decide whether his tattoos should be concealed for that trial too.

Potential jurors didn't appear to see Morgan's tattoos, but his attorney said in the afternoon that two had started showing up, prompting a touch-up. Pictured, the make-up artist conceals Morgan's tattoos

Morgan (pictured in court without his tattoos) will face another trial next month, this time for capital murder. He is accused of killing 75-year-old Jean Main and faces the death penalty
Opinion / Letters

Parliamentary Panel on Zimbabwean Situation Necessary

South Africa's relationship to Zimbabwe, is not ANC-ZANU PF, but South Africans-Zimbabweans. One Nation with another Nation.



umuzi wendoda



If Africans "enjoy" abuse as part of their DNA, then there would never have been an anti-colonial/anti-Apartheid struggle. The fact is - Africans, like everyone else, want liberty, freedom and private rights as full citizens of their countries.

ubuntu ngumuntu ngabantu

In your moment of darkness we were on the side of justice, democracy and an open society in Zimbabwe because Ubuntu demanded it

military intervention

Parliamentary Panel

one man, one vote, on one day

Ken Sibanda is a South African (Transkei) born American Constitutional attorney, known affectionately as "Tecumseh," for his writings and articles. He has written for numerous publications, in the US and Africa, and including for "The Jerusalem Post," in Israel. He has received numerous awards and citations including in 2000 at International House, New York, for "extending International cooperation."

Sir:I write this letter with a heavy heart as I contemplate how best to address you and in a manner that creates a fruitful discourse between the two of us. The situation in Zimbabwe is likened to that of Pharaoh (Mugabe) and the Hebrews (Zimbabweans).So I will begin earnestly and say Isitwalandwe Msholozi:I am an American Citizen, born in Qunu, Transkei, South Africa and who wants to contribute as much as possible in helping Africa solve its many intractable problems. My law practice here in the States focuses on Africa, indigent rights and the victims of discrimination. I have met many a Zimbabwean both on my South African visits as well as here in the States, who are starving, desperate and confused.The biggest confusion is why South Africa has turned a blind eye to their present political dilemma. There are close to two million Zimbabweans in South Africa. 2 million from a population of 12 million is a lot. Does this not necessitate a parliamentary inquiry of some sought at this stage where the Zimbabwean economy is non-existent? Such an inquiry would be the minimum to be extended to a friend nation who South Africa shares a common heritage ( Ubuntu).This letter is about democracy in Zimbabwe. It is not my place to ask you to judge Mugabe or the forces in Zimbabwe as our African culture demands that, - the wholeness of another person's home - be given its due sovereignty. I must state though, that Bantu Culture and philosophy, which precedes Western notions of Democracy and was the very basis for the governance of various Kingdoms, including Mapungubwe, long before Western govern was transplanted in Africa, demands action to assist the neighbor. The violation of private rights in South Africa is staggering. Without respect for private rights there can be no democratic society.We must not abandon Core African principles in substitution for Western Democracy. Democracy in Africa is African Democracy! It is not the heretic suggestion atet it is merely the evil influence of a third force. If democracy in Africa was the product of western thinking, then this negates Chi -Murenga ( Zimbabwe Armed struggle). What is at stake are common shared values that run the tread of all nations and countries: private rights, human rights and democracy.The holocaust in German was not an internal problem, the genocide in Rwanda was not an internal problem and so was Apartheid, these are all human problems. What is so internal about human rights abuses? Africa should not create a salient culture in which human rights are not respected. There is nothing African about abusive systems and undemocratic government, - this is the exception and not the norm in Africa's value system and rich heritage.African Culture, as you know, is not merely culture, but is embodied within it laws and ethical standards (Ubuntu). The ground norm -- is a summary of the laws, and by-laws of African existence with the fatherland. The neighbor, in this case Zimbabwe - has a problem, a problem that has resulted in refuges fleeing into South Africa. African Ubuntu says: If we help our neighbor we will be helping ourselves. The stability in Zimbabwe is also South Africa's growth and progress. If Zimbabwe burns, South Africa will only get more refugees and eventually burn as well.While, as for many, including myself, it is difficult to rebuke a Statesman of the calibre of Robert Mugabe given all he has done in his anti-colonial days. Our African Culture demands that we do so, acting independently. We must sir, put South African people beyond individual accomplishment as well as act in a way in which in a New Zimbabwe South Africans can hold their heads up and say:. Lets not project the attitude that South Africa does not care about its neighbor or the rest of Africa for that matter, and that South Africa is only interested in its affairs - this is a bad foreign policy and has grave repercussions.I am not suggesting, but a- the least possible effort - that will investigate this situation independently, and not be mouth-fed by the Zimbabwean government (Zanu-PF). This panel can interview Zimbabwean refugees in South Africa, takes notes from independent sources and make suggestions on how best South Africa can play a role in Zimbabwe's current political meltdown. President Mbeki did a good job with monitoring elections in Zimbabwe in the past, but this is no longer about democracy -. It is about the fundamental collapse of Zimbabwean individual rights and peace and security in the region.My suggestion is the cataloging of Human Rights abuses in that country through direct testimony from Zimbabwean refugees in South Africa as soon as possible; this having the effect of deterrence. South Africa would like to be seen as deterring Human Rights abuses and not encouraging them by way of silence. In addition, a review of all law that has resulted in sanctions on Zimbabwe. And finally transitional suggestions. This trifold approach will result in qualitative evidence vital in that country's on going stalemate; such evidence can be forwarded to the United Nations for Zimbabwe to address. South Africa should use established structures and organs of international peace and stability in the manner intended, and with a very solid independent trust - a South African intelligence.I trust that this letter will be taken for what it is, one son of Africa making a desperate plea for victims of an unjust and unfair government. It is a grave mistake for South Africa to sit and watch, this is clearly no longer an internal problem but a human problem such as was the case with Apartheid. If this is an internal problem, then South Africa would not have an influx of refugees running away from Mugabe to South Africa in the throves? It is time South Africa did its own independent assessment of the situation, and in the name of Mandela's legacy.
Dame Lowell Goddard, who is being paid 360,000 a year to chair an official inquiry into child sex abuse

The official inquiry into child sex abuse could run for a decade  and cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of pounds, it emerged last night.

The probe is receiving up to 100 fresh allegations every week  a quarter of them referred to the police.

The largest inquiry in British legal history had already been earmarked to last around five years.

But a lawyer for some of the alleged victims yesterday said it could now take at least ten years.

It sparked fury from campaigners and raised fears the probe could become another Chilcot, the Iraq war inquiry that took six years to complete  longer than British troops were in the country.

The independent child abuse inquiry has already spent almost 18million of public money and has yet to publicly question a single witness or victim.

Lawyers can receive up to 200 an hour from public funds  while its chairman, New Zealand judge Dame Lowell Goddard, is being paid 360,000 a year.

At a hearing yesterday, she announced that a key investigation  into claims of abuse by the Labour peer Lord Janner  would be postponed by at least six months. It is one of 13 cases launched by the inquiry team examining alleged institutional cover-up, with other areas under scrutiny including the Catholic and Anglican churches and abuse in childrens homes in London.

Ben Emmerson QC, counsel to the inquiry, described how swamped his team was. He said they were receiving 80 to 100 allegations a week and that 20 to 25 of these were being referred to the police.

That means forces potentially face a deluge of 1,000 new investigations a year generated by the inquiry. There are already concerns that officers are having to devote too many resources to historical sex abuse claims. Peter Garsden, a partner with the law firm Simpson Millar  which is representing 16 alleged victims of Janner among others  said the inquiry risked being overwhelmed.

He said: This could take at least ten years. There is so much material to go through. The barrister said his clients welcomed the scope of the inquiry but were concerned it would drag on too long, reawakening memories of abuse.

The inquiry  set up in the wake of the Jimmy Savile scandal to examine the way public bodies handled child sex abuse claims  has spent 17.9million on staff, instructing a battery of lawyers and setting up a string of regional offices, but is yet to hear a single word of evidence.

Barristers can receive up to 200 an hour representing alleged victims, while solicitors can get 150  paid for out of inquiry funds.

Dame Justice Goddard, who made her opening statement more than a year ago, receives 360,000 a year salary and a further 110,000 a year in rental allowance. If proceedings take five years, the 68-year-old will receive more than 2.4million of public money.

The inquiry's key investigation  into claims of abuse by the Labour peer Lord Janner, pictured,  is to be postponed by at least six months

And despite her career credentials, an unofficial recent survey of New Zealands 63 judges ranked Dame Goddard at 63rd.

The inquiry has already hired 155 staff, including lawyers and civil servants, and even opened satellite offices in Liverpool, Darlington and Cardiff as well as running a London HQ. So far, more than 2,000 people have contacted the inquiry to say they have suffered abuse, and 600 have consented to take part.

Perhaps the most ambitious part of the inquiry involves the so-called truth project. It will be similar to the Australian Royal Commission into child abuse, in which historic abuse victims were encouraged to testify in private hearings. Again, it raises fears about the length of time it could take to complete.

Marilyn Hawes, of support group Enough Abuse, said last night: If there are 100 allegations a week, this is going to take 10 years at the earliest, more likely 12.

Lord Janner was the subject of controversy last year when Alison Saunders, director of public prosecutions, ruled that it would not be in the public interest to charge him as he had dementia

They have spent millions already and no one has been questioned. Its ridiculous. I question what are we going to achieve at the end of it? This has the potential to be the biggest gravy train for lawyers.

There has to be a forum for these allegations to be heard, a lot of people have suffered brutally and they need help, but will this really bring them justice?

Dame Goddard yesterday adjourned public hearings on Lord Janner until March next year at the earliest because of a police watchdog probe in the case and a separate ongoing criminal investigation into allegations of abuse.

Mr Emmerson said although the Janner investigation had made considerable progress, it still had more work to do, including approaching the intelligence services to see what they knew about the Labour peer. Lawyers will now contact MI5, MI6 and GCHQ to request any files they held on the former MP for Leicester West, who died last year aged 87.

It comes days after the Independent Police Complaints Commission informed 11 officers and staff from Leicestershire police that they were under investigation over their handling of the case.

In January, a report by High Court judge Sir Richard Henriques found that failures by police and prosecutors meant three chances were missed to charge Lord Janner in 1991, 2002 and 2007.

The MP was the subject of controversy last year when Alison Saunders, director of public prosecutions, ruled that it would not be in the public interest to charge him as he had dementia.

After a public outcry, the decision was overturned and he was charged with sexual offences dating back to the 1960s. But he died in December before a so-called trial of the facts could take place.

The criminal case was dropped but claims against him are now being examined as part of the inquiry which has given 33 of his alleged victims the right to make statements, see documents and seek permission to ask questions.

Yesterday Lord Janners lawyers said in a statement: Lord Janner was an honourable man, entirely innocent and never convicted of any crime. A spokesman for the Goddard inquiry said: The chairman has publicly said she aims to finish the inquiry in five years.
The 24billion Japanese takeover of a British tech giant will damage our prowess as a centre of research, a leading lobby group has warned.

Cambridge-based microchip designer ARM Holdings is being bought by SoftBank.

But the sale has raised fears that Britain is about to lose one of its most successful and ground-breaking companies.

And yesterday the Research & Development Society warned that such foreign takeovers rarely benefited the UK.

Its chief executive Nico Macdonald said the deal may also encourage other British companies to sell out to overseas investors.

Cambridge-based microchip designer ARM Holdings (pictured) is being bought by SoftBank.

And he compared SoftBanks takeover to the notorious sale of chocolate maker Cadbury to American firm Kraft.

The buyer failed to keep promises it would protect British jobs and has courted controversy by changing much-loved recipes.

The acquisition of ARM Holdings by SoftBank has very broad ramifications for UK research and development, said Mr Macdonald.

This development will do nothing to support UK growth strategy, particularly for medium-sized companies, and will further weaken the commercialisation environment around science and technology.

This acquisition may also encourage more medium-sized companies to consider selling up. City grandee Lord Paul Myners has also voiced opposition to the deal. Addressing the House of Lords, he asked for assurances that SoftBank  a multinational telecommunications and internet corporation  would not be able to dodge taxes by moving its profits abroad.

The crossbench peer, who is a former Treasury minister, 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. ARM must not be allowed to have the profits from its extremely lucrative licences to go offshore and for it to be a tax haven.

A branch of Softbank, a Japanese telecommunications and Internet corporation firm

Cadburys current owner Mondelez International  which was split out of Kraft in 2012  has been using a controversial accounting system which means it pays no corporation tax in Britain.

A similar scheme is employed by Australian bank Macquarie, known as the vampire kangaroo for its asset-stripping practices.

Under its ownership, utility company Thames Water has only paid 100,000 in corporation tax since 2006.

Although she said she would get tough on foreign buyers, Theresa May has so far been positive about the takeover of ARM.

Ministers argued it showed the nation remained open for business after the Brexit vote.

In a bid to reassure critics, SoftBank has promised to keep ARMs headquarters in Cambridge and double staff numbers, which currently stand at 1,600. Bosses have also publicly ruled out a change in tax arrangements.

SoftBank is due to file papers outlining the commitments which will be overseen by an independent supervisor. If it fails to meet its pledges on staff numbers and keep its head office in the UK, new powers could be enforced by the courts.

Meanwhile, ARM staff have apparently taken to the internet with concerns of their own.

On the website Glassdoor  where staff can anonymously review their workplace  one writer claiming to be a senior software engineer said: Weve listened to the justifications put forth, and they did not inspire.

Lets be honest here. It may take five years, or ten years, but eventually things are going to diverge, tough times will appear, promises arent going to be remembered, and lots of loyal staff are going to be left out in the cold.
Budget supermarkets Aldi and Lidl have seen their combined sales equal those of Morrisons for the first time.

The German discounters together command the same UK market share as their rival thanks to price wars and a surge among the middle classes.

The growth of no-frills chains is slowly breaking the domination of the Big Four  Tesco, Sainsburys, Asda and Morrisons which have all lost market share  in the battle for Britains shoppers.

German discounters together command the same UK market share as their rival thanks to price wars and a surge among the middle classes.

Figures from analysts Kantar Worldpanel show Aldi has a 6.2 per cent market share and Lidl has 4.5 per cent, a joint total of 10.7 per cent.

In January the combined total was 9.7 per cent. Morrisons has seen its market share fall from 11 per cent at the beginning of this year to 10.7 per cent.

The immediate aftermath of Brexit had little effect on supermarket prices which remain 1.4 per cent lower than a year ago.

The organisations head of retail, Fraser McKevitt, said: The EU referendum result has had no immediate impact on the prices retailers are charging or the sales volumes consumers are buying over the past 12 weeks.

It remains to be seen if the Brexit vote will bring about any price rises this year.
Relatives of troops killed in the Iraq war have raised 125,000 in just eight days as they seek to haul Tony Blair into court.

The families said they were 'humbled and amazed' by the generosity of the public after the Daily Mail revealed their legal bid to bring the former prime minister to justice.

More than 4,000 people have dipped into their pockets to push the fighting fund beyond 126,900  around 85 per cent of the 150,000 target.

The families hope to meet their objective within days.

Relatives of troops killed in the Iraq war have raised 125,000 in just eight days as they seek to haul Tony Blair into court. Pictured, Sarah O'Connor, right, sister of Bob O'Connor killed during the Iraq War

The families said they were 'humbled and amazed' by the generosity of the public after the Daily Mail revealed their legal bid to bring the former prime minister to justice. Pictured, Rose Gentle whose 19-year-old son Gordon Gentle died in Iraq

They believe Mr Blair committed 'misfeasance in public office' by misleading Parliament to justify the war, which cost the lives of 179 UK servicemen and women. Following the damning conclusions of the Chilcot Report into the conflict, the Iraq War Families Campaign Group is fighting to 'bring to justice those responsible for the war and the deaths of our loved ones'.

Last night Reg Keys, whose son Lance Corporal Tom Keys was murdered by an Iraqi mob weeks after the 2003 invasion, said: 'It is humbling and astonishing. We are truly grateful for the response of the public.

'There has been a deluge of support from across the country, in every part of society. Every time we meet someone in the street, they tell us how somebody should be held to account for the war.'

The families launched the campaign on Tuesday last week using the CrowdJustice website, which enables individuals and groups to fund legal action.

They are pursuing a civil case because the International Criminal Court has refused to take action, the UK authorities will not bring a criminal prosecution, and an attempt by MPs to name and shame Mr Blair will not result in convictions.

The families believe Mr Blair (pictured) committed 'misfeasance in public office' by misleading Parliament to justify the war, which cost the lives of 179 UK servicemen and women

The families need the fund so lawyers can undertake a 'full and forensic' analysis of the 12-volume report to determine if legal action can be taken. Pictured, (from left) Rose Gentle, mother of Fusilier Gordon Gentle, Sarah O'Connor, sister of Sergeant Bob O'Connor, Roger Bacon, father of Major Matthew Bacon and Reg Keys, father Lance Corporal Tom Keys, who all were killed in Iraq

Sir John Chilcot's 2.6million-word report blasted Mr Blair for rushing into the conflict on the back of flawed intelligence and amid questions over its legality, and for failing to plan for the aftermath of the invasion.

The families need the fund so lawyers can undertake a 'full and forensic' analysis of the 12-volume report to determine if legal action can be taken.

Until now, the lawyers have worked free of charge.

Despite earning millions of pounds since leaving office, Mr Blair is indemnified for all his court costs, including possible damages, under Cabinet Office rules. He insists that he acted in good faith based on the intelligence available to him in the run-up to the war.
An inmate who released by accident from a Georgia jail is now back behind bars after announcing his miataken release on Facebook.

Joshua Keith Ussery, 27, was set free from the Crawford County jail last Tuesday morning.

The crook, who was in prison on burglary charges was re-captured shortly after posting a photo of himself smirking with the caption 'I'm home' on his Facebook profile.

Hello world! Joshua Keith Ussery, 27, couldn't believe his luck when he got out of jail early. He just had to tell everyone about the good news, so went straight to Facebook to post this smirking selfie

Aye aye! Perhaps Ussery will be a little more careful before posting on social media and stay off Facebook!

Ussery had been behind bars since March until last Friday, when a Crawford County detention officer accidentally released him 'due to an oversight.'

The Crawford County sheriff's office realized their error within an hour of his release and sent a number of tracking dogs and Georgia Department of Corrections officers to scour the area in search of the convict.

The officers looked near route U.S. 80 and Sandy Point Road after Ussery was spotted there by a deputy not long after release.

But he Ussery helpfully told police exactly where he was after posting a selfie letting the entire world know, he was at home.
Nazanin Zaghari Ratcliffe, 37, who has been held in a prison in Iran for more than 100 days accused of trying to topple the Islamic Republic

A British mother who has been held in a prison in Iran for more than 100 days has lost weight, seen her hair fall out and is virtually unable to walk, her husband has claimed.

Nazanin Zaghari Ratcliffe, 37, has been detained for more than three months, during which her husband Richard alleges that she has spent around six weeks in solitary confinement causing her health to deteriorate.

Now Mr Ratcliffe has written a letter to new Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson asking him to intervene so his wife can be set free.

In a letter on behalf of Mr Ratcliffe and the Thomson Reuters Foundation, where Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe works as a project manager, Mr Johnson is urged to take on this 'harrowing and urgent matter.'

In June, Iran's Revolutionary Guard (IRG) claimed Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe had participated in the 'design and implementation of cyber and media projects to cause the soft toppling of the Islamic Republic' - an accusation her husband, from West Hampstead, London, branded 'crazy'.

The couple's daughter, two-year-old Gabriella, had her passport confiscated when her mother was arrested at Imam Khomeini airport in Tehran on April 3 and is being looked after in Iran by her grandparents who speak little English.

The letter reads: 'We appreciate that you have just taken over the role as Foreign Secretary and will be facing many competing pressing demands.

'But the plight of Nazanin is of utmost urgency and cannot continue to be ignored. She has been subjected to the harshest of injustice, and it is critical that she now receives the full immediate support and attention from the highest levels of Government.'

It continues: 'We ask you to do all in your power to secure the freedom of this entirely innocent and increasingly frail and desperate young woman, who is a citizen of London with (dual) British nationality, and to bring her and her two-year old British daughter back to England.'

Mr Ratcliffe previously claimed his wife was being held as a 'bargaining chip', after the IRG informed Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe's family at the end of June that they are holding her to pressure the UK government into an agreement and would close her case if this was reached.

He delivered letters to Downing Street for outgoing prime minister David Cameron and his replacement Theresa May earlier in July on his wife's 100th day in custody, urging them to do what they can to secure the release of the 'political prisoner'. Nearly 800,000 people have signed a Change.org petition in support.

Speaking about his last telephone conversation with Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe around a month ago, Mr Ratcliffe said: 'She was just really sad and it was quite emotional: she cried and I cried. She said she was exhausted about how long it had gone on for and just 'please do what I could'.'

The couple's daughter, two-year-old Gabriella, had her passport confiscated when her mother was arrested at Imam Khomeini airport in Tehran on April 3 and is being looked after in Iran by her grandparents who speak little English

Her husband Richard Ratcliffe, pictured, has written a letter to new Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson asking him to intervene so his wife can be set free

It will be their seventh wedding anniversary on August 14 which is traditionally associated with wool and Mr Ratcliffe plans to highlight his separation from his wife by attaching a padlock and knotted wool to a London bridge.

He said there had been some positive signals recently but he had 'learnt not to get his hopes up too much'.

Meanwhile Amnesty International UK's Individuals At Risk Campaigns Manager Felix Jakens said: Boris Johnson should certainly prioritise Nazanin's case, which is extremely troubling and one we've been raising for some time.

'Like other UK-Iranian dual nationals, it looks very much as if Nazanin is being used as a political pawn, with her case having all the hallmarks of a spurious, trumped-up case designed to exert diplomatic pressure on Britain.

'The Foreign Secretary needs to put the plight of the jailed UK-Iranian dual nationals at the top of his Iran to do list, and he certainly needs to push Tehran into either charging Nazanin with an internationally-recognised offence or releasing her as soon as possible and allowing her to travel with her daughter back to the UK.'
Apparently, its not just Parliament that is determined to hold Sir Philip Green to account as the unacceptable face of capitalism.

Even the tycoons nearest and dearest think he should make amends for his past business practices.

His big sister Elizabeth Green, 68, has been telling friends this week she believes he should help to plug the BHS pension schemes black hole of 570 million.

Sir Philip Green's big sister Elizabeth Green, 68, left, has been telling friends this week she believes he should help to plug the BHS pension schemes black hole of 570million

Elizabeth, who runs the Seabird restaurant in New York, will not say so publicly for fear of incurring her siblings wrath, but she is at pains to distance herself from the furore.

Speaking from New York, Liz tells me: I dont really want to get involved. He will go mad at me. Im happy just getting on with my own life.

No one here has made the connection and thats the way I like it, though my close friends have commented on it. After all, he is there and I am here.

Its big news which has reached the States, but I dont want to be caught up in it. Even though hes my brother I dont want people to know as its nothing to do with me.

However, she declines to elaborate on this or comment on the potential threat to his knighthood in the wake of the scandal.

It is understood that while the siblings are fond of each other, they are not especially close. The divorced mother of three certainly doesnt hang out on her brothers celebrity summer sojourns on his superyacht as it wafts around the Mediterranean.

An unassuming woman, she prefers catering to her loyal clients at her West Village fish restaurant, which she has been in the process of revamping herself from a burger bar.

She is said to have put her own money into the venture and Sir Philip, 64, is not thought to be an investor.

Elizabeth said the closure of BHS (pictured closing in Newport, Wales, for the last time) was 'big news' which had reached the States, but she preferred to keep out of it as her brother 'would go mad'

Faint praise for Lord Archer

An author friend of Jeffrey Archer found himself in a fix when the bestselling novelist asked him to write a puff piece for the cover of one of his recent books.

The truth was hed never read any of his novels, but didnt want to upset the great man, by refusing, reveals crime writer Peter James, whose latest book, Death Comes Knocking: Policing Roy Graces Brighton, was published last week.

So he asked the publishers to quote him as saying Im sure this will please Jeffreys legion of fans, which just about satisfied all concerned!

An author friend of Jeffrey Archer (pictured with wife Mary) did not want to admit to not having read any of his books - so instead asked his publishers to use a catch-all quote

Certain details about ministerial Jaguars  custom-built, super-charged, 5-litre XJ  are secret. It is known, though, that they come with massage seats  heated or cooled, according to taste  which may explain why new ministers can barely contain their glee as they clamber in.

But spare a thought for the drivers, who must adjust to their new passengers peccadilloes. In some cases, this means suffering in almost total silence: Edward Heath only spoke to his driver  called Charlie  to complain about the way he changed gear.
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The mothers of Trayvon Martin, Sandra Bland, Eric Garner and Jordan Davis and more have delivered one of the most powerful speeches at the Democratic convention.

The grieving parents walked on stage together as Mothers of the Movement - a group who have been campaigning against gun violence and racism at the hands of police since the deaths of their children.

They all urged voters to back Hillary Clinton, as she 'isn't afraid to say Black Lives Matter'.

Tony Goldwyn, who plays President Grant in the ABC hit series Scandal and works with the Innocence Project, introduced the six women to the stage.

Geneva Reed-Vead (center in white), the mother of 28-year-old Sandra Bland, holds the microphone as she addressed the crowd at the Democratic convention

She was joined by other members of Mothers of the Movement - a group who have been campaigning against gun violence and racism at the hands of police since the deaths of their children

They all urged voters to back Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, as she 'isn't afraid to say Black Lives Matter'

Eric Garner was killed after a police officer put him in a chokehold on Staten Island, New York, in July 2014.

The death of Michael Brown (left) at the hands of a cop sparked protests in Ferguson, Missouri, in August 2014. Sandra Bland (right) hanged herself in her jail cell following an illegal traffic stop in July 2015

Tony Goldwyn, who plays President Grant in the ABC hit series Scandal and works with the Innocence Project, introduced the six women to the stage

The mothers stood proud as they walked off the convention stage after their appearance that reduced many in the crowd to tears

Their remarks brought the crowd at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia to a standstill.

Geneva Reed-Vead, the mother of 28-year-old Sandra Bland, said: 'Exactly one year ago yesterday, I lived the worst nightmare anyone could imagine. I watched as my daughter, Sandra Bland, was lowered into the ground in a coffin.

'I'm here with Hillary Clinton because she is a leader and a mother who will say our children's names.

'Hillary knows that when a young black life is cut short, it's not just a personal loss. It is a national loss. It is a loss that diminishes all of us.

'What a blessing to here tonight, so that Sandy can still speak through her mama.

MOTHERS OF THE MOVEMENT: THE MEMBERS Sybrina Fulton, the mother of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin Lezley McSpadden, the mother of 18-year-old Michael Brown Gwen Carr, the mother of 43-year-old Eric Garner Geneva Reed-Vead, the mother of 28-year-old Sandra Bland Lucia McBath, mother of 17-year-old Jordan Davis Maria Hamilton, the mother of Dontre Hamilton Cleopatra Pendleton-Cowley, the mother of 15-year-old Hadiya Pendleton Advertisement

'And what a blessing it is for all of us that we have the opportunityif we seize itto cast our votes for a president who will help lead us down the path toward restoration and change.'

Lucia McBeth, the mother of Jordan Davies - a 17-year-old black boy who was shot by a white man for playing his music too loud - then took the microphone and said: 'You don't stop being a mother when your child dies.

'His life ended when he was shot for playing live music, but my job didn't.

'Here's what you don't know about my son. He wouldn;t eat a popsicle if he didn't have enoigh to bring out to his friends.

I lived in fear that my son would die like this/

I even warned him that because he was a young black he would meet people who would value him or his life.

'Hillary Clinton isn't afraid to say Black Lives Matter. She doesn't build walls around her heart.

'We are going to keep telling our children stories and we are urging you to say their names.

'The majority of police officers are good people doing a good job.'

Sybrina Fulton, the mother of Trayvon Martin, then told the audience she was an unwilling participant in the campaign - but was there to help more people like her son.

'I am here today for my son, Trayvon Martin, who is in heaven. And for my other son who is still here on earth. I didn't want this spotlight. But will I do everything I can to focus some of that light on a path out of this darkness.

'Hillary Clinton has the compassion to comfort a grieving mother. She has the courage to lead the fight for common sense gun legislation. And she has a plan to repair the divide that so often exists between law enforcement and the communities they serve.'

Introducing them to the stage, Goldwyn said: 'I am proud tonight to introduce a group of women profoundly impacted by injustice and violence, who have turned their pain into power and their outrage into action. They are the Mothers of the Movement.

'They understand that we must reach out to each other because of our diversity, because we are stronger together.

'Hillary says we cant hide from these hard truths about race and justice in America. We have to name them and own them, and then change them. Thats what shell do as President The Mothers of the Movement prove that one life at a time, one Mother at a time, we can change the world.'

Lucia McBeth, the mother of Jordan Davies - a 17-year-old black boy who was shot dead by a white man for playing his music too loud - then took the microphone (pictured) and said: 'You don't stop being a mother when your child die

Mothers of the Movement (left to right)) Geneva Reed-Veal, mother of Sandra Bland delivers remarks as Lucia McBath, mother of Jordan Davis; and Sybrina Fulton, mother of Trayvon Martin look on during the second day of the DNC

Lezley McSpadden (right), the mother of Micheal Brown, wipes a tear from her eye alongside Cleopatra Pendleton-Cowley (left), mother of Hadiya Pendleton, and Wanda Johnson (center), mother of Oscar Grant

Many members of the crowd were in tears as the mothers delivered their emotional address, urging the party faithful to get behind Hillary

PHILADELPHIA, PA - JULY 26: Supporters of the Black Lives Matter movement stand during remarks from the Mothers of the Movement

Also taking the stage Tuesday were former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and Pittsburgh Chief of Police Cameron McLay, who said it is possible 'to respect and support our police while at the same time pushing for these important criminal justice reforms.'

Clinton has made gun safety one of the foundations of her presidential campaign, vowing to overcome the legendary resistance of gun-rights advocates and their GOP allies to push for expanded criminal background checks and a renewal of a ban on assault weapons.

Her search for a breakthrough comes as Donald Trump has repeatedly touted the benefits of access to firearms as a way to counter to acts of violence. The Republican nominee promoted a law-and-order message at his convention, where speakers routinely expressed solidarity with police officers and decried the recent slayings of officers in Dallas and Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Yet Democrats view the recent spate of mass shootings and police-involved killings as turning the tide in favor of new restrictions on firearms and a catalyst for criminal justice reform.

'This is the moment,' said Melissa Mark-Viverito, the speaker of the city council in New York.

Indeed, Americans increasingly favor tougher gun laws by margins that have grown after the spate of recent mass shootings, according to a recent Associated Press-GfK poll. Almost two-thirds say they support stricter laws, with majorities favoring nationwide bans on the sale of semi-automatic assault weapons such as the AR-15 and on the sale of high-capacity magazines holding 10 or more bullets.

Both conventions have coincided with a wrenching period of violence and unrest, both in the United States and around the world. Last month, a gunman opened fire in a crowded gay dance club in Orlando, Florida, killing 49 people and injuring dozens more in the worst mass shooting in U.S. history.

Still, despite a spate of high-profile shootings in recent years, including the 2012 slaying of 20 first graders and six adults at a Connecticut school and the murder of 9 African-American church members at a Charleston church last year, Democrats have largely failed in their efforts to change federal gun laws.

In the recent AP-GfK poll, less than half of Americans said they believe gun laws will get tougher in the coming year. But advocates for gun control say the political landscape has changed dramatically since the 1990s, when then-President Bill Clinton blamed heavy losses in the 1994 mid-term elections in part to a public backlash against the ban on certain military-style weapons. That ban expired after 10 years and has not been renewed.

'It's clearly not 1994 anymore,' said Mark Kelly, the husband of former Arizona Democratic Rep. Gabby Giffords, who was seriously wounded in a 2011 shooting in Tucson that left six people dead.

Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., said the shifting landscape is the result of several factors: Shootings such as the Sandy Hook school massacre in 2012, renewed concerns over terrorism and high-profile killings of black men in several cities.

'For the first time, this is a winning issue in the general election,' Murphy said.

A delegate wipes her eyes as she records the moving speech by the activists, who were brought together by Hillary Clinton
Kyzr Willis, 8, of Boston was reported missing around 3pm on Tuesday before he was found dead around 7pm

An eight-year-old boy who went missing from a summer day camp at a Boston beach has been found dead in the water.

Kyzr Willis was reported missing at around 3pm on Tuesday from the city-run camp at Carson Beach in the city's South Boston neighborhood.

Following an extensive search lasting more than four hours, his body was found at around 7pm in the water off Carson Beach, behind the Curley Community Center, where he was attending camp.

Police said the child wandered off from the L Street Bathhouse and the reason he left remains unclear.

A preliminary investigation suggests he drowned, according to FOX 25 Boston.

Melissa Willis, Kyzr's mother, told The Boston Globe that she had dropped her son off for camp at 9.45am on Tuesday.

The camp runs from 10am to 3pm, Monday to Thursday.

When she returned shortly before 3pm to pick him up, she said he never showed up.

'He's a good kid. I don't know why he would ever go off... He's always with an adult,' Willis told The Boston Globe.

She also described Kyzr as a boy with a knack for excitement.

'He's a daredevil,' she told The Globe. 'He's outgoing, he keeps you on your toes and he's just a great, intelligent kid.'

Kyzr, who was going to be a first grader at Mather Elementary School in the Fall, was last seen at around 2.05pm at the bathhouse, according to police.

Boston Police Commissioner William B. Evans said authorities believe Kyzr wandered out of the front door of the bathhouse by himself at around 2.15pm.

Family members and loved ones were emotional outside the bathhouse after learning the news of Kyzr's death (shown above)

Police said the child wandered off from the L Street Bathhouse and the reason he left remains unclear

Kyzr's family and loved ones waited back at the Curley Center for almost five hours while the search took place

Police said authorities began a search of the area, which included state police helicopters circling above and troopers in boats searching the water.

Kyzr's family and loved ones waited back at the Curley Center for almost five hours while the search took place.

When they learned his body had been pulled from the water, relatives ran into the community center where they began sobbing, shouting cries of 'no' and 'terrible.'

One man was heard shouting, 'my nephew's gone,' The Globe reported.

Police Commissioner Evans told reporters his heart goes out to the family and called the death a 'tragedy.'

'Obviously our hearts break for the family,' he said. 'It's everyone's worst nightmare.'

Willis and some of the other relatives left the center at 8.30pm with a police escort after learning the news, and did not speak to reporters.

Now loved ones are trying to understand how Kyzr left the bathhouse unnoticed by camp staff.

Authorities believe Kyzr wandered out of the front door of the bathhouse by himself at around 2.15pm. Shortly after, police began a search of the area, which included state police helicopters circling above and troopers in boats searching the water (shown above)

Following an extensive search lasting more than four hours, Kyzr's body was found in the water off Carson Beach, behind the Curley Community Center (pictured), where he was attending camp

The camp is run by city agency, Boston Centers for Youth and Families, according to The Globe.

Will Morales, commissioner of the agency, said in a statement on Tuesday that the BCYF community is 'absolutely heartbroken' over the loss of Kyzr, according to The Globe.

'Our deepest sympathies go out to this young boy's family,' he said.

'BCYF will work closely with the Boston Police Department throughout the investigation.'

The bathhouse will remain closed while police continue to investigate.

The U.S. Coast Guard, state police, Boston police and Quincy police all assisted in the search.

Boston Mayor Martin J. Walsh released a statement on Tuesday night saying that he will be working closely with the Boston Centers for Youth and Families and Boston police to determine exactly what happened.

Walsh, who was on his way home on Tuesday from the Democratic National Convention, said the city is 'devastated' over the loss and that his heart was broken for the Willis family.
The sacked Northern Territory Corrections Minister should be 'applauded' for his work despite revelations of horrific treatment being meted out to juvenile inmates at detention centres under his watch, according to his former boss.

John Elferink was dumped following outrage at the abuse of boys at the Don Dale youth centre but NT Chief Minister Adam Giles has praised his time in charge.

'Minister John Elferink should be applauded for the work he's done in trying to reform the prison system,' Mr Giles said on radio Mix 104.9.

The ABC's Four Corners program aired shocking footage of youths being abused by custody officers which included gassings, being stripped naked and punched and having hoods placed on their heads in isolation rooms.

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The NT Corrections Minister John Elferink was sacked after shocking footage of abuse was revealed on the Four Corners program but he had been 'applauded' for his reform work in the prison system

Mr Elferink (left) was dumped as Corrections Minister by the Northern Territory Chief Minister Adam Giles (right) after the disturbing footage was made public

Footage included audio where guards were heard to say 'I'll pulverise the f*****' as a young man in isolation was banging at windows and a boy grabbed by the throat and thrown to the ground

The NT chief minister says his government inherited a broken youth detention system from Labor and dismissed called for the government to be sacked

'Some of the stuff I saw on Monday night, I hadn't seen before - things such as hitting children, throwing them on the ground violently, hands around their necks, sitting on top of them demonising them, that's the stuff that really irked me,' Mr Giles said regarding the Four Corners report.

He refused to remove Mr Elferink from his other roles, including Attorney-General and Children and Families Minister.

'John has done an amazing job in trying to turn around a cycle of dysfunction,' he said in the radio interview.

'He should be applauded for the work he has done in trying to reform the prison industries.

'Most certainly government was misled about the events that occurred and that gassing incident.'

The use of spit masks and restraint chairs will be stopped until after the review, Mr Giles added.

In one of the videos a guard is heard to say 'I'll pulverise the f****' as a young man in isolation was banging at windows.

The pledge for an inquiry from a 'deeply shocked' Malcolm Turnbull came in the wake of footage showing teens being stripped naked, tear-gassed and held in solitary confinement for weeks at a time in 2014 and 2015.

In one video, a 17-year-old is hooded, shackled to a 'mechanical device' chair and left alone for two hours.

Northern Territory Chief Minister Adam Giles (pictured) took over the corrective services portfolio following the Don Dale youth centre scandal and praised Mr Elferink as having done 'an amazing job'. He has refused to remove Mr Elferink from his other roles, including Attorney-General and Children and Families Minister

Northern Territory Corrections Minister John Elferink was dumped following the outrage of the treatment of teen inmates of the Don Dale youth detention centre

A royal commission will probe problems in the Northern Territory's juvenile justice system, as the NT chief minister takes over the corrections job

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has vowed to quickly get to the bottom of the brutal abuse of teens in Northern Territory detention which has 'shocked and appalled' the nation. The prime minister launched a royal commission after ABC's Four Corners aired footage of the mistreatment at Don Dale centre on Monday night

NT Chief Minister Adam Giles on Tuesday sacked his corrections minister John Elferink from that role after the revelations about the Don Dale youth detention centre (pictured) but left him in charge of related portfolios including Attorney-General

Dylan Voller was a detainee at the centre, in March 2015, but was transferred to an adult prison after telling guards he would 'snap his bone through his skin' in order to go to hospital.

Mr Voller was left bound in the chair for more than two hours and as the guards returned, he was almost unresponsive and providing one-word answers to their questions.

The 'spit hood' - a meshed bag that prevents detainees from spitting on staff - was placed over his head and bound around his neck with a thick black strap for the ordeal.

The guards can be heard telling the teenager he had stepped out of line by 'chewing on [his] mattress' and throwing toilet paper in his cell, before threatening to break his own arm.

NT Chief Minister Adam Giles took over the corrections portfolio from the retiring MP John Elferink and admitted to a systemic 'culture of cover-up' which had led to most of the footage being kept secret from cabinet and police.

The royal commission is expected to begin taking evidence in September ahead of a final report in early 2017 on the corrections system, child protection and the 'root causes' of child detention, Mr Giles said.

The terms of reference for the royal commission are still being considered.

In one video, a 17-year-old is hooded, shackled to a 'mechanical device' chair and left alone for two hours

The Four Corners program showing teens being stripped naked, tear-gassed and held in solitary confinement for weeks at a time in the Don Dale youth centre in 2014 and 2015

Four Corners aired footage showing one boy being shackled to a 'mechanical device' chair and left alone for two hours and another being tackled, lifted and hurled across a room. It alleged children were held in solitary confinement for up to 24 hours a day, with no natural light, no running water, no fans, air conditioners or breeze

The Law Council has called for the immediate closure of the Don Dale centre, in line with the previous recommendation of a children's commission report

Mr Turnbull said 'cultural and administrative problems' needed to be resolved.

'We need to understand how it was that there were inquiries into Don Dale (youth detention centre) as a place where there had been allegations and claims of abuse ... that did not produce the evidence that we've seen last night,' he said.

Mr Giles said he would also be permanently appointing an inspector-general for corrections.

The Law Council has called for the immediate closure of the Don Dale centre, in line with an earlier Children's Commission report.

The upcoming royal commission, likely to be led by a senior lawyer or retired judge, will have powers to compel witnesses and the production of evidence.

It's expected to jointly run by the federal and NT governments and the terms of reference to be drafted soon.

The pledge for a royal commission from a 'deeply shocked' Malcolm Turnbull came in the wake of footage aired by the ABC Four Corners program showing teens being stripped naked, tear-gassed and held in solitary confinement for weeks at a time

NT police will investigate the program's allegations, a new detention centre will be built and an inspector-general of corrections will be appointed




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Castile, 32, was shot and killed by a police officer during a traffic stop

Police have tried several times to reopen avenue and cleared it once before

Police have arrested at least 46 demonstrators who had gathered in front of the governor of Minnesota's home to protest against Philando Castile's shooting death.

People have camped outside Mark Dayton's mansion on Summit Avenue, in Saint Paul, since Castile was shot and killed by an officer on July 6.

His girlfriend filmed the aftermath of the shooting on her cellphone, prompting protests over the treatment of black people by the police across the nation.

Officers asked demonstrators to stop blocking the street on Tuesday morning. Protesters began to clean up their belongings.

Police arrested at least 46 demonstrators on Tuesday in front of the governor of Minnesota's home, where they had gathered to protest against Philando Castile's shooting death. Pictured, demonstrator Jacob Ladda is taken away in handcuffs

People have camped outside Mark Dayton's mansion in Saint Paul since Castile was shot and killed by an officer on July 6. Pictured, a protester looks at a police officer after the beginning of Tuesday's arrests

But a dozen officers in riot gear arrived around noon and said everyone in front of the house would be arrested, the Star Tribune reported.

Police called the demonstration an unlawful assembly according to the newspaper. Officers were pictured tackling a protester to the ground and spraying a 16-year-old.

One demonstrator yelled: 'Don't resist arrest!' More than a dozen people were arrested on the sidewalk by 12:20, the Star Tribune wrote.

Protesters could protest on the sidewalk but not 'have things that obstruct the sidewalk, the bike lane and the street', St Paul police spokesman Steve Linders told the newspaper.

Police first announced they had arrested 26 adults and one juvenile for charges including disorderly conduct, unlawful assembly and public nuisance. Pictured, a protester stands in front of officers on Tuesday

One demonstrator yelled: 'Don't resist arrest!' as officers began clearing Summit Avenue. Pictured, a protester is arrested outside of Dayton's house

Police later announced they had arrested 19 people in addition to the previous 26 adults and one juvenile. Pictured, 16-year old Tayvion Owens gets sprayed as officers and protesters face off on Tuesday

A dozen officers in riot gear arrived around noon and said everyone in front of the house would be arrested. Pictured, Ownes pours milk in his eyes after being sprayed in the face

Charges included disorderly conduct, unlawful assembly and public nuisance. Pictured, protester Joshua Lawrence is arrested by St Paul police on Tuesday

'We continue to be committed to allow for peaceful protests, but we have an obligation that people are safe and follow the rules, and when that's no longer the case we need to take action, like we did today,' St Paul Mayor Chris Coleman said.

But a protester told the Star Tribune that officers were employing 'intimidation tactics' by asking them to get rid of their food, water, tents and other items used to provide shade.

Police first announced they had arrested 26 adults and one juvenile for charges including disorderly conduct, unlawful assembly and public nuisance. Another update accounted for 19 additional arrests.

Demonstrators have now been removed from the street, but it will remain closed vehicles, pedestrians and bikes, St Paul police said on Twitter.

Officers had cleared the area before on July 18 but protesters had come back into the road on Sunday.

Minneapolis NAACP President Nekima Levy-Pounds accused police of a 'show of military force against unarmed peaceful protesters.'

Dayton is in Philadelphia for the Democratic National Convention. He was not involved in the decision to clear the street, according to his spokesman.

Castile's girlfriend filmed the aftermath of the shooting on her cellphone, prompting protests over the treatment of black people by the police across the nation. Pictured, Tyler Clark Edwards raises his fist in front of a large photo of Castile

Police called the demonstration an unlawful assembly. Pictured, Wintana Melekin speaks to a line of St Paul officers as police and protesters face off on Summit Avenue

Protesters (pictured) began packing up their sleeping bags, bedding and other belongings after police told them to leave the area on Tuesday

Dayton is in Philadelphia for the Democratic National Convention. He was not involved in the decision to clear the street, according to his spokesman. Pictured, officers watch as protesters pack up their belongings
A class action by thousands of ANZ customers against the bank's 'excessive' fees has been dismissed by the High Court.

The judgement, handed down in Brisbane on Wednesday, follows a six-year legal battle between ANZ and more than 43,000 of its customers who claimed the bank had unfairly charged people for paying their credit card bills late.

Lawyers for the customers had argued that a late payment fee of up to $35 was unfair because the actual cost to the bank was often only 50 cents.

A class action by thousands of ANZ customers against the bank's 'excessive' late credit card payment fees was dismissed in the High Court on Wednesday

The late payment fees are charged by the bank, on top of interest, when minimum repayments are not met by the due date.

ANZ customers took their case to the High Court after the Federal Court last year countered a 2014 decision deeming the charges illegal.

The appeal was dismissed on Wednesday with the High Court ruling that the charges were not established as 'penalties' and that ANZ could recover losses caused by late payments.

The judgement follows a six-year legal battle between ANZ and more than 43,000 of its customers who claimed the bank had unfairly charged people for paying their credit card bills late

'The relevant question in this case is whether the late payment fee is out of all proportion to the ANZ's interest in receiving timeous payment of the minimum monthly payment,' Justice Susan Kiefel said.

'Applying this test, the appellants did not establish that the late payment fee was a penalty.'

ANZ customers could have been eligible for heft payouts if the appeal had succeeded.

This recent class action is just one of several against the big networks, including Commonwealth Bank, Westpac and St George.
Both had struggled with health issues recently, according to close friends

The Friedmans were among the first in Connecticut to get solar panels

Judi and Lou Friedman, 80 and 81, were found dead in Canton Tuesday

A pioneering environmentalist couple were found dead in their Connecticut home after an apparent double suicide.

Judi and Lou Friedman, respectively 80 and 81, lived in an energy-efficient, 25-acre property in Canton.

They were among the first in their state to get solar panels installed at home and traveled around the world to discuss environmental causes.

The Friedmans had both struggled with health issues recently, some of their longtime friends told the Hartford Courant.

Judi and Lou Friedman (pictured), respectively 80 and 81, were found dead Tuesday in their home in Canton, Connecticut. They had established themselves as pioneering environmentalists

Lou had problems with his heart and knees that kept him at home most of the time. Judi had led the People's Action for Clean Energy (PACE), an environmentalist group for Connecticut residents, for 43 years - but had retired earlier this month partly due to health concerns.

The family's attorney found the Friedmans' bodies on Tuesday while arriving for a scheduled meeting, Police Chief Christopher Arciero told the Hartford Courant.

Preliminary evidence suggested apparent suicides, Arciero said. Authorities will release the official causes of death on Wednesday once the autopsies are completed, Fox 61 reported.

Judi and Lou were 'ahead of their time' in their dedication to environmentalist causes, the New York Times wrote in a profile published in 1992.

The Friedmans (pictured) began working together in the mid-1980s and traveled the world to discuss environmental causes. They were among the first people in Connecticut to ever get solar panels

Both worked for several advocacy groups and traveled across Europe and Asia to discuss environmental issues and world peace.

The couple once brought a solar-powered watch to Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, the Hartford Courant wrote.

'Judi and Lou lived full lives characterized by passion, political activism, a commitment to family, and strongly-held beliefs about the pressing social, economic and political issues of our time,' their obituary reads.

'They relished lively debates with friends and family on topics ranging from energy policy to the upcoming presidential election.'

Judi worked as a third-grade teacher for five years, then became a stay-at-home mother for her three children with Lou.

She wrote about environmental causes in children's books such as Jelly Jam: The People Preserver and published nine books in 30 years, according to the couple's obituary.

Lou founded Westledge School, an experimental, multiracial secondary school in Simsbury, Connecticut, in 1968.

He later worked for civil rights group as a consultant. The couple began working together in the mid-1980s, setting up their own offices on different sides of their home.

'We've had many people tell us that what we do is too intense and depressing,' Lou told the New York Times in 1992.
A married mother-of-two was hospitalised weighing just 30 kilograms after she had her wisdom teeth out because she became so addicted to painkillers she started taking 92 tablets a day.

Jessica Khachan, from Ryde in north-west Sydney, is one of a growing number of Australians who have become addicted to painkillers like opioids.

Now 42-years-old, Ms Khachan was prescribed codeine when she had a minor surgery to have her wisdom teeth removed at the start of 2011.

She then began purchasing Nurofen Plus, which contains codeine, when her prescription ran out.

Two-years-later she was taking 92 tablets a day, and was so dependent she could not do even the most basic of tasks without them.

Jessica Khachan (pictured in recent months), from Ryde in north-west Sydney, is one of a growing number of Australians who have become addicted to painkillers like opioids

'Physically I had to do it [take codeine] to function every day and do ordinary things like getting my kids from school and getting out of bed,' Ms Khachan told Daily Mail Australia.

Ms Khachan said she was in denial and 'ashamed' of her addiction for a long time.

Ms Khachan is pictured about one month before she was hospitalised, 2013

'You become terrified of what people are going to think of you,' she told Daily Mail Australia.

She hid the boxes of medication 'in sneaky places you wouldn't think to look' to keep her struggle from her family and friends, who were oblivious until her health took a plunge.

'The last two months [of my addiction] my body deteriorated really quickly,' she said. 'My body was pretty much shutting down.'

Her family began asking questions when she dramatically lost weight and her hair fell out, while her skin was tinged green because of anaemia. She was 'like a zombie' and 'spaced out', she said.

'It's such a sad way to live. And actually I wasn't even living, I was just existing,' Ms Khachan told Daily Mail Australia.

During those last few months of her addiction, Ms Khachan was developing an ulcer so 'excruciating' she sometimes couldn't walk, but it fed her dependency on painkillers.

In February 2013, Ms Khachan was rushed to hospital in need of six blood transfusions after her husband took her to a GP who believed she could be dead by the next morning.

'I kind of knew why, but part of me was still in denial as well. I went along because I was so tired. I was so tired of having to buy all this. It was getting really tiring hiding, and being sick all the time,' she said.

'That was when my journey of recovery started.'

Ms Khachan said although she is still in recovery and is 'just one pill from becoming hooked again', she does not crave codeine.

'If anything, I'm terrified of it. I've come a really long way. It absolutely destroyed my life.

'I wouldn't go back because of the quality of my life today, and all the simple things  to be able to be present when my kids have things on at school and see my son start his first day of high school.

'[I think about] what a blessings things are, because I could have missed them. They [my children] could have had no mother.'

Ms Khachan said those who are suffering or know someone suffering with an addiction to opioids to seek help from campaigns like ScriptWise and their website Turn To Help which was launched this week.

She said people who understood the addiction 'were key to my recovery'.

But she believes education about the addictiveness of painkillers was just as important, so the stigma no longer keeps people from seeking help.

The 42-year-old mother-of-two (pictured with her children in recent months) was prescribed codeine when she had her wisdom teeth removed in a minor surgery and became dependent on the painkillers

'The stigma is that  you feel like you should be able to stop because you're educated and you come from a good home.

'But addiction isn't a choice. You don't wake up one day and think: "Today I want to get a packet of codeine".'



Common opioid painkillers include codeine, tramadol, oxycodone, fentanyl and morphine.

Cancer patients and those suffering serious injury require them for pain relief, but use among others has escalated.

Opioid use increased 15-fold between 1992 and 2012, from 500,000 to 7.5 million a year, according to Turn To Help.

Codeine (stock image) is a type of opioid, an addictive form of painkillers

Signs of a dependency include: using more to get the same effect; being unable to stop or cut down on opioids; being absent from work or school; losing interest in activities; losing friendships or having relationship problems; having sleep problems; being irritable; having sexual problems; and digestive issues like constipation.

The third annual Sydney Recovery Walk for those in recovery and their supporters, as well as those whose lives have been lost to addiction, is taking place on Sunday September 25 in Sydney.
Police have released harrowing CCTV and mobile phone footage of a man brutally bashing a passenger on a packed Melbourne train last month.

The victim was travelling home with a female colleague from Melbourne's city at about 9.45pm on June 29 when the alleged attacker boarded the train.

Wearing a hooded black jumper, dark shorts and a dark cap with sunglasses on top, police allege the man began swearing and making crude comments about other passengers on the train.

After allegedly confronting the attacker about his language, the victim was then slapped, rammed into a train carriage window and repeatedly punched in the face until passengers intervened.

Dramatic CCTV footage shows the moment an irate man pushed past a woman to brutally bash a passenger who confronted him for swearing on a Melbourne train last month

'I'll f***ing ruin you': The alleged attacker rammed the victim's head into the train carriage window

Footage shows the alleged attacker taunting the victim, who remains seated and puts his hand up to signal he does not want to fight.

'Don't look at me like you want to fight me then,' the alleged attacker says as he paces back and forth from his seat.

'I'll f***ing wreck you, I'll f***ing ruin you like a b*** in front of all these people.

'I'll f*** you like a whore.'

At this point the alleged attacker slams the unsuspecting victim's face into the window before returning to his seat.

The victim's female colleague attempts to stop the violence by ushering the man off the train at Canterbury Railway Station, but he immediately reboards and peppers the victim with a flurry of punches to the head.

The man's female colleague attempted to calm the alleged attacker down and lead him off the train

He eventually got off at Canterbury Railway Station, only to sprint back on and repeatedly hit the victim in the face

Horrified passengers then scramble to constrain the man, but he breaks free and runs off the train, crossing the tracks and escaping over a wall.

The savage attack left the victim with swelling, bruising and a mild concussion.

Transit Crime Investigation Unit detectives have also released images of a man they wish to speak to in relation to the incident.
On the morning of September 11, Lauren Manning arrived to work in the offices of Cantor Fitzgerald.

It started out like any other day, but hours later 82 per cent of her body was covered in burns.

The mother-of-two was lucky to make it out of the World Trade Center alive, but has spent years trying to recover.

But she says one person was there for her when she need support - Hillary Clinton.

In a rousing speech to the Democratic National Convention, she explained how the then New York Senator turned up at her hospital bed and grabbed her bandaged hand.

When she left, she didn't lose touch. Manning said the politician kept in contact with her for years after.

Lauren Manning told the Democratic National Convention crowd how Hillary Clinton supported her as she recovered from horrific injuries sustained in 9/11

Manning is seen holding on to her husband Greg in hospital in New York in March 2002, just six months after the horrific attacks

She told the crowd: 'When I arrived at the World Trade Center on the morning of September 11th, 2001, I was a partner at Cantor Fitzgerald.

'A moment later, my life changed forever. I was burned over 82 percent of my body, my chances of survival next to zero. I battled for months to live, and for years to recover.

'Hillary Clinton stood with me through that fight. In the darkest of days and the hardest of times, the people who show up mean everything.

'She walked into my hospital room and took my bandaged hand in her own. Our connection wasn't between a senator and her constituent. Our connection was person to person.

'Hillary showed up. She visited, called, and checked in for years, because she cared. When I needed her, she was there. When our first responders needed her, she was there. Now our country needs her.

The mother-of-three, who was a partner at Cantor Fitzgerald and was in the office when the planes struck, waved to the delegates as she walked out onto the stage

She said: 'She walked into my hospital room and took my bandaged hand in her own. Our connection wasn't between a senator and her constituent. Our connection was person to person'

'In that woman is a hell of a tough person. She came through. Not for the cameras. Not because anyone was watching. But because that's who she is.'

The former Secretary of State has always had kind words for Manning.

During a speech at the John Jay Center of Criminal Justice in 2011, Clinton said: '[She] has been very much front and center in my mind because of the book that she has just published

'Although she was badly burned, through fierce willpower and character, she fought her way back and reclaimed her life

'Lauren writes that we may all, in fact, we all will be touched by adversity as we go on our lifes journey, but we can refuse to be trapped by it.

'And that is what emerged so powerfully on September 11th and all the days that followed  compassion, courage, and character as strong as one can imagine and even stronger than the steel that [was] in the towers.'
The 44-year-old was charged after he left jail for a previous conviction

He was caught after he left his DNA on an empty bottle of Crown Lager

Craig Doherty was convicted for stealing $15,000 worth of goods and cash

A 44-year-old man was convicted of a $15,000 burglary because he left his DNA on an empty beer bottle at the scene of the crime.

Craig Doherty had only just been released from jail when he was charged with the outstanding matter of robbing two businesses in Geelong West, south-west of Melbourne, on December 6, 2014.

Doherty had forced his way into the before stealing knives, electrical items, cutlery, a laptop and $1,500 in cash, reported Geelong Advertiser.

Man is charged for stealing $15,000 worth of cash and goods from two businesses because he left his DNA on a bottle of Crown Lager

'He then walked through to a fabric shop next door and stole $100 change and a computer,' Police prosecutor, Leading Senior Constable Kerrie Moroney said.

Doherty then decided to have a cold drink before leaving the premise.

'He removed two bottles of Crown Lager from a fridge and drank the contents of one before leaving the empty bottle containing his DNA behind in a bag,' said Constable Moroney.

Doherty pleaded guilty to two charges as theft as he explained the crimes occurred during an ice addiction that stemmed six years.

Magistrate Gerard Lethbridge convicted Doherty before sentencing him to 12 month Community Corrections Order as well as 100 hours of unpaid community work.

The Magistrate recognised that Doherty was attempting to change his life after having already served nine months behind bars and was completing a two-year Community Corrections Order and 200 hours of community work.
The widow of a man who died after suffering a stroke in a toilet hospital before he lay unnoticed for more than 20 hours has slammed the health minister as a 'waste of space'.

Lexie Bugden has spoken of her grief following the death of her husband Alan Bugden, 67, who was found unconscious in a locked cubicle at Sydney's Royal North Short Hospital last August.

On Wednesday, Ms Bugden told 2UE NSW Health Minister Jillian Skinner never returned her calls or apologised for her husband's death after the family felt let down by the hospital's administration.

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Lexie Bugden (left) has slammed NSW Health Minister Jillian Skinner (right) as a 'waste of space' after her husband died following a stroke in a toilet at Sydney's Royal North Short Hospital last August

Alan Bugden, 67, (pictured) died after he was found unconscious in a locked cubicle more than 20 hours later

Sonya (right) and Youssef Ghanem (left), from Sydney's west, has called for the health minister to resign after they lost their baby boy John on July 13, after he was mistakenly given nitrous oxide instead of oxygen

Her comments comes after the grieving family of a newborn baby boy, who died after he was mistakenly given nitrous oxide instead of oxygen, called for Ms Skinner to resign.

After listening to John Stanley and Garry Linnell speak to Ms Skinner about her response to the latest hospital bungle, Mrs Bugden called the radio station to weigh in on the discussion.

'She's a waste of space. She really is,' Mrs Bugden said.

'I reckon that minister's an absolute liar.'

Following her husband's death, Mrs Bugden said she only received an apology from the hospital but her several attempts to get onto the health minister fell on deaf ears.

'She never picked up the phone, she wouldn't talk to me,' Mrs Bugden continued as she vented her frustration after she was left in the dark.

Mrs Bugden (pictured in an interview last year) claimed she never received an apology from the health minister over the tragic death of her husband who died after he suffered a stroke in a hospital toilet

The Bugden family said they were devastated after the man was found by a cleaner more than 20 hours later

Mr Bugden's wife Lexie and their daughter Hayley Clarke (right) spoke of their grief to 9 News last year

'About a month ago a lady in John Hunter [a Newcastle hospital] died in a locked toilet. It's a joke, I rang and I just wanted to talk to her to give her my idea of what should happen in those toilets.

'I wrote her an email saying "as a woman, as a mother, as a wife, pick up the phone". And I went to one of those meetings and they promised us it could never happen again.

'These people said that the procedures they put in (after her husband's death) went right through every public hospital. And eight months later another lady dies in a toilet. You must have to look at it and think "well there's something wrong in our system". There must be.'

The health minister has been called to resign over the latest hospital bungle that left a newborn baby dead and another with brain damage after they were mistakenly given nitrous oxide instead of oxygen

The infant's mother Sonia Ghanem (pictured) woke from anaesthesia after undergoing an emergency caesarean to hear her baby boy was dead after he was mistakenly given 'happy gas' instead of oxygen

Her comments comes after the death of John Ghanem who died after he was administered a lethal dose of 'happy gas' instead of oxygen during birth at Bankstown-Lidcombe hospital on July 13.

The Ghanem family has called for the health minister to resign after she did not make any contact with the parents until Tuesday afternoon.

'She told everyone she didnt speak to us because we asked for privacy but that is not true. We wanted to speak to her, to find out what has happened and know the truth,' a family member told The Daily Telegraph.
Two Muslim flatmates have pleaded guilty to preparing a terror attack in Sydney, however the duo denied they had intentions to harm anyone.

Omar al-Kutobi, 25, and Mohammad Kiad, 26, were arrested in February 2015 at their shared squalid granny flat at Fairfield, western Sydney where police uncovered plans and weapons.

On Wednesday the pair pleaded guilty to one count each of conspiring to do an act in preparation for a terrorist act or acts, the Daily Telegraph reported.

Omar al-Kutobi, 25, (right) and Mohammad Kiad, 26, (right) have pleaded guilty to terror charges in the NSW Supreme Court

However al-Kutobi's lawyer said in court he disagreed with some of the alleged facts, saying his client had no intention to harm anyone and wanted to 'destroy property'.

Greg Scragg then asked for a hearing for his client telling Justice Peter Garling: 'On the hearing it will be submitted that your honour will not be satisfied that the accused ever intended to use a knife or explosive device to bring about the loss of life that his general plan was to destroy property.'

Kiad and al-Kutobi entered guilty pleas via video link from Silverwater jail just six days before the pair were due to face trial.

The pair were arrested after a police raid on their shared granny flat in February 2015 allegedly uncovered a machete, a hunting knife, and an Islamic State flag.

Kiad was granted a visa under the family and spousal arrangements when he arrived in 2012

The pair were living in a squalid granny flat in February 2015 when police raided the home

Kiad and al-Kutobi entered guilty pleas via video link from Silverwater jail just six days before the pair were due to face trial

Court documents revealed the plot involved the use of a bladed weapon and the detonation of an improvised explosive device.

Earlier it was claimed that both men arrived in Australia from the Middle East seeking a better life as refugees but allegedly became radicalised in late 2014.

Immigration Minister Peter Dutton told the Today Show back in February last year Kiad, from Kuwait, and Al-Kutobi, from Iraq, were granted refugee status.

Al-Kutobi was granted citizenship in 2013 and was studying to be a nurse after he arrived in Australia by plane in 2009.

Kiad was granted a visa under the family and spousal arrangements when he arrived in 2012.

The hearing has been set for September 12.
Lawyers for the family of slain Sydney siege hostage Tori Johnson have rejected a public expression of 'deep sorrow and regret' by NSW Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione.

Mr Scipione wanted the families of Mr Johnson and Katrina Dawson, who also died in the Lindt Cafe siege, to understand that he is sensitive to their 'tragic loss', an inquest has heard.

But barrister Gabrielle Bashir, acting for Mr Johnson's family, hit out at the statement after it was raised on Wednesday by Dr Ian Freckelton, who represents NSW Police.

'I feel compelled to put on the record for the family that we've made it absolutely crystal clear to Dr Freckelton - and to those whom he represents - what the family's position is in relation to such public expressions at this stage,' Ms Bashir told the inquest.

'Dr Freckelton has put that on the record against the express wishes of Tori Johnson's family.'

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Rosie Connellan (left), the mother of slain Lindt cafe manager Tori Johnson (right). The lawyer for her family has hit out at a statement from NSW Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione

Tori Johnson's family is pictured at the flower memorial which filled Martin Place in the days after the Sydney siege in December, 2014

Hostages run free from the Lindt Cafe in Martin Place during the stand-off on December 16, 2014

Dr Freckelton said no offence was intended and he would be disappointed if any was taken.

'There is an authentic and sincere empathy that is felt by the most senior police officer in NSW about the tragic consequences for these families,' he said.

'I would be very disappointed if any offence was taken at such an authentic expression.'

Hostage Tori Johnson was shot at point blank range by gunman Man Monis. His death led to police storming the building to bring an end to the 17-hour siege, in which Katrina Dawson was also killed when hit by bullet fragments.

Mr Scipione and his deputy Catherine Burn are set to be grilled about whether they inappropriately interfered with operations during the Sydney siege.

Both officers, along with then-acting deputy commissioner Jeff Loy, have denied giving any order or advice during the stand-off.

Barrister Gabrielle Bashir SC, acting for Mr Johnson's family, hit out at the statement of 'sorrow and regret' by NSW Police after it was raised on Wednesday at the Sydney siege inquest

The Sydney siege, occurred between December 15 and 16, 2014 when a lone gunman, Man Haron Monis (pictured), held hostage 10 customers and eight employees of the Lindt cafe at Martin Place

18 people were taken hostage by gunman Man Monis during the 17-hour siege in Sydney's Martin Place

Lawyers at the Lindt Cafe inquest have waged legal argument surrounding the parameters of each witness' evidence, when the three are called to take the stand.

Coroner Michael Barnes said he would allow questions to the senior officers about what they were told by - and discussed with - frontline commanders about the operation and tactics.

The line of questioning will be designed to reveal whether either senior officer inappropriately intruded - or failed to intrude when they ought to have done so - during the December 2014 siege.

The rejection of the police statement came just a week after Tori Johnson's mother, Rosie Connellan, called a police commander 'an absolute disgrace' before storming out of the inquest where he was giving evidence.

The forward commander in charge when officers stormed the cafe, who can't be named, described the Sydney siege as 'high stakes games', prompting the lawyer for the Johnson family, Gabrielle Bashir, to ask if he wanted to apologise.

'It was not a game on the night,' Ms Bashir said of the December 2014 siege which ended with the deaths of Mr Johnson, gunman Man Haron Monis and Katrina Dawson.

The officer did not apologise but said he accepted that 'game' was not the best word to have used.

The police forward commander was then pushed about his priorities regarding saving the lives of the hostages compared to the life of Monis.

The family of Lindt Cafe manager Tori Johnson (right), shot by gunman Man Monis during the Sydney siege in 2014, has rejected public statements of sorrow offered by NSW Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione (left)

During a brief exchange last week Tori Johnson's mother Rosie Connellan (pictured) and father Ken Johnson collected their things and marched through the almost-empty public gallery towards the hearing room's exit

Mr Scipione and his deputy Catherine Burn are set to be grilled about whether they inappropriately interfered with operations during the Sydney siege

'I can't ignore Man Monis as an individual,' the commander said, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.

'He had the same rights as anyone else.'

During the brief exchange Mr Johnson's mother Rosie Connellan and father Ken Johnson collected their things and marched through the almost-empty public gallery towards the hearing room's exit.
LOS ANGELESFor every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. That's just as true in pop culture as it is in physics. Following Playboy's recent decision to eschew nudity, adult video sharing website RedTube has announced plans to launch RedTube Magazine, a men's general lifestyle monthly with a photo-heavy emphasis on explicit sexual content.

In a release just sent out this morning, RedTube announced the creation of a new division to work on the magazine, reaching out to advertisers and content creators. With positive initial feedback, the company indicated, it hopes to launch with print and digital distribution in time for the holidays.

RedTube Magazine aims to connect its site's built-in consumer fan base to harder-edged content with a lifestyle journal that covers "art, culture, tech, vice, politics, media and celebrity while uncovering adult's most beautiful women."

"Working on the new magazine has been a thoroughly rewarding experience, and we have taken great steps to create articles and pictorials that speak to the quality of what our RedTube customers have come to expect from us," said Alex Taylor, VP of marketing for RedTube, which is owned by MindGeek.

The new publication, which will have a digital counterpart, aims "to build a bridge between the gentlemen's periodicals of the pre-internet heyday and the multi-platform 24/7 online news cycle buzz cultivated exclusively for a sophisticated audience that appreciates a healthy dose of sex."

"RedTube Magazine will continue in the same vein of classic men's adult magazines so many of us grew up with, yet with a distinct focus towards the trends that drive us in contemporary America today," said Taylor. "RedTube has been a leader in the adult industry for ten years, which makes the brand an excellent authority on what men enjoy."

One mainstream site has already taken notice of the news. Engadget.com posted an amusing take under the headline "RedTube, which helped kill porn mags, launches a porn mag."

For more, go to Blog.RedTube.com.
It comes after a woman, 26, and man, 28, were stabbed on Tuesday night

Police have confirmed an 80-year-old woman's body was found in home

Man was caught on camera yelling out to say he found his dead neighbour

Detective was giving details on Wednesday of two stabbings in Townsville

This is the moment a man interrupted a police media conference to inform detectives that he had found his elderly neighbour dead in her home.

A Queensland detective was addressing the media on Wednesday near the scene of a stabbing 'rampage' in Townsville where two people were seriously injured.

Detective Inspector Kelly Harvey was giving details about two victims when the man abruptly screamed out to say his neighbour was dead.

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Detective Inspector Kelly Harvey was addressing the media on Wednesday near the scene of a stabbing 'rampage' in Townsville where two people were seriously injured

The ordeal was caught on camera by a Channel 7 cameraman who was filming the media conference.

'Is that, do want some help?' Harvey said when she first heard the man.

'She's dead!' the man yelled.

Who? a stunned Det Insp Harvey said.

The man then screamed: 'My neighbour.'

She was giving details about the two victims when a man abruptly screamed out from across the street to say his neighbour was dead

The detective abruptly ended the media conference to investigate the man's claims. The ordeal was caught on camera by a Channel 7 cameraman who was filming the media conference

Det Insp Harvey abruptly ended the media conference to investigate the man's claims.

Police have since confirmed the body of an 80-year-old woman was found on Wednesday morning and they have launched a homicide investigation.

It comes after a 26-year-old woman and a 28-year-old man were stabbed on Tuesday night.

Police say they received about 15 calls for help from residents about a man who was damaging fences and cars in the street.

A 32-year-old man was arrested after being subdued with a Taser.

Police have since confirmed the body of an 80-year-old woman was found on Wednesday morning. It comes after a 26-year-old woman and a 28-year-old man were stabbed on Tuesday night.

Police say they found the man naked in the street and armed with a knife and a fence paling.

'He was covered in blood at the time,' Det Insp Harvey.

The 32-year-old man is in police custody in hospital, where he is being treated for self-inflicted wounds.

It's been reported that the alleged attacker knew the 26-year-old female victim, who is in a stable condition in hospital but did not know the male victim, who was stabbed in the face.
A BMW dealership manager who was sacked for looking at bikini models on his work computer after he was blocked from accessing pornography has been awarded compensation for unfair dismissal.

Gerard Roelofs had been working at Westcoast BMW in north Perth for almost 10 years when a female staff member, Jennifer Jeffery, saw an image on his computer screen of a naked woman.

Ms Jeffery, who worked closely with Mr Roelofs, complained a few weeks later in February 2015 when a similar incident occurred, the Fair Work Commission heard.

He was given a 'first and final warning', and access to pornography was blocked on his computer.

Mr Roelofs was later fired in July 2015  but has been awarded $25,341.13 by the fair work tribunal, even though Commissioner Bruce Williams acknowledged there were grounds to sack him.

Gerard Roelofs had worked at Westcoast BMW dealership (pictured) in north Perth for almost 10 years when he was fired for serious misconduct for contravening the Policy and Procedures Manual

Ms Jeffery had said she began to feel 'vulnerable and uncomfortable' working with Mr Roelofs after she made her initial complaint, and was concerned he may have continued looking at inappropriate content at work.

She then accessed his computer to check his internet history in June last year, when she took photos of a webpage that came up called 'Wanderlust, wildly beautiful women in nature', which featured women in bikinis and lingerie.

The company reviewed the history and found Mr Roelofs appeared to have 'gone from looking at pornography to looking at lifestyle type stuff with women with little clothing on because he could no longer access pornography'.

He was then sacked for serious misconduct for contravening the Policy and Procedures Manual having already received a first and final warning.

But when he was dismissed, Mr Roelofs told his boss: 'I've been set up.'

The company reviewed his web history and found Mr Roelofs appeared to have 'gone from looking at pornography to looking at lifestyle type stuff with women with little clothing on because he could no longer access pornography' (stock image)

Throughout the tribunal, Mr Roelofs had argued his computer was infected with a virus which caused internet pages to open randomly.

He denied he had ever accessed 'Wanderlust' or another website listed, 'The best of the year's new swimsuit styles'.

Commissioner Williams concluded 'on the balance of probabilities', Mr Roelofs had likely accessed the website which was a valid reason to sack him.

However, the company did not give him opportunity to respond when they had sacked him, Commissioner Williams said on Monday.

Mr Roelofs' boss had not described what the serious conduct was or what the websites he was accused of accessing were. Nor did the boss ask if he had accessed them, or if there was an explanation for accessing them.

'Being unaware of the specifics of what he had allegedly done meant he was denied a real opportunity to respond.

'If Mr Roelofs had been given a proper opportunity to respond ... he would have had the opportunity to raise the issue of the virus on his computer.'

Commissioner Williams concluded although there was reason to sack Mr Roelofs, the procedure was unjust and unfair.
The two newborn babies were given nitrous oxide instead of oxygen

One baby died and another was left with brain damage at the same hospital

The 46-year-old died under observation at a psychiatric unit on Monday

A woman killed herself at a Sydney hospital on the same day it was revealed that a newborn died at the facility after being given 'happy gas' instead of oxygen.

The 46-year-old woman died at the Bankstown-Lidcombe Hospital on Monday at 1.20pm.

The woman was a patient at the Banks House psychiatric unit and had moved to Australia from Iraq earlier this year, The Sydney Morning Herald reported.

A woman killed herself at the psychiatric unit of Bankstown-Lidcombe Hospital on Monday

A New South Wales Police spokesperson said the death had been referred to the coroner, but initial investigations did not reveal suspicious circumstances.

A Bankstown woman, who had a nephew at the same facility, told the Daily Telegraph the dead woman was 'really disturbed and distressed and delusional'.

NSW Mental Health Minister Pru Goward said the death was a tragedy.

'We will look at the results of the investigation and the Coroner's findings to see what more can be done to prevent such a tragic incident in the future,' she told the Sydney Morning Herald.

Authorities revealed on Monday that two newborn babies at Bankstown-Lidcombe Hospital were given nitrous oxide - or 'happy gas' - instead of oxygen at birth, killing one and leaving the other with brain damage.

Mother Sonya Ghanem was told she needed an emergency caesarean and woke up from the general anaesthetic to hear her baby born was dead.

Sonya (right) and Youssef Ghanem (left), from Bankstown in Sydney's west, lost their baby boy John after he was administered nitrous oxide instead of oxygen

NSW Health Minister Jillian Skinner said an oxygen outlet in one of the hospital's theatres was incorrectly installed and certified by BOC Limited in July 2015,

The babies, who were born in June and July this year, were administered nitrous oxide instead of oxygen as a result.

South Western Sydney Local Health District is reviewing staff protocols to see if the incidents were preventable and all medical gas outlets across New South Wales are being checked.

Ms Skinner has resisted calls to resign following the bungles.
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange hinted he would release information that was harmful to Hillary Clinton, six weeks before the hacked Democratic National Committee emails were leaked.

The Australian computer programmer and publisher told Britain's ITV that he obtained 'emails related to Hillary Clinton which are pending publication' during an interview on June 12.

He said the publication of the 'upcoming leaks' would be 'great', but at the time he would not specify what it was related to.

The host, Robert Peston, kept asking about the emails she had sent on her private server.

Now it is clear that Assange was, in part, referring to the hack that led to the resignation of DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz.

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WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange hinted he would release information that was harmful to Hillary Clinton, six weeks before the hacked Democratic National Committee emails were leaked

Assange, who has long been a critic of Clinton, talked about how the website had published 32,000 of her private emails 'in some analysis' since the scandal broke out.

Peston also asked him whether he would prefer Trump to be president over the Democratic nominee.

He said: I think Trump is a completely unpredictable phenomena. You can't predict what he would do in office.

'You can predict a bit more what the Republican would do in office.

'But from a personal perspective, the emails we published show that Hillary Clinton his receiving constant updates about my personal situation.

'She has pushed for the prosecution of WikiLeaks. So we do see her as a bit of a problem for the freedom of the press more generally.

The Australian computer programmer and publisher told Britain's ITV that he obtained 'emails related to Hillary Clinton which are pending publication' during an interview on June 12

'In relation to wars, the emails we revealed about her involvement in Libya and statements by Pentagon generals show that Hillary was overriding the Pentagon's reluctance to overthrow Gaddafi.

'Because they predicted the outcome to be something like it is, which is ISIS taking over the country.

'She has a long history of being a liberal war hawk.'

The New York Times asked Assange and the Clinton campaign for a comment on the story on Tuesday night.

Assange has since spoken out about the scandal which caused rifts in the Democratic party.

In an interview with NBC Nightly News on Monday, he insisted the emails the release of the messages was a 'diversion' being pushed by Hillary.

He also denied that the Russians had any involvement in the hack - following claims by cybersecurity experts that the Kremlin played a role.

'The real story is what these emails contain and they show collusion,' he told Richard Engel.

He was speaking from the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, where he has remained since August 2012.

Sweden is seeking his extradition for an investigation into sexual misconduct allegations.

But his fans say if he leaves the embassy, the United States will arrest him for leaking the papers.

'Well there is no proof of that whatsoever. We have not disclosed our source, and of course, this is a diversion that's being pushed by the Hillary Clinton campaign,' he added.

Assange has been a long-time critic and opponent of Hillary Clinton. The Democratic nominee is seen appearing via satellite link at the Democratic convention on Tuesday night

Clinton's campaign had claimed Putin's Russia was trying to help Donald Trump by meddling in the US presidential race.

Trump and Putin have both said the are fans of one another, and also share similar policy ideas.

The emails that were released suggest that DNC officials were trying to undermine Bernie Sanders' primary campaign, to ensure Hillary secured the nomination.
Amina Al-Jeffery was born in Swansea but then taken to Saudi Arabia, aged 16, because her father, an academic, disapproved of 'un-Islamic' western lifestyle

This is the Welsh woman who has been 'beaten, starved, had her head shaved and locked up' by her father in Saudi Arabia because he disapproved of her 'kissing a guy'.

Amina Al-Jeffery was born in Swansea but then taken to Saudi Arabia, aged 16, because her father, an academic, disapproved of her 'un-Islamic' western lifestyle.

She has since been held as a prisoner at her father's home in Jeddah, starved of food and water, physically abused, and will not be allowed to marry the man of her choice, the High Court was told.

Lawyers representing Miss Al-Jeffery say they fear for her safety and have taken the legal action in London in a bid to protect her.

But her father, Mohammed Al-Jeffery, 62, who works at the King Abdulaziz University in Jeddah, has received funding from the Saudi government to fight the High Court's order to return her.

Lawyer Anne-Marie Hutchinson, said she had spoken to Miss Al-Jeffery when she briefly escaped from her father's home in the city of Jeddah  on the coast of the Red Sea and close to Mecca.

Ms Hutchinson, a member of the international Academy of Family Lawyers, said: 'She is a normal Welsh girl and still has her Welsh accent.

'She wants to return home so she can have control of her own life and make her own choices.'

Mr Al-Jeffery had moved to Swansea before Amina was born, and the family claimed benefits while his nine children were educated at British schools and universities.

Henry Setright, QC, representing Miss Al-Jeffery, said that her father had taken her to Saudi Arabia because he disapproved of her 'relationships and conduct'.

Mr Setright said her father believed that his daughter was 'someone he has a duty to control, including her freedom of movement'.

But he said Miss Al-Jeffery had spoken to a member of staff at the British Consulate in Jeddah and her complaints had been outlined in a note of that meeting.

Miss Al-Jeffrey said there had been a 'practice' of 'locking her in her room'.

A younger sister had been told she was an 'evil girl'. She said a sister had seen her in Saudi Arabia and found 'a locked-up girl with a shaved head'.

She said her father 'locks her up because she kissed a guy'.

Welsh schoolgirl Amina Al-Jeffery has been kept prisoner in a cage by her own father for more than four years in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia (pictured), after she was accused of un-Islamic behaviour, a court heard yesterday

She also said 'metal bars are no longer in her room' but 'she is still locked up in the house' and 'not allowed to use the phone or internet'.

She had spoken of being 'prevented from going to the bathroom' and being 'forced to urinate in a cup'.

Marcus Scott-Manderson, QC, representing Mr Al-Jeffery said he 'could not bring himself' to obey the court's order to attend the consulate.

Miss Al-Jeffery was allowed to attend a meeting with consular staff at a hotel under the supervision of someone employed by her father.

She managed to slip a note under the table to a member of embassy staff expressing fears about her future, the court was told.

The forced marriage unit of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office said that the Saudi authorities would not recognise Miss Al-Jeffery's British citizenship and 'steps need to be taken to ensure Amina is returned to the UK where her safety can be guaranteed'.

Hearing: Miss Al-Jeffery has since been held as a prisoner at her father's home in Jeddah, the family division of the High Court in London (pictured) was told yesterday

Mr Justice Holman said that the jurisdiction of the British courts was not clear because Miss Al-Jeffery was now an adult with dual Saudi and UK citizenship.

He said: 'We have to be careful about asserting the supremacy our cultural standards.'

The judge said yesterday that issues raised were 'important and difficult', and said the 'right thing' might be to order that Miss Al-Jeffery was taken to the British Consulate.

He said if she sought sanctuary, Foreign Office staff would then have to make decisions.
An adobe brick wall has been found at the historic Alamo in San Antonio, Texas.

Archaeologists came across the find on Friday, Reimagine The Alamo wrote on Facebook.

It said in a Monday post: 'On July 22, 2016, the archaeological team that is conducting a study of The Alamo complex grounds discovered remains of an adobe brick wall approximately 58 cm (23 inches) below the flagstone surface, near the location where historians presume the west wall of the Alamo complex was built.

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An adobe brick wall has been found at the historic Alamo in San Antonio, Texas

The Alamo is seen in this file photograph. The famed Battle of the Alamo took place in 1836

'The adobe is very fragile and is a type of material frequently associated with Spanish Colonial structures in the area.

'At this time, the archaeology team is analyzing the feature to determine its origin, date, and relationship to previous historic structures and to determine how this discovery impacts our understanding of the Alamo grounds and the development of the new Alamo master plan.'

Speaking to KSAT, lead archaeologist Nesta Anderson said: 'What we do know is we have an adobe brick wall feature and that it is related to the structure somehow that was here.

'That could include the outer wall of the compound, but it could also include some of the rooms where the Native Americans lived outside the wall.'

In a statement, Land Commissioner George P Bush said: 'This is an exciting discovery for a former school teacher and Texas history fan like myself'

Anderson told KHOU: 'We're not convinced that it is the west wall. All we know is that it is an adobe brick wall. It could be related to another feature of the west wall.

'We do know there were rooms that people were living in. It may be related to those rooms rather than the compound wall.'

The dig is part of a renovation project for the Alamo, the Texas Tribune reported.

Anderson, the newspaper reported, said at a press conference: 'Because we've got something from the Spanish colonial period, we know we are digging in the right place.

'Now we know we can get information from the ground over here that will support the master plan and the reinterpretation.'

In a statement, Land Commissioner George P Bush said: 'This is an exciting discovery for a former school teacher and Texas history fan like myself.

'This archeological exploration of the area surrounding the Alamo will be a tremendous benefit as we develop a master plan for reimagining the Alamo.
The blood-curdling screams of teenagers rehearsing for a school drama in Queensland were so convincing that nearby residents called police because they thought someone was being harmed.

Three students from St Peter Claver College in Riverview, east of Brisbane, were practicing for their roles as the Three Witches in the school's production of Macbeth in May when their cackles and screams aroused the concern of neighbours.

Goodna Police sent officers to bushland in Riverview to investigate and were a little taken aback at the sight of three teenage girls dressed in white acting out their parts.

Three students rehearsing as the Three Withches in Macbeth were so convincing that Queensland Police were called to investigate screaming

It wasn't the first time worried neighbours had called police about ghastly screams coming from the high school performers.

Sergeant Ian Stephens had visited the school a week earlier following reports of a woman screaming.

He told the Brisbane Times that when he arrived at the school he could hear people talking but it didn't sound suspicious.

'I went to the teacher and asked if anyone was screaming, and he said yes, they were in rehearsals,' he said.

The school's production of the classic Shakespeare tale, which tells of a murderous general and his wife who are haunted by their bloody pursuit of power, opened on July 21.

Goodna Police were called twice to investigate strange noises coming from actors performing at St Peter Claver College's production

The police call out was even recorded in the official program.

'Concerned neighbours had called police out of fear that there was some form of evil ritual taking place, with the terrifying figures in white, and the ghastly screams rising up from time to time!' the program read.
Dawn Brodie's homeless brother was found stabbed to death under a bridge last year and she's made an appeal for anyone with information to help find his killer

Reginald Mullaly, 69, had $30,000 in the bank when he was found dead in Bathurst in September 2015 and there were suspicions he was killed for his money.

Ms Brodie has joined a police appeal for information about his death, even the the smallest of details.

Homeless man Reginald Mullaly, 69, was brutally stabbed 11 times in the chest last September, killing him

Police have released images of Mr Mullaly, the last of him while he was still alive

'There are people out there that have more information, so please come forward. You are not dobbing in a mate; you are helping me find out what happened to my brother.

'I want to thank Bathurst Police, in particular, the investigators, especially Detective Graham for everything they have done to help. I miss him every day and I talk to him everyday,' Ms Brodie said.

Mr Mullaly was found on 20 September 2015 under the Denison Bridge on the Great Western Highway with 11 stab wounds to his chest and several unexplained injuries.

At the time, police called it a 'cowardly attack on a vulnerable member of the community'.

Police released this image of a knife they recovered during their investigation into the murder

His body was found in this makeshift shelter underneath a bridge in Bathurst, New South Wales

Strike Force Yenna was established to investigate the murder and in the days following the discovery of Mr Mullaly's body, police received a substantial amount of information from callers to Crime Stoppers.

However, Detective Chief Inspector Colin Cracknell said the investigation was ongoing and police wanted help from the community.

'Our investigations have helped police to identify a number of persons of interest to our inquiry.'

Police also wanted to speak again to those who contacted Crime Stoppers after the murder.

Mr Mullaly was found on 20 September 2015 under the Denison Bridge (pictured) on the Great Western Highway with 11 stab wounds to his chest and several unexplained injuries
A refugee from Eritrea has been arrested on suspicion of raping a 79-year-old woman in a cemetery in Germany.

The pensioner was attacked while visiting the grave of her sister in Ibbenbueren, North Rhine-Westphalia, on Sunday.

The suspect, 40, who has lived in Germany since 2013, was charged with rape and placed in police custody.

A refugee from Eritrea has been arrested on suspicion of raping a 79-year-old woman in a cemetery in Ibbenbueren (pictured), Germany

A witness called the police after hearing the woman crying for help at around 6am, according to Bild.

The victim was given medical treatment and released from hospital on Tuesday.

The alleged rapist had been staying in a hostel for asylum seekers in nearby Horstel.

If found guilty, he could face 15 years in prison.

Earlier this month, the German parliament passed legislation broadening the definition of sex crimes and making it easier to deport foreign nationals who commit them.

It came after a rash of sexual assaults in crowds on New Year's Eve in the western city of Cologne and following years of debate on the need for tougher treatment of rape by the criminal justice system.

There was a standing ovation as the law passed the Bundestag lower house with an overwhelming majority, following an emotional debate.

All 601 politicians participating in the debate voted in favour of the new measures.

Dubbed the 'No means No' law by the media, it explicitly covers cases in which a victim withheld consent but did not physically fight back.
Two Good Samaritan vessels rescued 46 people Tuesday night after they abandoned their sinking fishing boat in the Bering Sea off Alaska's Aleutian Islands, the Coast Guard said.

There were no reports of any injuries as the crew members were transferred from life rafts to the merchant ships, in a fairly calm seas, Coast Guard Petty Officer Lauren Steenson said.

The ships then embarked on a 13-hour voyage to Adak, Alaska, a port in the Aleutians.

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Passengers evacuated the Alaska Juris into a red rescue boat as it took on water

Passengers from the fishing boat on a rescue boat waiting to be saved

The Alaska Juris boat as seen from US Coast Guard officers in the sky

The rescue site near Kiska Island, Alaska, where 46 people were rescued from the 220-foot Alaska Juris

When the 220-foot Alaska Juris started taking on water Tuesday morning, all crew members donned survival suits and got into three rafts in the waters near Kiska Island, approximately 690 miles west of Dutch Harbor, Alaska, one of the nation's busiest fishing ports.

An emergency beacon alerted the Coast Guard to the sinking ship just after 11:30 a.m. Alaska Standard Time.

The Good Samaritan ships Spar Canis and the Vienna Express rushed to the scene in response to a Coast Guard's emergency broadcast for help, as did two other merchant vessels.

The Coast Guard also diverted the cutter Midgett and dispatched two C-130 transport planes and two helicopters from Kodiak to the site of the sinking ship.

US Coast Guard tweets about the rescue of 46 people off the Aleutian Islands

US Coast Guard footage shows the dramatic rescue with passengers on a red flotation device.

One C-130 monitored the rescue situation overhead.

It wasn't immediately known what caused the Alaska Juris to begin taking on water, and that will be part of the Coast Guard investigation, Steenson said.

Weather conditions were calm seas and winds, but there was low visibility because of heavy fog, Coast Guard Chief Warrant Officer Joseph Ayd said.

It's not the first trouble the Alaska Juris has encountered in recent years.

In March 2012, a fisherman on board the Alaska Juris died after a cable snapped and struck him in the head.

Days later, another fisherman was treated for a head injury after a cable snapped aboard the vessel and struck him.

In May 2012, the crew of the Alaska Juris requested help from the Coast Guard after three crew members were exposed to ammonia after a leak when the ship was just north of Cold Bay, Alaska.
CHATSWORTH, Calif.ArchAngel on Friday serves up a second edition of one of its most successful releases to date, Ultimate Blondes.



In Ultimate Blondes 2, ArchAngel IR contract girl Kenzie Taylor helms the cover and gives it up to Sean Michaels in her very first IR anal scene. Nina Elle gets plowed by Stallion. Booty queen A.J. Applegate receives a pounding from Prince Yahshua. And Ashley Fires enjoys her own round with Michaels.

"Kenzie has been doing some amazing scenes since she became our contract star, but this scene is definitely out of control," ArchAngel general manager and director MimeFreak said. "All the girls in the movie are proof positive that blondes are fierce and are not playing. If you loved the original Ultimate Blondes, youre going to lose your mind when you see the latest edition."



View the trailer for Ultimate Blondes 2 here.



See more IR scenes from stars including Kendra Lust, Jada Stevens and Dakota on ArchAngels official site at archangelvideo.com.



Girlfriends Films exclusively distributes ArchAngel. Retailers and distributors interested in ordering Ultimate Blondes 2 or other ArchAngel titles should contact Moose at (661) 775.5600 or [email protected].

Pictured: Ashley Fires.
A chef who was caught on camera hurling a puppy against a glass table and smothering its face with a towel has avoided jail.

Craig Muller's repeated and sickening acts of violence towards the dog were caught on camera over three days by a neighbour from North Lakes, north of Brisbane.

The disturbing footage shows Mr Muller, 36, taking hold of the dog by the leg and tail and bashing it against a glass table, before trying to suffocate the eight-month-old kelpie puppy with a towel.

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Craig Miller was caught on camera taking hold of an eight-month-old puppy by the tail and leg and bashing it against a glass table (pictured)

Mr Muller's apparent attempt to suffocate the puppy stopped when the person recording the incident called out that she was filming him. The footage was then passed onto the RSPCA

Mr Muller was sentenced to 30 months probation after pleading guilty in Caboolture Magistrates Court on Wednesday to animal cruelty against the dog, Nera, in May 2016.

Nera was surrendered to the RSPCA and is recovering from surgery for a broken leg. Muller was also ordered to undergo an anger management course.

RSPCA Queensland spokesman Michael Beatty said he had hoped Muller would receive at least a suspended prison sentence but the long probation and counselling order were a good result.

Mr Beatty said while Muller's offending was towards the upper end of the spectrum the RSPCA did come across other examples of more extreme cruelty.

'Animals can't talk and we are reliant on members of the public coming forward with information so that we can catch those responsible,' Mr Beatty said.

Craig Muller's repeated and sickening acts of violence towards the dog were caught on camera over three days by a neighbour
The shooting deaths of law enforcement officers have spiked 78 percent in the first half of 2016 compared to last year, including an alarming increase in ambush-style assaults like the ones that killed eight officers in Dallas and Baton Rouge this month, a new report has revealed.

However, data from the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund shows that firearms-related deaths of officers in the line of duty are still lower than they were during previous decades like the 1970s.

Thirty-two officers died in firearms-related incidents so far this year including 14 that were ambush-style attacks, according to the report released on Wednesday.

During the same period last year, 18 officers were shot and killed in the line of duty including three that were considered ambush attacks.

Of particular concern, ambush-style killings of law enforcement officers have dramatically increased - a more than 300 percent rise from the same period last year.

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The shooting deaths of law enforcement officers have spiked 78 percent in the first half of 2016 compared to last year - but are still lower than they were during previous decades like the 1970s

The shooting deaths of law enforcement officers have spiked 78 percent in the first half of 2016 compared to last year. Above, a Baton Rouge police officer's badge features a black and blue stripe at slain officer Montrell Jackson's funeral

'That's a very alarming, shocking increase in the number of officers who are being literally assassinated because of the uniform they wear and the job that they do,' said Craig W. Floyd, who heads the organization.

'Each day some 900,000 men and women work to keep our communities safe, and we owe each of them a debt of gratitude,' Floyd said.

'All American citizens should be outraged at the number of officers who have been targeted, shot and killed this year.

'The brutal assassinations of law enforcement officers in Texas and Louisiana shocked our nation and we saw similar ambush attacks on officers in other parts of the country earlier this year.'

He added: 'Now is the time for all law-abiding citizens to partner with law enforcement in support of safe communities.'

The organization usually releases a mid-year report tracking incidents for the first six months but decided to extend the period due to the July attacks in Dallas and Baton Rouge against police officers.

So the report goes from the beginning of January to July 20 and compares it to the same period last year.

Thirty-two officers died in firearms-related incidents so far this year, including 14 that were ambush-style attacks, according to the report

A memorial sign is posted in front of the B-Quick convenience store three officers were killed by a lone gunman in Baton Rouge on July 17. Pictured from left are slain officers Montrell Jackson, Matthew Gerald and Brad Garafold

On their website, the organization also keeps a running tally of officers who died in the line of duty. Those figures through July 26 show that 33 officers have been shot and killed so far this year.

The report comes at a time of heightened tension between communities across the country and police officers.

Two police officers and one sheriff's deputy were shot and killed during an ambush at a gas station in Baton Rouge on July 17 by Gavin Long, a black former Marine, who was later killed by a long-distance shot by a SWAT officer.

It followed a similar targeted attack on police officers in Dallas on July 8.

Micah Johnson, a black Army veteran, opened fire on police during a Black Lives Matter protest against recent police shootings of black suspects.

Johnson killed five officers before he was killed by authorities using a remote-controlled bomb on a robot.

A total of 67 officers have died in the line of duty so far in 2016, according to the report. That figure also includes officers who died in traffic accidents, fatal falls or airplane crashes.

HUGE SPIKE IN POLICE DEATHS January to July 20, 2016: Officers dead in firearms-related deaths: 32 Officers killed in ambush-style attacks: 14 January to July 20, 2015 Officers dead in firearms-related deaths: 18 Officers killed in ambush-style attacks: 3 Advertisement

Texas leads the nation in the number of law enforcement officers who died in the line of duty with 14 deaths so far this year, including the five recent slayings in Dallas.

Louisiana, where three officers were shot and killed in Baton Rouge, ranked second with a total of seven officers who died in the line of duty.

California, Colorado, Florida, Maryland, Michigan, Ohio and Virginia all lost three officers so far in 2016.

Despite the recent high-profile shootings of police, the average number of officers shot and killed on the job is significantly lower than in previous decades.

Floyd said that during the 1970s, there was an average of 127 officers shot and killed yearly; during the last ten years through 2015, the average number shot and killed is 52.

'In the 1970s, you had a lot of parallels to what we are facing now,' he told the Washington Times.

'There was a lot of anti-authority sentiment and a lot of anti-police sentiment. They did become targets, just as they are becoming targets again today.'

He cited the reduction in violent crime in recent decades and said officers have benefited from the widespread introduction of body armor and improved trauma care if they do get shot.

But he noted a worrying increase in recent years in anti-police and anti-government sentiment.




Police in Pakistan investigating the alleged 'honour killing' of a British beauty therapist today launched a murder probe and said her father is a key suspect.

Samia Shahid, 28, died last week while visiting relatives who allegedly disagreed with her choice to marry for the second time, to a man from outside the family.

Detectives in the Punjab region have said her father Mohammed Shahid is a suspect in her alleged murder, with media in Pakistan claiming she may have been found at the foot of some stairs.

Her first husband Mohammed Shakeel, who she married in 2012 and left a year later, is on the run and a wanted man, according to the BBC.

It came as one of Samia's relatives was arrested over alleged threats against their local Labour MP in Bradford, Naz Shah, who has been involved in the case.

A second person has also been arrested.

Tragedy: Samia Shahid, 28, who was originally from Bradford, West Yorkshire, died while visiting relatives in her ancestral Punjab village last week and police in Pakistan have launched a murder investigation

Marriage: Ms Shahid's second husband Syed Mukhtar Kazam claims he fears she was killed by her family because they allegedly refused to accept their marriage partly due to him being an 'outsider'

Police in Pakistan have performed a U-turn after initially claiming her death was not suspicious.

Mohammad Aqeel Abbas, police chief for the Jhelum distric investigating the case, said post-mortem examination found no injuries or signs of violence, and she was buried in a village graveyard.

Now they say they are treating her death as suspicious after receiving information from her second husband Syed Mukhtar Kazam.

Today it also emerged Samia had complained to police of harassment last year and was visited by officers at her Bradford family home last September after the complaint.

Samia, a popular 28-year-old from Bradford, had lived in Dubai with her husband Syed for the past year and went to visit an ill family member a fortnight ago.

Her relatives in Pandori, a village in northern Punjab, reportedly said she died from a heart attack or asthma attack last week and swiftly buried her in the village graveyard.

But Mr Kazam, a Pakistani national, said his wife had been healthy and he fears she was killed by her family as punishment for splitting from her first husband, a first cousin of hers from their Pakistani village.

A Pakistani police inquiry is under way into Mrs Shahid's sudden death but no arrests have been made.

Mrs Shahid is said to have angered her family when she met Mr Kazam through mutual friends in 2013 and married him in Leeds in September 2014.

Her husband told the Guardian: 'I am sure my wife is killed by the family. She was healthy. And she had no disease. I believe she was killed because her parents were not happy with our marriage.'

The family have strongly dismissed the allegations. Shahid's father, who is in Pakistan, said the claims were 'lies and allegations'.

Mohammed Shahid added: 'An investigation is under way and if I am found guilty I am ready for every kind of punishment. My daughter was living a very peaceful and happy life. She had come to Pakistan on her own and was not under any pressure from her family.'

Her maternal uncle Akhtar, who lives in Bradford, said he believes police in Pakistan will leave 'no stone unturned' in investigating the death of his niece

He said:' The police in Pakistan have to do what they have to do it's their job.

'They can't leave no stone unturned. It's horrible what the whole family has gone through and whatever the outcome is going to be that will be it.

'But the family will be back here and they will know better what happened to Samia.'

Wedding: Mr Kazam married his wife at Leeds Town Hall in 2014 and the pair had been living together in Dubai

Address: The family home of Ms Shahid in Bradford is pictured yesterday. Ms Shahid's second husband Syed Mukhtar Kazam, who lived with her in Dubai, claimed he was told she had suffered a heart attack

Family business: A restaurant under renovation which is said to be owned by Ms Shahid's family in Bradford

A family friend, who wished to remained anonymous, added he had been heard that Samia had been found at the bottom of a flight of stairs in the village of Pandori, in the Punjab area of Pakistan.

However the friend denies the family lured her to Pakistan under false pretenses.

He said: 'The story that they tried to lure her to Pakistan is completely false.

'Her mother-in-law, who was also her aunt had just died and she was there to pay her respects. Her dad loved her to bits. He used to say that he didn't treat her like a daughter, he treated her like a son which means a lot in our culture.

'Even if she had committed a murder he would have forgiven her'.

Ary News in Pakistan is also said to have claimed she was found at the bottom of stairs.

An initial post mortem examination did not give a cause of death, which will be provided following a forensics report next week.

Mrs Shahid's local MP, Naz Shah, has demanded her body is exhumed so an independent autopsy can be carried out. The Bradford West MP said: 'I've been in touch with various officials, through the Foreign Office and the High Commission, both in Pakistan and Britain.

'I've also written to the prime minister in Pakistan to give his personal intervention to ascertain the cause of death of Samia Shahid. I'm not going to rest until I'm satisfied I know the cause of her death.'

She told the Bradford Telegraph & Argus: 'She sent a text message to her husband last Wednesday, saying: 'I am cooking tonight. I am going shopping. I'll see you tomorrow'.

'By 3pm her phone was switched off. At 10pm her husband got a phone call from a member of the family. He was told she had died of a heart attack and they had buried her.'

Political involvement: MP Naz Shah (left) has called on Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson (right) to intervene in the case after Ms Shahid's husband alleged she was an 'honour killing' victim for wedding an outsider

Friends in Bradford said the family were not happy about the marriage but accepted it because they loved their daughter. However, Mrs Shadid's uncle claimed the second marriage was a sham that allowed Mr Kazam to live in the UK.

The uncle, who gave his name only as Akhtar, claimed Mrs Shahid was not divorced from her cousin, whom she married in Pakistan in 2012, and that she would travel there to visit him.

He alleged: '[Mr Kazam] only wanted the marriage to stay in this country. The courts never ruled they [Samia and her first husband] were divorced. He was never with her in the UK  she always went home to Pakistan to see him. It's the same village where she was married and the same village where she died.'

Akhtar hit out at suggestions Mrs Shahid's death was anything but natural causes. He said: 'The truth is the truth and the truth comes from the evidence. She suffered from asthma as a child, but it could be asthma, it could be a heart attack, but it was a natural death.'

A West Yorkshire Police spokesman said: 'Inquiries are continuing with the authorities to establish the cause [of death].

'A report was made to West Yorkshire Police last week regarding the alleged death of a 28-year-old woman from Bradford in Pakistan.

'Following this report, officers engaged with the Foreign Office who have since confirmed her death. Enquiries are now continuing with the relevant authorities to establish the cause.'

The force is also investigating threats aimed at Naz Shah.

Police said a 32-year-old woman was arrested on Tuesday evening and is in custody. A 37-year-old man was arrested today and inquiries are continuing.

Ms Shah - who met with senior police chiefs in Bradford last night - was suspended from the Labour Party in April over anti-Semitic posts on social media, but was readmitted in early July.

Earlier this month social media star and 'Pakistan's Kim Kardashian' Qandeel Baloch was strangled to death by her brother in Multan, Punjab, who said he was 'not embarrassed' to have killed her.

Hundreds of women are murdered by relatives in the country each year on the pretext of defending what is seen as family honour.
Television presenter Lisa Oldfield has called for 'strict regulations' on immigrants entering Australia as she revealed she continues to grieve the death of her 'dear friend' Katrina Dawson.

Ms Oldfield, 41, who is married to One Nation co-founder David Oldfield, met Ms Dawson through work after the pair both graduated law and said she was 'an amazing lady'.

Ms Dawson was held hostage for 16-hours at Sydney's Lindt Cafe by Islamic extremist Man Haron Monis and was tragically killed after being struck by a fragment of a police bullet when the siege came to a deadly end on December 15, 2014.

While she considers banning all Muslims from Australia 'over the top,' Ms Oldfield said each immigrant should be vetted so the country can decide 'who's coming here,' The Daily Telegraph reported.

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Television presenter Lisa Oldfield (pictured with husband David) has called for 'strict regulations' on immigrants entering Australia

Ms Oldfield revealed she continues to grieve the death of her 'dear friend' Katrina Dawson (pictured) who died in the Lindt Cafe siege

'I think we should be able to say who comes here, and I think we should put strict regulations, you know, make sure we vet everyone that's coming here,' Ms Oldfield said.

Speaking about Ms Dawson, Ms Oldfield said while she rarely saw the 36-year-old mother, the pair could have gone five years without speaking but when they come back together 'it's just the same'.

Ms Oldfield also said she disagreed with Sonia Kruger after the television personality called for Australia to stop Muslim immigration because she wants to 'feel safe'.

During a Today Show panel discussion on July 18, Kruger argued there is a correlation between the number of Muslims in a country and the number of terrorist attacks.

While she considers banning all Muslims from Australia 'over the top,' Ms Oldfield said each immigrant should be vetted so the country can decide 'who's coming here'

Ms Oldfield also said she disagreed with Sonia Kruger after the television personality called for Australia to stop Muslim immigration because she wants to 'feel safe'

Speaking about Ms Dawson, Ms Oldfield said while she rarely saw the 36-year-old mother, the pair could have gone five years without speaking but when they come back together 'it's just the same'

'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.

Ms Oldfield, who will start filming the Real Housewives of Sydney in September, said she is not looking to ban all Muslims from the country, but instead have 'strict regulations' put in place.

Last week, the former Channel Nine host dubbed One Nation's Pauline Hanson 'a crazy old aunt' and wishes she was never born after the scandalous sex allegations she made against her husband.

For the past two decades Mr Oldfield, who co-founded One Nation, has staunchly denied having sex with Ms Hanson in a motel room the first night the pair met.

Mr Oldfield's wife Lisa said the controversial politician's ongoing claims the two had a sexual relationship is 'poor form'.

David Oldfield has denied he had sex with Pauline Hanson on the night he met her (pictured together in 1998)
The pregnant Polish woman who was hacked to death with a meat cleaver by a Syrian refugee in the German town of Reutlingen was a mother-of-four who came to the country after her divorce.

Identified only as Jolanta K., 45, she was killed on Sunday by the 21-year-old, who reportedly fell in love with her after visiting the kebab shop where she worked.

Jolanta came from the north-eastern Polish town of Dabrowa Tarnowska and had lived in Germany for a year, according to the Polish press. She left her hometown after a divorce.

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A mother-of-four, identified only as Jolanta K (pictured), was hacked to death by a Syrian refugee with a meat cleaver in the German town of Reutlingen. She had moved to Germany after getting divorced

The police have arrested a man who is believed to have gone on a machete rampage killing a woman in the German city of Reutlingen. It is claimed the Syrian refugee was in love with Jolanta, whom he knew from her place of work at the Mangal kebab shop

She worked as a cleaner and shared a flat with a new friend. Three months before the fatal attack, she found a full-time job in a kitchen at the Mangal Kebab fast food store.

Jolanta left her four children aged eight, 19, 22 and 23 in Poland.

The youngest daughter was supposed to join her mother to live in Germany soon. On the day she was killed, Jolanta had just arrived back from a visit to her homeland.

According to local media, Jolanta almost managed to escape the attack.

The attacker, identified only by his first name Muhamed, knew Jolanta from Mangal Kebab and fell in love with her, according to local media.

The man had his hands bound behind his back and was pinned down on the floor after being detained by officers following the attack. Jolanta worked as a cleaner and shared a flat with a new friend. Three months before the fatal attack, she found a full-time job in a kitchen at the kebab store

Jolanta is said to have rejected him, and the other restaurant employees used to force him to leave the place and locked him out because he was 'weird'.

Her children have arrived in Reutlingen to identify their mother's body.

Rafal Sobczak, a spokesman of the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said: 'We are in touch with the family of the murdered woman. As the Foreign Ministry, we offer them all the possible help that we can.'

During the incident in the city, south of Stuttgart, the attacker also injured a man and another woman before being arrested by police after he was run over by a man driving a BMW.

A witness to the incident, Robert Lukowski, 25, described the situation as a nightmare.

He said: 'I saw the woman lying in blood. And then when I saw the crazy man in the handcuffs, I was terrified.'

Pictures from the scene appear to show the knifeman lying on the ground with blood on his face and his weapon lying on the ground. Jolanta is said to have rejected the man's advances, and the other restaurant employees used to force him to leave the place and locked him out because he was 'weird'

The attack happened in the southwestern city of Reutlingen near a doner kebab stand in a bus station at Listplatz Square

Police mark out the area where the attacker dropped the machete which he used to murder Jolanta and injure two others

Pictures from the scene appeared to show the knifeman lying on the ground with blood on his face after being apprehended.

Armed police officers were seen pinning him down to the ground before binding his hands behind his back.

Meanwhile, footage filmed by passers-by also showed the bearded attacker in the moments following the rampage running around in the street while people scream 'Oh my God'.

He also banged on the windows of a Citroen car in which a 51-year-old woman suffered cuts to her arms and a 41-year-old man went into shock.

The attacker also injured a 23-year-old man by slashing his face.

It is believed a man passing the incident in a BMW car ran over the man, knocking him to the ground, before he was detained by police.

Police were also seen searching a car, which is believed to have hit the attacker as he fled the scene

German media reported that the killing took place outside a restaurant where the woman worked as a cleaner. The driver, who was named as Alper K, 21, is thought to be the son of the restaurant owner.

Paramedics attempted to save the woman's life after she sustained head injuries but she died and her body was covered with a white sheet.

One eyewitness told German newspaper Bild: 'The perpetrator was completely out of his mind. He ran with his machete even behind a patrol car.'

Police spokesman Bjoern Reusch said in a statement that witnesses said the 21-year-old man, who was known to police, was having an argument with the woman, who is believed to have been working at the kebab stand, before attacking her about 4:30 pm.

They also added that the incident 'did not bear the hallmarks of a terrorist attack'.

'According to the information available, the perpetrator acted alone, the people of Reutlingen and its surroundings are very probably not in danger,' the statement added.

In the moments after the machete attack, the man could be seen running around close to the scene before he was knocked over by a car

The asylum-seeking Syrian man had been involved in previous incidents causing injuries to other people, police said.

The spokesman had no immediate information on when the man arrived in Germany, or when the previous incidents took place.

He was injured in the collision with the BMW and is currently in hospital, where he has not yet been questioned but is under guard by police.

The attack comes as Germany is on edge, following a rampage at a Munich mall on Friday night in which nine people were killed, and an axe attack on a train a week ago that left five wounded.

Some Germans are also fearful of any signs of a rise in crime or lawlessness after the country registered some one million asylum-seekers last year.
The known ISIS terrorist who murdered a Catholic priest in northern France had told judges 'I am not an extremist' before being freed from prison to kill, it emerged today.

Shocking details about the lax manner with which 19-year-old Adel Kermiche was treated emerged following the slaughter of Father Jacques Hamel, 86, in Normandy.

Kermich was wearing an electronic tag, after serving part of his sentence for a range of terrorist offences including trying to join ISIS in Syria, and then being released in March.

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Shocking details about the lax manner with which 19-year-year Adel Kermiche (pictured) was treated emerged following the slaughter of Father Jacques Hamel, 86

Father Jacques Hamel (pictured) had his throat cut on the altar of a Normandy church in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, near Rouen, on Tuesday

Father Jacques had his throat cut on the altar of a church in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, near Rouen, on Tuesday.

Both Kermich and his unidentified accomplice were then shot dead by anti-terrorist police. Authorities are trying to explain why it had been so easy for them to strike.

A psychological examination of Kermiche was carried out between October 2015 and February this year, during which he spoke freely about his motives and ambitions.

He outlined about his frail psychological state, saying he was regularly in hospital after suffering deep depressions and 'other mental problems'.

Kermich said: 'I am a Muslim grounded in the values of mercy, and goodness - I am not an extremist'.

Saying he 'couldn't get up' without saying two prayers every morning in his prison cell, he claimed he wanted to become a mental health nurse, and settle down with a family.

'I want to get my life back, to see my friends, to get married,' Kermich told an examining magistrate in the psychological reports leaked to Le Monde newspaper.

Kermiche spent his time in prison mixing with other terrorists, including another young Frenchman who had spent 18 months fighting with ISIS.

A French policeman cordons off the area around the body of one of the two knifemen. Parisian prosecutor Francois Molins revealed that the pair were carrying a fake bomb with a timer, a handgun and knives during the attack and said they used nuns as human shields

French riot police guard the street on Tuesday night that leads to the church in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray where a fatal hostage taking incident happened, near Rouen

Despite this, he managed to convince those compiling the report that he should be given yet another chance.

The judge overseeing Kermiche's case, said the teenager was 'aware of his mistakes', and despite 'suicidal thoughts', was a good candidate to be reintegrated back into society.

He could be freed on probation with the 'supervision and support' of his family in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, and wearing an electronic tag, the judge concluded.

Prosecutors appealed the decision, saying they were 'unconvinced by the arguments', and that there was a 'high risk' of Kermiche reoffending.

Kermiche was even allowed a four-hour period from 8.30am every day when he could leave his parents' home, and wander freely around his home town.

It was during this window that he and his accomplice rushed into the church and executed Father Jacques before also knifing a parishioner, who was severely wounded.

Today, members of Kermiche's immediate family remained inside their home in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, without commenting.

A mourner lights a candle in tribute to the fallen priest at a makeshift memorial in Paris. The nation is reeling after yet another terror attack, just days after 85 people were killed in horrific attack in the southern city of Nice

The French authorities have been widely criticised for the way they have allowed known jihadis the freedom to travel and mass weapons to carry out their crimes.

French President Francois Hollande was today meeting religious leaders to try and reassure them that everything is being done to protect places of worship, including churches, mosques and synagogue.

But the head of state has regularly been booed while out in public, with critics shouting 'Resign!' and 'Murderers!' at him and his prime minister, Manuel Valls.

Opposition Republican leader Nicolas Sarkozy accused Mr Hollande of 'trembling' in the face of the jihadist threat.
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It's called Million Dollar Point - an apt title for a treasure trove of US military equipment left dumped at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean after the Second World War.

Amazing pictures have revealed the stash - and huge waste - of vehicles and other apparatus in waters off the island paradise of Vanuatu.

The US military had been using Espiritu Santo, Vanuatu, as a base to launch attacks on the Japanese.

The wreckage includes, bulldozers, jeeps, trucks, semi-trailers, fork lifts, tractors, clothing, corrugated iron and even Coke bottles.

Tourists often visit the US military wreck underwater off Vanuatu in the Pacific Ocean

The US failed to come to a deal with locals to buy the equipment and it was deemed cheaper to dump in the ocean rather than transport it back to the US.

However, there are conflicting accounts of this process, with some questioning why some of the civilian items, which accounted for the majority of the items, were not given to locals, known as the ni-Vanuatu people, who might have appreciated them.

According to America's Cabinet Magazine, writer Thurston Clarke wrote that the possible reason for the dumping, on top of the expensive shipping costs and dwindling numbers of soldiers left to manage the huge inventory, was that the American economy at the time could not have recovered from a huge influx of lower-priced goods.

A diver shines a light on an abandoned US military vehicle at Million Dollar Point, Vanuatu

Tourists get a close up look of an abandoned wreck at Million Dollar Point

Clarke described the scene as the US dumped the goods in front of locals.

The Seabees built a ramp running into the sea and every day Americans drove trucks, jeeps, ambulances, bulldozers, and tractors into the channel, locking the wheels and jumping free at the last second,' Clarke wrote.

'Engine blocks cracked and hissed. Some Seabees wept. Ni-Vanuatu witnessing the destruction of wealth their island would never see again, at least in their lifetimes, thought the Americans had gone mad.

Cabinet Magazine says military records account for the underwater dumping of some ammunition but nothing on the scale of what happened at Million Dollar Point.

'The official Navy record of Operation Roll-Up maintains that "items were to be retained to the extent of their useful life'',' the magazine reported.

The new photos - taken by Canadian photographer Christopher Hamilton, from Windsor, Nova Scotia - show tourists exploring the ruins after the site has become a popular underwater stop for visitors to Vanuatu.

UNDERWATER WASTE: HOW AN ISLAND PARADISE BECAME AMERICA'S SECOND WORLD WAR DUMPING GROUND US General Douglas MacArthur returning to liberate the Philippines from Japanese invaders during WW2. He was Commander in Chief of the South West Pacific The United States' broader military effort in the South Pacific - led by prominent US General Douglas MacArthur - had a presence in Vanuatu. Vanuatu had two military bases - called Buttons and Roses - in the islands during the war. Buttons was located on the country's biggest island, Espiritu Santo, and was used by Allied forces as an airfield, naval harbor and supply and support base after the bombing of Pearl Harbor earlier. Operationally, the base was used to launch attacks on the Japanese. This island was the setting for the famous musical South Pacific about an American nurse on a South Pacific island during the war. There is another US military wreck off the island, SS President Coolidge, but that was sunk by mines. Military personnel from the Buttons base tried to sell the millions of dollars worth of equipment following the war between 1945 and 1947. But when a buyer could not be found among locals, the property was destroyed or dumped underwater. The dumping created a tourism attraction to compliment the tropical paradise and divers now regularly visit the wreck. However, the decision to waste the equipment was controversial at the time and some of the locals felt the Americans had 'gone mad'. US army officers serving on the Buttons military base on Espiritu Santo in Vanuatu during the Second World War An air crewman receives careful instruction from an officer of a Mobile Training Unit at Espiritu Santo, in the New Hebrides in 1944 Coconuts collected on Espiritu Santo were considered a nuisance by servicemen on duty in April 1944 Advertisement

Millions of dollars worth of equipment - range from trucks and bulldozers to clothing and cases of Coke - are at the bottom of the ocean at Espiritu Santo today - seventy years after the end of the Second World War

This island of Espiritu Santo was the setting for the famous musical South Pacific about an American nurse on an island during the war

The rusted wheels of a vehicle lays as a monument to the ruins of war in the Vanuatu waters

Another military vehicle, possibly a tank or truck tread, can be seen amid wreckage of other wheels

Cabinet Magazine says military records account for the underwater dumping of some ammunition but nothing on the scale of what happened at Million Dollar Point

After seven decades under water, much of the equipment has become a home for underwater life

A diver examines the wreckage at Million Dollar Point off the coast of Vanuatu in the Pacific Ocean

Boxes of unidentified items rest on the seabed in waters off Espiritu Santo in Vanuatu

The hull of a ship can be seen amid other wreckage include wheels of military vehicles from the US military campaign

What looks more tank-style treads are still attached to a vehicle in their underwater grave

Locals felt the Americans had 'gone mad' watching the dumping procession in the late 1940s, according to historians

Amazingly, after about 70 years under water, many of the wheel treads are still intact and visible

The island of Espiritu Santo now leverages off its military past, promoting diving tours of the wreckage

The wreckage is not in extremely deep waters as can be seen here with sunlight illuminating it

Time has ravaged some of the equipment, with rust eating away at this piece of military apparatus

Another diver swims over the wreckage, getting a close up view of US military history

Many of the wheels of vehicles are left in a mess of steel pieces on the seabed

Some of the equipment has taken a red color thanks to rust and underwater life growing on it

Fish and other underwater life have made the former military equipment their home now

The wreckage includes, bulldozers, jeeps, trucks, semi-trailers, fork lifts, tractors, clothing, corrugated iron and even Coke bottles
Astronaut Buzz Aldrin has tweeted his expenses claim for travelling to the moon in July 1969 for which he received the grand total of $33.31.

According to the voucher, which is described as a 'standard form', Colonel Aldrin claimed for the period between July 7 and July 27, 1969.

Despite the historic nature of his trip, under the transportation section of the form, Colonel Aldrin wrote he was traveling by 'Gov. Air'.

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Former astronaut Buzz Aldrin tweeted his travel voucher for expenses for his historic trip to the moon

Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin has tweeted a copy of his expenses claim for travelling to the moon in 1969

According to the fascinating document, 'Government meals and quarters were furnished' for the entire trip

Buzz Aldrin, pictured in advance of the mission, was the second man on the moon following Neil Armstrong

The section dedicated to Points of Travel, the document showed he went on a return trip out of Houston Texas.

The document, which reads like a normal accountancy form starts unremarkably enough, with the first leg to Cape Kennedy, Florida.

The second line features a single word: Moon.

Then Colonel Aldrin documented his arrival in the Pacific Ocean with the aircraft carrier USS Hornet in brackets.

He then traveled to Hawaii before returning to Houston, Texas.

In the detailed section for his expenses, Colonel Aldrin said on July 7, 1969 he left his house at 4.45am and drove 8 miles to Ellington Air Force Base before flying by Government air to Cape Kennedy in Florida.

On July 16, at 08.32 he bordered a Government Space craft and flew to the moon, arriving at 13.25 on July 19.

At 24.00 on July 21, he left the moon, again on board a Government space craft to the Pacific Ocean, arriving at 06.00.

Following his arrival on the USS Hornet, he flew to Hawaii and then returned to Houston on a US Air Force plane.

According to the document: 'Government meals and quarters furnished for all the above dates.'

The expenses claim was authorized by Certifying Officer C.W. Bird on August 26, 1969.

Aldrin's tiny expense claim was dwarfed by the total value of the Apollo project which cost $25.4 billion - more than $150 billion in today's money.

Buzz Aldrin charged NASA $33.31 in travel expenses for his epic trip to the moon and back

Aldrin, right, was part of a three-man team including Neil Armstrong, left, and Michael Collins, center

Aldrin, pictured in Los Angeles in April 2016 has urged the US government to commit to travelling to Mars

According to the expenses claim, Aldrin arrived on the moon on July 19 and left on July 21

Apollo 11 was the first spaceflight that landed humans on the moon.

Americans Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on July 20, 1969, at 20:18 UTC, 47 years ago.

Armstrong became the first to step onto the lunar surface six hours later on July 21 and Aldrin joined him about 20 minutes later.

They spent about two and a quarter hours together outside the spacecraft, and collected 47.5 pounds (21.5 kg) of lunar material for return to Earth.

The third member of the mission, Michael Collins, piloted the command spacecraft alone in lunar orbit, until Armstrong and Aldrin returned to it just under a day later for the trip back to Earth.

Armstrong took this photograph of Aldrin during their historic space work on the lunar surface

Aldrin spent about two and a quarter hours walking on the lunar surface with Neil Armstrong

On November 11, 1966, Aldrin set the record for the longest space walk with a five-and-a-half hour mission

Edwin Buzz Eugene Aldrin, Jr was born on 20 January 1930 in Glen Ridge, New Jersey.

He has a bachelor of science degree from the US Military Academy at West Point, New York and a doctorate of science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for a thesis titled Guidance for Manned Orbital Rendezvous.

Dr Aldrin is one of very few early astronauts to have a background in science. This earned him the nickname Dr Rendezvous during the Apollo program.

The nickname Buzz comes from his youngest sister repeatedly calling him buzzer instead of brother. In 1988, he legally changed his name to Buzz.

On November 11, 1966 he set a record for the longest spacewalk at the time, five and a half hours, during the Gemini 12 mission.

He solved many of the problems that had plagued previous spacewalks, notably using handrails and footrests to prevent over-exertion.

On 20 July 1969, he became the second man to walk on the moon after Neil Armstrong.

The first words from the lunar surface were actually spoken by Dr Aldrin when their spacecraft touched down, when he said: Contact light.

He resigned from NASA in July 1971 and later the Air Force.
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Hanging upside down by his ankles from a crane, a sedated baby elephant is carefully lowered onto a truck for the only road trip of his life as part of the most ambitious wildlife project ever attempted.

A similar scene will, this week, greet Prince Harry, who has returned to Africa to continue his conservation crusade and take a frontline role in the extraordinary effort to save the continents biggest beasts from extinction.

An experienced pilot with warzone experience, the prince is expected to be deployed in the careful rounding up of family groups of elephants to be darted from the air, before they are trucked 200 miles to sanctuary across Malawi, as part of the extraordinary initiative 500 Elephants.

Devotion: Prince Harry has been a devoted conservationist and spent three months embedded with an anti-poaching patrol in southern Africa last year. He posted this heartbreaking picture near the end of the tour

Back to Africa: Harry is spending his second successive summer in Africa, this time working with the NGO African Parks. The project will help 500 elephants move 200 miles to a conservation park in Malwai

Help: Elephant numbers have been dropping in Malawi due to poaching. Above, The immediate priority of the programmer is to check the health of the elephants before they are hoisted onto flatbed trucks

Harry is spending his second successive summer in Africa, this time working with the NGO African Parks which said it was delighted to have the bearded prince on board.

The 31-year-old royal brings valuable field experience from last years three months embedded with bush vets and an anti-poaching teams, gaining a host of hands-on skills with the animals known as Africas Big Five.

Fran Read, from African Parks, told MailOnline, We are delighted that Prince Harry will be joining us for this very important project.

Harrys latest venture is the 1million move of around 500 elephants to a wildlife reserve in central Malawi from two parks in the south of the country, where food and space is becoming increasingly scarce for the animals.

Frontline: The 31-year-old royal brings valuable field experience from last years three months embedded with bush vets and an anti-poaching teams, gaining a host of hands-on skills. Above, he helps treat a rhinocerous

Hanging: The Prince has landed in Malawi to assist the NGO African Parks. Above, An elephant is lifted onto a flatbed lorry, ready for the journey to its new home. Twigs will be placed in their trunks to help them breathe

Hero: One of the princes tasks in Namibia was to measure vital signs and administer fluids to sedated rhinos, whose horns were being removed to make them less attractive to poachers

The elephants new base will give them more space to breed and help restore the numbers of the animals whose numbers are dwindling in other parts of Africa, mostly as a result of poaching.

Elephants appear to hold a particular fascination for Harry, who left the army last year. The prince released an instagram picture of himself lying face down with his arms stretched across a sedated elephant during his previous stint as a conservation volunteer in Africa.

The role of the pilot in the 500Elephants project is to flush elephants from wooded areas onto the plains to enable them to be more easily darted by the on board vet.

This would be a task Harry could easily undertake, along with the monitoring of the sedated animals after their immobilisation.

After the elephant is tranquilised, it is measured in Liwonde National Park, Malawi, in the first step of an assisted migration. African Parks, which manages three Malawian reserves is moving the 500 elephants

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

Once they are sedated and recorded, the elephants are revived with injections in wake-up crates and cattle prods are used to herd them onto flatbed trucks for the day-long journey to their new home

One of the princes tasks he undertook assisting wildlife vet Peter Morkel in Namibia was to measure vital signs and administer fluids to sedated rhinos, whose horns were being removed to make them less attractive to poachers.

Once they are sedated and recorded, the elephants are revived with injections in wake-up crates and cattle prods are used to herd them onto flatbed trucks for the day-long journey to their new home.

There is some risk and stress in drugging and moving elephants long distances, although the process has been successful in other parts of southern Africa and most animals adapt to new environment if it similar to their old one.

An elephant is lifted by a crane in an upside down position in Malawi, in the first step of an assisted migration of 500 of the threatened species. The animal is unconscious and will wake up unharmed

The role of the pilot in the 500Elephants project is to flush elephants from wooded areas onto the plains to enable them to be more easily darted by the on board vet - something Harry could easily undertake

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.

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.
BHS workers are demanding that Sir Philip Green sells his yacht to pay for their pensions as he continues to shamelessly sun himself in the Med on his 100m boat.

Furious employees have launched a series of petitions and online support groups, blaming the businessman for the company's collapse and urging him to put his hands in his pockets to help those facing unemployment.

In one petition - entitled 'Sell the Yachts, Pay the Pensions' - nearly 200 people have called on Sir Philip and his family to 'repay the money which they out of BHS to pay off the 571m deficit.'

A group of former BHS worker in South Shields hold up a sign saying 'F*** Phil Green' - complete with swearing hand gestures - in a no holds barred attack on the shamed retail tycoon

In one petition (pictured) - entitled 'Sell the Yachts, Pay the Pensions' - nearly 200 people have called on Sir Philip and his family to 'repay the money which they out of BHS to pay off the 571m deficit'

Meanwhile, as his former staff members deal with the uncertainty over their future, Sir Philip is still sunning himself aboard his lavish yacht Lionheart in waters off a Greek island (pictured)

A Facebook support group called Team BHS, in which workers are sharing their memories and fears of the future, has also gained more than 7,000 likes.

And in one picture, shared hundreds of times on Twitter, a group of former colleagues in South Shields held up a sign saying 'F*** Phil Green' - complete with swearing hand gestures - in a no holds barred attack on the shamed tycoon.

Meanwhile, as his former staff members deal with the uncertainty over their future, Sir Philip - now nicknamed Sir Shifty - is still sunning himself aboard his lavish yacht Lionheart in waters off the Greek island, Skopelos.

The 64-year-old - who took delivery of the vessel a few months ago as BHS entered administration - was pictured yesterday looking relaxed as he plumped up a cushion before lying down on a sofa outside on the 298ft boat.

It was the first time he had been seen in public since a damning report by MPs into the collapse of the doomed company - in which he was branded the 'unacceptable face of capitalism' - was published.

The scathing paper triggered fresh calls for Sir Philip to lose his knighthood, but the retail magnate stayed resolute, threatening to sue one of the authors of the report, Labour MP Frank Field - a threat which has not yet materialised.

Sir Philip's daughter Chloe also appears to still be living the high life, rubbbing shoulders with celebrities while on holiday in St Tropez.

The 25-year-old Topshop heiress was pictured at a party at an exclusive villa in the South of France appearing to enjoy a party.

A Facebook support group called Team BHS, in which workers are sharing their memories and fears of the future, has also gained more than 7,000 likes

Several other posters and images have been posted on social media, including one which has the words 'Save BHS' emblazoned across a headstone (pictured)

The petition read: 'During the 15 years that the Green family owned BHS they are reputed to have taken nearly 600m out of the company. They live in Monaco, have 3 yachts, a helicopter, and a private jet.

'They hold extravagant parties in exotic locations. All this whilst people who worked in a low wage industry are going to suffer (and you can only be on one yacht at once!).'

Several other posters and images have been posted on social media, including one which has the words 'Save BHS' emblazoned across a headstone.

The Greens have received around 400million in dividends from BHS, most of these paid to Lady Green and companies controlled by her

Although she is the main owner of these businesses, they are run by Sir Philip who has no stake in them.

The 298ft super yacht, Lionheart, was pictured arriving in Valletta, Malta, this week. He is enjoying his break in the Mediterranean as BHS workers face uncertainty over their future

A report into the affairs of BHS said Sir Philip (left) 'systematically plundered' the store while leaving a multi-million pound hole in the pension pot. The Greens have received around 400million in dividends from BHS, most of these paid to Lady Green (with whom he is pictured, right) and companies controlled by her

On Monday, a report into the affairs of BHS said Sir Philip - whose Arcadia Group owns Topshop and Miss Selfridge - 'systematically plundered' the store and 'accrued incredible wealth' while leaving a multi-million pound hole in the pension pot.

MPs said Sir Philip enriched his family for more than a decade after buying the business in 2000 through a series of shady property deals, awarding himself fat dividend cheques and starving the retailer of investment.

Then, in 2015, he sold the high street chain for just 1. Thirteen months later, BHS collapsed into administration in April, leaving up to 11,000 people facing redundancy and more than 20,000 at risk of losing 10 per cent of their pension income.

Under Pension Protection Fund rules, BHS workers who have not yet retired will receive compensation based on 90 per cent of what their pension was worth when the company became insolvent.

Last week, 20 BHS stores across the UK closed, including this one in Newport, South Wales. Shoppers were seen leaving with fixtures from the shop which had been on sale

The store in Crewe was also one of those pegged for closure. This is the empty shop floor on the final day of trading

Despite the turmoil of these workers, Lady Green is still enjoying livings in an apartment in Monaco and spends much of her time on one of the couples yachts, moored off Monte Carlo.

Meanwhile, Dominic Chappell, the playboy who bought BHS for 1 from Sir Philip, is set to make his first public statement since being branded a wholly unsuitable purchaser who personally enriched himself from the sale.

It is thought he had been overseas and has flown back to the UK to face the music. The serial bankrupt was accused of having his hands in the till during his disastrous tenure and that he and his friends and directors took out money for their personal gain as it crumbled around them, according to the MPs report on the BHS disaster.

Mr Chappell, 49, controlled the doomed chain via his Retail Acquisitions company for just 14 months before it collapsed into administration.

The select committee report found he took out 4.1million, which included 2.6million in salary and fees as well as a 1.5million interest-free loan.
VALENCIA, Calif.Lesbian adult film studio Girlfriends Films has announced the release of its 600th title. The new movie, Women Seeking Women 131, is available online and will be in stores July 29. The two-disc set will include four new scenes and a bonus disc packed with classic scenes from the past.

Girlfriends Films founder Dan OConnell said he and GFF President Moose put a lot of thought into selecting the six bonus scenes for the compilation. Moose and I put our heads together in picking some of the very best of our previously released material. With over 2,400 scenes to choose from, it wasnt easy.

Their selections feature some stellar pairings, including Brianna Love and Deauxma, Jelena Jensen and Taylor Vixen, Angela Sommers and Cherie DeVille, Chanel Preston and Mercedes Carrera, Shyla Jennings and Zoey Holloway, and Dani Daniels and Mindi Mink.

Moose recalled the release schedule back when he joined the company in 2008. I remember it like it was yesterday. At that time we were premiering Road Queen 4 and Women Seeking Women 38, and then later down the road we brought out the 100th film, the first Imperfect Angel. Its hard to believe how far we have come, he mused. We are so grateful to the fans for their support and the cast and crew who have worked hard to reach this incredible milestone of our 600th movie release, so as a bonus we included some of the best scenes in the Girlfriends Films library to reflect our sentiments.

Director OConnell gave equal regard to creating the new scenes for the most awarded series in the history of adult movies when he set out to produce the 131st volume of Women Seeking Women, knowing it would also be the milestone 600th original GFF release. As this movie is highly anticipated by many, I took special care with both the casting and storyline for the four new scenes, he explained. Featuring match-ups between Kirsten Lee and Stella Cox, Kirsten Lee and Scarlet Red, Alexis Fawx and Blake Eden, and Nicole Clitman with Girlfriends contract star Prinzzess, the story revolves around Scarlet Red encouraging her mom (Alexis Fawx) to find some roommates after losing her husband to cancer.

Among this group of characters the lines are clearly drawn. OConnell said. When bad girls Kirsten Lee and Blake Eden move in, the horrific story unfolds as they cruelly decide to add fuel to the fires of Alexis psychological hell and she suddenly finds her house filled with explicit photographs of lesbian sex acts with suggestive captions. According to OConnell, the bad girls take it a step further when they tell a horrible lie to convince Scarlet that her that mom wants to expand their mother-daughter relationship to a sexual one.

Its a classic tale of good girls vs. bad girls, angels vs. evil, naughty vs. nice, the director adds. You might think people always want to root for the good guy, when thats not necessarily the case.

But whether good or evil triumphs, the real winner are Girlfriends Films fans, who will be getting a treasure trove of passionate girl/girl scenes. For more information, or to download the box art, click here.

Pictured above: Girlfriends Films contract star Prinzess with Nicole Clitman
A top Putin crony - who thought he was 'untouchable' - has become the centre of an anti-corruption probe after police raided his lavish mansion and found shoeboxes stuffed with thousands of pounds.

Head of customs Andrei Belyaninov was caught with more than half a million pounds, countless antiques and paintings in his office and palatial home yesterday in a humiliating swoop - with his hoard mocked as 'petty cash'.

Belyaninov, 59, a former KGB colleague of Vladimir Putin thought himself to be untouchable by law enforcement, but the raid is just the latest in a series of dramatic shake ups among the President's inner circle.

Awkward: The discovery of used bank notes worth just more than half a million pounds at his 'palace' led to him being mocked for a 'petty cash scandal'

Raid: Andrei Belyaninov, 59, the Head of Customs, had his home and office raided by Russian police in an anti-corruption probe. He's just the latest of Putin's cronies to be investigated

Surprise: The swoop was orchestrated by Putin's powerful state intelligence force - the FSB, where he used to be a director and has been accused of turning it into his personal security agency

Untouchable: Russian media claimed that because of his links to Putin going back three decades Belyaninov considered himself to be 'untouchable for law enforcement'

And while the dramatic search was carried out by the Russian Investigative Committee - equivalent to the FBI - it was spearheaded by Putin's powerful FSB, the powerful state security successor to the KGB.

Just last week a senior official in the Investigative Committee - who was personally appointed by Putin - was arrested by the FSB and accused of close links to a leading mafia ring.

Earlier this month, Belyaninov had boasted about the effectiveness of his customs operation, saying it had transferred 24 million in seized cash to Kremlin coffers.

But the discovery of used bank notes worth just more than half a million pounds at his 'palace' led to him being mocked for a 'petty cash scandal'.

A report in Moskovsky Komsomolets said Belyaninov was 'angry' over the searches in which pictures show him being escorted around his luxury mansion by FSB agents whose faces are pixelated.

Art works lined the walls, and pictures of the Russian president were visible.

Humiliated: Extraordinary photos of Belyaninov revealing his secret stash of shoeboxes filled with cash during the police raid were published by Russian media

Caught: Shoeboxes full of more than half a million pounds were discovered in his lavish mansion

Lavish: His palatial home at Bachurino village near Moscow was ransacked for evidence by the authorities

Petty: The former KGB agent was mocked for have stolen a relatively small amount of 'petty' cash - and for keeping it in shoe boxes. His mansion was also stocked full of expensive paintings and antiques

Allies: Belyaninov served in the KGB with President Putin and reportedly thought himself 'untouchable' by law enforcement.

Because of his links to Putin going back three decades 'he considered himself to be untouchable for law enforcement', it was claimed.

But extraordinary photographs emerged showing Andrei Belyaninov with a stash of cash - worth around 670,000 in various currencies - along with valuable art works.

The money 'kept in empty shoe boxes' was allegedly found at his palatial home at Bachurino village near Moscow.

What makes yesterday's move against the Russian Federal Customs Service head most unexpected is that he has been a close ally of Putin's going back to their days as KGB spies in East Germany in the 1980s during the Cold War.

The action against 59 year old Belyaninov comes at a time of unprecedented in-fighting among the law enforcement agencies crucial to the Russian strongman's grip on power in the Kremlin.

Observers say the search will be seen as a power grab by the FSB - an accusation reportedly dismissed by the organisation.

High life: His mansion near Moscow was shown to be lavishly decorated with a grand piano, indoor pool and tapestries hung from the walls

Luxury: The action against 59-year-old Belyaninov comes at a time of unprecedented in-fighting among the law enforcement agencies crucial to the Russian strongman's grip on power in the Kremlin

'The operation was held according to the decision of FSB leadership as a part of smuggling investigation, including alcohol smuggling,' said an FSB source quoted by the Russian media.

'Searches related to a criminal case were carried out today at the FCS [Federal Customs Service], including at the office of its head, Andrei Belyaninov, those of his deputies Ruslan Davydov and Andrei Strukov, and at Belyaninov's home address,' said Vladimir Markin, spokesman for the Russian Investigative Committee.

The searches were part of criminal proceedings related to alcohol smuggling, instituted against Dmitry Mikhalchenko, director-general of the Forum holding company, he said.

Searches were also carried out at the office and home of Sergei Lobanov, president of the Arsenal Insurance Company, 'the founder of no fewer than 15 different firms whose operations are closely connected to the FCS,' he said.

Four people were charged with alcohol smuggling but they did not include Belyaninov, he added.

Searches were also carried out at the office and home of Sergei Lobanov, president of the Arsenal Insurance Company for links to the FCS, according to the authorities

An extraordinary photograph emerged showing Andrei Belyaninov with a stash of cash - worth around 670,000 in various currencies - along with valuable art works - including a portrait of himself (value unknown)

Antiques: Four people were charged with alcohol smuggling but they did not include Belyaninov. Above, valuable pens found in the raid on Belyaninov's house

A report in Moskovsky Komsomolets said Belyaninov was 'angry' over the searches in which pictures show him being escorted around his luxury mansion by FSB agents whose faces are pixelated
These are the shocking injuries suffered by a five-year-old boy after he was allegedly strangled with a skipping rope by another pupil while playing in his school playground.

Jed Ward, aged five, was left with cuts and bruising after the incident at Castle Bromwich Infant School in Birmingham last Thursday.

He was taken to A&E at Heartlands Hospital by his worried parents Paul and Helen, who say they were not told about the incident by the school.

Jed Ward, aged five, was left with cuts, bruising and some swelling (pictured) after the incident involving another pupil and a skipping rope at Castle Bromwich Infant School in Birmingham last Thursday

Jed was taken to A&E at Heartlands Hospital by his worried parents Paul (pictured) and Helen, who say they were not told about the incident by the school

They claim another young boy strangled him with the skipping rope, but the school insists that the incident was 'an accident'.

Helen, 30, from Marlborough Road, said: 'I couldn't believe it when I picked Jed up from school and saw the marks on his neck.

'There was bad bruising and a nasty cut, as if pressure had been applied to his neck.

'I asked him what happened and he told me a pupil had put a rope around his neck and was pulling it tight. He said his friend had helped to get the boy off him.

Jed's parents claim another young boy strangled him with the skipping rope, but the school (pictured) insists that the incident was 'an accident'

'I believe Jed's friend told a dinner lady but it was not been reported to teachers. We should have been aware of an incident like this happening at school.'

She added: 'You can imagine my horror when I saw the marks on his neck. I took him straight to the accident and emergency to be checked.

'This should never have happened. The supervision was very poor to allow this to happen.

'Skipping ropes are potentially dangerous in the wrong hands and there should have been close supervision.

'The school told me that it was just an accident, that the rope had been swung by the other pupil and it had caught him on the neck, but that's not the truth.

Paul, 36, said: 'To see those strangle marks on his neck was terrifying. You think of the worst case scenario and what could have happened'

'We have reported the incident to Ofsted and they are investigating.'

Father Paul, 36, added: 'To see those strangle marks on his neck was terrifying. You think of the worst case scenario and what could have happened.

'Something like this must never happen again.'

A Solihull Council spokesman said the school had fully investigated the matter and parents had been kept informed.

'The council is liaising with Castle Bromwich Infant School in regard to a playground incident where a child was accidentally hurt,' he said. 'The school fully investigated and dealt with this matter at the time and has kept parents informed about the actions that were taken.'
South Sudanese government soldiers raped dozens of ethnic Nuer women and girls last week just outside a United Nations camp where they had sought protection from renewed fighting.

At least one assault occurred as peacekeepers watched, according to witnesses.

Civilian leaders said that at least two died from their injuries.

The rapes in the capital of Juba highlighted two persistent problems in the chaotic country engulfed by civil war: targeted ethnic violence and the reluctance by UN peacekeepers to protect civilians.

On July 17, two armed soldiers in uniform dragged away a woman who was less than a few hundred metres from the UN camp's western gate while armed peacekeepers on foot, in an armoured vehicle and in a watchtower looked on.

South Sudanese government soldiers raped dozens of ethnic Nuer women and girls last week just outside a United Nations camp in Juba (pictured) where they had sought protection from renewed fighting

On July 17, two armed soldiers in uniform dragged away a woman who was less than a few hundred metres from the UN camp's western gate while armed peacekeepers on foot, in an armoured vehicle and in a watchtower looked on

The rapes in the capital of Juba highlighted two persistent problems in the chaotic country engulfed by civil war: targeted ethnic violence and the reluctance by UN peacekeepers to protect civilians. File picture

One witness estimated that 30 peacekeepers from Nepalese and Chinese battalions saw the incident.

'They were seeing it. Everyone was seeing it,' he said. 'The woman was seriously screaming, quarreling and crying also, but there was no help. 'She was crying for help.'

He and other witnesses interviewed insisted on speaking on condition of anonymity because they feared reprisals by soldiers if identified.

A spokeswoman for the UN mission, Shantal Persaud, did not dispute that rapes took place close to the camp. She did not immediately address why peacekeepers didn't act to prevent the rapes, saying she was looking into the issue.

The reported assaults occurred about a week after rival government forces clashed in Juba, forcing opposition leader Riek Machar from the city and killing hundreds of people.

As a ceasefire took hold, women and girls began venturing outside the UN camp for food.

The camp houses over 30,000 civilians who are nearly all ethnic Nuer, the same ethnicity as Machar.

The reported assaults occurred about a week after rival government forces clashed in Juba, forcing opposition leader Riek Machar (above) from the city and killing hundreds of people

They fear attacks by government forces who are mostly ethnic Dinka, the same as Machar's rival, President Salva Kiir.

As the women and girls walked out of the camp, they entered an area called Checkpoint, in the shadow of a mountain on Juba's western outskirts.

That stretch of road along one side of the camp saw some of the heaviest fighting and is lined with wrecked shops and burned tanks. It is now inhabited by armed men in and out of uniform.

In interviews with the Associated Press, women described soldiers in Checkpoint allowing them to leave to buy food but attacking them as they returned.

'When we reached Checkpoint, the soldiers come out and called the women and said, "Stop, please, and sit down," so we stopped and sat down, and they took one woman inside a shop,' a woman said. 'Four men went inside the shop and they raped the woman while we three stayed outside.'

In another incident, one woman said a group of soldiers pulled two women and two underage girls from their group and gang-raped them in a shop, with more than 10 men to each victim. One girl later died, she said.

'I saw the men taking their trousers off and the ladies crying inside,' said a middle-aged woman. As she spoke, she began to cry. 'They said, "This one belongs to me, this one belongs to me,"'' she added.

Multiple Nuer women said soldiers threatened them because of their ethnicity or accused them of being allied with Machar. The women identified the soldiers as ethnic Dinka because of the language they spoke.

'One soldier came and he turned the gun to us. He said, "If I kill you now, you Nuer woman, do you think there is anything that can happen to me?"' one woman said. She said the soldier slapped her before another soldier intervened, allowing her to escape.

The number of rapes that took place outside the UN camp was unclear. The AP interviewed more than a dozen witnesses of rapes or people who spoke with victims, both one-on-one and in small groups.

The Protection Cluster, a group of aid workers that monitors violence against civilians in South Sudan, noted a 'significant spike in reported cases was observed on July 18 when large numbers of women began leaving (the camp) to travel to markets in town in search of food.'

The UN camp houses more than 30,000 civilians who are nearly all ethnic Nuer, the same ethnicity as Machar. They fear attacks by government forces who are mostly ethnic Dinka, the same as Machar's rival, President Salva Kiir (pictured)

The Protection Cluster said at least two victims are known to have died as a result of their injuries.

Civilian leaders in the UN camp have given estimates ranging from 27 to over 70 rapes from the time that women started venturing out for food.

The United Nations says it received reports of dozens of cases. A South Sudanese rights group, the Community Empowerment for Progress Organization, said it is investigating 36 reported rapes.

Hospitals inside the camp received four rape cases last week, including an underage girl who said she had been gang-raped by five men, and a woman who said she had been gang-raped by five men and beaten, according to medical staff who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

The number of victims reporting to clinics is believed to be lower than the actual total because of the stigma in Nuer culture attached to rape.

The rape of civilians has been a near-constant in South Sudan's civil war which began in 2013, with both sides accused of using sexual assault, based on ethnicity, as a weapon of war.

Army spokesman Lul Ruai Koang did not deny that rapes occurred after the latest fighting but said the military has yet to receive any formal complaints from victims.

Uniformed soldiers were involved, heavily involved, in horrific acts of violence against civilians Shantal Persaud, UN mission spokeswoman

Witnesses and aid workers accuse the armed UN peacekeepers, who are mandated to protect civilians with lethal force if necessary, of failing to act.

The UN spokeswoman, Persaud, said the recent rapes were not limited to Checkpoint.

'For a fact, uniformed soldiers were involved, heavily involved, in horrific acts of violence against civilians,' Persaud said.

This is not the first time that UN peacekeepers have been accused of failing to act.

Last year, more than 1,300 women and girls were raped by government forces and allied militias during a scorched-earth campaign in Unity state, according to the Protection Cluster.

Doctors Without Borders accused the UN mission of 'complete and utter failure' to protect civilians there.

The medical aid organization also blamed the peacekeeping mission over a government attack on the UN camp in the town of Malakal in February that killed about two dozen civilians. A UN investigation found confusion in command and control by UN forces.

In the latest clashes in Juba, residents of the UN camp accused peacekeepers of running away when the camp was shelled. Two Chinese peacekeepers were killed.

Aid workers said they asked the UN to increase patrols July 17-18 along the camp where women were most vulnerable, but that patrols in the area did not begin until July 21.

The UN said in a statement it had increased patrols outside the camp in response to reported rapes.

One local woman, Christmas David, who said she was beaten by government soldiers but not raped, said the limited patrols were not enough.
All three suspected of sending money to the terror group using fake IDs

Police in Spain have arrested two brothers accused of helping to finance ISIS after a third brother died fighting alongside the terror group.

Armed officers detained the Moroccan pair, aged 33 and 32, during dawn raids in the village of Arbucies in the north-east province of Girona near Spain's border with France.

Police say the two siblings, and a third believed to have died in Syria, allegedly sent money to ISIS administrators using fake identities.

Spanish Civil Guard officers escort a Moroccan suspect (2-R) who was arrested during an operation against Jihadist terror in Arbucies, in the province of Girona, northeastern Spain

Spanish police forces arrested two Moroccan siblings accussed of belonging to the Islamic State finance network after their brother died fighting alongside the militants

Investigators said today it was one of the first operations in which they had managed to identify a direct link between Spanish residents and financing of the terror group. Pictured in Arbucies

Mayor of Arbucies Perre Garriga talking to reporters after two residents were arrested for funding ISIS

Investigators said today it was one of the first operations in which they had managed to identify a direct link between Spanish residents and financing of the terror group.

They are set to face charges of financing terrorism and collaborating with a terrorist organisation.

The brother who died is said to have travelled to Syria from Spain with his wife and two children to fight for ISIS.

The Civil Guard said in a statement, in which they referred to ISIS by its acronym DAESH: 'The Civil Guard has arrested in Girona two people accused of collaborating with a permanent DAESH fundraising operation.

'The network used allegedly fake identities to send cash to administrators of DAESH's economic structure in Syria and Iraq to finance the transfer of operatives to conflict zones.

'It's the first investigation in Spain in which concrete evidence has been established showing the specific purpose of the money sent from Spain to facilitate terror group DAESH's operations.'

A spokesman added: 'The two people arrested are Moroccan brothers aged 33 and 32 resident in the province of Girona.

'Together with a third brother believed to have died in Syria, they sent funds to DAESH's administrators.

'The death of their brother, who had moved to the conflict zone with his wife and two children to join the terror group, didn't lead them to stop their activities.'

The detained pair were taken to Madrid's Audiencia Nacional court (pictured) where they were due to appear in court in a private hearing

The detained pair were taken to Madrid's Audiencia Nacional court where they were due to appear in court in a private hearing.

A judge is expected to remand them in custody pending an ongoing probe.

Spain has been on high anti-terror alert, level four out of a threat level scale of one to five, since last June.

Level five is 'very high' and would involve the mobilisation of the Armed Forces to guarantee security in the streets and at strategic locations, or even the restriction and control of Spanish airspace.

The Interior Ministry sets the anti-terror alert level after discussions with experts in the fight against anti-terrorism include police and Civil Guard representatives and representatives from the National Centre of Intelligence and the Centre of Intelligence Against Terrorism.

One in three terror suspects arrested in Spain formed part of cells ready and prepared to carry out attacks, investigators revealed earlier this month.

The shocking figure was revealed in a study by international think tank the Real Instituto Elcano.

Investigators Fernando Reinares and Carola Garcia-Calvo made the discovery while profiling 150 alleged jihadis arrested by the Spanish authorities between 2013 and May of this year.

They found 86 per cent of those detained belonged to Islamic State.

They also concluded 94 per cent participated in activities relating to ISIS terrorism with other people - and only six per cent acted as so-called 'lone wolves.'

Spain has been on high anti-terror alert, level four out of a threat level scale of one to five, since last June

Armed officers detained the Moroccan pair, aged 33 and 32, during dawn raids in the village of Arbucies (pictured, right) in the north-east province of Girona near Spain's border with France

Police say the two siblings, and a third believed to have died in Syria, allegedly sent money to ISIS administrators using fake identities

ISIS jihadis have consistently vowed to unleash terror on Spain as part of a campaign to recover the country for Islam.

Tom Wilson, an expert on the Middle East at the Henry Jackson society, said earlier this year Spanish destinations including holiday hotspots offered likely targets for terrorists.

He said: 'Islamic extremists, such as those in Islamic State, certainly see any territory that was once conquered by Islam as being up for grabs, so to speak.
ISIS have claimed responsibility for a today's massive suicide bombings in Syria that killed 48 people.

Among the victims were women and children at a Kurdish security facility in al-Qamishli in the country's north less than a mile from the Turkish border.

Kurdish officials said the attack was carried out by a terrorist driving an explosives-laden truck and the explosion was so powerful it shattered windows in a Turkish town a mile away.

ISIS have claimed responsibility for a today's suicide bombings in Syria that killed 44 people in al-Qamishli in the north of the country

In a twin bombing, first a truck packed with explosives was detonated followed by a motorcycle carrying the same deadly weapons blew up a few minutes later

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor gave a toll of 48 dead, adding that children and women were among those killed.

It was the largest and deadliest attack to hit the city since the beginning of Syria's conflict in March 2011.

The blast was initially described as a double bombing, but local officials and the Observatory said the bomb had detonated a nearby fuel container, leading to reports of a second explosion.

The explosion was so powerful it shattered the windows of shops a mile away in the Turkish town of Nusaybin across the border where two people were hurt.

A journalist witnessed the devastating scenes in the bomb's aftermath, as distraught civilians, some covered in blood, staggered through rubble past twisted metal and the burned-out remains of cars.

One man running along the streets was completely covered in blood, his shirt drenched red.

He was gripping the arm of a small boy whose face was grey and red with blood and dust.

They ran past a hysterical woman who was crying and screaming, her clothes torn.

A girl and boy stood next to her, apparently in shock.

Children could be heard screaming as smoke rose from small fires that continued to burn amongst the rubble.

Civilians and local security forces with guns slung across their backs worked to carry the dead and wounded from the remains of damaged and destroyed buildings.

Syria's state-run news agency raised the death toll from its initial figure of 35 to 44, and it could rise with at least 140 said to be injured

The Islamic State group claimed the attack in a statement circulated on social media, calling it 'a response to the crimes committed by the crusader coalition aircraft' in the town of Manbij, a bastion of the jihadist group in Syria's Aleppo province.

Kurdish fighters have been a key force battling the jihadists in north and northeastern Syria and are the main component in the Syrian Democratic Forces alliance currently seeking to oust IS from Manbij.

They are backed by air strikes launched by the US-led coalition fighting IS in Syria and Iraq.

Al-Qamishli is under the shared control of the Syrian regime and Kurdish authorities, who have declared zones of 'autonomous administration' across parts of north and northeast Syria.

It has regularly been targeted in bomb attacks, many of which have been claimed by IS.

But a source in the Kurdish Asayesh security forces said, 'this is the largest explosion the city has ever seen.'

The area targeted houses several Kurdish administration buildings including the defence ministry and was considered a secure zone, with multiple checkpoints and security measures in place.

'This blast is the biggest in Qamishli in terms of both the toll and the damage since the beginning of the war,' Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman said.

Local officials said hospitals in the city had been swamped with casualties from the attack.

And Syrian state television carried an appeal from the governor of Hasakeh province, where Qamishli is located, urging residents to 'go to public and private hospitals to donate blood for the victims of the terrorist bombings.'

More than 280,000 people have been killed in Syria since the war began with anti-government protests that were met with a regime crackdown.

More than half the country's population has been displaced by the violence.

The blasts caused massive damage in the area and that rescue teams are working to recover victims from under the rubble

Qamishli, near the Turkish border, is mainly controlled by Kurds but Syrian government forces are present and control the town's airport

Meanwhile in Iraq, a suicide bomber targeted a police checkpoint in Baghdad killing six people.

The Baghdad attacker, who was on foot, blew up his explosive vest at a police checkpoint in the northern neighborhood of Shula, a police officer said.

Three policemen and three civilians were killed and at least 15 people were wounded in the explosion.
Cardinal George Pell is facing multiple child abuse allegations after two men came forward claiming they were groped by the Catholic cleric at a pool in the 1970s.

The men, who were in a Victorian primary school at the time, say Cardinal Pell, 74, abused them while they were swimming at Ballarat's Eureka Pool during the summer of 1978-79, an allegation the cardinal strongly denies.

One of the men, Lyndon Monument, told ABC's 7.30 he was reluctant to speak up because of the power Cardinal Pell held.

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Cardinal George Pell has been accused of child abuse in the 1970s after two men came forward claiming they were groped by the cleric

The men, who were in a Victorian primary school at the time, say Cardinal Pell (pictured) abused them while they were swimming at Ballarat's Eureka Pool during the summer of 1978-79

'I didn't like it, but because it was a church and he was George Pell, we just - you just weren't game to ever say anything, you know what I mean,' Mr Monument told 7.30.

The two men, now in their 40s, have given separate statements to Victoria Police's special Taskforce Sano last year.

ABC reported that several other complaints have been made against Cardinal Pell to the taskforce, including an alleged incident involving two boys in the 1990s.

At the time, Cardinal pell was the Archbishop of Melbourne working to create The Melbourne Response, which addresses accusations of abuse within the Catholic Church.

Cardinal Pell, who was a priest in Ballarat in the 70s has denied the allegations, saying claims he has sexually abused anyone, at any place and at any time were 'totally untrue and completely wrong'.

Cardinal Pell, who was a priest in Ballarat in the 70s, has denied the allegations, saying claims he has sexually abused anyone, at any place and at any time, were 'totally untrue and completely wrong'

One of the men accusing Cardinal Pell (pictured) of abuse, Lyndon Monument, told ABC's 7.30 he was reluctant to speak up because of the power he held

Last month Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Graham Ashton confirmed child exploitation taskforce Sano is investigating the cardinal and that detectives would fly to Rome to interview Cardinal Pell if necessary.

Cardinal Pell testified in February from Rome via Skype to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse regarding an investigation of Australia's worst pedophile priest, Gerald Ridsdale, and other priests at a Christian all-boys school in the Ballarat diocese in the 70s.

He denied allegations that he had covered up the abuse of dozens of children but admitted that having the group of priests at the same school at the same time was a 'disastrous coincidence' and claimed that he was deceived by senior clergy during a time of 'crimes and cover-ups.'

Cardinal Pell, who gave evidence for four nights, admitted that the church had made 'enormous mistakes.'

He was criticized for not returning to Australia to testify, saying he was unable to travel because of a heart condition.
Other attacker Adel Kermiche was on bail but able to roam free in mornings

Priest Jacques Hamel, 85, was killed in attack in Normandy on Tuesday

French intelligence services had been sent a picture of priest killer Abdelmalik Petitjean and were warned an attack was imminent four days before the Normandy church attack, it has been revealed.

In yet another shocking security lapse, the 19-year-old was left to kill Father Jacques Hamel, 85, in the Normandy town of Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray on Tuesday.

His photo had been widely distributed to police stations after the anonymous tip-off 'from abroad' on July 22. It was received with a colour photograph of Petitjean, and said he 'was preparing to take part in an attack on national territory'.

The warning went on: 'He's already in France, and is preparing to act alone, or with others.'

ISIS released this video of killers Adel Kermiche and Abdel Malik. A picture of Malik was given to French intelligence four days before the pair killed Father Jacques Hamel

Adel Kermiche (pictured right and left, in 2011), 19, has been named as one of the two ISIS knifemen who stormed into a church in Normandy and cut the throat of an 84-year-old Catholic priest Jacques Hamel before being shot dead by police

A French policeman cordons off the area around the body of one of the two knifemen. Parisian prosecutor Francois Molins revealed that the pair were carrying a fake bomb with a timer, a handgun and knives during the attack and said they used nuns as human shields

While no names were contained in the warning, Petitjean was a French national from an Alpine town, where he was educated and well known to the police.

Both Petitjean and his accomplice, Adel Kermiche, also 19, were also on terrorist watch lists, and should technically have been under surveillance.

Kermiche even wore an electronic tag, but it had been switched for four hours every morning to allow him a break from probation conditions set when he left prison in March.

Police sources said the warning about Petitjean was received by Uclat, their counterterrorism coordination unit.

'It was being acted upon, and everything was being done to track the terrorist down,' said a source involved in the investigation into Father Jacques' death.

'Officers across the country were engaged in the race to find this suspect, but he evaded capture'.

Petitjean was put on a so-called Security 'S' List in June, because of his obsession with jihad, and his contacts with Isis.

Petitjean's family home in the town of Aix-les-Bains, in the eastern Savoie department of France, has since been raided by officers.

His mother told them that she had not been in contact with Petitjean 'since Tuesday', suggesting he may have spoken to her just before attacking the church.

Kermiche also lived with his parents in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, near Rouen, where Petitjean linked up with him. An identity card belonging to Petitjean was found at Kermiche's family home, which is close to the church.

Before carrying out their barbaric crimes, the pair recorded a video, in which they held up an Isis sign and swore allegiance to the group's leader, Abu Bakr al Baghdadi. As well as murdering Father Jacques, the self-styled 'soldiers' took three nuns and two parishioners hostage, maiming one of the captives. Both terrorists were shot dead by police special forces commandoes as they tried to escape from the church.

There have been widespread calls for President Francois Hollande and senior ministers to resign following the security failures that have contributed to recent atrocities.

The majority of those responsible for terrorist attacks which have caused up to 250 deaths in France over the past 18 months were known to the authorities.

Many were on S-lists, while others should have been serving prison sentences after travelling to and from Isis terrorist camps in Syria. There is also widespread anger at the way the homegrown terrorists have been able to mass weapons in France.

Father Jacques Hamel had his throat cut in the attack that also left a nun critically injured. He was at the church because he was filling in for the local priest who was on holiday

Kermiche and his accomplice - also known to French police - forced 84-year-old Father Jacques Hamel (pictured centre) to kneel before filming themselves butchering him

Sister Danielle (pictured), who witnessed the horror said: 'They forced him to his knees. He wanted to defend himself. And that's when the tragedy happened

Parisian prosecutor Francois Molins revealed today that the pair were carrying between them a fake explosives belt with a kitchen timer wrapped in tin foil, a backpack full of fake guns and three knives during the attack, and said they used nuns as human shields when they left the church.

HOSTAGE SIEGE IN FRENCH CHURCH - Two knifemen entered church in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, Normandy, around 9.45am local time by a back door during mass - Nuns and worshippers taken hostage - one seriously injured - Father Jacques Hamel killed after reportedly having his throat slashed - Suspects shot dead by French police - ISIS claims responsibility for the attack, saying it was carried out by two soldiers - French prosecutors detain one person as part of investigation into attack - Francois Hollande pledges to fight ISIS 'using all means possible' Advertisement

This morning, deputy chief of France's police union, Frederic Lagache, said: 'It should not be possible for someone awaiting trial on charges of having links to terrorism to be released' on house arrest.

According to the justice ministry, there are 13 terrorism suspects and people convicted of terrorist links wearing such tags. Seven are on pre-trial bail. The other six have been convicted but wear the electronic bracelet instead of serving a full jail term.

This morning, fresh details emerged of the horrific ordeal of hostages caught up in the siege.

A pensioner, named as 'Guy', was ordered to film the priest's slaughter on a mobile phone thrust at him by the killer and then played dead after being knifed himself.

His wife, named as 'Jeanine', told RMC: 'One of the terrorists approached me. He said he was not going to hurt me because we were to be used as hostages. He said the same to the three nuns. So we thought: Good, so we will not die immediately. Maybe we'll die in an hour but. the terrorist said, as a man, my husband would not be spared.'

Jeanine watched in horror as they grabbed Father Jacques: 'First they put a sure thrust in his neck. He fell face towards the sky, towards us. You could see blood running from his mouth. Then they knifed him again and again and it was done.

'They'd given the phone to my husband to film or photograph the Father once they'd executed him. Then they took my husband and did the same to him.'

Her husband was stabbed four times, in the neck, arms and back.

'They wanted to kill him the same as the priest. So to stay alive and not attract more attention from them, he 'played dead.'

Asked how she reacted to the sight of her husband being slashed, she said: 'I don't know. I looked at him and thought he was dead and that it was going to be our turn next. The terrorists held me by the back with a gun in my neck - was it fake? I don't know. But it was in my neck. Then they sharpened the knife. That's all.'

Jeanine saw her husband the same night and was reassured although he remains seriously ill.

'I saw him move a little bit but he is doing well. didn't lose consciousness,' she said.

'He tried to keep his fingers on the wound to prevent too much blood escaping. But he found it a long time before he was picked up.'

Yesterday, Sister Danielle, a nun who escaped the siege, revealed: 'They told me 'you Christians, you kill us'. They forced him to his knees. He wanted to defend himself. And that's when the tragedy happened. They recorded themselves. They did a sort of sermon around the altar, in Arabic. It's a horror.'

French President Francois Hollande, who visited the scene on Tuesday, said the country is now 'at war' with ISIS after the terror group claimed responsibility. This morning, French religious leaders joined forces to call for reinforced security.

Kermiche, pictured in 2011, had previously spent time in prison in France and Switzerland after twice attempting to flee the country to join ISIS in Syria. He was under police surveillance with an electronic ankle tag

Under his bail conditions, Kermiche was allowed to roam without supervision between the hours of 8.30am and 12.30pm, leaving him free to carry out the murder of elderly priest Jacques Hamel

Normandy attacker Adel Kermiche was known to have been a friend of Maxime Hauchard (pictured), a French jihadi involved in the beheading of Americans in Syria

French security sources said Kermiche met former Catholic Hauchard (right), now 24, close to his village of Le Bosc-Roger-en-Roumois, in Normandy. It raises the possibility that Kermiche was inspired by Hauchard to carry out Tuesday's attack in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray

These mobile phone images are believed to be the last photographs taken of Father Hamel before he died. Survivor Sister Danielle said: 'Jacques loved all people regardless of religion. That is all I can say. A faithful priest, a priest who loved everybody, who loved much'

Eyewitness Sister Danielle said the two attackers forced murdered priest Father Jacques Hamel 'to his knees. He wanted to defend himself. And that's when the tragedy happened'

Police officers secure the perimeter around the church on Wednesday morning as investigations continue into the priest's killing

There was still a heavy police presence in the town of Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray with officers guarding the churc

French authorities admitted that both Kermiche, believed to have been born in France to parents of Algerian descent, and his partner were subject to security 'S' files, meaning they were known terror suspects who should have been under surveillance.

Kermiche was living with his parents in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray with an electronic tag on his ankle, after spending time in prison in both France and Switzerland. It emerged today that he was also awaiting trial on terror charges.

In a press conference, Parisian prosecutor Francois Molins said police are still seeking to identify the second attacker and raids were underway.

Describing both attackers as 'these appalling cowardly people', Mr Molins said police had tried to negotiate with them 'but couldn't get into the church because of the heavy locked door'.

He further revealed that the person who was seriously injured is no longer in a life-threatening condition.

Kermiche was known to have been a friend of Maxime Hauchard, a French jihadi who has appeared unmasked in videos showing the slaughter of captives from the USA and Syria.

French security sources said Kermiche met former Catholic Hauchard, now 24, close to his home village of Le Bosc-Roger-en-Roumois, in Normandy

It raises the possibility that Kermiche was inspired by Hauchard to carry out Tuesday's attack in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray.

'I AM NOT AN EXTREMIST': WHAT PRIEST MURDERER TOLD FRENCH JUDGES The known ISIS terrorist who murdered a Catholic priest in northern France had told judges 'I am not an extremist' before being freed from prison to kill, it emerged today. Shocking details about the lax manner with which 19-year-old Adel Kermiche was treated emerged following the slaughter of Father Jacques Hamel, 86, in Normandy. Kermich was wearing an electronic tag, after serving part of his sentence for a range of terrorist offences including trying to join ISIS in Syria, and then being released in March. Authorities are trying to explain why it had been so easy for him and his accomplice to strike. A psychological examination of Kermiche was carried out between October 2015 and February this year, during which he spoke freely about his motives and ambitions. French riot police guard the street on Tuesday night that leads to the church in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray where a fatal hostage taking incident happened, near Rouen He outlined about his frail psychological state, saying he was regularly in hospital after suffering deep depressions and 'other mental problems'. Kermich said: 'I am a Muslim grounded in the values of mercy, and goodness - I am not an extremist'. Saying he 'couldn't get up' without saying two prayers every morning in his prison cell, he claimed he wanted to become a mental health nurse, and settle down with a family. 'I want to get my life back, to see my friends, to get married,' Kermich told an examining magistrate in the psychological reports leaked to Le Monde newspaper. Kermiche spent his time in prison mixing with other terrorists, including another young Frenchman who had spent 18 months fighting with ISIS. Despite this, he managed to convince those compiling the report that he should be given yet another chance. The judge overseeing Kermiche's case, said the teenager was 'aware of his mistakes', and despite 'suicidal thoughts', was a good candidate to be reintegrated back into society. A mourner lights a candle in tribute to the fallen priest at a makeshift memorial in Paris. The nation is reeling after yet another terror attack, just days after 85 people were killed in horrific attack in the southern city of Nice He could be freed on probation with the 'supervision and support' of his family in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, and wearing an electronic tag, the judge concluded. Prosecutors appealed the decision, saying they were 'unconvinced by the arguments', and that there was a 'high risk' of Kermiche reoffending. Kermiche was even allowed a four-hour period from 8.30am every day when he could leave his parents' home, and wander freely around his home town. It was during this window that he and his accomplice rushed into the church and executed Father Jacques before also knifing a parishioner, who was severely wounded. Today, members of Kermiche's immediate family remained inside their home in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, without commenting. The French authorities have been widely criticised for the way they have allowed known jihadis the freedom to travel and mass weapons to carry out their crimes. French President Francois Hollande was today meeting religious leaders to try and reassure them that everything is being done to protect places of worship, including churches, mosques and synagogue. But the head of state has regularly been booed while out in public, with critics shouting 'Resign!' and 'Murderers!' at him and his prime minister, Manuel Valls. Opposition Republican leader Nicolas Sarkozy accused Mr Hollande of 'trembling' in the face of the jihadist threat. Mr Sarkozy said: 'Everything that should have been done the past 18 months was not done. France cannot let its children be murdered.' Advertisement

Kermiche's mother revealed her son - once a sports-mad teenager who liked the Simpsons and Rihanna - had been 'bewitched' and 'spoke with words that were not his'.

He reportedly had four siblings, one of whom was a doctor while friends said he would normally be the first to 'break up any argument'.

But he became radicalised in a matter of months following the Charlie Hebdo attack in Paris last January when 12 magazine staff were slaughtered by jihadists.

His mother, said to be a professor, revealed that he had started going to a mosque more often before lecturing her on her conduct, the Sun reports.

She said: 'He said that one couldn't exercise one's religion peacefully in France. He spoke with words that were not his. He was bewitched.'

Friends said he eventually would not reason with them and merely quoted back verses 'from the Koran'.

In March 2015, while still a minor, Kermiche used his brother's ID to try to reach the terror group in Syria via Germany, but was arrested in Munich.

He was placed under judicial control with his parents, but after his 18th birthday again tried to return to the Middle East using an ID card belonging to a cousin.

Accompanied by two childhood friends, Kermiche headed to Switzerland overland and then took a plane to Turkey, hoping to cross the border into Syria.

Officers stand guard nearby to the church where Father Jacques Hamel, 84, was slaughtered in the vicious assault after mass on Tuesday

It comes as politicians including President Francois Hollande called for 'unity' in the face of what was branded a 'war of religions'

A makeshift memorial has sprung up on the steps of the city hall in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, where the savage attack took place at around 9.45am on Tuesday morning

As well as the Catholic priest, Father Jacques Hamal, the two knife-wielding attackers took two nuns and two parishioners hostage

The National Assembly's Palais Bourbon in Paris illuminated in the French flag colours in tribute to the victims of the attack in the Normandy city of Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray

French religious leaders today called for authorities to boost security at places of worship. From left to right, France's Chief Rabbi Haim Korsia, French Jewish central Consistory President Joel Mergui, President of the French Buddhist Union, Olivier Reigen Wang-Genh, President of Protestant Federation of France Pastor Francois Clavairoly, Rector of the Great Mosque of Paris Dalil Boubakeur, Grigorios Ioannidis General Vicar of the Greek Orthodox metropolis, French Cardinal Andre Vingt-Trois and Ahmet Ogras, vice-president of the French Council of The Muslim Faith

Turkish police deported him back to Switzerland and, after being sent back to his hometown, he was tried and found guilty of 'associating with a terrorist enterprise' on May 22 2015.

After spending less than a year of his two-and-a-half-year sentence in prison, he was released on March 22 this year.

A prosecutor appealed the decision to release Kermiche, but he was released on bail on condition that he again stayed with his mother and father.

According to his bail conditions, Kermiche was also allowed to go out unsupervised between 8.30am and 12.30pm every day.

The revelation - made to the French TV news channel I-Tele - will cause further outrage in a country devastated by constant security failings.

A third man, a 16-year-old known as HB and believed to be the younger brother of someone wanted by police for trying to go to Syria or Iraq in 2015, was arrested at his home in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray following the attack.

The Catholic church involved was on a terrorist 'hit list' found in the apartment of a suspected ISIS extremist last April.

French religious leaders today called for authorities to boost security at places of worship.

'We deeply desire that our places of worship are the subject of greater (security) focus, a sustained focus,' said French Muslim leader Dalil Boubakeur, after meeting with President Francois Hollande.

Hollande gathered with the leaders of the country's main religions a day after the killing.

Boubakeur, speaking in the name of French Muslims, voiced his 'deep grief' at the attack which he descrbed as a 'blasphemous sacrilege which goes against all the teachings of our religion.'

Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy called for a 'merciless' response to the killing while 'horrified' ex-Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin said he feared 'everything is being done to trigger a war of religions'.

I KNOW HTML (HOW TO MEET LADIES): T-SHIRT WORN BY PRIEST KILLER A younger Kermiche shown wearing a T-shirt with the slogan 'I know HTML (How to meet ladies)' He was once a sports-mad teenager who loved the Simpsons and Rihanna while friends considered him something of a peacemaker when arguments broke out. But Normandy priest killer Adel Kermiche, 19, became 'bewitched' by radicals in a matter of months and even lectured his own mother on conduct. Pictures taken of a younger Kermiche show him wearing a T-shirt with the slogan 'I know HTML (How to meet ladies)' - a joking message that plays on the HTML computer language used to create web pages. Kermiche reportedly had four siblings, one of whom was a doctor while friends said he would normally be the first to 'break up any argument'. But he became radicalised in a matter of months following the Charlie Hebdo attack in Paris last January when 12 magazine staff were slaughtered by jihadists. Kermiche's mother, said to be a professor, revealed that he had started going to a mosque more often before lecturing her on her conduct, the Sun reports. She said: 'He said that one couldn't exercise one's religion peacefully in France. He spoke with words that were not his. He was bewitched.' Friends said he eventually would not reason with them and merely quoted back verses 'from the Koran'. He is known to have been friends with a notorious French jihadi Maxime Hauchard - a fanatic who appeared unmasked in videos showing the slaughter of American aid worker Peter Kassig and Syria captives. French security sources said Kermiche met former Catholic Hauchard, now 24, close to his home village of Le Bosc-Roger-en-Roumois, in Normandy. It raises the possibility that Kermiche was inspired by Hauchard to carry out Tuesday's attack in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray. Kermiche was one of two attackers who stormed the church near Rouen during morning mass, slitting the throat of 84-year-old priest Jacques Hemel and leaving a worshipper with serious injuries. The 19-year-old, who was shot dead alongside the second extremist. Advertisement

ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement published by its Aamaq news agency. It said the killing was carried out by 'two soldiers of the Islamic State.' It added the killing was in response to its calls to target countries of the US-led coalition which is fighting ISIS.

French President Francois Hollande, visiting the scene of the attack, appealed for 'unity' in France, where political blame-trading has poisoned the aftermath of the Nice truck attack, the third major strike in the country in 18 months.

'The threat remains very high,' said Mr Hollande. 'We are confronted with a group, Daesh, which has declared war on us. We have to wage war by every means, (but through) upholding the law, which is because we are a democracy.'

Sarkozy, expected to enter a conservative primary soon for next year's presidential election, jumped on the latest incident to accuse the Socialist government of being soft on terrorism.

'We must be merciless,' Sarkozy said in a statement to reporters.

'The legal quibbling, precautions and pretexts for insufficient action are not acceptable. I demand that the government implement without delay the proposals we presented months ago. There is no more time to be wasted.'

Jean-Pierre Raffarin, a former conservative prime minister who now heads the Senate's foreign affairs committee, added in a tweet: 'Horror. Everything is being done to trigger a war of religions.'

Pope Francis has expressed his 'pain and horror' at the incident with a spokesman saying the Pontiff was appalled by the 'barbaric killing' because it happened in a sacred place.

He expressed his condemnation of 'every form of hatred' and offered his prayers to those involved.

Vatican spokesman Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi described it as another act of 'absurd violence'.

Hollande called Pope France to express his 'chagrin' after the attack.

The two killers, who shouted 'Allahu Akbar', were shot dead by police marksmen as they emerged from the building, which was later searched for bombs. Police later raided a house in the area and made an arrest

French authorities say they have arrested a third man in connection with the attack. Armed police are pictured making an arrest at a house in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray

Police are still seeking the identity of the second attacker, and are continuing to carry out raids. Pictured, French officers and fire engines at the scene of the hostage taking

Units attending including the elite RAID, the anti-terrorist unit that was heavily involved in the Paris attacks last year, in which almost 150 people were murdered

French president Francois Hollande (pictured embracing the town's mayor Hubert Wulfranc) said France is 'at war' with ISIS while the terror group has claimed responsibility for the killing

French authorities admitted that both Kermiche and his partner were subject to security 'S' files, meaning they were known terror suspects who should have been under surveillance

The area of the savage ISIS attack was cordoned off and soldiers were called to the scene, which was then searched for explosives

He told the Pope that 'when a priest is attacked, it is all of France that has been hurt', according to a statement from the president's office.

Hollande assured the Pope that everything will be done to protect the churches of France and other houses of worship.

The Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby said: 'Evil attacks the weakest, denies truth and love, is defeated through Jesus Christ. Pray for France, for victims, for their communities.'

It was the extremist group's first attack against a church in the West, and fulfills longstanding threats against 'crusaders' in what the militants paint as a centuries-old battle for power.

Experts claimed that the latest attack fulfilled a two-year-old ISIS pledge to attack Christians within Europe, even calling for the assassination of Pope Francis.

'The Islamic State is persistently demoralising European unity by launching divisive attacks within its borders  the most recent attack on the Catholic Church aims directly at the French sense of identity,' Veryan Khan, editorial director for the US-based Terrorism Research and Analysis Consortium, told Fox News.

Security is also being heightened at British churches following the attack, with British counter-terror police 'circulating specific advice' to churches across the UK.

'Following recent events in France, we are reiterating our protective security advice to Christian places of worships and have circulated specific advice today,' said Metropolitan Police Deputy Assistant Commissioner Neil Basu.

'We are also taking this opportunity to remind them to review their security arrangements as a precaution.'

He added: 'There is no specific intelligence relating to attacks against the Christian community in the UK.

'However, as we have seen, Daesh and other terrorist groups have targeted Christian as well as Jewish and other faith groups in the West and beyond.

'While the threat from terrorism remains unchanged at severe we urge the public to be vigilant.'

A priest, two nuns and two churchgoers were among those held hostage after the men rushed into the church in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, during a morning service soon after 9am

The two ISIS killers forced elderly priest Jacques Hamel to his knees before filming themselves cutting his throat, according to witnesses

Archbishop Dominique Lebrun of Rouen later confirmed that Father Jacques Hamel (pictured) had been killed in the brutal assault

French President Francois Hollande (pictured visiting the scene of the attack on Tuesday), appealed for 'unity' in France, just days after another attack on Bastille Day saw 85 people slaughtered during firework celebrations

It comes as it emerged that the building (top centre) was one of a number of Catholic churches on a terrorist 'hit list' found on a suspected ISIS extremist last April

Kermiche, the first of the two attackers to have been named, was being monitored by police using an electronic ankle tag (pictured, stock image). But the tag was deactivated for a few hours during the morning, leaving him free to slaughter the elderly priest

Between four and six people were being held by the assailants in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, near the city of Rouen

The two men held the priest and congregation of four - which included two nuns - hostage for almost an hour before being shot as they emerged on to the courtyard of the church.

A nun later gave a chilling eyewitness account of her escape. She was at the church when the terrorists stormed in, but managed to escape before the clergyman was murdered.

The woman, who wished to remain anonymous when talking to Le Figaro, said: 'They came suddenly. They took space. They spoke Arabic. I saw a knife.

Threat: ISIS warned Washington and London are next on the list of target cities. This image of the Statue of Liberty in flames was released on messaging app Telegram

'I left when they began to attack Father Jacques. I do not even know if they realised that I was leaving.'

Another nun, identified as Sister Danielle, who witnessed the horror said: 'They forced him to his knees. He wanted to defend himself. And that's when the tragedy happened.

'They recorded themselves. They did a sort of sermon around the altar, in Arabic. It's a horror,' she told BFM television.

'It was fear, especially when they entered,' she revealed in an interview with the BBC.

'When I saw them I said to myself, 'well, that's it. It's over'. They were so motivated.

'They told me 'you Christians, you kill us'.'

She added: 'Jacques loved all people regardless of religion. That is all I can say. A faithful priest, a priest who loved everybody, who loved much.'

Father Jacques was deputising while the regular parish priest was on holiday, it emerged on Tuesday afternoon.

A spokesman for the Interior Ministry in Paris had earlier said that the men had crept into the church via a back entrance during a morning service, soon after 9am. The two men seized the priest, two sisters from a local order, and two parishioners.

'A third nun escaped and raised the alarm, and anti-terrorists officers were on the scene within minutes,' said a source who lives locally. 'It appears that the priest who was celebrating the service was attacked first, and had his throat cut.

'The area around the church was sealed off, and then armed officers appeared with their weapons. I heard at least a dozen shots.'

The siege officially ended at around 11am, following the shooting of the two attackers.

French security services have been regularly criticised for the way they allow known terrorists their freedom after being found guilty of crimes.

It comes as ISIS warned that London and Washington DC are next on the list of target cities, with images threatening major world capitals being posted on messaging app Telegram, according to SITE Intelligence Group.

One shows the Statue of Liberty engulfed in flames, with the caption 'Washington soon'.

Units attending the scene on Tuesday morning included the elite RAID, the anti-terrorist unit that was heavily involved in the Paris attacks last year, in which almost 150 people were murdered.

Interior Ministry spokesman Pierre-Henry Brandet said police were searching the church and its perimeter for possible explosives and terrorism investigators had been summoned.

Anti-terrorist judges immediately opened an investigation in to Tuesday's attack.

French Prime Minister Manuel Valls tweeted that he was 'horrified at the barbaric attack' adding: 'All France and all Catholics are bruised.'

And at a press conference in Downing Street, Prime Minister Theresa May offered 'my condolences to the French people following the sickening attack in Northern France this morning', adding: 'Our thoughts and prayers are with all those affected.'

'We all face a terror threat. If you look at the national threat level here in the United Kingdom, it is at severe. That means that a terrorist attack is highly likely.

FRANCOIS HOLLANDE: WE ARE AT WAR WITH ISIS French president Francois Hollande has pledged to fight the ISIS 'using all means possible' after an attack on a church in Normandy which resulted in the murder of an 84-year-old priest. Father Jacques Hamel was reported to have had his throat slashed during an hour-long hostage-taking incident which began as two knifemen burst into the parish church by a back door during morning mass. Speaking after meeting emergency workers and the town mayor in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, Mr Hollande named ISIS - also known as Daesh - as the source of the threat to French people. 'We are facing yet another trial, because this threat is extremely high and still remains very high after all we've lived through over the past few days and the past two years,' he said. 'We are faced with a group, Daesh, that has actually declared war, and we have to fight this war using all means possible. Of course we have to respect the rule of law, because we are a democracy.' Mr Hollande called for unity between French Catholics and members of other communities, and announced he will meet leaders of a range of faiths on Wednesday. French president Francois Hollande has pledged to fight the ISIS 'using all means possible' after an attack on a church in Normandy which resulted in the murder of an 84-year-old priest 'What these terrorists want to do is to divide us, and today after the death of this priest I am thinking of all the Catholics of France and expressing my support,' he said. 'It's not only Catholics who are involved, all the French people are involved, and that's why we must ensure cohesion. Nobody should be able to break it.' Mr Hollande warned: 'Today we must be aware that the terrorists will not give up as long as we don't stop them. That's our will and that's what we are doing tirelessly. 'The French people must realise that they are threatened. They are not the only country - Germany is also threatened - but their strength really is in cohesion.' Religious leaders issued messages of sympathy and solidarity in the wake of the killing. In a statement, the Vatican said Pope Francis shares the 'sorrow and horror' felt over the incident, adding: 'We are particularly struck because this horrible violence has occurred in a church - a sacred place where we pronounce God's love - with the barbaric murder of a priest and worshippers affected.' The Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby said: 'Evil attacks the weakest, denies truth and love, is defeated through Jesus Christ. Pray for France, for victims, for their communities.' The Archbishop of Rouen Dominique Lebrun, who cut short a visit to Poland to return to his diocese and was due to meet Mr Hollande on Tuesday evening, said: 'I cry to God with all men of good will. The only arms which the Catholic Church can take up are prayer and brotherhood between men.' Mr Hollande said he had come to express 'the solidarity of the whole nation' with the community affected by the 'cowardly assassination' of Father Hamel. He said he had spoken with the priest's family, as well as with some of the hostages, who expressed 'pain and sadness and also their will to understand why this should happen'. The president paid tribute to the emergency and security services, who he said had intervened 'extremely quickly' to avert further bloodshed and to assist the people who had been taken hostage. Advertisement

'What is necessary is for us all to work together, and stand shoulder to shoulder with France. We offer them every support we have in dealing with this issue and this threat that they, and the rest of us, are facing.

'But on one thing, I think, we are all absolutely clear, and that is the terrorists will not prevail.

'They are trying to destroy our way of life. They are trying to destroy our values. We have shared values and those values will win through and the terrorists will not win.'

Eulalie Garcia, who works in a beauty parlour, is on the same road as the church, and told reporters that she knew the priest, who had taught her the catechism as a young girl.

'My family has lived here for 35 years and we have always known him,' she said.

A French policeman arrests a man following a search in a house in the Normandy city of Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvra. It came after a priest was butchered at a church in the town

Arrest: The man was pictured being bundled into a police car after a raid on a house in the town of Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray

French authorities are trying to determine whether the two men involved in the sickening attack had accomplices

'He was someone who was treasured by the community. He was very discreet and didn't like to draw attention to himself.'

She said she was very shocked by the death of the priest, who lived opposite his church. 'It can happen to anyone,' she said.

Archbishop Dominique Lebrun of Rouen later confirmed that Father Jacques Hamel had been killed.

In a statement from Krakow, Poland, where Pope Francis was visiting, Lebrun says 'I cry out to God, with all men of good will. And I invite all non-believers to unite with this cry ... The Catholic Church has no other arms besides prayer and fraternity between men.'

An Italian politician later urged Pope Francis to put the slain French priest on a fast track for sainthood.

Roberto Maroni, the president of the Lombard region, said in an appeal circulated on social media that 'Father Jacques is a martyr of faith' and requested that the pope 'immediately proclaim him St. Jacques.'

Shortly after the appeal, the hashtag (hash)santosubito, which translates as 'saint immediately,' began circulating on Twitter.

The canonisation process is a lengthy one involving two miracles attributed to the person's intercession, but in the case of a martyr only one miracle is needed, after beatification. There must first be a declaration by the Vatican that the person indeed died for the faith.

The area around the church remained cordoned off and the old town was out of bounds. Saint-Etienne du Rouvray has a population of 30,000 and is around seven miles from Rouen.

Two men armed with knives took several people hostage at Church of the Gambetta (pictured) in France's northern Normandy region on Tuesday, a police source said

French President Francois Hollande (centre) flanked by Hubert Wulfranc mayor of Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray (left) and French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve (right), speaks to the press as he leaves the Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray's city hall

It emerged Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray was one of a number of Catholic churches on a terrorist 'hit list' found on a suspected ISIS terrorist. Police stand on guard in the town

A local Muslim leader said one of the men who attacked the church was on French police radar and had travelled to Turkey.

Mohammed Karabila, president of the Regional Council of the Muslim Faith for Haute-Normandie and head of the local Muslim cultural centre, said 'the person that did this odious act is known, and he has been followed by the police for at least a year and a half.'

He said the attacker 'went to Turkey and security services were alerted after this.' He had no information about the second attacker.

Mr Karabila said he was 'appalled by the death of his friend' and hoped that interfaith dialogue in his region would not be damaged.

The incident comes as France is on high alert after a Bastille Day attack that killed 84 people in Nice and a series of deadly attacks last year claimed by ISIS.

It emerged on Tuesday that Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray was one of a number of Catholic churches on a terrorist 'hit list' found on a suspected ISIS terrorist.

Sid Ahmed Ghlam, 24, was arrested in April 2015 after he called an ambulance in Paris after shooting himself in the leg.

PRIEST KILLING IS LATEST IN SPATE OF DEADLY ATTACKS ACROSS EUROPE Tuesday's attack is the latest to hit Europe in what has been a year of bloodshed on the continent: July 24: Festival suicide bombing - A failed Syrian asylum seeker set off an explosive device near an open-air music festival in the southern city of Ansbach that killed himself and wounded a dozen others. The 27-year-old had spent time in a psychiatric facility, while the regional authorities said an there was 'likely' a jihadist motive for the attack. However a spokesman for the interior ministry later said there was as yet 'no credible evidence' of a link to Islamic extremism. July 24: Knife attack - A Syrian refugee was arrested after killing a Polish woman with a large kebab knife at a snack bar in the southwestern city of Reutlingen, in an incident police said did not bear the hallmarks of a 'terrorist attack' and was more likely a crime of passion. Three people were also injured in the assault, which ended when the 21-year-old assailant was deliberately struck by a BMW driver, believed to be the snack bar owner's son, trying to stop the man. People mourn in front of candles and flowers near the Olympia shopping mall in Munich, southern Germany, where an 18-year-old German-Iranian student ran amok on a shooting spree on July 22 July 22: Munich mall mass shooting - David Ali Sonboly, 18, shot dead nine people at a Munich shopping mall before turning the gun on himself, having spent a year planning the rampage. Police said that the German-Iranian was 'obsessed' with mass killers like Norwegian right-wing fanatic Anders Behring Breivik and had no links to the Islamic State group. July 18: Train axe attack - A 17-year-old migrant wielding an axe and a knife went on a rampage on a regional train, seriously injuring four members of a tourist family from Hong Kong and a German passer-by. ISIS group subsequently released a video purportedly featuring the assailant, named by media as Riaz Khan Ahmadzai, announcing he would carry out an 'operation' in Germany, and presenting himself as a 'soldier of the caliphate'. He is believed to have been Afghan or Pakistani. July 14: Tunisian Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel ploughed a truck into a crowd of people celebrating Bastille Day in the French Riviera city of Nice, killing 84 people and injuring over 300. The Nice attack was the third major strike on France in 18 months and was claimed by ISIS. June 14: A Frenchman of Moroccan origin stabs a police commander to death outside his home in a Paris suburb and kills his partner, who also worked for the police. The attacker told police negotiators during a siege that he was answering an appeal by Islamic State. March 22: Suicide attacks claimed by ISIS kill 32 people and wound more than 300 at the Brussels airport and Maelbeek metro station, near European Union offices. They appear to have been carried out by members of the same cell that committed attacks in Paris four months earlier. November 13, 2015: Coordinated suicide attacks in Paris kill 130 people and wound more than 350 at the Bataclan concert hall, cafes and the national stadium. ISIS claims responsibility for the attacks. Advertisement

Investigators believe he was a terrorist planning 'imminent attacks' in France on the instructions of ISIS leaders.

Investigators found an arsenal of weapons in Ghlam's car, which was parked nearby, and at his student accommodation. It included Kalashnikovs, a police-issue pistol, and a number of bullet-proof vests.

Documents found at his flat and in a search of his computer and telephone, suggested Ghlam was in contact with a French speaker in Syria who had ordered him to carry out attacks on churches.

These included the Sacre-Couer basilica in Paris, and places of worship including the one in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray targeted on Tuesday.

Ghlam is currently in a high-security prison while waiting trial for 'murder, attempted murder, association with criminals with a view to commit crimes against people' and for other infractions 'connected to a terrorist organisation'.

There were reports the attackers shouted 'Daesh'  an alternative name for ISIS often used by the French government  as they ran into the church while at least one of the men was dressed in Islamic clothing

A French soldier stands guard as he prevents the access to the scene of the attack in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, Normandy, France

The computer student, who was born in Algeria, was also charged with the murder of a 32-year-old woman, who was found in the passenger seat of her burning car after his arrest.

Dance instructor Aurelie Chatelain, a mother of one, who had just attended a Pilates class, died after she was shot three times in the head, in what police believe may have been an attempt by Ghlam to hijack her car.

As part of beefed up security operations in France, some 700 schools and Jewish synagogues and 1,000 mosques are under military protection.

However with some 45,000 Catholic churches, and thousands more Protestant and evangelical churches, protecting all places of worship is a massive headache for security services.

The Nice massacre triggered a bitter political spat over alleged security failings, with the government accused of not doing enough to protect the population.

Priests Edgar Deguenon (left) and Brice de Malherbe (centre) arrive for a mass at the Notre-Dame cathedral on July 26, 2016 in Paris, in memory of the murdered priest in the Normandy city of Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray

Mourners and worshippers attend a mass in memory of the slain priest, as it emerged that his killers were already known to be terror threats by French police

In Sainte-Anne-d'Auray, Brittany, bishops and local Catholics marched through the town as part of Grand Pardon celebrations

The Grand Pardon see Breton-speaking Catholics process through towns wearing traditional clothes, with Tuesday's demonstration in Sainte-Anne-d'Auray, Brittany

French far-right National Front leader Marine Le Pen wrote on Twitter that the 'modus operandi obviously makes us fear a new attack from terrorist Islamists.'

Coincidentally, Catholic celebrations were taking place in the neighbouring French district of Brittany on Tuesday.

The Grand Pardon see Breton-speaking Catholics process through towns wearing traditional clothes, with Tuesday's demonstration in Sainte-Anne-d'Auray.
A drunken grandfather who threatened a flight attendant then downed half a bottle of wine in front of her had to be hauled off the plane by police who found 15 empty miniature bottles around his seat.

Thomas Beard, 54, was already drunk on the plane and when the attendant warned him, he said: 'If you try to take my wine there is going to be a problem.'

Beard, a father of four with 13 grandchildren, then downed half a bottle of red wine in front of her and caused a nuisance for more than an hour.

Thomas Beard was fined 1,000 at Manchester Magistrates' Court for being drunk on a plane after threatening a flight attendant and downing half a bottle of wine and 15 miniatures. He was taken to hospital with a suspected heart attack before the case at an earlier hearing (right)

When they landed, police arrested him, to 'clapping and cheering' from other passengers, and found 15 empty miniature bottles of 'various spirits' around his seat, Manchester Magistrates' Court heard.

Beard had been drunk and aggressive on board the flight and even received a formal warning from the captain, Steve Woodman, prosecuting, said.

His nuisance behaviour continued and it took two air attendants more than an hour to 'pacify' him before the landing on the Emirates Airbus A380.

Beard was fined 900, ordered to pay a 90 victim surcharge and 85 towards prosecution costs.

A judge who sentenced him slammed his drunken behaviour as dangerous and issued a stark warning to other holidaymakers who drink to excess on board any flights.

District Judge Nicholas Sanders told shamed Beard: 'When you are stuck in a long metal tube at umpteen thousand feet, your behaviour in getting drunk put others at risk. The courts do treat this extremely seriously.'

The court heard police based at Manchester Airport were called to intercept the flight and arrest Beard at around 7pm on May 28.

Mr Woodman said officers had been told by the captain that a man was drunk and aggressive.

He said: 'Officers were directed to Mr Beard. They could see that he was clearly in drink and he was escorted off the aircraft.'

His nuisance behaviour continued and it took two air attendants more than an hour to 'pacify' him before the landing on the Emirates Airbus A380

Earlier, Beard had been witnessed by an air attendant getting involved in a row with a number of other passengers.

The court heard that she tried to calm him down, leading to the warning from the captain.

Mr Woodman said: 'He told the female air hostess his name and that he liked to have a drink when he went on holiday.

'It took two members of staff about an hour and a half to pacify him. Other people were clapping and cheering when police were taking him off.'

Jeremy Spencer, defending, said self-employed Beard, of Clayton-le-Dale, Blackburn, wanted to apologise and called his actions an 'aberration'.
Eye balling one another across Downing Street like two boxers in a ring, the simmering feline feud between Larry and Palmerston shows no sign of abating.

The two cats faced off today in their ongoing battle to be top cat in the corridors of power.

Lorry, the Downing Street cat, made a triumphant return to the corridors of power on Monday after a bruising bout with his arch enemy from the Foreign Office last week.

That scuffle saw the brown and white tabby suffer an injured right paw following a feisty brawl with Palmerston.

Palmerston sat staring at his arch enemy, Larry, positioned outside No 10 this morning as their feud continued

Palmerston (right) came face-to-face with Larry (left), the Prime Minister's cat as their feisty feud continues

The pair eyed each other up in a stand off outside No 10 before Palmerston wandered back off to his home at the Foreign Office

Three days earlier, a scrap between the cats turned vicious when the territorial Foreign Office moggy attacked Larry when he tried to enter the grounds of the department.

Yesterday afternoon mischievous Palmerston - named after the former Foreign Minister and Prime Minister - took the opportunity to try and sneak past the famous door of Number 10 and into the new home of Theresa May.

But the black and white cat was spotted by a security guard who quickly grabbed him and unceremoniously dumped him outside on the pavement.

Palmerston then came face to face with Larry again and the pair had a small stand-off before he padded back home to ponder his next move.

Black and white cat Palmerston, who has been adopted by the Foreign Office tried to sneak into the Prime Minister's home yesterday afternoon

But an eagle eyed security guard spotted Boris Johnson's cat and quickly removed him from the premises

This is not the first time Larry has been involved in feline skirmishes and he has a history of troubled relations with his neighbours.

The so-called 'chief mouser', entrusted with the rat-catching portfolio, had a full-scale fight with the silver tabby from No 11 Freya, outside the Prime Minister's front door in October 2012.

The two learned to co-exist, but Freya was eventually exiled to the Kent countryside to live with a member of Mr Osborne's staff in 2014.

Larry, who arrived at Number 10 in 2010, also took a vicious swipe at television reporter Lucy Manning in his first few days in Downing Street.

Larry had a vicious fight with Freya, the No11 cat, in October 2012 outside the Prime Minister's house

Larry also took a vicious swipe at television reporter Lucy Manning in his first few days in Downing Street

Following David Cameron's resignation he issued a picture of him stroking Larry to prove his love for the cat.

He said: 'Sadly I can't take Larry with me, he belongs to the house and the staff love him very much - as do I.'

After taking office, Theresa May confirmed Larry would be staying at No10.
British beef and lamb is to be exported to the US for the first time in twenty years, tapping in to a 35million market, the government will announce today.

America is expected to import British red meat by January, nearly two decades after it was banned and deemed unfit for human consumption at the height of the mad cow disease scandal.

The result comes following talks stretching back to April, when the UK handed over a 1,000 page dossier to the US Department of Agriculture detailing greatly improved standards on British farms.

British beef and lamb is to be exported to the US for the first time in twenty years, tapping in to a 35million market, the government will announce today (file picture)

During the discussions, Liz Truss, then-Secretary of State for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs [DEFRA], said the deal could be worth as much as 60million to the UKs agricultural industry each year.

Speaking at the time, she said she wanted to see British burgers, steaks and lamb chops on American tables adding that British produce could be available to 300million Americans.

The agreement will be the UKs first major foreign trade deal since voting to leave the European Union and will be an estimated 35million boost, according to DEFRA.

Farming Minister George Eustice will officially confirm that the US are proposing to relax importing restrictions on beef and lamb when he appears at the National Sheep Association show in Malvern, Worcestershire today.

Liz Truss, former Secretary of State for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs [DEFRA], said the deal could be worth as much as 60million annually to the UKs agricultural industry

In a statement released by DEFRA last night, he said: The US decision to press ahead with proposals to lift export restrictions on British lamb is great news for our farmers who are one step closer to gaining access to the lucrative American market, worth an estimated 35 million a year.

Our world-leading food and drink industry is a key part of our nations economic success and in addition to forging good trade deals with our European neighbours, we want to secure more export opportunities in the States as well as with our close friends in the Commonwealth and other countries around the world.

The UK already exports almost 2billion of food and drink to the US.

But in 1996 Britain was banned from exporting beef worldwide to try and stop the spread of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy [BSE], also known as mad cow disease.

Over the years, countries in Europe gradually began to lift the ban.

In 2013, the US lifted a 15-year ban on Wales exporting beef to America, and last year, Irish beef was served at American tables for the first time in 17 years.

Speaking to the Telegraph, Phil Stocker, chief executive of the National Sheep Association, said: It is very encouraging that the USA is interested in opening its doors.
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Were overwhelmed with the amount of models applying to be part of the team, says Jay Phillips, Vice President of iWantCustomClips.com. Were still accepting applications until August 15, and hope even more models will apply. And, weve made the contest even easier to understand with a new blog on our site.
Scandal star Tony Goldwyn backed Hillary Clinton to clamp down on gun crime as president as he introduced the mothers of slain black men to the Democratic National Convention stage.

Goldwyn - who plays President Fitzgerald Grant in the political thriller - backed Hillary Clinton to tackle 'hard truths about race and justice in America'.

The actor's powerful words came as he welcomed the mothers of police shooting victims Trayvon Martin, 17, Michael Brown, 18, and Eric Garner, 43, and others to the stage.

Scandal star Tony Goldwyn backed Hillary Clinton to clamp down on police shootings as president as he introduced the mothers of slain black men to the Democratic National Convention stage

Geneva Reed-Vead (center in white), the mother of 28-year-old Sandra Bland, holds the microphone as she addressed the crowd at the Democratic convention

Goldwyn - who plays President Fitzgerald Grant (pictured) in Scandal - backed Hillary Clinton to tackle 'hard truths about race and justice in America'

'I am proud tonight to introduce a group of women profoundly impacted by injustice and violence, who have turned their pain into power and their outrage into action,' Goldwyn said.

'They are the Mothers of the Movement. They understand that we must reach out to each other because of our diversity, because we are stronger together.'

Turning his attention to the Democratic nominee for the presidency, he continued: 'Hillary says we cant hide from these hard truths about race and justice in America.

'We have to name them and own them, and then change them. Thats what shell do as President.

'The Mothers of the Movement prove that one life at a time, one mother at a time, we can change the world.'

The grieving parents walked on stage together as they urged voters to back Clinton, saying that she 'isn't afraid to say Black Lives Matter'.

Eric Garner (left) was killed after a police officer put him in a chokehold on Staten Island, New York, in July 2014. Trayvon Martin (right) was just 17 years old when he was shot dead by police in Cleveland, Ohio, in February, 2012

The death of Michael Brown (left) at the hands of a cop sparked protests in Ferguson, Missouri, in August 2014. Sandra Bland (right) hanged herself in her jail cell following an illegal traffic stop in July 2015

Geneva Reed-Vead, the mother of 28-year-old Sandra Bland, said: 'Exactly one year ago yesterday, I lived the worst nightmare anyone could imagine. I watched as my daughter, Sandra Bland, was lowered into the ground in a coffin.

'I'm here with Hillary Clinton because she is a leader and a mother who will say our children's names.

'Hillary knows that when a young black life is cut short, it's not just a personal loss. It is a national loss. It is a loss that diminishes all of us.

'What a blessing to here tonight, so that Sandy can still speak through her mama.

MOTHERS OF THE MOVEMENT: THE MEMBERS Sybrina Fulton, the mother of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin Lezley McSpadden, the mother of 18-year-old Michael Brown Gwen Carr, the mother of 43-year-old Eric Garner Geneva Reed-Vead, the mother of 28-year-old Sandra Bland Lucia McBath, mother of 17-year-old Jordan Davis Maria Hamilton, the mother of Dontre Hamilton Cleopatra Pendleton-Cowley, the mother of 15-year-old Hadiya Pendleton Advertisement

'And what a blessing it is for all of us that we have the opportunityif we seize itto cast our votes for a president who will help lead us down the path toward restoration and change.'

Lucia McBeth, the mother of Jordan Davies - a 17-year-old black boy who was shot by a white man for playing his music too loud - then took the microphone and said: 'You don't stop being a mother when your child dies.

'His life ended when he was shot for playing live music, but my job didn't.

'Here's what you don't know about my son. He wouldn't eat a popsicle if he didn't have enoigh to bring out to his friends.

'I lived in fear that my son would die like this.

'I even warned him that because he was a young black he would meet people who would value him or his life.

'Hillary Clinton isn't afraid to say Black Lives Matter. She doesn't build walls around her heart.

'We are going to keep telling our children stories and we are urging you to say their names.

'The majority of police officers are good people doing a good job.'

Sybrina Fulton, the mother of Trayvon Martin, then told the audience she was an unwilling participant in the campaign - but was there to help more people like her son.

'I am here today for my son, Trayvon Martin, who is in heaven. And for my other son who is still here on earth. I didn't want this spotlight. But I will do everything I can to focus some of that light on a path out of this darkness.

'Hillary Clinton has the compassion to comfort a grieving mother. She has the courage to lead the fight for common sense gun legislation. And she has a plan to repair the divide that so often exists between law enforcement and the communities they serve.'

Lucia McBeth, the mother of Jordan Davies - a 17-year-old black boy who was shot dead by a white man for playing his music too loud - then took the microphone (pictured) and said: 'You don't stop being a mother when your child die

Mothers of the Movement (left to right)) Geneva Reed-Veal, mother of Sandra Bland delivers remarks as Lucia McBath, mother of Jordan Davis; and Sybrina Fulton, mother of Trayvon Martin look on during the second day of the DNC

Lezley McSpadden (right), the mother of Micheal Brown, wipes a tear from her eye alongside Cleopatra Pendleton-Cowley (left), mother of Hadiya Pendleton, and Wanda Johnson (center), mother of Oscar Grant

Many members of the crowd were in tears as the mothers delivered their emotional address, urging the party faithful to get behind Hillary

PHILADELPHIA, PA - JULY 26: Supporters of the Black Lives Matter movement stand during remarks from the Mothers of the Movement

Also taking the stage Tuesday were former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and Pittsburgh Chief of Police Cameron McLay, who said it is possible 'to respect and support our police while at the same time pushing for these important criminal justice reforms'.

Clinton has made gun safety one of the foundations of her presidential campaign, vowing to overcome the resistance of gun-rights advocates and their GOP allies to push for expanded criminal background checks and a renewal of a ban on assault weapons.

Her search for a breakthrough comes as Donald Trump has repeatedly touted the benefits of access to firearms as a way to counter to acts of violence.

The Republican nominee promoted a law-and-order message at his convention, where speakers routinely expressed solidarity with police officers and decried the recent slayings of officers in Dallas and Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
This is the bone-crunching moment a teenager is headbutted so violently he falls to the floor.

The alarming incident was filmed on a mobile phone during an expletive-filled fight between two boys, believed to be in their early teens.

Captioned 'The Glasgow Kiss,' the short video ends with one of the youths landing a sickening headbutt on the other which causes him to collapse backwards to the ground.

The pair being held apart by another young boy (right) but one of the youths, dressed in a designer tracksuit, then angrily shoves the youngster who was holding them apart out of the way and shouts 'f*** off'

The two boys then square up to each other as the youngster who is eventually headbutted tries to hold down his attackers' arms

The footage emerged on a Facebook page dedicated to Glasgow last night but has since been taken down from the social media site.

It begins with the pair being held apart by another young male on a path, believed to be somewhere in Glasgow.

One of the boys, dressed in a designer tracksuit, then angrily shoves the youngster who was holding them apart out of the way and shouts 'f*** off'.

The youth who was trying to diffuse the situation then walks away as an on-looker shouts: 'Just leave them, you're making it worse.'

The two boys then square up to each other as the youngster who is eventually headbutted tries to hold down his attackers' arms.

The aggressor then starts to walk away from the other boy, who appears to be under the influence of alcohol, before pointing at him and appearing to shout: 'You be a s***ebag then. F*** off. Go home'

The aggressor then starts to walk away from the other boy, who appears to be under the influence of alcohol, before pointing at him and appearing to shout: 'You be a s***ebag then. F*** off. Go home'

The boy quickly turns back and moves towards him and lunges towards him, pulling the other boy slightly towards him, before viciously swinging his head into the other youngster's face

Loud screams can be heard as the victim staggers backwards and crashes into a fence pole by the path before crumbling onto the concrete pavement

The aggressor then storms off as his victim is left dazed and on all fours on the path

It's unclear what causes him to turn back and start towards the other boy again but he quickly turns back and moves towards him again.

Shockingly, he then lunges towards him and grabs him by the lapels of his polo shirt, pulling the other boy slightly towards him, before viciously swinging his head into the other youngster's face.

Loud screams can be heard as the victim staggers backwards and crashes into a fence pole by the path before crumbling onto the concrete pavement.

The aggressor then storms off as his victim is left dazed and on all fours on the path.
The victim of the Leytonstone Tube attack has been commended for refusing to let the shocking attack ruin his life.

Somali-born Muhiddin Mire, 30, targeted strangers at random in the ticket hall at Leytonstone Underground station in east London on December 5 last year.

He attacked 56-year-old musician Lyle Zimmerman as they travelled on the same train from Stratford to Leytonston.

Mr Zimmerman said he was 'fortunate' to have received prompt first aid treatment at the scene from a passing junior doctor.

Muhiddin Mire wandered the station slashing at members of the public. His rampage was captured on CCTV

In a statement read during Mire's sentencing hearing at the Old Bailey in London, he said he was 'quite lucky' to have survived.

'I have been left with a scar on my neck which I am aware of only because it pulls when I use my voice but is otherwise superficial and healing well,' he said.

Mr Zimmerman suffered from 'flashing lights' in his vision for months after the attack.

'I am somewhat more cautious about interacting with strangers since the attack - overall I have not been significantly traumatised by the attack psychologically,' he added.

Prosecutor Jonathan Rees QC praised him for his 'philosophical view' of his injuries.

He also commended a number of passers-by who intervened in the attack.

'There were a number of individuals who behaved with conspicuous bravery,' he said.

'The group of course included Mr Zimmerman himself and Andrius Sabaliauskas, David Pethers, Dr Smith, a junior doctor who provided first aid at the scene, and Daniel Bielinski who took out a camera to film what was happening, plainly with a view to make sure everyone was properly held to account.'

It came as tube passenger Mr Pethers, who helped tackle Mire, shrugged off claims he is a hero.

David Pethers, who confronted the extremist on the London tube, broke down as he recalled the incident

Mr Pethers spoke to Good Morning Britain hosts Piers Morgan and Susanna Reid ahead of the sentencing of Muhiddin Mire, who slashed the throat of a man in Leytonstone Underground station last December

Speaking to ITV's Good Morning Britain Lift engineer Mr Pethers, said he does not consider himself a hero and added: 'Anyone could have done it.'

CAMERAS IN COURT FOR FANATIC'S SENTENCING HEARING English legal history was made today as a television camera was allowed into an Old Bailey court hearing for the first time. The judge's sentencing remarks of Muhidin Mire will be filmed as part of a three-month pilot project that could pave way for live coverage in Crown Courts. Until now filming has only been allowed at hearings at the Court of Appeal and Supreme Court. But the Old Bailey, which has hosted the country's most notorious murder trials, is one of eight courts taking part in the pilot scheme. The camera, set up in Court Six, will only film The Recorder of London, Judge Nicholas Hilliard, QC, as he delivers his sentencing remarks. Advertisement

Mr Pethers, who was visibly distressed at recalling the events of the attack, said: 'It has affected me quite a lot, I didn't realise until having to talk about it right now.

'In my mind I could have done more. I know it sounds silly but looking at the footage and going over it in my mind, I could have taken him down before.'

He added: 'A lot of people ask me what was going through my mind and I can't answer.'

Mire targeted Mr Zimmerman as they travelled on the same train from Stratford to Leytonstone, where the knifeman lived.

Mr Zimmerman stood out from the crowd in cowboy boots and a hat, carrying a mandolin in one hand and an amplifier in the other and with a guitar strapped to his back.

Mire followed him off the train and produced a black-handled knife with a serrated edge from his pocket.

As Mr Zimmerman approached the barriers, Mire grabbed him from behind and swung him around and on to the floor. Mire then kicked him repeatedly around the head and body as a woman nearby called for him to stop.

As Mr Zimmerman lay defenceless on the ground, Mire crouched down and began to 'saw' at his neck with the serrated blade in front of shocked passengers.

The incident shocked Britain last year. Those who helped police catch Mire have been praised by a judge

A junior doctor on his way home rushed to help stem the blood flowing from Mr Zimmerman's wounds as Mire went up to street level.

One onlooker shouted at him during the attack, 'You ain't no Muslim, bruv', after Mire declared he was going to 'spill blood' for his 'Syrian brothers'.

He continued to threaten members of the public before police arrived with Tasers.
This is the moment a group of vigilante paedophile hunters confronted a KFC worker who sent a string of vile messages and photos of his genitals to a fake 13-year-old girl.

Paul Platten was left stunned when the investigators turned up on his doorstep and challenged him about the texts, penned over a three-month period.

The group showed him photos of Amy Louise - the decoy - and naked pictures he sent to her, leaving the 38-year-old speechless.

This is the moment a group of vigilante paedophile hunters confronted KFC worker Paul Platten (pictured) who sent a string of vile messages and photos of his genitals to a fake 13-year-old girl

After being pressed, married Platten confessed that the images were of him but claimed, 'I didnt know she was 13' - despite being told from the start.

In the eight-minute video, the paedophile hunters ask: 'What is wrong with you?' and 'Do you know what youve done? Do you care?'

Platten, of Wincanton, Somerset, replies: 'Yes, I do care.'

He is then pushed further, with one of the group saying: 'You dont care, do you?' to which he responds, shouting: 'Yes I f***ing care.'

Platten - who worked at KFC at the time he was caught on camera, before being fired in June - adds: 'You speak to me like a piece of s*** so I speak to you like a piece of s***.'

The vigilante inspectors reply: 'How do you think these f***ing 13-year-old kids feel? You are online grooming them. How do you think they f***ing feel?'

One of the men adds: 'Youre going to have to be moved far away. Hopefully on an island with shark-infested waters.'

The group then ask Platten why he feels the need to send naked photos to what he thought was a 13-year-old girl, and he replies: 'I dont know.'

When asked if he likes children, he shrugs and says: 'No. Im confused.'

The video ends with the group still on Plattens doorstep.

The predator, who was later arrested, had arranged to visit Amy Louise, who he met online after messaging a fake social media profile on friend meeting site Waplog.

Paul Platten was left stunned when the investigators turned up on his doorstep and challenged him about the texts (pictured), penned over a three-month period

He sent her dozens of explicit messages, including one which said: 'I wud love to c u fully naked my toung on your toung my hand on ur boobs [sic].'

Others read: 'Lol hehehe wish I wiv u cddle u feel u all over ur body kissing ur lips,' and 'Am so naked now.'

Platten admitted one count of attempting to incite a child to engage in sexual activity on March 17 this year, and again on March 19 and 20.

He also admitted one charge of attempting to engage in sexual activity with a child between March 8 and June 12 at Taunton Crown Court on Monday.

The case has been adjourned for sentencing.

Platten messaged an account set up by The Hunted One, a group of abuse survivors and parents devoted to exposing sex offenders.

In the 11 months they have been operating, they have caught 22 people sending messages to children and so far have a 100 per cent conviction rate.

The group showed him photos of Amy Louise - the decoy - and naked pictures he sent to her, leaving the 38-year-old speechless

Platten admitted one count of attempting to incite a child to engage in sexual activity on March 17 this year, and again on March 19 and 20

The man behind The Hunted One, who wants to remain anonymous, was abused as a child by a man who has now been jailed for 14 years.

Now a father himself, he wants to expose sex offenders to save potential future victims from harm.

He said: 'Every time we expose one it gives me a bit of pleasure. Its a feeling of relief.

'We spend a lot of time on the chats. There are currently four of us of all ages doing it.

'We all know people who have been abused in the past, but all of us are also concerned parents who know how widely the web is used by kids.

'Some of them get trapped into the world of people who prey on children.

'We dont initiate conversations, we just let them incriminate themselves as the chat goes on.

'If they then decide they want to meet the child, we go and we meet them.
The ex-wife of a serial rapist has revealed she was 'gobsmacked' after Googling his name years after they separated to find he was facing historical sexual assault charges.

Liz met Colin Henderson, now 64, at a school function with her children in East Doncaster, Melbourne, in the 1980s and the pair were married just a few years later.

Henderson quit his accountancy job and the couple moved to Scotland to run guest houses, but Liz was forced to flee after he allegedly tried to drag her down the stairs and broke her nose following a drunken night out.

A few years later, Liz searched his name on the computer to find Henderson had raped three women at their Melbourne homes between 1981 and 1984 after responding to newspaper advertisements for roommates and attacking the women with knife.

'I was gobsmacked and i thought can this be true because you think you know somebody,' she told A Current Affair on Wednesday night.

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Liz Henderson (right) has revealed she was 'gobsmacked' after Googling her ex husband Colin's (left) name years after they separated to find he was facing historical sexual assault charges

Liz searched his name on the computer to find Henderson had raped three women at their Melbourne homes between 1981 and 1984 after responding to newspaper advertisements for roommates and attacking the women with knife

'I was disappointed in myself for falling in love with someone like that'.

On Wednesday, Henderson was jailed for at least 11 years over the rapes of three women at their Melbourne homes between 1981 and 1984.

The Scottish-born man was extradited from the UK to Australia last year and pleaded guilty to six historical sex charges.

Victorian County Court judge Paul Lacava sentenced him to 15 years in prison, with a non-parole period of 11 years.

'Your conduct towards each of the three victims was reprehensible, predatory and planned,' the judge said.

Victorian detectives reopened the cold cases in 2011 after advances in DNA technology linked Henderson, now 65, to wine glasses he used at the victims' homes.

Henderson had gone to the first victim's home in November 1981 to inspect a room.

He brought two bottles of wine with him under the guise of getting to know a potential housemate.

After the woman rebuffed his advances, he held a knife to her throat and told her: 'Keep quiet or those could be your last words'.

He then raped her in her bedroom.

Liz met Colin Henderson, now 64, at a school function with her children in East Doncaster, Melbourne, in the 1980s and the pair were married just a few years later

'I was gobsmacked and i thought can this be true because you think you know somebody,' she said

'You apologised to the victim, claiming that you didn't know what had come over you,' Judge Lacava said.

Henderson raped another woman six months later after answering her ad for a housemate.

He attacked her as her three-year-old son slept in another room.

Henderson raped a third woman at her South Melbourne home in June 1984 after asking to sleep in front of the fire because he was too drunk to drive home.

He brought two bottles of wine with him when he came to inspect the room.

After he raped her, Henderson told the 30-year-old woman: 'No hard feelings'.

Henderson was married and had three young daughters at the time of the attacks, the court heard.

Liz said she knew her former husband had a 'violent past' but was horrified to hear how serious his offending was.

On Wednesday, Henderson was jailed for at least 11 years over the rapes of three women at their Melbourne homes between 1981 and 1984

Victorian detectives reopened the cold cases in 2011 after advances in DNA technology linked Henderson, now 65, to wine glasses he used at the victims' homes (stock image)

'I knew he had a violent past and he'd been violent with me and other women, but I was shocked this had happened because I had no idea that was the type of person he was,' she told the program.

The judge said the victims had been attacked in their own homes and subjected to rapes of the worst kind.

'This kind of offending was every woman's worst nightmare,' Judge Lacava said.

Henderson pleaded guilty to four counts of aggravated rape, one count of indecent rape, and one count of aggravated rape.

He was due to be sentenced earlier this year but was too sick to attend court, and underwent emergency surgery for an abdominal aortic aneurysm while in custody.

'I can't say with any degree of certainty that you will die in prison but I recognise that you may,' Judge Lacava told him.

Henderson left Australia in the mid 1990s and was living in England when he was arrested in June 2014.
Dr Kalyana Saripalli, 39, is said to have behaved inappropriately towards three female members of staff whilst working for Guy's and St Thomas' Hospital Trust, London, and another hospital

A top orthopaedic specialist allegedly asked female colleagues to go on dates with him and told one 'I'm like Jason Bourne - I will find you' whilst harassing her with a string of text messages.

Dr Kalyana Saripalli, 39, is said to have behaved inappropriately towards three separate female members of staff whilst working for Guy's and St Thomas' Hospital Trust, London, and Stoke Mandeville Hospital, in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire.

The Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service in Manchester heard on one occasion he told a colleague 'you make me horny' and on another occasion told a nurse 'If you can't accept the truth, that I long for you, I would rather be dead' before adding 'Do you fancy a date?'

The behaviour started in September 2011 when Saripalli, a senior house officer with the spinal orthopaedic team at Guy's and St Thomas' Hospital Trust, began texting a nurse at the hospital, referred to as Colleague A, telling her he loved her after she tried to tell him to stop sending her messages.

When Colleague A did tell him to stop contacting her the doctor said 'I love u.ill miss u, thought I was getting a life, guess not, ill call u in half an hour', Colleague A responded 'I don't think that's a good idea... You don't know me to love me. I'm sorry you feel that way but it doesn't change anything'.

On another occasion, Saripalli said: 'Hope ur ok, as for me, every moment in ur absence seems like ages. I wish I was dead, u still have a hearty long life to live, ill manage, don't stress urself.'

Shortly after this he said 'Wondered if u fancied dinner on Tuesday evening/night'.

The doctor then moved to Stoke Mandeville Hospital and told Colleague D 'you make me horny' before explaining to her that he used to 'keep his girlfriend up all night'.

Saripalli asked Colleague D out for dinner and 'would not accept no as an answer' when she declined his offer he said 'what, do you think I am going to try and get you into bed after a cup of tea?'

The alleged incidents took place at Guy's and St Thomas' Hospital Trust, London, (pictured) and Stoke Mandeville Hospital, in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire

Appearing at the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service in Manchester, Saripalli, who is unrepresented, admits allegations of harassment but denies that his messages were sexually motivated.

Opening the case for the General Medical Council, Tom Gilbart, said: 'Colleague A began working as a nurse in August 2011 she was employed by a company that provides nurses and she complained about advances being made by the doctor.

'The text messages were sent to Colleague A by the doctor, he would ignore requests to stop contacting Colleague A, those (requests for him to stop) were made by Colleague A and Witness B.

'The text messages demonstrate that he continued to send messages, even though she made it clear she did not wish to hear from him. She said 'I told you you were being too full on for me, I don't want to hear from you again, you have made me feel uncomfortable'.

The tribunal heard he said: 'I'm Jason Bourne in reality, I will find you, as I said before, you are my destiny' and 'If you can't accept the truth, that I long for you, I would rather be dead'

'Contact from the doctor continued and he was also texting Witness B who told him the best thing he could do was back off, telling him it was not appropriate. At one stage, Witness B sent a message saying 'you need to get over her, it's become the talk of the ward for all the wrong reasons, it's harassment'.'

The doctor admits to sending all of the messages but he denies that there was sexual motivation behind them.

The doctor sent Colleague A messages saying 'hey my room needs a clean up aswell, do u mind once ur done with ur's, ill b urs once its done', 'I still love you, lets build a future together' and 'I can't afford to miss those eyes'.

The messages continued with him saying 'I'm Jason Bourne in reality, I will find you, as I said before, you are my destiny.' and 'If you can't accept the truth, that I long for you, I would rather be dead' then, 'you fancy a date?'

Saripalli then started sending text messages to another nurse, referred to as Colleague C, who was on placement at Guy's and St Thomas'. She text him making it clear she only wanted him to speak to her about work, during work hours.

Mr Gilbart continued: 'He sent four text messages after that, which disregarded the clear request.

'Between August 2013 and August 2014, Dr Saripalli was working at Stoke Mandeville Hospital in the A&E department.

'On July 3 2014 he asked Colleague D out for dinner. On July 10 he asked her where one could obtain ketamine and asked her about piercings and tattoos. He then asked if he could speak to her in private and she agreed, thinking it was something confidential about a patient.

'He asked personal things which made her feel uncomfortable. He told her 'it surprises me you're with a woman' and proceeded to ask her to go out for dinner and to go to his flat for a cup of tea. He made her feel quite intimidated.

'As they walked out for a cigarette he said 'can you keep a secret? You make me horny' before telling her he used to 'keep his girlfriend up all night'. The conversation made Colleague D feel extremely uncomfortable. The GMC case is that his behaviour on July 10 was sexually motivated and that was denied.

'Colleague D would have nightmares and wake up sweating. His behaviour was harassing and that matter has been admitted. An investigation was conducted by Buckinghamshire Health Trust, he was interviewed and notes were taken.'
The simulated route was similar to the one the plane took before vanishing

It recently emerged the pilot practised crashing into the Indian Ocean

Current search area is in the southern Indian Ocean off Western Australia

It could be more than 300 miles further north than was believed

Study claims to have found the 'most accurate' location of the plane

MH370 vanished during a flight to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur in 2014

The location of confirmed debris from MH370 - and the path it took across the Indian Ocean - has been used to determine where the airliner might have crashed and where further debris could be found.

After mapping the way the debris floated, scientists now believe aviation experts are looking in the wrong place for the remains of missing flight and it could in fact be 300 miles further north than the current search area, which is made up of over 120,000 square kilometres of the southern Indian Ocean off Western Australia.

In March 2014, Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing Capital International Airport in China vanished with 239 passengers and crew on board.

Extensive search efforts in the southern Indian Ocean, where the aircraft is thought to have crashed, have yet to locate the main wreckage, though debris has washed up on the African east coast and Indian-ocean islands.

Study lead author Eric Jansen, a researcher at the Euro-Mediterranean Centre on Climate Change in Italy, said: 'Our result is the first to calculate the movement of the debris that best agrees with all five of the currently confirmed discoveries.

This image indicates an area likely to be where MH370 crashed based on where the debris floated from

The debris floated from the search area in the southern Indian Ocean off Western Australia. It ended up in the places marked with red dots: Mozambique, Reunion, South Africa, Rodrigues Island and Mauritius

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

'This should make it the most accurate prediction,'

The northern half of the area where authorities are currently searching for the plane, off the coast of Australia, overlaps with the area the new simulation indicates as the most likely origin of the debris found so far.

But the researchers say they should be looking more than 300 miles further north.

Jansen said: 'Our simulation shows that the debris could also have originated up to around 500 kilometres further to the north.

'If nothing is found in the current search area, it may be worth extending the search in this direction.'

To find out how MH370 debris drifted since the crash, the researchers ran a computer model that used oceanographic data from the EU Copernicus Marine Environment Monitoring Service, including data of global surface currents and winds over the past two years.

To improve their simulation, they used the locations of the five confirmed debris found to date: two in Mozambique and one each in Reunion, South Africa and Rodrigues Island, Mauritius.

They started their computer simulation by placing a large number of virtual particles in the ocean, and then examined where they would go based on the ocean currents and winds after the crash.

Researchers used the location of confirmed debris from MH370 to determine where the airliner might have crashed, and where further debris could be found

This image shows how the floating debris from the MH370 aircraft could have spread, from the day of the crash up until May 2016

To find out how MH370 debris drifted since the crash, the researchers ran a computer model that used oceanographic data, including data of global surface currents and winds, over the past two years.

This map shows how scientists have suggested the new search area should be extended north by 300 miles

Flight MH370 took off from Kuala Lumpur on March 8 and was last sighted at 2.15am (stock photo)

A piece of debris believed to be an outboard wing flap. The Australian Transport Safety Bureau is working with Malaysian investigators to ascertain whether it is from a Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777

The ADV Ocean Shield departs, an Australian Defence vessel, is seen here departing for the MH370 search area

Since the exact crash location and how much of an effect wind has on the debris are unknown, the researchers simulate different scenarios. From this, they could construct a so-called 'superensemble' - a combination of simulations that best describes the debris found so far.

Jansen said: 'Imagine that you want to know what the weather is going to be tomorrow, but you have several websites that give contradictory information.

'Which one do you trust? You check what weather they predicted for today and you put more faith in the websites that were correct and less in those that were wrong.

The location of the debris at the various times is calculated using a computer model based on oceanographic data and the location of the five confirmed debris found to date (indicated by red dots)

'This is more or less what we do for MH370: we perform many simulations that are all plausible given the information that we know about the flight.

'When we combine the results of all these simulations, we give more importance to those that predicted the debris that was found correctly.'

'If new debris is discovered, we can update the result in a matter of minutes.'

The results indicate that the most probable locations to discover additional washed up debris are Tanzania and Mozambique, as well as the islands of Madagascar, Reunion, Mauritius and the Comoros.

MH370 captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah (pictured) practised crashing into the Indian Ocean on a flight simulator weeks before his plane disappeared

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 said

The main wreckage is likely to be in the wide search area between 28S and 35S which overlaps with the current underwater search area between 32S and 35S, but indicates the airliner could also be further north than the current search area.

Jansen added: 'The disappearance of flight MH370 is probably one of the most bizarre events in modern history.

'It is important to understand what happened, not only for all the people directly involved, but also for the safety of aviation in general.

'We hope that we can contribute to this, even if our study is just a small piece of a very complicated puzzle.'

The findings were published in the journal Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences.

The study results come after it emerged the captain of missing flight MH370 practised crashing into the Indian Ocean on a simulator weeks before his plane disappeared.

Confidential police documents show that captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah practised flying across remote sections of the ocean until his plane ran out of fuel.

The simulated flight path that was practised by Mr Shah was similar to the one the plane is believed to have followed before it disappeared

Authorities have confirmed they will not expand the current search area for MH370. Fragments from the plane have washed up as far away as Mozambique

It suggests the disappearance of MH370 was not an accident, but a mass suicide meticulously planned by the pilot, New York magazine reported.

The route he practised on the simulator took him out of Kuala Lumpur before heading south over the remote expanse of the Indian Ocean.

It is a route eerily similar to the one investigators believe the plane flew before it vanished in March 2014.

The simulator data was gleaned from a computer by the FBI and used by the Malaysian Police during their investigation into the incident.

However, the findings were withheld from the public when police released their latest official report last March.

Before the flight vanished it is understood Mr Shah had been distracted and withdrawn as he dealt with the break-up of his marriage.

Speaking in 2014 about the mystery, the wife and daughter of Mr Shah said the 53-year-old pilot had been desolate in the weeks before the aircraft's disappearance  and refused pleas to attend marriage counselling sessions.

Three weeks after they split the plane went missing, with some investigators suggesting it was a deliberate and desperate ploy by Mr Shah.

A map showing where investigators have been searching for the plane for the last two years. It is believed it could be the wrong place and officials are yet to pinpoint a new area

Officials from Malaysia, China and Australia have said the search would be suspended if the aircraft was not found by December.

In a joint statement released to next of kin, joint ministers from the three countries said hopes of finding the plane were fading.

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.

'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.'

At the announcement ministers also downplayed claims they had been searching for the plane in the wrong area for the past two years.

Investigators at a Dutch company leading the underwater hunt have said they believed the plane may have glided down with a pilot at the controls rather than dived in its final moments.

If this were the case, it would drastically alter the position where the aircraft is predicated to have landed in the ocean.

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 Reunion 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

In reply, relatives of those who perished aboard the flight urged governments to step up the hunt for the aircraft.

Jacquita Gonzales, the wife of MH370 steward Patrick Gomes, said China and Malaysia had not contributed enough to the search effort.

'China, you could do more. I'm sorry for being so frank but you have the most at stake here,' she said at a news conference.

'(Malaysia), you need to do your bit and not just say 'I'm so sorry, we're short of funds, there's nowhere else to search.'

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
Pictures taken at Martinselkonen Wildlife Centre, Kainuu - home to the world's highest concentration of brown bears

On one occasion his nap was disturbed by a male bear tugging at his arm and bears shoved their heads in to look

The wildlife photographer braved three days inside the hut, which was made of just thin plywood and some fabric

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These incredible pictures did not come easily for a photographer who spent thirteen hours in a sweltering hut dubbed the 'suicide hide' to get up-close shots of brown bears.

George Turner, 26, from Dorset, ventured to Suomussalmi Forest in Finland to squeeze into a single person hide, made of thin plywood and some fabric to photograph the wild animals in their natural environment.

To get close to the bears the intrepid explorer visited the Martinselkonen Wildlife Centre in the midst of the Kainuu wilderness for three days, which is home to the highest concentration of brown bears in the world.

On one occasion his nap was disturbed by a male bear tugging at his arm and when he first got into the hut, three bears poked their heads inside revealing their huge fangs.

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These incredible pictures did not come easily for photographer George Turner, 26, who spent thirteen hours in a sweltering hut dubbed the 'suicide hide' to get up-close shots of brown bears

The 26-year-old ventured to Suomussalmi Forest in Finland to squeeze into a single person hide, made of thin plywood and some fabric to photograph the wild animals in their natural environment

To get close to the bears the intrepid explorer visited the Martinselkonen Wildlife Centre in the midst of the Kainuu wilderness for three days, which is home to the highest concentration of brown bears in the world

On one occasion his nap was disturbed by a male bear tugging at his arm and when he first got into the hut, three bears poked their heads inside revealing their huge fangs

Capturing the stunning images meant entering the single hide at 4pm and remaining there until 7:30am each morning

Capturing the stunning images meant entering the single hide at 4pm and remaining there until 7:30am each morning.

George said: 'I heard about this particular hide and I set my heart on it because of the name.

'The hide is called 'suicide hide' - and the clue is in the name.

'When the guide who was taking me there - who was the only one who has ever been attacked by a bear at this place - said 'are you sure?' just before I got in - that's when I started to question myself.'

Following a two kilometre hike and a rushed, deathly silent, shuffle across a field occupied by forty bears, George settled in for his first 13 hour stretch in the hide.

George, from Dorset, said: 'I heard about this particular hide and I set my heart on it because of the name. 'The hide is called 'suicide hide' - and the clue is in the name.'

'When the guide who was taking me there - who was the only one who has ever been attacked by a bear at this place - said 'are you sure?' just before I got in - that's when I started to question myself,' George said

Following a two kilometre hike and a rushed, deathly silent, shuffle across a field occupied by forty bears, George settled in for his first 13 hour stretch in the hide

He said: 'When we first got into the hide there were none there, but literally within 30 seconds of the guy leaving they swarmed around the hide.'

In the hide itself there are five different holes to poke a lens through, but some of the younger bears were a little too eager to find out who was hidden inside thehide

He said: 'When we first got into the hide there were none there, but literally within 30 seconds of the guy leaving they swarmed around the hide.

'In the hide itself you had about four or five different holes around you from which you could look out and they were literally around every single hole.'

Some of the younger bears were a little too eager to find out who was hidden inside the hide.

George continued: 'At one stage I had about three cubs sticking their heads through different holes.

'These cubs aren't little cubs they're like big adolescent male cubs, which could do serious damage.

'When you see huge fangs coming through that's the first time your heart starts to really beat.

'But for me, my first instinct was to get my wide angle lens out to get a nice nose shot.'

This adorable young cub in the Martinselkonen Wildlife Centre in the midst of the Kainuu wilderness was getting used to its new environment

After getting into the hut for the first time, George said: 'At one stage I had about three cubs sticking their heads through different holes. 'These cubs aren't little cubs they're like big adolescent male cubs, which could do serious damage.'

With the hut made of just thin plywood and material, huge bears like this could have ripped it apart if they felt threatened by George

'When you see huge fangs coming through that's the first time your heart starts to really beat,' he said

Turner's photographic instincts almost landed him in some trouble during one of his stints in the hide.

He said: 'I only had one incident of the bear actually seeing me, which shamelessly was when I was trying to get a selfie with one of the bears through the tarpaulin hole.

'But they ran, so fast, away from me. The reason being was because for three weeks of the year they are hunted, so they actually are pretty scared of people.'

The English photographer also risked life and limb when he decided to take a well deserved nap in the midst of his 13 hour stretch.

Guides warned him of the perils of sleeping with his head near one of the hide's camera holes, and Turner learned why the hard way.

He said: 'I thought I'd have a really quick nap, like English people do, fell asleep and at about three am I had this thing tugging me through the camera opening on my arm.

'I've been woken up by some horrible people in my time, but believe me an adolescent male bear is pretty scary and gets the juices going.'

George hoped to capture the natural behaviours and emotions of the bears and succeeded in one of his favourite images.

'There's one image of a bear sitting on his haunches just looking to his left really pensively like he's really contemplating life.

'He'd actually run over and scared off the mum and her cubs and must have sat there feeling really guilty.'

Turner's photographic instincts almost landed him in some trouble during one of his stints in the hide when he tried to grab a bear selfie

Guides warned him of the perils of sleeping with his head near one of the hide's camera holes, and Turner learned why the hard way

The English photographer also risked life and limb when he decided to take a well deserved nap in the midst of his 13 hour stretch

George hoped to capture the natural behaviours and emotions of the bears and succeeded in one of his favourite images - all from inside the 'suicide hide'

Many would question the sanity of getting so close to wild bears without some indestructible body armour, but for Turner the experience was a dream.

'It is an adrenalin rush at the time, but it's kind of like this weird serenity as well.

'Everything is happening so quickly, but it's almost happening in slow motion.'
Drunk mother: Tara Hardwick, 30, had downed cider and wine before getting a taxi home with her son

A drunk mother was caught staggering around a Tesco car park in the middle of the night holding her two-year-old son.

Tara Hardwick, 30, had downed cider and wine before getting a taxi home with her son Oliver and swaying from side to side as she got out of the car and walked to a cash machine.

A night manager at the supermarket in Worcester became concerned about the welfare of Hardwick's son, who had no socks on, and was in the arms of the single mother.

A police officer arrived and arrested Hardwick who had slumped down outside the entrance of the Tesco, falling asleep with her son in her lap.

Hardwick admitted being drunk in charge of her son when she appeared before Worcester Magistrates' Court on Friday.

Magistrates sentenced her to a conditional discharge for 12 months and ordered her to pay 135 costs as well as a 20 victim surcharge.

The court was told that the mother and her son were spotted by a Tesco manager talking to a taxi driver who was asking for payment.

The driver removed a pushchair and a number of bags before driving off after Hardwick struggled to get money out of a cash point.

Angla Hallan, prosecuting, said: He (the Tesco manager) noticed the female was unsteady on her feet and swaying from side to side.

'She had a young child in her arms, two years of age, with nothing on his feet. She was swaying backwards and forwards and kept losing her balance. She seemed to be struggling to use the cash point and was unable to get any money out and was having issues focusing on the screen.

'She seemed to be getting more and more confused and he believed the cash point may have swallowed up her card.

When the night manager asked Hardwick if she was okay, she asked him to take hold of the child.

Car park: A night manager at the Tesco in Worcester (pictured) became concerned about the welfare of Hardwick's son, who had no socks on, and was in the arms of the single mother

Harwick (left) was swaying from side to side as she got out of the car and walked to a cash machine (right)

A police officer who arrived at the Tesco car park in Worcester in the early hours of June 13 found Hardwick falling asleep with her son in her lap.

Harwick was arrested after the officer became concerned for the welfare of the child after smelling alcohol on her breath and noticing her speech was slurred.

She told police she had consumed two cans of cider before going with her aunt to get fish and chips. They had then drunk a bottle of wine between them before she left her aunts house in a taxi.

Hardwick had no previous convictions but had been cautioned for a public order offence in 2004.

David Howarth, defending, said: To say that Mrs Hardwick regrets the offence is an understatement. She is devastated by what has occurred.

She is a single mother and has a son Oliver who is two-and-a-half. She split up from his father 12 months ago. She had been on holiday for a week with Oliver and she came back quite exhausted.
The compassion of the public has been tested in a heartbreaking new social experiment to see if people are willing to stop and help a lost elderly woman.

A video produced by the New Zealand Police features an elderly woman, an actor, dressed only in a nightgown and socks, clutching a stuffed toy.

She appears disoriented and confused as she stands on a busy footpath and people walk by.

The actor in the film wore only a nightgown and a pair of socks and was clutching a stuffed toy

Many people passed her by, often not even looking in her direction as she stood on the footpath looking confused

While the woman featured in the video was an actor, the rest of the people were members of the public

The video shows many people walking straight past the woman, ignoring her as she stands on the footpath.

Most don't even turn to look at the woman as they continue on their way.

Eventually, a woman approaches the elderly lady.

She asks her a question before putting her arm around her shoulders and taking her to get help.

Although the woman was an actor, the public on the street were not aware of the experiment

Many people simply walked past as she forlornly clutched and stroked her stuffed toy

As the video finishes, text shows up on the screen, reading: 'She cared enough. Would you?'.

It's the latest in a series of experiments by the NZ Police for recruitment purposes called: 'Do you care enough to be a cop?'.

They're aimed at showing people the characteristics required to be a police officer.

Police Inspector Sue Douglas, from the police mental health team, told Stuff.co.nz: 'Distressed people need someone who's going to be calm and understanding to their needs, even under the most stressful conditions.

'While police is not the lead agency on mental health, they are often the first responders to these situations.'

It highlighted how many mental health-related incidents police attended, she said.

Eventually, this kind woman approached the elderly woman to ask if she needed any help

The kind woman put her arm around the elderly woman with the intention of helping her
Tennessee Thomas Fuses Fashion And Activism  And Drums, Too: BUST Interview

Photographed by Eleanor Petry





Up in the Club





MUSICIAN, DESIGNER, AND SHOPKEEPER TENNESSEE THOMAS INFUSES FASHION WITH ACTIVISM

Buried in the heart of N.Y.C.s East Village is a gem of a shop called The Deep End Club, dedicated to the political, social, and sartorial ethos of the 60san era close to the heart of British-born owner and designer Tennessee Thomas. The 31-year-old, an original member of the now-defunct alt-rock band the Like, has been collecting 60s memorabilia for years, and plays 60s soul and girl group music when she DJs around town. But its the activism of the decade she perhaps finds most inspiring. When I moved to New York, the Occupy movement started, and it was like I was living through the actual 60s, says Thomas, who helped host teach-ins and used music to raise awareness about the issues being protested. Subsequently, she thought it would be fun to continue the conversation: this time, in a shop. So she snagged a space in the East Village for $500 a month. Even though I had no products, I just took it and then had to fill in the gaps, she says.

Thomas did that by reaching out to the neighborhood to see if anyone had anything they wanted to sellwhich is why youll find friendship bracelets and mushroom earrings made by local teens next to well-curated racks of vintage waresand in the meantime, held art shows and pop-ups, building a Deep End Club community. Soon after, Thomas began designing her own T-shirtsthe first, and most famous, says Give a Damn across the chestand simple shift dresses, beloved by the likes of Tavi Gevinson and British model Alexa Chung, who became the face of her first collection. Thomas newest designsa pale pink velvet suit and a Bernie-inspired T-shirt that reads In Solidarityare part of her election collection, which she named as a joke but that truly evokes the shops political fervor. (During the primaries, The Deep End Club was a Sanders headquarters of sorts, and Thomas new band NAF (Nice As Fuck), with Rilo Kileys Jenny Lewis and Au Revoir Simones Erika Forster, played at Sanders rallies.) Im a huge fan of Vivienne Westwood and how she started a shop and tied music, politics, and fashion together, Thomas says, about the iconic U.K. boutique, Sex. Clearly, Thomas is following in her footsteps.

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Ilana Kaplan



This article originally appeared in the August/September 2016 print edition of BUST Magazine. Subscribe today!

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Black Lives Matter activists ordered white journalists and supporters to the back of their march outside the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia.

Several videos of the protest have been posted on social media which show the female leader of the protest standing on the back of a truck while ordering racial segregation.

The un-named protester used a microphone and an amplifier to start a number of highly offensive chants aimed at the Philadelphia Police Department and Hillary Clinton.

A woman at the Black Lives Matter protest demanded that white people moved to the back of the crowd

The woman was standing on a truck outside the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia yesterday

The woman singled-out individual protesters and ordered them to take a less prominent position in the march

White people at the Black Lives Matter protest were ordered to the back of the crowd by the leadership

One protester objecting to the racial segregation raised the Rosa Parks incident, but the angry woman did not respond.

Before the march set off, the woman told white people: 'Take your rightful position, behind us.'

Standing in front of a Pan-African flag, she said: 'I want to see all of the white folks at the back of the crowd.'

'White people, get to the back. Black people, come to the front.'

The woman then began pointing at individual people and ordering them to the back of the crowd during her expletive-riddled tirade.

At the same time the woman was making the highly offensive comments, the mothers of several black men shot dead were addressing the convention.

Trayvon Martin's mother Sybrina Fulton told Democrats that she supports Hillary Clinton because the presidential nominee 'is a mother who can assure our movement will succeed'.

One of the leaders demanded white people leave the front in an expletive-ridden rant prior to the march

Black Lives Matters protesters held a noisy demonstration outside the Democratic National Convention

Protesters held a coffin with an upside down donkey representing the death of the Democratic Party

Several different groups have been protesting outside the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia

Fulton said their group was the Mothers of the Movement.

Trayvon Martin was fatally shot in Florida by a neighborhood watch volunteer in 2012 at the age of 17. The gunman was later acquitted of second-degree murder.

Martin's mother says at the convention that Clinton 'has the compassion and understanding to support grieving mothers. She has the courage to lead the fight for common sense gun legislation'.

Geneva Reed-Veal is the mother of Sandra Bland, who was found hanged in a Texas jail cell last year after her arrest during a traffic stop.
A six-year-old with severe autism was thrown out of a hotel for watching a cartoon on the iPad he uses to keep him calm, his mother claims.

Katharine Hangley said her son Jay had accidentally turned up the volume while watching Donald Duck at breakfast in the Russell Hotel in Royal Tunbridge Wells, Kent, after they flew in for Gibraltar.

She said that the dining area was 'nearly empty' but guest complained and the manager asked them to leave the hotel, where they were staying so Jay could get treatment at a specialist centre nearby.

Katharine Hangley (left) said her son Jay (pictured) claims her family was thrown out of the Russell Hotel after her autistic son accidntally turned up the volume on his iPad, which he uses to calm him down

She said that the dining area of the Russell Hotel (pictured) was 'nearly empty' but guests complained and the manager asked them to leave

Katharine and husband Jason were furious after being left desperately seeking alternative accommodation so Jay could continue with his therapy before they fly home on Friday.

She said: 'I said to Jay "put the volume down" and all of sudden this elderly man got in my face and asked him to turn it off. I said no, as the iPad calms him down.'

Mr and Mrs Hangley, who were also with their seven-year-old daughter, said the man claimed to be the owner and wanted Jay to leave the breakfast area, before they even finished their breakfast.

Former accountant Mrs Hangley, who now cares for her son full-time, left the breakfast area and went to reception, but was followed by the owner, who she says kicked her out of the hotel.

She said: 'I was shocked, he left the area and I just broke down.

'I'm still in shock, I could not believe something like that could happen to my son.'

But hotel manager, Richard Morley, denies ordering them to leave and claimed the volume of the iPad was making guests uncomfortable.

Mr Morley, who has owned the set in a Victorian mansion hotel for 20 years, said: 'They were playing with their iPad at a volume that was uncomfortable for guests.

Hotel manager Richard Morley, denies ordering them to leave and claimed the volume of the iPad (pictured) was making guests uncomfortable

The hotel owner claims the 'unpleasant' family (pictured) caused the incident to spiral out of control, accusing him of racism then threatening to ruin the hotel's reputation by sharing the experience on social media

'We went to ask our guests if they would turn the volume down and they were taken aback.'

The hotel owner claims the 'unpleasant' family caused the whole incident to spiral out of control, accusing him of racism then threatening to ruin the hotel's reputation by sharing the experience on social media.

To try and calm the situation, he said he suggested that using the iPad with headphones would have been fine.

He added: 'I find the incident extremely regrettable, incredibly unfortunate and am sad that it should have taken place.'

Mr Hangley blasted the owner, calling the behaviour 'disgusting' and accusing Mr Morley of having 'no consideration at all'.
A young Brit has been left brain-damaged, according to his mum, after he was beaten by guards in a prison on the Spanish party island of Majorca.

James Langford, 29, had been working as a DJ in Ibiza since 2012 when he was jailed for three years after police found some pills found in his car.

Since he was locked up in Palma de Mallorca prison in January last year, his mum says he has suffered frequent 'Guantanamo Bay' style beatings and 'torture' which has put him in hospital.

Paula says James' recent injuries were so severe he was left brain-damaged and transferred to a hospital outside the prison, where a judge ordered examination found that his injuries were from beatings.

James Langford has been left brain-damaged, according to his mother, after he was beaten by guards in a prison on the Spanish party island of Majorca

Paula, 51, insisted that James was one of three jailed after the pills were found in his friend's bag inside his car.

She said: 'The latest beatings have burst his eardrum, after his head was repeatedly smashed against a concrete floor.

'The Spanish police hate the British boys and he has had such a brutal time. He is currently trying to get transferred.

'It's like Guantanamo Bay. They strip him naked, slap him, kick him and push him around.

'The lawyer that we have investigating the beatings has said it is borderline sexual abuse.

'When he was beaten in January they put him in isolation for six weeks where they didn't give him a toothbrush, water or anything.'

On Thursday last week James was escorted out to a terrace in the 30C Spanish summer heat and left for hours, despite his banging on the door to be let back in, according to his terrified mum.

Paula, from Bromley, south London, said it was only when he smashed some glass that guards hauled him back to his room before six guards subjected him to a brutal beating by slamming his head against the floor.

Langord has been locked up in Palma de Mallorca prison since January last year in Majorca (file photo)

James was transferred to an outside hospital for a brain scan and other tests before being escorted back to a prison hospital where he is currently being treated.

Paula, from Bromley, south east London, last spoke to her son on Saturday morning when he told her he thought the guards were going to kill him.

She is now shelling out for lawyers to try and get James transferred to a British prison and is hoping to submit a case against the prison in a Spanish court.

Paula said: 'Someone who works in the hospital called me on Friday to tell me what had happened and I was absolutely sick to my stomach. I was howling and crying, I was very upset. It was a very brief conversation I was crying and he said 'please don't mum'.

'I told him we'd get him back home and he said that he thought they were going to kill him. He's in a lot of pain. I last spoke to him on Saturday but the conversations are very brief and difficult.

'He is back in the prison hospital now after he went to the outside hospital to have the brain scan and other tests.

'I feel helpless, sick, sad and angry. I'm frustrated, this is my child and the way he is being treated is brutal.
The BBC prepared for a nuclear war by planning to play old episodes of the Goon Show and Just a Minute from a series of 11 bunkers across Britain, a secret Cold War book has revealed.

The broadcaster drew up clandestine plans for how it would react to a major disaster during the Cold War with a Wartime Broadcasting System headquartered at Wood Norton in Worcestershire.

This underground centre at the engineering training department would have included engineers, announcers, 12 news editors and sub-editors and two employees from religious broadcasting.

Secret: The broadcaster drew up clandestine plans for how it would react to a major disaster during the Cold War with a Wartime Broadcasting System based at Wood Norton (pictured) in Worcestershire

BBC radio equipment at the Kelvedon Hatch Secret Nuclear Bunker in Essex, which is now open to the public

The broadcaster drew up clandestine plans for how it would react to a major disaster during the Cold War

The BBCs War Book contained the nuclear fallout plan and although it blacked out most government codewords for activating it, one slipped through for authorising a national warning - which was Falsetto

And the bunker in the countryside near Evesham was so secret that the 90 staff set to have been posted there were not even allowed to tell their wives.

Bob Doran, a radio news editor in the 1980s, once attended a seminar on the matter, and said: My clearest memory is of a discussion about whether people with spouses could bring them along.

The answer was no. The other thing I remember clearly is coming away in deep gloom and a feeling of certainty that nuclear war was going to happen very soon.

Another former radio news editor, Roy Walters, also told BBC News that he also took part in a Cold War exercise and decided following this that it would probably have been done on the hoof.

The BBCs War Book contained the plan and although it blacked out most government codewords for activating it, one slipped through for authorising a national warning - which was Falsetto.

Another clandestine room at the Kelvedon Hatch Secret Nuclear Bunker, which is now a tourist attraction

There was a fully operational BBC Studio in the bunker at Kelvedon Hatch capable of broadcasting to Britain

Kelvedon Hatch bunker cost up to 3million a year to keep on standby as the Cold War became less of a threat

The BBC planned to have a total of 11 bunkers, known as Regional Seats of Government, across Britain which would each have had a studio and five employees from local radio stations.

Staff would have been allowed a 250 cash advance of salary and given transport to their posts, where they were expected to wear informal clothing only and advised to bring reading material.

They were also allowed to take small recreational items and advised to take clothes, soap and towels for 30 days. They were also told they would be provided with food in the bunkers.

The Government would have controlled the output, which was originally intended to include collection of cassette tapes of old radio programmes such as the Goon Show and Just a Minute.

But it later became evident that an attack would have led to Britons finding they could only operate their radios with batteries - and they would have needed to have conserved these for news.

BBC broadcasting equipment sits on a desk at a nuclear bunker in the Wiltshire market town of Corsham

In the 1960s a large bunker was built at Corsham housing four radio studios and accommodation for 100 staff

Another room at the nuclear bunker in Corsham, which is the former emergency relocations site for the British government in the event of a nuclear attack. It was known by various names including 'Burlington'

The most recent warning announcement was recorded by the late Radio 4 newsreader Peter Donaldson, and it was played at his funeral last year after he died aged 70.

It said: This is the Wartime Broadcasting Service. This country has been attacked with nuclear weapons.

Communications have been severely disrupted, and the number of casualties and the extent of the damage are not yet known.

We shall bring you further information as soon as possible. Meanwhile, stay tuned this wavelength, stay calm and stay in your own homes.

The radio output was originally intended to include collection of cassette tapes of old radio programmes such as the Goon Show - featuring (from left) Spike Milligan, Sir Harry Secombe and Peter Sellers
A Brown University alumni has made a short documentary blasting the politically correct culture at the Ivy League school, which he claims is stifling free speech.

Rob Montz graduated from the university, in Providence, Rhode Island, with a degree in philosophy in 2005.

He recently returned to make a 13-minute film about censorship at the school, titled Is the University Killing Free Speech and Open Debate?

Montz says he found that the universitys liberal-minded administration stifled conservative opinions and that his film hit home with both students and professors.

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Rob Montz (above), a Brown University alumni, has made a short documentary blasting the politically correct culture at the Ivy League school, which he claims is stifling free speech

Montz (pictured at Brown) graduated from the university, in Providence, Rhode Island, with a degree in philosophy in 2005

There hasnt been a single student on campus or single professor who Ive been contacted by whos said I was wrong? he told Fox News.

The video debuted on We The Internets YouTube channel earlier this month and has since attracted more than 100,000 views.

The film explores how college students at Brown are silencing speakers in the name of safe spaces.

Montz says that when he attended Brown, there were few Republicans at the school, but they were allowed to be heard.

Now, school administrators give in to the politically correct demands of students because they are afraid they will end up on the wrong side of the debate, Montz told Fox.

A 2013 lecture (above) that was supposed to be given by NYPD commissioner Ray Kelley about his controversial stop-and-frisk policy

The film paints a picture of an anti-free speech mood at the school using interviews with students and professors as well clips from past incidents at the campus where school officials have cancelled events after students protested the speakers for their opinions.

It recalls a lecture in the fall of 2013 by NYPD commissioner Ray Kelley about his controversial stop-and-frisk policy. Students picketed outside and then took over the lecture hall and shouted down administrators until officials shut down the event.

A year later, guest speaker Wendy McElroy, who has been vocal about her criticism of campus policies on sexual harassment, spoke at the university.

Other members of the campus community reportedly created a companion event condemning McElroy's opinions on campus rape culture.

The film paints a picture of an anti-free speech mood at the school clips from past incidents at the campus where school officials have cancelled events after students protested the speakers for their opinions

Economics professor Glenn Loury (pictured) says: Universities ought first and foremost to be a place in which reason determines outcomes not the ability to throw tantrums and fits

This is not the Brown that I know, Montz says in the video. This is students weaponizing victimhood to stifle debate.

Economics professor Glenn Loury, a liberal who supports Hillary Clinton, adds in the film: Universities ought first and foremost to be a place in which reason determines outcomes not the ability to throw tantrums and fits.

Montz will be screening his film and speaking on college campuses about free speech this fall.

Universities train the next generation of people who are going to run this country, he added to Fox.

If you fail to impart in them this very basic value, thats going to affect how they run their businesses or the city council.

Brown University spokesman Cass Cliatt blasted Montz' film as an 'opinion piece' based mostly on social media clips.

'This piece is an unfortunate example of characterizing what takes place on an entire campus based mostly on clips from social media,' she told Daily Mail Online.

'This video does not accurately represent Brown. If you spent time on our campus, you would see that were confronting some of the nations most challenging issues and doing so in an environment that promotes the free exchange of ideas.

'Brown is a place where the most pressing issues of the day are debated and new ideas are tested.

'While this does not produce a placid campus, it is misguided to characterize Brown, as this filmmaker does, based mostly on 15-second social media clips taken from a few isolated moments years apart.'
President Barack Obama isn't so confident anymore that Donald Trump won't win the November election and succeed him in the Oval Office.

'Anything is possible,' he told Today's Savannah Guthrie. 'It is the - the nature of democracy that until those votes are cast and the American people, you know, have their say, we don't know.'

Obama gave the interview to NBC News on the eve of his address to the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia. He recalled that when he was the one on the ticket in 2008 running against Arizona Sen. John McCain and Mitt Romney in 2012 there wasn't the same level of back-biting.

'I think that he is somebody who likes attention - maybe surprised himself that - he got this far,' the president said of Trump.

He moments later said the billionaire is acting like a 'strongman' and suggested Trump would use the presidency to punish his enemies.

ANYTHING COULD HAPPEN: President Barack Obama said in a White House interview that Donald Trump could very well win the November election and replace him

'CRAZY STUFF': Obama said he's seen weirder things during his 20 years in elected office than a Trump win

Obama told Guthrie that he and wife Michelle don't take personally the insults from Donald Trump that she outlined in her own DNC speech on Monday.

'What Mr. Trump has done is to make more explicit and branded what really has been going on for a long time. This isn't new stuff,' he said. 'What we do think that it makes it difficult to run the country - not just for me but for Republican leaders.'

And he joined other Democrats in reminding Trump that America is a democracy in response to the Republican White House contenders assertion at his party's convention that he 'alone' can fix the country.

'That's now how our founders designed our system. We're not a government-- where some strong man orders people around and banishes enemies,' Obama said.

Democrats such as Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren have derided Trump's message to Americans last Thursday evening - 'I alone can fix it '- as dictator-like

'I think that it is important for us to remember that we live in a democracy. And by definition, then, the way we solve problems is by everybody participating and arguing and occasionally havin' to compromise,' Obama told Guthrie.

Obama said Trump has taken to an extreme the divisions that national Democrats have with Republicans because 'for one thing, he doesn't seem to have any plans or policies or proposals or specific solutions.'

'The good news is very got a candidate in Hillary Clinton who has put out very specific plans and programs and is telling you exactly what she's gonna do,' he said.

The president will deliver remark's at his party's convention tonight in Philadelphia.

'Pressure's on,' Guthrie told him, to match Michelle's address Monday, which earned rave reviews.

He praised the first lady and said, 'You know what? I'm not gonna hit that bar...let me concede top speech makin' already to my wife.

'I couldn't have been prouder of her. The way she was able to remind all of us that where this really counts is the kind of message we're sending our kids about who we are and where we wanna take this country,' he said.

ON HER BIG NIGHT: NBC released a partial transcript of Obama's surprising remarks on the night Hillary Clinton was nominated as the Democratic Party's presidential choice

Obama, seen here in 2012 at the Democratic National Convention, gives his address tonight

The president and vice president both have speeches slated for this evening, capping off the third day of a convention the elected the first woman as a major party's nominee for president.

Reliving his first speech at the party gathering, Obama told Guthrie, 'I'm the first to admit that, you know, when I spoke in 2004, when I ran in 2008, my hope, my expectation was that we could lift up all that common ground and create a new way of doin' business in Washington.

He had hoped to shift the political tenor in a direction 'that was more respectful and more practical in trying to solve problems,, he said. 'And that hasn't happened. But doesn't keep me from wanting to keep on tryin'.

Obama said in the pre-taped interview, a portion of which was released Tuesday night during convention programming, with the full discussion airing Wednesday morning on Today, that he isn't counting Clinton's chickens just yet when it comes to winning the general.

'You know, as somebody who has now been in elected office  at various levels  for about 20 years,' he said, 'I've seen all kinds of crazy stuff happen.'

'And I think anybody who goes into campaigns not running scared can end up losing.'

The outgoing president with six months left in his second term advised Democrats not to ignore Trump.

'One of the dangers in an election like this is that people don't take the challenge seriously. They stay home. And we end up getting the unexpected,' he said.

Opining on the possibility of a Trump presidency Obama said it's not the Republican's access to the nuclear codes that makes him nervous, per se. 'What I think is scary is a president who doesn't know their stuff and doesn't seem to have an interest in learning what they don't know.'

He said Trump has failed to demonstrate a basic knowledge about the world or what a nuclear triad is or where various countries are or...the difference between Sunni and Shia in the Muslim world.

'Those are things that he doesn't know and hasn't seemed to spend a lot of time trying to find out about.'

Michelle Obama's Monday night speech earned rave reviews. Her husband said he wouldn't even try to compete. 'I'm not gonna hit that bar...let me concede top speech makin' already to my wife,' the president said

Obama declined to relitigate Clinton's missteps.

'Folks are rough on Hillary Clinton in ways that even as somebody who---I've had my share of-- you know, gettin' whacked-- in the public eye, I'm surprised by sometimes. And I don't think it's fair,' he said, responding to Republicans chanting 'Lock her up' at their convention.

Clinton has apologized for her secret server and has said she wouldn't do it again, he said.

'I think what is absolutely clear is that all this talk about her engaging in criminal activities, the sort of-- prosecutorial case that you heard in Cleveland-- that seems to just ignore what a Republican FBI appointee of spotless integrity said.

'That's troubling.'

His 'anything can happen' attitude later came up for a second time in the same interview, on the subject of whether or not Russian President Vladimir Putin could be trying to swing the election to Trump by overseeing a computer hacking operation that gave the Democratic National Committee a black eye this week.

'Anything's possible,' he said.

If Putin were trying to influence the election's outcome, it would be the second time in recent memory that one nation's government tried to meddle in another's electoral process.

Obama's own State Department spent $350,000 last year on efforts aimed at scuttling Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's re-election, according to a bipartisan staff report report this month from the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations.

The funds went to a group called OneVoice  officially to support Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations. But the organization actually deployed the U.S. taxpayer dollars build an anti-Netanyahu campaign with an Obama-linked political consulting firm

Guthrie asked Obama in the new interview if he thought Putin was encroaching on America's November presidential election.

'What the motives were in terms of the leaks, all that  I can't say directly,' the president replied. 'What I do know is that Donald Trump has repeatedly expressed admiration for Vladimir Putin.
opened fire inside the home and shot her in the leg

A Florida police officer risked his life to save a mother and her three young children in a dramatic incident that was captured by his body camera.

Deputy Justin Ferrari of the Volusia County Sheriff's Office was one of the cops who responded to a call placed by Victoria Rosado, 26, on Sunday after her estranged husband opened fire inside her home, shooting her in the leg.

The young mother was inside with her three children, ages 7 to 23 months, at the time and her ex Emanuel Rosado, 26, who refused to leave and even fired at police twice during the incident.

Deputy Ferrari quickly sprang into action when he arrived, getting Victoria and her three children to safety and saving their lives.

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Hero: Deputy Justin Ferrari of the Volusia County Sheriff's Office rushed in to save a mother and her three children on Sunday (mother above)

Horror: Ferrari was able to get Victoria Rosato and her three children to safety (daughters above)

Victoria contacted emergency services on Sunday after Emmanuel entered her home and began acting 'crazy' according to the Sheriff's Office.

She remained on the phone for several minutes, stating that her ex refused to leave the residence and kept attempting to break into the bedroom where she was trying to hide for him.

There was then a scream and the line went dead.

When officers arrived they reported hearing a males voice yell: 'Youre going to die tonight!' At that point, police at the scene were shot at twice.

Emmanuel Rosado faces attempted murder charges

Victoria, who was shot in the leg, was able to make her way out of the home, at which point Ferrari made his way to the woman to save her.

The three children however were still inside the home with Emmanuel.

After getting Victoria to a neighbor's home, Ferrari then helped the other three children as they ran to him and out of the house.

Then three children and their mother safe, Ferrari then proceeded to go check on his fellow officers before the men arrested Emmanuel, who walked out a back door and surrendered to authorities.

The Sheriff's Office said that had twice before responded to the address on domestic disturbance calls, and once to another location where Emmanuel was arrested on charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and battery.

Victoria was listed as the victim in that arrest.

Police also received a call just three days before the attack following a verbal altercation at the home.

Scary scene: Victoria contacted emergency services on Sunday after Emmanuel entered her home and began acting 'crazy' according to the Sheriff's Office (couple above)

Violent: When officers arrived they reported hearing a males voice yell: 'Youre going to die tonight!' At that point, police at the scene were shot at twice (Victoria above with her daughters)

Picking up the pieces: Victoria (above with her son) is improving after being airlifted to a nearby hospital, and a GoFundMe page has been created to help her and her three children in the wake of this horrific incident.

Monster: Emmanuel (above with hi son and daughter) broke down in court on Monday

Emmanuel has now been charged with three counts of attempted 1st-degree murder, and on Monday broke down in tears during his first court appearance.

Victoria is improving after being airlifted to a nearby hospital, and a GoFundMe page has been created to help her and her three children in the wake of this horrific incident.

The page is hoping to raise $50,000 to help with her medical bills and for the family to relocate.
A fisherman who was caught on camera beating a turtle to death with a hammer in Texas has been charged with a state jail felony for the shocking act.

Terry Wayne Washington, 55, was spotted by some joggers reeling in a big catch last month at Lady Bird Lake in Austin.

However, when the catch turned out to be a large turtle and not a fish, he took out a claw hammer and started hitting the animal.

One of the joggers started filming the sickening scene, with the video allowing police to track Washington down and charge him this week.

Act of animal cruelty: Terry Wayne Washington, 55, was spotted by some joggers reeling in a big catch last month at Lady Bird Lake in Austin, but when it turned out to be a turtle, he killed the animal with a hammer

Two joggers running by saw what was happening and took a video, which quickly caused outrage when it was posted to Facebook last month

Washington can clearly be seen in the video. He claimed the turtle had been threatening him all day

At no point did Washington try to free the turtle from the fishing line, police say.

Terry Wayne Washington, 55, has been charged with animal cruelty, a state jail felony in Texas

He then continued to hammer the turtle 10 times, breaking through its shell, until it died, KXAN reported.

The video was then posted to Facebook, where it was widely shared by horrified viewers.

On June 23, Washington turned himself in to police and admitted to the killing.

However, according to a police affidavit, Washington said he was scared because the turtle was 'lunging' at him and tried to bite him multiple times.

Washington claimed he killed the turtle in self-defense in an attempt to protect himself.

But a police officer went to the river to investigate and found the turtle carcass under a bridge, where witnesses had said Washington threw it before leaving the area.

The officer noted that the turtle measured 27 inches in length and 15 inches wide, weighing 30-40 pounds.

The entire head of the turtle was caved in.

'There was a blood trail from the water's edge all the way to the turtle, which was approximately 75 feet away,' the officer noted.

Washington was charged with cruelty to a non-livestock animal. He was also charged with two misdemeanors related to killing wildlife.

Animal cruelty is a state jail felony under the Texas penal code.

He may also be fined for illegally dumping dead wildlife.

Only licensed hunters can legally catch turtles in Texas, the Midland Reporter-Telegram reported.
A man used the spare key he found under a Brooklyn home's doormat to break in, sexually assault its owner and later rob the woman, police said.

The 29-year-old victim was asleep at her Bushwick apartment when a 200-pound, 6-foot-1 man broke into her apartment about 1:30am Monday.

'Do you want to be killed or be raped?' the man asked the terrified victim while showing her a silver gun, according to NBC New York.

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Police say this man sexually assaulted a Brooklyn woman after breaking into her Bushwick home using the key under her doormat

The suspect sexually assaulted the 29-year-old woman and robbed her home near Dekalb and Wilson avenues, police said.

The man, believed to be in his mid-30s, then ran away.

Police later released nearby surveillance footage of the suspect standing by an ATM and walking on a sidewalk.

The victim was taken to Woodhull Hospital in Brooklyn.

She was treated for her injuries and released.
A group of eight men were rescued Tuesday from inside the dangerous Soberanes fire lines after being stranded without food or water for five days.

Cal Fire said the men were lost and didn't know which direction would lead them to safety, as they were surrounded by the massive fire near Big Sur that's destroyed 20 homes since it started on Friday.

'I was told that the last cellphone call from one of the hikers was the 20th,' one firefighter said.

They were finally spotted on Tuesday and emergency officials used air support to locate them.

'Air attack did locate them initially,' said Cal Fire's Kevin Bohall. 'Once we found that, we used a global positioning unit, got a latitude and longitude and sent the dozer operators in to find them.'

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Saved: A group of eight men (above) were rescued Tuesday from the dangerous Soberanes fire burning in California after being stranded without food or water for five days

Cal Fire said the men (one pictured above) were lost and didn't know which direction would lead them to safety as the massive fire that's destroyed 20 homes since it started on Friday

They were spotted on Tuesday and emergency officials used air support to locate them and bring them to safety (above)

The men were evacuated to a campground on the east end of Palo Colorado where medics checked their vitals.

Video from the scene after the rescue shows the men who were covered in dirt and grime, pouring water over their faces and eyes, as they likely burned from the smoke in the area.

One of them started applauding and thanking rescuers for saving them, before being released.

Their names were not released and it's unclear what they were doing in the area at the time they became lost.

Cal Fire said all of the men were fine, despite not having food or water for five days.

Several camp grounds in the area have been closed by officials, as the fire continues to burn uncontrollably and spread over 23,500 acres.

As of Tuesday, it is still only 10 per cent contained.

The men were evacuated to a campground on the east end of Palo Colorado where medics (above) checked their vitals

Video from the scene after the rescue shows the men who were covered in dirt and grime, pouring water over their faces and eyes, as they likely burned from the smoke in the area. They also drank tons of water (above)

The Big Sur fire threatened a long stretch of pristine, forested mountains hugging the coast and sent smoke billowing over the famed Pacific Coast Highway, which remained open with few if any flames visible to motorists but a risk that the blaze could reach beloved campgrounds, lodges and redwoods near the shore.

'It is folly to predict where this fire will go,' said California state parks spokesman Dennis Weber.

The Big Sur closures were put into place for parks that draw 7,500 visitors daily from around the world for their dramatic vistas of ocean and mountains.

Campgrounds were closed because of the dangers smoke could pose to visitors but could reopen soon if the blaze is held back by firefighters, Weber said.

Cal Fire said all of the men (one pictured above) were fine, despite not having food or water for five days

Several camp grounds in the area have been closed by officials, as the fire (above) continues to burn uncontrollably and is only 10 per cent contained

Jim Newby, a Phoenix-area tourist, drove along the Pacific Coast Highway with his family and was disappointed at the smoke.

'We wanted to see more of the ocean,' Newby said. 'We didn't see a whole lot of it unfortunately, and it's a beautiful, beautiful stretch.'

The park shutdowns came as a fire that started Friday just north of Big Sur grew to 30 square miles as of Tuesday.

Residents of 300 more were ordered to evacuate and more than 2,000 firefighters were trying to douse the blaze.

In Southern California, the fire in rugged wilderness between the northern edge of Los Angeles and the suburban city of Santa Clarita grew to 59 square miles. It was 25 per cent contained.

Campgrounds were closed because of the dangers smoke could pose to visitors but could reopen soon if the blaze (above) is held back by firefighters. At least 20 homes have been destroyed in the fire (above)

Acting Gov. Tom Torlakson, substituting for Gov. Jerry Brown who is at the Democratic National Convention with other top state officials, declared a state of emergency for both fires on Tuesday night.

The move frees up funding and relaxes regulations to help with the firefight and the recovery.

The 3,000 firefighters faced another day of temperatures in the 90s to low 100s as they fought the fire, aided by fleets aircraft dropping retardant and water and hundreds of fire engines.

Meanwhile in Wyoming, a large backcountry wildfire in the Shoshone National Forest put about 290 homes and guest ranches at risk.
Eye Creams For Men

Stop Ageing In Its Tracks With These Superior Eye Creams

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.

With additions by Alex Bracetti

The skin beneath and around the eyes is thinner and more sensitive than the rest of your face, and thus, more susceptible to signs of aging. In fact, as we age, it thins even more, and the fat in the skin around the eyes can resorb. Other unwelcome signs include dark circles, redness, grittiness, wrinkles, and crows feet at either side.

It comes as no surprise, then, that the numerous eye creams you've seen are far more than standard moisturizers. While a moisturizer is the frontline defense against aging (and the best repair kit for existing wear), eye creams come with even more nutrients targeted at these various, unique conditions  theyve got to de-puff, even out skin tone, smooth wrinkles, and improve complexion. Youd have a hard time finding a moisturizer that targets all those things.



But finding the perfect one isnt easy; there are a lot on the market, with a wide range of claims, costs and testimonials. If youre going to invest in something as expensive as most eye creams, then you should know what to look for, both in function and ingredients.



Dont just take it from us; we spoke with numerous dermatologists to get their expert opinion  heres the definitive guide to eye creams, along with numerous product recommendations from those same doctors.

SkinCeuticals A.G.E. Eye Complex

SkinCeuticals A.G.E. Eye Complex is a unique eye cream to fight the appearance of dark circles, puffiness and crows feet.

 Dr. Kaleroy Papantoniou, New York, NY

This silky formula is loaded with extracts, flavonoids and optical diffusers that work together to remedy dull-looking eyes by eliminating dullness and improving elasticity. Consistency is well-balanced, so you can apply your favorite moisturizer before or after putting on the eye cream. Sure, the price is a bit up there, but rest assured a little dollop will go a long way.

$107.53 at Amazon.com

Dermalogica Multivitamin Power Firm

Look no further than Dermalogica Multivitamin Power Firm for a comprehensive cocktail of antioxidants like vitamin E, vitamin A, vitamin C, and green tea extract. Daily use helps neutralize damaging free radicals that contribute to premature skin aging. Suitable for all skin types.

 Dr. Filamer Kabigting, New York, NY

$41.49 at Amazon.com

CerAve Eye Repair Cream

CerAve Eye Repair Cream is a drugstore standout that packs potent antioxidants and skin firming ingredients similarly found in more expensive creams. This cream contains ceramides, niacinamide and hyaluronic acid to keep skin supple around the eyes while combating puffiness and discoloration. This product feels a little thicker (which equates to enhanced moisturizing), but dont worry  it goes on smooth and feels non-greasy.

 Dr. Ilamer Kabigting, New York, NY

$10.53 at Amazon.com

What Exactly Do Eye Creams Do?

As mentioned, there are many reasons to get ahead of the wear, and to invest in an eye cream is one of your best preventative measures against aging. We asked Dr. Tsippora Shainhouse, a board-certified dermatologist in Los Angeles, to outline the benefits of eye creams, in case you were still on the fence.



They moisturize (but of course): The skin under and around the eye is thin and can dry out easily. While there are oil glands on the eyelids, the skin can get dry, flaky and irritated. Dryness can be exacerbated by cold, dry, winter air or by windy, beachy summer environments. Lighter moisturizers and serums are great for spring/summer, as they help add moisture to the top layer of the skin. Adding superficial moisture will reduce the appearance of fine lines and make skin appear more dewy and young. Look for ingredients like Hyaluronic acid for a temporary hydrating and plumping effect. In the cooler fall and winter months, use a thicker cream, especially at night. Consider natural oils like argan, coconut and avocado as a great base, possibly with dimethicones to seal in the moisture.



They reduce inflammation: After a day on the ski slopes or surfing at the beach, consider [an eye cream] with soothing properties that will quickly reduce inflammation and skin irritation, which can trigger collagen breakdown and early skin wrinkling. Look for ingredients like green tea, aloe vera, coconut oil, chamomile, and licorice root that will soothe skin and quickly bring down any inflammation.



They create a skin barrier: If you know that you are heading out into a super-dry environment or that your skin will be irritated by a product that you are about to use, or if you have eyelid dermatitis/eczema, consider a product that will sit on your skin and lock in the moisture that it has. Look for products with dimethicone; they will create a water-resistant, matte barrier.



They support anti-aging: While we cant avoid getting older, we can try to slow the appearance on the skin around the eyes by feeding it some of the molecules and protein precursors that it needs to protect and rebuild its collagen structure. Anti-oxidant ingredients, like vitamin C, acai, coffee berry, and white/green tea help prevent UV-induced oxidation and breakdown of collagen, when applied in the morning under sunscreen, and can help undo and repair oxidative damage when applied at bedtime. Look for lightweight serums that absorb easily into freshly washed skin. Peptides and growth factors are other molecules that can potentially traverse the epidermis and provide some of the necessary building blocks for building new collagen.



They reduce fine lines: While neurotoxins (Botox) are the way to truly, temporarily reduce fine lines around the eyes, [eye] moisturizers and serums can help reduce the appearance of fine lines. Moisturizing the skin makes the skin plumper, so that lines appear less deep. Silicone-based primers and serums can fill in the fine lines, blurring their appearance. Finally, moisturizers with retinoids can help rebuild collagen, which can help thicken the skin and smooth it, helping to prevent new wrinkle formation and reduce the appearance of older ones over time.





They improve skin texture: [Eye creams] with alpha hydroxy acids can help exfoliate skin, while adding moisture, so that you get the hydrating effect while removing dead, dull skin cells. Skin will look smoother and more even-toned over time. Look for ingredients like glycolic acid, pyruvic acid or lactic acid. Salicylic acid can be too drying.



They minimize dark circles: Dark under-eye circles can be caused by many factors, including: genetics, shadows from surrounding raised facial features, skin swelling, and engorged blood vessels. Look for ingredients like Arnica, Vvtamin K and caffeine to help temporarily shrink blood vessels. To help reduce swelling, look for ingredients like caffeine and even store your moisturizer in the fridge. For the best, immediate results on eye-area swelling, skip the moisturizer and stick with the tried and true: Dunk your face in a sink full of ice cold water, lie back for five minutes with cucumber slices over your closed eyes, or steep some tea bags, cool them in the fridge, and then apply them as compressors over your closed eyes.

Which Ingredients Should You Look For in an Eye Cream?

With all the products out there  and many of them promoting the same benefits  the real secret to finding the best one is to read the ingredients label. Take this approach as you shop around, and consider the following ingredients  courtesy of dermatologist Dr. Stacy Chimento from Miami, FL  as the most imperative to reclaiming your youthfulness.

Retinol: Vitamin A cream applied topically over time will force the skin cells to turn over and regenerate new skin cells, stimulate collagen, and help to improve fine lines, wrinkles, and reverse sun damage. While a key product, it should not be used excessively  only in small amounts and with caution for those with sensitivity to retinol and or retinoic acid products. One must also take caution with sun exposure.

Vitamins C, E and Co Q-10: These are potent antioxidants that fight off free radicals in the skin, which are caused by excessive sun damage. The anti-inflammatory and brightening properties of these vitamins can also aid in the appearance of dark circles under the eyes. Vitamin C stimulates not only collagen but also elastin, which gives the skin its youthful snap back. Vitamin E soothes the skin and protects it from inflammation. Co Q-10 is another free-radical-fighting co-enzyme that helps to reverse signs of aging by improving fine lines and wrinkles.

Ceramides and Hyaluronic Acid: Ceramides are substances that provide a natural barrier to the skin to prevent water loss, making the skin more supple and moist. When combined with my favorite ingredient, hyaluronic acid, you get the ultimate outcome: rested and refreshed eyes. Hyaluronic acid is a substance that, when applied to the skin, draws in water to give it a plumped appearance. In fact, it has the ability to draw in over 1,000 times its weight in water."

Neuropeptides: In simple terms, these peptides are small particles that send chemical messages inside the skin to signal them to create more collagen and elastin. This ingredient will help to improve the overall tone and texture of the skin around the eyes.

Caffeine, Green Tea, Alpha-Arbutin: I love these ingredients because not only are they anti-inflammatory (that is, they reduce swelling), but they help those suffering from dreaded dark circles under their eyes. They are super-charged antioxidants that increase the blood circulation to brighten dark circles and they make the skin appear more firm and tight. I use arbutin for brightening in my practice. It is a very natural ingredient extracted from the bearberry and is capable of inhibiting the enzyme that is vital in the formation of pigment under the eyes. So using eye creams that contain this gentle ingredient can lighten dark circles.

Sunscreen with SPF: You can use all of the creams in the world, but if you do not protect your skin from the sun, you will not benefit from eye creams. Wearing a different eye cream during the day that has the appropriate amount of SPF protection is key, while also using a nighttime cream rich in emollients and the above key ingredients; this will give you the ultimate results. Getting an eye cream that is formulated for your skin type is also very important when choosing the right eye cream.

No Fragrance: Fragrances or other extracts and ingredients might lead to skin irritations. In general, a fragrance-free eye cream is best.

RELATED READING: Best Facial Oil

Ask The Dermos: These Are The Best Eye Creams On The Market

If youre not up for a search, then your safest bet is to take a direct recommendation from a doctor or skincare expert. Here are some of the best eye creams available for purchase, as backed by the pros.

For Fighting Wrinkles And Fine Lines:

Roc Retinol Correxion Eye Cream

RoC Retinol Correxion Eye Cream with a balance of Retinol for the evening. This cream will help improve the appearance of lines and wrinkles.

 Dr. Kaleroy Papantoniou, New York, NY

$17.23 at Amazon.com

Renova Tretinoin Cream

First, use sunscreen and moisturize. When it comes to minimizing fine lines and wrinkles around the eye, I recommend Renova, a prescription medicine with enough tretinoin (.02%) to make a difference in the appearance of aging (age spots, fine lines) over time. The only downside is the upfront cost and a prescription is needed. Use sparingly because tretinoin makes the skin sun-sensitive, so it is used only at night and washed off in the morning. Also, make sure you wear a hat and sunscreen if you'll be out in the sun."

 Dr. Sanusi Umar, Redondo Beach, CA

Find out more at Drugs.com

Lancer Eye Contour Lifting Cream

Lancers triple-action eye treatment brightens, moisturizes and strengthens skin for the better. A proprietary blend of caffeine-based agents and light diffusers keeps eyes looking firmer and hydrated. Then come dominant plant flavonoids like chrysin that prevent bags from forming. Lastly, its use of Diamond Power and minerals adds a glow to the skin for better photo opportunities.

$95.00 at Sephora.com

Olay Regenerist Eye Lifting Serum

Olay Regenerist Eye Lifting Serum is great for those who want to soften lines around the eyes (sometimes called crows feet). This fragrance-free serum includes a combination of antioxidants and peptides to hydrate and plump skin. After a few weeks, youll notice smoother and firmer under-eye skin. The serum is ultra lightweight and absorbs instantaneously.

 Dr. Filamer Kabigting, New York, NY

$21.40 at Amazon.com

For Firmness And De-Puffing:

Peter Thomas Roth Instant FirmX

Peter Thomas Roth Instant FirmX Eye is a great choice; a small amount of this will help tighten the area during the day for a smoother look.

 Dr. Kaleroy Papantoniou, New York, NY

$33.59 at Amazon.com

Jan Marini Luminate Eye Gel

Jan Marini Luminate Eye Gel results in firmer, tighter skin and helps reduce puffiness and darkness under the eyes.

 Dr. Melanie Kingsley, Indianapolis, IN

$93.00 at Amazon.com

Kiehl's Facial Fuel Eye De-Puffer

Toss the compact Kiehl's Facial Fuel Eye De-Puffer stick in your bag to discreetly swipe the under-eye area, and reduce puffiness and signs of fatigue. Contains caffeine, which constricts blood vessels, thereby reducing swelling and brightening the eyes instantly. Keeps you looking refreshed all day.

 Dr. Filamer Kabigting, New York, NY

$20.00 at Kiehls.com

For Daytime Moisture And Sun Protection:

SkinCeuticals Physical Fusion UV Defense

SkinCeuticals Physical Fusion UV Defense, a light 2-in-1 moisturizer with mineral-based sunscreen is a great option, especially in warmer months. The superior protection provided by zinc oxide and titanium dioxide block out harmful UVA and UVB that cause signs of aging  dark under-eye circles, wrinkles, creping, and sagging. This product has a fluid consistency and wont feel heavy or lead to breakouts. Gentle enough for the entire face, even in those with rosacea and sensitive skin who can't tolerate other facial moisturizers with chemical (rather than physical) sunscreen components that cause more stinging and skin irritation.

 Dr. Filamer Kabigting, New York, NY

$98.88 at Amazon.com

Shiseido Sun Protection Eye Cream SPF 34

A staple of sunscreen protection, Shiseido's luxury eye cream is infused with strong SPF capabilities to replenish and safeguard skin from cell damage and dryness caused by overexposure to the sun. Users rave about the product's superior sun protection, light moisturizing effect,and quick absorption, working its magic as fast as possible. It also comes water-resistant, which means you can soak in the pool or ocean for long periods without needing to reapply.

$34.00 at Sephora.com

For Correcting Deep Discoloration:

Peter Thomas Roth Power K Eye Rescue

Peter Thomas Roth Power K Eye Rescue with vitamin K, arnica, vitamin c, and kojic acid, is a perfect blend.

 Dr. Kaleroy Papantoniou, New York, NY

$69.00 at Amazon.com

For Indian Men (Who Struggle With Under-Eye Discoloration):

RoC Multi Correxion, CSI Recovery, Vit-K Eye Cream

Indian men are conscious about their under-eye region, the most common concerns being dark circles and eye bags or puffiness. My favorite regimen includes vitamin K- and retinoid-based formulations, applied a few nights a week on well-hydrated skin; along with a vitamin K-, vitamin C-, and peptide-based formula applied during the daytime.

These formulations are potent and effective, show visible results, and have high patient satisfaction. Retinoids boost collagen production and reduce fine lines, vitamin K masks the effect of dark circles due to sluggish vascular circulation and vitamin C and peptides brighten and improve skin texture.

 Dr. Sonam Yadav, New Delhi, India

RoC Eye Cream, $17.85 at Amazon.com

CSI Recovery Eye Cream, $25.51 at Amazon.com

m/f Vit-K Eye Cream, $48.00 at Mfpeople.com

For The Budget-Conscious:

Every Man Jack Age Defiant Eye Cream

Best known for their natural deodorants and shower care lineup, Every Man Jack offers a quality eye cream filled with natural extracts from green tea to Myrtus leaf that revitalizes skin to achieve the suppleness one desires. The numerous antioxidants contained within the formula are guaranteed to bring down puffiness, plus the hydrating combination of aloe and cocoa butter leaves a smooth surface to admire. It's an anti-aging saver great for on-the-go use.

$8.99 at Amazon.com

For Improved Tone And Texture:

Baxter of California Eye Complex

Reinforce all efforts to balance skin tone and tightness with Baxters anti-aging cream. The companys revered Eye Complex is designed to nourish, repair and protect skin around the eyes with energizing ingredients to fight off free radicals before they cause any discoloration. Caffeine and seaweed extracts work to reduce dark circles, whereas hyaluronic acid retains water and moisture.

$28.00 at Amazon.com



For A Stem-Cell Boost:

Biopelle Tensage Stem Cell Eye Cream

A relatively newer product, Biopelle Tensage Stem Cell Eye Cream is a stem cell activator that promotes new collagen and elastin formation.

 Dr. Melanie Kingsley, Indianapolis, IN

$130.00 at Amazon.com

Nugene's Eye Serum

NuGenes Eye Serum utilizes cutting-edge stem cell technology and growth factors to reverse damage and restore skin.

 Dr. Nima Shemirani, Beverly Hills, CA

$150.00 at Nugene.com

Lifeline Skin Care Anti-Wrinkle Eye Firming Cream Complex

Hydrate, lift, soothe, and tighten  these are just four of the key factors that come with using this potent eye cream. The Eye Firming Complex is powered by advanced stem cell technology that feeds the skin underneath your peepers with powerful nutrients and peptides to dramatically reduce fines lines, all while producing more collagen and elastic.

$82.45 at Amazon.com

For A Protein-Packed Punch:

Lumiere Riche Bio-Restorative Eye Balm

My favorite eye cream is Lumiere Riche Bio-Restorative Eye Balm made by Neocutis, a Swiss company. I sell it in my office and my male and female patients love it. It contains a balanced blend of skin proteins, including human growth factors and interleukins.

 Dr. Janet Prystowsky, New York, NY

$84.95 at Amazon.com

For Sensitive Skin:

ZO Hydrafirm Eye Brightening Repair Creme

ZO Hydrafirm Eye Brightening Repair Creme is my favorite because it targets all aspects of the aging eye: fine lines, wrinkles, dark circles, and puffiness. It is an all-in-one product containing active vitamin A, plant stem cells, antioxidants, retinol, and hydrators  just to name a few. What I love about this particular eye cream is that (with the number of ingredients it has) it is very tolerable, doesn't irritate the skin around the eyes and is also used on the upper eyelid.

 Dr. Seth Forman, Tampa, FL

$140.00 at ZoSkinHealth.com

Kiehl's Creamy Eye Treatment with Avocado

Avocado oil remains one of the most overlooked eye skincare ingredients available  containing rich, fatty-acids that relieve skin from stress-induced symptoms. Kiehls combines this element with amino acid proteins, potassium, key vitamins (A, D and E), and Shea butter to defend against dehydration, while restoring suppleness for men with sensitive skin. Consistent use should warrant you a younger look.

$29.00 at Nordstrom.com

For Those Who Want A Prescription:

Retin-A Cream

For a more aggressive treatment, try Retin-A cream, which aids in the renewal of skin. But start with a lower strength since the skin beneath the eyes is so thin and delicate. In my experience, it has shown to yield exemplary results.

 Dr. Nima Shemirani, Beverly Hills, CA

$24.99 at Supreme-Pharmacy.com

For The All-Natural, DIY Guys:



I used to use olive oil. But it would sting if it got in the eyes, plus I smelled like salad. I switched to argan and seabuckthorn oil. Pick one and just use it on your whole face. Simple.

 Dr. Valerie Goldburt, New York, NY

Another Approach: Eye Serum

Dont overthink the eye cream vs. eye serum debate. The difference is often in the marketing, though traditionally a serum will be more viscous, like an oil. Their ingredients may differ slightly, too. Dermatologist Vermen Verallo-Rowell, of Kenn ebunkport, Maine, and Manila, Philippines, developed her own eye-rejuvenating serum and, based on her experience with similar products, chose the following ingredients as essential in her own recipe  thus she recommends finding serums with the same lineup.

Soy protein-derived polymer (along with a bland liquid silicone to form the base of the concentration): This provides the most immediate effects. It has several functions: The protein polymer and silicone immediately plasticize or tighten the thin, puffy eyelid skin and also add a thin barrier effect to the skin. These effects can be immediately visible but are temporary.

Antioxidants: The rejuvenating effects of antioxidants kick in with continued use. They include the isoflavone of the soy protein; green tea and rice-derived phytic acid.

Escin: Its a mixture of saponins (which have foaming, soap-like qualities) with vasoactive and anti-inflammatory properties that help diminish puffiness and dark circles.

Elestane: This is a leaf extract, which helps protect and stimulate elastin and collagen, to make the skin more firm.

Kinetin: Promotes cell rejuvenation by causing skin cells to act younger. Stimulates collagen and elastin production.



Glycolic acid (with the antioxidant phytic acid): This exfoliates ever so gently, while also making the skin look younger, with a mild glow.

Re-Everything Serum, $65.00 at VMVHypoAllergenics.com

Crop Natural Eye Serum, $26.06 at Amazon.com

Skinceuticals Serum, $82.00 at Amazon.com

Related Readings

Best Beard Oils Reviewed

Best Charcoal Masks For Men

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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.
This is the dramatic moment French police rescued a nun before gunning down two murdering ISIS jihadis outside a church in Normandy.

Footage shows a heavily armed elite unit moving in on the church in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray and pointing guns towards the entrance after the terrorists emerged behind their victims.

After a frantic exchange of shouting, a nun can be seen running to safety before police open fire killing extremists Adel Kermiche and Abdel Malik.

Moments earlier the men had slaughtered 85-year-old priest Jacques Hamel and repeatedly knifed another pensioner.

This is the dramatic moment French police gunned down two ISIS jihadis charging out of a church while using nuns as human shields and chanting 'Allahu Akbar'. A nun was rescued by police during the raid (circled)

A tree obscures the view of the entrance to the building, but the short video - captured by a 17-year-old who watched the raid unfold from an apartment opposite - shows the moment the bloody siege came to an end.

According to the French website Le Telegramme, the teenager who shot the film, 'Mathis', said he saw people being led to safety before hearing police shoot the terrorists dead.

Groups of officers can be seen moving towards a door at the side of the church then retreating. As shots ring out the boy who took the film shouts: There are shots, theres army and everything.

Seconds later he says he can hear shouting of Allahu Akbar inside and then there are explosives.

Hearing shouting amongst the police officers he says: Theyve just said that there are two people dead. Its crazy.

The video comes as it emerged that a pensioner was forced to film the priest's execution and survived the ordeal by playing dead after being stabbed four times.

Footage shows a heavily armed elite unit moving in on the church in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray and pointing guns towards the entrance after the terrorists emerged behind their victims

The short video - captured by a 17-year-old who watched the siege unfold from an apartment opposite

Raid: Groups of officers can be seen moving towards a door at the side of the church then retreating

Witness: As shots ring out the boy who took the film shouts: There are shots, theres army and everything

Fanatics ordered the 87-year-old man, named as Guy, to video the brutal killing on a phone before he was knifed in the neck, arms and back next to the altar, according to his wife, whose life was spared.

The extremists then used nuns as human shields as they tried to escape.

It comes as the second ISIS terrorist involved in the killing at Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray was named as Abdel Malik, another home-grown killer born in France who lived in the town of Aix-les-Bains, in the Alps.

His accomplice, Adel Kermiche, was awaiting trial on terror charges and on house arrest with an electronic tag that let him free in the mornings.

The 19-year-old was being monitored after he was arrested for twice attempting to flee France to join the terror group in Syria.

Kermiche, pictured in 2011, had previously spent time in prison in France and Switzerland after twice attempting to flee the country to join ISIS in Syria. He was under police surveillance with an electronic ankle tag

A French policeman cordons off the area around the body of one of the two knifemen. Parisian prosecutor Francois Molins revealed that the pair were carrying a fake bomb with a timer, a handgun and knives during the attack and said they used nuns as human shields

Moments earlier the men had slaughtered 85-year-old priest Jacques Hamel and repeatedly knifed another pensioner

Kermiche and his accomplice - also known to French police - forced Father Jacques, 86, to kneel before filming themselves butchering him and performing a 'sermon in Arabic' at the altar, according to witnesses.

One terrified hostage revealed how an extremist 'thrust a knife' in to the priest's neck, before the clergyman 'fell face towards the sky.

Both were shot dead by police marksmen as they emerged from the building shouting 'Allahu Akbar' having tried to use three of their hostages as human shields.

It has since emerged that Kermiche was on bail pending trial for alleged membership of a terrorist organisation.
Hillary Clinton 'broke' through the glass ceiling during a surprise appearance live via video link from New York at last night's Democratic convention in Philadelphia.

After becoming the first female presidential nominee of a major party on Tuesday night, Clinton declared: 'We just put the biggest crack in that glass ceiling yet!'

Delegates erupted in cheers as Clinton's primary rival, Bernie Sanders, helped make the nomination official when the roll call of states got to his home state of Vermont.

And Clinton herself later appeared on video to thank delegates and celebrate her big night.

Hillary Clinton 'broke' through the glass ceiling during a surprise appearance live via video link from New York at last night's Democratic convention in Philadelphia

The video screen appeared to crack and then shatter, revealing Hillary Clinton's beaming face

She spoke after a clip showed all the country's 44 male presidents in order  from George Washington to Barack Obama.

The screen then appeared to crack and then shatter, revealing Clinton's beaming face.

'Hello Philadelphia! I am so happy. It's been a great day and night,' a smiling Clinton said.

'What an incredible honor that you have given me  and I can't believe we just put the biggest crack in that glass ceiling yet,' Clinton declared to the roar of delegates.

'Thanks to you and to everyone who's fought so hard to make this possible.'

'This is really your victory. This is really your night.'

She spoke after a clip showed all the country's 44 male presidents in order  from George Washington to Barack Obama

Clinton herself appeared on video to thank delegates and celebrate her big night on Tuesday

Clinton became the first female presidential nominee of a major party on Tuesday night

She also predicted that many more women will be nominated for president  and elected.

'If there are any little girls out there who stayed up late to watch, let me just say, I may become the first woman president, but one of you is next.'

She concluded: 'Thank you all, I can't wait to join you in Philadelphia.'

Clinton's long political resume - secretary of state, senator, first lady - has sometimes obscured the historic nature of her candidacy. Her supporters noted that Clinton's achievement came nearly a century after women gained the right to vote in 1920.

Clinton also predicted that many more women will be nominated for president  and elected

Maryland Sen. Barbara Mikulski nominated Clinton, saying she was acting on behalf of 'all women who have broken down barriers for others.' Mikulski was the first Democratic woman to be elected to the Senate in her own right.

And shortly after Clinton formally captured the Democratic nomination and declared the glass ceiling cracked and nearly shattered, her husband, former President Bill Clinton delivered an expansive and passionate testimonial Tuesday night.

He offered a deeply personal - though sanitized - account of their relationship, a policy-driven ode to the 'best darn change-maker I have ever met.'

Tonight, Obama is joining her in making the case to the nation for electing the former first lady, senator and secretary of state as the first woman to occupy the Oval Office.
A Tennessee waitress was sacked after sharing a racist Snapchat message claiming she was hung over and had to serve a section full of 'n******', after sharing the hate-filled rant with a friend of the victim.

The waitress, who was working in Cheddar's in Murfreesboro, in Tennessee served the group who were part of a First Baptist Chruch choir

While the waitress served the group, she posted several selfies on Snapchat along with a string of highly offensive messages.

The waitress posted an appallingly racist Snapchat message insulting the group of people she was serving

Chelsea Anne was among the group of people insulted by the waitress in Cheddar's in Murfreesboro

In a remarkable show of Christian charity, Anne said she was not angry with the waitress and felt sorry for her

Astonishingly, the waitress shared her vile message with a group of people, not realizing one of those was part of the group in the restaurant.

One of the messages went viral on the internet after it was screen grabbed.

The girls did not notice the racist rant until after they had left the restaurant and given the waitress a large tip.

However, soon details of the vile posting were passed around the Murfreesboro community.

One of the victim's, Chelsea Anne responded to the hate crime by showing remarkable Christian charity.

In a Facebook post titled Racism Still Lives, she shared her experiences.

She admitted several years ago she would have reacted differently to the abusive Snapchat message

Cheddar's confirmed they had first suspended and then sacked the waitress following an investigation

She wrote: 'Yesterday this photo of a Murfreesboro Cheddars employee started circulating on social media.

'Being as though I was lucky enough to be one of the "N******" she speaks of, I feel it's only necessary to give my view!

'After church a few fellow First Baptist Church of Murfreesboro TN college choir members and I decided to go to Cheddars as we do very often.

'After patiently waiting 30 minutes to be seated, we were placed in this lovely lady's section.

'The funny part about this was she was "friends" with one of us that sat at this table.

'She smiled laughed and joked with us all as we enjoyed our meals.

'Being that we were pleased with the service on a busy day, we each GENEROUSLY tipped her and went on about our day.

'So imagine how extremely disheartening it was to see this circulating only hours later.

'I say all of that to say this. You never truly know the person behind the smile. No matter how much love and joy you spread, there will always be someone with hate in their heart towards you, regardless if it's in your face or when you leave. It's up to you how you handle it.

'I am personally extremely proud of myself. If this had of been Chelsea a couple of years ago, Cheddars would have been flipped upside down.

'But now I just feel sorry for her.'

Since being made aware of the racist rant, the company who owns the restaurant sacked the waitress.

In a statement to local media, Lee Greer of Cheddar's in Murfreesboro said: 'We, ourselves, were shocked and offended after learning one of our servers had posted comments on social media that were hurtful and derogatory.

'This type of behavior will never be tolerated in our restaurants.
An incredibly-rare penny coin dating back to 1933 looks set to sell for a world record price of 115,000 ($150,900) at auction.

Just seven of the coins are believed to have been made in that year, making it the rarest British coin of the 20th century.

The coin, which has the head of King George V on one side and Britannia on the other, is in excellent condition.

There were just seven of these coins produced in 1933, it is believed, and getting your hands on one could be costly, with this one expected to sell for around 115,000 at auction

An auction firm has described the sale as a 'once-in-a-lifetime opportunity'.

The sale comes after a prototype of the 1933 penny sold earlier this year for an astonishing 72,000 ($94,000).

Cristiano Bierrenbach, from Heritage Auctions, the company which is selling the coin, said: 'We know about seven of these exist and there are thought to be three in private hands.

WHY IS THE COIN SO RARE? In 1933 the Royal Mint had no plans to produce any new penny coins as there were already plenty in peoples pockets. But a small number - believed to be seven - were produced following special requests for a commemorative coin to mark the year. Three were created for the King to personally place under the foundation stones of important buildings that were under construction. It is known that two are in the Royal Mint Museum and the British Museum and two found their way to private collectors. Advertisement

'This is the most desirable and sought-after British coin.

'Pennies have a great collector appeal. It's usually something people start collecting in childhood but they would all have an empty space for the 1933 penny.

'It has great appeal to a worldwide audience.'

And he continued: 'There are certain coins that are really charismatic in the collecting world and for the 20th century this is really a special item.

'The condition of it is outstanding and it has a beautiful chocolate-brown colour about it.

'It looks like we are set to beat the record for a 1933 penny.

'One sold recently for 72,000, which was a prototype designed by Andre Lavrillier.

'That coin set a new world record and our online bidding so far is already at about that figure and we expect it to go up more before the auction.'

'This is the most desirable and sought-after British coin,' said Cristiano Bierrenbach, from Heritage Auctions as the deadline for bids approaches

And the auctioneer is expecting the coin may be heading back to British shores.

Mr Bierrenbach said: 'It has been in America for decades but I have a hunch it will go back to Britain now.

'We've had worldwide interest already and the bidders so far have come from three different countries.

'This one hasn't shown up at auction for 25 years or more and it could be another 25 years before it comes up again.

The coin was part of the Norweb collection, belonging to renowned collectors Henry and Emery Norweb

'It's a once in a generation opportunity.'

Just seven of the coins are believed to have been made because the Royal Mind did not have any plans to produce new penny coins in 1933.

But a very small number were produced following special requests for a commemorative coin to mark the year.

Three were created for the King to place under the foundation stones of important buildings, two are in the Royal Mint Museum and the British Museum, and two were snapped up by private collectors.

Their value has not gone unnoticed.

One of the coins was stolen in 1970, during construction at the Church of St. Cross in Middleton, Leeds, when thieves managed to remove it from the churchs cornerstone.

It is still not known where this coin is, as there is no record of it ever being put up for sale.

The Bishop of Ripon ordered that another penny at St Mary's Church in Leeds should be unearthed and sold to prevent it being stolen too.

That coin has also been in private hands since 1972.

Four pattern prototypes of the 1933 penny, which uses a design created by French engraver Andre Lavrillier, were also made.

One of these set a new record for a 1933 penny earlier this year when it sold for 72,000, but online bidding for the coin currently being auctioned is already at 72,600 with two weeks to go before the auction.

The estimated sale price is 115,000.

The coin has a great pedigree as it was part of the Norweb collection.

Three of the 1933 penny coins were created for the King to personally place under the foundation stones of important buildings that were under construction

Henry Norweb and his wife Emery are renowned in the world of coin collecting and their name is associated with the highest quality pieces.

The couple were members of the American Numismatic Society's governing council and their coin collection included some of the finest examples of rare coins in existence.

It has been in private hands in America since their collection was sold in the 1980s and 90s.
A delegate has been kicked out of the Democratic National Convention after allegedly assaulting a Bernie Sanders supporter.

Jerry Ogle was ejected from the DNC in Philadelphia after he was accused of grabbing Amanda Kruel and shouting 'act like a Democrat' because she cheered for the Vermont senator.

Ms Kruel booed Clinton after her name was mentioned on Monday and cast her vote for Sanders during the roll call on Tuesday.

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Jerry Ogle was ejected from the DNC in Philadelphia after he was accused of grabbing Amanda Kruel and shouting 'act like a Democrat' because she cheered for Bernie Sanders

'Yesterday I was cheering for Bernie as many others were and there was a guy behind me who was making faces at me,' Ms Kruel told The Tennessean.

'There was one point where he grabbed me by the shoulder and he twisted me around and yelled in my face: "Act like a Democrat".'

Ms Kruel said she reported the incident on Monday afternoon - shortly after the convention opened - to party officials, who banned Ogle the next morning.

Ogle - a delegate for Clinton from Tennessee - was replaced by a standby state official.

He admitted that there was a confrontation between him and Ms Kruel but insisted that all he did was tap her on the shoulder.

Ogle said his actions were wrong but said he should not have been removed.

'I take full responsibility,' he said.

'I've let a lot of people down. I'm so sorry and I feel awful that all of this has happened,' he added.

Ms Kruel booed Clinton after her name was mentioned on Monday and cast her vote for Sanders during the roll call on Tuesday. The convention is pictured

Ms Kruel is an open Sanders backer but said she did not want to split the party.

Scores of Sanders voters have said they will not vote for Clinton, especially following an email leak suggesting senior DNC officials tried to derail the socialist's campaign.

'There are a lot of things the DNC has done that makes it really hard to trust them,' Ms Kruel said.

'I am willing to be open-minded and here if they are willing to work with us and cooperate and be civil - but being assaulted by this guy does not tell me that.'

Tennessee Democratic Party Chairman Mary Mancini refused to be drawn on the altercation but said Ogle broke the party's code of conduct.
Communications Office Secretary Martin Andanar said 60,000 drug dependents have surrendered to authorities

Almost 300 people have been killed since the start of July and the death toll is set to rise even further

fter winning elections in May this year

Ordered drug pushers to be 'put behind bars ... or below ground if you wish' a

He ordered police to carry out summary executions and also urged citizens to kill drug users and dealers

Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte has been dubbed 'The Punisher' because of his brutal war on drugs

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Gunned down in the street, these are the bodies of men killed in President of the Philippines Rodrigo Duterte's bloody war on illegal drugs.

Some men are seen stripped to their underwear, with their hands and feet tied. Others have their faces covered in tape or their clothes soaked with blood.

Wives and family members are pictured clutching the lifeless bodies of their loved ones who were killed in the summary executions carried out by police officers, without the benefit of a full and fair trial.

Officers have already killed almost 300 people since the start of July and the death toll is set to rise.

In his first state of the nation address to parliament Mr Duterte, dubbed 'The Punisher', ignored the outrage over the continuing death count, declaring that drugs were 'drowning his country' and had to be stopped at all costs.

'Double your efforts. Triple them if need be,' Mr Duterte told police.

Two women cry in grief after armed assailants in a motorcycle shot their loved one in a main thoroughfare on July 23, in Manila

A young alleged drug dealer pictured with his hands and feet bound and his head wrapped in tape besides a road

Police examine the body of an alleged drug dealer in Manila, as shocked locals look on

The body of three alleged drug suspects lie inside a room littered with pink toys and a Hello Kitty cushion. A gun can be seen by one of the men's feet

A crime scene shows where an alleged drug dealer was killed. There has been at least 300 drug related deaths since the start of July

An alleged drug dealer and victim is found with his head wrapped in tape

A man is seen shot dead outside of a local shop in Manila and was another alleged drug dealer

A man in a blood soaked white t-shirt lays curled up on the ground next to a handgun

Another two bodies are seen in alleyways after being shot dead in Manila, The Philippines

An alleged drug dealer and victim is seen here with his hands bound and his head wrapped in tape

A woman clutches her dead husband in grief after armed assailants on a motorcycle shot him in a main thoroughfare on July 23

The wife of the victim said he was not a drug peddler and that he was nothing more than a pedicab driver plying his trade when he was shot in front of her

A funeral services worker in a yellow t-shirt is seen alongside police as another body of an alleged drug dealer is recovered in Manila

Local people line up behind a yellow police crime scene tape as police carry out an investigation in Manila

Funeral workers transport bodies of alleged drug dealers and victims of summary executions inside a funeral parlor on July 27

The body of an alleged drug dealer waits to be transported to a funeral home in Manila

This picture was taken at midnight after a drug raid in a large shanty community of the port area district on July 21, 2016 in Manila

A Filipino woman grieves the loss of her husband, next to a placard which reads 'I'm a pusher'. The man was shot dead by an unidentified gunman in Pasay City, south of Manila, Philippines

'We will not stop until the last drug lord, the last financier and the last pusher have surrendered or been put behind bars ... or below ground if you wish,' he said.

Human rights groups obtained police figures that showed Mr Duterte's violent crackdown has claimed the lives of 293 suspected users and pushers in police operations between July 1 and July 24.

This figure does not include drug dealers killed by vigilante groups and those working outside the law.

Mr Duterte made it clear he would pardon police if they were charged with human rights violations for carrying out his merciless orders.

A Filipino funeral parlor worker wraps a body in in Pasay City, south of Manila

While women grieve the death of an alleged drug pusher in Pasay city, south of Manila (left), Filipinos carrying a wounded villager in Malabon City, east of Manila (right)

The body of a drug user is carried away in the town of Kawit, Cavite province, Philippines

Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte's war on illegal drugs has already killed almost 300 people since the start of July

Filipino villagers grieve the loss of their relative, who was shot dead by an unidentified gunman in Pasay City, south of Manila

Nearly 60,000 Filipino drug addicts surrendered themselves earlier this month to the government after President Duterte urged citizens to 'go ahead and kill' drug dealers and users.

Mr Duterte won elections in May and immediately promised a law-and-order crackdown on drugs.

'These sons of w****s are destroying our children. I warn you, don't go into that, even if you're a policeman, because I will really kill you,' the president told an audience during a speech in the country's capital, Manila.

Presidential Communications Office Secretary Martin Andanar said close to 60,000 drug dependents have surrendered to authorities since the administration began its intensified campaign against drugs.

Nearly 60,000 drug addicts across the Philippines have handed themselves in to authorities after president Duterte promised a law-and-order crackdown on drugs

Filipinos allegedly involved in illegal drugs handcuffed together inside a police headquarters in Manila. Presidential Communications Office Secretary Martin Andanar said close to 60,000 drug dependents have surrendered to authorities

Filipino inmates are seen inside a jail in Manila. President Rodrigo Duterte has urged citizens to 'go ahead and kill' drug dealers and users

Police officers remove packing tape wrapped over the lifeless head of an alleged drug dealer on a street in Manila

Police have confirmed killing more than 110 drug suspects since the president came to power, while local news reports suggest that figure is around 200.

At least 43,000 alleged drug traffickers have been 'neutralised' and 300kg of shabu, a highly addictive methamphetamine, has been confiscated, according to local reports.

President Duterte has warned of widespread bloodshed as part of the government's war on drugs.

He vowed on one occasion during the election campaign that 100,000 people would die, and so many bodies would be dumped in Manila Bay that the fish there would grow fat from feeding on them, according to the South China Morning Post.

Duterte has also told police he would protect them from legal consequences if they killed drug dealers, the Post reported.

Picture shows the body of a killed Filipino allegedly involved in illegal drugs. Police have confirmed killing more than 110 drug suspects since president Duterte came to power

Police officers investigate the body of an alleged drug dealer, his face covered with packing tape and a placard reading 'I'm a pusher', on a street in Manila

At least 43,000 alleged drug traffickers have been 'neutralised' and 300kg of shabua, a highly addictive methamphetamine, has been confiscated

Pictured, arrested Filipinos allegedly involved in illegal drugs resting inside a shanty in Manila. President Duterte has warned of widespread bloodshed as part of the government's war on drugs

President Duterte vowed on one occasion during the election campaign that 100,000 people would die, and so many bodies would be dumped in Manila Bay that the fish there would grow fat from feeding on them, according to the South China Morning Post

Last week, gruesome images showing slain drug dealers with 'I'm a pusher' signs covering their chests emerged.

The grim scenes of alleged drug dealers found shot dead in Manila last week are growing increasingly common as police wage a bloody war on narcotics.

The government's top lawyer called for police to kill more suspected drug criminals, as he defended president Duterte's brutal war on crime against mounting criticism.

As the official death toll has mounted, and other bodies not confirmed killed by police have been found with placards declaring them drug traffickers, human rights lawyers have expressed deep concerns about the war on crime spiralling out of control.

Filipino suspected drug users and pushers participate in exercises after voluntarily surrendering in Manila

Grim scenes of alleged drug dealers found shot dead in Manila last week are growing increasingly common as police wage a bloody war on narcotics.

A Filipino allegedly involved with illegal drugs standing on top of an electric post as rescuers try to convince him to get down

The Filipino man allegedly involved with drugs is arrested by policemen after clinging on top of an electric post for hours

In response to the criticism, Solicitor General Jose Calida held a press conference on Monday at national police headquarters to insist on the legality of the police killings and to encourage more deaths of people suspected of being involved in the drug trade.

'To me, that is not enough,' Calida said of the killings so far.

'How many drug addicts or pushers are there in the Philippines? Our villages are almost saturated (with drugs).'

A lawyer and a former prosecutor, Duterte has urged law enforcers to kill those they believe are involved in the drug trade, as well as other criminals.

Members of the Philippine National Police Scene of the Crime Operatives conducting investigation following a police operation against illegal drugs

Pictured, the body of a killed Filipino allegedly involved in illegal drugs lying in a pool of blood in Manila

A member of the Philippine National Police Scene of the Crime Operatives examining recovered evidence in Manila.

The government's top lawyer called for police to kill more suspected drug criminals, as he defended president Duterte's brutal war on crime against mounting criticism

In one of the deadliest single incidents, police reported killing eight 'drug personalities' during a pre-dawn raid on Saturday in a small southern town.

One of the nation's top human rights lawyers, Jose Manuel Diokno, warned last week that Duterte had 'spawned a nuclear explosion of violence that is spiralling out of control and creating a nation without judges'.

Former senator Rene Saguisag, a prominent human rights lawyer during the regime of dictator Ferdinand Marcos, also criticised Duterte's statements naming and shaming alleged drug lords and police officers ahead of a formal investigation.

As the official death toll has mounted, and other bodies not confirmed killed by police have been found with placards declaring them drug traffickers, human rights lawyers have expressed deep concerns about the war on crime spiralling out of control

Solicitor General Jose Calida held a press conference on Monday at national police headquarters to insist on the legality of the police killings and to encourage more deaths of people suspected of being involved in the drug trade

Pictured, a Filipino suspected drug user takes his oath taking after voluntarily surrendering

'Do we still probe and have a trial as part of due process? Useless, it seems to me,' Saguisag wrote in an online column last week.

Some opposition lawmakers have also called for a congressional investigation into the spate of killings.

Calida, a Duterte appointee, said he would protect police from or during congressional probes, while emphasising it was up to critics to prove allegations of abuse rather than base inquiries on speculation.

'I am here to encourage the (police) not to be afraid of any congressional or senate investigations. We will defend them ... I am the defender of the (police),' he said.
Alabama board refused parole for Wright who could be in jail until 2027

While the victim's older sister Courtney Brunson appealed for them to grant

She said she had forgiven Wright but did not trust her around her young

Melissa Wright (pictured) was jailed for 25 years for attempted murder after she turned the heat up on her oven and placed her 14-month-old daughter inside

Horrific photos of a little girl's third-degree burns forced an Alabama parole board to refuse the early release of a woman who put her 14-month-old daughter into a hot oven 14 years ago.

Mother-of-two, Melissa Wright, who almost killed her infant daughter, Ashley Smith, when she put her in a broiling oven, was denied bail - despite pleas from her other daughter.

Wright was jailed for 25 years for attempted murder after the 2002 incident.

This week Smith, who suffered horrific third degree burns over 30 per cent of her body in the ordeal, came in front of the Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles to ask them to refuse her plea for early release.

The 14-year-old, who has been raised by her aunt and uncle who she refers to as her mom and dad, said she did not trust her mother - particularly around her niece, 8 and nephew, aged 27 months.

'They are about the same ages as me and Courtney when this happened,' she told the board.

'I honestly do not trust her and I'm afraid for their safety. I can't imagine anybody being in as much pain as I was in. And now I have a great life thanks to my mom, stepdad and brothers and sisters.'

Incredibly, Smith says she has found it in her to forgive her mother for her terrible crime.

'I do not hate Melissa, but I do not love her. I forgave Melissa,' she said, according to the Montgomery Advertiser.

Elmore County District Attorney Randall Houston, said Wright was initially sentenced to 25 years to give her daughter time to grow up away from her mother.

Ashley Smith suffered horrific third degree burns over 30 per cent of her body in the ordeal

Smith's burns covered her whole body when she was just 14 months old (pictured)

She spent months in hospital after her father Robert Smith rescued her from the oven of their home (Smith pictured as an infant recovering from her burns)

'If Melissa had gotten out today, she could have legally enforced her parental rights,' Houston told WSFA. 'I think that would have been a horrible thing for Ashley.

'The most important thing for us, was to allow Ashley to grow up, to become an adult and then, if she decided she wanted to have a relationship with her mother, then it would be her choice.'

But Smith's older sister Courtney Brunson disagreed and called on the board for grant parole for their mother who she claimed was a changed woman.

'I was only 8-years-old when it happened, she was different,' she said. 'I seen what happened. I know how she was. She was not herself.'

This week, Smith (left, now 14, in court) came to court to plead with the parole board not to let her mother out early, while her older sister Courtney Brunson (right, in court) asked for an early release

Wright, now 40, was arrested back in June 2002 after Smith's father, Robert Lynn Smith, heard his baby's cries and came into the kitchen to find her in the oven, SSRI Stories reported at the time.

'Evidence showed that Melissa removed the racks out of the oven, turned it to broil and waited for it to heat up and then put Ashley head first into that oven,' Houston said.

Smith was rushed to hospital with third degrees burns covering a third of her body. In the past 14 years she has undergone almost 30 surgeries to repair the physical scars. Sadly the mental scars are harder to treat.

Wright, who lived in Harm's Way in Coosada, Alabama, initially told police that her baby 'fell in the oven and the door slammed shut.'

More then a decade on, Ashley Smith seems to be recovering well from her traumatic early childhood. She's pictured when she was just a little over a year old

The Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles, who were shown pictures of Smith's horrific injuries as a baby, voted to deny Wright's parole, but not before Smith came before the court pleading for her mother not to be released

She later changed her story claiming that 'voices told her to put the baby in the oven.' Those voices also told her 'that I needed to trust Jesus.'

When police searched Wright's trailer, they found pills for depression and anti-anxiety medication.

Friends and neighbors told local reporters at the time of the tragedy that Wright, then 26, had become increasingly unstable.

Neighbor Toni Hanson told investigators that she would swing from manic episodes and fits of anger to catatonia which became worse after she lost her waitressing job.

Denise Dunlap, who lived nearby, said that both Wright and Smith had been unemployed and that she had often looked after the couple's children and brought them food.

She described one occasion, before the oven incident, when older daughter Courtney Brunson had run out screaming that mother was trying to kill her and had asked her father to tie her up.

This week, Smith told Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles she couldn't 'imagine anyone being in as much pain as I went through mentally and physically' as she asked for her mother to be kept in jail

Her lawyer, Elmore County District Attorney Randall Houston, said Wright was initially sentenced to 25 years to give her daughter time to grow up away from her mother

Instead Robert Smith had held Wright back, while Brunson fled the trailer. She also said the terrified girl had told her about another incident where her mother had tried to jump out of the car while it was moving.

He later told officers that Wright had been a good parent until her mental health declined.

'When she wasn't sick, she was a good mom, a real good mom,' Smith said. 'But she was getting worse. Several times, I found her out in the yard talking about the world coming to an end. That was a big thing with her, the world coming to an end.'

After the incident, Brunson went to live with her father Tim Sims, and her sister Ashley went to live with her aunt and adoptive mother Rhonda Zaffina - her fathers sister.

More then a decade on,Smith seems to be recovering well from her traumatic early childhood.

'She is an extremely strong child,' Houston said. 'How many adults can undergo the number of surgeries she has gone through in her life? That's just incredible.'
Britain's biggest drugs company is to plough 275million into its UK manufacturing plants in a major vote of confidence in the country following the Brexit vote.

GlaxoSmithKline  which had campaigned for Britain to stay in the European Union  said the UK was still an attractive location to do business thanks to its skilled workforce and competitive tax system.

Ministers said the investment programme was further proof that there is no better place in Europe to grow a business  even after the vote to leave the EU. Business investment is seen as crucial to the outlook for the economy because it boosts productivity, creates jobs and raises living standards.

GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) has brushed aside Brexit jitters and announced that it is pumping 275 million into its three UK manufacturing sites, dubbing the UK an 'attractive location'

Remain campaigners argued during the referendum campaign that investment would be hit if Britain quit the EU. Glaxo chief executive Sir Andrew Witty was among those warning against a vote to leave  claiming before the referendum that the UK would be much better off inside the EU than outside.

But Glaxo yesterday said it will now spend 275million updating three manufacturing sites in Scotland, County Durham and Hertfordshire to beef up production of its medicines. The investment is a boost for the 2,750 people who work at the three plants and is likely to see hundreds more jobs created in the coming years.

Sir Andrew, a former business adviser to David Cameron, said the move will continue to underpin a significant presence here in the UK for the company.

SOARING HOUSE PRICES TO CONTINUE Fears of a post-Brexit crash in the housing market were dismissed yesterday by a think-tank. An average home will be worth around 40,000 more in five years despite the tremors caused by the decision to leave the EU, according to the Centre for Economics and Business Research. It said house prices are expected to grow more slowly this year and next, but the average should still go up from 194,000 this year to 234,000 in 2021. The prediction is at odds with Treasury forecasts before the referendum that house prices would stall if the public voted to leave the EU. It came as the boss of one of Britains biggest housebuilding firms, Taylor Wimpey, shrugged off the Brexit vote and said it was business as usual. And shares in the property website Rightmove soared as it said it is confident of meeting its full-year profit forecasts. Advertisement

Before the referendum, the Glaxo boss was among more than 90 leading figures in the life sciences industry to sign a letter that said: Staying in [the EU] would be better for the health and wealth of the UK.

Brexit campaigners seized on the apparent change of heart and said it was a sign that Britain could prosper outside the EU.

John Longworth, who was ousted as director general of the British Chambers of Commerce after publicly backing a leave vote, said: After Brexit the Government will have to make the UK the best place in the world to do business and we will see again and again companies that were remainers recognising the huge opportunities that Britain provides for business.

Glaxo, which employs 16,000 people in the UK, said: The company views the UK as an attractive location for investment due to the skilled workforce, technological and scientific capabilities and infrastructure and a competitive corporate tax system.

Sir Andrew said the investment was testament to our skilled UK workforce and the countrys leading position in life sciences. He added: Everyone wants to make this succeed and we are going to continue to invest here.

He said Glaxo had opposed Brexit because of the regulatory uncertainty it would create for the sector, but said this concern was not sufficient to get in the way of the decision to invest.

The companys investment in Britain gave Theresa May a huge boost as she revealed she has begun preparations for Britains orderly departure from the EU.

The announcement by GlaxoSmithKline was a huge boost for Theresa May as she revealed she has begun preparations for Britains 'orderly departure' from the EU.

The Prime Minister, in Rome for talks with her Italian counterpart Matteo Renzi, said she had chaired the first meeting of a Cabinet committee on exiting the EU and insisted that Britain would maintain close economic links following Brexit. Mrs May was welcomed at the grand Villa Doria Pamphili with a guard of honour and brass band playing God Save The Queen.

She had a 90-minute meeting with Mr Renzi, who said he respected the painful Brexit vote.

Mrs May will follow her meeting in Italy with trips today to Slovakia and Poland.

McDonalds is to create 5,000 jobs in the UK by the end of next year. In a further sign that firms continue to invest despite the uncertainty surrounding Brexit, the fast food chain said it would increase its workforce to more than 110,000.

GDP grew in build up to the referendum

Chancellor Philip Hammond welcomed the faster than expected growth ahead of the referendum

Britain's economic growth actually accelerated in the run-up to the EU referendum as industry recorded its best performances for nearly 20 years.

Gross domestic product  the total size of the economy  increased by a better-than-expected 0.6 per cent between the start of April and the end of June.

That was up from growth of 0.4 per cent in the first quarter of the year. It confounded fears that the economy slowed ahead of the referendum.

The FTSE 250 index also rose as high as 17,362 yesterday. This more than reversed the losses made since the Brexit vote  the index reached 17,333.51 on June 23 before polls closed.

The Office for National Statistics, which published the GDP figures, said the referendum had limited effect on the economy in the second quarter and very few companies were hurt by uncertainty.

Industrial production rose by 2.1 per cent in the second quarter of the year  the best performance since 1999 when it increased by the same amount. Production hasnt grown more strongly since 1988, when it rose by 2.2 per cent in the third quarter.

And in British industry, manufacturing output rose by 1.8 per cent, its best performance for six years, driven by growth in pharmaceuticals and car production.

Chancellor Philip Hammond welcomed faster than expected growth ahead of the referendum.

He said: The fundamentals of the British economy are strong. It is clear we enter our negotiations to leave the EU from a position of economic strength.

Those negotiations will signal the beginning of a period of adjustment, but I am confident we have the tools to manage the challenges ahead... this Government will take whatever action is necessary to support our economy.
Donald Trump lashed out Wednesday at the Baltimore prosecutor who brought charges against police officers in the high-profile death of Freddie Gray, saying that 'she ought to prosecute herself' instead.

Baltimore State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby's office said an hour before Trump's press conference in Miami that all remaining charges against officers in the case were being dropped.

The move means no one will be help responsible for Gray's April 2015 death in the back of a police transport van.

'I do have a reaction to the prosecutor in Baltimore who indicted those police officers. I do,' Trump said at his Trump National Doral Miami country club, in a reaction a question from Daily Mail Online.

'I think she ought to prosecute herself. Okay? That's my reaction.'

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Fury: Donald Trump turned on Marilyn Mosby and said: 'I think it was disgraceful what she did and the way she did it, and the news conference that she had where they were guilty before anybody even knew the facts.'

Abandoned: Marilyn Mosby announced the charges of six Baltimore officers at this press conference in a blaze of publicity. On Wednesday, after a string of acquittals, all remaining charges were dropped and she held a new press conference, with Freddie Gray's father Richard Shipley (left)

Cleared: Baltimore police officers, top row from left, Caesar R. Goodson Jr., Garrett E. Miller and Edward M. Nero, and bottom row from left, William G. Porter, Brian W. Rice and Alicia D. White are all now cleared of all charges

Death: Freddie Gray, who died after being arrested in Baltimore in April 2015

'I think it was disgraceful what she did and the way she did it, and the news conference that she had where they were guilty before anybody even knew the facts,' he said.

A trial of officer William Porter ended in December with a hung jury and a mistrial. And a judge acquitted officers Edward Nero and Caesar Goodson, and police lieutenant Brian Rice this summer.

Mosby raised eyebrows in May 2015 when she said in a press conference that Gray had been 'illegally arrested.'

And she pledged following protesters 'to the people of Baltimore and the demonstrators across America: I heard your call for "no justice, no peace." Your peace is sincerely needed as I work to deliver justice on behalf of this young man.'

Trump said Wednesday that he sided with police in the Gray case who maintained their innocence, while allowing that other officers' conduct is sometimes beyond defending.

'I give a lot of respect and a lot of credit to those police officers, who probably could have made a deal,' he said. 'I give a lot of respect, a lot of credit, that they stuck it out.'

Trump said Mosby 'had no chance' of securing a conviction 'after victory after victory' by the accused police.

Final action: Officer Garrett Miller, one of the six members of the Baltimore Police Department charged in connection to the death of Freddie Gray, arrives in court where charges against him were dropped

Involved: Four of the officers charged and now acquitted were photographed on a cellphone video shortly after the arrest

'Don't forget, she prosecuted the best case, what she thought was her best cases, first,' Trump huffed. 'She should prosecute herself. She should be held accountable.'

Asked what he would say to African-Americans who feel railroaded by the criminal justice system in a case that black community leaders watched closely.

'That was a bad case to prove,' he declared. 'That was a bad case. ... There are times when police officers behave very badly. But you have to get the right time. This was not one of those times. And I think that she is a disgrace to the world of prosecutors for what she did.'
A Wisconsin state appeals court ruled Wednesday that two girls accused of trying to kill their classmate in an attempt to please the fictional horror character Slender Man should be tried as adults.

The 2nd District Appeals court, in a pair of rulings, affirmed a lower court's determination that it was reasonable to try both girls - Morgan Geyser, 13, and Anissa Weier, 14 - as adults.

The pair, who are charged with attempted murder, could now appeal the rulings to the Wisconsin Supreme Court.

The girls were 12 years old in 2014 when investigators say they lured their friend, 12-year-old Payton Leutner, to a park in Waukesha, about 20 miles west of Milwaukee.

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To be tried as an adult: A Wisconsin appeals court has ruled that two girls accused of trying to kill a classmate for the Slender Man character will be tried in adult court. Morgan Geyser is pictured in court in April this year

Both girls are charged with attempted first-degree intentional homicide. Alissa Weier is pictured in court last August above

Morgan Geyser (left in 2014) and Anissa Weier (right in 2014) are being tried as adults for attempted first-degree intentional homicide

Authorities say the girls stabbed Payton 19 times in an attempted sacrifice to a fictitious horror character called Slender Man.

Payton was left for dead but managed to crawl from a wooded area where she was discovered by a bicyclist.

The appeals court said in its Wednesday ruling that the Waukesha County Circuit Court properly examined the fact and rationally determined that the girls should be tried as adults.

The two girls are charged with attempted first-degree intentional homicide where convictions could send them to prison for up to 45 years.

As juveniles, they could be incarcerated for up to three years and then supervised until age 18.

Slender Man is described in fictional stories as an unnaturally tall, thin demon-like figure that lacks facial features. He is said to live in a mansion in a forest.

Authorities say the girls hoped to live in that fictional home after the attack.

The two allegedly stabbed Payton Leutner (above) 19 times as they tried to appease Slender Man, a fictional Internet figure they claim told them to murder Leutner. At the time of the incident, all three were 12 years old

Last month, the mother of Morgan Geyser gave her first interview since her daughter's arrest, saying the 13-year-old is being treated for early-onset schizophrenia.

'There were no glaring, obvious signs she was ill,' Mrs Geyser told the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel.

Mrs Geyser said that Morgan's father suffers from schizophrenia and the couple were aware their daughter had increased chances of developing the disorder, however they believed the symptoms would not manifest for another couple of years.

She said that Morgan went through puberty and started menstruating in the weeks leading up to the attack, and some of the strange behaviors she exhibited at the time were put down to her coming-of-age

'Even though she reports now having (schizophrenic) symptoms as young as three, the way that she explains it is, because it was always like that for her, she just assumed that that's the way it was for everyone,' Mrs Geyser said.

'She did make a conscious effort to hide her symptoms from us. I think part of that was because her hallucinations were her friends. They were friendly, for the most part, and she didn't want them to go away.'

The girls told investigators they wanted to kill Leutner and run off to live in the forest castle of Slender Man, a ghoul they had read about in online horror stories.

Neither of the suspects has entered a plea as the attorneys attempt to move the case to juvenile court.

In June 2016, Angie Geyser (left), mother of suspect Morgan Geyser (right), gave her first interview about her daughter and the attack

The two girls' attorneys have never denied they attacked and stabbed Payton, but claim they were so disturbed they truly believed the Slender Man would kill their own families in three seconds if they did not do his bidding.

Mrs Geyser said she was shocked the girls were being tried as adults.

'Some of the comments on stories say: ''Adult crime, adult time.'' That's B.S. These are children,' she said.

Mrs Geyser said her daughter was traumatized for 19 months after the attack. Once in custody, she was diagnosed with early onset schizophrenia and began treatment.

During that time, according to doctors, she was talking to hallucinations of Harry Potter characters and Slender Man.

'When the medication finally worked, it was like a switch went on, like, ''There you are! Where have you been?''

Beforen that, Geyser said: 'We never knew which Morgan we'd get' during visits. 'She was floridly psychotic for 19 months.'

However, in May, Morgan's condition deteriorated, and she was committed to a state mental health hospital after trying to slash her wrist with a broken pencil.

As per procedure, Morgan was placed on suicide watch in a solitary room with only a padded gown.

'She couldn't have books or drawing materials or even her glasses,' Mrs Geyser said.

'I find the thought of her sitting in solitary, blind, eating with her hands like an animal extremely disturbing.'
Former Playboy Model Arrested For Elaborate Planned Prison Break

Trending News: A Playboy Model's Prison Break Plans Were Insane

Why Is This Important?

Because this could be a movie script.

Long Story Short

Former Playboy model Marissa Christopher was arrested for attempting to break her boyfriend, a friend of disgraced Olympian Oscar Pistorius, out of prison. The elaborate plan involved hidden guns and a private jet.

Long Story

You know it's going to be good when Oscar Pistorius  the formerly glorified (now disgraced) Olympian and Paralympian in jail for murdering his fiancee  is the least interesting part of the story. But that's the truth, because Hollywood scriptwriters would be hard-pressed to come up with a better story about the time a former Playboy model tried to help break her Czech gangster boyfriend out of prison.

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According to the Daily Mail, Marissa Christopher was arrested in what's described as a $15 million escape plan. She was to act as the middleman between Czech mobster Radovan Krejcir and corrupt government officials, facilitating the escape that would have eventually ended with armed guards storming the prison compound and a private jet swooping in to carry Krejcir (and Christopher, presumably) to Argentina.

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If all went to plan, 10 heavily armed men would have attacked, while a helicopter would have lifted Krejcir from Pretoria, South Africa across the border to Mozambique where his private jet awaited. Alas, it wasn't to be.

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The plan was foiled when prison guards discovered guns, ammunition and fake guard uniforms in Krejcir's cell, as well as a handgun concealed within his private treadmill, which is apparently a thing you can have in South African prison. Christopher was arrested while driving to visit Krejcir with their two year old daughter.

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The Oscar Pistorius connection is a small one  the two met and allegedly became friends while Pistorius was serving his first sentence for the killing of Reeva Steenkamp in the hospital wing of Kgosi Mampuru II prison. Krejcir was soon moved to another prison for security concerns (you don't say!), but not before the two could strike up a friendship.

Christopher's attorney is reportedly asking the magistrate to dismiss charges against his client, saying that she denies any participation in the planned escape.

Own The Conversation

Ask The Big Question

Is this clear evidence of corruption in South Africa's legal system?

Disrupt Your Feed

I know it's wrong, but I'd watch the hell out of a movie about this.

Drop This Fact

This is Krejcir's fourth known attempt at escaping custody.
Up to 150 foreign Byron burger staff may have gone into hiding today after 35 colleagues were rounded up in an immigration sting allegedly set up by the company.

Workers at 15 restaurants in London were lured to work at 9.30am on July 4 on the pretence of a health and safety meeting only to come face to face with border force staff.

The Home Office confirmed last night that 35 employees from Albania, Brazil, Nepal and Egypt were held in early morning raids and face deportation.

Byron will not face penalties, including a huge fine of around 10,000 per illegal worker, because it gave the Home Office its 'full co-operation'.

According to the campaign group 'SHAME on BYRON - No one is Illegal' up to 150 other staff have now gone into hiding fearing they might be thrown out of Britain.

Picket lines are planned for many restaurants next week and critics have decided to leave scathing one star reviews on Byron's Facebook page accusing the chain of exploitation.

Escalation: Byron and the Home Office today refused to comment on claims that up to 150 workers are in hiding after 35 colleagues from London restaurants, Fulham branch pictured today, were caught in an immigration sting allegedly set up by the company

Anger: An official online protest group set up has promised pickets at Byron restaurants next week over the immigration arrests

Backlash: Some critics have left 1 star reviews on the official Byron Facebook page to accuse them of exploitation

The workers, who had allegedly obtained jobs using false documents, were interviewed and arrested on suspicion of breaching immigration laws.

Byron and the Home Office both refused to comment on today's claim that up to 150 staff have vanished.

Denial: Byron, which was founded by Tom Byng, says it did not 'set up staff' - but the Home Office has said the arrests were carried out with the full co-operation of the business

Protesters are calling for people to boycott the popular chain - known as the the bourgeois Burger King - over the border row, with pickets planned for branches in London and Bristol.

Byron has yet to respond to accusations that workers were set up and the Home Office has dismissed claims of a sting.

However, the government department confirmed the immigration raids on July 4 were carried out with the full co-operation of the business.

The Home Office said Byron carried out the correct documentation checks on staff members, but fell for counterfeits. This means the firm is not liable to face any penalties, including a huge fine.

A Facebook page set up to support the workers says Byron had 'used' the people for years before handing them over to the Home Office.

The Shame on Byron group say on their Facebook page: 'Those deported were mostly Latin American workers. It is not clear what kind of shock and hardship their families in London are now experiencing, or whether the workers were paid their wages or any monies owed by the company.

'Some of the deported workers had worked for Byron for four years. Byron were happy to use them all that time and then discard them and ruin lives overnight.

'We stand in solidarity with the deported Byron workers and all migrant workers - papers or no papers.

'No human being is illegal. No one is disposable. Byron have acted shamefully and have made an example of themselves as a deeply disrespectful employer. Our protest aims to shine a spotlight on this unethical behaviour, deter it from happening anywhere else, and to support workers still working at the restaurants to resist exploitation'.

The hashtag #boycottbyron is now trending on Twitter with people posting a variety of opinions.

Abi Wilkinson wrote: 'Never, ever eating at @byronhamburgers again and would encourage others to make same decision. Craven, despicable behaviour #boycottbyron.'

But Jimmy James wrote: 'If its staff were in the country illegally then so they should have been deported. Well done Byron for assisting. I won't #boycottbyron.'

Byron Burger has become a beacon for young foodies increasingly shunning McDonald's and Burger King for boutique burger bars

It says it makes 'proper hamburgers' with 'good Scottish beef, ground fresh, cooked medium and served in a squishy bun with fries and a craft beer'.

A protest page on Facebook is organising a demonstration outside a Byron branch in central London on Monday. The demo is co-hosted by a number of groups, including Lesbians and Gays Support the Migrants

Row: Some have accused the chain of 'slavery' - others say it was the workers who duped Byron by showing fake documents

In June 2013 Byron Burger was given acres of free publicity when the then Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, tweeted a picture of himself tucking into a takeaway as he worked late at the Treasury.

Mr Osborne had sought to portray himself as a 'man of the people' but it backfired on him when critics spotted the meal was from the boutique burger chain.

At Byron we are proud of the diversity of our restaurant teams, built around people of all backgrounds and all walks of life Byron Burger

'Well McDonald's doesn't deliver, I was working late in the office,' said Mr Osborne later, in his defence.

The chain has 60 restaurants, 37 in London, and 1,300 employees and made 5million profit last year after a rapid expansion.

Byron Burger told MailOnline: 'We can confirm that several of Byron's London restaurants were visited by representatives of the Home Office.

'These visits resulted in the removal of members of staff who are suspected by the Home Office of not having the right to work in the UK, and of possessing fraudulent personal and right to work documentation that is in breach of immigration and employment regulation.

'The Home Office recognises that Byron as an employer is fully compliant with immigration and asylum law in its employment practices, and that Byron had carried out the correct 'right to work' checks on staff members, but had been shown false/counterfeit documentation.'

The statement goes on to say: 'At Byron we are proud of the diversity of our restaurant teams, built around people of all backgrounds and all walks of life.

'We have co-operated fully and acted upon the Home Office's requests throughout the course of the investigations leading to this action, and will continue to do so.'

A Home Office spokesman said: 'Immigration Enforcement officers carried out intelligence-led visits to a number of Byron restaurants across London on 4 July, arresting 35 people for immigration offences.

'The operation was carried out with the full co-operation of the business.'
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Abandoned and caked in dust, these fire engines were once the pride of France's 'brigade des sapeurs-pompiers'.

Packed tightly in a warehouse set up by the authorities, the emergency vehicles - some 100 years old - were meant to have eventually been rehoused in a museum but the plans fell through.

Fire departments across the country tried, and failed, to raise funds in the 1990s to restore the dozens of retired engines.

As a result, the vehicles wound up in this secret location in rural France: a fire engine 'graveyard'.

Abandoned and caked in dust, these fire engines were once the pride of France's 'brigade des sapeurs-pompiers'

Packed tightly in a warehouse set up by the authorities, the emergency vehicles - some 100 years old - were meant to have eventually been rehoused in a museum but the plans fell through

Fire departments across the country tried, and failed, to raise funds in the 1990s to restore the dozens of retired engines

The emergency vehicles wound up in this secret warehouse location in rural France

Belgian photographer and urban explorer, Vincent Michel, 55, managed to locate the warehouse that is home to the firetrucks after hearing rumours of the 'cemetery'.

He said: 'I first saw a picture of the place with my friend and we started looking for information about it. After searching on the internet we finally found the location.'

Michel first got into urban exploring three years ago and combined it with his passion for photography after an injury forced him to take it more seriously.

He said: 'I was a jogger and I bought myself a little camera to take pictures with during my jogs. I had to stop running for a few months due to back pain and that's when I took more of an interest in photography.

'I bought a good camera and started to search for old buildings, houses and churches and I haven't run since.'

Belgian photographer and urban explorer, Vincent Michel, 55, managed to locate the warehouse that is home to the firetrucks after hearing rumours of the 'cemetery'

Several secret locations around the country are used to store the disused trucks in the hopes that one day they may still be placed in a museum

Since taking the pictures, the photographer was shocked to find on his return to the warehouse that the engines were gone

Several secret locations around the country are used to store the disused trucks in the hopes that one day they may still be placed in a museum.

And since taking the pictures, the photographer was shocked to find on his return to the warehouse that the engines were gone.

He said: 'The warehouse is completely empty now. I don't know where they put all of the trucks.'

It is believed that some of the appliances may have been taken to a museum which opened near the Swiss border in 2014, according to Urban Ghosts.
A surveillance video captured the fatal shooting of a black man who pointed what appears to be a gun at a sheriff's deputy in a New Orleans suburb.

The shooting happened late on Tuesday at a warehouse of The Times-Picayune in Metairie, Louisiana.

Jefferson Parish deputies were responding to Cleary Avenue and Ford Street to reports of an alleged robbery at around 11.45pm.

The video posted on the the Times-Picayune website Nola.com shows the suspect pointing what looks like a firearm toward the deputy before being shot.

A surveillance video captured the fatal shooting of a black man (right) who pointed what appears to be a gun at a sheriff's deputy (left) in a New Orleans suburb

The clip is somewhat blurry but appears to show the suspect twice raising a gun before being shot.

Deputy David Dalton pursued one suspect to the warehouse at 4013 N. Interstate Service Road, Jefferson Parish Newell Normand's office said as deputies responded to a call about suspicious activity near a new car storage lot.

Dalton followed the man into the garage and told authorities the man turned around and pointed a gun at him in the warehouse after a foot chase, Jefferson Parish Sheriff Newell Normand's office said on Wednesday.

The sheriff's office said the suspect was armed with a 9 mm handgun when Dalton shot him.

Dalton fired six shots, one of which was fatal. Dalton's race was not immediately known.

'As Dalton pursued the suspect entering, he turned facing Dalton and pointed a handgun at him,' the news release said.

The clip is somewhat blurry but appears to show the suspect twice raising a gun before being shot

The sheriff's office said the suspect was armed with a 9 mm handgun when Dalton (left) shot him

Dalton fired six shots, one of which was fatal. The suspect collapsed and was pronounced dead on the scene, the sheriff's office said

'Dalton drew his service weapon and fired six shots at him. The suspect collapsed and was pronounced dead on the scene.'

Deputies had spotted a man running toward a garage in a nearby building after responding to calls about suspicious activity on the Interstate 10 service road.

The suspect, who has only been identified as a black male, was armed with a 9 mm handgun, the sheriff's office added.

Witnesses reported that two men were 'rolling something shiny' down the street and they were later seen running toward an Interstate 10 service road.

Deputies searching the vehicle lot discovered a new pickup truck on blocks with two wheels missing.

Sheriff Norman has called a news conference for Wednesday afternoon to discuss the overnight shooting death of a suspect by a deputy.
The case has now been sent to the Crown Court for a

Harley Street surgeon Mohamed Amrani, 53, (pictured) appeared at Hammersmith Magistrates Court today charged with 11 offences, including one count of rape, between 2001 and 2014

One of Britain's top heart surgeons is accused of raping a woman and sexually assaulting at least three others in a series of attacks over 13 years, a court has heard.

Harley Street surgeon Mohamed Amrani, 53, appeared at Hammersmith Magistrates Court on Wednesday charged with 11 offences, including one count of rape, dating back to 2001, with the most recent taking place in May 2014.

The NHS and private healthcare consultant is accused of one charge of rape, two charge of assault by penetration, six charges of indecent assault and two charges of sexual assault, all on women over 16.

The cardiac surgeon works at the Royal Brompton & Harefield NHS Trust, which is the largest heart and lungs specialist centre in the UK, and based across two sites in central London and Hillingdon, west London.

According to his online profile for the trust, Amrani, who is also registered at the Cardio Vascular Health Clinic on Harley Street, performed the UK's first double valve replacement through a small incision.

He was also part of the team which conducted the first double lung transplant from a non-heart beating donor.

He also works at The BUPA Cromwell Hospital, in South Kensington, where one of the alleged sexual assaults took place.

Court documents revealed there are at least four victims, and all but one of the offences took place at Harefield Hospital in the London borough of Hillingdon.

Moroccan-born Amrani, who is also a senior lecturer in surgery, appeared in the dock wearing glasses, a grey suit with a pink shirt and purple tie, speaking only to confirm his name, date of birth and address.

At the short hearing the case was sent to the crown court for a preliminary hearing.

Addressing the defendant, Magistrate Nina Toller said: 'This matter is being sent to Isleworth Crown Court for a hearing on August 24 2016.'

Amrani, who lives in a 1.7million mansion in Harrow, London, was granted conditional bailed to his home address.

A spokesman for the Royal Brompton and Harefield NHS Foundation Trust said: 'We are aware that these charges have been brought but this is now a police matter and it would be inappropriate to comment further at this time.

'The General Medical Council has suspended Mr Amrani's licence to practice and he is therefore currently excluded from working at the trust.'

A spokesman for the Cromwell Hospital said: 'We suspended Mr Amrani the moment the police alerted us about their investigation.'
Pope Francis has said the world is at war in the wake of the murder of a priest in France - but insists it is not a 'war of religions'.

The pontiff was speaking as a leading Italian politician to nominate Rev Jacques Hamel for sainthood.

Roberto Maroni, the president of the Lombard region, said in an appeal circulated on social media that 'Father Jacques is a martyr of faith; and requested that the pope 'immediately proclaim him St. Jacques'.

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Pope Francis prays during a meeting with Polish bishops. The Pontiff has said the world is at war in the wake of the murder of a priest in France

Pope Francis prays during a meeting with Polish bishops at Wawel royal castle's cathedral in Krakow, during World Youth Day

An army of 39,000 security officers are being brought in to ensure safety as he meets huge crowds of young people during his visit

Shortly after the appeal, the hashtag #santosubito, which translates as 'saint immediately', began circulating on Twitter.

The canonisation process is a lengthy one involving two miracles attributed to the person's intercession, but in the case of a martyr only one miracle is needed, after beatification.

There must first be a declaration by the Vatican that the person indeed died for the faith.

The Pontiff, who is on a five-day visit to Poland, made the remarks after Catholic priest Jacques Hamel, 85, was slaughtered by ISIS fanatics in a church in Normandy, France.

He spoke out as it emerged that an army of 39,000 security officers are being brought in to ensure safety as he meets huge crowds of young people during his visit.

Pope Francis salutes faithful and pilgrims on his way to the royal Wawel Castle in Krakow, Poland, on Wednesday, as he warns the world is not facing a 'war of religions'

Crowds of worshipers filled the streets of Krakow, in Poland, on Wednesday to see the Pope on his route

The Pontiff, who is on a five-day visit to Poland, made the remarks after Catholic priest Jacques Hamel, 85, was slaughtered by ISIS fanatics in a church in Normandy, France

Italian politician Roberto Maroni, right, has urged Pope Francis to fast-trick the beatification process for Fr Jacques Hamel, left, who was brutally murdered as he said Mass in Normandy on Tuesday morning by ISIS

When asked about the savage killing, the 79-year-old said: 'The real word is war...yes, it's war. This holy priest died at the very moment he was offering a prayer for all the church.

'I only want to clarify, when I speak of war, I am really speaking of war ... a war of interests, for money, resources. ... I am not speaking of a war of religions, religions don't want war. The others want war.'

Shortly after the appeal, the hashtag #santosubito, which translates as 'saint immediately', began circulating on Twitter

When asked about the savage killing, the 79-year-old Pope said: 'The real word is war...yes, it's war. This holy priest died at the very moment he was offering a prayer for all the church'

Poland's interior minister says more than 39,000 police and other security officers will be ensuring the safety of the Pontiff on his visit to Poland, as fears for his safety run high

Pope Francis will be meeting with hundreds of thousands of young pilgrims from around the globe on his five-day visit to southern Poland

Concerns have been raised about the Pontiff's visit following the murder of Catholic priest Father Jacques Hamel in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray near Rouen, France

Poland's interior minister says more than 39,000 police and other security officers will be ensuring the safety of Pope Francis' meeting with hundreds of thousands of young pilgrims from around the globe in southern Poland.

Security concerns were heightened after a Catholic priest was killed in France on Tuesday in a knife attack claimed by the ISIS.

Mariusz Blaszczak spoke about the extraordinary security measures on Wednesday just three hours before Francis was due to arrive in Krakow.

The visit, which runs until Sunday, will include open air Masses and prayers with some 1.5 million participants of World Youth Day, and visits to the site of the former German Nazi death camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau and to Poland's holiest shrine of Jasna Gora.

The Pontiff, who is on a five-day visit to Poland, made the remarks after Catholic priest Jacques Hamel, 85, was slaughtered by ISIS fanatics in a church in Normandy, France

The special altar and rows of benches for pilgrims participating in World Youth Day 2016, at the site of Campus Misericordiae in Brzegi near Krakow, Poland. Pope Francis is going to meet with pilgirms on July 30 and 31

Thousands of people have already begun waiting for the Pope's appearance between July 30 and 31

Others have been seeking any possible vantage point to catch a glimpse of the Pontiff on his visit to Poland

'We have sent onto the Polish streets more than 7,500 officers who will be there providing security each day at railways stations, airports and shopping centers,' Blaszczak told a news conference.

Blaszczak also appealed to people to be vigilant and to report and unusual or worrying situations to police or other security officials.

'We do not disregard any signals but Poland is a very safe country,' Blaszczak said.
A suitcase bomb has exploded near a migration office on the outskirts of Nuremberg, in Germany, today.

A loud blast rocked Zirndorf this afternoon and local reports suggested the device was a suitcase packed with aerosol cans.

Witnesses said they heard a loud bang about 200 metres away from the migration centre before finding a burning suitcase in an allotment nearby.

Police officers were seen standing in an alleyway next to a partially destroyed bag. No fatalities or injuries have been reported.

Police said they were looking for two people believed to have planted the device - a man in his 30s with a Mediterranean appearance and a woman believed to be aged about 25.

The explosion is the latest terrifying incident to hit Germany in recent days and comes barely 24 hours after a priest was brutally murdered by a pair of ISIS extremists in northern France.

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A suitcase bomb has reportedly exploded outside a migration office on the outskirts of Nuremberg, in Germany. Pictured, security officers at the scene

Witnesses said they heard a loud bang about 200 metres away from the migration centre before finding a burning suitcase in an allotment nearby

The blast is said to have rocked Zirndorf this afternoon and local reports suggested the device was a suitcase filled with aerosol cans

Security services were seen evacuating the area minutes after the blast in Zirndorf at 2.15pm local time (1.15pm BST).

German police say they have deployed officers near a refugee accommodation center and a branch of the country's office for asylum seekers.

A statement from police said the public were never in danger but said officers were looking for two people in connection with the blast.

They are looking for a man in his 30s with a Mediterranean appearance. He had short black hair and was wearing a light blue shirt, jeans and white trainers.

Officers are also searching for a 25-year-old woman with black hair in a bun. She was seen wearing a black jumper with white red and red stars, as well as jeans and a jacket.

German police say they have deployed officers near a refugee accommodation center and a branch of the country's office for asylum seekers. Police are pictured at the scene

Police said the public were never in danger but said officers were looking for two people in connection with the blast. Pictured, officers at the scene

The explosion comes just three days after a Syrian asylum seeker blew himself up outside a music festival in Ansbach, which is also in Bavaria.

Mohammad Daleel, 27, was turned away from the festival before detonating his device, killing himself and injuring 15 others.

The 27-year-old had pledged allegiance to ISIS in a video filmed before the attack.

Two days earlier, an apparent lone gunman killed nine people in Munich.

The German-Iranian 18-year-old had no ties to ISIS but had an obsession with mass murderers such as Anders Breivik, who slaughtered 77 people in Norway in 2011.

On July 18, an axe and knife-wielding migrant went on a rampage on a train in Wurzburg, seriously injuring four members of a tourist family from Hong Kong and a German passer-by.

The explosion is believed to have taken place outside this migration office (seen in a 2014 file picture) in a suburb of Nuremberg, Germany

The blast in Zirndorf came just three days after Mohammad Daleel blew himself up at a music festival in nearby Ansbach
A father-of-three drowned after saving his three young daughters from a rip current off the North Carolina coast.

Rick Brown, 35 of Tennessee, was on vacation with his family in Emerald Isle when his three girls were pulled out by rip currents Monday afternoon.

He jumped in and managed to save them, but was pulled out by the current.

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Rick Brown, 35, was on vacation with wife Rachel and their three little girls when the tragedy happened

A man in a nearby boat was able to get the girls while their mother, Rachel, also tried to pull them in, WNCT reported.

The dad was in cardiac arrest when he was finally pulled to shore.

An off-duty paramedic performed CPR while first responders arrived.

Brown rushed to Carteret Hospital but was pronounced dead on arrival.

Brown was the controller at paving contractor Maymead Inc., in Mountain City, Tennessee, WITN reported.The company said he was a valuable employee and will be missed.

He was also a deacon at Piney Flats First Baptist Church,WCYB reported.

The church's pastor, Dr. Allen Davis, told the station that Brown was 'good Christian man.'
An outbreak of of hepatitis A in Hawaii has seen 93 people diagnosed with the disease, including an infected sushi restaurant worker who might have exposed diners.

Experts at the state's Department of Health are still trying to identify the original source of the outbreak, which has happened on the island of Oahu.

Officials have warned that people who ate at a sushi restaurant could have been exposed by a staff member who tested for hepatitis A.

A worker at the Sushi Shiono restaurant was diagnosed with the condition, prompting the Hawaiian Department of Health to call on diners to seek medical attention if they have not been vaccinated

The restaurant was identified as Sushi Shiono at the Waikoloa Beach Resort.

The health department warned people who ate there on dates the employee worked this month that they could have been exposed.

They urged diners to see a doctor to determine if they need a vaccine or immune globulin - which could protect them for two weeks after exposure.

Dr Sarah Park, Hawaii's state epidemiologist, said: 'Preventing exposure from infected food handlers is difficult because patients with hepatitis A are most contagious one-to-two weeks before symptoms start.

Dr Sarah Park, Hawaii's state epidemiologist, said it is possible other food establishments will be affected with new cases

'It is possible that other food service establishments will be affected with new additional cases.'

Hepatitis A is usually spread when a person ingests contaminated fecal matter, which can happen when a food handler doesn't wash their hands properly.

It can also spread by close personal contact.

Symptoms can include fever, fatigue, appetite loss, abdominal discomfort and diarrhea.

The department has confirmed infections of a Baskin-Robbins ice cream store employee and a Taco Bell worker, both at Oahu locations, since the outbreak began in mid-June.

Health officials stressed that the businesses were not sources of the outbreak.

The long incubation period of the disease complicates efforts to find the outbreak's source, Dr Park said.

The department said the employee recently worked there two four-day stretches, and one lasting five days - July 5-8, July 11-15 and July 18-21.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said last week officials were unaware of any other U.S. hepatitis A outbreak or cases that might be linked to Hawaii's outbreak.

The state health department said officials have heard reports of some Hawaii restaurants offering the vaccine to workers.
Donald Trump's campaign isn't buying Democratic spin on DNC email hack.

Hillary Clinton's aides and allies are claiming the hack was the brainchild of the Russian government and the leak was intentionally timed to coincide the Democratic nominating convention to undermine the former secretary of state.

Vladimir Putin's government would rather see Trump become president, they say, because he would pursue a pro-Russian foreign policy.

Trump told a CBS affiliate Tuesday that if it were him saying those things they'd call it a 'conspiracy theory' - 'I have nothing to do with Russia. I dont have any jobs in Russia. Im all over the world but were not involved in Russia.'

The billionaire's campaign chief Paul Manafort said on CBS This Morning that the theory is 'an absurd attempt by the Clinton campaign to try to get the focus off of what the real issue is' - her own unsecured emails.

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Donald Trump's campaign isn't buying Democratic spin on DNC email hack. The billionaire's campaign chief Paul Manafort said on CBS This Morning that the theory is 'an absurd attempt by the Clinton campaign to try to get the focus off of what the real issue is' - her own unsecured emails

Of a possible connection between Trump and the Russians, Manfort said, 'We have no relationship.'

'So to be clear, Mr. Trump has no financial relationships with any Russian oligarchs?' CBS' Norah O'Donnell asked him.

Manafort stumbled over his words as he said to her, 'Thats what he said. Thats what I said. Thats-thats obviously what our position is.'

President Barack Obama boosted the Clinton organization's claims on Tuesday when he said in an interview with NBC that it's 'possible'Putin could be orchestrating a recent computer hack of Democratic National Committee emails in order to help Donald Trump win America's presidential election.

Obama told NBC that he couldn't say for sure what Putin is up to, but left the door wide open for conspiracy theories.

'What the motives were in terms of the leaks, all that  I can't say directly,' Obama told Today show co-host Savannah Guthrie. 'What I do know is that Donald Trump has repeatedly expressed admiration for Vladimir Putin.'

The president told her, 'I am basing this on what Mr. Trump himself has said. Adding, 'And I think that Trump's gotten pretty favorable coverage back in Russia.'

Trump tweeted that the idea was 'crazy,' shortly after Obama's comments surfaced.

Evidence is mounting that hackers aligned with Russia's government were responsible for stealing the DNC's computer files and airing the party's dirty laundry with help from the Wikileaks website.

The public relations damage from messages showing the party trying to sabotage Sen. Bernie Sanders' candidacy has been significant, and led to the resignation on Sunday of the party's chairwoman.

Trump was his usual filter-free self on Twitter, writing: 'In order to try and deflect the horror and stupidity of the Wikileaks disaster, the Dem[ocrat]s said maybe it is Russia dealing with Trump. Crazy!'

'For the record,' he wrote in a follow-up tweet, 'I have ZERO investments in Russia.'

Russia's foreign minister Sergei Lavrov sternly dismissed the idea on Tuesday as well.

President Barack Obama told NBC News' Savannah Guthrie in an interview set for broadcast Tuesday night that it's 'possible' Russian President Vladimir Putin is pulling the strings on the Democratic Party's email hacking scandal in order to help Donald Trump win the November election

Trump isn't impressed with Obama's contention, tweeting that it's a 'crazy' conspiracy theory

Russian fingerprints are all over the DNC hack, computer security experts say, but it's too soon to know whether the prints belong to Putin

At the site of a diplomatic meeting in Laos, reporters asked him about his country's involvement in the controversy.

His only response was 'I do not want to use four-letter words,' according to the Associated Press.

Hillary Clinton's campaign manager Robby Mook refused to back down from the claim on Tuesday morning. He said news reports have established Russians stole Democratic Party documents and emails and 'turned it over to the Wikileaks and other hackers to push out, to harm Secretary Clinton and help Donald Trump.'

That suggestion  that the Russian president fears a Clinton White House more than a Trump administration, would be a powerful argument for the former secretary of state to use in her fall campaign.

A New York Times analysis found that the earliest hacking attempts linked to the current DNC crisis dated back to the middle of 2015, long before Trump became a viable Oval Office hopeful.

Trump's campaign chairman mocked the allegation on Monday, calling it 'pure obfuscation' and saying Clinton and her handlers 'don't want to talk about what is in the emails.'

He said Tuesday morning on CBS, 'The real issue isn't even the Democratic National Committee's server being hacked. The real issue is her server that was sitting in a closet in her home in New York that was unsecured.

'So you can imagine if it was so easy to do the DNC server, what the likelihood is that how many countries have hacked into that server and that one had national security documents in it that are probably floating all over the world now.'

Manafort said, 'Thats the real problem and once again its showing that the concern that the Democrats have for national security is all talk and not really any reality.'

Obama administration officials don't believe the Russian government's denials, CBS News reported.

That's because the computer intrusion was similar to others conducted in the past by Russian agents, including distinctive methods that point straight to Moscow.

Hillary Clinton's campaign manager Robby Mook said media reports have established a connection between Russian hackers and the Democratic National Committee leak

'We understand how hack groups use the Internet to attack. The pattern and launch point used before by Russians is similar to the DNC attack,' an intelligence official told CBS.

The AP also quoted Fidelis Cybersecurity expert Michael Buratowski, who said that after an investigation into the hack he was nearly certain that Russians were behind it.

Buratowski cited 'Russian internet addresses, Russian language keyboards, and the time codes corresponding to business hours in Russia, as well as the sophistication of the hack.'

One official told CBS that the Democratic National Committee was given warning ahead of this week's national convention 'that something was going on.' But they took some time to respond.'

Another said the Obama administration is basing its conclusions in part on the fact that the hackers 'left all kinds of fingerprints.'

Some of those fingerprints apparently were also left on emails sent to The Hill, an inside-the-beltway Washington, D.C. newspaper, by a hacker who calls himself 'Guccifer 2.0'  the anonymous person who allegedly last week gave 19,000 DNC emails to the Wikileaks website to publish.

The Hill reported Tuesday that emails from the hacker showed signs of being run through an identity-masking technique that operated in the Russian language.

Guccifer 2.0 has denied being a Russian agent, saying he couldn't recognize or read Russian writing.

Virtual Private Networks are standard tools for hackers and other online denizens who want to mask their identities.

By using a VPN to connect to websites  including free email providers  minimally skilled computer users can obliterate evidence of who and where they are.

The website Vocativ reported Tuesday that a commercial data analysis established that when Guccifer 2.0 used an AOL account in France to communicate with reporters in one case, he piggybacked on a VPN that in large part operates in Russian.

The out-of-the-ordinary private French VPN is used by criminals including text-message scammers.

The Hill reported that the website of the VPN, called 'Elite,' is written in Russian. While English translations are available for much of it, some parts of the website  including the entire signup process  are Russian-only.

Guccifer 2.0 has claimed to be Romanian, but in one interview with the computer-expert website Motherboard, he fumbled with the Romanian language and claimed he had no working knowledge of Russian.
One of the highest ranking managers of a state-owned Russian oil company has married a model he started to date when she was only 14 years old.

Valentin Ivanov, 55, a former head of Lukoil in Singapore, had been seeing model Elizaveta Adamenko, 18, for four years before tying the knot at a glamorous castle in France.

The model's Instagram feed is laden with pictures of her glamorous lifestyle including driving a Bentley and a Ferrari and sunbathing on a yacht.

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A recent picture of the happy couple Valentin Ivanov, 55, and Elizaveta Adamenko, 18, relaxing

With her leg over his, a hand around his neck and a big kiss on the cheek, Adamenko poses on the sofa with her soon-to-be husband alongside some designer bags

Valentin Ivanov, 55, a former head of Lukoil in Singapore, had been seeing model Elizaveta Adamenko, 18, for four years before tying the knot at a glamorous castle in France

One of the highest ranking managers of a state-owned Russian oil company has married a model he started to date when she was only 14 years old

The age of sexual consent in Russia, as well as in Singapore where the couple lives, is 16, and the couple are understood to have been dating since Adamenko (pictured) was 14

In recent pictures posted on social media, some subsequently deleted, the two lovers can be seen hugging, cuddling and walking together

Elizaveta's huge diamond ring and the couple said their vows in glamorous style in the French Cote d'Azur

In recent pictures posted on social media, some subsequently deleted, the two lovers can be seen hugging, cuddling and walking together.

Russian publication Prospekt Mira reported the pair had married, having started dating at the age of 14.

Despite the age of sexual consent in Russia, as well as in Singapore where the couple lives,being 16, there is no suggestion of unlawful sex.

The model's Instagram feed is laden with pictures of her glamorous lifestyle including driving a Bentley and a Ferrari and sunbathing on a yacht

In pictures posted on social media, some subsequently deleted, the two lovers can be seen hugging, cuddling and walking together

Elizaveta lashed out against those criticising her relationship with a much older man in the only picture on her account appearing to show her with Ivanov

In an online tirade at critics, she said: 'People should have been more mature and clever. 'If you think that all models are tarts you should check your vocabulary.'

The rant continued: 'Why is a young person who socialises with someone much older automatically a whore, and the older person a sugar daddy? 'This is just a new level of communication, you can stick with your level and I am going to celebrate the 55th birthday of Valentin.'

Elizaveta lashed out against those criticising her relationship with a much older man in the only picture on her account appearing to show her with Ivanov.

The picture's title, translated from Russian, says: 'People should have been more mature and clever.

'If you think that all models are tarts you should check your vocabulary.

'Why is a young person who socialises with someone much older automatically a whore, and the older person a sugar daddy?

'This is just a new level of communication, you can stick with your level and I am going to celebrate the 55th birthday of Valentin.'

The wedding of Valentin and Elizaveta took place in true glamorous style in the French Cote d'Azur.

The ceremony was held at the Chateau Saint Jeannet, a notable castle and luxurious wedding venue located close to the beautiful village of Vence, on the French Riviera.

Pictures of the big day were taken by one of the model's friends, but they have since been erased.

The wedding is understood to have taken place around six weeks ago.




Paul Feig To Produce 'Supermodel Snowpocalypse'

Trending News: Someone's Making A Movie About Models Partying In The Snow

Why Is This Important?

Because this is what people mean when they talk about the golden age of party culture.

Long Story Short

The true story of a group of supermodels snowbound in Chile for nearly a week during a fur photo shoot in 1977, and their colorful if not death-defying party exploits, is being turned into a movie produced by Ghostbusters filmmaker Paul Feig.

Long Story

True stories brought to life on the big screen; does it get any more compelling? Not if the story's any good. Try stirring in some supermodels, $2 million in fur, drugs, a massive Chilean snowstorm and, for good measure, a precarious military escape.

Voila! Therein lies a sampling of the ingredients for a potential Hollywood blockbuster.

Paramount likes the sound of it and has picked up the rights to the story, to be produced by Ghostbusters filmmaker Paul Feig and his partner at Feigco, Jessie Henderson.

The facts have been documented in an Elle article with the grabby headline, This Drug-Fueled, MultiMillion-Dollar Supermodel Snowpocalypse Has Been Fashions Best-Kept Secret Since 1977."

The supermodels, including a young Jerry Hall, Maria Hanson, Mary Maciukas and Polo model Bob Clement, flew to Chile for the annual The Fabulous Furs of Neiman Marcus catalog photo shoot. Photographer Les Goldberg and his associates had convinced the Chilean Tourism Board to help pay for the trip, pointing out that a photo shoot by luxury specialty department store Neiman Marcus in a country under the dictatorship of Pinochet would be good for business. Goldberg and the supermodels were accompanied by his girlfriend and her sister, as well as some ad executives.

The story starts July 13th in New York City with the group packing during a major 1977 blackout, when city-wide looting and fires resulted from a power outage. The next morning, the group flies to Santiago with fur coats by Fendi, Yves St Laurent and Ralph Lauren in tow.

No sooner had they arrived when snow began to fall. It fell for nearly a week straight.

Texas Monthly/Neiman Marcus

Julie Christman, who had tagged along with her older sister, told Elle, We were all kind of freaking out, but, at some point, it was like, um, well were stuck here. Why dont we have a good time?

Enter the cocaine.

Randall Laurence, a model whod been on the cover of GQ, told Elle he recalled a conversation with Swedish model Maria Hanson.

Wed been secluded for a few days now and she comes down to dinner and sits down. She was so beautiful, and in this heavy Swedish accent she just said, Im so fucking horny.

Enter the sex.

Suffice it to say that along with the glitz and glamor and sex and drugs, there were some death-defying moments. Heres a telltale passage from Elle:

What started out as a seemingly harmless adventure started to feel dangerous. The blizzard still hadnt stopped. The snow hit the second floor of the hotel; rooms were suddenly filling with snowdrifts. Phone lines were down. We were all huddled in the hallways and you could hear the wind going through the hotel, Julie says. It was like a train coming through the ski resort."

After several days of being trapped, a Neiman executive recalls urging Jerry Hall, who was dating rocker Bryan Ferry at the time, to charm a military colonel into helping them get out of Portillo (the Elle article points out military intervention was par for the course in 1977).

The property manager of Hotel Portillo at the time, Henry Purcell, told Elle, The army often gave us a hand to get sick, injured and important guests down the mountain.

Mickey Rapkin, the author of the Elle article writes, But this would have to be a covert operation. Nobody wanted to upset the other hotel guests.

In the end, there were parties, memorable pictures and plenty of adventure. One of the photos appeared in a July 1977 edition of Texas Monthly, promoting the upcoming Nieman Marcus catalog.

Rapkin will write the movie, to be titled Supermodel Snowpocalypse. There are no details about cast and crew, but movie-goers can count on a chance to sit back and watch the fur fly.

Own The Conversation

Ask The Big Question

Who should they cast to play the models?

Disrupt Your Feed

Getting stuck in a ski lodge with supermodels is like top-5 on my bucket list.

Drop This Fact

Neiman Marcus settled a federal claim in 2013 after tests by the Humane Society of the United States proved the fake fur advertised in some products was actually real raccoon.
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It's the world's biggest water bomber  with a 200-foot wing span wider than a 747 jumbo jet and the ability to carry 7200 gallons of water.

And now it's up for sale.

CNN reports that plane buffs have been shelling out $125 each to view the plan up close on a lake in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, where the Experimental Aircraft Association AirVenture air show is being held.

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Flight of fancy: Plane buffs have been shelling out $125 each to view the plan up close on a lake in Oshkosh, Wisconsin

Wings of speed: US Navy built Martin Mars model as troop and freight carriers in the 1940s

It will also fly several demonstrations during the event shows.

THE MARTIN MARS: THE STATS Only six Martin Mars plans were ever made as part of a US Navy program in the Second World War. They were supposed to be long-range troop and freight transport but were converted to water bombers. It is the largest flying boat ever operationally - Its height is 38 feet while it is 120 feet long and has a wing span of 200 feet (similar to a commercial 747 jumbo jet. The plane can carry 7200 gallons of water and travel close to the water at about 80miles/hr. Source: Experimental Aircraft Association Advertisement

According to the EAA, the plane is the last of its kind after only six of the Martin JRM Mars seaplanes were made for the US Navy during the Second World War.

They were built as long-range troop and freight transport to fly between Hawaii and the mainland United States.

But they were later converted to water bombers and given the ability to carry enough water to cover 4 acres of land in a single pass.

'There aren't many airplanes that have never been to Oshkosh, but this is one of them, so this is both literally and figuratively a huge addition to this year's lineup,' said Rick Larsen, EAA's vice president of communities and member programs in a statement.

'Among flying boats, only the legendary Spruce Goose is bigger, but the Martin Mars is the largest ever to be operational on a regular basis.'

The most frequently asked question regarding the Mars is How do they pick up their water?. This part of the flying operation is, perhaps, the most demanding in terms of teamwork among the crew.

The Captain executes a normal landing, keeps the the aircraft 'on the step' and allows the speed to decrease to 70 knots.

He then passes engine power to the Flight Engineer and selects the scoops to the 'down' position.

The ram pressure for injecting the water into the tanks is such that the aircraft is taking on water at a rate in excess of a ton per second. To account for this added weight, the Flight Engineer must advance the throttles to maintain a skimming speed of 60-70 knots to ensure the aircraft remains on the step.

Pickup time is, on average, 25 seconds. When the tanks are full, the Captain will have the scoops raised, call for takeoff power from the Flight Engineer and carry out a normal loaded takeoff.

Once airborne, the foam concentrate is injected into the water load (normally, 30 US gallons of concentrate into the 7,200 US gallon water load) where it is dispersed and remains inert until the load is dropped.

Once dropped, the tumbling action causes expansion which converts the water load into a foam load. This process is repeated for each drop. In other words, this vital team

The plane's owner, Wayne Coulson, reportedly said he had decided to put the plane up for sale after the governments of British Columbia and Alberta did not offer his firm contracts during the latest wildfire season.

His other plane is the Philippine Mars, also out of the Martin Mars fleet, and the price tag for each plane is 3 million each.

'Hawaii Mars has reached the end of its career,' Coulson told CNN.

'It's now time to reinvent it into something different than what it is.'

'We're going to be very selective on where these airplanes go. They're aviation royalty.'

Overhaul: The freight carrier planes logged some 87,000 accident-free hours before being retired by the US Navy and converted to seaplanes with an ability to carry 7220 gallons and help fight fires

The four-person crew comprises a pilot, a copilot and two flight engineers, though a lot of operations now are done by computer

While stationed at the EAA Seaplane Base, the Hawaii Mars will make regular visits to Wittman Regional Airport, where it will drop 7,200 gallons of water onto the runway during the afternoon air shows

It has often been said that the Mars, with a 60,000 pound payload of foam, is like 'a huge wet blanket'
Courtney Matthews, 19, (pictured) was driving a Red Mazda 323 when it collided with a Subaru Liberty near Casino in northern New South Wales on December 18

A babysitter charged with killing a policeman's daughter in a car crash has asked the court if she can have her driver's licence suspension lifted so she can drive to her ballet classes.

Courtney Matthews, 19, was driving a Red Mazda 323 when it collided with a Subaru Liberty near Casino in northern New South Wales on December 18, and Sergeant Steve Underhill's two daughters were trapped inside.

Ellie, four, died as a result of the crash on December 18 last, and her sister, aged two, was critically injured.

On Wednesday, Matthews told Casino Local Court she was a 'fit and proper person' to have her licence reinstated and needed to attend dance concerts as well as her job at McDonald's, The Courier Mail reported.

Magistrate David Heilpern refused to lift the suspension on the teenager's licence, saying she had not proved the 'exceptional circumstances' required.

The suspension will remain in place until she again fronts court again, which lawyers believe could be up to 18 months.

The father of the little girl who died in the horrific car accident, Steven Underhill, was at Casino Court with his wife Michelle to see whether the teenager would have her licence reinstated.

An affidavit from Matthews' mother said she had been forced to leave her job in order to take her daughter to her engagements.

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Lawyers for the teenager claim police have increased their surveillance in a hope to catch Matthews 'driving whilst suspended'.

Matthews, who had three children in her red Mazda 323, crashed after colliding with a Subaru Liberty at Bruxner Highway near Casino in northern NSW on December 18.

Mr Underhill, who was off-duty when he was called to the crash site, discovered his two daughters, were trapped in the wreckage after the Mazda split in half.

Ellie Underhill, four, (pictured) died as a result of the crash on December 18 last, and her sister, aged two, was critically injured

Matthews, who had three children in her red Mazda 323, crashed after colliding with a Subaru Liberty at Bruxner Highway near Casino in northern NSW on December 18

Matthews, (pictured before the accident) who had just finished year 12, was taken to hospital with a laceration to her arm

Following the crash, his two-year-old daughter emerged from a coma the next day in remarkable recovery, NSW Police told Daily Mail Australia last year.

The third girl, seven, who also cannot be named, was in the passenger seat of the Mazda. She was taken to hospital to be treated for shock.
The Justice who slashed Harriet Wran's jail sentence for her role in a drug-fuelled robbery that ended in the murder of an ice dealer said he believes that most prison sentences are 'unreasonable and excessive.'

Supreme Court Justice Ian Harrison handed Wran, 28, the daughter of former NSW Premier Neville Wran, a two-year non parole period on Tuesday for her role in the robbery, allowing her to be eligible for release in just two weeks.

Justice Harrison, who said he reduced Wran's sentence for robbery and acting as an accessory to murder because of the negative media coverage of her case, told a sentencing conference in 2008 the sentencing process is 'shackled to some kind of fear' and that most jail terms are 'far too long,' according to The Daily Telegraph.

'As a result they are punished and suffer more than they should and we, the community, acquire no corresponding benefit in economic, social or emotional terms,' Justice Harrison said.

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Supreme Court Justice Ian Harrison, who cut Harriet Wran's (pictured) jail sentence for a robbery that ended in the murder of a Sydney ice dealer, said most prison sentences are 'excessive'

Justice Harrison (pictured) handed Wran, 28, a two-year non-parole period on Tuesday for her role in the robbery, allowing her to be eligible for release in just two weeks

'Does the parliament or the community really believe that imposing a sentence of four years upon a person convicted for breaking and entering to be served in a violent degrading environment will have any bearing at all upon him or her that more significantly influences the prospect of reoffending than a sentence of two years?'

Wran was high on ice and desperate for a hit on the night Daniel McNulty was stabbed to death in a housing commission unit in Redfern in August 2014.

She thought the two men she was with were just going to steal ice from Mr McNulty and was not aware they were armed when they stormed into his flat.

Justice Harrison also sentenced her on Tuesday to one year in jail for acting as an accessory to murder. With time already served, Wran will be eligible for release on August 13.

The reduced sentences come after he told told a sentencing conference in 2008 the sentencing process is 'shackled to some kind of fear' and that most jail terms are 'far too long' (Wran is pictured walking into her sentencing hearing on Tuesday)

Wran, pictured arriving at court earlier this month, was convicted of robbery and being an accessory to the murder of a Sydney drug dealer in 2014. She will be eligible for parole in 17 days on 13 August

In sentencing, Justice Harrison said it was clear that the agreement to rob Mr McNulty was formed spontaneously and that Wran did not expect anyone to be seriously hurt.

Mr McNulty was stabbed to death by Wran's boyfriend of two weeks, Michael Lee, and his friend Lloyd Edward Haines.

The court heard Wran believed they were just going to obtain more ice than what she could afford with the $70 she had with her.

Justice Harrison said Wran was not aware Lee had a knife, nor that Haines had donned a balaclava in the moments before she knocked on the door to Mr McNulty's home.

'Ms Wran took no part and played no role once entry had been gained - it escalated quickly and unexpectedly,' Justice Harrison said.

'The agreed facts make it clear Ms Wran did not contemplate any injury at all.'

Justice Harrison said he accepted Wran (pictured) was genuinely remorseful and added that he did not believe she would re-offend once released

Jill Hickson Wran, the mother of Harriet Wran, leaves the NSW Supreme Court in Sydney on Tuesday after hearing her daughter could be freed in just over two weeks

HARRIET WRAN'S DESCENT: A TIMELINE OF DRUGS AND DESPAIR How events unfolded, according to Wran's testimony at court on July 14... 2011: Wran's childhood doctor takes her off Ritalin, the drug she used to treat her ADHD since age 10. Her bulimia, which she has suffered for years, worsens. She starts snorting cocaine more often. Her father is diagnosed with dementia. August 2011: Stressed by her father's illness and her escalating cocaine use, the 23-year-old returns early from a holiday around Australia. She checks into the South Pacific Private rehabilitation centre suffering chronic depression Late 2011: Wran makes friends with meth users at the centre. She discharges after three weeks and has beers with an ice-using friend. Tries the drug for the first time 2011 - April 2014: Wran is in and out of rehab and eating disorder treatment centres. At one point, she tries to kill herself, waking up in hospital with 42 stitches in her arm. At one point, manages to stay clean for eight months April 2014: Wran's famous father, Neville, dies. Wran reads a poem at his state funeral but family tensions break into the open at court. She swiftly relapses after an ex-boyfriend comes over, bringing ice with him August 10, 2014: Daniel McNulty is killed in a botched ice deal at his Redfern public housing estate. August 13: Police spot Wran and boyfriend Michael Lee at Liverpool Train Station, in Western Sydney and arrest them July 3, 2016: Wran's murder charge is dropped, she pleads guilty to robbery in company and accessory after the fact to murder July 14: Wran publicly speaks about the incident for the first time at her sentencing hearing as mother Jill watches on Advertisement

Justice Harrison said he accepted Wran was genuinely remorseful and added that he did not believe she would re-offend once released.

Wran turned to face her mother Jill Hickson-Wran, who has supported her daughter in court at each appearance, before she was led down to the cells.

'I really just want to thank all the people who've been on this journey with us and especially our legal team who've been so genuine with Harriet at every twist and turn, and especially other mothers, all of them,' Mrs Wran said.

The judge said it was unlikely Wran would ever have been caught up in the events of the night if she had not been in the grip of mental illness and drug addiction.

He noted that at the time of the murder, Wran was affected by a number of mental illnesses, including bulimia and bipolar disorder.

Justice Harrison also revealed that Harriet Wran had been exposed to 'unwelcome attention from inmates and some prison staff' as a result of the publicity around her case and background.

'Ms Wran was kept under onerous conditions in custody, spending almost 12 months in the maximum security unit, with a considerable amount of time in solitary confinement.

He said she would spend up to 23 hours a day in her cell in lockdown.

She spoke for the first time about her downfall from politician's daughter to drug addict for the first time in the NSW Supreme Court earlier this month.

Wran took to the stand and revealed how she took ice after her father Neville's state funeral and was hooked on Ritalin from the age of 10.

The heiress said her politician father's 'sudden' death was a catalyst for her final fall from grace after years of drug addiction and desperation.

During her testimony Wran sobbed as she recalled the seedy details which led to her part in the death of a Sydney drug dealer two years ago.

The 28-year-old said she began looking for replacements when she stopped taking Ritalin aged 23 and started abusing heavier drugs.

She had been taking it for 10 years, relying on it as a teenager to socialise while secretly battling eating disorders.

While she began taking ice in 2011, it was her father's death in April 2014 - four months before she was arrested - which sped up her downfall.

'We suddenly lost him. I'd never seen anything like that before. It was so strange his journey had finally ended,' she said through tears.

'It had been a really long and painful journey for us all.'

After stints in rehabilitation centres, the politician's daughter first tried the addictive drug ice in 2011

Wran said that sometime after her father's state funeral on April 30, a former boyfriend came over to her house with the drug.

She had told NSW Supreme Court she remembered thinking 'oh God' when he produced it.

Her drug use coupled with her father's public death and state funeral created the 'perfect storm of problems', her lawyer said as he pleaded with a judge to pass down a lenient sentence for her conviction of attempted robbery and being an accessory to murder.

Neville Wran, who was the premier of NSW between 1976 and 1986, died in April 2014 after a lengthy health battle.

Harriet and her brother Hugo are his children from a second marriage. Born in 1988 to a life of privilege, the heiress never wanted for a thing growing up in Sydney.

She attended elite private schools including Ascham and Sydney Church of England Girls Grammar School (SCEGGS) in Darlinghurst, before she went to the University of Sydney to study Modern and Ancient History.

So charmed was her upbringing and high-brow her family's reputation that her father even waltzed with Princess Diana at a charity dinner in 1996.

Wran's boyfriend and his friend pleaded guilty to murdering small time drug dealer Daniel McNulty (above)
A man named as a person of interest in the disappearance of William Tyrrell is facing court in Victoria charged with sex offences.

William Harrie Spedding, 65, is due on Thursday to face Ballarat Magistrates Court facing a string of sex offence charges from Victorian Police.

The alleged offences occurred in the 1980s and involve a girl he knew, reports Sydney Morning Herald.

William 'Bill' Spedding (pictured) is facing court in Victoria charged with historic sex offences

Mr Spedding was named as a person of interest in the disappearance of William Tyrrell (pictured,) who went missing in 2014

Mr Spedding, a white goods repairman from the NSW mid-north coast, is set to face five indecent assault and two sexual intercourse with a child under 10 charges.

He was questioned repeatedly over the ongoing investigation into William's disappearance after it was revealed he visited the home days before the boy disappeared.

However he repeatedly denied any involvement in William's disappearance, even releasing a YouTube video to distance himself from his alleged role.

'I wish to state that I have had no involvement whatsoever in the disappearance of William Tyrrell.'

Forensic police and detectives extensively searched his home at Bonny Hills during raids but nothing significant was uncovered.

William, three, went missing from his grandmother's home in Kendall, NSW, on September 12, 2014 while wearing his favourite Spiderman costume.

Mr Spedding was questioned repeatedly over the ongoing investigation into William's disappearance

The alleged offences are believed to date back to the 1980's and involve a girl he knew
He explained he was voting for Trump as 'he speaks from the heart'

He said Barack's 'hope' promise had failed given the 'mess' in the Middle East

The relative said his brother had an attitude problem and think he's 'made it'

Malik Obama waits six weeks for an appointment to see his half-brother

Barack Obama's half-brother has slammed the US President's record in office - and for making him wait six weeks for an appointment to see him.

Speaking from his home in Kenya, Malik Obama has also claimed that his brother has an attitude problem.

'This attitude like he's the President of the United States, he's made it, he's up there,' Malik said.

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Malik Obama as he appeared on Good Morning Britain this morning

The Obama brothers have had a strained relationship over the years. They first met around 30 years ago and were best men at each other's weddings (pictured is Malik holding up a photo of him and his half-brother)

His latest foray into the media comes days after the Democratic President's brother revealed that he was voting for Donald Trump in the next election.

Malik today criticised Mr Obama's campaign promises of 'hope' when the Middle East was a 'mess'.

'My brother became the President and he made a lot of promises and he was riding on the promise of hope and we had a lot of excitement,' he told Good Morning Britain on ITV.

'We thought he would do a lot of things, but if you look at the Middle East right now it's a mess and people are being killed all over the place, San Bernardino, over there in Florida, in France and in Brussels.... all over the place.

Malik said there were no Obamas from Africa at the current Democratic Convention taking place.

He also revealed he has to ask for an appointment when he wants to see his relative, noting that when he does meet he often tells him he has to be 'bold'.

'I have to book an appointment, I have to send a request,' he said.

'There's some lady I go through, some person and I send a request and say I'd like to see him.

'So I wait and I asked to see him, I wanted to see him back in June, around the 15th, and I haven't got a response up until now.'

In an interview with the from his home in Kenya earlier this week, Malik said he was voting for the Republican candidate because 'he speaks from the heart.'

'Make America Great Again is a great slogan,' he said. 'I would like to meet (Trump).'

President Obama's (right) half-brother Malik Obama (left) has announced that he is voting for Donald Trump in the next election

The former Democrat voter said he was voting for a Republican after feeling 'deep disappointment' at his half-brother's presidency.

Malik's announcement could be seen as a dig at his famous relative Barack, who has publicly backed Democrat candidate Hillary Clinton to take over from him after the November election.

But the 58-year-old, who lives in a rural Kenyan village but is still registered to vote in Maryland, has no plans to follow the president's footsteps and has criticized Clinton over her use of a private e-mail servers while secretary of state.

He also blamed both Clinton and his half-brother for the 2011 death of Libyan dictator Colonel Muammar Gaddafi - who he had described as one of his closest friends.

Malik even dedicated his 2012 biography to Gaddafi who he said had been 'making this world a better place.'

He is also uncomfortable about the Democratic Party's support of same-sex marriage - made legal across every state under his own half-brother's presidency.

'I feel like a Republican now because they don't stand for same-sex marriage, and that appeals to me,' he said.

Since the announcement, Trump has weighed in on his latest supporter, tweeting: 'Wow, President Obama's brother, Malik, just announced that he is voting for me. Was probably treated badly by president-like everybody else!'

Trump has weighed in on his latest supporter, tweeting: 'Wow, President Obama's brother, Malik, just announced that he is voting for me. Was probably treated badly by president-like everybody else!'

The Obama brothers have had a strained relationship over the years.

They first met around 30 years ago and were best men at each other's weddings. Malik claims that he's been invited to the White House on numerous occasions and that he stays in contact with the president.

'Of course we're close!' he told GQ in 2013. 'I'm the one who brought him here to Kogelo in 1988! I thought it was important for him to come home and see from whence his family came  you know, his roots.'

Malik told MailOnline that year that his more famous half-brother is 'always at the end of a phone line if I want to talk.'

But Malik's embrace of militant Islam, including Hamas  a U.S.-designated terrorist organization  has seen the White House seek to distance the president from his half brother.

The president's half-brother has had at least 12 wives and was accused of beating two of them.

Polygamy is legal in Kenya if it fits within a person's religious or cultural traditions.

Malik's embrace of militant Islam, including Hamas  a U.S.-designated terrorist organization  has seen the White House seek to distance the president from his half brother (Malik, second from right, with a Hamas scarf)

Malik said he was voting for the Republican candidate Donald Trump (pictured) because 'he speaks from the heart'

Meanwhile, Malik has previously chided Barack for not doing enough to help his Kenyan relatives.

'I'm very proud of my brother, but I would like for him to do a little bit more for the family on this side. I would like to say he could send some money. I give money when asked. That's what family is for. We're not well off, though people think we are.'

He also said that the president did little to help his own foray into politics when he unsuccessfully ran for governor of the southwestern Kenyan county of Siaya in 2013.

'I don't think politics is my thing,' he told The Post. 'Honestly, I'll be happy when my brother is out of office, and I will finally be out of the limelight and be able to live like a human being.'

Perhaps the tensions between the pair may be the reason that Malik complained earlier this month that he hadn't heard from Barack about his visit to Kenya today.

'From what I hear, he is coming now as the president of the United States,' said 58-year-old Malik Abon'go Obama earlier this month during an interview at his home in Kogelo,Bloomberg reported.

'He should have at least informed us as his family.'

Malik Obama is now planning to return to Maryland, where he lives and worked for years as an accountant, to cast his vote in the November elections.

And he appears to be embracing his new politics proudly.
As rumors continue to fly that one of Hollywoods most famous couples are headed for a split, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are sticking together - and looking at the world through rose colored glasses. Or, should we say, bottles.

The Hollywood couple are now selling their Miraval Rose in Costco and BevMo in the United States at a lower, more palatable price.

The rose is now available to the masses for only $19.99 per bottle at Costco and $24.99 at BevMo.

Buyers can drink like the stars as they sip the,rose made from grapes grown right on the famous couple's 1,200 acre estate in Correns, France, the same place where they got married in 2014.

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Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie's Miraval Rose is now available to the masses at wholesale stores for very reasonable prices

Buyers can drink like the stars as they sip the rose, made from grapes grown right on the famous couple's 1,200 acre estate in Correns, France

The Miraval Rose is being sold at Costco for $19.99 per bottle while BevMo is selling the wine for $24.99 per bottle

The couples wine has come a long way since producing only 6,000 bottles in 2012. It used to only be available in smaller stores in the United States, but now can be bought in large wholesale stores.

The rose has won rave reviews, with the wine app Vivino, where users can rate their own wines and catalogue which styles they like, scoring it a 3.9 out of 5.

Made with Grenache Noir, Cinsault and Vermentino grapes from the Cotes de Provence in France, it sits comfortably in the top 10 per cent of French wine ratings and one of the top 11 per cent of wines rated globally.

Vivino users recommend pairing the Miraval Rose with mature and hard cheese.

News that the wine will now be available for an inexpensive price comes days after a fire broke out near Brad and Angelinas French chateau.

The fire began June 19 at around lunchtime near Correns, in southern France.

News that the wine will now be available for a lower price comes days after a fire broke out near Brad and Angelinas French chateau

Hollywood royalty Brad and Angelina have owned the luxurious 35-bedroom spread for several years. Not only does it boast its own chapel, where the couple married in 2014, it also has a moat, a vineyard and rolling woodlands

More than 500 firefighters deployed from three different districts to tackle the huge blaze which had covered 865 acres by 7pm.

Local fire services confirmed that the massive blaze was still not under control, and was heading south west towards the nearby town of Montfort-sur-Argens.

Angelina and Brad's chateau, to the north east of Correns, sits just 3.1 miles from the devastating blaze, which destroyed homes in its path.

Two fire engines were also reported to have been caught up in the inferno, but there were no reports of casualties.

A spokesman for the local emergency service said: 'In total more than 500 firefighters are fighting the fire which has spread over an estimated 350 hectares.'

He added: 'The electricity network has been cut to allow aircraft to drop water.'

Local residents were warned on Twitter to avoid the area to allow emergency services easy access.

The rose, which is made with Grenache Noir, Cinsault and Vermentino grapes, is being sold among several other wines in each of the wholesale stores

Though the wine had previously been sold in smaller US stores, it has now hit the big markets of BevMo and Costco

Residents were also told to shut their doors and windows and block vents with damp cloths.

An emergency shelter was set up in Correns for those forced to flee their homes.

The blaze came just a day after the fire risk locally was warned to be 'very severe', with a combination of dry weather and high temperatures making for a high risk situation.

Hollywood royalty Brad and Angelina have owned the luxurious 35-bedroom spread for several years.

Not only does it boast its own chapel, where the couple married in 2014, it also has a moat, a vineyard and rolling woodlands.

Previous owner, jazz pianist Jacques Loussier installed a recording studio in the castle, with Sting, the Cranberries and Pink Floyd all recording tracks there.

More than 500 firefighters deployed from three different districts to tackle the huge blaze on June 19, though Brad and Angelina's home wasn't directly affected
Cowardly ISIS jihadis have tried to justify the slaughter of a French priest by using a thousand-year-old teaching - and warned that they will 'spare no-one'.

The terror group issued a sickening warning to people who 'dared' to question their slaughter of Father Jacques Hamel, 85, at a church in Normandy yesterday.

In a rambling message, the barbarians pointed to a centuries-old teaching as justification for the murder, carried out by French extremists Abdel Malik and Adel Kermiche in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray.

Cowardly ISIS jihadis have tried to justify the slaughter of a French priest by using a thousand-year-old teaching - and warned that they will 'spare no-one'. A message posted online was accompanied by a picture of an unknown priest

In a rambling message, the barbarians pointed to a centuries-old teaching as justification for the murder, carried out by French extremists Abdel Malik and Adel Kermiche (pictured) in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray

A translation of the post says: There are those whove dared to say that there is no permission to kill a priest, even in the most jihadist jurisprudence. There is no need to go amongst the jihadists, bow towards what Ibn Hasm says.

'Ibn Hazm al-Andalusi (Zahiri who died in 456) has said: "And it is allowed to kill anyone aside from those we have mentioned, among the combatant idolators or the non combatants, such as the trader, the servant, the old man who gives his advice or not, the farmer, the bishop, the priest, the monk, the blind, the cripple. Spare no-one."'

The individual mentioned in the note is believed to refer Ibn Hazm, a Muslim scholar and author from Andalusia in Spain who produced hundreds of works on Islamic jurisprudence, history, ethics and religion around a thousand years ago.

It comes as it emerged a pensioner was forced to film the Normandy priest execution and survived the ordeal by playing dead after being stabbed four times.

Fanatics ordered the 87-year-old man, named as Guy, to video the brutal killing of Father Jacques Hamel on a phone before he was knifed in the neck, arms and back next to the altar, according to his wife, whose life was spared. The extremists then used nuns as human shields as they tried to escape.

The terror group issued a sickening warning to people who 'dared' to question their slaughter of Father Jacques Hamel (pictured), 85, at a church in Normandy yesterday

A mourner lights a candle in tribute to the fallen priest at a makeshift memorial in Paris. The nation is reeling after yet another terror attack, just days after 85 people were killed in horrific attack in the southern city of Nice

French riot police guard the street on Tuesday night that leads to the church in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray where a fatal hostage taking incident happened, near Rouen

The second ISIS terrorist involved in the killing at Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray was today named as Abdel Malik P., another home-grown killer born in France who lived in the town of Aix-les-Bains, in the Alps.

His accomplice, Adel Kermiche, was awaiting trial on terror charges and on house arrest with an electronic tag that let him free in the mornings.

The 19-year-old was being monitored after he was arrested for twice attempting to flee France to join the terror group in Syria.

Kermiche and his accomplice - also known to French police - forced Father Jacques, 86, to kneel before filming themselves butchering him and performing a 'sermon in Arabic' at the altar, according to witnesses.

One terrified hostage revealed how an extremist 'thrust a knife' in to the priest's neck, before the clergyman 'fell face towards the sky.

Both were shot dead by police marksmen as they emerged from the building shouting 'Allahu Akbar' having tried to use three of their hostages as human shields.

It has since emerged that Kermiche was on bail pending trial for alleged membership of a terrorist organisation.

Despite having been released early from prison, Kermiche's bail conditions allowed him to roam unsupervised between 8.30am and 12.30pm, leaving him free to murder the priest in the attack carried out between 9am and 11am.
A Perth internet mogul who spent $1 million on his wedding and flew his wife to Hollywood to party with Snoop Dogg is facing fraud allegations in the United States.

On Friday, Zhenya Tsvetnenko, 36, was indicted over an alleged scheme to defraud mobile phone customers by charging them extra for 'premium' text messages without their permission.

Ms Tsvetnenko, who is worth an estimated $100 million, denies the allegations, but if he is found guilty he could be charged with conspiracy to commit money laundering and spend up to 20 years behind bars, news.com.au reported.

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On Friday, Zhenya Tsvetnenko (pictured with his wife Lydia) was indicted over an alleged scheme to defraud mobile phone customers by charging them extra for 'premium' text messages without their permission

The Southern District of New York US Attorney's Office alleges Mr Tsvetnenko and seven others for a scheme lasting from 2011 and 2013.

It is alleged the scheme left mobile phone users receiving unsolicited text messages for content including horoscopes, celebrity gossip and trivia.

While users typically ignored or deleted the messages, these consumers were billed for the services at a rate of $9.99 per month, even though they never ordered them, prosecutors claim.

Fraser Thompson, who was allegedly involved in the scheme, was arrested on Friday in California and another man reportedly involved, Francis Assifuah, was arrested in April.

Lydia Tsvetnenko (pictured centre) arrived in a horse-drawn carriage at her $1 million wedding and posed for photographs with rapper Snoop Dogg after flying to Hollywood for her 29th birthday

Ms Tsvetnenko, who is worth an estimated $100 million, denies the allegations, but if he is found guilty he could be charged with conspiracy to commit money laundering

Mr Tsvetnenko is reportedly planning to fight extradition and has not yet been arrested.

The internet mogul is married to Perth-based fashion designer Lydia Tsvernenko and the couple flaunt their lavish lifestyle on social media.

Ms Tsvetnenko arrived in a horse-drawn carriage at her $1 million wedding and posed for photographs with rapper Snoop Dogg after flying to Hollywood for her 29th birthday.

'My sexy pregnant wife before I say bye bye to my car!': A post from the Internet millionaire at the time Ms Tsvetnenko was pregnant with their child saying goodbye to their Lamborghini estimated at $200,000
Milous H. Keith, 59, is charged with murder after he shot his 12-year-old niece and 10-year-old nephew to 'quiet them' while they watched television

An Ohio man is charged with aggravated murder after he fatally shot his young niece and wounded his nephew when he tried to 'quiet them.'

A Columbus grand jury indicted Milous H. Keith, 59, on charges of murder, attempted murder, felonious assault and having weapons under disability, Franklin County's prosecutor said Wednesday.

Authorities say the Columbus man fatally shot 12-year-old Cheyenne Stewart and severely injured 10-year-old ThaiJuan Green at Keith's mother's house on July 17.

Keith allegedly shot the kids when they were watching TV, WCMH reported.

After the shooting, ThaiJuan ran to a neighbor's house.

'He had been shot and he was terrified and he was trying to get someone's attention and his voice was high-pitched,' neighbor Donald Caldwell told WCMH. 'He was scared. He was scared'.

'For someone that young to experience that and to see that happen, I think it's horrible and it scares me that even that individual had a gun,' Caldwell told WCMH.

Caldwell said the boy, who was shot in the stomach and arm, showed tremendous courage.

Keith walked into a room in this house, where the kids were watching TV, and opened fire, prosecutors say

Police investigate the scene in Ohio where a 59-year-old man killed his niece, 12, and shot his nephew, 10

'We were glad that we were home so we could shelter him,' Caldwell told WCMH back when the shooting happened.

'Eventually I want to see him because yesterday that young kid came into our life and I think that will be for a long time.'

Prosecutor Ron O'Brien said Keith had previous felony convictions and wasn't allowed to possess the gun used to shoot his niece and nephew 'when he tried to quiet them down.'

Under police questioning, Keith admitted he shot Cheyenne but said he didn't remember shooting Thaijuan.

He said he was upset his mother was watching the kids, the Columbus Dispatch reported.

'We don't know what his history is or whether he has mental-health issues,' Sgt. Joseph Plancon told the Dispatch.

'It's unfortunate. He walked in and started shooting the kids.'

Keith lived in the house with the kids and the grandmother, who was not injured, 10TV reported.

Keith remains in jail.

Court records don't list an attorney for him.
Former Georgia police sergeant Silvia Cotriss, 53, was fired after it was revealed she flew the Confederate flag outside her home

A Georgia police sergeant who lost her job earlier this month because she flew the Confederate flag in front of her home claims she had no idea the flag was controversial.

Silvia Cotriss, 53, said she had flown the Stars and Bars underneath the American flag in front of her Woodstock home for more than a year without complaint.

But on July 11 a man who was driving his daughter and son to pre-school spotted the Confederate flag waving in front of her home, her police vehicle in the driveway.

He immediately emailed Roswell Police Department Chief Rusty Grant.

'It is very difficult to explain to my daughter that we should trust our police,' the email read.

'But in the same sentiment if I were to ever be pulled over or some situation where my family needs the police to protect and serve, my first thought/fear is that it may be the officer proudly flying his/her Confederate flag.'

Cotriss, a 20-year veteran at Roswell, was notified on July 11 that she was being investigated by the department for conduct unbecoming an officer on or off duty.

The former officer said she and her husband received a Confederate flag in May 2015 while vacationing at popular biker festival in Panama City, Florida.

Cotriss hung the flag, with a motorcycle in the middle, on the flag pole outside her home. It had become shredded with time and weather, and she recently asked a friend to take it down.

She said a neighbor had offered a new one and the friend accepted on her behalf, Cotriss told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Cotriss took down the flag after the complaint and was questioned by detectives, who asked how she could fly the Confederate flag in 'today's environment'.

The Confederate flag became headline news last year after Dylann Roof killed nine African American people at a South Carolina church last year.

Multiple pictures of him posing with the Confederate flag were soon found.

Cotriss said she was not aware of the flag's 'relation to the shooting' and said she was unaware the rebel flag had 'negative connotations' until she was contacted by the department.

She said this was because 'cops don't watch the news'.

'We live it in the day and don't want to see it again at night,' she said.

The Stars and Bars had been flying underneath an American flag outside of Contriss' Woodstock home (pictured recently with a bare flag pole) for more than a year

Cotriss claims she had no idea the rebel flag was controversial or connected to the massacre of nine African Americans at a Charleston, South Carolina church last year (file photo)

Cotriss also claimed that the flag was 'part of her history, part of the South, part of history involving the Civil War', according to the investigative report.

'If I knew it offended someone, my friends, my family, I wouldn't do it,' she told the paper.

'Police officers have to adjust to a lot of things in our lives, and for 20 years my whole life has been about making change and being held to a higher standard.'

'We take an oath to help and protect people, so we can't have a private life that's really bad.'

Cotriss was fired four days after the complaint was made, a decision she is now appealing.

She also claimed that it was impossible that her police vehicle was in her driveway on the day the man said it was, alleging it was at the department so that a new radio could be installed.

Capt Helen Dunkin wrote that Cotriss was fired because she 'engaged in conduct that was unbecoming, which brought discredit to the Roswell Police Department'.

Grant said the department does not comment on 'personnel issues'.

Pastor Lee Jenkins of Eagle's Nest Church, a predominately African American place of worship in Roswell, has since said he was willing to meet with Cotriss.

Jenkins invited the entire Roswell police force to the church in the wake of the Dallas shooting where five officers were killed earlier this month.

Grant was the only official to attend the service.

Cotriss said she would accept the invitation.

'If it offends the church, we want to work with them,' she said.
Donald Trump Invites Russian Hackers To Find Clinton's Missing Emails

Trending News: Donald Trump Just Asked Russia To Hack Hilary Clinton

Why Is This Important?

Because this is lower than low.

Long Story Short

At a news conference Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump called for Russian hackers to "find" the alleged 30,000 emails missing from Hilary Clinton's news server. He also dismissed the idea that Russia was behind the DNC email hacks.

Long Story

Nothing seems to be "too far" when it comes to Donald Trump. Or at the very least, whenever he goes too far, he quickly thereafter manages to do something even more despicable and outrageous in the world's most embarrassing example of moving the goal posts. But this time, the bar may have indeed reached its lower limit.

Speaking at a news conference today, the Republican presidential nominee was talking with reporters about Russia's involvement in the DNC hacks that exposed the party's willingness to undermine Bernie Sanders in the primary races. He dismissed those claims  humoring them would mean acknowledging that Russia wants a Trump presidency for all the wrong reasons  but has some different ideas for Russian hackers.

Russia, if youre listening, I hope youre able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing, Mr. Trump said, staring directly into the cameras. I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press.

Yes, that's 50% of the people most likely to become the most powerful person on the planet calling for an adversarial foreign power to execute a cyber attack on an American citizen. At this point, it's hard to find words to describe the lows politics have sunk to.

Reporters (understandably) questioned Trump on his intent, all but giving him an opportunity for a retraction and do-over. Trump, as is his way, did nothing of the sort, but not without reiterating to everyone listening why he's supremely unpopular with women. Did he really just ask Russia to hack Hilary Clinton?

Thats up to the president, Mr. Trump said, before finally telling the female questioner to be quiet  let the president talk to them.

Shushing women. Tweeting batshit crazy things. Barring journalists. What will this wild and crazy and totally serious presidential candidate do next?!?!?

Own The Conversation

Ask The Big Question

At what point can Trumps remarks actually disqualify him for the presidency?

Disrupt Your Feed

I guess I'd better start reading up on how to survive in WWII-era Italy in case Trump gets elected.

Drop This Fact

After an extensive investigation, the FBI found no reason to charge Hilary Clinton with a crime for using a private email server.
Widower Mr Newnes relies on an electric wheelchair for his

Burglar stole pensioner's house and car keys and made off in his Renault

Alan Newnes, 84, was asleep when the burglar broke in through a window in the early hours of the morning

A disabled RAF veteran is housebound after a thief broke in to his house while he was asleep and stole his car - despite it displaying a blue badge.

Alan Newnes, 84, who served in the RAF in the 1950s, was at his bungalow in Blackpole, Worcester when the burglar broke in through a window in the early hours of the morning.

The thief stole both the pensioner's house and car keys before making a getaway in his black Renault Clio parked on the driveway.

Mr Newnes, who suffers from spinal stenosis and has had a heart valve replaced, relies on an electric wheelchair to get around. The theft has left him stranded in his bungalow.

The 84-year-old veteran said: 'My car is crucial to my independence. I use it for my shopping.

'It makes life rather difficult without a car. It takes me a long time to do simple jobs.

'I think it's despicable. They know I can't move. There's even a disabled badge in the car and my two walking sticks.

'It would be nice if someone saw the car and reported it to police. I want the car back because you always lose out on insurance.'

Widower Mr Newnes has now been forced to rely on a neighbour to collect his shopping as he can't walk to the supermarket unaided.

The Renault Clio contained two of his walking sticks and food for his 12-year-old pet dog Raffles.

The Dalmatian, who sleeps on his bed, woke him at around 3am on Sunday by nudging the pensioner and looking at him.

He checked some rooms in his house before going back to sleep but when he woke up the next morning he found his door wide open and realised his car had gone.

Widower Mr Newnes served his country with the Royal Air Force between 1951 and 1953 and was based at Ismailia in Egypt where he braved enemy sniper fire as a pilot

'I think the dog scared them off. Far more than my keys would have been stolen if not for the dog,' said Mr Newnes.

'It would not have done any good if I had found them in the act. They might have been dangerous.'

Mr Newnes served his country with the Royal Air Force between 1951 and 1953 and was based at Ismailia in Egypt where he braved enemy sniper fire as a pilot.

The pensioner has had the locks changed on his doors and is hoping someone will spot his Clio - which has the registration plate AG07 PCY - and contact the police.

Anyone with information should contact West Mercia Police on 101, quoting incident reference 22CA-58192B-16.
Convicted murder Steven Avery has publicly criticized his two former lawyers for the first time - claiming 'they didn't do their job' or else he wouldn't be in prison.

In a handwritten letter sent to In Touch Weekly, the Making a Murderer subject claims there is evidence to exonerate him and that his ex-lawyers, Dean Strang and Jerome Buting, failed to represent him fairly.

Avery was convicted of murdering 25-year-old photographer Teresa Halbach with his nephew Brendan Dassey. Avery was sentenced to life in prison without parole in 2007.

He has since hired a new attorney, Kathleen Zellner, who he believes will help free him during the appeal process for his conviction.

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Innocent? Convicted murder Steven Avery is hitting out against his two former lawyers, Dean Strang (right) and Jerome Buting (pictured left with Avery) claiming they didn't do their job properly

Avery (left) was convicted of murdering 25-year-old photographer Teresa Halbach (right) with his nephew Brendan Dassey. Avery was sentenced to life in prison without parole in 2007

In his letter (above), Avery lists out 15 reasons why Strang and Buting didn't do their job and why he should be freed from prison. He claims they wouldn't keep him informed about what was happening in the case

The 54-year-old blames his former lawyers for the guilty verdict he received in the case because he claims they didn't investigate the evidence fully.

This is the first time the Wisconsin native has publicly slammed the two attorneys who have gained fame from their portrayal in the Netflix hit show.

In his letter, Avery lists out 15 reasons why Strang and Buting didn't do their job and why he should be freed from prison.

He first says they didn't provide experts to analyze the blood splatter in his garage, where he allegedly shot 25-year-old Halbach, and that they botched the processing of her bones.

When the results of a court ordered FBI test came back during the trial showing no trace of a chemical added to blood to inhibit clotting in a sample of his blood found in the victim's car, it destroyed the lawyers argument that it was planted.

Strang later said: 'We had no chance at that point to do independent testing, or even to react terribly well to it.'

Avery has hired a new attorney, Kathleen Zellner (above), who he believes will better represent him during the appeal process for his conviction.

In the letter (above), Avery wrote: 'Lawyers sould (sic) be responsible for they (sic) wrong dong!!!'

Avery believes the pair of attorneys should have had the blood tested earlier, as cops had a vial of his blood in custody prior to the trial.

In Avery's letter, he also alludes to the theory that six burn barrels were found on his family's property, instead of five as stated in the reports.

'They missed that there was a 6th burn barrel,' he wrote.

It's been speculated that the fifth and sixth barrels were counted as one by authorities investigating.

However, Avery alludes that if it's true, his former lawyers missed an opportunity to point out not proper investigating by police in the case. And that could have called the barrels into question that were presented in the case by prosecutors.

In addition, Avery argues that Buting and Strang did not investigate Joshua Radandt, the co-owner of the Radandt quarry next to his salvage yard where a piece of human pelvic bone was reportedly found.

Furthermore, cracks could have been created in the prosecutors case, if his defense lawyers had questioned Radandt who told authorities that he witnessed a fire on Avery's property the day of the murder.

Avery wrote that Strang 'blames the system but doesn't accept responsibility for his mistakes.'

Avery (above) wrote: 'Dean and Jerome are Bad Attorneys they dont (sic) now (sic) what justice is and they dont (sic) now (sic) what is a (sic) investigation is because if they did they would have done it for a (sic) innocent man like me!!!'

He also claims that Strang and Buting wouldn't keep him informed about what was happening in the case.

'Dean and Jerry didn't do no investigation on this case, if they did I would not be in prison,' Avery wrote.

'They would have the suspect if they did there (sic) job!!

'Dean and Jerry all they were doing is predict the state and there (sic) lawfirm (sic),

'Lawyers sould (sic) be responsible for they (sic) wrong doing!!!'

In closing the letter, Avery said that Strang and Buting should lose their licenses to practice law.

'Lawyers sould (sic) loose (sic) there (sic) license when they dont (sic) investigate they (sic) case to proof (sic) there (sic) clients and they violating the ethics, the state sould (sic) take there (sic) license for good,' Avery wrote.

He added: 'Dean and Jerome are Bad Attorneys they dont (sic) now (sic) what justice is and they dont (sic) now (sic) what is a (sic) investigation is because if they did they would have done it for a (sic) innocent man like me!!!

'And I was on appeal and they were still talking about the case and that was there (sic) ethics was (sic) violating my appeal!!

CLAIMS MADE BY STEVEN AVERY OVER HIS EX-DEFENSE LAWYERS In a handwritten letter convicted murder Steven Avery sent to In Touch Weekly, he blames his former lawyers Dean Strang and Jerome Butting for his guilty verdict. Avery said the two men 'didn't do no investigation on this case, if they did I would not be in prison.' Below is the list of all the claims Avery made against his ex-lawyers: Lack of experts on: blood spatter (sic), EDTA, Bones

Didn't re-enact the key falling out of the book Case

Only wanted to blame my family ... They didn't look at other suspects

They didn't follow up on the dog tracks

They missed that there was a 6th burn barrel

They didn't investigate Radandts' (sic) alibi

Dean blames the system but doesn't accept responsibility for his mistakes

They ignored the evidenc (sic) in the quarry,

Dean and Jerry wouldn't tell me what was going on in my case at all,

Dean and Jerry didnt' do no investigation on this if they did I would not be in prison, (sic) They would have the suspect if they did there (sic) Job !!

Dean and Jerry all they were doing is predict the state and there (sic) lawfirm (sic)

Lawyers sould (sic) be responsible for they (sic) wrong doing!!!

Lawyers sould (sic) loose (sic) there (sic) license when they dont (sic) investigate they (sic) case to proof (sic) there (sic) clients and they violating the ethics, the state sould (sic) take there (sic) license for good.

Dean and Jerry didn't do nothing when the state investigators threaten some of my people to say what they won't (sic) to say or if they dint (sic) they would put them in jail or take any thing (sic) from them!

Dean and Jerome are Bad Attorneys they dont (sic) now (sic) what justice is and they dont (sic) now (sic) what is a (sic) investigation is because if they did they would have done it for a (sic) innocent man like me!!! And I was on appeal and they were still talking about the case and that was there (sic) ethics was (sic) violating my appeal!! Advertisement
Last month Mr Economou was cleared of harassment of Mr de Freitas

After her death in 2014 her father, David, made several statements in media

The wealthy son of a shipping magnate who claimed he suffered a 'public rubbishing' for five weeks has lost a libel case against the father of a woman who falsely accused him of rape and then killed herself.

Alexander Economou, 36, a millionaire from Chelsea in West London, became embroiled in a vicious feud with David de Freitas, 60, after his daughter Eleanor, 22, committed suicide in April 2014.

The pair had been engaged in a war of words after Eleanor, who had bipolar disorder, was found dead at her parents' home in Fulham three days before she was due to stand trial for conspiracy to pervert the course of justice at Southwark Crown Court.

Bitter feud: Alexander Economou (left), was furious after Eleanor de Freitas (right) wrongly accused him of rape. He brought a private prosecution for conspiracy to pervert the course of justice but she killed herself a few days before the start of the trial

HOW THE CASE UNFOLDED Death: The judge said the case has been 'most tragic for the family of Eleanor' December 2012: Eleanor de Freitas wrongly accuses Alexander Economou of rape February 2013: Police tell Miss de Freitas that they will not be bringing any charges against him August 13, 2013: Miss de Freitas receives a court summons after Mr Economou launches a private prosecution against her for perverting the course of justice. The case is later taken on by the Crown Prosecution Service April 4, 2014: Miss de Freitas kills herself three days before she was due to stand trial at Southwark Crown Court November 6, 2014: Mr Economou sends Mr de Freitas a letter, a day before he was due to give evidence at his daughter's inquest March 17, 2015: A coroner records a verdict of suicide at her inquest December 9, 2015: Mr Economou is charged with the harassment of Miss de Freitas's father David between November 2014 and October 2015 June 2, 2016: Mr Economou is found not guilty of harassment July 27, 2016: Mr Economou's libel case against Mr de Freitas fails at the High Court Advertisement

Mr Economou sued Mr de Freitas over publications in various media in November and December 2014.

Mr de Freitas denied libel and told Mr Justice Warby he reasonably believed publication was in the public interest.

Mr Economou, a company secretary with a shipping company, said he believed Mr de Freitas's purpose was to 'lash out' against him in public because he blamed him for his daughter's death and wanted to take revenge.

Mr Economou said he had been shunned by many people and had been left on the verge of a nervous breakdown.

Mr de Freitas insisted he did not act with any malicious intent.

He said he wanted to focus on the conduct of the Crown Prosecution Service, which had chosen to take over the prosecution of his daughter, after Mr Economou launched a private prosecution for perverting the course of justice.

Mr de Freitas said: 'We wanted to bring some good out of this tragedy and enable lessons to be learned.

'We did not want other women or their families to suffer as we and Eleanor had or for there to be a repeat of these tragic circumstances.'

The judge said Mr Economou was never charged with rape and nothing said in court should be taken as impugning the presumption of innocence to which he was entitled.

But in his ruling Mr Justice Warby said: 'Mr Economou has pursued this case with sincerity but, as I find, in anger and with elements of vengefulness.

'Defamatory imputations can cause injury to feelings which is out of all proportion to the harm they cause to reputation. That, so far as the earlier publications are concerned, is this case.

'So far as the later publications are concerned, and more generally, Mr Economou has made the error of seeing this case from his own perspective as a victim, paying too much attention to the impact on him and his feelings, and giving insufficient consideration to the other perspectives, indeed the other rights and interests, that demand and deserve consideration.'

Solicitor Mark Manley, who represented Mr de Freitas, said: 'It is good to see the court has ruled that in voicing frustration about a system which David considered let down his daughter, David de Freitas did not generate a libel against the claimant.

'This judgment concludes a tragic and deeply upsetting series of allegations, brutally-fought courtroom battles, the most recent of which - a denial of an allegation of libel against a bereaved father - at least now provides some respite for David and his family.'

For confidential support call the Samaritans on 116123, visit a local Samaritans branch or click here for details
A terror attack plot on a school in Stuttgart has been foiled by German police who found knives, explosives and bullets in a 15-year-old boy's home.

He is also reported to have had contact online with Ali Sonboly, the teenager who shot dead nine people in Munich on Friday.

The plan to carry out a deadly assault comes as Germany remains in a state of high alert following a series of deadly attacks in the last fortnight.

The boy was arrested after the arsenal of weapons were found in the Ludwigsburg district of Stuttgart.

The boy was arrested in Stuttgart (pictured). Police believe he was plotting a massacre, possibly using explosives, in the city, possibly on a school

The teenager in Stuttgart is believed to have been in contact online with Ali Sonboly (pictured), who perpetrated a shocking massacre in Munich last week

The German magazine Der Spiegel said a search of the boy's flat, where he lived with his parents, found 'extensive evidence, including small-calibre cartridges, several knives and daggers, escape plans for several schools and a large amount of chemicals, materials and instructions for making explosives'.

The boy is understood to have been taken into custody in a secure psychiatric unit for young people.

There is no suggestion at this point that he had any contact with ISIS or other Islamist groups.

According to media reports the boy was betrayed to the authorities by someone he boasted to of his plans.

Police quickly established a link to Sonboly through his Internet footprints and the youngster's home was raised late on Tuesday night.

Police said during the course of his interrogation he confessed 'to preparing an outrage against the background of personal and academic problems.'

The boy in Ludwigsburg apparently looked up to Sonboly as a figure to admire and emulate.

Germans have been left in a state of shock after several violent incidents in recent weeks.

On 19 July a 17-year-old Afghan refugee attacked several Hong Kong tourists on a train in southern Germany with an axe before being shot dead by police.

Four days later Sonboly killed several children and teenagers in a McDonald's restaurant and in a nearby shopping centre with a gun which he had managed to buy on the 'dark web'.

Sonboly had been bullied for years and was obsessed with spree killers like Anders Breivik.

Then on Sunday a failed asylum seeker from Syria, Mohammad Daleel, 27, blew himself in the town of Ansbach after being refused entry to a sold-out concert in a 2,500 capacity venue.

The blast injured 15 people - four seriously, and killed Daleel, who had links to ISIS.
Israeli forces have shot dead a Palestinian man who was accused of killing an Israeli father-of-10 in the West Bank.

Mohamed Fakih who had links to the armed wing of Hamas, died in a vicious gun battle with troops after they launched a raid on his hiding place in the village of Surif.

The 29-year-old had gone on the run after being accused of causing Rabbi Michael 'Miki' Mark's death on July 1.

Palestinians gather around the remains of a house where Hamas fighter Mohammad al-Fakih was shot dead by Israeli troops during a raid in the West Bank village of Surif, near Hebron

Israeli forces climb the stairs after a night-time raid to find the men accused of murdering Israeli Rabbi Mark earlier this month, in the village of Surif

The Rabbi was killed when his car crashed after he was ambushed and fired on near Hebron.

His wife and two of his 10 children were also wounded in the crash.

In the night-time raid, Israeli troops surrounded Fakih's hideout, and arrested three other Palestinian suspects.

According to Israeli media reports, Fakih opened fire on troops as they drew near to his hiding place.

He was reportedly killed in the gun battle that broke out.

After Fakih had been slain, troops almost completely destroyed his hideout - firing an anti-tank missile at the property and using a bulldozer to crush the remains.

Hamas reportedly confirmed that Fakih belonged to the Izz al-Din Qassam Brigades, the group's armed wing.

After Fakih had been killed, troops almost completely destroyed his hideout - firing an anti-tank missile at the property and using a bulldozer to crush the remains

Hamas reportedly confirmed that Fakih belonged to the Izz al-Din Qassam Brigades, the group's armed wing

According to Israeli military, the three Palestinians arrested also had connections to the ambush on the car and were 'members of a terrorist cell with ties to Hamas'.

A spokesman for the Israeli prime minister said a recently arrested member of the Palestinian security forces had driven Fakih to the site of the attack.
Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe, a close friend and advisor to Bill and Hillary Clinton for decades, is saying Hillary Clinton ultimately will support a final deal to liberalize trade with a group of Pacific trading partners.

He spoke about the Trans Pacific Partnership immediately after his speech in the Demoratic convention hall, where angry supporters of senator Bernie Sanders are holding signs with 'TPP' crossed out in protest of the deal.

Clinton hailed the trade deal while serving as secretary of state  although she has raised concerns about it during the primary season and opposes it as it now stands.

'I worry that if we don't do TPP, at some point China's going to break the rules -- but Hillary understands this,' McAuliffe told Politico Tuesday night.

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Virginia governor Terry McAuliffe spoke at the Democratic National Convention Tuesday night. He told a reporter afterward that Hillary Clinton ultimately would support a controversial trade deal

McAuliffe, who addressed the convention, told the publication: 'Once the election's over, and we sit down on trade, people understand a couple things we want to fix on it but going forward we got to build a global economy.'

Asked whether Clinton would support the deal she opposed in the primaries, McAuliffe replied: 'Yes. Listen, she was in support of it. There were specific things in it she wants fixed.'

Donald Trump pounced on the report during a press conference at his Doral resort in Miami on Wednesday.

'Terry McAuliffe said with a wink to a group of people that if Hillary gets in she's lying and it will happen. There is nobody, including her own husband, closer to Hillary Clinton than Terry McAuliffe.

McAuliffe served as the finance chair of Hillary Clinton's 2008 campaign. He is also close friends with Bill Clinton, and the he has traveled and vacationed with the Clintons. The Clintons also helped him in his election when he transitioned from being a top fundraiser into politics himself and won the Virginia governor's mansion.

WE GET THE PICTURE: McAuliffe's office said he has 'no expectation' Clinton would change her position once in office

Clinton and McAuliffe spoke backstage after a rally in Old Town, Alexandria

Bill Clinton named McAuliffe head of the Democratic National Committee

Bill Clinton and McAuliffe's at McAuliffe's inauguration in 2014 in Richmond

McAuliffe's office later hedged on his comments.

'While Governor McAuliffe is a supporter of the TPP, he has no expectation Secretary Clinton would change her position on the legislation and she has never told him anything to that effect,' a spokesman told the publication.

The incident has echoes of a flare-up from Barack Obama's 2008 campaign, when then-Obama advisor Austan met with Canadian consular officials in Chicago.

A Canadian memo of the meeting stated that 'On NAFTA Goolsbee suggested that Obama is less about fundamentally changing the agreement and more in favor of strengthening/clarifying language on labor mobility and environment and trying to establish these as more 'core' principles of the agreement.'

The Obama camp strongly denied that it had backed away from its public positions.

'There is nobody, including her own husband, closer to Hillary Clinton than Terry McAuliffe,' Trump told reporters Tuesday

Austan Goolsbee, a University of Chicago academic at the time, caused a stir when he met with Canadian officials who believed he tamped down their concerns about Obama's views on NAFTA. Obama later named Goolsbee to his administration and negotiated a Pacific trade deal
The appointment of Michel Barnier (pictured) risks causing tensions with British Eurosceptics due to his history as the man who imposed swathes of financial regulation on the City of London during his spell as European Commissioner

Former French government minister and ex-European Commission vice-president Michel Barnier has been appointed as the commission's chief negotiator for Brexit.

The appointment was announced by commission president Jean-Claude Juncker, who said he wanted 'an experienced politician for this difficult job'.

Mr Barnier officially takes his position on October 1 and will spend the coming months preparing the ground in Brussels for the negotiations, but will not make contact with UK authorities until the two-year process of withdrawing from the European Union is formally triggered by London under Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty.

But his appointment risks causing tensions with British Eurosceptics due to his history as the man who imposed swathes of financial regulation on the City of London during his spell as European Commissioner.

As the Eurocrat with powers over financial regulation, he is said to have angered the usually-cool Lord Mervyn King to such an extent that the then Bank of England governor was still shaking with rage an hour after the meeting ended.

The appointment comes days after Mr Juncker acknowledged that the UK Government may need several months to prepare its position before negotiations start.

In the immediate aftermath of the EU referendum on June 23, the Commission president indicated that he wanted Article 50 to be activated immediately to allow a swift UK withdrawal to limit uncertainty.

But in a French TV interview on Monday, he said he had no 'deadline' for the talks to begin, adding: 'The British Government needs several months to fine tune its position. Our British friends know that there will be no negotiation before notification of their farewell letter.'

However, he stuck to his hard line on the outcome of the negotiations, insisting that Britain will have to accept EU rules - including on freedom of movement - 'without exception or nuance' if it wants to keep full access to the single market after Brexit.

Mr Barnier will report directly to Mr Juncker as head of the Commission Taskforce for the Preparation and Conduct of the Negotiations with the United Kingdom.

He will have the rank of Commission director-general and will be able to draw on the advice of Brussels' most senior civil servants and experts.

Michel Barnier's appointment was announced by commission president Jean-Claude Juncker (pictured) who said he wanted 'an experienced politician for this difficult job'

Describing Mr Barnier as 'a skilled negotiator with rich experience in major policy areas relevant to the negotiations', Mr Juncker said: 'I am very glad that my friend Michel Barnier accepted this important and challenging task. I wanted an experienced politician for this difficult job.

'He has an extensive network of contacts in the capitals of all EU member states and in the European Parliament, which I consider a valuable asset for this function.

'Michel will have access to all Commission resources necessary to perform his tasks. He will report directly to me, and I will invite him to brief regularly the College (of commissioners) to keep my team abreast of the negotiations. I am sure that he will live up to this new challenge and help us to develop a new partnership with the United Kingdom after it will have left the European Union.'

In a message on Twitter, Mr Barnier said: 'Honoured to be entrusted with UK negotiation by @JunckerEU and @EU-Commission. Rendez-vous for beginning of demanding task on 1 October.'

A former MP and MEP in the centre-right UMP party, Mr Barnier served as minister for the environment, European affairs, foreign affairs and agriculture under presidents Jacques Chirac and Nicolas Sarkozy and was a European Commissioner from 1999-2004 and 2010-14.
Facebook has ignored seven summonses to hand over documents related to their overseas operation in Ireland, the IRS says.

In a new court filing on Wednesday, the federal agency says it has sent seven requests for books, records, papers and other data to the company's CFO David Wehner but that all of them have been ignored.

The IRS filed a lawsuit against the Palo Alto, California-based company earlier this month, claiming they skimped on their taxes by undervaluing their company in order to pay lower taxes abroad.

The IRS filed a lawsuit against Facebook earlier this month, claiming they skimped on their taxes by undervaluing their company in order to pay lower taxes abroad (above, the company's Dublin offices)

Facebook is one of many corporations who have set up offices in Ireland, which boasts a lucratively low corporate tax rate of just 12.5 per cent.

In order to operate out of the country though, Facebook had to license its intellectual property - the website and its brand - to an offshore company.

That company, Facebook Ireland Holdings, then licensed the brand again to a company registered in Ireland, Facebook Ireland Ltd.

Facebook Ireland Ltd. is then able to make huge profits due to Ireland's low tax rate coupled with the fact that their fees and royalties to Facebook Ireland Holdings become deductible.

Facebook deals with two subsidiaries because it protects them from having to report the income they actually make in Ireland. If they dealt directly with the second company, they would have to report that income in the U.S. and then pay taxes domestically as well.

The point that the IRS takes issue with is the valuation that Facebook placed on its intellectual property when first licensing to Facebook Ireland Holdings.

Facebook's accounting advisers, Ernst & Young, were brought in to make the valuation, which the IRS says was undervalued by billions.

If so, Facebook has been reaping unfairly low tax rates and could owe the IRS big time.

At stake is billions of dollars. Facebook Ireland Ltd. is Facebook's main international business and in 2014, made $5.3billion in sales.

In the most recent court filing, representatives for the IRS petitioned a judge to force Facebook into complying with their orders, since the statute of limitations on the case expires at the end of the month.

While Facebook has handed over several documents related to the case, IRS officials say they have not turned over the books, records, papers and other data as specified in the previous seven summonses.

Daily Mail Online reached out to Facebook for comment on Wednesday, but did not immediately receive a response.

When the lawsuit was filed earlier this month, the company issued a sharp denial of wrongdoing.

'Facebook complies with all applicable rules and regulations in the countries where we operate,' Anteneh Daniel, a spokesperson for the company, said in a statement.
A little girl has been forced to sleep on the floor of a government office with her Elmo toy due to a shortage of beds in the foster care system.

She is one of a number of vulnerable children rescued from abuse who have been put up in NSW Department of Families and Communities Services offices or motels as caseworkers struggle to deal with the bedding crisis.

The girl, who was put into care after being taken from her drug-addicted parents in Sydney, was forced to sleep on a bean bag with her Elmo toy and a blanket in the government office for several days until an appropriate accommodation was found.

A young girl, who was taken away from her drug-addicted parents, was forced to sleep on a bean bag in a NSW government office because of a shortage of beds in the foster care system

Public Service Association assistant general secretary Steve Turner said the situation was appalling.

'It is absolutely shocking,' Mr Turner told Daily Mail Australia.

'We're hearing of more examples of children being put up in offices overnight - it has been happening for years.

'Children in motels and government offices shows the system is failing.'

Mr Turner said the bed crisis within the foster care system stems from the government privatising out of home care and using charity-run non-government organisations, as well as staff cuts.

'Privatising is seeing more and more failures and placing children at risk,' he said.

Caseworkers have resorted to putting at-risk children up in make-shift accommodation before they are found an appropriate place to stay as they struggle to deal with a bedding crisis (stock image)

'Only three out of 10 children get a face to face visit from a case worker and there is now 400 less case workers in the system.'

Secretary of the Department of Families and Communities Services Michael Coutts-Trotter told the ABC he wasn't aware of at-risk children sleeping in government offices amid a bedding crisis.

'I've not ever had a confirmed report of a child sleeping in an office but I don't want to say it's never happened,' Mr Coutts-Trotter said.

When he was asked about the claims on Thursday, Mr Coutts-Trotter said that such incidents, if they were happening, would be rare.

He said 350 of the 20,000 at-risk children under his department's care had spent time in a hotel but only as a last resort and under 24-hour supervision.
Clergyman Auguste Moanda-Phuati of Eglise Sainte-Therese in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray went on holiday content that he had left his parish in the safe, if old, hands of his auxillary priest, Father Jacques Hamel.

Although he should have retired ten years earlier, Father Jacques had refused, and told fellow priests: Youve seen a retired pastor? I will work until my last breath.

As he did - his throat slit; a knife thrust into his body, as he finished his beloved Mass on the steps of the altar before an equally elderly and tiny congregation held hostage to witness his murder by two ISIS butchers who then gave their own parody of a sermon in Arabic.

Now, Father Moanda-Phuati, a Congolese who came to serve in the dwindling French collective parishes, where priests are shared over several churches, has to live with the knowledge that Father Jacques died in his place.

Holiday: Clergyman Auguste Moanda-Phuati of Eglise Sainte-Theresa in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray was on holiday when his church was raided by knife-wielding ISIS 'soldiers'

Escape: Father Jacques Hamel (right) was brutally slain in the ISIS attack, which saw the ISIS attackers burst into the church and take him hostage along with two nuns and two parishioners

It would have been me, he revealed, his voice breaking as he came to terms with the horror that was inflicted upon his church.

We took turns. But what shocks me more is that he could have retired and yet this is how his life ended he told BMTV.

The priest immediately cut short his holiday to care for his bewildered, upset parishioners.

He spoke of a courageous man who wanted, as long as he had the strength, to work in the service of the people. He said there were not enough priests and he could still help.

And he was very popular - a good man, a simple man without extravagance. We benefited greatly from his experience and wisdom. He spent most of his life in the service of the people. He was a man of peace.

Like many Catholic countries in the western world France is suffering from a lack of priests and a lack of youths coming forward to the priesthood, plus an ageing and dwindling congregation.

It is not uncommon for two priests to share 20 churches and saying Mass on a monthly, rather than a weekly basis, in each one.

Although Father Hamel celebrated his Golden Jubilee - 50 years of service - eight years ago, when it came time to retire he refused, just asking for a place where he could continue to celebrate Mass.

Murdered: Father Jacques Hamel, 84, was slaughtered in the horrific assault, which saw the two knifemen film themselves as they cut his throat

Attacker: Frenchman Adel Kermiche (pictured in 2011), now 19, has been identified as one of the attackers. He was twice arrested for trying to join ISIS in Syria and was put under police surveillance

Probe: A policeman cordons the site next to the body of one of the two men who stormed a French church. The two attackers were shot after they emerged from the building shouting 'Allahu Akbar'

His colleague Father Aime Remi Mputu Amba, pastor dean of nearby Sotteville-les-Rouen, said: We are in the same deanery. We often met, almost every week, for lunch.

'He was very self-effacing, very discreet, very attentive. When he came into the room for our meetings between those parishes south of Rouen, he was like a ray of sunshine.
A Dunkin' Donuts employee in Virginia lost his job and sparked a police investigation after he allegedly sprayed doughnuts with bleach before giving them away to a group of teenagers.

Police in Fairfax County received a report on Monday about a possible assault at a Dunkin' Donuts store in the 2500 block of Chain Bridge Road in Oakton.

An investigation has revealed that a group of 14- and -15-year-olds had consumed doughnuts tainted with a cleaning solution containing bleach, which they had received from a worker at the Dunkin' Donuts location.

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Tainted treats: A Dunkin' Donuts employee in Virginia was fired after he allegedly offered a group of rowdy teens free doughnuts that he had sprayed with bleach

According to police, the teens on Sunday were offered free doughnuts that would have been thrown out at the end of the day, reported WUSA9..

The following day, the teens returned to the store on Chain Bridge Road demanding more dough treats free of charge.

A store clerk refused to give away doughnuts several times, saying it was against company policy, but eventually he told the teens to return later in the day for the leftover donuts.

Police believe the employee in question doused a batch of doughnuts with a bleach-laced cleaning liquid, and later handed them to the teens.

The station WTOP reported that three of the kids took a few bites of the tainted treats, while two others ate entire an entire doughnut, before they realized something was off about them and called police.

None of the victims required medical attention, according to police, but now the teenagers parents are considering pressing charges.

The incident took place at this franchise in Oakton, Virginia, on Monday night

It will be up to the Fairfax County Commonwealths Attorneys Office to decide whether or nor to charge the Dunkin Donuts employee with misdemeanor assault.

Meanwhile, Dunkin Donuts has released a statement saying that the worker at the Oakton franchise was fired on Tuesday.

Mohammed Ashiq, manager at the Luciano Italian Restaurant next door to the Dunkin Donuts location, has come to the fired store clerks defense, claiming that the teens were the aggressors in the incident.
Donald Trump bookended his press conference today in Florida by reminding reporters that Hillary Clinton hadn't taken their questions this calendar year.

'So it's been 235 days since 'crooked' Hillary Clinton has had a press conference,' Trump reminded the press as he began.

'I think it's time for Hillary Clinton to do a news conference because it's almost a year now and it will be interesting to see how she does,' Trump said as he left the stage.

The Republican takes questions from the press every few weeks and today did some Q&A for 57 minutes.

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Donald Trump talked to reporters today in Miami, Florida and pointed out several times that Hillary Clinton hadn't hosted a press conference this calendar year

One of the last times Hillary Clinton took reporters' questions was at an event in December in Fort Dodge, Iowa, though it wasn't a full-fledged press conference

'So, you know, I put myself through your news conferences. Often. Not that it's fun,' Trump pointed out. 'Two hundred thirty-five days, no news conference for Hillary Clinton, you ought to check it out.'

The last time Clinton gaggled with reporters was in May, meaning that she took questions from a small group of them while on the trail.

In December, when campaigning in Iowa, she also took journalists' questions, but it wasn't a scheduled event.

Clinton's last true press conference was back in November, which came before any American had cast a primary vote.

It came before the FBI chief calling her 'extremely careless' with her emails. It came before Donald Trump had winnowed down the Republican rivals to become the GOP nominee.

In June as the primaries were wrapping up, with only a handful of states to go, Clinton was asked by CNN's Jake Tapper the status of her next press conference.

'I'm sure we will,' Clinton told Tapper, after the reporter pointed out the press conference drought. 'I was shocked myself that I've done nearly 300 interviews [this year]' the Democratic nominee pointed out.

When Clinton has answered questions from reporters it's usually a sit-down formal interview, which is different from the free-for-all nature of taking question after question from the press, when reporters can ask anything.

Clinton has a reputation for avoidance when it comes to the press and leaked emails from inside her campaign didn't help that rap as aides and volunteers were caught passing notes about certain reporters they feared would get too close to the candidate and ask her a question.

Trump, at his own presser today in Miami, Florida, issued a theory as to why Clinton wasn't talking.

'And you, as reporters who give her all of these glowing reports, should ask yourselves why,' Trump began. 'And I'll tell you why.'

'Because, despite the nice platitudes it's been a mess,' Trump said, seemingly talking about the Democratic National Convention being held in Philadelphia this week.

'You look at what's happened with ISIS, which hasn't even been mentioned. You look at what's happening with law and order,' Trump said. 'They don't even mention our police,' Trump said of the Democrats.

'They mention everybody but our police,' he added.

Last night, as the 'Mothers of the Movement' came onstage, Democrats changed 'Black Lives Matter' en masse.

The Pittsburgh Police Chief Cameron McLay spoke too, saying the country can balance being respectful to police officers while seeking criminal justice reforms.

'They don't have an American flag on the dais until we start complaining,' Trump said. 'And then they ran up with two very small flags, one that we saw.'

Democrats indeed added American flags to the stage at the DNC after night No. 1.

After listing his perceived problems with the DNC, Trump again called for Clinton to hold a press conference.
The man who abducted Jaycee Dugard in 1991 when she was just 11-years-old and held her captive in his backyard for the next two decades, repeatedly raping the young girl and fathering her two children, could walk free from jail in just 18 years.

Philip Garrido, 65, was sentenced to 431 years in prison after pleading guilty to charges of kidnapping, rape and false imprisonment in 2011, but under a California law will be up for parole in 2034, and could possibly walk free.

This despite the fact that he and his wife took Jaycee just three years after he was released from prison after being convicted of kidnapping and raping a young woman from the same area.

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Monster: Phillip Garrido (left) was sentenced to 431 years in prison in 2011 after pleading guilty to kidnapping and raping Jaycee Duggard (right)

Horrors: He will be up for parole in 2034 under a California law (the yard where he kept Dugard above)

Jaycee previously spoke about this possibility in an interview with People earlier this month, saying: 'I hope the justice system understands who they have in prison and will not let Phillip Garrido out as they did last time he was in prison for rape and kidnapping.'

She then added: 'He was serving life plus 50 and was paroled in 11 years. He then took me captive for the next 18 years of my life. He belongs in prison where he cannot hurt anyone else.'

It is not just Phillip who will be up for parole either, but also his wife Nancy who helped his kidnap and then hold Jaycee captive all those years.

Nancy is serving 36 years to life in prison for her crime, which is just twice the number of years that Jaycee was forced to live in squalor in the Garridos backyard.

Jaycee was walking to the school bus in 1991 when Phillip hit her with a stun gun and threw her into a van, where his wife held her down as they drove the three hours to his home in Contra Costa County.

She was raped almost immediately, while in handcuffs, and stayed handcuffed for the next month.

Phillip would rape her almost daily, and go on frequent drug binges in which he would take methamphetamine and spent time with young Jaycee.

Parole officers who came to the house never though to check out back where Jaycee was being kept, and when Phillip briefly went to jail after failing a drug test, his wife Nancy became Jaycee's captor.

She gave birth to her first daughter at the age of 14 and her second child, another girl, three years later.

It was not until 2009 that she was finally freed, after revealing her true identity to investigators.

Reason: 'I hope the justice system understands who they have in prison and will not let him out as they did last time,' said Jaycee (above with Diane Sawyer)

Strong: Jaycee was raped repeatedly by Phillip and gave birth to two daughters, first when she was 14 and then again three years later (above with her mother after her release)

Jaycee and her daughters received a $20million settlement from the state of California and she later sued the federal government, stating that Phillip should have been behind bars for parole violations at the time that he abducted her.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected that lawsuit.

Phillip kidnapped 25-year-old Katherine Callaway in 1976 just a few miles from the South Tahoe town where he would take Jaycee, driving the young woman to Reno, Nevada and raping her for close to six hours.

He received a 50-year federal sentence for the crime in 1977 but was released after just 11 years in 1988 and transferred to Nevada State Prison, where he then served just seven months of a five-years to life sentence.

Phillip was released from Nevada State prison on August 26, 1988, and less than three years later kidnapped and raped again.

He was back in custody on those same charges 21 years later to the day - on August 26, 2009.
Tourists in France will be protected by armed police and soldiers at holiday sites, including beaches, this summer, it has emerged.

Britons visiting the country will see increased security at festivals, fairs and beaches, as well as stations and airports.

It comes a day after the southern resort of Cannes banned people taking bags onto its beaches amid fears that France could be hit with further terror attacks.

Tourists in France will be protected by armed police and soldiers at holiday sites, including beaches, this summer, it has emerged.

Cannes (pictured) has banned all bags big enough to conceal a weapon inside from its beaches amid increased fears over the terror threat to France

The town's mayor David Lisnard announced the ban on any bag which could conceal a weapon on Wednesday, in response to the massacre in Nice almost two weeks ago.

The decision also comes the day after an 85-year-old priest was murdered as he performed morning mass in Normandy.

According to 20Minutes, a spokesman for Cannes town hall explained: 'The Mayor has put in place additional protection for locals and tourists on the beaches, under the State of Emergency, banning the possession and transporting of large containers (backpacks, suitcases or other luggage), the opacity and size could hide dangerous materials, weapons or explosives.'

People are being encouraged to carry 'see-through' bags instead, the Mirror claimed.

The ban will remain in place until the end of October - comes amid a growing wave of panic in France, which has suffered seven fatal terror attacks since the start of 2015.

The Cote d'Azur has been flooded with rumours of further possible attacks following the murders in Nice, when Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel drove a lorry into a crowd on the Promenade des Anglais on Bastille Day, killing 84 innocent people.

Today, police were forced to deny they had foiled an attack on Jaun-le-Pins, which sits in between Nice and Cannes.

The ban comes almost two weeks after 84 people lost their lives in Nice, just 20 miles along the coast. Pictured: A makeshift memorial on the Promenade des Anglais in Nice

According to Nice Matin, a message being shared on social media earlier on Wednesday read: 'A truck full of heavy weapons and explosives had been found in Saint-Tropez and Marseille for an attack in Antibes.'

Police have denied the rumour - saying there had never been any such plot.
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Sarah Silverman's Twitter account was hacked on Wednesday after declaring in her speech at the Democratic National Convention that she would support Hillary Clinton for president.

The stand-up comic had been an avid Bernie Sanders follower throughout his campaign for president, until publicly stating that she would stand behind Clinton in a speech on Monday, switching her allegiance.

A suspicious message that called for '#Hilary4Prison (sic)' was posted on Silverman's account that included a link to a video titled 'Anonymous - Message to Hillary Clinton' asked her followers, 'America, are you awakening?'

Minutes after the tweet went live, Silverman linked back to the tweet in question, which has now been deleted, claiming her account was hacked.

'MY TWITTER ACCT GOT HACKED THIS IS NOT ME,' the 45-year-old wrote in all capital letters.

Silverman had strong words for her fellow Bernie Sanders supporters on Monday night when she told them to get over themselves and throw their weight behind Hillary.

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Controversial: Sarah Silverman (pictured with Minnesota Senator and SNL veteran Al Franken) told Bernie Sanders' supporters on Monday that they were 'being ridiculous' and needed to calm down and to get behind Hillary Clinton for president

Plain speaking: Comedian Sarah Silverman didn't mince words with her message to die-hard Bernie Sanders supporters

Difference of opinion: Sarah Silverman (right), standing alongside Sen. Al Franken (left) irritated the Bernie or Bust people in the convention audience by suggesting that they give it up

Hacked: The 45-year-old's Twitter account (above) was hacked on Wednesday. A suspicious message that called for '#Hilary4Prison (sic)' was posted that included a link to a video titled 'Anonymous - Message to Hillary Clinton' asked her followers, 'America, are you awakening?'

Standing alongside Minnesota Senator Al Franken, Silverman confirmed she would 'vote for Hillary with gusto, to be inspired by the ideals set forth by Bernie.'

This drew loud jeers from some sections of the crowd who broke out into a chant of 'Bernie', only to be scolded by Silverman who shot back, 'To the Bernie or Bust people, you're being ridiculous.'

Earlier as they spoke on stage, Silverman displayed some trademark edgy humor by declaring that despite 'feeling the Bern' during the primaries, she was now applying 'some cream on it'.

She went on to justify to the crowd why she had switched sides and dropped her erstwhile vociferous support for the defeated Sanders.

'As some of you know, I support Bernie Sanders and the movement behind him. And Bernie has already succeeded in so many ways.  Not only did Bernie wake us up, he made us understand what is possible and what we deserve,' said Silverman.

'Hillary heard the passion of the people, the people behind Bernie and brought those passions into the party's platform, and that is the process of democracy at its very best.

'And it is very cool to see. Hillary is our democratic nominee and I will probably vote for her.'

Indeed, it appeared that Silverman's divisive outburst that followed was unplanned and unscripted.

The comedian and Franken had to play for time when musician Paul Simon wasn't ready to begin his performance, leaving Silverman appearing to ask offstage if they had to 'stretch' out their segment.

The crowd was split between yelling for Hillary and Bernie as Silverman and Franken spoke.

The comedian was one of a number of prominent entertainers who backed Sanders in the Democratic primary against Hillary Clinton. But Silverman told the crowd in Philadelphia that she plans to vote for Clinton. The crowd then broke into chants of 'Bernie, Bernie,' but she quickly shot back with her quip.

Anger: Bernie Sanders supporters stand in the arena on the first day of the Democratic National Convention at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia

'Hillary is our Democratic nominee and I will proudly vote for her,' said Silverman.

'Just a few years ago she was a secretary and now she's going to be president,' the comedian cracked.

Sanders' supporters were not impressed, however.

'She's the only person to ever be overqualified for the job as president,' Silverman continued.

'I will tell you this, I will vote for Hillary with gusto,' she said.

'As I continue to be inspired and moved to action with the ideals set forward by Bernie, who will never stop fighting for us, I am proud to be a part of Bernie's movement, and a vital part of that movement is making absolutely sure that Hillary Clinton is the next president of the United States'.

However, that only inspired Sanders' supporters to chant 'Bernie' louder.

That's when the comic labeled them 'ridiculous.'

The awkwardness of the moment was not lost on Franken who tried to bring back some levity.

'This is a comedian,' he said. 'This is the power of comedy'.

Silverman then attempted to make a joke while still playing for time as Paul Simon readied himself following her admonishment of the Sanders crowd.

'Thank God they can fix this in post-production,' said Silverman.

Sliverman and Franken then introduced Simon, who sang the apt 'Bridge Over Troubled Waters', signifying the attempted unification of the Democratic Party.

Silverman spoke to CNN after the convention had finished for the evening to confirm that her comments were not planned.

'No, it wasn't scripted at all,' said Silverman. 'It was like an old-timey movie where we got to the part where we were introducing Paul Simon and the guy next to us was going (motioning to stretch'.

She also explained that even though she was a Clinton fan before Sanders, she 'was swept off her feet' by the Vermont senator.

Giving her opinion on Sanders' convention speech, Silverman said she thought he had effectively bridged the gap between the two supporters.

'I think most Sanders supporters are reasonable people who realize Bernie and Hillary have so much in common  they have a lot of the same values,' she said.

The 74-year-old legendary musician gave a rendition of Simon and Garfunkel's 1970 classic, Bridge Over Troubled Water on Monday before Bernie Sanders took the stage

And it's on: Baltimore mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake raises the gavel as she calls the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia to order - as outside Bernie Sanders protesters booed so loudly the hall could hear them. In fact, she was late to do it

Earlier, Demi Lovato had sang her song 'Confident', giving a moving speech about mental health care beforehand.

'Like millions of Americans, I am living with mental illness but I'm lucky to have the resources and support to get treatment,' she said to the convention to thunderous applause.

'This is about politics. It's simply the right thing to do,' said Lovato.

'I am proud to support a presidential candidate who will fight to ensure all people with mental health conditions get the care they need to live fulfilling lives.'

Eva Longoria followed after Silverman and Franken - and made an appearance on stage to launch an attack on Donald Trump's infamous Wall and anti immigration policies.

She told the gathered crowd in Philadelphia that her father 'isn't a criminal or a rapist. In fact, he's a United States veteran.'

She then introduced New Jersey Senator Corey Booker who electrified the convention with a speech about love and acceptance above tolerance and patience, while the two big hitters of the night, Michelle Obama and Bernie Sanders came later.

Silverman's comments and the overzealous response were just a taste of the chaos that unfolded on Monday as the the Democratic National Convention opened.

Powerful: Singer Demi Lovato gave a dramatic performance at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Hollywood glamour: Susan Sarandon arrives on the convention floor during the first day of the Democratic National Convention

The new acting chair of proceedings, Marcia Fudge - brought in after DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz quit in disgrace when her anti-Sanders bias was revealed - desperately called for 'respect'.

Even the opening prayer was interrupted by chants of 'Bernie, Bernie' which began from protesters outside the venue and quickly spread inside.

In the tumult the gavelling went wrong as Baltimore mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, drafted in at the last minute to replace Wasserman Schultz, forgot to use the gavel and had to rush back on stage to bring it down to formally open proceedings.

'I hereby call the Democratic National Convention 2016 to order,' she said to cheers, walked away from the podium, then was intercepted by an aide who ushered her back and reminded her to use the gavel. She flashed a thumbs-up sign as she left for the second time.

The signs of tumult were on display almost immediately inside the Democratic convention hall.

Cynthia Hayle, pastor of Ray of Hope Christian church, delivered an opening prayer where she warned: 'There is tension and dissension in the land. This is not your will for us, and we know it.'

But even her prayer couldn't stop a raw show of emotion. After she enthusiastically spoke about nominating Hillary Clinton, the crowd burst into chants of 'Hillary!' which quickly got joined by chants of 'Bernie!' by his supporters in the hall.

There were also some shouted boos when former Rep. Barnie Frank, once considered a liberal icon for his fiery denunciations of Republicans and for serving while openly gay, was announced.

Dodd is also the co-author of the Dodd-Frank bill reviled on the left and denounced by Sanders. 'Thank you - or not - as the case may be,' Frank quipped on stage.

Sanders supporters again burst into anti-TPP chants after Maryland Rep. Elijah Cummings said, 'Our party knows that our diversity is not our problem but is our promise.

'That's why ours - ours - is the party of unity and not division,' he said.

A delegate then issued the progressive war cry - 'mic check' - setting off a new round of shouting about the trade deal that lasted until the African-American congressman finished his speech.

Cummings told them he was 'proud of our platform committee, our truly progressive platform' and 'our great nominee Hillary Clinton.'

'And if my father, that brilliant man with a 4th grade education but a mind full of wisdom and common sense was standing here with us tonight. I know he would be proud of all of you, and he would say these words, that this election is bigger than Hillary Clinton, bigger than Bernie Sanders, it's bigger than all of us,' he yelled into the microphone at the conclusion of his remarks over their incessant shouting.

'It's about generations yet unborn. And he would say, and he would say these simple words: You are blessed so you can bless others. Go out there and vote, and don't stop lifting up the American people,' Cummings said before leaving the stage.

Big introduction: Actress Eva Longoria introduces Sen. Cory Booker, D-NJ., during the first day of the Democratic National Convention

Grandstand performance: Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) reacts to actress Eva Longoria (R) as he arrives onstage to speak and give a speech that electrified the convention

Endorsement: Michelle Obama offered an unequivocal endorsement for Hillary Clinton. The first lady said Clinton - a former secretary of state, senator and first lady herself - is the 'one person who I truly believe is qualified to be president of the United States.'

Arrival: Senator Bernie Sanders finally addressed the convention after Michelle Obama had spoken and urged his supporters to support and vote for Hillary Clinton to be president

Thumbs down: Delegates representing Bernie Sanders showed their dissent from the pro-Clinton rhetoric on stage

Berning anger: The pro-Sanders feeling on the floor of the convention was palpable as delegates protested against the DNC

Storm of protest: The theme inside the hall was supposed to be party unity - but Bernie Sanders supporters stood up waving placards and booed every mention of Hillary Clinton's name.

He's not with her: A Democratic delegate makes his feelings clear as Marcia Fudge (right), brought in to chair proceedings after Debbie Wasserman Schultz resigned in disgrace pleads for 'respect' from the floor

Someone's with her: It was not one-way traffic for the Bernie Sanders delegates, with one woman brandishing a pro-Clinton sign

No doubt how she stands: Any semblance of unity in the party was in tatters as the opening session descended into chaos

'Bernie, Bernie': Sanders supporters were vocal in their condemnation of the platform as they chanted the defeated Democratic presidential candidate's name

Looks deceive: Steny Hoyer's cheer (left) is deceptive - as soon as the Congressman said he was there to nominate Hillary Clinton, he was booed too by Sanders supporters. Elijah Cummings was booed over his support for the TPP trade pact

What they see: This was the view for thousands of delegates entering the arena - a show of support by Bernie Sanders supporters

Not with her either: Pensacola might be for Clinton but these two younger Democratic delegates clearly were not

No doubt who they back: As demonstrators gathered at the entrance to the Democratic National Convention it was Bernie Sanders who was being brandished as the symbol of protest

Not with her: Bernie Sanders supporters made clear their feelings as they gathered outside the arena. Inside Hillary Clinton's name was booed every time it was said

Open goal: Bernie Sanders supporters highlighted the leaked emails which forced Debbie Wasserman Schultz to quit in disgrace as they marched through Philadelphia

The first mention of Senator Tim Kane, by Rep. Marcia Fudge, also brought a hail of loud boos and jeers.

The opening speech by Fudge, considered a liberal member of the black caucus, got interrupted over and over by the boisterous crowd.

Every time she mentioned Clinton's name it set off cheers and countering boos. 'Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine want to build an economy that works for everyone,' she said, in one of many bromides that nevertheless brought loud boos.

'Hillary Clinton this is your time!' she said  again prompting boos.

Eventually, she was obliged to lecture the crowd. 'WE are all Democrats and we need to act like it!' she said. 'May I just make a point,' Fudge said, trying to be heard.

Anger: Bernie Sanders supporters were in the vanguard of protests in downtown Philadelphia aimed at highlighting the email scandal

Lock them out: Bernie Sanders supporters gathered to make their point clear at the massive security fence around the venue

Clear what they think: Bernie Sanders supporters were among the groups on the streets of Philadelphia

Setting the tone: Mostly left-wing protesters in Philadelphia were joined by the conspiracy theory website InfoWars which called for Clinton to be jailed

Never Hillary: 'This obviously isn't an official Sanders event as you can tell' said Luke Pailthorpe, 19, a Sanders delegate from Iowa. 'But it's great to see so many people with such passion.'

Jail her: 'Forget the White House, she should be in a jail cell,' said Cindy Collins, 50, from Pittman, New Jersey. 'There was corruption and repression at every step of the primary campaign,'




Woman was also shot in the leg at party and another man injured shoulder

34-year-old collapsed after being blasted in the chest at the 1m mansion

Man shot dead at the 'sex pool party' has been named as Ricardo Hunter

The man shot dead at a 'sex pool party' held in Surrey has been named as Ricardo Hunter.

The 34-year-old collapsed after being blasted in the chest in the early hours of Monday at the 1 million mansion in Headley, near Leatherhead.

A 36-year-old woman was also shot in the leg at the packed private party organised by Jamaican rapper Jason White, 21, and his wealthy girlfriend Summerlyn Farquharson, also known as 'The Female Boss Krissy'.

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Ricardo Hunter, 34, (pictured) was killed by a single gunshot wound to the chest in the early hours of Monday

The victim collapsed after being shot in the chest at the 1m mansion in Headley, near Leatherhead (pictured)

Another man suffered a shoulder wound after a row erupted between so-called 'Yardie' gangsters, a witness said.

A post-mortem examination on Mr Hunter from Coulsdon in Surrey gave the cause of death as a single gunshot wound.

A 38-year-old man from London remains in custody after detectives arrested him on suspicion of murder and attempted murder.

A 30-year-old woman from London arrested on suspicion of assisting an offender was released on conditional bail until September.

Jamaican rapper Jason White posted adverts for the party on his Instagram account (left). He is listed on the advert as an organiser along with his girlfriend Summerlyn Farquharson, also known as 'Krissy' (right)

Packed: This is a snapchat image of the party at its height showing the garden absolutely filled with revellers

Forensic teams are still examining the property in Church Lane and are expected to be there for a number of days.

Detective Chief Inspector Paul Rymarz, from the Surrey and Sussex Major Crime Team, said: 'This was a shocking incident where a man lost his life and we are determined to bring those responsible to justice.

'Following the incident we quickly launched a large-scale police investigation to speak to anyone who was at the private pool party and gather all relevant information to establish what happened.

'We know there were several hundred people at the pool party in Church Lane on the evening of Sunday, 24 July into the early hours of Monday, 25 July and although we have already spoken to a number of witnesses we intend to speak to everyone who was at the party.

The organisers of the party, 'The Female Boss Krissy', left, on Instagram at the house, and dancehall star Jason White, also known as 'Braintear Spookie', right, by the pool

'I would therefore ask anyone who was at the event and may have seen what happened or with any footage or information who has not spoken to police to come forward as a matter of urgency.

'I would like to assure people that we will treat any reports or information provided in the strictest confidence.

'This incident has understandably sent shockwaves through the Headley community and we are working with our Safer Neighbourhood Team colleagues to update and reassure residents.

'I would like to thank residents their patience while our investigation continues and stress that we do not believe there is any ongoing risk to Headley residents.'
Paedophile: Jimmy Savile's victims will receive payouts of more than 1.8million from his estate

Jimmy Savile's sex abuse victims will receive more than 1.8million in payouts from his 3.3million estate, a High Court judge has ruled.

Despite the estate now being 'insolvent in a substantial sum', Mr Justice Warren said he had 'no hesitation' in approving payouts to the disgraced DJ's victims.

Legal costs from NatWest bank in administering the estate are already in excess of 1.4million.

Osborne Clarke, who acted for NatWest bank in its role as estate executor, has become the target of criticism for the legal charges.

But Mr Justice Warren, sitting in London, ruled the fees were reasonable and no item of expense was improper.

Other claims from victims are still outstanding against the estate but the judge said 'a line has to be drawn somewhere'.

He said the main question for him was whether to approve the payouts to victims where there were still a number of out-of-time and rejected claims.

But he said the bank could not be expected to retain assets indefinitely against the possibility of proceedings being commenced by victims.

Critics expressed disappointment with the level of compensation authorised by the High Court.

Gabrielle Shaw, chief executive of the National Association for People Abused in Childhood (NAPAC), said 'Survivors will be disappointed by this ruling.

'The money in cases like this is most often used by survivors to support their recovery through therapy and other interventions, and this recovery often takes years.

'We know that state resources are tremendously stretched, with GPs and others who survivors look to for support struggling to cope with the demand'.

Labour MP John Mann, who has campaigned against child sex abuse, said: 'Yet again the legal profession is ruling that the legal profession should make huge profit out of people's suffering.'

When the Savile died aged 84 in October 2011, his estate was worth some 4.3million - but 1million was immediately swallowed up in legal costs.

A scheme was set up to deal to claims from victims, which the judge said 'has effectively run its course'.

While Savile's estate has run out of money, it would still be possible for victims to make claims against the 'premises [where] the alleged abuse took place', said the judge.

Payouts: Despite the Savile estate now being 'insolvent in a substantial sum', High Court judge Mr Justice Warren said he had 'no hesitation' in approving payouts to the disgraced DJ's victims

Outrage: Osborne Clarke, who acted for NatWest bank in its role as estate executor, has become the target of criticism for legal charges in excess of 1.4million

Claims are still outstanding against the Health Secretary responsible for the NHS, the BBC and Barnardos.

Back in 2014 the Appeal Court ruled that genuine victims have first claim on what is left of his estate.

Once the victims have been paid, there will be nothing left for those individuals named in Savile's will.

It is believed that that he abused at least 1,000 victims over a period of 60 years.

Victims launched compensation bids after Savile became the subject of an ITV television programme broadcast a year after his death.

Savile, who worked at the BBC, had been accused of being a ''serial child abuser and sex offender'' - and was alleged to have abused people in hospitals.

According to reports, Savile sexually assaulted victims as young as five at NHS hospitals during decades of unrestricted access.
A video of an angry Bernie Sanders delegate blasting both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton has gone viral.

Portia Boulger, of Chillicothe, Ohio, was filmed speaking after Sanders speech at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia on Monday, during which the Vermont senator urged his delegates to support Clinton.

When asked afterwards if Trump was better, Boulger ranted that she didnt give a f*** about the Republican nominee for the White House.

She said it was time for the Democratic Party to clean house, citing the controversy surrounding the DNC email hack that led to the resignation of party chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz.

I don't give a f*** about Trump, okay? Trump is dangerous for this country and so is Hillary Clinton, Boulger said.

What's she going to do for me? What's she going to do for my children? What is she going to do for my community?

Is she going to frack the hell out of it? Is she going to put more of the soldiers on the ground?

Boulger added: Do you believe one damn word a woman like her says? How can America believe this when yesterday she proved to us that when you're a corrupt person she's going to promote you?

What did she do with Debbie Wasserman Schultz? She promoted her. So what does that say about the Democratic Party? We need to clean house.

We need to clean house and I hope everybody understands the seriousness of this.

Portia Boulger (pictured) ranted about Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton in a video that's gone viral

She was filmed speaking after Sanders speech at the Democratic National Convention on Monday

Ohio delegate Portia Boulger (pictured with Bernie Sanders) said the DNC needs to 'clean house'

Boulger urged people to get behind democracy harder than we ever have in our entire lives or were not going to have any democracy.

She concluded: 'I will not spent what few years I've got left on this earth to help someone like Hillary Clinton so come get my credentials!'

The video was posted on Facebook by Claudia Stauber and has since racked up more than 10 million views.

Boulger later explained what fueled her outburst.

'WE NEED TO CLEAN HOUSE!' PORTIA BOULGER'S FULL RANT I don't give a f*** about Trump, okay? Trump is dangerous for this country and so is Hillary Clinton. What's she going to do for me? What's she going to do for my children? What is she going to do for my community? Is she going to frack the hell out of it? Is she going to put more of the soldiers on the ground? Do you believe one damn word a woman like her says? How can America believe this when yesterday she proved to us that when you're a corrupt person she's going to promote you? What did she do with Debbie Wasserman Schultz? She promoted her. So what does that say about the Democratic Party? We need to clean house. We need to clean house. Yes, we need to clean house and I hope everybody understands the seriousness of this. If we, the people, do not get behind democracy harder than we ever have in our entire lives, were not going to have any democracy. People have been laughing at me and - 'Oh, well you know they've been saying that forever - do you remember this? Do you remember that?' What I remember is is that by the thousands and hundreds of thousand, people were wiped off the voter rolls. People's affiliation was flipped from one party to another. Did we hear the leaders of the Democratic Party including President Obama get out and try to do anything about it? No! We gotta stop it. We gotta clean house. We gotta demand it. We've gotta stay with ourselves and build this revolution. Bernie wants to help us build the revolution but I'm not a sheep for Bernie or anybody else and I will not spent what few years I've got left on this earth to help someone like Hillary Clinton so come get my credentials! Advertisement

Boulger is pictured with the former president of the NAACP Benjamin Jealous at the DNC this week

I was angry at the system. I was angry at the Democratic bosses, she told The Real News.

Debbie Wasserman Schultz resigned under severe pressure.

She also named DNC interim party chair Donna Braziles, communications director Luis Miranda and chief financial officer Brad Marshall.

I'm very angry with these people because they have stolen my democracy. They have gutted my party.
A resettled former Guantanamo prisoner who disappeared last month in Uruguay, setting off alarm bells in neighboring countries and recriminations in Washington, has reappeared in Venezuela, an official said Wednesday.

Uruguayan Foreign Minister Rodolfo Nin Novoa said that Syrian native Abu Wa'el Dhiab showed up at his country's consulate in Caracas. Consulate officials refused to provide information or entry to AP journalists gathered outside.

Dhiab reportedly had last been seen in mid-July in Chuy, a small city on the Uruguay-Brazil border that is home to a small Arab community.

Abu Wa'el Dhiab (pictured right in June 2015), who disappeared in June 2016 in Uruguay, setting off alarm bells in neighboring countries and recriminations in Washington, has reappeared in Venezuela according to Uruguay's Foreign Minister Rodolfo Nin Novoa

He is one of six former Guantanamo prisoners who were resettled in Uruguay after being released by US authorities in 2014, invited by then President Jose Mujica as a humanitarian gesture.

The men had been detained in 2002 for suspected ties to al-Qaida. They were held without charge like hundreds of others at Guantanamo before the US government cleared them for release.

There are no charges against Dhiab or order for his arrest, and Uruguayan officials had said that as a refugee he has the right to leave the South American country.

But Dhiab's disappearance raised concerns, as well as questions about how closely countries that resettle former Guantanamo inmates should watch them and for how long, as the United States prepares to release more prisoners.

US lawmakers trying to block President Barack Obama from closing the detention center recently scolded his administration for losing track of Dhiab.

The US envoy in Montevideo also expressed concerns about the lack of information on his whereabouts.

Ambassador Kelly Keiderling said it's up to Uruguay to say whether Dhiab can travel, though she added that she would prefer he stay in Uruguay.

When questioned at a news conference, she said Dhiab 'could be, yes, theoretically,' a threat.

Colombia-based Avianca Airlines recently issued an internal alert saying Dhiab could be using a fake passport trying to enter Brazil, the site of the summer Olympics.

Dhiab was reportedly last seen in mid-July in the city of Chuy (pictured), a small border town that separates Uruguay and Brazil

The airline said the alert was issued based on information provided by Brazil's federal police, which had been looking for Dhiab.

The Uruguayan government has provided social services and financial support to Dhiab and the five other former detainees  three others from Syria, a Tunisian and a Palestinian.

But the men have struggled to adjust and have complained about not getting enough help from Uruguayan officials.

Dhiab has been the most vocal about his unhappiness.

Last year, he visited neighboring Argentina. In an orange jumpsuit like those Guantanamo prisoners have worn, he told news media in Buenos Aires that he planned to seek asylum for himself and the other detainees still held at the US naval base in eastern Cuba.

In an interview with the Uruguayan magazine Busqueda, Dhiab said he was never a terrorist, but sympathizes with al-Qaida because of the torture that he endured in Guantanamo.

He also has accused Uruguay of breaking its commitment to bring his family.

Dhiab is one of six former Guantanamo prisoners who were resettled in Uruguay after being released by US authorities in 2014, invited by then President Jose Mujica as a humanitarian gesture. Camp Delta, a detainment camp at Guantanamo Bay, is seen in this file photo

Jon Eisenberg, a US lawyer who represented Dhiab while he was detained at Guantanamo, said he has not been in contact with the former prisoner since a phone call in June but has heard from a contact in Uruguay that the report of his being in Venezuela is accurate.

Eisenberg said Dhiab was very concerned about his wife and three children, who fled the Syrian civil war for Turkey but then had to return to their homeland for financial reasons.

They were in a Syrian village that was bombed by government forces in November 2015.

The lawyer said that when he last spoke with the former prisoner, Dhiab was hopeful that his family might be brought to Uruguay.
As any good parent knows, first you ask your kids to get ready. Second, you ask them again. Third, you start shouting random words like 'socks', 'toilet', 'shoes'. And finally you throw something across the kitchen, yelling, 'Right, that's it  I'm going!' and take two minutes in the car to calm down, sweating from the nose, remembering why you hate perfect-pants Mary Berry.

Watching people try to achieve this politely is almost comical. And so it is proving with Theresa May. She is supposed to be getting us out of the door with Brexit.

But instead she has made the terrific blunder of announcing she will not trigger Article 50 until all devolved nations are in agreement. She wants Scotland and Northern Ireland to buy in. She doesn't even seem very keen on upsetting the Irish Republic. Or the French. Or the Germans. Or the Italians. Or... well you get the picture.

Theresa May has made the terrific blunder of announcing she will not trigger Article 50 until all devolved nations are in agreement

At home she's hoping for an agreed UK approach and objectives before she triggers Article 50.

Good luck with that.

That's the equivalent of telling the kids they are not getting in the car until they've had enough time playing Pokemon Go or messaging their mates. It's never going to happen.

They don't want to leave, so they are going to make our life about as hard as you never knew it could get.

All Grey May has managed is to put power back in the pocket of the Poison Dwarf from the North, making her think she has a veto over our democratic decision to Leave. And to get Martin McGuinness's trigger fingers twitching about the border between Ireland and Northern Ireland.

The Scottish and Irish leaders have puffed out their chests with nationalist pride and started sounding off about the deals they are going to make.

The Dwarf from the North says 'Remain means Remain' and that Scotland will continue to look at all avenues to remain inside the EU. She says the 62 per cent who voted Remain have given her the mandate to act, and a second referendum is likely.

They don't want to leave, so they are going to make our life about as hard as you never knew it could get. Katie Hopkins

Shouting up from her position at nipple-height to Theresa May, she said she was 'pleased Theresa was willing to consider any positions the Scottish government forwards to secure an ongoing relationship with the EU'.

Perhaps the Scottish Not Prime Minister should know her place.

Behind the bravado is the uncomfortable truth that Scotland's deficit is supported by UK fiscal transfers worth more than 5 per cent of GDP. We are paying for Scotland's debt. And their healthcare and free university tuition.

And so far nobody in the EU seems very keen on adding another basket case to its extensive collection.

Secondly, for all her hot air and bluster, a second referendum on independence would be a much harder sell this time around.

My Scottish friends despair at the thought. With EU membership uncertain, North Sea oil prices plummeting and their own currency plan destroyed by Brexit, Sturgeon would be setting out a stall of rotten fish eggs. No one is going to buy.

British trade makes up 29 per cent of Scotland's GDP. Phillip Hammond said he could not envisage a scenario in which Scotland had a different relationship with Europe than the rest of the UK.

With EU membership uncertain, North Sea oil prices plummeting and their own currency plan destroyed by Brexit, Sturgeon would be setting out a stall of rotten fish eggs. No one is going to buy

The Scottish and Irish leaders have puffed out their chests with nationalist pride and started sounding off about the deals they are going to make. Pictured, Mrs May with the First Minister of Northern Ireland Martin McGuinness (right) and Deputy First Minister Arlene Foster (left)

Scotland cannot be in the EU if the rest of the UK is out.

A new Hadrian's Wall is the very last thing Sturgeon needs.

Theresa May would have been better placed to stay in Westminster, ask someone to pass down the telephone to the Dwarf from the North, and tell her to pick a Union rather than scuttling up there on Day 1 of her premiership.

May should tell her to pick the United Kingdom and pipe down with her nonsense.

Ireland is no better. Theresa May is now promising to engage with Northern Ireland's devolved administrations on negotiations out of the EU.

Fixated on the possibility of a reinstated border between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, Deputy First Minister Martin McGuiness wants to have a vote on Irish reunification, and for a unified Ireland to remain in the EU.

It seems to me that in trying to please everyone, Theresa May is pleasing no one. Katie Hopkins

Meanwhile, in Dublin the Leader of the Republic of Ireland, Mr Kenny has been banging on about that fact Ireland is the only EU member to state that shares a land border with the UK, and is also threatening a future vote on Irish unity in the wake of Brexit.

Concerned about the impact of Leave on the Common Travel Area, and the impact of a border on trade, travel and the Northern Ireland Peace Process, Ireland is fixating on the border in the same way the Scottish are fixated on derailing any plans coming out of Westminster.

Maybe they still haven't got over the fact the Great Britain was insulated from the ruinous policies of the EU during the last financial crises.

While the economic interdependency of a shared currency brought Ireland to its knees and the utter humiliation of having their entire ball-breaking budget set by Brussels in return for a national bail-out.

Perhaps Mr Kenny has forgotten our trade with Ireland is worth almost 1billion a week, supporting 400,000 jobs across our islands?

In truth there is a strong will to preserve the Common Travel Area between north and south and there have never been real border controls between the Republic and UK citizens.

But there is a simple answer for Northern Ireland. Pick a side. Continue your relationship with your biggest trade partner, the UK, or work out your own border control with the rest of the EU.

Meanwhile, in Dublin the Leader of the Republic of Ireland, Mr Kenny (pictured) has been banging on about that fact Ireland is the only EU member to state that shares a land border with the UK

She wants Scotland and Northern Ireland to buy in. She doesn't even seem very keen on upsetting the Irish Republic. Or the French. Or the Germans. Or the Italians. Or... well you get the picture. Pictured, Mrs May with Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi

It's a similar choice for Dublin. If you want to keep an open border with the North, not to mention freedom of movement across the Irish sea by boat and plane, you will have to impose your own restrictions on travel to the EU.

If you want choices, you need to own your problems.

The Chairman of the Northern Ireland CBI has said 'whatever the actual outcomes of the negotiations, our members recognise the need to get on with it.'

And that's my feeling about Brexit too. Get on with it.

Theresa May needs to be reminded Brexit won the referendum to leave the EU. We didn't vote for a pause or a fudge. We aren't children. We can't be bought with sweets. Katie Hopkins

It seems to me that in trying to please everyone, Theresa May is pleasing no one. We have the wee Krankie in the North telling us she has power over our decision-making. And ex-IRA Man waving his weaponry about, threatening the peace process.

Meanwhile a dithering Grey May looks for some monumental fudge which will dismay Brexiteers.

Keeping the Union intact and preserving open borders between Ireland and Northern Ireland may yet water Brexit down to something unacceptable to those who voted for it.

Europe may be trying to hand us a deal which gives us a temporary pause on freedom of movement and protects our single access to the single market. This is not what we voted for.

It might keep the Union together, as a compromise which might please Northern Ireland and Scotland, but would guarantee disappointment for Remainers and Brexiteers.

Theresa May said 'Brexit means Brexit'. But her continued reluctance to trigger Article 50, to appease Scotland and Northern Ireland, and her lack of appetite for a timetable to leave are saying something very different.

The kids are running circles around her. At this rate she will never get out the door.

Scotland needs to pick a Union. And both Irelands need to pick which trading partner matters more.

When push comes to shove they will stick with the devil they know.

And Theresa May needs to be reminded Brexit won the referendum to leave the EU. We didn't vote for a pause or a fudge. We aren't children. We can't be bought with sweets.
A Black Lives Matter supporter has caused outrage on social media after being caught on camera ripping down blue ribbons tied around trees and telephone poles to support law enforcement officers.

Stephen Anthony Varvaro can be heard shouting 'Black lives matter! Black lives matter!' in the video clip while snatching the blue ribbons off in Castleton Corners area of Staten Island.

'All lives are being persecuted right now ... black lives are,' he yelled.

The ribbons were put on the poles and trees to remember the police officers killed in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and Dallas, Texas earlier this month.

The person who filmed Varvaro can be heard shouting out his car window: 'All lives matter! Blue lives save all lives!'

Stephen Anthony Varvaro can be heard shouting 'Black lives matter! Black lives matter!' in the video clip while snatching the blue ribbons off in Castleton Corners area of Staten Island. The ribbons are to honor law enforcement officers

Varvaro simply said, 'whatever bro', and kept walking down the street.

The motorist then told him 'you're disgusting', as Varvaro did not stop and continued to rip down more ribbons before cursing at the person filming the video and running off.

Since the video was shared to Facebook and gone viral, many users who support law enforcement officers have slammed Varvaro online.

'I pray you never need help from (law enforcement),' Robert LeDoux said in a post addressing Varvaro. 'I bet your life don't matter as much as it used to.'

Varvaro apologized for his actions on Wednesday after being bombarded with threatening messages via social media before taking down his accounts on Facebook and Instagram.

'I know that what I did was wrong,' said Varvaro told the Staten Island Advance. 'Tearing the ribbons down was the wrong thing to do. It was disrespectful.'

The person who filmed Varvaro (above) can be heard shouting out his car window: 'All lives matter! Blue lives save all lives!' Varvaro simply said, 'whatever bro', and kept walking down the street.

The motorist then told him 'you're disgusting', as Varvaro did not stop and continued to rip down (left and right) more ribbons before cursing at the person filming the video and running off.

He explained that he took the blue ribbons down because 'what I thought they meant was to hell with Black Lives Matter.

'I assumed, I was hasty, I acted in anger. I didn't see blue when I saw the blue ribbons, I saw red and I was angry and I lost control.'

He added: 'I'm in no way against Blue Lives Matter.'

Varvaro stated that he now recognized that the ribbons aren't a sign of approval for the NYPD, but 'really in support of families with police officers in them.'

In addition, Varvaro said that he feels awful because he has family members who are police officers.

'I'm getting threats about it and I don't feel safe on the island anymore,' Varvaro said.

His apology didn't come quick enough, as many on social media have posted messages on the Facebook page belonging to the Ted & Company Salon and Spa in Dongan Hills where he worked.

Varvaro (above) apologized for his actions on Wednesday after being bombarded with threatening messages via social media before taking down his accounts on Facebook and Instagram.

'I would never step foot into a place that hires such angry volger (sic) people. Hopefully you will realize what a sick individual stephen anthony varvaro (sic) is and rid your company of him,' Zac Corbin wrote on their page.

The owner of the salon said that he is no longer an employee and hasn't worked there in three weeks.

'My employees are frightened to be in the building,' the owner Ted, who declined to provide his last name, told the Advance.

He said that the shocking video of Varvaro has been terrible for his business.

He is offering a 20 per cent discount for all services at the salon for anyone who works in law enforcement to show their appreciation.
What might be the scariest Hollywood-produced movie of the year isn't airing in theaters  but it will be shown to delegates of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia.

Blockbuster movie director James Cameron has helped produce a teeth-rattling short film about the dangers of global warming, deploying skills he usually uses to jolt viewers in his epic thrillers to get them worried about the threat of climate changes.

'Crops are failing. Food prices are rising.  our children are at risk,' says narrator Sigourney Weaver, who starred in the 'Alien' movies.

Weaver later appeared at the Democratic National Convention to warn that Donald Trump doesn't care about climate change.

'Can Donald Trump look these people in the eye and tell them that climate change is a hoax? That he doesn't care about their pain.

'Hillary Clinton, she gets it - she cars.'

The film begins with scary images of burning forests, cracked earth, vicious storms, pollution, and waves slamming into a sea wall.

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This is a disaster! The James Cameron-produced film shows the many calamities linked to man-made global warming

Sigourney Weaver, pictured at the Democratic National Convention, the star of the Alien franchise, is the narrator of the film

Dire warning: Sigourney Weaver, warned the DNC that Donald Trump doesn't care about climate change

He's back! Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican, worked with Cameron on the Terminator films

Time is running out! The film features dramatic images of factories spewing out emissions

The film makes life after unaddressed global warming look like a disaster movie

As the images of calamities role, in actor and former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger weighs in: 'Because of global warming, mountain snow melts earlier each year. And when that happens, the ground dries up earlier too,' he says.

Weaver delivers the films most political anti-Trump lines in the film, which runs just under 5 1/2 minutes.

'It's not reality TV. Make no mistake  Trump's reckless denial of climate change is dangerous. A threat to your livelihood, your safety, your children, and the prosperity of this nation.'

The film is named 'Not reality TV' in another shot at Trump.

Then the films directors let Trump do the talking, with clips of him on the campaign trail ridiculing the science of global warming, notwithstanding the near consensus among climate scientists that the world's climate is rising due to man-made events.

'A lot of it's a hoax  It's a hoax!' Trump says.

'We're going to cancel the Paris climate agreement,' Trump says.

Then he is shown laughing off the threat. 'Speaking of global waring, where is ... We need some global warming. It's freezing!'

One interview subject calls it a non-partisan issue, while a pastor raises religious issues about global warming.

An unnamed woman who lost her daughter in a flood tells her own personal horror story. 'She said, 'Mommy, hold me, I'm scared.' I held her, and then a wave started coming up over me. I felt the water rising and then she went under. And I knew I lost her immediately.'

IT'S ALL DOWNHILL FROM HERE: Austrian-born Schwarzenegger pictured with George Bush snr at Camp David, Maryland. Now he's pitching the dangers of global warning in a film for Hillary Clinton

Then the film switches to Clinton, speaking in uncharacteristically soft tones. 'Our country is ready to tackle the challenge of climate change,' she says.

Former President George H.W. Bush and Pope Francis are both quoted speaking to the dangers of climate change.

'A threat to your livelihood, your safety, your children, and the prosperity of this nation,' says weaver.

An advance copy of of the film was sent out by Clinton's campaign press office.

Cameron has produced and director such films as Avatar, Terminator, The Abyss, and Titanic.

Weaver starred in the Alien movies, while Schwarzenegger starred in The Terminator, Predator, and Total Recall.

Schwarzenegger has longstanding connections to the Bush family, who notably skipped Trump's Republican convention. George H.W. Bush appointed him to head a council on physical fitness. While serving as governor, he appeared with George W. Bush during California wildfires.

In 1991, on a visit to Camp David, he went sledding with then-President George H.W. Bush.

'Not Reality TV' underscores that climate change is an urgent threat to our planet and a defining challenge of our time, and makes clear how high the stakes are in this election,' according to a statement from the Democratic convention press office.
Turkey has shut down dozens of media organisations and discharged almost 1,700 military personnel following the failed coup attempt.

Three news agencies, 16 television channels and 45 daily newspapers, among others, have been ordered to be shut down in a purge that has seen 130 media outlets closed, CNN Turk reported.

Turkish authorities also announced a total of 1,684 military personnel have been discharged.

Meanwhile, eight officers who fled in a helicopter to Greece have said they 'fear for their lives' as their application for asylum is considered.

One of the eight Turkish soldiers who fled to Greece in a helicopter and requested political asylum after a failed military coup against the government. They say they will not get a fair trial if they are return to Turkey

They fled to Greece in this Turkish Blackhawk helicopter, landing in Alexandroupolis, northern Greece

The men - two commanders, four captains and two sergeants - requested asylum in Greece after landing a military helicopter in the northern city of Alexandroupoli four days after the attempted government takeover on July 15.

They have been sentenced to two months in prison, suspended, for illegally entering Greece, but say their treatment in their home country will be far worse.

Vassilis Terzidis, who is representing the men, said they 'fear for their lives' if they are returned, where the authorities have been waging a massive crackdown against suspects.

The men say they will not receive a fair trial in Turkey, while human rights group Amnesty International has said it has 'credible evidence' of the abuse and torture of people detained in sweeping post-coup arrests - something Ankara has denied.

Rights groups are likely to be further concerned by the purge of media and military personnel announced on Wednesday.

Terzidis also referred to the possibility of Turkey restoring the death penalty in the wake of the attempted coup.

'Given the very volatile situation in Turkey the eight soldiers wish to wait and better prepare (their case),' he said.

A first ruling had been expected in early August but now they have been summoned to a hearing on August 19, said Terzidis.

'That will be another argument in their favour for the international protection they are requesting,' he said.

They have now been given more time to prepare their claim for asylum by the Greek authorities

Their lawyer also referenced the possibility of Turkey restoring the death penalty in the wake of the attempted coup as a reason to consider the applications

The men will remain in police custody in Greece until their asylum applications are heard.

The case threatens to strain ties between the uneasy NATO allies, with Ankara labelling the eight 'terrorists'.

Turkish authorities on Wednesday announced the dismissal of more than 1,600 military personnel and the closure of more than 130 media outlets, CNN Turk reported, in a widening crackdown following this month's failed coup attempt.

In all, nearly 16,000 people have been detained for questioning over suspected links to the coup attempt, and about half have been arrested to face trial, Interior Minister Efkan Ala said Wednesday.
City had provided toilets and free bottled water at taxpayers' expense but hopes the campers will simply leave because of

Philadelphia's public spaces but authorities are turning blind eye to

Sleeping four to a tent, strumming guitars and waving Bernie Sanders posters made from ripped up cardboard, this is the sprawling tent village that is testing Philadelphia's patience.

Camping is banned in the city's recreational spaces but officials have so far tolerated the throngs of demonstrators who have made Franklin Delano Roosevelt Park their home throughout the Democratic National Convention.

City sources say they hope the illegal camp will simply fizzle as the baking temperatures and intermittent thunder storms prove too much for the ramshackle community dubbed 'Bern-stock'.

Those living in the pop-up commune  'an autonomous, leaderless, non-hierarchical society' in the words of one  say they will happily leave but are not necessarily committing to when that is.

'Honestly it depends on what happens. We are playing it day by day,' says Damian Green, 28, who is unemployed and from Baltimore.

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Throngs of demonstrators have made Franklin Delano Roosevelt Park in Philadelphia their home throughout the Democratic National Convention. David Guthrie, 35, of South Bend, Indiana sits in a circle of friends and hand rolls a cigarette

Damian Green, 28, of Baltimore, at the tent city in Franklin Delano Roosevelt Park. Camping is banned in the city's recreational spaces but officials have so far tolerated the campers

City sources say they hope the illegal camp will simply fizzle as the baking temperatures and intermittent thunder storms prove too much for the campers

The ramshackle community dubbed 'Bern-stock', features people of all ages - from babies to adults. Signs reading 'Fix Flint' and 'No Frackin'' cover the area

Stacey Hessler, 43, of Tennessee and daughter Joy are camping along with others in the park, which sits just outside the security perimeter of the DNC

Keeping clean: Hygiene at the camp is makeshift with this protester making use of a jerry-rigged hose for a shower

'Technically we are squatting and yes we are occupying the park. But we are totally against violence,' he adds.

David Guthrie, 35, from South Bend, Indiana, describes the community of bearded eco-campaigners, socialists and Sanders disciples as a 'legit revolutionary force'.

'I'm a pacifist. I've thrown my last punch,' he assures Daily Mail Online, puffing on a hand-rolled cigarette.

'I'm preserving this as an autonomous, leaderless, non-hierarchical society.

'There is an outside chance that after the conclusion of the DNC they will try and move us on. But I'm sure that will be nothing more than a lot of folk trying to figure out how to get a ride home.'

Several hundred yards away Sanders supporters and an array of left-wing protest groups keep up their baying hostility towards a line of delegates shuffling in and out of the Wells Fargo Center behind banks of police and 8ft steel fencing.

But in FDR Park the mood is altogether more chilled, with semi-naked activists lounging on mats and makeshift hammocks.

The campers have a row of portable toilets and a free supply of bottled water courtesy of the City.

There is also food, milk and lentil stew on hand, courtesy of a non-profit pop up stall that encourages donations and urges the community to share and pool resources.

Activists can be seen passing around cigarettes and sunscreen as they sway to a backdrop of Beatles songs and folk music.

Makeshift laundry lines have been strung between trees while many have brought beer coolers and ice chests to store water.

Toddler Joy, who is still being fed through breastfeeding, appears to be one of the youngest campers on site

Once camper described the community members as bearded eco-campaigners, socialists and Sanders disciples

Give me shelter: Tents in the camp are clustered in shade to help protect from the stifling temperatures

Probable cause: The posters and slogans preach peace, democracy and non-violence rather than provocation

Feet away an American flag in planted upside down in the ground but the posters and slogans preach peace, democracy and non-violence rather than provocation.

'Join my new P.E.N.I.S. Foundation' reads one. It stands for People Encouraging Niceness in Society.

Other signs say: 'Love is true Happiness' and 'I believe in the good things coming'.

Toddler Joy Hessler celebrated her second birthday Tuesday among the maze of tents and shelters.

Her mom Stacey Hessler, a 43-year-old sustainability activist, is determined to make it through the full four days despite the inhospitable conditions and temperatures nudging 98F.

'It's hot, yes, but we have the trees for shade,' she says. 'I'm used to living in tents.'

John Lacoss, 33, came from Connecticut with his brother Matt, 35, to show his support for Bernie Sanders.

'The media is downplaying the numbers but people have flown in from all over the country to be here,' he says.

'People have lost jobs, quit jobs. There are youths, babies, older people, all sorts.'

Technically the few hundred or so residents in tie-dye, beads and cut-up t-shirts, are gathered illegally.

City rules state that overnight camping is not permitted in any parks in the Philadelphia Parks and Recreation system.

Those caught doing so can be issued with Code Violation Notices and fines of up to $300 by Park Rangers and Police.

But while law enforcement has kept a watchful eye on the community for the past three days, relations seem affable.

The camp was briefly abandoned Monday night when a huge storm cell whipped up biting winds, lightning and torrential rain across South Philadelphia.

Residents retreated under bridges and trees to escape the downpour but eventually crept back to their sodden village.

The City's strategy, according to sources, is to tolerate the camps and simply wait them out.

There is no hard deadline, with authorities keen to avoid any flare-ups of disorder.

The main concern is for the safety of those living among the network of tents and shelters, hence the medics and Fire Department trucks stationed nearby.

Officially, the usual rules applies - with signs dotted around the 348-acre park warning that camping, swimming and lighting fires are all banned.

'Demonstrators are highly encouraged not to camp at FDR Park, especially in light of the extreme heat and occasional thunderstorms,' said Mike Dunn, the City of Philadelphia's Deputy Communications Director.

Smoking and alcohol are also prohibited but police seemed to have turned a blind eye to cigarettes and the occasional whiff of marijuana throughout the week.

The park where the campers have decided to stay is half a mile from where the Democratic National Convention is taking place

Give peace a chance: The campers have the use of portable toilets provided by the city authorities

Taxpayer funded: The city has provided free bottled water which the campers can use

Several tents have set up camp in the Philadelphia park, which spans approximately 348 acres. Rules state that overnight camping is not permitted in any parks in the Philadelphia Parks and Recreation system

Plenty of supplies: As well as bottled water courtesy of the taxpayer, the campers have brought essentials for a long stay

No meat: The camp is strictly vegetarian and also 'an autonomous, leaderless, non-hierarchical society'

Sue Lee, 61, of Arizona is a retired nurse and camping in the make shift tent city. Those caught camping in the park can be issued with Code Violation Notices and fines of up to $300

But while law enforcement has kept a watchful eye on the community for the past three days, relations seem affable

The City's strategy, according to sources, is to tolerate the camps and simply wait them out. There is no hard deadline, with authorities keen to avoid any flare-ups of disorder

It's all very reminiscent of the 1970s Vietnam War protests attended by 61-year-old Sue Lee, a retired nurse and volunteer medic from Tucson, Arizona.

She calls herself 'camp mom' and her particular cluster of tents is called Occupirate and has its own Facebook page.

'We are here to express out displeasure with all the electoral fraud and voter suppression,' she says while handing out free water, bug spray and hand sanitizer.

'I'm a bit of an anarchist at heart. We are staying until Friday but if the police say we want you to leave, we will occupy the sidewalks as that's not illegal.

'We are peaceful although I do have plans to get arrested. I'm going to go do some civil disobedience - I've never been arrested before'.

The Wells Fargo Center has hosted around 6,000 delegates throughout this week's convention which saw the Democrats officially nominate Hillary Clinton for President.

Thousands of Bernie supporters and assorted protest groups meanwhile have amassed around the security-fenced perimeter to decry everything from police brutality and poverty to the New World Order, fracking and a lack of local parking spaces.

The loose allegiance of environmentalists, gun control advocates, the Occupy DNC movement and Democracy Spring have staged similar protests across downtown Philadelphia, at times bringing America's fifth largest city to a standstill.
Pope Francis has urged Poland's leaders to 'overcome fear' and welcome desperate migrants fleeing conflict and hardship.

In his first speech in the city of Krakow, at the start of his five-day visit to the country, the Pontiff said opening doors to migrants requires 'great wisdom and compassion'.

Francis chastised the right-wing Law and Justice government for refusing to share the burden during Europe's worst refugee crisis since World War II.

The Pontiff, pictured with Polish President Andrzej Duda (right), said opening doors to migrants requires 'great wisdom and compassion'

Francis chastised the government for refusing to share the burden during Europe's worst refugee crisis since World War II

Fears run deep in the strongly Catholic nation that Muslim refugees could endanger its security and erode its Christian traditions.

But the Pope, noting that many Poles have emigrated, spoke of the need to understand the reasons that caused migrants to leave.

He said: 'We must not be afraid to say the truth, the world is at war because it has lost peace.

'When I speak of war I speak of wars over interests, money, resources, not religion. All religions want peace, it's the others who want war.'

He added: 'Needed is a spirit of readiness to welcome those fleeing from wars and hunger, and solidarity with those deprived of their fundamental rights, including the right to profess one's faith in freedom and safety.'

Francis's trip to headline World Youth Day, a gathering of young Catholics from across the globe, was overshadowed by the brutal killing of 85-year-old Catholic priest Jacques Hamel in Normandy, France, on Tuesday.

The Pope, noting that many Poles have emigrated, spoke of the need to understand the reasons that caused migrants to leave

The Pope urged Poland's leaders to 'overcome fear' and welcome desperate migrants fleeing conflict and hardship

Speaking about the attack, the Pope said: 'This holy priest who died in the moment of offering prayers for the church is one (victim). But how many Christians, innocents, children?'

Despite security fear, thousands of flag-waving youngsters turned out to cheer on Francis as he visited the Wawel Royal Castle in his open-top popemobile.

Around 200,000 pilgrims attended the opening mass on Tuesday, according to Krakow police, while organisers had expected around half a million.

But Francis, 79, will likely have to work overtime to win the majority of hearts and minds in the homeland of Polish pope John Paul II, who is hailed for his role in toppling Communism.

Vatican expert John Allen wrote on the Cruxnow.com website: 'Polish Catholics probably aren't going to be welcoming the pope they really want.

'But given their current social and political situation, they may be getting exactly the one they need.'

Pope Francis attends a welcoming ceremony with Polish President Andrzej Duda (right) at Wawel Royal Castle

Francis's trip to headline World Youth Day was overshadowed by the brutal killing of 85-year-old Catholic priest Jacques Hamel (pictured)

Christopher Lamb in Catholic weekly newspaper The Tablet added that many of Poland's bishops are 'at odds with the direction of his papacy.'

Polish President Andrzej Duda did appear to signal a softening of Warsaw's stance following closed-door talks with the Pope, who made his feelings clear.

He said: 'If someone wants to come here, especially if they are a refugee, fleeing war to save their life, we will of course accept them.'

Poland is currently on high security alert, deploying over 40,000 personnel for the Pontiff's visit.

Authorities also charged an Iraqi man on Monday with possessing trace amounts of explosive material.
Armed police officers have launched a raid on a mosque and several homes belonging to a group believed to be radicalising Muslims in Germany.

Apartments belonging to eight board members of the radical German-speaking Islamic group searched by officers in Hildesheim, Lower Saxony.

It comes as part of a crackdown on the group, which is thought to have been encouraging people to travel to Syria and Iraq to join ISIS.

The group ran sermons, seminars and lectures entitled 'the hatred of infidels', according to German media.

Raid: German armed police officers launched a raid on a mosque and eight private apartments in Hildesheim, Lower Saxony, on Wednesday night

Radical: The raid came as part of a crackdown on the radical German-speaking Muslim group, which was branded a 'hot spot of radical Muslims'

The raid on Wednesday night involved up to 400 volunteer staff, as well as a special police task force.

'The group in Hildesheim is a nationwide hot spot of radical Muslims that we have been watching for a long time,' said Lower Saxony Interior Minister Boris Pistorius.

'After months of preparation, we have taken an important step to end the association.'

Several people who attended the mosque are believed to have travelled to join the terror group.

It comes after 10 days of terror in Germany, as lone wolf attackers have unleashed assaults across the country.

Five people were injured on a train in Wurzburg on July 18, when a 17-year-old asylum seeker wielding an axe and a knife went on a rampage.

The attacker, Riaz Khan Ahmadzai, seriously injured four members of a family of holidaymakers from Hong Kong as well as a German passerby.

Fighting: Several people who attended the mosque are believed to have travelled to join ISIS in Syria and Iraq

Crackdown: It comes after 10 days of terror in the country, with several lone wolf attacks carried out killing nine people and injuring 20

Nine people were killed in Munich on July 22, by a German-Iranian gunman who had no Islamist ties but was obsessed with mass killings.

Some 15 people were injured in Ansbach on July 24 when a Syrian attacker blew himself up outside a music festival packed with some 2,500 revellers. The attack was claimed by ISIS.

Meanwhile in an attack yesterday in France a priest was brutally slain by two knife-wielding attackers in an assault that was also claimed by ISIS.
This year there have been 22 confirmed unprovoked shark attacks in the US, none of them fatal

Great Whites appear to have shown up earlier and in larger numbers in Cape Cod this year

Fortunately the family was alerted by an app which sent out an alert telling them not to swim

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A Massachusetts family were enjoying a day on the water off the coast of Cape Cod on Monday blissfully unaware that a huge 14-foot Great White shark was lurking just feet from them.

An aerial shot released by the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy - a non-profit organization that tracks the predators in the region - shows the 14-foot creature dubbed 'James' in the water next to the unsuspecting Goldstein family's boat, the Whaler.

Beth Kressley Goldstein, her husband Dennis, her sister-in-law and two of their four children became aware of the predator's close proximity only when they spotted a plane overhead and heard the blare of an air horn and shouts from a research boat that had been tracking the tagged male shark, according to the Cape Cod Chronicle.

Danger in the water: This July 25 photo released by the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy shows a great white shark swimming close to the Goldstein family's 17-foot boat along the Cape Cod shore in Chatham, Massachusetts

Unsuspecting: The Goldsteins became aware of the Great White swimming just feet away from their boat when an Atlantic White Shark Conservancy boat (seen on the right) sounded an air horn

Mrs Goldstein had also received a notification earlier that afternoon about a shark in the area through the Atlantic White Shark Conservancys newly launched free app, Sharktivity, and warned her daughter Annie not to swim that day.

The warning was sent out to Sharktivity's 40,000 users at 2.30pm. Beth Goldstein saw the alert 15 minutes later, but the family were not in a rush to leave the area and stayed awhile longer, but did not go in the water.

When researchers from the conservancy's boat sounded the air horn and shouted that there was a shark right next to the family's vessel, the Goldsteins looked over and saw the predator.

'We all watched the shark swim by,' Beth Goldstein said. 'It just swam right by the boat.'

Despite their brush with James, the family said they won't be deterred from returning to their favorite beach in the future..

Day trippers: Beth Goldstein was on their vessel, the Whaler, with her husband Dennis, two of their four children and another relative

App to the rescue: On Monday afternoon, Beth Goldstein got an alert about a shark in Cape Cod through the iPhone app Sharktivity

Shark sightings have prompted authorities to temporarily close popular beaches in New England, New York and elsewhere this month. And 13 people have been bitten by sharks in Florida this year.

Researchers suggest this summer could be shaping up to a banner one for sightings, but it's too early to say for certain.

In Cape Cod, in Massachusetts, state marine biologist Gregory Skomal says great whites appear to have shown up earlier and in larger numbers. His team tagged its first shark in mid-June, and eight new ones have been tagged, up from three this time last year. It identified 141 last year and 80 the previous year.

In South Carolina, state marine biologist Bryan Frazier says preliminary annual survey data of sandbar, blacktip and other shark species suggest the populations are continuing their steady rise after years of overfishing.

In the Cape Cod area, researchers are focused on great white sharks, which tend to venture close to shore to eat seals. Other species, like blue and mako sharks, can be found farther out. Huge but harmless ocean sunfish have been mistaken for sharks.
A string of terror attacks across Europe has seen tourism numbers drop across the continent despite it being the height of the summer season.

Hotel chains, airlines, tour operators and even some luxury retailers have been reporting a downturn in business since a spate of attacks in countries such as France, Germany and Belgium.

And now major cities such as London, Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam and Istanbul have all seen a downturn in hotel bookings as visitors fear new attacks.

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A string of terror attacks across Europe has seen tourism numbers drop across the continent despite it being the height of the summer season

Hotel chains, airlines, tour operators and even some luxury retailers have been reporting a downturn in business since a spate of attacks in countries such as France, Germany and Belgium. Pictured are French soldiers on patrolat the Louvre in Paris

According to the Wall Street Journal, hotel occupancy in Paris during the summer season was already below average but after the Nice attack it dropped even further.

They also stated that preliminary data had shown that hotel occupancy in London had dropped 2.7 per cent and Amsterdam 8.3 per cent, compared to this time last year, following the attack in the south of France.

In terms of flight bookings, traveller data analysts ForwardKeys reported that bookings for Nice decreased by 57 per cent following the attack there while reservations for France as a whole were down 20 per cent.

They also add that overall there was an 11 per cent decline in holiday bookings to France, a 23 per cent drop in reservations to Belgium and a 31 per cent decrease in holiday bookings to Turkey.

However, some European countries have seen an upturn in visitor numbers including Spain and Ireland as tourists look for other destinations to holiday.

ForwardKeys also reported international bookings for destinations such as China and Australia are up 7.8 per cent year on year.

Preliminary data had shown that hotel occupancy in London had dropped 2.7 per cent and Amsterdam 8.3 per cent, compared to this time last year. Pictured are armed guards on Horse Guards Parade in Central London

Fears over a downturn in tourism across Europe comes after 172 people have died in terror attacks across the continent in 2016 so far.

The first major attack of year came in Brussels when two suicide bombers carrying homemade bombs in large suitcases attacked a departure hall at Brussels Airport in Zaventem.

Another explosion took place just over an hour later in the middle carriage of a three-carriage train at Maalbeek metro station.

In June three explosions rocked Istanbul's Ataturk airport in a coordinated suicide attack.

Shocking footage showed explosion at the door to the arrivals hall by a suicide bomber before another two attackers snuck into the building and detonated their devices killing 41 people.
Brooke Haney, 25, faces two felony counts of child endangerment after her three-year-old daughter was found dead in a washing machine

An Arkansas mother has been charged with child endangerment after her three-year-old daughter was found dead in a washing machine while she allegedly abused prescription pills.

Brooke Haney, 25, faces two felony counts, one of which is related to another incident in which she walked into oncoming traffic while her seven-month-old was in the car.

Haney had just woken up from a nap on October 25, 2015 when she realized her daughter Alexis was not in her bedroom.

The mother-of-three and a neighbor searched her Hampton home, where they found the three-year-old's body inside the washing machine.

It is believed Alexis climbed into the washing machine and closed the lid, causing it to automatically turn on, the affidavit states.

Alexis' cause of death was 'scalding and thermal injuries', according to Arkansas Online.

Authorities discovered that Haney had been taking prescription medicine, including the psychoactive drug benzodiazepine - which causes dizziness, drowsiness and decreased alertness.

Haney's seven-year-old daughter later told police that she and Alexis often helped with the laundry.

One of the children would climb into the washing machine to take out the clothes and hand to the other, who would put them into the dryer.

Haney had allegedly been abusing prescription medicine, including psychoactive drug benzodiazepine, the day that her daughter Alexis climbed into the machine and closed the lid, causing it to automatically turn on

Haney had just woken up from a nap on October 25, 2015 when she realized Alexis was not in her bedroom. She and her neighbor searched her home, where she found the child's body in the washing machien

Haney also faces a felony charge related to an August 21, 2015 incident, in which she allegedly drove in an unsafe manner that caused other cars to pull to the side of the road.

The mother also allegedly tried to walk into oncoming traffic when officers attempted to detain her, according to WSBT.

Police found Haney's seven-month-old daughter Brooklyn in the backseat.

They also discovered that Haney was in possession of numerous pills that she did not have a prescription for and said she failed several field sobriety tests.

Haney could face up to six years on each charge if she is convicted.

The mother also has a previous case open in the Louisiana Department of Human Services for allegedly abusing drugs while pregnant with Brooklyn, as well as long-term abuse of both legal and illegal drugs.
Stacey Kozel thought she would never walk again after she became paralyzed in a car accident a few years ago.

'I couldn't roll over, couldn't even lift up my head,' said Kozel, of Ohio, whose previous lupus diagnosis worsened her condition.

But she is defying all odds, using computer-powered braces as she plows ahead on her goal of hiking the 2,200-mile Appalachian trail.

'My address is on the Appalachian trail right now,' Kozel told WBIR.

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Stacey Kozel thought she would never walk again. Today, she is hiking the 2,200-mile Appalachian trail

She is defying all odds, using computer-powered braces as she plows ahead on her goal of hiking the trail

After her accident, doctors told Kozel she would never walk again.

But she never gave up.

'There were some people that definitely didn't have a lot of hope  but I've always had hope,' she told WBIR.

'I think you should always have hope. If you don't give up you just never know what you are, you know, what could happen? I mean, who would think that someone paralyzed would be hiking right now so anything is possible.'

She still thinks about being in the hospital.

'I'll never forget those days,' Kozel told WVLT. 'I'll never forget looking out my hospital room. I spent a lot of time in there wanting to get outdoors.'

Kozel's 2,200-mile hike began in March. She expects to finish it in about a year but isn't going to rush.

'Whenever I get done, I get done,' she told WBIR. 'I'm just trying to take it easy and listen to my body a little bit, but I'll get there.

'The one thing I know, I'll finish itjust won't look pretty and it won't be fast.'

Kozel says you can't give up on your dreams, even if it seems impossible

Kozel says she has made plenty of friends along the way.

And, though the hike has been difficult, she finds every step worth it.

'No one would think I would be hiking the Appalachian Trail right now,' Kozel told WBIR.

'I just don't want people to give up because anything is possible. I've always believed that the possibilities are endless and you just got to keep fighting.'
Labour leadership challenger Owen Smith yesterday unveiled an extraordinary manifesto of 20 Left-wing policies to take Britain towards his vision of a socialist revolution.

The former shadow cabinet member, who is seeking to unseat Jeremy Corbyn, pledged a return to the 50p top rate of income tax and a new wealth tax on the investments of the top 1 per cent of earners.

In what will be seen as a return to the days of Michael Foots infamous 1983 manifesto  dubbed the longest suicide note in history  he pledged an end to austerity, an end to public sector pay freezes and better workers rights.

Owen Smith, pictured, promised to reinstate the top rate of income tax and plough millions into the NHS. His 20 pledges had echoes of the 'longest suicide note in history', the 1983 Labour manifesto under Michael Foot (right)

'Smash May' backlash Owen Smith was forced to apologise yesterday after he said Labour should aim to smash Theresa May back on her heels. In a speech in Yorkshire, Mr Smith launched an unscripted attack on the Prime Minister for having the temerity to lecture the Opposition on social justice and said he was disappointed Jeremy Corbyn did not effectively challenge her during the Commons exchange. It pained me that we didnt have the strength and the power and the vitality to smash her back on her heels, he said. Mr Smith originally described his words as robust rhetoric but a spokesman later said it was inappropriate and he apologised. Jess Phillips, Labour MP for Birmingham and a Smith supporter, tweeted: I dont like the terminology of smash very much but, lets be honest, it is a clumsy way of saying outperform. I like the heels bit less to be honest. A source close to Mr Corbyn said: We need to be careful of the language we use during this contest as many members, including many female MPs, have said they feel intimidated by aggressive language. Advertisement

And in an apparent swipe at Mr Corbyn, he said: We need a revolution. Not some misty-eyed, romantic notion of a revolution where we are going to overthrow capitalism and return to a socialist nirvana  I dont know who Im referring to  but a cold-eyed, practical socialist revolution where we build a better Britain.

We have done it before, we can do it again. Thats the sort of government I want to lead, thats the sort of revolution I want to bring.

The Pontypridd MP said he would reverse inheritance tax cuts, ban zero-hours contracts and plough billions into the NHS.

The pledges indicate a race to the Left between the two leadership candidates. It means that whoever wins the contest, Labour will be led further to the Left than any time since the early 1980s.

Tory MP Chris Philp said: Owen Smiths speech shows it doesnt matter who they elect as their leader, Labour cannot build an economy that works for everyone. They would spend, borrow and tax even more than they did last time.

Mr Smiths speech took place at the site of the former Orgreave coking plant in South Yorkshire, where police and miners were involved in running battles during the 1984 strike.

He said his plans were radical but not pie in the sky and claimed that Britain had become a country where people feel the system is rigged against them as a result of austerity measures and inequality.

People in Britain are right to be furious about the inequality that exists, he said. They are right to be angry that, eight years after the financial crash, they are still being asked to pay the price for it.

Labour leadership contender Owen Smith (left) has been accused of supporters of Jeremy Corbyn (right) of being a Blairite but his 20 campaign pledges make it clear he is aiming to reinventing himself as a hard Left-winger

People want a Labour government that is angry [along] with them and it is up to us to unite and heal Great Britain and to do that austerity has to be defeated.

Describing what he described as an inequality-busting wealth tax, Mr Smith said there would a surcharge on earnings from dividends, rents and other investment sources of the 265,000 people with such income earning more than 150,000 a year. He said it would raise 3billion a year.

He would introduce new wage councils for hotel, shop and care workers, to strengthen terms and conditions. He also vowed to increase spending on the NHS by 4 per cent in real terms every year of the next parliament, paid for by the rich through the new wealth tax and the reversal of cuts to inheritance and capital gains taxes.
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Hillary Clinton upstaged President Barack Obama tonight with a surprise appearance at the end of his Democratic National Convention speech.

The president and his one-time rival turned friend shared a long hug and paraded around the stage at the end of the night while Obama's 2008 campaign song, 'Signed, Sealed, Delivered,' blared over a loudspeaker.

Obama informally said goodbye on Wednesday night to the supporters that eight years ago carried him to victory over Clinton from the convention stage in Philadelphia.

'America, you have vindicated that hope these past eight years. And now Im ready to pass the baton and do my part as a private citizen,' he said. This year, in this election, Im asking you to join me  to reject cynicism, reject fear, to summon whats best in us; to elect Hillary Clinton as the next President of the United States, and show the world we still believe in the promise of this great nation.'

He did his best to unite the Democratic Party in the remarks and redirect progressives' anger from Clinton to Donald Trump who he zealously went after for portraying America as a country in decline. The president also tore into the Republican over his plans to build a wall on the border with Mexico.

'Hillary knows we can insist on a lawful and orderly immigration system while still seeing striving students and their toiling parents as loving families, not criminals or rapists' he said.

'She knows their dream is quintessentially American, and the American Dream is something no wall will ever contain.'

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SURPRISE! Democratic nominee came out onstage at tonight's Democratic National Convention and hugged President Obama after he gave her a ringing endorsement

President Barack Obama and Democratic Presidential nominee Hillary Clinton embrace on the third day of the Democratic Convention

President Obama and Hillary Clinton raise their hands in the air following his speech on the third night of the Democratic Convention

Clinton and Obama shared a hug and paraded around the stage while Obama's 2008 campaign song, 'Signed, Sealed, Delivered,' blared

Hillary Clinton appeared to be filled with emotion as she shared the Democratic National Convention stage with President Obama

Trump is fanning the flames of 'resentment, and blame, and anger and hate', he said. Clinton, on the other hand 'keeps her cool, and treats everybody with respect'.

'And no matter how daunting the odds; no matter how much people try to knock her down, she never, ever, quits,' he said.

Obama also backed up Clinton's 'judgement' - which is evidenced by her selection of Tim Kaine to be her vice president, he said.

'Tim Kaine is as good a man, as humble and as committed a public servant as anybody that I know. I know his family. I love Anne. I love their kids. He will be a great vice president,' Obama said, vouching for the U.S. Senator.

He added: 'He will make Hillary a better President - just like my dear friend and brother, Joe Biden, has made me a better president.'

Returning to Clinton, Obama said: 'Hillary has got her share of critics. She has been caricatured by the right and by some on the left. She has been accused of everything you can imagine - and some things that you cannot. But she knows thats what happens when youre under a microscope for 40 years.

'She knows that sometimes during those 40 years shes made mistakes - just like I have; just like we all do,' he said. 'Thats what happens when we try.'

He complimented losing Democrat Bernie Sanders' supporters' for their tenacity and told the party's rank and file: 'We all need to be as vocal and as organized and as persistent as Bernie Sanders supporters have been during this election.

'We all need to get out and vote for Democrats up and down the ticket, and then hold them accountable until they get the job done,' he said

Obama came back around in his speech and shamed them into giving their backing to the party's nominee - Clinton.

'Hillary Clinton is that woman in the arena. Shes been there for us  even if we havent always noticed. And if youre serious about our democracy, you cant afford to stay home just because she might not align with you on every issue,' he told them to deafening cheers from Clinton's supporters.

Obama said: 'Youve got to get in the arena with her, because democracy isnt a spectator sport. America isnt about yes he will, Its about yes we can. And were going to carry Hillary to victory this fall, because thats what the moment demands.'

Making sure they got the message he repeated himself and said, it's 'yes WE can - not yes she can, not yes I can - yes WE can.'

He said later in a reprise of the same theme in a line directed at Trump, who said he 'alone' can fix the country's problems, 'America has never been about what one person says hell do for us. Its about what can be achieved by us, together.'

President Obama touted his former secretary of state's record while receiving a rockstar response at tonight's Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia

'It can be frustrating, this business of democracy. Trust me, I know,' the president said in his speech. 'Hillary knows, too. When the other side refuses to compromise, progress can stall. People are hurt by the inaction. Supporters can grow impatient and worry that youre not trying hard enough; that youve maybe sold out.'

He promised them that when they keep at it, 'progress does happen.'

'And if you doubt that, just ask the 20 million more people who have health care today. Just ask the Marine who proudly serves his country without hiding the husband that he loves.'

As he arrived at convention earlier in the evening, the president received a rockstar's response before he passed the torch to Clinton, his former secretary of state.

'Thank you,' he yelled over their clapping. 'Thank you so much. Thank you, everyone!'

They shouted back at him, 'Yes we can' - his campaign slogan. 'I love you back,' he told a gushing audience member.

The president was light on his feet as he reminisced about his first time addressing the convention 12 years ago and his early days in the White House.

Michelle 'somehow hasn't aged a day,' he said of the First Lady. 'I know the same cannot be said for me.'

'My girls remind me all the time. "Wow, youve changed so much, daddy". And then they try to clean it up,' he said to giggles.

Obama went over his greatest hits - his health care agreement, the reopening of relations with Cuba, his international climate change agreement, the night he ordered a hit on Osama bin Laden.

And after a short wind-up he moved on to praising Hillary Clinton, his 2008 rival and her level-headedness.

Barack Obama got a rockstar's response as he arrived at the Democratic National Convention to pass the torch to Hillary Clinton, his former secretary of state

The president was light on his feet as he reminisced about his first time addressing the convention 12 years ago and his early days in the White House

Michelle 'somehow hasn't aged a day,' he said of the first lady. 'I know the same cannot be said for me'

'You know, nothing truly prepares you for the demands of the Oval Office. You can read about it. You can study it. But until youve sat at that desk, you dont know what its like to manage a global crisis, or send young people to war,' he observed.

Clinton is as prepared as she could possibly be, however, he said. 'Hillary has been in the room; shes been part of those decisions.'

'Thats the Hillary I know. Thats the Hillary Ive come to admire. And thats why I can say with confidence there has never been a man or a woman  not me, not Bill, nobody more qualified than Hillary Clinton to serve as President of the United States of America.'

The line was met with cheers.

'I hope you don't mind, Bill, but I was just telling the truth, man,' Obama ad libbed as he teased former President Bill Clinton.

'And then theres Donald Trump,' he said.

Obama did his best to characterize Trump as out of step with mainstream politics. The convention the Republican headlined in Cleveland last week 'wasnt particularly Republican - and it sure wasnt conservative,' Obama said. '

'What we heard was a deeply pessimistic vision of a country where we turn against each other, and turn away from the rest of the world. There were no serious solutions to pressing problems - just the fanning of resentment, and blame, and anger, and hate.'

Obama went over his greatest hits - his health care agreement, the reopening of relations with Cuba, his international climate change agreement, the night he ordered a hit on Osama bin Laden

That is not the America Obama said he was familiar with. 'The America I know is full of courage, and optimism, and ingenuity. The America I know is decent and generous,' he said.

Sure there are racial divisions and political gridlock, he said. 'All of that is real. We are challenged to do better; to be better.'

'But as Ive traveled this country, through all 50 states, as Ive rejoiced with you and mourned with you, what I have also seen, more than anything, is what is right with America,' the president proclaimed.

Only one candidate in this race shares that vision of the future, he assessed, and she has 'devoted her life' to ensuring it comes to fruition.

'A mother and a grandmother who would do anything to help our children thrive; a leader with real plans to break down barriers, and blast through glass ceilings, and widen the circle of opportunity to every single American -- the next President of the United States, Hillary Clinton. '

The crowd broke out into shouts of 'Hillary.' He told them, 'that's right.'

Glossing over their messy history he said Americans 'may remember' he and Hillary competed against each other in 2008 for the Democratic nomination.

'Let me tell you, it was tough, because Hillary was tough. I was worn out. She was doing everything I was doing, but just like Ginger Rogers, it was backwards in heels,' he said, recycling a line from speech he gave on Clinton's behalf in Charlotte, North Carolina. 'And every time I thought I might have the race won, Hillary just came back stronger.'

When it was all over he asked her to join his cabinet, to the surprise of some of his staff, he said tonight.

Obama did his best to unite the Democratic Party tonight and redirect progressives' anger from Clinton to Donald Trump

Former President Bill Clinton showed up on Wednesday night to cheer on the president. He sat alongside Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and Labor Secretary Tom Perez

'And for four years - for four years, I had a front-row seat to her intelligence, her judgment, and her discipline. I came to realize that her unbelievable work ethic wasnt for praise, it wasnt for attention - that she was in this for everyone who needs a champion,' the president said.

Unlike Trump, she has 'real plans' to solve America's problems.

'The Donald is not really a plans guy,' he said to laughter. 'Hes not really a facts guy, either. He calls himself a business guy, which is true, but I have to say, I know plenty of businessmen and women whove achieved remarkable success without leaving a trail of lawsuits, and unpaid workers, and people feeling like they got cheated.'

He later said that Trump is 'not actually offering any real solutions to those issues. Hes just offering slogans, and hes offering fear. Hes betting that if he scares enough people, he might score just enough votes to win this election.'

'And that's another bet that Donald Trump will lose. And the reason he'll lose it is because hes selling the American people short,' Obama declared. 'We're not a fragile people. We're not a frightful people. Our power doesnt come from some self-declared savior promising that he alone can restore order as long as we do things his way.

'We dont look to be ruled,' the president said, sending delegates into an uproar.

Giving Trump a gut punch, he said, 'Does anyone really believe that a guy whos spent his 70 years on this Earth showing no regard for working people is suddenly going to be your champion? Your voice?'

'If so, you should vote for him,' he said, suggesting that Americans who 'truly' care about their economic well being would not.

Wheels up: President Barack Obama waves from the top of the steps of Air Force One at Andrews Air Force base in Maryland ahead of his speech at the Democratic National Convention

Mischief maker? Barack Obama smiles as he walks across the South Lawn of the White House before boarding Marine One for the short flight to Andrews Air Force Base

He added: 'If youre rightly concerned about whos going to keep you and your family safe in a dangerous world, well, the choice is even clearer. Hillary Clinton is respected around the world - not just by leaders, but by the people they serve.'

'I have to say this. People outside of the United States do not understand whats going on in this election. They really don't. Because they know Hillary. Theyve seen her work,' he claimed.

'She has the judgment and the experience and the temperament to meet the threat from terrorism. Its not new to her. Our troops have pounded ISIL without mercy, taking out their leaders, taking back territory. And I know Hillary wont relent until ISIL is destroyed. She will finish the job.

'She will do it without resorting to torture, or banning entire religions from entering our country. She is fit and she is ready to be the next Commander-in-Chief.'

'Meanwhile, Donald Trump calls our military a disaster. Apparently, he doesnt know the men and women who make up the strongest fighting force the world has ever known. He suggests America is weak.'

Trump got under Democrats' skin today as he invited Russia to hack Clinton's emails so he could prove she's lying. The shocking endorsement of foreign espionage came after Obama said it's 'possible' Vladimir Putin and his cronies could be trying to influence the election.

'He cozies up to Putin, praises Saddam Hussein, and tells the NATO allies that stood by our side after 9/11 that they have to pay up if they want our protection,' Obama said tonight.

Challenge: Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said the Kremlin might be able to locate the messages Hillary Clinton had deleted from her secret server after its existence was revealed

Double down: After the press conference Trump tweeted his challenge to the hackers

Trump says he will make America great again - America is already great, the president said.

'America is already strong. And I promise you, our strength, our greatness, does not depend on Donald Trump. In fact, it doesnt depend on any one person. And that, in the end, may be the biggest difference in this election -- the meaning of our democracy.'

Clinton popped up at the convention for the second time before her Thursday evening address, when she will formally accept the Democratic nomination.

Tuesday night she treated her supporters to a live video appearance that she taped out of New York to thank them for making her the first woman in history to earn a major party's nomination for president.

Donald Trump inserted himself in every day of the Republican convention, introducing his wife on Monday, beaming in by video Tuesday and joining his running mate Mike Pence, the governor of Indiana, on stage on Wednesday night.

Clinton didn't give her vice presidential pick the final speaking slot of the night. That honor was reserved for President Obama. It was him who she choose to stand next to in the dramatic moment that concluded the third night of the convention,

Obama closed out the night, speaking after Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine, Clinton's running mate, and Vice President Joe Biden.

US Vice President Joe Biden addresses the third evening session of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia

Hero's welcome: Vice President Joe Biden was played onto the Democratic National convention stage to the theme from 'Rocky'

Snubbed: Bill de Blasio took to the stage at 5.30pm to support Hillary Clinton and bash Donald Trump, but missed out on a prime time slot

Warm introduction: Biden's wife Jill introduced him as someone who was 'authentic long before it became a buzzword in politics'

Former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords waves to the crowd on the third day of the Democratic National Convention at the Wells Fargo Center. It has been five years since she survived an assassination attempt

The speakers impacted by gun violence were introduced by film director and producer Lee Daniels. He spoke passionately of his own family's struggles as he endorsed Hillary Clinton

Erica Smegielski, daughter of the slain principal from Sandy Hook Elementary School Dawn Hochsprung, said she didn't want to be at the convention, and instead should have been at home with her mother

The president said his tenure wasn't perfect and there's so much more he wishes he had accomplished. 'Tonight, Im here to tell you that, yes, weve still got more work to do,' he said.

He said he has 'confidence' though that he's leaving his party 'in good hands.'

'My time in this office, it hasnt fixed everything. As much as weve done, theres still so much I want to do. But for all the tough lessons Ive had to learn, for all the places where Ive fallen short -- Ive told Hillary, and Ill tell you, whats picked me back up every single time: Its been you. The American people.'

Concluding his remarks he told Democrats gathered at the Wells Fargo Arena for his speech, 'Time and again, youve picked me up. And I hope, sometimes, I picked you up, too. And tonight, I ask you to do for Hillary Clinton what you did for me.

'I ask you to carry her the same way you carried me. Because you're who I was talking about 12 years ago when I talked about hope. Its been you who fueled my dogged faith in our future, even when the odds were great; even when the road is long. Hope in the face of difficulty. Hope in the face of uncertainty. The audacity of hope.'

'That's my man': Michelle Obama tweeted her support for her husband President Barack Obama following his speech at the convention

First lady Michelle Obama, who was wearing a custom made dress by US designer Christian Siriano, wowed at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia on Monday night

Ready for action: The National Anthem is performed by Sebastien De La Cruz on the third day of the Democratic National Convention at the Wells Fargo Center

The audience swayed in unison as the Broadway singers passed around a microphone belting out 'What the World Needs Now is Love'

Powerful performance: Dozens of Broadway stars performed together at the Democratic National Convention Wednesday night

Big names: Deborah Messing (second from left) was among dozens of Broadway stars to sing together at the Democratic Convention

Actress Angela Bassett introduced two survivors of the shooting massacre last year at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina

Actress Star Jones speaks during the third day of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia

Sigourney Weaver introduced a short film about climate change, directed by James Cameron and featuring Jack Black, Don Cheadle, America Ferrera, Clinton herself - and former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a prominent Republican

Singer Lenny Kravitz performs during the third day of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia , Wednesday, July 27, 2016

Pledging allegiance: Delegates stand during the National Anthem ahead of what should be a packed night of heavyweight speakers from the Democratic Party

The elephant in the room: Bernie Sanders supporters gather near City Hill on day three, highlighting Bill Clinton's extramarital affair with Monica Lewinsky
A heartwarming tribute to fallen WWII soldier has been captured on camera

A woman has captured the heartwarming moment a high school choir sang 'Battle Hymn of the Republic' as a uniformed Army private escorted the remains of a World War II veteran off a plane.

The touching tribute took place on a plane that traveled from Germany to Atlanta on July 18.

'Glory, glory hallelujah,' the group of students - who were part of the Iowa Ambassadors of Music Choir - sang after the pilot announced the uniformed Army private was exiting the plane first.

A student choir has been captured on camera giving a heartwarming tribute to a fallen WWII soldier, as a uniformed Army private escorted his remains off a plane in Atlanta

A man can be seen at the front of the group acting as the conductor, while other passengers turn to watch the performance.

Once the song finishes people on-board were seen giving the choir a round of applause.

Diane Cupp, who filmed the stirring rendition and posted it on Facebook, wrote about the 'beautiful' act.

'On our flight from Germany there was a Army private in uniform that so happen to be escorting the remains of a WWII Soldier back home to Houston,' Cupp wrote.

'The pilot announced he would be exiting the plane first, as he got up to leave there were a group of young people who had been on tour in Europe all of a sudden they broke out singing Glory Hallelujah.

'Listen how beautiful!! Will bring a tear to your eye.'

Since it was posted, the video has quickly gone viral and racked up more than 130,000 views.

'That was beautiful it made my day,' one person wrote after watching the clip.
Only one extremist in Britain is now subject to an official anti-terror order despite there being at least 2,000 fanatics at large in the UK, it can be revealed today.

The so-called T-Pims  Terrorism Prevention and Investigation Measures  are the toughest tool the security services have to restrict the activities of terror plotters.

They replaced the more restrictive Control Orders which were axed in 2011 at the behest of then Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg following a row over human rights.

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The so-called T-Pims  Terrorism Prevention and Investigation Measures  are the toughest tool the security services have to restrict the activities of terror plotters. Pictured, a police officer on patrol in London

T-Pims are supposed to ensure that the police and MI5 can protect the public from British-based fanatics who cannot yet be prosecuted or deported by placing curbs on their movements and activities.

But a statement slipped out to Parliament just before the summer recess has now revealed that, as of the end of May, only one is now in force. As recently as 2013, there were nine.

By contrast, in the months after the Paris attacks last November, almost 400 people were placed under house arrest in France by the authorities there. British judges have been accused of weakening T-Pims by chiselling away their conditions and making it very difficult for the security services to secure them.

This has meant that they have become reluctant to seek them, fearing that they would be squandering thousands of pounds of taxpayers' money on legal fees for little gain.

HOW WE KEEP TABS ON TERROR T-Pims, or Terrorism Prevention and Investigation Measures, were introduced in January 2012. They replaced Labours controversial control order regime. They are normally placed on terror suspects who officials decide can neither be charged nor deported, or still pose a threat after leaving jail. To qualify, the Home Secretary must reasonably believe the suspect is involved in terrorist-related activities, based on an assessment by MI5. Restrictions can include electronic tagging, reporting regularly to the police and facing tightly defined exclusion from particular places. A suspect must live at home and stay there overnight  possibly for up to ten hours  in what is an effective curfew. Unlike under control orders, the suspect is allowed to use a mobile phone and the internet to work and study, subject to conditions. T-Pims expire after two years unless new evidence emerges of involvement in terrorism. Breach of a T-Pim can lead to jail. The courts will usually impose an anonymity order banning the naming of the suspect to protect the individual. Control orders, introduced in 2005, were much more draconian: suspects could be relocated to a town far from their home, face 16-hour curfews and be banned from meeting named individuals. Nick Clegg, then the Deputy PM, insisted that T-Pims should be less restrictive, though they are still hugely controversial with civil liberties groups. Advertisement

Europe is currently facing a heightened terror threat from Islamic State following a series of atrocities in France and Germany, including the butchering of a French priest at a church in Normandy.

The UK's terror threat level is currently 'severe'  the second highest level  amid warnings that a jihadist atrocity is 'highly likely'.

Last night, critics called for a toughening up of the T-Pim regime to protect the public. Lord Carlile, the independent reviewer of terror legislation for ten years, said: 'It is surprising and worrying that we are down to just one T-Pim given the situation appertaining all over Europe.

'We know that there is a severe risk of a terror attack. I hope that the Government is examining the possibility of increasing the use of T-Pims or toughening them up.

'It is absolutely essential that the authorities should have the powers they need. The events in Normandy, Nice and Germany must focus ministers' minds to use all the tools at their disposal, including T-Pims.'

He said that in the last six or seven years of control orders, they were 'very effective'

Keith Vaz, chairman of the Commons Home Affairs Select Committee, said: 'It is puzzling that there is only one T-Pim in place given the number of persons who are under surveillance and the threat level. The new Prime Minister may feel she wants to look again at this area of policy, given that she had been under pressure from her Liberal Democrat colleagues in the Coalition government to abandon control orders.'

Security chiefs have warned that hundreds of young Britons who joined Islamic State jihadis in Iraq and Syria have returned home, while others have brainwashed 'lone wolf' Muslims to carry out attacks.

Control orders were introduced by Labour to deal with dangerous extremists who could not be hauled before the courts but after 2010 they came under fire from the Lib Dems who said they were unfair because the suspects had not been found guilty of a crime.

They were replaced by T-Pims with a reduced curfew requirement of ten hours and suspects were no longer restricted on where they could live.

At the time, a Home Office spokesman said: 'We introduced T-Pims precisely because control orders were not working and their powers were being struck down by the courts.'

But last night, shadow home secretary Andy Burnham said: 'In the light of the terrorist attacks that we have seen in the last year, we need an urgent review of the T-Pim regime and an assurance that it is up to the job. We need a convincing answer on why it is the case that there is only one.'

Yesterday a former senior counter terror officer said Britain has 'big problems' trying to prevent terror fanatics from carrying out an attack.

T-Pims are supposed to ensure that the police and MI5 can protect the public from British-based fanatics who cannot yet be prosecuted or deported by placing curbs on their movements and activities

The UK's terror threat level is currently 'severe'  the second highest level  amid warnings that a jihadist atrocity is 'highly likely'. Pictured, mourners at the Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray church attacked this week

Chris Phillips said he did not believe the current regime of T-Pims was working.

Mr Phillips, the ex head of the National Counter Terrorism Security Office, said it was known two years ago that there were 2,000 individuals on the radar of the anti-terror authorities.

'How on earth you could ever monitor 2,000 people, let alone the fact that the number that we have got now has probably increased,' he said.

He said the only solution was to lock such individuals up, but he told the BBC Britain didn't want to go down this route.

Ben Wallace, Minister of State for Security, yesterday said: 'There are a range of powers available to disrupt terrorism-related activity.'
The 'ticking time bomb' Islamist who killed an elderly priest may have recruited his accomplice via Facebook  despite being on a terror watch list.

Adel Kermiche, 19, was revealed by relations to have had several accounts on the social networking site with which he spread jihadi propaganda from his home near Rouen.

His accomplice, named for the first time, as Abdel Malik P, lived more than six hours drive away in Aix-Les Bains, in Alpine France.

The pair were both killed by police marksmen when they burst out of the church where they had murdered the priest. They were picked off despite trying to use their hostages as human shields. Malik was hit in the face and it took a day to identify him.

Killers: Adel Kermiche (left), 19, had several accounts on Facebook with which he spread jihadi propaganda from his home near Rouen. It is thought he met his accomplice Abdel Malik P (right) online

Victim: The pair were shot dead after bursting into a church in St Etienne du Rouvray and brutally slaughtering elderly priest Father Jacques Hamel

Last night there was speculation that Kermiche connected with Malik over Facebook, or other social media.

A terror order that had been imposed on Kermiche by the French authorities did nothing to prevent the atrocity. In Britain judges have struggled to ban internet use, even for convicted online paedophiles, because it is now considered an essential human right.

Kermiche, the son of a teacher, was revealed to have become radicalised after meeting French Muslim convert Maxime Hauchard  involved in beheading an American in Syria  when both lived near Rouen several years ago. One neighbour said: 'Everyone knows that this kid was a ticking time bomb. He was too strange.'

He is since believed to have followed social media-enthusiast Hauchard on the internet. In this period he attempted to travel to Syria himself, before carrying out Tuesday's murder.

Intelligence source have suggested he became an IS killer under the guidance of 24-year-old Hauchard  known as 'Al Faransi'. Brought up near Rouen, 20 minutes' drive from the church, Hauchard went to Syria several years ago.

As well as being involved in the murder of American hostage Peter Kassig two years ago, he has been pictured slitting a Syrian enemy's throat and is active on social media. French intelligence sources suggested he may have met Kermiche.

Radical: Kermiche, the son of a teacher, was revealed to have become radicalised after meeting French Muslim convert Maxime Hauchard when both lived near Rouen several years ago

Threat: Yesterday Islamic State released a video which it said showed Kermiche and Malik pledging allegiance to its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi

And it emerged that the French judge who freed him into the community after he was jailed for plotting to travel to Syria, was well aware that he was a suicide risk  but seemingly did not make the connection between his radicalism and the risk of suicide attacks.

Once released, he was allowed out of his Algerian parents' council house in St Etienne Du Rouvray for four hours a day. That gave him ample time to target the town's church a mile away when Father Jacques Hamel, 86, was giving Mass to a handful of nuns and pensioners.

Yesterday Islamic State released a video which it said showed Kermiche and Malik pledging allegiance to its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

The pair, using the noms de guerre Abu Omar and Abu Jalil al-Hanfai, hold hands as they swear 'obedience'. IS claimed the attack on the church had been carried out by two of its 'soldiers in response to calls to target countries of the Crusader coalition'.

Yesterday three youths of North African origin who claimed to be acquaintances of Kermiche told the Daily Mail that although he had claimed to have become a serious Muslim, he had managed dupe four women into sex.

One of the youths, who refused to be named, said: 'Adel became a Muslim two years ago  but he had got himself four 'wives' just for sex.

Probe: A policeman cordons the site next to the body of one of the two men who stormed a French church. The two attackers were shot after they emerged from the building shouting 'Allahu Akbar'

Memory: It was made clear Kermiche was a suicide risk but, despite protests from the state prosecutor, the judge allowed him to live at home, wearing an electronic tag. Pictured, mourners at the French church

Aftermath: In Britain judges have struggled to ban internet use, even for convicted online paedophiles, because it is now considered an essential human right

'He found the women over the internet, in France, and 'married' them in quick Islamic ceremonies. They had sex and he 'divorced' them a few days later.'

Friends described him as 'easily influenced' and around the time of the Charlie Hebdo satirical magazine massacre in Paris in January 2015, Kermiche started lecturing his parents for not going to the mosque.

He was jailed after twice being caught trying to travel to Syria to join IS in spring 2015, but was released when he told the authorities he regretted this.

Legal files showed he had suffered 'psychological troubles' since the age of six, but he claimed before winning his release this March that he wanted to become a psychiatric nurse saying: 'I want to get back my life, to see my friends, to get married.'
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This might be the most thrilling way to view one of the world's largest cities: on a glass-bottomed walkway at 1,115 feet above the ground.

Jinmao Tower, a super-tall skyscraper in Shanghai, has built a see-through platform which allows daredevil tourists to dangle on the side of the edifice and gain sweeping views of the sprawling city, reported Huanqiu.com, an affiliation to the People's Daily Online.

Just last month, a skyscraper in downtown Los Angeles opened a giant all-glass slide at around 1,000 feet high.

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Adrenaline running high: Jinmao Tower, a 88-storey skyscraper in Shanghai, has built a glass-bottom walkway on the top floor

Quite a drop: The vertigo-inducing attraction, to open to the public tomorrow, is situated at 1,115 feet above the ground

I'm walking in the air: A few lucky visitors have experienced the deck, which does not have hand rails, during the soft opening

Don't look down! Strapped in harnesses, tourists will be able to stand on the edge of the platform to gain adrenaline rush

Ready to dive: A tourist pretends he is going to plunge off the super-tall skyscraper while being attached on the side of the edifice

The vertigo-inducing deck in Shanghai protrudes out from the 88th floor of Jinmao Tower and will be opened to the public from tomorrow.

The impressive walkway measures 197 feet long and four feet wide.

More incredibly, the attraction does not have hand rails, a deliberate feature from the designers.

This means visitors will be able to stand on the very edge of the deck to gain a maximum level of adrenaline rush.

Pictures emerged on Chinese media show a number of lucky tourists, strapped in safety harnesses, happily stretching their arms and legs near the edge as if they were walking in the air.

A member of staff who works at the ticket office of Jinmao Tower told MainOnline that admission to the platform is 120 Yuan (14).

However, in order to get to the platform, tourists will also need to pay the entrance fee for Jinmao's observation deck on the 88th floor, which costs 288 Yuan (33).

Proof of courage: A maximum of 15 people will be allowed to stand on the walkway at the same time including two instructors

Would you dare to do that? A man happily stretched their arm while standing near the edge as he was invited to experience the platform

On the top of the world: Protruding out from the 88th floor, the transparent deck lets visitors enjoy sweeping views of sprawling Shanghai

Destination for thriller seekers: The gratify-defying walkway is the newest feature of the 1,378-foot-tall Jinmao Tower

Jinmao Tower (middle) and its two neighbours: 1,621ft tall Shanghai World Financial Centre (left) and 2,073ft tall Shanghai Tower (right)

A maximum of 15 people will be allowed to stand on the walkway at the same time including two instructors, according to another report on People's Daily Online.

Each tourist will be asked to sign a declaration stating they are fit for the experience and will be allowed to stay on the platform up to 30 minutes.

Located in the jungle of skyscrapers in Shanghai's Pudong Financial District, Jinmao Tower is the third tallest building in the city of 23 million residents.

Standing 1,378 feet tall, the structure was completed in 1999 after five years of construction and was the first super-tall skyscraper in China.

It has since been overtaken by two neighbouring buildings, the 1,621-foot-tall Shanghai World Financial Centre and the 2,073-foot-tall Shanghai Tower.

On June 25, the U.S. Bank Tower, a 73-storey building in downtown Los Angeles, unveiled a transparent slide attached to the side of the building between the 70th and 69th floor.

According to the building's owner, the glass on the 45-foot-long enclosed slide is only 1 1/4 inches thick, but can withstand hurricane-force winds and even a powerful earthquake.

Last December, a skyscraper in Liuzhou, a city in southern China, opened a five-foot-wide glass-bottomed skywalk at 994 feet high.
It's the ultimate decision, one that we all hope we never have to make: save your mother or save your spouse.

A man in China was forced to make the tough decision when floods swept through Daxian village, north-east China's Hebei province, last week, reports the People's Daily Online.

Gao Fengshou rushed to his mother's house first to check on her before returning for his wife and two children aged two and four. His wife was so angry at his decision that she decided to leave him.

Uh oh! Chinese media claim this is the picture of the man, Gao Fengshou, who saved his mother before his wife

According to the report, the event occurred at around 9pm on July 19.

Gao, a professional home decorator, saw on Chinese social media that heavy rain was on its way and would cause severe flooding to the region.

Gao's mother lives alone on the west side of Daxian village while he lives with his wife, father and children on the east side.

Instead of thinking about his wife, whom he had married for five years, the man's first concern was his mother.

He rushed to her house and saw that she was safe and the flooding had not affected her.

He then returned home to spend the rest of the night with her wife, who was panicking about the incoming flooding.

At around 1am on July 20, floodwaters reached his village and were rising quickly, the report said.

Upon seeing this, Gao dashed to his mother's house, leaving his wife, father and children behind.

When he arrived at his mother's house, the flooding had reached waist high.

Worried for her safety, Gao told her to stay in her neighbour's house before quickly driving back to his own home.

Mass devestation: Roads were left damaged by recent floodwaters which hit Daxian village

Tragic loss: Policemen take away chickens after flooding devastated the province of Hebei

When he returned from checking on his mother, he found his family on the rooftop trying to escape from fast-flowing floodwaters.

His wife was unimpressed and has refused to speak to her husband.

The next day, she took her two children along with 2,000 yuan (230) in cash and left Gao.

According to Chinese media, 25 people in the village died in the floods and 13 are still missing.

People have been discussing the story on China's social media site Weibo.

One user wrote: 'I always thought it was a fairy tale naive question. I did not expect it to be a reality. Brother I feel your pain.'

While another commented: 'To save the mother is right, but I can understand the reaction from his wife. Life is not easy.'

And one user said: 'As a wife and mother, I can understand this man's choice, but I'm sorry I will not forgive. This is my attitude.'

Hebei province is one of the worst affected areas by the flooding and heavy rain.

164 people have been killed and 125 remain missing in the latest flooding which has hit northern China over the past week.
He then posted the pictures of the meeting to his social media account

A police officer came and handed the pair bottles of water

According to the post online, the temperature had hit 40 degrees Celcius

Pictures show the girl helping her mother sweep the streets of Shanghai

This is the moment a young girl touched the hearts of internet users in China after she helped her street cleaner mother to sweep the road in 40 degree heat.

Photos, uploaded to social media site Weibo on July 24, depicted the girl helping her mother clean the streets on a Sunday so she could take a rest, reports the People's Daily Online.

It has raised awareness in the country of people who go out to work on the streets during the hot weather.

Touching photos: The young girl and her mother were pictured sweeping the streets of Shanghai

A policeman saw the pair at work while temperatures reached 40 degrees and bought them water

Heartwarming: The girl was pictured sweeping the streets while her mother took a rest and looked on

Over the past week or so, Shanghai has been hitting temperatures of around 40 degrees daily.

Images show girl, thought to be five or six years old, and her mother walking along the streets of Shanghai.

Her mother is in sanitation worker's uniform and appears to have a cloth over her head and around her neck to protect her from the heat.

In the pictures, the girl can be seen with her mother's sweeping brush and helping her sweep alongside the curb of the pavement on Lishi street in Shanghai.

According to Chinese media, the girl is from Fuyang in Anhui province and had come to visit her parents who work in Shanghai.

Because there was no one to look after her at home, her mother had to bring her to work.

Thoughtful cop: The policeman bent down to speak with the family before getting them a bottle of water each

A police officer noticed the two working hard in the heat and stepped in to give them a bottle of water each.

He then posted these images to his Weibo account under the name 'policeman Xiao Zhou'.

He says he told them to remember to take rest breaks.

According to some of the woman's colleagues, her daughter lives with her grandparents in Anhui province while they earn money in Shanghai.

She had come to Shanghai to visit them both.

On China's social media, many people shared their concerns for the mother and daughter. They also praised the police officer for his actions.

One user wrote: 'If people can consciously drop less garbage then their work will reduce a lot.'

While another user commented: 'Good. Heart-warming little sister. It's tough and so hot outside.'

And one user said: 'This girl is great, this is the good cop! If all police officers are like this officer then we can truly live in a harmonious society.'
Male birds sing to attract mates, and their song advertises the quality of the genes to females.

But exactly how 'good genes' are reflected in bird song is not fully understood.

Now researchers are a step closer to understanding how female birds pick out a good partner, by showing that inbred birds sing out of tune compared to their rivals.

Male birds sing to attract mates, and their song advertises the quality of the genes to females. But exactly how 'good genes' are reflected in bird song is not fully understood. Now researchers are a step closer to understanding how female birds pick out a good partner

HOW THE STUDY WORKED The researchers took a total of 38 male canaries and trained them from fledgling to adulthood in 19 pairs - one inbred and one outbred, with an older, unrelated male. Each pair contained two birds that weighed roughly the same at fledgling stage. The song development phase in canaries lasts from approximately 40 until 240 days after hatching. Once the canaries reached adulthood, the researchers examined four different aspects of their bird song. They looked at song length, including pauses, along with song complexity, learning - including how similar the song was and how much of it was learned from the tutor - and lastly how often different phonetics were used to sound each syllable. The only aspect of the bird song that was found to be affected by inbreeding was the syllable phonetics. Advertisement

A bird's song is expected to signal the quality of the male to potential mates.

''Quality' is determined by genetic and environmental factors, but surprisingly there is very limited evidence if, and how, genetic aspects of male quality are reflected in song,' the authors wrote, in a new study published in the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.

The researchers, from the University of Antwerp, found the effects of inbreeding were particularly notable on shorter syllables, making the birds sound 'out of tune'.

'We found that inbreeding was reflected in song. Inbred birds were able to learn and use the same syllables, but expressed these differently,' Raissa De Boer, biologist from the University of Antwerp and lead author on the paper told MailOnline.

'Inbred birds sang less pure, and at different frequencies: they sang "out of tune",' she said.

Previous studies have shown mating signals are affected by inbreeding in fish and invertebrates but until now, little research had been carried out on how inbreeding affects bird song.

There are a few reasons why female birds would benefit from mating with an outbred male.

'Although this can, but does not necessarily lead to increased fitness of the offspring, females probably gain direct benefits by choosing an outbred male over an inbred male,' the authors said.

'Females are expected to benefit from choosing males that carry "good'' genes, for example because their offspring inherits the genes for viability or attractiveness.

Birds are taught how to sing, so the researchers put this variation down to a difference in the learning process.

'Females discriminated between inbred and outbred males, because there was a difference in investment in reproduction: females mated with inbred males laid smaller eggs, and tended to lay fewer eggs,' Ms De Boer told MailOnline.

'We think this may be a consequence of the differences in song we found, and perhaps females can assess genetic aspects of quality of males via song. In this way, females may be able to choose a partner with 'good genes', even when there are no differences in environmental conditions.'

The researchers took a total of 38 male canaries and trained them from fledgling to adulthood in 19 pairs - one inbred and one outbred, with an older, unrelated male. Canary chicks pictured

HOW ANIMALS AVOID INBREEDING Previous studies have shown mating signals are affected by inbreeding in fish and invertebrates but until now, little research has been carried out on how inbreeding affects bird song. There are a few reasons why female birds would benefit from mating with an outbred male, in evolutionary terms. 'Although this can, but does not necessarily lead to increased fitness of the offspring, females probably gain direct benefits by choosing an outbred male over an inbred male,' the authors said. 'Females are expected to benefit from choosing males that carry 'good'' genes, for example because their offspring inherits the genes for viability or attractiveness,' the authors said. Advertisement

The researchers took a total of 38 male canaries put them in pairs from fledgling to adulthood.

In each of the 19 pairs, one of the birds was inbred and one outbred with an older, unrelated male.

Once the canaries reached adulthood, the researchers examined four different aspects of their bird song.

Canaries learn to sing from approximately 40 until 240 days after hatching.

The experts looked at song length, including pauses, song complexity and learning - including how similar the song was and how much of it was learned from the tutor - as well as how often different sounds were used to sound each syllable.

The only aspect of the bird song that was found to be affected by inbreeding was the 'syllable phonetics' or sounds used to sound each syllable.

The inbred birds were able to imitate the same syllables learned from their tutors as the outbred birds, and used them just as frequently, suggesting there was no difference in learning ability, but that the difference was down to genetics.

Male birds were then paired with outbred females, allowing the researchers to measure the weight of the resultant clutch of eggs to determine the females' 'reproductive investment'.

'After the song recordings, we mated the inbred and outbred males with females, so we could compare how much they would invest in reproduction, which could be a good indication if females differentiate between inbred and outbred males,' Ms De Boer said.

But the females could tell by the songs which had better genes.

Female canaries that mated with inbred males produced significantly lighter batches of eggs compared to those that mated with outbred males.

'In the future, we want to test if the effects of inbreeding may depend on the environmental conditions birds experienced during their early development,' Ms De Boer told MailOnline.

'To this end, we plan to use four cohorts of birds: inbred birds reared in advantageous, or disadvantageous conditions, and outbred birds reared in advantageous, or disadvantageous conditions. We can then compare again different features of song, and see how genes and environment may inter-act on the expression of song.'
They also found the method was more accurate close to sunrise or sunset

can be used to determine the sun's position

They were feared warriors who terrorised much of northern Europe and beyond through the Iron Age.

But carried by their longboats, the Vikings also circumnavigated across vast stretches of open ocean, travelling as far as the Middle East and even North America.

Now researchers have shed new light on how they may have achieved this feat  with the help of the sunrise and sunset.

The Vikings are thought to have navigated across the vast Atlantic Ocean and the North Sea with the help of sunstones (crystal of Iceland spar pictured) that allowed them to work out the position of the sun even when it was cloudy or foggy. New research has suggested this technique was most accurate at sunset or sunrise

Scientists have studied the techniques the Viking sailors may have used to help them pick their way from Scandinavia to far flung places.

NAVIGATING WITH SUNSTONES Dr Gabor Horvath and his team have suggested the Vikings navigated using three hypothesised steps after calibrating the sunstone: Calibration step: In cloudless weather, the navigator watched the sky through a sunstone while rotating it to and fro in front of his eyes. This allowed them to detect periodic changes in the intensity of transmitted skylight. He had to rotate the crystal until its well-determined orientation ( eg minimal or maximal intensity of skylight transmitted through a dichroic sunstone, or minimal or maximal intensity difference between the two slots/spots of a birefringent sunstone), where it was fixed, and thereafter he calibrated the crystal by engraving the direction pointing towards the sun on the crystal surface. Navigation step 1: Applying this sunstone rotational adjustment under a cloudy or foggy sky at two different celestial points, the navigator could determine the directions perpendicular to the local E-vectors of skylight shown by the engraved straight markings of the sunstones, pointing towards the sun. Navigation step 2: The intersection of the two celestial great circles crossing the sunstones parallel to their engravings gives the position of the invisible sun. Navigation step 3: Using the Viking sun-compass, the navigator could derive a true compass (e.g. North) direction from the estimated position of the invisible sun. * source Royal Society Open Science Advertisement

Historians have long suspected the Vikings used sun-compasses to orientate themselves while at sea.

In cloudy or foggy weather, they also may have used crystals known as sunstones to help pick out the sun.

Now, in a series of studies published by the Royal Society, a team of physicists at Eotvos University in Budapest, Hungary, have tested whether this is possible.

They found that the Viking navigators would have needed to follow three steps to ensure they could keep their vessels pointed in the right direction.

First they would have determined the direction the light from the sky was being polarised using two sunstones.

They could then use this to determine the direction of the sunlight and calculate its elevation.

They could then use a 'shadow stick' to cast the appropriate shadow on the sun compase to work out where North was.

In two studies published earlier this year, the researchers showed that the first two steps were possible depending on the type of crystal used for the sunstone.

They found that in overcast conditions calcite gave the most accurate reading while cordierite and tourmaline were more error prone.

But in a new experiment, published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society A, the research team have shown that while the Vikings could have estimated the position and elevation of the sun with sunstone, they would have been best to do it when the sun was lowest in the sky.

This means that if the Vikings took readings shortly after sunrise and before sunset, they are most likely to have stayed on the correct course.

Dr Gabor Horvath, an expert in environmental optics at Eotvos University who led the research, said: 'The theory of sky-polarimetric Viking navigation with sunstones is widely accepted.

The Vikings made long journeys at sea often in conditions that meant they could not see the sun (recreation of Viking longboat pictured). The sagas mention the use of mysterious sunstones and historians believe these could have been crystals found on the beaches of Norway and Iceland

The popular TV series Vikings (pictured) depicts how the Vikings may have used sunstones to navigate

'According to our findings, the ideal periods for sky-polarimetric Viking navigation are immediately after sunrise and before sunset, because the North errors are the lowest at low solar elevations.'

There are few clues as to how the Vikings navigated across the oceans in the archaeological record.

HOW DO SUNSTONES WORK? Sunstones detect the 'polarisation' of sunlight - the way rays of light are scattered in different planes when they reach the atmosphere. The stones act as a filter, similar to the filters used in polarised sunglasses. Light can only shine through the crystal if it is polarised in a particular direction. All other types of light are blocked. The amount of polarised light in any particular direction depends on the position of the sun in the sky at the time. Experienced navigators would quickly be able to work out the location of the sun by turning the stone around. Advertisement

A fragment of a wooden dial, dating to the ninth century, found in the ruins of a convent in Greenland is thought to be part of a sun-compass.

With such a device the Vikings would have been able to find the direction of north, and so work out their own heading, with high precision, but only in clear weather.

Some experts have suggested that the Vikings used special crystals called sunstones that polarise the light to help them find the sun when it was covered by clouds or fog.

Sunstones are described in some of the Viking sagas but there is little physical evidence of what these were.

Several potential crystals such as calcite, tourmaline and cordierite can be found on the beaches of Norway and Iceland where the Vikings are known to have lived.

However, the theory that the Vikings used sunstones has been controversial.

In a study published in January this year, Dr Horvath and his team showed that it was possible to use these stones to work out the direction of light was coming from.

There is little hard evidence of how the Vikings navigated across the ocean (painting of Viking longboat pictured) but the new research suggests it may have been possible using sunstones

This is because the light passing through the crystals was polarised, meaning as it was rotated it would allow different amounts of light through depending on its orientation.

When the amount of light passing through was at its brightest, it means it is aligned with the polarisation of light in the atmosphere.

Markings on the crystal surface, made by calibrating the stone in clear conditions, could reveal where the direction of the light was coming from.

Dr Horvath and his team found using two sun stones and drawing two large circles parallel to these engravings it was possible to work out the position of the invisible sun.

In their latest paper the researchers examined whether it was then possible to estimate the elevation of the sun and so project an imaginary sunray onto the surface of the sun compass by adjusting the shadow stick to the appropriate height.

They claim this estimation of solar elevation was probaably performed using measures of fists and fingers.

FINDING EVIDENCE OF SUNSTONES UNDER THE SEA In 2002, a dive to the wreck revealed, among many artefacts, the mysterious lump of crystal that is now the focus of international scrutiny. As nobody knew quite what it was, it was put in a safe place and little notice was taken of it until Professor Albert Le Floch, head of the research team, spotted a reference to it on the website run by volunteers of the Alderney Maritime Trust. He was further intrigued to discover that, in 2006, a set of brass dividers used for map-reading were also found in the wreck, just 3ft from where the crystal had been found. This encouraged the idea that it had been part of the navigational equipment. Following a visit by Professor Le Floch to the island last year, a small specimen was taken from the rock. And, as the research paper is about to reveal, it has been confirmed as Icelandic spar  which, although common around Alderney, has never been found in blocks like this one, about the size and shape of a cigarette packet. This implies it was indeed with the stricken ship when it went down. Advertisement

Using 10 male partificpanets, the researchers asked them to estimate the position of the sun in a digital planetarium using black dots to represent the spot determined using the sunstones.

They found that in 2,400 tests, 48 per cent of them were more accurate than one degree.

They found that the most accurate estimations was when the sun was close to the horizon.

This, they claim, suggests the Vikings probably navigated immediately after sunrise and before sunset to ensure their headings were as accurate as possible.

Writing in the paper, the researchers said: 'In reality a Viking navigator had to perform such an estimation with regard to an actually unseen sun.

'The latter is obviously a more difficult task. Thus, the elevation errors presented in this work underestimate the real errors of the third step of sky-polarimeric Viking navigation.

'On the other hand, Viking navigators were surely more experienced in the estimation of elevation angles than our test persons.'
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The vast array of planets, stars and galaxies in the endless reach of space that lies beyond our planet provide photographers with endless opportunities to capture fascinating images.

Now some of the best pictures of space have been chosen as part of this years Insight Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition.

The stunning pictures include Venus and the Moon overlook the International Space Station streaking across the sky over France and new stars being born in the swirling pink clouds of the Lagoon Nebula 5,000 light years away.

With very little light pollution, the glimmering stars of the Milky Way bathe the colourful layers of the Painted Hills of Oregon in a natural glow

The competition, which is run by the Royal Observatory Greenwich in association with Insight Investment and BBC Sky at Night Magazine, is now in its eighth year.

Insight Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2016 has received more outstanding pictures than ever before, a spokesperson form the Royal Observatory Greenwich said.

This year the competition received a record number of over 4,500 spectacular entries from enthusiastic amateurs and professional photographers from over 80 countries.

A couple takes in the awe-inspiring sight of the Northern Lights streaking across the night sky over the lagoon at Jokulsarlon, Iceland on Valentine's night of 2016

The dramatic moment that our star, the Sun, appears to be cloaked in darkness by the Moon during the Total Solar Eclipse of 9th March 2016 in Indonesia. The Sun peers out from behind the Moon and resembles the shape of a diamond ring, caused by the rugged edge of the Moon allowing some beads of sunlight to shine through in certain places

ASTRONOMY PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR The competition, which is run by the Royal Observatory Greenwich in association with Insight Investment and BBC Sky at Night Magazine, is now in its eighth year. Insight Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2016 has received more outstanding pictures than ever before, a spokesperson form the Royal Observatory Greenwich said. This year the competition received a record number of over 4,500 spectacular entries from enthusiastic amateurs and professional photographers from over 80 countries. The winners of the competitions nine categories and two special prizes will be announced on 15 September at a special award ceremony at the Royal Observatory Greenwich. Advertisement

The rusty red swirls of the circular, iron sculpture Seven Magic Points in Brattebergan, Norway mirror the rippling aurora above

The natural light of the Milky Way battles with the light pollution over the fishing village, or kelong, in Batu Pahat, Malaysia. In the lower right hand corner, there is also bioluminescence in the waters at the bottom of the kelong

The often unnoticed ripples and shimmers of the Moon captured on film as it appears to rise through the sky. Here, the Moon is photographed at 98 per cent illumination and is beginning to wane

The universe puts on its very own light show to see in the New Year on 1 January 2016, as the Aurora Australis or Southern Lights, arcs over Nugget Point on the South Otago coast of New Zealand

The winners of the competitions nine categories and two special prizes will be announced on 15 September at a special award ceremony at the Royal Observatory Greenwich.

Shortlisted images from this years entrants include the stunning sight of the Perseid Meteor Shower shooting across the sky appearing to cascade from Mount Shasta in California.

The dramatic moment that the sun, appeared to be cloaked in darkness by the Moon during the Total Solar Eclipse of 9th March 2016 in Indonesia is another shortlisted entry.

The universe provided the sensational natural light show of the Aurora Australis to welcome in the New Year over Nugget Point on the Otago Coast of New Zealand.

But the range of locations is not just limited to our planet.

The celestial curve of the Milky Way joins with the light of a stargazer's headlamp to form a monumental arch over the Cimon della Pella in the heart of the Dolomites mountain range in northeastern Italy

Ancient petroglyphs are lit up by the glittering stars of the night sky in the Eastern Sierras in California

The vivid green Northern Lights resemble a bird soaring over open water in Olderdalen, Norway

The shadow of Manua Kea, the highest peak in the state of Hawaii, is projected by the rising sun over the volcano, Hualalai, whilst the Full Moon soars above them, higher again

Looming in the night sky, tempestuous storms are visible across the face of the largest planet in our solar system, Jupiter. The Great Red Spot - a raging storm akin to a hurricane on Earth - stands out in a deep orange from the hues of browns surrounding it

The rare opportunity of seeing five planets - Mercury, Venus, Mars, Saturn and Jupiter - gleaming in the night sky over the Alps captured on camera. On the left hand side is the Dufour peak of the MonteRosa range and on the right hand side of the frame is the instantly recognisable peak of the Matterhorn

Comet Lovejoy soars through the night sky in a green haze with an ion tail in its wake. The image shows Lovejoy appearing to lose its tail on 21 January 2015

A tremendous filaprom extends from the surface of our star, the Sun. Filaproms are large, gaseous features that can be partially seem over the Sun's disk as a filament, and they are known to reach lengths equal to 150 Earths aligned

Some entries captured sights from across our solar system, galaxy and the wider universe.

The tempestuous storms visible across the face of Jupiter, looming in the night sky was captured for one entry. The planet was viewed from the UK as the Great Red Spot, a raging storm similar to a hurricane on Earth, stands out in a deep orange.

The luminous tangle of filaments of Pickerings Triangle was photographed for another entry, one of the main parts of a supernova remnant which exploded around 8,000 years ago along with the undulating clouds of M8, also commonly referred to as the Lagoon Nebula, situated some 5,000 light years from our planet.

New stars are formed in the undulating clouds of M8, also commonly referred to as the Lagoon Nebula, situated some 5,000 light years from our planet

During the seldom-seen alignment of the five planets in February 2016, Venus, Mercury and the Milky Way rose an hour before sunrise, and appear to be fleeing its early glow, overlooking Turrimeta Beach, Australia

A Royal Spoonbill sits atop of a branch basking in the glow of the nearly Full Moon in Hawke's Bay, New Zealand

The International Space Station (ISS) appears to pierce a path across the radiant, concentric star trails seemingly spinning over the silhouettes of the trees in Harrogate, South Australia

Our galaxy, the Milky Way, stretches across the night sky between two of the imposing rocks at Pfeiffer State Beach, near Big Sur, California

Comet Lovejoy flashes through the darkness of the Solar System, passing near the open star cluster of the Pleiades or Seven Sisters. The Pleiades glow blue due to their extremely hot nature, and are the most obvious star cluster to the naked eye in the night sky

A view of the Halley 6 Research Station situated on the Brunt Ice Shelf, Antarctica, which is believed to be the closest thing you can get to living in space without leaving Earth, making it perfect to be used for research by the European Space Agency. As the sun's light dissipates into the horizon, the Aurora Australis can be seen swirling overhead

The starburst galaxy of M82, also known as the Cigar Galaxy, lying some 12 million light years away from our planet where a plethora of stars are being created was also captured.

Turner Prize winning artist, Wolfgang Tillmans, and Oana Sandu of the European Southern Observatory (ESO) were part of this years judging panel this year.

They joined comedian and keen amateur astronomer Jon Culshaw, Editor of BBC Sky at Night Magazine Chris Bramley, the Royal Observatorys Public Astronomer Dr Marek Kukula and a host of experts in the worlds of art and astronomy.

The winners will be displayed in a free exhibition at the Observatorys Astronomy Centre from Saturday 17 September.

Taken from atop the Semnoz Mountain, the International Space Station arcs over the city of Annecy, France, as Venus and the Moon loom overhead

The Southern Cross constellation of the Milky Way, visible in the southern sky creates a guiding light along Bucklands Lane in Central Goldfields Shire, Victoria

A mesmerising lunar halo forms around our natural satellite, the Moon, in the night sky above Norway. The halo, also known as a moon ring or winter halo, is an optical phenomenon created when moonlight is refracted in numerous ice crystals suspended in the atmosphere

The Perseid Meteor Shower shoots across the sky in the early hours of August 13, 2015, appearing to cascade from Mount Shasta in California, USA. The composite image features roughly 65 meteors captured by the photographer between 12:30am and 4:30am

A searing solar prominence extends outwards from the surface of the Sun. The 'wall of plasma' is the height of three times the Earth's diameter

About 12 million light years away from our planet, lays the starburst galaxy M82, also known as the Cigar Galaxy. In a show of radiant red, the superwind bursts out from the galaxy, believed to be the closest place to our planet in which the conditions are similar to that of the early Universe, where a plethora of stars are forming

The brilliance of the Moon illuminates the night sky, and is reflected in the expansive water of the Paraty Bay, Brazil.

The luminous tangle of filaments of Pickering's Triangle intertwines through the night sky. Located in the Veil Nebula, it is one of the main visual elements of a supernova remnant, whose source exploded around 8,000 years ago
Its been nearly 50 years since scientists first discovered the natural drug hiding within the soil at Easter Island, and now, its been hailed by some as the fountain of youth.

The drug - rapamycin - is a bacterial by-product found in the shadows of the island's famous statues, and has shown to increase lifespan or improve some of the conditions related to aging.

These anti-aging capabilities have been demonstrated across a range of organisms, from fruit flies and mice, to dogs and even humans  but, researchers warn that for long-term use, these results might come at a price.

Its been nearly 50 years since scientists first discovered the natural drug hiding within the soil at Easter Island, and now, its been hailed by some as the fountain of youth.

WHAT IS RAPAMYCIN? Rapamycin is a bacterial by-product discovered in the shadows of the Easter Island's famous statues. It is already used in transplant patients to prevent organ rejection and scientists say it can improve learning and help treat cognitive decline. However, it comes with some serious side effects. For instance, the compound suppresses the immune system and makes patients vulnerable to any viruses and bacteria. The existing version of the drug also increases the risk of cancer and would need to be modified before using in human trials. But, as research on the fountain of youth drug continues, scientists warn that it isnt yet clear if mTOR inhibitors are safe for long-term use. Rapamycins immune system-suppressing capabilities also mean it could leave its user susceptible to infection, scientists warn. Advertisement

Rapamycin is named after Rapa Nui, the Polynesian name for Easter Island, which sits isolated in the Pacific Ocean  more than 2000 miles from its nearest neighbour.

The soil containing rapamycin was first collected in 1964 by Georges Nogrady, a microbiologist from the University of Montreal.

But, this wasnt the object of the expedition, so the compound itself wasnt discovered until five years later when the samples were analyzed by scientists at Ayerst Pharmaceutical, Chemical & Engineering News reports.

In 1969, these researchers discovered the powerful immunosuppressant which targets a protein called mTOR, a central hub for nutrient signalling, and can stop cancer cells from dividing.

Since then, scientists have unravelled far more information on the drug, finding it could help to fight solid tumours, and can prevent organ rejection in transplant patients.

The compound, which binds the proteins FKBP12 and mTOR, blocks the activity of mTORC1, which coordinates nutrient information, according to C&EN.

Later studies on yeast, nematode worms, and fruit flies determined that suppressing the activity of mTOR extended lifespan.

And in a 2009 study, it was found that administering rapamycin to fully grown mice led longer lives in both males and females  an extra six months for male mice, 9 percent longer than those without the drug, and 14 percent longer in females.

The drug has since been tested on marmosets, and even humans.

These trials have yielded some positive results, showing improvements in certain aspects of aging, including learning and cognitive function in humans, along with response to the flu vaccine, and proteostasis in marmosets, the maintenance of proteins.

The drug has since been tested on marmosets, and even humans. It is already used in transplant patients to prevent organ rejection and scientists say it can improve learning and help treat cognitive decline

Recently, it was revealed that scientists from the University of Washington are testing the effects of rapamycin on dogs to see if it will slow down the aging process.

Researchers were shocked by results of the initial trials, which were revealed this past May, finding that some dogs showed improved heart functionality after just a few weeks.

The study is led by biologist Matt Kaeberlein and his colleague, Daniel Promislow.

According to Fusion, the researchers began clinical trials this year.

Dogs age very quickly compared to a human lifespan; most live between 10 and 13 years.

EASTER ISLAND'S MYSTERIOUS STATUES The Moai are monolithic human figures carved by the Rapa Nui people on Easter Island, between 1,250 and 1,500 AD. All the figures have overly-large heads and are thought to be living faces of deified ancestors. The 887 statues gaze inland across the island with an average height of 13ft (four metres). Rapamycin is named after Rapa Nui, the Polynesian name for Easter Island, which sits isolated in the Pacific Ocean  more than 2000 miles from its nearest neighbour All but 53 of the Moai were carved from tuff - compressed volcanic ash - and around 100 wear red pukao of scoria. In 1979 archaeologists said the statues were designed to hold coral eyes. The figures are believed to be symbol of authority and power. They may have embodied former chiefs and were repositories of spirits or 'mana'. They are positioned so that ancient ancestors watch over the villages, while seven look out to sea to help travellers find land. But it is a mystery as to how the vast carved stones were transported into position. Advertisement

This allows researchers to study the entire aging process in a short amount of time.

The team recruited 40 dog-owners, who were each to give their pets three tablets of rapamycin a week, Fusion reports.

After the researchers weeded out dogs with heart conditions and other medical factors, they were left with 24 middle-aged dogs, who would each receive low doses of the drug.

This continued over the course of 10 weeks, and the researchers took echocardiograms throughout to determine any changes in the animals heart function.

The team discovered that dogs receiving rapamycin showed improved heart functionality, or showed no change. And, those who had come in with worse conditions initially saw the most improvement. Moving forward, the researchers plan to conduct further tests with the drugs that will span multiple years

The team discovered that dogs receiving rapamycin showed improved heart functionality, or showed no change.

Those who had come in with worse conditions initially saw the most improvement.

But, as research on the fountain of youth drug continues, scientists warn that it isnt yet clear if mTOR inhibitors are safe for long-term use.

Rapamycins immune system-suppressing capabilities also mean it could leave its user susceptible to infection, scientists warn.

Now, many are working to develop compounds that dont have a negative effect on the immune system.
We live in an age where if we're unsure of a fact, we can just Google it.

And it appears many people ask the search engine some strange questions and rely on it to provide guidance in the event of an existential crisis, asking 'when will I die?' and 'why are we here?'

Thousands of people ask Google if they are pregnant, whether pigs sweat and where to hide a dead body, every month.

Thousands of people ask Google if they are pregnant, whether pigs sweat and where to hide a dead body, every month. A sleection of the strangest popular questions is shown above

THE TOP FIVE CRAZIEST QUESTIONS Am I pregnant? 90,500 monthly searches How do I get home? 49,500 monthly searches Are aliens real? 49,500 monthly searches Does farting burn calories? 49,500 monthly searches When will I die? 49,500 searches Advertisement

The most popular question on the pictorial chart, created by marketing agency Digitaloft is: 'Am I pregnant?'

A staggering 90,500 women ask the search engine this question every month, presumably hoping it can provide an answer in lieu of a pregnancy test.

The second and third most popular questions on the list are: 'How do I get home?' and 'are aliens real?'

While the first question may seem downright daft, a box pops up allowing users in input their postcode or zipcode, to help them with their journey, but unfortunately the search engine is not able to beat Nasa in its quest to find alien life, which it hopes to do before 2025.

The most popular question on the pictorial chart, created by marketing agency Digitaloft is: 'Am I pregnant?'

Some 18,100 people ask Google whether penguins have knees every month, (a Gentoo penguin is pictured) and a curious 8,100 want to know if pigs sweat

Some existential users are concerned with the big questions, with 8,100 monthly searches on Google for 'why are we here?' and 49,500 for 'when will I dies' shown above

Of course many people use Google as a digital doctor, searching for answers to embarrassing ailments. So it's no surprise users ask it bizarre questions about their body.

According to the chart, 49,500 people a month ask whether passing wind burns calories, but unfortunately the myth this bodily function burns 67 calories is false.

Some 22,200 are curious as to why men have nipples, while a more troubled 4,400 people a month Google 'why does my bellybutton smell?'

Others are in search of answers to life's mysteries, with 8,100 people asking if the tooth fairy is real every month. The infographic provides and cute and child-friendly answer

One popular question, asked by 49,500 people a month is if aliens are real (illustration pictured). Nasa has claimed we will find alien life by 2025, but ufortunately Google does not have the answer

Worryingly, 3,600 people a month ask whether men have periods (infographic shown above), with another 2,900 querying whether men can become pregnant, displaying a rather poor grasp of biology

Worryingly, 3,600 people a month ask whether men have periods, with another 2,900 querying whether men can become pregnant, displaying a rather poor grasp of biology.

A whopping 49,500 people ask the search engine 'when will I die' every month and it seems users are just as clueless when it comes to animals.

Some 18,100 people ask Google whether penguins have knees every month, 8,100 want to know if pigs sweat and 2,900 are curious whether worms have eyes  they don't.

An insecure 2,900 people every month ask the search engine 'does my dog love me?' every month.

A clueless 880 people ask where dinosaurs live every month and a further 5,400 whether the earth is flat  just a couple of thousand years after Aristotle provided evidence for a spherical Earth in 330BC

Other popular but worrying questions people ask Google every month, include ' how do I hide the dead body?  with 480 queries and 'what happens if I drink blood?' with 880 queries a month.

Some 800 people a month ask Google 'can I marry my cousin?' according to the infographic, meaning 10,560 people a year might be considering popping the question to a relative.

Others are in search of answers to life's mysteries, with 8,100 people asking Google 'why are we here?' every month and the same number asking if the tooth fairy is real.

A clueless 880 people ask where dinosaurs live every month and a further 5,400 whether the Earth is flat  just a couple of thousand years after Aristotle provided evidence for a spherical Earth in 330BC.
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It was once a bustling community abuzz with trade, farming and culture before it suddenly and dramatically burned to the ground.

Now archaeologists believe they have found evidence that suggests the Bronze Age village emerging from the mud in Cambridgeshire was destroyed fairly soon after it had been built.

They believe that the embryonic settlement, built on the edge of a boggy marshland near Peterborough, may have been destroyed in a raid by warriors  perhaps from a rival group.

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Analysis of timber used to construct a Bronze Age settlement discovered preserved in the mud at Whittlesey, Peterborough, (pictured) has revealed it was still fresh when the fledgling village burned to the ground. It has raised suspicions that it was destroyed in a raid

TREASURES PRESERVED IN MUD Archaeologists say far from being a simple house, the structure they have uncovered is a fully formed home, with many of the original fixtures and fittings still preserved in the mud. Among the items they have recovered from the thick, sticky river sediment are exotic glass beads from an elaborate necklace. A bronze dagger, a cauldron handle, a curved brooch and a bronze stick head have also been dug up. Clothes made from lime tree bark and woven textiles that may have been used as a rug or wall hangings were also pulled from the mud. Clay jars, cups and bowls have also emerged from the wreckage. Advertisement

Yet despite this it seems the only victims to have perished in the flames were two dogs, which were living inside round wooden houses when they collapsed into River Nene in Whittlesey.

Artefacts discovered at the site, which has been nicknamed the Pompeii of the Fens, reveal a well-provisioned community that was arguably wealthy for the time.

Decorative beads made from glass, jet and amber were found amidst the ruins and are thought to have been imported from the Mediterranean or as far away as the Middle East.

Textiles along with woven floor and wall coverings  preserved in the thick mud - have provided a rare insight into life 3,000 years ago.

But archaeologists have been most baffled by their discoveries when analysing the wood itself used to construct the buildings.

Timber struts stick vertically out of the mud where they supported the rest of the build while other poles used in the structure radiate outwards in a circle where they collapsed.

But the wood of these timbers appears to have still been fresh when it was charred in the fire.

This, together with a lack of evidence of burrowing insects and beetles in the wood, suggests the structures had only recently been erected.

A statement on the excavation's website said: 'The way in which some of the timber has burnt and the distinct details that are created when charring occurs on a microscopic level could indicate some of the wood was still green when the fire occurred.

'This is research that is still at an early stage of the investigation and will be understood in much greater detail over the coming months in post-excavation.

'As we expand our sampling and analysis of the wood, if much of it proves to still be green when it was burnt this could suggest a very short lifespan of the settlement.

The site is thought to have been a flourishing but closeknit community that was built on a raised platform on the edge of a river. Archaeologists have discovered the remains of five of the round houses that formed the settlement (artist's impression pictured)

The fire caused the buildings to collapse into the thick river sediment, where they were preserved for 3,000 years (excavation pictured)

The Stone Age site was buried under peat and has been unearthed at the edge of Must Farm Quarry in Whittlesey (left). A 1.1million project to excavate artefacts (right) at the site was launched, funded by government agency Historic England, and quarry-owners Forterra

'When this is combined with the absence of synanthropes and a real lack of occupational waste, the duration of the occupation does seem to have been particularly short.

BRITAIN'S OLDEST WHEEL Britain's oldest intact wheel was unearthed at a Bronze Age site dubbed the 'Pompeii of the Fens'. The 3,000-year-old wooden wheel shows Ancient Britons were finding innovative ways to move across land when it was previously thought they only used transportation across rivers. The solid wheel - around three feet (one metre) in diameter - would have been the last word in sophistication at the time, archaeologists said. It may well have belonged to a cart that was pulled either by several human hands or by a horse. Advertisement

'If the settlement was burnt down soon after the site was built, how and why did this happen?

'Hopefully, as we get close to the end of the excavation these are questions we'll start to develop answers for.'

The settlement, which was discovered buried in the thick sediment at a site known as Must Farm, is thought to date from the Late Bronze age between 1000BC and 800BC.

It consisted of at least five houses that were built closely together, suggesting it had been a tightknit community of people.

Each of the roundhouses were built on stilts above a small river and had conical roofs made of long wooden rafters covered in turf, clay and thatch.

The floors and walls were made of wickerwork, held in place firmly by the wooden frame.

During the 10 month excavation archaeologists have discovered pots of many different sizes, wooden buckets, bronze axes, swords and tools like sickles.

Fabrics, balls of thread and textiles, along with intricate glass beads have also been unearthed.

Experts have been amazed at the amount of belongings that have been unearthed at the site, which is unprecedented.

A statement released by Historic England and the University of Cambridge said: 'Even 3,000 years ago people seemed to have a lot of stuff.'

The site is the best preserved Bronze Age settlement to have ever been discovered in Britain. The level of preservation following the fire earned it the nickname Pompeii of the Fens after experts drew comparisons to the ancient Roman city preserved in volcanic ash.

The settlement appears to have been built by driving timbers into the sediment and then constructing a platform above the water (reconstruction pictured). Rafters were supported by the main timbers and the roof was made using thatch, turf and clay

Many weapons including a bronze dagger and a spear head (pictured) have been recovered from the remains of the wrecked homes

Dozens of clay pots have been uncovered at the site, many of which are still intact and some as small as an inch across (pictured)

But it seems the fledgling settlement met a violent end. It collapsed into the river sediment after being destroyed in a devastating fire, where it was then preserved in the mud.

Specialist fire investigators have been brought in to help unravel the mystery of what caused the blaze.

Selina Davenport, Must Farm Outreach Supervisor at the University of Cambridge's Archaeological Unit, told Live Science: 'We've been working with [a fire] investigator who works a lot with modern fires, and he thinks there's a good chance that the fire was set deliberately.

Specialist fire investigators have been brought in by the archaeologists to examine the site and they believe the blaze (artist's impression pictured) was started deliberately, possibly in a raid by a rival group

The findings also give us clues into what people ate in the Bronze Age. Wild animal remains found in rubbish dumps outside the houses show they were eating wild boar, red deer and freshwater fish such as pike

Amazingly, it seems that the settlers embarked in international trade, as suggested by the finding of decorative beads made from glass, jet and amber from the Mediterranean Basin and the Middle East

The Must Farm Quarry site revealed the internal and external structure of the houses during the excavation. Archaeologists encountered upright poles that used to support the building's walls and roof, well-preserved wall panels, collapsed roof beams and a row of poles arranged in an enclosure fence

'For that to have spread from something like a spark off a hearth is unlikely.

'These people were really good at living in wooden houses, so I dont think they were just catching fire accidently very often.'

Among the ruins of the settlement are a handful of skeletons of the victims who died in the blaze.

Archaeologists have found the remains of two dogs that appeared to have lived in the buildings and perished in the fire.

This amazing piece of wood is fairly heavily charred, except for a section in its centre where it is virtually untouched. It is very likely that another timber was secured to this one which shielded the original from the main heat of the fire

Each of the houses was fully equipped with pots of different sizes, wooden buckets and platters, metal tools suck as sickles (sickle pictured), weapons, textiles, loom weights and glass beads

Within the houses, a huge array of household goods were found, including complete sets of pots (some with food still inside), wooden buckets and platters, decorative textiles (pictured), tweezers and loom weights

Dr Davenport told Live Science: 'They were the only animals we believe were actually living on the site with the people and they seem to have been the only casualties of the fire.'

A single human skull was found at the site, but it is thought to have been kept as keepsake  possibly from an ancestor  in one of the houses.

Some semi-articulated calf and lamb skeletons were also found among the charred remains, and these too may have been kept on the site.

Duncan Wilson, chief executive of Historic England, who joint-funded the excavation, said: 'Over the past 10 months, Must Farm has given us an extraordinary window into how people lived 3,000 years ago.

'Now we know what this small but wealthy Bronze Age community ate, how they made their homes and where they traded.

'This has transformed our knowledge of Bronze Age Britain, and there is more to come as we enter a post-excavation phase of research.'

Plants and cereals were also an important part of the Bronze Age diet and the remains of porridge type foods were found preserved in amazing detail, sometimes still inside the bowls they were served in

The very dark, thick posts are oak and they usually have prominent tool marks on. The thinner, browner timbers are ash and make up the palisade and some of the interior posts
Around 190 million years ago, the Pacific Plate, the largest tectonic plate on Earth today, suddenly started forming in the vast Panthalassa Ocean - the precursor to the Pacific Ocean.

It had been thought the plate formed at the junction of three ancient plates, but new research suggests a different mechanism was behind its formation.

Scientists attempted to reconstruct the ancient tectonic activity, and found the Pacific Plate formed as three ancient plates slid past one another in a type of 'tectonic tango.'

The ancient Pacific plate no longer lies above the ocean, but once filled the space between Australia, and North and South America (shown on map). Attempting to accurately reconstruct tectonic activity that long ago is very challenging, the researchers said

HOW DID THE PACIFIC PLATE FORM? Previous studies suggested that the Pacific Plate originated at a triple junction between three ancient plates - Izangi, Farallon and Phoenix. But triple junctions are well known to be stable, which made the researchers from the University of Utrecht question whether this really was how the Pacific Plate formed. Instead, the researchers suggest that the plate formed when three transform faults - plates sliding past each other - came together. This is similar to the type of fault in the famous San Andreas fault in California. Advertisement

The research comes from the University in Utrecht, Netherlands, where scientists used evidence from magnetic patterns from the oldest part of the modern Pacific Plate along with seismologic data on the mechanical properties of the earth.

Attempting to accurately reconstruct tectonic activity that long ago is extremely challenging, the researchers said.

Because the Earth's crust is regularly recycled in the mantle, there are few surviving remnants of the tectonic plates that existed at the time.

Ms Lydian Boschman, one of the co-authors of the study, told MailOnline: 'Up until now, it was not possible to make tectonic plate reconstruction of oceans further back in time than 200 million years ago, because the plates are not at the surface of the earth any more.

Previous studies have shown that the Pacific Plate originated at a triple junction between three ancient plates - Izangi, Farallon and Phoenix. However, the researchers suggest that the Pacific plate may have formed when the ancient plates slid past one another, in a three-step process shown above

The researchers suggest the plate formed when three transform faults - plates sliding past each other - came together. This is similar to the type of fault in the famous San Andreas fault in California (pictured). The San Andreas system in Northern California consists of five major branches with a length of about 1,250 miles

THE SAN ANDREAS FAULT The researchers suggest the plate formed when three transform faults - plates sliding past each other - came together. This is similar to the type of fault in the famous San Andreas fault in California. The San Andreas system in Northern California consists of five major branches with an overall length of about 1,250 miles (2,012km). Experts say there is a 99 percent chance of a magnitude 6.7 earthquake or larger in the next 30 years in California because of the number of fault lines in the region. The San Andreas Fault, forming the tectonic boundary between the Pacific Plate and the North American Plate, is the biggest. Advertisement

'In the last couple of years, more and more research groups are looking into this, and we are starting to realise that, even though the plates themselves are gone, there are still remnants of those plates present in the margins of the present day Pacific Ocean.'

The researchers reconstructed the plate using magnetic patterns from the oldest part of the modern Pacific Plate, along with seismologic studies of the Earths mantle below the Pacific Ocean.

Previous studies suggested the Pacific Plate was made at a triple junction between three ancient plates - Izangi, Farallon and Phoenix.

But triple junctions are known to be stable, which made the researchers question whether this really was how the Pacific Plate formed.

Instead the researchers suggest in their paper, published in Science Advances, that the plate formed when three transform faults - plates sliding past each other - came together.

This is similar to the type of fault in the famous San Andreas fault in California.

This research teaches us about the formation of the Earth's plate tectonics, further back in time than ever before.

Ms Boschman said: 'We now provide a very essential extra piece by figuring out how the Pacific Plate started forming, and what the plate tectonic configuration must have been just before this.
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It can build an entire house in just two days - and never takes tea breaks.

An Australian firm has revealed the Hadrian X, a giant truck mounted building robot that can lay 1,000 bricks an hour, glueing them into place.

It can work 24 hours day, and finish an entire house in just two days.

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Mounted on the back of a truck, Hadrian X is simply driven onto a building site, and can put down 1,000 bricks an hour using a 30m boom, allowing it to stay in a single position while it builds.

Mounted on the back of a truck, it is simply driven onto a building site.

It can put down 1,000 bricks an hour using a 30m boom, allowing it to stay in a single position while it builds a house.

Fastbrick, the firm behind it, says it could revolutionise building.

CEO Mike Pivac said:'We are a frontier company, and we are one step closer to bringing fully automated, end to end 3D printing brick construction into mainstream.

The bricks travel along the boom and are gripped by a clawlike device that lays them out methodically, directed by a laser guiding system.

Mortar or adhesive is also deliver under pressure to the hand of the arm and applied to the brick, so no external human element is required.

We're very excited to take the world first technology we proved with the Hadrian 105 demonstrator and manufacturing a state of the art machine.

Instead of traditional cement, Hadrian X will use a construction glue.

'By utilising a construction adhesive rather that traditional mortar, the Hadrian X will maximise the speed of the build and strength and thermal effeciency of the final structure,' the firm said.

The Hadrian X can handle different sized bricks, and also cuts, grinds and mills each brick to fit.

The company describes the robots as '3D automated robotic bricklaying technology.'

HOW IT WORKS A robotic 'hand' that can grab bricks, pick them up, and place them down in sequence. The whole process is automated. Bricks are fed onto a conveyor belt that travels along a long robotic arm, or telescopic boom. The bricks travel along the boom and are gripped by a clawlike device that lays them out methodically, directed by a laser guiding system. Until the brick shell is finished and the house's other elements need to be added, the structure never needs to be touched by human hands. The robot has a boom 92ft (28 metres) long that is connected to its main body. At the end is a robotic 'hand' that can grab bricks, pick them up, and place them down in sequence. A 3D computer-aided design (CAD) is used to work out the shape of the house or structure required, and the robot then calculates where each brick should go. Mortar or adhesive is also deliver under pressure to the hand of the arm and applied to the brick, so no external human element is required. It can even leave spaces for wiring and plumbing, and scans and cuts the bricks if they need to be re-shaped. Mounted on the back of a truck, it is simply driven onto a building site. Advertisement

Australian inventor Mark Pivac, who founded Fastbrick Robotics, told Perth Now 'People have been laying bricks for about 6,000 years and ever since the industrial revolution, they have tried to automate the bricklaying process.'

'We're at a technological nexus where a few different technologies have got to the level where it's now possible to do it, and that's what we've done.'

The robot has a boom 92ft (28 metres) long that is connected to its main body.

At the end is a robotic 'hand' that can grab bricks, pick them up, and place them down in sequence.

A 3D computer-aided design (CAD) is used to work out the shape of the house or structure required, and the robot then calculates where each brick should go.

Mortar or adhesive is also deliver under pressure to the hand of the arm and applied to the brick, so no external human element is required.

The robot has a boom 92ft (28 metres) long that is connected to its main body. At the end is a robotic 'hand' that can grab bricks, pick them up, and place them down in sequence.

It can even leave spaces for wiring and plumbing, and scans and cuts the bricks if they need to be re-shaped.

The project, ten years in the making and with $7 million (4.5 million) spent on it so far, would supposedly be able to create a house in just two days.

It could work by itself 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, and although other aspects of the house would require human intervention, it is perhaps a sign of things to come in construction.

The product will be marketed first in Western Australia, before expanding to the rest of the country and ultimately the whole world.

Mr Pivac noted that he had 'nothing against bricklayers', and simply wanted to improve the process in which houses were made.

He says his robot could help attract younger people to the profession.
Artificial intelligence can turn even a New York City subway station into a work of art.

In a stunning new video from NY-based artist Danil Krivoruchko, slow-motion scenes from around the city are reimagined in vibrant colours and brushstrokes.

NYC Flow uses neural network algorithms to virtually paint the clips in various artistic styles, transforming everything from the Freedom Tower to the Union Square station.

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In a stunning new video from NY-based artist Danil Krivoruchko, slow-motion scenes from around the city are reimagined in vibrant colours and brushstrokes. It begins by panning across a colourful view from the Hudson River, with One World Trade Center visible in the background, pictured above

HOW THEY DID IT The project uses techniques revealed earlier this year by German researchers. To make it work, the researchers could not just apply the algorithm to individual frames, as this would lead to flickering or and rough transitions. So, they introduced a temporal constraint that penalized deviation between two frames, meaning it considers the flow of the original video to preserve smooth transitions. In order to improve the methods consistency over larger periods of time, they incorporate long term motion estimates. They also developed a multi-pass algorithm to work around the artefacts created during style transfer Advertisement

The video was made as a part of the Deep Slow Flow project, and uses video processing methods revealed earlier this year by a team of German researchers to apply distinct styles to the clips.

It begins by panning across a colourful view from the Hudson River, with One World Trade Center visible in the background.

Then, NYC Flow takes the viewer through several spots in the city  and as the video moves from one scene to the next, the styles change as well.

This is because the neural network is capable of mimicking numerous artists, including Picasso, van Gogh, and Matisse.

While a shot of a taxi is shown with directional brushstrokes and neutral colours, a scene of Times Square tourists is bright with reds, blues, and yellows.

NYC Flow takes the viewer through several spots in the city  and as the video moves from one scene to the next, the styles change as well. This is because the neural network is capable of mimicking numerous artists, including Picasso, van Gogh, and Matisse

The technique was developed by researchers from the Department of Computer Science at the University of Freiburg, who described the method in a recent paper, Artistic style transfer for videos.

And, they've linked to the code on GitHub for anyone looking to try it out.

Their work builds upon an earlier technique used to reimagine photographs in different artistic styles.

To bring this idea to video, the researchers could not just apply the algorithm to individual frames, as this would lead to flickering or and rough transitions.

In a stunning new video from NY-based artist Danil Krivoruchko, slow-motion scenes from around the city are reimagined in vibrant colours and brushstrokes

Instead, they introduced a temporal constraint that penalized deviation between two frames, meaning it considers the flow of the original video to preserve smooth transitions.

In a video demonstrating the concept, the researchers alter the styles of many known films.

It shows the 1983 Star Wars: Return of the Jedi in the colourful, flowing style of early 20th century expressionist painter, Heinrich Schlief.

They also feature the 1967 version of The Jungle Book, Ice Age, Cloud Atlas, and short film Sintel in various different styles, including van Gogh, Matisse, and Picasso.

Ice Age is even redrawn in cave-painting form.

The video was made as a part of the Deep Slow Flow project, and uses video processing methods revealed earlier this year by a team of German researchers to apply distinct styles to the clips

NYC Flow uses neural network algorithms to virtually paint the clips in various artistic styles, transforming everything from the Freedom Tower to the Union Square station, pictured

We present an approach that transfers the style from one image (for example, a painting) to a whole video sequence, the authors write.

We make use of recent advances in style transfer in still images and propose new initializations and loss functions applicable to videos. This allows us to generate consistent and stable stylized video sequences, even in cases with large motion and strong occlusion.

We show that the proposed method clearly outperforms simpler baselines both qualitatively and quantitatively.

During their work, the researchers were met with two complications, for which they present solutions in their paper.

The technique was developed by researchers from the Department of Computer Science at the University of Freiburg. A scene of Times Square tourists in NYC Flow, pictured, is bright with reds, blues, and yellows

In order to improve the methods consistency over larger periods of time, they incorporate long term motion estimates.

They also developed a multi-pass algorithm to work around the artefacts created during style transfer.

While these artefacts may not be visible in the static image, they explain, they move toward the venter in a video.
Facebook has connected 1.71 billion people around the world and plans to grab the others with the help of virtual reality.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg purchased Oculus Rift, the maker of VR goggles and software, in 2014 to enhance experiences like watching sports, making movies and conversing with others around the world.

But while speaking with Bloomberg, the social media tycoon described using this technology for something even bigger - letting users capture their experiences and thoughts and share them with whomever they want.

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Mark Zuckerberg described letting users capture their experiences and thoughts and share them with whomever they want. There are deep problems of connecting to the brain that have yet to be understood by experts, but it is believed the solutions could lead to telepathy

HOW IS VIRTUAL REALITY A STEPPING STONE TO TELEPATHY? Virtual reality seems to be the next big thing when looking at the progression of how we share ideas and experiences online --VR can build on videos by fully immersing viewers. Zuckerberg has stated that these problems, among others, will need to endure a lot of science in order to become more perfected. There are deep problems of connecting to the brain that have yet to be understood by experts, but it is believed that once they are addressed, the path could lead to telepathy. And virtual reality could be the vessel that shares your thoughts with the world. Advertisement

However, he admits there are still massive hurdles to overcome.

'I think you get - I mean, there's something that's just - that's deeper, that I don't even think we scientifically understand about just how you actually experience the world,' he told Bryant Urstadt and Sarah Frier from Bloomberg.

'I think there's outside, and there's different fidelities of capturing that.

'And then there's the human experience of it, which I think is - I mean, we don't even have enough of a scientific understanding to even have - I think I don't, at least, have the vocabulary to even fully describe this.'

He has addressed limitations that, until they are addressed, will hold back the full potential of virtual reality and the awakening of telepathy.

Tracking the wearer's eyes plays a key role in this technology, and experts need to develop a design for the goggles that allows it to follow the user's eye movements in a way that would manipulate the plane of focus, Zuckerberg told Bloomberg.

FACEBOOK IN NUMBERS Facebook profits have leapt 186 percent from a year ago to $2 billion as the world's biggest social network blasted past most analyst forecasts for the second quarter. With its global base of monthly active users growing to 1.71 billion, Facebook saw a 59 percent jump in total revenues to $6.4 billion, mostly from online advertising. Facebook shares jumped seven percent in after-hours trade on the stronger-than-expected results. Daily active users were 1.13 billion on average for June 2016, an increase of 17% year-over-year. Mobile DAUs were 1.03 billion on average for June 2016, an increase of 22% year-over-year. Monthly active users were 1.71 billion as of June 30, 2016, an increase of 15% year-over-year. Mobile MAUs were 1.57 billion as of June 30, 2016, an increase of 20% year-over-year. Mobile advertising revenue represented approximately 84% of advertising revenue Advertisement

The same stands for mouths, as they come in different shapes, sizes and make different expressions.

Zuckerberg has stated that these problems, among others, will need to endure a lot of science in order to be perfected.

Virtual reality seems to be the next big thing when looking at the progression of how we share ideas and experiences online.

The one that started it all was text --being able to see what you're thinking on the screen in front of you and send it to a friend was revolutionary.

But not too long after. video made its debut which allowed people to understand the entire story without having to read about it and fill in the blanks.

But next in line, according to Zuckerberg, is virtual reality and it can build onto video in a way that immerses users in the experience.

'It's like this indefinite continuum of getting closer and closer to being able to capture what a person's natural experience and thought is, and just being able to immediately capture that and design it however you want and share it with whomever you want,' he told Bloomberg.

Using this technology as a means to share experiences puts the viewer right in the middle of the action --imagine Facebook Live during a riot or at shooting week's Democratic National Convention.

Other than harnessing the inner power of the mind, Oculus will also let Facebook create something that is tangible, as the firm has only been creating intangible code.

However, this is all a bid for the social media giant to own the virtual reality space, as Zuckerberg said that in order to take control of technology, you must own both the hardware and software.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg purchased Oculus Rift, the maker of VR goggles and software, in 2014 to enhance experiences like watching sports, making movies and conversing with others around the world. Zuckerberg said that in order to take control of technology, you must own both the hardware and software

And the Facebook CEO sees this technology as a vessel for the ultimate human/machine integration.

The word 'telepathy' has been heard echoing throughout the halls of the massive Facebook headquarters in Menlo Park, California.

During a live Q&A last month, Zuckerberg discussed the concept of telepathy and believes this technology could be available in just 50 years, but at this time said it wasn't something Facebook is currently working on.

THE RISE OF OCULUS RIFT Oculus said it's sending the Rift to its first Kickstarter backers first, followed by those who ordered one in January for $600 (420) or at least $1,500 (1,050) with a high-end personal computer included. Oculus, which began crowd-funding through Kickstarter in August 2012, was acquired by Facebook for $2 billion in 2014. The black headgear comes with a remote, an audio system, a sensor and an Xbox One wireless controller. Oculus said there were more than 30 games available on the Oculus Store and it would soon add feature-length movies. There's a backlog of orders and people who order now shouldn't expect delivery until July. It's not clear, though, how many units Oculus made for the first round, and whether there will ultimately be much demand beyond gamers and hard-core technologists. The black headgear comes with a remote, an audio system, a sensor and an Xbox One wireless controller Advertisement

'The question you need to ask is video the end of the line? Is that as good as we can do in terms of capturing the scene and what someone is experience at that point in time? And I think the answer to that question is definitely no,' Zuckerberg shared in the Facebook Live video.

'You're going to just be able to capture a thought, what you're thinking or feeling in kind of its ideal and perfect form in your head, and be able to share that with the world in a format where they can get that,' Zuckerberg said in a live video Q&A broadcast from his Facebook page.

During a live Q&A yesterday, Zuckerberg described a world that goes beyond virtual reality, which allows users to capture thoughts and share in a format that makes them available to the world. The tech tycoon believes this technology could be available in just 50 years

The Q&A was hosted on the firm's new live video feature, which lets anyone create live broadcasts using webcams or even their smartphone cameras and share them globally.

During the segment focused on the future of Facebook, Zuckerberg describes the act of capturing raw emotion or thoughts and having the power to share them directly with the world  when and how you want.

He also mentions there is 'crazy brain research' underway that could bring this futuristic idea into the present.

WHAT DID ZUCKERBERG SAY ABOUT THE FUTURE OF FACEBOOK? 'The question you need to ask is video the end of the line? Is that as good as we can do in terms of capturing the scene and what someone is experience at that point in time? And I think the answer to that question is definitely no,' Zuckerberg shared in the Facebook Live video. 'You're going to just be able to capture a thought, what you're thinking or feeling in kind of its ideal and perfect form in your head, and be able to share that with the world in a format where they can get that,' Zuckerberg said During the segment focused on the future of Facebook, Zuckerberg describes the act of capturing raw emotion or thoughts and having the power to share them directly with the world  when and how you want. Zuckerberg describes current research that is working on removing the memory of solving a maze from a rat's brain and transferring it to another rodent. And an experiment from Berkeley University was also brought up during the discussion that 'can predict what you're thinking about' just by looking at a MRI scan. Advertisement

However, he notes it will take decades and more scientific breakthroughs must occur before any of this technology can be released to the masses.

Zuckerberg discusses current research that is working on removing the memory of solving a maze from a rat's brain and transferring it to another rodent.

'They were actually able to take that representation of the memory, zap another mouse and put that memory into that other mouse,' he explained.

'That mouse, without ever being through the maze, was able to go do it.'

'That is just straight out of the Matrix and far off, but no one is doing that on humans.'

An experiment from Berkeley University was also brought up during during the live video that 'can predict what you're thinking about' just by looking at a MRI scan.

Zuckerberg discusses current research that is working on removing the memory of solving a maze from a rat's brain and transferring it to another rodent. And an experiment from Berkeley University was also brought up during during the live video that 'can predict what you're thinking about' just by looking at a MRI scan

According to Zuckerberg, Facebook isn't working on this technology right now, he made it appoint to mention that during the Q&A, but he does think telepathy could be a reality within 50 years.

Zuckerberg is not known to be frank about his private life, but during the live segment, he seemed to open up when Jerry Seinfeld interrogated him at the company's headquarters.

The billionaire father-of-one told the legendary comedian during the live Q&A that he checks his social media website as soon as he wakes up in the morning and compared his daughter Max to a 'pterodactyl'.

He answered the questions as part of what he says will be the first of many Q&As on Facebook's new feature, Live.

Seinfeld started the part of the clip by asking: 'I want to know the very first thing you do. You get out of the bed, you go to the bathroom...'

'Oh no, the first thing I do is look at my phone,' Zuckerberg said.

'I do that, too,' Seinfeld said. 'I want to know, did the Mets win or not?'

Zuckerberg responded: 'I look at Facebook. Before I put my contacts in, I look at what's going on at Facebook... That's not my best moment.'

He revealed that on Tuesday morning he woke up at 6am because his daughter Max was crying.

The billionaire later posted a picture of him sitting in a '57 Chevy Bel Air with Seinfeld that they had 'turned into a meeting room in Facebook HQ'

'Max is like a pterodactyl,' he said. 'I didn't know a human could make those noises.'

Zuckerberg then went on to reveal that he is training for a triathlon, but has already hit an obstacle in his preparation.

He described how he bought a brand new bike, but crashed within ten seconds of starting his first ride.

'I forgot to clip out and fell over... I broke my arm.'

He wasn't wearing a cast or sling, as he said the best way for it to heal is to leave it out.

After the interview, Zuckerberg uploaded a picture alongside the message: 'Thanks to Jerry Seinfeld for stopping by my first Live Q&A today.

'Afterwards, we had coffee in a '57 Chevy Bel Air that we turned into a meeting room in Facebook HQ.'
Apple's iPhone is set for the biggest redesign in its history it 2017 - and new screen technology is set to be the key.

LG, a supplier of Apple's iPhone screens, today appeared to confirm rumours Apple's handset will soon include new low power OLED technology.

It said it will invest 1.99 trillion won ($1.75 billion) to produce flexible displays for smartphones, in a sign that more high-end smartphone makers may adopt flexible screens in the near future - and Apple is its biggest customer.

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Apple has opened a production laboratory in northern Taiwan to develop new 'superthin' phone and watch displays for future products, it has been claimed.

WHAT DOES OLED STAND FOR? OLED stands for organic light-emitting diode. Its panels are made from organic materials that emit light when electricity is applied to them. As a result, OLED panels don't use a backlight meaning they are thinner than LCD displays. OLEDs additionally have bright colours, brilliant contrasts and a wide-viewing angle. Advertisement

The South Korean company said mass production of flexible displays will start in late 2018, at a scale that will supply enough 5.7-inch sized flexible screens for 3 million handsets per month.

The flexible displays will be made of advanced materials called OLEDs, or organic light emitting diodes, which display more saturated colors, such as a darker black, than LCDs.

While Apple still uses LCD screens for its iPhones, a growing number of mobile phone makers have adopted OLED screens for their flagship phones as they have resolved battery-draining and heat problems associated with the technology.

Market watchers say even Apple might use the OLED screens for its iPhones as early as next year.

The OLED screen is lighter and thinner than other display screens and has more design flexibility. It can be folded and bended.

LG Display focused initially on investing in large-sized OLED screens for televisions while its small-sized screens were mostly made of LCDs to meet demand from its key clients, including Apple and its affiliated company LG Electronics.

With the latest investment, LG is trying to catch up with its rival Samsung Display in the small-sized OLED screens.

Samsung dominates the supply of OLED screens for mobile phones.

For years, Samsung Electronics used the OLED screens for its flagship Galaxy smartphones and recently it has adopted curved OLED screens for its Galaxy Edge series smartphones that feature displays that wrap around corners of the devices.

LG Display's biggest client for mobile phones is Apple.

KGIs Ming-Chi Kuo, a reliable Apple analyst, has previously said the new handset will drop the aluminium casing for a new all glass casing.

New screen technologies would allow Apple to develop radical flexible products, such as the rumoured 'iRing'

It will also use an AMOLED screen, which are thinner and offer better picture quality than the mainstay liquid crystal display screens.

Kuo believes that Apple will be moving to an all-glass enclosure, dropping aluminum completely as it will no longer appear 'modern or fresh' in 2017.

'Apple used glass for the iPhone 4/4s front and back, but this was sandwiched together with a stainless steel band,' said 9to5Mac.

'Its currently unclear how an iPhone could be constructed primarily out of glass.'

The reports point out the fact this years handset, expected to be called the iPhone 6SE, will not see a radical overhaul - although it is expected to see the firm dump the headphone socket for a thinner phone.

The new glass phone will also feature a new AMOLED display panel, which will be thinner and lighter to compensate for the slight weight increase of glass compared with metal exteriors.

According to the Korean Herald, Samsung and Apple have also reached a deal in which Samsung will supply around 100 million OLED display units to Apple beginning in 2017.

The deal is reportedly worth around $2.59 billion and the two companies are expected to maintain the agreement for at least three years as Samsung suplies 100 million 5.5-inch OLED displays.

Earlier this year it was claimed LG and Samsung are to spend over $10bn to create new OLED manufacturing plants to supple screens for Apple's iPhones.

In January, Apple reported little growth in iPhone sales last quarter and an expected downturn in the current quarter.

Japan's Nikkei newspaper first reported earlier this year that Apple plans to start using OLED screens for iPhones starting in 2018.

Earlier this month it was revealed Apple has opened a production laboratory in northern Taiwan to develop new 'superthin' phone and watch displays.

According to Bloomberg, the facility is Longtan has at least 50 engineers.

Apple has recruited from local display maker AU Optronics Corp. and Qualcomm Inc., which used to own the building, the people said.

'Engineers are developing more-advanced versions of the liquid-crystal displays currently used in iPhones, iPads and Mac personal computers, the people said,' according to Bloomberg.

'Apple also is keen to move to organic light-emitting diodes, which are even thinner and dont require a backlight.'

Apple began operating the lab this year as it aims to make products thinner, lighter, brighter and more energy-efficient, it is claimed.

It is believed the second generation smartwatch will be thinner and have improved battery life.

It is then expected to go on sale in March, almost a year after the original went on sale.

Previous claims have said the iPhone 7 handset will be superthin.

Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo claims the iPhone 7, which is unlikely to launch until at least September 2016, will be the firm's thinnest handset to date at just 6mm thick.

This would put on a par with the iPod touch, and would be almost a millimetre thinner than the current iPhone 6.

Apple's original iPhone, released in 2007, was 12.3mm thick.

By comparison the current iPhone 6 is 6.9mm thick, while the larger iPhone 6 Plus is 7.1mm.

Market watchers say even Apple might use the OLED screens for its iPhones as early as next year.

These devices are noticeably thinner than the iPhone 5S, which measures 7.6mm.

However, thinner devices are potentially more vulnerable to being broken and the iPhone 6 Plus, for example, was criticised for bending in the pockets of its owners due to its larger, thinner design.

The iPod touch is 6.1mm thick, but its screen is smaller than the iPhones - at just 4-inches.

It doesn't take a SIM card, meaning it can be thinner because it needs fewer internal components as the iPhone.

If Mr Kuo's claims are true, Apple's next-generation handset would be its thinnest yet, but it would still be significantly thicker than the thinnest phone in the world - Vivo's X5 Max.

Vivo's Android handset is just 4.75mm, while rival phone-maker Oppo's R5 is 4.85mm.
British English may have come first, but around the world, the American way of spelling is now far more popular.

A recent examination of these two variants of the English language show that publications now largely use the American version, swapping words like centre for center after the 1880s.

According to the data, this shift was further strengthened around the time of World War I  and as the language evolved, even the British have ditched the spelling of some words for their trans-Atlantic counterparts.

British English may have come first, but around the world, the American way of spelling is far more popular. A recent examination of these two variants of the English language show that publications now largely use the American version, swapping words like centre for center after the 1880s

HOW THEY DID IT To generate the charts, the researchers used Googles Ngram Viewer to analyze the words found in all English-language publications from 1800 to 2000. Entering a word into the viewer will show how frequently it occurs within the massive corpus of books around the world. The resulting data revealed that British English is declining as writers are turning increasingly toward the American version. Advertisement

The charts revealed on Steemit were generated using Google Ngram Viewer, and show the usage trends of numerous words between 1800 and 2000.

In the graphs, American spelling is shown in blue, and the British version is indicated in red.

Among many words, including grey and flavour, British English can be seen dwindling around 1880, when American English began to cross into wider use.

Since then, English-language publications have preferred gray and flavor, and despite fluctuations in use over the years, theyve remained more popular than the preceding versions since overtaking them.

The American way of spelling has continued to grow in usage over the years, with liter passing litre around 1900, and center becoming the more common choice over centre in 1913.

The charts revealed on Steemit were generated using Google Ngram Viewer, and show the usage trends of numerous words between 1800 and 2000. In the graphs, American spelling is shown in blue, and the British version is indicated in red

The American way of spelling has continued to grow in usage over the years, with liter passing litre around 1900, and center becoming the more common choice over centre in 1913

After World War I drew to a close, the American term overtook its British counterpart in frequency of use in literature, the post explains. At around the same time, the word fiber was quickly becoming more popular than its predecessor

1913 marked a turning point in the usage of the British spelling, as the American alternative became more frequently used in literature, the post explains, in regards to 'center.'

This was just a year before the beginning of World War I, which many view as a key period in Americas rise to superpower status.

During World War I, the world also began to favor defense over the British English version, defence.

Among many words, including grey and flavour, British English can be seen dwindling around 1880, when American English began to cross into wider use

For many years, British English maintained its hold on honour, grappling with the American version for years as the two flip-flopped in popularity around the world. In the 1970s, however, American English gained a clear lead as honor increasingly became the more spelling of choice

Use of the spelling airplane spiked dramatically over aeroplane in the 1920s and continued to dominate through the century

Though this switched again between 1920 and the late 1930s, the American spelling took over for good around 1940.

Around the same time, use of the spelling airplane spiked dramatically over aeroplane, and continued to dominate through the century.

After World War I drew to a close, the American term overtook its British counterpart in frequency of use in literature, the post explains.

At around the same time, the word fiber was quickly becoming more popular than its predecessor.

For many years, British English maintained its hold on honour, grappling with the American version for years as the two flip-flopped in popularity around the world.

Since the 1880s, English-language publications have preferred gray and flavor, and despite fluctuations in use over the years, theyve remained more popular than the preceding versions since overtaking them

During World War I, the world also began to favour defense over the British English version, defence. Though this switched again between 1920 and the late 1930s, the American spelling took over for good around 1940

But, one word didnt make the cut for either British or American English  goal. This early form of jail has dwindled over the past 200 years, and is now barely used

In the 1970s, however, American English gained a clear lead as honor increasingly became the more spelling of choice.

But, one word didnt make the cut for either British or American English  gaol.

This early form of jail has dwindled over the past 200 years, and is now barely used.

If there were ever a word that failed to make it across the Atlantic, it must be gaol, the post says.

Ever since the middle of the 19th century it has been fading into obscurity as even the British Isles slowly rejected the old spelling.
Tim Cook has revealed that Apple week sold its billionth iPhone.

At an employee meeting in Cupertino, he revealed the milestone - just a day after beating analysts expectations for sales.

'iPhone has become one of the most important, world-changing and successful products in history. It's become more than a constant companion,' he said.

Scroll down for video

Steve Jobs launching the iPhone at Macworld on January 9, 2007 in San Francisco, California. At an employee meeting in Cupertino today, Cook revealed the has now sold a billion.

'iPhone is truly an essential part of our daily life and enables much of what we do throughout the day.'

'Last week we passed another major milestone when we sold the billionth iPhone.

'We never set out to make the most, but we've always set out to make the best products that make a difference.

'Thank you to everyone at Apple for helping change the world every day.'

Apple first passed the 1 billion iOS devices sold milestone in January 2015.

In January of 2016 it announced that it had 1 billion total active devices, including iPhone, iPad, Mac, iPod touch, Apple TV, and Apple Watch.

IPHONE HISTORY: THE PHONE THAT CHANGED THE WORLD Th original iPhone went on sale in the United States on June 29, 2007 Development of what was to become the iPhone began in 2004, when Apple started to gather a team of 1000 employees to work on the highly confidential 'Project Purple'. Steve Jobs unveiled the iPhone to the public on January 9, 2007, at the Macworld 2007 convention at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. The two initial models, a 4 GB model priced at US$499 and an 8 GB model at US$599 (both requiring a 2-year contract), went on sale in the United States on June 29, 2007. The first advertisement for iPhone, titled 'Hello,' aired during the 79th Academy Awards on February 25, 2007. Initially the handset could not run third party apps. On June 11, 2007, Jobs announced at the Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference that iPhone would support third-party applications using the Safari engine on the device. Third parties would create the Web 2.0 applications and users would access them via the internet. The iPhone App Store opened on July 10, 2008, via an update to iTunes. Tim Cook holds the billionth iPhone at an employee meeting in Cupertino. It allowed Apple to control the quality of apps for the first time and to introduce a charge on top of the basic cost of the app. On July 11, the iPhone 3G was launched and came pre-loaded with iOS 2.0.1 with App Store support; new iOS 2.0.1 firmware for iPhone and iPod Touch was also made available via iTunes. There are now nine generations of iPhone models, each accompanied by one of the nine major releases of iOS. Advertisement

It came as Apple's iPhone sales fell for the second straight quarter, although the 15 percent drop was less than feared.

It sold more iPhones than Wall Street expected in the third quarter and forecast revenue in the current period would top many analysts' targets, soothing fears that demand for Apple's most important product had hit a wall.

Its shares rose almost 7 percent in after-hours trading.

Steve Jobs at the unveiling of the original iPhone.

The company's total revenue dropped 14.6 percent in the third-quarter ended June 25, also declining for the second quarter in a row.

Apple said it sold 40.4 million iPhones in the third quarter, more than the average analyst forecast of 40.02 million, according to research firm FactSet StreetAccount.

Apple had reported a 16.3 percent drop in iPhone sales in the previous quarter, the first decline since the smartphone was launched in 2007.

Apple's quarterly net profit fell 27 percent to $7.8 billion, while revenue of $42.36 billion beat analyst's estimates of $42.09 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs demonstrates the new iPhone 4 as he delivers the opening keynote address at the 2010 Apple World Wide Developers conference.

Sales of iPhones account for about two-thirds of the total sales of the world's most valuable publicly traded company.

Apple's iPhone lineup includes the iPhone 6S and 6S Plus, as well as the smaller and cheaper iPhone SE.

'We are pleased to report third quarter results that reflect stronger customer demand and business performance than we anticipated at the start of the quarter,' said Tim Cook, Apple's CEO.

'We had a very successful launch of iPhone SE and we're thrilled by customers' and developers' response to software and services we previewed at WWDC in June.'

'Our Services business grew 19 percent year-over-year and App Store revenue was the highest ever, as our installed base continued to grow and transacting customers hit an all-time record,' said Luca Maestri, Apple's CFO.

Demand for Apple's phones has waned in China, partly because of economic uncertainty there, and has also slowed in more mature markets as people tend to hold on to their phones for longer.

Sales in Greater China, once touted as Apple's next growth engine, decreased 33.1 percent, compared with a 112.4 percent growth in the year earlier quarter and a near 26 percent fall in the second quarter.

Investors are sensitive to any signs of trouble in China, one of the company's largest markets by revenue.

Apple's iPhone sales fell for the second straight quarter, although the 15 percent drop was less than feared.

Maestri attributed the drop to channel inventory reduction in the nation, foreign exchange headwinds and a general downturn in the Chinese economy.

'It is very clear that there are some signs of economic slowdown in China, and we will have to work through them,' he said.

'We understand China well and we remain very, very optimistic about the future there.'

Apple Chief Financial Officer Luca Maestri said the company's performance had topped his expectations in a quarter weighed down by tough foreign exchange rates and difficult comparisons with blockbuster iPhone 6 sales from the previous year.

Apple reduced channel inventory by $3.6 billion, exceeding the $2 billion expected reduction, meaning sales were better than they appeared, Maestri said.

Customer demand 'was better than what is implied in our results and better than we had anticipated,' he told Reuters in an interview.

APPLE'S REALITY TV FUTURE Apple also announced Tuesday that it will sponsor another unscripted video series based on the popular 'Carpool Karaoke' segments hosted by CBS talk-show host James Corden. Apple has revealed a move into TV to boost its services. That's where shows like 'Planet of the Apps' come in. Apple is partnering on the project with a team of veteran Hollywood producers and musician/entrepreneur will.i.am. Though it's expected to be something like a 'Shark Tank' competition for app developers, Apple has kept a tight lid on details such as who will host or when it will air. But it will undoubtedly promote the App Store. It also demonstrates Apple's desire to create original programming as a way of drawing more people to purchase music and videos on iTunes and Apple TV. Apple also announced Tuesday that it will sponsor another unscripted video series based on the popular 'Carpool Karaoke' segments hosted by CBS talk-show host James Corden. Separately, Apple has been tweaking the App Store itself. Advertisement

'We returned over $13 billion to investors through share repurchases and dividends, and we have now completed almost $177 billion of our $250 billion capital return program.'

Apple's services business, which includes the App Store, Apple Pay, iCloud and other services generated nearly $6 billion in revenue, up 18.9 percent from the previous year.

The company forecast fourth-quarter revenue of $45.5 billion to $47.5 billion, below Wall Street's average estimate of $45.71 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

The forecast, covering the quarter ending September, will likely include at least the first weekend of sales of the iPhone 7 range, which Apple is expected to launch in September.

Up to Tuesday's close, Apple's shares had fallen about 8.2 percent since the start of the year.
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Thanks almost entirely to humans behaving badly, almost a third of the world's animal species are now endangered.

And while zoos generally fall into the humans behaving badly category, some of them have at least saved certain beasts from extinction.

According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (ICUN) Red List - which keeps tabs on more than 60,000 species around the world - 31 of them classified as 'Extinct in the Wild' are being bred in captivity.

The vast majority of animals kept in zoos are not endangered at all, so animal right's organisations including Peta strongly discourage people from visiting them, but if you are keen to get up close and personal with animals from around the world - opt for the rarer breeds.

The blue lobster, for example, a genetic hiccup which only occurs once in a million, or the hairy-nosed wombat, of which there are less than 120 left in the wild.

MailOnline Travel has rounded up a collection of the rarest animals to roam the earth, and the zoos in which you can see them.

Snow leopard

Thanks in part to hunting, there are estimated to be as few as 4,000 snow leopards left roaming their native Central Asian mountain ranges

Although it's very hard to stumble across a snow leopard, let alone study them, it is estimated than there could be as few as 4,000 left in the wild.

Native to the mountain ranges of Central Asia, these astonishingly beautiful cats are known to prey on livestock as their natural habitat declines, making them a target for farmers. They are also hunted for their pelts, and their body parts used in Chinese medicine.

Where to see one: If you're able to splash out, Natural World Safaris offer a week-long tracking experience in the Himalayas to see them in their natural habitat, starting at 2,250 per person. Or you can see them at California's famed San Diego Zoo.

White alligator

White 'leucistic' alligators and crocodiles are highly rare, and sadly also highly desirable when it comes to making expensive handbags

Only around 15 in five million alligators are born with this genetic default that results in a lack of pigmentation in their skin.

Sadly, white 'leucistic' alligators and crocodiles are highly desirable when it comes to making expensive handbags. Last year, Hermes sold its diamond-encrusted white 'Himalayan Nilo Birkin' for a whopping $185,000 at an auction in Los Angeles.

Where to see one: Gatorland, in central Florida, houses four of them - you're extremely unlikely to spot one in the wild.

White lion

White lions are most likely indigenous to the Timbavati region of South Africa, but the majority of the population is kept in captivity

Contrary to popular belief, white lions are not albinos or a separate subspecies. They are most likely indigenous to the Timbavati region of South Africa, but the majority of the population is kept in captivity.

In fact, it was widely thought that white lions were unable to survive in the wild, but this was disproved in 2009 when a pride was successfully reintroduced into its natural habitat.

Where to see one: Singita safari in South Africa's Kruger National Park, where the first one was spotted in 2014. Or at the Jukani Wildlife Sanctuary in Plettenberg Bay, near Cape Town.

Blue lobster

This genetic mutation which turns lobsters bright blue only happens to one in a million, and is due to higher than normal levels of protein

You'll only find this genetic mutation once in every million lobsters, the result of high protein levels that turn them blue.

In May, two Canadian fisherman made headlines when they caught not one but two of these off the coast of Nova Scotia.

Where to see one: Pittsburgh Zoo & Aquarium in Pennsylvania.

Red panda

Red pandas are native to Southwest China and the Himalayas and loss of habitat means there are fewer than 10,000 of them left in the wild

Initially classified as a sort of raccoon until its DNA proved otherwise, these furry critters are native to southwest China and the Himalayas. There are fewer than 10,000 of them. Loss of habitat and poaching - the usual suspects, are largely to blame.

Where to see one: Bristol Zoo, which houses two red pandas called Chota and Lady Hilary.

Common sawfish

Part of the ray family, these sea creatures are found in tropical and subtropical coastal regions, but are no longer abundant in numbers

As the name suggests, these strange-looking fish were once abundant but are now a critically endangered species thanks to illegal fishing.

Part of the ray family, they are found in tropical and subtropical coastal regions and its 'saw' is actually a 'rostrum' covered with electrosensitive pores for hunting.

Where to see one: The Georgia Aquarium

Twin vervets

Only one pair of vervet twins has ever knowingly been born and survived, pictured here at the Monkeyland sanctuary in South Africa

This species of monkey is relatively widespread in Southern and East Africa, but twins are extremely rare.

One pair is known to have been born in 1946 although both died, but last year twins were born at a sanctuary in South Africa.

Where to see them: Monkeyland, in South Africa, a world-class sanctuary for rescued monkeys in the shape of a whopping 12-hectare forest where they roam freely around you.

Four-eyed turtle

These little chaps, which hail from various parts of China and Vietnam, are on the steep decline thanks to a high demand for their shells

Hailing from parts of China and Vietnam, these little chaps are on the steep decline thanks to demand for their shells.

They get their name, clearly, from the four markings on their heads, an evolutionary tactic to discourage predators.

Where to see one: The Tennessee Aquarium, which is the only institution in the U.S. currently breeding them.

Blue tarantula

Blue tarantulas are fast and aggressive, with claws on the tips of their legs, and for all these reasons are best witnessed from behind glass

Half-terrifying, half-beauteous, this endangered species of tarantula lives in the rain forests of Myanmar, Thailand and Singapore,and is characterised by its blue hue, visible only under certain lighting.

They are fast and aggressive, with claws on the tips of their legs, and for all these reasons and more are best witnessed from behind a glass screen.

Where to see one: Oakland Zoo, California.

Jumping shrew

While fairly rare, these supremely speedy shrews can survive in a wide range of tough habitats, from forests to mountains and deserts

The jumping shrew weighs in at under half a kilogram but they're one of the fastest small mammals in the world.

While not plentiful, they can survive in a wide range of habitats, from forests to mountains and deserts.

Where to see one: Frankfurt Zoo, Germany.

Tasmanian devil

A contagious form of cancer is currently killing more than 90 percent of adult Tasmanian Devils in high-density areas of its island habitat

These dog-sized creatures are native only to Tasmania, an island off the coast of Australia.

The last ten years has seen a devastating decline of them thanks to a contagious form of cancer which is killing more than 90 percent of adults in high-density areas. They are thus being bred in captivity.

Where to see one: The Healesville Sanctuary in Victoria, which aims to breed and manage a captive population of 120 Devils.

Hairy-nosed wombat

Only around 115 hairy-nosed wombats are left in the wild, and they all live in the Epping Forest National Park, in Austrlia's Queensland

There are only 115 of these rather adorable animals left in the wild, making it one of the rarest land mammals in the world, and all of them live in one Australian park.

They have poor eyesight and therefore rely heavily on their namesake noses to get around and hunt.
With each costing at least $1bn to build, a handful of lavish structures across the world are redefining the architectural landscape.

And with some boasting unique decorative exteriors and futuristic interiors, it's not always size that counts when it comes to the cost of the world's most impressive structures.

From a Saudi hotel with a gold-encrusted spire to Chinese casinos laden with futuristic gaming machines, destinations home to a plethora of these extravagant addresses include Las Vegas, Singapore and Dubai, according to a new infographic revealing the 20 most expensive buildings in the world.

From a Saudi hotel with a gold-encrusted spire to Chinese casinos laden with futuristic gaming machines, destinations home to a plethora of these extravagant addresses include Las Vegas, Macau and Dubai. Pictured is the top 10 most expensive buildings in the world

First place: Masjid al-Haram in Mecca is valued at an astonishing $100bn and tops the list of the world's most expensive buildings

Runner-up in the list of the world's most expensive buildings was the $15bn Abraj Al Bait in Saudi Arabia

Resorts Wrodl Sentosa in Singapore is worth $6.59bn and has the world's largest Oceanarium

Marina Bay Sands in Singapore is fourth in the list, where three towers are 55 storeys-high, valued at $5.5bn

High risers: The $3.9 Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas has two towers, both of which are 604ft tall

The One World Trade Center in New York stands at 1,776ft tall, the height mirroring the year the Declaration of Independence was signed, and is sixth on the world's most expensive buildings list

The Emirates Palace in Abu Dhabi cost $3bn to construct and is the second most expensive hotel in the world

Despite being home to four opulent billion dollar buildings, it's Saudi Arabia, not Las Vegas that has the honour of housing the world's most expensive building.

Masjid al-Haram in Mecca is valued at an astonishing $100bn.

This is the largest mosque in the world and surrounds Islam's holiest place, the Kaaba. It covers an area of more than 88.2 acres and has a capacity for 900,000 worshippers.

Saudi Arabia also bags second place in the rankings too - the Abraj Al Bait Towers also hosts a hotel inside and cost $15bn to construct.

The central hotel building has the world's largest clock face.

Singapore completes the top three with its entry of the $6.59bn Resorts World Sentosa. This features two casinos, an aquarium, the world's largest oceanarium, a theme park and a water park.

The UK's sole entry into the top 20 is Wembley Stadium, costing $1.5bn, and with 2,618 toilets, this is more than in any other structure in the world.

The list was compiled and the infographic created by Fly Abu Dhabi.

Numbers 11-20 are listed here in terms of the overall worth of their buildings and contents

The Wynn Resort is yet another entry for Las Vegas, and cost $2.7bn to build

The $2.4bn City of Dream in China includes attractions such as the Dancing Water Theatre

Costing $2.4bn to build, the Venetian Macao is the seventh largest building in the world, in floor area

The Princess Tower in Dubai, the tallest building pictured here, is the second tallest building in the city

The Antilla in Mumbai, India, is owned by Mukesh Ambani and includes a staff of 600

The Palazzo in Las Vegas cost $1.8bn with the lobby of the hotel featuring a 60ft glass dome

Taipei 101 in Taiwan is valued at $1.8bn and is the world's highest-use green building

Mark Byart, director of internet for Fly Abu Dhabi told MailOnline Travel: 'Whether you're visiting New York, London or Dubai, you can't help but notice the ever-changing skyline.

'Every few years a new landmark seems to be built, each one more extravagant than the next.

'We started thinking about just how much some of these buildings might have cost to build, as structures of their size and grandeur surely can't come cheap.

'I think what surprised us most when researching the most expensive buildings in the world is just how many on the list are hotels or residential buildings, not to mention that some of the buildings you'd expect to see on here, such as The Chrysler Building, clearly weren't as costly to build as we might have thought.'

The Bellagio Casino in Las Vegas contains over 2,000 hand-blown glass flowers

The Seat of the European Central Bank is found in two towers connected by an atrium

London's Wembley Stadium is the UK's sole entry into the top 20 most expensive buildings, costing $1.5bn

Great pitch: The Yankee Stadium is valued at $1.5bn and was rebuilt in 2009

The Burj Khlaifa stands proud dominating the Dubai skyline, and is officially the tallest structure in the world - it came 19th in the list of world's most expensive buildings
An Emirates passenger plane heading to the Maldives made an emergency landing in Mumbai after pilots reported 'smoke on board'.

The plane had earlier set out from Dubai with 309 people on board, when it was forced to make the unscheduled landing.

Emergency services were on hand once the Boeing 777-300 had landed, and passengers were safely escorted into the terminal.

An Emirates plane was forced to make an emergency landing after smoke was reported on board (stock image)

Speaking to DNAIndia, a Mumbai Airport official said: 'The Air Traffic Control (ATC) declared full emergency at the MIAL (Mumbai International Airport Limited) at 13:59 after a Boeing 777 flight of Emirates (EK 652) from Dubai to Male had to make an emergency landing following detection of smoke in the aircraft.'

However Emirates have refused to confirm that the plane filled with smoke.

A spokesperson from the airline said on Tuesday: 'Emirates can confirm that flight EK652 from Dubai to Male was diverted to Mumbai due to a technical fault.

The passengers were safely escorted off the aircraft, which was checked before flying to the Maldives (file photo of Mumbai Airport)

'The aircraft has been serviced and will continue its journey to Male with a six-hour delay.'

Another Indian news outlet, The Hindustan Times, reported that the smoke 'discharged from a bread maker'.

'The crew as per the safety procedure switched off the power supply in the Boeing 777 aircrafts pantry section and sought permission from the Mumbai air traffic control (ATC) to land on priority,' it reported.
Mr Rasmussen says his bird's perspective gives him the freedom to see places he has visited so often in a new way

Using a drone, he captures the rich greens of the treetops against the white snow and the geometric forest clusters

Photographer Michael Rasmussen has been shooting his stunning rural surroundings for more than 20 years

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A photographer is gaining widespread admiration for his stunning aerial images of trees.

Michael Rasmussen, a 39-year-old car parts salesman from Naestved, Denmark, describes himself as an 'amateur' despite his hobby spanning more than 20 years, and has only recently taken to the skies to photograph his breathtaking woodland surroundings from above.

Using a drone, he captures the rich greens of the treetops against the white snow and the geometric arrangement of the landscape.

Michael Rasmussen is gaining widespread admiration for his stunning aerial images of trees around his homeland in Naestved, Denmark

Mr Rasmussen, a car parts salesman, describes himself as an 'amateur' photographer despite his hobby having spanned 20 years

Mr Rasmussen deftly captures the geometric patterns of the trees and their vivid green colour - and only very minimally retouches them

Some images include sweeping single roads slicing through the countryside and areas of deforestation - man's fingerprint on the otherwise undisturbed oasis.

He says of his craft: 'Through my photography, I want to capture the beauty of our world and all its glory. Having the bird's perspective, gives me the freedom to see the world from different angles and in different lighting.

'I am a child of nature, so trees are and will always be one of my favourite subjects.

He has only recently taken to the skies to photograph his breathtaking woodland surroundings from above using a drone-mounted camera

Some include sweeping single roads slicing through the countryside and areas of deforestation, man's fingerprint on the rolling landscape

He says of his craft: 'Having the bird's perspective gives me the freedom to see the world from different angles and in different lighting'

A pathway snakes through gaps in the rows of pine trees, taken in the beautiful Kalbyris forest - an area of Denmark rarely photographed

'I have so much fun flying with the drone and capturing images - it's like Christmas Eve every time I go out and get airborne.'

Mr Rasmussen never leaves anything to chance when it comes to shooting from above, and is particularly careful about disturbing his environment.

He said: 'I always take my time to get a feel of the place. Listening to nature and being on the lookout for wildlife I could scare with the drone.

'If something is there or something is off, I just don't fly and come back some other day.

'Checking wind speeds and the weather forecast before going is all very important when you are out there flying, and not something I have ever thought about before getting a drone.'

An old railroad bridge over Susaaen River in Naested, the spidery trees and recently cleared fields a magnificent dusty gold colour (left) and this carved path looks almost like an artery winding through the blue-tinted winter snow, bordering a cluster of pine trees (right)

My Rasmussen says the drone brings a new quality and a different perspective to the places he's been to a thousand times before

He says: 'I want to try and capture the nature I so adore in this multi-dimensional world and present it through a two-dimensional tool'
She has been enjoying a mixture of work and play in Ibiza since Saturday.

And in addition to partying during her evening DJ gigs, Paris Hilton soaked up the sun on a yacht and made time for a glamourous photoshoot with Vogue.

The 35-year-old star gave viewers a behind-the-scenes look at her shoot, where she modeled a number of stunning looks.

'On set:' Socialite Paris Hilton, 35, soaked up the sun on a yacht and made time for a glamourous photoshoot with Vogue

For her first shot, Paris, fully clothed, sat atop a bed in a room, as multiple photographers and assistants gathered around.

'On set shooting for Vogue,' wrote the star.

Paris then shared a series of selfie videos with a butterfly and a floral crown filter.

Perfect make-up: The stunner shared a series of selfie videos with a butterfly and a floral crown filter

DJ Paris: The sister of Nicky Hilton moved to a balcony for her next change, where she showed off her long, lean legs in a metallic silver dress

The beauty then gave viewers a look at her mesmerizing view.

The sister of Nicky Hilton moved to a balcony for her next change, where she showed off her long, lean legs in a metallic silver dresss.

In what appeared to be a nod at her DJ title, Paris had on a set of headphones and was placed in front of a laptop bearing her moniker.

Joining her for her photos was a precious pup, which she stroked ever so softly.

Ready for vacation: The star then modeled summer attire, which had her wearing a white cropped top paired with a long, double-layer skirt. She accessorized with a gold cuff and black chain bag

City tourist: Her next look was slightly similar, as she wowed in a flowing, white day dress layered underneath a brown leather jacket

Paris then modeled summer attire, which had her wearing a white cropped top paired with a long, double-layer skirt. She accessorized with a gold cuff and black chain bag.

Her next look was slightly similar, as she wowed in a flowing, white day dress layered underneath a brown leather jacket.

The Simple Life star then continued to twirl for the camera.

On holiday: The socialite posed in three additional outfits, including a red one-piece swimsuit which she wore underneath a pair of printed vacation pants

Date wear: She also modeled two evening looks, including a black, printed dress with bell sleeves. Her trendy frock wasn't complete without a set of shades, a chain purse, a straw hat and flats

The finale: Finally, Paris made time for dinner during another look, which had her styled in a glittering, gold evening dress

But Paris wasn't done yet.

The socialite posed in three additional outfits, including a red one-piece swimsuit which she wore underneath a pair of printed vacation pants.

She also modeled two evening looks, including a black, printed dress with bell sleeves. Her trendy frock wasn't complete without a set of shades, a chain purse and flats. She carried a straw hat to the side as she posed.

Finally, Paris made time for dinner during another look, which had her styled in a glittering, gold evening dress.

The DJ then wrapped her photoshoot with a quick runway walk through a nearby pool.
She's a successful Hollywood star with multiple projects on the go at once.

And Rachel Griffiths revealed in an interview with Channel Seven's Sunrise on Wednesday that in order to juggle the demands of life as a mother-of-three with her work commitments, she uses her phone as a personal assistant.

'I have just discovered that you can get Siri to do stuff', the 47-year-old marvelled.

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Keeping it real: Rachel Griffiths uses her phone as a personal assistant to help juggle the demands of motherhood and work, the actress revealed in an interview on Wednesday

The Australian actress currently resides in Melbourne, having moved her family back home from Los Angeles recently, but the award-winning actress often jet sets across the globe.

'I travel a fair bit', the brunette the breakfast show's hosts Samantha Armytage and David Koch, adding: 'I love my Siri...She is my personal assistant with me all the time.'

'I am always forgetting things like most busy parents', Rachel continued.

While joking how a thriving career can leave her without a close support group, she also shared: 'I thought about having a welcome home party because I have been away for three months.

'I sat down to write the list of who I would have and realised I had no friends.'

'She is my personal assistant with me all the time': The busy mother-of-three joked the phone helps her when she forgets things

Earlier in the year, the House Husbands actress told the Daily Telegraph that she loves 'being so close' to her family.

'Theres nothing like having your mum around the corner, who can pick your six-year-old up from school....I didn't have that support in LA'.

While working on multiple projects, Rachel is focusing on her directorial debut, which will be a movie about Melbourne Cup winning jockey Michelle Payne.

Calling Australia home: The Australian actress currently resides in Melbourne, having moved her family back home from Los Angeles recently (Pictured at the 2015 G'Day USA Gala in Los Angeles, California)

Family ties: The House Husbands actress said earlier this year, she loves having her family around the corner (Pictured at the Sportscraft 100 Years of Australian Lifestyle Campaign in Sydney back in 2014)

The in demand actress made a name for herself back in 1993 when she appeared in television series Secrets as Sarah Foster, before taking on the role as Hilary du Pre in the blockbuster movie Hilary and Jackie in 1998.

The film saw Rachel rise to the top of the acting elite, where she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.

She then starred three years later in Six Feet Under as Brenda Chenowith, for four years.

Small screen: In 2006 she then took on the role as Sarah Walker in the hit series Brothers And Sisters

In 2006 she then took on the role as Sarah Walker in the hit series Brothers And Sisters.

On the personal front, Rachel married Australian artist Andrew Taylor in 2002, in Melbourne.

The couple have three children: Banjo Patrick, 12, Adelaide Rose, 11, and Clementine Grace, 7.

Pride and joy: Pictured with son Banjo Taylor at the Fifth AACTA International Awards in Hollywood in January this year

Hitting the right note: Rachel arrived with her children at the premiere of musical CATS in Melbourne in December last year




Heyyyy! Whoah! Here comes Gregg Wallace and hes having the . . . Time! Of! His! Life! Yah-ha-hey, wow-wow, no way, this is just incredible, because you absolutely will never believe where he is! Wa-hey!

For the first episode of Inside The Factory (BBC2), his documentary series about how mass-produced food is made, Gregg was at a cornflake works in Manchester.

His delirious over-excitement is understandable. Manchesters thrilling enough, wherever you go, but there is no more heady rush than a cornflake factory.

Gregg Wallace (pictured left, with co-presenter Cherry Healey) was ridiculously excited on his visit to a cornflake factory

Still, I worry for Gregg in case he accidentally does something even more stimulating. Suppose he should find himself in a place that makes chocolate bars or ice cream.

His bald head might detonate like an egg in a microwave. Wa-hey! Splat!

Gregg could barely contain himself even before he reached the factory gates. The statistics were already making him dizzy.

Corn cobs destined for our breakfast cereal bowls are grown in Argentina, and do you know how far away that is?

Nearly 9,000 miles! Imagine it.

And the sweetcorn farms are . . . well, theyre extensive. Theres no other word for it. They cover an area the size of the Isle of Wight. Think of that  cornfields stretching from Cowes to Ventnor.

While youre reeling from that, heres another numerical fact to boggle your brain. Believe it or believe it not, my friends, but the journey time from Liverpool docks, where the corn is unloaded, to the Kelloggs plant in Stretford is an hour and 20 minutes.

SPINE-CHILLER OF THE NIGHT The Living And The Dead (BBC1) gets weirder at every turn. Victorian scientist Nathan (Colin Morgan) is beset by ghouls, but he also appears to be stuck inside someone else's ghost story. Next week's climax will have to be dazzlingly clever to make sense of it all. Advertisement

By the time the truck emptied its cargo into a silo, Gregg was hyperventilating: That is a corn waterfall, a corn avalanche. Tomorrows cornflakes  thats incredible, mate, thats incredible.

Staggering goggle-eyed through the factory doors, he marvelled at a pipe that did something or other. It was 275 yards long. It gets madder here by the minute, gasped Gregg.

Gregg Wallace (pictured, with Masterchef co-host John Torode) sometimes acts like a little boy in a sweet shop

A foreman in a blue plastic bonnet looked at him, puzzled. Do you think so? he asked. But Gregg couldnt stand around talking to folk who were blase about the miracle of cornflakes. He had to find people who were mind-blown by the whole experience.

Are you a cornflake nerd? he shrieked at one of the staff. The chap supposed that he was. I really like you, Gregg sobbed and flung his arms around him, almost lifting him off the floor in a bear hug.

Co-presenter Cherry Healey tried to keep up, but when she admitted she usually skipped breakfast, it was obvious her enthusiasm was faked.

Lets hope her fur jerkin and black-and-white scarf were fake, too, because they looked suspiciously like giant panda pelts. Her item about different types of porridge oat was a mere distraction.

For here was Gregg, weak-kneed with ecstasy at the sight of a packaging machine that made cardboard boxes: Thats genius! Those cornflakes are good to go.

He ought to try a cup of camomile tea and deep breathing exercises before next weeks show, but the trailer hints he wont be any less manic: he was last seen brandishing a potato and screeching: This is a packet of crisps!

The tourists who videoed their mishaps abroad were mostly calmer in Holiday Horrors: Caught On Camera (ITV).

Even the lad who sliced his leg open on a jetski wasnt screaming as much as Gregg.

This was an hour of feeble footage, filched from YouTube and strung together with half-hearted interviews.

We met Davey, a wrestler from Glasgow, who had one too many on a night out and regained consciousness 400 miles away in Amsterdam.

People look at me and they think Im not the sharpest tool in the box, Davey complained.

Lord knows how anyone could draw that inference, but the producers werent too smart either  they forgot to ask if he ever discovered how he made the trip while blind drunk.

Another story, about a canoeist who rescued a shih tzu lapdog stranded on rocks out at sea, also left us with nothing but questions.
After being rejected by Sam Frost on The Bachelorette last year, Richie Strahan quickly became one of Australia's most desirable men.

So few were surprised when he was romantically linked to Big Brother star Tully Smyth after they allegedly shared a kiss at the Melbourne Cup in November.

However, the 30-year-old reality TV star seemingly downplayed their rumoured fling on KIIS 106.5's The Kyle and Jackie O Show on Wednesday.

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'I wouldn't say I was in a relationship': The Bachelor's Richie Strahan (left) downplayed his rumoured fling with Big Brother star Tully Smyth (right) this week, after they allegedly kissed at the Melbourne Cup in November

The Perth hunk appeared to dismiss reports he dated bisexual Tully, who rose to fame on Big Brother in 2013 after cheating on her girlfriend with a male housemate.

Richie revealed: 'I wouldn't say I was in a relationship or anything like that. You come out of something like that and it's an absolute whirlwind'.

Shortly after The Bachelorette finale saw Sam Frost declare her love for construction manager Sasha Mielczarek, Richie reportedly kissed Tully at a Melbourne Cup party.

'It's an absolute whirlwind': Richie told KIIS FM's Kyle Sandilands (left) and Jackie 'O' Henderson (right) that he was not in a relationship between filming The Bachelorette last year and the new series of The Bachelor

The blonde socialite shared several photos of the pair in the days following the alleged hook-up, and they even attended a David Guetta concert together.

However, weeks later Tully seemed to confirm she was still single after complaining on Instagram that she could not 'get a date'.

But it was claimed the 'couple' had reunited in January this year after Tully posted Snapchat photos of her and Richie on holiday together in Bali, Indonesia.

No hard feelings! Last year, Richie took part in The Bachelorette, but 2DayFM's Sam Frost (right) rejected him in favour of construction manager Sasha Mielczarek. Pictured with radio co-host Rove McManus (left)

Last year, the WA rope access technician placed third in Network Ten's The Bachelorette, based on the popular dating show The Bachelor.

He earned a devoted following for his handsome looks and shy personality, which gave rise to several 'Richie-isms' - including the catchphrase, 'Cool bananas'.

In March, he was announced as Australia's new Bachelor and will have his pick of 22 beautiful women in the upcoming series.

The Bachelor Australia begins at 7.30pm on Wendesday on Network Ten
Kourtney Kardashian looked hot to trot as she jetted into San Diego with former flame Scott Disick and their beautiful brood on Tuesday.

The 37-year-old wore a green vest top and high-waisted trousers as she touched down while cuddling her youngest son, 19-month-old Reign.

Scott, 33, remained close by, along with their children Mason, six, and Penelope, three, after he flew up front with the family in a light aircraft in California.

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Wow thing: Kourtney Kardashian is one hot momma in tight vest and trousers after jetting into San Diego with Scott Disick and their beautiful brood ahead of her Gran's 82nd birthday dinner

So sweet: The amicable exes and their kids - wearing white Vans sneakers - looked picture perfect as they arrived at their hotel after jetting in

Kourtney shared the adventure on Snapchat, captioning the short video: 'Today's transportation.'

The reality television star squeezed herself into the back alongside the children, who were all wearing white Vans sneakers.

She showcased the take-off experience as they all wore aviation headphones with microphones.

Her ex-boyfriend - and father of their children - Scott took the pilot's seat in front of her.

High flier! Scott, 33, fancied himself in the cockpit, as he flew with Kourtney and their three children in a light aircraft

Got wings: Kourtney, 37, shared the adventure on Snapchat, captioning the short video 'Today's transportation'

He shared a black and white selfie, captioned: 'Small trip small place. Left the big body in the hanger.'

They took the single propeller fixed-wing light aircraft from Van Nuys airport to San Diego, which took just under 45 minutes.

They had just enough time in the Southern Californian city to attend the store opening hosted by Kourtney's grandmother Mary Jo Campbell.

Glammy mummy: Kourtney looked tanned and relaxed in a sleeveless tank top and reflective aviator-style sunglasses

Family outing: The reality television star squeezed herself into the back alongside Mason, Reign and Penelope

Here we go! She showcased the take-off experience as they all wore aviation headphones with microphones

Reaching for the skies: Scott appears to have been working up his flying hours as he also shared an image last week in a light aircraft

Sisters Khloe, Kim and niece North were also spotted at the event - as well as her mum Kris Jenner - Mary Jo's daughter.

Kourtney also attended a their Gran's birthday 82nd birthday dinner along with the rest of the family.

Also there was Rob's pregnant fiance Blac Chyna, even though they are reported to be going through a rocky time.

East tiger: Sister Khloe, and niece North were also spotted at the event

Matriarch games: Kim, Saint and North were there, as well as her mum Kris Jenner - Mary Jo's daughter - and their grandma herself who looked lovely in yellow

Earlier in the day, Kourtney looked naturally beautiful as she hid her eyes behind a pair of designer shades and trotted around in Stella McCartney shoes.

She added a summery pair of baggy white high-waisted slacks and wedge sneakers. The brunette beauty had a gold choker around her neck.

Scott appears to have been working up his flying hours although the reflection in his sunglasses appears to show someone else's hands on the controls.

Sister, sister: Khloe showed Kourtney something on her phone which seemed to have amused her

Hilarious: The girls could barely contain their giggles as they perused the secret message which had tickled them

Wow thing: Kourtney looked incredible in a pair of black leather shorts and killer heels for the dinner party

A little wave: Khloe showed off her gym-honed figure in a blush pink dress and nude Louboutin heels

He also shared an image last week in the front of a light aircraft. The bearded entrepreneur captioned that shot 'Morning'.

Later on, Kourtney looked incredible in very short leather shorts and a black vest top, worn under a white duster jacket.

She wore a pair of high black strappy sandals as she posed alongside her younger sister Khloe.
She wants to have her cake and eat it too.

And Amy Schumer seemed to have accomplished both during what appeared to be a sweet treat snack break during a shoot for Marie Claire.

The 35-year-old actress stuffed her face with white wedding, as she took to Instagram on Tuesday to document her adventure.

Joking around: Amy Schumer, 35, filmed a silly video in which she coined the term 'hand cake' on Tuesday

For her silly video, Amy was dressed in a lace overlay number, which was paired with a cream jacket that fell off her shoulders.

The Trainwreck star wore her medium-length locks in beachy waves, while her make-up featured a dark, smokey eye and nude lip.

The video opened with the comedian taking nibbles of a piece of cake, She quickly came to a conclusion.

'They're serving hand cake': The video opened with the comedian taking nibbles of a piece of cake, she quickly came to a conclusion

'They're serving hand cake,' she said towards a person behind the camera.

'They're not serving hand cake,' the person quickly responded.

She then looked around towards what appeared to be yet another person off camera.

Getting her fix: She later stuffed the remaining pieces in her mouth

'Did you have hand cake?' she asked.

That person did not respond, but the first person she initially addressed did. 'It's not, nobody had it 'cause it's not hand cake.'

'It's cake you take in your hand,' said Amy.

Amy then proceeded to stuff the remaining piece in her mouth. 'Thank you Marie Claire,' she said.

Grateful: She concluded by thanking Marie Claire for her dessert

When she's not making time for photoshoots, Amy is busy working on both TV and film projects.

The actress has her Comedy Central show, Inside Amy Schumer.

As her the big screen, the blonde recently enjoyed time in Hawaii, where she a movie with Goldie Hawn.

Later this year, she'll appear alongside Miles Teller in Thank You for Your Service, a film about military men and women who suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
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For such a publicity-loving family, baby Saint West has proved remarkably allusive.

But seven months after his birth, Kim Kardashian has obviously decided it's time to share her darling second born with the world.

The proud mother, 35, showed off her handsome boy on a family outing on Tuesday - a moment caught on camera, of course, for their E! reality TV show Keeping Up With The Kardashians.

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The big debut! Kim Kardashian shows off baby Saint for the first time on family outing with big sister North and aunts Khloe and Kourtney in San Diego on Friday

Say cheese! It's clear the beautiful baby is every bit as photogenic as his older sister North West

Joining big sister North, three, and his cousins - Kourtney's three children; Mason, six, Penelope, four, and 19-month-old Reign - the smiling baby was at the center of attention on the trip to San Diego.

It was the one of the first times the baby had been seen by fans, who apart from the occasional Instagram snap had previously only caught a rare glimpse of the child.

Saint was passed around by his doting grandmother Kris Jenner, 60, and aunts Khloe, 32, and Kourtney, 37, on the trip, which came as the group visited Kris' mother Mary Jo 'MJ' Campbell, 81, as she opened a new store in the area.

Stepping out: Proud mother Kim took charge of pushing Saint in his stroller

Out and about: It was the first time Kim had taken the baby out and about, apart from a quick glimpse of her son in Cuba and the occasional Instagram snap or Snapchat photo

MJ led the group with every bit as much style as her famous granddaughters, standing out in a canary yellow blazer worn over a grey jumpsuit and paired to a sunhat with large round sunglasses.

From the very eldest to the youngest member of the Kardashian clan, little is yet known about baby Saint.

The outing came days after Kim, who is married to rapper Kanye West, 39, revealed her son was now talking, and that notably his first word was 'Dada', even though she was disappointed that it hadn't been 'Momma'.

Speaking to PEOPLE at MGM Grand's Hakkasan nightclub in Las Vegas on Friday, she said: 'He said "Dada" today, three times and I was like "What?" Kanye was so excited. He was like "I told him to say that." I was like, "I just really wanted him to say Momma first.'''

The 35-year-old has also talked of how daughter North is still struggling to cope with being an older sister, seven months after the arrival of their second born, at Christmas.

Doting grandma: Saint's grandmother Kris Jenner kept a tight grip on the seven-month-old as the family browsed the store

Shopping trip: Saint wore a cute camouflage outfit and showed off a head of dark hair, as his big sister North stayed close

Too cute: Saint cuddled up to his grandma Kris as he checked out all the commotion in the shop

Family time: Proud mom Kim showed off Saint to her grandmother MJ

Balancing baby: The little one pulled funny facial expressions as Kim lovingly stroked his hair

Kim said: 'We talk about North being a big sister all the time. Right now, because she's three, it's time to talk a lot about sharing. And North is great at sharing.

'She's still getting the concept of having a brother, though. Like, Penelope and Reign are her cousins, but Saint is here every day because Saint is her brother.'

Kim is working on the bond between her two children as she wants them to be as close in friendship as they are in age.

She told Elle.com: 'I like to bring her in to say "Good morning." 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.

Big sister: Kim previously revealed that her daughter North is still adjusting to having a little brother and learning to share

Smile! Four generations of Kardashian women posed for a photo inside the store

Generations: Kim adjusted Saint's hair as his great-grandmother MJ chatted with North and Penelope as the family celebrated her birthday

Holding on: At one point, Corey Gamble was seen holding Kourtney's youngest Reign

'And she's getting so much better. 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.'

And Kim believes she's used to siblings fighting over toys because she is one of six, including brother Rob, sisters Kourtney and Khloe and half sisters Kendall and Kylie from Kris' second marriage to the athlete formerly known as Bruce Jenner.

She said: 'Of course that happened with us!'

Kim also recently revealed she is back to her goal weight of 120lbs and she showed off the results of her intense workouts and strict Atkins diet plan as she squeezed her famous curves into a skintight bodysuit.

Action! The family filmed KUWTK as they took a road trip to San Diego to celebrate Kris Jenner's mother's new store opening

Skintight: Kim wore a plunging top as she was joined by sisters Kourtney and Khloe Kardashian and Kourtney's ex Scott Disick

Working it: Kim showed off her post-baby body in the bodycon outfit as Saint made his debut on KUWTK

Famous curves: Kim, who recently announced she is back at her goal weight of 120lbs after giving birth to Saint in December, wore a skintight black outfit for the family outing

The 35-year-old reality star added a low-cut, sleeveless top, with a slim black choker necklace and chunky gold pendant. Strappy black heels and over-sized sunglasses completed her look, and she pulled her dark hair up in a high ponytail.

Auntie Khloe held her niece North's hand and later stuck close to Penelope and Mason as the family were trailed by a group of fans, naturally wanting to capture a glimpse.

The 31-year-old wore a sexy leopard-print top, skinny jeans and a long black jacket with classic black heels, celebrating her gym honed curves with extremely figure-hugging garments.

Also joining the family fun was Kris Jenner, who was joined by her 35-year-old boyfriend Corey Gamble, as they gathered together as a full unit for a day out.

Taking the plunge: Kim leaned over to get a better grip on Saint's stroller as she lifted him into their SUV

Big sis: North pulled her curls back in a cute top-not and wore a pretty pearl-like necklace as she held hands with her aunt Khloe and cousin Mason

Auntie duties: Khloe was dedicated to her sisters' children, giving big girl North some extra attention

Doting auntie: Khloe held hands with Penelope and Mason as the family were trailed by fans during their outing

Let's go! The three-year-old seemed eager to dash ahead as they strolled down the sidewalk

Center of attention: Kourtney's ex Scott Disick hammed it up for the group as Khloe filmed away on her smartphone

Helping hand: Kris was joined by boyfriend Corey Gamble, who carefully carried North across the street

Glamorous grandma: The 60-year-old wore a bright dress with a red pattern as they headed to meet her mother MJ

Kris, 61, wore a clingy dress with a bright red pattern and added large sunglasses and black heeled sandals, sharing grand-parenting responsibilities with her younger other half.

Kourtney and her ex-partner Scott Disick, who is the father of her three children but an ex of hers since late 2015, also made the trip to San Deigo to celebrate with the family.

The mother-of-three, 37, looked stylish in a tight olive House Of CB bodysuit and high-waisted, flared trousers, balancing her youngest son effortlessly on one hip as she walked.

She added chunky Stella McCartney shoes and carried a large black handbag while her close ex-partner followed behind with the other two children in tow.

Kourtney pulled her brunette hair up in a high ponytail like Kim, and added aviators and two gold necklaces.

Stylish: Kourtney, who looked chic in an olive House Of CB bodysuit and high-waisted white trousers, held 19-month-old son Reign while out in the city

Reunited: Scott and Kourtney, who split last summer after nine years together, have continued to co-parent their three children Reign, Mason and Penelope

Helping hand: Even Mason was helping with giving North some extra attention on the day out

Cutie: Reign wore a striped white and navy shirt with ripped jeans and sneakers as he got to grips with mom Kourtney

In the spotlight: KUWTK camera crews captured the action as the entire family headed to San Diego for the day
He's been wanting his legal team to grill his estranged wife Amber Heard ever since she won a temporary restraining order against him in late May.

And on Tuesday, Johnny Depp's attorneys were in court for an emergency hearing to persuade a judge to schedule a date for the actress' deposition.

The judge ruled that Amber, 30, must make herself available to answer questions from the actor's lawyers on Saturday August 6, according to TMZ.

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Date set: Johnny Depp's legal team will depose Amber Heard on August 6 in Los Angeles over her claims of domestic violence that led to a judge granting her a temporary restraining order in late May

The website reported that Johnny's side stated that the Hollywood movie star is worried that having a retraining order against him will hurt him professionally and financially and they want to challenge Amber's version of events as quickly as possible.

His attorneys have called her claims of his violent behavior towards her 'meritless.'

Amber, who is currently filming Justice League in the UK, had previously said she could only be available to fly back to LA to be deposed on a weekend.

The now former couple - who met on the set of 2011 film 'The Rum Diary' and were married for just 15 months - have been embroiled in the bitter legal battle since announcing their split in May.

The way they were: Johnny and Amber met on the 2009 set of The Rum Diary. The film was released in 2011

Amber was granted a temporary restraining order against Johnny after claiming in court that her decision to file for divorce from him was prompted by the actor physically attacking her with an iPhone, leaving her with a bruised eye.

In another aspect of the increasingly bitter divorce battle, the actress filed legal documents accusing the Pirates Of The Caribbean star of refusing to hand over financial details to settle the case.

Johnny, 53, has been demanding his estranged wife sign a non-disclosure agreement before he hands over any paperwork, alleging that she and her legal team have been leaking information to the media.

The contract stipulated that a $100,000 fine would be imposed every time Johnny's financial info is leaked. But, TMZ said Tuesday, Amber branded the stipulation 'ridiculous.'

Bitter divorce: The former couple - who had been married for 15 months when Amber filed for divorce - are fighting over Johnny's refusal to hand over his financial details until she signs a non-disclosure agreement

In the court documents obtained last week, Johnny's lawyer Laura Wasser claimed Amber has been telling the media information about the former couple, who are not thought to have had a pre-nuptial agreement.

In addition to asking the court to order his financial dealings to be kept, he wants other information that will be part of the proceedings such as witness statements to remain private too.

According to People, he is also asking that any experts or witnesses called to give evidence in the case be required to sign nondisclosure agreements.

'Amber's need for financial information to resolve this case is distinct from the public's appetite for celebrity divorce,' Johnny's legal documents state.

Johnny pointed out that media scrutiny of his break-up with Amber is intense, calling it 'one of the most heavily publicized celebrity divorces in recent memory.'

In love with music: Johnny has been distracting himself from his legal woes by performing on tour with his rock band Hollywood Vampires. He's pictured at their concert in Paso Robles, California, on Monday night




When she's not busy hunting down ghosts, Melissa McCarthy is vigilant about her coffee.

And on Tuesday, the comedian stepped out in a laid-back, chic outfit as she carried a cup holder of three iced coffees for the hot July day in Los Angeles.

The Ghostbusters star recently had a whirlwind week in premieres and promotions, and it appears the actress has still not had any downtime.

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On the hunt: Melissa McCarthy went on a coffee run in Los Angeles on Tuesday carrying three iced coffees for the summer day

Melissa carried out her swift coffee run in a long-sleeve, olive green tunic, which she wore with black slacks and a skeleton-printed black and white chiffon scarf that she tied around her neck.

The Spy starlet wore her brunette tresses back in a low bun, pushed back by square-shaped sunglasses and accessorized with a small maroon duffel bag purse.

She opted for comfort in black, patent leather strappy flats.

Swift yet stylish: The brunette starlet opted for an olive green tunic that she paired with black pants and flats

Who you gonna call? The Ghostbusters actress accessorized with a skeleton-printed scarf and square shaped sunglasses to hide from the sun

The mother-of-two recently spoke out against the mixed reviews that the all-female cast of Ghostbusters received.

'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.'

Despite the comments, however, the clothing designer seems to be occupied with her launch of Melissa McCarthy Seven7.

Let's make history: Melissa starred in the summer flick, Ghostbusters, with fellow comedians Leslie Jones, Kate McKinnon, and Kristen Wiig; here they are pictured at the July 9th premiere in Los Angeles

Fashionista: The clothing designer visited Seattle to promote her designer line. She captioned the Instagram: 'n Seattle today for the @nordstrom Anniversary sale. So excited to share my capsule collection with everyone!! #melissamccarthyseven7'

The Mike and Molly star visited the Nordstrom store in downtown Seattle on Friday where she promoted her clothing line at the Anniversary Sale.

The pretty brunette spoke to talk show host Chelsea Handler about her line and how she plans to break the stereotype on plus size shopping.

'Ive been every size in the world, but after I was a size 12, it was, like, apparently Im "done" dressing,' the 45-year-old star said. 'My line is all sizes because I was like, "Women dont stop  I dont know why I would stop at a certain size; that seems odd to me.'
TV presenter Ben Fogle nearly lost half his face to a flesh-eating parasite, and he battled the elements in a race to the South Pole, but even when the cameras stop rolling, his appetite for adventure lives on.

Sharing this holiday snap from Austria, where his wife Marina grew up, he shows his family  including their two children, Ludo, six and Iona, five  exploring the local culture by dressing up as the Von Trapp family from The Sound Of Music. Or, as Ben suggested, The Sound Of Fogles.

 Slide me  Ben Fogle and his wife Marina got their two children, Ludo, six and Iona, five, exploring the local culture by dressing up as the Von Trapp family from The Sound Of Music

However, behind the lederhosen facade of familial bliss, tension simmers. I only travel with hand luggage, which drives my family crazy, says Ben, 42.

I take the bare minimum of shampoo and toothpaste.

Its hilarious when the children approach me with all the toys they want to take.

Pretty in punk (and eyeliner), Sam Cam's little brother

David Camerons racy brother-in-law Robert Sheffield, who makes no secret of his penchant for cross-dressing, advocates that men should wear make-up.

Its totally ok for a man to wear eyeliner at dinner, he said, posting this picture of himself from Spain, where he was attending a friends wedding.

And its good to see he still knows how to wear gender-appropriate clothing on occasion.

Samantha Camerons half-brother, who works for Christies in London, also shared an image from the same holiday of him lying down on the floor bare-chested in a pink suit jacket and trousers with a beer bottle clutched in his left hand.

And it was clearly some party, as he started off the evening with a white T-shirt underneath. Ole!

Samantha Camerons half-brother Robert Sheffield, who works for Christies in London, shared an image of himslef lying down on the floor bare-chested in a pink suit jacket and trousers with a beer bottle

Its totally ok for a man to wear eyeliner at dinner, he said, posting this picture of himself from Spain, where he was attending a friends wedding

While Tom Hiddleston adjusts to his Hiddleswift portmanteau following his romance with pop star Taylor Swift, he will now be obliged to come to terms with a less favourable nickname, thanks to his pal Benedict Cumberbatch.

Tom . . . Tom . . . Hiddlebum? said the Sherlock star when asked about Hiddleston. Toms posterior has been a hot topic ever since he disrobed in BBC drama The Night Manager.

Billionaire baby bling: Hilton's gold pram

Hotel heiress Nicky Hilton is not one to let motherhood cramp her style. The fashion-conscious wife of banking scion James Rothschild, who gave birth to daughter Lily Grace three weeks ago, has shared a picture of herself with a 1,450 haute couture black pram adorned with wings of gold.

The 32-year-old, who displayed her post-partum figure in a leopard-print dress, took a stroll in New York with her Cybex Priam carry cot. Given the babys parents have a combined fortune of 168 million, she might as well get used to such pampering.

Heiress Nicky Hilton is not one to let motherhood cramp her style. The fashion-conscious wife of banking scion James Rothschild shared this picture of herself with a 1,450 haute couture black pram adorned with wings of gold

When it comes to my dream new judge, its got to be my friend the Duchess of Cornwall, Craig Revel Horwood says of his pal, who visited the Strictly set in 2011 (pictured)

Camilla is my 'dream new Strictly judge', says Craig

They became friends through their charity work and she is a keen fan of Strictly Come Dancing.

Now Craig Revel Horwood would like the Duchess of Cornwall to join the shows judging panel after the departure of Len Goodman at the end of the latest series.

When it comes to my dream new judge, its got to be my friend the Duchess of Cornwall, he says of his pal, who visited the Strictly set in 2011.

Ive been desperate to get a Royal on the show and Camilla could be just wonderful. And Id love to have another lady on the panel, too.
He gushed he is 'madly in love' with wife Nikki Cox despite filing to end their marriage.

And now funnyman Jay Mohr has acted to bring divorce proceedings to an end after having second thoughts.

The Garry Unmarried star had claimed she suffers from depression and that her self-medication has led to a 'serious' drug problem that puts their young son at risk.

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Called off: Funnyman Jay Mohr has cancelled his divorce from actress wife Nikki Cox

According to TMZ the Ghost Whsiperer favourite took just six days to regret his decision, and filed a dismissal request in Los Angeles on Monday.

The 45-year-old had also been seeking emergency full custody of their five-year-old son Meredith Daniel, but it seems they will now try and worth through their problems together.

It did not take long for Jay to have second thoughts about his decision, for on Thursday he posted on Twitter: 'One glance at my Periscope and you'll see two happy, madly in love people. Whacked out on soda and Gatorade.'

The former Saturday Night Live star also shared a selfie of his wife kissing his cheek and called her 'my baby.'

The couple had a prenup that includes spousal support. Jay also shares a fourteen-year-old son Jackson with his ex-wife Nicole Chamberlain. They split in 2004.

'My baby:' The actor took to Twitter on Thursday to gush over his wife, saying they were 'madly and love'

They tied the knot in 2009 after meeting when Jay was a guest star on Nikki's show Las Vegas.

Blazing his own trail, he took her name after they married, changing his legal name to Jon Ferguson Cox Mohr.

Nikki previously starred in WB sitcoms Unhappily Ever After and Nikki, and also often writes material for Jay's stand-up act.

She helped pen his Grammy-nominated comedy album Happy. And A Lot, which was released last year.

In Gary Unmarried, arguably the highlight of his career so far, he played a painter and decorator who tries to juggle his controlling ex-wife and a foxy new girlfriend.

Jay's little helper: Nikki helped pen his Grammy-nominated comedy album Happy. And A Lot
Blogger Anna Feller was spotted enjoying a day out with her cherubic toddler Banjo on Tuesday as they braved the windy weather at Bondi Beach.

The doting mother, who write as seen pushing her fair-haired child down the promenade in a stroller before lifting her out of the chair to play on the grass.

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Mummy and me! Blogger Anna Feller was spotted enjoying a day out with her cherubic toddler Banjo on Tuesday as they braved the windy weather at Bondi Beach

Anna showcased her slender legs in a pair of black leggings, which she layered underneath a black T-shirt and denim jacket tied around her waist.

She also made sure to rug up from the blustery chill by winding a thick green scarf around her neck, while protecting her eyes from the dry wind by throwing on some key-hole frames.

Banjo was dressed to match his fashionable mother, clad in a denim jacket, black T-shirt and matching black trousers.

Playtime! The doting mother was seen pushing her fair-haired child down the promenade in a stroller before lifting her out of the chair to play on the grass

Low-key: She also made sure to rug up from the blustery chill by winding a thick green scarf around her neck, while protecting her eyes from the dry wind by throwing on some key-hole frames

Anna, who runs a family blog titled Wilder By Anna Feller, which is described as a visual platform for mothers to share their family recipes, reflections and holistic life advice.

Her son Banjo was born in 2013, and features heavily on her site.

Wilder covers a variety of lifestyle content and issues, including inspiring family profiles and nourishing recipes, as well as fashion and beauty features produced with the signature Wilder aesthetic.

Off-duty model moment! Anna showcased her slender legs in a pair of black leggings, which she layered underneath a black T-shirt and denim jacket tied around her waist

Anna, who hails from Canada, recently spoke to Follow The Vista about her experiences of being a mother to Banjo, who was born in 2013.

'Being a mum is the wildest ride I have ever been on. Although I experienced so much before motherhood its almost as if my life didnt start before I had Banjo', she gushed.

'He has been my biggest teacher and my greatest accomplishment. I feel so lucky to walk this earth with him.'

Trendy tot: Banjo was dressed to match his fashionable mother, clad in a denim jacket, black T-shirt and matching black trousers

Cute moment! The pair were seen playing with a toy on the grass as they enjoyed the sunshine




She's known for having a penchant for baring her flesh in skimpy attire on the red carpet.

And Nicole Trunfio, 30, didn't disappoint when she attended a film screening in New York on Tuesday.

The Australian supermodel put her endless legs on display in a daring silk dress that featured a split creeping all the way up to her hips, as well as a plunging neckline that descended toward her naval.

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Daring to bare! Nicole Trunfio, 30, showcased a generous glimpse of leg as she attended a film screening in New York on Tuesday

The runway regular accessorised her glamorous ensemble with a perspex clutch bag and a pair of black pointed-toe pumps.

She also wore a black ribbon choker to draw attention to her decolletage, while keeping her earrings understated with a pair of gold hoops.

Her hair was slicked back and parted in the centre, while her make-up was kept fresh and feminine with a touch of dusty rose eye-shadow and light pink lipstick.

Barely covered! The Australian supermodel put her endless legs on display in a daring silk dress which featured a split that crept all the way up to her hips as well as a plunging neckline that descended toward her naval

Glam: Her hair was slicked back and parted in the centre, while her make-up was kept fresh and feminine with a touch of dusty rose eye-shadow and light pink lipstick

While Nicole's new husband Gary Clark, Jr. and their son Zion didn't attend the exclusive event, Nicole was in good company, having been joined by Andrew Saffir, founder of The Cinema Society.

Nicole and Gary recently tied the knot in a lavish Palm Springs wedding in the U.S. in April.

The loved-up duo were dating for four years before getting married.

Red carpet comrade: While Nicole's new husband Gary Clark, Jr. and their son Zion didn't attend the exclusive event, Nicole was in good company, having been joined by Andrew Saffir, founder of The Cinema Society

Nicole is best known for her appearances on several modelling reality shows, including Make Me a Supermodel and The Face Australia.

She was the winner of the third season of Make Me A Supermodel in 2002, before going on to win second place on Supermodel Of The World.

She also has several acting credentials on her resume, including being featured in the Australian film Two Fists, One Heart.

Reality show queen: Nicole is best known for her appearances on several modelling reality shows, including Make Me a Supermodel and The Face Australia
Jennifer Garner stood out in a bright red stop while on set on Tuesday.

The actress wore a crimson, sleeveless blouse as she filmed her latest commercial for Capital One credit cards in Los Angeles.

The 44-year-old added slim black pants and stylish black heels as she ran through her lines.

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Bright spot: Jennifer Garner looked stylish in a crimson top as she filmed her new Capital One credit card ad in Los Angeles on Thuesday

The Alias alum appeared to be in good spirits, laughing and joking with crew members during a quick break on set.

Jennifer, who is a longtime spokesperson for the finance company, wore her light brunette hair down in soft waves, and accessorized with a gold bangle.

She added peach blush, eyeliner and dark pink lipstick to her polished look.

Standing out: The 44-year-old wore her light brunette hair in waves and added dark pink lipstick

Last month, Jennifer marked one year since she and estranged husband Ben Affleck announced they were splitting up after 10 years of marriage.

However, the pair have remained close, with Batman v Superman star Ben even living in the same home, in order to make the transition easier on their three children: Violet, 10; Seraphina, 7, and Samuel, 4.

She also traveled with the children to London for a few weeks over the summer to spend time as a family wile Ben filmed Justice League.

A source told People magazine that Ben and Jen are 'still figuring things out' and still have not filed divorce papers a year after their split.

Good mood: The actress and mother-of-three shared a laugh with crew members during a break in filming

'Ben still doesn't want the divorce and he might actually get his way,' a friend of Jennifer's said.

The actress also has a few films in the works, including the film adaptation of bestseller The Tribes of Palos Verdes, and a comedy with Kevin Spacey called Nine Lives.

Meanwhile, Ben was been busy promoting his next Batman outing Justice League at Comic-Con International in San Diego over the weekend.
She's the Australian supermodel living the dream in New York.

And Nicole Trunfio put on a leggy display in the streets of her adopted city as she was spotted leaving The Bowery Hotel on Tuesday.

The 30-year-old, from Merredin, flaunted her slender pins in denim cut-offs and a pair of thigh high boots as she enjoyed a brisk walk in NYC.

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Leggy lady! Nicole Trunfio displayed her supermodel frame in the streets of New York City as she was spotted leaving The Bowery Hotel on Tuesday

Nicole soaked up the sun in a figure-hugging black top and accessorised with a matching material choker.

She concealed her gaze behind a pair of chic hexagonal glasses and also carried a Chanel handbag with a gold chain.

The David Jones model styled her brunette hair straight and loosely, while proudly flashing a wedding ring on her left hand.

Fashionista: The 30-year-old model flaunted her slender pins in denim cut-offs and a pair of thigh high boots

City style: Nicole soaked up the sun in a slinky black top and accessorised with a matching material choker

Keeping update: The David Jones model styled her brunette hair loosely and was spotted checking her phone

Nicole recently returned to New York after spending the weekend in California with husband Gary Clark Jr. and their 18-month-old son Zion.

Meanwhile, on Wednesday, Nicole was photographed in Manhattan for an edgy street fashion photo shoot.

She exposed her lingerie under a slinky bodysuit, giving onlookers a glimpse of her lacy bra while posing for the camera.

Marital bliss: The brunette also flashed her wedding ring on her left hand during the brisk walk

She's got expensive tastes! Nicole, who hails from WA, was seen carrying a Chanel handbag with a gold chain

Nicole also flaunted her slender curves in a pair of thigh-skimming jeans and wore a red and blue cravat.

Earlier this year, she married musician Gary Clark, Jr. in a lavish Palm Springs ceremony - with models Gemma Ward and Jessica Gomes as bridesmaids.

The couple had been dating for four years before their wedding in April.

Dare to bare! The next day, Nicole flashed her underwear under a bodysuit in an edgy street fashion shoot

Simply chic: Nicole flaunted her curves in a pair of thigh-skimming jeans and wore a red and blue cravat
North West has assumed the princess' throne for three years but Kim Kardashian's darling daughter appeared to get usurped by a little 'saint.'

Kim Kardashian's baby boy Saint West didn't need to even get out of his stroller to steal the spotlight at his great grandmother MJ's birthday bash in San Diego, California on Tuesday.

The seven-month-old tot was all smiles and bobbing feet while three-year-old North preferred to hold back in a cute Snapchat posted by the reality star.

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He's a natural: Kim Kardashian's son Saint stole the spotlight with his megawatt smile at his great grandma MJ's birthday bash in San Diego, CA on Tuesday

The clip opened with Saint relaxing in his cosy stroller while beaming that megawatt grin,.

Kim was heard saying nothing as the heartwarming visual spoke for itself.

North was another story and even after gentle cajoling refused to give up the smile that her mom wanted.

'My two fave girls': North couldn't be cajoled into giving her mom Kim more than a goofy grin during this Snapchat session

She's mulling it over: Her daughter's response prompted Kim to say, 'Is that the kind of smile you're gonna give me? Give me a real smile please'

That's what happens: A family member reached over and tickled North into smiling for mom's camera

'My two fave girls,' Kim was heard saying to MJ and daughter North, who sat comfortably in her great grandma's lap.

North gave her mom a silly face, which prompted Kim to ask, 'Is that the kind of smile you're gonna give me? Give me a real smile please. You've been so naughty....'

North contemplated the request while fiddling with a spoon until a family member reached over and tickled her into smiling for mom's camera.

The winner: Saint was the victor in this Snapchat battle and he didn't even have to get out of his stroller

Of course, North is still the darling of the Kardashian clan.

North looked every bit the princess on Tuesday as she wore a pink dress to her great-grandmother Mary Jo 'MJ' Campbell (Kris Jenner's mother) birthday celebration.

The adorable tot was led by the hand as her mother Kim lent appeal in a leather mini-dress.

Pink princess: North looked every bit the princess in a pink dress as she arrived to her great-grandmother Mary Jo 'MJ' Campbell (Kris Jenner's mother) birthday in San Diego

The youngster wore her hair pulled up into a high bun as she sported a choker necklace and Converse high tops.

Earlier that day Kris' mother MJ as opened a new store in San Diego.

During the outing, which saw nearly the whole clan in attendance, North's baby brother Saint made his public debut.

Following mommy! The adorable tot was led by the hand as her mother Kim looked ferociously appealing in a leather mini-dress

Centre of attention! The youngster wore her hair pulled up into a high bun as she sported a choker necklace and Converse high tops

At seven months of age, Kim has obviously decided it's time to share her darling baby with the world.

The proud mother showed off her handsome boy on a family outing on Tuesday - a moment caught on camera, of course, for Keeping Up With The Kardashians.

Joining big sister North and his cousins, Mason, six, Penelope, four, and 19-month-old Reign, the smiling baby vied for attention on the trip to San Diego.

Following her lead: Kim led the tot around by the hand

The big debut! Kim showed off baby Saint for the first time earlier that day

Oh, baby: Pregnant Blac Chyna was also in attendance after becoming engaged to Rob Kardashian

Saint was passed around by his doting grandmother Kris and aunts Khloe and Kourtney on the trip, which came as the group visited Kris' mother Mary Jo 'MJ'.

Mother-of-two Kim showed off just how incredible she was looking (having just hit her goal weight of 120lbs), Blac was flaunting her growing bump.
He's been through a public break-up and watched his ex getting wooed by another man.

But Calvin Harris finally had something to celebrate - as he bragged on Snapchat about his three MTV VMA nominations on Tuesday.

The 32-year-old DJ noted his achievement - as he paraded his impressive abs in the Los Angeles sunshine.

Abs-fab! Calvin Harris took off his shirt and bragged on Snapchat about his three MTV VMA nominations on Tuesday

The Bounce hit-maker showcased the results of his strict gym regime, as he explained he was getting his fifteen minutes of sunshine a day.

Wearing only shorts, he launched into a surreal but enthusiastic explanation of why he gets a dose of sun every day.

Earnestly, the Scottish producer urged viewers to think of themselves as a plant.

Hunk: The 32-year-old DJ paraded his impressive abs in the Los Angeles sunshine before getting surreal

'Think of yourself as a plant,' he said, as he said it was a route to becoming a 'better person.'

'Use the sun's energy, become a better person with the sun on your side.'

'And on that subject if you feed ya f**king plant with hundreds of Jack Daniels or vodka, what happens to your plant? Yeah.

'Bit of tequila, bit of vodka for your plant, that's fine.

'You're the plant, so relax. That's what I'm trying to say'.

Say again? 'Think of yourself as a plant,' he said, as he said it was a route to becoming a 'better person'

Needs watering? 'You're the plant, so relax. That's what I'm trying to say'

No doubt he was feeling just a little smug that Taylor Swift - from whom he split in June - didn't receive a single nod of her own.

However, the nomination of This Is What You Came For, which features Rihanna, could bring about an awkward moment.

As well as being nominated in the best male video, it took a nod for Best Collaboration.

The song was co-written with Taylor Swift under a pseudonym.

Calvin took to Twitter earlier this month when it came out, to defend himself: 'Hurtful to me at this point that her and her team would go so far out of their way to try and make ME look bad at this stage though', he said after praising her song-writing skills.

Ex-couple: No doubt he was feeling just a little smug that Taylor Swift - from whom he split in June - didn't receive a single nod of her own (pictured in May 2015)
She's very picky about what projects to take on but clearly deciding to star in Disney's adaptation of A Wrinkle In Time was a no brainer for Oprah Winfrey.

The 62-year-old media mogul, actress and TV host is in final negotiations to play Mrs. Which in the movie to be directed by Ava DuVernay, Deadline.com reported on Tuesday.

Oprah and DuVernay previously collaborated on Selma, about Martin Luther King Jr's historic march, which Oprah produced as well as starred in.

Friends and collaborators: Oprah Winfrey is in final negotiations to star for director Ava DuVernay in Disney's big screen adaptation of the fantasy novel A Wrinkle In TIme. They're pictured on July 2 in NYC

Disney is adapting the classic fantasy novel by late author Madeleine LEngle with a script by fantasy Oscar-winning Frozen writer and co-director Jennifer Lee.

Deadline said that Amy Adams and Kevin Hart are also circling the project.

A Wrinkle In Time is the story of a young girl whose government scientist father has gone missing after working on a mysterious project.

Supernatural being: Oprah, 62, who produced and starred in DuVernay's 2014 Oscar nominated film Selma, is set to star as Mrs. Which in the production slated to start filming this fall

Popular youth fiction: The novel by Madeleine LEngle tells the story of a teen girl who, with her younger brother and a classmate, is transported to other worlds as she searches for her missing scientist father

Three supernatural beings transport her, her young brother and a schoolmate to other dimensions and planets in the quest to find her dad.

In addition to finalizing the film's adult leads, Disney is also currently casting the three child parts.

Backstage reports that the production is looking for a male actor aged between five and seven, and one aged between 15 and 17, as well as a girl actor aged between 13 and 15.

An open casting call will be held in Boston, Massachusetts, on July 31 and Aug. 1 and the casting notice reveals the studio is primarily looking to cast mixed race child actors.

Shooting is slated for later this year at a yet-to-be-determined location.
Lindsay Lohan has been living it up in Sardinia after reportedly calling off her engagement, taking some time out on a chartered yacht with her friend, socialite Hofit Golan.

The 30-year-old actress and her fiance Egor Tarabasov have decided to take a break following allegations he cheated on her and was physically abusive.

The news comes after the Russian millionaire was seen moving out of Lindsay's London apartment.

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Taking some time out? Lindsay Lohan is living it up in Sardinia as she 'calls off engagement to Egor Tarabasov'

A terrible time: The 30-year-old actress and her fiance Egor Tarabasov have decided to take a break following allegations he cheated on her and was physically abusive

A source told the NY Post newspaper: 'They are taking a break, she didn't want him trespassing in her apartment, but he went in and took all his possessions.'

Lindsay appeared deep in thought and was glued to the phone as she sat on the Kanaloa yacht, which costs 140,000 euros per week to charter and is currently listed for sale for 6.5million euros.

Luckily she has Israeli socialite Hofit on hand - a source told MailOnline she has been a shoulder to cry on and Lindsay has been seeking advice from her.

As Lindsay lives the high-life, the trip is notably more lavish than the holiday she enjoyed with Egor earlier in the month in Mykonos, Greece.

'Maybe it can be fixed': Lindsay is thought to be hoping for a reconciliation after taking some time out from her man

Texting Egor? The Mean Girls actress was glued to her mobile phone as she sat onboard a yacht with her friend Hofit

Feeling stressed? She puffed away on a cigarette as her thoughts no doubt turned to her troubles

Golden girl: She had a few snacks and water by her side as she topped up her tan

Glued: She lay back and continued to be focused on her phone as Hofit stayed close by

They hired a red Mini Cooper for the trip and were pictured frolicking on the beach instead of a yacht, visiting local restaurants and wandering around the shops.

She was later pictured enjoying a walk around the shops and at one point, she managed to raise a smile.

Looking stunning, she wore a semi-sheer beach dress over a bikini, teamed with a pair of statement gladiator sandals.

Meanwhile, Insiders say Lindsay has taken the split hard as she thought she had really found love with 22-year-old Egor.

A friend added: 'After moving to London and meeting Egor, Lindsay felt like she'd finally moved on from the chaos of her youth. She was really ready to settle down and start a family.

On the move: She flashed her bikini bottoms as she climbed back onto the seat

Covering up: She wore some dark glasses as she perhaps struggled to contain her emotions

'Sadly, for her, she is losing much more than just a boyfriend.'

On Tuesday evening, Lindsay reassured her fans she is 'good and well' following her shocking online outburst over the weekend regarding her romance with fiance Egor Tarabasov.

The actress posted a lengthy Instagram message on Tuesday, telling her followers she was 'taking time for myself', before apologising for sharing her relationship woes online and giving 'mixed messages.'

Cheery: She appeared to be making the best of things as she walked along in the sunshine with Israeli socialite Hofit

She's not on her own: A source has told MailOnline that Hofit has been a shoulder to cry on during this difficult time

Optimistic: Lindsay managed to raise a smile as she picked up some shopping

Anchors away: She was pictured taking selfies as her holiday continued

Writing alongside a carefree snap of herself on board a boat whilst wearing a bikini, Lindsay, who is believed to be back home in the US, insisted she was doing well after accusing her fiance of cheating on her in an explosive row.

'Dear friends. I'm good and well. #ATM I am taking time for myself with good friends,' the message began.

'I am sorry that I've exposed certain private matters recently. I was acting out of fear and sadness... We all make mistakes. Sadly mine have always been so public,' she continued.

Update: Lindsay Lohan has reassured her fans she is 'good and well' following her shocking online outburst over the weekend regarding her romance with fiance Egor Tarabasov

'I have done a lot of soul searching in the past years, and I should have been more clear minded rather than distract from the good heart that I have. Social media comes with the territory of the business and the world we now live in. My intentions were not meant to send mixed messages.'

The 'mixed messages' references follows a previous post on Monday afternoon from the actress which begged for privacy, with the star seemingly unaware of the fact she kick-started the drama with accusations on social media.

Lindsay concluded her latest message by musing: 'Maybe things can be fixed... Maybe not.. I hope they can. But I am 30 years old and I do deserve a #GENTLEgiant Life is about love and light. Not anger Thank you to those who stand by my side.'

The 30-year-old actress claimed over the weekend that her Russian beau, who has now moved out of her London home, had been cheating on her, while police were also called to her house after she accused him of 'trying to kill her'.

The star wants to resolve their issues though, so is keen for him to get help, with her representative telling the New York Post: 'Lindsay believes Egor has anger-management issues and she would like him to go to therapy. They both want to work things out.'

And while one of the actress's social media posts over the weekend sparking speculation that she could be expecting her first child, the spokesperson added: 'I cannot confirm her pregnancy.'

Lindsay's father Michael spoke with INSIDE EDITION on Tuesday, where he said of his daughter's claims she is pregnant: I have no reason not to believe her. She is my daughter. She hasnt misled me. I go on what she tells me.'

He went on to say that their family 'will be there for Lindsay' if she is indeed pregnant.

Previously close: Dasha Pashevkina, who Lindsay branded a 'Russian hooker' in a post, has denied ever having slept with Egor and has announced plans to launch legal action against the star

The statement comes as the friend Lindsay had dubbed a 'Russian hooker' in one of her posts has spoken out in her own defence, insisting she has never had a sexual relationship with Egor.

The lady in question, Dasha Pashevkina, who Lindsay Lohan accused of having an affair with her fiance has been bombarded with hate mail and threats.

The pretty blonde - who owns luxury clothing line PA5H - felt 'violated' after she posted her personal details online after accusing her of sleeping with Egor and says she's afraid to stay in her home.

Dasha said: 'I felt very violated after she publicly accused me of something which is a complete lie and displayed my private information for the whole world to see.

'I'm still receiving hate mail, threats and phone calls from her crazy fans. I actually had to move, as I was scared to stay at my place.'

She told Entertainment Tonight: 'I did expect an apology from Lindsay, but unfortunately I still have not gotten one even after contacting her representative.'

'I've known Egor for five years and have never slept with him and never would,' fashion designer Dasha Pashevkina told The Sun. 'I'm the one who introduced Lindsay to Egor. We are just friends.

'Lindsay's insecurities mean she can't have any girls around him. Her behaviour is so volatile but honestly I did not expect this.'

Privacy plea: The American actress, 30, issued a privacy plea via Instagram on Monday afternoon, in which she claimed there were 'more important things going on in the world'

Dasha went on to tell the publication that Lindsay threw Egor's mobile phone into the sea during the couple's recent trip to Mykonos.

'Lindsay had a meltdown as Egor went out with his London friends for dinner,' she said, adding: 'I'm taking legal action. She has a history of this and needs to learn a lesson.'

She's not the only person who appears to be upset with Lindsay at the moment.

According to TMZ, a filmmaker is going after her for the $10,000 he claims he gave her without her doing anything in return.

The site reports that Matt Martin made a movie called Little Mermaid and approached a representative for the star about having her promote the film on Instagram.

Matt states, in a legal letter, obtained by TMZ, that he made a deal with Yossi Bechor last year on her behalf.

He says the deal was for a huge $10k as well as an executive producer credit ... for her to post 3 promos for his film, but nothing was actioned and he's not hearing back from anyone on the matter.

A spokesperson for Lindsay told MailOnline: 'This was nothing to do with Lindsay.'

On Monday, a day after kick-starting the drama with shocking accusations on social media, Lindsay took to Instagram to ask for privacy.

Uploading a picture of a heart-shaped cloud, she captioned it with: 'I would appreciate if these speculations regarding my personal life would respectfully come to a halt.

'Unfortunately, a private matter has become more public than I can control and I would be extremely grateful if my fiance and myself could discuss our personal matters on our own.

'There are more important things going on in the world than our relationship. Please leave us be to solve our personal matters.'

Close again: Lindsay and her man snuggle-up in a selfie posted before their explosive split

'Let's go': Lindsay put on an extremely low-key display following her bust-up, as she made her way to Heathrow Airport on Monday

The post was 'liked' more than 18,000 times within the first hour - but it also generated a slew of comments in response. Namely, highlighting the hypocrisy of her actions.

The latest update comes just hours after she put on an extremely low-key display as she made her way to Heathrow Airport on Monday.

The 30-year-old actress hid coyly behind a large black T-shirt which was emblazoned with a verse from EE Cummings poem, may i feel said she.

Undercover: Careful not to be recognised, the flame-haired star also covered her trademark auburn locks with a Givenchy hat and shielded her eyes with some dark aviator shades

Cryptic: The 30-year-old actress hid coyly behind a large black T-shirt which was emblazoned with a verse from EE Cummings poem, May I Feel Said He

The cryptic message read: 'let's go said he, not too far said she, what's too far said he, where you are said she.'

The meaningful words sparked speculation that her outfit choice may be related to her recent argument with with Egor.

Careful not to be recognised, the flame-haired star also covered her trademark auburn locks with a Givenchy hat and shielded her eyes with some dark aviator shades.

Sending a message? The meaningful words sparked speculation that her outfit choice may be related to her recent argument with with Egor

Still on? Despite accusing her boyfriend of 'trying to strangle her', Lindsay made sure that one part of her that was visible was her wedding finger - as she still proudly sported her engagement ring

However, despite accusing her boyfriend of 'trying to strangle her', Lindsay made sure that one part of her that was visible was her wedding finger - as she still proudly sported her engagement ring.

MailOnline has contacted a representative for Lindsay Lohan for comment.

Egor meanwhile was seen moving his belongings out of Lindsay's home following the row, with TMZ reporting that the actress had staff in place at the London house when Egor and his mother returned for his things.

Protected: Lindsay was shrouded by a large bodyguard as she made her way from the car to the airport

Flaws in the couple's relationship first began to show earlier this weekend when the former actress publicly accused Egor of disappearing for two days.

There was also a disturbance at Lindsay's London home, which the police were called to.

All that glitters: Despite rocking a low-key look, Lindsay couldn't resist slipping on a pair of eye-catching silver shoes

Well hidden: It' is currently unknown where the actress will be jetting off to

Lindsay woke her entire street as she allegedly screamed her fiance was trying to kill her during an argument at 5am at her London home.

Police smashed her front door open, which showed signs of damage, after calls for help were heard by neighbours as she ranted at Egor, 23, on Saturday morning.

The 30-year-old also accused her Russian millionaire partner, whom she has been dating for seven months, of partying with a prostitute.

Lindsay woke her entire street as she screamed her fiance was trying to kill during an argument at 5am at her London home

Police smashed her front door, which showed signs of damage, after calls for help were heard by neighbours as she ranted at Egor, 23, on Saturday morning

Just 10 minutes after the altercation police arrived at the 3.2million Knightsbridge property in west London and forced their way inside

In a video obtained by The Sun, which was filmed by a neighbour, Lohan shouts her name and address.

She then screams: 'Please, please, please. He just strangled me. He almost killed me. Everybody will know. Get out of my house.

'Do it. I dare you again. You're f**king crazy. You sick f**k. You need help. it's my house, get out,' she continued.

Just 10 minutes after the altercation police arrived at the 3.2million Knightsbridge property in west London and forced their way inside, but the couple had already left and no arrests were made.

But when police entered the apartment the couple had already left and no arrests were made

'He almost killed me': Lindsay made sure that all her neighbours could hear her struggle against Egor

Making an escape: Egor and Lindsay had left the house by the time police had got there but were both tracked down and found to be safe and well

A Met spokesman told MailOnline: 'Police were called to an address in Knightsbridge, SW7 on Saturday, 23 July at 05:10 hours following a report of a woman in distress.

'Officers attended and following concerns for the welfare of the occupants inside they forced entry into the address.

'There was no one inside but enquiries were made and the occupants were traced and found to be safe and well. No offences. No arrests.'

Speaking about the Mean Girls star, a neighbour told The Sun: 'She woke us up with her screaming. I was really concerned. Loads of police cars arrived and the whole road was awake looking out of windows.'

The same night, in a bizarre stream of online messages Lohan attacked Taraborasov for being at a nightclub with another woman.

Things got even more cryptic when the former child star then tweeted an image of herself wearing a fake baby bump, taken from her 2009 flop, Labor Pains.

Baby news? While the posts targeting Egor were on Instagram, Lindsay then took to Twitter posting a bizarre Google image link to the poster of her 2009 flop, Labor Pains, in which she played a woman faking a pregnancy that finds love and gets pregnant for real

'Lindsay lohan labour pains trailer - I am pregnant!!' she wrote; leaving confused fans as to whether they should question her whether she was sober, or if they should offer their congratulations.

Lohan had taken to Instagram to publicly slam Egor for 'lying' about his whereabouts - sharing images sent to her by a friend showing him in a club.

Proving she learnt a thing or two from her most famous movie, Mean Girls, Lindsay accused him of being out with another girl, Dasha Pashevkina, and went on the attack.

Insider source: The star shared a picture of her fiance inside the club, which had clearly been snapped by someone with an allegiance to her rather than Egor and accused him of being out with another girl

Home? But she was not done there as her spy also sent her a video of the Russian businessman

The Hollywood star did not hold back, branding the fashion designer a 'Russian hooker'.

Initially, Lindsay posted a sepia toned image of her and her younger love, writing: 'I guess I was the same at 23... S****y time - it changes at 26/27.

'@e2505t thanks for not coming home tonight. Fame changes people.'

The star then shared a picture of her fiance inside the club, which had clearly been snapped by someone with an allegiance to her rather than Egor.

It was on this picture that the famed redhead took aim at the female fashion designer she claimed was with him.

Still mad: In the video Egor appears to be just speaking to a male friend but that did not make the actress feel any better

Nonsensical: Just after 5am London time, the actress posted another picture of her fiance but failed to make much sense

Blame game: Proving she learnt a thing or two from her famous movie, the Mean Girls star insulted, Dasha Pashevkina (pictured 2013), whom the actress believed was out with her fiance

'Wow thanks #fiance with Russian hooker @dasha_pa5h.'

Lindsay later posted the woman's home address and email with a bizarre rant that included Donald Trump and Putin hashtags, before deleting it.

Despite her harsh words, it seems that Lindsay and Dash have been friends for some time with the actress popping up on the designer's social media and the star has also worn some of her designs.

Bizarre attack: Lindsay later posted the woman's home address and email with a bizarre rant that included Donald Trump and Putin hashtags, before deleting it

It seems trouble between her and Egor may have been brewing all day, as Lohan earlier posted a black and white couple shot eight hours earlier and Egor's face was scribbled out.

'He wore black and I wore white. I guess #art is whatever you make of it,' Lindsay wrote.

The couple had been dating just eight months when the young Russian millionaire asked for Lindsay's hand in marriage.

Came to a head: It seems trouble may have been brewing all day, as the 30-year-old posted a black and white couple shot eight hours earlier and Egor's face was scribbled out
Ozzy Osbourne never wants to go to space.

While visiting Jimmy Kimmel Live on Tuesday evening the 67-year-old rocker said he visited NASA's Johnson Space Center as part of his new History channel show with his son called Ozzy And Jack's World Detour. And what he learned was that sex and alcohol are banned in space.

'What a boring place! What's left?' said the musician who is on-again with wife Sharon after claims he cheated.

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Funny guy: Ozzy Osbourne told Jimmy Kimmel on Tuesday he never wants to go to space because sex and alcohol are banned

His co-star: The 67-year-old rocker said he visited Nasa as part of his new History channel show with his son called Ozzy And Jack's World Detour

Ozzy also revealed that he barely remembers The Alamo.

Jack said he brought his father back to the Alamo Mission in Texas where Ozzy was famously arrested in 1982 after he drunkenly urinated on a monument to those who died in the 1836 Battle of the Alamo.

'I found out I never peed on the Alamo after all,' said Ozzy, who was arrested across the street from the actual Alamo Mission and later banned from San Antonio, Texas for a decade.

The past is back: Ozzy also revealed that he barely remembers The Alamo. Jack said he brought his father back to the Alamo Mission in Texas where Ozzy was famously arrested in 1982 after he drunkenly urinated on a monument to those who died in the 1836 Battle of the Alamo

Jack said he and his father were both history buffs and they also visited Mount Rushmore and the UFO hotspot Roswell, New Mexico for the series.

Ozzy And Jack's World Detour debuted on Sunday with the duo visiting Jamestown, Virginia after making stops to drive a World War II tank and pay respect to Confederate general Stonewall Jackson's arm.

Jack said he did the driving for their road trips as Ozzy uses the excuse, 'I'm a rock god, I don't drive.'

A team: Jack said he and his father were both history buffs and they also visited Mount Rushmore and the UFO hotspot Roswell, New Mexico for the series

Kimmel also welcomed comedian David Spade onto the show.

He was promoting his TruTV prank show Fameless that returns for its second season on Monday.

The Strokes were the musical guest on the ABC chat show.

Ozzy and his 63-year-old wife Sharon Osbourne briefly split in May after he allegedly had an affair, but they got back together a few weeks later.
She's committed to giving her die-hard fans an experience they'll remember during post-performance meet and greets.

And Sheridan Smith, 35, didn't disappoint on Tuesday night, as she mingled with fans outside The Savoy Theatre, in London's West End, following her Funny Girl show.

The actress was typically bright and bubbly as she emerged dressed in a trendy ensemble consisting of a classic Guns 'n Roses top underneath a textured varsity jacket.

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Back to her best: Sheridan Smith, 35, mingled with fans outside The Savoy Theatre, in London's West End, on Tuesday night following her Funny Girl show

She wore her sleeves rolled up and finished the outfit with a navy pair of skinny jeans and heeled black boots.

Her distinctive blonde 'do complemented her rock chic sartorial style with her sides pinned back and her quiff swept to the side.

Flashing a pearly white smile as she exited the theatre, Sheridan sported thick black eyeliner, bronzer on her cheeks and a slick of rouge on her lips.

Game for a laugh: One cheeky fan pulled a funny face as he posed for a selfie beside a smiling Sheridan

Fan favourite: Not worried about putting on a close display with her supporters, The C Word star warmly hugged another woman

One cheeky fan pulled a funny face as he posed for a selfie beside the smiling star. The excited man clearly made the expression in jest as he clutched a signed Funny Girl programme.

Not worried about putting on a close display with her supporters, The C Word star warmly hugged another woman.

The actress returned to the role of Fanny Brice on 8 July following time off for stress and exhaustion, but producers feared her prolonged stints talking to devotees would leave her tired - especially as temperatures recently soared into the 30s in London.

Rock chick: The actress was typically bright and bubbly as she emerged dressed in a trendy ensemble consisting of a classic Guns 'n Roses top underneath a textured varsity jacket

Bright and bubbly: Her distinctive blonde 'do complemented her rock chic sartorial style with her sides pinned back and her quiff swept to the side

In a statement, producers Sonia Friedman, David Babani and Scott Landis told The Sun: 'Given the number of people at stage door and the amount of time it takes for Sheridan to see everyone, we - the producers - advised Sheridan not to sign every night, particularly during the heatwave.

'In our experience it is unrealistic to expect a leading actor to sign after every performance.'

Sheridan has been in the role since December when the production originally opened in the smaller Menier Chocolate Factory in Borough, before moving to the West End in April.

In March, Sheridan pulled out of one of the shows after finding out her beloved father Colin had been diagnosed with cancer.
Just days ago, she claimed she was banned from wearing catsuits during her time on Strictly Come Dancing.

And Ola Jordan took advantage of being out of the clutches of the BBC as she slipped into a sexy one-piece at Zara Holland's fashion collection launch party with Miiaan in London on Tuesday night.

Slashed almost to the navel, the 33-year-old professional dancer's plunging white lace number certainly ensured all eyes were on her for the night.

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No ban now! Ola Jordan took advantage of being out of the clutches of the BBC as she slipped into a sexy one-piece at Zara Holland's fashion collection launch party with Miiaan in London on Tuesday night

The Polish beauty - who is married to fellow Strictly alumni James Jordan, 38 - oozed ballroom glamour in the catsuit, which cinched her slim waist and accentuated her cleavage.

Ola added height to her diminutive figure with a pair of towering nude patent heels as she sipped on a glass of champagne at the reality star-packed bash.

The dancer wore her blonde locks swept back from her face in a chic chignon and accentuated her pretty features with natural make-up.

Ola completed her party ensemble with a small white and silver Chanel box bag as she worked her magic in front of the camera.

Dressed to impress! Slashed almost to the navel, the 33-year-old professional dancer's plunging white lace number certainly ensured all eyes were on her for the night

A bit of all-white! The Polish beauty - who is married to fellow Strictly alumni James Jordan, 38 - oozed ballroom glamour in the catsuit, which cinched her slim waist and accentuated her cleavage

Party time! Ola added height to her diminutive figure with a pair of towering nude patent heels as she sipped on a glass of champagne at the reality star-packed bash

Posing for snaps with Ex On The Beach bombshell Jess Impiazzi and Love Island's Zara Holland, Ola seemed to be having a blast as she enjoyed her girls' night out.

Ola recently claimed that BBC bosses were more concerned with her wardrobe than her dancing, as she was banned from wearing her catsuits on the show because they 'were too sexy'.

Speaking about her time on the show - which she left in 2015 - Ola admitted she had been banned from wearing the garments on the prime-time show.

Speaking of the ban to The Mirror, the former Strictly star said: 'I loved wearing the catsuits but after a while they stopped me. I think they thought they were too sexy.'

Girls' night: Ola completed her party ensemble with a small white and silver Chanel box bag as she worked her magic in front of the camera with Ex On The Beach bombshell Jess Impiazzi and Love Island's Zara Holland

Pucker up, baby! Posing for snaps with Jess, Ola seemed to be having a blast as she enjoyed her girls' night out on the town with her pals

Ban: Ola recently claimed that BBC bosses were more concerned with her wardrobe than her dancing, as she was banned from wearing her catsuits on the show because they 'were too sexy'

And it seems that at the time of the ban, Ola - who is married to fellow former Strictly star James - was said to be outraged as she thought the ban was a 'fix' to stop her getting to the top of the leader board.

Speaking about Ola's reaction to the wardrobe war at the time, one insider told paper: 'At the time Ola was outraged, she thought it was a fix and another example of how they manipulate votes.

'She felt like the BBC were holding her back by not letting her wear the catsuit again.'

The source went on to add that Ola felt bosses were trying to alter viewer voting patterns to suit themselves by banning the sexy one-pieces.

Responding to Ola's comments, a BBC spokesperson told the MailOnline it isn't the type of programme 'that ever imposes "bans"'.

'Too sexy': Speaking about her time on the show - which she left in 2015 - Ola admitted she had been banned from wearing the garments on the prime-time show

'Strictly isn't the kind of show that ever imposes "bans" and is always happy to work with the dancers on their outfits provided they are fitting for the particular dance they are doing that week,' they said.

However, Ola's comments chime with previous claims she has made about the show, as she told The Sun in November she'd left the show after 10 years because she was marginalised by producers.

She also claimed she and the other professional dancers believe the judges rig the show in order to keep contestants they prefer in the competition.

'People are over-marked and under-marked,' Ola explained. 'In my opinion they know how many votes people scored in the previous weeks and then they try to influence their position on the leaderboard.

'If the show is not fair, it takes the fun out of it.'

Pushed out: Ola's comments chime with previous claims she has made about the show, as she told The Sun in November she'd left the show after 10 years because she was marginalised by producers

At the time of Ola's comments a spokeperson for the BBC told MailOnline her claims were 'nonsense', declaring: 'Any suggestion that the scores are "fixed" is nonsense.

'Each judge scores each dance independently, based on its merits and in their expert opinion.'

Ola and James recently enjoyed a romantic getaway to Dubai where the couple packed on the PDA as they soaked up the sun; with Ola the picture of confidence as she took to the beach in a tiny bikini.

Following her exit from Strictly and a nasty accident on series two of The Jump, Ola was forced to rest and recuperate, but had to dismiss pregnancy rumours after piling on the pounds.

But following ten years on Strictly, putting her body firmly in the limelight, the dancer admitted she was used to the 'criticism' over her looks.
It is set to be the 12th series in the popular renovation show franchise.

And in a new set of pictures, the site of this years The Block is well and truly shaping up to be something spectacular.

Builders were seen hard at work in Port Melbourne on Tuesday afternoon, making the final preparations before the popular series which airs later this year.

Coming together: In a new set of pictures, the site of this years The Block is well and truly shaping up to be something spectacular

But in a surprise turn of events, Australian group Human Nature were seen paying a visit to the construction the site that day.

The choice of venue for this year's season is a run-down space that holds almost 100 years of heritage and the teams will have the daunting task of bringing its walls back to life.

Back in its home of Melbourne, Victoria, the show - set to air soon on Nine - will see Scott Cam reprise his role as host.

Final touches: Builders were seen hard at work in Port Melbourne on Tuesday afternoon, making the final preparations before the popular series which airs later this year

While nothing yet is known about the new batch of reality TV stars, it has been announced a policeman, a lesbian couple and primary school teachers will be taking part.

The Block's second series of 2014 - The Glasshouse - was also located in Prahran, situated in the busy cosmopolitan High Street and saw contestants do extremely well.

Winners Shannon and Simon Voss pocketed a profit of $335,000 at auction.

Fancy that: But in a surprise turn of events, Australian group Human Nature were seen paying a visit to the construction the site that day.

Hard at work: Presenter Scott Cam also joined the group on the set

Triple Threat (2015) was located in South Yarra similar to the Blocktagon, while previous series, Fans vs Fans (2014) was set up in Albert Park.

The Block, Sky High (2013), was situated in South Melbourne.

Despite the show usually airing two seasons each year, 2016 will see just one series, possibly due to a dwindle in ratings during The Blocktagon series.

'Prepare yourself': The Block promises the biggest and most extraordinary transformations yet for the renovation series

However last September the show's executive producer Julian Cress put the delay down to the search for a site for the new season.

'We haven't settled on a new site for The Block in 2016, but we are hunting for one nationwide,' he told TV Tonight at the time.

'It is getting tougher to find an appropriate site because we have done so many different versions of the show in fantastic locations.

'We always want to try and give the audience something they haven't seen before,' he added.

Challenging: The choice of venue for this year's season is a run-down space that holds almost 100 years of heritage
The Bachelor Richie Strahan's journey to find love finally hits Australian television screens on Wednesday night.

Abd ahead of the highly-anticipated premiere, Richie appeared on The Project to chat with Carrie Bickmore, Waleed Aly and guest presenters Ryan 'Fitzy' Fitzgerald and Gretel Killeen about his time on the show.

And when probed about whether he found 'the one' on the show, the handsome 31-year-old appeared to dodge the question, suggesting his quest hasn't ended as happily as he hoped.

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Hiding something? The Bachelor's Richie Strahan appeared to dodge the subject of love as he appeared on The Project ahead of the premier on Wednesday night

Carrie began by saying Richie was glowing and asked twice with enthusiasm: 'Are you in love?'

And Richie notably avoided answering the direct question, only acknowledging his happiness.

'I can confirm I am super-dooper happy. So, things are good,' he said.

He then continued to imply that he had not yet found the one woman he is searching for, adding: 'Realistically, I'm just after someone that's going to love me for me.

Changed his tune? After revealing that he was 'head over heels', he remained relatively tight-lipped as hewas probed about his relationship status following the show

'I'm a pain in the bum and I'm high-octane. If someone can put up with me, that helps. Someone that's nice would be OK.'

This comes after Richie has put Bachelor fans in a stir following numerous hints that he was in love.

In an interview with the Daily Telegraph on Wednesday, the oil-rig worker said he was 'head over heels' for his new found flame.

'I am that smitten, it has been incredibly hard to keep this a secret,' he told the publication while revealing he still hasn't told his mother who his final rose receiver is.

Hard choice: However, in his latest interview with the Daily Telegraph , the 31-year-old said he was 'head over heels' for his new found flame

High standards: His confession comes a day after he read off a checklist to what he believed made the 'perfect' match for him

'You kind of want people to know, but I haven't even told my mum. It's a big thing to hold in, that's for sure,' the man of the moment continued.

His confession comes a day after he read off a checklist to what he believed made the 'perfect' match for him.

After ranting off his list in a video interview with Network 10, the rope access technician said he wants to find 'the perfect woman, its not hard'.

His criteria for 'the perfect' date included, 'a girl that is as beautiful on the inside as she is on the outside.'

Never-ending list: His criteria for 'the perfect' date included, 'a girl that is as beautiful on the inside as she is on the outside. Someone that is incredibly confident and happy with who they are as an individual'

'Someone that is incredibly confident and happy with who they are as an individual,' he continued. 'Someone that is incredibly caring with a nice sense of humour.'

Later in the interview, Richie added that he would live a 'girl that can share a life' with him.

'I'm not here [on the Bachelor] to be a ladies man I am here to meet one special woman to make me the happiest guy in the world.'

Earlier in the month, the television hunk hinted he found a lucky lady who matched all the boxes.

Being frank: Later in the interview, the TV hunk added that he would live a 'girl that can share a life' with him

'Im absolutely really happy shes an incredible woman,' he said during an interview with the Daily Telegraph.

Richie also hinted to WHO Magazine it was love at first sight, saying: 'I definitely felt something on the first night. When you're in front of the right person, you can just feel it.'

'I've met an incredibly amazing woman,' he added, while admitting it's been hard to remain incognito when he wants to shout their romance from the rooftops.

He will debut as the Bachelor this Wednesday, with 22 women vying for his attention.
Richie Strahan's night of nights has finally arrived, with the premier of The Bachelor 2016 on Wednesday night.

And Australian audiences were treated to an introduction to the bevvy of beauties vying for Richie's heart, and some of their language is from the gutter.

One particular brunette, Vintaea, certainly made an impression of the vocal kind during her first meeting with the handsome Bachelor, swearing her way through their conversation.

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First impression: Vintaea certainly made an impression of the vocal kind during her first meeting with the handsome Bachelor Richie Strahan, swearing her way through their conversation

The 25-year-old couldn't contain her nerves and as a result, swear words peppered her sentences, and it clearly didn't go unnoticed by the handsome Richie.

Vintaea asked the oil rig worker whether he was excited, to which he responded politely: 'I've been thinking about this night for so long.'

The massage therapist from Queensland then prompted: 'S**tting yourself?'

Ready for anything! Richie was clearly taken aback for a few moments and shocked at her foul language but laughed and responded like the well-mannered gentleman he is

Richie was clearly taken aback for a few moments and shocked at her foul language, but laughed and responded: 'Yeah, definitely.'

As Richie attempted to wrap the conversation up, telling the eager beauty it was 'nice meeting you', she let yet another swear word slip.

'Yeah, it's f**king great,' she said before quickly adding: 'I've got to stop swearing, I think.'

Not holding back! The massage therapist from Queensland asked Richie whether he was 's****ing' himself

Ever the well-mannered gentleman, Richie assured Vintaea it wasn't an issue due to his work environment in oil and gas, saying: 'I can certainly hold my own when it comes to that lingo.'

However, not able to hold back, Vintaea responded: 'Thank f**k,' before apologising again.

She later acknowledged her language, saying: 'I'm sure some will cope and some probably won't. But if they probably can't cope with me, they probably can't cope with life.'

Loud and proud: Georgia went on a swearing-spree once inside the mansion, calling all the other girls 'a f**king joke'

And her foul language continued once inside the mansion and mingling with the other women.

She clearly felt the need to vent about her earrings and her breasts.

'My earrings are so f**king heavy and my boobs are so f**king, like, up to my neck. It's so f**king uncomfortable.'

She continued: 'And, oh my God, I've never had boobs this big in my life. They're heavy as f**k, and these earrings. Don't even get me f**king started on the earrings.'

Tell us how you really feel: Outspoken Georgia was fed up with the women throwing themselves at Richie, saying: 'they're a pack of hyenas'

And Vintaea wasn't the only lady on Wednesday night's episode who let her good manners slide.

Georgia went on a swearing-spree once inside the mansion, calling all the other girls 'a f**king joke', adding: 'they're a pack of hyenas.'

She then walked around the house ranting about the other women: 'Oh, these girls are seriously a f**king joke. You kidding, yeah? Like, f**k.'

These two charming ladies are part of a group of 22 women vying for Richie's heart on the latest series of The Bachelor, which airs on Channel Ten.
She's the heir of publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst.

And Lydia Hearst celebrated her bachelorette party in style over the weekend, inviting a group of 18 friends to party at her family's stunning Hearst Castle in San Simeon, California.

The 32-year-old model and actress - who is engaged to TV host Chris Hardwick - and her friends shared a myriad of fun snaps from the hen weekend as they enjoyed free reign of the 90,000 sq ft property.

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Partying in style: Lydia Hearst celebrated her bachelorette party in style over the weekend, inviting a group of 18 friends to party at her family's stunning Hearst Castle in San Simeon, California

Lydia and her pals can be seen frolicking in the famous indoor Roman pool in an array of inflatables - an area usually off limits to visitors.

The striking heiress offered her social media followers a behind-the-scenes look at the opulent surroundings, including a sumptuous theatre and well-stocked library.

According to TMZ, VIP guests included fashion blogger Cara Santana, Buffy favourite Michelle Trachtenberg, and Clare Grant, the wife of actor Seth Green.

The girls were treated to a two-hour tour for free, which usually costs visitors up to $22,000.

Historic venue: Lydia and her pals can be seen frolicking in the famous indoor Roman pool in an array of inflatables - an area usually off limits to visitors

Baywatch babes: VIP guests included fashion blogger Cara Santana, Buffy favourite Michelle Trachtenberg, and Clare Grant, the wife of actor Seth Green

Lucky ladies: The girls were treated to a two-hour tour for free, which usually costs visitors up to $22,000

Hearst Castle is a National Historic Landmark, designed by architect Julia Morgan between 1919 and 1947 for newspaper guru Hearst.

Officially opened in 1957 following his death, the castle has been maintained within its considerable collection of art and antiques and is open for public tours.

Lydia - who has modelled for the likes of Chanel and Fendi - got engaged to Chris, the CEO of Nerdist Industries, last September.

Fabulous venue: The striking heiress offered her social media followers a behind-the-scenes look at the opulent surroundings, including a sumptuous theatre and well-stocked library

Bride-to-be: Lydia, 32, got engaged to partner Chris Hardwick last autumn after TV host proposed with a vintage diamond ring that once belonged to her grandmother Catherine

The 44-year-old popped the question with a vintage diamond ring that once belonged to her grandmother Catherine, the wife of famed newspaper magnet Randolph Hearst.

'I said YES!!!!!!' tweeted an excited Lydia, sharing a romantic snap of the two in the battlements at the family's historic home.

'Every love story is beautiful, but ours is my favorite. You completely swept me off my feet. You have shown me what it feels like to be loved and I love you with all my heart.

Stunning: Hearst Castle is a National Historic Landmark, designed by architect Julia Morgan between 1919 and 1947 for newspaper guru Hearst

Open to the public: Officially opened in 1957, the castle has been maintained within its considerable collection of art and antiques and is open for public tour

'My life is better because you are in it.'

Lydia's exes include Jurassic Park star Jeff Goldblum, who she split from after seven months in 2011.

Hardwick previously dated model Chloe Dykstra and previously had a long-term relationship with actress Janet Varney, after ending his engagement to The Following actress Jacinda Barrett.

Opulent: Actress Jillian Murray shared this snapshot of the gorgeous decor inside the castle

What a view: Fellow actress Clare Grant, who is married to Seth Green, treated her followers to a view from the rooftop

Lydia's grandfather William Randolph Hearst was a publishing magnate with immense political influence, who was famously anti-communist.

In 1974 her mother Patricia was infamously kidnapped by a left-wing terrorist group known as the Symbionese Liberation Army, making front page news around the world.

Patty, as the then-19-year-old was known, joined the group while in captivity and took part in a bank robbery, wielded a machine gun, then became a fugitive.

Although convicted of armed bank robbery her sentence was commuted by President Jimmy Carter and she was later pardoned by President Bill Clinton.
He was heavily criticised by ex-girlfriend Charlotte Crosby this week when she claimed he was worse than a murderer.

And while Gary Beadle, 28, has said he 'won't rise to' her comments, he appeared to aim a dig at her through a fan Q&A in his Daily Star column.

The Geordie Shore star was asked what his worst sexual experience was, and replied: 'There was one time when the girl p****d the bed'

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Firing back? Gary Beadle, 28, appeared to aim a dig at ex Charlotte Crosby through a fan Q&A in a new column

Oops! It's been well documented in the past that Charlotte has had issues with her bladder, having wet the bed en route to winning Celebrity Big Brother in 2013 as well as earlier this year while bouncing on a trampoline

It's been well documented in the past that Charlotte has had issues with her bladder, having wet the bed en route to winning Celebrity Big Brother in 2013 as well as earlier this year while bouncing on a trampoline sober.

After a drunken night in the famous CCTV house, a dishevelled Charlotte moaned: 'I've weed me bed.

'It's a disaster, I'm having a disaster and I'm lying on it.'

Charlotte and Gaz's tumultuous on/off relationship finally came to an end earlier this year after Gaz cheated on her while filming Ex On The Beach.

Not holding back: The Geordie Shore star was asked what his worst sexual experience was, and replied: 'There was one time when the girl p****d the bed'

Soon after the revelation, Charlotte announced that she had tragically suffered an ectopic pregnancy with Gaz's baby.

And the reality star doesn't appear ready to leave her split from Gaz in the past just yet as she blasted her ex in an interview with NEW magazine.

The former Geordie Shore star pulled no punches, saying: '[Will any guy ever] compare to him? Anyone would be a better person than Gary Beadle. No one can even come close to how much of an evil, vindictive man he is. Even a murderer would be better than Gary Beadle.'

The hunk previously gave his version of how the tragic pregnancy unfolded, explaining how he was away filming Ex On The Beach when he found out.

Sad time: Earlier this year, Charlotte announced that she had tragically suffered an ectopic pregnancy with Gaz's baby

He said: 'Straight away, I was like, "I need to go home immediately." I was told I could speak to Charlotte, which calmed me down.'

Gaz insisted he spoke to Charlotte every day and was keen to be updated about her condition, but she soon found out he had slept with a fellow EOTB contestant on day one of the show, before he found out about the pregnancy, leading to a huge argument.

The reality star added that both his management and Charlotte's agreed they wouldn't do any press about the pregnancy when he returned to the UK, and he only told a 'handful of my closest friends.'
She only headed back to Los Angeles last week after a PDA-packed European stint with her new husband, Jose Baston.

But Eva Longoria proved she has well and truly mastered the art of low-key jet-set chic as she made a chic arrival at London's Heathrow Airport on Wednesday.

Going completely make-up free for her long transatlantic flight, the actress, 41, showcased her natural bare-faced beauty and clear complexion without a shred of cosmetic help.

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Barefaced beauty: Eva Longoria proved she has well and truly mastered the art of low-key jet-set chic as she made a chic arrival at London's Heathrow Airport on Wednesday

Au natural: Going completely make-up free for her long transatlantic flight, the actress, 41, showcased her natural bare-faced beauty and clear complexion without a shred of cosmetic help

Waving to cameras as she strolled out into the city, the former Desperate Housewives star showcased her slim figure in skintight black leggings and a sporty grey jacket.

Ditching her heels in favour of a pair of comfortable trainers, Eva seemed in need of a caffeine fix as she clutched a cup of coffee close to her chest.

The actress wore her signature loose curls sprawled upon her shoulders and sheltered her eyes from the summer sunshine with a pair of stylish black glasses to complete the laidback look.

And it seemed as though she is planning to stay for a long time, with an assistant pictured pushing a huge trolley of luggage through the airport after her.

Jet-set chic: Waving to cameras as she strolled out into the city, the former Desperate Housewives star showcased her slim figure in skintight black leggings and a sporty grey jacket

Caffeine fix: Ditching her heels in favour of a pair of comfortable trainers, Eva seemed in need of a caffeine fix as she clutched a cup of coffee close to her chest

It's been a busy few weeks for Eva, who flew back to the US last week to attend an event at the Crosby Street Hotel in New York City.

On Monday, she made a speech at the Democratic National Convention at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, during which she publicly bashed presidential hopeful Donald Trump.

Eva said Trump had insulted several members of her family through his claims.

While introducing New Jersey Senator Cory Booker, the outspoken star took a swipe at the Republican candidate.



'I'm from a small town in South Texas. And if you know your history, Texas used to be part of Mexico,' Eva, who was born in Corpus Christi, told the crowd.

Now, I'm ninth-generation American. My family never crossed a border, the border crossed us. So when Donald Trump calls us criminals or rapists, he's insulting American families.'

Travelling in style: It seemed as though Eva is planning to stay for a long time, with an assistant pictured pushing a huge trolley of luggage through the airport after her

Speaking out: On Monday, she made a speech at the Democratic National Convention at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, during which she publicly bashed presidential hopeful Donald Trump

'Before travelling back to the US, Eva had enjoyed a prolonged stint in Europe with her new husband Jose Baston.

The couple enjoyed a brief break on the picturesque island of Formentera after Eva hosted the Global Gift Gala in Ibiza and Marbella on consecutive nights with a whole host of her celebrity pals.

Eva and Jose married at a private residence in the lakeside town of Valle de Bravo on May 21, with the star's best friend Victoria Beckham having designed her stunning wedding dress.

Mario Lopez and Ricky Martin were also among the guests, and both shared photos from the reception.

Other celebrity attendees included Melanie Griffith and Jane The Virgin star Jaime Camil.

The Desperate Housewives star got engaged to the president of Latin America's largest media company Grupo Televisa in December after he popped the question in Dubai.
She's treated her one million Instagram followers to numerous sizzling swimwear shots during her sun-kissed stint on the Greek island of Santorini.

And Lucy Mecklenburgh set pulses racing again on Wednesday as she showcased her toned and tanned curves in a bright blue frill-detail bikini in a racy new Instagram post.

Sipping on her morning coffee as she enjoyed breakfast on a private terrace at the Orabel Suites boutique hotel, the former TOWIE star, 24, looked incredible as she displayed her gym-honed figure in her skimpy swimwear.

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Feeling blue? Lucy Mecklenburgh set pulses racing as she showcased her toned and tanned curves in a bright blue frill-detail bikini while enjoying a sun-soaked summer holiday on the Greek island Santorini on Wednesday

The fitness entrepreneur wore her dark brunette locks scraped back from her face in a loose ponytail and sheltered her eyes from the Grecian sun with a pair of chic mirrored aviator shades.

Standing up to gaze out at the stunning view in another snap, the reality star showed off her peachy posterior in her barely-there bikini bottoms.

It seems Lucy was keeping up her healthy-eating habits during her summer holiday, with her breakfast table featuring a spread of Greek yoghurt and granola, fresh orange juice and an omelette.

Alongside the snap, she wrote: 'The dream would b to eat breakfast like this every morning!!' (sic)

On Tuesday, the fitness fanatic proved her dedication to the gym had paid off as she flaunted her enviably toned curves in a tiny white bikini, while lounging on the beach.

Caffeine fix: Sipping on her morning coffee as she enjoyed breakfast on a private terrace at the Orabel Suites boutique hotel, the former TOWIE star, 24, looked incredible as she displayed her gym-honed figure

Lucy oozed confidence as she proudly showed off her hourglass figure in the photo, which she sarcastically captioned: 'Another awful day in Santorini'.

Meanwhile the light shade of her Sassea Swimwear bikini highlighted her impossibly golden glow and featured pretty pink detailing around the waist and bust.

And she couldn't resist adding a touch of Essex glam to her style with some shimmering golden clasps.

Lucy nonchalantly turned her face away from the camera as she posed on her knees in the sand.

And she continued to keep her cool in the hair and makeup departments as she pulled back her glossy brunette tresses into a chic updo and shielded her eyes from the sun with some overside tortoiseshell shades.

Beach babe! The fitness entrepreneur was keen to keep all her fans updated about her sun-kissed antics as she posted yet another sizzling holiday snap on Tuesday

On Monday, Lucy shared another sizzling snap as she sunbathed on a beach in a red bikini.

The former reality TV star showed off her taut bikini body and natural beauty as she relaxed on a makeshift lounger.

The bandeau top and briefs showcased her toned midriff and long tanned legs.

Making the most of her tanning potential she went make-up free, flaunting her natural beauty.

Closing her eyes as she lay back on the cushions,the brunette beauty tied her hair off her face, drawing attention to her full lips and defined brows.

Sharing the snap on Instagram, she captioned it with: 'Deffo had worse Monday's' (sic), adding a bikini, sunshine and monkey face emoji.

And the fitness fanatic, who boasts 1M followers on Instagram and over 1.6M followers on Twitter, tweeted the image too, writing: 'Monday's aren't that bad'.

The reality star is a health conscious fitness fanatic with her own DVD and website.

Red hot: On Monday Lucy shared a sizzling snap as she sunbathed on a beach in a red bikini

Tanned and toned: The reality star proved that there is one activity that gets her hot and bothered as she shared a post-workout selfie on Instagram recently

At the beginning of the year she broke up with her boyfriend of 14 months, Olympic gymnast Louis Smith.

Speaking about the break up last month, he told OK! magazine: 'I wanted to make the decision to end it sooner rather than later.

'I could have stayed with Lucy but the longer I left it, the more attached she would feel and the more damage it would have done in the future.

It was hard, but if its not right, its not right and I wanted to make the decision to end it sooner rather than later.'

Lucy and Louis are said to have called time on their long-distance romance just weeks after a romantic break in Thailand over the athlete's reluctance to get married and start a family.
She's famous for reviewing the TV - but this is one television memory that Scarlett Moffatt might want to forget.

Footage of the Gogglebox stunner sharing an unlikely rendezvous with Celebrity Big Brother's Jeremy McConnell has resurfaced online, three years after they met on an MTV reality show.

First appearing on screens at the age of 22, busty babe Scarlett, now 25, might even go a little a red in the face over clips of her stripping off for a spray tan.

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Unlikely: Footage of Gogglebox stunner Scarlett Moffat sharing an unlikely rendezvous with Celebrity Big Brother's Jeremy McConnell has resurfaced online, three years after they met on an MTV reality show.

Both TV personalities were emerging stars of one-series wonder Beauty School Cop Outs in 2013, a show that followed a group of youngsters learning the trade at a Manchester academy for make-up and beauty.

Evidently very attracted to Irish model Jeremy from the offset, Scarlett approached the CBB hunk in the very first episode of the show, planting a passionate kiss on Jeremy as part of a drinking game.

Scarlett calls the heavily-tattooed hunk - now more famous for his tumultuous relationship with Stephanie Davis - the 'sexiest leprechaun [she's] ever seen' before planting a kiss on him.

Throwback: First appearing on screens at the age of 22, busty babe Scarlett, now 25, might even go a little a red in the face over clips of her stripping off for a spray tan

Saucy: Evidently very attracted to Irish model Jeremy from the offset, Scarlett approached the CBB hunk in the very first episode of the show, planting a passionate kiss on Jeremy as part of a drinking game

Head over heels: Scarlett calls the heavily-tattooed hunk - now more famous for his tumultuous relationship with Stephanie Davis - the 'sexiest leprechaun [she's] ever seen' before planting a kiss on him

Apprentices: Both TV personalities were emerging stars of one-series wonder Beauty School Cop Outs in 2013, a show that followed a group of youngsters learning the trade at a Manchester academy

Fans of the show will know that Scarlett and Jeremy shared a particularly tempestuous relationship in which she became bitterly upset with some comments made by the Irish hunk towards her, especially those in the scenes where she goes nude for a fake tan.

While she did go on to share a romance with co-star Richard Cull, Jeremy memorably uttered to her: 'Shut your mouth you little monster, you're punching above your weight.'

Scarlett has become something of a household name thanks to her humorous delivery and one liners as part of Channel 4's Gogglebox, on which she has appeared with dad Mark and mum Betty since 2014.

She is also a best-selling author and achieved a Capital FM radio presenting job in the North East in November 2015.

Finding fame: Scarlett (centre) is now famous for sharing her TV views on the sofa with mum Betty (left) and dad Mark (right) as part of Channel 4 reality show Gogglebox, which she has been in since 2014

Back on screens: Whereas model Jeremy made quite an impact with his appearance on Celebrity Big Brother in January 2016

Jeremy, on the other hand, has become plagued by his on-off relationship with former Hollyoaks star Stephanie Davis, who is now pregnant with his child, even though he has consistently denied that he is the father.

The pair met during a shared appearance in Celebrity Big Brother in January and quickly developed a close yet controversial tryst, owing to her relationship outside the house with Sam Reece.

While Jeremy and Stephanie split for good - their fifth break-up in four months - in May, Scarlett has had more luck in love, recently striking up a relationship with former hairdresser Luke Crodden.

Found love: Scarllet has since had more luck in love recently with Luke Crodden who she's consistently praised for making her feel 'more content than ever'

Touching tribute: Luke recently surprised Scarlett with a permanent inking of 'S' for 'Scarlett' on his arm

The television favourite recently said that she has 'never felt so content,' taking to Instagram to inform fans that her beau had permanently inked his arm with the initial 'S' for 'Scarlett.'

She gushed: 'He's full of surprises... Might not be conventionally romantic but we both knew we love each other when we were sat giggling at conspiracy theories watching Bottom, hence the S in Bottom font.

Scarlett continued: 'I've never felt so content at they precise moment in all my life Love you @lukecrodden'
She confirmed she was expecting her first child with her NRL star husband Sam Burgess on Wednesday.

And it appears the pregnancy cravings have already kicked in for Phoebe who admitted that she ate too much during a lunch outing to the Grounds of Alexandria cafe, in Sydney, hours later.

Taking to Instagram to mark the occasion, the 27-year-old posted a picture of herself kicking back against a water fountain while enjoying the warm sunshine.

'Post-lunch coma in the sun': Phoebe Burgess kicked back after a lunch date with pals after confirming she is pregnant with her first child to her NRL star husband Sam

'Post-lunch coma in the sun with Miss @arianastephens . Gave Kevin Bacon a run for his money,' she simply captioned the picture.

Phoebe kept her bump covered up in an oversized black jumper teamed with a pair of black leggings which showed off her trim pins.

The freelance journalist also added a grey bomber jacket, a pair of sleek sunglasses and black and white joggers to her off-duty look.

'It's going to be a big and hungry baby!' Phoebe Burgess shared her excitement about becoming a mother on The Today Show, on Wednesday

The post comes after the Pilates enthusiast confirmed she was expecting her first child while on The Today Show.

Speaking about the happy news, the blonde beauty joked how their child is going to be 'a big baby and hungry baby' if he takes after his Rabbitoh's player father.

'Bring on the next six months,' she said with a laugh.

Parents-to-be! NRL star Sam Burgess confirmed his wife is expecting their first child together this week

The writer - who is three months pregnant - labelled their news as 'amazing.'

'It's exciting. Honestly, it's been amazing ride and we were able luckily to tell everyone that we wanted to tell and then it's come out and we can share it with everyone. I can't wait,' she said.

Her comments come after Sam, 27, told Nova's Fitzy and Wippa on Wednesday that they were having a baby and that they have already told Rabbitoh's owner Russell Crowe.

What to expect? The blonde beauty joked how their child is going to be 'a big baby and hungry baby' if he takes after his Rabbitoh's player father

'He's super excited and has been on the text message since,' Sam said of the Hollywood actor.

'Russell is a great man and he absolutely loves kids, I've seen him with children before and he's fantastic - he's got two boys of his own that he loves dearly, so he was over the moon,' he said.

He added that the couple's friends and family have all been supportive about the news, calling it 'a special few weeks.'

Uncle Russ? Spreading the love! NRL star Sam Burgess revealed he shared their baby joy with Russell Crowe about two weeks ago

Taking it in her stride! The English sportsmen also said how writer Phoebe has been doing lately, saying she has been a little tired and hasn't been having much morning sickness

The English sportsmen also talked about how Phoebe is feeling during her first trimester, saying she has been a little tired and hasn't been suffering from much morning sickness.

He said that pair were both 'over the moon' and that Phoebe has just passed her first trimester.

He added that the pair did not know the sex of the baby and that they aren't sure if they'll find out.

Meanwhile, expectant mum Phoebe recently made little attempt to dispel the rumours of pregnancy in an Instagram selfie on Tuesday.

Pretty in pink! The expectant mum made little attempt to dispel the rumours in an Instagram selfie on Tuesday

Sporting a sleeveless black and fuchsia Michael Lo Sordo number that was bunched at her belly, the 27-year-old media personality beamed while sporting a radiant glow on the streets of Sydney.

In the caption, she made no mention of the pregnancy and instead she let her followers know that she was gearing up for a trunk show while inadvertently drawing attention to her belly.

'Couldn't resist quick dress ups in this epic Michael Lo Sordo number ahead of his trunk show tonight @desordreboutique #mydesordre,' she wrote.

Phoebe and Sam met two years ago through mutual friends before getting married in an intimate ceremony in December last year.
The cast of The Only Way Is Essex are famous for their buxom frames.

So it was no wonder the ladies of the ITVBe show were keen to put their cleavage on show as they filmed scenes on Wednesday.

Leading the way was Georgia Kousoulou - who underwent a boob job in 2015 - in a racy black crossover crop top as she arrived at the Old Regent Ballroom in Stanford-le-Hope, Essex.

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She's got some front: Georgia Kousoulou flaunts her chest in a racy black crossover crop top as she arrived at the Old Regent Ballroom in Stanford-le-Hope, Essex on Wednesday

Amber alert: Kate Wright went for a similar look in an orange crop top and matching pencil skirt, teamed with a pair of black strappy heels

The 25-year-old blonde completed her ensemble with a pair of ripped black skinny jeans and a pair of lace-up heels.

Also going for a busty look was her co-star Kate Wright, who showed off her tiny waist and ample chest in an orange lace skirt and matching pencil skirt.

The pair were joined by a majority of their TOWIE co-stars to watch a fashion show to mark the 2nd anniversary of Danielle Armstrong's shop, Danni Boutique in Hornchurch.

All black everything: The 25-year-old blonde completed her ensemble with a pair of ripped black skinny jeans and a pair of lace-up heels

Blonde ambition: As Kate went for a more demure hemline, her new co-star Amber Dowding flashed her long legs in a beige mini skirt, which she teamed with a white blouse

The guest of honour Danielle had also opted for a crop top like her co-stars, teaming a nude bandeau with a matching maxi skirt.

Meanwhile, joining Georgia was her best friend and new co-star Amber Dowding, who looked summery in a beige mini skirt and white blouse.

Part-time hairdresser Amber made her debut in TOWIE last week as the girlfriend of Chris Clark.

Peachy keen: Danielle Armstrong showed off her curves in a fitted nude bandeau top and matching maxi skirt

Family support: Lydia Bright stood out in a black floral maxi dress as she arrived with her mother Debbie Douglas

Essex's power couple? Megan McKenna looked pretty in a flora wrap dress as she arrived with boyfriend Pete Wicks

Speaking about her pal Amber joining the cast, Lydia Bright said this week: 'Amber is absolutely brilliant  sexy, fun, flirty, fiery  definitely not a dull character. Shes very outspoken.

'She says it how it is. Shes best friends with me and Georgia so were looking forward to filming with her.'

Meanwhile, Lydia was more covered up than her TOWIE co-stars, wearing a striking floral and lace maxi dress.

She arrived with her mother Debbie Douglas, no doubt a good support as her ex-boyfriend James 'Arg' Argent was also in attendance.

Inspired by Kim Kardashian? Chloe Sims covered up in black thigh-high boots, a black dress and long white coat

BFFs: Georgia is thrilled her close friend Amber has joined the cast of TOWIE

Here come the boys: James 'Arg' Argent arrived with his pal and co-star Michael Hassini
She recently revealed she was looking for a place to live with her unborn child.

And Stephanie Davis confirmed that she'd found the perfect new home as she took to Instagram to celebrate on Wednesday.

Sharing a snap of herself beaming with excitement, the 23-year-old wrote: 'The house is OFFICIALLY OFF THE MARKET... And I'm OFFICIALLY A HOME OWNER!!!! So happy!'

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Nesting: She recently revealed she'd been on the hunt for a nest egg for her unborn child. And Stephanie Davis confirmed she'd found the perfect new home as she took to Instagram to celebrate on Wednesday

Explaining that the hard work was yet from over, she continued: 'Celebrating by going wild......with my pjs on, take away has arrived and a film. So happy I've got my first house sorted an baby stuff ordered!

'I've a lot to do on my own before the baby comes but I'm really proud of my self for getting it all done .....and being organised. You don't realise how much there is to do when becoming a mum... I take my hat off to all single mums. Thanks for your comments of support and tips too, there really helping.'

The former Hollyoaks actress - who is pregnant with her ex-boyfriend Jeremy McConnell's child - looked back at her tumultuous year as she reflected on her new achievement, and couldn't resist posting a smug response to those who had doubted her.

Happy: Stephanie appeared to put her relationship woes behind her as she proudly showed off her baby bump while house hunting on Monday, before later revealing she'd purchased the property

She continued: 'Glad when the baby comes I can sit back and look at how far I've come, having my baby growing and being strong even though all the stress certain people have tried to put me under and tried to ruin it for me... You've not! U have failed miserably.

'I've got off my a**e picked my head up and put my baby first.... I've done it... Me...so proud and thankful for my family helping me bring it all together!

'Roll on the rest of my pregnancy and life.. Looking after my beautiful baby.... I cannot wait to spoil you, love and protect you, you got your momma and the Davis's.. We got this Now to relax!!! Sat with a smile on my face... Very happy.... I couldn't tell you.'

Happier times: Stephanie - who met Jeremy while on Celebrity Big Brother in January- recently admitted that after falling pregnant whilst on holiday, her relationship with him became increasingly traumatic

The happy post came after she hinted she'd found the perfect home on Monday.

After fighting back against cruel rumours surrounding her pregnancy she was quick to share some good news, writing on Instagram: 'Well... Think me and my baba have found our first home... Back tomorrow with things to sort... Fingers crossed!'

Seen proudly cradling her baby bump as she stood in the kitchen of her respective new home, she continued: Really excited and nervous hehe... Sometimes things in life don't plan out how you wanted but everything happens for a reason!

'Can't wait to start my new adventures with me and my baby ....My small but perfect little family. What a lovely day! Smiling from ear to ear! And just over a week to find out if I'm having a beautiful little baby girl or baby boy.... Can't wait to paint the baby's room and get it all perfect for when he/she arrives!

'Feel like crying with happiness! Mummy can't wait to meet you my little one xx were going to be just fine.'

Fighting back: The former Hollyoaks actress looked back at her tumultuous year as she reflected on her new achievement, and couldn't resist posting a smug response to those who had doubted her

Stephanie - who met Jeremy while on Celebrity Big Brother in January - recently admitted on Loose Women that after falling pregnant whilst on holiday in Cape Verde in April, her relationship with him has became increasingly traumatic.

And following a series of 'vile' phone calls, in which she rowed extensively with the Irish model, 26, she revealed that she broke down on her bedroom floor and considered an abortion.

'At one point I broke down and I was on my hands and knees and I couldnt take anymore,' explained Stephanie fighting back tears. 'I thought he was going to save me from my past but he turned out to be just the same.

'I just lost it and I thought I'm living the same nightmare. I thought to myself it wasnt fair to bring this baby into such a toxic relationship,' she explained.
Kylie Jenner documented her visit to a tattoo parlor over the weekend, but didn't show the final result to fans.

Now it's been revealed that she added to a tattoo she got a year ago.

She had the word 'before' inked in front of her 'sanity' tattoo, according to TMZ.(The original ink is phonetic; \sa-n-te\)

The work was done by Tyga's personal tattoo artist Rafael Valdez. The meaning behind the cryptic wording is not yet know.

The 18-year-old Snapchatted her visit to Valdez on Sunday.

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New ink: Kylie Jenner took to her Snapchat story as she documented a private tattoo session on Sunday

Update: Kylie got the word 'before' inked in front of her original 'sanity' tattoo

Tat addiction? The 18-year-old reality star already has plenty of other tattoos

Kylie proudly displayed the painful process while flashing some skin as she lay face down while wearing a lacy thong.

Ouch! Kylie proudly displayed the painful process while flashing some skin as she lay face down

On Kylie's 18th birthday she debuted her first tattoo, a heart on her upper arm.

Other ink includes a mysterious tattoo on the inside of her finger and another more sentimental choice, her grandmother's name Mary Jo which she got on the inside of her arm.

Kylie recently reunited with Tyga and they were spotted enjoying a day at Six Flags Magic Mountain in California on Sunday before her visit to the tattooist.

Where it all began: While her newest ink design remains a secret, her previous four have been tiny red tats. On Kylie's 18th birthday she debuted her first, a heart on her upper arm

Trbute: Another more sentimental choice, her grandmother's name Mary Jo which she got on the inside of her arm

Pinkie: Other ink includes a mysterious tattoo on the inside of her finger. She posted this picture on Instagram nearly three months ago
He is usually seen looking like the perfect pop star.

But Harry Styles was a million miles away from his polished, X Factor self when he was spotted in Weymouth on Wednesday afternoon.

The 1D star, 22, looked weary and weather-beaten as he filmed gritty war drama Dunkirk on the South coast.

Action man: Harry Styles was a million miles away from his polished, X Factor self when he was spotted in Weymouth on Wednesday afternoon

The handsome chart-topper, from Cheshire, was seen in his historically accurate Second World War style army fatigues.

It was a far cry from his fashionable skinny jeans and Chelsea boots he is usually seen in as he gads about town.

His trademark long locks have also been shorn for the role and were slicked back in a fashionable pompadour style.

The 1D star, 22, looked weary and weather-beaten as he filmed gritty war drama Dunkirk on the South coast

Keeping it real: The handsome chart-topper, from Cheshire, was seen in his historically accurate Second World War style army fatigues

Smeared in mud and sporting bandages on his hands, he is clearly not replicating his clean-cut X Factor image in the new production.

Joined by a number of his fellow actors, he can be seen walking onto a boat before setting sail into the choppy waters.

Dunkirk tells the story of one of the most successful rescue missions in British history.

In the wars: Smeared in mud and sporting bandages on his hands, he is clearly not replicating his clean-cut X Factor image in the new production

Taking it all in his stride: Joined by a number of his fellow actors, he can be seen walking onto a boat before setting sail into the choppy waters...

Good times: Despite the testing conditions, Harry seemed to be enjoying himself with his co-stars

Code-named Operation Dynamo, the evacuation of soldiers from Dunkirk beach took place between 26 May and 4 June 1940 under the supervision and mastermind of Vice-Admiral Bertram Ramsay.

Harry is just one of the famous faces to join the stellar cast, as the list of big names also includes Tom Hardy, Cillian Murphy, Kenneth Branagh and Mark Rylance, who was also on set.

Enjoying slightly more civilised settings, the acclaimed performer - who currently stars in Steven Spielberg's BFG - could be seen looking dapper on board a private yacht.

Expected to be a hit: Dunkirk tells the story of one of the most successful rescue missions in British history

Careful! The chart-topper gingerly makes his way onto a speedboat as part of an action shot

Causing a splash: Harry looks completely different to the snake-hipped pop star we're accustomed to seeing

Suits you! The 22 year-old millionaire actually suited his WW2 attire and pulled the retro look off

Ready for his close-up: The star buckled down and got to work as he made his way onto the set

Making moves: Harry was hurried along by members of the cast and crew

Safety first: The star was kitted out with a life jacket before he hopped on board the boat

Cruising: The star was seen moving between locations on a speedboat

Join the queue: The hordes of extras made for an impressive scene

Follow the leader: Harry's star appeal became less apparent as he joined the line-up of actors

Having a laugh: Harry seemed in good spirits as he chatted with the extras on set

Speeding: Harry leant on the edge of the boat as it sped along the harbour

On the move: Harry pulled some funny faces as he walked along the set

Wearing a three-piece suit and without a hair out of place, he was far removed from the dirty work Harry was expected to undertake.

Speaking about his One Direction co-star, Mark told the Evening Standard: 'What's really surprised me is he's really witty, really funny - he really makes me laugh. He's been ever so brave, not making any fuss.

'He seems remarkable ... one of those people - Sean Penn has it too - a kind of panache.

'I look at them and think, "How did you get that? How do you get so that life is easy?" But he has got a lovely, lovely character. It's a gift.'

Making waves: Enjoying slightly more civilised settings, Mark Rylance - who currently stars in Steven Spielberg's BFG - could be seen looking dapper on board a private yacht

That's more like it! Wearing a three-piece suit and without a hair out of place, he was far removed from the dirty work Harry was expected to undertake
Diane Kruger looked slimmer than usual on Wednesday.

This follows her breakup from love of 10 years, Joshua Jackson, just more than a week ago.

The Inglourious Basterds beauty, 40, posted a shot from behind in which she was wearing a bikini, leaning on a rail and watching the sun come up while overlooking a lush green landscape at a location she did not reveal.

Greener pastures: Diane Kruger, 40, seemed a bit thinner than usual in this shot she posted to her Instagram page from an undisclosed location

Stunning beauty: The one-time model looked amazing in this shot she took from a train and posted on her Instagram account

On Tuesday, the one-time model posted a selfie as she rode on a train, looking amazing in the wake of two major events in her life: the breakup and turning 40, which came July 15.

Kruger - also known for her roles in Unknown, National Treasure and The Bridge - jointly announced the split with Jackson, 38, in a July 18 statement through a spokesperson to People, which said that the couple 'decided to separate and remain friends.'

The announcement followed months of speculation that the couple had been on a rocky path, as Diane in March made clear she had cold feet about marrying her beau of a decade. Speaking with The EDIT in March, she said that while she'd moved to New York to support Jackson's stint in an off-Broadway play, the decision whether or not to marry the Fringe actor remained a difficult one.

'Welcome to my dilemma,' said Kruger, who was previously married to French director Guillaume Canet from 2001 until 2006, the year she began seeing Jackson.

Calm before the storm: Diane looked elegant as she appeared on Bravo's Watch What Happens Live July 14, just before her split from Jackson was publicly announced

Another hint of trouble came in December when Jackson admitted in an interview with Ellen DeGeneres that he and Diane avoided watching his steamy sex scenes on Showtime's The Affair. He said, 'I go home and I'm like, "Oh, babe, I had a great day today. I had sex with two different women, and I felt like it went really well!

'I think she's a little conflicted on that. She's OK if I look a little schlubby ... keep the good stuff at home,' the Canadian actor revealed.

Of course, the other side to that story was that Kruger was uncomfortable with filming 'intimate scenes' - such as the one she shared with Sky co-star Norman Reedus - in front of Jackson.

The way they were: The couple radiated star power as they posed at an industry gala last November in Los Angeles

She told People Jackson 'was not around' as she filmed her sex scenes with Reedus, best known for playing Daryl Dixon on AMC's The Walking Dead.

'I would not recommend having your better half on set when you have to [film love scenes]', she told the magazine.
Chris Klein has become a father.

The 37-year-old actor - who is best known for his film franchise American Pie and for dating Katie Holmes from 2000 until 2005 - made the announcement on Wednesday.

He and wife wife Laina Rose Thyfault welcomed son Frederick Easton Klein on Saturday in Austin, Texas.

The baby is here: Chris Klein has welcomed son Frederick Easton with wife Laina Rose; here they are seen in March in a whosay post

His little mini me: 'So incredibly blessed and forever grateful for my amazing wife & our healthy baby boy. Laina delivered me a miracle,' he wrote on social media

Another look: Laina wrote on Instagram: 'This little Champ has already mastered his warrior pose and is doing great. Our hearts are bursting with love and joy'

'So incredibly blessed and forever grateful for my amazing wife & our healthy baby boy. Laina delivered me a miracle,' he wrote on social media.

The Election actor also shared an image of his little guy.

Laina wrote on Instagram: 'This little Champ has already mastered his warrior pose and is doing great. Our hearts are bursting with love and joy.'

All good: His rep told People: 'Mom and baby are home and doing well. Chris is so madly in love and adjusting to life with much less sleep'; here the couple is seen in 2015

His rep told People: 'Mom and baby are home and doing well. Chris is so madly in love and adjusting to life with much less sleep.'

In March Chris shared the news his wife was expecting their first child. In the photo her bump could be seen as she wore a clingy dress.

They wed in August 2015 after a nine month engagement.

So close for so long: The actor dated Katie Holmes from 2000 until 2005; here they are seen in 2003

Klein's life seems to have straightened out very well since his struggle with alcoholism many years ago.

In the Nineties he was thrust into the spotlight when he landed a role opposite Reese Witherspoon in Election.

He then starred in the blockbuster American Pie. He went on to appear in Here On Earth, Say It Isn't So, Rollerball, We Were Soldiers and Just Friends. He last appeared in the film Game Of Aces and has popped up on the TV series Wilfred and The Grinder.

After Klein and Holmes split, she moved on to Tom Cruise, with whom she has daughter Suri.

Big break: In the Nineties he was thrust into the spotlight when he landed a role opposite Reese Witherspoon in Election
She shocked the nation on Wednesday night when she voluntarily walked out of The Bachelor mansion.

But 25-year-old Vintaea Carlos has no regrets about giving up the chance to find love with Richie Strahan.

Speaking to The Western Star, the Queensland-based rowing enthusiast said: 'I knew he wouldn't have the personality to be able to handle mine and knew pretty much straight away that he wasn't the guy for me, hence why I left'.

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No regrets: The Bachelor contestant Vintaea Carlos has no regrets about giving up the chance to find love with Richie Strahan, saying 'I knew he wouldn't have the personality to be able to handle mine'

She added: 'I would most likely override him. He would need to be on constant caffeine to keep up (with me)'.

On Thursday night, Vintaea was standing with the bevvy of beauties, who were all patiently awaiting their fate, as Richie deliberated over who to hand the next precious rose to.

And in what appeared to be a split decision, Vintaea excused herself from the back row and walked towards Richie to tell him she was leaving the mansion.

Shock exit: Vintaea walked out of the first rose ceremony of The Bachelor 2016, making her the first woman to leave the reality dating show

Goodbye: She apologised quickly and thanked Richie, saying: 'I just want to say thanks so much for the opportunity'

Fellow contestant Kiki later commented on the moment, saying: 'I just see Vintaea over my shoulder just come strutting out along the floor and I'm thinking, "What the hell is she doing?" He didn't say her name yet.'

The massage therapist from Queensland smiled as she approached Richie, and his expression was nothing but shock.

She apologised quickly and thanked Richie, saying: 'I just want to say thanks so much for the opportunity.'

Understanding: Richie, ever the kind-hearted gentleman, appeared confused but said: 'I completely understand.'

Adding: 'I've realised this just isn't for me.'

Richie, ever the kind-hearted gentleman, appeared confused but said: 'I completely understand.'

The brunette beauty waved goodbye to the other girls and left the rose ceremony.

Speaking about her decision, she justified: 'I don't know if we hit it off.'

Adding: 'I'm pretty blunt and straight to the point.'

'I've realised this just isn't for me': The massage therapist from Queensland made a snap decision as she was standing with the other beauties waiting patiently for a rose

She then mentioned her tendency to incorporate swear words into her conversations, saying: 'I might have a bit of a dirty mouth every so often.'

Despite Vintaea's habit of using swear words, Richie and the down-to-earth beauty seemed to hit it off in their first meeting of the night.

Vintaea asked the oil rig worker whether he was excited, to which he responded politely: 'I've been thinking about this night for so long.'

She then prompted: 'S****ing yourself?'

Richie was clearly taken aback for a few moments and shocked at her foul language, but laughed and responded: 'Yeah, definitely.'

Done! Speaking about her decision, she justified: 'I don't know if we hit it off'

As Richie attempted to wrap the conversation up, telling the eager beauty it was 'nice meeting you', she let yet another swear word slip.

'Yeah, it's f****** great,' she said before quickly adding: 'I've got to stop swearing, I think.'

Ever the gentleman, Richie assured Vintaea it wasn't an issue due to his work environment in oil and gas, saying: 'I can certainly hold my own when it comes to that lingo.'

However, not able to hold back, Vintaea responded: 'Thank f***,' before apologising again.

Before her walk-out, she addressed her language, saying: 'I'm sure some will cope and some probably won't. But if they probably can't cope with me, they probably can't cope with life.'
John Travolta is once again tackling the daunting task of a playing a polarizing and larger than life American celebrity for his latest project.

The actor was spotted in character for the first time Wednesday as he got to work playing infamous mob boss John Gotti on the Cincinnati set of the upcoming film The Life And Death Of John Gotti.

Travolta sported a grey wig with black roots along with a charcoal suit jacket over black pants and a mock turtleneck to capture the look of Gotti.

Also photographed chatting it up with Travolta in between scenes was his wife Kelly Preston, who will be playing Gotti's wife Victoria, and the film's producer, Gotti's oldest son John Gotti Jr.

Preston was also dressed in black, wearing a fitted sleeveless zip-front dress that was a far cry from the designer frocks she is often photographed in on the red carpet.

She topped off her look by piling her normally free-flowing tresses - now dyed chestnut brown for her role - into a loose bouffant.

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Back to work: John Travolta and wife Kelly Preston as John and Victoria Gotti chat with producer John Gotti Jr. on the set of the new film The Life And Death Of John Gotti (above)

Latest role: Travolta has been attached to the Gotti project for five years (Travolta on Wednesday left, Gotti at his 1990 trial on right)

In character: Travolta on set in a photo shared by John Jr. on his Instagram

It is not clear how much of Gotti's life will be covered in the film, though given his son's role in the production there is a good chance that many of the stories he shared in his 2015 memoir Shadow of My Father will find their way into the script.

Gotti turned to a life of crime at a young age, a profession that allowed him to escape the poverty he grew up in after being born in the Bronx.

He was one of 13 children born to John and Philomena, who were both the children of Italian immigrants.

Gotti joined a street gang before he was a teenager and eventually dropped out of school before becoming a part of the Gambino family, where he quickly rose up the ranks until he ultimately became head of the massive organized crime syndicate.

He first made inroads by running errands for members of the family as a teenager, and by his twenties was a key player in many of the biggest burglaries and heists.

Gotti landed in jail for the first time in 1965 after being convicted of attempted burglary, spending a year behind bars.

Three years after his release he once again found himself locked up after being charged with hijacking a Northwest Airlines warehouse and a United Airlines warehouse at what is now John F. Kennedy Airport in New York City along with a truck of cigarettes on the New Jersey Turnpike.

The $50,000 cigarette heist came two months after his arrest for the United hijacking, while Gotti was out on bail awaiting trial.

He pleaded guilty to the warehouse hijackings, and the charges relating to the New Jersey incident were dropped by prosecutors.

He was out again in 1972 after three years spent in the Lewisburg Federal Penitentiary.

And just a year later he was again locked up, sentenced to two years following a manslaughter conviction for his role in the death of James McBratney, a man believed to have killed the nephew of Carlo Gambino.

That move endeared him to the family though and Carlo, who was boss at the time.

It was not until 1986 that Gotti was named boss however, being passed over following Carlo's death in 1976 in favor of Paul Castellano.

He was then passed over for underboss in 1985 when Castellano gave that role to his chauffeur Thomas Bilotti following the death of the acting underboss.

Castellano and Bilotti were found shot dead soon after, and in January of 1986 Gotti was named boss of the family.

He served in that role for four years before his arrest in 1989 for murder, and in 1992 he was sentenced to life in prison.

Gotti died behind bars in 2002, one year after being diagnosed with terminal lung cancer.

He was survived by his wife and children Angel (b. 1961), Victoria (b. 1962), John Jr., and Peter (b. 1969).

Gotti's son Frank died in 1980 at the age of 12 when a neighbor accidentally hit the boy with his car while he was riding a motorbike. The neighbor disappeared soon after and has never been found.

Back in the day: John and Victoria Gotti with their son John Jr. shortly after his birth in 1964

Caught: Gotti in his 1973 mugshot following his arrest on charges of manslaughter

Celebration: Victoria and John Gotti in April 1990 leaving an event after their son's wedding

Travolta has been attached to the Gotti biopic for over five years now, staying with the project even as numerous Hollywood heavyweights dropped out of the film.

Nick Cassavetes, Joe Johnston and Barry Levinson were all attached to direct at one point, while a trio of Oscar-winning actors - Al Pacino, Joe Pesci, and Anthony Hopkins - left the film after being cast due to multiple false starts that kept pushing back the start date for principal photography on the movie.

Lindsay Lohan was also set to star in the role of Victoria when the project was first announced back in 2011, a part that some had hoped would help to restart the flailing career of the once promising star.

A press conference was even held at the time with Travolta, John Jr., his sister Victoria and Lohan, who earlier that year had completed a court-ordered stay at the Betty Ford Clinic in what was then her fifth stint in rehab.

The look: Travolta sported a grey wig with black roots along with a charcoal suit jacket over black pants and a mock turtleneck to capture the look of Gotti

Departure: Preston was also dressed in black, wearing a fitted sleeveless zip-front dress that was a far cry from the designer frocks she is often photographed in on the red carpet

All about the hair: Preston topped off her look by piling her normally free-flowing tresses - now dyed chestnut brown for her role - into a loose bouffant.

The film is now being directed by Entourage star Kevin Connolly in what will be the third full-length feature for the actor.

Connolly is no doubt very familiar with the Gambino family having grown up on Long Island in the 70s and 80s when Gotti was at the height of his power and a constant presence in the New York papers.

He previously directed Dear Eleanor, which is currently in limited release and has a cast that includes Jessica Alba and Isabelle Fuhrman, as well as the 2007 pic Gardener of Eden, starring his good friend Lukas Haas.

Among the notable names cast in the film are Stacy Keach and Pruitt Taylor Vince, who will both play key members of the Gambino crime family.

Keach will portray Gotti mentor Neil Dellacroce while Vince has landed the part of Gotti's close friend Angelo Ruggeiro, a man referred to as an 'unpredictable psychopath' for his disregard for legal figures and alleged actions as a member of the Gambino family.

Travolta and Preston's 16-year-old daughter Ella Bleu will also appear as Gotti's first daughter Angel in what will be just her second acting role.

Look-alike: Victoria Gotti was almost always seen wearing a black dress (Victoria in 1990 left, Preston on set right)

Family affair: The Travolta's daughter Ella Blue will also star in the picture

False start: Victoria Gotti, John Travolta, John Gotti Jr and Lindsay Lohan at a 2011 event announcing the project

The actor spoke about the project back in September when it was announced that financing had been secured for the feature during a press conference at the Toronto Film Festival.

Travolta flew in for just one day to do interviews about the film, which will be released next year by Lionsgate, and discuss how excited he was to be working with his family.

'My wife looks like Victoria and my daughter looks like Angel. Its really weird,' he told The Hollywood Reporter.

'Its uncanny. I looked at pictures and was thinking this is too perfect. Life is too short not to go to work with your family and friends.'
She impressed Richie Strahan with her love for the water and great outdoors during Wednesday's premiere episode of The Bachlelor Australia.

But Megan Marx has revealed she hasn't always been the adventurous girl-next-door, opening up on her unusual upbringing in a strict church.

'It was quite restrictive. I didn't drink alcohol, wear a bikini or go out to dance until I was 23,' the now 27-year-old blonde beauty from Geraldton, WA, told OK! magazine.

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Early life: The Bachelor Australia contestant Megan Marx has revealed she hasn't always been the adventurous girl-next-door, opening up on her unusual upbringing in a strict church

'I was born into quite a full-on church community, which my entire family have now left, so we're all free,' she added.

Speaking to Daily Mail Australia, Megan's stepfather Ross Upchurch clarified details of the religious group.

'I'm a born-again Christian and I wouldn't call it a strict religious cult by any means,' he said, admitting he still regularly goes to church.

Beach life: The 27-year-old from Western Australia has revealed she didn't wear a bikini or go dancing until she was 23 years of age due to the 'restrictive' nature of her upbringing

Chemistry: The blonde beauty made quite the impression on Richie during Wednesday night's premiere episode of the Channel Ten reality show, telling him she loved adventure and free-diving

'Megan seemed pretty happy. She grew up in church and it was a pretty good environment.'

It was revealed by Daily Mail Australia earlier this month that Megan was just 18 when she walked down the aisle, but the relationship did not last.

'It was the worst day of my life,' she told Woman's Day magazine about the fire-and-brimstone service on the wedding day, adding the marriage was 'a pretty full-on thing'.

'The preacher was screaming at everyone how they were all going to hell.'

Her stepfather Ross Upchurch told Daily Mail Australia earlier this month: 'She was married. That didn't work out'.

Bikini beauty: Nowadays the stunner has no problem flashing the flesh on her social media accounts

He clarified that Megan and her former husband 'were together for about six or seven years' and has insisted the union was 'not an arranged marriage'.

'She was 18 when she married. I would have liked her to wait a little longer, but they seemed like a good match at the time,' he concluded.

Ross said that his daughter is 'a happy, fun-loving girl' and claimed she is 'doing well and enjoying the opportunity' of being on The Bachelor.

'We're very proud of her, she's a lovely girl' he said. 'She's got a great relationship with her family.'

Life's a beach! Megan's Facebook portrays her as a fun-loving girl with interests in diving and travel

Health conscious: Megan works as regional education officer for Cancer Council WA, which sees her educate communities on how to live healthier lives

Megan currently works as regional education officer for Cancer Council WA, which sees her educate communities on how to live healthier lives.

The blonde beauty made quite the impression on Richie during Wednesday night's premiere episode of the Channel Ten reality show.

Upon meeting the eligible hunk for the first time, she made it known that she loves adventure and free-diving.

No doubt the stunner made quite the impression on Richie, as he gave her a red rose during the cocktail party, well and truly before the official rose ceremony kicked off.
She's just jetted back from a sun-soaked break in Portugal.

And Billie Faiers was still sporting a healthy bronzed glow as she attended the Mark Hill party in London on Wednesday.

Unfortunately for the TOWIE star, 26, her tanned complexion blended in somewhat with her summery ensemble, which consisted of tangerine and rust hues.

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Tan-tastic: She's just jetted back from a sun-soaked break in Portugal. And Billie Faiers was still sporting a healthy bronzed glow as she attended the Mark Hill party in London on Wednesday

Showcasing her ample assets, the mum-of-one opted for a plunging nude bodysuit, flaunting her impressive cleavage and clinging to her toned stomach.

Adding to the glamour, she donned a pair of bright wide legged trousers, which were high waisted in design to accentuate her hourglass figure.

Adding some height to her frame she donned a pair of pewter coloured platform heels that aided in elongating her petite physique.

Blending in: Unfortunately for the TOWIE star, 26, her tanned complexion blended in somewhat with her summery ensemble, which consisted of tangerine and rust hues

Wearing her golden locks loose and tousled, the yummy mummy styled her glossy tresses in loose waves that no doubt earned Mark Hill's seal of approval.

Keeping her make-up neutral so it wouldn't look too garish alongside her bronzed complexion, the star framed her baby blue eyes with lashings of mascara, whilst she lined her plump pout with a slick of pink lipstick.

She finished off the look with a beige cross body bag and chunky gold watch, whilst her hot pink manicure added yet more colour to the bright ensemble.

Busty beauty: Showcasing her ample assets, the mum-of-one opted for a plunging nude bodysuit, flaunting her impressive cleavage and clinging to her toned stomach

Blonde beauty: Wearing her golden locks loose and tousled, the yummy mummy styled her glossy tresses in loose waves that no doubt earned a seal of approval from Mark Hill (pictured)

Meanwhile Billie recently celebrated the second birthday of her adorable tot Nelly, in scenes aired on her ITVBe series last week.

The beauty, whose sister is former TOWIE star Sam Faiers, 25, revealed she is ready for baby number two and hopes to be pregnant by Christmas.

Sam became a mother in December 2015 when she welcomed baby son Paul Tony into the world with her partner, Paul Knightley.

Geordie Four: Chloe Ferry, Charlotte Crosby and Sophie Kasaei cuddled up to Mark at the event

Peace out: Charlotte seemed in good spirits as she flashed a V sign for the cameras

Making an entrance: The reality starlet dazzled in a thigh-skimming black playsuit as she joined the hairdresser on arrival to his star-studded event

Geordie Phwoar! Chloe showed off her incredible figure in a strapless dusty pink gown whilst Sophie went racy in red with her figure-hugging gown that showed off her ample cleavage

She told Star magazine: 'I've enjoyed having Nelly on her own, but I do feel ready now, plus Nelly will be older and more ready for it.'

Speaking further about her desire to expand her brood, Billie told OK! magazine last week: 'It's definitely something we want over the next year or so. We've always wanted kids who are close in age.

'I always thought I'd only want daughters, but baby Paul has made me realise it would be nice to have a boy one day.'

Lovely ladies: Made In Chelsea's Binky Felstead looked phenomenal in a printed navy and crimson skirt co-ord whilst Gogglebox's Scarlett Moffat showed off her slimmed down figure in a little black dress

Cute couple: TOWIE's Megan McKenna showed off her perfect pins in a short black dress as she cuddled up to her beau Pete Wicks who looked dapper in grey skinny jeans and a crisp white shirt

Pretty in pink: Big Brother's Lateysha Grace showed off her freshly dyed pink locks that ashe teamed with a plunging little black dress that clung to her slender curves

Leggy ladies! Former TOWIE star Lauren Pope highlighted her never-ending pins in a white jumpsuit whilst Love Island's Malin Andersson wowed in a cobalt blue dress

Three of a kind: Love Island's Malin was joined by co-star Lauren Whiteside and Big Brother's Sam Giffen

Gorgeous in green! Love Island's Olivia Buckland wowed in a khaki jumpsuit that clung to her curves

Bit of all white! Made in Chelsea's Sophie Herman dazzled in a cream ruffled dress

Radiant in red: Hatty Keane stood out in a plunging crimson jumpsuit

Tanned: The fitness fanatic showed off her glowing tan following a holiday in Ibiza last week as she arrived at the Ice Tank in Covent Garden

Love's young dream: Megan and Pete looked thrilled to be enjoying the night off filming TOWIE

Let's party! Charlotte seemed in high spirits as she joined Mark and Chloe as he cut the cake
Nissan fends off union pressure in US state of Mississippi

Officials at Nissan's US auto plant in Canton, Mississippi refused to meet Tuesday with a French legislator seeking information on workers' efforts to organize a union.

Christian Hutin, a member of France's National Assembly, was in Mississippi on a fact-finding mission on working conditions at Nissan, which is partly controlled by the French government via the Renault-Nissan Alliance.

Hutin, who is deputy chairman of the Assembly's Social Affairs Commission, has been calling for the French government to use its leverage as a major stockholder in Renault to help improve the situation in Canton.

Nissan, which opened the plant in 2003, employs more than 6,000 Mississippians Toru Yamanaka (AFP/File)

After meeting with workers and civil rights leaders, he told AFP that the plant, located in one of the poorest US states, was a "lawless place."

In May, the United Auto Workers, which has been attempting to organize workers at the Nissan plant, formally complained to the National Labor Relations Board that the automaker was using coercive and illicit tactics to stymie union organizing, including surveillance of workers who have spoken out in favor of unionization.

"It is deeply troubling that Renault-Nissan refuses to meet with Mr Hutin, who is on a good-faith mission to learn about the plight of workers in Canton," said Gary Casteel, secretary-treasurer of the UAW and director of the union's transnational department.

The UAW has enlisted support of metal workers unions in Europe, South America and Asia to put pressure on Nissan, but the Japanese automaker has refused to budge.

The French government owns a 20 percent stake in Renault, which in turn is the largest shareholder of Nissan. Nissan itself has a significant but smaller stake in Renault.

So far the company hasn't budged under the pressure.

Nissan, which opened the plant in 2003, employs more than 6,000 Mississippians.

Company spokeswoman Kristina Adamski said Nissan does not believe workers at the plant will gain from unionization.

"In every country where Nissan has operations, we follow both the spirit and the letter of the law. Nissan not only respects labor laws, but we work to ensure that all employees are aware of these laws, understand their rights and enjoy the freedom to express their opinions and elect their representation as desired."
Obama steps up to bat for ex-rival Clinton

President Barack Obama steps onto the Democratic convention stage Wednesday to champion former political foe Hillary Clinton, defend his own legacy and bury Donald Trump's chances of reaching the White House.

Obama will address the penultimate night of the party convention in Philadelphia, making the case that America's first black president should be followed by its first female president.

Clinton on Tuesday became the first woman to win the presidential nomination of a major US political party, teeing up a November showdown with Donald Trump.

After a tumultuous convention opening, cheers erupted as Hillary Clinton passed the 2,382-delegate threshold needed for the nomination Robyn Beck (AFP)

Democrats had "put the biggest crack" yet in the glass ceiling for women, she said in a video message to the convention.

Delegates earlier heard a deeply personal testimonial from former president Bill Clinton, who described a great friend, wife and mother who suffers the slings and arrows of politics to be "the best darn change-maker" Americans could hope for.

The current commander-in-chief is likely to offer a harder edge.

Expect Obama to "focus on how Secretary Clinton has the judgment, the toughness, and the intellect to succeed him in the Oval Office," said White House spokesman Eric Schultz.

- Dimming limelight -

In the twilight of his second term, Obama faces ever-dwindling opportunities to address the nation, mold his legacy and influence the 2016 race.

But on Wednesday, the 44th president has a prime-time chance when he appears before thousands of delegates in Philadelphia and tens of millions of viewers at home.

The White House says Obama has been working on his speech for weeks.

Yet this touchstone presidential moment has been a decade or more in the making.

The address will bookend Obama's career-launching address to the Democratic convention in 2004, his contentious 2008 primary battle with Clinton and his eight years in the White House.

Aides said Obama will make a familiar case for what has been achieved during his presidency, highlighting America's recovery from the Great Recession.

That is something the White House believes Obama does not get enough credit for.

Obama will also try to leverage his vast popularity among Democrats to unify a party scarred by the bruising primary campaign between Clinton and leftist Bernie Sanders.

The four-day confab in the City of Brotherly Love has so far been anything but fraternal.

Despite entreaties from party leaders, Sanders' supporters have booed a pastor who mentioned Clinton's name and even jeered Sanders when he did the same.

Having fought his own bitter primary against Clinton eight years ago, Obama could offer a conciliatory message.

But so far in the campaign, Obama's most potent role has been as a foil to Trump.

- Contrasting Trump -

US presidential elections often throw up candidates who are the mirror opposites of the incumbent. That is almost cartoonishly true in 2016.

Where Obama is deliberative, Trump shoots from the hip. Where Trump speaks in staccato jabs, Obama's oratory is sweeping.

The White House is quite literally betting the house on accentuating those differences.

"One force at work here is negative partisanship," said Geoffrey Skelley of the University of Virginia Center for Politics.

"More voters may be voting against something than voting for it."

Obama has already tried to convince voters that Trump does not have the judgment or demeanor to be commander-in-chief.

The 44th president has contrasted the seriousness of the task at hand -- fighting the Islamic State group, addressing horrendous levels of gun violence, healing racial divides -- with the tone of Trump's insult-laced populist campaign.

Delegate-goers got another dose of that message on Monday, when First Lady Michelle Obama spoke.

"I want someone with the proven strength to persevere, someone who knows this job and takes it seriously, someone who understands that the issues a president faces are not black and white and cannot be boiled down to 140 characters," she said.

While the White House has posited a Clinton win as a third Obama term, a Trump presidency would almost certainly unpick key parts of Obama's legacy.

But this election is also deeply personal for the Obamas.

Trump's assertion that "our country is totally divided" at times seems like a personal repudiation of Obama's credo and his journey.

As the son of a black Kenyan father and white mother from Kansas -- as a community organizer who became president, Obama told the 2004 convention in Boston, "in no other country on Earth is my story even possible."

That speech launched Obama's national political career. Since then, it has been an article of faith for Obama that America works better together.

"There's not a liberal America and a conservative America; there's the United States of America," he told delegates.

"There's not a black America and white America and Latino America and Asian America; there's the United States of America."

According to Schultz, "it's a principle that has animated the president's lifetime of public service."

Obama is likely to once again ask Americans to bet on change, this time in the form of a first woman president.

US President Barack Obama and Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton leave a campaign event in Charlotte, North Carolina, on July 5, 2016 Nicholas Kamm (AFP/File)

Hillary Clinton Simon Malfatto, Laurence Saubadu (AFP)

Former President Bill Clinton speaking at the Democratic National Convention on July 26, 2016 in Philadelphia Robyn Beck (AFP)
UN wants more staff to return to Western Sahara mission

The UN Security Council said Tuesday that more UN staff must return to the peace mission in Western Sahara after Morocco allowed a first group of 25 staffers back at their posts.

Morocco expelled dozens of UN personnel in March in angry retaliation for UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's use of the term "occupation" to describe the status of Western Sahara.

The council adopted a resolution in April demanding that the mission known as MINURSO return to "full functionality" and gave Morocco three months to reach the goal.

A member of the United Nations peace mission MINURSO at a base in Bir-Lahlou, in the disputed territory of Western Sahara, on March 5, 2016 Farouk Batiche (AFP/File)

Following a closed-door council meeting, Japanese Ambassador Koro Bessho, who holds the council presidency, said: "We have not reached that goal of full functionality. Moves are certainly needed."

Council members hope that the mission will be fully restored "as soon as possible," he added.

Rabat's decision to send about 75 staffers home crippled the mission's work to help maintain a 1991 ceasefire in the disputed territory.

Morocco this month allowed 25 UN staffers to return to Laayoune, where MINURSO is headquartered, but the United Nations is demanding that the staffing level be fully restored.

Morocco's Ambassador Omar Hilale told reporters after the council meeting that the "crisis is over", adding that "25 are already back, the rest will be back."

He declined however to give figures or a timetable for the returning staff.

French Ambassador Francois Delattre said there had been progress in resolving the dispute.

The Algerian-backed Polisario Front, which has long campaigned for a referendum on self-rule, said it expected more staff to return in the coming weeks.

The Polisario Front's UN representative, Ahmed Boukhari, however accused Morocco of blocking attempts by the United Nations to re-launch negotiations on settling the 40-year conflict.

The UN envoy for Western Sahara, Christopher Ross, has been trying for weeks to set a date for a visit to the region, but no firm date has been announced.

"The Moroccan door is closed to Mister Ross," Boukhari said.

Council members stressed the importance of resuming negotiations on a "political solution that will provide for the self-determination of the people of Western Sahara," added the Japanese ambassador.

Morocco maintains that Western Sahara is an integral part of the kingdom despite UN resolutions that task MINURSO with organizing a referendum on self-determination.
Australian man wins Pacific island resort in raffle

A lucky Australian man has won his own remote Pacific island resort in a raffle, after shelling out just US$49 for the winning ticket to claim the paradise property.

The man, identified as Joshua, won the 16-room Micronesian resort in a draw organised by the Australian owners, who were looking to handover the lodge to someone like-minded.

Ahead of the draw, co-owner Doug Beitz said he was hoping the winner would be "someone who likes warm weather, likes meeting new people from around the world, is adventurous".

An Australian man won a tropical resort on a remote Micronesian island, after shelling out just US$49 for the winning ticket to claim the paradise property Claudine Wery (AFP/File)

A video posted on Facebook revealed the winning number, drawn on Tuesday evening by a computer, to be ticket 44,980.

But Doug's efforts to reach the new owner by phone and inform him of his life-changing win were not immediately successful.

He eventually tracked the lucky winner down and gave him the good news.

"His name is Joshua and he's from Australia," Doug said, adding that he lived in New South Wales state.

The man's full identity was not immediately revealed until news of winning the Kosrae Nautilus Resort on the Micronesian island of Kosrae, which lies west of Hawaii and north of the Solomon Islands, had sunk in.

Joshua will take ownership of a resort, which is debt-free, profitable and has more than 20 years left on its lease.

Doug and Sally Beitz, who built the resort in 1994, have lived in Micronesia for more than two decades but said they felt it was time to return to Australia.

They were going to sell the property in the traditional way until one of their sons came up with the idea of the raffle.

"We will do financially well out of it," Doug said ahead of the draw, for which tens of thousands of tickets were sold around the world.

If nothing else, it afforded some people an opportunity to dream of life on a tropical paradise.

"Thanks for the awesome dream," wrote one ticket-buyer on Facebook. Another said: "Congrats Joshua, have a good life there."
Mali arrests senior jihadist blamed for military base attack

Malian special forces arrested a senior figure from the Ansar Dine jihadist group close to a central military base where he is accused of planning an attack that killed 17 soldiers.

"Today, at around 4:00 pm (1600 GMT) our special forces captured Mahmoud Barry, alias Abou Yehiya," one of the most senior figures in the group's branch operating in central Mali, an intelligence officer told AFP.

Other security sources confirmed the arrest, adding that Barry was the "emir" of Ansar Dine's Macina combat unit and was behind several attacks on Malian security forces since last year.

Malian army officers carry the coffin of a soldier killed during an attack on a military base in Nampala claimed by the Ansar Dine jihadist group and another armed ethnic group Anthony Fouchard (AFP/File)

He is suspected of taking part in last week's attack on a military base of Nampala, near the border with Mauritania, that left 17 soldiers dead and another 35 wounded, said a security source.

The attackers stormed the site, which has been targeted multiple times since January last year, taking control of it for several hours and making off with military vehicles.

The government declared a 10-day state of emergency after what it called a "coordinated terrorist attack", which was claimed by Ansar Dine and another armed ethnic group.

Barry was captured between the military base of Nampala and Dogofri, in the central region of Segou.

"For several days, Mali's special forces and intelligence services have been searching for the individual in the area," the security source said.

The intelligence officer said Barry is in the process of being transferred to the capital Bamako.

Northern Mali has seen repeated violence since it fell under the control of Tuareg-led rebels who allied with jihadist groups linked to Al-Qaeda, including Ansar Dine, in 2012.

But attacks are now becoming more frequent in the country's centre, close to its borders with Burkina Faso and Niger, both from criminal and jihadist elements.
Stars come out to sign anti-Trump petition

Hollywood actors and music stars, from Lena Dunham to Moby, have signed a petition against what they say is the "hateful ideology" of Republican White House hopeful Donald Trump.

"We are a coalition of artists who, today, are joining millions of Americans in our commitment to defeat the presumptive Republican nominee for president, Donald Trump," the online pledge reads.

"We believe it is our responsibility to use our platforms to bring attention to the dangers of a Trump presidency, and to the real and present threats of his candidacy."

Hollywood stars say Donald Trump "wants to take our country back to a time when fear excused violence, when greed fueled discrimination, and when the state wrote prejudice against marginalized communities into law" Jim Watson (AFP/File)

Among the hundred stars on board include actors Kerry Washington, Julianne Moore, Patricia Arquette, Jane Fonda and Woody Harrelson, and music stars Russell Simmons, Michael Stipe and DJ Spooky.

Keen to throw a spotlight on potential threats posed by Trump, they warned that the billionaire real estate mogul "wants to take our country back to a time when fear excused violence, when greed fueled discrimination, and when the state wrote prejudice against marginalized communities into law."

US voters, the group said, should "use the power of our voice and the power of our vote to defeat Donald Trump and the hateful ideology he represents."
Palestinian, Israeli medics caught in turmoil of conflict

When a Palestinian doctor stopped to help a family of Israelis targeted in a West Bank shooting, it was hailed as a rare moment of compassion in a bitter conflict.

Ten months of violence between Israelis and Palestinians have deepened suspicions between the two sides, with doctors and medics saying they come under greater scrutiny at times of increased tensions.

Some Israeli and Palestinian medics say they have been attacked while working, but all insist that politics is far from their minds when they respond to a medical emergency.

Volunteers with "United Hatzalah", a network of volunteer medics across Israel, which established an east Jerusalem branch of the originally Jewish organisation because security delays were leading to lives being lost Menahem Kahana (AFP)

Ali Shroukh, who lives in the town of Dahriya in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, said he did not think twice when he rushed to assist the Israeli shooting victims, and rejected the label "hero".

Shroukh was on his way to Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem to pray on July 1 when shots were fired at a car carrying a family of Israeli settlers south of the flashpoint West Bank city of Hebron, causing a crash that killed the father.

He said he stopped to help even though he knew from the car's number plate that the passengers could be Israeli settlers.

"I am not a hero," Shroukh told AFP. "I followed my religion, my conscience and my profession. It is a humanitarian mission to stop and help."

- Stark example -

He said doctors "make an oath to help an enemy before a friend".

Shroukh said he has received messages of congratulations from around the world, including from Palestinian and Israeli doctors, praising him for putting politics aside.

But keeping politics out of the medical profession, like most things in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, is near impossible. Medics have been accused of bias and of abandoning wounded people from the other side.

One stark example of this is in Jerusalem.

The Israeli government does not formally draw a distinction between predominantly Jewish west Jerusalem and Palestinian-dominated east Jerusalem, which Israel occupied in 1967 and later annexed.

But the Israeli medical service Magen David Adom (MDA) says it will only enter parts of east Jerusalem with a police escort for security reasons -- which can lead to delays of more than 30 minutes in people receiving vital treatment, some medics say.

In their absence, the Palestinian Red Crescent (PRCS) tries to fill the gap, while MDA first responders who live in east Jerusalem or volunteers from the United Hatzalah group also rush to the scene, often on motorbikes, to provide first aid until ambulances arrive.

Palestinian Ramzi Batesh, who works for United Hatzalah, said the rescue group established an east Jerusalem branch of the originally Jewish organisation because the time gap was leading to lives lost.

- Medics threatened -

Responders in east Jerusalem are all Palestinians, except for Jewish volunteer Josh Wander.

He said he has had stones thrown at him as he raced to provide care while wearing his yarmulke skull cap, but that those in need are rarely concerned about his religion.

"I have never faced hostility from the people calling me," Wander said.

"I have only found appreciation from the people in need. (But) I have had issues in the past going into certain neighbourhoods and coming out of certain neighbourhoods."

Violence since last October has killed 217 Palestinians and 34 Israelis, with Israeli authorities saying that most of the Palestinians killed were carrying out knife, gun or car-ramming attacks.

Palestinian medics say they are regularly prevented from reaching wounded people by Israeli soldiers, and AFP journalists have witnessed soldiers threatening medics.

A video that circulated last year showed Israeli forces firing pepper spray at PRCS medics during a dispute amid clashes in the West Bank.

Last year, an Israeli woman claimed that PRCS medics refused to treat members of her family after an attack near a settlement in the West Bank in which her husband and son died.

- A fine line -

The Israeli government accused PRCS of failing to remain neutral, with wide Israeli media coverage condemning the medics.

However an internal probe by the International Committee of the Red Cross later rejected the claim that its Palestinian affiliate refused to treat Jewish victims.

International medical organisations that work with Palestinians have also been accused of failing to remain neutral by campaigners such as NGO Monitor, an Israeli right-wing group, creating a reluctance among some to speak out.

Several NGOs contacted by AFP declined to be drawn into the debate for fear of being accused of anti-Israeli bias.

The representative of one international medical organisation said foreign medics and groups have to walk a fine line in terms of criticism in order to avoid losing access to those in need or face an Israeli backlash.

The source, who declined to be named, said groups opposed to Israel's treatment of Palestinians face a "very difficult balancing act".

Outspoken Norwegian doctor Mads Gilbert provided crucial medical care to Palestinians in Gaza during the 2014 50-day war that killed more than 2,000 Palestinians and 73 Israelis.

But he was banned from entering Israel after being among two dozen European doctors who signed a letter published in leading medical journal The Lancet in July 2014 that described the Gaza offensive as a "crime against humanity".

Gilbert has appealed against his ban, but confirmed to AFP that his case remains unanswered two years on.

Volunteers of "United Hatzalah", a network of volunteer medics across Israel, monitor screens at the organisation's heaquarters in West Jerusalem Menahem Kahana (AFP)

Volunteers from the United Hatzalah attend emergencies in East Jerusalem, often on motorbikes, to provide first aid until ambulances arrive Menahem Kahana (AFP)
Bill Clinton urges voters to back the 'real' Hillary

Former president Bill Clinton urged Americans to dismiss decades of political attacks and elect the "real" Hillary Clinton this November, in a deeply personal testimonial to his wife's character and grit.

"You should elect her because she'll never quit when the going gets tough. She'll never quit on you," the former president told Democratic Party delegates who selected her as their first female nominee earlier in the day.

Turning Republican attacks on their head, Clinton offered a tacit admission that his wife was part of the political scenery and that she was not always as flashy, or such a gifted orator, as other politicians.

Former president Bill Clinton offered a tacit admission his wife Hillary was part of the political scenery and not always as flashy, or such a gifted orator, as other politicians Nicholas Kamm (AFP)

"She's been around a long time. She sure has," he joked. "And she's sure been worth every single year she's put into making people's lives better."

Some people find change from the ground up "boring," said the two-term leader, who is now 69. "Speeches like this are fun -- actually doing the work is hard."

Republicans who gathered for their own convention in Cleveland last week called on Hillary Clinton to be jailed, accusing her of mishandling classified material, introducing dodgy foreign policies and of rank corruption.

Bill Clinton said the two images of his wife were impossible to reconcile because "one is real and the other is made up."

"You just have to decide which is which, my fellow Americans," he said.

The 45-minute speech was as much Bill Clinton playing "First Gentleman" -- reprising the role of character witness played by so many aspiring first ladies at conventions past -- as Bill Clinton the political "big dog."
Key quotes from the Democratic party convention, day 2

On day two of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, Hillary Clinton made history as the first woman to run for president for a major US political party.

Former president Bill Clinton made a deeply personal pitch to voters to support his wife in her November 8 showdown with Republican Donald Trump.

And the nominee delivered a message via video link at night's end.

Delegates cheer as former president Bill Clinton speaks on day two of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Robyn Beck (AFP)

Here are some key quotes from the event's second day:

Moving forward

"This woman has never been satisfied with the status quo in anything. She always wants to move the ball forward. That is just who she is."

-- former president Bill Clinton

The real one

"How does this square with the things that you heard at the Republican Convention? (...) One is real and the other is made up... Earlier today, you nominated the real one."

-- Bill Clinton

No quitters here

"That's why you should elect her, because she'll never quit when the going gets tough. She'll never quit on you."

--Bill Clinton

Show of unity

"I move that Hillary Clinton be selected as the nominee of the Democratic Party for president of the United States."

-- Bernie Sanders, Clinton's defeated rival, speaking at the end of the state-by-state roll call vote on the convention floor

Stronger together

"These are perilous times. We need someone with a strong heart, a deep understanding of the issues, challenges and opportunities, and a steady hand. (...) A united Democratic Party will prevail in November."

-- former president Jimmy Carter

This is not a game

"She knows that safeguarding freedom and security is not like hosting a TV reality show."

-- former secretary of state Madeleine Albright

Power of women

"Mr. Trump, come this November, women are going to be a lot more than an inconvenience. Women are going to be the reason you're not elected president."

-- Cecile Richards, the head of women's health care provider Planned Parenthood

Can't afford hate

"Donald's not making America great again. He's making America hate again. And the vast majority of us cannot afford to see his vision of America come to be."

-- "Ugly Betty" actress America Ferrera, whose parents came to the United States from Honduras.

Remember the children

"This isn't about being politically correct. This is about saving our children. That's why we're here tonight with Hillary Clinton (...) In memory of our children, we are imploring you, all of you, to vote this Election Day."

-- Sybrina Fulton, the mother of unarmed black Florida teen Trayvon Martin, who was shot dead in 2012 by a volunteer neighborhood watchman. Fulton joined other mothers whose children died in high-profile incidents on the convention stage.

Glass ceiling broken

"What an incredible honor that you have given me. And I can't believe we just put the biggest crack in that glass ceiling yet."
US turns to vetting would-be refugees in Central America

The United States is to start vetting would-be refugees from Central America in their home countries instead of on American soil, and offer those in imminent danger a temporary haven in Costa Rica, officials said.

The announcement -- a significant change in US immigration handling -- comes after America toughened its southern border against a persistent flow of thousands of Central Americans fleeing violence, and as it steps up deportations of migrants who failed to win asylum.

It also arrives in a US election year in which migration is a hot-button issue.

The US announced a change in the way it vets would-be refugees from Central America after it toughened its southern border against a persistent flow of thousands of migrants Mark Ralston (AFP/File)

Under the plan, to be carried out in coordination with the UN refugee agency UNHCR and the International Organization for Migration, "the United States government will pre-screen vulnerable applicants from the region seeking protection," the White House said in a statement.

It will focus on citizens of the so-called "Northern Triangle" in Central America comprising Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras, which are prey to frightening levels of gang-related violence, poverty and corruption.

A White House spokesman, Eric Schulz, told reporters the initiative was to "promote safe migration," especially for the many children attempting the "harrowing and sometimes deadly trip" overland to the United States.

The White House statement added that asylum-seekers "most in need of immediate protection" would be transferred to Costa Rica.

There, they would be processed further before going on to the United States or another safe country.

- 'Important' step -

UNHCR's representative for Central America, Carlos Maldonado, told a news conference in Costa Rica that "these people will stay a maximum of six months in Costa Rica with a humanitarian visa and will later leave for a third country."

During their waiting period, the applicants would receive English language and other courses to help them adapt to their new countries, he said.

Officers from the US Department of Homeland Security will carry out the vetting in Central America, officials said.

Amy Pope, the Homeland Security deputy adviser on the National Security Council headed by President Barack Obama, told reporters that US procedures to date had proven "insufficient to address the number of people who may have legitimate refugee claims."

She called the deal to use Costa Rica as a safe stopover for refugees was "an extraordinarily important step forward for this program."

Officials stressed that Central American migrants entering Costa Rica without being processed in their home country first would not be included in the program.

Pope said the vetting to be carried out would be the same as that for all refugee applicants, describing it as "the most comprehensive screening we do for any category of immigrants coming to the United States."

US officials said they were additionally expanding an initiative for Central American minors, under which a migrant already legally in the US can ask for refugee status for them.

The broadened approach will now also permit adult children to be included, as well as family members who are parents or caregivers.

- Obama's legacy -

The changes reflect efforts by Obama's administration to find a more effective solution to the wave of Central American migrants trying to enter the US.

In 2014, America saw a big spike in the number of unaccompanied minors crossing the border from Mexico.

The United States responded by having Mexico bolster efforts to stop those crossing the border, and by ordering the deportation of Central American migrants in the US whose application to stay had been rejected by courts.

At the same time, the United States has approved $750 million in aid to the Northern Triangle countries to boost security, in a bid to reduce the reasons so many people were fleeing.

Obama in 2014 issued a decree to allow migrants whose children are legally resident to apply for permits to live in America, which would have shielded millions from deportation.

But in June this year the US Supreme Court blocked that measure.

Hillary Clinton, who is campaigning to succeed Obama as president in a November election, said the ruling "could tear apart five million families facing deportation."

However Donald Trump, her Republican challenger, has taken a tough line on all immigration, and has vowed to build a wall along the US-Mexican border if he becomes president.

Wooden crosses honoring migrants who died attempting to cross to the United States, hang aonthe US-Mexico border fence in Tijuana, northwestern Mexico Guillermo Arias (AFP/File)

A migrant seeking asylum in the United States, sleeps on the sidewalk on the Mexican side of the San Isidro Port of Entry, in Tijuana, northwestern Mexico Guillermo Arias (AFP/File)
Japan knife attacker grins before cameras after killing spree

A Japanese man who admitted murdering 19 people at a centre for the mentally disabled grinned at news cameras Wednesday before being questioned about the country's worst killing spree in decades.

Police searched the home of the 26-year-old, who reportedly said he wanted all disabled people to "disappear", after the knife rampage that left his victims in pools of blood, including some who were stabbed in the neck.

With a blue jacket draped over his head, Satoshi Uematsu was escorted out of a police station into a waiting van before a crowd of flashing cameras.

Murder suspect Satoshi Uematsu (under jacket) is escorted to a van heading to the prosecutor's office from a local police station in Sagamihara, in Japan's Kanagawa prefecture, on July 27, 2016 Jiji Press (Jiji Press/AFP)

Inside the vehicle with the jacket removed, he smiled broadly in footage broadcast on morning news shows.

Uematsu's self-styled mission to rid the country of the mentally disabled -- laid out earlier this year in a long letter that came to light Tuesday -- has shocked Japan, as has the carnage at the Tsukui Yamayuri-en centre in the city of Sagamihara outside Tokyo.

Questions were being asked about why he had been allowed to leave the hospital where he was admitted in February for mental evaluation following his explicit threats.

In a sign that the care centre feared its former employee, public broadcaster NHK -- citing Kanagawa prefectural officials -- said the facility in April set up 16 security cameras to watch out for him after he was discharged from the hospital.

An official at the Tsukui police station where Uematsu was held after the attack declined to comment on the investigation, only confirming that he was being transported to prosecutors for questioning.

Plainclothes police officers were seen searching his house where yellow tape declared it a no-entry zone. The two-storey dwelling is in the same neighbourhood as the care centre.

Local media said Uematsu has told police that he wants to apologise to bereaved families about the sudden loss of their loved ones, though he still justified what he did.

"I saved those with multiple disabilities," he told police, according to private broadcaster TV Asahi which cited investigative sources.

Uematsu broke into the care centre in the forested hills of Sagamihara in the early hours of Tuesday.

He reportedly tied up two caregivers before stabbing residents using a total of five knives -- leaving a total of 26 people injured, 13 of them severely.

- 'Appalling' -

He quickly turned himself in at a police station, carrying bloodied knives and admitting to officers: "I did it."

Uematsu reportedly also said: "The disabled should all disappear."

Security camera footage taken near the centre showed a vehicle arriving there shortly before the attack began. The driver opened the boot to remove objects before walking toward the facility.

At around 2:50 am, shortly after an emergency call was made to police from the centre, the footage shows the driver dashing back to the vehicle, carrying a large bag.

Uematsu left his job at the care home and was forcibly hospitalised in February after telling colleagues he intended to kill disabled people at the centre.

But he was discharged 12 days later when a doctor deemed he was not a threat.

He had previously delivered a letter to the speaker of the lower house of parliament in which he threatened to kill hundreds of disabled people, outlining a broad plan for night-time attacks against Tsukui Yamayuri-en and another facility.

In the rambling letter he presented a vision of a society in which the seriously handicapped could be euthanised with the approval of family members since "handicapped people only create unhappiness".

The top-selling Yomiuri Shimbun daily called the case "appalling" and urged a probe of the decision to release Uematsu from medical care.

"It is a matter of great regret for society to let such a serious stabbing incident happen," it said in an editorial which also called for increased security at care facilities.

Japan has one of the lowest rates of violent crime in the developed world. The killing spree is believed to be the nation's worst since 1938, when a man armed with an axe, sword and rifle went on a rampage that left 30 people dead.

Map locating Sagamihara in Japan where at least 19 people were killed by a knife-wielding man early on July 26, 2016 John Saeki (AFP)

Journalists gather at the main gate of the Tsukui Yamayuri En care centre where a knife-wielding man went on a rampage in Sagamihara, Japan's Kanagawa prefecture, early on July 26, 2016 Toshifumi Kitamura (AFP)
Ivory Coast banana growers on the comeback trail

Two years after devastating floods, banana planters in Ivory Coast have staged a comeback, eyeing an increase in production and new markets for the popular fruit.

The west African country, which has grown bananas for more than 50 years, was annually exporting almost 300,000 tonnes of fruit before disaster struck.

In Nieky, a vital banana-growing region, many have scarred memories of the events of June 2014.

Two years after devastating floods, banana planters in Ivory Coast have staged a comeback, eyeing an increase in production and new markets for the popular fruit Issouf Sanogo (AFP/File)

In fewer than 48 hours, pounding water forced the Agneby river to burst its banks, unleashing a muddy wall of water that damaged 1,300 hectares (3,200 acres) of banana fields.

The land is owned by the Banana Cultivation Research and Development Company (SCB), which accounts for 70 percent of national production.

"A quarter of our turnover was wiped out," SCB managing director Olivier Biberson told AFP.

Thanks to a reconstruction effort that cost six million euros ($6.6 million) -- 80 percent of which came from the EU -- 850 hectares of bananas were replanted over 15 months and dikes were reinforced to prevent the land being swamped again.

Today, 1,400 plantation workers are back at work -- jobs that feed 10,000 people.

"The situation is under control. We have managed to recover our production levels," said Kossomina Ouattara, the plantation supervisor.

Bananas are widely grown in Africa, especially varieties that are used for cooking, while Ivory Coast has carved itself out a niche in the classic yellow "dessert" banana -- and is second to Cameroon as Africa's biggest exporter of the fruit.

- Shadow -

In 2015, the country exported nearly 300,000 tonnes of bananas, worth $285.7 million, according to industry sources, making it the world's 12th largest exporter with 2.7 percent of global market share.

Agriculture in the country of 23 million accounts for a quarter of GDP -- bananas, along with cocoa and coffee, are a vital part of the economy.

Banana planters have launched a recovery plan with a view to hiking production to 500,000 tonnes by 2020 and are hoping to build up a lucrative sub-regional market in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger.

But a shadow lies over this scheme.

The floods have highlighted the sector's vulnerability to bad weather, prompting some to fear the hand of global warming in driving costly disasters of this kind.

"The flooding was a consequence of climate change," Ouattara said, explaining that the downpour was by far the worst in several decades.

Trade union activists in the SCB have been lobbying for water pumps to thwart future floods, but -- true to the fickle nature of climate -- the situation of too much water has gone into reverse.

"In 2014 there were very violent storms, but this year, it's the opposite, there's a shortage of rain," agronomist Albert Coulibaly Minatienni said.

"If it rains too much, the banana plants are hit, and this affects production volume. In contrast, a shortage of rain impacts production costs. Plants have to be watered more and that becomes prohibitively expensive."

- Advantage -

Seeking flexibility in shifting conditions, growers are looking at banana types hitherto grown in the maritime south of the country to see if they can also thrive in savannah territory in the north.

If Ivory Coast has made a banana bounceback, the European Union can claim a big chunk of the credit for it.

The Nieky disaster came at a time when the EU had a programme to grant Ivory Coast 45 million euros to back the banana business and help growers compete with exports from Central and South American countries.

The project took effect after a deal in 2009 to end a prolonged "banana trade war" between Europe and producer nations in Latin America that had been shut out of the market.

The conflict was sparked in 1993 when the EU gave preferential trade tariffs and quotas to African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) nations, mostly former European colonies.

Ivory Coast has the advantage of being the nearest exporting nation to the huge EU market.

The boat trip takes between seven and nine days compared with several weeks for exports from South America, which means bananas can be dispatched when they are closer to maturity.

"The distance will prove a big advantage when the carbon footprint is factored into product sales," SCB boss Biberson added.

"Clients will prefer products that have a smaller carbon footprint than others."

Ivory Coast and is second to Cameroon as Africa's biggest exporter of the fruit Issouf Sanogo (AFP)

People work in a treatment and packaging bananas centre near Dabou, around 45kms from Abidjan, on July 7, 2016 Issouf Sanogo (AFP)

Thanks to a reconstruction effort following 2014 floods that cost six million euros ($6.6 million) -- 80 percent of which came from the EU -- 850 hectares of bananas were replanted over 15 months and dikes were reinforced Issouf Sanogo (AFP)
Japan latest battleground in Airbnb home-sharing war

Sarah Takeda thought she had a good little business renting a traditional tatami-mat room in her house on Airbnb.

But she and other hosts in Japan are learning the hard way that the home-sharing site's fastest-growing market is also becoming the next flashpoint in a global battle over the sharing economy.

Hoteliers are up in arms, local residents complain that outsiders are invading their neighbourhoods, and Japanese officials say renting out private homes is illegal.

Last year, Japan drew some 19.7 million visitors, up 47 percent from a year earlier, straining hotel occupancy rates and highlighting Tokyo's accommodation problem Toshifumi Kitamura (AFP)

Calls for change have reached the highest levels of government, which is mulling a revision to the rules, as Japan's tourist numbers hit fresh records and Tokyo scrambles to build enough accommodation to host the 2020 Olympics.

But Takeda's hosting days are over, after local officials knocked on the door of her home in a quaint seaside town near the capital.

They quizzed her on minute details of the business, such as asking how she cleaned sheets for guest futons, Takeda said.

She was later threatened with a 30,000 yen ($280) fine or six months in jail if she kept renting.

"I had no idea Airbnb was against the law when I was running it," said Takeda, a pseudonym, who has since stopped renting the straw mat room for about 3,000 yen a night.

"They said some of the neighbours had commented that many foreigners were coming to our house."

Japan isn't alone. Fights over Airbnb have erupted in Spain, France, Germany and even in San Francisco, where the company is based, largely over rising real estate prices and noise complaints.

Still, Japan is particularly fertile territory for home sharing with visitor numbers soaring as a drop in the yen makes a once-notoriously expensive country a bit more affordable.

Last year, Japan drew some 19.7 million visitors, up 47 percent from a year earlier, straining hotel occupancy rates and highlighting Tokyo's accommodation problem.

- Level playing field -

The hotel industry, however, has been cool on the idea of unregulated players filling the gap.

"If ryokans (traditional inns) and hotels operate under the same regulations (as Airbnb hosts) and then we lose, I could accept it," said Satoru Haritani, chairman of the Japan Ryokan & Hotel Association.

"But if one industry is regulated and the other is not, and we have to compete under different rules, then that kind of situation would be nothing but unfair."

The health ministry, which oversees the hospitality sector, insists for-profit home sharing is still illegal under a nearly 70-year-old law -- although enforcement can be patchy.

"Naturally, if there are signs of illegal activity...there could be penalties," said a ministry official who asked not to be named.

For its part, Airbnb said it tells hosts to check local laws, but pointed to a clash between the old and new economy.

"We often hear from many hosts that the current laws governing home sharing are unclear and difficult to understand. In fact, in some cases, they were written long before the internet even existed," it said in a written response to questions.

Clarity may come from above as the government mulls letting homeowners rent out their place for up to 180 days a year, and in exclusively residential areas, local media said.

The record numbers have created an untenable situation for bustling Tokyo, said Lauren, who rents out a pair of apartments at a family-owned building in a posh neighbourhood.

There are "lots of people who want to come to Japan", she said of the accommodation squeeze.

"Where should those people stay? What sort of standard should be put in place?"

Some hosts are not waiting on the legislature. Instead, they are taking matters into their own hands by suggesting travellers, such as 27-year-old Australian tourist Thomas Jurkiewicz, be creative with the truth.

There was a "little placard on the wall near the entrance that says if someone knocks on your door, do not say it's an Airbnb -- say you are staying with your friend," Jurkiewicz said of a recent Tokyo rental.

An Airbnb host displays his guest room at his room in Tokyo, but the site's fastest-growing market is also becoming the next flashpoint in a global battle over the sharing economy Toshifumi Kitamura (AFP)
The ER department fighting the US opioid crisis

Opioid abuse has turned into a public health crisis in America, blamed for the deaths of tens of thousands of people. But one hospital is determined to reverse the epidemic.

Since January, St Joseph's Regional Medical Center, which boasts the largest emergency room in New Jersey, has stopped prescribing opioid painkillers in all but essential cases, slashing overall use by more than 40 percent.

While these powerful drugs are an "excellent" medication for terminal cancer patients or those with a broken leg, for the vast majority there are far safer courses of treatment, says emergency medicine chief Mark Rosenberg.

Dr. Mark Rosenberg explains the Alternatives to Opioids or 'ALTO' program which he leads at St Joseph's Medical Center in Paterson, New Jersey William EDWARDS (AFP)

"In our first 60 days, we were absolutely shocked," Rosenberg told AFP. "We had 300 patients. And out of those 75 percent of them did not need opioids."

"It's just a remarkable change of our prescribing habits and our management of patients' acute pain," he added.

In 2014, 14,000 people died from an opioid overdose in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Since 1999, these powerful painkillers have caused 165,000 deaths.

The problem dates back to the 1990s but critics accuse President Barack Obama of being slow to respond to the scale of the epidemic, comparing his delayed reaction to Ronald Reagan's sluggish response to the HIV/AIDS crisis.

Back in the mid-1990s, drug companies, professionals and authorities promoted opiates as a compassionate medicine that would end pain and minimized concerns that they were addictive.

"It led to the epidemic that we're dealing with today," says Andrew Kolodny, chief medical officer at Phoenix House Foundation, which treats addiction, and executive director of Physicians for Responsible Opioid Prescribing.

Clean for three months, former heroin addict Erik Jacobsen, 24, is determined to turn his life around after getting hooked on the class A narcotic.

- Endless cycle -

It all began when he popped a quarter of one of his grandfather's painkillers in order to impress a girl he fancied.

"She was using it," he told AFP at Odyssey House, a treatment center in New York's East Village. "That's why I got into it."

He never tried to get them legally from a doctor. He didn't have to, they were so easy to buy on the street in Gordon Heights, a hamlet an hour's drive from celebrity summer resort the Hamptons on Long Island.

"There were so many kids that would get 200 pills a month and they'd sell it. And then they'd still owe their dealers because they were using more than they were selling. It would just be an endless cycle."

That was until local authorities realized there was a problem, doctors clamped down on prescriptions and the police got involved.

"There was one night I couldn't find any pills. So I tried heroin. And from there, I never went back," he said.

He knew three people who died of an overdose, including a close friend.

"I just kind of accepted the possibility that one day I might die," he said. "It's horrible... It's just crazy what it does to your body," he said.

- White problem -

He got help when he was arrested and hauled before a judge, who ordered him to enter a treatment program or go to jail.

He likes Odyssey House and their approach but he is full of regret.

"I lost everything," he said. He and his fiancee broke up because of his drug use and three of his best friends still refuse to talk to him.

"I want my life back," he said.

He believes America's opiate addiction is getting worse and wants to do more to help others before it's too late.

"It's scary," he said. "The people that were young in my town at least, they didn't realize what they were getting into," he said. "You don't really comprehend how intense it is when you try this thing."

Experts say the opioid epidemic is a white problem. While heroin use is on the decline in inner city New York, painkillers are most abused in suburbs and rural areas -- generally wealthier, whiter areas.

Rosenberg says St Joseph's one-year fellowship, offered since January to New Jersey professionals, teaches safe alternatives, how to support patients to best manage pain and explain to them the dangers of opioids.

Next January, the program will expand to doctors, nurses and educators from across the United States and around the world, with enquiries already in from Britain, Canada, Scandinavia and Turkey.

"If you can sleep, if you can walk, then pain is not going to be your enemy. That's what our goal is, to make you functional in pain, not to eliminate it completely," said Rosenberg. "We need to do something."
Israeli raid kills Hamas member said to be behind attack

Israeli forces fired anti-tank missiles at a house in the West Bank after a shootout overnight, killing a Hamas member accused of a deadly attack on a rabbi, authorities said Wednesday.

Several other people were arrested in the hours-long raid in the village of Surif, near Hebron.

Military footage showed a house being hit with an anti-tank missile then further demolished with an earthmover.

A house is severly damaged in an exchange of fire between Israeli soldiers and Palestinians in the West Bank village of Surif, on July 27, 2016 Hazem Bader (AFP)

The military said soldiers surrounded the house where the Hamas member was hiding out and exchanged fire with him.

Afterwards, the house was struck with anti-tank missiles and the militant's body was found inside. He was identified as Mohamed Fakih, 29, and Hamas hailed him as a "martyr".

"After extensive research, we found the hideout of the terrorist who killed Michael Mark," Colonel Roman Gofman, commander of the brigade that led the operation, said in a video distributed by the military.

"We besieged the house and exchanges of fire took place after he opened fire at the soldiers. We responded and the terrorist was killed in battle. His house was destroyed on him."

Soldiers carried away Fakih's body and arrested three people, who were led away with their eyes covered and loaded into military vehicles, an AFP photographer witnessed.

The official Palestinian news agency reported five people were arrested and said several villagers were injured, with Palestinian ambulances denied access to the site by Israeli soldiers.

The Israeli army reported three arrests over the course of the investigation that began after the July 1 attack that killed the rabbi.

It called them part of a cell "affiliated with Hamas", the Islamist movement that runs the Gaza Strip and which has a strong presence in parts of the West Bank, particularly Hebron.

- Flashpoint city -

The July 1 attack saw a car targeted by gunfire south of Hebron, leading to a crash that killed Mark and wounded three family members.

It was among a series of attacks in the Hebron area at the time, including a June 30 stabbing by a Palestinian in the Jewish settlement of Kiryat Arba that killed a 13-year-old girl.

Hebron is the scene of frequent tensions in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Several hundred Israeli settlers live in the heart of the city under heavy military guard among around 200,000 Palestinians.

Fakih had served time in Israeli jail for links to the Islamic Jihad movement and joined Hamas while in prison, according to Israel's Shin Bet security service.

It issued a statement saying a Palestinian security official was arrested earlier this month on suspicion of driving Fakih to the scene of the rabbi attack.

Fakih's brother and cousin were also held on suspicion of helping him to hide after the attack, the statement added.

Hamas said in a statement it "hails the Al-Qassam martyr Mohamed Fakih, who was martyred after a gun battle that lasted more than seven hours with occupation forces in Surif."

The Al-Qassam Brigades are Hamas's armed wing.

Violence in the Palestinian territories and Israel since October has killed at least 218 Palestinians, 34 Israelis, two Americans, an Eritrean and a Sudanese, according to an AFP count.

Most of the Palestinians killed were carrying out knife, gun or car-ramming attacks, according to Israeli authorities.

Others were shot dead during protests and clashes, while some were killed in Israeli air strikes in the Gaza Strip.

Violence in the Palestinian territories and Israel since October has killed at least 218 Palestinians, 34 Israelis, two Americans, an Eritrean and a Sudanese, according to an AFP count Hazem Bader (AFP)
Grain drain, Laos' sand mining damaging the Mekong

Grain by grain, truckload by truckload, Laos' section of the Mekong river is being dredged of sand to make cement -- a commodity being devoured by a Chinese-led building boom in the capital.

But the hollowing out of the riverbed is also damaging a vital waterway that feeds hundreds of thousands of fishermen and farmers in the poverty-stricken nation.

"Today, it's more complicated for us to go fetch water for crops," Deam Saengarn told AFP from the muddy river's shores, describing how its gentle slopes have given way to steep embankments.

Sand, an unflashy and seemingly infinite resource, is the chief ingredient in cement and the hidden hand behind the explosion of cities worldwide Lillian Suwanrumpha (AFP)

The 36-year-old mother of two captures Laos' development conundrum: she depends on $10 daily wage from a sand extraction firm, but also relies on the very river she is helping to gouge.

"We really need this water," she added wistfully, dripping with sweat as she separated stones from the mountains of sediment piled on the shore.

All around her, industrial pipes and excavators suck up the Mekong's floor, carving moon-like craters into the bed of a river that winds through most of the landlocked nation.

It is a familiar story in a country whose natural resources have been steadily plundered by businesses -- many of them Chinese -- under the gaze of communist leaders who brook no dissent but welcome foreign cash.

Sand, an unflashy and seemingly infinite resource, is the chief ingredient in cement and the hidden hand behind the explosion of cities worldwide.

China is also its top consumer -- devouring more than 60 percent of the global output and using more sand in four years than the United States did in the entire 20th century.

Dredging has been taking place for years along the Mekong, but the industrial scale is relatively new to Laos, where the grains pave a flurry of new construction projects in the country's sleepy capital, many of them funded by Chinese firms.

- 'River needs sand' -

"We now have many Chinese clients. They are constructing huge buildings in Vientiane, so they need a lot of sand and pebbles," said Air Phangnalay, who helps run an extraction company in Laos.

China is the largest source of foreign investment in neighbouring Laos.

Chinese businessmen loom large in the isolated nation and have zeroed in on its array of timber and mineral resources -- often to the dismay of an impoverished populace with few outlets to air grievances.

Experts say the uptick in sand mining, a lesser-known resource grab, is harming the delicate ecosystem of a river some 60 million people across the region depend on.

The 4,800 kilometre Mekong, which starts in southwestern China and empties out in southern Vietnam, is the world's largest inland fishery and among the most biodiverse rivers on the globe, according to World Wildlife Fund (WWF).

It naturally produces around 20 million tonnes of sediment a year, but is now seeing twice that much extracted annually, according to the latest research to which WWF contributed.

Most of the dredging is taking place in Cambodia and Vietnam, but the pace of mining is picking up speed in Laos -- an opaque country where big businesses can swallow up resources with minimal scrutiny.

Marc Goichot, from the World Wildlife Fund, said the rate of mining along the Mekong has become "unsustainable" and is setting the stage for especially dire damage downstream.

"The river needs the sand to be transported from upstream down to the delta to fight against salinisation and encroachment of the sea in this crucial area for agriculture," he told AFP.

Farmers along the Mekong's vast delta in Vietnam are already battling the worst saline intrusion rates in decades, thanks to severe droughts that have parched rice paddies across the region.

- Troubled waters -

An official from Laos' Ministry of Public Works conceded the dredging "affects the Mekong river and its ecosystem structure".

But the official declined a full interview or to provide figures on how much sand has already been extracted.

Without strict regulation, the dredging will trigger erosion patterns that could take decades to reverse, according to the UN's environmental agency.

"The problem is that we have long believed that sand was an inexhaustible commodity," Pascal Peduzzi, told AFP, adding that rivers across the world are now under threat from a global spike in extraction.

Yet sand mining is not the only effort to monetise the mighty Mekong -- while dangerously disrupting its flow.

There are already 12 dams built or under construction on the river's upper reaches in China, with at least seven more planned. Another nine are underway or planned in Laos, plus two more in Cambodia.

Environmental groups strongly oppose the stoppages, which they say hamper crucial fish migrations, block key sediment transfers and threaten to flood lands that tens of thousands of people call home.

It is damage that will only be compounded by a free-for-all race to scoop up the river's sand.

"The river has changed a lot. Here, the banks are collapsing. This did not happen before," a Laos fishermen told AFP as he drew his nets, declining to give his name in a country where many fear speaking out.

"It requires us to go further to fish. It's not good for us."

Industrial pipes and excavators suck up the Mekong's floor, carving moon-like craters into the bed of a river that winds through most of the landlocked nation Lillian Suwanrumpha (AFP)

Experts say the uptick in sand mining, a lesser-known resource grab, is harming the delicate ecosystem of a river some 60 million people across the region depend on Lillian Suwanrumpha (AFP)
Kerry: US avoiding 'confrontation' in sea row

US Secretary of State John Kerry on Wednesday said Washington wanted to avoid "confrontation" in the South China Sea, after an international tribunal rejected Beijing's claims to most of the waters.

Kerry made the remarks after meeting with Philippine Foreign Secretary Perfecto Yasay in Manila where they discussed the Southeast Asian nation's sweeping victory in the arbitration case against China.

America's top diplomat said the United States wanted China and the Philippines to engage in talks and "confidence-building measures".

US Secretary of State John Kerry (L) shakes hands with Philippine Foreign Secretary Perfecto Yasay during their meeting at the Department of Foreign Affairs in Manila, on July 27, 2016 Noel Celis (AFP)

"The decision itself is a binding decision but we're not trying to create a confrontation. We are trying to create a solution mindful of the rights of people established under the law," Kerry said.

A tribunal based in The Hague this month ruled that China's claim to most of the strategic waterway was inconsistent with international law. The decision angered Beijing, which vowed to ignore the ruling.

But Kerry said the United States saw an "opportunity" for claimants to peacefully resolve the row.

"We hope to see a process that will narrow the geographic scope of the maritime disputes, set standards for behaviour in contested areas, lead to mutually acceptable solutions, perhaps even a series of confidence-building steps," he said.

Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan also have claims to the South China Sea, a vital waterway through which $5 trillion in annual trade passes. It is also believed to sit atop vast reserves of oil and gas.

Kerry, who arrived in Manila on Tuesday after attending a regional summit in Laos, met with Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte after Yasay.

On Tuesday, Kerry said he would encourage Duterte, who assumed office on June 30, to engage in dialogue and "turn the page" with China.

Kerry was also expected to raise with Duterte US concerns about human rights and the rule of law.

"The Philippines has an unhappy history of extrajudicial killings and violence (against) journalists and others," a US official told reporters travelling with the secretary.

"We hope to hear more from President Duterte about ... protecting human rights (and) maintaining the rule of law."

Duterte has launched a bloody war on crime, urging law enforcers, communist rebels and even the public to kill criminals.

Since he took office, police reported over 200 deaths while media tallies have said more than 300 have died, including suspected extrajudicial killings.

Even before he assumed the presidency, Duterte drew criticism from United Nations chief Ban Ki-Moon and human rights advocates for his calls to kill criminals, as well as comments stating that corrupt journalists deserved to die.

Disputed maritime features in the South China Sea -, - (AFP Graphic)
Indonesia names controversial ex-general as security minister

A controversial former military chief accused of atrocities during Indonesia's brutal occupation of East Timor was appointed top security minister Wednesday, with activists calling it a step backwards for human rights.

Wiranto, named to the powerful post in a cabinet reshuffle, was among senior officers indicted by United Nations prosecutors over gross human rights abuses during the 24-year occupation of tiny East Timor.

Around 100,000 people are estimated to have been killed, mainly by Indonesian forces and their proxies, or to have died of starvation and illness during the occupation, which occurred during dictator Suharto's three-decade rule.

Security Minister Wiranto (R) and Finance Minister Sri Mulyani pose for a photo as President Joko Widodo announces new top cabinet officials, at the presidential palace in Jakarta, on July 27, 2016 Adek Berry (AFP)

Markets however cheered the appointment of prominent reformist Sri Mulyani Indrawati, currently a World Bank managing director, to the post of finance minister -- six years after she resigned from the same job after coming under attack from conservative forces in the government.

Wiranto's appointment was met with disappointment by rights activists. President Joko Widodo, who took power in 2014, was the country's first leader from outside the political and military elites and it was hoped the influence of the old guard would wane under his leadership.

"It is a setback," Andreas Harsono, Indonesia researcher for Human Rights Watch, told AFP. "The message might be that Jokowi (Widodo) is not going to be as progressive as before in pursuing his human rights agenda."

Widodo was likely trying to balance his unwieldy ruling coalition, said Keith Loveard, a senior risk analyst at Jakarta-based Concord Consulting.

Wiranto's Hanura party, a small partner in the coalition, lost two other ministers in the shake-up, which saw 13 changes to the cabinet and was the second reshuffle under Widodo.

- Bloody rampage -

Wiranto, who like many Indonesians goes by one name, was head of the armed forces when the Indonesian army and paramilitaries went on a bloody rampage in East Timor after it voted to become independent in August 1999. The country formally became independent in 2002.

He denies any wrongdoing and has never faced court over the atrocities.

He replaces Luhut Panjaitan in the key role of chief security minister, overseeing five ministries including foreign, interior and defence.

Observers suggest Panjaitan caused concern among the military elite and Islamic groups by taking unprecedented steps to probe a bloody 1960s purge of communists and their supporters.

Cabinet Secretary Pramono Anung defended the appointment of Wiranto, describing him as "tested and experienced". He has previously held the posts of defence and security minister.

Despite the claims against him, Wiranto has managed to retain a prominent position in public life. He has been a presidential candidate in two elections and in 2009 was the running mate of Jusuf Kalla, the current vice president.

It was Widodo's latest controversial appointment to the top echelons of the security establishment. He also faced criticism for making hardline ex-general Ryamizard Ryacudu defence minister.

Panjaitan moved to the post of coordinating minister for maritime affairs, still a key job at a time when Indonesia is embroiled in rows with China over the South China Sea.

Indrawati previously held the finance minister post in 2005-10 and won praise for battling corruption and keeping Southeast Asia's biggest economy on track. But she eventually resigned after facing attacks over a controversial bank bailout.

The Jakarta stock market was up 1.2 percent following news of her comeback.

Wiranto was head of the armed forces when the Indonesian army and paramilitaries went on a bloody rampage in East Timor after it voted to become independent in August 1999 Adek Berry (AFP/File)
Australia in command as rain halts Sri Lanka Test

Australia took command Wednesday of a low-scoring Test against Sri Lanka, building up an 86-run first innings lead before dismissing opener Kulsan Perera with the last ball of a rain-affected day in Pallekele.

Despite the heroics of Lakshan Sandakan, who took four wickets on debut, the hosts were staring down the barrel at stumps on the second day of the opening Test after rain again forced an early end to proceedings.

Perera fell for just four when he was lbw to paceman Mitchell Starc, leaving Sri Lanka wobbling on six for one -- still 80 runs short of having to make the visitors bat again.

Australia's Mitchell Starc (centre) celebrates the dismissal of Sri Lanka's Kusal Perera on the second day of the opening Test in Pallekele on July 27, 2016 Lakruwan Wanniarachchi (AFP)

Australia had earlier been bowled out for 203 in reply to Sri Lanka's first innings total of 117, with rookie Sandakan and the veteran Rangana Herath both taking four wickets apiece.

Adam Voges top-scored for the Australians with 47, meaning no player from either side managed to score a half-century in the first innings.

And with the turning pitch showing few signs of offering respite, the Australians' first innings lead could well prove decisive as they try to cement their position as Test cricket's number one side.

The 38-year-old Herath, who has hinted that he may soon retire from Test cricket, was the pick of the bowlers and unlucky not to record another five-wicket haul.

He dismissed both overnight batsmen -- skipper Steve Smith and Usman Khawaja -- in successive overs and had a third wicket in the morning session when wicketkeeper Peter Nevill was caught at mid-on.

After lunch, wicketkeeper Perera dropped a chance off Josh Hazlewood, denying Herath what would have been his 24th five-wicket haul.

Australia scored at less than two runs per over off Herath, with the bowler conceding just 49 runs from his 25 overs.

- Debutant's delight -

While Herath was providing captain Angelo Mathews with options both for attack and containment, Sandakan ran through the lower order to finish with impressive figures of four for 58.

His first wicket was that of the all-rounder Mitchell Marsh, who added 60 for the fifth wicket with Voges before being bowled for 31.

"I bowled a googly to the other batsman, Voges, and when he got beaten, I thought that I will do the same thing and Marsh fell into the trap. It was a good feeling," a delighted Sandakan told reporters.

"He is a guy who can play the anchor role. It's a big wicket, dismissing him is special."

Seamer Nuwan Pradeep finished with two wickets, including that of the resolute Voges, who was brilliantly caught by Kusal Mendis at gully after facing 115 deliveries and hitting three fours.

Voges expressed frustration that the Australians had failed to put together any big partnerships. He said he would have felt more comfortable had they managed to stretch the lead into three figures on a tricky pitch.

"We felt if we had one or two good partnerships... and got a 100-plus run lead and then we're feeling we are driving the game," Voges said.

"A little bit of missed opportunity there... we know in these conditions you need to get bigger scores and big partnerships."

The match has so far been badly hit by rain, with afternoon downpours in what is Sri Lanka's rainy season forcing the umpires to call a premature end to play at tea on both days.

The second Test will be held in Galle from August 4-8 and the third in Colombo from August 13-17.

Sri Lanka's Rangana Herath celebrates after dismissing Australian batsman Usman Khawaja on the second day of the opening Test in Pallekele on July 27, 2016 Lakruwan Wanniarachchi (AFP)
Obama on Russia trying to tip US vote: 'anything is possible'

President Barack Obama has refused to rule out the possibility that Russia is trying to sway the US presidential election in favor of Donald Trump.

"Anything is possible," Obama told NBC News in an interview due to air Wednesday -- the furthest the US government has gone in pointing the finger at Russia for a vast release of Democratic National Committee emails by WikiLeaks.

Russia has dismissed the allegations it was involved as "absurd".

US President Barack Obama refused to rule out the possibility that Russia is trying to sway the US presidential election in favor of Donald Trump Yuri Gripas (AFP/File)

Obama said the FBI continues to probe the leak, which showed apparent DNC bias toward Hillary Clinton over rival Bernie Sanders.

The leak was a howling embarrassment for the Democrats at their convention this week in Philadelphia. The Clinton campaign says cyber-experts it has hired have suggested Russia was to blame and its goal was to help the Republican presidential candidate Trump.

The New York Times reported Wednesday that US intelligence agencies now have "high confidence" that the Russian government was behind the theft of the emails.

But the agencies are not sure if the theft was intended as routine cyber espionage or part of a drive to influence the US presidential election, the Times said, quoting federal officials briefed on the matter.

Obama told NBC said he could not speak to the precise motive of the hack or subsequent leak but is aware of Trump's comments about Russia.

"Donald Trump has repeatedly expressed admiration for Vladimir Putin," Obama said in an excerpt of the interview that will air in full on Wednesday.

"And I think that Trump's gotten pretty favorable coverage back in Russia."

He added: "What we do know is that the Russians hack our systems. Not just government systems, but private systems."

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, speaking Tuesday on CNN, refused to confirm or deny that Russia was the source of the emails his organization leaked.

"We like to create maximum ambiguity as to who our sources are," Assange said.

"Perhaps one day the source or sources will step forward and that might be an interesting moment. Some people will have egg on their faces."

Security firm CrowdStrike revealed that when it responded in April to a suspected breach of DNC systems, the company identified "two sophisticated adversaries" whom it linked to Russian intelligence.
Indian Muslim women beaten for carrying beef

Two Muslim women have been beaten up at a railway station in central India on suspicion of carrying beef, an offence in many parts of the Hindu-majority country, police said Wednesday.

The meat the women were carrying has since turned out to be buffalo, but police in Madhya Pradesh state said they were attacked on Tuesday at a busy station, apparently after a group of vigilantes raised suspicions.

Video footage broadcast on local television channels showed a group of women slapping, kicking and punching the two as a large crowd gathered.

Cows are revered by Hindus and slaughtering them is illegal in most Indian states Noah Seelam (AFP/File)

The two women were subsequently arrested on suspicion of carrying beef. Tests found it was actually buffalo, and they now face the lesser charge of carrying commercial quantities of meat without a licence.

Cows are revered by Hindus and slaughtering them is illegal in most Indian states.

Several states also bar the sale and possession of beef, and there has been a recent upsurge in attacks by vigilantes from the Hindu right on people suspected of killing cows.

"We had prior information and had deputed force to arrest them but unfortunately some people attacked them," said Manoj Sharma, district police chief of Mandsaur where the incident occurred.

None of the people who attacked the two women had been arrested for the assault, Sharma said.

It comes days after a group of low-caste Hindu men were beaten by vigilantes in the western state of Gujarat on suspicion of killing a cow -- a charge they denied.

The men said they were taking the dead cow to be skinned -- a task commonly given to low-caste villagers in India, where the animals roam freely.
UN expresses alarm at looming Indonesian executions

The United Nations expressed alarm Wednesday at the looming execution of 14 drug convicts in Indonesia, urging Jakarta to put an end to the "unjust" practice of capital punishment.

A group of drug convicts including foreigners have been given notice of their executions and could be put to death as early as Friday.

Attorney-General Muhammad Prasetyo said Wednesday that 14 people -- including prisoners from Nigeria, Pakistan, India and Zimbabwe -- had been put in isolation and would be executed this week.

A policeman patrols on July 25, 2016 outside the only entrance to Indonesia's highest security Nusakambangan prison in Cilacap, home to a high-security prison where the country conducts executions Bayu Nur (AFP/File)

Rights groups and governments have been voicing concern in recent days, and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Raad Al Hussein expressed alarm at the planned executions.

The increasing use of the death penalty in Indonesia is terribly worrying, and I urge the government to immediately end this practice which is unjust and incompatible with human rights, he said in a statement.

The death penalty is not an effective deterrent relative to other forms of punishment nor does it protect people from drug abuse."

He said that under international law, in countries which have not abolished the death penalty, it may only be used for the most serious crimes -- which has been interpreted to mean only crimes involving intentional killing.

Family members and embassy officials visited the condemned prisoners Wednesday on Nusakambangan island, home to a high-security prison where Indonesia conducts executions.

Indonesia -- which has some of the world's toughest anti-drugs laws -- executed 14 drug convicts, mostly foreigners, in two batches last year.

Activists intensified pressure on President Joko Widodo this week, with Amnesty International saying the executions would put his government "on the wrong side of history".

Indonesia last carried out executions in April 2015 when it put to death eight convicts, including two Australians and a Brazilian, sparking international outrage.

Lawyers for some of the condemned inmates have been making last-minute bids to save their clients from the firing squad.

A letter from Indonesian convict Merri Utami to Widodo asking for clemency was sent on Tuesday. Activists lobbying on behalf of Pakistani prisoner Zulfiqar Ali said they would also consider making a final appeal for clemency, despite alleging their 52-year-old client was tortured into confessing and should not have been convicted.

"We've seen how Indonesia's legal system is full of flaws. (Widodo) can actually put a moratorium on executions, he has the right to do so," said Al Araf, the director of Indonesian rights group Imparsial.

A giant banner reading 'Narcotics threaten everyone, eradicate narcotics,' pictured on Indonesia's Nusakambangan prison island where the country's executions are usually carried out Bay Ismoyo (AFP/File)
Massive IS bomb attack kills 44 in Syrian Kurdish city

A massive bomb blast claimed by the Islamic State jihadist group killed at least 44 people and wounded dozens on Wednesday in the Kurdish-majority Syrian city of Qamishli.

It was the largest and deadliest attack to hit the city since the March 2011 outbreak of Syria's conflict.

State media gave a toll of 44 dead and 140 injured in the bombing, which hit a western district of the city where several local Kurdish ministries are located.

People gather at the site of a bomb attack in the northeastern Syrian city of Qamishli on July 27, 2016 which killed at least 44 people, state media said Delil Souleiman (AFP)

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor gave a toll of 48 dead, adding that children and women were among those killed.

Kurdish officials said the attack was carried out by a suicide bomber driving an explosives-laden truck, adding that the blast detonated a nearby fuel container.

An AFP journalist saw devastating scenes in the bomb's aftermath, with distraught civilians, some covered in blood, staggering through rubble past twisted metal and the burned-out remains of cars.

One man running along the streets was completely covered in blood, his shirt drenched red.

He was gripping the arm of a small boy whose face was grey and red with blood and dust.

They ran past a hysterical woman who was crying and screaming, her clothes torn. A girl and boy stood next to her, apparently in shock.

Children could be heard screaming as smoke rose from small fires that continued to burn amongst the rubble.

Civilians and local security forces with guns slung across their backs worked to carry the dead and wounded from the remains of damaged and destroyed buildings.

- US probes civilian casualties -

The Islamic State group claimed the attack in a statement circulated on social media, calling it "a response to the crimes committed by the crusader coalition aircraft" in the town of Manbij, a bastion of the jihadists in Syria's Aleppo province.

Kurdish fighters have been a key force battling the jihadists in north and northeastern Syria and are the main component in the Syrian Democratic Forces alliance currently seeking to oust IS from Manbij.

They are backed by air strikes launched by the US-led coalition fighting IS in Syria and Iraq.

Civilians have been caught up in the fighting and on Wednesday 800 residents fled Manbij for areas under SDF control, the Observatory said.

Also Wednesday, a spokesman for the US-led coalition said it had opened a formal investigation to determine whether its strikes near Manbij last week had killed civilians.

The Observatory reported that 56 civilians were killed in strikes as they fled a village near Manbij on July 19, and Colonel Chris Garver said there was sufficient credible evidence of civilian victims to warrant a probe.

The coalition aims to open a new front in southern Syria in addition to its ongoing offensive in the northeast, US Defence Secretary Ashton Carter said Wednesday.

Carter said the move will boost security in neighbouring Jordan and further split IS theatres of operation in Syria and Iraq.

Qamishli is under the shared control of the Syrian regime and Kurdish authorities, who have declared zones of "autonomous administration" across parts of north and northeast Syria.

It has regularly been targeted in bomb attacks, many claimed by IS.

But a source in the Kurdish Asayesh security forces told AFP that Wednesday's was "the largest explosion the city has ever seen".

The area that was targeted houses several Kurdish administration buildings including the defence ministry and was considered a secure zone, with multiple checkpoints and security measures.

"This blast is the biggest in Qamishli in terms of both the toll and the damage since the beginning of the war," Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman said.

- Hospitals swamped -

Local officials said hospitals in the city had been swamped with casualties.

State television carried an appeal from the governor of Hasakeh province, where Qamishli is located, urging residents to donate blood.

More than 280,000 people have been killed in Syria since the war began with anti-government protests that were met with a regime crackdown.

In Aleppo city, at least 18 people were killed in government air strikes and artillery fire Wednesday on rebel-held neighbourhoods in the east, the Observatory said.

The Syrian army, meanwhile, officially announced it had severed "all the supply routes and crossings used by terrorists to bring mercenaries, weapons and ammunition into eastern neighbourhoods of Aleppo".

The opposition-held east has been effectively under siege since July 7, when government forces advanced within range of the sole remaining access route.

A source at Aleppo electricity company told state news agency SANA of a major blackout in Aleppo province after "terrorists" fired rocket-propelled grenades at a main supply station.

Aleppo was once the country's economic powerhouse but it has been ravaged by war and divided roughly between government control in the west and rebel control in the east since mid-2012.

Map locating Qamishli in Syria, where dozens have been killed in a double bomb attack Thomas Saint-Cricq (AFP)

Onlookers gather at the site of a bomb attack in the northeastern Syrian city of Qamishli on July 27, 2016, which left at least 44 people dead, according to state media Delil Souleiman (AFP)
Activists Camp At Homan Square To Protest 'Blue Lives Matter' Ordinance

By Mae Rice in News on Jul 26, 2016 7:52PM

Activists have been camped out across the street Homan Square, an alleged Chicago Police Department "black site," since Friday, protesting the proposed "Blue Lives Matter" ordinance headed for Chicago's City Council. They said in a Friday statement that they won't leave until the ordinance's sponsor, ordinance, Ald. Ed Burke (14th), recalls the ordinance, which would extend hate crime protections to past or present police officers.

Demanding justice is not a hate crime, says #LetUsBreathe co-director Kristiana ColAn in an email statement on Friday, and police are not a marginalized group. This ordinance makes it easier to punish people for exercising 1st Amendment rights and harder to hold police accountable for their crimes.

A member of BYP100 and the #LetUsBreathe Collective told the Tribune, of the ordinance, that "[i]t threatens protesters in the name of protecting the most protected group."

At this point, activists affiliated with the #LetUsBreathe Collective have stayed at their campsite at Homan Avenue and Fillmore Street through this weekend's dangerous heat wave and storms that downed CTA stations, the Tribune reports.

The collective chose Homan Square as the site for their protest because it's an alleged off-the-books interrogation facility, where inmates' families often can't find them and attorneys are routinely denied access. If the stories of Homan Square are truewhich the Chicago Police Department says, predictably, that they aren'tit supports the argument that police are anything but marginalized people in need of further protection.

However, according to their Friday statement, the activists want more than a recall of the ordinance. They want to see "divestment from police and investment in community resources," as they put it. They're working to build a vision of a world without police, and their initial camp site was laid out to support that. They put up seven tents, one for each of the resources communities need to thrive without police. They argue these resources include restorative justice, mental health, education, employment, housing, art and nutrition.

We reached out to the #LetUsBreathe Collective for more details on their ongoing protest, and will update this post if we hear back. Meanwhile, the protest is being documented on Twitter using the hashtag #FreedomSquare, where activists are also sharing requests for supplies with the public:


Ex-premier Abhisit turns on Thai junta's draft charter

A former prime minister whose party supported Thailand's last coup lambasted the junta's new constitution on Wednesday before a referendum on it, a rare blow to the army from within its own political camp.

The junta says the new document is crucial to tackling corruption and ending a decade of political turmoil that has torn the country apart.

But critics say it will straitjacket democracy with clauses calling for a fully-appointed senate and unelected premier -- both of which could help the military elite keep its allies in power.

Abhisit Vejjajiva, Thailand's prime minister from 2008-2011, leads the country's second biggest party the Democrats Lilian Suwanrumpha (AFP)

Abhisit Vejjajiva, who was prime minister from 2008-2011, leads the Democrats, Thailand's second biggest party.

"I do not approve of the draft constitution," Abhisit told AFP in a rare attack on the junta from within Bangkok's powerful elite.

His party has failed for two decades to win an election but carries major clout within the establishment that rallied behind the May 2014 overthrow of Yingluck Shinawatra's elected government.

"It goes against the basic principle of what we believe in... democracy," Abhisit said, adding that the document "will trigger new conflict."

He urged the junta to rewrite the charter.

Abhisit, a smooth speaker educated at top British fee-paying school Eton, is a serial election loser who has boycotted two polls in the past decade.

Most recently, he lost the 2011 vote that swept Yingluck into power.

Two years later his deputy led the street protests to unseat Yingluck, who commands strong support from Thailand's rural majority but is hated by the Bangkok-based elite.

Abhisit was a vocal supporter of the protests but became uncharacteristically taciturn as the coup unfolded.

- 'Criminalising expression' -

His intervention against the referendum is likely to sting a military already hypersensitive to criticism.

Last week two eight-year-old girls were charged under a junta law for tearing down voter lists in a game, the latest increasingly bizarre act in a crackdown before the vote.

Yingluck's toppled Puea Thai party has urged supporters to vote down the charter next month.

It would like to see a swift return to elections, which the party is certain it would win after dominating every vote in the past decade with strong support from the rural poor.

But the Shinawatras' political network has been reined in by the junta over the past two years, with the generals especially keen on blocking any 'Vote No' campaign against the charter.

On Wednesday a former Puea Thai MP for Chiang Mai, Thassanee Buranupakorn, was taken into military custody on accusations she printed letters critical of the draft.

She was charged with sedition and violating the junta's draconian anti-campaigning law, police told AFP, crimes that could carry a total of 17 years in prison.

Several other local party figures have been arrested.

The United Nations on Tuesday urged the junta to loosen its grip on dissent over the referendum period.

"Instead of criminalising expression on the draft constitution, the Thai government should encourage an open environment for public discourse," said David Kaye, a UN Special Rapporteur.

The junta has vowed to hold elections in 2017 but has not said what will happen if its charter is rejected, fuelling fears a re-write could prolong its time in power.

An anti-junta protester protests against military rule on the second anniversary of Thailand's military coup in Bangkok on May 22, 2016 Lillian Suwanrumpha (AFP/File)
Top pope aide investigated over Australia child sex abuse: report

Vatican finance chief George Pell is being investigated by Australian police over child sexual abuse allegations, a report by the national broadcaster said Wednesday, as the leading Catholic cleric denounced the claims as "totally untrue".

The new allegations against Pell being probed by police in Victoria state span two decades, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported. They came just months after the cardinal admitted he "mucked up" in dealing with paedophile priests in the state.

When he was the Catholic Archbishop of Sydney in 2002 Pell was accused of historic sex abuse claims but was later cleared of any wrongdoing.

The new allegations against Cardinal George Pell being probed by police in Victoria State span two decades, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported Andreas Solaro (AFP/File)

The ABC said it had obtained eight police statements from complainants, witnesses and family members helping the police investigation.

But the 75-year-old strongly denied the allegations in a statement to the ABC, saying "claims that he has sexually abused anyone, in any place, at any time in his life are totally untrue and completely wrong".

A Victoria police spokeswoman told AFP they would not be making any comment. Victoria police Chief Commissioner Graham Ashton said in June police were looking into allegations against Pell.

The allegations include claims from two men, now in their 40s, who said they were groped by Pell in summer 1978-79 at Eureka pool in Ballarat, where the cleric had grown up and worked.

They also include allegations that Pell was naked in front of three young boys believed to be aged eight to 10 in a Torquay surf club changing room in summer 1986-87.

The national Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in Australia was established in 2012 after a decade of growing pressure to investigate widespread allegations of paedophilia.

- High flyer -

The police investigation into Pell -- which the ABC said has lasted more than a year and involves allegations from Ballarat, Torquay and Melbourne -- is part of a wider probe into complaints that emerge from the royal commission.

The commission has spoken to almost 5,000 survivors and heard harrowing allegations of child abuse involving places of worship, orphanages, community groups and schools.

Pell previously told the commission he was not aware of offences that had occurred in Victoria, where paedophile priests abused dozens of children in the 1970s and 1980s.

He has also denied allegations raised during the commission that he tried to bribe a victim of the now-jailed paedophile priest Gerald Ridsdale -- with whom he once shared church accommodation -- to keep him quiet.

While consistently denying any wrongdoing, the high-flyer has admitted he "should have done more" to follow up on claims of abuse by other clergy.

Pell was ordained in Rome in 1966 before returning to Australia in 1971 and rising to become the nation's top Catholic official.

He left for the Vatican in 2014 after being hand-picked by Pope Francis to make the church's finances more transparent.

The Archbishop of Sydney Anthony Fisher issued a statement Wednesday, saying Pell had a record of leadership in the fight against child sexual abuse and had cooperated with official inquiries on every occasion that he had been asked to do so.
Philippines lobbied ASEAN on sea row verdict: govt

The Philippines said Wednesday it had "vigorously" lobbied Southeast Asian nations to take a united stance critical of Beijing's claims to most of the South China Sea, but insisted a diluted statement remained a victory.

After initially denying doing so, Foreign Secretary Perfecto Yasay said he lobbied his counterparts at a meeting of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Laos this week to refer to the verdict in a statement issued on Monday.

The statement avoided mentioning this month's ruling by a UN-backed tribunal in The Hague that Beijing's claims to almost all of the strategic waterway had no legal basis, instead calling merely for "self-restraint".

Philippine Foreign Secretary Perfecto Yasay speaks at a press conference in Manila on July 27, 2016, having met with US Secretary of State John Kerry Noel Celis (AFP/File)

Asked at a news conference in Manila if he pushed for ASEAN to refer to the ruling, Yasay said: "Yes, vigorously".

However he said the statement was a "victory" for ASEAN, as it referred to upholding principles of international law.

The Philippines, under the previous administration of Benigno Aquino, launched the legal challenge in 2013 against China's claims to most of the sea.

China insists it has sovereign rights to nearly all of the sea, including waters approaching ASEAN members the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei.

Efforts to forge a united ASEAN front on the issue have crumbled in recent years as China has successfully lobbied Cambodia and Laos, which are members of the bloc but Chinese allies.

The Philippines has also adopted a more moderate stance on China under the new government of President Rodrigo Duterte, who has courted closer Chinese economic and political ties since taking office on June 30.

Yasay initially said on Tuesday he had not asked ASEAN members to refer to the ruling in its end-of-meeting statement.

"No. Never, never did. Please don't put words into my mouth," Yasay told reporters in Vientiane when asked if he had called for a reference.

"The other countries are not part of our filing of the case before the arbitral tribunal so why would we insist that it be put in the ASEAN statement?"

Back in Manila on Wednesday, Yasay denied making those comments.

"I never said those things, all right? And please don't put words into my mouth," he told reporters.

A recording of Tuesday's interview in Vientiane by an AFP reporter confirmed Yasay's initial comments.

When asked to explain why Yasay denied lobbying, a foreign affairs spokesman said Wednesday he was unable to clarify.

Diplomats attending the meeting also told AFP that Yasay had pushed for a reference to the tribunal's verdict.

Adding to the confusion, Cambodia's foreign ministry spokesman Chum Sounry said his nation had not vetoed Philippine efforts.

He said Yasay withdrew his request for the tribunal mention, after discussions in which Cambodia made clear it wanted to remain "neutral".

"The Filipino foreign minister himself decided to remove (it) and not to mention the ruling," Chum Sounry said.
Obama warns Democrats to 'stay worried' about Trump

US President Barack Obama warned Democrats Wednesday that anything was possible in the US elections and to "stay worried until all the votes are counted."

Obama, who is the keynote speaker Wednesday at the Democratic National Convention, was asked in an interview with NBC's Today Show whether Republican candidate Donald Trump could defeat the Democrat's Hillary Clinton.

"Anything is possible," he said.

US President Barack Obama is the keynote speaker Wednesday at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia Yuri Gripas (AFP/File)

"As somebody who has now been in elected office at various levels for about 20 years, I have seen all kinds of crazy stuff happen, and I think everybody that goes into campaigns not running scared can end up losing.

"My advice to Democrats -- I don't have to give this advice to Hillary Clinton because she already knows it -- is you stay worried until all the votes are cast and counted, because one of the dangers in an election like this is that people don't take the challenge seriously, they stay home, and we end up getting something else."

Clinton was proclaimed the Democratic presidential nominee Tuesday night at a star-studded convention in Philadelphia keynoted by husband and former president Bill Clinton.

Divisions were on display, however, after leaked emails showed that leaders of the supposedly neutral Democratic National Committee worked to undermine the candidacy of Clinton primary rival, Bernie Sanders.

The Clinton campaign has blamed the leak on Russian hackers bent on helping the Trump campaign. The FBI has said it is investigating.

"Anything is possible," Obama said when asked in the interview about the hack.

"Donald Trump has repeatedly expressed admiration for Vladimir Putin," Obama said in an excerpt of the interview that aired earlier.

"And I think that Trump's gotten pretty favorable coverage back in Russia."

Obama praised Clinton as an "outstanding secretary of state" who helped make the country safer and defended her against Republican accusations that her use of a private email account while in office had compromised national security.

"What I think is scary is a president who doesn't know their stuff and doesn't seem to have an interest in learning what they don't know," he said, referring to Trump.

"I think if you listen to any press conference he has given or any debates, basic knowledge about the world or what a nuclear triad is, or the difference between Sunni and Shia in the Muslim world, those are things he doesn't know and hasn't seem to spend a lot of time trying to find out about."

Obama, who speaks to the convention Wednesday night, said his message would be that "the president of the United States is profoundly optimistic about America's future, and is 100% convinced that Hillary Clinton can be a great president."
Hong Kong activists in court over new election rules

Hong Kong pro-democracy activists challenged controversial new election rules in court Wednesday after candidates for an upcoming vote were asked to sign a form saying the city is an "inalienable" part of China.

Critics have slammed the new stipulation as political censorship and an attempt to deter candidates in September's parliamentary elections from advocating self-determination or independence from Beijing.

It comes as some young campaigners are calling for more distance or even a complete breakaway from the mainland as fears grow that freedoms in the semi-autonomous city are disappearing due to Beijing interference.

Edward Leung is a leading member of Hong Kong Indigenous, a "localist" group pushing for independence from Beijing Anthony Wallace (AFP/File)

At least 13 pro-democracy candidates have refused to sign the declaration.

Hong Kong's High Court said Wednesday it would not make a ruling on the challenge over the legality of the form -- brought by two pro-democracy political groups -- before the end of the nomination process Friday, as activists had wanted.

Instead the case was adjourned until August.

"The public should be angry...if candidates have to be screened based on their political views," activist Avery Ng of the League of Social Democrats told reporters, adding he was "disappointed" with the delay in the court decision.

Edward Leung of Hong Kong Indigenous -- a "localist" group pushing for independence from Beijing -- said everyone had the right to stand.

"This is definitely political censorship if someone is not approved to stand in the election," Leung told reporters outside court.

It is not yet clear whether those candidates who have refused to sign the form will be barred from running.

Some have told local media their candidacy has been confirmed despite opting out of the declaration. Others have said they have been quizzed by election officials over their stance on independence.

Leaders of several pro-independence groups have announced they are running for the legislature in September, as well as other pro-democracy campaigners who are calling for self-determination for Hong Kong.

Beijing and Hong Kong officials have repeatedly said that advocating independence goes against the city's mini constitution and that independence activists could face legal consequences.

Election authorities in Hong Kong introduced the new declaration form earlier this month. It sets out three constitutional points, including the description of Hong Kong as a "local administrative region" of China.

Hong Kong was returned from Britain to China in 1997 under an arrangement that guarantees civil liberties unseen on the mainland.

But concerns have grown that such freedoms are now fading.

That negative sentiment was exacerbated by the disappearance last year of five Hong Kong-based booksellers from a firm that published gossipy books about leading Chinese politicians.

All resurfaced on the mainland where they were investigated over trading banned books.
Kuwait jails Shiite MP for insulting Saudi, Bahrain

A Kuwaiti court on Wednesday sentenced a Shiite lawmaker to 14 years and six months in absentia for remarks deemed highly offensive to fellow Gulf states Saudi Arabia and Bahrain.

Abdulhameed Dashti received 11 years and six months for insulting Saudi Arabia and three years for insulting Bahrain in another case.

The outspoken lawmaker, who has been living overseas for the past four months, was also convicted of endangering Kuwait's diplomatic ties with the two countries and for calling on people to join the Lebanese Shiite Hezbollah militia.

Kuwaiti Shiite MP Abdulhamid Dashti received 14 years and six months jail term in absentia for insulting Saudi Arabia and Bahrain Yasser Al-Zayyat (AFP/File)

Dashti described the sentences as "oppressive" on his Twitter account, but insisted that he will not back down.

The verdicts are not final but Dashti can only challenge them when he goes back to the oil-rich emirate. He did not say when he will return.

Dashti, a strong supporter of Iran and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, told parliament in March that he was undergoing medical treatment in Britain.

The lawmaker still faces several similar cases and if convicted could receive additional jail terms.

Dashti has been a vocal critic of the royal families of both Saudi Arabia and Bahrain.

He denounced the 2011 Saudi military intervention in Bahrain to support the government against Shiite-led protests as an "invasion".

In May last year, Dashti filed a request to question the Kuwaiti foreign minister over the country's participation in the Saudi-led air campaign against Yemen's Shiite Huthi rebels.

But parliament refused to allow him to grill the minister over Kuwait's involvement, which he alleged was in breach of the constitution.
US national among extremists killed in Bangladesh: police

A US national of Bangladesh origin was among nine suspected Islamist extremists killed in a massive gunfight in Dhaka, police said Wednesday, as officers hunted a militant who fled the shoot-out.

Dhaka Metropolitan Police spokesman Masudur Rahman told AFP that Shahzad Rouf was one of nine young men who were killed during Tuesday's early morning raid on a militant hideout.

"He was an American citizen. We confirmed his identity by checking finger prints," he told AFP.

An Islamic State group flag is seen in a handout photo released by Bangladeshi police of the house where suspected Islamist extremists were killed in a gun battle with authorities in Dhaka on July 26, 2016 STR (BANGLADESHI POLICE/AFP)

He said six other dead extremists were also identified by police investigators by matching their finger prints with their national identity cards.

The nine were shot dead when hundreds of armed police stormed their den at a six-storey apartment building in Dhaka's Kalyanpur neighbourhood.

Police on Wednesday launched a hunt for a survivor of the raid. Investigators hope the escaped extremist and another man who was arrested during the gunfight will shed light on the group's claimed ties with the Islamic State group (IS).

"We're conducting an investigation. Hasan has claimed that they were IS members," a senior security official told AFP, referring to a 25-year-old arrested in the raid who is being treated in hospital.

The British Council temporarily closed its offices in Bangladesh Wednesday over safety fears, as a rumour swirled that Islamist extremists would soon target a major market, school or foreign organisation.

Rouf, 24, was a business administration student at the North South University (NSU), Rahman said.

Local media said he was a close friend of Nibras Islam, one of five gunmen who attacked an upscale Dhaka cafe on July 1 and killed 22 people, mostly foreigners.

NSU, a top private university, has been a hotbed of Islamist extremism.

Another of its students was shot dead in a northern Bangladesh town a week after the Dhaka cafe attack when Islamists launched a major assault on the country's largest Eid prayer congregation, where some 250,000 people gathered.

Seven of its students were also convicted and jailed in December last year for the murder of an atheist blogger in early 2013, kickstarting a deadly campaign against secular activists and religious minorities.

Dhaka police chief Asaduzzaman Mia told reporters after the raid that most of the extremists killed in the operation were highly educated and from the country's elite.

- Islamic State? -

Rouf's father, Touhid Rouf, told AFP that he was shown a body, but was not sure whether it was that of his son.

"I am not 100 percent sure. I am confused. Maybe it is because the body had an autopsy and it was partly decomposed. We need a DNA test," he told AFP.

He confirmed that his son was an American passport holder and that he had been missing from home for the last six months.

A US embassy spokesman refused to comment on Rouf's case.

Rouf had been named on a list of missing people prepared by the elite security force Rapid Action Battalion after authorities raised concerns that he might have fled the country and joined the Islamic State group.

The nine had claimed that they were members of the Islamic State organisation, with officers recovering the group's black flags and robes from their hideout.

But the national police chief rejected the claim, asserting that the nine were members of banned homegrown militant outfit Jamayetul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB).

IS said it was responsible for the attack, releasing images of the carnage and photos of the five gunmen posing with the group's flag.The group has claimed responsibility for dozens of murders of religious minority members and foreigners in Bangladesh in recent months.

Bangladesh authorities, however, have steadfastly maintained that the IS has no presence in the world's third-largest Muslim majority nation. They blame homegrown groups such as JMB.

The government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has launched a nationwide man-hunt for Islamists, arresting more than a dozen suspected extremists including one of JMB's regional heads.

Bangladeshi onlookers gather near the house where police killed nine suspected Islamist extremists in Dhaka on July 26, 2016 STR (AFP)
Mugabe fights back after Zimbabwe protests

Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe on Wednesday launched a blistering attack on anti-government activists, foreign embassies and disaffected war veterans as he sought to assert his grip on power following recent protests.

Mugabe addressed thousands of supporters outside the headquarters of the ruling ZANU-PF party, issuing a clear threat to Evan Mawarire, the pastor who has become the figurehead of a new opposition movement.

"The Mawarires. I want to warn them very strongly," Mugabe said in a fiery 45-minute speech.

Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe, pictured in April 2016, speaks during the burial of two national heroines, Victoria Chitepo and Vivian Mwashita, at the National Heroes Acre in Harare Jekesai Njikizana (AFP/File)

"ZANU-PF will not tolerate any nonsense.

"Once you begin to interfere with our politics, you are courting real trouble.

"We know how to deal with our enemies who have been trying to bring about regime change."

Mugabe, who took power in 1980 and is now aged 92, has often used his security forces to crack down ruthlessly on any sign of dissent in Zimbabwe.

But a wave of street demonstrations and strikes has shaken his government, which has run out of money and is struggling to pay its soldiers and civil servants.

In the latest sign of growing national instability, veterans of Zimbabwe's 1970s independence war, who have previously been loyal supporters of the president, issued a statement last week denouncing him.

"When we find out who the people were, the party will discipline them. The punishment will be severe," Mugabe said in his first comments on the veterans' criticisms.

Douglas Mahiya, a spokesman for the war veterans who issued the communique, was Wednesday summoned for interrogation by the police, his lawyer said.

"They said they want him for questioning," lawyer Charles Nyika told AFP a few hours after Mugabe's warning.

- 'I will continue' -

Earlier this month, many offices, shops and some government departments closed for a one-day nationwide strike to protest over the country's economic collapse -- worsened by a severe drought.

Mugabe on Wednesday also repeated his accusations that western countries were fuelling opposition against him.

"The foreign embassies in the country that are interfering with our politics... I want to warn them to desist from it," he said.

"(They) try and subvert our system of government."

Authorities in Zimbabwe have alleged the French and US envoys support the popular "ThisFlag" protest movement, named after the hashtag first adopted by Mawarire.

Mugabe's audience on Wednesday was made up of party loyalists, some of them waving the party flag and wearing party regalia displaying his portrait.

"There is one centre of power and that is Comrade President Mugabe. (He) should rule until death," Dickson Mafios, a provincial party chairman, told the crowd.

Mugabe, who is increasingly fragile, has vowed to stand for re-election in 2018, though party seniors have long been jockeying to step into the role when he dies.

"As long as the party still wants me to serve and if I still have the energy and still have the life and the blessings of God, I will continue," he said.

Mugabe's wife Grace and vice-president Emmerson Mnangagwa are among the possible successors of the world's oldest president.

Zimbabwean cleric Evan Mawarire, pictured in May 2016, wrapped in the Zimbabwean National flag, recording an instalment of his #ThisFlag video series, in which he decries the government's failure to provide basic services Jekesai Njikizana (AFP/File)
Boeing shares rise despite 1st quarterly loss since 2009

Boeing reported its first quarterly loss in nearly seven years Wednesday, but its shares jumped as it confirmed its target for 2016 plane deliveries, saying the commercial aircraft market remains strong.

The US aerospace giant lost $234 million for the quarter ending June 30, its first loss since the third quarter of 2009. Boeing made $1.1 billion in the year-ago period.

But the loss, caused largely by $2.1 billion in charges that the company warned of last week, was smaller than analysts expected.

Boeing lost $234 million for the quarter ending June 30, 2016 Roslan Rahman (AFP/File)

Other aspects of the report also topped forecasts, buoying the company's shares. Revenues edged up nearly one percent to $24.8 billion, about $800 million more than forecasts.

Analysts said some key profit-margin metrics also bested expectations once one-time items were removed.

"The underlying operating performance of the company remains solid, with our commercial and defense teams again delivering strong revenues and operating cash flow," said Boeing chief executive Dennis Muilenburg.

Boeing shares were up 1.0 percent at midday to $136.24, making it one of the best performers in the Dow.

Boeing's warned last week of the large unexpected charges, including $393 million in elevated costs associated with the KC-46 military tanker program.

The company charged off $847 million after deciding not to upgrade two Boeing 787s that had been used in flight and ground testing.

And it booked $814 million in costs due to a slower production schedule for its 747-8 cargo plane.

The loss prompted Boeing to trim its full-year earnings forecast. However, Boeing confirmed other key targets, including its revenue outlook.

Muilenburg said the commercial airline market remains robust, pointing to an order book worth $11 billion and noting that plane cancelation and deferrals remain low due to heavy airline demand.

Boeing's schedule to ramp up production of its 737 short- and medium-range aircraft is on track, but the company has more "work to do" to nail down orders for the larger 777 and 787 planes, Muilenburg said on a conference call with analysts.

Keeping to a brisk schedule to boost plane production is key to meeting mid- and long-term profit targets.
US military bases at risk from sea level rise: study

US military bases along the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico will be increasingly vulnerable to floods and power-packed storms as the planet warms, researchers said Wednesday.

The report by the Union of Concerned Scientists spanned 18 military bases, and found that many risk losing land and strategic assets in the coming decades due to sea level rise.

"By 2050, most of these sites will see more than 10 times the number of floods they experience today," said lead analyst Kristy Dahl, UCS consulting scientist and report co-author.

USS Independence arrives at Mole Pier at Naval Air Station Key West in Key West, Florida in 2010

"In 2070, all but a few are projected to see flooding once or twice every day. Shockingly, these aren't even the worst-case scenarios."

The analysis was based on two different projections of sea level rise and how it may affect US bases from Florida to Maine.

The first, "intermediate" assessment "assumes a moderate rate of ice sheet melt that increases over time and projects an ultimate rise of 3.7 feet (1.13 meters) above 2012 levels, globally, by the end of this century," said the report.

The other scenario, assumed a "more rapid ice sheet loss and projects an ultimate rise of 6.3 feet (1.9 meters) above 2012 levels" across the planet by the year 2100.

Scientists say global sea level has already risen about eight inches (20 centimeters) since 1880, and that the US East and Gulf Coasts are seeing some of the fastest rates of sea level rise, in part because the land there is also sinking.

Even though US military bases have been built out of reach of high tides, this means that as oceans swell, flooding will become more common and storm surges more devastating to bases, which are home to strategic training and testing grounds, infrastructure and housing, the study said.

- Land loss -

When it comes to land loss due to daily floods, the most severely affected installations are expected to be Naval Air Station Key West in Florida, Joint Base Langley-Eustis and NAS Oceana Dam Neck in Virginia, and Marine Corps Recruit Depot (MCRD) on Parris Island in South Carolina, said the report.

"These military installations lose between 75 and 95 percent of their land area, including utilized land and developed areas, by the end of the century in the highest scenario."

By the year 2100, "nearly half of the sites studied lose 25 percent or more of their land area to the sea in the intermediate scenario and lose 50 percent or more in the highest scenario," said the report.

Many of the bases should anticipate more severe storms, to the extent that a Category One storm today would be felt as if it were a Category Two storm in 80 percent of the bases study by the end of this century.

Some bases are already working to adapt to sea level rise.

For instance, Langley Air Force Base in Virginia has installed floodwater pumps and built a shoreline seawall to protect some of its buildings.

"The Pentagon knows it has a problem, and some bases are already making an effort to reduce their exposure," said Erika Spanger-Siegfried, lead author of the report and senior analyst in the Climate and Energy program at UCS.
Mothers Of Hadiya Pendleton And Sandra Bland Will Headline The DNC Tuesday

By Gwendolyn Purdom in News on Jul 26, 2016 9:29PM



Seven black women who've lost their children to high-profile gun violence or at the hands of law enforcementincluding Chicago area mothers Cleopatra Cowley-Pendleton, mother of Hadiya Pendleton, and Sandra Bland's mother Geneva Reed-Vealwill take the stage at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia Tuesday night to speak out against the kinds of tragedies they've endured in a keynote speech pledging their support for Hillary Clinton.

Known as the "Mothers of the Movement," the group, which also includes the mothers of victims such as Trayvon Martin and Eric Garner, has banded together in recent months to share their stories and push for change. In November of 2015, Clinton privately flew several of the women to a Near West Side cafe for a chance to meet and discuss community needs and solutions, the New York Times reported, and in the months since the group has campaigned for Clinton in videos and at events across the country. Clinton has been vocal about the need to address issues of gun violence and racially-charged police brutality throughout her campaign. On Tuesday night, she's set to premiere a new campaign ad featuring the 'Mothers.' On a campaign stop in Springfield a few weeks ago, she cited Bland's death, as well as the killing of Laquan McDonald in her speech.

Despite our best efforts and highest hopes, Americas long struggle with race is far from finished," Clinton told the Springfield crowd.

It's a priority that hasn't gone unnoticed in the African American communityespecially among voters.

Cowley-Pendleton, whose 15-year-old daughter Hadiya was gunned down on the South Side in 2013 just weeks after she'd performed at President Barack Obama's second inauguration, has been a visible supporter of gun violence reforms in the years since her daughter's death, whether it's starting an anti-gun-violence foundation in Hadiya's memory, introducing gun-trafficking bills with Illinois senators or attending Obama's 2013 State of the Union address. Reed-Veal, Sandra Bland's mother, has also made appearances at events like the vigil held in memory of her daughter in the Loop earlier this month.

Bill Clinton will also give a keynote speech Tuesday, but he'll have a hard time competing with the emotional punch these women's appearance is sure to pack.
UN raises alarm over humanitarian catastrophe in Lake Chad region

Warning of humanitarian catastrophe in Nigeria and the Lake Chad region, the UN's aid chief on Wednesday called for scaling up efforts to address Africa's fastest growing refugee crisis.

More than 2.8 million people have been displaced in northeastern Nigeria and parts of Cameroon, Chad and Niger, fleeing attacks by Boko Haram Islamists who have ransacked villages across the poverty-stricken region.

"If we do not act now, the human suffering will only get more extreme," Stephen O'Brien told a Security Council meeting called to discuss the crisis.

This photo taken on June 19, 2016 in the village of Kidjendi near Diffa shows women standing near makeshift tent in a camp as displaced families fled from Boko Haram attacks in Bosso Issouf Sanogo (AFP/File)

"We have to stop this  we can with will, money, urgency and coordination."

More than nine million people are in need of urgent food aid in the region  seven million of them in Nigeria.

The UN under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs stressed that Boko Haram's violent campaign "is as much or now even more a humanitarian catastrophe as it is a security priority."

Boko Haram has coerced more than 50 children to carry out suicide bombings from January to June of this year, said O'Brien.

He expressed frustration with the lack of international attention to the plight of those affected by Boko Haram's campaign.

"I have been shouting into what feels like an empty room to highlight the dire situation in the Lake Chad Basin," he added.

O'Brien renewed calls for donor funding to support humanitarian efforts.

Only 28 percent of the UN's appeal for $279 million in funding has been pledged, and requests for funds to help Niger, Cameroon and Chad are also underfunded, he said.

The medical charity Doctors Without Borders also raised alarms, saying its teams had recently found extremely high levels of malnutrition in Nigeria's northeastern Borno state.
Coalition aims to open new anti-IS front in Syria: US

The US-led coalition fighting the Islamic State group aims to open a new front in southern Syria in addition to its ongoing offensive in the northeast, US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said Wednesday.

"We will aggressively pursue opportunities to build pressure on ISIL in Syria from the south, complementing our existing, robust efforts from northeastern Syria," he said in a speech to US troops at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. ISIL is another term for the Islamic State group.

Carter said the move will help Jordanian security and further split IS theaters of operation in Syria and Iraq.

Defense Secretary Ashton Carter, pictured on July 20, 2016, says the US-led coalition fighting the Islamic State group "will aggressively pursue opportunities to build pressure on ISIL in Syria from the south" Saul Loeb (AFP/File)

At the moment, the main coalition effort is centered on recapturing the Manbij pocket in northern Syria, the last jihadist-held territory bordering Turkey.

That offensive is being led by the Syrian Democratic Forces, an Arab-Kurdish coalition.

US-backed rebels also have tried to attack IS from the south, but so far without success.

The New Syrian Army, a small rebel formation allied with the United States, tried in June to attack IS positions in Boukamal on the border with Iraq.

But after coming within five kilometers (three miles) of the town, the rebels were repelled by a jihadist counteroffensive.

In another setback, the Pentagon said a rebel camp was bombed in mid-June by Russian warplanes, a charge Moscow has denied.

After two years of war against the jihadists, the coalition estimates it has recovered about 50 percent of the territory seized by IS in Iraq, and 20 percent in Syria.

The allies' objective is to isolate and then recapture the cities of Raqa in Syria and Mosul in Iraq, the most important IS strongholds.
Missing MH370 wreckage may be further north, study suggests

Just days after authorities mooted suspending the ocean search for missing flight MH370, researchers suggested on Wednesday that the debris zone may stretch a further 500 kilometres (310 miles) north.

A team of Italian scientists used computer modelling, into which they fed data on ocean currents and winds over the past two years, to try and pinpoint the Malaysia Airlines plane's likely underwater grave.

They also added information on the location of five confirmed pieces of debris found to date  two in Mozambique and one each in Reunion, South Africa, and Mauritius.

This photo taken on August 14, 2015 shows a patrol boat taking part in the search for wreckage from the missing MH370 plane off the coast of Saint-Marie on the French island of La Reunion Richard Bouhet (AFP/File)

"One of the most important findings is that everything that has been discovered so far is indeed compatible with the area where the authorities are searching," lead researcher Eric Jansen of the Euro-Mediterranean Center on Climate Change in Italy told AFP.

"The most likely (crash) area we found in our simulations overlaps with the official search area," he said. But it also stretches a further 500 km north.

"If nothing is found in the current search area, it may be worth extending the search in this direction," said Jansen, while conceding "the area is very large."

Last week, Malaysia, Australia and China said hopes of finding the doomed plane were fading and the search would be suspended if nothing is found in the current search zone.

The Boeing 777 vanished on March 8, 2014 en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, with 239 people aboard. It remains one of the greatest mysteries in aviation history.

The Australian-led search operation is scanning the seafloor at forbidding depths within a 120,000-square-kilometre (46,000-square-mile) area -- nearly the size of Greece.

"I don't expect really that the authorities will change their opinion based on this" new data, said Jansen.

"The search is incredibly expensive and has being going on for two years," he said, adding: "it is, of course, a question of money."

Jansen described the disappearance of the plane as "bizarre".

"It is important to understand what happened, not only for all the people directly involved, but also for the safety of aviation in general," he said in a statement issued by the European Geosciences Union, which publishes the Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences journal in which the study was carried.

"We hope that we can contribute to this, even if our study is just a small piece of a very complicated puzzle."
New Israeli settlement plans 'provocative' says US

The United States has slammed as "provocative" Israeli plans to build hundreds of new settlement homes in annexed east Jerusalem, saying they seriously undermined the prospect of peace with the Palestinians.

"We are deeply concerned by reports today that the government of Israel has published tenders for 323 units in east Jerusalem settlements," State Department spokesman John Kirby said in a statement on Wednesday.

"This follows Monday's announcement of plans for 770 units in the settlement of Gilo."

A picture taken from the West Bank city of Hebron on July 6, 2016 shows a house (in the foreground) belonging to Palestinians in front of buildings in the Kiryat Arba Jewish settlement on the outskirts of the Palestinian flashpoint city Hazem Bader (AFP/File)

"These steps by Israeli authorities are the latest examples of what appears to be a steady acceleration of settlement activity that is systematically undermining the prospects for a two-state solution," Kirby said.

"We remain troubled that Israel continues this pattern of provocative and counterproductive action, which raises serious questions about Israel's ultimate commitment to a peaceful, negotiated settlement with the Palestinians."

Palestinian leaders and the United Nations joined in condemning plans advanced this week for 770 new homes that would expand the Gilo settlement on the southern perimeter of east Jerusalem.

They are part of a larger Israeli plan for around 1,200 units approved some three years ago, according to Ir Amim, an NGO that monitors Israeli settlement activity.

On Wednesday, tenders for 323 settlement homes in four areas of east Jerusalem were published, Ir Amim and Israeli NGO Peace Now said.

The tenders in at least three of the areas had been previously published but the homes were not built for unclear reasons. They are now being relaunched, Peace Now said.

"On the one hand, the government does not allow for Palestinian construction, and on the other hand it promotes massive construction for Israelis," Peace Now said in a statement.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government "decided to repudiate the Quartet report and to prove, yet again, that it has no intention to promote a peace agreement based on a two-state solution."

A recent report by the diplomatic Quartet -- the United States, European Union, Russia and the UN -- said settlement expansion was eroding the possibility of a two-state solution to the conflict.

Israeli settlements in east Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank are viewed as illegal under international law.

They are also considered major stumbling blocks to peace efforts as they are built on land Palestinians view as part of their future state.

Kirby also voiced concern about increased demolitions of Palestinian structures in the West Bank and east Jerusalem.

"More than 650 Palestinian structures have been demolished this year, with more Palestinian structures demolished in the West Bank and east Jerusalem thus far than in all of 2015," he said.

"As the recent Quartet report highlighted, this is part of an ongoing process of land seizures, settlement expansion, legalisations of outposts, and denial of Palestinian development that risk entrenching a one-state reality of perpetual occupation and conflict."

Israel occupied the West Bank and east Jerusalem in 1967. It later annexed east Jerusalem, which Palestinians view as their future capital.
Rescuers race to reach trapped miners in Nicaragua

BONANZA, Nicaragua (AP)  Rescuers in Nicaragua raced Friday to reach at least 24 freelance gold miners trapped by a landslide, including 20 who have been located and have managed to communicate with emergency crews.

Hundreds of relatives and fellow miners prayed outside the El Comal gold and silver mine in the community of Bonanza as rescuers lined up wooden ladders along a 200-foot long tunnel leading toward where the 20 miners are trapped in a kind of cave, authorities said. The mine cuts into the side of a mountain and upward. The miners were trapped when the shaft they were working in was cut off by collapsed earth.

Bonanza Mayor Alexander Alvarado said rescuers are close to reaching the area where the miners have been cut off for more than 24 hours. Workers normally enter the mines with enough food and water for the workday.

Margarita Mendez is helped by friends while she waits for news her son Salvador Urbina, one of the miners trapped at El Comal gold and silver mine after a landslide trapped at least 24 miners inside, in Bonanza, Nicaragua, Friday, Aug. 29, 2014. Rescuers on Friday located 20 of at least 24 gold miners trapped by a landslide in northern Nicaragua, but were not immediately able to bring them to safety. (AP Photo/Esteban Felix)

"In a few minutes it will be possible to bring them food and water," he said.

Commander Javier Amaya of the rescue team said the rescue plan involves groups "of five or 10 miners entering the mine on wooden ladders, tying themselves off and going in until they reach them."

Amaya said local residents had joined the rescue crews. Bonanza is located about 260 miles (420 kilometers) northeast of Managua.

Teams with dogs helped locate the 20 trapped miners, but authorities had not yet been able to get them out by Friday night. The 20 have been able to communicate with rescue workers, telling them they don't know the whereabouts of the other four miners. Two other miners were rescued earlier.

Hundreds of relatives, friends and fellow miners with their helmet lights turned on gathered at El Comal, praying and crying as they waited for news.

Jorge Hernandez, 25, said he learned his brother is one of the miners trapped while watching television in Nicaragua's capital, Managua. He said he rushed to Bonanza.

"We're praying to God with all of our souls so that my brother and the other men can be rescued alive and well," he said. He added that his brother Michael, 24, moved to Bonanza from Managua last year to work in the mine.

The gold and silver mine is operated by Colombia's Hemco. The trapped miners are not employees of Hemco, but rather freelancers allowed to work in the company's concession if they sell any gold they find to the firm, mining company spokesman Gregorio Downs told The Associated Press.

Downs said the company had warned miners about the danger of working in the El Comal area, especially after two miners died in a rain-caused landslide there last month.

"We live by extracting mineral from Hemco. They told us digging here was risky, but sometimes one is willing to risk it for a few more cents," said Absalon Toledo, leader of the informal miners.

Authorities didn't receive word of the landslide until late Thursday after the mine lost contact with the workers, who are believed to be about 165 feet (50 meters) below the surface.

"We are doing everything possible so that the 20 workers come out alive, but we don't know how long it is going to take," said Marta Lagos, secretary of the governing Sandinistas.

Downs told the government's news website that the company initially had contact with the trapped miners. But he said apparently there were more slides inside after the initial one.

According to the website of Nicaragua-based Hemco, the company has mined in the north Atlantic municipality since 1995 and employs 532 workers, who process 700 tons of material a day. The company, majority owned by Colombia's Mineros S.A., says it produces more than 2,500 pounds (1,150 kilograms, 37,000 troy ounces) of gold a year and is Nicaragua's 12th largest exporter.

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Associated Press writer Luis Manuel Galeano reported from Managua and Esteban Felix reported from Bonanza. Associated Press writer Olga R. Rodriguez contributed from Mexico City.

Miners carry a coffin as they prepare for the worse possible scenario, at El Comal gold and silver mine after a landslide trapped at least 24 miners inside, in Bonanza, Nicaragua, Friday, Aug. 29, 2014. Rescuers on Friday located 20 of at least 24 gold miners trapped by a landslide in northern Nicaragua, but were not immediately able to bring them to safety. (AP Photo/Esteban Felix)

A miner takes a break from the rescue operations at El Comal gold and silver mine after a landslide trapped at least 24 miners inside, in Bonanza, Nicaragua, Friday, Aug. 29, 2014. Rescuers on Friday located 20 of at least 24 gold miners trapped by a landslide in northern Nicaragua, but were not immediately able to bring them to safety. (AP Photo/Esteban Felix)

A miner enters the El Comal gold and silver mine to help with rescue operations after a landslide trapped at least 24 miners inside, in Bonanza, Nicaragua, Friday, Aug. 29, 2014. Rescuers on Friday located 20 of at least 24 gold miners trapped by a landslide in northern Nicaragua, but were not immediately able to bring them to safety. (AP Photo/Esteban Felix)

Miners wait for their turn to help in the rescue operations at El Comal gold and silver mine after a landslide trapped at least 24 miners inside, in Bonanza, Nicaragua, Friday, Aug. 29, 2014. Rescuers on Friday located 20 of at least 24 gold miners trapped by a landslide in northern Nicaragua, but were not immediately able to bring them to safety. (AP Photo/Esteban Felix)

Margarita Mendez, hugs her son while she cries and waits for news of her other son Salvador Urbina, one of the miners trapped at El Comal gold and silver mine after a landslide trapped at least 24 miners inside, in Bonanza, Nicaragua, Friday, Aug. 29, 2014. Rescuers on Friday located 20 of at least 24 gold miners trapped by a landslide in northern Nicaragua, but were not immediately able to bring them to safety. (AP Photo/Esteban Felix)

A miner walks inside the El Comal mine during rescue operations at the gold and silver mine after a landslide trapped at least 24 miners inside, in Bonanza, Nicaragua, Friday, Aug. 29, 2014. Rescuers on Friday located 20 of at least 24 gold miners trapped by a landslide in northern Nicaragua, but were not immediately able to bring them to safety. (AP Photo/Esteban Felix)

A miner rests after taking part in the rescue operation of the miners trapped at El Comal gold and silver mine after a landslide trapped at least 24 miners inside, in Bonanza, Nicaragua, Friday, Aug. 29, 2014. Rescuers on Friday located 20 of at least 24 gold miners trapped by a landslide in northern Nicaragua, but were not immediately able to bring them to safety. (AP Photo/Esteban Felix)
French official visits Mississippi to back union at Nissan

JACKSON, Miss. (AP)  A French parliamentarian is visiting Mississippi as part of an effort to pressure Nissan Motor Co. to allow workers at its Canton plant to organize a union.

Christian Hutin, deputy chairman of the Social Affairs Commission of the French National Assembly, is meeting Tuesday with workers, lawmakers and other supporters of the United Autoworkers efforts to unionize the plant's 6,200 employees.

The French government has an ownership stake in Nissan's business partner, the Renault Group, and pro-union advocates hope French officials can lobby the company. It's part of a continuing worldwide effort by the UAW to push Nissan to be more accepting of the union.

UAW Secretary-Treasurer Gary Casteel has said the union has collected the required 30 percent of worker signatures to force a union vote at the plant. The union has never sought such a vote, although UAW recruitment efforts have ramped up this year.

The French government owns almost 20 percent of Renault, which in turn owns 42 percent of Nissan. The two companies have operated a worldwide alliance since 1999. French government efforts to increase its voting power over Renault last year caused strains until the government and the two companies agreed to limit that power.

Hutin and the union say Nissan unfairly pressures workers to vote against a union, something the company denies. Hutin said he agreed to come to Mississippi after several delegations of union supporters visited France. He sought a meeting with Canton plant manager Steve Marsh, but was turned down.

"Perhaps he's afraid, I say," Hutin told a group of workers, union leaders and Democratic lawmakers at the Mississippi Capitol Tuesday. "He has something to hide. It would be bad PR on their part to communicate the truth."

In June, Hutin wrote a letter co-signed by 35 French and European policymakers asking Renault-Nissan to remain neutral in union organizing efforts in Canton.

Nissan denies any improper pressure, though the company opposes a union at the plant. Nissan spokeswoman Parul Bajaj said the company respects labor law and that employees are free to support or reject the UAW.

"Nissan not only respects labor laws, but we work to ensure that all employees are aware of these laws, understand their rights and enjoy the freedom to express their opinions and elect their representation as desired," Bajaj said in a statement.

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3 wounded in shooting at Armenian police station

YEREVAN, Armenia (AP)  A spokesman for Armenia's police says two of the gunmen who have been holding a police station in the capital for more than a week have surrendered after an exchange of gunfire.

Police spokesman Ashot Arahonyan says on Facebook that the gunfire began before dawn on Wednesday. He said one police officer and two gunmen were wounded and taken to hospital. Two other gunmen gave themselves up, he said.
Dozens of protesters arrested near Minnesota governor's home

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP)  Police arrested dozens of people Tuesday while trying to reopen the street in front of the governor's mansion in St. Paul, where protesters have been demonstrating over the shooting death of a black man by a suburban police officer nearly three weeks ago.

St. Paul police said 46 people were arrested Tuesday for public nuisance and unlawful assembly near the Summit Avenue residence.

Police tried several times to reopen the street, Linders said. One officer was treated for heat exhaustion, he said.

An angry protester stares down a St. Paul police officer after police began making arrests Tuesday, July 26, 2016, in front of Gov. Mark Dayton's mansion, where protesters have been demonstrating over the shooting death of a black man by a suburban police officer nearly three weeks ago, in St. Paul, Minn. (David Joles/Star Tribune via AP)

Demonstrators have been camping outside the governor's residence since July 7, a day after Philando Castile was shot and killed by a St. Anthony police officer during a traffic stop. Castile's girlfriend livestreamed the aftermath of his shooting on Facebook.

Protesters began gathering their belongings Tuesday morning after police told the group that they had to stop blocking the street.

Officers arrested three demonstrators on the sidewalk and another in the street around 11 a.m. after one allegedly removed a "No Parking" sign from a nearby curb, the Star Tribune reported. An additional 16 on the sidewalk were arrested just before 12:30 p.m. Others were arrested at various locations near the residence later in the day.

Minneapolis NAACP President Nekima Levy-Pounds accused police of a "show of military force against unarmed peaceful protesters," Minnesota Public Radio News reported. She said she would not tell people to stop the protest.

"I'm not telling the people to move. They deserve to be out here," Levy-Pounds said. "We don't need to be treated like animals and criminals when we're simply out here demanding justice for someone who didn't deserve to be killed."

Gov. Mark Dayton, who is in Philadelphia for the Democratic National Convention, has said protesters were welcome to stay outside his residence as long as they wanted. Dayton has suggested that race played a role in Castile's death.

Dayton was not involved in the decision to clear the street, spokesman Sam Fettig said Tuesday.

Officers began their action around 7:15 a.m. when protesters were found "sleeping in the street on blankets," Linders said.

Police had cleared the street before  on July 18  but protesters went back into the road on Sunday.

The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension is investigating Castile's death.

Demonstrator Jacob Ladda is taken away in handcuffs Tuesday, July 26, 2016, in front of Gov. Mark Dayton's mansion, where protesters have been demonstrating over the shooting death of a black man by a suburban police officer nearly three weeks ago, in St. Paul, Minn. (David Joles/Star Tribune via AP)

A protester, who would not give her name, stands defiantly in front of St. Paul police Tuesday, July 26, 2016, in front of Gov. Mark Dayton's mansion, where protesters have been demonstrating over the shooting death of a black man by a suburban police officer nearly three weeks ago, in St. Paul, Minn. (David Joles/Star Tribune via AP)

A protester is arrested outside Gov. Mark Dayton's mansion where protesters have been demonstrating over the shooting death of a black man by a suburban police officer nearly three weeks ago, in St. Paul, Minn. Tuesday, July 26, 2016. (David Joles/Star Tribune via AP)

Protesters pack up sleeping bags, bedding and other belongings after police told them them must remove their belongings from the street and sidewalk in front of the Governor's residence on Summit Avenue in St. Paul,. Minn. on Tuesday, July 26, 2016. Police have arrested an unknown number of protesters in front of the governor's mansion on St. Paul's Summit Avenue. Demonstrators have been camping outside the governor's residence since early July 7, a day after the shooting of Philando Castile, who was killed by a St. Anthony police officer during a traffic stop. (Scott Takushi/Pioneer Press via AP)

St. Paul police officers watch from across the street as protesters, encamped in front of the Governor's Residence on Summit Avenue in St. Paul, Minn. pack up their belongings on Tuesday, July 26, 2016. Police have arrested an unknown number of protesters in front of the governor's mansion on St. Paul's Summit Avenue. Demonstrators have been camping outside the governor's residence since early July 7, a day after the shooting of Philando Castile, who was killed by a St. Anthony police officer during a traffic stop. (Scott Takushi/Pioneer Press via AP)

Tyler Clark Edwards of St. Paul raises his fist in the air in front of a large photo of Philando Castile, as protesters encamped in front of the Governor's residence in St. Paul, Minn. pack up their belongings Tuesday, July 26, 2016. Police have arrested an unknown number of protesters in front of the governor's mansion on St. Paul's Summit Avenue. Demonstrators have been camping outside the governor's residence since early July 7, a day after the shooting of Philando Castile, who was killed by a St. Anthony police officer during a traffic stop. (Scott Takushi/Pioneer Press via AP)

16-year old Tayvion Owens is sprayed with a substance by St. Paul police officers as they and protesters face off on Summit Ave., a block from the Governor's residence, in St. Paul, Minn. on Tuesday, July 26, 2016. Police have arrested an unknown number of protesters in front of the governor's mansion on St. Paul's Summit Avenue. Demonstrators have been camping outside the governor's residence since early July 7, a day after the shooting of Philando Castile, who was killed by a St. Anthony police officer during a traffic stop. (Scott Takushi/Pioneer Press via AP)

St. Paul Police lead a young boy away after the two people on each side of him were handcuffed and arrested as police and protesters face off in front of the Governor's Residence in St. Paul, Minn. on Tuesday, July 26, 2016. Police have arrested an unknown number of protesters in front of the governor's mansion on St. Paul's Summit Avenue. Demonstrators have been camping outside the governor's residence since early July 7, a day after the shooting of Philando Castile, who was killed by a St. Anthony police officer during a traffic stop. (Scott Takushi/Pioneer Press via AP)

Tayvion Ownes, 16, pours milk into his eyes after being sprayed in the face with a substance by St. Paul police, as police and protesters face off on Summit Avenue in St. Paul, Minn. on Tuesday, July 26, 2016. Police have arrested an unknown number of protesters in front of the governor's mansion on St. Paul's Summit Avenue. Demonstrators have been camping outside the governor's residence since early July 7, a day after the shooting of Philando Castile, who was killed by a St. Anthony police officer during a traffic stop. (Scott Takushi/Pioneer Press via AP)

Wintana Melekin speaks to a line of St. Paul police as police and protesters face off on Summit Avenue, a block from the Governor's residence, in St. Paul, Minn. on Tuesday, July 26, 2016. Police have arrested an unknown number of protesters in front of the governor's mansion on St. Paul's Summit Avenue. Demonstrators have been camping outside the governor's residence since early July 7, a day after the shooting of Philando Castile, who was killed by a St. Anthony police officer during a traffic stop. (Scott Takushi/Pioneer Press via AP)
Former Virginia Tech students indicted in slaying of teen

RICHMOND, Va. (AP)  Two former Virginia Tech students were indicted Tuesday in the slaying of a seventh-grade girl who was found dead last January days after authorities say she sneaked out of her window to rendezvous with the older teens, a county prosecutor said.

Nineteen-year-old David Eisenhauer was indicted by a grand jury on charges of first-degree murder, abduction and hiding the body of 13-year-old Nicole Lovell, Montgomery County Commonwealth's Attorney Mary Pettit said in a statement. Natalie Keepers, also 19, was charged with being an accessory to kidnapping and murder and with helping hide the body, the commonwealth's attorney said.

Trial dates in March were set Tuesday in both cases, Pettitt said. Eisenhauer and Keepers both face up to life in prison, she said.

FILE - This January 2016, file photo provided by Blacksburg Police Department shows Virginia Tech student Natalie Keepers, who was arrested in connection with the death of Nicole Lovell. A grand jury in Christiansburg is expected to hear evidence in the case against David Eisenhauer and Keepers on Tuesday, July 26, 2016. Eisenhauer is charged with kidnapping and first-degree murder in the death of Nicole Lovell last January. Keepers is charged with being an accessory to kidnapping and murder and with helping hide the body. (Blacksburg Police Department via AP, File) (Blacksburg Police Department via AP, File)

Eisenhauer will not face the death penalty because there's no physical evidence he had sexual contact with Lovell the day she was killed, Pettitt said in an email. Prosecutors would have had to show he abducted her with the intent to sexually defile her in order to pursue a capital murder charge against him, she said.

Eisenhauer's attorney declined to comment on the indictment Tuesday. Keepers' attorney did not immediately respond to messages and emails seeking comment.

Authorities have not provided clues about a motive.

But a friend of Eisenhauer told The Roanoke Times in May that Eisenhauer texted him about meeting a teenage girl at a party and later learning that she was underage. Bryce Dustin of Pulaski, whose phone was seized by police, said Eisenhauer feared the girl would "expose" him and asked if he knew where he could hide a body.

A neighbor told The Associated Press in February that Nicole told 8-year-old friends before she vanished from her mother's home that she planned to sneak out to meet her 18-year-old "boyfriend," who she said was named David.

Lovell's disappearance in January set off a massive, days-long search. The girl, who suffered from bullying at school and online over her weight and a tracheotomy scar, needed daily medication after surviving a liver transplant, lymphoma and a drug-resistant bacterial infection as a child.

At a preliminary hearing in May, Blacksburg police Detective Ryan Hite said Keepers told investigators she and Eisenhauer discussed several ways to kill Nicole: drugging her, making it look like suicide and knocking her unconscious and leaving her to die of exposure. They settled on what Keepers called "the official plan," Hite said: "Grab her from behind, cover her mouth and slit her throat."

Keepers told investigators she was not present for the actual killing. She said she participated because it made her feel like part of a secret club, calling Eisenhauer a "sociopath" and herself as a "sociopath in training," investigators said.

Blacksburg Detective D.L. Twigger testified in May that Eisenhauer said he arranged to pick Nicole up outside her apartment, but he thought she was much older. He said Nicole did not get in his car and started walking back toward her apartment, and he drove away.
VIEWER GUIDE: Can Barack Obama top his wife in Philly?

PHILADELPHIA (AP)  Can Barack Obama top his wife?

The president takes to the mic at the Democratic convention on Wednesday, two days after Michelle Obama wowed delegates with her forceful defense of Hillary Clinton.

Running mate Tim Kaine and Vice President Joe Biden are in the lineup, too.

Democratic vice presidential candidate Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., left, talks with friends as he has breakfast at a diner in Richmond, Va., Tuesday, July 26, 2016. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)

Some things to watch for during Wednesday's session at the Philadelphia convention:

SUNNY SIDE UP

And now, a word from our president. President Barack Obama speaks at the convention on behalf of his onetime rival and former secretary of state. But he'll also be defending his own record. Republicans last week painted a dark portrait of an America under siege, beset by criminals and terrorists. Obama will offer a sunnier vision of the nation and of his presidency in one of his last big opportunities to frame his legacy before a mass audience. Expect Obama to rebut Trump's depiction of the nation, unfurling a list of upbeat statistics.

RAISING KAINE

Kaine's speech will be his introduction to a large swath of America. A CNN/ORC poll conducted over the weekend found that when Hillary Clinton's choice for vice president was announced, 27 percent of Americans said they had a favorable opinion of the Virginia senator and 19 percent an unfavorable one. More than half said they had no opinion or hadn't heard of him. But supporters of Bernie Sanders already are complaining loudly about Kaine's centrist views, including his past praise for the Trans Pacific Partnership trade deal. They'll be closely watching to see what, if anything, he says about the deal, which he came out against the day after joining the Clinton ticket. Some Sanders delegates have been discussing ways to register their unhappiness, including talk of perhaps turning their backs during his speech.

WOULDA, COULDA

This is not the convention moment that Joe Biden once longed for. The vice president thought long and hard about running for president himself before opting out. Asked about that decision in January, he confessed: "I regret it every day." But he added that it was the right call for him and his family. Biden's a loyal Democratic soldier and a popular figure within the party. Expect him to make a strong case for Clinton, and mix in some humorous self-deprecation along the way.

WOULDA, COULDA, PART II

Michael Bloomberg, who was elected mayor of New York City as a Republican, will stand at the Democrats' mic to speak on behalf of Clinton. He, too, considered a run for president. The billionaire media mogul opted against running as a third-party candidate for fear it might siphon away votes from Clinton and help elect Donald Trump. Bloomberg has been sharply critical of Trump, especially his fellow New Yorker's inflammatory rhetoric on immigration. Bloomberg was a Democrat before switching to Republican ahead of his successful 2001 run for mayor. Bloomberg later became an independent and a leading advocate for gun control.

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AP Polling Director Emily Swanson in Washington contributed to this report.

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Follow Nancy Benac on Twitter at http://twitter.com/nbenac
Hyde Park Teen's New Social Media Site Is Just For Kids With Dead Parents

By Mae Rice in News on Jul 26, 2016 8:14PM



SLAP'D founder Genevieve Liu, 17 (photo courtesy of Genevieve Liu)

When Genevieve Liu's dad died, she was 13, and she felt "very, very alone," she told Chicagoist. The 17-year-old grew up in Hyde Park, where she still lives, and she felt estranged from a community Id lived in my entire life."

Her father, University of Chicago pediatric surgeon Donald Liu, drowned in August of 2012 while saving two children caught in a strong current in Lake Michigan. He was the surgeon-in-chief at UChicago's Comer Children's Hospital, and his death was all over the news. "There were cameras outside my house," Liu said.

"There were thousands of people at his funeral... it was a very public thing." Liu felt "so truly lucky" to receive the support she did, but it also meant "a lot of unwanted attention" and a lot of sympathy from classmates and friends who, to her knowledge, hadn't lost a parent themselves. "I really felt like I was the only person whod lost a parent at a young age," Liu said.

Now, she's working on a website that will keep teens in similar situations from feeling quite so alone. SLAP'Dan acronym for Surviving Life After a Parent Diesis a cross between Facebook and Rookie, but it's only for teens who have lost a parent. As Genevieve pithily puts it: SLAPD is the social media for teens whove lost a parent to find one another and connect through their shared experience." She laughed, adding, "It took a long time to figure out that sentence.

The site has a variety of features: tribute pages, "pinboard-type" memorials kids can make to their dead parents; articles, including interviews with adults who lost parents at a young age and an entire section called "Awkward!", stocked with advice on topics like how to ask your dad to buy tampons and how to ask a girl out.

Genevieve (right) with her family, including her father (center) died (photo via Facebook)

The key feature of SLAP'D, though, is a holistic one: a sense of community, a way to connect with other young people grieving for a parent. Liu knows the power of this type of connection firsthand. The first glimmer of hope she saw after her dad's death came when she met another girl who had lost a parent; the girl's mom had died of cancer.

"We were kind of stuck in the same room, and my mom was like, You two talk," Liu said.

It's still hard for her to put a finger on what made their connection so important. "I think that it was the fact that we really didnt have to talk about our dead parents all the time," Liu said. The tone of the conversation was different. There was no head-tilted concern. After that, "I started to really feel like myself again," Liu said.

Through SLAP'D, she hopes to ultimately share that type of connection with anyone who needs it, though the site is still a work in progress. Like any startup worth its salt, it's affiliated with an accelerator: the Polsky Accelerator at Chicago's Booth School of Business. It's also in a midst of a redesign that Liu said should roll out in the next 60 to 90 days. Liu hopes SLAP'D one day have "a parent organization and a full-time staff," but not yetso far, the six-person team is largely full-time students working on SLAP'D on the side.

Still, SLAP'D is doing solidly in the here and now. It's gotten about 164,000 views in the past six months, Liu said, and gets an average of more than 1,300 new visitors each month. Liu doesn't seem surprised that people are visitinglosing a parent while you're young, as she sees it, is a unique experience that merits a support network all its own.

Though obviously, every death is differentas Liu points out, some kids lose parents to Chicago's high murder rate, others to suicide, still others to illness or accidentshe pointed out that losing a parent as a teen means missing out on key family milestones. Liu's dad won't be at her high school graduation; if she gets married, he won't walk her down the aisle.

"These milestones in your life I feel like I miss out on that all the time," she said. At the same time, though, she feels like her relationship with her dad is still moving forwardjust not moving along the traditional path. I definitely feel like I have an ongoing and growing relationship with my dad," she said.




Honduras reports 8 babies born with Zika-related defects

MEXICO CITY (AP)  Honduras' health minister says eight babies with severe birth defects linked to the Zika virus have been born in the Central American country.

Dr. Yolani Batres said Tuesday at a news conference that five of the babies with microcephaly were born this week.

Batres says there are 493 known cases of pregnant women who have been infected with the Zika virus in Honduras.

FILE - In this April 26, 2016 file photo, an Aedes aegypti mosquito is seen through a microscope at Colombia's National Institute of Health in Bogota, Colombia. Colombian authorities on Monday, July 25, 2016 declared an end to the Zika epidemic in the South American nation, the second-hardest hit in the region from the mosquito-borne virus. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara, File)

Zika is mostly spread by mosquitoes, but cases of sexual transmission have also occurred. Some women who contract it during their pregnancies have given birth to babies with microcephaly, which leads to babies with abnormally small heads and improperly developed brains.
Study: Common pesticide appears to reduce live bee sperm

WASHINGTON (AP)  A new study finds that a commonly used insecticide kills much of the sperm created by male drone honey bees, one reason why the bees are dwindling.

The class of insecticide called neonicotinoids didn't kill the drones. But bees that ate treated pollen produced 39 percent less live sperm than those that didn't, according to a controlled experiment by Swiss researchers published Wednesday in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

It essentially acted as an accidental contraceptive on the drones, whose main job is to mate with the queen  but not one that prevented complete reproduction, just making it tougher, said Lars Straub, lead author of the study and a doctoral student and researcher at the University of Bern. Drones, which are the product of unfertilized eggs, don't gather nectar or pollen and don't sting; they die after mating.

In this photo provided by Geoffrey Williams, a drone honey bee emerges from a honeycomb. A new study out of the University of Bern in Switzerland found that the common insecticide neonicotinoid reduces the amount of live sperm in drone honey bees by 39 percent. Honey bee drones main job is to inseminate the queen and then they die. (Geoffrey Williams, University of Bern via AP)

Both the drones that ate insecticide-treated pollen and those not exposed to the chemicals produced about the same amount of sperm. The difference was clear when the researchers put the sperm under the microscope: The bee that didn't have pesticide in its pollen produced on average 1.98 million living sperm, the one with neonicotinoids in its food about 1.2 million.

"There's a reduction in sperm viability and the amount of living sperm, but that doesn't mean there's no living sperm at hand," Straub said. The big question is there still enough of sperm that survive to do the job, he said. Queens generally have one mating flight and store sperm.

Study co-author Geoffrey Williams, a senior bee researcher at the University of Bern, said the team doesn't know how the insecticides might be damaging the sperm, but it seems to be happening after they are produced.

This comes on top of a study published earlier this year in PLOS One that reported the high rate of U.S. honey bee colonies dying coincides with failures of queens. And the queen failure was linked to drones' dead sperm.

"Queen failure is a big problem and this helps explain it," said U.S. Department of Agriculture bee scientist Jeff Pettis, who wasn't part of the neonicotinoid study but was lead author of the PLOS study on queen health. "It's not the queens themselves, it's the drones. It's significant."

There are many problems  mites, parasites, disease, pesticides and poor nutrition  that seem to combine to shrink the numbers of bees and other pollinators, Straub, Pettis and other scientists said. Pettis said he guesses that poor sperm health may account for about a third of the problem.

Neonicotinoid-maker Bayer Crop Science spokesman Jeffrey Donald said the firm's scientists will review the study, but in general "artificial exposure to pesticides under lab conditions is not reflective of real-world experience."

Another team of outside researchers, Jerry Bromenshenk and Colin Henderson at the University of Montana, praised the Straub study as careful and significant. But they said in an email there are still unanswered questions on how much this matters.
The Latest: Oregonian arrested in Calif. charged with murder

SALEM, Ore. (AP)  The Latest on two Oregonians arrested in a shooting, kidnapping and possible slaying: (all times local):

5 p.m.

A district attorney says an Oregon man arrested in California has been charged with murder in the killing of a woman from the central Oregon town of Bend.

Edwin Lara was arrested in Northern California early Tuesday following a high-speed chase on Interstate 5 and after an elderly man was shot and critically wounded in Yreka and a mother and her two sons were carjacked and kidnapped.

In Oregon, Deschutes County District Attorney John Hummel says Lara was charged with killing Kaylee Sawyer, 23, who was last seen around 1 a.m. Sunday in Bend.

Bend Police Chief Jim Porter told a news conference that a body has been found that is believed to be Sawyer's. He said a coroner would try to confirm the identity.

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11:45 a.m.

A man and a woman from Oregon are in custody after an elderly man was shot and critically wounded and a mother and her two sons were driven away at gunpoint in a carjacking.

The arrested man was being sought in the disappearance of a woman from Oregon.

The terrifying odyssey of the kidnapped family ended after the California Highway Patrol finally stopped the car near Redding. The highway patrol says Edwin Lara was arrested.
Authorities blame weather for Panama Canal ship scrape

PANAMA CITY (AP)  Panama Canal authorities say a Chinese container ship's damaging scrape with the canal's new wider locks was caused by bad weather and the vessel not lining up correctly.

Canal administrator Jorge Quijano said Tuesday there was intense rain, poor visibility and winds between 30 and 40 knots when the ship carrying 9,000 containers was using the locks Thursday.

Quijano says it was the only such incident in the widened canal's first month of operation. He says unfortunately these things happen in their business.

FILE - In this June 26, 2016, file photo, a worker watches as the COSCO Shipping Panama cargo ship leaves the new Cocoli Locks, part of the new Panama Canal expansion project, in Panama City. Canal administrator Jorge Quijano said Tuesday, July 26, that a Chinese container ship brushed with the canals new wider locks due to bad weather and the ship not lining up correctly. (AP Photo/Tito Herrera, File)
Coast Guard: 46 people rescued from sinking boat off Alaska

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP)  Two Good Samaritan vessels rescued 46 people Tuesday night who abandoned their sinking fishing boat in the Bering Sea off Alaska's Aleutian Islands, the Coast Guard said.

There were no reports of any injuries as the crew members were transferred from life rafts to the merchant ships, in a fairly calm seas, Coast Guard Petty Officer Lauren Steenson said.

The ships then embarked on a 13-hour voyage to Adak, Alaska, a port in the Aleutians.

When the 220-foot Alaska Juris started taking on water Tuesday morning, all crew members donned survival suits and got into three rafts.

An emergency beacon alerted the Coast Guard to the sinking ship just after 11:30 a.m. Alaska Standard Time.

The Good Samaritan ships Spar Canis and the Vienna Express rushed to the scene in response to a Coast Guard's emergency broadcast for help, as did two other merchant vessels.

The Coast Guard also diverted the cutter Midgett and dispatched two C-130 transport planes and two helicopters from Kodiak to the site of the sinking ship, located near Kiska Island, which is about 690 miles west of Dutch Harbor, one of the nation's busiest fishing ports.

One C-130 monitored the rescue situation overhead.

It wasn't immediately known what caused the Alaska Juris to begin taking on water, and that will be part of the Coast Guard investigation, Steenson said.

Weather conditions were calm seas and winds, but there was low visibility because of heavy fog, Coast Guard Chief Warrant Officer Joseph Ayd said.

It's not the first trouble the Alaska Juris has encountered in recent years.

In March 2012, a fisherman on board the Alaska Juris died after a cable snapped and struck him in the head. Days later, another fisherman was treated for a head injury after a cable snapped aboard the vessel and struck him.

In May 2012, the crew of the Alaska Juris requested help from the Coast Guard after three crew members were exposed to ammonia after a leak when the ship was just north of Cold Bay, Alaska. The Coast Guard flew the trio to Cold Bay, where an airplane was waiting to fly them to Anchorage.

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Man arrested in California kidnap, charged in Oregon death

SALEM, Ore. (AP)  A small Northern California town was rocked by a shooting, kidnapping and carjacking on Tuesday, all allegedly committed by a man and woman from Oregon who led police on a high-speed chase before they were captured.

The man, Edwin Lara, was fleeing his home state after being implicated Monday in the disappearance of a 23-year-old. Lara was charged with murder Tuesday in the death of Kaylee Sawyer, of Bend, Oregon.

The mayhem in the former gold-mining town of Yreka started near dawn Tuesday when a man was shot in the stomach at the Super 8 Motel. The man, who has not been identified, was hospitalized in critical condition, police said.

A picture of missing person Kaylee Sawyer is displayed on a screen as Deschutes County District Attorney John Hummel speaks during a press conference on Tuesday, July 26, 2016, at the Deschutes County Courthouse in Bend, Ore. A small Northern California town was rocked by a shooting, kidnapping and carjacking on Tuesday, all allegedly committed by a man and woman from Oregon who led police on a high-speed chase before they were captured. The man, Edwin Lara, was fleeing his home state after being implicated Monday in the disappearance of a 23-year-old. Lara was charged with murder Tuesday in the death of Sawyer, of Bend, Ore. (Joe Kline/The Bulletin via AP)

Five minutes after police got the call about the shooting, another man phoned in from a gas station, saying his car had been taken with his wife and two sons still inside.

"The man had come out of the gas station to see his dog running around and his car gone," Yreka Police Chief Brian Bowles told The Associated Press.

Bowles said Lara forced one of the man's sons to drive at gunpoint. The mother and sons were later dropped off at a rest stop.

A California Highway Patrol Officer later saw a car speeding on the interstate about 100 miles (160 kilometers) away and tried to pull it over, the highway patrol said in a statement. Lara sped away at more than 100 mph (160 kph). Police from the nearby town of Corning joined in before Lara pulled over and was arrested. A 19-year-old Salem, Oregon woman, Aundrea Elizabeth Maes, was also in the car and was arrested, Yreka police said.

Lara and Maes were booked into jail on charges including attempted murder, kidnapping, carjacking and burglary, Yreka's police department said in a statement. Bowles said investigators were still trying to determine whether Lara or Maes had shot the man at the motel. The relationship between Lara and Maes is not clear.

"We have got crime scenes at a motel, a gas station and in Red Bluff more than 100 miles away," Bowles said. "We're a small department and stretched beyond our resources right now."

Later Tuesday, Lara was charged in Bend, Oregon, with one count of murder in the killing of Sawyer, Deschutes County District Attorney John Hummel told a news conference. Sawyer was last seen around 1 a.m. Sunday near her apartment, located close to Central Oregon Community College where Lara worked as a security guard.

Bend Police Chief Jim Porter said a body has been found in the county that is believed to be Sawyer's. A medical examiner would confirm the identity, he said.

Lara had worked as a part-time public safety officer at Central Oregon Community College since December 2014, said Ron Paradis, executive director of college relations.

"We're cooperating with the police as best we can," Paradis said, declining to comment further.

Police in Bend revealed that Lara's wife had alerted authorities Monday of his possible involvement in the disappearance of Sawyer. Isabel Ponce-Lara, Lara's wife, was recently hired by the Bend Police Department and has been receiving field training, the department said on Tuesday.

"Officer Ponce-Lara is not suspected to be involved in the disappearance of Kaylee Sawyer," the department said, adding that she "has been cooperative throughout the investigation."

Newspaper reports from 2009 and 2010 list Isabel Ponce-Lara as a student at the community college, and being on the dean's list.

Mourners were expected to hold a vigil Tuesday night to remember Sawyer, Hummel said.

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Follow Andrew Selsky on Twitter @andrewselsky

Bend Police Chief Jim Porter speaks about the search for Kaylee Sawyer during a press conference on Tuesday, July 26, 2016, at the Deschutes County Courthouse in Bend, Ore. A small Northern California town was rocked by a shooting, kidnapping and carjacking on Tuesday, all allegedly committed by a man and woman from Oregon who led police on a high-speed chase before they were captured. The man, Edwin Lara, was fleeing his home state after being implicated Monday in the disappearance of a 23-year-old. Lara was charged with murder Tuesday in the death of Kaylee Sawyer, of Bend, Ore. (Joe Kline/The Bulletin via AP)
Indian activist to end her nearly 16-year hunger strike

NEW DELHI (AP)  A 44-year-old activist who has been on a hunger strike for nearly 16 years to protest alleged brutality by India's military said Tuesday that she will end her fast and run in state elections.

Irom Sharmila told a court in the northeastern state of Manipur that she'll give up her fast on Aug. 9 and stand as an independent candidate in elections early next year.

Sharmila has not eaten any food voluntarily since Nov. 5, 2000, when she began her protest against an Indian law that suspends many human rights protections in areas of conflict. Three days earlier, 10 civilians were killed by paramilitary troops in Malom, a small town on the outskirts of Imphal, the Manipur state capital.

FILE - In this Monday Nov. 3, 2014 file photo, India's most famous prisoner of conscience Irom Sharmila, 42, cries by her bed at the Jawaharlal Nehru Hospital where she is kept in judicial custody on charges of attempted suicide, a crime in India, in Imphal, in the northeastern Indian state of Manipur. The frail activist who has been on a hunger strike for nearly 16 years to protest alleged brutality by India's military told a court on Tuesday, July 26, 2016, that she'll give up her fast on Aug. 9 and stand as an independent candidate in elections early next year. Sharmila has not eaten voluntarily since November 2000, when she began her protest against an Indian law that suspends many human rights protections in areas of conflict. She was arrested three days after starting her fast on charges of attempting suicide and has since been force fed through a tube in her nose. (AP Photo/Anupam Nath, File)

Three days after she started her hunger strike, she was arrested on charges of attempting suicide  a crime in India  and prison officials at a government hospital in Manipur have since force fed her through a tube in her nose.

"The only way to bring change is electoral process. I will stand as an independent candidate from Malom constituency," Sharmila told reporters outside the court on Tuesday, according to a statement from Amnesty International.

She said the single issue on her agenda would be the removal of the law that allows the military to act with impunity.

The Armed Forces Special Powers Act is in effect in Indian-ruled Kashmir and northeastern areas wracked by separatist insurgencies. The law says troops have the right to shoot to kill suspected rebels without fear of possible prosecution and to arrest suspected militants without a warrant. It also gives police wide-ranging powers of search and seizure.

It prohibits soldiers from being prosecuted for alleged rights violations unless granted express permission from the federal government. Such prosecutions are rare.

Sharmila has spent most of her detention in the hospital, where doctors make sure her condition is stable. She also is required to report to a local court every 15 days.

Her long hunger strike has garnered her support from across the world, and Amnesty International has called her a prisoner of conscience.

FILE - In this Wednesday, Aug. 20, 2014 file photo, Irom Sharmila, center, walks out of a security ward after her release in Porompal district, in Imphal, India. The frail activist who has been on a hunger strike for nearly 16 years to protest alleged brutality by India's military told a court on Tuesday, July 26, 2016, that she'll give up her fast on Aug. 9 and stand as an independent candidate in elections early next year. Sharmila has not eaten voluntarily since November 2000, when she began her protest against an Indian law that suspends many human rights protections in areas of conflict. She was arrested three days after starting her fast on charges of attempting suicide and has since been force fed through a tube in her nose. (AP Photo/Bullu Raj, File)
The Latest: Black-footed ferrets released near Yellowstone

MEETEETSE, Wyo. (AP)  The Latest on the release of black-footed ferrets in an area of Wyoming where they almost went extinct. (all times local):

9:30 p.m.

Black-footed ferrets are back in an area of western Wyoming where they almost went extinct more than 30 years ago.

FILE - This Oct. 1, 2014, file photo shows a black-footed ferret peeking out of a tube after being brought to a ranch near Williams, Ariz. The endangered weasel is returning to an area of western Wyoming where the critter almost went extinct more than 30 years ago. Biologists plan to release 35 black-footed ferrets Tuesday, July 26, 2016, near Meeteetse, Wyo. Scientists thought the black-footed ferret was extinct until a dog brought a dead one home near Meeteetse in 1981. (AP Photo/Felicia Fonseca, File)

State and federal wildlife officials on Tuesday released 35 black-footed ferrets on two ranches 50 miles east of Yellowstone National Park.

Scientists thought the black-footed ferret had gone extinct until a dog brought a dead one home in that area in 1981.

Biologists rounded up the area's remaining ferrets to start a successful captive-breeding program. The program led by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has released hundreds of ferrets to two dozen locations in eight states, Canada and Mexico.

The federal agency raises black-footed ferrets at a facility near Fort Collins, Colorado. Preparation for release includes training the young ferrets to catch prairie dogs, their main source of food.

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12 a.m.

An endangered weasel is returning to an area of western Wyoming where the critter almost went extinct more than 30 years ago.

Biologists plan to release 35 black-footed ferrets Tuesday near Meeteetse (me-TEET'-see). Scientists thought the black-footed ferret was extinct until a dog brought a dead one home near Meeteetse in 1981.

The discovery made tiny Meeteetse famous as the home of the slinky, nocturnal weasel. Black-footed ferrets appear on the town logo, in a downtown sculpture and even on coffee mugs in a local restaurant. But they're gone from the wild around here.

Biologists captured Meeteetse's last ferrets for a captive-breeding program that has released hundreds of ferrets in the western U.S. This will be the first release where the black-footed ferret made its last stand in the wild.

FILE - In this Oct. 5, 2015, file photo, a black-footed ferret looks out of the entrance to a prairie dog tunnel after being let loose during a release of 30 of the animals by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge in Commerce City, Colo. The endangered weasel is returning to an area of western Wyoming where the critter almost went extinct more than 30 years ago. Biologists plan to release 35 black-footed ferrets Tuesday, July 26, 2016, near Meeteetse, Wyo. Scientists thought the black-footed ferret was extinct until a dog brought a dead one home near Meeteetse in 1981. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski, File)

FILE - In this Oct. 5, 2015, file photo, a black-footed ferret looks out from a carrier during a release of 30 ferrets by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge in Commerce City, Colo. The endangered weasel is returning to an area of western Wyoming where the critter almost went extinct more than 30 years ago. Biologists plan to release 35 black-footed ferrets Tuesday, July 26, 2016, near Meeteetse, Wyo. Scientists thought the black-footed ferret was extinct until a dog brought a dead one home near Meeteetse in 1981. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski, File)
Black-footed ferrets return to where they held out in wild

MEETEETSE, Wyo. (AP)  A nocturnal species of weasel with a robber-mask-like marking across its eyes has returned to the remote ranchlands of western Wyoming where the critter almost went extinct more than 30 years ago.

Wildlife officials on Tuesday released 35 black-footed ferrets on two ranches near Meeteetse, a tiny cattle ranching community 50 miles east of Yellowstone National Park. Black-footed ferrets, generally solitary animals, were let loose individually over a wide area.

Groups of ferret releasers fanned out over prairie dog colonies covering several thousand acres of the Lazy BV and Pitchfork ranches. Black-footed ferrets co-exist with prairie dogs, living in their burrows and preying on them.

FILE - This Oct. 1, 2014, file photo shows a black-footed ferret peeking out of a tube after being brought to a ranch near Williams, Ariz. The endangered weasel is returning to an area of western Wyoming where the critter almost went extinct more than 30 years ago. Biologists plan to release 35 black-footed ferrets Tuesday, July 26, 2016, near Meeteetse, Wyo. Scientists thought the black-footed ferret was extinct until a dog brought a dead one home near Meeteetse in 1981. (AP Photo/Felicia Fonseca, File)

In the weeks leading up to the release, biologists made extra sure the ferrets will have plenty of prairie dogs to eat by treating the local prairie dog population with insecticide and plague vaccine. Plague, which is spread by fleas, can kill off prairie dogs by the thousand.

Scientists recently found plague had killed some prairie dogs in the area but not nearly enough to interfere with the release. In fact, the pattern of prairie dogs killed by the disease suggests the plague vaccine works, said Zack Walker, a Wyoming Game and Fish Department biologist.

More plague control will be needed as wildlife officials plan more black-footed ferret releases next year and the year after.

"In the early years, it's going to be important to keep it up," Walker said.

The release completed the circle of a story that began in 1981, when a ranch dog named Shep brought home a dead black-footed ferret in the Meeteetse area. Local ranchers took the carcass to a taxidermist, who alerted them it was no ordinary weasel but a very rare specimen, indeed.

Five years later, biologists rounded up the remaining wild ferrets to launch a successful captive-breeding program. Tuesday's release, in other words, brought the descendants of the last Meeteetse ferrets back to Meeteetse for the first time.

"We thank the ranch owners for their commitment to recovery of black-footed ferrets. The decades of hard work from Game and Fish and our numerous partners show in these recovery efforts," Wyoming Game and Fish Department Director Scott Talbott said in a release.

The Fish and Wildlife Service breeds black-footed ferrets at a facility near Fort Collins, Colorado. There, the young ferrets go through a "boot camp" where they learn how to catch prairie dogs.

Ferrets have been released at 24 sites in Wyoming, Montana, Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, South Dakota, Arizona and Kansas, as well as Canada and Mexico. Recent release sites include the Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge near Denver last fall.

This was the first ferret release in Wyoming in almost a decade. Last year, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service designated all of Wyoming as a zone for "experimental, non-essential" populations of black-footed ferrets.

The designation indemnifies ranchers in case they accidentally harm any ferrets released on their property.

Biologists flocked to the Lazy BV and Pitchfork ranches in the 1980s to learn more about the last remaining black-footed ferrets in the wild, recalled Meeteetse Mayor J.W. Yetter, who worked in the local logging industry at the time.

"There was a whole crew of university people and wildlife biologists in training quartered up at the timber creek ranger station. They were the ones charged with tracking, capturing, radio collaring and generally discovering the extent of that colony and getting biologic information about the members of that colony," Yetter said.

FILE - In this Oct. 5, 2015, file photo, a black-footed ferret looks out of the entrance to a prairie dog tunnel after being let loose during a release of 30 of the animals by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge in Commerce City, Colo. The endangered weasel is returning to an area of western Wyoming where the critter almost went extinct more than 30 years ago. Biologists plan to release 35 black-footed ferrets Tuesday, July 26, 2016, near Meeteetse, Wyo. Scientists thought the black-footed ferret was extinct until a dog brought a dead one home near Meeteetse in 1981. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski, File)

FILE - In this Oct. 5, 2015, file photo, a black-footed ferret looks out from a carrier during a release of 30 ferrets by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge in Commerce City, Colo. The endangered weasel is returning to an area of western Wyoming where the critter almost went extinct more than 30 years ago. Biologists plan to release 35 black-footed ferrets Tuesday, July 26, 2016, near Meeteetse, Wyo. Scientists thought the black-footed ferret was extinct until a dog brought a dead one home near Meeteetse in 1981. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski, File)
The Green Line's Historic Garfield Station is Getting A Major Makeover

By Stephen Gossett in News on Jul 27, 2016 9:56PM



Rendering of Garfield Green Line Gateway Project

Washington Park lost out on a major potential boon on Wednesday with the reported loss of the Obama libraryto Jackson Parkbut one of the areas major transit stops is getting some development love.

U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, U.S. Rep. Danny Davis and Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced on Tuesday a $25 million dollar TIGER grant that will fund updates to the Garfield Green Line. Perhaps most noteworthy, the grant includes a partnership with Arts + Public Life Initiativethe venture between University of Chicago and artist/community builder Theaster Gatesand will refurbish the historically significant Garfield station house. Built during the Worlds Columbian Exposition in 1892, it is among the oldest standing transit stations in America.

The Garfield station is situated just west of Arts Incubator, the Gates-helmed space that includes exhibition room and a currency-exchange-turned cafA.

Davis said the grant will help renew, and reenergize the community. Community activists have been advocating for this type of development for years and they deserve to share in the credit for this significant investment, Davis said in a press release.

The grant will also provide upgrades to the platform itself and the streets outside the stop. Planned station improvements include extended canopies, elevator and escalator upgrades and public art installations. On Garfield Ave., there are planned bike lanes, new landscaping and added pedestrian crosswalks.
New Indonesia Cabinet includes reformer, rights abuser

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP)  Indonesian President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo announced a new Cabinet on Wednesday that puts a retired general linked to human rights abuses in charge of security and returns a popular reformist to the finance ministry.

Jokowi said that Sri Mulyani Indrawati, who was finance minister from 2005-2010, is returning to the role from her current position as managing director at the World Bank. In her first stint as finance minister she was praised for overhauling a corrupt taxation department and guiding the economy through the 2008 global financial crisis.

The appointment is a coup for Jokowi and his efforts to reinvigorate the economy but was overshadowed by a controversial military figure also joining the cabinet.

Indonesia's new Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati, right, and Coordinating Minister for Legal, Security and Politics Wiranto prepare for a group photo during the announcement of the new cabinet ministers at Merdeka Palace in Jakarta, Indonesia, Wednesday, July 27, 2016. Indonesian President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo announced a new Cabinet line-up on Wednesday that returns a reformist to the Finance Ministry and puts a former head of the military in charge of security. (AP Photo/Tatan Syuflana)

Wiranto, head of the Indonesian military in 1999 when it committed atrocities in East Timor after Timorese voted for independence, was named the minister for security, political and legal affairs. Wiranto and other military men were indicted for crimes against humanity in 2003 by a U.N. tribunal but successive Indonesian governments have ignored its findings.

Andreas Harsono, Indonesia researcher at Human Rights Watch, said Wiranto's entry into the Cabinet shows a conservative backlash against Jokowi's efforts to address Indonesia's poor human rights record, including abuses in Papua which has a long-running separatist movement, as well as investigating the military's anti-communist massacres in 1965.

"Wiranto has a lot of baggage," Harsono said. "I think it is a setback for Jokowi and human rights."

Wiranto replaced Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan, a close of ally of Jokowi, who though a former general had opened a landmark symposium earlier this year into the 1965 atrocities that historians estimate killed half a million people. He had been ordered by Jokowi to investigate mass graves that survivors say are scattered throughout Indonesia.

Pandjaitan becomes the chief minister for maritime issues at a time when Southeast Asian nations are at odds with China over its territorial ambitions in the South China Sea.

It is the second reorganization of Jokowi's Cabinet since the maverick politician became president in 2014, after defeating an establishment candidate in a national election.

A total of 13 ministries were changed and nine of the ministers are new to the Cabinet. Many of the new appointments were in economy-related ministries, reflecting Jokowi's focus on developing an economy that is one of the largest in Asia but suffers from weak infrastructure and entrenched poverty.
Actors, delegates protest on quiet Day 3 of Dem convention

PHILADELPHIA (AP)  Actors and delegates took center stage in smaller and more subdued protests by Bernie Sanders supporters on a mostly quiet Day 3 of the Democratic National Convention.

Susan Sarandon, Danny Glover, Shailene Woodley and Rosario Dawson joined forces as night fell to protest what they consider slights against loyalists of Sanders, a Vermont U.S. senator who competed against Hillary Clinton in the party's presidential primaries before endorsing her.

Sarandon said convention organizers scuttled planned remarks from prominent Sanders surrogate Nina Turner, a former Ohio state senator, at the convention on Tuesday night.

Demonstrators square off during a rally outside City Hall in Philadelphia, Wednesday, July 27, 2016, during the third day of the Democratic National Convention. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

"There's been a lot of difficulty in executing the will of Bernie Sanders' people and surrogates, and this was just a topping for the whole thing because she was ready to go. And she was very, very disappointed," Sarandon said as the other celebrities joined her on a platform. "This has not gone by lightly, and ... we are upset."

Late Wednesday, hundreds of protesters gathered outside the convention site as Vice President Joe Biden, vice presidential nominee Tim Kaine and President Barack Obama spoke inside. There were two distinct groups of protesters; one peaceful, the other anti-government. At one point a protester's clothes caught on fire while trying to stomp out the flames on a burning flag. The protester dropped to the ground and rolled around to put the fire out. Another tense moment arose when protesters knocked over part of a security fence, but police quickly moved in and put the fence back up. The Secret Service said seven people were arrested and will be charged with entering a restricted area.

Earlier in the day, half a dozen Sanders delegates spoke to about 300 demonstrators gathered at a plaza near City Hall, about 4 miles from the convention site, for rallies and speeches.

Erika Onsrud, an at-large delegate from Minnesota, told the people in the crowd they need to continue to fight. Amid cheers, she exhorted them: "Stay awake!"

Other delegates acknowledged that Sanders' loss was disappointing but told the supporters they can create change without the Democratic Party and the mainstream media, contending the media contributed to a rigged election.

A few blocks away, police detained 10 protesters at Comcast's corporate headquarters for holding a sit-in accusing the cable TV giant and NBC owner of not reporting the truth. Officers zip-tied them and briefly closed the 975-foot-tall skyscraper to all but Comcast employees. The demonstrators were ticketed and released.

Another group of about a dozen anti-Israel demonstrators protested at a hotel where a number of delegations to the four-day convention were staying. They called for a free Palestine.

The absence of marches was a marked change from earlier in the week, with some Sanders supporters saying their comrades seemed fatigued and frustrated.

Thousands of activists have taken to the streets during the convention to voice support for Sanders and his liberal agenda. On Tuesday night, the Bernie or Bust brigades watched in dismay as Clinton became the first woman nominated for president by a major U.S. political party.

Demonstrator Shannon Morgan, who's from suburban New York, said she's fatigued by political frustration, long days and hot pavement that burned through the soles of her Vans and scorched the bottoms of her feet.

She described herself as an anarchist socialist and said she can't understand why Sanders supporters are still singing and cheering.

"I don't believe in burning things down," she said, but she added it's frustrating "to see them still happy and not storm the convention center and sit in."

The longstanding bitterness between Sanders' supporters and Clinton's seemed to grow worse over the past few days after a trove of hacked emails showed that officials at the Democratic National Committee played favorites during the primaries and sought to undermine Sanders' campaign.

Sanders on Monday criticized Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and urged supporters to fall in line behind Clinton for the good of the country. But many were unmoved.

Thousands gathered in the streets outside the convention at the Wells Fargo Center on Tuesday night, and some tried to scale the 8-foot walls around a restricted zone. Police and the Secret Service arrested four protesters.

As of midday Wednesday, only about 75 people were at the nearby park that has become a base for the protesters.

Jennifer Hall flew into Philadelphia from California and said her fellow Sanders supporters seemed tired. She said she came to "comfort the heartbroken, mourn with the mourners and help sustain the effort" fighting against two-party politics.

"We can all cry and keep going," she said.

A demonstrator waves a flag during a protest rear City Hall in Philadelphia, Wednesday, July 27, 2016, during the third day of the Democratic National Convention. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

Demonstrators burn a flag during a protest in Philadelphia, Tuesday, July 26, 2016, during the second day of the Democratic National Convention. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)

Demonstrators clash with police during protest in Philadelphia, Tuesday, July 26, 2016, during the second day of the Democratic National Convention. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

Demonstrators burn an American flag during a protest in Philadelphia, Tuesday, July 26, 2016, during the second day of the Democratic National Convention. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)

A demonstrator starts a fire during a protest in Philadelphia, Tuesday, July 26, 2016, during the second day of the Democratic National Convention. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)

Police block the street during a protest in Philadelphia, Tuesday, July 26, 2016, during the second day of the Democratic National Convention. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)

A protester climbs over the fence near the AT&T Station in Philadelphia, Tuesday, July 26, 2016, during the second day of the Democratic National Convention. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

Police spray protesters through the fence near the AT&T Station in Philadelphia, Tuesday, July 26, 2016, during the second day of the Democratic National Convention. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

A supporter of Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., listens during a rally near City Hall in Philadelphia, Tuesday, July 26, 2016, during the second day of the Democratic National Convention. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)

A supporter of Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., yells at delegates over fence after climbing a light pole in Franklin Delano Roosevelt Park in Philadelphia, Tuesday, July 26, 2016, during the second day of the Democratic National Convention. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

A supporter of Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., yells during a rally near City Hall in Philadelphia, Tuesday, July 26, 2016, during the second day of the Democratic National Convention. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)

Supporters of Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., yell during a rally near City Hall in Philadelphia, Tuesday, July 26, 2016, during the second day of the Democratic National Convention. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)

Supporters of Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., listen during a rally near City Hall in Philadelphia, Tuesday, July 26, 2016, during the second day of the Democratic National Convention. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Protesters march near the AT&T Station in Philadelphia, Tuesday, July 26, 2016, during the second day of the Democratic National Convention. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Washington scientist launches effort to digitize all fish

SEATTLE (AP)  University of Washington biology professor Adam Summers no longer has to coax hospital staff to use their CT scanners so he can visualize the inner structures of stingray and other fish.

Last fall, he installed a small computed tomography, or CT, scanner at the UW's Friday Harbor Laboratories on San Juan Island in Washington state and launched an ambitious project to scan and digitize all of more than 25,000 species in the world.

The idea is to have one clearinghouse of CT scan data freely available to researchers anywhere to analyze the morphology, or structure, of particular species.

In this undated image provided by Adam Summers, a University of Washington professor in the department of Biology and the School of Aquatic and Fisheries Sciences, a scan of the Thoracocarax Stellatus species of fish is shown, with color added by computer to enhance the rendering of the structure of the bones. Summers is using a micro computed tomography, also known as "CT," scanner at a lab on Washington's San Juan Island as part of an ambitious project to scan and digitize more than 25,000 species in the world. (Adam Summers/University of Washington via AP)

So far, he and others have digitized images of more than 500 species, from poachers to sculpins, from museum collections around the globe. He plans to add thousands more and has invited other scientists to use the CT scanner, or add their own scans to the open-access database.

"We have folks coming from all over the world to use this machine," said Summers, who advised Pixar on how fish move for its hit animated films "Finding Nemo" and "Finding Dory" and is dubbed "fabulous fish guy" on the credits for "Nemo."

He raised $340,000 to buy the CT scanner in November. Like those used in hospitals, the CT scanner takes X-ray images from various angles and combines them to create three-dimensional images of the fish.

With each CT scan he posted to the Open Science Framework, a sharing website, people would ask him, "What are you going to scan next?" He would respond: "I want to scan them all. I want to scan all fish."

Then he developed techniques, such as scanning multiple specimens, that made the goal within reach, he said, and suddenly a project that easily could have taken 50 years boiled down to just a few years.

"It wasn't just a joke anymore. We could actually say it and have a hope of actually getting every fish scanned," he said.

Scans typically cost $500 to $2,000 each, but Summers' project provides free access to scans. Summers recalled how as a graduate student 17 years ago he bribed a hospital technician with Snickers bars to scan large stingrays in its CT scanner.

At the time, he wanted to know how an animal with a skeleton composed of cartilage could do such "a crazy thing" as crush hard prey, such as snails and mussels. The medical CT scan helped offer an answer: the sting ray had mineralized tissue in its cartilage.

So began his fascination with CT scans as a way to uncover other puzzles: What's the structure of a sting ray's wing? How does one scale in armored fish overlap with another and what are the implications for movement?

"It's been a long road from getting them for free, paying some money for them, using hospital facilities in the middle of the night," Summers said.

The scanner, about the size of two dorm refrigerators, is housed at the UW's marine lab on Friday Harbor, 80 miles north of Seattle.

He is also known for his fish photographs  stunning images of fish that have been stained with red and blue dyes to highlight cartilage and bone  which were shown at the Seattle Aquarium.

The scanner can handle smaller fish; about two grapefruits stacked on top of each other. The average fish is about a foot long, so he said he can cover half the world's fish. He's hoping to scan large fish using industrial scanners elsewhere, including at the University of Washington.

Malorie Hayes, a graduate student at Auburn University, took Summers up on his offer to use the scanner after hearing him talk about the project at a recent conference. In two weeks, she'll fly to the lab to scan over 200 species of African barbs, a small freshwater fish.

Such fish are rare and difficult to obtain, she said. To look at their skeleton, you typically would have to destroy the specimen. CT scans offer a non-destructive way to study those bones. "Instead of having to cut them open, I can visualize the skeletons," she said. "There are lots of questions that can be answered just by looking at their skeletons."

Summers has been fascinated with how researchers are using the scans. Some are making computer graphics models and animating the fish. Another group colorized the skulls to show what bones were what.

"The reason this can happen is, it's free an open access," he said.

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This story has been updated to correct Summers' title. He is a biology professor, not associate director of the Friday Harbor Laboratories.

In this undated image provided by Adam Summers, a University of Washington professor in the department of Biology and the School of Aquatic and Fisheries Sciences, a scan of the Bathyagonus Pentacanthus species of fish, also known as the Bigeye Poacher, is shown. Summers is using a micro computed tomography, also known as "CT," scanner at a lab on Washington's San Juan Island as part of an ambitious project to scan and digitize more than 25,000 species in the world. (Adam Summers/University of Washington via AP)

In this undated image provided by Adam Summers, a University of Washington professor in the department of Biology and the School of Aquatic and Fisheries Sciences, a scan of the Trinectes Maculatus species of fish, also known as the Hogchoker, is shown. Summers is using a micro computed tomography, also known as "CT," scanner at a lab on Washington's San Juan Island as part of an ambitious project to scan and digitize more than 25,000 species in the world. (Adam Summers/University of Washington via AP)

In this undated image provided by Adam Summers, a University of Washington professor in the department of Biology and the School of Aquatic and Fisheries Sciences, a scan of the Lopholiparis Flerxi species of fish, also known as the Hardhead Snailfish, is shown. Summers is using a micro computed tomography, also known as "CT," scanner at a lab on Washington's San Juan Island as part of an ambitious project to scan and digitize more than 25,000 species in the world. (Adam Summers/University of Washington via AP)
Eight's just enough for Aussie rowers as they head to Rio

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP)  Better late than never for the Australian women's eights rowing team at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics, even if they'll have to borrow a boat and oars.

The Australian women's crew had disbanded after failing to qualify when a third placing at a regatta in Switzerland in late May left the team as first reserves for Rio.

But they reassembled in Melbourne last weekend after the possibility of an Olympic call-up because of Russian athletes facing expulsion over doping.

Head of Russian Rowing Federation Veniamin But attends a news conference in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, July 26, 2016. World Rowing says in a statement that Russian rowers Ivan Podshivalov and Anastasia Korobelshchikova were declared ineligible for the Olympics under a new International Olympic Committee rule because they had previously served doping bans. (AP Photo/Pavel Golovkin)

On Tuesday, world rowing federation FISA said Russian boats in four categories, including the women's eights, were being withdrawn following the strict anti-doping criteria announced by the International Olympic Committee after allegations of widespread doping and cover-ups in Russia.

One of the Russian rowers in the women's eights  Anastasia Karabelshchikova  had served a previous doping ban.

"We all called in to a hotline and the head of Rowing Australia said 'It's happening girls, pack your bags you are going to Rio'," Alexandra Hagan, one of the members of the Australian team, said Wednesday. "We all kind of screamed and cried and I can't quite remember what happened, but here we are, unbelievable."

The Australian women's eight crew will arrive in Rio on Aug. 5  the day of the opening ceremony  and just three days before their first heat.
2 Indians, Filipino among 2016 Ramon Magsaysay awardees

MANILA, Philippines (AP)  An Indian who led a grassroots movement on behalf of the low-caste Dalit community and the Philippines' chief anti-corruption fighter are among the six recipients of this year's Ramon Magsaysay Award, honoring leadership in solving society's most intractable problems.

The other recipients named Wednesday are an emergency aid provider in Laos, an Indonesian Muslim philanthropy group, an Indian musician and a Japanese volunteer group. The awards, named for a former Philippine president, are regarded as Asia's equivalent of the Nobel Prize. The foundation will formally confer the awards on Aug. 31 in Manila.

Bezwada Wilson, who was the first in his Dalit family to pursue higher education, is being honored for his 32-year crusade. He recruited volunteers and worked with Dalit activists to organize a people's movement called Safai Karmachari Andolan (SKA) that has filed cases and liberated around half of an estimated 600,000 people from manually removing human excrement from dry latrines.

Conchita Carpio-Morales, the Philippines' ombudsman, or public prosecutor, is also being honored "for her moral courage and commitment to justice" in tackling head-on corruption, one of the most intractable problems of the Philippines. The former Supreme Court justice has filed cases against a former president and other high-ranking officials and raised her office's conviction rate from 33.3 percent in 2011 to 74.5 percent in 2015. The foundation praised her "example of incorruptibility, diligence, vision and leadership of the highest ethical standards in public service."

Indian artist Thodur Madabusi Krishna has been chosen to receive the emergent leadership award for "his forceful commitment as artist and advocate to art's power to heal India's deep social divisions." Born to a privileged Bhramin family in Chennai in 1976, he was trained in aristocratic Karnatic music that has become almost exclusive to the elite. But he has worked since the 1990s to bring Karnatic music to the youth and public schools, identify gifted rural youth to be trained in Chennai under well-known artists, and to bring together students from diverse social backgrounds to interact with renowned artists and learn about different art forms.

The Indonesian organization Dompet Dhuafa has redefined the landscape for zakat  the tax on an adult's wealth that is a cornerstone of the Islamic faith. The organization has become the largest philanthropic organization in Indonesia today, in terms of donations received totaling $20.2 million, reaching 13 million beneficiaries as of 2015, with at least 20 percent of them moved out of poverty.

The Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers group, founded 51 years ago, sends young adults abroad to volunteer in other communities. The foundation praised its volunteers "for their idealism and spirit of service in advancing the lives of communities other than their own" and laying "the true foundation for peace and international understanding."
Nightclub shooting latest for city seeing rise in violence

FORT MYERS, Fla. (AP)  A couple of doors down from Club Blu, where a young man and a 14-year-old boy were killed while attending a teen party, shop owner Idis Edouard hoisted a rod above his head to gently move a girl's blue dress aside.

"The bullet was there," he said, pointing to a spot on the ceiling. "And there. It shattered that window."

The pockmarks were from another mass shooting, not connected to the club, a couple of years ago. Both shootings remind Edouard, a Haitian immigrant, that the city he has called home for several decades may be increasingly unsafe. In the past year, there have been at least six shootings in the area, a place known more for its stunning Gulf beaches than for gun violence.

Florida Gov. Rick Scott makes a statement at a news conference in response to a deadly shooting outside the Club Blu nightclub in Fort Myers, Fla., Monday, July 25, 2016. Police said the gunfire, which erupted at a swimsuit-themed party for teens, was not an act of terrorism. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)

On Sunday, Club Blu hosted a swimsuit-themed party in hopes of providing a safe place for kids in an alcohol-free venue with security. As the club was closing around 12:30 a.m. Monday and parents were arriving to pick up their children, gunfire erupted. Two were slain and 17 others, ranging in age from 12 to 27, were wounded.

Police have not released a motive, saying only that it wasn't terrorism. Three persons of interest were booked on unrelated charges.

Eager to show concern about the violence, officials opened a fund to assist the families. The TOGETHER Fort Myers Fund had raised over $10,000 by Tuesday afternoon, said Sarah Owen, president and CEO of the Southwest Florida Community Foundation.

The foundation has always been ready to respond to natural disasters, but creating a fund for shooting victims is new, Owen said.

"There's this general feeling in the community that everybody's heart-broken, feeling like, 'What can we do?'" Owen said.

In Fort Myers, a string of shootings started in September, with seven people suffering gunshot wounds during four separate shootings over a seven-hour period. A shooting during a zombie festival in October killed one person and wounded five others. In March, four people survived a shooting at a park.

Overall, crime in Florida has been on the decline, as Gov. Rick Scott noted during a news conference Monday.

"The positive is we are at a 45-year low in our crime rate. The negatives  I can't imagine this happening to any person in our state," he said.

But while overall crime might be down, violent crime in Lee County for 2015 spiked more than 6 percent compared with the year before.

There are about 700,000 people in the county and about 74,000 in Fort Myers, which is home to a palm tree-lined downtown and spring training for the Boston Red Sox and Minnesota Twins. In Fort Myers, about 55 percent of the population is white and 32 percent is black. Most of those at the club were African-American.

Club Blu is located in central Fort Myers, within city limits. It's not in the highest-crime neighborhoods, but business owners and residents say the area has changed. Once a sleepy retiree community, Lee County has gone through rapid boom-and-bust cycles in recent decades.

"This used to be the main corridor of business," said Richard Lawrence, an employee of a plumbing parts store that's located next door to Club Blu.

Car dealerships used to dot the area, but when the county grew, so did the businesses. The dealerships and other stores left the area a decade or two ago for more advantageous locations farther south. Stores in strip malls, such as the one home to Club Blu and the plumbing store, were left half empty. Former dealerships turned into churches.

Lee County was among the hardest hit in the nation for foreclosures during the recession, and with the foreclosures came unemployment. Over the years, drugs and gangs have crept in  although locals aren't exactly sure if one had to do with the other.

"A lot of this stuff you read about Fort Myers, it's drug- and gang-related," the 63-year-old Lawrence said. "I'm an old guy, and I gotta tell you, in my day, you might have people fight. But you didn't shoot people. Now, they just don't value life."

Lawrence questioned why a teen night would be held at a nightclub, or why parents would allow such young children to be out that late.

Unemployment, a lack of education and easy access to guns are all part of the problem, said pastor William Glover of Fort Myers.

"We have to move away from the idea that this is a single issue problem," he said. "Like most of the social issues we're dealing with, there's no single solution."

On Tuesday, the national television live trucks had vacated the strip mall's parking lot, leaving only the local stations. A makeshift memorial with flowers and stuffed animals had sprung up on a planter outside the entrance, and a garbage can overflowed with journalists' empty plastic water bottles and Starbucks bags.

Authorities called in police cadets to comb the parking lot for clues, and under a hot Florida sun, they fanned out past the two signs at the entrance to the strip mall. One was a "space for lease" sign, while the other read: "We come to you: concealed weapon permit."

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Associated Press writers Jennifer Kay, Curt Anderson, Kelli Kennedy and Michael Schneider contributed to this report.

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Follow Tamara Lush on Twitter at http://twitter.com/tamaralush .

Stephanie White, right, holds a photograph of her son Stef'an Strawder during an interview in her home in Lehigh Acres, Fla., Monday, July 25, 2016. Strawder, 18, was killed in the deadly shooting outside the Club Blu nightclub in Fort Myers, Fla., Monday. Police said the gunfire, which erupted at a swimsuit-themed party for teens, was not an act of terrorism. At left is Kasey Jones. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)

Florida Gov. Rick Scott responds to a question at a news conference in response to a deadly shooting outside the Club Blu nightclub in Fort Myers, Fla., Monday, July 25, 2016. Police said the gunfire, which erupted at a swimsuit-themed party for teens, was not an act of terrorism. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)

A Fort Myers fire fighter pours bleach over blood stains on the pavement at the scene of a deadly shooting outside the Club Blu nightclub in Fort Myers, Fla., Monday, July 25, 2016. Police said the gunfire, which erupted at a swimsuit-themed party for teens, was not an act of terrorism. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)

Officials investigate the scene of a deadly shooting outside of the Club Blu nightclub, Monday, July 25, 2016, in Fort Myers, Fla. Gunfire erupted at the nightclub hosting a swimsuit-themed party for teens. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)

Evidence markers are placed on the street at the scene of a deadly shooting outside of the Club Blu nightclub, Monday, July 25, 2016, in Fort Myers, Fla. Gunfire erupted at the nightclub hosting a swimsuit-themed party for teens. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)

Officials investigate the scene of a deadly shooting outside of the Club Blu nightclub, Monday, July 25, 2016, in Fort Myers, Fla. Gunfire erupted at the nightclub hosting a swimsuit-themed party for teens. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)

Sylvia Bargouthi leaves stuffed animals outside the scene of a deadly shooting at the Club Blu nightclub in Fort Myers, Fla., Monday, July 25, 2016. Police said the gunfire, which erupted at a swimsuit-themed party for teens, was not an act of terrorism. (Monica Herndon/Tampa Bay Times via AP)
AP EXPLAINS: GOP, Dems. look to revive Depression bank law

NEW YORK (AP)  Well at least the Democrats and the Republicans agree on something at their conventions: They both want to revive a Depression-era bank law that was abolished more than 15 years ago.

The platforms of both parties call for the reinstatement of the Glass-Steagall Act, a law that would lead to the breakup of major U.S. banks like JPMorgan Chase in order to separate investment banking from commercial banking.

Here's a look at what Glass-Steagall is, why the parties want to reinstate it  and why that's unlikely to happen:

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WHAT IS GLASS-STEAGALL?

The Glass-Steagall Act of 1933 was passed in the wake of the stock market crash and the thousands of banks failures that led to the Great Depression.

Among its many provisions, the law segregated the banking industry into commercial banks, or banks that take deposits and operate branches, and investment banks, or those that trade and underwrite stocks and bonds and advise companies. It also separated out insurance.

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THE REPEAL

As banks became larger and more complicated over decades, regulators eased bank requirements under the law. Commercial banks started offering services that traditionally had been associated with investment banks. By the late 1990s, some historians and economists argued that Glass-Steagall was effectively dead.

A GOP-led Congress passed the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act in 1999 repealing the separation provision. President Bill Clinton signed it into law.

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THE REVIVAL

After the 2008 financial crisis, anger at Wall Street jelled into an argument that Glass-Steagall could have mitigated or prevented the crisis by keeping financial powerhouses from growing too large.

Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat well-loved by the anti-Wall Street crowd, advocated for the return of Glass-Steagall. That position was also adopted in Bernie Sanders' presidential campaign, where he forcefully argued for the breakup of big banks.

In his speech Monday to the Democratic National Convention, Sanders called for the passage of a "21st Century Glass-Steagall Act."

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WOULD IT HAVE HELPED?

It's unlikely Glass-Steagall would have stopped the financial crisis.

The first institutions that failed were mortgage lenders. That was followed by Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers and the near-collapse of Merrill Lynch, three traditional investment banks that did not have commercial banking operations. Other banks that failed, like Washington Mutual and Wachovia, were commercial institutions that collapsed because of bad mortgage lending practices.

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PLATFORM POLITICS

By adopting what is traditionally a Democratic position, Republicans may hope to appeal to Sanders supporters who don't like Hillary Clinton. While restoring Glass-Steagall is in the Democratic platform, Clinton does not argue for the return of Glass-Steagall.
Bulldozer operator killed fighting California blaze

BIG SUR, Calif. (AP)  The operator of a bulldozer was killed when it rolled over during the fight against a wildfire near Big Sur that has destroyed 20 homes and spread across more than 36 square miles (93 sq. kilometers), California fire officials said Wednesday.

Another operator escaped injury when a second bulldozer rolled over and sustained minor damage, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

The name and age of the operator who was killed was not immediately available.

Cal Fire firefighters extinguish hotspots while fighting the Soberanes Fire in Palo Colorado Canyon on the northern Big Sur Coast on Tuesday July 26, 2016 in Big Sur, Calif. California's signature parks along the Big Sur coastline that draw thousands of daily visitors were closed Tuesday as one of the state's two major wildfires threatened the scenic region at the height of the summer tourism season. (David Royal/The Monterey County Herald via AP) MANDATORY CREDIT

Battalion Chief Robert Fish said the operator was working in steep and difficult-to-access terrain when the accident occurred. Fish did not have further details about the incident but said 60 bulldozers were being used in the fight against the fire.

The death occurred as firefighters worked around the clock against the blaze near a scenic stretch of the California coast, where smoke and the threat of flames forced the closure of state parks near Big Sur, a popular tourist area.

At least 2,000 structures were threatened.

Firefighters got a break early Wednesday from cooler temperatures and increased humidity.

Pacific Coast Highway remained open Wednesday, but its signature views were marred by a dark haze.

"We wanted to see more of the ocean," said Phoenix-area tourist Jim Newby, who drove along the highway with his family Tuesday. "We didn't see a whole lot of it unfortunately, and it's a beautiful, beautiful stretch."

The blaze could crest a ridge and make a run toward campgrounds, lodges and redwoods closer to the shore, officials said.

To the south, firefighters made progress containing a huge blaze in mountains outside Los Angeles, allowing authorities to let most of 20,000 people evacuated over the weekend return home.

The fire has destroyed 18 homes since it started and authorities found the burned body of 67-year-old Robert Bresnick on Saturday in a car and said he had refused to be evacuated.

The fire in rugged wilderness between the northern edge of Los Angeles and the suburban city of Santa Clarita grew slightly to nearly 60 square miles (154 square kilometers). It was 40 percent contained.

Firefighters expected temperatures to reach about 100 degrees (38 Celsius) on Wednesday with winds gusting to near 25 mph (40 kph).

"We're expecting to have a lot of smoldering today," said U.S. Forest Service spokesman Justin Correll.

He said the 40 percent containment figure was good news but "that means there's still 60 percent of containment left to get. And that's a lot."

There was also high potential for "fire runs" up slopes still choked with unburned brush, he said.

The Big Sur closures were put into place for parks that draw 7,500 visitors a day from around the world for their dramatic vistas of ocean and mountains.

The fire started Friday north of Big Sur and was just 10 percent contained. Residents of 300 homes were ordered to evacuate and more than 2,000 firefighters were trying to douse the blaze.

Eight men who had been working on a marijuana field were rescued near the fire lines Tuesday after spending days wandering smoky trails with little water or food. No serious injuries were reported, John Thornburg, a spokesman with the Monterey County Sheriff's Office, told the Monterey Herald (http://bit.ly/2ab2Gpy). Authorities initially said the men had been hiking in the area.

Acting Gov. Tom Torlakson, substituting for Gov. Jerry Brown who is at the Democratic National Convention with other top state officials, declared a state of emergency for both fires on Tuesday night. The move frees up funding and relaxes regulations to help with the firefight and recovery.

Meanwhile in Wyoming, a large backcountry wildfire in the Shoshone National Forest put about 290 homes and guest ranches at risk. It burned nearly 11 square miles (28 square kilometers) and forced the evacuations of 900 people, but no homes had burned by Tuesday, authorities said.

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Bender reported from San Francisco.

Karrie H. Andrews recovers items salvaged from the ruins of her home Tuesday, July 26, 2016, destroyed when the Sand fire swept through Santa Clarita, Calif. over the weekend. The fire destroyed 18 homes and authorities said that by Tuesday it had burned more than 37,000 acres, about 58 square miles. (AP Photo/Nick Ut)

Karrie H. Andrews recovers items salvaged from the ruins of her home Tuesday, July 26, 2016, destroyed when the Sand fire swept through Santa Clarita, Calif. over the weekend. The fire destroyed 18 homes and authorities said that by Tuesday it had burned more than 37,000 acres, about 58 square miles. (AP Photo/Nick Ut)

Karrie H. Andrews recovers items salvaged from the ruins of her home Tuesday, July 26, 2016, destroyed when the Sand fire swept through Santa Clarita, Calif. over the weekend. The fire destroyed 18 homes and authorities said that by Tuesday it had burned more than 37,000 acres, about 58 square miles. (AP Photo/Nick Ut)

A Los Angeles County Sheriff's deputy checks the identification of people returning to their homes after evacuation orders were lifted in Santa Clarita, Calif., Tuesday, July 26, 2016, after the Sand fire swept through the area over the weekend. The fire destroyed 18 homes and authorities said that by Tuesday it had burned more than 37,000 acres, about 58 square miles. (AP Photo/Nick Ut)

The ruins of a burned-out home are seen Tuesday, July 26, 2016, after the Sand fire swept through Santa Clarita, Calif. over the weekend. The fire destroyed 18 homes and authorities said that by Tuesday it had burned more than 37,000 acres, about 58 square miles. (AP Photo/Nick Ut)

Lane Leavitt, who trains stunt actors and specializes in setting people on fire for movies and television, writes "thank you" to first responders in red fire retardant that covers his car Tuesday, July 26, 2016, at his home that escaped damage when the Sand fire swept through Santa Clarita, Calif. over the weekend. The fire destroyed 18 homes and authorities said that by Tuesday it had burned more than 37,000 acres, about 58 square miles. (AP Photo/Nick Ut)

Lane Leavitt, who trains stunt actors and specializes in setting people on fire for movies and television, poses Tuesday, July 26, 2016, in his home that escaped damage when the Sand fire swept through Santa Clarita, Calif. over the weekend. Leavitt was relieved when he returned home Monday evening to find his home and business fully intact. The fire destroyed 18 homes and authorities said that by Tuesday it had burned more than 37,000 acres, about 58 square miles. (AP Photo/Nick Ut)

The remains of a car that burned with the Soberanes Fire in Palo Colorado Canyon on the northern Big Sur Coast on Tuesday July 26, 2016 in Big Sur, Calif. California's signature parks along the Big Sur coastline that draw thousands of daily visitors were closed Tuesday as one of the state's two major wildfires threatened the scenic region at the height of the summer tourism season. (David Royal/The Monterey County Herald via AP) MANDATORY CREDIT
Senator: Is Medicare drug plan vulnerable to exploitation?

WASHINGTON (AP)  A senior senator is examining whether Medicare's prescription drug benefit is vulnerable to manipulation by pharmaceutical companies that set very high prices for medications.

In a letter Tuesday to Medicare's top administrator, Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, said policymakers must ensure the Part D prescription program serving some 38 million beneficiaries "is free from exploitation," and asked if it meets that test as currently structured.

Grassley acted after The Associated Press reported on Medicare data that show spending for high-cost drugs covered under the program's "catastrophic" protection jumped by 85 percent in three years, from $27.7 billion in 2013 to $51.3 billion in 2015. The data include costs to taxpayers, insurers and beneficiaries, as compiled by Medicare's number-crunching Office of the Actuary.

FILE - In this June 14, 2011 file photo, various prescription drugs on the automated pharmacy assembly line at Medco Health Solutions in Willingboro, N.J. A safeguard for Medicare beneficiaries has become a way for drugmakers to get paid billions of dollars for pricey medications at taxpayer expense, government numbers show. The cost of Medicares catastrophic prescription coverage jumped by 85 percent in three years, from $27.7 billion in 2013 to $51.3 billion in 2015, according to the programs number-crunching Office of the Actuary. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)

Catastrophic coverage kicks in after a beneficiary has spent $4,850 of their own money. At that point, taxpayers cover 80 percent of the cost of medications. The beneficiary's share is limited to 5 percent, while insurers pick up the remaining 15 percent.

The congressional Medicare Payment Advisory Commission recently warned that spending on the prescription program is rising at an "unsustainable" rate, singling out pricey specialty drugs covered under Medicare's catastrophic protection.

The commission urged Congress to overhaul the benefit so that insurers bear 80 percent of the cost of catastrophic coverage and taxpayers pay 20 percent. That would give insurers more incentive to negotiate lower prices with drug companies.

Separately, the Obama administration and Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton want to give Medicare the legal authority to directly negotiate with the pharmaceutical companies. Republican Donald Trump has also supported opening the door to negotiations, although GOP congressional leaders do not. Polls show that regardless of political affiliation, Americans want government action to curb drug costs.

Medicare's prescription program "is an important part of the health care of many Americans, but has recently seen an alarming trend in spending growth," Grassley wrote Medicare administrator Andy Slavitt.

"Do you believe there is potential for exploitation of the catastrophic benefit as it is currently framed?" Grassley asked.

Lawmakers who created the Medicare prescription program in 2003 saw catastrophic coverage as a way to protect seniors with multiple chronic illnesses from the cumulatively high costs of taking many medications. The recent advent of drugs that sell for $1,000 per pill is changing that. Now some patients can land in the catastrophic benefit in short order.

An analysis of Medicare's ten most pricey drugs finds that the catastrophic benefit is picking up an increasing share of costs, meaning more exposure for taxpayers.

In 2013, there were four medications among the top ten that had 80 percent or more of their total costs covered by catastrophic protection.

In 2015, seven of the top ten priciest drugs had crossed that threshold, according to Connecture, a company that tracks drug prices paid by health plans.

"It means that one drug alone is going to kick someone into catastrophic coverage," said Jim Yocum, senior vice president of the company.

Grassley, a member of the Senate committee that oversees Medicare, asked for answers in a couple of weeks.

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Turkey, once touted as regional model, is mired in tension

ISTANBUL (AP)  Turkey was riding high in 2010, casting its brand of Islamic piety, Western-style democracy and economic growth as a regional model amid popular upheavals in the Mideast and North Africa.

Six years later, it is mired in tension with neighbors and allies, dominated by a president seeking to increase his constitutional powers and now enmeshed in a purge of large sectors of society after an uprising by renegade military officers.

The changes that led to this turn in Turkey's fortunes include internal rifts  the collapse of a Kurdish peace process and the alleged erosion of democratic rights under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan are among them  as well as the war in Syria and other regional chaos in which Turkey has taken sides.

Women are reflected in a shop window as they walk at a shopping street in Istanbul, Wednesday, July 27, 2016. Turkey was riding high in 2010, casting its brand of Islamic piety, Western-style democracy and economic growth as a regional model amid popular upheavals in the Mideast and North Africa. Six years later, it is mired in tension with neighbors and allies, dominated by a president seeking to increase his constitutional powers and now enmeshed in a purge of large sectors of society after an uprising by renegade military officers (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)

Erdogan is also sparring with the United States, a NATO ally, over his demand that Washington extradite Fethullah Gulen, the U.S.-based Muslim cleric Turkey accuses of orchestrating the July 15 coup attempt.

And on Aug. 9, the Turkish president is scheduled to meet Russian leader Vladimir Putin in an effort to repair strained ties following Turkey's apology for shooting down a Russian fighter jet last year. The breach has cost Turkey an important source of tourists, and stalled energy deals.

Turkey's trajectory in the past decade represents the struggle of a strategically located nation, spanning the Asian and European continents, to shine on an international stage. Now, after the failed uprising, the government is trying to rid the military, judiciary and other institutions of suspected Gulen supporters.

Nearly 16,000 people were detained for questioning over suspected links to the coup attempt, and about half were arrested to face trial, Interior Minister Efkan Ala said.

On Wednesday, Turkey discharged close to 1,700 officers and junior officers from the military, including 149 generals and admirals.

The government also ordered dozens of media organizations closed down, according to a decision printed in the Official Gazette. They included 45 newspapers, 16 television stations, 23 radio stations, three news agencies and 15 magazines. The list comprised many regional media outlets as well as several Gulen-linked media that had already been seized by the state.

Earlier, authorities issued warrants for the detention of 47 former executives or senior journalists of Turkey's Zaman newspaper for alleged links to Gulen, who denies any involvement in the coup attempt. Such detentions have raised concerns that people could be targeted simply for criticizing the government.

The media watchdog Reporters Without Borders condemned Turkey's purges of journalists, saying they have assumed "increasingly alarming proportions."

"Criticizing the government and working for media outlets that support the Gulen Movement do not constitute evidence of involvement in the failed coup," said Johann Bihr, who heads the organization's Eastern Europe and Central Asia desk.

Turkey's Justice Ministry denied an Amnesty International report alleging that some of those detained were tortured. Correct arrest and custody procedures were being applied under a three-month state of emergency announced last week, it said.

Reflecting tension with allies, Turkey has complained of a lack of strong support from European nations and the United States for the government's sweeping efforts to weed out suspected plotters and Gulen's supporters.

"Until now, we have not received the backing and the statements that we, the whole of Turkey, expect from these countries," said Energy Minister Berat Albayrak, who is also Erdogan's son-in-law.

A linchpin of Turkey's former appeal was its now-moribund bid to join the European Union, and Turkish rhetoric described the country as a bridge between the West and Muslim countries. Turkey even sought to facilitate talks between archenemies Israel and Syria, though that effort collapsed after Israel's 2008-2009 Gaza war.

"Turkey was a shining star in the region. It was a country whose word was listened to," Kemal Kilicdaroglu, Turkey's main opposition leader, said in an interview with The Associated Press on Tuesday.

However, "this has been lost to a great extent" because Turkey "intervened in the internal affairs of other countries," Kilicdaroglu said.

At the time, Turkey's leaders said they had to adjust their policy of diplomatic outreach, dubbed "zero problems with neighbors," because of rapidly unfolding, historic change.

Erdogan supported the revolt against Egypt's Hosni Mubarak in 2011, but has frosty ties with military rulers who toppled Islamist leader Mohammed Morsi in 2013. Also in 2011, the Turkish leader backed NATO air strikes in Libya, which descended into more chaos after Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi's death.

Erdogan previously vacationed with Syrian President Bashar Assad, but demanded his ouster as the conflict intensified there. Today, after allegedly tolerating a flow of weapons and fighters to Syrian rebel groups, Turkey hosts 3 million Syrian refugees. It has suffered extremist bombings after backing the U.S.-led campaign against the Islamic State group, and attacks from Kurdish separatists.

Although Turkey has couched foreign policy in terms of human rights, detractors claim Erdogan, a Sunni Muslim, was leaning toward a sectarian position in various conflicts and using language seen as critical of Shiite Muslims in Iraq and elsewhere.

Internally, the coup attempt by suspected supporters of Gulen exposed deep tensions in Turkey, fueled partly by concern that the president is pushing toward autocratic rule. While Erdogan has presided over the ruling party's extraordinary electoral success since 2002, he has also alienated secular Turks who believe he wants to impose an Islamic lifestyle.

A police crackdown on demonstrations in 2013 that began as a protest against the urban development of Istanbul's Gezi Park killed a dozen people and undermined Turkey's credentials as a stable democracy.

Turkey's robust economic growth during Erdogan's early years in power was the envy of the region, but Standard & Poor's recently downgraded its credit rating for Turkey deeper into "junk" status, citing the failed coup and political turmoil. Erdogan said there were no "justified reasons" for the downgrade, declaring: "Our economic indicators are so much better than most countries in the world."

However, Dani Rodrik, an economist at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, suggested in an email to The Associated Press that Erdogan's recent overtures to Russia and Israel were "flip-flops" that reflected worries about the Turkish economy and efforts to revive business.

Turkonfed, a non-governmental group that represents Turkish businesses, welcomed a recent meeting in which Erdogan and two opposition leaders discussed national unity.

Tarkan Kadooglu, president of the business group, said: "The society is in need of a political language that is uniting, not one that is polarizing."

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Associated Press writer Suzan Fraser contributed from Ankara, Turkey.

A woman takes part in an anti coup rally at Taksim square in Istanbul, Tuesday, July 26, 2016. Turkey's polarized factions should learn from their mistakes and overcome their antagonism, the main opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu said during an interview with The Associated Press. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)

A man holds a Turkish flag during an anti coup rally at Taksim square in Istanbul, Tuesday, July 26, 2016. Turkey's polarized factions should learn from their mistakes and overcome their antagonism, the main opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu said during an interview with The Associated Press. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)

People wave Turkish flags as they take part in an anti coup rally at Taksim square in Istanbul, Tuesday, July 26, 2016.Turkey's polarized factions should learn from their mistakes and overcome their antagonism, the main opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu said during an interview with The Associated Press. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)

A girl sit on her father as they take part in an anti coup rally at Taksim square in Istanbul, Tuesday, July 26, 2016. Turkey's polarized factions should learn from their mistakes and overcome their antagonism, the main opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu said during an interview with The Associated Press. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)

People wave Turkish flags as they take part in an anti coup rally at Taksim square in Istanbul, Tuesday, July 26, 2016. Turkey's polarized factions should learn from their mistakes and overcome their antagonism, the main opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu said during an interview with The Associated Press. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)

Leader of Turkey's main opposition, the Republican People's Party, Kemal Kilicdaroglu speaks to The Associated Press in Ankara, Turkey, Tuesday, July 26, 2016. Kilicdaroglu warned Tuesday against a government witch hunt following Turkey's failed coup, saying it would cast a shadow on the democracy that those who opposed the insurrection tried to protect. In an interview with The Associated Press, Kemal Kilicdaroglu also said the United States should extradite a U.S.-based Muslim cleric whom the government accuses of being behind the failed July 15 uprising. (AP Photo/Burhan Ozbilici)

Leader of Turkey's main opposition, the Republican People's Party, Kemal Kilicdaroglu speaks to The Associated Press in Ankara, Turkey, Tuesday, July 26, 2016. Kilicdaroglu warned Tuesday against a government witch hunt following Turkey's failed coup, saying it would cast a shadow on the democracy that those who opposed the insurrection tried to protect. In an interview with The Associated Press, Kemal Kilicdaroglu also said the United States should extradite a U.S.-based Muslim cleric whom the government accuses of being behind the failed July 15 uprising. (AP Photo/Burhan Ozbilici)

People enjoy the Bosphorus sea and the sun in Istanbul, Tuesday, July 26, 2016. Turkey's opposition leader warned against a government witch hunt following Turkey's failed coup, saying it would cast a shadow on democracy which those who opposed the insurrection tried to protect. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)

Under a portrait of Turkish Republic founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk,Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan chairs the cabinet meeting, in Ankara, Turkey, Monday, July 25, 2016. Turkey on Monday issued warrants for the detention of 42 journalists suspected of links to the alleged organizers of a failed military uprising, intensifying concerns that a sweeping crackdown on alleged coup plotters could target media for any news coverage critical of the government. (Presidential Press Service, Pool via AP)
French Bakery La Boulangerie Is Now Open In Ravenswood

By Anthony Todd in Food on Jul 27, 2016 2:42PM



Pastries at the new location. Photo via Facebook.

After months of teasing Ravenswood/Lincoln Square residents with the promise of delicious breads and pastries, La Boulangerie, the bakery next to the new neighborhood French school (Lycee Francais de Chicago) is open for business at 1945 W. Wilson Ave.

The bakery announced its opening on Facebook on Monday afternoon, with an enthusiastic "We are officially open!" Their website hasn't been updated yet, but in response to a question on social media the bakery indicated that their hours were 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. However, if you're concerned, call ahead first.

The large space appears to have plenty of seating and an extensive pastry selection, including tons and tons of macarons. We'll have more once we get a chance to check it out.
Analysis: China emerges more muscular after ASEAN meetings

VIENTIANE, Laos (AP)  Daring to take on China in a territorial dispute in the South China Sea, the Philippines went to an international tribunal for justice, and won big. But it turned out to be a pyrrhic victory.

Beijing came back with such ferocity and manipulative diplomacy that other Southeast Asian countries that have similar disputes with it are apparently backing down.

One by one, their positions became clear at meetings this week of Asia-Pacific and Southeast Asian nations, a gathering that was supposed to unanimously call out China for a host of actions in the resource-rich South China Sea  building artificial islands and military airstrips, sending warships, staging live-firing exercises and shooing away fishermen from other countries.

FILE- In this July 26, 2016, file photo, China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi, attends the 23rd ASEAN regional retreat meeting in Vientiane, Laos. Despite the Philippines taking on China in a territorial dispute in the South China Sea and winning big, other Southeast Asian nations with similar disputes who attended this week's meetings are apparently backing down from Beijing. (AP photo/Sakchai Lalit)

And so, the four-day conclave in Vientiane, the Laotian capital, ended Tuesday with China's muscles bulging more than ever, and the vaunted unity of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations in disarray.

"Neither China nor ASEAN emerged from the Vientiane meetings with honor," said Ian Storey, a senior fellow at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, a Singapore-based think tank. "It's a sad state of affairs when expectations of ASEAN being able to do anything to lower tensions in the South China Sea are zero, and instead the focus is on whether it can get its act together."

Philippine Foreign Secretary Perfecto Yasay Jr. sought to put a positive spin on the developments.

"Whether or not you will say that this is a triumph of China or a triumph of the Philippines, or a defeat of China or a defeat of the Philippines, the fact is clear," he told reporters in Manila on Wednesday. "This is a victory for ASEAN for upholding the very principles of international law and ... more importantly, pursuing our negotiations in the dispute in a peaceful manner."

"Be that as it may, the actual resolution of this dispute between China and the Philippines is a matter between China and the Philippines," he said, reflecting a position that suits China perfectly.

The first coup de grace China dealt was at an ASEAN foreign ministers' meeting, where it successfully prevented a joint communique from mentioning the July 12 ruling by the Hague-based arbitration panel in favor of the Philippines. While the communique did express concerns about the tensions in the South China Sea, it did so without naming China.

A millstone around the neck of ASEAN  Southeast Asia's main grouping  is that it can issue statements only when there is consensus among all 10 members. China leveraged that by ensuring that Cambodia and Laos would not provide that consensus. Both countries receive massive aid from China, which recently announced a $600 million package to Cambodia.

"As an association, ASEAN loses power and relevance when it punts on the most important regional issues," said John Ciorciari, a Southeast Asia expert at the University of Michigan. "Yet ASEAN operates by consensus, and when push comes to shove, national interests tend to trump regional solidarity."

"Aid has won China some close friends in Southeast Asia, and Cambodia in particular has been quite willing to cast vetoes on communique language inimical to Chinese interests," he said.

China does not accept the arbitration panel's ruling, and says all disputes should be settled bilaterally through negotiations. It did not participate in the panel's hearings, and insists that almost all of the South China Sea, which is ringed by claimants China, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, the Philippines and Taiwan, belongs to it historically.

It also accuses outside parties  the United States, Japan and Australia  of needling ASEAN countries and raising tensions. After ASEAN's failure to rebuke China, those three countries issued a joint statement in Vientiane saying they strongly oppose "any coercive unilateral actions that could alter the status quo and increase tensions."

China lashed out at them on Wednesday, with Foreign Minister Wang Yi saying in a statement that the three countries were "fanning the flames" of regional tension.

"Now it is the time to test whether you are peacekeepers or troublemakers," he said.

Diplomats who attended the Laos meetings said it was interesting to see that claimant countries appeared less enthusiastic than others in wanting to rebuke China. Even the Philippines was not too forceful in asking for strong language in the joint ASEAN statement. It repeatedly pointed out that the ruling by the arbitration panel was the result of its "unilateral" lawsuit, implying that ASEAN should not get involved.

Malaysia's foreign minister didn't even show up for the meetings. At a later meeting of ASEAN and Asia-Pacific nations, Brunei took pains to praise China's leadership, according to diplomats who attended the meeting.

And on Tuesday, Vietnam's deputy foreign minister, Le Hoai Trung, told The Associated Press that his country prefers bilateral dialogue with China, which Beijing wants.

The Philippines is in a tight spot because even though it went to the tribunal and won, that was under the previous government of Benigno Aquino III. President Rodrigo Duterte, Aquino's successor, has made friendly overtures to Beijing and is leaning toward bilateral negotiations.

But the bottom line is that the tribunal's decision, although legally binding, is non-enforceable. The arbitration panel didn't take a position on who owns the disputed territories, which include reefs and rocky outcroppings in the vast sea. It concluded only that many of them are legally rocks, even if they've been built into islands, and therefore do not include the international rights to develop the surrounding waters.

Now it is up to China to decide what concessions it wants to make, and how much pressure the smaller countries can take.

"At this point, it (the ruling) is not a magic stick ... it's not a solution to everything, but rather it needs to be combined with other measures," said Tran Viet Thai, deputy director of the Institute of Strategic Studies, a Vietnamese government think tank.

China is showing no signs of slowing down its efforts to exert control over the South China Sea.

State-run companies are joining forces to offer luxury cruises in the waters. Three companies dealing in shipping, tourism and construction will contribute to running as many as eight cruise liners by June 2017 to service a region through which an estimated $5 trillion in global trade passes each year. They're also building four docks, which will be able to handle 2 million passengers a year.

One of China's main cellphone carriers, China Telecommunications Corp., has extended 4G service to several disputed South China Sea islands. Its competitor China Mobile Communications Corp. already offers similar services.

Along with creating new islands by piling sand on top of coral reefs, China has built airstrips, harbors and lighthouses that is says will benefit fishermen and ship owners who transit the strategic waterway.

Clearly, China is not giving up the sea  tribunal or no tribunal  yet the ruling will continue to hang over it like a dagger.

"It's impossible for (the ruling) to be irrelevant," U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry told reporters in Manila, where he made a stop after the Laos meetings.

But "we are not trying to create a confrontation. We are trying to create a solution," he said.

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Vijay Joshi is the AP's Southeast Asia news director. He has covered the region for 18 years.

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Associated Press writer Jim Gomez in Manila, Philippines, contributed to this report.

FILE - In this July 26, 2016, file photo, China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi, left, stands with Philippines Foreign Minister Perfecto Yasay Jr. after they pose for a photo during the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Foreign Ministers' Meeting in Vientiane, Laos. Despite the Philippines taking on China in a territorial dispute in the South China Sea and winning big, other Southeast Asian nations with similar disputes who attended this week's meetings are apparently backing down from Beijing. (AP photo/Sakchai Lalit)
Clinton campaign seeks to make most of Kaine's Spanish

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP)  When Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine and Hillary Clinton made their debut as the Democratic presidential ticket, he proudly declared, "Hillary and I are soul mates in this struggle."

It was a message he delivered to the Miami crowd in Spanish.

In the days after Kaine's selection as Clinton's running mate, much was made of his time working with Roman Catholic missionaries in Latin America as a young law student. Fluent in Spanish, the former mayor of Richmond and governor of Virginia moved easily between languages when he spoke at that first campaign event.

Democratic vice presidential candidate Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., talks with friends as he arrives for breakfast at a diner in Richmond, Va., Tuesday, July 26, 2016. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)

But while some Latinos say there's a practical value to Kaine's skills, they add the days are gone when that alone is enough to win over Hispanic voters.

"Words are fleeting and actions are what matter," said Daniel Lopez, a 50-year-old security guard at a Mexican market in Santa Ana, California, who said he's voting for Clinton because of her strong work ethic  not what languages she or her vice presidential pick may speak.

Latinos make up about 17 percent of the nation's population, and roughly half  27.3 million  are eligible to vote in 2016. According to the Pew Hispanic Center, nearly 70 percent of Latinos say they speak only English at home or indicate they speak English "very well."

It was no accident that Kaine was introduced at an event in Miami, home to one of the nation's largest Hispanic communities. While he joined Clinton for a joint interview with CBS' "60 Minutes," Kaine's first solo television interview was with "Noticias Telemundo."

Marc Campos, a veteran campaign consultant in Houston, said Kaine's appearances on Telemundo and its primary competitor, Univision, will help the campaign reach older Spanish-speaking Latinos who are more likely to vote.

In cities such as Houston, local Spanish-language stations pull in ratings near their top English-language competitors. Campos said on such stations, Kaine could also reach relatively new U.S. citizens  or people living in the country illegally, who cannot vote but may be willing to volunteer.

University of California, Berkeley political science professor Lisa Garcia Bedolla said Kaine's use of Spanish calls attention to his ability to connect on key issues that matter to Latinos.

"He kept talking about fe, familia y trabajo (faith, family and work). He was very respectful and humble about what he learned," she said.

Kaine, who delivered the first speech on the Senate floor entirely in Spanish in 2013, is expected to help Clinton promote plans to push for a comprehensive overhaul to the nation's immigration laws and connect with families who are living in fear of deportation.

Beyond Florida, his language skills could be an asset for Clinton in the battleground states of Colorado, Nevada and Virginia.

In picking Kaine, Clinton bypassed two Latinos on her short list: Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Julian Castro and Labor Secretary Tom Perez. That drew sharp criticism from some Latino academics and activists.

"The superficial usage of Spanish by a white politician to appeal to the Latino vote, in addition to the Clinton campaign's decision not to pick a Latino like Julian Castro for vice president, does reveal a long history of the Democratic Party taking the Latino community for granted," said Jimmy C. Patino Jr., a University of Minnesota Chicano Studies professor.

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What political news is the world searching for on Google and talking about on Twitter? Find out via AP's Election Buzz interactive. http://elections.ap.org/buzz

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Associated Press writer Amy Taxin contributed to this story from Santa Ana, California.

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Follow Russell Contreras on Twitter at http://twitter.com/russcontreras

His work can be found at http://bigstory.ap.org/content/russell-contreras
Meet the new Hillary Clinton, different from the old one?

PHILADELPHIA (AP)  Meet the new Hillary Clinton, repackaged and updated from previous versions. But will voters notice or care?

After decades in the public eye, Clinton is being presented to Americans again at the Democratic convention in Philadelphia, this time as a barrier-breaking liberal champion who fights for families and children.

But even as Democratic Party stars delivered one testimonial after another this week, some voters watching from the convention floor said they already know Clinton, or think they do, through her years as first lady, senator and secretary of state, and not all views are favorable. That presents a unique challenge for Clinton and her supporters as they try to reintroduce one of the country's most visible women to voters who've been watching her for years.

Former President Bill Clinton speaks during the second day session of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, Tuesday, July 26, 2016. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

"Why can't we have somebody in the White House that doesn't need to be shined up?" asked 31-year-old Liz Maratea of New Jersey, standing Tuesday outside the Wells Fargo Center, where she'd come to support Bernie Sanders. "Nothing needs to be repackaged about Bernie."

Clinton backers have long argued that if voters only knew her as those close to her do, they would find plenty to like. The campaign has worked on that message in recent months, and this week's convention is aimed squarely at presenting that Clinton to the bigger general election audience.

The portrait was laid out in waves this week.

She is someone who wants to "break down all the barriers to opportunity," in the words of Sen. Barbara Mikulski of Maryland.

She's tireless and hard-working, gets knocked down but "has never quit on anything in her life," said First Lady Michelle Obama.

She's spent decades fighting for women and children, minorities and the disabled  or, as her husband, former President Bill Clinton, put it Tuesday night, "She's a change-maker."

He dismissed the portrait drawn by political foes as made up. "You nominated the real one," he said.

Some of the reintroduction is more than cosmetic: Clinton moved left on issues including trade and education in the course of the primary campaign, adopting stances pushed by Sanders.

It's far from the first time Clinton has had to reintroduce herself. Allies say she's often been preceded by wrong impressions created by political adversaries. Others note that she's done harm to her own image through issues like her use of a personal email server.

Backers argue that Clinton's strength is not as a campaigner but as a hard worker, and once she gets a job, she adopts a "workhorse" approach that impresses even adversaries.

Former Arkansas Sen. Blanche Lincoln recalled fellow senators wondering whether Clinton would require a lot of attention when she joined the Senate in 2001. But Lincoln said she heard from colleagues, "You know what, you were right, she's not a diva, she wants to work." Lincoln added, "I wish people could know her as I know her."

Some skeptical voters in Philadelphia are willing to give Clinton a re-hearing, especially after listening to fellow Democrats vouch for her from the convention stage.

"I'm always open to new information," said Colby Clipston, 23, of Portland, Oregon. He pointed to Sanders' convention speech, where the senator detailed positions that he and Clinton now share.

"If Hillary Clinton comes out and she demonstrates that she is going to be someone we can trust to stick to that, I think we can begin to have a conversation," Clipston said.

Democratic Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton appears son the screen during the second day session of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, Tuesday, July 26, 2016. (AP Photo/John Locher)
Officer's trial exposes fault lines over police shootings

PORTSMOUTH, Va. (AP)  It's a familiar story: an unarmed black male killed at the hands of a white law enforcement officer. But it didn't take place in Baton Rouge, Minneapolis, or any of the other cities most recently at the center of discussions about police use of force and race.

William Chapman II died last year in Portsmouth, Virginia, a majority-black city of 100,000 that while not in the spotlight, has been deeply ensconced in such discussions.

For many black leaders there, former Officer Stephen Rankin's rare trial on first-degree murder charges, scheduled to start with jury selection Wednesday, will be nothing less than a referendum on a criminal justice system they say often fails to hold police accountable.

Stephen Rankin (pictured in court) shot Chapman after responding to a shoplifting call outside a Walmart

"The criminal justice system is hell-bent on favoring those in law enforcement," said James Boyd, president of Portsmouth's NAACP chapter. "We see these violent injustices happening time and again without any sense of accountability. This trial has implications for every citizen, but specifically for every black American in this country."

Rankin's attorneys argue that Chapman's shooting was justified, and should not be judged in the context of other pending cases elsewhere in the country.

"The factual scenario is so totally different than what has happened in Baton Rouge and Minneapolis and with Michael Brown (in Ferguson, Missouri)," attorney James Broccoletti said. "I don't think it would matter if this individual were black, red, purple or orange. It was the conduct of the person that generated the response."

Rankin shot Chapman, 18, after responding to a shoplifting call outside a Wal-Mart last year. Witnesses say a struggle ensued. Unlike in Baton Rouge and Minneapolis, however, no witness cellphone video is available to shed any light on the circumstances. In Rankin's case, the only footage is an incomplete video from his stun gun that doesn't show the actual shooting. Rankin was fired by Portsmouth's city manager after his indictment.

Chapman's death marked the second time Rankin killed someone while on duty. He was cleared of any wrongdoing from the first shooting in 2011. In that case, he fired 11 times at a white burglary suspect he said charged at him with his hands reaching into his waistband.

In court documents, prosecutors allege Rankin killed Chapman "willfully, deliberately and with premeditation." Chapman's body was delivered to the medical examiner with handcuffs still bound behind his back, according to news reports at the time.

But some witnesses said Chapman was combative; one said he knocked away Rankin's stun gun, according to the reports.

Sallie Chapman, the teen's mother, told The Associated Press he did not have a confrontational nature.

"Please look past his badge," she said of Rankin. "Please look past his uniform. And convict this man of murder."

The trial is scheduled at a time of intense scrutiny over police officers' use of force, and both the prosecution and defense expressed concerns about how to maintain an impartial jury. Despite those concerns, a judge ruled Tuesday that the trial would proceed.

Rankin's attorneys said demonstrations in favor of the officer's conviction are planned and that jurors could be influenced by them as they enter the courthouse. At the same time, Portsmouth's prosecutor has told the judge that a heavy presence of uniformed officers supporting Rankin could have a "chilling effect" on the jury. In addition to following numerous incidents of black men dying in police custody, the trial comes in the wake of recent fatal attacks on officers in Dallas and Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

On-duty officers kill suspects about 1,000 times a year, according to Philip Stinson, a criminal justice professor at Bowling Green State University in Ohio. But only 74 have been charged since 2005, 18 of them in 2015 alone, he said. Stinson said it will be years before he can say if the increase last year is a statistical anomaly or a trend buoyed by witness cellphone videos.

Of those officers arrested, 31 were charged with murder and several, including Rankin, with first-degree murder, he said. Thus far, 24 of the cases against officers have ended in convictions and 24 have not. The rest are pending.

"Juries are very reluctant to convict an officer because they all recognize that policing is difficult and violent," Stinson said.

The Virginian-Pilot newspaper recently reported that 37 people have died from shootings by police in the Hampton Roads region since 2010, 25 of them black. Two of the shootings led to criminal charges against the officers, one of whom is Rankin.

Recent protests over shootings by police in Louisiana and Minnesota shut down a major highway in Portsmouth, and a white city councilman responded by calling the demonstrators "thugs" on social media. That same night, however, an image of a black highway protester hugging a white police officer went viral, easing some of the tension. The councilman apologized the following day.

JaPharii Jones, a local black activist from nearby Hampton, Virginia, said the hug was "an awesome" moment. But he said a guilty verdict in the Rankin trial would be far more impactful in a region where he said "you can sneeze and you can get shot" by police.

Ed Schardein, a retired captain from Portsmouth, said the charges against Rankin do not reflect the department or the nation's officers.

Schardein said Portsmouth's force is well-trained and professional. And because of a relatively high crime rate, he said the officers are used to handling high-stress situations without prematurely drawing their guns.

"Conviction or no conviction, I would hope that it's based on the facts, and not the perception that there is an issue among policing," Schardein said.

In a Friday, May 1, 2015 photo, friends of William L. Chapman II hold hands and form a circle during a candlelight vigil in the parking lot of Wal-Mart in Portsmouth, Va., where Chapman was shot by Portsmouth policeman Stephen Rankin. Jury selection is scheduled to begin Wednesday, July 27, 2016, for Rankin, who shot the 18-year-old Chapman outside a Wal-Mart last year. (Bill Tiernan/The Virginian-Pilot via AP)

Chapman's mother Sallie Chapman, left, and Trease Evans in the days after the shooting

Authorities collect evidence from the scene of the fatal shooting of William Chapman by former Portsmouth police officer Steven Rankin at the Walmart on Frederick Blvd. in Portsmouth on April 22, 2015
Former Swedish communist leader Hermansson dies at 98

STOCKHOLM (AP)  Carl-Henrik Hermansson, who led Sweden's communist party as it broke its allegiance to the Soviet Union, has died. He was 98.

The party, now known as the Left Party, said Hermansson died early Tuesday. It didn't reveal the cause of death.

Hermansson was party chairman 1964-75 and stayed in Parliament for 10 more years.

During his leadership the party distanced itself from the Soviet Union, which prompted Moscow loyalists to leave the group.

Hermansson strongly criticized the Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968 and regretted his earlier praise for Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin.

The party continued its transformation after Hermansson and dropped the communist label in 1990. It's now Sweden's sixth biggest party, with 20 seats in the 349-seat Riksdag.
A look at the conflicts that have plagued India for decades

NEW DELHI (AP)  India has been plagued with often deadly political disputes for decades: A decades-old confrontation between protesters and armed forces in Kashmir has claimed tens of thousands of lives. A festering conflict with Maoist rebels cuts a wide swath across many of the country's states. A host of insurgencies fuel violence in the northeast.

Many of these conflicts date back to India's independence in 1947 from British colonial rule, when maps were drawn without adequate consideration given to the schisms it would create between ethnic groups. Many other disputes stem from centuries of discrimination and exploitation that still have not been addressed or resolved.

These long-simmering conflicts could have an impact on how quickly India, the world's fastest-growing economy, succeeds in its aim of becoming a leading global power.

FILE  In this Aug. 14, 2015 file photo, Thuingaleng Muivah, leader of the Isak-Muivah faction of the National Socialist Council of Nagaland, delivers a speech during Naga Independence Day celebrations at the councils headquarters in Hebron, in the northeastern Indian state of Nagaland. In India's remote northeast, government forces battle dozens of ethnic insurgent groups who push a welter of demands ranging from independent homelands to maximum autonomy within India. The most prominent of those conflicts, that of the Naga people, has been on the boil since the mid-1950s. (AP Photo/Anupam Nath, File)

A look at three major conflicts:

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MAOISTS

India's Maoist conflict began as an armed struggle in the late 1960s, when poor peasants in the village of Naxalbari in West Bengal state demanded land rights. The uprising was crushed, but the conflict spread across vast tracts of central and southern India.

Rebels inspired by Chinese revolutionary leader Mao Zedong have been fighting ever since, staging hit-and-run attacks against Indian authorities. They demand a greater share of wealth from the area's natural resources and more jobs for farmers and the poor.

Just last week, at least 10 Indian paramilitary soldiers were killed in an ambush by Maoist rebels in dense forests in the eastern Indian state of Bihar. The government's response was to send more troops, but the rebels had fled deep into their forest hideouts.

Since the 1980s, Maoist rebels have recruited thousands of poor villagers and indigenous tribespeople, training them in the use of arms and explosives to target government officials, security forces and state installations. Over the past decade, the rebels have acquired smuggled Chinese-made shoulder rocket launchers, and explosives and mines that they have used to deadly effect.

The government has called them India's greatest internal security threat. Thousands have died on both sides, but little has changed in the struggle. Many Indians have grown weary of the conflict. Politicians debate whether a military operation to flush the rebels out of their jungle hideouts is preferable to offering better economic opportunities to assuage the rebel fury.

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NORTHEAST INSURGENCIES

In India's remote northeast, government forces battle dozens of ethnic insurgent groups who push a welter of demands ranging from independent homelands to maximum autonomy within India. More than 21,000 people have been killed in insurgency-related violence in northeast India, according to the South Asia Terrorism Portal.

The most prominent of those conflicts, that of the Naga people, has been on the boil since the mid-1950s. Naga leaders Isak Chishi Swu and Thuingaleng Muivah signed a truce with New Delhi in 1997 and been engaged in peace talks ever since. Swu died earlier this month, but Muivah said the peace talks would carry on.

"Things are on track and we are expecting to reach an acceptable solution to the long-standing Naga issue soon," Muivah said recently.

Several other insurgencies in the northeastern states of Mizoram, Manipur, Tripura and Assam  all of which share borders with either Myanmar or Bangladesh  are keeping Indian security forces on a near-constant counterinsurgency mode.

The government has cease-fire agreements with more than 40 insurgent groups in the region, and over the years it has signed peace agreements with six. Those deals gave ethnic groups more autonomy, but India has rejected their demands for separate homelands. This resulted in the splintering of several insurgent groups, with some factions carrying on with hit-and-run guerrilla strikes.

Neighboring Bhutan and Bangladesh are cooperating with Indian authorities to expel insurgent leaders and cadres operating from their territories. New Delhi is trying to reach a similar agreement with Myanmar.

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KASHMIR

Clashes between protesters and Indian forces in the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir this summer again highlight the challenge that the restive Himalayan region has posed for Indian policymakers ever since it was split between India and Pakistan shortly after the two archrivals gained independence in 1947.

New Delhi initially grappled with largely peaceful anti-India movements in its portion of Kashmir. However, political blunders, broken promises and a crackdown against dissent resulted in a full-blown armed rebellion against Indian control in 1989. Thousands of Kashmiris crossed over to Pakistani-controlled Kashmir for arms training, returned with guns and grenades, and joined the armed struggle against India for a united Kashmir, either under Pakistan rule or independent of both.

Kashmir became a battleground, with rebel groups ratcheting up bloody attacks aimed at Indian security forces and pro-India Kashmiri politicians. India responded with a massive militarization of Kashmir, saying it was fighting a Pakistan-sponsored proxy war. Soldiers empowered with emergency impunity laws carried out a brutal military crackdown. At least 68,000 people have died in Kashmir since 1989.

Kashmir rebels suffered a major setback after 9/11, as the U.S. pressured Pakistan to rein in militants. The militancy was largely crushed, but many Kashmiris remain opposed to Indian rule. In recent months, demonstrations by unarmed protesters have often led to intense clashes between rock-throwing Kashmiri youths and armed government soldiers.

New Delhi and Islamabad have yet to find common ground to resolve the dispute. The churning is again producing a new generation of homegrown militants, something which has deeply worried Indian establishment.

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AP writers Wasbir Hussain in Gauhati, India, and Aijaz Hussain in Srinagar, India, contributed to this report.

FILE  In this May 5, 2010 file photo, an armed cadre of the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN-IM), left, walks past an elderly woman sitting outside a traditional Naga hut, during a visit by the NSCN-IM General-Secretary Thuingaleng Muivah, at Viswema village, about 25 kilometers (16 miles) south of Kohima, capital of the northeastern Indian state of Nagaland. In India's remote northeast, government forces battle dozens of ethnic insurgent groups who push a welter of demands ranging from independent homelands to maximum autonomy within India. The most prominent of those conflicts, that of the Naga people, has been on the boil since the mid-1950s. (AP Photo/Anupam Nath, File)

FILE  In this June 7, 2014 file photo, relatives mourn by the coffin containing the body of a police officer Nityananda Goswami, who was killed in a rebel attack, as they load his body in a vehicle during his guard of honor function in Gauhati, in the northeastern Indian state of Assam. In India's remote northeast, government forces battle dozens of ethnic insurgent groups who push a welter of demands ranging from independent homelands to maximum autonomy within India. The government has cease-fire agreements with more than 40 insurgent groups in the region, and over the years it has signed peace agreements with six. (AP Photo/Anupam Nath, File)

File  In this April 9, 2014 file photo, a cadre of Kuki National Front, an insurgent group which has currently suspended operation as part of an agreement with the government, sits vigil as others cast their postal ballots at their designated camp at Natheljang, in the northeastern Indian state of Manipur. In India's remote northeast, government forces battle dozens of ethnic insurgent groups who push a welter of demands ranging from independent homelands to maximum autonomy within India. The government has cease-fire agreements with more than 40 insurgent groups in the region, and over the years it has signed peace agreements with six. (AP Photo/Anupam Nath, File)

FILE  In this May 6, 2010 file photo, security personnel detain a local youth after a rally against the Manipur state governments decision to prevent Thuingaleng Muivah, Muivah, leader of a key rebel group in the country's insurgency-wracked northeast, from entering Manipur state in India's northeast, in Mao, about 30 kilometers (20 miles) from Kohima, capital of the northeastern Indian state of Nagaland. In India's remote northeast, government forces battle dozens of ethnic insurgent groups who push a welter of demands ranging from independent homelands to maximum autonomy within India. The most prominent of those conflicts, that of the Naga people, has been on the boil since the mid-1950s. (AP Photo/Anupam Nath, File)

FILE  In this Dec. 14, 2011 file photo, Lengbat Engleng, Defense Secretary of the United People's Democratic Solidarity (UPDS), waves a flag of the group during a surrender ceremony in Diphu, in the northeastern Indian state of Assam. In India's remote northeast, government forces battle dozens of ethnic insurgent groups who push a welter of demands ranging from independent homelands to maximum autonomy within India. The government has cease-fire agreements with more than 40 insurgent groups in the region, and over the years it has signed peace agreements with six. (AP Photo/Anupam Nath, File)

FILE, EDS NOTE GRAPHIC CONTENT  In this May 3 2014 file photo, bodies of victims killed by separatist rebels lie covered in the rain on the banks of the River Beki, as security officers patrol the area on a boat at Khagrabari village, in the northeastern Indian state of Assam. In India's remote northeast, government forces battle dozens of ethnic insurgent groups who push a welter of demands ranging from independent homelands to maximum autonomy within India. The government has cease-fire agreements with more than 40 insurgent groups in the region, and over the years it has signed peace agreements with six. (AP Photo/Anupam Nath, File)

FILE - In this April 13, 2007 file photo, Maoist rebels or Naxalites, officially the Communist Party of India (Maoist) that takes its name from the Naxalbari, a village outside Kolkata where the revolt began in 1967, raise their arms during an exercise at a temporary base in the Abujh Marh forests, in the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh. Rebels inspired by Chinese revolutionary leader Mao Zedong have been fighting since the late 1960s, staging hit-and-run attacks against Indian authorities. They demand a greater share of wealth from the area's natural resources and more jobs for farmers and the poor. (AP Photo/Mustafa Quraishi, File)

FILE - In this April 13, 2007 file photo, Maoist rebels or Naxalites, officially the Communist Party of India (Maoist) that takes its name from the Naxalbari, a village outside Kolkata where the revolt began in 1967, exercise at a temporary base in the Abujh Marh forests, in the central Indian state of Chattisgarh. Rebels inspired by Chinese revolutionary leader Mao Zedong have been fighting since the late 1960s, staging hit-and-run attacks against Indian authorities. They demand a greater share of wealth from the area's natural resources and more jobs for farmers and the poor. (AP Photo/Mustafa Quraishi, File)

FILE - In this March 17, 2010 file photo, Indian paramilitary soldiers patrol during a combing operation under "Operation Green Hunt," to flush out Maoist rebels from their strongholds, near the jungles of Betla, about 210 kilometers (132 miles) northeast of Ranchi, India. Rebels inspired by Chinese revolutionary leader Mao Zedong have been fighting since the late 1960s, staging hit-and-run attacks against Indian authorities. They demand a greater share of wealth from the area's natural resources and more jobs for farmers and the poor. (AP Photo/Sasanka Sen, File)

FILE  In this Aug. 4, 2010 file photo, young Kashmiri boys hit a burning police vehicle after it was set on fire by protestors at Barthana neighborhood in Srinagar, India. Clashes between protesters and Indian forces in the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir in the summer of 2016 again highlight the challenge that the restive Himalayan region has posed for Indian policymakers ever since it was split between India and Pakistan shortly after the two archrivals gained independence in 1947. Political blunders, broken promises and a crackdown against dissent resulted in a full-blown armed rebellion against Indian control in 1989. At least 68,000 people have died in Kashmir since 1989. (AP Photo/Dar Yasin, File)

FILE  In this March 6, 1990 file photo, Indian paramilitary soldiers take position in front of a closed shop in Srinagar, India. Clashes between protesters and Indian forces in the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir in the summer of 2016 again highlight the challenge that the restive Himalayan region has posed for Indian policymakers ever since it was split between India and Pakistan shortly after the two archrivals gained independence in 1947. Political blunders, broken promises and a crackdown against dissent resulted in a full-blown armed rebellion against Indian control in 1989. Thousands of Kashmiris crossed over to Pakistani-controlled Kashmir for arms training, returned with guns and grenades, and joined the armed struggle against India for a united Kashmir, either under Pakistan rule or independent of both. (AP Photo/Ajit Kumar)Indian paramilitary soldiers take up position in front of a closed shop in downtown Srinagar, India on Tuesday, March 6, 1990 where a Muslim militant's graffito reads 'We want independence.' Curfew, imposed after security forces on Thursday killed 49 Muslim demonstrators, was relaxed for four hours Tuesday morning in Srinagar. (AP Photo/Ajit Kumar, File)

FILE  In this April 18, 2015. File photo, an Indian policeman takes cover behind an armored car as Kashmiri protestors hurl rocks and bricks in Narbal, some 15 Kilometers (10 miles) North of Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir. Clashes between protesters and Indian forces in the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir in the summer of 2016 again highlight the challenge that the restive Himalayan region has posed for Indian policymakers ever since it was split between India and Pakistan shortly after the two archrivals gained independence in 1947. Political blunders, broken promises and a crackdown against dissent resulted in a full-blown armed rebellion against Indian control in 1989. (AP Photo/Dar Yasin, File)

FILE  In this Nov. 24, 2015 file photo, Kashmiri Muslim villagers carry the body of suspected rebel Tanveer Ahmad Bhat, during his funeral in Bijbehara, some 28 miles (45 kilometers) south of Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir. New Delhi initially grappled with largely peaceful anti-India movements in its portion of Kashmir. However, political blunders, broken promises and a crackdown against dissent resulted in a full-blown armed rebellion against Indian control in 1989. Thousands of Kashmiris crossed over to Pakistani-controlled Kashmir for arms training, returned with guns and grenades, and joined the armed struggle against India for a united Kashmir, either under Pakistan rule or independent of both. (AP Photo/Mukhtar Khan, File)
Minister: Bavaria bomber in online chat before attack

BERLIN (AP)  A 27-year-old Syrian asylum-seeker who blew himself up in the southern German town of Ansbach was chatting online with a still-unidentified person immediately before the explosion, Bavaria's interior minister said Wednesday.

Attacker Mohammed Daleel died and 15 people were wounded when his bomb exploded outside a wine bar Sunday night after he was denied entry to a nearby open-air concert because he didn't have a ticket.

"There was apparently an immediate contact with someone who had a significant influence on this attack," state Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann said on the sidelines of a party meeting in Bavaria, news agency dpa reported.

This undated photo from Al-Nabaa, an online magazine of the Islamic State group, shows Mohammad Daleel in an article published late Tuesday, July 26, 2016. The weekly magazine claimed Daleel, who went to Germany as an asylum-seeker, had fought both in Iraq and Syria with a branch of al-Qaida and the IS group. Al-Nabaa described how Daleel, a 27-year-old Syrian, blew himself up at a bar in the southern German town of Ansbach spent months planning the attack, once even hiding his home-made bomb in his room moments before a police raid. (Al-Nabaa, an online magazine of the Islamic State group, via AP)

It wasn't clear whether Daleel was in contact with the Islamic State group or where the other person in the chat was, Herrmann said. He said investigators checking the assailant's cellphone came across the "intensive chat" and that "the chat appears to end immediately before the attack."

"Because of witness testimony on what happened and also the course of the chat, there are indeed questions about whether he intended to set off the bomb at that moment," Herrmann said.

On Tuesday night, the online magazine of the Islamic State group said the attacker spent months planning the attack, once even hiding his homemade bomb in his room in a state-supported asylum shelter moments before a police raid.

The weekly Al-Nabaa magazine's report added that Daleel had fought in Iraq and Syria with a branch of al-Qaida and the IS group before arriving in Germany as an asylum-seeker two years ago.

Herrmann said a roll of 50-euro ($55) notes was found on the attacker. It's unclear where the money came from  but it is "unlikely that it could have been paid for solely from what an asylum-seeker in Germany gets in the way of pocket money." He didn't disclose the total value of the cash.

The Ansbach explosion was the last of four attacks in Germany in a week, two of which were claimed by IS. Islamic extremism wasn't the motive in the other two  including the deadliest, Friday's shooting in Munich in which nine people were killed.

The German government said President Barack Obama offered his sympathy to Chancellor Angela Merkel over the attacks in a phone call Wednesday. Both stressed their will to continue fighting international terrorism together and with determination, the government said.

On Wednesday night, German police said they raided a mosque believed to be a "hot spot" for Islamic extremists and the interior ministry of Lower Saxony state said the apartments of eight leading members of the Islamic group were also searched.

The attacks have brought Merkel's policy of welcoming refugees  more than 1 million last year  under renewed criticism.

A senior figure in the nationalist Alternative for Germany party, which has no seats in the national parliament but saw its popularity surge after last year's migrant influx, suggested Wednesday that there should be "a halt to immigration for Muslims to Germany" until all asylum seekers now in the country have been registered, checked and had their applications processed.

"For security reasons, we can no longer afford to allow yet more Muslims to immigrate to Germany without control," Alexander Gauland, a deputy party leader, said in a statement. "There are terrorists among the Muslims who immigrated illegally and their number is rising constantly."

But Interior Ministry spokesman Johannes Dimroth said that "for some time" all new arrivals have been registered and checked against security databases.

As for whether people could be treated differently depending on their religion, "as I understand it that simply would be incompatible with our understanding of freedom of religion," he said.

Conservative lawmakers have called for an increased police presence, better surveillance and background checks of migrants  and new strategies to deport criminal asylum-seekers more easily.

Al Nabaa's Arabic-language report on the attacker said he initially fought against government forces with al-Qaida's branch in Syria before pledging alliance to IS in 2013. He also helped the group with its propaganda efforts, setting up pro-IS accounts online.

In Germany, he started making the bomb, a process that took three months, al Nabaa wrote.

IS earlier claimed the Ansbach attack, publishing a video it said was of Daleel pledging allegiance to the group and vowing that Germany's people "won't be able to sleep peacefully anymore." It appears to be the same video as the one found by German investigators on the suicide bomber's phone.

Daleel unsuccessfully sought asylum in Germany and was awaiting deportation to Bulgaria.

The bloodshed in Germany began July 18, when a 17-year-old from Afghanistan wielding an ax attacked passengers on a train near Wuerzburg, wounding five people before he was shot to death by police. IS claimed responsibility.

German train operator Deutsche Bahn said Wednesday it would invest heavily in increased security and hire hundreds of security staff to control trains and train stations across the country.

The city of Munich said it is re-evaluating security for the annual Oktoberfest and is considering banning backpacks from the popular beer fest.

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This story has been corrected to show that the bomb exploded outside, not in the bar. Mroue reported from Beirut, Lebanon. Geir Moulson contributed from Berlin.

GERMANY OUT - Refugees from Syria stand near the site of the attack and hold up a sign reading 'we are Muslims and not terrorists' in Ansbach, Germany, Tuesday July 26, 2016. In the most recent attack, a 27-year-old Syrian asylum-seeker set off a backpack laden with explosives and shrapnel Sunday night after being refused entry to a crowded music festival in the Bavarian city of Ansbach, killing himself and wounding 15 people. (Daniel Karmann/dpa via AP)

GERMANY OUT -A broken window photographed at the site of the attack in Ansbach, Germany, Tuesday July 26, 2016. In the most recent attack in Germany, a 27-year-old Syrian asylum-seeker set off a backpack laden with explosives and shrapnel Sunday night after being refused entry to a crowded music festival in the Bavarian city of Ansbach, killing himself and wounding 15 people. (Daniel Karmann/dpa via AP)
Air France warns of drop in travel to France after attacks

PARIS (AP)  Air France, facing a strike by cabin crew at the height of the summer vacation season, is warning of pressure on its finances amid concerns about France as a tourist destination after a string of deadly attacks.

The company reported Wednesday a 5.2 percent drop in second quarter sales to 6.22 billion euros ($6.84 billion) compared with last year, and about 40 million euros in losses from strikes.

Air France cancelled over 10 percent of flights Wednesday amid its latest strike, by cabin crew.

Police officers conduct a search as they investigate an attack on a church that left a priest dead in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, Normandy, France, Tuesday, July 26, 2016. Two attackers invaded a church Tuesday during morning Mass near the Normandy city of Rouen, killing an 84-year-old priest by slitting his throat and taking hostages before being shot and killed by police, French officials said. (AP Photo/Francois Mori)

It warned the global context this year is "highly uncertain," noting fuel prices and "a special concern about France as a destination."
Pope says the world's at war, urges Europe to greet refugees

KRAKOW, Poland (AP)  Pope Francis, deeply saddened by the slaying of an elderly priest during Mass in a church in the French countryside, warned grimly Wednesday that the world is at war, but cautioned against labeling it a war among religions.

At the start of his first ever trip to Eastern Europe, where anti-migrant sentiments have been rising, he also encouraged Europe to welcome refugees from war, hunger and religious persecution and called for "courage" and "compassion."

Francis is celebrating World Youth Day in Poland, where the conservative government has shut the doors to migrants and many fear that accepting Muslim refugees would threaten the nation's security and its Catholic identity.

Pope Francis salutes faithful and pilgrims on his way to the royal Wawel Castle in Krakow, Poland, Wednesday, July 27, 2016. Pope Francis has been greeted in Poland by President Andrzej Duda and hundreds of singing and cheering people as he arrived at the airport in Krakow. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski)

As he started the five-day trip, he told an audience of Poland's president, diplomats and other dignitaries that what is needed is "a spirit of readiness to welcome those fleeing from wars and hunger, and solidarity with those deprived of their fundamental rights, including the right to profess one's faith in freedom and safety."

While the speech had in mind the hundreds of thousands of migrants fleeing Syria, Iraq and other Mideast countries, as well as impoverished nations in Africa, his reference to practicing one's faith in safety could also be seen as an allusion to the slaying of the 85-year-old French priest by two extremists in Normandy on Tuesday.

The murder compounded security fears surrounding Francis' trip, which were already high due to a string of violent attacks in France and Germany. Polish officials say they have deployed tens of thousands of security officials to cover the event.

Francis spoke to reporters as he flew from Rome to Krakow. Asked about the slaying of the priest, Francis replied: "It's war, we don't have to be afraid to say this."

He then sought to avoid any misunderstanding of his definition of war.

"I only want to clarify that, when I speak of war, I am really speaking of war," he said. "A war of interests, for money, resources, dominion of peoples."

"I am not speaking of a war of religions. Religions don't want war. The others want war," he added.

He also reiterated earlier remarks likening the current violence to a Third War III in "segments."

In the evening, as thousands of young people cheered in the square outside Krakow's archbishop's residence in hopes of getting a glimpse of Francis, the pope's spokesman elaborated on the remarks about a world in war.

"He wanted to specify very clearly, he doesn't mean a war of religions," the spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi said.

Upon arrival at Krakow airport Francis was greeted by Poland's President Andrzej Duda, First Lady Agata Kornhauser-Duda and other state officials, and hundreds of faithful who had waited for hours to see him. Prime Minister Beata Szydlo knelt and kissed his papal ring.

After a brief ceremony Francis then traveled in an open car through the city, waving at cheering crowds as he headed to the Wawel Castle for the main welcoming ceremony.

There, President Duda, a Catholic hailing from Krakow, hailed Francis as a "support, a road sign" in life for young people.

"The world today badly needs values, it needs faith and good, all of which your Holiness is bringing," Duda declared in the castle courtyard. "We are all waiting for your word."

Francis then urged Polish authorities "to overcome fear" and show "great wisdom and compassion" in dealing with migrants, whose arrivals in huge numbers on Greek, Italian and other southern European shores in the last few years has strained European nations' coffers, fueled the popularity of anti-migrant political parties and spawned fears that terrorists could show up on the continent by blending in with the refugees.

His pilgrimage will bring him later in the week to Auschwitz and Birkenau, the death camp complex run by German Nazi occupiers in Poland during World War II. Francis wants to pray silently at the sites and will also visit the place in Auschwitz where a priest gave his life to save a fellow camp inmate.

Other highlights of the pope's visit include a Saturday evening vigil with hundreds of thousands of youths who are expected to gather at a meadow, and a closing Mass on Sunday morning.

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Vanessa Gera in Warsaw contributed to this report.

Frances D'Emilio is on Twitter at www.twitter.com/fdemilio

Pope Francis, center, greets faithful as he walks with Polish President Andrzej Duda, right, and his wife Lady Agata Kornhauser-Duda after arrival at the military airport in Krakow, Poland, Wednesday, July 27, 2016. (AP Photo/Alik Keplicz)

Pope Francis, with Polish President Andrzej Duda, center, and First Lady Agata Kornhauser-Duda watch attends the welcome ceremony upon his arrival at the military airport in Krakow, Poland, Wednesday, July 27, 2016. (AP Photo/Alik Keplicz)

Pope Francis meets reporters during his flight to Poland, Wednesday, July 27, 2016 to start a 5-day visit. Pope commented on French priest's slaying, saying the world's at war, but it's not a 'war of religions'. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

Pope Francis meets reporters during his flight to Poland, Wednesday, July 27, 2016 to start a 5-day visit. Pope commented on French priest's slaying, saying the world's at war, but it's not a 'war of religions'. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

Pope Francis meets reporters during his flight to Poland, Wednesday, July 27, 2016 to start a 5-day visit. Pope commented on French priest's slaying, saying the world's at war, but it's not a 'war of religions'. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

Pilgrims and faithful attend the opening Mass for the World Youth Day in Krakow, Poland, Tuesday, July 26, 2016. Young people gathered Tuesday ahead of the arrival of Pope Francis for World Youth Day, a major gathering of Catholics from around the world. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski)

Pilgrims attend the opening Mass for the World Youth Day in Krakow, Poland, Tuesday, July 26, 2016. Young people gathered Tuesday ahead of the arrival of Pope Francis for World Youth Day, a major gathering of Catholics from around the world. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski)

A pilgrim attends the opening Mass for the World Youth Day, in Krakow, Poland, Tuesday, July 26, 2016. Buses of Polish security forces moved into Krakow on Tuesday as thousands of young people gathered ahead of the arrival of Pope Francis for the major gathering of Catholics from around the world.(AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski)

Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, center, celebrates the opening Mass for the World Youth Day in Krakow, Poland, Tuesday, July 26, 2016. Buses of Polish security forces moved into Krakow on Tuesday as thousands of young people gathered ahead of the arrival of Pope Francis for the major gathering of Catholics from around the world. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski)

A pilgrim smiles during the opening Mass for the World Youth Day, in Krakow, Poland, Tuesday, July 26, 2016. Buses of Polish security forces moved into Krakow on Tuesday as thousands of young people gathered ahead of the arrival of Pope Francis for the major gathering of Catholics from around the world. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski)

Pilgrims and faithful attend the opening Mass for the World Youth Day in Krakow, Poland, Tuesday, July 26, 2016. Young people gathered Tuesday ahead of the arrival of Pope Francis for World Youth Day, a major gathering of Catholics from around the world. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski)

Police officers direct traffic among high security measures just hours before Pope Francis arrives in Krakow, Poland, on Wednesday, 27 July 2016, to join hundreds of thousands of Catholics form around the globe for celebrations of the World Youth Day that run through Sunday. Security concerns were increased after the slaying of a Catholic priests in France on Tuesday in an attack for which the Islamic State claimed responsibility. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski)

Young Catholic pilgrims from Mexico march by a police car among high security measures just hours before Pope Francis arrives in Krakow, Poland, on Wednesday, 27 July 2016, to join hundreds of thousands of Catholics form around the globe for celebrations of the World Youth Day that run through Sunday. Security concerns were increased after the slaying of a Catholic priests in France on Tuesday in an attack for which the Islamic State claimed responsibility. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski)

A group of folk dancers rehearse prior to the arrival of Pope Francis at the military airport in Krakow, Poland, Wednesday, July 27, 2016. Pope Francis is traveling to Poland to meet young Catholics from around the globe and visit the Auschwitz death camp and many Catholic places in this deeply religious nation. It will be the pope's first visit to central or Eastern Europe. (AP Photo/Alik Keplicz)

A group of folk dancers rehearse prior to the arrival of Pope Francis at the military airport in Krakow, Poland, Wednesday, July 27, 2016. Pope Francis is traveling to Poland to meet young Catholics from around the globe and visit the Auschwitz death camp and many Catholic places in this deeply religious nation. It will be the pope's first visit to central or Eastern Europe. (AP Photo/Alik Keplicz)

Pope Francis leaves for Poland with an Alitalia flight from the Fiumicino Airport in Rome, Wednesday, July 27, 2016. Pope Francis has departed for Krakow, where he will join World Youth Day, a major gathering of Catholics. (Telenews/ANSA via AP Photo)

Young Catholic pilgrims from Mexico march by a police car among high security measures just hours before Pope Francis arrives in Krakow, Poland, on Wednesday, 27 July 2016, to join hundreds of thousands of Catholics form around the globe for celebrations of the World Youth Day that run through Sunday. Security concerns were increased after the slaying of a Catholic priests in France on Tuesday in an attack for which the Islamic State claimed responsibility. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski)

Pope Francis salutes faithful and pilgrims on his way to the royal Wawel Castle in Krakow, Poland, Wednesday, July 27, 2016. Pope Francis has been greeted in Poland by President Andrzej Duda and hundreds of singing and cheering people as he arrived at the airport in Krakow. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski)

Pope Francis salutes faithful and pilgrims on his way to the royal Wawel Castle in Krakow, Poland, Wednesday, July 27, 2016. Pope Francis has been greeted in Poland by President Andrzej Duda and hundreds of singing and cheering people as he arrived at the airport in Krakow. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski)

Pope Francis shakes hands with Polish President Andrzej Duda during an official welcoming ceremony at the royal Wawel Castle in Krakow, Poland, Wednesday, July 27, 2016. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)
Gunmen in Armenia take medics hostage

YEREVAN, Armenia (AP)  Gunmen who have been barricaded in a police station in the Armenian capital for 10 days took members of an ambulance crew hostage on Wednesday after they came in to treat those wounded in an exchange of fire with officers, police said.

One of the crew, a doctor, was released Wednesday night, the Armenian Health Ministry said on its Facebook page, but did not give details.

The group seized the police post in Yerevan on July 17, killing one officer, wounding several others and taking those remaining hostage to demand freedom for a jailed opposition figure. The last of those hostages were released on Saturday.

Riot police secure a police station, which is being hold by an armed group, in Yerevan, Armenia, early Wednesday, July 27, 2016. A spokesman for Armenia's police says two of the gunmen who have been holding a police station in the capital for more than a week have surrendered after an exchange of gunfire. Police spokesman Ashot Arahonyan says on Facebook that the gunfire began before dawn on Wednesday. (Vahan Stepanyan/PAN Photo via AP)

After an exchange of fire before dawn Wednesday, two of the gunmen surrendered and one police officer and two gunmen were taken to hospitals for treatment of gunshot wounds. More than 20 gunmen are believed to remain in the police station.

Police spokesman Ashot Agaronyan said the gunmen took several paramedics hostage after they were called in to treat the wounded.

An anti-government protest held outside the police station on Wednesday ended with the detentions of about 300 people, including Armenian-Canadian actress Arsinee Khanjian.

Khanjian's lawyer, Aramazd Kivirian, said early Thursday that she had been released from custody.

Police officers detain a supporter of the armed group who have been holding a police station in Yerevan, Armenia, early Wednesday, July 27, 2016. A spokesman for Armenia's police says two of the gunmen who have been holding a police station in the capital for more than a week have surrendered after an exchange of gunfire. Police spokesman Ashot Arahonyan says on Facebook that the gunfire began before dawn on Wednesday. (Vahan Stepanyan/PAN Photo via AP)
Obama's Presidential Library Will Be Located In Jackson Park

By Stephen Gossett in News on Jul 27, 2016 6:27PM



(The President and First Lady announce the location of the future home of the Barack Obama Presidential Library./ Photo: Youtube screengrab)

President Barack Obamas library and museum appears to have found a homeand its not where you may have thought.

Jackson Park will be home to the Obama Presidential Center, the Tribune reported on Wednesday. Washington Park was long considered to be a leading contender as the site, but it appears that the Obama complex will take root a little bit further southeast. Jackson Park is located east of S. Stony Island Ave, just south of the Museum of Science and Industry and east of the lake. The park, located in Kenwood, is 500-plus acres; and the Center could open the door to additional museum development, according to the report.

The Obamas announced in May of last year that the complexwhich will include a library, museum and space for the Obama Foundationwould take home on the citys South Side. All the strands of my life came together and I really became a man, when I moved to Chicago, Obama said in the announcement. Thats where I was able to apply that early idealism to try to work in communities in public service."

But since that time, the actual location has been undetermined until Wednesday.

The plan will likely cost $500 million and require approximately 21 acres of land. Illinois lawmakers in April of 2015 passed a bill that makes it easier for the city to build on Chicago parkland. Before it passed, Friends of the Park, under then-leader Cassandra Francis, had been a vociferous opponent to the proposed park-space locationsif you can imagine that.

It was announced last month that New York architects Tod Williams and Billie Tsien would design the library and museum, with assistance from Chicago-based Interactive Design Architects.

The full Tribune piece, which includes thoughtful consideration on how the expected announcement, could potentially have opposite effects going forward for the underserved Washington Park neighborhood and "beginning to gentrify Woodlawn"can be read here. A formal announcement is reportedly anticipated for next week.
Greek asylum hearings for 8 Turkish soldiers are postponed

ATHENS, Greece (AP)  A lawyer says the eight Turkish military personnel who fled to Greece in a military helicopter after the failed July 15 coup in Turkey have earned a postponement in the discussion of their applications for political asylum.

Menia Polychroni, one of the lawyers representing the Turkish men, told The Associated Press that "we obtained a postponement" and all eight cases will begin to be considered on Aug. 19. She said the process should be finished by Aug. 26.

Four of the eight appeared for asylum interviews Wednesday before authorities in Athens but the hearings were ultimately postponed for all.

A Turkish military officer, center, is escorted by policemen as he leaves a building of the Greek Asylum Service in Athens, Wednesday, July 27, 2016. Two of the eight Turkish military officers who are seeking asylum in Greece after a failed military coup, appeared in the service and took a postponement for their interview for August 19. (AP Photo/Yorgos Karahalis)

If the decision by Greece's Asylum Authority is negative, the applicants have a right to appeal.

Turkey is adamant that the men be returned.

A Turkish military officer, center, is escorted by policemen as he leaves a building of the Greek Asylum Service in Athens, Wednesday, July 27, 2016. Two of the eight Turkish military officers who are seeking asylum in Greece after a failed military coup appeared in the service and took a postponement for their interview for August 19. (AP Photo/Yorgos Karahalis)

A Turkish military officer, center, is escorted by policemen as he leaves a building of the Greek Asylum Service in Athens, Wednesday, July 27, 2016. Two of the eight Turkish military officers who are seeking asylum in Greece after a failed military coup appeared in the service and took a postponement for their interview for August 19. (AP Photo/Yorgos Karahalis)

A Turkish military officer, center, is escorted by policemen as he leaves a building of the Greek Asylum Service in Athens, Wednesday, July 27, 2016. Two of the eight Turkish military officers who are seeking asylum in Greece after a failed military coup, appeared in the service and took a postponement for their interview for August 19. (AP Photo/Yorgos Karahalis)
Italian banks in focus as Europe shrugs off Brexit _ for now

MILAN (AP)  About a month on from Britain's vote to leave the European Union, there's little evidence that economic activity across the continent has been derailed yet.

That's some reassurance for the 19-country eurozone as it faces a host of other problems, many of which relate to Italy, the bloc's third-largest economy. The country has to shore up its banks  and will get some idea Friday of the scale of the problem when regulators publish the results of EU-wide bank stress tests.

Separate figures Friday will also show how the eurozone economy was faring in the run-up to the British vote. Analysts estimate that the quarterly growth rate halved to 0.3 percent in the second quarter compared with the first for a variety of reasons, including the pick-up in the price of oil, concerns over a slowdown in China and uncertainty ahead of the British referendum on June 23.

FILE - In this Wednesday, June 29, 2016 file photo, Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi speaks during an EU summit in Brussels. About a month on from Britains vote to leave the European Union, theres little evidence that economic activity across the continent has been derailed yet. Thats some reassurance for the 19-country eurozone as it faces a host of other problems, many of which relate to Italy, the blocs third-largest economy. The Brexit vote has raised the stakes in Italian Premier Matteo Renzis upcoming referendum on a raft of changes designed to streamline the countrys political system. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert, file)

No doubt the vote for so-called Brexit has proven a shock to many and a jolt to the European project of political integration. But so far the economic fallout appears to have been contained. Surveys of business activity, such as the Ifo index of German business confidence, have shown resilience, in marked contrast to those assessing the state of the British economy.

"Europe already appears to have moved on," said James Nixon, chief European economist at Oxford Economics.

Nixon said "the more immediate challenge" for European policymakers is the constitutional referendum in Italy expected this fall, "where the government currently faces a good chance of succumbing to the same sense of populist disaffection that prompted Brexit."

The Brexit vote has raised the stakes in Italian Premier Matteo Renzi's upcoming referendum on a raft of changes designed to streamline the country's political system. Opinion polls point to a close outcome. Defeat could lead to Renzi's resignation, early elections and fresh uncertainty over the direction both of the EU and of the eurozone itself.

In the meantime, Renzi has another problem to contend with  the financial health of Italy's banks. Renzi is looking for a way to rescue them from a pile of bad loans that aren't being repaid.

Italian banks have been worn down by some 360 billion euros ($400 billion) in loans that won't be paid back in full. Given Italy's size, any negative fallout would far outweigh the impact from the repeated problems over the past few years, notably in Greece.

Any rescue attempt that involves the use of public money could run into resistance from the EU, which recently introduced new rules to avoid a repeat of some of the recent bailouts that afflicted the eurozone. During the region's debt crisis over the past few years, the perilous situation of some banks was at the root of some of the bailouts.

Under the terms of the new rules, taxpayer money can now only be used after bank creditors such as bondholders have been "bailed in," meaning they lose some of their money first. That provision was aimed at making sure that the cost of rescuing banks doesn't overwhelm the state's finances as they did in the case of Ireland.

"I think bail-ins are a very sound economic principle, which basically says that those investors that put in their money and take out some profit in the good years carry the losses in the bad years," Jeroen Dijsselbloem, the eurozone's top official recently said.

A particular problem for Italy is that about a third of bank bonds are held by small retail investors. Inflicting losses on them, as well as depositors, could be highly unpopular ahead of the upcoming referendum.

"It should therefore come as no surprise that there is an increasing sense of urgency to resolve the problems facing the Italian banking sector well ahead of (the) vote," said Oxford Economics' Nixon.

A major step in assessing the scale of the problem will emerge on Friday when the European Banking Authority will release results on the financial health of EU banks. The five Italian banks being assessed, including UniCredit and Monte dei Paschi di Siena, are expected to feature high in the list of those requiring help. There's talk that Monte dei Paschi may even pre-empt the stress tests with a multi-billion cash call from investors.

As in previous moments of crisis in the eurozone, most close observers expect a last-minute deal to be thrashed out that involves some sort of bending of the European rules. European Central Bank President Mario Draghi last week indicated that there is some flexibility in the rules that would make sure that they don't fail their first test.

"There are escape routes available for particular circumstances," economists at Bank of America Merrill Lynch said in a note to clients. "There is a way; we are waiting for the will."

What would help Italy in particular would be a strengthening in the recovery from recession.

Italy's economy has grown less than other major countries for years, fueling popular discontent and the growth of previously fringe parties, such as the 5-Star Movement, which has gained on Renzi's left-of-center Democratic Party in polls.

With Britain having made its choice, Italy is now facing the glare.

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US Marine Corps horse honored for Korean War valor

LONDON (AP)  A U.S. Marine Corps horse who served during some of the bloodiest fighting of the Korean War has been posthumously decorated for bravery.

Sgt. Reckless was awarded the Dickin Medal during a ceremony at the Korean War Memorial in London on Wednesday, the 63rd anniversary of the end of the war.

A serving British Army horse stood in for the late Reckless at the ceremony.

Horse Haldalgo, representing life-saving US Marine horse Sergeant Reckless who served with the US Marine Corps during the Korean War, is awarded with the PDSA Dickin Medal watched by Sergeant Mark Gostling in London, Wednesday, July 27, 2016. Reckless, who survived one of the bloodiest battles in modern military history, has today been awarded the PDSA Dickin Medal  known as the animal equivalent of the Victoria Cross  for her bravery and devotion to duty during the Korean war 1950 until 1953. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein)

The chestnut Mongolian mare served as an ammunitions carrier for the marines' anti-tank division. She made repeated strips to supply ammunition and retrieve wounded troops under heavy bombardment during the battle for Outpost Vegas in March 1953.

After the war, Reckless retired to the United States and died in 1968 at age 20. She was nominated by a historian who wrote a biography about her.

Reckless is the 68th recipient of the medal, awarded by the PDSA veterinary charity and billed as the animal equivalent of the Victoria Cross  Britain's top award for military valor.

Since 1943, the medal has recognized gallantry by animals serving with the military, police or rescue services.

Almost half the recipients have been dogs, including a World War II commando collie who made more than 20 parachute jumps. The medal has also gone to police horses, carrier pigeons and, once, to a cat  a Royal Navy ship's mascot who carried on rat-catching while the vessel was shelled and besieged in China in 1949.

Horse Haldalgo, representing life-saving US Marine horse Sergeant Reckless who served with the US Marine Corps during the Korean War, is awarded with the PDSA Dickin Medal watched by Sergeant Mark Gostling in London, Wednesday, July 27, 2016. Reckless, who survived one of the bloodiest battles in modern military history, has today been awarded the PDSA Dickin Medal  known as the animal equivalent of the Victoria Cross  for her bravery and devotion to duty during the Korean war 1950 until 1953. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein)

Horse Haldalgo, representing life-saving US Marine horse Sergeant Reckless who served with the US Marine Corps during the Korean War, is awarded with the PDSA Dickin Medal beside Sergeant Mark Gostling, right, and Lieutenant Colonel Michael Skaggs in London, Wednesday, July 27, 2016. Reckless, who survived one of the bloodiest battles in modern military history, has today been awarded the PDSA Dickin Medal  known as the animal equivalent of the Victoria Cross  for her bravery and devotion to duty during the Korean war 1950 until 1953. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein)

Horse Haldalgo, representing life-saving US Marine horse Sergeant Reckless who served with the US Marine Corps during the Korean War, is awarded with the PDSA Dickin Medal beside Sergeant Mark Gostling, right, and Lieutenant Colonel Michael Skaggs in London, Wednesday, July 27, 2016. Reckless, who survived one of the bloodiest battles in modern military history, has today been awarded the PDSA Dickin Medal  known as the animal equivalent of the Victoria Cross  for her bravery and devotion to duty during the Korean war 1950 until 1953. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein)
Devon Martes, 17, of Metairie was shot dead by police after he pointed a gun at an officer when he broke into a warehouse

A Louisiana sheriff on Wednesday called his deputy 'one of the luckiest men in America' after a suspect's weapon malfunctioned as he pointed it at the officer.

In a news conference Wednesday, Jefferson Parish Sheriff Newell Normand said his deputy could easily have been killed in a confrontation with a 17-year-old theft suspect late Tuesday. Normand compared the encounter between his deputy and Devon Martes to an 'O.K. Corral shootout.'

Surveillance video captured the fatal shooting and shows Martes pointing what appears to be a gun at a sheriff's deputy inside a warehouse of The Times-Picayune newspaper in a suburb of New Orleans.

The video, posted on the Nola.com The Times-Picayune website, is somewhat blurry but appears to show the suspect twice raising a gun before being shot.

Normand said the shooting happened as deputies responded to calls just before midnight Tuesday of suspicious activity on the Interstate 10 service road in Metairie, near a new car storage lot. He said the callers reported seeing two people rolling tires down the street.

Normand said deputies flooded the area and that Dalton pursued Martes into the newspaper warehouse. Inside the warehouse, the deputy and suspect met, he said. Martes raised his gun to shoot Dalton and the gun did not fire, the sheriff said.

'But for the fact that the gun malfunctioned, I might have a dead officer,' Normand said. 'He was going to act out as a cold-blooded killer.'

Surveillance video from a newspaper warehouse in Metairie recorded a confrontation involving a Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office deputy who shot and killed a man who authorities say pointed a gun at the officer

Dalton drew his service weapon and fired six shots at Martes, he said. The suspect was pronounced dead on the scene. Dalton is white and Martes was black.

Normand said the suspect was armed with a 9 mm handgun and the weapon was on display at the news conference. Normand said Martes, of Metairie, had a long criminal record.

'My deputy is one of the luckiest men in America this morning,' Normand said. It was, he said, 'very much the shootout at the O.K. Corral.'

Normand added that a split-second decision by his deputy on which way to go inside the warehouse also helped save his life. If not for that, the sheriff said Martes might have been able to shoot his deputy in the back.

Security footage shows the man running into the warehouse through a roll-up door

The man can be seen raising a dark-colored object that the Sheriff's Office identified as a 9mm pistol and pointing at the deputy twice. The deputy fired six shots and killed the suspect

The sheriff said the other suspect remained at large Wednesday.

This has been a difficult year for the Jefferson Parish sheriff's office. On June 22, David Michel Jr., a nine-year veteran, was killed after he was shot three times during a pedestrian stop. In January, another deputy, Stephen Arnold, was shot during a drug raid at a home in the Lower 9th Ward neighborhood of New Orleans.

Normand said the encounter between Dalton and Martes illustrated why officers are 'on edge.'

'And people have the audacity to ask why the police have fear,' the sheriff said. 'Really? And people ask why the police are on edge. Really?'
Man gets 20 years to life for shooting at 2 NYPD officers

NEW YORK (AP)  A 57-year-old former soldier who prosecutors say was disguised in a fake beard when he shot at two New York City police officers in 2011 has been sentenced to 20 years to life in state prison.

Antonio Olmeda was sentenced Tuesday. He pleaded guilty earlier this month to attempted murder charges.

Authorities say the officers approached Olmeda in December 2011, after a bystander said he looked suspicious. Prosecutors say he fired three shots and took off. No one was injured.

Olmeda was arrested after investigators matched his DNA to the fake beard and glasses he left behind.
Romania PM wants plan for NATO multinational brigade

BUCHAREST, Romania (AP)  Romania's prime minister has asked ministers to present him with a plan for the formation of a NATO multinational sea and air brigade to be based in Romania.

Premier Dacian Ciolos asked the defense and foreign ministers Wednesday to produce the plan by the end of August to meet an April 2017 deadline.

After a meeting of top defense and other officials on Tuesday, President Klaus Iohannis said six NATO members would take part in the multinational brigade, which was agreed at the Warsaw NATO summit earlier this month.

Iohannis said Poland will take part, and Bulgaria has offered 400 troops.
About 70 protesters arrested at Minnesota governor's mansion

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP)  Nearly 70 people have been arrested as officers cleared demonstrators from the street in front of the Minnesota governor's mansion, police in St. Paul said Wednesday.

Demonstrators have been camping outside the governor's residence since July 7, a day after Philando Castile, a black man, was shot and killed by a suburban police officer during a traffic stop. Castile's girlfriend livestreamed the aftermath of his shooting on Facebook.

St. Paul police said the most recent arrests were made at 2:30 a.m. Wednesday, when 23 people were taken into custody for public nuisance and unlawful assembly. They were taken from the scene by bus. Forty-six people were arrested Tuesday.

16-year old Tayvion Owens is sprayed with a substance by St. Paul police officers as they and protesters face off on Summit Ave., a block from the Governor's residence, in St. Paul, Minn. on Tuesday, July 26, 2016. Police have arrested an unknown number of protesters in front of the governor's mansion on St. Paul's Summit Avenue. Demonstrators have been camping outside the governor's residence since early July 7, a day after the shooting of Philando Castile, who was killed by a St. Anthony police officer during a traffic stop. (Scott Takushi/Pioneer Press via AP)

Sgt. Michael Ernster said some were cited and released, while others who may have had outstanding warrants or obstructed arrests were taken to jail.

The scene was calm Wednesday morning. Sgt. Michael Ernster said police were on the scene and that the street remained closed. Minnesota Public Radio News reported there were no protesters in the area as of 8 a.m.

Police also cleared the street on July 18, but protesters returned Sunday. Police told them Tuesday morning that they could no longer block the street and demonstrators began to gather their belongings, police spokesman Steve Linders said.

Police began making arrests around 11 a.m. Tuesday, after one protester allegedly removed a "No Parking" sign from a curb, the Star Tribune reported.

Minneapolis NAACP President Nekima Levy-Pounds said she would not tell people to stop the protest.

"They deserve to be out here," Levy-Pounds told Minnesota Public Radio News. "We don't need to be treated like animals and criminals when we're simply out here demanding justice for someone who didn't deserve to be killed."

Gov. Mark Dayton, who is in Philadelphia for the Democratic National Convention, has said protesters are welcome to stay outside his residence as long as they want. Dayton has suggested that race played a role in Castile's death.

Dayton was not involved in the decision to clear the street, spokesman Sam Fettig said Tuesday.

Linders, the police spokesman, said protesters can stay, but that they must not obstruct the sidewalk, bike lanes or street.

St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman said peaceful protests would be allowed "but we have an obligation that people are safe and follow the rules, and when that's no longer the case we need to take action."

The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension is investigating Castile's death.

Demonstrator Jacob Ladda is taken away in handcuffs Tuesday, July 26, 2016, in front of Gov. Mark Dayton's mansion, where protesters have been demonstrating over the shooting death of a black man by a suburban police officer nearly three weeks ago, in St. Paul, Minn. (David Joles/Star Tribune via AP)

Tyler Clark Edwards of St. Paul raises his fist in the air in front of a large photo of Philando Castile, as protesters encamped in front of the Governor's residence in St. Paul, Minn. pack up their belongings Tuesday, July 26, 2016. Police have arrested an unknown number of protesters in front of the governor's mansion on St. Paul's Summit Avenue. Demonstrators have been camping outside the governor's residence since early July 7, a day after the shooting of Philando Castile, who was killed by a St. Anthony police officer during a traffic stop. (Scott Takushi/Pioneer Press via AP)

Joshua Lawrence is arrested by St. Paul police after protesters refused to move from in front of the Governor's residence on Summit Ave. in St. Paul, Minn. on Tuesday, July 26, 2016. Police have arrested an unknown number of protesters in front of the governor's mansion on St. Paul's Summit Avenue. Demonstrators have been camping outside the governor's residence since early July 7, a day after the shooting of Philando Castile, who was killed by a St. Anthony police officer during a traffic stop. (Scott Takushi/Pioneer Press via AP)

Wintana Melekin speaks to a line of St. Paul police as police and protesters face off on Summit Avenue, a block from the Governor's residence, in St. Paul, Minn. on Tuesday, July 26, 2016. Police have arrested an unknown number of protesters in front of the governor's mansion on St. Paul's Summit Avenue. Demonstrators have been camping outside the governor's residence since early July 7, a day after the shooting of Philando Castile, who was killed by a St. Anthony police officer during a traffic stop. (Scott Takushi/Pioneer Press via AP)

Tayvion Ownes, 16, pours milk into his eyes after being sprayed in the face with a substance by St. Paul police, as police and protesters face off on Summit Avenue in St. Paul, Minn. on Tuesday, July 26, 2016. Police have arrested an unknown number of protesters in front of the governor's mansion on St. Paul's Summit Avenue. Demonstrators have been camping outside the governor's residence since early July 7, a day after the shooting of Philando Castile, who was killed by a St. Anthony police officer during a traffic stop. (Scott Takushi/Pioneer Press via AP)

St. Paul Police lead a young boy away after the two people on each side of him were handcuffed and arrested as police and protesters face off in front of the Governor's Residence in St. Paul, Minn. on Tuesday, July 26, 2016. Police have arrested an unknown number of protesters in front of the governor's mansion on St. Paul's Summit Avenue. Demonstrators have been camping outside the governor's residence since early July 7, a day after the shooting of Philando Castile, who was killed by a St. Anthony police officer during a traffic stop. (Scott Takushi/Pioneer Press via AP)

A protester is arrested outside Gov. Mark Dayton's mansion where protesters have been demonstrating over the shooting death of a black man by a suburban police officer nearly three weeks ago, in St. Paul, Minn. Tuesday, July 26, 2016. (David Joles/Star Tribune via AP)

A protester, who would not give her name, stands defiantly in front of St. Paul police Tuesday, July 26, 2016, in front of Gov. Mark Dayton's mansion, where protesters have been demonstrating over the shooting death of a black man by a suburban police officer nearly three weeks ago, in St. Paul, Minn. (David Joles/Star Tribune via AP)

An angry protester stares down a St. Paul police officer after police began making arrests Tuesday, July 26, 2016, in front of Gov. Mark Dayton's mansion, where protesters have been demonstrating over the shooting death of a black man by a suburban police officer nearly three weeks ago, in St. Paul, Minn. (David Joles/Star Tribune via AP)

Protesters pack up sleeping bags, bedding and other belongings after police told them them must remove their belongings from the street and sidewalk in front of the Governor's residence on Summit Avenue in St. Paul,. Minn. on Tuesday, July 26, 2016. Police have arrested an unknown number of protesters in front of the governor's mansion on St. Paul's Summit Avenue. Demonstrators have been camping outside the governor's residence since early July 7, a day after the shooting of Philando Castile, who was killed by a St. Anthony police officer during a traffic stop. (Scott Takushi/Pioneer Press via AP)
Boeing reports 2Q loss

CHICAGO (AP)  Boeing Co. (BA) on Wednesday reported a second-quarter loss of $234 million, after reporting a profit in the same period a year earlier.

The Chicago-based company said it had a loss of 37 cents per share. Losses, adjusted for non-recurring gains, came to 44 cents per share.

The results exceeded Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of seven analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for a loss of 88 cents per share.

FILE - In this Friday, July 15, 2016, file photo, Boeing 7-series passenger airplanes sit parked in a lineup formation during an event marking the 100th Anniversary of the Boeing Co., in Seattle. On Wednesday, July 27, 2016, Boeing reports financial results. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren, File)

The airplane builder posted revenue of $24.76 billion in the period, also exceeding Street forecasts. Three analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $24.45 billion.

Boeing expects full-year earnings in the range of $6.10 to $6.30 per share, with revenue in the range of $93 billion to $95 billion.

Boeing shares have fallen almost 7 percent since the beginning of the year, while the Standard & Poor's 500 index has increased 6 percent. The stock has dropped slightly more than 4 percent in the last 12 months.

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This story was generated by Automated Insights (http://automatedinsights.com/ap) using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on BA at http://www.zacks.com/ap/BA

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The Latest: Obama has special Twitter fan back in Illinois

PHILADELPHIA (AP)  The Latest on the Democratic National Convention (all times EDT):

12:05 a.m.

That's her man.

President Barack Obama and Democratic Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton wave together on the third day of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia , Wednesday, July 27, 2016. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

President Barack Obama's got a special Twitter admirer back in Illinois.

The president's address to the Democratic National Convention had barely ended Wednesday night when a tweet popped up from first lady Michelle Obama.

She watched the speech from her mother's home in Chicago.

Her tweet: "That's my man! Your truth, dignity and grave reminds us what real leadership looks like. I am always proud of @POTUS. -mo"

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11:50 p.m.

"A sad sight for the Democratic Party."

That's the assessment by Donald Trump's campaign of the lineup of speakers at the Democratic National Convention on Wednesday night.

Trump adviser Stephen Miller says the Democrats "spoke in cheap, petty terms beneath the dignity of a convention."

Miller says the message conveyed by Democrats was that things are perfect. He says Democrats resorted to fear to try to scare voters away from supporting Trump.

President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, vice presidential nominee Tim Kaine and others presented Trump as devoid of solutions to serious problems in American society.

They said Trump is the candidate using scare tactics, especially to appeal to voters who have not shared in the nation's economic recovery.

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11:48 p.m.

President Barack Obama is signing off at the Democratic National Convention by thanking Americans for sustaining him through two terms.

Obama says his tenure hasn't "fixed everything." But he says he'll leave office with assurances the Democratic Party "is in good hands" and that voters will sustain his successor as they've sustained him.

He recalls a "big-eyed green owl" given to him by the parents of a 7-year-old girl killed a school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut.

He recalls meeting an injured solider who learned to walk again and who stepped into the Oval Office to shake the president's hand.

He recalls a small business owner from Colorado who gave up his own pay to keep from firing his employees.

And he recalls a Texas conservative expressing his appreciation for the president because he tries "to be a good dad."

___

11:46 p.m.

President Barack Obama is asking Democrats to "do for Hillary Clinton what you did for me."

He's asking a cheering audience at the Democratic National Convention to "carry her the same way you carried me."

Obama is crediting his supporters with giving him hope in the face of difficulty. He calls it "the audacity of hope."

He says America has "vindicated that hope these past eight years."

And the president says he's now "ready to pass the baton and do my part as a private citizen."

He asks voters to "reject cynicism, reject fear" and elect Hillary Clinton the next president.

___

11:46 p.m.

President Barack Obama did it without mentioning his name.

Obama was taking one of his strongest shots yet at Donald Trump, yet didn't use the Republican nominee's name.

The president used his speech at the Democratic National Convention to say that "anyone who threatens our values, whether fascists or communists or jihadists or homegrown demagogues, will always fail in the end."

That line came out as Obama was telling an enthusiastic Democratic audience that values of his grandparents in Kansas are still relevant today.

___

11:41 p.m.

Hillary Clinton is embracing President Barack Obama on stage after his speech at the Democratic National Convention.

Clinton is making the surprise appearance with Obama a night before she addresses the convention.

The president tells Democrats he's "ready to pass the baton" to Clinton in her campaign against Republican Donald Trump.

Clinton is the first woman to be the presidential nominee of a major party.

___

11:36 p.m.

President Barack Obama is making a pitch to disaffected Republicans to vote for Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.

Obama is quoting Ronald Reagan to make the point that Republican Donald Trump is peddling fear in his white House campaign.

Obama says at the Democratic convention that Reagan called America "a shining city on a hill." Obama says Trump calls the United States "a divided crime scene" and that Trump is hoping to scare enough people into voting for him.

The president says Trump and his supporters don't offer solutions to pressing problems.

He says the rhetoric at the GOP convention "wasn't particularly Republican, and it sure wasn't conservative."

___

11:33 p.m.

President Barack Obama was coming to the part of his convention speech where he's critical of Donald Trump  and the mention of the GOP nominee's name caused the crowd of delegates to boo.

Obama didn't miss a beat.

He deviated from his prepared remarks to implore his fellow partisans: "Don't boo. Vote!"

___

11:31 p.m.

President Barack Obama is telling the Democratic convention and voters watching on TV that if they're "concerned about who's going to keep you and your family safe in a dangerous world," then their Election Day choice is clear.

Obama says Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton is "respected around the world not just by leaders, but by the people they serve."

He says Clinton has worked closely with "our intelligence teams, our diplomats, our military."

He says Clinton won't relent until the Islamic State group is destroyed.

And in a reference to GOP nominee Donald Trump, Obama says Clinton will "finish the job - and she'll do it without resorting to torture, or banning entire religions from entering our country."

___

11:30 p.m.

President Barack Obama is blasting Donald Trump's for trying to scare Americans into handing the GOP nominee the keys to the White House.

Obama tells the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia that Trump believes he will win if he "scares enough people" over immigration and crime.

Obama says Trump is "selling the American people short" by suggesting "he alone can restore order" as a "self-declared savior."

The second-term president notes that Democrats are meeting in the same city where American founders signed the Declaration of Independence in 1776 and later wrote the Constitution.

He's quoting words from those documents, and saying it's "We the people" who "can form a more perfect union."

___

11:28 p.m.

President Barack Obama is telling the Democratic National Convention that if they believe that there's too much inequality in our country and too much money in our politics, they need to be as vocal, organized and persistent "as Bernie Sanders' supporters have been."

He says they need to get out and vote for Democrats up and down the ticket and then hold them accountable.

Obama says politics can be frustrating, but that "democracy works." He says Americans have to "want it, not just during an election year but all the days in between."

___

11:27 p.m.

President Barack Obama is trying to make the case for his preferred successor and he says: "Hillary Clinton is that woman in the arena."

Obama says the Democratic nominee has been "there for us - even if we haven't always noticed."

The president tells the delegates at the Democratic convention in Philadelphia that if they're serious about democracy, "you can't afford to stay home just because she might not align with you on every issue."

That's a coy reference to supporters of Clinton's primary rival, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.

He tells activists: "You've got to get in the arena with her, because democracy isn't a spectator sport."

Obama's also making a reference to GOP nominee Donald Trump. The president says, "America isn't about, 'Yes he will.' It's about, 'Yes we can.'"

___

11:26 p.m.

President Barack Obama says Donald Trump "shows no regard for working people."

Obama says he knows plenty of businessmen and women who've achieved success like Trump has. But Obama says they've done it without leaving a trail of lawsuits, unpaid workers and "people feeling like they got cheated."

Obama tells Democrats at their convention that "The Donald is not really a plans guy. He's not really a facts guy, either."

He said anyone concerned about pocketbook issues and who wants a bigger voice for workers should vote for Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.

___

11:21 p.m.

President Barack Obama is criticizing what he says is the "deeply pessimistic vision" of America he says he heard from Republicans at their convention last week.

Obama is telling the Democratic National Convention that Republican nominee Donald Trump and his supporters proposed "no serious solutions to pressing problems."

Instead, the president says Republicans spent their time fanning "resentment, and blame, and anger, and hate."

Obama says "that's not the America I know."

He's delivering a speech that makes the case for Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton's election as his successor.

Obama says the country is "full of courage, and optimism, and ingenuity."

The president is acknowledging that Americans have "real anxieties" and that some have not shared in the economy recovery.

___

11:17 p.m.

President Barack Obama says there's never been a man or a woman  "not me, not Bill"  who's more qualified than Hillary Clinton to be president.

Obama says at the democratic convention that "nothing truly prepares you for the demands of the Oval Office."

Obama says Clinton has been in that room and has been part of the decisions that a president makes.

He's vouching for Clinton as someone who listens to people, keeps her cool and treats everybody with respect.

Obama says, "that's the Hillary I've come to admire."

___

11:12 p.m.

President Barack Obama says Hillary Clinton's handling of their 2008 presidential primary rivalry proved her mettle as a public servant.

Obama tells the Democratic convention in Philadelphia he was "worn out" by that race, but watched then-New York Sen. Clinton match him step-for-step  "backward in heels."

He recalls asking her to serve as secretary of state after he won the general election, a move he says surprised her.

But Obama says Clinton "ultimately said yes" because "she knew that what was at stake was bigger than either of us."

___

11:10 p.m.

President Barack Obama is defending his record during his two terms in the White House. He says the economy has rebounded and the world order has been sustained amid so many threats.

The Democratic president says at his party's convention that "by so many measures our country is stronger and more prosperous than when we started."

He cites falling deficits, a recovering auto industry, plummeting unemployment and his signature health care law.

He's referencing his decision to order the killing of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden. And he's championing the deal designed to curtail Iran's nuclear ambitions. And he's celebrating a "new chapter" of normalized relations with Cuba.

He says "change is never easy" and acknowledges that necessary changes aren't accomplished "in one term, one presidency or even in one lifetime."

___

11 p.m.

It's his final Democratic National Convention as president, and Barack Obama is saying he's "more optimistic about the future of America than ever before."

Obama is speaking on the night before Hillary Clinton addresses the convention  and he's making the case for her to continue his work.

The president says the nation has been tested by war and recession but he's more optimistic about the country's future.

Obama arrived to an extended ovation and chants of "Yes, we can.

___

10:50 p.m.

Democrats are getting a reminder of the loneliness of being president.

A video being shown before President Barack Obama takes the stage at their convention recalls the difficult decisions Obama faced as he took office amid the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.

Among the decisions Obama struggled with were whether to support a bailout of the U.S. auto industry and press for a health care overhaul.

He did both in the face of political concerns that he might not win re-election.

The video also explores Obama's emotional reaction to the massacre at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.

___

10:40 p.m.

Donald Trump's campaign is accusing Leon Panetta  a former CIA chief and defense secretary  of turning a blind eye to what it calls Hillary Clinton's "enablement of foreign espionage."

Trump adviser Stephen Miller says in a statement it's "alarming" Panetta would, "through his silence," condone Clinton's use of a private email server as secretary of state.

Miller says Panetta "better than most, should know how many lives she put at risk."

There's no evidence Clinton's actions put any lives at risk.

Panetta said at the Democratic convention that Trump's comments encouraging Russia to find and make public emails deleted by Clinton disqualified him from being commander in chief

___

10:35 p.m.

Tim Kaine is focused on trust as he concludes his pitch  to Democrats in Philadelphia and to voters watching on TV  that Hillary Clinton should be the next president.

The Democrats' vice presidential candidate tells his party's convention that "we better elect the candidate who's proven that she can be trusted with the job."

He adds there's another standard that voters should consider: which candidate is "ready for the job."

The Virginia senator says Clinton's "ready because of faith. She's ready because of her heart. She's ready because of her experience. She's ready because she knows in America we are stronger together."

And here's his closing line: "Hillary is ready. Ready to fight, ready to win, ready to lead."

___

10:30 p.m.

Tim Kaine is tearing into Donald Trump as a "guy who promises a lot" but always follows up with the words "believe me."

Kaine says in his speech at the Democratic convention that "most people, when they run for president, they don't just say 'believe me.' They respect you enough to tell you how they will get things done."

Kaine says the Republican presidential nominee has asked Americans to believe he'll build a wall with Mexico, destroy the Islamic State group "so fast"  and that there's nothing suspicious in the tax returns he won't make public.

The Virginia senator says, "so here's the question: Do you really believe him? Donald Trump's whole career says you better not."

___

10:25 p.m.

Tim Kaine says he knows a lot of Republican senators who say privately "how fantastic a senator that Hillary Clinton was."

Kaine is making his first major speech as the Democratic vice presidential nominee. And the Virginia senator is speaking about his work on the Senate Armed Services and Senate Foreign Relations Committees  as well as serving on the Senate Budget Committee with Bernie Sanders.

Kaine says that on the Senate Aging Committee, he helps seniors to make sure they're not targeted by "rip-off artists."

___

10:17 p.m.

Tim Kaine is promoting his lengthy government experience in his first major speech as the Democratic vice presidential candidate.

The Virginia senator  in a prime-time speech at the Democratic convention  is detailing his rise from a member of the Richmond City Council to the city's mayor, to Virginia's lieutenant governor to governor.

Kaine says if he's good at his work, it's because he "started at the local level listening to people, learning about their lives and trying to get results."

Kaine says it was hard work steering his state through the recession, but he says, "Hey, tough times don't last - and tough people do."

___

10:14 p.m.

Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Kaine says his Republican father-in-law has been voting for a lot of Democrats recently.

Kaine's father-in-law is a former Virginia governor, Linwood Holton. Kaine tells Democrats at their national convention that his father-in-law is in attendance  at age "90-plus and going strong."

Kaine says his father-in-law remains a Republican, but is voting for Democrats because "any party that would nominate Donald Trump for president has moved too far away from his party of Lincoln."

Kaine is inviting other voters "looking for that party of Lincoln," to join the Democratic Party.

___

10:10 p.m.

Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine is "humbly" accepting his party's nomination for vice president.

Kaine tells the Democratic convention in Philadelphia that he formally accepts the party's nomination on behalf of his wife, Anne, "and every strong woman in this country," their three children and everyone in the military.

The former governor of Virginia and mayor of Richmond says he'll run for vice president on behalf of families working to get ahead, for senior citizens hoping for a dignified retirement and for every person who wants America to be a beloved community.

And Kaine says he'll do it for his friend and running mate, Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.

___

10 p.m.

A video introducing Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Kaine is emphasizing his working-class roots and his service as Virginia's governor and senator.

The video playing for convention delegates says Kaine's life is "built on selfless humble service" and that he had a "Midwestern start in a working-class home in Kansas City."

The tribute notes his work as a civil rights lawyer, commitment to family and work to bring Virginia together after a shooting at Virginia Tech while he was governor

___

9:45 p.m.

Vice President Joe Biden is calling Vladimir Putin a "dictator"  a term the U.S. government doesn't use when referring to the Russian president.

Biden says in his speech at the Democratic convention that GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump is belittling U.S. allies while embracing "dictators like Vladimir Putin."

Earlier in the day, Trump said: "Russia, if you're listening, I hope you're able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing." He was referring to emails on Hillary Clinton's private server as secretary of state that she said she deleted  because they were private  before turning other messages over to the State Department.

The U.S. regularly chastises Putin for cracking down on dissent, but doesn't consider Russia a dictatorship. Putin has won three presidential elections, most recently in 2012.

___

9:43 p.m.

Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is endorsing Hillary Clinton  and that's giving her the support of an independent who says he votes based on the candidate, "not the party label."

Bloomberg says at the Democratic National Convention that the country must unite around Clinton because she can "defeat a dangerous demagogue."

He's offering a tough critique of businessman Donald Trump, saying, "I'm a New Yorker and I know a con when I see one."

Bloomberg points to his work to build a business and compares that with Trump's beginning in real estate:

"I didn't start it with a million dollar check from my father."

9:37 p.m.

Vice President Joe Biden has wrapped up his speech to the Democratic convention by making a forceful case for American exceptionalism.

He says the United States "does not scare easily," and when confronted with crisis, "we endure, we overcome and we always move forward."

Biden says the 21st century "is going to be the American century."

He says that will happen because the U.S. leads "not only by the example of our power but by the power of our example."

___

9:33 p.m.

Vice President Joe Biden is casting Donald Trump as too dangerous to trust with the presidency.

Biden says "no major party nominee in the history of this nation has ever known less or been less prepared to deal with our national security."

The vice president tells the Democratic National Convention that Trump  the GOP presidential nominee  offers policies that are more in line with the United States' adversaries.

Biden says Trump backs "torture" and "religious intolerance." Biden says that "betrays our values" and makes it harder for the United States to defeat Islamic State militants.

___

9:27 p.m.

Vice President Joe Biden is skewering Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump for suggesting he represents the middle class.

Biden says the billionaire real estate mogul "has no clue about what makes America great."

The vice president is telling the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia that he's known as "middle-class Joe" in the nation's capital  and he says that's not a compliment.

He says it actually means ... "you're not sophisticated."

Biden says Trump isn't actually a friend to the middle class, but instead is a wealthy man who "doesn't have a clue" about middle America.

___

9:25 p.m.

Vice President Joe Biden says Hillary Clinton's election will have a major impact on young girls. He says when she walks into the Oval Office as president, "it will change their lives."

Biden is vouching for Clinton in a speech to the Democratic National Convention. He recalls his weekly breakfasts with Clinton when she served as secretary of state during the Obama administration.

Biden says everyone knows that Clinton is smart and tough but he says, "I know what she's passionate about. I know Hillary."

___

9:20 p.m.

Vice President Joe Biden is paying tribute to his late son Beau, who introduced him at the 2008 Democratic National Convention.

Beau Biden went on to become attorney general of Delaware. He died in 2015 after a battle with cancer.

The vice president tells delegates in Philadelphia that the nation got to see "what an incredibly fine young man" Beau Biden was when he nominated his father for vice president.

Biden says his challenge in dealing with his son's death makes him appreciate "the unbreakable spirit of the people of America" who deal with problems every day with "so much less support," but still "put one foot in front of the other."

The vice president was considered to be a potential 2016 presidential candidate, but cited his son's death as a reason he wasn't up for a national campaign.

___

9:17 p.m.

Donald Trump's running mate is sounding a humble tone during his first solo campaign event since joining the ticket.

Mike Pence is calling himself a "B-list Republican celebrity."

The Indiana governor was introduced in Waukesha, Wisconsin, by a fellow GOP governor, Scott Walker, and Pence is playing up his self-effacing Midwestern persona.

Waukesha overwhelmingly voted for Texas Sen. Ted Cruz during Wisconsin's presidential primary  and Cruz won the state handily.

But Pence tells a crowd of several hundred people to vote for Trump because of the conservatives he'd nominate to the Supreme Court if he's elected president.

He says they should vote Trump for the sake of the Constitution, the sanctity of life, the Second Amendment and "all our God given liberties."

___

9:15 p.m.

Vice President Joe Biden is paying tribute to President Barack Obama at the Democratic convention, calling Obama the "embodiment of honor, resolve and character."

Biden says Obama is "one of the finest presidents we have ever had."

Biden reminds delegates it's been eight years since he accepted the nomination to become vice president.

He says he and his wife, Jill, now considers the Obamas "family." Biden says of the president, "He's become a brother to Jill and me."

___

9:10 p.m.

WikiLeaks has released 29 voicemails stolen from the Democratic National Committee, and they include several from unidentified party members upset by Bernie Sanders' influence on the party.

The anti-Sanders messages are included with mostly run-of-the-mill messages about upcoming Democratic events that WikiLeaks selected for release Wednesday.

One caller objects to Sanders' choices for the party's platform committee and doesn't even want the Vermont senator to have a speaking slot at the Democratic National Convention.

The caller  speaking about Sanders  says "he's not a Democrat. Please stop this man now." Another complains about the role given to Sanders supporter Cornel West, who's been highly critical of President Barack Obama.

The release follows more than 19,000 stolen DNC emails that WikiLeaks published on its website last week.

___

9:05 p.m.

Leon Panetta's critique of Donald Trump's preparation for the presidency has drawn dueling chants from the audience at the Democratic National Convention.

Chants of "No more war!" broke out during Panetta's speech. The former defense secretary and CIA director questioned Trump's ability to become commander in chief.

Later in Panetta's speech, chants of "USA!" filled the arena.

It was one of the first times that chant was heard during the Democratic convention. It was common during last week's Republican gathering.

Panetta promoted Hillary Clinton's national security credentials.

___

9 p.m.

Democratic convention delegates are watching a video tribute to Vice President Joe Biden in which he proclaims he's more optimistic than ever about the country's future.

The video recaps Biden's long career and is being shown just before his speech in Philadelphia.

Biden is praised for taking on the National Rifle Association in pushing for an assault weapons ban in the 1990s. The video says that's the "kind of courage we need today in Congress to stand up to the NRA."

It also alludes to personal loss in Biden's life  the deaths of his first wife and daughter in 1972, and son Beau Biden from cancer last year.

___

8:50 p.m.

Former CIA Director and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta says Donald Trump is taking Russia's side, and that means Trump can't become commander in chief.

Panetta is making the case for Hillary Clinton in a speech Wednesday night at the Democratic convention in Philadelphia.

He's citing Trump's earlier comments that encouraged Russia to find and make public emails deleted by Clinton from the private account and servers she used as secretary of state.

Panetta is criticizing Trump for  as he puts it  "asking one of our adversaries to engage in hacking or intelligence efforts against the United States to affect our election."

To Panetta, "it's inconceivable to me that any presidential candidate would be this irresponsible."

___

8:45 p.m.

A retired Naval admiral is criticizing Republican Donald Trump for encouraging a foreign government  Russia  to spy against his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton.

John Hutson says at the Democratic National Convention that earlier Trump, earlier Wednesday, "personally invited Russia to hack us."

In Hutson's view, "that's not law and order. That's criminal intent."

Hutson also points to Trump's mocking of Arizona Sen. John McCain for being captured as a prisoner of war during Vietnam.

Hutson's take on Trump: "You're not fit to polish John McCain's boots."

Hutson's speech came on the first night at the convention that the Islamic State group and national security are getting extensive attention.

President Barack Obama and Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton wave to the crowd during the third day of the Democratic National Convention, Wednesday, July 27, 2016, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/John Locher)

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump points to supporters during a campaign rally, Wednesday, July 27, 2016, in Toledo, Ohio. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

President Barack Obama waves to the delegates before speaking during the third day of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia , Wednesday, July 27, 2016. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

President Barack Obama arrives to speak during the third day of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, Wednesday, July 27, 2016. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

President Barack Obama waves to the delegates before speaking during the third day of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia , Wednesday, July 27, 2016. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, speaks during the third day of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia , Wednesday, July 27, 2016. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Democratic vice presidential candidate, Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., speaks during the third day of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia , Wednesday, July 27, 2016. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Vice President Joe Biden gestures towards wife Dr. Jill Biden, after speaking during the third day of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia , Wednesday, July 27, 2016. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)
Blagojevich won't attend resentencing; to take part by video

CHICAGO (AP)  Former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich has chosen not to appear in person at his resentencing next month in Chicago and will instead make his first appearance in a public forum in four years via video from a Colorado prison, his attorney told a federal judge Wednesday.

The 59-year-old Democrat preferred to return to his hometown but reluctantly agreed with officials that the logistics of the 1,000-mile journey would be complicated, attorney Leonard Goodman told Judge James Zagel at a status hearing.

His warden refused to grant Blagojevich a furlough enabling him to travel to Chicago on his own, Goodman said. So, transferring the one-time contestant on Donald Trump's "Celebrity Apprentice" could have taken two weeks, requiring he go through a transfer center in Oklahoma and then board a government-run prisoner plane. Had Blagojevich invoked his right to attend the Aug. 9 hearing, "he would have come on Con Air," Goodman joked after the hearing.

FILE - In this March 14, 2012, file photo, former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich speaks to the media outside his home in Chicago as his wife, Patti, wipes away tears a day before he was to report to a prison after his conviction on corruption charges. On Monday, July 25, 2016, federal prosecutors said statements Blagojevich has made prove he isn't "deserving of leniency." A resentencing hearing is scheduled next month for Blagojevich, who is hoping a federal judge will give him a five-year sentence instead of his original 14 years. (AP Photo/M. Spencer Green, File)

The Federal Bureau of Prisons didn't have an immediate comment.

Famously fastidious about his black hair as governor, Blagojevich has granted no interviews in prison, so the resentencing will be the first chance to see how his appearance has changed behind bars. His barber said in 2012 that Blagojevich's hair was dyed and that, since dyes are banned in prison, it would quickly turn all white.

An appeals court last year ordered Blagojevich to be resentenced after tossing five of the 18 corruption convictions that included attempting to exchange an appointment to President Barack Obama's old U.S. Senate seat for campaign cash.

Prosecutors want Zagel to impose the same 14-year term, saying Blagojevich doesn't deserve leniency. The defense wants the sentence slashed to just five years, potentially freeing Blagojevich within months.

Defense lawyers say Blagojevich has been a model prisoner, citing more than 100 letters of support from fellow inmates. They noted the Elvis Presley fan even formed a prison band called "The Jailhouse Rockers."

Blagojevich expected to make a statement directly to Zagel via the live video link, Goodman said. But an appeal for leniency could be a tough sell: At the original 2011 sentencing, Zagel repeatedly rebuked Blagojevich before imposing a longer sentence than many expected.
Charges To Be Dropped Against Student Who Made UChicago Shooting Threat

By Mae Rice in News on Jul 27, 2016 8:18PM

Federal authorities will likely drop charges against a UIC student who threatened a shooting on University of Chicago's campus in November, shutting down the entire campus for a day. Based on an agreement reached Wednesday, Jabari Dean, 21, will not be prosecuted for the threat, provided he performs community service and fulfills certain other probationary conditions.

Dean has to meet these conditions for 18 months to void the charges against him: one count of transmitting a threat in interstate commerce, which carries a sentence of up to five years in prison.

In the agreement reached Wednesday, Dean also admits he was the person who posted the threat in late November, less than a week after video footage of a Chicago police officer fatally shooting Laquan McDonald href="http://chicagoist.com/2015/11/24/laquan_mcdonald_shooting_video.php">was released. In the threat, which Dean posted as a comment on Worldstarhiphop, he threatened to kill 16 white male students or staff at University of Chicago on Nov. 30 "in retaliation" for the shooting of Laquan McDonald. (He said he would kill one person for each of the 16 shots that killed McDonald.)

Soon after, police arrested Dean, and he was charged with transmitting a threat in interstate commerce. The charge comes with a maximum sentence of five years in prison.

"I then will die killing any number of white policemen that I can in the process," he wrote in the comment, published in full by the Sun-Times.

After the FBI warned UChicago of the threat, the university cancelled classes for the day and increased police presence on campus.




The Latest: Young Munich shooting victim buried in Greece

BERLIN (AP)  The Latest on a series of attacks in Germany (all times local):

8:15 p.m.

Hussein Daitzik, 17, one of the nine victims of a July 22 shooting in Munich, has been buried in his family's native village near the Greek city of Komotini.

GERMANY OUT - Bavarian governor Horst Seehofer, left, and Bavaria's Interior Minister, Joachim Herrmann arrive for a meeting of the Bavarian cabinet ,in Gmund, Germany, Tuesday, July 26, 2016. In the most recent attack, a 27-year-old Syrian asylum-seeker set off a backpack laden with explosives and shrapnel Sunday night after being refused entry to a crowded music festival in the Bavarian city of Ansbach, killing himself and wounding 15 people. ( Peter Kneffel/dpa via AP)

His parents and two siblings - they and Hussein were triplets - attended alongside his 72-year-old grandmother, who lives in the village. It appeared that the whole village, both Christians and Muslims, turned out.

Officials attending included the minister of the interior, Panayiotis Kourouplis, the Christian Orthodox Bishop of Komotini and the Mufti of Komotini. Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras sent a wreath.

Hussein's many friends, who had expected him on his annual family vacation this week, have done the same tattoo on their hands: "R.I.P. Hussein 22/7/16."

By Costas Kantouris

___

7:15 p.m.

The German government says President Barack Obama has offered his sympathy to German Chancellor Angela Merkel over a string of attacks in Germany over the past 10 days.

Merkel's office said the two leaders spoke by phone on Wednesday. It said in a statement that they stressed their will to continue fighting international terrorism together and with determination. It added that they also discussed the situation in eastern Ukraine.

Two of the attacks in Germany were claimed by the Islamic State group. Islamic extremism wasn't the motive in the other two  including the deadliest attack, in which a young German-born man killed nine people in Munich.

___

3:45 p.m.

State Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann, Bavaria's top security official, says a roll of 50-euro ($55) notes was found on the attacker in Ansbach. It's unclear where the money came from  but Herrmann says it is "unlikely that it could have been paid for solely from what an asylum-seeker in Germany gets in the way of pocket money." He didn't specify how much cash was found in total.

___

2:20 p.m.

Bavaria's top security official says it's unclear whether the man who blew himself up at a bar in the town of Ansbach meant to detonate it at the moment he did.

State Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann, who also says the assailant was in an online chat with a still-unidentified person immediately before the explosion, said Wednesday that further investigation is needed.

Herrmann said: "Because of witness testimony on what happened and also the course of the chat, there are indeed questions about whether he intended to set off the bomb at that moment."

Attacker Mohammad Daleel, a Syrian asylum-seeker, died and 15 people were wounded when the bomb exploded in a wine bar Sunday night after he wasn't allowed entry to a nearby open-air concert because he didn't have a ticket.

___

1:55 p.m.

Bavaria's interior minister says a man who blew himself up at a bar in the southern German town of Ansbach was in an online chat with an as-yet unknown person immediately before the explosion.

News agency dpa reported that Joachim Herrmann said Wednesday: "There was apparently an immediate contact with someone who had a significant influence on this attack."

He said it wasn't clear whether the assailant was in contact with the Islamic State group or where the other person in the chat was.

Herrmann says investigators checking the assailant's cellphone came across the "intensive chat" and that "the chat appears to end immediately before the attack."

___

11 a.m.

The online magazine of the Islamic State group has described how a 27-year-old Syrian asylum-seeker who blew himself up at a bar in the southern German town of Ansbach spent months planning the attack, once even hiding his home-made bomb in his room moments before a police raid.

The weekly Al-Nabaa magazine's report, published late Tuesday, added that Mohammad Daleel had fought both in Iraq and Syria with a branch of al-Qaida and the IS group before arriving in Germany as an asylum-seeker two years ago.

Daleel died and 15 people were wounded when the bomb exploded in a wine bar Sunday night after he wasn't allowed entry to a nearby open-air concert because he didn't have a ticket.

The Ansbach attack was the last one of four attacks in the country in the span of a week, two of which have been claimed by the Islamic State extremist group.

GERMANY OUT - Refugees from Syria stand near the site of the attack and hold up a sign reading 'we are Muslims and not terrorists' in Ansbach, Germany, Tuesday July 26, 2016. In the most recent attack, a 27-year-old Syrian asylum-seeker set off a backpack laden with explosives and shrapnel Sunday night after being refused entry to a crowded music festival in the Bavarian city of Ansbach, killing himself and wounding 15 people. (Daniel Karmann/dpa via AP)

GERMANY OUT -A broken window photographed at the site of the attack in Ansbach, Germany, Tuesday July 26, 2016. In the most recent attack in Germany, a 27-year-old Syrian asylum-seeker set off a backpack laden with explosives and shrapnel Sunday night after being refused entry to a crowded music festival in the Bavarian city of Ansbach, killing himself and wounding 15 people. (Daniel Karmann/dpa via AP)
ALS-related gene found with help from Ice Bucket Challenge

WASHINGTON (AP)  The ALS Association is crediting money raised through the Ice Bucket Challenge for the discovery of a gene's connection to the progressive disease.

Those who accepted the challenge allowed buckets of ice water to be dumped on their heads to raise awareness and money for ALS.

The challenge became a viral sensation in 2014 and raised $115 million for the association. Figures from the ALS Association show $1 million of that helped fund a global effort to help find genetic drivers of the condition called Project MinE.

FILE - In this Aug. 7, 2014, file photo, two women get doused during the ice bucket challenge at Boston's Copley Square to raise funds and awareness for ALS. The ALS Association says money raised through the challenge helped fund a project that has discovered a gene linked to the disease. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola, File)
The Latest: Pope talks about migrants with Polish bishops

KRAKOW, Poland (AP)  The Latest on Pope Francis' trip to Poland for World Youth Day events (all times local):

10:45 p.m.

The head of Poland's Episcopate says that Pope Francis invoked empathy for migrants and the Gospels in his closed-door meeting with Poland's bishops.

Pope Francis talks from the Archbishops' Palace in Krakow, Poland, Wednesday, July 27, 2016. Francis came on a five-day visit to Poland to join hundreds of thousands of young people from around the globe for celebrations of the World Youth Day. (AP Photo/Alik Keplicz)

The meeting was held Wednesday, at the start of Francis' visit to Krakow, in southern Poland, where he is joining hundreds of thousands of young people from around the globe in celebrations of World Youth Day through Sunday.

Poland's conservative government has shut the doors to migrants, a stance that is also attributed to church leaders in the country who support the government on many issues.

Archbishop Stanislaw Gadecki said the pope stressed that the Gospels require help to be offered to people in difficult situations and spoke in a way that evoked empathy in the bishops. More can be done to help the migrants, the meeting concluded.

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10:10 p.m.

Pope Francis has thanked all those who have expressed condolences over the murder of a French priest, singling out French President Francois Hollande.

Francis told reporters aboard his flight Wednesday from Rome to Poland that "even the president of France wanted to be in contact with me by phone, like a brother, thank you."

Francis was speaking about the elderly priest who was slain by an extremist in Normandy, France, a day earlier while he was saying Mass.

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10:00 p.m.

Pope Francis has greeted and blessed a massive crowd of enthusiastic young pilgrims in Krakow, addressing them from the same window in the city's Bishop's Palace that the late Polish pope, John Paul II, would appear from during his visits to his homeland.

The crowd sang and danced before and after the pope's appearance.

Francis began by asking people to pray quietly for a 22-year-old volunteer for the World Youth Day gathering who had designed flags adoring the event. The young man died of cancer earlier this month.

The pope told them: "Some of you might think 'this pope is ruining our evening.' But it's the truth and we need to get used to the good things and bad things. Life is like this, dear young people."

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7:35 p.m.

Pope Francis has prayed by the relics of the late pope from Poland, St. John Paul II, at the Wawel Cathedral and has met with Poland's bishops who vowed to "listen carefully" to his teaching.

Francis came on a five-day visit to Poland to join hundreds of thousands of young people from around the globe for celebrations of the World Youth Day.

Observers say that Poland's church is not fully in sync with Francis' philosophy of modesty and humility.

Krakow Archbishop, Card. Stanislaw Dziwisz opened the meeting with Francis' by saying that his presence deepens their awareness of being a part of the Catholic Church that crosses national and cultural borders.

Dziwisz said: "We will listen carefully to your words."

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6:45 p.m.

Poland's President Andrzej Duda says that Pope Francis brings to Poland and thousands of young pilgrims the values that the world needs today: faith and goodness.

Greeting Francis at a welcoming ceremony at Wawel Castle in Krakow, Duda said the pontiff is a "support, a road sign" in life for young people.

Duda, a Catholic from Krakow, says: "The world today badly needs values, it needs faith and goodness, all of which Your Holiness is bringing. We are all waiting for your word."

Francis and Duda also met for a one-on-one talk for half an hour, before the pope met with Poland's church leaders.

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6:00 p.m.

Pope Francis has urged Poland's leaders "to overcome fear" and show compassion to migrants. Fears run deep in the strongly Catholic nation that Muslim refugees could endanger the nation's security and erode its Christian traditions.

Noting that many Poles have emigrated from their country, Francis spoke of the need to facilitate their return if any hope to repatriate, and understand the reasons that caused them to leave.

He added: "Also needed is a spirit of readiness to welcome those fleeing from wars and hunger, and solidarity with those deprived of their fundamental rights, including the right to profess one's faith in freedom and safety."

Francis spoke Wednesday in the southern Polish city of Krakow shortly after arriving at the start of a five-day visit to Poland.

Last year Poles elected the right-wing Law and Justice party, which supports the Catholic church but has a strong anti-migrant message at odds with the pontiff's calls for mercy for people of other religions fleeing conflict.

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5:40 p.m.

Pope Francis has been greeted in Poland by President Andrzej Duda and hundreds of singing and cheering people as he arrived at the airport in Krakow.

He will join hundreds of thousands of young people from around the globe for a major Catholic gathering.

Among those greeting the pope were also First Lady Agata Kornhauser-Duda and Prime Minister Beata Szydlo, who kneeled and kissed the papal ring in Poland's traditional way of greeting high Church officials.

Szydlo's conservative government openly declares attachment to the Catholic faith.

A military band played the anthems of the Vatican of Poland and the crowd waved the white-and-yellow flags of the Holy See and white-and-red flags of Poland. Despite visibly tight security the pontiff waved from an open car window to the cheering crowd.

An official welcoming ceremony with speeches was to be held shortly later, at the royal Wawel Castle in Krakow.

It is the first time that Francis visits an East European nation.

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4:05 p.m.

Pope Francis says the world is at war, but is stressing that it's not a war of religions.

Francis spoke to reporters on the papal plane en route from Rome to Poland, where he began a five-day visit Wednesday.

Asked about the slaying of an 85-year-old priest in a Normandy church on Tuesday, Francis replied: "the real word is war...yes, it's war. This holy priest died at the very moment he was offering a prayer for all the church."

He went on: "I only want to clarify, when I speak of war, I am really speaking of war ... a war of interests, for money, resources. ... I am not speaking of a war of religions, religions don't want war. The others want war."

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3:20 p.m.

Poland's interior minister says more than 39,000 police and other security officers will be ensuring the safety of Pope Francis' meeting with hundreds of thousands of young pilgrims from around the globe in southern Poland.

Security concerns were heightened after a Catholic priest was killed in France on Tuesday in a knife attack claimed by the Islamic State group.

Mariusz Blaszczak spoke about the extraordinary security measures on Wednesday just three hours before Francis was due to arrive in Krakow for a visit through Sunday that includes open air Masses and prayers with some 1.5 million participants of World Youth Day, and visits to the site of the former German Nazi death camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau and to Poland's holiest shrine of Jasna Gora.

"We have sent onto the Polish streets more than 7,500 officers who will be there providing security each day at railways stations, airports and shopping centers," Blaszczak told a news conference.

Blaszczak also appealed to people to be vigilant and to report and unusual or worrying situations to police or other security officials.

"We do not disregard any signals but Poland is a very safe country," Blaszczak said.

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2:20 p.m.

Pope Francis has departed Rome for Poland, where he will spend five days meeting with young Catholics and visiting Auschwitz as well as some of Poland's most important Catholic shrines.

An Alitalia jet, bearing the papal and Italian flags, took off from Rome shortly after 2 p.m. local time (1200 GMT) and is due to land in Krakow, Poland, about two hours later.

It will be the first visit by Francis to Poland, one of Europe's most deeply Catholic nations and one still devoted to the memory of the late Polish pope, St. John Paul II.

Francis is joining young Catholics for World Youth Day, a global gathering. The usually joyful event, which takes place every two or three years, is overshadowed this year by the brutal slaying Tuesday of a Catholic priest in France by Islamic extremists.

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1 p.m.

Security was high as cheerful young pilgrims from around the globe gathered in Krakow, in southern Poland, just hours before Pope Francis arrives to join World Youth Day.

A shadow was cast on the celebrations by the brutal slaying Tuesday of a priest in France, adding to security fears already high due to a string of violent attacks in France and Germany. Polish officials said they have deployed tens of thousands of security officials to cover the event, which runs through Sunday.

"It shocked me because it seems they waited for the time of World Youth Day to attack us Catholics," said Nounella Blanchedent, 22, from the French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe. "They chose the time of such a mass event to gather more attention to what they do. It's a pity because all that we want to do is to be together, sing and praise God. And they want to disturb that."

She was one of the volunteers helping with logistics at the packed St. Casimir Church, where a Mass was being held in French for pilgrims from France, Belgium and other countries. Relics of St. Mary Magdalene came to the church from France for the duration of World Youth Day.

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11 a.m.

Pope Francis is arriving on his first visit to Poland, a predominantly Catholic country that is still proud of the late pontiff, St. John Paul II, who served as priest and archbishop in Krakow before becoming pope.

The sense of expectation was apparent in sunny Krakow on Wednesday with papal white-and-yellow flags and images of Francis and John Paul II decorating the streets. Stages were put up at many locations for concerts and other activities that are being held by and for the pilgrims in Krakow.

There was a heavy presence of police and other security forces across the city, as crowds were increasing everywhere.

"I have never seen so many people in Krakow, it's difficult to move around even though offices have closed (for the event) and many people have left the city," said Anna Gazda, 43, owner of a souvenir shop.

The weather forecast for Krakow said rainstorms were possible later in the day.

Some 200,000 pilgrims attended an inaugural Mass Tuesday afternoon.

Faithful and pilgrims cheer as Pope Francis arrives to the Archbishops' Palace in Krakow, Poland, Wednesday, July 27, 2016. Francis came on a five-day visit to Poland to join hundreds of thousands of young people from around the globe for celebrations of the World Youth Day. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski)

Pope Francis greets faithful as he walks with Polish President Andrzej Duda, right, and his wife Agata Kornhauser Duda, left, after the welcome ceremony at the military airport in Krakow, Poland, Wednesday, July 27, 2016. (AP Photo/Alik Keplicz)

Pope Francis leaves the Krakow's military airport , Poland, Wednesday, July 27, 2016. The world is at war, but it is not a war of religions, Pope Francis said Wednesday as he traveled to Poland on his first visit to Central and Eastern Europe in the shadow of the slaying of a priest in France. (AP Photo/Alik Keplicz)

Pope Francis smiles as he leaves the Krakow's military airport , Poland, Wednesday, July 27, 2016. The world is at war, but it is not a war of religions, Pope Francis said Wednesday as he traveled to Poland on his first visit to Central and Eastern Europe in the shadow of the slaying of a priest in France. (AP Photo/Alik Keplicz)

Pope Francis leaves for Poland with an Alitalia flight from the Fiumicino Airport in Rome, Wednesday, July 27, 2016. Pope Francis has departed for Krakow, where he will join World Youth Day, a major gathering of Catholics. (Telenews/ANSA via AP Photo)

A pilgrim attends the opening Mass for the World Youth Day, in Krakow, Poland, Tuesday, July 26, 2016. Buses of Polish security forces moved into Krakow on Tuesday as thousands of young people gathered ahead of the arrival of Pope Francis for the major gathering of Catholics from around the world.(AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski)

Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, center, celebrates the opening Mass for the World Youth Day in Krakow, Poland, Tuesday, July 26, 2016. Buses of Polish security forces moved into Krakow on Tuesday as thousands of young people gathered ahead of the arrival of Pope Francis for the major gathering of Catholics from around the world. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski)

A pilgrim smiles during the opening Mass for the World Youth Day, in Krakow, Poland, Tuesday, July 26, 2016. Buses of Polish security forces moved into Krakow on Tuesday as thousands of young people gathered ahead of the arrival of Pope Francis for the major gathering of Catholics from around the world. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski)

Pilgrims and faithful attend the opening Mass for the World Youth Day in Krakow, Poland, Tuesday, July 26, 2016. Young people gathered Tuesday ahead of the arrival of Pope Francis for World Youth Day, a major gathering of Catholics from around the world. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski)

Faithful and pilgrims cheer as Pope Francis arrives to the Archbishops' Palace in Krakow, Poland, Wednesday, July 27, 2016. Francis came on a five-day visit to Poland to join hundreds of thousands of young people from around the globe for celebrations of the World Youth Day. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski)

Pope Francis waves to the faithful from the popemobile on his way to the Archbishops' Palace in Krakow, Poland, Wednesday, July 27, 2016. Francis came on a five-day visit to Poland to join hundreds of thousands of young people from around the globe for celebrations of the World Youth Day. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski)

Pope Francis waves from the Archbishops' Palace in Krakow, Poland, Wednesday, July 27, 2016. Francis came on a five-day visit to Poland to join hundreds of thousands of young people from around the globe for celebrations of the World Youth Day. (AP Photo/Alik Keplicz)
Russian Orthodox reach Kiev monastery despite threats

MOSCOW (AP)  Thousands of Russian Orthodox Christian pilgrims reached the center of Ukraine's capital on Wednesday, finishing a procession to the city's most revered monastery after their march was disrupted a day earlier.

The procession by Ukrainian adherents of Russian Orthodoxy was prevented from entering Kiev on Tuesday after Ukraine's interior minister said grenades had been planted along the route. The faithful completed their journey in buses Wednesday.

Ukrainian nationalists had blocked the procession from entering the city on Monday, pelting marchers with eggs and denouncing them as "agents of Moscow." The Russian Orthodox Church dubbed the march a "procession of peace" and was keen to portray it as a peace-making effort.

Orthodox nuns walk to prayer in downtown Kiev, Ukraine, Wednesday, July 27, 2016 in observance of the holiday marking the adoption of Christianity by what is now Russia and Ukraine in the 10th century. They are to commemorate the day at the hillside monument in central Kiev to Saint Volodymyr, the prince who enacted the adoption of Christianity. (AP Photo/Sergei Chuzavkov)

Relations between Russia and Ukraine, which share linguistic and cultural ties dating back hundreds of years, soured in 2014 after Russia annexed the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine and began supporting rebel separatists fighting government troops in eastern Ukraine. The conflict, which has claimed more than 9,400 lives, was not fought along religious lines, however.

Orthodox Christians in Ukraine are divided between one church that is part of the Russian Orthodox Church and a splinter church under a Ukrainian leader who Moscow does not recognize.

Kiev was the capital of the ancient Slavic state of Kievan Rus, which at one point included areas that later became known as Russia, Belarus and Ukraine. Kievan Prince Vladimir performed a symbolic baptism of his then-pagan country in Kiev in 988.

Moscow Patriarchate's spokesman Vladimir Legoyda told The Associated Press on Wednesday that at least 30,000 pilgrims had gathered for a prayer at St. Vladimir Hill in Kiev, which is believed to be the original baptism site.

Legoyda said the church is "very happy and sends its thanks to the Lord" for the fact that the procession was allowed to march peacefully and reach the hill and the Pechersk Monastery.

"It's a clear confirmation of the fact that the Moscow Patriarchate's Ukrainian Orthodox Church is strongest and possibly the only peace-making force in Ukraine amid the civil conflict," Legoyda said.

Unlike nationalists, senior Ukrainian politicians have refrained from openly opposing the march. Many Ukrainian officials are believed to be Russian Orthodox Church parishioners.

Orthodox clergymen in golden clothes pray in downtown Kiev, Ukraine, Wednesday, July 27, 2016 in observance of the holiday marking the adoption of Christianity by what is now Russia and Ukraine in the 10th century. They are to commemorate the day at the hillside monument in central Kiev to Saint Volodymyr, the prince who enacted the adoption of Christianity. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)

In this photo taken on Monday, July 25, 2016, Ukrainian clergymen and national guards, right, walk to the city Boryspil, Ukraine. Ukraines interior minister on Tuesday, July 26 bent to the pressure of nationalists and ordered police to bar a major religious procession from entering the capital, Kiev, after police found ammunition planted along the planned route. Ukrainian nationalists have previously threatened to attack the procession if it enters Kiev. (AP Photo/Sergei Chuzavkov)

Orthodox believers and clergymen participate in a procession downtown Kiev, Ukraine, Wednesday, July 27, 2016. The processions are in observance of the holiday marking the adoption of Christianity by what is now Russia and Ukraine in the 10th century. They are to commemorate the day at the hillside monument in central Kiev to Saint Volodymyr, the prince who enacted the adoption of Christianity. (AP Photo/Sergei Chuzavkov)

Orthodox believers and clergymen march to prayer in downtown Kiev, Ukraine, Wednesday, July 27, 2016 in observance of the holiday marking the adoption of Christianity by what is now Russia and Ukraine in the 10th century. They are to commemorate the day at the hillside monument in central Kiev to Saint Volodymyr, the prince who enacted the adoption of Christianity. (AP Photo/Sergei Chuzavkov)

Orthodox believers and clergymen participate in a procession in downtown Kiev, Ukraine, Wednesday, July 27, 2016, in observance of the holiday marking the adoption of Christianity by what is now Russia and Ukraine in the 10th century. They are to commemorate the day at the hillside monument in central Kiev to Saint Volodymyr, the prince who enacted the adoption of Christianity. (AP Photo/Sergei Chuzavkov)

Orthodox clergyman kisses the relics at a prayer ceremony in downtown Kiev, Ukraine, Wednesday, July 27, 2016 in observance of the holiday marking the adoption of Christianity by what is now Russia and Ukraine in the 10th century. They are to commemorate the day at the hillside monument in central Kiev to Saint Volodymyr, the prince who enacted the adoption of Christianity. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
UK police issue pics of suspects in airman abduction attempt

LONDON (AP)  British police have released likenesses of two men suspected of trying to abduct a serviceman near a Royal Air Force base in eastern England.

Norfolk Constabulary created the computer-generated composite images based on descriptions by the airman. They say both suspects are between 20 and 30 and of Middle Eastern appearance. One is bearded.

Police say two men, one carrying a knife, approached the serviceman while he was jogging near RAF Marham on July 20 and tried to bundle him into a car. The serviceman fought back and got away.

The incident shares some elements of the 2013 attack on British soldier Lee Rigby, who was killed on a London street by two al-Qaida-inspired extremists.
Castles and death camps: Sites the pope will see in Poland

KRAKOW, Poland (AP)  Pope Francis is coming to southern Poland from July 27-31 to meet with young people from around the globe who gather for the World Youth Day, which is being held July 25-31. Here's a look at his trip and the places he will be visiting.

WHY IS THE POPE VISITING?

World Youth Day was established in 1985 by Polish-born Pope John Paul II, whom Francis declared a saint in 2014, and aims to inspire young people to follow Christian values of peace and love in life. The gatherings are held every two or three years. The first meeting was held in Rome in 1986, attended by John Paul II and some 30,000 participants. The largest World Youth Day gathering was in the Philippines in 1995, when an estimated 5 million people attended a Mass celebrated by John Paul II. This year, World Youth Day is being held in Krakow and its surroundings.

FILE - This is a Sunday, April 18, 2010 file photo of The Wawel castle in Krakow, southern Poland. Pope Francis is coming to southern Poland from July 27-31 to meet with young people from around the globe who gather for the World Youth Day, which is being held July 25-31. Pope Francis will visit the castle during the visit. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber, File)

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THE CITY OF KRAKOW, ITS ROYAL CASTLE AND CATHEDRAL

Krakow, a city of 760,000 in southern Poland, dates back before the 10th century, when it was already a commercial center. It was the king's residence and Poland's capital from the 14th century through the 16th century. Central Krakow is a Gothic and Renaissance city with a spacious market square, among Europe's largest. During World War II, the city escaped damage. Pope John Paul II, born Karol Wojtyla, lived here, studied here and served as a priest, bishop and archbishop here from 1938 until 1978, when he was chosen pope.

The city's Wawel Hill is the site of the Royal Castle and the Cathedral. The castle was the residence of Poland's kings until 1609, when the capital was moved to Warsaw. It was ravaged during World War II but not destroyed, and later turned into a museum. Poland's many kings, queens, political leaders and writers are buried in the Wawel Cathedral, where Francis will meet with Poland's bishops. The cathedral also houses John Paul II's relics and those of St. Stanislas, Poland's first saint.

The Bishops' Palace is the residence of Krakow bishops and dates back to the 15th century. On his visits to Krakow, John Paul II would appear in the window above the main entrance in the evening and chat with the crowd below. Francis is staying there and planning also to appear in the window.

Krakow's Blonia is a vast meadow of 48 hectares (119 acres) inside the city, where crowds, sometimes exceeding one million, attended Masses led by John Paul II and Benedict XVI.

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JASNA GORA MONASTERY

The Jasna Gora Monastery in the city of Czestochowa, 120 kilometers (74 miles) northwest of Krakow, is predominantly Catholic Poland's holiest shrine since the 14th century, when it obtained a picture of the Mother of God reputed to be miraculous and attributed by some to St. Luke the Evangelist. The image has characteristic saber cuts across Mary's face, a remainder of a 15th-century attack on the monastery. The picture draws hundreds of thousands of pilgrims from across Poland each year. Another precious object in the monastery is a sash given by John Paul II that bears bullet holes and his bloodstains from an attempt on his life in 1981.

Francis will celebrate a Mass there on Thursday morning.

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THE AUSCHWITZ-BIRKENAU DEATH CAMP

The memorial site of the former German Nazi Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp is notorious for its cruel entrance sign "Arbeit Macht Frei" ("work makes you free"). The Nazi Germans operated the death camp from 1940-45 in the town of Oswiecim when they occupied Poland during World War II. Some 1.1 million people, mostly Jews from across Europe, were killed in its gas chambers or died from diseases and hunger amid forced hard labor. The victims also include Poles, Roma, Soviet Red Army prisoners of war and citizens of other nations.

On Friday, Francis will pray at the Death Wall in Auschwitz, where Polish resistance fighters were executed in summary procedures, and also in the death cell of a Catholic Franciscan friar, St. Maksymilian Maria Kolbe, who in 1941 volunteered to die to save another inmate's life. That inmate, Franciszek Gajowniczek, survived the war and was united with his wife. John Paul II made Kolbe a saint in 1982.

The wooden barracks of Birkenau were built for those Jews, Roma and others whom the Nazis considered fit for hard labor. All the others were killed in Birkenau's gas chambers. Ceremonies in memory of the victims are held each year at the stone monument in Birkenau.

John Paul II visited the site in 1979 and Pope Benedict XVI visited in 2006.

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KRAKOW-AREA SITES

Francis will also visit the following sites in and near Krakow:

 The University Children's Hospital of Cracow, in the Prokocim district.

 The Divine Mercy Shrine and St. Faustyna's Chapel in Lagiewniki, a Krakow district. It is a 19th-century convent. In 2002, John Paul II visited and consecrated the basilica, with its white marble altar, which holds St. Faustina's relics.

 The Sanctuary of St. John Paul II, less than a mile from the Lagiewniki shrine, consecrated in 2013. The lower church houses the pope's relics, while St. John Paul's II body is entombed inside St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican. The sanctuary's bronze doors show the pope in the company of saints.

 The Campus Misericordiae, or Field of Mercy, in a vast meadow in the village of Brzegi, near Krakow, which will host the World Youth Day's July 31 Mass.

FILE -- In this May 28, 2006 file photo Pope Benedict XVI puts a candle in front of the death wall at the former Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz in Oswiecim, Poland. Pope Francis will also visit Auschwitz-Birkenau during his forthcoming pilgrimage to Poland, as his predecessors John Paul II and Benedict XVI did. (AP Photo/Jens Meyer-file)

FILE -- In this June 7, 1979 file photo Pope John Paul II prays in front of the death wall at the former Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz in Oswiecim, Poland. Pope Francis will also visit Auschwitz-Birkenau during his forthcoming pilgrimage to Poland, as his predecessors John Paul II and Benedict XVI did. (AP Photo/file)

FILE -- In this June 15, 1999 file photo Pope John Paul II greets faithful from the window of the Archbishops Palace in Krakow, Poland. Pope Francis will also greet people from the window, as his predecessors John Paul II and Benedict XVI did during their pilgrimages to Poland. (AP Photo/Alik Keplicz-file)
Romania: council rules ex-PM plagiarized his doctoral thesis

BUCHAREST, Romania (AP)  Former Romanian Prime Minister Victor Ponta will be stripped of his doctorate after a council upheld a verdict that he plagiarized his thesis.

The National Council for Attesting Titles, Diplomas and University Certificates voted 37-10 Wednesday to uphold an earlier ruling. The education minister will formally remove the doctorate.

Science magazine Nature reported in 2012 that more than half of Ponta's 432-page thesis, written in 2004 on the International Criminal Court, was plagiarized from the work of two Romanian law scholars.

Ponta denied wrongdoing, but conceded he had not always named sources in his footnotes.

Ponta resigned as prime minister in November 2015 following huge protests that broke out after a nightclub fire that killed 64.
Kuwait Shiite lawmaker sentenced to jail for Saudi 'insults'

KUWAIT CITY (AP)  A criminal court in Kuwait on Wednesday sentenced an outspoken Shiite lawmaker to more than 14 years in prison for insulting the governments of Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, said the lawyer who filed the case.

Duaim al-Mouaizri, the lawyer who brought the lawsuit against parliament member Abudlhamid Dashti, told The Associated Press the lawmaker was sentenced to 11 years and six months in prison for insulting the Saudi royal family, criticizing religion and insulting the judiciary. He was sentenced to an additional three years in prison for insulting the Bahraini government.

Dashti was tried in absentia. He was stripped of his parliamentary immunity in March, a month after Saudi Arabia's ambassador to Kuwait submitted an official complaint to Kuwait's Foreign Ministry against Dashti.

In numerous television interviews, Dashti had criticized the Saudi leadership's policy of supporting Sunni groups in Syria and accused the kingdom of exporting extremist ideology.

Dashti also spoke out on Twitter in support of Shiite-led protests in Bahrain demanding greater rights from the island-nation's Sunni-led monarchy. Bahrain's mass street protests were put down in 2011 with the help of Saudi and Emirati troops.
Should you tip the Uber driver? Here's what to give them

NEW YORK (AP)  On-demand apps make life easier: A few taps on my phone and I can get a cab in minutes or groceries delivered to my door.

The hard part? Figuring how much -- or if -- I should tip the people who drive me around or pick out my cheese at the supermarket.

Part of the confusion arises from the companies themselves. Some don't allow tipping through their apps, even though they say tipping is allowed. And the policies posted on their websites can be unclear.

FILE - In this Jan. 4, 2013, file photo, Lyft driver Nancy Tcheou uses her phone to accept a ride from a passenger in San Francisco. The rise of on-demand apps and services are bringing up questions on what to tip drivers, Instacart grocery delivery people and others. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File)

Just like other service professionals, we should tip these types of workers, says Sharon Schweitzer, etiquette consultant and founder of Protocol & Etiquette Worldwide. Many of them have to reach into their own pockets to pay for gas, bike repairs or other costs, and a tip can help them make ends meet, Schweitzer says.

"The apps are designed for us to evolve to a cashless society," she says, "however that doesn't mean we become heartless in the process."

Indeed, cash is best if you have it. Some companies, like FreshDirect, will deduct processing fees that credit card companies charge before paying the driver, so they won't get the full amount of your tip. Below, some additional tipping suggestions, according to etiquette experts:

CAB-HAILING APPS

Uber doesn't allow users to tip through its app because it wants to keep the ride cashless. You can tip if you want to reward good service, however, and drivers can accept  Uber clarified its policy to say so after recently settling two lawsuits filed by drivers  just remember to bring cash. Rival service Lyft lets customers tip through its app within 24 hours of the ride.

Forgot the cash? At least give their driver a good review on the app, Schweitzer says.

TIP: 20 percent of the cost of ride.

GROCERY DELIVERY

Workers for Instacart, Postmates and other grocery-delivery services often need to wait on long lines and carry heavy items. When calculating a tip, base it only on the cost of the food, says Callista Gould, and etiquette instructor and founder of the Culture and Manners Institute. You might want to tip at a higher percentage if they're carrying your goods up several flights of stairs or if the weather is bad.

TIP: 20 to 25 percent of grocery costs.

RESTAURANT DELIVERY

Seamless, Grubhub, Eat24 and most other restaurant delivery companies allow tipping through their apps and websites, but give them cash if you have it. Bigger orders, such as for an office party, should get a higher tip percentage.

TIP: 20 to 25 percent of food order.

HOME RENTALS

Just because you skip the hotel and rent a place through Airbnb or HomeAway, you shouldn't skip tipping the housekeeper. Often, owners of the property hire people for clean up, Schweitzer says. To ensure the money gets to the right person, Schweitzer says she leaves tips in an envelope addressed to housekeeping under a pillow or near the dirty towels. (No, you don't have to tip the host.)

TIP: $3 to $5

LAUNDRY DELIVERY

Apps that send someone to pick up dirty laundry and return it clean have been popping up in big cities around the United States. One of those companies, Rinse, tells its workers not to accept tips. It says that not thinking about tips improves the experience for the customer. Competitor Washio says on its website that "there is no need to tip." But Schweitzer says you should try anyway if the cleaned laundry is delivered to you and not left with a concierge or doorman.

TIP: 10 to 15 percent of laundry bill.

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Takeaways: Glass ceiling shattered; 'change-maker' hailed

PHILADELPHIA (AP)  Hillary Clinton became the first female presidential nominee of a major party, and her husband made a personal but forceful case for her to reoccupy the White House  this time from the West Wing.

Delegates erupted in cheers as Hillary Clinton's primary rival, Bernie Sanders, helped make the nomination official Tuesday when the roll call of states got to his home state of Vermont  a crucial show of unity for a party trying to heal deep divisions.

And Clinton herself appeared on video to thank delegates and celebrate her big night.

Former President Bill Clinton speaks during the second day session of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, Tuesday, July 26, 2016. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

Sanders, following the role Clinton played eight years ago, asked for his former rival to be declared the nominee by acclamation. In November, she will take on Republican Donald Trump.

Here are the top takeaways from Day Two of the Democratic National Convention:

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GLASS CEILING SHATTERED

"We just put the biggest crack in that glass ceiling yet," a smiling Clinton declared as she made a surprise appearance on video at night's end, to the roar of delegates.

"This is really your victory," she said, predicting that many more women will be nominated for president -- and elected.

Clinton's long political resume  secretary of state, senator, first lady  has sometimes obscured the historic nature of her candidacy. Her supporters noted that Clinton's achievement came nearly a century after women gained the right to vote in 1920.

Maryland Sen. Barbara Mikulski nominated Clinton, saying she was acting on behalf of "all women who have broken down barriers for others." Mikulski was the first Democratic woman to be elected to the Senate in her own right.

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'I MET A GIRL'

Bill Clinton emphasized the personal as he told delegates and a TV audience about the woman he calls his best friend. The former president recalled that as a law student at Yale University in 1971, "I met a girl" named Hillary Rodham.

After several false starts, Clinton finally asked her to walk to an art museum. "We've been walking and talking and laughing together ever since," he said.

Clinton called his wife the "best darn change-maker I've met in my entire life," adding that she "had done more positive change before she was 30 than many politicians do in a lifetime in office."

Referring to Republican attacks on his wife at last week's convention, Clinton said there are two versions of her. "One is real, the other is made up," he said.

A nominee's spouse always gets some love at a party convention. But Bill Clinton's speech piqued extra interest since he hopes to be the first first man. Clinton, a former president, is a beloved figure to many Democrats, but he carries with him the baggage of numerous scandals and investigations.

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GUN VIOLENCE VICTIMS REMEMBERED

Hoopla and celebration gave way to somber moments as the convention showcased "mothers of the movement"  women whose children died in gun violence.

Sybrina Fulton, the mother of Trayvon Martin, a Florida teen killed in 2012, said that no mother "would have signed up" for the assignment.

Fulton said Clinton has the compassion to support grieving mothers and the courage to fight for gun legislation. "This isn't about being politically correct. This is about saving our children," she said.

Clinton has made gun safety a foundation of her presidential campaign, vowing to push for expanded criminal background checks and a renewal of a ban on assault weapons.

Philadelphia's police union complained that Clinton was showcasing killings by police without giving equal time to the families of fallen officers. Clinton's campaign said two members of law enforcement also are on the convention schedule.

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PROTESTS CONTINUE

Moments after Clinton claimed the nomination, a group of Sanders supporters left the convention hall and marched to a nearby media tent to protest what they said was their being shut out of the party.

Unmoved by Sanders' plea for unity, thousands of people chanting "Bernie or bust!" took to the streets under the hot sun. By early evening, a large crowd had formed outside the subway station closest to the Wells Fargo Center as delegates inside were on the verge of nominating Clinton for president.

Still, in the convention hall itself, the party seemed much more united behind Clinton than it had been on the first day, when Sanders supporters frequently jeered any mention of her name.

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Follow Matthew Daly: http://twitter.com/MatthewDalyWDC

Chelsea Clinton, daughter of Democratic Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and husband Marc Mezvinsky smile as Democratic Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton appears on screen live during the second day of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia , Tuesday, July 26, 2016. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)
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Chinese PC maker Lenovo Group has reached a cooperation agreement with e-commerce giant JD.com, aiming to boost sales of its products on JD.com.

According to the contract signed on Tuesday, the two sides plan to sell 60 billion yuan (about 9 billion U. S. dollars) worth of Lenovo products through JD.com in the next three years. The two companies also agreed to work together in meeting demand, precision marketing and rural e-commerce.

JD.com is the largest retail channel for Lenovo products.

Under the agreement, Lenovo has promised to debut some new products on JD.com in the next three years, while JD.com has agreed to provide Lenovo with data analysis, marketing, warehousing, and technology support.

JD.com authorities said the two sides will also cooperate on big data, and share product research, production, sales, and service data.
Norway mulls giving mountain peak to Finland

HELSINKI (AP)  Norway is considering moving a mountain  or at least its peak  to neighboring Finland.

Anne Nordskog, a spokeswoman for Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg, said Wednesday the government is contemplating a proposal to give the Halti peak as a gift to Finland next year as the Finns celebrate 100 years of independence.

Most of the mountain is on the Finnish side of their northern border but the peak of 1,331 meters (4,367 feet) is in Norway. The proposal would redraw the border to put the peak in Finland.

FILE In this Aug. 42008 file photo, a general view of the Halti mountain, on the Finnish and Norwegian borders, in Enontekio, Finland. Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg is considering moving a mountain _ or at least the peak of it _ as a gift to Finland when the Nordic country next year celebrates 100 years of independence from Russia. (Mikko Stig/Lehtikuva, via AP, File)

While mountainous Norway has several peaks that are higher, Finland's highest mountain is 1,325 meters.
Cops to protest over Black Lives Matter sign at city hall

SOMERVILLE, Mass. (AP)  The mayor of a Massachusetts city says he won't remove a Black Lives Matter banner hanging over city hall even as police officers from across the state intend to rally against it.

Somerville Mayor Joseph Curtatone, a Democrat who is white, said Wednesday that standing up for minority residents and supporting police officers aren't "competing interests."

He noted the city also has a banner over police headquarters honoring the officers slain in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and Dallas in retaliation over police killings of black citizens.

FILE- In this July 21, 2016, file photo, a "Black Lives Matter" banner hangs at the main entrance of City Hall in Somerville, Mass. Somerville Mayor Joseph Curtatone, a Democrat who is white, said Wednesday, July 27, that standing up for minority residents and supporting police officers arent competing interests. Curtaton says he wont remove the banner even as police officers from across the state intend to rally against it. (AP Photo/Steven Senne, File)

The city police union and other Massachusetts officers plan to rally against the banner Thursday after Curtatone denied an earlier request to replace it with an "All Lives Matter" banner.
Branson: Parents should join kids who insist on smoking pot

CHICAGO (AP)  British billionaire Richard Branson says if kids are going to smoke marijuana, their parents should join them.

The Chicago Tribune reports (http://trib.in/2af73S9 ) the Virgin Group founder told an audience of entrepreneurs in Chicago on Tuesday that if their kids are "going to have a joint, do it with them." He adds, "Don't let them sneak off and do it on their own."

The 66-year-old father of two was responding to a question about how he ensured his children learned values.

FILE - In this Sept. 28, 2015, file photo, Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Group and Virgin Unite, participates in a discussion on "Looking to the Next Frontier" at the Clinton Global Initiative in New York. The Chicago Tribune reports Branson told a Chicago audience on July 26, 2016, that parents should smoke marijuana with their children. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, File)
Hospital network paying $2.5M to settle overbilling claims

PITTSBURGH (AP)  The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center has paid $2.5 million to settle some claims in a federal whistleblower lawsuit accusing the hospital network of overbilling government insurance programs for neurosurgery.

UPMC, Pennsylvania's largest private employer with 60,000 workers, didn't acknowledge wrongdoing in the settlement announced Wednesday by the U.S. Attorney's Office in Pittsburgh. The nonprofit reported $12 billion in revenue last year.

The federal government sued last year after two doctors and another whistleblower sued in 2012 alleging various kinds of inflated billing. Some of the whistleblower claims remain and will be pursued privately, and UPMC said it would defend those claims "vigorously."

The claims settled primarily involve the way UPMC billed for surgeries in which some of its doctors acted as first assistants or teaching assistants on surgical procedures. Under regulations governing Medicare, Medicaid, Tricare/Champus and other federal programs, those assisting physicians must spend a certain amount of time or perform specific roles during surgery, otherwise UPMC cannot bill for their services.

The lawsuit claimed UPMC billed for the assistant services when those doctors didn't meet the criteria and sometimes even when they weren't present at all.

UPMC "created a culture where money  not medicine  drove the decision-making process," the lawsuit said.

The lawsuit didn't say how much money the overbilling allegedly cost the government programs or how the feds arrived at the $2.5 million settlement figure. UPMC didn't address that issue in its statement.

But the lawsuit also alleged UPMC was a "repeat offender" with regard to billing for surgeries performed by residents, fellows or physician assistants when no teaching physician oversaw the procedures.

UPMC paid the government $17 million in 1998 after an audit by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services uncovered that specific type of overbilling, but this earlier settlement "obviously did not constitute a sufficient deterrent to forego its clearly fraudulent billing practices," the lawsuit said.

UPMC issued a statement saying Wednesday's settlement "wraps up" the government's investigation of billing to Medicare, Medicaid and Tricare.

"UPMC learned that some of the billing these entities submitted did not accurately reflect the services performed, and resulted in more reimbursement than was due. The physicians themselves did not submit these bills," the statement said. "UPMC discovered the billing discrepancies, disclosed the errors to the United States Attorney's office, conducted an internal review, and fully cooperated with the government's review."

UPMC has since taken steps to fix its billing process and practices.

The remaining claims to be pursued in non-government lawsuits largely concern something known as Relative Value Units. Those are numerical units that the government uses to "score" the complexity of a surgical procedure and the amount of time it requires.

Relative Value Units are also used to calculate bills for surgical procedures, and the lawsuit contends UPMC inflated or over-reported those scores to drive up its revenue and to overpay some surgeons, giving those doctors an incentive to over-report their surgical work.

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Trump dings both Clintons in rollicking press conference

MIAMI (AP)  Donald Trump made an extraordinary plea for Russia to help find Hillary Clinton's missing emails  but he hardly stopped there in a scattershot news conference Wednesday that doubled as counter-programming to the ongoing Democratic National Convention.

Among the other items Trump touched upon on the nearly hour-long press conference held at one of his Florida resorts:

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Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a news conference at Trump National Doral, Wednesday, July 27, 2016, in Doral, Fla. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

BILL CLINTON'S SPEECH:

Former President Bill Clinton delivered an impassioned speech at the Democratic National Convention praising his wife, Hillary Clinton.

But Trump said that he was disappointed that Bill Clinton's lengthy telling of their life story had left out a portion  presumably his sex scandals.

"He left out the most interesting chapter," said Trump. "I won't get into that -- a chapter that I really waited for -- because it was pretty boring. The chapter that I waited for, I never heard."

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HILLARY CLINTON'S SECURITY BRIEFINGS:

Trump said that he has "a real problem" with Hillary Clinton receiving nation security briefings because of the way she mishandled sensitive information during her tenure as secretary of state.

"I don't think it's safe to have Hillary Clinton be briefed on national security because the word will get out," he said, pointing to her use of a private email address and server.

Trump also singled out top Clinton aide Huma Abedin, suggesting that she would share classified information with her husband, former New York Rep. Anthony Weiner, who resigned in a sexting scandal. Trump called Weiner "a sleaze ball and a pervert."

He also called for Clinton, who was nominated her party's convention Tuesday night, to have her first press conference in months.

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MINIMUM WAGE:

Trump said that he'd like to see the federal minimum wage increased to "at least" $10.

"The minimum wage has to go up," he told reporters. "But I think that states should really call the shots."

Trump pointed to the fact that different states have dramatically different living costs, noting that in his home state of New York, "You can't buy a hot dog for the money you're talking about."

The move represents a break from his party  and from Trump's past statements. He also says that he'll spur job creation so the minimum wage is "peanuts" compared to what people can make.

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IMMIGRATION SCREENING:

Trump is saying his campaign will soon publish a list of countries from which immigrants will need to undergo "extreme vetting" before entering the United States.

"We have people coming in this country with very evil intentions," Trump said. "We cannot let those people come in."

Trump has been hard to pin down on his immigration plan, which he initially framed as a temporary ban on Muslims from entering the United States.

He has now said that people from any country that has been compromised by terrorism would be subject to tougher screening measures. He has not identified the countries but has said it could include traditional U.S. allies like France.

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TIM KAINE'S HOME STATE:

Trump twice misidentified the home state of Hillary Clinton's new running mate, Tim Kaine.

Trump said that Kaine, a senator from Virginia, was from New Jersey.

"Her running mate, Tim Kaine, who by the way, did a terrible job in New Jersey," Trump said at a news conference in Miami. "He was not very popular in New Jersey, and he still isn't."

He was then corrected by an audience member.

Trump might have confused Kaine with former Republican New Jersey Gov. Tom Kean, pronounced the same as Kaine. Kean led the state from 1982 to 1990 while Trump was building his casino empire in Atlantic City. Kaine was governor of Virginia from 2006 to 2010.

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Lemire contributed reporting from New York.

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Reach Lemire on Twitter at http://twitter.com/@JonLemire and Colvin at http://twitter.com/@colvinj

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a news conference at Trump National Doral, Wednesday, July 27, 2016, in Doral, Fla. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
Opposition leader returns to Congo after 2 years away

KINSHASA, Congo (AP)  The leader of Congo's main opposition party returned to the country Wednesday after two years away for medical reasons and as tensions grow ahead of November presidential elections.

Etienne Tshisekedi was greeted by thousands of cheering people at the Kinshasa airport after flying in from Belgium. They followed his car as it drove to his home in suburban Kinshasa.

The spokesman for the Union for Democracy and Social Progress, Bruno Tshibala, said 83-year-old Tshisekedi returned "to take things into his hands for political change." The opposition will hold a rally Sunday where he will speak.

Congo opposition leader Etienne Tshisekedi, center, is greeted by supporters at the airport in Kinshasa, Congo, Wednesday, July 27, 2016. The leader of Congo's main opposition party returned to the country Wednesday after two years away for medical reasons and as tensions grow ahead of November presidential elections. (AP Photo/John Bompengo)

Juliette Mpela, 41, arrived at the airport early Wednesday.

"It gives me great joy to see our leader who left us ill but returns healthy. He embodies the change we hope will be alive much longer," she said.

In June, Tshisekedi led a meeting in Brussels of various opposition parties, whose leaders are calling for free and fair elections.

Opposition leaders claim that President Joseph Kabila wants to delay the November vote so he can stay in power past his mandate that expires at the end of the year. Kabila is barred from running for a third term under Congo's constitution.

The opposition wants elections to take place on time. It also wants a review of the electoral commission, which says it needs more time to prepare for the vote.

Congo has never had a peaceful transition of power.

Tshisekedi formed Congo's first opposition party in 1982 to combat the longtime dictatorship of Mobutu Sese Seko.

He lost the 2011 presidential election to Kabila and later contested the results. He left Congo in 2014 for medical treatment.

In 2010, he walked the 15 miles (25 kilometers) from the Kinshasa airport to his suburban home after a triumphant return from medical treatment abroad.

Supporters of Congo opposition leader Etienne Tshisekedi, on board of a truck as they await his arrival near the airport in Kinshasa, Congo, Wednesday, July 27, 2016. The head of the main opposition party in Congo has returned home after two years away for medical reasons and as tensions grow ahead of November elections. Hundreds of supporters greeted Etienne Tshisekedi at the Kinshasa airport Wednesday. (AP Photo/John Bompengo)

Supporters of Congo opposition leader Etienne Tshisekedi, near the airport in an main street as they await his in Kinshasa, Congo, Wednesday, July 27, 2016.The leader of Congo's main opposition party returned to the country Wednesday after two years away for medical reasons and as tensions grow ahead of November presidential elections.(AP Photo/John Bompengo)

A supporter of Congo opposition leader Etienne Tshisekedi, center, holds photos of him as he and others gather for his arrival at the airport in Kinshasa, Congo, Wednesday, July 27, 2016. The head of the main opposition party in Congo has returned home after two years away for medical reasons and as tensions grow ahead of November elections. Hundreds of supporters greeted Etienne Tshisekedi at the Kinshasa airport Wednesday. (AP Photo/John Bompengo)
Pakistan orders probe into mysterious death of UK resident

ISLAMABAD (AP)  Pakistan's Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan on Wednesday ordered an investigation into the mysterious death of a Pakistani woman living in England after her husband claimed she was killed for marrying against her family's wishes.

A ministry statement said Khan asked police to swiftly complete the probe into the death of Samia Shahid, 28, of Bradford, who died while visiting her family in Pakistan's Punjab province.

Nabila Ghazanfar, a police spokeswoman, told The Associated Press that police were alerted about Shahid's death by her parents on July 20. "The parents of Samia Shahid at the time told police they saw some fluid coming out from her mouth and that she was found dead in her room," she said.

Ghazanfar said officers were waiting for Shahid's post-mortem report when her husband Mukhtar Kazim told police he believed she was killed by her family. She said the exact cause of Shahid's death is not clear and police are still questioning suspects.

Mujahid Akbar, the district police chief, told the AP that police had detained two members of Shahid's family for questioning.

"Nothing can be ruled out. It can be a case of honor killing, but right now we are waiting for reports of medical tests done on her body," he said.

Police are also trying to track down Shahid's first husband, who is also her cousin. Akbar said Shahid's husband told police that his wife angered her family by divorcing her cousin two years ago to marry him.
Homeland Security employee caught with gun pleads not guilty

MARTINSBURG, W.Va. (AP)  A Department of Homeland Security employee has pleaded not guilty to charges stemming from entering his agency's Washington headquarters with a gun, knife, infrared camera, pepper spray and handcuffs.

Northern West Virginia U.S. Attorney spokeswoman Ashley Lough says Jonathan Leigh Wienke pleaded not guilty Wednesday to charges of illegally building a silencer on an unregistered pistol and having silencer-building equipment.

Charges stem from a search warrant on Wienke's Martinsburg house.

Wienke was released without bond Wednesday.

Previous filings allege Wienke carried a backpack of weapons into the building on June 9. The documents say the government has probable cause to believe Wienke may have planned violence against senior DHS officials.
MIAMI (AP)  Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has taken a shot at Hillary Clinton's running mate, Democratic U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine, for doing a terrible job as governor of New Jersey.

The problem, of course, is that Kaine was governor of Virginia.

Trump said at a news conference Wednesday in Miami that Kaine "did a terrible job in New Jersey." He continued: "He was not very popular in New Jersey, and he still isn't."

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a news conference at Trump National Doral, Wednesday, July 27, 2016, in Tampa, Fla. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Trump might have confused Kaine with former Republican New Jersey Gov. Tom Kean (KAYN'). He led the state from 1982 to 1990 while Trump was building his casino empire in Atlantic City.

Trump corrected himself after someone asked if he meant Virginia.

Republican New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie was among Trump's finalists for vice president.
Oops! Trump: Clinton's VP pick was bad New Jersey governor

MIAMI (AP)  Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump took a shot Wednesday at Hillary Clinton's running mate, Democratic U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine, for doing a terrible job as governor of New Jersey.

The problem, of course, is that Kaine was governor of Virginia.

"Her running mate, Tim Kaine, who by the way, did a terrible job in New Jersey," Trump said at a news conference in Miami. "He was not very popular in New Jersey, and he still isn't."

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a news conference at Trump National Doral, Wednesday, July 27, 2016, in Doral, Fla. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Trump might have confused Kaine with former Republican New Jersey Gov. Tom Kean, pronounced the same as Kaine. Kean led the state from 1982 to 1990 while Trump was building his casino empire in Atlantic City. Kaine was governor of Virginia from 2006 to 2010.

New Jersey also might have been on Trump's mind because its current governor, Republican Chris Christie, was among Trump's finalists for the vice presidential nod that ultimately went to Indiana Gov. Mike Pence.

Trump corrected himself after someone asked if he meant Virginia.

Kean, who chaired the federal 9/11 commission, skipped this year's Republican National Convention, the first time he's done that since he became involved in politics, because he disagreed with Trump on too many issues.

Kean's son, a New Jersey state senator, said the flub was a minor issue.

"It is clear that he misspoke," said state Sen. Tom Kean Jr. "He was discussing a specific proposal in Virginia."

Democratic Vice Presidential candidate, Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., looks over the podium as he checks out the stage before the start of the third day session of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, Wednesday, July 27, 2016. (AP Photo/John Locher)
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China's new-generation spacecraft tracking ship Yuanwang-7 sailed into the ocean from the Yangtze River on Tuesday, beginning its maiden mission.

China's new-generation spacecraft tracking ship Yuanwang-7 sailed into the ocean from the Yangtze River on Tuesday, beginning its maiden mission.

Yuanwang-7 was accompanied by Yuanwang-6. Yuanwang-5 also set out days before.

The three will carry out 10 missions in the Pacific and Indian oceans, including maritime tracking of the manned spaceflight Shenzhou-11, in the latter half of this year, according to the ship's officer.

Shenzhou-11 will carry two astronauts to dock with Tiangong-2, China's second orbiting space lab, set to launch in the fall, allowing two astronauts to live in space for up to 30 days.

China has seven Yuanwang space tracking ships, which have carried out some 70 expeditions and traveled more than 1.5 million nautical miles.

Construction on Yuanwang-7 started in 2014 and it was commissioned on July 12. It is 224.9 meters long, 27.2 meters wide and 44.2 meters high, and has a displacement of 27,000 tons. It is capable of resisting strong typhoons, and can carry 100 days of supplies.

Two rocket carrying ships, Yuanwang-21 and Yuanwang-22, will set out in mid August to transport Long March-5, China's largest carrier rocket scheduled to be launched later this year.
Artist swaps picket sign for easel at political conventions

PHILADELPHIA (AP)  As thousands crowd the streets and parks of Philadelphia in heated protest outside the Democratic National Convention, Andrew Purchin swapped a picket sign for an easel.

Purchin, an artist and psychotherapist from Santa Cruz, set up shop in Philadelphia this week, inviting convention-goers to find alternative outlets for political expression. On a 144-foot scroll, made of old canvases he pieced together, he's urging people to express their passions through painting.

"I'm going to encourage people to open their eyes to look outside, we can imagine the conventions and all the people out there, and just notice you know, what do I judge? What do I like, what don't I like? Really, judgment is everything and creativity is everything,"

Purchin first asked people to pick up a paintbrush at the Republican National Convention, where his water and oil paints served as an oasis amid the heat and chaos on the streets of Cleveland.

"It was great. It was just something  a little pit stop on the way to all the commercialization and the politics," participant Jill Glauber said after contributing to Purchin's art project. "Just a nice relaxing moment."

Purchin, 54, has painted since he was 16, but his passion for politics was stirred decades later when, in 2009, Barack Obama became America's first black president.

"It was Obama's audacious act of being a black man and running for president that made me think 'what's my act of audacity?'" Purchin explained, standing under the paintings from the inauguration. "I thought when he was elected, I'm going to bring my supplies, in the cold in the chaos, and paint at his inauguration."

He uses oil pastels to capture very impressionistic yet impactful images of the emotion and humanity at events with many conflicting views, like the 2012 National Conventions, where he noted the beauty in the demonstrators.

"You do not have to agree with someone's politics to find their gestures and their actions beautiful.passion is one of the only things we have in common" Purchin said. "I was sort of the creative witness to this event. It wasn't journalism, but something like that. I talked to people from both sides, I went to both sides and I had time to reflect and create based off of what I saw."

As with his paintings from the Obama's inauguration, Purchin hasn't sold the pieces from the conventions because hasn't quite determined how he wants to use them.

In preparation for the 2016 conventions, Purchin decided the best way to be a creative witness to the event was not to paint the people, but rather to have the people paint.

His message, ultimately, is to encourage younger people that passion  especially in politics  can be a source of good, and finding creative ways to express that passion is a means for building bridges.

"We can express ourselves peacefully and still be heard," Purchin said. "(My art) is all about becoming less furious and more curious."

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AP EXPLAINS: Why Syria's al-Qaida may be considering a split

BEIRUT (AP)  Al-Qaida's branch in Syria is considering splitting ties with the global terror group, members say.

A Nusra Front official told The Associated Press on Tuesday that the group's leader plans to announce a disassociation with al-Qaida soon. Speaking via text message from northern Syria, the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly about the issue, said Nusra will merge with other insurgent groups.

If it does, that could throw a wrench in talks between the U.S. and Russia on a military partnership in Syria, complicating efforts to separate the militant fighters from other moderate rebel factions.

FILE - This file photo posted on the Twitter page of Syria's al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front on April 1, 2016, shows fighters from al-Qaida's branch in Syria, the Nusra Front, marching toward the northern village of al-Ais in Aleppo province, Syria. Al-Qaidas branch in Syria is considering splitting ties with the global terror group, but the Nusra Fronts intention to make it more appealing to the West may in fact be a tactical move aimed at undermining ongoing talks between the U.S. and Russia on a military partnership in Syria. (Al-Nusra Front via AP, File)

Here's a look at the Nusra Front and what the move would mean.

A POWERFUL FORCE

The Nusra Front, led by Syrian militant Abu Mohammed al-Golani, is al-Qaida's affiliate in Syria and is the second strongest extremist group in the country after its rival, the Islamic State group. Its fighters have been among the strongest in battling the forces of Syrian President Bashar Assad and his allies like Lebanon's Hezbollah guerrillas. Nusra is among rebels holding territory in northern, western and southern Syria.

While made up of Islamic extremists and some foreign jihadis, the Nusra Front has presented its priority as ousting Assad rather than immediately pressing al-Qaida's global goals. That has enabled it to work alongside other Syrian factions, including moderate ones, to fight both the Syrian military and the Islamic State group. Those factions value its battlefield prowess: A Nusra-led coalition called the Army of Conquest has succeeded in rolling back Assad's forces in northwest Idlib province.

But its closeness to other rebels has complicated efforts at a ceasefire. The last ceasefire brokered by the U.S. and Russia did not cover Nusra or IS, so Russian warplanes and Assad's forces continued to battle them, often hitting moderate groups that were part of the truce, including ones backed by Washington and its Arab allies. That was one factor leading to the cease-fire's collapse.

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WHY SPLIT?

Those in Nusra who want to split hope that breaking with al-Qaida would remove the international stigma from their shoulders. The group could present itself as a local Syrian rebel group and allow it to work even closer with more opposition factions, perhaps giving it some protection from the international campaign against it.

There have been rumors in the past of a split, but it never happened. Last year, al-Golani repeated his allegiance to al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahri. But talk has become louder again. This week, a senior Nusra fighter based in northern Syria told The Associated Press that many senior officials in the group support splitting. Militant websites and social media have been full of claims the move would come soon, with some supporters claiming it would change its name to the Front to Conquer the Levant.

Still, the move is not certain, given it also has downsides for Nusra.

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IMPACT FOR THE U.S.

A split would complicate things for Washington, which is likely Nusra's intention.

The U.S. and Russia are trying to hammer out an agreement on a new military partnership in Syria. One leaked U.S. proposal would call for a sharing of intelligence and targeting for strikes against IS and Nusra on the condition Russia commits to convince its ally Assad to ground Syria's bombers and start a political transition process.

But that would be more difficult if Nusra becomes even closer to other rebels. Washington and its allies have long pressed mainstream opposition groups to "de-couple" from front lines where Nusra is present, with little success.

"If Nusra Front was to sever its ties to al-Qaeda, opposition groups will in no way ever consider such de-coupling," said Charles Lister, senior fellow at the Washington-based Middle East Institute. Consequently, any future intervention against Nusra will be perceived by opposition Syrians as a de facto move in support of the Assad regime, he said.

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DOWNSIDES FOR NUSRA

If it quits al-Qaida, the Nusra Front loses the brand name that drew many of its fighters to its ranks. That could drive away members.

Foreign fighters in particular could become disillusioned since many of them were drawn by the al-Qaida link and see their participation in the Syria war in more universal terms of global jihad rather than as simply a campaign to oust Assad, said Sam Heller, a Beirut-based analyst who writes about the Syria war.

A Syrian opposition figure said some hard-line Nusra leaders who oppose a move believe foreign fighters would switch over to other extremist factions like the Jund al-Aqsa militant group or the Turkistan Islamic Party. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment on the subject.

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ONCE AL-QAIDA, ALWAYS AL-QAIDA?

Even if it breaks with the al-Qaida franchise, the group's Islamic militant ideology is not likely to change. "Whatever it might then name itself, (it) will still be much the same organization," said Lister.

And the U.S. is not going to start looking on it any more favorably.

Washington believes that Nusra's "fundamental nature is that it's al-Qaida in Syria," said U.S. State Department spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau when asked Tuesday about talk of a possible split.

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Associated Press writer Philip Issa contributed to this report.

FILE - This file image posted on the Twitter page of Syria's al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front on Tuesday June 14, 2016, which is consistent with AP reporting, shows a Nusra Front tank firing at Syrian troops and pro-government gunmen at the hilltop of Khalsa village, southern Aleppo, Syria. Al-Qaidas branch in Syria is considering splitting ties with the global terror group, but the Nusra Fronts intention to make it more appealing to the West may in fact be a tactical move aimed at undermining ongoing talks between the U.S. and Russia on a military partnership in Syria. Arabic, bottom right, reads, "heavy shelling ahead of advances on Khalsa." (Al-Nusra Front Twitter page via AP, File)

FILE - This file image posted on the Twitter page of Syria's al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front on Thursday, May 5, 2016, shows a fighter from the Nusra Front firing a weapon during clashes against Syrian government forces and pro-government militiamen in the town of Khan Touman, near Aleppo province, Syria. Al-Qaidas branch in Syria is considering splitting ties with the global terror group, but the Nusra Fronts intention to make it more appealing to the West may in fact be a tactical move aimed at undermining ongoing talks between the U.S. and Russia on a military partnership in Syria. Arabic, bottom, reads "preparation for the attack with heavy machine gun fire in Khan Touman." (Al-Nusra Front social media account via AP, File)
Netflix announces 'Gilmore Girls,' 'One Day At A Time' dates

NEW YORK (AP)  The television revivals at Netflix that began in February with "Fuller House" continue as the streaming network announces premiere dates for two more series reboots.

Netflix says "Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life" will debut globally on Nov. 25. A new Latino version of "One Day at a Time" premieres Jan. 6.

The new "Gilmore Girls" brings back the popular mother-daughter dramedy that aired from 2000 to 2007. Each of the four 90-minute chapters covers each of four seasons of the year. The series brings back original stars Lauren Graham and Alexis Bledel, with creator Amy Sherman-Palladino also returning.

FILE - In this April 30, 2013 file photo, actress Lauren Graham poses for a portrait in promotion of her new book, "Someday, Someday, Maybe: A Novel," in New York. Netflix says "Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life" will debut globally on Nov. 25, 2015, with the show's original stars, Lauren Graham, who plays Lorelai Gilmore and Bledel, who plays her daughter Rory. (Photo by Amy Sussman/Invision/AP, File)

The new "One Day a Time" reimagines the 1970s sitcom classic, this time centering on a Cuban-American family. Original producer Norman Lear is back for its 13-episode first season.
Guatemala orders new graft probe of former president, ex-VP

GUATEMALA CITY (AP)  A Guatemalan judge formally ordered prosecutors Wednesday to investigate former President Otto Perez Molina and his ex-vice president in another corruption case.

Miguel Angel Galvez issued the order targeting Perez Molina and Roxanna Baldetti for possible charges of bribery and money laundering in connection with an alleged criminal graft network involving 53 businesspeople, bankers, public officials and private individuals.

First Baldetti and then Perez Molina resigned last year amid revelations of a corruption and fraud network in which they have both been implicated. They deny all the accusations against them.

In this July 22, 2016 photo, Guatemala's jailed, former President Otto Perez Molina attends a pre-trial hearing in Guatemala City. A Guatemalan judge has formally ordered prosecutors to investigate Perez Molina and his ex-VP Roxanna Baldetti in a corruption case, on Wednesday, July 27, 2016. Its the second graft case against Perez Molina and the third against Baldetti. They deny the accusations. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo)

It's the second corruption case against Perez Molina, 65, and the third against Baldetti, 54. Both are currently jailed.

Perez Molina said he was satisfied with Wednesday's ruling because it could allow his two cases to be merged into one.

"I think the judge listened to the arguments from the lawyers," he said. "In my personal case it is a ruling that follows the law."

Prosecutors and a U.N. investigative commission in Guatemala accuse the former president of heading a criminal network and allegedly receiving some $37.9 million from companies in return for the awarding of construction contracts. Perez Molina is also accused of receiving a helicopter, a Jaguar luxury automobile, a plane and other gifts.
President Barack Obama's presidential library will be built in a park on Chicago's South Side along the shores of Lake Michigan and a short walk from the university where Obama once taught.

The Barack Obama Foundation decided to build the library at Jackson Park near the University of Chicago, according to a person briefed on the selection.

The library is expected to be a boon to the city's South Side, providing jobs to communities that have long struggled with gang violence and high unemployment.

Jackson Park, in Chicago. (pictured) is where Obama and first lady Michelle have selected to place the outgoing president's presidential library

Coming home: President Obama's library will be at a park near the University of Chicago, where he once taught constitutional law

The park was selected over nearby Washington Park, which also was proposed by the University of Chicago, where Obama taught constitutional law as he was embarking on a political career that led him to the Illinois Senate, the U.S. Senate and ultimately the White House.

The university has said the library and presidential center are expected to attract hundreds of thousands of visitors annually, bringing jobs and millions of dollars to the area.

Jackson Park was the site of the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition, while Washington Park is a national historic site.

Both parks have hundreds of acres and were designed by famed landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted, but Jackson Park  located between Lake Michigan and the University of Chicago  is farther away from areas plagued by gun violence than Washington Park, which is further to the west.

Michelle Obama once worked as an administrator at the University of Chicago Medical Center, and the Obamas still maintain a house near the private university's campus. The president famously worked as a community organizer on Chicago's South Side, where his wife grew up.

Obama's library will be be designed by Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects, a New York architectural firm that designed the David Logan Center for the Arts at the University of Chicago

The parks were chosen as finalists last year over bids by Columbia University in New York City, the University of Hawaii and the University of Illinois at Chicago.

The Obamas announced last month that the library would be designed by Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects, a New York architectural firm that designed the David Logan Center for the Arts at the University of Chicago. The Obama Foundation said 140 architecture firms applied to design the library.

The center is expected to be completed by 2021.
Suspect in Ohio college student's killing will stay in jail

TOLEDO, Ohio (AP)  A man accused of killing an Ohio college student who disappeared while riding her bicycle has been ordered to remain jailed.

The attorney representing 57-year-old James Worley waived a preliminary hearing Wednesday on charges of aggravated murder and abduction.

A sheriff confirmed Tuesday that remains found July 22 in a cornfield are those of 20-year-old University of Toledo student Sierah Joughin (JOH'-gihn).

This undated booking photo provided by the Fulton County Sheriff's Department shows James Worley. Worley, who spent three years in prison after the 1990 abduction of a female cyclist, was arrested Friday, July 22, 2016, three days after a college student disappeared. He was charged Tuesday, July 26 with aggravated murder and was due in court Wednesday. (Fulton County Sheriff's Department via The Blade via AP)

She was last seen riding her bike a week ago along a country road near her home about 20 miles outside Toledo.

Worley has rejected interview requests since his arrest. His attorney declined to comment.

Worley has been charged with abduction before, and investigators are looking into the possibility of additional victims. Worley was convicted of abducting a woman in 1990 near Toledo and spent three years in prison.

In a Friday, July 22, 2016 photo, Fulton County Western District Judge Jeffrey Robinson arraigns James Worley, 57, of Delta, Ohio via video link from the Corrections Center of Northwest Ohio, at the Western District Court in Wauseon, Ohio. Worley, 57, who spent three years in prison after the 1990 abduction, was arrested Friday, three days after Sierah Joughin disappeared. He was charged Tuesday with aggravated murder and was due in court Wednesday. (Katie Rausch/The Blade via AO)

This July 23, 2016 photo shows a sign for Evergreen schools posted with words for Sierah Joughin after she was last seen riding her bike near the school in Metamora, Ohio. A sheriff's investigator filed a criminal complaint Tuesday against 57-year-old James Worley in the death of 20-year-old University of Toledo student Joughin. (Katie Rausch/The Blade via AP)
Researchers seeing more sharks up and down the East Coast

BOSTON (AP)  It's shark season on the East Coast.

Shark sightings have prompted authorities to temporarily close popular beaches in New England, New York and elsewhere this month. And 13 people have been bitten by sharks in Florida this year.

The Associated Press checked in with shark experts to see what's going on:

In this Tuesday, July 25, 2016 photo released by the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy, a great white shark swims close to the Cape Cod shore in Chatham, Mass. A Massachusetts state biologist said shark sightings are up slightly along the East Coast this summer. (Wayne Davis/Atlantic White Shark Conservancy via AP)

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ARE SHARK SIGHTINGS ON THE RISE?

Researchers suggest this summer could be shaping up to a banner one for sightings, but it's too early to say for certain.

In Cape Cod, in Massachusetts, state marine biologist Gregory Skomal says great whites appear to have shown up earlier and in larger numbers. His team tagged its first shark in mid-June, and eight new ones have been tagged, up from three this time last year. It identified 141 last year and 80 the previous year.

In South Carolina, state marine biologist Bryan Frazier says preliminary annual survey data of sandbar, blacktip and other shark species suggest the populations are continuing their steady rise after years of overfishing.

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WHAT KINDS OF SHARKS ARE BEING SPOTTED?

In the Cape Cod area, researchers are focused on great white sharks, which tend to venture close to shore to eat seals. Other species, like blue and mako sharks, can be found farther out. Huge but harmless ocean sunfish have been mistaken for sharks.

In New York, where stretches of Coney Island's beaches were temporarily closed last week, authorities have suggested the multiple sharks spotted off the shore where likely basking sharks, which are largely harmless to humans. And in the Carolinas, large feeding frenzies of blacktip sharks, responsible for many attacks in southern Atlantic Ocean waters, have been observed more frequently than in past years.

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WHAT'S DRIVING THE INCREASE IN SHARK SIGHTINGS?

Sharks have always prowled the waters near popular beaches, but we're more aware of how close they get because more people are sharing videos and photos of them on social media, says Cynthia Wigren, executive director of the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy, a Cape Cod-based nonprofit that recently launched a shark tracking app, Sharktivity.

Fishery management policies meant to help some shark populations recover from recreational and commercial overfishing during the 1980s and '90s also play a role, says Robert Hueter, director of the Center for Shark Research at Mote Marine Laboratory and Aquarium in Sarasota, Florida. Shark populations have generally been on the rise along the East Coast, though some species, like hammerheads and dusky sharks, still face significant challenges, he says.

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HAVE THERE BEEN MORE SHARK ATTACKS?

No. This year there have been 22 confirmed unprovoked shark attacks in the U.S., none fatal, according to the International Shark Attack File, based at the Florida Museum of Natural History. There have been 36 confirmed attacks worldwide, three fatal. The International Shark Attack File's director, George Burgess, says those numbers put the U.S. and the world on pace to see fewer attacks than last year, when there were 59 in the U.S., one fatal, and 98 worldwide, six fatal.

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Bronx Zoo breeds 1st little penguin in its 120-year history

NEW YORK (AP)  New York City's Bronx Zoo has bred a little penguin for the first time in its 120-year history.

The zoo is now exhibiting the chick , which can be seen on its YouTube channel. The chick hatched on May 10.

Little penguins also are known as fairy penguins or blue penguins and are the smallest of the 18 penguin species. Adults are only about 13 inches tall and weigh 2 to 3 pounds.

In this July 25, 2016 photo provided by the Wildlife Conservation Society, a "little penguin" chick is shown in its habitat at the Bronx Zoo in New York. Hatched on May 10, 2016, it is the first "little penguin" born at the zoo in the zoo's 120 year history. "Little penguins," also known as "fairy penguins" and "blue penguins," are the smallest of the 18 penguin species. Adults are only about 13 inches tall and weigh 2 to 3 pounds. (Julie Larsen Maher/Wildlife Conservation Society via AP)

The rest of the Bronx colony was hatched at the Taronga Zoo in Sydney and was moved to New York as part of a breeding program.
Veteran protesters mix with newcomers outside convention

PHILADELPHIA (AP)  For some of the protesters outside the Democratic convention this week, the demonstrations in Philadelphia are the latest in a lifetime of political activism. For others, they're a first.

The demonstrators have come from near and far, some driven by specific issues, some inspired by a candidate.

Here are some of their stories.

Sue Kirby poses for a picture with a larger-than-life Bernie Sanders, papier-mache head in Philadelphia, Wednesday, July 27, 2016, during the third day of the Democratic National Convention. Kirby, 65, built the doll about a year ago for Sanders rallies near home in Salem, Mass. She learned from a lifetime of activism that having a prop is a good way to get public (and media) attention. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

PAPIER-MACHE SEATMATE

Sue Kirby needed a second seat on the bus from Boston for her traveling and protesting companion: a larger-than-life Bernie Sanders doll with a papier-mache head and foam body.

Kirby, 65, built the doll about a year ago for Sanders rallies near home in Salem, Massachusetts. She learned from a lifetime of activism that having a prop is a good way to get public (and media) attention.

It works: People take pictures with him, and reporters ask questions.

Back in the 1970s, Kirby protested against the Vietnam War and in favor of women's rights. The slightly built Kirby later worked as a welder at a factory so she could be a union organizer. She also worked for a policy organizing group for senior citizens.

Now she's retired. "This is my job," she said.

She sees younger Sanders supporters on the same activism path she was on 40 years ago. "I sort of see the next generation coming forward, being helped by the generation before them," she said.

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INSPIRATION OVERSEAS

Living abroad helped Daisy Chacon tune into politics in the U.S., her home country.

Chacon, 31, returned to Boston in May after spending two years teaching English in Spain. She found that people there knew what was going on in their country  and hers. "They stand up for things," Chacon said.

At the same time, she caught wind of Sanders and his populist movement. "To be honest, Bernie lit a fire under me," she said. "I really didn't believe in the political system before Bernie."

As protesters began to show up for a rally Wednesday, Chacon, a student at Salem State University in Massachusetts, carried a sign calling for a ban on the gas-drilling technique known as fracking. She also had a plastic bag of "Latinos for Bernie" buttons to hand out.

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AWAKENED BY SANDERS

Twenty-two-year-old Arthur Ryshov (REE-jawv), born in Russia and adopted by a family in Indiana, recently became a U.S. citizen, and now he is exercising his right to free speech.

Ryshov, who works for an engineering firm, came to Philadelphia from Bedford, Indiana, with his mother and has joined rallies and protests near City Hall and outside the Wells Fargo Center, where the evening convention proceedings are held.

Like most of the protesters, Ryshov is a Sanders supporter. He became one only in the last few months. Before researching Sanders and following his speeches on YouTube, Ryshov said, he wasn't interested in politics at all.

"He opened my eyes to the reality we live in," Ryshov said.

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CHECKING IT OUT

At the edge of a rally on Wednesday, Drew Webb held a sign with a line drawn through the word "oligarchy."

Webb, 32, said he really hadn't given any thought to destroying oligarchy, but he does like the idea of the rally's hero, Sanders. "He's got a good cause," Webb said. "He's bringing people together."

Even though he was off to the side, Webb considers himself a protester.

Webb, a Philadelphian who served just over two years in prison for drug trafficking, volunteers with a prison reform group. A few weeks ago, he joined his first march, making his way from impoverished North Philadelphia to Center City to protest violence by police against black people.

After witnessing nearly two years of similar demonstrations across the country, he finally felt compelled to join in: "Now it's a boiling point."

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JUST ARRIVING

Wednesday was the third or fourth day for many protesters. They nursed foot blisters and sunburns and were generally haggard.

Not Jorge Ruvalcaba, 28, a computer technician from Palmdale, California, who was born in California but grew up in Mexico.

He arrived Tuesday night and was fresh for a day of protest. Despite temperatures in the 90s, he had on long pants and a long-sleeve shirt with a T-shirt over it reading "Our Political Revolution Bernie."

Ruvalcaba is also a political neophyte, becoming a Sanders supporter just a few months ago.

While many protesters have spent days railing against Hillary Clinton and pledging not to support her, Ruvalcaba said his mission is to try to make sure she fights for key elements of Sanders' agenda.

"If Bernie says we need to support her," he said, "I guess, you know, what the heck?"

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Follow Mulvihill at http://www.twitter.com/geoffmulvihill

Daisy Chacon poses for a picture with her protest sign in Philadelphia, Wednesday, July 27, 2016, during the third day of the Democratic National Convention. Chacon, 31, returned to Boston in May after spending two years teaching English in Spain. She found that people there knew what was going on in their country and hers. "They stand up for things." (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Arthur Ryshov poses for a picture in Philadelphia, Wednesday, July 27, 2016, during the third day of the Democratic National Convention. Born in Russia and adopted by a family in Indiana, Ryshov recently became a U.S. citizen and now he's trying to raise the voice that comes with it. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Drew Webb poses for a picture with a sign and the cross through the word "oligarchy" in Philadelphia, Wednesday, July 27, 2016, during the third day of the Democratic National Convention. Webb, 32, said he hadn't given thought to destroying oligarchy, but he does like the idea of the rally's hero, Sanders. "He's got a good cause," Webb said. "He's bringing people together." (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
General Secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee Xi Jinping on Tuesday called for the building of strong armed forces through military reform.

Xi presided over a group study seminar of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, which focused on national defense and military reform.

He said that the reform is a comprehensive and revolutionary change, and obstacles and policy issues that may hold back reform measures must be addressed so as to build a strong armed forces commensurate with China's international status.

Cai Hongshuo, deputy head of the advisory team of the leading group for deepened national defense and military reform under the Central Military Commission (CMC), delivered a lecture on the issue and offered some suggestions.

Members of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee then discussed relevant issues during the study.

Xi said under the CPC's leadership, the armed forces have been constantly reformed and improved, adding that further military reform is needed to cope with changing international situation and develop the socialism with Chinese characteristics.

After the 18th National Congress of the CPC in late 2012, Xi said, the CPC Central Committee has attached great importance to defense and military reform. After the third plenary session of the 18th CPC Central Committee, the CMC established the leading group for the work, and later drafted a reform plan.

Based on the reform plan, the general command of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) Army, the PLA Rocket Force, and the PLA Strategic Support Force were established.

The previous seven military area commands were regrouped into five theater commands, and the four military departments -- staff, politics, logistics and armaments -- were reorganized into 15 agencies.

With those reforms, the PLA has a system in which the CMC is tasked with the overall administration of the armed forces, while theater commands focus on combat preparedness, and various armed services pursue development, Xi added.

These measures solved some deep-seated problems that many considered unsolvable, according to Xi.

The reform drive marks a historic change in the organization and structure of the PLA, he said.
Fire chief: Omaha house explosion that killed 1 was accident

OMAHA, Neb. (AP)  An explosion that leveled an Omaha house and killed one person this week was an accident, fire officials said Wednesday.

Property inspector Clara Bender, 30, died from injuries she received in the Monday afternoon blast that also heavily damaged four adjacent homes and injured two other people.

In a report released Wednesday, interim Omaha Fire Chief Dan Olsen said the gas started flowing into the house on Saturday after people moving a clothes dryer didn't properly shut off a natural gas line to the appliance.

Law enforcement investigators in Omaha, Neb., look for clues Tuesday, July 26, 2016, at the scene of a house where an explosion took place on Monday, killing a woman, in Omaha. Authorities say the woman was a property inspector sent to check its condition after a tenant was evicted. (AP Photo/Nati Harnik)

The people who were helping the home's tenant move out later reported the smell of gas to the tenant. Authorities say the tenant called Bender's cellphone late Saturday and left a message to report the gas smell. It's not known whether Bender received the message before entering the house on Monday, Olsen's report said.

"The natural gas flowing from the disconnected clothes dryer line had filled the structure until Monday ... when Mrs. Bender entered the residence," Olsen wrote. "Investigators believe she was in the kitchen of the home at the time of the explosion."

More than one ignition source in the home was identified, but officials said they could not pinpoint which source touched off the explosion.

Bender died after being taken to Nebraska Medical Center, authorities have said.

Bender, who worked for Certified Property Management of Omaha, was at the home to check on its condition after allowing the tenant  who was evicted earlier this month  to enter the property over the weekend to collect personal items.

Her husband also works for Certified Property Management.

The company set up a GoFundMe page on Tuesday to benefit her family. A day later, it was nearing its goal of $15,000.

In this Monday, July 25, 2016 photo, a firefighter hauls a hose from the front yard of a neighboring house in the aftermath of a home explosion, in Omaha, Neb. (Kent Sievers /Omaha World-Herald via AP)

In this Monday, July 25, 2016 photo, a firefighter hauls a hose from the front yard of a neighboring house in the aftermath of a home explosion, in Omaha, Neb. (Kent Sievers /Omaha World-Herald via AP)
Bloomberg warns of Trump economic plans at Dem convention

NEW YORK (AP)  Michael Bloomberg, elected mayor of New York City as a Republican, offered a forceful denunciation of fellow New York billionaire Donald Trump on Wednesday at the Democratic convention, describing the GOP presidential nominee as a "risky, reckless, and radical choice."

One of the nation's richest men, Bloomberg drew upon his business background in his unorthodox convention speech to make the case that a Trump administration would be disastrous for the nation's economy.

"Trump has left behind a well-documented record of bankruptcies and thousands of lawsuits and angry shareholders and contractors who feel cheated and disillusioned customers who feel ripped off," said Bloomberg, now an independent. "Trump says he wants to run the nation like he's run his business. God help us."

Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg speaks during the third day of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia , Wednesday, July 27, 2016. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

"Truth be told," said Bloomberg, "the richest thing about Donald Trump is his hypocrisy."

A three-term mayor who left office in 2013, Bloomberg considered making a third-party run for president this year before opting against a campaign, expressing worry he would siphon away votes from Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton and inadvertently help elect Trump.

Though Bloomberg said that Clinton was "not a flawless candidate," he praised her work ethic, intelligence and attempts at bipartisanship that made her "the right choice  and the responsible choice  in this election."

"To me, this election is not a choice between a Democrat and a Republican," Bloomberg said. "It's a choice about who is better to lead our country right now, better for our economy, better for our security, better for our freedom, and better for our future."

While in office, Bloomberg had a cordial relationship with Clinton, who, as a senator from New York, was involved in the city's post-9/11 rebuilding effort. He did, too, with Trump, who he knew from New York's glitzy social circuit and from dealings with him as a developer.

But Trump's hardline approach to immigration alienated Bloomberg, who often makes the case an open immigration policy is needed to keep the nation's economy growing. He deemed Trump's economic plan "a con" and "a disaster in the making."

"He would make it harder for small businesses to compete, do great damage to our economy, threaten the retirement savings of millions of Americans, lead to greater debt and more unemployment, erode our influence in the world, and make our communities less safe," Bloomberg said. He also ad-libbed a line calling Clinton a "sane, competent person" and pointedly suggested that Trump was not.

Bloomberg has also become arguably the nation's leading gun-control advocate, spending millions of his own fortune to finance candidates and groups that call for the restriction of firearms. Trump, meanwhile, has courted the support of the National Rifle Association, a pro-gun lobbying group that frequently criticizes Bloomberg.

Trump did not immediately respond to the speech.

The Clinton campaign believes that Bloomberg's appearance, scheduled in a prime-time slot, shows the breadth of support for the ex-secretary of state. They expressed hope he would make further appearances on her behalf.

Bloomberg, worth an estimated $47 billion, is the founder of the financial news and information provider Bloomberg LP. He was a political novice when he launched an unlikely bid for mayor in 2001. Largely a social liberal but a fiscal conservative, he served for 12 years, overseeing a gilded age in the nation's largest city even as the gap between its rich and poor grew.

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Associated Press writer Lisa Lerer contributed reporting from Philadelphia.

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Contact Jonathan Lemire and Lisa Lerer on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/JonLemire and http://twitter.com/llerer

Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg points as he takes the stage to speak during the third day of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia , Wednesday, July 27, 2016. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)

FILE - In this Dec. 3, 2015 file photo, former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg speaks in Paris. Bloomberg, elected mayor of New York City as a Republican, will offer a forceful denunciation of fellow New York billionaire Donald Trump on Wednesday, July 27, 2016, at the Democratic convention. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus, File)
Democrats highlight diversity, but face gap with white men

ATLANTA (AP)  The Democratic National Convention's lineup of speakers has highlighted an increasingly diverse country that could soon elect the first female president to succeed its first black chief executive.

Yet the stream of women, African-Americans, Latinos, gay Americans  from U.S. senators and celebrities to activists and, on Thursday, Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton herself  also serves as a reminder of Democrats' struggles to connect with most heterosexual white men.

"It's just sad," says Dave "Mudcat" Saunders, a Democratic strategist turned Donald Trump supporter who says his party "has abandoned" culturally conservative white men like himself.

FILE - In this July 26, 2016 file photo, former President Bill Clinton speaks during the second day session of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia. The Democratic National Convention speakers lineup has highlighted an increasingly diverse country that could soon elect the first female president as successor to its first black chief executive. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)

Vice President Joe Biden confronted the reality Wednesday, telling delegates in Philadelphia that Trump's claims of being a middle-class savior are "malarkey" and that the Republican presidential nominee and billionaire real estate mogul "doesn't have a clue about the middle class." Earlier in the day, Biden told MSNBC that Democrats have "done the right thing" for white working-class voters, but still haven't "spoken to them."

It's a long-developing gap that bolsters Republican control of Congress and most statehouses. It could play into the hands of Republican Trump, whose path to victory depends on whites drawn to his blistering critiques of elitism and "political correctness" in the America of Clinton and Barack Obama.

White men still make up about a third of the typical presidential electorate and will be crucial to Trump's fortunes in Rust Belt states that have seen a declining middle class. They also could tip the balance in battlegrounds like Virginia and Florida, states Obama won twice.

Saunders says both parties play "wedge and identity politics" on many issues. Republicans emphasized "law and order" at their Cleveland convention, while Democrats on Tuesday welcomed "Mothers of the Movement," black moms whose sons died at the hands of police. Republicans heard National Rifle Association leaders; Democrats are featuring families of gun violence victims.

Democratic pollster Mark Mellman described "a cultural gap," with both parties playing to their advantages. But Saunders says Trump taps into a "legitimate" frustration acute among small-town and rural white men whose fathers and grandfathers once helped elect Democrats.

"They see no opportunity, no hope," continued Saunders, who advised John Edwards' presidential campaigns and Jim Webb's brief 2016 bid. "Then they see Democrats up there talking about diversity and trends and what we'll be like in 40 years. This country needs help now."

Democrats insist they understand the sentiment.

Former President Bill Clinton, speaking Tuesday on his wife's behalf, told of campaigning this year in West Virginia  a now heavily Republican state the former president won twice  in front of coal miners who blame job losses on Democrats' policies. "If she wins, she is coming back for you to take you along on the ride to America's future," Clinton recalled telling voters.

The white Pittsburgh police chief, Cameron McLay, told Democratic delegates that police and their communities can work together. The top organized labor leader, Richard Trumka, who is white, made the traditional appeal that Democrats are the party of workers.

Democrats' vice presidential nominee Tim Kaine, who is white, pitched his middle-class values Wednesday, touting his upbringing in Kansas City, the importance of his family and the influence of his faith, which he called his "north star for orienting my life." Clinton aides have touted Kaine's standing across Virginia, including some conservative, rural pockets.

Robby Mook, Clinton's campaign manager, said Wednesday that Clinton will address working-class issues in her nomination acceptance, as well.

In 2012, exit polls showed Republican Mitt Romney won 62 percent of white men to Obama's 35 percent. Measured another way, white men made up less than quarter of Obama's national vote, compared to about 44 percent of Romney's total.

Current polls suggest a more pronounced gap this year, a trends evident on the ground.

In St. Clairsville, Ohio, not far from where both Clintons campaigned this spring, barber shop owner Kent Jenewein estimated that "more than 90 percent" of his clients, nearly all white men, back Trump  in a county Obama won in 2008. Clinton, Jenewein said, "doesn't understand us."

Mellman, the pollster, says Democrats can make "marginal gains" among non-urban whites, including men, in the same way Republicans are seeking marginal upticks in support from African-Americans and Latinos. Trump could also drive up his support among white men only to see Clinton buoyed with better support than Obama had from white Republican women who dislike Trump.

Clinton insisted during the primaries that she won't overlook white men. "Let's be honest," she said in her own Appalachia campaign stop. "Some (of you) find it hard to think about voting for any Democrats. ... But I'm going to keep trying to convince people otherwise."

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Associated Press writer Catherine Lucey contributed to this report from Philadelphia.

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Follow Bill Barrow on Twitter at https://twitter.com/BillBarrowAP

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a news conference at Trump National Doral, Wednesday, July 27, 2016, in Doral, Fla. The Democratic National Convention speakers lineup has highlighted an increasingly diverse country that could soon elect the first female president as successor to its first black chief executive. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

FILE - In this July 23, 2016 file photo, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, accompanied by her running mate, Democratic Vice Presidential candidate Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., speaks at a rally in Miami. The Democratic National Convention speakers lineup has highlighted an increasingly diverse country that could soon elect the first female president as successor to its first black chief executive. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, File)
Schumer prepares to be Senate leader, or Trump antagonist

PHILADELPHIA (AP)  As Hillary Clinton claims the Democratic Party's nomination for president, fellow New Yorker Chuck Schumer is preparing for his own next act, as Clinton's top Senate partner  or chief antagonist to Donald Trump if he wins in November.

Schumer is in line to become Senate Democratic leader next year with the retirement of Minority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada. And if Democrats succeed in retaking control of the Senate, he will assume the job of majority leader and move into the pinnacle of Senate power, the role of a lifetime.

Schumer has been maneuvering for years, lining up support to leapfrog Reid's No. 2, Dick Durbin of Illinois, into the top job. This year he has been working intensely to ensure a Senate Democratic majority, most recently by luring former Democratic Sen. Evan Bayh of Indiana into running again for Senate, putting the previously non-competitive Indiana Senate seat into play.

Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-NY., speaks during the second day of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia , Tuesday, July 26, 2016. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Schumer is also fundraising at a feverish pace, banking some $27 million for his own coffers and to help Senate Democrats.

And if Clinton ends up in the White House, Schumer would have the opportunity to serve as her congressional partner in implementing an ambitious agenda on issues like infrastructure and jobs, promoting a more activist role for government than the stasis he complains has characterized the Senate under Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.

"We cannot have the kind of obstruction that we have seen under Sen. McConnell's leadership  can't get a Zika bill, can't get money for opioids, a lot of talk, no action," Schumer said in an interview. "The American people don't want that anymore."

Republicans dispute Schumer's criticism, claiming the Senate has been back to work under McConnell and that Democrats are to blame for inaction on a bill addressing the Zika virus.

Allies anticipate that as Democratic leader, the outspoken and camera-friendly Schumer, 65, will prove a more effective spokesman for the Democratic agenda than Reid, a soft-spoken master of the inside game but an awkward public speaker.

"He will be more aggressive in getting a message out. He knows how to talk to the media," said Democratic Rep. Gregory Meeks of New York.

And as majority leader and president, Schumer and Clinton would reprise, in different roles, the partnership they developed when they served together as New York senators from 2001-2009. The relationship was not without conflict as Clinton joined the Senate with a huge spotlight as a former first lady even though Schumer was technically the senior senator, having won in 1998. But fellow New York Democrats said ultimately they worked well together.

Schumer is known as a publicity hound, and "That's always been true of Chuck and it is deserved, but there's substance behind it," said New York Rep. Jerry Nadler. As for Clinton, "When she was in the Senate she was a workhorse and she was not always seeking publicity... That is a difference I suppose."

Schumer acted as something of a go-between when Sen. Bernie Sanders was nearing an endorsement of Clinton as Sanders' presidential bid petered out.

On issues the two are largely in sync after Clinton moved during the primaries to oppose the Trans-Pacific Partnership 12-nation Asian trade deal that's become a rallying cry for Democrats. Schumer vowed his opposition at a meeting of New York Democrats on Wednesday, getting applause by pledging: "Should I God willing become the majority leader we're going to have an entirely different approach on trade ... We're going to protect American workers first."

Schumer is famous for his attention to detail and his encyclopedic knowledge of politics as well as the needs' of constituents from Buffalo to Manhattan.

"You call up Chuck Schumer and say to him 'we're having a pump issue in the Rockland County sewer district' and it was akin to a papal audience because that's how interested he was in it," said Paul Adler, an attorney in White Plains and former county party chairman. "And you need that. That's the guts of government."

Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-NY., speaks during the second day of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia , Tuesday, July 26, 2016. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Church official seeks bail after high court nixes conviction

PHILADELPHIA (AP)  A former Philadelphia church official imprisoned over his handling of abuse complaints is seeking bail after Pennsylvania's highest court granted him a new trial.

Monsignor William Lynn has served nearly three years of his three- to six-year sentence for child endangerment. He's due to be paroled in October.

But defense lawyer Thomas Bergstrom filed a bail petition Wednesday seeking the immediate release of the 65-year-old Roman Catholic priest.

FILE  In this Jan. 6, 2014, file photo, Monsignor William Lynn leaves a bail hearing at the Center for Criminal Justice in Philadelphia. Monsignor William Lynn, a Roman Catholic priest who was the first U.S. church official convicted over the handling of priest-abuse complaints, could soon leave prison after the Pennsylvania Supreme Court agreed Tuesday, July 26, 2016, that his conviction was flawed. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)

The state Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed the trial judge had allowed too much testimony from church victims not directly linked to Lynn's case.

Prosecutors say that Lynn helped the archdiocese cover up abuse complaints and transfer problem priests to new parishes.
Earls of Leicester lead bluegrass award nominations

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP)  The Earls of Leicester are nominated for eight awards individually and as a group, including entertainers of the year, at this year's International Bluegrass Music Awards.

The Grammy-winning musical group is the reigning entertainer of the year and leads the nominations announced Wednesday in Nashville, Tennessee. The Del McCoury Band follows with six nominations for individual members and as a group and Flatt Lonesome has five nominations. Becky Buller, Sam Bush, Sierra Hull and Frank Solivan have three nominations each.

Other entertainer of the year nominees include the Del McCroury Band, Flatt Lonesome, Balsam Range and the Gibson Brothers.

FILE - In this Feb. 8, 2015 file photo, Jerry Douglas, from left, Shawn Camp, John Warren and Charlie Cushman, of The Earls Of Leicester, pose in the press room with the award for best bluegrass album for "The Earls Of Leicester" at the 57th annual Grammy Awards in Los Angeles. The band os nominated for eight awards individually and as a group, including entertainers of the year, at this years International Bluegrass Music Awards. The awards show will be held on September 29 in Raleigh, N.C. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP, File)
Teva expect to close $40.5B Allergan generic deal next week

NEW YORK (AP)  Israeli drugmaker Teva, the largest generic drug company in the world, said Wednesday it expects to complete its $40.5 billion purchase of the generic drug business of competitor Allergan next week after federal regulators approved the deal.

The Federal Trade Commission said it cleared the purchase Wednesday. It will require Teva to sell 79 different products to preserve competition for consumers. The drugs Teva will have to sell include treatments for ADHD, arthritis, cancer, high cholesterol and pain, along with contraceptives and antibiotics. The FTC said 11 different companies will buy those products. The agency also ordered Teva to offer long-term ingredient supply contracts to some customers.

The FTC said Allergan runs the third-largest generics company in the U.S. That business previously belonged to Actavis, which combined with Allergan in 2015.

Teva and Allergan announced the sale exactly a year ago. Allergan said in May that it would buy back up to $10 billion in company stock if the sale went through.
AP news guide: More unrest as police shooting probe goes on

MINNEAPOLIS (AP)  The arrests this week of nearly 70 protesters gathered outside the Minnesota governor's mansion in St. Paul are the latest reminder of unrest as demonstrators near the one-month mark of demanding justice in a black man's police shooting death.

St. Paul police took 23 people into custody early Wednesday for public nuisance and unlawful assembly. That followed the arrests of 46 protesters Tuesday over similar allegations. The arrests add to a tally that stretches back to earlier this month when a massive march on Interstate 94 shut down the freeway.

Here's a look at the weeks of protests since Philando Castile's fatal shooting by a suburban St. Paul police officer and the status of the investigation into the death:

Joshua Lawrence is arrested by St. Paul police after protesters refused to move from in front of the Governor's residence on Summit Ave. in St. Paul, Minn. on Tuesday, July 26, 2016. Police have arrested an unknown number of protesters in front of the governor's mansion on St. Paul's Summit Avenue. Demonstrators have been camping outside the governor's residence since early July 7, a day after the shooting of Philando Castile, who was killed by a St. Anthony police officer during a traffic stop. (Scott Takushi/Pioneer Press via AP)

THE SHOOTING

Castile, 32, was fatally shot by St. Anthony police officer Jeronimo Yanez during a July 6 traffic stop in Falcon Heights. Castile's girlfriend streamed the aftermath live on Facebook and said Castile was shot while reaching for his ID after telling the officer he had a gun permit and was armed. He died at a hospital.

Yanez's attorney, Tom Kelly, has said Yanez, who is Latino, was reacting to the presence of a gun and that one reason Yanez pulled Castile over was because he thought he looked like a "possible match" for an armed robbery suspect.

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THE INVESTIGATION

Authorities are not saying much as the Castile shooting investigation nears the one-month mark. A spokeswoman from the state Bureau of Criminal Apprehension declined comment Wednesday, citing the ongoing investigation, and said she couldn't provide an estimate on how long the probe may take.

Once the state's inquiry is complete, it will be up to a local county attorney to decide whether to charge Yanez.

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THE PROTESTS

The size of the protest crowds outside Gov. Mark Dayton's residence have gone up and down since the day after Castile's death. Protesters have used the mansion as their headquarters to call for Yanez to be punished.

After nearly two weeks of protests, St. Paul police cleared out the area early last week only to see protesters return on Sunday. Police told them Tuesday morning that they could no longer block the street and demonstrators began to gather their belongings, police spokesman Steve Linders said.

The State Patrol, which provides security at the governor's residence, also removed posters and other memorials to Castile from the fence surrounding the mansion.

The preliminary cost of the protests to St. Paul has risen to $1.5 million, a $500,000 jump in the past week. Of that amount, $1.3 million was for police costs through Tuesday, according to Tonya Tennessen, spokeswoman for Mayor Chris Coleman.

In all, 69 arrests were made between Tuesday and early Wednesday for such offenses as public nuisance and unlawful assembly. Sgt. Michael Ernster said some were cited and released, while others who may have obstructed arrests or had outstanding warrants were taken to jail.

The arrests follow previous demonstrations that snarled traffic on Interstate 35 in Minneapolis and 94 in St. Paul. Police have made more than 150 arrests during protests since Castile's death.

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UNREST NOT NEW

The rallies protesting Castile's death and the response they've received from police echo the fallout from the fatal police shooting of another black man in the Twin Cities. After 24-year-old Jamar Clark was killed by Minneapolis police in November in an incident officers described as a scuffle, protesters surrounded a local police precinct office for weeks, leading to some violent interactions between demonstrators and police.

St. Paul police have said protests are fine on Summit Avenue, where the governor's residence sits, as long as traffic is allowed to pass through and no tents or other structures are set up. Gov. Dayton has expressed the same view. Protesters say they were complying with police orders when the arrests began Tuesday.

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WHAT'S AHEAD

It's unclear how far off a decision on whether to charge Yanez may be. First up, Ramsey County Attorney John Choi needs to decide whether he'll make that choice himself or leave it to a grand jury  a prospect that protesters are pushing to avoid, saying it too often leads to officers not being charged.

Choi has said he'll need time to decide which approach he'll take. With the Clark shooting, Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman announced in March he would not use a grand jury to consider that case or future ones involving police shootings in the county. Then later that month, Freeman declined to prosecute the two white police officers involved in Clark's shooting.

16-year old Tayvion Owens is sprayed with a substance by St. Paul police officers as they and protesters face off on Summit Ave., a block from the Governor's residence, in St. Paul, Minn. on Tuesday, July 26, 2016. Police have arrested an unknown number of protesters in front of the governor's mansion on St. Paul's Summit Avenue. Demonstrators have been camping outside the governor's residence since early July 7, a day after the shooting of Philando Castile, who was killed by a St. Anthony police officer during a traffic stop. (Scott Takushi/Pioneer Press via AP)

Wintana Melekin speaks to a line of St. Paul police as police and protesters face off on Summit Avenue, a block from the Governor's residence, in St. Paul, Minn. on Tuesday, July 26, 2016. Police have arrested an unknown number of protesters in front of the governor's mansion on St. Paul's Summit Avenue. Demonstrators have been camping outside the governor's residence since early July 7, a day after the shooting of Philando Castile, who was killed by a St. Anthony police officer during a traffic stop. (Scott Takushi/Pioneer Press via AP)

Tayvion Ownes, 16, pours milk into his eyes after being sprayed in the face with a substance by St. Paul police, as police and protesters face off on Summit Avenue in St. Paul, Minn. on Tuesday, July 26, 2016. Police have arrested an unknown number of protesters in front of the governor's mansion on St. Paul's Summit Avenue. Demonstrators have been camping outside the governor's residence since early July 7, a day after the shooting of Philando Castile, who was killed by a St. Anthony police officer during a traffic stop. (Scott Takushi/Pioneer Press via AP)

St. Paul Police lead a young boy away after the two people on each side of him were handcuffed and arrested as police and protesters face off in front of the Governor's Residence in St. Paul, Minn. on Tuesday, July 26, 2016. Police have arrested an unknown number of protesters in front of the governor's mansion on St. Paul's Summit Avenue. Demonstrators have been camping outside the governor's residence since early July 7, a day after the shooting of Philando Castile, who was killed by a St. Anthony police officer during a traffic stop. (Scott Takushi/Pioneer Press via AP)
Teenager killed in Munich shooting buried in Greece

ATHENS, Greece (AP)  Hussein Daitzik, 17, one of the nine victims of a July 22 shooting in Munich, was buried in his family's native village near the Greek city of Komotini on Wednesday.

His parents and two siblings - they and Hussein were triplets - attended alongside his 72-year-old grandmother, who lives in the village. The whole village, both Christians and Muslims, turned out.

Officials attending included the minister of the interior, Panayiotis Kourouplis, the Christian Orthodox Bishop of Komotini and the Mufti of Komotini. Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras sent a wreath.

Hussein's father said his son died while trying to protect his sister, who was in the line of fire of the German-born, 18-year-old son of Iranian refugees who went on a shooting spree.

"My son and my daughter ran (from the shooter) in different directions, but he changed course and followed her and put his body between (her and the shooter)," Suleiman Daitzik, 51, told The Associated Press. "After Hussein fell down, the killer approached and shot two more bullets to his head."

Hussein's sister, Gulfer, was unharmed but "is in a bad psychological condition," the father said. Their brother, Sunai, was not with them on that fateful day.

The attacker had obsessively researched mass shootings, and authorities said the attack does not appear to be linked to Islamic extremists.

Hussein's many friends, who had expected him on his annual family vacation this week, have done the same tattoo on their hands: "R.I.P. Hussein 22/7/16."

"We did the tattoos to remember him. He should have been here these days. We would play and go to the sea," said 15-year-old Baran Moustafa.
Utah man accused of illegal poaching of Nevada elk

RENO, Nev. (AP)  A Utah man who worked as a big-game hunting guide in New Zealand was arrested after authorities accused him of killing a trophy elk illegally in Nevada last summer, cutting off its head and leaving the rest of the carcass to waste.

Game wardens in Nevada and Utah invested several hundred hours in what they compared to a homicide investigation leading to Saturday's arrest of Zackry Holdaway, 26, of Cedar City, Utah.

"This is an egregious waste of Nevada's wildlife," Chief Nevada Game Warden Tyler Turnipseed said Wednesday.

This July 23, 2016 photo provided by the Iron County Jail in Cedar City, Utah shows Zack Holdaway, of Cedar City, Utah. Holdaway is scheduled to appear in justice court in Pioche, Nevada next month on charges accusing him of illegally killing a trophy elk and several other poaching-related charges in southern Nevada related to an incident in August 2015. (Iron County Sheriff's Office via AP)

Holdaway could face tens of thousands of dollars in penalties if convicted of poaching-related charges in the 2015 incident near Pioche, 180 miles northeast of Las Vegas. The counts include big game poaching, possession of an illegally killed big game animal, and trespassing and wanton waste of a game animal.

Big game poaching is a felony punishable by up to four years in jail, but jail sentences typically are suspended for a first offense, Lyngar said.

Holdaway was released Monday from Iron County jail after a family member posted the $10,400 bail in Lincoln County, Nevada, where he's scheduled to be arraigned Aug. 2, said Ed Lyngar, a spokesman for the Nevada Department of Wildlife.

"We don't have to worry about extradition," Lyngar said. "If he doesn't show up, he forfeits the bail."

Efforts to reach Holdaway were not immediately successful. A spokeswoman for the justice court in Pioche said they had no listing of a lawyer representing him.

Holdaway's Facebook account indicated he started working in February for an outfitter in New Zealand, and Lyngar said investigators used his Instagram account to track him.

"We knew he was in New Zealand and wanted to wait until he was back in the country to make the case," Lyngar said. "We view big-game poaching as our biggest crime, like a homicide. You can imagine trying to solve a homicide with no witnesses and very little physical evidence in the middle of the desert."

Investigators had little to go on until a local rancher came forward with grainy, nighttime images from a trail camera of two people in an off-road vehicle, Lyngar said.

"It was near happenstance," he said. "It allowed us to nail down the exact time it happened."

All but one of the charges carries an automatic revocation of hunting privileges and likely forfeiture of weapons or equipment used in the crime.

"The suspect knew better. It was not an accident," Lyngar said. "And on top of it all, he took the head and left the entire animal  hundreds of pounds of meat  to waste."

Public support during the investigation shows people take wildlife crimes more seriously than they used to, Lyngar said.
 Flash

Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council Ali Shamkhani said Tuesday that the security talks between Iran and Pakistan over the past days have made progress.

Tehran and Islamabad have managed to make progress in negotiations about ways to combat the threat of terrorism and its spread in the region, Shamkhani was quoted as saying by Press TV.

The grounds have been prepared for the two countries' national security councils to improve bilateral, regional and international cooperation, he said.

"The Islamic republic regards a developed and stable Pakistan as the guarantee of its own security and will spare no effort in this regard," Shamkhani said in the second round of official talks with Pakistan's National Security Adviser Nasser Janjua in Tehran on Tuesday.

Janjua, for his part, said Tehran and Islamabad must make joint efforts to remove obstacles in the way of strengthening cooperation.

Pakistan has always attached importance to a fight against terrorism and welcomes bolstering cooperation with Iran, he said.

On Monday, Shamkhani called for joint work with Pakistan to stem terrorism in the region.

He urged immediate measures with Pakistan in the fight against terrorism, saying that Tehran would not allow its relations with Islamabad to be destroyed by terrorists seeking insecurity along two neighbors' borders.

Shamkhani also blamed some unnamed countries for "upsetting Iran's relations with Pakistan by arming and hiring terrorists for creating insecurity along the common borders."

The Iranian official, who was meeting with Janjua in Tehran on Monday, also stressed the necessity for ensuring sustainable border security and joint efforts by the two neighbors in the fight against narcotics smuggling, human and arms trafficking and gangs of outlaws.

On Sunday, Iranian police said that it seized more than two tonnes of opium in the southeastern province of Sistan and Baluchestan bordering Pakistan.

Also, Iran announced on Thursday that it had dismantled a terrorist cell and arrested 40 suspects in the areas bordering Pakistan.

The Pakistan-based Jaish al-Adl is a rebel group fighting for the greater rights for Sunni Muslims in the Iranian provinces of Sistan and Baluchestan, and is blamed for numerous attacks on Iran's border posts. Enditem

The Pakistani security official is in Tehran for a three-day official visit.
Authorities raid mosque in northern Germany

BERLIN (AP)  Authorities in northern Germany say police have raided a mosque believed to be a "hot spot" for Islamic extremists in the city of Hildesheim.

The interior ministry of Lower Saxony state said that the apartments of eight leading members of the "German-speaking Islam Circle Hildesheim" organization were also searched Wednesday, news agency dpa reported.

The state's interior minister, Boris Pistorius, said that "after months of preparation we have taken an important step with the searches conducted today toward a ban on the group."
Missing ex-Guantanamo detainee reappears in Venezuela

MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay (AP)  A resettled former Guantanamo prisoner who disappeared last month in Uruguay, setting off alarm bells in neighboring countries and recriminations in Washington, has reappeared in Venezuela, the government said Wednesday.

Foreign Minister Rodolfo Nin Novoa told The Associated Press that Syrian native Abu Wa'el Dhiab showed up at Uruguay's consulate in Caracas. Consulate officials refused to provide information or entry to AP journalists gathered outside.

Late Thursday, the Foreign Ministry issued a statement saying Dhiab told the consulate he wanted to move to Turkey or another country where he could reunite with his family.

FILE - In this June 5, 2015 file photo, Abu Wa'el Dhiab, from Syria, right, and Adel bin Muhammad El Ouerghi, of Tunisia, both freed Guantanamo Bay detainees, look out the window of their shared home in Montevideo, Uruguay. Abu Wa'el Dhiab, who disappeared in June 2016 in Uruguay, setting off alarm bells in neighboring countries and recriminations in Washington, has reappeared in Venezuela according to Uruguay's Foreign Minister Rodolfo Nin Novoa on Wednesday, July 27, 2016. (AP Photo/Matilde Campodonico, File)

"He expressed clearly that in no case was he interested in returning to Uruguay, but required the assistance of our country for his proposal," the statement said.

Dhiab, who has repeatedly expressed his unhappiness at his life in Uruguay, previously accused the government of breaking its commitment to bring his family.

He is one of six former Guantanamo prisoners who were resettled in Uruguay after being released by U.S. authorities in 2014, invited by then President Jose Mujica as a humanitarian gesture.

The men had been detained in 2002 for suspected ties to al-Qaida. They were held without charge like hundreds of others at Guantanamo before the U.S. government cleared them for release. There are no charges against Dhiab or order for his arrest, and Uruguayan officials had said that as a refugee he has the right to leave the South American country.

Dhiab had last been reported seen in Chuy, a small city on the Uruguay-Brazil border that is home to an Arab community. Residents said he visited the makeshift mosque of the local Arab club where he prayed and slept before he was reported missing.

His disappearance raised concerns, as well as questions about how closely countries that resettle former Guantanamo inmates should watch them and for how long, as the United States prepares to release more prisoners.

U.S. lawmakers trying to block President Barack Obama from closing the detention center recently scolded his administration for losing track of Dhiab. The U.S. envoy in Montevideo also expressed concerns about the lack of information on his whereabouts. Ambassador Kelly Keiderling said it was up to Uruguay to say whether Dhiab can travel, though she added that she would prefer he stay in Uruguay. When questioned at a news conference, she said Dhiab "could be, yes, theoretically," a threat.

Colombia-based Avianca Airlines recently issued an internal alert saying Dhiab could be using a fake passport trying to enter Brazil, the site of the summer Olympics. The airline said the alert was issued based on information provided by Brazil's federal police, which had been looking for Dhiab.

The Uruguayan government has provided social services and financial support to Dhiab and the five other former detainees  three others from Syria, a Tunisian and a Palestinian. But the men have struggled to adjust and have complained about not getting enough help from Uruguayan officials.

Dhiab was the most vocal about his unhappiness. Last year, he visited neighboring Argentina. In an orange jumpsuit like those Guantanamo prisoners have worn, he told news media in Buenos Aires that he planned to seek asylum for himself and the other detainees still held at the U.S. naval base in eastern Cuba.

In an interview with the Uruguayan magazine Busqueda, Dhiab said he was never a terrorist, but sympathizes with al-Qaida because of the torture that he endured in Guantanamo.

Jon Eisenberg, a U.S. lawyer who represented Dhiab while he was detained at Guantanamo, said he had not been in contact with the former prisoner since a phone call in June.

Eisenberg said Dhiab was very concerned about his wife and three children, who fled the Syrian civil war for Turkey but then had to return to their homeland for financial reasons. They were in a Syrian village that was bombed by government forces in November 2015.

The lawyer said that when he last spoke with the former prisoner, Dhiab was hopeful that his family might be brought to Uruguay.

"That's why I thought he wouldn't leave Uruguay," Eisenberg said.

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Associated Press writers Ben Fox in Miami and Ariana Cubillos in Caracas, Venezuela, contributed to this report.

This July 22, 2016 photo shows the back of a food stand with a message that reads in Spanish: "Maps of the soul have no borders," parked in the middle of an avenue in the city of Chuy that separates Uruguay and Brazil. Resettled former Guantanamo prisoner, Syrian native Abu Wa'el Dhiab, was reportedly last seen in mid-July in this small border town that's home to a small Arab community. On Wednesday, July 27, 2016, Abu Wa'el Dhiab was confirmed to have reappeared in Venezuela, according to Uruguay's Foreign Minister Rodolfo Nin Novoa. (AP Photo/Matilde Campodonico)
Bail set for Pokemon Go shootout suspect in Las Vegas

LAS VEGAS (AP)  Bail was set Wednesday at $95,000 for a man accused of exchanging gunfire with a Pokemon Go player he was trying to rob in a Las Vegas park identified as a hot spot for virtual creature hunting.

Elvis Campos, 18, had a deputy Clark County public defender named to his case pending an Aug. 11 preliminary hearing on felony charges of attempted murder, conspiracy, robbery, battery and assault with a deadly weapon.

The lawyer, Kambiz Shaygan, didn't immediately respond to messages from The Associated Press.

This Monday, July 25, 2016 photo provided by the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department shows Elvis Campos. Police say Campos, accused of trying to rob Pokemon Go players in Las Vegas before a shootout left him and a player injured, now faces charges of conspiracy, robbery, battery and assault with a deadly weapon. Authorities said Tuesday that Campos was taken to jail after being treated at a hospital for a gunshot wound to the back. (Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department via AP)

Police say Campos demanded items before dawn Monday from several people playing the popular smartphone game that sends players to physical locations to "catch" virtual Pokemon characters.

One game player who police say had a concealed weapon permit drew his own gun and exchanged fire with Campos. Both were wounded with what police said were not life-threatening injuries.

Police haven't said who fired first or how many shots were fired.

Police said they also arrested a juvenile drove a getaway with Campos in it. His name wasn't made public due to his age.

Facebook users in a few Pokemon Go groups have suggested the location of the shooting, Gary Reese Freedom Park, as a hotspot for a particular kind of a fish-like pocket monster known as Magikarp.

Police haven't said if the Pokemon players were targeted.

Police tape hangs at Gary Reese Freedom Park, where police say a shooting erupted when a man in a vehicle attempted to rob a group of people playing "Pokemon Go" early Monday, July 25, 2016, in Las Vegas. According to police, a player and the suspect shot each other and both men have non-life threatening injuries. (Brett Le Blanc/Las Vegas Review-Journal via AP)
Suspicious package shuts down DC's Union Station

WASHINGTON (AP)  Police have ordered passengers out of Washington's Union Station while officers investigate a report of a suspicious package.

Metro police tweeted that they are assisting Amtrak police in investigating the package, which was reported Wednesday afternoon. A District of Columbia police spokesman says city officers are also on the scene.

Thousands of commuters and train passengers were waiting outside the station amid a swarm of police cars.

Commuter rail services to Maryland and Virginia reported that all trains were being held at the station.
Union Station reopens after suspicious package investigated

WASHINGTON (AP)  Metro transit police say normal operations are resuming at Union Station after officers investigated a report of a suspicious package.

Transit police said in a tweet that all entrances to the station are reopening. Thousands of passengers had been ordered outside the station during Wednesday's rush hour.

Metro police said they were assisting Amtrak police in investigating the package, but did not elaborate. Amtrak police said in an email that authorities were investigating a bomb threat at the station.
Audit: Kansas foster care system puts children at risk

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP)  The Kansas Department of Children and Families' continuing struggles to adequately oversee private foster care contractors is putting children in the system at risk, according to a state audit of the agency released Wednesday.

Shortly after the 59-page audit was released, two Democratic senators called for department Secretary Phyllis Gilmore to resign. She defended the agency's efforts to ensure children's safety and said she did not intend to resign.

The Legislative Post Audit found that the agency had implemented only one of nine recommendations it received after a 2013 assessment of services. The department also doesn't ensure that background checks of individuals in foster homes, adoptive homes and those where children are returned to their families are as frequent and thorough as they should be; doesn't complete all required monthly visits to foster homes; doesn't determine if families have the financial resources needed to provide for the children; and approves nearly all requests for exceptions to rules governing foster care homes, auditors said.

Phyllis Gilmore, Department for Children and Families Secretary, answers questions about the audit of her department at a Post Audit Committee meeting Wednesday, July 27, 2016 in Topeka, Kan. The Kansas Department of Children and Families continuing struggles to adequately oversee private foster care contractors is putting children in the system at risk, according to a state audit of the agency released Wednesday. (Emily DeShazer/The Topeka Capital-Journal via AP) MANDATORY CREDIT

Some state lawmakers had sought the audit after reports that children died or were mistreated while in the agency's care. The audit did not address allegations that the agency discriminates against same-sex couples when deciding where to place children. A second audit addressing privatization efforts at DCF is scheduled to be released later this year.

Auditors said their findings "indicate that DCF continues to take a hands-off approach to monitoring contractors and perhaps focuses too much on whether federal outcomes are met and not on the specific steps needed to meet them." Frequent turnover of DCF staff has led to low morale and affected employees' ability to do their jobs effectively, auditors said, and some case-workers also complained about inadequate training. Auditors also criticized the agency's record-keeping.

Five children in the foster care system died during the 2015 fiscal year, with only one death attributed to mistreatment, according to a November report. Other causes of fatalities included illness and car accidents. One child died because of mistreatment in foster care in the 2014 fiscal year, while another child in the DCF system died that year because of mistreatment while in a family member's care. Five children in DCF's system died in total that year.

Gilmore conceded the agency has room for improvement but contended its safety record was among the best in the nation. She cited a Child & Federal Services Review that found Kansas ranked second in the nation in protecting children from abuse and neglect, although not all states have completed the review.

"That is borne out in our records, which show very few child deaths of those in custody from maltreatment," Gilmore said in an interview before the audit was released. "We absolutely want no deaths. One is too many and grieves our heart greatly."

She agreed the agency's turnover is too high and hoped a salary increase approved by the Legislature and an emphasis on improving staff training will help retain employees.

But Democratic Reps. Jim Ward and Jarrod Ousley said in a statement that Gilmore should resign.

"I'm not comfortable gambling the future of our children in unsafe home environments," Ward said. "Now is the time to step up and get serious about improving a broken system that is failing Kansas kids. The first step toward that is getting new leadership at DCF."

Gov. Sam Brownback defended the agency and Gilmore.

"The men and women at DCF work hard every day to protect our children through these complex and very personal cases," he said in a statement. "It is important that we all provide them with our full support. Secretary Gilmore will continue to have my full support as she works to address the legitimate record-keeping and contractor accountability concerns cited in the post audit report and, most importantly, to improve the overall foster care system for Kansas children."

Phyllis Gilmore, Department for Children and Families Secretary, talks about the audit of her department at a Post Audit Committee meeting Wednesday, July 27, 2016 in Topeka, Kan. The Kansas Department of Children and Families continuing struggles to adequately oversee private foster care contractors is putting children in the system at risk, according to a state audit of the agency released Wednesday. (Emily DeShazer/The Topeka Capital-Journal via AP) MANDATORY CREDIT
California boy to get new prosthetic leg after beach theft

RANCHO SANTA MARGARITA, Calif. (AP)  A 4-year-old boy whose artificial leg was stolen while he played at a Southern California beach will soon get a replacement.

Liam Brenes of Rancho Santa Margarita left his expensive prosthetic limb on the sand Sunday to play in some tide pools at Crystal Cove State Park in Orange County. When he returned, the leg was gone.

Offers of help have flooded in.

Liam Brenes, 4, with his parents, Amanda McFarland, and Frank Brenes at United Karate studio in Mission Viejo, Calif., on Tuesday, July 26, 2016. Brenes had his custom prosthetic leg stolen at Crystal Cove State Park on Sunday, but was able to earn his white belt by using his older prosthetic leg. When word got out, people started offering replacements or donations. An online campaign has raised more than $15,000. (Nick Koon/The Orange County Register via AP)

The Orange County Register (http://bit.ly/2aenqel ) reports that Liam's family accepted a free replacement from Michael Metichecchia, an amputee who owns a prosthetics business in Palmdale.

The boy was fitted Tuesday. Metichecchia says two legs should be ready in days  one for everyday use, and one to take into the water.

Liam was born without a calf bone, and his right leg was amputated below the knee.
Theresa May to meet Italian PM on Brexit diplomacy tour

Prime Minister Theresa May is continuing her whirlwind diplomacy tour of Europe with a visit to Italy.

She will meet prime minister Matio Renzi in Rome on Wednesday as part of her drive to engage with European leaders on Brexit.

This will be followed on Thursday by a trip to Slovakia and Poland, where she will hold discussions with prime ministers Robert Fico and Beata Szydlo.

Prime Minister Theresa May and Irish Taoiseach Enda Kenny speak to the media inside 10 Downing Street

It follows her talks with the leaders of Germany and France last week and Ireland on Tuesday.

A Number 10 spokesman said Mrs May wanted an early visit to Italy after becoming PM earlier this month, because of the close relations it has with the UK.

Thursday's trip to eastern Europe may prove more awkward as Slovakia and Poland are among the EU states most insistent on maintaining free movement of labour and have also voiced concern about the rights of their nationals currently in the UK.

The countries are part of the Visegrad Four group within the EU which has called for the pace of integration to be slowed in the wake of Brexit.

Slovakia currently holds the six-month rotating presidency of the European Council and will host a summit of the remaining 27 states in Britain's absence in September to discuss their approach to the UK's planned withdrawal.

Following Downing Street talks on Tuesday, Irish Taoiseach Enda Kenny said London and Dublin were agreed that there would be no return to a "hard border" between Northern Ireland and the Republic, following the UK's withdrawal from the EU.

Mr Kenny said he and Mrs May were both against creating a post-Brexit string of customs posts on the island of Ireland.

The newly-appointed Mrs May also received "congratulatory" phone calls from the leaders of New Zealand, Japan, India, Pakistan and Jordan on Tuesday, a Number 10 spokeswoman said.
Bernie Ecclestone's mother-in-law 'kidnapped for 28m ransom'

Bernie Ecclestone's mother-in-law has been kidnapped in Brazil for a ransom of 28 million, according to reports.

Aparecida Schunck, 67, is the mother of the Formula One boss' wife Fabiana Flosi, 38, and is believed to have been abducted from her home in Sao Paulo.

The ransom demand is the largest in Brazilian history and is thought to have been requested in cash.

Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone

The Brazilian magazine Veja reported that the ransom had been demanded in pounds sterling and divided into four bags.

Mr Ecclestone, 85, married Ms Flosi in 2012, three years after meeting her at the Brazilian Grand Prix.

Brazil is hosting this year's Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro which start next week.

Security has emerged as the top concern, including violence possibly spilling over from Rio's hundreds of slums.

Authorities have said they will be prepared and that some 85,000 police and soldiers will be patrolling during the competitions.
Fresh strike threat to Southern and Gatwick Express rail services

The country's biggest rail franchise, which includes Southern and Gatwick Express, is facing the threat of fresh strikes in a new dispute over jobs and pay.

The Rail, Maritime and Transport union announced it is balloting 1,000 of its members at Govia Thameslink Railway who work on stations, in a row over the impact of plans to close ticket offices.

The union is embroiled in a separate, long-running dispute with Southern over moves to change the role of conductors which has led to strikes.

Station staff at Govia Thameslink Railway, including Southern, are to be balloted for strikes

The RMT said it was totally opposed to ticket office closures and cuts in hours, warning it would have a "devastating" impact on staff and the safety and services offered to the travelling public.

The union has rejected the latest proposals from the company, claiming they cut pay and would result in a massive increase in lone working.

A union spokesman said: "The impact of the proposals cannot be underestimated. GTR wants to close ticket offices, or cut them to morning peak only, at 83 stations from as far afield as Kings Lynn and Bognor Regis.

"As a means of doing this they plan to introduce a new multi-functional role of Station Host which RMT estimates will result in a cut of at least 130 jobs."

The company maintains its plans would lead to more staff on station concourses to help passengers and sell tickets.

Southern services have suffered delays and cancellations for several weeks because of the conductors' dispute and staff shortages blamed on high levels of sickness.

GTR's Passenger Service Director, Keith Jipps, said: "The RMT's threat of further industrial action is entirely unwarranted and clearly another bid by the union to disrupt passengers and GTR across as many parts of our franchise as possible.

"We have listened to passengers and modified our proposals, addressing the concerns of both London TravelWatch and Transport Focus.

"Our new Station Hosts will be paid more, be able to work in safety and provide passengers with better customer service, but the RMT is not concerned with improving the experience for passengers and are dismissing significant improvements to the terms and conditions for staff."

The union said if the ticket office changes go ahead it will mean all station staff could be forced onto flexible working with an increased workload without the prospect of reasonable compensation.

As a result the union added it had "no option" but to begin a ballot for strike action and other forms if industrial action.

Ballot papers will go out on August 2 and voting will close two weeks later. RMT general secretary Mick Cash said: "The basket-case Govia Thamelink franchise are at it again. Not content with axing catering services, closing ticket offices and attacking the role of their guards they now want to threaten 130 station jobs and compromise the safety of both their passengers and staff alike.

"These plans fly in the face of the response from the thousands of passengers who objected to the closure of ticket offices and the de-staffing of stations as Govia drives on with plans for a "faceless railway" where the public are left to fend for themselves on rammed-out, dangerous and unreliable services.

"The union remains available for serious and meaningful talks but we will not sit back while Britain's worst rail franchise moves to the next act in its on-going production - Carry On Carnage.

"The company chiefs, and their cheerleaders in Government, need to start listening to what their workforce are saying and they need to start respecting the views of those at the sharp-end."

Manuel Cortes, leader of the TSSA rail union, said: "There is clearly a lot of anger out there and we shall be urgently consulting our members on the next steps in this dispute.

"We are meeting RMT and Aslef next week to discuss those steps and a ballot on industrial action cannot be ruled out at this stage."

A spokesman for the Rail Delivery Group said: "There has been a major change in the way that people buy train tickets. Only one in three are now bought from station ticket offices with a big increase in the use of ticket machines, websites and smartcards.

"The rail industry is making paying to travel by train simpler and smarter to benefit all our customers and we will ensure everyone can continue to use the railway.

"This includes an emphasis on staff focused entirely on providing customer service where and when passengers need them most. Technology means this can be done without compromising the safety of passengers or the workforce.
 Flash

A total of 37,890 South Sudanese have been forced to flee their homes and seek refuge in neighboring Uganda since fighting between warring groups broke out on July 8, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) reported Tuesday.

"To put this into context, in the past three weeks there have been more refugee arrivals in Uganda than in the entire first six months of 2016," the agency said in a statement.

Most of those arriving are coming from South Sudan's Eastern Equatoria region, Juba and other areas.

Newly arrived refugees in Uganda have reported ongoing fighting between factions loyal to South Sudan's President Salva Kiir and his rival Riek Machar, as well as looting by militias, the destruction of civilian infrastructure and indiscriminate attacks on civilians.

"Some of the women and children told us they were separated from their husbands or fathers by armed groups, who are reportedly forcibly recruiting men into their ranks and preventing from crossing the border," UNHCR reported.

Many transit and reception centers in Uganda are strained as a result of the upsurge of arrivals.

Since the conflict in the African nation began in December 2013, some 1.69 million people have been internally displaced by protracted fighting.

A further 831,000 South Sundanese civilians have been forced to seek refugee in other countries, mainly in Ethiopia, Sudan and Uganda.
MPs see Heathrow expansion as top priority for the economy, poll shows

Most MPs believe a third runway at Heathrow is the major infrastructure project that will benefit the UK economy the most, according to a new poll.

More than half (55%) of them ranked expansion of the west London hub as the first priority compared with just 14% who chose a second runway at Gatwick.

And more than three out of four (76%) MPs believe building a third runway at Heathrow is an "important factor in Britain's future ability to stay connected to the world" following the UK's exit from the EU.

A decision on airport expansion has been left to new Prime Minister Theresa May

The poll of 102 MPs - which is the first since the Brexit vote - was commissioned by Heathrow.

David Cameron was expected to confirm whether expansion projects at Heathrow or Gatwick would be supported shortly after the referendum.

But his resignation following the victory for the Leave campaign means the decision has been left for his successor as Prime Minister, Theresa May.

Heathrow chief executive John Holland-Kaye said: " The Government is committed to delivering a positive Brexit plan and MPs couldn't be clearer - an expanded Heathrow is fundamental to Britain's future as an outward-looking trading nation.

"A third runway at Heathrow will open up 40 new markets for Britain's exporters, spur inbound tourism to every corner of our country and create up to 180,000 new skilled jobs.

"By expanding Heathrow, the Prime Minister will make the right choice for a stronger British economy."

In December, the Department for Transport announced that further investigation into noise, pollution and compensation would be carried out before a decision was made.
Zinedine Zidane hints at Real Madrid interest in Paul Pogba

Zinedine Zidane has hinted that Real Madrid are still interested in signing Manchester United target Paul Pogba, insisting "anything can happen".

Juventus' Pogba looked set for an Old Trafford return with Jose Mourinho ready to splash a world-record fee on the France international.

However, reports in Spain suggested that his agent Mino Raiola has stalled over a dispute regarding his fee in the deal and the European champions are monitoring the situation.

Paul Pogba is a wanted man this summer

Pogba is currently holidaying in Miami while Real are also in the United States ahead of a pre-season tournament.

Speaking ahead of his side's first outing against Paris St Germain in Columbus, Zidane told a press conference: " I do not know if he'll come.

"Until August 31 anything can happen. Pogba is a great player and when you're with Madrid you always want the best.
Savile victims can be paid compensation from his estate, High Court judge rules

Distribution of the assets of a scheme to compensate Jimmy Savile's victims has received final approval from a High Court judge.

Lawyers acting for the executors of Savile's estate say 166 individuals are receiving a total of 2.3 million from the scheme and other sources.

Law firm Osborne Clarke says 1.16 million is being paid to 78 of those claimants directly out of the estate, which was worth 4.3m when the paedophile DJ died in 2011, aged 84, without facing prosecution.

Paedophile Jimmy Savile died in 2011

Critics have expressed "disappointment" at the level of individual awards, reported to average 13,000, though it has been stressed settlements vary in amounts.

Osborne Clarke, who acted for NatWest bank in its role as estate executor, has become the target of criticism after charging total legal fees exceeding 1m.

But Mr Justice Warren, sitting in London, ruled the fees were reasonable and no item of expense was improper.

The judge said: "I consider that the bank has acted properly and for the due administration of the estate in operating the scheme and that the work carried out by Osborne Clarke has been appropriate. From what I have seen, I think their charges have been reasonable."

Osborne Clarke said it had advised on the management and distribution of the Savile estate from December 2011 until its winding up this month and dealt with 271 claims involving numerous court hearings.

Its fees over four-and a-half years came to just over 1.2 million and were charged at rates discounted by more than 50%.

Any funds remaining from the estate are to be divided among defendants such as the BBC, the NHS and Barnardo's, which have already paid out damages.

But critics expressed disappointment with the level of compensation authorised by the High Court.

Gabrielle Shaw, chief executive of the National Association for People Abused in Childhood (NAPAC), said "Survivors will be disappointed by this ruling.

"The money in cases like this is most often used by survivors to support their recovery through therapy and other interventions, and this recovery often takes years.

"We know that state resources are tremendously stretched, with GPs and others who survivors look to for support struggling to cope with the demand".

Labour MP John Mann, who has campaigned against child sex abuse, said: "Yet again the legal profession is ruling that the legal profession should make huge profit out of people's suffering."

Victims launched compensation bids after Savile became the subject of an ITV television programme broadcast a year after his death.

Savile, who worked at the BBC, had been accused of being a ''serial child abuser and sex offender'' - and was alleged to have abused people in hospitals.

According to reports, Savile sexually assaulted victims as young as five at NHS hospitals during decades of unrestricted access.
Racism is like a disease within Met Police, says Tasered firefighter

An off-duty firefighter said "racism is like a disease" within the Met Police, after a misconduct case against three officers accused of discriminatory treatment towards him collapsed.

Edric Kennedy-Macfoy was trying to help the officers identify a teenager who had thrown a rock at a police van in September 2011, but it was claimed that he was then Tasered and insulted by the Scotland Yard officers.

Firearms officer Pc Mark Gatland was accused of using unreasonable force and firing his Taser without warning, being motivated by racial discrimination and/or racial stereotyping.

A misconduct case against three Metropolitan Police officers has collapsed

Pc Daniel Roberts, from Westminster Borough, and Insp Sutinderjit Mahil, based in Ealing, were accused of using abusive and offensive language, again motivated by racial discrimination and/or racial stereotyping.

But on Wednesday the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) withdrew its case after "procedural shortfalls" emerged.

Although Mr Kennedy-Macfoy received an apology from the IPCC, he told Channel 4 News "not having these officers face accountability for their actions that tells a story within itself".

Asked if racism was still rife in the Met, he responded: "Things like this are still happening - I never imagined in a million years this would happen to me - I know it still happens but I live a good lifestyle - I'm of good character, I'm a fire fighter - I've never been in trouble with the police.

"I just think if this could happen to me it could happen to anyone and the failings of the IPCC - police can do whatever they like and get away with it - I think racism is like a disease within the Met Police Service and can only be rooted out from within."

He added that he saw being a firefighter as a job for life, but that this was no longer the case because he could not trust the Met - an organisation which the fire brigade works with closely.

A spokeswoman for the police watchdog said: "The IPCC has withdrawn its recommendation and directions for three Metropolitan Police officers attending a misconduct hearing in relation to their interactions with Edric Kennedy-Macfoy in 2011.

"We recognise the effect this will have had on both Mr Kennedy-Macfoy and the officers involved, and would like to take this opportunity to apologise to them.

"The withdrawal follows procedural shortfalls identified by the IPCC.

"They related to disclosure of relevant material and the need for further investigative work, including witness interviews, which it became clear were not conducted during the investigation.

"If the IPCC were to remedy those shortfalls, we were informed that a further hearing could not take place for at least 12 months.

"It is the IPCC's view that further delays are not acceptable, given the time since the original incident."

The move came after the watchdog had rejected Scotland Yard's internal probe into what happened, and launched its own inquiry, recommending that the three officers face action over alleged gross misconduct.

If proved, this would have meant the sack.

The incident happened when 50 officers were sent to break up a party attended by around 200 people that had got out of control.

Scotland Yard said some revellers became hostile to the police, and this was in the context of riots that had been seen across the country a month earlier.

The force said in a statement: "We fully recognise that the misconduct hearing not going ahead is damaging for the complainant and for the public who need to have confidence in the way officers are held to account for their actions.

"The IPCC have provided the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) with their full rationale for the decision to withdraw their direction and recommendation.

"The MPS has previously apologised to Mr Kennedy-Macfoy and regrets what he experienced that night. We have offered to meet with him and hope he will be prepared to discuss how we can rebuild his confidence in the MPS.

"The three officers have had this investigation hanging over them for five years and Pc Gatland was prevented from resigning. It is unsatisfactory for them that they have had not an opportunity to provide all their evidence as to their actions.

"Any allegation that officers have behaved in a racist way is treated really seriously by the MPS. It is important that such allegations are fully and properly investigated and if officers are found to have done wrong that they are held to account.
Leigh Griffiths goal earns Celtic valuable draw

Leigh Griffiths' 78th minute strike gave Celtic a 1-1 draw against FC Astana and put the Hoops firmly in charge of their Champions League destiny.

Defender Yuri Logvinenko headed the home side ahead from a corner in the 19th minute of the third qualifying round match at the noisy Astana Arena, which was just short of its 30,000-capacity.

The visitors' makeshift central defence with European debutant Eoghan O'Connell and Efe Ambrose had to work hard with the rest of their Parkhead team-mates to prevent Astana adding to their lead.

Celtic's Leigh Griffiths scored a valuable goal against Astana

Just when it looked like Celtic would be content enough with a narrow defeat Griffiths drilled in a shot from the edge of the box to stun the Kazakhstan champions who may rue not pressing home their advantage when they travel to Glasgow for the return game next week.

Brendan Rodgers had found himself with defensive problems ahead of the long journey to Astana for a match on an artificial surface on which the home side looked more comfortable.

With five central defenders either out injured or trying to catch up on fitness, the former Liverpool boss gambled by giving a European debut to 20-year-old O'Connell.

The Irish defender was put alongside the often-criticised Ambrose with Mikael Lustig and Kieran Tierney either side as full backs, although there was fluidity in the system.

A midfield of Patrick Roberts, Callum McGregor, Scott Brown and Stuart Armstrong was given license to support strikers Griffiths and Moussa Dembele.

And amid a promising start for the Hoops, it was Griffiths who had an effort on the turn from 20 yards which trundled wide.

By that time O'Connell had flattened home forward Patrick Twumasi and then gave possession away 30 yards from goal but at no cost.

But there was a heavy price to be paid when Ambrose allowed a cross from Twumasi to go through his legs with Lustig having to concede a corner and when Twumasi's set-piece came in, Logvinenko got in front of keeper Craig Gordon to head in with O'Connell also culpable.

After Dembele went down in the Astana box under pressure by Igor Shitov - penalty claims were ignored by Italian referee Paolo Mazzoleni - the Hoops' goal had to survive a couple of more dangerous corners.

Gordon had to make a good save on the stretch from Azat Nurgaliyev's attempted lob, before denying Junior Kabananga at his near post.

Roberts was providing Celtic's most potent threat down the right wing but coming up short around the Astana box.

At the other end, every high ball into the Parkhead side's penalty area had the small band of travelling fans nervy, those nerves not helped early in the second half when Gordon made hard work of holding on to a long drive from Twumasi. Celtic were wobbling.

In the 52nd minute Nurgaliyev clipped the top of the bar with a drive after Abzal Beysebekov had got past Tierney all too easily.

Midfielder Nir Bitton replaced Dembele just after the hour mark to leave Griffiths foraging alone but still Astana drove forward with menace.

Tthere was drama when Roberts won the ball back from Dmitri Shomko and set up Griffiths to rifle his shot past past keeper Nenad Eric for what could be a crucial goal.

In a frantic finale, Gordon saved from Kabananga with his foot but in the five added minutes Celtic were equally threatening.

TWEET OF THE MATCH: "Well done Glasgow Celtic and Brendan Rodgers on a highly creditable score in the Champions League. Hail Hail!" - Politician and Celtic fan George Galloway.

PLAYER RATINGS

Craig Gordon 6

Mikael Lustig 5

Efe Ambrose 5

Eoghan O'Connell 6

Patrick Roberts 8

Stuart Armstrong 6

Scott Brown 6

Callum McGregor 6

Leigh Griffiths 7

Moussa Dembele 5

Substitutes

Nir Bitton (Dembele, 62) 7

James Forrest (Armstrong 72) 6

Tom Rogic (McGregor 77) 5

STAR MAN: Patrick Roberts was Celtic's biggest threat as he delightfully skipped past tackles and set up Griffiths for the crucial leveller.

MOMENT OF THE MATCH: Griffiths' strike turned the tie back in favour of Celtic.

VIEW FROM THE BENCH: Brendan Rodgers had said that Efe Ambrose had the attributes to be a fine player if he cut out his mistakes and errors. Another error ultimately proved costly although the corner could have been defended better.

MOAN OF THE MATCH: Mexican wave at a crucial Champions League qualifier. Not good.
Murder investigation launched into death of Bradford woman in Pakistan

Police looking into the death of a 28-year-old British woman in Pakistan say they have launched a murder investigation.

Samia Shahid, from Bradford, died last week while visiting relatives in northern Punjab.

Her family has said she died of natural causes but her husband, Syed Mukhtar Kazam, believes she has been killed because of her marriage to him, her second husband.

Bradford West MP Naz Shah has written to the prime minister of Pakistan, asking for Samia Shahid's body to be exhumed

Now, reports from Pakistan said local police are examining whether Mrs Shahid had been murdered. Detectives in West Yorkshire said they were aware of the Pakistani police's move as they continued to monitor the situation.

District police chief Mujahed Akbar Khan told the BBC: "There are many things which have to be verified by the authorities of the marriage and the remarriage."

But he said if investigation pointed to murder then "a murder is a murder".

Mr Khan also said that Ms Shahid's first husband was "on the run".

Bradford West MP Naz Shah has written to the prime minister of Pakistan, Nawaz Sharif, asking for Mrs Shahid's body to be exhumed.

Ms Shah said she became involved in the case after she was contacted by a concerned constituent.

She said on Tuesday: "I'm not going to rest until I'm satisfied I know the cause of her death."

Mr Kazam told the Guardian he married his wife in Leeds in September 2014 after she left her first husband, who was a cousin from Pakistan.

He said his wife moved to live with him in Dubai last year but had made trips to the UK to talk to her parents about the relationship.

He said she went to Pakistan on July 14 as a member of her family was ill.

Her father, who is in Pakistan, told a newspaper the honour killing allegations were "lies".

A West Yorkshire Police spokesman said on Tuesday : "A report was made to West Yorkshire Police last week regarding the alleged death of a 28-year-old woman from Bradford in Pakistan.

"Following this report officers engaged with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, who have since confirmed her death.
Pool party gun victim named by police

A man shot dead at a reggae pool party has been named as Ricardo Hunter.

The 34-year-old from Coulsdon in Surrey died during the private party in Headley during the early hours of Monday, Surrey Police said.

Earlier this week, Summerlyn Farquharson, an organiser of the party who goes by the name The Female Boss Krissy, denied the event was a ''sex party'' and said she did not know the victim.

Police at the scene in Headley after a man was shot dead

A post-mortem examination showed the cause of Mr Hunter's death was a single gunshot wound.

Detectives are continuing to appeal for information about the attack at a mansion with a swimming pool in which a 36-year-old woman also suffered a gunshot wound to her leg.

Police said a 38-year-old man from London who was arrested on suspicion of murder and attempted murder in connection with the incident remains in custody.

A 30-year-old woman from London who was arrested on suspicion of assisting an offender in connection with the incident has been released on conditional bail until September.

Officers from the Surrey and Sussex Major Crime Team launched a murder investigation and are carrying out enquiries to establish the circumstances surrounding the death.

Forensic teams are still carrying out a detailed examination of the address and police said this is expected to continue for a number of days.

Detective Chief Inspector Paul Rymarz, from the Surrey and Sussex Major Crime Team, said: "This was a shocking incident where a man lost his life and we are determined to bring those responsible to justice.

"Following the incident we quickly launched a large-scale police investigation to speak to anyone who was at the private pool party and gather all relevant information to establish what happened.

"We know there were several hundred people at the pool party in Church Lane on the evening of Sunday, 24 July into the early hours of Monday, 25 July and although we have already spoken to a number of witnesses we intend to speak to everyone who was at the party.

"I would therefore ask anyone who was at the event and may have seen what happened or with any footage or information who has not spoken to police to come forward as a matter of urgency.

"I would like to assure people that we will treat any reports or information provided in the strictest confidence.

"This incident has understandably sent shockwaves through the Headley community and we are working with our Safer Neighbourhood Team colleagues to update and reassure residents.

"I would like to thank residents for their patience while our investigation continues and stress that we do not believe there is any ongoing risk to Headley residents."

Neighbours described hundreds of people gathering for the party, which had been advertised on social media, and complained of loud music going on into the early hours of Monday when the shooting happened.
Bahrain to try scores of people on charges of setting up militant group

DUBAI, July 26 (Reuters) - Bahrain prosecutors said on Tuesday scores of people will stand trial next month on charges of setting up a "terrorist organisation", espionage and armed attacks on police officers.

The case pertains to Bahrain's allegation last year that Iranian Revolutionary Guards helped fugitives from the Western-allied Gulf kingdom join forces to set up a Shi'ite militant group called the Zulfiqar Brigades to destabilise the state.

Bahrain's Sunni Muslim monarchy survived an uprising in 2011 mainly by majority Shi'ite Muslims demanding democratic reform. But the island state has witnessed a series of bomb attacks since that the government says has killed nearly 20 police officers, as well as continued, sporadic Shi'ite unrest.

Bahrain, where the U.S. Fifth Fleet is based, has also been waging a crackdown on large Shi'ite opposition groups and rights activists, a campaign that has drawn international rebuke.

In a statement posted on social media, the public prosecutor's office said it had completed an investigation into the Zulfiqar Brigades and transferred the case to court.

Zulfiqar is named after a sword used by Imam Ali, the Prophet Mohammad's cousin who is the second most revered figure in Shi'ite Islam after the Prophet himself.

Bahrain accuses government-sanctioned groups in Iran, the Middle East's Shi'ite big power, of supporting militants trying to topple its kingdom, a charge the Islamic Republic denies.

The prosecutor's statement said a total of 138 suspects had been referred to courts on various charges, including contacts with a "foreign power" - an allusion to Iran, possession of weapons and attacks on security forces.

It said that 86 suspects were in custody while the rest were on the run in either Iraq or Iran. A criminal court is due to start hearing the case on Aug. 23, the statement said.

Tensions have risen in Bahrain following a series of government security moves including the dissolution of the main opposition al-Wefaq group and the arrest of rights campaigner Nabeel Rajab over tweets he allegedly made about the Gulf Arab kingdom's prison system and its involvement in the war in Yemen.

Bahrain has also since revoked the citizenship of the spiritual leader of the country's Shi'ites, Ayatollah Isa Qassim, and charged him with collecting funds without a permit and money laundering.
Man shot in mall in Swedish city Malmo -police

STOCKHOLM, July 26 (Reuters) - An unidentified assailant shot and wounded a man in a shopping mall in the Swedish city of Malmo on Tuesday, police said.

A Malmo police statement said the victim was shot in the leg and taken to a local hospital. His condition was not immediately known. Police said they had not identified a suspect or motive in the shooting and had made no arrests.

The incident occurred in a mainly immigrant neighbourhood of Sweden's third largest city.

Europe has been shaken by a series of violent attacks on civilians in Germany, France and Belgium over the past 18 months by men of Middle Eastern or Asian origin. Many of the attacks were claimed by the Islamic State militant group.
EU to seek arbitration in dispute with United States over Norwegian Air-sources

By Julia Fioretti

BRUSSELS, July 26 (Reuters) - The European Commission will launch an arbitration procedure to resolve a dispute between Norwegian Air Shuttle and U.S. regulators over the budget carrier's wish to fly to the United States from Ireland, two sources said.

The EU executive will take the unprecedented step as it considers the delay in granting flying rights to Norwegian's Irish subsidiary a breach of the EU-U.S. Open Skies agreement, one of the people said.

Norwegian Air was not immediately able to comment.

Norwegian's Irish subsidiary applied for permission to operate flights to the United States more than two years ago, but the typically routine request has languished amid opposition from labour unions and some U.S. airlines, who say Europe's third-biggest budget carrier would undermine wages and working standards.

EU Transport Commissioner Violeta Bulc sent a letter to U.S. Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx on Tuesday informing him the Commission had consulted EU member states and would invoke arbitration, the person said.

A win for Norwegian could challenge the strong position of U.S. carriers such as Delta Air Lines on the lucrative transAtlantic route, where partnerships with European rivals and immunity from U.S. antitrust law have helped them churn out steady profits.

The delay has hindered the airline's ambitions to expand its long-haul operations to the United States. The carrier already flies to New York and other U.S. cities with its Norwegian operating licence.

However getting permission to fly to the United States with its Irish subsidiary would mean the airline could tap into aviation rights that the EU has secured, as Ireland is an EU member, unlike Norway.

Bulc also said the delay in allowing Norwegian's British unit to fly to the United States was another breach of the Open Skies agreement.

The arbitration procedure, involving a tribunal of three arbitrators (one designated by the EU, one by the United States and one jointly appointed by the EU and U.S. arbitrators), will be formally kicked off after the summer and could take several months.

The U.S. Transportation Department provisionally approved Norwegian's request in April, giving opponents three weeks to file objections, but there has been no final decision.

The EU has repeatedly called on the United States to approve Norwegian Air International's request, calling it a breach of the Open Skies agreement.

The Transportation Department said it found no legal basis for denying the Irish unit's request to fly to the United States.
 Flash

China's sovereignty and maritime rights and interests in the South China Sea are part of the international order established after the Second World War, Chinese ambassador to Britain Liu Xiaoming has said.

"China's relevant claims have never exceeded the scope of the current international order; in this sense, China's rejection of the arbitration is to uphold the post-war international order," Liu said in a speech at the British think-tank Chatham House on Monday.

"It is to prevent the Convention from being politically hijacked; it is to protect the authoritativeness and the integrity of international law, including the Convention," he stressed.

Liu noted that the arbitration unilaterally initiated by the Philippines is "illegal in jurisdictional, procedural or substantive terms," and that "it has been nothing but an illegal political farce."

The tribunal has no right of jurisdiction over issues of territorial sovereignty and maritime delimitation, its arbitral proceedings are against the rules of UNCLOS, and its ruling is "an aberration from the fundamental purposes of the Convention," Liu said.

"The obvious bias of the tribunal has solved no problem or dispute," he told his audience. "Rather, it created problems and intensified disputes. The arbitration thus has no substantive justice."

He added that the arbitration has "zero possibility" to become a "watershed" in the developments in the South China Sea, "nor will it be allowed to disturb the overall peace and stability the region now enjoys."

The arbitration ruling will by no means affect China's territorial sovereignty and maritime rights and interests in the South China Sea, the diplomat said.

The arbitration ruling will by no means affect China's commitment to peaceful solution through bilateral negotiations and consultations, he continued.

"The momentum of cooperation between China and ASEAN has not been changed by the arbitration, either," Liu said.

The ambassador called on the new Philippine government to "consider the overall interests of China-Philippine relations and the common interests of both countries" and "come back to the track of dialogue and consultations."

He stated that "we are opposed to certain countries' 'gunboat policy' under the pretext of 'protecting the freedom of navigation and overflight' and 'maintaining regional peace'."

"We are opposed to them taking advantage of the arbitration to hype up or create tensions in the South China Sea," he said. "The South China Sea must not become an arena for some big power from outside the region to flex their muscles."

According to Liu, the South China Sea issue is left over from the history, but at the same time it concerns real interests of today, with geopolitics involved.

"Resolving this issue will take time, patience and the mutual understanding and respect between countries concerned."

"For a solution to be fundamental and enduring, it has to be peaceful, it has to go through equal-footed consultation and negotiation between countries directly concerned, it has to be based on respecting historical facts and international law," concluded the envoy.
Libya's UN-backed gov't summons ambassador over French presence

TRIPOLI, July 26 (Reuters) - Libya's U.N.-backed government said on Tuesday it had summoned France's ambassador to protest over the presence of French special forces in eastern Libya.

The summons came after France confirmed last week that three of its soldiers had been killed when a helicopter crashed near the eastern city of Benghazi. France said they had been conducting intelligence operations.

Special forces teams from countries including France, Britain and the United States have been on the ground in western and eastern Libya to fight Islamist militants. The French have been working alongside forces loyal to eastern commander Khalifa Haftar.

"The GNA considered the French presence in Libya's eastern region as a breach of international norms and sovereignty which it rejects," a statement from the Government of National Accord (GNA) said.

It said GNA head Fayez Seraj had demanded from French Ambassador Antoine Sivan "an official explanation from the French government about the truth of what happened". They met on the sidelines of an Arab League summit in Nouakchott, Mauritania.

Sivan reiterated his country's support for the GNA and promised a formal note to explain the circumstances of the incident, the statement said.

France and other Western powers have backed the GNA, the result of a U.N.-mediated deal signed in December. But the GNA has so far been opposed by Haftar and his allies in the east.

Since the confirmation of the French deaths, there have been protests against both the French presence and the GNA's leadership in Tripoli and Misrata, another western city.

Armed groups from both cities were aligned on the opposite side to Haftar's forces in the conflict that broke out in Libya in 2014.
Massachusetts man charged with threatening to burn mosque

BOSTON, July 26 (Reuters) - A Massachusetts man was arrested and charged on Tuesday with threatening on Facebook to burn down a Boston mosque in the wake of the November attacks in Paris, where Islamic State gunmen and suicide bombers killed 130 people.

Patrick Keogan, a 44-year-old resident of the Boston suburb of Winchester, was arrested and charged with making a criminal threat over the internet and with being a convicted felon illegally in possession of ammunition, federal prosecutors said.

The day after the deadly Paris attack, Keogan posted an image on the Facebook page of the Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center showing a mosque in flames with the caption "burn your local mosque," prosecutors said.

In court papers, they said leaders of the Islamic Center opted to report the threat because it followed so closely on the Paris attacks, "although it is not uncommon for the ISBCC to receive hateful and anti-Muslim messages."

A lawyer for Keogan and officials with the Islamic Society of Boston did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

When FBI officials interviewed Keogan by phone before his arrest, he said he was "sorry and that he needs to smarten up as he is too old to act this way," according to court papers. Keogan also told the FBI that he had not intended to harm anyone or damage the mosque.

Prosecutors said an investigation into Keogan later revealed he was buying ammunition, which he was legally prohibited from doing due to earlier convictions on charges of assault and battery and operating a motor vehicle under the influence of liquor.

Keogan could be sentenced to up to 10 years in prison if convicted.

A series of deadly attacks by Islamic State militants and those inspired by the group have rocked cities in the United States and Europe over the past few months and triggered a wave of threats against U.S. mosques.

Last month a Connecticut man was sentenced to six months in prison after shooting at an unoccupied mosque near his Meriden home late at night following the Paris attacks. No one was hurt in the incident.
Goldman Sachs abused trust in dealings with Libyan LIA, fund's lawyer tells trial

By Claire Milhench

LONDON, July 26 (Reuters) - Goldman Sachs abused its position as a trusted adviser to Libya's sovereign wealth fund, a lawyer for the fund argued on Tuesday, in a case that has subjected the bank's dealings to a forensic degree of scrutiny.

In a trial at London's High Court, the Libyan Investment Authority (LIA) is attempting to claw back $1.2 billion from the Wall Street giant in relation to nine disputed trades carried out in 2008, arguing that the trades were secured through "undue influence" and "unconscionable bargaining".

The LIA argues the bank took advantage of its financial naivety by first gaining its trust, then encouraging it to make risky and ultimately worthless investments.

In his closing statement for the LIA, lawyer Roger Masefield said that in the autumn of 2007, the bank had stepped into a gap created by the resignation of the LIA's independent financial consultant, and cultivated a relationship of trust.

He said this went beyond a "normal arm's length banker-client relationship" as the bank had assumed the role of an adviser.

In doing so, it was not allowed to transact with its client to its own material advantage unless either it told the client to consult with an independent adviser on such transactions, or otherwise described the risks in a fair and accurate manner, he said.

"But if the bank doesn't do that, in circumstances where de facto it has crossed the line and started giving advice, then it stands at risk," he said.

In circumstances where the client proceeds and the risk hasn't been fairly described to it, the LIA can rescind and set aside the trade, he added.

Goldman Sachs, which denies all the allegations, maintains that its relationship with the LIA was at all "material times an arm's length one" between banker and client.

"We have always disputed the LIA's claim that it was financially illiterate and it is clear that they understood the disputed trades and entered into them of their own volition," the bank said in a statement released on Tuesday.

In its written closing submission, seen by Reuters, Goldman Sachs argues that it was only one of dozens of banks and financial institutions that the LIA was dealing with, and the amounts invested with Goldman were only a fraction of the total investments the LIA made at the time.

In the submission Goldman argued that, rather than being financially naive, the LIA had simply failed to predict the full extent of the global financial crisis.
Bulgaria softens tone but still points finger at Russian aircraft

SOFIA, July 26 (Reuters) - Bulgaria toned down its criticism of Moscow on Tuesday, saying Russian aircraft had not been involved in violations of its air space but once again blamed Russia for not observing international norms in aviation.

Bulgarian Defence Minister Nikolay Nenchev said on Sunday there had been a rise in violations of its air space by Russian military and commercial aircraft in the past month, calling the alleged breaches a "provocations toward Bulgaria and its air forces". Russia rejected the allegations.

Nenchev said Russian military aircraft had entered what he termed "Bulgaria's area of responsibility" in NATO airspace four times in the past month while Russian passenger planes breached the air space six times in this period, adding the planes had turned off their transponders.

Russia said on Monday its aircraft flying over the Black Sea had followed international rules and confined themselves to neutral zones.

However, while Bulgaria's Defence Ministry said on Tuesday it was not seeking confrontation with anyone, it maintained there had been "cases of non-observation of the international norms".

"They did not have their transponders turned on and missed to declare their flight plans. There are also cases of flights of aircrafts without distinguishing signs," it said.

Russia said on Monday it had kept the transponders on the aircraft at all times.

Bulgaria, a former Communist state and once staunch ally of Moscow, is almost entirely dependent on Russian energy supplies, and many Bulgarians feel a deep affinity for their giant neighbour across the Black Sea.

"We express concerns about keeping the mutual respect and trust among the Black Sea countries in the realisation of flights in the international airspace over the inland water areas of the Black Sea," the ministry said.
Massachusetts man charged with threatening to burn mosque

By Scott Malone

BOSTON, July 26 (Reuters) - A Massachusetts man was arrested and charged on Tuesday with threatening on Facebook to burn down a Boston mosque in the wake of the November attacks in Paris, where Islamic State gunmen and suicide bombers killed 130 people.

Patrick Keogan, a 44-year-old resident of the Boston suburb of Winchester, was charged with making a criminal threat over the internet and with being a convicted felon illegally in possession of ammunition, federal prosecutors said.

The day after the deadly Paris attack, Keogan posted an image on the Facebook page of the Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center showing a mosque in flames with the caption "burn your local mosque," prosecutors said.

In court papers, they said leaders of the Islamic Center opted to report the threat because it followed so closely on the Paris attacks, "although it is not uncommon for the ISBCC to receive hateful and anti-Muslim messages."

Keogan could be sentenced to up to 10 years in prison if convicted on the charges.

A lawyer for Keogan could not immediately be reached for comment.

Yusufi Vali, executive director of the Islamic Society, thanked the FBI and prosecutors for pursuing the case.

"This sends a really clear message to the Boston, Massachusetts, community and really the whole world that Boston embraces its Muslims," Vali said.

When FBI officials interviewed Keogan by phone before his arrest, he said he was "sorry and that he needs to smarten up as he is too old to act this way," according to court papers. Keogan also told the FBI that he had not intended to harm anyone.

Prosecutors said an investigation into Keogan revealed he was buying ammunition, which he was legally prohibited from doing after convictions on charges including assault and battery.

A series of deadly attacks by Islamic State militants and those inspired by the group have rocked cities in the United States and Europe over the past few months and triggered a wave of threats against mosques.

Last month, a Connecticut man was sentenced to six months in prison after shooting at an unoccupied mosque near his Meriden home late at night after the Paris attacks. No one was hurt in the incident.
Lithium Power CEO eyes quick growth in Chile

By Rosalba O'Brien

SANTIAGO, July 26 (Reuters) - Lithium Power, the latest company keen to capitalise on Chile's vast reserves of key battery ingredient lithium, is planning to start drilling by September and ramp up to commercial sales by 2020, the chief executive told Reuters.

The Australian-listed smallcap, which already has projects in Australia and Argentina, announced last week that it was forming a joint venture with local partners to develop the Maricunga project in northern Chile. Lithium Power is going to fund the development costs starting with a $2 million loan.

The project had been deliberately chosen for the regulatory classification for parts of it that allow for immediate exploitation, said Martin Holland, the chief executive of Lithium Power. Maricunga has an initial resource of 574,000 tonnes of lithium carbonate.

"We expect to look at doubling that resource in the upcoming drilling program that we're doing in September," said Holland in an interview on Monday.

Foreign investors are flocking to South America's so-called 'lithium triangle', a region of brine lakes home to over half of the world's resources of the mineral that powers the rechargeable batteries used by electric cars and consumer devices.

Lithium Power's project is in the triangle, near assets that state copper firm Codelco also wants to develop.

The Australian firm's local partner, a venture headed by Chilean businessman Martin Borda, has had "many discussions" with Codelco over the years, said Holland. He said he had also met a number of times with Chilean mining officials.

But he added that the company was unlikely to add more projects to its portfolio.

"We're pretty much done now, we feel like we've diversified across hard rock spodumene in Australia and quality brine assets in Argentina and Chile," he said. Hard rock is more expensive to mine, and "once supply meets demand in the future...you'd rather be in the brine," he said.
Nickel miner Sherritt sees lenders deferring Madagascar repayments

July 26 (Reuters) - Canadian miner Sherritt International Corp is confident it and its partners in a large Madagascar nickel mine will reach agreement soon with lenders to defer repaying project loans for several years, Sherritt's chief executive said on Tuesday.

Last month, Sherritt and its partners in the Ambatovy joint venture, Japan's Sumitomo Corp and Korea Resources Corp(Kores), got a deferral until Aug. 5 to repay $90 million plus interest to the lenders.

They owe the lenders, which include Export Development Canada and the African Development Bank, $1.6 billion - an amount that is supposed to be repaid from cash produced by the Ambatovy mine. But with nickel prices down nearly 80 percent since 2007, the mine is producing at a loss.

"We are looking for a multi-year deferral period," Sherritt CEO David Pathe said.

"We are at this point reasonably confident that that will get done by the Aug. 5 deadline or shortly thereafter," he said in an interview.

Sherritt owns 40 percent of Ambatovy, Sumitomo 32.5 percent and Kores 27.5 percent.

While Sherritt is "encouraged" by a 22 percent jump in the nickel price to around $4.70 a pound since the beginning of June, much higher prices are needed to revive an industry where about half of nickel operations are producing at a loss, Pathe said.

"The long-term price that really sustains the industry probably needs to be in the $8 to $9-plus range," he said.

Prices of nickel, a top performer among industrial metals in recent months, are overcooked and likely to retreat by the end of the year even though shortages are becoming more severe, a Reuters poll released on Tuesday showed.

Sherritt won approval on Monday from its noteholders for a three-year extension on repaying C$720 million ($545.99 million) worth of debentures.
Peru to seek other trade deals if TPP dies in U.S. Congress

LIMA, July 26 (Reuters) - Peru will seek free trade deals with Australia and other Pacific Rim countries if the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement it signed onto dies in the U.S. Congress, the incoming president said on Tuesday.

Centrist President-elect Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, a 77-year-old former investment banker, said leaders of both political parties in the United States have attacked the TPP to build support ahead of the Nov. 8 election, and that the 12-member pact might be ratified by Congress afterward.

"When the electoral cycle is over let's see what happens," Kuczynski said in a press conference with foreign media two days before his inauguration. "If the TPP isn't approved, we'll seek agreements with the countries that we're lacking."

Kuczynski cited Australia, Malaysia and New Zealand as potential new partners for free-trade deals that would build on more than a dozen pacts Peru already has with countries including the United States, China, Canada and Japan.

The U.S.-and-Japan-led TPP aims to slash tariffs on goods in 40 percent of the world's economy. But U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has vowed to kill TPP if elected and his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton has said she opposes it because it is not strong enough on currency manipulation and other areas.

Kuczynski did not mention any parts of the TPP that he would want changed if it were renegotiated, but said he thinks Peru's top trade partner China should be a part of the agreement.

U.S. President Barack Obama has pitched the TPP to skeptical lawmakers as a way to counter China's rising economic and political clout in the region.

"The objective of the TPP is to exclude China and I don't think that's right," Kuczynski said. "What we need are treaties that are much more inclusive."

Kuczynski plans to travel to China for his first trip abroad as president to seek investments in metal refineries and smelters that would help Peru wring more from its exports of copper, zinc, gold and silver.

Kuczynski said Peru could easily double the capacity of its only operating copper smelter and that it would make sense to build a new plant along the southern coast.

"We have the gas, we have the port, we have everything, except the organization to promote it," Kuczynski said.
Mali arrests leader of Islamist group linked to deadly attack on troops

BAMAKO, July 26 (Reuters) - Malian forces arrested a regional leader of Islamist group Ansar Dine in central Mali on Tuesday, after it claimed an attack in the region that killed 17 soldiers, the army spokesman said.

Ansar Dine laid claim to the attack last week by gunmen who fired on troop positions, burned buildings and pillaged shops, killing 17 Malian soldiers and wounded 35 on an army base in the central town of Nampala last week.

Army spokesman Modibo Naman Traore said the state security services arrested the commander, Mahmoud Barry - nicknamed "Abou Yehiya" - as he was travelling on a road between Nampala and the town of Dogofri.

"He is close to Lyad Ag Ghali, the chief of Ansar Dine," Traore said, adding that Barry had also planned an attack on the town of Nara that killed 12 people.
Wawrinka battles past Youzhny in Toronto

TORONTO, July 26 (Reuters) - Stan Wawrinka survived a thriller against Mikhail Youzhny in the second round of the Rogers Cup on Tuesday, fighting back in both sets to prevail 7-6(3) 7-6(8).

The Swiss second seed trailed 5-4 in the first set and had to break Youzhny's serve to force a tiebreak.

He then fell behind 3-0 in the second before launching a comeback that saw him fight through set point in a heated tiebreak and ultimately pull through to close out the match.

Wawrinka, who had failed to advance past the second round in his last two tournaments, now has a third-round matchup with American Donald Young.

Earlier in the day, Gael Monfils, fresh off his tournament win in Washington, cruised by Portugal's Joao Sousa 6-3 6-3 to ease into the second round.

The 10th seeded Frenchman won 50 percent of his return points against Sousa and hammered down eight aces to extend his win streak to six matches.

"I think I've put in good work with my team. What I try to do is keep working with them and then see the results later," said Monfils, two days after his first tournament win in two-and-a-half years.

"I like to think when I'm in my top game and with consistency, I can beat a lot of players at the top."

Czech fifth seed Tomas Berdych, playing his first match since losing in the Wimbledon semi-final to eventual champion Andy Murray, secured his spot in the third round with a 4-6 6-1 6-4 win over Croatia's Borna Coric.
 Flash

A gunman threw grenades and opened fire on worshipers at a mosque in Yemen's southern capital Sanaa late on Tuesday, killing four people and wounding 15 others, a security official said.

"The Shiite gunman hurled two grenade bombs and opened fire on the worshipers in Bani Bahlol mosque during evening prayers, killing four and injuring 15 others," the official said on condition of anonymity.

The gunman fled, said the official, adding that the incident was apparently for "political and sectarian revenge from Sunni branch of Islam."

Sanaa, the capital of Yemen which has been under control of Shiite Houthi group since it overthrew the government in September 2014, is awash of gunmen, weapons and lawless acts after the judiciary system and security apparatus have been suspended.

Security in Yemen has deteriorated since March 2015, when war broke out between the Shiite Houthi group, supported by former President Ali Abdullash Saleh, and the government backed by a Saudi-led Arab military coalition.

The current security vacuum was exploited by terrorist groups which also took advantage of the ongoing civil war to expand its influence and control more territories in lawless parts of the country.

Last week, a grenade exploded outside a mosque in Sanaa, controlled by the Iran-allied Houthi group, as worshipers were leaving after midday prayers. There were no casualties.

The Islamic State branch in Yemen claimed responsibility last September for a bomb attack on a Shiite-controlled mosque in Sanaa that killed 10 worshipers.
Olympics-Equestrian-South American riders gain ground in Rio

By Caroline Stauffer

SAO PAULO, July 27 (Reuters) - In a sport long dominated by Europeans, South American riders will be out in force at the continent's first Olympic Games to be held in Rio de Janeiro's Deodoro area next month.

Argentina, Colombia, Venezuela, Uruguay and hosts Brazil are all represented. Peru qualified for the individual show jumping competition for the first time, as did Ecuador in individual three-day eventing.

"It's more than the usual... The level has increased tremendously so they are a force to contend with in the future," Sabrina Ibanez, secretary general of the International Equestrian Federation (FEI), said of South American riders.

Ibanez told Reuters more South Americans had qualified after investment in grass-roots development programmes over the past decade. She noted a strong showing in last year's Pan American Games in Toronto, where Venezuela claimed silver in individual jumping and Argentina came second in team jumping to Canada.

Riders from Chinese Taipei, the Dominican Republic, Palestine, Qatar and Zimbabwe will also be making Olympic debuts, though the favorites are coming from more traditional equestrian strongholds like Germany and Great Britain.

At the 2012 Olympics in London, New Zealand and Saudi Arabia were the only non-European countries to take home equestrian medals - bronze for team eventing and team show jumping respectively.

In addition to the geographical diversity, much of the 2016 equestrian field is young. The entire Brazil dressage team is under 25.

With a new generation coming up, some notable veterans were left out. Brazil's only Olympic gold medal equestrian, the 2012 flag bearer Rodrigo Pessoa, is the alternate of the host nation's show jumping team.

Canada's Ian Millar, who holds the record for most Olympic appearances at 10 Games, has been sidelined due to an injured horse but his daughter Amy will make her show jumping debut.

Among the Olympic champions returning are Germany's four-time gold medallist Ludger Beerbaum, 52, in show jumping and New Zealand's double gold medallist Mark Todd, 60, in eventing.

"The level of competition is so strong at the moment and you just need everything... it could go to any one of 10 different people and hopefully I might be one of those 10," Todd, who heads to Rio with more Olympic medals than any other equestrian, told Reuters.

Germany's Michael Jung is returning after winning team and individual gold in eventing in London and Great Britain's dressage prodigy Charlotte Dujardin is back with Valegro, the horse she won individual and team gold medals on in 2012.

Athletes and the FEI, the sport's governing body, said they were pleased with the Deodoro facility, which has been upgraded since hosting the Panamerican Games in 2007.

An episode of Glanders, a fatal disease for horses, at a nearby military facility is no longer a concern after Deodoro was isolated for much of last year, Ibanez said.
Romania - Factors to watch on July 27

Here are news stories, press reports and events to watch which may affect Romanian financial markets on Wednesday.

DEBT PLANS

Romania's finance ministry is expected to unveil its debt issuance plans for August. Debt managers sold roughly 3.6 billion lei of domestic leu debt in July.

GOVERNMENT MEETING

The government holds its weekly meeting.

CEE MARKETS

Hungary sold three-month bills at lower yields at an auction on Tuesday after its central bank said it would squeeze out cash stored by commercial banks in its vaults, in the hope that more money will be lent out or channelled into government debt.

For the long-term Romanian diary, click on

For emerging markets economic events, click on

For an index of all diaries, click on
Malaysia Airlines orders Boeing 737 MAX jets in $5.5 bln deal

KUALA LUMPUR, July 27 (Reuters) - Malaysia Airlines said on Wednesday it had ordered 50 Boeing 737 MAX jets, with firm orders for 25 and rights to purchase 25 more.

Deliveries will begin in 2019 and the deal is worth $5.5 billion at list prices, the full-service carrier said in a statement.

Airlines typically receive a discount off the list prices.

The 737 Max is the re-engined and upgraded variant of Boeing's popular narrowbody model.

The new planes will cut operating costs and their longer range will allow the airline to fly to more destinations, Chief Executive Peter Bellew said in a statement.

This is the first major decision by the ailing carrier since Bellew took over from former chief executive Christoph Mueller on July 1.

The new planes will replace some of the airline's 56 Boeing 737-800s, which have an average age of 4.1 years according to airfleets.net.

Malaysia Airlines has been struggling since the disappearance of flight MH370 and shooting down of flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine, both in 2014.

The national carrier was taken private by state-fund Khazanah Nasional Bhd following the twin disasters as part of a restructuring plan, which included a shrinking of its network.

Since then, the airline has cancelled all non-stop flights to Europe except those to London and ended several low-yield Asia-Pacific services.

Bellew told reporters the airline was aiming to tap capital markets by March 2019, adding that he was confident it would break even in 2018.

He said with the new planes, costs would go down by 40 percent and operating expenses would drop by 15 percent.

MAS has retired its long-haul Boeing 777s and signed an agreement to lease four Airbus A350s, which have lower operating costs, from 2018.

Its focus, however, is on the Asian market and narrowbody planes like the 737, which are used on short-haul routes of up to five hours, will help with that.

"Malaysia Airlines is now on a path to growth across the ASEAN region," Bellew said, referring to the 10-member Association of South East Asian Nations.
Air France-KLM says attacks hitting revenue

PARIS, July 27 (Reuters) - Air France-KLM joined other European airlines in warning of the impact on revenue this year of recent attacks in France and political upheaval elsewhere as it reported a drop in sales and braced for a strike by its staff.

Second-quarter results were issued hours after a priest was killed by Islamist militants in France, adding to a spate of attacks in Europe that has knocked demand for travel and coming on top of the uncertainty created by Britain's vote to leave the European Union.

"There is clear pressure on France as a destination," Chief Financial Officer Pierre-Francois Riolacci said, adding travellers from China and Japan in particular were staying away and that lower ticket prices would more than cancel out any savings from lower fuel bills this year.

EasyJet PLC last week said it was unable to give an earnings forecast, while Germany's Lufthansa warned on profit. Low-cost carriers Ryanair and Wizz Air maintained their targets, but said they will shift capacity away from Britain after its vote to quit the EU.

Riolacci said he expected unit revenues - a measure of pricing - to decline in July and August as a result of the restrained demand and overcapacity across the industry. Unit revenues fell 4.1 percent in the second quarter when adjusted for currency.

He said, however, the group had seen unit revenues fall less than rivals because it had been more constrained on the amount of capacity it offers.

Air France-KLM plans to grow capacity 1 percent this year. Lufthansa last week trimmed its growth plans to 5.4 percent from 6 percent.

"Unfortunately European airlines as a whole have been on a growth binge powered along by lower cost fuel. Binges tend to end badly and we see this one looks to be no exception," RBC analyst Damian Brewer said.

The Franco-Dutch group is also dealing with more strikes and its two main cabin crew unions called for a week of walkouts, starting Wednesday, after talks on renewing a collective labour agreement broke down. New Chief Executive Jean-Marc Janaillac said he would do his utmost to restore trust between management and staff.

Still, its shares rose on Wednesday, one of the top gainers among travel and leisure stocks, as lower fuel and cost-cutting efforts led to better than expected results for the second quarter. Shares in the carrier are down 23 percent so far this year.

Although revenues fell 5.2 percent to 6.22 billion euros, earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) improved to 728 million euros from 557 million last year, beating expectations for 629 million in a Reuters poll.
Poland - Factors to Watch July 27

Following are news stories, press reports and events to watch that may affect Poland's financial markets on Wednesday. ALL TIMES GMT (Poland: GMT + 2 hours):

BZ WBK

Spanish Banco Santander's Polish unit reported a 34-percent year-on-year rise in its second quarter net profit to 723.5 million zlotys ($182.4 million) thanks to the sale of Visa Europe shares.

EUROPEAN COMMISSION

The EU's executive body will give Poland three months to ensure its recommendations regarding the country's constitutional tribunal are met, dailies Gazeta Wyborcza and Rzeczpospolita quoted their sources as saying.

PGNiG

Poland's largest gas distributor expects to have booked a net loss of 120 million zlotys ($30.2 million) in the second quarter due to a 680-million zloty write-down on its exploration assets, the group said on Tuesday.

TAURON

Poland's second largest utility will book around 700 million zlotys ($176.4 million) in write-downs in its first-half results, mainly on its wind farm business, with the net profit impact seen at 600 million, the group said on Tuesday.

ORANGE POLSKA

Poland's largest telecoms operator and a Polish Orange unit signed an agreement with Telefonia Dialog - a subsidiary of Orange Polska's local rival Netia - to access Dialog's fibre network.

BANK PEKAO

Italy's UniCredit is considering a stock sale worth $5.5 billion and selling its entire stake in Polish Bank Pekao, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

BUDIMEX, STRABAG, ASTALDI

Polish General Director for National Roads and Motorways signed contracts worth 42 billion zlotys ($10.6 billion) co-financed by the European Union's budget for 2014-2020. Budimex, Strabag and Astaldi won almost half of them, according to Dziennik Gazeta Prawna daily.

WORLD YOUTH DAY

Pope Francis arrives in Cracow, Poland for the World Youth Day events.

****Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.****
Hungary, Factors to watch, July 27

BUDAPEST, July 27 (Reuters) - Following is a list of events in Hungary and the region, as well as news stories and press reports which may influence financial markets.

(For any queries: Budapest editorial +36 1 327 4745)

WHAT IS HAPPENING IN HUNGARY (ALL TIMES GMT)

BUDAPEST - K&H Bank to hold press briefing on mortgage market (0730)

IN THE REGION

CZECH - French President Hollande visits Czech Republic

IN THE NEWS REUTERS

UPDATE 1-Orban says Trump's migration, foreign policy plans "vital" for Hungary

BUDAPEST, July 26 (Reuters) - Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban on Tuesday said the migration and foreign policy plans of U.S. Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump were "vital" for Hungary, whereas those of rival Democrat Hillary Clinton were "deadly".

PDATE 1-Hungary central bank holds base rate at record-low

BUDAPEST, July 26 (Reuters) - The National Bank of Hungary left its base rate on hold at 0.9 percent NBHI on Tuesday, in line with expectations, with its focus now geared towards squeezing funds out of its main liquidity instrument to loosen monetary conditions further.

CEE MARKETS-Hungarian short-term yields pressured by central bank move

BUDAPEST, July 26 (Reuters) - Hungary sold three-month bills at lower yields at an auction on Tuesday after its central bank said it would squeeze out cash stored by commercial banks in its vaults, in the hope that more money will be lent out or channelled into government debt.

Migrants on Serbia-Hungary border go on hunger strike, want to enter EU
Czech Republic - Factors To Watch on July 27

PRAGUE, July 27 (Reuters) - Here are news stories, press reports and events to watch which may affect Czech financial markets on Wednesday. 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================================== EPH: EU Commission clears EPH's acquisition of Slovenske Elektrarne stake from Enel Story: CME: Broadcaster CME Co-CEO Christoph Mainusch says expects revenue in Czech market for full year to grow faster than 1 percent seen in H1, Story: Related stories: CME: Central European Media Enterprises said its Q2 OIBDA increased 12 percent at constant rates to $53.6 million. Story: Related stories: CEE MARKETS: Hungary sold three-month bills at lower yields at an auction on Tuesday after its central bank said it would squeeze out cash stored by commercial banks in its vaults, in the hope that more money will be lent out or channelled into government debt. Story: Related stories: ---------------------- MARKET SNAPSHOT ------------------------ Index/Crown Currency Latest Prev Pct change Pct change close on day in 2016 vs Euro 27.022 27.023 0 -0.09 vs Dollar 24.581 24.575 -0.02 1.13 Czech Equities 889.42 889.42 -0.34 -7 U.S. Equities 18,473.75 18,493.06 -0.1 6.02 Pvs close or current levels vs prior domestic close at 1500 GMT =====================PRESS DIGEST============================ TURKEY: The management of Naksan Holding, a Turkish company building the Adularya power plant, was arrested aftermath of the coup attempt in Turkey. This raises concern about the project supplied by Czech engineering firm Vitkovice and funded by the Czech Export Bank with a 12 billion Czech crown ($488.18 million)loan Hospodarske Noviny, page 1 BABIS ON REFUGEES: Finance minister and head of the ANO party Andrej Babis called for a halt to accepting any refugees. Pravo, page 1 NUCLEAR FUEL: CEZ is preparing a tender for nuclear fuel supplies after 2020. Mlada fronta Dnes, page 8 OKD: The administrator of OKD, the insolvent mining unit of New World Resources, denied two claims totalling around 10 billion crowns from Ad Hoc Group (AHG), represented by Citibank. AHG is the majority owner of NWR. The administrator said AHG did not show that the claim ever came into existence. Hospodarske Noviny, page 13 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 = 24.5810 Czech crowns) (Reporting by Prague Newsroom)
Slovakia- Factors To Watch on July 27

BRATISLAVA, July 27 (Reuters) - Here are news stories, press reports and events to watch which may affect Slovak financial markets on Wednesday. ALL TIMES GMT (Slovak Republic: GMT + 2 hours) =========================ECONOMIC DATA======================== Real-time economic data releases.................. Summary of economic data and forecasts......... Recently released economic data................ Previous stories on Slovak data.......... **For a schedule of corporate and economic events: http://emea1.apps.cp.thomsonreuters.com/Apps/CountryWeb/#/1C/events-overview ==========================NEWS================================ BANKS: Slovakia's banks will have to apply an extra capital buffer of 0.5 percent as of August 2017 in response to fast-growing lending, the central bank said on Tuesday, becoming the first euro zone country to introduce such a requirement. Story: Related stories: CURRENT ACCOUNT: Slovakia's current account showed a deficit of 115 million euros ($126.34 million) in May after a revised deficit of 6 million euros in April, the central bank said on Tuesday. Story: Related stories: SLOVENSKE ELEKTRARNE: The European Commission cleared Czech energy group EPH's acquisition of stake in Slovakia's top electricity producer Slovenske Elektrarne from Italy's Enel. The companies agreed in December on the sale of Enel's 66 percent stake in two stages, for preliminary price of 750 million euros. Story: Related stories: For real-time stock market index quotes click in brackets: Warsaw WIG20 Budapest BUX Prague PX Main currency report TOP NEWS -- Emerging markets News editor of the day: Jan Lopatka on +420 224 190 474 E-mail: prague.newsroom@thomsonreuters.com (Reporting by Prague Newsroom)
Coal surges past $50 mark while crude oil falls short

By Henning Gloystein

SINGAPORE, July 27 (Reuters) - Coal prices in 2016 have regained their footing above the psychological threshold of $50, leaving the oil industry wondering when crude prices will return to form.

Both thermal coal and crude oil prices plunged to more than 10-year lows earlier this year as both industries grappled with oversupply and slowing demand, but prices recovered as production outages tightened the market.

However, the two have diverged sharply since June.

Starting June 1, benchmark API2 coal futures in Rotterdam have rallied 20 percent to around $60 a tonne, the highest in a year, while Asia benchmark API4 futures have climbed 15.6 percent to $62.60.

Brent crude futures, meanwhile, have slumped 15 percent to back below $45 a barrel.

It is much the same story in physical markets, where major oil producers such as Saudi Arabia continue to offer crude at discounts, while coal miners have raised prices.

Oil is the world's biggest fuel source, pushed mainly by the United States and its transportation needs. But coal generates much of the world's electricity, especially in emerging markets.

The current divergence stems from Asia's continuing dependence on coal. China uses coal to meet 64 percent of its energy needs while India uses the fuel to meet 45 percent of its demand, even while both are expanding oil consumption.

It is these rising orders from India and China, as well as output cuts by miners, that have pushed up coal, while oil prices have come under pressure on the back of plentiful supplies and fears of slowing demand.

Many oil output cuts were unplanned, such as Canada's wildfires or sabotage in Nigeria, and much of that production has returned or is expected back soon.

"Brent oil prices are down $5 per barrel since the start of June with a weakening of oil demand expectations coming alongside a recovery of production in Canada. Oil production in Nigeria has been on the rise too," Barclays bank said in a note to clients this week.

In contrast, coal miners from Indonesia to Colombia have cut output or been driven bankrupt, tightening the market by permanently removing significant supply.

"Supply (cuts) of coal remains the main price supportive factor," said Georgi Slavov of commodity brokerage Marex Spectron.

At the same time, coal imports from major buyer China have rebounded, largely due to domestic production cuts.

Looking ahead, both coal and oil should see strong demand growth in emerging markets. However, most analysts see coal consumption increases slowing as global economic growth slows.

Additionally, the growing reliance on alternatives such as natural gas and renewable energy, as well as improving energy efficiency, is steadily eating into the market share of both.
Hong Kong shares close up 0.4 pct despite China tumble

SHANGHAI, July 27 (Reuters) - Hong Kong shares finished modestly higher on Wednesday, shaking off sharp losses in mainland China markets.

The Hang Seng index rose 0.4 percent to 22,218.99 points, while the China Enterprises Index gained 0.6 percent to 9,115.29.
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The United Nations Special Envoy for Syria Staffan De Mistura said Tuesday that he aimed to restart Syrian peace talks seeking to broker a political end to the five-year conflict by the end of next month.

"Our aim is to proceed with the third round of intra-Syrian talks towards the end of August," he said after a trilateral meeting with U.S. and Russian representatives here.

"Meanwhile, we hope that concrete progress on the Kerry-Lavrov understanding will visibly take place," he added.

The diplomat was referring to a recent Moscow-based meeting seeking to advance dialogue on Syria between Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and his U.S. counterpart John Kerry.

"In order to make these talks particularly truthful and hopeful we are certainly eager to see the outcome of the steps agreed upon in Moscow," he said.

De Mistura noted that progress was made during the one-day talks Tuesday, though a number of details remained to be worked out.

The dire situation in both Aleppo and Damascus was also touched upon by representatives, he highlighted.

The UN-mediated peace process seeking to put an end to the Syrian conflict has been on hold since April this year.
Turkish defectors to Greece seek time to prepare asylum case

ATHENS, July 27 (Reuters) - Greek authorities on Wednesday postponed hearings for eight Turkish soldiers who sought asylum after they fled Turkey following an abortive coup attempt, a case that has underscored lingering tensions between the two NATO allies.

The men - three majors, three captains and two sergeant majors - flew a military helicopter to the northern Greek border town of Alexandroupolis on July 16, a day after the coup attempt unfolded.

Claiming they fear for their lives, the men have sought political asylum in Greece. They deny being involved in the coup.

Turkey has sought their deportation, calling them "traitors" and "terrorist elements". That created a dilemma for Greece, which now has to decide whether to hold on to the men or risk irking Ankara. Athens has said it will deal with any asylum request swiftly.

Two of the men who appeared at the Central Asylum Service in Athens on Wednesday asked for a postponement of interviews to better prepare themselves, said one of the lawyers, Vasiliki Ilia Marinaki. The interviews were postponed, with the first due to start on Aug. 19.

"They are afraid to go to Turkey," Marinaki told Reuters Television. "They told me that they will definitely be tortured. They told me exactly 'we are going to beg for death, we are going to be dead anyway'."

Relations between Greece and Turkey have improved over the years, but they almost went to war over an uninhabited islet in 1996 and they remain at odds over territorial disputes and ethnically split Cyprus.

Last week, the men were handed a two-month suspended jail sentence on charges of entering Greece illegally. Nonetheless, they remain in 'administrative' custody.

Those who appeared at asylum offices on Wednesday were accompanied by police, and held t-shirts over their heads to conceal their faces.

Since the coup attempt Turkey has launched a purge of the armed forces and judiciary, rounding up thousands of people.

The eight men say they did not know a coup was under way and were obeying orders by their superiors to transport the wounded from the streets to ambulances, according to their lawyers.
Former lawmaker was one of AU base suicide bombers in Somalia - al Shabaab

By Feisal Omar

MOGADISHU, July 27 (Reuters) - A former Islamist lawmaker turned al Shabaab militant was one of the drivers in Tuesday's double car bomb attack on the African Union's main peacekeeping base in Somalia, al Shabaab said.

The militants said in a radio broadcast that Salah Nur Ismail, who joined al Shabaab in 2010, was one of those to blow himself up in the attack which killed 13 people, mainly guards from a private security firm.

In the broadcast aired late on Tuesday on the militants' radio al Andalus, Ismail, also known by the nickname of Badbaado, said in audio recorded before the attack that he would be one of the suicide bombers.

Government officials were not immediately available for a comment.

Somalia is scheduled to hold a presidential election next month and security analyst say al Shabaab could take advantage of the distraction caused by campaigning to launch more attacks.

Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab, al Shabaab's military operation spokesman, confirmed Ismail's participation in the attack.

"Salah defected from the parliament in 2010, joined us and repented and he became a martyr today," Abu Musab told Reuters.

"The current so-called Somali government lawmakers should follow suit. We are telling them to take part in the jihad via the same procedures," the spokesman added.

Ismail, who was from Somaliland, joined parliament in 2009 as one of 275 Islamists nominated by former President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed. He joined al Shabaab the following year, accusing the government of abandoning religious principles.
Japan mass killing sparks debate: why didn't the system prevent it?

By Linda Sieg and Minami Funakoshi

TOKYO, July 27 (Reuters) - A day after the mass murder of 19 people at a facility for the disabled, many shocked Japanese were questioning why the only suspect was discharged after just two weeks from a hospital to which he'd been forcibly committed under mental health laws.

Some are also wondering why the suspect, who had written letters in February saying he would kill hundreds of handicapped people, was not kept under surveillance after he left hospital.

"Involuntary commitment is done forcefully by the authorities...If the time period drags on longer than necessary, it becomes a serious violation of human rights," Asahi newspaper said in an editorial on Tuesday.

"However, there were warning signs before the incident," said the Asahi, one of Japan's two biggest newspapers. "Was the treatment and monitoring of the man sufficient"?

The suspect, 26-year-old Satoshi Uematsu, gave himself up to police just an hour after the frenzied attack at the Tsukui Yamayuri-En facility in the sleepy town of Sagamihara, southwest of Tokyo early on Tuesday. The victims were stabbed to death and at least 25 other residents of the facility were wounded.

On Wednesday, he was sent from a regional jail in Sagamihara to the Yokohama District Public Prosecutors Office in Kanagawa prefecture.

Uematsu had said in the letters to a top politician that he could "obliterate 470 disabled people". He gave detailed plans of how he would do so, including breaking into the facility at night and targeting the severely disabled, media reported.

After questioning by police, to whom he repeated his extreme comments, Uematsu was sent to a hospital on Feb. 19. He was discharged on March 2 after a doctor deemed he had improved and was no longer a threat to himself or others.

Given the warning signs, mainstream media raised the question of whether Uematsu had been discharged too soon from hospital, where he had tested positive for marijuana use and exhibited signs of paranoia.

Experts said there were no legal limits on the length of involuntary hospitalisation but a discharge was required once the patient was no longer deemed a danger to himself or others. The decision is up to the doctors, so it's difficult to second guess.

"The general public might think, 'Why was such a person let loose?' but forcible commitment is against the person's will so the conditions should be strict," said Fumie Kyo, a lawyer specialising in mental health patients' rights.

MEDICAL CARE, CRIME PREVENTION

Nevertheless, Kyo added, it might have been possible to keep Uematsu in hospital longer under protective care even if he was no longer judged a threat to others.

The goal of Japan's hospital commitment system, however, is to provide medical treatment, not prevent crime, experts said.

"If medical treatment is deemed no longer necessary, then the doctor must discharge the patient," said Seijo University professor Teruyuki Yamamoto.

"The law is for the purpose of medical treatment, not for the prevention of crime, so there are limits."

Authorities have not disclosed the hospital where Uematsu was treated or identified the doctor who approved his discharge.

The experts said there was no legal requirement to keep a discharged mental patient under surveillance and indeed, doing so without permission would risk violating his rights unless the patient had previously committed a serious crime.

Still, most agreed the incident had exposed weaknesses in Japan's community support system for discharged mental patients.

"Japan's regional support system for the mentally ill is weak," Kyo, the lawyer, said. "All we have been doing is institutionalise the mentally ill."

What sort of system should be put in place could be a delicate problem in a society where mental illness carries a stigma.

"What is needed from now on is to create a soft system where officials from the department of health ask how the patient is doing," said Toshihiko Matsumoto, a physician who specialises in drug dependence at the National Institute of Mental Health.
UN calls for humanitarian truce in Yemen's Taiz province

DUBAI, July 27 (Reuters) - The United Nations called for a humanitarian truce in the Yemeni province of Taiz after government forces captured a town from Iran-allied Houthi militia in heavy fighting that has spurred allegations of war crimes.

The fighting has complicated U.N.-sponsored peace talks, as envoys for the Houthis have delayed responding to U.N. proposals calling for Houthi pullouts from cities they control, including the capital Sanaa, and the creation of an inclusive government.

James McGoldrick, the U.N. Humanitarian Coordinator for Yemen, voiced alarm at increasing bloodshed in the southwestern Taiz Governorate, particularly the al-Sarari area, and the closure of Taiz city, the regional capital.

He urged all warring parties to agree immediately to a "humanitarian pause" to protect civilians and cooperate with humanitarian agencies to help treat and evacuate war-wounded and deliver urgently needed medicine into the embattled zone.

McGoldrick warned both parties that holding civilian populations hostage and depriving them of humanitarian assistance was illegal under international humanitarian law.

Hadi supporters control most of Taiz, Yemen's third largest city with an estimated pre-war population of 300,000, but it is sealed off by Houthi forces on three sides.

There were conflicting reports on the fighting in al-Sarari, a Houthi stronghold southeast of Taiz captured by troops loyal to President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi earlier this week.

A Houthi envoy on a ceasefire committee assigned to oversee a shaky truce in Taiz wrote to the U.N. that Sarari residents had been subjected to "war crimes" including house burnings and the detention of 49 civilians including women and children.

"We call on you to swiftly intervene to stop these gangs and limit the massacres they have begun to commit against unarmed civilians," Ahmed al-Msawa said in the letter, seen by Reuters.

Two residents of a hamlet adjacent to Sarari said that at least 15 Houthi combatants were killed or wounded in the fighting. They said 40 other Houthis were taken prisoner but denied that any women or children were among them. They said most Sarari residents had fled to neighbouring communities.

Hadi supporters have denied setting fires to houses and accused the Houthis of booby-trapping a Sarari mosque to try to kill as many Hadi supporters as possible.

A Saudi-led alliance intervened in Yemen's conflict in March 2015 to try to restore Hadi to power after the Houthis seized Sanaa and advanced on his temporary headquarters in Aden, forcing him to flee to Saudi Arabia.

A ceasefire accord between the Houthis and Hadi loyalists has repeatedly been violated since it took effect in April. Peace talks in Kuwait since then have done little to end fighting that has killed more than 6,200 people and displaced more than 2.5 million in the Arabian Peninsula state.
Morocco to retry 24 jailed over Western Sahara clashes in 2010

By Aziz El Yaakoubi

RABAT, July 27 (Reuters) - Morocco will retry 24 civilians convicted of killing members of the security forces during clashes in Western Sahara in 2010, a victory for human rights campaigners who say allegations they were forced to confess were never addressed.

The cassation court on Wednesday ordered a retrial in a civilian court for the defendants who were jailed for between 20 years and life by a military court in 2013, Mohamed Sebbar, head of the National Human Rights Council, said. Morocco outlawed military trials for civilians in 2014.

Two lawyers confirmed the news, which comes as Morocco negotiates with the United Nations about the return of members of its Western Sahara mission expelled from the country after U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon described Morocco's 1975 annexation of the territory as an "occupation".

Moroccan authorities say 13 people were killed - 10 security officers, a firefighter and two civilians - and dozens injured on Nov. 8, 2010 when authorities dismantled a camp where thousands of Western Saharans, known as Sahrawis, were protesting.

The camp had been set up to protest against unemployment.

Morocco annexed Western Sahara in 1975, when former colonial power Spain withdrew and says the territory should come under its sovereignty, while the exiled Polisario Front says Western Sahara is an independent state.

U.S.-based Human Rights Watch has said the defendants, who include several advocates of human rights and independence for Western Sahara, had been jailed by the military without any investigation into allegations their confessions were extracted under torture.

Western Sahara is a sparsely populated tract of desert about the size of Britain, with rich fishing grounds off its coast and reserves of phosphates.
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U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Tuesday he would like to visit Pakistan in the near future to review bilateral cooperation and discuss regional issues, the Foreign Ministry said in Islamabad.

During a meeting held on the sidelines of the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) in Lao capital Vientiane, Kerry exchanged views with Pakistan Foreign Affairs Adviser Sartaj Aziz on the regional situation with special reference to Afghanistan and agreed on the importance of promoting the Afghan-led reconciliation process.

Kerry's statement came amid tensions between the two sides on several issues including the halt of subsidized F-16 fighter planes and a U.S. drone strike that killed the Afghan Taliban chief, Akhtar Mansour in May.

Pakistan says that the U.S. attack in Balochistan province has harmed efforts for the peace process in Afghanistan.

Kerry appreciated Pakistan's determined efforts to eliminate terrorist groups in Pakistan's tribal belt with considerable success, a Foreign Ministry statement said.

The U.S. secretary of state assured Sartaj Aziz that the United States is ready to improve and expand its multi-dimensional partnership with Pakistan.

The two sides also reviewed Pakistan-U.S. bilateral relations.
MUNICH - Germany - The attacks occur daily within the Schengen death zone, and yet not a word from Merkel, the woman who invited millions of migrants into Europe last year causing a crisis of infiltration never before seen in the continent before.

Communities have been blighted in Germany as their towns and villages are taken over by hundreds of thousands of people who harbour deadly terrorists waiting for their time to strike.

The free movement within the Schengen death zone enables these terrorist cells to travel freely within Europe, and to smuggle deadly weapons without any form of checks at borders.

Countries like Kosovo where there are vast amounts of unlicensed guns are vying for EU membership and are currently in the fast-track queue.

The Syrian Jihadi cells that have infiltrated Europe through its open door policy are numbered at a moderate 5,000 by EUROPOL, however if one were to include radicalised homegrown Jihadists, and disenfranchised Muslims within the continent, the numbers would be well up in the 100,000s.

The well trained terrorists that were invited into the EU merged with migrants. These are battle hardened men and women, trained to blend in, who do not overtly look Islamic, and indulge in alcohol and Western customs. They are triggered by their handlers or news events at any given time, their weapons ready, they can commit attacks within the Schengen zone at any point, and for the European security forces, it is akin to finding a needle in a hay stack.

The role of the attacks on Europe encompass many motives, but the main role is to inculcate a feeling of total fear, the second is to make Muslims living in Europe a pariah, to be hated and feared so much that they will escape to the Middle East and the so-called Caliphate. This within Islamic terms is called the Hijra (migration).

The French seem to have borne the brunt of the attacks in recent months with the Nice attack and numerous others. The Germans have had their fair share, but these are silenced as much as possible by the authorities. Western women are targeted and raped by Islamists, but the worst part of this horror is that EU officials cover up the news and they are not reported by the press.

The only solution is to shut off the Schengen free movement zone completely. All borders must be sealed off if Europe is to be saved from this savagery, however one suspects this will never happen under Merkel and Junckers watch.

It is almost as if they invited terror into Europe willingly and are encouraging the deaths of EU citizens with their actions. Maybe it is so, maybe that is their wish, for they have now created a climate of utter terror and fear in Europe where Muslims are outcasts and lepers to the predominantly Christian population.

If nothing is done soon, there will be all-out war in Europe, civil unrest, and riots where people take it upon themselves to commute justice on those they view as wild savages.

They will keep coming and coming, every day, every minute, more will come, and the next day even more, and there will be no checks, no stops, no order, a constant deluge until Europe is no more.
New Delhi: Apple CEO Tim Cook has said the tech giant is "looking forward" to setting up retail stores in India to tap into the booming smartphone market here.

"India is now one of our fastest growing markets. In the first three quarters of this fiscal year, our iPhone sales in India were up 51 per cent year-on-year," Apple CEO Tim Cook said on an investor call.

He added the company has announced setting up of a design and development accelerator to support Indian developers creating innovative applications for iOS and opened a new office in Hyderabad to accelerate maps development.

"We're looking forward to opening retail stores in India down the road, and we see huge potential for that vibrant country," he said without disclosing further details.

Cook, who visited India in May, had discussed issues including manufacturing and setting up retail stores in the country with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

"On a personal note, during the past quarter I visited China and India, and I am very encouraged about our growth prospects in those countries," he said.

Recently the government issued new norms allowing single-brand retail trading and exemption from local sourcing for 'state-of-the-art' and "cutting edge" technology with a waiver for three years, and the option to extend it for five years.

Sources had said Apple may have to submit a fresh application for the same. The Cupertino-based tech giant had yesterday reported its revenues rising to USD 42.4 billion in the third quarter, driven by markets including India, Russia, Brazil, Turkey and Canada.
New Delhi: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley met his state counterparts on Tuesday to forge a political consensus on a much-awaited sales tax reform that is held up in parliament, but made little progress in breaking the impasse.

The proposed tax reform, the biggest since India's independence from Britain in 1947, seeks to replace a slew of taxes and levies in 29 states, transforming the nation of near 1.3 billion people into a customs union.

Analysts say the goods services tax (GST) could boost India's economic growth by up to 2 percentage points.

While there is a broad political support for the measure, differences persist on the details, in particular pitching the tax at the right level to offset possible revenue losses.

Indian states are also not ready to share taxation powers with the government on transactions up to a certain level.Tuesday's meeting failed to iron out those differences.

"I am sure that this will be resolved," said West Bengal finance minister Amit Mitra, who has been tasked with building a consensus among states."It has to be resolved in order for (the) GST to happen."

For the tax reform to become a reality, Jaitley needs not only the backing of states but also of two-thirds members in the opposition-dominated Rajya Sabha to pass a constitutional enabling amendment.

The current monsoon session of parliament was widely viewed as the best chance for the government to pass the constitution amendment bill before campaigning hots up for state elections next year.

But almost a week and a half into the four-week long monsoon session, the future of the tax reform remains in doubt, thanks to a persistent standoff in parliament between the main opposition Congress party and the treasury benches.

Jaitley's meeting with state ministers was aimed at putting pressure on Congress, which, with its 60 members in the 245-member upper house, holds the key to the bill's fate.

Congress, the original author of the reform, has refused to back what it calls a "flawed" bill.

The party has also been angered by a government investigation launched last week against one of its former state chief ministers over a case in which party leader Sonia Gandhi and her son and heir apparent, Rahul, already face trial. The deny wrongdoing.
The Cabinet had approved a proposal by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe to enter into an agreement with Exim Bank of India for the loan.

Colombo: India has approved a USD 318 million loan for Sri Lanka Railways to upgrade its communications system and rolling stock in the Tamil-dominated north.

Sri Lankan government spokesman and minister Gayantha Karunathilake said that the money will be used to improve the signal system from Maho to Anuradhapura in the north central province and from Anuradhapura to Omanthai in the north.

It will also be used to buy six power sets with air-conditioned carriages, 10 engines and 160 carriages, 30 wagons with oil tanks and 20 container carrying wagons.

The Cabinet had approved a proposal by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe to enter into an agreement with Exim Bank of India for the loan.

India has already given loans of about USD 996 million to develop Sri Lanka's railway service which were used to improve northern and southern railway lines and buy engines and power sets.
Mumbai: Just like many, Anushka Sharma has now joined the bandwagon and gotten hooked to Pokemon Go. The actress, who is riding high on the success of Sultan, went out on Pokemon hunting and now the actress wants to catch them all!

In the video posted by the actress herself, we see Anushka, dressed in a plain black tank top, catching Pokemons on her phone. The moment the actress caught her first Pokemon, she couldnt help but throw her fist in the air and grin brightly.

Hooked But guys PLEASE be careful while playing !! #PokemonGo A video posted by AnushkaSharma1588 (@anushkasharma) on Jul 26, 2016 at 11:09am PDT

#PokemonGo A video posted by AnushkaSharma1588 (@anushkasharma) on Jul 26, 2016 at 11:20am PDT

Well, seems like our girl wants to become a Pokemon hunter and by the looks of it, we have no doubt that she will excel at it.

Anushka isnt the only one who is down with this frenzy. Apparently, we days ago, Shah Rukh Khan made headlines after he tweeted about Pokemon.
Global life expectancy increased by five years between 2000 and 2015, the World Health Organization said, crediting progress in Africa against HIV, AIDS and malaria.

The gains made over the last 15 years are the largest since the 1960s, when the world especially Europe and Japan- saw broad socio-economic improvements linked to the recovery from World War II, WHO said. On average, a child born in 2015 can expect to live 71.4 years- with females (73.8 years) having better prospects than males (69.1 years), according to data published in WHO's annual World Health Statistics report.

Director-general of the UN agency, Margaret Chan, said major strides had been made against "preventable and treatable diseases", especially through widened access to antiretroviral therapy for HIV.

The last 15 years have helped reverse the regressions seen through 1990s, when the AIDS epidemic ravaged much of Africa sparking declining health indicators across the continent.

Despite progress in the world's poorer countries, WHO stressed that there remain significant life expectancy gaps between developed and developing nations.

The data indicates that a female child born in Japan currently has the longest average lifespan at 86.8 years. For men, Switzerland offers the most promising outlook, with a life expectancy of 81.3 years.

Sierra Leone ominously holds last place for both women and men, at 50.8 years and 49.3 respectively. WHO pointed to several key areas where advances were essential in order to raise the average lifespan further, including reducing the number of smokers worldwide -- currently 1.1 billion -- and providing clean water to the 1.8 billion people who drink contaminated water on a regular basis.
The victim was kidnapped and sexually assaulted by two minor boys. (Representational Image)

Madurai: In a shocking incident, an eight-year-old boy was allegedly sexually assaulted and murdered by two juveniles here, police said on Wednesday.

The two students of Class Xth, were detained on Tuesday night and booked under relevant provisions of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO).

The incident came to light after the body of the boy, who was missing since July 24, was spotted at a site near a bridge at Muniyadapuram village, police said.

The victim's father, a filling station employee, had registered a complaint of missing on July 25 that his son had gone missing while playing in front his house.

Investigations revealed that the victim was last seen with the two students, who kidnapped and sexually assaulted him and then murdered him by slitting his throat, police said.

The teenagers then dumped his body near the bridge and fled from the scene of crime, police said.
A case was registered under provisions of Information Technology Act and searches were conducted at the residence of the couple at Sholinganallur. (Photo: File)

Chennai: A man and his wife have been arrested in Chennai on charges of running websites featuring child pornography and collecting huge sum of money as membership fee to view the illegal obscene content, police said on Tuesday.

Cyber Crime cell of CB-CID got a tip-off that two websites were displaying obscene images and videos of children, a police press release said.

"The information also revealed that a resident of Chennai is hosting these websites," it said.

An inquiry was conducted and it revealed that a man Siddhattha Velu and his wife Priscilla Margaret Dhanaraj were linked with these websites and their email ids were also linked to them, it said.

"Payment for membership of one of the websites to the tune of approximately Rs 2.4 crore was credited in the account of Siddhattha Velu with a bank in Bangalore ."

A case was registered under provisions of Information Technology Act and searches were conducted at the residence of the couple at Sholinganallur in Chennai.

Materials establishing the couple's links with these two child porn websites besides other websites with porn content were recovered and seized, the release said.
The family of an AAP activist who allegedly committed suicide last week has told the National Commission for Women that the woman was asked to make "compromises with her body" if she wanted to rise in the party, NCW Chairperson Lalitha Kumaramangalam said. (Photo: PTI)

New Delhi: The family of an AAP activist who allegedly committed suicide last week has told the National Commission for Women that the woman was asked to make "compromises with her body" if she wanted to rise in the party, NCW Chairperson Lalitha Kumaramangalam said.

"She was told you should stop loving your body so much and compromise, unless you do that you will not rise in the party. The last straw was when the man threatened to abduct her two daughters," according to Lalitha Kumaramangalam.

NCW chief also alleged that the saga led all the way up to the Delhi president of the Aam Aadmi Party. The family also complained to the Commission that they were being harassed and that the school access of the 28-year-old woman's two daughters had been stopped.

AAP worker Soni had committed suicide last week. According to her family, she had gone into depression after her alleged molester, a party colleague, was released on bail.

AAP spokesperson Deepak Bajpai reacted to the allegations saying "the accused has never been associated with the party even as a primary member. It was only on the insistence of the party and Delhi goverment that the case was registered and the accused was arrested."

The NCW chairperson said she was told that the family is being harassed. "The daughters' admission to school has been stopped and the local Aam Aadmi Party MLA was behind it. "I have spoken to HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar and he has assured me that he will get both the girls admitted to a school."

The family also had concerns about the security provided to them and the NCW has requested the Crime Branch to ensure 24-hour security for the family.

Delhi Police crime branch on Wednesday arrested Ramesh Bhardwaj from Haryana in connection with the case.
The event 'Bharat Parv' will be held in the heart of the national capital at Rajpath to celebrate India's Independence and promote the spirit of patriotism among citizens and is likely to be attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. (Photo; PTI)

New Delhi: The capital will witness a mega event to mark the Independence Day with the Modi government deciding to hold a cultural spectacle spanning six days from August 12, nearly two-and-half-months after it organised an extravaganza to celebrate its second anniversary at India Gate.

The event 'Bharat Parv' will be held in the heart of the national capital at Rajpath to celebrate India's Independence and promote the spirit of patriotism among citizens and is likely to be attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Tourism Ministry officials said.

There will be as many as 100 stalls set up to display cuisine and handicraft of various states. However, unlike the 'two-year celebrations' in May where ministers and mega Bollywood stars like Amitabh Bachchan took part, the 'Bharat Parv' will see participation of local artistes from different states.

The event would also have performance by armed forces bands. The historic India Gate would also be kept illuminated during the event, which will be inaugurated on 12th August 2016 at 5 pm. The celebrations will conclude on August 18.

The 'Bharat Parv' will see display of culture, cuisine and handicraft of various states through their regional associations, 'sangathans', cultural and social organisations, the ministry officials said.

There will be 50 stalls dedicated to cuisine of various regions of the country and 50 more stalls will display the colourful handicraft and handloom items.

In addition, there will be 12 to 15 separate pavilions earmarked for states to display their tourism products, culture & heritage, achievements, development progress etc, the officials said.

"The states of Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Assam, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Nagaland, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Odisha, Haryana and Kerala will bring local association and sangthans to showcase diverse yet united flavours of the country," they said. This is first-of-its-kind celebrations to mark the Independence Day, they added.

Besides Tourism Ministry, which is nodal ministry for this event, other ministries like Textiles, Culture and Defence have also pitched in to make the programme a success.

To review the arrangements, Tourism Secretary Vinod Zutshi recently chaired a meeting which was also attended by representatives from various central government ministries, representative from state governments/UTs, authorities from Police, health and CPWD.
Kolkata: International human rights organisation Amnesty International has appealed to the Manipur government to drop charges against activist Irom Chanu Sharmila before she ends her 16-year-old fast on August 9.

In a statement, it said the state government must immediately and unconditionally release the 44-year-old activist and drop all charges against her.

Arijit Sen, project manager at Amnesty International India, said Ms Sharmila's iconic fight against the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA) was bound to take a new course with her decision which was announced on Tuesday.

Amnesty has described her as a "Prisoner of Conscience" as she has been under arrest for her fast which is seen by the police as an attempt to commit suicide.

"This also comes at a time when the Supreme Court has ordered 1,528 cases of alleged extra-judicial execution in Manipur over the last two decades to be investigated. Now the government needs to do its part to pave the way for the repeal of AFSPA," Mr Sen said.

The "Iron Lady" of Manipur on Tuesday said she would end her fast on August 9, get married and take the political route to fight for the repeal of AFSPA.

She will fight as an Independent candidate from Malom constituency in the state Assembly polls due next year.
NIZAMABAD: Agriculture minister Pocharam Srinivas Reddy on Tuesday said that oustees of Mallannasagar project in Medak district are happy with the R&R package announced by the state government. As per GO 123, the state government is providing suitable compensation and alternative housing to the oustees, he said. Speaking to newsmen here on Tuesday along with MLA B. Ganesh Gupta, Mr Srinivas Reddy said that the Opposition was deliberately provoking the people. The TRS government initiated the Kaleshwaram project with the aim of irrigating one crore acres, and farmers were voluntarily giving their land, he said.
Chamoli: Uttarakhand Chief Minister Harish Rawat on Wednesday confirmed an incursion by Chinese troops in the state's Chamoli district.

This is a matter of concern. Our border is peaceful. We have asked the government to increase vigilance. I believe the government will take necessary cognisance, and the information is absolutely correct, Rawat told ANI.

He, however, said it was a good thing that the troops didnt reach one important canal in the area.

Our officials had gone to examine the revenue line as it is our responsibility. Some Chinese activities were found, he added.

The Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) had sent a report about this incident to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on July 19, which was the date of incursion.

Uttarakhand shares a 350-kilometre long boundary with China and similar attempts at Chinese incursions have been reported in the past.

The last reported Chinese incursion in the state was when the word China was inscribed on rocks near Mana Pass in Chamoli district of Uttarakhand.

Dekhna padega kya hai, intrusion hai ya nahi. Report mangwa ke dekhenge (We have to see if there was intrusion. We have asked for a report) said Kiren Rijuju, Minister of State for Home, responding to the news.
New Delhi: With its lone aircraft carrier, INS Vikramaditya, undergoing maintenance for the next eight months, India will be left without a single operational aircraft carrier prepared for combat during that duration.

This comes as the Comptroller Auditor General (CAG), in a report to the Parliament, indicated that the much awaited 40,000-tonne indigenous aircraft carrier, INS Vikrant, will be ready only by 2023.

According to reports, the CAG, in a damning report, accused the Navy of not forming a long-term strategic plan in sync with its geopolitical aspirations.

Criticising the Navy for its faulty planning and execution in INS Vikrants construction, the CAG also called out on the improbability of India having a two-carrier force till 2023. The Navy has long been pitching for three aircraft carriers, one each for the western and eastern sea-board and an additional one.

The Navy had also ordered a fleet of MiG-29K fleet from Russia for $2 billion for INS Vikramaditya and INS Vikrant. But the fleet, which includes 45 fighter jets, is riddled with problems, the CAG report added.

However, the Navy is confident of getting INS Vikrant on board by December 2018.

"INS Vikrant will not have its Russian aviation complex and the Barak-8 long-range surface-to-air missile systems. We are planning sea trials from 2018 onwards," said a senior officer.

INS Vikrant was first approved in May 1999 with its construction beginning in November 2006, and is expected to be complete by December 2018.
4 Dalit youths were tied to the vehicle and thrashed in full public view in Gujarat's Una. (Photo: PTI)

Una/ Rajkot: The Gujarat Crime Investigation Department (CID) probing the July 11 flogging of a Dalit family by gau rakshaks for skinning a dead cow, has established that the cow was killed by a lion, contrary to what the gau rakshaks claimed was a case of cow slaughter.

According to a report in The Indian Express, investigators are still not clear who informed the gau rakshaks about the cow being skinned outside Mota Samadhiyala village in Una taluka.

The report says that one Naranbhai tipped off the gau rakshaks about an alleged cow slaughter incident in Mota Samadhiyala. This is according to an entry made at 1:30 pm on July 11 in the Una police station records attributed to state control room, Ahmedabad.

But this detail is fishy as the attack on the Dalits took place at 10 am, as per the FIR.

Vasarams father Balu Sarvaiya told The Indian Express that he got a call around 8 am from Najabhai Ahir of Bediya village that a lion had killed his cow and he needed someone to dispose off the carcass.

Balu sent his son Vasaram to clear the carcass. Soon after Vasaram and others began the task of skinning the carcass, a white vehicle passed by. A few minutes later, the white vehicle returned, with another vehicle and 30-35 men on motorcycles.

Balu claims that the people who emerged from the vehicle carrying sticks, abused and started beating Vasaram and the others. He was informed of the beating, but when he reached the place, he was thrashed too.

On Monday, the CID had sought fresh custody of the accused, who were apprehended on July 12.

Investigators want to find out who recorded the video of the flogging and circulated it on social media, and whose orders were they following.

The role of the policemen at Una has been found to be suspicious, with dereliction of duty confirmed, though no criminal proceedings have been initiated against them so far. Four policemen were suspended on July 18 and a departmental inquiry was ordered.

When police reached the site where the carcass was kept, they found Balu unconscious and called an ambulance.

Police station officer (PSO) Kanjibhai Chudasama has been suspended for allowing the gau rakshaks to go, after they abandoned the Dalit men outside the Una police station. Hardevsinh Parmar, head constable of D staff which is responsible for intelligence gathering, was suspended for his failure to report the happenings.

16 people including a Muslim have so far been arrested and are in judicial custody.

The incident had led to an uproar by Opposition parties during the Monsoon Session of Parliament.
Various Dalit rights organisations have announced to organise a mass gathering of the community here on July 31 to decide the road map of their movement. (Photo: PTI)

Ahmedabad: In the wake brutal thrashing of Dalits in Una, at least 1,000 people from the community in Banaskantha district have so far expressed their desire to convert to Buddhism, stating that there was not point in continuing with Hinduism, if they are not treated as equals.

These Dalit community members have even filled up the forms giving their consent for the religious conversion, which will soon be submitted to the government authorities.

Meanwhile, various Dalit rights organisations have announced to organise a mass gathering of the community here on July 31 to decide the road map of their movement.

"Dalits across the state are deeply pained by the recent incident in Una. It shows that we are still subjected to discrimination and various atrocities in the name of caste, religion and profession. Thus, several dalits from Banaskantha have expressed their desire to covert to Buddhism," local Dalit leader and BDS secretary Dinesh Makwana said.

"In the last three days, thousands of Dalits took part in the protest rallies here. During our meetings, we came to the conclusion that there is no meaning in practicing Hinduism if we are not treated as equal. Thus, we have distributed forms among Dalits, who wish to convert. So far, around 1,000 such forms have been submitted back to us," Makwana said.

Conversion in Gujarat is governed by the Gujarat Freedom of Religion Act, which came into force in 2008. According to the Act, it is mandatory for a person, who wants to convert, to take permission from the district collector by submitting an application with a prescribed form.

According to Makwana, these forms, given to BDS by around 1,000 dalits, will be submitted to the Collector soon.

"We expect that some more Dalits will join our movement and fill up their forms for conversion. After collecting all such forms, we will decide a date to submit it to the Collector," added Makwana.

On July 11, some Dalit youths from Mota Samadhiyala village in Una taluka of Gir-Somnath district were flogged by cow protection vigilantes when these dalits were skinning a dead cow. The accused thrashed them alleging that they had killed the cow. After a video of the incident went viral, it sparked off violent protests across Gujarat.

Meanwhile, talking about the planned mass gathering on July 31 in Ahmedabad, Jignesh Mewani of Una Dalit Atyachar Ladal Samiti, said, "We have sought permission from the administration to organise a mass gathering of dalits on July 31 near collector office. Even if they dont give permission, thousands of dalits will converge here on that day. Dalits will decide the future road map of our agitation during this convention."

"To make this government understand the importance of Dalits, we have asked more than 1 lakh cleaning staff (safai kamdars) of various civic bodies to stay away from their work for at least on week. We also want agriculture land for Dalits, as they no longer want to continue their profession of skinning dead animals," Mewani added.

Office bearers of the Gujarat Dalit Sangathan (GDS), astate-level body of dalit rights, said the issue of conversion will also be raised during this convention.

"Just like Banaskantha, we will request dalits from across Gujarat to leave Hinduism and embrace Buddhism, which is free from caste-based discrimination. During the mass gathering on July 31, the road map for mass conversion will be discussed in detail," GDS secretary Ashok Samrat said.
Former Indian foreign secretary Nirupama Rao and former Pakistan ambassador Husain Haqqani during the launch of his book India vs Pakistan: Cant we be friends? (Photo: R.SAMUEL)

Bengaluru: If India and Pakistan couldn't sort out their differences with 55 high level summits, what guarantee is there, that a 56th will break the logjam, asks Husain Haqqani, former Pakistan ambassador to the US and author of India vs. Pakistan Why Cant We Just Be Friends?', cautioning against the high expectations of a breakthrough every time Indian and Pakistani leaders reach out to each other, as Prime Ministers Narendra Modi and Nawaz Sharif did with their Christmas Day hug. It can only be followed by a Pathankot, he said.

Spelling out how "Kashmir is in grave danger of going the way of Palestine, "Ambassador Haqqani, who was in the city to promote the book (that he describes as 'the ultimate primer on India-Pakistan relations,') says that the world's sympathy for Kashmir, never as much of an attention grabber as Palestine, was slipping.

Contrast the lukewarm response that Mr Sharif received when he brought up the Kashmir issue during an address to the UNSC in 2015, with the huge support Pakistan garnered from 58 members of the body in 1948, Mr Haqqani lays the blame at Pakistan's use of Kashmir to settle scores for the loss in 71 of its eastern wing, its fathering of jihadi irregulars to counter Indias overwhelmingly superior conventional forces and its attempts to militarily alter the LOC, as being contributory factors.

Dont mistake me. As a Pakistani, I have immense sympathy for the plight of the Kashmiris, caught as they are between the Pakistani establishment and the Indian Army, but as in the case of Palestine, where the international community has cooled off after backing a Palestinian state for years, saying it cannot happen, not at the cost of the destruction of Israel, Kashmir too, cannot be resolved according to Pakistans demands."

Speaking against the backdrop of renewed violence in Jammu and Kashmir that Delhi openly charges, is being instigated by Islamabad-backed jihadists, Mr Haqqani said in an interview to Deccan Chronicle on Tuesday: The status quo has not changed since 1947. All this talk of a plebiscite is just that  talk, and refers to an anecdote in his book of a little known moment when then Pakistan President Ayub Khan accepted that a plebiscite was not possible.

Mr Haqqani recounts, how in 1962, post the Indo-China war when the US Assistant Secretary of State at the time, W. Averell Harriman, proposed an India Pakistan discussion on Kashmir without pre-conditions to Ayub Khan, Mr Harriman also told Ayub that Pakistans demand for a plebiscite in Kashmir could not be fulfilled and that the Vale of Kashmir controlled by India could not be transferred to Pakistan.

Ayubs response was that if a plebiscite was not possible, he was prepared to consider any alternative where the views of all three stake-holders  India, Pakistan and the people of Kashmir  was taken into consideration.

Kashmir is not the problem, its a mere symptom of the problem, Mr Haqqani said.

The problem? Pakistans refusal to accept  as a former Pakistan Army chief told Mr Haqqani  that after investing so much time and energy on the issue, Pakistan could not swallow the bitter pill that the Kashmir dispute may not be resolved any time soon.

As the former diplomat sensationally admitted, even President Pervez Musharraf told Pakistani lawmakers  that the Lashkar-e-Tayyaba was a reserve force! The irregulars, meant to keep India off-balance and stop its rise as a South Asian economic powerhouse.

Why do we even want to be equal? asked the former diplomat. Pakistan, he said, had squandered all its energies in a fruitless attempt to achieve equality with India, falling back first on the US which helped it maintain military parity with India, without realising that enrolling Pakistan as a partner... buttressed conflict in South Asia.

Instead of using its resources to provide better education and a standard of living to its people, Pakistans military cornered the biggest share of the countrys assets. Already large, with US munificence, it became twice as large, giving the military the idea that it could flex its muscles against India and settle Kashmir. China, he said, was the new US.

Haqqani, who recounts how Musharrafs request to the curator of the last Mughal Emperor Bahadur Shah Zafars mausoleum in Myanmar to replace the legend Shahenshah-e- Hindustan with Shahenshah-e-Hindustan as Pakistan, was symptomatic of the malaise says: Even Pakistans nuclear arms had not ended its insecurity. Instead, it feeds its India obsession.
New Delhi: Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi is expected to mount a scathing attack on the government in the Lok Sabha on Thursday over the issue of rising prices of essential commodities.

Party sources said that the House is expected to take up a short duration discussion on the issue.

With the prices of pulses and some other commodities skyrocketing in recent months, the main opposition party has launched a sharp attack on the Narendra Modi dispensation for hitting hard the common man.

Last week, Congress President Sonia Gandhi had targeted the government on the issue of price rise and asked party MPs to be aggressive and hold the government and its ministers accountable for it.

Picking holes in the government's claims of economic growth, she said "when it comes to growth and GDP figures that they tout, questions on their veracity are raised even by their own party leaders. BJP blocked every important FDI initiative of the UPA government. Yet now it has put in place a free-for-all policy even in sensitive areas like defence.
New Delhi: Amid the continuing unrest in Kashmir, India on Wednesday asked Pakistan to stop cross border terror activities and asserted it will take all necessary steps to safeguard national security and territorial integrity.

The government told Parliament that terrorism emanating from territories under Pakistan's control remained India's "core concern" and that the Pathankot attack and strikes in various places in Kashmir have highlighted the continued threat of cross border terrorism and infiltration.

"In response to Pakistan's recent statements in support of known terrorists killed in India, Government has asked Pakistan to stop all terrorism and anti-India activities in Pakistan or territories under its control," Minister of State for External Affairs V K Singh, said replying to a question in Lok Sabha.

He said Pakistan has been told that it cannot be in denial on the impact of terrorism on the bilateral ties, and it must expeditiously bring to justice all those guilty of Mumbai terror attack as well as of the Pathankot strike.

The Minister said the government remained continuously vigilant and "firm" in its resolve to take all necessary steps to effectively safeguard India's security and territorial integrity.

Singh said Pakistan has been in "illegal and forcible" occupation of approximately 78,000 sq kms of Indian territory in Jammu and Kashmir.

"China continues to be in illegal occupation of approximately 38,000 sq kms in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir.

"In addition, under the so-called 'Sino-Pakistan Boundary Agreement of 1963', Pakistan illegally ceded 5180 sq kms of Indian territory in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir to China," he said.

About infrastructure projects being implemented by China in PoK, he said the government was aware about it. "Government keeps a constant watch on all developments having a bearing on India's national interest and takes all necessary measures to safeguard it."

Replying to a separate question, Singh said the government was aware of reports that the Tibet Military Command's political rank will be elevated by China to one level higher than its counterpart provincial-level military commands, and that it will come directly under the leadership of People's Liberation Army (PLA).

"Government is also aware of infrastructural development in the border areas on the Chinese side. Government has seen media reports, which are not authenticated, that China plans to extend its rail link to Nepal which might involve building a tunnel under Mount Everest.

"Government keeps a constant watch on all developments having a bearing on India s security and takes all necessary measures to safeguard it," he said.
New Delhi: Giving relief to Congress VP Rahul Gandhi, the Supreme Court said on Wednesday that in criminal defamation cases, the police cant inquire into the complaint and the magistrate should independently examine its truth or veracity before taking cognisance and issuing summons.

The apex court was hearing Mr Gandhis petition seeking to quash the summons for his remark of RSS role in Mahatma Gandhis assassination.

During the resumed hearing of the petition filed by Rahul Gandhi, seeking to quash the summons and criminal proceedings, a Bench of Justice Dipak Misra and Rohinton Nariman pointed out that Police has no role in criminal defamation cases.

But in this case the magistrate had called for a report from the police on the alleged statement made by Rahul Gandhi about the role of RSS in assassination of Mahatma Gandhi and on that basis taken cognizance of the complaint which is erroneous. The matter will have to be sent back to the magistrate for fresh consideration, the bench observed.
New Delhi: Chinese troops transgressed the border on land and by air in Chamoli district of Uttarakhand earlier this month when its men stationed themselves in a dimilitarised zone and its helicopters flew in the Indian air space for over five minutes.

Sources said the incident took place on July 19 in Barahoti prompting the establishment to review the security along the 350 kilometres border with Tibet in this area, official sources said.

Something to worry about: Rawat

While Uttarakhand Chief Minister Harish Rawat termed the development as something to worry about hoping that Centre will pay heed to his request for increased vigil, Union Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju said ITBP had been asked to look into the matter.

Chinese Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) troops were seen in the area when state government officials accompanied by ITBP personnel in civil visit Barahoti ground. The sources said that the civilian team was sent back by Chinese Peoples Liberation Army troops, who claimed it to be their land and recognised it as Wu-Je.

Later, it was found that a Chinese helicopter hovered over the ground for nearly five minutes before returning to its side, the sources said.
Srinagar: Curfew was on Wednesday reimposed in parts of Kashmir including five police station areas of the city to thwart a separatist march to Kulgam district even as mobile services were partially restored in the Valley which has been rocked by violence since July 8.

Authorities had lifted curfew from Kashmir except Anantnag town on Tuesday following which it was rocked by fresh protests. Meanwhile, separatists called for social boycott of lawmakers and other activists associated with ruling Peoples Demcratic Party (Party) and other mainstream parties after dubbing them as collaborators in Indian occupation.

People shall ostracize them and boycott them at all levels, socially and publically. People shall refuse to interact with them at community and public places. They shall no longer be allowed to exploit the people and the sacred freedom struggle, a statement issued here by recently formed issue-based alliance of separatist leaders Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Muhammad Yasin Malik said. Earlier, Geelani was arrested by police after he tried to defy restrictions to march towards Kulgam district.
Hyderabad: Not only Eamcet-2, the Eamcet-1 question papers were also leaked, said sources on Wednesday. The Crime Investigation Department (CID) has arrested at least four persons including the main suspect Rajgopal Reddy, who was earlier involved in Dr NTR University of Health Sciences Post-graduate Medical entran-ce scam of 2014, in connection with the Eamcet-2 question paper leak.

CID officials suspect 60 or more students benefitted from the Eamcet-2 leak.

More than `15 crore were paid as advance by the students before the exam. The students were flown to Mumbai, Bengaluru and Kanigiri in Andhra Pradesh by a few brokers in the first week of July.

They were put up in hotels and the question papers were handed over to them two days before the examination. The brokers also provided the correct answers.

Each student paid a huge amount for the papers, not less than Rs 25 lakh.

According to sources, Rajgopal Reddy got three sets of question papers of the entrance test. It is suspected that the question papers were handed over to the students by July 7, two days before the entrance test, a CID source said.

Insider at Delhi press behind Eamcet-2 paper leak

The CID has arrested at least four persons including the main suspect Rajgopal Reddy, in connection with the Eamcet-2 question paper leak. Apart from Rajgopal Reddy, the other arrested have been identified as Vishnu, the owner of a consultancy firm, Ramesh, a middleman, and an associate named Tirumal.

Probe officials further found that the question paper was leaked with the help of an insider from a printing press in Delhi. The CID team, who have gathered the call details of the suspects, also found that two JNTU employees had been constantly in touch with them.

CID officials have submitted the report to Chief Miniter K. Chandrasekhar Rao. They are likely to officially show the arrest of suspects and reveal the full investigation details in the next few days.

The probe is in the final stage. After verifying various evidences and clues, the investigation team has found out how they operated and earned money by leaking the paper. said a CID official.
People gather at the site of the collapsed building being constructed by the Film Nagar Cultural Club at Filmnagar, Hyderabad, on Saturday. (Photo: DC)

Hyderabad: The GHMC has issued red notices to owners of all dilapidated buildings. The corporation will demolish all structures that have been tagged unsafe if the owners do not do so.

The decision was taken following the recent death of a person after a dilapidated commercial establishment that was listed for demolition collapsed. The red notices are for the inmates to vacate the premises immediately. GHMC will also move the courts to secure vacation of stays secured by the owners.

Speaking to this newspaper, GHMC commissioner B. Janardhan Reddy said, We recently inspected the Old City area where an owner had leased out a shop to a tenant 20 years ago. As cracks have developed and the roof is leaking, the owner wants to demolish the structure, however, the tenant is refusing to vacate.

He also said, GHMC has identified 200 such cases where the tenant has got a stay from the court against the owner. Another issue is that the owners themselves are unwilling to move out. When we counsel them, they promise to repair and renovate the buildings but dont do so and continue to live in the old structures which can collapse anytime. Then there are owners who approach courts for stay orders against the GHMCs notice.

He added, The inmates are not worried about their lives and continue to stay in these houses. Whenever a mishap occurs, the blame is on GHMC, while it is the people who have to take action.

Assistant city planners have been directed to conduct another survey with engineering officers and identify the buildings to be demolished. As per records, out of the 1,997 dilapidated buildings identified, 752 have been demolished. Also, 96 owners have renovated the buildings and action is pending on 1,149 buildings.
Hyderabad: The Eamcet question paper leak has come as a big blow for the Telangana state government. The last Eamcet leak incident was exactly two decades ago, in 1996.

Though there had been instances of malpractices like hi-tech copying using Bluetooth mobile phones etc., in the last five years in undivided AP, successive governments had thwarted these attempts with the help of intelligence and police departments even before the candidates had entered the exam centres, and had protected the credibility of Eamcet.

Only three days ago, Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao convened a meeting with education, police and intelligence officials on the Eamcet leak issue and gave specific instructions to deal with these kind of irregularities with an iron hand as they brought disrepute to the state. Officials are already on the job to find who is behind the scam and once investigation is complete, we will initiate stringent action against all those who are responsible, said medical education minister C. Laxma Reddy.

TS Council of Higher Education and JNTU-Hyderabad play a major role in conducting Eamcet every year. JNTU-H conducts Eamcet on behalf of TSCHE.

These two institutions are now under government scanner regarding how the confidential information of where the Eamcet question papers were being printed was leaked.

There is also a question mark over the monopoly of JNTUH in conducting Eamcet every year. There was a procedure earlier to allot the responsibility of conducting various CETs like Eamcet, Icet, Edcet, Lawcet etc. to a different university on a rotation-basis every year.

But in the case of Eamcet, this method was ignored after the Eamcet leak in 1996, which was conducted by SV University, Tirupati, and JNTU-H has been given the responsibility every year since then.

With the same university conducting Eamcet every year for over 15 years, the university has set up a separate section to deal with Eamcet and several staff, including contract and outsourcing staff, were appointed. The government is probing whether this led to the leak of confidential information.

Kingpin Rajagopal operated smoothly

The kingpin of the Eamcet-2 question paper leak, R. Rajagopal Reddy, 63, runs a consultancy in Bengaluru. Reddy had leaked the Dr NTR University of Health Sciences PG Medical entrance que-stion paper in 2014, from Manipal Tech-nologies, where the question papers are printed. He was arrested by AP CID after an investigation.

He was released but continued his shady deals. Months before the Eamcet exam was held, Reddy struck a deal with the parents of the students, taking lakhs of rupees advance.

He also promised to train the students, providing the right answers before the exam. As a standard practice, three sets of question papers, each with 160 questions, are printed for the Eamcet entrance test and only one of them are released a few of hours before the exam.

Reddy got all the three sets of papers leaked two days before the examination. At least 10 people were working under the suspect to help him pull off these leaks. In 2014, he had placed one of his men as an employee months before the PGMET exam, only to leak the question paper.
Thiruvananthapuram: The Kerala State Human Rights Commission has ordered a probe into the allegation that an aeronautical engineering student was forcibly converted to Islam. Mini Vijayan, who works at the Pangode military camp here, had lodged a petition with the commission expressing fears that her daughter may also become a victim of the recruiting cadres of terror outfits.

Considering the petition, commission chairperson justice J.B. Koshy ordered the state police chief to conduct a detailed probe into the matter and submit a report on August 29.

According to the petitioner, her daughter Aparna Vijayan, 21, who was studying in the Jewel Education Trust in Ernakulam, went missing from her hostel 15 days ahead of her marriage that was fixed for April 11. A police probe located her at a mosque in Kozhikode.

Though Mini filed habeas corpus petitions, Aparna preferred to go with one Summayya. It was learnt that Aparna was at Sathya Sarani Charitable Trust in Manjeri. Mini also said that she had deposited Rs 75,000 in another persons account a week ahead of Aparna's missing. The amount was credited as per Aparna's request.
Chennai: Welcoming the Madras high court move to keep the new disciplinary rules in abeyance for the time being, advocates have proposed to withdraw the agitation.

Speaking to the media, secretary, Madras HC advocates' association, S. Arivazhagan, who was suspended by Bar Council of India on Saturday, said an emergency general body meeting of the association would be convened on Wednesday and a decision taken to pass a resolution.

"Since June 1, several thousand advocates across the State staged a series of protests highlighting the demand. We express out gratitude to Chief Justice S.K. Kaul. We have also convened emergency general body meeting of MHAA to take a decision either to withdraw the agitation or to continue with the agitation," he said.

Former member, Bar Council of TN and Puducherry, M. Velmuguran, has requested the Bar Council of India to withdraw the suspension of 126 advocates, office-bearers of joint action committee, which was spearheading the agitation for nearly two months and various lawyers associations across the TN.

The president of Women Lawyers' Association, S. Nalini, welcomed the high court's decision and expressed gratitude to advocates and others who extended support to them.

The president of joint action committee, Thirumalairajan, said office-bearers of advocates' association will meet in Thanjavur on Wednesday and discuss the matter after reading the order of Chief Justice.

Meanwhile, the Bar Council of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry has decided to approach the Bar Council of India to revoke the suspension of 126 advocates.
Chennai: Following the disappearance of IAF aircraft AN-32 with 29 passengers on board last Friday, The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has asked all the commercial airlines to make sure that the upkeep of aircraft are strictly followed.

We have received oral instructions couple of days back from the DGCA to make sure that all the maintenance and up keeping routines are followed as per norms, said an Air India official. DGCA is responsible for implementing, controlling, and supervising airworthiness standards, safety operations and crew training in India.

According to DGCA norms all commercial flights should be checked for maintenance daily. Besides daily check up, every flight should undergo a mass maintenance check every week. The mass check up would take four to five hours and every aspect of the maintenance would be checked, an airline official noted and added that all airlines follow the routine without fail.

For example, Air India has 118 aircraft in its fold while its Express service has 18 planes. Totally AI manages 136 flights daily. Of the 136 aircraft, 63 are owned by AI and the rest leased planes. All these planes are checked and maintained rigorously and routinely.

AI's own planes include Airbus 319, Airbus 320, Airbus 321, Boeing 300 and Boeing 777. According to AI official, these own aircraft are used for maximum of 15 to 20 years. After that they are disposed as scrap after selectively removing parts, which are reusable.

In the case of leased aircraft, AI pick up only new planes from sellers. Leased aircraft are used for five years and after that those planes are given back to the company and AI goes for fresh lease, noted the officer.

According to a captain of a private airline, India has one of the toughest norms when it comes to assessing airworthiness of an aircraft. It begins with pilot and engineers walking around the plane every time before taking off.

From walk around inspection to strict maintenance regimes, the routine for every plane is very rigid. DGCA is supposed to monitor these reports, signed and counter signed by engineers from the quality control and maintenance department of each airlines on daily basis, noted the captain.
The gem is the subject of a historic ownership dispute and has been claimed by at least four countries, including India. (Photo: file)

New Delhi: While the government of India is considering filing a fresh affidavit in Supreme Court to reclaim the Kohinoor diamond, chances of the infamous jewels return to India seem bleak, with the UK government reiterating that the claim is based on weak legal grounds.

It has been the longstanding position of the UK government that we dont believe there are any legal ground for the restitution of Kohinoor jewels, Alok Sharma, Minister of Asia and Pacific affairs, said, reflecting Britains stand on Indias renewed attempt to bring back the Kohinoor diamond which is currently embedded in the British Monarchs Crown Jewels.

Sources revealed that the government would submit a new affidavit in the Supreme Court before August 15, which would reiterate India's resolve to bring back the Kohinoor.

It was also revealed that India would attempt to reclaim the 108-carat diamond through diplomatic channels rather than legal means.

Sharma, who is on a visit to India, said that his visit was aimed at improving the India-UK ties based on greater commerce and added that the issues like returning of artefacts may not be high on UK Prime Minister Theresa Mays agenda.

The issue of bringing back the Kohinoor diamond received new impetus last week, with the External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Culture Minister Mahesh Sharma holding a 45-minute long meeting to devise a new strategy t bring it back.

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.

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. 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.

Following this, the Culture Minister, earlier in May, told Parliament that Ministry of External Affairs was 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. Kohinoor, meaning mountain of light, is a large, colourless diamond that was found in southern India in early 14th century, and is currently in display at Tower of London.
Chennai: The Madras High Court Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul reassured lawyers that no action will be taken on the newly amended rules to Advocates Act, which means nothing but keeping it in abeyance and hence there is no need to pass further orders.

The first bench headed by Chief Justice SK Kaul, before which a PIL filed by an advocate S. Kasiramalingam came up for hearing, made the observation that the prayer for keeping the Rules in abeyance has been answered in view of the said prayer being sub-served by the resolution of the Full Court on 16/6/2016 followed by clarification issued by Registrar General on 23/7/2016. Thus, practically the Rules are already in abeyance for the time being, as the deliberations before the Committee are in progress, the bench said.

When the PIL came up for hearing, Kasiramalingam sought a direction to install CCTVs in all the courts across the State, including the Madras High court and its bench in Madurai. He also sought direction to Registrar General to keep the new Rules in abeyance.

The advocate submitted that it was apprehension of the advocates that the judges of the higher judiciary and subordinate court may misuse the wide powers given to them under the new disciplinary Rules. They may punish advocates for alleged browbeating. There is a possibility of the judges tilting the scale of the rules in their favour and it may become a tool in the hands of the judges to browbeat the advocates. Installation of the CCTVs will prevent the misuse and provide transparency in the judiciary.

Stating that effect of the resolution and subsequent clarification to that is very clear that no action will be taken against any advocate based on the amended rules. Your apprehension is that the action will be initiated on the above rules, which was clarified by the subsequent clarification.

Rules were framed on the basis of Supreme Court order and rules were not brought suddenly. The CJ said we advised the Bar Associations to make representations to the Rules Committee constituted by the High Court and submit their suggestions if any. It was unfortunate that they do not come before the committee and present their suggestions.

Meanwhile, clarification was also given that no action will be initiated on the rules and against the advocates, which means nothing other than keeping it in abeyance.

CJ said that these unpleasant incidents had diverted his attention from doing several developments in the judiciary. While adjourning the PIL filed by Kasiramalingam to August 3 for further hearing, the bench said that the HC had already taken a decision favouring the installing of cameras in courts.

A proposal was sent to the state government on July 15, last year for installing CCTV cameras, metal detectors and hand held metal detectors in all courts across the State.

Initially, a financial proposal was made for HC, Metropolitan Magistrate Courts in Egmore, George Town and Saidapet. Government also accorded sanction on 4/4/2016 and reminder was sent on 13/7/2016 to government for sanctioning remaining funds for the scheme.

Given the exigency of the situation, the bench directed advocate general to obtain instruction installing CCT cameras for district courts across the State can be implemented across the board on an urgent basis and accordingly funds sanctioned for the project.
Hyderabad: The TS BJP leadership has been successful in its efforts to bring about a change in Prime Minister Narendra Modis scheduled programmes during his visit to the state on August 7, incorporating his participation in a party programme.

According to the original schedule, the PM will leave for Delhi at 6 pm on August 7 after launching the Mission Bhagiratha project and participate in a public meeting at Gajwel in Medak district. However, the schedule did not include the TS BJP convention at around 6 pm the same day as proposed earlier.

Noticing this, TS BJP leaders K. Laxman and G. Kishan Reddy spoke to the PMO and also to BJP national president Amit Shahs office and said that it would be inappropriate if a party programme is not included in Modis maiden visit to TS as Prime Minister.

They have conveyed to the authorities that the PM was coming to TS for the first time since its formation, and his participation only in TRS government-sponsored programmes may not be appreciated by the BJP cadre. Sources said the PM himself made a few changes in his schedule and decided to allot one hour for the party meeting in Hyderabad at 6 pm.

TS BJP leaders said that the revised schedule would be conveyed to TS government in a day or two.
Irrigation minister T. Harish Rao claimed farmers of six of the eight villages that would be submerged have agreed to part with their lands.

Hyderabad: The TRS government has intensified its counterattack through farmers themselves and holding land acquisition registrations under Mallannasagar project in Medak district to deflate Opposition protests.

Farmers, under the banner of Telangana Rythu Rakshana Samiti on Wednesday condemned the Opposition for creating obstacles in the construction of Mallannasagar and other projects which they said will benefit a large number of people.

At a meeting held in Sangareddy, the headquarters of Medak district, they requested the government to provide packages under GO 123 or Land Acquisition Act, 2013 as per the choice of farmers besides 2BHK houses and other benefits.

The Opposition should not blindly oppose irrigation projects which are the lifeline of farmers. I have four acres of land in Nalgonda but its of no use since there is no river or groundwater. Our rain-fed crops are unreliable. Let us back government efforts. But government should provide adequate relief to farmers who lose their lands and farmers who benefit should also stand by them, said Ram Reddy, a farmer from Nalgonda.

Farmers, backed by the TRS continue to hold rallies in different parts of the state in support of irrigation projects. In a bid to show public support, the government and TRS leaders are also convincing farmers to give up their land by promising them the best compensation.

In an interesting development, government organised a land purchase mela right in Yetigadda Kistapur village where had farmers launched a hunger strike against land acquisition and for whom the Opposition parties are staging protests. Of the 1,592 acres of patta land, registrations have been completed with regard to 1,030 acres, according to officials.

The government at present needs 12,709 acres for the Mallannasagar project, of which 7,596 acres have to be acquired from farmers, it is learnt. Irrigation minister T. Harish Rao claimed farmers of six of the eight villages that would be submerged have agreed to part with their lands.

We require about 16,000 acres in all. We will provide compensation of their choice under GO 123 or Land Acquisition Act, 2013, he said. Meanwhile, Deputy Chairman of the Planning Board Niranjan Reddy flayed the Opposition stance and advised it not to indulge in petty politics and stall development.
BLACK RIVER FALLS  A second batch of elk added to the Jackson County herd has wildlife officials pleased that the herd is more than five dozen strong.

Fifty animals were release recently from their holding pen east of Black River Falls, capping a two-year project to re-establish a herd in the area.

We feel great about it, said Kevin Wallenfang, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources big game ecologist. Were very happy, and weve wrapped up now in Jackson County, and were moving on to the northern forest.

Officials brought back 39 elk that were trapped in Kentucky to Jackson County earlier this year  the second round of trapping and transportation for the project. Eleven more calves were born in the pen and help bring the overall total on the landscape to 64 animals.

Fifty is more than we thought wed be letting go, said Scott Roepke, a DNR wildlife biologist, who works out of Black River Falls. We were certainly pleased and happy to see all the elk made it through in really good shape.

Were very excited to have 50 elk, and theyll certainly be a great boost and a great founding herd for Jackson County here.

The elk from Kentucky underwent additional monitoring and testing before being released last week from the acclimation pen, and officials quietly opened the fences to make a calm transition to the landscape.

Officials from both states trapped 28 elk in Kentucky last year and brought 26 to Jackson County where some died and others were born to bring the current total of the first batch to 14. Wallenfang said its a reality of working with wildlife.

Those things are going to happen, he said. If you dont think theyre going to, youre fooling yourself.

The three-year agreement with Kentucky now turns to help bolster the existing herd near Clam Lake, which had animals reintroduced to the area more than 20 years ago. Before that reintroduction project, elk had last been seen in Wisconsin in the mid-20th century.

That population has continued to grow over time, Wallenfang said. Were just trying to give that Clam Lake herd another boost.

Project partners thanked the public for their support, and area residents and drivers are asked to continue to avoid the general vicinity of their release and remain observant while driving in the area.

Its been a great effort getting them here, and now we want to do everything in our power to ensure the herds success, Kurt Flack, regional director of the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, said in a statement. We ask for these first several weeks that folks give them their space until they settle in.

The work in Jackson County isnt all complete, despite the release. Most of the elk are equipped with tracking technology, which allows staff like Roepke to keep track of their location, movements and other data. Staff also does regular checking on the animals in the early weeks after release.

Were certainly excited to see this new batch of elk out there. Its a great boost, Roepke said. Well stay busy keeping track of them, monitoring survival and habitats and movements and interactions with humans and everything else.

At this point, were just gathering as much information as possible and learning as we go.
Allegations that Russian intelligence agencies hacked into emails of the US Democratic Partys National Committee (DNC) and released them via WikiLeaks prove that the division between domestic and international politics is artificial. They tell us that the keenly anticipated matter of who rules America after President Barack Obama is being subjected to wilful influence and information operations by global actors.

Whether or not Russia was involved, the founder of WikiLeaks Julian Assange has unambiguously stated that he intends to deploy the weapon of web hacking to try and prevent Democratic Party nominee Hillary Clinton from making it to the White House. The militaristic foreign policies and conservative domestic policies which Ms Clinton espouses are anathema to radicals like Mr Assange, who fear that a hawkish Hillary Clinton presidency means a United States that resumes all-out warfare and destruction.

The 20,000 incriminating emails of the DNC that have been disclosed in cyberspace essentially show Ms Clinton to be what her Republican rival Donald Trump labels as a rigged or crooked candidate who bested her Leftist rival Bernie Sanders through institutional foul play.

Ms Clinton always carried the burdensome tag of establishment figure who is preferred by the moneyed and power elites within the Democratic Party. This reputation of wheeling-dealing and exchanging favours with the hoitytoity is now exposed with irrefutable evidence. It will damage her credibility as she prepares for the general election.

The instant resignation of DNC chairperson Debbie Wasserman Schultz as soon as the WikiLeaks trove hit American politics like a thunderbolt is an acknowledgement of the fact that the entire Democratic Party machine was blatantly misused to undermine the outlier Sanders and crown the mainstream Hillary.

In fact, this was also the situation in the 2008 primaries and caucuses, when Hillary was the chosen one of the Democratic Party elders who were beholden to the Clinton dynasty and favoured her over Obama. This cabal of entrenched interests tried their level best to sideline Obama, but he mobilised ordinary Americans like no politician in history and eventually forced the DNC to accept him. What the party bigwigs failed to do then, they have now succeeded by ensuring Sanders defeat.

Of course, Ms Clinton won 3.5 million more votes than Mr Sanders in this years primaries and that vast gap cannot entirely be explained by shenanigans of the DNC. The former squarely trounced the latter among racial minorities and women, and it would be wrong to deny her obvious strengths with specific voting blocks.

Yet, thanks to Russian President Vladimir Putins hybrid war strategy or simply idealistic Left-wing Internet whistleblowers, Ms Clintons history-making, glass ceiling-shattering rise to become the Democratic nominee has lost its sheen. Although every votary for gender justice in America wants a woman to be President, a sombre mood has set in that it should have been a lady who was more honest compared to Ms Clinton.

Be it Russia or a different source, the foreign mischief-makers who embarrassed the DNC have not just queered the pitch for Ms Clinton but also resurrected fundamental misgivings about democracy in America. For Marxists and other critics of Western liberal democracy, the American electoral system is fixed by a nexus of wealth, information monopoly and power brokering  that is, a mockery of the phrase free and fair.

An underdog like Mr Obama did emerge in 2008 to overturn this game, but this years election is seen as a return to the old manipulative process in which nominees are selected behind the scenes by coteries of political operatives and then anointed as the popular choices. To use Noam Chomskys formulation, it is manufactured consent where there is rarely a chance for a genuine peoples candidate to emerge and overthrow the status quo.

The extreme racism, pro-rich attitude and belligerent rhetoric of Donald Trump do make him a scarier candidate than Ms Clinton from a progressive standpoint. Yet, as angry adherents of Mr Sanders would aver, he has been robbed by the DNC to leave American voters with two harmful nominees who both represent capitalism and war. Opinion polls showing that Ms Clinton and Mr Trump are the two most unpopular candidates ever for an American presidential election reflect the bitterness that the primaries were all a setup in which ordinary people were shortchanged.

Time will tell who benefits from the DNC email scandal. The scenario of Mr Trump pillorying Ms Clinton about these emails  over and above the earlier controversy of her hiding and acting deviously on crucial matters as secretary of state via a private email server  and winning in November is not implausible. Emails may possibly bury the Clintons burning ambition of returning to the White House by hook or crook. On the other hand, if Ms Clinton does beat Mr Trump, the DNC emails will haunt her basic deficit of trust. She will govern with the handicap of doubts about her integrity.

Either way, a Hillary Clinton presidency that is light on legitimacy or a Trump presidency that is isolationist will enable countries vying for a multipolar world to hasten its advent. By their very nature, the American primaries open themselves up to extraordinary scrutiny. What technological advancements have done is to also give interested foreign players new web-based tools to intervene and skew the outcomes.

The US itself conducts countless acts of illegal cyber espionage and Internet hacking to keep tabs on domestic political developments in foreign countries. But this time, the shoe is on the other foot. To paraphrase the former President and potential first gentleman, Bill Clinton, its the emails, stupid.
The Lok Sabha passed the Child Labour (Prohibition and Amendment) Bill 2016 on Tuesday. This is a retrograde measure. It severely dilutes the Right to Education Act which came into effect in 2010 to school around one crore children of school age who are out of school. Since laws such as RTE aim to alleviate the conditions of the poor, what the Lok Sabha has just done, in effect, is to pass an anti-poor law.

It has opened two big loopholes to permit child labour. It allows children of school-going age to be employed in what has been termed home enterprises and in agriculture. Two, the law has reduced the number of hazardous industries which could not employ children from 83 to just three. For all practical purposes, therefore, children may now be employed in hazardous industries. The law is a clear invitation to kill childhood.

Effectively, the Narendra Modi government has given a free pass for the re-introduction of child labour in larger numbers than hitherto. Nobel laureate and child rights activist Kailash Satyarthi has spoken out against the new child labour law. Unicef has criticised it. BJP MP Varun Gandhi has not minced words and called the measure lunacy.

Through various pronouncements, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has sought to give the impression that he is taking up cudgels on behalf of development, which really means a policy framework that takes the national wealth to the hands of the poor too. This cannot be done if the poor do not gain even the rudiments of education. For that matter social equality is unthinkable without the spread of literacy and education. The PM has spoken in forceful terms about Skill India, which is also the name of one of his governments key programmes. He also coined the slogan Beti bachao, beti padhao to promote literacy and education for the girl child. The new law shuts out any positive meaning for such programmes.

Especially in our age, mass literacy and education are intrinsic to the idea of raising individual incomes and upgrading the quality of economic activity which, in turn, are key to increasing national income and wealth. If there is no grand bargain with the poor, the country will stagnate at a particular level of earnings and experience intolerable inequalities, which come at a high social and political cost. Schooling a child does not end with school hours. After classroom teaching, follow-up is needed at home. But the government seems intent on imprisoning a child through work, and enhancing low-grade capitalism built on zero wages.
Indian Railways: Lifeline of the Nation  runs the bold title of a 2015 government white paper. But the reality is that post-1991 the Indian Railways (IR) has retained its high ritual status, but ceded ground to competition from road transport.

It has only itself to blame. The railways steadfastly stonewalled all attempts to reform its operations. Over the past 15 years, railway operations have been studied by no less than six high-level committees, under Rakesh Mohan (2001), Sam Pitroda (2012), Montek Singh Ahluwalia (2014), Rakesh Mohan (National Transport Development Committee, 2014), D.K. Mittal (2014) and Bibek Debroy (2015). There was no committee chair from the railways.

There are seven executive members of the Railway Board, its highest body, that functions directly under the railway minister. There are 9,124 senior Group A railway officers who are specialists in finance, commercial services, maintenance, operations, construction and production of rolling stock. Its odd, therefore, that the government has never trusted these professionals to come up with a vision of what the lifeline of the nation should look like. In fact, this illustrates that reform was never an internally driven priority.

Admittedly, with a large workforce of 1.3 million, unionisation in the railways is strong. George Fernandes, former railway minister (1989-1990) and Janata Party luminary, sowed his wild oats as a firebrand, railway union leader. But this is exactly why the Narasimha Rao brand of reform by stealth cannot work for the Indian Railways. The bottomline is that in such huge industrial enterprises there is no alternative to a broad consensus around reform and approaching it head-on.

The railways languished in the post-reform era as it was unable to build private partnerships and leverage its assets. The government too seemed to have given up on it and turned its attention to building highways instead. So as rail passenger transportation doubled, road passenger transportation has trebled since 1990-91. The railways share of freight decreased from 53 per cent in 1986-87 to less than 30 per cent today.

The Indian Railways lost ground as it got mired in its own corrosive image of a government entity focused on social objectives  providing cheap, even free, travel. Thus, it lost sight of its mission to become the economic lifeline of the nation. Communist China moves less passengers kilometre per kilometre of its rail network than India. But it moves four times more freight kilometer per kilometre of its network than India. The India Railways priorities are time-warped around passenger traffic.

The seamless movement of freight over long distances can cut the cost of production and make industry competitive. Long-distance freight is best moved by rail. But the Indian Railways lost the freight business due to a monopolistic tariff policy for bulk freight, such as for coal, iron ore, cement and foodgrains. It is similar for the power sector. Bulk consumers like industry are still charged at penal rates to cross-subsidise rural and retail consumers.

Railway minister Suresh Prabhu, like several of his predecessors, is articulate, public-spirited and full of ambitious programmes spelt out in his Railway Budget speech this year. On offer is more public investment to remove the choke points which congest and slow down traffic; a more extensive search for alternative revenues from station redevelopment and the monetisation of assets; better passenger facilities and continued implementation of the dedicated freight corridors.

But clarity on the Indian Railways core mission is missing, that has to be, first and foremost, the movement of freight and increasing the railways marketshare in the city and suburban passenger traffic.

Three reform measures are preconditions for success.

First, it is SMART to switch intra-city and suburban passenger traffic to rail from road. The savings on travel time and the avoided cost of air pollution justify such investments. But this is an option only if we can make these systems attractive for private investment and management. Assured viability gap funding on the back of regular adjustment of tariff is a must. The experience of independent regulators in electricity shows that in large metros, with high income levels, cost-reflective tariffs can work, if customers can transparently see for themselves the value proposition the service offers.

Second, allocation of public capital across competing projects has to be value for money. The railways passenger and freight businesses should be insulated silos for accounting purposes so that costs and revenues can be allocated to each service. Our rail freight tariff is on average 40 per cent more than Chinas. But our passenger tariff is on average 75 per cent cheaper. Investing to make freight move four times faster at 100 km per hour instead of 25 km per hour makes sense as there is room to reduce tariffs and expand business. Investing to move passengers at 130 kmph, instead of 70 kmph, makes no sense because although passengers are willing to pay for it the Indian Railways is not willing to charge for it.

Third, the Indian Railways must think of itself as part of a supply chain rather than a stand-alone competitor. It must seek partnerships with air, road and marine transporters, and with traffic aggregators that can yield better returns. This is possible through transparent contracts, even as the railways remains a government entity.

In 1990-91, India had few choices except to reform by stealth. We have moved on since then. The reform constituency has grown. The real concern now is how to insulate losers from the pain of change and development. Loss of employment or of land must be fairly and adequately compensated. Using scarce fiscal resources for this purpose can increase demand a lot better than across-the-board public sector pay increases.
Cisco's report clearly states that most organisation lack the required netwrok security infrastructure to prevent advanced ransomware threats. (Representational image)

Mumbai: A recent report released by computer networking giant Cisco has revealed that numerous organisations around the globe face vulnerabilities from ransomware attacks as they do not have the required infrastructure to prevent them.

The report, dubbed Midyear Cyber Security 2016 (MSR), pointed out that ransomware is slowly becoming one of the most lucrative types of malware in history and more advanced ones, capable of spreading by it and holding an entire companys network hostage, are emerging regularly.

According to Marty Roesch, Vice President and Chief Architect, attackers have been expanding their operation and are utilising rasomwares that go undetected. The main aim, he said, was to close the windows of opportunity of attackers by increasing visibility of company networks and upgrading aging network infrastructure.

The report primarily pointed out that the biggest dilemma for businesses is to constrain the operational space of attackers, reducing the time they have to conduct these malicious attacks.

Another grave issue suggested by the report is the impending ransomware attacks which will have the capability to evade detection by limiting CPU usage and refraining from command-and-control options. The main issue that will arise due to this is the rapid spreading and self-replication of ransomwares within organisation, before asking for ransoms.

Surprisingly organisations approximately take close to 200 days to identify new threats, helping an attacker to capture most of the network security infrastructure of the company.

Over the past few years, ransomware attacks have increased more than two-fold, and are expected to increase according to recent cyber-security reports by reputed firms.

In such a scenario, private companies need to delve in deeper into their security infrastructure, rectify the flaws, and constantly update their network protection components.

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The fact that Kermiche was under tight surveillance and the appeal to keep him in custody was rejected is likely to reignite criticism of the government for not doing enough on security. (Photo: AP)

Paris: One of the two knife-wielding men who attacked a church in France on Tuesday has been named as 19-year-old Adel Kermiche, who was under close surveillance after two failed attempts to reach Syria last year, France's anti-terrorism prosecutor said.

Kermiche and the second attacker, who remains unidentified, were killed by police as they came out of the church in Kermiche's hometown in Normandy after taking hostages and fatally slitting the throat of an elderly priest.

The Amaq news agency, which is affiliated with the ISIS terrorist group, said two of its "soldiers" had carried out the attack.

After Kermiche's last attempt to reach Syria in May 2015, he was detained until March, when he was released despite an appeal by Paris prosecutors that was rejected.

However, he was forced to wear an electronic tag so police could track his whereabouts and was allowed to leave his home only for a few hours a day, prosecutor Francois Molins told a news conference.

After his detention in France, he turned a deaf ear to acquaintances who tried to "reason with him", said a 18-year-old former schoolmate named Redwan who knew Kermiche well.

"Each time we said something to him he would answer with a verse from the Koran," Redwan said.

"He would tell us that France is a country of unbelievers and we shouldn't live here. He would try to indoctrinate us, but we didn't care and wouldn't take him seriously," he added.

A neighbour described Kermiche as a loner. "His family is clean, they're nothing like him," said the neighbour, who asked not to be identified.

The fact that Kermiche was under tight surveillance and the appeal to keep him in custody was rejected is likely to reignite criticism of the government for not doing enough on security.

The outcry over shaky security intensified after the Bastille Day attack in Nice this month that left 84 dead and was also claimed by ISIS.

Kermiche's ex-schoolmate said he had been a normal teenager until last year, when he became increasingly radicalised, asked people to call him Abou Adam and tried to leave for Syria, where Islamist terrorist are fighting in its civil war.

The terrorist attack on the Charlie Hebdo satirical magazine in Paris in January 2015 captivated Kermiche in particular, his mother told Swiss newspaper La Tribune de Geneve last year.

He first tried to reach Syria in March 2015, travelling on his brother's identity card, but was stopped in Germany after a family member alerted authorities that he was missing, Molins said.

He tried again in May 2015 using a cousin's identity card, travelling first to Switzerland and then Turkey, but he was stopped and sent back to first to Switzerland and then to France on an arrest warrant, according to Molins.
Philadelphia: US President Barack Obama has said it is possible that Russia was trying to interfere in the US presidential election, after a leak of Democratic National Committee emails that have been attributed to Russian hackers by experts.

"What we do know is that the Russians hack our systems. Not just government systems, but private systems. But you know, what the motives were in terms of the leaks, all that, I can't say directly," Obama told NBC News in an interview.

"What I do know is that Donald Trump has repeatedly expressed admiration for Vladimir Putin," he said as the interviewer promoted that it looks like he is suggesting that Putin might be motivated to prefer Trump in the White House.

"Well, I am basing this on what Mr Trump himself has said. And I think that Trump's gotten pretty favourable coverage back in Russia," Obama said in response to a question.

Asked if the Russians were trying to influence the US elections, Obama replied: "Anything is possible."

Obama's comments come in the wake of release of emails by WikiLeaks which were obtained illegally by hacking into the server of the Democratic National Committee.

These emails indicated that the party leadership supported Clinton in the primaries against her rival Senator Bernie Sanders from Vermont.

Meanwhile, the Democratic Party and the Clinton campaign acknowledged more emails could be released in the coming weeks, the timing of which would be scheduled to inflict most damage to the Democratic presidential nominee.

"The WikiLeaks leak was obviously designed to hurt our convention. I don't think they're done. That's how they operate," Jennifer Palmieri, communications director for Hillary for America, told reporters at a news conference.

"We can't know, but it's part of the reason that we wanted people to understand our belief that the Russians are behind this. People need to understand when these leaks happen, what they're designed to do," she said.

In an interview to CNN, Wikileaks founder Julian Assange said they plan to release more emails in the coming weeks.

"What we have right now is the Hillary Clinton campaign using a speculative allegation about hacks that have occurred in the past to try and divert attention from our emails, another separate issue that WikiLeaks has published," he said.

"I think this raises a very serious question, which is that the natural instincts of Hillary Clinton and the people around her, that when confronted with a serious domestic political scandal, that she tries to blame the Russians, blame the Chinese, etc," he said.

"If she does that when she's in government, that's a political, managerial style that can lead to conflict," Assange said.
Vientiane: US Secretary of State John Kerry said on Tuesday he supported the resumption of talks between China and the Philippines over the South China Sea, following an international court ruling against Beijing over the dispute earlier this month.

China did not participate in and has refused to accept the July 12 ruling by the Permanent Court of Arbitration, based in The Hague, in which U.S. ally Manila won an emphatic legal victory.

China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi had asked Kerry to lend his support for bilateral talks to restart between Manila and Beijing in a meeting between the two in the Laos capital of Vientiane on Monday.

"The foreign minister said the time has come to move away from public tensions and turn the page," Kerry told a news conference. "And we agree with that no claimant should be acting in a way that is provocative, no claimant should take steps that wind up raising tensions."

The court ruling has exacerbated tensions between the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), which are pulled between their desire to assert their sovereignty while fostering ties with an increasingly assertive Beijing.

China scored a diplomatic victory on Monday when ASEAN dropped any reference to the ruling from a joint statement at the end of the bloc's foreign ministers' meeting in the face of resolute objections from Cambodia, China's closest ASEAN ally.

Kerry, who was due to travel to the Philippines later on Tuesday, said he would encourage Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte to engage in dialogue and negotiations with China when the two meet in Manila on Wednesday.

Duterte has already appointed former President Fidel Ramos to visit Beijing and begin informal talks to resolve the dispute, a Philippine Foreign Ministry official said on Tuesday.

Philippines Foreign Minister Perfecto Yasay told reporters in Vientiane that the dispute was not between China and the United States but between China and the Philippines.

"We would like to pursue bilateral relationships in so far as the peaceful resolution of the dispute is concerned that is between the China and the Philippines. The others are not concerned with that dispute," Yasay told reporters.

Peace and stability

Wang, who met Kerry on the sidelines of the ASEAN gathering in Laos, said on Tuesday he would welcome Ramos' visit.

The Chinese foreign minister also told his U.S. counterpart that China and ASEAN had agreed the dispute should get back on to the "correct" track of being resolved by direct talks with the parties concerned, according to a foreign ministry statement released on Tuesday.

China "hopes the United States side takes actual steps to support the resumption of talks between China and the Philippines, and supports the efforts of China and ASEAN to maintain regional peace and stability", Wang said.

Beijing claims sovereignty over most of the South China Sea, through which more than $5 trillion of trade moves annually. Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam have rival claims.

China has repeatedly blamed the United States for stoking tensions in the region through its military patrols, and of taking sides in the dispute, accusations Washington denies.

In an address to foreign ministers, including Kerry, at the gathering in Vientiane, Wang criticized the United States, Japan and Australia for a joint statement on the issue they released late on Monday.

The statement "continued to hype up the South China Sea issue and play up tensions," he said. "Now is the time we will test whether you are protectors of peace or agitators."

Speaking to reporters on a conference call, a senior U.S. administration official said at the end of a visit to China by National Security Adviser Susan Rice that she had emphasized all parties should take steps to reduce tensions and use the ruling to reinvigorate regional diplomacy.

Rice also told Chinese officials, including a top military officer, that U.S. military operations were designed to contribute to peace and stability, including in the South China Sea, the U.S. official said.

"Those operations are lawful, they will continue, they've been longstanding, and again they're designed to impart confidence and stability," he added.

Kerry had said earlier that China's dismissal of the international court ruling as "illegitimate" presented a challenge when the international community, including the United States, sees it as legally binding and a matter of law.

"So we still have a task ahead of us ... which is to try to work going forward to make sure that we are resolving the issues through diplomacy and the rule of law," he said.

Admiral John Richardson, the head of U.S. naval operations, said at a news conference in Washington that he would be very concerned if China were to declare an air defense zone over the South China Sea or carry out reclamation activity around the Scarborough Shoal after the international court ruling.

Richardson said he raised the issue with Chinese officials during his visit to China last week.
America toughened its southern border against a persistent flow of thousands of Central Americans fleeing violence, and as it steps up deportations of migrants who failed to win asylum. (Photo: AP)

Washington: The United States is to start vetting would-be refugees from Central America in their home countries instead of on American soil, and offer those in imminent danger a temporary haven in Costa Rica, officials said Tuesday.

The announcement, a significant change in US immigration handling comes after America toughened its southern border against a persistent flow of thousands of Central Americans fleeing violence, and as it steps up deportations of migrants who failed to win asylum. It also arrives in a US election year in which migration is a hot-button issue.

Under the plan, to be carried out in coordination with the UN refugee agency UNHCR and the International Organization for Migration, "the United States government will pre-screen vulnerable applicants from the region seeking protection," the White House said in a statement.

It will focus on citizens of the so-called "Northern Triangle" in Central America comprising Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras, which are prey to frightening levels of gang-related violence, poverty and corruption.

A White House spokesman, Eric Schulz, told reporters the initiative was to "promote safe migration," especially for the many children attempting the "harrowing and sometimes deadly trip" overland to the United States.

The White House statement added that asylum-seekers "most in need of immediate protection" would be transferred to Costa Rica.

There, they would be processed further before going on to the United States or another safe country.

Important step

UNHCR's representative for Central America, Carlos Maldonado, told a news conference in Costa Rica that "these people will stay a maximum of six months in Costa Rica with a humanitarian visa and will later leave for a third country."

During their waiting period, the applicants would receive English language and other courses to help them adapt to their new countries, he said.

Officers from the US Department of Homeland Security will carry out the vetting in Central America, officials said.

Amy Pope, the Homeland Security deputy adviser on the National Security Council headed by President Barack Obama, told reporters that US procedures to date had proven "insufficient to address the number of people who may have legitimate refugee claims."

She called the deal to use Costa Rica as a safe stopover for refugees was "an extraordinarily important step forward for this program." Officials stressed that Central American migrants entering Costa Rica without being processed in their home country first would not be included in the program.

Pope said the vetting to be carried out would be the same as that for all refugee applicants, describing it as "the most comprehensive screening we do for any category of immigrants coming to the United States."

US officials said they were additionally expanding an initiative for Central American minors, under which a migrant already legally in the US can ask for refugee status for them.

The broadened approach will now also permit adult children to be included, as well family members who are parents or caregivers.

Obama's legacy

The changes reflect efforts by Obama's administration to find a more effective solution to the wave of Central American migrants trying to enter the US.

In 2014, America saw a big spike in the number of unaccompanied minors crossing the border from Mexico.

The United States responded by having Mexico bolster efforts to stop those crossing the border, and by ordering the deportation of Central American migrants in the US whose application to stay had been rejected by courts.

At the same time, the United States has approved $750 million in aid to the Northern Triangle countries to boost security, in a bid to reduce the reasons so many people were fleeing.

Obama in 2014 issued a decree to allow migrants whose children are legally resident to apply for permits to live in America, which would have shielded millions from deportation. But in June this year the US Supreme Court blocked that measure.

Hillary Clinton, who is campaigning to succeed Obama as president in a November election, said the ruling "could tear apart five million families facing deportation."

However Donald Trump, her Republican challenger, has taken a tough line on all immigration, and has vowed to build a wall along the US-Mexican border if he becomes president.
At his house in Sagamihara police took in cardboard boxes to carry out any evidence. Parts of the property were sealed off with yellow police tape. (Photo: AP)

Sagamihara: Japanese police on Wednesday searched the home of the suspect in a mass stabbing spree that left 19 people dead at a facility for the mentally disabled.

The suspect, 26-year-old Satoshi Uematsu, was transferred earlier in the day from a local police station to the prosecutor's office in Yokohama.

The attacker left dead or injured nearly a third of the approximately 150 patients at the facility in a matter of 40 minutes early Tuesday, Kanagawa prefectural authorities said. The fire department said 25 were wounded, 20 of them seriously.

Uematsu turned himself into police about two hours after the pre-dawn attack in Sagamaihara, a city about 50 kilometers (30 miles) west of central Tokyo.

He had worked at the facility until February, when he delivered a letter to Parliament outlining a bloody plan to attack two facilities for the handicapped and saying all disabled people should be put to death.

Kanagawa prefecture welfare department official Shogo Nakayama said that officials from the Sagamihara facility confronted him about the letter a few days later, and Uematsu quit.

His head and shoulders hidden with a blue jacket, the suspect was led out of a police station in Sagamihara on Wednesday morning and into the back of an unmarked white van with emergency lights on top. Photographers and video journalists swarmed the van as it pulled away.

At his house in Sagamihara police took in cardboard boxes to carry out any evidence. Parts of the property were sealed off with yellow police tape.

The parents of one of the seriously injured residents of the facility told Japanese television network NTV that their son is unconscious and on artificial respiration.

"I feel anger that he was a former worker," the mother said of the attacker. NTV did not identify the parents or show their faces.

Uematsu broke into the Tsukui Yamayuri-en facility by shattering a window at 2:10 a.m., according to a prefectural health official, and then set about slashing the residents' throats.

Sagamihara fire department official Kunio Takano said the dead were 10 women and nine men, ranging in age from 19 to 70. All those killed were residents, said Tatsuhisa Hirosue, another Kanagawa welfare division official.

Further details of the attack, including whether the victims were asleep or otherwise helpless, remained unclear Wednesday.

In February, Uematsu tried to hand deliver a letter to Parliament's lower house speaker that revealed his dark turmoil. It demanded that all disabled people be put to death through "a world that allows for mercy killing," Japanese media reported.

Uematsu boasted in the letter that he had the ability to kill 470 disabled people in what he called "a revolution," and outlined an attack on two facilities, after which he said he would turn himself in.

"My reasoning is that I may be able to revitalize the world economy and I thought it may be possible to prevent World War III," the letter says.

Lower house official Yoko Otsuka said that the letter was reported to Tokyo police, who in turn informed police in Kanagawa.

Mass killings are rare in Japan, and Tuesday's was the deadliest in decades. Seven people were killed in 2008 by a man who slammed a truck into a crowd in central Tokyo's Akihabara electronics district and then stabbed passers-by.

In 2001, a man killed eight children in a knife attack at an elementary school in the city of Osaka. The incident led to increased security at schools.
Al-Nabaa said after Syria's crisis began in 2011, Daleel carried out attacks against government forces using hand grenades and Molotov cocktails. (Photo: AP)

Berlin: The weekly Al-Nabaa online magazine of the Islamic State group says Mohammad Daleel took three months to prepare the bomb that wounded 15 people and killed him in the German town of Ansbach.

The magazine's report, published late Tuesday, added that the 27-year-old Syrian, who went to Germany as an asylum-seeker, had fought in Iraq in the past with a branch of al-Qaida.

Al-Nabaa said after Syria's crisis began in 2011, Daleel carried out attacks against government forces using hand grenades and Molotov cocktails.

When al-Qaida's branch in Syria, the Nusra Front, was founded, he fought with them until he was wounded in a mortar shell attack.

It appears that Daleel pledged alliance to IS after the 2013 split between the Nusra Front and IS.
More than 1,000 members of the security forces were involved in the manhunt for the 11 rogue soldiers in the hills around the Mediterranean coastal resort of Marmaris, where Erdogan was holidaying on the night of the coup attempt. (Photo: AP)

Istanbul: Turkish special forces backed by helicopters, drones and the navy hunted a remaining group of commandos thought to have tried to capture or kill President Tayyip Erdogan during a failed coup, as a crackdown on suspected plotters widened on Tuesday.

More than 1,000 members of the security forces were involved in the manhunt for the 11 rogue soldiers in the hills around the Mediterranean coastal resort of Marmaris, where Erdogan was holidaying on the night of the coup attempt, officials said.

Erdogan and the government accuse U.S.-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen of orchestrating the attempted power grab and have launched a crackdown on his suspected followers. More than 60,000 soldiers, police, judges and civil servants have been arrested, suspended or put under investigation.

The religious affairs directorate removed another 620 staff including preachers and instructors in the Koran on Tuesday, bringing to more than 1,100 the number of people it has purged since the July 15 coup attempt.

Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said two Turkish ambassadors, currently in Ankara, had also been removed. Former Istanbul governor Huseyin Avni Mutlu was detained and his house searched.

"There is no institution which this structure has not infiltrated," Erdogan's son-in-law, Energy Minister Berat Albayrak, said in a televised interview, referring to Gulen's network of followers.

"Every institution is being assessed and will be assessed," he said. The response from the Turkish authorities would, he said, be just and not amount to a witch-hunt.

The coup attempt raised particular questions about the air force, some of whose senior members were deeply involved, and could lead to the re-investigation of past incidents including the downing by the Turkish military of a Russian warplane near the Syrian border last year, Albayrak said.

The incident provoked Russian trade sanctions but there are signs of rapprochement, with Turkey thanking Moscow for its solid support during the abortive putsch. By contrast it has frosty ties with Europe, which has criticized the post-coup crackdown, and with the United States, which it has urged to extradite Gulen.

Albayrak made the comments as the highest-level Turkish delegation since the downing of the jet visited Moscow and officials announced a planned meeting between Erdogan and Russian President Vladimir Putin next month.

"Erdogan will be eager to send a message to Washington and EU capitals that Turkey has other options," said Tim Ash, a strategist at Nomura and a veteran Turkey watcher.

The Turkish parliament set up on Tuesday a commission to investigate the coup attempt, with the backing of all political parties. It will also examine the allegations that the Gulen movement infiltrated the government and instigated the coup attempt.

Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag said suspects were now being questioned. "Those testimonies will give us a lot of information about the Gulen movement's influence within Turkey," he said during the commission's discussions.

Most Turks blame Gulen

Gulen, who has lived in self-imposed exile in the United States since 1999, denies involvement and says the coup may have been orchestrated by Erdogan himself to justify a crackdown, a suggestion the president has roundly condemned.

In an op-ed in the New York Times, Gulen wrote that if members of his "Hizmet" (Service) network had been involved in the attempted coup they had betrayed his ideals, saying Erdogan's accusations revealed "his systematic and dangerous drive towards one-man rule".

Almost two thirds of Turks believe Gulen was behind the coup attempt, according to a poll released on Tuesday. The Andy-Ar survey showed nearly 4 percent blamed the United States or foreign powers and barely 2 percent blamed Erdogan.

On July 15 rogue soldiers commandeered fighters jets, helicopters and tanks to close bridges and try to seize airports. They bombed parliament, police headquarters and other key buildings in their bid for power. At least 246 people were killed, many of them civilians, and 2,000 wounded.

Around a third of Turkey's roughly 360 serving generals have been detained since the abortive coup, more than 100 of them already charged pending trial.

Two Turkish generals based in Afghanistan were detained in Dubai, a Turkish official said on Tuesday, naming them as Major-General Cahit Bakir, a commander of Turkish forces serving in the international NATO-led security force in Afghanistan, and Brigadier Sener Topuc, who oversees education and aid in the country.

Manhunt

The 11 soldiers being hunted in Marmaris were among a group of commandos who attacked a hotel where Erdogan had been staying. Seven others were detained at a police checkpoint on Monday.

As the coup unfolded, Erdogan said the plotters had tried to attack him in Marmaris, bombing places where he had been shortly after he left. He "evaded death by minutes", an official close to him said at the time.

"It was an assassination attempt against Erdogan and this is being taken very seriously. Searches are continuing in Marmaris and the surrounding areas with around 1,000 members of the security forces," another official said on Tuesday.
Elections were held in PoK on July 21, in which the PML(N) saw a landslide victory, winning more than 30 of the 40 seats in PoK. (Photo: Twitter)

New Delhi: Mass protests broke out in Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) on Wednesday, after locals alleged that the ruling Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz), headed by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, rigged the July 21 polls that were held here, with the help of ISI.

Massive unrest was reported in Muzaffarabad, Kotli, Chinari and Mirpur regions of PoK, where locals took to the streets alleging that genuine voters were prevented from voting, and also claimed that the elections results were tampered with.

Some regions also reported clashes between civilians and Pakistani security forces.

The protests have prompted a massive shutdown in the region that has seen massive discontentment following the murder of a Muslim Conference activist by supporters of the ruling PML(N).

Protestors also demanded that fresh elections be held in the region.

Elections were held in PoK on July 21, in which the PML(N) saw a landslide victory, winning more than 30 of the 40 seats in PoK.

A video footage allegedly from the region, shows protesters taking to the roads, setting fire to tyres and creating roadblocks.

Commenting on the development, Indian Union Minister Jitendra Singh said that Pakistan and Nawaz Sharif must treat this as an eye-opener and advised Pakistan to focus on it's own human rights record before pointing fingers at India, reported DD news.
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A French jihadist who was under house arrest on terror charges took part in a church attack in which a priest was killed, further inflaming tensions over security failures in the violence-weary nation.





Adel Kermiche, 19, was one of two attackers who stormed a Catholic church in the northern town of Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray during morning mass yesterday, slitting the throat of an 86-year-old priest and leaving a worshipper with serious injuries, said Paris prosecutor Francois Molins.



The attack, claimed by the Islamic State group, comes with France still in mourning less than two weeks after Tunisian Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel ploughed a truck into a crowd in the Riviera city of Nice, killing 84 people and injuring over 300.



The carnage, the third major strike on France in 18 months, prompted a bitter political spat over alleged security failings and revelations over the church attack were likely to raise further questions.



Molins said that Kermiche first came to the attention of anti-terror officials when a member of his family alerted him as missing in March 2015. He was arrested by German officials and found to be using his brother's identity in a bid to reach Syria.



He was charged and released under judicial supervision, but in May fled to Turkey where he was again arrested and returned to France where he was held in custody until March 2016.



Kermiche was released and fitted with an electronic bracelet which allowed him to leave his house on weekdays between 8:00 AM and 12:30 AM, said Molins.



It was during this time, that he and another attacker entered the centuries-old stone Saint-Etienne church, taking hostage the 86-year-old priest, three nuns and two worshippers.



One of the nuns managed to escape and call police, who, upon arrival, tried to negotiate with the hostage-takers through a small door.



The nun, Sister Danielle, told local radio RMC that slain priest Jaques Hamel was wearing his white cloak and was at the foot of the altar when "they forced him to get on his knees and not move".



"He tried to struggle, he tried," she said, adding the men were speaking Arabic and shouting and had "recorded" the attack.



Molins said police were unable to launch an assault on the church as three hostages were lined up in front of the door.



Two nuns and one worshipper then exited the church followed by the two attackers, one carrying a handgun, who charged police shouting "Allahu akbar" (God is greatest).



One of the attackers was carrying a "fake explosive device covered in aluminium foil" and three knives, and the other was holding in his hand a kitchen timer covered in foil, and carrying a backpack containing a similar fake bomb.



"The two were neutralised" and killed by police, said Molins.



The prosecutor said that a 17-year-old born in Algeria had been taken into custody. He is the younger brother of a suspect "wanted under an international arrest warrant for having left to the Iraq-Syria zone".
In the wake brutal thrashing of Dalits in Una, at least 1,000 people from the community in Banaskantha district have so far expressed their desire to convert to Buddhism, stating that there was not point in continuing with Hinduism, if they are not treated as equals.





These Dalit community members have even filled up the forms giving their consent for the religious conversion, which will soon be submitted to the government authorities.



Meanwhile, various dalit rights organisations have announced to organise a mass gathering of the community here on July 31 to decide the road map of their movement.



"Dalits across the state are deeply pained by the recent incident in Una. It shows that we are still subjected to discrimination and various atrocities in the name of caste, religion and profession. Thus, several dalits from Banaskantha have expressed their desire to covert to Buddhism," local dalit leader and BDS secretary Dinesh Makwana said.



"In the last three days, thousands of dalits took part in the protest rallies here. During our meetings, we came to the conclusion that there is no meaning in practicing Hinduism if we are not treated as equal. Thus, we have distributed forms among dalits, who wish to convert. So far, around 1,000 such forms have been submitted back to us," Makwana said.



Conversion in Gujarat is governed by the Gujarat Freedom of Religion Act, which came into force in 2008.



According to the Act, it is mandatory for a person, who wants to convert, to take permission from the district collector by submitting an application with a prescribed form.

According to Makwana, these forms, given to BDS by around 1,000 dalits, will be submitted to the Collector soon.



"We expect that some more dalits will join our movement and fill up their forms for conversion. After collecting all such forms, we will decide a date to submit it to the Collector," added Makwana.



On July 11, some Dalit youths from Mota Samadhiyala village in Una taluka of Gir-Somnath district were flogged by cow protection vigilantes when these dalits were skinning a dead cow. The accused thrashed them alleging that they had killed the cow.



After a video of the incident went viral, it sparked off violent protests across Gujarat.

Meanwhile, talking about the planned mass gathering on July 31 in Ahmedabad, Jignesh Mewani of Una Dalit Atyachar Ladal Samiti, said, "We have sought permission from the administration to organise a mass gathering of dalits on July 31 near collector office. Even if they dont give permission, thousands of dalits will converge here on that day. Dalits will decide the future road map of our agitation during this convention."



"To make this government understand the importance of dalits, we have asked more than 1 lakh cleaning staff (safai kamdars) of various civic bodies to stay away from their work for at least on week. We also want agriculture land for dalits, as they no longer want to continue their profession of skinning dead animals," Mewani added.
Former Pakistan Ambassador to the United States Husain Haqqani today said the 69-year-old unresolved relationship between India and Pakistan cannot be resolved by symbolic gestures, instead there has to be a major shift in attitudes of both the countries.



"A relationship, which has not been resolved for last 69 years, it cannot be resolved just by symbolic gestures. Both Prime Ministers Nawaz Sharif and Narendra Modi wanted to have good relations, but it needs a major shift in attitudes and that shift of attitudes have not taken place," he told PTI in an interview here.



Haqqani said this when asked to assess Modi's efforts to improve relations between India and Pakistan which was quite promising at the beginning of his tenure than it is now.



He was in the city for an interaction over his book - India vs Pakistan: Why Can't We Just Be Friends.



Haqqani also said until and unless terrorism is taken off the table completely, he does not see any Indian leader "who can move forward with normal relations with Pakistan."



"Similarly," he further continued "as long as Pakistan does not realise and recognise the weaknesses and the problems that have come up in Pakistan because of past militarism and militancy, we will not see a major change."



Asked whether the Pakistan Prime Minister can deliver on improving India-Pakistan relations even as he is facing corruption charges over Panama papers leak, in Pakistan, Haqqani said: "There is no doubt that PM Nawaz Sharif like President Asif Zardari and former PM Yousaf Raza Gillani wants normalisation of relations between India and Pakistan, but I think the political circumstances in Pakistan are not conducive to strike normalisation, right now".



"The circumstances in Pakistan are not conducive because extremists like Hafiz Saeed and Masood Azhar are still free and open to operate. I think the normalisation (process) will not be easy between the two countries," he added.

Asked if is there any hope to resolve the Kashmir issue, Haqqani said: "It would be much better to adopt the approach of building a good relationship as a means of solving problems rather than insisting on solving (Kashmir) problem that has not been solved for the past 69 years".



He said even Chinese Leader Jiang Zemin, during his visit to Pakistan, had said Pakistanis should consider moving forward with things that can be solved, instead of trying to solve unresolved longstanding problems.



Haqqani further said "Pakistan has a case over Kashmir, it has adversely been impacted by terrorism and completely demolished by the activities of Saeed, Azhar and other extremists in Pakistan."
Incensed by the taunts of his friend regarding his girlfriend, a 33-year-old man slit his friends throat.





The accused Vishnu Subedi was arrested on July 21 based on a missing complaint filed by the brother of victim Rishi Ram Panth on July 16.



Panth and Subedi knew each other well as they hailed from the same village, Gulmi Digam in Nepal. On the evening of July 14, Subedi went to Panths rented home in Basai Darapur, where they decided to drink. Panth worked as a supervisor in Deeps Fast Food joint in Netaji Subash Palace for past eight years, where he met Subedi, who was unemployed.



After a few drinks Panth started teasing Subedi by expressing that he will pay him a good amount if he lets him have his girlfriend.



Subedi warned Panth to mind his words but the latter kept on repeating the same. Thereafter both of them entered into an argument and after some time, Subedi took out a knife and slit Panths throat. He fled from the spot with Panths cash of Rs 20, 000, mobile phone, the knife and locked the door from outside.



Kamal Prasad Panth, after finding his brothers phone switched off for two days and no attempt from him to communicate with him or his family members residing in Nepal, decided to go to his brothers rented room at Basai Darapur.



He found the room locked from outside and a foul smell was coming from inside and called the police. After police unlocked the room, Kamal identified his younger brother who was lying dead for two days.



The police found that it was Subedi who was last spotted with Panth was missing. Based on information, Subedi was arrested near T-point of Punjabi Bagh flyover, when he was planning to run away to Nepal.



On interrogation Subedi revealed that after committing the crime, next day he went to Siliguri area in West Bengal by boarding the Brahmputra Mail from New Delhi Railway Station to New Jal Pai Guri, said police.



When he learnt that police team is after him then he decided to run away to Nepal after collecting his belongings from his rented house in Delhi.



The weapon of the offence  the knife  and the key of the lock have been recovered from the accused.


Delhi Police registered an FIR against Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) chief Swati Maliwal on Tuesday for revealing the identity of the Burari rape victim.





According to police the case was registered under section 228 (a) of the IPC, which carries a punishment of up to two years imprisonment.



Police said that the notice sent by the DCW chief to the police, which was also revealed to the media, allegedly mentioned the name of the rape victim.



The FIR also mentioned that the notice was circulated on WhatsApp groups and shown on a news channel.



Maliwal responded to the FIR in a series of tweets, saying she was not scared of the police registering a case against her.



My fault: Raised questions on failure of Delhi Police in protecting 14 year old girl. Will raise more issues. Not scared of FIR. Jai Hind, she tweeted.



Maliwal also said that she did not name the rape victim and, in fact, ensured proper medical care at a private hospital.



Firstly, not released name of victim. Instead ensured proper medical care in Pvt Hospital. Police arrested accused only after DCW Notice, she said.



Also, why shud rape victim hide her identity? Shouldnt rapists be hiding? Is it the shame of a victim that she was subjected to cruelty?



BJP seeks her removal

Meanwhile, Delhi BJP unit asked for an immediate removal of Maliwal from the post of DCW chief.



In a letter to the Delhis Lt. Governor, Delhi BJP chief Satish Upadhyay and senior party leaders wrote that: Since the appointment of Swati Maliwal there have been accusations against her playing party politics at DCW due to her ignorance of cases against her party leaders of harassment of their spouses, party colleagues and common women but after todays registration of an FIR in a matter of revealing the identity of a rape victim from Burari she has not right to remain in the office.



A 14-year-old Dalit girl had died on Sunday at a Delhi hospital after being forced to drink a corrosive substance by a rape accused.



The girl was kidnapped by the accused before she was scheduled to testify against him at a local court for raping her. The girl was again raped by the accused repeatedly, and she was forced to drink a corrosive substance by his maternal aunt and uncle.

The substance badly damaged her internal organs and she was immediately admitted to a hospital.



DCW chief Maliwal had hit out at the Centre and Delhi Police for failing to arrest the accused and demanded a high-level inquiry on the issue of womens safety in the capital.


Bernie Sanders loyalists protested inside and outside the Democratic National Convention site and clashed with police after Hillary Clinton won the party's presidential nomination.





Despite Sanders' calls for them to support Clinton, thousands of activists have taken to the streets during the convention this week to voice support for the liberal Vermont US senator and his progressive agenda.



Moments after Clinton became the first woman to be nominated for president by a major US political party, a large group of Sanders delegates and supporters exited the Philadelphia convention site to hold a sit-in inside a media tent.



Some had their mouths taped shut. A few spontaneously sang the chorus of the folk song "This Land is Your Land," and a banner read "we the people." They said they were holding a peaceful protest to complain about being shut out by the Democratic Party.



"This was not a convention. This was a four-day Hillary party. And we weren't welcome," said Liz Maratea, a New Jersey delegate at the media tent protest. "We were treated like lepers."



In the streets outside, Sanders supporters who had spent the day protesting began facing off with police. Protesters began scaling 8-foot walls blocking off the secure zone around the arena parking lot, and several were detained. An officer sprayed one of the protesters.



The protests continued into the night with Sanders supporters and anti-police brutality protesters joining together. They marched in the street outside of the Wells Fargo Center. Later, someone set an Israeli flag on fire while people chanted "long live the intifada."



Others then came together for a candlelight vigil. Unmoved by Sanders' plea for party unity, the Bernie or Bust protesters walked miles in the stifling heat again Tuesday to make their case for him. They held a midday rally at City Hall, then made their way down Broad Street to the convention site. By early evening, a large crowd had formed outside the subway station closest to the arena.



"We all have this unrealistic dream that democracy is alive in America," said Debra Dilks, of Boonville, Missouri, who said she wasn't sure she'll vote in November. "Hillary didn't get the nomination. The nomination was stolen."



The crowd consisted of an assortment of protesters espousing a variety of causes, but mostly Sanders supporters and other Clinton foes on the left. College student Cory James said he expects the Democratic Party to split over the nomination.



"I suspect we are witnessing an event that will fundamentally change American politics," said James, of Flint, Michigan.



Earlier in the day, participants at the rally charged that Sanders was cheated out of the nomination, and they said they weren't swayed by his Monday plea to his supporters to fall in line behind Clinton for the good of the country.


For a working woman, the decision to start a family or grow their career is often one that takes serious thought because choosing both is not always an option.

But Astar Herndon with Wisconsin 9to5, a Milwaukee-based organization for working women, is hoping the Wisconsin Family Insurance Act will change that.

As a working woman who looks forward to having a family and taking care of my parents one day, this policy allows for me to still be active in the workplace and take care of those responsibilities, Herndon said. As women we often have to choose, and thats not fair. Citizen Action of Wisconsin in Eau Claire partnered with Wisconsin 9to5 to bring that message to the Chippewa Falls Tuesday evening.

The WIFI act would provide workers up to 12 weeks of paid leave for personal or family illness or to care for a new child. Most workers would receive 66 percent of their wages, and those with low incomes could receive up to 95 percent.

It would also cover 2.6 million workers through an employee contribution of between $2-3.50 per week and expand the definition of family to include siblings and grandparents, protect parent-in-laws and domestic partners.

We need to be bold enough as Wisconsinites to really survey how working families are functioning and create a policy that covers everyone, Herndon said. And this policy does, no matter what kind of family dynamic or what kind of income.

The pushback on the bill shes seen so far has been mostly businesses worried about losing income, but the employee contribution makes it so there wouldnt be any unjust burden on employees.

Jeff Smith, Citizen Actions western cooperative organizer and a former state representative, said this bill is unique because it really provides a win-win for both employers and employees.

If these things happen to you, you feel at ease knowing its there and you can use it to be able to take care of your family but not lose your job or home, Smith said. And when employers arent faced with a huge turnover in employees because they arent out of a job, thats a big deal for the company. Its a win-win from both sides.

Last week, Eau Claire County passed a living wage ordinance that will take effect in January 2017, which Smith said falls in line with the family insurance policy.

While he acknowledged it will also help reduce the gender wage gap so women dont have to take unpaid time for maternity leave, the bill is meant to help men and women across the board.

The first thing people think of is a birth in the family, but it goes way beyond that, Smith said. The policy covers taking care of grandparents, self-care and family medical leave.

Herndon encourages community members to contact local legislators about this bill and sign their petition online by going to the Take Action tab at 9to5 website, 9to5.org. While it may seem like a small step, Herndon said its worth it.

This is an opportunity for Wisconsin to really reverse some of the anti-family, anti-working policies by taking action, she said. Though it may seem like it really doesnt do anything, it does affect legislators and they want to hear from their constituents. The more we get the word out, the more pressure we put on them, Herndon said.

California, New Jersey, Rhode Island, the District of Columbia and New York currently have a family insurance act. Wisconsin does have the Family and Medical Leave Act in place, but that only provides employees unpaid time off. Only 13 percent of Wisconsin businesses provide any kind of family insurance.
The murder of an elderly woman was solved with the arrest of the victims helper at her shop. Kamal was arrested by the Delhi Police from his native town in Uttar Pradeshs Barabanki district on Tuesday morning, sources added.





The man who works in the leather bag store of the deceased, Vimla Ahuja, 62, in South East Delhis Lajpat Nagar had gone to his home town 20 days back informing his employers that his child was sick.



On Friday he returned to Delhi and inspected the place for two days before committing the crime, sources said.



According to sources, he had pre-planned the murder as he was in need of money. Going to his native place was also planned, sources added.



The arrest came after police detained 13 former and present employees of the murdered woman on Monday and questioned them thoroughly. CCTV footage of the house and colony was scanned and call detail records of the suspects were also checked.



While scanning the CCTV footage, police found Kamal entering the womans house on Sunday just before the murder.



While analysing his call details, police also found that Kamal was present in Delhi for the last few days and on Sunday his phone was switched off.



The woman was murdered on Sunday around 3.30 pm at her house in Lajpat Nagar by smashing her head with a heavy object, police said.



According to sources, the man came to the womans house and knocked the door around 3 pm.



Thinking that he might have come to collect some items for shop, the elderly woman let him enter the house.



When the woman had gone in her kitchen to make tea for him, the man came from behind and smashed the womans head with a blunt object.



The man, sources said, then took away approximately Rs 10 lakh cash and jewellery from Ahujas house.



Police have recovered Rs 1.5 lakh from him and are questioning him about the details of rest of the stolen items.


PART 1:



At Nizamuddin Basti, it will take a while to locate anganwadi number 5. In the narrow lanes of the cramped neighbourhood, a few stairs at house number - 128 lead to the basement, which serves as an anganwadi centre.





Two women  an anganwadi worker and another helper  sit in a corner. Next to them, lie four used plates in which the days lunch was supposedly served to children. However, there are no children at the anganwadi at 11.43 am.



The room  well lit and spacious compared to the other anganwadis in the area  had no trace of childrens activities either.



Delhi has 10,897 anganwadis. Of these, a DH team visited six of the seven anganwadis in Nizamuddin Basti.



When the team visited anganwadi number 5 last Thursday and asked the worker how many children benefit from the scheme, there was discrepancy in the figures. She was uncertain of the actual number of kids who came to the centre that day. In fact, there were no updated records for the past few days. The workers claimed that the children left early for the day.



The official timings of an anganwadi are 9 am - 2 pm. Delhi government officials said children between 3-6 years who come for pre-school education should stay at the anganwadis at least until 12.30 pm.



It is compulsory for anganwadi worker and helper to engage children at least till 12.30 pm. After this, they should be taking field visits till 2pm, says a senior department official.



DH had no way to independently verify if any children were present that day or they left early.



It is difficult to retain kids at the centre, says Nusrat, the anganwadi worker. No lactating mother or pregnant woman, who usually come to these centres to collect lunch, was seen at the centre.



Delhi government officials said they are aware of the gaps in the system. The Women and Child Development department had recently conducted inspections during which it found inflated numbers of children on register.



It has been observed several times in the past that there have rigging of attendance. More number of children was found on paper during inspections. The department is looking at ways to address the issue of attendance of kids at anganwadis, says another senior official, Women and Child Development department. Under the departments Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS), children are provided with food, pre-school education and primary health education at the anganwadis.



While anganwadi helpers are responsible for going to households and fetching kids to the centre, anganwadi workers have to engage them in a range of activities.

Low attendance is not specific to anganwadi number 5.



At anganwadi number 6 located in 187, Tilak Wali Gali, a crammed 10X10 room with a mounted fan houses 28 kids on paper.



When the DH team reached the spot at 11.52 am, there were no kids. Four plates were found lying in a corner. The staff claimed that the children had left early for the day after the food was served. When the DH team pointed at to the few plates on the side, the anganwadi helper said two kids eat from the same plate. She also claimed there was a shortage of utensils.



According to the attendance register, 19 children  seven in the age group of 3-6 years and 12 in the group of 1-3 years  came to the centre that day. The centre on an average calls for food from the mother kitchen for 28 people.



The room from where the anganwadi is run can barely accommodate till eight kids. Most of the children are forced to play in the lane leading to the anganwadi. Some sit on the porch connecting the anganwadi room with that of the landlords bedroom.



The worker has been rapped by the department to look for a better rented space. The department has asked us to look for a better room. But it is difficult to get a spacious place in this area, says Uma, the anganwadi worker.



At anganwadi number 17 in A/114 Basti Nizamuddin there is a bustle in the area from 11.30 onwards with women coming with their utensils to the centre.



Chandni, 25, who stays next door, takes the meal home because her children refuse to eat the meal served.



On most days of the week, the anganwadis serve khichdi. The children do not want to eat these meals. So, I take this food home for the rest of the family members.

Other women in the locality echoed the same view.



The meal I collect from here is enough for me and my two children. So I only have to cook one meal daily for the entire family, says 28-year-old Aasma.



Her son meanwhile comes with a large bowl which the anganwadi helper refuses to fill and asks him to fetch a smaller vessel from the house.



I bring a large utensil because the portion covers all of us, adds Aasma.

At anganwadi number 1 in the area, the record register shows the food is distributed among 14 children daily. The anganwadi worker, however, says that not all children come to take food on all days.



The department is mulling over plans to come up with biometric systems and linking the beneficiaries Aadhar numbers with this system.



In cases of young children, parents would be responsible for punching in the attendance.

Inflated numbers of children on paper indicates leakage of funds. This also defeats the purpose of running the anganwadis where children should be engaged in different activities during the day.



While one way to solve this problem is to introduce biometrics, the other is actively engaging the local community members. Community members if given responsibilities will ensure that more children benefit from the scheme, said the senior official.





Part 2: How successful isthe anganwadi model inthe National Capital?
The ruling AAP on Tuesday launched an all out attack on the BJP-led central government and Delhi Police over uncontrolled crimes against, with Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal tacitly dragging Prime Minister Narendra Modi into the controversy.





The Delhi BJP, in turn, demanded that Kejriwal should expel all his MLAs accused of harassing women.



A day after four-year-old girl was raped by a neighbour in north Delhi, Kejriwal tweeted: Women raped daily in Delhi. No security for them despite repeated requests. But PM providing security to his friends.



Kejriwal also tweeted a news clip indicating that a business tycoons wife was being provided 10 commandos of a central police force.



The Chief Minister has repeatedly accused Modi and Home Minister Rajnath Singh of not devoting enough time to the citys problem of crimes against women.



The AAP convenors tweets coincided with protests by AAP youth wing outside the residence of Home Minister Rajnath Singh and detention of AAP women protesters at Parliament Street police station.



In another development, an FIR has been registered against Delhi Commission for Women chief Swati Maliwal, who was earlier an AAP activist, for revealing the identity of a rape victim in north Delhi. The Delhi Police filed an FIR against Maliwal under penal provisions which carry a maximum punishment of two years imprisonment and fine.



Chandni Chowk legislator Alka Lamba led the AAP women legislators and supporters in an attempt to take their voice to the Union Home Minister for better security but she alleged they were detained for over three hours in police station.



In a tweet, Lamba took a dig at Delhi Police that criminals brutalising women were not afraid of the men in khaki but the law enforcers appeared to be afraid of women protesters who were detained at Parliament police station.



She said its woman MLAs wanted to ask the Home Minister what steps police had taken to address the issue of women safety.



AAP's Delhi unit convener Dilip Pandey earlier said the Centre was prompt in making use of Delhi Police to arrest AAP legislators but it lacked enthusiasm in tackling women safety issues.



He said the DCW has been demanding formation of a committee comprising the Home Minister, Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and representatives of the DCW to address the issue but has found little success.



The rival BJP countered the AAP attack on the central government and demanded that Kejriwal should immediately expel all his MLAs accused of harassing women.



Delhi BJP chief Satish Upadhyay wrote to the Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung and sought her removal as head of the DCW for violating the Commissions sanctity by revealing the identity of a rape victim.



Apart from the recent suicide by a Narela AAP worker Soni, Upadhyay pointed to two fresh alleged cases of harassment of women by ruling party leaders.



Upadhyay said an FIR was registered by an AAP volunteer woman Sarita against another AAP volunteer Suman, also naming Janakpuri MLA Rajesh Rishi, for harassing her and her husband.



Complainant Sarita tried to commit suicide and could be saved only after four days of hospitalisation, he said.



The BJP leader also referred to a complaint of threat given by a north Delhi woman to Bawan Police against Aman Kumar, North West Delhi District President of AAPs Youth Wing.



He said Sheela, resident of Pooth Khurd area, alleged that the AAP leader allegedly assaulted her physically and threatened to kill her children as she tried to stop him from illegally occupying her plot.


The transport strike which had crippled Karnataka was called on Wednesday after the State Government agreed to hike the salaries of the protesting staff by 12.5 percent.





All the buses attached to different Road Transport Corporations (RTCs) resumed operations from Wednesday evening.



The government reportedly incurred a loss of Rs 51 crore in the three days of protest, which is said to be the longest strike in the history of Karnataka.



With the 12.5 percent hike, the government is going to have an additional burden of Rs 2,800 crore over the next four years.
Sumalatha Ambareesh began her career in films at 15. She has acted in all South Indian languages but is best known for her work in the Telugu film Shrutilayalu. She made her entry into Kannada with New Delhi, where she starred opposite Ambareesh.





Her notable films in other languages include Murattu Kaalai with Rajinikanth in Tamil and Hindi film Swarg Yahan Narak Yahan with Mithun Chakraborty.



Closer home, she recently completed the project Doddmane Hudga and is also working on a few other Kannada projects.



Music - The Beatles



I have too many favourite musicians to list. I listen to music all the time, even when I am on the move. It transports me to a different world altogether. I have lost count of the number of times Ive listened to Love Me Do by The Beatles. They are one band whose music will never fade. Ive also grown up listening to Ilayaraja and enjoyed listening to almost all the songs in Dr Rajkumars films. They are not only melodious but also have meaningful lyrics. It may sound a bit unrealistic but I have a music system in every room and theres music playing all the time in my house.



Author - Alex Haley



I dont get as much time to read now as I used to. Earlier, I never went to bed without finishing a book. I must have read Roots by Alex Haley, The Thorn Birds and Gone with the Wind several times. I like the crazy sense of humour in P G Wodehouses writings and given a chance, I can still sit down with one of his books and laugh at the jokes. Now I read whenever I am travelling or in between my film shoots. With Kindle, it has become easy to carry my favourite books around but theres always a book in my bag.



Inspiration - Ambareesh



There are different people who have inspired and influenced me at different stages of my life. My mother Roopa Mohan and husband Ambareesh are two of my main inspirations. Ambareesh has inspired me in a way that he has transformed my life and changed my perspective towards a lot of things. I like the fact that he never judges people and I admire his generosity. I have known him for the longest time. In fact, we will be celebrating our silver wedding anniversary this year. As I grew up, my mother had a major bearing on my life. She is the strongest woman I have ever known and she raised her children all by herself after our father passed away.



Travel - Interlaken, Switzerland



Ive visited almost all the places around the world but I am always ready to explore new ones. Ive enjoyed my travel and stay in Interlaken in central Switzerland and would always find an excuse to go back there. I like spending time at historic landmarks and it makes me happy to get a feel of the old buildings that were built many years ago because they still stand tall and have stood the test of time. I hope to travel across our country and explore places here as well. Rajasthan is one of those places that I really want to visit sometime soon. Hampi is also on the list. Any place with an interesting history has always held my interest.



Cuisine - Pasta



I am not a fussy eater. I am not particular about what I want to eat but I enjoy the many variations of pasta. I used to experiment with making pasta when my son was younger but now, I dont cook as much as I used to. I have a sweet tooth and am always on the lookout for desserts. I also particularly relish dishes made using gongura leaves. Growing up, I remember digging into typical Andhra style dishes.



Cinema - Amitabh Bachchan



Ive acted in films of almost all languages. Two people whose works I admire are Amitabh Bachchan and Kamal Haasan. Ive worked with both of them but my experience of working with Amitabh Bachchan in the Malayalam movie Kandahar was indeed special. I played his wife in the movie and I still remember that I was really nervous to sit down face to face with him and make a conversation. He has inspired many a generation and continues to do so. It wouldnt be wrong to call him the ultimate star.



(As told to Nina C George)
India today signed an over USD 1 billion deal with American defence and aerospace major Boeing for procuring four additional 'Poseidon-8I' long-range maritime surveillance and anti-submarine warfare aircraft.





The contract is a follow-on order to eight P-81 planes already bought by India in a direct deal with the firm worth USD 2.1 billion, defence sources said.



The contract was inked during the ongoing visit of US Under Secretary for Defence on Acquisition Frank Kendall, and is seen as a sign of growing Indo-US defence ties, they said.



India had last year signed a USD 3 billion contract with the US through Foreign Military Sales route for 22 Apache and 15 Chinook helicopters.



With today's deal, the total value of defence deals signed with the US in the last one decade comes to around USD 15 billion.



India is also working on a deal to get 145 pieces of M777 light-weight howitzers from the US, the sources said.



The acquisition of additional 'P-8I' will be a shot in the arm of the Indian Navy as the country has been building up its naval surveillance capabilities.



Armed with deadly Harpoon missiles, lightweight torpedoes, rockets among others, the Navy is extensively using the P-8I to keep a strict vigil over the Indian Ocean, which has seen numerous Chinese submarine forays, including docking of a nuclear sub in Sri Lanka.



The Navy will also be able to drop and monitor sonobuoys, being used in the search for the missing AN32 aircraft of the Indian Air Force, they said.



Incidentally, India was 'P-8''s first international customer and was also Boeing's first military sale to India.



The P-8I fleet is based at the Naval Air Station Rajali in Tamil Nadu. The long-range maritime reconnaissance aircraft has an operational speed of 450 miles per hour and a range of 4,500 nautical miles.



The planes will provide strategic blue water and littoral undersea warfare capabilities as well as armed intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance to the navy, the defence sources added.



Based on Boeing's Next-Generation 737 commercial airplane, P-8I is the Indian Navy variant of the P-8A Poseidon that the American defence has developed for the US Navy.


A body of Muslim clerics here today termed the unveiling of a statue of former President A P J Abdul Kalam at Rameswaram today as "unIslamic" and claimed most local members of the community stayed away from the function.





Asserting that they had great respect for the former president, office-bearers of the Ramanathapuram District Jamaathula Ulema Council said statue for a dead person "is unIslamic and against Islamic beliefs".



In a statement, Council President Habibullah Hazarath and Secretary Abdur Rahman said "We strongly condemn the installation of the statue."



The ulemas, however, said they had only expressed verbal objection and didn't want to hold any demonstration or agitation against the function held at Peikarumbu, where Kalam was laid to rest last year, on the occasion of his first death anniversary today.



The statue unveiling ceremony was boycotted by most of the Muslims of Rameswaram island, the ulemas claimed.



The council's high-level meeting had on Saturday discussed the issue and opposed the statue installation.



Union ministers Venkaiah Naidu and Manohar Parikkar in the morning unveiled the statue and also laid foundation stone for a memorial for the former president with the function attended by Kalam's immediate family members among others besides union Minister of State Pon Radhakrishnan.


Indias defence electronics business will add $72-billion market opportunities within the next 10-year period, and the government has decided to form a task force to come up with new policy initiatives.





In an interaction with DH, India Electronics and Semiconductor Association (IESA) President M N Vidyashankar said the organisation has presented a report before Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar, last Monday in New Delhi.



IESA presented the report before the defence minister on the opportunities in defence electronics, both platforms and systems, and quantified it at $72 billion. We gave him the smallest details on sectors to understand how the IESA reached this volume. The Defence Ministry will soon appoint a task force to look at tapping the low hanging fruits in this business segment, said Vidyashankar.



The IESA president also said the meeting had the participation of the Defence Ministry Secretary, the Additional Secretary of DeitY, the Joint Secretary of DeitY, Directors of DeitY, and all service chiefs. If the low hanging business opportunities are capitalised soon, Vidyashankar said India will get many marketing and manufacturing opportunities in this sector.



A few things can be done immediately to make this happen. The task force will identify these areas and monitor their implementation. While Indias information technology industry generated a total of $150 billion revenue for the past 30 years, defence electronics is giving us $72 billion within a decade, he said.



He said the IESA report has used the heat matrix to identify the core competencies of Indian companies in the defence electronics.



The report has brought out a mapping, which elaborates on the current capability of the private sector. It also explains what all capabilities will be achieved within the next two years, five years and 10 years. The report also elaborates on what all capabilities the private sector can achieve in platforms, systems and subsystems with foreign partnership and joint ventures, he said.



Vidyashankar said India has 700 companies working in this area and once they tap the $72 billion opportunities, it will cross 2,000 companies. We are eminently placed in the design aspect of defence electronic systems, and now it is important to convert this capability into a very efficient ecosystem for manufacturing, he said.



Vidyashankar said that DEFTRONICS 2016, the third edition of the annual aerospace, defence & internal security event to be held in Bengaluru on August 4 and 5, will be organised in association with Nasscom.



This years theme is Building Indias Strategic Electronics Ecosystem for greater self-reliance and global relevance  defence, aerospace and internal security sectors, Vidyashankar said.
Allyson Wisniewski will be the next President of the Chippewa Falls Area Chamber of Commerce. Her first day at the Chamber will be November 28.
The situation in Assam continued to worsen on Wednesday as floodwaters inundated fresh areas leaving nearly 17 lakh people affected.





Three people lost their lives on Wednesday in floodwaters. In the neighbouring Arunachal Pradesh, the situation is critical with huge areas of eastern Arunachal Pradesh bordering China and Myanmar still cut off from the rest of the state. In Assam, the death toll reached 12.



Floodwaters have marooned nearly 90% of the 430 sqkm Kaziranga National Park (KNP). As many as 129 of the 178 anti-poaching camps in KNP have been inundated, increasing the risk of rhino poaching. The national highway passing through the periphery of Kaziranga has been shut, official sources said.



In Assam, 21 districts are engulfed by floodwaters as the Brahmaputra and seven of its tributaries are flowing above the danger mark. Brahmaputra is in full spate in Dibrugarh, Tezpur, Jorhat, Goalpara and Guwahati.



Tinsukia district, Jorhat and Sipajhar reported death of one person each in rain-related incidents.



Twelve people have died in floods in Assam this year, official sources further added.

Floods have totally ravaged Lakhimpur, Golaghat, Morigaon, Jorhat, Dhemaji, Sivsagar, Kokrajhar, Barpeta, Bongaigaon and Chirang districts.



Army called in

The Army has been called in for rescue operation in Bongaigaon, Jorhat and Golaghat districts on Wednesday.



According to Assam State Disaster Management Authority assessment report on Monday, 2653 villages across the state remained affected by floods till Saturday evening and the floods have inundated nearly 1.40 lakh hectares of cropland across the affected districts The NDRF and the SDRF are carrying out rescue operation with the help of over 120 boats, sources added.


For the past three months, Tripura has been pushed into a fuel crisis due to landslide and swamping on the National Highway 8 connecting the state with Assam.





More than 2,000 trucks carrying essential commodities, especially fuel, are stranded on the inundated three-mile stretch, leading to the crisis that has forced the Communist-ruled state to introduce odd-even formula to ration fuel.



The administration on the Assamese side is doing everything to move the trucks stuck in the mudslide, from laying bamboo sticks to filling the road with stone clicks and drafting elephants to pull the vehicles out. They even made attempts to pave an alternative road for the vehicles to move, but incessant rains in the area made the conditions worse.



The number of vehicles stuck on both ends is said to be 3,000. In capital Agartala, just one petrol pump has been rationing fuel for the past three months. Queues for fuel stretch up to six kilometres, while grey marketeers are profiting from the shortage of LPG cylinders, charging nearly Rs 2,000 per cylinder.



Shortage of fuel has resulted in skyrocketing prices of essential commodities in landlocked Tripura, surrounded on three sides by Bangladesh and Assam/Mizoram on the northern side. I earn by driving a passenger vehicle, Sukumar Debnath from Agartala said. I have lost my earnings in the last three months. I stand in the queue for five hours to get two litres of fuel. Food prices are so high that we only eat boiled vegetables. Tripura government sources said the BJP-led governments in the Centre and Assam did not respond to repeated letters to take up repair of the damaged road on war footing.



We have had no support from the Centre or from our neighbouring state, Tripuras Food and Civil Supplies Minister Bhanulal Saha told DH. We are going to introduce odd-even formula to ration fuel from Thursday. The monsoon has made things worse and the reserves have virtually dried up.


With stone-pelting youths taking centre-stage in the ongoing unrest in Kashmir, separatists on Wednesday called for a social boycott and ostracism of the mainstream politicians of the state.





Since they (mainstream politicians) claim to represent people whom they have gravely betrayed, it is time that people held them accountable and answerable. People shall ostracise them and boycott them at all levels, socially and publically, a joint statement issued by Hurriyat Conference factions led by Syed Ali Geelani and Mirwaiz Umer Farooq and JKLF chief Yasin Malik said.



People shall refuse to interact with them at community and public places. They shall no longer be allowed to exploit the people and the sacred freedom struggle, they added.

Calling the mainstream politicians Indias local collaborators facilitating the oppression of their own people, the separatists said, their moment of reckoning and introspection is over.



They have simply stopped being human. And when they are out of power, they degrade further, exploiting the sacrifices of freedom-seeking people for furthering their political ambition of assuming power, they said.The separatist leaders have been warned by them not to give any relaxation in the strike, they said.



As in the 2008 and 2010 unrest, separatists have been issuing weekly protest calendars in the valley since the death of Hizb-ul-Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani on July 8, telling people when to open or shut their shops and when to come out on the streets for demonstrations.


A day after human rights activist Irom Sharmila decided to end her 16-year hunger strike against the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA), Manipur on Wednesday tried to make sense of the decision.





The 44-year-old Iron lady of Manipur also indicated her wish to marry and contest the 2017 Assembly polls.



While most of her close aides and family members are tight-lipped, the people of Manipur expressed mixed reactions.



A section of the people in Imphal feel the decision might have an adverse impact on the protests against AFSPA, more because recently the Supreme Court had ordered a probe into the fake encounters in Manipur. A senior Congress leader on condition of anonymity said: Till now, Sharmila was the ambassador of the fight against AFSPA. But the people, and perhaps even Sharmila, understood that it was futile. She was ending herself. Now everyone must galvanise their thought to actually turn her decision into an advantage for Manipur. With the Assembly polls around the corner, speculations are rife that Sharmila might join a political party, and many in Imphal are trying to analyse if she will join the BJP, which is trying to poach power from the Congress.



Anjuman Ara Begum, South Asia programme officer of Forum-Asia, said: Sharmila, through her unique and unparalleled strategy of protest, added awareness about the abuse of AFSPA and gross human rights violations worldwide. If Sharmila travels and talks to people about her movement, it will be more effective for the campaign in the coming days. Coming out of the prison will be more strategic and successful.



The Save Sharmila Solidarity Campaign (SSSC) has welcomed the decision. The SSSC knows about how Sharmila always told that she is just a common person without having any desire to be remembered as a hero, said Ravi Nitesh, SSSC convener.


In their first post-Brexit engagement, Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke to new UK Prime Minister Theresa May over the telephone on Tuesday.





Both the leaders used the opportunity to underline each other's commitment to further strengthening the strategic partnership between India and the UK.



Congratulating Theresa on the assumption of her new responsibility, Modi recalled his memorable visit to the UK last November and appreciated its consistent support to India in various global fora, an official statement said on Wednesday.



Theresa thanked Modi, saying that she looked forward to working closely with him for developing "stronger bilateral ties and enhancing cooperation" to tackle global challenges in the post-Brexit scenario.



Modi's call apparently underlined the concern of Indian business leaders who use Britain as a gateway to Europe.



Interestingly, the Modi-Theresa call came during a visit to India by Alok Sharma, minister for Asia and the Pacific in the UKs Foreign and Commonwealth Office.



Sharma is the first minister from Theresas cabinet to come calling after the new British government was installed on July 13.



At this time of impending change, the UK is open and welcoming and will remain open and welcoming  a land of opportunity, Sharma said at a reception organised by British High Commissioner Dominic Asquith in New Delhi two days ago.



He said that India has always mattered to the UK... The decision of Britain to leave the EU does not restrict the relationship between India and the UK... Indeed, it provides an opportunity to strengthen it further. Sharmas comments sought to address doubts over the issues of immigration and business exchange following Britain's decision to opt out of the EU.




The city was witness to a series of protests over several issues on Wednesday.





While activists of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) youth wing and Karunadu Janashakti Vedike staged a protest demanding the arrest of K Marigowda, former ZP president and a close aide of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, members of Dalit Sangharsh Samiti (DSS) condemned atrocities against dalits and Valmiki Charitable Trust staged a protest, demanding a judicial probe into defacing of the idol of Chikamma Chikkadevi in H D Kote taluk.



Members of DSS, who staged a protest in front of the Town Hall, alleged that the dalits were being attacked over cow slaughter and other issues. Such incidents have become rampant after BJP-led NDA alliance came to power at the Centre, they alleged.



The members also condemned BJP leader Dayashankar Singh for his derogatory remarks against BSP supremo Mayawati. DSS district unit convener Alagud Shivakumar, community leaders Kiranguru Swamy, and Malahalli Narayan led the protest.



Popular Front of India (PFI) activists condemned Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) for abusing dalit youths in Somnath district of Gujarat for allegedly possessing beef. The activists demanded stringent action against the perpetrators.



Arrest Marigowda

Activists of the BJP youth wing staged a protest, against the state government and City police for not arresting Marigowda, in front of Nazarbad police station in the city.



Marigowda is absconding since 23 days after Deputy Commissioner C Shikha lodged a complaint, charging him and others for harassment and physical obstruction, with Nazarbad police. Marigowda and his aides had harassed the DC at the Government Guest house on July 3, when Siddaramaiah was hosted an Iftar party.



The agitators alleged that a local court has rejected his bail plea, the High Court has rebuked him, but the police are not bothered to arrest him.



Members of KJV staged a protest in front of Gandhi Square demanding arrest of Marigowda.



Judicial probe

Representatives of Valmiki Charitable Trust staged a protest in front of the DCs office, demanding a judicial probe into the defacing of the idol of Chikamma Chikkadevi in H D Kote taluk.



The incident has hurt the religious sentiments of lakhs of devotees and also given rise to several suspicions, they alleged. Trust president Ningaraju, secretary M Nagendra Yadakola and others were present.


With the KSRTC employees stir entering the third day on Wednesday, the commuters, students and the government and private employees in particular, had a torrid time in reaching their destination. The passengers took to private vehicles to commute.





Speaking to Deccan Herald, KSRTC Divisional Controller (Hassan division) Prakash Babu said, the loss is incurred by the division is pegged at Rs 1.5 crore.



Suspension

Meanwhile, the suspension of nine employees on Wednesday related to an old case has not gone down well with the agitating staff. Dayanand, Ganesh, Dhananjay, Suresh, Subramanya, Venkatesh, Jagadish, Narasimha and Manjunath have been suspended. They had reportedly issued statements against the depot manager in front of the media, five years ago, for which action has been taken now.



An employee, who threw stones at a Rajahamsa bus on July 25, is being questioned by the senior officials for his act.



Condemning the suspension of nine employees and urging fulfillment of their demands, KSRTC Workers and Staff Union staged a protest in front of the railway station. They claimed that the higher officials have failed to understand their problems. The employees have been suspended for no fault of theirs. Action should be taken against the higher officials, who have been harassing the honest workers. The suspended employees should be reinstated, the union demanded.
Spontaneous protests marked by violence erupted in parts of North Karnataka on Wednesday in the wake of the Mahadayi Water Dispute Tribunal rejecting Karnatakas plea for interim relief.





Protests were held at Navalgund and Dharwad city in Dharwad district; Nargund, Gajendragad and Gadag in Gadag district; and in different parts of Belagavi and Bagalkot districts.



Farmers, who have been staging a sit-in for the past 375 days at Navalgund and Nargund demanding the implementation of the Kalasa-Banduri project, blocked the busy Hubballi-Sholapur national highway at Navalgund and Nargund, bringing vehicular traffic to a halt.



They also attacked the JMFC court and the Irrigation Department buildings in Navalgund.



Protests erupt in North Karnataka

Mobs raided many government offices in Nargund, Gajendragad and Gadag and smashed the glasspanes of the court complex in Navalgund. They threw the furniture at the Irrigation Department office outside and broke them. Files were also set on fire.



The police, taken by surprise, could hardly control the rampaging crowd.



The offices of the tahsildar, taluk panchayat, agriculture, public works and other departments were also attacked. Protesters barged into the NWKRTC office at Navalgund bus stand, smashed the furniture and stoned some buses parked in the depot.



In Hubballi, farmers took to the streets and blocked the busy Channamma Circle in the heart of the city for more than three hours. Fearing violence, the private Bendre buses stopped their services.



In Gadag town, protesters blocked the arterial roads and shops and businesses downed their shutters. The office of BJP parliamentarian Shivakumar Udasi also bore the brunt of mob fury. The situation was similar in Bagalkot.



In Belagavi, police detained farmers who tried to block the Pune-Bengaluru national highway. Business establishments at Ramdurg, Savadatti and Bailhongal voluntarily closed for the day.



Police personnel have been deployed at Kankumbi in Khanapur taluk where a wall has been constructed across the canal to prevent the flow of Kalasa water into River Malaprabha.


A fresh incident of transgression by the Chinese troops was reported last week in Uttarakhand, said to be the least contentious portion along the disputed Sino-Indian boundary.





The area where the transgression took place on July 22 is a grazing field about 80 sq km at Barahoti in Chamoli district, claimed by both India and China. The area belongs to the 'middle sector' of the disputed border on which maps were exchanged between the two nations.



When Uttarakhand revenue officials went to measure the 'revenue line', they noticed Chinese activity. A small detachment of the Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) troop comprising four to five soldiers had a face-off with Indian officials and border-guarding personnel.

The incident was handled as per mutually agreed drills. The incident did not last for more than a few minutes, an official said.


India on Wednesday signed a $ 1 billion contract with Boeing to buy four additional P8I maritime surveillance planes for the navy.





Though there was no official word either from the defence ministry or from Boeing, defence sources said the contract being negotiated by Indian and the US governments for the last three years has been signed.



The first aircraft is expected to be delivered within the next three years, extending the blue water footprint of the Indian Navy.



This is a follow-on order of the previous $ 2.1 billion deal under which India purchased eight of these aircraft through a government-to-government route. The first aircraft came in 2013. With a range of 1,200 nautical miles, P8I Poseidon can fly much beyond Indias neighbouring maritime zones.



The government-to-government deal to procure 12 of these aircraft marks an increased confidence level between New Delhi and Washington as India is the first customer of P8I, outside the US. The provision for the four follow-on aircraft was mentioned in the 2009 contract for these planes.



Acquisition of 12 P8I aircraft  some of them were deployed to search for the Indian Air Forces missing AN-32 transport plane - will complete the first phase of Navys requirement of 24 long range maritime reconnaissance aircraft.
The State government will consult its legal team on the next course of action following the Mahadayi Water Disputes Tribunals interim award.





Chief Minister Siddaramaiah told reporters in Bengaluru that he will again appeal to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to intervene as the Kalasa Banduri project was meant for supplying drinking water. The National Water Policy provides priority to drinking water projects, he said.



Siddaramaiah said senior counsel Fali Nariman, who heads the states legal team, will advise the state government on its next step. Our legal team has sought time to study the verdict. We will soon decide on the pros and cons of filing a Special Leave Petition (SLP) in the Supreme Court challenging the Tribunal verdict, he said.



The chief minister said he will also convene an all-party meeting next week to discuss the Mahadayi water sharing issue.



Indira Gandhi and Atal Bihari Vajpayee as Prime Ministers took the initiative to resolve inter-state river water sharing disputes amicably. However, Modi did not intervene despite our repeated requests, he said.


While rejecting the interim application filed by Karnataka seeking permission to utilise 7.56 tmc feet of water from the Mahadayi river, the Mahadayi Water Disputes Tribunal on Wednesday picked several holes in the states application.





The Tribunal headed by Justice J M Panchal in its detailed order pointed out several faults in Karnatakas application and observed that the state failed to provide required documentary evidence on water requirement and its utilisation.



Though Karnataka has prepared a preliminary report on the proposal for utilising seven tmc feet of water, the state has not submitted any detailed project report or technical feasibility study of the project to it, the Tribunal said.



On the states contention that the Malaprabha basin is a perennially drought-hit region, the Tribunal observed that inflow to the reservoir has been identified as one of the key indicators for drought. However, Karnataka has not placed any documents which mention about the policy or approved practice of Karnataka or that of Government of India related to use of inflow as an index of drought.



On Karnatakas arguments that there is surplus water in the Mahadayi, the Tribunal said it is well known that there are considerable variations in rainfall and consequently in water availability from time to time as also from one place to another. The contribution to the total projected surplus water from catchments upto the three proposed locations for lifting of 7.56 tmc feet of water is more relevant. The projection of surplus water in respect of the whole basin will not be a correct indicator for planning of diversion.



Though Karnataka promised that it will not create any permanent structure to lift water from the Mahadayi to transfer it to the Malaprabha basin, the Tribunal in its 119-page order observed that in the absence of deep concrete volutes and sumps or bunds, neither water can be lifted nor transported.



On the states suggestion to transfer of water only when there is shortfall of rain in a month, the Tribunal said the status of actual inflow in a particular month and determination whether it is less than normal or not will be known only at the end of the month and not at the beginning of the month.



Though Karnataka had completed construction work on the inter-connecting canal between the Mahadayi basin and the Malaprabha basin for diversion of water, the Tribunal said the State had not obtained any permission for that.
The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) has arrested former BJP corporator Gangabairaiah in the II PUC Chemistry question paper leak case. The agency believes he permitted other suspects to use his house for tutoring students in the leaked paper.





The CID arrested Gangabairaiah on Wednesday after it learnt during the investigation that his house in Basaveshwaranagar was used by two other suspects  Obalaraju, who was personal assistant to minister Sharanprakash Patil, and Narayan S, who runs a consultancy in Sadashivanagar and is presently absconding.



Oabalaraju bought the question paper on March 20, a day before the exam, and shared it with his relative Rudrappa. The children of Obalaraju and Rudrappa were to appear for the Chemistry paper the next day. Similarly, Gangabairaiahs grandson was also to appear for the exam. So, he allowed the suspects to use his house to tutor the students in the leaked question paper, a senior police officer said.



A source in the CID said the investigation had revealed that around 15 students had gathered at Gangabairaiahs house to prepare for the next days exam.



With the former corporators arrest, the CID has apprehended 17 people for the paper leak which occurred in the Hangal sub-treasury in Haveri district. Besides the prime suspect Shivakumaraiah alias Guruji, the CID has arrested other main suspects Kiran alias Kumaraswamy, Manjunath and Anil, who were physical education teachers at different schools in Bengaluru.


The state government on Wednesday submitted to the High Court that a 22-member expert committee had been constituted to select names for the Rajyotsava award.





The submission was made in response to a petition filed by B V Satyanarayana Rao, who has approached the court seeking directions to the government to consider his application for the state award.



The government has said that former High Court judge Justice H N Nagamohan Das will be the chairman of the committee which will study, examine and suggest the eligibility criteria and guidelines for selecting the awardees.



The committee is expected to submit a report to the government in the first week of October. Justice S Abdul Nazeer, appreciating the governments efforts in constituting the committee, adjourned the hearing to August 22.



Plea on ACB

The High Court has ordered notice to the government and the Lokayukta in a PIL seeking directions to the government to quash the notification granting police powers to the Anti-corruption Bureau (ACB).



The petitioner, B N Vasudeva Reddy, has contended that the Karnataka Lokayukta Act, 1984, that was passed by both Houses of the legislature had a statutory force.



Following the formation of the ACB, Lokayukta had been deprived of the power to investigate and take action in cases pending before it. The petitioner had sought directions to the government not to interfere or obstruct Lokayukta from exercising its power to investigate.



A division bench comprising Chief Justice S K Mukherjee and Justice Ravi Malimath ordered notice and adjourned the hearing.



Bellandur Lake

The High Court on Wednesday directed the petitioner to give a representation to the Deputy Commissioner (DC), Bengaluru with regard to a PIL seeking directions to clean Bellandur Lake.



A division bench comprising Chief Justice S K Mukherjee and Justice Ravi Malimath directed the DC to form a committee and to include all the stakeholders to look into the matter of cleaning the lake. The petitioner, Srinivas R, and others had contended that despite efforts being made by different government agencies, Bellandur Lake is being polluted and foam caused due to chemical reaction forms on the lake every now and then.


Abandoned by his family when barely five, visually impaired Siddu S Loute stood no chance in a world without empathy.





But he fought enormous odds, developed an interest in mathematics, memorised tables up to 99 crore to excel in a school that he struggled to be a part of. Years later, a unique crowdfunding initiative is now on to help Siddu realise his dream: To be an IAS officer!



For Siddus family, struggling to make ends meet in a small village in Karnataka, he was a burden.



Dumped, he roamed cluelessly until someone put him in a hostel attached to the Government School for the Blind. I was too weak, I could not speak to anyone, he recalled.



It was then that he noticed how another boy in Class 7 impressed everyone with his ability to recite 100 mathematical tables. I thought why I too cant do it. Mocked and beaten frequently by my classmates, ignored by my teachers, I then chose to put all my efforts in mathematics.



His perseverance paid off. By the time he stepped into 2nd standard, Siddu had memorised 56 lakh tables. My teachers were condescending. But once they quizzed me with calculators, they realised I had talent.



Yet, that Herculean effort did not make life better for Siddu. Although he bettered his marks in all other subjects, his ability in maths was only used to showcase his school. Awards and honours aplenty came his way. Big people donated money for me. But that never reached me, lamented Siddu.



Landing in Bengaluru, he even had to beg to pursue his academics. Braving tough conditions, he completed his pre-university schooling and eventually bagged a seat in the five-year LLM course in M S Ramaiah College. But civil services continues to be his enduring ambition.



I feel I can deliver as a civil servant, since I have gone through those struggles. I can understand the pain.



Siddus IAS preparation now banks on getting a Braille Printer that costs around Rs 2 lakh and other study materials. But the high cost of the equipment has been a big obstacle.



Through the social crowdfunding platform, Impact Guru, he could raise a part of the total funds. Siddu could be contacted at siddusloute@gmail.com
The longest strike by transport employees in Karnataka caused a notional loss of Rs 50 crore for the state transport corporations. A senior transport official said it was one of the longest protests by the workers union in its history.





Protests by unions previously lasted for a day and in some cases two days. In 1997, when the KSRTC was divided into four corporations including BMTC, there was a protest for almost two-and-half days. This is first time that the protest, which started on Sunday evening, went on till Wednesday evening, he said.



Talks with the unions were deadlocked for three days till the government agreed to hike wages by 12.5 % on Wednesday evening.



As a result of the strike, lakhs of commuters had to use alternative means of transport while the state government was forced to declare a holiday for schools and colleges in many districts in the state, including Bengaluru.



Meanwhile, KSRTC managing director Rajender Kumar Kataria told Deccan Herald that all the four STCs earn Rs 50 crore every day. Due to the strike, the STCs lost Rs 50 crore revenue.



Working people hit



With 6,242 BMTC buses staying off the roads for almost three consecutive days, 50 lakh commuters were put to hardship everyday in the city. Apart from increasing traffic congestion, the strike meant that many commuters had to spend more on alternative modes of transport.



Premalatha G, a resident of Rajajinagar said she spent Rs 200 for the last three days to reach her office on Cunningham Road in a shared auto.



I had already spent Rs 1,050 on the BMTC monthly pass and I had to shell out extra money in the past three days. The government does not understand that for many people, Rs 200 matters a lot, she said.



Similarly, Rajesh Raju, a shop owner in Basavanagudi said he earned Rs 300 daily while he had to spend almost all his income on transport.



When MPs and MLAs can double their salaries, why cant the government do it for its employees? Its not the union leaders but elected representatives who have no concern for the people, he opined.



A domestic help from Yeshwantpur said she earns Rs 4,500 a month and had to spend Rs 350 in the past three days on autorickshaws.
PHILADELPHIA -- U.S. Sen. Cory Booker had delegates on their feet Monday with a widely praised, high-energy speech to the Democratic National Convention.

On Wednesday, Booker had Wisconsin's delegation in stitches.

Booker, D-N.J., addressed the Wisconsin, Montana and Alaska delegations at their breakfast Wednesday morning. He had delegates roaring with tongue-in-cheek tales about his native New Jersey, including being warned by a finger-wagging female poll-worker against using his clout to cut in long lines to vote for Barack Obama in 2008. Booker was mayor of Newark, N.J., at the time.

"I'm from Jersey. We keep it real!" a grinning Booker shouted.

Booker also had some serious moments in which he urged all delegates to vote for Hillary Clinton in November. He cited the election of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie -- a Republican first elected in 2009, a year after Obama -- as an example of what happens when voters don't show up at the polls.

There was no line to vote at his polling place in that election, Booker said.

"The Democrats lose the governorship in a blue state, and somebody they could never imagine holding that seat is now the governor," Booker said.
LAIE, Hawaii  Efforts to raise funds for educational needs in his home country of Tuvalu recently came back to bless Easter Niko with a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

At the end of June, Niko, a recent graduate of Brigham Young University-Hawaii, traveled to Buckingham Palace where he received the 2016 Queen's Young Leader Award from Queen Elizabeth II.

"It was a fabulous experience," Niko said. "The highlight was definitely meeting the queen. I wasn't expecting her to be so personable, but she took time to ask about me, my project and the people of Tuvalu. She was really sweet."

Niko is one of many international students from BYU-Hawaii who are using their education and talents to bless their families and home countries. They want to make a difference in the world, and in the process they are also fulfilling the prophetic vision of the late LDS Church President David O. McKay, who in 1955 said: "From this school ... will go forth men and women whose influence will be felt for good towards the establishment of peace internationally."

BYU-Hawaii, owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, has an enrollment of about 2,700 students from more than 70 countries, making it one of the most ethnically diverse baccalaureate institutions in the United States, according to its communications department. Students such as Niko, Ghana natives Lillian Martino-Bradley and Prince Owusu, and New Zealand's Mare Pairamakararoariki serve to illustrate the many unique backgrounds and individuals stories at the university.

Chad Ford, BYU-Hawaii's director of the David O. McKay Department of Cultural Understanding, said he is inspired each day he comes to work because students are not focused on themselves. The school's slogan, "Enter to learn, go forth to serve," adequately describes the attitude of most students, Ford said.

"College can be a selfish experience  but for so many kids here, it's not about them; it's about making a difference in the world. It's about making other people's lives better," Ford said. "Their attitude is 'What am I getting here in the classroom that will help me benefit my village, my family and make a difference in the world?' Its a really cool place to be. I dont know of another university that has quite that unique of a mission."

Pride of Tuvalu

Tuvalu is an independent island nation within the British Commonwealth. It's made up of nine small islands and has a population of about 12,000 people. Niko is one of them, and his education at BYU-Hawaii has opened doors of opportunity, he said.

During his freshman year, he worked as a tour guide at the Polynesian Cultural Center before leaving to serve a Mormon mission in the San Francisco Bay area. Before he departed, he was chosen for a special assignment. Because he spoke English well and had tour guide skills, he hosted a short visit by the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, Prince William and Kate Middleton.

"They asked where I learned English, and I told them about BYU-Hawaii," Niko recalled. "'Isn't that a Mormon school? We know some good Mormon people,' they said. I told them if they are ever at the PCC, ask for me, I'd be their tour guide. They said, 'If you come to England, call us.'"

After his mission, Niko returned to BYU-Hawaii. While studying to become an accountant, he and a team of students raised more than $300,000 from private donors to improve the quality of education in Tuvalu. For his leadership and giving back to the community, Niko was chosen for receive one of the Queen's Young Leaders Awards. In addition to spending a week in England, Niko received a one-year online training course at Cambridge University, he said.

Niko recently married his sweetheart, Cindy, and moved to Utah to pursue a master's degree at the University of Utah. Grateful for the experiences that have taught him so much, Niko plans to continue tackling education problems in Tuvalu, he said.

Battling human trafficking

As a young child in Ghana, Martino-Bradley was adopted by a Mormon family from Heber City, Utah.

Born in 1996, Martino-Bradleys mother died from childbirth complications, and she never knew her father. Her uncle was attempting to raise her, but it was a poor and bleak situation.

Hope for a better life came when the uncle met an LDS missionary couple serving in Ghana and they learned of Martino-Bradleys plight. When the couple returned home, they told Tracy and Lois Martino about the malnourished little girl they feared would be sold into slavery if not rescued soon. The Martinos traveled to West Africa and adopted her.

Martino-Bradley had a happy life in Utah. She had many friends and excelled in school and sports, especially soccer, but she could not forget her roots. She wanted to fight child trafficking. This desire led her, then a teenager, to set up her own non-profit organization in 2012 called Fahodie for Friends. "Fahodie" is the Ghanaian word for "freedom."

After high school, Martino-Bradley accepted a soccer scholarship to BYU-Hawaii, where she was introduced to a field of study that aligned nicely with her foundation: peace-building and conflict resolution. Her foundation has helped 19 people as of June, she said.

Martino-Bradley's main motivation stems from her LDS faith, she said.

"We are supposed to serve and love each other  to fulfill our potential and eternal purpose," Martino-Bradley said. "Thats what I hope I can do for people. I feel like its why Im here."

She has learned to define success as helping one person at a time.

"Those small and simple things really come together to make an impact," said Martino-Bradley, who last year married a returned missionary who served in Ghana. "Collectively, as we each do what we can within our own circumstances, thats what is going to make the difference and allow for peace in the world."

The couple

As a young teen in New Zealand, Pairamakararoariki observed that the best basketball players in his city often gathered for "chapel ball" at the LDS Church. Although he was the smallest player on the court at that time, Pairamakararoariki was honored to be invited and didn't miss a Friday for the next four years, even though the chapel was seven miles from his home.

After a night of "chapel ball," when he was 18 years old, a girl approached Pairamakararoariki and invited him to church meetings. He was curious to find out about this place he had been coming to for years and accepted the invitation. Seven months later, he was baptized. Two years after that, as the only member in his family (his sisters would later join), he embarked on a two-year Mormon mission to England.

Upon his return, Pairamakararoariki applied to BYU in Provo, but a series of events led him to BYU-Hawaii and his future wife, Hi'ilei, who had just returned from a mission at Temple Square. The couple are now expecting their first child this fall.

Mare Pairamakararoariki was accepted in the I-Work program and works part time at the Polynesian Cultural Center as a dancer in the Aotearoa Village. He typically gets around on a skateboard or a bicycle, although the couple did purchase a car for necessary trips to the doctor's office.

At times, Pairamakararoariki has felt inadequate as a college student, struggling to understand subjects such as biology, but he has appreciated learning at a school where spiritual and secular education are combined.

"It's a unique learning experience," Pairamakararoariki said. "I appreciate it and don't ever want to take it for granted."

"Our lives have really benefited from (BYU-Hawaii), and (education) will be a blessing for our future family," said Hi'ilei Pairamakararoariki, a native of Laie. "You really appreciate coming to a church school. It's affordable, a great education, a win-win. I wouldnt trade it for anything."

Determined to make a difference

At age 9 or 10, Owusu was walking home from school when he was ambushed by a group of boys. One pushed him to the ground. Owusu landed awkwardly on his left arm and broke it badly. Because his parents were poor and didn't have insurance, the arm went untreated for a week and had to be amputated.

It's a painful memory, but the event changed Owusu's life for the better. His mother moved her son to a new school run by a man who also operated an orphanage so he could have a better education, he said.

The man's name was Abraham Kwuku Fokuo, and he became a friend and mentor to Owusu. He was also a Mormon and introduced Owusu to the LDS missionaries. In time, the one-armed young man joined the church, finished school and served a mission to the Ivory Coast against the wishes of his parents, he said.

At the end of his mission, Owusu said, he prayed for a way to open for him to get a job teaching at the Ghana Missionary Training Center and the kind of college education that would allow him to make a difference in people's lives. With the help of a friend, Owusu got the MTC job. Then the MTC mission president played a key role in Owusu being accepted into the I-Work program at BYU-Hawaii, where he has learned to thrive.

Owusu's dream is to return to Ghana and perhaps run a school and an orphanage, he said.

"I want to go back to Africa and help people who need help, especially those who have the potential and talent, but not the means to bring those talents out," Owusu said. "I want to go home and make a difference."

Email: ttoone@deseretnews.com Twitter: tbtoone


The New Song From Happy Bhaag Jaegi Will Definitely Remind You Khoobsurat!
Kajal Aggarwal Not Finalized As The Heroine Of Chiranjeevis 150th Film?
Agriterra announced on Wednesday that it has agreed the sale of its Beech King Air F-90 plane to a registered aircraft retailer in South Africa for consideration of $0.29m, which is expected to complete within the next few days.

The AIM-traded firm said the sale follows the recent disposal of its Aerospatiale Alouette 3 helicopter to the same purchaser for a consideration of $80,000.

A further sale of the company's Robinson R44 helicopter has also been agreed with the same purchaser for $0.2m, Agriterras board added, with that sale expected to complete on or around 5 August.

All considerations receivable are payable in cash upon completion, and the assets have been sold at their market value, which exceeds their collective current book value of approximately $0.26m.

The sale of these aviation assets is part of the company's ongoing operational improvement programme in Mozambique, Agriterras board said in a statement.

The proceeds of the sale of these assets will be applied, in part, towards the acquisition and operation of an animal feed pelletiser machine.

Agriterra said the pelletiser, which is due for shipment from South Africa to the company's facilities in Chimoio, Mozambique this week, will provide it with access to an additional revenue stream by converting the bran by-product from the company's grain processing operations this into processed animal feed, which can be sold at a premium to farmers within the region.

Further information on the operations of the pelletiser will follow in due course, following installation, commissioning and initial sales, the board added.
Connemara Mining found a new gold system in a green bed environment as part of its Inishowen drilling campaign in Ireland.

The company drilled two holes in a four-hole programme on its licences in Donegal, Ireland and found a new gold system contained within quartz calcite veins, shears and an altered unit.

The AIM listed company said this type of geology is known to host large deposits in other parts of the world and presence of sphalerite in quartz veins had been a good indicator of gold.

Chairman John Teeling said: "A significant and exciting indication from these results is that we have identified a new gold system of a type known to contain large gold deposits. Finding gold in fault zones, shears and altered zones shows there must have been significant gold bearing fluids there at some time.

This is still an early stage project. We await with interest results from the remaining two holes which are being analysed. These will be available within weeks."

A 1 meter section in one of the holes contained an average grade of 2.48 grams per tonne of gold with a 33cm quartz vein at 6.85 grams per tonne of gold. A 2.98 meter section at 0.27 grams per tonne of gold contained multiple quartz calcite veins within sheared and fractured pelite.

Another group of quartz calcite veins over 0.55 meter ran 1.37 grams per tonne of gold. An altered unit within the semi-pelite contained a grade of 1.03 meter at 0.33 grams per tonne of gold.

Connemara Mining said the mineralisation is not well understood but these results in this geological environment are extremely encouraging and have the potential for additional mineralisation.

Shares in Connemara Mining were down 0.95% to 2.60p at 1038 BST.
Israeli tech firm considered to be one of the leaders in self-driving equipment

Partners in the development of self-driving technology Tesla and MobilEye will split after the end of their current agreement , as the US carmaker will begin the search for a new collaboration.

MobilEye is considered to be one of the most innovative companies in the realm of self-driving equipment, but will pull its devices from Tesla from 2018.

It is unclear whether the carmakers or the Israeli tech firm ended the agreement.

Tesla are currently being investigated after a fatal crash in May involving one of their models may be attributed to a malfunction of their Autopilot system.

It is unclear whether the carmakers or the Israeli tech firm ended the agreement

Mobileyes work with Tesla will not extend beyond the EyeQ3, MobilEye said on Tuesday, as it released results showing significant profit increases.

The next generation of sensors from the firm is due to be released in 2018, and it looks unlikely that it will be made available to Tesla.

We continue to support and maintain the current Tesla Autopilot product plans. This includes a significant upgrade of several functions that affect both the ability to respond to crash avoidance and to optimise auto-steering in the near term," said the statement.

CEO of the US manufacturer Elon Musk was unconcerned about the ending of the partnership, describing it as "inevitable".

Us parting ways was somewhat inevitable. Theres nothing unexpected here from our standpoint," Musk said. "Were committed to autonomy. Theyll go their way and well go ours."
Regional parliament representatives say Catalonia would prefer to have consent from national government

The regional government in Catalonia, Spain, is preparing to begin the process of secession from the country, whether they receive the backing from the national government in Madrid or not.

Catalan parliament president Carme Forcadell, and foreign affairs minister Raul Romeva, told the Guardian in an exclusive interview that they feel as if they have no choice.

The [Spanish state] has left us feeling that we just dont have an alternative, Romeva said.

We have always said that we would have preferred a Scottish-type scenario, where we could negotiate with the state and hold a coordinated and democratic referendum. We keep talking to Madrid, but all we get back from them is an echo.

The Spanish government, currently led by acting prime minister Mariano Rajoy, has consistently refuted claims by Catalonia over its right to become an independent state, citing any potential referendum as illegal.

Public opinion is on the side of the separatists however, with 47.7% said to favour independence in a recent poll, compared with 42.4% against the idea.

Forcadell criticised the actions of the Madrid government, referring to a recent incident in which Spanish interior minister Jorge Fernandez Diaz and Catalonia anti-fraud officer Daniel de Alfonso were recorded discussing ideas about how to bring proceedings against separatist politicians in the area.

How can they say that when the interior minister, whos meant to defend the interests of all citizens, is caught conspiring to find evidence against citizens solely because they think differently? How can absolutely nothing come of that? We dont understand it, said Forcadell.

Preparations for the creation of a independent state are already well underway, with the Junts Pel Si coalition government in the area pushing through legal steps to set up a tax authority and a foreign affairs department.

Rajoy has consistently used an argument of illegality in constitutional terms as reason for not allowing independence, and Romeva said that he does not believe it to be a valid argument.

The Spanish government uses the question of legality a lot, Romeva said, speaking to the Guardian. But legality is an instrument; it needs to adapt to reality and to democratic will, and not the other way round.
Heavy rains and excessive heat might have caused problems for Wisconsin residents last week but it was just what the state's crops needed, officials said.

The weekly crop progress report for the week ending July 24 said the rains, heat and humidity resulted in a "burst of growth" for the corn and soybean crops thriving in the greenhouse-like atmosphere.

The report comes from the USDA National Agriculture Statistics Service.

"Everything looks excellent," a Shawano County report said. "It is like a natural greenhouse for the crops the last few weeks."

The timing of rain, coupled with plenty of heat and sun, is just the ticket for growers.

"The rains keep coming in perfect amounts, a half-inch to an inch at a time, a couple times a week for the past month," a Portage/Wood County report said. "It's a little hard to make dry hay, but the rest of the crops overall are very, very good for what is normally the hottest, driest time of the year."

There were a few negatives farmers had to contend with during the week, with the heavy storms knocking down some fields and structures, cut hay being slow to dry and livestock showing signs of stress.

The progress report showed all of the state's major crops were ahead of last year and most ahead of the five-year average.

Corn silking was 64 percent complete, more than 30 points better than a week earlier, and the crop was rated 86 percent good to excellent.

Oats were 87 percent coloring and 17 percent harvested, with the crop rated 86 percent good to excellent.

Soybeans were 86 percent blooming and 44 percent setting pods, with the crop rated 86 percent good to excellent.

The second cutting of alfalfa hay was 92 percent complete and the third cutting was 31 percent complete, with all hay rated 89 percent good to excellent.

Winter wheat was 45 percent harvested, with the crop rated 88 percent good to excellent.

Potatoes were three percent harvested, with the crop rated 94 percent good to excellent.

Soil moisture was in good shape, with topsoil at 94 percent adequate or surplus and subsoil at 91 percent adequate or surplus.

"The crops are looking great!," a Barron County report said.
Husband Bill gives Clinton warm endorsement ahead of battle with Donald Trump

The race to become the 45th president of the United States was confirmed as Donald Trump versus Hillary Clinton after the latter was formally confirmed at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia on Tuesday.

Former president and husband of Hillary, Bill Clinton, spoke at the convention to endorse his wife, giving a warma and personal address about their lives together.

The DNC has so far been characterised by division, as supporters of former candidate Bernie Sanders heckled and disrupted speakers at the first day of the event.

However, the ex-resident of the White House stole the show on day 2, heaping praise on his spouse.

Shes the best darn change-maker I ever met in my life, said Bill. This woman has never been satisfied with the status quo in anything.

Hillary will make us stronger together, he said. You know it, because she spent a lifetime doing it. I hope you will do it. I hope you will elect her," added Clinton.

Democratic nominee Hillary spoke to the convention via video link from New York, after an elaborate graphic which showed the previous 43 men who have served as president being smashed by the image of Clinton in the background.

Hillary appealed to women around the United States to follow her lead.

I cant believe we just put the biggest crack in that glass ceiling yet, said Clinton. If there are any little girls out there who stayed up late to watch, can I just say, I may become the first woman president but one of you is next.

The nominee is set to give a formal speech on Thursday to accept the nomination, ahead of the beginning of official campaigning for the election, which will take place in November of this year.
Theresa May said she wanted to guarantee the rights of EU citizens in Britain, but wanted guarantees in return for UK nationals living abroad.

May, in a press conference with Italian prime minister Matteo Renzi in Rome on Wednesday, said: "I want to be able to guarantee their rights in the UK. I expect to, I intend to. But it's not possible if the rights of UK nationals living in other EU states are not guaranteed.

"I'm looking at this with an open mind. I think we should be developing the model that suits the United Kingdom and the European Union. Not adopting, necessarily, a model that is on the shelf already."

Renzi said Italy would do "its utmost to collaborate and support the process" and said it was "important to have a vision and precise timeline for the process".

May had been accused of using EU nationals living in the UK as "bargaining chips" in negotiations for the countrys exit from the 28 member bloc. She refused to guarantee the rights of 2.9m EU nationals living in the UK until other EU countries also guarantee the rights of Britons living abroad.

The prime minister met Renzi to talk about the challenges faced by Brexit, terrorism and the migration crisis, in her latest tour of Europe. Last week May met chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin and president Francois Hollande in Paris.

She also hosted Ireland's prime minister Enda Kenny on Tuesday and said the two nations should maintain the closest possible relationship post-Brexit.

May said she hoped there would be a new chapter in Anglo-Italian relations and that they would continue to meet within G7, G20 and Nato.

Renzi said that he hoped that some good would come from Brexit although he noted that the referendum result was sad.

May also confirmed she chaired the first Brexit cabinet committee on Tuesday.

On Wednesday MPs on the home affairs select committee said the UK could face a "surge" in migrants from the EU before border restrictions are imposed. They said the prime minister should set a cut-off date for migrants entering the country.
Recruitment software provider Dillistone Group announced on Wednesday that its subsidiary, Dillistone Systems , has secured an order for its FileFinder Anywhere product with the Paris headquartered global executive search firm Alexander Hughes International .

The AIM-traded firm said the FileFinder Anywhere software combines browser based technology with access to data across devices, and will be implemented across the firm's global network of offices in around 30 countries.

Breedon Aggregates planned takeover of Hope cleared a major hurdle on Wednesday, with the Competition and Markets Authority accepting its undertakings in lieu of a Phase 2 investigation.

The AIM-traded firm said as a result, it has been cleared to complete the acquisition, subject to those undertakings.

Staffing services and outsourcing group Staffline posted a rise in first-half pre-tax profit as revenue grew and the company said it has seen no signs that Brexit is affecting demand for its services.

For the six months ended 30 June, underlying pre-tax profit was up 50.5% to 15.2m on revenues of 414.7m, up 39.5% from the same period last year.

Southern and Western Africa-focused multi-commodity mining and natural resource development company Premier African Minerals announced on Wednesday that Pamela Hueston has resigned as a director of the company, and that simultaneously Russel Swarts has been appointed as a consultant.

The AIM-traded firm said Swarts will provide oversight of its financial management.

Market analytics company Ebiquity reported on Wednesday that it has performed in line with market expectations as revenue grew in the first half, boosted by a weak sterling.

In a trading statement for six months ended 30 June, the company said two thirds of its revenue is denominated in non-sterling currencies and it had received some benefit from the the weak pound in the first half of the year. Following the Brexit result from the 24 June EU referendum the pound plummeted to 31-year lows.

MediLink-Global announced on Wednesday that it has decided to seek shareholder approval for the cancellation of the company's ordinary shares from trading on AIM.

The directors of the AIM-traded firm said they consider that the costs associated with having its shares admitted to trading on AIM are not commensurate with the associated benefits of admission.

Connemara Mining found a new gold system in a green bed environment as part of its Inishowen drilling campaign in Ireland.

The company drilled two holes in a four-hole programme on its licences in Donegal, Ireland and found a new gold system contained within quartz calcite veins, shears and an altered unit.

Agriterra announced on Wednesday that it has agreed the sale of its Beech King Air F-90 plane to a registered aircraft retailer in South Africa for consideration of $0.29m, which is expected to complete within the next few days.

The AIM-traded firm said the sale follows the recent disposal of its Aerospatiale Alouette 3 helicopter to the same purchaser for a consideration of $80,000.
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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.
Digital Bible Facebook Page Celebrates 10 Million Followers



SWINDON, UK, July 27, 2016 / SWINDON, UK, July 27, 2016 / Christian Newswire / -- More than 10 million people now turn to the Digital Bible page on Facebook ( www.facebook.com/DigitalBible ) for their source of daily Bible encouragement. The page that is operated by United Bible Societies combines Scripture verses on the major themes of the Bible with captivating visual imagery. Twelve volunteers from every continent manage ministry aspects like personal prayer and counseling done through the site. The page was started in February 2009 by the Bible Society of New Zealand, but today encouraging Bible verses are posted in 5 languages: English, Afrikaans, French, German and Tagalog.

Over half a million people engage with the page each day, making it one of the top Christian social media pages in the world. Still, Adrian White, Chief Operating Officer of UBS, says that the page's huge popularity is due to providing Bible verses that address Gods answers for human needs. Digital Bible future plans are by no means modest. In 2016 the site will introduce live meetings of followers to honour and celebrate God together and currently volunteers for new languages are recruited with the help of Bible Societies.

About United Bible Societies:

United Bible Societies is a global network of Bible Societies working in more than 200 countries and territories across the world. Together, United Bible Societies members are the worlds biggest translator, publisher and distributor of the Bible. Bible Societies are also active in areas such as HIV/AIDS prevention, trauma healing and literacy. United Bible Societies works with all Christian Churches and many international non-governmental organisations. In addition to above discussed Facebook Digital Bible page UBS also operates similarly named The Digital Bible Library, the largest Scripture database that accelerates the translation process, safeguards texts and provides qualified ministries and organisations access to a standardised platform for rapid global Scripture delivery so that they can distribute translations and media files through websites, apps, print on demand, and other means. Read more: www.unitedbiblesocieties.org.
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With passage of the Affordable Care Act, the nation does not have enough mental health workers to meet the demand for care, leading to intense competition, especially in rural areas.



By VICKIE ALDOUS

Mail Tribune

MEDFORD, Ore.  Saddled with $75,000 in student loans, Chy Porter looked for an employer that offered a loan-forgiveness program when she hunted for a job in the mental health field.

She chose to go to work as a mental health therapist for Jackson County Health and Human Services  which is competing for mental health workers amid a nationwide shortage.





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SALEM, Ore. (AP)  Officials are considering a proposal for what would be the state's second largest dairy in eastern Oregon.

The Statesman Journal reports the proposed Willow Creek Dairy would house 30,000 animals. Wym Matthews with the state Department of Agriculture says the dairy would be near Threemile Canyon Farms, which is the state's largest dairy with 70,000 animals.





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By BEN NEARY

Associated Press

CHEYENNE, Wyo.  Aiming to develop new export markets for a fuel source hit by declining domestic demand, Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead on Monday signed an agreement calling for cooperation between the state and a consortium of Japanese companies in researching clean-coal technology.

Mead signed a memorandum of understanding in Cheyenne with the president of the Japan Coal Energy Center. It represents about 120 manufacturing and energy companies, including Mitsubishi Materials and Kawasaki Heavy Industries.





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Its easy to forget about the humble train. These days we want airlines that spoil us rotten and hotels that spoil us rottener. We want plush lounges. We want five-star food. We want to see the worlds most famous monuments up close. A train seems like a quaint relic of a time long before celebs Snapchatted sessions with personal trainers and Pokemon were lurking around every corner.

Trans-Siberian Railway

All aboard for an attitude adjustment. Todays rail routes arent just about getting from A to B  theyre breathtakingly scenic, environmentally friendly, and sometimes scandalously luxurious. On the worlds best train trips, youre right on track for an old-fashioned adventure with new-fangled style.

The granddaddy of all epic rail journeys is the Trans-Siberian Railway. At 9,289 km (5,772 mi), its the longest railway line on the planet and easily its most famous. The classic Trans-Siberian route stretches from Moscow to Vladivostok. Other branches take travellers from Moscow to Beijing via Mongolia or Manchuria. As for accommodations, conditions vary vastly. The private Tsars Gold and Golden Eagle luxury trains offer comfortable compartments, attentive service, and opulent dining menus. The cheap seats in the standard trains offer an entirely different experience, but its an experience a certain species of traveller will love.

The Ghan

Australias most memorable passenger train makes the trek through Adelaide, Alice Springs, Katherine, and Darwin. The route spans 54 hours and 2,979 km (1,851 mi) through the stunning red vastness of the Outback. Fun fact: the name Ghan is a shortened version of the railways former nickname, the Afghan Express, which honours the Afghan camel drivers who trekked the same route in the 19th century. Spring for the Platinum Service, providing finances allow, to score a private cabin and en suite bathroom.

Venice-Simplon Orient Express

No list of the worlds best train trips would be complete without a nod to the Orient Express  the Venice-Simplon Orient Express, to be precise. The legendary train harkens back to the heyday of rail travel, when royalty, diplomats, and other wealthy patrons would climb aboard to be whisked around Europes stylish capitals. Today the train retains its Art Deco charm, timeless romance, and top-notch service that could give the Four Seasons a run for its money. Destinations include London, Paris, Prague, Vienna, and Budapest.

Eastern & Oriental Express

For track-based adventures in Asia, the Eastern & Oriental Express consistently ranks as one of the best. As the sister train to the Venice-Simplon Orient Express, passengers can expect cocktails, fine dining, doting staff, and more indulgence than seems possible on a train. While you sip champagne in the piano bar or relax with a book in the library, youll chug past rice paddies, rural villages, gleaming pagodas, jungles, and vibrant cities. The route reaches between Bangkok and Singapore, with stops in Malaysia in between.

Rovos Rail

South Africas Rovos Rail connects various destinations throughout the country, along with stops in Namibia and Tanzania. The Pride of Africa has been hailed as the most luxurious train in the world, and it doesnt disappoint. The locomotive includes observation cars, dining cars, lounge cars, and club cars to host smokers, all of which boast a glamorous Victorian atmosphere. To maintain the elegant aesthetic, guests are asked to dress smart casual during the days and more formally at night  a jacket and tie is a minimum requirement for gentlemen.

Hiram Bingham

The Hiram Bingham makes your once-in-a-lifetime trip to Machu Picchu even more magical. The train is one of the most renowned luxury rail experiences around  which means it doesnt come cheap, but it is the most unapologetically lavish way to explore the Inca Trail. The 1920s Pullman-style train is named for the American explorer who rediscovered the Incan Citadel in 1911, and it is built to pamper up to 84 passengers with rich upholstery, live Peruvian music, and an onboard chef whipping up four-course dinners.

Glacier Express

Though its shorter than many of the journeys on this list, the Glacier Express is just as memorable. The Swiss train winds at the proverbial snails pace between the two ultra-chic alpine resorts of St Moritz and Zermatt, a seven-hour expedition that includes more than 90 tunnels and 291 bridges. As a passenger, its all about the scenery. Your surroundings run the gamut from plunging valleys, to soaring peaks, to deep gorges, to flower-filled summer meadows or icicle-decked trees. Glass-roofed carriages ensure you see it all.

Rocky Mountaineer

The World Travel Awards have crowned the Rocky Mountaineer the Worlds Leading Travel Experience By Train an impressive seven times and National Geographic named it one of the Worlds Greatest Trips. It even has the more dubious honour of appearing on The Bachelorette. Several routes are available, all of which have their allures, but the most acclaimed is the First Passage to the West, a two-day passage through Canadas stunning Rocky Mountains between Vancouver and Banff with an overnight in the historic town of Kamloops.

Maharajas Express

If its fit for a Maharaja, its certainly fit for you. Indias Maharajas Express is an unparalleled way to experience some of the countrys best-known sights and rich cultural heritage. The train includes two fine dining restaurants, two bars, and a palace on wheels Presidential Suite with a living room, two bedrooms, and a personal valet. Passengers choose from a selection of five journeys that hit destinations like Delhi, Agra, Jaipur, and Udaipur, any of which will set you back thousands.
Malaysia Airlines said today that it had ordered 50 Boeing 737 MAX jets, with firm orders for 25 and rights to purchase another 25, in deal worth $5.5 billion at list prices, according to a statement of the full-service carrier.

Airlines are typically offered a discount off the list prices.

Deliveries are scheduled to start in 2019.

The 737 Max, which is the reengined and upgraded variant of Boeing's popular narrow-body model, will cut costs with its longer range. The carrier would also be able to fly to more destinations, according to chief executive Peter Bellew.

This comes as the first major decision by the ailing carrier since Bellew took over from former chief executive Christoph Mueller on 1 July.

The new planes would replace some of the airline's 56 Boeing 737-800s, which had an average age of 4.1 years according to airfleets.net.

Malaysia Airlines had been badly hit by the disappearance of flight MH370 and shooting down of flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine, both in 2014.

The twin disasters led to the cancellation of all non-stop flights to Europe except those to London. Several low-yield Asia-Pacific services were also terminated.

The ailing national carrier was taken private by state-fund Khazanah Nasional Bhd after the disasters under a restructuring plan, which included a shrinking of its network.

Bellew said the purchase of the aircraft, which were known for their fuel efficiency, would aid the airline's recovery.

"This deal is a game-changer for Malaysia Airlines with much lower costs and greater efficiency which we will pass on to our loyal customers with lower fares," Bellew said in announcing the deal.

Malaysia Airlines currently operates 56 Boeing 737-800s as also smaller numbers of Airbus aircraft.

In the aftermath of the twin disasters, Mueller launched a drastic rescue plan cutting 6,000 jobs and dramatically trimming the route network.

However, in an abrupt move, he annouced in April that he would be leaving well before the end of his three-year contract for unspecified "personal reasons".
Nine militants were killed in a gun battle with police officers who had surrounded their hideout in Dhaka, the Bangladesh capital, the authorities said Tuesday. Another militant was wounded and in custody.

A spokesman for the Dhaka metropolitan police, Masudur Rahman, said the police had learned of the hide-out, a house in the Kallyanpur neighborhood. Under the cover of darkness, a large force mobilized around the house, including a bomb squad and other specialized units.

About 5 am, gunmen in the house opened fire and threw explosives. The police returned fire, leading to an hour-long gun battle,. Rahman said. The bomb squad later entered the house to dispose of any explosives.

Rahman did not identify the gunmen. ''We are not sure what group these militants belong to,'' he said.

Shahidul Hoque, Bangladesh's inspector general of police, told reporters that the dead belonged to a banned organization, Jama'atul Mujahedeen Bangladesh.

The city has been on edge since the beginning of this month, when 22 people were killed in a terrorist attack on a Dhaka restaurant. The Islamic State claimed responsibility for that attack.

In a series of police sweeps in June, thousands of people were detained in response to the killings of bloggers, academics and others by Islamist militants. The authorities said that 194 of those taken into custody had links to extremist networks and that of them, 151 belonged to Jama'atul Mujahedeen Bangladesh.

That crackdown, however, failed to head off the restaurant attack. The authorities then intensified their campaign, which included compiling a list of young men who have disappeared and may have been recruited by militant groups for terrorist operations.
Chief Justice Roy Moore Files Reply to Dismiss JIC Charges

MONTGOMERY, Ala., July 27, 2016 / Christian Newswire / -- Today, Liberty Counsel has filed its reply in the Court of the Judiciary (COJ) to dismiss charges brought by the Judicial Inquiry Commission (JIC) against Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore. The hearing is scheduled for August 8. Liberty Counsel and Judicial Action Group represent Chief Justice Moore.

"The JIC has tried to write a story that does not exist," said Mat Staver, Founder and Chairman of Liberty Counsel. "The focus of the JIC charge is Chief Justice Moore's January 2016 Administrative Order. In the 3 page order, Chief Justice Moore plainly states, 'I am not at liberty to provide any guidance to Alabama probate judges on the effect of Obergefell on the existing orders of the Alabama Supreme Court. That issue remains before the entire Court which continues to deliberate on the matter.' Moore never ordered the probate judges to disregard the U.S. Supreme Court's marriage opinion, but that is the slanderous narrative of the JIC. The JIC has no case and never should have filed the baseless charge," said Staver.

"The Administrative Order of Chief Justice Moore expressly said he could not provide guidance to the probate judges because the matter was pending before the Alabama Supreme Court. The JIC apparently wanted the Chief Justice to openly disobey the Alabama Supreme Court and to take matters into his own hands. The JIC's position is astounding and clearly wrong. It is no wonder why the JIC has no jurisdiction to render legal decisions. When it veers into this forbidden realm, it makes no sense," said Staver.

"We have asked that these baseless charges be dismissed," Staver concluded.

Liberty Counsel is an international nonprofit, litigation, education, and policy organization dedicated to advancing religious freedom, the sanctity of life, and the family since 1989, by providing pro bono assistance and representation on these and related topics.
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Home Four wheelers Datsun redi-GO Now Available In Nepal For NPR 1.39 Million oi-Ajinkya

Datsun has launched its entry-level hatchback in Nepal on July 26, 2016. The redi-GO will be available through Datsun's official dealer in Nepal, Pioneer Moto Corp. The Datsun redi-GO will offer customers of Nepal freedom, confidence, and driving fun through their hatchback.

The redi-GO is priced at NPR 1.39 million for base variant. Datsun Nepal has priced the fully-loaded redi-GO at NPR 1.84 million. It is the same model that is currently being offered in the Indian market, no changes will be carried out on the Datsun redi-GO.

Under the hood will be the same 799cc inline three-cylinder iSAT petrol engine. The engine produces 53bhp, along with 72Nm of torque and is mated to a 5-speed manual gearbox. Datsun redi-GO boasts of an impressive fuel efficiency figure of 25.17 km/l.

So far, Datsun India has witnessed an overwhelming response for the redi-GO. Pricing of Datsun redi-GO is a key factor in the success of the model in the Indian market. Over 10,000 bookings have been recorded by Datsun dealerships across the country.

The Japanese-based automobile manufacturer plans on introducing an AMT option soon. The Datsun redi-GO could have this convenient option before the end of 2016. Currently Datsun offers three models in the form of Go, Go+, and redi-GO in India.
Home Four wheelers Mahindra XUV500 AT To Get Push Start Button & Passive Keyless Entry oi-Kennedy Paul

Mahindra's XUV500 automatic was launched last year, however, it missed out on some of the features which the manual variant came with.

Now, Mahindra has added features of the push start/stop button and passive keyless entry to its top of the range, W10 AT. The top end automatic variant of the XUV500 will also feature the request buttons on the front door handles.

A smart key will replace the flip-out key as well on the XUV500 automatic top end variant. Among these features, the Mahindra XUV500 AT W10 variant comes with 6 airbags, hill descent and hill hold, a 7-inch touchscreen infotainment system, ABS with EBD, projector headlamps, and an electric sunroof.

As for the power of the Mahindra XUV500, it comes with 2.2-litre mHawk diesel engine which produces 138bhp and 330Nm of peak torque, this is mated to a 6-speed automatic gearbox.

The XUV500 comes with front wheel drive and an optional All-Wheel Drive (AWD). Also, Mahindra is offering a 1.9-litre mHawk diesel unit in Delhi to counter the diesel ban on vehicles above 2000cc.

Mahindra XUV500 has been priced in the range of Rs. 12 lakh to Rs. 18 lakh and its main competitors is the Toyota Innova Crysta which is doing well in terms of sales.
A lot of attention has been focused in the present year on the events of 1916 when the Easter Rising took place and its effects on the Dundalk area but we may soon have to come to consider the events that led up to the establishment of the Free State in 1922 and the subsequent Civil War.

Those events had a much more profound effect on Dundalk than the Rising and left a bitterness that was not much spoken about when I was a child. Nevertheless it is something that will have be faced up to before long!

One of the most interesting events of that period in Dundalk was the 'Great Escape' of over 100 Republican prisoners from Dundalk Gaol in the early hours of July 27, 1922. As a member of a 'divided family' in relation the politics of the Civil War, I was greatly encouraged by the attitude of a young man who was a direct descendant of a leading figure in this area on the pro-Treaty side of this Civil War. He believed that the incident was a significant one that should be researched and commemorated by a plaque or some other memorial at the place at the Crescent where it occurred!

A report in Tempest's Annual of 1923 reads 

'Great explosion blew hole in Gaol wall. All the windows in the Crescent etc. broken. 105 Irregulars escaped from Gaol.

A number re-captured afterwards. All roads blocked. National troops ambushed at Castletown and Barrack Street.'

By way of explanation, 'Irregulars' was the name used by the Pro-Treaty side for Republican Anit-Treaty forces and 'National troops' were the Pro-Treaty forces.

The events that led to the Republican fighters being imprisoned in the Crescent Jail was that about 50 men of the 4th Northern Division of the I.R.A., under the command of Commandant General Frank Aiken had taken over control of Dundalk Military Barrack from the British Army on the morning of April 13, 1922.

At first Aiken had tried to remain neutral in the developing struggle between the Pro and Anti Treaty sides but tensions developed between the men under his command.

This culminated the taking over of the posts under Aiken's command by elements of the 5th Northern Division under General Dan Hogan in mid-July.

Joseph Gavin and Harold O'Sullivan in their book 'Dundalk A Military History' write 

'The members of the Barrack Garrison (Dundalk Military Barracks) were given the option of pledging loyalty to the Provisional Government or be imprisoned.

Of these over 100 were marched to the Gaol on the Ardee Road.

Aiken was furious at this turn of events.

Rather naively he had believed that he could influence Mulcahy (the Commander in Chief of the National Army) and the Provisional Government, at least to the extent of allowing him to continue his neutral status.

He demanded a parole to enable him to go to Dublin to speak to Mulcahy.

This was granted but the interview with Mulcahy was fruitless. Upon his return to Dundalk, his parole was terminated and he joined his comrades in Dundalk Gaol.'

The account of the escape on July 27 states --- 'The attack, which was well planned, depended on the success of a mine placed against the perimeter wall on the Ardee Road.

The mine created a major breach in the wall which was followed by a grenade attack, aimed at intimidating the garrison.

The prisoners had been alerted of an attempted release and were ready to move. In the confusion over 100 prisoners, including Aiken, effected their escape.'

This Great Escape, in which at lest one member of the printing staff of the Dundalk Democrat of the time was involved, led to the Republicans in the area regrouping at Ravensdale and Omeath and recapturing the Dundalk Military Barracks on the following August 14.

The place where the hole was blown in the high Gaol wall, along the beginning of the Ardee Road, can still be seen to this day.

A friend of mine has recently pointed out to me that, when the sun is shining on it at a certain angle, one can see the letters 'I.R.A. 1922', scraped in the plaster that was used to cover the repairs.
Millennial entrepreneurs are a resourceful and ambitious bunch with a majority aspiring to launch multiple businesses. However, theyre also driven by a belief in social good and the desire for work-life balance. These characteristics were revealed in a new report from Sage, which challenges generalisations about the youngest generation of business people.

Sages Walk with Me report examines the findings of a study of 7,400 millenial entrepreneurs from across the world including 500 Australian respondents. Key findings about the next generation of entrepreneurs in Australia include:

60% aspire to start more than one business during their lifetime.

While reliance on technology is high, 49% believe they could have run their businesses with technologies from 20 years ago.

65% prioritise life over work and the vast majority sacrifice profits over their own values and ethics.

Reducing the amount of hours they spend working and retiring early is a key focus for 70%.

Over 70% are driven by doing social good.

Diverse personalities

The study also found that millennial entrepreneurs have diverse traits, which align them with five workplace personality types:

The Principled Planners: extremely methodical in their approach to work, they enjoy carefully planning for success. With an ambitious streak, they never take anything at face value and always ask a lot of questions.

The Driven Techies: love their work and cant bear the thought of sitting around twiddling their thumbs, they trust in the power and efficiency of innovative technology to keep them one step ahead of the competition. They have a strong belief in its ability to accurately target their existing and future customers.

The Instinctive Explorers: cavalier, they love the unknown, as well as exploring uncharted territory. They trust their gut instincts and stick to their guns. A modern image is extremely important to them, as is leaving a legacy behind to be remembered by.

The Real Worlders: resourceful, but likely to say they rely on technology in order to succeed. When it comes to their approach to work and making decisions, they tend to alternate between going on gut instinct and taking a more methodical approach.

The Thrill-Seekers: easily bored and always on the lookout for the next challenge, they couldnt care less about appearances. They work best around others and believe that making a social impact is overrated.

Heroes of the economy

According to Kriti Sharma, Director, Product Management, Mobile, Sage, millennial entrepreneurs have a huge role to play in the start-up economy and its critical that businesses understand what drives them.

As a millennial entrepreneur myself, I know first-hand that this business group are shaking things up, she said.

Were rejecting established patterns of working and making technology work for us. We see business through a new lens. Were willing to work hard, but want flexibility in how, when and with whom we do business.

Millenials are the next generation of business builders, the heroes of the economy, and understanding what makes them tick now stands us all in good stead for the future. Thats true of the people that want to do business with them, buy from them, hire them or create policy that helps them to grow.

Not a blanket group

Dynamic Business had the opportunity to put questions to Sharma, who said it was time for businesses to stop treating millennials as a buzzword and start engaging with the next generation of business leaders.

Q: What myths does the Walk With Me report dispel about millennials?

This study shows that we have to stop thinking of millennials as one blanket group  I think employers, especially large corporates, are guilty of this  how many thinkpieces have you seen saying this is how to hire a millennial?!

Millennials just means people aged between 18 and 34  a 16 year age gap. And dont forget variation from country to country around the world.

In business, the term millennial has become a real buzzword thats bandied around without anyone taking time to work out exactly who theyre referring to. Our study shows the sheer variety of personalities, likes, dislikes, approaches to work etc., that make up the millennial generation.

It should go without saying that to get the most out of millennials in business, businesses will need to adapt to support them as individuals, rather than grouping them together as one  but were not seeing this yet.

Q: What do millennials bring to the table that older generations dont  and vice versa?

An obvious one is that millennials are the first generation of digital natives  they bring a natural ability with technology that doesnt require much training or teaching. We all went to school with computers; we were taught off of smartboards rather than chalk boards.

In terms of what older generations can bring  something Ive learnt from people Ive worked with is the importance of being able to ask questions. I think thats especially true for young people who have just come out of the education system  where were bombarded with vast quantities of information and we can leave that with the idea that intelligence is about what you know, rather than about not being afraid to admit what you dont know, and ask.

As an entrepreneur, the ability to ask questions and not be afraid to be wrong is so necessary  but also to get advice from actual human beings rather than just googling things all the time.

Q: Millennials entrepreneurs rely on technology but nearly half believe they could survive without the latest inventions  does this speak to their confidence?

Whats great about this research is that the results varied so much from country to country  Aussie entrepreneurs definitely have their own vibe.

That technology stat fits with the fact that of our five personas, the Instinctive Explorer personality type was more common in Australia  and these entrepreneurs are especially resourceful and rely on their own gut instinct, so in that sense the latest tech isnt a major priority for them.

So yes, its a question of confidence  but Id always advise people to stay alert to new trends and products entering the market  otherwise youll never know about that bot thats going to double your teams productivity and in turn drive up your profits.
home World AIDS cure 2016 latest news: Durban delegates excited at possible cure

Scientists might finally find a cure or at least a way to circumvent HIV/AIDS, according to the recently held AIDS Conference in Durban, South Africa.

According to New Vision, the pre-conference symposium "Towards an HIV cure research" stirred excitement among the thousands in attendance, including scientists, HIV/AIDS activists, advocates, journalists and well-known personalities.

The delegates discussed about two types of cure, as presented by Dr. Anthony Fauci of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). The first type, known as "sterilizing" cure, would completely remove the virus. On the other hand, the second type, known as "functional" cure, would bring the virus into what scientists referred to as "remission," a condition similar to the type associated with cancer.

Prof. Sharon Lewin of The Doherty Institute at the University of Melbourne in Australia also said they're currently looking into at least four types of cure strategies, such as "shock and kill," gene editing, stem cell transplants and therapeutic vaccines.

"We're trying to mess with the immune system in a way old vaccinologists never thought of," said immunologist Dr. Nicole Frahm, as reported by Fred Hutch News Service.

Dr. Nyaradzo Mgodi, who chaired a clinical trial in Africa, also lent her voice to provide hope in finding the solution.

"We will move HIV vaccine research forward, and we will have an HIV vaccine," said Mgodi, who's also part of the University of ZimbabweaUniversity of California San Francisco Collaborative Research Programme in Harare, Zimbabwe.

According to Hutch News, some of the successes presented during the conference included the fact that antiretroviral therapy became accessible to 17 million people worldwide and helped 85 countries fight the risk of HIV transmission through childbirth and breastfeeding.

However, the disease still strikes nearly two million people every year with two-thirds occurring in Sub-Saharan Africa.

"Young African women remain the face of HIV on this continent," declared Dr. Elizabeth Bukusi of the Kenyan Medical Research Institute.

Advocates also urged that the search for the cure should not leave those marginalized and stigmatized behind.

"We are called key because we face so many locked doors," said Michael Ighodaro, a Nigerian gay activist.

The week-long 21st International Aids Conference held at the International Convention Centre in Durban started July 18 and ended Friday, July 22.
home Tech Lenovo K5 Note release date, specs news: Coming with 4 GB variant in India; specs include 5.5-inch display, MediaTek Helio P10

Chinese multinational tech company Lenovo is releasing a new variant for its flagship device K5 Note in India. It's an upgraded version of the model that was released back in January.

According to reports, India's new K5 Note will be sporting a 4 GB RAM. This was announced via the India-based subsidiary of Lenovo on their social networking site. Lenovo India posted a promotional image with words that say, "Tell us all the apps you'd open with the 4GB RAM of the #KILLERNOTE5."

A promotional clip was also released, showing the new variant is a smooth multitasker and has the ability to simultaneously run 32 apps. It is said that the announcement of the 4 GB RAM variant came as a surprise since consumers were expecting the Lenovo K5 Note with the 2 GB of RAM variant.

Ever since the model came out, only China received the 4 GB of RAM version. But now that it's coming to India, tech junkies based in the country can have something to look forward to.

Apart from the RAM count, the specs of the new variant are the same. As detailed on GSM Arena, the new Lenovo K5 Note will sport a 5.5-inch Full HD display with 401 ppi and resolution of 1080 x 1920 pixels. It will be equipped under the hood with MediaTek Helio P10 processor paired with the new RAM count.

It's still to be known though if Lenovo will keep the 16 GB native storage given that the RAM is now 4 GB. The company may potentially launch a 32 GB storage version. The memory space can be expanded further up to 256 GB via microSD card slot.

For its camera features, the K5 Note will carry a 13-megapixel rear camera packed with dual-LED flash. On the front is an 8-megapixel selfie camera. It will come with a fingerprint scanner and will be powered with 3,500mAh non-removable battery.

The Lenovo K5 Note 4 GB variant is expected to hit Indian market on Monday, Aug. 1.
He met PM Rama, government and the business community, expressed support for reform and investment

The EBRD President, Sir Suma Chakrabarti, visited Albania on 26 July 2016, as part of a wider regional tour of the Western Balkans. On 25 July he visited Kosovo and on 27-28 July he will visit Montenegro. Later in the summer, he is expected to visit Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia.

This was Sir Sumas second visit to Albania as EBRD President.

Sir Suma said: I am very proud to see the progress Albania has made in recent years. The reform drive by the government has my full support. A number of challenges still have to be addressed, including in infrastructure and in sectors such as agriculture. I re-confirmed to the prime minister, the government and to leading private sector representatives the Banks commitment to working together on these challenges.

During the meeting with Prime Minister Edi Rama, President Chakrabarti said 2016 may be a record year for the EBRD in Albania where the Bank expected to invest 150 to 170 million.

He listed several projects that were being considered by the EBRD including participation in the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) which will bring Caspian gas to Albania and through it further to Italy. If the TAP financing goes ahead it will be the EBRDs largest ever project.

The EBRD President expressed satisfaction with the recent approval of the package of judicial reforms in Albania. He expressed hope that the implementation of comprehensive judicial reform will be conducive to the acceleration of Albanias approximation with the EU.

Prime Minister Rama said that Albania would now be moving to implement the reforms in the judicial system that had been approved by the parliament, as well as other reforms in the areas of governance and the rule of law.

He welcomed the EBRDs highly innovative Albania Agribusiness Support Facility, which aims to stimulate agricultural lending by local commercial banks.

President Chakrabarti and Prime Minister Rama then attended the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding with four commercial banks and two microfinance institutions under the Support Facility, which will benefit from significant donor support from the government of Albania.

President Chakrabarti met the Minister of Finance, Arben Ahmetaj, who also represents Albania as a shareholder country on the EBRDs Board of Governors. They discussed the situation in the financial sector, including the EBRDs support for local banks.

Minister Ahmetaj shared plans for further steps to combat corruption and to address the informal sector of the economy. He also outlined plans for tax administration reform.

The two sides stressed the importance of consistent prioritisation of public sector projects, as well as early coordination with international financial institutions in structuring these projects.

In a meeting with the Governor of the Bank of Albania, Gent Sejko, the EBRD President noted the resilience of the countrys banking sector during the global economic crisis and the eurozone turmoil. They discussed ways to speed up the resolution of non-performing loans (NPLs). The EBRDs participation in any possible NPL resolution process would provide reassurance to any participating banks, Governor Sejko said.

During his meeting with the Mayor of Tirana, Erion Vellaj, the EBRD President and the Mayor discussed removing impediments to potential cooperation in municipal infrastructure. They discussed support of the modernisation of the public transport terminal and other municipal services. The Tirana municipality, with EBRD cooperation, is working on a pilot Green Cities Action Plan, the first of its kind in the region, parts of which the EBRD may consider financing.

At a meeting with the business community, facilitated by the EBRD-supported Investment Council Secretariat, Sir Suma met leading entrepreneurs and bankers to discuss the investment climate and how it could be further improved.

At the end of the visit, the EBRD President took part in a reception to celebrate the EBRDs 25th anniversary during which he again praised the reforms that Albania was putting in place,.

He promised to remain a committed partner to Albania and to other countries in the Western Balkans as they worked to address their economic challenges.

The EBRD President added: The relationship developed between the EBRD and Albania is symbolic of our broader Western Balkans engagement. The new format of regional cooperation at the level of prime ministers of the Western Balkans Six was de facto launched at the first Western Balkans Summit at the EBRD Headquarters in February 2014. The EBRD will continue to support this cooperation, now often referred to as the Berlin Process.

Prime Minister Edi Rama also spoke at the EBRD event, stressing his commitment to judicial reform and inviting investors to consider opportunities in Albania.

During the visit, the EBRD President also introduced the new EBRD Head of Albania, Matteo Colangeli, who was appointed to the position last week.

The EBRD delegation in Tirana also included Holger Muent, Director for Western Balkans and the outgoing Head of Albania, Christoph Denk.

To date, the EBRD has invested over 1 billion in 74 projects in Albania.
The United States Federal Trade Commission has launched an investigation into philanderers dating site Ashley Madison, Reuters reported Tuesday.

The company, which suffered a massive data breach last year that resulted in extortion attempts and ruined lives, as well as class-action lawsuits, earlier this week announced that it hired a new CEO and a new president in April.

CEO Rob Segal and President James Millership also revealed that Ashley Madison had been using fembots  computer programs responding like real women  to conduct conversations with some of its paying male customers worldwide.

The fembots have been shut down, confirmed an Ernst & Young report commissioned by Ashley Madisons parent company, Avid Life Media.

The use of fembots might have triggered the probe by the FTC, which is tasked with guarding against consumer fraud, among other things.

The FTC declined to confirm or deny whether it is conducting an investigation, because FTC investigations are nonpublic, spokesperson Jay Mayfield told the E-Commerce Times.

Ashley Madison did not respond to our request to provide further details.

Possible Impact

Ashley Madison is seeking to rebrand itself as a service that promises discretion for participants in many types of adult dating  not just affairs. A large number of its members are singles, according to the company.

Disclosures arising from the FTCs investigation will make it more difficult to reposition Ashley Madison as safe for customers, suggested Rob Enderle, principal analyst at the Enderle Group.

Ashley Madison will want to create a new image  but as the evidence from the investigation is shared, it will reinforce the old image, making it nearly impossible for the firm to successfully pivot, he told the E-Commerce Times.

On the other hand, the probe might spice up the firms image. At the time it was hacked last July, Ashley Madison had about 40 million users; it now boasts more than 46 million.

Keeping Users Safe

Since the breach, Ashley Madison has stepped up efforts to secure its IT systems.

It hired cybersecurity firm Deloitte, whose experts apparently found several simple backdoors in its Linux servers.

Also, Ashley Madison said it expects to reach the first level of Payment Card Industry compliance by September, according to the Reuters report.

Ashley Madison earlier this year instituted masking for subscribers photos.

However, if an adversary has access to the back-end systems, the masking of profile pictures doesnt provide much protection, noted Rick Holland, VP of strategy at Digital Shadows.

Masking is a good step so long as its part of a holistic approach to improving security, he told the E-Commerce Times.

Every company is vulnerable to some degree to data breaches as long as there are people involved in the process, Enderle pointed out. Given the value of information surrounding someones extramarital affairs, I doubt Ashley Madison can afford security that would be good enough to truly ensure this wouldnt happen again.

Digital Shadows last fall discovered cybercriminal gang DD4BC was seeking to extort Ashley Madison breach victims, demanding they pay a ransom of one bitcoin for its silence. At least 17 victims paid up.

Two suspected members of the gang were arrested in January, Holland said, but recently weve had clients report they were targeted by a copycat actor. It takes time for organizations to materially improve their security maturity, so its likely that Ashley Madison and Avid Media still have significant opportunities to mature, Holland remarked.
Google on Wednesday released an update of its online antipiracy efforts.

YouTube has generated more than US$2 billion to content copyright holders by monetizing user-uploaded content through its Content ID rights management system, Google said, adding that more than 90 percent of all Content ID claims result in monetization.

YouTube also paid out more than $3 billion to the music industry, which has monetized more than 95 percent of its claims, Google said. Half the music industrys YouTube revenue comes from fan content claimed through Content ID  meaning from content posted by fans on YouTube, which the music industry then monetizes.

Thanks to advertising, YouTube has transformed the promotional cost of the music video into a new source of revenue that has generated $3 billion for the music industry, and that revenue is growing rapidly, a YouTube spokesperson said in a statement provided to the E-Commerce Times by company rep Stephanie Shih.

Now with YouTubes new subscription service, YouTube Red, YouTube offers the music industry two sources of revenue, the spokesperson said. These two sources will give the industry the opportunity to earn revenue from 100 percent of people who enjoy music.

The Discordant Sound of Music

On the other hand, Content ID fails to identify 20-40 percent of record companies and music publishers content, according to Frances Moore, CEO of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, which represents the music industry worldwide.

Googles search engine continues to direct Internet users to unlicensed music on a large scale, she remarked, and IFPI national groups across the globe have sent Google more than 300 million d-list notices.

Despite piracy-fighting changes introduced to Googles search algorithm two years ago, the amount of traffic Google refers to infringing sites in response to music search queries has increased, Moore maintained.

The report looks a lot like greenwash, commented Geoff Taylor, chief executive at the British Phonographic Industry.

Google is still one of the key enablers of piracy on the planet, he said. It refuses to remove YouTube videos that show how to circumvent Content ID, and Google Search directs fans to illegal music sites in preference to legitimate ones.

In a Google search BPI recently carried out in search of the UKs Top Ten singles, 77 percent of the links on the first page of search results went to illegal sites, Taylor alleged. That was worse than the result of the same test conducted in 2013.

Google repeatedly has refused to make further changes to its algorithm to improve search results. Its autocomplete and suggested search features push fans toward illegal sites, and its app store has no screening process to remove apps intended for piracy, Taylor noted.

The fastest-growing problem area in piracy is stream ripping, a method of illegally converting YouTube streams into downloads, he said.

Google continues to point to stream-ripping sites in autocomplete and to host YouTube videos showing how to use them, Taylor charged, and it hasnt taken effective action to counter them.

The Case for Google

Digitization of content has made piracy much more available to a much larger audience than before, and  the content, music, movie, software and video game industries have all been hurt by increased piracy, said Mike Goodman, a research director at Strategy Analytics. That being said, their solution is to take a sledgehammer to the problem.

Putting in a blanket filter is not practical, he told the E-Commerce Times, and you have to ask, at what point is it Googles responsibility to be the piracy police?

Even if Google could create some magical technical antipiracy solution, the reality is, within a month it would become ineffective, Goodman pointed out. Its always a game of cat-and-mouse, and the antipiracy people are always in reactive mode. You cant ever get ahead of the curve.
home Tech Lenovo K5 Note release date, specs news 2016: Upgraded version of smartphone set to come out in India

Lenovo is said to be planning to launch a new model of its flagship smartphone, the K5 Note, in India. According to the report, the new variant will come as an upgraded version of the device, which was originally rolled out in January this year.

In a report by Latin Times, the Chinese multinational technology company surprised many people when the announcement was made that the new variant will come with a 4-gigabyte RAM. This is definitely a good decision from Lenovo to upgrade to a larger RAM capacity as it will compete decently with the top brands in the tight smartphone market today.

The original device that came out in China also have a 4 GB of RAM; however, tech observers predicted that the device will only come with 2 GB of RAM once it hits the market outside of China. Nonetheless, the details came as positive news to all tech freaks in India.

According to a report by GSM Arena, the new Lenovo K5 Note will arrive with a 5.5-inch screen with Full HD display capability. It will also have a 1080 x 1920 pixels resolution, which is enough to compete with other makers' smartphone models in the industry. The 4 GB of RAM will be paired with a MediaTek Helio P10 processor.

The current model of K5 Note house a 16 GB internal storage capacity; however, there is still no concrete details whether the upgraded device will retain the same number or carry a larger ROM size. Nonetheless, many fans expect that the device will have an expandable storage capacity of up to 256 GB.

Other features of the Lenovo K5 Note include a 3500 mAh non-removable battery, a 13-megapixel primary camera with dual LED flash and an 8 MP selfie snapper.

The new smartphone will hit the smartphone market in India on Aug. 1. As of the moment, there is still no report if the device will ever make it in the U.S.
By Diane MacEachern

We all know honey comes from bees. But have you ever connected other foods you eat with the fact that they only exist because theyre pollinated by bees and other creatures?

Its an important connection to make, considering just how threatened bees, butterflies, birds, beetles and other important pollinators are. The threats come from pollution, climate change, habitat destruction and use of toxic pesticides and herbicides. But maybe the biggest threat is ignorance to how essential these creatures are to the web of life as well as our own food chain.

The Whites House has acknowledged the importance of pollinators not only to Americas food security but to the U.S. economy. Honeybees enable the production of at least 90 commercially grown crops in North America, the White House said in a statement.

Globally, 87 of 115 leading food crops depend on animal pollinators and contribute 35 percent of global food production. What that means is, pollinators contribute more than $24 billion to the U.S. economy. Not only do pollinators help keep us fed; they also help sustain our prosperity.

Heres just one example of the impact pollinators have on what we eat and how well we do. Almonds are almost exclusively pollinated by honey bees. Californias almond industry, just the almonds, require pollination help from about 1.4 million beehives (not 1.4 million individual bees, but the thousands of bees that live in each hive). As bee colonies are collapsing, theyre taking their toll on the almonds and other plants they pollinate. Beekeepers in the U.S. have collectively lost an estimated 10 million beehives at an approximate current value of $200 each, driving up food prices but, more importantly, potentially putting more than a third of our food system in danger.

National Pollinator Week was unanimously designated by the U.S. to address the issue of declining populations of pollinators. The original event was held in June 2007. It has now grown into an international celebration managed by the Pollinator Partnership and supported by both the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Department of the Interior. This year, it is being celebrated June 20-June 27.

In honor of the 2016 National Pollinator Week, here are 11 foods we would lose if pollinators werent around to do their job. Note that the list includes a wide variety of fruits and vegetables.

1. Apples (and all kinds of other tree fruits, including peaches, apricots, plums, lemons, limes and cherries)

2. Strawberries (as well as elderberries, blackberries, raspberries and cranberries)

3. Onions

4. Avocados

5. Green Beans (and many other beans, including adzuki, kidney and lima beans)

6. Coffee

7. Sunflower Oil (and other oils, including palm, safflower and sesame)

8. Tomatoes (plus cucumbers)

9. Grapes

10. Cauliflower (plus cabbage, broccoli, turnips and Brussels sprouts)

11. Beets

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By Emily J. Gertz

Scores of people around the world were murdered last year while trying to protect their communities from illegal mining and logging, palm oil agriculture and other industrial development projects, according to a London-based environmental and human rights organization.

The number of confirmed killings185 activists across 16 countriesincreased by 59 percent from 2014, according to Global Witness. It was the highest death toll in one year since the group began tracking such killings in 2002, said campaign leader Billy Kyte, who wrote the groups new report on the persecution and murders of environmental and land rights activists in 2015.

Michelle Campos, whose father, grandfather and school teacher were publicly executed for opposing mining in Mindanao, Philippines. Photo credit: Tulda Productions

The nation with the highest death toll was Brazil, where there were 50 confirmed murders of environmental activists, Global Witness found. In the Philippines, 33 were killed, including 25 indigenous Lumad involved in opposition to mining on their ancestral lands in the Mindanao region.

The total number of killings may have been much higher, Kyte said, because theres many areas of the world where we cant get information and theres under-reporting because of media repression, such as China, Central Asia and parts of Africa.

Chart: Courtesy Global Witness

Among 2015s unverifiable deaths, between 100 and 200 people were killed in protests over development in the Oromia province, in central Ethiopia, he said. But we need to have names of the people, when they were killed and a direct link to the cause. There was no media that could tell us the names of those people.

Government corruption contributed to the murder rate, according to the report. Kyte pointed to the toll in Mindanao, which included the Sept. 1 murders of three Lumad community leaders: Emerito Samarca, Dionel Campos and Bello Sinzo. Campos and Sinzo were publicly executed in front of their community. The perpetrators have all been identified, Kyte said. They came from a paramilitary group that is known to work for mining companies in the region. But people from that paramilitary group were seen drinking with members of the Filipino military weeks later, he added, in a situation emblematic of collusion between industries and governments worldwide.

Global economic forces are also implicated in the death toll. There are two links, Kyte said. One is the demand we have in the West for a lot of these products and more often than not we dont ask questions about where they come from. His research linked illegal mining to 42 killings of activists in 2015, agribusiness to 20, hydropower dams and water rights to 15 and illegal logging to 15.

Western investments in development projects that trample on the land rights or resources of local communities is another link, Kyte said, noting that Dutch and Finnish development banks helped finance the Agua Zarca dam, a Honduran hydropower project proposed for a river sacred to the nations indigenous Lenca people. Berta Caceres, a Lenca who won the prestigious international Goldman Environmental Prize in 2015 for leading grassroots opposition to the dam, was murdered in March after years of threats.

Chart: Courtesy Global Witness

The fact that Berta Caceres was killedsomeone who had a very high media profilesuggests that its fair game for anyone to be targeted, said Kyte, although the global condemnation of her murder appears to be having an effect. Although theres a lot to be desired in terms of the political masterminds behind Caceres killing, at least international pressure led to the arrests of those who pulled the trigger and killed her.

After Caceres colleague Nelson Garcia was killed within weeks of her murder, both Dutch FMO and Finlands Finnfund suspended payments to the project.

Global Witness is calling for increased protection for environmental activists, more national and international support for their civil and human rights and governmental recognition of indigenous and local land rights. But ultimately, when a human rights violation takes place, someone responsible needs to be held to account, said Kyte, including companies if they are involved. There have to be investigations of these crimes.

This article was reposted with permission from our media associate TakePart.

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Evidence of antibiotic-resistant super bacteria has been found at several Olympic sites in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, including waters that will host the swimming portion of the triathlon and in the lagoon where rowing and canoe athletes will compete this summer.

Sugar Loaf mountain in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Photo credit: Halley Pacheco de Oliveira, Wikimedia commons

Two studies have connected five beachesCopacabana, Ipanema, Leblon, Botafogo and Flamengoand Rio de Janeiros Rodrigo de Freitas lagoon to the superbug bacteria, Reuters reported.

Copacabana, which had microbes present in 10 percent of the water samples studied, will be the site of open-water and triathlon swimming events. Flamengo, which had microbes in 90 percent of the water samples, will host sailing competitions. The lagoon, which is seen by scientists as the breeding ground for the bacteria, will host rowing and canoe events, according to Reuters.

Scientists say the super bacteria can cause hard-to-treat urinary, gastrointestinal, pulmonary and bloodstream infections, which contribute to death in up to half of infected patients. Meningitis has also been linked to exposure to the superbug. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported antibiotic-resistant infections usually require prolonged and/or costlier treatments, extend hospital stays, necessitate additional doctor visits and healthcare use and result in greater disability and death.

MCR-1 gene, which created antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Photo credit: CDC

The effect the microbes will have on athletes and people that come in contact with them depends on an individuals immune system. Reuters reported:

Five scientists consulted by Reuters said the immediate risk to peoples health when faced with super bacteria infection depends on the state of their immune systems.

These bacteria are opportunistic microbes that can enter the body, lie dormant, then attack at a later date when a healthy person may fall ill for another reason.



Super bacteria infect not only humans but also otherwise-harmless bacteria present in the waters, turning them into antibiotic-resistant germs.



Harwood said the super bacteria genes discovered in the Olympic lagoon were probably not harmful if swallowed by themselves: they need to be cocooned inside of a bacterium.



Those genes are like candy. They are organic molecules and theyll be eaten up by other bacteria, other organisms, Harwood said. Thats where the danger is  if a person then ingests that infected organism  because it will make it through their gastrointestinal tract and potentially make someone ill.

The quality of Rios water has been just one of many concerns facing the Olympic host citymany athletes were already questioning participating in the olympics due to the Zika virus outbreak. These studies are huge disappointments for everyone involved because part of Rio de Janeiros 2009 bid for the Olympics included a promise to clean the citys waterways, according to Reuters.

Copacabana beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Photo credit: Bisonlux, Flickr

Renata Picao, a professor at Rios federal university and lead researcher of the beach study, told Reuters the contamination of Rios famous beaches was the result of a lack of basic sanitation in the metropolitan area of 12 million people.

These bacteria should not be present in these waters, Picao said. They should not be present in the sea.

The spread of the suberbug bacteria is aided by waste from hospitals and households entering storm drains, rivers and streams crossing the city.

The study involving microbes on Rios beaches was reviewed in September 2015 at the Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy in San Diego, California.

The second study, about Rios lagoon, was conducted by Brazilian federal governments Oswaldo Cruz Foundation lab. It will be published in July by the American Society of Microbiology.

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By Patrick J. Lynch

In the Patagonia region, climate change presents a direct threat to human health and the environment. More than 90 percent of Patagonias glaciers are receding, endangered marine species are shifting migration ranges as the ocean warms and in some rural communities the water table has dropped so far below historical levels that water is now being trucked to peoples doorsteps. These dwindling resources like glaciers and rivers need legislation to protect them and regulate uses that could accelerate their loss.

But perhaps the biggest threat to Patagonias rivers comes under the cloak of climate change policy. This policy is designed to favor construction of large dams in the region under the guise of cutting carbon emissions. New studies question whether Chile has to accept dams as a solution to climate change, given that a study from Stanford University shows the country could achieve 100 percent renewables without building a single additional dam. But current policy is based on models developed before other renewables like wind or solar were competitive and under a legal regime that dates back to the 1980s, long before mitigating climate change was universally recognized as a priority. The consequence is that some of Patagonias biggest rivers are still at risk, despite the dual role they play as effective tools in mitigating climate change and as economic drivers for the region.

From Paris to Patagonia

In late 2015, the worlds leaders met in France and reached a global climate agreement known as the Paris agreement. As part of the agreement, 189 out of 196 governments made specific, measurable commitments to reduce carbon emissions. These voluntary commitments, labeled INDCs- Intended Nationally Determined Contributions- differ for each country; some are more ambitious than others. Chiles INDC is modeled on a carbon intensity target, which aims to reduce emissions per GDP unit 30 percent below 2007 levels by 2030 and shift energy production to renewable energies. The plan is rated inadequate by the researchers at Climate Action Tracker.

The problem for Patagonia is not that these emission cuts arent ambitious enough, but rather that corresponding energy policy looks at large dams as if they are the right answer to climate change. In 2015, the Ministry of Energy concluded Chile could achieve 70 percent renewables by 2050, which will help meet the goal of 30 percent emissions reductions. While the ministry studied different scenarios, all of the models assumed large dams would be part of the mix. Most of these large dams would be located in the south, where powerful rivers rule supreme and could run turbines year-roundalbeit less and less each year. One of the many consequences of climate change in Patagonia is a pronounced drop in precipitation, which must be factored into any discussions about proper water use and management.

The Futaleufu River. Jakub Sedivy

For many, more troubling than a policy that prioritizes large dams is a policy that is designed to give companies a roadmap for which watersheds should be dammed first. In 2014 the Ministry of Energy commissioned a watershed mapping study, currently in Phase II. The study assesses watersheds from the Maipo basin near the capital of Santiago to the Yelcho basin in Patagonia, home to the world-renowned Futaleufu River, which in the past has been targeted for hydro generation. This effort has triggered alarm in these communities, where local leaders are joining together to denounce both the study and the confusion generated by having a regional government that supports conservation and tourism and a national government that appears to prioritize dams.

This policy of mapping watersheds for energy generation predates what is referred to as the HydroAysen case. In 2014, this controversial dam project in the Aysen region of Chilean Patagonia had its permit invalidated. The invalidation came after years of campaigning, including research procured by the Council for the Defense of Patagonia, a coalition of Chilean organizations including international partners such as the Natural Resources Defense Council, debunking a myth that Chileans need to accept dams to keep the lights on. It also triggered a response from the private sector to seek government assurances for future dam projects, which resulted in the launch of the watershed mapping study that same year.

Prior to the HydroAysen case, it was logical for policymakers to assume as a foregone conclusion that large hydro would play a major role in Chiles future. For many years the question being asked in Chile wasnt whether its rivers would be dammed, but rather which ones would be first. In 2010, Chiles first minister of the then-new Ministry of Energy announced that hydroelectricity was the countrys main richness in terms of energy resources. Now that the conversation has changed and other renewable technologies are both cost-effective and competitive in the energy market, policymakers can be more ambitious in calling for the protection of Patagonias rivers while also being pro-development.

Ultimately, getting to 100 percent renewables and no new dams would require major changes to Chiles regulatory framework, which still benefits large development projects like dams and coal plants. The latest debate surrounds revisions to the Electricity Law. When the law was passed in 1983, large-scale dams were seen as less controversial than they are today. With so many many gigantic, glacial-fed rivers, dams would have been the only form of renewable energy that was feasible for wide scale implementation. A new bill to revise the law is being criticized for promoting large infrastructure projects like dams in Patagonia, despite being hailed as a tool to promote nonconventional renewable energies (NCREs) like wind and geothermal.

Six watersheds being prioritized by Chiles energy ministry for hydroelectric development.

According to Juan Pablo Orrego, director of the Santiago-based environmental group Ecosistemas, the proposed bill would create development zones from Santiago to Aysen, which he and others are calling sacrifice zones. According to Orrego, the bill would make it easier to build transmission lines for use in shipping energy generated from Patagonia to other parts of the country or even across the border to neighboring Argentina. Oddly enough, the bill is supposedly designed to promote NCREs, but in reality it is just promoting more megadams.

These legislative moves, which are in keeping with a pro-dams energy policy, run counter to new research showing better alternatives.

New Research

From a global perspective, Chile is tremendously fortunate. New studies show the country doesnt have to choose between coalwhich contributes to global warming and has other social and environmental costsand large dams, which bring their own problems. This new research could form the basis for future policymaking to address climate change, both by preserving freshwater resources and taking an ambitious approach to greening the grid.

In 2015, the NewClimate Institute in Germany analyzed the missed benefits of Chiles INDC. Researchers concluded that Chile could save $5.3 billion USD per year and create approximately 15,000 new jobs by implementing energy policies that aimed to hit 100 percent renewable energies, with no new large hydro. The NewClimate study was submitted to Chiles Ministry of Environment in mid 2015 by the Mesa Ciudadana de Cambio Climatico, a Chilean coalition of more than 20 groups working to inform policymaking on topics like energy policy and climate justice.

Going further is Stanford Universitys Solutions Project, a global initiative to catalogue each countrys energy roadmap with the goal of determining how the world can shift entirely to 100 percent clean, renewable energy. According to Stanfords analysis, Chile can achieve 100 percent renewables with just 6.7 percent coming from all forms of hydropower (and a whopping 54 percent from solar). These figures are far different from the Ministry of Energys analysis, which started with assumptions many critics disagree with.

Kayak on the middle section of the Fuy River. Jakub Sedivy

Together, studies like those by Stanford and the NewClimate Institute show policymakers could be discussing ways for Chile to become a global leader by making sure energy policy and water conservation are both optimized for addressing climate change. The Stanford projects director, Professor Mark Jacobson, highlights the need for informed policymaking. I believe that getting information into the hands and minds of people is the most significant barrier that needs to be overcome to grow large scale implementation of renewables. Better planning is needed not only for conservation but also to seek more ambitious emissions reductions and help the world achieve the goal of keeping global warming well below 2 degrees Celsius, as established by the Paris agreement.

Let Patagonias Rivers Run

In Chile the protection of rivers has yet to become a national priority, but the tide is shifting. One solution is to establish new legislation that would protect rivers due to their wild or scenic value. This model has worked in other countries and could be an effective tool in Chile, where several rivers still flow to the sea or have sections that are still undeveloped. It could also be incorporated into the national plan for climate change mitigation, proposed by researchers at the University of Chiles Center for Climate Science and Resilience (CR2).

Juan Pablo Orrego of Ecosistemas argues the need to pass deep reforms that are not biased in favor of large hydro development. Watersheds that empty into the sea are incredibly important for climate change. Their estuaries produce coastal habitats that are rich in phytoplankton, which act as tremendous carbon sinks. If you seek other sources of renewable energy, you are actually combating climate change just by keeping the rivers wild.

The concerns of watershed advocates like Orrego echo an international consensus, as indicated in the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals. A scientific report presented during the Paris talks details how the goals include sustainable management of water resources. Specifically, target 6.6 focuses on protecting and restoring water-related ecosystems, including mountains, forests, wetlands, rivers, aquifers and lakes by 2020. But these ecosystems cant be saved if countries like Chile decide that large dams are still the answer to climate change. And in March 2016, the UN excluded large hydro-electric dams (defined as above 50MWs) from its global calculations of renewable energies. Though the reasons it gave were difficulties measuring large dams as they come online and political uncertainties, the move is seen as an attempt to narrow in the definition of renewable energies. The international debate concerning large hydro is important for countries when planning for carbon reductions.

Ralco dam at Biobio River. Roberto Araya

It remains to be seen whether the people designing Chiles national energy policy can adjust. In January 2016, the same Committee of Ministers that invalidated the HydroAysen permit upheld the permit granted to build Energia Australs 640MW hydro project on Patagonias Rio Cuervo. One month prior, they upheld the permit for the Mediterraneo project on the Puelo River (see Map.) Together these approvals suggest a political unwillingness to reverse plans that were already in place, even though the plans may no longer be relevant or needed to shift to a 100 percent renewable target.

Pangue dam at the Biobio River. Alvaro Maurin

In economic terms, Patagonias rivers are important for inland communities that depend on sightseeing and adventure tourism. And they are critical for coastal communities that thrive on the same marine ecosystems that act as carbon sinks. These communities need nutrients carried to the sea by unobstructed rivers. Going forward, better information about the locations of these rivers can help inform both the public and policymakers about what is at stake if this energy policy isnt turned around.

Rather than letting Patagonias rivers be dammed, diverted or destroyed, Chilean policymakers could incorporate river conservation into the countrys response to climate change. Doing so would demonstrate leadership over climate issues. By revising energy policy to exclude large hydro as a priority and establishing a river protection law similar to the wild & scenic rivers designation found in other countries, Chile could become a global leader on climate and ensure its rivers flow unobstructed from the mountains to the sea.

Patrick Lynch is an environmental attorney in Chile and participates in the Citizens Committee on Climate Change, which presents renewable energy studies to the Chilean government. Since 2013, he has served as International Director for Futaleufu Riverkeeper, a Patagonia-based NGO. This article was supported by an EcoPatagonia reporting grant from Patagon Journal in partnership with Earth Journalism Network. More info here.

This article was supported by an EcoPatagonia reporting grant from Patagon Journal in partnership with the Earth Journalism Network.
A jaguar was shot and killed Monday after an Olympic torch passing ceremony in Brazil.

The female jaguar, who was chained and sedated, was shot after she escaped from her handlers. She approached a soldier who shot her with a single pistol shot, Reuters reported. The torch ceremony and jaguar shooting occurred at a zoo attached to a military training center in the Amazon city of Manaus.

The female jaguar, Juma, shot and killed after an Olympic torch passing ceremony in Manaus, Brazil.

The military did not denounce the shooting, according to Buzzfeed:

As security procedure to protect the physical integrity of the military and team treaters, the animal was shot with a pistol and died, the military said in a statement. A jaguar was shot and killed after an Olympic torch ceremony in Brazil.https://t.co/7REdrnFvvr  SB Nation (@SBNation) June 21, 2016

The jaguars presence at the ceremony was illegal, according to Ipaam, Amazonas state government environmental authority. Ipaam oversees the use of wild animals in the state.

No request was made to authorize the participation of the jaguar Juma in the event of the Olympic torch, Ipaam said in a statement. The group is investigating the incident.

A brief part of the ceremony is captured in this ABC News video:

The Rio 2016 Olympic committee issued an apology via Twitter after the incident.

We made a mistake in permitting the Olympic torch, a symbol of peace and unity, to be exhibited alongside a chained wild animal, the committee said. This image goes against our beliefs and our values. We guarantee that there will be no more such incidents at Rio 2016.

Brazilians and animal lovers have expressed outrage over the incident.

https://twitter.com/marcelomedici/status/745247752792182784

Translation: The jaguar had nothing to do with this mess, she tried to escape and ended up dead.

https://twitter.com/DaniPineschi_/status/745253902572990464

Translation: What sense does it make to bring a jaguar to a torch passing ceremony?

Many responded to the Rio 2016 twitter accounts apology in anger.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) weighed in too.

Wild animals held captive and forced to do things that are frightening, sometimes painful and always unnatural are ticking time bombscaptivity puts animal and human lives at risk, the organization wrote in a blog post Tuesday.

Jaguars are a near-threatened species with an estimated 15,000 left in the wild, according to Defenders of Wildlife. There are only three known populations left in the U.S., the biggest of which consists of no more than 120 cats. The species is already extinct in Uruguay and El Salvador, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

The Brazilian Olympic team selected a cartoon smiling jaguar named Ginga as its mascot last year to highlight the efforts of conservation NGOs working to protect [the jaguar], SB Nation reported.

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A plastic bag ban went into effect this month in Morocco, the second-largest plastic bag consumer after the U.S. But, officials say, its going to take some time for shops and retailers to get used to the new law.

Morocco bans the use of plastic bags https://t.co/S9512Yf1lU pic.twitter.com/RWjTu61oLo  The Ocean Project (@theoceanproject) July 16, 2016

Moroccos ban on the production and use of plastic bags went into effect July 1 after the plastic ban bill was passed by parliament in October 2015. As the July 1 deadline approached, shop owners scrambled to find and collect reusable bags. Green campaigners, AlJazeera reported, say consumers may need years to fully comply with the ban.

Its a big cultural shift with that type of broader law, Jennie Romer, a New York-based lawyer, told AlJazeera. As long as the government has the motivation to really enforce that. There is a lot of potential. The government entity that is implementing it has to be completely on board in order to make that really happen in practice.

Morocco uses about 3 billion plastic bags a year, according to the Moroccan Industry Ministry. The U.S. uses about 100 billion a year, according to the Earth Policy Institute, and 1 trillion are used globally per year.

https://twitter.com/GE_Institute/statuses/754340334499467265 habit. All actors need to change these habits to not have any damage in the future.

Morocco is ranked one of the worlds greenest countries, along with Costa Rica, Bhutan and Ethiopia. The countrys biggest achievements come in cracking down on carbon emissions and production of solar power. It is considered a green leader among developing nations.
home World 'PokAmon Go' characters turn attention to the plight of Syrian children

"PokAmon Go" brings the plight of Syrian children trapped in an inflaming war to the forefront as activists release photos depicting PokAmon characters in the war-torn areas of Syria.

The media outlet that supports groups opposed to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Revolutionary Forces of Syria Media Office (RFS), released a series of photos on Facebook that depicted dispirited-looking young Syrians holding drawings of PokAmon characters with messages indicating their location and plea for rescue.

"I am in Kafr Nabl on the outskirts of Idlib, come and save me," read a message in one of the children's images.

"I am in Kafr Zeta, save me," said another.

The images quickly turned viral and were shared 21,500 times while hundreds commented to express sympathies.

RFS said they saw the opportunity to take advantage of the latest cultural phenomenon that is "PokAmon Go" to highlight the plight of Syrian children and to bring attention to the mass destruction and killing caused by al-Assad's forces.

"Syrian children are victims of the war and the brutal and indiscriminate attacks that are carried out on a daily basis by regime and Russian jets," an RFS spokesperson told The Independent. "The Syrian children are paying the price for the international inaction to stop the Assad killing machine."

Moustafa Jano, a Syrian artist who resettled in Sweden, also posted a series of images on Facebook that depicted PokAmon characters sharing the plight of Syrian refugees and war victims. He even quoted a line from Jonas Gardell, a Swedish novelist, in a caption to one of his posts.

"Grandpa, what did you do that summer of 2016, when the world was on fire? Oh, dear grandchildren, we were looking for PokAmon Characters in the phone!" wrote Jano.

Saif Tahhan, a Syrian graphic designer who resettled in Denmark a couple of years ago, recreated a "Syria Go" version of the augmented reality game where players hunt for emergency supplies for war victims.

The Syrian civil war started five years ago and was estimated to have killed more than 250,000.
Moroccos King Mohammed VI switched on the first phase of the worlds largest concentrated solar plant today in the southern town of Ouarzazate. A ceremony was held to officially inaugurate Noor 1 and break ground on the second phase which includes the Noor 2 and 3 projects.

Noor 1 provides 160 megawatts (MW) of electricity for 650,000 local people with power from dawn until three hours after sunset, The Guardian reported.

Many people speak, but Morocco acts. the biggest solar powerplant opens today thanks to the King's vision with Masen pic.twitter.com/lFp0mDqpWO  Bertrand PICCARD (@bertrandpiccard) February 4, 2016

The final two phases for the project are set to finish construction in 2018. Ultimately, the plant will have a 580 MW capacity and provide energy to more than 1 million people.

The project is called a concentrated solar plant because it consists of a large number of movable mirrors that can follow the suns path and harness sunlight to melt salt. The molten salt stores energy and can be used to power a steam turbine, allowing for energy production even when the sun isnt shining.

How we power the world is changing. As Morocco turns on the biggest solar plant ever, @BP_plc & @Shell profits tank pic.twitter.com/JLGCKPEQHC  Greenpeace (@Greenpeace) February 4, 2016

The plant is aimed at reducing the African countrys carbon emissions. According to a press release from Climate Investment Funds, which provided $435 million to the $9 billion project, the solar plant underlines the countrys determination to reduce dependence on fossil fuels, use more renewable energy and move towards low carbon development.

As EcoWatch mentioned previously, Morocco has been dependent on fossil fuels and imports for nearly 97 percent of its energy, making the solar complex all the more promising.

The World Bank said that the plant will reduce Morrocos energy dependence by about 2 and a half million tons of oil, and is expected to reduce the countrys carbon emissions by 760,000 tons per year, translating to a reduction of 17.5 million tons of carbon emissions over 25 years.
The Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania dismissed the constitutional climate change lawsuit Tuesday brought by seven young plaintiffs. The court found that the plaintiffs had standing to bring their case because climate change was a substantial, direct and immediate threat to them. However, the court declined to follow Pennsylvania Supreme Court precedent that determined that Pennsylvanias constitutional Environmental Rights Amendment imposes an affirmative duty on the Commonwealth to conserve and maintain Pennsylvanias public natural resources for both present and future generations.

Attorney Kenneth Kristl with two of the seven youth plaintiffs, Kaia Elinich (left) and Ashley Funk (right). Our Childrens Trust

The plaintiffs brought the lawsuit against Gov. Tom Wolf and six state agencies, including the Department of Environmental Protection and the Pennsylvania Environmental Quality Board. This case is one of several similar state, federal and global cases, all supported by the nonprofit Our Childrens Trust and all seeking the legal right to a healthy atmosphere and stable climate.

In this case, the youth are seeking to protect their constitutional rights to clean air, pure water and other essential natural resources that their lives depend upon, but that are currently threatened by climate change. Their complaint states that government defendants are failing to fulfill their constitutional obligations by failing to adequately regulate CO2 emissions.

The suit was filed by the Environmental & Natural Resources Law Clinic, at Widener University Delaware Law School, with Associate Professor of Law and Clinic Director Kenneth Kristl as lead counsel.

We are disappointed with the courts decision, Kristl said. We believe the Commonwealth Court failed to consider and apply correctly the Pennsylvania Supreme Courts Robinson Township decision and the new contours for Article I, Section 27 that it carved out. We are optimistic that the Supreme Courts consideration of this matter on appeal will lead to a different result.

Ashley Funk, one of the seven plaintiffs, was recently featured on Heat of The Moment, WBEZ Chicagos long-term project about climate change. Listen to her share her story about growing up in coal country here.

After arguing our position on June 6th, my fellow plaintiffs and I really believed that the court would rule in favor of our lawsuitand our generationby allowing our case to proceed, Funk said.

With recent victories in Juliana, et al. v. United States of America, et al. and a similar lawsuit in the state of Washington, we had hope that Pennsylvania would follow suit. I am disappointed in the courts decision to uphold the preliminary objections. But I know that our case is grounded in our rights to a livable climate and so we will continue pushing this case until Pennsylvania takes adequate and measurable action to address climate change.
Neonicotinoids, a common and highly controversial class of insecticides linked to catastrophic bee deaths, could be significantly lowering the sperm count of male drone honey bees and cutting their life span by a third, Swiss researchers found.

Researchers from the Institute of Bee Health at the University of Bern, Switzerland discovered that male drone honeybees that ate pollen treated with two popular neonicsthiamethoxam and clothianidinproduced nearly 40 percent less sperm than those that did not.

When sperm from both sets of drones were put under the microscope, the ones treated with neonics produced 1.2 million living sperm on average while the control group produced 1.98 million. The authors said that the insecticides can serve as inadvertent insect contraceptives. A drones main role is to mate with the queen bee.

While no significant effects were observed for male teneral (newly emerged adult) body mass and sperm quantity, the data clearly showed reduced drone lifespan, as well as reduced sperm viability (percentage living versus dead) and living sperm quantity by 39 percent, the report states.

The results showed, for the first time, that neonicotinoids can negatively affect male insect reproductive capacity. The authors said their study might explain the declining population of wild insect pollinators as well as queen bee failure in managed fields.

Because queen survival and productivity are intimately connected to successful mating, any influence on sperm quality may have profound consequences for the fitness of the queen, as well as the entire colony, the report said.

Geoffrey Williams, the studys co-author and University of Bernsenior bee researcher, told the Associated Press he does not know how exactly the insecticides might be damaging the sperm, but it seems to be happening after they are produced.

In another alarming discovery, the researchers found that 32 percent of the neonic-exposed drones died before reaching sexual maturity, compared to 17 percent of the unexposed controls. The average lifespan of insecticide drones was around 15 days, significantly lower than controlss lifespan of 22 days.

This could have severe consequences for colony fitness, as well as reduce overall genetic variation within honeybee populations, the authors said.

The study was published today in the British journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

As the Associated Press pointed out, the worrisome population decline of pollinators can come down to a combination of many culprits, such as mites, parasites, disease, pesticides and poor nutrition. However, U.S. Department of Agriculture bee scientist Jeff Pettis, who was not part of the neonicotinoid study, suggested that poor sperm health may account for about a third of the growing crisis.

Neonicotinoid-maker Bayer Crop Science spokesman Jeffrey Donald told the AP that the company will review the study, but in general artificial exposure to pesticides under lab conditions is not reflective of real-world experience.

Peter Campbell from Syngenta, the maker of thiamethoxam, told the Guardian that the study was interesting but added, given the multiple mating of honeybee queens it is unclear what the consequences of a reduction in sperm quality would actually have on queen fecundity.

This latest study adds to the mounting scientific evidence that neonicotinoidswhich are used on many crops in the U.S.are harmful to pollinators. As Friends of the Earth wrote, bees are crucial to food production but are dying at unsustainable rates, with an unprecedented average of 30 to 40 percent loss of all honeybee colonies each year.

An investigation by the environmental group, Buzz Kill: How the Pesticide Industry is Clipping the Wings of Bee Protection Efforts Across the U.S., has found that the pesticide industry is stifling urgently needed reforms that would help these essential pollinators survive and rebuild their numbers.
A team of scientists at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center and Army Institute of Research in Washington, DC has discovered the first instance of a person living in the U.S. infected with a feared antibiotic-resistant microbe, according to a research report published Thursday in the journal Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy.

An E. coli bacterium taken from a Pennsylvania woman suffering from a urinary tract infection contained the mcr-1 gene that conveys resistance to colistin, which physicians consider the antibiotic of last resort. Photo credit: Shutterstock

An E. coli bacterium taken from a Pennsylvania woman suffering from a urinary tract infection contained the mcr-1 gene that conveys resistance to colistin, which physicians consider the antibiotic of last resort.

We risk living in a post-antibiotic world, said Thomas Frieden, director of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The continued over-use of antibiotics may lead to infections that no drugs can cure.

Until very recently, no bacterial strains had evolved resistance to colistin. But this medically essential drug is used in Chinese and European livestock production. China is one of the worlds top consumers of colistin for veterinary use. Late last year, an international team of scientists working in China found the mcr-1 gene in colistin-resistant bacteria in people and animals.

Why would we risk an antibiotic so vital to human health by dosing well animals with it?

About 70 percent of the antibiotics used in the U.S. are deployed in livestock production. But most of these animals arent sick. In fact, most veterinary antibiotics go to animals to encourage faster growth or to prevent illnesses associated with confined living conditions.

Microbes that have developed resistance to antibiotics are sometimes found on meat sold in supermarkets. A 2013 Environmental Working Group (EWG) analysis of U.S. government reports showed that antibiotic resistant bacteria had been detected in 81 percent of raw turkey meat and 69 percent of raw pork tested by federal scientists.

Each year 23,000 Americans die from infections of antibiotic resistant bacteria, according to the CDC. Continued overuse of medically important antibiotics could dramatically increase the death toll. But so far the federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has taken a strictly voluntary approach to reducing overuse of antibiotics. The FDAs efforts have had little impact.

In contrast, regulators in the European Union have called for a reduction by two thirds of colistin use in livestock. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) has introduced a bill that would restrict the use of medically important antibiotics in livestock.

Unless we take dramatic measures now to transform animal agriculture, we risk a world where antibiotics dont work, more incurable bacterial infections in people and a rising death toll.

As a consumer, you can opt for organic meat and poultry that are raised without unnecessary antibiotics. Check out EWGs Food Scores to learn about meat and poultry raised without these critical medicines.

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By Deirdre Fulton

The pipeline giant TransCanada, stymied in its attempt to drive Keystone XL through Americas heartland, is facing renewed opposition to its new and equally misguided proposal to build the Energy East pipeline across Canada and ship tar sands oil via tankers along the U.S. East Coast to refineries in the Gulf of Mexico.

Over the course of a single year, the NRDC states, tankers could carry 328 million barrels of tar sands oil down the East Coastenough oil to fill more than 20,000 Olympic pools. Andrew Priest / Flickr

In partnership with a number of Canadian and U.S. environmental groups, the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC)a major player in the fight to defeat Keystone XLon Tuesday released a report outlining how Energy East would effectively create a waterborne tar sands pipeline with hundreds of new oil tankers traversing the Atlantic coastline, making vast areas of the Eastern Seaboard vulnerable to a dangerous tar sands spill.

Indeed, the group notes that the Gulf of Maine, Acadia National Park and the Florida Keys are all in the pipelines crosshairs, as well as iconic marine species and billion dollar commercial fisheries on the East Coast, including New England and Atlantic Canadas lobster and sea scallops fisheries.

NRDC

And thats on top of the pipelines climate impacts. According to the NRDC analysis, Energy East would bring a significant increase in carbon pollutionequivalent to the annual emissions of as many as 54 million passenger vehiclesand lock in high-carbon infrastructure expected to operate for at least 50 years.

TransCanadas Energy East proposal is truly Keystone XL on steroids, said Joshua Axelrod, a co-author of the report and NRDC policy analyst. Its all risk and no reward for millions of Canadians and Americans, iconic landscapes, valuable fisheries and our climate.

With the report, Tar Sands in the Atlantic Ocean: TransCanadas Proposed Energy East Pipeline , the NRDC joins a chorus of existing Energy East opponents.

The project is currently under consideration by the National Energy Board (NEB), with hearings expected to begin in Saint John, New Brunswick, on August 8.

In making its argument, the NRDC leans on a 2016 study by Canadas National Academy of Sciences (NAS), which found that large portions of diluted bitumenwhich Energy East would transportcan be expected to sink if spilled in water. The same report found that current regulations and spill response techniques are incapable of managing the unique behavior and higher risks of tar sands diluted bitumen spill in water.

A press statement from Greenpeace Canada notes that the NEB refused to consider the same NAS study in its Kinder Morgan pipeline analysis.

To be at all credible, the National Energy Board must give the NAS study a central role in its review of Energy East, said Matt Abbott of the Conservation Council of New Brunswick.

Meanwhile, the NRDC is calling for a tar sands oil tanker moratorium in U.S. and Canadian waters until appropriate spill response techniques are developed to address a diluted bitumen spill into water.

But beyond that, many say the pipeline simply should not be built. Pointing to the devastating pipeline leak that flooded the North Saskatchewan River with 200,000 liters of tar sands crude last week, the Council of Canadians on Monday warned that spills are inevitable and permanent consequences of transporting oil.

When thinking about the future we want, let us remember that the proposed Energy East pipeline crosses 90 watersheds, nearly 3,000 waterways and puts the drinking water of over 5 million people at risk along its route, wrote energy and climate justice campaigner Daniel Cayley-Daoust.
On Tuesday the Bee Informed Partnership, in collaboration with the Apiary Inspectors of America and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), released its annual report on honey bee losses in the U.S. Beekeepers reported losing 44 percent of their total number of colonies managed over the last yearclose to the highest annual loss in the past six years. These losses are considered too high to be sustainable for U.S. agriculture and the beekeeping industry.

Beekeepers reported losing 44 percent of their total number of colonies managed over the last yearclose to the highest annual loss in the past six years. Photo credit: Qypchak / Wikimedia

These honey bee losses reinforce what sciences continues to tell us; we must take immediate action to restrict pesticides contributing to bee declines, Tiffany Finck-Haynes, food futures campaigner with Friends of the Earth, said. The longer we wait, the worse the situation becomes. If we do not suspend neonicotinoid pesticides immediately, we risk losing our beekeepers and harming important ecosystem functions upon which our food supply depends.

A large and growing body of science has attributed alarming bee declines to several key factors, including exposure to the worlds most widely used class of insecticides, neonicotinoids. States, cities, universities, businesses and federal agencies in the U.S. have passed measures to restrict the use of these pesticides due to delay by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). However, these pesticides are still widely used despite mounting evidence that they kill bees outright and make them more vulnerable to pests, pathogens and other stressors.

Summary of the total overwinter colony losses (October 1  April 1) of managed honey bee colonies in the U.S. across nine annual national surveys. The acceptable range is the average percentage of acceptable colony losses declared by the survey participants in each year of the survey. Photo credit: Bee Informed Partnership

In April 2015, the EPA announced a moratorium on new or expanded uses of neonicotinoids while it evaluates the risks posed to pollinators. In January 2016, the EPA released its preliminary pollinator risk assessment for the neonicotinoid imidacloprid and found it poses risks to honey bees.

The EPA is primarily relying on states and tribes to develop pollinator protection plans to address pesticide use, which was an initiative started by the Pollinator Health Task Force, a group established by President Obamas Presidential Memorandum on pollinators.

This past year, the USDA, a co-chair of the Pollinator Health Task Force, was reported to suppress and silence its own scientists for speaking to the harms of neonicotinoids and glyphosatean herbicide that is a leading contributor to monarch decline.

The EPA is passing the buck to states and our regulatory agencies are letting the pesticide industry pull the wool over their eyes instead of seeking solutions, Finck-Haynes said. The EPA, USDA and Congress must adopt a federal, unified plan that eliminates the use of systemic pesticides to protect bees and beekeepers.

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President Obama called for urgent action and research Tuesday over concerns of the spread of the Zika virus. The virus is now active in much of South and Central America, and has spread north rapidly, even reaching the U.S. where there are at least six confirmed cases.

And today, officials from the World Health Organization (WHO) said that the Zika virus was spreading explosively in the Americas and that they would convene an emergency meeting on Monday to decide whether to declare a public health emergency.

Zika virus was first reported in May 2015. Since then, it has spread to much of South and Central America. Photo credit: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

The level of alarm is extremely high, Dr. Margaret Chan, the director general of the WHO, said in a speech in Geneva.

Dr. Sylvain Aldighieri, a unit chief for the Pan American Health Organization, said as many as three to four million people in the Americas could be exposed to the virus in the next 12 months.

As I told you, we have big gaps in terms of confirmation of the real situation, he said. These are estimates. These are mathematical estimations.

Dr. Chan, in a brief to the executive board of WHO, shared four main reasons why the organization needs to be deeply concerned about this rapidly evolving situation:

the possible association of infection with birth malformations and neurological syndromes

the potential for further international spread given the wide geographical distribution of the mosquito vector

the lack of population immunity in newly affected areas

and the absence of vaccines, specific treatments and rapid diagnostic tests.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, prior to 2015, outbreaks of Zika had occurred in areas of Africa, Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands. But in May 2015, the Pan American Health Organization reported the first confirmed Zika case in Brazil.

Currently, there is no vaccine for the virus, which is transmitted by mosquitos. The illness is mild, in most cases, with symptoms showing in one out of five people, and death being a rare occurrence, The Big Think explained. However, the virus is particularly dangerous for pregnant women, as it can cause serious birth defects in babies, including a condition called microcephaly, in which babies are born with small heads and under-developed brains, NPRs Here & Now reported.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned Americans, particularly women who are pregnant or planning to become pregnant, to avoid travel or take precautions in the nearly two dozen countries with the Zika virus.

Officials in Brazil, Colombia, Venezuela, Jamaica and El Salvador are advising women to avoid pregnancy until the outbreak has passed. The Brazilian government even enlisted 220,000 members of the military to go door-to-door to help eradicate mosquitos.

Zika is the fourth mosquito-borne disease to creep up the Western Hemisphere in the last 20 years (the others being dengue fever, West Nile virus and chikungunya), according to a report published earlier this month in The New England Journal of Medicine.

In The Guardian earlier this week, author and environmental activist Bill McKibben blamed climate change for inexorably expanding mosquitoes range. He said the virus foreshadows our dystopian climate future, arguing a civilization where one cant safely have a baby is barely a civilization.

On Wednesday, Here & Nows Jeremy Hobson spoke with Helen Branswell, who covers infectious diseases and public health for STAT, a national health and medicine publication, about what is known and not yet known about Zika, and what people can do to protect themselves.

Listen here:

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(Photo: REUTERS / Siegfried Modola)Giovanni Mougounou, 10, who lost both legs in April 2013 to what his family say was a rocket-propelled grenade launched by Seleka fighters on a church, pushes his wheel chair close to his home in the district of Boy Rabe in the capital Bangui February 4, 2014.

Dr. Samuel Kabue, coordinator of the Ecumenical Disability Advocates Network says, "The inclusion of persons with disability is not an option but a defining characteristic of the Church."

Members of EDAN, a program of the World Council of Churches, met in the Netherlands to develop a new statement with the working title "Gift of Being: Called to be a Church of All and for All."

The new document aims to build on the WCC interim statement on disability "A Church of All and for All" issued in 2003, the WCC said in a statement.

It is founded on the premise that even a decade later, persons with disabilities experience marginalization both in societies and in the church communities themselves.

The meeting, held from 12-15 October at the Mennonite Conference Centre at Elspeet, included staff members of the EDAN, the WCC Faith and Order Commission and the WCC Commission on World Mission and Evangelism.

Hosted by Professor Hans Reinders of the Free University of Amsterdam, the meeting initiated theological reflection on both disability and the place of disabled persons within the life of the churches as part of just and inclusive communities.

CHURCHES ON ISSUES OF DISABILITY

Dr. Kabue, coordinator of EDAN, said, "Churches have moved on issues of disability in the last 10 years, but there are still continuing challenges that must be addressed. The new statement from the EDAN will give churches a fresh momentum to address the issue of disability."

During discussions on the WCC's new mission statement Kabue said the issue of disability poses a clear challenge to the churches in terms of its unity, mission and witness.

"The communion of the churches in unity and diversity is impaired without the gifts and presence of all people, including persons with disability.

"The mission of the church is to proclaim God's reign of justice and peace and is less than credible if the churches do not actively and visibly receive the diverse gifts of all its members, including persons with disability," he said.

At the meeting, Rev. Gordon Cowans, EDAN's Caribbean coordinator, drew attention to the working title of the document. He said since "life is a gift, every life has intrinsic value."

Fadi El Halabi, a Maronite Christian from Lebanon and EDAN's Middle East coordinator, said, "The new document from the EDAN will challenge churches in the Middle East to address disability from a theological perspective and find new ways of making the church an inclusive community at all levels."

EDAN will finalize its statement in February 2015 and will present it to WCC governing bodies for approval.
(Photo: REUTERS / Finbarr O'Reilly)Britain's then Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams (L) listens while Sarah Finch introduces a private members motion on the Independent Commission on Assisted Dying during the Church of England General Synod at Church House in London February 6, 2012.

The former archbishop of Canterbury George Carey has said he has changed his mind about the church's teaching on assisted dying, going against the mainstream of the Church of England.

The ex-head of the Church of England wrote in Britain's Daily Mail newspaper Saturday that he has dropped his long-standing opposition to the legalization of assisted dying and he declared that it would not be "anti-Christian" to change the law.

His view is contrary to that of the current Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby who wrote in The Times newspaper Friday on why he believes the Assisted Dying Bill, to be debated next week, is "both mistaken and dangerous."

Welby wrote, "It would be very naive to think that many of the elderly people who are abused and neglected each year, as well as many severely disabled individuals, would not be put under pressure to end their lives if assisted suicide were permitted by law."

He added, "Abuse, coercion and intimidation can be slow instruments in the hands of the unscrupulous, creating pressure on vulnerable people who are encouraged to 'do the decent thing.'"

Carey said he is to back legislation tabled in Britain's upper chamber of Parliament, the House of Lords, that will seek to legalize assisted dying for the terminally ill in England and Wales.

He noted, "Today we face a central paradox. In strictly observing the sanctity of life, the Church could now actually be promoting anguish and pain, the very opposite of a Christian message of hope."

Carey said, "The fact is that I have changed my mind. The old philosophical certainties have collapsed in the face of the reality of needless suffering."

Any change in the law on assisted dying has been unyieldingly opposed by Church of England bishops some of whom are chosen to sit in the House of Lords, arguing that it threatens the sanctity of life, the view also taken by the Roman Catholic Church.

'SLIPPERY SLOPES'

"I would have paraded all the usual concerns about the risks of 'slippery slopes' and 'state-sponsored euthanasia,'" said the 78-year-old Carey, who served as archbishop of Canterbury between 1991 and 2002.

"But those arguments which persuaded me in the past seem to lack power and authority when confronted with the experiences of those approaching a painful death.

"It fails to address the fundamental question as to why we should force terminally ill patients to an unbearable point. It is the magnitude of suffering that has been preying on my mind as the discussion over the right to die has intensified."

The campaign to legalize the right to die has cross-party support and the Daily Mail said it took a significant step forward when Carey, announced his support for the proposal as a way of preventing "needless suffering."

Under the bill, to be discussed, mentally-capable adults with less than six months to live would be able to request help to end their lives.

Two doctors would have to independently confirm the patient was terminally ill and that an informed decision to die had been reached by the person making an informed judgement.

Welby wrote in The Times, "What sort of society would we be creating if we were to allow this sword of Damocles to hang over the head of every vulnerable, terminally-ill person in the country?"

The spiritual leader of the Church of England and the most senior bishop in the 88-million strong Anglican Communion also said it would be naive "to believe, as the Assisted Dying Bill suggests," that "pressure could be recognised in every instance by doctors given the task of assessing requests for assisted suicide."
Are you better off now than you were eight years ago? For the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers, the answer to this perennial election question has to be a resounding no.

Over the last decade and a half, the unionwhich represents the citys public school teachers, nurses, counselors and support staffhas been nearly halved, its ranks shrinking from 21,000 to 11,000. Come election time, that means 10,000 fewer members to go door to door campaigning, 10,000 fewer people paying union dues to finance political ads and get-out-the-vote efforts.

While teachers unions have long played a key role in getting Democrats across the country into political office, the PFTs decline is the result of bipartisan policies.

Over the course of President Barack Obamas eight years in office, a coalition formed among his administration, governors, many of whom are Republican, and big city education reformers. Together, they doubled down on former Republican President George W. Bushs education policies, pledging to turn around long-struggling urban school districts like Philadelphias by holding schools accountable for their students test scores. If results didnt improve, officials could tap federal funds for turning around schools, to either close a school or transform it into a privately operated, publicly funded charter school, the vast majority of which employ non-unionized staff. The Obama administration also, through its Race to the Top program, increased federal funding to promote the expansion of charters and touted charters like Mastery, Philadelphias largest charter network .

Now, a third of Philadelphias public school students attend charter schools and the union has withered, in a state that will be a key battleground this November. In Ohio, another key state, three in 10 public school students now attend charters in Dayton and in Cleveland. As the Democratic Party gathers in Philadelphia for its convention this week, an open question is whether Obamas education policies weakened a key element of the partys political machineryand whether Hillary Clinton, the presumptive presidential nominee, will continue those policies.

Renewed Activism

Despite the PFTs huge membership losses, Hillary Linardopoulos, the legislative representative for the chapter, says that she doesnt think of her union as weakened, but energized in the face of threats.

Its not that we have been weakened, but we have been under constant action, said Linardopoulos. Look at what was happening in my classroom; I realized that I needed to become more politically active, got engaged in the political battle against [Pennsylvanias former governor, Republican Tom Corbetts] reelection bid.  And it wasnt just me, our members saw so clearly what he had done to their working conditions and our students learning conditions.

Linardopoulos points to recent Democratic victories in state and local elections as proof that the PFT still is an important player.

We fought to get a really progressive mayor, who campaigned on our platform of community schools, said Linardopoulos. Our members spent evenings and weekends making phone calls and knocking doors.

This story was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news website focused on inequality and innovation in education.

What Im most proud of is our membership getting Helen Gym elected, she added, referring to a local progressive activist who won a seat on the city council last year. And thanks to the work of Helen and rank-and-file teachers, education has become an issue that has defined recent election cycles. We had well over 1,000 members volunteering for Helen, 2,000 members out in the street for [Democratic Governor] Tom Wolfe on Election Day.

Terry Moe, a political science professor at Stanford University and a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, a conservative think tank, argues that unions cant help but be weakened when they lose members.

Its not good if you lose members, you are going to lose money and ground troops. But the connection between those things and political power is very unclear, said Moe. It could help if teachers unions think of themselves as in crisis, that they have to do something. If they feel like charters are taking over, for example, they can increase the numbers of their members who are activist. I wouldnt be surprised, if that is whats happening in cities where teachers see charters encroaching.

Moe says that from a national perspective, its important to remember that charter schools remain relatively rare.

Nationwide charter schools enroll just 6 percent of students, said Moe. Okay, yeah, Obama was a supporter of charter schools, but its not like theyve vastly expanded during his term, but in a small number of cities, the local unions there have taken a hit. Has this happened in New York City? No. New Orleans is an outlier, but in Washington, D.C., charter schools enroll half the kids and the union is very weak. The same dynamics are at play in Dayton, in Philadelphia. There are probably, eight or nine cities where charter schools have made a big factor.

Union Politics

At the national level, the two major unionsthe American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Associationwill surely continue to be among the biggest donors in this election cycle. Together, theyve contributed $133 million since 199096 percent of which went to Democrats . So far this election cycle, the unions have spent $17 million and are poised to easily surpass the $19 million given during the 2012 election. The nomination of teachers union darling Secretary Hillary Clinton, who was endorsed by both unions in her failed nomination fight with Obama eight years ago and then again in her primary battle with Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders this year, is expected to help increase 2016 contributions.

Phillip Dine, a labor expert and author of State of the Unions, thinks that the teachers unions swift endorsement of Clinton is at odds with the mood of their members.

I think that unions generally are so on her side and I think thats going to lead to grassroots efforts on her behalf, said Dine. That said, theres been a gulf between leadership endorsements and rank-and-file sentiment.  Thats especially the case in trade and manufacturing. And while teachers jobs cant be exported, teachers have other issues with her, her relationship to special interests and her Wall Street ties.

Amy Roat, a teacher in Philadelphia and a leader in an activist caucus of the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers, said shes reluctantly backing Clinton.

We are uninspired, said Roat. We endorsed Hillary Clinton before she went to the conference and said how great charters are. Im going to hold my nose and vote for her. Democrats have let us down. I like our new Mayor [Jim] Kenney, but for him, too, show me the money. We are at a point where we are worried about potable water in schools and mold. We have beautiful parks downtown, but extremely underfunded schools.

Democrats could be doing a lot more, she said.

Elisabeth Heurtefeu is a former principal from Chicago who also taught in France. She traveled to the Democratic convention in Philadelphia this week to protest Clinton and support the Green Party candidate, Jill Stein.

I think shes going to be like Obama, Heurtefeu said of Clinton. I voted for him, who Ive been disappointed with since he appointed Arne Duncan, who charterized Chicago public schools.

Trump and Hillary are for privatization and school choice, she added. I wanted kids who could be critical thinkers. They just want kids who can work at Walmart and the other big corporations that give them money.

Linardopoulos, of the PFT, thinks former Gov. Corbett, who authorized deep cuts to education, is the primary culprit behind the Philadelphia unions membership losses, not President Obama, but shes hoping that a Clinton administration will take education policy in a different direction. Moe suspects that Linardopouloss instincts are right.

Obama is a union supporter, and Hillary Clinton is a union supporter, but when it comes to education Obama is a reformer and Clinton is not, said Moe. Clinton is a teachers union candidate and Obama never was; he supported reforms the unions didnt like, and Clinton wont. Shes their candidate and she wont do things they dont like.
I started my teaching career at a large comprehensive high school, teaching math exactly as I had been taught. Each day, I introduced my students to a new type of problem, solved a problem for them, and wrote the procedure in listed steps alongside my solution. Then I assigned them additional problems to solve on their own using the procedure that I provided. My students progress was slow with this approach, and I felt like I was struggling to reach them.

After four years of teaching, I switched gears and spent my fifth year teaching physics to 9th graders at a new engineering-themed small school in the Bronx borough of New York City. That year was completely different from my past teaching experience, both in terms of the content I was teaching and the type of instruction I was trying to provide my students. I used an inquiry-based curriculum with project-based assessments in this physics course with mixed success.

I finished the year feeling like the course had gone better than the teacher-centered math courses I had taught during the previous four years, but I wasnt able to instantaneously change the learning in my classroom as much as I had hoped. Again, I found myself struggling to accurately assess what had gone wrong and how to improve.

Vocabulary Lessons

My principal contacted me over the summer because she was looking for someone to attend a training on teaching English-language learners. Our districts department of education required someone from each school to attend a weeklong summer professional-development course, and no one else from my school was available or wanted to go. Initially, I felt like the training wouldnt be applicable to my practice, but I decided to attend mostly to take one for the team. But, in fact, it was this PD experience that opened my eyes as to what had gone wrong the previous year and started to provide me with concrete strategies to improve the teaching and learning in my classroom. I learned, specifically, about the central role of language development in learning, even in math classes.

Through this activity and others like it, I started to think about how much vocabulary my students actually needed to learn in my classroom, especially if I was going to talk to them with appropriate mathematical and scientific words as they learned the new content. Regardless of whether my students were ELLs or former ELLs or neither, all the new content they were learning required them to learn new academic language as well, and I needed to teach this language to them. At this point in my career, I made a commitment that going forward, I would make a conscious effort to help my students develop both spoken and written academic language.

I continued to teach a variety of math and science classes for four years after this eye-opening summer training. I experimented with different ways to get my students talking and writing about math and science. I tried grouping my students purposefully, providing different participation structures like round robins and novel ideas only, and asking my students to write lab reports in science class and essays to identify and explain their mistakes in solving problems in math class. I even had my calculus students read a nonfiction book in literature circles about Newton and Leibnizs independent discoveries of calculus and required them to keep a journal about their reading and the connections they were making to their own learning in calculus.

It was an exciting time for me as I tried to help improve the teaching and learning in my classroom, and I definitely felt more successful as a teacher. My students written work gave me insight into what they understood and what they didnt in a way I had never experienced when the majority of the assessment in my classroom was summative and focused on correct answers rather than explanations and processes.

Academic-Language Development

After nine years of teaching, I left the classroom to take a position at an amazing nonprofit organization where I planned and facilitated PD for preservice and new math teachers. The Common Core State Standards had just started to be implemented, and they were creating a different culture from the one in which I had learned to teach. Students were now being asked to explain their thinking and the processes they used to solve problems and not just to provide the correct answer.

Additionally, the preservice teachers I was working with were required to complete the edTPA, a performance-based assessment, as a part of their certification process, and I had to learn this assessment in order to support them through the process. Part of the edTPA stresses the development of academic language of students, even in a math classroom. Specifically, it requires preservice teachers to identify one language function essential for students to learn in connection with the math lesson theyre teaching. It suggests compare/contrast, conjecture, describe, explain, and prove as language functions to be frequently used in a math classroom. As I tried to support the preservice teachers through this process, I began to look around to find examples of how other math teachers in our community were supporting language development in their classrooms.

When I was specifically looking for ways the teachers in our community were supporting their students academic-language development, I noticed that it was something that many teachers took seriously and incorporated almost daily. One common method that some teachers utilized came out of work traditionally associated with debate teams. They would ask students to justify their work using a claim warrant explanation. For example, while referencing a picture of triangle ABC, a student could say or write, My claim is that angle A is the biggest angle. My warrant is that it is across from the longest side: BC.

I also saw teachers adopt the idea of a problem without a question. Theyd present students with a diagram or a situation and then ask questions like, What is this situation about? What quantities do you have? What questions could be asked? This process takes students away from traditional procedural methods of solving problems and gets them to think about different situations mathematically and to describe mathematical scenarios verbally and in writing.

A group of beginning math teachers that I worked with on an inquiry project gave their students examples of problems that were solved incorrectly and asked them to write about the misconception presented in the solution, using sentence starters like I believe that ..., I can see that ..., My evidence for this idea is ..., or I think this means ...

A Window on Understanding

All these methods and others were shared among the teachers in our community and were experimented with in different ways, all in hopes of helping develop students mathematical understanding, generally, through the use of writing. These methods provided for a symbiotic relationship between teaching and learning that previously didnt exist between the two. Through verbal and written strategies, the students gained a deeper understanding of the content.

Meanwhile, students writing gave teachers a window into students understanding so that they could really address the content learning of their students. It enabled teachers to assess exactly what their students did and did not understand and adjust their teaching accordingly.

This fall, I return to the classroom, where I will be teaching 7th grade math and science. I re-enter the classroom with a wealth of knowledge from my work as a PD coordinator, knowledge I did not have when I started my teaching career. I hope to be able to synthesize all that I learned, both as a teacher myself and as an educator of educators, to develop my students mathematical and scientific abilities through writing.

If theres one thing I learned as a math educator, its that while its important to have students learn to solve problems and to talk about solutions, it is equally, if not more important, to teach them to write about their strategies and thought processes, or they will always struggle to exhibit their mathematical understandings. And I need to be able to accurately assess exactly where my students are in their content development, so that I can reach them where they are and adjust my teaching accordingly.

I now believe that the key to creating a classroom environment with a true symbiotic relationship between teaching and learning is writing, so next year, my students will be doing a lot of it.


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.
On Thursday night, as the red, white, and blue balloons drop from the ceiling, as the crowd goes wild, and as an empowerment anthem like Shania Twains Man! I Feel Like a Woman (weve already heard Alicia Keyss Girl on Fire and I Am Superwoman) blasts from the speakers, Hillary Clinton will finally make the history she has been working toward for most of her adult life. She will accept the presidential nomination as the first female candidate of a major American party. In all likelihood, in January 2017, she will become the first woman president of the United States. During her years of campaigning and every day of the convention itselfhistory! history! history! screamed the signs during Meryl Streeps Tuesday evening feminist stemwinderthe Clintonites have done everything short of releasing a crowd of Hillary lookalike skydivers over the convention floor to underscore her singular milestone achievement. To every little girl who dreams big, she tweeted on Tuesday evening, when she clinched the nomination, Yes, you can be anything you wanteven president. Tonight is for you.  H.

Unfortunately for H, making history aint what it used to be. Even Barack Obamas fiercest critics recognized the momentousness of the election of a black man to the Oval Office. By contrast, the first womans nomination has, apart from the convention extravaganza, elicited a general public meh. As veteran television news correspondent Lynn Sherr asked back in June: How come Im not feeling the tingle?

One major reason for the tingle deficit is so widely known as to barely need mentioning: the character and persona of the candidate herself. The emails, the stench of quid pro quo bargaining barely masked by the Clinton Foundation, the suspicion that Hillary would not be giving an acceptance speech if her more talented politician-husband hadnt already greased the skids for her, her inability to connect with the publicall have contributed to the former secretary of states famous unlikeability problem. She will probably enjoy a robust convention bounce; until then, its hard to imagine another Democrat having higher negatives, other than perhaps Debbie Wasserman-Schultz.

But public apathy over Clintons history-making is rooted in something deeper than personality. It is an unintended consequence of the very identity politics Hillary would like to surf to victory. Identity politics asks that we view a candidate not as an individual but as a representative of a particular minority group. As the subset of groups has grown with immigration and the LGBT revolution, identity politics has been breeding historical firsts like a policy worlds Sorcerers Apprentice. This year, the Democrats might well have nominated the first Jewish president if they hadnt instead chosen the would-be first woman president; the Republican field included a woman, two possible first Hispanic presidents, and a possible first Asian-American president. (According to Donald Trump, it also might have included a potential first Canadian president.) Closer to home, New York City recently elected the first Dominican congressman to replace the first black chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, who, once upon a time, defeated the first black congressman from New York State.

Intersectionalitythe combination of minority identitiesmultiplies the potential firsts. Eric Holder was the first African-American attorney general; now we have the first African-American woman attorney general (Loretta Lynch). Women are nothing new on the Supreme Court, but now the first Hispanic woman sits on the bench. Tammy Baldwin was the first out gay female to serve in the Wisconsin assembly before she became the first out gay female to be elected to Congress before becoming the first out gay female elected to the Senate. Recently, the New York Times Magazine profiled Mark Takano, the first openly gay person of color (or Gaysian) in Congress. Small wonder if the public has first fatigue.

Clintons presidential aspirations have been no secret since her husband left the West Wing, where she had already raised eyebrows by keeping an office and staff. In 1999, while still First Lady, she announced a run for the Senate from New York, a state where she had never lived and where she had only recently purchased a home. In 2003, a few years after winning her seat, she published her memoir, Living History. Keeping her powder dry and making new friends in the Senate, by 2007 she was raising millions for her anticipated presidential campaign.

Ironically, her plan to become the first woman president was programmed so far in advance, with so many carefully calibrated steps stretched out over decades, that she was outrun by the history she had hoped to make. Despite her image as a feminist trailblazer, Clinton arrives late to the party of women at the high levels of American politics. Nancy Kassebaum was elected to the Senate from Kansas in 1978. In 1992, she was joined by the first woman senators from Maryland, California, and North Dakota. They were part of the Year of the Womanalmost 25 years ago. Geraldine Ferraro was nominated for the vice presidency in 1984more than 30 years ago.

This past helps explain Clintons lukewarmat bestreception among younger women. At least among the college-educated, this is a proudly feminist generation, practiced in the language of patriarchy, rape culture, male privilege, and wage and childcare gender gaps. Yet a USA Today/Rock the Vote survey showed that by this spring, 61 percent of young women preferred Bernie Sanders to an abysmal 30 percent going for Hillary. Twenty and thirtysomethings have grown up to a steady beat of gender firstsfirst female IMF chair, first female Federal Reserve chair, first woman CEOs of Yahoo, Pepsi, and Hewlett-Packard, female prime ministers, female presidents of Harvard, and so on. At this point, the first woman president, especially one that seems so establishment and so, well, old, is not an especially compelling avatar of human progress.

Older feminists scold younger women for failing to appreciate Hillarys moment. But its the old-timers who are misreading both history and the popular mood. Identity politics answers only one narrow set of challenges; our current whirlwind of economic, demographic, and global change presents us with a host of others. Earlier this week in Philadelphia, delegates waved signs about TPP, not equal pay. In the fevered politics of today, its not the first woman candidate but old white menTrump and Sanderswho strike the public as the real change-makers. However wrong-headed that public is, they are a reminder that living history mocks the most carefully laid plans.

Photo by Scott Eisen/Getty Images
Commital for thief who was selling on Facebook

A Douglas man who was caught with an 'Aladdin's cave' of stolen items which he was selling on Facebook will appear in court today.

34-year-old Mark Hughes was committed to the Court of General Gaol Delivery at an appearance at Douglas Courthouse last week.

He's previously pleaded guilty to nine counts of theft between October 1st and November 5th last year - he stole toys, clothing and household goods worth 3,600 from shops across the Island.

In addition he also admitted stealing 50 toys from Tynwald Mills valued at over 2,000 and being in possession of 1,560 of criminal property when police raided his flat.

During the court appearance last week he also entered guilty pleas to having no insurance or driving licence when he was stopped at McDonalds on Peel Road on February 23rd.

Hughes, who's been remanded at the Isle of Man Prison, will appear before Deemster Montgomerie this morning.
Island being scoped for Celtic Media Festival

Plans are in 'full swing' for next year's Celtic Media Festival.

The Isle of Man will host the 38th festival in March - this week organisers are on the Island to scope out locations and venues for the main event and fringe events.

More than 500 people are expected to take part in the celebration of Celtic culture, language and creative industries.

Festival director Catriona Logan says she wants people here to get involved:

Media

Catriona Logan
The Brown family from TLC's Sister Wives may have helped a real life couple from New Jersey figure out a way to keep their marriage intact by adding two sister wives of their own.

According to Us Weekly, Paulie and Vanessa Hussle decided to add two new wives to the family, Hazel and Lady, and it seemed to be what they needed to keep their marriage intact after it initially began falling apart.

In an interview, the couple admitted that when they first met in college back in 2003, but after three years and two kids together, the pair decided to split up, which led to Paulie dating Hazel and Lady, something he admitted made him feel guilty at the time.

"I felt so guilty about what I was doing because I still loved my wife," he said. "I wanted to be with these two other women, but I also wasn't ready to give up on Vanessa."

However, luckily for him, Vanessa eventually came around to Hazel and Lady, and broached the subject of them having a polyamorous relationship with the pair.

"When I told Paulie that I wanted to be in a relationship with him and Hazel and Lady, he cried tears of joy," Vanessa said. "It was like we had finally found our happiness together. Every day is like an amazing sleepover with my husband and my favorite girlfriends. It's an adventure."

Since the group became a family, Paulie and Lady have also added a child to the family as well.

The group doesn't mention the Brown family at all, or credit them with any sort of influence over their decision to be polyamorous, though the family is the most famous poly fam thanks to their reality show, which has wrapped seven seasons. It follows Kody and his relationship with his four wives-Meri, Janelle, Christine and Robyn, as well as the stories of their 18 children between them.

It is unclear if an 8th season of the show has been picked up by TLC.
Mara Delta (formerly Delta Africa) announced that it is looking into investing a further US$ 110 million into Mozambique, by acquiring an additional four properties, as well as the second stage development of its Anadarko building.

The Company has since 2014 invested in six landmark commercial properties in Mozambique, collectively valued at US$160 million, including landmark buildings such as the Anadarko, Hollard and Vodacom buildings in the capital city of Maputo.

Head of Developments Greg Pearson commented: "We are confident of the long-term growth prospects in Mozambique. The challenges that the country faces are not unique to emerging economies and we are continuously engaging with the Banco de Mocambique on these matters.

Mara Delta has a solid risk strategy in place which includes careful cash flow management around investments, our ability to manage flow of funds through our liquidity facilities in Mauritius and ensuring our anchor tenants are blue chip internationals, securing most of our leases in US dollars.

We are currently engaging with financiers for a 7 to 10 year Mozambique debt package to refinance the in-country debt and fund the acquisition pipeline.

With a management team with over 45 years combined African experience and relationships, as well as in-country asset and property management teams, the company is focused on creating significant shareholder value ensuring consistent growth on the African continent.

Real estate investment is a long-term play, and we certainly remain committed to the countries we invest in. We have long leases in place and have diversified our portfolio in Mozambique significantly to manage through the economic cycle, Pearson added.

Mara Deltas assets in Mozambique include commercial offices in key strategic nodes and the Company recently diversified into corporate accommodation as well as strategic retail centres and warehousing under triple net leases. These assets are managed in-country by Mara Deltas local asset management team.

The Company, listed in Johannesburg and Mauritius, also holds a portfolio of assets in Morocco, Zambia, Nigeria, Kenya and Mauritius.
Younited Italia, Nicola Manzari e il nuovo Coo, Luca Faccini e Head of Growth e Domenico Petraroli e General Counsel
(BOSTON) - Researchers from Boston University's (BU) Center for Space Physics report today in Nature that Jupiter's Great Red Spot may provide the mysterious source of energy required to heat the planet's upper atmosphere to the unusually high values observed.

Sunlight reaching Earth efficiently heats the terrestrial atmosphere at altitudes well above the sur-face--even at 250 miles high, for example, where the International Space Station orbits. Jupiter is over five times more distant from the Sun, and yet its upper atmosphere has temperatures, on av-erage, comparable to those found at Earth. The sources of the non-solar energy responsible for this extra heating have remained elusive to scientists studying processes in the outer solar system.

"With solar heating from above ruled out, we designed observations to map the heat distribution over the entire planet in search for any temperature anomalies that might yield clues as to where the energy is coming from," explained Dr. James O'Donoghue, research scientist at BU, and lead author of the study.

Astronomers measure the temperature of a planet by observing the non-visible, infra-red (IR) light it emits. The visible cloud tops we see at Jupiter are about 30 miles above its rim; the IR emissions used by the BU team came from heights about 500 miles higher. When the BU observ-ers looked at their results, they found high altitude temperatures much larger than anticipated whenever their telescope looked at certain latitudes and longitudes in the planet's southern hemi-sphere.

"We could see almost immediately that our maximum temperatures at high altitudes were above the Great Red Spot far below--a weird coincidence or a major clue?" O'Donoghue added.

Jupiter's Great Red Spot (GRS) is one of the marvels of our solar system. Discovered within years of Galileo's introduction of telescopic astronomy in the 17th Century, its swirling pattern of colorful gases is often called a "perpetual hurricane." The GRS has varied is size and color over the centuries, spans a distance equal to three earth-diameters, and has winds that take six days to complete one spin. Jupiter itself spins very quickly, completing one revolution in only ten hours.

"The Great Red Spot is a terrific source of energy to heat the upper atmosphere at Jupiter, but we had no prior evidence of its actual effects upon observed temperatures at high altitudes," ex-plained Dr. Luke Moore, a study co-author and research scientist in the Center for Space Physics at BU.

Solving an "energy crisis" on a distant planet has implications within our solar system, as well as for planets orbiting other stars. As the BU scientists point out, the unusually high temperatures far above Jupiter's visible disk is not a unique aspect of our solar system. The dilemma also oc-curs at Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, and probably for all giant exoplanets outside our solar sys-tem.

"Energy transfer to the upper atmosphere from below has been simulated for planetary atmos-pheres, but not yet backed up by observations," O'Donoghue said. "The extremely high tempera-tures observed above the storm appear to be the 'smoking gun' of this energy transfer, indicating that planet-wide heating is a plausible explanation for the 'energy crisis.' "

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The observations reported today and funded by NASA, were analyzed by O'Donoghue and Moore in collaboration with colleagues Thomas Stallard and Henrik Melin from the University of Leicester in the UK. Data taken spanned nine hours on the night of December 4, 2012, at the In-frared Telescope Facility (IRTF) on Mauna Kea, Hawaii, which is operated by the University of Hawaii under contract NNH14CK55B.

Founded in 1839, Boston University is an internationally recognized institution of higher educa-tion and research. With more than 33,000 students, it is the fourth-largest independent university in the United States. BU consists of 16 schools and colleges, along with a number of multi-disciplinary centers and institutes integral to the University's research and teaching mission. In 2012, BU joined the Association of American Universities (AAU), a consortium of 62 leading research universities in the United States and Canada.
Police lineups in which distinctive individual marks or features are not altered can impair witnesses' ability to distinguish between innocent and guilty suspects, according to new research in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.

The research, conducted by a team of psychology researchers from the University of Warwick in the UK, builds on existing eyewitness identification studies suggesting that so-called "unfair lineups," in which the police suspect stands out, make witnesses more willing to identify that suspect.

"Worse still, it could impair their ability to distinguish between guilty and innocent suspects and distort their ability to judge the trustworthiness of their identification decision," says Melissa Colloff, lead author on the study.

In contrast to film and TV depictions in which a witness views a police lineup via a one-way mirror, lineups today typically involve the witness looking at and evaluating digital photos. Using digital images gives the police the ability to disguise distinguishing features.

Colloff and colleagues examined the three methods currently used by English police forces to manipulate digital images in order to counteract the effect of any distinguishing marks such as black eyes, eyeglasses, and beards. In an online experiment with almost 9,000 participants, the researchers compared the three techniques - pixelating part of the face, hiding part of the face, or manipulating the photos so they contain the same feature (e.g., adding a beard) - with digital lineups that were not manipulated.

Participants watched a brief video of a crime and were told to pay attention as they would be asked questions about it later. Afterward, they completed several distractor tasks that were unrelated to the study. They were then presented with a lineup composed of two rows of three photos and were told that the culprit may or may not be present in the lineup.

The participants were asked to select one of the photos in the lineup as the culprit or choose the option labelled "not present." Finally, they rated how confident they were in making their identification (1 = completely uncertain, 100 = completely certain).

The results showed that participants were more willing to identify the suspect when they viewed a lineup in which the suspect alone had a distinguishing feature compared with the altered lineups.

More importantly, they were less able to distinguish between actual guilty suspects and innocent suspects (i.e., those who shared the culprit's distinctive feature) when they viewed lineups that had not been altered compared with altered lineups.

"When the suspect was the only person with the distinctive feature, this actually made people more likely to confuse who was guilty and who was innocent," Colloff explains. "That's because they weren't really using their memory of the culprit's face, they were just picking the only plausible option - the only one with the scar that they remembered from the crime video - and this made it difficult for people to tell the difference between the real culprit and an innocent suspect who had a similar feature."

The results indicated that the three fair lineup techniques currently used by police were equally effective.

"This research has crucial implications for the police--it suggests there are multiple ways in which police officers can fairly accommodate distinctive suspects in lineups," concludes study co-author Kimberley Wade.

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All data have been made publicly available via the Open Science Framework (the complete Open Practices Disclosure is included in the Supplemental Data). This article has received the badge for Open Data. More information about the Open Practices badges can be found at OSF and Psychological Science.

The article abstract can be found online: http://pss.sagepub.com/content/early/2016/07/21/0956797616655789.abstract

For a copy of the article "Unfair Lineups Make Witnesses More Likely to Confuse Innocent and Guilty Suspects" and access to other Psychological Science research findings, please contact Anna Mikulak at 202-293-9300 or amikulak@psychologicalscience.org.
Alexandria, VA - During the Second Punic War, Hannibal, in a brazen move, led a massive army over the Alps, surprising the Romans from the supposedly impenetrable northern border. The exact route Hannibal took is unknown, although some geographic information can be gleaned from historical accounts such as those of the Roman writer Polybius. Armed with this information, and the knowledge that tens of thousands of men, horses and elephants must have left some trace, geoscientists are hunting down possible locations using deduction and chemistry to test hypotheses.

In Polybius' writings, he notes that Hannibal's soldiers described features such as a two-tiered rockfall near where the army camped. The team behind the new paper found a rockfall that they believe matches Polybius' description at the Col de la Traversette, and when they tested a bog 2,600 meters below it, they found disturbed sediments and chemical evidence for humans and horses. The date of this layer even gives a carbon-14 age that is consistent with Hannibal's invasion. Other scientists, also using Polybius' accounts, believe the Col de la Traversette does not contain enough similarity to the historical documents to be the pass Hannibal took. Read this month's EARTH Magazine to decide for yourself if these scientists are en route to authenticating the trail of Hannibal's army: http://bit.ly/2ah1LWl.

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The August issue of EARTH Magazine features stories that will engage and excite readers. This month, readers explore the submerged site of a mastodon butchered by pre-Clovis people, hypotheses about how Asian bats resist White Nose Syndrome, and one of this month's features, "Illustrating Geology: Great Images that Transformed the Field," where readers get to see maps, figures and diagrams that changed how we think about our world. For these stories, and many more, explore http://www.earthmagazine.org.

Keep up to date with the latest happenings in Earth, energy and environment news with EARTH Magazine online at: http://www.earthmagazine.org. Published by the American Geosciences Institute, EARTH is your source for the science behind the headlines.

The American Geosciences Institute is a nonprofit federation of geoscientific and professional associations that represents more than 250,000 geologists, geophysicists and other earth scientists. Founded in 1948, AGI provides information services to geoscientists, serves as a voice of shared interests in the profession, plays a major role in strengthening geoscience education, and strives to increase public awareness of the vital role the geosciences play in society's use of resources, resiliency to natural hazards, and interaction with the environment.
Communities around the world are familiar with the devastation brought on by floods and droughts. Scientists are concerned that, in light of global climate change, these events will only become more frequent and intense. Water variability, at its worst, can threaten the lives and well-beings of countless people. Sadly, humans cannot control the weather to protect themselves. But according to Silja Hund, a researcher at the University of British Columbia, communities can build resilience to water resource stress.

Hund studies the occurrence and behavior of water. In particular, she studies rivers and streams. These have features (like water volume) that can change quickly. According to Hund, it is essential for communities to understand local water systems. Knowledge of water resources is helpful in developing effective water strategies. And one of the best ways to understand dynamic water bodies like rivers is to collect lots of data.

The process of collecting water data is hydrologic monitoring. In general, characteristics of rivers and streams should be measured often and over a long timeframe. Frequent measurements help scientists monitor water levels that rapidly rise and fall during storm events. Measurements over long periods can highlight hidden trends. One example is observing a steady decrease in water volume with time. Observing multiple areas within a river system is also useful, as water characteristics can vary with location.

But adequate monitoring of rivers and streams is too demanding for humans to do alone. Can you imagine measuring water temperature at one point in a stream every ten minutes, 24 hours a day, and seven days a week for several years? It's just not practical! Clearly, automatic data loggers are often better options for water scientists. There is a downside, though. They are expensive. The baseline cost for a logger is around $450. Hund says this is one reason "continuous automated hydrologic monitoring is still limited in many watersheds around the world."

Many communities are especially vulnerable to floods and droughts because of limited access to data from automatic loggers. They are left with the challenge of improving water resilience with a potentially shortsighted understanding of their water supply. To address this concern, Hund and her colleagues developed an affordable logger using open-source hardware. To Hund, an advantage of her team's data logger is its relatively low cost. "This allows the installation of more monitoring stations than would have been possible otherwise," she says.

Open-source products offer free instructions to anyone wanting to build or enhance the products for a specific use. The only cost to the user is associated with purchasing needed materials. Hund explains, "Open-source technologies are important for advancing hydrologic research. By sharing not only the results, but also the tools, researchers can contribute significantly to advancing reproducibility of their research, sharing knowledge and experience, and contributing to and benefiting from the exchange within the open-source community."

To test their logger, Hund and her team went to Guanacaste, Costa Rica. They chose the area because of its wet-dry tropical climate and its lack of stream flow data. Guanacaste was also appropriate because water shortages are a common issue there, especially during the dry season. It is no surprise that water supply is heavily contested there, particularly between households and farmers.

The results? Hund and her team reported that their open-source loggers performed well in Guanacaste's intense tropical environment. They were able to capture high-frequency stream data for long periods of time without interruptions. The development of their logger is just one piece of a larger monitoring project in Costa Rica. Beyond this project, Hund says that open-source technologies are picking up quickly in the world of managing water resources.

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Read more about Hund's research in Agricultural & Environmental Letters. Research funding was provided by the Canadian Natural Science and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) through the Belmont Forum. It is part of an international interdisciplinary research project, FuturAgua: http://futuragua.ca/ubc/home/.
Hundreds of millions of birds are killed in collisions with windows each year in the U.S. alone, and although high-rise buildings tend to be the biggest individual culprits, the vast number of suburban homes across the continent means that even a few deaths per house add up fast. A new study in The Condor: Ornithological Applications examines the factors that affect window collision rates at homes and shows that yards that are more attractive to birds are also the sites of more collisions.

Working with Alberta homeowners who collectively contributed more than 34,000 days' worth of collision data, Justine Kummer of the University of Alberta and her colleagues found that the presence of a bird feeder, whether a house was in an urban or rural area, and the height of the vegetation in the yard were the most important predictors of collisions. Of Alberta's 421 bird species, 53 were represented in the data, mostly common urban species.

"Although each typical residential dwelling only causes one or a few bird-window collisions per year, the enormous number of these buildings means we are killing far more birds in our collective backyards than are dying at large office buildings and skyscrapers," according to Scott Loss of Oklahoma State University, lead author of a landmark 2014 review on the subject. "Kummer et al. provide an excellent example of how the power of citizen scientists can be harnessed to address this major conservation issue."

The data was collected through a citizen science project launched in 2013 that recruited homeowners in Alberta to walk the perimeters of their houses daily and report evidence of bird-window collisions. "Conducting a citizen science project had a number of challenges," says Kummer. "Unlike some other projects, I didn't spend my time collecting data; I spent it trying to recruit homeowners and educate the public about the issue."

Most homeowners would not want to remove their feeders and wildlife-friendly vegetation. Instead, the authors suggest that mitigation efforts should focus on evaluating the effectiveness of products such as tape and film that can be applied to window panes to prevent collisions. "As homeowners don't want to reduce the number of bird in their yards," says Kummer, "I think the next step will be to determine the best window deterrents they can use at their homes."

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"The use of citizen science to identify the factors affecting bird-window collision risk at houses" will be available July 27, 2016, at http://www.aoucospubs.org/doi/full/10.1650/CONDOR-16-26.1 (issue URL http://www.aoucospubs.org/toc/cond/118/3).

About the journal: The Condor: Ornithological Applications is a peer-reviewed, international journal of ornithology. It began in 1899 as the journal of the Cooper Ornithological Club, a group of ornithologists in California that became the Cooper Ornithological Society.
Will provide expertise to help ensure successful launch and operations of 'First Year Cleveland'

Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine will serve as a lead partner for "First Year Cleveland," a project aimed at reducing infant mortality in Cleveland and Cuyahoga County.

The project, which has been awarded more than $2.9 million from the Ohio Department of Medicaid, is a collaboration of government, non-profit, and health care organizations. In addition to the recent Medicaid award, the city of Cleveland has set aside $500,000 this year for the initiative and Cuyahoga County has committed $1.5 million.

"I am pleased that Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine will be playing a prime role in the First Year Cleveland initiative to address the infant mortality crisis here in Cleveland," said Mayor Frank G. Jackson. "Case's work complements the long-term efforts of our Department of Public Health."

Case Western Reserve University's in-kind support as fiscal agent for a three-year period is valued at in excess of $450,000. The medical school is donating free office space and equipment for First Year Cleveland and providing staffing expertise.

Cleveland's infant mortality rate -- the number of babies who die before reaching their first birthday -- is roughly 13 per 1,000 live births, more than double the national average.

"As a matter of social justice, we have an obligation to change these numbers," said Pamela B. Davis, MD, PhD, dean of the School of Medicine and senior vice president for medical affairs. "We have taken a number of steps at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine to help end massive health disparities such as this and are honored to add our knowledge and skills to this enormously important cause. Our faculty and staff are devoted to the Cleveland community and I am proud of their willingness to share their expertise with our outstanding partners."

All grants and awards received and distributed by First Year Cleveland will be processed by Case Western Reserve University in its role of fiscal agent. Additionally, the medical school's staff members will assist in these fiscal activities:

Managing and assisting in reporting on governmental and private grants

Disbursing funds to community, health care and other organizations serving as contractors

Maintaining accounting of all revenues and expenditures

Preparing and distributing financial reports

Studying and reporting on infant mortality hot spots and data trends

"This kind of civic mindedness is what makes Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine a valued and valuable part of our community," said Cleveland City Council President Kevin Kelley. "We look forward to working with Case on this vital project."

The in-kind support incorporates time commitments from a team of senior School of Medicine staff members. The school's First Year Cleveland members include: Michael Konstan, MD, vice dean for translational research and professor of pediatrics; Elizabeth Littman, senior director of government relations and strategic initiatives; and David Silvaggio, director of operations in the department of pediatrics.

Their activities will include helping design the First Year Cleveland operating and staffing plans as well as assisting in recruiting and hiring an executive director and staff members. In addition, the university's Office of General Counsel will provide legal assistance.

"We have the best healthcare in the world. Yet we have one of the worst infant mortality rates. I am excited that we have launched a comprehensive collaborative effort to attack this community problem," said Cuyahoga County Executive Armond Budish.

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For more information about Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, please visit: http://case.edu/medicine
While previous studies have found that electronic cigarettes emit toxic compounds, a new study from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) has pinpointed the source of these emissions and shown how factors such as the temperature, type, and age of the device play a role in emission levels, information that could be valuable to both manufacturers and regulators seeking to minimize the health impacts of these increasingly popular devices.

The study, which was published in Environmental Science & Technology, found that the thermal decomposition of propylene glycol and glycerin, two solvents found in most "e-liquids" (the substance that is vaporized by the e-cigarette), leads to emissions of toxic chemicals such as acrolein and formaldehyde.

"Advocates of e-cigarettes say emissions are much lower than from conventional cigarettes, so you're better off using e-cigarettes," said Berkeley Lab researcher and the study's corresponding author Hugo Destaillats. "I would say, that may be true for certain users--for example, long time smokers that cannot quit--but the problem is, it doesn't mean that they're healthy. Regular cigarettes are super unhealthy. E-cigarettes are just unhealthy."

In the paper, "Emissions from electronic cigarettes: Key parameters affecting the release of harmful chemicals," Destaillats and a team of researchers simulated vaping using three types of e-liquids in two different vaporizers operated at various battery power settings. The two e-cigarettes were quite different, one fairly cheap with one heating coil, the other more expensive with two heating coils in parallel. The researchers used gas and liquid chromatography to determine what was in the vapor, looking at the first puffs as well as later puffs after the device heated up and reached a "steady state."

Not all puffs are equal

One finding was that the first and last puffs produce widely varying emissions. Using a custom-built vaping apparatus emulating realistic vaping habits, researchers drew on the e-cigarette by taking puffs lasting 5 seconds every 30 seconds. They found that vapor temperature rose quickly in the first 5 to 10 minutes until reaching a steady state temperature at around the twentieth puff.

Correspondingly, emissions levels between the first few puffs and the steady state increased by a factor of 10 or more in some cases, depending on the device, the battery voltage, and the emitted compound. For example, for acrolein, a severe eye and respiratory irritant, a single-coil e-cigarette operated at 3.8 volts emitted 0.46 micrograms per puff in the first five puffs, but at the steady state it emitted 8.7 micrograms per puff. "When you apply the same voltage to the double-coil e-cigarette you see a lot less emissions," said co-author and Berkeley Lab researcher Lara Gundel. "We think it has to do with lower temperatures at each of the coil surfaces."

For comparison, conventional cigarettes emit 400 to 650 micrograms of acrolein per cigarette, accounting for both mainstream and sidestream emissions. Assuming 20 puffs on an e-cigarette is equivalent to smoking a conventional cigarette, Gundel said, then total emissions of acrolein for an e-cigarette are about 90 to 100 micrograms.

Separately, to test effects due to device aging, researchers used a single device over nine consecutive 50-puff cycles without cleaning. Again, emissions of formaldehyde, acetaldehyde, and acrolein--all either carcinogens or respiratory irritants--increased with usage. "In some cases we saw aldehyde levels increase 60 percent between cycles 1 and 9," said co-author and Berkeley Lab researcher Mohamad Sleiman.

The researchers note in their paper: "This effect is consistent with the buildup of polymerization byproducts on or near the coil leading to accumulation of the sort of residues that are often referred to in the blogosphere as 'coil gunk' or 'caramelization.' Heating these residues would provide a secondary source of volatile aldehydes."

Lastly, because many e-cigarettes allow users to control the voltage, the researchers systematically investigated the effect of voltage on emissions. They found that as the voltage increased, both the amount of e-liquid consumed per puff and the vapor temperature were higher. In the case of acrolein and formaldehyde, the amount formed at the highest voltage of 4.8V was an order of magnitude higher than the amount at the lowest voltage of 3.3V.

Destaillats takes pains to note that the results do not mean that e-cigarettes are safe to use at lower temperatures. "We found there are emissions of toxic chemicals at any temperature at which you use the device," he said. "And the higher the temperature, the more emissions."

Two new carcinogens detected

Because there is an immense variety of e-cigarettes as well as e-liquids, the Berkeley Lab researchers decided to focus on an element that is common to all of them: the solvent in the e-liquid. Almost all e-liquids use a combination of propylene glycol and glycerin in varying proportions as a solvent.

"Both are used for making artificial smoke on stage," Destaillats said. "The ratio between the two determines things like the volume of vapor cloud that you produce. They are considered safe for food."

However, there have been few if any studies on the safety of heating and inhaling propylene glycol and glycerin. "People are not drinking the liquids--they're vaping them," said Sleiman. "So what counts is the vapor."

The researchers vaporized liquids consisting solely of the solvents to verify that they were the source of the emissions. In all, the researchers detected significant levels of 31 harmful chemical compounds, including two that had never been previously found in e-cigarette vapor--propylene oxide and glycidol, both of which are probable carcinogens.

"Understanding how these compounds are formed is very important," Destaillats said. "One reason is for regulatory purposes, and the second is, if you want to manufacture a less harmful e-cigarette, you have to understand what the main sources of these carcinogens are."

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Other co-authors of the paper were Jennifer M. Logue and Marion Russell of Berkeley Lab and V. Nahuel Montesinos and Marta I. Litter of Argentina's National Commission of Atomic Energy. The research was funded by the Tobacco-Related Disease Research Program (TRDRP), which is managed by the University of California and funded by state cigarette taxes. The researchers are working on a follow-up study focusing on the health and environmental impacts of e-cigarettes.

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory addresses the world's most urgent scientific challenges by advancing sustainable energy, protecting human health, creating new materials, and revealing the origin and fate of the universe. Founded in 1931, Berkeley Lab's scientific expertise has been recognized with 13 Nobel prizes. The University of California manages Berkeley Lab for the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science. For more, visit http://www.lbl.gov.

DOE's Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States, and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit science.energy.gov.
SINGAPORE, 27 July 2016 - Research conducted by Duke-NUS Medical School (Duke-NUS) and Duke University has associated low vitamin D levels with increased subsequent risk of cognitive decline and impairment in the Chinese elderly.

Produced primarily in the skin upon exposure to sunlight, Vitamin D is necessary for maintaining healthy bones and muscles. It is now believed to also play a significant role in maintaining healthy brain function. An increased risk of cardiovascular and neurodegenerative diseases has been observed in those with low vitamin D levels, and studies from Europe and North America have linked low vitamin D levels with future cognitive decline.

This study asks similar questions of vitamin D levels and cognition in the Chinese elderly. It is the first large-scale prospective study in Asia to study the association between vitamin D status and risk of cognitive decline and impairment in the Chinese elderly. 1,202 study subjects greater than or equal to 60 years of age from the Chinese Longitudinal Health Longevity Survey took part in this study. Their baseline vitamin D levels were measured at the start of the study, and their cognitive abilities were assessed over 2 years.

Regardless of gender and extent of advanced age, individuals with lower vitamin D levels at the start of the study were approximately twice as likely to exhibit significant cognitive decline over time. In addition, low vitamin D levels at baseline also increased the risk of future cognitive impairment by 2-3 times.

"Although this study was conducted on subjects from China, the results are applicable to regions in Asia where a large proportion of the elderly are ethnically Chinese, like Singapore," said Professor David Matchar, first author of the study and Director of the Health Services and Systems Research Programme at Duke-NUS Medical School.

These findings reinforce the notion that vitamin D protects against neuron damage and loss, and call for more intensive investigations into the effects of vitamin D supplements on cognitive decline. Better understanding of the mechanism by which vitamin D protects neurons may help identify effective interventions to stem the rapidly increasing prevalence of cognitive decline observed in ageing populations.

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In May 2015, a group of amateur astronomers from Germany, Belgium and the UK came across a star system that was exhibiting behaviour unlike anything they had ever encountered. Follow-up observations led by the University of Warwick and using a multitude of telescopes on the ground and in space [1], have now revealed the true nature of this previously misidentified system.

The star system AR Scorpii, or AR Sco for short, lies in the constellation of Scorpius, 380 light-years from Earth. It comprises a rapidly spinning white dwarf [2], the size of Earth but containing 200 000 times more mass, and a cool red dwarf companion one third the mass of the Sun [3], orbiting one another every 3.6 hours in a cosmic dance as regular as clockwork.

In a unique twist, this binary star system is exhibiting some brutal behaviour. Highly magnetic and spinning rapidly, AR Sco's white dwarf accelerates electrons up to almost the speed of light. As these high energy particles whip through space, they release radiation in a lighthouse-like beam which lashes across the face of the cool red dwarf star, causing the entire system to brighten and fade dramatically every 1.97 minutes. These powerful pulses include radiation at radio frequencies, which has never been detected before from a white dwarf system.

Lead researcher Tom Marsh of the University of Warwick's Astrophysics Group commented: "AR Scorpii was discovered over 40 years ago, but its true nature was not suspected until we started observing it in 2015. We realised we were seeing something extraordinary within minutes of starting the observations."

The observed properties of AR Sco are unique. They are also mysterious. The radiation across a broad range of frequencies is indicative of emission from electrons accelerated in magnetic fields, which can be explained by AR Sco's spinning white dwarf. The source of the electrons themselves, however, is a major mystery -- it is not clear whether it is associated with the white dwarf itself, or its cooler companion.

AR Scorpii was first observed in the early 1970s and regular fluctuations in brightness every 3.6 hours led it to be incorrectly classified as a lone variable star [4]. The true source of AR Scorpii's varying luminosity was revealed thanks to the combined efforts of amateur and professional astronomers. Similar pulsing behaviour has been observed before, but from neutron stars -- some of the densest celestial objects known in the Universe -- rather than white dwarfs.

Boris Gansicke, co-author of the new study, also at the University of Warwick, concludes: "We've known pulsing neutron stars for nearly fifty years, and some theories predicted white dwarfs could show similar behaviour. It's very exciting that we have discovered such a system, and it has been a fantastic example of amateur astronomers and academics working together."

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Notes

[1] The observations underlying this research were carried out on: ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT - http://www.eso.org/paranal/) located at Cerro Paranal, Chile; the William Herschel and Isaac Newton Telescopes of the Isaac Newton Group of telescopes sited on the Spanish island of La Palma in the Canaries; the Australia Telescope Compact Array at the Paul Wild Observatory, Narrabri, Australia; the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope ; and NASA's Swift satellite .

[2] White dwarfs form late in the life cycles of stars with masses up to about eight times that of our Sun. After hydrogen fusion in a star's core is exhausted, the internal changes are reflected in a dramatic expansion into a red giant, followed by a contraction accompanied by the star's outer layers being blown off in great clouds of dust and gas. Left behind is a white dwarf, Earth-sized but 200 000 times more dense. A single spoonful of the matter making up a white dwarf would weigh about as much as an elephant here on Earth.

[3] This red dwarf is an M type star. M type stars are the most common class in the Harvard classification system, which uses single letters to group stars according their spectral characteristics. The famously awkward to remember sequence of classes runs: OBAFGKM, and is often remembered using the mnemonic Oh Be A Fine Girl/Guy, Kiss Me.

[4] A variable star is one whose brightness fluctuates as seen from Earth. The fluctuations may be due to the intrinsic properties of the star itself changing. For instance some stars noticeably expand and contract. It could also be due to another object regularly eclipsing the star. AR Scorpii was mistaken for a single variable star as the orbiting of two stars also results in regular fluctuations in observed brightness.

More information

This research was presented in a paper entitled "A radio pulsing white dwarf binary star", by T. Marsh et al., to appear in the journal Nature on 28 July 2016.

The team is composed of T.R. Marsh (University of Warwick, Coventry, UK), B.T. Gansicke (University of Warwick, Coventry, UK), S. Hummerich (Bundesdeutsche Arbeitsgemeinschaft fur Veranderliche Sterne e.V., Germany; American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO), USA) , F.-J. Hambsch (Bundesdeutsche Arbeitsgemeinschaft fur Veranderliche Sterne e.V., Germany; American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO), USA; Vereniging Voor Sterrenkunde (VVS), Belgium), K. Bernhard (Bundesdeutsche Arbeitsgemeinschaft fur Veranderliche Sterne e.V., Germany; American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO),USA), C.Lloyd (University of Sussex, UK), E. Breedt (University of Warwick, Coventry, UK), E.R. Stanway (University of Warwick, Coventry, UK), D.T. Steeghs (University of Warwick, Coventry, UK), S.G. Parsons (Universidad de Valparaiso, Chile), O. Toloza (University of Warwick, Coventry, UK), M.R. Schreiber (Universidad de Valparaiso, Chile), P.G. Jonker (Netherlands Institute for Space Research, The Netherlands; Radboud University Nijmegen, The Netherlands), J. van Roestel (Radboud University Nijmegen, The Netherlands), T. Kupfer (California Institute of Technology, USA), A.F. Pala (University of Warwick, Coventry, UK) , V.S. Dhillon (University of Sheffield, UK; Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias, Spain; Universidad de La Laguna, Spain), L.K. Hardy (University of Warwick, Coventry, UK; University of Sheffield, UK), S.P. Littlefair (University of Sheffield, UK), A. Aungwerojwit (Naresuan University, Thailand), S. Arjyotha (Chiang Rai Rajabhat University, Thailand), D. Koester (University of Kiel, Germany), J.J. Bochinski (The Open University, UK), C.A. Haswell (The Open University, UK), P. Frank (Bundesdeutsche Arbeitsgemeinschaft fur Veranderliche Sterne e.V., Germany) and P.J. Wheatley (University of Warwick, Coventry, UK).

ESO is the foremost intergovernmental astronomy organisation in Europe and the world's most productive ground-based astronomical observatory by far. It is supported by 16 countries: Austria, Belgium, Brazil, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Finland, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, along with the host state of Chile. ESO carries out an ambitious programme focused on the design, construction and operation of powerful ground-based observing facilities enabling astronomers to make important scientific discoveries. ESO also plays a leading role in promoting and organising cooperation in astronomical research. ESO operates three unique world-class observing sites in Chile: La Silla, Paranal and Chajnantor. At Paranal, ESO operates the Very Large Telescope, the world's most advanced visible-light astronomical observatory and two survey telescopes. VISTA works in the infrared and is the world's largest survey telescope and the VLT Survey Telescope is the largest telescope designed to exclusively survey the skies in visible light. ESO is a major partner in ALMA, the largest astronomical project in existence. And on Cerro Armazones, close to Paranal, ESO is building the 39-metre European Extremely Large Telescope, the E-ELT, which will become "the world's biggest eye on the sky".

Links

* Research paper - http://www.eso.org/public/archives/releases/sciencepapers/eso1627/eso1627a.pdf

* Photos of the VLT - http://www.eso.org/public/images/archive/category/paranal/

Contacts

Tom Marsh

Department of Physics, University of Warwick

Coventry, United Kingdom

Tel: +44 24765 74739

Email: t.r.marsh@warwick.ac.uk

Boris Gansicke

Department of Physics, University of Warwick

Coventry, United Kingdom

Tel: +44 24765 74741

Email: Boris.Gaensicke@warwick.ac.uk

Richard Hook

ESO Public Information Officer

Garching bei Munchen, Germany

Tel: +49 89 3200 6655

Cell: +49 151 1537 3591

Email: rhook@eso.org
The goal for 2030: a world free of hepatitis. Currently, Europe records around 57 000 newly diagnosed acute and chronic cases of hepatitis B and C each year. On top of that, an estimated 10 million Europeans are believed to suffer from chronic hepatitis B and C infection - and most of them do not even know about it as the infection often shows no symptoms. In order to eliminate hepatitis as a public health issue, as set out in a new global strategy, Europe needs to scale-up coverage of testing, prevention interventions and treatment services.

The recently launched global strategy on viral hepatitis aims at eliminating hepatitis B (HBV) and C (HCV) as public health threats by 2030. Among the goals: a 90% drop in the number of chronically infected people and reduction of the mortality rate by 65% as untreated chronic viral hepatitis can cause irreversible liver damage leading to cirrhosis or cancer.

"To eliminate viral hepatitis in Europe, we need to work together to boost testing services, scale up treatment programmes and increase the coverage of prevention interventions to prevent infections in the first place", says ECDC Acting Director Andrea Ammon on the occasion of World Hepatitis Day. "At the same time, our surveillance systems need to be improved because the current data sources in most countries of the European Union and European Economic Area are insufficient to adequately assess the actual local burden of viral hepatitis."

ECDC is working closely with the Member States to improve local surveillance systems and develop alternative epidemiological methods to complement routine surveillance for example with seroprevalence and sentinel surveys.

"Our data show on-going transmission of hepatitis in Europe. If we want to interrupt this chain and prevent further infections, we need to strengthen local prevention and control practices", Ammon explains. "There are now highly effective drugs available for people infected with hepatitis B and C. But we also need to test more for hepatitis to make sure that we are able to identify and diagnose all those who might be unknowingly infected."

Vytenis Andriukaitis, European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, said: "Viral hepatitis continues to pose a serious health challenge in the European Union. Further efforts are needed to prevent and combat this disease, which is sometimes called the 'silent killer' as symptoms often do not appear until it is too late. Hepatitis is also 'silent' in the way that it affects the most vulnerable groups of our society. We need to increase the volume on this preventable disease, and the Commission is playing its part in supporting national efforts so that we collectively eliminate hepatitis in Europe. For example, the Commission is investing over 1 million euros in a new project to support early diagnosis of viral hepatitis."

HBV and HCV trends across Europe

New data for hepatitis B and hepatitis C infection show a greater disease burden for hepatitis C compared with hepatitis B across Europe. Numbers and notification rates for HCV are nearly twice as high as those of hepatitis B: between 2006 and 2014, around 161 000 newly diagnosed cases of hepatitis B and more than 276 000 hepatitis C infections were recorded. In 2014 alone, 22 442 cases of hepatitis B virus infection were reported from 30 EU/EEA Member States and 28 EU/ EEA Member States recorded 35 321 new cases of hepatitis C.

While the reported rate of acute HBV cases almost halved (54%) since 2006 - most likely a result of national vaccination programmes - rates of chronic cases have constantly gone up over time from 5.7 per 100 000 population in 2006 to 9.8 in 2014. This increase is probably due to changes in reporting methods as well as increases in local testing practices.

Between 2006 and 2014, the overall number of HCV cases diagnosed and reported across all EU/EEA Member States increased by 28.7%, with most of this increase observed since 2010.

In the EU/EEA as a whole, a new ECDC study estimates that migrants account for around 25% of chronic hepatitis B, and 14% of chronic hepatitis C cases in the EU/EEA. But despite a high burden of chronic viral hepatitis infections among migrants, the risk of onward transmission of infection is likely to be low. The aim of this study was to estimate the chronic viral hepatitis burden in terms of infected cases among first-generation migrants in EU/EEA countries based on best available data sources and to identify those migrant groups with the largest number of cases who would benefit most from targeted screening programmes and early linkage to care.

Four decades of data: hepatitis A in Europe

In order to assess Hepatitis A virus endemicity and overall population susceptibility in the EU/EEA, ECDC published a systematic review [add link] on Hepatitis A virus (HAV) seroprevalence and Hepatitis A incidence in EU/EEA countries from 1975 to 2014. It demonstrates that although while HAV circulation has been decreasing steadily over the past four decades in the region as a whole, a progressively growing part of the EU/EEA population has become susceptible to HAV infection, which leads to a need to reconsider the overall prevention strategy.

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A team of researchers in Italy has used the location of confirmed debris from MH370 to determine where the airliner might have crashed, and where further debris could be found. The study is published today (27 July) in Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences, an open access journal of the European Geosciences Union (EGU).

"Our result is the first to calculate the movement of the debris that best agrees with all five of the currently confirmed discoveries. This should make it the most accurate prediction," says Eric Jansen, a researcher at the Euro-Mediterranean Center on Climate Change in Italy and lead-author of the study.

In March 2014, Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 vanished with 239 passengers and crew on board. Extensive search efforts in the southern Indian Ocean, where the aircraft is thought to have crashed, have yet to locate the main wreckage, though debris have washed up on the African east coast and Indian-ocean islands.

The northern half of the area where authorities are currently searching for the plane, off the coast of Australia, overlaps with the area the new simulation indicates as the most likely origin of the debris found so far. "However, our simulation shows that the debris could also have originated up to around 500 km further to the north," says Jansen. "If nothing is found in the current search area, it may be worth extending the search in this direction."

To find out how MH370 debris drifted since the crash, the researchers ran a computer model that used oceanographic data from the EU Copernicus Marine Environment Monitoring Service, including data of global surface currents and winds over the past two years. To improve their simulation, they used the locations of the five confirmed debris found to date: two in Mozambique and one each in Reunion, South Africa and Rodrigues Island (Mauritius).

They started their computer simulation by placing a large number of virtual particles in the ocean, and then examined where they would go based on the ocean currents and winds after the crash. Since the exact crash location and how much of an effect wind has on the debris are unknown, researchers simulate different scenarios. From this, they could construct a so-called superensemble: a combination of simulations that best describes the debris found so far.

"Imagine that you want to know what the weather is going to be tomorrow, but you have several websites that give contradictory information. Which one do you trust? You check what weather they predicted for today and you put more faith in the websites that were correct and less in those that were wrong," Jansen explains. "This is more or less what we do for MH370: we perform many simulations that are all plausible given the information that we know about the flight. When we combine the results of all these simulations, we give more importance to those that predicted the debris that was found correctly."

"If new debris is discovered, we can update the result in a matter of minutes," says Jansen. In the first stage of the simulation, the computer model calculates the various ways in which debris could have drifted, which takes some time on their supercomputer. But the locations of the discovered debris are only used in the final stage, when combining the possible drift paths to find the most likely ones. Once the first stage of the computer model is run, it is quick and easy to incorporate new debris data.

The results indicate that the most probable locations to discover additional washed up debris are Tanzania and Mozambique, as well as the islands of Madagascar, Reunion, Mauritius and the Comoros. The main wreckage is likely to be in the wide search area between 28S and 35S (see figure). This overlaps with the current underwater search area between 32S and 35S, but indicates the airliner could also be further north than where authorities are currently searching.

"The disappearance of flight MH370 is probably one of the most bizarre events in modern history. It is important to understand what happened, not only for all the people directly involved, but also for the safety of aviation in general. We hope that we can contribute to this, even if our study is just a small piece of a very complicated puzzle."

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Please mention the name of the publication (Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences) if reporting on this story and, if reporting online, include a link to the paper (http://www.nat-hazards-earth-syst-sci.net/16/1623/2016/) or to the journal website.
Boulder, Colo., USA - The August issue of Lithosphere presents papers that provide insights into Tyrrhenian margin neotectonics in Italy; the Wrangellia composite terrane in Canada; fault-related fissures on Gower Peninsula, Wales; blueschist facies rocks and serpentinites from Kochi in Shikoku Island, Japan; the Shuswap metamorphic complex in southern British Columbia; and paleo-Pacific plate subduction along northeastern China. Highlights are below.

Open-access abstracts for LITHOSPHERE papers are online at http://lithosphere.gsapubs.org/content/early/recent. Representatives of the media may obtain complimentary PDF copies of LITHOSPHERE articles by contacting Kea Giles at the address above. Please discuss articles of interest with the authors before publishing stories on their work, and please make reference to LITHOSPHERE in articles published. Contact Kea Giles for additional information or assistance. Non-media requests for articles may be directed to GSA Sales and Service, gsaservice@geosociety.org.

Tectonics, hydrothermalism, and paleoclimate recorded by Quaternary travertines and their spatio-temporal distribution in the Albegna basin, central Italy: Insights on Tyrrhenian margin neotectonics

Gianluca Vignaroli et al., Consiglio Nazionale Delle Ricerche (CNR), Istituto di Geologia Ambientale e Geoingegneria, Area della Ricerca di Roma 1, Via Salaria KM 29, 300-00015, Monterotondo Stazione, Rome, Italy. This paper is online at http://lithosphere.gsapubs.org/cgi/content/abstract/8/4/335.

This work deals with thermogene travertine deposition within the Plio-Quaternary geothermal-extensional province of Tuscany, Tyrrhenian margin, central Italy. This work provides original data coming from a multidisciplinary and multiscale approach, including geological-structural investigations, geochronological analyses (230Th/234U, Uranium-series disequilibrium), and stable isotope (d13C and d18O) systematics. This work is innovative as, for the first time, the spatio-temporal distribution of travertine deposits and other CaCO3 mineralization as well as their morphological, geological, structural, and geochemical attributes are used to reconstruct the tectonic-hydrothermal evolution in a Quaternary basin over a distance of about 30 km and a time-span of 300-400 ka. The same work is timely and of interest to a broad audience inasmuch it provides general implications on the relationships and feedbacks between travertine deposition, hydrothermalism, paleoclimate oscillations, and neotectonics within a region of positive geothermal anomaly all through the Quaternary time.

Upper-crustal cooling of the Wrangellia composite terrane in the northern St. Elias Mountains, western Canada

Sarah Falkowski, 1 University of Tubingen, Department of Geosciences, 72074 Tubingen, Germany; and Eva Enkelmann, University of Cincinnati, Department of Geology, Cincinnati, Ohio 45221-0037, USA. This paper is online at http://lithosphere.gsapubs.org/cgi/content/abstract/8/4/359.

This study presents the long-term exhumation history of the Wrangellia composite terrane of the remote and ice-covered northern St. Elias Mountains in southwest Yukon, northwest British Columbia, and adjacent Alaska. Detrital zircon and apatite fission-track age distributions are presented from 21 glacial catchments. The detrital sampling approach allows for a large spatial coverage (~30,000 km2) and access to material eroded beneath the ice. An additional five bedrock samples were dated by zircon fission-track analysis for a comparison with detrital results. Our new thermochronology data record the Late Jurassic-mid-Cretaceous accretion of the Wrangellia composite terrane to the former North American margin and magmatism, which reset the older thermal record. The good preservation of the Jurassic-Cretaceous record suggests that Cenozoic erosion must have been limited overall. Nonetheless, Eocene spreading-ridge subduction and Oligocene-Neogene cooling in response to the ongoing Yakutat flat-slab subduction are evident in the study area despite its inboard position from the active plate boundary. The results further indicate an area of rapid exhumation at the northern end of the Fairweather fault ca. 10 to 5 Ma; this area is bounded by discrete, unmapped structures. The area of rapid exhumation shifted southwest toward the plate boundary and the center of the St. Elias syntaxis after 5 Ma. Integrating the new data with published detrital thermochronology from the southern St. Elias Mountains reveals an evolving concentration of deformation and exhumation, possibly within a large-scale, transpressional structure providing important constraints for geodynamic models of syntaxes.

Record of paleofluid circulation in faults revealed by hematite (U-Th)/He and apatite fission-track dating: An example from Gower Peninsula fault fissures, Wales

Alexis K. Ault et al., Department of Geology, Utah State University, 4505 Old Main Hill, Logan, Utah 84322, USA. This article is online at http://lithosphere.gsapubs.org/cgi/content/abstract/8/4/379.

Fault zones transfer hydrothermal fluids and thus heat in the upper crust. Secondary minerals precipitating from fluids and entrained in faults provide a record of these processes. Low temperature thermochronometry specifically targeting fault materials constrains the timing, temperature, and significance of this flow. We demonstrate this with hematite (U-Th)/He dating integrated with detrital sandstone apatite fission-track and apatite and zircon (U-Th)/He thermochronometry from fault-related fissures on Gower Peninsula, Wales, that initially formed in the Carboniferous. When compared with the reconstructed long-term surface history, our results reveal Early Cretaceous paleofluid flow in these faults contemporaneous with the opening of the North Atlantic Ocean. These observations are significant because they reveal that faults serve as conduits for fluid and heat, even long after they initially form, thereby impacting local and regional geothermal gradients through time.

Proto-Japan and tectonic erosion: Evidence from zircon geochronology of blueschist and serpentinite

Qiong-Yan Yang et al., School of Earth Sciences and Resources, China University of Geosciences Beijing, 29 Xueyuan Road, Beijing 100083, China. This article is online at http://lithosphere.gsapubs.org/cgi/content/abstract/8/4/386.

From the early Magma Ocean stage, the Earth has gone through a series of dynamic changes over its 4.6 billion years of history, principally controlled by global plate tectonic processes. Among these, the growth and destruction of continental crust is of prime importance in understanding the building of Earth as a habitable planet. By analyzing the chronology of zircons in blueschist facies rocks and serpentinites from Kochi in Shikoku Island, the authors demonstrate extensive "tectonic erosion" that destroyed a part of the accretionary belt in western Japan. This study provides important insights on continental destruction through tectonic processes at convergent plate margins.

Corrugated architecture of the Okanagan Valley shear zone and the Shuswap metamorphic complex, Canadian Cordillera

Sarah R. Brown et al., Department of Geological Sciences, California State University, Bakersfield, 9001 Stockdale Highway, Bakersfield, California 93311, USA. This article is online at http://lithosphere.gsapubs.org/cgi/content/abstract/8/4/412.

The mechanisms by which rocks from deep within the crust are exhumed to the Earth's surface remain poorly understood. The Shuswap complex in southern British Columbia is an unusually large domain of mid-crustal rocks that was exhumed by uplift along the margin of the Okanagan Valley shear zone. However, the magnitude of crustal extension has been vigorously debated because mid-crustal rocks are not exposed everywhere along the shear zone. Compilation and review of numerous geological maps reveals that the shear zone is warped by previously unrecognized, large-scale, east-west trending folds. These folds repeatedly juxtapose middle crust rocks against non-metamorphosed rocks across the entire Shuswap and explains why extensive areas do not expose the deeper rocks: they are buried beneath the shear zone. This explains how belts of upper crustal rocks can be traced across the Shuswap, offering potential stratigraphic correlations between otherwise separate tectonic belts in the Canadian Cordillera.

Early Jurassic monzogranite-tonalite association from the southern Zhangguangcai Range: Implications for paleo-Pacific plate subduction along northeastern China

Jiang-Feng Qin et al., State Key Laboratory of Continental Dynamics, Dept. of Geology, Northwest University, Xi'an 710069, China. This article is online at http://lithosphere.gsapubs.org/cgi/content/abstract/8/4/396.

When was the Paleo-Pacific plate subducted beneath the Eurasian continents? Early-Jurassic Na-rich monzogranite-tonalite from the NE China can provide the answer.

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http://www.geosociety.org/
The Institute for Basic Science has set itself apart from other performers with its rapidly gaining clout in the research world according to the Nature Index 2016 Rising Star supplement, published on July 28. It has also listed IBS on the roster of the world's 25 emergent players to watch.

The supplement presents a list of the top 100 most improved institutions in the index between 2012 and 2015, which are ranked by the increase in their contribution to 68 high-quality journals. It taps into the power of the Nature Index*, which tracks the research of more than 8,000 global institutions.

With the meteoric rise of its contribution to top notch journals by over 4,000% in four years, IBS placed the 11th place on the list of the top 100. Since 2012 IBS' contribution to the 68 journals included in the index, a metric known as weighted fractional count (WFC**), has skyrocketed from 1.04 to 50.31, a more than 4000% increase. In 2015, IBS scientists were authors on 189 papers, which were included in the index.

IBS was also featured as a major new player to watch in the editor's preface. Noticeably, no other Korean research institution or university was ranked higher than IBS. The supplement also consolidated IBS' growing presence in Asia since it is the only non-Chinese institution in Asia's top 10, which is mostly dominated by Chinese institutions.

From the top 100, the supplement profiles 25 rising stars that are already making their mark, and have the potential to shine in the coming decades. David Swinbanks, Founder of the Nature Index, said: "With four years of data already behind it, the Nature Index is an increasingly powerful tool to assess research performance. By identifying these rising stars, we're given an insight into which new emerging institutions are likely to play a role in addressing some of the globe's most pressing challenges. Providing researchers and institutions with this data, through the index's freely accessible website, is another example of how Nature Research is working to meet the scientific community's needs."

Nature highlighted IBS as an integral element of Korea's transition toward a creative knowledge economy. Established as Korea's equivalent of Japan's RIKEN and Germany's Max Planck Institute, IBS is, Nature says, now expanding to incorporate 50 centers by 2021.

The journal describes that time is ripe for IBS to initiate a paradigm shift as a leader in basic science. With its diverse research themes ranging from dark matter to gene editing to graphene to nanomedicine, as well as a conducive research environment with generous funding, Nature stressed that Korea bets on IBS and basic science to make a breakthrough in its sluggish economy and to deliver on its dream of a scientific Nobel Prize.

Among the world's 25 ascendant performers are the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) - a key part of Saudi Arabia's strategy to reduce its dependence on oil and develop a knowledge-led economy; and Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, which takes the final place in the top 20 as a result of its strength in chemistry and recent investment in sustainability and environmental research.

IBS President Doochul Kim said, "The strong performance of IBS in the Nature Index 2016 Rising Star is recognition that the research done here has global relevance and is playing a key role in the country's transformation with focuses on the basic sciences. "

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More information about the Nature Index is available on the FAQ page at natureindex.com. *About the Nature Index

First launched in November 2014, the Nature Index database tracks the author affiliations of research articles published in a group of 68 high-quality natural science journals, which have been selected by independent panels of active scientists. Responses from over 2,800 individuals to a large scale survey were used to validate the selections. Springer Nature estimates that these 68 journals account for nearly 30% of total citations to natural science journals.

**The Nature Index uses three counts of article output:

* Article count (AC) - A country or institution is given an AC of 1 for each article that has at least one author from that country or institution. This is the case whether an article has one or a hundred authors, and it means that the same article can contribute to the AC of multiple countries or institutions.

* Fractional Count (FC) - FC takes into account the relative contribution of each author to an article. The maximum FC per paper is 1, and this is shared between all authors under the assumption that each contributed equally. For instance, each author on a paper with 10 authors would receive a FC of 0.1.

* Weighted Fractional Count (WFC) - applies a weighting to FC to adjust for an overrepresentation of papers from astronomy and astrophysics. The four journals in these disciplines publish about 50% of all papers in international journals in this field -- approximately five times the equivalent figures for other fields. Therefore, although the data for astronomy and astrophysics are compiled in exactly the same way as for all other disciplines, articles from these journals are assigned one-fifth the weight of other articles.
The French National Institute of Health and Medical Research (Inserm) is the only research institution in France listed in the World Top 100 institutions with the most progress in the last 3 years. This is indicated by the Nature Index 2016 Rising Stars, which highlights the big contribution of Inserm researchers to publications in the best 68 journals selected by Nature. This ranking identifies the most brilliant institutions to watch in 2016 and in the coming years.

Of 8,000 institutions reviewed, Inserm appears in 75th place among the institutions with the strongest progress. In three years, of a selection of 68 scientific journals rated best by Nature, the number of publications increased by 17.43%. Contributions from Inserm researchers published in the journal Science and the Nature Group Journals almost doubled in three years. Inserm is the only research institution in France listed in the Nature Index 2016 Rising Stars. Its presence in this index is all the more exceptional given that the index is naturally dominated by countries, such as China, that have very recently entered into international competition, and have exceptional growth in their number of publications.

For Professor Yves Levy, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Inserm: "This indicator reflects our research policy, which encourages Inserm researchers to publish in the best journals because they are talented. This index didn't take into account medical journals specialising in clinical research, such as NEJM, JAMA or The Lancet, in which growth is 37%. Theses results confirm the place of Inserm in basic science and in clinical research."

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About Inserm

Founded in 1964, the French National Institute of Health and Medical research (Inserm) is a public science and technology institute, jointly supervised by the French Ministry of National Education, Higher Education and Research and the Ministry of Social Affairs, Health and women's Rights. Inserm is the only French public research institute to focus entirely on human health with nearly 15000 researchers, engineers, technicians, post-doctoral students and more than 300 laboratories. The mission of its scientists is to study all diseases, from the most common to the rarest. Inserm is a member of Aviesan, the French National Alliance for Life Sciences and Health founded in 2009. Other founding members of Aviesan : CEA, CNRS, CHRU, CPU, INRA, INRIA, Institut Pasteur, IRD.

Access to the Inserm press room

Follow Inserm on Twitter : @Inserm_EN

Source: Nature Index 2016 Rising Stars, volume 535, n 7613, 28 July 2016
Earlier this year, France passed a labor reform law that banned checking emails on weekends. New research--to be presented next week at the annual meeting of the Academy of Management--suggests other countries might do well to follow suit, for the sake of employee health and productivity.

A new study--authored by Liuba Belkin of Lehigh University, William Becker of Virginia Tech and Samantha A. Conroy of Colorado State University--finds a link between organizational after-hours email expectations and emotional exhaustion, which hinders work-family balance. The results suggest that modern workplace technologies may be hurting the very employees that those technologies were designed to help.

Using data collected from 297 working adults, Belkin and her colleagues look at the role of organizational expectation regarding "off" hour emailing and find it negatively impacts employee emotional states, leading to "burnout" and diminished work-family balance, which is essential for individual health and well-being. The study--described in an article entitled "Exhausted, but unable to disconnect: the impact of email-related organizational expectations on work-family balance"--is the first to identify email-related expectations as a job stressor along with already established factors such as high workload, interpersonal conflicts, physical environment or time pressure.

Previous research has shown that in order to restore resources used during the day at work, employees must be able to detach both mentally and physically from work.

"Email is notoriously known to be the impediment of the recovery process. Its accessibility contributes to experience of work overload since it allows employees to engage in work as if they never left the workspace, and at the same time, inhibits their ability to psychologically detach from work-related issues via continuous connectivity," write the authors.

Interestingly, they found that it is not the amount of time spent on work emails, but the expectation which drives the resulting sense of exhaustion. Due to anticipatory stress--defined as a constant state of anxiety and uncertainty as a result of perceived or anticipated threats, according to research cited in the article--employees are unable to detach and feel exhausted regardless of the time spent on after-hours emails.

"This suggests that organizational expectations can steal employee resources even when actual time is not required because employees cannot fully separate from work," state the authors.

According to the study, the expectation does not have to be explicit or conveyed through a formal organizational policy. It can be set by normative standards for behavior in the organization. The organizational culture is created through what its leaders and members define as acceptable or unacceptable behavior.

"Thus, if an organization perpetuates the 'always on' culture it may prevent employees from fully disengaging from work eventually leading to chronic stress," says Belkin, associate professor of management at Lehigh's College of Business and Economics and coauthor of the study.

Organizational expectations

The authors looked at data collected from surveys of 297 participants from a wide variety of industries and organizations. The surveys were designed to measure organizational expectations, time spent on email outside of work, psychological detachment from work during off-work hours, level of emotional exhaustion and perceptions of work-family balance, among other factors. The largest industry groups represented were finance & banking (15%), technology (11%), and healthcare (8%).

In addition to the correlation between organizational expectations to monitor work email after-hours and emotional exhaustion as a result of the inability to "turn off," the researchers also found that people who prefer a strict separation of their work and family time have an even more difficult time detaching from work than those who are OK with blending work and home time.

"The anticipatory stress caused by organizational email-related norms is more dangerous for people who prefer highly segmented schedules," says Belkin.

The authors believe that this may be because people with less rigid separation between work and family time have "...an easier time disconnecting since their personal preferences do not conflict with organizational expectations." Belkin and her coauthors believe that a high-pressure environment may eventually lead to emotional exhaustion for "low segmenters" as well.

Balance matters

The authors cite previous research correlating the absence of work-family balance to a number of detrimental outcomes - for both the individual and his or her employer:

From the study: "Satisfaction with the balance between work and family domains is important for individual health and well-being, while individual inability to successfully balance roles in those domains can lead to anxiety and depression, lowered satisfaction with both work and family roles, absenteeism, decreased job productivity and organizational commitment and greater turnover."

"As prior research has shown, if people cannot disconnect from work and recuperate, it leads to burnout, higher turnover, more deviant behavior, lower productivity, and other undesirable outcomes," said Belkin.

What managers can do

The results of the study provide insights into what managers can do to mitigate employee chronic stress and emotional exhaustion caused by organizational expectations related to email.

"We believe our findings have implications for organizations, as even though in the short run being "always on" may seem like a good idea because it increases productivity, it can be dangerous in the long-run," said Belkin.

The authors suggest that if completely banning email after work is not an option, managers could implement weekly "email free days." Another idea is to offer rotating after-hours email schedules to help employees manage their work and family time more efficiently.

The authors write: "By making descriptive and injunctive norms that emphasize balance between work and non-work domains salient, organizations should potentially decrease the email-related stress."

The benefits may go beyond employee well-being.

From the study: "Such policies may not only reduce employee pressure to reply to emails after-hours and relieve the exhaustion from stress, but will also serve as a signal of organizational caring and support, potentially increasing trust in management, work identification, job commitment and extra-role behaviors."

The authors suggest that future research on the impact of communication media on employee behavior and well-being include how organizational expectations may be contributing to the outcomes.

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COLUMBUS, Ohio - A study conducted at Nationwide Children's Hospital has found that a new chemotherapy is effective against both pediatric and adult cancers, and that it allows other chemotherapies to more readily reach their targets. The study published online Monday, July 25, in the journal Pharmaceutical Research describes a novel class of antitumor amphiphilic amines (RCn) based on a tricyclic amine hydrophilic head and a hydrophobic linear alkyl tail of variable length.

The researchers evaluated RCn for cytotoxicity and mechanism of cell death in several cancer cell lines, antitumor efficacy in mouse tumor models and ability to encapsulate chemotherapy drugs. The results indicate that these amines constitute a promising new therapy for both pediatric and adult cancers.

"We tested RCn's tumor killing efficacy in cell lines of numerous cancers, including sarcomas, lymphoma and neuroblastoma," said Timothy Cripe, MD, PhD, principal investigator in the Center for Childhood Cancer and Blood Disease in The Research Institute at Nationwide Children's and senior author on the paper. "We observed anticancer activity of the RCn amines in all the cancer cell lines analyzed."

Researchers found that RCn, and RC16 in particular, is 10 times more effective in harming tumor cells than regular cells. That means the low dose needed to kill cancer will have minimal effect on normal cells.

"This is particularly important for proving the safety of a potential therapy," explained Dr. Cripe, who is also chief of the Division of Hematology, Oncology and Blood and Marrow Transplant at Nationwide Children's.

The drug was effective in shrinking human tumors implanted into mice and in a metastatic model of murine neuroblastoma when administered orally or intravenously.

Because of the amphiphilic molecular structure of RC16, it self-assembled into micelles in water. This chemical structure allowed complexation of cancer drugs doxorubicin, etoposide and paclitaxel. These micelles significantly improved the in vitro antitumor activity of these drugs by enhancing their solubility in water.

"The antitumor activity of lipophilic amines was interesting because of its action on the mitochondria and lysosomes of cells. Moreover, their amphiphilic character improves their bioavailability," said Isabella Orienti, PhD, professor of Pharmacy and Biotechnology at the University of Bologna, and lead scientist in the study. "We correctly hypothesized these amphiphilic amines would have high antitumor activity and high bioavailability."

"We are in the process of determining our next steps with testing this new drug," said Dr. Cripe, a professor of Pediatrics at The Ohio State University College of Medicine. "This is a promising new therapy for adult and pediatric cancers, and we look forward to further testing its merits."

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The work for this research was started at Cincinnati Children's Hospital and moved to Nationwide Children's Hospital. Dr. Orienti was a visiting scientist in the Cripe Lab while the data was being collected. Some of the work was funded by CancerFree Kids, a private foundation dedicated to funding childhood cancer research.

Reference:

Orienti I, Falconi M, Teti G, Currier M, Wang J, Phelps M, Cripe TP. Preparation and evaluation of a novel class of amphiphilic amines as antitumor agents and nanocarriers for bioactive molecules. Pharmaceutical Research. 2016. [Epub ahead of print]
Detention Center

The inmate count at the Platte County Detention Facility Tuesday was 76, with 48 from Platte County and 28 from out of county.

Police

June 23

6:02 p.m.  At 818 E. 23rd St., Tyler Weber, 30, 1719 Woodland Drive, was cited for shoplifting.

July 13

10:24 a.m.  At 2063 23rd Ave., Jakota Moore, 29, 1052 18th Ave., was cited for second-degree forgery.

July 14

7:44 p.m.  At the intersection of 23rd Street and 33rd Avenue, Santa Sanchez, 23, 2659 47th Ave., No. 5, was cited for no proof of insurance.

July 18

8:54 a.m.  In the 3400 block of 14th Street, traffic accident. Drivers were Joan Campbell, 67, 2990 E. 29th Ave., and Caleb Steans, 21, Benedict.

July 19

12:09 a.m.  At the intersection of 25th Avenue and Fourth Street, Mark Williams, 49, 1917 17th St., was cited for no valid registration, no proof of insurance and no proof of ownership.

July 20

2:26 p.m.  In the 3300 block of 20th Street, Jakota Moore, 29, 1052 18th Ave., was cited for possession of stolen property and possession of a controlled substance.

July 21

6:29 p.m.  At 818 E. 23rd St., Antonio Espino, 40, 2303 Fourth St., was cited for animal neglect.

9:05 p.m.  At 665 Stadium Road, Jordan Colson, 18, 1259 46th Ave., was cited for careless driving.

July 22

12:13 p.m.  At the intersection of East 23rd Street and East Sixth Avenue, traffic accident. Drivers were Karl Bonner, 24, Lindsay, and Tammy Iburg, 46, Belgrade.

3:58 p.m.  At the intersection of 33rd Avenue and 15th Street, traffic accident. Drivers were Nelson Reina, 23, 2810 15th St., Michaela Wilcox, 36, 2766 17th St., and Ryan Chrisp, 39, Norfolk.

4:45 p.m.  At the intersection of 13th Street and 32nd Avenue, traffic accident. Drivers were Lilyan Martensen, 81, 3600 30th St., No. 106, and Thomas Albers, 25, Bellwood.

July 23

11:50 a.m.  In a parking lot at 3318 23rd St., a vehicle driven by Grace Zelasney, 15, Osceola, struck a parked vehicle owned by Branson Hoefer and Carolyn Keith, Norfolk.

July 24

3:34 p.m.  In the 2200 block of 22nd Street, an unknown vehicle struck a parked vehicle owned by Madeline and Jered Vetick, 3920 22nd St., and left the scene.

July 25

1:49 p.m. - Criminal mischief at 1574 41st Ave., window damaged, $200 loss.

4:11 p.m.  Theft at 3221 34th St., bicycle stolen, $50 loss.

Sheriff

July 15

8:12 a.m.  At the intersection of 12th Avenue and 17th Street, traffic accident. Drivers were Mary Wiegand, 44, 1652 45th Ave., and Nicholas Flamme, 21, 1816  Eighth St.

5:37 p.m.  On U.S. Highway 81 and the Loup River Bridge, a vehicle driven by Daniel Krafka, 55, Bellwood, struck the state bridge.

July 25

2:36 p.m.  Criminal mischief at 25941 175th St., mailbox damaged, $250 loss.

7 p.m.  Theft at 4010 E. 28th St., $300 loss.

8:58 p.m.  Traffic violation at Ziegler Street in Monroe, Christopher Zelasney of Silver Creek was cited for fourth-offense driving under the influence, refusal of a chemical test, driving under suspension, open container of alcohol, an ignition interlock violation and an expired vehicle registration.

11:08 p.m.  On East Eighth Street, Virginia Dengate of Columbus jailed for third-degree assault.
Scientists of Tomsk State University are working on changing physicochemical properties of zeolites using thermal and mechanical treatment. Based on the results of this research the scientists will be able to create a new material for a portable device for hemodialysis.

The scientists examined synthetic zeolite powder manufactured by SAPO-34 and natural zeolite of Tokay deposits (Hungary)

Synthetic powder was processed in a ball mill. Spin rate was 150 rotations per minute, processing time varied between 1 and 96 hours. Prior and after the processing the powder underwent thermal treatment. As a result material's specific surface area shrank from 506 m2/g to 102 m2/g (after 96-hour-long mechanical activation and a 1000Co annealing).

Natural zeolite of Tokay deposits underwent mechanical activation in a ball mill during 1-600 minutes. As a result of the activation mineral composition of zeolite changed: smectite, clinoptilolite, calcite, and cristobalite contents decreased several times while quartz and orthoclase contents increased. Specific surface area increased.

Natural zeolites are hard alumosilicates, that is why finding the most appropriate chopping technology is important to increase specific surface area, -says Alexander Buzimov, M.A. student in the faculty of Physics and Engineering. -Changing the specific surface area using mechanical treatment is aimed at changing properties of zeolites.

When they will have learnt to control zeolite's properties, the scientists plan to combine the mineral with nanoceramics which is manufactured by the scientists of the Institute of Strength Physics and Materials Science Siberian Branch of Russian Academy of Sciences and Tomsk State University, and thus produce a new gradient material. Thus, manufactured composite sieve will become the main part of the portable device for hemodialysis.

High-porous ceramics with desired pore size ranging from nano to macro is already produced by the scientists of Tomsk State University, Institute of Strength Physics and Materials Science Siberian Branch of Russian Academy of Sciences, Fraunhofer ICT (Germany), and University of Miskolc (Hungary). With these universities TSU has long-term agreements. The team includes both experienced scientists and students, - says Sergey Kulkov, professor of TSU.

Zeolite with high specific surface area provides effective moisture absorption. The device will be connected to a shunt, which is implanted under the skin of the patient. The blood will circulate through the composite sieve and will be cleaned.

The scientists hope to get the new material in a year, whereas the first device will be created in two years.

"Main advantage of this device is its portability. Nowadays, some analogs of traditional devices for hemodialysis are available, but all of them require the procedure to be performed in a hospital, so people are bound to their place of residence. With the new device, patients will be able to go even on a long journey. Hemodialysis can be then done at home and in an emergency situation," said Alexander Buzimov.

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The project is carried out by The Institute of Strength Physics and Materials Science of the Russian Academy of Sciences, faculty of Physics and Engineering of Tomsk State University, Fraunhofer ICT (Germany), and University of Miskolc (Hungary).
CORVALLIS, Ore. -- Aiming to stop the looming extinction of large wild-animal species across the globe, a group of international conservation scientists has issued a call for actions to halt further declines.

In today's edition of the journal BioScience, 43 wildlife experts from six continents note that an extinction crisis is unfolding for large mammals, from those that are poorly known, such as the scimitar-horned oryx, to more familiar species such as gorillas and rhinoceroses.

They have issued a 13-point declaration that calls for acknowledgement of threats, a halt to harmful practices, a global commitment to conservation and recognition of a moral obligation to protect the planet's large animals, or megafauna.

"The more I look at the trends facing the world's largest terrestrial mammals, the more concerned I am we could lose these animals just as science is discovering how important they are to ecosystems and to the services they provide to people," said William Ripple, distinguished professor of ecology in the College of Forestry at Oregon State University and lead author. "It's time to really think about conserving them because declines in their numbers and habitats are happening quickly."

Ripple has studied the ecological effects of predators such as cougar and wolves in North America, and collaborated with other wildlife experts to analyze global trends facing large carnivores -- wolves, lions, tigers and bears -- as well as large herbivores, including elephants, rhinos, zebras and tapirs.

"Most mammalian megafauna face dramatic range contractions and population declines," the authors wrote. "In fact, 59 percent of the world's largest carnivores and 60 percent of the world's largest herbivores are classified as threatened with extinction on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature Red List. This situation is particularly dire in sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia, home to the greatest diversity of extant megafauna."

Among the most serious threats to endangered animals, they wrote, are the expansion of livestock and crop operations, illegal hunting, deforestation and human population growth.

"Human communities stand to lose key elements of their natural heritage if megafauna species are allowed to go extinct," said co-author Peter Lindsey of Panthera, a nonprofit organization dedicated to conserving wild cat species.

"In addition, the disappearance of such species could significantly undermine the future potential for communities to benefit from tourism. In areas where people live with these species, there is a need for mechanisms to promote coexistence. We need to minimize the negative impacts on local communities that stem from human-wildlife conflict or risk to human life."

The scientists call for action on two fronts: expanded interventions at scales that are relevant to animals' habitat needs, and large-scale policy shifts to alter the ways in which people interact with large animals.

The authors emphasized that some conservation initiatives have had success.

"The Range Wide Conservation Program for Cheetah and African Wild Dog provides a good model on how to enact conservation action across the massive scales required," said Sarah Durant, co-author and a wildlife biologist with the Wildlife Conservation Society and the Zoological Society of London.

"This program has established a consensus across key stakeholders in multiple countries on a common conservation goal and plan of action to reverse declines in these species. Frameworks like these help everyone to work together most effectively towards a common goal of conservation."

However, they added, the resources for effective implementation of conservation strategies are seldom available in regions with the greatest needs. "Therefore," they wrote, "the onus is on developed countries, which have long ago lost most of their megafauna," to conserve their own species and to support initiatives in other regions.

The article is published in six languages in addition to English: Spanish, French, Chinese, Malay, Portuguese and Thai. "The translations were provided by some of the co-authors," said Ripple.

"We must not go quietly into this impoverished future," the authors wrote. "Rather, we believe it is our collective responsibility, as scientists who study megafauna, to act to prevent their decline. We therefore present a call to the broader international community to join together in conserving the remaining terrestrial megafauna."

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Among Ripple's co-authors are Oregon State colleagues Michael Nelson, Robert Beschta and Christopher Wolf, all in the College of Forestry; and Taal Levi in the College of Agricultural Sciences.

Some of the other organizations represented among the authors include the International Union for the Conservation of Nature; World Wildlife Fund; the University of Oxford; the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences; the University of Pretoria and Nelson Mandela University in South Africa; the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Beijing Normal University in China; the University of Sydney and the University of New South Wales in Australia; the Universidad Estadual Paulista in Brazil; the Wildlife Conservation Society in Bangalore, India; and the University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus.

Sources: William Ripple, Oregon State University, 541-737-3056, bill.ripple@oregonstate.edu; Sarah Durant, Wildlife Conservation Society, sdurant@wcs.org

After the embargo, the study this story is based on will be available online at http://bioscience.oxfordjournals.org/lookup/doi/10.1093/biosci/biw092

Editor's Note: Photos of some of the large animals listed in the BioScience article are on Flickr:

1. Eastern gorilla, https://flic.kr/p/rdf45S

2. African elephant, https://flic.kr/p/rSMFWT

3. African elephant family, https://flic.kr/p/JoL8yA

4. Dingo, https://flic.kr/p/iKKiiw

5. Mountain zebra, https://flic.kr/p/rSE87h

6. Indian wild water buffalo, https://flic.kr/p/JUff4f

7. Black rhino, https://flic.kr/p/rSDpvS

8. Cougar, https://flic.kr/p/iTnKvP

9. Gray wolf, https://flic.kr/p/KeX63V

10. Male Bengal tiger, India, https://flic.kr/p/Kf4JGF

11. African lion, Zimbabwe, https://flic.kr/p/KcL48C

About the OSU College of Forestry: For a century, the College of Forestry has been a world class center of teaching, learning and research. It offers graduate and undergraduate degree programs in sustaining ecosystems, managing forests and manufacturing wood products; conducts basic and applied research on the nature and use of forests; and operates 14,000 acres of college forests.
Researchers from Princeton University and the University of California-Los Angeles who investigated the genetic ancestry of North America's wild canines have concluded that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's scientific arguments for removing gray wolves from endangered species protection are incorrect.

The study, which contradicts conventional thinking, finds that all of the continent's canids diverged from a common ancestor relatively recently and that eastern and red wolves are not evolutionarily distinct species but a hybrid of gray wolf and coyote ancestry. The study will appear in the journal Science Advances.

Gray wolves once ranged across much of the United States but were hunted to near-extinction in the late 1800s and early 1900s. In 1973, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service listed the gray wolf under the Endangered Species Act, in part, because its geographic range once included the Great Lakes region and 29 eastern states. Since then, gray wolves have rebounded due to protections, reintroduction and natural repopulation, making wolf recovery in the West one of the most successful efforts under the ESA. Gray wolves also still live in the Great lakes area but not in the 29 eastern states. The red wolf also was protected under the ESA as a distinct species in 1973, but the eastern wolf, which was only recently recognized as a distinct species, is not protected.

The Fish and Wildlife Service will decide this fall whether to remove the gray wolf from protection, drawing renewed attention to the conflict between conservationists, ranchers, hunters and others who see the iconic predator either as a threat or as part of a healthy ecosystem. The agency says the gray wolf should be delisted because the eastern wolf - not the gray wolf - lived in the Great Lakes region and eastern states. Essentially, the presence of the eastern wolf, rather than the gray wolf, in the eastern United States would cause the gray wolf's original listing to be annulled. With the exception of the Mexican wolf, the gray wolf would lose protection from its entire North American range under the proposed rule change.

In their new study, lead author Bridgett vonHoldt, an assistant professor in ecology and evolutionary biology at Princeton, and her colleagues analyzed the complete genomes of 12 pure gray wolves (from areas where there are no coyotes), three pure coyotes (from areas where there are no gray wolves), six eastern wolves (which the researchers call Great Lakes wolves) and three red wolves.

Results showed that eastern and red wolves are not evolutionary distinct species but the result of a relatively recent interbreeding: Eastern wolves are about 75 percent gray wolf and 25 percent coyote, while red wolves are about 25 percent gray wolf and 75 percent coyote.

"We found no evidence for an eastern or red wolf that has a separate evolutionary legacy," vonHoldt says. "These results suggest that arguments for delisting the gray wolf are not valid."

The researchers also conclude that the ESA should protect hybrid species because interbreeding in the wild, thought to be uncommon when the ESA was passed in 1973, has been shown to be common and may not be harmful.

"Our findings demonstrate how a strict designation of a species under the ESA that does not consider genetic admixture can threaten the protection of endangered species," vonHoldt says. "We argue for a more balanced approach that focuses on the ecological context of genetic admixture and allows for evolutionary processes to potentially restore historical patterns of genetic variation."

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The study, "Whole-genome sequence analysis shows that two endemic species of North American wolf are admixtures of the coyote and gray wolf," was published July 27 by Science Advances. The research was funded by the National Science Foundation and National Institutes of Health.
With the aid of platinum catalysts, it is possible to efficiently produce hydrogen. However, this metal is rare and expensive. Researchers have discovered an alternative that is just as good, but less costly.

The mineral pentlandite is a potential new catalyst for hydrogen production. As described in the journal Nature Communications, it works just as efficient as the platinum electrodes commonly used today. In contrast to platinum, pentlandite is affordable and found frequently on Earth.

A team headed by Dr. Ulf-Peter Apfel and Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Schuhmann of the Ruhr-Universitat Bochum describes the results together with colleagues from the Max-Planck-Institute for Coal Research in Mulheim an der Ruhr and the Technical University of Bratislava.

Producing hydrogen without precious metals

In addition to platinum, there are numerous other substances that can catalyse the reaction of water to hydrogen and oxygen and do not contain any precious metals. Among such compounds are the so-called metal chalcogenides. Usually, however, these non-metallic materials are distinctly poorer conductors of electrons and are thus inefficient catalysts.

Pentlandite consists of iron, nickel, and sulfur. Its structure is similar to the active center of hydrogenases, which are hydrogen-producing enzymes, as found, for example, in green algae. In the current study, the researchers compared the hydrogen production rate of naturally obtained and artificially produced pentlandite with platinum and other non-metallic catalysts.

Mineral pentlandite just as good as platinum

Artificial pentlandite and platinum prove to be equally good catalysts, with a performance that surpasses that of all the other materials tested. The mineral synthesized in the lab produced hydrogen much more efficiently than the naturally found variant. The reason: Inclusions of magnesium and silicon in natural pentlandite reduce its conductivity. The scientists called the output of artificial pentlandite "surprisingly high", and the rate of synthesis also remained stable for a long time.

The mineral has another advantage compared to other non-precious-metal materials. It has a greater active surface area to which the reacting substances can dock. In other non-precious-metal materials, this surface has to be created using complex methods by applying the catalyst to an electrode in the form of nanoparticles.

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Funding

The German Research Foundation subsidized the work as part of the Resolv Cluster of Excellence (EXC1069) and the Emmy-Noether-Project AP242/2-1. Further financial support came from the Chemical Industry Fund in the form of a Liebig Stipend.

Original publication

Bharathi Konkena, Kai junge Puring, Ilya Sinev, Stefan Piontek, Oleksiy Khavryuchenko, Johannes P. Durholt, Rochus Schmid, Harun Tuysuz, Martin Muhler, Wolfgang Schuhmann, Ulf-Peter Apfel: Pentlandite rocks as highly efficient, sustainable and stable electrocatalysts for H2 generation, in: Nature Communications, 2016, DOI: 10.1038/NCOMMS12269
The first randomised controlled trial to directly compare robotic surgery with open surgery for patients with localised prostate cancer finds that robotic and open surgery achieve similar results in terms of key quality of life indicators at 3 months. The study, published in The Lancet, is the first stage of a 2 year trial and reports quality of life outcomes such as urinary and sexual function. Longer-term follow-up is now needed to fully assess the outcomes of both techniques, including on cancer survival.

Since the use of robot-assisted laparoscopic prostatectomy (RALP) was first reported in 2000, there has been rapid adoption of robotic surgery for men with prostate cancer. One million men are diagnosed with prostate cancer worldwide each year. The most common treatment for localised disease is surgery to remove the prostate gland, and some men experience urinary and erectile problems following surgery. For most men, the operation will get rid of the cancer cells, but for around one in three men, cancer cells may return some time after the operation.

In the USA, 80-85% of prostatectomies are done robotically, and although the proportion is lower in the UK and Europe, it is increasing. Robotic surgery is more expensive than open surgery (the initial cost of the robot is approximately 1.5 million) and to date, there have been no randomised controlled trials comparing robotic with open surgery. [1]

"Surgery has long been the dominant approach for the treatment of localised prostate cancer, with many clinicians now recommending the robotic method to patients. Many clinicians claim the benefits of robotic technology lead to improved quality of life and oncological outcomes. Our randomised trial, the first of its kind, found no statistical difference in quality of life outcomes between the two groups at 12 weeks follow-up. Patients are now being followed-up for a total of 2 years in order to fully assess the longer-term outcomes, including on cancer survival" says lead author Professor Robert 'Frank' Gardiner, University of Queensland Centre for Clinical Research, Brisbane, Australia. "In the meantime, patients should choose an experienced surgeon they trust and with whom they have a rapport, rather than basing their decision on a specific surgical approach." [2]

RALP uses a high magnification (x10) 3D camera that allows the surgeon to see inside the patient's abdomen through a keyhole incision. The camera is attached to one of four arms on the robot - the other three hold other surgical instruments needed during the operation. The surgeon is in the operating room but is away from the patient and controls the robotic arms to perform the operation (link to images below). Robot-assisted surgery is most commonly used for prostatectomies, but is increasingly being used in gynaecology, cardiothoracics, head and neck, and general surgery, as well as other operations in urology.

308 men with prostate cancer were included in the study, and were randomly assigned to either receive robot-assisted surgery (157) or open surgery (radical retropubic prostatectomy) (151) and who were followed up for 12 weeks after the operation. All the operations were led by two surgeons at the Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital. [3]

The primary outcomes included urinary and sexual function at 12 weeks and there was no difference in between the two groups. There were also no differences in the number of post-operative complications. Patients who underwent open surgery spent a longer amount of time in hospital after surgery but on average, both groups spent the same number of days away from work.

Patients who underwent open surgery lost on average three times more blood (although no transfusions were needed during the operations because blood was recycled back into the patients during the open operations). In the immediate aftermath of the surgery, patients who underwent robotic surgery experienced less pain doing day to day activities (at 1 week), and reported better overall physical quality of life (at 6 weeks). Although over time, the differences levelled out and became non-significant at 12 weeks.

The authors note that urinary and sexual function can continue to improve for up to 3 years after surgery, so differences in outcomes between these two groups might become apparent later on. The study is the first stage of a two year trial.

Writing in a linked Comment, Professor Ara Darzi, Imperial College London, UK says: "The clinical community waits with anticipation for the 1-year oncological outcomes; the last patient underwent surgery in March, 2015. It will be the interpretation of the longer-term functional and oncological outcomes that reveals the full implications of this study for clinical practice...Trials that show equivalence for an innovation are sometimes interpreted as supporting a return to existing practice, including rediverting the training of a generation of surgeons who might have followed the innovation's evolution. Equivalence and noninferiority should also be seen as positive, showing the innovation has preserved the intended and well established purpose of surgical intervention, such as good oncological outcomes balanced against acceptable functional side-effects. It is these advances in applied technology, reducing the trauma of access and the invasiveness of surgery, that also provide the platform on which to develop adjunct technological innovations towards further improving the quality and safety of surgery. Our challenge as a community is to demonstrate safe and cost-effective translation alongside significant health and economic impact."

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NOTES TO EDITORS:

The study was funded by the Cancer Council Queensland.

[1] http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(14)61851-1/fulltext

[2] Quote direct from author and cannot be found in the text of the Article

[3] The RALP surgeon had completed a two year robotic fellowship, and at the start of the trial had performed 200 robotic prostatectomies (over 1000 by the end). The RRP surgeon had 15 years post fellowship experience and had performed 1500 operations at the start of the trial (2000 by the end).

NOTE: THE ABOVE LINKS ARE FOR JOURNALISTS ONLY; IF YOU WISH TO PROVIDE A LINK FOR YOUR READERS, PLEASE USE THE FOLLOWING, WHICH WILL GO LIVE AT THE TIME THE EMBARGO LIFTS: http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(16)30592-X/abstract
PHOENIX, Ariz. -- July 27, 2016 -- This year's Cycle for the Cure already was on track to be one of the most successful in its six years of raising cancer research funds for the non-profit Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen).

But thanks to additional donations generated by Guarantee Trust Life of Glenview, Ill., the 6th annual Cycle for the Cure garnered a record $248,725 for TGen.

The May 1 event, which featured hundreds of dedicated donors spinning on stationary cycles for up to 2 hours at several health clubs in Phoenix and Scottsdale, produced $173,725.

But Vicki Vaughn, Co-Chair of Cycle for the Cure, wasn't finished.

After introducing her friends -- Richard S. Holson III, Chairman, CEO and President of Guarantee Trust Life, and his wife, Sherry -- to TGen, the Holson's company invited TGen cancer researcher Dr. Will Hendricks and TGen Foundation Vice President Erin Massey to present at Guarantee Trust Life's recent company conference in Arizona. The company was impressed and donated $25,000, part of the initial tally for Cycle for the Cure.

Then, after company officials toured TGen laboratories, they challenged their partners and representatives to donate to Cycle for the Cure. They raised a combined $37,500, which Guarantee Trust Life matched, dollar-for-dollar, adding another $75,000 to the $25,000 the company already donated, bringing the total generated by Guarantee Trust Life to $100,000.

"TGen should be very grateful to my wife, Sherry, and Vicki Vaughn as they were responsible for introducing my company to this amazing organization. We were impressed with, and inspired by, the remarkable people at TGen and the world-class, life-changing research being conducted," said Richard Holson. "And the response by our agents with their contributions was great."

Using genomic sequencing, TGen helps doctors match the appropriate therapy to each patient's DNA profile, producing the greatest patient benefit. This year, Cycle for the Cure raised research funds for work on a revolutionary diagnostic method called "liquid biopsies" -- biomarkers in circulating blood -- as a means of providing patients and their doctors with early detection of disease.

"We believe everyone should know first-hand about the groundbreaking research going on at TGen, and we encourage everyone to join us in supporting the vital work TGen does," said Vicki Vaughn, who co-chaired Cycle for the Cure with Robyn DeBell.

Village Health Clubs and Studio 360 provided the venues for this year's Cycle for the Cure. In addition, yoga and kinesis classes were included in the fundraising events by Village Health Clubs at its DC Ranch and Camelback locations.

"We are incredibly proud to have merited the dedicated support of volunteer co-chairs Vicki Vaughn and Robyn DeBell," said TGen Foundation President Michael Bassoff. "Their extraordinary leadership, and the generosity of business leaders like Rick Holson and the Guarantee Trust Life company, provides an incredible boost to TGen's cancer research initiatives."

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Donations continue to be accepted at http://www.tgenfoundation.org/cycle. And save the date for next year's 7th annual Cycle for the Cure: April 30, 2017.

About TGen

Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) is a Phoenix, Arizona-based non-profit organization dedicated to conducting groundbreaking research with life changing results. TGen is focused on helping patients with neurological disorders, cancer, and diabetes, through cutting edge translational research (the process of rapidly moving research towards patient benefit). TGen physicians and scientists work to unravel the genetic components of both common and rare complex diseases in adults and children. Working with collaborators in the scientific and medical communities literally worldwide, TGen makes a substantial contribution to help our patients through efficiency and effectiveness of the translational process. For more information, visit: http://www.tgen.org. Follow TGen on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter @TGen.
A DNA analysis of living and extinct species of mysterious New Zealand wrens may change theories around the country's geological and evolutionary past.

A University of Adelaide study into New Zealand's acanthisittid wrens has provided compelling evidence that, contrary to some suggestions, New Zealand was not completely submerged under the ocean around 21 to 25 million years ago.

The acanthisittid wrens are a group of tiny, largely flightless, birds found nowhere else in the world. They are called wrens because of their similarity in appearance and behaviour to "true wrens", but they don't belong to the same family.

"Of the seven species living before humans arrived in New Zealand, only two now remain, the rock wren and the rifleman," says lead author Dr Kieren Mitchell, Postdoctoral Research Associate in the University's Australian Centre for Ancient DNA (ACAD). "Consequently, little is known about their evolution."

Published in the journal Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution and led by ACAD, the researchers analysed DNA from three of the extinct species along with the two living species.

The research was in collaboration with the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, Canterbury Museum and the New Zealand Department of Conservation.

"Most surprisingly, we found that some of the wren species were only distantly related to each other, potentially sharing a common ancestor over 25 million years ago," Dr Mitchell says.

"Previously, researchers have suggested that New Zealand was completely submerged 21 to 25 million years ago, which implies that all of New Zealand's unique plants and animals must have immigrated and diversified more recently than that time.

"This theory is consistent, for instance, with what is known about the moa, where the different species all shared a common ancestor much more recently than 21 million years ago.

"But the ancient divergences we found among the wrens suggest that they have been resident in New Zealand for more than 25 million years, and possibly as long as 50 million years (when New Zealand became disconnected from the rest of Gondwana).

"As the wrens were largely very poor fliers, or even flightless, some land must have remained throughout that period.

"This has important consequences for our understanding of the evolution of New Zealand's unique ecosystems."

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Media Contact:

Dr Kieren Mitchell. Phone: +61 8 8313 5565, Mobile: +61 437 846 528, kieren.mitchell@adelaide.edu.au

Robyn Mills, Media Officer. Phone: +61 8 8313 6341, Mobile: +61 (0)410 689 084, robyn.mills@adelaide.edu.au
New research suggests that an electroencephalogram (EEG) could be a strong indicator of the level of awareness of patients in a vegetative state after a severe brain injury.

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) has repeatedly shown that a significant minority of patients diagnosed as in the vegetative state are actually aware, but unable to show it reliably with their behaviour.

The new research findings, published in Annals of Neurology, suggest a correspondence between a patient's ability to generate an EEG marker of attention to tactile stimulation, and their ability to produce the critical clinical marker of awareness by following verbal commands.

Crucially, this relationship existed for patients who could only follow commands with the more expensive methods of fMRI.

The mental demands of the EEG task are lower than the demands of the fMRI tasks. Furthermore, EEG is entirely portable, inexpensive, and available in the majority of hospitals.

The researchers state that this more simple EEG assessment may be capable of diagnosing a patient's level of awareness without the need for expensive and challenging fMRI scans, thereby increasing the number of patients who may benefit from a more accurate diagnosis.

14 patients were selected for the study, across levels of awareness and behavioural ability; seven in a vegetative state, four in a minimally conscious state, two emerging from a minimally conscious state, and one with locked in syndrome.

Each patient's surrogate decision maker provided informed, written consent for the patient's participation in the study. As a scientific control, a sample of fifteen healthy volunteers also participated in the tasks.

The patients completed two sets of brain imaging tasks:

Vibrating stimulators affixed to each wrist and the upper back administered non-painful pulses five times per second while the patients' EEGs were recorded. 80% of these vibrations occurred on the upper back. The relatively more infrequent vibrations on the wrists (20% of the time) produce changes in a healthy individual's EEG that reflect attention being drawn toward the new location of stimulation.

During separate fMRI scans, patients were asked to engage in three established measures of a covert ability to follow commands - imagining playing tennis, imagining walking around the house, and counting target words in a stream of distractors.

All patients whose EEGs showed evidence of attention being directed toward the infrequent tactile stimuli were also able to display evidence of following commands in the fMRI tasks.

Similarly, most patients (five of six) who did not generate a response to the EEG task did not generate evidence of command following.

Dr Damian Cruse, from the University of Birmingham, explained, "A bedside EEG may work as a cost-efficient and portable way of improving the accuracy of diagnosis in disorders of consciousness. While current clinical diagnoses are accurate for many patients, recent reports estimate that as many as 15% of patients considered to be in a vegetative state could retain awareness that cannot be detected reliably from their behaviour alone."

"The ultimate aim is to provide more accurate diagnoses for all patients, thus directing appropriate rehabilitation and therapy to those most likely to benefit."

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The Training Program in Cancer Biology (TPCB) partnering with the University of Colorado Cancer Center recently earned a prestigious National Cancer Institute T32 grant, funding PhD-level and post-doctoral training positions in cancer research. In addition to expanding the program's capacity and adding postdoctoral positions, this highly competitive grant recognizes the excellence of the program, which has grown to become a national leader in the interdisciplinary education of the next generation of cancer scientists.

"The best training programs are funded by these NCI T32 grants. Our award is a recognition of the outstanding research opportunities available for training in cancer biology at our institution," says Mary Reyland, PhD, TPCB program director, CU Cancer Center investigator and professor at the CU School of Dental Medicine. Reyland is co-principal investigator on the grant along with Scott Cramer, PhD, CU Cancer Center investigator and professor in the Department of Pharmacology at the CU School of Medicine. In addition to Drs. Reyland and Cramer, the TPCB training faculty includes 28 CU Cancer Center investigators with research interests in basic and translational cancer biology.

According to the National Cancer Institute, the goal of the T32 grant program is to "help ensure that a diverse and highly trained workforce is available to meet the needs of the Nation's biomedical, behavioral, and clinical research agenda," and to "prepare individuals for careers that will have a significant impact on the health-related research needs of the Nation." Programs accomplish these goals through a combination of mentoring and instruction, placing trainees in the laboratories of established cancer scientists.

"Our goal is to provide interdisciplinary training at the cutting edge of cancer research to best prepare our trainees to compete in a biomedical research environment increasingly focused on translational applications of basic research," Reyland says.

Despite major breakthroughs in our basic understanding of the cellular and molecular changes that lead to cancer, many key steps in carcinogenesis, and changes in early cancers that promote invasion and metastasis, still remain poorly defined. The TPCB, housed on the Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora, Colorado, hopes to train the young researchers who will push forward the understanding of cancer biology and the new and evolving techniques used to study it.

"We hope to enhance recruitment and training of the best and brightest junior scientists who are passionate about careers as independent scientists or physician scientists," Reyland says.

Previously, the program was limited to PhD students. The new grant expands the program's scope, adding postdoctoral positions. "It enables us to support and develop trainees at a more advanced stage that will more quickly become leaders in cancer research," Reyland says.

Reyland, Cramer and program faculty are currently evaluating applications from PhD-level and post-doctoral researchers.

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CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- A research project at the University of Illinois is examining the use of mindfulness therapy in preventing drug abuse relapse among marginalized young adults.

Jordan Davis, a doctoral student in social work at the U. of I., has been awarded a $100,000 grant by the National Institute on Drug Abuse to study the effectiveness of Mindfulness Based Relapse Prevention at helping young adults stay sober after substance use treatment. The institute is a unit within the National Institutes of Health.

Modeled after the mindfulness based cognitive therapy used to treat depression, MBRP is a group-based treatment that targets the negative emotions and cravings that often lead to relapse, including the physiologic and behavioral symptoms of chronic stress. The treatment protocol teaches participants to recognize thought patterns and physical symptoms that typically lead to relapse, fostering greater tolerance of these various states and reducing the need to engage in substance use to alleviate discomfort.

Davis' research project is the first study to investigate MBRP's efficacy with young adults, although a handful of clinical trials have been conducted with adults, Davis said.

The study focuses on marginalized populations, particularly people who experienced early childhood trauma and have been dually diagnosed with mental health and substance use problems.

About 80 percent of the participants are involved with the criminal justice system and about 90 percent live below the federal poverty line, Davis said.

"This is a population of individuals who face extraordinary challenges throughout their lives and in their efforts to stay sober after treatment ends," Davis said. "Many have experienced severe trauma such as neglect, abuse and sexual trauma as children. These experiences, coupled with a substance use disorder, make it very difficult to remain abstinent. We are investigating whether MBRP impacts both physiological and behavioral measures of chronic stress, and if it works equally well for individuals who have experienced significant early childhood trauma."

"Mr. Davis' project brings to bear cutting-edge science to help an underserved population and address one of the most intractable problems in treatment - how to keep people well once they have started the path to recovery," said psychology professor Brent Roberts, one of Davis' advisors and the principal investigator on the project. "This grant is a direct reflection of Mr. Davis' insights, hard work and already remarkably prolific research career as a doctoral student. He represents the type of social scientist we aspire to produce at the University of Illinois."

A native of Cumberland, Maryland, Davis earned a bachelor's degree in biology from Auburn University and a master's degree in clinical social work from Syracuse University before entering the doctoral program in social work at Illinois.

While at Illinois, Davis has been a co-author on several research papers, including studies that examined the efficacy of treating withdrawal symptoms among cannabis users, links between bully victimization and substance use, and the use of motivational interviewing and normative feedback in treating adolescents with alcohol use problems.

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Not altering distinguishing marks in police line-ups can affect witnesses' ability to distinguish between innocent and guilty suspects

New research from the University of Warwick highlights why it's vital for police to disguise distinctive features in line-ups.

The research was conducted by a team from the University's Department of Psychology and built on existing eyewitness-identification studies which have focused on the idea that unfair line-ups (i.e., ones in which the police suspect stands out) make witnesses more willing to identify the police suspect. Their paper Unfair Lineups Make Witnesses More Likely to Confuse Innocent and Guilty Suspects has just been published in a leading psychology journal Psychological Science.

Distinguish between guilty and innocent suspects

The team at the University of Warwick examined whether unfair line-ups also influence people's ability to distinguish between innocent and guilty suspects and their ability to judge the accuracy of their identification.

The academics found that not hiding or disguising distinguishing features adequately can result in witnesses identifying the suspect. Lead author Melissa Colloff said: "Worse still it could impair their ability to distinguish between guilty and innocent suspects and distort their ability to judge the trustworthiness of their identification decision."

Digital images

The researchers examined the three methods currently used by English police forces which involve manipulating digital images to negate the effect of distinguishing marks such as black eyes, spectacles, beards etc. In a single experiment which involved just under 9,000 volunteers they compared three fair line-up techniques used by the police with unfair line-ups in which they did nothing to prevent distinctive suspects from standing out.

Police line-ups now usually involve the witness being presented with digital photos rather than viewing suspects from behind a two-way mirror - as often depicted on TV or in films. Using digital images gives the police the ability to disguise distinguishing features. The three techniques used are: pixelating or hiding the same part of a face on all line-up photos, or manipulating images of the non-suspects so they correspond to the suspect e.g. adding a beard.

Compared with the fair line-ups, doing nothing not only increased subjects' willingness to identify the suspect but also markedly impaired subjects' ability to distinguish between innocent and guilty suspects.

These results advance the existing theory on witnesses' identification performance and have important practical implications for how police should construct line-ups when suspects have distinctive features.

'Buddy Holly' type glasses

Ms Colloff added: "What's worse, we found that when the suspect was the only person with the distinctive feature, this actually made people more likely to confuse who was guilty and who was innocent.

"That's because they weren't really using their memory of the culprit's face, they were just picking the only plausible option - the only one with the scar that they remembered from the crime video - and this made it difficult for people to tell the difference between the real culprit and an innocent suspect who had a similar feature."

A previous study conducted in the US is used as an example of an unfair line-up. A suspect wore 'Buddy Holly' type glasses and the other line-up members wore different style frames. As the thick black rimmed frames stood out, the line-up was considered unfair.

Concluding the academics found that all three techniques currently used by the police were equally effective. Associate Professor Dr Kimberley Wade, said: "This research has crucial implications for the police--it suggests there are multiple ways in which police officers can fairly accommodate distinctive suspects in line-ups."

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Photo caption: Examples of lineup types. A suspect's distinctive feature can be (a) replicated or concealed either (b) by pixelation or (c) with a block. These are considered fair lineups. Doing nothing about the distinctive feature (d; a do-nothing lineup) constitutes an unfair lineup. The boxed image in each lineup indicates the suspect with the distinctive facial feature.

For further details or to request a copy of the paper please contact Nicola Jones, Media Relations Manager, University of Warwick 07920531221 or N.Jones.1@warwick.ac.uk

Notes to Editors

Unfair Lineups Make Witnesses More Likely to Confuse Innocent and Guilty Suspects Psychological Science.

DOI: 10.1177/0956797616655789

The paper can be viewed online http://pss.sagepub.com/content/early/2016/07/21/0956797616655789.abstract

Authors:

Melissa Colloff, Department of Psychology, University of Warwick

Kimberley Wade, Department of Psychology, University of Warwick

Deryn Strange, Department of Psychology, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, City University of New York
Livestock medications can impair beneficial organisms that break down dung. Too high a dosage of ivermectin, a common drug against parasites, harms coprophilous organisms, for instance. The toxicity of new livestock medications therefore needs to be verified in ecotoxicological tests with individual animal species such as the common yellow dung fly, the barn fly or a dung beetle. This involves determining the lethal dose leading to the death of half the maggots (LD50 test). However, sensitivity to toxic substances is known to vary significantly even among closely related coprophilous organisms, which begs the question as to how representative the reaction of any individual animal species actually is in such laboratory tests. After all, there is a high risk that more sensitive species will continue to be harmed by the substance, jeopardizing key ecosystem functions in the long run.

An international research group including UZH evolutionary biologist Wolf Blanckenhorn recently proposed extending the testing scheme to a representative selection of all organisms that break down dung, ideally in their natural environment. The scientists now presented a successful and more comprehensive higher-tier ecotoxicological field test. Their study provides important insights into minimizing the risks of drug residues in nature.

Earthworms compensate for loss of coprophilous insects

For their feasibility study, the scientists worked on cattle pastures in the Canadian Prairie and the agricultural landscapes of southern France, the Netherlands and Switzerland - four locations with very different climatic conditions. On these pastures, they distributed dung pats with different concentrations of ivermectin. "As expected, the overall number and diversity of dung beetles, dung flies and parasitoid wasps decreased as the ivermectin concentration increased," explains Blanckenhorn. However, a number of species also proved to be resistant: earthworms and springtails living in the ground underneath the cowpats were not notably affected, and a parallel test ultimately revealed that dung degradation was not significantly impaired. "Evidently, beneficial organisms not affected as much by the drug, such as earthworms, were apparently able to compensate for the loss of other organisms," sums up Blanckenhorn.

A basis for decision makers and licensing authorities

Despite diverse environmental conditions and methodological details, the results were very similar and reproducible in all four habitats. "Our field approach was therefore a success and in principle can be recommended. The regulation authorities responsible, such as the European Medicines Agency EMA, now have to decide whether this more conclusive yet more complex test should be required in the future," says Blanckenhorn. The amount of effort involved in determining the numerous dung organisms is tremendous and impossible without expert biological knowledge. "Classifying species via so-called DNA barcoding, based on each organism's unique genetic fingerprint, is possible in principle and will probably be more cost-effective in the future. However, this approach requires the establishment of a complete database for coprophilous organisms, which does not yet exist," concludes the scientist.

###

Literature:

Kevin D. Floate, Wolf U. Blanckenhorn. Special Section: Non-target Structural and Functional Effects of Ivermectin Residues in Cattle Dung on Pasture - Guidance for Researchers and Regulators. Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry. Volume 35, Issue 8. July 21, 2016. DOI: 10.1002/etc.3549

Ivermectin

Scientists discovered and refined ivermectin in Japan in the mid-1970s, eventually winning the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 2015. The drug has been used to cure river blindness, scabies and roundworms in the gut of humans, as well as parasites in livestock and pets.

Chemically ivermectin belongs to the avermectins, which generally interfere with ion channel transport through the cell membrane and thus the molting of pest organisms. If the ivermectin dosage is too high and excreted in the feces of treated livestock, the drug also kills beneficial organisms that break down dung. This has a negative impact on the functioning of the entire ecosystem: in extreme cases, the dung is no longer degraded at all and the pasture cannot be used any further.

Contact:

Prof. Dr. Wolf U. Blanckenhorn

Department of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies

University of Zurich

Phone: +44 7509 785930.

E-mail: wolf.blanckenhorn@ieu.uzh.ch

Media Relations

University of Zurich

Phone: +41 44 634 44 67

E-mail: mediarelations@kommunikation.uzh.ch
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (July 27, 2016)--Clues that point toward new risk mechanisms for developing Parkinson's disease are hiding in some unusual spots, according to a study published today in Scientific Reports.

Tiny changes in DNA that have been linked to Parkinson's, the second most common neurodegenerative disorder after Alzheimer's, were found not only in brain cells, where they were expected, but also in liver, fat, immune and developmental cells. These findings may one day contribute to the development of preventative interventions before the disease's effects become pronounced.

"When we looked at the data, we were quite surprised to see the variation in tissue types," said Gerry Coetzee, Ph.D., a professor at Van Andel Research Institute (VARI) and the study's corresponding author. "Ultimately, if we can more precisely define risk factors for Parkinson's, we can develop ways to mitigate them early on. We still have a long way to go but these findings are some of the first steps down that path."

A cumulative effect

Although these changes, called single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), are very small, an accumulation of enough SNPs can significantly heighten a person's risk for developing Parkinson's. It can be likened to dropping sand onto a scale--a single grain will have little effect, but if enough grains are added, the balance will tip.

The human genome contains about 80 million SNPs, many of them located in regions of the DNA that were once thought to be junk. Scientists now know that these areas, located outside of genes on the DNA, play critical roles in regulating gene expression and are a useful tool for matching a particular gene with its function or role in disease.

As such, investigating SNPs linked to Parkinson's offers a unique opportunity to answer one of the major questions in Parkinson's research--what causes or contributes to the disease? While scientists know that five to 10 percent of Parkinson's cases are passed down genetically through families, they're still determining what's behind the majority of cases. The prevailing theory is a mix of genetic and environmental factors create a perfect storm, leading to the hallmark clumping of abnormal proteins that spread through the brain, killing cells that produce a chemical called dopamine that is vital for voluntary movement.

Different tissues, common link

Using information from the federally funded Roadmap Epigenomics Mapping Consortium as a guide, Coetzee, the team at VARI and collaborators at Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles analyzed 21 of these risk areas, called loci, in 77 cell types. Of these, the team found 12 loci across several tissue types that were particularly enriched--or full of SNPS--indicating an increase in risk.

Intriguingly, only one locus was identified in the substantia nigra, the part of the brain where dopamine-producing neurons die. Other loci were found in liver, fat, immune and developmental cells. It is the first time this type of genome-wide analysis has been used to investigate Parkinson's disease.

Although much more work must be done to unravel exactly how these loci affect risk, there are interesting parallels between the team's findings and recent work done by others investigating Parkinson's. For example, three of the risk loci were found in immune cells, a promising finding as evidence suggests that Parkinson's may be linked to inflammation, the immune system's reaction to help fight off potential threats.

"Only a small percentage of Parkinson's cases are familial and have a clear and well-defined genetic inheritance. The remaining cases develop the disease seemingly at random," said Patrik Brundin, M.D., Ph.D., director of VARI's Center for Neurodegenerative Science and one of the study's authors. "The emerging view is that Parkinson's is more of a syndrome--a defined set of clinical symptoms and some shared features of brain pathology--with a diverse set of underlying causes. One surprising finding in our study is that only one gene locus was clearly linked to the brain while others were associated with tissues throughout the body. This supports the emerging theory that Parkinson's is a disorder that can be caused by disruptions in cellular processes in many locations, not just one. Furthermore, for the disease to develop in one person there has to be an unfortunate combination of a genetic predisposition and, as yet undefined, environmental insults."

###

Coetzee SG, Pierce S, Brundin P, Brundin L, Hazelett DJ, Coetzee GA. In press. Enrichment of risk SNPs in regulatory regions implicate diverse tissues in Parkinson's disease etiology. Sci Rep.

This work was supported by funding from Van Andel Research Institute and Cedars-Sinai.

What is Parkinson's?

Parkinson's disease is a progressive neurological disease marked by tremor, rigidity and loss of voluntary movement, among other non-motor symptoms. Between seven and 10 million people globally have the disease. Of those, the majority of cases have no known cause although scientist suspect a mix of genetic, epigenetic and environmental factors.

What is a SNP?

DNA is like a ladder, with the rungs being pairs of molecules called nucleotides. Single-nucleotide polymorphisms, or SNPs, are variations in one of these nucleotides at a specific point on DNA. Although SNPs are extremely useful tools in finding genes linked to diseases, it can be very difficult to make these connections as SNPs can be located far away on the genome from the gene they affect.

What are genome-wide association studies?

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) compare the genomes of a healthy control group to a test group, for example people with Parkinson's, to see where there are differences in their genetic makeup.

ABOUT VAN ANDEL RESEARCH INSTITUTE

Van Andel Institute (VAI) is an independent nonprofit biomedical research and science education organization committed to improving the health and enhancing the lives of current and future generations. Established by Jay and Betty Van Andel in 1996 in Grand Rapids, Michigan, VAI has grown into a premier research and educational institution that supports the work of more than 360 scientists, educators and staff. Van Andel Research Institute (VARI), VAI's research division, is dedicated to determining the epigenetic, genetic, molecular and cellular origins of cancer, Parkinson's and other diseases and translating those findings into effective therapies. The Institute's scientists work in onsite laboratories and participate in collaborative partnerships that span the globe. 100% To Research, Discovery & Hope http://www.vai.org
The political Left increasingly uses criminal prosecutions  or the threat thereof  as a political cudgel with which to crush differing views. The Planned Parenthood prosecution of David Daleiden and a colleague in Texas was a particularly egregious example of this form of authoritarianism.

Now, having served its purposes  and with a paucity of evidence to support a conviction  the criminal case has been dismissed at the request of the prosecutor. It should be a scandal that the indictment was ever handed down. The prosecution was entirely political, aimed at achieving three goals.

First, to punish David Daleiden for his undercover videos that showed the cold, crass heart of Planned Parenthood. The threat of jail, even in a clearly bad case, had to be hell for him. It would be for me.

Second, the prosecution warns that a severe price will be paid for anyone who draws political blood against the abortion industry and its supporting ideology.

Perhaps most importantly, the bogus indictment allowed the media to squawk that the allegations of selling aborted baby parts had been discredited. No such thing, of course. But the indictment proved the convenient hook upon which to hang that mendacious allegation.

Note, the indictment was huge news around the country. The dismissal a bare whisper. As I warned, nothing was ever going to come of this brouhaha. But it is another in a long series of tipping points.

Going forward, Daleiden will be a pro-life hero, Planned Parenthood will thrive. And the country will continue to unmoor itself from crucial moral principles with deleterious individual and societal consequences  direct and indirect, wholly predictable and utterly surprising.

Image credit: Fibonacci Blue (Flickr: Planned Parenthood in St. Paul) [CC BY 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons.

Cross-posted at The Corner.
Im not a Catholic, and we stay away from commenting on political races here. But I cant resist noting consternation in some quarters at the description of Democratic VP pick Tim Kaine as a devout Catholic. This is notwithstanding his position as a self-characterized strong supporter of Roe v. Wade. See, for example, Alexandra DeSanctis at National Review Online, Is Tim Kaine a Devout Catholic?

What an interesting word. Devout, of course, is a habitual media label for anyone in public life who makes a display of loyalty to faith, while simultaneously slipping loose of basic ideas associated with his religious affiliation in favor of preferred liberal or secular ones. The day Senator Kaine was announced as Mrs. Clintons running mate, I recall listening to two NPR reporters gushing on and on about his devotion to his faith. Its as if there were a script they follow.

Catholics, compared to Protestants or Jews, seem the most likely to come in for such treatment. Maybe thats because only the Catholic Church has a Pope, with all that suggests about a uniform teaching tradition. A devout Catholic putting a stamp of approval on an idea contrary to that tradition has a special usefulness for propagandists.

Case in point? That would have to be Brown University biologist Kenneth Miller, author of Finding Darwins God and a perennial presence in the debate about evolution and intelligent design. But if you follow our work at Evolution News, you knew I was going to say that. Look here for our ample coverage of his part in the ID controversy. Man, is he ever devout! A Google search proves it  in no particular order:

There are synonyms for devout. For example, practicing.

[Miller] is a life-long practicing Catholic and accepts church teachings on salvation, the virgin birth and resurrection of Jesus. (Karl Giberson, The Daily Beast )

A practicing Catholic and author of Finding Darwins God  (Miller reviews Dover model of standing up for science, Brown University)

When  practicing Catholic Kenneth Miller teaches evolution, he also teaches that such a zero-sum mindset just isnt warranted. (Teaching science to the religious? Focus on how theories develop, Brown University)

cell biologist and practicing Catholic Kenneth R. Miller defends evolution. ( Boston Globe )

Though [Pope Franciss] remarks have been framed as big news, they are anything but, said Kenneth Miller, a practicing Catholic  ( Live Science )

Kenneth Miller is a practicing Catholic  (Scientists Seek Vatican Clarification on Evolution, NPR)

As Brown Universitys Kenneth Miller, a practicing Catholic, has put it, The scientific community has not embraced the explanation of design because' (Chris Mooney, The Republican War on Science)

And on and on and on. Its like calling someone a credit to his race. Phrased as a compliment, that old cliche obviously reflects respect for neither the race in question nor the person who is a credit to it. Here too, its likely that few if any commentators who praise Millers (or Kaines) devotion have much interest in or respect for Catholicism.

Isnt the sheer, naked manipulation of this offensive to the Ken Millers of the world? I guess not, otherwise he would have protested by now.

Look, Im not here to judge anyones commitment to his or her faith, as Id hope they would mind their own business and not judge mine. Thats one reason I dont make a practice of calling people devout anythings. Devotion is a condition of the heart, not visible to the outside world, and certainly not to people youve never even met.

That having been said, religious traditions are not amorphous, undefined entities, without objective content. Of course they are not. For a serious treatment of Catholic tradition as it pertains to evolution, I recommend our friend Father Michael Chabereks new book Catholicism and Evolution: A History from Darwin to Pope Francis. Or see Jay Richardss chapters in God and Evolution, which also includes essays on Protestant thinking and two by me on Judaism.

Photo: Kenneth Miller, by Gavin Sullivan [CC BY 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons.

Im on Twitter. Follow me @d_klinghoffer.
The ongoing Kashmir crisis seems to have divided mainstream media into two camps. While some journalists have questioned the use of disproportionate force on the protestors that has left scores dead and thousands injured, however there is a section of media that is questioning the patriotism of such journalists and labelling them as terror sympathisers.

NDTVs Consulting Editor, Barkha Dutt today put out a post on her Facebook page and criticised Times Nows Editor-in-Chief for calling journalists like her terror sympathisers.

You can read the full post here:

Times Now calls for gagging of media & for journalists to be tried &punished. This man is journalist? I am ashamed to be from same industry as him. What's striking is his brazen and cowardly hypocrisy. So he drones on and on about Pro Pakistan Doves without one word on the JK alliance agreement that commits the BJP and PDP to talks with Pakistan and Hurriyat and is silent on Modi's own Pakistan outreach- neither of which I object to- but since Arnab Goswami measures patriotism by such views why is he so silent on the government? Chamchagiri?

Imagine, a journalist actually exhorts the government to shut down sections of the media, misrepresents them as isi agents and terror sympathisers, calls for them to be tried and acted against. And our fraternity remains locked into politically correct and timid silence. Well Im not a shrinking violet Mr. Goswami and no matter how many times you take my name directly or indirectly on your show, I really dont give a toss for your opinion. I hope I will always be someone whose journalism you loathe, because trust me, the feeling is so utterly mutual that it would kill me to be on the same side of any issue as you.

Even CNN-News18s Deputy Executive Editor Zakka Jacob tweeted in her support and said Hyper-nationalists and govt-apologists masquerading as journalists! Shame!

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Hi,



I am looking to migrate to Australia. I just want to whether work experience is mandatory or If we get 65 points without experience. Is that enough?
I'll try and keep this short. I'm British, wife Russian, have a house in France, worked in Saudi Arabia till 1/7/16. In Riyadh, we applied for a long stay visa for France in order to then apply for the Carte Sejour. They gave us a category C visa and stamped the OF11 form. We have just received notification from the OF11 office that we need a category D visa.



I now find myself in turmoil! What do we do now? Can we apply for a cat D visa whilst in France? If so where and how? Will my wife have to return to Russia to reapply?



I just want to live with my wife in France. I've just finished work and we have considerable means to support ourselves without relying on any state benefits. I now find through no real fault of my own that we could be seperated through beaurucratic incompetence. It's four in the morning and I can't sleep....
Ekspurlo said: I wish this was the case. I just lost roughly $10,000 because the port of entry would not accept our legal married paperwork and Marriage Certificate to enter under the Balikbayan program because "the phillippines does not recognize same sex marriage so the program is unavailable to me and my former Filipina wife"



I was also unable to enter right now visa free for 30 days as you normally can because of the covid restrictions you have to have a Visa. We are USA citizens but due to restrictions as of 12/19/21 visa free entry is not available.



This really hurt us as this would be my wife's first Christmas in the Philippines after 15 years.



The really messed up part is we called the PH embassy in the US and they said that they would accept our marriage certificate as long as we are legally married in the United States. (Which we are)



But when we arrived the point of entry denied us and we had to spend $2000 just to fly back home.



If you read the law for the Balikbayan program it doesn't specify a heterosexual marriage. It just says "family" with the definition of spouse and children of a former Filipino can enter for a 1 year visa free stay.



I saw 4 other same-sex couples turned away the Same day.



This needs to be changed or at least state specify that it doesn't recognize Same Sex Marriage. This made me lose out on roughly $10,000



I would like to start a petition for this but have to do some research as this just happened to me a couple days ago. Click to expand...

Ekspurlo, Sorry to hear you lost so much money but Gary D makes a good point, if you cause the government troubles here you'll be Black Listed and banned from entry, also Philippine law prohibits foreigners from posting ANY issues with the Philippine Government, you also cannot film or take photos of Government workers and you could be arrested for taking someone's photo or filming a citizen without their permission. If caught protesting or causing trouble with the Philippine Administration you'll also be arrested, detained, fined, Black Listed, and then deported from a few months or worst case scenario years later, so stuck in a Philippine jail.One of our members was stuck in a Philippine Jail or detention center for 3 years for an error caused by the travel agency, he was black-listed and deported and after paying some hefty fines he was allowed back into the country, you need to wake up yesterday on how things work here, I recommend you start reading some books on Philippine culture and Philippine politics.You have to remember that we don't have the same rights and there's no such thing as freedom of speech like we know and experience in the US, we also can not protest or be involved or supported in any form of protest.So it's best that you and your partner check with the Philippine Consulate that works with your home state of Georgia, you'd be working with the Washington DC Philippine Consulate. Don't ever take anyone's word for how things work here and I'm not sure who you talked with at the PH embassy in the US, they sure weren't Philippine Bureau Agents, and wow did they give some bad advice and how in the world did you manage to get a plane ticket here in the first place?The Philippines will not accept any tourists from the US and you shouldn't even be able to fly to the Philippines and you can't fly there unless you have anEED clearance letter from the Philippine Consulate in the US and it's because of the high cases of Covid so? Nothing makes sense in how you got here.I've talked with many Expats from the US and they can't even get a plane ticket to the Philippines unless they have all their supporting documentation in order, also your partner who is a Philippine citizen is aware of all the rules here and so I find that troubling also, they know that there's no such thing as a same-sex marriage recognized, so please... that's just too ridiculous.
Tens of thousands of British people are considering moving abroad to work as a result of the referendum vote to leave the European Union, according to new research.The study from Indeed, one of the biggest global job sites, found a 77% surge in Britons looking for work in the United States, making the country the top market for would be expat job seekers, drawing six times more interest than the most popular country in Europe, France.  The US accounted for 30% of all outbound job searches and English speaking countries are proving popular with Canada in second place with 13% and Ireland the third most searched location with 9%, then Australia and the United Arab Emirates both with 6%.Not one of Britains mainland European neighbours featured in the top five overseas destinations for UK jobseekers. France, the most popular continental EU country, slipped from fifth place before the referendum to sixth place after it, attracting just 5% of Britons outbound job searches.Ireland did not only benefit in a surge from job search from the UK. Traffic from the rest of the EU also increased. Here the spike was not quite as large as search from the UK, but it was still substantial at 2.2 times higher than the average in the days before the results of the referendum were announced.Cities like Dublin are increasingly becoming talent magnet cities for EU jobseekers, the firm suggests and this is due to location, quality of life, ease of moving and lower cost of living than cities like London.The report also suggests that the post Brexit desire to leave the UK could affect a lot of professional markets and result in a brain drain. For example, those searching for jobs in Ireland included sectors such as HR, marketing and engineering while those looking in other European countries were looking for positions in the finance sector.We know from our data that Ireland was a major beneficiary of the post-Brexit surge. If the UK formally leaves the EU, Ireland becomes the main country with access to the common market where English is spoken as a first language by the majority of its citizens, said Mariano Mamertino, economist at job site Indeed.Mamertino pointed out that the UK workforce wasnt especially mobile prior to the Brexit vote. While this overseas job search spike may be an emotional reaction to a vote that divided the nation, it spotlights what could be the start of a growing trend of UK based talent being lured away to dynamic labour markets in English speaking countries, he explained.Outbound search is levelling out somewhat when compared to the 48-hour period following the result, but remains elevated particularly to Ireland where weve noted interest remains with a 22% spike compared to pre-referendum levels, he said.In a post-Brexit global war for talent, Britains loss would be Ireland, the US and Canadas major gain, as employers in these attractive markets are well-poised to lure away a high-skilled workforce from the UK, he added.
Tuesday, July 26, 2016

Attract the Right Job or Clientele: Best Communication Strategy Revealed

The all-time best communication strategy applies to all forms of communication. For example, it may be applied to job interviews, sales meetings, and online postings too. Several reasons make the strategy significant:

Greater insight comes to light

Prospective clients sense greater interest on your part

Trust builds more quickly giving way to ease of sales



Precise insight obtained significantly increases results

My Story

I was taught to always answer questions with a question. At first, the reaction to this advice is, what?! Some think its rude not to immediately give an appropriate answer. However by using this strategy, I am able to provide a much improved answer.

In particular, business meetings and job interviews invariably raise complicated issues that produce numerous questions in ones mind. Before committing to an answer, I find it best to get all of the facts out in the open. I learned to discuss all of the nuances and possibilities first through question and answer.

This type of dialogue has me well-positioned to pinpoint exactly what the prospective client is seeking. Instead of viewing me as avoiding questions, I become seen as someone who spends extra time digging deeper into situations to find the best possible solution.

The end result of answering a question with a question, is that of building trust and sound relationships over time. Accordingly, sales grow with greater ease.

Your Story

Looking back over meetings that did not have stellar outcomes alongside those that did, recall incidents leading up to the final decisions. Review the details to find an improved path.

Did you do enough upfront research and ask enough questions in person?

Did you simply answer questions to the best of your knowledge?

Are you willing to admit you need to know more by asking many questions?

The most difficult piece to any new strategy is to try it out and then practice until it becomes comfortable for you. Should you see improved results, then turn the practice into a habit. Your results will greatly improve on many fronts.

Sales Tips:

Before answering questions be certain to have enough facts and understanding first Admitting you dont know something increases trust Asking questions demonstrates your willingness to work, learn and improve Asking questions leads to greater insight and possibilities Answers to your questions will help connect the dots for new projects Asking questions on job interviews will have you seen as a higher qualified candidate Questions enable open communication among participants The increased possibilities provide greater sales opportunity Willingness to dig deep in order to learn earns a loyal clientele Your loyal clientele will gladly provide referrals and testimonials.

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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Welcome to the News Release Wire Selection Control Panel.

Instant News Wire
From: Chuck Gallagher -- The Business Ethics Expert - Keynote Speaker For Immediate Release: Dateline: Greenville , SC Wednesday, July 27, 2016

associations, there is a very real expectation that ethics programs will be boring and are needed but really unwanted. Financial services ethics programs dont have to be boring and are needed now more than ever.

In a competitive world, is it safe to say that all financial services employees are expected act in an ethical manner when it comes to the legal, moral, and professional conduct related to the fulfillment of their employment and professional responsibilities? Who wouldnt answer YES to this question? Yet when it comes to ethics many people find challenges that end in bad behavior.

Yet, in my work as a professional ethics consultant and advocate, I have seen more examples of circumstances where good people make bad choices by taking one step on the slippery slope of unethical activity. And, from experience, once on that slope  well the word slippery can be an understatement. When it comes to financial services ethics, no one is exempt from stepping on that slippery slope.

The process of making bad choices, unethical choices, begins with a simple almost thoughtless decision. How do I know? Well, I am living proof that good people can make some really bad choices and the consequences most certainly can be devastating. While not proud of this sentence, I have made unethical choices and spent time in federal prison as a result. So, suffice it to say, I know a thing or two about the simplicity of making one step on the slippery slope that can lead a person to choices that are life changing.

Never in my wildest dreams did I see this coming. When I first started borrowing from my client I had every intent of paying back what I took. Heck, I did pay some of it backat least at the beginning! Those were the words I shared as I openly confessed that the life I was living was, for the most part, an illusion. Truth be told, for all my legitimate successes, I had over time become no more than a liar and a thief. My choices created consequences that I never dreamed were possible.

My comments above I have heard over and over when working in the financial services ethics arena with companies from coast to coast. Well intended people are subject to temptation. There is a pattern, but first lets review some examples of violations of financial services ethics.

Examples of Unethical Behavior In most ethical lapses, people dont start off with the intent to lie or defraud. Instead, they get caught up in a messy situation and compromise their ethics as a way to dig themselves out of their hole. What begins as a seemingly minor infraction spirals out of control over time  in other words they get caught in the unethical continuum. The following are examples of folks how stepped on the slippery slope and veered way off course in the area of financial services ethics.

Scott London, former CPA, worked for KPMG for 29 years last serving as head the firms Pacific Southwest audit practice. London pleaded guilty to securities fraud admitting to providing insider trading tips about KPMG audit clients  Herbalife and Skechers USA  to a friend. London was sentence to 14 months in federal prison. Encino jeweler Bryan Shaw was sentenced to five months in prison for his role in an insider trading scheme.

According to a Wall Street Journal Article:

Mr. London told The Wall Street Journal in an interview last year that his tips began when he wanted to help Mr. Shaw, whose jewelry business was struggling, and that he went down a slippery slope.

Aaron Beam, former CFO of HealthSouth confessed to a $2.7 billion accounting fraud, which took place between 1996 and 2002. Beam served time in federal prison. In fact, all five CFOs pleaded guilty to criminal charges and testified that HealthSouth co-founder and CEO Richard Scrushy was behind the fraud. Scrushy was acquitted of all charges however, he was later convicted of bribery and sentenced to an 82-month sentence in a Texas federal prison. Every choice has a consequence.

Donald G. DeWaay: 1) engaged in a pattern of recommending and selling his clients unsuitable tenant-in-common interests (TICs), private placements and real estate investment trusts (REITs); 2) engaged in a pattern of failing to detect and prevent other registered representatives of his firm from recommending and selling clients unsuitable TICs, private placements and REITs; and 3) made misleading, exaggerated, and unwarranted statements to clients and/or prospective clients regarding a private placement offering. His designation as a Certified Financial Planner designation was revoked on May 12, 2014.

Every Choice has a Consequence! If bad choices lead to tough consequences, what can we do to identify bad behavior before it starts? What can we do, as managers or leaders, to prevent unethical choices from being made in the first place? Those are two very profound questions. We are encouraged if not required to uphold the standards of ethical conduct promulgated by our employer or association or both. Its not however signing the Code of Ethical Conduct that is important, rather the question that deserves attention and rarely one that we receive training on is why do good people make unethical choices.

The Three Components of Bad Behavior in Construction Ethics

Its not just power or position that contributes to the fall of smart people. If you look at any ethical failure there are three components that always are present in some form or fashion. Need, Opportunity and Rationalization. If one component is missing the ethical lapse fails or you cant stand on the three-legged stool. What was London, Beam, or DeWaays need? Perhaps money, position and power do provide a certain level of opportunity the average person lacks. But the key question, when you look at financial services ethics, is how did they rationalize their behavior?

Research has shown that three behaviors are at the core of what would cause or allow an otherwise ethical person to make unethical and potentially illegal choices. These behaviors are well documented and for those who are charged with detecting fraud (Statement of Auditing Standards #99) are called the fraud triangle which applies to all areas of business and construction ethics:

Need. Described as perceived pressure that a person is experiencing, is the first and critical component of what motives a person to stray from ethical to unethical. Need may come in a variety of forms. The person who is in too much debt likely experiences financial strain  which was the root of my need. Alice, a church secretary, found her need triggered by her granddaughters diagnosis of cancer. Infamous Bernie Madoffs need was certainly not money; likely, he was triggered by the need to be infallible. Beams perceived need was likely driven by a desire to please his boss and fear of the repercussions that missing the quarter would mean. Whatever the pressure, need is the core emotional state that starts the ball rolling from a choice that is ethical to unethical.

Opportunity. It makes no difference what your need may be if you dont have the opportunity to satisfy it then the unethical and potentially illegal choice fails. Without Opportunity there is no fuel for the potential unethical fire. I was a trusted employee, and with that trust came opportunity. London was trusted, and had been for so many years that no one could comprehend he was capable of any unethical activity. Madoff took opportunity founded in trust to a new level.

Rationalization. Need combined with opportunity provides a firm foundation, but the glue that holds unethical activity together is the ability to rationalize that what is wrong, is right. If you ask most people found guilty of unethical/illegal behavior, they will tell you they felt their actions were legitimate. I, for example, rationalized that I was not stealing money as long as my intent was to pay it back. Further, I solidified this mental game by paying some of the money back. Surely, I wasnt guilty of stealing money as long as I was paying it back.

That, of course, is a clear example of stinkin thinkin. The mind can be tricky and when you combine need with opportunity, and can rationalize bad behavior as good, you have the perfect storm to move from ethical to unethical, and potential illegal, behavior. While we all would like to think that those employed in business would act in the highest and best interests of all concerned and with integrity. Reality in financial services ethics is humans are all subject to stinkin thinkin and once on the slippery slope theres a very real chance that the outcome will be bad.

What Can Be Done to Prevent Unethical Activities? As business managers, HR Directors and those connected with Compliance, there are clear actions we can take that can help keep folks between the ethical lines.

Look for Need! While we cant control what needs our employees have, we can be aware of any changes or activities that would suggest an increase in need and the stress that need brings.

I was the one responsible for my unethical actions. I was in too much debt and succumbed to the pressure of my need by turning to an unethical activity. I blame no one, but I also have to acknowledge that if those close to me (my partners in business for example) had noticed my changing patterns of behavior their attention might have thwarted my actions.

When subconscious need is brought to light or becomes conscious, then often the outcome is reduced inclination toward unethical behavior. So, signs to look indicating increased need are: (1) calls from creditors or personal calls intensifying at work; (2) abnormal purchases without apparent new sources of funding; (3) lifestyle changes and/or (4) marital issues or challenges with aging parents.

Need is the fuel that supports the possibility of unethical behavior. The challenge most managers face with thinking about Need is to be open minded enough to consider the potential sources of Need so that what might fuel unethical behavior can be suppressed. Financial services ethics would dictate that we follow the rules that we agreed to, yet those rules ignore change in human circumstance and the underlying motivation to break the rules when deemed necessary.

Minimize Opportunities. The most effective course of action to keep our employees and associates between ethical lines is to remove opportunities to conduct unethical activities. For example, I embezzled money from a clients trust fund. While I am not proud of that action (now some 25+ years ago), had the bank account that I used required two signatures, the embezzlement would have been far more difficult. Think about it: with that minor change what would I have done, asked the co-signer to help me steal money from the trust? The answer is simple: of course not. So, less opportunity equals less chance for unethical activity.

A practical question is how do we reduce opportunity? Some of the answers are obvious. Minimize opportunities by: (1) requiring multiple signatures on checks; (2) require people to rotate job responsibilities from time to time; (3) strongly encourage employees to take vacations or time off; and/or (4) ask employees from different positions within the company to identify how people can or do act unethically. When a person is aware that their actions are being watched or subject to being watched, the Opportunity factor decreases substantially. As worn out as the line might be, people really do respect what management inspects. Of course, management must be subject to inspection as well.

Train Rationalization. Depending on ones internal ethical compass, what one person can easily rationalize may be a problem for another. Therefore, as managers our role (just as important as the more analytical Opportunity role) is to educate our people on the significance of Rationalization identifying what it sounds like and when it might appear.

When employees hear what rationalization sounds like, when we bring to consciousness what is active in the subconscious, it becomes far easier to support each other in our ethical choices. At a recent ethics seminar an attendee commented, But everybody does it. As those words were spoken, another participant yelled out, Rationalization! The crowd erupted in laughter as people began to see just how simple and easy it is to rationalize the little things. And, when we rationalize the little, the larger unethical choices become easier to swallow.

Whats Your Ethical Culture? Every organization needs to remember that the creation of an ethical culture is exemplified in the actual behavior and attitudes of all team members. The question is not so much whether you talk the talk (in policy documents, training materials or video or webinars), but whether you walk the walk.

A week ago I had dinner with a client and heard about a number of ways his team was acting in an unethical manner. When pressed about culture he shared that when he took over the team a few short months ago he was informed more than once that this is the way weve always done it. He wanted to change the culture. The question he had to ask is  was he willing to break it in order to remake or rebuild it into something that he and the company would be proud of. Changing a culture of unethical behavior starts at the top and without support from the top evidenced by a real commitment, the idea of changing long standing behaviors can be hard.

Want to create a culture of ethical behavior in your organization? Its easy if you think about it. When you start by understanding how good people make bad choices, and follow it with an effective ethics-training program that reinforces ethical choices and accountability, you have a recipe for success. Every choice has a consequence. What choices do you make for your organization to help keep your most valuable assets between the ethical lines?

YOUR COMMENTS AND THOUGHTS ARE WELCOME!

The post

Walking into federal prison was not something that something that former CPA Scott London or I ever imagined for ourselves. Yet both of us, as financial services professionals, paid the ultimate price  the loss of our license and new title  convicted felon  for our financial services ethics violations. Ethical lapses dont start big! Yet, so many times when I talk with financial servicesassociations, there is a very real expectation that ethics programs will be boring and are needed but really unwanted. Financial services ethics programs dont have to be boring and are needed now more than ever.In a competitive world, is it safe to say that all financial services employees are expected act in an ethical manner when it comes to the legal, moral, and professional conduct related to the fulfillment of their employment and professional responsibilities? Who wouldnt answer YES to this question? Yet when it comes to ethics many people find challenges that end in bad behavior.Yet, in my work as a professional ethics consultant and advocate, I have seen more examples of circumstances where good people make bad choices by taking one step on the slippery slope of unethical activity. And, from experience, once on that slope  well the word slippery can be an understatement. When it comes to financial services ethics, no one is exempt from stepping on that slippery slope.The process of making bad choices, unethical choices, begins with a simple almost thoughtless decision. How do I know? Well, I am living proof that good people can make some really bad choices and the consequences most certainly can be devastating. While not proud of this sentence, I have made unethical choices and spent time in federal prison as a result. So, suffice it to say, I know a thing or two about the simplicity of making one step on the slippery slope that can lead a person to choices that are life changing.Never in my wildest dreams did I see this coming. When I first started borrowing from my client I had every intent of paying back what I took. Heck, I did pay some of it backat least at the beginning! Those were the words I shared as I openly confessed that the life I was living was, for the most part, an illusion. Truth be told, for all my legitimate successes, I had over time become no more than a liar and a thief. My choices created consequences that I never dreamed were possible.My comments above I have heard over and over when working in the financial services ethics arena with companies from coast to coast. Well intended people are subject to temptation. There is a pattern, but first lets review some examples of violations of financial services ethics.In most ethical lapses, people dont start off with the intent to lie or defraud. Instead, they get caught up in a messy situation and compromise their ethics as a way to dig themselves out of their hole. What begins as a seemingly minor infraction spirals out of control over time  in other words they get caught in the unethical continuum. The following are examples of folks how stepped on the slippery slope and veered way off course in the area of financial services ethics., former CPA, worked for KPMG for 29 years last serving as head the firms Pacific Southwest audit practice. London pleaded guilty to securities fraud admitting to providing insider trading tips about KPMG audit clients  Herbalife and Skechers USA  to a friend. London was sentence to 14 months in federal prison. Encino jeweler Bryan Shaw was sentenced to five months in prison for his role in an insider trading scheme.According to a Wall Street Journal Article:, former CFO of HealthSouth confessed to a $2.7 billion accounting fraud, which took place between 1996 and 2002. Beam served time in federal prison. In fact, all five CFOs pleaded guilty to criminal charges and testified that HealthSouth co-founder and CEO Richard Scrushy was behind the fraud. Scrushy was acquitted of all charges however, he was later convicted of bribery and sentenced to an 82-month sentence in a Texas federal prison. Every choice has a consequence.: 1) engaged in a pattern of recommending and selling his clients unsuitable tenant-in-common interests (TICs), private placements and real estate investment trusts (REITs); 2) engaged in a pattern of failing to detect and prevent other registered representatives of his firm from recommending and selling clients unsuitable TICs, private placements and REITs; and 3) made misleading, exaggerated, and unwarranted statements to clients and/or prospective clients regarding a private placement offering. His designation as a Certified Financial Planner designation was revoked on May 12, 2014.If bad choices lead to tough consequences, what can we do to identify bad behavior before it starts? What can we do, as managers or leaders, to prevent unethical choices from being made in the first place? Those are two very profound questions. We are encouraged if not required to uphold the standards of ethical conduct promulgated by our employer or association or both. Its not however signing the Code of Ethical Conduct that is important, rather the question that deserves attention and rarely one that we receive training on is why do good people make unethical choices.Its not just power or position that contributes to the fall of smart people. If you look at any ethical failure there are three components that always are present in some form or fashion. Need, Opportunity and Rationalization. If one component is missing the ethical lapse fails or you cant stand on the three-legged stool. What was London, Beam, or DeWaays need? Perhaps money, position and power do provide a certain level of opportunity the average person lacks. But the key question, when you look at financial services ethics, is how did they rationalize their behavior?has shown that three behaviors are at the core of what would cause or allow an otherwise ethical person to make unethical and potentially illegal choices. These behaviors are well documented and for those who are charged with detecting fraud (Statement of Auditing Standards #99) are called the fraud triangle which applies to all areas of business and construction ethics:Described as perceived pressure that a person is experiencing, is the first and critical component of what motives a person to stray from ethical to unethical. Need may come in a variety of forms. The person who is in too much debt likely experiences financial strain  which was the root of my need. Alice, a church secretary, found her need triggered by her granddaughters diagnosis of cancer. Infamous Bernie Madoffs need was certainly not money; likely, he was triggered by the need to be infallible. Beams perceived need was likely driven by a desire to please his boss and fear of the repercussions that missing the quarter would mean. Whatever the pressure, need is the core emotional state that starts the ball rolling from a choice that is ethical to unethical.It makes no difference what your need may be if you dont have the opportunity to satisfy it then the unethical and potentially illegal choice fails. Without Opportunity there is no fuel for the potential unethical fire. I was a trusted employee, and with that trust came opportunity. London was trusted, and had been for so many years that no one could comprehend he was capable of any unethical activity. Madoff took opportunity founded in trust to a new level.Need combined with opportunity provides a firm foundation, but the glue that holds unethical activity together is the ability to rationalize that what is wrong, is right. If you ask most people found guilty of unethical/illegal behavior, they will tell you they felt their actions were legitimate. I, for example, rationalized that I was not stealing money as long as my intent was to pay it back. Further, I solidified this mental game by paying some of the money back. Surely, I wasnt guilty of stealing money as long as I was paying it back.That, of course, is a clear example of stinkin thinkin. The mind can be tricky and when you combine need with opportunity, and can rationalize bad behavior as good, you have the perfect storm to move from ethical to unethical, and potential illegal, behavior. While we all would like to think that those employed in business would act in the highest and best interests of all concerned and with integrity. Reality in financial services ethics is humans are all subject to stinkin thinkin and once on the slippery slope theres a very real chance that the outcome will be bad.As business managers, HR Directors and those connected with Compliance, there are clear actions we can take that can help keep folks between the ethical lines.While we cant control what needs our employees have, we can be aware of any changes or activities that would suggest an increase in need and the stress that need brings.I was the one responsible for my unethical actions. I was in too much debt and succumbed to the pressure of my need by turning to an unethical activity. I blame no one, but I also have to acknowledge that if those close to me (my partners in business for example) had noticed my changing patterns of behavior their attention might have thwarted my actions.When subconscious need is brought to light or becomes conscious, then often the outcome is reduced inclination toward unethical behavior. So, signs to look indicating increased need are: (1) calls from creditors or personal calls intensifying at work; (2) abnormal purchases without apparent new sources of funding; (3) lifestyle changes and/or (4) marital issues or challenges with aging parents.Need is the fuel that supports the possibility of unethical behavior. The challenge most managers face with thinking about Need is to be open minded enough to consider the potential sources of Need so that what might fuel unethical behavior can be suppressed. Financial services ethics would dictate that we follow the rules that we agreed to, yet those rules ignore change in human circumstance and the underlying motivation to break the rules when deemed necessary.The most effective course of action to keep our employees and associates between ethical lines is to remove opportunities to conduct unethical activities. For example, I embezzled money from a clients trust fund. While I am not proud of that action (now some 25+ years ago), had the bank account that I used required two signatures, the embezzlement would have been far more difficult. Think about it: with that minor change what would I have done, asked the co-signer to help me steal money from the trust? The answer is simple: of course not. So, less opportunity equals less chance for unethical activity.A practical question is how do we reduce opportunity? Some of the answers are obvious. Minimize opportunities by: (1) requiring multiple signatures on checks; (2) require people to rotate job responsibilities from time to time; (3) strongly encourage employees to take vacations or time off; and/or (4) ask employees from different positions within the company to identify how people can or do act unethically. When a person is aware that their actions are being watched or subject to being watched, the Opportunity factor decreases substantially. As worn out as the line might be, people really do respect what management inspects. Of course, management must be subject to inspection as well.Depending on ones internal ethical compass, what one person can easily rationalize may be a problem for another. Therefore, as managers our role (just as important as the more analytical Opportunity role) is to educate our people on the significance of Rationalization identifying what it sounds like and when it might appear.When employees hear what rationalization sounds like, when we bring to consciousness what is active in the subconscious, it becomes far easier to support each other in our ethical choices. At a recent ethics seminar an attendee commented, But everybody does it. As those words were spoken, another participant yelled out, Rationalization! The crowd erupted in laughter as people began to see just how simple and easy it is to rationalize the little things. And, when we rationalize the little, the larger unethical choices become easier to swallow.Every organization needs to remember that the creation of an ethical culture is exemplified in the actual behavior and attitudes of all team members. The question is not so much whether you talk the talk (in policy documents, training materials or video or webinars), but whether you walk the walk.A week ago I had dinner with a client and heard about a number of ways his team was acting in an unethical manner. When pressed about culture he shared that when he took over the team a few short months ago he was informed more than once that this is the way weve always done it. He wanted to change the culture. The question he had to ask is  was he willing to break it in order to remake or rebuild it into something that he and the company would be proud of. Changing a culture of unethical behavior starts at the top and without support from the top evidenced by a real commitment, the idea of changing long standing behaviors can be hard.Want to create a culture of ethical behavior in your organization? Its easy if you think about it. When you start by understanding how good people make bad choices, and follow it with an effective ethics-training program that reinforces ethical choices and accountability, you have a recipe for success. Every choice has a consequence. What choices do you make for your organization to help keep your most valuable assets between the ethical lines?YOUR COMMENTS AND THOUGHTS ARE WELCOME!The post Financial Services Ethics: Why Good People do Dumb Things appeared first on Chuck Gallagher


Wednesday, July 27, 2016

TTB & Winery Help

Q: What TTB reports does a craft distiller have to file and when?

A: Distilleries making Beverage Alcohol only (no industrial or denatured spirits) must file monthly operations reports including a Production Report (F5110.40), Storage Reporting (F5110.11), and Processing Report (F5110.28) due by the 14th of the next month. In addition, distillers must file and pay a Federal Excise tax (FET) Return (F5000.24) after every tax period. The records may be maintained in any format that accurately reflect operations. They can be handwritten or electronic. There is no prescribed method or format but if a computer system is used, the TTB wants security. Bootlegger.com offers an affordable solution to record keeping requirements.

Q: How and when do craft distillers have to pay taxes?

A: Most craft distillers pay $13.50/proof gallon for any cases of beverage alcohol they remove from the bonded distillery space including cases they move to their gift shop or tasting room areas. For a craft distillery who pays less than $50,000 in excise tax per year (or ~3,700 six pack cases per year), they can pay every quarter (4 times per year), they can pay every quarter (4 times per year). If distillery pays more than $50,000/year in one calendar year, they must pay every 14 days and 3 times in September.

Q: Our winery bought some tanks, and they are being delivered today, and we cant wait to use themdo I have to report this?

A: Yes, When you are changing tanks (either increasing or decreasing in the number of tanks you have at your winery), you have to file this change with the TTB (within 30 days of the change).

It is a fairly simple procedure. You would file the Application to Establish and Operate Wine Premises (TTB Form 5120.25.), using the next serial number. When you first apply, and receive approval to operate your winery, this serial number. When you first apply, and receive approval to operate your winery, this is Serial No.1. Each time you have changes to the plant (whether it is tanks, corporate personnel, etc.), you will need to file an amendment to your Wine Premises operations.

In this case, since you are adding tank(s), you need to submit (in addition to the form) an updated site map showing the new tanks, as well as an updated tanks list, adding these tanks (you will have to assign them a number), the quantity and the capacity of each.

Q: I am doing some custom bottling for a guy under his trade namedo I have to report this?

A: Yes, custom bottling has increased exponentially during the past decade. If your client wants only to use its brand name on the labels, then you must file for addition of trade name(s), using the Application for Amended Basic Permit Under the Federal Alcohol Administration Act (TTB Form 5100.18; you can now also use the 5120.25 but then have to assign a serial number, etc. The 5100.18 is a much cleaner way to do this).

In addition to this form, if you are located in New York, you must register the Trade Name in the county where you are located (through a Fictitious Business Name or Assumed Name statement), as well as a letter from the custom bottling client stating that you are seeking registration of the trade name(s) for the purpose of custom bottling. Also, the form requires submission with an original signature (rather than uploading a digital copy of the original), so you must send it to the TTBs Cincinnati office for approval, which can take a few weeks.

Keep in mind, if you try to use a trade name that is not on your permit, you will not get a label approved (any trade name you use must be on file with the TTB), so its best to take this step long before you need it.

Q: Ive really gone high techI keep my files on my computer. There cant be any issues with that, can there?

A: Yes, in this day of sophisticated computers, nearly all of us keep our records digitally (although TTB still likes to have paper in their hands, so its best to keep both). Electronic records are great from a space consideration, but not so great if your computer gets hacked. TTB is now checking to see if wholesalers and manufacturers have some type of security for their computersa logon ID at the very least, so not anyone can access all this information.

About Tracy Jong

Tracy Jong has been an attorney for more than 20 years, representing restaurants, bars, and craft beverage manufacturers in a wide array of legal matters. She is also a licensed patent attorney.

Her book Everything You Need To Know About Obtaining and Maintaining a New York Retail Liquor License: The Definitive Guide to Navigating the State Liquor Authority will be available next month on Amazon.com as a softcover and Kindle e-book.

Her legal column is available in The Equipped Brewer, a publication giving business advice, trends, and vendor reviews to help craft breweries, cideries, distilleries and wineries build brands and succeed financially.

She also maintains a website and blog with practical information on legal and business issues affecting the industry. Follow her, sign up for her free firm app or monthly newsletter.

www.TracyJongLawFirm.com

TJong@TracyJongLawFirm.com

Facebook: Tracy Jong Law Firm

Twitter: @TJLawFirm

LinkedIn: Tracy Jong

Tracy Jong Law Firm
Recently Stuart Carlson, a University of Michigan music student took his violin on a hot air balloon flight. Yes, that's right - a hot air balloon flight.

According to Scott Lorenz President and Chief Pilot of Westwind Balloon Co., it started when he met Stuart Carlson at Camp Dearborn in Milford, Michigan. "I met the Carlson family who scheduled a hot air balloon ride with my company. While we waited for the wind to die down I learned a little bit about my passenger, Stuart. I found out he was a concert violinist and composer and had recently performed at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC."

"I am glad the winds did not cooperate for our flight because when we rescheduled," said Lorenz, "I asked Stuart to bring along his violin and he did." What did he play? "His arrangement of Amazing Grace of course!"

The launch took place at Island Lake State Park where the State of Michigan has provided a "Balloon Port" for local balloonists to launch their balloons. Island Lake State park boasts over 4,000 acres with miles of bike paths and the Huron River running through the park.

Click here to view Facebook video: https://www.facebook.com/HotAirBalloonMichigan/videos/10153874302883667/

"Nobody forgets their first balloon flight. It is truly an experience that cannot compare to anything else," says Lorenz. "The sensation of flying over trees, lakes and streams, spotting deer and other wildlife is unique and inspiring. When an activity touches someone both emotionally and on a multi-sensory level people remember it vividly. "I think this flight will be burned into the memories of all those involved, I know I won't forget it. If you really want to make a lasting impression," says Lorenz, "a hot air balloon ride over Michigan is the ultimate 'unforgettable' gift."

Flights cost $695 for a private ride which is two passengers and the pilot. All flights are pre-paid. Visa, MasterCard, AMEX, Discover and PayPal are accepted. Gift certificates are available.

Lorenz said several balloonists participated in the once in a lifetime "violin" flight including Joey and Pat Gauthier, Gary Gauthier, Gordon Boring, D.J. Wertman and Gary Cooper and their chase crews.

To really appreciate all the beautiful scenery Michigan has to offer, call a balloonist and schedule a flight today; the view is really better from above!

Westwind Balloon Company- Plymouth, MI, Flying Private Flights for TWO over Kensington Park, Brighton, South Lyon and Milford. 734-667-2098 http://www.AboveMichigan.com Scott Lorenz, Pilot and Owner.







About Scott Lorenz

Scott Lorenz, a commercial balloon pilot since 1982, has logged 1,650 + hours in-flight.

He has flown over Niagara Falls, The Great Wall of China, Disney World, the Olympics, Austria, Japan, Spain, Red Rock Canyon NM. He co-piloted a Guinness World Record flight to 19,000' and a 20 hour-Gas Balloon flight from MI to KY. Westwind has been featured by FOX-2 Detroit, WDIV, WJR, NPR, The Detroit Free Press, Oakland Press and Hour Detroit Magazine to name a few and was named "most creative date" by It's Just Lunch. In 2012 Westwind was named one of America's Most Romantic companies for the balloon engagement flights. Scott's Westwind Balloon Company offers unforgettable rides over Michigan's breathtaking countryside. Balloon rides make terrific gifts for Moms, Dads, Grads, the Boss and anybody who wants to enjoy life!!

For more information about Stuart Carlson visit: http://www.StuartCarlson.com

-END-
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San Antonio officials are gearing up for the 2017 municipal bond, a $850 million list of big-ticket infrastructure projects that will, in part, help the city prepare for an estimated 1.1 million more people who will one day live in the region.

The bond, if approved by voters, would be the largest in the citys history and bigger than the 2012 bond by $254 million. No property taxes will be raised to fund the projects; instead, the city would issue debt. New bonds are usually considered every five years, a way to meet needs that go beyond our annual city budget, Mayor Ivy Taylor said at a Tuesday briefing about the bond.

The bond program is how we make those big capital investments, City Manager Sheryl Sculley said later.

Voters will go to the polls to consider the bond May 6, but the process to determine what projects make it into the package is already under way.

The bond covers five categories: streets, bridges and sidewalks; drainage and flood control; parks; facilities, like fire stations and libraries; and a new proposition called neighborhood improvements, a category that could include money for affordable housing.

This would be the first time affordable housing would be considered for the bond although officials say there are potential roadblocks to the types of housing programs originally envisioned.

On Aug. 10, City Council will meet to discuss how to divide the bond money among the five categories.

City staff has been developing a list of potential bond projects, based on several guiding principles: whether the project supports the ideas outlined in SA Tomorrow, the citys comprehensive plan due for a council vote Aug. 11; if a project could leverage funds from other public agencies or the private sector; if it is a continuation of a previous project, like street improvements that could be extended farther; and a project help to ensure rough proportionality, meaning all four corners of the city would get a share.

Five citizen bond committees, one for each funding category, will be set up by early August. The committees makeup, about 30 people each, will be based on suggestions from council members. Residents can contact their council member if they want to participate.

The committees will start meeting to discuss the potential projects, including whether to add to, or cut ones from, the staff-recommended list, in late September or early October, Sculley said. All of the committee meetings will be open to the public.

The final list of projects will be sent to City Council in late December, with a council vote likely in January, Sculley said.

In the last two bond elections, in 2007 and

2012, between 75 percent and 80 percent of the money went to street and drainage projects, Sculley said. The city has more than 4,000 miles of streets, she added.

Sculley said she believes about 70 percent to 75 percent of the money in next years bond is likely to again go to basic infrastructure like streets and drainage. The mayor and City Council also have asked for a substantial investment in sidewalks, she said.

On Tuesday, Taylor introduced the three 2017 bond program tri-chairs: Eddie Aldrete, senior vice president of IBC Bank; Carri Baker, chief operations officer of Linebarger Goggan Blair & Sampson LLP; and Darryl Byrd, a co-chair of SA Tomorrow and a former CEO of the Pearl Brewery and SA 2020.

vdavila@express-news.net

@viannadavila
Lebanon Valley Colleges Fine Arts Collection was recently gifted an artist proof created by the late American painter, sculpture and printmaker Irving Amen titled Con Spirito (With Spirit).

This etching has inspired the current show at the Suzanne H. Arnold Art Gallery on the Lebanon Valley College campus, Con Spirito: Emotion Through the Printed Image, an exhibit focusing solely on the art of the print.

The Arnold Art Gallery has never had an exhibition exclusively featuring prints. Additional pieces were selected for display with Amens Con Spirito that explore themes that resonate feelings of joy, religious spirituality and politics, as well as humor and fun. The resulting display demonstrates the breadth of the art of printmaking, stylistically, technically and thematically.

The centerpiece print, Con Spirito (With Spirit) by Amen is four separate etchings that together create one work of art. Each differently colored segment features figures engaged in various activity, which may take place over the course of a life. The work can be read in any direction to form separate stories that also relate to one another.

Themes of spirituality are center in The Nativity by Sadao Watanabe, a traditional Christian image re-imagined in Japanese folk art styling. The scene of the mother, child and attendants dressed in kimonos gather beneath a star-like cross. By contrast, Bernard Buffets La Passion du Christ is a monochromatic dry point print of the crown of thorns amidst a prison camp-like setting, linking biblical and contemporary suffering.

The human figure plays a prominent role in many of the works exhibited, especially in those by two very well-known artists. Pablo Picassos Untitled (Mother and Child) is classic example of Picassos drawings that impart strong emotion with gently curved lines and flowing shapes. A lithograph by Surrealist Salvador Dali, Goddess of Justice from the Tarot Card Series, shows the ability of the print to capture detail, color and painterly-like quality.

The ability to mass produce a print allows the art form to easily communicate timely political opinion. William Groppers colorful The Senate (Huey Long) illustrates the impassioned populist Long, dramatically addressing the chamber despite the disinterest of fellow legislators.

Contemporary print maker Sue Coe, addresses the issues of animal rights, corporate greed and ecology in her bold, graphic lithograph Wall Street Walk. Using a limited color palette, her startling imagery is accented by a blood red to punctuate her opinions.

A depiction of the world around us is seen in the etching from William Langston Lathrope, Untitled (Country Road). As founder of the New Hope (Pennsylvania) Impressionists, Lathrope captures a dreamlike landscape of a winding path with a lone traveler. Realist painter, Michael Allens lithograph Untitled (Shift) is a landscape of a different kind. The industrial image depicts the pipes, ladders and walkways of a factory at night as steam billows upward.

Prints by some of the most well-known Abstract artists are also included in the Con Spirito exhibit. Colorful lithographs by Alexander Calder, Joan Miro, and Marc Chagall are eye catching inclusions.

Lesser known but no less exciting is Miriam Mimi Schapiros In the Land of OO-bla-dee: Homage to Mary Lou Williams. This fan-like construction uses varied patterns and bright colors to honor the jazz composer. The roots of jazz music are felt through Cubist shapes and African design; musical spirit is communicated in the lively lithograph print.

Con Spirito: Emotion Through the Printed Image is a comprehensive look at the art of printmaking culled from the Lebanon Valley Fine Arts Collection. The gift of Irving Amens Con Spirito (With Spirit) by Dr. Stefan Kruszewski and his family has inspired a well-rounded show that demonstrates the range of the medium. From Realism to Abstraction, historic to modern, the diversity within printmaking is expertly captured in a judiciously curated collection.

Con Spirito: Emotion Through the Printed Image is on display until Aug. 7 at the Suzanne H. Arnold Art Gallery on Lebanon Valley College campus, West Church Street and North White Oak Street, Annville. The exhibition is free and open to the public. The gallerys summer hours are 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays and by appointment for groups. For more information, see www.lvc.edu/gallery.
Cheese expert Nigel Pooley has received The British Cheese Board (BCB) Nantwich Show Cheese Industry Award in recognition of his invaluable contribution to the UK dairy industry.

Nigel has worked in the dairy industry for 53 years, specialising in grading cheese to ensure that the product on the supermarket shelf is of the highest standard.

Although he officially retired in April this year from his role as Quality Development Manager, Nigel  affectionately known as Nige the Nose  is still lending his smelling power to family-run Somerset cheese-makers, Wyke Farms, who he has been employed by for almost 20 years.

Throughout his career, Nigel has graded more than 1.5 million tonnes of Cheddar and due to his unique level of expertise, Wyke Farms ensured his nose was insured for 5 million.

The award was presented yesterday afternoon by celebrity chef Sean Wilson at the Nantwich Cheese Show, the largest international cheese show in the world.

Lifelong passion

Award-winner, Nigel Pooley, said: "Cheese has been my lifelong passion and it is an absolute honour, and complete surprise, to receive this years Cheese Industry Award.

"The UK produces some of the finest cheeses in the world and I am incredibly proud to be a part of our great smelling industry."

Dr Judith Bryans, Chief Executive of Dairy UK, said: "Over the course of a five-decade long career, Nigel has been a passionate champion of British cheese.

"He has done, and continues to do, a tremendous job in ensuring the cheese we eat is of the best possible quality.

"He is widely recognised throughout the industry and many have gained from his insight and expertise."

Bruce Macdonald, Chairman of the International Cheese Awards, added: "Nigel can only be described as one of the UKs biggest cheese enthusiasts.

"Throughout his career, Nigel has held a number of esteemed positions and it is great to see him recognised for his lifetime commitment to British cheese.

"Nigel is one of the best known and admired people in our industry, and is thoroughly deserving of this recognition."
Clear product labelling will be crucial as more retailers announce that they will stop selling eggs from enriched colony cage systems, the British Free Range Egg Producers Association (BFREPA) says.

Aldi, Tesco, Iceland, Morrisons and food service company Sodexo have all pledged to phase out sourcing caged eggs by 2025.

Barn egg production, which has no cages but sees birds housed permanently, is likely to fill the gap left by reduced demand for caged eggs.

Nearly two-thirds of shoppers already choose to buy free range eggs but BFREPA CEO Robert Gooch said that it must be clear to shoppers what they are buying.

"Labelling a dozen eggs as cage free is not good enough because many shoppers will assume that means free range," Mr Gooch said.

"A great deal of thought needs to go in to how these eggs are marketed to the public in a way that accurately reflects how they have been produced."

Mr Gooch added that it was important that eggs remain affordable.

"Free range eggs have always attracted a small premium which reflects the additional production costs involved, but not everyone can afford to pay that price.

"Eggs should be available to everyone and it is down to shoppers to make a decision on which production system they prefer.

"We recognise that the announcement from these major retailers and food service companies reflects the desire from the British public to move away from caged systems and we will be working hard to ensure that the interests of free range producers and consumers are not compromised."
Retailers who are stopping the sale of caged-eggs by 2025 must give their egg suppliers 'more clarity on timelines' and tell producers which system will replace the current one, the NFU said today.

The NFU believes the decision, made by Tesco, Aldi, Morrisons, Iceland and international food service company, Sodexo, to look for alternative production systems will force the egg industry into its biggest change since the introduction of the enriched cage system in 2012; a move which then cost farmers in excess of 400m.

NFU poultry board chairman Duncan Priestner warned that this decision would not just impact on those using enriched cages but would have a knock-on effect on the entire egg sector.

"This change will impact greatly across all egg production systems so it is absolutely imperative that we and our members have clarity over retailers future plans and have our concerns addressed as soon as possible," said Mr Priestner.

"Although 2025 is nine years away, time is of the essence to allow our producers to make the necessary changes, with minimal disruption to their businesses and to our customers  the British public - a market worth an estimated 895m.

"We have built good relations with the retailers  UK agricultures biggest customer - and will be looking to those relationships to secure much needed clarification and certainty for our members.

"UK retailers have a very good track record on sourcing UK egg and we look to that commitment continuing."

NFU's concerns

The NFU says producers need more details to be able to effectively plan and make the necessary changes to their businesses in the remaining nine-year timeframe up until 2025.

As a result of the decision to go cage-free a significant number of the 15-million birds housed in enriched cage systems will need housing in alternative production systems such as barn and free range, requiring more investment and more to take place.

This inevitably will involve significant investment by farmers as additional housing will be required. This will take time, with planning permission and other factors such as financing factored in.

Finally, the NFU asks 'what are the alternative production systems', 'how will the transition to cage free be implemented' and 'over what timeframe'.
The government has rejected an emergency authorisation application for the use of chlorpyrifos, applied by NFU Scotland.

Farmers and crofters have now 'been left with no economic means' of controlling 'damaging' leatherjackets on grassland, the union said.

Widely-used plant protection products (PPP) like Dursban WG and Equity, which contained the active substance chlorpyrifos, were used for decades to control a wide range of pests in grassland, arable crops, vegetables and soft fruit.

The products help control pests such as aphids, caterpillars, wheat bulb fly and leatherjackets.

Leatherjacket damage to crops

In February, the Chemicals Regulations Directorate (CRD) announced that authorisations for products containing chlorpyrifos would be revoked within a matter of weeks.

Andrew McCornick, NFU Scotlands Vice President

At this time CRD said that it did not expect those using chlorpyrifos, or commodities treated with it, to pose a risk to human health.

The announcement meant that from 1 April 2016 it was illegal to sell, distribute or use products containing chlorpyrifos except under very limited circumstances.

Almost immediately NFU Scotland received reports from members across the country that their crops were sustaining leatherjacket damage.

NFU Scotland worked with NFU England and Wales, Ulster Farmers Union and Dow Agrochemicals Ltd, to submit an application to CRD for a 120-day emergency authorisation for use of Equity, a PPP containing chlorpyrifos, to control leatherjackets on new sown leys and established grassland this autumn.

However, the CRD has now notified NFU Scotland that it has rejected its application.

'Bitterly disappointed'

Andrew McCornick, NFU Scotlands Vice President, commented: "NFU Scotland is bitterly disappointed that CRD has rejected its application.

"The toolkit for grassland farmers and crofters, as well as others affected by pests previously controlled with chlorpyrifos, is empty.

"We had sought limited and controlled access to chlorpyrifos with robust safeguards for human health.

"Unfortunately, CRD, despite recently stating the product posed no risk to human health, has denied farmers and crofters access to it.

"The Union is already aware of impacts from the loss of chlorpyrifos on farms and crofts across Scotland.

"As a matter of urgency we will explore new options and seek support from both the Scottish and UK governments."
The National Sheep Association has released a special report to raise awareness about upland and hill sheep farming in the UK.

The NSA want to promote understanding of this 'complex jigsaw', and respond to criticisms from some conservationists.

Sheep farming in UK upland and hill areas provides a wide range of public goods and services, from food production and environmental stewardship to landscape management and cultural heritage.

Four farmers from England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland have spoken at the launch of the report, at the NSA Sheep Event, explaining the unique role of sheep in every corner of the UK.

They discussed the three pillars of sustainability for the sector, which are economic, environmental and societal.

Upland sheep farming 'comes under threat from many quarters'

Phil Stocker, NSA Chief Executive, explains: "This sector, that is so traditional yet still acts as a cornerstone of much of the modern UK sheep industry, continues to come under threat from many quarters.

'Upland sheep sector continues to come under threat from many quarters'

"Much of this is due to misguided policy direction and a lack of understanding of the many by products of upland sheep farming.

"These public goods go beyond its core agricultural outputs of food and wool; they include its foundation of fragile rural economies and communities, its creation and maintenance of landscapes and environments, and its contribution to tradition and heritage.

"All of this adds to our ecosystems and our sense of enjoyment and wellbeing, yet is rarely recognised or valued.

"Our aim is to convince decision makers of the unique contribution upland sheep farming provides and also to set some challenges to the industry itself by offering a strategic direction that should safeguard its future."

Fresh thinking on upland sheep farming is needed, says the TFA

The association believes the timing of this report is crucial, given the difficult decisions needing to be made over the future of agricultural support once the UK leaves Europe.

Mr Stocker continues: "This report will form the basis of many of the conversations we have over the coming months, as it is important the hills and uplands, home to some of the most iconic landscapes in the UK, are not forgotten in the Brexit discussions.

"There has never been a more important time to understand the tri-fold contribution of economic, environmental and societal benefits."

'Poorly considered Government policy'

The Tenant Farmers Association welcomes the report, saying the sustainability of these systems has been placed in 'jeopardy by poorly considered Government policy.'

TFA Chief Executive, George Dunn said: "The uplands of Britain are farmed by a greater proportion of landless individuals through farm tenancies, grazing agreements and rights of common than in the lowlands.

"Generations of skilled individuals have managed ruminant livestock in hill areas to produce a basket of high quality economic, environmental and social outputs.

"However, deficiencies within the supply chain and a lack of appreciation for the multi-functional benefits that grazing livestock, particularly sheep, can supply in upland areas, has been jeopardised by poorly considered policies.

"For too long upland sheep farming has been at best marginalised and at worst vilified by uninformed policymakers and some environmental commentators.

"Sheep farming in the uplands provides a healthy source of nutritious food, natural fibre, landscape, biodiversity, soil quality, flood risk management, water quality, and opportunities for tourism.

'Farmers must be adequately rewarded'

"Sheep farmers must be adequately rewarded for the full range of outputs resulting from their management and the report from the NSA provides a blueprint for achieving this," said Mr Dunn.

"All policymakers with an interest in upland management must read and digest this NSA report.

"The TFAs proposed agricultural policy for a post-EU Britain has called for a new framework that ensures the sustainable development of upland areas by refocusing support on ruminant livestock production as the foundation of sustainable upland management.

"This strategic priority can be met for the sheep sector by taking on board the recommendations and aspirations set out in the NSA report," said Mr Dunn.

"The TFA has called on all farming organisations to work together to produce a credible plan for agriculture in a post-EU environment and the leadership shown here by the NSA for the sheep sector is to be applauded," said Mr Dunn.
Payments under the new Scottish Upland Sheep Support Scheme (SUSSS) are about to start, Rural Economy Secretary Fergus Ewing has confirmed.

The Scottish Government expects to pay out up to 5.6 million over the next few days to around 1,100 farmers and crofters with the majority being made a payment by the end of this week.

Under the terms of the scheme, the available funding is divided by the number of eligible animals.

Approximately 101,000 sheep have been included in the scheme this year, meaning producers will receive 78.12 per ewe hogg.

Rural Economy Secretary Fergus Ewing

Mr Ewing said: "This is a brand new coupled support scheme which targets sheep producers in the most fragile and remote parts of Scotland.

"I can confirm that payments will now commence and I expect the vast majority of eligible claimants to be paid by the end of the week  injecting a further 5.6 million into the rural economy.

"It appears that the new sheep scheme has led to eligible farmers and crofters increasing their number of animals.

"Whilst this may be a welcome indication of confidence in the sector, it does have a bearing on the final payment rates, as EU regulations specify that coupled support schemes must only be used to halt declines in livestock numbers, rather than aim to increase them.

"It has been the Scottish Governments intention for some time to commence sheep payments in July, so that we could wholly focus on our number one priority of completing as many Basic Payment Scheme and Greening payments as quickly as possible.

"We are making headway and have now paid over 311 million to more than 17,800 farms.

"We continue to prioritise completing the remaining 2015 payments as quickly as possible and making improvements for 2016.

"As I have previously stated, I will update parliament in September on how this work is progressing."
Two neonicotinoid insecticides may have inadvertent contraceptive effects on male honey bees, a new study from the University of Bern has shown.

Male honey bees, called drones, can be affected by two neonicotinoid insecticides by reducing male honey bee lifespan and number of living sperm.

Both insecticides are currently partially banned in Europe. Researchers from Bern, Switzerland, together with partners from Thailand and Germany, call for more thorough environmental risk assessments of these neonicotinoids.

In recent years, beekeepers have struggled to maintain healthy honey bee colonies throughout the northern hemisphere.

'More thorough environmental risk assessments'

The study further strengthens calls for more thorough environmental risk assessments on insecticides

In the first study to investigate the effects of neonicotinoids on drones, an international research team led by the University of Bern and Agroscope has found that two neonicotinoids may inadvertently reduce drone lifespan and number of living sperm.

Because queen survival and queen productivity are intimately connected to successful mating with males, any influence on sperm quality may have profound consequences for the health of the queen, as well as the entire colony.

In light of recent beekeeper surveys that identified poor queen health as an important reason for honey bee colony losses, this study further strengthens calls for more thorough environmental risk assessments of these insecticides, as well as other crop protection products, to protect bees and other beneficial organisms.

"We know multiple stressors can affect honey bee health, including parasites and poor nutrition.

"It is possible that agricultural chemicals may also play an important role", says senior author Geoff Williams of the University of Bern and Agroscope.

Restricting use of neonicotinoid insecticides

In 2013, the European Union and Switzerland took a precautionary approach by partially restricting the application of the widely used neonicotinoid insecticides thiamethoxam, clothianidin, and imidacloprid, with the mandate to perform further environmental risk assessments.

Previous research suggests that these chemicals cause both lethal and sub-lethal effects on honey bee females from exposure, but nothing is known about how they may affect males of the species.

Co-author Peter Neumann from Bern states: "These results, coupled with the importance of males to honey bee reproduction, highlight the need for stringent environmental risk assessments of agricultural chemicals to protect biodiversity and ecosystem functioning."

Honey bees, like all insect pollinators, provide crucial ecosystem and economic services.

Annually in Europe and North America, millions of honey bee colonies produce honey and contribute to the pollination of a range of agricultural crops  from carrots to almonds to oilseed rape  that is valued at billions of Euros.
The Borough of Carlisle has been awarded a much anticipated grant to help fund infrastructure development.

On Wednesday, Sen. Bob Casey announced Carlisle was a recipient of $5 million from the U.S. Department of Transportations Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery Grant program.

Were thrilled to receive the grant and honored that the Department of Transportation felt our project was worthy of funding, said Matt Candland, Carlisle borough manager. The money will help enormously in completing critical transportation projects that we need to complete to facilitate the development of the IAC and Tire and Wheel sites. This is great news.

The money is expected to be used for the Carlisle Connectivity Transportation Initiative, which is part of the Carlisle Urban Redevelopment Plan that aims to develop several industrial sites in the northwestern portion of the borough.

This isnt Carlisles first go-around with TIGER funds.

Last November, then Assistant Borough Manager Debra Figueroa, an integral driver for the boroughs redevelopment projects, said officials were disappointed after learning they did not receive a $12 million TIGER Grant.

Candland said last years setback did little to sack the hopes of officials.

Weve always felt we had an outstanding project. Our expectations have been high each year we applied, he said. That was no different his year. We believe the potential for those sites is enormous.

Funds from the grant will also be used to fix dangerous and failing intersections and to construct complete streets, Casey said in a written statement.

This award is critical to the Borough of Carlisles economy, Casey said in his statement. The Carlisle Connectivity initiative will create jobs and make important improvements to the regions infrastructure that are long overdue. Ill continue to support efforts to ensure were investing in and improving community development here and across Pennsylvania.
Campaign to put spotlight on dairy calf strategy progress
"To get the best out of hybrids, you need to be in a good yielding area so for large areas of WA's low rainfall environments that don't produce more than 1.3t/ha, growers might find that in the future they are forced to use hybrids but not get the advantage, so seed retention could help with keeping costs down."
Black and white, young and old, violence can hit anyone. When it does, like the recent shooting at the Haines Stackfield American Legion in Carlisle that ended in one mans death, it can send shockwaves of fear and apprehension through the community.

On Tuesday, dozens of Carlisle residents joined together at the Democratic Headquarters in Carlisle to discuss concerns about violence, specifically gun violence, and what can be done to stop it.

This is not a Democrat issue or a Republican issue, Shiloh Baptist Church Rev. Daniel Keys. Its time for us as Americans to rise up.

Key, along with Jill Sunday Bartoli, a write-in candidate against State Rep. Stephen Bloom for the 199th Pennsylvania legislative district, moderated the roundtable discussion.

Residents discussed concerns about the need for increased gun regulations, better education for firearm safety, removing illegal firearms from the streets and better mental health services.

The conversation quickly turned to community. Concerns were raised about the breakdown of the family unit and outsiders moving into the community and bringing violence, as well as the younger generations being more prone to act out aggressively and without regard for authority.

Its comfortable to come here and vent and move on, Rev. Marilyn Hubbard, of the Bethel AME Church, said. ... We have to work together, collectively.

On the national level, crime, and especially violent crime, has plummeted over the last 20 years, according to the FBI. The homicide rate reached its lowest point in 2013 and 2014 since the FBI began collecting data in 1960.

However, preliminary data indicates violent crime rates on average increased in 2015. Nationally, homicides increased about 6 percent during the first six months of 2015, driven in large part by significant increases in a handful of large cities, according to the FBI.

Locally there have been 87 assaults with firearms within Cumberland County, according to the Pennsylvania State Police Uniform Crime Reporting System.

Nearly 30 of those assaults happened in Carlisle. Carlisle saw a heavy spike in assaults with firearms in 2015, with 11 reported incidents. There had only been 16 reported assaults with firearms in the five years prior, according state police.

Carlisle is trending down again with assaults with firearms in 2016. Only two assaults have been reported by police this year.

The police in Carlisle are great, resident Tarrin Carpenter said.

His comments were met by a roomful of applause.

We are blessed here in Carlisle, Carpenter said.

Many residents hit on the idea that the police alone cannot solve violence. One resident told stories from when she was a child of how adults in the community would watch over the children and let them know if they were getting out of line.

Attendees were left with the goal to volunteer, to be a bigger part of the community and to find what role they could play in the larger solution.

You cant solve the whole problem, but you can solve the problem you know of, Keys said. This is an American issue that requires all of us to be involved.
Dia de los Muertos: What to know about the celebration of life
In normal times, the report this week that Donald Trump wanted John Kasich to be the real president would have made more of a splash.

According to Kasich aides, the Trump campaign desperately wanted the Ohio governor to be his running mate. Kasich, out of concern for his eternal soul or his political future, resisted the idea. But the Trump campaign pressed harder. At one point Donald Trump Jr. reached out with an amazing offer, according to the New York Times: How would Kasich like to be the most powerful vice president in American history? If elected, Trump would put Kasich in charge of two broad areas of policy making.

Now, if a normal person were asked to guess which two, he or she might venture, Counterterrorism and health care, or, Defense and taxes. But thats thinking small. And Donald Trump doesnt think small.

Donald Trump Jr. offered Kasich both foreign policy and domestic policy.

What the hell would Trump do? the aide reportedly asked Trump the younger.

He would make America great again, Trump Jr. casually replied, according to a story in the Columbus Dispatch.

When I first read that, I couldnt help but think of that scene in The Blues Brothers where Dan Aykroyd asks the manager of a honky-tonk what kind of music is played there. The manager replies, Oh, we got both kinds. We got country and western.

Theres no love lost between the Kasich and Trump camps, so its fair to be skeptical of the story. The only thing is, there are lots of rumors among Republican politicians and staffers that back it up. Trumps not interested in policy. Hes fine with outsourcing it to congressional Republicans and to his Cabinet secretaries. Trump wants to do the fun stuff. He wants to give cool speeches and fly around in a better plane. He wants the respect that comes with being president. He doesnt want to do the hard stuff.

For those willing to see, theres been a lot of evidence of that all along. Hes said he wont even start learning about policy until hes elected. That Trump doesnt know or care much about public policy is obvious to literally every human being who knows anything about public policy. One could fill books with examples of him talking about articles of the Constitution that dont exist, events that never took place and proposals that make no sense.

According to a deeply reported account in GQ, Trumps daily briefing packet amounts to a printout of a Google News search of articles mentioning Donald J. Trump.

This is also how he runs his business. Hes a marketer and branding maven. Other businessmen and subcontractors do the heavy lifting.

Woodrow Wilson was the first to see the president as a kind of monarchical cheerleader. He was the first commander in chief to insist that a president must impose a vision on the country; Wilson saw the job as that of a propagandist in chief.

Richard Neustadt, the titan of presidential studies, echoed this in his landmark book, Presidential Power. Because modern presidents are expected to do so much more than what their Constitutional powers can achieve, they must mold public opinion. Presidential power, Neustadt famously wrote, is the power to persuade.

Its unlikely that Trump knows any of that, but that doesnt mean hes not onto something about the presidency. Barack Obama, after all, has spent much of his presidency trying to build a grass-roots movement to force change on Washington that he couldnt achieve from the White House.

Many Republicans Ive talked to find Trumps willingness to outsource actual policymaking to Mike Pence or Paul Ryan reassuring. And in a sense, it is.

But it overlooks a problem. Because there is so much power in a presidents words, a presidents words matter. Just this week, the GOP nominee suggested that he would not honor our commitments to NATO if Russia attacked our allies in the Baltics. Those words are dangerous from a nominee. They would be catastrophic from a president.

A president with a verbal hair trigger  one who doesnt know enough to know what not to say  could ignite a financial crisis or a war.

If Trump could be trusted to simply play a ceremonial role, serving as a kind of corporate motivational speaker for the country, I might board the Trump train. But can anyone say with confidence that Trump has the discipline to do anything of the sort?

Jonah Goldberg is a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and a senior editor of National Review. Email him at goldbergcolumn@gmail.com.
Tracy sold 300,000 copies of her debut comic novel No One Ever Has Sex On A Tuesday after releasing it through Kindle Direct Publishing and is now a best-selling independent author. Tracy's most recent novel Strictly My Husband is available for pre-order on Kindle before it launches on 27th July 2016.

Tracy Bloom

1) I get my sense of humour from growing up on a farm. I was surrounded by whip-smart farmers who endlessly took the mickey out of each other. To compete, I had to learn to have a sharp and witty comeback to hand at all times. They never taught me how to lamb a sheep but I learnt a lot about delivering a punch line.

2) My debut independent novel NO-ONE EVER HAS SEX ON A TUESDAY was first published in Polish! So the first time I held a book in my hand that I'd written I couldn't read the damn thing!

3) The greatest feeling is when a reader tells you that your words made them laugh out loud. I rarely laugh when I read a book so when someone tells me I made them laugh it blows my mind and makes be so very happy.

4) For research whilst writing STRICTLY MY HUSBAND I took my own husband to an Argentinian Tango class. We only went once and will never go again as it turned out he was much better than me!

5) I have been to a PJ & Duncan concert and enjoyed it.

6) Unlike most writers I didn't write endless stories as a child, I don't have a literature degree and I was never a journalist. My only qualification to be a novelist is a love of words and the amazing things you can do with them along with a desire and passion to entertain people.

7) I cry a lot. Mostly happy tears thankfully although every year I'm grateful that Noel Edmonds Christmas Presents is off air and can no longer leave me a sobbing wreck all Christmas day morning.

8) I have a really annoying laugh. My kids tell me they know that I have arrived at the school gate because they can hear me laughing above everything else. I try to take that as a compliment.

9) I started writing when my heartless husband moved us away from our family and friends to America for three years just after I'd had a baby. I went on strike as far as domestic duties were concerned and wrote a book instead. Now I have a dream career being a novelist so I forgave him..eventually!

10)We have a mirror ball in our living room and I mostly like to dance under it with my daughter to Take That. It makes me happy.
Lindsay Lohan is "taking time" for herself amidst claims Egor Tarabasov had been cheating on her.

Lindsay Lohan

The 'Mean Girls' star apologised for exposing "certain private matters" on social media and admits she hopes things can be "fixed" between her and her fiance.

She wrote on Instagram: "Dear friends. I'm good and well. #ATM I am taking time for myself with good friends. I am sorry that I've exposed certain private matters recently. I was acting out of fear and sadness... We all make mistakes. Sadly mine have always been so public.

"I have done a lot of soul searching in the past years, and I should have been more clear minded rather than distract from the good heart that I have. Social media comes with the territory of the business and the world we now live in. My intentions were not meant to send mixed messages.

"Maybe things can be fixed... Maybe not.. I hope they can. But I am 30 years old and I do deserve a #GENTLEgiant Life is about love and light. Not anger. Thank you to those who stand by my side (sic)"

Meanwhile, a representative for the 30-year-old actress previously revealed Lindsay wants Egor to go to therapy.

They said: "Lindsay believes Egor has anger-management issues and she would like him to go to therapy. They both want to work things out."

And friends are reportedly worried about Egor's "controlling behaviour" over Lindsey.

A pal said: "Egor has taken control over her business ... He is in charge of her finances and is controlling over her deals, even though he has no experience in Hollywood."
Tom Holland was told not to let playing Spider-Man "affect" him by Chris Hemsworth.

Tom Holland

The 20-year-old actor received a "really lovely" email from his 'Heart of the Sea' co-star - who is known for playing Thor in the Marvel universe - after he landed the role of the superhero and is doing his best to take the Australian hunk's advice.

He said: "Once I got cast he sent me a really lovely email about just make sure you keep your feet on the ground and you don't let this affect you.

"You keep your family and your friends close and, and that's exactly what I've done."

And Chris isn't the only Marvel star to have advised Tom - who made his Spider-Man debut in 'Captain America: Civil War - as he also received some tips from 'Iron Man' actor Robert Downey Jr. when he screen-tested with him for the coveted role.

Tom told E! News: "As you can imagine I was pretty terrified and he came up to me and said, 'Look, I felt exactly the same as you did when I did my test for Iron Man but just relax, let your body take over and, and if it's meant to be it'll happen.' "

'Spider-Man: Homecoming' started shooting two weeks ago and while the British actor is enjoying doing his own stunts, he admits it's also quite terrifying.

He said: "I've been scared, for sure. I can't tell you what the stunt was because it'll give something away but I basically had to nose dive like thirty-feet or something like that and, and it was really fun but it's that moment when they're like three, two, one that you're like, 'Ahhh.' But it was awesome."
Cillian Murphy is one of the most exciting actors around and he is set to return to the big screen this September with his new film Anthropoid.

Anthropoid

Anthropoid will mix elements of biography, history, and thriller as it is based on World War II operation to assassinate SS General Reinhard Heydrich.

The movie sees Sean Ellis back in the director's chair for his first feature film since Metro Manila back in 2013, This is the fourth feature of his career to date.

As well as being in the director's chair for the film, Ellis has also teamed up with Anthony Frewin to pen the film's screenplay.

Murphy is set to take on the central role of Josef Gabcik and is joined on the cast list by Jamie Dornan, Harry Lloyd, Toby Jones, Charlotte le Bon, Sam Keeley, and Bill Milner.

Check out some new images from the film:

Anthropoid is based on the extraordinary true story of 'Operation Anthropoid,' the code name for the Czechoslovakian operatives' mission to assassinate SS officer Reinhard Heydrich.

Heydrich, the main architect behind the Final Solution, was the Reich's third in command behind Hitler and Himmler and the leader of Nazi forces in Czechoslovakia.

The film follows two soldiers from the Czechoslovakian army-in-exile, Josef Gabcik (Cillian Murphy) and Jan Kubis (Jamie Dornan), who are parachuted into their occupied homeland in December 1941.

With limited intelligence and little equipment in a city under lockdown, they must find a way to assassinate Heydrich, an operation that would change the face of Europe forever.

Anthropoid is released 9th September.

by Helen Earnshaw for www.femalefirst.co.uk

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There are still a few weeks to until the summer is over, but we are already looking ahead to the films that are set to hit the big screen this autumn.

The Girl on the Train

I love the autumn season of films as it is always a great mix of projects - and we get the odd early Oscar contender as well to enjoy.

Autumn 2016 is set to be another great time of year if you are a movie fan, and we take a look at some of the films that we are looking forward to the most.

- Captain Fantastic - released 9th September

We kick off our autumn preview with a smaller film project as Viggo Mortensen is set to return to the big screen with his new film Captain Fantastic.

Captain Fantastic sees the Oscar-nominated actor team up with filmmaker and writer Matt Ross for the first time. This is the second feature of Ross' directing career to date and it comes four years after he made his debut with 28 Hotel Rooms.

Deep in the forests of the Pacific Northwest, isolated from society, a devoted father (Mortensen) dedicates his life to transforming his six young children into extraordinary adults.

But when a tragedy strikes the family, they are forced to leave this self-created paradise and begin a journey into the outside world that challenges his idea of what it means to be a parent and brings into question everything he's taught them.

A great cast has been assembled for Captain Fantastic as Mortensen is joined by Frank Langella, George MacKay, Samantha Isler, Annalise Basso, Missi Pyle, Steve Zahn, and Kathryn Hahn.

Captain Fantastic has been playing well on the festival circuit; having premiered at Sundance before going on to screen at Cannes earlier this summer. So far, the film has been winning over audiences and critics and I am looking forward to seeing what Ross delivers with this new film project.

If you are a fan of indie films, Captain Fantastic really is promising to be one that's not to be missed this September.

- Free State of Jones - released 9th September

Another movie that I am really looking forward to this autumn, comes in the form of Free State of Jones and marks the return of Matthew McConaughey. I am a huge McConaughey fan and it is always exciting to see the Oscar-winning actor in a new leading role.

Free State of Jones is a movie that we have been talking about for quite a while here at FemaleFirst and we are finally going to see it released this September.

The movie sees McConaughey take on the central role of Newton Knight, who led an uprising again the corrupt local Confederate government in Mississippi during the American Civil War.

McConaughey really is one of the most exciting actors around and this promises to be another great role for him to get his teeth into. He is joined on the cast list by Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Keri Russell, Mahershala Ali, Sean Bridgers and Christopher Berry.

Free State of Jones is the latest offering from filmmaker Gary Ross in what is his first film since the huge success of The Hunger Games back in 2012. It is great to see him back and delivering something totally different to his last film project.

- The Magnificent Seven - released 23rd September

I am a huge fan of The Magnificent Seven, which was released back in 1960, and so I am a little nervous about the release of the latest adaptation of Seven Samurai.

Having said that, the movie does see Antoine Fuqua - who brought us Training Day - back in the director's chair for his first feature film since Southpaw last year.

The Magnificent Seven sees Fuqua reunite with Denzel Washington for their third film project together as the Oscar-winning takes on the central role of Sam Chisolm. He is joined on the cast list by Chris Pratt, Vincent D'Onofrio, Ethan Hawke, Byung-hun Lee, Peter Sarsgaard and Haley Bennett.

With the sleepy town of Rose Creek under the deadly control of industrialist Bartholomew Bogue (Sarsgaard), the desperate townspeople employ protection from seven outlaws, bounty hunters, gamblers and hired guns - Sam Chisolm (Washington), Josh Farraday (Pratt), Goodnight Robicheaux (Hawke), Jack Horne (D'Onofrio), Billy Rocks (Lee), Vasquez (Garcia-Rulfo), and Red Harvest (Sensmeier).

As they prepare the town for the violent showdown that they know is coming, these seven mercenaries find themselves fighting for more than money.

The Magnificent Seven is set to be the biggest Western to hit the big screen this year and I am intrigued - as well as being a little apprehensive - to see it. A fantastic cast has been assembled and I am looking forward to seeing Washington and Pratt in action as they team up for the first time.

- The Girl With All The Gifts - released 23rd September

We are going to see a whole host of books adapted for the big screen this autumn and The Girl With All The Gifts is one of the first that's not to be missed.

The movie is based on the book of the same name by Mike Carey, who has adapted his own novel into a screenplay. I love it when authors return to the own work and it will be interesting to see how his adaptation compares to the book.

Colm McCarthy is back in the director's chair for the film, in what is his first feature film since Outcast back in 2010. However, he has been working in television with the likes of Peaky Blinders, Sherlock, and Doctor Who under his belt.

The director has brought together a great cast as Gemma Arterton, Glenn Close, and Paddy Considine are set to star. Sennia Nanua will take on the central role of Melanie as she makes her feature film debut.

The near future; humanity has been all but destroyed by a mutated fungal disease that eradicates free will and turns its victims into flesh-eating 'hungries'. Only a small group of children seem immune to its effects. At an army base in rural England, this group of unique children are being studied, subjected to cruel experiments by biologist Dr. Caldwell.

Despite having been infected with the zombie pathogen that has decimated the world, these children retain normal thoughts and emotions. And while still being subject to the craving for human flesh that marks the disease these second-generation 'hungries' are able to think and feel making them a vital resource in the search for a cure.

The children attend school lessons daily, guarded by the ever-watchful Sergeant Parks. But one little girl, Melanie, stands out from the rest. Melanie is special. She excels in the classroom, is inquisitive, imaginative and loves her favourite teacher Miss Justineau. When the base falls, Melanie escapes along with Miss Justineau, Sergeant Parks, and Dr. Caldwell. Against the backdrop of a blighted Britain, Melanie must discover what she is and ultimately decide both her own future and that of the human race.

This British post-apocalyptic movie looks set to mix elements of horror and science fiction and it is one of the September movies that I am looking forward to the most.

- Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children - released 30th September

It is always exciting when a Tim Burton movie is on the horizon and he is set to return to the director's chair with Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children.

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children is Burton's first film since Big Eyes at the end of 2014 and is based on the novel of the same name by Ransom Riggs.

Eva Green takes on the central role of Miss Peregrine as she reunites with Burton for their first film together since Dark Shadows. She is joined on the cast list by Asa Butterfield, Samuel L. Jackson, Ella Purnell, Allison Janney, Rupert Everett, Judi Dench, Chris O'Dowd, and Terence Stamp.

When his beloved grandfather leaves Jake clues to a mystery that spans different worlds and times, he finds a magical place known as Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children.

But the mystery and danger deepen as he gets to know the residents and learns about their special powers... and their powerful enemies. Ultimately, Jake discovers that only his own special 'peculiarity' can save his new friends.

I am a huge Tim Burton fan and he has brought us some truly fantastic films during his career... and Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children is promising to be another terrific gothic adventure.

- The Girl on the Train - released 7th October

Emily Blunt is a very popular actress here at FemaleFirst and she will be back on the big screen this October with The Girl on the Train.

The Girl on the Train is another adaptation and is based on the book of the same name by Paula Hawkins - of all the book adaptations on the horizon, this is the one that I am looking forward to the most.

Tate Taylor is back in the director's chair for what is his first film since Get on Up back in 2014; he also brought us The Help three years earlier.

Blunt really is one of the most exciting actresses around and she will take on the central role of Rachel Watson. She is joined on the cast list by Justin Theroux, Luke Evans, Haley Bennett, Rebecca Ferguson, Allison Janney, Edgar Ramirez, and Lisa Kudrow.

In the thriller, Rachel (Blunt), who is devastated by her recent divorce, spends her daily commute fantasising about the seemingly perfect couple who live in a house that her train passes every day, until one morning she sees something shocking happen there and becomes entangled in the mystery that unfolds.

The movie is already being compared to Gone Girl and is set to be one of the thrillers not to miss this autumn.

Later in the week we will be taking a closer look at some other great films on the horizon, including Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and Inferno.

by Helen Earnshaw for www.femalefirst.co.uk

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Prince Charles has asked Tim Peake if he was "in one piece" after he returned to earth after six months in space.

TIm Peake

The 67-year-old royal met with the British astronaut at the Prince's Trust centre in Bristol, South West England on Tuesday (26.07.16) where he told Charles it took a while for him to find his "balance" when he landed back on the planet.

A concerned Charles asked the astronaut: "Are you sure you're in one piece?"

Major Peake - who received the Most Distinguished Order of St Michael and St George for extraordinary service beyond our planet in the Queen's Birthday Honours - said: "It does take a while - took a week for the balance to return.

However, he assured Charles that he is now "feeling absolutely great".

Tim also told of how when he landed it felt like he was in a minor "car crash" and that temperatures inside the space craft reached 2,000 C (3,632F) when he re-entered the earth.

To which Charles said he was "brave".

The 44-year-old International Space Sation crew member - who has been an ambassador for the Prince's Trust for over a year - attended the launch of the new centre, which has opened to mark the 40th anniversary of a report that investigates how poorer children struggle to look for work.

Meanwhile, the Duchess of Cornwall - the wife of Prince Charles - previously penned a note to Tim asking if he will meet with her to talk about how his time on the International Space Station could benefit people suffering with osteoporosis.

Last month, the duchess - who is the President of the National Osteoporosis Society - wrote: "I am interested to know how your bones have stood up to space travel, as I understand that astronauts lost 10 percent of their bone density over six months. I have been told that you will return home with invaluable research and data. It would be very interesting to know if what you learn could help change the lives of osteoporosis sufferers here on Earth.

"I look forward to having a chance to talk to you about your findings and hearing more about your experiences once you have landed."

Tim replied: "I look forward to sharing what we are learning on my return.

"Contributing to scientific research on the International Space Station to benefit people on Earth has been an incredibly fulfilling part of this mission. I look forward to sharing what we are learning on my return."
Dear Editor:

America is under siege and needs a wartime commander-in-chief. Instead we have a president who has stated over 20 times that climate change is the greatest threat facing American society today. Under this zero credibility, monumental failure administration, the U.S. watched the IV team Isis develop into a world-threatening powerhouse following our president and Secretary of State Hillary disastrous tactical blunders in Iraq, Syria, Libya and Egypt.

In 2016 the president's top five priorities are blaming everything on Republicans; saving the world from phony climate change; destroying our Second Amendment rights with dangerous gun control; gravely endangering our national security with mass Syrian refugees; and harshly enforcing dangerous political correctness.

Insane political correctness, the garbage pit of American liberalism, kills lives and will continue to kill. We have seen this in New York Washington, Boston, Chattanooga, Fort Hood, San Bernardino and now Orlando.

Completely missing from our national discourse is the fact that absolutely everything under this president's watch is a total disaster. We have a failed foreign policy, domestic policy, employment market, doubled national debt, IRS tyranny, VA corruption, failed energy policy, education system, healthcare system, justice system, disastrous open-borders policy, Benghazi disaster and subsequent impeachable cover-up, disastrous Gitmo and federal prisoner release program, disastrous Iran nuclear deal and deplorable, failed counter-terrorism policy since 2006.

When a Christian is murdered by Isis, this president remains silent. When violent criminal thugs tear apart our inner cities, this president blames the cops. When a terrorist attack occurs, this president scolds Republicans on gun control.

We cannot win or even begin to fight a war when our commander does not realize who the enemy is. Clearly this president needs to resign.

David Delp

Harrisburg
Prince Harry is to help relocate 500 elephants in South East Africa.

Prince Harry

British High Commissioner Micheal Nevin has confirmed the 31-year-old royal will be in Malawi for "quite a while" while helps move the animals to a wildlife reserve in what will be one of the biggest conservation projects in history.

Harry spent last summer working on various projects in the area and will be involved in the job of relocating the elephants from two parks in the south of the country so that they are at less risk of being harmed by humans.

And the flame-haired prince will be a great help to the locals, as last year he was all hands on deck as he had an encounter with a lion during in his three-month expedition.

Simson Uri-Khob the CEO of the charity which helps endangered animals, previously said of the Harry's help: "The lion was sedated and he just jumped right in and helped.

"He is like an African man. He likes to be out there, sleeping under the stars knowing that he is close to dangerous animals.

"He helped with everything, from fixing a tire to cooking the food to packing up.

"He even helped to take a punctured tire off the vehicle and attach a new one. He jumped into everything we did."

Meanwhile, Prince Harry has urged people to get tested for HIV.

The 31-year-old royal was joined by Sir Elton John as he signed the United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS' ProTest wall in Durban, South Africa last week where he questioned why anyone wouldn't want to take the simple test.

A series of tweets on Kensington Palace's official Twitter account reads: "Prince Harry and Sir Elton John have just signed @UNAIDS ProTEST wall to support regular HIV testing #ProTESTHIV ...

"Prince Harry's message on the @UNAIDS #ProTESTHIV wall - 'Get tested! Why wouldn't you? Harry' (sic)"

The flame-haired royal and the 'Rocket Man' hitmaker are due to address the International AIDS Conference on Thursday (21.07.16) where they will talk about how the disease can affect young people.
The world's largest online and mobile commerce company Alibaba Group is looking towards ramping up its operations in New Zealand and Australia as a means of realizing its goal of achieving two billion customers worldwide.The group's President Michael Evans, who leads the international growth strategy for globalising the company and expanding its business outside of China, last week met with key Australian and New Zealand stakeholders to advance the company's local operations and further the ability of ANZ businesses to reach international consumers.

The world's largest online and mobile commerce company Alibaba Group is looking towards ramping up its operations in New Zealand and Australia as a means of realizing its goal of achieving two billion customers worldwide. The group's President Michael Evans, who leads the international growth strategy for globalising the company and expanding its business...#

Evans's visit to Auckland, Wellington, Sydney and Melbourne coincided with roadshows, which were organized to educate companies on how they can use Alibaba Group's various platforms as a gateway to China and other international markets.We believe the international growth opportunity for Alibaba Group is enormous. ANZ is one of our key markets and a stronger presence here will advance our global goal of serving two billion consumers, while supporting tens of millions of small businesses, brands and retailers across the world, said Evans, in a company press release.According to Alibaba Group, Australian and New Zealand products are thriving on its Tmall Global site but there is still huge potential for growth, due primarily to Chinese consumers' growing demand for quality products coupled with the trusted reputations of both countries.At present, there are 1,300 Australian brands on Tmall and Tmall Global combined, 80% of which entered China for the first time through these platforms. In addition to gaining access to China's e-commerce site, they are provided with Alibaba Group's planning, merchandising, sales and marketing solutions to help them grow. (SH)

Fibre2Fashion News Desk  India
Online retailer Amazon said it has planned to open a seventh 855,000 square foot fulfillment centre in Houston, Texas, which will also offer 1,000 full-time positions.Amazon operates fulfillment centres elsewhere in Texas in Coppell, Haslet, Dallas, Fort Worth, and Schertz, with a facility in San Marcos under construction.

Online retailer Amazon said it has planned to open a seventh 855,000 square foot fulfillment centre in Houston, Texas, which will also offer 1,000 full-time positions. Amazon operates fulfillment centres elsewhere in Texas in Coppell, Haslet, Dallas, Fort Worth, and Schertz, with a facility in San Marcos under construction. With Houston's legacy as a...#

With Houston's legacy as a pioneer in innovation, we are proud to become a member of the community, Akash Chauhan, Amazon's vice president of North American operations said.We are excited to create more than 1,000 full-time jobs and to become a member of the business community, Chauhan added."We are pleased but not surprised that a great company like Amazon continues to expand in Texas, bringing more than a thousand new jobs," said Texas governor Dan Patrick.Texas is committed to maintaining a strong business climate that allows companies to prosper, innovate and expand and I predict, this will not be the last Amazon facility we will see here, he too added. (AR)

Fibre2fashion News Desk - India
New York based bespoke clothier Michael Andrews has added Charles Dean as creative director, who will oversee the design direction of the bespoke business and also launch its first Collection.Charles Dean began his career at Ralph Lauren before launching an eponymous label, which was produced by Michael Andrews and has received his B.A. in Economics from Dartmouth College.

New York based bespoke clothier Michael Andrews has added Charles Dean as creative director, who will oversee the design direction of the bespoke business and also launch its first Collection. Charles Dean began his career at Ralph Lauren before launching an eponymous label, which was produced by Michael Andrews and has received his B.A. in Economics from...#

CEO of the company Michael Andrews said, As we prepare for a significant expansion of the brand, I am confident, Charles brings the right creative vision and design aesthetic that builds upon our bespoke tradition.Available exclusively through its website, the Collection will include suits, shirts, separates, formalwear, overcoats and accessories for customers who may be unable to visit its New York showroom.Garments in the Collection will be available on a made-to-order basis in over 100 sizes, utilising proprietary patterns that have been developed through years of bespoke expertise, the company said. (AR)

Fibre2fashion News Desk - India
Kenya has put in place elaborate measures to revive its ailing cotton industry as well as modernise the state-owned Rivatex Textile mill with the help of a 2.9 billion Kenyan Shilling ($ 30 million) grant from India.The latest initiative is aimed at providing farmers with high yielding variety of seeds from Israel that produce quality cotton lint for better returns and offer investors better margins. It also entails upgrading the Eldoret-based textile miller, Rivatex with latest technology, said Julius Korir, Industry and Enterprise Development Principal Secretary.The government has launched a pilot programme under which hybrid cotton seeds from Israel would be sown on 500 acres of land in Bura, Tana River County and plans to scale it up to other cotton-growing areas once it becomes successful, Korir said.The first planting will begin in September. Korir said adding that the upgraded Rivatex will offer a ready market to the farmers.The budget for modernization of Rivatex was 40 billion KSh or $40 million, of which $ 10 million has been factored over the last two years by the Kenyan government and Ksh 2.9 billion ($ 30 million) had been secured from the Indian government, Korir said.We signed an agreement with the Indian Government for an extension of about Sh 2.9 billion funding to Rivatex so that it can now modernise. We hope that in the next two years, Rivatex will be a state-of-the art factory, he said.The cotton industry in Kenya slumped from its high in the 1970s and 1980s when the sector used to receive subsidies from the Government. It was liberalised in the early 1990s. About 78,000 bales of cotton lint were produced annually before liberalisation. These have since gone down to a paltry 4,000 bales nowadays, media reports said. (SH)

Fibre2Fashion News Desk  India
Earnings from textile exports by Mauritius to Britain are likely to drop by 10 % this year as a result of the British vote to leave the European Union, the country's export association said."Quantity wise, there will be a drop of 10% in our exports to the UK as a consequence of the fall in consumerism level in UK coupled with the depreciation of the pound," the Mauritius Exports Association (MEXA) said in a report

Earnings from textile exports by Mauritius to Britain are likely to drop by 10 % this year as a result of the British vote to leave the European Union, the country's export association said. "Quantity wise, there will be a drop of 10% in our exports to the UK as a consequence of the fall in consumerism level in UK coupled with the depreciation of the...#

According to the (MEXA) report, 90 % of all revenues from exports of textile and apparels to the UK comes in pounds while imports are in U.S. dollars.Thus, Mauritian exporters' profitability is expected to be "squeezed both in terms of exports and imports; exports revenue being depleted with the depreciation of the pound...and costs being inflated with the appreciation of the U.S. dollar.The EU is Mauritius' largest trading partner, with annual earnings averaging 25.5 billion rupees ($722.77 million as a result of goods shipments to the bloc.Within EU, Britain is the largest buyer of Mauritian goods, accounting for 18 % of total exports to the bloc. Textiles are Mauritius' top export to the UK, followed by seafood and sugar.In 2015, textile and apparel exports to Britain amounted to 6.57 billion rupees, according to MEXA data. (SH)

Fibre2Fashion News Desk  India
German knitting machinery maker Mayer & Cie (MCT) will be exhibiting the OVJA 1.6 EE and the MSC 3.2 II at this year's ITMA Asia being held in Shanghai.According to the company, the MSC 3.2 II Single Jersey machine with its technology based on that of the S4 3.2 II was especially developed for the Chinese market.

German knitting machinery maker Mayer & Cie (MCT) will be exhibiting the OVJA 1.6 EE and the MSC 3.2 II at this year's ITMA Asia being held in Shanghai. According to the company, the MSC 3.2 II Single Jersey machine with its technology based on that of the S4 3.2 II was especially developed for the Chinese market. It is assembled at Mayer & Cie's China...#

It is assembled at Mayer & Cie's China facility, while the machine's knitting head and key components come from Germany.The MSC 3.2 II is designed for high productivity and reaches a speed of 35 rpm for a 30 inch diameter and knits Single Jersey and structures with up to four needle tracks producing fine-gauge E36 fabrics.The MSC 3.2 II thereby keeps up with the trend to fine gauges in the Single Jersey segment, the company observed.The other machine, the OVJA 1.6 EE, is a Jacquard machine with double electronics for the manufacture of high-quality mattress cover fabrics, in the creative fashion industry and for knitted footwear.Single needle selection for both the cylinder and the dial cam makes for even more flexible patterns, which makes the production of small lots uncomplicated and thereby profitable.On the other hand, the spinit systems spinning and knitting technology will be represented by an info stand at ITMA Asia, where Mayer & Cie will officially launch the Spinit 3.0 E. (AR)

Fibre2fashion News Desk - India
Powerloom weavers affiliated to the Southern Gujarat Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SGCCI) have submitted a memorandum to Textile Commissioner Kavita Gupta demanding restoration of 30 per cent subsidy in the Amended Technology Upgradation Fund Scheme (A-TUFS) to ensure that the Make in India initiative is a success, The Times of India has reported.Powerloom weavers in the country's largest man-made fabric (MMF) hub in Surat have been unhappy with A-TUFS announced by the Textiles Ministry on January 13, 2016, which reduced subsidy from 30 per cent to just 10 per cent on capital investment.SGCCI office-bearers said there was an increase in investment under the Restructured TUFS and Revised Restructured TUFS by 20 per cent and 30 per cent respectively. However, A-TUFS policy is so unattractive that seven applicants whose proposals were sanctioned by the Ministry have withdrawn their applications to install shuttle-less powerloom machines.SGCCI president B S Agarwal said, "The A-TUFS is a big setback for the sector. We have requested the Ministry of Textiles to come up with subsidy revision and increase it from 10 per cent to 30 per cent."

Agarwal said the country's largest embroidery sector is based in Surat with around 1.5 lakh units. But neither the embroidery units nor the zari sector is covered under A-TUFS. The SGCCI has requested the Textiles Ministry to include both sectors in the scheme. (SH)

Fibre2Fashion News Desk  India
Farmers of the Texas Organic Cotton Marketing Cooperative (TOCMC) have been awarded the "Organic Farmer of the Year" Leadership Award from the Organic Trade Association (OTA) in recognition of their relentless work of producing organic cotton in the Texas High plains, making it the largest organic cotton-growing region in the United States.Since they united under the TOCMC banner in 1993, the farmers have quadrupled the amount of organic cotton under production in Texas from just about 5,000 acres to 20,000 acres in 2015, and educated countless companies in the US and around the world about the value of growing cotton crops organically.

Farmers of the Texas Organic Cotton Marketing Cooperative (TOCMC) have been awarded the "Organic Farmer of the Year" Leadership Award from the Organic Trade Association (OTA) in recognition of their relentless work of producing organic cotton in the Texas High plains, making it the largest organic cotton-growing region in the United States.#

"The farmers of the Texas Organic Cotton Marketing Cooperative represent the best characteristics of organic farmersextraordinary vision, commitment to a cleaner agriculture, and a strong collective spirit," said OTA CEO and Executive Director Laura Batcha."OTA is thrilled to be recognizing these Texas organic cotton farmers for their significant contributions to the domestic organic cotton industry and to organic cotton production," she said.In 1993, Texas farmers formed the cooperative when they realized they were producing more organic cotton than the market could absorb. Banding together, they began efforts to develop markets and to avoid being at the mercy of cotton brokers and merchants.The cooperative began with 30 farm families producing 1,400 organic bales and 4,900 transitional bales from about 5,000 acres in 1993. In 2015, its 50 farm family members harvested 14,000 organic bales and 1,200 transitional bales on over 20,000 acres. They produce 80 to 90 % of the organic cotton grown in the United States.Today, TOCMC represents the only commercial growers of long staple certified organic cotton in the United States.Jimmy Wedel, President of TOCMC, will be one of the farmers accepting the leadership award at OTA's Annual Awards Celebration ceremony on September 21 in Baltimore. (SH)

Fibre2Fashion News Desk  India
Wouldn't it be great if Gautham Menon joins hands with Mohanlal for a movie? Well, even in the past, there were speculations that the master director and complete actor would join hands for a movie, but nothing turned out to be true.

Earlier, Gautham Menon had initially planned to cast Mohanlal in his Tamil movie Vaaranam Aayiram in the role of the father character, but it didn't materialize. Then there were reports that the director would work on a Malayalam movie with Mohanlal in the lead role, but even those reports turned out to be mere rumours.

Now, a news about a film from this team has surfaced once again, leaving all cinema lovers curious to know more about the project.

Recently, Ashvin Mathew, who is a stand-up comedian and actor took to Facebook to give a hint about the project. The actor has posted a photo on Facebook in which he is seen posing with Gautham Menon and has dropped a hint about the possible Gautham Menon-Mohanlal movie.

Take a look at the Facebook post of Ashvin Mathew..

Interestingly, there were certain reports that Ashvin Mathew is turning a script writer for a film, which would have Mohanlal in the lead role. There were also rumours that the writer-actor had met Mohanlal for the first round of discussions and going by the Facebook post of Ashvin Mathew, there are chances that the film would be directed by Gautham Menon.

Let us wait for the official confirmation from the team regarding the project and hope that a film from Gautham Menon-Mohanlal team would materialize soon..
ALVAREZ & MARSAL APPOINTS HEAD OF GERMAN CORPORATE TRANSFORMATION PRACTICE



Leading global professional services firm Alvarez & Marsal (A&M), has

appointed Patrick Siebert as a Managing Director and head of its Corporate

Transformation Services practice in Germany. This practice focuses on

supporting management deals with the challenges posed by activist

shareholders.



Mr Siebert will be based in Hamburg and he will focus on the formulation and

execution of transformation programs to help clients maximise value in

corporate turnarounds and achieve sustainable bottom-line results.



Mr Siebert returns to A&M, where he spent four successful years between 2009

and 2013. He brings more than 12 years' senior management experience in

transformation, restructuring and operational improvement advisory services,

as well as having held an interim management role as Chief Restructuring

Officer. He has worked across multiple industries including power and

utilities, publishing, automotive, industrial goods, retail and aerospace.



Thomas Kolaja, Managing Director and Co-Head of A&M's European Corporate

Transformation practice, said: "Our presence in Germany has grown

substantially in recent years as European companies turn to us to deliver

performance improvements when conventional approaches have failed. Patrick

will significantly enhance our offering in a rapidly growing corporate

transformation practice and we are delighted that another A&M alumnus has

returned to work for the firm."



Patrick Siebert added: "A&M is renowned, both here in Germany and around the

world, for its business transformation capabilities and hands-on approach to

consulting. The firm has grown and evolved over the past few years and I

look forward to playing a role in helping to accelerate the pace of growth."



Prior to returning to A&M, Mr Siebert was a Partner with KPMG. He started

his career with Droege & Comp.



Ends



About Alvarez & Marsal



Companies, investors and government entities around the world turn to

Alvarez & Marsal (A&M) when conventional approaches are not enough to

activate change.



Privately-held since 1983, A&M is a leading global professional services

firm that delivers performance improvement, turnaround management and

business advisory services to organizations seeking to transform operations,

catapult growth and accelerate results through decisive action. Our senior

professionals are experienced operators, world-class consultants and

industry veterans who draw upon the firms restructuring heritage to help

leaders turn change into a strategic business asset, manage risk and unlock

value at every stage.



When action matters, find us at alvarezandmarsal.com.



Follow A&M on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.



Del Jones



Jessica Vallance



Headland



+44 207 367 5222



Christine Hasebrink



Marketing Consultant



Alvarez & Marsal



+ 49 173 2835351



christine.hasebrink@alvarezandmarsal.comDiese Mitteilung wurde ubermittelt von pressrelations.de. Fur den Inhalt ist

ausschlielich der genannte Herausgeber der Mitteilung verantwortlich. (END) Dow Jones NewswiresNovember 02, 2016 06:30 ET (10:30 GMT)





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PUNE, India, November 18, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

The report"Evaporative Condensing Unit Market by End-Use Industry (Commercial, Power, and Chemical), Application (Refrigeration, and Air Conditioning), and Region (North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Middle East & Africa, and South America) - Global Forecast to 2026", published by MarketsandMarkets, the market is projected to reach USD 1.61 Billion by 2026, at a CAGR of 7.2% from 2016 to 2026.

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Browse 116 market data Tables and 53 Figures spread through 147 Pages and in-depth TOC on "Evaporative Condensing Unit Market"



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Introduction of evaporative condensing units with advanced technologies has contributed to the growth of this market. Advanced evaporative condensing units are in demand primarily due to the benefits that they offer, such as adaptability, extended durability and shelf life, and improved performance of refrigeration and air-conditioning systems. Thus, the growing demand for advanced refrigeration systems is expected to fuel the growth of the evaporative condensing unit market.

Based on end-use industry, commercial segment of the evaporative condensing unit market expected to grow at the highest CAGR from 2016 to 2026

Evaporative condensing units are being used for refrigeration and air conditioning purposes in commercial end-use industries, such as hotels & restaurants, food processing units, and cold storages & warehouses. These are being used in refrigeration and air conditioning applications in large commercial industries, especially where more than 100 TR (tons of refrigeration) is required. All luxury facilities in the food & service industry prefer evaporative condensing units due to the benefits that they offer, such as adaptability, extended durability and shelf life, and improved performance of refrigeration and air-conditioning systems. Thus, the growing demand for advanced refrigeration systems is expected to fuel the growth of the evaporative condensing unit market for commercial industries.

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Based on application, the refrigeration segment is expected to lead the evaporative condensing unit market from 2016 to 2026

Evaporative condensing units are used for refrigeration purpose in various industries, such as power, chemical, and commercial industries, among others. The demand for evaporative condensing units is growing from various end-users, such as cold stores, warehouses, restaurants, and food processing units, owing to the growth of food & beverage industry in developing nations. The growing food processing & storage facility market in emerging nations is expected to drive the refrigeration application segment of the evaporative condensing unit market.

The evaporative condensing unit market in the Middle East & Africa is expected to grow at the highest CAGR between 2016 and 2026

The Middle East & Africa is projected to grow at the highest rate between 2016 and 2026. The Saudi Arabia evaporative condensing unit market is expected to grow at the highest CARG between 2016 and 2026. High economic growth of Saudi Arabia is significantly contributing to the growth of the evaporative condensing unit market in the region. Egypt is one of the key markets for evaporative condensing units in the Middle East & Africa, due to growth of commercial refrigeration industries, such as cold storage, food processing, and power industries, in the country.

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Key players in the evaporative condensing unit market, such as Baltimore Aircoil Company Inc., Johnson Controls Inc., and DECSA s.r.l. have launched various products to cater to the diverse needs of customers and expand their presence in the market.

Browse Related Reports:

Condensing Unit Market by Type (Air-cooled Condensing Unit, Water-cooled Condensing Unit, and Evaporative Condensing Unit), Application (Industrial Refrigeration, Commercial refrigeration, and others), and by Region - Global Forecast to 2021

http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/condensing-unit-market-622171.html

Industrial Cooling System Market by End User (Power Generation, Industrial Manufacturing, Petrochemical Processing, Food Processing & Storage, Petroleum & Natural Gas Refining, Pharmaceutical, Data Center), Type & by Region - Global Forecasts to 2021

http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/industrial-cooling-system-market-123451073.html

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CALGARY, ALBERTA -- (Marketwired) -- 10/25/16 -- Western Energy Services Corp. ("Western" or the "Company") (TSX: WRG) announces the release of its third quarter 2016 financial and operating results. Additional information relating to the Company, including the Company's financial statements and management's discussion and analysis as at and for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2016 and 2015 will be available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Non-International Financial Reporting Standards ("Non-IFRS") measures and abbreviations for standard industry terms are included in this press release. All amounts are denominated in Canadian dollars (CDN$) unless otherwise identified.

Third Quarter 2016 Operating Results:

-- Third quarter Operating Revenue decreased by $13.7 million (or 31%) to $30.7 million in 2016 as compared to $44.4 million in 2015. In the contract drilling segment, Operating Revenue totaled $20.2 million in the third quarter of 2016 as compared to $30.9 million in the third quarter of 2015; while in the production services segment, Operating Revenue totaled $10.5 million for the three months ended September 30, 2016 as compared to $13.4 million in the same period of the prior year. While West Texas Intermediate ("WTI") prices recovered somewhat near the end of the third quarter of 2016, Operating Revenue continued to be impacted by low commodity prices, as both crude oil and natural gas prices were lower year over year. Operating Revenue in the contract drilling and production services segments were impacted by lower utilization and pricing as described below: -- Drilling rig utilization - Operating Days (or "Drilling Rig Utilization") in Canada was 20% in the third quarter of 2016 compared to 26% in the third quarter of 2015, reflecting a 600 basis points ("bps") decrease. Third quarter 2016 Drilling Rig Utilization represented a premium of 300 bps to the Canadian Association of Oilwell Drilling Contractors ("CAODC") industry average of 17%, consistent with the 200 bps premium to the industry average realized in the third quarter of 2015. Despite the premium relative to the CAODC average in the third quarter of 2016, weather negatively impacted Drilling Rig Utilization. While 940 Operating Days were worked in the period, 227 Operating Days were lost relating to weather delays. Higher than average precipitation levels impact the Company's ability to move drilling rigs and work in certain locations. Additionally, increased competition in the third quarter of 2016 resulted in downward pricing pressure on all drilling rig classes, which reduced Operating Revenue per Revenue Day in the contract drilling segment in Canada by 28%, as compared to the third quarter of 2015; -- In the United States, the Company had two drilling rigs operating during the quarter, one of which was working on a long term contract, resulting in Drilling Rig Utilization of 32% in the third quarter of 2016, as compared to 19% in the same period of the prior year. Operating Revenue per Revenue Day in the United States decreased by 37% in the third quarter of 2016 due to downward pricing pressure, as well as the renegotiation of the day rate and extending the term on the long term contract; and -- Well servicing utilization of 24% in the third quarter of 2016 compared to 26% in the same period of the prior year. Reduced activity, due to the low commodity price environment and unseasonably wet weather in the quarter, coupled with a 15% decrease in well servicing hourly rates, due to pricing pressure in all areas, resulted in a $2.4 million (or 22%) decrease in well servicing Operating Revenue in the period. -- Third quarter Adjusted EBITDA decreased by $7.2 million to $0.9 million in 2016 as compared to $8.1 million in the third quarter of 2015. The year over year change in Adjusted EBITDA is due to lower utilization and pricing in both the contract drilling and production services segments, offset partially by cost reduction measures, including a reduced headcount year over year, wage reductions to all employees and other cost control measures. -- Administrative expenses, excluding depreciation and stock based compensation, in the third quarter of 2016 decreased by $1.4 million (or 23%) to $4.8 million as compared to $6.2 million in the third quarter of 2015. The decrease in administrative expenses is due to a reduced employee headcount, a 10% rollback to all salaried employee wages and directors' fees implemented in the first quarter of 2016, as well as additional cost control measures. -- The Company incurred a net loss of $17.0 million in the third quarter of 2016 (a loss of $0.23 per basic common share) as compared to a net loss of $76.8 million in the same period in 2015 (a loss of $1.04 per basic common share). The change in the third quarter net loss in 2016, relative to the third quarter of 2015, can be attributed to the following: -- A prior year goodwill impairment loss of $71.3 million recorded in the third quarter of 2015; and -- A $3.8 million decrease in income tax expense due to lower taxable income in the third quarter of 2016. -- Offsetting the above mentioned items are the following: -- An increase of $7.8 million in depreciation expense due to the Company changing from unit of production to straight line depreciation for drilling and well servicing rigs; and -- A $7.2 million decrease in Adjusted EBITDA due to lower utilization and pricing in both the contract drilling and production services segments. -- Third quarter 2016 capital expenditures of $0.7 million included $0.3 million of expansion capital and $0.4 million of maintenance capital. In total, capital spending in the third quarter of 2016 decreased by 86% from the $4.8 million incurred in the third quarter of 2015, as the Company is only incurring necessary maintenance capital to preserve cash during the current slowdown in oilfield service activity.

Year to Date Operating Results

-- Operating Revenue for the nine month period ended September 30, 2016 decreased by $100.7 million (or 57%) to $75.3 million in 2016, as compared to $176.0 million in the same period of the prior year. In the contract drilling segment, Operating Revenue totaled $49.9 million for the nine month period ended September 30, 2016 compared to $123.3 million in the same period of the prior year; while in the production services segment, year to date Operating Revenue totaled $25.4 million compared to $53.0 million in the same period of the prior year. Operating Revenue continued to be impacted by low commodity prices, as both crude oil and natural gas prices were lower year over year. Operating Revenue in the contract drilling and production services segments for the nine month period ended September 30, 2016 were impacted by lower utilization and pricing as described below: -- Drilling Rig Utilization in Canada of 14% for the nine month period ended September 30, 2016, compared to 28% for the nine month period ended September 30, 2015, reflects a 50% decrease. Drilling Rig Utilization on a year to date basis in 2016 represented a discount of 100 bps to the CAODC industry average of 15%, as compared to the 400 bps premium to the CAODC industry average realized in the nine month period ended September 30, 2015. The change in the Company's utilization relative to the CAODC industry average is partially due to a number of Western's customers who typically have substantial drilling programs, significantly cutting their capital spending in 2016. Additionally, changes in the industry rig mix, as competitors continue to decommission older and less competitive rigs in the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin ("WCSB"), and add rigs that directly compete with Western's drilling rig fleet, impacts Western's relative utilization as compared to the CAODC industry average. Lower activity and increased competition in the nine month period ended September 30, 2016 resulted in downward pricing pressure on all drilling rig classes, which reduced Operating Revenue per Revenue Day in the contract drilling segment in Canada by 28%, as compared to the same period of 2015; -- In the United States, Drilling Rig Utilization of 22% for the nine months ended September 30, 2016, compared to 32% in the same period of the prior year. Operating Revenue per Revenue Day in the United States decreased by 23% in the nine months ended September 30, 2016 due to renegotiating the day rate and extending the term on a long term contract, coupled with pricing pressure on spot market rates; and -- Well servicing utilization of 17% for the nine months ended September 30, 2016 compared to 31% in the same period of the prior year. Reduced activity as well as a 19% reduction in well servicing hourly rates, due to pricing pressure in all areas, resulted in a $24.6 million (or 55%) decrease in well servicing Operating Revenue in the period. -- Adjusted EBITDA for the nine months ended September 30, 2016 decreased by $50.7 million to $2.3 million, as compared to $53.0 million for the nine months ended September 30, 2015. The year over year decrease in Adjusted EBITDA is due to lower utilization and pricing in both the contract drilling and production services segments, offset by cost reduction measures, including a reduced headcount, wage reductions to all employees and other cost control measures. -- Year to date administrative expenses, excluding depreciation and stock based compensation, for the nine month period ended September 30, 2016 decreased by $4.6 million (or 24%) to $15.0 million as compared to $19.6 million in the same period of the prior year. The decrease in administrative expenses is due to a reduced employee headcount, a 10% rollback to all salaried employee wages and directors' fees implemented in the first quarter of 2016, coupled with additional cost control measures. -- As a result of the Company's review of estimated useful lives and methodology for depreciating its drilling and well service rig fleet and related equipment, effective April 1, 2016, Western changed the method for depreciating its drilling and well service rigs and related equipment from unit of production to straight line and changed certain estimates related to useful lives and salvage values. The change in depreciation methodology reflects the technological developments within the industry. The Company expects that straight line depreciation will better reflect the future economic benefit related to these assets, which are expected to depreciate over time instead of on a unit of production basis. Additionally, the change will result in idle or underutilized assets being depreciated more quickly in periods of low activity, better reflecting the cyclical nature of the oilfield service industry. These adjustments were applied prospectively and resulted in an increase of approximately $8.6 million and $22.1 million respectively, of additional depreciation expense for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2016 over what would have been expensed had the previous assumptions using the unit of production methodology continued to be used in the periods. The estimated additional depreciation expense for the year ending December 31, 2016 from this change is expected to be approximately $29.1 million. -- During the second quarter of 2016, the Company decommissioned one of its Cardium class drilling rigs, resulting in a loss on asset decommissioning of $5.2 million, and as a result at September 30, 2016 Horizon had a fleet of 51 drilling rigs. -- The Company incurred a net loss of $47.5 million for the nine months ended September 30, 2016 (a loss of $0.64 per basic common share) as compared to a net loss of $74.1 million for the same period in 2015 (a loss of $1.00 per basic common share). The change in net loss in 2016 can be attributed to the following: -- A prior year goodwill impairment loss of $71.3 million recorded in the third quarter of 2015; and -- A $25.5 million decrease in income tax expense due to lower taxable income for the nine months ended September 30, 2016, along with the impact of the Alberta corporate tax rate increase in 2015, which increased income tax expense in the prior period by approximately $6.0 million. -- Offsetting the above mentioned items are the following: -- A $50.7 million decrease in Adjusted EBITDA due to lower utilization and pricing in both the contract drilling and production services segments; -- An increase of $12.2 million in depreciation expense due to the Company changing from unit of production to straight line depreciation for drilling and well servicing rigs in the second quarter of 2016; -- Losses on asset decommissioning of $5.2 million in the contract drilling segment recorded in the second quarter of 2016; and -- A $2.0 million increase in finance costs, due to lower capitalized interest as a result of the completion of the 2014 rig build program in the prior period. -- Year to date capital expenditures of $2.0 million included $0.9 million of expansion capital and $1.1 million of maintenance capital. In total, capital spending for the nine months ended September 30, 2016 decreased by 93% from the $30.3 million incurred in the same period of 2015, as the Company is only incurring necessary maintenance capital to preserve cash during the current slowdown in oilfield service activity. -- On April 27, 2016, the Company amended the covenants and elected to reduce its syndicated revolving credit facility (the "Revolving Facility") from $175.0 million to $40.0 million and reduced its previously uncommitted operating demand revolving loan of $20.0 million to a committed operating line (the "Operating Facility") totaling $10.0 million. Western's decision to reduce its Revolving and Operating Facilities (the "Credit Facilities") is estimated to save the Company $1.5 million in standby fees annually. On July 25, 2016, the Company added a lender to its syndicated Revolving Facility and increased the amount available by $10.0 million to $50.0 million, from $40.0 million previously.

Selected Financial Information ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- (stated in thousands, except share and per share amounts) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Three months ended Sept 30 Nine months ended Sept 30 Financial Highlights 2016 2015Change 2016 2015 Change ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Revenue 32,485 46,959 (31%) 79,312 184,846 (57%) Operating Revenue(1) 30,665 44,350 (31%) 75,258 176,027 (57%) Gross Margin(1) 5,685 14,285 (60%) 17,255 72,579 (76%) Gross Margin as a percentage of Operating Revenue 19% 32% (41%) 23% 41% (44%) Adjusted EBITDA(1) 896 8,080 (89%) 2,269 52,972 (96%) Adjusted EBITDA as a percentage of Operating Revenue 3% 18% (83%) 3% 30% (90%) Cash flow from operating activities 909 (530)(272%) 17,958 79,816 (78%) Capital expenditures 651 4,752 (86%) 1,995 30,303 (93%) Net loss (16,973) (76,816) (78%) (47,464) (74,129) (36%) -basic net loss per share (0.23) (1.04) (78%) (0.64) (1.00) (36%) -diluted net loss per share (0.23) (1.04) (78%) (0.64) (1.00) (36%) Weighted average number of shares -basic 73,722,144 74,044,832 - 73,672,389 74,434,833 (1%) -diluted 73,722,144 74,044,832 - 73,672,389 74,434,833 (1%) Outstanding common shares as at period end 73,795,266 73,684,965 - 73,795,266 73,684,965 - Dividends declared - 5,526(100%) - 16,710 (100%) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- (1) See "Non-IFRS measures" included in this press release. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Three months ended Sept 30 Nine months ended Sept 30 Operating Highlights 2016 2015Change 2016 2015 Change ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Contract Drilling Canadian Operations: Contract drilling rig fleet: -Average 51 50 2% 52 49 6% -End of period 51 52 (2%) 51 52 (2%) Operating Revenue per Revenue Day(1) 15,256 21,135 (28%) 17,206(3) 23,815 (28%) Operating Revenue per Operating Day(1) 17,017 23,220 (27%) 19,224(3) 26,221 (27%) Operating Days(1) 940 1,176 (20%) 1,959 3,793 (48%) Drilling rig utilization - Revenue Days(1) 22% 28% (21%) 15% 31% (52%) Drilling rig utilization - Operating Days(1) 20% 26% (23%) 14% 28% (50%) CAODC industry average utilization(1)(2) 17% 24% (29%) 15% 24% (38%) United States Operations: Contract drilling rig fleet: -Average 5 5 - 5 5 - -End of period 5 5 - 5 5 - Operating Revenue per Revenue Day (US$)(1) 18,967 30,260 (37%) 22,515 29,140(4) (23%) Operating Revenue per Operating Day (US$)(1) 22,246 32,341 (31%) 25,923 32,967(4) (21%) Operating Days(1) 145 86 69% 306 442 (31%) Drilling rig utilization - Revenue Days(1) 37% 20% 85% 26% 37% (30%) Drilling rig utilization - Operating Days(1) 32% 19% 68% 22% 32% (31%) Production Services Well servicing rig fleet: -Average 66 66 - 66 66 - -End of period 66 66 - 66 66 - Service Rig Operating Revenue per Service Hour(1) 603 712 (15%) 646 799 (19%) Service Hours(1) 14,335 15,565 (8%) 31,123 55,873 (44%) Service rig utilization(1) 24% 26% (8%) 17% 31% (45%) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- (1) See "Non-IFRS measures" included in this press release. (2) Source: The Canadian Association of Oilwell Drilling Contractors ("CAODC"). The CAODC industry average is based on Operating Days divided by total available days. (3) Excludes shortfall commitment revenue from take or pay contracts of $1.8 million for the nine months ended September 30, 2016. (4) Excludes shortfall commitment and standby revenue from take or pay contracts of US$4.5 million for the nine months ended September 30, 2015. Financial Position at (stated in thousands) Sept 30, 2016 Sept 30, 2015 Dec 31, 2015 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Working capital 55,259 71,735 70,679 Property and equipment 720,554 843,670 773,647 Total assets 794,170 947,137 876,608 Long term debt 264,118 264,219 264,155 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Western is an oilfield service company focused on three core business lines: contract drilling, well servicing and oilfield rental equipment services. Western provides contract drilling services through its division, Horizon Drilling ("Horizon") in Canada, and its wholly owned subsidiary, Stoneham Drilling Corporation ("Stoneham") in the United States ("US"). On December 28, 2015, Western wound up its partnership, Western Energy Services Partnership (the "Partnership"), and rolled all of the Partnership's assets into IROC Drilling and Production Services Corp., which then changed its name to Western Production Services Corp. ("Western Production Services"). As a result, Western now provides well servicing operations in Canada through Western Production Services' division, Eagle Well Servicing ("Eagle") and oilfield rental equipment services in Canada through Western Production Services' division, Aero Rental Services ("Aero"). Financial and operating results for Horizon and Stoneham are included in Western's contract drilling segment, while Eagle and Aero's financial and operating results are included in Western's production services segment.

Western currently has a drilling rig fleet of 56 rigs specifically suited for drilling horizontal wells of increased complexity. Western is the sixth largest drilling contractor in Canada with a fleet of 51 rigs operating through Horizon. Of the Canadian fleet, 24 are classified as Cardium class rigs, 19 as Montney class rigs and eight as Duvernay class rigs. As compared to the Cardium classified rigs, the Montney class rigs have a larger hookload, while the Duvernay class rigs have the largest hookload allowing the rig to support more drill pipe downhole. Additionally, Western has five Duvernay class triple drilling rigs deployed in the United States operating through Stoneham. Western is also the fourth largest well servicing company in Canada with a fleet of 66 rigs operating through Eagle. Western's oilfield rental equipment division, which operates through Aero, provides oilfield rental equipment for hydraulic fracturing services, well completions and production work, coil tubing and drilling services.

Crude oil and natural gas prices impact the cash flow of Western's customers, which in turn impacts the demand for Western's services. Overall performance of the Company for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2016 continued to be impacted by the low crude oil and natural gas price environment. WTI on average remained relatively constant in the third quarter of 2016 as compared to the second quarter of 2016, decreasing by 1%, and was 3% and 19% lower for the three and nine months ending September 30, 2016 respectively, as compared to the same periods in the prior year. Canadian natural gas prices, such as AECO, increased significantly quarter over quarter, increasing on average by 70% from the second quarter of 2016 to the third quarter of 2016. However AECO remained 18% and 33% lower for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2016 respectively, as compared to the same periods of the prior year. The following table summarizes average crude oil and natural gas prices, as well as average foreign exchange rates for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2016 and 2015.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Three months ended Nine months ended Sept 30 Sept 30 2016 2015 Change 2016 2015 Change ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Average crude oil and natural gas prices(1)(2) Crude Oil West Texas Intermediate (US$/bbl) 44.88 46.43 (3%) 41.44 50.96 (19%) Western Canadian Select (CDN$/bbl) 40.00 43.26 (8%) 37.09 47.72 (22%) Natural Gas 30 day Spot AECO (CDN$/mcf) 2.38 2.91 (18%) 1.86 2.78 (33%) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Average foreign exchange rates(2) US dollar to Canadian dollar 1.30 1.31 (1%) 1.32 1.26 5% ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- (1) See "Abbreviations" included in this press release. (2) Source: Bloomberg

The significant reduction in commodity prices has led to a corresponding decrease in the demand for oilfield services in both Canada and the United States. The CAODC reported that for drilling in Canada, the total number of Operating Days in the WCSB decreased approximately 38% and 43% respectively, for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2016, as compared to the three and nine months ended September 30, 2015. Similarly, as reported by Baker Hughes Incorporated, the number of active drilling rigs in the United States decreased approximately 45% and 54% for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2016 respectively, as compared to the same periods in the prior year.

Outlook

Currently, 15 of Western's drilling rigs are operating and three of Western's 56 drilling rigs (or 5%) are under long term take or pay contracts, with two of these contracts expected to expire in 2017, and one expected to expire in 2018. These contracts each typically generate between 250 and 350 Revenue Days per year.

Western's capital budget for 2016 of $7 million remains unchanged, with $3 million allocated for expansion capital and $4 million for maintenance capital. Western believes the 2016 capital budget provides a prudent use of cash resources and will allow it to maintain its premier drilling and well servicing rig fleets, while remaining responsive to customer requirements. Western will continue to manage its operations in a disciplined manner and make any required adjustments to its capital program as customer demand changes.

Since hitting 10 year lows in the first quarter of 2016, commodity prices, while remaining well below previous highs, have improved significantly, particularly since August 2016. As such, North American drilling rig counts appear to have bottomed out and the Company is expecting improved year over year activity levels in the fourth quarter of 2016. However, the Company expects pricing pressure will continue to be challenging as activity levels begin to recover. As at September 30, 2016, the Company had 16 drilling rigs operating in Canada and the United States, representing combined utilization of 29%; since that time, activity has remained steady and at October 25, 2016, the Company has 15 drilling rigs operating in Canada and the United States, with a full complement of experienced crews. Lower than normal activity levels and pricing pressure will continue to impact Western's Adjusted EBITDA and cash flow from operating activities if low commodity prices persist. As discussed, the Company has taken a proactive approach to reducing administrative and fixed overhead costs including reducing fixed headcount since the beginning of 2015 by a third and implementing a 10% companywide wage rollback to salaried employees and directors' fees in the first quarter of 2016, as well as reducing various other office related costs. In addition, Western's variable cost structure, the previously announced suspension of the Company's quarterly dividend and a prudent capital budget will aid in preserving balance sheet strength. In addition to $47.0 million in cash and cash equivalents at September 30, 2016, Western has $60.0 million undrawn on the Company's Credit Facilities, which do not mature until December 17, 2018 and no principal repayments due on the $265.0 million senior unsecured notes (the "Senior Notes") until they mature on January 30, 2019.

Oilfield service activity in Canada will be impacted by the development of resource plays in Alberta and northeast British Columbia including those related to liquefied natural gas projects, increased crude oil transportation capacity through rail and pipeline development and foreign investment into Canada. Currently, the largest challenges facing the oilfield service industry are customer spending constraints as a result of lower commodity prices and the increasing challenge of staffing field crews, particularly in the well servicing division. Western's view is that its modern drilling and well servicing rig fleets, reputation, and disciplined cash management provide a competitive advantage which will enable the Company to manage through the current slowdown in oilfield service activity.

Non-IFRS Measures

Western uses certain measures in this press release which do not have any standardized meaning as prescribed by International Financial Reporting Standards ("IFRS"). These measures, which are derived from information reported in the condensed consolidated financial statements, may not be comparable to similar measures presented by other reporting issuers. These measures have been described and presented in this press release in order to provide shareholders and potential investors with additional information regarding the Company. These Non-IFRS measures are identified and defined as follows:

Operating Revenue

Management believes that in addition to revenue, Operating Revenue is a useful supplemental measure as it provides an indication of the revenue generated by Western's principal operating activities, excluding flow through third party charges such as rig fuel, which at the customer's request may be paid for initially by Western, then recharged in its entirety to Western's customers.

Gross Margin

Management believes that in addition to net income, Gross Margin is a useful supplemental measure as it provides an indication of the results generated by Western's principal operating activities prior to considering administrative expenses, depreciation and amortization, how those activities are financed, the impact of foreign exchange, how the results are taxed, how funds are invested, and how non-cash items and one-time gains and losses affect results.

The following table provides a reconciliation of revenue under IFRS, as disclosed in the condensed consolidated statements of operations and comprehensive income, to Operating Revenue and Gross Margin:

---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Three months ended Nine months ended Sept 30 Sept 30 (stated in thousands) 2016 2015 2016 2015 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Operating Revenue Drilling 20,210 30,921 49,922 123,274 Production Services 10,460 13,448 25,354 53,025 Less: inter-company eliminations (5) (19) (18) (272) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 30,665 44,350 75,258 176,027 Third party charges 1,820 2,609 4,054 8,819 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Revenue 32,485 46,959 79,312 184,846 Less: operating expenses (43,601) (41,684) (103,904) (141,869) Add: Depreciation - operating 16,712 8,791 41,352 29,040 Stock based compensation - operating 89 219 495 562 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Gross Margin 5,685 14,285 17,255 72,579 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Adjusted EBITDA

Management believes that in addition to net income, earnings before interest and finance costs, taxes, depreciation and amortization, other non-cash items and one-time gains and losses ("Adjusted EBITDA") is a useful supplemental measure as it provides an indication of the results generated by the Company's principal operating segments similar to Gross Margin but also factors in the cash administrative expenses incurred in the period.

Operating Earnings

Management believes that in addition to net income, Operating Earnings is a useful supplemental measure as it provides an indication of the results generated by the Company's principal operating segments similar to Adjusted EBITDA but also factors in the depreciation expense incurred in the period.

The following table provides a reconciliation of net income under IFRS, as disclosed in the condensed consolidated statements of operations and comprehensive income, to earnings before interest and finance costs, taxes, depreciation and amortization ("EBITDA"), Adjusted EBITDA and Operating Earnings (Loss):

---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Three months ended Nine months ended Sept 30 Sept 30 (stated in thousands) 2016 2015 2016 2015 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Net loss (16,973) (76,816) (47,464) (74,129) Add: Finance costs 5,708 5,508 17,044 15,029 Income tax expense (recovery) (6,043) (2,247) (16,772) 8,725 Depreciation - operating 16,712 8,791 41,352 29,040 Depreciation - administrative 378 464 1,204 1,378 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- EBITDA (218) (64,300) (4,636) (19,957) Add: Stock based compensation - operating 89 219 495 562 Stock based compensation - administrative 759 980 2,651 2,599 Impairment loss on goodwill - 71,256 - 71,256 Loss on asset decommissioning - - 5,225 - Other items 266 (75) (1,466) (1,488) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Adjusted EBITDA 896 8,080 2,269 52,972 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subtract: Depreciation - operating (16,712) (8,791) (41,352) (29,040) Depreciation - administrative (378) (464) (1,204) (1,378) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Operating Earnings (Loss) (16,194) (1,175) (40,287) 22,554 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Net Debt

The following table provides a reconciliation of long term debt under IFRS, as disclosed in the condensed consolidated balance sheets to Net Debt:

---------------------------------------------------------------------------- (stated in thousands) September 30, 2016 December 31, 2015 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Long term debt 264,118 264,155 Current portion of long term debt 634 761 Less: cash and cash equivalents (47,016) (58,445) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Net Debt 217,736 206,471 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Drilling rig utilization - Operating Days (or: "Drilling Rig Utilization"): Calculated based on Operating Days divided by total available days.

Drilling rig utilization - Revenue Days: Calculated based on Revenue Days divided by total available days.

Operating Days: Defined as contract drilling days, calculated on a spud to rig release basis.

Revenue Days: Defined as Operating Days plus rig mobilization days.

Service Hours: Defined as well servicing hours completed.

Service rig utilization: Calculated based on Service Hours divided by available hours, being 10 hours per day, per well servicing rig, 366 days per year in 2016 (2015: 365 days).

Contract Drilling Rig Classifications

Cardium class rig: Defined as any contract drilling rig which has a total hookload less than or equal to 399,999 lbs (or 177,999 daN).

Montney class rig: Defined as any contract drilling rig which has a total hookload between 400,000 lbs (or 178,000 daN) and 499,999 lbs (or 221,999 daN).

Duvernay class rig: Defined as any contract drilling rig which has a total hookload equal to or greater than 500,000 lbs (or 222,000 daN).

Abbreviations:

-- Barrel ("bbl"); -- Basis point ("bps"): A 1% change equals 100 basis points and a 0.01% change is equal to one basis point; -- Canadian Association of Oilwell Drilling Contractors ("CAODC"); -- DecaNewton ("daN"); -- International Financial Reporting Standards ("IFRS"); -- Pounds ("lbs"); -- Thousand cubic feet ("mcf"); -- West Texas Intermediate ("WTI"); -- Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin ("WCSB"); and -- Western Canadian Select ("WCS").

2016 Third Quarter Results Conference Call and Webcast

Western has scheduled a conference call and webcast to begin at 10:00 a.m. MDT (12:00 p.m. EDT) on Wednesday, October 26, 2016.

The conference call dial-in number is 1-800-769-8320.

A live webcast of the conference call will be accessible on Western's website at www.wesc.ca by selecting "Investors", then "Webcasts". Shortly after the live webcast, an archived version will be available for approximately 14 days.

An archived recording of the conference call will also be available approximately one hour after the completion of the call until November 9, 2016 by dialing 1-800-408-3053 or 905-694-9451, passcode 7725844.

Forward-Looking Statements and Information

This press release contains certain statements or disclosures relating to Western that are based on the expectations of Western as well as assumptions made by and information currently available to Western which may constitute forward-looking information under applicable securities laws. All such statements and disclosures, other than those of historical fact, which address activities, events, outcomes, results or developments that Western anticipates or expects may, or will occur in the future (in whole or part) should be considered forward-looking information. In some cases forward-looking information can be identified by terms such as "forecast", "future", "may", "will", "expect", "anticipate", "believe", "potential", "enable", "plan", "continue", "contemplate", "pro forma", or other comparable terminology.

In particular, forward-looking information in this press release includes, but is not limited to, statements relating to future declaration of dividends; commodity pricing; the future demand for and utilization of the Company's services and equipment; the terms of existing and future drilling contracts in Canada and the US and the revenue resulting therefrom (including the number of Operating Days typically generated from the Company's contracts); the Company's expansion and maintenance capital plans for 2016; the Company's liquidity needs including the ability of current capital resources to cover Western's financial obligations and the 2016 capital budget; the Company's expected sources of funding to support such capital plans and the Company's ability to adjust capital spending for the remainder of 2016 if market conditions, including customer demand changes; the expected benefits from cost control measures; the use and availability of the Company's Credit Facilities; the Company's ability to maintain certain covenants under its Credit Facility; expectations as to the increase in crude oil transportation capacity through rail and pipeline development; expectations as to the necessary approvals for liquefied natural gas projects being obtained; the expectation of continued foreign investment into the Canadian crude oil and natural gas industry; the expectation that producer spending constraints will continue to be a large challenge facing the Company in 2016; and the Company's change to its depreciation assumptions.

The material assumptions in making the forward-looking statements in this press release include, but are not limited to, assumptions relating to, demand levels and pricing for oilfield services; fluctuations in the price and demand for crude oil and natural gas; the continued low levels of and pressures on commodity pricing; the continued business relationship between the Company and its significant customers; general economic and financial market conditions; the development of liquefied natural gas projects, crude oil transport and pipeline approval and development; the Company's ability to finance its operations; the effects of seasonal and weather conditions on operations and facilities; the competitive environment to which the various business segments are, or may be, exposed in all aspects of their business; the ability of the Company's various business segments to access equipment (including spare parts and new technologies); changes in laws or regulations; currency exchange fluctuations; the ability of the Company to attract and retain skilled labour and qualified management; the ability to retain and attract significant customers; and other unforeseen conditions which could impact the use of services supplied by Western including Western's ability to respond to such conditions.

Although Western believes that the expectations and assumptions on which such forward-looking statements and information are based on are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on the forward-looking statements and information as Western cannot give any assurance that they will prove to be correct. Since forward-looking statements and information address future events and conditions, by their very nature they involve inherent risks and uncertainties. Actual results could differ materially from those currently anticipated due to a number of factors and risks. These include, but are not limited to, the risk that the demand for oilfield services will not improve for the remainder of 2016 and that commodity prices will remain low, and other general industry, economic, market and business conditions. Readers are cautioned that the foregoing list of risks, uncertainties and assumptions are not exhaustive. Additional information on these and other risk factors that could affect Western's operations and financial results are included in Western's annual information form which may be accessed through the SEDAR website at www.sedar.com. The forward-looking statements and information contained in this press release are made as of the date hereof and Western does not undertake any obligation to update publicly or revise any forward-looking statements and information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, unless so required by applicable securities laws.

Contacts:

Western Energy Services Corp.

Alex R.N. MacAusland

President and CEO

403.984.5916

403.984.5917 (FAX)



Western Energy Services Corp.

Jeffrey K. Bowers

Senior VP Finance and CFO

403.984.5916

403.984.5917 (FAX)

www.wesc.ca




TORONTO, ONTARIO -- (Marketwired) -- 12/19/16 -- Grenville Strategic Royalty Corp. (TSX VENTURE: GRC) ("Grenville"), along with partners Foregrowth Holdco Inc. ("Foregrowth") and Darwin Strategic Royalty Corp. ("Darwin"), is pleased to announce that it has contracted for a gross sales royalty from Factor75, LLC ("Factor 75") in exchange for an advance of $500,000 USD. As part of the joint venture agreements with Foregrowth and Darwin, Grenville will fund $250,000 USD of the investment, while Foregrowth and Darwin will each fund $125,000 USD. Investors will receive a royalty based on Factor 75's gross revenue within Grenville's average royalty rate of between 1% and 4%.

Based in Chicago, Illinois, Factor 75 is a performance nutrition company dedicated to optimizing people's lives, by providing them with more time, energy and a fresh perspective on how to live. Crafted by leading nutritionists and chefs, Factor 75 uses the highest quality ingredients in its meals coupled with culinary excellence to provide customers with optimal nutrition and exceptional taste.

Factor 75 Chief Executive Officer, Nick Wernimont, commented, "Partnering with Grenville provides Factor 75 with the capital for our next phase of growth and to meet the rapidly growing demand for our product. We look forward to working with Grenville to build and strengthen our company further."

Grenville CEO Steve Parry, says of the new investment, "This is an exciting investment for Grenville and our joint venture partners. Factor 75 brings its customers a transformative product and we're excited to be part of the company's expansion and development."

About Factor 75

Factor 75, an online personalized chef service based in Chicago, prepares and delivers meals throughout the United States. Our meals are specially designed by a team of nutritionists and chefs to provide an optimal balance of nutrition and taste to enhance performance in all aspects of your life. Our name is based on research showing 75% or more of your fitness results come from what you eat. Factor 75 is about outsourcing your nutrition so you can spend more time doing the activities you love while still enjoying and feeling good about what you eat.

About Grenville

Based in Toronto, Grenville Strategic Royalty Corp. is a publicly-traded royalty company that makes investments in established businesses with revenues of up to $50 million dollars. Grenville generates revenues from royalty payments and buyouts from contracts. The non-dilutive royalty financing structure offered by Grenville competes directly with traditional equity to meet the long-term financing needs of companies on more attractive commercial terms.

Forward-Looking Information and Statements

This press release contains certain "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation and may also contain statements that may constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the safe harbor provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward-looking information and forward-looking statements are not representative of historical facts or information or current condition, but instead represent only the Company's beliefs regarding future events, plans or objectives, many of which, by their nature, are inherently uncertain and outside of the Company's control. Generally, such forward-looking information or forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "plans", "expects" or "does not expect", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate", or "believes", or variations of such words and phrases or may contain statements that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will be taken", "will continue", "will occur" or "will be achieved". The forward-looking information contained herein may include, but is not limited to, information with respect to: prospective financial performance, including the performance of the joint ventures referenced herein; including the Company's opinion regarding the current and future performance of its portfolio, expenses and operations; anticipated cash needs and need for additional financing; anticipated funding sources; future growth plans; royalty acquisition targets and proposed or completed royalty transactions; estimated operating costs; estimated market drivers and demand; business prospects and strategy; anticipated trends and challenges in the Company's business and the markets in which it operates; the Company's ability to pay dividends in the future and the timing and amount of those dividends;; and the Company's financial position. By identifying such information and statements in this manner, the Company is alerting the reader that such information and statements are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such information and statements.

An investment in securities of the Company is speculative and subject to a number of risks including, without limitation, risks relating to: the need for additional financing; the relative speculative and illiquid nature of an investment in the Company; the volatility of the Company's share price; the Company's limited operating history; the Company's ability to generate sufficient revenues; the Company's ability to manage future growth; the limited diversification in the Company's existing investments; the Company's ability to negotiate additional royalty purchases from new investee companies; the Company's dependence on the operations, assets and financial health of its investee companies; the Company's ability to successfully manage its joint venture relationships; the Company's limited ability to exercise control or direction over investee companies; potential defaults by investee companies and the unsecured nature of the Company's investments; the Company's ability to enforce on any default by an investee company; competition with other investment entities; tax matters, including the potential impact of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act on the Company; the potential impact of the Company being classified as a Passive Foreign Investment Company ("PFIC"); the Company's ability to pay dividends in the future and the timing and amount of those dividends; reliance on key personnel, particularly the Company's founders; dilution of shareholders' interest through future financings; and general economic and political conditions; as well as the risks discussed under the heading "Risk Factors" on pages 16 to 22 of the Annual Information Form of the Company dated February 11, 2015 and the risks discussed herein. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking information and forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended.

In connection with the forward-looking information and forward-looking statements contained in this press release, the Company has made certain assumptions. Assumptions about the performance of the Canadian and U.S. economies over the next 24 months and how that will affect the Company's business and its ability to identify and close new opportunities with new investees are material factors that the Company considered when setting its strategic priorities and objectives, and its outlook for its business.

Key assumptions include, but are not limited to: assumptions that the Canadian and U.S. economies relevant to the Company's investment focus will remain relatively stable over the next 12 to 24 months; that interest rates will not increase dramatically over the next 12 to 24 months; that the Company's existing investees will continue to make royalty payments to the Company as and when required; that the businesses of the Company's investees will not experience material negative results; that the Company will continue to grow its portfolio in a manner similar to what has already been established; that tax rates and tax laws will not change significantly in Canada and the U.S.; that more small to medium private and public companies will continue to require access to alternative sources of capital; that the Company will have the ability to raise required equity and/or debt financing on acceptable terms; and that the Company will have sufficient free cash flow to pay dividends. The Company has also assumed that access to the capital markets will remain relatively stable, that the capital markets will perform with normal levels of volatility and that the Canadian dollar will not have a high amount of volatility relative to the U.S. dollar. In determining expectations for economic growth, the Company primarily considers historical economic data provided by the Canadian and U.S. governments and their agencies. Although the Company believes that the assumptions and factors used in preparing, and the expectations contained in, the forward-looking information and statements are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on such information and statements, and no assurance or guarantee can be given that such forward-looking information and statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such information and statements.

The forward-looking information and forward-looking statements contained in this PRESS RELEASE are made as of the date of this PRESS RELEASE, and the Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking information and/or forward-looking statements that are contained or referenced herein, except in accordance with applicable securities laws. All subsequent written and oral forward- looking information and statements attributable to the Company or persons acting on its behalf is expressly qualified in its entirety by this notice.

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Contacts:

Grenville Strategic Royalty Corp.

Steven Parry

Chief Executive Officer

(416) 777-0383






ROME (dpa-AFX) - Italian banking giant UniCredit (UCG, UNCFF.PK) is considering tapping shareholders for as much as 5 billion euros and selling its entire stake in Poland's Bank Pekao SA, the country's second-biggest bank, to raise capital, Bloomberg reported citing people familiar the matter.



The report noted that the Chief Executive Officer Jean Pierre Mustier is looking at measures including a full exit from Poland as well as a disposal of online lender FinecoBank SpA. UniCredit is also mulling a sale of a large share of its bad loan portfolio in Italy. No final decisions have been made and the plan could still change.



Separately, UniCredit said that its Board approved a new organisational structure aimed at simplifying the Group, establishing a more efficient operational set-up, clarifying roles and responsibilities of senior management and bolstering accountability through shorter reporting and decision making lines.



The new structure will involve the reduction of the number of CEO direct reports, with the CEO focusing on the group's strategy, risks and costs structure. As such, he will retain direct oversight of strategy, risk management, compliance, human resources, as well as operating activities.



All business related activities across the Group will be under the responsibility of GianniFranco Papa, currently Deputy General Manager of UniCredit and Head of the Corporate and Investment Banking division, who will take up an expanded and strengthened General Manager role, with the primary focus on developing further UniCredit's client offer, maximizing cross-selling and value creation throughout UniCredit's different divisions and areas of activities as well as driving the digital strategy and the change of the bank's services model.



Operating activities will be lead by newly appointed co-Chief Operating Officers, Ranieri de Marchis, currently Head of Internal Audit, and Francesco Giordano, currently Chief Financial Officer of HVB, who will both report to the CEO. Their explicit brief will be to transform the operating model of the Group, to reduce costs, streamline and simplify processes and procedures and to instill greater accountability and transparency at all levels.



de Marchis will take charge of IT and operational activities, security and internal control systems, whilst Mr Giordano will have specific responsibility for cost management, purchasing, real estate and all finance functions. The latter will be lead by Mirko Bianchi, currently CFO of UniCredit Bank Austria, who becomes Group CFO. Ranieri de Marchis and Francesco Giordano will jointly supervise the strategic planning and rationalization of the IT development program, working closely with the different operational units to respond to business critical needs.



Also reporting directly to the CEO is Marina Natale, who will head the Strategy and M&A team for the period of the strategic review.



Gianfranco Bisagni and Olivier Khayat, currently Deputy co-Heads of the CIB division are promoted to co-Heads of CIB, which will continue its successful development and reinforce its European leadership in capital markets and global transaction banking. Gianfranco Bisagni and Olivier Khayat will keep on reporting to GianniFranco Papa.



All the above appointments will become effective on 1 September 2016.



As previously announced TJ Lim, previously Global Head of Markets, has been appointed Group Deputy Risk Officer to ensure a proactive approach to the management of UniCredit's non-core credit portfolio. Mr Lim is reporting to Massimiliano Fossati, UniCredit Group Chief Risk Officer.



Gabriele Piccini will be stepping down from his role as head of Italy and take up another position within the Group.



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Latest Image Generator Software Release Brings a Wealth of New Capability Including a Free Use Mode

MILPITAS, California, July 27, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Quantum3D, Inc., a leading provider of training and simulation solutions for government and commercial applications, today announced the release of MANTIS version 3.3, a significant new upgrade to its award-winning Image Generation software. Along with several improvements in functionality, MANTIS 3.3 for the first time comes with a Free Use mode which allows anyone to experiment with MANTIS free of charge with no expiration date.

MANTIS 3.3 introduces a number of new capabilities, including:

Free Use mode: Allows use of MANTIS without a paid license for ease of evaluation, integration, testing, content development, and other non-production tasks. Also included is the ability to run most of the optional plug-ins MANTIS has to offer, which provide a wealth of advanced visualization capabilities

Increased number of spot lights and omni-directional lights, also with added support for these light types in ViXsen sensor channels, and improved appearance of light points to enhance Level-D airport runway visualization

Improved performance and capability of DI-Guy animated character option

Advanced Weather plug-in GUI now supports setting of storm parameters

Native support for domeprojection.com ProjectionTools runtime software

And many more improvements

For more details on the new capabilities of MANTIS 3.3, visit http://quantum3d.com/mantis-3-3/

"MANTIS is now available to everyone," said Jan Bjernfalk, VP of Products, Quantum3D. "Researchers, labs, students, and hobbyists alike can now harness the power of the world's most powerful real time image generation software."

This new release of MANTIS is available to customers today and will be included with the new Independence IDX 80 system which will begin shipping in late summer 2016, as well as with Quantum3D's flagship IDX 8000 system. For anyone wishing to evaluate MANTIS in the Free Use mode, please contact sales@quantum3d.com for details and assistance.

About Quantum3D

Quantum3D, Inc. is a leading developer and provider of simulation and training solutions as well as the technology that drives them. Quantum3D combines the most advanced hardware and software systems for simulation in a variety of markets and implementations - flight simulation; land and other vehicle training; synthetic environments and construction tools; sensor simulation; and other COTS-based solutions.

Quantum3D is a privately-held company headquartered in Milpitas, California. Quantum3D recently announced that it is the process of being acquired by HAVELSAN, a major global software and systems provider based in Ankara, Turkey. This acquisition is anticipated to complete by mid-2016.

For more information about Quantum3D training and simulation solutions, please visit www.quantum3d.com.

Quantum3D, the Quantum3D logo, Independence, ViXsen, and MANTIS are registered trademarks of Quantum3D. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
Regulatory News:

Continued global expansion in challenging business environment

Operating margin (EBIT adj.) of 17.6% (18.8) with improvements in all business areas except Industrial Equipment

Adjusted for Johan Sverdrup order in Q2 2015, underlying growth in order intake of +7%

Continued strong growth in order intake in Construction Equipment, +58%

Second quarter

Order intake decreased by 18% to 543 MSEK (663). In local currencies, the decrease was 15%.

Revenues decreased by 5% to 525 MSEK (552). In local currencies, the decrease was 2%.

Operating profit (EBIT) was 92 MSEK (54).

Operating profit (EBIT) before items affecting comparability was 92 MSEK (104). In local currencies, EBIT was 93 MSEK (104).

Operating margin (EBIT) before items affecting comparability was 17.6% (18.8). In local currencies, the operating margin was 17.2% (18.8).

Net profit amounted to 65 MSEK (22)

Earnings per share at 1.51 SEK (0.51).

Cash flow from operating activities increased to 67 MSEK (42).

January-june 2016

Order intake decreased by 7% to 1,113 MSEK (1,199). In local currencies, the decrease was 5%.

Revenues decreased by 3% to 980 MSEK (1,014). In local currencies, the decrease was 1%.

Operating profit (EBIT) was 152 MSEK (126).

Operating profit (EBIT) before items affecting comparability was 152 MSEK (180). In local currencies, EBIT was 154 MSEK (180).

Operating margin (EBIT percentage) before items affecting comparability was 15.5% (17.7). In local currencies, the operating margin was 15.3% (17.7).

Earnings per share at 2.18 SEK (0.62).

Cash flow from operating activities increased to 97 MSEK (55).

Press and analyst conference

A press and analyst telephone and web conference will be held on Wednesday 27 July at 10.00 CET. CEO Tormod Gunleiksrud and CFO Stefan Rinaldo will present and comment on the report.

SE: +46 8 566 42 699

UK: +44 20 300 898 07

The presentation can also be followed via webcast

https://wonderland.videosync.fi/2016-07-27-alimakgroup-q2report

This information in this release is such that Alimak Group AB is obliged to make public pursuant to the EU Market Abuse Regulation and the Securities Markets Act. The information was submitted for publication, through the agency of the contact person set out above, at 08.00 CET on July 27, 2016.

About Alimak Group

Alimak is a global market leader and a pioneer in designing, developing, manufacturing, distributing and servicing industrial vertical access solutions. The company provides high quality hoists, elevators and platforms primarily for the industrial and construction sectors. Alimak has a global sales, services and distribution platform across more than 70 countries with strong market positions. The company has a well-established and highly resilient aftersales business and its large global installed base of close to 22,000 units provides unique know-how into its customer's needs. Alimak was founded in 1948, is headquartered in Stockholm and employ close to 1,200 people across the world. www. Alimakgroup.com

This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160726006674/en/

Contacts:

Alimak Group

Stefan Rinaldo, CFO

telephone: +46 (0)8-402 14 47

or

Sofia Wretman, Head of Communications and IR

telephone: +46 (0)8-402 14 41


AIM: MARL TSXV: MRA Suite 102, 3 Eden Street North Sydney, NSW 2060 27 July 2016 Australia



THIS NEWS RELEASE IS NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO THE UNITED STATES NEWSWIRE SERVICES OR FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES.



Issue of Equity- Warrant Exercise



Mariana Resources Ltd ('Mariana' or the 'Company'), the AIM and TSXV listed exploration and development company with projects in Turkey and South America, announces that 25,000 warrants, relating to the October 2015 Private placement, exercisable into ordinary shares at the consolidated figure of 30p each have been exercised and funds have been received.



The Company will issue and allot 25,000 new ordinary shares.



Admission to AIM



Application has been made to the London Stock Exchange for the new ordinary shares to be admitted to trading on AIM. Dealings are expected to commence on or about 1 August 2016 ('Admission').



Following Admission, there will be a total of 119,956,827 ordinary shares on issue.



**ENDS**



For further information please visit website at www.marianaresources.com or contact the following.



In Australia:



Glen Parsons (CEO) Mariana Resources Ltd +61 2 9437 4588



Eric Roth (COO) Mariana Resources Ltd +56 9 8818 1243



Rob Adamson RFC Ambrian Limited (Nomad) +61 2 9250 0041



Will Souter RFC Ambrian Limited (Nomad) +61 2 9250 0050



In U.K.



Oliver Stansfield Brandon Hill Capital (UK Broker) +44 20 3463 5061



Jonathan Evans Brandon Hill Capital (UK Broker) +44 20 3463 5016



Camilla Horsfall Blytheweigh (Financial PR) +44 20 7138 3224



Megan Ray Blytheweigh (Financial PR) +44 20 7138 3203



About Mariana Resources Mariana Resources Ltd is an AIM quoted exploration and development company with an extensive portfolio of gold, silver and copper projects in South America and Turkey. Mariana's most advanced asset is the Hot Maden gold-copper project in north east Turkey, which is a joint venture with its Turkish JV partner Lidya (30% Mariana and 70% Lidya). A maiden mineral resource estimate of 2.03 Moz gold Equivalent (Indicated Category) and 0.97 Moz gold Equivalent (Inferred Category) (100% basis) was reported for Hot Maden on August 18, 2015. Elsewhere in Turkey, Mariana holds a 100% interest in the Ergama gold-copper project. In Suriname, Mariana has a direct holding of 10.2% of the Nassau Gold project.) The Nassau Gold Project is a 28,000 Ha exploration concession located approximately 125 km south east of the capital Paramaribo and immediately adjacent to Newmont Mining's 4.2Moz gold Merian project. In southern Argentina, the Company's core gold-silver projects are Las Calandrias (100%), Sierra Blanca (100%), Los Cisnes (100%), Bozal (100%). These projects are part of a 160,000+ Ha land package in the Deseado Massif epithermal gold-silver district in mining-friendly Santa Cruz Province. Mariana acquired 100% interests in the Dona Ines gold-silver and Exploradora East copper prospects in northern Chile through the Aegean Metals Group transaction which closed in January, 2015, with Mariana exploration now being funded by Asset Chile through the provision of $1.65m for a total 50% interest. In Peru, Mariana is focusing on acquiring new opportunities which complement its current portfolio.



Safe Harbour This press release contains certain statements which may be deemed to be forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are made as at the date of this press release and include, without limitation, statements regarding discussions of future plans, the realization, cost, timing and extent of mineral resource estimates, estimated future exploration expenditures, costs and timing of the development of new deposits, success of exploration activities, permitting time lines, and requirements for additional capital. The words 'plans', 'expects', 'budget', 'scheduled', 'estimate', 'forecasts', 'intend', 'anticipate', 'believe', 'may', 'will', or similar expressions or variations of such words are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties, assumptions and other factors that may cause actual results to vary materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements, including, but not limited to: the effects of general economic conditions; the price of gold, silver and copper; misjudgements in the course of preparing forward-looking statements; risks associated with international operations; the need for additional financing; risks inherent in exploration results; conclusions of economic evaluations; changes in project parameters; currency and commodity price fluctuations; title matters; environmental liability claims; unanticipated operational risks; accidents, labour disputes and other risks of the mining industry; delays in obtaining governmental approvals or in the completion of development or construction activities; political risk; and other risks and uncertainties described in the Company's annual financial statements for the most recently completed financial year which is available on the Company's website at www.marianaresources.com . Although we believe that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are based upon reasonable assumptions and have attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking statements. Accordingly, readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward- looking statements. We do not undertake to update any forward-looking statements, except in accordance with applicable securities laws.



This announcement is distributed by GlobeNewswire on behalf of GlobeNewswire clients. The owner of this announcement warrants that: (i) the releases contained herein are protected by copyright and other applicable laws; and (ii) they are solely responsible for the content, accuracy and originality of the information contained therein.



Source: Mariana Resources Ltd via GlobeNewswire [HUG#2030904]



B12GJ72R6



Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Kostenloser Wertpapierhandel auf Smartbroker.de
Foresight Solar Fund Limited: Notice of Interim Results The Company advises that it will release its Interim Results for the period to 30 June 2016 on Monday 15 August 2016. A conference call for analysts will be held at 9:00am on Monday 15 August. A presentation will be provided separately on the morning of the call. To register for the call, please contact Shabnam Bashir at Citigate Dewe Rogerson at Shabnam.Bashir@citigatedr.co.uk, or by phone: +44 (0) 20 7282 2822. ENDS For further information, please contact: Foresight Group Elena Palasmith epalasmith@foresightgroup.eu +44 (0)203 667 8100 Stifel Nicolaus Europe Limited +44 (0)20 7710 7600 Mark Bloomfield Neil Winward Tunga Chigovanyika J.P. Morgan Cazenove +44 (0)20 7742 4000 William Simmonds 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: Foresight Solar Fund Limited via GlobeNewswire [HUG#2030874] BD3QJR5R23 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.
Solar Impulse 2 completes historic round-the-world trip

Published: July 26, 2016

The Solar Impulse 2 has become the first aircraft to circle the globe using solar energy after landing in Abu Dhabi on the last leg of its journey.

In its journey, the long-range solar-powered aircraft has travelled 26744 miles across four continents, three seas and two oceans since setting off from Abu Dhabi in March 2015.

Key features of Solar Impulse 2

Solar Impulse 2 is a Swiss long-range solar-powered aircraft project. It is first aircraft to fly day and night without consuming conventional fuel in oder to promote renewable energy.

Its construction was started in 2011. The first test flight of the aircraft was conducted in the United States in 2013.

Structure: Single-seater aircraft made of carbon fibre. It has a 72 metre wingspan and weighs 2,300 kilo grams. It is solely propelled by the solar energy and emits zero Carbon dioxide (CO2).

Single-seater aircraft made of carbon fibre. It has a 72 metre wingspan and weighs 2,300 kilo grams. It is solely propelled by the solar energy and emits zero Carbon dioxide (CO2). Solar cells: 17,248 solar cells inbuilt into its wings. These cells supply renewable energy to propel the electric motors of aircraft.

17,248 solar cells inbuilt into its wings. These cells supply renewable energy to propel the electric motors of aircraft. These solar cells also recharge 4 lithium polymer batteries mounted on aircraft which allows it fly at night.

Journey of Solar Impulse 2

In its 17-leg voyage, the aircraft has racked up 558 hours of flight time. The aircraft was piloted in turns by Markus Scherdel, Andre Borschberg and Bertrand Piccard.

Started its journey from Abu Dhabi (UAE). Its first halt was in Muscat (Oman). Later halted in Ahmedabad and Varanasi in India.

Later it had halted in Mandalay (Myanmar), Chongqing & Nanjing (China). It had made an unscheduled stop in Japan to await favourable weather over the Pacific.

From Japan it crossed the Pacific Ocean via Hawaii (US) and flew across the United States, taking 3 stops at Phoenix, the Midwest and New York City.

Then it crossed Atlantic Ocean and took halt in Seville, Spain in Europe. Later in its final leg it landed in Cairo, Egypt and completed its journey in Abu Dhabi.

Month: Current Affairs - July, 2016

Topics: Science and Technology  Solar Impulse 2

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Technology Partnership and Equity Stake in Financial Transaction Systems

Regulatory News:

Euronext (Paris:ENX) (Amsterdam:ENX) (Brussels:ENX), the leading pan-European exchange in the Eurozone, has signed a partnership agreement with Tredzone, a technology solution provider specialised in developing software tools for handling complex data with high volumes and guaranteed latency.

Euronext has assessed the high level of performance of the Tredzone technology by using it to develop the next generation trading platform "Optiq". Euronext and Tredzone have now decided to enter into a more structured collaboration. Euronext subscribed to a capital increase of 1.36 million, resulting in a 34% stake in Tredzone. This agreement will enable Tredzone to strengthen its leading edge technology and will allow Euronext to benefit from future developments made by Tredzone. The founders of Tredzone will retain a 66% stake in the company.

Software development tools from Tredzone allow Euronext to fully leverage multi-core processing, hence enabling substantial savings in use of hardware, simplifying and securing IT infrastructure. Designed by a team of experts from financial markets software design, these tools are specifically adapted to handle large amounts of data in real time within a complex environment.

This partnership demonstrates the Euronext approach to innovation, aiming to acquire cutting edge skills and disruptive technologies to strengthen its technical platform and value proposition to clients.

About Euronext

Euronext is the primary exchange in the Euro zone with more than 1 300 listed issuers worth close to 3.0 trillion in market capitalization as of end March 2016, an unmatched blue chip franchise consisting of 25 issuers in the EURO STOXX 50 benchmark and a strong diverse domestic and international client base.

Euronext operates regulated and transparent equity and derivatives markets. Its total product offering includes Equities, Exchange Traded Funds, Warrants Certificates, Bonds, Derivatives, Commodities and Indices. Euronext also leverages its expertise in running markets by providing technology and managed services to third parties. Euronext operates regulated markets, Alternext and the Free Market; in addition it offers EnterNext, which facilitates SMEs' access to capital markets.

About TREDZONE

Tredzone provides technology solutions and services dedicated to high performance real time complex processing, enabling low and predictable latency, perfect scalability, high throughput and hardware footprint savings. Tredzone was founded in 2013 and provides specific expertise for capital market technology companies from a team in France, the UK and the US.

www.Tredzone.com

Disclaimer

This press release is for information purposes only and is not a recommendation to engage in investment activities. This press release is provided "as is" without representation or warranty of any kind. While all reasonable care has been taken to ensure the accuracy of the content, Euronext does not guarantee its accuracy or completeness. Euronext will not be held liable for any loss or damages of any nature ensuing from using, trusting or acting on information provided. No information set out or referred to in this publication may be regarded as creating any right or obligation. The creation of rights and obligations in respect of financial products that are traded on the exchanges operated by Euronext's subsidiaries shall depend solely on the applicable rules of the market operator. All proprietary rights and interest in or connected with this publication shall vest in Euronext.

This press release speaks only as of this date. Euronext refers to Euronext N.V. and its affiliates. Information regarding trademarks and intellectual property rights of Euronext is located at www.euronext.com/terms-use.

2016, Euronext N.V. All rights reserved.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160726006330/en/

Contacts:

Euronext

Pauline Bucaille (Europe): +33 1 70 48 24 41

pbucaille@euronext.com

or

Alice Jentink (Amsterdam): +31 20 721 4488

ajentink@euronext.com

or

Pascal Brabant (Brussels): +32 2 620 15 50

pbrabant@euronext.com

or

Sandra Machado (Lisbon): +351 210 600 614

smachado@euronext.com

or

Aichata Tandjigora (Paris): +33 1 70 48 24 43

atandjigora@euronext.com

or

Tredzone

Nicolas Levy: +33 6 32 65 80 64

nicolas.levy@tredzone.com
NEW YORK, NY --(Marketwired - July 27, 2016) - B&H is pleased to share Nikon's announcement of the AF-S NIKKOR 105mm f/1.4 E ED Lens, an outstanding optic that produces extremely shallow depth of field, thanks to its fast f/1.4 maximum aperture and telephoto perspective. Joining a long legacy of 105mm lenses, this model is the first to reach the phenomenally fast f/1.4 aperture, and it does so with an emphasis on clean bokeh, much like the AF-S NIKKOR 58mm f/1.4G lens that was recently introduced. It also incorporates the latest and greatest technology from Nikon, including an electromagnetic diaphragm control mechanism for accuracy and consistency across exposures, especially with the fast continuous shooting rates of newer cameras.

Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 105mm f/1.4E ED Lens

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1269658-REG/nikon_af_s_nikkor_105mm_f_1_4e.html

F-Mount Lens/FX Format

Aperture Range: f/1.4 to f/16

Three Extra Low-Dispersion Elements

Nano Crystal Coating

Silent Wave Motor AF System

Internal Focus; Manual Focus Override

Electromagnetic Diaphragm Mechanism

Protective Fluorine Coating

Rounded 9-Blade Diaphragm

To ensure sharp, aberration-free imagery, this lens utilizes three extra-low dispersion glass elements, which help render neutral colors, along with a high degree of clarity. It also features the Nano Crystal Coat to limit flare and ghosting in tough lighting situations, as well as a fluorine coat to protect exposed lens elements. Additionally, operation is fast, thanks to the use of a Silent Wave Motor AF system with full-time manual override -- along with a switch on the lens barrel that permits rapid changing from auto to manual focus.

B&H Photo is an authorized Nikon dealer, with the most up-to-date Nikon product information, product pricing and promotional offers.

Follow B&H on Social Media: https://www.bhphotovideo.com/find/socialLanding.jsp

https://www.facebook.com/bhphoto/

https://twitter.com/BHPhotoVideo

https://plus.google.com/+BandH

https://www.instagram.com/bhphoto/

Apple iTunes

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/b-h-photo-video-pro-audio/id390928219?mt=8

B&H Google App

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.bhphoto&hl=en

About B&H Photo Video

As the world's largest source of photography, video, audio, and the latest trending technologies, including drones, virtual reality, and 3D Printers, B&H Photo Video is known worldwide for its attentive, knowledgeable sales force, excellent customer service, and fast, reliable shipping. Visitors to the website can access a variety of enlightening articles and educational videos. B&H has been satisfying customers worldwide for over 40 years.

Latest Trending Technologies

Virtual Reality: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/browse/360-spherical-virtual-reality-production/ci/29185/N/3705627361

Drones: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/browse/aerial-imaging/ci/27989/N/3765401970

Gaming Gear: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/buy/xbox-360/ci/26268/N/3838122491

Customers making purchases on the B&H website can now make a split payment with multiple credit cards, a useful feature for those with limited credit on their individual cards. Previously, this method of payment was only available to customers when purchasing by phone or in store.

Many items can now be ordered online and picked up at our NYC Superstore. Add any qualifying items to your shopping cart and select STORE PICKUP. You will then have an opportunity to indicate who will be making the pickup, if it is someone other than yourself. You'll receive an email (up to 45 minutes) after completing your order, indicating that your order is ready for pickup at the B&H SuperStore.

The B&H YouTube Channel has an unmatched wealth of educational photographic content. Our entertaining and informative videos feature product overviews from our in-house specialists, as well as photography industry experts. You can even view the B&H Event Space presentations from many of the world's foremost photographers and interviews with some of photography's most dynamic characters. Tap into this exciting resource by subscribing to the B&H YouTube Channel here. In addition to these videos, the B&H Explora blog presents new product announcements, gear reviews, helpful guides, and tech news written by product experts and industry professionals.

When you're in Manhattan, take a tour of the B&H Photo SuperStore, located at 420 Ninth Avenue. The expo continues all year round in the camera kiosks at B&H. Featuring the newest cameras, the kiosks are manned by manufacturer representatives, who are there to guide you and demonstrate the latest photographic technology. With hundreds of products on display, the B&H Photo electronics store is the place to test-drive and compare all the latest photography gear.

Image Available: http://www.marketwire.com/library/MwGo/2016/7/26/11G108213/Images/Nikon_AF-S_NIKKOR_105mm_f1.4E_ED_Lens-1d3959b9d7949bc592f58f0e19bb6305.jpg

Image Available: http://www.marketwire.com/library/MwGo/2016/7/26/11G108213/Images/Nikon_105mm_f1.4_Lens_on_Camera-bc8d0ff3bd8cb41aa276a9a9a792c447.jpg

Shawn C. Steiner

B&H Photo Video

212-615-8820

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/
Led by Jump Capital, Signal Peak Ventures, and Intel Capital, investment will be used to expand and accelerate True Fit's first-ever Genome for footwear and apparel

True Fit, footwear and apparel's discovery platform, announced a $25 million Series B financing from Jump Capital, Signal Peak Ventures, and Intel Capital. The growth capital brings total investment in True Fit to $40 million and it will be used to serve rising demand, and growth especially in UK and Europe, where True Fit is headquartered in London and Munich respectively. True Fit's platform currently serves many leading retailers and brands throughout the UK and Europe, where the data platform is localised for each region, incorporating local fit and sizing systems, regional body shapes, personal preferences, and brand affinities, as well supporting diverse languages including English, French, Spanish, Italian, German, and Dutch.

This investment follows True Fit's recent announcement regarding its mapping of the world's largest collection of fit, style and consumer preference data into the Genome for footwear and apparel. This massive data platform was developed in partnership with the world's leading fashion retailers and brands to help unlock the digital apparel market, which will soon be $2 trillion globally but is still only 12 percent digital. As the industry's trusted third-party data platform between retailers, brands and consumers, True Fit has organised and connected the unique relationships between millions of styles from 10,000 brands to the fit and style preferences of over 100 million consumers. Each piece of clothing and every shoe in the Genome are defined by 100 to 200 detailed attributes, including style characteristics and technical specs. Through advanced machine learning algorithms, this real time analytics platform delivers personalised recommendations and curates full catalogues of shoes and clothing to match consumers' fit, personal style, and performance needs. This allows consumers to shop with confidence and inspiration, and buy and keep more of what they love, which is leading to a 5 percent overall lift to retailers' net revenue.

Retailer demand for True Fit's SaaS solution continues to rise sharply as bookings and enterprise retail partnerships tripled again year-on-year. True Fit's registered user base also continues to grow, already exceeding 20 million and adding 1.5 million new users each month from its expanded presence on 300 million monthly page views across its network. True Fit's productive community of profitable shoppers, who buy more and return less, will surpass 30 million by the end of the year. This growth equity investment will also accelerate continued innovation for retailers across all channels in all regions. "It's an exhilarating time at the intersection of fashion and data science. We're so pleased the True Fit platform is unlocking digital growth in the footwear and apparel market for so many leading retailers," said William R. Adler, CEO, True Fit. "We're thrilled to be supported by the incredible investors at Jump, SPV and Intel Capital, who share our vision that it should be just as simple to buy shoes and clothing digitally as it is to buy books, music, movies, and consumer electronics."

"True Fit's best-in-class team has developed an extraordinary platform," said Michael McMahon, Managing Partner, Jump Capital. "It's changing the way retailers and brands improve the digital shopping experience for consumers, having a meaningful impact on the marketplace."

The new investment will also accelerate market growth of innovative new products from True Fit's Genome platform for fashion retailers, who seek seamless personalisation services from a unified data platform across all devices and channels.

"True Fit has aggregated an unrivalled set of structured data that already is delivering real value to retailers," said Joe Jensen, Vice President and General Manager, IOTG Retail Solutions Division at Intel Corporation. "Its vision for delivering responsive retail and immersive experiences ubiquitously across millions of devices via IoT matches Intel's focus on these important and emerging categories." Investment Director Sanjit Dang led the investment for Intel Capital.

About True Fit

True Fit is footwear and apparel's discovery platform. It has organised the largest platform of apparel and footwear data through its partnerships with thousands of top brands, the world's leading retailers, and millions of consumers. True Fit mapped the first-ever Genome for footwear and apparel, which helps retailers and brands unlock digital growth in the nearly $2 trillion footwear and apparel industry. True Fit's Genome powers its award-winning Confidence Engine, allowing retailers to provide highly personalised fit ratings and size recommendations to shoppers, resulting in dramatic increases to net revenue. True Fit is also helping to unlock digital growth with its Discovery Engine, which allows retailers to curate highly personalised collections to each consumer, as well as True Insight, which provides retailers and brands unparalleled insights to optimise marketing, merchandising and product development. Consumers who use True Fit buy more, and return less: through several A/B tests conducted by independent expert firms like Brooks Bell, True Fit continually demonstrates a 5 percent incremental site-wide lift to retailers' net revenue. Follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube, and @TrueFit on Twitter.

About Jump Capital

Jump Capital is a Chicago-based venture capital firm specialising in expansion stage and growth capital investments. Led by a team of experienced operating executives, Jump Capital takes an opportunistic, long-term approach to investing. Jump seeks investment opportunities ranging from $2 million to $15 million in scalable technology businesses with compelling leadership teams across a wide breadth of industries including enterprise technology, marketing, healthcare, data security and financial services. For more information, visit www.jumpcap.com.

About Signal Peak Ventures

Signal Peak Ventures is a venture capital firm based in Salt Lake City, Utah. The firm invests in innovative software companies and looks for entrepreneurial teams with the potential to transform markets and create lasting value. Specific areas of focus include Internet, SaaS, enterprise software, security, and mobile computing. For more information, please visit www.spv.com.

About Intel Capital

Intel Capital, Intel's strategic investment and M&A organization, backs innovative startups targeting computing and smart devices, cloud, datacenter, security, the Internet of Things, wearable and robotic technologies and semiconductor manufacturing. Since 1991, Intel Capital has invested US$11.7 billion in 1,445 companies in 57 countries; in that timeframe, 595 portfolio companies have gone public or been acquired. Through its business development programs, Intel Capital curates thousands of introductions each year between its portfolio executives and Intel's customers and partners in the Global 2000. For more information on what makes Intel Capital one of the world's most powerful venture capital firms, visit www.intelcapital.com or follow @Intelcapital.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160727005289/en/

Contacts:

Racepoint Global for True Fit

Rachel Frazer, +44 (0)20 8811 2124 ext. 201

rachel.frazer@racepointglobal.com

or

True Fit

Lindsay Lightman, 00 1 617 500 0635

llightman@truefit.com
Effort Management Group has announced its intention to take over the proppant market in Russia. This decision was declared by the Chief Financial Officer of the Group Marc Van den Meersche on june 1st, 2016 during the conference held in Paris dedicated to the expansion and development of the proppant market in Russia. In 2015, the Group, through the companies in Russia that it manages, built a modern plant in Asbest (Ekaterinburg region, Russia) to process the serpentinite (ore) that would be used to manufacture "light ceramic proppant" and aggregate.

The properties of serpentinite from Asbest will have an important impact on the Russian proppant market. The serpentinite from Asbest quarry, more than half a billion tons (above 1 trillion pounds), will be used to manufacture "light ceramic proppant" at a low cost and will be sold at a low price, by approximately 500.000 tons per year (1 billion pounds). Asbest light ceramic proppant is going to flood the Russian proppant market by the end of 2016.

"Therefore, said Marc Van den Meersche, the CFO of Effort Management Group most of the current Russian proppant manufacturers are trying to establish a partnership with Effort Management Group in order to retain their positions on the market. Today he added the proppant market in Russia is represented by a small number of companies. It has a great potential, provided that the proppant manufacturers use the serpentinite (ore) from Asbest. Our Group has all the necessary financial resources, raw materials and facilities in order to become the undisputed leader of the Russian proppant market".

Effort Management Group was founded in 2012 in Paris. The Group has a large influence on the Russian markets, especially in mining industry, and oversees industrial and commercial enterprises. It manages several quarries and plants in Russia.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160727005566/en/

Contacts:

Effort Management Group

Press contact:

Lidia Sapogova, Tel: 01.76.21.53.61

E-mail: l.sapogova@effortmanagement-group.com

Address: 123 avenue des Champs Elysees 75008 Paris, France
YOKOHAMA (dpa-AFX) - Nissan Group (NSANF.PK, NSANY.PK) reported Wednesday that its first-quarter net income attributable to owners of the parent declined 10.7 percent from last year to 136.4 billion Japanese yen. In US dollar terms, net income edged up 0.3 percent to $1.3 billion. Operating profit in yen terms declined 9.2 percent to 175.8 billion yen, but increased 2 percent in dollar terms to $1.6 billion. Operating profit margin was 6.6%. Net revenues for the quarter dropped 8.4 percent from last year to 2.65 trillion, while in dollar terms, it grew 2.9 percent to $24.6 billion. On a management pro forma basis, which includes the proportionate consolidation of results from Nissan's joint-venture operations in China, net revenue was 2.89 trillion yen. Operating profit was 209.0 billion yen, resulting in a 7.2% operating profit margin. Further, for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2017, the company continues to expect attributable net Income of 525.0 billion yen or $5.0 billion, operating profit of 710.0 billion yen or $6.8 billion and net revenue of 11.8 trillion yen or $112.4 billion. In Tokyo, Nissan shares gained 4.94 percent today to close at 1,046.50 yen. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
BRUSSELS (dpa-AFX) - At 4:30 am ET Wednesday, the Office for National Statistics is scheduled to release U.K. quarterly national accounts. The economy is forecast to grow 0.5 percent sequentially in the second quarter, faster than the 0.4 percent expansion seen in the previous quarter. Ahead of the data, the pound showed mixed trading against its major rivals. While the pound fell against the euro, it held steady against the U.S. dollar, the yen and the Swiss franc. As of 4:25 am ET, the pound was trading at 0.8385 against the euro, 1.3030 against the Swiss franc, 1.3114 against the U.S. dollar and 138.37 against the yen. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
Never buy the wrong size of clothing again with these easy tips.

SHENZHEN, China, July 27, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Zaful is becoming one of the leading brands in online fashion e-commerce, yet there is still more room to grow and the company is excited to do so. Many people new to fashion e-commerce are scared to jump in because of the fear of getting the wrong size and Zaful wants to help!

Consumers often wonder what a specific size means, what the boundaries are for a small, medium, large, XL, etc. To avoid having people buy the wrong size or product, consumers should look at the size chart on each product. When a customer goes to a product they will see a product description; under it is a size chart. Customers are encouraged to measure themselves based off the size chart if they are unsure; this will ensure they get the right size product. If a product has no size listed that means there is only one size available, often being a medium. If you are unsure if that will fit you then make sure to check out the size chart under the product description.

Another question that comes up is that people think a certain size in their country translates to the sizes from another. For example, medium dress in the United States is often considered a smaller size in China. Customers are better off not taking gambles and getting an accurate measurement to compare to the size measurements on the site. All you need is some measuring tape and you will be able to do all of the required measurements yourself.

Zaful understands that mistakes can still happen and customers can order the wrong size product. To mediate any issues such as this Zaful has support available 24/7. Just get in touch and a representative and they will be glad to go through the return and exchange process with you.

Globalegrow companies like Zaful, SammyDress, and Rosegal are all about giving the customers the option to get the latest fashion at affordable prices. To get the most out of fashion e-commerce, consumers are encouraged to make sure they are ordering the right sizes. Follow the suggestions above and you will have a near-flawless experience.

http://www.zaful.com/
Acquisition Further Strengthens KCG's Reach in Europe

JERSEY CITY, New Jersey, July 27, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- KCG Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: KCG) ("KCG") today announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Neonet Securities AB ("Neonet"), an independent agency broker and execution specialist based in Stockholm, Sweden from its shareholders, Hay Tor Capital, KAS BANK and Cidron Delfi Intressenter Holding. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Founded in 1996, Neonet provides a comprehensive suite of advanced algorithmic trading, smart order routing and sales trading primarily in European equities across 30 public and private markets to approximately 200 clients in more than 20 countries. Neonet strives to deliver transparent execution services to banks, brokers and financial institutions with an optimized balance of quality and cost. The acquisition will strengthen KCG's reach in continental Europe and will enable both KCG's and Neonet's clients to access a more complete range of international execution services and capabilities.

Philip Allison, Chief Executive Officer of KCG Europe Limited, said, "We are pleased to announce an agreement to acquire Neonet, a Nordic pioneer in trading and execution services, as we broaden our European reach and continue to bolster our ability to provide clients with global execution solutions. Neonet's sophisticated technology, experienced trading desks, and deep team of execution specialists are highly complementary to our existing execution services and will help accelerate the growth of our agency client business."

John Ashdown, Managing Partner at Hay Tor Capital, said, "We are delighted that such a major industry participant as KCG will now take the Neonet business forward to the next level at an immensely exciting time of industry transformation in Europe."

Tim Wildenberg, Chief Executive Officer of Neonet, added, "We are excited to join forces with KCG, an established market leader in global execution services. For the last 20 years, Neonet has focused on putting clients first and providing them with transparent execution services, as well as deep knowledge of international financial markets. We look forward to leveraging KCG's significant expertise across asset classes in the U.S. and Europe for the benefit of our clients worldwide for years to come."

The transaction, which is subject to customary regulatory and other approvals, is expected to close later this year. Neonet will continue to be led by Mr. Wildenberg and will maintain the company's headquarters in Stockholm following the close. The transaction is expected to result in cost savings through consolidating exchange memberships, market data, routing and other operational costs while simultaneously expanding KCG's breadth and commitment to Europe. KCG expects the acquisition will be slightly accretive to earnings in 2017.

KCG was advised on the transaction by Advokatfirman Vinge KB and Sullivan & Cromwell LLP. NovitasFTCL and Advokatfirman Delphi served as financial and legal advisors, respectively, to the shareholders of Neonet.

About KCG

KCG is a leading independent securities firm offering investors a range of services designed to address trading needs across asset classes, product types and time zones. The firm combines advanced technology with specialized client service across market making, agency execution and venues and also engages in principal trading via exchange-based market making. KCG has multiple access points to trade global equities, fixed income, options, currencies and commodities via voice or automated execution. www.kcg.com

About Neonet

Neonet is an execution service provider that offers independent, flexible and transparent execution services, which significantly reduce the cost of trading for users. Neonet serves clients in over 20 countries, and all trades are executed on regulated markets. The company was earlier listed but is currently privately owned by a consortium of owners including Hay Tor Capital LLP, KAS Bank N.V., and Nordic Capital / Cidron Delphi Intressenter AB.

For more information visit www.neonet.com

Certain statements contained herein and the documents incorporated by reference containing the words "believes," "intends," "expects," "anticipates," and words of similar meaning, may constitute forward-looking statements as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These "forward-looking statements" are not historical facts and are based on current expectations, estimates and projections about KCG's industry, management's beliefs and certain assumptions made by management, many of which, by their nature, are inherently uncertain and beyond our control. Any forward-looking statement contained herein speaks only as of the date on which it is made. Accordingly, readers are cautioned that any such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to certain risks, uncertainties and assumptions that are difficult to predict including, without limitation, risks associated with: (i) the inability to manage trading strategy performance and sustain revenue and earnings growth; (ii) the receipt of additional payments from the sale of KCG Hotspot that are subject to certain contingencies; (iii) changes in market structure, legislative, regulatory or financial reporting rules, including the increased focus by Congress, federal and state regulators, the SROs and the media on market structure issues, and in particular, the scrutiny of high frequency trading, alternative trading systems, market fragmentation, colocation, access to market data feeds, and remuneration arrangements such as payment for order flow and exchange fee structures; (iv) past or future changes to KCG's organizational structure and management; (v) KCG's ability to develop competitive new products and services in a timely manner and the acceptance of such products and services by KCG's customers and potential customers; (vi) KCG's ability to keep up with technological changes; (vii) KCG's ability to effectively identify and manage market risk, operational and technology risk, cybersecurity risk, legal risk, liquidity risk, reputational risk, counterparty and credit risk, international risk, regulatory risk, and compliance risk; (viii) the cost and other effects of material contingencies, including litigation contingencies, and any adverse judicial, administrative or arbitral rulings or proceedings; (ix) the effects of increased competition and KCG's ability to maintain and expand market share; (x) the announced plan to relocate KCG's global headquarters from Jersey City, NJ to New York, NY; and (xi) KCG's ability to complete the sale or disposition of any or all of the assets or businesses that are classified as held for sale. The list above is not exhaustive. Because forward looking statements involve risks and uncertainties, the actual results and performance of KCG may materially differ from the results expressed or implied by such statements. Given these uncertainties, readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements. Unless otherwise required by law, KCG also disclaims any obligation to update its view of any such risks or uncertainties or to announce publicly the result of any revisions to the forward-looking statements made herein. Readers should carefully review the risks and uncertainties disclosed in KCG's reports with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"), including those detailed in "Risk Factors" in Part I, Item 1A of KCG's Annual Report on Form10-K for the year ended December 31, 2015, "Legal Proceedings" in Part I, Item 3, under "Certain Factors Affecting Results of Operations" in "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations" in Part II, Item 7, in "Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk" in Part II, Item 7A, and in other reports or documents KCG files with, or furnishes to, the SEC from time to time. This information should be read in conjunction with KCG's Consolidated Financial Statements and the Notes thereto contained in its Annual Report on Form 10-K, Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter-ended March 31, 2016, and in other reports or documents KCG files with, or furnishes to, the SEC from time to time.

CONTACTS

Sophie Sohn Jonathan Mairs Communications & Marketing Investor Relations 312-931-2299 201-356-1529 media@kcg.com jmairs@kcg.com



Neonet Media:

Melanie Budden

The Realization Group

+44 (0) 7974 937970

melanie.budden@therealizationgroup.com



Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160726/393233LOGO

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160726/393234LOGO
WEILHEIM, Germany, July 27, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

The sales has been finalized: Tubesca-Comabi, the market leader for access technology in France, will be sold to the French family-owned company Frenehard & Michaux. The transfer of the company to the buyer is subject to approval by the French antitrust authorities, but is scheduled for September 2016. The new company will have close to 1,000 employees and is expected to generate 160 million euros in revenues.

Tubesca-Comabi is France's market leader for access technology. The company is headquartered in Trevoux Cedex and manufacturers ladders, scaffoldings and special constructions designed especially for the building trade, the general industry and aerospace service companies. The DIY sector is supplied by the Artub brand. Tubesca-Comabi employs approximately 550 individuals and generates around 100 million euros in revenues. The subsidiaries Skyworks in the Netherlands and Tendo in Spain are included in the sale.

Frenehard & Michaux was founded in 1889. Steeped in tradition, this Normandy-based company is also a market leader in France and is specialized in supplying the building industry with attachment and safety products for roofs. With approximately 450 employees spread across eight locations, the company generates revenues of around 60 million euros.

"This acquisition will allow us to offer a comprehensive range of products to ensure work safety at great heights. We can offer every professional involved in the building and industrial sectors a well-rounded portfolio, from access products to equipment that enables work at great heights while maintaining maximum safety, because we are the specialist for all products in this field," says Jacques Frenehard, President of the Frenehard & Michaux Group.

The market leader for access technology and logistics products, ZARGES, was formerly associated with Tubesca-Comabi but will now be operated as an independent company.

Zarges supplies international trade and industry with aluminium products for access technology, special constructions, logistics solutions and transport and storage systems for the healthcare sector. The company generates revenues of around 130 million euros with its close to 760 employees.

Tom Kaiser, CEO of the ZargesTubesca Group, adds: "We are pleased that Tubesca-Comabi and the family-owned company Frenehard & Michaux are able to further expand their market leadership in access technology and fall protection with this excellent range of products and services for the building trade. This makes this transaction a very positive one, also in terms of future prospects for the employees."

Contact:

Tom Kaiser

CEO ZargesTubesca Group

Phone: +49(0)881-687-203

http://www.zarges.com/en/
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.
     :     ; -  CM      ?;  -  
VANCOUVER, BC--(Marketwired - July 27, 2016) -

Press Release Highlights:

Creation of more than 65 new jobs for the Val-d'Or region

Ramp will expedite close-spaced and exploration drilling along with bulk sampling of gold mineralized material to reconcile against the resource estimate

Extensive surface exploration campaign to continue alongside underground exploration

Integra Gold Corp. (TSX VENTURE: ICG) (OTCQX: ICGQF) ("Integra" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that it has awarded Promec Mining Inc. ("Promec" or "Promec Mining") with the contract to construct the Triangle Deposit ("Triangle") exploration ramp on the Lamaque-South Gold Project ("Lamaque") in Val-d'Or, Quebec. Promec has mobilized all required equipment on site and hired more than 90% of its team. The first rock blast for the exploration ramp took place earlier this week.

Val-d'Or, Quebec based Promec Mining was selected following a detailed bid evaluation process conducted by the Company. Promec specializes in contract underground mining, development, construction and operations. Promec has worked on numerous projects throughout Eastern Canada, including contracts with Agnico-Eagle, Hecla, Glencore, and others.

Langis St-Pierre, Integra's Chief Operating Officer remarked, "By awarding this contract to Promec Mining, an experienced Val-d'Or based mining contractor with a long history of successful contract mining in the Abitibi, our Lamaque project enters an exciting and important new phase of its evolution. The transition to underground exploration at Triangle is an important milestone for Integra's technical team and the Company's shareholders. We have been looking forward to the first rock blast of the ramp construction as it represents the culmination of five years of focussed exploration at Triangle. Our decision to construct this exploration ramp also reflects the Company's on-going commitment to the community of Val-d'Or through job creation and the economic stimulus generated by the project."

Jos Deschenes, Promec Mining's General Director commented, "Promec Mining is extremely proud to be part of the initiation of this new project in the Val-d'Or area. We are excited to work with a dynamic company like Integra Gold, whose hard work and dedication have made this project possible. In collaboration with the Integra team we will make this project a success and one that will continue the proud mining tradition of Val-d'Or and the Abitibi-Temiscamingue region."

Exploration Ramp Objective, Details and Plans

The exploration ramp construction specifications are designed to be 5.1 metres ("m") in width and 5.0 m in height and will include 420 m of lateral development in mineralized zones contained in C1 and C2 zones. The exploration ramp development will reach an estimated vertical depth of 180 m and Promec is projecting the ramp will advance at a rate of 175 m per month. Promec will be utilizing Integra's facilities built at the Triangle site for equipment maintenance and, if required, its own facilities located 3 km from the portal allowing for timely maintenance and repairs to equipment with minimal downtime.

The objective of the underground exploration program is to conduct close-spaced drilling from within the upper portions of the Triangle deposit (C1 and C2 zones) as well as exploration drilling in order to continue growing the resource base. The proposed underground exploration program will also include a bulk sample of more than 20,000 tonnes of gold mineralized rock required for the purposes of reconciling gold content versus resource estimates as well as to allow for detailed metallurgical test work to be conducted. The ultimate size, location and timing of the bulk sample will be determined using information gathered from the results of the ongoing surface exploration drilling and from underground drilling as results become available.

To view a 3D plan of the ramp, please click on the link below:

https://vimeo.com/176342989/b1348ffc54

To view recent photos of the portal, jumbo drill and bolter, please click on the link below:

http://www.integragold.com/s/triangle.asp?ReportID=757223

Budget and Timeline

The budget for the underground exploration ramp is approximately C$26 million with work estimated to take between 12 months and 15 months. The contract with Promec includes the provision of an experienced underground work force and a modern mining fleet while Integra will supply the required construction materials. Having recently hired 65 skilled miners to complete the task, Promec will work in conjunction with Integra's technical team throughout ramp construction. The Company is fully funded to see this work through to completion and all necessary permits are currently in place.

Surface Infrastructure Installed in 2015 to Help Expedite Timeline

The surface infrastructure and ramp collar required for the exploration ramp was completed in the fall of 2015 at a cost of C$5.6 million. As a result of this work surface infrastructure already in place includes site management offices, maintenance facilities, site services (25 kV powerline, industrial and dewatering mine water lines, potable and waste water lines, etc). In addition, a new road from the Triangle site to the Sigma Mill was built which will allow for more efficient transportation of mineralized material and personnel in the future.

Project and Company Profile

Integra Gold is a junior gold exploration company advancing projects in Val-d'Or, Quebec, one of the top mining jurisdictions in the world. The Company's primary focus is its high-grade Lamaque South project. In 2014, Integra completed the accretive acquisition of the Sigma Mill and Mine Complex, a fully permitted 2,200 ton per day mill and tailings facility. With major federal and provincial permits in place, existing infrastructure and exploration potential, this acquisition removed major costs and shortened timelines typically associated with mine projects. With a current market capitalization of approximately $300 million, Integra has raised over $100 million since 2013, at successively higher share prices, despite depressed gold prices. In August 2015, Eldorado Gold Corporation completed a strategic investment in Integra, acquiring 15% of the outstanding common shares. Integra was recently named to the TSX Venture top 50 performers in 2015 and the OTCQX Best 50 award for 2015.

Qualified Person

The Lamaque project is under the direct supervision Francois Chabot, Eng., Operations and Engineering Manager of the Company. Mr. Chabot is a Qualified Person ("QP") as defined by the National Instrument 43-101. The Company's QP has reviewed the scientific and technical content of this release.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Stephen de Jong

CEO & President

Follow Integra Gold On:

Twitter: http://twitter.com/integragoldcorp

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements: Certain disclosures in this release constitute forward-looking statements, including timing of completion of an updated resource estimate, timing of completion of an updated PEA and completion of the Sigma-Lamaque transaction. In making the forward-looking statements in this release, the Company has applied certain factors and assumptions that are based on the Company's current beliefs as well as assumptions made by and information currently available to the Company, including that the Company is able to obtain any government or other regulatory approvals, that the Company is able to procure personnel, equipment and supplies required for its exploration and development activities in sufficient quantities and on a timely basis and that actual results are consistent with management's expectations. Although the Company considers these assumptions to be reasonable based on information currently available to it, they may prove to be incorrect, and the forward-looking statements in this release are subject to numerous risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause future results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in such forward-looking statements. Such risk factors include, among others, those matters identified in its continuous disclosure filings, including its most recently filed MD&A. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. The Company does not intend, and 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 required by law.

CONTACT INFORMATION



Corporate Inquiries:

Chris Gordon

chris@integragold.com

www.integragold.com
WALL TOWNSHIP, NJ -- (Marketwired) -- 07/27/16 --Coates International, Ltd. (OTC PINK: COTE) (the "Company") is pleased to announce that Mr. Nick Kontonicolas has accepted the position of Chief Operating Officer of the Coates organization worldwide operations including Coates Power Ltd. in China and Coates Hydrogen Power Ltd. in the USA. Mr. Kontonicolas is a world renowned businessman and a personal friend Mr. George J. Coates, President and C.E.O., for approximately 30 years. Management believes Mr. Kontonicolas will be a valuable addition to the management team who will make meaningful contributions to the Company's progress. Mr. James Pang, the Company's exclusive liaison in China, met with Mr. Kontonicolas some months ago in Shanghai, China. Mr. Howard Barmil, DBA, MBA, exclusive Company liaison to the Middle East and North Africa ("MENA") region and International and Marketing Director for the Coates organization and Mr. James Pang will both work under the direction of Mr. Kontonicolas.

Company President and CEO, Mr. George J. Coates, comments: "Nick Kontonicolas is a personal friend of mine and it is good to have him on board. He is organizing the financing for the ramp-up of production, which should be completed soon. He will be working with me directly and other Company officials in accordance with the Company's five year business plan. I look forward to working with Nick to bring this Company and its plans to fruition."

There can be no assurance that the Company will be successful in any of its endeavors.

Safe Harbor Statement:

This press release contains forward-looking statements that are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Please see our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Our public filings with the SEC may be viewed and printed on the website maintained by the SEC at http://www.sec.gov.

Contact Information:



Coates International, Ltd.

Phone: 732-449-7717

Fax: 732-449-0764

www.coatesengine.com

www.mostadvancedengine.com




Platform strategy enables software-defined and cloud-based wired and wireless broadband networks for branch, mobile, and IoT; SoftBank Corp. is the first carrier partner

Cradlepoint, the global leader in cloud-based network solutions for connecting people, places, and things over wired and wireless broadband, announced Cradlepoint NetCloud, a new platform strategy that combines its existing software and cloud services with the Software-Defined Networking (SDN) technology from the recent acquisition of Pertino. The strategy will be rolled-out in several phases over the next six months.

In a separate announcement today, Cradlepoint and SoftBank Corp., a subsidiary of SoftBank Group Corp. and a leading provider of mobile, fixed-line, and Internet communication services in Japan (TOKYO: 9984), announced the commercial availability of WhiteCloud OneLayer on Cradlepoint NetCloud. The co-branded service lets customers instantly build branch, mobile, and IoT networks in the cloud with a layer of policy-based services for end-to-end security and control. SoftBank is the first carrier to deliver managed network services using the platform. OneLayer on Cradlepoint NetCloud will be sold through SoftBank's direct sales organization in Japan and through its subsidiaries and partnerships around the world.

"Cradlepoint's NetCloud lets us harness cloud, SDN, and NFV technologies to rapidly deliver new services that meet our customers' evolving network needs in this new era of Internet-centric IT," said Sadahiro Sato, senior vice president at SoftBank Corp. "Instead of building and managing multiple physical networks, OneLayer on Cradlepoint NetCloud lets customers deploy a single cloud-based WAN that can be configured in minutes to meet the specific needs of connecting remote sites, workers and IoT devices anywhere in the world."

About Cradlepoint NetCloud

Companies across industries are embracing cloud, mobile, and Internet of Things (IoT) technologies to increase business agility, empower distributed workforces, and gain operational insights-driving the need for always-connected people, places, and things. As a result, an increasing amount of enterprise network traffic is moving off private IP networks and onto the public Internet. The Cradlepoint NetCloud platform is designed specifically for this new "Interprise" era and allows companies to deploy private cloud networks over wired and wireless broadband Internet services for branch, mobile workforce, vehicle, and IoT networks.

"The Cradlepoint NetCloud platform is at the heart of our strategy to extend leadership in cloud-managed 4G LTE solutions to the emerging opportunity for converged, software-defined enterprise networks designed to connect people, places, and things over Internet broadband," said George Mulhern, Cradlepoint CEO. "We are pleased to partner with SoftBank in delivering OneLayer on Cradlepoint NetCloud, the first carrier-delivered service that runs on our new platform strategy."

Cradlepoint NetCloud is based on the integration of the company's proven Enterprise Cloud Manager (ECM) platform for management and zero-touch deployment of its 4G LTE-enabled routers and M2M/IoT gateways with Pertino's Network-as-a-Service (NaaS) platform that leverages cloud, SDN, and Network Function Virtualization (NFV) technologies. The new integrated platform provides an entirely new way to build, secure, control, and manage end-to-end private networks in the cloud using wired and wireless broadband Internet services. Cradlepoint NetCloud will be rolled-out in several phases starting with today's rebranding of the Pertino Cloud Network Engine service as Cradlepoint NetCloud Engine and followed in less than 90 days with single-pane-of-glass management and router integrations.

"While all eyes are on the SD-WAN space and the pending refresh of MPLS branch networks, Cradlepoint's new NetCloud platform strategy, and its first carrier partnership with SoftBank, highlights the significant opportunity for SDN and NFV-wrapped in a cloud model-to transform wired and wireless consumer broadband into enterprise-grade networks," said Lee Doyle, principal analyst at Doyle Research. "The benefits of this private-intranet-over-public-Internet approach extends beyond the branch, addressing the distributed security and policy enforcement challenges unique to cloud, mobility, and IoT deployments within the enterprise."

To support the SoftBank partnership and sales expansion in the Asia Pacific region, Cradlepoint has established offices in Japan and Australia.

About Cradlepoint

Cradlepoint is the global leader in cloud-based network solutions for connecting people, places, and things over wired and wireless broadband. Cradlepoint NetCloud is a software and services platform that extends the company's 4G LTE-enabled multi-function routers and ruggedized M2M/IoT gateways with cloud-based management and software-defined network services. With Cradlepoint, customers can leverage the speed and economics of wired and wireless Internet broadband for branch, failover, mobile, and IoT networks while maintaining end-to-end visibility, security, and control. Over 15,000 enterprise and government organizations around the world-including 75 percent of the world's top retailers, 50 percent of the Fortune 100, and 25 of the largest U.S. cities-rely on Cradlepoint to keep critical sites, workforces, vehicles, and devices always connected and protected. Major service providers use Cradlepoint network solutions as the foundation for innovative managed service offerings. Founded in 2006, Cradlepoint is a privately held company headquartered in Boise, Idaho, with development centers in Silicon Valley and Kelowna, Canada, and offices in the UK, Australia, and Japan. Learn more at cradlepoint.com or follow us on Twitter @cradlepoint.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160727005299/en/

Contacts:

Cradlepoint

Ashley Baster Schulte

+1-919-435-9112

ashley@connect2comm.com


WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Level 3 Communications, Inc. (LVLT) reported Wednesday that its second-quarter net income was $149 million or $0.41 per share, compared to net loss of $13 million or loss per share of $0.04.



The latest results included a charge of $40 million or $0.11 per share for the modification and extinguishment of debt, while last year's charge was $163 million or, approximately $0.46 per share.



Excluding charge, basic earnings per share were $0.53, compared to $0.42 a year ago.



On average, 18 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected loss of $0.04 per share for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items



Total revenue was $2.056 billion in the latest quarter, while prior year's revenues on a reported basis were $2.061 billion and modified basis were $2.037 billion.



Analysts were looking for revenues of $2.08 billion for the quarter.



The modified results last year excluded the results from the company's Venezuelan subsidiary's operations that was deconsolidated as of September 30, 2015.



CNS Revenue was $1.956 billion in the second quarter 2016, increasing 0.7 percent year-over-year.



Further, the company said that as looking at the remainder of the year, it is confident in and are reiterating outlook for Adjusted EBITDA and Free Cash Flow.



The company expects full year 2016 Adjusted EBITDA growth of 10 to 12 percent and Free Cash Flow of $1.0 to $1.1 billion.



All other outlook measures remain unchanged.



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OTTAWA (dpa-AFX) - Gildan Activewear Inc. (GIL.TO, GIL) announced, for full year 2016, the company is now projecting adjusted EPS to be in the range of $1.50-$1.55 compared to prior range of $1.50-$1.60, and adjusted EBITDA of approximately $545-$555 million compared to the previous projection of $545-$570 million.



Gildan Activewear now expects consolidated net sales for the year to be approximately $2.65 billion reflecting projected sales of approximately $1.65 billion in Printwear and Branded Apparel sales of approximately $1 billion. This compares to the prior guidance of sales in excess of $2.6 billion.



Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expect the company to report profit per share of $1.59 on revenue of $2.67 billion. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.



Consolidated net sales in the second quarter of 2016 amounted to $688.9 million, down 3.5% compared to the second calendar quarter of 2015, reflecting sales decreases of 1.4% in the Printwear segment and 7.9% in Branded Apparel.



Net earnings totaled $94.7 million or $0.40 per share for the three months ended July 3, 2016, compared to $99.4 million or $0.41 per share for the three months ended July 5, 2015. Excluding after-tax restructuring and acquisition-related costs of $1.7 million in the quarter and $3.2 million in the same quarter last year, Gildan reported adjusted net earnings of $96.4 million, or $0.41 per share for the second quarter of 2016, slightly down from $102.6 million, or $0.42 per share in the prior year quarter.



Gildan Activewear also announced it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire 100% of the equity interest of Peds Legwear Inc. (Peds) for a total cash consideration of $55 million. The acquisition is expected to close before the end of August 2016.



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Boeing Reports Second-Quarter Results

CHICAGO, July27, 2016 --

Revenue increased to $24.8 billion on strong commercial deliveries and services growth

Loss of $0.37 per share (GAAP) and core (non-GAAP)* loss of $0.44 per share reflect $3.23 per share impact related to previously announced 787 R&D reclassification and 747 & Tanker charges

Strong operating cash flow of $3.2 billion ; repurchased 15 million shares for $2.0 billion

Backlog remains robust at $472 billion with nearly 5,700 commercial airplane orders

Cash and marketable securities of $9.3 billion provide strong liquidity

Reaffirmed cash & revenue guidance; EPS reflects reclassification, charges, solid performance & tax

Table 1. Summary Financial Results Second Quarter First Half (Dollars in Millions, except per share data) 2016 2015 Change 2016 2015 Change Revenues $24,755 $24,543 1% $47,387 $46,692 1% GAAP Earnings/(Loss) From Operations ($419) $1,683 (125)% $1,369 $3,702 (63)% Operating Margin (1.7)% 6.9% (8.6) Pts 2.9% 7.9% (5.0) Pts Net Earnings/(Loss) ($234) $1,110 (121)% $985 $2,446 (60)% Earnings/(Loss) Per Share ($0.37) $1.59 (123)% $1.51 $3.46 (56)% Operating Cash Flow $3,234 $3,297 (2)% $4,465 $3,385 32% Non-GAAP* Core Operating Earnings/(Loss) ($488) $1,713 (128)% $1,206 $3,845 (69)% Core Operating Margin (2.0)% 7.0% (9.0) Pts 2.5% 8.2% (5.7) Pts Core Earnings/(Loss) Per Share ($0.44) $1.62 (127)% $1.35 $3.59 (62)%

* Non-GAAP measures. Complete definitions of Boeing's non-GAAP measures are on page 7, "Non-GAAP Measures Disclosures."

The Boeing Company [NYSE: BA] reported second-quarter revenue of $24.8 billion on strong commercial deliveries and services growth (Table 1). GAAP loss per share of $0.37 and core loss per share (non-GAAP)* of $0.44 reflect the previously announced 787 cost reclassification ($1.33 per share) and charges on the 747 program ($1.28 per share) and the KC-46 Tanker program ($0.62 per share), partially offset by solid execution and higher volume.

"The underlying operating performance of the company remains solid with our commercial and defense teams again delivering strong revenues and operating cash flow. Actions taken during the quarter that impacted our earnings were the right, proactive steps to reduce risk and strengthen our position for the future," said Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer Dennis Muilenburg. "Our strong cash generation also supported our ongoing commitment to invest in product innovation and in our people, and return substantial cash to shareholders through stock repurchases and dividends."

"As we look forward to the second half of the year, we anticipate continued strong operating performance across our production and services programs on generally healthy demand for our broad portfolio of market-leading offerings. Our commercial airplane development programs remain on track and we have successfully completed the flight testing required for customer approval of key KC-46 production milestones."

"Overall our teams remain intensely focused on improving productivity and quality, building out our large and diverse backlog, investing in future growth, and delivering increasing value to all of our stakeholders."

GAAP earnings per share guidance for 2016 has been adjusted to between $6.40 and $6.60 from $8.45 and $8.65 and core earnings per share (non-GAAP)* guidance has been adjusted to between $6.10 and $6.30 from $8.15 and $8.35 to reflect the impact of the 787 R&D reclassification and the 747 and Tanker charges, solid performance and tax benefits.

Table 2. Cash Flow Second Quarter First Half (Millions) 2016 2015 2016 2015 Operating Cash Flow $3,234 $3,297 $4,465 $3,385 Less Additions to Property, Plant & Equipment ($671) ($692) ($1,419) ($1,266) Free Cash Flow* $2,563 $2,605 $3,046 $2,119

* Non-GAAP measures. Complete definitions of Boeing's non-GAAP measures are on page 7, "Non-GAAP Measures Disclosures."

Operating cash flow in the quarter was $3.2 billion, largely reflecting commercial airplane production rates and solid operating performance (Table 2). During the quarter, the company repurchased 15.3 million shares for $2.0 billion, leaving $8.5 billion remaining under the current repurchase authorization which is expected to be completed over approximately the next two years. The company also paid $691 million in dividends in the quarter, reflecting an approximately 20 percent increase in dividends per share compared to the same period of the prior year.

Table 3. Cash, Marketable Securities and Debt Balances Quarter-End (Billions) Q2 16 Q1 16 Cash $8.6 $7.9 Marketable Securities1 $0.7 $0.5 Total $9.3 $8.4 Debt Balances: The Boeing Company, net of intercompany loans to BCC $8.7 $7.6 Boeing Capital, including intercompany loans $2.3 $2.4 Total Consolidated Debt $11.0 $10.0

1 Marketable securities consists primarily of time deposits due within one year classified as "short-term investments."

Cash and investments in marketable securities totaled $9.3 billion, up from $8.4 billion at the beginning of the quarter. Debt was $11.0 billion, up from the beginning of the quarter, primarily due to the issuance of new debt (Table 3).

Total company backlog at quarter-end was $472 billion, down from $480 billion at the beginning of the quarter, and included net orders for the quarter of $17 billion.

Segment Results

Commercial Airplanes

Table 4. Commercial Airplanes Second Quarter First Half (Dollars in Millions) 2016 2015 Change 2016 2015 Change Commercial Airplanes Deliveries 199 197 1% 375 381 (2)% Revenues $17,456 $16,877 3% $31,855 $32,258 (1)% Earnings/(Loss) from Operations ($973) $1,206 (181)% $60 $2,823 (98)% Operating Margin (5.6)% 7.1% (12.7) Pts 0.2% 8.8% (8.6) Pts

Commercial Airplanes second-quarter revenue increased 3 percent to $17.5 billion on higher volume and mix (Table 4). Second-quarter operating margin was negative 5.6 percent, reflecting previously announced R&D reclassification of $1,235 million on the 787 program, a pre-tax charge of $1,188 million on the 747 program, and a pre-tax charge of $354 million on the KC-46 Tanker program. The results also reflect higher planned R&D and solid execution. Second-quarter operating margin excluding the reclassification and charges (non-GAAP)* was 10.3%.

During the quarter, the 787 program reached a 12 per month delivery rate and the company opened the new 777X Composite Wing Center in Everett. The 737 program rolled out the first two 737 MAX production airplanes and has captured over 3,200 orders for the 737 MAX since launch, including an order for 100 737 MAX 200 airplanes from Vietjet during the quarter. The 737 MAX development program is progressing smoothly and entry into service is being accelerated.

Commercial Airplanes booked 152 net orders during the quarter. Backlog remains strong with nearly 5,700 airplanes valued at $417 billion.

Defense, Space& Security

Table 5. Defense, Space & Security Second Quarter First Half (Dollars in Millions) 2016 2015 Change 2016 2015 Change Revenues1 Boeing Military Aircraft $2,979 $3,474 (14)% $6,638 $6,200 7% Network& Space Systems $1,810 $1,938 (7)% $3,545 $3,670 (3)% Global Services& Support $2,385 $2,132 12% $4,947 $4,383 13% Total BDS Revenues $7,174 $7,544 (5)% $15,130 $14,253 6% Earnings from Operations1 Boeing Military Aircraft $175 $121 45% $509 $380 34% Network& Space Systems $153 $151 1% $301 $318 (5)% Global Services& Support $265 $274 (3)% $605 $591 2% Total BDS Earnings from Operations $593 $546 9% $1,415 $1,289 10% Operating Margin 8.3% 7.2% 1.1 Pts 9.4% 9.0% 0.4 Pts

1 During the first quarter of 2016, certain programs were realigned between Boeing Military Aircraft and Global Services & Support.

Defense, Space & Security's second-quarter revenue was $7.2 billion. Second-quarter operating margin was 8.3 percent, reflecting the previously announced $219 million pre-tax charge recorded at Boeing Military Aircraft on the KC-46 Tanker program (Table 5).

Boeing Military Aircraft (BMA) second-quarter revenue was $3.0 billion, reflecting lower planned C-17 and Chinook deliveries. Operating margin was 5.9 percent, reflecting the KC-46 Tanker charge. During the quarter, BMA was awarded contracts for 24 Apache and 12 Chinook helicopters.

Network& Space Systems (N&SS) second-quarter revenue was $1.8 billion. Operating margin increased to 8.5 percent, reflecting performance and timing on United Launch Alliance launches.

Global Services & Support (GS&S) second-quarter revenue increased to $2.4 billion, reflecting higher volume in Aircraft Modernization & Sustainment. Operating margin was 11.1 percent largely reflecting contract mix.

Backlog at Defense, Space & Security was $55 billion, of which 37 percent represents orders from international customers.

Additional Financial Information

Table 6. Additional Financial Information Second Quarter

First Half (Dollars in Millions) 2016 2015 2016 2015 Revenues Boeing Capital $84 $115 $148 $201 Unallocated items, eliminations and other $41 $7 $254 ($20) Earnings from Operations Boeing Capital $18 $11 $23 $31 Unallocated pension/postretirement $69 ($30) $163 ($143) Other unallocated items and eliminations ($126) ($50) ($292) ($298) Other income, net $13 $15 $39 $3 Interest and debt expense ($73) ($75) ($146) ($136) Effective tax rate 51.1% 31.6% 21.9% 31.5%

At quarter-end, Boeing Capital's net portfolio balance was $3 billion, down from the beginning of the quarter. Total pension expense for the second quarter was $463 million, down from $523 million in the same period of the prior year. Other unallocated items and eliminations decreased from the same period in the prior year primarily due to higher deferred compensation expense and elimination of intercompany profit. The effective tax rate for the second quarter was increased from the same period in the prior year primarily due to lower pre-tax income. During the quarter, the company adopted a new accounting standard for share-based compensation payments which resulted in a $54 million tax benefit ($0.08 per share).

Outlook

The company's 2016 updated financial and delivery guidance (Table 7) reflects the impact of the 787 R&D reclassification and the 747 and Tanker charges, solid performance and tax benefits.

Table 7. 2016 Financial Outlook Current Prior (Dollars in Billions, except per share data) Guidance Guidance The Boeing Company Revenue $93.0 - 95.0 $93.0 - 95.0 GAAP Earnings Per Share $6.40 - 6.60 $8.45 - 8.65 Core Earnings Per Share* $6.10 - 6.30 $8.15 - 8.35 Operating Cash Flow ~$10.0 ~$10.0 Commercial Airplanes Deliveries 740 - 745 740 - 745 Revenue $64.0 - 65.0 $64.0 - 65.0 Operating Margin 4.5% - 5.0 ~9.0% Defense, Space & Security Revenue Boeing Military Aircraft ~$12.3 ~$12.3 Network& Space Systems ~$7.3 ~$7.3 Global Services& Support ~$9.4 ~$9.4 Total BDS Revenue $28.5 - 29.5 $28.5 - 29.5 Operating Margin Boeing Military Aircraft ~9.5% ~10.0% Network& Space Systems ~9.0% ~9.0% Global Services& Support ~12.0% ~11.5% Total BDS Operating Margin >10.0% >10.0% Boeing Capital Portfolio Size Stable Stable Revenue ~$0.3 ~$0.3 Pre-Tax Earnings ~$0.05 ~$0.05 Research& Development ~ $4.8 ~ $3.6 Capital Expenditures ~ $2.8 ~ $2.8 Pension Expense 1 ~ $2.1 ~ $2.1 Effective Tax Rate ~ 23.0% ~ 30.0%

1 Approximately ($0.1) billion is expected to be recorded in unallocated items and eliminations * Non-GAAP measures. Complete definitions of Boeing's non-GAAP measures are on page 7, "Non-GAAP Measures Disclosures."

Non-GAAP Measures Disclosures

We supplement the reporting of our financial information determined under U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) with certain non-GAAP financial information. The non-GAAP financial information presented excludes certain significant items that may not be indicative of, or are unrelated to, results from our ongoing business operations. We believe that these non-GAAP measures provide investors with additional insight into the company's ongoing business performance. These non-GAAP measures should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for the related GAAP measures, and other companies may define such measures differently. We encourage investors to review our financial statements and publicly-filed reports in their entirety and not to rely on any single financial measure. The following definitions are provided:

Core Operating Earnings/(Loss), Core Operating Margin and Core Earnings/(Loss) Per Share

Core operating earnings/(loss) is defined as GAAP earnings/(loss) from operations excluding unallocated pension and post-retirement expense. Core operating margin is defined as core operating earnings/(loss) expressed as a percentage of revenue. Core earnings/(loss) per share is defined as GAAP diluted earnings/(loss) per share excluding the net earnings per share impact of unallocated pension and post-retirement expense. Unallocated pension and post-retirement expense represents the portion of pension and other post-retirement costs that are not recognized by business segments for segment reporting purposes. Pension costs, comprising service and prior service costs computed in accordance with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles in the United States of America (GAAP) are allocated to Commercial Airplanes. Pension costs allocated to BDS segments are computed in accordance with U.S. Government Cost Accounting Standards (CAS), which employ different actuarial assumptions and accounting conventions than GAAP. CAS costs are allocable to government contracts. Other postretirement benefit costs are allocated to all business segments based on CAS, which is generally based on benefits paid. Management uses core operating earnings, core operating margin and core earnings per share for purposes of evaluating and forecasting underlying business performance. Management believes these core earnings measures provide investors additional insights into operational performance as they exclude unallocated pension and post-retirement costs, which primarily represent costs driven by market factors and costs not allocable to government contracts. A reconciliation between the GAAP and non-GAAP measures is provided on page 14.

Commercial Airplanes Operating Margin Excluding the Reclassification and Charges

Commercial Airplanes GAAP operating margin for the three months ended June 30, 2016 includes research and development expense of $1,235 million related to the reclassification of costs associated with two 787 flight test aircraft from program inventory, a reach-forward loss on the 747 program of $1,188 million, and a reach-forward loss recorded at Commercial Airplanes on the KC-46 Tanker program of $354 million. Management uses Commercial Airplanes operating margin excluding the reclassification and charges for the purpose of evaluating underlying business performance for the three months ended June 30, 2016. Management believes that this measure also helps investors assess overall trends in our operational performance and provide additional context for year over year financial results. A reconciliation between the GAAP and non-GAAP measures is provided on page 14.

Free Cash Flow

Free cash flow is defined as GAAP operating cash flow without capital expenditures for property, plant and equipment additions. Management believes free cash flow provides investors with an important perspective on the cash available for shareholders, debt repayment, and acquisitions after making the capital investments required to support ongoing business operations and long term value creation. Free cash flow does not represent the residual cash flow available for discretionary expenditures as it excludes certain mandatory expenditures such as repayment of maturing debt. Management uses free cash flow as a measure to assess both business performance and overall liquidity. Table 2 provides a reconciliation between GAAP operating cash flow and free cash flow.

Caution Concerning Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words such as "may," "should," "expects," "intends," "projects," "plans," "believes," "estimates," "targets," "anticipates," and similar expressions are used to identify these forward-looking statements. Examples of forward-looking statements include statements relating to our future financial condition and operating results, as well as any other statement that does not directly relate to any historical or current fact. Forward-looking statements are based on our current expectations and assumptions, which may not prove to be accurate. These statements are not guarantees and are subject to risks, uncertainties, and changes in circumstances that are difficult to predict. Many factors could cause actual results to differ materially and adversely from these forward-looking statements. Among these factors are risks related to: (1) general conditions in the economy and our industry, including those due to regulatory changes; (2) our reliance on our commercial airline customers; (3) the overall health of our aircraft production system, planned production rate increases across multiple commercial airline programs, our commercial development and derivative aircraft programs, and our aircraft being subject to stringent performance and reliability standards; (4) changing budget and appropriation levels and acquisition priorities of the U.S. government; (5) our dependence on U.S. government contracts; (6) our reliance on fixed-price contracts; (7) our reliance on cost-type contracts; (8) uncertainties concerning contracts that include in-orbit incentive payments; (9) our dependence on our subcontractors and suppliers, as well as the availability of raw materials, (10) changes in accounting estimates; (11) changes in the competitive landscape in our markets; (12) our non-U.S. operations, including sales to non-U.S. customers; (13) potential adverse developments in new or pending litigation and/or government investigations; (14) customer and aircraft concentration in Boeing Capital's customer financing portfolio; (15) changes in our ability to obtain debt on commercially reasonable terms and at competitive rates in order to fund our operations and contractual commitments; (16) realizing the anticipated benefits of mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures/strategic alliances or divestitures; (17) the adequacy of our insurance coverage to cover significant risk exposures; (18) potential business disruptions, including those related to physical security threats, information technology or cyber-attacks, epidemics, sanctions or natural disasters; (19) work stoppages or other labor disruptions; (20) significant changes in discount rates and actual investment return on pension assets; (21) potential environmental liabilities; and (22) threats to the security of our or our customers' information.

Additional information concerning these and other factors can be found in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including our most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and Current Reports on Form 8-K. Any forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date on which it is made, and we assume no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise, except as required by law.

Contact:

InvestorRelations: Troy Lahr or Ben Hackman (312) 544-2140 Communications: Bernard Choi (312)544-2002

The Boeing Company and Subsidiaries Consolidated Statements of Operations (Unaudited) Six months ended

June 30 Three months ended

June 30 (Dollars in millions, except per share data) 2016 2015 2016 2015 Sales of products $42,069 $41,408 $22,184 $21,923 Sales of services 5,318 5,284 2,571 2,620 Total revenues 47,387 46,692 24,755 24,543 Cost of products (37,210) (35,627) (20,265) (19,247) Cost of services (4,180) (4,186) (2,044) (2,086) Boeing Capital interest expense (32) (33) (16) (17) Total costs and expenses (41,422) (39,846) (22,325) (21,350) 5,965 6,846 2,430 3,193 Income from operating investments, net 151 129 97 50 General and administrative expense (1,694) (1,705) (806) (760) Research and development expense, net (3,044) (1,569) (2,127) (800) (Loss)/gain on dispositions, net (9) 1 (13) Earnings/(loss) from operations 1,369 3,702 (419) 1,683 Other income, net 39 3 13 15 Interest and debt expense (146) (136) (73) (75) Earnings/(loss) before income taxes 1,262 3,569 (479) 1,623 Income tax (expense)/benefit (277) (1,123) 245 (513) Net earnings/(loss) $985 $2,446 ($234) $1,110 Basic earnings/(loss) per share $1.52 $3.50 ($0.37) $1.61 Diluted earnings/(loss) per share $1.51 $3.46 ($0.37) $1.59 Cash dividends paid per share $2.18 $1.82 $1.09 $0.91 Weighted average diluted shares (millions) 654.9 706.6 636.3 ** 698.9

** As a result of incurring a net loss for the three months ended June 30, 2016, potential common shares of 6.7 million were excluded from diluted earnings per share.

The Boeing Company and Subsidiaries Consolidated Statements of Financial Position (Unaudited) (Dollars in millions, except per share data) June30

2016 December31

2015 Assets Cash and cash equivalents $8,605 $11,302 Short-term and other investments 660 750 Accounts receivable, net 9,809 8,713 Current portion of customer financing, net 251 212 Inventories, net of advances and progress billings 44,182 47,257 Total current assets 63,507 68,234 Customer financing, net 2,909 3,358 Property, plant and equipment, net of accumulated depreciation of $16,641 and $16,286 12,533 12,076 Goodwill 5,128 5,126 Acquired intangible assets, net 2,544 2,657 Deferred income taxes 267 265 Investments 1,312 1,284 Other assets, net of accumulated amortization of $451 and $451 1,409 1,408 Total assets $89,609 $94,408 Liabilities and equity Accounts payable $11,748 $10,800 Accrued liabilities 13,534 14,014 Advances and billings in excess of related costs 23,409 24,364 Short-term debt and current portion of long-term debt 1,168 1,234 Total current liabilities 49,859 50,412 Deferred income taxes 2,422 2,392 Accrued retiree health care 6,586 6,616 Accrued pension plan liability, net 18,200 17,783 Other long-term liabilities 2,048 2,078 Long-term debt 9,847 8,730 Shareholders' equity: Common stock, par value $5.00 - 1,200,000,000 shares authorized; 1,012,261,159 shares issued 5,061 5,061 Additional paid-in capital 4,778 4,834 Treasury stock, at cost - 386,402,793 and 345,637,354 shares (34,821) (29,568) Retained earnings 38,362 38,756 Accumulated other comprehensive loss (12,795) (12,748) Total shareholders' equity 585 6,335 Noncontrolling interests 62 62 Total equity 647 6,397 Total liabilities and equity $89,609 $94,408

The Boeing Company and Subsidiaries Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows (Unaudited) Six months ended

June 30 (Dollars in millions) 2016 2015 Cash flows-operating activities: Net earnings/(loss) $985 $2,446 Adjustments to reconcile net earnings to net cash provided by operating activities: Non-cash items - Share-based plans expense 97 94 Depreciation and amortization 890 912 Investment/asset impairment charges, net 50 74 Customer financing valuation benefit (4) (5) Gain/(loss) on dispositions, net 9 (1) Other charges and credits, net 141 140 Excess tax benefits from share-based payment arrangements (124) Changes in assets and liabilities - Accounts receivable (503) (313) Inventories, net of advances and progress billings 3,004 (2,395) Accounts payable 1,221 888 Accrued liabilities (269) (177) Advances and billings in excess of related costs (954) 195 Income taxes receivable, payable and deferred (494) 482 Other long-term liabilities (103) (17) Pension and other postretirement plans 181 1,244 Customer financing, net 275 19 Other (61) (77) Net cash provided by operating activities 4,465 3,385 Cash flows - investing activities: Property, plant and equipment additions (1,419) (1,266) Property, plant and equipment reductions 13 20 Acquisitions, net of cash acquired (23) Contributions to investments (657) (1,205) Proceeds from investments 705 2,040 Other 8 22 Net cash used by investing activities (1,350) (412) Cash flows - financing activities: New borrowings 1,323 761 Debt repayments (267) (846) Stock options exercised 147 276 Excess tax benefits from share-based payment arrangements 124 Employee taxes on certain share-based payment arrangements (79) (90) Common shares repurchased (5,501) (4,501) Dividends paid (1,408) (1,264) Other (24) Net cash used by financing activities (5,809) (5,540) Effect of exchange rate changes on cash and cash equivalents (3) (9) Net decrease in cash and cash equivalents (2,697) (2,576) Cash and cash equivalents at beginning of year 11,302 11,733 Cash and cash equivalents at end of period $8,605 $9,157

The Boeing Company and Subsidiaries Summary of Business Segment Data (Unaudited) Six months ended

June 30 Three months ended

June 30 (Dollars in millions) 2016 2015 2016 2015 Revenues: Commercial Airplanes $31,855 $32,258 $17,456 $16,877 Defense, Space& Security: Boeing Military Aircraft 6,638 6,200 2,979 3,474 Network& Space Systems 3,545 3,670 1,810 1,938 Global Services& Support 4,947 4,383 2,385 2,132 Total Defense, Space& Security 15,130 14,253 7,174 7,544 Boeing Capital 148 201 84 115 Unallocated items, eliminations and other 254 (20) 41 7 Total revenues $47,387 $46,692 $24,755 $24,543 Earnings/(loss) from operations: Commercial Airplanes $60 $2,823 ($973) $1,206 Defense, Space& Security: Boeing Military Aircraft 509 380 175 121 Network& Space Systems 301 318 153 151 Global Services& Support 605 591 265 274 Total Defense, Space& Security 1,415 1,289 593 546 Boeing Capital 23 31 18 11 Segment operating profit/(loss) 1,498 4,143 (362) 1,763 Unallocated items, eliminations and other (129) (441) (57) (80) Earnings/(loss) from operations 1,369 3,702 (419) 1,683 Other income, net 39 3 13 15 Interest and debt expense (146) (136) (73) (75) Earnings/(loss) before income taxes 1,262 3,569 (479) 1,623 Income tax (expense)/benefit (277) (1,123) 245 (513) Net earnings/(loss) $985 $2,446 ($234) $1,110 Research and development expense, net: Commercial Airplanes $2,548 $1,097 $1,877 $554 Defense, Space& Security 521 474 263 250 Other (25) (2) (13) (4) Total research and development expense, net $3,044 $1,569 $2,127 $800 Unallocated items, eliminations and other: Share-based plans ($41) ($37) ($18) ($16) Deferred compensation (5) (48) (21) 10 Amortization of previously capitalized interest (48) (49) (18) (20) Eliminations and other unallocated items (198) (164) (69) (24) Sub-total (included in core operating earnings) (292) (298) (126) (50) Pension 79 (209) 34 (57) Postretirement 84 66 35 27 Total unallocated items, eliminations and other ($129) ($441) ($57) ($80)

The Boeing Company and Subsidiaries Operating and Financial Data (Unaudited) Deliveries Six months ended

June 30 Three months ended

June 30 Commercial Airplanes 2016 2015 2016 2015 737 248 249 127 128 747 3 9 2 5 767 5 9 4 4 777 51 50 28 26 787 68 64 38 34 Total 375 381 199 197 Note: Deliveries under operating lease are identified by parentheses. Defense, Space & Security Boeing Military Aircraft AH-64 Apache (New) 15 12 8 6 AH-64 Apache (Remanufactured) 18 23 7 13 C-17 Globemaster III 4 3 1 2 CH-47 Chinook (New) 10 21 7 15 CH-47 Chinook (Renewed) 16 5 7 1 F-15 Models 7 5 3 4 F/A-18 Models 14 20 6 9 P-8 Models 9 6 5 4 Global Services & Support AEW&C C-40A 1 Network & Space Systems Commercial and Civil Satellites 1 1 1 Military Satellites 1 1 1 1

Contractual backlog (Dollars in billions) June30

2016 December31

2015 Commercial Airplanes $416.6 $431.4 Defense, Space & Security: Boeing Military Aircraft 22.6 19.9 Network & Space Systems 6.9 7.4 Global Services & Support 16.9 17.9 Total Defense, Space & Security 46.4 45.2 Total contractual backlog $463.0 $476.6 Unobligated backlog $9.2 $12.7 Total backlog $472.2 $489.3 Workforce 158,100 161,400

The Boeing Company and Subsidiaries Reconciliation of Non-GAAP Measures (Unaudited) The tables provided below reconcile the non-GAAP financial measures core operating earnings, core operating margin, core earnings per share, and Commercial Airplanes operating margin excluding the reclassification and charges with the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures, earnings from operations, operating margin, diluted earnings per share and Commercial Airplanes operating margin. See page 7 of this release for additional information on the use of these non-GAAP financial measures. (Dollars in millions, except per share data) Second Quarter First Half Guidance 2016 2015 2016 2015 2016 Revenues $24,755 $24,543 $47,387 $46,692 GAAP Earnings/(Loss) From Operations ($419) $1,683 $1,369 $3,702 Increase/(Decrease) in GAAP Earnings From Operations (125%) (63%) GAAP Operating Margin (1.7%) 6.9% 2.9% 7.9% Unallocated Pension (Income)/Expense ($34) $57 ($79) $209 Unallocated Other Postretirement Benefit Income ($35) ($27) ($84) ($66) Unallocated Pension and Other Postretirement Benefit (Income)/Expense ($69) $30 ($163) $143 ~($300) Core Operating Earnings/(Loss) (non-GAAP) ($488) $1,713 $1,206 $3,845 Increase/(Decrease) in Core Operating Earnings (non-GAAP) (128%) (69%) Core Operating Margin (non-GAAP) (2.0%) 7.0% 2.5% 8.2% GAAP Diluted Earnings/(Loss) Per Share ($0.37) $1.59 $1.51 $3.46 $6.40 - $6.60 Unallocated Pension (Income)/Expense ($0.05) $0.09 ($0.12) $0.29 Unallocated Postretirement Benefit (Income)/Expense ($0.06) ($0.04) ($0.13) ($0.09) ($0.30) Provision for deferred income taxes on adjustments (1) $0.04 ($0.02) $0.09 ($0.07) Core Earnings/(Loss) Per Share (non-GAAP) ($0.44) $1.62 $1.35 $3.59 $6.10 - $6.30 Weighted Average Diluted Shares (millions) 636.3 ** 698.9 654.9 706.6 645 - 650 Increase/(Decrease) in GAAP Earnings Per Share (123%) (56%) Increase/(Decrease) in Core Earnings Per Share (non-GAAP) (127%) (62%) Commercial Airplanes Revenues $17,456 GAAP Commercial Airplanes Earnings/(Loss) from Operations ($973) GAAP Commercial Airplanes Operating margin (5.6%) Cost reclassification of two 787 flight test aircraft $1,235 Reach-forward loss on 747 program $1,188 Reach-forward loss at Commercial Airplanes on KC-46 Tanker program $354 Commercial Airlines Earnings from Operations excluding the reclassification and charges (non-GAAP) $1,804 Commercial Airplanes operating margin excluding the reclassification and charges (non-GAAP) 10.3%

(1) The income tax impact is calculated using the tax rate in effect for the non-GAAP adjustments. ** As a result of incurring a net loss for the three months ended June 30, 2016, potential common shares of 6.7 million were excluded from diluted earnings per share.

SOURCE: Boeing
Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. (NYSE:JEC) announced today it was awarded a contract by Network Rail to continue its support for improving rail links from the Great Western main line to Heathrow Airport in the United Kingdom (U.K.). The work is a key part of a project to improve connections to the U.K.'s busiest airport and create a global gateway for west England.

The proposed rail link enables passengers throughout west England and beyond to travel directly to Heathrow Airport from Reading and Slough without having to change at London Paddington. It is expected to ease congestion on roads, lower carbon dioxide emissions by the equivalent of 30 million passenger road miles per year and provide an economic boost for businesses in the region.

Jacobs' contribution to the project is expected to be executed from its offices in the U.K. over the next 27 months. The project's financial contract terms will remain confidential.

Under the terms of the contract, Jacobs is supporting Network Rail's development consent order (DCO) submission. The initial project work is focused on defining a preferred option to take through consultation. Once a recommendation is agreed upon, Jacobs' role is to lead the multi-disciplinary engineering and environmental design component to an approval-in-principle level of design for the new 3.1 mile tunneled route. This includes completing the environmental impact assessment to produce the scheme's environmental statement, which critically informs the engineering design, construction strategy and environmental mitigation program to minimize impact on local residents and the environment during both construction and operation phases.

Jacobs Senior Vice President Buildings and Infrastructure Bob Duff stated, "We started supporting Network Rail on its feasibility plans for this essential rail link in October 2011. Being able to continue our collaboration in an effort to help Network Rail realize the extensive social, economic and environmental goals of this important project is exciting. We are leveraging our experience with the DCO process to support the delivery of sustainable design and compelling application."

Jacobs has worked with Network Rail and its predecessors for more than four decades, supporting projects across infrastructure, operations and asset management. Other U.K. rail projects include Blackfriars Station, the Thameslink Programme (including KO2 and London Bridge station), the Edinburgh to Glasgow Improvement Programme and the On Network Works for Crossrail at Stockley.

Jacobs was also recently appointed as the client-side technical advisors to the Western Australia Public Transport Authority for the Forrestfield Airport Rail Link in Perth, Australia.

Jacobs is one of the world's largest and most diverse providers of full-spectrum technical, professional and construction services for industrial, commercial and government organizations globally. The company employs 60,000 people and operates in more than 30 countries around the world. For more information, visit www.jacobs.com.

Statements made in this release that are not based on historical fact are forward-looking statements. We base these forward-looking statements on management's current estimates and expectations as well as currently available competitive, financial and economic data. Forward-looking statements, however, are inherently uncertain. There are a variety of factors that could cause business results to differ materially from our forward-looking statements. For a description of some of the factors which may occur that could cause actual results to differ from our forward-looking statements please refer to our 2015 Form 10-K, and in particular the discussions contained under Items 1 Business, 1A Risk Factors, 3 Legal Proceedings, and 7 Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations. We do not undertake to update any forward-looking statements made herein.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160727005078/en/

Contacts:

Jacobs Engineering Group Inc.

Robin Shermer, 817-735-6284
MONACO--(Marketwired - July 27, 2016) - Scorpio Bulkers Inc. (NYSE: SALT) ("Scorpio Bulkers," or the "Company") today reported its results for the three and six months ended June 30, 2016.

Results for the three and six months ended June 30, 2016 and 2015

For the three months ended June 30, 2016, the Company's GAAP net loss was $24.7 million, or $0.48 loss per diluted share compared to a GAAP net loss of $138.6 million, or $8.50 loss per diluted share for the three months ended June 30, 2015. For the three months ended June 30, 2015, the Company's adjusted net loss was $16.6 million or $1.01 adjusted loss per diluted share, which excludes a write down of assets held for sale of $119.6 million and the write off of deferred financing costs on credit facilities that will no longer be used of $2.4 million, or $7.49 loss per diluted share (see Non-GAAP Financial Measures section below). There were no non-GAAP adjustments to earnings in the three months ended June 30, 2016.

For the six months ended June 30, 2016, the Company's adjusted net loss was $58.1 million, or $1.43 adjusted loss per diluted share, which excludes a loss/write off of vessels and assets held for sale of $12.4 million, the write off of deferred financing costs on credit facilities that will no longer be used of $2.5 million and a charterhire contract termination fee of $10.0 million, or $0.62 loss per diluted share (see Non-GAAP Financial Measures section below). For the six months ended June 30, 2016, the Company had a GAAP net loss of $83.0 million, or $2.05 loss per diluted share.

For the six months ended June 30, 2015, the Company's adjusted net loss was $33.4 million or $2.17 adjusted loss per diluted share, which excludes a write down on assets held for sale of $151.4 million and the write off of deferred financing costs on credit facilities that will no longer be used of $6.0 million, or $10.23 loss per share (see Non-GAAP Financial Measures section below). For the six months ended June 30, 2015, the Company had a GAAP net loss of $190.7 million, or $12.40 loss per diluted share.

Recent Significant Events

TCE Revenue Earned during the Second Quarter of 2016

Our Kamsarmax fleet earned $5,263 per day

Our Ultramax fleet earned $5,335 per day

Voyages Fixed thus far in the Third Quarter of 2016

Kamsarmax fleet: approximately $6,611 per day for 45% of the days

Ultramax fleet: approximately $7,153 per day for 55% of the days

Equity Raise

During the second quarter of 2016, the Company raised net proceeds of approximately $67.5 million through the issuance of 23 million shares of common stock at $3.05 per share. Scorpio Services Holding Limited purchased an aggregate of 5,250,000 common shares at the public offering price.

Newbuilding Vessels Deliveries

During the second quarter of 2016, the Company took delivery from shipyards of the following newbuilding vessels:

SBI Zeus, an Ultramax vessel, was delivered from Mitsui Engineering & Shipbuilding Co., Ltd.

SBI Hyperion, an Ultramax vessel, was delivered from Nantong COSCO KHI Ship Engineering Co, Ltd.

SBI Hera, an Ultramax vessel, was delivered from Mitsui Engineering & Shipbuilding Co., Ltd.

Between July 1, 2016 and July 22, 2016 the Company took delivery from shipyards of the following newbuilding vessels:

SBI Tethys, an Ultramax vessel, was delivered from Nantong COSCO KHI Ship Engineering Co, Ltd.

SBI Phoebe, an Ultramax vessel, was delivered from Chengxi Shipyard Co. Ltd.

Liquidity and Debt

Fleet Financing Update

During the second quarter of 2016, the Company agreed with its lenders to amend the relevant loan agreements such that the interest coverage ratio, as defined in each agreement, will not be applicable until the first quarter of 2018, at which point the ratio will be 1.00 to 1.00 and will be calculated on a year-to-date basis for the first and second quarter of 2018. Thereafter, the interest coverage ratio will revert to its original covenant level of 2.50 to 1.00.

During the second quarter of 2016, the Company agreed with its lenders to amend its loan agreements such that the respective value-to-loan ratio covenant, as defined in each agreement, is reduced to 140% in all but the $67.5 Million Credit Facility, where the covenant level is reduced to 115%.

During the second quarter of 2016, the Company also agreed with all of its lenders to amend definitions within its "leverage ratio" and "consolidated net worth" covenants to exclude certain non-operating items.

Loan Prepayments

$67.5 Million Credit Facility

In January 2016, the Company reached an agreement in principle with the lender to add four quarterly installment payments to the balloon payment in exchange for an advance principal repayment of approximately $4.0 million. As a result of this agreement, the Company will not have to make the next eight quarterly installment payments totaling $8.0 million. The agreement was executed in April 2016 at which time we made a prepayment of $3.2 million. The remaining prepayment of $0.8 million under this agreement was made upon drawing down the loan on the SBI Phoebe in July 2016.

In May 2016, the Company reached an agreement with the lender to make an advance principal repayment of approximately $2.5 million, which was made in the second quarter of 2016. In connection with this amendment the Company agreed to reduce the available loan amount by approximately $4.4 million.

$409.0 Million Credit Facility

In February 2016, the Company reached an agreement in principle with the lender to add four quarterly installment payments to the balloon payment in exchange for an advance principal repayment of approximately $14.0 million (calculated on the basis of loan amounts available for undelivered ships and adjusted for the recent cancellation of a shipbuilding contract as announced on April 3, 2016), which was made in the first half of 2016 or, where applicable, will be made upon draw down. As a result of this agreement, the Company will not have to make the next eight quarterly installment payments totaling $28.1 million (calculated on the basis of loan amounts available for the undelivered ships and adjusted for the cancellation of a shipbuilding contract). The agreement was executed in April 2016.

During the second quarter of 2016, the Company agreed to reduce the available loan amount by approximately $22.5 million.

$330 Million Credit Facility

In May 2016, the Company reached an agreement with the lenders to not make $10.0 million of installment payments falling due between the second quarters of 2016 and 2017 in exchange for an advance principal repayment of $10.0 million, which was made in the second quarter of 2016.

During the second quarter of 2016, the Company agreed to reduce the available loan amount by approximately $16.8 million.

$42 Million Credit Facility

In May 2016, the Company reached an agreement with the lender to not make approximately $0.8 million of installment payments falling due in the first quarter of 2018 in exchange for an advance principal repayment of approximately $0.8 million, which was made in the second quarter of 2016.

$27.3 Million Credit Facility

In February 2016, the Company reached an agreement in principle with the lender to add four quarterly installment payments to the balloon payment in exchange for an advance principal repayment of approximately $1.6 million. As a result of this agreement, the Company will not have to make the next eight quarterly installment payments totaling $3.1 million. The agreement was executed in April 2016 at which time the prepayment was made.

In May 2016, the Company reached an agreement with the lender to not make approximately $0.8 million of installment payments falling due between the second and third quarters of 2018 in exchange for an advance principal repayment of approximately $0.8 million, which was made in the second quarter of 2016.

$39.6 Million Credit Facility

In May 2016, the Company reached an agreement with the lender to not make approximately $0.5 million of installment payments falling due in the first quarter of 2018 in exchange for an advance principal repayment of approximately $0.5 million, which was made in the second quarter of 2016.

We made the following drawdowns, gross of any simultaneous prepayments, from our credit facilities during the second quarter of 2016:

Drawdown amount Credit facility ($ thousands) Collateral ---------------------------------- ------------------- ------------------ 1 $409 Million Credit Facility $ 12,750 SBI Zeus 2 $409 Million Credit Facility 13,200 SBI Hera 3 $330 Million Credit Facility 12,300 SBI Hyperion 4 $330 Million Credit Facility 12,300 SBI Tethys

As of July 22, 2016, the Company had approximately $229.3 million in cash and cash equivalents.

As of July 22, 2016, the Company's outstanding debt balance, gross of unamortized deferred financing costs, and amount available to draw is as follows (dollars in thousands):

As of June 30, 2016 As of July 22, 2016 -------------------------------- ------------------- ----------------------- Amount Amount Credit facility Amount outstanding outstanding available * -------------------------------- ------------------- ----------- ----------- Senior Notes $ 73,625 $ 73,625 $ - $39.6 Million Credit Facility 22,059 22,059 - $409 Million Credit Facility 130,696 130,696 66,000 $330 Million Credit Facility 201,584 201,584 63,600 $42 Million Credit Facility 43,465 43,465 - $67.5 Million Credit Facility 35,684 46,476 - $12.5 Million Credit Facility 11,358 11,358 - $27.3 Million Credit Facility 20,925 20,925 - ------------------- ----------- ----------- Total $ 539,396 $ 550,188 $ 129,600 =================== =========== ===========

Reflects the maximum loan amount available on undrawn vessels.

The Company's projected quarterly principal repayments through year end 2018 based on current levels of bank debt, maximum loan amount available on undrawn vessels is as follows (dollars in millions):

Q3 2016 $ 3.5 Q4 2016 3.3 Q1 2017 1.5 Q2 2017 2.9 Q3 2017 6.3 Q4 2017 6.3 Q1 2018 7.5 Q2 2018 8.8 Q3 2018 9.3 Q4 2018 10.1 ----- Total 59.5

Newbuilding Program

Our Newbuilding Program consists of contracts for the construction of 48 dry bulk vessels, comprised of 20 Ultramax newbuildings, and 28 Kamsarmax newbuilding. Of this total, through July 22, 2016, we have taken delivery of 14 Kamsarmax and 24 Ultramax vessels. The aggregate construction price for the remaining 10 dry bulk vessels is $293.2 million. Of this amount, $191.2 million remains unpaid as of July 22, 2016 and is scheduled to be paid in installments through the delivery dates of each vessel. Upon delivery of the vessels we expect to drawdown up to $129.6 million of available debt. The future payment dates and amounts are as follows (dollars in millions) (1) :

Q3 2016 $ 35.1 (2) Q4 2016 113.9 Q1 2017 21.1 Q2 2017 21.1 ------------------ $ 191.2 ==================

These are estimates only and are subject to change as construction progresses. Relates to payments expected to be made from July 22, 2016 to September 30, 2016 and excludes $21.8 million paid from July 1 to July 22, 2016.

Financial Results for the Three Months Ended June 30, 2016 Compared to the Three Months Ended June 30, 2015

The Company had a GAAP net loss of $24.7 million, or $0.48 loss per diluted share for the second quarter of 2016 compared with a GAAP net loss of $138.6 million, or $8.50 loss per diluted share for the second quarter of 2015. Excluding a write down of assets held for sale of $119.6 million and the write off of deferred financing costs on credit facilities that will no longer be used of $2.4 million, adjusted net loss for the second quarter of 2015 was $16.6 million or $1.01 adjusted loss per diluted share (see Non-GAAP Financial Measures below). There were no non-GAAP adjustments to earnings in the second quarter of 2016.

Time charter equivalent (TCE) revenue, a Non-GAAP financial measure, is vessel revenues less voyage expenses (including bunkers, port charges, broker fees and other miscellaneous expenses that we are unable to recoup under time charter and pool arrangements). TCE revenue is included herein because it is a standard shipping industry performance measure used primarily to compare period-to-period changes in a shipping company's performance irrespective of changes in the mix of charter types (i.e., spot charters, time charters, and pool charters), and it provides useful information to investors and management.

TCE revenue was $17.4 million for the second quarter of 2016 and is associated with a day weighted average of 3 vessels time chartered-in and 34 vessels owned compared to $12.6 million during the prior year quarter, which was associated with chartering in a day weighted average of 13 vessels and eight vessels owned. (For a complete list of our vessels owned please see the Company's Fleet List.) TCE revenue per day was $5,303 and $6,663 for the second quarter of 2016 and 2015, respectively, as reflected in the table below. While rates have rebounded slightly from the recent historic lows, rates remained considerably lower in the second quarter of 2016 than during the prior year period, resulting in a lower TCE revenue per day. The overall increase in TCE revenue versus the prior year period is due to the increase in revenue days associated with the growth of our fleet.

Vessel operating costs were $15.6 million included approximately $0.9 million of takeover costs associated with new deliveries and related to 34 vessels owned, on average, during the period. Takeover costs will decrease as our newbuildings are delivered. Vessel operating costs for the prior year quarter were $4.5 million and related to eight vessels owned, on average, during the period. Daily operating costs, excluding takeover costs, for the second quarter of 2016 were approximately $4,750. Sequentially, these costs decreased from the first quarter of 2016 when daily operating costs excluding takeover costs were $4,969.

Charterhire expense decreased to $3.6 million in the second quarter of 2016 from $13.2 million in the prior year period, reflecting the reduction in the number of vessels time chartered-in. Charterhire expense is expected to decrease to approximately $2.7 million per quarter for the remainder of the year as the number of chartered-in vessels has been reduced to two.

Depreciation increased to $8.7 million in the second quarter of 2016 from $2.6 million in the prior year period, reflecting the increase in our weighted average vessels owned to 34 from eight.

General and administrative expense was $8.6 million in both periods and includes $4.7 million and $6.2 million of restricted stock amortization in the second quarters of 2016 and 2015, respectively. The decrease in restricted stock amortization is due to prior year grants vesting and being fully expensed. This decrease was offset by an increase in commercial management fees, reflecting the growth of our fleet, as well as an increase in legal and professional services fees.

During the second quarter of 2016, Company agreed with certain lenders to reduce the aggregate available loan amounts by $43.7 million resulting in the write off of approximately $1.3 million of deferred financing costs.

During the second quarter of 2015, the Company recorded a loss/write off of vessels and assets held for sale associated with writing down nine contracts to construct vessels that the Company classified as held for sale during the period as well as incremental write downs of certain construction contracts that were classified as held for sale at March 31, 2015. It also wrote off $2.4 million, of deferred financing costs accumulated on credit facilities for which the commitments were reduced pursuant to the removal from the facilities of certain vessels that have been sold or classified as held for sale.

Financial Results for the Six Months Ended June 30, 2016 Compared to the Six Months Ended June 30, 2015

The Company had a GAAP net loss of $83.0 million, or $2.05 loss per diluted share for the six months ended June 30, 2016 compared with a GAAP net loss of $190.7 million, or $12.40 loss per diluted share for the six months ended June 30, 2015. Excluding a loss/write off of vessels and assets held for sale of $12.4 million, a write off of deferred financing costs on credit facilities that will no longer be used of $2.5 million and a charterhire contract termination fee of $10.0 million, adjusted net loss for the six months ended June 30, 2016 was $58.1 million, or $1.43 adjusted loss per diluted share. Excluding a loss/write off of vessels and assets held for sale of $151.4 million and the write off of deferred financing costs on credit facilities that will no longer be used of $6.0 million, adjusted net loss for the six months ended June 30, 2015, was $33.4 million or $2.17 adjusted loss per diluted share (see Non-GAAP Financial Measures below).

TCE revenue was $27.6 million in the first half of 2016 and is associated with a day weighted average of five vessels time chartered-in and 33 average vessels owned compared to $25.0 million during the prior year period, which was associated with chartering in a day weighted average of 14 vessels and seven average vessels owned. (For a complete list of our vessels owned please see the Company's Fleet List.) TCE revenue per day was $4,396 and $6,681 for the first half of 2016 and 2015, respectively as reflected in the table below. The decrease in TCE revenue per day is due to the sale of all of our Capesize vessels as well as a reduced rates resulting from the weakness in the dry bulk market, as reflected by the Baltic Dry Index ("BDI"). After falling to an all-time low of 290 in February of 2016, the BDI has rebounded slightly but remains at depressed levels. The increase in the average vessels owned outweighed the reduced rates resulting in an increase in total TCE revenue versus the prior year period.

Vessel operating costs were $30.9 million, including approximately $1.9 million of takeover costs associated with new deliveries and related to 34 vessels owned on average during the period. Takeover costs will decrease as our newbuildings are delivered. Vessel operating costs for the prior year period were $7.5 million and related to seven vessels owned, on average, during the period. Daily operating costs, excluding takeover costs, for the first half of 2016 were $4,856.

Charterhire expense decreased to $12.2 million in the first half of 2016 from $29.4 million in the prior year period reflecting the reduction in the number of vessels time chartered-in. During the first half of 2016 we also recorded a $10.0 million charge to terminate four time charter-in contracts. Termination of these contracts reduces our future cash outflow and will have a positive impact on our future operating results as the contracts were at above current market rates. Charterhire expense is expected to drop to approximately $2.7 million per quarter for the remainder of the year as we have reduced the number of vessels chartered-in to two.

Depreciation increased to $16.0 million in the first half of 2016 from $4.1 million in the prior year period reflecting the increase in our weighted average vessels owned to 33 from seven.

General and administrative expense was $16.4 million and $16.9 million for the first half of 2016 and 2015, respectively, and included $9.2 million and $12.2 million of restricted stock amortization, respectively. The decrease in restricted stock amortization is due to prior year grants vesting and being fully expensed as well as the reversal of expense related to cancelled awards. This decrease was partially offset by an increase in commercial management fees, reflecting the growth of our fleet, compensation costs including employee separation costs, and an increase in directors' fees due to two additional independent directors, as well as an increase in the number of board of director and committee meetings.

During the first half of 2016, the Company recorded a loss/write off of vessels and assets held for sale of $12.4 million of which $11.6 million related to the cancellation of a shipbuilding contract for a Kamsarmax bulk carrier that was expected to be delivered in April 2016 and $0.8 million in additional expenses related to vessels held for sale at December 31, 2015. The loss recorded in the prior year period was associated with writing down 13 contracts to construct vessels that were classified as held for sale during the six months ended June 30, 2015, as well as an incremental write down of certain contracts classified as held for sale at December 31, 2014.

During the first half of 2016 and 2015, the Company wrote off $2.5 million and $6.0 million, respectively, of deferred financing costs accumulated on credit facilities for which the commitments were reduced pursuant to the removal from the facilities of certain vessels that have been sold or classified as held for sale. In addition, during 2016, Company agreed with certain lenders to reduce the aggregate available loan amounts by $43.7 million resulting in the write off of approximately $1.3 million of deferred financing costs.

Scorpio Bulkers Inc. and Subsidiaries Consolidated Statements of Operations (unaudited) (Amounts in thousands, except per share data) Three Three months months Six months Six months ended June ended June ended June ended June 30, 2016 30, 2015 30, 2016 30, 2015 ----------- ----------- ----------- ----------- Revenue: Vessel revenue $ 17,374 $ 12,781 $ 27,618 $ 25,322 ----------- ----------- ----------- ----------- Operating expenses: Voyage expenses 2 141 67 322 Vessel operating costs 15,628 4,549 30,943 7,482 Charterhire expense 3,631 13,220 12,175 29,407 Charterhire contract termination charge - - 10,000 - Vessel depreciation 8,718 2,563 16,011 4,130 General and administrative expenses 8,599 8,560 16,385 16,882 Loss / write down on assets held for sale - 119,604 12,433 151,355 ----------- ----------- ----------- ----------- Total operating expenses 36,578 148,637 98,014 209,578 ----------- ----------- ----------- ----------- Operating loss (19,204) (135,856) (70,396) (184,256) ----------- ----------- ----------- ----------- Other income (expense): Interest income 187 61 280 129 Foreign exchange (loss) gain (20) (37) (138) 32 Financial expense, net (5,711) (2,813) (12,754) (6,616) ----------- ----------- ----------- ----------- Total other expense (5,544) (2,789) (12,612) (6,455) ----------- ----------- ----------- ----------- Net loss $ (24,748) $ (138,645) $ (83,008) $ (190,711) =========== =========== =========== =========== Loss per common share- basic and diluted(1) $ (0.48) $ (8.50) $ (2.05) $ (12.40) Weighted-average shares outstanding- basic and diluted(1) 51,305 16,303 40,550 15,384

Diluted weighted average shares outstanding excludes the impact of restricted shares for the three and six months ended June 30, 2016 and 2015, as the impact would be anti-dilutive since the company is in a net loss position.

Scorpio Bulkers Inc. and Subsidiaries Consolidated Balance Sheets (Dollars in thousands) June 30, December 31, 2016 2015 (unaudited) ------------- ------------- Assets Current assets Cash and cash equivalents $ 241,740 $ 200,300 Accounts receivable 8,255 8,197 Prepaid expenses and other current assets 6,019 11,247 Assets held for sale - 172,888 ------------- ------------- Total current assets 256,014 392,632 ------------- ------------- Non-current assets Vessels, net 1,064,154 764,454 Vessels under construction 180,637 288,282 Deferred financing costs, net 1,691 464 Other assets 19,748 27,261 ------------- ------------- Total non-current assets 1,266,230 1,080,461 ------------- ------------- Total assets $ 1,522,244 $ 1,473,093 ============= ============= Liabilities and shareholders' equity Current liabilities Bank loans $ 3,895 $ 107,739 Accounts payable and accrued expenses 9,934 16,838 ------------- ------------- Total current liabilities 13,829 124,577 ------------- ------------- Non-current liabilities Bank loans 447,530 342,314 Senior Notes 71,933 71,671 ------------- ------------- Total non-current liabilities 519,463 413,985 ------------- ------------- Total liabilities 533,292 538,562 ------------- ------------- Shareholders' equity Preferred stock, $0.01 par value; 50,000,000 shares authorized; no shares issued or outstanding - - Common stock, $0.01 par value per share; authorized 112,500,000 shares; issued and outstanding 72,713,980 and 28,686,561 shares as of June 30, 2016 and December 31, 2015, respectively 727 287 Paid-in capital 1,704,894 1,567,905 Accumulated deficit (716,669) (633,661) ------------- ------------- Total shareholders' equity 988,952 934,531 ------------- ------------- Total liabilities and shareholders' equity $ 1,522,244 $ 1,473,093 ============= =============

Scorpio Bulkers Inc. and Subsidiaries Statements of Cash Flows (unaudited) (Amounts in thousands) For the six months ended June 30, ------------------------- 2016 2015 ------------ ------------ Operating activities Net loss $ (83,008) $ (190,711) Adjustment to reconcile net loss to net cash used by operating activities: Restricted stock amortization 9,168 12,172 Vessel depreciation 16,011 4,130 Amortization of deferred financing costs 1,883 562 Write off of deferred financing costs 3,781 5,968 Loss / write down on assets held for sale 10,555 151,355 Changes in operating assets and liabilities: (Decrease) increase in accounts receivable (58) 3,718 Increase in prepaid expenses and other current 2,973 assets 76 (Decrease) increase in accounts payable and accrued expenses (6,904) 659 ------------ ------------ Net cash used in operating activities (45,599) (12,071) ------------ ------------ Investing activities Proceed from sale of assets held for sale 271,376 91,854 Payments on assets held for sale (98,445) (47,333) Payments for vessels and vessels under construction (218,542) (266,980) ------------ ------------ Net cash used in investing activities (45,611) (222,459) ------------ ------------ Financing activities Proceeds from issuance of common stock 128,139 218,331 Proceeds from issuance of long-term debt 157,393 134,963 Repayments of long-term debt (152,064) (3,276) Debt issue costs paid (818) (15,793) ------------ ------------ Net cash provided by financing activities 132,650 334,225 ------------ ------------ Increase in cash and cash equivalents 41,440 99,695 Cash at cash equivalents, beginning of period 200,300 272,673 ------------ ------------ Cash and cash equivalents, end of period $ 241,740 $ 372,368 ============ ============

Scorpio Bulkers Inc. and Subsidiaries Other Operating Data (unaudited) (Dollars in thousands) Three Three months months Six months Six months ended June ended June ended June ended June 30, 2016 30, 2015 30, 2016 30, 2015 ---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- Time charter equivalent revenue (1): Vessel revenue $ 17,374 $ 12,781 $ 27,618 $ 25,322 Voyage expenses 2 141 67 322 ---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- Time charter equivalent revenue $ 17,372 $ 12,640 $ 27,551 $ 25,000 ========== ========== ========== ========== Time charter equivalent revenue attributable to: Kamsarmax $ 7,657 $ 5,960 $ 12,018 $ 13,161 Ultramax 9,715 5,182 15,533 9,726 Capesize - 1,498 - 2,113 ---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- $ 17,372 $ 12,640 $ 27,551 $ 25,000 ========== ========== ========== ========== Revenue days: Kamsarmax 1,455 967 2,764 2,107 Ultramax 1,821 789 3,503 1,440 Capesize - 141 - 195 ---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- Combined 3,276 1,897 6,267 3,742 ========== ========== ========== ========== TCE per revenue day (1): Kamsarmax $ 5,263 $ 6,163 $ 4,348 $ 6,246 Ultramax $ 5,335 $ 6,568 $ 4,434 $ 6,754 Capesize $ - $ 10,624 $ - $ 10,836 Combined $ 5,303 $ 6,663 $ 4,396 $ 6,681

We define Time Charter Equivalent (TCE) revenue as voyage revenues less voyage expenses. Such TCE revenue, divided by the number of our available days during the period, or revenue days, is TCE per revenue day, which is consistent with industry standards. TCE per revenue day is a common shipping industry performance measure used primarily to compare daily earnings generated by vessels on time charters with daily earnings generated by vessels on voyage charters, because charter hire rates for vessels on voyage charters are generally not expressed in per-day amounts while charter hire rates for vessels on time charters generally are expressed in such amounts.



We report TCE revenue, a non-GAAP financial measure, because (i) we believe it provides additional meaningful information in conjunction with voyage revenues and voyage expenses, the most directly comparable U.S.-GAAP measure, (ii) it assists our management in making decisions regarding the deployment and use of our vessels and in evaluating their financial performance, (iii) it is a standard shipping industry performance measure used primarily to compare period-to-period changes in a shipping company's performance irrespective of changes in the mix of charter types (i.e., spot charters, time charters and bareboat charters) under which the vessels may be employed between the periods, and (iv) we believe that it presents useful information to investors.

Fleet List as of July 22, 2016

Owned vessels delivered from shipyards

Vessel Name Year Built DWT Vessel Type ------------------------------- -------------- -------------- -------------- SBI Cakewalk 2014 82,000 Kamsarmax SBI Charleston 2014 82,000 Kamsarmax SBI Samba 2015 84,000 Kamsarmax SBI Rumba 2015 84,000 Kamsarmax SBI Capoeira 2015 82,000 Kamsarmax SBI Electra 2015 82,000 Kamsarmax SBI Carioca 2015 82,000 Kamsarmax SBI Conga 2015 82,000 Kamsarmax SBI Flamenco 2015 82,000 Kamsarmax SBI Bolero 2015 82,000 Kamsarmax SBI Sousta 2016 82,000 Kamsarmax SBI Rock 2016 82,000 Kamsarmax SBI Lambada 2016 82,000 Kamsarmax SBI Reggae 2016 82,000 Kamsarmax -------------- Total Kamsarmax 1,152,000 SBI Antares 2015 61,000 Ultramax SBI Athena 2015 64,000 Ultramax SBI Bravo 2015 61,000 Ultramax SBI Leo 2015 61,000 Ultramax SBI Echo 2015 61,000 Ultramax SBI Lyra 2015 61,000 Ultramax SBI Tango 2015 61,000 Ultramax SBI Maia 2015 61,000 Ultramax SBI Hydra 2015 61,000 Ultramax SBI Subaru 2015 61,000 Ultramax SBI Pegasus 2015 64,000 Ultramax SBI Ursa 2015 61,000 Ultramax SBI Thalia 2015 64,000 Ultramax SBI Cronos 2015 61,000 Ultramax SBI Orion 2015 64,000 Ultramax SBI Achilles 2016 61,000 Ultramax SBI Hercules 2016 64,000 Ultramax SBI Perseus 2016 64,000 Ultramax SBI Hermes 2016 61,000 Ultramax SBI Zeus 2016 60,200 Ultramax SBI Hera 2016 60,200 Ultramax SBI Hyperion 2016 61,000 Ultramax SBI Tethys 2016 61,000 Ultramax SBI Phoebe 2016 64,000 Ultramax -------------- Total Ultramax 1,483,400 -------------- Total Owned Vessels DWT 2,635,400 ==============

Vessels under construction

Kamsarmax Expected Vessel Name Delivery (1) DWT Shipyard ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 1 Hull S1726A - TBN SBI Zumba Q3-16 82,000 Hudong 2 Hull S1231 - TBN SBI Macarena Q4-16 82,000 Hudong 3 Hull S1735A - TBN SBI Parapara Q4-16 82,000 Hudong 4 Hull S1736A - TBN SBI Mazurka Q4-16 82,000 Hudong 5 Hull S1232 - TBN SBI Swing Q1-17 82,000 Hudong 6 Hull S1233 - TBN SBI Jive Q2-17 82,000 Hudong ------------- Kamsarmax NB DWT 492,000 -------------

Ultramax Expected Vessel Name Delivery (1) DWT Shipyard ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 1 Hull 1911 - TBN SBI Poseidon Q3-16 60,200 Mitsui 2 Hull 1912 - TBN SBI Apollo Q4-16 60,200 Mitsui 3 Hull CX0655 - TBN SBI Samson Q4-16 64,000 Chengxi 4 Hull CX0656 - TBN SBI Phoenix Q4-16 64,000 Chengxi ------------- Ultramax NB DWT 248,400 ------------- Total Newbuild DWT 740,400 =============

As used in this earnings release "Chengxi" refers to Chengxi Shipyard Co., Ltd., "Hudong" refers to Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuilding (Group) Co., Inc., and "Mitsui" refers to Mitsui Engineering & Shipbuilding Co. Ltd.

Expected delivery date relates to the quarter during which each vessel is currently expected to be delivered from the shipyard.

Time chartered-in vessels

The Company has time chartered-in two dry bulk vessels. The terms of the time charter-in contracts are summarized as follows:

Daily Base Vessel Type Year Built DWT Where Built Rate Earliest Expiry ------------- ---------- ---------- ----------- ------------ --------------- Kamsarmax 2012 82,000 South Korea $ 15,500 30-Jul-17 (1) Panamax 2004 77,500 China $ 14,000 03-Jan-17 (2) ---------- Total TC DWT 159,500 ==========

This vessel has been time chartered-in for 39 to 44 months at the Company's option at $15,500 per day. The Company has the option to extend this time charter for one year at $16,300 per day. The vessel was delivered on April 23, 2014.

This vessel has been time chartered-in for 32 to 38 months, with such term to be determined at the Company's option at $14,000 per day. The agreement also contains a profit and loss sharing provision whereby, commencing upon the termination of the time charter-in agreement, we split all of the vessel's profits and losses with the vessel's owner for a period of two years. The vessel was delivered on May 3, 2014.

Conference Call Details:

Wednesday, July 27, 2016 at 10:00 AM Eastern Daylight Time/4:00 PM Central European Summer Time.

Participants should dial into the call 10 minutes before the scheduled time using the following numbers: 1 (866) 225-2055 (U.S.) or 1 (416) 340-2219 (International). The information provided on the teleconference is only accurate at the time of the conference call, and the Company will take no responsibility for providing updated information.

Slides and Audio Webcast:

There will also be a simultaneous live webcast over the internet, through the Scorpio Bulkers Inc. website www.scorpiobulkers.com. Participants to the live webcast should register on the website approximately 10 minutes prior to the start of the webcast.

Webcast URL: https://www.webcaster4.com/Webcast/Page/608/16357

About Scorpio Bulkers Inc.

Scorpio Bulkers Inc. is a provider of marine transportation of dry bulk commodities. Scorpio Bulkers Inc. currently owns 38 vessels, consisting of 14 Kamsarmax vessels and 24 Ultramax vessels. The Company also time charters-in two dry bulk vessels (consisting of one Panamax and one Kamsarmax vessel) and has contracted for 10 dry bulk vessels consisting of six Kamsarmax and four Ultramax), from shipyards in Japan and China. Upon final delivery of all of the vessels the owned fleet is expected to have a total carrying capacity of approximately 3.4 million deadweight tonnes. Additional information about the Company is available on the Company's website www.scorpiobulkers.com, which is not a part of this press release.

Non-GAAP Financial Measures

This press release describes adjusted net loss and related per share amounts, which is not a measure prepared in accordance with GAAP. We believe the non-GAAP financial measure presented in this press release provides investors with a means of evaluating and understanding how the Company's management evaluates the Company's operating performance. These non-GAAP financial measures should not be considered in isolation from, as substitutes for, or superior to financial measures prepared in accordance with GAAP.

Adjusted net loss

In thousands, except per share data

Three months ended June 30, 2015 ------------------------- Amount Per share (unaudited) (unaudited) ------------ ------------ Net loss $ (138,645) $ (8.50) Adjustments: Loss / write down on assets held for sale 119,604 7.34 Write down of deferred financing cost 2,438 0.15 ------------ ------------ Total adjustments 122,042 7.49 ------------ ------------ Adjusted net loss $ (16,603) $ (1.01) ============ ============

Six months ended June 30, 2016 2015 ------------------------- ------------------------- Amount Per share Amount Per share (unaudited) (unaudited) (unaudited) (unaudited) ------------ ------------ ------------ ------------ Net loss $ (83,008) $ (2.05) $ (190,711) $ (12.40) Adjustments: Loss / write down on assets held for sale 12,433 0.31 151,355 9.84 Write down of deferred financing cost 2,456 0.06 5,968 0.39 Charterhire contract termination 10,000 0.25 - - ------------ ------------ ------------ ------------ Total adjustments 24,889 0.62 157,323 10.23 ------------ ------------ ------------ ------------ Adjusted net loss $ (58,119) $ (1.43) $ (33,388) $ (2.17) ============ ============ ============ ============

Forward-Looking Statements

Matters discussed in this press release may constitute forward-looking statements. The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 provides safe harbor protections for forward-looking statements in order to encourage companies to provide prospective information about their business. Forward-looking statements include statements concerning plans, objectives, goals, strategies, future events or performance, and underlying assumptions and other statements, which are other than statements of historical facts. The Company desires to take advantage of the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and is including this cautionary statement in connection with this safe harbor legislation. The words "believe," "anticipate," "intend," "estimate," "forecast," "project," "plan," "potential," "may," "should," "expect," "pending" and similar expressions identify forward-looking statements.

The forward-looking statements in this press release are based upon various assumptions, many of which are based, in turn, upon further assumptions, including without limitation, our management's examination of historical operating trends, data contained in our records and other data available from third parties. Although we believe that these assumptions were reasonable when made, because these assumptions are inherently subject to significant uncertainties and contingencies which are difficult or impossible to predict and are beyond our control, we cannot assure you that we will achieve or accomplish these expectations, beliefs or projections.

In addition to these important factors, other important factors that, in our view, could cause actual results to differ materially from those discussed in the forward-looking statements include the failure of counterparties to fully perform their contracts with us, the strength of world economies and currencies, general market conditions, including fluctuations in charter rates and vessel values, changes in demand for dry bulk vessel capacity, changes in our operating expenses, including bunker prices, drydocking and insurance costs, the market for our vessels, availability of financing and refinancing, charter counterparty performance, ability to obtain financing and comply with covenants in such financing arrangements, 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, vessels breakdowns and instances of off-hires and other factors. Please see our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission for a more complete discussion of these and other risks and uncertainties.

Contact:

Scorpio Bulkers Inc.

+377-9798-5715 (Monaco)

+1-646-432-1675 (New York)
CALGARY, ALBERTA -- (Marketwired) -- 07/27/16 -- ATCO Ltd. (TSX: ACO.X)(TSX: ACO.Y) -

ATCO today announced second quarter adjusted earnings for 2016 of $81 million compared to $57 million in 2015.

Higher earnings compared to the second quarter of 2015 were mainly the result of continued capital investment and growth in rate base within the Regulated Utilities, higher Modular Structures project activity within ATCO Structures & Logistics, and business-wide cost reduction initiatives. Earnings in the second quarter of 2015 were reduced by a one-time earnings impact resulting from a retroactive regulatory decision that ATCO Gas Australia received in that quarter.

ATCO invested $387 million in the second quarter and $751 million in the first half of 2016, 82 per cent of which was in the Company's Regulated Utilities and in long-term contracted capital assets. These investments either earn a return under a regulatory business model or are commercially secured under long-term contracts.

On July 14, 2016, ATCO declared a third quarter dividend for 2016 of 28.50 cents per Class I Non-Voting and Class II Voting Share, a 15 per cent increase over the quarterly dividends declared in the same period of 2015. ATCO's annual dividend per share has increased for 23 consecutive years.

RECENT DEVELOPMENTS

- In May 2016, ATCO rapidly responded to wildfires in the Fort McMurray region of northern Alberta by mobilizing teams from across Alberta to provide accommodation for first responders and evacuees, and rebuild utility infrastructure that was damaged by wildfires. The fires impacted the assets of the Company's Regulated Electricity and Regulated Pipelines & Liquids businesses located in the region. Insurance coverage applies to the Company's property with the exception of small diameter natural gas pipelines and meters and electric property outside of transmission substations including wires, poles, towers, transformers and meters. The estimated net book value of the damaged assets is less than $10 million. - On July 25, 2016, the Government of Alberta commenced legal action to determine the validity and interpretation of certain terms within the Power Purchase Arrangements (PPAs) and related regulations. The legal action the Government of Alberta filed seeks to prevent the PPAs from being returned to the Balancing Pool. ATCO has never been a buyer of a coal PPA. ATCO continues to operate Battle River unit 5 and Sheerness units 1 and 2 under the terms of their respective PPAs. ATCO will monitor and, in its capacity as a respondent, participate in the proceeding. However, the proceeding seeks no direct relief against ATCO.

FINANCIAL SUMMARY AND RECONCILIATION OF ADJUSTED EARNINGS

A financial summary and reconciliation of adjusted earnings to earnings attributable to Class I and Class II Shares is provided below:

For the Three Months For the Six Months Ended June 30 Ended June 30 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ($ Millions except share data) 2016 2015 2016 2015 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Adjusted earnings (1) 81 57 202 135 Gain on sale of joint operation (2) - - 7 - Restructuring costs (2) - (3) - (3) Impairments (2) - (13) - (13) Rate-regulated activities (2) (20) (33) (39) (17) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Earnings attributable to Class I and Class II Shares 61 8 170 102 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Weighted average shares outstanding (millions of shares) 114.3 114.8 114.5 114.8 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- (1) Adjusted earnings are earnings attributable to Class I and Class II Shares after adjusting for the timing of revenues and expenses associated with rate-regulated activities. Adjusted earnings also exclude one-time gains and losses, significant impairments and items that are not in the normal course of business or a result of day-to-day operations. Adjusted earnings present earnings on the same basis as was used prior to adopting International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) - that basis being the U.S. accounting principles for rate- regulated entities - and they are a key measure used to assess segment performance, to reflect the economics of rate regulation and to facilitate comparability of ATCO's earnings with other Canadian rate- regulated companies. (2) Refer to Note 3 of the consolidated financial statements for detailed descriptions of the adjustments.

Earnings attributable to Class I and Class II Shares were $61 million in the second quarter of 2016, $53 million higher compared to the same period in 2015 mainly due to adjusted earnings that were higher in the second quarter by $24 million. Earnings attributable to Class I and Class II Shares includes timing adjustments related to rate-regulated activities that are not included in adjusted earnings.

The net impact of timing adjustments made in rate-regulated accounting improved earnings attributable to Class I and Class II Shares by $13 million in the second quarter of 2016 compared to the same period in 2015. Earnings in the second quarter of 2015 attributable to Class I and Class II Shares also included $16 million of impairments and restructuring costs.

This news release should be used as a preparation for reading the full disclosure documents. ATCO's consolidated financial statements and management's discussion and analysis for the second quarter ended June 30, 2016 will be available on the ATCO website (www.ATCO.com), via SEDAR (www.sedar.com) or can be requested from the Company.

With nearly 8,000 employees and assets of approximately $19 billion, ATCO is a diversified global corporation delivering service excellence and innovative business solutions in Structures & Logistics (workforce housing, innovative modular facilities, construction, site support services, and logistics and operations management); Electricity (electricity generation, transmission, and distribution); Pipelines & Liquids (natural gas transmission, distribution and infrastructure development, energy storage, and industrial water solutions); and Retail Energy (electricity and natural gas retail sales). More information can be found at www.ATCO.com.

Forward-Looking Information:

Certain statements contained in this news release may constitute forward-looking information. Forward-looking information is often, but not always, identified by the use of words such as "anticipate", "plan", "estimate", "expect", "may", "will", "intend", "should", and similar expressions.

Forward-looking information involves known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results or events to differ materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking information.

The Company's actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in this forward-looking information as a result of regulatory decisions, competitive factors in the industries in which the Company operates, prevailing economic conditions, and other factors, many of which are beyond the control of the Company.

The Company believes that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking information are reasonable, but no assurance can be given that these expectations will prove to be correct and such forward-looking information should not be unduly relied upon.

Any forward-looking information contained in this news release represents the Company's expectations as of the date hereof, and is subject to change after such date. The Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable securities legislation.

Contacts:

Media & Investor Inquiries:

B.R. (Brian) Bale

Senior Vice President & Chief Financial Officer

403-292-7502

www.ATCO.com




CALGARY, ALBERTA -- (Marketwired) -- 07/27/16 -- Canadian Utilities Limited (TSX: CU)(TSX: CU.X) -

Canadian Utilities today announced second quarter adjusted earnings for 2016 of $131 million compared to $101 million in 2015.

Higher earnings compared to the second quarter of 2015 were mainly the result of continued capital investment and growth in rate base within the Regulated Utilities and business-wide cost reduction initiatives. Earnings in the second quarter of 2015 were reduced by a one-time earnings impact resulting from a retroactive regulatory decision that ATCO Gas Australia received in that quarter.

Canadian Utilities invested $331 million in the second quarter and $674 million in the first half of 2016, 88 per cent of which was in the Company's Regulated Utilities and in long-term contracted capital assets. These investments either earn a return under a regulatory business model or are commercially secured under long-term contracts.

On July 12, 2016, Canadian Utilities declared a third quarter dividend for 2016 of 32.50 cents per Class A Non-Voting and Class B Common Share, a 10 per cent increase over the dividends declared in the same period of 2015. Canadian Utilities' annual dividend per share has increased for 44 consecutive years.

RECENT DEVELOPMENTS

- In May 2016, Canadian Utilities rapidly responded to wildfires in the Fort McMurray region of northern Alberta by mobilizing teams from across Alberta to provide accommodation for first responders and evacuees, and rebuild utility infrastructure that was damaged by wildfires. The fires impacted the assets of the Company's Regulated Electricity and Regulated Pipelines & Liquids businesses located in the region. Insurance coverage applies to the Company's property with the exception of small diameter natural gas pipelines and meters and electric property outside of transmission substations including wires, poles, towers, transformers and meters. The estimated net book value of the damaged assets is less than $10 million. - On July 25, 2016, the Government of Alberta commenced legal action to determine the validity and interpretation of certain terms within the Power Purchase Arrangements (PPAs) and related regulations. The legal action the Government of Alberta filed seeks to prevent the PPAs from being returned to the Balancing Pool. Canadian Utilities has never been a buyer of a coal PPA. Canadian Utilities continues to operate Battle River unit 5 and Sheerness units 1 and 2 under the terms of their respective PPAs. Canadian Utilities will monitor and, in its capacity as a respondent, participate in the proceeding. However, the proceeding seeks no direct relief against Canadian Utilities.

FINANCIAL SUMMARY AND RECONCILIATION OF ADJUSTED EARNINGS

A financial summary and reconciliation of adjusted earnings to earnings attributable to equity owners is provided below:

For the Three Months For the Six Months Ended June 30 Ended June 30 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ($ Millions except share data) 2016 2015 2016 2015 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Adjusted earnings (1) 131 101 328 231 Gain on sale of joint operation (2) - - 13 - Restructuring costs (2) - (4) - (4) Impairments (2) - (4) - (4) Rate-regulated activities (2) (40) (63) (75) (31) Dividends on equity preferred shares 17 13 34 25 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Earnings attributable to equity owners 108 43 300 217 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Weighted average shares outstanding (millions of shares) 267.0 264.2 266.8 264.0 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- (1) Adjusted earnings are earnings attributable to equity owners after adjusting for the timing of revenues and expenses associated with rate- regulated activities and dividends on equity preferred shares of Canadian Utilities. Adjusted earnings also exclude one-time gains and losses, significant impairments and items that are not in the normal course of business or a result of day-to-day operations. Adjusted earnings present earnings on the same basis as was used prior to adopting International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) - that basis being the U.S. accounting principles for rate-regulated entities - and they are a key measure used to assess segment performance, to reflect the economics of rate regulation and to facilitate comparability of Canadian Utilities' earnings with other Canadian rate- regulated companies. (2) Refer to Note 3 of the consolidated financial statements for descriptions of the adjustments.

Earnings attributable to equity owners of the Company were $108 million in the second quarter of 2016, $65 million higher compared to the same period in 2015 mainly due to adjusted earnings that were higher in the second quarter by $30 million. Earnings attributable to equity owners of the Company includes timing adjustments related to rate-regulated activities that are not included in adjusted earnings.

The net impact of timing adjustments made in rate-regulated accounting improved earnings attributable to equity owners by $23 million in the second quarter of 2016 compared to the same period in 2015. Earnings in the second quarter of 2015 attributable to equity owners of the Company also included $8 million of impairments and restructuring costs. The Company also had $4 million of higher finance costs associated with preferred share issuances completed in 2015.

This news release should be used as a preparation for reading the full disclosure documents. Canadian Utilities' consolidated financial statements and management's discussion and analysis for the second quarter ended June 30, 2016 will be available on the Canadian Utilities website (www.canadianutilities.com), via SEDAR (www.sedar.com) or can be requested from the Company.

With nearly 5,500 employees and assets of approximately $18 billion, Canadian Utilities Limited is an ATCO company. ATCO is a diversified global corporation delivering service excellence and innovative business solutions in Structures & Logistics (workforce housing, innovative modular facilities, construction, site support services, and logistics and operations management); Electricity (electricity generation, transmission, and distribution); Pipelines & Liquids (natural gas transmission, distribution and infrastructure development, energy storage, and industrial water solutions); and Retail Energy (electricity and natural gas retail sales). More information can be found at www.canadianutilities.com.

Forward-Looking Information:

Certain statements contained in this news release may constitute forward-looking information. Forward-looking information is often, but not always, identified by the use of words such as "anticipate", "plan", "estimate", "expect", "may", "will", "intend", "should", and similar expressions.

Forward-looking information involves known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results or events to differ materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking information. The Company's actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in this forward-looking information as a result of regulatory decisions, competitive factors in the industries in which the Company operates, prevailing economic conditions, and other factors, many of which are beyond the control of the Company.

The Company believes that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking information are reasonable, but no assurance can be given that these expectations will prove to be correct and such forward-looking information should not be unduly relied upon.

Any forward-looking information contained in this news release represents the Company's expectations as of the date hereof, and is subject to change after such date. The Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable securities legislation.

Contacts:

Media & Investor Inquiries:

B.R. (Brian) Bale

Senior Vice President & Chief Financial Officer

403-292-7502

www.canadianutilities.com




Rising CMT artist Courtney Cole will bring her unique musical style to Missouri on Aug. 10 for a free concert in conjunction with the Missouri State Fair. The local college is helping make it happen.

The concert is presented by the Missouri Community College Association (MCCA) and CMTs Empowering Education initiative, which aims to inspire viewers to further their education.

As part of MCCA, Mineral Area College will participate in the concert and help champion the cause of community colleges in Missouri. One of its students, Mark Keltz, of Farmington, will join MACs MoWINs specialists Alison Sheets and Tina Miller at an additional presentation, a Resource Fair, in Sedalia.

Cole fans in the Southeast Missouri area who are heading to the state fair in Sedalia (Aug. 11-21), will want to stop by for this free concert the night before the fair opens. While admission is free, tickets are necessary and can be picked up at MACs Park Hills location, at the Student Services desk, or at www.missouricolleges.org, through EventBrite.com.

Coles recent single hit the top spot on Taste of Country's Top 10 Countdown and she opened for Miranda Lambert on the 2015 Roadside Bars and Pink Guitars Tour.

Im excited to partner with CMT on their Empowering Education initiative, Cole said. Music and education are a powerful combination. Having the opportunity to meet students and hear their stories is something I am looking forward to!

The event will take place at State Fair Community Colleges Fred E. Davis Multipurpose Center the night before the opening of state fair. The evenings activities will begin at 5:30 p.m. with a Resource Fair where visitors can learn about Missouris community colleges.

The concert will begin at 6:30 p.m. and feature an opening performance by local artist BlueStem.

Tickets to the concert are free and can be reserved by visiting the Student Services desk on MACs Park Hills campus, or online at www.missouricolleges.org.

For more information on the CMT initiative, visit www.cmtempoweringeducation.com or follow along on Twitter using #CMTEmpoweringEducation.
BANGALORE and WARREN, New Jersey, July 27, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Demonstrated Testing Services Leadership Across Three Categories

Mindtree, a leading digital transformation and technology services company, today announced that it has been recognized as an overall leader in software testing services by global research and advisory firm NelsonHall, in its latest Vendor Evaluation and Assessment (NEAT) Report 2016.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20140416/681203 )



The NEAT Report analyzes the overall performance of 24 vendors offering software testing services, with a specific focus on testing capabilities across consulting, digital transformation and efficiency.

Mindtree is a leader in this sector through its specialized testing offerings across a range of solutions, including digital, automation, performance engineering and product engineering. Intellectual property investments supporting these offerings as well as the establishment of its end-to-end Dynamic Test Engineering Platform (DTEP) have contributed to the strong rating. This rating reflects Mindtree's expansion of its service portfolio to include innovative offerings around end-user experience measurement, behavior-driven development supporting Agile, Bluetooth testing and IoT.

Dominique Raviart, IT Services Research Director, NelsonHall, said, "Mindtree continues to demonstrate its investment in proprietary automation tools. With DTEP, Mindtree is investing in a DevOps platform, with features including Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment. This makes DTEP relevant to the digital world."

"Supporting our client's business growth in a dynamic world requires a very smart and agile portfolio of Business Assurance services. Our specialized offerings haveenabled us to provide next-generation testing services to meet the demands of a hyper-connected world," said Manas Chakraborty, Vice President and Global Head, Business Assurance Services at Mindtree. "We are delighted to be recognized as a leader in the digital & transformation focus areas, and positioned as a leader for overall testing services by NelsonHall."

Additional Resources

Detailed Report by NelsonHall

Testing in a connected world

About NelsonHall:

NelsonHall is the leading global BPO and ITO analyst firm with analysts across the U.S., U.K. and Continental Europe. Founded in 1998, NelsonHall offers a suite of 'Speed-to-Source' tools that assist buy-side executives in saving time and money, while enhancing the quality of their sourcing decisions, in BPO and ITO evaluations. NelsonHall helps organizations ensure that key sourcing decisions are based on industry reality not market hype, providing the detailed and objective market and supplier knowledge required for sourcing success through its sourcing tools, online information, and unrivalled analyst access.

About Mindtree:

Mindtree [NSE: MINDTREE] delivers digital transformation and technology services from ideation to execution, enabling Global 2000 clients to outperform the competition. 'Born digital', Mindtree takes an agile, collaborative approach to creating customized solutions across the digital value chain. At the same time, our deep expertise in infrastructure and applications management helps optimize your IT into a strategic asset. Whether you need to differentiate your company, reinvent business functions or accelerate revenue growth, we can get you there. Visit www.mindtree.com to learn more.



For more information, contact:

India

Priyanka Waghre

Mindtree

+91-98867 29295

Priyanka.Waghre@mindtree.com

United States

Andrea Dunbeck

Matter Communications

978-518-4555

adunbeck@matternow.com

Europe

Neha Kathuria

Mindtree

+44 7553 410341

Neha.Kathuria@mindtree.com


PALO ALTO, CA and LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM -- (Marketwired) -- 07/27/16 -- Jumio, the leading digital ID verification company, today announced record results for Q2 2016, with a greater than 65 percent growth in recurring revenue year-over-year, and a record 30 million transactions completed to-date. Jumio's customer base continues to expand, closing more deals than at any other time in company history, with Q2 2016 resulting in a more than 50 percent increase in deals year-over-year. This high momentum has been fueled by continued growth across every aspect of its business.

These results are not only indicative of the company's continued innovation; they also demonstrate the widespread demand across core verticals for a trusted ID verification solution. With more than $16 billion stolen from 12.7 million identity fraud victims in 2014(1), it's clear that identity fraud is an increasing threat across every industry. From financial services to travel, online gaming and the shared economy, Jumio has helped to prevent fraud by ensuring transactions are safe and secure; while also reducing abandonment through improved customer experiences.

"The investment by Centana Growth Partners allows us to continue to capitalize on this expansive phase of Jumio's business," said Steve Stuut, CEO, Jumio. "New and changing markets, such as shared economy and innovative online banking, are forcing dramatic business transformation, and Jumio is providing the trust required to do business on-line. Our customers are leaders in their respective markets, and as trailblazers, they entrust Jumio to help them define and meet the standards and processes that achieve regulatory compliance, while providing frictionless transactions and an improved customer experience."

"The ID verification space is seeing rapid growth and Jumio continues to lead the market as it addresses the issues and challenges facing many businesses today," said Ben Cukier, Partner, Centana Growth Partners. "With the continued growth of web and mobile transactions, companies must ensure that online customers are who they say they are. As fraud continues to expand, the ability for customers to conduct safe and secure transactions will remain a key issue."

Jumio's flagship product Netverify provides online and mobile ID verification. The advanced computer vision technology along with ID verification experts enable customers to perform high-risk transactions quickly and easily -- providing a better user experience.

In alignment with Jumio's record growth the company will extend its expansion efforts and continue to aggressively hire across its offices in Austria, the UK and U.S. In Q2 2016, Jumio's hiring increased substantially. The company will continue to expand the global team, throughout the year, with significant investments in product development and customer services to meet growing demand.

Read about Jumio's record 30 million identities verified.

(1)"2015 Identity Fraud: Protecting Vulnerable Populations," Javelin Strategy & Research

About Jumio

Jumio delivers the next-generation in digital ID verification, enabling businesses to reduce fraud and increase revenue while providing a fast, seamless customer experience. Jumio uses computer vision technology to verify credentials issued by over 200 countries in real time web and mobile transactions. Jumio's solutions are used by leading companies in the financial services, sharing economy, retail, travel and online gaming sectors. Funded by Centana Growth Partners and based in Palo Alto, California, Jumio operates globally, with offices in the US and Europe, and has been the recipient of numerous awards for innovation.

For more information please visit www.jumio.com.
PALO ALTO, CA and LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM -- (Marketwired) -- 07/27/16 --Jumio, the leading digital ID verification company, today announced that the company has continued to set new records for the number of ID verifications completed, with transactions growing in excess of 30 million.

The growth of online web and mobile transactions pose specific challenges for businesses, especially when it comes to ensuring customers are who they say they are. The companies most at-risk are those in the financial services, travel and online gaming industries, as well as those considered part of the burgeoning shared economy. For these businesses and others, shielding themselves -- and potential victims -- from fraud by delivering safe, secure, transactions is critical. These measures provide a level of trust that helps to reduce abandonment and ensure an improved customer experience.

"Jumio is turning the vision of what digital ID verification should be into reality," said Philipp Pointner, VP Products, Jumio. "Our product solutions continue to focus on combining technology along with ID verification experts to ensure the highest level of fraud detection capabilities. Through the use of advance computer vision technology we continue to move the industry forward."

Jumio's flagship product Netverify provides online and mobile ID verification along with computer vision technology to enable customers to perform high-risk transactions quickly and easily -- providing a better user experience.

In alignment with Jumio's record growth the company will extend its expansion efforts and continue to aggressively hire across its offices in Austria, the UK and U.S. In Q2 2016, Jumio's hiring increased substantially. The company will continue to expand the global team, throughout the year, with significant investments in product development and customer services to meet growing demand.

Read more about Jumio's strong Q2 2016 performance.

About Jumio

Jumio delivers the next-generation in digital ID verification, enabling businesses to reduce fraud and increase revenue while providing a fast, seamless customer experience. Jumio uses computer vision technology to verify credentials issued by over 200 countries in real time web and mobile transactions. Jumio's solutions are used by leading companies in the financial services, sharing economy, retail, travel and online gaming sectors. Funded by Centana Growth Partners and based in Palo Alto, California, Jumio operates globally, with offices in the US and Europe, and has been the recipient of numerous awards for innovation.

For more information please visit us at www.jumio.com.
SARASOTA, FL -- (Marketwired) -- 07/27/16 -- Kali, Inc. (OTC PINK: KALY) is pleased to announce that it has executed a letter of intent to acquire Florida Marine Power Company, a marine mechanical repair, maintenance and engine installation company. http://www.floridamarinepower.com/

Florida Marine Power is a well-known brand in the Florida marine industry and has become one of Sarasota and Manatee County's most recognized yacht service providers. It has a strong customer centric reputation and has built an extensive network of vendors and suppliers with long-standing contracts in place.

Due diligence is in its final stages and the definitive agreement is expected to be finalized in the next 7 days per the terms of the LOI.

About Kali, Inc.

Kali, Inc. is a marketing and development company focused on small to medium sized market cap companies. Wave Marine & Yacht Services. a wholly subsidiary, of Kali, Inc., is a full-service yacht maintenance company which provides solutions for all aspects of the recreational boating lifestyle.

Forward-Looking Statements -- This press release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended and such forward-looking statements are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause future results to differ materially from the forward-looking statements. You should consider these factors in evaluating the statements herein, and not rely on such statements. The forward-looking statements in this release are made as of the date hereof and Kali, Inc undertakes no obligation to update such statements.

CONTACT:

Kali, Inc.

(941) 444-6994

management@wavemarineservices.com




BARRANQUILLA, COLOMBIA -- (Marketwired) -- 07/27/16 --New Colombia Resources, Inc. (OTC PINK: NEWC), a Colombian company listed in the U.S., is pleased to announce that Sannabis SAS, their Medical Marijuana joint venture, will work with CORPROPAZ to develop hemp fields in 5 different areas of Colombia for a pilot program to create new hemp industries in post conflict zones. CORPROPAZ (Promoters of Peace Corporation) is a nonprofit organization whose objective is support of sustainable peace through investment in productive projects focused on vulnerable populations that result from the conflict in Colombia.

CORPROPAZ posted on their website their interest in promoting industrial hemp cultivation and their collaboration with New Colombia Resources Inc. and Sannabis SAS with an agreement expected to be signed this week. http://www.corpropaz.org/public_html/Noticias.html

The pilot program is to be planted in the coming weeks in 5 areas of Colombia with different thermal floors with the purpose of analyzing costs of production, productivity, harvest times, and in general the specific conditions for each condition of environment and soil. CORPROPAZ and Sannabis plan to work with titans of industry in Colombia including cement companies, paper manufactures, and clothing and apparel companies that have shown an interest in this project. New Colombia Resources believes this is a huge step in creating a sustainable hemp industry in Colombia that generates jobs in much needed areas while supplying the world with quality hemp and its byproducts. The company is in contact with major corporations in the U.S interested in learning more about importing hemp products from Colombia. This pilot program will establish price points from which to work from and provide a reliable supply chain.

Alfredo Navas, Director of CORPROPAZ, has demonstrated a clear vision of working with Sannabis and New Colombia Resources on developing hemp industries in rural areas so that ex-combatants and soldiers do not rush to the big cities after the armed conflict has ended. Without sustainable jobs in rural areas an increase in crime in the major cities becomes a reality. With a base of 3200 hectares, CORPROPAZ is setting up a pilot project in Puerto Gaitan, Meta assembling a plant to produce bio ethanol from sweet sorghum. This culture can produce bio ethanol, electricity from burning bagasse left after the removal of alcohol, and fodder for livestock from leaf and panicle.

To view or purchase Sannabis products visit www.sannabis.co. Follow Sannabis on Facebook for photos and testimonials at https://www.facebook.com/sannabis.cannamedicinal

New Colombia Resources, Inc.

New Colombia Resources, Inc. is focused on the acquisition and development of high-quality metallurgical coal properties and other available resources in the Republic of Colombia. They expect to have several revenue producing businesses including; metallurgical coal mining and rock quarry aggregates for domestic Colombian highway and railroad building projects. The Company owns 100% of La Tabaquera metallurgical coal mine in Colombia with an estimated 15- 17 million tonnes of reserves. They have another pending acquisition for 390 ha and a solicitation contract for 184 ha metallurgical coal concession. New Colombia Resources also holds a significant position in Sannabis SAS which legally produces medical marijuana products in the Republic of Colombia, visit www.sannabis.co. For more information on the Company visit www.newcolombiaresources.com.

Forward Looking Statements

Forward Looking Statements; This Press Release includes forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Act of 1934. A statement containing works such as "anticipate," "seek," intend," "believe," "plan," "estimate," "expect," "project," "plan," or similar phrases may be deemed "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Some or all of the events or results anticipated by these forward-looking statements might not occur. Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include financing, the future U.S. and global economies, the impact of competition, and the Company's reliance on existing regulations. New Colombia Resources, Inc. does not undertake any duty nor does it intend to update the results of these forward-looking statements.

Company Contact:

New Colombia Resources, Inc.

John Campo

President/Chairman

(1)-410-236-8200 USA

(57)-318-657-0918

jcampo@newcolombiaresources.com

info@newcolombiaresources.com

Sannabis SAS

www.sannabis.co




TEL AVIV, Israel, July 27, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Global irrigation leader releases GRI report based on most advanced G4 standard

Netafim, the global leader in smart irrigation solutions for a sustainable future, released today its 2015 Sustainability Report, which demonstrates how its 2020 Sustainability Strategy is aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) recently adopted by the UN. Written in accordance with the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) G4 standard, the world's most advanced sustainability reporting framework, the report highlights numerous Netafim activities that underscore its commitment to several of the 17 SDGs, which were approved in September 2015.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160727/393321LOGO )

(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160727/393320 )

"Sustainability has been a part of Netafim's essence since our establishment in 1965," said Ran Maidan, Netafim CEO. "As the global smart irrigation leader, Netafim is committed to driving mass adoption of smart irrigation solutions to fight scarcity of food, water and land. Offering the most comprehensive and advanced solutions for all crop types and for farmers of all sizes, we are helping the world grow more with less to ensure a sustainable future."

"For years, Netafim has worked tirelessly with our partners in the public and private sectors to advance sustainable agriculture practices and help define ways to achieve global sustainability," said Naty Barak, Netafim's Chief Sustainability Officer. "Our 2015 report demonstrates how our sustainability strategy supports these efforts and is aligned with the UN's Sustainable Development Goals."

"By helping farmers achieve sustainable livelihoods, increasing access to drip irrigation, and conducting our business responsibly, we strive to make smart irrigation solutions the accessible and preferred choice for irrigated crops all over the world," added Rachel Shaul, Netafim's Head of Marketing and External Affairs.

The report highlights a number of recent case studies from across the globe. In one example of action for prosperity, the Company prepared the 2015 launch of a large-scale rice irrigation pilot with India's Tamil Nadu government involving 600 farmers that has increased yields by 20% and decreased water usage by 60%. In another example, Netafim is a majority partner in the Netafim Agricultural Financing Agency (NAFA), which has provided $33 million in loans over three years enabling 23,000 Indian smallholders to install drip systems across 22,000 hectares. Netafim's focus on education for prosperity was evident in a Kenyan project that is part of the USAID-funded Feed the Future Partnering for Innovation program. Netafim has trained 5,000 smallholders in using the company's Family Drip System' (FDS') kit, while working with banks to help secure financing and with buyers to help the growers sell their produce.

For more highlights from the report, click here. To download a summary of the report click here, and to download the full report click here.

About Netafim

Netafim is the global leader in smart irrigation solutions for a sustainable future. With 28 subsidiaries, 17 manufacturing plants and 4,300 employees worldwide, Netafim delivers innovative solutions to growers of all sizes, from smallholders to large-scale agricultural producers, in over 110 countries. Founded in 1965, Netafim pioneered the drip revolution, creating a paradigm shift toward low-flow agricultural irrigation. Today, Netafim provides diverse solutions - from state-of-the-art drippers to advanced automated systems - for agriculture, greenhouses, landscaping and mining, accompanied by expert agronomic, technical and operational support. Specializing in end-to-end solutions from the water source to the root zone, Netafim delivers turnkey irrigation and greenhouse projects, supported by engineering, project management and financing services. Netafim's market-leading solutions are helping the world grow more with less. For more information, visit http://www.netafim.com.


WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - DHI Group Inc. (DHX), a provider of data, insights and employment connections, reported Wednesday that its second-quarter net income declined 14 percent to $4.9 million from last year's $5.7 million. Earnings per share dropped 9 percent to $0.10 from $0.11 a year ago.



Revenues were $57.7 million, down 12 percent from last year's $65.8 million.



On average, 5 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected earnings of $0.08 per share on revenues of $58.67 million for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.



Looking ahead, for the third quarter, the company expects net income of $5.4 million to $6.0 million, earnings per share of $0.11 to $0.12 and revenues of $57.5 million to $58.5 million.



Analysts expect earnings of $0.14 per share on revenues of $61.43 million for the quarter.



For fiscal 2016, the company expects net income of $22.5 million to $24 million, earnings per share of $0.44 to $0.47 and revenues of $233 million to $237 million.



Analysts expect earnings of $0.43 per share on revenues of $240.90 million.



Previously, the company was expecting earnings of $0.44 to $0.47 per share on revenues of $240 million to $246 million.



Further, the company announced that John Roberts, Chief Financial Officer, will leave the company, effective August 31.



He has served as CFO of the Company since October 2013 with overall responsibility for the financial organization.



Roberts will continue to be employed by the Company through August 31 and will assist with the transition of his responsibilities. The company has begun a process to appoint a successor to Roberts and a further announcement will be made in due course.



Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

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LONDON (dpa-AFX) - The U.K. economy grew at a faster pace in the second quarter, weathering the uncertainty stemming from the run-up to the EU referendum.



Gross domestic product expanded 0.6 percent in the three months to June from the previous quarter, preliminary estimates from the Office for National Statistics showed Wednesday.



This was faster than the 0.5 percent growth forecast by economists and 0.4 percent expansion seen in the first quarter.



'Any uncertainties in the run-up to the referendum seem to have had a limited effect,' ONS Chief Economist Joe Grice said.



'Very few respondents to ONS surveys cited such uncertainties as negatively impacting their businesses.'



The preliminary estimate take into account only the production side of GDP.



The dominant services sector posted a 0.5 percent expansion and industrial production increased by 2.1 percent. In contrast, construction dropped 0.4 percent and agriculture by 1.0 percent.



On a yearly basis, GDP rose 2.2 percent in the second quarter versus the expected growth of 2.1 percent. In the first quarter, the annual growth figure was 2 percent.



The quarterly growth was largely driven by strong performance in April and activity started to weaken ahead of the June 23 referendum.



Scott Bowman, a UK economist at Capital Economics, said he envisaged an economic stagnation in the second half of this year, rather than a full-blown recession.



The Bank of England is expected to cut Bank Rate next week and the Chancellor is ready to 'reset' fiscal policy if warranted by economic data, he noted. This, along with a fading of uncertainty, should see growth start to accelerate at the start of 2017, Bowman added.



After the release of negative business survey results, BoE's Martin Weale favored an immediate stimulus. As monetary policy works with a delay, even an action in August is unlikely to give quick boost to the economy, he said in an interview with the Financial Times.



Bank of England Andrew Haldane has also signaled favor for a significant monetary stimulus in August.



Survey data released since June 24 showed a sharp deceleration in activity and confidence. Business confidence plunged to its lowest level in seven-and-a-half years, after the surprise 'Brexit' vote, according to Industrial Trends survey from the Confederation of British Industry.



Another CBI survey today revealed that retail sales declined in July more rapidly than at any time since January 2012 as consumer confidence weakened following the EU referendum.



A closely-watched survey by Markit showed last week that the U.K. private sector activity contracted at the steepest pace since early 2009, post-Brexit.



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FORM 8.3

PUBLIC OPENING POSITION DISCLOSURE/DEALING DISCLOSURE BY

A PERSON WITH INTERESTS IN RELEVANT SECURITIES REPRESENTING 1% OR MORE

Rule 8.3 of the Takeover Code (the "Code")

1. KEY INFORMATION (a) Identity of the person whose positions/dealings are being disclosed: Harris Associates L.P. (b) Owner or controller of interests and short positions disclosed, if different from 1(a):

The naming of nominee or vehicle companies is insufficient (c) Name of offeror/offeree in relation to whose relevant securities this form relates:

Use a separate form for each offeror/offeree Premier Farnell (d) If an exempt fund manager connected with an offeror/offeree, state this and specify identity of offeror/offeree: (e) Date position held/dealing undertaken: 26 July 2016 (f) Has the discloser previously disclosed, or are they today disclosing, under the Code in respect of any other party to this offer? NO 2. POSITIONS OF THE PERSON MAKING THE DISCLOSURE (a) Interests and short positions in the relevant securities of the offeror or offeree to which the disclosure relates following the dealing (if any) Class of relevant security: Common Stock (GB0003318416) Interests Short Positions Number % Number % (1) Relevant securities owned and/or controlled: 3,522,100 shares 0.95 % (2) Derivatives (other than options): (3) Options and agreements to purchase/sell: Total 3,522,100 shares 0.95 % (b) Rights to subscribe for new securities (including directors' and other executive options) Class of relevant security in relation to which subscription right exists: Details, including nature of the rights concerned and relevant percentages:





3. DEALINGS (a) Purchases and sales Class of relevant security Purchase/sale Number of securities Price per unit Common Stock (GB0003318416) Sale 40,000 shares 1.65 GBP Common Stock (GB0003318416) Sale 216,800 shares 1.65 GBP Common Stock (GB0003318416) Sale 1,369,500 shares 1.65 GBP (b) Derivatives transactions (other than options) Class of relevant security Product description e.g. CFD Nature of dealing e.g. opening/closing a long/short position, increasing/reducing a long/short position Number of reference securities Price per unit (c) Options transactions in respect of existing securities (i) Writing, selling, purchasing or varying Class of relevant security Product description e.g. call option Writing, purchasing, selling, varying etc. Number of securities to which option relates Exercise price per unit Type e.g. American, European etc. Expiry date Option money paid/ received per unit (ii) Exercising Class of relevant security Product description e.g. call option Number of securities Exercise price per unit (d) Other dealings (including subscribing for new securities) Class of relevant security Nature of dealing e.g. subscription, conversion Details Price per unit (if applicable)





4. OTHER INFORMATION (a) Indemnity and other dealing arrangements Details of any indemnity or option arrangement, or any agreement or understanding, formal or informal, relating to relevant securities which may be an inducement to deal or refrain from dealing entered into by the person making the disclosure and any party to the offer or any person acting in concert with a party to the offer:

If there are no such agreements, arrangements or understandings, state "none" None (b) Agreements, arrangements or understandings relating to options or derivatives Details of any agreement, arrangement or understanding, formal or informal, between the person making the disclosure and any other person relating to:

(i) the voting rights of any relevant securities under any option; or

(ii) the voting rights or future acquisition or disposal of any relevant securities to which any derivative is referenced:

If there are no such agreements, arrangements or understandings, state "none" None (c) Attachments Is a Supplemental Form 8 attached? NO Date of disclosure 27 July 2016 Contact name Kim Colwell Telephone number 312-208-8153

Public disclosures under Rule 8 of the Code must be made to a Regulatory Information Service and must also be emailed to the Takeover Panel at monitoring@disclosure.org.uk . The Panel's Market Surveillance Unit is available for consultation in relation to the Code's dealing disclosure requirements on +44 (0)20 7638 0129.
MONTREAL, QUEBEC -- (Marketwired) -- 07/27/16 -- Sphinx Resources Ltd. ("Sphinx" or the "Corporation") (TSX VENTURE: SFX) is pleased to announce that Francois Biron has been appointed to the Corporation's Board of Directors as an independent director. Francois Biron has more than 40 years of experience in operational management. He has occupied several senior positions at mine sites with well-known and reputable international mining companies. His expertise includes project evaluation, environmental management and social acceptability for new mining projects which will strengthen the Corporation. Mr. Biron has been involved as General Manager of the Troilus Division of Inmet Mining Corporation, a gold-copper mine in Eeyou Istchee James Bay region about 125 km north of Chibougamau, Quebec, with 260 employees, including 65 from the Cree nation.

The articles of the Corporation require that the Board of Directors must be composed of a maximum of six directors. Consequently, David Johnson has accepted to step down as a director. The Board and management of the Corporation thank Mr. Johnson for his dedication and contributions to Sphinx. He will act going forward as a consultant to Sphinx in connection with governance, legal and business development matters.

About Sphinx

Sphinx is engaged in the generation and acquisition of exploration projects in Quebec and Canada which is recognized as an attractive mining jurisdiction worldwide.

For further information, please consult Sphinx's website.

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.

This press release may contain forward-looking statements that are subject to known and unknown risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results and activities to vary materially from targeted results and planning. Such risks and uncertainties include those described in Sphinx's periodic reports including the annual report or in the filings made by Sphinx from time to time with securities regulatory authorities.

Contacts:

Sphinx Resources Ltd.

Normand Champigny

President and Chief Executive Officer

514.979.4746

info@sphinxresources.ca

www.sphinxresources.ca




Leaders from Tobacco Free Missouri Youth (TFMY) convened at the YMCA of the Ozarks for the second "Lead On" youth summit sponsored by the Department of Health and Senior Services, Comprehensive Tobacco Control Program and University of Missouri Tobacco Control Research Center held June 2426.

Sixteen youth from around the state, including Katelynn Bennett and Hailey Glore from Bonne Terre, as well as young people from Arbyrd, Ballwin, Bethany, Dexter, Gravois Mills, Jackson, Jefferson City, Perryville, Sikeston, and Smithville.

At the meeting youth leaders engaged in learning and sharing of experiences designed to empower them to take action to reduce the harm caused by tobacco use in Missouri. They learned about the science and best practices of implementing policies that promote smoke-free environments. The event came at a critical time as currently local comprehensive smoke-free laws only cover 31 percent of the state population.

The youth engaged in team building exercises, experiential learning sessions and activities with the central theme of addressing secondhand smoking exposure. Additionally, teams learned how to convey scientific facts and health messages on the dangers of passive smoking to others with respect and humility. Embedded in these messages were bereavement stories of how smoking and secondhand smoking has stolen the health and lives of their loved ones.

The youth had an opportunity to demonstrate leadership skills they learned from the sessions. Facilitators of the Lead On summit were tobacco control experts from several state- and national-level organizations including the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services, the University of Missouri, Truth Initiative, the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids and Tobacco21.org.

The Youth Council took an active role in mapping future events essential to protect the right to breathe clean air at workplaces including in their schools, college campuses, communities, and government buildings. These youth leaders made a commitment to educate their peers, solicit partnerships with health and youth-focused organizations, and actively seek support of decision-makers at all levels.

TFMY will have a booth at track and field events at the upcoming Missouri Show-Me State Games in Columbia from July 29-31 to promote their tobacco-free healthy lifestyle priorities for Missouri.

For more information about local youth leadership teams, contact Jessica McKnight at the St. Francois County Health Center at 573-431-1947, extension 125.
TORONTO, ONTARIO -- (Marketwired) -- 07/27/16 -- Alexandria Minerals Corporation (TSX VENTURE: AZX)(OTC PINK: ALXDF)(FRANKFURT: A9D) ("AZX" or the "Company") is pleased to report on its exploration efforts searching for Triangle Zone-like gold-quartz veins on the western portion of its 35 kilometer long Cadillac Break Property package, with focus on its Airport property ("Triangle Too").

Four of the initial 8 targets in the planned first-round, 3,000 meter long, Triangle Too drill program have been drilled along the northern half of the Airport property, from 400 meters to 1000 meters southwest of the Triangle Zone. This drilling has identified two new intrusive plugs, with quartz-tourmaline-pyrite-chalcopyrite veins, similar to those which host gold resources at the Triangle Zone. Sampling and logging procedures are underway.

Eric Owens, President and CEO of Alexandria, stated, "We have identified further prospective targets to the southeast of our current drill program, south to the Cadillac Break. We are applying for new permits for these targets as we speak."

To date, the Company has identified prospective drill targets over a 2 kilometer stretch south and southeast of the Triangle Zone, based on geophysics, geology and historic drill hole information. Historic drill core and logs, in particular, provide strong evidence for the possible presence of more intrusive plugs to the southeast.

There are more than 80 years of exploration data on the Company's Cadillac Break property package in Val d'Or, including some 4,000 historic drill holes, as well as substantial geophysical and geochemical surveys, all of which are incorporated into the company's database and used in its planning.

Program design, management, and Quality Control/Quality Assurance are conducted by Alexandria's exploration group of which Phillippe Berthelot, P.Geo, is the Company's Qualified Person. Mr. Berthelot has reviewed the results in this press release. The QA/QC program is consistent with National Instrument ("NI") 43-101 and industry best practices and has been previously addressed in NI 43-101 reports found on the Company's website or on www.sedar.com.

Further information about the Company is available on the Company's website, www.azx.ca, or our social media sites listed below:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AlexandriaMinerals

Twitter: https://twitter.com/azxmineralscorp

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/AlexandriaMinerals

Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/alexandriaminerals/

About Alexandria Minerals Corporation

Alexandria Minerals Corporation is a Toronto-based junior gold exploration and development company with strategic properties located in the world-class mining districts of Val d'Or, Quebec, Red Lake, Ontario and Snow Lake-Flin Flon, Manitoba. Alexandria's focus is on its flagship property, the large Cadillac Break Property package in Val d'Or, which hosts important, near-surface, gold resources along the prolific, gold-producing Cadillac Break, all of which have significant growth potential.

WARNING: This News Release may contain forward-looking statements including but not limited to comments regarding the timing of completion of the Private Placement, the use of proceeds of the Private Placement and receipt of regulatory approval of the Private Placement. Forward-looking statements address future events and conditions and therefore involve inherent risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from those currently anticipated in such statements. Alexandria Minerals Corporation relies upon litigation protection for forward-looking statements. 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:

Alexandria Minerals Corporation

Mary Vorvis

Vice President, Corporate Development and Investor Relations

(416) 305-4999



Alexandria Minerals Corporation

Eric Owens

President/CEO

416-363-9372

info@azx.ca

www.azx.ca




BRUSSELS (dpa-AFX) - Michel Barnier, the former Vice-President of the European Commission, has been appointed as the chief 'Brexit' negotiator for the EU. The President of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker said, 'I am very glad that my friend Michel Barnier accepted this important and challenging task. I wanted an experienced politician for this difficult job.' Barnier will report directly to the Juncker and will have at his disposal the best Commission experts. Barnier is set to take up his duties on October 1. In line with the principle of 'no negotiation without notification', the task of Barnier in the coming months will be to prepare the ground internally for the work ahead. Once the Article 50 process is triggered, he will take the necessary contacts with the UK authorities and all other EU and Member State interlocutors. Barnier acted as European Commissioner and then Vice-President in charge of Internal Market and Services during 2010-2014. He served as a member of the European Parliament and minister of foreign affairs of France. 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.
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - July 27, 2016) - Coronet Metals Inc. (TSXV: CRF) (FWB: 2CM) (OTC Pink: CORMF) ("Coronet" or "the Company"), is pleased to provide overview on its Corporate strategy and summary on current developments.

Coronet's strategy is acquiring precious metals mining projects which have the potential for both near-term cash flow and exploration upside in safe, mining friendly, jurisdictions. The goal is to derive low cost production from high value deposits and pay for these acquisitions from cash flow as opposed to issuing stock which is dilutive for its shareholders.

The White Caps Gold Mining Project ("White Caps" or "the Project")

Through its wholly-owned subsidiary, "White Caps Mining Company" ("WCMC"), the Company controls the former producing White Caps Gold Mine and processing mill, along with an estimated 250,000 tonnes of historic tails and mine dumps *.





Management is aggressively pursuing a 3-phase program to (1) assess gold recoveries using extensive independent metallurgical analysis within the historic gold bearing tailings and mine dumps and reprocess those tails in order to generate short-term cash flows, and (2) permit and re-develop the existing 250 tonne/day White Caps Mill in order to accelerate recoveries of gold from the surface tails, and ultimately (3) re-drill and re-enter the historic White Caps Gold Mine to assess potential and develop an NI 43-101 compliant resource.





Six Drill holes have been outlined for the White Caps dump and 23 auger holes proposed for the drilling the White Caps tailings. The upper portion of the tailings pile is considerably thicker and may require reverse circulation holes to drill to the bottom of the pile. Coronet anticipates commencing the drill program within the next 4-8 weeks. This work, together with the metallurgical work will form the basis to upgrade or verify the historical estimates of the quantity of the gold bearing tailings and mine dumps as a NI 43-101 compliant mineral resources or mining reserves.





Presuming all the above proposed work on the White Caps tails confirms prior analysis, the next step will be to begin small scale production and re-processing of the tails. Gold extracted in that effort will be sold and cash flows directed to fund exploration work on the historic White Caps underground mine. Between 1930 and 1960, significant gold production was secured from the Mine, however no exploration has been conducted since that time. Using current advanced techniques, Coronet's management believe that the there is a strong case to be made for fully-restoring White Caps to gold production.





In a recent press release dated June 29, 2016, Coronet announced that it had entered into a "Letter of Intent" to acquire a 60% interest in the Dixie Queen Mine located near Charlotte, North Carolina. The Dixie Queen Mine and surrounding property has been providing small scale gold production, and Coronet believes that production values can be significantly increased through the provision of additional development capital along with the expertise and experience of Coronet's mine-development team.

The Dixie Queen Gold Mine ("Dixie Queen")

Presently concluding due diligence work with plans to enter into a final purchase and sales agreement within the coming days.





Coronet's management and operations team has visited the site and is very pleased with early indications of what seems to be a very promising discovery.





The due diligence includes independent sampling of high grade gold veins, and an initial work program to process approximately 200 tonnes of ore.





Upon closing of the transaction, the Company will immediately initiate work to complete a NI 43-101 complaint resource report.





The Carolina Gold Rush, the first gold rush in the United States, followed discovery of gold in North Carolina in 1799. North Carolina boasts several historic mines including the Reed mine, Dixie Queen and in South Carolina, less than 150 miles from the Dixie Queen, the 4 million oz "Haile Mine" **.





The Dixie Queen is an ideal fit with Coronet's business model of pursuing production-oriented assets in proven gold-producing jurisdictions.

In addition to the above two projects the Company is actively pursuing other near-term, promising high value gold and silver projects that will play to its existing strategy.

* References to tonnages are historical estimates. The estimated tonnage of 250,000 tonnes was provided by the two different mining (name the company) engineering companies in October 2011 that the Company engaged to provide an estimate. The stockpile measurement is a technique to measure the volume and weight of commodity stockpiles. It is a scientific/ instrumental method, using Total Station equipment to determine the volume of the stockpile quantity. While the Company believes that the historical tonnage estimate is useful to guide future work on the project it cautions readers that these historical estimates should not be relied upon.

** http://www.oceanagold.com/our-business/united-states/haile-gold-mine/

About Coronet Metals

Coronet Metals Inc. is engaged in the business of acquiring, exploring and developing natural resource properties, with a focus on precious mineral properties/projects which have the potential for both near-term cash flow and significant exploration upside potential. Coronet's White Caps Gold Project is near the town of Manhattan in Northern Nye County. The Project is well in line with its strategy of acquiring precious metals mining projects which have the potential for both near-term cash flow and exploration upside.

The Company has launched a fresh new web site so please visit www.coronetmetals.com for more information on the project, the history of the area and up to date information regarding its near-term plans, execution and strategy.

Forward Looking Information

This news release contains forward-looking statements and other statements that are not historical facts. Forward-looking statements are often identified by terms such as "will", "may", "should", "anticipate", "expects" and similar expressions. All statements other than statements of historical fact included in this release are forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the Company's expectations are risks detailed from time to time in the filings made by the Company with securities regulations.

The reader is cautioned that assumptions used in the preparation of any forward-looking information may prove to be incorrect. Events or circumstances may cause actual results to differ materially from those predicted, as a result of numerous known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors, many of which are beyond the control of the Company. As a result, the Company cannot guarantee that any forward-looking statement will materialize and the reader is cautioned not to place undue reliance on any forward-looking information. Such information, although considered reasonable by management at the time of preparation, may prove to be incorrect and actual results may differ materially from those anticipated. Forward-looking statements contained in this news release are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement. The forward-looking statements contained in this news release are made as of the date of this news release and the Company will only update or revise publicly any of the included forward-looking statements as expressly required by Canadian securities law.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its regulation services provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION AND ENQUIRIES:

Theo van der Linde

President and CFO

Tel: +1 604-336-3193

Email: tvanderlinde@coronetmetals.com
DELTA, BRITISH COLUMBIA -- (Marketwired) -- 07/27/16 -- ATI AirTest Technologies (TSX VENTURE: AAT) This notice is to confirm that ATI Airtest Technologies Inc.(the "Company") was issued a Cease Trade Order by the BC Securities Commission on May 10, 2016, which was revoked by the BCSC on July 7, 2016. The TSX Venture Exchange (the "Exchange") had suspended trading in the Company's securities as a result of the Cease Trade Order, however the Company has submitted an application to have its trading reinstated by the TSX Venture Exchange now that the Cease Trade Order is no longer in effect.

The Exchange conducted a review of the Company's filings, news releases and payment of fees. One item that came to light was a news release issued by the Company on September 2, 2015 in which it was announced that the Company had discontinued the non-brokered private placement that was announced on June 22, 2015 due to the difficulty in promoting an equity financing at that time. Although the news release was issued by the Company it did not appear to have been fully disseminated.

Company President George Graham advises that "the TSX Venture Exchange has advised that soon after the dissemination of this news release the Exchange will be issuing a bulletin reinstating the Company."

Statements about the Company's future expectations and all other statements in this press release other than historical facts are "forward looking statements". The Company intends that such forward-looking statements be subject to the safe harbours created thereby. Since these statements involve risks and uncertainties and are subject to change at any time, the Company's actual results may differ materially from the expected results.

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.

Contacts:

Mr. George Graham

President

Phone: (604) 517 3888

(604) 517 3900 (FAX)

Email: ggraham@airtest.com

Website: www.airtest.com




VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA -- (Marketwired) -- 07/27/16 -- Columbus Gold Corp. (TSX: CGT)(OTCQX: CBGDF) ("Columbus") is pleased to announce that two Exclusive Exploration Permits ("PER") on strike of the east and west extensions of Columbus Gold's Montagne d'Or gold deposit, were granted on July 6(th), 2016, by decree of the French Minister of Economy, and published in the Journal officiel de la Republique francaise on July 13(th) (JORF n degrees 0162). The two permits cover a total surface area of 54.8 km(2).

The Montagne d'Or deposit hosts pit-confined Indicated mineral resources((i)) of 83.2 million tonnes grading 1.45 g/t gold (3.9 million ounces) and Inferred mineral resources((i)) of 22.4 million tonnes grading 1.55 g/t gold (1.1 million ounces). The resources have been drilled to within 250 meters of the western boundary of the concession hosting the deposit and to within 600 meters of the eastern boundary. The newly granted exploration permits provide Columbus with undrilled potential where gold-soil anomalies extend for up to 2.0 km to the west and 2.7 km to the east of the deposit. Only two holes have ever been drilled within the areas covered by the new exploration permits; one of those holes, drilled 750 meters east of the deposit, intercepted 31.94 g/t gold over 3.5 meters. The following map illustrates the expansion potential:

www.columbusgold.com/i/nr/2016-07-27-map.pdf

Furthermore, magnetic, electromagnetic and radiometric airborne geophysical survey data has traced the prospective geology (volcano-sedimentary sequence) hosting the Montagne d'Or gold deposit for up to 5 km to the west.

A first phase exploration program on the new permits will be implemented in September. The program will include prospecting and in-fill soil sampling west of the deposit. The sampling will be undertaken with an auger to collect saprolite material (weathered and oxide bedrock). Induced polarization ("IP") geophysical surveying is being considered for the second phase to enhance drilling targets. IP surveying was applied with success in the 1990's to trace the gold-sulfide mineralized horizons at Montagne d'Or.

Nord Gold SE (LSE: NORD LI) is funding a feasibility study as part of a minimum US$30 million exploration and development program pursuant to which they can earn a 50.01% (for a total of 55.01%) interest, in Montagne d'Or.

Rock Lefrancois, Chief Operating Officer for Columbus and Qualified Person under National Instrument 43-101, has reviewed this news release and is responsible for the technical information reported herein.

((i)) NI 43-101 gold resource of 3.9 million ounces Indicated and 1.1 million ounces Inferred (83.2 million tonnes @ 1.45 g/t gold, and 22.4 million tonnes @ 1.55 g/t gold respectively, at a 0.4 g/t gold cut-off grade); (see news release dated April 21, 2015). Mineral resources that are not mineral reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD,

Robert F. Giustra, Chairman & CEO

This release contains forward-looking information and statements, as defined by law including without limitation Canadian securities laws and the "safe harbor" provisions of the US Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 ("forward-looking statements"), respecting Columbus: the expected exploration potential provided by the new exploration permits; the extent of and anticipated timeline to commence a first phase exploration program under the new permits; the estimation of mineral resources; the realization of mineral resource estimates; the realization of the expected economics of the Montagne d'Or deposit; and general exploration plans. Forward-looking statements involve risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results to be materially different from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements, including: the actual results of current and future exploration activities; changes in project parameters and/or economic assessments as plans continue to be refined; future prices of metals; possible variations of mineral grade or rates of recovery; ability to acquire necessary permits and other authorizations; environmental compliance; cost increases; availability of qualified workers and drill equipment; competition for mining properties; risks associated with exploration projects including, without limitation, the accuracy of interpretations; mineral reserve and resource estimates (including the risk of assumption and methodology errors and ability to complete a new resource estimate by the proposed target date or at all); the ability to meet proposed schedules for the completion of metallurgical tests; the ability to complete the feasibility study by the stated deadline or at all; dependence on third parties for services; non-performance by contractual counterparties; title risks; risks associated with Nord Gold N.V. electing not to exercise its option and make the related option payments; and general business and economic conditions. Forward-looking statements are based on a number of assumptions that may prove to be incorrect, including without limitation assumptions about the following: that the assumptions contained in Columbus' Preliminary Economic Assessment are accurate and complete; that the mineral resource update is positive; that the results of the Feasibility Study will be positive; general business and economic conditions; the timing and receipt of required approvals and permits; the availability of financing; power prices; the ability to procure equipment and supplies including, without limitation, drill rigs; and ongoing relations with employees, partners, optionees and joint venturers. The foregoing list is not exhaustive and Columbus undertakes no obligation to update any of the foregoing except as required by law.

Contacts:

Investor Relations

(604) 634-0970

1-888-818-1364

info@columbusgold.com




LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM -- (Marketwired) -- 07/27/16 -- Kaseya, the leading provider of complete IT management solutions for Managed Service Providers (MSPs) and small- to mid-sized businesses (SMBs), today announced the results of its annual IT operations benchmark survey which offers insight into the success drivers for IT groups at SMBs.

The survey, based on input from 1,200 respondents from SMBs globally, compares the practices of IT departments based on their IT management maturity level. The IT management maturity model, developed by Kaseya specifically for SMBs, consists of five levels:

Reactive: Responding to individual user challenges and requests

Efficient: Having a systematic approach to solving known issues and dealing with daily tasks

Proactive: Taking a proactive approach to IT management, automating repetitive tasks and many remedial actions

Aligned: Tracking and managing against SLAs of availability and performance expectations

Strategic: Achieving IT operational excellence and taking a strategic role in driving business innovation

Strong Correlation Between High Revenue Growth and IT Management Maturity

According to Kaseya's research, there is a strong correlation between the maturity level of an IT organisation and their company's revenue growth rate. 36 per cent of the companies with the higher IT maturity levels (Strategic and Aligned) have grown their revenue at greater than 10 percent between 2014 and 2015. Only 21 per cent of the less mature companies (companies falling in the Reactive, Efficient or Proactive categories) saw revenue growth grow greater than 10 per cent.

Outsourcing IT Services Important for Mature IT Organisations

The survey findings also indicate that more mature IT organisations highly leverage outsourced services, such as backup and recovery, virtual desktop services, remote monitoring and management, and private cloud management, to enable their success. Companies at higher maturity levels outsource on average 20 per cent more services than those at lower levels.

In addition, the more mature IT organisations use cloud services associated with PaaS, IaaS and SaaS 50 per cent more often than the less mature IT organisations.

Other Highlights

Other highlights from Kaseya's 2016 survey include:

Forty-five to fifty per cent of IT organisations at all levels of maturity indicate that they will be strongly considering outsource cloud services in the next 12 months.

Of the top three IT priorities for 2016, 'Completing Projects on Time' was the top priority named by respondents in the survey, followed by 'Delivering Higher Service Levels' and 'Improving Customer Experience';

Most (86 per cent) of IT Groups at SMBs remain in the early stages of IT maturity. Only 14 per cent of respondents consider their organisation as mature, a three per cent increase from last year's survey;

44 per cent of companies that fall in the higher maturity levels are required to report and achieve on their service level agreements (SLAs), while 48 % track mean time to recovery (MTTR). These rates are 120 % and 70 % higher than the next highest cohort.

To download the full report go to: http://www.kaseya.com/resources/best-practices/it-operations-survey-2016

Supporting Quote

"Most IT organisations at small and mid-size companies struggle to meet their goals and objectives due in large part to constraints on resources," said Kirk Feathers, VP customer enablement for Kaseya. "In contrast, those organisations that have reached a higher level of IT maturity by automating mundane activities, standardising and streamlining processes, and leveraging cloud services, have the time to focus on IT projects that drive business results and end-user satisfaction. We're pleased that Kaseya is able to offer solutions that help businesses at all maturity levels to achieve these results, leading to improved overall IT performance."

About Kaseya

Kaseya is the leading provider of complete IT Management solutions for Managed Service Providers and small to midsized businesses. Kaseya allows organisations to efficiently manage and secure IT in order to drive IT service and business success. Offered as both an industry-leading cloud solution and on-premise software, Kaseya solutions empower businesses to command all of IT centrally, manage remote and distributed environments with ease, and automate across IT management functions. Kaseya solutions currently manage over 10 million endpoints worldwide and are in use by customers in a wide variety of industries, including retail, manufacturing, healthcare, education, government, media, technology, finance, and more. Kaseya, headquartered in Dublin, Ireland is privately held with a presence in over 20 countries. To learn more, please visit www.kaseya.com.

Media Contact

Taunia Kipp

Kaseya

415-694-5700 x1973

taunia.kipp@kaseya.com




SEATTLE, WA -- (Marketwired) -- 07/27/16 -- CFN Media Group, the leading creative agency and digital media network dedicated to legal cannabis, announces the publication of an article and interview covering Medical Marijuana, Inc.'s (OTC PINK: MJNA) pioneering efforts in the acceptance and legalization of medicinal cannabis-derived products across Latin America.

A growing body of research suggests that cannabinoids from both hemp and marijuana such as cannabidiol (CBD) could be beneficial for a large number of different medical indications. According to Google Scholar, more than 1,250 clinical studies of CBD have been published in 2016 alone. The United States and many developed countries seem "slow to adopt" when it comes to embracing CBD's medical potential, but several Latin American countries have stepped up their acceptance of the non-psychoactive cannabinoid.

In this article, CFN Media takes a look at Medical Marijuana, Inc.'s expansion into Mexico and Paraguay (following Brazil's historic legalization) with its Real Scientific Hemp Oil (RSHO) product line.

To read the article and see the interview with CEO Dr. Stuart Titus, please click the following link or copy and paste the URL in your browser: http://www.cannabisfn.com/mexico-paraguay-embrace-the-potential-for-cannabis-based-medicines/

Learn how to become a CFN Media featured company, brand or entrepreneur: http://www.cannabisfn.com/become-featured-company/

Download the CFN Media iOS mobile app to access the world of cannabis from your smart phone: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/cannabisfn/id988009247?ls=1&mt=8

Or visit our homepage and enter your mobile number under the Apple App Store logo to receive a download link text on your iPhone: http://www.cannabisfn.com

About CFN Media

CFN Media (CannabisFN) is the leading creative agency and media network dedicated to legal cannabis. We help marijuana businesses attract investors, customers (B2B, B2C), capital, and media visibility. Private and public marijuana companies and brands in the US and Canada rely on CFN Media to grow and succeed.

About Medical Marijuana Inc.

Our mission is to be the premier cannabis and hemp industry innovators, leveraging our team of professionals to source, evaluate and purchase value-added companies and products, while allowing them to keep their integrity and entrepreneurial spirit. We strive to create awareness within our industry, develop environmentally friendly, economically sustainable businesses, while increasing shareholder value. For details on Medical Marijuana, Inc.'s portfolio and investment companies, visit http://www.medicalmarijuanainc.com.

To see Medical Marijuana, Inc.'s video statement, click here. Shareholders are also encouraged to visit the Medical Marijuana, Inc. Shop for discounted products.

CFN Media

Frank Lane

206-369-7050

flane@cannabisfn.com




LAS VEGAS, NV -- (Marketwired) -- 07/27/16 -- Pure Hospitality Solutions, Inc. (OTC PINK: PNOW), parent Company of the Central American-Caribbean Online Travel Agency (OTA) Oveedia, announced today that the Company has issued part one of a two-part shareholder update. Part one of the update was released on July 22nd and can be found at http://www.purenow.solutions/letter-shareholders/. Part two is set to be released this Friday, July 29th.

"We have experienced so many great things this year, that we thought it would be best to release a thorough, two-part update to our shareholders and general marketplace," stated Melvin Pereira, President and CEO of Pure Hospitality Solutions, Inc. "Part one of our update was released last Friday, and was met with a plethora of great comments from our Shareholders. Terms such as 'proud,' 'keep up the good work,' and 'we support you,' began to flood our mailbox, as shareholders read all of the great things we as a Company have accomplished."

Management suggested that to keep any potential shareholder confusion to a minimum, it would be best to split all of the Company's accomplishments into separate shareholder announcements. The update that was released on July 22nd was geared more towards the corporate side of the business. Friday's forthcoming address is more Oveedia-centric, answering nearly all questions that relate to the Central American / Caribbean OTA.

Pereira concluded, "I'm absolutely elated about the progress we have made with Pure Hospitality Solutions, as well as our flagship product, Oveedia, throughout the last year. The progress we continue to make on a daily basis, whether it's adding new properties to our affiliate list, or 'increasing' our Alexa ranking daily, the progress itself has been insurmountable. As stated in part one of my address, which will be reiterated in part two, as well as here; I would like to personally thank all of our shareholders for your continued trust, support, and comments. We will continue to build our OTA because of all of you, doing everything we can to bring as much value as possible to our Company, and our shareholders. From the bottom of my heart, 'Gracias por todo.'"

About Pure Hospitality Solutions, Inc.

PURE provides proprietary technology, marketing solutions and branding services to hotel operators and condominium owners. The Company's vision is to build competitive operations in the areas of (i) online marketing and hotel internet booking engine services, (ii) hotel branding and, (iii) own, operate and in some instances develop, boutique hotels under the new, "by PURE" brand. PURE is the creator of Oveedia, the Central American-Caribbean online travel hub.

Related Links:

Pure Hospitality Solutions, Inc. Pinterest

Pure Hospitality Solutions, Inc. Facebook

Pure Hospitality Solutions, Inc. Twitter

Pure Hospitality Solutions, Inc. Google +

Pure Hospitality Solutions, Inc. LinkedIn

Oveedia Google +

Safe Harbor Statements in this news release that are not historical facts, including statements about plans and expectations regarding products and opportunities, demand and acceptance of new or existing products, capital resources and future financial results are forward-looking. Forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties which may cause the Company's actual results in future periods to differ materially from those expressed. These uncertainties and risks include changing consumer preferences, lack of success of new products, loss of the Company's customers, competition and other factors discussed from time to time in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Contact:

Team PURE

IR Div.

(800) 889-9509




TSX:ORV

TORONTO, July 27, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --Orvana Minerals Corp. (TSX:ORV) (the "Company" or "Orvana") is pleased to announce that it has entered into a $12.5 million copper concentrates and gold dore prepayment agreement (the "Facility") with Samsung C&T U.K. Ltd. ("Samsung C&T"). All dollar figures are in US unless otherwise expressed.

Jeff Hillis, Interim Chief Executive Officer, said, "We are very pleased to announce this commercial and financing partnership with Samsung, a reputable and well-recognized global corporation. We are very proud that, after detailed due diligence by Samsung, Orvana's gold and copper production will form part of its future plans. The successful completion of this transaction, at a competitive cost of capital, represents a significant achievement for Orvana. The financing proceeds will allow us to expedite planned development and infrastructure investments at our El Valle Mine in Spain, as we continue on the path to increase metal production and lower unitary costs at the operation. Along with our recent announcement on May 30, 2016 of the US$7.9 million financing for the recommissioning of the CIL circuit at our Don Mario Mine in Bolivia, we believe that Orvana is now well-positioned for the future and will be able to capitalize on strengthening precious metals markets."

Under the terms of the Facility, Orvana will sell gold dore from its El Valle Mine in Spain and copper concentrate from its Don Mario Mine in Bolivia to Samsung C&T, on an exclusive basis for a period of thirty months (the "Facility Term"). In exchange, Orvana will receive $12.5 million in prepayment financing from Samsung C&T in two instalments. The first instalment of $8.0 million will be drawn upon closing and will be repaid beginning twelve months after drawdown in eighteen equal monthly payments. The second instalment of $4.5 million will be available for drawdown six to twelve months after closing and will be repaid beginning nine months after drawdown in nine equal monthly payments. The Facility will bear interest at LIBOR plus 4.5%. Interest payments and principal repayments will be made against Orvana's future shipments of copper concentrates and gold dore during the Facility Term. Samsung C&T has agreed to pay for copper concentrates and gold dore on at a price based on the prevailing metal prices for the gold, silver and copper content around time of shipment, less customary treatment, refining and shipping charges, and pursuant to the terms of the Facility.

The Company's obligations to Samsung C&T under the Facility are secured by the pledge to Samsung C&T of all of Orvana's shares of its indirectly wholly owned subsidiary OroValle Minerals S.L.U. which owns El Valle Mine in Spain.

Drawdown of the Facility is subject to satisfaction of customary closing conditions by Orvana for this type of transaction.

About Orvana

Orvana is a multi-mine gold and copper producer. Orvana's operating assets consist of the producing gold-copper-silver El Valle mine in northern Spain and the producing gold-copper-silver Don Mario mine in Bolivia. Additional information is available at Orvana's website (www.orvana.com).

Cautionary Statements - Forward-Looking Information

Certain statements in this information constitute forward-looking statements or forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities laws ("forward-looking statements"). Any statements that express or involve discussions with respect to predictions, expectations, beliefs, plans, projections, objectives, assumptions, potentials, future events or performance (often, but not always, using words or phrases such as "believes", "expects", "plans", "estimates" or "intends" or stating that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might", "will" or "are projected to" be taken or achieved) are not statements of historical fact, but are forward-looking statements.

The forward-looking statements herein relate to, among other things, Orvana's ability to achieve improvement in free cash flow; the potential to extend the mine life of El Valle and Don Mario beyond their current life-of-mine estimates; Orvana's ability to optimize its assets to deliver shareholder value; the Company's ability to optimize productivity at Don Mario and El Valle; estimates of future production, operating costs and capital expenditures; mineral resource and reserve estimates; statements and information regarding future feasibility studies and their results; future transactions; future metal prices; the ability to achieve additional growth and geographic diversification; future financial performance, including the ability to increase cash flow and profits; future financing requirements; and mine development plans.

Forward-looking statements are necessarily based upon a number of estimates and assumptions that, while considered reasonable by the Company as of the date of such statements, are inherently subject to significant business, economic and competitive uncertainties and contingencies. The estimates and assumptions of the Company contained or incorporated by reference in this information, which may prove to be incorrect, include, but are not limited to, the various assumptions set forth herein and in Orvana's most recently filed Management's Discussion & Analysis and Annual Information Form in respect of the Company's most recently completed fiscal year (the "Company Disclosures") or as otherwise expressly incorporated herein by reference as well as: there being no significant disruptions affecting operations, whether due to labour disruptions, supply disruptions, power disruptions, damage to equipment or otherwise; permitting, development, operations, expansion and acquisitions at El Valle and Don Mario being consistent with the Company's current expectations; political developments in any jurisdiction in which the Company operates being consistent with its current expectations; certain price assumptions for gold, copper and silver; prices for key supplies being approximately consistent with current levels; production and cost of sales forecasts meeting expectations; the accuracy of the Company's current mineral reserve and mineral resource estimates; and labour and materials costs increasing on a basis consistent with Orvana's current expectations.

A variety of inherent risks, uncertainties and factors, many of which are beyond the Company's control, affect the operations, performance and results of the Company and its business, and could cause actual events or results to differ materially from estimated or anticipated events or results expressed or implied by forward looking statements. Some of these risks, uncertainties and factors include fluctuations in the price of gold, silver and copper; the need to recalculate estimates of resources based on actual production experience; the failure to achieve production estimates; variations in the grade of ore mined; variations in the cost of operations; the availability of qualified personnel; the Company's ability to obtain and maintain all necessary regulatory approvals and licenses; the Company's ability to use cyanide in its mining operations; risks generally associated with mineral exploration and development, including the Company's ability to continue to operate the El Valle and/or Don Mario and/or ability to resume operations at the Carles Mine; the Company's ability to acquire and develop mineral properties and to successfully integrate such acquisitions; the Company's ability to execute on its strategy; the Company's ability to obtain financing when required on terms that are acceptable to the Company; challenges to the Company's interests in its property and mineral rights; current, pending and proposed legislative or regulatory developments or changes in political, social or economic conditions in the countries in which the Company operates; general economic conditions worldwide; and the risks identified in the Company's Disclosures under the heading "Risks and Uncertainties". This list is not exhaustive of the factors that may affect any of the Company's forward-looking statements and reference should also be made to the Company's Disclosures for a description of additional risk factors.

Any forward-looking statements made in this information with respect to the anticipated development and exploration of the Company's mineral projects are intended to provide an overview of management's expectations with respect to certain future activities of the Company and may not be appropriate for other purposes.

Forward-looking statements are based on management's current plans, estimates, projections, beliefs and opinions and, except as required by law, the Company does not undertake any obligation to update forward-looking statements should assumptions related to these plans, estimates, projections, beliefs and opinions change. Readers are cautioned not to put undue reliance on forward-looking statements.

The forward-looking statements made in this information are intended to provide an overview of management's expectations with respect to certain future operating activities of the Company and may not be appropriate for other purposes.

Jeff Hillis, CFO and Interim CEO, T (416) 369-6275, E jhillis@orvana.com; Joanne Jobin, Investor Relations Officer, T(416) 369-6275, E jjobin@orvana.com
LONDON, July 27, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

PR Newswire, the global leader in innovative communications, marketing solutions and commercial news and content distribution, was proud to be the event's Official News Distribution Partner for the 5th year running.

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The leading international annual event, now in its 20th year, focused on economic and business issues. It has become a key discussion platform for issues facing Russia, emerging markets and the world as a whole.

SPIEF attracted thousands of international and Russian participants, including government and business leaders from the emerging economic powers, as well as leading global voices from academia, the media, and civil society. Special guest status was awarded to Italy this year, and Prime Minister Matteo Renzi attended the Forum.

PR Newswire's role at the Forum was to provide news distribution and wire services to those attending and in particular to those wanting to raise their profile and disseminate their messages across Russia and the rest of the world.

According to Roscongress Foundation head, Alexander Stuglev, close collaboration between the organisations is of major significance for information coverage and promotion of Forum events:

"Our partners gain access to the latest and exclusive content, meaning that the public both in Russia and abroad get to know about the events, key economic and political topics discussed before and during SPIEF 2016 and the opinions of the experts on them".

Alexandre Bykov, Director of Strategic Investor Relations, PR Newswire EMEA and India, said:

"It is a great honour to work in a close partnership with the Forum. We have a strong distribution network across Russia and beyond so are very well placed to communicate the news and views from those attending. News on the events held under the Roscongress Foundation reach the widest possible audience around the globe."

The latest multimedia news release, developed by PR Newswire, highlights the results of the 20th St. Petersburg International Economic Forum 2016. To view the Multimedia News Release, please click:

http://www.multivu.com/players/uk/7869551-outcomes-20th-spief-2016/

About the St Petersburg Forum

The St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF)http://www.forumspb.com/en/2015

SPIEF gathers the leading decision-makers of the emerging economic powers to identify and deliberate the key challenges facing Russia, emerging markets, and the world at large, while engaging communities to find common purpose and establish frameworks to forge solutions which will drive the growth and stability agenda.

The St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) was founded in 1997 and since 2006, it has been held under the auspices of the President of the Russian Federation.

Over the past decade, the Forum has developed into a leading global business network, attracting over 10,000 international and Russian participants, including government and business leaders from the emerging economic powers as well as leading global voices from academia, the media, and civil society.

About PR Newswire Europe Ltd

PR Newswire, a Cision company, is the premier global provider of multimedia platforms and distribution that marketers, corporate communicators, sustainability officers, public affairs and investor relations officers leverage to engage key audiences. Having pioneered the commercial news distribution industry over 60 years ago, PR Newswire today provides end-to- end solutions to produce, optimise and target content and then distribute and measure results. Combining the world's largest multi-channel, multi-cultural content distribution and optimisation network with comprehensive workflow tools and platforms, PR Newswire powers the stories of organisations around the world. PR Newswire serves tens of thousands of clients from offices in the Americas, Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia-Pacific regions.

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A little after 7 a.m. Wednesday a standoff which had lasted more than 12 hours at an address in Fredericktown ended without injury.

Officers took a man who threatened to do harm to himself and others into custody. His name was not being released initially according to Fredericktown Police Chief Eric Hovis pending the filing of formal charges.

We are going to attempt to get federal charges (for) making terrorist threats, Hovis said. He threatened to level the entire block.

Several homes around 2 Lisa Drive were evacuated Tuesday night while law enforcement officers responded to the call of a man who had barricaded himself in the house at that address and was threatening to blow up the home.

According to Hovis, at 6:40 p.m. the police department received a call from the homeowner who said her son had recently been released from prison and had broken into her home. When she saw him, she said, he appeared to be intoxicated from alcohol or drugs. She told police that he had jugs of gasoline and one had been dumped out onto the floor.

When police arrived they found that the man had locked himself in the house. Attempts were made to open a window but the man slammed the window shut and began texting his family, who were outside the house, that police needed to go away or he would "die today." He said he had enough gas, alcohol and nitrate to blow up the home.

Police requested assistance from several agencies.

Hovis commended the effort of the Fredericktown police and fire departments, personnel from the city of Cape Girardeau, Southeast Missouri Regional Bomb Squad, Madison County Sheriffs Department, Madison County Prosecutors Office, Madison County EMS and Missouri State Highway Patrol.

Great job to all, Hovis said. Sorry for the inconvenience to those that were evacuated from their homes. I'm so thankful for the teamwork and the final result which is everybody goes home. Thanks for all the prayers sent up by the community."

Homes within a three-block radius were evacuated. Residents were directed to go to a shelter at United Methodist Church on Main Street. Staff at Madison Medical Center were notified of the standoff but the hospital was not evacuated.

During the lengthy standoff the man made threats toward police. He reportedly told family through text messages that he did not want to go back to prison and he had nothing to lose. He refused to communicate directly with law enforcement.

At about midnight the power to the home was shut off.

According to Hovis at a little after 6 a.m. the Missouri State Highway Patrol arrived to give some of the local officers relief.

They were being debriefed on what was going on, Hovis said. We re-interviewed the mother, put our heads together and did some brainstorming basically, because all night he was not responding to our calls over the PA system.

Hovis said a robot sent to the windows of the home spotted the suspect early in the morning, and he apparently saw the device and ran from the room he was in.

He would not communicate or respond to our attempts to end this peacefully, Hovis said.

The Fredericktown Fire Department were given an armed escort around the building as they used their thermal imaging and gas meter reading equipment.

The gas reading ... due to the windows being ventilated by the robot ... and the strong gas order we had smelled earlier in the night was dissipating, Hovis said. That was one of the threats and fears of why we did not force entry. The suspect threatened to light the floors that were gas soaked and blow the house up if we attempted entry.

According to the chief, at about 6:45 or 7 a.m. the thermal imaging equipment located a heat source in a back bedroom next to the bathroom.

With consent of the homeowner, police and the highway patrol made entry into the home.

Hovis said they secured the house room by room until they located the room where the heat source had been identified. The man had barricaded the door with mattresses and refused to comply with numerous verbal commands to exit with his hands raised.

Sergeant Jason Fitzwater was the less lethal officer with a Taser, covered by lethal officer Lt. Heath of the Missouri State Highway Patrol, Hovis said. The two officers subdued the subject without incident using great teamwork.

The suspect was taken into custody without lethal force.

He was making spontaneous utterances about needing his medication while being taken to the patrol vehicle, Hovis said. The Fredericktown Police Department transported him to Madison Medical Center for confinement and a 96-hour evaluation.

Inside the home officers found knives, bats and gasoline containers, according to the chief.

According to the homeowner, he has trashed' the residence, Hovis said.

Hovis said no one was injured and there was no imminent danger to the public once the initial evacuation was complete early in the standoff.

Absolutely not, he said.

By 8:30 a.m. all area residents were informed they could return to their homes except for those on Lisa Drive, as the police department was still processing the scene at that time.


27 July 2016



LSE Code: 3BAL



BOOST ISSUER PUBLIC LIMITED COMPANY (a public company incorporated with limited liability in Ireland) BOOST EURO STOXX BANKS 3X LEVERAGE DAILY ETP SECURITIES PROPOSED AMENDMENT TO THE PRINCIPAL AMOUNT OF THE AFFECTED SECURITIES ADJOURNMENT OF MEETING OF THE ETP SECURITYHOLDERS THIS DOCUMENT IS IMPORTANT AND REQUIRES YOUR IMMEDIATE ATTENTION. If you are in any doubt about what action you should take, you are recommended to consult your independent financial adviser.



If you have sold or transferred all of your Boost EURO STOXX Banks 3x Leverage Daily ETP Securities (the 'Affected Securities') of Boost Issuer Public Limited Company (the 'Issuer'), please send this document, together with the accompanying form of proxy, at once to the purchaser or transferee or stockbroker, banker or other agent through whom the sale or transfer was made, for onward transmission to the purchaser or transferee.



Boost Issuer Public Limited Company (the 'Issuer') wishes to announce that the Meeting of the holders of Boost EURO STOXX Banks 3x Leverage Daily ETP Securities (the 'Affected Securities', with ISIN IE00BLS09N40) scheduled for today at 11:00 a.m. (the 'Original Meeting') has been adjourned, in accordance with paragraph 20 of Schedule 7 of the Trust Deed, for lack of a quorum. The adjourned meeting will be reconvened on 11:00 a.m. on Thursday 11 August 2016, being a date not more than 30 days after the Original Meeting, and will be held at the offices of Capita International Financial Services (Ireland) Limited in 2 Grand Canal Square, Grand Canal Harbour, Dublin 2, Ireland (the 'Adjourned Meeting').



The Adjourned Meeting is being held to consider certain amendments to documentation, made under the powers set out in clause 2 of schedule 7 of the master trust deed of the Affected Securities, required to effect a reduction in the principal amount of the Affected Securities from EUR 2.00 to EUR 0.20. This follows the price of the Affected Securities falling below 500 per cent. of its current principal amount on 27 June 2016, and is designed to maintain the normal trading and operations of the Affected Securities. Full details of the Proposal and Extraordinary Resolution are set out in the notice dated 30 June 2016.



Holders of the Affected Securities will receive a form of proxy by post, allowing them to vote on the matters being considered at the Meeting by proxy. Under article 11.5 of the Issuer's Articles of Association, no further notification is required for the Adjourned Meeting. Holders of the Affected Securities are therefore directed to the original notification posted to them on 30 June 2016, and also available on the website of the Issuer, at www.boostetp.com/Content/Regulatory-Documents.



Holders of the Affected Securities should note that a duly completed form of proxy deposited in respect of the Original Meeting will continue to be valid for the Adjourned Meeting unless previously revoked or suspended by a further form of proxy prior to the Meeting.



In accordance with normal practice, The Law Debenture Trust Corporation p.l.c., as trustee, expresses no opinion as to the merits of the Proposal, the terms of which were not negotiated by it. It has however authorised it to be stated that, on the basis of the information contained in the original circular and in this document (which it advises holders of Affected Securities to read carefully) it has no objection to the form in which the Proposal and Notice of Meeting are presented to holders of Affected Securities for their consideration.



Holders of the Affected Securities will be notified of the outcome of the Adjourned Meeting shortly thereafter.



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: Boost Issuer PLC via GlobeNewswire [HUG#2031061]



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Kostenloser Wertpapierhandel auf Smartbroker.de
WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Donald Trump has announced Arizona Campaign Chairman Jeff DeWit as the presidential campaign's new chief operating officer. Formerly a CEO and now State Treasurer of Arizona, DeWit is managing the organizational and administrative operations within the campaign. Trump said DeWit, his long time associate, is an outstanding leader who will make it possible to win this election and Make America Great Again. As Arizona's Chief Banker and Investment Officer, DeWit oversees more than $13 Billion in state assets, serves as an investment manager for local governments and is the Chairman of Arizona's State Board of Investment. DeWit is a successful financial professional with over 23 years of experience. He was the first statewide elected official in the nation to endorse Donald Trump. DeWit said he is confident that Trump's leadership is what the country needs to Make America Great Again. Arizona State Representative Phil Lovas will replace DeWit as Arizona Campaign Chairman, the Trump Campaign said in a statement. 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.
EATONTOWN, NJ -- (Marketwired) -- 07/27/16 --Yorktel today announced that its Media Services division has been named a winner in the 37th Annual Telly Awards, earning recognition in 20 categories.

Founded in 1979, The Telly Awards are the premier award honoring outstanding local, regional, and cable TV commercials and programs, the finest video and film productions, and online commercials, video and films.

"The Telly Awards has a mission to honor the very best in film and video," said Executive Director of the Telly Awards, Linda Day. "Yorktel Media Services' accomplishment illustrates their creativity, skill, and dedication to their craft, and serves as a testament to great film and video production."

Yorktel's 2016 winning entries include:

Silver Telly Award for "The Honors: A Salute to American Heroes" in TV Programs - Cultural

Silver Telly Award for "The Honors: A Salute to American Heroes" in TV Programs - Entertainment

Silver Telly Award for "Everfi NHL Future Goals" in Sound/Sound Design, Regional TV & Multi-Market Cable

Bronze Telly Award for "The Honors: A Salute to American Heroes" in TV Programs - Live Events

Bronze Telly Award for "The Honors: A Salute to American Heroes" in TV Programs - History/Biography

Bronze Telly Award for "The Honors: A Salute to American Heroes" in TV Programs - Editing

Bronze Telly Award for "The Honors: A Salute to American Heroes" in TV Programs - Set Design

Bronze Telly Award for "The Honors: A Salute to American Heroes" in TV Programs - Use of Animation

Bronze Telly Award for "The Honors: A Salute to American Heroes" in TV Programs - Use of Graphics

Bronze Telly Award for "The Honors: A Salute to American Heroes" in TV Programs - 3D Graphics/Animation (Non-Stereoscopic)

Bronze Telly Award for "Everfi Vault" in Non-Broadcast Productions - Use of Graphics

Bronze Telly Award for "Everfi Vault" in Non-Broadcast Productions - Use of Animation

Bronze Telly Award for "Everfi NHL Future Goals" Schools/Colleges/Universities, Regional TV & Multi-Market Cable

Bronze Telly Award for "Everfi NHL Future Goals" Use of Animation, Regional TV & Multi-Market Cable

Bronze Telly Award for "Everfi NHL Future Goals" Use of Graphics, Regional TV & Multi-Market Cable

Bronze Telly Award for "McCain Institute for International Leadership ASU Intro" in Non-Broadcast Productions - Use of Graphics

2016 Bronze Telly Award for "McCain Institute for International Leadership ASU Intro" in Non-Broadcast Productions - 3D Graphics/Animation (non-Stereoscopic)

Bronze Telly Award for "SIR Foundation Branding Video 2015" in Non-Broadcast Productions - Charitable/Not-for-profit

Bronze Telly Award for "SIR Foundation Branding Video 2015" in Non-Broadcast Productions - Fund Raising

Bronze Telly Award for "Society for Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging" in Non-Broadcast Productions - Employee Communications

"Receiving a single Telly award is a tremendous honor, but winning 20 is overwhelming," said Mark Maxey, executive vice president, Yorktel Media Services. "This resounding appreciation from such a distinguished group is the highest tribute to our team's ingenuity, vision, expertise and commitment."

Yorktel Media Services is a perennial winner of prestigious broadcast and media industry awards. In addition to more than 50 Telly awards to its credit, Yorktel received an Emmy award in 2015, seven Videographer awards, two Certificates of Merit, and a Deputy Commissioner for Communications Honor Award for its White House Captioning Team.

Comprised of some of the brightest and innovative television, film, and digital media professionals whose work has been for or aired on A&E, ABC, BET, Bloomberg, CBS, CNBC, CNN, Discovery, Disney, ESPN, FOX, HBO, History Channel, MSNBC, MTV, NBC, PBS, Pentagon Channel, Reuters, TV One, Yorktel Media Services provides a full suite of professional media services, including television, video and film production, post-production, event management and digital media services.

ABOUT YORKTEL

Yorktel is a leading global provider of UC&C, cloud, and video managed services for large enterprise and federal government customers. Founded in 1985 and headquartered in New Jersey, with offices across the US, UK, and France, Yorktel enables customers to successfully integrate video into their operations -- from video conferencing to video event production; on premise or in the cloud. Yorktel designs, integrates, and manages enterprise-wide unified communications solutions. Commercial Integrator magazine named Yorktel its 2015 Integrator of the Year.

For more information, visit Yorktel online at http://www.yorktel.com or email knowmore@yorktel.com. Follow Yorktel on Twitter: @yorktelcorp

Photo available upon request.

CONTACT:

Mostafa Razzak

JMRConnect (for Yorktel)

202-904-2048

m.razzak@jmrconnect.net




30 years after the Chernobyl accident, the Ukrainian government aims to give a new renewable life to thousands hectares of the exclusion zone in the northern part of the country. While long-lasting radiation makes the area unfit for human habitation, agriculture or forestry, its cheap land and remaining electric transmission facilities can be used for solar power generation. "Land and transmission line connection are the most expensive parts of any solar project, and we have both of them here," general director of the Chernobyl plant Igor Gramotkin told local news outlets in April, when the country was commemorating the 30th anniversary of the nuclear disaster. At the end of June, Ukraine's minister of the environment and natural resources Ostap Semerak presented country's plans for the revival of the exclusion zone at Canada-Ukraine Business Forum in Toronto. After the forum, he announced that a number of Canadian investors are looking at developing solar and biofuel power plants near Chernobyl. Semerak also noted that the implementation of such projects requires new legislation in terms of allocation of land in the exclusion zone. "We expect that this issue will be fully settled by the end ...

Den vollstandigen Artikel lesen ...
DUBAI, UAE, July 27, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

- Dubai to create a new program to reward innovative companies around the world

- Companies will compete to solve seven key "21st century challenges"

- The program is designed to create new partnerships, deploy new technologies and test them at the city-wide scale

- Another example of Dubai's deepening commitment to becoming a test bed for futuristic technologies and businesses

- Intended to change the future of Dubai (and perhaps the world)

Today the Crown Prince of Dubai unveiled an ambitious new programme to change the world. The "Dubai Future Accelerators" will connect the world's most innovative companies with leading partners in government to test new solutions to key challenges at the city-wide scale.

(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160727/393408 )



The Future Accelerators focuses on seven "21st century challenges", which also represent significant opportunities for economic growth, job creation, and social development.

The challenges include the application of cutting-edge technologies such as AI (Artificial Intelligence) and robotics, genomics, 3D printing, distributed ledgers, biomimicry and biotechnology, as well as new business models and ways of working. Each challenge focuses on an important areas of government innovation, including healthcare, education, transportation, infrastructure, renewable energy, and digital transformation.

Unlike other programs, The Dubai Future Accelerators will focus on the deployment of futuristic prototypes at a city-wide scale, something which no other program can offer thanks to the strong support of the Dubai government.

A 21st Century Program

Launched by the Crown Prince of Dubai, His Highness Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum, the program reflects the larger goals of the UAE and those of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai.

"H.H. Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid's vision is transform the UAE into the global capital for creating amend exploring the future," Sheikh Hamdan said in a statement.

Mohammad Abdullah Al Gergawi, Minister of Cabinet Affairs and the Future, who is also vice-chairman of Dubai Future Foundation, said: "We invite all those across the world who want to create a better future to come to Dubai and help us create a better future.

Anyone can apply, from start-ups to large companies, as long as they have a working prototype that addresses one of the key challenges above. Winning companies will develop in-depth proposals to create futuristic pilot projects that can showcase the benefits of their technology.

Dubai to Become Test Bed for Futuristic Designs and Technology

The Dubai Future Accelerator is being run by the Dubai Future Foundation as part of the Dubai Future Agenda, a far reaching campaign to develop 21st century solutions and initiatives around the world. Other parts of the Agenda include the Dubai 3D Printing Strategy (with the Dubai Municipality), the Dubai Autonomous Transport Strategy (with the RTA), the Global Blockchain Council, and the Museum of the Future.

Additional details on the program can be found at

WEBSITE | https://dubaifutureaccelerators.com/en

PRESS | https://dubaifutureaccelerators.com/en/press

ARABIC | https://dubaifutureaccelerators.com/ar
According to the latest market study released by Technavio, the global microfluidic market for healthcare application is expected to grow at a CAGR of close to 18% during the forecast period.

This research report titled 'Global Microfluidic Market for Healthcare Application 2016-2020' provides an in-depth analysis of the market in terms of revenue and emerging market trends. This market research report also includes an up to date analysis and forecasts for various market segments and all geographical regions.

Request sample report: http://goo.gl/QE7ve0

The report categorizes the global microfluidic market for healthcare application into three major segments based on application. They are:

In-vitro diagnostics using microfluidics

Pharmaceutical research using microfluidics

Drug delivery devices using microfluidics

In-vitro diagnostics using microfluidics

The global microfluidic market for in-vitro diagnostics in healthcare is expected to exceed USD 2.4 billion by 2020, growing at a CAGR of over 12%.

In-vitro diagnostics form a major part of microfluidic applications in the healthcare sector. The scope of microfluidics in diagnostics is significant because microfluidics-based diagnostic kits can considerably reduce cost and render instant results, as they use compact integrated systems for a quick turnaround. For instance, over 50,000 i-STAT handheld microfluidics-based blood testers are being used in the field by Abbott Point of Care to run bedside tests. Another instance is the use of Cepheid's automated microfluidic polymerase chain reaction (PCR) system, supplying rapid screening and diagnosis for Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infections in hospitals.

According to Asif Gani, a lead analyst at Technavio for embedded systems research, "The advent of microfluidics in diagnostics has transformed the diagnostics market with the point of care gaining more importance. It has helped doctors keep track of their patients' health regularly and has enabled the patients to monitor their own health condition." This has spurred a big wave of investments in the market. The conservative big diagnostics players are now taking an interest in this new technology and are investing in the development of microfluidic-based products or are investing in or acquiring smaller companies in this field.

Pharmaceutical research using microfluidics

The global microfluidic market in pharmaceutical research for healthcare is expected to generate over USD 2.7 billion by 2020, growing at a CAGR of more than 20%.

Pharmaceutical research is technically refined and capable of adopting sophisticated new technologies. However, the industry suffers from low productivity and requires sophisticated tools for the discovery and development of novel drugs. The use of microfluidics in pharmaceutical research will help in the prediction of the effects of potential drugs on humans instead of testing them on cell lines and animals, as real-time monitoring of the drug effects can be done using microfluidic devices. Microfluidic systems are also being used in the production as well as the use of biopharmaceuticals. For instance, these systems can be used in analytical systems to monitor and optimize the production of protein and peptide drugs such as therapeutic antibodies.

These devices are also being implemented in cell-based detection assays to predict the performance of new drugs in clinical trials on humans. Thus, the use of microfluidics for pharmaceutical research will lead to the overall improvement of drugs and the healthcare system, ensuring high adoption of microfluidics for healthcare applications.

Drug delivery devices using microfluidics

The global microfluidic market in drug delivery devices for healthcare will exceed USD 639 million by 2020, growing at a CAGR of close to 33%.

Microfluidic devices are being used for drug delivery because of the advantages such as reduction in pain, no side effects, user friendliness, safety, and a considerable reduction in cost. A major advantage of microfluidic drug delivery systems is the possibility of studying the effects of the administered drugs at a cellular level.

Microfluidics enables precise and controlled drug flow, helping in monitoring the response to high-concentrations of drugs. This is done by employing a microfluidic gradient generator (MGG) for testing drug response at a cellular level. "Thus, microfluidics-based drug delivery systems are likely to make significant inroads into the healthcare sector," says Asif.

The top vendors highlighted by Technavio's research analysts in this report are:

Abbott

Agilent

Becton, Dickinson and Company

Bio-Rad

Rain Dance Technologies

Roche

Siemens

Browse Related Reports:

Global Sapphire Semiconductor Market 2016-2020

Global IGBT-based Power Module Market 2016-2020

Global Transceiver Chip Market 2016-2020

Do you need a report on a market in a specific geographical cluster or country but can't find what you're looking for? Don't worry, Technavio also takes client requests. Please contact enquiry@technavio.com with your requirements and our analysts will be happy to create a customized report just for you.

About Technavio

Technavio is a leading global technology research and advisory company. The company develops over 2000 pieces of research every year, covering more than 500 technologies across 80 countries. Technavio has about 300 analysts globally who specialize in customized consulting and business research assignments across the latest leading edge technologies.

Technavio analysts employ primary as well as secondary research techniques to ascertain the size and vendor landscape in a range of markets. Analysts obtain information using a combination of bottom-up and top-down approaches, besides using in-house market modeling tools and proprietary databases. They corroborate this data with the data obtained from various market participants and stakeholders across the value chain, including vendors, service providers, distributors, re-sellers, and end-users.

If you are interested in more information, please contact our media team at media@technavio.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160727005080/en/

Contacts:

Technavio Research

Jesse Maida

Media Marketing Executive

US: +1 630 333 9501

UK: +44 208 123 1770

www.technavio.com
CALGARY, ALBERTA -- (Marketwired) -- 07/27/16 -- DeepMarkit Corp. ("DeepMarkit" or the "Company") (TSX VENTURE: MKT) is pleased to announce the beta release of its FetchBot marketing-game promotions platform. This revolutionary self-serve platform is now available to businesses of all sizes at fetchbot.com. FetchBot lets marketers make their own branded videogame and microsite for creating promotions to give away prizes, collect data and drive sales.

"FetchBot marketing-game promotions will hook and hold consumers' attention better than any other contest platform. Consumers win because they're engaged, entertained and have a chance to receive a prize. Businesses win because they collect valuable demographic information and sales leads. Brands win because players remember their fun experiences. It's a rewarding product to use that facilitates creativity and delivers an extremely positive business to consumer experience." says Darold Parken, CEO of DeepMarkit.

The first phase of the FetchBot launch is planned to coincide with the kickoff of a limited marketing campaign to introduce the platform and drive account creation. DeepMarkit will use the next several months to fine tune and enhance the FetchBot platform within a live environment. New product features are in development and the release of our product now enables us to pursue numerous marketing channels and relationships in our primary North American Market and internationally.

The Company also announces the grant 500,000 stock options to senior officers. The options were granted under the Company's Stock Option Plan and have an exercise price of $0.15 per share and a term of 5 years.

About the Company

DeepMarkit is a technology company inventing new ways to engage consumers. We developed the FetchBot promotions platform to make marketing games accessible to businesses of all sizes. FetchBot lets marketers make their own branded videogame and microsite for giving away prizes, collecting data and driving sales. FetchBot is the future of incentive marketing.

Follow FetchBot on:

Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/fetchbot)

Twitter (https://twitter.com/FetchBotPromos)

LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/FetchBot)

fetchbot.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 news release.

CAUTIONARY STATEMENT

Statements in this press release may contain forward-looking information including, statements regarding the launch of the Fetchbot platform. Any statements that are contained in this press release that are not statements of historical fact may be deemed to be forward-looking statements. The reader is cautioned that assumptions used in the preparation of any forward-looking information may prove to be incorrect. Events or circumstances may cause actual results to differ materially from those predicted, as a result of numerous known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors, many of which are beyond the control of DeepMarkit. Factors that could cause the actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements include, failure to obtain market acceptance of the Company's products, inability to complete further development of the promotions application, the continued availability of capital and financing, and general economic, market or business conditions. The reader is cautioned not to place undue reliance on any forward-looking information.

The forward-looking statements contained in this press release are made as of the date of this press release, and DeepMarkit does not undertake any obligation to update publicly or to revise any of the included forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by securities law.

Contacts:

President & CEO

Darold H. Parken

Tel: 403-537-0067

Email: dparken@deepmarkit.com



Exec. VP Corporate Development

Ranjeet Sundher

Email: sundher@deepmarkit.com




ST. AUGUSTINE, FL -- (Marketwired) -- 07/27/16 -- A fresh perspective is bringing enlightened menus and unique dining opportunities to downtown St. Augustine as new Executive Chef Fred Mero takes the lead in overseeing restaurants and catering at The Kessler Collection's Casa Monica Resort and Spa, Autograph Collection.

Bringing 27 years of experience to the resort's Mediterranean-inspired Costa Brava restaurant, Chef Mero, a native of Ecuador, discovered his passion for cooking as a young immigrant to New York. Gaining experience at some of the most prestigious restaurants in New York City, he has risen through the ranks of the culinary world and expresses his passion by creating a culinary journey of dishes from around the Mediterranean for those seeking an adventurous dining experience. Revealing exciting new dining options in the heart of historic St. Augustine, the resort's Costa Brava celebrates flavors of the world as an art form with an eclectic menu featuring seasonally inspired new world flavors.

Watching his mother prepare spectacular South American seafood dishes, Mero dreamed of one day becoming a chef. To that goal, he attained his education through the Culinary Arts program at Brooklyn Technical College and New York Restaurant School.

His menu at Costa Brava includes Blue Cheese Beef Tenderloin, Brandy Flamed Pepper Steak, Whole Roasted Branzino and Galician Churrasco all perfectly garnished to accentuate their unique flavors. An extensive menu of small plates is also offered, perfect for sharing with family and friends, along with refreshing hand-crafted cocktails and impressive wines.

Executive Chef Mero also heads up the professional team of culinary artists responsible for creating inspiring customized menus for catered business and social events at the Casa Monica Resort and Spa. Featuring 12,000 square feet of event space that includes an elegant ballroom, private dining rooms, a relaxing poolside terrace and more, the award-winning resort offers amenities to set the stage for successful downtown St. Augustine events.

About the Casa Monica Resort and Spa, Autograph Collection

A historic treasure in the heart of St. Augustine, the Casa Monica Resort and Spa, Autograph Collection welcomes travelers with Old World Moroccan charm and contemporary comfort. A hotel destination since 1888 and a member of the National Trust Historic Hotels of America, the resort was graciously restored in 1999 to provide guests with impeccable service and refined luxury. From the resort's Grand Bohemian Art Gallery to the new Poseidon Spa, travelers can expect the finest in boutique accommodations and state-of-the-art convenience. Featuring an expansive offering of stylish rooms and spacious suites, the hotel pampers all guests with 37-inch flat screen TVs, premium movie channels, Bose sound systems, complimentary Wi-Fi, luxury bedding and room service to ensure an inspired St. Augustine experience for both business and leisure guests.

About The Kessler Collection

Capturing the classical and unconventional spirit of Bohemian cultures, The Kessler Collection's portfolio of passionately created and artistically inspired boutique hotels boast chic design, luxurious accommodations, enriching ambiance and intuitive service. Whether visiting properties in Alabama, Colorado, Georgia, Florida, North Carolina or South Carolina, each hotel's exquisite art, music and cultural influences are deliberately approachable. Designed to inspire mystique an unforgettable experiences, Kessler guests are bathed in re-defined Bohemian luxury, from an 1888 historic hotel, a cutting edge downtown icon and Bavarian-inspired Castle, to a high design southern mansion and elite ski lodge.

The Kessler Collection was the founding member of the Marriott Autograph Collection, introduced with seven Autograph Collection branded hotels. Each property is a bold original hotel carefully created with style and the individualist traveler in mind. For more information about The Kessler Collection and its properties, please visit www.kesslercollection.com or call 888.472.6312.

Image Available: http://www2.marketwire.com/mw/frame_mw?attachid=3038272



CONTACT:

Casa Monica Resort & Spa, Autograph Collection

95 Cordova Street St. Augustine Florida 32084

http://www.marriott.com/hotels/travel/jaxak-casa-monica-resort-and-spa-autograph-collection/

904-827-1888




Regulatory News:

INSIDE Secure (Paris:INSD), a leader in embedded security solutions for mobile and connected devices, is today reporting its unaudited consolidated resultsfor the six months to June 30, 2016:

Q2 2016 consolidated revenue (IFRS, excluding semiconductors): $20.3 million 1 ($27.7 million for H1 2016) showing significant growth

Q2 2016 revenue from core business (excluding semiconductors and NFC patent licensing): $7.7 million (+25% quarter-to-quarter and +28% year-on-year), driven by strong trends in mobile payment and mobile banking markets ($13.8 million for H1 2016, +28% vs. H1 2015)

Adjusted operating income 2 from continuing operations: $4.7 million (17% of revenue) compared with a loss of $6.4 million H1 2015

EBITDA from continuing operations: $5.3 million (vs. loss of $6.2 million in H1 2015)

Net loss from continuing operations (IFRS): $1.0 million (vs. loss of $11.2 million in H1 2015)

Execution of strategic transformation projects in line with the objectives and timetable: Success of April 2016 capital increase ($5.4 million) Restructuring plan and reduction in the operating cost base finalized in the second quarter Sale of the semiconductor business to be completed by the end of the third quarter



Strengthened liquidity and solid financial position ($20.4 million cash as at June 30, 2016) thanks to improved operating performance and completion of capital increase

First-half 2016 results Key figures (unaudited)

Adjusted IFRS (in thousands of US$) H1 2016 H1 2015 H1 2016 H1 2015 Revenue 27,699 11,102 27,699 11,102 Gross profit 23,051 9,963 21,286 5,589 As a of revenue 83.2% 89.7% 76.8% 50.3% Adjusted operating income from continuing operations 4,698 (6,407) 20 (12,488) As a of revenue 17.0% -57.7% 0.1% -112.5% Net loss from continuing operations (i) (1,007) (11,124) As a of revenue -3.6% -100% Net income from discontinued operations (ii) 332 (8,599) Net income (i) (ii) (675) (19,723) EBITDA from continuing operations 5,320 -6,218 As a of revenue 19.2% 10.3%

Commenting on these results, Amedeo D'Angelo, president and CEO of INSIDE Secure, stated: "This past quarter has been significant for our Company as we have demonstrated concrete progress on the major milestones of our transformation. First of all, the sale of our semiconductor business is progressing well and should be finalized by the end of the third quarter. Secondly, our increased efficiency in operations coupled with the successful capital increase provide us with robust and flexible finances to grow our business. Lastly, our sharpened focus on our core businesses of security software and technology licensing positions us very well to take advantage of the strong momentum we see in the markets we serve, particularly in mobile payment and banking, bringing us increasing opportunities for revenue growth and margin expansion."

Second-quarter and first-half 2016 financial highlights

Pursuant to INSIDE Secure's decision to exit from the semiconductor business and in accordance with IFRS 5, income and expense items for the discontinued operation are recognized directly in "net income from discontinued operations" and thus excluded from adjusted operating income, EBITDA and net income. Accordingly, results from continuing operations reflect the performance of the Mobile Security division, the NFC patent licensing program and corporate costs not intended to be transferred or discontinued with the sale of the semiconductor business (mostly general and administrative expenses and, to a lesser extent, selling marketing expenses, and research development expenses).

Figures for the first half of 2015 have been restated in a similar manner to allow comparisons with the corresponding first-half 2016 figures.

Q2 2016 and H1 2016 revenue

(in thousands of US$) Q2-2016 Q2-2015 Q1-2016 Q2-2016

vs. Q2-2015 Q2-2016

vs. Q1-2016 H1-2016 H1-2015 H1-2016

vs. H1-2015 Mobile Security 7,694 6,020 6,138 28% 25% 13,831 10,765 28% Unallocated (*) 12,577 68 1,290 13,868 337 Total 20,271 6,088 7,428 230% 173% 27,699 11,102 149% (*) unallocated amounts correspond mainly to non-recurring revenue, including patent licenses

Consolidated revenue in the second quarter of 2016 was $20.3 million showing a strong growth both sequentially and year-on-year. Second-quarter revenue was boosted by the software business' strong performance (+25% vs. Q1 2016 and +28% vs. Q2 2015), as detailed in the Business Segment Analysis in Appendix 2 hereof, and by France Brevets' NFC patent licensing agreement with Samsung.

N.B. Including revenue from the semiconductor business, the company total revenue came to $32.3 million in the second quarter of 2016 (+74% and +51% compared with the first quarter of 2016 and second quarter of 2015 respectively). First-half 2016 revenue totaled $53.6 million (+56% compared with the first half of 2015).

Adjusted operating income from continuing operations

(in thousands of US$) H1 2016 H1 2015 Revenue 27,699 11,102 Adjusted gross profit 23,051 9,963 As a of revenue 83.2% 89.7% Research and development expenses (6,907) (5,005) Selling and marketing expenses (5,922) (5,079) General and administrative expenses (5,091) (4,840) Other gains (losses), net (434) (1,445) Total adjusted operating expenses (18,353) (16,370) Adjusted operating income from continuing operations 4,698 (6,407) As a of revenue 17.0% -57.7% Note: Sums may not equal totals due to rounding.

The adjusted gross profit increased significantly in the first half of 2016 as a result of growth in software revenue and the NFC patent license agreements entered into by France Brevets with Sony in March and Samsung in May 2016. The decrease in gross margin is only due to the product mix (the contribution from the NFC patent licensing being impacted by the licensing agent fee paid to France Brevets).

The increase in operating expenses in 2016 was primarily driven by the reallocation of certain company's resources (mainly research and development) to the core software and technology license business and by an increase in sales and marketing expense (including sales commissions).

Adjusted operating income from continuing operations came to $4.7 million in the first half of 2016 as a result of higher revenue (vs. loss of $6.4 million in the first half of 2015).

INSIDE Secure's first-half 2016 showed the expected benefits of the reduction in the workforce under the restructuring plan only to a very limited extent, since half the relevant employees did not leave the company until the end of June, consistent with the plan announced in February 2016.

(in thousands of US$) H1 2016 H1 2015 2016

vs. 2015 EBITDA from continuing operations 5,320 (6,218) 11,537 Amortization and depreciation of assets (*) 622 189 433 Adjusted operating income from continuing operations 4,698 (6,407) 11,105 Business combinations (**) (1,915) (5,792) 3,877 Other non recurring costs (***) (2,400) (2,400) Share based payments (363) (289) (74) Operating income from continuing operations 20 (12,488) 12,508 Finance income (losses), net 386 1,321 (935) Income tax expense (1,413) 43 (1,456) Net income/(loss) from continuing operations (i) (1,007) (11,124) 10,117 Net income/(loss) from discontinued operations (ii) 332 (8,599) 8,931 Net income/(loss) (i) (ii) (675) (19,723) 19,048 (*) excluding amortization and depreciation of assets acquired through business combinations. Items without cash impact. (**) amortization and depreciation of assets acquired through business combinations and acquisition related external expenses. Items without cash impact. (***) Restructuring expenses. Sums may not equal totals due to rounding.

EBITDA from continuing operations

First-half 2016 EBITDA came to $5.3 million, compared with a loss of $6.2 million at EBITDA level in the first half of 2015.

Operating income from continuing operations (IFRS)

Operating income from continuing operations was breakeven (+$20 thousand) in the first half of 2016 compared with a loss of $12.5 million in the first half of 2015. H2 2016 operating income was impacted by:

The recognition of a $2.4 million net non-recurring charge arising from the Company's restructuring 3

The still significant, yet declining burden of (non-cash) amortization expense related to assets arising upon the Company's acquisitions in recent years (ESS in 2012 and Metaforic in 2014), which came to $1.9 million in the first half of 2016 (compared with $5.8 million in the first half of 2015).

Financial income

As at June 30, 2016, net financial income was $0.4 million (vs. $1.3 million as at June 30, 2015), primarily reflecting the impact of fluctuations in the euro/dollar exchange rate.

Consolidated net income from continuing operations (IFRS)

The consolidated net loss from continuing operations in the first half of 2016 greatly decreased but remained in negative at -$1 million (vs. -$11.1 million in the first half of 2015).

Consolidated net income (IFRS)

The discontinued semiconductor business recorded first-half 2016 net income of $0.3 million (vs. loss of $8.6 million in 2015) due to revenue growth and lower operating expenses (see Business Segment Analysis in Appendix 2 hereof), despite the burden of restructuring charges.

Consolidated net income, reflecting the combined performance of the continuing and discontinued operations, showed a limited loss of $0.7 million in the first half of 2016 (vs. loss of $19.7 million in the first half of 2015).

Cash

At June 30, 2016, the Company's available cash stood at $20.4 million, up from $16.4 million at December 31, 2015 and down from $23.8 million at June 30, 2015.

At June 30, 2016, the Company's net cash4 stood at $16.0 million, compared with $12.5 million at December 31, 2015 and $16.6 million at June 30, 2015. The increase in net cash position in 2016 reflects the improved operating performance and the $5.4 million capital increase completed in April 2016.

The main factors affecting the company's consolidated cash position (all business combined) in the first half of 2016 were as follows:

Cash generated by operating activities

INSIDE Secure significantly reduced its cash consumption from operating activities in the first half of 2016. Cash used by operating activities (including financing for the research tax credit) were limited to $1.1 million (vs. $11.9 million in the first half of 2015 and $7.2 million in the second half of 2015):

Operating activities, excluding the change in working capital requirement, generated $0.9 million in cash,

Working capital requirement (including financing for the research tax credit, but excluding restructuring costs) increased by $2 million (with the ongoing reduction in inventories not fully offsetting the increase in trade receivables on the back of the strong revenues recorded in May5 and June 2016).

The restructuring plan triggered a cash outflow of $3.4 million in the first six months of the year.

Investments

Capital expenditure was again very low in the first half of 2016 ($0.2 million).

Financing

In April 2016, INSIDE Secure completed a capital increase with preferential subscription rights for shareholders. It amounted to $5.4 million, issue premium included and after deduction of the associated costs.

In July 2016, INSIDE Secure terminated its factoring agreement, as this type of financing had become marginal and was no longer relevant to the company's software and technology licensing business.

INSIDE Secure's strategic transformation

INSIDE Secure is implementing its strategic transformation projects in line with the objectives and timetable set:

$5.4 million April 2016 capital increase completed successfully, providing a strengthened liquidity and reinforced financial position;

Restructuring plan and reduction in the operating cost base finalized in the second quarter;

Sale of the semiconductor business to be completed by the end of the third quarter.

Outlook for H2 2016

2016 remains a transition year due to the implementation of strategic transformation initiatives, a large portion of which have now been completed. Accordingly the company will soon be focused exclusively on its activities related to software security and embedded security technology licensing and aims to generate profitable growth over time.

Conference call

Accompanying the publication of its first-half 2016 results, the Company will hold a conference call at 10.30am (Paris time) on July 28, 2016. Access to the call will be by dial-in on one of the following numbers: +33 1 72 00 15 10 (France) or +44 20 3043 2440 (United Kingdom), followed by access code 17270397#. The presentation will be available online at www.insidesecure.com. An audio webcast of the presentation and the Q&A session will be available on the INSIDE Secure website approximately three hours after the end of the presentation and will remain posted there for one year.

Financial calendar

Publication of third-quarter 2016 revenue: October 20, 2016 (after market close).

INSIDE Secure will make its half-year financial report as of June 30, 2016 available to investors and file it with the AMF in the first half of September 2016.

About INSIDE Secure

INSIDE Secure (Euronext Paris FR0010291245 INSD) provides comprehensive embedded security solutions. World-leading companies rely on INSIDE Secure's mobile security and secure transaction offerings to protect critical assets including connected devices, content, services, identity and transactions. Unmatched security expertise combined with a comprehensive range of IP, semiconductors, software and associated services gives INSIDE Secure customers a single source for advanced solutions and superior investment protection.

For more information, visit www.insidesecure.com

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains certain forward-looking statements relating to the business of INSIDE Secure, which shall not be considered per se as historical facts, including the ability to manufacture, market, commercialize and achieve market acceptance for specific projects developed by INSIDE Secure, estimates for future performance and estimates regarding anticipated operating losses, future revenues, capital requirements, needs for additional financing. In addition, even if the actual results or development of INSIDE Secure are consistent with the forward-looking statements contained in this press release, those results or developments of INSIDE Secure may not be indicative of their in the future.

In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by words such as "could," "should," "may," "expects," "anticipates," "believes," "intends," "estimates," "aims," "targets," or similar words. Although the management of INSIDE Secure believes that these forward-looking statements are reasonably made, they are based largely on the current expectations of INSIDE Secure as of the date of this press release and are subject to a number of known and unknown risks and uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievement expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. In particular, the expectations of INSIDE Secure could be affected by, among other things, uncertainties involved in unexpected regulatory actions or delays related notably to building and operating permits and renewable support policies, competition in general or any other risk and uncertainties developed or identified in any public documents filed by INSIDE Secure with the AMF, included those listed in chapter 4 "Risk factors" of the 2015 "document de reference" approved by the French financial market authority (the Autorite des marches financiers the "AMF") on March 30, 2016 under number R. 16-014. In light of these risks and uncertainties, there can be no assurance that the forward-looking statements made in this press release will in fact be realized. Notwithstanding the compliance with article 223-1 of the General Regulation of the AMF (the information disclosed must be "accurate, precise and fairly presented"), INSIDE Secure is providing the information in these materials as of this press release, and disclaims any intention or obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise.

Appendix 1 - Consolidated income statement (IFRS)

(In thousands of US$) as at June 30, 2015 2016 Revenue 11,102 27,699 Cost of sales (5,514) (6,413) Gross profit 5,589 21,286 Research and development expenses (6,532) (7,132) Selling and marketing expenses (5,198) (6,060) General and administrative expenses (4,901) (5,241) Other gains (losses), net (1,445) (2,834) Operating loss (12,488) 20 Finance income (loss), net 1,321 386 Loss before income tax (11,167) 406 Income tax expense 43 (1,413) Net income/(loss) from continuing operations (11,124) (1,007) Net income/(loss) from discontinued operations (8,599) 332 Net income/(loss) (19,723) (675) Attributable to: Equity holders of the Company (19,723) (675) Non-controlling interests Earnings per share from continuing operations : Basic earnings per share (0.323) (0.027) Diluted earnings per share (0.320) (0.026) Earnings per share from discontinued operations : Basic earnings per share (0.249) 0.009 Diluted earnings per share (0.248) 0.009

Appendix 2 - Business segment analysis

Until the sale of the semiconductor business is completed, the Company remains organized in two operating divisions and will continue to track the financial performance of these two divisions exactly as it has done in the past.

Under the reorganization launched in February 2016, the Mobile Security division's residual chip design business was transferred to the Secure Transactions division, which now encompasses all the company's semiconductor-related products and solutions. The NFC patent licensing program managed by France Brevets was reassigned from the Mobile Security division to the corporate unit because it has highly individual characteristics and is unrelated to the strategic embedded security business. The first-half 2015 figures have been restated in a similar manner to allow comparisons with the 2016 performance.

A reconciliation of financial measures per management segment reporting with IFRS reporting for the continuing operations is set out at the end of this appendix.

as at June 30, 2016 (in thousands of US$) Mobile

Security Secure

Transactions Revenue 13,831 25,903 Contribution to revenue 25.8% 48.3% Adjusted gross profit 13,176 11,597 As a of revenue 95.3% 44.8% Adjusted operating income (1,112) (72) As a of revenue -8.0% -0.3% EBITDA (1,103) (13) As a of revenue -8.0% -0.1% as at June 30, 2015 (in thousands of US$) Mobile

Security Secure

Transactions Revenue 10,765 23,163 Contribution to revenue 30.8% 66.2% Adjusted gross profit 10,102 5,757 As a of revenue 93.8% 24.9% Adjusted operating income 51 (8,922) As a of revenue 0.5% -38.5% EBITDA 240 (6,900) As a of revenue 2.2% -29.8% Sums may not equal totals due to rounding.

Mobile Security

The Mobile Security division's second-quarter 2016 revenue totaled $7.7 million, a 25% growth compared with the first quarter of 2016 (+28% vs. Q2 2015).

The division's first-half 2016 revenue was $13.8 million. The key revenue trends were:

a strong performance by the secure intellectual property components product line marketed to semiconductors companies, including a high level of royalties, and

significant growth in sales to banks of software licenses for the protection of mobile applications and HCE mobile payments, in particular the agreement entered into in June with a large European bank.

The division's adjusted gross margin was stable from the previous year at 95.3% of revenue in the first half of 2016, reflecting the favorable product mix consisting largely of licenses, royalties and maintenance revenue.

The Mobile Security division reported an adjusted operating loss of $1.1 million in the first half of 2016 (vs. a breakeven performance in the first half of 2015) due to a significant increase in operating expenses (including a 50% rise in research and development expenses, mainly as a result of a reallocation of resources), which was not fully offset by revenue growth.

The division posted a $1.1 million loss at the EBITDA level in the first half of 2016 (vs. +$0.2 million in 2015).

Secure Transactions

The Secure Transactions division's second-quarter 2016 revenue totaled $12.0 million. This represented a decrease of 4% from the first quarter of 2016, in line with expectations.

The division's first-half 2016 revenue totaled $25.9 million, up 12% compared with the first half of the previous year. Key business trends included growth in sales of EMV chips, chiefly in Asia and the Middle East, and the grant of a new production license to one of the company's longstanding customers.

The segment's adjusted gross margin improved substantially in the first six months of 2016, up from 24.9% in the first half of 2015 to 44.8% in the first half of 2016 on the back of the production license and, more generally, a rich product mix. In the first six months of 2015, gross margin was dragged down by a $1.8 million provision on inventories set aside to cover excess inventories as a result of the delays experienced by the company in the US EMV card market (the provision was partially written back in 2016).

In the first half of 2016, the division significantly reduced the adjusted operating loss, which was nearly at breakeven (-$0.1 million), compared with a loss of $8.9 million in 2015, mainly thanks to the improvement in gross margin and the reduction in operating expenses. First-half 2016 EBITDA was at breakeven point (-$13,000) compared with a loss of $6.9 million in 2015.

Reconciliation of financial measures per management segment reporting with IFRS reporting for the continuing operations

As at June 30, 2016 (in thousands of US$) Mobile Security

(segment reporting) Unallocated

(segment reporting) Additionnal expenses

from continuing

operations (*) Total

continuing

operations Revenue 13,831 13,868 27,699 Adjusted operating income (1,113) 9,280 (3,469) 4,698 EBITDA (1,102) 9,892 (3,470) 5,320 (*) proportional allocation of "Corporate" expenses transferred to the division Secure Transactions As at June 30, 2015 (in thousands of US$) Mobile Security

(segment reporting) Unallocated

(segment reporting) Additionnal expenses

from continuing

operations (*) Total

continuing

operations Revenue 10,765 1,037 (700) 11,102 Adjusted operating income 51 (1,942) (4,516) (6,407) EBITDA 240 (1,942) (4,516) (6,218) (*) proportional allocation of "Corporate" expenses transferred from the division Secure Transactions

Appendix 3 Non-IFRS measures Reconciliation of IFRS results with adjusted results (continuing operations)

The performance indicators presented in this press release that are not strictly accounting measures are defined below. These indicators are not defined under IFRS, and do not constitute accounting metrics measuring the Company's financial performance. They should be considered as additional information, which cannot replace any other strictly accounting-based operating or financial performance measure, as presented in the Company's consolidated financial statements and their accompanying notes. The Company uses these indicators because it believes they are useful measures of its recurring operating performance and its operating cash flows. Although they are widely used by companies operating in the same sector around the world, these indicators are not necessarily directly comparable to those of other companies, which may have defined or calculated their indicators differently than the Company, even though they use similar terms.

Adjusted gross profit is defined as gross profit before (i) the amortization of intangible assets and masks related to business combinations, (ii) any potential goodwill impairment, (iii) share-based payment expense and (iv) non-recurring costs associated with restructuring and business combinations carried out by the Company.

Adjusted operating income/(loss) is defined as operating income/(loss) before (i) the amortization of intangible assets and masks related to business combinations, (ii) any potential goodwill impairment, (iii) share-based payment expense and (iv) non-recurring costs associated with restructuring and business combinations carried out by the Company.

EBITDA is defined as adjusted operating income before depreciation, amortization and impairment losses not related to business combinations.

The following tables show the reconciliation of the adjusted financial measures, as defined above, to the consolidated income statements of the continuing operations for the six-month periods to June 30, 2016 and 2015 respectively:

(in thousands of US$) 2016

adjusted Business

combinations Share-based

payment Other non-

recurring costs (*) 2016

IFRS Revenue 27,699 27,699 Cost of sales (4,648) (1,764) (1) (6,413) Gross profit 23,051 (1,764) (1) 21,286 As a of revenue 83.2% 76.8% R&D expenses (6,907) (151) (74) (7,132) Selling marketing expenses (5,922) (138) (6,060) General administrative expenses (5,091) (150) (5,241) Other gains/(losses), net (434) (2,400) (2,834) Operating income from continuing operations 4,698 (1,915) (363) (2,400) 20 Amortization and depreciation of assets (**) 622 EBITDA 5,320 (in thousands of US$) 2015

adjusted Business

combinations Share-based

payment Other non-

recurring costs (*) 2015

IFRS Revenue 11,102 11,102 Cost of sales (1,139) (4,371) (3) (5,513) Gross profit 9,963 (4,371) (3) 5,589 As a of revenue 59.3% 50.3% R&D expenses (5,005) (1,420) (106) (6,531) Selling marketing expenses (5,079) (119) (5,199) General administrative expenses (4,840) (61) (4,902) Other gains/(losses), net (1,445) (1,445) Operating loss from continuing operations (6,407) (5,791) (290) (12,488) Amortization and depreciation of assets (**) 189 EBITDA (6,218) (*) the amounts correspond mainly to restructuring expenses. (**) excluding amortization and depreciation of assets acquired through business combinations. Sums may not equal totals due to rounding.

1 Following INSIDE Secure's announcement on May 19, 2016 of the sale of its semiconductor business to WISeKey and in accordance with IFRS 5, revenue from this discontinued operation is no longer recognized in INSIDE Secure's consolidated revenue. Figures for the previous quarter and half-year periods have been restated in a similar manner to allow for comparisons with the corresponding second-quarter and first-half 2016 figures. Similarly, in the consolidated income statement prepared under IFRS, income and expense items for the entire discontinued operation are recognized directly in "net income from discontinued operations" and thus excluded from the operating income.

2 Some financial measures and performance indicators are presented on an adjusted basis as defined in Appendix 3 of this press release. They should be considered as additional information, which cannot replace any other strictly accounting-based operating or financial performance measure, as presented in the consolidated financial statements, including the income statement set out in Appendix 1.

3 Overall (i.e. including discontinued operation), INSIDE Secure recorded a restructuring charge of $5.5 million. The remaining provision at June 30, 2016 amounted to $2.7 million. This amount is intended to cover costs arising from loss-making contracts (multi-year or underutilized agreements), the cost of the remaining employee departures scheduled in the third quarter and support measures for employees made redundant.

4 Net cash consists of cash on hand, cash equivalents and short-term investments, the net amount of derivatives, less obligations under finance leases, bank overdrafts, bank loans, cash received in return for the assignment of receivables under factoring agreements, and any earnout payments due in connection with business combinations. Debt related to the financing of research tax credit claims is not taken into account because it will be extinguished when the research tax credit claims are repaid by the French government.

5 Cash position as at June 30, 2016 does not include the amounts due from France Brevets under the NFC patent licensing agreement entered into with Samsung in May 2016, which are part of the trade account receivables in the balance-sheet.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160727006039/en/

Contacts:

Press and investor contacts

INSIDE Secure

Corporate communication

Geraldine Sauniere, +33 (0) 4 42 905 905

Marcom Director

gsauniere@insidefr.com

or

INSIDE Secure

Investor relations

Richard Vacher Detourniere, +33 (0) 4 42 905 905

GM CFO

rvacherdetourniere@insidefr.com
A Belgrade man is being charged after a yearlong investigation involving stolen items and burglaries in the area.

William Sonny Goodson, 62, is being charged in Washington County with a class B felony of distribution of a controlled substance and a class C felony of receiving stolen property. Additional charges are pending.

Washington County Sheriffs Captain Zach Jacobsen said on July 13, the Washington County Sheriffs Office and the Multi County Narcotics and Violent Enforcement Unit executed a search warrant at Goodsons home off Route DD as a result of a lengthy investigation.

As a result of the search, a large amount of United States currency, narcotics and stolen property was seized, said Jacobsen. The investigation was ongoing for approximately a year and the number of cases solved keeps going up, but as of right now we returned property to six different people so far.

Jacobsen said they recovered stolen guns, four-wheelers, chainsaws, lawn mower, a trailer, and tools.

It was an overwhelming amount of things recovered, said Jacobsen. This investigation has been going on for over a year and we had done consent searches of the residence and located some stolen property. Then we also got a search warrant and recovered more.

Jacobsen said their investigation consisted of multiple consent searches and it took an exuberant amount of time and manhours to complete the investigation which is still ongoing.

The Sheriffs Office is asking for assistance from the public in identifying potential victims of other thefts and burglaries, said Jacobsen. If you believe we may have your property, please contact the sheriffs office to set up a time to view the property.

Goodson is being held in the Washington County Jail on a total bond of $90,000.
Growth in invoiced rents: +14.0% to Euro 91.9 million, with +2.9% like-for-like excluding indexation

Sustained growth in FFO: +3.3% to Euro 58.7 million

NNNAV excluding transfer taxes up +5.4% over six months: Euro 20.48 share

Mercialys is further strengthening its proximity-based model, while securing its key financial balances: sale of 70% of a redeveloped asset in Rennes and the Anglet site, and acquisition of two sites for transformation from Monoprix

Outlook for 2016: Mercialys is reconfirming its targets for organic rental growth excluding indexation of over +2% and +2% FFO growth

Payment of an interim dividend of Euro 0.43 share in October 2016, with Mercialys' full-year dividend to represent 85% to 95% of 2016 FFO

Regulatory News:

During the first half of 2016, Mercialys (Paris:MERY) achieved a robust rental performance, with organic growth of +2.9% excluding indexation. Funds from operations (FFO) climbed to Euro 58.7 million, up +3.3% from the first half of 2016. At the same time, triple net EPRA NAV increased +5.4% over six months to Euro 20.48 per share.

Asset management and lettings activities have continued to make strong progress, reflecting on a like-for-like basis the ongoing transformation of the cafeterias vacated by the Casino Group, the letting of the new store units created by reducing the size of the hypermarkets that will be opening over the second half of 2016, as well as the reversionary potential realized on renewals and relettings. In addition, the letting of projects that will also be opening over the second half of 2016 is advancing very well. For instance, the extension of the Toulouse shopping center, on which Mercialys has a call option to acquire it at the opening in November 2016, has been 95% let to date. The Sainte Marie retail park (La Reunion), which will be opening in December, has been fully let.

Building on its excellent performance from 2015, Mercialys has continued rolling out its strategy to set up mid-size units which will represent new anchor tenants generating both additional rent and footfall. Since the start of 2016, agreements have been signed for over 13,000 sq.m of mid-size store units with French retailers (FNAC, Maisons du Monde, Districenter, Go Sport) and international firms (Mango, New Yorker, Pull & Bear, C&A, Black Store).

Over the first half of the year, Mercialys rolled out a balanced investment policy, acquiring two sites for transformation from Monoprix with an immediate yield of 5.6%, which will be covered by mixed-use development projects. Mercialys has transferred the Anglet site and the transformed hypermarket in Rennes to SCI Rennes Anglet, which is 70%-owned by an OPPCI investment fund subsidiary of a fund managed by Schroder REIM, delivering an exit rate of 5.0% and an average IRR of 9.0%.

Alongside this, Mercialys has continued to benefit from its sound financial structure, with a loan to value (LTV) ratio of 40.6% and an ICR of 6.1x. Standard Poor's confirmed its BBB outlook stable rating in May 2016.

Mercialys is reconfirming its targets for 2016, with organic rental growth excluding indexation of +2% and FFO growth of +2% for 2016 versus 2015. Taking this outlook and these results into consideration, the Board of Directors has decided to pay out an interim dividend of Euro 0.43 per share in October 2016. For the full year, Mercialys expects its dividend to represent 85% to 95% of 2016 FFO.

I. 2016 first-half business and results

Good progress with half-year results

Invoiced rents are up 14.0% to Euro 91.9 million, driven by organic growth and the impact of the acquisitions made in 2015.

Organic growth in invoiced rents has continued to show a very positive trend, up +2.8%,coming in +2.9% higher than indexation. This represents an outstanding performance, thanks primarily to the positive impact of relettings, with Mercialys notably rolling out a dynamic policy to set up mid-size units in many of its shopping centers.

Renewals and relettings generated average growth in the annualized rental base of 16.1%. In addition to the impact of actions carried out on the portfolio, organic growth has benefited from a +16.9% increase in the Casual Leasing business, up to Euro 3.4 million, contributing 0.6% of organic growth.

The current financial vacancy rate came to 2.4% for the first half of 2016, close to the end-2015 level (2.0%). The 12-month recovery rate remains high at 97.6%, in line with the trend from end-2015 (97.7%).

The occupancy cost ratio represents 10.3%, stable compared with end-2015, reflecting the reasonable level of real estate costs in retailers' profit and loss statements, as well as the potential margin for increasing these rent levels through renewals or redevelopments.

Rental revenues climbed to Euro 93.0 million, up +13.1%, while growth in invoiced rents offset the contraction in lease rights, with rent levels now given priority over setting up lease rights, continuing to build on the trend from 2015.

EBITDA came to Euro 79.4 million, up +12.8% from the first half of 2015, with an EBITDA margin of 85.4%, in line with June 30, 2015 (85.6%).

Net financial expenses, restated for the positive non-recurring impact of the valuation of derivative instruments (Euro 1.9 million), are up Euro +2.2 million from June 30, 2015 to Euro 15.3 million at end-June 2016. This increase is linked to a volume effect for debt, following a Euro 200 million bond issue in November 2015 and commercial paper issues with Euro 258 million outstanding at end-June 2016 (versus Euro 145 million at end-June 2015). Alongside this, the average cost of drawn debt represents 2.1%, in line with the level for the first half of 2015 and 30 bp lower than the cost from end-2015, thanks in particular to the favorable cost of commercial paper issued over the period (0.02% on average).

Non-controlling interests excluding gains and amortization represented Euro 5.2 million at June 30, 2016, compared with a non-significant amount for the first half of 2015. This change factors in the 49% interest in subsidiaries sold to real estate investment funds (OPCI) managed by BNP Paribas REIM France in 2015. These sales have not affected rent levels because Mercialys has retained exclusive control and therefore fully consolidates these subsidiaries.

The tax charge includes the 3% contribution resulting from the payment of the capital gains not covered by the distribution requirements linked to the SIIC real estate trust status, with the balance primarily concerning the CVAE tax on business value added for a total of Euro 0.7 million at end-June 2016, versus Euro 0.5 million for the first half of 2015.

Funds from operations (FFO1 are up +3.3% to Euro 58.7 million, with Euro 0.64 per share2

In millions of euros June 30,

2015 June 30,

2016 Change (%) Invoiced rents 80,558 91,869 14.0% Lease rights 1,698 1,155 -31.9% Rental revenues 82,256 93,025 13.1% Non-recovered service charges and property taxes (5,051) (5,952) 17.8% Net rental income 77,205 87,072 12.8% EBITDA 70,423 79,409 12.8% EBITDA margin 85.6% 85.4% na Net financial items (excluding impact of hedging ineffectiveness and

banking default risk) (13,037) (15,257) 17.0% Allowance for provisions for liabilities and charges 72 na Other operating income and expenses (excluding gains on

disposals and impairment) (590) (3) -99.5% Tax charge (528) (661) 25.3% Share of net income of associates 530 309 -41.7% Non-controlling interests excluding gains and amortization (24) (5,195) na FFO 56,775 58,675 3.3% FFO share 0.62 0.64 +3.3%

II. Investments and sales

Dynamic investment policy maintained

At the end of the first half of 2016, Mercialys carried out two investment operations enabling it to benefit from a significant increase in rental income and support its development pipeline over the medium term. Meanwhile, Mercialys has transferred the Anglet site and the transformed hypermarket in Rennes to SCI Rennes Anglet, which is 70%-owned by an OPPCI investment fund subsidiary of a fund managed by Schroder REIM, which helps secure the Company's key financial balances, while enabling Mercialys to set up an agreement with an outstanding UK investor, following on from the agreements already in place with Amundi, Altarea Cogedim, Union Investment and BNP Paribas REIM France.

On June 29, 2016, Mercialys acquired two sites for transformation from Monoprix in Saint-Germain-en-Laye and La Garenne-Colombes close to Paris.

This investment represents a total of Euro 69.6 million (including transfer taxes), with an immediate yield of 5.6% (based on rent paid by Monoprix under fixed-rent leases since the acquisition) before rolling out projects that will generate additional rent, as well as potential property development margins, particularly through sales of residential developments.

Mercialys is moving forward with the development of its high-street retail business line, which, following the acquisition of seven sites for transformation from Monoprix since end of last year, represents nearly 5% of the value of assets including transfer taxes published at June 30, 2016.

These two sites will be extensively redeveloped and residential development projects are already being looked into, with Euro 30 million of work and an IRR of around 9%. Through these sites, Mercialys has acquired volumes and parking facilities that are ideally located at the heart of these cities, with their demographics and purchasing power levels benefiting from their proximity to Paris.

Mercialys is moving forward with its controlled development pipeline, based on Euro 220 million of investments by 2018, with Euro 201.1 million still to be initiated, which will make it possible to generate Euro 16.2 million of additional annualized rental income.

The Company will benefit from the following completions over the second half of 2016:

Five large food store transformation projects will be delivered in the second half of 2016 at the Aix, Angers, Anglet, Nimes (phase 1) and Rennes (phase 1) sites, for a combined total of Euro 2.1 million of annualized rental income,

Mercialys will deliver a 3,600 sq.m retail park in Sainte-Marie (La Reunion) in the fourth quarter of 2016, generating Euro 0.9 million of annualized rental income. Alongside this, under the Partnership Agreement, Mercialys will take a decision concerning its acquisition of the 1,200 sq.m extension of the Carcassonne Salvaza mall, with annualized rental income of Euro 0.3 million,

Mercialys holds a fair value call option, which must be exercised by the opening date at the latest, to buy phase 2 of the project to extend the existing Toulouse Fenouillet mall from Fonciere Euris. The letting of this extension is currently being finalized, with 95% completed to date.

In millions of euros Total

investment Investment still to

be initiated Net rental

income

forecast Net yield on cost

forecast Completion

dates Transformation of 3 large food stores acquired in H1 2014 31.5 31.4 2.9 9.1% 2016 2017 Transformation of 8 large food stores acquired in H2 2014 24.0 22.4 2.9 12.1% 2016 2017 Transformation of 4 large food stores acquired in H1 2015 16.1 16.1 1.1 7.1% 2017 2018 Transformation of 5 large food stores acquired in H2 2015 16.7 (5) 16.7 1.2 6.9% 2017 2018 Toulouse Fenouillet Phase 2 (1) 118.0 101.2 7.0 5.9% 2016 Sainte Marie Retail Park 8.6 8.3 0.9 10.3% 2016 Carcassonne Salvaza (2) 4.9 4.9 0.3 6.2% 2016 TOTAL controlled pipeline 219.9 201.1 16.2 7.4% Extensions and retail parks 330.9 330.2 22.3 6.7% 2019 2021 Mixed-use high-street projects 85.0 85.0 NA NA TOTAL potential pipeline (3) 415.9 415.2 22.3 6.7% TOTAL pipeline (4) 635.8 616.2 38.6 7.0%

(1) Mercialys holds a fair value call option on this project. The figures indicated correspond to when this partnership was implemented in 2014. They will be updated if the call option is exercised

(2) Project presented by the Casino Group under the Partnership Agreement, subject to approval by the Investment Committee and the Board of Directors of Mercialys

(3) Yield excluding the impact of mixed-use high street retail projects, which may also generate real estate development margins

(4) The amounts and yields may change depending on the implementation of projects

(5) Including Euro 11 million for Mercialys' share, with a 51% stake held in the Istres, Narbonne, Le Puy and Clermont-Ferrand projects

balanced through a sale placed with an OPPCI subsidiary of a fund managed by Schroder REIM

On June 28, 2016, Mercialys and the OPPCI investment fund SEREIT France (subsidiary of a fund managed by Schroder REIM) signed an agreement under which Mercialys transferred the premises for the transformed hypermarkets in Rennes and Anglet, as well as the premises of the shopping mall and the mid-size unit let to Boulanger in Anglet, to SCI Rennes Anglet. Following this transfer, Mercialys holds a 30% interest in this SCI real estate investment company, with 70% held by the OPPCI fund SEREIT France.

This transaction was based on a 100% valuation of these assets for Euro 61.8 million (including transfer taxes), delivering an exit rate of 5.0%, with Euro 3.1 million of full-year rent generated by these assets. The overall IRR on these operations represents 9.0%. The consolidated capital gain generated came to Euro 2.8 million (with a capital gain available for distribution of Euro 6.9 million recorded in the parent company financial statements).

This operation has enabled Mercialys to realize the value created on these assets, particularly following the extensive redevelopment of the hypermarkets, reflected in the mid-size store units set up for the home appliance firm Boulanger (Anglet) and the DIY retailer Brico Depot (Rennes).

Mercialys' 30% interest is recorded on an equity basis.

III. Portfolio and financial structure

Triple net asset value (EPRA format) up +10.5% over 12 months and +5.4% over six months

Mercialys' portfolio is valued at Euro 3,688.9 million (including transfer taxes), up +4.1% over six months, driven primarily by like-for-like rental income growth (Euro +102 million), the compression of the average capitalization rate (Euro +54 million) and the changes in scope (Euro -9 million). On a like-for-like basis, Mercialys' portfolio value shows an increase of +9.2% over 12 months and +4.5% compared with December 31, 2015.

At end-June 2016, Mercialys' portfolio comprised 72 assets, including 65 shopping centers and high-street sites, with 74% large shopping centers, 25% market-leading neighborhood and high-street sites, and 1% other assets.

The average appraisal capitalization rate came to 5.28% at June 30, 2016, compared with 5.36% at December 31, 2015 and 5.55% at June 30, 2015.

Mercialys' triple net asset value (EPRA format) is up +10.5% over 12 months and +5.4% from December 31, 2015 to Euro 20.48 per share. This change of Euro 1.06 per share over the half-year factors in the following impacts:

Dividends paid: Euro -0.57

- Net income: Euro +0.54

- Change in portfolio fair value: Euro +1.10

- Change in fair value of financial instruments and other items: Euro -0.02

Sound financial structure

Mercialys continued to benefit from a very favorable rate environment to finance its investments during the first half of 2016. The Company had Euro 258 million of commercial paper issues outstanding at end-June 2016, with an average cost of 0.02%. The balance for drawn debt, representing Euro 1,487 million, remains unchanged, based on two bond issues and commercial paper.

In addition, Mercialys had Euro 350 million of undrawn bank lines at June 30, 2016, unchanged from the end of 2015, alongside its Euro 500 million commercial paper program (with Euro 258 million used at end-June 2016).

In July 2016, Mercialys set up additional confirmed bank lines for a total of Euro 60 million, maturing in July 2019 and July 2021, with interest of less than the 3M Euribor 100 bp. These lines have further strengthened the liquidity arrangements already in place.

The actual average cost of drawn debt for the first half of 2016 came to 2.1%, down 30 bp from the level recorded for 2015 (2.4%) and stable versus the cost for the first half of 2015. This change reflects the impact of the Euro 200 million bond issue from November 2015 based on a cost of 2.203%, as well as the very favorable rate for issuing commercial paper.

Mercialys continues to benefit from a very sound financial structure, with an LTV ratio of 40.6%3 at June 30, 2016 (versus 41.0% at December 31, 2015 and 39.2% at end-June 2015) and an ICR ratio of 6.1x4 at June 30, 2016 (versus 5.1x at December 31, 2015 and 5.5x at end-June 2015).

On May 31, 2016, Standard Poor's confirmed its BBB outlook stable rating for Mercialys.

IV. Dividend and outlook

Dividend

Based on the results achieved by Mercialys for the first half of 2016 and the Company's outlook, Mercialys' Board of Directors decided during its meeting on July 27, 2016 to pay out an interim dividend of Euro 0.43 per share. This interim dividend will be paid on October 13, 2016 and represent 50% of the dividend for 2015 based on recurring tax income.

Mercialys' full-year dividend will represent 85% to 95% of its 2016 FFO

Outlook

In view of the good performances for the first half of the year, Mercialys is confirming its targets for 2016:

Organic rental income growth of +2% higher than indexation compared with 2015;

+2% increase in funds from operations (FFO) per share compared with 2015.

This press release is available on www.mercialys.com

About Mercialys

Mercialys is one of France's leading real estate companies, focused exclusively on retail property.

At June 30, 2016, Mercialys had a portfolio of 2,240 leases, representing a rental value of Euro 176.8 million on an annualized basis.

At June 30, 2016, it owned properties with an estimated value of Euro 3.7 billion (including transfer taxes). Mercialys has had "SIIC" real estate investment trust (REIT) tax status since November 1, 2005 and has been listed on Euronext Paris Compartment A (ticker: MERY) since its initial public offering on October 12, 2005. At June 30, 2016, there were 92,049,169 shares outstanding.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION

This press release contains certain forward-looking statements regarding future events, trends, projects or targets.

These forward-looking statements are subject to identified and unidentified risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from the results anticipated in the forward-looking statements. Please refer to the Mercialys registration document available at www.mercialys.com for the year ended December 31, 2015 for more details regarding certain factors, risks and uncertainties that could affect Mercialys' business.

Mercialys makes no undertaking in any form to publish updates or adjustments to these forward-looking statements, nor to report new information, new future events or any other circumstances that might cause these statements to be revised.

APPENDIX TO THE PRESS RELEASE: FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

Consolidated income statement

June 30, 2016 June 30, 2015 Rental revenues 93,025 82,256 Non-recovered property taxes (1,081) (1,110) Non-recovered service charges (1,828) (1,272) Property operating expenses (3,042) (2,669) Net rental income 87,072 77,205 Management, administrative and other activities income 1,764 1,280 Property development margin 0 6 Other income 392 401 Other expenses (3,195) (2,806) Staff costs (6,623) (5,638) Depreciation and amortization (14,762) (11,470) Allowance for provisions for liabilities and charges 72 (25) Other operating income 42,041 254 Other operating expenses (38,414) (4,186) FFO 68,346 55,021 Income from cash and cash equivalents 82 115 Gross finance costs (13,162) (12,874) (Net finance costs) income from net cash (13,080) (12,759) Other financial income 663 641 Other financial expenses (925) (919) Net financial items (13,342) (13,037) Tax charge (661) (528) Share of net income from associates and joint ventures 308 530 Consolidated net income 54,652 41,986 Non-controlling interests 4,399 28 Attributable to owners of the parent 50,253 41,958 Earnings per share based on weighted average number of shares for the period Net income (Group share, ) 0.55 0.46 Diluted net income (Group share, ) 0.55 0.46

Consolidated balance sheet

ASSETS

(In thousands of euros) June 30, 2016 December 31, 2015 Intangible assets 1,363 974 Property, plant and equipment 13 12 Investment property 2,254,159 2,224,080 Investments in associates 28,893 20,069 Other non-current assets 68,073 34,154 Deferred tax assets 496 338 Non-current assets 2,352,997 2,279,627 Inventories 4,378 4,358 Trade receivables 24,974 25,173 Other current assets 70,085 73,232 Cash and cash equivalents 45,250 13,030 Investment property held for sale 3,095 3,095 Current assets 147,782 118,888 TOTAL ASSETS 2,500,779 2,398,515

EQUITY AND LIABILITIES

(In thousands of euros) June 30, 2016 December 31, 2015 Share capital 92,049 92,049 Bonus, treasury shares and other reserves 615,046 617,975 Equity attributable to the Group 707,095 710,024 Non-controlling interests 206,771 206,159 Equity 913,866 916,183 Non-current provisions 490 401 Non-current financial liabilities 1,252,115 1,219,574 Deposits guarantees 22,618 22,880 Non-current liabilities 1,275,223 1,242,855 Trade payables 12,582 19,704 Current financial liabilities 262,764 188,720 Current provisions 2,284 2,366 Other current liabilities 33,810 26,968 Current tax liabilities 250 1,719 Current liabilities 311,690 239,477 TOTAL EQUITY AND LIABILITIES 2,500,779 2,398,515

1 FFO: Funds From Operations net income attributable to owners of the parent before amortization, gains on disposals and asset impairments

2 Calculated based on the fully diluted weighted average number of shares at June 30

3 LTV (Loan To Value): net financial debt portfolio's market value excluding transfer taxes balance sheet value of investments in associates, ie Euro 28.9 million; the value of property investments in associates are excluded

4 ICR (Interest Cost Ratio): EBITDA net finance costs. At June 30, 2016, this ratio reflects the positive impact of Euro 1.9 million in gains linked to the fair value of financial instruments. Excluding this non-recurring impact, the ratio would be 5.3x.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160727006070/en/

Contacts:

Mercialys

Analysts investors:

Elizabeth Blaise, Tel: +33(0)1 53 65 64 44

or

Press contact:

Communications

Tel: +33(0)1 53 70 23 34
VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA -- (Marketwired) -- 07/27/16 -- Rainmaker Resources Ltd. (TSX VENTURE: RIR) ("Rainmaker") is pleased to announce a substantial increase to its land holdings at its Sarcobatus Flats, NV lithium property. The staking of an additional 186 placer claims, expanding the total land holdings to 234 claims (4680 acres, 1967 ha), represents a nearly five-fold increase.

"We have added this land as a result of our belief in the quality of the property," Chris M. Healey, P. Geo, President and CEO of Rainmaker reported. "The expanded land holdings will give us a much more competitive position in the lithium space. We will now be able to design effective geological, geochemical, and geophysical surveying programs to advance the project."

Sarcobatus Flats is located approximately 70 km southeast of Clayton Valley - home to the only producing lithium mine in the United States. According to a recent U.S. Geological Survey, "Lithium supply security has become a top priority for technology companies in the United States and Asia." This area of Nevada has seen a rapid rise in exploration success.

Access to the Sarcobatus Flats property is ideal as the project lies directly adjacent to a major US highway. Easy access to this flat and arid property means exploration costs are expected to be low and environmental impact will be minimal. The lithium content of soils and vegetation in the Sarcobatus Flats property, as reported by the US Geological Survey Professional Paper 918 (see Rainmaker release June 9, 2016) compare favourably with samples from Clayton Valley.

Rainmaker has recently completed a preliminary geochemical sampling program on the property and will release results upon full evaluation by the company's Qualified Person. Planning for geophysical surveying, as well as for the completion of an NI 43-101 compliant technical report on the property, is underway.

INVESTMENT HIGHLIGHTS

-- Lithium: crucial mineral for electric car batteries and many other tech purposes -- Favourable Terms: share acquisition, cash reserved for exploration -- High-Potential Project: historic samples reported by the US Geological Survey (reference above) indicate lithium values of 150 - 300 ppm -- Location: mining-friendly Nevada -- Large Land Package: 234 placer mining claims totalling approximately 4,680 acres -- Infrastructure and Accessibility: adjacent to US Highway 95 -- Rapid Advancement: lithium brines projects tend to require only a moderate amount of drilling to advance the property -- Low-Cost Exploration/Development/Production: the accessible nature of lithium brine deposits results in low costs overall

ABOUT RAINMAKER

Rainmaker Resources is a TSX-V listed company focused on creating shareholder value through the exploration and advancement of mineral projects connected to emerging technologies. The company controls an option to acquire the Sarcobatus Flats lithium project in Nevada (see News Release June 9, 2016).

In addition, Rainmaker currently owns a 12.5% joint venture interest in Dufferin Lake - a uranium asset. Dufferin Lake is operated by NexGen Energy, a public company with a large asset portfolio and a market capitalization exceeding $800 million CDN.

Our website is currently under construction to reflect recent developments. For further information about Rainmaker, please see the company's profile at www.sedar.com.

Chris M. Healey, P. Geo, President & CEO of Rainmaker, is the Qualified Person, under National Instrument 43-101, who is responsible for the technical content of this release. The Rainmaker Board of Directors, on whose behalf this release has been prepared, accepts responsibility for its contents.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. This news release contains forward-looking statements, which relate to future events or future performance and reflect management's current expectations and assumptions. Such forward-looking statements reflect management's current beliefs and are based on assumptions made by and information currently available to the Company. Investors are cautioned that these forward looking statements are neither promises nor guarantees, and are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause future results to differ materially from those expected. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date hereof and, except as required under applicable securities legislation, the Company does not assume any obligation to update or revise them to reflect new events or circumstances. All of the forward-looking statements made in this press release are qualified by these cautionary statements and by those made in our filings with SEDAR in Canada (available at www.sedar.com).

Contacts:

Rainmaker Resources Ltd.

Chris Healey, P.Geo,

President & CEO

(778) 996-1810




REGINA, SASKATCHEWAN -- (Marketwired) -- 07/27/16 -- Viterra Inc. ("Viterra") is pleased to announce that it is continuing its partnership with STARS Air Ambulance (STARS) to sponsor its 2017 calendar. The calendars will be available for purchase at most Viterra facilities in Western Canada. This year's campaign kicked off at Viterra's Crossfield, AB grain facility at an event with officials from both organizations as well as farm customers, employees and local media.

"STARS provides hope when people are at their most vulnerable. The service not only provides immediate access to emergency medical care, but peace of mind knowing that across Western Canada, help is close at hand," said Kyle Jeworski, Viterra's President and CEO for North America. "Through their tireless efforts, STARS has touched the lives of many, including our employees, our customers, and their families. At Viterra, we're proud to continue our significant support of this critical service and look forward to building on the success of last year's campaign."

"Not only is the STARS calendar campaign our second largest single fundraising program, it's one of the best ways we can showcase our Very Important Patients," said Andrea Robertson, STARS president and CEO. "The 2017 edition features bold artwork and compelling success stories about a few of the patients we've cared for across Western Canada recently."

"We are grateful for the vital support we receive from families, communities and organizations like Viterra," said Robertson. "Every year, we impact the lives of thousands of patients and we simply couldn't do it without their support. We look forward to continue building a long and meaningful partnership."

The calendars will be available until December. Those interested in purchasing a calendar, or making a donation to STARS, are encouraged to contact their local Viterra facility for more information.

About Viterra

Viterra is Canada's grain industry leader, supported by the expertise of its people, a superior network of assets, and unrivalled connections to world markets. Headquartered in Regina, Saskatchewan, our commitment to agriculture goes back over 100 years, partnering with farmers to market and move their crops to areas of need around the world. Our continued focus on operational excellence throughout North America allows us to efficiently handle, process, distribute and transport grains and oilseeds. We provide further value to our partners through a wide variety of contracting and risk management tools to help them realize the full potential of their crops. For more information on Viterra in North America, please visit www.viterra.com. Viterra is part of the Agricultural Business Segment of Glencore.

Contacts:

Viterra Inc.

Peter Flengeris

(306) 569-4810

peter.flengeris@viterra.com

www.viterra.com




WHITEHORSE, YUKON -- (Marketwired) -- 07/27/16 -- Yukon Premier Darrell Pasloski is pleased that Their Royal Highnesses The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have accepted an invitation to visit Yukon this fall.

"I look forward to offering a warm Yukon welcome to the Royal Couple," Pasloski said. "The Commissioner of Yukon and I have been working to confirm a Royal visit to the territory, and we are thrilled about today's announcement. A Royal Tour is a unique opportunity to showcase Yukon to the world, and I know that Yukoners will make the most of this visit."

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge will visit Canada in the fall at the invitation of the Government of Canada. Their tour will include a brief stay in Yukon.

A full itinerary will be released at a later date with more information about events and outlining opportunities for Yukoners to participate in the visit.

Contacts:

Sarah Crane

Communications, Executive Council Office

867-667-5270

sarah.crane@gov.yk.ca




OTTAWA, ONTARIO -- (Marketwired) -- 07/27/16 -- Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada

Ontarians will benefit from well-paying jobs for the middle class and those working hard to join it as a result of a series of investments made this week by the Government of Canada to commercialize new technologies, diversify regional economies and accelerate the growth of small businesses.

The Government's Innovation Agenda aims to make Canada a global centre for innovation-one that creates jobs, drives growth across all industries and improves the lives of all Canadians. These investments are prime examples of that vision in action.

The investments were announced over a two-day tour of southern Ontario by the Honourable Navdeep Bains, Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development. During the tour, the Minister announced a $12-million investment in Bioindustrial Innovation Canada to help develop a sustainable chemistry- and bio-based manufacturing cluster in Sarnia-Lambton.

The investment is expected to create the equivalent of 478 full-time jobs and result in 250 new industrial collaborations, particularly among small and medium-sized businesses. It will also position the region to transition strategically from an economy based on petrochemicals and refined petroleum to an emerging economy based on clean technologies that produce lower carbon emissions and are more energy-efficient.

In Hamilton, the Minister announced an investment of $11.96 million in McMaster University. The funding will support the establishment of a new biomedical and advanced manufacturing facility. The facility has the potential to revolutionize diagnostics and treatments in the health care sector. It will also foster a new biomedical manufacturing industry in Hamilton. The project is expected to create the equivalent of 74 full-time jobs and result in 35 new industrial partnerships. While in Hamilton, the Minister also participated in a round-table discussion with university and business leaders in the biomedical sector.

In London, the Minister, on behalf of Infrastructure Minister Amarjeet Sohi, announced a $90-million investment in the SouthWestern Integrated Fibre Technology (SWIFT) project. The SWIFT project will bring high-speed Internet to more than 300 communities across southwestern Ontario.

With faster Internet connections, Canadians will get the skills and training they need to qualify for well-paying jobs, and businesses will be able to participate fully in the global marketplace. This investment increases the potential for innovation and long-term economic growth in the region.

The Minister concluded his tour by attending a round-table discussion on the Innovation Agenda hosted by the Council of Canadian Innovators.

Quote

"What I saw first-hand was a region that embodies the spirit of resourcefulness and resilience that characterizes an innovation-based economy. I saw a region that has seized strategic opportunities to play to its strengths and diversify its economy by embracing emerging sectors. In doing so, southern Ontario is poised to make Canada a global leader in clean technologies and biomedical technologies."

- The Honourable Navdeep Bains, Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development

Quick facts

-- One of the ways that the Government of Canada supports a diverse economy is through its regional development agencies. As Canada's most populous region-home to 12.3 million residents living in 288 communities-southern Ontario is a key contributor to the overall Canadian economy. -- To help businesses, post-secondary institutions, governments and other innovation stakeholders work together more strategically to accelerate economic growth, the Government of Canada is committing $800 million over four years, beginning next year, to support innovation networks and clusters, through the Innovation Agenda.

Associated links

- Government of Canada Invests $12M to Support Bio-Based Innovation in Sarnia

- FedDev Ontario Invests in Biomedical Engineering and Advanced Manufacturing Centre

- Canada's Innovation Agenda

- Bioindustrial Innovation Canada

- SouthWestern Integrated Fibre Technology

Follow Minister Bains on social media.

Twitter: @MinisterISED

Contacts:

Philip Proulx

Press Secretary

Office of the Minister of Innovation,

Science and Economic Development

343-291-2500



Media Relations

Innovation, Science and

Economic Development Canada

343-291-1777

ic.mediarelations-mediasrelations.ic@canada.ca




Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - July 27, 2016) - Further to our news release dated May 3, 2016, Network Exploration Ltd. (TSXV: NET) (the "Company" or "Network") is pleased to announce that it has entered into a share exchange agreement dated July 19, 2016 (the "SEA") with YD Ynvisible S.A. ("Ynvisible") pursuant to which Network will acquire 95.53% of the issued and outstanding shares of Ynvisible in exchange for common shares of Network. Pursuant to the terms of the SEA, the majority of Network's management and directors will be replaced with nominees of Ynvisible, and the Company will issue sufficient securities such that the transaction will constitute a Change of Business Reverse Takeover ("RTO") under the rules of the TSX Venture Exchange (the "Exchange").

Upon successful completion of the RTO, Network will cease all operations as a mining exploration company, will be listed as a Tier 2 Technology Issuer on the Exchange, and the business of Ynvisible will become the business of the Company.

Ynvisible aims to be a leading company in the emerging printed electronics sector. It is a private company incorporated under the laws of Portugal with assets located in Portugal. Printed electronics use new materials with electronic properties that are processed into inks and can be printed into thin layers (using conventional print house equipment) onto flexible materials, such as plastic and paper. Ynvisible's proprietary electrochromic displays are the face of every smart label they produce. Ynvisible's displays use almost no power. They are ultra-low weight, microscopically thin, flexible, yet robust. When combined with various sensors they bring functionality and life to smart products. Given the cost and power-consumption advantages over conventional electronics, printed electronics are a key enabler of mass adoption of the Internet of Things ("IoT"). Electrochromics-based smart labels offer simple non-obtrusive human interfaces to smart IoT objects. Ynvisible's mix of services, materials and technology is a unique combination, which is winning favor among brand owners developing their IoT products for a huge market in its infancy. Since Ynvisible's displays are printed, product designers can easily adapt electrochromics to the desired product design and required user experience.

Completion of the RTO is subject to a number of conditions, including acceptance of the Exchange, approval by the shareholders of Network and Ynvisible of the resolutions to be voted on at their respective shareholder meetings and completion of a $3.3 million financing, or such other amount as may be agreed to between Network, Ynvisible and the agents for the financing (the "Concurrent Financing"). The RTO cannot close until the required approvals are obtained and the other conditions to the transaction are satisfied. There can be no assurance that the RTO will be completed as proposed or at all.

Investors are cautioned that, except as disclosed in the filing statement or other disclosure document to be prepared in connection with the RTO, any information released or received with respect to the RTO may not be accurate or complete and should not be relied upon. Trading in the securities of Network will remain halted pending receipt and review of acceptable documentation regarding the RTO.

The Exchange has in no way passed upon the merits of the proposed RTO and has neither approved nor disapproved the contents of this press release.

For additional information, please contact the office at 604-638-7363.

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.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS

"Alexander Helmel"

President & CEO

This news release includes certain "forward-looking statements" under applicable Canadian securities legislation that are not historical facts. Forward-looking statements involve risks, uncertainties, and other actors that could cause actual results, performance, prospects, and opportunities to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements in this news release include, but are not limited to, statements regarding the proposed RTO, the Concurrent Financing and the business and operations of Ynvisible, and information regarding the management, business and operations of the resulting issuer. Forward-looking statements are necessarily based on a number of estimates and assumptions that, while considered reasonable, are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause actual results and future events to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such factors include, but are not limited to: general business, economic and social uncertainties; litigation, legislative, environmental and other judicial, regulatory, political and competitive developments; delay or failure to receive board, shareholder or regulatory approvals for the RTO; an inability to complete the Concurrent Financing; those additional risks set out in the Company's public documents filed on SEDAR at www.sedar.com; and other matters discussed in this news release. Although the Company believes that the assumptions and factors used in preparing the forward-looking statements are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on these statements, which only apply as of the date of this news release, and no assurance can be given that such events will occur in the disclosed time frames or at all. Except where required by law, the Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise.
VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA -- (Marketwired) -- 07/27/16 -- Evolving Gold Corp. (CSE: EVG)(FRANKFURT: EV7)(OTC PINK: EVOGF) (the "Company") announces that it has received the final US$600,000 payment due to it from GFG Resources (US) Inc. ("GFG") pursuant to that Asset Purchase Agreement dated July 28th, 2015 pertaining to the purchase and sale of the Rattlesnake Hills Property, Wyoming.

As previously announced, the Company has sold all of its shares of GFG, and retains no interest in GFG or the Rattlesnake Hills Property other than the following:

1. a two-percent (2%) net smelter returns royalty, subject to certain exclusions; of which one-half may be acquired by GFG for US$1,000,000 at any time; and 2. the right to receive an additional 1,500,000 common shares of GFG upon its determination of an aggregate mineral resource (including "inferred mineral resource") for the Rattlesnake Hills Property of at least 1,000,000 ounces of gold on or before July 28th, 2019.

Evolving Gold's Chief Executive Officer, Mr. R. Bruce Duncan stated: "We congratulate GFG on finalizing the transaction; and look forward to their great success with the Rattlesnake Hills Project."

On Behalf of the Board of Directors, EVOLVING GOLD CORP.

R. Bruce Duncan, President, CEO and Director

Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Market Regulator (as that term is defined in the policies of the Canadian Securities Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS: This news release contains forward-looking statements, which relate to future events or future performance and reflect management's current expectations and assumptions. Investors are cautioned that these forward looking statements are neither promises nor guarantees, and are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause future results to differ materially from those expected. There is no assurance the Company will receive any payments under its royalty held in the Rattlesnake Property, or that a mineral resource of 1,000,000 ounces of gold will be determined.

Contacts:

Evolving Gold Corp.

Investor Relations

604.685.6375 or Toll Free: 866.604.3864

604 909-1163 (FAX)

info@evolvinggold.com

www.evolvinggold.com




WASHINGTON, DC--(Marketwired - July 27, 2016) - In a speech delivered on his behalf at the Arab League Summit in Nouakchott, Mauritania on Monday, Morocco's King Mohammed VI called for "an objective, impartial analysis of the situation prevailing in the Arab world" and cooperation "in the region and with the world around us" to combat Islamic extremism, which he described as a distortion of the Muslim faith.

"How is it possible," the King asked, "that we should fail to be at the forefront of those who are developing multi-dimensional strategies and effective, practical plans to confront this destructive scourge, of which we are the source as well as the target?

"How can anyone claim that our pristine Islamic faith -- the religion of moderation, the middle-of-the-road faith -- is prevailing when extremists and terrorists are continuing to distort it in order to justify their criminal acts against individuals and nations, without our refuting their biased interpretations and false arguments through appropriate means?

"Is it fair that a distorted image should be associated with us and our children in the eyes of the community of nations, when we are the torch-bearers of a message of enlightenment, we have made proven contributions to the development of human civilization and we are duty-bound to continue to interact with other nations, for the good of mankind?"

Morocco has long championed a counterterrorism strategy that implements both hard and soft power measures. The US State Department's 2015 Country Reports on Terrorism acknowledged Morocco's "comprehensive strategy for countering violent extremism that prioritizes economic and human development goals in addition to tight control of the religious sphere and messaging." It stated that "Morocco has developed a national strategy to affirm and further institutionalize Morocco's widespread adherence to the Maliki-Ashari school of Sunni Islam" and promote "the teaching of relatively moderate Islam." And in January of this year, Morocco hosted a historic three-day international conference on the future of pluralism in the Muslim world attended by hundreds of scholars and religious leaders from all faiths. The resulting "Marrakesh Declaration" urged "Muslim educational institutions and authorities to conduct a courageous review of educational curricula that addresses honestly and effectively any material that instigates aggression and extremism," and affirmed "that it is unconscionable to employ religion for the purpose of aggressing upon the rights of religious minorities in Muslim countries," among other commitments.

"King Mohammed VI's powerful message comes at a moment when many countries are grappling with the aftermath of devastating terror attacks," said former US Ambassador to Morocco Edward M. Gabriel. "Let there be no doubt that Morocco stands by all those fighting extremism in all its forms."

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.

CONTACT:

Jordana Merran

202.470.2049

jmerran@moroccanamericancenter.com
Weekly net asset value ("NAV") is calculated as of the close of business on each Tuesday and posted on the following business day. In the event that Tuesday is not a business day, the Company will calculate the close-of-business NAV as of the business day immediately preceding that Tuesday. The end-of-month NAV is calculated as of the close of business on the last day of the month and posted on the following business day. For weeks that include a month-end NAV report, PSH will provide only the month-end NAV and not report the Tuesday NAV. Monthly NAVs are published in accordance with the Decree on Conduct of Business Supervision of Financial Undertakings under the Wft (Besluit Gedragstoezicht financiele ondernemingen Wft).

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.


WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - After ending the previous session slightly higher, treasuries showed a strong move to the upside during trading on Wednesday.



Bond prices moved notably higher over the course of the trading day before closing firmly in positive territory. Subsequently, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, fell by 4.8 basis points to 1.515 percent.



The higher close by treasuries came after the Federal Reserve announced its widely expected decision to maintain the target range for the federal funds rate at 1/4 to 1/2 percent.



The Fed's statement noted that information received since its June meeting indicates that the labor market strengthened and that economic activity has been expanding at a moderate rate.



While the statement was largely unchanged from the previous meeting, the Fed did say near-term risks to the economic outlook have diminished.



The decision to leave rates unchanged was not unanimous, as Kansas City Fed President Esther George preferred to raise the target range for the federal funds rate to 1/2 to 3/4 percent.



Treasuries may also have benefited from the release of some disappointing U.S. economic data, including a Commerce Department report showing a much bigger than expected drop in durable goods orders in the month of June.



The report said durable goods orders tumbled by 4.0 percent in June following a revised 2.8 percent decrease in May.



Economists had expected durable goods orders to dip by 1.3 percent compared to the 2.2 percent decline originally reported for the previous month.



Excluding orders for transportation equipment, durable goods orders edged down by 0.5 percent in June after slipping by 0.4 percent in May. Ex-transportation orders had been expected to rise by 0.3 percent.



A separate report from the National Association of Realtors showed a much smaller than expected increase in pending home sales in the month of June.



NAR said its pending home sales index edged up by 0.2 percent to 111.0 in June after tumbling by 3.7 percent to 110.8 in May. Economists had expected the index to jump by 1.3 percent.



A pending home sale is one in which a contract was signed but not yet closed. Normally, it takes four to six weeks to close a contracted sale.



Trading on Thursday may be impacted by reaction to the Labor Department's weekly jobless claims report as well as the results of the Treasury Department's auction of seven-year notes.



Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Kostenloser Wertpapierhandel auf Smartbroker.de
DEAR ABBY: I am a single mother of two biracial daughters ages 2 and 4. They fill my life with joy and I am thankful to be their mother. My problem is, I haven't been able to face my family members since the birth of my second child.

My family has strong Christian roots, and I know they were disappointed when they heard about another unplanned pregnancy. This isn't the first time I have disappointed them. I smoked a lot of marijuana as a teen and young adult. I straightened my life out during my late 20s.

I miss my family very much, and I also feel my children are missing out by not knowing them. My parents passed away many years ago. My children's father was beaten to death days before my youngest daughter was born. My aunts and uncles are all I have left, and it breaks my heart to think we have lost them, too. How should I handle this without getting my heart broken? -- MISSISSIPPI MOMMY

DEAR MOMMY: Did these aunts and uncles have children, or are they childless? If you have cousins, consider reaching out to them first, because their views may be less conservative than their parents'. If your family's Christian roots are as strong as you say they are, they should be both welcoming and forgiving, and embrace your children in their loving family circle.

However, if they are not, then it would be better for your little girls if they were not exposed to them. I have advised in the past that sometimes people have to live their own lives and create their own families. If your relatives are rejecting, that is what you will have to do, not only for your daughters' sake, but also for your own.

DEAR ABBY: I have been getting together with a group of ladies for many years now. Husbands and boyfriends are welcome but rarely come. We enjoy meeting at each other's houses and at restaurants every few months.

We are having a problem with one member, "Gail," who is envious of "Rose," a still-beautiful former model. Gail has been making remarks that Rose "must have had work done" on her face to be able to retain her looks for so long. (I think it is a combination of good genes, sunscreen and incredible bone structure.)

What Rose has or hasn't done is none of Gail's business. Rose is aware of Gail's jealousy, and it puts a damper on our good times and our caring attitudes toward one another. We wish Gail would drop out. Her remarks need to stop. Have you any ideas on how we can deal with this problem? -- CLUB MEMBER IN THE SOUTHWEST

DEAR CLUB MEMBER: I sure do. The person closest to Gail needs to tell her, privately, that the catty comments make everyone uncomfortable, and if she doesn't stop, she will no longer be welcome in the group.

DEAR ABBY: Several months ago I spoke to a doctor friend about some medical issues my wife was experiencing. He specializes in this particular 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 about 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 -- but we would have stuck it out until we were better off financially. -- FINANCIAL DIFFICULTY

DEAR "DIFFICULTY": Call your friend the doctor and explain the situation. If you do, he may reduce the amount of his bill or, alternatively, agree to a payment plan that you can manage.

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 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
CALGARY, ALBERTA -- (Marketwired) -- 07/27/16 -- Stonehaven Exploration Ltd. ("Stonehaven") (TSX VENTURE: SE) and Deventa Energy Inc. ("Deventa") provide the following update to the joint management information circular and proxy statement dated June 28, 2016 (the "Joint Information Circular") of Stonehaven and Deventa with respect to the annual general and special meeting of the shareholders of Stonehaven (the "Stonehaven Meeting") to be held at 10:00 a.m. (Calgary time) on Friday, July 29, 2016 and the special meeting of the shareholders of Deventa (the "Deventa Meeting") to be held at 11:00 a.m. (Calgary time) on Friday, July 29, 2016.

As described in Stonehaven's news release dated June 6, 2016, Stonehaven entered into an arm's length amalgamation agreement dated June 3, 2016 with Deventa, a private corporation incorporated pursuant to the laws of Alberta, and 1973747 Alberta Ltd. ("Stonehaven Subco"), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Stonehaven established to effect a "three-cornered" amalgamation (the "Merger"), whereby Deventa and Stonehaven Subco will amalgamate, with holders of Deventa each receiving 0.8261 of a common share of Stonehaven for each common share of Deventa held.

Stonehaven and Deventa note that an addendum (the "Addendum") has been filed to the Joint Information Circular. The Addendum amends the Joint Information Circular by adding to Appendix H to the Joint Information Circular the unaudited interim condensed financial statements of Deventa for the three months ended March 31, 2016, a copy of which is attached to the Addendum.

The proxy deadline for each of the Stonehaven Meeting and the Deventa Meeting has also been extended. Proxies in connection with the Stonehaven Meeting will be accepted by Stonehaven's transfer agent, Computershare Trust Company of Canada, 100 University Avenue, 8th Floor, North Tower, Toronto, Ontario, M5J 2Y1, Attention: Proxy Department until 3:00 p.m. (Calgary time) on July 28, 2016 and will also be accepted by the chair of the Stonehaven Meeting at the Stonehaven Meeting. Proxies in connection with the Deventa Meeting will be accepted by Deventa, care of Burnet, Duckworth & Palmer LLP, 2400, 525 - 8th Avenue S.W., Calgary, Alberta, T2P 1G1 Attention: Jacob Hoeppner until 3:00 p.m. (Calgary time) on July 28, 2016 and will also be accepted by the chair of the Deventa Meeting at the Deventa Meeting. Any registered shareholder of Stonehaven or Deventa, as applicable, who have already completed and returned such proxies after reviewing the Addendum may revoke their applicable proxy by executing and delivering a written notice of revocation in the manner specified in the proxy instructions until the extended proxy cut-off time of 3:00 p.m. (Calgary time) on July 28, 2106 or by depositing an executed written notices of revocation with the chair of the Stonehaven Meeting or Deventa Meeting, as applicable.

Further details regarding the Merger can be found in the Joint Information Circular and Addendum which have been filed under Stonehaven's SEDAR profile at www.sedar.com. A copy of the Addendum may also be obtained on request without charge from Stonehaven and Deventa at the contact information provided below.

Further information relating to Stonehaven is also available on its website at www.stonehavenexp.com.

ADVISORY ON FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS:

This news release contains forward-looking statements and information ("forward-looking statements") within the meaning of applicable securities laws and is based on the expectations, estimates and projections of management of Stonehaven and Deventa as of the date of this news release, unless otherwise stated. The use of any of the words "expect", "anticipate", "continue", "estimate", "objective", "ongoing", "may", "will", "project", "should", "believe", "plans", "intends" and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. More particularly and without limitation, this news release contains forward-looking statements concerning the proposed Merger. Such forward-looking statements are provided for the purpose of providing information about management's current expectations and plans relating to the future. Investors are cautioned that reliance on such information may not be appropriate for other purposes, such as making investment decisions. In respect of the forward-looking statements concerning the proposed Merger, Stonehaven and Deventa have provided such forward-looking statements in reliance on certain assumptions that they believe are reasonable at this time. Since forward-looking statements addresses future events and conditions, such information by its very nature involves inherent risks and uncertainties. Actual results could differ materially from those currently anticipated due to a number of factors and risks. Risks and uncertainties inherent in the nature of the Merger include the failure of each of Deventa and Stonehaven to obtain necessary securityholder, regulatory and other third party approvals, or to otherwise satisfy the conditions to the Merger, in a timely manner, or at all. Failure to so obtain such approvals, or the failure of each of Deventa and Stonehaven to otherwise satisfy the conditions to the Merger, may result in the Merger not being completed on the proposed terms, or at all. Readers are cautioned that the foregoing list of factors is not exhaustive. Additional information regarding some of these risks, expectations or assumptions and other factors may be found in the Joint Information Circular. The reader is cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements contained in this news release are made as of the date hereof and neither Stonehaven nor Deventa undertake any obligations to update publicly or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, unless so required by applicable securities laws.

NEITHER TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE NOR ITS REGULATION SERVICES PROVIDER (AS THAT TERM IS DEFINED IN THE POLICIES OF THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE) ACCEPTS RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS NEWS RELEASE.

Contacts:

Stonehaven Exploration Ltd.

Malcolm Todd

President & CEO

(403) 237-5700

(403) 265-3506 (FAX)

info@stonehavenexp.com

www.stonehavenexp.com



Deventa Energy Inc.

Peter Cowling

President & CEO

(403) 262-1700

pcowling@deventa.ca




MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA -- (Marketwired) -- 07/27/16 -- Mirantis, the pure-play OpenStack company, today announced a collaboration with Google and Intel to evolve the architecture of the leading purpose-built lifecycle management tool for OpenStack, Fuel, and related OpenStack projects, to enable for use of Kubernetes as its underlying orchestration engine. The companies will work with the OpenStack community to package OpenStack into Docker containers to be managed by Kubernetes. The companies will jointly discuss the details of this collaboration at the upcoming OpenStack Days Silicon Valley on August 9-10.

The resulting software will give users fine grain control over the placement of services used for the OpenStack control plane and the ability to do rolling updates of OpenStack, make the OpenStack control plane self-healing and more resilient, and smooth the path for the creating of microservices-based applications on OpenStack.

"With the emergence of Docker as the standard container image format and Kubernetes as the standard for container orchestration, we are finally seeing continuity in how people approach operations of distributed applications. Combining Kubernetes and Fuel will open OpenStack up to a new delivery model that allows faster consumption of updates, helping customers get to outcomes faster." -- Mirantis CMO, Boris Renski

"As part of the Intel Cloud for All initiative, our collaboration with CoreOS, Google and Mirantis to integrate OpenStack and Kubernetes will help to accelerate the deployment of tens of thousands of new clouds. Our joint efforts will marry two complementary and powerful open source communities, making it simpler for enterprises to manage private clouds." -- Intel Vice President and General Manager, Software Defined Infrastructure, Data Center Solutions Group, Jonathan Donaldson

To further support Kubernetes on OpenStack, Mirantis will become an active contributor to the Kubernetes project, aiming to become a top contributor over the next year. Mirantis has also joined the Cloud Native Computing Foundation, a Linux Foundation project and organization dedicated to advancing the development of cloud native applications and services, as a Silver member.

Learn more:

Read Intel's blog, Collaborative Efforts Marry OpenStack with Kubernetes.

Sign up for the webinar, OpenStack + Kubernetes: Wonder Stack for Diverse Workloads on Private Clouds on August 23 at 11 am. ET.

Join Google, Intel, and Mirantis in discussing the convergence of the OpenStack and Kubernetes communities at OpenStack Silicon Valley.

About Mirantis

Mirantis is the pure play OpenStack company, delivering all the software, services, training, and support needed for running OpenStack. More customers rely on Mirantis than on any other company to get to production deployment of OpenStack at scale. Mirantis is among the top three companies worldwide in contributing open source software to OpenStack, and has helped build and deploy some of the largest OpenStack clouds in the world, at companies such as AT&T, Saudi Telecom, Shenzhen Stock Exchange, Symantec, Telstra and Volkswagen. Mirantis is venture-backed by August Capital, Dell Ventures, Ericsson, Goldman Sachs, Intel, Insight Venture Partners, Sapphire Ventures, Siguler Guff & Co., and WestSummit Capital, with headquarters in Sunnyvale, California. Follow us on Twitter at @mirantisit.

Media Contacts

Sarah Bennett

Mirantis PR Manager

Email Contact



Natasha Woods

The Linux Foundation

Email Contact




COLORADO SPRINGS, CO -- (Marketwired) -- 07/27/16 -- Gold Resource Corporation (NYSE MKT: GORO) (the "Company") declares its monthly instituted dividend of 1/6 of a cent per common share for July 2016 payable on August 23, 2016 to shareholders of record as of August 11, 2016. Gold Resource Corporation is a gold and silver producer with operations in Oaxaca, Mexico and exploration in Nevada, USA.

The Company has returned $108 million to shareholders in monthly dividends since commercial production commenced July 1, 2010, and offers shareholders the option to convert their cash dividends and take delivery in physical gold and silver. For more information on Gold Resource Corporation's physical dividend program, visit the Company website at http://goldresourcecorp.com/gold-silver-dividends.php.

Dividends may vary in amount and consistency or be discontinued at the Board of Directors' discretion depending on variables including but not limited to operational cash flows, Company development requirements and strategies, construction, spot gold and silver prices, taxation, general market conditions and other factors described in the Cautionary Statements below and the Company's public filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

About GRC:

Gold Resource Corporation is a mining company focused on production and pursuing development of gold and silver projects that feature low operating costs and produce high returns on capital. The Company has 100% interest in six potential high-grade gold and silver properties at its producing Oaxaca, Mexico Mining Unit and exploration properties at its Nevada, USA, Mining Unit. The Company has 54,266,706 shares outstanding, no warrants, no long term debt and has returned $108 million back to shareholders since commercial production commenced July 1, 2010. Gold Resource Corporation offers shareholders the option to convert their cash dividends into physical gold and silver and take delivery. For more information, please visit GRC's website, located at www.Goldresourcecorp.com and read the Company's 10-K for an understanding of the risk factors involved.

Cautionary Statements:

This press release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. The statements contained in this press release that are not purely historical are forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act and Section 21E of the Exchange Act. When used in this press release, the words "plan", "target", "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "intend" and "expect" and similar expressions are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements include, without limitation, the statements regarding Gold Resource Corporation's strategy, future plans for production, future expenses and costs, future liquidity and capital resources, and estimates of mineralized material. All forward-looking statements in this press release are based upon information available to Gold Resource Corporation on the date of this press release, and the company assumes no obligation to update any such forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements involve a number of risks and uncertainties, and there can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate. The Company's actual results could differ materially from those discussed in this press release. In particular, there can be no assurance that production will continue at any specific rate. Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include, but are not limited to, those discussed in the Company's 10-K filed with the SEC.

Gold Resource Corporation

Corporate Development

Greg Patterson

303-320-7708

www.Goldresourcecorp.com




CALGARY, ALBERTA -- (Marketwired) -- 07/27/16 -- Edgefront Real Estate Investment Trust (the "REIT") (TSX VENTURE: ED.UN) is pleased to announce that it has entered into an agreement to acquire a single tenant 150,000 sq ft industrial property located in Cambridge, Ontario. The purchase price of $8.4 million represents a going in cap rate of 7.5%. The purchase price will be satisfied by the issuance to the vendor of $1.9 million of units at an issue price of $1.90 per unit (which represents a premium to the current market price of the REIT's units as traded on the TSX Venture Exchange), and $6.5 million in cash, to be funded from the proceeds of a new 5-year term mortgage and available cash. The REIT has waived conditions and expects to close the transaction on or before August 22, 2016.

"We're pleased to announce our first acquisition of 2016, continuing our successful strategy of completing deals that grow our free cash flow and increase our market capitalization through issuing units as partial purchase price consideration," stated Kelly Hanczyk, the REIT's Chief Executive Officer. "We are currently exploring a number of opportunities and hope to announce additional acquisitions in the near future."

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.

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




SAN JOSE (dpa-AFX) - Xilinx Inc. (XLNX) revealed a profit for its first quarter that climbed compared to the same period last year. The company said its bottom line totaled $163 million, or $0.61 per share. This was up from $148 million, or $0.55 per share, in last year's first quarter. Analysts had expected the company to earn $0.56 per share, according figures compiled by Thomson Reuters. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items. The company said revenue for the quarter rose 4.7% to $575 million. This was up from $549 million last year. Xilinx Inc. earnings at a glance: -Earnings (Q1): $163 Mln. vs. $148 Mln. last year. -Earnings Growth (Y-o-Y): 10.1% -EPS (Q1): $0.61 vs. $0.55 last year. -EPS Growth (Y-o-Y): 10.9% -Analysts Estimate: $0.56 -Revenue (Q1): $575 Mln vs. $549 Mln last year. -Revenue Change (Y-o-Y): 4.7% 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.
REGINA, SASKATCHEWAN -- (Marketwired) -- 07/27/16 -- Information Services Corporation (TSX: ISV) ("ISC" or the "Company") advises that it will release its financial results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2016 on Tuesday, August 9, 2016 after market close. ISC's Consolidated Financial Statements and Management's Discussion and Analysis for the quarter ended June 30, 2016 will be available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com and our website at http://isc.mwnewsroom.com/.

An investor conference call will be held on Wednesday, August 10, 2016 at 11 a.m. Eastern Time (9 a.m. Saskatchewan/MDT) to discuss the results. Participants may join the call by dialing toll-free 1-866-225-6564 or 1-416-406-6419 for calls outside North America. Simultaneously, an audio webcast of the conference call will also be available at the following link http://isc.mwnewsroom.com/Events. Media are invited to attend on a listen-only basis.

The webcast will be available for replay 24 hours after the event at http://isc.mwnewsroom.com/Events.

About ISC

ISC is an experienced provider of registry and information services for government, individuals and private sector business. As the exclusive provider of the land titles, surveys, personal property and corporate registries for Saskatchewan, the Company maintains and operates these registries, which are key supporters of economic activity in the province.

Contacts:

Information Services Corporation

Pamela Keck

Manager, Investor Relations

Toll Free: 1-855-341-8363 in North America or 1-306-798-1137

investor.relations@isc.ca




TORONTO, ON--(Marketwired - July 27, 2016) - HudBay Minerals Inc. ("Hudbay" or the "company") (TSX: HBM) (NYSE: HBM) today released its second quarter 2016 financial results. All amounts are in US dollars, unless otherwise noted.

Summary:

Increased production in both Peru and Manitoba across all metals compared to the second quarter of 2015

Cost efficiencies and economies of scale resulted in consolidated cash cost, net of by-product credits, of $0.83 per pound and all-in sustaining cash cost, net of by-product credits, of $1.42 per pound 1

Operating cash flow before changes in non-cash working capital increased to $75.1 million, or $0.32 per share, from $17.0 million, or $0.07 per share, in the second quarter of 2015 1

Total liquidity increased to $293.5 million compared to $190.1 million at the end of the first quarter of 2016, including new commitments of $30.0 million under Hudbay's revolving credit facilities

In the second quarter of 2016, cash generated from operating activities increased to $137.5 million from $10.4 million in the second quarter of 2015. In addition, operating cash flow before change in non -cash working capital increased to $75.1 million in the current quarter from $17.0 million in the same quarter of 2015. Operating cash flow in the quarter benefited from substantially higher copper and precious metals sales volumes due to the Constancia project reaching commercial production on April 30, 2015. The increase in sales volumes and associated economies of scale more than offset the decline in realized sales prices of copper and zinc metals compared to the same quarter last year.

"We continue to be pleased with Constancia's strong operating performance and the cost efficiencies achieved at all of our operations, resulting in positive free cash flow generated from the business," said Alan Hair, president and chief executive officer. "We remain on track to meet the cost reduction initiatives we announced earlier this year, as well as our production, operating and capital cost guidance for 2016."

The net loss and loss per share in the second quarter of 2016 were $5.7 million and $0.02, respectively, compared to a net loss and loss per share of $44.3 million and $0.19, respectively, in the second quarter of 2015. In the comparable period last year, there was an asset impairment charge of $19.9 million as a result of the decision not to proceed with construction of the new concentrator at Lalor following the acquisition of the New Britannia mine and mill. Net loss and loss per share in the second quarter of 2016 was affected by, among other things, non-cash deferred tax adjustments of $8.4 million or negative $0.04 per share.

1 Cash cost and all-in sustaining cash cost, net of by-product credits, per pound of copper produced, operating cash flow before changes in non-cash working capital, and operating cash flow per share are not recognized under IFRS. For a detailed description of each of these non-IFRS financial performance measures, please see the discussion under "Non-IFRS Financial Performance Measures" beginning on page 5 of this news release.

Notwithstanding lower copper and zinc realized prices, revenues nearly doubled and gross profit increased more than ten-fold compared to the same quarter last year as a result of higher sales volumes and cost optimization at Hudbay's operations. As a result of production growth and ongoing cost optimization initiatives, consolidated cash cost, net of by-product credits, declined to $0.83 per pound of copper produced from $1.28 per pound in the second quarter of 2015. Similarly, incorporating sustaining capital, capitalized exploration, royalties and corporate general and administrative ("G&A") costs, consolidated all-in sustaining cash cost, net of by-product credits, declined to $1.42 per pound from $2.28 per pound in the second quarter of 2015 and $1.80 per pound in the first quarter of 2016.

Sales of copper contained in concentrate lagged production in the second quarter of 2016 mainly as a result of a delay in loading a 20,000 tonne parcel of concentrate at the port of Matarani in Peru due to extended ocean swells in late June. Earnings per share and operating cash flow per share would have been approximately $0.02 and $0.05 higher, respectively, if this parcel had loaded prior to the end of the second quarter of 2016. Concentrate inventory at the Constancia mine site and the Matarani port are currently at normal working levels.

During the second quarter, a Canadian chartered bank joined the syndicate for Hudbay's Canadian and Peruvian senior secured revolving credit facilities with $30.0 million in new commitments, bringing total commitments under the facilities to $530.0 million. Including this additional credit availability, cash flow generated from the business and collection of Peruvian sales tax refunds during the quarter, total liquidity at June 30, 2016 was $293.5 million, compared to $190.1 million at March 31, 2016.

A semi-annual dividend of $0.01 per share was declared on July 27, 2016. The dividend will be paid on September 30, 2016 to shareholders of record as of September 9, 2016.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Financial Condition ($000s) Jun. 30, 2016 Dec. 31, 2015 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Cash and cash equivalents 141,903 53,852 Total long-term debt 1,309,700 1,274,880 Net debt(2) 1,167,797 1,221,028 Working capital 112,865 57,613 Total assets 4,551,578 4,479,585 Equity 1,771,256 1,787,290 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

2 Net debt is not recognized under IFRS. For a detailed description of this non-IFRS financial performance measure, please see the discussion under "Non-IFRS Financial Performance Measures" beginning on page 5 of this news release.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Financial Performance ($000s except per share and cash cost amounts) Three months ended Six months ended June 30 June 30 2016 2015 2016 2015 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Revenue 246,975 150,889 500,600 279,602 Profit (loss) before tax 6,557 (45,818) (10,331) (57,298) Loss (5,703) (44,290) (21,491) (64,127) Basic and diluted loss per share (0.02) (0.19) (0.09) (0.27) Cash generated from operating activities 137,521 10,433 239,071 10,747 Operating cash flows before change in non-cash working capital(1) 75,059 17,022 146,945 33,923 Operating cash flow per share(1) 0.32 0.07 0.62 0.14 Cash cost per pound of copper produced, net of by-product credits(1) 0.83 1.28 0.97 1.33 All-in sustaining cash cost per pound of copper produced, net of by-product credits(1) 1.42 2.28 1.59 2.39 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Production Contained metal in concentrate(2) Copper tonnes 45,892 36,212 84,771 51,220 Gold oz 29,705 23,217 56,949 46,892 Silver oz 996,511 779,364 1,719,427 1,090,232 Zinc tonnes 26,456 23,486 49,832 46,392 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Metal Sold Payable metal in concentrate Copper tonnes 36,834 25,868 78,753 36,863 Gold oz 26,755 15,175 44,472 27,525 Silver oz 715,873 428,095 1,490,182 528,411 Refined zinc tonnes 23,728 25,657 49,148 49,436 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1 Operating cash flow before change in non-cash working capital, operating cash flow per share, cash cost and all-in sustaining cash cost per pound of copper produced, net of by-product credits, are non-IFRS financial performance measures with no standardized definition under IFRS. For further information and a detailed reconciliation, please see page 5 of this news release.

2 Metal reported in concentrate is prior to deductions associated with smelter contract terms.

Peru Operations Review

During the second quarter of 2016, Constancia mining operations and cost optimization continued as planned. Ore mined during the second quarter of 2016 slightly decreased compared to the first quarter of 2016 as ore production rates were aligned to mill throughput rates. Mined and milled copper grades in the second quarter of 2016 were 0.64% and 0.62%, respectively, which is slightly higher than the first quarter of 2016. Mill throughput during the second quarter of 2016 was affected by higher than expected liner wear in the semi-autogenous grinding (SAG) mills. The affected liners were successfully replaced in July 2016.

Optimization of plant performance remains the primary focus for Constancia. Total copper recovery in the second quarter of 2016 was 82.7%, compared to 81.8% in first quarter of 2016, as the metallurgy associated with the varying ore types is better understood.

During the second quarter of 2016, production of copper, gold and silver increased by 19%, 50% and 53%, respectively, compared to the first quarter of 2016. This growth is due to higher throughput, grades and recoveries at the mill.

Combined unit operating costs for the second quarter of 2016 were $7.88 per tonne, within guidance expectations for 2016. Cash cost and sustaining cash cost, net of by-product credits, for the three months ended June 30, 2016 were $0.97 and $1.39 per pound of copper produced, respectively, a decrease of 16% and 7% from the first quarter of 2016, which reflects higher production and ongoing plant optimization and cost reduction initiatives.

The port expansion at Matarani was completed at the end of June 2016, which improved access to Hudbay's designated pier and reduced port costs.

Manitoba Operations Review

Ore mined at Hudbay's Manitoba mines during the second quarter of 2016 increased by 17% compared to the same period in 2015 as a result of increased production at Lalor and 777. Copper grades were higher at Reed as a result of the stopes mined. This was offset by lower copper grades at the 777 and Lalor mines, as expected. Silver grades in the second quarter of 2016 were in line with the same period in 2015, while zinc and gold grades were lower than the second quarter of 2015 by 8% and 11%, respectively.

Ore processed in the Flin Flon concentrator in the second quarter of 2016 was 17% higher than the same period in 2015 primarily as a result of higher production at the 777 mine. Gold and silver recoveries were higher in the second quarter of 2016 compared to the same period in 2015 as a result of higher head grades, while zinc recovery was slightly lower due to lower zinc head grades. Ore processed in the Snow Lake concentrator in the second quarter of 2016 was 15% higher than the same period in 2015 as a result of higher production at the Lalor mine.

During the second quarter of 2016, overall Manitoba production of copper, zinc, gold and silver were higher by 15%, 13%, 9% and 16%, respectively, as compared to the same period in 2015 as a result of higher mill throughput, offset by lower grades when compared to the same quarter in 2015.

Manitoba combined mine, mill and G&A unit operating costs in the second quarter of 2016 were 18% lower than in the same period in 2015 as a result of higher overall production and ongoing cost reduction initiatives, and were in line with full year guidance expectations.

Manitoba cash cost and sustaining cash cost, net of by-product credits, in the second quarter of 2016 was $0.37 and $1.10 per pound of copper produced, a decrease of 73% and 48%, respectively, compared to the same period in 2015. The decrease is largely the effect of decreased purchases of zinc concentrate for processing, a decrease in general support costs as a result of cost reduction initiatives, and a reduction in costs in US dollar terms as a result of the weaker Canadian dollar versus the US dollar. Cash cost and sustaining cash cost were also positively impacted by increased copper production and increased sales of precious metals.

Non-IFRS Financial Performance Measures

Operating cash flow before change in non-cash working capital and operating cash flow per share are included in this news release because the company believes that they help investors and management to evaluate changes in cash flow generated from the various operations while, in the case of operating cash flow per share, taking into account changes in shares outstanding. Net debt is shown because it is a performance measure used by the company to assess its financial position. Cash cost, sustaining and all-in sustaining cash cost per pound of copper produced are shown because the company believes they help investors and management assess the performance of its operations, including the margin generated by the operations and the company. These measures do not have a meaning prescribed by IFRS and are therefore unlikely to be comparable to similar measures presented by other issuers. These measures should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for measures prepared in accordance with IFRS and are not necessarily indicative of operating profit or cash flow from operations as determined under IFRS. Other companies may calculate these measures differently. For further details on these measures, including reconciliations to the most comparable IFRS measures, please refer to page 25 of Hudbay's management's discussion and analysis for the three and six months ended June 30, 2016 available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com and EDGAR at www.sec.gov.

Hudbay's calculation of cash cost per pound of copper produced ("cash cost") designates copper as the company's primary metal of production as it has been, and is expected to be, the largest component of revenues. The calculation is presented in four manners:

Cash cost, before by-product credits - This measure is gross of by-product revenues and is a function of the efforts and costs incurred to mine and process all ore mined. However, the measure divides this aggregate cost over only pounds of copper produced, Hudbay's primary metal of production. This measure is generally less volatile from period to period, as it is not affected by changes in the price received for by-product metals. It is, however, significantly affected by the relative mix of copper concentrate and finished zinc production, and an increase in production of zinc metal will tend to result in an increase in cash cost under this measure.

Cash cost, net of by-product credits - In order to calculate the net cost to produce and sell copper, the net of by-product credits measure subtracts the revenues realized from the sale of the metals other than copper. The by-product revenues from zinc, gold, and silver are significant and are integral to the economics of Hudbay's operations. The economics that support Hudbay's decision to produce and sell copper would be different if the company did not receive revenues from the other significant metals being extracted and processed. This measure provides management and investors with an indication of the minimum copper price consistent with positive operating cash flows and operating margins, assuming realized by-product metal prices are consistent with those prevailing during the reporting period. It also serves as an important operating statistic that management and investors utilize to measure the company's operating performance versus that of its competitors. However, it is important to understand that if by-product metal prices decline alongside copper prices, the cash cost net of by-product credits would increase, requiring a higher copper price than that reported to maintain positive cash flows and operating margins.

Sustaining cash cost, net of by-product credits - This measure is an extension of cash cost that includes sustaining capital expenditures, capitalized exploration and net smelter returns royalties. It does not include corporate G&A. It provides a more fulsome measurement of the cost of sustaining production than cash cost, which is focused on operating costs only.

All-in sustaining cash cost, net of by-product credits - This measure is an extension of sustaining cash cost that includes corporate G&A. Due to the inclusion of corporate G&A, all-in sustaining cash cost is presented on a consolidated basis only.

The table below presents a summary of cash cost and sustaining cash cost, net of by-product credits, by business unit in addition to consolidated all-in sustaining cash cost, net of by-product credits, for the three and six months ended June 30, 2016 and 2015. Totals may not add up correctly due to rounding.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------- (In $ per pound of copper produced(1)) Peru Manitoba Consolidated Three Months Ended June 30 2016 2015 2016 2015 2016 2015 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Cash cost, before by-product credits 1.07 1.24 3.46 4.60 1.65 2.42 By-product credits (0.10) (0.01) (3.08) (3.23) (0.82) (1.14) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Cash cost, net of by-product credits 0.97 1.23 0.37 1.37 0.83 1.28 Sustaining capital expenditures(2) 0.40 0.87 0.61 0.59 0.45 0.77 Capitalized exploration - - 0.04 0.07 0.01 0.02 Royalties 0.01 - 0.08 0.08 0.03 0.03 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sustaining cash cost, net of by- product credits 1.39 2.10 1.10 2.11 1.32 2.11 Corporate G&A - - - - 0.10 0.17 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- All-in sustaining cash cost, net of by-product credits - - - - 1.42 2.28 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- (In $ per pound of copper produced(1)) Peru Manitoba Consolidated Six Months Ended June 30 2016 2015 2016 2015 2016 2015 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Cash cost, before by-product credits 1.16 1.24 3.66 4.35 1.78 2.90 By-product credits (0.11) (0.01) (2.93) (2.94) (0.80) (1.57) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Cash cost, net of by-product credits 1.05 1.23 0.73 1.42 0.97 1.33 Sustaining capital expenditures(2) 0.36 0.87 0.84 0.66 0.48 0.76 Capitalized exploration - - 0.03 0.07 0.01 0.03 Royalties 0.02 - 0.07 0.06 0.03 0.04 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sustaining cash cost, net of by- product credits 1.44 2.10 1.67 2.20 1.49 2.16 Corporate G&A - - - - 0.10 0.23 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- All-in sustaining cash cost, net of by-product credits - - - - 1.59 2.39 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

1 Contained copper in concentrate.

2 Excludes costs associated with pre-commercial production output.

Website Links

Hudbay:

www.hudbayminerals.com

Management's Discussion and Analysis:

http://www.hudbayminerals.com/files/doc_financials/2016/Q2/MDAQ22016.pdf

Financial Statements:

http://www.hudbayminerals.com/files/doc_financials/2016/Q2/FSQ22016.pdf

Conference Call and Webcast

Date: Thursday, July 28, 2016 Time: 10 a.m. ET Webcast: www.hudbayminerals.com Dial in: 416-849-1847 or 1-866-530-1554 Replay: 647-436-0148 or 1-888-203-1112 Replay Passcode: 5000396#

The conference call replay will be available until 1 p.m. (Eastern Time) on August 4, 2016. An archived audio webcast of the call also will be available on Hudbay's website.

Qualified Person

The technical and scientific information in this news release related to the Constancia mine has been approved by Cashel Meagher, P. Geo, Hudbay's Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer. The technical and scientific information related to all other sites and projects contained in this news release has been approved by Robert Carter, P. Eng, Hudbay's Director, Business Development and Technical Services at the Manitoba Business Unit. Messrs. Meagher and Carter are qualified persons pursuant to NI 43-101. For a description of the key assumptions, parameters and methods used to estimate mineral reserves and resources, as well as data verification procedures and a general discussion of the extent to which the estimates of scientific and technical information may be affected by any known environmental, permitting, legal title, taxation, sociopolitical, marketing or other relevant factors, please see the Technical Reports for the company's material properties as filed by Hudbay on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.

Forward-Looking Information

This news release contains forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable Canadian and United States securities legislation. All information contained in this news release, other than statements of current and historical fact, is forward-looking information. Often, but not always, forward-looking information can be identified by the use of words such as "plans", "expects", "budget", "guidance", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "strategy", "target", "intends", "objective", "goal", "understands", "anticipates" and "believes" (and variations of these or similar words) and statements that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "should", "might" "occur" or "be achieved" or "will be taken" (and variations of these or similar expressions). All of the forward-looking information in this news release is qualified by this cautionary note.

Forward-looking information includes, but is not limited to, production, cost and capital and exploration expenditure guidance, including anticipated capital and operating cost savings, anticipated production at the company's mines and processing facilities, events that may affect its operations and development projects, the potential to refurbish the New Britannia mill and utilize it to process ore from the Lalor mine, anticipated cash flows from operations and related liquidity requirements, the anticipated effect of external factors on revenue, such as commodity prices, economic outlook, government regulation of mining operations, and business and acquisition strategies. Forward-looking information is not, and cannot be, a guarantee of future results or events. Forward-looking information is based on, among other things, opinions, assumptions, estimates and analyses that, while considered reasonable by us at the date the forward-looking information is provided, inherently are subject to significant risks, uncertainties, contingencies and other factors that may cause actual results and events to be materially different from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking information.

The material factors or assumptions that Hudbay identified and were applied by the company in drawing conclusions or making forecasts or projections set out in the forward-looking information include, but are not limited to:

the success of mining, processing, exploration and development activities;

the success of Hudbay's cost reduction initiatives;

the accuracy of geological, mining and metallurgical estimates;

anticipated metals prices and the costs of production;

the supply and demand for metals that Hudbay produces;

the supply and availability of concentrate for Hudbay's processing facilities;

the supply and availability of third party processing facilities for Hudbay's concentrate;

the supply and availability of all forms of energy and fuels at reasonable prices;

the availability of transportation services at reasonable prices;

no significant unanticipated operational or technical difficulties;

the execution of Hudbay's business and growth strategies, including the success of its strategic investments and initiatives;

the availability of additional financing, if needed;

the ability to complete project targets on time and on budget and other events that may affect Hudbay's ability to develop its projects;

the timing and receipt of various regulatory and governmental approvals;

the availability of personnel for Hudbay's exploration, development and operational projects and ongoing employee relations;

the ability to secure required land rights to develop the Pampacancha deposit;

maintaining good relations with the communities in which Hudbay operates, including the communities surrounding its Constancia mine and Rosemont project and First Nations communities surrounding its Lalor and Reed mines;

no significant unanticipated challenges with stakeholders at Hudbay's various projects;

no significant unanticipated events or changes relating to regulatory, environmental, health and safety matters;

no contests over title to Hudbay's properties, including as a result of rights or claimed rights of aboriginal peoples;

the timing and possible outcome of pending litigation and no significant unanticipated litigation;

certain tax matters, including, but not limited to current tax laws and regulations and the refund of certain value added taxes from the Canadian and Peruvian governments; and

no significant and continuing adverse changes in general economic conditions or conditions in the financial markets (including commodity prices and foreign exchange rates).

The risks, uncertainties, contingencies and other factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking information may include, but are not limited to, risks generally associated with the mining industry, such as economic factors (including future commodity prices, currency fluctuations, energy prices and general cost escalation), uncertainties related to the development and operation of Hudbay's projects (including risks associated with the economics and permitting of the Rosemont project and related legal challenges), risks related to the maturing nature of the 777 mine and its impact on the related Flin Flon metallurgical complex, dependence on key personnel and employee and union relations, risks related to political or social unrest or change, risks in respect of aboriginal and community relations, rights and title claims, operational risks and hazards, including unanticipated environmental, industrial and geological events and developments and the inability to insure against all risks, failure of plant, equipment, processes, transportation and other infrastructure to operate as anticipated, planned infrastructure improvements in Peru not being completed on schedule or as planned, compliance with government and environmental regulations, including permitting requirements and anti-bribery legislation, depletion of Hudbay's reserves, volatile financial markets that may affect Hudbay's ability to obtain additional financing on acceptable terms, the permitting and development of the Rosemont project not occurring as planned, the failure to obtain required approvals or clearances from government authorities on a timely basis, uncertainties related to the geology, continuity, grade and estimates of mineral reserves and resources, and the potential for variations in grade and recovery rates, uncertain costs of reclamation activities, the company's ability to comply with its pension and other post-retirement obligations, Hudbay's ability to abide by the covenants in its debt instruments and other material contracts, tax refunds, hedging transactions, as well as the risks discussed under the heading "Risk Factors" in the company's most recent Annual Information Form.

Should one or more risk, uncertainty, contingency or other factor materialize or should any factor or assumption prove incorrect, actual results could vary materially from those expressed or implied in the forward-looking information. Accordingly, you should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. Hudbay does not assume any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information after the date of this news release or to explain any material difference between subsequent actual events and any forward-looking information, except as required by applicable law.

Note to United States Investors

This news release has been prepared in accordance with the requirements of the securities laws in effect in Canada, which may differ materially from the requirements of United States securities laws applicable to U.S. issuers.

About Hudbay

Hudbay (TSX: HBM) (NYSE: HBM) is an integrated mining company producing copper concentrate (containing copper, gold and silver) and zinc metal. With assets in North and South America, the company is focused on the discovery, production and marketing of base and precious metals. Through its subsidiaries, Hudbay owns four polymetallic mines, four ore concentrators and a zinc production facility in northern Manitoba and Saskatchewan (Canada) and Cusco (Peru) and a copper project in Arizona (United States). The company's growth strategy is focused on the exploration and development of properties it already controls, as well as other mineral assets it may acquire that fit its strategic criteria. Hudbay's vision is to become a top-tier operator of long-life, low cost mines in the Americas. Hudbay's mission is to create sustainable value through the acquisition, development and operation of high-quality and growing long-life deposits in mining-friendly jurisdictions. The company is governed by the Canada Business Corporations Act and its shares are listed under the symbol "HBM" on the Toronto Stock Exchange, New York Stock

Exchange and Bolsa de Valores de Lima. Hudbay also has warrants listed under the symbol "HBM.WT" on the Toronto Stock Exchange and "HBM/WS" on the New York Stock Exchange.

For further information, please contact:



Candace Brule

Director, Investor Relations

(416) 814-4387

candace.brule@hudbay.com
TORONTO, ONTARIO -- (Marketwired) -- 07/27/16 -- Copper Lake Resources Ltd. (TSX VENTURE: CPL)(FRANKFURT: W0I) ("Copper Lake" or the "Company") is pleased to announce the voting results from its 2016 Annual General and Special Meeting of Shareholders held in Toronto, Ontario on July 26, 2016.

The number of Directors was set at five, and the nominees listed in to the Information Circular were elected as Directors. Shareholders also approved the re-appointment of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP as auditors, and approved the 10% rolling stock option plan. Finally, the shareholders approved the purchase agreement with Marshall Lake Mining Limited whereby the Company will acquire Marshall Lake Mining Limited's remaining 31.25% interest in the Marshall Lake property, located in Ontario. In consideration, the Company will issue to Marshall Lake Mining Limited a total of 34,422,938 common shares and a total principal amount of $350,000 of unsecured subordinated convertible debentures.

Detailed results of the votes for the resolutions are as follows:

---------------------------------------------------------------------------- % Votes For % Votes Withheld % Votes Against ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Number of Directors 100.00 0.00 0.00 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Terrence MacDonald 100.00 0.00 0.00 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Gary O'Connor 100.00 0.00 0.00 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Edward Yurkowski 100.00 0.00 0.00 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Paul McGroary 100.00 0.00 0.00 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Jeffery Malaihollo 100.00 0.00 0.00 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Appointment of Auditors 100.00 0.00 0.00 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Approval of Stock Option Plan 99.95 0.00 0.05 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Approval of Purchase Agreement 99.95 0.00 0.05 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

About Copper Lake Resources

Copper Lake Resources Ltd. is a publicly traded Canadian company currently focused on advancing two significant properties located in Ontario, Canada:

1. The Marshall Lake VMS copper, zinc, silver and gold property is an advanced exploration stage property located 120 km north of Geraldton, Ontario via good all weather gravel road from the Trans-Canada Highway and just 22 km north of the main CNR rail line.

The Company has presently earned a 37.5% interest in the Marshall Lake property. Upon closing of the acquisition of the additional 31.25% interest in the property, the Company will hold a 68.75% interest, and will retain its original option to earn up to a 75% interest.

2. The Norton Lake nickel, copper, PGM property (69.79%) is located approximately 100 km north of the Marshall Lake property.

On behalf of Copper Lake Resources Ltd.

"Terrence MacDonald", Interim CEO

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Contacts:

Terrence MacDonald

416-561-3626




TORONTO, ONTARIO -- (Marketwired) -- 07/27/16 -- Lundin Mining Corporation ("Lundin Mining" or the "Company") (TSX: LUN)(OMX: LUMI) today reported cash flows of $153.2 million generated from operations in the quarter, not including the Company's attributable cash flows from Tenke Fungurume. A net loss attributable to Lundin shareholders of $791.2 million ($1.10 per share) for the quarter ended June 30, 2016, included an asset impairment on the Company's interest in Tenke of $772.1 million.

Mr. Paul Conibear, President and CEO commented, "Our operations continued to perform very well during the quarter, positioning us to meet or improve upon full year guidance on metal production, capital spending, and cash costs. Positive cash flow generated at all operations has enabled the Company to further strengthen our financial position, with our net debt improving by almost $100 million during the quarter.

"We are pleased to announce that we have received the first of two key approvals necessary to commence construction of the main Los Diques dam at Candelaria, and that the second is expected shortly.

"As we progress through 2016 and beyond, we intend to maintain focus on consistent high performance at our operations, cost efficiencies, capital discipline, and brownfields growth available at each of our operations. During the quarter, we reached a milestone with the announcement of a maiden resource for the Eagle East high grade nickel/copper deposit and access ramp development has commenced based on favourable study results."

Summary financial results for the quarter and year-to-date:

---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Three months ended Six months ended June 30, June 30, -------------------------------------- US$ Millions (except per share amounts) 2016 2015 2016 2015 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sales 342.3 501.3 711.9 1,032.8 Operating earnings(1) 134.5 243.0 286.3 517.0 Impairments (772.1) - (772.1) - Net (loss) / earnings (787.9) 53.7 (803.4) 137.0 Net (loss) / earnings attributable to Lundin shareholders (791.2) 46.4 (813.3) 118.1 Basic and diluted (loss) / earnings per share (1.10) 0.06 (1.13) 0.16 Cash flow from operations 153.2 262.7 196.1 486.6 Ending net debt position(2) 341.9 497.2 341.9 497.2 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- (1) Operating earnings is a non-GAAP measure defined as sales, less operating costs (excluding depreciation) and general and administrative costs. (2) Net debt is a non-GAAP measure defined as cash and cash equivalents, less long-term debt and finance leases, before deferred financing fees.

Highlights

Operational Performance

For the second quarter of 2016, production and cash costs(1) results were favourable as the Company continues with its production optimization and spending restraint measures, but financial results were negatively impacted by a lower metal price environment, when compared to the prior year. The Company remains on track to meet or exceed full year guidance across all operations.

Candelaria (80% owned): The Candelaria operations produced, on a 100% basis, 36,907 tonnes of copper, approximately 345,000 ounces of silver and 22,000 ounces of gold in concentrate. As expected in this year's mine plan, copper production was 21% lower than the prior year comparable period due to lower head grades and recoveries. Copper cash costs of $1.28/lb for the quarter were marginally higher than the prior year, but better than full year guidance due to cost reduction plans, operational efficiencies, lower electricity and diesel prices, increased productivity, and higher sales volumes.

Early works on the Los Diques tailings project continue under budget and on schedule. To date, approximately $25 million has been spent on the project in 2016 with a further $35 million expected over the remainder of the year. The existing tailings dam freeboard permit has now been granted, which enables an extra year of capacity in the existing facility. We are also pleased to report that Sernageomin, Chile's National Geology and Mining Service, has now approved the construction of the main Los Diques tailings facility. Subsequent approval from Direccion General de Aguas ("DGA"), Chile's General Water Directorate, is expected shortly now that the prerequisite Sernageomin approval has been received.

Eagle (100% owned): Eagle produced 6,812 tonnes of nickel and 5,639 tonnes of copper in the current quarter, higher than the prior year comparable period for both metals due to higher head grades and recoveries. Nickel cash costs of $1.75/lb for the quarter were lower than the comparable period in the prior year and guidance due largely to cost control measures, excellent nickel and copper production results, and lower treatment costs.

On June 29, 2016 a maiden Eagle East Inferred Mineral Resource estimate was announced. Given the positive results from a Preliminary Economic Assessment, a Feasibility Study has been initiated and construction of a development ramp has been approved. The Eagle East access ramp has been started, supporting the fast track approach adopted for the project.

Neves-Corvo (100% owned): Neves-Corvo produced 12,146 tonnes of copper and 18,272 tonnes of zinc in the second quarter. Copper production was lower than the prior year comparable period due to lower mill throughput and lower recoveries, while zinc production in the quarter exceeded the prior year comparable period as a result of higher throughput, grades and recoveries. Zinc plant operations exceeded expectations year-to-date with stable, better than expected zinc recoveries. Copper cash costs of $1.49/lb for the quarter were marginally higher than the prior year comparable period, but lower than previous guidance ($1.60/lb).

Zinkgruvan (100% owned): Zinc and lead production in the second quarter of 2016 were 19% and 4% lower, respectively, than the comparable period in 2015, partially as a result of lower throughput due to harder ore milled and lower zinc head grades in the current period. Cash costs for zinc of $0.34/lb for the quarter were better than both the prior year comparable period and previous guidance ($0.45/lb) due primarily to higher by-product credits.

Tenke (24% owned): Tenke operations continue to perform well, generally meeting expectations for the quarter. Lundin's attributable share of second quarter production included 13,300 tonnes of copper cathode and 1,033 tonnes of cobalt in hydroxide. The Company's attributable share of sales included 13,539 tonnes of copper at an average realized price of $2.07/lb and 1,011 tonnes of cobalt at an average realized price of $6.58/lb.

(1) Cash cost/lb of copper, zinc and nickel are non-GAAP measures defined as all cash costs directly attributable to mining operations, less royalties and by-product credits.

Financial Performance

-- Operating earnings for the quarter ended June 30, 2016 were $134.5 million, a decrease of $108.5 million in comparison to the second quarter of the prior year ($243.0 million). The decrease was primarily due to lower metal prices, net of price adjustments ($72.9 million) and lower sales volumes ($36.5 million). On a year-to-date basis, operating earnings were $286.3 million, a decrease of $230.7 million in comparison to the first six months of 2015 ($517.0 million). The decrease was primarily due to lower metal prices, net of price adjustments ($153.4 million), lower sales volumes ($64.7 million), and the shutdown of the Aguablanca operations ($28.4 million).

-- Sales for the quarter ended June 30, 2016 were $342.3 million, a decrease of $159.0 million in comparison to the second quarter of the prior year ($501.3 million). The decrease was mainly due to lower metal prices, net of price adjustments, lower sales volumes ($70.7 million), and the shutdown of the Aguablanca operations ($24.7 million). On a year-to-date basis, sales were $711.9 million, a decrease of $320.9 million in comparison to the first six months of 2015 ($1,032.8 million). The decrease was mainly due to lower metal prices, net of price adjustments, lower sales volumes ($123.5 million), and the shutdown of the Aguablanca operations ($53.2 million). -- Operating costs (excluding depreciation) for the quarter ended June 30, 2016 were $202.2 million, a decrease of $49.4 million in comparison to the second quarter of the prior year ($251.6 million). The decrease was largely due to lower sales volumes ($34.2 million) and the shutdown of the Aguablanca operations ($13.3 million). On a year-to-date basis, operating costs (excluding depreciation) were $412.5 million, a decrease of $89.7 million in comparison to the first six months of 2015 ($502.2 million). The decrease was largely due to lower sales volumes ($58.8 million) and the shutdown of the Aguablanca operations ($24.8 million). -- Depreciation, depletion and amortization expense decreased for the three and six months ended June 30, 2016 when measured against the comparable period in 2015. The decrease was attributable to lower production in the current year at Candelaria and an increase in the Candelaria Mineral Resources & Reserves Estimate (Q2: $31.4 million, YTD: $55.2 million), and the shutdown of the Aguablanca operations (Q2: $6.6 million, YTD: $11.3 million). -- Cash flow from operations for the quarter ended June 30, 2016 was $153.2 million, a decrease of $109.5 million in comparison to the second quarter of the prior year ($262.7 million). The decrease was primarily due to lower operating earnings in the current quarter. On a year-to-date basis, cash flow from operations was $196.1 million, a decrease of $290.5 million in comparison to the first six months of 2015 ($486.6 million). The decrease was attributable to lower operating earnings in the current year ($230.7 million) as well as changes in non- cash working capital and long-term inventory ($73.9 million). -- During the second quarter, Freeport announced that it intends to sell its interest in Tenke. This was identified as an impairment indicator. The Company has re-estimated the recoverable amount of its interest in Tenke and as a result an impairment loss of $772.1 million was recorded in the period.

Net loss for the quarter ended June 30, 2016 was $787.9 million compared to net earnings of $53.7 million in the second quarter of the prior year, primarily as a result of the impairment loss of $772.1 million, as discussed above. Before the impact of the impairment, net loss for the current quarter was $15.8 million, which was impacted by:

-- lower operating earnings ($108.5 million); and -- lower income from investment in Tenke ($9.8 million); partially offset by -- lower depreciation, depletion and amortization expense ($42.3 million); and -- comparative foreign exchange gains ($9.5 million).

On a year-to-date basis, net loss was $803.4 million, compared to the first six months of 2015 (net earnings of $137.0 million). Net loss in the current year was impacted by:

-- impairment of investment in Tenke ($772.1 million); -- lower operating earnings ($230.7 million); -- lower income from investment in Tenke ($24.0 million); and -- comparative foreign exchange losses ($12.7 million); partially offset by -- lower depreciation, depletion and amortization expense ($79.8 million); and -- lower net tax expense ($22.8 million).

Corporate Highlights

- On May 9, 2016, Freeport-McMoRan Inc. ("Freeport") announced that it had entered into an agreement to sell its indirect interest in TF Holdings Limited ("TF Holdings") to China Molybdenum Co., Ltd ("CMOC"), which is subject to, among other things, Lundin's right of first offer.

TF Holdings is the holding company that indirectly owns an 80 percent interest in Tenke Fungurume Mining S.A. Lundin has an indirect 30 percent interest in TF Holdings and an effective 24 percent interest in Tenke.

On July 19, 2016, the Company announced that the period in which the Company has the right to acquire Freeport's indirect interest in TF Holdings had been extended to September 15, 2016 at 11:59 pm.

The Company, in consultation with its legal and financial advisors, continues to evaluate all its options in connection with its ownership interest in TF Holdings.

- On June 29, 2016, the Company announced a maiden Eagle East Inferred Mineral Resource estimate. Eagle East is located 2 km east and 650 metres below the Eagle mine deposit. The Company also announced the results of a Preliminary Economic Assessment that indicate that these Inferred Mineral Resources can potentially be mined with no significant changes to the current mine, ore transport, mill and tailings disposal infrastructure.

Similar mining methods to Eagle are proposed and the potential mine production will significantly increase nickel and copper production from 2020 and extend the mine life to at least the end of 2023.

Given the robust results of the Preliminary Economic Assessment, the Company has initiated a Feasibility Study on Eagle East, which is due for completion prior to year-end. In parallel, the Company has also commenced ramp development to Eagle East in order to fast track access to the deposit.

Refer to the new release entitled "Lundin Mining Announces Eagle East Mineral Resources, PEA Results and Project Commencement" on the Company's website (www.lundinmining.com).

Financial Position and Financing

-- Net debt position at June 30, 2016 was $341.9 million compared to $441.3 million at December 31, 2015 and $438.1 million at March 31, 2016. -- The $96.2 million decrease in net debt during the quarter was largely attributable to operating cash flows of $153.2 million and receipt of distributions from Tenke of $14.6 million, partially offset by investments in mineral properties, plant and equipment of $38.8 million and net interest payments of $38.3 million. For the six months ended June 30, 2016, net debt decreased by $99.4 million due primarily to operating cash flows of $196.1 million and receipt of distributions from Tenke and Freeport Cobalt of $15.4 million and $6.3 million, respectively, partially offset by investments in mineral properties, plant and equipment of $86.3 million and net interest payments of $38.9 million. -- The Company has a revolving credit facility available for borrowing up to $350 million. As at June 30, 2016, the Company had no amount drawn on the credit facility, only a letter of credit in the amount of $19.1 million (SEK 162 million). -- Net debt at July 27, 2016 is approximately $385 million.

Outlook

Market Conditions

Production optimization, cost saving and cost deferral programs remain in place, pending improvements in market conditions. As metal prices improve, spending restraint programs will be reassessed.

2016 Production and Cost Guidance

-- Copper production guidance has increased to reflect higher than expected throughput at our Candelaria operations. -- Cash cost guidance has been lowered at our Candelaria, Neves-Corvo and Zinkgruvan operations, reflecting the expected full year impact of cost savings initiatives and overall operating performance improvements. -- Guidance on Tenke's cash costs reflect the most recent guidance from Freeport. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2016 Guidance Previous Guidance(a) Revised Guidance C1 C1 (contained tonnes) Tonnes Cost Tonnes Cost(b) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Copper Candelaria (80%) 124,000 - 128,000 $1.45/lb 128,000 - 132,000 $1.35/lb Eagle 20,000 - 23,000 20,000 - 23,000 Neves-Corvo 50,000 - 55,000 $1.60/lb 50,000 - 55,000 $1.55/lb Zinkgruvan 2,500 - 3,000 2,500 - 3,000 Tenke (24%) 52,800 $1.32/lb 52,800 $1.28/lb --------------------------------------------------------------------- Total attributable 249,300 - 261,800 253,300 - 265,800 Nickel Eagle 21,000 - 24,000 $2.00/lb 21,000 - 24,000 $2.00/lb Zinc Neves-Corvo 65,000 - 70,000 65,000 - 70,000 Zinkgruvan 80,000 - 85,000 $0.45/lb 80,000 - 85,000 $0.40/lb --------------------------------------------------------------------- Total 145,000 - 155,000 145,000 - 155,000 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- a. Guidance as outlined in our Management's Discussion and Analysis for the three months ended March 31, 2016. b. Cash costs remain dependent upon exchange rates (forecast at EUR/USD:1.15, USD/SEK:8.30, USD/CLP:690) and metal prices (forecast at Cu: $2.10/lb, Ni: $4.00/lb, Zn: $0.80/lb, Pb: $0.75/lb, Au: $1,150/oz, Ag: $15.00/oz, Co: $11.00/lb). Prior guidance assumed exchange rates of EUR/USD:1.10 and USD/SEK:8.50 and metal prices of Zn: $0.75/lb and Co: $10.00/lb.

2016 Capital Expenditure

Capital expenditures (excluding Tenke) for 2016 are expected to be $185 million. This is a $35 million reduction from the previous guidance and is largely the result of further project deferrals and cost savings measures at Candelaria and Neves-Corvo.

The Company estimates its share of sustaining capital funding for 2016 at Tenke to be approximately $25 million, unchanged from previous guidance. All of Tenke's capital expenditures and exploration programs are expected to be self-funded by cash flow from operations. After capital expenditures, the Company expects to receive cash distributions from Tenke and Freeport Cobalt in 2016 of approximately $50 million to $60 million, in-line with previous guidance.

Revised Capital Expenditure Guidance ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Prior Revised ($ millions) Guidance(a) Revisions Guidance ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- by Mine Candelaria Los Diques Tailings 70 (10) 60 Capitalized Stripping 35 (5) 30 Other Sustaining 15 (5) 10 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 120 (20) 100 Eagle 10 - 10 Neves-Corvo 55 (15) 40 Zinkgruvan 35 - 35 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 220 (35) 185 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- (a) - Guidance as outlined in our Management's Discussion and Analysis for the year ended December 31, 2015.

Exploration Investment

The Company's exploration expenditures (not including Tenke) are expected to approximate $50 million in 2016, a $10 million increase over previous guidance as additional efforts will be undertaken on near-mine targets at Candelaria and Eagle.

On Behalf of the Board,

Paul Conibear, President and CEO

The information in this release is subject to the disclosure requirements of Lundin Mining under the EU Market Abuse Regulation. This information was publically communicated on July 27, 2016 at 5:45 p.m. Eastern Time.

Cautionary Statement in Forward-Looking Information and Non-GAAP performance measures

Certain of the statements made and information contained herein is "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. This report includes, but is not limited to, forward looking statements with respect to the Company's estimated annual metal production, cash costs, exploration expenditures and capital expenditures, as noted in the Outlook section and elsewhere in this document. These estimates and other forward-looking statements are based on a number of assumptions and are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties which could cause actual events or results to differ from those reflected in the forward-looking statements, including, without limitation, risks and uncertainties relating to estimated operating and cash costs, foreign currency fluctuations; risks inherent in mining including environmental hazards, industrial accidents, unusual or unexpected geological formations, ground control problems and flooding; including risks associated with the estimation of mineral resources and reserves and the geology, grade and continuity of mineral deposits; the possibility that future exploration, development or mining results will not be consistent with the Company's expectations; the potential for and effects of labour disputes or other unanticipated difficulties with or shortages of labour or interruptions in production; actual ore mined varying from estimates of grade, tonnage, dilution and metallurgical and other characteristics; the inherent uncertainty of production and cost estimates and the potential for unexpected costs and expenses, and commodity price fluctuations; uncertain political and economic environments; changes in laws or policies, foreign taxation, delays or the inability to obtain necessary governmental permits; and other risks and uncertainties, including those described under Risk Factors Relating to the Company's Business in the Company's Annual Information Form. In addition, forward-looking information is based on various assumptions including, without limitation, the expectations and beliefs of management, the assumed price of copper, nickel, zinc and other metals; that the Company can access financing, appropriate equipment and sufficient labour and that the political environment where the Company operates will continue to support the development and operation of mining projects. Should one or more of these risks and uncertainties materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those described in forward-looking statements. Accordingly, readers are advised not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements.

Certain financial measures contained herein, such as operating earnings, net debt and cash costs, have no meaning within generally accepted accounting principles under IFRS and therefore amounts presented may not be comparable to similar data presented by other mining companies. This data is intended to provide additional information and should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for measures or performance prepared in accordance with IFRS.

Contacts:

Lundin Mining Corporation

Mark Turner

Director, Business Valuations and Investor Relations

+1-416-342-5565



Lundin Mining Corporation

Sonia Tercas

Senior Associate, Investor Relations North America

+1-416-342-5583



Lundin Mining Corporation

Robert Eriksson

Investor Relations Sweden

+46 8 545 015 50




DEAR HARRIETTE: My son is away at sleepaway camp, and my husband and I miss him terribly. We know he is fine, but we long to see pictures of him. His camp posts photos on a private Facebook page, and every day I go to the page to find my son, but I have seen him only once in five days. I don't want to be the parents who complain incessantly on the page when they don't see their children and demand to have them post pictures. How can I get my message across without seeming like a crazy parent? -- Missing My Boy, Denver

DEAR MISSING MY BOY: Why not send a direct message to the camp head via his Facebook page? When you use that feature, the message goes to that person directly, without being broadcast to the other parents who are commenting on the page.

Take a deep breath and be calm before you start writing. Let the camp head know how much you miss your son; state his name and cabin name -- if you know it -- and ask if he would have someone look for your son and post a picture as soon as they find him. Thank him and express how grateful you will be to see your son's shining face. Kindness and discretion may help you to see your son soon!

DEAR HARRIETTE: Today I was shopping a sale, and I tried on a men's sweater. I enjoy wearing oversized clothing, and I find that men's clothing sometimes suits me better. During the sale, an employee came up to me and told me that I was trying on men's clothing and that I could find clothing for women on the other side. I wasn't sure how to respond when it was so clear that he expected me to move to the women's sale. I fibbed and said I was trying on clothing for my lanky younger son.

I don't want to lie, and I don't feel as though I should have to. Sometimes I just want an oversized T-shirt or sweater! How can I concisely explain myself without being rude to salespeople? -- Either Section Is Right, Shreveport, Louisiana

DEAR EITHER SECTION IS RIGHT: It's completely understandable why you were left flat-footed. The salesperson was not paying close attention and was not attuned enough to respond to the moment by supporting you. Truth is, you may have found the perfect sweater where you were, or there may have been a better option in the women's department while still oversized. So, the salesperson stumbled by making it uncomfortable for you.

In the future, forget feeling uncomfortable. You are the customer! You could have said, "Oh, yes, I know where I am. I am looking for an oversized sweater for myself. Do you think you could help me find something just the right size for what I have in mind?" That would have left enough wiggle room for the salesperson to look in the men's department or head toward the women's section. The key is your level of comfort and confidence in leading the way.

Harriette Cole is a lifestylist and founder of DREAMLEAPERS, an initiative to help people access and activate their dreams. You can send questions to askharriette@harriettecole.com or c/o Universal Uclick, 1130 Walnut St., Kansas City, MO 64106
Toronto, July 27, 2016 (TSX: LUN; OMX: LUMI) Lundin Mining Corporation ("Lundin Mining" or the "Company") today reported cash flows of $153.2 million generated from operations in the quarter, not including the Company's attributable cash flows from Tenke Fungurume. A net loss attributable to Lundin shareholders of $791.2 million ($1.10 per share) for the quarter ended June 30, 2016, included an asset impairment on the Company's interest in Tenke of $772.1 million.Mr. Paul Conibear, President and CEO commented, "Our operations continued to perform very well during the quarter, positioning us to meet or improve upon full year guidance on metal production, capital spending, and cash costs. Positive cash flow generated at all operations has enabled the Company to further strengthen our financial position, with our net debt improving by almost $100 million during the quarter.We are pleased to announce that we have received the first of two key approvals necessary to commence construction of the main Los Diques dam at Candelaria, and that the second is expected shortly.As we progress through 2016 and beyond, we intend to maintain focus on consistent high performance at our operations, cost efficiencies, capital discipline, and brownfields growth available at each of our operations. During the quarter, we reached a milestone with the announcement of a maiden resource for the Eagle East high grade nickel/copper deposit and access ramp development has commenced based on favourable study results."Summary financial results for the quarter and year-to -date:-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Three months Six months ended ended June 30, June 30, --------------------------------- US$ Millions (except per share amounts) 2016 2015 2016 2015 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sales 342.3 501.3 711.9 1,032.8 Operating earnings1 134.5 243.0 286.3 517.0 Impairments (772.1) - (772.1) - Net (loss) / earnings (787.9) 53.7 (803.4) 137.0 Net (loss) / earnings attributable to Lundin (791.2) 46.4 (813.3) 118.1 shareholders Basic and diluted (loss) / earnings per share (1.10) 0.06 (1.13) 0.16 Cash flow from operations 153.2 262.7 196.1 486.6 Ending net debt position2 341.9 497.2 341.9 497.2 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------1. Operating earnings is a non-GAAP measure defined as sales, less operating costs (excluding depreciation) and general and administrative costs.2. Net debt is a non-GAAP measure defined as cash and cash equivalents, less long-term debt and finance leases, before deferred financing fees.HighlightsOperational PerformanceFor the second quarter of 2016, production and cash costs1 results were favourable as the Company continues with its production optimization and spending restraint measures, but financial results were negatively impacted by a lower metal price environment, when compared to the prior year. The Company remains on track to meet or exceed full year guidance across all operations.Candelaria (80% owned): The Candelaria operations produced, on a 100% basis, 36,907 tonnes of copper, approximately 345,000 ounces of silver and 22,000 ounces of gold in concentrate. As expected in this year's mine plan, copper production was 21% lower than the prior year comparable period due to lower head grades and recoveries. Copper cash costs of $1.28/lb for the quarter were marginally higher than the prior year, but better than full year guidance due to cost reduction plans, operational efficiencies, lower electricity and diesel prices, increased productivity, and higher sales volumes.Early works on the Los Diques tailings project continue under budget and on schedule. To date, approximately $25 million has been spent on the project in 2016 with a further $35 million expected over the remainder of the year. The existing tailings dam freeboard permit has now been granted, which enables an extra year of capacity in the existing facility. We are also pleased to report that Sernageomin, Chile's National Geology and Mining Service, has now approved the construction of the main Los Diques tailings facility. Subsequent approval from Direccion General de Aguas ("DGA"), Chile's General Water Directorate, is expected shortly now that the prerequisite Sernageomin approval has been received.Eagle (100% owned): Eagle produced 6,812 tonnes of nickel and 5,639 tonnes of copper in the current quarter, higher than the prior year comparable period for both metals due to higher head grades and recoveries. Nickel cash costs of $1.75/lb for the quarter were lower than the comparable period in the prior year and guidance due largely to cost control measures, excellent nickel and copper production results, and lower treatment costs.On June 29, 2016 a maiden Eagle East Inferred Mineral Resource estimate was announced. Given the positive results from a Preliminary Economic Assessment, a Feasibility Study has been initiated and construction of a development ramp has been approved. The Eagle East access ramp has been started, supporting the fast track approach adopted for the project.Neves-Corvo (100% owned): Neves-Corvo produced 12,146 tonnes of copper and 18,272 tonnes of zinc in the second quarter. Copper production was lower than the prior year comparable period due to lower mill throughput and lower recoveries, while zinc production in the quarter exceeded the prior year comparable period as a result of higher throughput, grades and recoveries. Zinc plant operations exceeded expectations year-to-date with stable, better than expected zinc recoveries. Copper cash costs of $1.49/lb for the quarter were marginally higher than the prior year comparable period, but lower than previous guidance ($1.60/lb).Zinkgruvan (100% owned): Zinc and lead production in the second quarter of 2016 were 19% and 4% lower, respectively, than the comparable period in 2015, partially as a result of lower throughput due to harder ore milled and lower zinc head grades in the current period. Cash costs for zinc of $0.34/lb for the quarter were better than both the prior year comparable period and previous guidance ($0.45/lb) due primarily to higher by-product credits.Tenke (24% owned): Tenke operations continue to perform well, generally meeting expectations for the quarter. Lundin's attributable share of second quarter production included 13,300 tonnes of copper cathode and 1,033 tonnes of cobalt in hydroxide. The Company's attributable share of sales included 13,539 tonnes of copper at an average realized price of $2.07/lb and 1,011 tonnes of cobalt at an average realized price of $6.58/lb.1. Cash cost/lb of copper, zinc and nickel are non-GAAP measures defined as all cash costs directly attributable to mining operations, less royalties and by-product credits.Financial Performance--

Operating earnings for the quarter ended June 30, 2016 were $134.5 million, a decrease of $108.5 million in comparison to the second quarter of the prior year ($243.0 million). The decrease was primarily due to lower metal prices, net of price adjustments ($72.9 million) and lower sales volumes ($36.5 million).

On a year-to-date basis, operating earnings were $286.3 million, a decrease of $230.7 million in comparison to the first six months of 2015 ($517.0 million). The decrease was primarily due to lower metal prices, net of price adjustments ($153.4 million), lower sales volumes ($64.7 million), and the shutdown of the Aguablanca operations ($28.4 million).--

Sales for the quarter ended June 30, 2016 were $342.3 million, a decrease of $159.0 million in comparison to the second quarter of the prior year ($501.3 million). The decrease was mainly due to lower metal prices, net of price adjustments, lower sales volumes ($70.7 million), and the shutdown of the Aguablanca operations ($24.7 million).

On a year-to-date basis, sales were $711.9 million, a decrease of $320.9 million in comparison to the first six months of 2015 ($1,032.8 million). The decrease was mainly due to lower metal prices, net of price adjustments, lower sales volumes ($123.5 million), and the shutdown of the Aguablanca operations ($53.2 million).--

Operating costs (excluding depreciation) for the quarter ended June 30, 2016 were $202.2 million, a decrease of $49.4 million in comparison to the second quarter of the prior year ($251.6 million). The decrease was largely due to lower sales volumes ($34.2 million) and the shutdown of the Aguablanca operations ($13.3 million).

On a year-to-date basis, operating costs (excluding depreciation) were $412.5 million, a decrease of $89.7 million in comparison to the first six months of 2015 ($502.2 million). The decrease was largely due to lower sales volumes ($58.8 million) and the shutdown of the Aguablanca operations ($24.8 million).--

Depreciation, depletion and amortization expense decreased for the three and six months ended June 30, 2016 when measured against the comparable period in 2015. The decrease was attributable to lower production in the current year at Candelaria and an increase in the Candelaria Mineral Resources & Reserves Estimate (Q2: $31.4 million, YTD: $55.2 million), and the shutdown of the Aguablanca operations (Q2: $6.6 million, YTD: $11.3 million).

-- Cash flow from operations for the quarter ended June 30, 2016 was $153.2 million, a decrease of $109.5 million in comparison to the second quarter of the prior year ($262.7 million). The decrease was primarily due to lower operating earnings in the current quarter.On a year-to-date basis, cash flow from operations was $196.1 million, a decrease of $290.5 million in comparison to the first six months of 2015 ($486.6 million). The decrease was attributable to lower operating earnings in the current year ($230.7 million) as well as changes in non-cash working capital and long-term inventory ($73.9 million).-- During the second quarter, Freeport announced that it intends to sell its interest in Tenke. This was identified as an impairment indicator. The Company has re-estimated the recoverable amount of its interest in Tenke and as a result an impairment loss of $772.1 million was recorded in the period.Net loss for the quarter ended June 30, 2016 was $787.9 million compared to net earnings of $53.7 million in the second quarter of the prior year, primarily as a result of the impairment loss of $772.1 million, as discussed above. Before the impact of the impairment, net loss for the current quarter was $15.8 million, which was impacted by:- lower operating earnings ($108.5 million); and- lower income from investment in Tenke ($9.8 million); partially offset by- lower depreciation, depletion and amortization expense ($42.3 million); and- comparative foreign exchange gains ($9.5 million).On a year-to-date basis, net loss was $803.4 million, compared to the first six months of 2015 (net earnings of $137.0 million). Net loss in the current year was impacted by:- impairment of investment in Tenke ($772.1 million);- lower operating earnings ($230.7 million);- lower income from investment in Tenke ($24.0 million); and- comparative foreign exchange losses ($12.7 million); partially offset by- lower depreciation, depletion and amortization expense ($79.8 million); and- lower net tax expense ($22.8 million).Corporate Highlights-- On May 9, 2016, Freeport-McMoRan Inc. ("Freeport") announced that it had entered into an agreement to sell its indirect interest in TF Holdings Limited ("TF Holdings") to China Molybdenum Co., Ltd ("CMOC"), which is subject to, among other things, Lundin's right of first offer.TF Holdings is the holding company that indirectly owns an 80 percent interest in Tenke Fungurume Mining S.A. Lundin has an indirect 30 percent interest in TF Holdings and an effective 24 percent interest in Tenke.On July 19, 2016, the Company announced that the period in which the Company has the right to acquire Freeport's indirect interest in TF Holdings had been extended to September 15, 2016 at 11:59 pm.The Company, in consultation with its legal and financial advisors, continues to evaluate all its options in connection with its ownership interest in TF Holdings.-- On June 29, 2016, the Company announced a maiden Eagle East Inferred Mineral Resource estimate. Eagle East is located 2 km east and 650 metres below the Eagle mine deposit. The Company also announced the results of a Preliminary Economic Assessment that indicate that these Inferred Mineral Resources can potentially be mined with no significant changes to the current mine, ore transport, mill and tailings disposal infrastructure.Similar mining methods to Eagle are proposed and the potential mine production will significantly increase nickel and copper production from 2020 and extend the mine life to at least the end of 2023.Given the robust results of the Preliminary Economic Assessment, the Company has initiated a Feasibility Study on Eagle East, which is due for completion prior to year-end. In parallel, the Company has also commenced ramp development to Eagle East in order to fast track access to the deposit.Refer to the new release entitled "Lundin Mining Announces Eagle East Mineral Resources, PEA Results and Project Commencement" on the Company's website (www.lundinmining.com).Financial Position and Financing--

Net debt position at June 30, 2016 was $341.9 million compared to $441.3 million at December 31, 2015 and $438.1 million at March 31, 2016.

--

The $96.2 million decrease in net debt during the quarter was largely attributable to operating cash flows of $153.2 million and receipt of distributions from Tenke of $14.6 million, partially offset by investments in mineral properties, plant and equipment of $38.8 million and net interest payments of $38.3 million.

For the six months ended June 30, 2016, net debt decreased by $99.4 million due primarily to operating cash flows of $196.1 million and receipt of distributions from Tenke and Freeport Cobalt of $15.4 million and $6.3 million, respectively, partially offset by investments in mineral properties, plant and equipment of $86.3 million and net interest payments of $38.9 million.--

The Company has a revolving credit facility available for borrowing up to $350 million. As at June 30, 2016, the Company had no amount drawn on the credit facility, only a letter of credit in the amount of $19.1 million (SEK 162 million).

--

Net debt at July 27, 2016 is approximately $385 million.

OutlookMarket ConditionsProduction optimization, cost saving and cost deferral programs remain in place, pending improvements in market conditions. As metal prices improve, spending restraint programs will be reassessed.2016 Production and Cost Guidance--

Copper production guidance has increased to reflect higher than expected throughput at our Candelaria operations.

--

Cash cost guidance has been lowered at our Candelaria, Neves-Corvo and Zinkgruvan operations, reflecting the expected full year impact of cost savings initiatives and overall operating performance improvements.

--

Guidance on Tenke's cash costs reflect the most recent guidance from Freeport.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2016 Guidance Previous Guidancea Revised Guidance (contained tonnes) Tonnes C1 Cost Tonnes C1 Costb -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Copper Candelaria 124,000 - 128,000 $1.45/ 128,000 - 132,000 $1.35/ (80%) lb lb Eagle 20,000 - 23,000 20,000 - 23,000 Neves-Corvo 50,000 - 55,000 $1.60/ 50,000 - 55,000 $1.55/ lb lb Zinkgruvan 2,500 - 3,000 2,500 - 3,000 Tenke (24%) 52,800 $1.32/ 52,800 $1.28/ lb lb ------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Total 249,300 - 261,800 253,300 - 265,800 attributabl e Nickel Eagle 21,000 - 24,000 $2.00/ 21,000 - 24,000 $2.00/ lb lb Zinc Neves-Corvo 65,000 - 70,000 65,000 - 70,000 Zinkgruvan 80,000 - 85,000 $0.45/ 80,000 - 85,000 $0.40/ lb lb ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Total 145,000 - 155,000 145,000 - 155,000 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------a. Guidance as outlined in our Management's Discussion and Analysis for the three months ended March 31, 2016.b. Cash costs remain dependent upon exchange rates (forecast at /USD:1.15, USD/SEK:8.30, USD/CLP:690) and metal prices (forecast at Cu: $2.10/lb, Ni: $4.00/lb, Zn: $0.80/lb, Pb: $0.75/lb, Au: $1,150/oz, Ag: $15.00/oz, Co: $11.00/lb). Prior guidance assumed exchange rates of /USD:1.10 and USD/SEK:8.50 and metal prices of Zn: $0.75/lb and Co: $10.00/lb.2016 Capital ExpenditureCapital expenditures (excluding Tenke) for 2016 are expected to be $185 million. This is a $35 million reduction from the previous guidance and is largely the result of further project deferrals and cost savings measures at Candelaria and Neves-Corvo.The Company estimates its share of sustaining capital funding for 2016 at Tenke to be approximately $25 million, unchanged from previous guidance. All of Tenke's capital expenditures and exploration programs are expected to be self-funded by cash flow from operations. After capital expenditures, the Company expects to receive cash distributions from Tenke and Freeport Cobalt in 2016 of approximately $50 million to $60 million, in-line with previous guidance.Revised Capital Expenditure Guidance ------------------------- ($ millions) Prior Revisions Revised Guidancea Guidance ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- by Mine Candelaria Los Diques Tailings 70 (10) 60 Capitalized Stripping 35 (5) 30 Other Sustaining 15 (5) 10 -------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------- 120 (20) 100 Eagle 10 - 10 Neves-Corvo 55 (15) 40 Zinkgruvan 35 - 35 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 220 (35) 185 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- a - Guidance as outlined in our Management's Discussion and Analysis for the year ended December 31, 2015.Exploration InvestmentThe Company's exploration expenditures (not including Tenke) are expected to approximate $50 million in 2016, a $10 million increase over previous guidance as additional efforts will be undertaken on near-mine targets at Candelaria and Eagle.On Behalf of the Board,Paul ConibearPresident and CEOThe information in this release is subject to the disclosure requirements of Lundin Mining under the EU Market Abuse Regulation. This information was publically communicated on July 27, 2016 at 5:45 p.m. Eastern Time.For further information, please contact:Mark Turner, Director, Business Valuations and Investor Relations: +1-416-342-5565Sonia Tercas, Senior Associate, Investor Relations North America: +1-416-342-5583Robert Eriksson, Investor Relations Sweden: +46 8 545 015 50Cautionary Statement in Forward-Looking Information and Non-GAAP performance measuresCertain of the statements made and information contained herein is "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. This report includes, but is not limited to, forward looking statements with respect to the Company's estimated annual metal production, cash costs, exploration expenditures and capital expenditures, as noted in the Outlook section and elsewhere in this document. These estimates and other forward-looking statements are based on a number of assumptions and are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties which could cause actual events or results to differ from those reflected in the forward-looking statements, including, without limitation, risks and uncertainties relating to estimated operating and cash costs, foreign currency fluctuations; risks inherent in mining including environmental hazards, industrial accidents, unusual or unexpected geological formations, ground control problems and flooding; including risks associated with the estimation of mineral resources and reserves and the geology, grade and continuity of mineral deposits; the possibility that future exploration, development or mining results will not be consistent with the Company's expectations; the potential for and effects of labour disputes or other unanticipated difficulties with or shortages of labour or interruptions in production; actual ore mined varying from estimates of grade, tonnage, dilution and metallurgical and other characteristics; the inherent uncertainty of production and cost estimates and the potential for unexpected costs and expenses, and commodity price fluctuations; uncertain political and economic environments; changes in laws or policies, foreign taxation, delays or the inability to obtain necessary governmental permits; and other risks and uncertainties, including those described under Risk Factors Relating to the Company's Business in the Company's Annual Information Form. In addition, forward-looking information is based on various assumptions including, without limitation, the expectations and beliefs of management, the assumed price of copper, nickel, zinc and other metals; that the Company can access financing, appropriate equipment and sufficient labour and that the political environment where the Company operates will continue to support the development and operation of mining projects. Should one or more of these risks and uncertainties materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those described in forward-looking statements. Accordingly, readers are advised not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements.Certain financial measures contained herein, such as operating earnings, net debt and cash costs, have no meaning within generally accepted accounting principles under IFRS and therefore amounts presented may not be comparable to similar data presented by other mining companies. This data is intended to provide additional information and should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for measures or performance prepared in accordance with IFRS.---For the complete report see attached file.Attachment:https://cns.omxgroup.com/cds/DisclosureAttachmentServlet?messageAttachmentId=580053
CALGARY, ALBERTA -- (Marketwired) -- 07/27/16 -- Raise Production Inc. (TSX VENTURE: RPC) ("Raise" or the "Company") is pleased to provide an update to its shareholders on recent activities related to the Horizontal Wellbore Production System (the "System").

The current deployment of the System has been successful in a number of ways including the collection of significant, valuable, and practical knowledge. Since the Company has learned as much as it can from this deployment, as of the end of this month the Company has decided to end the current field trial. Raise believes that the knowledge achieved, when combined with its method-based patents for multi-pump completions, makes the Company ready to begin the final steps toward commercialization. Raise continues to enhance its industry leading position in horizontal artificial lift technology.

This deployment has confirmed the following information:

-- The System is functional and can operate on a continuous basis across a wide range of pressures in the target environment, for the duration required; -- The System allowed for consistent and selective control of inflow from the frac perforations and outflow from the pumps and into the production tubing; -- The newly designed rod pump in the vertical section worked without flaw and overcame gas locking, foaming, and gas interference at surface; -- This test allowed the Company to develop the proprietary criteria which will be implemented on all future deployments and is an invaluable tool for future commercialization; and -- The test confirmed the Company's theory that varying degrees of depletion have occurred along the wellbore. This confirms Raise's belief that existing artificial lift technology currently being used by industry has room for substantial improvement.

Over the next 30 to 60 days, the Company will continue to analyze the information collected, and strategize over which modifications to the System will be selected for the next deployment. At this time, the Company believes the System has proven to be robust enough to target substantially higher production wells. This will require electronic activation to enable much faster cycle times.

Eric Laing, President and CEO, is quoted as saying "It has become apparent that we have built a robust and reliable system. It is unique to the industry and functions even better than we had envisioned. However, the current activation system will need to be altered. We have much of the preliminary work done on the electronic activation in anticipation of this need for deeper longer well bores and we believe that this can be accelerated quite quickly. We have our patent in place covering multiple pumps in the horizontal wellbore. We have pumps that work together in series like we want them to in the horizontal section. I'm optimistic that we will be able to adapt the current System to utilize electronic activation that will enable commerciality. This step will allow Raise to move our technology forward for the betterment of the industry, employees and our shareholders."

About Raise Production Inc.

The Company is an innovative oilfield service company that focuses its efforts on the production service sector, utilizing its proprietary products to enhance and increase ultimate production in both conventional and unconventional horizontal oil and gas wells.

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release.

Certain information included in this news release constitutes forward-looking statements under applicable securities legislation. Forward-looking statements or information typically contain or can be identified by statements that include words such as "anticipate", "assume", "based", "believe", "can", "continue", "depend", "estimate", "expect", "forecast", "if", "intend", "may", "plan", "project", "propose", "result", "upon", "will", "within" or similar words suggesting future outcomes or statements regarding an outlook. Such forward-looking statements or information are based on a number of assumptions that may prove to be incorrect. Assumptions have been made regarding, among other things: the ability of the Company to obtain required capital to finance its new product development, the successful completion of further product development and testing within predicted timelines or at all, the ability to commercialize products and operations, the ability to adequately protect proprietary information and technology from its competitors; the ability to obtain partnering opportunities; the ability to attract and retain key personnel and key collaborators; and the ability to successfully compete in targeted markets.

The forward-looking statements contained in this news release are made as of the date hereof and the Company does not undertake any obligation to publicly update or revise any of the included forward-looking statements, except as required by applicable Canadian securities law. Forward-looking statements are based upon the current opinions, estimates, projections, assumptions and expectations of management of the Company as at the effective date of such statements and, in some cases, information supplied by third parties. Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are based upon reasonable assumptions and that information received from third parties is reliable, it can give no assurance that those expectations will prove to have been correct. By its nature, forward-looking information involves numerous assumptions, known and unknown risks and uncertainties, both general and specific, that contribute to the possibility that the predictions, forecasts, projections and other forward-looking statement will not occur. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to: the possibility that testing, deployment and commercialization of the System may not be successfully completed for any reason (including the failure to obtain the required approvals from regulatory authorities) and regulatory changes. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance upon the forward-looking statements contained in this news release and such forward-looking statements should not be interpreted or regarded as guarantees of future performance and actual results or developments may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. For more information on the Company, investors should review the Company's continuous disclosure filings that are available at www.sedar.com.

Contacts:

Raise Production Inc.

Eric Laing

President and Chief Executive Officer

(403) 699-7675

elaing@raiseproduction.com



Raise Production Inc.

Scott Riddell

Business Development

(403) 699-7675

sriddell@raiseproduction.com



Raise Production Inc.

2620-58th Avenue S.E.

Calgary, Alberta T2C 1G5

(403) 699-7675

www.raiseproduction.com




WorkHuman 2016 conference, Customer Service Team take top honors

Globoforce, a leading provider of social recognition solutionstoday announced it was named the winner of four gold medals at the 2016 Golden Bridge Business and Innovation Awards. Globoforce took top honors for its WorkHuman 2016 conference in the categories of Best Corporate Image Event and Best Brand Experience Event, as well as gold for Customer Service Team of the Year and Best Exhibition Display for the SHRM 2015 Annual Conference. The Golden Bridge Business and Innovation Awards are an annual industry and peer recognition program honoring the world's best products, services and companies.

"These awards represent the tireless effort that our team puts forward every day to help customers and the HR community as a whole work more human," said Chris French, vice president, Customer Success at Globoforce. "We are honored to receive such strong validation of our work, as we continue to empower and challenge business leaders to redefine how we work together, and make 'WorkHuman' part of the collective workplace vocabulary."

Globoforce's WorkHuman movement launched in June 2015, and galvanizes leaders and organizations worldwide to harness the transformative power of people for the next generation of HR. It celebrates breakthrough organizations building human-centric workplaces where employees achieve their fullest potential and people feel appreciated and connected for how and what they do, who they are, and what they need at a very human level. Globoforce's 2017 conference was recently announced for May 30-June 1, at the JW Marriott Phoenix Desert Ridge Resort Spa in Phoenix, Arizona. The annual event has grown three times in size since the inaugural conference in 2015.

Globoforce's Customer Service Team supports a customer base with 3 million employees from companies spanning the globe, including Fortune 500 customers such as The Hershey Company, JetBlue and Cardinal Health. Globoforce's dedicated team guides customers on every step of the journey to make work more human. With world-class support and thought leadership, the Globoforce team helps companies create cultures of recognition that make their business thrive.

In addition to the Golden Bridge Awards, Globoforce was recently awarded nine 2016 business and technology awards, including a gold Stevie award for Customer Service Team of the Year at the American Business Awards and a gold for Best Brand Experience Event for WorkHuman 2015 at the Network Products Guide IT World Awards.

Winners of the Golden Bridge Awards will be honored during an awards dinner and presentation Sept. 12, 2016, in San Francisco.

For more information about the Golden Bridge Business and Innovation Awards, click here.

About the Golden Bridge Business and Innovation Awards

The Golden Bridge Awards are an annual industry and peers recognition program honoring best companies in every major industry from large to small and new startups in North America, Europe, Middle-East, Africa, Asia-Pacific and Latin America, Best New Products and Services, Best Innovations, Management and Teams, Women in Business and the Professions, Case Studies, Customer Satisfaction, and PR and Marketing Campaigns from all over the world. Learn more about The Golden Bridge Awards at www.goldenbridgeawards.com

About Globoforce

Globoforce is a leading provider of social recognition solutions, helping companies build stronger, more human cultures through the power of thanks. Named one of the Best Workplaces by the Great Place To WorkInstitute, Globoforce is trusted by some of the most admired companies in the world to inspire and energize employees and create best places to work. Our award-winning SaaS technology and proven methodologies empower HR and business leaders to take a modern, more strategic approach to recognition programs. What results is measurable business success, qualified by increases in employee engagement, retention and productivity. The company pioneered the WorkHuman movement, created to galvanize organizations and leaders worldwide to create a more human workplace. Globoforce is co-headquartered in Southborough, Massachusetts, and Dublin, Ireland.

To learn more:

Visit: http://www.globoforce.com

Read: http://globoforce.com/globoblog

Follow: Twitter @Globoforce LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/company/globoforce Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/globoforce



View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160823005205/en/

Contacts:

Globoforce

Shweta Agarwal, 508-229-1541

Shweta.agarwal@globoforce.com
VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA -- (Marketwired) -- 10/07/16 -- Saturn Minerals Inc. (TSX VENTURE: SMI)(FRANKFURT: SMK) ("Saturn" or the "Company") is pleased to announce a private placement of up to 10,000,000 units (the "Units") at a price of $0.10 per Unit for gross proceeds of up to $1,000,000.

Each Unit consists of one common share (the "Shares") and one-half of a share purchase warrant (the "Warrants"). Each whole Warrant will entitle the holder to purchase one additional common share, exercisable at a price of $0.15 per share for a period of 18 months from the date of issue of the Warrant.

The Warrants are subject to an accelerated expiry if, at any time after an initial 4 month hold period expires, the closing price of Saturn's common shares on the TSX Venture Exchange (the "TSXV") exceeds $0.20 for any 20 consecutive trading days, in which event the holder will be given notice that the Warrants will expire 30 days following the date of such notice. The Warrants may be exercised by the holder during the 30-day period between the notice and the expiration of the Warrants.

All securities issued will be subject to a four-month hold period. The offering is subject to the approval of the TSXV. This news release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any securities.

Proceeds from the Private Placement will be used for general working capital.

About Saturn Minerals Inc.

Saturn Minerals Inc. (TSX VENTURE: SMI)(FRANKFURT: SMK) is a junior Canadian energy company advancing a portfolio of oil and coal properties in Saskatchewan and Manitoba. The Company exclusive oil & gas rights in Saskatchewan and is advancing a number of oil exploration projects. Saturn has also made three shallow bituminous coal discoveries since 2009 with coal seams ranging in continuous vertical thickness from 9 to 89 meters. Saturn has a strategic ownership in Inowending Exploration & Development Corp., a First Nations owned exploration and development company co-founded by Saturn with a consortium of Saskatchewan First Nations active in Canada's prairie provinces. Saturn's mission is to be a leading industry player in the discovery and commercial production of oil & gas resources in the Northern Williston Basin.

On Behalf of the Board of Directors

SATURN MINERALS INC.

s/ "Stan Szary"

Chief Executive Officer

NEITHER THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE NOR ITS REGULATION SERVICES PROVIDER (AS THAT TERM IS DEFINED IN THE POLICIES OF THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE) ACCEPTS RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS NEWS RELEASE.

Contacts:

Saturn Minerals Inc.

+1 (604) 685-6989

www.saturnminerals.com




Medical device company, Compumedics Ltd, has secured a new 3-year contract with Bestmed, a medical technology company in China.This contract is for the distribution, in China, of Compumedics monitoring systems for neurological diseases.Compumedics says Bestmed is one of its seven distribution partners across China, HK and Macau.The company says this deal will generate at least $3 million revenue  with each of its monitoring systems costing between $10,000 and $20,000.Compumedics reported a net profit of $1.9 million at 31 December 2015.
RedWave Energy, a Chicago, IL-based energy harvesting startup, completed a $5.5m funding round.

The round  which unlocked a $3.8m DOE ARPA-E grant  was led by Energy Foundry with participation from Northwater Capital, EnerTech Holding Company (A subsidiary of the sovereign wealth fund of Kuwait) and Prime Coalition.

Led by Jim Nelson, CEO and Pat Brady, CTO, RedWave provides a nanoscale film that converts unused waste heat into electricity. The nanoantenna based technology is specifically designed to harvest low quality waste heat below 250c that represents the most abundant source in an underserved market generated by many industrial uses ranging from glass manufacturing to electric power generation plants.

Strategic end user and partner interest has been expressed in electric generation, flat glass manufacturing, glass container manufacturing, integrated circuit manufacturing and others.

The technology is built from exclusively licensed and patent protected IP from Idaho National Labs, University of Colorado and a premier roll to roll manufacturing firm MicroContinuum.

FinSMEs

27/07/2016
New Delhi: The man who was driving the jeep used by Bollywood star Salman Khan during an alleged deer hunt in Rajasthan in 1998 today stuck to his claim that the actor had shot the animal.

The statement by Harish Dulani, who was reported to be "missing", came two days after the 50-year-old actor was acquitted by the Rajasthan High Court in two cases related to poaching of Chinkaras in Jodhpur in 1998.

Dulani also maintained that he was not absconding but was only under fear due to threats.

"I stick to the statement I made before the magistrate 18 years ago that Salman got off the car and shot the deer. I was not absconding but I was scared due to several threats received by me and my father," he told NDTV.

"Due to fear I went away to my relatives' place in Jodhpur. We had asked for protection but did not get it. If I had police protection, I could have given a statement. That was what I always intended," he added.

The high court had held that the pellets recovered from the Chinkaras were not fired from Khan's licensed gun.

Dulani, the prosecution's only witness in the poaching cases, was reported missing since 2002, which weakened the prosecution's case against the movie star.

The driver also said that he has been "punished" for being Salman's driver.

"I have been punished for being Salman's driver. I am living my life in fear," he said.

Khan was jailed in 2007 for nearly a week for shooting an endangered Chinkara(gazelle) in 1998.

While arguing the case in the high court, Khan's lawyer had contended that the actor had been falsely framed in these cases, merely on the statements of Dulani, the driver of the vehicle, which was allegedly used in poaching in both these cases.

The lawyer argued that Dulani was never available to them for cross-examination and hence his statements could not be relied upon in the conviction of Khan.

He had also contended that both the cases have been built on circumstantial evidences and there was no eye-witness or any material evidence against Salman.
New Delhi: Government has fixed December 31, 2016 as the deadline for companies like Vodafone and Cairn Energy Plc to settle their retrospective tax disputes. The one-time offer to settle tax issues by waiving of interest and penalty, if the companies paid up the principal tax amount, had opened on June 1 this year.

Nearly two months after the offer opened, none of the companies have come forward and now the government wants to have a deadline for the scheme, sources privy to the development said.

After the scheme closes, the Income Tax Department will go ahead with tax demands and pursue legal course including arbitration, they said.

Sources said the government had asked Income Tax Department not to take any coercive action during the time

the scheme is open.

Weeks before the scheme was announced by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in his budget speech on February 29, the Income Tax Department had issued Vodafone a reminder over its Rs 14,200-crore tax demand and threatened to seize assets in case of non-payment.

UK oil explorer Cairn Energy is facing a tax demand of Rs 10,247 crore on alleged capital gains made in a 2006 business reorganisation it carried out in its India unit before getting it listed. The total tax due after including interest comes to over Rs 29,000 crore.

British telecom giant Vodafone is also facing a total demand of Rs 14,200 crore in tax, interest and penalty with regard to its USD 11 billion acquisition of 67 per cent stake in the mobile-phone business owned by Hutchison Whampoa in 2007.

Both firms raised their concerns over the tax demands and challenged the matter by initiating international arbitration.

Sources said that in case any of the companies decides to avail the tax settlement scheme, it needs to provide a proof of withdrawal of "any proceeding for arbitration, conciliation or mediation or any notice thereof under any law for the time being in force or under any agreement entered into by India with any other country or territory outside India whether for protection of investment or otherwise".

The company will also have to furnish an undertaking waiving its right to seek or pursue any remedy or any claim in relation to the specified tax which may otherwise be available to it under any law or under an agreement with any country.

A firm availing of the offer would have to pay the principal tax amount within 30 days of the designated

authority determining the amount payable by the declarant.

Also any amount paid in pursuance of a declaration shall not be refundable under any circumstances.

Announcing the one-time scheme of Dispute Resolution for companies which are facing tax demand for retrospective amendment to I-T Act, Jaitley had in his Budget speech said: "They can settle the case by paying only the tax arrears, in which case liability of the interest and penalty shall be waived."

Sources said the government was of the view that the arbitrations are not just time consuming but were also costing the government a lot besides getting India a bad name. The settlement scheme was proposed to put an end to all of that.
NEW DELHI India's largest telecom network operator, Bharti Airtel Ltd, reported a 30.8 percent fall in first-quarter net profit on Wednesday, blaming an adverse foreign exchange impact in Nigeria, although it beat analysts' estimates.

Consolidated net profit fell to 14.62 billion rupees ($218 million) in the quarter ended June 30, from 21.13 billion rupees last year, the company said.

Analysts on average had expected a net profit of 11.59 billion rupees, according to Thomson Reuters data.

Bharti Airtel, headed by billionaire Sunil Mittal, said total revenue rose 7.9 percent from a year earlier to a record 255.47 billion rupees, helped by new customers signing up for the company's 3G and 4G data services.

During the quarter, the Nigerian naira depreciated by 42 percent, forcing the company to register an exceptional loss of 7.48 billion rupees as a result. Bharti derives about 7 percent of its consolidated EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) from Nigeria, analysts estimate.

Restructuring in some other countries also hurt profits, the company said.

Mobile data revenue during the June quarter rose 35 percent to 35.25 billion rupees from a year ago, Bharti Airtel said. Average revenue per user (ARPU) of data rose 10-fold from a year earlier to 202 rupees during the quarter.

The proliferation of cheap smartphones, led by Chinese brands, has prompted more Indians to use their handsets to access the Internet and demand faster downloads. An Internet-based startup boom in the country has also seen increased adaptability on smartphones, bolstering demand for high-speed data.

Over 100 million smartphones were sold in India, the world's second-biggest mobile phone market by customers, last year and that number is expected to grow by over a quarter this year.

Earlier in July Indian conglomerate Reliance Industries said it would launch its much-awaited fourth-generation (4G) wireless services commercially in the coming months, competing with Bharti Airtel, which ramped up coverage of its 4G services last year to 300 towns in anticipation.

4G services should make it much faster than 3G services to surf the web on mobile phones, tablets and laptops.

(Additional reporting by Tripti Kalro in Bengaluru; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips and Susan Fenton)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
Cleaners of dry latrines or 'safaiwala', is how we glaze over the job description of manual scavengers. But the actual job entails cleaning human excreta with bare hands and carrying it to the disposal site in overhead baskets. The profession, though outlawed by the Indian Constitution in 1993, is still the primary occupation of over 180,000 Dalit families, according to the 2011 census data. And even today, 300,000 more would have still been caught up in the quagmire, if not for the efforts of a 50-year-old Dalit social activist from Karnataka.

Bezwada Wilson, a social activist working for abolition of the dehumanising practice of manually cleaning human excreta and toilets, was on Wednesday chosen to be felicitated with the Ramon Magsaysay Award 2016 for "asserting the inalienable right to a life of human dignity."

A Dalit born into a family of manual scavengers in Karnataka, Wilson had seen his parents clean toilets as a boy. Although he was spared the labour and given a chance to pursue higher education, the profession followed by his family and caste haunted his identity as a teenager. He was discriminated against, looked down upon as a child. According to the citation of the Magsaysay Award, he was "treated as an outcast in school and acutely aware of his family's lot, Bezwada was filled with great anger; but he would later channel this anger to a crusade to eradicate manual scavenging."

And it was this discrimination and the pain of a shared blotched identity that would help him strike a chord with other manual scavengers and organise a mass movement against the profession.

In an interview given to Business Standard in 2007, Wilson recounts the turning point in his life that angered him towards the injustice of the system. Then a 17-year-old boy, Wilson was pained to see the women and even children working through the night soil with their bare hands, unfazed by the horrible stench that surrounded them. He says everybody used to consume alcohol to be able to stand the foul smell. Wilson used to reason out with them, asking them to stop doing the work. But on one sweltering summer day, when it was especially hard to scrape off dried excreta, he broke down while asking some of the workers to stop cleaning. That incident strengthened his intent to change things.

Wilson understood that merely asking his friends and family to stop doing the work will not solve anything. The problem was much more complex. "I was such a fool: What did I expect them to say? That they would give up their livelihood, the only thing they knew how to do? The only thing society tells them they can do?" Business Standard quotes him as saying.

Resolved to put an end to this discrimination, in 1986, Wilson started by convincing his neighbours and family that being a Dalit was a status imposed and not their fate. He actively campaigned and opposed humans cleaning the excreta of fellow humans. According to the citation at the Magsaysay Award website, Wilson complained against dry toilets and wrote to the Prime Minister, as a result of which all such toilets in his districts were replaced with water-seal latrines. Emboldened by this, he expanded his efforts to other states in India and created a mass movement against the dehumanising practice, which was later known as Safai Karmchari Andolan (SKA).

Today, Bezwada Wilson is a well-known name as one of the handful of crusaders for the cause of manual scavengers. Of the estimated 600,000 scavengers in India, SKA has liberated around 300,000 and helped them to move on to other professions, according to the citation of the Magsaysay Award. He has trained thousands of volunteers across the country and fought vehemently against the practice within the legal framework of the country. In 1993, he sued the Union of India and various state governments for not following its own rules, which outlaws dry latrines and manual scavenging. The court ruled in his favour.

Wilson was also instrumental in the framing of the new law in 2013 that provides for a rehabilitation support system for scavengers. In an interview to the Youth Ki Awaz, he says SKA worked hard to ensure the enforcement of the Employment of Manual Scavengers and Construction of Dry Latrines (Prohibition) Act, 1993. They approached the Supreme Court, which asked for state-wise data but the states went into denial. So SKA finally demolished dry toilets in states like Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Rajasthan. According to his profile in Outlook, Bezwada Wilson will not rest until he has demolished the last one in India.

But the situation is still far from satisfactory. Although there are government schemes in place to aid the rehabilitation process of manual scavengers, comprehensive rehabilitation is not picking up. According to PIB, One Time Cash Assistance of Rs 40,000 has been credited into the bank accounts of about 6,600 manual scavengers. So far, 12 states have identified about 12,000 manual scavengers. However, in comparison to the ground reality, the official numbers are too small. It is not even in agreement to the data put out by the government census, which puts the number of manual scavengers at 1,82,505.

Taking cognisance of Wilson's work in emancipation of manual scavangers, the Magsaysay Award has also flagged manual scavenging as a dehumanising practice that must be eradicated.
Uttarakhand Chief Minister, Harish Rawat confirmed the presence of Chinese troops in Indian territory.

#WATCH: Uttarakhand Chief Minister Harish Rawat confirms Chinese incursion in Chamoli district.https://t.co/ouQJsSKNB6  ANI (@ANI_news) July 27, 2016

The Indian Express reported that the incursion happened in Chamoli district of the state. However Rawat said that the Chinese troops didn't touch the "important canal" in Chamoli and assured that the Center will take 'cognizance of the issue'.

However, such an incursion by the Chinese troops on Indian soil is not a new phenomenon. According to an earlier Firstpost report, China has on many occasions "transgressed" into the Indian borders. According to a BBC report, the Home Ministry claims that there have been "334 transgressions by Chinese troops over the Indian border" in 2014 alone. Uttarakhand which shares a 350 kilometer boundary with China, last year saw the word 'China' scribbled on a rock in Mana Pass in Chamoli.

On the infiltration issue, Kiran Rijiju said that the Center needs to investigate whether it was actually an infiltration bid by the Chinese troops.

According to Harsh V Pant of BBC, such incursions tend to take place before or during major India-China meets. One need only look as far back as 2013 and the Depsang incursion just before Prime Minister Li Keqiang's visit to India.

Indian officials have in the past reasoned China's incursions as a "result of differing perceptions about line of truth," according to Brahma Chellaney in The Sunday Guardian. However, he says that in the Indo-Chinese disputes, India has "always been on the defensive" and that Beijing's "public language" signals Premier Zhou Enlai's words, "to teach India a lesson.."
Indian politicians excel in singing paeans to the dead. Their histrionics and hysterics can even wake up the dead. And they did a terrific job of it even in the case of APJ Abdul Kalam on 27 July last year.

Bharat lost its ratna, lamented Narendra Modi.

India mourns his death but will long celebrate his life, grieved Shashi Tharoor, the Congress MP from Thiruvananthapuram, where Kalam had spent a good part of his life as a scientist.

But since that day, little has been heard about Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam. More importantly, not a syllable has been uttered about what the missile man had said India must do to become a better place to live in and to turn into a Knowledge Superpower.

Forget the great memorial that Modi promised at the site where Kalam, the President of India between 2002 and 2007, was buried in Rameswaram, his birthplace in Tamil Nadu. Cows and dogs had begun to defecate on the burial site.

It was only after Kalams legion of fans kicked off a #Justice4GuruKalam campaign and an online petition logged more than 1.1 lakh supporters, that the government hastily announced last week that the foundation would be laid for a memorial on Kalams first death anniversary.

Statue of APJ Abdul Kalam unveiled by Union Ministers Venkaiah Naidu and Manohar Parrikar in Rameshwaram pic.twitter.com/KIZVkOKqRi  ANI (@ANI_news) July 27, 2016

But forget about all that.

And forget that the former president, a Muslim, did namaaz every day, read the Bhagavad Gita, played Saraswati-veena and generally turned science into his religion.

And also forget for a moment that it was Kalam who made Indias missile and space programmes and Pokhran-2 nuclear test possible.

But you cant forget the mans ideas.

And not all of his ideas had anything to do with missiles or satellites. Some of them had  and still have  the potential to transform India from an also-ran into a winner. Those in power who sang dirges when he joined the stars seemed to have buried all those great concepts with him.

Some of Kalams brainwaves made a huge difference to some peoples lives. The coronary stent that he helped Hyderabads heart surgeon Soma Raju develop in 1991 is one such instance. Kalams vast knowledge of materials used in defence establishments went into it, and the result was the Kalam-Raju stent, priced at some Rs 10,000, while those available in the market set patients back by more than Rs one lakh.

Then there was the low-cost, light-weight callipers he helped a Hyderabad hospital develop in 1995 with the same composite material that is used in the making of Agni missile. Its another matter that the stent and the callipers have gone out of the market, partly because they are outdated but largely because greedy, commission-crazy doctors plump for the more expensive alternatives. The stent and callipers helped people as long as they did because of private initiative.

Its the government initiative that Kalams numerous other concepts need. But even before his death, most of the countrys politicians, bureaucrats and technocrats thumbed their noses at what he said.

I can never forget the day in 2004, two years after he became the president, when I was fascinated by his speech on the occasion of JRD Tatas 100th death anniversary in Bengaluru, except that it wasnt a speech. It was a presentation on how India could desalinate sea water and do away with drinking water shortages. No, it wasnt a scientists pipe dream. Explaining the scientific process of desalination and the economics of it, he said the UAE was doing it and India could do it better at a much lower cost.

I was aghast to hear the sniggers from the top honchos of the industry who sat either side of me. They were mocking at Kalams teacher-like habit of repeatedly punctuating his speech with: Do you understand? Do you understand? That reminded me of a well-known Delhi editor, whose only reaction to Kalams election as president two years earlier was an amused chuckle over his weird hair.

Even later, the response of governments in Delhi and the states to Kalams suggestions ranged from the lukewarm to contemptuous.

Remember the torrential rains in Mumbai and the overflowing of the Mithi in 2005? Kalam went to Mumbai not to trot out sympathies but to make several useful suggestions on developing a storm water drainage system. Learn lessons from Chicago, where water is handled in huge quantities, he told local officials. Nobody knows what became of his suggestions.

Then there was his concept called Provision of Urban Amenities in Rural Areas (PURA) which Kalam first came up with in 2003. He proposed that urban infrastructure and services should be provided in rural areas to extend economic opportunities from cities to villages. After executing it in a piecemeal fashion, successive governments only found flaws with it, but Kalam had never said his ideas were commandments set in stone. A concept like PURA needs to be improved and improvised.

The faith Kalam had in PURA was immense. When Pervez Musharraf called on him in April 2005 in Delhi, he was apparently unable to raise the Kashmir issue with the Indian president as he had planned to do. Kalam gave the general no time for it. He kept the visitor busy with a Power Point presentation he made on PURA, saying it could work wonders for Pakistan as well.

But it was the ideas with which Kalam was brimming  besides his simplicity and integrity  that earned the man a huge fan club across India. Without doubt, he is a darling of children. A popularity poll among children would put Kalam miles ahead of Chacha Nehru.

A Tamil Nadu school official once revealed that the students reserved their loudest cheer for Kalam at a programme where MS Dhoni and Gautam Gambhir too were among the guests.

It should be pointed out, however, that a couple of chief ministers who play competitive politics to achieve election victories through development gains have indeed paid heed to Kalam.

J Jayalalithaa has taken the desalination of sea water seriously in Tamil Nadu. And whether Kalam was his sole inspiration or not, Chandrababu Naidu, by joining the Godavari and Krishna rivers in Andhra Pradesh, has implemented the Missile Mans other pet idea of linking rivers.

It was in 1998 that Kalams acclaimed book India 2020: A Vision for the New Millennium was published. He pointed out in the book how India could be a Knowledge Superpower by 2020  22 years later. We are only four years away from his deadline, but its never too late.

Even if Kalam is dead, his ideas to transform India shouldnt be.

The author tweets @sprasadindia
By Amla Pisharody

On Monday, 25 July 2016, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief, Raj Thackeray, demanded Sharia-like laws to deal with rapists. He said that the hands and legs of those who molest and kill children and women should be cut off. This was in response to the rape of a minor in Ahmednagar.

This is of course not the first time a politician has asked for extreme and violent measures to deal with rapists. In 2013, in a public meeting, former Maharashtra deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar said that a more permanent solution to stopping incidents of rape can be achieved if the genitals of rapists are cut off. His opinion seems to be supported by a Madras High Court Order on considering castration as a form of punishment for child rapists. The judge in the order said that, Suggestion of castration looks barbaric, but barbaric crimes should definitely attract barbaric model of punishment [] Court is sure that additional punishment of castration of child rapists would fetch magical results in preventing and containing child abuses. In the past, politicians like Sushma Swaraj, Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Sushil Kumar Shinde have all favoured capital punishment for rapists.

Theres no evidence to indicate that capital punishment deters any crime, including rape, which is why country after country is abolishing capital punishment.

According to a National Crime Records Bureau report of 2014, of the 37,413 cases reported, in 32,187 of those cases, the rapist was known to the woman or they were in close proximity to them. This could mean that the reporting is already tough because of the close proximity of relationship, as women will be faced with reporting their fathers, uncles, friends, colleagues, brothers, neighbours etc. Add to this the fear that what awaits is chemical castration or hanging. Chances that both victim and other members of the family (who might perhaps support her) will report the case are likely to reduce.

In this context its interesting to note that if you look up countries that use capital punishment for rape vs. those countries that have not criminalised marital rape, the list has more or less the same names. For example, countries such as Egypt, Bangladesh, Brunei, China, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Papua New Guinea, Sri Lanka, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tajikistan, Vietnam, and UAE, all have both capital punishment for rape and no recognition for marital rape. These are all countries that assume that the rapist is out there.

The machismo of hang them, hack them drowns out the conversation on steps that should be taken to ensure safety of children and women, and to improve conviction of the rapes. Further, the threat of capital punishment could lead to rapists killing the victim after committing rape, as murder and rape would have the same punishment.

The two recent cases, one of a Dalit student being gang-raped for the second time and one of a 14-year-Dalit girl being raped and tortured to death by her rapist out on bail, show that for the case to go to court alone is a struggle: once it is in court awaiting hearing dates, the bigger issues are trying to fight off threats from the accused and the lack of security provided by the State to survivors of rape. The question of punishment is much further down the lane. Read this account of one of the Shakti Mills rape survivors and you encounter moments from the legal proceedings such as this: Here is the routine of the identification parade that Megha is told to follow. There are separate line-ups of seven men, and the survivor has to pick the accused by touching him on the arm. She then has to go to a corner of the room, and announce loudly what the suspect did to her. And this is what Megha does on 4 September, in a room full of men that include her attackers, without any women officers present to aid her. She touches the men on the arm to identify them, and then says, Isne mera balatkaar kiya (He sexually assaulted me). She repeats this four times over.

Kavita Krishnan, secretary of the All India Progressive Womens Association and Polit Bureau member of the Communist Part of India (Marxist), once said in an interview that the question we need to ask is not whether the laws are severe enough, but whether they are gender-just. What is the point of having laws that castrate or hang rapists, when marital rape is still not recognised, when AFSPA still exists to perpetuate sexual violence on women, and when women are basically denied equal rights?

Hanging men also does not address the other issues that women face on daily basis  like eve teasing, moral policing, molestation etc. Politicians have in fact only supported this environment, by saying women must not be adventurous (former Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dixit), or that women must be careful about what they wear and at what time they go out. Their body language must not draw the attention of potential rapists lurking around on the streets (National Congress Party leader Asha Mirje).

When politicians make noisy bombastic statements about killing rapists, its a neat little diversion from work. How do you create environments in which women can report rape, be safe after reporting, stay secure and strong during trials, and create conditions in which rape trials can be sensitive? All of this is hard work and requires more effort than simply hanging someone. It requires challenging existing laws that are biased against women; it requires making changes in the educational system by introducing sex education and sensitising young adults and children; it requires us, and especially politicians, to stop moral policing women, a task that requires a little more than gruesome solutions such as cutting the hands and legs of rapists.

So if you dont mind, Raj Thackeray and the rest of you, dont give speeches and demand blood in our names. Call us after youve done some work.

The Ladies Finger is a leading online feminist magazine.
Hyderabad is a hotbed of discontent. Bifurcation blues which have soured relations between Telangana and Andhra Pradesh have now invaded the arena of postings of government doctors. This battle comes in the wake of thousands of Telangana judicial officers wanting their Andhra counterparts to move out of Hyderabad.

We launched Telangana movement to end the rein of Seemandhra (Rayalaseema region and coastal Andhra region, now the area comprising Andhra state) people exploiting our land, resources (water and minerals) for their gains, said Balka Suman, Osmania student leader and an MP with the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samiti in Telangana. They were worse than the British who looted our wealth. It is high time that doctors, engineers, students, advocates and judges who were relegated to second (class) citizens in their own lands, were given back the posts usurped by the people of Seemandhra, he said.

Doctors in Telangana are now up in arms against the division in cadre for the Directorate of Medical Education based on nativity of doctors from Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. Mostly the tussle is between doctors for postings in government hospitals of Hyderabad which account for nearly 80% of the health infrastructure  be it bed strength, paramedics or doctors strength.

Doctors of government hospitals in Telangana have been on the war path since January last. Dharnas and mass absenteeism were used to record their displeasure over many doctors of AP nativity being retained in Telangana as Professors and Assistant Professors in the teaching hospitals of Hyderabad.

On 28 January, government doctors in Telangana blocked all emergency services at Gandhi and Osmania General Hospitals in Hyderabad and Secunderabad. Around 100 doctors from Telangana started their protest by locking the main gate of the outpatient block in Gandhi Hospital, alleging that out of 300 doctors working there, 70% were from Andhra Pradesh. Blaming this on the Director of Medical Education Dr Ramanithey, they gheraoed her in her chambers, forcing her to submit her resignation. I have no role, everything is listed as per SR (service records), she pleaded with the angry doctors.

The latest skirmish began in the last week of June following a visit by Union Department of Personnel and Training Secretary Sanjay Kothari to Hyderabad and deliberations with the Kamalnathan Committee set up to resolve all issues of distribution of employees between both states. The Telangana doctors staged protest meetings and also raised the issue before the Committee.

The Telangana Government Doctors Association (TGDA) wanted all doctors of AP origin to be given marching orders, instead of the planned 60 doctors. They told the Kamalanathan Committee that another 170 doctors who were retained in the posts of Associate Professors and Assistant Professors in government teaching hospitals  NIMS, Osmania and Gandhi  should also be sent packing. Whether they are doctors or engineers, the issue of nativity should be strictly followed and non-locals have no reason to hang around Hyderabad, said Dr Ravinder Reddy, a TNGO (Telangana Non-Gazetted Officers Union) leader. TNGO is a federation of all unions of govt departments in the state.

The TGDA, in an affidavit filed before the Kamalnathan Committee, said that these 170 doctors were occupying key positions of Professors and Assistant Professors which should go to Telangana doctors. The TGDA asked Telangana Health Minister Dr Laxma Reddy to take up the issue with the Union Health Ministry and the Union Home Ministry (DOPT). Neither are their spouses from the region and nor do they suffer from any medical condition which justifies their stay here, said Dr Nara Hari, a senior TGDA member. Commenting on the doctors agitation, Laxma Reddy said, Nillu, Nidhulu Niyamakalu (water, resources and appointments) are the focus issues of Telangana agitation. We will not allow Andhras to continue in any position in Telangana, be it hospitals, courts, colleges or even government departments.

Meanwhile doctors have been going away to greener pastures  the Gulf and African countries  for short tenure appointments as consultants, without informing their hospital managements. Officials, last June, reported to the Centre, that 89 doctors in Andhra Pradesh and 54 doctors in Telangana had been absent for the past two years. Unofficial statistics from Doctors Association sources show that absentee doctors number at least 1200 for both states together. Many doctors particularly dentists and child specialists, who have political support, have gone for better paying jobs on short tenures abroad earning four to five times higher salaries and perks than what the government gives, said a senior lady doctor at Gandhi Hospital.

Andhra and Telangana doctors are jittery at the two-year wait. We have been getting warnings through post, posters and wall writings that we are overstaying and that if we dont go, we will be thrown out, said a senior cardiologist of Gandhi Hospital. This doctor has stopped going to hospital after his car was vandalised and is practising from home itself.

Employees of AP origin are especially concerned that any more delay could upset their childrens academic schedule, considering that the academic year in schools and colleges has already begun. According to Dr K Narasimhulu, president of the United Doctors' Forum, an association representing Seemandhra-based doctors, there is more demand for doctors in Seemandhra, as there is a huge shortfall of super specialities and corporate hospitals. 2000 doctors of AP origin are keen to go away but only the future of their kids is making them hang in here for a while, he explained. Many are also concerned about the lack of speciality infrastructure in Seemandhra hospitals and plan to go there only after a few years, he said.

Their counterparts in Telangana are also unhappy over the delay in division. But a worrying deficit of doctors that an immediate division would entail is the actual cause of delay, say government sources. If the division was made effective in 2015, then there would have been a shortage of seniors in at least two premier government hospitals  Gandhi and Sarojini, as they are staffed mostly by Seemandhra doctors, said one state Health Ministry official.

But promotion prospects of Telangana doctors have been hit by this delay and they are angry. TGDA leader Dr S Ramesh said, It is testing our patience for a long time. He added that Telangana doctors cannot hope to be promoted as long as Seemandhra doctors stay put. There is also popular demand that Seemandhra doctors in private hospitals should also leave so that Telangana doctors could get the opportunity to work in these super specialities in Hyderabad. As long as they are here, they will not allow us (Telangana doctors) to work in such institutes and bring in their own kith and kin for plum postings, complained Dr BR Ramachander, another senior doctor at Osmania Hospital. Both unions plan to approach the court to speed up the decision of the Kamalanathan Committee.

The Kamalnathan Committee agreed to complete the process of division of doctors by July end. The Centre has extended the date for the third time to August and indicated that there will not be any further extensions. The Committee directed both state governments to stop salaries of doctors and other staff if they fail to submit their school study certificate by 20 April. But another hitch arose in June when 70 members were allotted from Telangana to AP and another 250 doctors were allotted from AP to Telangana.

The big picture

Health services took a beating in the initial days of bifurcation as funds for national health schemes like the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) took a backseat. For Telangana, more than funds, the problem is that of shortfall of doctors. According to the Sri Krishna Committee set up by the UPA government to study the ground realities before bifurcation, Telangana, excluding Hyderabad, trailed far behind Rayalaseema and coastal Andhra in terms of availability of doctors.

Realisation has dawned on both Telangana and Andhra Pradesh about the severe and massive doctor crunch that is likely to worsen soon. The requirement of doctors in the two states is likely to be around 5000. Demand is likely to increase further as every corporate hospital in Hyderabad would float branches in Seemandhra, offering lucrative incentives. Seemandhra has already opened its doors for NRI doctors to come back and set up institutions with subsidised land, power and other concessions.

So what happens if the majority of qualified doctors head to Andhra? To solve the issue, Telangana has opened up its doors to doctors from West Bengal, Maharashtra, Kerala, Odisha and Karnataka. It will take a minimum of one or two decades for AP to develop this environment (like in Hyderabad hospitals) and until then doctors are also not keen to go away, as for most of the professionals, going to Vijayawada, Tirupati or Rajahmundry is just like going back to the ice age, said Dr SK Purohit of Osmania Hospital.

A prominent doctors familys car was stoned near Suryapet, the gateway town to Telangana from AP. I have lived in Hyderabad since my childhood days and was also born there, but now just because my forefathers came from AP, they hounded me and my family, lamented a veteran dentist whose three daughters and two sons are also doctors in Hyderabad.

But the TRS and Telangana government does not seem willing to back down. In several political meetings Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao and his ministers T Harish Rao and KT Rama Rao said, Seemandhra people go to their native villages for Sankranti (harvest festival) and Ugadi (Telugu New Year). They also go there for voting. Their names are in the ration card and Aadhar cards issued there. But they claim to be Hyderabadis! How is it possible?

Hyderabad is today the bread, butter and sauce of Telangana, accounting for over 40% of the new states revenues. Known as a medical tourism hub, the city would lose its glitter if it had to import doctors from other states for its hospitals. Intake in medical colleges to has gone down. Of the 20 medical colleges in Telangana, 14 are located in Hyderabad. Of these, nearly 6 are facing a crunch of students and are likely to fold up this year. Colleges are already offering incentives like discounts on hostels and free laptops, in a desperate attempt to woo North Indian students, as AP students have kept away due to the acrimony.

But the politicians continue to spew anger against the other state. Let the Seemandhra doctors go if they want. We have nothing to worry. We have plans to attract our doctors hailing from Karimnagar, Warangal and Hyderabad, who are working in Dubai and other countries, to return and take charge of the institutions in Hyderabad, said Telangana Health Minister Lakshma Reddy. What remains on ground though, is bitterness, confusion and a lot of anger between the once-united Telugu speaking states.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal is back at doing what he does best -- taking potshots at the Prime Minister. This time the Aam Aadmi Party chief has posted a 9.48-minute video on the YouTube to tell the world that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah are conspiring to murder him so that they could stay in power.

Most Indians would loathe to hear and ponder over what the Delhi chief minister broadcasted on the internet against his country's PM but Kejriwal as usual is playing both victim and hero. Victim because, he claims to be constantly on the receiving end of a conspiracy unleashed through the Income Tax, Delhi Police and CBI and hero, because he and only he has the guts to fight a tyrannical Modi regime at the Centre. He presents himself to be the only hope of the people and thus Modi wants to eliminate him and his party leaders.

Towards the end of his around 10-minute long video message to his supporters, Kejriwal claims, albeit without naming Modi but with clear references to him and Shah that its time all AAP leaders and workers should talk to their family and be prepared for Kurbani (sacrifice): "Ye kisi bhi had tak ja sakte hain. hume marwa sakte hain, mujhe bhi marwa sakte hain. Kuch bhi kar sakte hain. (They can stoop to any kind of low. They can get us killed, even I could be killed. They can do anything)." Going to jail is a small thing. Be prepared to risk your life and therefore you need to talk to your family for larger sacrifice." He then adds that if the workers are prepared to lay their life for the cause as propounded by him then they should remain with him, else pack their bags from politics and the party.

Mind you, this comes from Delhi chief minister, who has 67 MLAs out of total strength of 70 in the Delhi Assembly and aspires to become Prime Minister of the country in the near future. He had earlier termed PM Modi as a "psychopath" and "coward" and kept on telling the world that Modi was so obsessed with him that 24x7 his only occupation was to conspire against him and AAP.

But this time around Kejriwal has crossed all limits of propriety in a federal set up, virtually saying that the Prime Minister of India was actually a criminal of worst order who would turn into a murderer, killing a chief minister and other rivals just to hold on power.

Kejriwal begins making his statement by saying that 10 MLAs of his party have been arrested, another one was raided by the Income Tax department, one MP suspended from Parliament and 21 MLAs face possible disqualification under provisions of office of profit. He calls it a daman ka chakra (cycle of atrocities) where daily juthe-sachhe (false-true) cases were registered because PM Modi and Amit Shah were masterminding and directing Income Tax, Delhi Police and CBI to go after AAP.

While listing these cases and claiming them all to be conspiracies, he forgets one of the first arrests, his law minister Jitender Singh Tomar, who was booked in a fake degree case and later proved that he not only had procured fake degrees but also was part of a racket. Former law minister and MLA Somnath Bhati was booked because his wife filed a complaint against him for domestic violence. It could be argued that police could have shown restraint in some other cases but by make a sweeping generalisation Kejriwal is not helping his party.

In any case, Kejriwal these days is mostly out of Delhi campaigning for the party in other states and has virtually become an absentee chief minister. The Delhi government runs in his name but does Kejriwal have intent to run the government is big question. His time and energy is mostly spent on negative energy, counter a self-created Modi phobia.

If one believes Kejriwal then he has moles in the inner decision making group of Modi, who keep on informing him of the PM's thoughts and his next move against the AAP chief. "Insiders" tell him that these days Modi is very angry and deeply hassled. He then gives provides an answer as to why Modi is angry and hassled -- because Modi feels threatened by his good work in Delhi, he has not reconciled to his defeat in Delhi and feels threatened by AAP's rising tide in Punjab, Goa and Gujarat.

He then attempts to explain the motive (as prosecution needs to attach a motive to a crime, real or perceived) as to why Modi would want to have him and other party leaders eliminated. Kejriwal claims that since Modi has failed on all fronts and all sections of the society  students, traders, farmers, SCs, STs and so on  are very angry with him, he has no hopes of retaining power through democratic process. So the only other option left before Modi and Shah is to eliminate his potential challengers. Congress and other regional parties have been effectively crushed and it is only Kejriwal who has the courage and conviction to stand against him and in the process be his only threat.

Sometime back Kejriwal's men had made it a big issue, even calling a threat to life, when one of erstwhile AAP member, 26-year-old Bhawna Arora had thrown ink at him. But now things have gone to an entirely new tangent.

Delhi needs governance from him. He need not be paranoid about his security. One would like to believe that security agencies are competent enough to provide security to a serving chief minister of the National Capital Territory of Delhi.
New Delhi: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday and sought a loan waiver and adequate central funds especially in view of floods in her state.

"Government should make some plan to restructure the debt. Otherwise all states in the country will be heavily debt-ridden," Banerjee told reporters outside Parliament after meeting Modi.

Earlier in the day, she also met Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and discussed with him various issues concerning state's economy and development.

She also stuck to her earlier stand that unless citizens in her state has 100 percent Aadhar cards, it could not be linked to direct bank transfer.

Banerjee had raised her objections on linking Aadhar cards to the DBT during Inter State Council meeting also.

She again maintained that in Bengal, only 40 percent people have Aadhar cards and if the system is linked compulsorily to the direct bank transfer, many poor people will be derived of their benefits.

On debt burden, an issue that bothered the Banerjee regime since 2011, sources said at present, West Bengal is facing about Rs 2 lakh crore debt burden.

"We have Rs 53,000 crore budget and we have to pay Rs 60,000 crore for loan payment. This is not possible," Banerjee said.

During her meeting with Modi and Jaitley, she also raised the issue of the grim flood situation in the state.

"State is witnessing heavy rains. There are road blocks. Monsoon will continue for two more months," she said expressing her anxiety at the situation, and also indicating that the state government was not quite pleased with the central assistance on natural calamities as well.

"Last time we had demanded about Rs 9,000 crore but the Centre gave only Rs 600 crore," she complained, adding the matter was especially flagged off by during her 15-minute meeting with Modi.

Asked about his response, she said: "Prime Minister said I will look into it."

Banerjee, also the Trinamool Congress supremo, has strongly floated the idea of an anti-BJP "federal front" comprising of regional parties, and during her stay in the capital, had met her Bihar counterpart Nitish Kumar, of the Janata Dal-United, on Tuesday evening.

She has also got feelers from Aam Aadmi Party for a meeting with Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.
Lucknow: Two Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) legislators raised the banner of revolt against the party leadership on Wednesday and accused party chief Mayawati of selling tickets for a price.

The legislators  Brijesh Verma and Romi Sahni  said both Mayawati and general secretary Naseemuddin Siddiqui were busy selling tickets to the highest bidder.

Interestingly, both these legislators had returned to the party after seeking forgiveness from Mayawati for their anti-party rant. Sahni said he was denied a ticket after he failed to give Rs 5 crore and the ticket was then given to a hotelier.

Verma also made similar accusations and said the party chief wanted him to deposit Rs 4 crore into the party fund and when he failed to do so, the ticket was denied.

Meanwhile, the BSP said the accusations were nothing but a bunch of lies and alleged that after being denied tickets the legislators were making false charges. The party also swiftly suspended both the MLAs for alleged anti-party activities.
Krakow: Pope Francis is coming to southern Poland from 27-31 July to meet with young people from around the globe who gather for the World Youth Day, which is being held 25-31 July. Here's a look at his trip and the places he will be visiting.

Why is the pope visiting?

World Youth Day was established in 1985 by Polish-born Pope John Paul II, whom Francis declared a saint in 2014, and aims to inspire young people to follow Christian values of peace and love in life. The gatherings are held every two or three years. The first meeting was held in Rome in 1986, attended by John Paul II and some 30,000 participants. The largest World Youth Day gathering was in the Philippines in 1995, when an estimated 5 million people attended a Mass celebrated by John Paul II. This year, World Youth Day is being held in Krakow and its surroundings.

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The city of Krakow, its Royal Castle and the Cathedral

Krakow, a city of 760,000 in southern Poland, dates back before the 10th century, when it was already a commercial center. It was the king's residence and Poland's capital from the 14th century through the 16th century. Central Krakow is a Gothic and Renaissance city with a spacious market square, among Europe's largest. During World War II, the city escaped damage. Pope John Paul II, born Karol Wojtyla, lived here, studied here and served as a priest, bishop and archbishop here from 1938 until 1978, when he was chosen pope.

The city's Wawel Hill is the site of the Royal Castle and the Cathedral. The castle was the residence of Poland's kings until 1609, when the capital was moved to Warsaw. It was ravaged during World War II but not destroyed, and later turned into a museum. Poland's many kings, queens, political leaders and writers are buried in the Wawel Cathedral, where Francis will meet with Poland's bishops. The cathedral also houses John Paul II's relics and those of St. Stanislas, Poland's first saint.

The Bishops' Palace is the residence of Krakow bishops and dates back to the 15th century. On his visits to Krakow, John Paul II would appear in the window above the main entrance in the evening and chat with the crowd below. Francis is staying there and planning also to appear in the window.

Krakow's Blonia is a vast meadow of 48 hectares (119 acres) inside the city, where crowds, sometimes exceeding one million, attended Masses led by John Paul II and Benedict XVI.

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Jasna Gora Monastery

The Jasna Gora Monastery in the city of Czestochowa, 120 kilometers (74 miles) northwest of Krakow, is predominantly Catholic Poland's holiest shrine since the 14th century, when it obtained a picture of the Mother of God reputed to be miraculous and attributed by some to St. Luke the Evangelist. The image has characteristic saber cuts across Mary's face, a remainder of a 15th-century attack on the monastery. The picture draws hundreds of thousands of pilgrims from across Poland each year. Another precious object in the monastery is a sash given by John Paul II that bears bullet holes and his bloodstains from an attempt on his life in 1981.

Francis will celebrate a Mass there on Thursday morning.

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The Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp

The memorial site of the former German Nazi Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp is notorious for its cruel entrance sign "Arbeit Macht Frei" ("work makes you free"). The Nazi Germans operated the death camp from 1940-45 in the town of Oswiecim when they occupied Poland during World War II. Some 1.1 million people, mostly Jews from across Europe, were killed in its gas chambers or died from diseases and hunger amid forced hard labor. The victims also include Poles, Roma, Soviet Red Army prisoners of war and citizens of other nations.

On Friday, Francis will pray at the Death Wall in Auschwitz, where Polish resistance fighters were executed in summary procedures, and also in the death cell of a Catholic Franciscan friar, St. Maksymilian Maria Kolbe, who in 1941 volunteered to die to save another inmate's life. That inmate, Franciszek Gajowniczek, survived the war and was united with his wife. John Paul II made Kolbe a saint in 1982.

The wooden barracks of Birkenau were built for those Jews, Roma and others whom the Nazis considered fit for hard labor. All the others were killed in Birkenau's gas chambers. Ceremonies in memory of the victims are held each year at the stone monument in Birkenau.

John Paul II visited the site in 1979 and Pope Benedict XVI visited in 2006.

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Other sites

Francis will also visit the following sites in and near Krakow:

The University Children's Hospital of Cracow, in the Prokocim district.

The Divine Mercy Shrine and St. Faustyna's Chapel in Lagiewniki, a Krakow district. It is a 19th-century convent. In 2002, John Paul II visited and consecrated the basilica, with its white marble altar, which holds St. Faustina's relics.

The Sanctuary of St. John Paul II, less than a mile from the Lagiewniki shrine, consecrated in 2013. The lower church houses the pope's relics, while St. John Paul's II body is entombed inside St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican. The sanctuary's bronze doors show the pope in the company of saints.

The Campus Misericordiae, or Field of Mercy, in a vast meadow in the village of Brzegi, near Krakow, which will host the World Youth Day's July 31 Mass.
Beijing: Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi criticised the United States, Japan and Australia for a joint statement on the South China Sea that he said was only "fanning the flames" of regional tensions just as countries have agreed to cool them down.

Wang said in a statement on Wednesday that the move by the three countries came at an inappropriate time and wasn't constructive.

"This trilateral statement is fanning the flames," he said. "Now it is the time to test whether you are peacekeepers or troublemakers," said Wang's statement, referring to the three countries.

The three allies urged China not to construct military outposts and reclaim land in the disputed waters, making a strong show of support for Southeast Asian nations that have territorial disputes with Beijing, notably the Philippines and Vietnam.

Their joint statement, issued late Monday, filled a vacuum created by the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations, whose foreign ministers on Sunday failed to take a stand against China because of divisions among them.

The US, Japanese and Australia's foreign ministers met in Laos on the sidelines of a series of meetings organized by Asean. The grouping could have leveraged the recent decision by a permanent arbitration panel, which ruled in favor of the Philippines in a case it brought against China in their dispute in the South China Sea.
PHILADELPHIA Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton secured the Democratic Party's 2016 nomination for the White House on Tuesday, becoming the first woman to head the ticket of a major party in U.S. history.

In a symbolic show of party unity, Clinton's former rival, U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, told the chairwoman from the convention floor that Clinton should be selected as the party's nominee during a state-by-state roll call at the Democratic convention in Philadelphia.

Earlier, delegates from South Dakota had given Clinton 15 votes, ensuring that she had more than the 2,383 votes needed to win the nomination. She emerged with a total of 2,842 votes to Sanders' 1,865 votes.

After a tough battle with Sanders, Clinton is now the party's standard-bearer against Republican nominee Donald Trump in the Nov. 8 election.

Delegates chanted "Hillary, Hillary" as U.S. Senator Barbara Mikulski of Maryland formally put forward Clinton's name for the alphabetical roll-call vote.

"Yes, we do break barriers, I broke a barrier when I became the first Democratic woman elected to the Senate in her own right," Mikulski said. "So it is with a full heart that I'm here today to nominate Hillary Clinton to be the first woman president," Mikulski said.

Sanders has endorsed Clinton, a former first lady and U.S. senator, but some of his supporters protested in Philadelphia against the party leadership's apparent backing of her during the bitter Democratic primary fight.

Supporters of Clinton say her Washington credentials show she has the experience needed for the White House during troubled times as the United States tries to speed up its economic recovery and faces security challenges abroad.

Detractors view her as too cosy with the establishment and say she carries political baggage dating back to the start of her husband President Bill Clinton's first White House term in the 1990s.

Clinton had been leading Trump in national opinion polls in recent weeks but the New York businessman got a boost from the Republican National Convention in Cleveland where he was formally nominated last week.

Trump had a 2-point lead over Clinton in a Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll released on Tuesday, the first time he has been ahead since early May.

Clinton, who promises to tackle income inequality and rein in Wall Street if she becomes president, is eager to portray former reality TV star Trump as too unstable to sit in the Oval Office.

(Additional reporting by Amanda Becker, Doina Chiacu, Luciana Lopez, Amy Tennery and Jonathan Allen; Writing by Alistair Bell; Editing by Peter Cooney and Howard Goller)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
Paris: French President Francois Hollande on Wednesday rejected opposition calls to further harden

anti-terrorism legislation after the country's second jihadist attack in two weeks.

"Restricting our freedoms will not make the fight against terrorism more effective," he said, adding that changes made to legislation already gave authorities sufficient "capacity to act".

He was speaking after two jihadists attacked a church in a Normandy town, killing an elderly Catholic priest by slitting his throat, and severely injuring another person.

Hollande's predecessor and opposition chief Nicolas Sarkozy earlier called for the government to "thoroughly change ... the strategy of our counterattack."

"Our enemy has no taboos, no limits, no morals, no borders," he said, asking the government to adopt proposals made by his right-wing Republicans party.

The opposition wants anyone suspect of being radicalised to be placed in detention and to prevent convicted terrorists from being released from prison after having served time, if they are still considered dangerous.

The Republicans also wants to make it a criminal offence to have spent time in the "field of terrorist operations", namely Syria and Iraq.

However those returning from jihad are already charges with criminal conspiracy with a terrorist enterprise.

"The government is using all human and material means to fight this threat, with a mobilisation of police, gendarmes and soldiers never before seen in the Fifth Republic," said Hollande.

The president has urged unity in a country poisoned by bitter political blame-trading over security failings after a Tunisian national mowed down a crowd celebrating Bastille Day on 14 July, killing 84.

"What the terrorists want is to divide us, separate us, to tear us apart. We must avoid one-upmanship, arguments, conflation, suspicions," he said.

"This war will be long. Our democracy is the target, and it will be our shield. Let us stand together. We will win this war.
Paris: Several major media outlets in France said Wednesday they would no longer use photographs of killers responsible for terror attacks to avoid giving them "posthumous glorification".

The country's two global news broadcasters RFI and France 24, as well as its biggest rolling television news channel BFMTV, said they would stop showing images of the attackers.

The public Arab-language radio station Monte Carlo Doualiya followed suit.

Daily newspapers Le Monde and La Croix had earlier announced similar moves, while Europe 1 radio station went further still saying it would not be "naming terrorists".

"We realised after the Nice attack that we were very uncomfortable about a series of photos from the attacker's past," Le Monde's managing editor Jerome Fenoglio told AFP, referring to widely circulated images of Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel flexing his muscles and salsa dancing.

"It is not about hiding the facts, or where these killers came from, which is why we do not agree with not naming them," Fenoglio added.

BFMTV, which came in for criticism for interviewing gunman Amedy Coulibaly during the January 2015 kosher supermarket hostage siege in Paris in which four people died, said it had also stopped using images of attackers.

"We made the decision last night to no longer show pictures of the terrorists until further notice," said editorial director Herve Beroud.

"Photographs are very symbolic... and are shown repeatedly. They tend to put the terrorists and the victims on the same level," he told AFP.

He said the station would continue to name attackers. "The difficulty of this debate is that we have to guard against not informing people," he added.

But the left-leaning daily Liberation said it would continue to name and publish photos of attackers.

"Publishing photos of terrorists and glorifying them is not the same thing," deputy managing editor Johan Hufnagel said.

Giving them a platform

The surprise decisions came as Europe reeled from a wave of violence as a German expert told AFP that there was strong preliminary evidence that blanket media coverage led to further terror attacks.

Professor Michael Jetter warned it could also be a factor in inspiring other unbalanced people to kill.

"If you devote a lot of coverage to an attack we will see more attacks in the following week and more also in the coming months," said the researcher at the University of Western Australia, who has studying data on terrorist violence dating back to 1970.

"If you think about it for a second from the perspective of a terrorist organisation, (blanket coverage) is exactly what they want," he said.

"Everyone is watching it, everybody is afraid of them, everybody is looking at what they stand for."

The brutal killing of an elderly priest on Tuesday has further traumatised a country already reeling from the truck massacre in Nice in which 84 died  the third major terror attack in 18 months.

Jetter said Europe now seems to be experiencing "co-related phenomena" of school-type mass killings and self-radicalised jihadist atrocities.

"There are two elements mixing together at the moment. The terrorist organisations want the media platform and as much coverage as possible.

"And with school-type shootings  if you give an individual that level of coverage that by itself may encourage other shooters," he warned.

AFP's global news director Michele Leridon said that since "the Islamic State group's first bloody attacks ... we have refused to carry the images they poured indiscriminately onto social media."

However, the agency will leave it up to its 5,000 clients worldwide to decide whether to publish the attacker's name and photograph, she said.

"They must decide for themselves whether or not to use them."
Damascus: The death toll from an attack Wednesday on the Kurdish-held western section of Qamishli town in north-eastern Syria has risen to 55, with many victims still buried under the rubble, a hospital official told dpa.

"The number keeps increasing as lots of victims are still buried under the debris. Many of the injured are listed in critical condition," Qamishli National Hospital Director Omar Al-Qaqoub said.

"Our new accounts of the wounded also reached more than 160 as many of the Kurdish police forces who were wounded were taken to various hospitals in the town for treatment," he added.

He added that hospitals in the area are flooded with wounded people.

The head of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Rami Abdel Rahman, estimated the number killed to be 48, with more than 140 wounded.

"This is the worst blast to hit the Qamishli area," Abdel Rahman said.

Kurdish news agency Rudaw said the first blast was caused by a truck loaded with explosives which targeted a centre run by the Kurdish police force.

A second blast hit a street in the east of the city that is home to the local defence administration, the agency reported, giving no details on how many were wounded or injured in the attack.

Abdel Rahman told dpa earlier a car bomb targeted the Justice Department and Kurdish internal security force in the town, which is located in al-Hasaka province.

Syria television showed huge damage in the area where the blast took place and panicking people rushing to help those trapped under the rubble. Women were also seen running and shouting for help.

Hospitals across Qamishli have put out urgent calls for the donation of all blood types in the wake of the blasts.

Qamishli, which is predominantly inhabited by Kurds, has regularly been targeted by bombings, many of which were claimed by Islamic State.

Islamic State claimed responsibility for one of Wednesday's bombings.

"An Islamic state fighter managed to reach a number of buildings of the Kurds via his explosives-laden truck, blowing himself up among them ... destroying their buildings ... killing over 100 and injuring dozens," the statement said.

It added that the attack was to avenge the killing of men, women and children in the Islamic State-controlled Minbij city, north of Syria.

The claim was made via one of its supporting channels on the Telegram messaging app.

The extremist group vowed to launch further attacks against the Kurds.

On 31 May, the Kurdish-led Democratic Forces of Syria (DFS), backed by US-led airstrikes, launched a wide-scale offensive on the Minbij pocket, the extremists' last territory on the Turkish border.

The operation is aimed at cutting the extremist group's last link with the outside world and isolating its de facto Syrian capital, al-Raqqa, which lies south-east of Minbij.

Qamishli is under the joint control of president Bashar al-Assad's forces and the Syrian Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG), which in April agreed to a ceasefire following days of deadly fighting for control of the city.
Islamabad: Pakistan on Wednesday said that US Secretary of State John Kerry would visit Islamabad soon to mend ties following the killing of Taliban chief Mullah Mansour in a drone strike in May.

Kerry met Pakistan Foreign Affairs Adviser Sartaj Aziz on the sidelines of the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) Ministerial Meeting in Vientiane in Laos.

Kerry said that the US is ready to improve and expand its multidimensional partnership with Pakistan, the Foreign Office (FO) said in a statement.

"Secretary Kerry said he would like to visit Pakistan in the near future to review bilateral cooperation and discuss regional issues," FO said. The two sides also reviewed bilateral relations.

Aziz and Kerry also exchanged views on the regional situation with special reference to Afghanistan and agreed on the importance of promoting the Afghan-led reconciliation process.

Ties between the two countries were hit after a US drone killed Mansour on 22 May in Balochistan region.
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Kathmandu: Nepal's Maoist party led by Prachanda on Wednesday decided to initiate discussions and dialogue with all political parties, including the Madhesis, having representation in the Parliament to form a national consensus government.

The central committee meeting of the CPN-Maoist Centre took a decision to initiate dialogue with all political parties including the agitating Madhesi parties and call them to join the national consensus government being formed under the leadership of Maoist chairman Prachanda, according to the party sources.

After President Bidya Bhandari called political parties to form a national consensus government within one-week time as per the provision of the constitution the largest party in the Parliament Nepali Congress and the Maoists on Tuesday agreed to take initiatives to form a national consensus government.

The two parties have also agreed to form a new government under the leadership of chairman of the Communist Party of Nepal Puspha Kamal Dahal who is also known as Prachanda.

Party spokesperson Pampha Bhushal said that her party will take an initiative to accommodate almost all the political parties having representation in the Parliament in the new cabinet to be formed under the leadership of Prachanda.

"As we have realised the need for addressing the concerns of the Madhesis (largely of Indian-origin), Tharu communities and other ethnic minorities while implementing the constitution, we have decided to hold talks with these political parties as well and make effort to ensure their participation in the new government," Bhushal said.

The deadline issued by Bhandari to form a consensus government is till Monday. If no consensus could be reached among the parties on the formation of a government then the process of forming a majority government will start from Tuesday.

As political observers here don't see the possibility of forming a consensus government within the deadline, the formation of a majority government might take at least one more week.

Nepal plunged into a political turmoil after Prime Minister KP Oli resigned just before a no-confidence vote.

Oli tendered his resignation after two key ruling alliance partners  Madhesi People's Rights Forum-Democratic and Rastriya Prajatantra Party  decided to support the no-confidence motion tabled against him by the Nepali Congress (NC) and the CPN-Maoist Centre led by Prachanda in the 596-member Parliament.
If Hillary Clinton does go on to become the first woman President of United States, she owes a big 'thank you' to Michelle Obama.

In a stirring speech of style, substance and emotional connect on the opening night of the Democratic National Convention, the First Lady gave Hillary  a former adversary  a much-needed boost and reduced Republican candidate Donald J Trump to a rump with a flurry of punches without once taking his name.

Michelle probably got herself a crack speechwriter unlike Melania Trump.

But that alone can't possibly explain the grace, depth of knowledge and conviction on display in her elocution on Monday night that could have rivaled any of Barack Obama's speeches in terms of oratory and poise. In so doing, she also perhaps laid the foundation for her own future bid for the White House.

Some of her potential voters certainly suggested so.

What is of essence, though, that Michelle chose to put behind the much-publicised bad blood between the two most powerful women in US politics at a crucial time. Her ringing endorsement of the Clinton campaign comes when Hillary  despite creating history by becoming the first woman to win a White House nomination of a major US political party on Tuesday  is struggling with poor ratings, perception issues and deep hatred from a section of her own voters who saw a champion in challenger Bernie Sanders.

The longstanding bitterness between Clinton and Sanders' backers grew worse over the past few days and exploded during Democratic National Convention as Sanders's delegates were seen leaving the Wells Fargo Center in droves. A cache of hacked emails had recently exposed how Democratic Party officials had sought to undermine Sanders in the race for the nomination in favour of Clinton.

Such is the bitterness that even Sanders' full-throated endorsement of Clinton drew jeers and boos from his own supporters who were reduced to tears at his valedictory tone. They later protested inside and outside the DNC site and clashed with the police when news came in that Hillary had won the partys presidential nomination.

"This was not a convention. This was a four-day Hillary party. And we weren't welcome," news agency AP quoted a New Jersey delegate, as saying during the protest rally. "We were treated like lepers."

But this is only a part of Clinton's troubles. CNN's latest opinion poll shows that her image is now at its lowest point in a 24-year career on the national political scene.

The Democrat nominee is viewed unfavorably by 57 percent of Americans, compared to 38 percent who view her favourably, according to Gallup's daily tracking poll. It means that she is only slightly more popular than her Republican opponent Donald Trump  whose favourability rating is at 36 percent. According to Gallup, Clintons favourable rating stands at 70 percent, which means nearly a third of Democrats dont hold a favourable view of her. At this point in the 2008 campaign, 84 percent of Democrats favoured Barack Obama.

Besides, there are perception issues.

Clinton is firmly seen as part of the establishment. Middle-of-the road, working class white Americans struggling with poor pay and rising inequality are angry with the system. This swing segment, not necessarily Republican voters, hates Clinton. The DNC kicked off on Monday night with rousing speeches delivered by progressive US Senators Sanders and Elizabeth Warren wherein they blasted the rich. Sanders highlighted that "it is not moral, not acceptable  that the top one-tenth of one percent now own almost as much wealth as the bottom 90 percent" and Warren added that chief executives are making tens of millions of dollars, "but it isnt trickling down to hard-working families."

Now consider the significance. Around 60 percent of Sanders's campaign funds or $134 million, came via ordinary Americans who contributed $27 each, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. In contrast, Clinton had to solely rely on money from corporates. Wall Street is her largest industry donor, with $41 million going into her coffers.

With terrorism being the second biggest concern among Americans, the former secretary of state must impress upon her voters that her national security policy won't be more of the same. That is a tall ask because it will in all probability be more of the same because she was among the chief architect of Obamas national-security policies. And according to the latest Economist/YouGov poll, only 42 percent of people approve of how Obama is handling terrorism.

In the race tension that has gripped the US and is threatening to tear it apart, Clinton has expectedly sided with the Black Lives Matter sentiment to consolidate her position among her own voters and further swaying away from Trump's core voters, the angry middle-class whites.

Amid this treacherous backdrop, Michelle Obama stepped in and hit the ball for a six. Never once referring to Trump, she condemned "the hateful language that we hear from public figures on TV."

"How we insist that the hateful language they hear from public figures on TV does not represent the true spirit of this country. How we explain that when someone is cruel or acts like a bully, you dont stoop to their level. No, our motto is, when they go low, we go high."

Much of her speech was about the children and how it is incumbent on the voters now to choose wisely so that the fate of America's future citizens is secure. She started with an anecdote and quickly turned it around and twisted the knife.

"I will never forget that winter morning as I watched our girls, just 7 and 10 years old, pile into those black SUVs with all those big men with guns. And I saw their little faces pressed up against the window, and the only thing I could think was, what have we done? At that moment I realised that our time in the White House would form the foundation for who they would become, and how well we managed this experience could truly make or break them. That is what Barack and I think about every day as we try to guide and protect our girls through the challenges of this unusual life in the spotlight, how we urge them to ignore those who question their fathers citizenship or faith."

She added: "This election  every election  is about who will have the power to shape our children for the next four or eight years of our lives. And I am here tonight because in this election, there is only one person who I trust with that responsibility  only one person who I believe is truly qualified to be President of the United States. And that is our friend, Hillary Clinton."

She picked up the topic of race in a poignant, almost poetic phrase that sought to address the issues that the US is now struggling to contain.

"That is the story of this country, the story that has brought me to this stage tonight, the story of generations of people who felt the lash of bondage, the shame of servitude, the sting of segregation, but who kept on striving and hoping and doing what needed to be done so that today I wake up every morning in a house that was built by slaves. And I watch my daughters, two beautiful, intelligent, black young women playing with their dogs on the White House lawn."

In the next logical step to this American story, where everyone is born equal but not everyone has experienced equality, it would be the greatest of statement, perhaps, to elect a woman as president after a black man. She took up Trump's campaign slogan, Make America Great Again, and used it as a weapon against the Republican nominee.

"Dont let anyone ever tell you that this country isnt great, that somehow we need to make it great again," Obama said, just after her discussion of race and gender in the White House. "Because this right now is the greatest country on Earth!"

Even Donald Trump seems to have been taken in by Michelle's speech, telling Hollywood Reporter: "I thought her delivery was excellent... I thought she did a very good job. I liked her speech."

One of the biggest problems the Democrats have faced over the years is that their voters lack the drive to come out and cast their ballots unlike their Republican counterparts. That could make all the difference in what promises to be a taut, tight race. Michelle's last few lines were focused on driving that message home.

"In this election, we cannot sit back and hope that everything works out for the best, we cannot afford to be tired or frustrated or cynical. Hear me: Between now and November, we need to do what we did eight years ago and four years ago. We need to knock on every door, we need to get out every vote, we need to pour every last ounce of passion into electing Hillary Clinton as president of the United States of America. Let's get to work."

Clinton won't find a better ally.
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Scope: This project includes the replacement of high pressure fire pump diesel engines at both pump houses. Engines are to meet or exceed current abilities of existing, including new exhaust pipe to existing muffler, insulation, fuel deliver filtration, block heating and heat exchanger; controls compatible with existing pump controller; and pressure calibration of controller. Pump and love-joy coupling assembly is to be replaced. Existing concrete pedestal, and battery stand shall be reused. New batteries are included. Pressure bypass deluge shall be replaced to insure proper operating pressures to the system. The existing two (2) jockey pumps at each pump house will be replaced; existing fuel tanks at both pump houses will be repainted; and the existing concrete spillway at pump house 1826 will be waterproofed. Also, an alternate is included for a pump system monitoring upgrade.
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If you can't beat 'em, buy 'em. After banging its head against the impenetrable US market for a little while, the "Netflix of China" LeEco decided to buy its way in, picking up California-based TV maker Vizio for $2 billion. This will help LeEco put its TVs in our living rooms, its phones in our hands, and its cars on our roads.

The US market isn't the only reason to buy Vizio, but it's a big one. Vizio only had a 3.43 percent global market share for TV sales in 2015, according to Statista, but it has a market share over 20 percent here in the US, according to Variety.

While politicians rail about how many US products are made in China, our nation has been tough going for Chinese brands, especially in terms of mobile phones and cars. Hisense and TCL are both strong players in TVs here in the US. But LeEco (formerly LeTV) isn't just a TV company; it also makes phones, it intends to make cars, and it wants to sell both.

Several of China's most globally powerful phone brands, including Huawei, Xiaomi, Meizu, and Oppo, have either zero or near-zero sales to our 350 million-strong, smartphone-obsessed population. Much of that is politics, and more importantly political risk. About 90 percent of phones here in the US are sold through carriers. They don't see the point of taking a chance on a new Chinese vendor, and possibly getting politically pummeled, when they can play it safe and order up the latest from Samsung or Alcatel.

The Nokia ProblemBut it's also about the Nokia Problem. Nokia was once the world's No. 1 smartphone maker, but sold poorly in the US because it insisted on a centralized, global decision-making process while US carriers wanted specific, personal attention and customized products. (Sony has had the same problem here, for years.) Even Samsung still customizes its products for US carriers, if subtly.

Alcatel and ZTE, the two Chinese phone makers to succeed here in the US, have shown that a locally focused approach works. Both companies staffed up their US units with plenty of American talent and gave them broad local decision-making powers. The result has been a strong presence by both companies in carriers' prepaid lineups.

I don't know much about the trends in US big-box retail, but I suspect they're as relationship-oriented as the carriers. While LeEco does a great business selling TVs online in China, Americans tend to want to check out those kinds of purchases in person before buying, meaning you need a retail presence. It's a lot easier to buy into an existing relationship than to try to build one from scratch.

Phones, TVs, and CarsLeEco wants to be a player in phones. It wants to be a player in TVs. It wants to finance and make movies. It wants to be a player in all sorts of things; when I visited its booth at CES this year, I rode on a "smart bicycle" the company was showing off.

But LeEco has also been saying it would come to the US since mid-2015, and it hasn't, even though it's been staffing up a strong US social and PR team. Clearly, its carrier and retail relationship-building efforts haven't been working out so far. Vizio, on the other hand, has the relationships. It's US-based and US-founded, with a strong bond with our No. 1 retailer, Walmart.

All of this sets the stage for a long-term plan of LeEco's, to become a car company. The firm unveiled an autonomous concept car earlier this year, and it's an investor in another car company, Faraday Future. Note that I'm not talking about where the cars are made. Foreign carmakers make cars in the US; Buick makes cars in China. Rather, US consumers and dealers have rejected Chinese car brands so far, no matter where they're made.

As ZTE and Alcatel have shown, the hybrid approach can work. Americans want to be special. We want products made for us, preferably designed here. LeEco's purchase of Vizio means that it's now a player.

This article originally appeared on PCMag.com.
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IMAGE SOURCE: PIONEER NATURAL RESOURCES.

Pioneer Natural Resources (NYSE: PXD) made a splash in June, when it announced it was purchasing 28,000 acres in the Permian Basin for $443 million. To fully develop the production potential from the acquired acreage, Pioneer would need to turn to its capital program. The requisite spending just got a little bit easier to stomach, though, now that the company just received a $500 million payment from last year's Eagle Ford Shale Midstream divestment. The payment, which was the second installment from the over $1 billion in proceeds, will allow Pioneer to fully carry out its 2016 capital program. For investors, that's very good news. Here's why.

Planned 2016 capital program

When Pioneer acquired the 28,000 acres, it announced that it was increasing its 2016 capital program from $2 billion to $2.1 billion. In a June investor presentation, it explained the sources for the capital as cash on hand, 2016 operating cash flow, and the remaining proceeds from the Eagle Ford Shale midstream sale. It expects to fund its capital program through 2018 without taking on any additional incremental debt.

Pioneer plans to use 90% of this year's spending on its positions in the Permian Basin, which is the immense oil-producing region in West Texas. In the second half of 2016, the company will look to add five horizontal rigs in its prime Spraberry/Wolfcamp positions within the Permian. The rigs should begin producing in early 2017. The company also stated that it will use up to 13,000 of the newly acquired acres to trade for positions that will consolidate and expand its area of production, allowing longer horizontal wells and higher returns.

As an investor, I find it encouraging to see a company understand its revenue streams and successfully apply those to future growth strategies. Pioneer understood how it can take $500 million and utilize it to make strategic investments in its core business, and make no mistake, Pioneer's core business is the Permian Basin.

The Permian is the place to be

While the 2016 strategy looks promising, Pioneer still needs to show positive returns on its investments and show investors it can turn a profit. Fortunately, its substantial positions in the Permian Basin are an excellent indicator of potential earnings.

Pioneer owns roughly 800,000 acres of highly valuable land in the oil-producing region. It used those positions to produce 222,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day in the first quarter, but expects its annualized 2016 production to increase by 12% from last year. In 2017, it expects production to increase by 17% from its first-quarter production.

What's especially promising about the consistent production increases is that it has been closely correlated with lower production costs. Spanning the past six quarters, Pioneer has lowered the cost of drilling and completion in its Spraberry/Wolfcamp positions by 32%. While the lowered costs were partly driven by lower service costs, which could increase as oil prices drive higher demand for services, they were also driven by drilling and operating efficiencies. That type of correlation is what can lead to higher returns in the coming years.

To add further confidence about Pioneer's future, Wood Mackenzie, an energy consultant, said that shale oil -- found in regions such as the Permian Basin -- will make up the majority of new oil projects that are economically viable through 2025. It considers economic viability based on oil at $60 per barrel. The report calls out Pioneer as one company that will benefit from this trend, which is based on companies lowering costs of rigs and equipment while improving well productivity.

That is a very promising sign for Pioneer's future.

Investor takeaway

It's easy to look at Pioneer's first-quarter net losses of $267 million and wince. Long-term investing, though, sometimes requires a short-term memory. With the added Permian Basin acreage, plans to add rigs through 2016, and the second installment of its Eagle Ford Shale midstream divestment, Pioneer continues to put itself in a position to see increased returns in 2017 and beyond.

A secret billion-dollar stock opportunity The world's biggest tech company forgot to show you something, but a few Wall Street analysts and the Fool didn't miss a beat: There's a small company that's powering their brand-new gadgets and the coming revolution in technology. And we think its stock price has nearly unlimited room to run for early in-the-know investors! To be one of them, just click here.

David Lettis has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
As the U.S. Department of Justice moves to block two mega-mergers in the healthcare industry, Aetnas (NYSE:AET) $37 billion deal with Humana (NYSE:HUM) and Anthems (NYSE:ANTM) $48 billion bid for Cigna (NYSE:CI), has left many wondering what happens next to the health insurance industry? While the government and lawyers for the insurance companies battle it out, healthcare experts say the move could spur more innovation in the industry and create more choices for consumers.

What we need from our health insurance industry is alot of innovation and I think that if we allowed the health insurance market to coalesce around a few mega-insurance companies that would hurt innovation, says Alain Enthoven, healthcare economist and professor at Stanford University, who helped design the framework for managed competition in the healthcare industry.

Boeing Leads Innovation

Enthoven says by allowing more companies to compete, competition will give birth to new initiatives aimed at improving managed care and lowering costs. He says it is already happening. Boeing (NYSE:BA), for example, is negotiating directly with some medical service providers to offer healthcare to its employees, bypassing insurance companies. In California, the aerospace giant has teamed up with MemorialCare Health Systems to provide healthcare to its 15,000 employees in the state. If employees choose the plan, they can expect smaller paycheck deductions, full coverage for generic drug prescriptions and zero co-payments for primary care visits. Boeing, meantime, can negotiate better pricing and bring down healthcare expenses.

Total health spending in the U.S. is expected to soar to $3.4 trillion this year a 13% jump from 2014

Boeing isnt alone in coming up with new cost-saving solutions. Wellmark Blue Cross & Blue Shield, the largest health insurer in Iowa, has also implemented a program to reward certain hospitals and clinics with financial incentives for providing high quality care and keeping patients healthy. The insurer said the move saved the company about $35 million in health care costs last year.

Healthcare Costs Soar

Total health spending in the U.S. is expected to soar to $3.4 trillion this year, up 13 percent from $3 trillion dollars in 2014. One contributing factor is the Affordable Care Act. More people are now insured and many are in need of medical attention, more than anticipated, therefore costs are ballooning. As a consequence, premiums for state healthcare exhanges in California, New Mexico, Maine and other states are expected to climb in 2017 and the increase could be dramatic. In Tennessee, Blue Cross and Blue Shield has asked for an average increase of 62 percent in premiums next year, citing higher than expected medical costs.

Premiums for Medicare plans run by private insurers, known as Medicare Advantage plans, have held steady over the past few years. Not the case for out-of-pocket spending limits according to Gretchen Jacobson, analyst at the Kaiser Family Foundation. She says out-of-pocket spending limits on these plans have gone from an average of $4,300 in 2013 to $5,300 this year, an increase of more than 23 percent. We have seen that the out-of-pocket limits have increased pretty sharply over the past few years. So the out-of-pocket limits may be indicative that they (insurers) are changing other costs and benefits as well, she says.

New Solutions Lower Costs

Enthoven says to better manage rising costs expect employers, insurers and medical providers to continue to find new ways to bring expenses down and improve medical care. He says greater competition and new initiatives like the one Boeing and others are implementing will help give consumers more choices and help drive down costs. I am caustiously optimistic that competition for cost conscious and informed consumers could mitigate the growth in spending, he says. Competition can work, its a good thing for consumers and employers.
As allegations swirl that the Russians were responsible for hacking into the Democratic National Committees emails, Republican Nominee Donald Trump clarified his relationship with the Russian President.

I never met Putin I dont know who Putin is. He said one nice thing about me. He said Im a genius, I said thank you very much to the newspaper and that was the end of it, said Trump on Wednesday during a press conference in Doral Florida.

As for the hacking incident, Trump said: Russia if you are listening I hope you are able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing. He also said China could also be responsible.

Following Trumps comments, the Clinton campaign released the following statement: "This has to be the first time that a major presidential candidate has actively encouraged a foreign power to conduct espionage against his political opponent. That's not hyperbole, those are just the facts. This has gone from being a matter of curiosity, and a matter of politics, to being a national security issue," Hillary for America Senior Policy Advisor Jake Sullivan said.

"The first time that a major presidential candidate has actively encouraged a foreign power to conduct espionage." pic.twitter.com/bpJjsvAVlU  Laura Rosenberger (@rosenbergerlm) July 27, 2016

These latest comments on the former KGB agent signal Trump may establish a fresh relationship with the country if elected.

I would treat Vladimir Putin firmly but theres nothing I can think of that Id rather do than have Russia friendly as opposed to the way they are right now so that we can go and knock out ISIS together with other people and with other countries,  he said.

This is not the first time the real-estate mogul has mentioned the controversial leader. During a FOX Business interview last year, Trump said he would meet with Putin if elected.

I actually think he is somebody that can be dealt with. I think his dislike of President Obama is so intense that it really has affected the whole relationship. We've driven them into the arms of China, so that now these two are together, which has always been the great sin. Don't ever let Russia and China get together. We've driven them together. I think he is somebody that I would have a very decent relationship with if I ever win, he told Maria Bartiromo.

Earlier this week, during an interview with NBC News, President Obama was asked about Trumps leanings towards Russia.

What i do know is Donald Trump has repeatedly expressed admiration for Putin.

When asked about the DNCs hacking, Obama said, I think the FBI is still investigating I know experts have attributed it to the Russians. What we do know is the Russians hack our systems not just government systems but private systems.
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.

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On March 30, 1981, 25-year-old John Hinckley Jr. opened fire outside the Hilton Hotel in Washington D.C., shooting then-President Ronald Reagan in the chest, while also gravely wounding Press Secretary James Brady in the head and striking a police officer and Secret Service agent. Today, 35 years after the attempted assassination of our 40th president, a federal judge has ruled that Hinckley, now 61, will be freed from a mental institution to live full-time with his mother.

Astonishingly, when the news broke, I heard many young people ask who John Hinckley Jr. was. Because of this, I feel it is necessary to remind my readers of just how close our beloved 40th president was to dying at the hands of a mentally unstable person who said he plotted the attack to impress actress Jodie Foster.

Hinckley chose a .22 revolver for his attempted assassination and was just 10 feet away from Reagan when he began shooting. The final shot fired reportedly hit Reagans limousine before ricocheting into the left side of his chest, hitting his seventh rib and coming to rest in his lung. He was rushed to George Washington University Medical Center where the severely wounded president insisted on walking through the doors of the emergency room before collapsing and complaining of chest pain and shortness of breath. Intravenous lines were inserted into his veins and surgeons under the direction of Dr. Joseph Giordano inserted a chest tube and noticed his lung had collapsed.

From the time Reagan was struck by the bullet until surgeons were able to remove it, he lost 3.7 quarts of blood, or more than half of the amount humans have in their bodies. Doctors transfused eight units of blood to the 70-year-old president throughout the course of surgery which lasted nearly three hours. The FBI would soon come to learn that the bullets used by Hinckley were Devastators, customized .22-caliber cartridges designed to explode upon impact. It was reported at the time that doctors removing the bullet from the presidents body did not know that it could explode at any moment.

While it was known that the exploding bullet came to rest in Reagans lung, not many realize that it was lodged within an inch of his heart.

More on this... Judge grants John Hinckley Jr. his freedom decades after Reagan assassination attempt

Just 70 days into a presidency that has become one of the most iconic legacies in our countrys history, an explosive bullet lay inches from our fierce leaders heart. If you think medicine alone saved Reagan, you better think again.

I am a man of medicine, but I am also a man of great faith. I pray for protection, I pray for our nation and I believe in the power of a higher being. Regardless of your faith or religion, its hard to explain away how Reagan was 10 feet away from a would-be assassin armed with explosive bullets and lived to tell doctors that hed rather be in Philadelphia, further going on to become one of the countrys most beloved political figures.

I think that, among young people in particular today, we are missing a fundamental faith. Something to believe in, something to guide us to a path of enlightenment. While we have no trouble borrowing the political philosophies of Reagan, I think we should look to borrow something else. Reagan was a man of great faith and forgiveness. He forgave Hinckley, and in 1983, asked if he could meet him to offer his forgiveness in person. The meeting never occurred, but it speaks great volumes about what faith can do for a person. With the violence of todays culture, and the misdirection among our youth, let us look back to Reagan to help propel us into a better future.
Health officials in Southern California are urging high-risk gay and bisexual men to get the meningitis vaccine after observing an increase in cases of invasive meningococcal disease, a potentially deadly infection.

The Daily News reports Tuesdays alert broadens a previous recommendation earlier this month.

The newspaper says 19 people have contracted the disease this year in Los Angeles County, including six from Long Beach. About half of them identify as gay or bisexual. Orange County has had four cases - including one death.

Meningococcal disease can develop rapidly and is fatal in about one in 10 patients. All 11 diagnosed have survived.

Health departments are advising men who regularly have close or intimate contact with multiple partners as well as those who share cigarettes or use illegal drugs to get the meningitis vaccine.
Paraguay has recorded its first two cases of babies born with the microcephaly birth defect associated with the Zika virus, health authorities in the South American country said on Wednesday.

U.S. health officials have concluded that Zika infections in pregnant women can cause microcephaly, a condition marked by small head size that can lead to severe developmental problems.

Both babies were in stable condition, health ministry official Agueda Cabello told reporters.

"They did not require resuscitation," she added. "We will continue evaluation of their psychomotor development."

The World Health Organization has said there is strong scientific consensus that Zika can also cause Guillain-Barre, a rare neurological syndrome that causes temporary paralysis in adults.

The connection between Zika and microcephaly first came to light last fall in Brazil, which has confirmed more than 1,600 cases of microcephaly that it considers to be related to Zika infections in the mothers.

The mothers of the two affected babies in Paraguay come from Alto Parana, near the Brazilian border, and Paraguari, near the capital, Asuncion. They both had skin rashes during their pregnancy, according to the health ministry.
When employers and insurers use reference pricing for diagnostic tests, the average price paid for those tests dips by almost a third, according to a new U.S. study.

Under reference pricing, which is commonly used in Europe for medications, insurers reimburse up to a certain limit, depending on the medication or service, and the patient must pay the rest out of pocket if the price charged is higher. Patients have an incentive to choose medications or services as close to the reference price as possible to reduce their own spending.

"There's no reason to believe the quality of the tests varies across labs," said lead author James C. Robinson of the University of California, Berkeley.

Some insurers and employers in the U.S. already use reference pricing for surgical and diagnostic procedures. In the new study, the researchers investigated how laboratory prices and selection changed for employees of Safeway, the national retailer grocery chain, after the company implemented reference pricing for laboratory tests in March of 2011.

Anthem, the insurer managing Safeway's health plan, negotiated reference prices for lab tests based on the price distribution of those tests by region. Employees who chose a lab that charged less than or equal to the reference price had to pay their usual deductible but had no additional costs for the test.

In 2010, a basic metabolic panel cost between $6 and $126, and a lipid panel ranged from $9 to $75, depending on the lab.

The study team compared claims data for more than 30,000 Safeway employees from 2010 to 2013 to data on about 180,000 other people insured by Anthem but not subject to reference pricing. In total, they looked at more than 2 million claims and 285 diagnostic test types.

Researchers found that Safeway employees had an average of five to six tests per year, which did not change over time.

But before 2011, almost half of tests were at laboratories that charged more than the reference price, which declined to 16 percent of tests in 2013, and some of that decline was due to reference pricing, the authors conclude in JAMA Internal Medicine.

In the year after implementing reference pricing, the average price paid per test by Safeway decreased from $27.72 to $18.90, while the price stayed the same over time for Anthem enrollees not subject to reference pricing.

"Reference pricing can't be used across all types of healthcare," Robinson told Reuters Health. Aspects of urgent care and tests that take place in a hospital may not be appropriate for reference pricing, he said.

"While being treated for cancer, we don't expect the patient to shop the market," Robinson noted. But most of medicine is non-emergency, he said.

"People don't pay attention to price when their employer is paying," he said. Patients who shop around incentivize providers and labs to compete on the basis of price. Reference pricing puts some, but not most, of the cost of a service on the patient, so it should steer people to lower cost services rather than stopping them from seeking care at all, he added.

"It's often a good idea for consumers to let the insurer work harder for them as a purchasing agent through approaches like reference pricing," said Paul B. Ginsburg of the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C., who wrote an editorial accompanying the new results.

But patients need to be informed that they are subject to reference pricing, he added.

"The biggest problem is the lack of awareness that there's a reference price in effect," which is really up to the employer or insurer to communicate, Ginsburg told Reuters Health.
On Tuesday, the Democratic National Convention dedicated it's programming to the theme Mothers of the Movement. The evening was meant to highlight the visceral impact of violence and police brutality in society.

During a ten-minute prime time block, convention delegates and viewers at home heard speeches and watched videos featuring the mothers of Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Sandra Bland, and others.

What the speakers had in common was that they had each lost a loved one to violence  most often in the examples cited following a violent encounter with police.

"So many of our children are gone, but they are not forgotten," said Geneva Reed-Veal, the mother of Sandra Bland.

While no one can question the pain of losing a loved one to violence, no matter the circumstances, the broader conversation on policing in society, violence, and social dysfunction must acknowledge the weight of the pain and sacrifice felt by members of the law enforcement community and their loved ones as well.

Bland died in-custody in July, 2015 at the Waller County Jail in Texas. Her death was ultimately ruled a suicide.

While no one can question the pain of losing a loved one to violence, no matter the circumstances, the broader conversation on policing in society, violence, and social dysfunction must acknowledge the weight of the pain and sacrifice felt by members of the law enforcement community and their loved ones as well.

Where is the balance when almost no mention is given to the families of the brave men and women who have died in the line of duty while protecting our communities from the very violence being condemned? Violence that, to date, has resulted in almost 70 police officers lost so far this year.

Where was the platform for the mothers, wives, and children of the 8 police officers assassinated in Dallas and Baton Rouge?

Who spoke on their behalf?

Or what about the platform offered to brave women like Maureen Faulkner, whose husband Daniel, a Philadelphia police officer, was gunned down in cold blood by Mumia Abu-Jamal on December 9, 1981?

Mrs. Faulkner has spent the past 35 years reliving the tragic loss of her husband while misguided activists rally behind the man who ended his life  an unrepentant cop killer.

Where was her platform?

And what about the hundreds of Americans who each year experience the anguish associated with losing a beloved member of the law enforcement community to violence  heroes whose only blame was that that they stood up and answered the call to protect and serve.

Where was their voice?

It is important to acknowledge the difficulties facing our society today  violence has become untenable in many of our nation's largest cities and police and community relations have reached a generational nadir.

And to be certain, acknowledging and rooting out legitimate police misconduct, when the totality of facts and evidence support such a conclusion, is a laudable goal.

But, so is recognizing that our nation's law enforcement community is doing a remarkable job under increasingly difficult and dangerous conditions  a recognition that our men and women in blue feel under attack and under-appreciated.

To overemphasize the former while almost wholly ignoring the latter was a sad and unfortunate missed opportunity at Tuesdays Democratic National Convention.

Regrettably, it also failed to help move our public discourse away from a conversation predicated upon division and mistrust and toward one that inspires a sense of reconciliation and mutual understanding.

A missed opportunity indeed.
John Hinckley, Jr., now 61, the man who attempted to assassinate President Reagan, is being freed from a psychiatric hospital to live full-time with his mother in Virginia. The word came through a federal court order by U.S. District Judge Paul L. Friedman of Washington on Wednesday. Hinckleys underlying major depression and psychotic disorder are said to be in full remission, as they reportedly have been for the last twenty years.

As I have said before many times, mental illness is one of the two top causes of gun violence. The other is terrorism. Guns themselves are irrelevant. I believe John Hinckley would have used another potentially lethal weapon to try to kill President Reagan, when he was delusional and violent, had he not used a firearm.

Mental illnesses like Hinckleys are more often than not, quite treatable, and it is entirely credible that the symptoms of his illness may now be gone and may never return.

Psychotherapy, combined with medications, can alleviate profound depression, bipolar disorder and many other conditions.

Good psychiatric treatment, made properly available, will beat gun control for preventing lethal or near-lethal violence, hands down, period.

Sadly, Hinckleys treatment came after he wounded the President, shot Press Secretary James Brady in the head and shot two others.

Certainly, it would be foolish not to follow John Hinckleys clinical condition carefully, being vigilant for any signs of a recurrence of his symptoms. And it is just as profoundly foolish that we have left our fragmented, sorry excuse for a mental health care system in ruins, with reprehensible cracks big enough for many ill and violent individuals to slip throughoften, through no fault of their own.

Let me put it this way, just to underline my point: I would much rather allow John Hinckley to own a firearm while remaining under rigorous psychiatric treatment and monitoring, than I would to allow him to discontinue psychiatric treatment while remaining unarmed. (In his case, of course, we need not make the decision).

Good psychiatric treatment, made properly available, will beat gun control for preventing lethal or near-lethal violence, hands down, period.

Psychiatry can and does, routinely, cure men like John Hinckley. And it can also prevent events like the one that almost cost us one of the greatest presidents of all time.
Hillary Clinton did not speak at the Democratic National Convention in 1992 when her husband was nominated. At the time there was no precedent for spouses making convention speeches unless they were already First Lady -- Eleanor Roosevelt 1940, Pat Nixon 1972, Nancy Reagan 1984, and Barbara Bush 1992.

That all changed in 1996 when Elizabeth Dole, wife Republican nominee Bob Dole, addressed the convention. Dole broke ground as the first non-incumbent first lady to address a national political convention.

Her goal? To humanize her husband. Since then, all candidates spouses have followed suit.

Tuesday night in Philadelphia it was Bill Clintons turn. He not only gave a long address, but tried to introduce voters to another side of his wife.

This was not an easy task because Hillary Clinton is one of the most well-known and controversial figures in America, if not the world. Moreover, she is someone that most Americans have strong opinions about already.

After all, Clinton has been in the public eye for more than thirty years, as first-lady, a Senator from New York, Secretary of State and twice a candidate for president.

Nevertheless, Bill Clinton managed to tell us a few things we didnt know about her  the long, flowery white skirt she was wearing the second time they met, how she lined the drawers of Chelsea Clinton's dorm room at Stanford, and how she turned down his first marriage proposal on the shores of Lake Ennerdale.

In between these personal accounts he wove in bits about her professional biography, as well as her political and policy commitments. By most accounts, these aspects of the speech were less effective and engaging than the personal narrative.

But as standard as the speech was on its face, Bill Clinton is not Elizabeth Dole, or Laura Bush or Tipper Gore. For one thing, he is the first potential first-gentlemen to speak and he is also the first former president to do so. And, unlike most spouses in the past, he was charged with not only trying to humanize his wife, but with trying to convince voters she is trustworthy. Since one of the latest polls found almost 7 in 10 Americans dont trust Hillary Clinton that was not an easy task.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, Bill Clinton came to the speech with more baggage then most other spouses do.

He is someone who is famously flawed in ways that have negatively impacted his wife.

This is in part why the first line of his speech last night -- in the spring of 1971 I met a girl -- was the subject of so much criticism. It wasnt only the use of the term girl to describe his accomplished wife (not to mention the Democratic nominee for president), but the fact that Bill Clinton has a reputation as a womanizer, someone who had an inappropriate relationship in the Oval Office with an intern, someone who as a result became only the second president in history to be impeached, someone who put his wife out on television  not only during the 1992 campaign, but in the heat of the Lewinsky affair  to defend his actions.

The dichotomy between the person we saw on the stage Tuesday night describing the best friend that he married and the person whose reputation proceeds him left many people scratching their heads. Some suggested he should have addressed his bad behavior and its impact on his wife directly. Apart from saying he hoped Hillary didnt regret marrying him, however, he neglected to do that.

So as by-the-book as Bill Clintons speech was, it was also in many ways unprecedented. And no matter how other young men follow Bill Clintons path to potentially being the first-gentleman, it is unlikely we will see many who are tasked with the challenges he faced last night.

If Bill Clinton was almost any other spouse, male or female, the reaction to his speech would have likely been resoundingly positive  that is usually the case with spousal convention speeches (barring some Melania Trump-style controversy).

The mixed reviews Clinton received after his historic speech are reflective of the fact that he isnt just any spouse and potential first-spouse, hes a former president, one of the most well-recognized faces in the world, someone about whom most people have already formulated an opinion.

Putting him out there to re-introduce his equally well-known wife is not only unlikely to change opinions about her, but to elicit strong reactions -- both positive and negative  for what he did -- and didn't chose to say.
At the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Donald Trump gave us a more concrete plan to unravel global trade than to defeat Islamic terrorism.

While offering scant details about his fight against the Islamic State, Trump has been frighteningly specific in his plans to systematically undo the global free trade network first pioneered by President Reagan, and strengthened by leaders from both parties for more than 3 decades.

In his acceptance speech for the Republican nomination, Trump suggested he will only make individual deals with individual countries.

Trump continued, 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.

Really?

Trumps suggestion that the United States brightest trade negotiators and the Department of Commerce essentially do not understand trade deals or do their jobs is wrongheaded.

Even more concerning, Trump thinks the best way to Make America Wealthy Again is to undo the global economic structures that have underpinned the US economy over the past three decades. Needless to say, Trumps anti-trade approach would sever alliances with developing nations around the world, which the United States has partnered with to lift millions out of poverty.

Rigorous economic analyses have shown that free trade is the leading reason why the number of people living on less than $1.25 per day today is half of what it was in 1990. Economists argue that a countrys annual GDP growth increases by 1.5% after opening up to trade. Trade deals, like the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) for instance, take aim at reducing the prevalence of child labor and other abusive practices both as explicit parts of the agreement and as effects of rising incomes.

During one particularly anti-trade Trump speech, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce  a typically conservative, pro-business lobbying group  eviscerated his remarks on Twitter. For example, the Chamber tweeted, #TPP means good jobs, higher wages, new opportunities. And $77 billion added to US incomes by 2025.

For his part, Jay Timmons, the president and CEO of the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM), pointed out that 40 percent of American manufacturing jobs are related to exports, the sector Trumps inward-looking plan targets.

A reduction in exports would be truly devastating for the American worker. The spike in prices and slowdown in growth that follow would wreak havoc on consumers as well.

Anti-trade sentiments have even spread to a GOP platform that bears the fingerprints of a nominee obsessed with deal making, rather than a party that traditionally supports free trade. The platform reads, Republicans understand that you can succeed in a negotiation only if you are willing to walk away from it. A Republican president will insist on parity in trade and stand ready to implement countervailing duties if other countries refuse to cooperate.

Such language is a non-starter for a fruitful international negotiation. America first is delusional and greatly threatens the United States effort and ability to lift hundreds of millions of Americans and global citizens from poverty.

Based on the distinct lack of benefits under Trumps plans, observers of all stripes are left to assume his arguments rest in nothing less than xenophobic aversion to working with valued Chinese and Mexican partners.

Trump, however, isnt the only candidate responsible for pushing the United States toward severing free trade partnerships.

Senators who have been respected throughout their careers as ardent supporters of free trade are now making politically expedient decisions to oppose the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

In particular, Republican Senators Rob Portman of Ohio and Mike Lee of Utah both publically opposed the Trans-Pacific Partnership, riding a wave of popular support for protectionist trade policy. Hardly a surprise, it happens that both Portman and Lee face challenging reelection prospects in November.

Across the aisle, Hillary Clinton is not much better when it comes to tradeat least for the time being.

During the 1990s in her time as first lady, Clinton ardently supported NAFTA. As Secretary of State, she vigorously promoted TPP. But in the aftermath of a primary process that pushed her to the left in order to defeat Bernie Sanders, Clinton began to peddle protectionism.

The Clinton campaigns ability to reject a Sanders-supported anti-TPP plank on the Democratic platform was reassuring for the future of free trade. That said, Clintons electoral gamesmanship continues to jeopardize advocacy and public support for critical global free trade networks.

This has left only one major promoter of free trade on the national stage: President Barack Obama.

Although he spoke critically of trade deals like NAFTA during his 2008 campaign, Obama has become Washingtons strongest advocate for free trade, vigorously promoting TPP in his final year in office. His trade advocacy is a bright spot on an issue in which many politicians reject simple economic truths.

To this end, in a joint press conference with President Enrique Pena Nieto of Mexico and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada on Wednesday, June 29, Obama provided a cogent defense of trade, correctly explaining that a return to protectionism would disrupt the economy, increase unemployment, and reduce economic efficiency.

Although he conceded that there are problems with trade, Obama insisted that it is the best way to promote vigorous economic growth despite the fact that public support for trade is slipping.

Alongside his NAFTA partners, Obama assumed the responsibility for leadership necessary to reinforce free trade networks, yet more troubling factors remain.

A 2000 Gallup poll showed that 56% of Americans saw foreign trade as an opportunity for domestic economic growth. A more recent ABC News/Washington Post poll found that 65% of Americans favored more import restrictions to protect American jobs. This contrasts strongly with the 95% of economists from leading universities who agree that the gains from trade are larger than the losses.

Unfortunately, this rejection of free trade is not unique to the United States. Across the world, voters and politicians alike have begun to embrace protectionism.

Its easy to point toward the UK and see a country looking inward following a vote to leave the European Union. The anti-globalism sentiments that propelled Brexit are also being used to promote destructive ideas toward trade.

Current Labour Party Leader Jeremy Corbyn  a tepid supporter of the EU and one who recently overwhelmingly lost a confidence vote within his party  has made the case against a trade deal between the EU and the United States. Similar to U.S. progressives, Corbyn harps on workers rights and government independence from the private sector as reasons to reject free trade.

In another area, China, the worlds second largest economy, has been a thorn in the side of free trade advocates as it has continually devalued its currency in order to be more competitive on a global scale, flooding markets with cheap goods.

A consensus against free trade is precipitously building around the world despite the well-documented benefits of trade throughout modern economic history across industries.

The concerns of American pharmaceutical developers for global consumers are strikingly akin to those of American auto manufacturers. These industries accurately believe that the United States has not only the ability, but also the responsibility to take leadership in building global trade networks for the benefit of American producers and consumers.

Through American leadership, the key tenants of these international partnerships will continue to be respect for U.S. law and order, as well as the promotional of just and fair economic practices globally.

Perhaps the worst thing American voters could now do is reject the conditions of peace and stability which free trade has forged, making a return to an era of political and economic uncertainty under protectionism.

After all, free trade raises the quality of life for hundreds of millions of the worlds poor and, as prominent research continues to indicate, prevents global war. This is not a time to break partnerships, but build them. American politicians must assume the same positions of responsible leadership they have for decades and make the valued, strategic decisions to build economic partnerships and spread prosperity.
After years of having his wife clean up after his many indiscretions, Bill Clinton finally returned the favor, using his speaking slot at the DNC to spin a fantastical image of the widely-known political power seeker.

'The former president attempted to humanize the unpopular Clinton by painting a pretty love story to mask a career marked by the naked pursuit of power. While he may have failed to do that, he certainly succeeded in reminding the country of his own misdeeds.

The former president made 20 years of scandal and corruption sound like The Notebook.

"In the spring of 1971 I met a girl," Clinton began his speech, before detailing their courtship. Indeed, he spent much of his time gushing over his "lifetime of memories" with his "best friend."

"I've lived a long, full, blessed life. It really took off when I met and fell in love with that girl," Clinton said. Of course, one must wonder exactly of which girl he speaks.

It was indeed astonishing to witness the man with at least ten women who have publicly accused him of an extramarital affair, rape, or sexual assault wax lovingly about his wife. Then again, she did reportedly help him keep a number of them quiet.

Clinton has been accused of rape or sexual assault by at least four women: Juanita Broaddrick, Kathleen Willey, Paula Jones, and Eileen Wellstone. He has allegedly had affairs with at least that many more.

His presidency was tarnished by an affair with a White House intern, Monica Lewinsky, about which he lied. In 2008, close friend to Clinton Jeffrey Epstein, the financier, was convicted of soliciting an underage girl for prostitution. Epstein reportedly kept a harem of underage girls on a private island -- which Clinton visited -- and used his private jet, on which Clinton sometimes flew, to traffic them.

When Clinton wasn't trying to spin a marriage marked by affairs and allegations of sexual misconduct into a love story for the ages, he was praising his wife's apparently earth shatteringly impressive accomplishments.

In keeping with the DNC's unofficial theme of race-baiting identity politics, many of those accomplishments of Hillary's that Bill mentioned dealt explicitly with race.

Clinton highlighted the fact that Hillary spent summers interviewing workers in migrant camps, and that she investigated segregated academies, her efforts resulting in those schools losing their tax exemptions.

He also couldn't help but mention the fact that she helped Franklin Garcia help Mexican-Americans register to vote, and that she went to South Carolina to investigate juvenile African Americans being jailed for year-long sentences with adults.

Clinton also made superficial attempts to smooth over relations with those Hillary has offended, specifically those who rely on the coal industry and Bernie Sanders supporters.

He assured the crowd that Hillary was "totally progressive on economic and social issues," and promised coal workers that, after taking away their livelihoods, she will come "back for you to take you on the ride to America's future." How reassuring.

Perhaps Clinton's most astonishing claim was that Hillary leaves everywhere she goes in a better state than when she found it. "Drop her anywhere ... and she will have made it better," he said proudly.

Try telling that to the people of Libya. "She's a natural leader, she's a good organizer and she's the best darn change-maker," Clinton claimed. But the so-called natural leader let U.S. personnel perish in Benghazi, and used her position in government to enrich her family's foundation.

The so-called "good organizer" is, in FBI Director James Comey's words, "extremely careless" with sensitive government information and "not sophisticated enough" to understand classified marking. The so-called "best darn change-maker" left Syria and Libya in shambles.

For their entire personal and political lives, the Clintons have been plagued by scandal. And all along the way they have been "walking and talking and laughing together," Clinton said. The former president made 20 years of scandal and corruption sound like The Notebook.

Edmund Kozak is a reporter for LifeZette.
Eight mothers associated with the Black Lives Matter movement, all of whom lost children in violent incidents, addressed the Democratic National Convention in support of Hillary Clinton Tuesday night.

The eight women, known as "Mothers of the Movement", were greeted by chants of "Black Lives Matter" as they took the stage at Philadelphia's Wells Fargo Center. Among their number was Lezley McSpadden, the mother of Michael Brown. Brown's shooting death at the hands of a Ferguson, Mo. police officer in 2014 gave rise to Black Lives Matter and led to anti-police protests around the country.

McSpadden did not speak on stage, but one mother who did address the delegates was Geneva Reed-Veal. Her daughter, Sandra Bland, was found hanged in a Texas jail cell last year after she was arrested for allegedly assaulting an officer following a traffic stop. The official verdict of suicide has been disputed by Bland's family.

"Im here with Hillary Clinton because she is a leader and a mother who will say our childrens names," Reed-Veal said. "Hillary knows that when a young black life is cut short, its not just a personal loss. It is a national loss. It is a loss that diminishes all of us."

"Hillary Clinton isn't afraid to say that black lives matter", added Lucy McBath, whose son Jordan Davis was shot and killed at a Jacksonville, Fla. gas station in 2012 after an argument over loud music. "She isnt afraid to sit at a table with grieving mothers and bear the full force of our anguish. She doesnt build walls around her heart."

Sybrina Fulton, whose son Trayvon Martin was fatally shot during a struggle with a Florida neighborhood watch volunteer in 2012, used the stage to call for gun control, saying that Clinton, "has the courage to lead the fight for common sense gun legislation," as well as "a plan to repair the divide that so often exists between law enforcement and the communities they serve."

These women have campaigned for Hillary Clinton across the country in recent months, advocating for criminal justice reforms and gun control.



The tenor of the occasion was in stark contrast to last week's Republican Convention in Cleveland, where GOP nominee Donald Trump cast himself as the "law and order" candidate.

"The attacks on our police ... threaten our very way of life," Trump said in his acceptance speech.

The pro-Clinton speeches by the mothers also clashed with the message of a separate protest earlier Tuesday, in which about 500 people marched down Broad Street to City Hall. Protest leader Erica Mines told the crowd it was an "anti-police rally" and a "black and brown resistance march" and instructed all white people to move to the back.

The crowd chanted, "Don't vote for Hillary! She's killing black people!"

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Washington Times columnist Charles Hurt told viewers Tuesday on Special Report with Bret Baier that the WikiLeaks document dump of the Democratic National Committee emails had a big impact on the convention.

It's an astonishing development to think, that a document dump like this could have the impact that it's had on this coronation back here, said Hurt.

He added that Hillary Clinton had to fight tooth and nail through day one, day two in order to secure the nomination.

Nancy Pelosi got booed this morning at a California delegation, event, Bernie Sanders can't even get through a speech endorsing Hillary Clinton without getting booed, said Hurt. Its very, very tough for Hillary Clinton I think.
Bill Clinton wisely began his speech by telling the oft-told tale of how he met Hillary Rodham after staring at her in the Yale Law School library, leaving him speechless.

Their courtship isnt going to convince anyone to cast aside their doubts about the woman who became first lady, senator, secretary of State and now the nominee for the office he left 16 years ago.

As he went into standard bio stuff about Hillarys early work on childrens issues, he would go into aw-shucks mode and say, Meanwhile, I was still trying to get her to marry me.

And when he suggested that she go into politics, she replied: Are you out of your mind? Nobody would ever vote for me.

Hillary detractors across the country must have been nodding in agreement, saying she was right then.

Just for good measure, Bill recalled the greatest moment of my lifeChelseas birthas the network cameras went to a split screen with his daughter.

The Big Dogs challenge was trickier than it looked. We all know that he can deliver mighty stemwinders, and he was better at promoting Barack Obama four years ago than the president himself, even if he did go on for what seemed like hours.

But last night he had to be careful not to overshadow his wife. He couldnt make it sound like she was running for his third term, especially since Democratic politics is more left wing than when Clinton offered a third way in the 1990s. And yet he needed to avoid reminding people about the endless scandals and hedging and fudging and the bad old days of impeachment.

At the same time, Bill had to try to make his wife seem more likable, and more trustworthy, a particularly tough task given her sky-high negatives on honesty.

In short, he had to do what loyal spouses always doexcept that he is a former president, and one who would be moving back to the White House in a Hillary administration, an unprecedented scenario in what he once promoted as two for the price of one.

After all, Hillary had once briefly promised to put him in charge of the economy.

As Bills speech continued, he admitted the obvious, that his wife has been on the stage a very long time. But he called her a change-maker and said shes never been satisfied with the status quo.

Of course, especially running against Donald Trump, Hillary very much seems like the candidate of the status quo, or perhaps one of incremental change. Her idea of change is in position papers.

But what mattered last night was not a loyal husbands recitation of her record, or even his insistence that the Republicans had reduced her to a cartoon.

It was that Bill cast Hillary as a real personwhen she herself can seem remote, brittle, defensive and evasive. He sold her far better than she sells herself.

The man can tell a story. And in politics, that matters.
Hillary Clinton hasn't been the Democratic nominee for even a day, and already the party's newly anointed 2016 ticket is facing questions over flip-flopping on key issues  immediately drawing fire from Donald Trump, who accused Clinton of betraying her supporters.

Clinton and vice presidential pick Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., grappled with claims of flip-flopping on both the controversial Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact and federal funding of abortion.

Longtime Clinton ally and Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe told Politico late Tuesday that he believes Clinton will ultimately support the TPP, with some tweaks.

When asked if Clinton would come around now that she is the nominee, McAuliffe said: Yes. Listen, she was in support of it. There were specific things in it she wants fixed.

Killing the deal has become a rallying cry for supporters of Bernie Sanders, many of whom arrived in Philadelphia carrying signs with the letters "TPP" crossed out. Sanders claims the deal would benefit big corporations, while sending jobs abroad and lowering wages.

Clinton, who once supported the proposal, tried to muffle that outcry during the primary season by reversing her support, in a rare break with the Obama administration. Yet that was before Sanders plucky revolution was formally quashed Tuesday night.

As McAuliffe's remarks caused a stir overnight, his spokesman later walked them back, and said the governor was merely expressing what he hoped Clinton would do as president and that he has no expectation that Clinton would change her position.

The Clinton campaign also flatly denied the claim, saying McAuliffe got this one flat wrong.

The back-and-forth drew immediate fire from Trump, who has also opposed the deal, accusing Clinton of betraying her supporters.

Just like I have warned from the beginning, Crooked Hillary Clinton will betray you on the TPP. https://t.co/eoNTWK6I8y  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 27, 2016 As I have been saying, Crooked Hillary will approve the job killing TPP after the election, despite her statements to the contrary: top adv.  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 27, 2016

Just like I have warned from the beginning, Crooked Hillary Clinton will betray you on the TPP, the billionaire tweeted.

The controversy came as her vice presidential pick, Virginia Sen. Kaine, is changing his position on an amendment that restricts the use of federal funds for abortions.

An aide confirmed to Fox News Tuesday that Kaine, who is Catholic and says he is personally opposed to abortion, has made a commitment to Clinton that he will support the repeal of the Hyde Amendment.

Kaine has a mostly pro-choice record in the Senate, but has made an exception for the Hyde Amendment.

Kaines change in position comes as a new Knights of Columbus-Marist poll shows 62 percent of Americans oppose taxpayer funding for abortion. Forty-four percent of Democrats, 84 percent of Republicans and 61 percent of independents oppose the funding, according to the poll.

Fox News Mike Emanuel and Shannon Bream contributed to this report.
Solid conservative Rep. Tim Huelskamp is facing a tough Republican primary challenge for his Kansas seat in a race that highlights the hunger for a resurgence, and conservative scalps, in the Establishment wing of the GOP.

Roger Marshall, an OBGYN, has earned massive financial backing from the GOP Establishment-Aligned U.S. Chamber of Commerce and is now within striking distance of toppling the incumbent conservative congressman in the August 2 primary election.

"His constituents know that Tim will side with their interests, not the special interests pushed by the Washington Establishment, and that he will stand by his vow to protect the Constitution."

A poll from Fort Hays State University's Docking Institute of Public Affairs issued between July 11-21 showed Marshall leading Huelskamp by less than a point within the margin of error at 40.9 to 40.3 percent.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, infamous with conservatives for defending entrenched GOP Establishment figures like Sen. Thad Cochran in 2014 with millions of dollars, has not only endorsed Marshall but blasted Kansas' 1 district with campaign ads.

In the closing weeks of the contest Chamber spokeswoman Erica Flynt said "the Chamber is going all-in for Dr. Marshall" with an "aggressive six-figure" ad buy.

Conservative leaders say it's no surprise Huelskamp has been targeted by the big money in Washington.

"Tim Huelskamp enjoys the support of Kansans living in the First Congressional District because he has always refused to bow before the Washington Establishment," Jenny Beth Martin, co-founder of the Tea Party Patriots, told LifeZette in a statement. "His constituents know that Tim will side with their interests, not the special interests pushed by the Washington Establishment, and that he will stand by his vow to protect the Constitution."

Huelskamp is a member of the House Freedom Caucus, a group of roughly 42 congress members that was founded in January 2015 to give "a voice to countless Americans who feel that Washington does not represent them," according to the caucus' Facebook page. The group also supports "open, accountable and limited government" and was largely responsible for the eventual resignation of former House Speaker John Boehner in late 2015.

As a tightly-knit group that seeks to challenge the Establishment status quo, and that helped contribute to the ouster of House Speaker John Boehner, it's no surprise that the Freedom Caucus and its members have drawn backlash from the elite.

For joining the Freedom Caucus racks Huelskamp was removed from both the Agriculture Committee and Budget Committee in 2012 alongside several other conservatives as part of an attempted crackdown by Boehner. At a Heritage Foundation lunch that same year, Huelskamp insinuated his removal from the committee occurred because he was too conservative.

"It's petty, it's vindictive, and if you have any conservative principles you will be punished for articulating those," Huelskamp had said at the lunch, according to The Washington Post.

Indeed, Huelskamp has a proven record of conservatism as a Representative for Kansas and has scored a 100 percent lifetime rating from Club for Growth.

"Most recently he's worked to impeach IRS Commissioner John Koskinen, and he's also fought hard against special programs for the politically connected, like the Export-Import Bank," Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan, the chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, said in a statement to LifeZette.

But as the Club for Growth's website notes, even though Huelskamp comes from a notoriously conservative district in Kansas, his reelection is in jeopardy because of the scale of the Establishment assault in support of Marshall.

Marshall's campaign and the Chamber have used the Establishment's own actions against Huelskamp, attacking the conservative for being kicked off of important committees by House leadership.

But North Carolina Rep. Mark Meadows told Politico earlier in July that "Speaker Ryan many months ago said he wanted Tim Huelskamp back on the committee." If Speaker Ryan wanted Huelskamp back on the committee, why wouldn't he just make it happen? Could he be waiting until the primary has concluded, and the Establishment had their shot to unseat Huselskamp?

Ryan's office pushed back on the idea there was anything political about the lack of action to reinstate Huelskamp.

"After accepting the speakership, Speaker Ryan told all members that they were starting with a clean slate, and he meant it," Ryan Press Secretary AshLee Strong told LifeZette in a statement, "These assignments will ultimately be decided by the steering committee at the end of the year."

In the meantime his fellow conservatives in Congress are adamant Huelskamp is the sort of representative who Americans should return to the job.

"Americans around the country believe there are two sets of rules today: One for 'we, the people,' and another for the politically connected. My friend Tim Huelskamp has been a leader pushing against the systemic issues in Washington," Jordan said in his statement. "Most recently he's worked to impeach IRS Commissioner John Koskinen, and he's also fought hard against special programs for the politically connected, like the Export-Import Bank. Tim represents his constituents, not industries or lobbyists, and Kansans should be proud to call him their congressman."

Martin, of the Tea Party Patriots, concurred with Jordan's assessment.

"Kansans know Tim has always supported protecting farmers and small businessmen from government regulations and mandates, reducing the size of government by cutting out-of-control spending and repealing the failed government-run healthcare system that is Obamacare," Martin told LifeZette. "That's why Republicans in his district will vote to re-nominate him to be their standard-bearer in the fall."
Connecticut lawmakers introduced legislation Monday in Congress that would expedite the deportation of undocumented immigrants who have committed violent crimes in the U.S.

The bill would give the U.S. State Department the ability to revoke visas for countries that consistently refuse to accept the return of their own citizens.

U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., is the primary sponsor of the bipartisan bill. He has worked with Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., Rep Joe Courtney, D-Conn., and Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas.

Blumenthal told The Connecticut Mirror that the threat of ending visas to countries that systematically or unreasonably refuse, or delay, taking back their own citizens when they commit crimes here  and they continue to endanger our citizens will be very effective.

The bill, nicknamed Caseys Law, comes one year after the death of 25-year-old Casey Chadwick, who was stabbed in her apartment by Jean Jacques, a Haitian national.

Jacques had only been a free man for five months when he committed the murder -- he was first sentenced to prison for attempted murder in 1996. The U.S. tried to deport him upon his release, but the Haitian government refused to acknowledge he was a citizen.

The Supreme Courts 2011 decision in Zadvydas v. Davis mandates that undocumented immigrants who cannot be repatriated in the near future be released from federal custody, even if they have been detained for violent crimes.
While Bernie Sanders supporters turned out in droves to the Democratic convention, many are chanting another name in the streets of Philadelphia as the senator steps back into the party fold: Jill Stein.

All but an afterthought for much of the primary season, the Green Party candidate's political stock has risen in recent days as Sanders supporters search for an alternative. Stein herself has maintained a presence on the sidelines of the Philadelphia chaos, even marching with protesters Tuesday after Hillary Clinton was nominated.

"Those who are in tears, whose hearts have been broken, Im going [to rallies] to really reassure them that their work has not been in vain," Stein told FoxNews.com on Wednesday.

But she's not shy about inviting those supporters to join her cause.

We are going to continue this movement, Stein told a cheering crowd near City Hall Tuesday. She said her campaign was ready to embrace Sanders supporters, adding, Whatever happens, you know my campaign is here.

Stein was surrounded by Bernie backers and cheering crowds before being escorted out of the area by security. For many in the Sanders crowd, Stein is a far more natural fit than Donald Trump, the Republican nominee also making a play for disaffected Sanders voters.

Amanda Sullivan of Weston, Fla., sweated it out on a blistering 97-degree day to hold her Bern or Jill but never Hill! sign as she joined the 1,000-deep group of demonstrators at City Hall earlier this week.

Sullivan told FoxNews.com that shes frustrated by the Democratic Partys exclusion of some in the party and says she cannot vote for Clinton in a November matchup.

The Democratic Party faced a nasty scandal heading into the national convention in Philadelphia over leaked DNC emails that indicated a pro-Clinton bias during the primary race.

As a result, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz  the chairwoman of the DNC  resigned Sunday.

Despite pleas from Sanders himself for party unity, though, several of his supporters are vowing to back a non-Clinton choice like Stein.

Leading into the convention, Stein's popular support was relatively low. In a CNN/ORC International poll conducted July 22-24 of 882 registered voters, Stein only received 3 percent of the votes. Donald Trump led with 44 percent, Clinton had 39 percent and the Libertarian Partys Gary Johnson came in at 9 percent.

But some say the tides might start to turn in Steins favor after Philly.

On Tuesday, shortly after Clinton became the first woman to be nominated for president by a major political party, a group of Sanders delegates and supporters walked out of the Wells Fargo convention site. Some taped their mouths shut while others broke out in song.

Some Sanders delegates told media members they were shut down by the DNC over an apparently incorrect form when trying to put up another candidate for vice president.

Norman Solomon, leader of the Bernie Delegates Network, refused to say which candidate they were talking about but bashed the DNC anyway.

Scott McLarty, national media coordinator for the Green Party, told FoxNews.com the jump in support to Stein from Sanders didnt come as a complete surprise.

A lot of us expected something like this to happen, McLarty told FoxNews.com. Its a challenge. We want to accommodate them. The basic message is welcome home along with voting green.

Naomi Craig of Westminster, Fla., says she feels abandoned by Democrats and will vote for Stein in the general election.

I dont think [the Democratic Party] is listening, she told FoxNews.com. Craig voted for Stein in 2012 and says Green Party views on foreign policy are a sticking point.

The most damage a president can do is abroad, she said. Thats why I cant vote for Clinton and I cant vote for Trump.

Peter Swanson, part of the group Students for Bernie, came from North Carolina to take part in the protest and said, I would sooner vote for Jill Stein in the Green Party.

Leonardo Watson of Georgia told FoxNews.com that while not every aspect of the Green Party syncs with his own views, its a better match than Clinton.

Look, Clintons not an option. Its not about party unity. Its about standing up for yourself and what you believe in -- and right now, with Bernie out, thats Jill Stein.

Fox News' Bryan Llenas contributed to this report.
6 Images

Day 2 at the Democratic convention

Tuesday was an exciting day for the Democratic convention as Hillary Clinton became the party's first female nominee, Bill Clinton addressed the convention, and Bernie Sanders supporters protested the nomination.
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They have been launched to the space station and journeyed on a probe to Jupiter, have honored moonwalkers and made spaceflight the stuff of child's play.

Now, they are going where no man  or rather woman  LEGO minifigure has gone before: showcasing the role of female pioneers in the U.S. space program.

"Women of NASA," a proposed LEGO set by a science writer and fan of the iconic toy brick brand, features LEGO minifigures in the likeness of five women who made lasting contributions to the space agency's exploration efforts.

The set, posted to the LEGO Ideas website, needs 10,000 supporting votes in order to be reviewed by the Danish toy company for possible production. [Sally Ride: First American Woman in Space (Pictures)]

"Ladies rock outer space!" exclaimed Maia Weinstock, the designer behind the "Women of NASA" set and the deputy editor at MIT News, the news outlet of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "This proposed set celebrates five notable NASA pioneers and offers an educational building experience to help young [children] and adults alike learn about the history of women in STEM [science, technology, engineering and mathematics]," she wrote on the proposal page.

Weinstock selected two astronauts, a computer scientist, a mathematician and an astronomer for the five "Women of NASA."

The minifigures of astronaut Sally Ride, the first American woman in space, and Mae Jemison, NASA's first African-American woman in space, represent the nearly 50 female U.S. astronauts who have launched into Earth orbit.

Ride, who after making history in space went on to found an educational company focusing on encouraging children, and especially girls, to pursue the sciences, is depicted in a beige jacket and black pants. Jemison, who now heads an organization seeking to make human travel beyond our solar system a reality in the next 100 years, is modeled in the orange pressure suit she wore to launch on the space shuttle.

Margaret Hamilton, another minifigure in the proposed set, led the development of the on-board flight software for the Apollo missions to the moon. Her toy version is based on a now famous photo that showed her standing next to reams of printed computer code, stacked as tall as her.

Katherine Johnson directed the "human computers" who calculated the trajectories of NASA's earliest spaceflights through to the moon landings. Johnson is soon to be the focus of a new feature film, "Hidden Figures," following the stories of the African American women who worked at the Langley Research Center in Virginia.

The fifth LEGO minifigure is of Nancy Grace Roman, who was one of the first female executives at NASA. Known by many as the "Mother of Hubble" for her role in planning the Hubble Space Telescope, Roman also developed NASA's astronomy research program.

In addition to the 1.5-inch-tall (4 cm) figures themselves, the set contextualizes the women's contributions to NASA within a desktop display frame and four vignettes: a mini model of the Hubble Space Telescope; a miniature space shuttle; a diorama of Hamilton's stacked code scene; and the mathematical instruments of the Apollo era.

"Whether or not the project is ultimately produced, I'd love for it to help others become more aware of key scientific and engineering accomplishments made by women," said Weinstock, whose previous LEGO projects have included a figure set depicting female chief justices and SciTweeps, a custom-minfigure collection of "the coolest science/tech folk."

LEGO Ideas has produced three space-themed sets since 2008, including a model of Japan's asteroid sample return probe Hayabusa and NASA's Curiosity Mars rover. Earlier this year, LEGO approved the production of a fan-created model of the Saturn V rocket that launched the Apollo 11 mission to land the first astronauts on the moon.
The first name on your family treein fact, on the family tree of every living creatureshould technically be LUCA. As the New York Times explains, the acronym stands for the Last Universal Common Ancestor, an organism that lived about 4 billion years ago and became the ancestor of all life forms.

Now, a new study in Nature Microbiology provides what its authors say is evidence that settles the debate about where this first life began: near hydrothermal vents, like those found near deep-sea volcanoes.

Researchers at Germany's Heinrich Heine University say their genetic sleuthing has revealed that LUCA was tailor-made to live in such an environmentit was essentially "a heat-loving microbe that fed on hydrogen gas and lived in a world devoid of oxygen," in the words of Science.

To figure out this genetic profile, the scientists examined 6 million genes associated with two simple and ancient forms of life, bacteria and archaea. After identifying genes that were shared between the two groups, they whittled the figure down to 355 gene families that met their criteria for having originated in LUCA, their joint ancestor.

It was flabbergasting to us that we found as many as we did, says lead researcher William Martin. This smaller group of genes allowed them to create a snapshot of sorts of LUCA, one hailed as "remarkable" by a UCLA evolutionary biologist.

But don't expect the debate to end. The study is all very interesting, but it has nothing to do with the actual origin of life, Cambridge chemist John Sutherland tells the Times.

(In less ancient but still ancient news, the remains of more real-life hobbits have been found.)

This article originally appeared on Newser: This Is Where Your Earliest Ancestor Came From

More From Newser
For you, Twitter and Facebook may be little more than a way to waste some time at work, but for investigators in Rio de Janeiro, the two social media giants were key tools in taking down a suspected terror plot. According to the judge who oversaw the probe leading to the arrest last week of alleged Islamist militants in Brazil ahead of the 2016 Summer Olympics there, cooperation by Facebook and Twitter was "instrumental to understand the nature of discussions carried out by the suspects."

Judge Marcos Josegrei da Silva noted: "The companies began to provide data related to the content of the conversations and data about where those conversations were posted." While neither Facebook nor Twitter has commented on the details surrounding the case, spokespeople for both companies have noted a zero-tolerance policy for terrorism, and claim to fully cooperate with law enforcement and officials when necessary.

The continuing investigation has been named "Operation Hashtag," and concerns a suspected plot to carry out attacks on the upcoming Olympics, which are scheduled to begin on August 5. The alleged terrorists are said to have sympathies with Islamic State, but their activity on social media (platforms upon which IS and other extremist groups have previously found significant success in recruitment and spreading propaganda), ultimately led to their capture.

Said Judge da Silva, "There is no anonymity for those sorts of activities on the Internet."

In recent months, social media companies have begun to play an increasingly important role in efforts to combat terrorism. At the very beginning of the year, top tech CEOs, including those from Twitter, Facebook, Microsoft, and Google, met with White House officials to discuss how to stop extremist groups from using social media to their advantage. More recently, a number of internet giants agreed to the EU's new hate speech rules, further establishing their stance against intolerance the world over.
This story has been updated to reflect the removal of the "Mein Kampf" image and to include a statement from Google.

Googles search function has been thrust into the spotlight again for connecting Donald Trump and Adolf Hitler. On Wednesday, typing the name of Trumps 2015 book Crippled America into a Google image search, in addition to bringing up images of that book, displayed images of Adolf Hitlers 1920s manifesto Mein Kampf. (The "Mein Kampf" images have since been removed.)

Google has been in the spotlight before for a connection between Trump and the infamous Nazi leader. In June, Googling the phrase When was Hitler born also produced an image of Donald Trump and listed his birthday. In that case, Google said it removed the Trump image, and a recent search confirms that the candidates image is no longer connected with Hitlers birthday.

However, the Google image search connection between Trumps book and the dictators manifesto may have been present for months. In December, the website The Pulse 2016 reported the same conjunction of images.

The results that Google searches generate could well be affected by the fact that some critics of Trump have made a comparison between the Republican nominee for president and Hitler. For example, a recent Google search of the two mens names yielded over 21 million hits.

Google has also previously been accused of bias in its autocomplete feature, specifically in regards to a search related to Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. The search engine giant published a blog item in June saying that their autocomplete algorithm is designed to avoid completing a search for a persons name with terms that are offensive or disparaging. Google also told FoxNews.com in June in an emailed statement that "Google Autocomplete does not favor any candidate or cause.

In response to an inquiry about the "Mein Kampf" images, a Google spokesperson told FoxNews.com: "When you conduct an Image Search, we display results for your specific query as well as possible ways to refine or follow up on your search. These are generated by an algorithm based primarily on what others who have searched for your particular query have also searched for. This means that sometimes unexpected or sensitive subject matter may appear for a given query. We are always working to improve our Search results."
Bitcoins may be valuable in tech circles, but to a judge in Miami-Dade County, the virtual money is nothing more than shadow currency. On Monday, Judge Teresa Mary Pooler discarded felony charges against website designer Michell Espinoza, who had been accused of transmitting and laundering $1,500 in bitcoinsan impossible-to-prove charge since bitcoin isn't actual "tangible wealth" that can "be hidden under a mattress like cash and gold bars," per the Miami Herald.

Espinoza had allegedly transferred the bitcoins to undercover detectives for cash, the Washington Post reports; the detectives said they were going to scoop up stolen credit-card numbers with them.

The paper explains how Florida law forbids exchanging money for "illicit" activity such as the credit card fraud Espinoza was accused of trying to abet. But in her eight-page ruling, Pooler noted that while she couldn't "accurately define or describe Bitcoin"and also couldn't deny that in some (but not all) circumstances it could be "exchanged for items of value," like moneyneither could she deem that it was actual money, rendering the charges against Espinoza moot.

Quartz notes how Pooler isn't the only one confused about how to categorize bitcoin, with the legal system still struggling with how to deal with the concept.

Espinoza's lawyer, not surprisingly, called the judge's decision "beautifully written" and said all Espinoza had done was "sell his own personal property." The Miami-Dade state attorneys office is deciding whether to appeal.

(What about Ethereum, aka "Bitcoin 2.0"?)

This article originally appeared on Newser: Judge Dumps Laundering Charges, Says Bitcoin's Not Real

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The Latest on two Oregonians arrested in a shooting, kidnapping and possible slaying: (all times local):

5 p.m.

A district attorney says an Oregon man arrested in California has been charged with murder in the killing of a woman from the central Oregon town of Bend.

Edwin Lara was arrested in Northern California early Tuesday following a high-speed chase on Interstate 5 and after an elderly man was shot and critically wounded in Yreka and a mother and her two sons were carjacked and kidnapped.

In Oregon, Deschutes County District Attorney John Hummel says Lara was charged with killing Kaylee Sawyer, 23, who was last seen around 1 a.m. Sunday in Bend.

Bend Police Chief Jim Porter told a news conference that a body has been found that is believed to be Sawyer's. He said a coroner would try to confirm the identity.

___

11:45 a.m.

A man and a woman from Oregon are in custody after an elderly man was shot and critically wounded and a mother and her two sons were driven away at gunpoint in a carjacking.

The arrested man was being sought in the disappearance of a woman from Oregon.

The terrifying odyssey of the kidnapped family ended after the California Highway Patrol finally stopped the car near Redding. The highway patrol says Edwin Lara was arrested.

Police from Bend, Oregon, were headed to California to pursue leads in the case of Kaylee Sawyer, who was last seen Sunday near the campus of Central Oregon Community College, where Lara worked as a security guard.
An Oregon man has been accused of killing a missing woman after he was arrested Tuesday following a high-speed chase in Northern California.

Deschutes County District Attorney John Hummel said that Edwin Lara, 31, had been charged with murder in the death of 23-year-old Kaylee Sawyer. Sawyer, of Bend, Ore., was last seen Sunday morning.

Bend Police Chief Jim Porter told a news conference that investigators had found a body that is believed to be Sawyer's. He said a coroner would try to confirm the identity.

Lara was arrested along with 19-year-old Aundrea Elizabeth Maes after Lara allegedly shot and critically wounded an elderly man at a motel in Yreka, Calif. and the two carjacked and kidnapped a mother and her two sons from a nearby gas station. The relationship between the pair is unclear, but both face charges including attempted murder, kidnapping, carjacking and burglary.

Five minutes after police got the call about the shooting, another man phoned in from a gas station, saying his car had been taken with his wife and two sons still inside.

"The man had come out of the gas station to see his dog running around and his car gone," Yreka Police Chief Brian Bowles told The Associated Press.



Bowles said Lara forced one of the man's sons to drive at gunpoint. The mother and sons were later dropped off at a rest stop.

A California Highway Patrol (CHP) Officer later saw a car speeding on the interstate about 100 miles away and tried to pull it over, the highway patrol said in a statement. Lara sped away at more than 100 mph. Police from the nearby town of Corning joined in before Lara pulled over and was arrested along with Maes.



"We have got crime scenes at a motel, a gas station and in Red Bluff more than 100 miles away," Bowles said. "We're a small department and stretched beyond our resources right now."

Bend Police later announced that Lara's wife had alerted authorities Monday of his possible involvement in Sawyer's disappearance. Sawyer was last seen around 1 a.m. Sunday around her apartment, which is close to where Lara works as a security guard at Central Oregon Community College.



Isabel Ponce-Lara, Lara's wife, was recently hired by the Bend Police Department and has been receiving field training, the department said on Tuesday.



"Officer Ponce-Lara is not suspected to be involved in the disappearance of Kaylee Sawyer," the department said, adding that she "has been cooperative throughout the investigation."



Lt. Clint Burleigh of the Bend Police Department said Sawyer's body has not been found, and declined to say what caused detectives to change the case from a missing person to a homicide.



"There is a lot of information coming out, quickly," he told AP. "It is very fluid."

Lara had worked as a part-time public safety officer at Central Oregon Community College since December 2014, said Ron Paradis, executive director of college relations.



"We're cooperating with the police as best we can," Paradis said, declining to comment further.



Newspaper reports from 2009 and 2010 list Isabel Ponce-Lara as a student at the community college, and being on the dean's list.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Click for more from KPTV.com.


Up to $30,000 in rewards have been offered for information leading to arrests in Monday's shooting that killed a Texas sheriff's deputy at his Austin-area home.

Texas Crime Stoppers on Tuesday announced a $15,000 reward for information leading to suspects in the killing of Travis County sheriff's Sgt. Craig Hutchinson.

Hutchinson was gunned down early Monday in Round Rock after using his law enforcement radio to report prowlers in his yard.

The reward from Texas Crime Stoppers, operating within the office of Gov. Greg Abbott's Criminal Justice Division, joins $10,000 posted by the U.S. Marshals Service. A municipal judge and ex-sheriff's office employee, Judge Kevin Madison, pledged a $5,000 reward for information leading to arrests.

Dozens of mourners prayed and held hands during a vigil Monday night for Hutchinson.

A funeral will be held next week. The Travis County Sheriff's Office says services are planned in Austin.

Hutchinson's funeral will be at 10 a.m. Tuesday at Shoreline Church in Austin. A graveside service, with police honors, will follow at Cook-Walden/Capital Parks in Austin.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
An Oklahoma day care worker accused of murdering an infant in her care said she was stressed, strapped for cash and feeling like a loser at the time the baby died, according to court records viewed by KFOR.

Melissa Clark is charged with first-degree murder in the death of 5-month-old Braelyn Zachary, who died from brain injuries she received on July 19, Fox 25 reported. The child was placed on life support at the hospital, but the injuries left her 95 percent brain dead and she died on Sunday.

We knew the extent of her injuries and we knew they were very bad, OSBI Detective Jessica Brown said. I cant imagine what the family is going through.

Officials contend that while Clark was on her way to get coffee, she dropped Zachary on the tile floor, head-first. A short time later, Clark broke up an argument between Zachary and another child and then threw [Zachary] onto the bouncy seat, court documents said. Clark allegedly told cops that Zacharys body hit the bar on the bouncy seat and then fell onto the floor. Clark said she responded by putting Zachary back into the seat. A short time later, Clark said she heard Zachary choking on fluids.

Clark said she heard the baby choking and tried bouncing her and performing CPR. She said she may have shaken the baby when she found her non-responsive.

The baby's injuries included: a subdural hematoma, severe retinal hemorrhaging in both eyes and a bruise on her forehead, which is consistent with impact, doctors said.

Arriving Oklahoma Department of Human Service workers said they found a baby wrapped in a blanket on the floor, KOKH reported.

Doctors at the hospital in Tulsa that cared for Zachary told investigators that the babys injuries represented a child abuse case and said unequivocally that the baby was shaken.

Clark originally posted a $75,000 bond on Friday but was back in jail after being charged with first-degree murder and facing a $750,000 bond.

Click for more from Fox 25.
Key lawmakers are demanding an explanation for the FBIs decision to drop Orlando nightclub shooter Omar Mateen from its terrorist watch list, despite signs the Orlando gunman had ties to radical Islam.

In a Tuesday letter to the Department of Justices internal watchdog, the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs asked for a thorough examination of the agencys decision to addand, later, to remove Mateen from the Terrorist Screening database. Mateen killed 49 and wounded 53 inside a gay nightclub in Florida on June 12, and pledged his allegiance to ISIS during the attack.

It is unclear how the FBI made the decision to remove Mateen from the TSDB, despite the concerns that had been raised, wrote committee chairman Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wisc., pointing to multiple red flags linking the killer to terrorism in the years leading up to the attack.

The FBI has said it initially added Mateen to the database in 2013 after he admitted he had ties to terrorist organizations, but removed him the following year - just days after a decision to close the preliminary investigation because of a failure to substantiate Mateens affiliation to terrorism.

The 2014 removal allowed Mateen to legally purchase the semi-automatic firearms he used in the attack. The deadly incident has since prompted the federal government to reexamine its agency actions, including its communication systems and law enforcement decisions.

If Mateens name was included at the time that he purchased the firearms, under existing authorities, the Justice Department would have been alerted to the purchases and had an opportunity to potentially stop the attack, Johnson wrote.

Johnson asked Inspector General Michael Horowitz, who serves as an objective third party to the Department of Justice, to compile an audit detailing the FBIs investigation of Mateen, including its decision to remove him from the database.

Johnson stressed the importance of an impartial investigation, since the FBI had tried to restrict information available about the attack, pointing to 9/11 calls that were redacted to exclude references to Islamic terrorism and demands that Orlando government agencies deny record requests from the media.

The terrorist attack against innocent Americans in Orlando, Florida - by an individual who was on the TSDB but removed prior to his purchase of the firearms used in the attack - calls for a thorough, independent review, wrote Johnson.

Mateen, who traveled to the Middle East in 2011 and 2012, was back on the FBIs radar in July 2014 after a fellow member of his mosque conducted a suicide bombing in Syria.

The FBI was warned again when a friend of Mateen reported him for his attraction to videos featuring Anwar al-Awlaki, a known terrorist who had radicalized the Fort Hood shooter. Mateen denied the accusation, but it was substantiated in the aftermath of the nightclub attack.
Q: What is the future of content marketing?

A: More often than not, when Im in New York City, journalists complain about the overwhelming amount of content they need to produce each day. Whether it is to feed their social-media channels or website, its a burden to produce the volume needed to satisfy the click-throughs to get the biggest slice of the advertising dollars that propel that industry forward.

In business the need to create cool content, likewise, employs lots of expensive marketers who produce a huge amount of content in the hope of getting one piece that will "go viral."

Content marketing is unsustainable and will require a cultural shift and a corporate structure change to make it sustainable. The future of content marketing is high quality content created by people who are not employed within companies. The future of content marketing, I write in my book and am adamant about, is influencer marketing.

Related: 6 Steps to Your Best Content-Marketing Strategy

Brands, in a study by LinkedIn, claimed they have five big content marketing challenges:

Lack of time and bandwidth (51%)

Producing enough variety in content (50%)

Producing engaging content (42%)

Measuring effectiveness (38%)

Developing consistent content (34%)

Theres only going to be one response: We need to make less click-bait content and more high quality content. We need to learn to tell fewer stories but to tell them better. Doing so will ensure they are impactful when they happen. Finally, we need to turn to content creators to generate these stories.

Right now there are hundreds of thousands of professional content creators online who are looking to make money. These social-media influencers have built followings out of their ability to create content. Businesses are paying them to post about the business in one-off transactional engagements. The one-off model isnt working for anyone: Businesses are unsatisfied with the majority of the results and influencers are constantly having to hustle to manage their business and create compelling content.

Related: Most Content Marketers Are Making These 3 Crushing Mistakes

The future of content marketing is going to require a change in these transactional relationships. Doing so will improve both business content performance success and social media influencers financial well-being and curatorial focus. Heres how you can get ahead of the curve:

Acknowledge you are not the worlds greatest content maker.

Your company is likely producing bad or ineffective content on most of its channels. The people running your content development teams are not natural content creators. They are marketers and your brand is not interesting enough to have a 24/7 news cycle.

Realize there are great content creators out there.

There are millions of social-media influencers who are great content creators for your niche audience. Hire five to seven of them to sit on a virtual team for your brand. Look on Trackr or Klout to see who is considered influenctial in your market. Educate them on your brand consistently: invite them to meetings, share your latest products, allow them to meet your executives.

Pay them a base salary and ask for RFPs.

Pay them a base salary, so that they will be constantly thinking about how to improve your brand and tell your story online. Tell them that you want to see two request for proposal (RFP) from them a year on creative ideas to differentiate your brand on the web. Remember, they are the experts and constantly online.

Trust them to be your content creators.

Accept their RFPs and believe in their ability to execute on your businesses content needs. If you have trained them the right way and given them the right access, they will be experts on your brand but at half the cost of an in-house team and with twice the experience. Worried that they dont know how to translate business goals to content creation? You can teach them that too.

This is the future model:

Brands create less content.

Brands trust natural and proven content creators to act on their behalf.

Brands pay them on retainer.

Influencers rep only a limited number of brands because they can now afford to do so.

Brands reduce their social media footprint and instead rely on ambassador/content creator influencers to push their stories.

If we dont make this change, we will continue to inundate the world with dumbed down content that does not deliver in the way our businesses need. Instead, we need to create a new model of content marketing that demonstrates real ROI.

Related: Amplify Your Content-Marketing Results by Using These 4 Simple Tips
One of the great gifts for a busy parish priest -- and these days most parish priests are very busy indeed -- is the gift of a retired or elderly priest who offers to "cover" the parish for a few weeks so that the pastor has time for some rest.

Looking at the pictures of Fr. Jacques Hamel, the elderly French priest brutally slaughtered by ISIS on Tuesday while celebrating Mass in church, I couldn't help but think of what the pastor of the parish must be feeling.

Fr. Jacques was one of those generous, gentle, dedicated men for whom the word "retirement" was a foreign concept -- you can see in the photographs his gentleness and humility. He was "supplying," as it's known in the church, for the pastor, to ensure that people were able to receive the Eucharist. He was displaying the very essence of the priesthood.

Fr. Jacques was martyred -- and please, let no one speak of "workplace violence," mental illness or poor social conditions. He was martyred for one reason: because he was a Christian and a priest. Fr. Jacques was martyred in a sacred space dedicated to the worship of Almighty God, what the church calls the "Domus Dei, the House of God."

His throat was cut while he celebrated Holy Mass which, for a believing Catholic or members of the Orthodox Church, is not a re-enactment of the Last Supper and the Sacrifice of Calvary. But it is a sacred timeless moment, God made present in time.

He was not the first priest to be martyred at this profoundly holy moment -- and he will most surely not be the last.

The city in which I was educated and formed as a priest, Canterbury in England, boasts one of the greatest saints in the life of the church, St. Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury. Becket was martyred in his own cathedral at the order of the king.

Archbishop Oscar Romero, of El Salvador, whose relics are enshrined in Canterbury's Catholic Church, was shot within moments of uttering the words of consecration.

Fr. Ragheed Ganni was shot along with three sub-deacons outside his parish in Mosul, Iraq, on Trinity Sunday in 2007, just moments after celebrating Mass. His killers, who were followers of what self-serving politicians call "the religion of peace," had demanded that he close the church.

As they prepared to martyr Fr. Ragheed, they asked him: "Why didn't you close the church?" He responded, "How can I close the house of God?"

Fr. Ragheed was the secretary of Paulos Raho, the Archbishop of Mosul -- and nine months after his secretary's murder, Archbishop Raho was himself murdered.

It is not possible to list the names of all the priests martyred while celebrating Mass, not only because there are too many but because, as the great French writer Francois Mauriac said, this will not end until the last Mass is celebrated on Earth.

I was most grateful that at my last parish in the United States, thanks to the Second Amendment, my parishioners had the right to bear arms legally. I knew that on any given Sunday, several of the faithful were "packing." Because of my work for the persecuted Christians of the Middle East, in fact, one of my newest parishioners told me a few weeks ago that he decided to "carry." I don't think he was referring to the missalette.

Some will be shocked that people carry guns at Mass. But they have obviously never been to Mass where there is the possibility of armed assailants entering the church and killing the priest. Try going to Mass in Baghdad -- or Normandy.

Two months ago, Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, declared that the war on terrorism and on ISIS specifically a "holy war." It was, he said, a fight against a "fearsome foe, threatening the whole of humanity."

Unlike other Christian leaders, who have -- through negligence, weakness, or willful naivete -- their heads buried firmly in the sand, Patriarch Kirill has done a prophet's work: He sees the evil of the day in a clear light.

Fr. Benedict Kiely is a Catholic priest and founder of Nasarean.org, which is helping the persecuted Christians of the Middle East.
Ohio police are searching for two young children who were possibly abducted by their mother on Saturday, authorities said.

Jennifer Renee Smith, 33, does not have custody of her two children, Hunter Ross Smith, 13, and Ryder Lee Smith, 7. But she picked the boys up from their grandmothers house on Saturday for an overnight trip and the trio hasnt been seen since.

The Kanawha County Sheriffs Office is now turning to the public for help, asking anyone with information to contact them via email or through a 24-hour telephone line at 304-357-0169.
A prominent Connecticut couple, widely known for their environmental activism before global warming was thrust into the national spotlight, was found dead in their home Tuesday.

The bodies Lou and Judith Friedman were discovered in their home in Canton by their familys attorney. Police said their deaths are an isolated incident and that there is no threat to the public, according to WTIC-TV.

Prominent Canton couple found dead in home: police https://t.co/ENH9HIrG2h pic.twitter.com/V7yPPXyyCc  FOX 61 (@FOX61News) July 26, 2016

Canton Police Chief Christopher Arciero told the Hartford Courant that a preliminary investigation had concluded that their deaths were apparent suicides. Arciero declined to further comment on the cause of their deaths until the medical examiner concluded its investigation.

Lou, 81, and Judith Friedman, 80, were long known for advocating for environmental issues and putting energy-saving techniques into practice. Their home was one of the first houses in Connecticut to use solar panels for power. The New York Times featured the Friedmans in a 1992 profile piece that described them as ahead of their time.

According to The Courant, Lou Friedman also founded the Westledge School in Simsbury and Judith Friedman was in charge of the Peoples Action for Clean Energy, wrote several childrens books and ran a summer camp.

The Friedmans also discussed environmental issues across the globe, advocating for Promoting Enduring Peace and EarthKind. Both groups are based in Washington and Lou Friedman had worked for both of them at one point.

Residents and neighbors told the paper that their legacy will live on.

"They were nice people. They were always willing to help," Karen Bahre, the owner of Applegate Farms, told The Courant. She said that the Friedmans were frequent visitors of the farm and Judith Friedman offered to donate raspberries to the farm as well.

"That was her way," Bahre said. "She was gracious."

The Friedmans are survived by their three children.

Click for more from the Hartford Courant.
When you're single, you're mainly concerned with yourself. Naturally.

Your singleness may be your own choosing, of course. So the whole idea of spending more time with family may seem contrary to the life you have chosen -- even if going solo wasn't technically your Plan A. Still, as the number of singles continues to increase in this country, doing everything alone is not all it's cracked up to be.

Regardless of whether you've been single for years or are facing singledom for the first time in a while, it's easy to fall into the trap of being consumed with your own solo agenda. "Am I'm progressing enough at my job? Will those Nikes sell out before my paycheck comes in? Is it the weekend yet, so I can just binge-watch 'The Americans'?"

We are so used to having only ourselves to be concerned about. (Secretly, we tend to like it that way.)

Yet as a society that functions with a higher percentage of singles than ever, today's culture also allows more isolation than ever. This shift seems to make us all more worried and unhappy. A 2014 Social Indicators Research study found in observing Americans over the last 80 years that symptoms that correlated with anxiety and depression have significantly increased among all ages.

Compared to generations before us, many things are easier -- yet we face more disappointment, loneliness, and mental issues than ever before. Dr. Jean Twenge, a researcher and psychology professor at San Diego State University, found that "the potential trade-off for our equality and freedom is more anxiety and depression because we're more isolated," as she told New York Magazine. While singles are often looked upon by those in committed relationships as free birds enjoying the easy life, the real and common angst and frustration of loneliness is often overlooked.

Although as singles we are naturally inclined to be on our own (run errands alone, eat dinner alone, watch Netflix alone, and more), one clear antidote to this culture of anxiety is to enrich our lives with more family. Integrating more family time may be easier than you'd imagine.

Here are a few ways that work:

1.) Set up a lunch date with a family member.

When your agenda is your own, generally you like to keep it that way. But scheduling a weekly or monthly time to meet up with a brother, sister, cousin, or parent for lunch or coffee not only allows a relationship to continue outside of chaotic family Christmas dinners -- it maintains communication. It builds upon a trust, one you may find you need and enjoy more and more as the years pass.

"Seeing my brothers outside of the usual family get-togethers is very rewarding and enjoyable," said one New York woman. "We have time to talk and connect in a genuine, personal way that's not possible when there's a big crowd and so much hustle and bustle." Those connections can then be maintained by cellphone, texting, or other methods.

2.) Schedule a movie night.

Movie nights were the thing when I was growing up -- Friday movie nights. Family time doesn't always have to include talking. Just enjoying a good movie together can be cathartic.

Maybe it's the scheduled introvert in some people, but some singles often don't realize how much they need these moments until they sit, relax, and surround themselves with family. They are the times to unplug from iPhones and plug into the moment.

3.) Cling to tradition (even if it's not your style).

One of the most unfortunate things about being single is how easily we let go of things. We like life low-key -- simple. We appreciate the art of minimalism.

But family tradition doesn't have to be overly complex or grueling. The beauty of being with family means enjoying life with people from all different stages of life, with different perspectives -- often on your own terms. This may make the task of traditions seem overwhelming -- but as singles who feel we could do without the extra fuss, there are times we can benefit from hanging up our independent hats and re-engaging a bit more.

When you're growing up single, family seems to be the first thing to go. And when we're used to doing things on our own, it can seem easier to just keep it that way. Yet while much of this season of singleness is mostly ever-changing and inconsistent, family -- in all its many shapes and forms -- may be our one most solid and tangible passage to contentment and happiness. We just have to make room for it.
There was a time when pastors provided intellectual and spiritual leadership for the entire community they served. Recognizing the need for people to be able to face the challenges of faith in a world of creeping secularism, they taught a Bible-based, Christian worldview.

They hoped church members would go into the world, stand for truth, combat sin, and confront evil. It is interesting how even President Obama co-opted the phrase once heard in churches -- "fired up and ready to go" -- in his campaign speeches.

Now it's time for pastors to take back the position of chief teacher of apologetics and biblical values in their communities. That's why the American Pastors Network has launched the national "We Will Stand" campaign.

This new campaign is based on a simple but powerful idea: Invite America's pastors to band together and stand for biblical truth in the public square. That means preaching passionately the whole counsel of God, from a biblical worldview that communicates the priority of the Gospel to a fallen, broken humanity.

But that's just one part of what "We Will Stand" means.

Ministers pledge not only to introduce biblical truth, but also through apologetical teaching -- the discipline of defending a position through the systematic use of Bible information -- and will instruct congregations to defend that truth against the major objections members will encounter in a secular society.

As author Nancy Pearcey puts it, "A religion that avoids the intellectual task and retreats to the therapeutic realm of personal relationships and feelings will not survive in today's spiritual battlefield."

Pastors who take the pledge agree to do the following:

1.) Preach passionately ...

... and exhort church members to apply biblical principles to their own lives, the lives of their family, and the culture of their neighborhood, state, and country.

2.) Pray fervently ...

... and with faith, obedience, discipline, and fasting.

3.) Encourage congregations ...

... to be savory salt and brilliant light by engaging the culture with truth, practicing good citizenship, and voting informed and effectively by supporting candidates who uphold biblical principles.

4.) Engage as ministers together ...

... with civic leaders through prayer, encouragement and education on critical issues.

In reality, apologetics is an answer to the "why" question after you've already answered the "what" question. The "what" question is, "What is the Gospel?" But when you call people to believe in the Gospel and they ask, "Why should I believe that?" -- then you need apologetics, as Tim Keller explained in his article, "In Defense of Apologetics."

A few weeks ago, a large group of concerned citizens, many of whom were Christians, heard Thomas Shaheen of the Pennsylvania Family Institute talk about the difference between "freedom of worship" versus "freedom of religion" -- a distinction lost on many people.

You see, when President Obama and progressives speak of "freedom of worship," they mean that pastors and congregants should be free to speak freely inside the four walls of their church but not outside the church.

As long as you keep your faith compartmentalized and personal, you can say what you want within the church walls. If you worship or speak outside the church -- at work, at school, at civic assemblies, in the military -- the president says it is not religious worship, so the federal government can regulate how and what you do. The First Amendment contains no such restrictions.

The "We Will Stand" campaign focuses on rebutting, refuting, and standing against such indefensible attacks on religious freedom.

"ALWAYS be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have ... do this with gentleness and with respect." (1 Peter 3:15b)

The Hon. Sam Rohrer, who is working on a new book, "Making Sense of Nonsense," is president of the American Pastors Network, a national network of pastors with constitutional and biblical teachings that discusses today's pressing issues. He was a member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives for 18 years and a candidate for governor in 2010, and is co-host of the daily "Stand in the Gap Today" radio program.
Two South Carolina soldiers were killed Sunday after trying to protect a woman at a bar that was being chased by the man charged in their deaths.

Joseph Mills, 25, of Little Mountain, was charged with two counts of murder. Mills said in court Monday that he was chasing a girl who grabbed drugs from his car and took off. He apologized for what happened, but thought the two men who interceded were going to lynch him.

The Lexington County Coroner Margaret Fisher identified the victims as Charles Allen Judge Jr., 40, and Jonathon Michael Prins, 29, according to the Island Packet.

The South Carolina National Guard confirmed to WIS-TV that Judge was a staff sergeant and an engineering instructor at McCrady Training Center. He joined the South Carolina National Guard in 1994 and served in Iraq in 2004. Prins was a soldier at Fort Jackson, according to the station.

Col. Renita Berry, Judges commander at the McCrady Training Center in the 218th Regiment Leadership Command, told the Island Packet that his fellow soldiers were shocked and saddened by his death.

He was an outstanding instructor who served with great dedication and enthusiasm and demonstrated unwavering commitment to his peers, his students and this organization every day, Berry said. He will be missed tremendously.

The Island Packet, citing the arrest warrants, reported that Mills was physically assaulting a woman who several patrons at the Lake Murray bar and the soldiers separated him from her. Mills then shot the soldiers with a handgun, the warrants state.

Lexington County Sheriffs spokesman Capt. Adam Myrick said the woman was seriously injured in the attack. Its unclear whether the shooting occurred inside or outside the bar, but video of the incident was captured, according to the warrants.

Judge Arthur Myers denied bond for Mills on Monday. He warned Mills plenty of times not to speak during his hearing, but Mills ignored the requests. He tried to explain what happened to Myers.

Im very sorry about what happened, Mills said. I never meant for it to happen like that. I was being lynched by eight people because I was chasing a girl who grabbed drugs off the seat and took off running.

The Frayed Knot Bar & Grill, where the incident took place, is closed until Wednesday. They issued statements on Facebook about the incident.

Click for more from the Island Packet.
The U.S. is exploiting an enormous amount of digital information about the Islamic State obtained by Syrian rebels fighting for control of the city of Manbij, a spokesman for the American-led military coalition said Wednesday.

Speaking by phone from Baghdad, Col. Christopher Garver told reporters at the Pentagon that it's unclear how this trove of intelligence might affect the direction of the war, but he suggested it has been of considerable value.

"We think this is a big deal," he said.

Garver also revealed that the U.S. for the first time has placed its military advisers at lower-level Iraqi army headquarters, an important decision because it places the advisers closer to the front lines.

The authority for that was approved by President Barack Obama in April. Prior to Obama's go-ahead, the U.S. military was not permitted to place advisers at echelons lower than division headquarters, which are farther from the front lines.

Defense Secretary Ash Carter, speaking to soldiers of the 18th Airborne Corps at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, referred to the intelligence trove while describing progress in Manbij. He said that city is one of the last junctions connecting the Islamic State's self-declared capital of Raqqa, Syria, to the outside world, and called it "a key transit point" for extremists plotting international attacks.

"And there, we're already beginning to gain and exploit intelligence that's helping us map their network of foreign fighters," Carter said.

Garver said the intelligence has not yielded links to any of those involved in recent violent attacks in the West.

"It's a lot of material. It's going to take a lot to go through, then start connecting the dots," he said.

The intelligence is on laptop computers and portable data storage devices such as thumb drives, Garver said, adding that it amounts to more than four terabytes of digital information. He said it sheds new light on how the Islamic State has used Manbij as a "strategic hub" for welcoming, training, indoctrinating and dispatching foreign fighters.

Garver said a small group of U.S. combat engineers on July 20 was attached to an Iraqi army battalion to provide advice on how to secure a temporary bridge the Iraqis had installed over the Tigris River. This is aimed at connecting a newly recaptured air base near Qayara with an Iraqi-controlled base on the east side of the river.

Garver said this will "greatly improve maneuverability and shorten lines of communication for the (Iraqi security forces) as they prepare for the eventual assault to liberate Mosul."

In his remarks at Fort Bragg, Carter described in broad terms the U.S.-led coalition's strategy for recapturing Mosul in northern Iraq. He said the Iraqi security forces will push from the south, along the Tigris River, and the Iraqi Kurdish militia, known as the Peshmerga, will push from the north.

He was speaking to members of the 18th Airborne Corps because they are scheduled to deploy to Baghdad shortly to serve as the higher headquarters for the coalition, under Lt. Gen. Stephen Townsend, who will take over as the top U.S. commander there for Lt. Gen. Sean MacFarland.
A Vermont man who admitted to killing his girlfriend's severely disabled child by putting vodka in the boy's feeding tube has been sentenced to three years in prison.

Walter Richters of Hardwick was sentenced Tuesday in St. Johnsbury under a plea deal with prosecutors. He was given credit for 1 1/2 years.

Richters pleaded guilty in October to manslaughter in the 2014 death of 13-year-old Isaac Robitille at the Hardwick home they shared with Isaac's mother.

The 38-year-old Richters also agreed to testify against the boy's mother, Melissa Robitille, who police say approved giving her son vodka through the intravenous tube because the child was "being fussy."

Prosecutors say Isaac was blind, had no ears, a cleft palate and developmental delays.

Richters says he regrets his actions.
A man who blew himself up at a bar in the southern German town of Ansbach on Sunday was in an online chat with an as-yet unknown person immediately before the explosion, Bavaria's interior minister said on Wednesday.

"There was apparently an immediate contact with someone who had a significant influence on this attack," Joachim Herrmann said, according to news agency dpa.

Herrmann said it wasn't clear whether the assailant was in contact with ISIS or where the other person in the chat was.

Investigators checking the assailant's cellphone came across the "intensive chat" and that "the chat appears to end immediately before the attack," Herrmann said.

The interior minister also said it's unclear if the bomber, Mohammad Daleel, meant to detonate his device when he did.

"Because of witness testimony on what happened and also the course of the chat, there are indeed questions about whether he intended to set off the bomb at that moment," Herrmann said.

Daleel, a Syrian asylum-seeker, died and 15 people were wounded when the bomb exploded in a wine bar Sunday night after he wasn't allowed entry to a nearby open-air concert because he didn't have a ticket.
Election officials in northern Thailand think they can buy off a gang of monkey vandals with fresh fruit and vegetables, after about 100 macaques tore up voter lists publicly posted ahead of next month's referendum on a proposed constitution.

Phichit election official Prayoon Jakkraphatcharakul said if feeding the monkeys did not deter them, then newly installed sliding glass doors might - if they don't figure out how to open them.

Prayoon speculated that the pink color of the voter lists for the Aug. 7 referendum might have attracted the animals.

Two 8-year-old girls in the northern province of Kamphaeng Phet were charged last week with obstructing the referendum process and destroying public property when they tore down voter lists because they liked the pink paper on which they were printed.
The European policy Germans call Willkommenskultur -- the enthusiastic embrace of refugees from Syria and other Muslim-majority countries -- has morphed into a summer of terror.

Loose screening of refugees, lax counter-terrorism policies and lenient treatment of those with terrorist links or sympathies has led to a spate of attacks by terrorists already flagged by authorities. Tuesdays attack in France, where a jihadist already under house arrest slit a priests throat, came just two days after a suicide bombing in Germany by a terrorist who a medical expert had predicted would commit suicide in a spectacular fashion. Critics say such cases are piling up.

"It has happened in France and the UK -- people who were on the radar and eventually were caught up in plots, said Davis Lewin, deputy director at the Henry Jackson Society, a UK based counter-terrorism think tank. It will inevitably happen again.

Sundays suicide bombing in the southern city of Ansbach was the first attributed to ISIS to take place in Germany. Mohammed Daleel injured 15 people when he detonated a bomb outside a concert, killing himself. The attack has Germans asking why a Syrian refugee known as highly dangerous to the authorities as early as 2015 was still in the country.

Daleel can be trusted that he will commit suicide in a spectacular fashion, a medical report stated. His digital trail showed constant contact with a soldier of the Islamic State, according to German investigators. It is unclear why the authorities did not arrest him, but they did move to deport him earlier this year. The effort was blocked by German Left Party MP Harald Weinberg, who demanded that Daleel get medical care for a knee injury.

After everything I knew at that time, I would decide the same today, Weinberg told the newspaper BILD.

One of the self-described soldiers of ISIS" in Tuesdays attack in the Normandy region of France, Adel Kermiche, had been arrested in 2015 after twice trying to enter Syria through Turkey to join ISIS. Upon his return to France, he was placed under police supervision and wore an electronic tag to monitor his movements. The device was turned off for four hours each day, and it was in that window that he and Abdel Malik killed an 85-year-old priest during Mass.

What was France thinking about when they turned off his electronic bracelet for a couple of hours a day? Lewin said. But, he added, the threat is severe and the intelligence services do not have the resources to follow up everyone. And they have to make decisions who to follow.

Europe must invest heavily in security services, implement much stricter controls on immigration and clamp down on radical ideology, he said.

It is much too easy to propagate radical Islamic views, Lewin said. Politicians need to clamp down on the ideology.

France has been the target of the most devastating ISIS attacks, including the Nov. 13, 2015, coordinated attacks in Paris and the July 14 attack in Nice. More than 200 people died in the two attacks. Germany is reeling from a fresh wave of terrorism this month, including the Ansbach attack and another July 18, in which Mohammed Riyad took an ax to passengers on a Bavarian train, yelling Alahu Akbar as he injured five. Riyad claimed to be from Afghanistan, but authorities now believe he may be from Pakistan, and lied to have a better chance at asylum.

There are currently 59 ongoing investigations of refugees because of the suspicion that they are involved in terrorist structures, according to Germanys interior ministry.

Other attacks have not been characterized by law enforcement authorities as terrorism, but much of the public is skeptical. On July 22, a gunman described as Iranian-German killed 10 people and wounded 35 in Munich, in what authorities quickly branded a classic mass shooting. And this week, a 21-year-old Syrian asylum-seeker from Syria murdered a Polish woman and her unborn baby in a shocking attack with a machete. Mohammad Alhelo was already on the police radar because of charges involving bodily harm. Authorities are calling it a crime of passion.

Some of the skepticism may be traced to law enforcements attempts to downplay mass sex assaults in Cologne on New Years Day, incidents that, while not related to terrorism, are part and parcel of the refugee wave.

I don't believe that the security threat in Germany has reached a new level, but that it has been on a continued high threat level since at least a decade, Saba Farzan, the Berlin-based executive director at the Foreign Policy Circle, told FoxNews.com. But what has changed is how Islamists operate: Soft targets are in their focus and this tactic makes us more vulnerable.

Farzan, a German-Iranian who has analyzed Tehran-sponsored terrorism, said solving the problem will require a grand strategy to combat a profound threat and it runs through much broader surveillance of Islamists, more strategic coordination between European intelligence services and a moral as well as political commitment that the Islamic religion must enter the 21st century.
A resettled former Guantanamo prisoner who disappeared last month in Uruguay, setting off alarm bells in neighboring countries and recriminations in Washington, has reappeared in Venezuela, an official said Wednesday.

Uruguayan Foreign Minister Rodolfo Nin Novoa told The Associated Press that Syrian native Abu Wa'el Dhiab showed up at his country's consulate in Caracas. Consulate officials refused to provide information or entry to AP journalists gathered outside.

Dhiab reportedly had last been seen in Chuy, a small city on the Uruguay-Brazil border that is home to an Arab community. Residents said he visited the makeshift mosque of the local Arab club where he prayed and slept before he was reported missing.

Dhiab is one of six former Guantanamo prisoners who were resettled in Uruguay after being released by U.S. authorities in 2014, invited by then President Jose Mujica as a humanitarian gesture.

The men had been detained in 2002 for suspected ties to Ael Qaeda. They were held without charge like hundreds of others at Guantanamo before the U.S. government cleared them for release. There are no charges against Dhiab or order for his arrest, and Uruguayan officials had said that as a refugee he has the right to leave the South American country.

But Dhiab's disappearance raised concerns, as well as questions about how closely countries that resettle former Guantanamo inmates should watch them and for how long, as the United States prepares to release more prisoners.

U.S. lawmakers trying to block President Barack Obama from closing the detention center recently scolded his administration for losing track of Dhiab. The U.S. envoy in Montevideo also expressed concerns about the lack of information on his whereabouts. Ambassador Kelly Keiderling said it's up to Uruguay to say whether Dhiab can travel, though she added that she would prefer he stay in Uruguay. When questioned at a news conference, she said Dhiab "could be, yes, theoretically," a threat.

Colombia-based Avianca Airlines recently issued an internal alert saying Dhiab could be using a fake passport trying to enter Brazil, the site of the summer Olympics. The airline said the alert was issued based on information provided by Brazil's federal police, which had been looking for Dhiab.

The Uruguayan government has provided social services and financial support to Dhiab and the five other former detainees  three others from Syria, a Tunisian and a Palestinian. But the men have struggled to adjust and have complained about not getting enough help from Uruguayan officials.

Dhiab has been the most vocal about his unhappiness. Last year, he visited neighboring Argentina. In an orange jumpsuit like those Guantanamo prisoners have worn, he told news media in Buenos Aires that he planned to seek asylum for himself and the other detainees still held at the U.S. naval base in eastern Cuba.

In an interview with the Uruguayan magazine Busqueda, Dhiab said he was never a terrorist, but sympathizes with al-Qaida because of the torture that he endured in Guantanamo. He also has accused Uruguay of breaking its commitment to bring his family.

Jon Eisenberg, a U.S. lawyer who represented Dhiab while he was detained at Guantanamo, said he has not been in contact with the former prisoner since a phone call in June but has heard from a contact in Uruguay that the report of his being in Venezuela is accurate.

Eisenberg said Dhiab was very concerned about his wife and three children, who fled the Syrian civil war for Turkey but then had to return to their homeland for financial reasons. They were in a Syrian village that was bombed by government forces in November 2015.

The lawyer said that when he last spoke with the former prisoner, Dhiab was hopeful that his family might be brought to Uruguay.

"That's why I thought he wouldn't leave Uruguay," Eisenberg said.
A shopping center in the north German city of Bremen was evacuated Wednesday evening as police searched for an Algerian man who fled a psychiatric facility while making terrorist threats.

A police spokeswoman told Reuters that patrons of the Weserpark shopping mall had contacted authorities to report a suspicious man. That person was later identified as a 19-year-old man who had escaped that morning from a psychiatric facility.

"It's possible that the missing man has hidden something in the shopping center," police spokesman Nils Matthiesen told Sky News. "It could be a device or some other dangerous item."



Police spokesman Arno Zumbach told the Bild tabloid that the unidentified suspect had made threatening statements about ISIS and last week's mass shooting in Munich, in which nine people were killed and 16 others were wounded.

Zumbach added that the suspect shouted "I'll blow you all up!" as he fled the facility.

The unidentified police spokeswoman told Reuters that the suspect was still at large after the mall was evacuated. She said there were no injuries, and added "this is not an anti-terrorism operation."

Earlier, a supermarket in the city had been evacuated because of a bomb threat, but it was reopened after several hours.



Germany has been on edge after a string of attacks over the past week, two of which have been linked to ISIS.
Israeli forces tracked down a group of suspects behind the deadly ambush of a family car in the West Bank earlier this month and killed the man who pulled the trigger in that attack in a shootout early on Wednesday, the military said.

The July 1 attack killed Miki Mark, a 48-year-old father of 10 children, and wounded his wife and two teenage children. The military subsequently sent hundreds of troops to the area of the attack to search for the perpetrators in what was the largest operation in the territory in two years. Israel also vowed to take unprecedented steps to capture the killers.

On Wednesday, the military said that after almost a month of pursuing the perpetrators, troops closed in on the Hamas cell behind the ambush. It said troops surrounded a house near the West Bank city of Hebron where the group was hiding and called on them to surrender.

One Palestinian, believed to be the shooter who killed Mark, was killed in the pre-dawn shootout. Weapons were found on his body, the military said, adding that three others were arrested, including one who belonged to the official Palestinian security forces.

Since mid-September, Palestinians have carried out dozens of stabbings, shootings and attacks using cars against civilians and security forces, killing 34 Israelis and two visiting Americans.

During the same period, about 200 Palestinians have been killed, mainly by Israeli forces or in some cases, armed civilians. Most of the Palestinians have been identified by Israel as attackers while the rest were killed in clashes with Israeli forces.

Israel says the violence is fueled by a Palestinian campaign of lies and incitement, compounded on social media sites that glorify attacks. Palestinians say it stems from frustration at nearly five decades of Israeli rule in territory they claim for a state.
A Human Rights Watch report says members of the youth wing of Burundi's ruling party have gang-raped women and girls related to people accused of being opposed to President Pierre Nkurunziza.

The report released Wednesday says several women told the rights group that Imbonerakure members sometimes would tell the victim they were raping her because they could not find her relative.

The rights group said it interviewed more than 70 rape victims and that 14 said they recognized at least one attacker as an Imbonerakure member.

Burundi has been in turmoil since Nkurunziza last year pursued and won a third term that many oppose.

Hundreds of people have died, and more than 220,000 have fled their homes. Rights groups have accused the government of violence against opposition members and protesters.
DEVELOPING: Turkey's government has decided to close down dozens of media outlets, including 45 newspapers and 16 television stations in the wake of a failed military coup, the country's state-run news agency reported Wednesday.

CNN Turk reported that 130 media organizations had been shuttered in a widening crackdown by Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government. The list also inlcuded 23 radio stations, three news agencies and 15 magazines. Many of those targeted were regional media outlets as well as several organizations that had already been seized by the state over alleged links to Fethullah Gulen, the U.S.-based cleric accused of being behind the failed uprising.



The state-run Anadolu Agency also reported that close to 1,700 military officers have been formally discharged.

In all, nearly 16,000 people have been detained for questioning over suspected links to the coup attempt, and about half have been arrested to face trial, Interior Minister Efkan Ala said Wednesday.

Earlier this week, the Ankara government issued detention warrants for 47 former executives or senior journalists of Turkey's Zaman newspaper for alleged links to Gulen, who denies any involvement in the coup attempt. Such detentions have raised concerns that people could be targeted simply for criticizing the government.



The failed uprising by a faction within the military led to some 290 deaths on July 15.

The media watchdog Reporters Without Borders condemned Turkey's purges of journalists, saying they have assumed "increasingly alarming proportions."

"Criticizing the government and working for media outlets that support the Gulen Movement do not constitute evidence of involvement in the failed coup," said Johann Bihr, who heads the organization's Eastern Europe and Central Asia desk.



Turkey's Justice Ministry denied an Amnesty International report alleging that some of those detained were tortured. Correct arrest and custody procedures were being applied under a three-month state of emergency announced last week, it said.



The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Captain Ds Announces Opening of Newest Restaurant in Florida

Fast Casual Brand Opens New Tallahassee Location on July 25

July 27, 2016 // Franchising.com // NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Captain Ds, the leading fast casual seafood restaurant, announced today its newest franchised restaurant in Tallahassee, Florida is officially open. Located at 2833 North Monroe, this new restaurant marks the brands 28th location in the state, and the first location for the franchisees.

The new restaurant is owned and operated by first-time Captain Ds franchisees David and Jamie Yates, who are both graduates of Florida State University. Prior to purchasing their franchise, the Yates were pharmacy owners and decided to pursue a career in franchising after being introduced to the Captain Ds brand and seeing the potential for success. The couple plans to open several additional restaurants across the Florida Panhandle over the next few years.

We know there is immense potential in the restaurant industry and although we considered franchising with several different brands, once we found Captain Ds we knew it was the right fit. The company has an outstanding management team and support system for its franchise network, and we love the direction the brand is heading in with its new healthier menu items and its revamped look, said David Yates, Captain Ds franchisee. As Florida State University alumni, we could not be more excited to return to Tallahassee, a city we both know and love, and look forward to welcoming residents into our new restaurant and delivering a top-notch dining experience.

The second quarter of 2016 marked Captain Ds 19th consecutive quarter of system-wide growth, generating a 3.1 percent system-wide same store sales increase, along with a surge of new franchise and corporate growth. Coupled with its ongoing menu innovation, Captain Ds credits its new restaurant beach design with contributing to the brands compounding success. To date, 50 percent of all restaurants have been reimaged to the brands new vibrant, coastal design, with another 50 locations to be remodeled by the end of this year. With these efforts, Captain Ds has remained true to what it does best  serving high-quality seafood with warm hospitality at an affordable price in a welcoming atmosphere.

With 512 restaurants in 21 states, Captain Ds is the fast-casual seafood leader and number one seafood franchise in America ranked by average unit volume. The company is currently seeking single- and multi-unit operators to join in the brands rapid expansion. For more information about franchise opportunities, visit http://www.captaindsfranchising.com or call 800-550-4877.

About Captain Ds

Headquartered in Nashville, Tenn., Captain Ds has 512 restaurants in 21 states, plus military bases around the world. Captain Ds is the nations leading fast casual seafood restaurant and was named the #1 seafood chain in the QSR 50, ranked by AUV. Founded in 1969, Captain Ds has been offering its customers high-quality seafood at reasonable prices in a welcoming atmosphere for more than 46 years. Captain Ds serves a wide variety of seafood that includes freshly prepared entrees and the company's signature hand-battered fish, which is cooked to order. The restaurants also offer premium-quality, grilled items such as shrimp, and surf and turf, as well as hushpuppies, desserts and freshly brewed, Southern-style sweet tea, a Captain D's favorite. For more information, please visit www.captainds.com.

SOURCE Captain Ds

Media Contact:

Alex Stone

Fish Consulting, LLC

Office (954) 893-9150

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Minuteman Press Franchise Owners Ed and Fiona McDonnell Celebrate 11 Years in Business in Footscray, Australia

What is it like to be a business owner and part of the world's largest design, marketing and printing franchise? Here is what 11-year Minuteman Press owners Ed and Fiona McDonnell have to say about how they got started, why they chose Minuteman Press, and what it's like to be a part of a business and a community they truly enjoy.

July 27, 2016 // Franchising.com // FOOTSCRAY, Victoria, Australia - Minuteman Press franchise owners Ed and Fiona McDonnell have hit a new milestone, achieving 11 years in business. Like many Minuteman Press franchisees, before taking the reins of their design, marketing and printing center located at 44 Buckley Street, Ed and Fiona came from very different backgrounds.

"I had a wide history in fast moving consumer goods in the USA working with household names such as Johnson & Johnson, Pepsi Cola and Huffy Bicycles," recalls Ed. He adds, "As a sales representative and later on as sales manager, I worked all across the USA and Canada. A move to Russell Stover Candies brought me to Australia as General Manager for Australia and New Zealand. I was supposed to stay for two years in Melbourne, but then I met Fiona."

Fiona McDonnell came from a very diverse background including promotional modeling, acting and sales. "I worked with household names including GE (Information Services), Lend Lease and Witchery Fashions. When I met Ed, I was co-owner of a sales and training business with clients including Jurlique, Full Life Pharmacies and BHP (the big Australian mining company)."

Why Minuteman Press?

Ed and Fiona came to a crossroads in their careers where they knew they wanted to venture out and become business owners. They examined many different franchise opportunities including food franchises, but the food industry wasn't right for them. Fiona says, "We had just moved back from Sydney to Melbourne and were looking for an opportunity. We attended the franchise show and met the team from Minuteman Press International  Ed recognized the company from the USA." Ed continues, "Both of us wanted a business that was business to business as our son was only five years old and we didnt want to miss time with him on weekends and evenings."

What really made a difference for Ed and Fiona was the Minuteman Press business model as well as meeting with local franchise owners and speaking with them directly about their own experiences with Minuteman. Ed says, "We loved that no experience in printing was necessary and met with established owners in Melbourne with backgrounds as diverse as banking, chemical companies and supermarket/retail managers."

Fiona reflects, "The Minuteman Press team we met at the franchise show and every step after were professional, competent, friendly, and seemed like people we could work with. The business model made sense  the figures stacked up and we loved the margins available with print!"

Life as a Minuteman Press Franchise Owner

For Ed and Fiona McDonnell, Minuteman Press was the right decision. Asked what life was like before and after deciding to become business owners, there were several things that stood out to them:

"We love the sense of control over our own destiny  the chance to build something all our own."

"There is a sense of community which was an unexpected bonus  Fiona was founding secretary of the local Footscray Traders Association, Ed is heavily involved with the Western Bulldogs AFL team."

"We have surrounded ourselves with a team we trust and enjoy working with."

"We love the sense of never a dull day  every day something new comes to challenge us and keep it fresh."

"It is exciting to set and meet our monthly sales goals as a team."

"We could never have found a job that let us bring our beloved Westie cross dog Ace to work!"

Ongoing Support from Day 1 to Year 11 and Beyond

The ongoing local support provided by Minuteman Press International to its franchise owners worldwide is something Ed and Fiona have truly valued over the past 11 years. Ed says, "Minuteman personnel have been with us all along, from practically living with us for the first month to now being available whenever we call on them to answer questions on potential equipment purchases or growth strategies, bench marking, etc." Fiona comments, "The other owners are a fabulous source of information and support too; everyone is generous in sharing experiences and good suppliers. You can save a lot of time by learning from other peoples experiences in the franchise system."

Typical Day

What is a typical day like for Ed and Fiona as Minuteman Press franchise owners?

"Typically

Ed opens the center at 8 am. He checks for any orders via email or the phone answering machine and fires up the all-important coffee machine.

Ed looks over the Work in Progress report with our designer Adrian at 8:30 am.

Fiona arrives between 8:30 and 9:30, often dropping into clients' businesses on the way.

From here, there really is no "typical day" since it is really diverse  we could be quoting a very large magnet order or helping a startup with business cards.

We have printed on rulers, stress balls, T-shirts, jackets, aprons and even doggie bandanas. Pull up banners, feather banners, foam core mounting, canvas printing, pens, cooler bags  it all happens!"

Community Outreach

One huge benefit of franchising and business ownership in general is the ability to become active members of the community. While Ed is passionate about supporting the Western Bulldogs AFL team (along with the Philadelphia Eagles, Phillies and 76ers from his days in the USA), Fiona is an active advocate for improved health and education. Fiona elaborates, "I am passionate about improving life for people with hemophilia and I sit on the committee for the Hemophilia Foundation Victoria. I also volunteer as a business mentor at the Asylum Seeker and Refuge Resource Centre and for the Christina Nobel Childrens Foundation, which raises funds to help shelter and educate homeless children in Vietnam and Cambodia."

What's Next + Advice for Others

With 11 years in business, Ed and Fiona are looking to keep things going strong. "Our goal is to continue to grow the business by 10% this year, says Ed. He adds, "We have just had our best ever month in terms of sales and we are excited to stretch ourselves."

As for advice they would have for others, Ed and Fiona offer these parting words: "People are your greatest asset  hire well and reward them for their contributions. Go with the system that has worked for so many people  and it will work for you if you work with it!"

Ed and Fiona McDonnell's Minuteman Press franchise is located at 44 Buckley St, Footscray VIC 3011. For more information, call Ed and Fiona at (03) 9687 3026 or visit their website: www.minutemanpressfootscray.com.au

About Minuteman Press International

Minuteman Press International is a business service franchise that is rated #1 in category by Entrepreneur for 12 years in a row and 24 times overall, including 2016. Learn more about Minuteman Press franchise opportunities at www.minutemanpressfranchise.com.

SOURCE Minuteman Press International

Media Contact:

Chris Biscuiti

Minuteman Press

(631)249-1370

cbiscuiti@mpihq.com

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Renters Warehouse Welcomes Noel Christopher Onto The Team

Award-winning industry veteran Noel Christopher joins leading residential property management firm Renters Warehouse as new National Business Development Lead.

MINNETONKA, MN (PRWEB) July 26, 2016 - Renters Warehouse, one of the leading residential property management companies in the U.S., is welcoming award-winning industry veteran Noel Christopher into the fold.

Noel joins the Renters Warehouse family as the companys National Business Development Lead, helping acquire property management companies and bringing larger property portfolio holders into the Renters Warehouse ecosystem.

Weve created a Portfolio Services Division at Renters Warehouse, which offers far more than the average property management company, Noel says. Were offering dedicated services to investors who own a large number of homes and were creating best practices that will change the industry for the better  for both larger investors and mom and pop investors.

Resources for mom and pop investors have traditionally been limited, yet its those investors who dominate the single-family rental space. Giving them a stable platform with the tools and support to be comfortable owning more homes is what has been missing, and its where we come in. Our Rent Estate Advisors will help educate and provide resources, processes and guidance to enable smaller investors to grow.

In past roles, Noel helped lead a Chicago-based real estate team to close more than $350 million in investor sales and rank in the brokerages top 10 nationally. The Chicago Association of Realtors named him among its top 1 per cent of producers from 2011 to 2014.

As Renters Warehouse continued to expand across the U.S.  today managing more than $3 billion in residential real estate  Noel became acquainted with the brand and business offerings, believing it to be the next progression in the Single-Family Rental space.

The single family property management space is very fractured, he says. The entire marketplace has needed a professional, scaled and vertically integrated service provider, and that is us. When I realized that Renters Warehouses bread and butter is that space  with over 16,000 homes under management while servicing over 12,000 investors across the country  I knew I wanted to be a part of the team.

Noel lives in Boulder, Colorado with his wife and two daughters.

Renters Warehouse exists to help homeowners to discover wealth and financial freedom through Rent Estate. To learn more about Renters Warehouse or to find out how much your home will rent for, visit http://www.renterswarehouse.com today!

About Renters Warehouse

Renters Warehouse is one of the fastest-growing and highest-reviewed residential property management companies in America, and the largest in Minnesota. Under the leadership of President and CEO Kevin Ortner, Renters Warehouse now manages more than $3 billion in residential real estate, servicing 12,000+ investors across 16,000+ residential homes in 17 states. The company expertly serves everyday single-property homeowners as well as real estate investors. Through their dedicated Portfolio Services Division, Renters Warehouse brings professional, scalable and efficient single property management solutions to investment portfolios with both centralized services and local market expertise and staff. In 2015, the company officially trademarked the term Rent Estate to redefine the entire SFR (Single Family Rental) industry as more traditional real estate gives way to this new lucrative asset. Not only has Renters Warehouse received the prestigious honor of being included on the Inc. 500 | 5000 list of fastest-growing privately held companies in America six consecutive years in a row, this Great Rated company was also named one of the Best Places to Work in Minnesota (where they are headquartered) by the Minneapolis St. Paul Business Journal in 2010, 2011, 2012, 2014, 2015 and 2016, and by the Phoenix Business Journal in 2013 and 2014 (first franchise location). Renters Warehouse Arizona also achieved a spot on the prestigious 2016 Top Companies to Work for in AZ list. Nationwide, Renters Warehouse has been honored as one of America's "Best Places to Work" in 2012, 2014, 2015 and 2016 by Outside Magazine. Recognized as pioneers in real estate, business management and innovation, Renters Warehouse has been honored with 18 Business Stevie Awards both internationally and stateside.

SOURCE Renters Warehouse

Contact:

Eric Lewis

Onboardly (on behalf of Renters Warehouse)

+1 5068661393

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baloney_detector said: So I guess Trump "hopes" that the Russians have access to emails that might, as some people-particularly some of his supporters-have essential implied, have classified information in them?



And this is the same person who is supposed to gain access to classified information by means of intelligence briefings rather soon?





:blink:





(Why shouldn't we take him at his word, so to speak, even if he said his cited statement in jest, particularly if he is supposed to be considered as being presidential material at this point in the election process?) Click to expand...

Russia, if youre listening, I hope youre able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing, Mr. Trump said, staring directly into the cameras during a news conference. I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press. Click to expand...

I think is funny as hell and to the point. Oh,I understand the spin doctoring from the left. Being played off as Trump is "hoping" the Russians can hack the emails. When, as you can see from what he actually said that was not the case. It would be redundant to say that. The left has been very clear that they are convinced the Russians are responsible for the hack. So, all Trump said was I hope you can find the emails. That implies since the Russians are responsible for hacking everything, according to the left, then they must have those emails as well. It was a direct and to the point statement toward the hypocrisy and the character of the spin doctoring going on with the left and their definition of fair and equal playing field in the election process. Besides from what I can see, the left might be really upset if Putin was actually appearing to influence the elections through an illegal process. It appears that would be to much competition for the Democrats.
Beau Eckstein of SFR Ventures Announces Second Annual REI Bar Camp

Beau Eckstein of SFR Ventures has announced the Second Annual REI Bar Camp featuring keynote speaker, Matt Skinner and sponsor, Louis Bardis. Learn about real estate investing from successful investors in a friendly networking atmosphere.

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Concord, CA, July 22, 2016- Beau Eckstein of SFR Ventures and the Real Estate Investing Club is proud to announce the second annual Bay Area REI Bar Camp on August 13, 2016 at Fuddruckers in Concord, CA from 9:30am until 3pm.

"Last year's Bar Camp was a huge hit. This year's is sure to be an even bigger event for Bay Area real estate investors, agents, brokers, house flippers, and construction rehabbers." - Beau Eckstein

The concept of a bar camp is an "unconference" - no formalized presentations, speeches, sales pitches, or lectures. Instead, bar camp participants decide the topics to be discussed and then real estate investing pros lead discussions about those topics. Attendees learn exactly what they want because they pick the topics for discussion and seasoned real estate investors lead the discussions and answer their questions.

This REI Bar Camp will be held at Fuddruckers in Concord from 9:30am until 3pm. The keynote speaker, Matt Skinner, will lead off and give an overview of how this Bar Camp will work, along with some projects he's currently working on.

Attendees then choose topics and break out into groups. There will be four of these sessions. After the first two, attendees will have lunch. Then the next two breakout sessions will take place.

Finally, at 3pm, Bar Camp attendees will convene for a mixer at Lazy Dog Restaurant.

Details of the event:

REI Bar Camp

August 13, 2016

9:30am - 3pm

Fuddruckers

1975 Diamond Blvd., E-260

Concord, CA 94520

A few notes about the Keynote Speaker:

Matt Skinner is a leading real estate entrepreneur in Southern California and currently serves as Director and CEO of Twelvestone Group, Inc. a private equity group that specializes in value-add apartment buildings and development projects.

Matt's firm owns and operates cash-flowing apartment assets in Texas, Arizona, and California. He is currently developing a $50M project in Newport California as well as several other luxury homes in the LA area.

Matt started in the trenches (literally) working in construction and went on to build an award-winning construction company and private equity firm. He started in real estate after attending a workshop where he was introduced to wholesaling houses. Since then he has flipped dozens of homes and developed multi-family, shopping centers, and luxury homes.

He's also owned and operated over 1,000 apartment units.

You can find Matt's education programs at Deal Maker Society and his private equity firm at Real People Real Returns.

A note about the Host:

Beau Eckstein has a diverse real estate background with over sixteen years of real estate experience. This includes real estate sales, residential mortgage lending, construction financing, and private money loans. Beau utilizes his vast knowledge and great people skills to help investors, brokers, contractors, and owner/builders create successful projects.

Currently Beau is Managing Partner of SFR Ventures, Inc., which is the origination arm of a private money fund specializing in construction. This fund specializes in investor loans for construction, bridge, and rehab loans. Beau is an active investor and likes to partner with architects and builders. Beau works with buy and hold investors as well as fix and flips/rehabbers.

SFR Ventures makes loans that make sense. Hard Money Loans, Private Money Loans, Fix and Flip Loans, Construction Loans, GAP Funding, and more.

# # #

If you would like more information about this event, please contact Beau Eckstein at (925) 852-8261 or email at beaueckstein@gmail.com.

Company Name: SFR Ventures

Contact Name: Beau Eckstein

City: CONCORD

State: CA

Country: United States

Phone: (925) 852-8261

Email: beaueckstein@gmail.com

Website URL: http://reibarcamp.com

Source: http://authoritynewsnetwork.com/beau-eckstein-of-sfr-ventures-announces-second-annual-rei-bar-camp/

Release ID: 125261

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FullIntel Releases BIO International Convention Media Impact Report

Learn who won the maximum media coverage at the BIO International Convention- 2016 with FullIntel's comprehensive media impact report

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Business intelligence and Media monitoring services company, FullIntel has released a media impact report for the 2016 BIO International Convention. The report includes analysis of more than 43 million online impressions collected from various sources, including news reports, expert insights, and social media content - all handpicked and curated by FullIntel's analysts.

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The report highlights the Top 5 companies that had the highest media coverage around their news stories, information about top journalists covering the events, and impact of major news announcements. "We've highlighted the top quotes by the industry leaders that have created maximum impact, and included information about the prominent media outlets that covered BIO Convention," adds Andrew Koeck, president & co-founder at FullIntel.

It also includes a detailed sentiment analysis of the stories about the Convention. 'Human analysis ensures that contextual understanding and the tone (of the content) are not missed, thereby positively impacting the accuracy of the report," he adds.

About FullIntel:

FullIntel is a business intelligence services company offering relevant news and business information handpicked by human analysts and delivered to industry professionals via email, mobile, and web. FullIntel's services include, reputation monitoring, event monitoring, influencer research, and coverage analysis.

For more information, please visit http://www.fullintel.com/

Contact Info:

Name: Gaugarin Oliver

Organization: FullIntel

Address: 60 Thoreau Street, #294, Concord, Massachusetts 01742

Phone: 978 206 1608

Source: http://marketersmedia.com/fullintel-releases-bio-international-convention-media-impact-report/125227

Release ID: 125227

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Bell Relocators Publishes New Guide To Help People Move With Ease

The company is aiming to help families and individuals have a stress-free move, reports http://bellrelocators.com.

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Bell Relocators, a premier team of Movers San Diego, has recently released a new guide for families and individuals who are looking to move in the near future. With the publication of this guide, the company desires to help people reduce their stress levels during a move and get things done in an efficient and effective manner. A link to the new moving guide is available on the Bell Relocators Facebook page.

"There is no doubt that moving can be one of the most stress-inducing things that a family or individual endeavors to do. We're taking on the task of trying to make it less so," said Alfred Bell, a representative of Bell Relocators. "In order to achieve that goal, we've created a detailed guide and checklist to help people remember all the tasks they need to accomplish and give them some insight about things they may not even have thought to do. For many people, just knowing that they have a clear roadmap to a successful move can be a huge stress reliever."

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As Bell continued, "While moving can certainly be stressful, it doesn't have to be. We see it as our mission to take the burden of the moving process off of our clients' shoulders. Whether we are providing Vehicle Transport or long-term Storage Services for those who are downsizing, our team strives to help people relocate their items and settle into their new home quickly and comfortably - whether it's one mile down the road or thousands of miles across the globe."

About Bell Relocators:

Bell Relocators is a fast-growing, family-owned moving company offering a full range of services, including packing/unpacking, furniture assembly, storage facilities and packing supplies. Whether someone is moving down the street or across the world, they'll help them manage the move. The Bell Relocators team is there for their clients every step of the way from planning to execution, and clients can rest assured that their professional movers will handle their valuables with care.

For more information, please visit http://bellrelocators.com

Contact Info:

Name: Alfred Bell

Organization: Bell Relocators

Phone: +1 619 940 1398

Source: http://marketersmedia.com/bell-relocators-publishes-new-guide-to-help-people-move-with-ease/125298

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Stringfellow Technology Group Publishes Business Cybersecurity Guide

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As Barnes goes on to say, "Having a business continuity plan in place in case of a data breach is definitely something that every business needs to look into. Our guide gives them a head start on achieving this goal. We hope that it will point them in the right direction as they seek to protect what they've worked so hard to build."

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Eugene Oregon Dental Braces Gass Orthodontics Wins Readers Choice Award

A Eugene orthodontic practice has won the Reader's Choice Award for the eighth year running, a testament to their commitment to excellent care for local patients. The Gass Orthodontics site lists every service available to patients in the Eugene area.

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Gass Orthodontics of Eugene, Oregon has won the First Place Reader's Choice Award conducted by the Register Guard Newspaper for the eighth consecutive year. The award comes following the publication's annual poll, which encompasses all the area's businesses, services and professionals, across a wide range of niches.

More information is available at: https://eugeneorthodontics.com.

The award distinguishes Gass Orthodontics from other practices in the field, and is testament to the doctor's commitment to excellence in orthodontic care for patients in the Eugene area. Dr Gass and his staff strive to ensure that each patient's cares and concerns are listened to, so that they can work together to tailor an individual treatment plan and achieve the best results for every visit.

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Using these tools, the practice can enhance patient treatment efficiency, and help to provide a more comprehensive treatment philosophy tailored to each individual. The communication tools allow the staff to ensure each patient stays informed throughout their treatment while knowing whatever questions they may have, are both encouraged and happily answered.

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Anyone wanting to find out more information about Gass Orthodontics or the Reader's Choice Award can use the contact form available on their website to get in touch.

For more information, please visit https://eugeneorthodontics.com

Contact Info:

Name: Jedidiah R Gass DDS, MSD, PC

Organization: Gass Orthodontics

Address: 752 Goodpasture Island Rd. Eugene, OR 97401

Phone: (541) 687-1161

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Agriculture Technology Market 2017 Global Analysis, Opportunities and Forecast to 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17)

Global VR Helmet Market by Manufacturers, Technology, Type and Application, Forecast to 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17)
CouponSolver Launches Website To Promote Online Shopping

The largest database of coupons on the planet helps consumers connect with friends using coupon apps. The website and app helps shoppers save money through the use of online coupons.

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Coupon Solver and Miki Pavlov are pleased to announce the launch of their new coupon and deals website where people can find coupons for many stores and products. Online shopping is becoming more and more popular as consumers learn about the convenience of shopping in a global market. Consumers can find goods that are not available in a small local market. The shopping hours are no longer tied to a local store's business hours.

According to a spokesperson for the website, "You can browse our website to find coupons on the goods you buy regularly. When you need to locate a better price on some item of clothing or accessories, you can search by categories, of which there are dozens. Items for men, women or children. There are pet categories as well. These are not cheap throw-away items, but the quality items you expect, only at a more affordable price."

The use of coupons brings the prices down. Consumers who are fond of the merchandise of a particular merchant can search the stores for coupons which are available. As with categories, there are dozens of stores represented on the website. Customers may take the reduced prices offered by coupons in order to try out a new brand or a favourite product line. Simply browsing the coupons which are available may provide ideas for gifts to a friend or family member.

The online coupon site helps consumers enjoy shopping in the knowledge that the prices which are charged represent a savings over other items offered for online shopping. The offers which appear on the site are up-to-date items so that the consumer can be sure that there are no outdated or expired coupons to cause disappointment. The website also features a blog which offers insight on a number of topics of interest to consumers.

For more information, please visit https://www.couponsolver.com

Contact Info:

Name: Miki Pavlov

Organization: CouponSolver.com

Address: Jakim Spirovski 3c, Probistip, Macedonia

Phone: +38978392417

Source: https://www.couponsolver.com/stores/

Release ID: 125331

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NZ Looking For Pest Control Pied Pipers

In 2017, New Zealanders will be paid to eradicate rats, stoats and possums John Key, prime minister, announced in July, 2016. A $28.8 million government campaign, the most ambitious pest control management ever, will completely eradicate one mammal by 2025 coordinated through Predator Free NZ.

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Since the 1300's the public health adversely affected by rats, rodents and other invasive species has concerned families, communities, and countries. The Pied Piper of Hamelin captures the classic struggle. Authorities seek a remedy. A pied piper arrives at the peak of panic. A bounty is agreed and the rats follow the pied piper out of town and into a body of water where they drown.

Now New Zealand captures the imagination of the world with the greatest eradication ever attempted.

July, 2016, John Key, prime minister of New Zealand, announced the shared government and private sector campaign to eradicate invasive species from every single portion of the country by 2050. Twenty-five million native birds fall victim every year. As if the goal is not already massive in scale, the campaign includes the establishment of the Kermadecs as the world's largest protected oceanic sanctuary and granting improvement to their fresh waterways and regional sea.

Monitored since 2013, the predator population has crested to such a level as to threaten New Zealand wildlife, the chief of which is the prized kiwi bird, as stated by Sir Rob Fenwich of Predator Free NZ. It is as serious as $3.3 billion annually when total summed, including the infection of bovine tuberculosis, property damages, health problems, and tourist trade. The only native New Zealand mammals are marine and bat species and they have been dramatically reduced by these invasive species.

New Zealand has previous experience with attempted predator management and some are still in operation. Project Taranaki Mounga attempts to rid the same undesirables from Egmont Nation Park. Other remote areas have their own projects, some even being subjected to aerial deposits of 1080, a poison that has artificially caused a rise in the price of possum fur. These efforts will most likely be included in the campaign to totally eradicate rats, stoats and possums.

The government has already provided an initial investment of $28 million specifically toward the project despite an already committed annual pest control expenditure between $60 to $80 million. By the time local government and private enterprise dollars are added to the efforts, there is little wonder why a concentrated shared effort seems the preferred strategy. The simplified offered is a one to two match of financial resources where the government will fund one dollar for each two dollars spent by the private sector and local council in the crusade to kill off these pests.

Others have tried and New Zealand has been keen on learning from their efforts. Canada has called on its Agricultural Division to establish and maintain "rat-free" zones. Bon Accord (just north of Edmonton) in Alberta Province constantly patrols the region under the supervision of Phil Merril with seven agents alert to the "rat control" zones. Alberta Agriculture particularly monitors the Saskatchewan border in anticipation of inbound rodents hitching rides on RVs. Residents share the vigil and notify the authorities with any suspected infestation.

Best of luck to the ambitious campaign launched by New Zealand. All countries should make a similar contribution to the overall global control and management of our public health and safety. These concerns are really as basic as any concerns handled by local pest control company like pestcontrolmatrix.com on a daily basis. All homeowners, whether in New Zealand, Canada, or a local neighbourhood have the same goal in mind: eradicate the pests that bring disease and discomfort upon a family, a community, or a country.

For more information, please visit http://pestcontrolmatrix.com

Contact Info:

Name: Lynn Eckeberger

Organization: Bay Area Pest Control Matrix

Address: 238 S. Egret Bay Blvd. Suite 216 League City, TX 77573



Source: http://marketersmedia.com/nz-looking-for-pest-control-pied-pipers/125310

Release ID: 125310

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ESFS Alerts California Homeowners to New Security Alarm Quote Service

ESFS has just announced a new online quote-sourcing service for home security alarm systems in California.

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The home improvement website ESFS has recently announced a new offering for visitors from California; an online quote-sourcing service for home security alarm systems.

ESFS, a home improvement and renovation website, has launched a security alarm system service for visitors from California. The ESFS site is an opportunity for homeowners to cut out much of the legwork involved in finding suitable contractors and sourcing quotes. The companies and individuals that ESFS partners with are all pre-screened for reliability and matched up to users in their local area, which ensures homeowners are still supporting their community while benefiting from online price comparison.

"Home security systems range from very simple to very complex," ESFS spokesperson Matt Aird outlined. "And likewise, some security firms specialize in a certain area, while others provide blanket services. Not all alarm and camera systems are made alike, so a system quote should include consideration of the hardware chosen as well as the service quality. A contractor may offer a choice between manufacturers, while others will provide only a trusted brand. Homeowners using the ESFS quote service should be as specific as possible about their security needs and expectations."

Electrical security systems can be installed piece by piece, but are often sold as whole systems, comprising alarms, motion detectors, electronically locking doors, and cameras. The system recordings and feedback may be monitored by the homeowner alone, or be live monitored by the supplier for additional peace of mind. Even special smoke alarms can be installed and monitored off-site.

"A supplier of security alarm systems must be licensed in California," Mr. Aird noted, "And additional qualifications, industry memberships and insurance often indicate a company that is confident of the quality of its work. Every homeowner knows their own situation best, so ESFS has included a broad spectrum of companies, allowing users to source quotes widely and choose the solution and package that best suits their circumstances and budget."

The ESFS Security Alarm System quote service has rolled out to almost 300 locations across California, serving areas as diverse as Antioch, Los Angeles, and Ventura.

About ESFS.org ESFS stands for Easy Simple Fast Service and is an online service dedicated to providing customers with no obligation quotes for a variety of services including home repair and additions, interior design and decoration, cleaning, roofing and construction from pre-screened local contractors.

For more information, please visit http://www.esfs.org

Contact Info:

Name: Matt Aird

Organization: Easy Simple Fast Service

Address: www.esfs.org



Release ID: 125281

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UnProtectedSec Expands Content To Include Broader Security Topics On Valuables And More

UnProtectedSec is the number one resource for information on information security and security technologies, and has expanded its content to include other topics crucial to 21st century security.

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Security is a growing concern for millions of people throughout America, as the lines that define safety and danger, privacy and intrusion are becoming more blurred every day. As a result, people are more interested in their security than ever before. UnProtectedSec is an online resource center specializing in digital security. It has recently expanded the topics it covers in response to overwhelming requests from readers, who want information on a wide range of related security topics. Their new articles include information on home security, personal security and securing valuable items, all designed to prevent theft, intrusion and other crimes.

The website was expanded when the editor realised that people could not get the same quality of information on topics related to broader security as his site was providing for information security. As a result, the website has extended its content. It now helps people protect themselves from intelligence gathering, identity theft and increases phishing awareness, while covering home security, and helping people keep their valuables more secure.

The website now has a host of new articles on security cameras, as well as home security, including information on the best gun safes and valuables safes on the market right now. This information is all designed to satisfy the increasing demand for security in an increasingly uncertain world.

A spokesperson for UnProtectedSec explained, "America is in turmoil, and this is leading people to try harder than ever to protect what matters to them. While digital crime and privacy are certainly still hot button issues, fundamentals like home security are also being re-evaluated. The good news is that security technologies are advancing in these fields as well, and can provide better solutions than ever before. We are showcasing those solutions, so that people can take actionable steps in improving their home security. This expansion is a welcome one, and we look forward to helping more people stay safe, by offering more comprehensive information than ever."

About UnProtectedSec: UnProtectedSec has been active for over a year and a half, providing the web's leading resource for the latest news and resources on information security and security technology. The site has expanded its topic areas to cover modern digital security and a wide range of other security issues around homes and belongings.

For more information, please visit http://www.unprotectedsec.com/

Contact Info:

Name: PRWhirlWind

Organization: PRWhirlWind



Source: http://marketersmedia.com/unprotectedsec-expands-content-to-include-broader-security-topics-on-valuables-and-more/125398

Release ID: 125398

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A man who allegedly attacked another with a machete during a Sunday morning bar fight is in custody after an early Tuesday morning traffic stop in Albany.

Keith John Stewart, 41, of Albany, was at the Fox Den on Waverly Drive around 1:30 Sunday morning, according to police reports, when he apparently got into an altercation with Thomas Shadowen, 40, also of Albany. At some point during the argument, Stewart is alleged to have produced a machete, with which he attacked Shadowen, sending him by Life Flight to a Portland hospital with a traumatic hand injury. Shadowen has since been released.

Shortly after midnight Tuesday morning, Albany Police officers pulled Stewart over near the intersection of Santiam Highway and Goldfish Farm Road, having searched specifically for him in connection with the assault. Stewart was arrested for first-degree assault and unlawful use of a weapon, and was lodged in the Linn Couunty Jail.

Stewart has prior arrests for drug offenses and disorderly conduct.
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SWEET HOME  When lifelong motorcycle racer Gerritt Schaffer broke his back and became paralyzed from the waist down while riding in Central Oregon in April, he thought his days of drift boat fishing down the South Santiam River were over.

But thanks to Todd Logan, a fellow Sweet Home High School alumnus, and his business partner Greg Goodell, Schaffer and others with disabilities no longer have to just dream about going drift fishing.

Its not unusual to see a handicapped accessible sticker on elevators or community buildings, but anglers on the banks of the South Santiam River often do a double-take when a shiny new Willie drift boat slides quietly past them with someone in a wheelchair on its bow, or at times, even handling the oars.

It is possible because the unique boat is equipped with a transom that folds downward and becomes a wheelchair ramp. Rear seats remove quickly and easily pull out, allowing the wheelchair to glide onto the bow of the boat.

My father and I sold our boat shortly after returning from the hospital, Schaffer said. I had medical expenses and could not see a way of getting into the boat. It was another part of my life that was gone. Adaptive Excursions has given that back to me.

Schaffer said he forgets he is paralyzed while drifting the river.

Im just one of the guys going fishing and that is just incredible, Schaffer said. It has given me a lot of peace during this difficult time.

Its all part of the plan for Logan and Goodell, who have formed Adaptive Excursions, a river guiding services for people with disabilities.

Their business card gives a hint as to why their mission is so close to their hearts: Were in the Same Boat.

Logan was born with congenital bone fusion. His fingers and toes dont have joints, so his bones break instead of flex. In 2014, while elk hunting, Logan broke his right foot for the ninth time and doctors said it could not be repaired again, and that they would have to remove his leg.

The muscular Logan  who at 43 looks like he could still do well on a high school wrestling mat  said the operation took place in November 2014 at St. Charles Medical Center in Bend, and by February 2015 he walked out of the hospital on a prosthetic leg.

I couldnt look at myself in the mirror for two months, Logan said. I know what these other guys are going through.

Logan empathizes with people in wheelchairs because he estimates that over the years, I have spent about six years in wheelchairs after surgeries.

Logan said it became difficult to find work as a heavy equipment operator after losing his leg and decided it was time to pursue another career, becoming a fishing guide. He thought that would be on the ocean, but after seeing a Willie Boats set up with a fold-down transom at a sportsmans show in Portland, he set a new course.

Willie Boats owner Jim Bittle said the company has been working on development of a boat to accommodate handicapped persons for some time. He said there are currently four boats in the field.

It all started because a guide in Idaho has a very good client who is in a wheelchair, Bittle said. He came to us with the idea and we just refined it.

Bittle said the key was developing a transom system that allowed easy access, but also sealed properly when in the upright position.

Our next issue is developing a set-up for people who want to put a kicker motor on the boat, Bittle said.

Bittle called the partnership with Logan and Goodell a good marriage. Were providing the boat and they are providing the insurance. Its not about Willie Boats, its about what the boats can do for people who are out there who cant get to the resource.

Boats are available with a variety of options and cost from $9,000 to $13,000.

Logan said when he first saw the Willie Boat, An amazing amount of emotion came over me. When you are in a wheelchair you cant just hop up and get a cup of coffee anymore. Nothing is easy.

Logan said that in addition to the fold-down transom, other key features of the boat are a tracking system that allows wheelchairs to be anchored securely in two areas of the boat, and a higher-than-usual deck in the bow area to get the angler up high enough to battle big fish.

And the bow is extra strong, so it can hold a person and a motorized wheelchair weighing up to 650 pounds.

You should see the look on peoples faces when they see somebody in a wheelchair rowing, Schaffer said.

Logan added that the boat also makes it easier for people who arent in a wheelchair to get into and out of the boat.

Take older guys with bad knees or hips, Logan said. This would work very well for them, too.

Logan lives in Shady Cove, and so far excursions have been on the Rogue and South Santiam rivers. Cost is $120 for a half-day trip or $200 for an all-day outing.

Logans goal is to develop a tour of Oregon, Washington and Idaho, especially focusing on trips for veterans.

My prosthetic leg is amazing and thats because of the sacrifices of our veterans, Logan said.

Logan and Goodell are seeking sponsors for the tour through a GoFundMe page: Adopt a wounded/disabled veteran campaign.

The goal is to raise $8,500 to provide guided outings for 14 veterans in the three states.

Our Northwest tour will include stops in Oregon, Washington, and Idaho, Logan explains. Each stop will be at or near rivers known for great fishing opportunities and drift boat accessible. We will be reaching out to the local businesses and agencies to assist us in finding a deserving veteran for one of these many free guided excursions.

As of mid-week, about $1,500 had been raised toward the goal.

To contact Adaptive Excursions, call 208-989-2783 or visit them on Facebook.
Julian Gray, executive director of the Rice Northwest Museum of Rocks and Minerals in Hillsboro, will be among the guest speakers this weekend, July 29-31, as the Linn County Fair & Expo Center hosts the 78th annual convention of the Northwest Federation of Mineralogical Societies.

Gray, who has authored two books, will give a presentation, Rockhounding on Two Coasts, and will also give a short presentation about the Rice Museum during the Saturday evening banquet, according to show chairman Janice Van Cura of Corvallis.

Also speaking will be K.T. Myers, author of Agates of Oregon, and Greg Tolbert, who will talk about American Rockhounding Law: The Law of Rock, Gem, Mineral, Fossil & Meteorite Collecting in the United States.

Other presentations will be heard from Eddie Hopper of the Willamette Agate and Mineral Society; MacKenzie Smith, an expert in northwest paleontology; Greg Carr, a member of the North America Research Group; and Aaron Currier, fossils expert.

There will be about 200 delegates, and we expect as many as 4,000 to 5,000 people over the weekend, Van Cura said. There will be about 1,000 rockhounds who are members of clubs.

This is a great opportunity for people to get a taste of rockhounding, Van Cura said.

Its amazing what can be found in the Northwest, Van Cura said. Oregon is a hotbed for agates and thunder eggs, one of the best places in the world to gather thunder eggs, which is the Oregon State Rock."

There will be more than 170 display cases, 41 dealers and nine demonstration stations.

Van Cura said she and her husband, Joe, have been involved with rocks and gems since 1999.

It started as a hobby and has turned into a business for my husband, Van Cura said. Hes retired and now sells rocks all around the world.

The convention is hosted by the Willamette Agate and Mineral Society, which hosted the event in 2005. This will be a joint convention with the American Federation of Mineralogical Societies, and this years theme is Treasures of the Northwest.

The annual meeting of the American Federation of Mineralogical Societies will be at 9 a.m. on Thursday, July 28, and the Northwest Federation of Mineralogical Societies will meet at 4 p.m. on Friday, July 29.

There will be many gems, minerals, rocks and fossils on display.

Demonstrations will include: Herb Bastuscheck, demonstrating the Japanese art of Bonseki, painting with sand; John Bedford, flint knapping; Peggy Blickfeldt, silversmithing; K.T. Myers, authors table; Mike Reams, jewelry design; Emily Start, wire wrapping and jewelry; Lyle Vogelpohl, cabochon design and fabrication; Willamette Valley Miners, gold panning.

The last time the national organizations annual meeting was held in Oregon was in 1989 in Portland.

The American Federation of Mineralogical Societies is composed of seven regional federations and the annual meeting rotates to sites within those regions.

The Northwest Federation of Mineralogical Societies is composed of clubs in Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Utah and Washington.
The government has lost one of its more outspoken politicians in Baroness (Ros) Altmann after she left the pension minister post amid Theresa Mays root-and-branch Whitehall restructure.

She was made a peer and appointed to the position by former prime minister David Cameron, having previously advised the government on retirement related issues, following the Conservative Party election victory in May 2015.

A spokesman for Number 10 Downing Street said: Ros Altmann has left the post. We have nothing more to add.

In a note circulated to media outlets, Baroness Altmann said her departure from the government post will enable her have her life back and speak freely at this dreadfully difficult time for our country.

Baroness Altmann has wasted no time venting her frustrations. Soon after her departure from the government post, she hit out at the Department for Work and Pensions for a delay introducing regulation that would allow pensioners to receive higher payments from the Pension Protection Fund. Baroness Altmann has wasted no time venting her frustrations

In her resignation letter, to the newly appointed PM Theresa May, she said efforts to improve pension policy have been thwarted due to short-term political considerations, exacerbated by the EU referendum.

Her predecessor, Steve Webb, now director of policy at Royal London, has sympathy with the difficulty of getting policy through government.

He said: Campaigners who lobby hard to get government to change policy probably think that they would be able to get the change pushed through if they were in government, but that is not the reality.

Industry commentators have suggested this comment is a thinly veiled dig at Baroness Altmanns former boss Iain Duncan Smith, who she famously slated as exceptionally difficult to work for.

Stepping down

Baroness Altmann also called into question his reasons for stepping down as Work and Pensions Secretary, claiming his departure was designed to damage the campaign for Britain to remain in the EU, rather than over cuts to benefit payments.

One of her biggest gripes was the treatment of older woman affected by a change in state pension policy which will see the pension ages of both sexes equalised.

In 2011, the government decided to increase the speed at which the womens state pension age is rising to come into line with mens. It will now be 65 by 2018 and 66 by 2020.

Baroness Altmann told Ms May in the letter that she was not convinced the government adequately addressed the hardships facing women due to the short notice acceleration of the policy change under the 1995 Pensions Act. Baroness Altmann told Ms May in the letter that she was not convinced the government adequately addressed the hardships facing women

In power, she made no secret of her desire to revamp the pension taxation system but instead, the government has moved to strengthen its Isa brand.

She expressed her vehement opposition to Treasurys now-shelved proposals to tax pension contributions in line with the current rules on Isas to industry delegates at an Association of British Insurance conference earlier this year.
The UN climate change conference, COP21, at the end of 2015, represented a turning point, with 195 nations committing to decarbonisation and action on climate change.

This saw a hugely positive shift in the narrative around sustainability. Governments, environmentalists, and a newly incentivised private sector, all celebrated green initiatives as a means of meeting the worlds growing energy needs while still keeping the earths temperature down.

The trouble is, according to Per Wimmer in The Green Bubble, we must not conflate good intentions with business acumen or green energy with commercial sustainability. The current mistake is that political leaders and investors have not made these distinctions, causing a green bubble to form.

Alluding to both the South Sea Bubble of 1720 and the Dotcom Bubble, which burst in 2000, Wimmer uses his background as an asset manager and corporate financier to delineate the financial risk and potential reward of alternative energy sources, from solar and wind to natural gas and nuclear.

Unfortunately, Mr Wimmers nuclear bias overwhelms the dialogue of the book, glossing over the details of the other alternative energy technologies. This is evident in his discussion of solar energy, which rarely dips beyond the surface and presents a reductive view of the sector.

Sustainable investment and clean energy are integral to a future where the lights are still on. Yet Mr Wimmer seems to favour nuclear power for the sake of controversy, ignoring, for example, the enhanced security of supply benefits that arises from a diverse generation mix.

With this in mind, The Green Bubble provides some insight into the green energy narrative. It presents an interesting view of the subsidy regime and the financials of the green sector. However, for anyone who is looking to fully understand the issues and trade-offs facing the future energy system would do well to read further books on this topic as well as this one.

Andrew Wordsworth is the co-founder of AutoTrip, the supplier of a product that reduces companies vehicle mileage costs.
Financial protection, as financial advisers well know, is one of the building blocks of effective financial planning. It provides a financial buttress against some of the unforeseen events that life can throw a familys way  be it serious illness, an accident, or even death.

Sadly, it is a financial necessity that has never really caught on for a number of reasons. You can blame the bad smell left by the widespread mis-selling of payment protection insurance, which has ensured all forms of protection insurance  bad and good  now get routinely stigmatised.

So, whenever I write an article on the merits  and drawbacks  of protection insurance for the Mail on Sunday, most of the online comments are either vitriolic or incorrect.

Advertising thinly disguised as editorial, is one common remark.

Another goes along the lines of: Buyer beware  they are useless unless you are out of work for more than 12 months. And the payments are limited to three months only. These insurances are largely a scam.

This sentiment is expressed whenever we write about income replacement insurance. A comment based on the erroneous view that all financial protection insurance is moulded along the same lines as payment protection insurance  short-term cover that more times than not is unfit for purpose.

It is also a financial solution that is not sexy for people to buy and for advisers to sell. Homeowners are more interested in building long-term wealth than paying a premium for something they may never need to claim on. Similarly, most financial advisers are far happier wealth building for clients than recommending them to buy a critical illness plan, a family income benefit policy or income protection. Protection is a financial solution that is not sexy for people to buy

The result is an alarming protection insurance black hole  and one that is not going away.

The latest statistics from Swiss Re say it all. Last year, just short of 1.7m individual financial protection policies were sold in this country  an increase of 0.9 per cent on the year before. Encouragingly, sales of income protection policies were up by 10.7 per cent to just above 107,000, although Swiss Re is keen to put this into some form of context by stating that the UK has the largest disability protection gap across all major European countries of 200bn a year.

The summary comments made by the authors of the Swiss Re report (Maxine Udall and the hugely respected Ron Wheatcroft) are damning. Whilst the need for appropriate financial protection has never been greater, the market is currently in a phase of decline and losing consumer, government, third sector, media and financial adviser trust.

There is more: Protection is moving to the edge of the adviser radar as they focus on large corporate auto-enrolment and  post RDR  wealthy client pension provision, at retirement freedoms, investments and buy-to-let.

Hardly a great endorsement of the protection insurance industry. So, what can be done to transform the health of the industry or do we just accept that financial protection will always remain under the radar?
Restrictions on British lamb imports could be lifted by the US within months  paving the way for a trade worth 35m to British farmers, says Defra minister George Eustice.

Speaking at the opening of the NSA Sheep Event, Mr Eustice said the long-running mission to get British lamb chops back on American dinner plates had moved a step closer.

Proposals published by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) to relax import restrictions on lamb could generate an extra 35m for the UK economy, he said.

See also: Threats and opportunities from EU-US trade

British lamb was on track to be available to US consumers by early 2017, Mr Eustice told listeners at the Three Counties Showground, Malvern, Worcestershire.

The move was the latest step in ongoing efforts to allow Britains farmers to start exporting sheepmeat to the United States 300 million consumers.

Safety and quality of British beef and lamb

A 1,000-page dossier was submitted to the USDA detailing the safety and quality of British beef and lamb ahead of trade talks earlier this year.

The US decision to press ahead with proposals to lift export restrictions on British lamb is great news for our farmers, said Mr Eustice.

In addition to forging good trade deals with our European neighbours, Defra wanted to secure more export opportunities with the US as well as Commonwealth countries and other nations.

Defra was now co-ordinating UK farming industry comment for the 60-day consultation and liaising with relevant US trade associations to gain support for proposals.

Sheep industry leaders welcomed the news.

Help to boost consumption

National Sheep Association chief executive Phil Stocker said: Increasing the number of export destinations for British sheep meat is vital for our industry.

Lamb sales in the US had dropped over the years due to a falling domestic production. Exporting and promoting British lamb could help boost consumption.

It could be a real opportunity for our sector, said Mr Stocker.

NFU livestock board chairman Charles Sercombe described the US as potentially a huge and affluent market that already had strong links to the UK.

Mr Sercombe said: Reopening the US beef and lamb market to UK imports would be a positive move and an important confidence-building measure for the British livestock sector.
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How should you pay for short-term financial goals?

As you go through life, you will likely have longand short-term financial goals. But how will your strategies for meeting your long-term goals differ from those needed for your short-term...
'Hawaii Five-0' Season 7 Air Date, Spoilers, News & Update: Next Installment Canceled Due To Poor Ratings?

"Hawaii Five-0" has always been a sure hit for CBS. But with all the new interesting shows out there, it seems like "Hawaii Five-0" has taken the back seat fuelling rumors that the show will be cancelled after "Hawaii Five-0" Season 7.

READ: 'Hawaii Five-0' Season 7 Spoilers, News & Update: Steve McGarrett and Danny Williams' Friendship On The Rocks?

After reports confirmed that the cast and crew of "Hawaii Five-0" Season 7 have started filming new episodes for the much awaited seventh installment, Carter Matt revealed that this could possibly be the last for "Hawaii Five-0."

According to the site, "Hawaii Five-0" Season 7 could be the last installment for the beloved show as the ratings kept spiraling down.

READ: 'Hawaii Five-0' Season 7 Spoilers, News & Update: Chin Ho Is Going To Be A Dad?

Ever since "Hawaii Five-0" changed its time slot to Friday, the ratings have been nothing but disappointing.

With this unsatisfactory remark, it's not hard to see how this "Hawaii Five-0" Season 7 cancellation rumors started.

READ: 'Hawaii Five-0' Season 7 Air Date, Spoilers, News & Update: 'Grey's Anatomy' Star Joins Cast? Find Out Who!

Before they started filming for "Hawaii Five-0" Season 7, the cast gathered together in Waikiki for a traditional blessing ceremony.

The "Hawaii Five-0" Season 7 cast, Chi McBride (Lou Grover), Alex OLoughlin (Steve McGarrett), Daniel Dae Kim (Chin Ho Kelly), Grace Park (Kono Kalakaua), Jorge Garcia, Teilor Grubbs (Grace williams), Dennis Chun (Sgt. Luke Lukela) and Shawn Garnett, joined forces for the significant event.

READ: 'Hawaii Five-0' Season 7 Air Date, Spoilers, News & Update: Steve McGarrett and Danny Williams Faces 'Love and Torture'?

But with this new report, it appears that their "Hawaii Five-0" Season 7 blessing ceremony might be their last.

Has "Hawaii Five-0" already reached the end of the road? Or do you think the show can still do more seasons? Let us know what you think in the comment section below!
CSULB alum wins gold at the 38th Long Beach Marathon  which was his first
An initiative that would devote Oregon Lottery funds to outdoor school programs has officially qualified for the November ballot, the group advancing the measure said this week.

The Oregon Secretary of States Office reported that Initiative Petition 67 received more than 93,000 valid signatures; it needed a bit more than 88,000 to make the ballot.

If approved, the measure it would create a state law allocating up to $22 million in state lottery economic development funds to providing all fifth- or sixth-graders in the state with a week of outdoor school. According to the group backing the measure, Save Outdoor School for All, only about half of Oregon students currently attend outdoor school.

Advocates say the proposal would create economic development in rural areas by creating new jobs to serve the increased number of outdoor school programs. They also say the measure would have a long-term benefit by giving students enriching educational experiences, which would make them better employees.

But critics, like state Sen. Betsy Johnson, D-Scappoose, say the proposal would divert funds that are being used already for valuable economic development. (She listed some of these existing uses of lottery economic development funds in an opinion piece in The Oregonian in May, which can be read at http://bit.ly/2a39p3r.)

In a press release, Outdoor School for All backers said the funds will come from "unallocated" lottery funds.

But Tom Nelson, economic development manager for the city of Corvallis, said that while the funds are technically unallocated, in practice the Legislature sends that money to Business Oregon, the states business development department.

According to the Oregon Lottery, 57 percent of the money it raises goes to education, another 15 percent goes to parks and natural resources, 1 percent goes to treat problem gambling and 27 percent goes to economic development.

Business Oregons 2015 annual report reports that nearly 25 percent of its $483 million budget for the 2013-15 biennium comes from lottery funds. According to the Business Oregon website, lottery funds support, among other things, small business loans and industrial development bonds.

I think this measure is one of these ballot measures that looks good on the face of it, but it has all these unintended consequences, Johnson said in an interview with the Gazette-Times on Tuesday.

Johnson said that having the Oregon State University Extension Service manage grant applications, as called for in the measure, would add extra work to an organization that already is overstretched. And she said that inner city schools might not be able to meet all the requirements for receiving funding through the grant application process in the bill.

Exactly the kids you want to go to outdoor school will be the ones left out, she said.

Johnson pointed to ConnectOregon, a lottery-backed bond program that has funded hundreds of transportation infrastructure improvements in air, rail, marine, transit, bicycle and pedestrian transit systems as an example of a program that creates value using economic development funds.

However, Paige Richardson, a member of the campaign advancing the bill, said the Legislature could always allocate more money for economic development if it wanted. She said the ballot measure is merely a way to identify outdoor school as a higher priority for funding.

We think its a smarter way to use these dollars, she said.

She said the initiative essentially gives voters a choice between two different approaches to economic development: what is currently occurring and the idea of economic development through outdoor school, which she said also creates better-educated people who are a long term benefit for the economy.

Richardson said the current approach to economic development is essentially triage, and better educated workers ultimately will have a bigger economic benefit.

Dick Powell, a forester with Starker Forests who has worked on outdoor school programs in Corvallis, Philomath, Monroe, Scio and Lebanon, said kids get experiential learning through outdoor school that is more impactful than just studying something in a textbook.

As a society we are becoming increasingly urbanized. That means fewer and fewer people have a connection to the outdoors, said Powell, a supporter of the outdoor school campaign.

Getting kids out and challenging them is really important for their growth, he added. These experiences help them figure out who they are.

Powell is treasurer of a nonprofit outdoor school organization, and he said about half of the programs cost is in renting facilities. The other half mostly goes to food for the participants. More outdoor school programs would pour more money into rural economies, he said.

Thats economic development to me.
Oct. 28, 1944  June 20, 2016

On October 28, 1944, a very foggy night  Grampa Lindbo delivered a baby boy on the muddy bank of the Yaquina River near Mill Creek/Elk City Road after driving off the road on the way to the hospital  so became Richs nickname of Mill Creek Bill. Richard was a fifth generation Oregonian as his great-great-grandfather, Carey Duncan Embree, crossed the plains in 1843 for the Oregon Territory and settled in the Willamette Valley near what is now known as Rickreall.

Richard spent his childhood growing up in and near Elk City and graduated from Toledo High School. After graduating he enlisted in the U.S. Navy for four years and served as a radioman, spending a lot of his deployment in the Mediterranean Sea and Iceland.

After returning home, he spent some time logging and working at the local paper mill before deciding to go on to college. He graduated from Oregon State University with a degree in Landscape Architecture and began a long and fulfilling career with Bonneville Power Administration in Portland. He retired from BPA in 1999 and then resided in Corvallis at Stoneybrook Retirement Village for several years.

During part of this time he was married to Carol Zwang for several years and adopted two lovely girls, Kimika and Kaylin. Rich especially enjoyed his visits with the Zwang family in Montana.

Richard had a full life  he enjoyed watercolor painting, pen and ink drawing, and metal sculpting. He also liked to hunt, fish, hike and ski. He spent a lot of time traveling to many places both in and out of the United States. In his later years he especially enjoyed going to lunch at the beach with his friend, Phil Cooper, who he had gone to school with.

Rich was preceded in death by his parents, Reuben L. Embree and Helene Lindbo Embree. He is survived by his siblings Janyce (Joe) Steenkolk, Jerilyne Reed, Jaci (Al) Bohms, and Steve Embree; numerous nephews and nieces; and his daughters, Kimika Dhara and granddaughter, Madeline of Seattle, Washington; Kaylin (Aaron) Hampton and granddaughter, Chloe of Beaufort, South Carolina.

His family dearly misses him  our faith in God will give us peace and comfort in knowing that we will be with our brother again. A celebration of his life will be held at a later date.
The Marys Peak Alliance will present a panel discussion on how the Columbus Day storm affected Marys Peak.

The powerful storm swept through Oregon in October 1962, leaving a wide swath of destruction through much of the state, including the Coast Range summit west of Corvallis.

Retired Forest Service employees Ken McCall and Dick Mossey, along with former Starker Forests forester Dick Powell, will talk about the damage caused by the storm on Marys Peak as well as its affect on plant succession.

The free event will take place from 6 to 8 p.m. Friday at the Old World Deli, 349 S.W. Second St.
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

TUESDAY, JULY 26

MENACING: 12:44 a.m., 2700 block of Wake Robin Place. An officer responded to a menacing complaint after a man reported that Pascual Moreno Garcia, 40, no address listed, came into his room and threatened him with a power tool and screwdriver. Moreno Garcia was arrested on charges of menacing and unlawful possession of methamphetamine.

DUII: 12:27 a.m., 125 S.W. Second St. An officer responded to the Peacock Bar and Grill for a report of a drunk driver. The officer located Ivan Pavlovic, 30, of Portland and arrested Pavlovic on charges of DUII and driving while suspended. Pavlovic reportedly refused to provide a breath sample.
Medical tourism rentals : Residents feel let down by city

Bad Godesberg Residents complain that apartments are being rented on a short term basis when it is not allowed. City assurances of tackling the problem have fallen short.

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The city is accused by some residents of not fulfilling its promise to clamp down on misuse of apartments in Bad Godesberg. In response to an inquiry, the city said there have been 200 reports of possible misuse of apartments since October of 2014, 170 of them in Bad Godesberg. This means apartments are being used or rented out in ways which are not permitted.

Of the 170 cases in Bad Godesberg, 37 were pursued and 22 of those were further proofed by officials, 13 of them in Bad Godesberg. So far, the administration has not moved ahead with any charges.

Residents living on the street Im Auelchen also accuse the city of not acting. A homeowners association there had informed the city of seven potential cases of apartment rentals which were not in line with regulations, but no action was taken by the city. Before that, eight charges had already been filed because short term rentals of apartments were breaking the association rules. One resident was upset, reporting noise disturbances and filth from medicine tourists as well as threats from those providing short term rentals to the medical patients.

The term medicine tourists is commonly used to refer to people who come to Bonn for medical treatments, many of them from the Middle East. Problematic is when apartments are rented out short term and there is no permission for doing so. The resident said he felt left alone by the administration and justice officials, nothing really happens.

For 15 years now, the resident has been complaining about the Situation surrounding medical tourism. He says that workers who come along to Bonn as staff of the medical tourists are not allowed to use the toilets of their employers. They answer the call of nature in parking lots and in front of entrances. As well, garbage is not disposed of properly because no one has explained to them how it works.

That resident is not the only one; many have complained to General Anzeiger about the inaction of the city in addressing the problem. Neighbors on Im Auelchen street confirm the reports and say that after they complained of illegal parking, there were attempts to intimidate them.

A female resident said she was at first happy to have the Arabic visitors but since then, the noise and garbage problem has grown. She is also disturbed by the Niqab worn by many of the women, I want to see who I am talking to, she said. Her feeling is that politicians do not have the will to change anything.
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.
'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.
C-17 gains valuable training through integration at Red Flag 16-3

By Airman 1st Class Kevin Tanenbaum, 99th Air Base Wing Public Affairs / Published July 26, 2016

NELLIS AIR FORCE BASE, Nev. (AFNS) -- Since its maiden flight in 1991, the C-17 Globemaster III has served as a reliable and maintainable cargo aircraft with the ability of rapid and strategic cargo and troop delivery.

During Red Flag 16-3, the 437th Airlift Wing from Joint Base Charleston, South Carolina, is training at Nellis Air Force Base on how to integrate pilots, crew members and intelligence Airmen, among others, 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, a 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-17's 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 Joint Base Charleston integrates the many cargo capabilities of the C-17 with other airframes and branches of service to accomplish its goals.

"What we've 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," Wendler said. "So, striker and faster movers push in first, and then we ingress at low altitude where we're 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 we're 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's most valuable for C-17 aircrews.

"The biggest thing from a pilot's perspective is the integration with all the 'blue' air players," Wendler said. "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 it's 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 other set lessons.

"In the back of the C-17 we deal with users, and for Red Flag we've had a lot of static-line jumpers and we've inserted them into the basic field," said Senior Airman Ashley Igalo, a 14th Airlift Squadron loadmaster. "We're also capable of rapid on-loads, where we'll land and pickup vehicles and troops during one period of darkness. It's 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 aircrew.

"Red Flag is good crew coordination because we're able to work with the pilots and see what we are able to do," Igalo said. "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 Force's airframes, one aspect that's often overlooked is the intelligence angle behind the Red Flag missions.

"We're proud to support one of the only Air Mobility Command units at Red Flag 16-3," said 1st Lt. Robert Wedge, a 437th Operations Group intelligence officer. "The expeditionary missions that we are serving in, Operation Freedom's 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," Wedge said.

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 we've learned in the fight when we're kicking down the door for real is something that we can't do anywhere else," Wendler said.

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Strikes Target ISIL Terrorists in Syria, Iraq

From a Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve News Release

SOUTHWEST ASIA, July 26, 2016  U.S. and coalition military forces continued to attack Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant terrorists in Syria and Iraq yesterday, Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve officials reported today.

Officials reported details of the latest strikes, noting that assessments of results are based on initial reports.

Strikes in Syria

Attack, ground attack and remotely piloted aircraft conducted seven strikes against ISIL targets near Manbij in Syria, striking five separate ISIL tactical units and destroying nine ISIL fighting positions and an ISIL house bomb.

Strikes in Iraq

Attack, fighter and remotely piloted aircraft conducted 13 strikes in Iraq, coordinated with and in support of Iraq's government:

-- Near Habbaniyah, a strike struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed an ISIL fighting position.

-- Near Hit, a strike produced inconclusive results.

-- Near Mosul, six strikes struck an ISIL tactical unit, an ISIL weapons facility, an ISIL vehicle bomb factory and two ISIL media sites; destroyed an ISIL vehicle; and suppressed an ISIL mortar position.

-- Near Qayyarah, two strikes struck a large ISIL tactical unit and destroyed two ISIL mortar systems and an ISIL artillery piece and suppressed an ISIL mortar position.

-- Near Sultan Abdallah, a strike struck an ISIL tactical unit; destroyed an ISIL assembly area, two ISIL vehicles, five ISIL rockets and six ISIL rocket rails; suppressed an ISIL mortar position; and denied ISIL access to terrain.

-- Near Tal Afar, two strikes struck an ISIL checkpoint and suppressed an ISIL machine gun position.

Task force officials define a strike as one or more kinetic events that occur in roughly the same geographic location to produce a single, sometimes cumulative, effect. Therefore, officials explained, a single aircraft delivering a single weapon against a lone ISIL vehicle is one strike, but so is multiple aircraft delivering dozens of weapons against buildings, vehicles and weapon systems in a compound, for example, having the cumulative effect of making those targets harder or impossible for ISIL to use. Accordingly, officials said, they do not report the number or type of aircraft employed in a strike, the number of munitions dropped in each strike, or the number of individual munition impact points against a target. Ground-based artillery fired in counterfire or in fire support to maneuver roles is not classified as a strike.

Part of Operation Inherent Resolve

The strikes were conducted as part of Operation Inherent Resolve, the operation to eliminate the ISIL terrorist group and the threat they pose to Iraq, Syria, and the wider international community. The destruction of ISIL targets in Syria and Iraq further limits the terrorist group's ability to project terror and conduct operations, officials said.

Coalition nations that have conducted strikes in Iraq include the United States, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Jordan, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. Coalition nations that have conducted strikes in Syria include the United States, Australia, Bahrain, Canada, France, Jordan, the Netherlands, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom.

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U.S. Department of Defense

Press Operations

News Release

No. NR-278-16 July 26, 2016

Secretary Carter Opens Second DIUx Location in Boston, Updates DoD Outreach to Tech Community

BOSTON  Today Secretary of Defense Ash Carter formally opened the Boston location of Defense Innovation Unit-Experimental, or DIUx, the department's ground-breaking effort to strengthen connections to the American innovation economy and speed technologies into the hands of the warfighter. He was joined at the event by state and local officials, as well technology leaders from the Boston area.



In May, Secretary Carter announced that the department would establish an East Coast office for DIUx, complementing the Silicon Valley office that opened in 2015, along with structural and management changes, dubbed "DIUx 2.0," to accelerate DIUx success in building bridges to entrepreneurs and innovators. The Boston location, the Secretary said, would provide important access to a core of innovative companies, universities and other private institutions in the region, while enhancing its outreach to companies located throughout the country.

"This city is home to a tremendous legacy of service  one that will continue in a new way with DIUx," Secretary Carter said. "It's a testament to the fact that Boston has always been a place where great minds and great ideas come together to help advance the safety and security of our country. And that's what we do every day in the Department of Defense."

At the event, Secretary Carter also introduced two new members of the DIUx leadership team: Chief Science Officer Bernadette Johnson, the former chief technology officer at MIT Lincoln Laboratories; and Boston military lead Col. Mike McGinley, a lawyer specializing in cybersecurity issues who serves as an Air Force Reserve cyberwarrior. From Boston, Johnson and McGinley will work with the California-based partners announced in May to lead DIUx efforts across the country. The Secretary also announced that DIUx is exploring ways to bring together leading minds in the military and DoD who work on biodefense and biological technology together with world-class academic researchers, biotech companies, and entrepreneurs such as Broad Institute Founding Director Eric Lander who attended today's announcement.

In addition to opening the new Boston location, Secretary Carter detailed new DIUx practices that are already enhancing the department's ties to the technology community. DIUx is now employing an innovation engagement mechanism called a Commercial Solutions Opening to take advantage of flexible new authorities for prototyping granted by Congress. The CSO allows tech firms to bring ideas to DOD in the same way they would to other buyers of commercial technology, streamlining paperwork requirements and allowing the department to provide funding in less than 60 days after first contact with a firm and within 30 days after receiving a formal proposal.

The Secretary also announced that DIUx will now be organized into three teams: a Venture Team, which will identify emerging commercial technologies and explore their potential impact on the battlefield; a Foundry Team, which will identify technologies that aren't yet fully developed or require significant adaptation for military applications; and an Engagement Team, which will introduce innovators to military problems and the military to entrepreneurs who can help find solutions.

"Over the last 11 months  since we first opened the doors of the West Coast office in Silicon Valley  DIUx has become a signature part of our outreach to the tech community. It's helped us connect with hundreds of entrepreneurs and firms  making great progress in putting commercially-based innovation into the hands of America's soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines," Secretary Carter said.

Since the new leadership team took over in May under Managing Director Raj Shah, DIUx has begun work on 15 separate projects. The first contract to be awarded took only 31 days - and additional projects are expected be on contract in the coming weeks, covering diverse technology areas ranging from secure network mapping to autonomous seafaring drones. Seven of these new problem sets were just posted in the last two weeks, to develop prototype projects on endpoint inspection, high-speed drones, and multifactor authentication, among others.

"I am proud to announce that in its first 75 days the new DIUx has made tremendous progress in rebuilding bridges to the technology community," Shah said. "We've demonstrated that the DoD can be just as nimble and innovative as the companies we want to do business with. I'm confident America's warfighters will benefit as a result."

http://www.defense.gov/News/News-Releases/News-Release-View/Article/857717/

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U.S. Department of Defense

Press Operations

News Transcript

Presenter: Secretary of Defense Ash Carter; Rajiv Shah, Managing Director, DIUx July 26, 2016

Remarks by Secretary Carter in a Media Availability at a DIUx event in Boston, Massachusetts

SECRETARY OF DEFENSE ASH CARTER: Well, once again, gang, thank you very much for being here. I'll be brief because I spoke already simply to signify the importance of this day and this location.

DIUx is one of the ways that we're trying to ensure that our department, the Department of Defense that protects our people and gives our children a better future, remains competitive, innovative and the best, as it is today, in the years of the future.

DIUx is one way they we're doing that. And we selected Boston as a location for DIUx because of its powerful, and longstanding and deep tradition of collaboration between cutting edge industry, innovative people, education and the public mission of -- including defending the country.

This is a -- a hub, important to many technologies. I'll just signify one where I think Boston is especially important, and will be important to us, and that is in the union of biology, and engineering and data, which is going to be an area of great innovation, but also of great consequence for human kind and for human security.

We want to make sure we're at the frontier of that, as we have been in aerospace, and I.T. and other fields.

So -- and that's one of the reasons why Boston is so important.

I want to thank Bernadette Johnson -- Dr. Bernadette Johnson, Air Force Colonel Mike McGinley, who are taking on their new roles here at DIUx, our East Coast office. I have every confidence in them and in the leader of DIUx Raj Shah, and the entire team.

Second thing I announced today were some additional members of our Defense Innovation Board. And just to remind you, that is to provide me and secretaries of defense long in the future with innovative ideas from the private sector, whether they be organizational, or technological or operational, or in terms of how people are managed and talent is managed that might be applicable to the Department of Defense.

Not everything that's done in the private sector can we use, because we're always going to be different in some respects. But we want to know what's best out there, what's most innovative, what's most cutting-edge and what's most competitive, and borrow those techniques and those technologies where we can.

And that's why I'm asking some of the most innovative people and public-spirited people in America to be on the Defense Innovation Board, and they've agreed to do that.

Eric Schmidt is the chair, but we've got an absolutely superb membership. I announced some additional members today and there will be yet more members in the future.

But the board is starting its work, and I look forward to benefiting from its -- its thinking, and I'm sure we will.

With that, let me stop, and then Peter, I'll take whatever questions you would like.

STAFF: (Inaudible) -- Sidney.

SEC. CARTER: Hi, Sidney.

Q: Hello, sir. (inaudible)Defense.

To -- how long -- the ones, the example we got in the speech --

(CROSSTALK)

SEC. CARTER: Halo.

Q: That was the first thing that Mr. Shah and company contracted for.

I'd love to know about, you know, A, what -- (inaudible) -- is, besides kind of creepy?

B, the -- you know, what the dangers are, because you mentioned this is a very consequential area, this biotechnology.

And three, what -- you know, why that had to be a uniquely DIUx product? Why that wasn't completely -- (inaudible) system was going to move forward?

SEC. CARTER: Okay. I'll let Raj talk about the specifics of that. I'll just comment on two.

You had many aspects to your excellent question, there. But in terms of the bio sciences, is there -- the bio sciences, like all technologies in the past will -- will be used for good and for ill.

Our job is to make sure that our -- that our society is protected and that our military is at the frontier of that field.

With respect to the -- those specific projects -- Raj, why don't you go ahead and talk about Halo a little bit more? And also any other examples you want to use.

MR. RAJ SHAH: Yes, sir. Thank you.

So -- so, the one that you highlighted is Halo Neuroscience. It's an early stage company that is used by many leading athletes, Olympic athletes.

And so, what we've done here at the department is to engage with them to see and test whether or not that technology is applicable to enhancing our combat capability and to see if we need a further engagement.

Another example of a company that actually has Boston roots. Their founders are here in the audience. They're MIT grads. It's a company called Shield AI, which is building a autonomous drone that will navigate inside a room and provide mapping capability.

So to your final point of why DIUx, it is our ability to work with them at the speed that they are used to and comfortable with and to encourage them to be suppliers to the Defense Department.

SEC. CARTER: I can say more than that. Remember, DIUx is supposed to be a path finder, here. So ultimately, we hope everybody is -- all the part of the department are able to be, in some measure, as agile and as wide-ranging in their ability to see what's going on in the world of technology and adopt it to our purposes.

Q: (inaudible) -- my question's actually for both of you.

You've mentioned some of the successes you've had so far. What are the challenges that you're still trying to overcome, you know -- (inaudible) -- dealing with these new sort of -- (inaudible)?

SEC. CARTER: Well, I think that we're overcoming these obstacles, but they -- they're definitely out there. One is that a lot of the technology community isn't used to working with us. We're not on their radar screen. That wasn't the case 50 years ago, and now it is. They have other customers, other horizons and we want to be on their radar screen. So we want to make them aware of what we're doing.

Secondly, we're not always the easiest customer to work with. One of the things that Raj is doing is trying to make DIUx a part of the Department of Defense that's easy to access. It's easy to get information if you are qualified and -- and win competitively to get funding and to find partners and larger customers in the future. So much more user-friendly.

So those are the two respects I would say in which DIUx is helping as a department as a whole to become better, faster and more connected are the two things.

Raj?

MR. SHAH: I mean, I'd just underscore what the secretary has said, is that we are just in our first stages of reaching out to industry. We're able to demonstrate to them that we could be a reliable and strong partner and we're overcoming the -- the previous challenges or misconceptions that they may have about working with us.

Q: (inaudible) -- sir.

How -- how scaled is this model -- (inaudible) -- larger issue of acquisition reform? Once you sort of iterated -- (inaudible) -- got the projects -- (inaudible).

SEC. CARTER: It is in the following sense. Obviously, this is focused on new technology, which by its nature, in order to be cutting edge has to be adopted quickly. But you're asking is it relevant to the larger issue of defense acquisition. It is in two respects.

First of all, speed is critical in acquisition as well. If it takes you 15 years to do something, 15 years to complete a program, by definition, that program's going to be 15 years old in technology terms by the time you complete it. So if you can shorten that and make our programs of record shorter than they'll -- they're -- generally, that saves money, but it also means newer equipment.

Second thing is agility in it's responsiveness to the war fighter. I had a lot of that experience in the course of Iraq and Afghanistan, where you had a system that was used to buying things on a Cold War time table of years and years. We needed to buy things on a time scale of months in order to save lives and win wars.

And that kind of agility, the ability to do some of what we do very quickly and very responsibly to an emerging need like IEDs were used first in Iraq then in Afghanistan. In those two respects, I think that some of the speed, and agility, and responsiveness is what the DIUx represents within its own area of technology. I hope also, that it will be adopted elsewhere. We need that because we need to stay competitive.

Q: Has the White House reacted to the federal government's response to increase the need for cybersecurity with breeches that have occurred? Does the department place a heightened need for those policies?

SEC. CARTER: Well, one of the missions that we have -- the Department of Defense that I'm looking to DIUx to help us, is our most important cyber mission, in defending our networks.

Remember, all of our -- all of our ships, planes, tanks -- wonderful people can't do what they do best unless their connected. So defending our own networks is critical. And there are -- there are other nation-states, potential and actual enemies right down to criminals and hackers who would like to get in a disrupt DOD's networks. Protecting them is critical.

That is why we did the "hack the Pentagon" bounty to get a whole set of friendly eyes on our attack surface and see where we had vulnerabilities, and they reported them -- as many vulnerabilities we weren't aware of. That's very valuable to us. That's just one of the ways in which we protect ourselves.

Now we also offer our technology and our techniques to other parts of the government that have the mission of defending particular infrastructure in the homeland. Now that's Homeland Security, that's the law enforcement community, the intelligence community and so forth -- we are in a supporting role, but we support them.

For ourselves, for the mission of defense, defending our networks is critical because there is no point in having all this wonderful military equipment if it can't be networked in today's world.

MR. SHAH: We have time for one or two more.

Q: Can we -- (inaudible)? Can you talk to anything specifically -- (inaudible)?

SEC. CARTER: Well, generally, Congress has been very supportive of this because I would think most of the members who know defense, know that being innovative and being competitive is critical to our accomplishing our mission, that we -- that the two branches work together on, which is making sure our military remains the best.

We need them to be supportive of our funding initiatives. We need them to be supportive of the authority that we need to do things in a different way. And by in large, they are, but remember there are a lot of committees and so forth. So I want to compliment those who understand and are supportive of what we're doing, who is most of them. But there are other ones I'm urging to make sure they support this.

This is critical. It's as critical as everything else we do in defense, because even as it's important to fight today's fights and win them -- which we are doing and will do -- we also have to look ahead to the future. And I need their help in that regard, even as I need their help in providing me the funding for the war in -- against ISIL.

STAFF: Zach, you get the last one.

Q: Zach (inaudible).

I wanted to ask you about the -- (inaudible) -- recommendation, something that you have talked about today, and then answered at the offset. Two jobs ago at the Pentagon -- (inaudible) -- at that time, didn't do -- (inaudible).

(Laughter.)

Obviously, that has changed. What is it about this (inaudible) change that you're -- (inaudible)? And how are you approaching it and be successful?

SEC. CARTER: Well, the habits of mine and the institutional practices, and the way things are done have been, in the Department of Defense, they were basically perfected over the period of the Cold War, where technology marked -- marched inexorably, but in a kind of lumbering, slow fashion forward, the principle competitor being the Soviet Union.

We got very good at innovating that way and at producing goods and services, and doing R&D on that time scale. That's out of pace, both with today's way of doing -- of innovating in the world as a whole, and also at variance with the pace at which some of our -- our enemies and competitors are working.

So, we know that, for example, some of the nation states against which we need to stand strong -- Russia, China, Iran and so forth -- are themselves aim to be very innovative.

And we know that even terrorist groups like ISIL are quite innovative, particularly when it comes to social media and online things. And we know that the world of technology represented by the ecosystem here in Boston is one that it moves fast, that values agility, that values new ideas, that values freedom.

So, in all of those respects, the system that we had in the past isn't well suited to the future. And DIUx is one of the many ways we're trying to my the transition, so that we continue to have a defense system that is closely connected to the most innovative part of our society -- as it has been for 70 years. And that's what made us the best.

But we have to adapt as the world around us adapts. And that's the way in which we need to continue to change.

Q: (off-mic)

SEC. CARTER: Yeah, well, I -- it changed in every respect. And it -- it's -- it's -- in the case of DIUx, in addition to the substantive results I expect to get from DIUx, I think it stands for the necessity to make that kind of change in mindset. It's very important.

STAFF: Thank you, sir. Thank you, Raj.

SEC. CARTER: That's it? Okay.

STAFF: Yeah.

SEC. CARTER: All right, Peter. Thank you all once again for being here. I appreciate it.

http://www.defense.gov/News/News-Transcripts/Transcript-View/Article/858438/

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Department of the Navy Names Superior Suppliers for 2016

Navy News Service

Story Number: NNS160726-12

Release Date: 7/26/2016 11:32:00 AM

From Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research, Development and Aquisition Public Affairs

WASHINGTON (NNS) -- Today, the Department of the Navy (DON) named its 2016 superior suppliers, as part of the Department of Defense's Superior Supplier Incentive Program (SSIP). The Assistant Secretary of the Navy (Research, Development and Acquisition) Sean J. Stackley announced the names of 11 business segments designated as Tier 1 superior suppliers for exceptional contractor conduct in the areas of cost, schedule, performance, quality, and business relations.

Tier 1 superior suppliers for 2016 in alphabetical order are:

BAE Systems Intelligence and Security

BAE Systems Platforms and Services

Boeing Global Services and Support

Erapsco

General Electric Aviation

Leidos Corporation National Security Solutions

Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems

Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems

Raytheon Intelligence, Information and Services

Raytheon Missile Systems

Raytheon Space and Airborne Systems

"This is our way of recognizing those who have executed well and achieved the highest levels of performance on contracts for our systems and platforms," said Stackley. "We look at three years' worth of data so sustained performance at this level is noteworthy."

The SSIP is an extension of the Department of Defense's Better Buying Power initiative. The program is designed to incentivize contractor performance by identifying and recognizing suppliers who provide the greatest value in terms of performance to the Department.

"Our overall goal is to provide the best systems and platforms to Sailors and Marines," said Stackley. "It is important to highlight industry partners with a demonstrated ability to help us reach this goal effectively and most efficiently."

The DON will initiate discussions with Tier 1 superior suppliers to reduce non-production related contract requirements, based on their noteworthy past performance. Designation as a Tier 1 superior supplier does not factor into future source selection decisions or contract awards for the business unit or the company.

The DON assessed three years' worth of performance data through the Contractor Performance Assessment Reporting System. The evaluated business units were divided into three tiers, with the top tier designated as superior suppliers. In 2014 and 2015, the DON used a natural scoring break to make final SSIP tier selections. This year, the Department of Defense implemented a joint SSIP tiering methodology to be used by all three Service Departments to rank the final segments into three evenly distributed tiers.

The remaining evaluated business units are listed below by tier in alphabetical order:

Tier 2

BAE Systems Electronic Systems

Boeing- Boeing Military Aircraft

General Dynamics Information Systems and Technology

Harris Corporation Communication Systems

Huntington Ingalls Industries Ingalls Shipbuilding

L-3 Electronic Systems

Lockheed Martin Mission Systems and Training

Maritime Helicopter Support Company LLC

Northrop Grumman Electronic Systems

Northrop Grumman Information Systems

Rockwell Collins Government Systems

Rolls-Royce Defense Aerospace

Tier 3

Austal USA, LLC

Bell Boeing Joint Project Office

General Atomics Technology Corporation Electromagnetic Systems Group

General Dynamics Marine Systems

Huntington Ingalls Newport News Shipbuilding

Lockheed Martin Aeronautics

Lockheed Martin Space Systems

Orbital ATK Defense Systems

Textron Bell Helicopter

Textron- Textron Systems

United Technologies UTC Aerospace Systems

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PHIBRON 5, Makin Island ARG, 11th MEU Complete PMINT

Navy News Service

Story Number: NNS160726-18

Release Date: 7/26/2016 2:29:00 PM

By Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Robin W. Peak, USS Makin Island (LHD 8) Public Affairs

PACIFIC OCEAN (NNS) -- The Makin Island Amphibious Ready Group (ARG), Amphibious Squadron (PHIBRON) 5 and the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) completed a 12-day integrated training event off the coast of Southern California, July 22.

PHIBRON-MEU Integration (PMINT) is the first of three pre-deployment training events for the ARG/MEU. PMINT aims to enhance coordinated operation between PHIBRON 5, the 11th MEU, and the three ships comprising the ARG -- amphibious assault ship USS Makin Island (LHD 8), amphibious transport dock USS Somerset (LPD 25), and amphibious dock landing ship USS Comstock (LSD 45).

"This phase in our pre-deployment training cycle allows PHIBRON 5, the Makin Island ARG, and the 11th MEU to heighten their understanding of how each part of the organization operates in order to become a seamless Navy-Marine Corps team," said Capt. Michael Crary, PHIBRON 5 commodore. "We use this time to refine how we plan and execute amphibious missions together before transitioning to the next training phase, when the team will apply what they've learned here to coordinate and conduct more complex missions in a compressed timeline."

Crary expressed the importance of frequent and clear communication between the ARG and 11th MEU in creating a cohesive blue-green team, whose main goal always remains safe mission accomplishment.

"One of the keys to our success has been the communication between the ARG-MEU staffs," said Crary. "We have continued building on lessons learned from the basic phase training cycle and the last deployment. That constant dialogue and experience from both services strengthens the ARG-MEU relationship, and it's what will lead us to succeed through the rest of this training cycle and deployment."

During PMINT, Sailors and Marines in the ARG trained together to prepare for a wide array of amphibious warfare operations, including amphibious landings, flight operations, air-defense exercises and defense of the force missions.

Somerset Commanding Officer Capt. Darren W. Glaser highlighted the Navy-Marine Corps teamwork that led to the successful completion of PMINT.

"As we prepare for USS Somerset's maiden deployment, our Sailors and Marines are learning to integrate two of the nation's greatest forces -- our Navy surface fleet and our expeditionary Marine forces," said Glaser. "We are continuing to validate our skills as a united combat team while executing multiple missions such as maritime interdiction, aviation operations and amphibious landings."

Throughout PMINT, the three ARG ships employed kinetic flight decks supporting the gamut of Marine aircraft, including AV-8B Harriers, MV-22 Ospreys, AH-1Z Cobras, UH-1Y Hueys, and CH-53E Super Stallions, as well as Navy MH-60 Seahawks. The ships' well decks launched and recovered amphibious landing craft, including Landing Craft Air Cushion (LCAC), amphibious assault vehicles (AAV), and landing craft utility (LCU).

Makin Island Commanding Officer Capt. Jon P. Rodgers explained how the volume and complexity of missions during PMINT will prepare the ARG-MEU for deployment.

"These Sailors and Marines were complete strangers last week, but this week they worked shoulder-to-shoulder planning and executing simultaneous and complex missions," said Rodgers. "That teamwork is critical to success in this high-paced operational environment."

In addition to large scale ARG evolutions, PMINT was the first time in this training cycle Sailors and Marines lived and worked side-by-side.

"Whether you are 'blue' or 'green' doesn't matter; we're all one team," said Makin Island Aviation Ordnanceman 2nd Class Sarah Minnick, from San Diego. "Accomplishing the mission as part of the Navy-Marine Corps team is an incredible experience."

While it may have been the first time working in a joint environment for many Sailors and Marines, the two military branches demonstrated their professionalism and interoperability daily.

"This is my first time underway on a Navy ship, and it's been a great experience," said Cpl. Daniel Jimenz, from Kansas City, Kansas, assigned to Combat Logistics Battalion 11. "We've built a lot of camaraderie working alongside our Navy counterparts. We're all here to accomplish the mission and we can only do that together."

Amphibious Squadron 5, the Makin Island ARG and the 11th MEU plan to execute the second phase of integrated pre-deployment training in August during Composite Training Unit Exercise (COMPTUEX).

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120 Daesh terrorists killed in Afghanistan's Nangarhar

Iran Press TV

Tue Jul 26, 2016 4:46PM

At least 120 members of the Takfiri Daesh terrorist group have been killed in an Afghan army offensive in the northern province of Nangarhar.

The offensive comes against the backdrop of the July 23 deadly bombings in the capital Kabul, where at least 80 people were killed. Daesh claimed the terrorist attack at a gathering of the Shia Hazara minority as they protested against a major power line project.

Officials in Nangarhar said Tuesday that the offensive was carried out in the mountainous district of Kot, a main stronghold of the Takfiri group where it has set up courts and training camps.

Provincial spokesman Attaullah Khogyani said Afghan troops seized large parts of the area and killed Saad Emarati, a local Daesh commander.

Afghan Defense Ministry spokesman Mohammad Radmanish also said, "They have been taught a lesson for their crimes. We will wipe out IS (Daesh) from Nangarhar."

Daesh said after the Kabul carnage that it targeted members of the Shia minority for their support for the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Syrian forces have made major advances against Daesh over the past few months, purging the terrorists from some key areas east and northeast of the country.

The rise of Daesh in Afghanistan has already triggered concerns in a country which has been torn apart by decades of Taliban-led militancy and the 2001 invasion of the US and its allies. Daesh has also capitalized on splits emerging among the ranks of the Taliban since the news broke last year of the death of the Taliban founder and long-time leader Mullah Omar.

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Yemeni forces shoot Saudi military copter, kill two pilots

Iran Press TV

Tue Jul 26, 2016 9:27AM

Yemeni forces have shot down an Apache military helicopter operated by invading Saudi forces in Yemen's central province of Ma'rib, killing its two pilots.

The Boeing AH-64 Apache aircraft was conducting an operation over a district in the oil-rich Yemeni province, located 250 kilometers (150 miles) east of the capital, Sana'a, late on Monday when it was targeted by the Yemeni forces, al-Masirah television network reported.

The Saudi forces involved in operations against Yemen claimed in a statement that the aircraft had "crashed due to bad weather."

The Saudi forces identified the slain pilots as Captain Ayman Alfaifi and First Lieutenant Mohammed Hassan.

The development came only a few hours after at least five Saudi border guards were killed in a fierce exchange of gunfire with Popular Committees fighters, who are fighting alongside Yemeni forces.

Saudi media, citing a statement from the Saudi Interior Ministry, said the five were killed during clashes that lasted for about eight hours on several fronts in the southern border region of Najran.

Separately, Saudi-backed militiamen loyal to Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi  who has resigned as Yemen's president but seeks to grab power  lobbed more than 130 mortar shells at Sarari area in Sabir al-Mawadim district of Yemen's southwestern Ta'izz Province early on Tuesday.

Local sources, requesting not to be named, said the militia forces have launched at least 12 attacks against the area in recent days in an attempt to retake it from fighters supporting the Houthi Ansarullah movement.

Yemen has been under military strikes by Saudi Arabia since March 26, 2015. The Saudi war was launched in a bid to undermine the Houthi Ansarullah movement and restore power to Hadi.

The Houthi Ansarullah fighters took over state matters after Hadi's resignation and his escape from the capital, Sana'a.

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Washington Has 'No Plan' to Move Warplanes Out of Incirlik Base in Turkey

Sputnik News

19:14 26.07.2016

Washington has no plans to relocate its warplanes from the Turkish Incirlik airbase despite the recent coup attempt, the US Air Force secretary said.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik)  The United States does not plan to move its airmen or other personnel off the Incirlik air base in Turkey, despite tensions following the recent military coup attempt in that country, US Air Force Secretary Deborah James said on Tuesday.

"There is no plan to move out of Incirlik whatsoever," James stated at a forum hosted by Defense One.

On Monday, James discussed the situation at Incirlik with the US commander at the base. She noted that US officials are closely monitoring the situation, "but for now the operations, the missions are ongoing."

On July 15, a faction in the Turkish military attempted a coup against the government of Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Following the unsuccessful coup, US operations at Incirlik were temporarily halted and the power supply to the base was cut.

Some Turkish politicians suggested the United States had been involved in the coup attempt and raised the possibility of cutting off US access to the Incirlik air base.

Despite the apparent tensions in the US-Turkish relationship, James said relations between the two countries' military personnel on the base is "professional," and there have been "no problems with our people."

The United States was granted access to the Incirlik air base in July 2015, which serves as the staging area for the majority of US airstrikes carried out against the Daesh terrorist group.

 Sputnik

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US Committed to Helping Somalia Defeat Al-Shabaab Amid Airport Attack

Sputnik News

18:31 26.07.2016

Washington expressed readiness to help Somalia wrestle down terror groups such as al-Shabaab. On Tuesday, al-Shabaab militants detonated two vehicles in Mogadishu killing at least a dozen people.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik)  The United States is determined to supporting Somalia in the country's fight against terror groups including against the Islamic militant group al-Shabaab, US National Security Council spokesman Ned Price said in a statement on Tuesday.

"The United States stands squarely with Somalia and our partners in the fight against despicable acts of terrorism that seek to destabilize Somalia," Price stated. "We remain committed to helping Somalia progress along a path towards peace and prosperity and the defeat of terrorist groups, including al-Shabaab."

Earlier in the day, at least a dozen people were killed when two vehicles exploded on the way to a base for African Union peacekeepers near Mogadishu International Airport. According to media reports, al-Shabaab was behind the explosions.

"The United States condemns in the strongest terms the terrorist attack at the Mogadishu International Airport in Somalia on July 26," Price added. "Our condolences go out to the United Nations personnel, African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) soldiers, Somali citizens, and friends and families of all those who were killed and injured in this cowardly attack."

Somalia has been experiencing violence since the country devolved into civil war in the early 1990s. The state's collapse provided a breeding ground for warlords, pirates and the al-Qaeda affiliated al-Shabaab. The group has been staging numerous attacks in Somalia in an attempt to create an Islamic state ruled by Sharia law.

The country's government has relied heavily on the African Union's peacekeepers for protection.

 Sputnik

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Huge Explosion Hits Arms Factory in Azerbaijan, People Feared Trapped Inside

Sputnik News

14:55 26.07.2016(updated 17:59 26.07.2016)

Twelve people were hospitalized Tuesday after an explosion at an arms factory in the city of Shirvan in eastern Azerbaijan, a representative of a local hospital said.

"The twelfth person injured as result of the explosion has been delivered [to the hospital]. His condition is grave," the representative told RIA Novosti.

Six people have been critically injured in an arms factory explosion in the eastern Azerbaijan city of Shirvan, the Ministry of Healthcare of Azerbaijan Republic told RIA Novosti on Tuesday.

The victims have been transported to the Shirvan central hospital, their condition assessed as grave, the ministry's press service said.

Witnesses described hearing a loud explosion, followed by fire and intermittent blasts at the factory's warehouse facilities, said to belong to the Ministry of Defense Industry of Azerbaijan.

Residents of nearby areas were evacuated.

 Sputnik

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Some 4,000 South Sudanese fleeing into Uganda daily - UN warns

26 July 2016  Recent fighting in South Sudan has forced 37,491 people to flee to Uganda in the past three weeks, averaging more than 4,000 a day in the past week, the United Nations refugee agency warned today.

"To put this in context, more refugees have arrived in Uganda in the past three weeks than during the entire first six months of 2016, when 33,838 came there in search of safety," Adrian Edwards, a spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), told reporters in Geneva.

Yesterday, an estimated 2,442 refugees were received in Uganda from South Sudan. More than 90 per cent of arrivals are women and children.

"The new arrivals in Uganda are reporting ongoing fighting as well as looting by armed militias, burning down of homes and murders of civilians," Mr. Edwards said. "Some of the women and children told us they were separated from their husbands or fathers by armed groups, who are reportedly forcibly recruiting men into their ranks and preventing them from crossing the border."

He noted that daily arrivals were averaging around 1,500 just 10 days ago, but have risen to over 4,000 in the past week. People are coming from South Sudan's Eastern Equatoria region, as well as Juba and other areas of the country, he said.

The intensity of the recent fighting between rival factions loyal to President Salva Kiir and First Vice-President Riek Machar in Juba has subsided, but the security situation remains volatile. "Further surges in arrivals are a real possibility," he said.

The influx is straining the capacity of collection points, and transit and reception centres. Over the weekend, humanitarian organizations worked to decongest the collection points and installed temporary shelters to increase capacities. UNHCR has deployed additional staff, trucks and buses to assist.

At its peak, more than 11,000 refugees were staying in Elegu, in northern Uganda, in a compound equipped to shelter only 1,000 people. By the end of this past weekend, the centre had been significantly decongested, and just 300 people slept there on Monday night. Many of the refugees have been moved to the Nyumanzi transit centre, where they are receiving hot meals, water, shelter and other life-saving assistance; others have been taken to expanded reception centres in Pagirinya.

The management and expansion of reception facilities as well as the opening of a new settlement area remain key priorities. A new settlement area has been identified in Yumbe district, with the capacity to potentially host up to 100,000 people. Temporary communal shelters are also being built to accommodate the continuing arrivals.

The humanitarian response to the influx of South Sudanese refugees is sorely lacking due to severe underfunding. "The inter-agency appeal is only funded at 17 per cent, which is constraining UNHCR and its partners to provide emergency and life-saving activities only and causing limitations to the full breadth of humanitarian assistance that can be offered," Mr. Edwards said.

South Sudan's conflict, which erupted in December 2013, has produced one of the world's worst displacement situations with immense suffering. Some 1.69 million people are displaced inside the country, while there are now 831,582 South Sudanese refugees abroad, mainly in Ethiopia, Sudan and Uganda.

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Kerry: US Encouraged by Support for Rule of Law in South China Sea

by Nike Ching July 26, 2016

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry says the United States is very encouraged by statements coming from many members of the international community, including many Southeast Asian nations, that have expressed support for the rule of law and a peaceful settlement of maritime disputes in the South China Sea.

Speaking at the end of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations regional forum in Laos Tuesday, Kerry said he has had candid and constructive discussions, including a meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi Monday, about a "path forward" in light of a decision by the Permanent Court of Arbitration that struck down China's extensive claims in the sea.

China has rejected the tribunal's ruling, saying it does not have the authority to hear the case brought by the Philippines.

During his time in the Laotian capital, Kerry also met with Japanese Minister for Foreign Affairs Fumio Kishida, and Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, for the sixth ministerial meeting of the so-called Trilateral Strategic Dialogue (TSD).

The three urged all sides to respect freedom of navigation and overflight in the Asia-Pacific and the Indian Ocean, while voicing their strong opposition to any coercive unilateral actions that could alter the status quo and increase tensions.

An earlier statement by the 10-member Southeast Asian regional bloc seemed compromised as a result of unyielding objections from China's close ally, Cambodia.

The official ASEAN statement expressed serious concerns over artificial land reclamations and escalations of activities in the South China Sea, neither the Hague tribunal ruling or any single nation, including China, were mentioned.

Laos, ASEAN's chair this year, is also considered a close ally of neighboring China.

Experts said ASEAN operates on a consensus principle that effectively gives each country a veto power when forming a stand on various issues.

Next, Secretary Kerry will travel to Manila for talks with Philippine officials that are likely to include further discussions of the South China Sea issue.

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S. Sudan Fighting Forcing Thousands to Flee to Uganda

by Lisa Schlein July 26, 2016

The U.N. refugee agency reports more South Sudanese refugees have fled into Uganda in the past three weeks than in the first six months of this year.

The UNHCR says more than 37,000 people have crossed the border since fighting between South Sudan's rival factions erupted July 8 in the capital, Juba.

The violence that killed at least 300 people has subsided, but tensions are still running high in the capital and other parts of South Sudan.

The U.N. refugee agency says people have little confidence that the situation soon will improve, as evidenced by the upsurge in people fleeing the country.

UNHCR spokesman Adrian Edwards reports daily arrivals into Uganda were averaging around 1,500 ten days ago, but have risen to over 4,000 in the past week. He says the majority of arrivals are women and children.

"The new arrivals are reporting ongoing fighting, looting by armed militias, burning down of homes, murders of civilians," said Edwards. "Some of the women and children told us they were separated from their husbands and fathers by armed groups, who were reportedly trying to recruit them into their ranks and preventing them from crossing the border to leave the country."

The political situation took a new turn in recent days, as President Salva Kir replaced former rebel leader Riek Machar as vice president with Taban Deng Gai, who helped negotiate last year's peace deal between the government and opposition.

Observers say this is a sign of serious divisions on the opposition side.

Edwards says he cannot comment on how these developments will impact the situation, but he tells VOA the UNHCR is profoundly worried about how to care for the newest refugees.

"This one is an extremely worrying one, given the limited capacities that there are," he said.

Edwards says the UNHCR is straining to provide shelter and anything beyond basic life-saving assistance to the refugees. He says temporary shelters are being constructed to accommodate new arrivals, while more permanent solutions can be worked out.

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Unique C-5 completes major inspection

By Senior Airman Zachary Cacicia, 436th Airlift Wing Public Affairs / Published July 27, 2016

DOVER AIR FORCE BASE, Del. (AFNS) -- Dover Air Force Base is home to a fleet of 18 C-5M Super Galaxy intercontinental-range strategic airlifters, the Air Force's largest transport aircraft. It's also home to the service's only facility capable of conducting major isochronal inspections on them.

During the past two months, a C-5M Space Cargo Modified (SCM) Super Galaxy underwent a major ISO inspection inside the 436th Maintenance Squadron's ISO dock here.

This C-5M SCM, originally a C-5A model assigned to Travis AFB, California, was modified into a C-5C model, one of only two such models ever made. It was modified to carry large cargo, such as satellites. The main difference between the C-5C and others is its lack of a troop compartment and it has different aft doors. It also has two places to plug in external power, for both the aircraft and a payload canister.

The aircraft arrived May 16 to undergo the inspection. This is just one reoccurring phase of an eight-year maintenance schedule that all C-5s undergo.

During an ISO inspection, aircraft maintainers strip down the C-5 looking for any deficiencies, faults, cracks or any other problem in every system of the aircraft. For the Airmen in the ISO dock, this C-5 created a few unique challenges while undergoing maintenance and inspection.

"A bridge had to be built to allow access into the hayloft of the aircraft due to the lack of having the normal troop compartment," said John Greim, a 436th MXS production controller. "ISO personnel brainstormed how to build a bridge and with the use of a B-2 stand prepositioned into the cargo bay we gained access to the hayloft. This had to go through wing safety approval, quality assurance approval, engineering assist and finally maintenance group approval to allow use of the bridge to complete our inspections and repairs."

Coordination with Travis AFB was also required.

"The aircraft has different aft doors than any other C-5," Greim said. "We had to pre-coordinate with Travis to ensure they sent us a qualified maintainer that could operate the aft doors for reconfiguring of the aircraft for our process."

The inspection and maintenance is now complete and this C-5 is ready to return to its home station and continue its mission.

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Investors from Thailand, Singapore and Japan have been spending big in Vietnam.

Nine out of Vietnams top 10 largest mergers and acquisitions in 2015-2016 involved foreign investors, led by Thailands Central Group's acquisition of Big C Vietnam for $1.14 billion.

Vietnams M&A market has been active with foreign investment reaching a record of $5.2 billion in 2015. In the first seven months of 2016, the estimated value of M&As was over $3 billion, a sharp hike of 28 percent from the same period last year, according to the M&A Vietnam Forum.

This is likely to continue for the rest of the year with the retail, consumption and real estate sectors catching foreign investors' eyes.

The retail and consumption sectors are enticing foreign investors in the M&A wave. Photo courtesy of mnavietnam.com

The consumer sector holds huge potential in Vietnam, and Thai investors have been pouring in on the back of Central Group's massive deal.

The three largest deals all involve Thai investors. Besides Big C Vietnam, Singha invested $1.1 billion in Vietnamese food & beverage manufacturer Masan Consumer and Masan Brewery, and TCC Holding purchased Metro Vietnam Cash & Carry for $711 million.

Korean and two Singaporean investors are focusing on the real estate sector with acquisitions by giants like Keppel Land, Mapletree and Capita Land. Real estate investors from Singapore are heading to Ho Chi Minh City, with buildings and hotels in prime locations.

The Foreign Investment Agency under the Ministry of Planning and Investment said that of the total investment from state members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Vietnam, real estate accounted for 30 percent with 97 projects as of June 30, and Singapore made up nearly 80 percent of those.

Following in the list were Japanese investors who invested in state owned enterprises and Hau Giang Pharmacy. JX Nippon Oil & Energy acquired an eight percent stake worth $183 million in Petrolimex, ANA Holdings purchased 8.77 percent ($108 million) in Vietnam Airlines and Taisho recently acquired 24 percent in Hau Giang Pharmacy.

Vietnams top 10 M&A deals in 2015-2016

No. Sector Bidder Bidder's nationality Target Percent Value ($ million) 1 Retail Central Group Thai Big C Vietnam (seller: Casino Group) 100 1,140 2 Food&Beverage Singha Thai Masan Consumer Holdings (25%), Masan Brewery (33.3%) 25 & 33.3 1,100 3 Retail TCC Holding Thai Metro Vietnam Cash&Carry 100 711 4 Real Estate Mirae Asset, AON BGN Korean Keangnam Landmark Tower 72 100 382 5 Real Estate Keppel Land Ltd Singaporean Empire City 100 234 6 Real Estate Mapletree Singaporean Kumho Asiana Plaza (seller: Kumho Industrial and Asiana Airlines) 100 215 7 Petroleum JX Nippon Oil & Energy Japanese Petrolimex 8 183 8 Airlines ANA Holdings Japanese Vietnam Airlines 8.77 108 9 Pharmaceuticals Taisho Japanese Hau Giang Pharmaceuticals 24 100 10 Food&Beverage Masan Nutri-Science Vietnamese Vissan 24.9 96.8

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Military Strikes Hit ISIL Terrorists in Syria, Iraq

From a Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve News Release

SOUTHWEST ASIA, July 27, 2016  U.S. and coalition military forces continued to attack Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant terrorists in Syria and Iraq yesterday, Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve officials reported today.

Strikes in Syria

Attack, fighter, and remotely piloted aircraft conducted 12 strikes in Syria:

-- Near Dayr Az Zawr, a strike struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed an ISIL vehicle.

-- Near Manbij, eight strikes struck eight separate ISIL tactical units and destroyed 12 ISIL fighting positions and two ISIL vehicles.

-- Near Mar'a, two strikes struck two ISIL headquarters.

-- Near Palmyra, a strike struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed an ISIL vehicle.

Strikes in Iraq

Bomber, fighter, and remotely piloted aircraft and rocket artillery conducted 10 strikes in Iraq, coordinated with and in support of Iraq's government:

-- Near Baghdadi, two strikes destroyed an ISIL vehicle and an ISIL weapons cache.

-- Near Albu Hayat, a strike struck an ISIL weapons storage facility.

-- Near Hit, two strikes struck two separate ISIL tactical units and destroyed three ISIL vehicles and an ISIL bunker.

-- Near Qayyarah, two strikes struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed two ISIL assembly areas, an ISIL vehicle, two ISIL rockets, 33 ISIL rocket rails and an ISIL heavy machine gun.

-- Near Ramadi, a strike struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed two ISIL fighting positions and an ISIL weapons cache.

-- Near Sinjar, a strike suppressed three ISIL mortar positions.

-- Near Sultan Abdallah, a strike struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed an ISIL assembly area.

Task force officials define a strike as one or more kinetic events that occur in roughly the same geographic location to produce a single, sometimes cumulative, effect. Therefore, officials explained, a single aircraft delivering a single weapon against a lone ISIL vehicle is one strike, but so is multiple aircraft delivering dozens of weapons against buildings, vehicles and weapon systems in a compound, for example, having the cumulative effect of making those targets harder or impossible for ISIL to use. Accordingly, officials said, they do not report the number or type of aircraft employed in a strike, the number of munitions dropped in each strike, or the number of individual munition impact points against a target. Ground-based artillery fired in counterfire or in fire support to maneuver roles is not classified as a strike.

Part of Operation Inherent Resolve

The strikes were conducted as part of Operation Inherent Resolve, the operation to eliminate the ISIL terrorist group and the threat they pose to Iraq, Syria, and the wider international community. The destruction of ISIL targets in Syria and Iraq further limits the terrorist group's ability to project terror and conduct operations, officials said.

Coalition nations that have conducted strikes in Iraq include the United States, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Jordan, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. Coalition nations that have conducted strikes in Syria include the United States, Australia, Bahrain, Canada, France, Jordan, the Netherlands, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom.

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OIR Official: Captured Info Describes ISIL Operations in Manbij

By Terri Moon Cronk DoD News, Defense Media Activity

WASHINGTON, July 27, 2016  As the U.S.-led coalition and Syrian fighters continue the battle to retake the city of Manbij in Syria, captured information reveals the Islamic State of Iraq and The Levant's thought processes and plans, Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve spokesman Army Col. Christopher Garver told Pentagon reporters today.

In a teleconferenced news briefing from Baghdad, Garver said coalition forces have recovered 4 terabytes -- about 10,000 pieces of information, such as laptops, thumb drives, textbooks and notes -- from the battlefield encircling Manbij.

Manbij has been important to ISIL because of its strategic location and activity, and the coalition-gathered materials are yielding massive amounts of intelligence that tell a lot about ISIL's organization, the colonel said.

ISIL Fighter Staging Area

"[From] that material we're sifting through, we figured out they ran several foreign fighter reception staging areas inside Manbij [where] a foreign fighter would enter," he said.

"They would screen them, figure out what languages they speak, assign them a job and send them down into wherever they were going to go, be it into Syria or Iraq," the spokesman said.

Garver said he's not surprised at the amount of ISIL activity in the region. "It just goes to show how the self-proclaimed caliphate is not like any other organization we've dealt with before," he said.

The recovered textbooks offer more information than how ISIL plans attacks, he said, noting that ISIL-rewritten textbooks contain high-end math and science, and word problems rewritten into pro-ISIL language.

Rewritten Books Dictate 'Caliphate' Life

"These are textbooks on how to control the lives of everybody that's inside it, how everyone should live their lives, and how if you don't live your life that way, you're an enemy of the state -- of the so-called, self-proclaimed state," Garver said.

"They certainly were industrious in being able to put all these aspects into their governance, but it gets back to why we have to defeat them," the colonel said.

"This is unlike any other organization that we've fought before," he said, "and with this sort of totalitarian attempt to control everything, it poses a significant threat not just to the people inside, but everybody that they want to expand out to, as well."

Because most of the information is written in Arabic and massive amount of documents exist, it will take time to sift through all of it, Garver said.

Intel Find A 'Big Deal'

The colonel said the massive information find is a big deal, particularly because it reveals how ISIL ran Manbij as a strategic hub with multiple reception centers.

"Anything that can connect us to external operations from Syria is a benefit to everybody. It benefits the whole global coalition that is working to counter ISIL's operations around the world," he said.

And as coalition fighters enter Manbij, they are finding ISIL-occupied homes rigged with homemade bombs, which Garver said might have been an attempt to destroy the information that was kept inside, or a method to kill coalition fighters, particularly as ISIL loses terrain.

Unlike other battles to retake cities, such as Fallujah in Iraq, ISIL fighters are collapsing back into the center of Manbij as the fight for it develops, he said.

"The enemy is fighting very hard," Garver added. "They're putting snipers in minarets [and] mosques. They've got machine guns. They've got [homemade bombs] all over the place  we've seen these tactics before."

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Carter Tells Deploying Troops to Build on Momentum in Iraq, Syria

By Jim Garamone DoD News, Defense Media Activity

WASHINGTON, July 27, 2016  Defense Secretary Ash Carter today told troops readying to deploy to Iraq that they must build on the momentum to defeat the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.

The secretary addressed service members set to deploy with the XVIII Airborne Corps at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. The unit will replace the III Corps as the American portion of Operation Inherent Resolve with Army Lt. Gen. Sean MacFarland passing command to Army Lt. Gen. Stephen Townsend.

Carter called on the troops to help accelerate the defeat of ISIL. "Last fall we introduced an initial series of accelerants to help us gather momentum," the secretary said. The United States, he said, deployed additional strike aircraft and aimed them at new targets and new categories of targets illuminated by refined intelligence.

Strategy

"We deployed an initial contingent of special operations forces to Syria, and expanded equipping of Syrian Arab forces engaged in the fight against ISIL, as well as training and equipping of the Iraqi security forces, including the Kurdish peshmerga," Carter said. "We introduced an expeditionary targeting force. And we started to expand our military campaign to every domain, including cyber."

The secretary added, "We also asked all our coalition countries to make additional contributions to the campaign, which they did -- contributing strike aircraft, special operations forces, trainers, engineers, logisticians, lift capabilities and other critical enablers."

Carter said these efforts have worked, as Iraqi and Syrian forces have retaken territory from ISIL.

"As result, play by play, town after town, from every direction and in every domain, our campaign has accelerated further squeezing ISIL and rolling it back towards Raqqa and Mosul," the secretary said." By isolating those two cities, we're effectively setting the stage to collapse ISIL's control over them."

More needs to be done, the secretary told the soldiers.

"We've seized opportunities, reinforced success and taken the fight to the enemy," Carter said. "But we are not going to rest -- and that's why you're going to build on those results, continue to take the fight to the enemy, gather more momentum and help deliver ISIL a lasting defeat. I have every confidence that you will."

Stopping ISIL's Movements

In Syria, indigenous and coalition forces will work to shut down the last remaining paths for ISIL fighters to move in and out of the country along the border with Turkey, the secretary said.

"In Iraq, we will continue enabling the dedicated Iraqi security forces and Peshmerga led by Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi and supported by Kurdish Regional President Masoud Barzani -- working by, with, and through the Iraqi government, as we always have," he said.

U.S. service members will focus on helping Iraqi forces pursue mopping-up operations along the Euphrates River Valley, Carter said. "In the north, we will continue to help the Iraqi security forces clear the remaining pockets of ISIL control along the Tigris River Valley," he said. "Simultaneously, we will help the Iraqi security forces -- including the Kurdish peshmerga -- to refit and generate the forces and logistical footprint necessary to isolate and pressure Mosul."

This strategy will culminate in the collapse of ISIL's control over the cities of Mosul in Iraq and Raqqa in Syria, Carter said.

The coalition is doing more in the region with President Barack Obama ordering an additional 560 troops to support Iraqi forces in their offensive to retake Mosul, Carter said.

"Other nations are following our lead, and making commitments as well," he added. "France is sending back the aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle to carry out airstrikes against ISIL. Australia will be expanding their training of Iraqi police and border guards, which will be vital for security in Iraq after ISIL's defeat. And the United Kingdom recently announced it would deploy more trainers and engineers to Iraq, as well."

Rebuilding

Taking the territory is the first move, holding it will be crucial, the secretary said. "There will be towns to rebuild, services to reestablish and communities to restore," Carter said. "Such progress is critical to ensuring that ISIL, once defeated, stays defeated, so that our partners' gains are made irreversible."

The international coalition's stabilization and governance efforts must keep pace with security gains, he said.

"Destroying the fact and the idea of an Islamic state based on ISIL's barbaric ideology will not be easy," Carter said. "The more ground ISIL loses in Iraq and Syria, the more they'll do whatever it takes to cling to their perverse veil of legitimacy."

The coalition must stop ISIL wherever it rears its head, the secretary said. "We must keep systematically eliminating every key leader we find," he said. "And we must deny them every safe haven, wherever they may seek it -- from physical terrain to cyberspace, because that is what's necessary to keep our country safe."

Carter said he knows there will be tough days ahead. "But we have the right campaign plan, the most capable commanders, motivated partners who are growing in strength, and -- most importantly -- we have you," he said.

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U.S. Department of Defense

Press Operations

News Release

No. NR-280-16 July 27, 2016

Readout of Deputy Secretary Bob Work's meeting with Republic of Korea Vice Minister of National Defense Hwang In-Moo

Pentagon Deputy Press Secretary Gordon Trowbridge provided the following readout:

Deputy Defense Secretary Bob Work met with Republic of Korea Vice Minister of National Defense Hwang In-Moo on July 26 at the Pentagon.

The two discussed the continuing cooperation between the United States and the ROK to address North Korea's nuclear weapon and ballistic missile programs. Deputy Secretary Work reaffirmed the United States' ironclad commitment to defend the ROK.

Deputy Secretary Work and Vice Minister Hwang discussed the inaugural Defense Technology Strategy and Cooperation Group high-level talks, and agreed that this dialogue would strengthen the U.S.-ROK alliance.

http://www.defense.gov/News/News-Releases/News-Release-View/Article/873056/

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Bahrain launches trial of top Shia cleric

ISNA - Iranian Students' News Agency

Wed / 27 July 2016 / 12:39

TEHRAN (ISNA)- A court in Bahrain launched the trial of prominent Shia cleric Sheikh Issa Qassim, amid widespread protests against the move.

The Bahraini regime has pressed charges of "illegal fund collections, money laundering and helping terrorism" against Sheikh Qassim. He has rejected the accusations.

Manama has also revoked the cleric's citizenship.

The court session on Wednesday lasted a mere ten minutes, according to reports. Sheikh Qassim was not present at the court session, which produced no verdict.

The trial is commonly viewed as part of Bahrain's crackdown on political dissent.

Since February 14, 2011, thousands of anti-regime protesters have held numerous demonstrations in Bahrain on an almost daily basis, calling on the Al Khalifah rulers to relinquish power.

In March that year, troops from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates were deployed to the country to assist the Bahraini regime in cracking down on the protests.

On the eve of Sheikh Qassim's trial, hundreds of people rallied in Bahrain to express solidarity with him. Shop owners also closed their stores on the streets and at various shopping malls.

Additionally, local residents switched off the lights of their houses in response to calls by opposition groups and chanted slogans on rooftops in condemnation of Sheikh Qassim's trial.

End Item

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Montpelier, Texas Awarded Arleigh Burke Fleet Trophy Award

Navy News Service

Story Number: NNS160726-21

Release Date: 7/26/2016 3:02:00 PM

From Commander, Submarine Force Atlantic Public Affairs

NORFOLK (NNS) -- Commander, Submarine Forces, Vice Adm. Joseph E. Tofalo, presented the prestigious Arleigh Burke Fleet Trophy Award for 2015 to USS Montpelier (SSN 765) during a pierside presentation at Naval Station Norfolk, July 22.

The award encompasses operational readiness, retention and inspections and is presented each year to the ship or aviation squadron in the Atlantic and Pacific Fleets which has had the greatest improvement during the previous year.

"The crew of Montpelier is honored to have been selected as the Atlantic Fleet's Arleigh Burke [Fleet] Trophy Award winner for 2015," said Cmdr. Brad Swanbeck, commanding officer of Montpelier. "This award serves as a testament to the monumental effort the team put forth while preparing for and executing a highly successful deployment. Montpelier returned to sea in 2014 following an unplanned dry-docking period that lasted over a year. During 2015, the team focused on rebuilding their operational experience. The unwavering commitment of the crew was reflected daily through their steadily improved performance. Montpelier's rise to operational excellence is a testament to the crew's dedication and fighting spirit."

"You are the most improved unit in the entire Atlantic Fleet," said Tofalo as he addressed the crew of Montpelier. "As a force commander I can't tell you how proud I am, not only of you but of USS Texas (SSN 775) who also won the Arleigh Burke award in the Pacific -- which means the most improved on both coasts were submarines. A clean sweep for the submarine force."

As the winner for Pacific Fleet, Texas' captain and crew believe it was well earned.

"2015 was a tremendous year for Texas; the ship came out of a two-year [Chief of Naval Operations] dry-docking availability in 2014 and spent 2015 preparing for our highly successful Western Pacific deployment," said Cmdr. Todd Nethercott, Texas' commanding officer. "Texas went from being a submarine with very little operational experience to one that deployed on time and 100 percent ready to execute the full range of submarine force missions worldwide. The significant improvements in battle efficiency were a testament to the crew's commitment to success, motivation, and strong work ethic."

"Being selected as Pacific Fleet's Arleigh Burke Trophy winner was immensely rewarding for the crew," added Nethercott. "It validated all of the hard work that they put into preparing for deployment and it was a huge boost to their morale."

Named after the former Chief of Naval Operations from 1955-1961, the Arleigh Burke Fleet Trophy comes in the form of a plaque and is awarded annually to one ship or aircraft squadron from both Atlantic and Pacific Fleet units and squadrons, as a permanent award to be retained aboard.

"The crew of USS Texas embodies the readiness and fighting spirit of our submarine force," said Rear Adm. Frederick J. Roegge, commander, Submarine Force Pacific. "Their dedication to self-assessment and continual improvement culminated in a highly successful Western Pacific deployment. They epitomize high velocity learning. This Arleigh Burke award recognizes USS Texas' day-to-day high standards of professionalism and achievement."

Both Montpelier and Texas are fast attack submarines designed to seek and destroy enemy submarines and surface ships, project power ashore with Tomahawk cruise missiles and special operation forces, carry out intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance missions, support battle group operations, and engage in mine warfare.

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US Navy to continue presence in South China Sea

Iran Press TV

Wed Jul 27, 2016 3:54PM

The US Navy has no intention to cease military operations in the South China Sea despite objections from the Chinese government, according to the US Defense Department.

Admiral John Richardson, the chief of naval operations, made the comments during a press briefing at the Pentagon on Tuesday, after returning from a trip to China.

During the visit to Beijing, Richardson said he made it clear to Chinese officials that America's presence in the sea has a long-standing nature.

"I made it fairly clear that our activity in the South China Sea is by and large relatively constant for a long time. The activity levels and the complexity and all that has not really changed," he explained.

"I think they kind of understand that we are going to be there," Richardson added. "I think it's just a matter of continuing to exercise these types of things, and it will be less a point of discussion and more just what we do."

China claims "indisputable sovereignty" over most of the South China Sea and looks unfavorably upon the continued American military presence there.

Washington has complained that Chinese planes and ships have performed unsafe maneuvers while shadowing American warships and aircraft in the region.

This is while Taiwan, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei have their own territorial claims over parts of the sea.

Earlier this month, the situation became more complex after the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague ruled that there was no legal basis for Beijing to claim historic rights to resources within much of the South China Sea.

"It's a complex situation," Richardson said, while pointing out China's growing influence in the region. "They've established a dynamic, I think, where they're trying to posture many of their actions as a responsive measure."

However, he said despite the existing disagreements, ties between Washington and Beijing were moving towards more progress.

That point was echoed by US Secretary of State John Kerry on Wednesday, who said Washington wanted to avoid "confrontation" in the disputed South China Sea and help resolve the issue peacefully.

"We hope to see a process that will narrow the geographic scope of the maritime disputes, set standards for behavior in contested areas, lead to mutually acceptable solutions, perhaps even a series of confidence-building steps," he said during a trip to Manila, the Philippines.

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7 killed, 18 wounded as bomb blast hits Yemen's Ma'rib

Iran Press TV

Wed Jul 27, 2016 3:10PM

A bomb explosion has ripped through an open market in the Yemeni city of Ma'rib, leaving seven people dead and 18 others injured, local officials say.

A security official in Ma'rib said the blast took place on Wednesday.

A medical source at the city's public hospital also confirmed the number of casualties.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the bombing, but the Daesh Takfiri terrorists and al-Qaeda militants have been active in parts of Yemen over the past months.

The extremists have exploited the Saudi military aggression, which was launched to crush the Houthi Ansarullah movement and reinstate the resigned Yemeni president, Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi.

Forces loyal to Hadi control the city of Ma'rib, the capital of the province with the same name.

Ma'rib province has seen fierce clashes between Saudi-backed Hadi loyalists and Houthi fighters, who continue to control the province's northern parts. Saudi Arabia has forces based in the province in an effort to support the pro-Hadi troops.

The impoverished Arabian Peninsula country has seen almost daily attacks by Saudi Arabia since late March 2015, with internal sources putting the toll from the bloody aggression at about 10,000.

The Houthi fighters took state matters into their own hands after the resignation and escape of Hadi, which threw Yemen into a state of uncertainty and threatened a total security breakdown in the country.

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UN urges 'humanitarian' truce in Yemen's Ta'izz

Iran Press TV

Wed Jul 27, 2016 1:23PM

The United Nations has called for a humanitarian truce in Yemen's southwestern province of Ta'izz as heavy fighting continues in the embattled region.

UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Yemen Jamie McGoldrick on Wednesday expressed alarm at increasing bloodshed in Ta'izz province, particularly al-Sarari area, and urged all warring sides to agree immediately to a "humanitarian pause" to protect civilians.

He also called for cooperation with humanitarian agencies to help treat and evacuate the wounded and deliver much-needed medicine to the embattled region.

Forces loyal to Yemen's resigned president, Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, control most of Ta'izz, the third largest city in the impoverished Arab country. The city has an estimated pre-war population of 300,000 people.

According to reports, forces loyal to Hadi fired several rockets at Sarari homes overnight.

In a letter to the UN, a Houthi official of a ceasefire committee assigned to oversee a fragile truce in Ta'izz said Sarari residents had been subjected to "war crimes" such as house burning and the detention of 49 civilians, including women and children.

"We call on you to swiftly intervene to stop these gangs and limit the massacres they have begun to commit against unarmed civilians," Ahmed al-Msawa said in the letter, Reuters reported.

However, pro-Hadi forces have denied setting fires to houses.

A UN-brokered ceasefire in Yemen, which took effect in April, has been shaky as both sides accuse each other of breaking the truce.

The ceasefire was aimed at paving the way for UN-mediated peace talks among Yemeni groups to resolve the conflict in Yemen. The talks, currently underway in Kuwait, are reportedly to be extended for another week, according to sources.

This comes as Yemen has been under military strikes by Saudi Arabia since late March 2015. The Saudi war has been meant to restore power to Hadi, who seeks to forcefully return to power.

The Riyadh military aggression has left close to 10,000 dead in Yemen.

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Bahrain postpones trial of top Shia cleric

Iran Press TV

Wed Jul 27, 2016 7:38AM

A court in Bahrain has adjourned the trial of top Shia cleric Sheikh Isa Qassim amid widespread protests against the move.

The tribunal on Wednesday held a session which lasted only 10 minutes without the cleric's presence, deciding to put off the trial until August 14.

The Bahraini regime has pressed charges of "illegal fund collections, money laundering and helping terrorism" against Sheikh Qassim. He has rejected the accusations.

Manama has also revoked the cleric's citizenship.

The court session on Wednesday lasted a mere ten minutes and adjourned until August 14. Sheikh Qassim was not present at the session.

Bahrain has already sentenced Sheikh Ali Salman, another revered opposition cleric, to nine years in prison on charges of seeking regime change and collaborating with foreign powers, which he has denied.

Sheikh Salman was the secretary general of the al-Wefaq National Islamic Society, which was Bahrain's main opposition bloc before being dissolved by the regime earlier this month.

Both the trial of Sheikh Qassim and Sheikh Salman are viewed as part of Bahrain's crackdown on political dissent.

Since February 14, 2011, thousands of anti-regime protesters have held numerous demonstrations in Bahrain on an almost daily basis, calling on the Al Khalifah rulers to relinquish power.

In March that year, troops from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates were deployed to the country to assist the Bahraini regime in cracking down on the protests.

On the eve of Sheikh Qassim's trial, hundreds of people rallied in Bahrain to express solidarity with him. Shop owners also closed their stores on the streets and at various shopping malls.

Additionally, local residents switched off the lights of their houses in response to calls by opposition groups and chanted slogans on rooftops in condemnation of Sheikh Qassim's trial.

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It would appear that Vietnamese fishermen need to check their GPS more carefully.

Eight fishing vessels and 88 Vietnamese crew members have been detained by Malaysian authorities for alleged illegal fishing, local newspaper The Star reported.

The Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) made the arrest during its three-day operation from July 22 to 24, aimed to thwart illegal intrusions into the countery's waters, according to the newspaper.

The report quoted MMEA chief Zainolabidin Jusoh as saying that those arrested were aged between 19 and 63 while their catch of fish and squid worth RM53,700 (US$13,000) was also seized. The eight fishing vessels and the equipment seized were worth about RM2.7mil ($665,000).

The first raid, on Friday, occurred about 45 nautical miles off the Malaysian state of Kuala Terengganu, between 6am and 9am, when four C2 class vessels with 43 Vietnamese crew and the skipper were detained, Zainolabidin told a press conference at the MMEA office on Monday.

He said 18 more Vietnamese crew members and a skipper were detained at 9 p.m. the next day and another 27 were arrested about 16 hours later, all within the proximity of Kuala Terengganus waters.

According to Zainolabidin, only 12 of the fishermen were carrying valid documents, and the rest will be held in custody for 14 days.

The Malaysian government has recently increased maritime surveillance to protect its waters.

Over 30 fishing boats and hundreds of Vietnamese fishermen have been arrested for straying into Malaysian waters since the beginning of this year, according to the Vietnamese Embassy in Malaysia.

Related news:

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> Malaysia detains 20 Vietnamese fishermen for intrusion
US wants to avoid confrontation in South China Sea: Kerry

Iran Press TV

Wed Jul 27, 2016 6:56AM

US Secretary of State John Kerry has said Washington wanted to avoid "confrontation" in the disputed South China Sea and help resolve the issue peacefully.

Kerry made the remarks in Manila, the Philippines, on Wednesday after meeting his Philippine counterpart Perfecto Yasay.

The top diplomats discussed Manila's sweeping victory in the arbitration case against China earlier this month, when a tribunal in The Hague dismissed as illegal Beijing's claims in the South China Sea that channels more than $5 trillion in global trade each year.

However, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) refused on Monday to fulfill a demand by the Philippines to mention the ruling in their final statement.

Kerry said that the US wanted Beijing and Manila to engage in talks and "confidence-building measures."

"The decision itself is a binding decision but we're not trying to create a confrontation. We are trying to create a solution mindful of the rights of people established under the law," he added.

"We hope to see a process that will narrow the geographic scope of the maritime disputes, set standards for behavior in contested areas, lead to mutually acceptable solutions, perhaps even a series of confidence-building steps," he said.

Beijing claims almost all of the South China Sea, which is also claimed in part by Taiwan, Brunei, Vietnam, Malaysia and the Philippines. The contested waters are rich in oil and gas.

The sea has been a source of tension between China, the US, and some other regional countries, which seek control of trade routes and mineral deposits there.

On Tuesday, the chief of US Naval operations, Adm. Mark Richardson, said the US Navy would continue its operations in the South China Sea.

The Obama administration has made it "absolutely clear" to China that the US will continue engaging in flights and naval activities in the disputed waters in spite of Beijing's objections, Richardson said.

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Terror Group Claims Ex-Lawmaker Conducted Somali Suicide Bombing

by Harun Maruf July 27, 2016

A former member of Somalia's parliament who joined the Al-Shabab terror organization in 2010 was the man behind a suicide bombing that killed 13 people in Mogadishu Tuesday, according to the group.

"Salah Nuh Ismail known as Salah Badbado was among the braves who have carried out the attack on Halane military base," Al-Shabab said in statement on its Andalus radio station.

The bombing took place at the main entrance of Mogadishu's airport during morning rush hour Tuesday. The entrance targeted in the bombing is regularly used by employees who work at the airport and is located near U.N. and African Union (AU) buildings that connect to the airport.

A spokesman for the U.S. National Security Council, Ned Price, said Tuesday that the United States "stands squarely with Somalia and our partners in the fight against despicable acts of terrorism that seek to destabilize Somalia." He said the United States remains "committed to helping Somalia progress along a path towards peace and prosperity and the defeat of terrorist groups."

Residents in the area reported hearing two massive explosions just around 9 a.m. local time.

Suicide bomber attack

According to reports from the residents, a suicide bomber tried to drive a car packed with explosives through a Somali security check point and then detonated the explosives causing casualties.

Seconds later another car arrived and this time the suicide bomber detonated the car close to security forces and nearby African Union forces.

A security source told VOA that private security guards charged with protecting U.N. personnel outside the AU compound were also at the checkpoint at the time of the attack.

It's not yet known if any U.N. officials were preparing to leave the airport at the time of the attack. The private security detail escorts U.N. officials and vehicles outside the airport perimeter.

Security sources say attackers did not breach the perimeter of the airport which partially hosts the main Headquarters of the AU as well as foreign embassies.

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Russia dismisses allegations of hacking US's DNC

Iran Press TV

Tue Jul 26, 2016 8:34AM

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has rejected allegations by the US Democratic National Convention (DNC) that Moscow was behind a recent hack of its computer systems.

Attending a regional security forum in Laos' capital, Vientiane, Lavrov was asked if Russia was responsible for the cyber attack on the computer network of the DNC.

"Well, I don't want to use four letter words," Lavrov replied, apparently implying that an answer to the question would require to be vulgar.

On Friday, the WikiLeaks website released about 20,000 emails from the DNC, which showed that party leaders had purportedly sought to undermine the presidential campaign of Senator Bernie Sanders.

The revelation prompted DNC chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz to announce her resignation on Sunday.

The campaign of Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton alleged that Russia had released the emails to influence the November presidential election in the US.

Democrats have also brought the White House under pressure to publicly name Moscow as the perpetrator, according to the CNN.

State Department spokesman John Kirby, however, declined to draw any conclusions "about what happened and what the motivation was behind it." He said the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is conducting an investigation.

The agency announced Monday it was "working to determine the nature and scope of the matter."

The US has repeatedly pointed the finger at other nations for the hack of various American companies and institutions. Last year, it accused the governments of North Korea of having hacked the Sony incorporation's computer systems.

Washington also accused the Chinese government and military of conducting cyber attacks, including efforts to steal information from federal US agencies.

Both Beijing and Pyongyang denied the allegations.

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Kremlin: Charges Of Russian Involvement In Democrats Leaked E-Mails 'Absurd'

July 26, 2016

The Kremlin has dismissed allegations that Russia was behind a hack of the Democratic National Committee's e-mails as absurd.

"This absurd news was immediately refuted by the family of the well-known presidential candidate," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists on July 26 , referring to Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump's eldest son, Donald Trump Jr.

Peskov also mocked references to Russia in the U.S. presidential campaign.

"We are still seeing attempts to obsessively use the topic of Russia during the U.S. electoral campaign," he said.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said earlier that he raised the issue of the hacking of Democratic Party e-mails in a July 26 meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

Lavrov brushed aside allegations from U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's campaign that Russia was behind the embarrassing leak of Democratic Party e-mails.

Clinton aides have charged that Russia was behind the leak, which outraged Sanders supporters on the eve of the Democratic convention because the Kremlin favors her Republican rival, Donald Trump, who has talked glowingly of improving relations with Russia if he were to become president.

Lavrov suggested a proper response to that allegation would involve using vulgar language.

He replied in English: "Well, I don't want to use four-letter words." Trump on July 25 called the charge "one of the weirdest conspiracy theories" he's heard.

Based on reporting by AFP, AP, and Reuters

Source: http://www.rferl.org/content/kremlin-says-charges-of- russian-involvement-democrats-emails-absurd/27881591.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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Daesh Loses 40% in Funding Thanks to Int'l Efforts - Italian FM Gentiloni

Sputnik News

18:24 26.07.2016(updated 18:25 26.07.2016)

The Daesh funding has suffered a 40-percent decline due to international efforts, Italy's foreign minister said.

ROME (Sputnik)  Italian Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni said Tuesday that the Daesh funding has seen a 40-percent drop.

"The funding of the IS [Daesh] has decreased by 40 percent, among other things due to [the activities of] the [international] working group, headed by Italy [along with the United States and Saudi Arabia]," Gentiloni said at a session of the Foreign Committee and the Defense Committee of the Senate and Chamber of Deputies.

He added that at the same time the military activities were insufficient to defeat the jihadist group and the international community needed a broad strategy to curb financing of the group, to stop radicalization of people and to increase investments in culture and social sphere.

Daesh is a jihadist group notorious for its human rights abuses, including multiple kidnappings and killings. In 2014, the group, outlawed in the United States and Russia among others, took large territories in Iraq and Syria and established a caliphate. Affiliated groups operate in North Africa, Yemen, Pakistan and Afghanistan. Daesh recruits fighters from around the world.

 Sputnik

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Seoul to Test THAAD Radar Waves Amid Local Population Health Concerns - MoD

Sputnik News

11:43 26.07.2016

The South Korean authorities will carry out additional testing of the electromagnetic emission of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile system to be deployed by the United States in the country in an attempt to alleviate health concerns of the local population, the South Korean Defense Ministry said Tuesday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) Residents of Seongju County, where the system is expected to be deployed, protest against the move over potential negative health effects caused by the electromagnetic waves emanating from the THAAD's radar. On July 18, South Korea's experts carried out a health risk testing on the THAAD system located at the US military base in Guam.

"In the upcoming evaluation on the THAAD battery's environmental impact, we will conduct the same test again to ensure that the anti-missile system does not pose any major health risks to Seongju residents in a reasonable and subjective manner," a spokesman for the Defense Ministry told reporters, as quoted by the Yonhap news agency.

On July 13, the country's Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn together with Defense Minister Han Min-koo visited the county in a bid to persuade local residents to accept the deployment of the THAAD system. The attempt failed, with locals throwing eggs and water bottles at the officials.

 Sputnik

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Kerry warns N Korea of 'real consequences' of nuclear program

Iran Press TV

Tue Jul 26, 2016 9:48AM

US Secretary of State John Kerry has warned North Korea of "real consequences" of its nuclear and missile tests.

Kerry told reporters on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) annual ministerial meeting in Laos that North Korea is the only country that is moving in the opposite direction when the rest of the world is moving toward a nuclear-free world.

"Together we are determined... to make absolutely certain that DPRK [the Democratic People's Republic of Korea] understands that there are real consequences for these actions," he said.

Tensions simmer in the East Asia region ever since Pyongyang launched its forth nuclear test in January, followed by a series of missile launches.

Pyongyang declared itself a nuclear power in 2005 and carried out four nuclear weapons tests in 2006, 2009, 2013 and 2016.

North Korea also launched a long-range rocket in February, which according to Pyongyang was aimed at placing an earth observation satellite into orbit. However, Washington and Seoul described the practice as a cover for an intercontinental ballistic missile test.

North Korea has pledged to develop a nuclear arsenal in a bid to protect itself from the US military, which occasionally deploys nuclear-powered warships and aircraft capable of carrying atomic weapons in the region.

Washington also holds joint military maneuvers with Seoul, which Pyongyang views as preparations for war and a direct threat against its security.



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Pyongyang: US Would Pay 'Terrifying Price' for Destabilizing Korean Peninsula

by Ken Bredemeier July 26, 2016

North Korea said Tuesday the United States would pay a "terrifying price" if it contributes to tensions on the Korean Peninsula, hours after U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry attacked Pyongyang for its nuclear development program.

North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho told a regional security conference in Laos that whether his country conducts another nuclear test will "entirely hinge on the United States' attitude."

Ri said North Korea was ready to face new United Nations sanctions imposed on it in March as a deterrent against its nuclear ambitions, saying it made the "inevitable strategic decision" to proceed with its nuclear weapons program because of the "never-ending nuclear blackmails of the U.S."

Kerry, the top U.S. diplomat, told the southeast Asian gathering that if Iran can give up nuclear weapons development, as it did in last year's negotiated pact with the U.S. and five other world powers, so can North Korea.

But North Korea alone, Kerry said, is "the only country in the world defying the international movement towards responsibility, continues to develop its own weapon, continues to develop its missiles, continues the provocative actions."

Kerry added, "North Korea in January did another nuclear test. In February, March, April, May; continually they have done missile tests. So together we are determined, all of us assembled here - perhaps with one exception assembled here - to make absolutely certain (North Korea) understands that there are real consequences for these actions."

Ri questioned the legitimacy of the U.N. sanctions, saying there is no article in the U.N. charter that says nuclear or missile tests are threats to international peace.

The North Korean diplomat said the U.S. recently "committed the most grave hostility by insulting our Dear Leader," North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, by personally blacklisting him for human rights abuses.

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Press Review

Korean Central News Agency of DPRK via Korea News Service (KNS)

Pyongyang, July 27 (KCNA) -- The following are major news items and articles in the DPRK's leading newspapers on Wednesday:

Supreme leader Kim Jong Un provided field guidance to the Chollima Building Materials Complex.

On the 63rd anniversary of the victory in the great Fatherland Liberation War

The bereaved family of DPRK hero laid a floral basket before the statues of President Kim Il Sung and leader Kim Jong Il on Mansu Hill.

Kim Jong Un received floral baskets and a congratulatory letter from the military attaches corps here and the bereaved family of DPRK hero.

An editorial and articles praise Kim Il Sung for performing exploits for war victory.

Senior party, state and army officials visited the Victorious Fatherland Liberation War Museum.

A national meeting was held and Army General Pak Yong Sik, member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea and minister of the People's Armed Forces, made a report at the meeting.

A war veteran and women's union officials and members met here.

The captain and crewmen of the Jamaica-flagged ship NEW GLOBAL met at Chongjin Port.

Title of labor hero of the DPRK, Kim Il Sung Youth Honor Prize, Kim Jong Il Youth Honor Prize, titles of honor, orders and medals were awarded to the builders, scientists, technicians, officials and helpers who performed labor feats in building the Wonsan Army-People Power Station in the DPRK.

A ceremony of receiving the 31st batch of campers took place at the Songdowon International Children's Camp.

The Information Bureau of the Central Committee of the Anti-Imperialist National Democratic Front released an appeal calling upon all people to turn out in the struggle against the moves of the U.S. and the Park Geun Hye puppet regime to deploy THAAD in south Korea.

The DPRK foreign minister said in his speech at the ministerial meeting of the ASEAN Regional Forum that the DPRK government will vigorously struggle to safeguard peace in the region and the rest of the world.

Rodong Sinmun

It carries photos of Kim Jong Un providing field guidance to the Chollima Building Materials Complex.

Minju Joson

The DPRK foreign minister who is participating in the ministerial meeting of the ASEAN Regional Forum met foreign ministers of various countries. -0-

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North Korea Floats Propaganda Leaflets Down Han River for First Time

Sputnik News

08:41 27.07.2016(updated 10:13 27.07.2016)

North Korea has found a novel way of sending propaganda leaflets south, floating the threats of missile attacks down a river.

MOSCOW (Sputnik)  North Korea has 'floated' threats of missile attacks against the South by placing the propaganda leaflets in a river and sending them downstream, the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said Wednesday.

According to Yonhap news agency, the leaflets made their way down the Han River. Previously, North Korea has not used a waterway for leaflet distribution.

On July 22, the South Korean military collected numerous air-filled vinyl bags containing Pyongyang's leaflets with threats of North Korea's possible missile attacks on its southern neighbor, a JCS spokesman was quoted as saying by the agency.

The JCS reportedly said the South Korean military would be on high alert for any other North Korean propaganda activities on the Han River and other areas.

Tensions on the Korean Peninsula escalated after North Korea successfully carried out a hydrogen bomb test in early January and put a satellite into orbit a month later, violating UN Security Council resolutions and triggering condemnation from the international community.

On July 19, North Korea fired three ballistic missiles into the sea to protest Washington and Seoul's plans to deploy a US anti-missile system in South Korea.

Since the Korean War, both sides have sent propaganda across the border, commonly using balloons. In the recent past, South Korean NGOs such as the group No Chain have sent balloons and drones over the Korean Demilitarized Zone. No Chain claims to have delivered more than 1,000 SD cards and flash drives containing cultural, social and political information via hexacopter drones, including movies, music and the Korean version of Wikipedia.

 Sputnik

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Officials plug legal gaps that allow Chinese 'investors' to linger in Vietnam

Chinese investors can stay in Vietnam for up to 50 years regardless of their project scale.

The Ministry of Planning and Investment held a meeting with authorities in Da Nang on Tuesday to discuss the wave of Chinese investors entering the city and finding ways to stay for as long as possible.

Tran Van Son, director of the citys Department of Planning and Investment, said that some Chinese people involved in very small projects were still asking for 50-year residency permits.

Many investors take advantage of their investment licenses to conduct activities other than the ones they are permitted to do," Son said. "With an investment license, they can move freely without visas or immigration procedures.

He added that Chinese people who seek to stay legally in Vietnam often try to obtain Investment Registration Certificates by contributing small portions to a project. As Vietnamese legal framework does not specify the minimum threshold of investment capital, authorities are unable to reject these applications.

Tran Van Son, director of Da Nangs Department of Planning and Investment. Photo by VnExpress/D.X

To solve the problem of Chinese investors, Son asked the government to add maximum operating terms for small-scale projects and consider carefully before granting Investment Registration Certificates to foreign investors whose projects involve land.

This isnt the first time the popular tourist city has expressed concerns about Chinese people owning property.

Last year, the city found that a number of coastal plots of land in Ngu Hanh Son District had been purchased by Vietnamese people on behalf of Chinese investors.

However, Vo Cong Tri, the vice chief of the citys Communist Party Unit, claimed that the area is still in the hands of the authorities and doesn't pose a threat to the countrys defense and security.

Related news:

> Da Nang kicks out four illegal Chinese tour guides

> Vietnam to punish obnoxious Chinese tourists and guides

> Da Nang publishes booklet asking Chinese tourists to behave
India Not Even Discussing Joint Patrol in South China Sea With US

Sputnik News

17:30 26.07.2016

India has no plans to hold joint naval patrols with the United States in the disputed South China Sea and is committed to joining an international military effort only under the United Nations flag.

The Indian Government has outright denied having any plans to assist the United States in patrolling the disputed South China Sea.

Indian Minister of Defense Manohar Parrikar said in parliament, the "government takes all measures to ensure our maritime security. However, at present, these measures do not include joint patrolling with foreign navies including the United States. No talks have been held with United States on conduct of any joint naval patrols."

Since beginning of this year, the US has continued to push India towards joint patrols in the South China Sea. US Admiral Harry Harris said few months back that America, India, and Japan had discussed "maritime security including freedom of navigation patrols" in the Indian and Pacific Oceans.

Member of Parliament Viplov Thakur raised a question in the Upper House of Parliament whether the United States and India have held talks on conducting joint naval patrols in the Indian Ocean and in the disputed South China Sea. She also asked whether the Indian government had brought any change in its policy of only joining an international military effort under the United Nations' flag.

To this, Minister Parrikar replied, the "Indian Navy has never carried out joint patrols with another country.The Indian Navy, however conducts Coordinated Patrols (CORPATs) with Indonesia, Thailand and Myanmar along the International Maritime Boundary Line (IMBL). Further, there is no change in the policy of the Government of only joining an international military effort under the United Nation's flag."

 Sputnik

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India, Russia Make Conscious Efforts to Increase Defense Ties

Sputnik News

21:53 27.07.2016

After several years of frozen relations, a coming thaw shows a veritable increase in Indian-Russian defense ties.

New Delhi (Sputnik)  In what is being seen as a prudent move by India and Russia the two countries are inching closer to signing a stalled 4 billion dollar project for joint development of their 5th generation fighter aircraft and upgrades for the Su-30MKI Super Sukhoi with advanced avionics and weapons.

Additionally, most of the contentious issues between the two countries have been resolved or will be between Russian Helicopters and India's Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. (HAL) regarding joint development of Kamov-226T light helicopters. Only a few days ago, Indian Commerce & Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman proudly announced that the Kamov 226T would be the first defense project completed under "Make in India."

India has also agreed to lease one Akula class submarine which will be known as INS Chakra after induction into the Indian Navy. Russia has offered its latest nuclear aircraft carrier Storm to India.

Grounded Mi-17-1V helicopters will also be overhauled upgraded with the latest avionics, as negotiations are underway between India and Kazan Helicopters.

Apart from this, an agreement for the S-400 air defense missile system could be signed very soon.

All these developments have happened within the last fortnight. This could be a defining moment in India-Russia relation as these deals are worth than any other deal struck by India with western countries.

Recently, media reported that India was leaning towards the US for its defense requirements. However, facts indicate otherwise. In March of this year Indian Minister of Defense Manohar Parrikar said, " During the last three years, 67 defense contracts have been signed with vendors from foreign countries, out of which 18 contracts are from Russia, 17 from the US, 13 from Israel, 6 from France and 13 are with others."

Amit Cowshish, former financial adviser to Ministry of Defense, said " One of the few major contracts signed by India during the last two years is with Rosobornexport for the Smerch Rocket Launcher System. It may not be as big a contract as the ones for Apache and Chinook in terms of the financial value, but it is significant all the same. It only establishes that while Russia may not be the major exporter of arms to India any more, it continues to be a serious player in India's defense market."

Notable is that India has not been interested in doing business with countries that are reluctant to participate in the "Make in India" program, evidenced by the fact that expenditure on capital acquisition from foreign vendors as a percentage of such expenditure of the total expenditure on capital acquisition keeps falling year wise. India spent 53% of its total capital expenditure on foreign acquisition in 2013-14, falling to 36% in 2015-16 and is expected to further drop in the current financial year.

Indian Defense Minister Manohar Parrikar asserted that India wants to double its defense exports as soon as possible. Thus, India will leaning towards those countries that would agree to either set up bases in India or are willing for meaningful transfer of technology.

Rumel Dahiya, Deputy Director General of India's topmost defense think tank Institute of Defence Studies and Analysis said, "When it was decided to manufacture BrahMos Missile together [with Russia], it was decided that both the armed forces would acquire some of these missiles and then sell them to a third party. But, what we have seen is that while India started inducting BrahMos in its armed forces, Russia has not started doing so. If Russia inducts BrahMos in its armed forces as well, then there will be greater credibility about the weapon system. The second aspect of this is, there are many countries keen to acquire BrahMos. I think both India and Russia should work together, proactively; to now start identifying whom to sell. I think BrahMos will be very a fine model for joint development of weapon systems and then selling it to third countries as well. This could become a model for other weapon systems which we can jointly develop and Russia can help us greatly with the 'Make in India' project. If Russia comes early then of course we will have a head start ahead of all others. They can become a great partner in India's capacity building."

Amit Cowshis says, "China and Pakistan have limited potential as export markets. As an important player in contemporary international politics it is anxious to regain its past glory and it will not serve Russia's interest to pull out all the stops to align with China, which will benefit more from such an alignment, or with Pakistan, which has a dubious record of spawning extremism all over."

Meanwhile, at a recently held exhibition in Russia, India expressed interest in leasing two Akula class submarines. In the Indian Navy's future projects, Russia is expected to have a crucial role in partnering with Indian Defense companies to build six submarines.

Naval Captain (Dr.) Gurpreet Khurana, Executive Director of the National Maritime Foundation (NMF), said, "The Indian Navy would be much inclined to engage with the highly professional Russian Navy, much beyond the largely symbolic India-Russia biennial 'Indra' series of combined naval exercises. Furthermore, Russia could potentially play a crucial role in maritime security and safety in the Indian Ocean region. This would augur well for the 'inclusive' approach to regional 'net security' and stability involving all stakeholders, a mantra which India and the other regional countries have collectively adopted in regional multilateral institutions like the Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA) and the Indian Ocean Naval Symposium (IONS)."

A Defense Ministry official said on condition of anonymity, "India's new found closeness with the United States is only a perception. The reality is, India was under immense pressure from the US to take a stand against Russia in favor of Ukraine. But, India resisted all such pressure and firmly backed Russia. Also, it is a fact that the US helped India lose out in obtaining a Nuclear Supplier's Group waiver in 2008, but if you go through the records, it is only Russia that has benefited from this waiver, very much to the contention of the United States. India's entry into the Missile Technology Control Regime will also benefit Russia the most."

Experts are of the view that Russian-origin submarines, armored vehicles, missiles, submarines, aircraft, helicopters, aircraft carrier, and other assorted systems constitute the backbone of India's military capability. Going by past experience, these will remain in service for the next several decades. Moreover, of late, Russia has made a conscious effort to regain the confidence of Indian armed forces by providing prompt servicing of equipment. Indian Defense Minister Manohar Parrikar praised this effort of Russia in Parliament recently. Therefore, Russian support in ensuring operational serviceability of the equipment, including repair, refit and upgrades would also be of crucial importance for many more years to come.

 Sputnik

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India Orders Four More Maritime Spy Jets

Sputnik News

18:42 27.07.2016

On the first day of his India visit, U.S. Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition Frank Kendall signed a deal with India for delivery of four more Boeing P-81 long range maritime spy planes.

New Delhi (Sputnik)  India has decided to procure an additional four P-8I long range maritime spy planes from US manufacturer Boeing Co. According to sources in India's Defense Ministry, an agreement for the deal worth about 1 billion dollars has been signed. The aircraft will be inducted into the Indian Navy in the next three years.

Eight Boeing P-81 spy planes are already deployed in the India Ocean, tracking movements of submarines. Some aircraft have been deployed in the remote Andaman and Nicobar islands near the Malacca Straits and two other routes into the Indian Ocean for military purpose as well as commercial shipping. Boeing last year completed the delivery the last of the aircraft under the previous order worth $2.1 billion.

The latest deal is a follow-on purchase was signed during the visit of US Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition Frank Kendall.

The deal is seen as a manifestation of India's attempt to further bolster its naval capability as they are under immense pressure to check the Chinese presence in the Indian Ocean, following China's deployment of a nuclear-powered boat that is reportedly currently docked in Sri Lanka.

 Sputnik

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Minister: Money transfer problem irrelevant to JCPOA

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

Hamedan, July 26, IRNA -- Minister of Defense Brigadier General Hossein Dehqan said on Monday that problems with money transfer have nothing to do with the nuclear deal called Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

Addressing a local gathering, Dehqan said, "Had it not been for JCPOA, every six months, 20 percent of Iranian oil sale was prevented but today those issuing sanctions against us do purchase our oil; of course, we have problems with transfer of money, but this has nothing to do with the JCPOA, rather to Iran's sanctions during capture of the Den of Spies (US Embassy in Tehran)."

He said whatever was accepted in the JCPOA was in accordance with the stances of the Islamic establishment and no one dared to do a covert job.

"Under no circumstances, have we violated the JCPOA and this is what the Supreme Leader has officially announced. The other party might have violated the JCPOA.

Elsewhere in his remarks, Dehqan said Islamic Iran has never been seeking any nuclear arms and has taken no action in this connection.

Dehqan said Iran will not cooperate with the US beyond nuclear issues and the Islamic Republic will not bend to any pressure by hegemonic powers.

Iran will not accept the logic of power and will resist against pressures, Dehqan said.

He noted that the US is desperate and needs Iran's help in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Yemen and the African countries.

The US is ready to give Iran incentives in return for the Islamic Republic's assistance to help it get out of the quagmire Washington is now trapped in, the defense minister added.

Iran is giving advisory help to Syrian people in their fight against enemies, he said.

The official added Iran will not remain indifferent towards those insulting the holy Shia shrines anywhere in the world.

'We will use all our potentials to boost our defensive and missile capabilities,' he added.

Dehqan said that the government has done its best to decrease tensions with other countries in order to resolve internal problems but the US violated its obligations enshrined in the Joint Comprehensive Plan Of Action and is looking for excuses to place more sanctions on Iran.

1420**1771

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Iran will not cooperate with US beyond nuclear issues: Defense minister

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

Hamedan, July 26, IRNA -- Iran will not cooperate with the US beyond nuclear issues, Defense Minister Brigadier General Hossein Dehqan said on Monday.

Speaking in a local ceremony, he noted that the Islamic Republic will not bend towards dominant powers under any type of pressure.

Iran will not accept the logic of power and will resist against pressures, Dehqan said.

He noted that the US is desperate and needs Iran's help in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Yemen and the African countries.

The US is ready to give Iran incentives in return for the Islamic Republic's assistance to help it get out of the quagmire Washington is now trapped in, defense minister added.

Dehqan noted that Iran will not cooperate with the United States beyond the nuclear issues.

Iran is giving advisory help to Syrian people in their fight against enemies, he said.

The official said that Iran will not remain reluctant towards those insulting the holy Shia shrines anywhere in the world.

Iran will use all the potential it possesses to boost its defensive and missile capabilities, he added.

Dehqan said that the government has done its best to decrease tensions with other countries in order to resolve internal problems but the US violated its obligations enshrined in the Joint Comprehensive Plan Of Action and is looking for excuses to place more sanctions on Iran.

9191**2044

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Iraqi FM calls on Arab states to pressure Turkey into recalling troops

Iran Press TV

Mon Jul 25, 2016 9:58PM

Iraqi Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari has called on Arab states to pressure Turkey into withdrawing its forces deployed in Iraq.

"We have called on the Turkish government many times via diplomats to return their forces to Turkey," said Jaafari during the 27th Arab League Summit held in Mauritania's capital Nouakchott on Monday.

He noted that Turkey had vowed to withdraw its troops, but is yet to abide by its promise. He further stressed that Iraq had no need for Turkish troops on its soil.

Last December, Turkey deployed some 150 soldiers, equipped with heavy weapons and backed by 20 to 25 tanks, to the outskirts of Mosul, the capital of Iraq's northern Nineveh province.

Ankara claimed the deployment was part of a mission to train and equip Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga forces in the fight against Daesh terrorists, but Baghdad denounced the unauthorized move as a violation of Iraq's national sovereignty.

"Iraq's policy of good neighborliness and non-interference in the internal affairs of other countries and its commitment to good relations with Turkey does not mean it is prepared to neglect its sovereignty, which is still violated by the Turkish forces," Jaafari said.

In June, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi (seen above) said that Baghdad was harboring serious concerns over Ankara's intended plans for the country's second-largest city of Mosul, adding that any interference in the northern city would result in an extended and bloody war in the region.

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Security Council extends mandate of UN Iraq Mission for one year

25 July 2016  The United Nations Security Council today adopted a resolution extending the mandate of the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) for another year, until 31 July 2017.

In the resolution, the Council also decided that, at the request of the Government of Iraq in particular, the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for eth country, Jan Kubis, and UNAMI will continue to exercise their mandate set out in Council resolution 2233 (2015).

Recognizing that security of UN personnel is essential for UNAMI to carry out its work for the benefit of the people of Iraq, the 15-member body also called on the Government of Iraq to continue to provide security and logistical support to the UN presence in Iraq.

In that vein, the Council welcomed the contributions of Member States in providing UNAMI with the financial, logistical and security resources and support that it needs to fulfil its mission, and called on Member States to continue to provide UNAMI with sufficient resources and support.

Emphasizing the importance of the stability and security of Iraq for the people of Iraq, the region, and the international community, the Council reiterated its "grave concern at the current security situation in Iraq as a result of the continuing presence of and threat by terrorist groups," particularly the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL/Da'esh) and associated armed groups.

The Council also noted that the presence of ISIL on Iraq's sovereign territory is a "major threat" to Iraq's future. In that regard, it underscored that the only way to address the threat is for all Iraqis to work together by addressing needs in the security as well as the political realm.

In addition, the Council strongly emphasized the urgency of addressing humanitarian challenges confronting the Iraqi people. It also emphasized that all parties should take all feasible steps to ensure the protection of affected civilians, including children, women and members of religious and ethnic minority groups, and should create conditions conducive to the voluntary, safe, dignified and sustainable return of refugees and internally displaced persons or local integration of internally displaced persons, particularly in areas newly liberated from ISIL, including up to 90,000 people displaced from Fallujah since May.

The Council also requested Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to report to the Council every three months on the progress made by UNAMI in fulfilling all of its responsibilities.

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Iraqi Army, Peshmerga Forces Prepare Huge Offensive Against Daesh in Mosul

Sputnik News

11:17 26.07.2016

As the Iraqi army and its allied Peshmerga units prepare a major offensive on Mosul to flush out Daesh terrorists, Helgurd Hikmet, a representative of the Regional Government of Kurdistan, discussed the details of the upcoming operation with Sputnik.

An estimated 50,000 Iraqi soldiers, backed by 20,000 Peshmerga fighters, 10,000 Turkmens and members of Sunni tribes will take part in the offensive.

"The Iraqi army and Sunni tribesmen will be spearheading the offensive, with Peshmerga and Turkmen forces bringing up the rear. Coalition air forces will provide air cover. The Peshmerga said they would not enter the center of Mosul arguing because it just won't be right for Kurds to take control of an Arab city," Helgurd Hikmet said.

He added that apart from airstrikes, the US-led coalition would also provide logistical support for the advancing forces.

During their recent meeting in Washington, the foreign ministers of the countries  members of the US-led coalition against Daesh  prioritized the need to liberate Mosul.

Helgurd Hikmet said that the army would need about a year to completely flush out Daesh forces defending the strategic northern city.

"The Peshmerga forces that now control the city's western, northern and eastern suburbs will be advancing towards the city center. The Iraqi army now controls the southern and southeastern suburbs and the outskirts of the town of Makhmour," Hikmet explained, adding that the Iraqi army had recently killed one of the leading Daesh field commanders, Omer ash-Shishani.

He also said that said that Americans didn't like Baghdad's idea of the Shiite militia taking part in the operation to liberate the predominantly Sunni-populated Mosul.

The Shiite fighters, who earlier took part in operations to liberate Fallujah and many other Iraqi cities, are accused of committing atrocities against the Sunni population, further igniting divisions, which could result in a serious interfaith conflict. Another reason why Washington wants the Shiites to stay away is their close links to Iran.

"On the other hand, the Americans welcome the participation of Turkish-trained Turkmen fighters. Turkey, for its part, is against the participation of Shengal self-defense forces of Yazidis and people linked to the Kurdistan Workers Party, which are banned in Turkey," Helgurd Hikmet noted.

"The Iraqi army, Peshmerga and other forces need to iron out their differences before the operation to liberate Mosul actually starts," Hikmet emphasized.

In an interview with Sputnik, Aydin Maruf, the coordinator of the Iraqi Turkmen Front in Erbil and a member of the Kurdish parliament in Iraq, said that an operation to drive Daesh militants out of Mosul's suburbs had already begun.

"What we don't know yet is when exactly the operation to liberate the city itself is going to start. Before this happens all the participating forces need to reach agreement. We, Turkmens, will certainly take part in that operation because there are more than half a million of our people living there and liberating them is a topmost priority for us," Aydin Maruf said.

 Sputnik

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With Lamborghinis and Rooftop Sushi, Why Is Kurdistan Broke?

by Sharon Behn July 26, 2016

A yellow Lamborghini rolled past the Tche Tche cafe, where men and women were lazily smoking sheesha (a syrupy tobacco mix) and drinking tea. Moments later, a large black Land Rover glided by. Looking out from the cafe, glass and concrete towers glinted in the sun. One of them is the five-star Divan Hotel where a rooftop restaurant boasts expensive champagne and sushi.

This is Kurdistan, and the regional government is technically broke.

Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani admits the country is experiencing a serious economic crisis. But he says the causes are largely external.

"In 2014, without any previous consultation, Baghdad cut our budget," Barzani told VOA in a recent interview. Baghdad says it cut the budget because the regional government was selling oil and keeping the profits, and Irbil says it started selling oil to cover its budget needs. The dispute remains unresolved.

"Second, the war with Daesh," Barzani continued, using the local term for Islamic State (IS). "Third, the arrival of 1.5 million refugees and internally displaced persons."

Those events, combined with the drop in the price of oil, have squeezed the KRG and forced it to ask for international help from the World Bank, the IMF and the United States.

$17 billion in the red

The World Bank recently wrote that the effects of the IS conflict has indeed put the Kurdistan Region's infrastructure under severe stress, and more than doubled the poverty rate.

The United States and the United Nations are providing humanitarian assistance for the millions of refugees and displaced families scattered around northern Iraq. Recently the United States gave $415 million to boost the capacity of Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga forces holding the front line against IS.

But analysts say the root causes of Kurdistan's financial hardships run much deeper.

The World Bank notes the KRG is precariously dependent on oil revenues, which are 85 percent of its fiscal revenues, but only accounts for one percent of the region's employment.

The region also has a bloated public sector, a dependency on imports, a weak financial system, a shrinking private sector and a largely cash-only economy.

The Irbil-based Middle East Research Institute in July published a report estimating the Kurdistan Regional Government's debt at around $17 billion, and it has been struggling with its payments to international oil companies (IOCs).

That has forced the companies to re-adjust their investment budgets and others to bring lawsuits against the KRG.

According to MERI, the London Court of International Arbitration ruled that the KRG should pay $2 billion to the Dana Gas consortium. Crescent Petroleum and Dana Gas PJSC are suing the KRG for an additional $11 billion, essentially the region's budget for a year.

"Negative developments in the relations between the KRG and IOCs can lead to major disinvestment that can hit current oil production and future projects on gas exploitation, and erode confidence of potential foreign investors in other sectors," MERI warned in its report.

Signs of economic distress are everywhere: unfinished buildings topped by un-moving cranes, empty apartments, falling real estate prices, power cuts, water shortages, and unpaid salaries.

Short-lived prosperity

So, who owns the luxury cars and can afford a $250 dinner of champagne and sushi at the Divan hotel?

Dara Khailany, advisor to the KRG, explained that following the liberation of Iraq from Saddam Hussein in 2003, a lot of oil money flowed into the region, and Kurdistan enjoyed a decade of prosperity and growth.

Unfortunately, Khailany said, while many entrepreneurs took advantage of the money coming in, there was little knowledge on how to manage the capital inflows in order to diversify the economy, invest in sustainable development, finance needed infrastructure projects or build a robust banking sector.

Instead, those with money started building gated communities, high rises, hotels, and buying high-end car dealerships. They developed lavish life styles and kept their money out of mistrusted local banks.

"I always compare this to a family winning the lottery and not being able to build up a long-term plan, and after 15 or 30 years the family runs out of funds from the lottery and everybody is accustomed to the money, but there is no more money coming in," Khailany told VOA.

"This is similar to what is going on right now," he said.

Political nepotism and weak governance led to corruption, according to the Norway-based U4 Anti-corruption Resource Center, further ensuring that resources were not properly invested.

'Subsidies for consumption'

According to MERI, KRG senior economic advisor James Parks has argued one of the main structural problems in the economy is "the extent to which the KRG spends oil rents, not for investment, but for consumption".

Parks states the level of KRG "subsidies for consumption" through salary payments and electricity subsidies are "the largest numbers you would find anywhere," around $10 billion a year or 40 percent of the Kurdistan Region's GDP.

The public sector now employs 51 percent of the labor force.

Frank Gunter, economics professor at Lehigh University, said in April the economic situation in Kurdistan is not likely to change soon, and could get worse as more youth start looking for jobs.

The KRG leadership has said it is committed to righting the fiscal and economic imbalances and spurring private sector activities.

Even without the challenges of hosting millions of displaced people and fighting one of the world's most lethal terrorist organizations, such a restructuring would require tremendous political will and agility.

But analysts agree, the effort will have to be made if the Kurdistan Region of Iraq wants to avoid an economic meltdown.

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Despite Warnings, Japanese Sub Visits Ex-US Navy Base in Philippines

Sputnik News

02:17 26.07.2016(updated 02:18 26.07.2016)

Amid ongoing tensions in the South China Sea, a Japanese submarine has traveled to a former US naval base located on the edge of China's territorial claim.

On Sunday, Beijing warned Tokyo against meddling in the South China Sea conflict, where the Hague-based Court of Arbitration recently ruled against China's nine-dash line territorial claims.

"Japan is not a party to the South China Sea issue, and considering its shameful history, it has no rights whatsoever to accuse China on the matter," said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lu Kang, according to Xinhua news agency.

This did not, however, prevent a Japanese submarine from visiting a former US naval base in Subic Bay, in the Philippines. The vessel, one of the Japanese navy's newest and largest, was escorted by two Japanese destroyers.

The development comes one day before the annual Balikatan military exercise, to be conducted by the Philippines, Japan, the United States, and Australia over the next 12 days.

While Beijing has not yet commented on submarine's arrival in the South China Sea, Tokyo insists that its presence is not aimed at any country.

"We don't have any message to any country," said Captain Hiraoki Yoshino of Japan's Maritime Defense Force, according to the China Daily.

The United States and its Pacific allies object to China's construction of artificial islands in the Spratly and Paracel archipelagos, accusing Beijing of attempting to establish an air defense zone. Beijing maintains that it has every right to build within its own territory and that its islands will be used primarily for civilian purposes.

Nevertheless, Washington has pushed regional allies to play a more active role in countering China's growth. Last year's Balikatan was similarly seen as a way to provoke Beijing.

 Sputnik

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A beer company which uses the lake to dispose of wastewater has been asked to put a ban on fish farming.

The Department of Natural Resources and Environment in the central province of Thanh Hoa has concluded that polluted wastewater from a beer company, among other reasons, has caused the deaths of hundreds of kilograms of farm-raised fish on the companys Mat Son wastewater lake.

Thanh Hoa Beer Joint Stock Company was authorized to use the lake in Thanh Hoa City to discharge treated wastewater.

In the middle of July, about half of a ton of fish raised by locals on farms on Mat Son were found dead.

The department said that the quality of water in the lake is not suitable for raising fish as it is yellow, sparkling and smelly and asked the company to ensure that its wastewater meets permitted environmental standards.

Besides, the density of the fish farms on the lake combined with hot weather and a large amount of mud on the lake bed had led to the deaths of the fish.

Part of the reason is because Thanh Hoa Beer Joint Stock Company has not managed the lake well and allowed locals to raise fish in it, the department said in its conclusion.

The department has asked Thanh Hoa Beer Joint Stock Company to dredge the lake to increase the water containing capacity of it. The company has also been directed to put a ban on fish farming on the lake as well as build a fence around it to prevent locals from discharging their wastewater into the lake.

In May, Hoa Binh Sugarcane and Sugar JSC in the northern province of Hoa Binh was fined $21,470 for polluting the Buoi River, causing mass fish deaths in Thanh Hoa's Thach Thanh District.

Related news:

> Thanh Hoa authorities confirm pollution as cause of mass fish deaths

> River pollution continues to plague Thanh Hoa's fish farmers

> Sugar factory fined $21,500 for pollution, mass fish deaths in Thanh Hoa river
Korea No Closer to Peace on Armistice Anniversary

by Brian Padden July 27, 2016

On the 63rd anniversary of the end of the Korean War, lasting peace remains elusive as regional tensions have increased and relations between Seoul and Pyongyang have regressed over the North's nuclear program.

On Wednesday, the South accused the North of floating bags of propaganda messages down river into Seoul. The leaflets contained threats to launch missile attacks and longstanding propaganda that the North won the Korean War.

The Korean Peninsula was divided into the Soviet-backed communist North and the American allied South after it was liberated from Japanese colonial rule at the end of World War II.

The Korean War, which began in 1950, escalated to include an American led United Nations coalition to defend the South against an attempted invasion by the North, and Chinese forces fighting in support of their communist ally.Approximately five million soldiers and civilians died in what became a war of attrition that never technically ended. On July 27, 1953 the warring parties signed an armistice to end hostilities, but never signed a peace treaty.

The fragile peace continues to hold today but North Korea's recent nuclear and ballistic missile tests have made the situation more volatile.

ASEAN security meeting

North Korea's Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho on Tuesday said that the possibility of further nuclear tests depends on the Untied States.

Speaking on the sidelines of an Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) meeting in Laos, Ri said North Korea was a responsible nuclear state and would not use its atomic arms unless threatened.

The North Korean foreign minister also said his country has proposed peace talks many times but the South Korean government has refused to engage.

South Korea's Unification Ministry Spokeswoman Park Soo-jin on Wednesday reiterated the position of both Seoul and Washington that Pyongyang must first halt its nuclear program before any talks to reduce tensions and end sanctions can occur.

"I would like to tell you that the goal of our policy on North Korea is peaceful reunification of the Korean peninsula. For peaceful reunification, the priority task is for North Korea to make changes related to denuclearization," Park said.

In March, the United Nations imposed harsh new international sanctions on Pyongyang for again violating Security Council resolutions banning North Korea from developing nuclear and ballistic missile weapons.

South Korea also closed the jointly run Kaesong Industrial Complex, which employed over 54,000 North Koreans.The Kaesong project was the last remaining cooperative program developed to build trust between the two Koreas.

THAAD divides

Both Beijing and Moscow pledged to support the sanctions, but new strains over the deployment of an American missile defense system in South Korea could weaken their resolve.

China and Russia continue to voice strong opposition to the U.S. Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system to be deployed in South Korea, saying its purpose is to increase U.S. military power in the region and that the system's powerful radar will be used to monitor their military installations.

China's relations with North Korea have been strained by Pyongyang's nuclear provocations but in a sign of warming ties, the North Korean foreign minister met with his counterpart Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi at the ASEAN security meeting in Laos.

Under President Park Geun-hye, South Korea has worked to improve diplomatic and economic ties with China.

But Park's decision to side with Washington to deploy THAAD, over the objections of Beijing, may have pushed the limits of that relationship.

"It was a valuable lesson for South Korea and China to a certain extent [to gauge] how much progress is actually possible by mutual cooperation and effort," said North Korea analyst Bong Young-shik, with the Asan Institute for Policy Studies in Seoul.

Abduction threats

South Korea also warned its citizens in China and Southeast Asia this week of the risk of "dangerous acts" by North Korea.

The warning came after South Korean media said the North had sent teams of agents to those places to harm or abduct South Koreans in retaliation for the South's granting of asylum to workers from a restaurant run by the North in China.

Youmi Kim in Seoul contributed to this report.

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Report: Russia's FSB Searches Office Of Top Customs Official

July 26, 2016

The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) has reportedly searched the office of the top customs official and the home of his former adviser in what would mark the second high-profile security services action against another government agency in a week.

The Novaya Gazeta newspaper reported that the FSB searched the office of Andrei Belyaninov, head of the Federal Customs Agency, and the home of Sergei Lobanov, now a businessman, the morning of July 26.

The operation was part of an investigation into alcohol smuggling, which led to the arrest of three businessmen in St. Petersburg in March, the newspaper said.

The Interfax news agency cited a source saying that investigators have seized documents from the headquarters of the Federal Customs Agency in Moscow.

The searches may indicate mounting tensions between government agencies.

On July 19, the FSB arrested three powerful Moscow investigators over allegations which included taking bribes from a crime syndicate.

Source: http://www.rferl.org/content/russia-fsb-search -customs-official-belyaninov/27881141.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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Russian Officials Search Home Of Customs Chief In Smuggling Probe

July 26, 2016

by RFE/RL

Russian investigators said on July 26 that they have searched the office and home of the country's top customs official in connection with a smuggling case, the second high-profile security services action against another government agency in a week.

The federal Investigative Committee said in a July 26 statement that its agents searched the office and home of Andrei Belyaninov, head of the Federal Customs Agency, and the home of his former adviser, businessman Sergei Lobanov, earlier in the day.

The committee, Russia's analogue to the U.S. FBI, said the searches were conducted in connection with a criminal case involving alcohol smuggling that led to the arrest of three businessmen in St. Petersburg in March.

The action suggests that behind-the-scenes tensions may be mounting between some Russian government agencies, which have regularly been locked in fierce competition for resources and turf since President Vladimir Putin's rise to power 16 years ago.

Many of these clashes are assiduously shielded from the populace, though they have occasionally boiled over into public view with arrests of officials by rival agencies.

Gazeta.ru on July 26 published photographs taken during the search of Belyaninov's home, one of which showed the customs chief standing next to a table covered with stacks of cash that the popular news portal said were discovered in shoeboxes at the residence.

The state-run TASS news agency cited an unidentified source as saying that investigators found various currencies totaling some $850,000 at Belyaninov's home. The Kremlin-friendly television network Ren-TV cited an anonymous source as saying that the customs chief explained that the cash is his family's savings.

Several Russian media outlets reported that agents from the Federal Security Service (FSB), the country's main domestic security agency, also took part in the searches.

The Russian customs sector has long been rife with corruption, with officials controlling the lucrative passage of goods across the border.

There was no immediate statement from investigators indicating that Belyaninov, who has served as head of the Federal Customs Agency since 2006, is facing charges.

Several Russian media outlets cited unidentified sources as saying that he had tendered his resignation several months ago.

Neither the customs agency nor Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed reports that Belyaninov had earlier offered to step down.

"I don't know," Peskov told reporters when asked on July 26.

The search of Belyaninov's home and office comes a week after the FSB arrested three powerful Investigative Committee officials over allegations that included taking bribes from a crime syndicate.

With reporting by Gazeta.ru, RBK, Kommersant, Dozhd, TASS, and Interfax

Source: http://www.rferl.org/content/customs-chief- home-searched-russia/27883046.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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Russia's 6th Yasen-Class Nuclear Submarine to Be Laid Down on July 29 - Source

Sputnik News

14:08 26.07.2016

Russia's sixth Yasen-class submarine will be laid down at the Sevmash ship-building company in the city of Severodvinsk on July 29, a defense industry source told RIA Novosti on Tuesday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik)  The Russian Navy currently possesses one Yasen-class submarine, the Severodvinsk, with four more vessels of this class under construction and two, including the Perm, yet to be laid down.

"The submarine will be called 'Perm.' The laying down of the vessel is timed to take place close to the Navy Day, celebrated on July 31," the source said.

A total of six updated Yasen-class submarines are due to join the Russian Navy by 2020.

The Severodvinsk vessel has a submerged displacement of 13,800 tons, a length of some 390 feet, can travel at speeds up to 31 knots, and can dive to depths of almost 2,000 feet. The submarine is armed with naval mines, the Oniks and Kalibr anti-ship missiles and a range of torpedoes.

According to Russia's Naval Doctrine, the Yasen-class submarines will become the main multipurpose nuclear-powered subs in the Russian Navy.

 Sputnik

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BTR-82A Armored Vehicles First Used During Russian Drills in Tajikistan

Sputnik News

08:55 26.07.2016(updated 12:33 26.07.2016)

Russian troops used the BTR-82A armored personnel carriers for the first time during drills in Tajikistan, an aid to the commander of Russia's Central Military District said Tuesday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik)  There is a number of significant differences between the new BTR-82A and their predecessors, the commander noted. The armored vehicles' firepower has been increased due to a 30-mm aircraft cannon being installed, while high angle barrel lifting allows for a more efficient attacks in mountainous areas.

"Soldiers stationed in Tajikistan as part of the 201st Military Base used the new BTR-82A for the first time during maneuvers in the foothills of the Eastern Pamirs," Col. Yaroslav Roschupkin told reporters.

The motorized infantry troops managed to strike targets at a distance of 1.2 kilometers (0.75 miles) and 1.7 kilometers on complex terrain, Roschupkin added.

 Sputnik

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UK Supplied $4Bln Worth of Arms to Saudi Arabia in 1st Year of Yemen Conflict

Sputnik News

17:51 27.07.2016

London sold arms for over than 3 billion pounds ($3.9 billion) worth to Saudi Arabia during the first year of the Yemeni conflict, according to local media.

MOSCOW (Sputnik)  The United Kingdom sold over 3 billion pounds ($3.9 billion) worth of weapons to Saudi Arabia during the first year of the Saudi-led intervention in the Yemeni conflict, UK media reported Wednesday.

Contracts worth 2.2 billion pounds for the supply of various manned aircraft and drones to Saudi Arabia were signed by the UK government between April 2015 and March 2016, and a further 1.1 billion pounds worth of bombs, missiles and other explosives and 430,000 pounds worth of armored vehicles and tanks were supplied in the same period, the Independent newspaper reported.

Yemen has been engulfed in a military conflict between the Aden-based government with the Saudi-led coalition backing on one side and Houthi rebels allied with the General People's Congress (GPC) and army units loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh on the other, for over a year. The coalition has been accused by the United Nations and humanitarian organizations of indiscriminately bombing civilians and killing hundreds of children.

The UK government has repeatedly been blamed by humanitarian organizations, including Oxfam and Amnesty International, for fueling the Yemeni conflict by supplying Saudi Arabia with arms. The United Kingdom was also accused of supplying Saudi Arabia with cluster bombs, which are explosive weapons containing large numbers of smaller sub-munitions and prohibited by the 2008 Convention on Cluster Munitions.

The accusations have been denied by the government, with former Foreign Secretary Philipp Hammond stating that Saudi Arabia was complying with international human rights laws in Yemen.

 Sputnik

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Syrian forces take control of key road in Aleppo

Iran Press TV

Tue Jul 26, 2016 2:59PM

The Syrian army and its allied fighters have managed to wrest control of Castello Road, the only path into the militant-controlled eastern areas of the embattled city of Aleppo.

Lebanon's al-Manar TV channel reported the advance by the Syrian troops on Tuesday, adding that they also took control of a number of positions in Aleppo's Layramoun district, located on the northwestern outskirts of Aleppo.

Meanwhile, the so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said that Syrian forces established full control over Layramoun after heavy clashes, and reported fighting for neighboring Bani Zeid district, which is also held by Takfiri terrorists.

The two neighborhoods have been used by militants to launch rockets into government-held areas in western parts of Aleppo.

SOHR director Rami Abdel Rahman said that the Syrian forces had now surrounded Bani Zeid.

In another development on Tuesday, Syria's official news agency, SANA, reported that the army had sent text messages to residents and militants in eastern Aleppo, saying it will grant safe passage to people wishing to leave the area.

The Syrian military further urged the extremists to lay down their weapons and called on eastern Aleppo residents to "join the national reconciliation and expel the foreign mercenaries" from their neighborhoods.

Also on Tuesday, the Syrian armed forces liberated more than a dozen people, who were held by al-Nusra front terrorist group in the town of Saida in the southwestern province of Dara'a.

An unidentified source told SANA that the 14 were set free in an operation, adding that all of those rescued are in good health.

Syria has been gripped by foreign-sponsored militancy since March 2011. UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura estimates that over 400,000 people have been killed in the Syrian conflict. The UN has stopped its official casualty count in the Middle Eastern state, citing its inability to verify the figures it receives from various sources.

The Takfiri terrorists operating in the Arab country have suffered major setbacks over the past few months as the Syrian army has managed to liberate a number of areas from the grip of the extremists.

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Syria army continues gains countrywide

Iran Press TV

Tue Jul 26, 2016 6:1AM

Syrian military forces continue to reclaim areas throughout the country from Takfiri and foreign-backed terrorists.

The Syrian army was reported on Monday to have wrested control of three positions operated by the al-Nusra Front, the Syrian branch of al-Qaeda, in the western Hama Province.

The positions lie in the course leading to an oilfield in the province's al-Salamiyah district, which the troops plan to retake from Daesh, another Takfiri terrorist group.

In the eastern province of Dayr al-Zawr, the military inflicted heavy casualties on Daesh during clashes in one of the villages near the provincial capital of the same name.

Also, the army retook a number of residential areas and a factory from foreign-backed militants in the northern province of Aleppo.

The al-Nusra Front, meanwhile, said it had executed 14 Syrian forces, one of whom was from the Druz religious minority, in the mountainous Qalamun area near the border with Lebanon.

The group said it had carried out the killings in response to the army's refusal to withdraw from a village in a Damascus countryside.

Syria has been gripped by foreign-sponsored militancy since March 2011.

According to United Nations Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura, over 400,000 people have been killed in the Syrian conflict. The UN has stopped its official casualty count in the Middle Eastern state, citing its inability to verify the figures it receives from various sources.

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Moscow Says Imposing External Solutions on Syrians Unacceptable

Sputnik News

21:43 27.07.2016(updated 21:54 27.07.2016)

The Russian side stressed the importance of the expedient resumption of intra-Syrian talks without any preconditions, according to official statement the Russian Foreign Ministry.

MOSCOW (Sputnik)  Moscow is strictly against any preconditions on resumption of intra-Syrian talks as well as any attempts to impose external recipes on Syrians for conflict resolution, the Russian Foreign Ministry said Wednesday following Russia-US-UN talks on Syria in Geneva.

Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov represented Russia at the talks, which were held on July 26-27.

"The Russian side stressed the importance of the expedient resumption of intra-Syrian talks without any preconditions," the ministry said in a statement.

"Moscow reiterated that any attempts to set artificial preliminary conditions for the start of the talks or to impose external solutions for Syrian conflict are unacceptable," the ministry said, adding that only Syrians should iron out parameters of Syrian statehood through direct all-inclusive dialogue.

 Sputnik

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Syrian Army Kills Senior Nusra Front Commander During Clashes

Sputnik News

14:57 27.07.2016

Syrian army forces killed a field commander of the Nusra Front militant group in al-Rastan in Northern Homs, according to local media.

MOSCOW(Sputnik)  A senior commander of the Nusra Front militant group was killed in clashes with Syrian government forces in the northern province of Homs, media reported Wednesday.

"Syrian soldiers stormed al-Nusra Front's strongholds in al-Rastan in Northern Homs, killing Amin Sameer al-Ruz aka Abu Malik, a field commander of the group and eight more militants," the Fars News agency reported, citing its own sources.

In addition, the Syrian Air Force bombed Daesh positions in Homs, claiming the lives of several militants and destroying a number of their vehicles, equipped with machine guns as well as rocket launchers, according to the sources.

Syria has been mired in civil war since 2011, with government forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad fighting numerous opposition factions. Apart from fighting against armed opposition groups, Damascus has had to counter the advance of various militant groups, including the notorious Daesh and the Nusra Front, an al-Qaeda affiliate in Syria, both of which are outlawed in Russia.

 Sputnik

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The gold bars were hidden under a seat on the airplane.

A Vietnamese flight attendant and a man accompanying her have been arrested in Vietnams Noi Bai International Airport while trying to illegally carry more than 3 kg of gold to South Korea.

Flight attendant Hoang Thi Ngoc Anh, 34, and Nguyen Ngoc Sang, 30, passed the security check points with the four gold bars unnoticed. They then hid them under a seat in a flight from Noi Bai to South Koreas Incheon International Airport late July 26, the Vietnamese government portal reported Wednesday.

It is not immediately clear, however, which airline Anh works for.

The two suspects told police they did not declare the gold bars to customs officials and planned to sell the bars in South Korea where prices are higher than in Vietnam.

South Korea media last year reported that a Vietnamese pilot and a flight attendant were arrested in March for smuggling 6 kg of gold when entering Gimhae International Airport in Busan City in South Korea.

The duo claimed they were paid $250 per kg of gold if they successfully carried the gold to South Korea.

Related news:

> 73-year-old woman faces death penalty for drug smuggling
More than 40 Killed in IS Truck Bomb Attack in Syria

by Edward Yeranian, Sirwan Kajjo July 27, 2016

More than 40 people have been killed and dozens of others wounded in the northeastern Syrian city of Qamishli after a massive suicide truck bombing claimed by Islamic State.

A reporter for VOA's Kurdish service, Zana Omar, was among those injured in the blast near the Turkish border. "The bombing happened around 50 meters away from my apartment," he told VOA. "My wife, two children and I were wounded in the attack. My home is entirely destroyed."

He also said that some of his relatives in the neighborhood have disappeared after the bombing and that they "are perhaps buried under in the rubble."

Rami Abdel Rahman of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights told Arab media the truck bomb demolished the facade of the headquarters of the Kurdish militia which controls the western part of Qamishli. The Syrian government controls another chunk of the city, including an outlying air base.

The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack through a statement published on its Aamaq news agency website, saying that it was targeting Kurdish security forces.

IS has been battling the U.S.-supported Kurdish militia, the Syrian Democratic Forces, over control of large swathes of territory in the north of Syria, including the town of Manbij, north of Aleppo.

Kurdish officials said that IS defeats elsewhere in the country have forced the group to resort to other means to remain relevant in the conflict. "As Daesh [IS] is facing setbacks and defeats imposed by the Syrian Democratic Forces, it has nothing left but to carry out dirty terrorist operations against civilians in our areas," said Jowan Ibrahim, the head of the local Kurdish security agency, known as Asayish, in a video statement posted on his group's Facebook page soon after the Wednesday attack.

Nadim Shehadi of the Fares Center for Eastern Mediterranean Studies at Tufts University's Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy says that the attacks in Qamishli are not surprising, since the Kurdish forces are "laying siege to Manbij," and that this and other IS attacks are "part of that battle."

IS has carried out numerous suicide attacks in the region and across both Syria and Iraq in recent months.

A suicide blast killed six members of the Kurdish internal security force, known as the Asayish, in April. In July, an IS suicide bomber killed at least 16 people in Hasaka.

VOA's Kurdish service contributed to this report

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Top US General: Turkish Media Report 'Absurd'

by Carla Babb July 25, 2016

The top U.S. military general has denounced a report by a Turkish daily alleging that a former U.S. commander had organized the failed military coup in Turkey, calling the article "absurd."

The article by conservative Turkish daily Yeni Safak cites unnamed sources associated with pro-coup detainees and claims former four-star Army General John Campbell, who led NATO forces in Afghanistan before retiring earlier this year, made secret trips to Turkey and managed billions of dollars to distribute to pro-coup military personnel in Turkey.

"That's an absurd report that General Campbell would be involved in something like that," General Joe Dunford, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters Monday at the Pentagon.

The U.S. Army issued a statement Monday saying the retired general "categorically rejects the irresponsible assertions in the Turkish press of involvement in the recent political activities in Turkey."

"There is no truth to the assertions," the statement added.

Colonel Patrick Seiber, a defense official who spoke with Campbell earlier Monday, told VOA the general had not visited Turkey in his retirement and supports the U.S. government's position on Turkey.

Turkey-US relations

Turkey, which borders Syria and Iraq, is an important ally in the fight against the Islamic State group. The NATO ally's Incirlik Air Base houses U.S. refueling and attack aircraft used in the counter-IS campaign. More than 3,000 U.S. personnel are based in the country, as well.

Commercial power returned Friday to Incirlik after operating on backup generator power since July 16, according to U.S. European Command.

Dunford said his Turkish military counterpart had reached out to him twice in the past week to assure that Turkey is still committed to the counter-IS fight and to the broader U.S.-Turkey partnership.

Secretary of Defense Ash Carter, who spoke with his Turkish counterpart by phone last week, said Turkish Defense Minister Fikri Isik confirmed that his country's commitments to combating IS would "proceed unabated."

The denounced report comes amid accusations by Turkish authorities that U.S.-based cleric and self-exiled opposition leader Fethullah Gulen was behind the attempted takeover of power.

Last week, Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said Turkey gave the U.S. government evidence of Gulen's involvement in the failed coup. White House spokesman Josh Earnest said the U.S. is reviewing documents presented by Turkey, which is demanding Gulen's extradition.

Gulen, who resides in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania, has denied any involvement in the military coup.

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Turkish generals nabbed in Dubai

Iran Press TV

Tue Jul 26, 2016 9:40AM

Two Turkish generals, detained in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) while away from their posts in Afghanistan, have now been returned to Turkey.

The generals, detained by Emirati authorities in connection with Turkey's abortive coup, have been identified as Major General Cahit Bakir, who commanded Turkish forces under NATO command in Afghanistan, and Brigadier General Sener Topuc, responsible for education and aid there.

The arrests are widely believed to be linked to Turkey's sweeping crackdown against people deemed involved in the July 25 putsch.

The botched coup began when a faction of the Turkish military declared that it was in control of the country and that the government was no more in charge. Tanks, helicopters, and soldiers then clashed with police and people on the streets of the capital, Ankara, and Istanbul.

A total of 290 people were killed in the attempted coup d'etat, which was harshly suppressed. More than 13,000 people have been detained ever since.

Also on Tuesday, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan repeated his government's intention to reintroduce the death penalty, which the country annulled in 2004 as part of a raft of measures to qualify for joining the European Union (EU).

Europe 'not honest' with Turkey

Erdogan, who was being interviewed by German public broadcaster ARD, also accused European states of lax commitment to their arrangements with Turkey.

He was talking about an EU-Turkey deal sealed in March under which Ankara agreed to take back all the asylum seekers and refugees reaching Europe via Turkey in return for financial aid, visa liberalization and the acceleration of Turkey's EU membership negotiations.

"The [European] governments are not honest," Erdogan said, adding that the EU had promised USD three billion (EUR 2.7 billion) under the deal but so far only paid a nominal USD one to two million.

"Three million Syrians, or people from Iraq, are now in Turkey," he said. "The EU has not kept its promises on the matter."

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Ankara to work with opposition on new constitution: Turkey PM

Iran Press TV

Tue Jul 26, 2016 2:11AM

Turkish Prime Minster Binali Yildirim says his government is ready to work with opposition parties on drafting a new constitution.

Yildirim made the announcement on Monday, following a meeting between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and two opposition leaders.

Earlier in the day, Erdogan met with Republican People's Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu and the head of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), Devlet Bahceli.

"All the main parties are ready to start work on a new constitution," said Yildirim, adding that the first steps would be slight amendment to the current constitution in relation to the recent failed coup.

"There will be a small change to remove obstacles from the constitution and the work is underway to do this," he said.

The head of the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), Selahattin Demirtas, was not present at the meeting, but Yildirim said that the HDP would also be part of talks on the new constitution.

Erdogan has on various occasions hinted that the death penalty may be reintroduced in Turkey to allow the execution of those involved in the coup bid.

The putsch began overnight on July 15, when rebel soldiers declared they were in control of the country and the Ankara administration was no more in charge. Tanks, helicopters and soldiers then clashed with police and people on the streets of the capital and Istanbul.

The coup was gradually suppressed by military forces and people loyal to Erdogan. More than 300 people were killed from both sides, many of them on July 16.

What do the people want?

Meanwhile, Erdogan said that the people of Turkey want the death penalty restored, despite multiple calls by EU officials that such a move would halt the country's EU accession.

"What do the (Turkish) people say today?" asked the Turkish president during an interview with German television station ARD.

"They want the death penalty reintroduced. And we as the government must listen to what the people say. We can't say 'no, that doesn't interest us,'" he added.

The Death penalty was annulled in Turkey in 2004 under reforms aimed at joining the European Union.

Earlier, EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker (seen below) said that any accession talks with Turkey would be halted if Ankara restored the death penalty.

"I believe that Turkey, in its current state, is not in a position to become a member any time soon and not even over a longer period," he said during a TV broadcast.

Last week, EU foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, Austria's Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel all stressed that Turkey would be barred from joining the bloc if it reintroduces the death penalty.

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Turkey 'Heartbroken' by US Reaction Toward Request to Extradite Gulen

Sputnik News

23:06 26.07.2016

Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said that Turkey is "heartbroken" by the way in which the United States treat the issue of the extradition of Turkish Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, who Ankara suspects to be the mastermind behind the recent coup attempt.

MOSCOW (Sputnik)  Turkey is "heartbroken" by the way in which the United States treat the issue of the extradition of Turkish Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, who Ankara suspects to be the mastermind behind the recent coup attempt, Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said in an interview published Tuesday.

"The evidence is crystal clear. We know the terrorist cult responsible for vicious attacks against us and the Turkish people," Yildirim told The Wall Street Journal. "We are heartbroken at the way that the U.S. has treated this matter. We simply can not understand why the U.S. just can't hand over this individual."

On July 22, US President Barack Obama said that Ankara needed to present evidence that Gulen was involved in the recent coup attempt in Turkey before the United States could begin the extradition process.

"America keeps asking us for documents and documents. What documents do you need, when 265 people have been killed, bombed from jets and run over by tanks? The evidence is clear. We have testimony by suspected members of the coup that they took orders from this person," Yildirim added.

On July 15, the coup attempt took place in Turkey and was suppressed the following day. The Turkish government has accused US-based dissident Gulen and his followers of having played a key role in the coup. Gulen condemned the coup attempt and denied any involvement in it.

On July 17, Gulen said he was not afraid of the extradition to Turkey, which Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan requested.

 Sputnik

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Show Me the Money: Erdogan Slams 'Dishonest' EU as Turkey Tensions Rise

Sputnik News

15:18 26.07.2016

Turkey has hit back at the EU over its reaction to the country's failed military coup, with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan calling on Brussels to pay up the money pledged as part of the EU-Turkey migration deal, in a sign of further tension between Ankara and the West.

In a critique of EU governments, Erdogan said Turkey had not received all of the US$3.3 billion (3bn) in aid pledged to Ankara as part of the EU-Turkey migrant deal, aimed at stopping the flow of refugees into Europe and assisting Turkish officials in the housing of around refugees currently residing in the country.

"Ask them [the EU]. Did you pay? But Turkey still hosts 3 million people. What would Europe do if we let these people go to Europe?" Erdogan told German broadcaster ARD.

"The [European] governments are not honest," he added in a sign of further deteriorating relations between the two.

Erdogan claimed that housing and assisting 3 million refugees from Syria and Iraq had cost the country around US$11 billion (10bn).

Turkey Warns Against 'Threatening Statements'

The rebuke came in response to comments made by European Commission President Jean Claude Juncker, who raised concern over the Turkish government's actions following the failed military coup, saying any reintroduction of the death penalty would scupper EU membership talks.

"I believe that Turkey, in its current state, is not in a position to become a member any time soon and not even over a longer period," Juncker told French television France 2.

This then led to further criticism from Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, who warned Brussels to stop making "threatening statements" about derailing Turkey's EU accession.

There is also disagreement over the issue of visa-free travel for Turks in the EU, which was originally included as part of the EU-Turkey migrant deal.

While Turkey had demanded travel restrictions be eased by the summer, EU officials say Turkey still needs to a meet a number of measures before the changes are implemented.

In reference to the issue of visa-free travel for Turks, Erdogan once again hinted that he believed EU governments were not honoring their commitments.

"I want to say one thing quite clearly: On the refugee issue, we will stand behind our promises," he said.

"We have kept our promise, but did the Europeans do so too?"

Concerns Over Migrant Deal

The latest spike in tension between Turkey and EU comes amid Turkey's hard-line response to the country's failed coup, which has seen thousands of teachers, judges, prosecutors, military and other civil servants either sacked or arrested.

A number of arrest warrants have been issued for journalists, while some employees of state-owned companies have also been dismissed, in moves considered to be unnecessarily harsh by many western officials.

The tension has once again raised concerns about the future of the EU-Turkey refugee deal  considered to be crucial to halting the flow of masses of migrants into Europe  with many fearing its collapse could trigger further anti-immigrant sentiment across the continent.

 Sputnik

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Turkish President Erdogan Strives for One-Man Rule - Gulen

Sputnik News

07:38 26.07.2016

US-based dissident Fethullah Gulen, whom the Turkish government has accused of orchestrating the botched coup, said that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is becoming increasingly authoritarian.

MOSCOW (Sputnik)  On July 15, a coup attempt took place in Turkey and was suppressed the following day. The government has blamed Gulen and his followers of having played a key role in it. Over 240 people were killed and more than 2,000 injured during the failed coup excluding the victims among the plotters, according to the country's authorities.

"Despite my unequivocal protest, similar to statements issued by all three of the major opposition parties, Turkey's increasingly authoritarian president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, immediately accused me of orchestrating the putsch Mr. Erdogan's accusation is no surprise for what it reveals about his systematic and dangerous drive toward one-man rule," he wrote in an opinion piece published in the New York times magazine Monday.

The dissident also said that Turkish president is blackmailing the United States with curbing the support for the anti-terrorist coalition in Iraq and Syria in order to ensure his "extradition, despite a lack of credible evidence and virtually no prospect for a fair trial."

The Fethullahist Terrorist Organization (FETO)/Parallel State Structure (PDY), made up of Gulen's supporters, is designated as a terrorist organization by Ankara. In 2014, Turkey opened an investigation into the organization's alleged efforts to overthrow the government.

Gulen is wanted on charges including treason, although he denies any wrongdoing.

 Sputnik

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New Turkish Constitution in Development, Opposition Agreed - Prime Minister

Sputnik News

04:18 26.07.2016

New Turkish constitution is underway, the works on the draft has begun, country's Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said.

MOSCOW (Sputnik)  On Monday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan held a meeting with chairman of the Republican People's Party (CHP) Kemal Kilicdaroglu and leader of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) Devlet Bahceli with Yildirim, who is the head of the governing Justice and Development Party (AKP), also taking part in the meeting.

"We [leaders of three parties] have agreed to make minor changes to the current constitution, and the process to draft a whole new constitution has started," Yildirim said Monday, as quoted by Daily Sabah newspaper, speaking after the meeting of Council of Ministers.

Selahattin Demirtas, co-chair of the opposition Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), condemned the party's exclusion from the meeting.

On July 15, a coup attempt took place in Turkey and was suppressed the following day. The Turkish government has accused US-based dissident Fethullah Gulen and his followers of having played a key role in the coup.

Over 240 people were killed and more than 2,000 injured during the failed coup excluding the victims among the plotters, according to the country's authorities.

 Sputnik

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Foreign, Domestic Media Under Fire in Turkey

by Dorian Jones July 26, 2016

The Turkish government has turned its attention to journalists in the latest expansion of its purges after a failed coup July 15.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's chief of international relations, Ayse Sozen Usluer, has released a file of foreign news coverage, indicating what she says is support of  or failure to oppose  the uprising.

Usluer says much of the foreign media failed the democracy test.

"Some coverage in the media is shameful  disgraceful, actually," she said. "It seems they can't leave the politics aside and condemn the coup openly. The international press have shown an anti-Erdogan attitude in this matter."

As evidence, she quoted "some of the headlines you may find after a quick scan in the international media," including "Erdogan gained power, democracy weakened," "Coup is gift to Erdogan" and "Erdogan more powerful after the failed coup."

U.S.-based Fox News featured prominently in the government file. Many of its items were tweets, including a comment by one contributor, retired Colonel Ralph Peters, declaring that "if the coup succeeds, the Islamists lose and we win." Articles from leading newspapers from around the globe were also cited.

Dozens of arrest warrants issued

Arrest warrants for 42 Turkish journalists were issued Monday. Among those was a warrant for prominent columnist and commentator Nazli Ilicak, who was detained Tuesday.

Political columnist Semih Idiz of Turkey's Cumhuriyet newspaper says the arrest of a prominent writer like Ilicak will fuel fears that the government crackdown is extending far beyond the coup plotters.

"I think the risk is very real," Idiz said. "We learned that a prominent journalist, Nazli Ilicak, has been arrested today. She was always with the Islamists, and yet this thing has expanded to take her in on the assumption that she is part of the Gulen outfit. It is a very dangerous situation because we have emergency rule, which means rule by decree, in effect, and the suspension of civil liberties."

Two years ago, Ilicak was fired from the pro-government Sabah newspaper for her criticism of high-level corruption.

State of emergency

Human Rights Watch strongly criticized Tuesday what it called the arbitrary nature of the powers under emergency rule, warning that the powers are being used beyond those involved in the coup plot. The state of emergency was introduced last week, for three months.

But Erdogan insists the crackdown is aimed only at supporters of retired imam Fethullah Gulen, who lives in self-imposed exile in the United States. Erdogan accuses Gulen of using his large network in Turkey to initiate the coup attempt, a charge Gulen denies.

Observers say the crackdown has closed several news websites critical of the government, but with no connection to Gulen.

Idiz warns that such actions threaten to isolate the government at a critical moment.

To avoid that, Idiz says, the government must acknowledge that "it not only got support from the opposition on July 15, but also that the opposition media that the government has been very critical [of] played a crucial role in this [support]."

For example, a news network that Erdogan has been strongly critical of had broadcast his appeal for people to go into the streets to challenge the coup, a move widely seen as crucial to defeating the attempted military takeover.

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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.
The Nui Phao mine has one of worlds largest tungsten deposits outside of China.

Vietnams Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment will conduct a comprehensive inspection of the Nui Phao mine, a large polymetallic project located in the northern mountainous province of Thai Nguyen, after receiving complaints from local people about the project's environmental impacts.

The ministry and Thai Nguyen's provincial government agreed in a meeting earlier this month that the inspection will start in early August, the ministry said in a statement on July 25.

The ministry will ask Nui Phao Mining Company Limited, the owner of the project in Dai Tu District, to evaluate the impacts of the project on the environment and the lives of local people. Based on the companys report, the ministry and local government will decide whether it is necessary to relocate nearby villages.

The company will also be asked to report on the volume of chemical substances used on the project in comparison with those set in the approved environmental impact assessment report. Nui Phao will also be told to install an automatic wastewater monitoring system as required by the government.

In the last three years, the local government in Ha Thuong Commune has received many complaints from local people living in villages near the project who said they are directly affected by the smell, noise and wastewater from Nui Phao, the Xay Dung (Construction) newspaper reported on July 25, citing a report from the commune.

The Nui Phao Mining Company Limited is believed to use more than 20 different chemicals to process ore, including toxic substances, the daily said.

The Nui Phao polymetallic mine, around 80km northwest of Hanoi, has significant deposits of tungsten, fluorspar, bismuth and copper. It is one of worlds largest identified tungsten deposits outside China, with mining reserve of 66 million tons of ore. Nui Phao is currently the largest producer of tungsten outside China, and among the largest producers of acid-grade fluorspar and bismuth in the world, according to Masan Resources, the parent company of Nui Phao Mining Company Limited.

Alloys of tungsten have several applications, including incandescent light bulb filaments, X-ray tubes, electrodes in tungsten inert gas welding, superalloys and radiation shielding. Tungsten's hardness and high density give it military applications in penetrating projectiles.

Masan Resources acquired the Nui Phao project from Dragon Capital, a Vietnam-focused financial institution, and other stakeholders in 2010. The mine began commercial production in the first quarter of 2014.

As of July 2015, Masan had invested $550 million in the project. The company is aiming for revenue of $288 million in 2016, which will be raised to $320 million next year. "90 percent of the output from Nui Phao has been guaranteed through long-term contracts with global buyers," a representative from Masan told VnExpress in July last year.
After the Virginia Supreme Court ruled against the decision to give more than 200,000 ex-offenders voting rights last week, Dan River Region voter registrars said they have put a hold on the process until the Virginia Department of Elections gives further instructions.

Were not denying them, but were not approving them, said Danville General Registrar Peggy Petty.

Late Friday, the Virginia Supreme Court ruled in a 4-3 decision to throw out the April executive order issued by Gov. Terry McAuliffe. The majority opinion criticized McAuliffe for acting alone in deciding to rewrite the states policy of lifetime disenfranchisement of ex-offenders.

Early on Tuesday, local registrars received instructions from the Virginia Department of Elections to suspend the act of processing felon voting applications.

We do not really know what to do with any that are already in the pipeline, Petty said.

She said the Department of Elections would be canceling the registrations already completed, as well as mailing voters to inform them of the cancellation.

They will be handled at the state level, Petty said.

However, Gov. McAuliffe said he would be continuing to fight for the voting rights of the ex-offenders Friday  by signing nearly 13,000 individual restoration orders as soon as possible.

I will expeditiously sign nearly 13,000 individual orders to restore the fundamental rights of the citizens who have had their rights restored and registered to vote and I will continue to sign orders until I have completed restoration for all 200,000 Virginians, McAuliffe said. 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.

However, local registrars said they would not be processing further registration applications until instructed by the Department of Elections.

Right now its just a waiting game, said Pittsylvania County General Registrar Kelly Bailess. There could be a whole lot of change the next couple of weeks.

Petty said as of Tuesday 185 ex-offenders had submitted their applications to register in Danville. Bailess said data for Pittsylvania County was not readily available.
To the editor:

After hearing the news the Virginia Supreme Court had struck down Gov. Terry McAuliffes executive order reinstating the voting rights of convicted felons, I felt compelled to comment.

The Supreme Court ruled Friday against McAuliffes executive order to reinstate the right to vote to more than 200,000 of Virginias convicted felons. The court voted 4-3 to strike down his order, which we knew was a blatant act of overstepping his boundaries, as I had expressed earlier in a letter to the editor after he issued his ridiculous order.

McAuliffe drew immediate criticism from many when he issued the order back in April. I couldnt believe he was able to get away with such a scheme. Its one thing to possibly restore voting rights to a felon after carefully reviewing the nature of their individual crime, but to restore voting rights to such a massive number of felons at one time without looking at each individual case simply by stroke of a pen is not  and should not be  permitted by Virginias Constitution.

Just the thought of it makes one question his ulterior motives. Hillary Clintons newly announced running mate, former Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine, while he was governor, actually thought about signing a similar order but was advised Virginia constitutional law would not allow it.

Chief Justice Donald W. Lemons commented the assertion that a Virginia governor has the power to grant blanket, or group pardons is irreconcilable with the Constitution of Virginia. McAuliffe clearly acted out of order in signing this ludicrous executive order. He has proven time and time again hes a loose-cannon liberal with many of his decisions since taking office.

McAuliffe knew full well that he was out of line in issuing such a sweeping action. Virginias Constitution clearly forbids this type of unprecedented assertion of executive authority. Did McAuliffe really believe his liberal mischief would go unchallenged by the citizens of Virginia and responsible Republican state officials? I guess he simply felt he could do anything he wanted to with no consequences. Sounds just like President Barack Obama.

Chief Justice Lemons went on to write, Never before has any of the prior 71 Virginia governors issued such a clemency order of any kind, whether to restore civil rights or grant a pardon to an entire class of unnamed felons without regard for the nature of the crimes or any other individual circumstances relevant to the request. The liberal Democrat McAuliffe has always been a staunch supporter of Obama and Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, and Im certain hes determined to do anything possible to help Clinton win Virginia  as its a swing state and will more than likely have a huge impact on the upcoming presidential election.

Between Hillary and McAuliffe, they will do whatevers necessary to get the votes  even allowing convicted felons to vote. McAuliffe is proving that he is just as corrupt as Hillary as he gained favor from her when he signed the order. This ruling is certainly a political setback to Democrats and Hillarys run for the White House. She would have obtained a big boost from the restoration of voting rights to all these felons  potentially casting their ballots for the great liar and cheat, the Queen of Deception, Hillary.

Im sure as a repayment for his liberal favors, McAuliffe would be offered a position somewhere on Clintons staff  maybe even on her cabinet, if she gets elected. Perish that horrible thought!

DARYL RIGNEY

Danville
With temperatures approaching 100 degrees  and the heat index ramping up about five degrees higher  Danvillians have been looking for ways to beat the heat.

Judging by the number of people lining up at local eateries, ice cream, frozen yogurt and shaved ice dripping in syrup were top choices for an ice-cold treat.

The newest addition to that lineup was slam-packed on Tuesday  Coco Ni, at 459 Mount Cross Road, next to Ben David Jewelers.

In addition to the crepe menu that features crepe cones filled with an array of fruits, nuts and other sweets or meats and vegetables, Coco Ni serves Thai ice cream  a treat as much fun to watch them make as it is to eat.

First, melted ice cream is poured onto a cold plate and spread out, then the desired ingredients  fruits, nuts and other goodies  are chopped up and stirred into the mix.

Once its cooled and firmed up, the ice cream is scraped into rolls, which are stood up in a bowl then topped with yet more ingredients.

Autumn Hutcherson spooned up her Summer Berries Thai ice cream  blueberry, raspberry and strawberry, to which she added kiwi and toasted marshmallows  while her friend, Emily Wise, enjoyed a Fruit Martini Crepe  strawberry, banana, whipped yogurt, custard cream, crushed pistachios and Nutella, wrapped in a crepe.

Another friend in the group, Lindsey Thorne, enjoyed a Cookie Lover Thai ice cream  Oreo cookies crushed into vanilla ice cream, decorated with Pocky Sticks (chocolate covered cookie sticks); she added marshmallows to the treat.

The three friends agreed that their treats were delicious.

Well be back for sure, Hutcherson said, as her friends nodded in agreement. Its very, very good.

A drive past Dairy Hart and Dairy Queen on Riverside Drive showed that people were seeking ice cream in those locations as well  with the visitors to the newly-reopened Dairy Queen no doubt relieved the construction that created confusing traffic patterns into Dan River Plaza shopping center was over.

Penguinz Snoballs also offers up icy treats to beat the heat.

Located on Piney Forest Road at the corner of Arnett Boulevard, the small shop has walk-up windows that offer cups of shaved ice topped with dozens of syrup flavors.

The syrups seem to be able to hold up on the ice  often, shaved ice and syrup concoctions soon see the syrup drip down to the bottom of the cup.

The Tiger Blood (a strawberry and watermelon mix) Snoball sampled survived about 10 minutes outside, then a 15-minute ride back to the Register & Bee office  and was still bright red and full of flavor all the way through.
www.cypriummining.com

TSX-V: CUG and CUG.DB

MONTREAL, July 27, 2016 /CNW Telbec/ - Cyprium Mining Corp. ("Cyprium" or the "Company") (TSXV: CUG CUG.DB) is pleased to announce the appointment of Mr. Jonathan George as a director of the Company.

Mr. George is a consulting geologist and entrepreneur who has been involved in international mineral exploration and development for over 35 years. He has raised more than $60 million for various projects around the world, including Mexico. Mr. George was the President and Co-founder of Creston Moly Corp., which acquired Mexico's largest molybdenum deposit. Creston merged with Mercator Minerals in 2011 in a transaction valued at more than $176 million. Prior to his success with Creston, he was President and CEO of ESO Uranium (predecessor of Alpha Minerals) where he was instrumental in assembling one of the largest land packages in the Athabasca Basin, Saskatchewan; Alpha and its partner Fission Energy made one of the most significant uranium discoveries in recent history on their Patterson Lake South joint venture.

Mr. George commented on his appointment: "Having known Mr. Lambert the Chairman and CEO of Cyprium for some time, I had the opportunity to visit the Potosi mine in late 2015. I have been following the Company's progress ever since. During my visit, I went inside the mine and met with the Cyprium technical team and mining contractors. I was impressed with the assets acquired and the team assembled to bring this historic mine back into production. With the rehabilitation of the Potosi No. 3 shaft complete, the start of production and the decision to deliver a 43-101 resource estimate of the Santo Domingo mineralized body, Cyprium has delivered on the business plan they laid out for me during my visit to Chihuahua." He concluded: "I look forward to working closely with Mr. Lambert and the rest of the his team to ensure the continued development of the Potosi mine, the financing of the Company and eventually the acquisition of further mining projects that meet the criteria of the Company's business plan of acquiring and exploiting past producing mine in Mexico which can be quickly and inexpensively be brought back into production to generate cash flow for exploration and development and which also have significant exploration potential leading to the possibility of making new discoveries."

About Cyprium Mining Corporation

Website: www.cypriummining.com

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.

Qualified Person: Dr. Craig Gibson, Certified Professional Geologist, prepared the summary of public historical information on the Santa Eulalia district, and has reviewed the appropriate portions of this news release and approved the contents thereof. Public information included in this release are based on work by from a PhD dissertation by Peter K. M. Megaw and information from the Mexican Geologcial Survey (Servicio Geologico Mexicano).

This news release contains "forward-looking information" (within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities laws) and "forward -looking statements" (within the meaning of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995). Such statements or information are identified with words such as "anticipate", "believe", "expect", "plan", "intend", "potential", "estimate", "propose", "project", "outlook", "foresee" or similar words suggesting future outcomes or statements regarding an outlook. Such statements include, among others, those concerning the Company's anticipated plans for developments of the Company and its mining projects".

Such forward-looking information or statements are based on a number of risks, uncertainties and assumptions which may cause actual results or other expectations to differ materially from those anticipated and which may prove to be incorrect. Assumptions have been made regarding, among other things, management's expectations regarding future growth, plans for and completion of projects by Company's third party relationships, availability of capital, and the necessity to incur capital and other expenditures. Actual results could differ materially due to a number of factors, including, without limitation, operational risks in the completion of Company's anticipated projects, delays or changes in plans with respect to the development of Company's anticipated projects by Company's third party relationships, risks affecting the ability to develop projects, risks inherent in operating in foreign jurisdictions, the ability to attract key personnel, and the inability to raise additional capital. No assurances can be given that the efforts by the Company will be successful. Additional assumptions and risks are set out in detail in the Company's MD&A, available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.

Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking information or statements are reasonable, prospective investors in the Company's securities should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements because the Company can provide no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. Forward-looking information and statements contained in this news release are as of the date of this news release and the Company assumes no obligation to update or revise this forward-looking information and statements except as required by law.

Investors should note that the Potosi silver mine and La Chinche property have no established mineral resources or mineral reserves as defined by NI 43-101. Although Cyprium Mining has made a production decision regarding the Potosi silver mine based on historical production records and results from recent sampling, a feasibility study of its projects has not been completed and there is no certainty that the proposed operations will be economically or technically viable. It must be understood that any such production would be from unmeasured mineralized material. The Company further advises that since its production decision was not based on a feasibility study of mineral reserves demonstrating economic and technical viability there may be an increased uncertainty of achieving any particular level of recovery of minerals or the cost of such recovery, including increased risks associated with developing a commercially mineable deposit. Historically, such projects have a much higher risk of economic and technical failure. These risks, among others, include areas that are analysed in more detail in a feasibility study, such as applying economic analysis to resources and reserves, more detailed metallurgy and a number of specialized studies in areas such as mining and recovery methods, market analysis, and environmental and community impacts. There is no guarantee that production will proceed as anticipated or at all or that anticipated production costs will be achieved. Failure of production to proceed as planned would have a material adverse impact on the Company's ability to generate revenue and cash flow to fund operations. Failure to achieve the anticipated production costs would have a material adverse impact on the Company's cash flow and future profitability.

SOURCE Cyprium Mining Corp.
Bar lines are becoming blurred. Not the lines at the bar, mind. We're talking about the line that separates bar and restaurant, boozer and brunch spot, dive and diner. These difficult-to-define venues keep opening, with punters keen to explore the new worlds of Australian spirits, small-batch brewing and artisan wines.

Here's the best new watering holes and old favourite haunts from the Brisbane Times 2017 Good Food Guide. The Guide is now available in selected newsagents and stores for $9.99 and features more than 300 reviews of the state's best restaurants, bars, cafes and cheap eats.

1889 Enoteca

Few things go better together than marble bars and Italian wine. Perhaps an Aperol spritz on a lazy afternoon or pecorino grated over rich ragu. This bar, restaurant and Italian wine shop has all this and more, including the warmest of warm hospitality. Order a grappa, take a load off and sit back and listen to bartenders' tales from The Boot and discuss the best dry white wine to use in a bicicletta.



12 Logan Road, Woolloongabba, 07 3392 4315, 1889enoteca.com.au

Alfred & Constance, Fortitude Valley. Photo: Supplied

Alfred & Constance

Once the hipsters, uni students and jocks found somewhere else to play, these two repurposed heritage homes became a very cool place to hang. Operated by Mr Hospitality himself, Damian Griffiths, this bares all his signature ingredients of great atmosphere, killer selection of food and drinks, and excellent service. The pina colada comes in an actual pineapple. You know you want it.



130 Constance Street, Fortitude Valley 07 3251 6500, alfredandconstance.com.au

All Inn Brewing Co

This is pretty much a shed where people hang out, often with their dogs, drinking beer fresh from the source. Sometimes things don't need to be any more complicated than that. The brew bar is only open Friday to Sunday, and when it does you can expect a knees-up with food trucks (perhaps Rolling Stone Pizza, Pitstop Wings or Micasa) and live music to see you through the afternoon.



189 Elliott Road, Banyo, 1300 462 739, allinnbrewingco.com

Alquimia

Blink and you'll miss this new tequila bar as you walk past. The staff are amazing, the selection of drinks is incredible and the place smells extraordinary. It's all about the agave love here with a top-notch selection of tequila and mezcal. There are certainly worse ways to spend an evening than watching foot traffic with a Tommy's margarita in hand.



702 Ann Street, Fortitude Valley, 0498 638 421, alquimia.bar



The Apo in Fortitude Valley. Photo: Bradley Kanaris

The Apo

Housed in a former apothecaries' hall, The Apo is your place for on-trend cooking downstairs with lots of coal grilling from Brisbane Times Good Food Guide Citi Chef of the Year Ben Williamson and a polished bar upstairs with admirable cocktails and many wines available by the half bottle (huzzah!). Its Middle Eastern food with a French accent and you can expect Ranger's Valley steak frites with green chilli and coriander or maybe steamed oysters with sujuk and soured yoghurt.



Bakery Lane, 690 Ann Street, Fortitude Valley, 07 3252 2403, theapo.com.au

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Aria

Fun fact: Aria has one of the best wine lists in the country. Head sommelier Ian Trinkle has assembled a far-reaching, all-encompassing list of delicious drops you want to spend time exploring. Aria also has a handsome, tawny-toned bar you can use without spending serious moola to eat at the restaurant. Do you see where we're going with this? There's also a beaut selection of sake and spirits. We love the all-Australian negroni.



Eagle Street Pier, 1 Eagle Street, Brisbane, 07 3233 2555, ariarestaurant.com/brisbane

Bacchus

If the conservatorium wasn't in the way, blocking river views, the bar at this fancy pants, old worlde restaurant would be one of the best in Brisbane. It's still damn good though, and the brilliant wine list runs an impressive 36 pages. The staff know how to make a Manhattan with aplomb and with a regular combination of live music and DJs, Bacchus is must-do drinking.



Corner Grey & Glenelg streets, South Bank, 07 3364 0837, bacchussouthbank.com.au

Bar Pacino

Right on the river with amazing views and fun staff, BP is a bonafide winner. There's not a lick of pretense, but rather no-funny-business Italian-ish dishes like chicken parmigiana, Nonna-style house-made lasagne and margherita pizza. Cocktails, champagne, cannoli and bridge views make this the kind of place to lock in for that second Tinder date.



175 Eagle Street, Brisbane, 07 3221 2397, bellezzagroup.com.au/bar-pacino

The Bearded Lady

One of the best things about bars is the opportunity they provide for musicians to get up on stage and thrash out original music with all their whisky-soaked heart. Shredding rock, punk, blues, psychedelia, country and more punk happens at The Bearded Lady on a regular basis. Head on over for a bit of electric mayhem. Young Henrys is on tap and it's BYO food if you want to grab a pizza on the way.



138 Boundary Street, West End, 07 3844 3395, thebeardedlady.com.au

Black Bird Bar & Grill

If you can manage to drag yourself away from the exquisite Black Bird menu to the adjacent bar, you'll be rewarded with stunning views of the river, expert staff and a very cool vibe. It can get a little messy late on Friday and Saturday nights, but the bar is one of the best stocked in Brisbane and a perfect place to unwind on a weeknight.



123 Eagle Street, Brisbane, 07 3229 1200, blackbirdbrisbane.com.au

Bloodhound Corner Bar

If you've ever been out in the Valley and wished you could just be drinking at your local, now you can have the best of both worlds. Bloodhound has the charm and atmosphere for a particularly good local pub right on the fringe of the party precinct. Less than a year old, it is something of a haven from the craziness of the valley, with a beaut beer selection, highly snackable bar food and live music upstairs.



454 Brunswick Street, Fortitude Valley, 07 3162 6402, bloodhoundcornerbar.com.au

A moment of downtime at The Bowery. Photo: Supplied

The Bowery

The Valley old girl doesn't have massive movers and shakers of the cocktail world at its helm these days, but it does have a crack team who combine their knowledge and powers to summon awesomeness. Consistently excellent for a vermouth-free martini and Reschs at the end of the working day, or a textbook Old Pal with mates and a pumping dance floor on the weekend.



676 Ann Street, Fortitude Valley, 07 3252 0202, thebowery.com.au

Brew

This laneway bar of Astroturf and milk crates offers a respectable selection of boutique beers, wine and spirits for such a small place. It can get crowded so get in early, relax to the laid-back vibes and stake your claim on a crate. The Brew Burger with beef brisket, bacon and American cheddar provides adequate beer ballast for a night of partying.



Lower Burnett Lane, Brisbane, 07 3211 4242, brewcafewinebar.com.au

Underground whisky drinkin' at Brooklyn Standard. Photo: Supplied

Brooklyn Standard

This underground bar  another blessing of the American invasion of our bar culture  warns patrons that if the music's too loud, you're too old. It's fair advice for a bar that offers belting live music every night and plenty of booze to wash it down with. While it doesn't sound great on paper, make sure you try the apple crumble shot.

Eagle Lane, Brisbane, 0405 414 131, brooklynstandard.com.au

Can You Keep a Secret?

Can you keep a secret? Well, no. We can't. Because more people need to know about this lounge bar despite the fact more people will probably ruin its quaintness and charm. Overflowing with vintage knick-knacks, it feels like you're at a mate's house with a hoarding problem. And that homeliness is what makes this special little drinking spot so damn adorable.



619 Stanley Street, Woolloongabba, 07 3847 2956, canyoukeepasecret.net.au

The Canvas team pictured in their natural habitat. Photo: Supplied

Canvas

This southside staple has won a number of awards for its cocktails and one glance at the menu explains why. Combining interesting flavours and twisting more familiar drinks their own way is the stock and trade of this small bar. If you're the kind of person who likes breakfast for dinner (and who doesn't?), then make sure you give Good Mornin' America a try.



16B Logan Road, Woolloongabba, 07 3891 2111, canvasclub.com.au

There's no shortage of Scotch at Cobbler. Photo: Nat Hoo

Cobbler

There's more than 400 whiskies from around the world stashed behind the handsome, square-jawed bar here. That is all you need to know. The staff here seem to have tried every single one of them and can expertly guide you towards something new or an old favourite from heathery Highlanders to big, peaty wallopers. Seriously, though, 400 whiskies.



7 Browning Street, West End, cobblerbar.com

Coppa Spuntino

In the heart of the CBD, Coppa offers spuntino (small plates) and spritzers with style. Pull up a stool in the sleek, minimalist room and order big on the classics. Burrata with tomato and basil, say, or meatballs with pecorino and fennel. The staff excel in big-hearted Italian hospitality and more than happy to keep your valpolicella topped up at all times.



Shop 4, 88 Creek Street, Brisbane, 07 3221 3548, coppaspuntino.com

Cru Bar

When a bar has a well-stocked bottle shop attached to it with a wine selection to make most connoisseurs weep, you know you're in for a good night. Cru Bar has a brilliant selection of wines (try the Burn Cottage pinot poured via Coravin), plus an impressive list of cocktails and an eye-watering selection of spirits. The perfect place to start or end your night.



22 James Street, Fortitude Valley, 07 3252 2400

Dutch Courage

This is a place that specialises in gin and anywhere that specialises in gin has its priorities in order. Dutch Courage offers an extensive cocktail menu, most with gin and most are delicious. The Mediterranean Muse is dangerously drinkable and the Negroni Blanc will likely put hair on your chest  however, if you're feeling fancy free, ask a barman to make a cocktail for you freestyle.



51 Alfred Street, Fortitude Valley, 07 3852 4838, dutchcourage.com.au

City views at Eleven Rooftop Bar. Photo: Bernard O'Shea

Eleven Rooftop Bar

High in the sky above Ann Street, Eleven offers a New-York-style experience right in Brisbane. Classy and refined with a fairly stringent door policy that (most of the time) keeps the riffraff at ground level, Eleven can get a little too pretentious for its own good, but its array of great spirits, delicious cocktails, excellent service and the city views make it worth a visit.



757 Ann Street, Fortitude Valley, 07 3067 7447, elevenrooftopbar.com.au

The End

An every person's boozer where you can sit pretty at the timber bar by yourself and chat with the champion staff, or head along with mates and get down to sweet sounds of jazz and electronica. The End is serious about cocktails and open daily from 3pm so you can resurrect your Sunday with an elixir of Campari, prosecco and Maidenii sweet red vermouth.



73 Vulture Street, West End

Fitz & Potts

To get to this one you're going to need to head out of the city, but for a Sunday sesh on the verandah you can't beat it. The inner(ish) suburbs of Brisbane are becoming a hive of awesome suburban bars and this is one of the best. A cacophony of odd (but delicious) drinks and various strange places to enjoy them makes for a very cool watering hole.

1180 Sandgate Road, Nundah, 07 3061 6205, fitzandpotts.com.au

Gerard's Bar & Charcuterie

Tucked away behind the main section of James Street, this bar is operated by the same experts behind the bistro. Boasting a small but thoughtful wine list, you won't have to spend hours selecting your tipple but you can guarantee whichever one you get will be excellent. The Gerard's team know what they are doing and are to be trusted. Try the blow-torched burger.



23 James Street, Fortitude Valley, 07 3252 2606, gerardsbar.com.au

Ginger's Diner

Partially inspired by a hole-in-the-wall Korean joint its chief bloke Jamie Webb (Lefty's Old Time Music Hall) used to visit in New York, Ginger's serves high-octane snacks like kimchi crepes and clams in spicy passata. It's also inspired by the dive bars M*A*S*H characters would drink at, so a Klinger's Closet cocktail of vodka, lime, sorbet and brut champagne seems like the correct thing to order.



13 Caxton Street, Petrie Terrace, 07 3369 0555, gingersdiner.com.au

Grape Therapy

A wine lover's paradise, Grape Therapy is an intimate space hidden below the city down a flight of stairs and harking back to a simpler time. Here you can find a variety of great Australian wines as well as selections from the best wine regions of the old world. The hardest part is making a choice from the extensive menu, which isn't the worst problem to be faced with.



Corner Adelaide & Macrossan streets, Brisbane, 07 3102 7213, grapetherapy.com.au

The national treasure that is The Gresham. Photo: Savannah van der Niet

The Gresham

"Handsome" is word used a lot to describe dark timbered, high-ceilinged bars steeped in spirits and beer, and here you have a textbook example. We're talking more Breaker Morant than George Clooney at The Gresh, with heritage features and hat tips to Queensland from vintage photos of Brisbane to the confidence to sell XXXX in a can. One of Australia's great bars with cocktail-making that's the tightest in town.



308 Queen Street, Brisbane, thegresham.com.au

Heya Bar

Hiding beneath the road this place says "let's party" the minute you walk in. Imagine a busy nightclub with a few less people dancing and you have the atmosphere at Heya. Definitely more your venue for tequila slammers than a nice bottle of red, but if that's your thing then get down here and shake it like a Polaroid picture.



351 Brunswick Street, Fortitude Valley, 07 3252 3234, heyabar.com

HooHa Bar

HooHa Bar has a revolving door of beers on tap that is both eminently exciting and bitterly disappointing, because just as you happen upon a beer you love, it is soon gone. Like a chocolate-flavoured brew that meets so many basic needs it's scary. With top-notch service, super friendly staff and perfect ambient music this is a real Brisbane gem.



41 Tribune Street, South Brisbane, 07 3846 6457, hoohabar.com

John Mills Himself

There is a wholefood movement focused on sourcing your food locally, and this is a bar operating on the basis of sourcing your booze from nearby, too. Their beer comes from within a 200-kilometre radius (and there's more than just XXXX), the wine from a 250-kilometre radius, and their spirits from Australia wide. It sounds gimmicky, but it's actually quite brilliant to discover what local distillers are up to.



40 Charlotte Street, Brisbane, 0421 959 865, johnmillshimself.com.au

Junk Bar

Ashgrove isn't often the first place your imagination conjures up when it comes to finding a place for a drink, but here you have a rocking little suburban gem you'll want to return to often. Brilliant cocktails, amazing staff and a bohemian ski lodge vibe you won't find anywhere else in Brisbane. Well worth the taxi fare.



215 Waterworks Road, Ashgrove, 07 3168 2993, junkbar.com.au

Industrial festive chic at Kwan Brothers. Photo: Harrison Saragossi

Kwan Brothers

This industrial neon warehouse, on the Damian Griffiths' Disneyland of booze block, earns a spot in this guide for its fried chicken game, Peking duck bao, Kirin steins and fun-loving cocktails. It also has a hidden bar beyond a closed cool-room door with jet black walls, Japanese whisky and hand-cut ice, making this one of our favourite spots to imbibe in town.



43 Alfred Street, Fortitude Valley, 07 3251 6588, kwanbros.com.au

La Ruche

La Ruche used to be the best bar in the Valley but the gloss has rubbed off over the years. This is mostly due to the officious security and bar staff who seem unable to track who needs a drink. Regardless, it's still worth your time and hard-earned for the excellent dance tunes, great cocktails (when you can get one) and the terrific outside area to catch a breath between drinks.



680 Ann Street, Fortitude Valley, 07 3666 0880, laruche.com.au

The rum-heavy Mermaid Lounge at Lefty's. Photo: Supplied

Lefty's Old Time Music Hall

This honky-tonk on steroids and former gentleman's club offers one heck of a night out. There's whisky with apple juice squeezed in front of your face, delicious tinnies, roast beef po' boys and bras on antlers. The boot-scooting live music is sensational with loads of room to cut the rug, and a visit isn't complete without paying your respects to Captain Rhumnatious in the Mermaid Lounge.



15 Caxton Street, Milton, leftysoldtimemusichall.com

Limes Bar

High above the Valley madness, Limes rooftop bar has sweet tunes, cool views and hot tubs that one time we saw someone actually use. They do one of the best vodka espressos in the city and there are enough different areas in the relatively small space to make your own private party whenever you go there.



142 Constance Street, Fortitude Valley, 07 3852 9000, limeshotel.com.au

For a good time, call Longtime. Photo: Supplied

Longtime

Gee whiz, there are some excellent Asian snacks at this alleyway bar and restaurant. There's betel leaf with sticky pork and peanuts, soft shell crab bao and Isan tacos with five-spiced eggplant and house-smoked chili sauce. There's a fair deal of fire in these bar snacks, too, so you'll be wanting one of the chai and gin-based cocktails on the side to soften the heat.



610 Ann Street, Fortitude Valley, 07 3160 3123, longtime.com.au

Maker

Where a less confident bar might opt for the blonde-on-white school of Scando design that feels like you're in a Sigur Ros song, owner Jerome Batten (Gauge, Sourced Grocer) went full blown bronze-on-black, Swedish death metal with Maker's design. It's bloody lovely and the young-gun bar team have cocktail skills the room deserves. There's Noma-style snacks and a focus on local beers, wines and spirits. It's terrific to see a kitchen that prides itself on sourcing locally and carrying that philosophy over to the drinks list.



Fish Lane, South Brisbane

Nant Whisky Bar & Kitchen

This end of the city can be pretty dead at night, and that is perfect for what you will experience at Nant. High-backed leather chairs, quiet music and a generally relaxing atmosphere to enjoy a wide range of whisky from around the world, not just Nant's own Tassie drams. They also offer a quality selection of cocktails but the whisky here is best enjoyed slowly, by itself, with the memory of a lost bonny love. Or something.



2 Edward Street, Brisbane, nant.com.au

Newstead Brewing Co.

There is something magnificently collegiate about drinking at Newstead. Bench seats on large tables means most of the time you are going to be hanging out with strangers. However, firm friendships have been formed over the host of beers they have on tap and while you can find their brews all over town now, there's nothing better than enjoying them straight from the source.



85 Doggett Street, Newstead, 07 3172 2488, newsteadbrewing.com.au

Visit for brunch and stay for dinner at Nickel. Photo: Michael Panayotov

Nickel Kitchen & Bar

Ever had a Bloody Caesar? They're bloody good. Like a bloody mary, but made with Clamato  reconstituted tomato juice flavoured with clam broth and something of a national drink in Canada. It's garnished with prawns at the new venture from TJ and Kim Peabody (Nantucket Kitchen & Bar) and you really must try it. Go the full Canuck and order side of veal jus-drenched poutine, too (our vote for the best chips in Brisbane). Visit for brunch and stay for dinner.



757 Ann Street, Fortitude Valley, 07 3252 5100, nickelkitchenbar.com.au

Pillar Bar

A small, friendly establishment with expert staff, ready to guide you to a new beer experience or a cocktail to try. But be prepared, they aren't gentle with their pours and some of the cocktails are lethal in the most delicious way. There's a lovely home-spun, real deal vibe about the place too, which is welcome relief from the glitz and bling of Ann Street's other boozers.



743 Ann Street, Fortitude Valley

Public

When you think of Public you probably think of it as a fine-dining establishments, and that's fair enough. But, even if you aren't going out for dinner, it's worth making your way to the bar for a sit-down and a drink. It's conjured up the most delicious array of cocktails and they must be tried.



Upper level, 400 George Street, Brisbane, 07 3210 2288, lovepublic.com.au

Red Hook's much loved cheeseburger. Photo: Chris Hyde

Red Hook

American cheeseburgers are straight-up delicious. Beef, wonderfully charred, not overly minced, partnered with pickles, mustard, ketchup and cheese the colour of a rubber duck. It's what they serve at this chilled laneway bar and diner and will see you through a hefty Budweiser session. Very good. Well done. Gold star. Tick.



Shop 3, 88 Creek Street, Brisbane, 07 3220 0462, red-hook.com.au

Saccharomyces Beer Cafe

The beer boffins at Saccharomyces fought a battle against liquor licensing to have this bar run just how they want it, and it was a battle worth winning. Focussing almost entirely on artisan brews, Saccharomyces keeps 10 beers on tap, and a mind-boggling collection of beers in bottles. There is cider and wine, but if you're not after beer, why are you here?



Corner Fish Lane & Merivale Street, South Brisbane, 07 3846 0718, saccharomyces-beercafe-hpqi.squarespace.com

The Scratch

This was one of the first bars around town to really focus on local beer and champion Brisbane's ripper small-batch brewing industry. The taps rotate regularly, so you'll always find a new hoppy walloper or refreshing session ale to get down your gullet. A no nonsense, straight-shooting vibe makes Scratch a true blue winner.



Shop 8, 1 Park Road, Milton, 07 3107 9910, scratchbar.com

Sonny's before the dance floor starts shaking. Photo: Robert Shakespeare

Sonny's House of Blues

The only thing that gets along better with fried chicken and hot sauce is country music jams, and Sonny's is here to provide. There's live music nearly every night, truck-loads of whisky and a meatloaf sandwich it would be unwise not to order. This is a sweet place in the city to chill out with a beer and listen to tunes.



Rowes Lane, Brisbane, 07 3229 9256, sonnyshouseofblues.com

The Stables Craft Bar & Kitchen

Ascot's Racecourse Road is the realm of ladies who lunch and the occasional drunk from the races. Bucking against this trend is the only bar on the strip that has lasted for more than a minute and the craft beers and respectable selection of food should help it stay that way. A beaut suburban bar that also does breakfast on weekends.



123 Racecourse Road, Ascot, stablescraftbar.com.au

Super Whatnot

Brisbane is finally getting up to speed with laneway dining so the natural progression was always going to be laneway bars, and we have some very cool ones. But few are as cool as this guy on Burnett Lane. What theme they were going for is an absolute mystery: half southern beer den, half Mexican Day of the Dead. It's a higgledy-piggledy space and a ripper all-rounder.



48 Burnett Lane, Brisbane, 07 3210 2343, superwhatnot.com

The Tree House

If you have ever wanted to run away to live in the forest and drink cocktails from hollowed out coconut shells, then, rejoice. You won't have to run far. This relatively new watering hole is tiny but makes you feel like you have done exactly that, and with well-themed forest-like cocktails, lost boys and girls will feel right at home.



Bakery Lane, 694 Ann Street, Fortitude Valley, 07 3162 419, thetreehousefortitudevalley.com
MasterChef Australia's 2016 runner-up Matt Sinclair may not have won last night's grand finale, pipped at the post by Elena Duggan and a slim two-point margin, but he's first out of the blocks with a new food venture.

Eat Street Markets, the vibrant night-time container markets in inner-city Brisbane suburb Hamilton, will act as a launch pad for Matt's Ten Piece Cutlery, a South East Asian street food stall that he plans to evolve into a food truck and catering brand.

Last night, his fine-dining-style crisp skin barramundi with sprouts, pancetta and prawn head broth scored a perfect 30/30 from the judges, and his entree of pan-seared quail with confit legs, corn and chorizo salad with Pedro Ximenez glaze scored an impressive 26/30. Don't expect to see porcelain-plated fare at Ten Piece Cutlery, though.

Related Content MasterChef Elena's winning kitchen hacks for home cooks

"We've got all the equipment and we're ready to rock, so hopefully we'll open in the next couple of weeks," Sinclair said.

"We have a couple of ideas for the menu - a soft shell crab burger, Thai-style chicken and short ribs braised in master stock. The name [Ten Piece Cutlery] is about eating with your hands and not being being afraid to ditch cutlery."

Sinclair said he hopes to eventually target the wedding and special events market, with his own big day serving as inspiration.

"For our wedding, we organised the menu and had two chef mates cook it; it was casual, stand-up street food and we just loved it. That's the way weddings are going - personal, casual, not locked down, but a celebration and a party," he said.

"We had fish tacos, a short-rib slider and lamb ribs, all of that kind of stuff, and it's exactly the style we'll go for with the truck."

Eat Street Markets, 99 MacArthur Avenue, Hamilton, 07 3358 2500, eatstreetmarkets.com
SHARE Gilbert Talamantes

Police division has 13 cases to solve

By Jennifer Rios

Agencies working on a 1976 cold-case homicide ? an investigation that resulted in a murder indictment last week ? are far from finished.

The San Angelo Police Department cold-case division still has 13 cases to pursue, all in varying stages of completion. Detective Paul Dyer, a member of the cold-case homicide unit, said the division is making progress every day.

Assistant Chief Jeff Fant said the department isn't working on cases chronologically but in a system that puts the cases in "solvability" order.

"Even newer cases ? Jordan Holden," Fant said. "They're working on that one in the near future, if they're not already. Randy Cave will be another."

Holden was shot to death when he surprised burglars at a friend's house on West Harris Street in 2008. Cave was killed in his home on Waco Street in early 2009.

At the same time, investigators with police, the Department of Public Safety and the Tom Green County District Attorney's Office will continue their work on the 1976 homicide case until trial.

A Tom Green County grand jury last week indicted Gilbert Campos Talamantes, 55, on a murder charge that carries five to 99 years in prison.

Police said a combination of new and old evidence gave them probable cause to believe Talamantes was connected to the 1976 stabbing that killed Manuel Rodriguez.

On Aug. 27, 1976, two men went to the home of Rodriguez, a 24-year-old San Angelo resident who police said was hiding in the house at the time. His family members told the men, who had an ongoing dispute with Rodriguez, that he wasn't home.

"It sort of progressed from there," Fant said.

Police said the men met up later with Rodriguez and his wife, Eliza Rodriguez, at the Dairy Queen at Avenue G and South Chadbourne Street. A fight broke out and Rodriguez, who was stabbed, got in his truck with his wife and sped off. The truck crashed into a brick wall at Avenue B and Chadbourne.

Rodriguez died at Shannon Medical Center. His wife went into a coma and died several months later.

Witnesses old and new were interviewed, including an employee who saw the suspect vehicle at the restaurant.

Dyer said he and Texas Ranger Sgt. Nick Hanna worked on the case for the past year and a half.

Dyer spent the majority of his career as a detective. He retired from the fraud division but came back to help when the department was facing staffing problems. Since January 2010, he and Detective J.P. McGuire have been working strictly cold cases.

One hurdle investigators knew they would encounter in a cold case was finding witnesses who had moved away from San Angelo.

"The biggest hangup on a case was being able to locate witness 34 years after the fact," Dyer said.

The Department of Public Safety was instrumental in that part of the investigation. "As far as the Ranger's assistance in the case, it was very huge as far as locating witnesses," Dyer said.

Police said they have been working with 51st District Attorney Steve Lupton since the beginning of the case against Talamantes.

"A month or so prior to grand jury, we knew we had a case that was ready to be submitted," Dyer said.

Talamantes is currently serving a 13-year prison term in the Clements unit of the state prison system in Amarillo, according to the Department of Criminal Justice. He was convicted Feb. 12, 2008, in Tom Green County of possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine between 4 and 200 grams.

San Angelo Police Chief Tim Vasquez said he hopes the indictment and a future trial will bring closure to the victim's family. Closing a case like this after several decades is important to the department, which will continue to make the cold cases a priority, he said.

"I'm very proud of the work that these detectives and the district attorney's office put into this case," Vasquez said. "It's great to know that we still have people who are willing to work on a case like this."

McGuire, who will leave the department at the end of the month to serve as Precinct 2 Justice of the Peace, will leave an empty position in the division.

Vasquez said he feels fortunate McGuire continued to serve as a part-time detective.

"He'll continue to serve his community, but from a different position," Vasquez said. "We will, at some point, replace his part-time position."

Administrators have already started looking at who is available to fill the spot. Although the criminal investigations division is not fully staffed, Vasquez said he will keep Dyer working only cold-case homicides.

"We feel the need for someone working those cases is a priority for us right now," he said.
Standard-Times file Dorothy Thomas Buickerood, of Bronte, who died at 92 in 1990, wrote numerous short stories that appeared in major magazines.

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I had the luck to visit with writer Dorothy Thomas Buickerood in her Bronte home in the late 1980s.

I don't remember everything she told me, but I remember her.

I visited her when she was 89. I heard she had been living in Bronte since 1975, and I found the house that Dorothy and John Buickerood, her late husband, had built by themselves next to a cemetery.

She was a wonderful writer, but it was Dorothy's quick, clever conversation that I will always remember.

"I don't type too well anymore," she told me. "I have no arthritis in my hands, but my fingers are slow now on the keys. And this frisky electronic typewriter, it plays tricks on me and stutters a little. I get pretty discouraged with the thing at times, and I doubt that we'll ever work out a meaningful relationship."

In her life Dorothy had written close to 150 short stories, novellas, poems and at least one play and published several books. Maybe more.

Her two best known books were "Ma Jeeter's Girls" and "The Home Place."

In Dorothy's day her stories appeared in most major magazines publishing short fiction, including The Saturday Evening Post and The New Yorker. Other magazines that published her writing included Harper's, Atlantic Monthly, Redbook, Ladies' Home Journal, Collier's and Woman's Home Companion.

She once said her stories were about small towns and country families. Before moving to West Texas she and her husband spent part of their life in New Jersey, the Virgin Islands and Espanola, New Mexico. She earned the 1990 Lifetime Literary Achievement Award from the Lincoln-Lancaster (Nebraska) Commission on the Status of Women.

When I spoke to Dorothy her latest work to appear in a national magazine was "The Christmas Lie," first published in the Dec. 21, 1957, issue of The Saturday Evening Post and republished in the December 1983 issue.

"To me, life is a story and you hope for a happy ending," she said. "A story has a life of its own. A good story will take the bit between its teeth and let itself go."

Dorothy died at age 92 in fall 1990 after an illness.

She had this to say about writing  and life:

1. "If you can tell a good story or write a letter people like to read, go ahead and write and keep writing."

2. "It's not fair to yourself or to an editor or a proofreader to write a story that is not legible."

3. "It pleases me to know that nobody would ever read one of my stories and go out in the barn and hang himself or cut his throat."

4. "I am an old-fashioned writer. I am an optimist in an age of pessimism."

5."I write joyously, and love to write."

6. "Nobody ever discouraged me from writing. I write letters as much as I write stories."

7. "You can't tell anybody how to write, but you can be a hallelujah chorus and encourage."

8. "If there is a person who wants to write, then there is something good in it and give him a chance. Say something good about it. If some of you people are English teachers, be kind to those people you think have no chance of being writers because you don't know."

9. "We change and we grow."

10. "Living is what life is about."

Rick Smith is a local news and community affairs columnist. Contact him at 325-659-8248 or rick.smith@gosanangelo.com.
Vietnam is ramping up its maritime might with back-to-back international naval exchanges.

Vietnamese and U.S. medical personnel participated in a disaster medical drill on Tuesday in the central coastal city of Da Nang as part of the multilateral humanitarian and disaster response exercise known as the Pacific Partnership 2016.

On Monday, a Japanese coast guard ship also docked in Da Nang, starting a five-day visit to promote understanding and friendship between the maritime law enforcement forces of the two countries.

Vietnamese navy personnel on the Khanh Hoa worked side by side with the U.S. medical staff in a mock disaster exercise to prepare for both natural and manmade disasters including storms and fires.

The drill took place on the river that flows through the center of Da Nang. In the first scenario, a tropical storm with wind speeds of 80-100 kilometers per hour hit central Vietnam. Navy ships were then deployed to rescue fishermen who had jumped into the waters in panic. The Vietnamese government chose Da Nang to host the PP16 - the largest annual multinational humanitarian assistance and disaster relief drill in the Indo-Asia-Pacific region. This is the seventh time Vietnam has taken part in the two-week exercise, and this year is the first time a Vietnamese Peoples Navy vessel has been involved in the deployment.

In the second scenario, a fishing boat with 15 people on board seeking shelter from a storm caught on fire due to a short circuit. Many of the crew were severely burnt and stuck inside the ship. Rescue forces including Vietnam Coast Guard officers, firefighters, personnel from Da Nang-based Maritime Rescue Co-ordination Centre No.2 and medical staff from the U.S. hospital ship the USNS Mercy were immediately deployed to the site.

Rescue forces approached the injured and used pressure hoses to put out the fire. The U.S. navy and Vietnamese border patrol forces used lifebuoys to pull the victims out of the water, before speedboats from the Mercy ferried the victims to shore.

There were four ships, seven speedboats and seven skiffs taking part in the exercise. Local fishermen from Son Tra District acted as mock victims.

Vietnamese and U.S. medical staff tended to the injured people back on dry land.

Badly injured victims were rushed to the Vietnamese Navy hospital ship the Khanh Hoa HQ561 and the USNS Mercy.

Others were put straight into waiting ambulances and rushed to Da Nangs General Hospital.

We are proud to have developed the Pacific Partnership program with the aim of handling disasters, said U.S. Ambassador to Vietnam Ted Osius (Left).

Doctors and medical staff on the Khanh Hoa performed an operation through an online consultation with doctors at the Military Medicine Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City.

On the USNS Mercy, victims suffering from burns and broken bones were treated by U.S. medical personnel. Ambassador Ted Osius said the training exercise was an opportunity for Vietnamese and U.S. military medical staff, along with counterparts from others countries such as Japan, Canada and Australia, to exchange expertise.

The USNS Mercy arrived in Da Nang to participate in the mock rescue of about 50 people. It is the biggest hospital ship in the U.S. Navy with a total patient capacity of 1,000 beds. The Pacific Partnership 2016 (PP16), that is running from July 15 to July 28 with the participation of several countries, including Australia, Canada, Indonesia, Malaysia, New Zealand, the Philippines, South Korea and the U.K, is led by the U.S. Pacific Fleet with the aim of enhancing humanitarian cooperation, improving regional responsiveness, promoting friendship exchanges and bolstering defense ties with the U.S. and its partner nations.
Associated Press Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., listens to community leaders at a roundtable discussion on religious freedom with the regional interfaith community at All Dulles Area Muslim Society (ADAMS) Mosque in Sterling, Va., Thursday.

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By John M. Donnelly, CQ-Roll Call (TNS)

WASHINGTON  Competing groups of senators are laying out arguments in what's likely to be the biggest defense budget issue facing the next administration and Congress: how much to spend on nuclear arms.

The pro-nuclear camp includes Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., whom Hillary Clinton picked as her running mate.

The groups made their respective cases in dueling letters to the Obama administration, which is said to be weighing both scaling back a planned modernization of the nuclear arsenal and a set of a revisions to U.S. nuclear policy. Regardless of what President Barack Obama proposes, the next commander in chief and future Congresses will be the ones to ultimately resolve these questions.

At issue is upwards of $1 trillion in new spending over the coming decade to replace aging aircraft, missiles, submarines and warheads and to upgrade infrastructure. Also up for discussion are matters such as whether the United States should pledge not to be the first to use nuclear weapons or should take its atomic missiles off hair-trigger alert status.

A draft of the Democratic Party platform approved this week at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia advocates controlling spending on nuclear weapons and being less dependent on them, a position that is closer to the anti-nuclear senators' view than to that of Kaine and his camp.

The platform calls for "reducing our reliance on nuclear weapons while meeting our national security obligations. Democrats will also seek new opportunities for further arms control and avoid taking steps that create incentives for the expansion of existing nuclear weapons programs. To this end, we will work to reduce excessive spending on nuclear weapons-related programs that are projected to cost $1 trillion over the next 30 years."

Obama's national security team is considering not going forward with a new air-launched nuclear cruise missile called the Long Range Standoff and may make policy changes, too, according to published reports.

But on July 8, a bipartisan group of 14 senators wrote Defense Secretary Ashton Carter requesting he continue support for "robust" spending on the so-called triad of nuclear weapons  on land, at sea and in the air.

Nearly all those senators represent states where nuclear weapons or their delivery vehicles are based, commanded or built.

Ten senators in the Democratic caucus shot back, in effect, in a July 20 letter to the president.

"Among the steps we urge you to consider are scaling back excessive nuclear modernization plans, adopting a policy of no-first-use of nuclear weapons, and canceling launch on warning plans," the senators wrote. "All of these options would bolster U.S. national security and advance the commitment you made in 2009 in Prague to 'reduce the role of nuclear weapons in our national security strategy.'"

The anti-nuclear senators took particular aim at the proposed new cruise missile.
Associated Press FILE Protesters gather for a rally outside City Hall in Baltimore in May 2015 on the day after charges were announced against the police officers involved in Freddie Gray's death. More than a year later, the same streets that exploded in fury and flame are calm.

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By Kevin Rector, The Baltimore Sun (TNS)

BALTIMORE  Before the next Baltimore police officer stands trial in the arrest and death of Freddie Gray, prosecutors will face a barrage of legal questions about whether they gleaned any evidence or strategic advantage from his forced testimony in the trial of another officer in May.

One state high court judge called the process a legal "minefield." An assistant attorney general representing the prosecution said it could present a "banquet of consequences" for them.

Officer Garrett Miller, 27, was compelled against his will to testify in the trial of officer Edward Nero under a limited form of immunity that prevents prosecutors from using anything he said on the stand against him at his own trial.

Miller's trial is scheduled to begin Wednesday. Before it starts, Baltimore Circuit Judge Barry G. Williams is expected to hold a hearing to determine whether prosecutors took the proper steps to ensure the terms of that immunity agreement  designed to protect Miller's constitutional right against self-incrimination  have not been violated.

Prosecutors and defense attorneys have filed written motions about that so-called Kastigar hearing, and Williams is expected to hear arguments on those and other pretrial motions Wednesday morning.

It remains unclear how long the hearing will take and whether it will significantly delay the start of the trial itself. Never in Maryland has a defendant gone to trial after having been compelled to testify against a co-defendant.

What is clear is that the hearing will mark a significant turning point in the prosecution of the six officers charged in Gray's arrest and death.

The need for the prosecution in Miller's case to be completely unswayed by his testimony in Nero's trial led the state to introduce a "clean team" of fresh prosecutors who were "instructed not to watch any news coverage of any trials involving the testimony of Officer Miller, not to discuss the testimony of Officer Miller and to take precautions to ensure that they would not be exposed to Officer Miller's immunized testimony."

That means that for the first time in the Gray case, senior prosecutors Chief Deputy State's Attorney Michael Schatzow and Deputy State's Attorney Janice Bledsoe will not lead the prosecution. Instead, Assistant State's Attorney Lisa Phelps, a veteran of the city state's attorney's office, and Sarah David, who joined the office in 2014, will assume the duty of seeking a conviction. Schatzow and Bledsoe, their superiors, have come up empty in four previous trials.

Gray, 25, died last year after suffering severe spinal cord injuries in police custody. His death initially inspired widespread, peaceful protests against police brutality, but on the day of his funeral, the city erupted in riots, looting and arson. Within days, Baltimore State's Attorney Marilyn J. Mosby charged six officers in his arrest and death.

All pleaded not guilty. The first trial, of officer William Porter, ended in a mistrial after a 12-member jury failed to reach a consensus on any of the charges. Then Williams acquitted three officers  Nero, officer Caesar Goodson Jr. and Lt. Brian Rice  in bench trials in May, June and July, respectively.

Miller, 27, is the fifth officer to face trial. He is charged with second-degree assault, reckless endangerment and two counts of misconduct in office.

The assault and one of the misconduct charges are associated with the prosecution's claim that Miller arrested Gray without probable cause. The prosecution says Miller stopped, handcuffed and moved Gray from one location to another before finding the knife that would be cited as the reason for his arrest.

The defense has said Miller's actions were consistent with established case law around police stops of suspects in high-crime areas such as the West Baltimore neighborhood where Gray was detained.

During Miller's testimony in Nero's trial  barred from being used in his trial  he said he was the officer who detained Gray.

"Did there come a time when you and (Nero) apprehended Mr. Gray?" Schatzow asked him.

"I did, sir," Miller responded.

Schatzow challenged Miller by pointing out that in his statement to police investigators, he suggested he and Nero had arrested Gray together. But on the witness stand, Miller was adamant that he alone stopped Gray.

It remains to be seen whether Miller will take the stand in his own trial. Prosecutors are expected to enter his statement to police into evidence.

The reckless endangerment and the second misconduct charge against Miller relate to his failure to secure Gray in the van with a seat belt.
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CLEVELAND  The notions that Donald Trump would make a typical presidential pivot, or that his divisive form of politics was merely a pose, lie dead on the convention floor in Cleveland. And it is now necessary to confront his unmasked contempt for American institutions.

Far from being confused or opportunistic, Trump has a consistent, well-developed view of the universe and his (prominent) place within it. The world is in chaos. Our country is being infiltrated by child-murdering illegal immigrants and a "massive flow" of disloyal, unscreened refugees. American communities are overwhelmed by violence, impoverished by unfair trade and betrayed by politicians who refuse to "put America first." The institutions that are supposed to defend us are dominated by special interests and rigged by elites.

These claims are wrong, exaggerated or cherry-picked in nearly every respect. But the message resonates. A majority of Americans regard their country as being on the "wrong track," and has for some time. Conservative media and "breaking news"-driven cable networks reinforce this sense of decline and crisis.

And our institutional challenges are not imaginary: A long-term, wage-earner recession (to which Republicans have offered little practical response). Educational mediocrity concentrated in high-poverty communities. Congressional dysfunction. A Supreme Court that seems overly political and outcome driven. Everyone can find some reason for disillusionment.

But there are two possible responses to such failures. The first is the institutionalist answer: To rebuild with existing materials. To reform, repair, reclaim and renew our patrimony. The second alternative is the promise of deliverance by a man on horseback  a single leader claiming to embody the interests of "the people."

In Cleveland, Trump offered the second option with more forthright clarity than any politician in my lifetime. The speech contained almost no serious discussion of public policy or ideological argumentation. Instead, Trump said: "I am your voice." "I am not able to look the other way." "I know the time for action has come." "I will be your champion." "I will fight for you, and I will win for you."

As someone involved in GOP politics during a previous professional life, the moment was surreal, then emotional. A party with a distinguished history, generally led by men and women of public spirit and decency, has embraced a demagogue who may be a genuine threat to American democracy. Trump is cultivating a state of panic to increase public tolerance for political risk  in this case, the risk of a candidate who is untested, unprepared, unstable and unfit. And the requisite sense of emergency is being created by populating American nightmares with migrants, refugees and Muslims. Standing on the convention floor, I could see what the face of American authoritarianism might look like.

If Trump is elected president, he can justly claim a mandate to pursue the enemies of the people, foreign and domestic. If he tests the limits of executive power to punish rivals and intimidate opponents, he has hidden none of his intentions.

The Caesarean option  rolling the dice with a populist authoritarian, using democratic majorities to undermine democratic structures  is common in history. Any Latin American or African can tell you what strongmen or "big men" are like.

But Trump's version of "Americanism" is not, in fact, very American. Our constitutional system was designed to make personal rule both impossible and unnecessary. The idea that political salvation might be found simply by replacing one leader at the top of government would have been regarded as perverse by the Founders. America has benefited from skilled leaders  a Lincoln or an FDR  at moments of genuine national crisis. But this is not such a time. And this is not such a leader.

Does institutionalism still have defenders in American public life? Certainly there are members of the Senate and House who would resist and balance the ambitions of a President Trump. But history has often shown that unscrupulous executive power can run circles around a divided Legislature.

It is also hard for me to regard Hillary Clinton  whatever her other virtues  as the savior of institutional integrity. While she would be preferable, on this score, to Trump, she has her own history of disregard for the rules and procedures that govern other mortals.

However quixotic the attempt may currently seem, America needs a committed institutionalist in the presidential race. Those distinguished Americans who have taken a pass on running as a third-party candidate should watch Trump's Cleveland speech once again, and weigh the very real risk to the republic. Bob Gates, are you taking phone calls?

Michael Gerson's email address is michaelgerson@washpost.com. He writes for The Washington Post Writers Group.
Northern provinces are battening down the hatches with heavy rain expected.

A tropical low pressure system detected in the South China Sea (known as the East Sea in Vietnam) has been upgraded to a tropical storm, internationally known as Mirinae, and is currently 230 kilometers to the southeast of the northern provinces of Thai Binh and Ninh Binh, reported Vietnams weather forecasting agency.

Mirinae, the first to hit Vietnam this year, is moving northwest at speeds of 15-20 kilometer per hour, and is expected to make landfall in Hai Phong and Thanh Hoa at 7 p.m.

"The storm will cross the Northern Delta over the evening, where it is expected to weaken to a low pressure system," the National Center for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting said.

Although Mirinae is rated as a small-scale tropical storm, it is expected to cause heavy rain in many parts of northern Vietnam. Hanoi and other provinces have been told to prepare for heavy rain and possible flooding.

Hai Phong authorities have issued an urgent warning asking all boats and fishermen to come ashore before the storm hits and urged local agencies and other units to be ready for the storm, said Deputy Chairman of Hai Phong Le Khac Nam on July 26.

Local border guard forces announced that they have informed 2,500 vessels and 7,800 offshore workers along with thousands of other workers about the path of the storm.

The Central Steering Committee on Disaster Prevention and Relief has warned coastal localities of possible high seas and strong winds while asking northern provinces to prepare for heavy rains, flooding and rock slides.

Vietnam is hit by an average of eight to 10 tropical storms between July and October every year, which often cause heavy material and human losses.

Related news:

> Savage storm pummels eastern China, killing 98

> Three dead as storm rips across Australia's east coast
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"It may not be your fault, but it is your problem."The first time I heard that phrase, I was 3,000 feet in the air, piloting a single-engine plane, with a hood wrapped around my head that blocked all view of the horizon and the ground. Beside me, the instructor watched as I struggled to scan the instrument panel and keep the plane within the instrument flight rules tolerance of 100 feet above or below the assigned altitude.Seemingly within the time of a single scan around the instruments, we were under our assigned altitude by 300 feet. Had I been distracted and drifted downward? Or had the rolling Pennsylvania hills below me created a downdraft that had sucked us toward the earth? "Did I do that?" It was only a rhetorical question, but a dangerous one if we had been flying in the clouds. We had to get back to a safe altitude. Stewing about why it happened had to take a backseat to fixing the problem.This tale should resonate with a public-administration audience. A common characteristic in deadlocked public agencies and policy debates is a preoccupation with assigning blame, often as an avoidance strategy to solving an unwelcome, difficult problem. And yet, as a journalist friend remarked when we talked about this, "Don't those words kind of define government, i.e., dealing with problems that aren't your fault, but your responsibility?"Certainly those problems are all too familiar to public officials at every level of government, from deferred maintenance of critical infrastructure to the horrific failure of our health-care system for military veterans to our poorly performing public schools. Yet one need look no further than the current state of public-sector pensions for an answer to my friend's question. From the vantage point of two states, I've watched ongoing pension crises disrupt budget cycles year after year.Twenty years ago, most states were in strong positions when it came to funding pensions for their retirees. But beginning in the mid- to late 1990s, small but often knowing deviations from good pension practice began creeping in, compounding until the straying states faced billions of dollars in unfunded obligations.In New Jersey and Pennsylvania, successive executive administrations and legislatures overestimated future fund returns; offered enriched benefits without adequate, actuarially calculated catch-up payments; and simply failed to appropriate full Annual Required Contributions. It was a hot mess growing exponentially, as data compiled by the Center for State and Local Excellence for the teachers' pension funds for New Jersey and Pennsylvania illustrate.Even as the public plans have headed further and further into disaster, the blame game has continued, stretched across decades, gubernatorial administrations and political parties. In states facing these self-inflicted pension pressures, " reform" rarely refers to finding money to address disastrously underfunded future obligations that already have been incurred but to changing pension systems going forward. Challenges to decades of judicial decisions protecting earned pensions similarly delay starting to pay the piper. They would be Pyrrhic victories anyway: The fiscal hole is so deep that any judicial relief would only marginally affect the size of the deficit.As a pilot, I had to correct my mistakes quickly, because the consequence of not making a course correction was potentially fatal. These pension challenges have been years in the making and will now take decades to fully correct. But the longer the delay, the more fiscally brutal the price of doing so.While the two states' teachers' funds are still deeply underfunded, Pennsylvania has begun the slow slog back by successively increasing the proportion of required employer contributions actually paid until it reached 80 percent in 2015. The budget pain at the school-district level has been acute and will continue, but the fund is at last moving in the right direction. Meanwhile, however, its neighbor across the Delaware River continues to fly heedlessly into the clouds.
A group that wants to end marijuana prohibition, and to have pot be regulated like alcohol, has endorsed conservative Republican Frank Edelblut and liberal Democrat Steve Marchand for governor.It is the first formal major endorsements in New Hampshire from the Marijuana Policy Project, an organization that advocated for the state's medicinal marijuana law and continues to fight for decriminalization of small amounts of pot.The endorsements are twinned with the Marijuana Policy Project's voter guide for the state primary, which is Sept. 13.The group also endorsed former state Sen. Jim Rubens, a Hanover Republican who is challenging U.S. Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-NH, in the GOP primary, based in part on Ayotte's past opposition to decriminalization.Gov. Maggie Hassan, a Democrat running for U.S. Senate, has similarly opposed decriminalization."Any of the Democratic candidates would be an upgrade from Maggie Hassan," said Matt Simon, New England Political Director for the Marijuana Policy Project.The New Hampshire Legislature considered another bill earlier this year for lowering the penalty for first-time possession, including language to make one-quarter ounce a violation, rather than a Class A offense, but the decriminalization went nowhere.
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For years, San Antonios leaders have been urging Congress to fund construction of a new federal courthouse in the citys downtown. The current courthouse, originally built as a theater in the 1960s, lacks adequate security and is plagued by poor ventilation and unsafe drinking water. Now the effort is paying off. Congress has cut funding for courthouses in recent years, but the latest budget includes money for eight new ones, and San Antonio is on the list.The victory for the city was aided, in part, by lobbyists hired over a long period of years. While one government lobbying another doesnt often receive the same attention as lobbying by private industries, its an everyday occurrence in state capitols and in Washington. Data reported by the Center for Responsive Politics indicates that states, localities and their associations collectively spent $71 million in federal lobbying last year. The education sector, primarily colleges and universities, spent another $77 million. When combined, more was spent on those two areas of public-sector lobbying than defense, oil and gas, and some other major industries.Intergovernmental relations is one of those under-the-radar-activities for any city, says Jeff Coyle, who heads government affairs for San Antonio. How a city relates to and is governed by states and the federal government is crucially important to people in the community, whether they realize it or not.Some governments employ dedicated intergovernmental relations staff, and a select few larger cities maintain personnel in Washington. Many contract with private lobbying firms to give them broader reach. State and national associations further represent governments and groups of officials on a range of issues.At the federal level, top priorities of state and local government associations include protecting tax exemption for municipal bonds and seeking the authority to collect sales taxes from online retailers. Whether its education, advocating or lobbying, those who are closest to the people ought to have a seat at the table in informing decisions made by other levels of government, says Carolyn Coleman, director of federal advocacy for the National League of Cities.Puerto Rico spent about $2.3 million lobbying federal lawmakers last year -- more than any other government -- as lawmakers debated how to help address the territorys fiscal crisis. Most of the large spenders were universities -- 14 spent more than $500,000 each on lobbying last year. San Antonio spent just under $200,000 on its federal lobbying efforts, which included the campaign for the new courthouse. Its always a challenge to make sure were high enough on the priority list, says San Antonios Coyle, while living within what we can afford.In state capitols, localities are increasingly pushing back against laws limiting their jurisdiction on issues ranging from local fracking bans to minimum-wage ordinances. While many such proposals reflect partisan rivalries, others involve budgetary restrictions or operational measures that carry major implications. One bill San Antonio and other Texas localities fought last year proposed sharply reducing the amount that municipal property tax revenues could increase in the absence of an election. We spend 80 percent of our time playing defense, Coyle says, protecting our ability to make decisions at the local level rather than have state government dictate what we do.Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has not only supported a variety of preemption efforts but has repeatedly called for a prohibition on school districts or their boards spending money to lobby the legislature. Abbott sees the practice as a conflict of interest. School districts should directly represent the needs of their schools and not waste taxpayer resources on lobbyists, he said during a 2013 campaign speech.Two bills introduced in the Texas Legislature last year targeted government lobbying more broadly. A state senate proposal would bar political subdivisions that impose taxes from using public funds to influence legislation, with exceptions.State Sen. Konni Burton, the bills sponsor, views government lobbying as an improper use of public funds, saying it puts an unnecessary layer between state and local elected officials. While Burton says she is comfortable with government associations disseminating information on bills, she doesnt think they should lobby actively. Our taxpayer dollars are being used to work against us in Austin, Burton says. When I say that Im against taxpayer-funded lobbying, it gets a huge round of applause.Local officials in Texas say that they need a lobbying voice in state decision-making as they dont have the time or resources to keep up with the thousands of bills introduced each session. Many serve only part time, and the Capitol is a long drive away in a state as large as Texas.The Texas Association of Counties fears that the anti-lobbying bills could make it easier for the state to impose new unfunded mandates on the localities. Theres a lot of political hay to be made that associations like ours are out to lobby against the best interests of taxpayers, says Paul Sugg, the associations legislative director. Were trying to limit government and limit new burdens that add to the property tax.The government lobbying bills stalled in the Texas Legislature this year, failing to making it out of committee in either the House or Senate. Burton plans to reintroduce her bill next session.Data on just how much localities spend lobbying state legislatures is scant. A few legislatures have enacted laws requiring localities to report their lobbying expenses to the state. Nevadas local governments recorded $3.3 million in lobbying expenditures last year, while Minnesotas total exceeded $8.9 million.At the federal level, lobbying expenditures for states, localities and their associations have remained flat the past three years after peaking at $95.7 million in 2009, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.Opposition has mostly come from conservative groups who argue its a waste of taxpayer money. Three residents of Williamson County, Texas, won a lawsuit against the county in 2008, citing a state statute that blocks counties from spending general fund revenues, in most cases, on dues to an association that attempts to influence legislation. A judge ordered the Texas Association of Counties to stop using county-paid dues for lobbying, so the group now funds the expenses using other sources of revenue.Outside of Texas, some public-sector groups include lobbying services in membership dues, while others allow governments to pay for representation separately. Governments and their associations are subject to more limitations than other lobby groups, such as not engaging in grassroots lobbying campaigns or attempts to influence elections.
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GIS - 27 July, 2016: Ocean economy, cultural exchanges, Francophonie and exploring new avenues of cooperation between the Kingdom of Belgium and Mauritius were at the fore of discussions this morning during a courtesy call of Ambassador designate of the Kingdom of Belgium, Mr Paul Cartier, on the Prime Minister, Sir Anerood Jugnauth, at the New Treasury Building in Port Louis. Ocean economy, cultural exchanges, Francophonie and exploring new avenues of cooperation between the Kingdom of Belgium and Mauritius were at the fore of discussions this morning during a courtesy call of Ambassador designate of the Kingdom of Belgium, Mr Paul Cartier, on the Prime Minister, Sir Anerood Jugnauth, at the New Treasury Building in Port Louis.

In a statement Mr Paul Cartier said that Sir Anerood Jugnauth expressed his concern about the recent terrorist attacks in Belgium and reiterated the support and solidarity of the Republic of Mauritius in the fight against terrorism in all its forms.

Mr Cartier said he was confident that the cultural exchanges between the two countries will deepen in a positive way and underscored that the presence of some 5 000 Mauritians settled in Belgium and some 1 000 Belgians living in Mauritius is clearly a positive sign of the strengthening of cultural ties.
Financial transparency is a clear proposition, but realizing the concept isnt so easy.This is the broad takeaway from a new report from the Data Foundation that details benefits and tangible goals to the Digital Accountability and Transparency Act (DATA Act). Advocates of the law, which passed in 2014 to standardize and publish all federal spending data online, are now attempting to unlock critical support from agencies and legislators  support in the form of appropriations funding from Congress, political authority for data gathering and a green light from agencies to do away with old reporting systems.Since the act's introduction, Hudson Hollister, executive director at the Data Coalition  the Data Foundations sister organization  has rallied to propel the DATA Act forward. The new report , jointly published by the foundation and MorganFranklin Consulting, stresses benefits while underscoring deadlines and likely routes for progress so agencies can begin publishing spending data by May 2017.Hollister said to open up the spending data, the Treasury Department, in partnership with the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB), published the nations first standardized data format last April, a Herculean task considering the differences between agencies.We need clarity about whether this new open data mode of reporting is going to become the only one," Hollister said, "because if it doesnt, there is a chance that DATA Act reporting might just wither on the vine."To sidestep that possibility, the Data Coalition is lobbying for legislators to appropriate funding to the U.S. Treasury and at least four agencies, something Hollister said he is optimistic about and that is already embedded within a few appropriations measures. Its likely, he added, that while the appropriation bills wont pass due to time constraints, a funding stopgap measure will likely include a portion of the DATA Act funding for the four agencies.Frank Landefeld, MorganFranklins managing director and public-sector market leader, said in his work as a consultant inside government and out, whats often underestimated when attempting systemic transitions are defining benefits and showing tangible steps for returns.We need people to realize that this isnt yet another compliance exercise, an unfunded mandate being driven by the government, he said. If people dont see that there is a clear pathway for them or their constituencies or stakeholders, its very difficult to get people to rally behind anything.The Data Foundation is proposing the creation of a DATA Act Operations Center to emphasize benefits and show immediate value to agencies. Hollister said the center would cost just under $10 million to establish, and would perform investigatory and analytic activities to detect financial fraud, waste and abuse. The concept is not new. Its formation draws inspiration from the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Boards Recovery Operation Center (ROC), used during the Great Recession to track stimulus spending with results published on Recovery.gov  shutdown in 2015 after the center had completed its duties.According to an article by GovExec , the ROC claimed almost $160 million in recoveries, forfeitures, seizures and estimated savings, while its recommendations for better use of funds totaled $8 billion and warnings about questionable costs totaled $5 billion.Data Foundation estimates put DATA Act Operations Center savings in the billions  if it was given the proper authority.If you just extrapolate that [operations center model] to all the funding thats spent every year on grants and contracts, we estimate that between $1.5 billion to $2 billion could be saved annually just by setting up a data analytics platform, Hollister said.Among its significant recommendations, the report noted that proprietary systems like the Data Universal Number System (the DUNS number) would have to be retired to do away with data system access fees, and that the presidents budget would also have to be connected to the DATA Acts structure.Despite challenges, both Hollister and Landefeld say there is momentum in D.C. to see the DATA Act through. CFOs are starting to see the valuable bridge the DATA Act would facilitate between accounting and grant writing systems, and digital consultancy 18F has completed a feasibility study that confirms a new way of financial reporting would not cripple old systems or processes.This has never been one persons, or even one offices, or even one agencys job before, Hollister said. These different types of reporting have not been just different jobs, but different professions, and so the fact that we have a data structure that unites them all to give us one picture of spending, that is a huge win.
Municipal Analytics, the Startup Way

Startups and the Civic Innovation Ecosystem

One of the great promises of open government this decade has been that it can serve as a catalyst for a new civic-centered innovation ecosystem. This ecosystem, replete with successful startups and data-driven advancements in government operations, could not only enhance transparency, but spur replication and generate economic value for cities. In 2013, McKinsey and Company concluded that open data, in all its forms, had the potential to contribute $3 trillion a year of value across the global economy. This and other reports set off a wave of excitement, encouraging Economist to declare that the open data movement has finally come of age.Yet in the nearly three years since, progress at the local level has been incremental. Cities like Chicago have achieved many operational data-driven advancements, yet the process of replication has been slower than many in 2013 may have hoped. Consider that for almost a year now, Chicagos food inspection program has been guided by predictive analytics.The original predictive algorithm, developed by the citys Department of Innovation and Technology (DoIT), relied entirely on open data to identify which restaurants were most likely to be in critical violation of city health codes. Working collaboratively with the Department of Public Health (CDPH) and pro-bono data scientists at Allstate Insurance , the algorithm was piloted in late 2014 to considerable success: inspectors were able to discover critical violations 25% faster, on average, then if they had used the traditional inspection method. By 2015, the algorithm was integrated into regular food inspection operations.The algorithm is open source, of course, and free to be used by anyone . Yet despite its efficacy at a low cost for Chicago, there has not been a rush from other cities to replicate the program (at least not yet). Following food inspections coverage from this website, the programs successand its replication challenges, for that matter  were even covered by Atlantic and PBS NewsHour , helping increase awareness.So why is this lack of replication the case? In short, it isnt always easy for cities to do it  even when the algorithm itself is free. Some governments dont have the internal staff or capacity to take on such projects. Others may be leery that the effort it takes to adopt an analytics program, whether perceived or actual, is not worth the cost. If cities without internal capacity wish to seek partners or vendors, they either may not know which are best to reach out to, or have their efforts complicated or undermined by complex procurement structures.While these barriers are only part of the story for why the innovation ecosystem is perhaps not as robust as it could be, a good starting point to overcoming them is to enhance open government beyond raw information on a portal. Its a point not lost on Tom Schenk, CDO of Chicago, who acknowledges the challenges of spurring replication. The specifics do change between cities, Schenk said to. To even pick up code and adapt it to your specific business practice still takes work.To address these challenges, Schenk has expanded Chicagos open data program during his tenure to include a growing GitHub repository of algorithms and codes, and even OpenGrid , an open-source, map-based platform to visualize city data. OpenGrid in particular has been made available to other cities as a one-click download on Amazon Web Services marketplace, easing barriers to access in the process.Yet for adopting something more advanced, like Chicagos food inspection program, sometimes the basic principles of hard work and a nimble operation can get the job done. Since the food inspection program was launched last year, one localitytaken advantage of the algorithm: Montgomery County, Maryland , located just outside of Washington, D.C.Montgomery County did not learn of Chicagos food inspections algorithm project on its own, nor did it attempt to replicate it through the efforts of its own internal staff. Rather, it began the process by working with Open Data Nation (ODN) , a D.C.-based civic startup that had taken notice of Chicago first and reached out to the County accordingly with the hopes of replicating it. ODN, founded less than two years ago by former Brookings and Urban Institute analyst Carey Anne Nadeau, uses open data to integrate predictive analytics processes into city operations.From what Ive seen, a lot of cities and local governments want to take on these big analytics projects themselves  they get that data-driven decision making is the future, says Nadeau. Doing that has worked in some big places, like New York, Chicago, and Boston, but is that model really applicable everywhere?It may not be in Montgomery County, which did not have the full capacity to take on a food inspections analytics program on its own. ODN was able to develop an advanced algorithm that used the countys available open data to prioritize inspectors work order task lists, so inspectors go to the highest-risk locations first. Building upon Chicagos original model, ODN also added in additional variables that Chicago did not originally include  such as new construction permits and data from Yelp.ODN then launched a pilot to compare Montgomery County inspection results from analytics-enhanced operations to results from business-as-usual operations. Like Chicagos, ODNs pilot was a success  and even yielded similar results: when using the predictive algorithm to guide food inspections, Montgomery County was able to identify 27% more violations, on average, and do so 3 days sooner than traditional methods. That increased efficiency was estimated to recapture an estimated $2 million for Montgomery County in its first year alone.These Montgomery County results are significant: it shows that such algorithms can not only be effective, but effective in highly varied settings. Whereas Chicago is a heavily urban area, Montgomery County is a combination of urban, suburban, and rural areas, containing roughly one third of Chicagos population in nearly double the amount of geographic space.ODNs work with food inspection algorithms has not been an ad hoc project, either, but rather the start of a business model. Following its successful work with Montgomery County, ODN has taken its process and turned it into a program called FIVAR (Food Inspection Violations, Anticipating Risk) . FIVAR combines ODNs algorithm with a web application so that cities may use their open data in real-time to enhance their food inspections processes. The application, currently undergoing beta testing, is already in use in Montgomery County.In its use of analytics, FIVARs end goals are ultimately the same as those of Chicagos DoIT analytics team: to use analytics as a tool to keep costs down by enhancing government efficiency and effectiveness.ODNs work shows that startups can play an important role in helping fill the innovation replication gap in local government. Its a role that Nadeau believes can make advanced analytics accessible to all cities and governments, not just large ones.In our consultations with Montgomery County  and in interviewing health inspectors in more than 30 cities weve realized that it often takes a good amount of resources, energy, and effort to transform government from within, says Nadeau. But whether or not theyre wary of analytics, they all have one key value in common: doing the best with what they have. And thats where startups can come in  to generate, test, and operationalize effective algorithms, they can augment cities capacity for data science in a way that cant be done in-house.ODNs work echoes the economic value and cross-jurisdiction replication activity that many have wanted to see in a growing civic innovation ecosystem. Projects like FIVAR also illustrate the mutually beneficial, give-and-take processes that startups have been generating with cities. Since Chicago has made their algorithms open source from the start, theyve helped open up opportunities for startups like usbut in return, theyre helping themselves, too, Nadeau notes.Indeed, by adding variables that were not in Chicagos original algorithm, ODNs food inspection model has provided Chicago with lessons on how they can enhance their own model as well. ODN has also been able to review and add changes, or commits, to Chicagos GitHub code page, strengthening it in the process. Its not just Open Data Nation thats doing this type of work, either, says Nadeau. There have been others who have helped improve what they have on GitHub as well.From Chicagos perspective, having organizations like ODN take advantage of its open government resources helps justify the program in the first place. Were always happy to talk to people who are interested in working with our code, says Schenk. At the end of the day, were all working towards the same mission. The more we can work together to make data and analytics easily accessible to everyone, the better off well be.
The city of New Orleans  whose compliance with the state Public Records Act has often been the subject of critical coverage , not to mention an ongoing lawsuit , from last month unveiled an online platform designed to make it easier for citizens to request government documents. The platform also hosts fulfilled requests online, allowing others to access those records for free.The Louisiana Public Records Act requires governments to provide records immediately if not in use at the time of a request, or three days if in use. The city failed to meet that deadline in about two-thirds of the requests The Lens filed in the two years leading up to its 2015 lawsuit. Some languished for months.As of Monday afternoon, there were 121 requests submitted through the NextRequest platform. Sixty-nine were fulfilled, with an average response time of about four business days. Another 26 were still pending, with an average wait time of nine business days and a few requests as much as a month old. The remainder were denied, typically because a requester asked for records that dont exist or for documents the city doesnt keep.In cases where the records might contain private information that needs to be removed, the city is required to determine how long it will take to examine and redact them and then provide a reasonable estimate , which it has routinely failed to do.NextRequest was founded last year by a San Francisco-based company made up of former Code For America fellows. New Orleanians may remember Code for America from 2012, when another group of fellows, working with the city, created BlightStatus , an online blight tracking tool. The idea for NextRequest grew out of a records request tool, called RecordTrac , that CEO Tamara Manik-Perlman helped create while working as a fellow in Oakland, Calif.We wanted to generalize the project to make it useful for other cities, Manik-Perlman said in a phone interview. So she and co-founders Reed Duecy-Gibbs and Andy Hull created NextRequest and began marketing it to local governments around the country. Its since been adopted by a number of local governments including Albuquerque San Diego and the Port of Seattle Manik-Perlman said a city Information Technology employee, Eric Ogburn, first contacted her in July 2015 to ask about NextRequest.I think the primary concern for them was the process was difficult for people to access records, she said. City officials hoped the system would help the city become more compliant with sunshine laws, she said. Ogburn did not respond to a request for comment.In December, the city purchased NextRequest for a year at a cost of about $19,000. The city did not solicit public bids for the service. That was not required because the price was below $20,000 and because NextRequest was providing a unique product, Mayor Mitch Landrieus spokesman Hayne Rainey wrote in an email toNextRequests ability to fill public record requests automatically and filling and tracking requests internally will bring increased efficiency, accuracy and cost savings to the City and public, Rainey wrote.Manik-Perlman said NextRequest mitigates some of the problems that cause delays. It does this in part by helping the city to more quickly recognize requests that are not the citys responsibility. For instance, the system flags certain keywords that often appear in requests for records that arent in its possession, such as divorce decree  a Civil District Court record  or birth certificate  a state record.The first step in the process, making a request, is not unlike the citys old process. With the new process, as with the old one, users can submit public-records requests for city departments through an online form . The only real difference is that where the city once had different processes for Police Department records requests and requests for those housed in City Hall, the NextRequest form works for any city department.After that, the new system is significantly different. It was difficult to see how often the city complied with the law. Now, all requests are posted online with the date each one was made. The system also shows if a request is still pending or has been closed and whether records have yet been made available.Under the old system, requesters would typically hear from the city only twice after making a request. First, at the three-day mark, when the city would email an initial response letter that did little more than acknowledge the request, and then again when the records were available.The new system allows requesters to track their requests as they make their way through city government, at least in theory. In the request-tracking portion of the page, many requests on the site now only show the same vague message  Support Staff Added  repeatedly. Anyone unsatisfied with that can write the city a follow-up message through the NextRequest system.Once a record is ready to be viewed, the city alerts the requester, who can then view them in person or pay for copies. If he or she chooses the latter, the city will upload the records online for anyone to view, another new feature. Thats another potential time-saver because users can see if a document has already been shared online.That means that over time the agency is essentially creating a searchable archive of public documents, Manik-Perlman wrote in a follow-up email. This enables the public to access documents directly, reducing the number of duplicate requests and saving time for both requesters and the city.Manik-Perlman said the company is working on a new feature that will allow users to pay copy fees directly through the site.By Monday morning, six documents were posted on the site, representing just three requests of the 69 the city has fulfilled in the past month. Asked why the city doesnt simply upload all requested records automatically, Rainey said the law requires the city to charge for the service.Yes, per ordinance the City must charge and must receive payment before we provide the record, regardless of format (email, cd, paper, nextrequest), he wrote.He was referring to the City Code, which is online for free, despite the code itself saying that copies of the code cost $150.
The broadband picture What is it?



Broadband, or high-speed Internet, offers data transmission rates higher than 25 megabits per second (Mbps) for downloads, and 3 Mbps for uploads, based on current FCC benchmarks.



What does Rochester have?



Charter Communications advertises download speeds "starting at" 60 Mbps. Another provider, CenturyLink, which offers DSL service, advertises speeds up to 40 Mbps. Actual speeds will vary by location, equipment, and traffic on the network. (https://www.inconsistentbabble.com/isp/)



What level of service would the city offer?



Rochester City Council member Michael Wojcik, a proponent of a city-based service, says the service would "easily" offer 1 gigabit  that's 1,000 megabits  per second for both uploads and downloads. That would be 40 times faster than the FCC's benchmark for downloads (and more than 300 times faster than the upload benchmark) and 16 times faster than the current available levels of service in Rochester.



Do other cities offer broadband Internet?



More than 450 communities do, according to the Institute for Local Self-Reliance. Longmont, Colo., offers a service similar to the one being considered in Rochester.  Post-Bulletin staff





(TNS) -- The city of Rochester, Minn., could implement broadband internet access as a public utility, but it would come with a capital cost estimated at more than $50 million to install the needed infrastructure, including fiber optic cables.The Rochester City Council and Rochester Public Utility (RPU) Board have each heard conceptual presentations from private companies about the possibility of adding broadband service as a utility. Phone and cable television services could be added, as well.Peter Hogan, RPU director of corporate services, on Monday gave the city council an updated report on the costs for implementation and early looks at customer fees, should the city decide to pursue the concept. Hogan presented the information on behalf of Alcatel-Lucent, a private company that had compiled the research based on local information and meetings in December last year, Hogan said.The report included a capital investment of about $53 million on the city's behalf, a cost that would have to be issued in bonds, raising the total investment to near $67 million.Alcatel-Lucent's assumptions were also based on the new public utility securing a 30 percent market share of internet customers. While a low-cost and lower service option would see customers pay about $10 per month for broadband internet service, the study showed about 58 percent of customers paying $50 or more per month for service.Given a 30 percent market share, Alcatel-Lucent projected the utility would be cash-flow positive within about four years, depending on whether phone and cable services were included.The benefits of improved service and competitive costs was a prospect Council Member Michael Wojcik saw as very positive, given reports from customers of incumbent services in Rochester."Right now the core neighborhoods, the places that need good broadband access, just aren't getting it from any incumbents," he said.A more detailed market study would give more accurate information on the potential market share a Rochester utility could capture, as well as more detailed cost information, Hogan said. That study would be paid for by the city and conducted by a third party.Wojcik had contacted another municipality that he called a model example of public utility broadband, Longmont, Colo. He requested the council take three actions to move forward: ask city or RPU staff to work with Longmont staff to analyze similarities between the cities; fund the market study; and research any questions related to bonding for the capital costs.Hogan estimated it would cost near $1 million to advance the city's plans to the point of selling bonds, including the market study.Council Member Mark Hickey asked for more information before the city committed to any more costs. Other Minnesota municipalities, including Monticello, had attempted to implement broadband utilities, with mixed results, Hickey noted."I'd like to know what a ballpark (cost) is on a market study before we commit to that step, because I assume that's going to be a rather expensive next step," Hickey said. "So far I've got a lot more questions than anything else, even before I'm willing to take that step of the marketing study."The council has more work to do before it could authorize a market study and that includes consulting with the RPU Board of Directors. RPU, due to its charters, cannot fund study of broadband as a utility. To commit further staff time to studying broadband would require the board's support, said RPU General Manager Mark Kotschevar.The council agreed to seek the RPU board's input on moving forward with a market study. The board's next meeting is today, but it would likely defer the topic to its August meeting, Kotschevar said.
(TNS) -- In their book The Rise of the Naked Economy, Jeremy Neuner and Ryan Coonerty state that by 2020, 40 percent of the U.S. workforce will either freelance, consult or run their own businesses.So when UC Santa Cruz Crown College Provost Manel Camps asked instructor Nada Miljkovic to pitch some course ideas in fall 2015, she was quick to suggest a hands-on introduction to entrepreneurship.Camps loved the idea and brought Sue Carter, director of UCSCs Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurial Development , on board to co-teach the course.Carter had participated in a summer seminar taught by Silicon Valley startup guru and Stanford University instructor Steve Blank in 2011. Based on that experience, Carter and Miljkovic organized the course around Blanks Lean LaunchPad curriculum.After raising its own funding through the UCSC Foundation board of trustees , the Summer Entrepreneurship Academy was born in June. The eight-week, web-based course guides 10 students through the process of developing, vetting and pitching a business idea.We start with customer discovery and have the students research product and market fit, Miljkovic said. They quickly learn to pivot and reiterate their business idea based on what they learn from interviewing at least 20 potential customers.Margaret Ackroyd arrived at the Academy this summer with an idea to use nanotechnology to purify heavy metals from drinking water. After interviews with potential customers, including parents and other students, she discovered that everyone was primarily concerned with lead in tap water and would be willing to pay as much as $20 for a solution.After the tragedy at Flint, Michigan, most of the education about water quality was done for me, Ackroyd said. They didnt really understand nanotechnology, but they did express concern about the current detection technology for water quality.Ackroyd realized nanotechnology wasnt necessary to provide the product her customers wanted. As a result, she pivoted from her original idea to a filter that could simultaneously detect what was in the water.Other student business ideas include a camera lens sharing app described as Uber for photographers, a Twitter-like platform that allows students to ask professors in large lecture halls and a virtual reality training system for first responders that also measures biometrics.In early August, when the Academy concludes, each team will pitch its business idea to the rest of the class and possibly even an actual venture capitalist.While the Academy already is funded for next summer, Miljkovic hopes it will become into a year-round program. She also plans to develop a partnership with the National Science Foundations Innovation Corps program.This process represents the future of business, Miljkovic said. These are necessary job skills of the 21st century.The Summer Entrepreneurial Academy is open to UCSC graduate and undergraduate students, as well as members of the community. If you are interested in being involved as a student, member of the teaching team, principal investigator or business mentor, please contact Sue Carter at sacarter@ucsc.edu.
(TNS) -- On a lonely mountain plain half an hour east of Reno, off a street named Electric Avenue, Tesla Motors Co. is building a massive battery plant called Gigafactory 1.It's a huge bet for a company known for taking risks: When its fully up and running, the $5-billion plant will almost double the world's production of lithium-ion batteries by 2018.So far, the factory is only partly complete, but the electric car maker is racing to speed up its schedule and get as much built as possible by the time the companys new Model 3 starts exiting the assembly line late next year.We are laying the foundation for battery construction, which is probably the biggest constraint to the success of the Model 3 and future Tesla vehicles, Chief Executive Elon Musk said during a media tour of the factory Tuesday.For now, 1.9 million square feet of factory space has been built in the form of a giant four-story rectangle sided in white, with a red stripe running along the top.Eventually, Gigafactory 1 will stretch across a desolate landscape with more than 10 million square feet of space, making it one of the worlds largest buildings.Whats more, Musk predicts stationary energy storage will eventually be the size of [Teslas] auto business.Speaking to a few dozen reporters after Tuesdays tour, the co-founder called the factory incredibly romantic and said he sees more gigafactories down the road for Tesla  and from other companies.It makes sense to have a gigafactory in Europe, one in China, one in India  wherever there is a huge demand for the product, he said. He hopes that the factories could one day combine cell, battery pack and vehicle assembly at the same location.Tesla is planning a grand opening of the giant new battery factory Friday, although it will be many more months before its fully operational.Its extremely crucial to their success, Jessica Caldwell, senior analyst at Edmunds.com, said of the factory. Tesla hopes the plant will ensure a steady battery supply for its vehicles and cut battery costs by at least 30%.Thats especially important as Tesla positions itself, for the first time, as a carmaker for the masses  which means it needs to be prepared for mass-market production numbers.More than 373,000 potential customers have already put down Model 3 pre-order deposits, surprising even Tesla executives. Now the company  which has been plagued by missed production targets in the past  has to deliver on its promise to roll out the first of the cars by late 2017.The gigafactory will help make that possible. By bringing all of Teslas battery production under one roof, and at such a large scale, Musk said Tesla would be able to meet customer demand for the Model 3 and its other vehicles.And it wants to do that sooner than previously expected. After the windfall of pre-orders, Musk announced that he would accelerate Tesla's production plans by two years and pushed workers to speed up work on the gigafactory so that it would be ready to handle the load.The Model 3 will come with a starting price of $35,000, around half the price of the luxury flagship Model S. Tesla delivered about 50,000 Model S cars last year but expects sales of all three of its models to hit 500,000 vehicles in 2018.Musk has grand plans for the company. Last week, he said Tesla would introduce light trucks, heavy trucks and buses to sell in addition to its Model S, Model 3 and Model X SUV.Gigafactory 1 is part of an even more ambitious Musk plan to create a new kind of sustainable energy company to provide technologies necessary to prevent, as he puts it, the collapse of civilization.If Teslas recent bid for solar panel maker SolarCity goes through, a customer could run a house on solar power, recharge the electric car and store surplus power for later, all with Tesla products and services.Considering that he is moving much more beyond transportation, this gigafactory and the batteries it produces is the linchpin for everything else, said Edmunds.coms Caldwell.If Musk cant achieve the economies of scale and decrease production costs while increasing battery efficiencies, the future of Tesla would seem in question.The factory now makes battery packs for rechargeable home and business storage units called Powerwall and Powerpack, with battery cells provided by Panasonic Corp., a Gigafactory 1 investor.The batteries in modern electric cars dont resemble the familiar square black box under the hood on gasoline-powered cars. Instead, thousands of lithium-ion cells  the same kind of batteries that power laptop computers  are folded into packs and installed under the car.Gigafactory workers are busy fitting out the battery cell production part of the plant, which will be run by Panasonic. Right now, Panasonic cells are made in Japan and shipped to Teslas Fremont assembly plant.When the battery factory starts full-run production, it will all be done there. Raw material will be fed into one end, battery cells will be manufactured, then assembled into modules and formed into battery packs.Within three or four years, Musk said, he expects 10,000 employees to work at the gigafactory.The plants $5-billion cost is financed through Tesla stock offerings and cash from Panasonic, the Japanese electronics giant, which is dropping $1.6 billion on the project.The investment pile is topped with incentives worth $1.25 billion from Nevada  no property tax for 10 years, no sales tax for 20. Plus, $195 million in tax credits that Tesla can sell for cash.Tesla could use more cash: The capital required in auto manufacturing is massive.If the Model 3 is produced in volume with no major hitches, and sells as well as Tesla hopes, some of that pressure will ease. Until then, cash will be tight and short-sellers will continue to bet on failure. The most recent financial reports show Teslas free cash flow in negative territory.
Engine performance in formula one appears to be rapidly converging.

When the new 'power unit' era began in 2014, Mercedes had a clear lead but Ferrari has been first to close that gap in the years since.

"I think our engine is as good as Mercedes," Speed Week quotes the Maranello team's chief Maurizio Arrivabene as saying. "In aerodynamics and tyre management we still lag behind."

But it is Red Bull that has actually slipped between Mercedes and Ferrari as the second fastest car in 2016, with the team powered by Tag-Heuer branded Renault engines.

"Renault has caught up," team boss Christian Horner is quoted as saying.

"And we know that there is more to come. We are currently about 35 kilowatts (47hp) behind -- that's what the Renault guys tell us."

However, Red Bull will have to wait until 2017 for the rest of the gap to be bridged, with Renault's Remi Taffin announcing that the next big step won't be seen until next year.

"The big step will be next year's engine, race one," he said.

"Until we get to the end of this season we will be working on the specification we have now, trying to extract the most out it, but there won't be any more big steps as we had for races one and six," Taffin added.

(GMM)
Sebastian Vettel says he remains "patient" for success at Ferrari.

Amid talk in the media of a 'crisis' and that technical chief James Allison is set to leave, team boss Maurizio Arrivabene last Sunday denied that number 1 driver Vettel might also be running out of patience.

But publications including Spain's Marca quote the German as saying: "Generally, patience is not a feature of a racing driver because it contradicts all of its principles.

"But some things you know whether they need more or less time," he added ahead of his first home grand prix as a Ferrari driver this weekend at Hockenheim.

"My move to Ferrari was never on the basis that everything will work by tomorrow. The team is building itself up again and for that we need time," said Vettel.

Vettel, 29, said he hopes his presence in a red car this weekend, rekindling memories of Germany's greatest son Michael Schumacher, is a boost for the fans.

"It would be very nice," he answered when asked if it will boost spectator numbers. "For me I think it is something very special to drive a Ferrari for the first time in Germany.

"Let's see if the people also think it's special and there are more red caps than silver," Vettel smiled.

"(Hometown) Happenheim is not far from Hockenheim, only half an hour, so there will be lots of my family and friends at the track which makes it very special.

"I started racing in karts in Walldorf, which is only 5 kilometres away so it's like racing in my living room," he added.

However, Vettel currently lives with his partner and young children in Switzerland, but he said nothing will change his "identity" as a German.

"Of course, I've based my life now in Switzerland but my family and most of my friends are all still at home," he said.

(GMM)
(Facebook/TheLastShipTNT)Chandler tries to look into a possible virus mutation.

"The Last Ship's" third season has so far been full of shocking twists and turns. But none has been more shocking than the loss of the American president. But how will this affect Chandler and the rest of his crew as they try to make it home?

The previous episode of "The Last Ship" saw Chandler (Eric Dane) and the crew of the Nathan James successfully getting their comrades back and capturing Takehaya. The pirate revealed how the alleged cure that the US sent was useless as even those who received it had died. Despite everything that happened, Takehaya was able to redeem himself in a way by helping the Nathan James dodge both the Chinese warships that were after them and the mines that littered the ocean. While all this was going down, President Michener (Mark Moses) addressed the nation and asked for their forgiveness for bringing his infected son into the stadium, thereby infecting thousands of people. The episode ended with Kara (Marissa Neitling) discovering that the president's guilt had pushed him into committing suicide.

Episode 8, "Sea Change," will prove even more challenging for Chandler, the crew of the Nathan James, Kara, and the rest of the country as tragedy strikes the US again. But the country will try to move on and learn from recent events. Meanwhile, Chandler looks into the possibility of a virus mutation.

A trailer for the upcoming episode starts with people paying their respects. Based on the soldiers and the flag-draped coffin, they're mourning the death of the president. His vice president is later seen saying that the "world has lost a great leader" and implores that he needs help to get up to speed.

A new weapon appears to have been discovered on board a ship and it's later detonated in a secure room. It appears to have released a kind of gas. Kara is shown telling the others that it's their job "to hold the country together," but Chandler is obviously frustrated with her answer. The clip ends with Takehaya apparently in danger of being executed.

The question now is whether Chandler still has the time to investigate a possible virus mutation and stop it from further infecting and killing people.

Episode 8 of "The Last Ship" will be aired on TNT on July 31 at 8 p.m.
Qualcomm Incorporated and Lear Corporation, a leading global supplier of automotive seating and electrical systems, have entered into a Wireless Electric Vehicle Charging (WEVC) license agreement. Lear will be including Qualcomm Halo WEVC technology ( earlier post ) in its product portfolio to commercialize WEVC systems for Plug-In Hybrid (PHEV) and Electric Vehicles (EV) manufacturers, as well as wireless charging infrastructure companies.

Under the terms of the agreement, Qualcomm has granted Lear a royalty-bearing license to develop, make and supply WEVC systems based on Qualcomm Halo technology. Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. will provide technical expertise and engineering support.

Qualcomm and Lear are collaborating on multiple WEVC production programs across multiple car companies.

Qualcomm is providing Lear with a comprehensive technology transfer package, aimed to enhance their ability to develop commercially and technically viable WEVC systems and to support the future design of improved WEVC systems.
The team led by University of Utah electrical and computer engineering assistant professor Berardi Sensale-Rodriguez and University of Minnesota chemical engineering and materials science assistant professor Bharat Jalan revealed that when the two oxide compounds interact with each other, the bonds between the atoms are arranged in a way that produces many free electronsthe particles that can carry electrical current. STO and NTO are by themselves known as insulatorsi.e., not conductive at all. When they interface, however, the amount of electrons produced is a hundred times larger than what is possible in semiconductors.

Engineers from the University of Utah and the University of Minnesota have discovered that interfacing two particular oxide-based materialsstrontium titanate (STO) and neodymium titanate (NTO)makes them highly conductive, a boon for future power electronics that could result in more power-efficient laptops, electric cars and home appliances that also dont need cumbersome power supplies. Their findings were published in an open access paper in the journal, APL Materials, from the American Institute of Physics.

It is also about five times more conductive than silicon [the material most used in electronics]. Berardi Sensale-Rodriguez



Sheet conductivity versus electron density for various 2DEGs (2DEG = two-dimensional electron gas free to move in two dimensions, but tightly confined in the third. Most 2DEG are found in transistor-like structures made from semiconductors). The measurements show that because of an enhanced nanoscale mobility, the 2DEG in NTO/STO can reach conductivity levels that are on the same order of those in AlGaN/GaN or in typical quality large-area CVD graphene on Si-substrates. Arezoomandan et al. Click to enlarge.

This discovery could greatly improve power transistors by making power supplies much more efficient. Today, electronics manufacturers use gallium nitride for transistors in power supplies and other electronics that carry large electrical currents. GaN, however, has been optimized for many years and likely cannot be made more efficient. In this discovery made by the Utah and Minnesota team, the interface between STO and NTO can be at the very least as conductive as gallium nitride and likely will be much more in the future.

When I look at the future, I see that we can perhaps improve conductivity by an order of magnitude through optimizing of the materials growth. We are bringing the possibility of high power, low energy oxide electronics closer to reality. Bharat Jalan

Power transistors that use this combination of materials could lead to smaller devices and appliances because their power supplies would be more energy efficient. Because there is less power wasted (wasted electricity usually dissipates into heat), these devices will not run as hot as before, says Sensale-Rodriguez. He also believes that if more electronics use these materials for transistors, collectively it could save significant amounts of electricity for the country.

Its fundamentally a different road toward power electronics, and the results are very exciting. But we still need to do more research. Berardi Sensale-Rodriguez

Co-authors on the paper also include: University of Utah electrical and computer engineering professor Ajay Nahata; U graduate students Sara Arezoomandan, Hugo Condori Quispe, Ashish Chanana; and Minnesota graduate student Peng Xu. The work at University of Minnesota is funded by the Air Force Young Investigator Research Program, and the work in Utah is primarily supported by the National Science Foundations Materials Research Science and Engineering Center at the University of Utah.

Resources
Green River Fire Department Capt. JP Apostolope was recently selected by the American Legion to receive the honor of "Firefighter of the Year for the State of Wyoming."

"It's very special," Capt. Apostolope said. "It's a great achievement for me."

Captain Apostolope is a second generation firefighter and started his firefighting career in 1990 at the GRFD.

"My dad was a firefighter and I just always wanted to do that," he said.

Firefighting is very fulfilling for Apostolope for many reasons.

"I like the camaraderie, the challenges and the different people you meet, and I like helping peo...
Administration confident rodeo will continue rotation

Rodeo is the main event for the Sweetwater County Events Complex, but comments from Gillette about attempting to keep the National High School Finals Rodeo at the Cam-Plex have caught their attention.

After winning a bid to host the NHSFR in 2018 and 2019, the complex was also awarded the opportunity to host the Wyoming State High School Finals Rodeo in 2017 and 2018. The complex plans to bid on the NHSFR for 2020 and 2021 as well as the National Junior High School Finals Rodeo in 2022 and 2023.

We just want to be part of that rotation, Lena Warren, marketing and event coordinator for...
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GREENWICH  A town agency has given its approval to a project that many residents say is years overdue  the dredging of Binney Park pond.

But dont expect the islands of silt there to disappear anytime soon.

Well be starting around this time next year, assuming we obtain the budget to do the project, Deputy Commissioner of Public Works James Michel told members of the Inland Wetlands and Watercourses Agency this week. We believe we can do that.

The agency on Monday approved a project to dredge the pond, with the stipulation that the removed silt  expected to be as much as 9,500 cubic yards  be moved off-site and disposed of in a responsible manner.

The pond, last dredged in 1997, is marred by large deposits that have been slowly growing and collecting trash.

Officials said they do not know how much the work could cost, but last time the pond was dredged the price tag was about $1 million.

The DPW as part of the project is seeking to adopt measures to keep the pond from returning to its current state once its cleared.

In 2013, the town committed $100,000 to a study to find out where the sediment comes from and how it can be stopped.

Much of the silt could be coming from Cider Mill Brook from the northwest and another brook that originates in Stamford and flows from the east, officials said Monday.

The proposed plan is to construct forebays that would collect and direct the silt from those two sources, said Senior Wetland Analyst Robert Clausi. The project also calls for annual dredging to maintain the quality of the pond.

Michel said neighbors had not yet been told about the work, but would be given more information in a public meeting when the approval and funding process had advanced further.

Last week dozens of dead fish accumulated near the southern shores of the pond  an occurrence officials said was likely unrelated to the silt problem.

Conservation Director Denise Savageau said the fish were probably killed when an abundance of saltwater and fish washed over a dam separating the pond from Long Island Sound at an extraordinarily high tide brought on by the full moon. She said the incident did not have to do with pollution, despite the oily sheen that was visible across part of the pond and trash getting stuck in the silt.

Michael Long, director of the Division of Environmental Services at the Greenwich Health Department, said the town tests the two major rivers  the Mianus and Byram  on a quarterly basis, but doesnt test the water quality of ponds in town unless it receives a complaint.

If we get a complaint where testing is warranted, we would sometimes do that, Long said. We cant do everything. Its sporadic, I would say.

It seemed reasonable that the fish were killed because they were saltwater fish stranded in fresh water, he said, so his department decided not to expend resources on performing a test.

He said he couldnt recall a complaint that resulted in a test of Binney Park pond in recent years, but late last week, after the fish kill, his department received a complaint from a neighbor living upstream about a smell of excrement emanating from a brook.

We had the inspector take some samples and it did appear to be sewage, Long said. But we went back the next day with the (Sewer Division) and it appeared to be cleared up.

He said the Sewer Division found no evidence of leaks in any pipes in the surrounding area. No tests were taken downstream, or in Binney Pond.

The sample looked bad, but after a day of sitting it seemed to have flown through, Long said.

pfrissell@hearstmediact.com; @PeregrineFriss
ELKO  Communities in Schools will host its Nite at the Races fundraiser Aug. 5 at the Red Lion Hotel and Casino.

Dinner will be served at 6 p.m. with races starting at 7 p.m.

Tickets are $40 at the door and $35 in advanced. Couples can also get advanced tickets for $50. People must be 21 or older to attend.

The horse races will be shown on video and attendees will have the chance to vote on their favorite horse and win prizes for best hat and Derby attire.

For information or purchase tickets call 775-753-9183.
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Peter DaPuzzo gave them their start.

But for dozens of bond traders and computer programmers who DaPuzzo helped get a foot in the door at Cantor Fitzgerald, the promise of a bright future proved to be fleeting.

And that start exacted an unspeakable toll.

DaPuzzo lost 658 colleagues at the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, many of whom reported to him as the then-head of the institutional equities division at the bond trading firm.

"It was a guilty feeling that I had, having hired them," DaPuzzo said.

"The other thing was, why wasn't I there? Some of these boys were like children to me."

DaPuzzo took off the morning of Sept. 11 to meet with a home-refinancing appraiser in Greenwich.

The married father of three wound up with a new lease on life, one that he said has caused him to re-evaluate everyday trials and tribulations and to lean on his Roman Catholic faith.

"So the market's down five days in row," said DaPuzzo, now retired. "These guys are gone. Really, everything is small stuff when you compare it to life."

DaPuzzo was recently asked by his estate planner how long he expects to live.

Five years seemed like a reasonable estimate to the Riverside resident, who celebrated his 70th birthday this year and his 50th wedding anniversary to his high school sweetheart, Mary Jane DaPuzzo.

He is living on borrowed time, the reminders ever-present.

Like the framed photo from a 1996 company party at the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum, which DaPuzzo plastered with tiny stickers after the attacks.

His is the only face without a star next to it.

"Look at all the stars. Look at all these dead people," DaPuzzo said. "Everybody that's from Cantor here is dead."

Nine out of 134 people in DaPuzzo's division cheated death. They owe their lives to oversleeping, a timely business trip or vacation.

"We were saved for a reason," DaPuzzo said. "God must have saved us for a reason so we could do something more than we were doing."

Cantor Fitzgerald occupied the 101st through the 105th floors of the iconic north tower. No one above the impact zone of American Airlines Flight 11, which tore a gaping hole from the 93rd to the 99th floors, survived.

Among the dead was Brian Cummins, 38, a Greenwich resident and college roommate of DaPuzzo's middle son, Doug, from the University of Colorado.

There was Alex Steinman, 32, a high school mentor to DaPuzzo's youngest son, Pete, and John Candela, 42, a childhood friend of DaPuzzo's eldest son, Jeff.

"He had gotten married and had two kids," DaPuzzo said of Candela. "And we went to his funeral."

DaPuzzo lost his secretary, Joan McConnell, 47, a newlywed who he recalled as willing to go the extra mile, as well as one of his closest friends, Edward Mazzella Jr., 62.

"Ed was to retire on Friday, Sept. 8," DaPuzzo said. "But he offered to keep working until Sept. 14, as his co-worker was on vacation until then."

Another one of the lost was Charles Zion, 54, an equities trader and a senior vice president of the firm from Greenwich.

"He was the No. 1 salesman in the firm," DaPuzzo said of Zion.

Without the moral support of his family and the spiritual guidance of the Rev. Michael Moynihan, then-pastor of St. Michael the Archangel Roman Catholic Church on North Street, DaPuzzo said he doesn't know how he would have been able to overcome the psychological toll of Sept. 11.

He attended 33 memorial services and funerals after the attacks, and delivered eulogies at several.

"The same God that created us, and if you think God is so good, can take us away," said DaPuzzo, who lived in Wilton for 11 years before moving to Greenwich in 1996.

Cantor Fitzgerald maintains a suburban office in Darien, as it did before the attacks, though in a different location. It was there that DaPuzzo said that the final words of his fallen colleagues could be heard over an intercom system the morning of the attacks.

"They had live mikes open and people were yelling through them," DaPuzzo said. "The stories you were hearing were just horrible."

DaPuzzo couldn't help but think back to Feb. 26, 1993, when a truck bomb was detonated beneath the north tower, killing seven people and injuring more than 1,000. He had joined the firm one month earlier.

"We walked down to 86, tried to get off and take the elevators down," DaPuzzo said. "The lights went out. We all had handkerchiefs in front of our faces. It was so dark you were afraid someone was going to fall."

The scenes inside the stairwell of a pregnant woman struggling to make the descent and several volunteers carrying a man in a wheelchair remain vivid.

"What else can bring you closer?" DaPuzzo said. "What other bonding is there when you think might die?"

Some of his colleagues were so spooked by the experience that they lobbied for the firm to break its lease, according to DaPuzzo, who said that his bosses ultimately balked because of the favorable lease terms.

"I said, `Well, all right, let's have more fire drills,' " DaPuzzo said.

DaPuzzo's office in the north tower faced southwest toward the Statue of Liberty. From 1985 to 1993, he worked on the 106th floor of the south tower for what was then Shearson Loeb Rhoades, an investment banking and retail brokerage firm run by fellow Greenwich resident Sandy Weill.

While he never could have envisioned what happened on Sept. 11, some aspects of the towers' design were cause for concern, from the opening of desk drawers to the swaying of the building during a hurricane.

"This is like being on a ship," DaPuzzo said. "They had elasticity because of the wind. We used to tease, God forbid if the building falls, you could walk across the Hudson River to New Jersey."

DaPuzzo will join his former colleagues on the 10th anniversary at a Cantor Fitzgerald memorial service in Central Park. Later, he will attend a Mass and luncheon at Fordham University in the Bronx, N.Y., where he is scheduled to deliver a speech at an event sponsored by the school and the Security Traders Association of New York.

Ground zero isn't on his itinerary, at least not on the anniversary. While he has donated money to the National Sept. 11 Memorial & Museum, DaPuzzo still hasn't set foot in the chasm where the towers once stood.

"I didn't want to see a hole in the ground," DaPuzzo said. "I didn't want to see where all my friends died. It was good people, hard-working people who just wanted to succeed."

Staff writer Neil Vigdor can be reached at neil.vigdor@scni.com or at 203-625-4436.
ELKO  Members of the Elko Council Navy League gathered at Great Basin College last week to present the colleges Veterans Resource Center with a $3,488 donation.

GBC Veteran Resource Coordinator Jacob Park, President Mark Curtis and Foundation Director Greg Brorby accepted the donation on behalf of the Veteran Resource Center.

Formed in 1902, Navy League is a civilian organization in support of the sea services. The Elko Council was chartered in 1988, and has provided annual scholarships to sailors and Marines at the Naval Air Station in Fallon and the Pickel Meadows Marine Mountain Warfare Training Center.

Local member Ann Nisbet presented the check to Curtis and stated the Elko Council has been impressed with what the VRC has accomplished in the community. Nisbet explained that the council wished to donate the groups remaining funds upon its discontinuance in May.

With regret, the Elko Council board closed our council in May, and we were determined to support local veteran efforts with remaining funds, said Nisbet. The GBC Veterans Center was selected as the recipient of these funds because we felt it was consistent with our overall objectives.

The council also presented the VRC with many other donated items, including an American flag, which formerly flew at the White House, a Vietnam War poster, and Navy recruitment gear and Navy League memorabilia.

It was a great pleasure to have met with the Elko Navy League. Their generous donations to the Veterans Resource Center are greatly appreciated and will be used for the operating costs and advertising to further our outreach of student veterans, said Park. Throughout the years the Navy League has done a great deal for our community and we would like to say thank you. We will be proud to showcase the donated items in the VRC in the Navy Leagues honor.

With the help of many community sponsors, the VRC is hosting Warrior of the Canyon a free walk/run/cycle event and barbecue on Saturday, Aug. 27 in Lamoille Canyon. Registration begins at 6 a.m., start time at 7:30 a.m. and a free lunch at noon.

Park encourages all veterans, their families, and all community supporters to participate in this free family event that he hopes will motivate veterans and the larger community to become active.
The center has been hosting bike rides twice weekly since the Fourth of July weekend. But proximity to Bruce Park  a hub for PokeStops  makes turning the bike ride into a Pokemon Go adventure inevitable, according to Arch Street Executive Director Kyle Silver.

To read more, click here or below.
Dont be fooled by that innocent look.

Police in Nashville say a customer eating at a local Japanese restaurant called to report a sexual assault Tuesday night after being squirted with a peeing water toy. The plastic figure, which shoots a stream of water from between its legs when its little toy pants are pulled down (see below), is one of the props the hibachi chefs at Wasabi use when cooking, and Isabelle Lassiter told police the chef sprayed her in the face with it  a claim the restaurant doesnt dispute, adding thats part of the normal show for diners, more or less.

Lassiter wasnt entertained, however, and she and her husband argue the incident amounted to a sexual-style assault. It peed on me, basically. Out of its wee-wee area, she explains, adding: He really didnt have a wiener, but you got the point.

Heres footage of the toy doing its thing (NewsChannel 5 reporter Jason Lamb went there):



****PLEASE SHARE!!**** WHAT DO YOU THINK?? Murfreesboro Police were called to Wasabi Japanese Steakhouse last night... Posted by Jason Lamb NC5 on Tuesday, July 26, 2016

Husband James tells NewsChannel 5 he was also mortified watching as the figure shot water out of its penis. For complete context, he adds it was in front of our minor children and grandchildren, although police apparently conducted a thorough anatomical examination and write that they observed the toy to have no penis and just a hole for the water to shoot out.



Wasabis manager has apologized to the Lassiters, who are contemplating pressing charges, but says the toys never caused problems before. Kids like it, he notes. They think its like a water gun, you know?


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Sony has confirmed that the company will be attending this year's IFA event in Berlin and will be holding a press conference on September 1. The trade show will begin September 2 and run through September 7.

While there's no word on what products the Japanese company will showcase at the event, on the mobile front, we're expecting the SD820-powered Xperia F8331 to be made official at least.

If you remember, we brought you an exclusive first look of the handset, which is said to be the successor to the Xperia X Performance. It was also the subject of a recent image leak.

Via
ELKO  Two cannabis-consulting businesses have opened in Elko since January.

These companies assist patients by pairing them with qualified physicians to assess their medical needs and, ideally, help them qualify for the states medical marijuana card.

The first agency in town was Cannabis Consulting Group LLC. The business is located at 1250 Lamoille Highway No. 416. Green Acres Consulting opened a few months later. Their office is located at 469 Idaho St.

Both businesses aim to educate the community about medical marijuana usage and the law. They also assist patients in obtaining a medical marijuana card, which allows a regulated amount of legal marijuana to be purchased or grown for the patients own medicinal purposes.

Both agencies provide the services of a state-licensed physician. Cannabis Consulting brings in a doctor once a month to see patients and Green Acres Consulting uses Skype to connect the patient with a doctor in Reno.

According to Tiffanie Huffman, owner of Green Acres Consulting, in the past local people had to travel to Reno or Las Vegas to meet with a physician who would prescribe medical marijuana for recognized illnesses.

Huffman claims that no local doctors have been willing to prescribe the drug to their patients for reasons that are not completely clear. Now, patients can consult a prescribing doctor without leaving town.

Once prescribed, the consultants help the patient fill out and submit the paperwork necessary to obtain a card. They still must purchase their medical marijuana supplies in Incline Village, Sparks, Reno or Las Vegas where the only dispensaries are located in Nevada.

Terra White, owner of Cannabis Consulting LLC, explained that a great deal of complexity comes into play because statutes often change. Both agencies help the patient deal with the difficulties inherent in the system.

Current records show that there are 239 Elko County residents who are legally registered and use a state-issued medical marijuana card.

The dispensary Sierra Wellness Connections website states that Nevadans diagnosed with a chronic or debilitating medical condition, as defined by NRS 453A.050, and seeking a registry identification card for the medical use of marijuana must apply through the Nevada Division of Public and Behavioral Health.

Some of the qualifying conditions include cancer, glaucoma, post-traumatic stress disorder and others listed on the Nevada Division of Public and Behavioral Health website.
ELKO  Authorities were notified Tuesday of a possible hit and run incident involving two vehicles that led to the arrest of a Colorado woman suspected of being under the influence with two minors in the vehicle.

Both vehicles were traveling east on Interstate 80 near Battle Mountain, said Nevada Highway Patrol Sgt. Alex Perez. One vehicle supposedly failed to maintain its lane and crossed into the other travel lane.

The victim of the occurrence provided law enforcement with a description of the vehicle and license plates.

Perez said the victim  driving a green Toyota Camry  followed the vehicle, described as a silver, passenger car, until losing contact.

The car was then seen and located by an NHP trooper in Wells, who made contact with the driver identified as Kiana N. Soto, 32, of Aurora.

The trooper suspected Soto was impaired, said Perez.

The Division of Child and Family Services was notified as two minors, an 8- and 13-year-old, were located in the vehicle.

Further investigation of the vehicle led to locating a firearm under the drivers seat and substantial amounts of suspected methamphetamine. It is believed to have been approximately 163.1 grams, said Perez.

Soto was arrested on U.S. Highway 93 for DUI, failure to give information to a party or parties at a vehicle accident, failure to maintain lane or improper lane change, possession of a gun under the influence of alcohol or drugs, child abuse or neglect, and trafficking a controlled substance of 28 or more grams.

Her bail was listed at $352,535.
ELKO  Law enforcement in the state is split on Question 1, but Elko County Sheriff Jim Pitts says he is against the gun control issue on Novembers ballot.

This gun control initiative is being advanced by Nevadans for Background Checks, a group funded by former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg. This same group supported the 2013 legislative efforts in Nevada for universal background checks, but Gov. Brian Sandoval vetoed that bill.

If voters pass Question 1 in November it will become effective Jan. 1.

Pitts said he agreed with Washoe County Sheriff Chuck Allen, who previously came out against the initiative.

This is for one thing a law that we cant enforce, Pitts said. Theres no way of enforcing this. Only the citizens who follow the law are going to be the ones who follow it, and the ones that are the criminals arent going to follow it anyway. How are we going to follow it up?

Allen made similar comments. Allen said he would not support Question 1 because it infringes upon the Second Amendment and will do absolutely nothing to stop criminals while criminalizing the commonplace activities of many Nevada gun owners.

Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo has not given an opinion on the proposed law, but Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson endorsed the measure. He said Question 1 closes the loophole in the law and would actually protect law-abiding gun owners from selling a gun to a felon or some other person who is prohibited by law from owning it.

Question 1, also called the Background Check Initiative, would increase who has to do a background check before selling a weapon. Federally licensed firearms dealers are required to run background checks on buyers to ensure they are not prohibited from buying or possessing a gun.

If Question 1 is passed, the law would require the seller and the buyer to appear jointly with the firearm and request a licensed dealer conduct a background check on the buyer. The licensed dealer who agrees to conduct the background check through the National Instant Criminal Background Check System shall take possession of the firearm and complete all the recordkeeping requirements. However, the seller of the firearm may remove the firearm from the business while the background check is being conducted. The dealer also may charge a reasonable fee for conducting the background check.

This would include sales at a gun show, over the internet or between friends.

If I sell a gun to you, whos going to know besides me and you? The third party is never going to know that I sold the gun, except if Im honest, Pitts said when asked why it cant be enforced.

The proposed law does have a few exceptions.

Immediate family members would be able to sell or transfer a firearm to each other. According to the law, immediate family includes spouses and domestic partners and any of the following relations whether by whole or half blood, adoption or step-relation: parents, children, siblings, grandparents, grandchildren, aunts, uncles, nieces and nephews.

People also would be able to temporarily transfer a firearm to someone else without a background check if the transfer is necessary to prevent imminent death or great bodily harm, when at a shooting range or while hunting or trapping.

When asked if he could agree with a portion of the proposed law  such as the requirement to perform a background check at a gun show  Pitts said probably, but really I dont know. Again, how do you enforce that? How do you regulate that?

This comes back again to unfunded mandates that theyre passing on to the local law enforcement that we just dont have the manpower or the money to do this.
Harlow is a former New Town in Essex with a population of 86,000. Located in the upper Stort Valley, it was built in the decades after the Second World War to ease overcrowding and London and provide homes for people bombed out during the Blitz. It includes Britain's first pedestrian precinct and first modern residential tower block, The Lawn. Old Harlow, the historic part of the town, was mentioned in the Domesday Book. David and Victoria Beckham's former home, Rowneybury House, nicknamed 'Beckingham Palace', is nearby.

13:18, 27 OCT 2022
Vietnam fertiliser plant director gets three years in prison for fatal blast

According to Thanh Nien News, the director of a fertiliser plant in Ho Chi Minh City was sentenced to three years' imprisonment for his role in an explosion that killed three workers in 2014. The People's Court of HCMC convicted Huynh Van Hai, 46, of violating regulations on workplace safety and hygiene and endangering a densely populated residential area.

Image: vov.vn

Three workers, two of them a mother and daughter, died in the explosion which destroyed the plant in the citys District 12 on October 17, 2014. The blast also injured five other people and partially demolished 86 houses in the neighborhood, causing VND8 billion (US$359,000) worth of damage.

Investigators found that the workers were mixing chemicals to produce a liquid fertiliser, and they often used a small gas stove to seal finished products.

Hai, who was not present at the facility when the explosion happened, said he had been aware of their wrongdoing and had "scolded the workers many times." He claimed the workers, who were his relatives, did not take his warnings seriously.



The court also banned Hai from producing chemical fertilisers for two years after completing his jail term.


They are entitled to a minimum of three hours at the stated overtime rate

They should have at least eight hours off duty between midnight and commencement of the next period of duty

They are entitled to double rate of pay during their next period of duty if they have not had this eight hour break

le smartphones and tablets allow employees to conduct ad hoc tasks from home, one key question for employers is whether out-of-office phone calls constitute a recall to work which may come with additional pay entitlements.A recent Federal Court case has shed light on this matter in which rostering clerk Mandy Polan took action against her former employer Goulburn Valley Health.Polan alleged she was underpaid after taking calls at all hours and claimed she was owed overtime pay for this added work time.The various awards and agreements she was covered by included the following conditions for when employees were recalled to work:When asked whether taking after-hours phone calls constituted a recall to work, Federal Judge Debra Sue Mortimer dismissed this claim.I do not consider that what the applicant was doing when she answered and made telephone calls  can properly be described as the applicant being recalled to duty, she said in the final judgment.The on-going arrangement meant Polan was required to be on-call 24/7. She was paid an on-call allowance accordingly, the judge found.The purpose of that payment was, as I have found above, to recognise the burden and inconvenience which attended the status of being available to perform duties as and when required, and at short notice.However, the judge recognised that Polan was still entitled to overtime pay for the specific periods she worked at home.Unless the award or agreements otherwise provided (and it does not appear to me that they did), if she only worked for ten minutes in one period, then the proportion of her hourly rate which would be subject to payment at time and a half, or double time, would only be that ten minutes, she said.
keys state-run Turkish Airlines has sacked 211 employees due to nonfulfillment of performance standards, just 10 days after a failed coup by members of the Turkish military.Turkish Airlines released a statement on Monday stating that it had cancelled the contracts of the employees, effective 22 July, due to the nonfulfillment of performance standards and aligning with the necessary actions we are taking against the FETO structure and attitudes and behaviors conflicting with the interest of our country and company, Business Insider reports.FETO refers to an organisation which the Turkish government believes is behind the attempted coup which took place on 15 July and left over 265 people dead.Among those let go was a deputy chief executive responsible for the airline's financial affairs, aviation news site Airporthaber reported.Justifying the decision to terminate hundreds of its employees, the airline said in its statement: As Turkish Airlines, united with all of the heroic and honourable Turkish people, we have acknowledged our responsibility to terminate malevolent, illegal attempts.Under any circumstances, we have and will continue to fulfil our responsibility to contribute to democracy.The airline, which is 49% government-owned, is Europe's fourth-biggest carrier and was named as the worlds seventh best airline earlier this month by Skytrax.In a separate development, landline operator Turk Telekom, which is 30% state-owned, sacked 198 people on Friday in "cooperation with the security forces", stating that some managers had been summoned by prosecutors for testimony in connection with the coup investigation, The Straits Times reported.
Elko County once again has a Democratic Central Committee, and the group is hopeful that interest will continue beyond the election.

Being a Democrat in Elko County has been tough for the past couple of decades. Back in the 1940s they outnumbered Republicans here by a margin similar to the GOPs domination today. Traditionally considered the working mans party, the tide turned in rural Nevada along with social values and policies considered unfavorable to resource-based economies.

Its good to see both parties active again, but it comes at a time when politics in America are more polarized than ever. The presidential election has left massive divisions within both the Republican and Democratic parties, divisions that will carry over as the campaign between two official party nominees finally gets underway.

This could be a celebrated contest between the nations first female major-party candidate and its first non-politician nominee since President Eisenhower. Instead, we are forced to choose between the caricatures of Crooked Hillary and Racist Trump.

The majority of Elko County voters may feel left out. It was here that senators Ted Cruz and Bernie Sanders captured the majority of caucus support.

Their reception at the conventions were as different as night and day. Cruz chose not to back the partys nominee, and was virtually booed off the stage. Sanders graciously threw his support behind Clinton, while throngs of supporters cheered for him  many in tears.

Besides the lingering support for Sanders, other dark clouds hovered over the start of the Democratic Convention. The national committees chairwoman was forced to resign after yet another email scandal  this one involving leaked documents that appeared to show her and other party leaders conspiring against Sanders.

And new national polls came out showing Trump had taken a significant lead over Clinton.

Trumps new edge rests largely on increased support among independents, reported CNN.

As previous elections have shown, it is the independent voters  not the party faithful  who determine the outcome. And Elko County has plenty of independent voters, despite the overwhelming imbalance of registered Republicans.

The poll numbers could easily change again, if Clinton gets the same post-convention bump that Trump did. Regardless, the winning candidate will be the one who can get his or her supporters out to vote. This wont be an easy task, because both Clinton and Trump have unfavorable ratings of around 56 percent. Those numbers have some voters eyeing third-party candidates.

The past year of negative campaigning has been tough on everyone, and the next three months promise to get even uglier. Its easy to demonize the other party, but our democratic republic needs both  just as a bird needs two wings to fly.

It takes courage to be involved in political party organizations at such times, so we extend our gratitude to all of those who are making the effort.
Upcoming events at the Caldwell Heritage Museum 112 Vaiden St SE Lenoir NC 28645:

Saturday, August 6th 1:00 pm  Finding Your Family Roots Workshop on family genealogical resources on the internet by Mr. Hugh Barnes. $20.00 fee payable at the door on the day of the program, a portion of which will go toward the maintenance support of the Museum. Free pastries, refreshments, and use of museum Wi-Fi for connecting your digital devices during the program.

Wednesday . August 10th 10:00 am  Monthly Coffee with the Curator facilitated by Mr. Bruce Craig regarding downtown Lenoir businesses of the past. Free admission, pastries and coffee provided, however a $5.00 donation is suggested for ongoing Museum activities.

Find Your Pint events include limited releases to support the nonprofits mission to protect and enhance the Blue Ridge Parkway

(ASHEVILLE, N.C.)  If you live next door to the most visited park unit in the country, how do you celebrate the 100th anniversary of the National Park Service? In Asheville, there is only one answer: with beer, of course. In honor of the National Park Services centennial year, the Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation is teaming up with 16 Asheville-area breweries for special beer releases and fundraising events in August and September to benefit the Blue Ridge Parkway.

As a spin on the National Park Systems Find Your Park campaign to engage new visitors, beer fans are invited to Find Your Pint. Each brewery is honoring the National Park Service in an exciting way, from one-off batches named for favorite locations on the Blue Ridge Parkway to a photo contest and art show. One beer will be made with blueberries picked at Graveyard Fields and another with Centennial hops. The participants are Asheville Brewing Co., Blue Ghost Brewing, Boojum Brewing, Burial Beer, Catawba Brewing, Green Man Brewery, Highland Brewing, Hi-Wire Brewing, Innovation Brewing, Lookout Brewing, New Belgium Brewing, Pisgah Brewing, Sierra Nevada Brewing, Sweeten Creek Brewing, Twin Leaf Brewery, and Wicked Weed Brewing. Each brewery is designating a portion of sales for the Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation.

From the first mention of celebrating the centennial anniversary of the National Park Service, the local beer community was so receptive and generous, said Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation CEO Carolyn Ward. Its amazing to see each brewery run with the idea to make every event unique.

Highland Brewing was the first to sign on for the Find Your Pint series. My family took me and my sister to Zion, Bryce Canyon and Grand Canyon National Parks in the 70s, and Ive been hooked on our national parks ever since. Now, I live in the backyard of the Blue Ridge Parkway and it is such a treasure, says Leah Wong Ashburn, president of Highland Brewing Company. I see the amazing quality of work provided by the National Park Service in the stone buildings, landscaped grounds, and helpful, smiling rangers in uniform. Highland celebrates the efforts of the National Park Service and its 100th anniversaryit is part of the reason living in Asheville is so special.

The series of events includes a passport program encouraging beer fans to visit each brewery on its event date to collect Parkway Beer Passport stickers. The booklets will be available at participating breweries and Appalachian Vintner in Asheville. Passport holders can register online to win tickets to a V.I.P. event at New Belgium Brewing. Beer fans are encouraged to use #FindYourPint in social media posts and tag the breweries and Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation to spread the word.

The National Park Service was created on August 25, 1916, to protect the 35 existing parks and monuments and those yet to be created. Today, the National Park Service manages 411 parks, park units, monuments, and more. The Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation is the primary private fundraising organization of the Blue Ridge Parkway, which welcomed more than 15 million visitors in 2015. The nonprofit helps ensure cultural and historical preservation, natural resource protection, educational outreach, and visitor enjoyment now and for future generations. Since its founding in 1997, the organization has raised more than $10 million to address the needs of the Parkway thanks to its Community of Stewards. Find more information at www.brpfoundation.org

THE EVENTS

Pisgah Brewing Company

150 Eastside Drive, Black Mountain

Date: Friday, August 12, 5 p.m.

The Beer: Little Slaty Extra Pale Ale, the fifth installment of the Seven Sisters IPA series is named for the mountain range that overlooks the brewery in the Swannanoa River Valley

The Event: Pisgah will donate $1 from every pint of Little Slaty sold. Free live music with Vibe & Direct starts at 8 p.m. www.pisgahbrewing.com : Pisgah will donate $1 from every pint of Little Slaty sold. Free live music with Vibe & Direct starts at

Catawba Brewing Company

32 Banks Ave. #105, Asheville

Date: Thursday, August 18

The Beer: Milepost 316.3 IPA, named for the spot that marks Linville Falls Overlook and the headwaters of the Catawba River

The Event: In addition to the beer release, there will be live music and a food truck. Catawba will donate $1 from each Milepost 316.3 IPA sold. In addition to the beer release, there will be live music and a food truck. Catawba will donate $1 from each Milepost 316.3 IPA sold. www.catawbabrewing.com

Boojum Brewing Company

357 Dayton Drive, Waynesville

Date: Friday, August 19

The Beer: Three small batch beers featuring wild blueberries, including Graveyard Fields Blueberry Coffee Porter

The Event: Boojum will donate $1 from each pint sold. Boojum will donate $1 from each pint sold. www.boojumbrewing.com

Innovation Brewing

414 W. Main St., Sylva

Date: Sunday, August 21

The Beer: Black Balsam Porter, named after the scenic area at milepost 420.2 on the Blue Ridge Parkway

The Event: In addition to the beer release, Innovation will host a show of local art focused on the Blue Ridge Parkway. In addition to the beer release, Innovation will host a show of local art focused on the Blue Ridge Parkway. www.innovation-brewing.com

Highland Brewing Company

12 Old Charlotte Hwy., Asheville

Date: Thursday, August 25 + Nonprofit of the month

The Beer: Cranberry Ridge Wheat, named for Cranberry Ridge at milepost 452.1 on the Blue Ridge Parkway

The Event: For every pour on August 25 , $1 will be donated. A portion of proceeds for all of August will also benefit the Foundation. For every pour on, $1 will be donated. A portion of proceeds for all of August will also benefit the Foundation. www.highlandbrewing.com

Twin Leaf Brewery

144 Coxe Ave., Asheville

Date: Friday, August 26  Sunday, August 28

The Beer: Ridge Rider DIPA, brewed with Centennial hops in honor of the 100th anniversary of the National Park Service

The Event: Ten percent of sales from Ridge Rider Double IPA through the weekend will be donated. Leading up to the event, beer fans are invited to enter a Blue Ridge Parkway photo contest by tagging images with #ridgerider. A winning image will be selected at the event. Ten percent of sales from Ridge Rider Double IPA through the weekend will be donated. Leading up to the event, beer fans are invited to enter a Blue Ridge Parkway photo contest by tagging images with #ridgerider. A winning image will be selected at the event. www.twinleafbrewery.com

Blue Ghost Brewing Company

125 Underwood Road, Fletcher

Date: Saturday, August 27

The Beer: Blueberry Fields Wheat Ale, made with North Carolina blueberries harvested from Graveyard Fields, milepost 418

The Event: For every pint sold, $1 will be donated until the two-barrel batch is gone. For every pint sold, $1 will be donated until the two-barrel batch is gone. www.blueghostbrewing.com

New Belgium Brewing Company

21 Craven St., Asheville

Date: Thursday, September 1  Friday, September 30

The Beer: Ranger IPA

The Event: Proceeds from every Ranger IPA sold during September will be donated to the Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation. Proceeds from every Ranger IPA sold during September will be donated to the Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation. www.newbelgium.com

Burial Beer Co.

40 Collier Ave., Asheville

Date: Friday, September 2, 5:30 p.m.

The Beer: A yet-to-be-revealed new brew crafted in the spirit of the beautiful Blue Ridge Parkway

The Event: Head brewer Tim Gormley will speak about the exclusive, one-off beer and Burials new facility and its connection to the history of the Blue Ridge Parkway. Burial will donate $1 from each pint until the 10-barrel batch is gone. Head brewer Tim Gormley will speak about the exclusive, one-off beer and Burials new facility and its connection to the history of the Blue Ridge Parkway. Burial will donate $1 from each pint until the 10-barrel batch is gone. www.burialbeer.com

Sweeten Creek Brewing

1127 Sweeten Creek Road, Asheville

Date: Saturday, September 3

The Beer: Busbee Black IPA, named for the mountain which cradles the Blue Ridge Parkway and Mountains to Sea Trail and harbors the headwaters of Sweeten Creek

The Event: Sweeten Creek will donate $1 from every Busbee Black IPA sold. Sweeten Creek will donate $1 from every Busbee Black IPA sold. www.sweetencreekbrewing.com

Green Man Brewery

27 Buxton Ave., Asheville

Date: Friday, September 9

The Beer: A yet-to-be-named brew made with berries found growing along the Blue Ridge Parkway

The Event: Green Man will donate $1 from every pint sold. Green Man will donate $1 from every pint sold. www.greenmanbrewery.com

Lookout Brewing Company

103 S. Ridgeway Ave. #1, Black Mountain

Date: Saturday, September 10 & Sunday, September 11

The Beer: Dark Town Brown Sour

The Event: For two days, Lookout will donate $1 from each pint of Dark Town Brown Sour.

Hi-Wire Brewing

197 Hilliard Ave., Asheville

Date: Thursday, September 15

The Beer: All beers on tap

The Event: During its weekly nonprofit night, Hi-Wire Brewing will donate 15 percent of the evenings proceeds. During its weekly nonprofit night, Hi-Wire Brewing will donate 15 percent of the evenings proceeds. www.hiwirebrewing.com

Asheville Brewing Co.

675 Merrimon Ave. and 77 Coxe Ave., Asheville

Date: Friday, September 16, 5 p.m.

The Beer: Blue Ridge Blueberry Breakfast Pale Ale

The Event: The draft release will go on simultaneously at both Asheville locations, and $1 from the sale of each pint of Blue Ridge Blueberry Breakfast Pale Ale will be donated until the batch is gone. The draft release will go on simultaneously at both Asheville locations, and $1 from the sale of each pint of Blue Ridge Blueberry Breakfast Pale Ale will be donated until the batch is gone. www.ashevillebrewing.com

Wicked Weed Brewing

91 Biltmore Ave., Asheville

Date: Saturday, September 17  Saturday, October 1

The Beer: A yet-to-be-announced, one-of-a-kind beer

The Event: Wicked Weed will donate $1 from every pint of the special release beer sold.

Sierra Nevada Brewing Company

100 Sierra Nevada Way, Fletcher

Date: Monday, September 26  Sunday, October 2

The Beer: Blue Ridge Red, a hoppy red ale brewed with local honey
Boone veterinarian, Dr. David W. Linzey, was recently named 2016 North Carolina Veterinarian of the Year by the North Carolina Veterinary Medical Association.

I am truly grateful for receiving this award in recognition of many years of service and contribution to the veterinary profession in our state, Linzey said.

Dr. Linzey graduated from the North Carolina State University College of Veterinary Medicine in 1994 and subsequently practiced at a mixed-animal facility in Taylorsville for 8 years before transitioning to small animal/emergency practice in the Hickory area in 2002.

Linzey and his wife, Debi, relocated to Boone in 2005 to establish the Animal Emergency & Pet Care Clinic of the High Country offering the first after-hours emergency pet care service in the area which became a full-time 24/7 emergency & critical care facility in 2009. The hospital is now located on Highway 105 South and is currently undergoing an expansion to accommodate the growing business which will house the general daytime practice as well as a canine and feline boarding facility with a large, wooded outdoor exercise area.

Linzeys other accomplishments include volunteer work on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in southwestern South Dakota and assisting in the operation of the only full-service veterinary hospital on the island of Providenciales in the Turks & Caicos island community.

He has served extensively with the North Carolina Veterinary Medical Association (NCVMA) in various capacities including as president of the organization in 2011-12. His current position with the NCVMA is as Continuing Education Coordinator where he plans all conferences for the group that provides ongoing education for North Carolina veterinarians.

He continues to work closely with the NCSU College of Veterinary Medicine to plan continuing education conferences and other outreach programs. Outside interests include hiking, camping, backpacking, beekeeping, homebrewing, travel and woodworking.

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By Jessica Isaacs | [email protected]

Stay tuned for feature stories on all four of these honored pastors.

Check out the July 2016 edition of High Country Magazine for the full story.

A community-wide celebration of four long-standing local pastors has been scheduled for Saturday, Aug. 6 in the National Guard Armory in Boone. This program is open to the public, and event coordinators hope that folks from all across the High Country will be there to show support for the guests of honor.

Steadfast in faith and obedience, these four outstanding gentlemen  the Rev. Delmar James, the Rev. Herbert McCoy, the Rev. Gordon Noble and the Rev. Billy Warren  have made invaluable contributions in communities across the High Country.

While youll never catch them taking credit for it, these humble servants and ambassadors for Christ have allowed the Lord to do extraordinary things with their ordinary lives. Now, after lifetimes of devoted service, the greater faith community will come together to recognize, honor and celebrate the careers of these four fishers of men.

The Rev. Charlie Martin of Bethel Baptist Church, a friend and colleague of all four pastors, has orchestrated a special ceremony in their honor, which will take place on the evening of Saturday, Aug. 6 at the National Guard Armory in Boone.

The entire High Country community, including all churches of all denominations, are invited to enjoy fellowship, bring cards or gifts for the guests of honor, show their support and enjoy great live music from local bluegrass group Amantha Mill.

We should never underestimate the importance of saying thank you to those who help us along the road of life. Since I have been over here the past several years, the stories of the older pastors in this county have been so special to me, Martin said. There are several other pastors that have done a great service to this area, also; God just impressed on me that this would just be a starting point. Perhaps something could be done again next year with other spiritual leaders who, too, have touched the hearts of Watauga County.

The celebration of these four incredible leaders will take place at 6 p.m. that evening. Whether you know any or all of these men well or youd like to meet them and thank them for their service, theres no better opportunity than at this community-wide celebration.

This is an important event for all of the Christian community in Watauga and surrounding counties. What a great time to come together with other believers! Martin said. I am hoping that all of our evangelical Christian family responds with real joy. There are some things we should say to people while they are still with us, and I hope this a great encouragement to those who have served us well.

For more information about the upcoming ceremony, contact Martin at Bethel Baptist Church at 828-297-2694.

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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 14

ARREST: A male suspect, 55, of 790 Dewitt Barnett Road in Vilas, was charged with OFA FTA probation violation. Trial date: Aug. 3.

July 19

INCIDENT: Assault with a deadly weapon was reported at 294 Old U.S. Highway 421 E in Boone.

INCIDENT: Calls for service were reported at 911 Rock Cliff Road in Boone.

INCIDENT: Interfere with electronic monitoring device was reported in Todd.

ARREST: A female suspect, 41, of 2251 Longhope Road in Todd, was charged with felony drug violations. Secured bond: $5,000. Trial date: Aug. 3.

July 20

INCIDENT: Fraud was reported at 147 Genevieve Lane in Boone.

ARREST: A male suspect, 45, of Boone, was charged with OFA misd probation violation. Secured bond: $10,000. Trial date: Sept. 22.

July 21

INCIDENT: Fraud was reported at 3790 Bamboo Road in Boone.

INCIDENT: Larceny from motor vehicle was reported at 2007 Sorrento Drive in Boone.

INCIDENT: Larceny from motor vehicle was reported at 481 Center Court Drive in Boone.

INCIDENT: Breaking and entering a motor vehicle and larceny from a motor vehicle were reported at 125 Rembrandt Drive in Blowing Rock.

INCIDENT: Calls for service were reported at 4955 N.C. Highway 105 S in Vilas.

INCIDENT: All other offenses were reported at 100 Corbett McNeill Road in Boone.

INCIDENT: Larceny from motor vehicle was reported at 245 Bella Vista Drive in Boone.

INCIDENT: Breaking and entering a motor vehicle and larceny from motor vehicle were reported at 204 Rembrandt Drive in Boone.

ARREST: A male suspect, 28, of 253 Will Perry Road in Vilas, was charged with felony fugitive other state. Secured bond: $75,000. Trial date: Sept. 7.

ARREST: A male suspect, 62, of 822 Camden Road in Huntington, West Virginia, was charged with felony all other offenses. Secured bond: $50,000. Trial date: Sept. 9.

July 22

INCIDENT: Communicating threats was reported at 1841 Vanderpool Road in Vilas.

INCIDENT: Breaking and entering, vandalism and communicating threats were reported at 891 Rainbow Trail in Boone.

INCIDENT: Breaking and entering a motor vehicle and larceny from a motor vehicle were reported at 236 Georges Gap Road in Sugar Grove.

INCIDENT: Calls for service were reported at 230 Bugtussle Lane in Zionville.

July 23

INCIDENT: Communicating threats was reported at 144 Ridge Point Drive in Boone.

INCIDENT: Larceny from motor vehicle was reported at 4092 N.C. Highway 105 S in Boone.

INCIDENT: Assault on a female was reported inside a vehicle in Boone.

INCIDENT: All other offenses were reported at 167 Morning Dove Lane in Boone.

INCIDENT: Calls for service and recovered property were reported at 2774 Rich Mountain Road in Zionville.

ARREST: A female suspect, 25, of 155 John Thomas Drive in Boone, was charged with felony OFA probation violation and interfere elect monitor device. Secured bond: $13,000.

July 24

INCIDENT: DWI and DWLR were reported at 5026 Rich Mountain Road in Zionville.

INCIDENT: Unauthorized use of a motor vehicle was reported at 849 N.C. Highway 105 Bypass Unit 1 in Boone.

INCIDENT: Drug violations and possession of marijuana were reported at 6141 U.S. Highway 421 N in Vilas.

INCIDENT: Calls for service were reported on the 400 block of Kellersville Road in Banner Elk.

ARREST: A male suspect, 56, of 172 South Road in Todd, was charged with OFA. Secured bond: $2,500. Trial date: July 29.

July 25

INCIDENT: Larceny and fraud were reported at 2892 Broadstone Road in Banner Elk.

INCIDENT: Larceny was reported at 343 Curley Maple Road in Boone.

INCIDENT: Fraud was reported at 1053 Fallview Lane in Boone.

INCIDENT: Fraud was reported at 247 Eli Hartley Drive in Boone.

ARREST: A male suspect, 31, of 520 Winklers Creek Road Apt. 2 in Boone, was charged with FTA child support. Bond: $440. Trial date: Aug. 2

July 26

INCIDENT: Calls for service were reported at 270 Pebble Lane in Todd.

ARREST: A male suspect, 34, of 220 Sunrise Ridge in Vilas, was charged with felony possession of firearm by a felon. Secured bond: $20,000. Trial date: Sept. 7.

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By Jessica Isaacs | [email protected]

The Rev. Billy Warren is one of four preachers who will be honored with their wives at a community-wide pastor appreciation event set for Saturday, Aug. 6 at the National Guard Armory in Boone. Click here to read more about the event and heck out the July 2016 edition of High Country Magazine for the full story.

Billy Warren: An American Hero

Relentless prayer and obedience led this decorated military hero to the altar after more than two decades of service with the United States Army. It was an adventure that he didnt see coming, but his unwavering faith and teachable spirit have allowed him to win souls for the Lord for more than a quarter-century since his last tour overseas.

The Rev. Billy Warren was raised in a Christian home in Zionville and grew up attending Union Baptist, which he still calls his home church. In 1952, he entered what would be a long and celebrated military career when he left for basic training in Fort Jackson, South Carolina. He served his first tour in Korea with the 40th infantry division and, after returning home safe and sound, continued going to services at Union.

When I came back from Korea, thats when I met Libby at church. Of course, I was wearing my uniform, he said. Ill let her tell it from there.

He was coming to visit my grandparents, and they lived next door to my parents, she said. I told my sisters when he went by, You know, theres my man. I think he and I will be married one day. I dont know, I just had that feeling  that he was the one.

One week later, the handsome soldier took the pretty girl from church to the skating rink down the road in Cove Creek.

He took me and then he went over to the restaurant because he said he couldnt skate, Libby laughed. So, we started seeing each other. He had to go back to Fort Jackson, but hed come home on the weekends. In two-and-a-half months, we were married.

We got married Aug. 9, 1954, so it was a short courtship. My sisters always said I just got him because he was in that uniform. Its been 62 years. Weve been married all of our lives.

As Mr. and Mrs., the two began the adventure of a lifetime as a military family. They lived in places all over the world, including Texas, South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, Colorado, Kansas and even Germany.

Together, theyve raised two boys and two girls.

Libby was pregnant with our first child when I was sent to Vietnam in 1967. I was on a search and destroy mission when they called me on the radio and told me that Billy was born and that his name was Billy Jr. he said. I knew the day before he was born what his name was, how much he weighed and how long he was because I was a day ahead in Southeast Asia.

Their son, Greg, was also born while Billy was overseas, and father and son met for the first time when Greg was only nine months old.

Linda was born in South Carolina and Lottie was born in Texas. Shes a Texan, Billy said.

Billy remembers returning to the states from military service to meet his newborn children as quite the experience.

There was a lot of weeping going on, Libby said. A happy time.

Life in the military provided a unique set of challenges, but the Warrens were bound by love, prayer and faith.

I took three children and had never flown, but I wasnt even scared, Libby said, recalling their move to Germany. I reckon I was so young I couldnt even think. We flew to Germany nonstop. It was at night and we left from Charleston, South Carolina that afternoon, so with the time change it was so dark when we got there. We got there and could see Bill over waiting on us, but I had to go through customs and all of that before I could even get to him; and me with three kids and all this luggage.

Even when they lived overseas, they made sure to find and connect with a home church, even if they knew it was temporary; and, when Billy was on tour and the family stateside, the grace of God brought him home safe every time.

When I got home from Vietnam, Lottie asked Libby, said Mama, who we gonna pray for now that Daddys home? Billy said with a chuckle. I asked little Billy when I came home, Wheres Daddy? and he pointed to my picture on the wall.

Answering the Call

Although he was raised in a Christian home and knew Jesus and loved Him well, Billy never expected to receive a call to the pastorate, although angels may have visited with the message a few times.

When we were living in Fort Jackson, South Carolina, it was back in 56. Our lady next door was from Nashville, Tennessee, and she was our landlord. Her mother had come to visit when she was in her 80s, so Bill and I went over to meet her, said Libby. We just entered the door and she looked at Bill and she says, One day, youll be preaching. I thought, woman, youre crazy, I dont want to be a preachers wife.

At the time, Billy, too, thought, There aint no way.

When I was in Vietnam, I sure didnt plan on preaching when I came back, but it happened just like that, he said.

It was 1974 at the third army headquarters in Fort McPherson, Georgia. One evening just prior to my retiring for the night, I was in my quarters and my Bible was laying on the bedside. Id been reading it and then all of the sudden something spoke to my heart. I dont know if it was an audible voice, but it was a voice. It was the Lord speaking to me and it said, I want you to go preach.

This is before I retired from the army, so I said, Lord, I dont know anything about the Bible. Call my Sunday school teacher, Otto Thomas, he knows all about the Bible  more than I do. I never got an answer.

Two years later, having returned safely from Vietnam, he announced his calling at his home church in February of 1976, and was called to the pastorate at Clarks Creek Baptist Church in Valle Crucis.

The Mercies of God

Warren knows without a doubt that God led him through his military career just in time to serve in a new capacity when he returned to the states.

I do believe the Lord had a plan for me, he said. I didnt know it was going to turn out this way  Libby and I getting married and having the family we have today  but its only by the mercies of God Im sitting here talking to you today. Two wars  I survived that.

His time in the army as a decorated soldier taught him the value of hard work, integrity, leadership and obedience. Back at home, God used that experience and put him to work for a very special purpose in Watauga County.

I know the Lord has had his hand upon me by leading me, he said. Every church that I have pastored has always been a building project.

With his whole heart and all of his trust in the Savior, Billy went to Valle Crucis to see his new church, and what he saw brought him to his knees.

I went to that little church and I was sitting down on the steps, and I began to weep. I said, Lord, you dont want me to pastor this church. There wasnt any paint on the building outside, the roof was rusted, said Billy. The grass around the church looked like the wilderness; but still, I didnt get an answer from Him. The only thing that I remember was sitting there on the step, myself and the Lord, and He said, Follow me. Thats the word that I got from Him.

Warren was unsure about the less-than-suitable church building, but he had full faith that God knew what He was doing, and he promised to remain prayerful and obedient. He prayed and prayed for the resources and the means they needed to update the facility, and the Heavenly Father rewarded his obedience.

During my ministry at Clarks Creek, we renovated part of the church, got the cemetery under the churchs control, which was private until that time, he said. We painted it inside and out and put a new roof on it.

Under Warrens leadership, Clarks Creek began to grow and flourish, and it would continue to do so for years to come.

Among his favorite memories of pastoring in Valle Crucis are the many times he was able to baptize his church members in the nearby creek along N.C. Highway 194 in the valley.

I will always remember baptizing one Sunday after church and the cars began to stop along the road, and they got out to watch me baptize, he said.

That was the Sunday he baptized in his suit, Libby giggled. Someone wanted to be baptized, so he just went on down to the creek. In his good shoes.

Yep, I went home wet, Billy said.

A Child of the King

In 1981, he felt a familiar feeling stirring in his heart. When he recognized a call to leave Clarks Creek and move his family to the pastorate at Stony Fork Baptist, he followed it. There, he helped the church pray for, fund and complete a fellowship building. He did the same at Gap Creek Baptist, where another fellowship building was finished in 1984.

Of all the renovations, Billy said, I followed the Holy Spirit of God and that came to pass.

Then, the ever obedient Warren family followed holy lead again, this time to the small Beech Valley Missionary Baptist out in Sugar Grove near the Avery County line. The Lord had more projects lined up for him here, in addition to some incredible miracles.

Here at Beech Valley in 2001, the church was wanting to renovate the sanctuary. The building committee told me, said Preacher Bill, we dont even have the money to begin. I said, Lets pray about it, Billy explained.

One Sunday morning that spring, armed with the word of God and His instructions, the pastor approached the people of Beech Valley in hopes of collecting enough money for the renovation, which would at least cost a couple thousand dollars.

On either side of the altar, he placed a podium. On each podium, he placed a notepad and a pencil.

I lined the church up on each side of the wall. I said, dont even put a name on it, just put the amount that your family your you would be willing to give, said Billy. Then I began to pray. The church prayer with me. At the end of the prayer, they began to come forward and on that little notepad they put down the amount they could give. As soon as they did that, they walked away and they were dismissed.

Following the service, he took the notepads to his daughter Lotties house and enlisted her help in counting up the totals. On a tiny piece of paper, which he still keeps in his wallet 15 years later, they wrote the total: $24,000.

The incredible amount pledged that day allowed the church to completely renovate its sanctuary, complete with updated pews, new carpet, a new pulpit, beautiful stained glass and more. He work was completed in about a month by church members, and, thanks to the collected love offering, he work was completely paid for by the time it was finished.

Everything you see in there we did in less than a month. People here in the church could not believe it, and we did it ourselves, said Billy. Isnt God wonderful?

The renovation included the installation of new curtains, one of which was dedicated to E. Stansberry, who was a deacon in the church, and another was dedicated to Billys parents.

I was raised in a Christian home, he said. Mom and Dad took us to church. We didnt have no vehicle, but we rode horses to church, so I dedicated that curtain to Mom and Dad.

Later that year, with hearts overflowing with love and gratitude, the Warrens retired from the pastorate at Beech Valley.

As he and Libby prepare to accept an appreciation for their service before the entire faith community in August, Billy reminds us that his ministry has always been focused on obedience.

He speaks through His word, Billy said.

It is an honor to be recognized by Charlie and the association and all the peoples of Watauga and the state of North Carolina. Its been an honor to serve our country, too, for 22 plus years of military service, and then to be a pastor, and at Beech Valley for 25 years. Can you believe that? Amen! And at Gap Creek, Stony Fork, Clarks Creek and my home church.

Its only by the mercies of God that Im here, and I know it. Its an honor to be a child of the king.

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RENO  Game wardens have arrested a suspect in the illegal killing and waste of a bull elk in an August 2015 case from Lincoln County that challenged investigators and provided few clues.

Zackry Holdaway, 26, of Cedar City, Utah was arrested Saturday by the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, and he was released Monday on $10,500 bail.

Holdaway faces multiple criminal charges in Nevada, including felony big game poaching; a gross misdemeanor for possession of an illegally killed big game animal; and three misdemeanors for trespassing, using a spotlight to shoot the animal, and wanton waste of a game animal.

The animal was shot, the head removed and the rest of the animal was left to waste near the Pearson Ranch in Lincoln County. The landowner where the crime was committed had a trail camera near the crime scene that captured a series of grainy, washed out photos that were the first step investigators used to track down the suspect.

We tracked down this suspect with very little information. Our investigators used several investigative tools and put in extraordinary effort to solve the case with very little to go on, said Chief Game Warden Tyler Turnipseed. This is an egregious waste of Nevadas wildlife, and we are proud of our commitment to catching the person responsible.

The trail camera gave game wardens the exact time of the shooting, which took place in the early morning hours of Aug 29, 2015. According to the Nevada Department of Wildlife the suspect likely used a spotlight to kill the animal, which is a crime itself. Game wardens used the grainy, trail cameral photo and other clues to start reconstructing the crime and seeking out information to identify the shooter.

All suspects are innocent until proven guilty, said Turnipseed. We look forward to outlining our findings in court.
The statistical institution reported yesterday that the rate of unemployment decreased by 0.7 percentage points year-on-year to 9.3 per cent in June, as the ranks of the jobless thinned by 16,000 to 264,000 and those of the employed swelled by 33,000 to 2,558,000.

The employment situation improved also in comparison to the previous quarter, with the rate of unemployment decreasing from 10.7 per cent in the first quarter to 10.0 in the second quarter of the year.

Unemployment has decreased marginally also according to data published by the Ministry of Employment and the Economy. The data indicate that the number of people registered as unemployed job seekers with the Employment and Economic Development Offices (TE Offices) dropped by 3,000 year-on-year to 366,000 in June.

Juhana Brotherus, the chief economist at the Mortgage Society of Finland (Hypo), is ready to attribute the tentative improvement to the modest economic recovery that the country has experienced over the past twelve months. He points out, however, that the lack of improvement in both domestic and global productivity have allowed the labour markets to recover despite relatively sluggish economic growth.

Future developments are likely to be cautiously positive because the economy stayed on the growth track early this year and the economies of Finland and Europe have yet to be de-railed by Brexit, he predicts.

The outlook is strengthened by big data-based indicators. Google enquiries that shed light on the employment situation indicate that the upward trend will continue, states Brotherus.

He also acknowledges that long-term unemployment has continued to grow.

Aleksi Teivainen  HT

Photo: Mikko Stig  Lehtikuva

Source: Uusi Suomi
An accountant has said he brought "shame and humiliation" on his family after he admitted misappropriating 161,000 in charity funds.

Greg Walsh (67) said his "fraudulent activities" came about after his business got into financial difficulty and he ran up debts of close to 1m.

The cash was misappropriated from the Carline Learning Centre, a State-funded organisation supporting disadvantaged teenagers in west Dublin, where Mr Walsh had been treasurer.

In a High Court filing, Mr Walsh said he "unreservedly apologised" for taking the cash, which was supposed to have been used to cover tax and other liabilities of the charity.

Raided

In an affidavit, Mr Walsh told the court his office had been raided by gardai following a complaint from the charity and he intended to plead guilty should any criminal charges be brought against him.

He revealed he had debts of 924,000 and just 5,367 in his bank accounts.

Mr Walsh, a low-profile accountant with past links to Fine Gael and business addresses in Kimmage and Celbridge, has offered the charity the proceeds of his life assurance policy as a token of his remorse.

Carline issued proceedings against him earlier this month after an investigation by its auditors.

A report concluded that 161,337 had been misappropriated by way of cheques made out to Walsh and Associates and two other firms.

Some 72,309 of this was supposed to have been paid to the Revenue Commissioners.

Carline's chairman John McKernan previously told the court that Mr Walsh had been treasurer for a number of years and had been completely trusted to look after its books and pay its bills.

When challenged, Mr Walsh told the board there had been a mix-up over payments to Revenue which had since been rectified.

But the charity moved swiftly after concluding a letter of explanation penned by Mr Walsh was "a work of fiction". It sought orders, to which Mr Walsh consented, requiring him to repay the cash and disclose what had become of the diverted funds.

Its board is now focused on ensuring the charity survives the controversy and maintains it educational services for marginalised teenagers.

In his affidavit, Mr Walsh said: "I must regretfully inform the court and the plaintiff that I have misappropriated the sum of 161,000 or thereabouts from the plaintiff."

Mr Walsh said he was in the process of verifying the exact amount when his business premises and residence were visited by members of the Lucan district detective unit.

"All my books and records were seized under a search warrant," he said. "I co-operated with the search and it is my intention to fully assist the gardai in any subsequent criminal investigation."

Mr Walsh said he had been advised by his solicitor of his right to silence and his privilege against self-incrimination.

However, he said: "I say it is my intention to plead guilty to any criminal charges that must inevitably be brought and that all I can now do is apologise to the plaintiff and my other clients who are at a loss."

Mr Walsh said he had been advised by his solicitor there would also be a criminal investigation by the Revenue in relation to his actions.

He said that until mid-2014 he had traded as an accountant and bookkeeper without any breach of his fiduciary duties.

But he then found himself in a situation where he had promised clients investment returns which did not materialise and the situation "spiralled out of control". "I regretfully used client funds to repay existing clients," he said.

Surrendered

He revealed that two clients sued him last year for a liability of around 560,000. As a result he was obliged to sell his family home in Celbridge for 351,000, with 291,000 of the proceeds paid to his debtors. He said he also surrendered his beneficial interest, worth 200,000, in a property in Rosslare.

Mr Walsh said his wife and immediate family had "absolutely no knowledge of the extent of my fraudulent activities".

"I have not been candid with them regarding how bad matters were and I can only apologise to my family for the shame and humiliation I have brought to their door through their association with me."

The case is due back before the court today.
A two-year-old boy was in his father's van when the man handed over cocaine and heroin to another man in Dublin last year.

The driver of the van, Graham O'Toole (24), Tara Kennedy (22) the child's mother and Alan Dowling (46) who received the drugs, are all due to be sentenced at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court in November for their various roles in a 2m drug bust.

Gardai had the vehicle that Dowling was driving under surveillance when they saw him meet up with O'Toole in Ballyfermot where 854,000 worth of cocaine and heroin was handed over.

Dowling was stopped minutes later and told gardai that there were drugs in the boot of his car.

Gardai discovered seven kilogrammes of cocaine and 2.2 kilogrammes of heroin.

Detective Sergeant Gregory Sheehan told Noel Devitt BL, prosecuting, that gardai followed O'Toole to the home he shared with his partner, Kennedy.

There were concerns that a further quantity of drugs was in the van and the drugs would go missing if gardai didn't move in.

A warrant was quickly secured and the house was searched.

Both O'Toole and Kennedy were in the kitchen with their son along with three bin liners full of cannabis herb.

Another bag of the drug was found in the sitting room before a further two kilogrammes of cocaine and a kilogramme of heroin were also discovered.

Det Sgt Sheehan said the total value of the drugs found in O'Toole's home was 1,158,600.

Dowling of Drumalee Park, North Circular Road and O'Toole of Ballyfermot Drive, Ballyfermot pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to possession of drugs for sale or supply on October 10, 2015.

Responsibility

Mr Devitt told Judge Melanie Greally that Dowling was pleading guilty on the basis that he was taking responsibility for the drugs found in his boot, while O'Toole was taking responsibility for the drugs found in his home.

Kennedy, also of Ballyfermot Drive, pleaded guilty to allowing her home to be used for the sale, supply or distribution of the 17.37 kilogrammes of cannabis, valued at 347,400.

Dowling has 16 previous convictions for road traffic offences and Kennedy has no previous convictions.

Judge Greally adjourned sentencing to November 14 and remanded all three on continuing bail. She ordered probation reports for both Dowling and O'Toole after noting that one had already been prepared for Kennedy.

Barristers representing each accused will address the judge on the next date.
Pope Francis has expressed "sorrow and horror" over the suspected terror attack in a French church, the Vatican said.

He is among world leaders who have paid tribute after Catholic priest Father Jacques Hamel (84) was murdered and a member of the congregation seriously injured.

The Vatican said in a statement: "We are particularly struck because this horrible violence has occurred in a church - a sacred place where we pronounce God's love - with the barbaric murder of a priest and worshippers affected."

Cry

Confirming Father Hamel's death, the Archbishop of Rouen, Dominique Lebrun, who cut short a visit to Poland to return to his diocese, said: "I cry to God with all men of good will. The only arms which the Catholic Church can take up are prayer and brotherhood between men."

French prime minister Manuel Valls said in a message on Twitter: "All of France and all Catholics are bruised. We stand together."

Taoiseach Enda Kenny said the attack was "particularly brutal".

"For centuries the Church has always been a place of sanctuary and it's particularly brutal that terror and murder have been visited upon innocent people at a time when they have been so physically vulnerable and so spiritually hopeful," he said at a press conference in Downing Street.

Terrorist

Prime Minister Theresa May said Britain would "stand shoulder to shoulder with France" as she spoke in Downing Street, adding a terrorist attack in the UK was "highly likely".

"What is necessary is for us all to work together, and stand shoulder to shoulder with France. We offer them every support we have in dealing with this issue and this threat that they, and the rest of us, are facing," she said.

"But on one thing, I think, we are all absolutely clear, and that is the terrorists will not prevail.

"They are trying to destroy our way of life. They are trying to destroy our values.

"We have shared values and those values will win through and the terrorists will not win."
A shepherd from Zafarraya guides his flock through the streets M. ZARZA (EL PAIS VIDEO)

You only have to look at Zafarraya to guess the primary driver of its economy. This little town of 2,040 inhabitants in the province of Granada is surrounded by seemingly never-ending fields of vegetables  so many, in fact, that it seems like the tomato and zucchini plants are invading, vines sneaking into the cobbled streets. In 2013, after the Spanish Tax Agency analyzed income returns, its research concluded that Zafarraya was the town with the lowest per capita income in all of Spain: just 10,293 per resident.

Here everyone works in agriculture, said Jose Miguel Bonilla, a 53-year-old shepherd. Behind him and his flock of sheep, African immigrants are toiling away as day laborers, and this backdrop can be seen from almost every corner of town. Among the locals, the constant debate revolves around the same phrase: informal economy. Were the poorest? Thats a lie, they insist. What happens is that nobody declares everything theyre supposed to declare.

Jesus Sanchez, warehouse worker M. ZARZA

Zafarraya is located about 80 kilometers southwest of Granada, an hour-and-a-half trip mostly using back roads. Once you leave the mountain behind, el llano (the plain) appears, which is what the people of Zafarraya call the nearby valley. Encircled by mountains with a tropical climate that rarely exceeds 30C, the valley is perfect for the irrigated agriculture that Zafarraya depends on.The town boasts five supermarkets, a couple of repair shops and six bars. The agricultural sector relies on just three warehouses that package the vegetables and prepare them to be sent off within and outside of Spain.

At Valentin, a cafe just a few meters from City Hall, the earliest-rising retirees sip their first coffee of the morning for a euro. Nobody wants to give their name, but they all want to talk.

Some residents point out that the statistics dont reflect the truth because so many people dont declare all of their income. Many take issue with the day laborers, who they say under-report their earnings in order to not lose the rural unemployment benefits that they receive through Spains Plan de Empleo Rural (PER), which was established in 1986 to combat unemployment and assist poor farm workers. Of the group, only 64-year-old Angelico Ros is willing to comment frankly and openly. Here theres no kind of poverty. Here no one declares their land, their rent, or their income. Look at those cars! he exclaims as a Mercedes drives by, followed by a BMW. Between this string of high-end cars and the well-maintained facades of the houses, it has to be said that Zafarraya does not come across as a town mired in poverty.

About the question of an underground economy, the mayor says, I have no idea. Im not a tax inspector

Socialist local council

Socialist Party (PSOE) Mayor Rosana Molina runs the local council, backed by five councilors from her party and another from the United Left. The opposition consists of five from the conservative Populist Party. We have a fluctuating economy that depends on cultivation. There are good years and bad years. Prices can vary up to 200% from one season to the next, says the councilwoman. This season, tomatoes cost 80 cents per kilogram and zucchini 30 cents, according to workers at one of the warehouses.

When asked directly about a flourishing black economy, Molina responds, Im not going to get myself involved in all that. I have no idea, honestly. Its not appropriate for me, Im not a tax inspector. She emphasizes that she doesnt believe her town has the lowest per capita income in Spain. As of June 30, 2016, 863 people were in receipt of Social Security benefits, 534 of whom were registered in the regional governments Agrarian Plan.

One of the 173 local people who work the land is 70-year-old Jose Miguel Ortigosa, who has five hectares of tomatoes, zucchini, beans and peppers. Unlike his neighbors, Ortigosa denies emphatically that there is any sort of underground economy in Zafarraya. He oversees 13 workers, all immigrants, paying them 6 an hour and says they all have their papers in order. There are thousands of immigrants that rent land from their neighbors. If they give them discounts, what they save is more or less the same as a daily wage.

Jose M. Ortigosa, agricultural businessowner M. ZARZA

There is one thing Zafarrayas residents all seem to agree on: only about 30% of Spanish landowners in the town are working their land themselves, with the other 70% hiring immigrants, and some immigrants even hiring other immigrants to do the actual farming. Ortigosa says he can turn over up to 100,000 in a season (May to October) but he says that after deducting production costs, hes left with around 30,000 per harvest. Furthermore, he stresses that 2013  the year that the statistics were gathered to crown Zafarraya as the lowest-income town in Spain  saw a particularly low crop turnout.

According to the Spanish National Statistics Office, 230 of the 2,040 residents of the town are aged 18 or younger; 291 are 65 or older; and 1,419 are somewhere in between. In the local supermarket, 29-year-old cashier Cristina Garcia says some young people have stayed. Not everyone in the town is older. There are some who have left to study, but others stayed here to work with the livestock or the farms, she comments. One of the young women buying groceries, Maria Isabel Luque, says that shes never wanted for anything. In response to Zafarrayas supposedly low average income, she jokes: Thats because everyones mixed up in something shady.

In one of the warehouses, about 20 workers (all Spanish, mostly from Zafarraya) stack boxes of zucchini. One of them, 36-year-old Ivan Zamora, has lived here all his life. He used to cultivate the crops, like many of his friends, although now there are fewer and fewer residents out in the fields. Now, he works exclusively on loading the goods into trucks; his salary depends on the kilograms of produce that he transports. He arrives at 9am and finishes at sunset. You have to get right to work.

Immigration

Two Muslim immigrants near a building they use as a place of worship M. ZARZA

Again and again, Zafarrayas residents bring up the issue of the huge number of immigrants that have settled in the town, and its apparent once you begin to walk around. Its Friday, the day of worship for Muslims, and a line of immigrants from Northwest Africa winds through the streets all the way to the town entrance. Thirty or so men huddle together in an abandoned building that they sometimes use as a mosque, about 100 meters from the warehouse.

They drink tea and complain about working conditions. Abdil Aziz, a 35-year-old Moroccan, came to Spain 20 years ago in a dinghy. He says he makes 3.05 per hour and sleeps in a car. Im not paying into the Social Security system. I dont have medical coverage or a place to shower. It doesnt matter whether my boss is a Spaniard or an immigrant  the immigrants have just copied the ways of the people who are from here, he says.

English version by Allison Light.
Police carry out a raid in Barcelona in October 2015. gianluca battista

Spanish police arrested two brothers in the northern city of Girona accused of helping to fund the so-called Islamic State's operations in Syria and Iraq, the interior ministry said on Wednesday.

The two Moroccans, aged 22 and 32, and who have not been identified, diverted funds from Europe to pay for the transfer of members of the militant group into conflict zones, the ministry said.

They are charged with financing terrorism, collaboration with a terrorist group and indoctrination, sent money to Islamic State administrators operating under false identities, it added. A search of the two mens homes was later carried out.

Interior Ministry sources said that a third brother was involved in the funding, but is believed to have died fighting in Syria. The three had used false identities provided by ISIS.

Counter-terrorism experts say the large number of raids against jihadism in Spain has very possibly contributed to the prevention of terrorist actions here

Police say the supposed false identities are part of ISISs international fundraising network.

The death of the one of the brothers in Syria, who had travelled to the country with his wife and children to join ISIS, did not end their fundraising activities in Spain. Authorities say they used recent legislation to tackle money laundering in order to trace the international money transfers the cell was making.

This is the first time Spanish police have been able trace remittances to ISIS, establishing that the money was put at its disposal and used primarily to fund recruiting costs.

Spain increased its anti-terrorist alert to level 4 on June 26, since when the Civil Guard has extended its investigations into suspected ISIS cells. An Interior Ministry spokesman highlighted the importance of preventing ISIS from recruiting and fundraising in Europe.

In early 2015, EL PAIS reported on how Spain has become a major financing hub for jihadist terrorists in Syria and Iraq through an extensive network of 250 phone call centers, butcher shops and neighborhood grocery stores, where money is transferred through an informal and virtually untraceable system, according to Spanish intelligence agencies.

This network, which uses the so-called hawala system  defined by Interpol as money transfer without money movement  manages the savings of over 150,000 Muslims without any legal oversight, and is also being used to help fund terror groups such as Islamic State (ISIS) and al-Nusra Front, an Al Qaeda affiliate.

Hundreds of young residents in Spain  mostly Moroccans  have joined ISIS. At least 13 have died in suicide missions that caused dozens of deaths among Syrian President Bashar al-Assads military forces. Top intelligence security officers admit they have no exact numbers on how many have traveled to Syria to join other jihadists. It is impossible to know, said one supervisor.

The secret hawala network in Spain is comprised of about 300 hawaladars  the majority of them Pakistanis  who run clandestine offices in Barcelona, Tarragona, Lleida, Bilbao, Santander, Valencia, Madrid, Logrono, Leon, Jaen and Almeria, and other cities with large Pakistani communities.

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The number of judicial investigations into Islamist terrorism has been growing at a fast pace in recent years. In 2014 there were 104, twice as many as in 2013, according to data released by the High Courts prosecutor office.

Spain has carried out more operations against ISIS than any other European country so far.

Last year, more than 90 individuals were arrested in connection with Islamist terrorism, nearly twice as many as in 2014 (46) and over four times as many as in 2013 (21).

Counter-terrorism experts said the large number of raids against jihadism in Spain has very possibly contributed to the prevention of terrorist actions in our country. At the same time, it could have become another source of threat, as it demonstrates that Spain is a country that efficiently combats these groups.

English version by Nick Lyne.
A doctor treats a patient without pain killers at Periferico de Coche, near Caracas. Fabiola Ferrero

More information La emergencia de los hospitales en Venezuela

Efraim Vegas, a doctor at the Periferico de Coche hospital in the west of Venezuelas capital of Caracas, asks patients to buy their own gauze, antibiotics and other medical supplies. We are working in a country at war, he explains.

In the traumatology ward, patients beg to be treated. But medics follow a strict triage procedure, attending the most serious cases first: it's Saturday and on weekends the staff count is low. Vegas has given Argenis Pena, a man with a deep wound in his leg, priority. The other dozen or so patients requiring urgent care will have to wait in the ward until Monday.

Luis Uzcategui, a retired policeman with arthritis in his hip, says with the way things are, he has become resigned to being bedridden for the rest of his life. I have been like this for four months because when they operated the wound became infected. And since then its just got worse, he says.

In Periferico de Coche, it's not just doctors that are scarce. Buckets of water are stored in the toilets from Wednesday to Sunday because there hardly any cleaning staff come in on those days.

All the hospitals in the capital have much the same story to tell, despite President Nicolas Maduros promises last year that the countrys dilapidated hospitals were to be upgraded and the state health service overhauled, the situation has only got worse.

Periferico de Coche only has a few bottles of saline solution and four boxes of medicines in stock. Most of the shelves in the storeroom are empty

The crisis is due in large part to collapse of oil prices after 17 years of oil-fuelled prosperity. Now Venezuelas economy is considered by the International Monetary Fund as one of the worst in the world and, consequently, medical imports have become too costly to buy.

Periferico de Coche only has a few bottles of saline solution and four boxes of medicines in stock. Most of the shelves in the storeroom are empty. The Venezuelan Federation of Doctors calculates that the shortfall for medical supplies in hospitals is as high as 95% while the government maintains that the shortages are temporary or one-offs.

The situation outside Caracas is worse. Carmen Maita, a small woman of 42 arrives at the Jose Maria Vargass emergency unit in the West of Caracas, doubled over and clutching her belly as she cries out for a doctor. Three days ago she miscarried after discovering her husband had been murdered by a car thief in Valencia, central Venezuela. I was three months pregnant, she says, but the news of my husband's death made me miscarry. I went to all the hospitals in Valencia, but none of them treated me because they had no supplies and I have no money to buy them. That's why I came to Caracas.

In need of immediate attention, Maita left her two other children with a neighbor but that Friday night several other cases took priority and she had to wait more than four hours before being seen.

Teodoro Perez, a medical intern at Vargas Hospital, lists the shortages. We dont have vaporizers for asthma patients, he says. There aren't many antibiotics and we dont have reagents for blood tests. There aren't even test tubes for blood analyses. Often I have had to spend my own money to help patients buy supplies.

Maita has been able to buy two test tubes thanks to help from the hospital staff but the staff isnt always able to spare the cash; the salary of an average doctor working in a Venezuelan hospital is less than two euros a day.

As the situation assumes disastrous proportions, the opposition has begun to demand international intervention but the government is adamant that it will be dealt with internally. Meanwhile, in June, the Chavism-controlled Supreme Court threw out a law passed in the Venezuelan National Assembly by an opposition-led majority designed to address the health crisis.

Infant mortality

In desperation, doctors at the main maternity hospital in Venezuela, Concepcion Palacios, came out in protest last Monday and, after a tussle with militiamen, ushered journalists inside to speak to patients and see the working conditions for themselves; obsolete equipment, toilets with no water or electricity, lack of food, broken infrastructure, and scant medical supplies.

Doctors say that the crisis in the health sector has caused the death of 166 newborns in this hospital alone between January and July this year, a figure that is almost double that of 2015.

In the country as a whole, the infant mortality rate rose by 0.02% in 2012 and by 2.01% in 2015. Last year, 4,903 babies died out of a total of 243,638 born, according to a report from the Ministry of Health.

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Not only has Venezuela seen its infant mortality rate soar by more than 100%, Vegas says that the death toll across the spectrum is unthinkable.

He remembers the impotence he felt in November last year when he attended a teenager who arrived at Periferico de Coche in agony with a gun wound in his leg. The bullet had punctured his femoral artery and he was about to go into shock, he recalls. He was shouting to be anesthetized. I asked for a drip to keep him hydrated, painkillers and even blood for a transfusion but there was nothing. The only thing I could do was tie a tourniquet around his leg and give him some morphine for the pain while they took him to another hospital. I often think how he could have been saved but he was dead by the time he turned the first corner.

English version by Heather Galloway.
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.
Pavel and Aram Manukyan wounded in overnight shootout: Two other gunmen caught by police (video)

Pavel Manukyan and Aram Manukyan, two of the anti-government gunmen barricaded in a police station in Yerevan they seized on July 17, were taken to hospital following a late night shootout between the police and the armed men. Two other gunmen, Gagik Yeghiazaryan and Aram Hakobyan, surrendered to the law enforcement authorities, Ashot Aharonyan, a spokesman for the Armenian police, wrote on his Facebook page at around 2 p.m. He said the skirmish had stopped and negotiations were underway with the group on completing the surrender of the other members. In a later post, Aharonyan said there were two wounded gunmen in the area of the police station seized by the Sasna Dzrer group, who refuse medical aid of any kind. The armed group confirmed shortly afterwards that security forces 'had kidnapped its four members, including Pavel Manukyan and Aram Manukyan, in an overnight attack. Pavel Manukyan and his son were operated on and are in the intensive care unit of the Erebuni medical centre. They are connected to artificial respiration apparatuses. Harutyun Mangoyan, one of the doctors of the hospital, said they both were wounded in the legs and remained in a serious but stable condition after operation.

Turks were unable to dispirit Pavlik. Armenian policemen will not be able to do it either. A wounded lion remains a lion even when wounded, Garegin Chugaszyan, President of the Founding Parliament opposition movement who is in hiding, wrote shortly after the skirmish.

Before midnight, while the supporters of the Sansa Dzrer armed group were holding a march in downtown Yerevan, Ashot Aharonyan said the gunmen had opened sporadic fire in various directions. In the meantime, Toros Sefilyan, the brother of the jailed opposition leader Jirayr Sefilyan, made a Facebook post saying policemen were shooting in the direction of Sasna Dzrer. At the same time, it became know that citizens were being beaten at the intersection of Tigran Mets Avenue by plainclothes policemen who wanted to know what people were doing in the street at such a late hour. After the late night operation of the security forces, riot police detained numerous people who continued to stay in Khorenatsi Street. Detentions continued all night through. Armenian Ombudsmans Office said an hour after the incident that it had received numerous calls about people being detained without reasons. We were also informed that there is a minor among the detainees but the information is yet to be verified, the Office said adding that its staffers are implementing appropriate actions. The situation was relatively calm on the section of street leading the seized police station on Wednesday morning. Two members of the group, Ashot Petrosyan and Hovannes Harutyunyan, surrendered to law enforcement authorities after being wounded by security forces in a shootout early on Tuesday. About 30 armed men affiliated with Jirayr Sefilyans Founding Parliament movement, stormed and seized a police station in Yerevans Erebuni district on July 17, demanding the release of their leader [Sefilyan] and resignation of Serzh Sargsyan. The group calling itself Sasna Dzrer (Daredevils of Sassoun) took several police officers hostage in the late night attack that left another policeman dead. The gunmen also demanded that the authorities free all political prisoners in Armenia. They released the four remaining hostages on Saturday as part of negotiations brokered by Artsakh war participants Vitaly Balasanyan.
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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".

UCOM AND PES-PES CONTINUE COOPERATION WITHIN THE FRAMEWORK OF EDUCATIONAL PROJECT

The statement of the meeting between Prime Minister Pashinyan, President Aliyev, President Macron and President Michel of October 6, 2022

Largest Corporate Bond Program at the Securities Market of Armenia Completed Successfully

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The statement of the Defender on the video of the execution of Armenian PoWs by the Azerbaijani armed forces

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STATEMENT BY SECRETARY ANTONY J. BLINKEN

This criminal act is another proof that the Armenophobia policy. Tatoyan

Nikol Pashinyan, Nancy Pelosi discuss a number of issues related to the Armenian-American agenda and regional developments

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Which VP candidate has a better record on Armenian Genocide recognition?

By Harut Sassounian, Publisher, The California Courier www.TheCaliforniaCourier.com Now that Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump have selected their vice presidential candidates, Armenian Democrats are claiming that Sen. Tim Kaine has the better record on recognition of the Armenian Genocide, while Republican Armenians are insisting that Gov. Mike Pence is the clear-cut favorite on this issue. The more important question is: does it really matter? During his years as Mayor of Richmond and Governor of Virginia, Kaine was supportive of various Armenian issues, including Armenian Genocide recognition. As U.S. Senator, he did not cosponsor the Armenian Genocide Resolution, but voted for it in the Foreign Relations Committee in April 2014, only after demanding that all references to Turkey be removed from the Resolution. He wanted to acknowledge the Armenian Genocide, without offending the Turkish government! Sen. Kaine has also not cosponsored the currently pending Armenian Genocide Resolution. Sen. Kaine received a C+ grade from the Armenian National Committee of America in 2014 because he: 1) Insisted that the text of the Armenian Genocide Resolution be watered down before he voted for it; 2) Did not make remarks in remembrance of the Armenian Genocide in the Senate; 3) Did not participate in the Capitol Hill Commemoration of the Armenian Genocide; 4) Did not cosponsor the Haiti and Armenia Reforestation Act. Gov. Pence of Indiana, Donald Trumps vice presidential nominee, also has a checkered record on Armenian Genocide recognition, while serving in the U.S. House of Representatives, 2001-13. As a member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, he voted for the Armenian Genocide Resolution in 2005, but voted against it in 2007 and 2010 out of concern for its possible fallout on US-Turkey relations, while acknowledging the Armenian Genocide. In 2012, his last year in Congress, Pence received a C grade from the Armenian National Committee of America. Below are excerpts from Cong. Pences remarks in the Committee on Foreign Affairs on March 4, 2010: I believe a genocide was committed against the Armenian people in the early part of the last century and it should never be forgotten. The fact that more than 1 million Christians were killed makes the loss even more personal to me. Cong. Pence continued: While we should never forget this genocide and the lives that were lost and the lives that are still marred to this day, I sadly cannot support this Resolution. Now is not the time for this Committee or the American Congress to take up the measure that is before us. Turkey is a strategic partner in our ongoing efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan. They share our interest in defeating international terrorism. I rise today in respectful opposition to this Resolution, but I do so with deep respect for those on this Committee and those who would be looking on that would have the Armenian people be heard on this point. While I cannot support this Resolution, let them at least note that this American identifies with their loss, acknowledges those tragic events of so many years ago and offers my condolences to the families who still bear the burden of what was in fact a genocide. I urge my colleagues to oppose this Resolution. Having reviewed the records of both candidates on this issue, one should keep in mind that: 1) Vice Presidents do not decide policy; Presidents do! 2) There is no need to argue over which candidate would recognize the Armenian Genocide, since it has been repeatedly recognized by the U.S. government as follows: a) Official document was submitted to the World Court in 1951; b) Pres. Ronald Reagan issued a Presidential Proclamation in 1981; c) House of Representatives adopted two Resolutions in 1975 and 1984. Consequently, Armenians should no longer seek Genocide recognition, but justice! The candidates position on this issue matters only if they have either denied the Armenian Genocide in the past or promised to recognize it, but did not keep their word! There are, however, several other important Armenian issues that should be discussed with political candidates, such as, supporting Artsakh (Karabagh), pressuring Turkey to restore confiscated Armenian properties, providing larger U.S. foreign aid to Armenia and Artsakh, hiring qualified Armenian-Americans, and improving trade and economic relations with the Republic of Armenia. Unfortunately, regardless of what the issues are, one can never be sure that promises made by presidential candidates during the campaign will be remembered and kept, once the President is elected and comfortably installed in the White House!
The streets were aflame with anger, people taking on the might of an embarrassed State to protest the savage gang rape and murder of a girl who came to symbolise a beloved daughter and sister to so many Indians. The impact of her death was felt not just in India but across the world. When she finally lost her battle for life in a Singapore hospital, India seemed to go into collective mourning for the brave girl who fought so valiantly to live.

Four years down the line, the anger has gone yet the brutality with which women and girls are being attacked has increased. Take some of the recent examples. A young girl tortured and murdered in Ahmedabad, a law student killed in almost the same ghastly manner as the Delhi victim in Kerala, a girl raped twice over by the same assailants. Last year, a small girl who was raped was made to wait at an all woman police station the whole day before they deigned to file a case. A rape victim assaulted by the same man twice over has just died and a four-year-old girl was raped and thrown in a drain in Delhi two days ago. Whatever happened to the furious India which came out to protest against the Delhi rape? Have we stopped caring? It would seem so.

Read: Minor Dalit girl raped at gun point for three months in Bihars Bettiah

However indifferent public opinion is, the law has to work in favour of the victim. After the Delhi case, the Justice Verma committee came up with several recommendations on sexual crimes against women. He chiefly blamed a failure of governance. His prescience is felt today long after his death though sadly governance is still very much a casualty. The recommendations he framed have largely fallen by the wayside. In the case of rape, unlike many other crimes, it is difficult to quantify how much the law has helped. For example, stalking and voyeurism are counted as offences, which can be punishable with up to seven years in jail. But there are very few cases in which stalkers are thrown behind bars. Rather there have been more cases of stalking turning fatal.

Read | Raped Dalit girl succumbs to injuries; womens panel raps Delhi Police, Centre

The Justice Verma committee suggested rigorous imprisonment for seven years to life for rape. Yet from 2012 to 2013, rape cases increased by a staggering 35.2% and again by 9% in 2014. The incidence of rape in Delhi was 23.2% compared to the national average of 6.1%. The Justice Verma committee also prescribed protocols for professional medical examination. This is imperative as the evidence of rape has to be collected within 24 hours failing which it becomes medically difficult to prove the crime. In the Bhanwari Devi rape case in which a social worker who had campaigned against child marriage was gang raped in Rajasthan, the criminal justice system failed her. The judge made obnoxious remarks about her looks and age, suggesting that the rapists, an uncle and his nephews, could not have committed such a crime.

The first port of call for a woman who has been raped is the police station and it is here that awareness of the law should first be inculcated. That it hardly exists is seen in the case of the little girl who was made to wait a whole day before she was attended to. The committee was cognisant of this when it suggested that all existing appointments to the police force be reviewed to ensure that the force has the requisite moral vision. While this may be a tall order, knowledge of enabling laws for women who have been subject to rape would help in successfully framing cases against the accused.

The proposed Bill of rights for women, which would entitle women to a life of dignity and security and ensure that she has the right to complete sexual autonomy including with respect to her relationships is hardly even talked about anymore. In the case of State-sponsored violence under cover of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act, the committee wanted the provision reviewed and special commissioners for womens safety set up in conflict zones. All these could have made a difference to the sexual violence visited on women by the security and armed forces in areas where there is civil strife. Prosecutions in such cases are almost non-existent as if to suggest that unrest somehow legitimises violence against women.

Read | Drugs, extramarital affairs behind rise in domestic violence against women

There are so many other areas of sexual violence that even the Justice Verma committee has not touched upon and which need to be discussed. There was a drastic increase by 25.7% in rape by blood relatives from 2013 to 2014. And these are reported cases. In many instances, the family persuades or coerces the victim to keep quiet for fear of besmirching the familys honour.

The momentum of the outrage over the Delhi case should have pushed the government of the day to implement some of the Justice Verma committee recommendations. But unfortunately, public anger did not translate into real action. Since then, that kind of fury which shook the government has not manifested itself.

This has emboldened misogynists and criminals who think nothing of openly harassing women in several ways. There have been many instances of men attacking women in full public view confident that they will get away with it. To make matters worse, the onus of safety is put on women with ridiculous suggestions that they dress modestly and conduct themselves in a circumspect manner.

Read: Poll | Our values responsible for crimes against women, say HT readers

Waiting for societal mindsets to change is a little utopian given current circumstances. But the certainty and severity of punishment will be act as a deterrent to some extent. And, of course, political will to ensure accountability among law-enforcers. The template provided by Justice Verma is a good place to start even though it has been put off for so long.

lalita.panicker@hindustantimes.com

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Bolshoi Theatre is back at the Royal Opera House to celebrate the 60 years since it first performed overseas in London.

Under the guidance of new Artistic Director Makhar Vaziev, previously of the La Scala and Mariinsky Ballets, the ballet company will conduct a diamond jubilee guest tour from July 25 through August 13, 2016 in the British capital.

Bolshoi Theatre dancers Ksenia Dudnikova as Marguerite, Saimir Pirgu as Faust, in La Damnation de Faust. (Bolshoi Theatre)

In 1956, the Russian company first performed in front of a foreign audience at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garde, London. Despite the tension of the Cold War, and near-cancellation just three days before the opening night, the month-long tour went ahead and was a monumental event in the history of dance due to the Russian dancers superior and ground-breaking technique.

Watch: Bolshoi Ballets Diamond Jubilee of landmark London visit

Performances included Swan Lake, and The Fountain of Bakhchisarai. The Etoile dancer Galina Ulanova was a particular highlight in Romeo and Juliet and Giselle, contributing to her reputation as one of the greatest ballerinas of the 20th century.

Best of the Bolshoi

The three-week tour will be composed of performances of five of the most internationally famous ballets.

Fadeyechevs recently-restaged Don Quixote by Marius Petipa and Ludwig Minkus opened the tour on July 25, starring the Russian soloist dancers Ekaterina Krysanova and Andrei Merkuriev. The dance company originally debuted the ballet in 1869.

Perhaps the most famous ballet in the world, Tchaikovskys Swan Lake returns with principal dancer Svetlana Zakharova. Former director of the Bolshoi, the 89-year-old Yuri Grigorovich, created the choreography.

Frank Bridge Variations featuring Ekaterina Shipulina, Denis Rodkin, 2016. (Bolshoi Theatre)

A nod to Shakespeares 400th birthday year celebrations, The Taming of the Shrew will star the prima ballerina Olga Smirnova and Artemy Belyakov. The choreographer Jean-Christophe Maillot was awarded a Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters award in 2015 for his contribution to dance.

Read: Swans and lakes make a perfect setting for some ballet

The Flames of Paris  with Maria Alexandrova  features one of the most stunning pas de deux in the ballet repertoire according to the Royal Opera House. Alexei Ratmanskys revival of Vainonens ballet was first premiered in London 2013.

The Bolshoi Ballet Diamond Jubilee Tour will close with performances of a reworked version of Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges Le Corsaire on August 11-12, starring Anna Tikhomirova and Anna Nikulina.

Follow @htlifeandstyle for more.
Mixed martial arts, sword- fighting, horse riding, underwater stunts...Bollywood heroines are all set to don the action avatar on screen.

Sonakshi Sinha, who will perform some hard-core action sequences in her films Akira and Force 2, even injured herself while shooting a tough scene on the sets of Akira. In the sequel to Bang Bang (2014), Jacqueline Fernandez will hot up the silver screen with some high-octane stunts, conceptualsied by Hollywood action directors and stuntmen. The actor has already shot some fly-boarding and hover-boarding sequences in Miami. Deepika Padukones action scenes in the teaser of her Hollywood project, XXX The Return Of Xander Cage, have already got audiences excited.

Trade analyst Atul Mohan says that the trend is here to stay. This was always there in Hollywood and is catching up here too. Stories are being written to accommodate action sequences for actresses. In the 80s-90s people would laugh if you talked about a heroine doing action, but not anymore, he says. .

Read: Its easy for Sonakshi Sinha to work on more than one film at a time

These heroines are going the extra mile to perfect the roles. Kriti Sanon got over her fear of swimming for her film Raabta, in which she will pull off some underwater acts. Kangana Ranaut, who will feature in Ketan Mehtas Rani Lakshmibai, is taking lessons in horse riding and sword-fighting.

And its a schedule wrap!!! Wooohhooo!  #SushantSinghRajput #Raabta #maddockfilms A photo posted by Kriti (@kritisanon) on Jun 10, 2016 at 7:56am PDT

The whole process of learning something new  mixed martial arts  to execute it in a film has been a terrific feeling, says Sonakshi. There are lots of things that I want to explore with the characters of my films. Action has always been one of them, and I am excited to get this opportunity now, Kriti was quoted as saying.

Read: Kriti Sanon denies holidaying in Thailand with Sushant

Actor Kangana Ranaut has been taking horse riding and sword fighting classes for her film Rani Lakshmibai. (IANS)

Actor Priyanka Chopra, who plays the villian in Hollywood film Baywatch, also has action scenes in the film . He co-actor Dwayne Johnson appreciated Priyanka in the film by sharing a video on Instagram where he says, There is a big scene where a villain is pointing a gun at me. But it is not just any villain, its not just any person, there is only one woman in the world who can handle this kind of pressure, this kind of action.

Read: Deepika Padukone responds to her blink-and-you-miss xXx trailer appearance

Guns!Girls!Global Domination!The first teaser trailer of xXx: Return of Xander Cage! http://bit.ly/xXxTeaserTrailer #serenaunger #ReturnOfXanderCage A video posted by Deepika Padukone (@deepikapadukone) on Jul 19, 2016 at 10:07pm PDT
Kriti Sanon is a busy girl. She doesnt even have the time to celebrate her birthday. The Bollywood actor, who turns a year older on July 27, is set to leave for Mauritius for the second schedule of her upcoming movie, Raabta.

Read: Raabta: Kriti Sanon denies holidaying in Thailand with Sushant

A source says. As soon as Kriti reaches Mauritius, she will start preparing for the shoot. She also has to try out different looks for the role. Hence, she wont get the time to do anything special on her birthday. Kriti was looking forward to celebrating her birthday this year, but she doesnt mind working on her special day, as she loves what she does.

Read: Kriti Sanon finally responds to the Sushant Singh Rajput dating rumours

When contacted, Kriti confirmed the news, saying, I will be heading to Mauritius on my birthday. I am excited about it. Being in front of the camera is the best part of my life right now, and what better day to restart the journey? Im glad that things have worked out like this.

Kriti will be seen opposite Sushant Singh Rajput in Raabta.

Apparently, the actor doesnt like big birthday bashes. Last year, Kritis parents had come to Mumbai from Delhi to be with her. She usually spends her birthday with her close friends and family members, adds the source.
Ayushmann Khurrana was touring the US and Canada for concerts recently. He performed his popular tracks to packed houses. Now, a source close to the actor says the local community of British Columbians in Canada honoured the actor for his versatility.

Read: I have never chased stardom: Ayushmann Khurrana

This recognition from an overseas community is truly heart-warming for Ayushmann. As an actor, he wishes to do films that connect with audiences everywhere. He wants to strengthen his bond with his fans across the globe through cinema and music, says the source.

Read: Actors singing in films can never dominate playback singers: Ayushmann Khurrana

When contacted, Ayushmann says he is thankful to the British Columbian community. I thank them for their warmth, appreciation and affection. The recognition was a pleasant surprise. It made me connect with my fans overseas. I hope to entertain them in future as well.
Bollywood actor Priyanka Chopra took to Instagram to post a photo with American musician Usher, to announce that she will host Global Citizen Festival, to be held in New York, on September 24.

Read: Priyanka Chopra to join Hollywood stars for anti-poverty concert

Peecee will be hosting the event along with American talk show host Seth Meyers, actors Neil Patrick Harris and Salma Hayek. PeeCee expressed her excitement on Instagram.

Read: Heres why Priyanka is looking forward to Toronto International Film Festival

The spirit of the Global Citizen Festival is something very dear to me. With the opportunities to travel Ive been given through my work, I see the world as an interconnected force  and this festival is an incredible example of the power of looking across our borders, and working together for the greater good. Im very much looking forward to co-hosting this year, with such an amazing group of talent, she captioned the photo.

It was so fun "ushering" in the day with you @usher! Lol! Super proud to be hosting #GlobalCitizen with you and so many others. Join the revolution. #GCFestival A photo posted by Priyanka Chopra (@priyankachopra) on Jul 26, 2016 at 6:39am PDT
The ghosts of the 2G scam keep coming back to haunt former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his team even as the nation celebrates 25 years of the reform process kicked off by Singh himself. In his just-released book, The Bureaucrat Fights Back  The Complete Story of Indian Reforms, former chairman of Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) and disinvestment secretary Pradip Baijal says the appointment of Dayanidhi Maran as minister for communications and information technology in 2004, despite his family owning a broadcast business, was a clear case of conflict of interest.

Baijal, who after retiring joined lobbyist Niira Radias consulting firm Neosis as director, says Singh dismissed the issue of Marans appointment as minister despite Baijals bringing it to his notice. Radia was, in tapes released a few years ago, heard lobbying for Marans removal from the telecom ministry.

The juicier parts in the book come as Baijal discusses Marans ways. He says Maran declared himself Prime Minister, Telecom, said he would take all decisions on telecom, and that Baijal, the chairman of the TRAI, an independent regulator, had no business meeting the prime minister. Once, when Maran came to know about a meeting Baijal had had with the prime minister, he warned Baijal that he would come to severe harm.

Maran did not respond to calls and a text message on his mobile from HT asking for his side of the story. Singh did not respond to an email.

The then Prime Minister had set up two committees to chalk out a roadmap to help growth of broadband. Of the two, in the PMO, one was headed by Singh himself and the other  a subordinate committee -- by the PMs principal secretary.

Maran directed his officers not to attend the meetings. Consequent to his actions, the committees on broadband in the PMs office never met. His pressurisation techniques also got him out of the scrutiny of the empowered group of ministers on spectrum-pricing issues, a time now identified by many as the beginning of Congresss end, writes Baijal, who shot to prominence as the disinvestment secretary under the then disinvestment minister Arun Shouri. He wonders how the finance ministry did not get to examine the pricing issue.

Baijal recounts how, once he had retired, the Central Bureau of Investigation raided his house, though they did not know what they were looking for. He claims the CBI had made out a case for custodial interrogation, alleging that he was not co-operating in the inquiry. The vague discussion with them led me to understand that the raid was made on the charge that I had Tata-Unitechs deal papers, he says.

Baijal claims that the salary offered to him by Radia was nominal and less than that of the TRAI chairman. He says that the controversy that broke out around Radia was perhaps the result of investigations instigated by corporate rivals. Also she was a British national, a divorcee, and had a high profile, and ideal target for spreading canards. I can only say with my limited experience of working with herthat she was highly professional in her approach and work.

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India, the third behind the US and UK in terms of the number of startups, wants the companies to list policy support they want from the government.

Commerce minister Nirmala Sitharaman is set to meet the heads of about 30 startups on Thursday in connection with this initiative.

The government wants to know whether the drift of the startup India is right or not and how the government can extend further support to startups, according to a source.

Some of the prominent names which are likely to be part of the meeting are Paytms vice-president Shivanshu Gupta, Anand Subramanian, senior director, marketing communications at Ola, Suraj Saharan co-founder of Delhivery, online beauty retailer Nykaa.coms Sachin Parakh, Shashank ND, co-ounder of Practo, Abhiraj Bhal, co-founder of UrbanClap, Anu Acharya, CEO of Mapmygenome, and Rivi Varghese, CEO and co-founder of CustomerXPs.

However, Flipkart and Snapdeal have been given a miss from this meeting, as government feels they are no longer a startups and have developed into big companies.

The government does not want to be a big-daddy in policy making for start-ups. Thus, this meeting will be a platform for the government to listen and understand the needs and requirements of start-ups and how better facilitation from government can help in creating a more effective ecosystem, sources said.

Sitharamans meeting will be followed by a series of meetings with angel investors and venture capitalists and fund managers, in the coming days.

Currently, close to 4,400 technology startups exist in India and the number is expected to reach over 12,000 by 2020.

The government has operationalised the Start-up India Hub on April 1, 2016 to resolve queries and to provide hand-holding support to start-ups.
For someone who had lost a big deal to a rival the previous day, Snapdeal founder and CEO Kunal Bahl was remarkably upbeat and relieved on Wednesday.

Bahl was relieved he did not acquire Jabong, which fell into Flipkarts lap, because he did not find the target clean. And he was upbeat because Snapdeal will spend the cash saved -- $100 million  to build its own fashion business.

We have a high bar when it comes to governance, regulations, and compliance. Unless a company can clear that bar, we have issues, Bahl said in an interview to HT.

Did Jabong fail to clear that bar?

You can assume so, said Bahl.

There have been reports and allegations that Jabong, as it rose to the frontline of online fashion retailers by burning large amounts on advertising and discounts, may not have followed the best practices. A former executive is said to have made personal gains in the companys dealings. If true, these issues may weigh down the new owners.

Bahl wrote a note on Tuesday to the Snapdeal team, some of whom may have felt deflated by Flipkart acquiring Jabong, a deal Snapdeal had been gunning for. The note spoke of the reality of the beast that is mergers and acquisitions (M&As).

M&A is very exciting when you are doing it. The real work begins after that, and the surprises come after that. I am happy for the people (the sellers) who got all this cash for a company that has all these issues, Bahl said.

The learning for Bahl from this is that one must not buy things where one sees issues around governance and compliance. We acquired FreeCharge earlier, a company that was squeaky clean. We have a very high bar, maybe the others dont. To me, this is black and white, there is nothing in the middle, Bahl said.

Bahl now wants to spend the $100 million saved by not buying Jabong on building Snapdeals fashion business. Its a business that has immense room for growth. Even after all the companies have spent a combined $1 billion, a mere 1.5% to 3% of all fashion retail is online. That, in part, is because more than 90% of fashion sold in India is non-branded. Still, thats a terrible return on capital.

The capital that you invest here will be used to build the most phenomenal business in fashion. We will invest $100 million in fashion, which would have gone into someone elses pocket, said Bahl. He wants to create a unique experience by building a fashion-specific supply chain and technology.

Read | Snapdeal first e-tailer to offer flight, bus ticket booking, food ordering
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To understand how the Indian government can change its uncompromising and heavy-handed treatment of minority concerns, recall the scene last month at Nagaland House, the New Delhi base of Nagalands elected government.

Flanked by Naga warriors in traditional battle dress and spears, the body of Isak Swu, the rebel leader who for half a century remained at war with the Indian government, lay in state. The coffin was draped with the flag of the imagined Naga nation, Nagalim  sky blue with a rainbow of red, yellow and green arching across it, below a six-pointed star. This is the Nagaland for Christ National Flag, as described on the website of the Government of the Peoples Republic of Nagaland, which functions out of armed camps in Nagaland, free of Indias writ.

Among the Indian bureaucrats ignoring these symbols of secession and paying tributes to Swu was Ajit Doval, the powerful national security advisor, instrumental in clearing Indias peace accord with the National Socialist Council of Nagalim (I-M). Nearly a year after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the accord on (Indias) independence day, 2015, the details remain secret, but it is likely that Modi has made concessions no Indian government previously agreed to. Without these, Swu  who began his annual Nagalim independence day speeches with the invocation Praise the lord! Praise the lord! Praise the lord  would not have agreed to sign.

Indeed, the man who must now see the accord through, Thuingaleng Muivah, the M in NSCN (I-M)  Isak was the I  reiterated earlier this month that a separate passport and flag was not a demand but a right. The Nagas were never part of the Indian union by consent of the Naga people, Muivah told The Hindu earlier this month. We were ruled by ourselvesThis has been recognised by the Indian side.

Read | Nagaland may get separate flag as part of final accord with Centre

The Naga accord has clearly been an exemplar of accommodation. This is pragmatic politics  and the opposite of what India has done in Kashmir, whittling away since 1947 at the federal principles and concessions that guided the accession. Last week, we heard home minister Rajnath Singh say that plebiscite is an outdated idea, that Pakistan is responsible for the anti-India fury and that Kashmir is our mukut (crown). This tired, uncompromising stand echoes the Congress governments decades-long stonewalling of a political solution to a dispute that has festered as long as the Naga question. No wonder they scoffed in Kashmir at Singhs desire for an emotional bond with the Kashmiri people.

The Kashmiris may not have had to live  and die  through the latest round of blood-letting, if they were treated with dignity, their demands addressed with some seriousness and at least some promises kept. The Congress had many opportunities to create a new compact during the relative peace of the last decade, when Kashmiri Muslims slowly filtered across India for education and jobs. Instead, the heavy-handed approach continued, peaceful protest was banned and Kashmir continued to be  in the words of most Kashmiri Muslims  under occupation.

Read | Unrest in Kashmir: Threat to the idea of India

The antipathy now appears so intense that even those who could have lived within India with relatively mild concessions  for instance, lifting the Armed Forces Special Powers Act, in force in the Valley for 26 years, lightening border controls to Pakistani Kashmir, prosecuting security personnel for excesses, removing bunkers  now only demand an end to the occupation. In 2010, when the radicalisation of a generation began with the death of more than 100 young men in street protests, a young Srinagar lawyer  in response to my question if he seriously believed India would let go of Kashmir  said: We will wait, we will wait a thousand years if we must.

Read | Here are 10 things to know about controversial legislation Afspa

I put the same question to a friend, a writer, before the current crisis, and he said: Things change so fast, look at Syria, look at the West. How long will you hold on to us? Much as it makes me despair, I have become you to many Kashmiri Muslim friends, who believe  perhaps rightly  that whether right-winger or liberal, Indians are united in the assertion that Kashmir cannot leave the Union.

At a time of unprecedented alienation, can there be a meeting ground? Indians must now question if they want to forever be on the wrong side of morality and democracy. If the Nagas  in many ways more unyielding about nationhood  can be brought to the negotiating table and made to believe that an era of peace, hope and optimism is nigh (whether belief is enough is quite another matter), surely the same can be done with Kashmir?

Read | The Naga deal: An accord whose time had come

This isnt only a question of Kashmir and Nagaland. In state after state, there is a yearning for varying types of self-determination. The word azaadi has entered Indias lexicon, first chanted against the Congress during the anti-rape protests of 2013, ringing out most recently last week when Dalit crowds massed in downtown Mumbai, provoked by the demolition of a revered building. Inflamed by social media, these flashpoints quickly become national issues, with the target almost always the party that rules India.

The breathless, ceaseless rise of aspirations  whether for freedom in Kashmir or dignity in Gujarat  and the search for livelihoods cannot be addressed by an aloof, distant government in Delhi. Right-wing ideologues have quietly begun, amongst themselves, a conversation to change Indias constitution. They would do well to include provisions to make India truly federal, its states more independent of Delhi and more responsible and responsive than they are.

Already, finances are being devolved to the states. Political power must follow. A new compact must especially include space to make concessions to those uncomfortable with the idea of being Indian. A start was made with the Nagalim accord. What unfolds after August 14, when Naga rebels will celebrate their 69th independence day, will tell us if India is willing to embrace new possibilities  or stay trapped in old certainties.

Samar Halarnkar is editor, Indiaspend.org, a data-driven, public-interest journalism non-profit . The views expressed are personal.

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Health minister Surendra Singh Negi has sounded high alert in all the 13 districts following a surge in dengue cases and the infection spreading to new areas.

On Wednesday, the dengue patient count was 142, with 136 cases from Dehradun. The mosquito-borne viral disease has spread in the Kumaon region from where six patients were reported sick on Tuesday evening.

More than 100 cases have been reported from a single locality in Dehradun  Pathribagh  spotlighting the health departments lack of preparedness to curb the disease. Bhandaribagh, Kargi, THDC Colony, Azad Colony, Prakash Nagar and Jogiwala are other areas in the capital affected by dengue.

We have formed alert teams in each district where respective chief medical officers (CMOs) will closely supervise source reduction (elimination of mosquito breeding places) and fogging activities, said Negi.

According to the National Vector Borne Disease Control Programme of the Union government, Uttarakhand reported 1,655 dengue cases last year.

Though officials confirmed only one death due to dengue in 2015, it is suspected that over 10 people had lost their lives to dengue-like conditions.

Dr Kiran Bisht, the state nodal officer of the Integrated Disease Surveillance Project (IDSP), said the health department was working on a war footing to combat dengue.

Despite sensitising the locals, most of them are not ready to keep their houses free from stagnant water and expect us to clean their households, she said, adding that lakhs of dengue larvae were detected in Pathribagh.

In Dehradun, more than 1,000 blood samples have been collected since July 15 from affected areas of which 136 have been confirmed dengue positive. On Tuesday evening, four people were reported dengue positive in Nainital and two in Udham Singh Nagar  both in the Kumaon region.

People alleged that the health department was not serious in combating dengue.

Alok Kumar, the husband of Amita Devi  the corporator of Kargi ward who is currently battling dengue  said, The department teams are not going beyond formal visits and fogging. Thanks to their reckless approach, more than 100 dengue patients have emerged from within a 300-metre stretch in our area and fresh dengue confirmations are surfacing every day, he said.

Officials said the locals lack of awareness was one of the key reasons behind the dengue spread.

A teacher from Pathribagh area died of dengue at a Delhi hospital on July 6, the only casualty this year.

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NEW DELHI: Commuters had a harrowing time on Tuesday as 85,000 autos and 18,000 taxis went off road following an indefinite strike called by their unions.

Even app-based cabs were not available as the strike led to a huge demand. The auto and taxi drivers have declared an indefinite strike against the app-based taxi services.

I waited for an auto for around 15 minutes and then got the information about the strike and headed to catch the bus. But on reaching Delhi Cantonment, near Sadar Bazar, the bus broke down and I was stranded. Finally, I booked a cab and reached office, said Sugandha Sharma, a resident of Janakpuri.

The auto strike was made worse in parts of the city due to the rain and the resultant DTC bus breakdowns. The Delhi Traffic Police received complaints of 86 breakdowns on Tuesday.

Delhi transport minister Satyendar Jain termed the strike a BJP-sponsored protest.

This strike is being managed by people from BJP. It is a BJP-sponsored strike and we have already written to Delhi Police asking them to take action against any rowdy elements. Only 2% to 4 % auto drivers are on strike, said Jain.

Jain said that shutting down the app-based services was not in the governments hand.

Reacting to the charge, leader of opposition, Vijender Gupta said chief minister Arvind Kejriwal should stop politics and do something about the strike. Citizens are suffering due to the strike during heavy rainy season. The strike has endangered safety of lakhs of students and women, Gupta said.

Twenty unions have come togetherandformedaJointAction Committee to enforce the strike.
NEW DELHI: A 17-year-old girl died of dengue in a city hospital last week, marking the first death due to the mosquito-borne infection this year.

Farheen, a resident of Jafrabad in north east Delhi, died at around 2am on July 21 in the Delhi government-run Lok Nayak Hospital, where she was admitted a day before.

Earlier, the girl was admitted to another Delhi government hospital with very high fever and vomiting. Her tests returned positive for dengue, and because her condition was serious, she was shifted to Lok Nayak Hospital.

The hospital report says, Farheen died of a severe form of dengue dengue shock syndrome.

Civic authorities on Monday released dengue figures for this week, which did not mention any deaths due to it.

In the last one week alone, the city reported 40 dengue cases, which is 80% of the total cases reported till July 18 this year.

This year, the total number of deadly viral infections has jumped to 90, which is more than double the number of cases reported last year. 2015 was an outbreak year, with more than 15,000 people affected with the infection, out of which 60 died.

The maximum cases this year 51, have been reported from south Delhi, followed by east Delhi that reported 18 cases.

We had more people coming with dengue-like symptoms during the past two weeks, said a senior doctor at Safdarjung Hospital.

The Delhi government has, however, made adequate arrangements to deal with rising dengue cases, which is expected to rise in the coming months. The disease usually peaks around October. All hospitals have been directed to assign beds for dengue patients, keep testing kits and platelets in stock so there are no shortages.

Delhi health minister Satyendra Jain also said around 250-300 fever clinic corners would be set up in hospitals, dispensaries and mohalla clinics by September.

Right now, we need to prevent mosquitoes from breeding. Since very few cases are from within Delhi, treatment facilities dont need to be scaled up right now, he said. Union health minister JP Nadda has been holding regular meetings with state authorities to review preparedness to deal with dengue.

Our ministry is constantly monitoring the situation, and so far things are under control,  said Nadda.

The country reported 8,307 dengue cases, with 10 deaths till July 28, according to data from the National Vector Borne Disease Control Programme.
NEW DELHI: Topping the civil service exams has not got Tina Dabi the cadre of her choice, Haryana. The Delhi girl will have to settle for Rajasthan.

Dabi isnt the only topper to be disappointed by the governments cadre allocation. Second-rank holder Athar Aamir Ul Shafi Khan, who hoped to serve in his home state of Jammu and Kashmir, will join her in Rajasthan along with third rank Jasmeet Singh Sandhu, who is from Delhi.

Hours after the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) announced the results in May, Dabi, a political science graduate from Lady Sri Ram College, had said, We all know about the skewed sex ratio (in Haryana). That is why I would like to contribute my efforts for empowerment of women there.

Haryana has 879 girls for every 1,000 boys, according to the 2011 census, against a national average of 943 to 1,000. Dabi can still make her mark in Rajasthan, a state with a better sex ratio (923) than Haryana but still far below the national average.

A high rank may ensure candidates who crack the UP SC exam only one in over 400 aspirants clears the three-stage civil services test get the civil service of their choice. But it is no assurance that they will get their preferred state.

The allocation of cadre  a state or group of small states and union territories  is a complex process that depends not just on the candidates rank but also on vacancies, quotas and whether the candidate hails from the same state (insider) or from a different state( outsider ). The rules stipulate that each state cadre must have two outsiders for every insider.

Dabi did not stand a chance as Haryana had just two vacancies, both for scheduled tribe candidates. Dabi was a scheduled caste candidate.

Khan, the son of a school teacher, missed out as the two vacancies in his home cadre were earmarked for outsiders. The two officers allocated to the J&K cadre ranked much lower than Khan  Ashish Dahiya (53rd) of Delhi and Suse Shrikant Balasaheb (400th) of Maharashtra.

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NEW DELHI: India may have to pay around $1 billion as compensation after an international tribunal ruled on Tuesday that the government unfairly cancelled a contract between Bengaluru-based company Devas Multimedia and Antrix, the commercial arm of the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro).

The Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) tribunal at The Hague has found that the governments actions in cancelling the contract between Devas and Antrix Corporation and denying Devas commercial use of S-band satellite spectrum constituted an expropriation.

Expropriation is the act of a government in taking privatelyowned property, presumably for public benefit. Reports said the government will have to pay about Rs 6,700 crore as damages for arbitrarily annulling the contract in 2011.

The PCA tribunal also found that India breached its treaty commitments to accord fair and equitable treatment to Devass foreign investors, Devas said in a statement on Tuesday.

The ruling could have a bearing on other Indian government decisions that private companies have contested.

British telecom giant Vodafone is engaged in an international arbitration with India on a case of retrospective taxation under a bilateral investment treaty. Vodafones repeated run-ins with taxmen had stoked fears about the countrys high-handedness in dealing with foreign investors.

In 2012, India changed laws to impose taxes on older corporate deals such as British telecom giant Vodafones acquisition of Hutchison Whampoas telecom assets in India.

Dev as Multimedia was founded by former Isro scientists and counts Deutsche Telekom, Columbia Capital and Telecom Ventures among its lot of foreign investors. Devas and Antrix entered into an agreement in 2005 under which Antrix committed to manufacturing, building, launching and operating two Isro satellites and to leasing the associated 70 MHz of S-band satellite spectrum to Devas for a period of 12 years.

In 2011, however, a leaked draft report of Indias national auditor  the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG)  said there were potentially a number of irregular ities in the agreement, including conflict of interest, and violation of standard operating procedures.

Isro annulled the agreement shortly after the leaked CAG draft report came out. In September 2015, the International Court of Arbitration (ICA) of the International Chamber of Commerce ruled in Devas favour and held Antrix liable for unlawfully terminating the contract.

ICC also directed Antrix to pay $672 million, or 4,435.20 crore, in damages to Devas Multimedia. Antrix then approached the PCA for a favourable verdict.

With todays PCA award, two international tribunals have now unanimously agreed that financial compensation should be paid after the annulment of Devass rights, Devas chairman Lawrence T Babbio said in the statement.

Other courts in France and the United Kingdom have agreed that the award against Antrix ought to be enforced. We prefer a mutually agree able resolution of this matter. But until that occurs, Devas and its investors will continue to press their claims before international tribunal sand in courts around the world, Babbio added.

Former Isro chief Madhavan Nair, who was at the helm of affairs in the department of space when the deal was signed, told ANI, It is all because of the illegal action taken by the UPA 2 government and the department of space at the time.

Procedures were not followed while cancelling the contract.
IMPHAL: Irom Sharmila, whose 16- year hunger strike thrust rights abuses by Indian armed forces into public imagination, is set to end her fast, contest elections and, if everything goes to plan, also marry her Goan-British boyfriend.

The 43-year-old has been campaigning to scrap a law that shields troops from prosecution, but on Tuesday she said her struggle had been lonely and unfruitful. This left her with little choice but to change my approach as I want to see success.

In my 16-year journey, I see no visible change except the routine detention, said Sharmila, speaking with her nose tube on that the authorities have used for years to force-feed her a sludgy mix of nutrients.

She told reporters that she would eat again on August 9 ending probably what is the world s longest hunger strike  and contest assembly polls due next year as an independent candidate.

Sharmila stopped eating and drinking in 2000 after allegedly witnessing the army kill 10 people at a bus stop near her home in Manipur, which is subject to the controversial law that gives Indian forces sweeping powers to search, enter property and shoot on sight.

My fight so far has been all alone and so I have decided to wage a war against the Act democratically by becoming a law maker instead of continuing with my fast, she said, referring to the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA).

From the days of Mahatma Gandhi to the more recent anticorruption protests of Anna Hazare, India has had a long history of activists using hunger strikes as a tool of protest. But Sharmilas fast caught global attention for its sheer duration.

Almost immediately after she began her fast she was arrested under a law that makes attempting suicide a crime, leading Amnesty International to call her a prisoner of conscience.

She has been confined to a hospital ward in Manipurs capital, Imphal, and-is-force-fed-via a plastic nasal drip several times a day.

The controversial law, which traces its origins to a British-era ordinance used to suppress the Quit India Movement of 1942, is blamed by human rights groups for illegal killings and arbitrary detentions by security forces. The military denies misusing the law.

Earlier this month, the Supreme Court dealt a blow to the armys immunity under the law, saying it cant use excessive or retaliatory force even in troubled places, and agreed to an investigation into hundreds of alleged illegal killings by security forces in Manipur.

Some of Sharmilas aides said her decision to call off her fast might have been influenced by her boyfriend, who is also an activist. She told a court, where she appeared on Tuesday in connection with her attempted suicide case, that she would like to marry.

Sharm ila s brother, Singhajit, said her family backed her new fight.

Whatever she does we will support her as a family. Even our mother is hoping for the day when the act is abolished and Sharmila wins the cause she has been fighting for, Singhajit, who uses one name, said.

The Centre welcomed her decision with Ji tend ra Singh, the minister in charge for Northeastern states, saying, Good that it has dawned on her that sensitive issues like AFSPA should be left to armed forces and not made into a political cause. I welcome her decision to fight elections. Separatists from Kashmir should take a cue from her.

The North East Development Alliance (NEDA) floated by the BJP to target the Congress in Northeastern states, too, welcomed Sharmilas decision to join politics. We welcome Irom Sharmilas decision to join politics. But it is too early to predict what kind of political impact she will able to generate in her own state, said Himanta Biswa Sarma, NEDA convener and Assam finance minister.

In 2014, Sharmila had declined AAP chief Arvind Kejriwals offer to contest the Lok Sabha polls using his party symbol.

(With inputs from Digambar Patowary in Guwahati and Agencies)
The Delhi Police crime branch special investigation team (SIT) investigating the AAP volunteer suicide case arrested Ramesh Bhardwaj on Wednesday.

The victim had accused Bhardwaj of torturing and harassing her for sexual favours.

Bhardwaj, the prime suspect in the case, was arrested from Sonepat in Haryana, police said. He is said to be a close associate of AAPs Narela MLA, Sharad Chauhan.

On Wednesday, the SIT questioned the Narela legislator in the case after investigators served him a notice asking him to join probe, police said.

Investigators questioned Chauhan about his alleged links with Bhardwaj and two other alleged AAP workers  Amit Kumar and Rajini Kanth  who were accused by the woman of forcing her to withdraw her complaint against Bhardwaj.

In her dying declaration video shot on a mobile phone, the AAP volunteer had named Bhardwaj, Kumar and Kanth for allegedly abetting her to take the extreme step.

Read: Crime branch to probe AAP volunteers suicide

The police are planning to issue a notice to AAP convener, Dilip Pandey, to record his statement in the case. Police said the woman had alleged that Pandey was among persons who had dissuaded her from filing the FIR.

Family meets NCW

The womans family on Wednesday met National Commission for Women (NCW) officials and told them she was asked to make compromises with her body if she wanted to rise in the party.

She was told you should stop loving your body so much and compromise, NCW chairperson Lalitha Kumaramangalam said.

With PTI inputs
Commuters in Delhi on Wednesday accused the app-based cab services such as Ola and Uber of overcharging as the strike by autos and kaali-peeli taxis entered its second day.

Thousands were stranded at railway stations and bus terminuses. Those who use public transport for their daily commute has a harrowing time.

Some said they were made to pay double or more fare. They alleged cab companies did not alert the passengers about any surge in prices. We got to know about it only when after reaching the destination, they said.

Uber did not tell me how many times the normal fare I need to pay for the journey, said Ranjan Srivastava, who regularly use app-based cabs.

When I booked a cab on the Uber app, It just said the fares are high. With Ola, I had to click on the know fare button to know the fare. So now, we dont know what per kilometre rate will be charged unless it is time for us to pay. For a journey of 3 kilometres, passengers paid R 300, Shrivastav said.

Shabnam had a similar experience. I had to pay R304 for my journey from South Extension-I to Connaught Place on Wednesday. I paid R160-R170 for the same journey when the strike wasnt there, he said.

There were complaints of long waiting time also.

Read: In pics: Auto, taxi strike cripples life in Delhi

Uber on Wednesday sent an email to its customers, saying it has rolled out upfront fares for all trips in Delhi-NCR. Simply enter your destination and get the actual trip fare before you request a ride, just like you already do with uberPOOL. No surprises or calculating your fare - you can decide whats best for you and your budget, the email read.

The transport department said that it had banned the surge pricing and will check if the companies had resumed it. Both Ola and Uber did not respond to the queries in this regard.

We have received complaints from passengers and will form a team to challan cabs, said a transport department official. Passengers complained of long waiting time before they could get a cab.

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An ongoing auto strike, road blocks put in place for smooth passage of Kanwariyas (pilgrims) and a forecast of heavy rain could make commuting in Delhi-NCR a nightmare on Thursday.

Wednesday was no better. Traffic crawled and people spent hours on waterlogged roads as heavy showers lashed the Capital for the second day.

Public transport took a hit with autorickshaw and taxi unions continuing their indefinite stir in demand of a ban on app-based taxi services  which added to commuters woes by indulging in surge pricing as the demand for cabs shot up.

The Delhi government met representatives from 17 of the 20-odd striking auto unions and said it had persuaded them to call off the stir. But the claim was rejected by the Delhi Pradesh Taxi Union.

Auto Rickshaws parked at Ramlila Maidan during the Auto Taxi Strike in New Delhi, India, on Wednesday, July 27, 2016. (Sushil Kumar / HT Photo )

The Capital has 85,000 autos and the striking taxi unions account for around 20,000 cabs. Some autos and taxis were plying on the sly but the strike was near total.

I waited half an hour for an auto and when I finally got one, it demanded Rs 100 for a 4km ride. I had no option but to pay up as I was getting late for work, Ankita Khanna said of her commute from Jangpura to East of Kailash.

Sunil Nair complained that taxi aggregators were taking advantage of the situation. Cab aggregator services have started to charge more than usual again. Finding a cab is already difficult but getting an affordable ride is even tougher.

He ended up paying Rs 375 from Saket to Connaught Place, a trip that costs him Rs 200 on a normal day.

Kawariyas carrying holy water of Ganga River at Dhaula Kuan in New Delhi, India, on Wednesday, July 27, 2016. (Sanchit Khanna/HT PHOTO)

Adding to the mess, diversions and restrictions on many arterial roads, especially in east Delhi and the NCR towns of Gurgaon and Ghaziabad, will remain in place till August 1 due to the march of the Kanwariyas.

Roadside camps for the Shiva devotees  journeying to Uttarakhand and Bihar to fetch water from the Ganga  contributed to snarls. The trouble spots included national highways 8 and 24, Rani Jhansi Road, Azad Market Chowk, Khajuri Chowk and Mathura Road.

We have made arrangements to segregate the movement of Kanwariyas and other road users and to minimise inconvenience to both. The devotees and commuters are advised to follow traffic rules. Violaters will face on-the-spot prosecution, said joint commissioner of police (traffic) Garima Bhatnagar.

On the weather front, the Met department predicted heavy rain for the next two days. Civic authorities received complaints of waterlogging from over 50 locations in the city  including Mathura Road, Moolchand flyover, Aurobindo Marg and Okhla Mandi.
This monsoon, the municipal corporations of Delhi have adopted a rather different approach to popularise their annual plantation drive.

They have been delivering saplings at the doorstep and even naming plants after residents as a thank you gesture  all for free.

The East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC) will deliver five saplings per family at the homes of area residents while its south counterpart has decided to name plants after people at a designated spot.

We will supply saplings to the residents who want to take part in the drive but dont have the means to transport them from municipal offices. The residents have the option of either planting these saplings in their houses or at nearby parks, said Jitender Choudhary, standing committee chairman, EDMC.

The residents can reach the corporation at 155303 and register their address. The corporation will then deliver the saplings at their doorstep.

Read | NDMC achieves half the target of its green drive in 15 days, plants 1.15 lakh saplings

The EDMC has set a target of 30,000 saplings. In view of this latest initiative, we have appointed seven nodal officers to help the people and execute the drive, said Choudhary.

The SDMC will name plants and felicitate residents who take part in the drive.

The residents can call the central helpline of the SDMC and the horticulture department will reach out to them. Those who want to take part will be provided with saplings and a plant protection grille. The grille will have their names as a gesture for their involvement, said South Delhi Mayor, Shyam Sharma.

Sharma said the residents would be allowed to suggest a location and if there is paucity of space near their residence, the saplings can be planted at the nearest SDMC park.

Read | This sapling season, lets not forget the standing trees

The SDMC has decided to plant more than one lakh plants as part of the drive and is banking on the public support for its success.
Outside a classroom turned polling booth, Manisha, a Class XI student, eagerly awaits her turn to vote for the panchayat elections in her school. Inside, a teacher, who works as a presiding officer, and students manage the show.

A school election commission allocates symbols to each candidate. The contestants are given three days to campaign in classrooms, before the code of conduct is imposed.

Instead of selecting class monitors, Sarvodaya Vidyalaya in Vasant Vihar this month held elections for four panches and a sarpanch.

(Vipin Kumar/HT PHOTO)

Principal Kavita Rana says they are teaching students - 2,300 in all - the basics of democracy, and the responsibilities that come with it.

The move, Rana said, is aimed at making students learn the basics of electoral democracy. The elected representatives will be responsible for maintaining cleanliness, discipline, and adherence to school uniform codes.

(Vipin Kumar/HT PHOTO)

One of the candidates offered treating us with samosas if we voted for him. Obviously, I will not vote for him and neither will my friends. Buying votes is wrong, said Manisha. Another student said, Lalalch buri bala hai. Vote usko do jo kaam kare (Greed is a vice. We should give our vote to someone who works).

Each class is divided in four houses  Ganga, Yamuna, Alaknanda and Narmada. Each house nominates candidates for the posts and election symbols are assigned based on the house the candidate belongs to, said a teacher.

(Vipin Kumar/HT PHOTO)

A voting list with names of all students, roll numbers, parents names and address was kept in the polling booth where each student was handed out a slip after showing her identity card.

We give them chits which have election symbols in different blocks. Students will tick the block of the desired candidate and put the chit in the ballot box. We mark the finger of each voter with black ink so that she cannot vote again, said Sudhir Kumar, a student managing one of the booths.

(Vipin Kumar/HT PHOTO)

Read: Ghaziabad schoolchildren get a taste of elections

The school started holding panchayat elections in April this year when polls were held for all classes except VI, IX and XI. Last week, polls were held for the three classes.

My election symbol is toffee. If elected, I will maintain discipline, ensure that no one litters and help students in homework, said Rahul from Class VI, standing for the post of a panch.

The results will be announced after counting is done by students. The counting will be video graphed. There will be an oath-taking ceremony after the results, presided by the principal.

(Vipin Kumar/HT PHOTO)

Books tell students about the election process but it is just theory. After taking part in the elections my students are more aware about the system. For instance, one student complained to me about a candidate offering to treat them in exchange of votes. I admonished the candidate and he apologised. This is how students learn through practice, said Rana.

Teachers gave special lectures to all classes before initiating the election process. There was a public notice about the elections. Students also have the option of recalling their representative if they are not happy with the performance, said Sheeshpal, one of the teachers.

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The Delhi government has constituted an empowered committee to review the discrepancies in the circle rates in certain parts of the city.

Circle rates are minimum rates below which a property cannot be registered and forms the basis of stamp duty and registration charges.

The Delhi government has increased circle rates four times since 2011. The rates were revised twice in 2011 and a steep hike of about 20% was introduced in November 2012. The last revision was done during Presidents Rule in September 2014.

Officials said the government decided to review circle rates as it received several complaints against the current rates.

The revenue department came up with notice on Wednesday, seeking suggestions from public by August 16.

The empowered committee that consists of senior revenue department officials will look into the grievances as well as the suggestions. It will then submit the recommendations to the government, a Delhi government official said.

Read more: Admin proposes 15% to 25% circle rate hike in Noida, Yamuna expressway

At a private function last month, a section of industrialists and traders had requested chief minister Arvind Kejriwal to review the circle rates, especially in the industrial areas.

The industrialists had counted anomalies in the property rates as one of the single-biggest problem in the industrial areas as the sale purchase of properties has come to standstill. It also causes revenue loss for the government, besides hitting the realty sector.

Sources said the chief minister told the deputy chief minister, who also holds the finance portfolio, to look into the issue.

The realty sector in the city hit a slump after 2014. Before that the sector was on a boom. The circle rates were revised on a regular basis keeping in view the market rates. While it naturally increased the property value, the revision was primarily done to check the flow of black money, a revenue department official said.

While the circle rates were revised across all categories  A to H  the residential properties in the categories in the posh colonies felt the pinch the hardest. The colonies in the city are divided into categories from A to H, with A being the posh colonies.

(EOM)

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As thousands of autos and taxis remained off road for the second consecutive day, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday attacked Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung and the BJP, accusing them of trying to cripple Delhi.

Delhi transport minister Satyendar Jain questioned Delhi Polices inaction against BJP-supported goons who allegedly stopped autos and passenger vehicles from plying in different parts of the city.

The Delhi government claimed that the strike ended on Wednesday evening after representatives of 17 unions met the transport minister. But general secretary of the Delhi Pradesh Taxi Union, Rajender Soni, said they had not called off the strike and threatened to hold citywide protests on Thursday.

The union is affiliated to the Bhartiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS), an affiliate of the Rashtriya Swyamsewak Sangh (RSS), and claims to have about half of the citys 85,000 autos as its members. There are about two dozen auto unions in the city with political affiliations to the BJP, Congress and the AAP.

Over 50,000 auto rickshaws are associated with us. Other small unions have around 1,000-5,000 autos associated with them. We have not ended the strike. We will hold citywide protests on Thursday, said Soni. He said his association was affiliated to the BMS but denied having any links with BJP.

Read: In pics: Auto, taxi strike cripples life in Delhi

Our issue is genuine and we are not instigated by any political party, he said.

The indefinite strike was called by a Joint Action Committee formed by 20 auto and taxis (kaali-peeli) unions, demanding the government to take strict action against app-based services such as Ola and Uber.

There were reports of protesters trying to forcibly enforce the strike.

BJP goons stopping autos and taxis from plying. BJP wants to cripple del. Active support frm LG n Del police (sic.) chief minister Kejriwal tweeted.

Transport minister Satyendar Jain tweeted, Goons stopped autos and other passenger vehicles with BJP support. Why no action by Delhi Police (sic.).

The Soni faction of the union denied using force. Leader of the Opposition in Delhi Assembly Vijendar Gupta termed the allegations of the AAP government diversionary tactics sought to take the focus off the real problem.

In a statement, the Delhi BJP appealed to the striking auto and taxi drivers to call off their strike in the interest of local commuters.
Wednesday brought trouble for yet another Aam Aadmi Party MLA in the form of an Income Tax Department raid.

Chhatarpur MLA Kartar Singh Tanwars farmhouse and offices were raided on Wednesday morning, party sources said.

Blaming the Modi government for the raid, AAP Delhi convener Dilip Pandey tweeted, Just In: IT raid on Chhatarpur MLA Kartar Singh Tanwar. Modi Ji had unleashed CBI, ACB, DP earlier, now IT too. AAP wont bow down, wont bend.

Disheartened by his past performance, Modi Ji seems to be improving his strike rate now. Almost one AAP MLA every day, to keep democratic principles away, he posted in another tweet.

According to his affidavit submitted with the election commission before the 2015 assembly elections, Tanwars total assets amount to Rs 17.65 crore. His liabilities are Rs 9.24 crore.

Former AAP founder member, Prashant Bhushan, tweeted on Wednesday morning that Tanwar was one of the people whose MLA nomination he had opposed. Tanwar is a former BJP member.

The party has been targeting the Centre for what it calls political vendetta against its MLAs. In the past year and a half, since it came to power, FIRs have been lodged against 12 MLAs and 11 of these have been arrested.

On Tuesday, a woman complainant named Janakpuri MLA Rajesh Rishi in her complaint to the police against another woman who was allegedly harassing her. Rishis name figures in the FIR.

On Sunday, the police arrested Okhla MLA Amanatullah Khan for criminal intimidation and outraging the modesty of a woman. A day later, a non-cognizable report was filed against him for threatening residents of Jamia Nagar who were protesting against the power and water situation in the area.

Read: AAP to move Delhi high court over cases against MLAs
Uttar Pradesh politician DP Yadav, who is already serving a life term in a prison in Dehradun for a murder, was arrested on Wednesday by Delhi Police in connection with an organised online betting racket.

A case under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act(MCOCA ) was registered last year at the Bhajanpura police station.

More than a dozen people were arrested after a raid was conducted on August 26-27 last year at a building in Bhajanpura from where the betting racket was being run.

The former UP minister has been arrested on alleged charges of accepting protection money from members of the gang that cheated people by luring them to invest in betting, police said.

The gang convinced investors that the betting was a government-approved lottery system. The arrested persons included Roshan Lal Verma and Amarnath Bajaj, masterminds of the syndicate.

Verma and Bajaj said during questioning that they were closely associated with gangster-turned politician Yadav, and it was he who allegedly had led them into the illegal betting business.

The two said they used to send Rs 2 lakh per day as protection money to Yadav and his family members.

Ajit Kumar Singla, deputy commissioner of police (northeast), said Yadav is in a jail in Dehradun in a murder case and they secured his custody on a production warrant. We arrested Yadav and brought him to Delhi. He was produced before a city court that sent him to 10 days police custody, said Singla.

Singla said they would interrogate Yadav to establish his role in the nexus and his association with the betting racketeers arrested in the past.

Yadav is accused of receiving Rs 2 lakh per day as protection money since 2005. We want to grill him to know what he did with the money, Singla added.

Read: Ukhand High Court rejects bail of UP politician DP Yadav

Yadavs son Vikas and another family member Vishal are also in prison, serving a 30-year jail term for the sensational murder of businessman Nitish Katara in 2002.

In March 2015, Yadav was sentenced to life behind bars by special CBI court for the murder of an MLA 23 years ago. Yadav was sent to the Dehradun jail.

While probing the background of Verma and Bajaj, investigators learnt that the two were running the illegal trade in an organised manner for over a decade and were assisted by over 100 agents active in states such as Delhi, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Chandigarh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.

They were continuing their unlawful activities and had accumulated huge money and property. The two were already arrested by different state police forces.

Initially a rickshaw-puller, Verma has invested the ill-gotten money in a dairy business, hotels and resorts located in Goa, Kasauli and Delhi. Before entering into the illegal betting trade, Bajaj used to sell tea and biscuits at ISBT, Kashmere gate. They became big shots in the betting world with Yadavs support, said an investigator.
After having taken the right step by hiking the salaries of its employees, by 2.5 times on average, it is heartening that the government has initiated another positive measure by introducing the system of differentiating between performers and those who lag behind. The notification of the new salary structure mentions that only a very good certification will earn a government employee an annual increment or a promotion. The Seventh Pay Commission, in accordance with whose suggestions the hikes have been effected, had the mandate of looking at the best global practices and seeing if those applied to conditions prevailing in the country. This measure, which squares with the recommendations of the commission, will make a career in government service more oriented towards productivity. The governments claim has been that government salaries are distinctly higher than market salaries and private sector salaries. This being the case, it is a hopeful sign that the private sector practice of aligning salary hikes with performance has been introduced. Starting the practice of giving salary hikes in two stages  on July 1 and January 1  is another positive.

Read | 7th Pay Commission: Govt issues notification, lakhs of employees to benefit

However, along with this comes the apprehension of whether there will be resistance to it. The government personnel are a 4.7-million-strong force. If the three defence services were to be excluded, the number would be 3.4 million. Their disgruntlement can have an impact that a ruling party may be apprehensive of. Second, at the higher levels of government, particularly in the IAS and IPS, postings and transfers are often politicised. This politicisation could derail the merit system that the government is seeking to introduce. Hence all political parties must agree to guard against this.

Read | A good hike is half the job done

The challenge will be in the evaluation process. Since those in the services like the IAS look after a host of portfolios, it will be difficult to find those with domain knowledge to ascertain the competence of the officer in question. In the private sector, appraisals are done by immediate superiors in most cases. In order to lessen the risk of discontent, it is essential that the process is transparent and the officer or employee being evaluated is given a fair hearing. It would be better that the government put the systems in place first to execute this very welcome move.
Ambedkar University Delhi (AUD) will launch its second campus on Wednesday at Karampura in west Delhi with two hundred undergraduate students on its roll.

AUD, which has a campus at Kashmere Gate, will start classes at the new campus from August 1. Only undergraduate courses will run from the Karampura campus this year.

We will run only four undergraduate courses at the Karampura campus. There will be around 200 students and classes will begin on August 1. The building that we have been allocated was being earlier used by a Delhi University college, said an Ambedkar university official.

The university is planning to expand the Karampura campus and next year more students will be enrolled. More undergraduate and postgraduate programmes will be launched on the Karampura campus from 2017-18 onwards. It is expected to accommodate approximately 2,200 students by 2019. We will also undertake infrastructure expansion, said Praveen Singh, dean (planning).

BA (Hons) in Economics, English, Psychology and Social Science and Humanities will be offered at the new campus.

Read more: Ambedkar University Delhi a good bet for Delhi students

The Kashmere Gate campus is running 40 undergraduate, postgraduate and research programmes.

The university is also planning to open two new campuses in the city. Two new campuses in Rohini (Sector 3) and Dheerpur (Near Model Town and Mukherjee Nagar) will be ready by 2020, university officials said.

Deputy chief minister and education minister Manish Sisodia will inaugurate the new campus.

This year the university released 100% cutoff for a few subjects. It has sought 100% marks in Commerce from Delhi students who want to study sociology and history at the university. As it is a state university, 85% seats are reserved for Delhi students.

For non-Delhi students, the 100% cutoff is for five courses -- BA (Hons) in English, History, Psychology, Sociology, and Humanities and Social Sciences. This is those who have studied Commerce in Class 12.

Ambedkar University Delhi releases separate cutoffs for Delhi and non-Delhi students.

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What does it take to get into a premier B-school like the Stanford Graduate School of Business (GSB)? Derrick Bolton, assistant dean, Stanford GSB, says, The written application, the essays, recommendation letter, resumes, test scores and a good work history help us shortlist candidates. But, the 45-minutes interview of these shortlisted candidates with our alumni help us assess the experiences of these applicants. Eventually, we weave these feedbacks from the alumni based on the interview to choose our candidates.

The United States is the most represented country in a Stanford GSB class comprising almost 60% of the batch strength. Out of the remaining 40% international students, India typically is at the top, sometimes replaced only by China.

Stanford also runs the Stanford Ignite: a certificate programme on innovation and entrepreneurship in Bengaluru, a nine-week certificate programme on innovation for those who are interested in entrepreneurial ventures. All students of this programme meet up during weekends in Bengaluru and MBA faculty from Stanford also flies down to interact with them, says Bolton. He is in India for relationship building meetings with alumni and prospective candidates.

Read more: Can 90% in Class 12 English make life easy in college?

Stanford has a keen focus on entrepreneurship development. In fact, the Stanford Biodesign, a health technology innovation community attracts students from medicine, engineering and business courses for creating healthcare solutions. The students come together to convert concepts to actual companies. While the medical doctors detect problems they see in Stanford Hospital, engineers in the team figure out ways to build devices to solve that problem and business students turn that into a company. They are mentored by Silicon Valley entrepreneurs and investors, Bolton says.

Stanford has a huge role to play in Indias startup boom too. In fact, we have several Indian alums who have started their own company in the US itself, he says. On new initiatives for Indian students, Bolton says, Stanford at the graduate level has announced 100 Knight-Hennessy scholarships. These scholarships will fund applicants for three years and cover tuition fee and cost of living. Two-third of the grants will be aimed at international students. The scholarships have been announced for 2017 for the 2018 intake.

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Barwani collector Tejaswi S Naik on Tuesday reached Malkatar village in Barwani district and ordered removal of materials stored in a government school building by a dam contractor.

The development comes a day after Hindustan Times first reported about the matter.

The new middle school building was constructed three years ago, but a former sarpanch rented it out to the contractor, local residents said.

The existing school building is in a dilapidated condition. Teachers have been forced to hold classes in a tiny 60-square-feet room for the last three years, they said, adding that the contractor is using all his influence to stay put.

The collector ordered seizure of material, machines and instruments stored in the building besides lodging of an FIR against the contractor.

He also ordered a probe into how a government school was handed over to a contractor for Rs 4,000 per month. He said action would be taken against the former sarpanch and the panchayat secretary of the village.

Bharat Jamsingh, a villager, said he never expected such a prompt action from the district authorities and he was happy that the building was vacated.

Former sarpanch Vinod Parmar, who rented out the new school building to the contractor, has said he took the step because the building was located 500 metres away from the village, and on a steep incline  making access difficult for students.

Dara Singh Solanki, a resident of Pansemal, alleged that the contractor every time boasted that he was a relative of a Gwalior-based union minister.

Malkatar, situated on the Madhya Pradesh-Maharashtra border, has a population of 700.
Police opened fire at Pavlik Manukyan - Sasna Dzrer

Armenak Kyureghyan, the father of the Kyureghyan brothers who remain in the Armenian police patrol regiment headquarters they seized on July 17, has contacted the members of the Sasna Dzrer armed group. Talking to A1+, Armenak Kyureghyan said the police did not attack the police compound at bight. Sasna Dzrer members reached an agreement with the law enforcement authorities to have over the wounded gunman. It was Pavlik Manukyan who went to meet law enforcement officers to surrender his wounded friends. But the police open fire and wounded him. Pavliks son, Aram, ran to help his father and was wounded likewise. The two other members of the Sasna Dzrer group, Gagik Yeghiazaryan and Aram Hakobyan, came with stretchers after their wounded friends, but they were arrested by the police, Armenak Kyureghyan. He says the members of the armed group remain inside the police building are in a fighting mood. Armenak Kyureghyan said he did not ask about the doctors who are reportedly held hostage by the Sasna Dzrer group. I think the boys need medical aid, therefore the team is there. There is one person inside the building who has minor injuries, he added.
Ashberry Apartments, a residential society located about 20 km away from the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Amritsar, is home to 165 students of the institute. It was recently in the news when a neighbour fired in the air after a clash with the students, who were reportedly playing loud music late at night.

IIM Amritsar officials refused to comment on the incident or on the need for security of the students when contacted by HT Education. However, a source who did not wish to be named said, the (security) decision has to be taken by the senior management. Currently, all the services including security and housekeeping are taken care of by the service provider of the apartment.

Read more: Faculty crunch: Mentoring comes at a cost for IIMs

Not having hostels on campuses can be a problem. Students living in the hostels of IIMs Ranchi and Amritsar say their accommodation is located far away from the institutes.

Most of the new IIMs, including those at Udaipur, Trichy, Bodh Gaya and Sambalpur function from transit campuses of other institutes and share hostel facilities with them  these are Mohanlal Sukhadia University (MLSU), Udaipur; National Institute of Technology (NIT), Trichy; Magadh University, Bodh Gaya; and Silicon Institute of Technology, Sason, Sambalpur, respectively.

Read more: Why are management aspirants rejecting offers from new IIMs?

Many of the new IIMs have in the first few years also have had to settle with part-time faculty members from the older IIMs and transit campuses.

A view of IIM Ranchi hostel (Source: IIM Ranchi)

IIM Ranchis hostel, located 12.5 km away from the institute, has 21 security guards manning eight blocks and one assistant warden, says Asis Chakraborty, administrative officer (programme) at the institute. IIM Visakhapatnam, which started operations in September 2015 at Andhra University, has hostels located three km away, confirms Janaki Ramachandra, head of administration and programmes.

An alumnus from one of the new IIMs who does not wish to be named says Such incidents of open firing (as in Amritsar) can happen in any of the newer IIMs that dont have hostels within campuses.

Read more: Whats stopping work in IITs, IIMs and other universities?

Often private apartments are hired to accommodate the students. They have to then deal with all kinds of neighbours  who might not be familiar with the students lifestyles. Safety is a big concern.

Hostel life was a big thing I missed out on as a student in the new IIM. If you dont live on campus you waste time commuting to the institute , and miss out on the vibrant campus atmosphere, conveniences of libraries and other facilities. Many neighbourhoods in cities have their own rules, not allowing music or any kind of noise beyond 11 pm. There are curfew hours for girls and they have to be back in their rooms by 10 pm. Students also have to follow the pick and drop timings of the transport provided by the IIM or the host university. Often, we have to stay up late to work on projects. We also cannot play music. There are curbs on freedom if we live in the city, we cant organise social or cultural activities in our apartments for fear of disturbing our neighbours, says the IIM alumnus.

Many are opposed to such arrangements. As Professor Prafulla Agnihotri, director, IIM Trichy says, I did not approve the earlier arrangement of allocating apartments to students. I had insisted on the NIT Trichy campus which had hostels. While security is crucial, having a good hostel within campus provides students a good academic environment too.

Read more: AC rooms, pantries: IIMs to prioritise student comfort

Do they have hostels on campus? (HT Photo)

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With no regulatory body overlooking nursery admissions in Gurgaon, schools are free to charge any amount of non-refundable fees from the parents. Most of the schools set the percentage of non-refundable fee anywhere between 30% and 45%, leaving the parents helpless.

Parents want like Delhi, the district education officer in Gurgaon should fix a percentage of non-refundable fees that will apply for cancellation of the admission. In Delhi, private schools are supposed to refund the fees of the students whose admissions are cancelled. The schools are allowed to retain a portion of the fee, including registration charges and one months tuition fee. The amount is returned within 15 days of the cancellation of the admission.

Some schools have already started registration for nursery admissions while others are yet to announce the dates. Each school charges at least Rs30,000 as non-refundable fee. It is difficult to decide if we should go for the first school that has opened admission or wait for others, said Madhu Verma, a parent.

Read more: Parents confused as Gurgaon nursery admission begins early

Another parent Neha Raj, said, I feel that admitting our child to school is a test for us. We selected schools but all of them have different schedules and non-refund policies. We cannot spend lakhs only for admission.

Education experts suggest that the administration should keep a check on the registration fee being charged by schools.

The schools should have a uniform pattern and charges for admission. Also, the schools do not have fixed percentage of refundable fees. The administration should ensure a uniformity, said Sudha, a Delhi-based education activist.

Read more: Gurgaon nursery admission: Parents want extra-curricular, daycare facilities

Schools in Gurgaon charge a high admission and registration fees. Even if the administration steps in and makes rules similar to Delhi, it may not provide much relief to the parents. The high fees should be looked into, said Sumit Vohra, an education expert in Gurgaon.

Officials from the district education department said stern action will be taken if any school does not refund the fees.

As per the rules, the schools are bound to refund the fees. A few complaints were received by the DEO last year and action was taken against the schools. The policies have not been framed but the office is not turning a blind eye to the issues, said an official at the district education office.

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Not all infants born with rare genetic conditions are doomed to die, say scientists, backing up their claim with support groups and social media showing increasing exceptions, and the favourable mounting research.

The latest study focuses on trisomy 13 and trisomy 18  genetic conditions that typically cause mental impairment, facial and organ abnormalities, breathing problems, heart defects and other medical problems. They involve extra copies of certain chromosomes.

Read: Oral contraceptives not linked to birth defects

Two decades of data from Ontario, Canada, illustrates how rare the conditions are and how most babies still die. Of the 428 babies born, only 65  less than 20%  lived for at least a year. Twenty-nine survived at least 10 years. Theres little previous research on these children surviving that long, and the new results suggest the birth defects are not always as lethal as doctors have advised parents.

The study doesnt include information on survivors quality of life, but severe disabilities are the norm. The researchers say without that information, the study alone cant guide decisions about how to treat children with the conditions.

Former GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorums 8-year-old daughter, Bella, has trisomy 18. His wife, Karen has said that their doctor told the family there was no need to bring their newborn home with oxygen despite medical problems that included breathing difficulties. You have to learn to let go, she says they were told.

According to researchers, support groups and images of surviving children empowers other parents. It allows them to share stories, compare doctors and present their physicians with information that challenge medical literature. (Shutterstock)

Online images of kids with genetic defects going on with life have led some parents to doubt the dire warnings and seek aggressive and costly surgeries to correct organ abnormalities. Ethicists say the power of social media is changing the landscape for how the medical community views these children, although some still say it is acceptable to let newborns with the conditions die.

In the study, about 70% of the 76 infants who had surgery lived for one year after the procedures. But whether surgery prolongs survival is unclear, said Dr Katherine Nelson, the Canadian studys lead author and a palliative care specialist at Torontos Hospital for Sick Children. Most infants in her study who had surgery were at least three months old when they had the operations, suggesting they were healthier to begin with.

The study was published Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Read: What is the Harlequin disorder?

A separate study from nine states found five-year survival rates of 10% to 12% for trisomy 13 and 18 children. The highest rates were in those who had aggressive treatment, according to the research, published in April in the American Journal of Medical Genetics.

Despite the survival of some, an editorial accompanying the Canadian study says it is ethically justifiable to withhold aggressive medical treatment and let some infants die while offering aggressive treatment to others. Parents values should drive the decisions, said Dr John Lantos, a medical ethicist at Childrens Mercy Hospital in Kansas City who wrote the editorial.

Lantos notes that 30 years ago, new doctors were taught that the two conditions were fatal, but in the social media age, however, everything changed, he wrote.

The difference between a normal heart and that with a congenital birth defect. (Shutterstock)

Sometimes support groups and images of surviving children give other parents false hope. But Lantos said it also empowers parents, by allowing them to share stories, to compare doctors and to present their physicians with information that challenge medical literature, he said.

Kara McHenrys son, Corbin, lived for four months after his birth in 2013. Prenatal tests found trisomy 13; doctors recommended an abortion. But she found a support group on Facebook showing happy-looking children learning to walk. She also found a hospital that offered treatment, in Pennsylvania, 400 miles from her home near Greenville, North Carolina.

Read: Nihal, face of rare genetic disorder progeria in India, dies at 15

I couldnt just give up, McHenry said, so the family temporarily moved north.

During his short life, Corbin had pneumonia, a heart procedure and surgeries to help him breathe and to treat a bowel infection. The family was able to bring him back to North Carolina, but he was never well enough to go home

He was going to be impaired mentally and physically, McHenry said. She chose invasive care in hopes that hed beat the odds, but says she has no regrets.

Most common known genetic diseases. (Shutterstock)

Jared Hiner is involved with a support group for families whose children have even rarer genetic disorders that include a condition called Wolf-Hirschhorn syndrome. The groups website provides information about the conditions and a video with inspirational photos and background music.

The Fortville, Indiana, musician said when his daughter Kamdyn was born doctors told him her chances of living past age two were bleak.

Read: This gene puts you at increased kidney disease risk

They told us she would never talk, never walk, wouldnt have a personality, he said.

Kamdyn is 14 now, mentally and physically delayed, but attending school and able to interact with her family. No one talks much about her future, but for the moment, shes doing fantastic, Hiner said.

He said social media sites help give families needed hope, but I dont think its false hope. I think its more realistic hope that, Hey, we can live with this, even when the future is uncertain.

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Dope actor Kiersey Clemons will play the female lead, Irish West, in the upcoming The Flash movie.

Insiders reveal that the actor will portray the tough journalist and love interest of Ezra Millers Barry Allen aka The Flash, according to Variety.

Clemons reunites with Dope director Rick Famuyiwa on the movie. She previously appeared in Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising alongside Chloe Moretz.

Read: Ben Affleck treats fans to a surprise Justice League trailer

She can next be seen in Little Bitches and Flatliners. The 22-year-old actor will reportedly make her debut as Iris West in Zack Snyders upcoming Justice League, which is currently being filmed in London.

The filming of The Flash is expected to begin sometime this year. Geoff Johns is attached to produce the film along with Alex Gartner, Dan Mazer and Charles Roven.

Read: What Justice League? Wonder Woman trailer is the bomb!

The Flash will hit US theatres on March 16, 2018. In the film, while working in his lab during a storm one night, a bolt of lightning strikes a tray of chemicals soaking Barry Allen with its contents.

Now able to move at super-speed, Barry becomes The Flash protecting Central City from the threats it faces.

Follow @htshowbiz for more
The arrest of 11 AAP MLAs one after another on charges ranging from outraging the modestly of a woman to religious sacrilege raises a pertinent question: Do legislators of other political parties in other states also face such quick action?

A quick check suggests that police elsewhere in the country do not necessarily act with similar degree of alacrity.

Take the case of former Haryana chief minister and MLA, Bhupinder Singh Hooda, accused by the CBI in May of irregularities in allotting 14 industrial plots. On July 22, he was also charged by the Enforcement Directorate with money laundering. That Hooda denies the charges and alleges political witch hunt is besides the point. The investigative agencies have not even questioned him.

So is the case with independent MLA Jasbir Deswal from the states Jind district. He is facing murder charges related to the death of two youths during Februarys Jat agitation. Police have not arrested him, saying investigations were still on.

UP police also seem to drag their feet when it comes to dealing with elected peoples representatives. Six MLAs of the state have faced serious criminal accusations since 2015, the year the AAP came to power in Delhi and the procession of MLAs being whisked away by cops began.

Only two  Ajay Rai of the Congress and Rampal Yadav of the SP have been arrested. Rai was accused of instigating communal tension in Varanasi while Yadav was charged with assaulting government officials and land grab.

The four others are yet to face punitive action, though the charges they face are no less serious. Veer Singh of Samajwadi Party is accused of demolishing the house of a widow, Ram Singh Patel of house grabbing, Shyam Sunder Sharma of forgery and Ram Murti Singh Verma of abetting the death of a social media journalist. West Bengals record in dealing with suspected errant legislators is also patchy.

Six-time Congress MLA Manas Bhunia had an arrest warrant issued against him over a murder of a ruling TMC support in April. The day the warrant was issued, Bhunia had a long meeting with the CM Mamata Banerjee, soon after which he was named the chairman of the influential Public Accounts Committee of the state assembly.

Even his own Congress party alleged that the veteran legislator had entered into an understanding with the ruling party. A Tmc MLA Dipak Halder was arrested in September 2015 for his alleged involvement in a factional feud. He was suspended from the party for a while, but was given a ticket in the 2016 assembly elections.

Communist-ruled Kerala fares no better. CPI legislator ES Bijimol was accused of assaulting the additional district magistrate of Idukki, but the police took no action, prompting the high court to censure the force. Everyone should be treated equally before law and the police should not be submissive towards the accused, the court had said.

That is something that AAP and its leaders have also been asking the police  are its MLAs being treated equally? Jagdeep Singh, AAPs MLA from Delhis Hari Nagar who was arrested on May 29 for alleged criminal intimidation and wrongful restraint of the manager of a waste-management company, has reasons to be suspicious of police motives. Experts say his arrest was not illegal, but the investigative officer did have the option of not arresting him and send the case to the court directly. Singh was after all an MLA and did not have a criminal past.

(With inputs from Lucknow/Kolkata/Chandigarh/Thiruvananthapuram/Patna)
An undertrial prisoner who escaped from Sabarmati central jail of Ahmedabad was brought back to the police station by his mother.

Twenty-year-old Pravin Dhaval alias Bholo escaped by jumping a high wall, creating havoc among the jail administration and police.

The breach of security led to a state reserve police constable, Jayrajsinh Kumpavat, being suspended. As police began their search operations, Pravins mother, Ashaben, brought him to the DCBs office in the middle of the night.

Pravin was booked in a murder case by Sardarnagar police station and was arrested on June 11. He has been accused of killing his neighbour,

who had set Pravins house on fire after a quarrel between their families.

Pravins mother, Ashaben, brought him to the DCBs office in the middle of the night. (HT Photo)

Pravins mother Ashaben , his father Purushottam, younger brother Pratap, brother-in-law and his sister were also arrested in the case.

On July 22, his mother and sisters bail plea was accepted.

According to Pravin, his familys financial position was very bad and he planned his escape to help them. He said he wanted to earn money illegally to support his family. His wife, Anjali, helped him escape.

On July 24 after escaping from jail, Pravin contacted Anjali, who helped him with money.

Later he went to Kalol, a nearby town, to meet his friend. He called Ashaben from an unknown number and informed her of his whereabouts.

Ashaben informed the police that she will bring her son back, went to Kalol and took him to the police station by midnight.

Even though Ashaben herself is an accused in the murder case, she said she is a law-abiding citizen and wants to correct what went wrong in a fit of anger. That is why she made her son understand the situation and surrender.
The flood situation in Assam remained critical on Wednesday with over 20 lakh people affected in the current spell of heavy rains in 20 districts. Rain-related incidents have claimed over a dozen lives in the last few days.

Following incessant rains in most parts of the state and in hills of Arunachal Pradesh and Bhutan in last 72 hours, almost all tributaries of Brahmaputra river are overflowing. Water in the Brahmaputra has crossed the danger mark in the entire valley. In Guwahati, the river was flowing 81 cm above danger level on Wednesday.

In view of the grave flood situation, the ongoing budget session of the state assembly has been adjourned till August 8. Chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal on Wednesday appealed all MLAs to visit flood-affected areas in their respective constituency.

Union home minister Rajnath Singh is expected to visit the state this week to take the stock of flood situation in the state.

Vast areas of the four national parks of Kaziranga, Manas, Orang Rajiv Gandhi and Dibru Saikhowa have been affected. Over 80% areas of Kaziranga National Park (KNP) have been submerged in surging waters of the Brahmaputra.

Large number of animals have crossed National Highway 37, which passes through the park, to higher grounds on the southern side of the park. The Golaghat district administration has introduced time card for vehicle movement on NH-37 on the Kaziranga stretch.

Due to heavy rains in Bhutan hills for past one week, the tributaries of Brahmaputra originating in the hills of the neighbouring country have been overflowing, creating havoc downstream in lower Assam areas. Breaches in the embankments of Brahmaputra tributaries were reported at six places.

In the countrys largest river island of Majuli, vast areas have been submerged since Monday. A breach in the Brahmaputra embankment at Haldhimari in the river island on Tuesday has made the situation critical.

Chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal has ordered the officials of the flood-affected districts to intensify relief measures. Sonowal will visit his home constituency of Majuli on Thursday. The Assam government has also announced Rs 4 lakh as an ex-gartia to next to the kin of those killed in the flood.
A 2005 case of parliamentary security breach involving a BJP parliamentarian may hold the key in deciding action against Aam Aadmi Party MP Bhagwant Mann, who stoked controversy last week by shooting a video inside the premises.

In August 2005, Parliament security found Lok Sabha MP Vijayendra Pal Singhs Mercedes car parked in the Parliament complex with a fake sticker.

A defiant Singh claimed it was a deliberate attempt to show the loopholes in the security. The Ethics Committee of the Lok Sabha conducted an inquiry and disapproved of Singhs indiscretion but treated the issue as closed.

Sources point out that Mann has already apologized to the Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan for shooting the video and said he didnt intend to expose security details.

The Sangrur MP will appear before the nine-member MPs panel headed by Kirit Somaiya to give his version of the incident. Sources said, Mann has written a letter to Speaker seeking permission to bring a lawyer with him.

Panel should summon PM Modi for inviting ISI to India: Bhagwant Mann

Mann had recorded an amateur video on his phone of his drive from his home in South Avenue near Parliament to inside the building, briefly detailing the security arrangements on his way and then posted it on Facebook. He has been asked to skip Parliament till the issue is not settled.

Before we suggest harsh measures against Mann, we may have to look back at how Singhs case was treated, said a member of the panel.

Another MP said any attempt to keep the Sangrur MP out of Parliament for a prolonged period may be counter-productive. He may make it a political issue that the BJP is not allowing a Punjab MP to raise issues related to the state.

The panel member pointed out Manns act of filming his journey from his Delhi home to Parliament fell in a grey area of the rule book: We cant say what exact rules he has broken.

The panel may also suggest changing rules in the wake of this incident.
It is yatra time in election-bound Uttar Pradesh.

Come August, the BJP will simultaneously roll out poll chariots  special buses and light vehicles kitted out for public campaigns  from four corners, covering every nook and cranny of the state over the next three months.

These four yatras will culminate at a central point, possibly Lucknow, after touring the state, said a BJP functionary who didnt wish to be identified. The rival Congress was the first off the block with a three-day, 600km yatra from Delhi to Kanpur, called 27 Saal, UP Behaal. Launched last Saturday, it was the partys attempt to gauge the public mood and shore up support ahead of next years assembly elections in the politically crucial state, in which the Congress has been out of power for 27 years.

The Congress plans 27 yatras across UP over the next one-and-a-half month, aiming to woo Brahmin and Muslim voters in particular. Chief minister Akhilesh Yadav, too, is planning a Samajwadi Vikas Rath Yatra to showcase the achievements of his government.

Details of the BJP rallies on wheels, which are conceived to connect with a large section of people, are expected to be finalized before the party state units two-day executive meeting in Jhansi from August 6.

Saharanpur in western UP, Lalitpur in Bundelkhand, Sonbhadra and Ballia  both in eastern UP  have been tentatively identified as starting points for these yatras.

The BJP is the lone major party without a candidate for the chief ministers post in the countrys most populous state, where the party won 71 of 80 Lok Sabha seats in the 2014 parliamentary polls, riding a Narendra Modi wave.

We dont want to delay these yatras for the party to take a call on the CM candidate. It will be the show of the partys collective leadership, and could be tweaked if and when the party decides to project a CM candidate, the BJP leader said.

The BJP has divided UP into six zones for organisational purposes, and each of these yatras will cover at least three of them.

That means every zone will have at least two such yatras crossing through it. There were will be other activities before and after the yatra crosses a particular area. We need to create a buzz around the BJP, and galvanise workers, the party functionary said.

Party leaders will be deployed to address public meetings in towns and villages; and bigger rallies in major cities during the yatra.

The BJPs UP unit will approach veterans such as Union home minister Rajnath Singh, the partys last chief minister in the state, and the partys national president, Amit Shah, to join these yatras at important locations.

Singh, the partys senior-most leader from UP, is among the prospective chief-ministerial candidates who is seen as someone who could lead the faction-ridden state unit.

Other prominent faces  Kalraj Mishra, Uma Bharti, Sanjeev Balyan, Varun Gandhi, and Yogi Adityanath  could also ride the poll chariots at some point. During these yatras, the BJP will showcase the successful two years of the Modi government at the Centre and the lawlessness and under-development in the state under the ruling Samajwadi Party.

Read: From politics to economy, HT captures life in UPs cities

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State finance ministers agreeing with the Centre to keep the cap on the GST rate out of the constitution (amendment) bill comes as a setback to the Congress, which has been holding up the crucial tax reform in the Rajya Sabha.

At a meeting of the empowered committee of state finance ministers called by the Centre on Tuesday to discuss the goods and services tax, the participants may have differed on some issues but the two sides agreed on broad principles to fix the tax rate.

The Congress already stands isolated with regional parties such as the Trinamool Congress, Janata Dal (United), Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party extending their support to the bill.

Once passed, the legislation will set the ball rolling for the GST that will dramatically alter Indias indirect tax structure by replacing a string of central and local levies such as excise, value-added tax and octroi with a single unified tax, stitching a common national market.

Having mooted the GST in 2009, the Congress has been demanding the rate be capped at 18% in the amendment bill and scrapping of an additional 1% tax designed to compensate manufacturing states that fear losing out on revenue.

The opposition party also wants an independent mechanism to resolve revenue-sharing disputes between states. The ministers agreed to scrap the entry tax but had divergent views on the other two demands raised by the Congress.

There are two views in the party on what has been billed as the countrys biggest tax reform. A section feels the Congress should not be seen as stalling the reforms process and should support the bill given that the government, too, has softened its stand.

Leaders belonging to this section argue it is important to keep the opposition unified despite attempts by the ruling side to create divisions in the rival camp. Due to the larger opposition unity, the government was forced to withdraw its land bill. This concord cannot be jeopardised by intransigence on one issue, a Congress leader said.

But, the other section favours hardened approach -- the Congress should pay back the BJP in the same coin. They stalled the countrys progress for years and still managed to win the confidence of people. At the end of the day, it is the public perception that matters in politics these days, a senior party leader said.

It was the BJP that opposed the GST and leading the charge was the then Gujarat chief minister and now Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he said, adding every new initiatives and policy change proposals of the UPA government were opposed by the BJP.

He and other leaders cited the insurance and pension bills, saying the government took credit for the passage of these legislation which could not have been possible without the Congress support.

West Bengal finance minister Amit Mitra, who is the chairman of the empowered committee of state finance ministers on GST, said Union finance minister Arun Jaitley would explain to the Congress that the tax rate wouldnt come in the constitutional amendment bill but it could be there in the GST bill.

The supplementary legislation  the GST bill -- may specify a bracket within which the rates should ideally be maintained. It is an enabling legislation necessary for rolling out the new tax system.

For the record, the Congress said it would respond only after the new proposals are sent to it. Let them come back to us, we will have internal discussions and then formulate our stand, said leader of the opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad.

The bill, passed in the Lok Sabha in May 2015, says the rates will be decided by a GST council headed by the Union finance minister with state ministers as members.

The government has been arguing that a cap on the GST rate in the amendment bill will make the system rigid. For any change in rates, the Constitution will have to be amended that requires two-thirds majority in Parliament and approval of at least half of the state assemblies.

The Congress last week softened its stand on the rate cap and is unlikely to insist on it being made part of the amendment bill.

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Armed group has two demands: Struggle enters second stage (video)

The operation cannot be considered a heroic feat by our glorious police. Rather, it is typical of criminal elements. Even Azerbaijani would not have thought of such a plan during the Artsakh war, Alek Yenigomshyan, a member of the Founding Parliament opposition movement, said commenting on the overnight firefight between the police officers and Sasna Dzrer group members, that left two gunmen and one policeman wounded in the area of the seized police building in Yerevans Erebuni district. Armenak Kyureghyan said, in turn, that he had talked to his son, Areg Kyureghyan, who remains inside the police HQ cordoned off by the police. Areg repeated the same words which his father had told A1+ Company earlier in the day. An agreement had been reached with law enforcers to hand over an injured rebel. Pavlik Manukyan went along. The police opened fire and wounded him. Aram, Pavliks son, ran to his father and was wounded, too. Two other guys, Gagik and probably Aram, ran with stretchers to take their wounded friends. They were arrested. There is a guy in the police compound who is lightly wounded, he said. Armenak Kyureghyan repeated once again that the other two members of the group, Gagik Yeghiazaryan and Aram Hakobyan, did not surrender to the law enforcement authorities, as it is presented. Police and people are facing each other [on Khorenatsi street]. They [authorities] are deliberately aggravating the situation; they intend to take Armenia to chaos. They have launched a propaganda war against their own people. I even doubt whether I am in Armenia or in some other country, Mr Kyureghyan said. In reply to a journalists question why the coordination committee sent people home at night, Mr Yenigomshyan said, When we noticed that there is such a provocation, we decided to understand the regime's intentions. We realized that they clearly wanted to provoke violence amongst the protesters. Considering the seriousness and consequences of the situation, we made such a decision to avoid further provocation and confrontation." Mr Yenighmshyan added that the struggle is entering the second stage and its strategy would be finalized during the next rally on Wednesday evening. We shall agree our future steps with people, he said. This is a nation-wide movement. We do not lead it, we only coordinate it, he said.
A film based on Hardik Patel who led the Patidar agitation in Gujarat has failed to get a certificate from the Censor Board of Film Certification (CBFC).

Objecting to the film s theme and references to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Gujarat chief minister Anandiben Patel, the Censor Board on Tuesday communicated the decision to not certify the film.

Director of the film, Power of Patidar, Mahesh Patel told Hindustan Times that the censor board has refused to certify the film, despite the makers being ready to drop portions that have been objected to.

Led by Hardik Patel, the Patidars, also known as the Patels have been demanding reservation and inclusion in the Other Backward Castes (OBC) category.

The agitation peaked in July 2015, and was followed by incidents of arson and violence.

We were told that we cannot use Hardik Patels real name in the film. The board also objected to a character in the film who bears resemblance to Anandiben and a reference to PM Modi in a dialogue. We are ready to make changes, but the board had barred the film, Patel said.

The filmmakers will now approach the Gujarat High Court to seek permission for the films release.

The fact that the films producer had paid the bail amount for Hardiks release, following his arrest on charges of sedition, has not gone done well with the CB F C. We have been told that the movie has been made and financed by Hardik himself and that too has gone against us, Patel said.

The government seems to be playing safe by stalling the films release ahead of the 2017 Gujarat assembly polls.

Comprising over 20% of Gujarats population, the economically well placed Patidars are expected to swing the polls.

Censor Board chief Pahlaj Nihlani was not available for comment despite repeated calls and messages.

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Chinese troops allegedly turned away an Indian team from a disputed area along the international border in Uttarakhand earlier this month, officials said on Wednesday, fracturing a pact to keep the military away from the territory.

Three days later, on July 25, Indian security forces also reported an air intrusion by a Chinese chopper in the same area.

However, the Centre on Wednesday downplayed the incidents amid confusion over the date when the face-off took place.

While Uttarakhand chief minister Harish Rawat said in Dehradun that the incident took place on July 19, Union minister for state Kiren Rijiju gave the date as July 22.

The scene of the face-off was at Barahoti where a picture-postcard grazing ground set against the backdrop of Himalayan peaks form the 80-sq km disputed zone along the international border. Since 1957, both countries are working towards settling the issue through negotiations.

China claims thousands of square kilometres of Indian territory, mostly in Arunachal Pradesh and some areas in Kashmir where thousands of soldiers stand guard on each side of what is known as the line of actual control (LAC).

The latest incident comes in the wake of verbal spats between Delhi and Beijing over several issues including Chinas role in denying India a place in the prestigious Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG).

Read | Chinese incursion in Uttarakhand, state sends report to Centre

A home ministry official said that Chinese troops stopped a team of 19 Indian officials headed by the sub-divisional magistrate of Joshimath around 200 metres into the disputed area.

Six personnel of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), the force which guards the 3488-km Sino-Indian border from Ladakh to Arunachal Pradesh in Northeast, accompanied the team. However, the security personnel were neither in uniform nor armed in keeping with the mutually agreed norm.

The face-off lasted around half-an-hour. Later, both the Indian team and the Chinese troops went back, said the official who spoke on the condition of anonymity as he is not authorised to speak to the media.

Sources in the ITBP said their job is to escort civil administration officials during their borders visits, which sources said was a regular exercise aimed at reinforcing Indias claim over the area Beijing refers to as Wu-Je.

Rijiju termed the incidents a minor breach of the LAC.

I have been briefed on the incident by ITBP chief Krishna Chaudhary. It is not a major or serious breach of the LAC. The Chinese troops came up to what they perceive as the LAC where they came across (the) Indian team. The situation was defused and the Chinese went back as well, Rijiju said.

The Uttarakhand chief minister, who termed the incident as serious during an interaction with reporters in the morning, later backtracked saying it was not that serious to merit sending a report to the Centre.

Chamoli district magistrate Vinod Suman said he has filed an official report on the aborted visit. I cant divulge details. It is highly confidential, Suman told HT.

Read | Harish Rawat backtracks, says no Chinese incursion into Uttarakhand
Curfew continued in the four volatile south Kashmir districts on Wednesday, while authorities imposed a check on the movement of people and vehicles in the Old City area of the state capital.

Government officials announced on Tuesday a lift on the curfew in the Valley except in Anantnag, Shopian, Kulgam and Pulwama, where unrest continued in the wake of the July 8 killing of a young militant.

Violence sustained in parts of Srinagar, prompting authorities to clamp curfew-like restrictions in Rajouri Kadal and adjacent areas in old Srinagar city. A 61-year-old man died in Eidgah area on Tuesday after losing control of his two-wheeler during clashes between youths and security forces.

The protests in Srinagar continued despite separatists asking people to resume life for the day. Residents in the summer capital took out a pro-freedom rally in the Old City, triggering clashes with the police.

Authorities lifted curfew 17 days after Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani was gunned down in Kokernag area of Anantnag district.

Telecommunications returned to near-normal on Tuesday after subscribers of private mobile companies got back their cellular network. By night, authorities restored all post-paid mobile services.

Mobile internet services continue to remain suspended.

Separatists called for three days of shutdown from Wednesday. They have urged residents to march towards Kulgam district and Srinagars Jamia Masjid on Wednesday and Friday respectively.
The July 11 case of Dalit atrocity in Una has triggered a campaign by civil rights groups and others against the Anandiben Patel governments lack of commitment on gender issues.

Dalit women have been the worst victims of caste violence. Twenty Dalits including women have been murdered and 45 rapes have happened each year from 2006-15, while 4,578 cases of SC/ST atrocities remain pending, noted a report of Ahmedabad-based Navsarjan Trust.

The Gujarat government has itself identified 11 districts including Mehsana, Ahmadabad (Rural), Amreli, Rajkot and Surendranagar as being atrocity prone. Between 2006 and 2015, as many as 10,839 cases of atrocities were registered under the SC/ST Atrocities Act of 1989 and only about half of these have been resolved. Cases pending under the Act number 4578 and 522 of these have been pending since 2006, official documents show.

The gender aspect of caste violence has gone unheard despite the state having a woman CM. Not one meeting of the State Vigilance and Monitoring Committee has been called by her in the last two years, said the trusts executive director, Manjula Pradeep.

The SC/ST Atrocities Act recommends the state government to hold meetings of the state vigilance and monitoring committee every six months.

CPI(M) leader and All India Democratic Womens Association general secretary Brinda Karat  who visited Samadhaliya and nearby villages last Saturday  also pointed at the gender concern. For fear of upper caste reprisals, Dalit men are staying away from their traditional occupation (skinning dead animals) and there is increased pressure on women to travel long distances to earn a living as agricultural or mine laborers. This has increased the vulnerability of Dalit women, Karat said.

During recorded incidents of Dalit migrations from villages to nearby towns in past years, pregnant Dalit women have had to suffer the ignominy of a child birth in public and several of them have died, said Chandrasinh Mahida of the Una-based Dalit Haq Raksha Ekta Manch. For the last four months, a Dalit family has been at a dharna outside the district collectors office at Amreli to demand action the culprits in a case of a gang-rape of a minor girl.

Read | Una incident: Dalit writer from Gujarat to return his award

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Eradicating manual scavenging should be Indias top priority as the caste-based practice is worse than slavery and will destroy BR Ambedkars dream of an equal society, Magsaysay award winner Bezwada Wilson said on Wednesday.

Speaking to HT from the west Delhi offices of his Safai Karmachari Andolan (SKA), he condemned the so-called growing fundamentalism and said the recent thrashing of Dalit youth in Gujarat proved these anti-democratic powers thought they were the law.

People want to tell Dalits what to eat, what to wear, how to live but Dalits have started to resist. Dominant castes are violating the law and it is up to the government to uphold democracy, he said.

The 50-year-old was awarded the Magsaysay  known as Asias Nobel Prize -- for his pioneering organisation founded in 1993 that works to eradicate the wide-spread practice of people lifting and cleaning human excreta by hand.

Govt apathy

The organisation has grown to nearly 30 states and more than 6,000 volunteers but much work needs to be done to eradicate the profession that employs Dalit women and children almost exclusively because Indias millennia-old caste system considers them impure.

Look at Swachh Bharat. Prime Minister Narendra Modi did cleaning for 2 minutes but who will clear the toilets afterwards? It will be Dalits, he said, demanding that social justice and technology go hand-in-hand.

Efforts to address caste and patriarchy are almost absent from Swachh Bharat. By constructing crores of toilets, youre inviting more sewage and septic tank deaths.

Manual scavenging is banned in India but the rule is not stringently enforced. Wilson said an estimated 200,000 manual scavengers work in the country at present, not counting sewer cleaners and safai karmacharis. The worst performing states are Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.

Apart from them, the biggest employer of manual scavengers in India is the Railways.

They run bullet trains but dont eradicate scavenging. Wheres the technology for those who want to end lifting shit and live with dignity, he asked.

Female sanitation workers protest against manual scavenging at a rally earlier this year. (Safai Karmachari Andolan)

Soft-spoken crusader

The prolific campaigner is soft spoken and self-taught in English. As we speak, his two mobile phones are ring incessantly with call after call of congratulations pouring in.

Wilson seems almost detached, betraying emotions only when the media herds the 20-odd SKA members for a group photograph. Its an important day but the credit goes to the women who threw away their baskets. We helped them but they fought the war, he said, beaming.

Read | Bezwada Wilson, TM Krishna win Ramon Magsaysay Award

He advocated for a change in peoples mindsets for caste oppression to be eradicated. People call me Bhangi even now. We dont find apartments to house our offices. Our way of thinking needs to change.

He stops for a minute, choked with emotion, then takes an unwashed plate he had dinner on earlier to the kitchen. Cameras quickly gather as he starts to clean it himself.

Bezwada Wilson washes his plate after a meal at the Safai Karmachari Andolan office in west Delhi. (AP)

We try and lighten the somber mood by informing him that he is a top Twitter trend. His friends and employees insist he must get a television in his office.

I dont have a Twitter account. I dont even know how to operate, he said, as people explained the concept of a Trend to him.

Early struggle

Born in Karnatakas Kolar gold fields region to a Dalit family, Wilson said he said he slowly understood that he was an untouchable and from a family of manual scavengers in primary school after his dominant caste classmates and neighbours heaped on humiliation.

He began work against manual scavenging in 1982, more than a decade before SKA was formed. One afternoon, he lost control of his temper when seeing his relatives and family scrape off excreta.

We talked about democracy and freedom. I felt like my freedom was denied. I couldnt compromise. It was worse than slavery, he told HT, emotion choking his voice.

But once he began his work, one of his biggest challenges was asking women with no other mode of income to quit scavenging.

This was the cruelty of scavenging. If you fought the system, you were left with no income.

But instead of asking them to quit, Wilson took a different approach, going to villages and narrating his own tales of humiliation at the hands of dominant caste people.

They related with my story, often with tears in their eyes. This is how we united to fight the system, he said.

Ambedkar was central to the fight, he told HT, arguing that he wouldnt have started SKA had it not been for the writings of the father of Indias constitution.

I didnt know of Ambedkar till 1990. Then I went on a cycle rally to celebrate his birth centenary and his writings changed my life. We follow in his way.

Dalit atrocities

But one of Indias most-prominent antic-caste campaigners was saddened by rising Dalit atrocities.

He called the suicide of PhD student Rohith Vemula in Hyderabad institutional murder, saying society pushed people like him to death.

He also said food choices should be a personal matter, referring to calls for a nationwide beef ban and a spurt in violence against suspected cow smugglers.

The staple food of Dalits and Muslims is beef. No one should feel hurt by it or force changes.

He expressed shock at the Gujarat thrashing, saying earlier the government machinery would keep casteist society elements in check but now things were getting out of control. The fundamentalists dont want to listen and take the law in their own hand. This is dangerous in a democracy.

Way forward

The legal ban has slashed manual scavenger numbers to an eighth of the nearly 1.5 million two decades ago but impunity for employers hasnt vanished. The SKA estimates than more than 1,000 sewer cleaners have died in the past three years.

For an organization with limited resources, the SKAs achievements are impressive. After Parliament banned manual scavenging in 1993, it trained volunteers and workers and was crucial behind a 2014 Supreme Court verdict that said the deaths of safai karmacharis must be punished and compensation of Rs 10 lakh given.

Last December, the SKA undertook a 125-day Bhim Yatra that covered 30 states with volunteers spreading awareness about the plight of sewer workers and latrine cleaners.

Safai Karmacharis and volunteers seen during the 125-day Bhim Yatra. (Safai Karmachari Andolan)

The campaign ended in Delhi on Ambedkars birthday this year with hundreds of workers carrying banners saying, Jai Bhim and Stop Killing Us.

We democraticised the society through our struggles in the court and on the streets. We went to leaders with 500 women. Through hartals and dharnas, we were successful, he said.

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The Aam Aadmi Party is grappling with multiple cases filed against over a dozen of its legislators  ranging from criminal intimidation and molestation to rioting and faking educational qualifications.

The bureaucracy and the AAP government have locked horns as well. A special commissioner posted with the transport department has complained that transport minister Satyendar Jain misbehaved with him.

Another party MLA, Kartar Singh, has found himself in trouble with the Income Tax Department, which raided his residence on Wednesday morning.

Read | Delhi: Senior officer goes on leave after AAP minister shouts at him

Read | Now, I-T dept raids AAP MLAs farmhouse in south Delhi

The party has maintained that a majority of these cases are politically motivated and a result of vendetta and misuse of the police force.

Heres the complete list of AAP MLAs who have found themselves in legal trouble:

Amanatullah Khan

Okhla MLA

Case: On July 19, a woman filed a complaint with police alleging that at the AAP MLAs residence in Jamia Nagar, a youth had on July 10 abused her and threatened that she would be killed if she did not stop politicising the matter.

FIR registered under section 506 (criminal intimidation) and 509 (word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman) of the IPC.

After the woman recorded her statement under section 164 before a magistrate, Section 308 (attempt to commit culpable homicide) was added to the FIR.

A non-cognizable report was also filed against him for allegedly threatening locals in Jamia Nagar who were protesting against water and power issues in their area.

Status: Arrested on July 24

Naresh Yadav

Mehrauli MLA

Case: Naresh Yadav has been booked by the Punjab Police in connection with the alleged sacrilege of Quran in Malerkotla, Punjab on June 24.

Yadav has been booked under relevant sections of the IPC after one of the accused, Vijay Kumar, arrested in connection with the incident, claimed he had done it at the behest of the AAP MLA.

He has been charged with IPC sections 109 (punishment for abetment if the act abetted is committed in consequence and where no express provision is made for its punishment), 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth etc and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony), 295 (injury or defiling place of worship with an intent to insult the religion of any class).

Status: Arrested and sent to two-day police custody on July 25

Prakash Jarwal

Deoli MLA

Cases: Two FIRs  the recent one on July 6, 2016, when a woman accused him of molestation and threatening her when she went to DJB to file a complaint.

First FIR on May 22, 2014, for assaulting a Delhi Jal Board engineer when he refused to listen to his instructions while supervising a drilling work in Sangam Vihar.

Status: Arrested a day later in first case, no arrest in the second one

Dinesh Mohaniya

Sangam Vihar MLA

Cases: FIR for molesting, assaulting and threatening a woman who had gone to meet him about a water problem in her area on June 22, a day later another FIR against him for slapping and manhandling a senior citizen in Govindpuri. The senior citizen alleged he was beaten when he complained about local issues.

Status: Arrested on June 25 for molestation

Jagdeep Singh

Hari Nagar MLA

Case: FIR for causing hurt, criminal intimidation and wrongful restraint of manager of a waste management company on May 21, 2016.

Status: Arrested on May 29

Mahindra Yadav

Vikaspuri MLA

Case: Rioting and assaulting a public servant at a protest in west Delhis Nihal Vihar on January 27, 2016.

Status: Arrested on January 29

Akhilesh Pati Tripathi

Model Town MLA

Cases: Molestation, misbehaviour with a woman and rioting in 2013, registered against him across police stations.

Status: Arrested for molestation in November 2015. Acquitted in molestation and rioting cases.

Somnath Bharti

Malviya Nagar MLA, former Delhi law minister

Cases: Attempt to murder, domestic violence, cheating registered by his wife Lipika Mitra in September, 2015. Two other cases registered against him in connection with the midnight Khirki Extension raid in 2014 which African women were allegedly molested and manhandled by a mob led by Bharti. Latest case is for instigating supporters to misbehave with a woman.

Status: Arrested on September 29, 2015, in the domestic violence charge, after he evaded arrest for a week.

Surinder Singh Commando

MLA from Delhi Cantonment

Case: Casteist remarks against an NDMC sanitation inspector belonging to a schedule caste, obstructing him and other NDMC employees from performing government duty on August 4, 2015.

Status: Arrested on August 21

Jitender Singh Tomar

Tri Nagar MLA, former Delhi law minister

Case: Enrolling with Delhi Bar Council using fake LLB and BSc degree. FIR registered at the Hauz Khas police station June 8, 2015.

Status: Arrested on June 10, 2015

Alka Lamba

Chandni Chowk MLA

Case: FIR in August 2015 on complaint of a businessman who said Lamba trespassed his shop and ransacked it. She was also booked for manhandling a constable at the spot.

Status: Not been arrested

Manoj Kumar

Kondli MLA

Case: Four FIRs for charges including land grabbing, outraging a womans modesty and causing hurt; registered at three east Delhi police stations.

Status: FIRs registered in May 2014, arrested on July 9, 2015, for land grabbing

Asim Ahmed Khan

Matia Mahal MLA

Case: Accepting bribe of Rs 6 lakh; registered by CBI

Status: FIRs registered in October, 2015

Rajesh Rishi

Janakpuri (West) MLA

Case: A woman, who attempted suicide on July 15, alleged that another woman was harassing her husband and herself on the behest of Rishi.

Status: FIR registered at Janakpuri police station on July 20, 2016


A six-day Bharat Parv (India Festival) will be organised by the Union tourism ministry in coordination with other ministries and departments to mark the Independence Day next month, official sources said on Wednesday.

The event, beginning August 12, will be organised at Rajpath near India Gate to celebrate the countrys independence and also promote the spirit of patriotism among citizens and give a boost to tourism, official sources said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union ministers will attend the event. About 100 stalls will be set up to display handicrafts of various states.

Among states, Assam, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Nagaland, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Odisha will bring local associations and cultural groups to showcase diverse flavours of the country, official sources added.

There will also be separate pavilions for states to display their tourism products, cultural heritage and developmental progress.

The event would also have performance by armed forces bands. The historic India Gate would also be kept illuminated during the event, which will be inaugurated on August 12, 2016 at 5 PM. The celebrations will conclude on August 18.

There will be 50 stalls dedicated to cuisine of various regions of the country.
India inched a step closer to a nationwide Goods and Services Tax (GST) with the government agreeing on Wednesday to drop the contentious 1% manufacturing tax and to fully compensate states for five years for potential revenue losses after the new system kicks in.

The Union Cabinet, headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, approved these changes a day after finance minister Arun Jaitley met state finance ministers to iron out glitches in the tax reform measure that has remained stuck in Parliament for want of political consensus.

The amendments to the GST Constitutional Amendment Bill have been cleared, a top official said after the meeting of the Cabinet meeting.

In the Bill passed in the Lok Sabha in May last year, the Centre had proposed 100% compensation for first three years, 75% and 50% for the next two years.

However, the select committee of the Rajya Sabha has recommended 100% compensation for probable loss of revenue for five years.

Read | HT Explains: All you should know about Goods and Services Tax

In the meeting on Tuesday, states pressed for a stronger legal assurance on compensation in case of revenue loss after migrating to GST.

States want 100% compensation for the first five years and wants this specified in the main law through fool proof wording in the Constitution Amendment Bill, which the Cabinet has now approved.

The government has also agreed to drop the so-called entry tax or manufacturing tax of 1%, proposed to protect revenues of producing states like Maharashtra, Gujarat or Tamil Nadu.

The Congress has been pressing for scrapping this levy arguing this will distort the system.

Read | Blow for Congress as states, Centre agree on GST formula

The latest moves have raised hopes about the bills passage in the Rajya Sabha as early as next week.

Once adopted, GST will change Indias indirect tax structure by replacing a string of central and local levies such as excise, value added tax and octroi with a single unified tax and stitch together a common national market.

The Congresss other two demandscapping the GST rate in the Constitution Amendment Bill and a Supreme Court judge-headed dispute resolution body has not been accepted yet.

The Cabinet has approved changes in the Constitution amendment bill specifying that any dispute between states and the Centre will be adjudicated by the GST Council, which will have representation from both the Centre and states.

Read | Govt will have to create an ecosystem of trust to pass GST: Mitra

Meanwhile, the government renewed negotiations on Wednesday with Opposition parties for a consensus on the GST bill.

Union finance minister Arun Jatiley met West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee and NCP leader Praful Patel. We spoke about the GST. I find most of the Opposition parties are in support of the bill, Patel told HT.

Jaitley will talk to CPI (M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury, whose party wants two changes in the proposed legislation.

Banerjee had announced her support for the GST but opposed the NDA governments bid to bring businesses which earn less than Rs 1.5 core annually under the Centres control.

We cant accept these changes. This will mean the states will have no control over any business, Banerjee said.

Banerjee also met Modi where the GST issue was discussed.

The Congress said it would respond only after the new proposals are sent to it.

Let them come back to us, we will have internal discussions and then formulate our stand, said leader of the opposition in the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad.

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Uttarakhand chief minister Harish Rawat said on Wednesday that there is an increase in the number of Chinese troops along the Indian border, but ruled out any incursion into Indian territory. This is in sharp contrast to his statement hours earlier when he had said that Chinese troops had ventured into Chamoli district of Uttarakhand.

The state revenue authorities were there for mapping of our land and they noticed their presence. Earlier, there were sporadic incidents, but this time it is happening at a larger scale. However, I think that there is nothing to be alarmed as the activities were noticed in Chinese territory, Rawat told ANI.

We are alert and that is why we noticed those movements. Besides, the central government is also aware of this fact, he added.

Rawat, however, said that as a country we should be alert and think about infrastructural development and increase connectivity along the border.

When asked if the government should take strong action, the chief minister said, The Government of India is alert and will take necessary measures at the right time.

Minister of state for home Kiren Rijiju said appropriate action would be initiated after going through a detailed report.

Indo Tibetan Border Police Force (ITBP) personnel are monitoring the border area. We need to assess the extent of intrusion. We will seek a detailed report and then see what is to be done, Rijiju told media persons outside Parliament.

Former union home secretary and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP, RK Singh, said the Line of Actual Control (LAC) is not defined, adding that that is the root cause of the problem.

He said that there has been no cooperation from the Chinese side despite Indias repeated calls to define the LAC.

It was agreed with China that we will set up a group to clarify the LAC. And we have been asking those groups to complete their exercise, but the Chinese have not been cooperating, Singh told ANI.

Expecting a friendly relationship with China is not something a sensible person will do, he added.

According to sources, the ITBP had sent a report about this incident to the ministry of home affairs on July 19, which was the date of incursion.

Uttarakhand shares a 350 kilometre long boundary with China and similar incursion attempts by the Chinese have been reported in the past.

The last reported Chinese incursion in the state was when the word China was inscribed on rocks near Mana Pass in Chamoli district of Uttarakhand.
Chinese troops recently entered a disputed stretch along the international border with India, Uttarakhand chief minister Harish Rawat said on Wednesday, allegedly breaking a pact between the two countries to keep the area free from military build-up.

This is a matter of concern. We have asked (the Centre) to increase vigilance, Rawat told reporters in Dehradun, the capital of the Himalayan state which shares a 350-km-long border with China.

Our border has been peaceful. I believe the government will take necessary cognizance.

The alleged incursion took place on July 19 at Barahoti in Chamoli district, where a picture-postcard grazing ground set against the backdrop of Himalayan peaks form the international border.

Since 1957, both the countries recognise the 80-sq km grazing ground as disputed and agree on negotiations to settle the issue. Herders from both countries are, however, allowed to use the grazing ground.

Both countries also agreed to keep the area dimilitarised, unlike other disputed areas in Kashmir and Arunachal Pradesh where thousands of soldiers stand guard on each side of what is known as the line of actual control (LAC).

Union minister of state for home Kiren Rijiju said in Delhi the government has asked the Indo Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), which guards the 3488-km Sino-Indian border from Ladakh to Arunachal Pradesh in Northeast, to look into the matter.

China lays claim to thousands of square kilometres of Indian territory, mostly in Arunachal Pradesh. The Communist giant had even attacked India in 1962 over the border dispute but ended the war unilaterally after intruding as far as Assam.

Officials said that in the latest incident, a group of Chamoli district officials  who had gone to grazing ground for a land survey  was sent back by Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) soldiers who suddenly appeared out of the mist in the area Beijing refers to as Wu-Je.

Chamoli district magistrate Vinod Suman said he has filed an official report on the aborted visit by a team led by Yogender Singh, sub-divisional magisrate, Joshimath.

I cant divulge details. It is highly confidential, Suman told HT.

However, the July 19 incident is not the first of its kind. There have been several instances of infiltration by Chinese soldiers in that part of the Indian territory in the past.

In 2013, then state chief minister Vijay Bahuguna had brought up the issue of Chinese violation of the international borders at Barahoti.

At a chief ministers meet on internal security held at Delhi, he tabled a report stating that Chinese had trespassed into Indian territory no less than 37 times between 2007 and 2012.

In 2014, too, there were reports of Chinese intrusion at Barahoti.

(With agency inputs)
TV companies became platform for National Security Service and police - Ashot Melikyan (video)

The seizure of a police station in Yerevan by the Sasna Dzrer armed group was covered by local TV companies in a way as if there was one conducting baton for all of them, Ashot Melikyan, Chairman of the Committee to Protect Freedom of Speech, said on Wednesday. During the latest events in Armenia, it became more evident that TV companies are fully controlled by the countys leadership. They became a platform for the National Security Service and the police. The media should perform their functions, never be satisfied with the information provided by state officials and turn to other sources for information, he said adding that politicians and "courtier" intellectuals carry out the same policy. Ashot Melikyan says members of the Sasna Dzrer group cannot be called terrorists for many reasons. It is well known that terrorists do not have a homeland. No one can say that members of the Sasna Dzrer group do not have a homeland or there are not patriots. Terrorists hope to have the maximum number of fatalities, but Sasna Dzrer did not have such an objective set before them. Terrorists do not have hundreds of thousands of supporters and never stand up for their demands but we saw that thousands of citizens had gathered on Khorenatsi street to support the Sasna Dzrer group and their demands. Terrorists are not given an opportunity to communicate with the media, while Sasna Dzrer had that opportunity. I do not remember such a precedent. And finally, terrorists are not charged with attempts to seize a building or structure.
The time I spent with Dr Kalam is no less than a legacy that I have inherited. We met for the first time during my IIM-A days in 2009. He was visiting our campus as co-faculty for a course in nation building and I was one of the few students in his class.

Read: Kalam Memorial foundation to be laid in Rameswaram today

What followed were a series of interactions during the classes and a chance meeting with him after the course got over  and life took a 180-degree turn. One moment I was geared to go for this MNC job and the next moment I came face to face with a truth that was embedded in one simple question he asked: So, Srijan, you have been gifted with the best education, blessed with high intelligence and you have acquired the much sought-after golden recognition. Dont you think that it is now your responsibility to use all this not only for your own progress, but also for the progress of the nation and for solving the problems of the world? Wouldnt that be doing true justice to your abilities?

In what one would term as a snap decision, I had made up my mind. And thus, began my journey with my childhood idol.

From 2009 to 2015, I witnessed immense humility, simplicity, profound wisdom and the sheer spirit of giving to others unconditionally  the core values by which Dr Kalam lived his life.

I was part of the countless lectures he delivered and listened to his thoughts and ideas that he shared with people. We shared conversations during our many lunches, dinners and walks; and each of these associations ignited new thoughts and ideas in me. As I write this, I am reminded of all the brilliant thoughts he sparked and how each of those thoughts helped me to learn, evolve and transform. My learning with him was just not confined to mere ideas that we shared but also in making me a better human being for I witnessed not just a pragmatic boss but also an emotionally thoughtful human being.

One of the things that really inspired me was Dr Kalams sensitivity towards the people he called his friends. His love for friends and his thoughtfulness were commendable and taught me a lot about the strength of the bond of friendship. A very simple but touching incident that I have mentioned in my book  What Can I Give? Lessons from My Teacher, APJ Abdul Kalam  comes to my mind.

Back in 2014, Dr Kalam and I were visiting the Scottish city of Edinburgh, known world over for its research. As was his schedule during most of our trips, a series of visits were planned to various laboratories. One of the visits was to Anne Rowling Regenerative Neurology clinic headed by Professor Siddharthan Chandran. He showed us all the work being conducted in this small but cutting edge laboratory and we were quite impressed by what we saw.

As we were about to conclude our meeting, we came across the last researcher  a young lady from England. She was working on a very special technology to regenerate speech and her project was aimed at helping those who were suffering from brain degeneration leading to loss of the ability to speak over time.

The innovation she was working on to fix this problem was called voice banking which could be used to store a persons voice and later be used in communicating with others. While we were all quite impressed, Dr Kalam had a very particular interest in the said technology. He asked a series of questions to understand more on this and left saying he would like to know further.

Unable to curb my curiosity over his keen interest in the voice banking, I asked him the reason for the same to which he replied, I have a friend, a wonderful man whom I respect a lot. He was a great orator once but now he has a lot of difficulty in speaking fluently. I want to hear him speak beautifully again. You know who he is?

Before I could reply, he answered his own question: Vajpayee ji.

It was extremely touching and endearing to see Dr Kalams love, and compassion for his dear friend, whom he hadnt met for so long. Due to my schedule, I would often lose touch with my friends and disconnect. That incident taught me a valuable lesson about the strength of friendship and how it transcends geographical boundaries.

(The author is an IIM-A graduate who co-authored many books with Dr Kalam. This is an abridged extract of Srijan Pal Singhs upcoming book to be released on July 27)
India marks on Wednesday the first death anniversary of former president APJ Abdul Kalam, fondly known as the Peoples President, who breathed his last in Shillong last year.

The death of the 83-year-old had sparked a nationwide outpouring of grief as thousands of mourners -- young and old --poured into the island town of Rameswaram in Tamil Nadu to pay their last respects.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi and a host of other dignitaries, including chief ministers of some states, took part in the last rites after Namaz-e-Janaza.

Kalam, a scientist considered as the father of Indias missile defence programme, was one of Indias most-loved presidents who was especially popular with children.

The Missile Mans death witnessed a huge outpouring of grief across the nation. In Delhi, thousands waited in the sultry heat for hours to pay their last respects to him. The government declared a national mourning for seven days in his honour.

Here are photos from his life and career as Indias pre-eminent defence scientist and one of the countrys most popular president:

Kalam was born in Rameswaram, Tamil Nadu and studied physics and aerospace engineering. In this photo taken on 26 May 1989, Abdul Kalam is attending Agnis Scientists Press Conference. (HT Photo by Santosh Gupta)

In this photo taken on 28/03/81, APJ Abdul Kalam then a highly gifted research and development engineer scientist is receiving Padma Bhushan Award. (HT Photo)

He has received several prestigious awards, including the Bharat Ratna. In this file photo taken on 17/05/98, Dr APJ Abdul Kalam and secretary Department of Atomic Energy Dr R.Chidambaram are attending a joint press Conference in New Delhi. (HT Photo)

In this photo taken on 09/08/96, Dr APJ Abdul Kalam walks back after receiving G M modi award for Science Achievement.

In this photo taken on 17/05/98, R Chidambaram, then chairman of Atomic Energy Commission waves at a press conference with Dr Abdul Kalam, then advisor of defence minsitry along with K santhanam, then chief advisor of DRDO in New Delhi. Photo: Prakash Singh

In this file photo, APJ Abdul Kalam is being conferred the 13th Indira Gandhi Award for National Intergration by Congress President Sonia Gandhi. (Photo: UNI)

He became known as the Missile Man of India.

In this file photo Prime Minister AB Vajpayee, flanked by APJ Abdul Kalam and R Chidambaram inspects the site of the nuclear fission blast at Pokhran in Thar desert . (PTI photo)

In this file photo Dr APJ Abdul Kalam, DR Manmohan Singh and Somnath Chatterjee poses for a photo after the swearing in ceremony in New delhi. (Photo: PIB)

In this photo taken on 04/12/97, APJ Abdul Kalam is explianing President KR Narayanan and Prime Minister IK Gujral, about the missile at navy day reception in New Delhi.

In this file photo, then President APJ Abdul Kalam visits Jawahar Lal Nehrus samadhi in New Delhi. (Arvind Yadav/HT Photo)

In this photo, President APJ Abdul Kalam waves while traveling in horse carriage at the ceremonial reception in the Forecourt of Rashtrapati Bhavan after the swearing ceremony in New Delhi. (Photo SN Sinha/HT)

A P J Abdul Kalams 79th birthday was recognised as World Students Day by United Nations.

The Tricolour flies at half-mast to mark the death of Kalam at Parliament House in New Delhi on July 28, 2015. (Sonu Mehta/HT Photo)

Prime Minister Narendra Modi pays his respect to Kalam during a ceremony at the Palam Airforce Station in New Delhi on July 28, 2015. (Vipin Kumar/HT Photo)

A girl holds flowers as children wait to pay tribute to Kalam as his body is transported from the airport to his house in New Delhi on July 28, 2015 (Ravi Choudhary/HT Photo)

School children pay their last respect to Kalam as his body is transported from the airport to his house in New Delhi on July 28, 2015. (Sanjeev Verma/HT Photo)

School children pray during the condolence meet for Kalam in Agartala on July 29, 2015. (PTI Photo)

International sand artist Sudarshan Patanaik creates a sand sculpture to pay tribute to Kalam at the Golden Puri beach in Puri on July 28, 2015. (Arabinda Mahapatra/HT Photo)

A child kisses former president Kalams photo in Karnatakas Chikmagalur on July 29, 2015. (PTI Photo)

Kalams elder brother Maraicker pays his last respects in Rameswaram on July 29, 2015. (PTI Photo)

People wait in a queue to pay their respects to Kalam at public view ground in Rameswaram on July 29, 2015. (PTI Photo)

Kalam served as the 11th President of India, succeeding K R Narayanan. (HT File Photo)
India on Wednesday inked a deal with US defence and aerospace giant Boeing for four P-8I submarine hunter planes, sources said.

The contract is a follow-on order to eight P-81 planes already bought by India in a deal worth $2.1 billion. The P-8I fleet is being augmented to further improve the Indian Navys anti-submarine and anti-surface warfare capabilities. The follow-on order for the P-8I, a military derivative of Boeings 737-800 commercial aircraft, is worth over $ 1 billion.

The planes will provide strategic blue water and littoral undersea warfare capabilities as well as armed intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance to the navy. The planes, a replacement for the Soviet-era Tu-142 fleet, are expected to be in naval service beyond 2050.

The P-8I is the Indian Navy variant of the P-8A Poseidon that Boeing has developed for the US Navy.

The underbelly of the dual-cockpit plane, capable of high rates of descent and short-field landings, has a bomb bay for torpedoes and launching tubes for sonar listening buoys. It can carry missiles, bombs and mines.

The navys P-8I fleet is based at the Naval Air Station Rajali in Tamil Nadu. The long-range maritime reconnaissance aircraft has an operational speed of 450 miles per hour and a range of 4,500 nautical miles.
Indian national Gurdip Singh is among 14 people who could face a firing squad this week when Indonesia resumes executing prisoners, prompting foreign minister Sushma Swaraj to say on Wednesday that New Delhi is making last minute efforts to save him.

Amnesty International has criticised the Indonesian governments decision to go ahead with the execution of 10 foreigners and four Indonesians, saying some of the prisoners who could face the firing squad were convicted in manifestly unfair trials and have not submitted clemency request to the President.

Singh, 48, was found guilty of trying to smuggle 300 grams of heroin into Indonesia in 2004 and was sentenced to death by the state district court at Tanggerang in Banten province in February 2005.

He was sentenced to death along with a Brazilian even though prosecutors had recommended a 20-year jail term for Singh, who is also known as Vishal and belongs to Jalandhar in Punjab.

Singh also retracted a statement he had made against Pakistani national Zulfiqar Ali, who is among the prisoners who could be executed this week. Singh admitted he was coerced into making the false admission against Ali in return for a lenient sentence for himself.

Swaraj said in a tweet on Wednesday evening: We are making last minute efforts to save him (Singh) from execution on 28 July. She said in another tweet that Singh was facing death sentence in a drug case.

Gurdip Singh is facing death sentence in a drug case in Indonesia. /1 @NukteVivek  Sushma Swaraj (@SushmaSwaraj) July 27, 2016

We are making last minute efforts to save him from execution on 28 July. /2 @NukteVivek  Sushma Swaraj (@SushmaSwaraj) July 27, 2016

Among the 10 foreign nationals facing execution in Indonesia are Pakistani citizen Zulfiqar Ali, a Zimbabwean, a Senegalese, a South African and five Nigerians, Amnesty International said.

Indonesian President Joko Widodo, popularly known as Jokowi, will be putting his government on the wrong side of history if he proceeds with a fresh round of executions, it said in a statement.

In a report published last year, Amnesty had found 12 of the prisoners were denied access to legal counsel at the time of their arrest, and at different periods thereafter. Some claimed they were subjected to torture and other ill-treatment while in police custody, and were forced to confess to their alleged crimes. These claims have not been investigated by authorities, it said

The last executions in Indonesia were carried out in January and April 2015, when a total of 14 people were put to death by firing squad. The previous administration under Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono carried out 21 executions between 2005 and 2013.

Indonesia has a strong record of fighting for the rights of its citizens abroad on death row but that is a position the authorities do not consistently uphold at home, where President Widodo has claimed the death penalty is needed to deter drug crime, Amnesty said.

There is no evidence to support President Widodos position. The death penalty does not deter crime. Carrying out executions will not rid Indonesia of drugs. It is never the solution, and it will damage Indonesias standing in the world, said Josef Benedict, deputy director of Amnestys Southeast Asia and Pacific regional office.

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Her free-flowing curly hair and a tube stuck in the nose for force-feeding is the lasting image of Irom Sharmila and symbols of her 16-year hunger strike, possibly the longest in the world.

The 44-year-old has not eaten, combed her hair or even looked in the mirror since November 5, 2000, three days after she allegedly saw a group of army men kill 10 people at a bus stop in Malom near her home in Manipur.

She also vowed to stay away from her home and mother till a controversial law that shields troops from prosecution and gives them sweeping powers to search, enter property and shoot on sight was scrapped.

Released from judicial custody early this year, the 44-year-old is yet to meet her mother.

On Tuesday, the Iron Lady of Manipur declared she was ending her fast and would contest assembly polls in 2017 as an independent candidate. She also plans to marry. She is in a relationship with Desmond Coutinho, a Goan-British activist.

Read | Manipurs Iron Lady Irom Sharmila to end 16-year fast, fight elections, marry

Her hunger strike made her a global figure but Sharmila, the youngest of the nine siblings, is a loner. She wanted to be a doctor but gave up when she realised she didnt have the brains for it.

An average student, she couldnt clear her Class 12 but took up a six-month course in journalism and also learnt stenography for a year.

Her father was a big influence. He was very strict in handling his children but always fair  I think I am like my father that way, she told a national daily. sometimes he would give me a lift to the school on his cycle, and he would tell me many stories on the way.

In the last 16 years, she has been one of the biggest stories from the countrys Northeast. Almost immediately after she began her fast she was arrested for attempting suicide, leading Amnesty International to call her a prisoner of conscience.

She has been confined to a hospital ward in Imphal, the state capital, and force-fed through a nasal drip. Court appearances are a regular affair.

Her struggle won international recognition with several awards coming her way but being a public figure has come at a price.

Coutinho was attacked by some women activists in December 2014 for diverting Sharmilas attention from the campaign. She told a Kolkata-based newspaper a few years ago that the man I love is waiting for me impatiently but her supporters were struggling to come to terms with the relationship.

He is of Goan origin but a British citizen. That is why they are against the relationship, Sharmila said.

Some of her aides say the decision to call off the fast might have been influenced by her boyfriend. She told a court, where she appeared on Tuesday in an attempt to suicide case, that she would like to marry.

Coming days will tell us the direction Sharmilas struggle and personal life will take.

Read| Here are 10 things to know about controversial legislation Afspa

With agency inputs
The foundation stone for a national memorial of APJ Abdul Kalam will be laid in Rameswaram in Tamil Nadu on Wednesday to mark the first death anniversary of the former president.

The defence ministry has planned a host of events, including the foundation stone-laying for a national memorial of Kalam, unveiling his life-size statue and a 3-D model of the memorial.

An exhibition titled Mission of Life depicting Kalams life and achievements towards nation-building will also be inaugurated.

The minister for urban development and information and broadcasting M Venkaiah Naidu and defence minister Manohar Parrikar will unveil the statue and the memorial model in the presence of a host of dignitaries.
Stray dogs in Kerala have bitten over hundred thousand people in the past one year.

To combat the menace, the state government spent Rs 12 crore to purchase anti-rabies vaccines in 2015, six times more than what it did a year earlier. These figures are part of the report submitted by Supreme Court-appointed panel headed by a retired high court judge Justice Siri Jagan. The panel also learnt that the government has dropped a dog bite vaccine from its essential list, making it difficult for the victims to purchase the drug due to its high-price.

The report added that the stray dog population in the state had shot upto 2.5 lakhs. It said that the Kerala Medical Services Corporation had spent only Rs 2.5 lakh on vaccines in stray dogs in the state Rs 12 crore is the amount Kerala spends to buy anti-rabies vaccines and serum Rs 2.75 core worth medicines was procured by Kerala in 2014-15. But the figure jumped owing to an increase in the number of cases. The amount, the panel said, is significantly higher than what was allocated for the other essential drugs.

According to Justicer Sirijagan panel the Medical Services Corporation had initially allocated Rs 7.25 crore in the annual budget. But, since the menace increased, the government granted an additional Rs 2 crore from the Plan Fund and another Rs 3 crore was sanctioned after a special Cabinet meet. The panel concluded the Kerala government has spent Rs 5 -7 crore annually on anti-rabies vaccines and serum for the last few years.

A bench headed by Justice Dipak Misra had on April 5 constituted the committee while hearing a petition filed by a Kerala resident demanding the State to reimburse the money he spent to treat his wife who suffered a dog bite. The petitioners counsel, VK Biju, contended the state was liable to compensate victims because it is the states responsibility to have a secure environment for its citizens.

In its two-and-a-half months of functioning, Justice Siri Jagan held detailed hearings with victims and also visited state-run hospitals. The panel concluded that menace is posing a danger to the public. Frequent dog attacks on children there have created a dangerous situation.

It was recommended that the state provide the medicine free of cost at all its hospitals.

Graphics

 Over one lakh people suffered dog bites last year in Kerala

The state has a stray dog population of 2.5 lakh

State govt spent Rs 12 crore on purchase of anti-rabies vaccines/serum

Its a five-fold increase over the amount spent a year before

The figures have been given by an SC-appointed panel

The SC is hearing a petition by a man who wants Kerala to reimburse him money spent on his wifes treatment for dog bite

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Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal said on Wednesday he could be killed by a frustrated Narendra Modi as the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader launched a vitriolic attack on the Prime Minister whom he perceives as his biggest political adversary.

He (Modi) can go to any extent and may get us killed. He may get me killed as well, Kejriwal said in a video message in Hindi posted on the partys official YouTube channel.

Ever since storming back to power in Delhi with a brute majority last year, Kejriwal has repeatedly attacked Modi and the BJP-led government at the Centre, accusing them of political vendetta to avenge the electoral defeat in the capital.

Read: Psychopath, coward, liar: Kejriwal fires away against PM, CBI

In the video message for AAP members, legislators and the common man, the AAP national convenor advises party workers to be ready for the ultimate sacrifice in the wake of unprecedented crackdown by the BJP government, referring to a series of arrests of AAP MLAs and workers in the last one-and-a-half years.

The BJP hit back at the pathologically obsessive Kejriwal over the video, asking him to go for another detoxification therapy for the body and mind.

Kejriwal dubbed Modi as the mastermind behind the cycle of oppression against the AAP and alleged that the BJP government was conspiring to crush (the) AAP as it was surging ahead in states like Punjab, Goa and Gujarat.

Modi and the BJP have failed on every frontModi is frustrated and angry; he is not thinking logically. I want to tell all (AAP) volunteers, MLAs and ministers that this is a very critical period. You think over it, talk to your families. This is going to get worse in the coming days, Kejriwal said in the over nine-minute video.

Read: Arvind Kejriwal-Navjot Singh Sidhu: Made for or made like each other?

Talk to your families and see if you are ready for the ultimate sacrifice. All the MLAs will anyway have to go to jail. If you are ready, then stay with us or if you have weaknesses, then leave.

This is the sharpest attack on the Prime Minister by the Delhi chief minister since December when he called Modi a coward and a psychopath.

Kejriwal had then tweeted that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) allegedly raided his office on Modis direction.

The development comes at a time when the AAP is grappling with multiple cases filed against more than a dozen legislators--ranging from criminal intimidation and molestation to rioting and faking educational qualification.

Read: Kejriwal blames Modi for arrests in fake cases

The city-state government is also locked in a legal battle with the central government over the administrative control of capital Delhi, besides 21 AAP legislators facing threat of disqualification for allegedly holding office of profits. The Centre has also refused to approve several laws proposed by the AAP government.

BJP spokesperson GVL Narasimha Rao said it was Kejriwal who is frustrated and not the Prime Minister.

He is frustrated by his own incompetence in governing Delhi and lack of result on ground. He is frustrated by criminal actions of his own party MLAs.

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Prosecutors on Wednesday dropped the remaining charges against three Baltimore police officers awaiting trial in the death of Freddie Gray, bringing an end to the case without a conviction.

Gray was a 25-year-old black man whose neck was broken while he was handcuffed and shackled but left unrestrained in the back of a police van in April 2015. His death added fuel to the growing Black Lives Matter movement, set off massive protests in the city and led to the worst riots the city had seen in decades.

The decision by prosecutors comes after a judge had already acquitted three of the six officers charged in the case, including the van driver who the state considered the most responsible and another officer who was the highest-ranking of the group.

A fourth officer had his case heard by a jury, but the panel deadlocked and the judge declared a mistrial.

On Wednesday, instead of a pretrial hearing for Officer Garrett Miller  who had faced assault, misconduct in office and reckless endangerment charges  Chief Deputy States Attorney Michael Schatzow told the judge that prosecutors were dropping the charges against Miller and the rest of the officers.

Prosecutors and defense attorneys quickly left the courtroom without commenting, but both sides planned news conferences later Wednesday.

After Grays death, the US Justice Department launched a patterns and practice investigation into allegations of widespread abuse and unlawful arrests by the Baltimore Police Department. The results have not been released.

Prosecutors had said Gray was illegally arrested after he ran away from a bike patrol officer and the officers failed to buckle Gray into a seat belt or call a medic when he indicated he wanted to go to a hospital.

States Attorney Marilyn Mosby wasted little time in announcing charges after Grays death  one day after receiving the police departments investigation while a tense city was still under curfew  and she did not shy from the spotlight. She posed for magazine photos, sat for TV interviews and even appeared onstage at a Prince concert in Grays honour.
The Supreme Court will on Wednesday hear Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhis petition seeking quashing of a defamation case filed against him for his remarks that the RSS was responsible for Mahatma Gandhis assassination.

A bench of Justice Dipak Misra and Justice RF Nariman will take up the matter at 2 pm. Senior advocate Kapil Sibal is likely to argue the matter for the Congress vice-president.

Last week, the SC ticked off the Congress vice-president over his collective denunciation of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and said he will have to express regret or face trial in the defamation case.

You cant make wholesale denunciation of an organisation. There is a difference between Nathuram Godse killing Mahatma Gandhi and the RSS killing him, the court observed.

Gandhi moved the top court in May 2015 seeking a stay on the Bombay high court order dismissing his plea for quashing the defamation case lodged against him by RSS activist Rajesh Kunte for his remarks against the saffron organisation.

He has also challenged the constitutionality of criminal defamation, contending that it affects freedom of expression.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its ideological mentor RSS hit out at Gandhi after the SCs observations in the case.

The ruling party said the court proceedings were a slap on the Congress face. And RSS publicity head Manmohan Vaidya accused the Congress of consistently trying to spread lies and baseless allegations against the Sangh and said that the SC ruling exposed the party.

The Congress party, however, said Gandhi is ready to face trial instead of apologising for the remarks in question that he reportedly made in March 2014 while campaigning in Maharashtra for the Lok Sabha elections and substantiate them with historical facts and evidence before the court.

The opposition party claims it can prove in court the connection between Mahatma Gandhis assassin, Nathuram Godse, and the RSS. Godse was tried and convicted for the assassination on January 30, 1948, and executed on November 15, 1949.

Some historians say although the Sangh may have been cleared of charges of complicity in Mahatma Gandhis assassination, the groups ideology of pushing for a Hindu nation was in direct opposition to the freedom fighters stand. Their conflicting ideologies made their relationship fraught.

Arjun Dev said that there is plenty of historical evidence to substantiate Gandhis statement that the RSS may not have directly killed Gandhi, but they created a certain ideology against him. He underlined that Veer Savarkar and his Hindu Mahasabha had shown tacit support for Godse.

On the other hand, Ramachandra Guha agreed that the RSS and Gandhi were polar opposites, but he pointed out that the Sangh could not be held responsible for the murder.

Over the years, the RSS has been striving to alter the perception that it was opposed to Gandhi and that following his murder, was considered a communal outfit by Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel.
Dr Kalam loved his hairstyle and was quite possessive about it, remembers Srijan Pal Singh, a close aid of former-President APJ Abdul Kalam, on Kalams first death anniversary (observed on July 27).

Pal has worked closely with Indias beloved Missile Man, whose signature hairstyle was often discussed by many. Hed read about people discussing his hairstyle and their suggestions about a new one that he could try. Hed just say, Funny, people want to change my hairstyle. He loved his hair as is, says Pal, the social entrepreneur who worked with Kalam to promote quality education.

An IIM graduate and Kalams student, Srijan Pal Singh left his high-paying job to work closely with Kalam.

His Vanity Kit

In fact, he carried a round comb with him at all times to ensure his hair was always intact. Coconut oil was a constant companion during all his travels. As far as I remember, he never considered changing his hairstyle, says the IIM-graduate, who has authored several books, the latest being What Can I Give? Lessons from My Teacher, Dr APJ Abdul Kalam from Penguin Random House.

Read: Kalams aide on what was worrying former Prez in his final hours

Lessons in Humility

There is a lot I learned from him. I remember the day I met him at IIM, and I had not met a more humble man than him. When he got to know that the Dean was coming to meet him, he left to meet the Dean in his office. And he said, Outside the campus, I may be the President, but inside, you are the boss. And he would never act important, says Singh, who has co-authored the books, Target 3 Billion, and Reignited: Scientific Pathways to a Brighter Future.

A voice for Atal Bihari Vajpayee

We were at the Anne Rowling Clinic at the Edinburgh University, where this scholar was explaining that they were working on a project where they would record speech of people suffering from Alzheimers disease. Once the patient lost their speech, the project would enable them to communicate in their voice which would be linked to a computer program linked to their eye movement. To make it simpler, imagine Stephen Hawking communicating in his own voice, adds the 32-year-old, so, he interrupted the person and asked if they could do the same with someones recorded speech. Later, I asked him why he asked that question, I want to gift Atal (former-prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee) his voice on his birthday, fellow, he told me. Dr Kalam was a person who lived a humble life and always thought of others before himself.

Read: Missile Man: Ex-president APJ Abdul Kalam passes away

Srijan Pal Singhs latest book, What Can I Give (Penguin Random House, INR 250) is a tribute to APJ Abdul Kalam.

Books for all

His vision was to use technology to make life of people better and easy. He was so passionate about science hed equate years to the number of revolutions the Earth had made around sun or moon. So if you told him it was your birthday hed say, So how many revolutions has the Earth made around the sun since the time of your birth, fellow And he wanted to make books accessible to everyone. Hed say: Fellow, we need to ask ourselves what we are giving to society. Thats why we are working on promoting his vision through Kalam library.

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Bollywood star Salman Khans jeep driver in Jodhpur said on Wednesday he stands by his statement that the actor shot dead chinkaras and blackbucks in a deer hunt during the shooting of a movie in 1998.

His statement came two days after the 50-year-old actor was acquitted by the Rajasthan high court in two cases related to poaching of chinkaras when he was shooting for Hum Saath Saath Hain.

Harish Dulani, who was reported to be missing, was neither examined nor cross-examined, and it was one of the reasons for suspecting that he was a planted witness.

The 37-year-old man, who works as a commercial driver and lives in Jodhpur with his wife and two sons, said he got threats and went into hiding for some time, but dismissed the charge he didnt go to court for examination as prosecution witness.

I went to court, but was not examined because the defence lawyer was not present.

In his statement to the magistrate on October 14, 1998, Dulani said Khan killed three chinkaras during deer hunts on September 26 and 28. He was driving the actor around in a Maruti Gypsy, which belonged to a local resident who had lent it to Khan.

Dulani said on the night of September 26, Khan had shot two chinkaras in Bhawad village. The actor was at the wheel, and returned to Umaid Palace Hotel after killing the animals, he claimed.

The statement says Dulani and another man took the chinkaras to another hotel for skinning, and brought the Gypsy home to clean it.

Khan allegedly went hunting again on September 27, but failed to find any animals.

On September 28, accompanied by Dulani, the actor drove the Gypsy to Ghoda farmhouse where he picked up a guard, Gordhan Singh, for the hunt, the statement says.

They allegedly went to Ujalia Bhakar village and killed a chinkara, slit its throat and returned to Ghoda farmhouse, where it was skinned. Khan then returned to his hotel with the meat, the driver said.

On September 29, Khan allegedly went hunting again, but could spot any game.

The driver said the actor tried his luck the next day and spotted a deer, but fled the scene when some locals emerged in the area.

He said the actors acquaintance Dushyant Singh gave him his car on October 1, and asked him to leave.

Thereafter, Singh accompanied by Khan and other actors  Saif Ali khan, Neelam, Tabu, Sonali Bendre and a spot boy  went to Kankani village where they shot two blackbucks, he alleged.

But the group was spotted by people of the local Bishnoi community, who worship and protect the animal, and took down the Gypsys registration number even as the stars escaped to Jodhpur. The Bishnois informed forest officers about the killing, who traced the Gypsy to its owner.

Dulani told the officers that he had accompanied Khan from September 26-30, but not on October 1.

Based on his statement, the actors were charged with killing protected wildlife, and the forest department handed the case to police on October 11, 1998.

In the high court, the defence pleaded that Dulani has not been cross-examined because he failed to obey repeated summons. The court took note of it in its judgment on Monday, acquitting the actor.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday adjourned hearing into the defamation case filed against Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) over his alleged remarks on the Mahatama Gandhi killing till August 23.

Noting that there is irregularity in the procedure that magistrate adopted in the complaint case against Gandhi, the Supreme Court said it might refer the matter back to the trial court in Maharashtra for a fresh consideration.

A bench of Justice Dipak Misra and Justice RF Nariman told the counsel of both Gandhi and complainant, Rajesh Kunte, that the magistrate had asked for a police report on the application accusing the Congress vice-president of defaming RSS.

Kunte, a RSS worker, claimed Gandhi had in an election speech in 2014 blamed BJPs ideological outfit for Mahatama Gandhis assassination.

No magistrate can seek police inquiry in a criminal defamation case. It criminal is to be proved on basis of evidence given by complainant and police has no role in it, the bench said.

The bench asked the advocates of both parties to address the court on the procedural irregularity. If we conclude there is one then we will ask the magistrate to look into the complaint afresh, said the court.

The same bench had on July 9 virtually reprimanded the Congress leader for the wholesale denunciation of RSS and told him he will have to face the trial to prove his innocence.

You must face trial, case must be decided on merits whether what you spoke was for public good or not, the bench had told the Amethi MP.
Eight out of 10 claims for land title by forest dwellers under the Forest Rights Act were rejected last year, tribal affairs ministry data shows.

The Opposition is at the crosshairs with Centre in Rajya Sabha over passage of the Compensatory Afforestation Bill, which critics say will further undercut tribal rights and harm environment by introducing government plantations in areas traditionally used by tribal communities.

The Forest Rights Act (FRA), in force since 2006, was intended to undo the historic injustice towards tribals by giving them legal titles to forestland and resources. A 2015 study by Rights and Resources Initiative, an international coalition working for Indigenous Peoples rights, estimated that tribal people have legal title less than 10 per cent of the land they have traditionally used.

Individuals and communities can file title claims before the gram sabha under FRA. These are approved by a sub-divisional committee and finally by a divisional committee at the district level.

Rejection rates have spiked since the advent of the NDA government at the centre, ministry data shows, but non-BJP states have been the least likely to grant title to tribal claimants. States rejected, on average, 54% of the 3.8 million claims adjudicated since the process began in 2008. But between May 2015 and April 2016, the rejection rate rose to 79% for 2.7 lakh claims decided.

Karnataka, Tripura, UP, Bihar and West Bengal turned down over 90% of the claims they decided in 2015-16 (see graphics).

Centres role under scrutiny

The centers role in monitoring and giving policy direction, which may influence the efficacy of state authorities in granting title, is also under scrutiny.

The Act requires gram sabha consent for mining and development projects in forestland. But at least thrice in two years, the environment ministry issued orders to make certain project categories exempt. It backed moves in Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh to create new village forest rules that, according to the tribal affairs ministry, went against the laws provisions.

The former minister of state of tribal affairs, Mansukh Bhai Vasava, who was sacked earlier this month in the cabinet reshuffle also had run-ins with his seniors in the government. At the time of his sacking Vasava was quoted by The Indian Express as saying that he was forced to resign from the cabinet for speaking his mind on a number of unresolved issues of tribals. However, when HT contacted him, Vasava said FRA claims were not being properly processed by the states.

Tribal rights activist Shankar Gopalakrishnan said, During the UPA, FRA was a contested law with efforts by the environment ministry and government departments to undermine it. But in the past two years, bureaucracy and business lobbies are more dominant. This is reflected in several U-turns the tribal affairs ministry made on the dilution of FRA. State governments are also responsible for the high rejection of claims. But an overall pattern in year-wise rejection reflects a change in the national policy climate and the signals being sent from the Centre.

The tribal affairs ministry, in an email response to HTs queries, insisted that the rejection rate of FRA claims so far was just 47.66%, with only 23% rejected last year. But these figures are potentially misleading because they includes all of the claims filed, including 5.7 lakh pending claims that have not yet been decided. HTs figures are only for claims that have actually been adjudicated, a calculation that provides a much clearer picture of how the process is working.

As per FRA, the responsibility for implementation of the Act lies with the State/UTs The issue of rejection of claims was reviewed with Secretaries/Principal Secretaries of the states from time to time and they were directed to review the wrongly rejected claims, a spokesman said.

States claim they have issued titles to an aggregate 4.4 million hectares since the Act came into force  double the 2.2 million hectares they distributed in six decades of land reforms. Even so, forest communities have title to only a small fraction of the lands they have traditional relied upon.

According to Forest Survey of India and Census data, over 32 million hectares of forest land is used by villagers in major states. An additional 8 million hectares is controlled by local communities in northeastern states where FRA hasnt been implemented, says Rights and Resources Initiative.

The land allotted to forest dwellers under FRA constitutes 10% of this 40 million hectare.

Other shortfalls

The FRA rules mandate every village with forest land in its boundaries should have community rights over forestland commonly used by its residents.

There are over 1,71,000 such villages, but only a quarter of them have received community rights titles.

The Act also says an individual claimant can be granted title for up to 4 hectares, but the average size of land holdings for which titles have been granted is 1.6 hectares, according to the ministry.

In March 2015, governments own think tank NITI Aayog said in an internal communication that the key features of Forest Rights Act (FRA) have been undermined by a combination of apathy and sabotage during the process of implementation.

In the current situation the rights of majority of the tribals are being denied and the purpose of the legislation is being defeated. Unless immediate remedial measures are taken, instead of undoing the historical injustice to tribals and other traditional forest dwellers, the act will have the opposite outcome of making them even more vulnerable, it said.

Last week 70 Indian and 10 global organisations wrote to the Rajya Sabha Chairperson Hamid Ansari demanding that the Compensatory Afforestation bill should not be passed in the current form. The organisations blamed the forest bureaucracy for poor implementation of FRA due to its obstinate opposition to empowerment of gram sabhas and democratization of forest governance. The letters argues that the Bill, which seeks to handover Rs 42,000 crore to forest departments for plantation, will serve only to empower the notoriously unaccountable forest bureaucracy to further deprive the forest dwellers and tribals of their livelihoods by forcibly undertaking plantations on their customary lands.

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After Minister of Asia and Pacific affairs Alok Sharmas assertion on the restitution of Koh-i-noor diamond, Advocate Nafis Siddiqui, the petitioner of the case, said on that he will file a new application and if Britain doesnt return the gem still, he will appeal in the UNESCO and in the UN.

New application will be filled in the Supreme Court to send the advocated commissioner to Britain and request the British government to return the property of India and to get a stay on the selling or auctioning of the diamond. We will get it back, if not, we will appeal through the UNESCO or through UNO, said Siddiqui.

Earlier, in the Supreme Court Centre said that Britain did not steal the Koh-i-noor but rather it was gifted to them.

Taking a jibe at this statement Siddiqui questioned How can they say that they gifted our national asset?

Referring to UNESCO declaration of 1970 and 1978, he added that UNESCO has mentioned to return everything that has been looted from the colonial ruled country back to them. France, America and even Australia did so, Britain must also.

Read: The Kohinoor: Following the bloodiest diamond across history

Siddiqui said, The External Minister of India should try their best to bring the property of India back. They should not show leniency on such issue considering any diplomatic or politics aspects.

The international law and UNESCO is supporting us we. We will bring our property which is there in the Victoria Library, Albert Museum and the Koh-i-noor Diamond which is embedded in the Queens crown, he added.

UK Minister Alok Sharma on Wednesday said his government does not believe that there is any legal ground for restitution of the diamond.

Read: The return of Koh-i-noor: Story of Indias pursuit of the jewel so far

It is a longstanding position of the U.K. Government that we dont believe that there is any legal ground for restitution of diamond, said Sharma, the first British minister to visit India since Brexit.

After the subjugation of Punjab in 1849 by the British forces, the properties of the Sikh Empire were confiscated and the Koh-i-noor was also transferred to the treasury of the British East India Company in Lahore.

Later, the diamond was shipped to Britain and was handed to Queen Victoria in July 1850. It was cut to improve its brilliance and was mounted into Queen Victorias crown. The diamond now sits in the tower of London along with the Crown Jewels.

Read: No legal grounds for restitution of Koh-i-noor to India
A physically challenged youth, Yogesh Sahu, 28, who had set himself ablaze in front of official residence of Chhattisgarh chief minister Raman Singh in Raipur on July 21, died early Wednesday.

He died at around 3.40 am today. Sahu was admitted at Kalda burn and cosmetic surgery hospital in a serious condition, Raipur superintendent of police Sanjeev Shukla said.

Sahu, a resident of Birgaon in Raipur, had sustained over 70 per cent burn injuries. He had poured kerosene and set himself on fire outside the chief ministers residence while Singhs meeting to address public grievances was winding up in the afternoon.

Sahu had visited the chief minister for a job because the financial condition of his family of five was precarious. Security personnel took his application but did not allow him to meet the chief minister because he was reportedly late for the meeting. He then tried to commit suicide.

The chief minister has expressed grief over Sahus death. Its really sad and unfortunate. Youths shouldnt get disillusioned and take extreme step. Various schemes, training and skill development programmes of the government are aimed at providing them employment, Singh said.

But the opposition Congress has questioned the state governments employment policy. The youths of Chhattisgarh are deprived of their rights and getting desperate. The employment opportunities have drastically shrunk under the present government and the state is aiming to outsource vacant posts, PCC president Bhupesh Baghel alleged.
After three days of investigation into the mysterious death of 17-year-old Aabesh Dasgupta, Kolkata Police fast-tracked the probe on Tuesday and questioned seven persons, including five friends of the victim, and noted author Amit Chaudhuri, whose daughters birthday the youngsters had gathered to celebrate.

Statements of Chaudhuri and Tapan Nandi, father of one of the suspects, were video-recorded. The statements of the five youngsters present in the parking lot of Sunny Towers on Saturday during the incident were also videographed.

According to Lalbazar sources, officers have found discrepancies in statements of a few of Aabeshs friends. When repeatedly asked why they left the spot without their friend, none of them could come up with a satisfactory answer.

Incidentally, police started a case under section 302 (murder) of IPC against unknown persons on Sunday itself.

Read: Author Amit Chaudhuri says he did not know Kolkata teen who died at party

On Tuesday, the investigators also went to a private hospital in south Kolkata where the mother of one of the suspects is admitted. This boy reportedly left the parking lot soon after Dasgupta fell and started bleeding, with the plea that his mother was not well and he had to rush to see her. The police wanted to check from CCTV footage of the hospital whether he went there at all.

Though the police was still without any clinching evidence, it was clear on Tuesday that the investigation began seriously.

The death was due to injuries. These injuries are ante mortem in nature, were the words written on the report of the post-mortem examination, according to Vishal Garg, joint commissioner, crime, Kolkata Police. Garg is leading the team formed on Monday.

Read: Fearing cover-up, Kolkata teen Aabeshs family writes to top cop

The police also zeroed in on the shape of the edges of the broken bottle that were collected from the spot. The edge of the bottle has to be such that the injury under the left arm (that sliced the artery leading to his death) should be created by it, said an investigator.

Police is also collecting fingerprints of suspects and trying to match those on the broken bottle. They are also planning to send the clothes of a few suspects for forensic examination. The rap appeared to have come from the chief minister herself who directed the setting up of the special team and sent youth affairs minister Arup Biswas to the home of the Dasguptas.

One of the highlights that came to light was the number of injuries on the boys body. Police officers said there were three major injury marks and 26 minor ones, which led many officers to seriously question the accidental fall theory that a section of the investigators tried to circulate the day after the incident.

The police has come under widespread criticism for the soft handling of the shocking incident, with many people even alleging a cover-up.

Read: Family of teen who died at Amit Chaudhuris house party demands fair probe
Nothing enrages road commuters as much as being held up in traffic, especially when the congestion is caused by thousands of protestors who occupy the citys streets, mostly in the heart of south Mumbai, for a few hours. When this occurs twice in ten days, as it did at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus where two massive protests culminated, indignant commentators and opinion leaders suggest that the State must crack down on organisations that block the streets.

This narrative neatly centres on their right to the city but excludes the right of those others, the protestors. The story of the protest march, the grievances of the protestors, the resolve of thousands to engage in an activity not as convenient as strolling down the aisles of a mall, the use of public space by people who demand their rights, all become secondary to the story of how traffic was held up due to the protest march.

This is neither surprising nor exclusive to Mumbai. The Occupy Wall Street in New Yorks Zuccotti Park which galvanised citizens to protest social and economic inequality was also commented upon for its disruptive impact on the city. The Occupy movement that brought out thousands of citizens to streets in hundreds of cities across the world in 2011-12 elicited similar reactions. The protests by Black Lives Matter in more than 30 cities across the United States this month to demonstrate against police brutalities drew comments about inconvenience.

Indeed, cities by their very nature are home to large protests. A study of protests in 30,000 zip codes across the US by sociologists Terry N. Clark and Brian B. Knudsen led them to conclude that Cities possess size, density, connectedness, and walkability which combine to enable learning, speed the creation and transfer of ideas, and generate and enable bridging across diversity. Cities therefore become locales for social change and hubs of innovativeness of many kindseconomic, political, cultural, and even ethical.

Embedded in the criticisms and calls for crack down is the idea that the streets and public spaces in a city belong to those who commute and are engaged in productive economic activity  and to no one else. Why should thousands of data entry operators and hundreds of thousands of Dalits clog up the streets to CST? Perhaps, because they were unheard when they used other methods and they wanted to shout-out to the government.

Mumbais history is replete with massive demonstrations which articulated the sentiments of citizens on a range of issues  from demanding independence for India to opposing the textile mill owners. Typically, the roads and bridges in central Mumbai where the masses lived and worked saw the large demonstrations. Girgaum Chowpatty, Kala Ghoda, Sachivalaya signal, Samrat Chowk used to be the congregation points. More lately, the end points have been Azad Maidan and CST.

In fact, protestors have a right to congregate and terminate their march at Azad Maidan and CST. This was decided by the Bombay high court way back in 1997 when inconvenienced citizens knocked on its door complaining that protestors held up traffic and caused noise pollution. The HC stated that there was a need to arrive at a system which would be in everybodys interest and suggested that the government come out with a coherent policy. The everybody included trade unions and organisations that call for protest marches.

Twenty years later, the policy seems to be in the making. In both the recent marches, the police were apparently clueless about the size and nature of the demonstrations. It is the responsibility of the police and other authorities to assess the situation, determine routes that protestors can take, make arrangements to discharge traffic and issue alerts to commuters. Planning for protests with minimum disruptions is not an impossible task.

Citizens of a democracy do have a right to congregate and protest. All who crib about traffic, target the State (or the police), not the protestors.

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Contractors, with the help of civic body officials, may have tried to hoodwink the BMC road scam inquiry committee and the Mumbai police about the quality of the work and the dumped debris. But the police claim to have nailed the lies thanks to Google Maps.

A special team of the Mumbai police, investigating the Rs14 crore BMC road scam, have so far arrested 26 accused.

Read: Why shouldnt road scam be treated as organised crime?

A senior level officer from the SIT, on condition of anonymity, said, The inquiry by BMC officials didnt get any concrete leads. The accused always claimed to have done the work according to their guidelines; and there was nothing concrete to file against them. After this, the accused were questioned about the debris dumped by them in the past 13 months.

Read: Contractors named in road scam pocketed Rs 4,259 crore in 3 years

The contractors claimed they dumped the debris in Kolkhe village in Panvel. BMC authorities checked the spot and noticed that the debris was missing from the alleged spot. The contractors claimed it washed away in the rain. The police and BMC officials then checked images of the location on Google Maps on the dates claimed by the accused and accordingly a case was registered, said an officer.

Meanwhile, police officers claimed the six contractors named in the case have been on the run for more than a month and have not returned to their homes. Their anticipatory bail will be heard on Thursday.
The Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay has asked 350 post-doctoral fellows and Research Associates (RAs) to vacate their rooms to make space for the new batch of students who will join the institute this academic year.

The institutes student affairs dean, Soumyo Mukherji, recently sent an email to faculty and other staff explaining why these students have been asked to move out.

The mail says no accommodation will be provided to RAs, post-doctoral fellows (PDFs), some grades of teachers and candidates sponsored by other institutes or corporate houses. Mukherji said hostel rooms are currently accommodating double the number of students they were meant for and if students dont vacate rooms, there will be no space to house the new entrants.

Let us reign in the number of students we admit (or at least commit hostel accommodation to), the letter reads.

The research scholars, however, said this puts them in a difficult situation, as they only recently submitted their thesis and finished the process of VIVA.

Most of us are working as RAs with professors at the institute. We have at least another six months left to publish our research papers and the institute is asking us to vacate our hostel rooms now, said a student.

These students are also worried about finding alternate accommodation in Mumbai  where rent is very high  on their research stipend.

As RAs, we end up paying Rs 1,100 for hostel accommodation on the campus, but if we move out and find houses around the campus, the rent itself will be more than the stipend we get during our research, said another MPhil student.

Some students have already started looking for accommodation in Powai and neighbouring areas, but are daunted by the prospect of having to pay Rs20,000-22,000 a month for a one-room-kitchen flat.

As we are also working as RAs, most of us looked for accommodation around the campus and are in no position to shell out such money for rent, he added.

Students said the management has not directly informed them about their decision, but hostel wardens and other staff are being asked to persuade students to vacate the campus.

While 1,800 students, including those who finish BTech and MTech, passed out this year, the new batch has 2,607 students. The IIT-B campus has residential space for 8,007 students, but had 10,050 students on roll in January 2016. Even if the institute manages to squeeze in more students into the rooms, only 9,571 will find accommodation.

We are asking students to make way for new entrants and stop occupying space indefinitely, Mukherji said. PhD students get a scholarship for five years from the central government and IIT-B increases this by another year.

Mukherji said many students have pushed their stay for almost seven years on campus and only now are being asked to leave the campus.

We are asking them to move out of the campus and start looking for jobs and make a career for themselves. They should realise hostel facilities need to be shared with their juniors and they cannot claim their rights forever, he added.

Students are hoping they will be allowed to stay on campus until they get a job or cheap accommodation close by. The management is leaving us with very little option at present, said a student.

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Every hour, hundreds of messages criss-cross over the Mumbai polices secure wireless network, each one coded to reach specific personnel. The Mumbai police commissioner is King, a senior inspector is Peter and Charlie is a beat constable.

Four months ago, the department decided to give its women beat constables a more suitable name  or call sign in police parlance  and Charlie became Damini.

But senior police officers are averse to using it. We dont know who changed the call sign or why. This nomenclature is too filmy for the work profile of women constables given serious assignments, said a top Mumbai police functionary, not wishing to be named.

We dont think this will last. If tomorrow, the call sign of the police commissioner is changed from King to Shehenshah, who will accept it?

The change in name was meant to add value to the profile of women cops, according to Balkrishna Yadav, deputy commissioner of police (DCP), wireless. Damini stands for womens empowerment, Charlie lacked that punch, he said.

Yadav told HT the change was effected in March this year. Top bosses in the offices of the Director General of Police (DGP) and the Commissioner of Police (Mumbai) decided to change the call sign to Damini. The message was then conveyed to police stations across the state to make the necessary changes. We have made it a uniform practice now.

So, Damini is now officially the call sign for the battalion of women commandos  first raised by former additional commissioner of police, central region, Qaisar Khalid in 2012 to tackle chain-snatching and street violence against women. Khalid drew women constables from police stations, made them undergo rigorous, unarmed combat training at a police ground in Chembur and finally picked the best to form a battalion of 47 commandos. They were to look after womens safety. The scheme became successful and significantly brought down instances of street crimes.

Soon, other police regions in the city began following Khalids model, and the number of trained women commandos grew to 207. In 2014, the police commissioner Rakesh Maria and former home minister RR Patil decided to allot at least two of these trained commandos to each of the citys 93 police stations. They were given motorcycles and they patrolled areas with schools and colleges and isolated spots to keep a watch on women and children. Their duties also included preventing chain-snatching and responding to emergency calls on the dedicated helpline for women, senior citizens and children.

At the time, the women beat marshals were given the same wireless call sign as their male counterparts, Charlie.

All was well till February this year, when cities such as Pune, Kolhapur, Aurangabad, Nagpur, Bhandara and even Phaltan started emulating the Mumbai model and raised their own squads.

Suddenly, names like Nirbhaya mobile police team, Damini squad and Ranragini squad were heard over the state police wireless network. This added to the confusion, said a senior official from the DGs office.

The call signs lacked uniformity and this chaos still continues, he said.

HT too found that the confusion still reigns: some officers are averse to using the new call sign, some others are simply unaware, but at all police stations, using the name is common practice.

Mumbai police commissioner Dattatreya Parsalgikar sought to brush aside a direct question about the confusion. Ill have to check. Anyway, their work remains the same, irrespective of the name, he said.

A woman beat constable from a central suburb police station called the change in call sign unnecessary and said it had no effect on her work.

Why should we have a call sign in Hindi? It sticks out over the channel ( wireless) when spoken along with the other English names, she said. Its not a just about assigning a name to a profile, but respecting that profile too, she added.

A former Mumbai police commissioner, reacting to the change from Charlie to Damini, said: Now the night round inspector should be called Batman or Spiderman. The former top cop requested anonymity to avoid criticism.

CODE IT LIKE A COP: THE CALL SIGNS THE MUMBAI POLICE USE

Police: Director General of Police (DGP)

King: Mumbai police commissioner.

Damini: Woman beat marshal

Peter: Senior inspector of a police station

Able sir: Assistant commissioners of police (ACPs) in divisions

Zonal sir: Zonal deputy commissioners of police (DCPs)

Region sir: Additional commissioners of police (AdCPs) in the region

L&O sir: Joint commissioner of police (Law and Order)

Admin sir: Joint commissioner of police (Administration)

Traffic sir: Joint commissioner of police (Traffic)

Crime sir: Joint commissioner of police (Crime)

Detection sir: Deputy commissioner of police (Detection)

Zonal night round: An inspector on the night patrolling duty

Region night round: An ACP on the night patrolling duty

(The wireless call signs of all officials, including those put on visiting VVIPs security duty, are subject to change, except for the police commissioner)

WHAT IS A CALL SIGN?

Security forces around the world have developed their own phonetic codes for clear and seamless communication over the wireless

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Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) President Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh on Wednesday revealed the names of two junior wrestlers who are alleged to have spiked Olympics-bound grappler Narsingh Pancham Yadavs food with banned substances.

We suspect Jitesh, who fights in the 75kg category, and Sumit. Both of them live in Chhatarsaal. And one of them has admitted to spiking Narsinghs food. I cant say on the conspiracy and cant say whether they did this on their own or on someones asking. We cannot investigate this but we support Narsinghs demand for a CBI inquiry, Brij Bhushan told reporters here.

Narsinghs chances of participating in the upcoming Rio Olympics came under a cloud last Sunday when he returned a positive result for a dope test conducted by the National Anti Doping Agency (NADA) on June 25.

READ: FIR against two grapplers for spiking Narsinghs supplement

Following this, Narsingh, who was selected to represent the country in the mens 74kg freestyle category ahead of two-time Olympic medallist Sushil Kumar, was handed a provisional suspension.

The 26-year-old ran into further trouble on Wednesday after it was announced that a second test conducted on July 5 has also returned a positive result.

The wrestler had claimed of a conspiracy to frame him and had filed a police report in this regard, although he refrained from naming anyone.

I have always maintained that there has been a conspiracy against me. If I am cleared of the charges, I will go to Rio. I have identified the boy who was seen contaminating my food. I have given a detailed complaint to the police, Narsingh told the media after filing his police complaint.

I feel even officials are involved because I am not being provided the CCTV footage, he added.

The WFI has named Praveen Rana in the reserve slot in case Narsingh is not able to participate in the Olympics.
Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC) president Capt Amarinder Singh said on Wednesday that it was not possible to withdraw the presidential reference on rivers waters of Punjab.

He was reacting to the demand of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) that Modi government must withdraw Presidential reference on river waters, on the sidelines of Halke Vich Captain programme at Nangal.

He said the AAP was ignorant and unaware of the legal and constitutional niceties as after the Sutlej-Yamuna Link (SYL) canalmatter was referred to the Supreme Court by the President of India and the PM could hardly play any role. He said the AAP, instead of trying to stick to its ambiguous stand on the issue, should clearly and categorically come out in support of Punjab

Also read | Ensure withdrawal of Prez reference on SYL or resign: AAP to CM

How it is possible to withdraw the Presidential reference when the Supreme Court had completed the hearing and judgment has been written, Capt said.

He said AAP leader HS Phoolka was a small criminal lawyer, who did not know anything, adding that he shot to fame only because he fought cases of 1984 Delhi riots victims.

The former chief minister rejected the meagre 38 paise per unit reduction in power tariff for the industrial sector, saying it was just inconsequential and a big joke on the industry.

In reply to a question Amarinder said he was not in touch with Navjot Singh Sidhu or Pargat Singh or Inderbir Singh Bolaria. He said he had made his offer to them through the media only, saying they were welcome to join the party as all the three had strong old Congress connection.

Amarinder said once Congress formed the government, the entire Kandi belt (Rupnagar to Gurdaspur) will be developed as an industrial hub.

Sand mafia robbing state of Rs 5 cr a day

Referring to the open plundering of the riverbeds, he said the sand mafia was robbing the state of Rs 5 crore per day income and announced that it will be probed. Amarinder also announced that the collection of toll on various roads needed to be examined, reviewed and rationalised.

Later, the PPCC president also addressed a gathering at Bunga Sahib. PPCC vice president Rana KP Singh, former minister Ramesh Dutt Sharma, District Congress Committee president Sukhwinder Singh also spoke on the occasion.

(with PTI inputs)
Punjab Congress vice president Sunil Jakhar alleged on Monday that the state government was trying to hush up the pesticide scam by deflecting attention towards corruption charges against former director agriculture Mangal Singh Sandhu.

Jakhar was here to find out the progress in the case filed by special secretary, agriculture pertaining to fraud in the purchase of Rs 33-crore worth of Oberon brand of pesticide in 2015. Accompanied by MLAs Balbir Sidhu,Parminder Singh Pinki and Gurkirat Singh Kotli, Jakhar met assistant inspector general Hardyal Singh Mann at the state crime police station, Bureau of Investigation.

Pesticide scam: Challan at last against former agri director Mangal Singh Sandhu

The entire matter is being hushed up to save the big fish as the pesticides purchase (of the Oberon brand), as claimed by Mangal Singh, was directed from the chief ministers and agriculture ministers offices directly, alleged Jakhar.

Jakhar said the government filed a challan on Monday against Sandhu in a separate case registered on September 15, 2005 for accepting bribe of Rs 8.5 lakh from a pesticide dealer. We want to know the progress in the case registered on October 6, 2015, in connection with the Oberon pesticide purchase. The challan only talks of 2005 case. This is being clearly done to deflect the attention from the main issue, he said.

The pesticide scam resulted in the damage to the cotton crop on 8.5 lakh acres in the Malwa region. More than 3 lakh families have been hit, said Jakhar.

He pointed out that the the former agriculture director was authorised to make purchases up to `10 lakh only, while in this case pesticide worth Rs 33 crore was bought.

Jakhar also supported the proposal of Punjab Congress president Capt Amarinder Singh on mass resignations of all party MLAs and MPs in the state in case the Supreme Courts verdict in the Sutlej-Yamuna Link Canal case is against Punjab.
Keeping in view the demand for long-route buses by Chandigarh Transport Undertaking, the UT transport department has decided to get 200 buses, in the meeting held here on Tuesday.

As of now, 80 CTU buses are plying on the long routes for Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Delhi.

The procedure of finalising the proposal, inviting the tenders and allotting the technical bids is expected to take at least four months, before the buses are procured.

Transport secretary KK Jindal said the proposal to get 200 buses will be placed for clearance from the top officials of UT administration by director transport.

It has been decided that 20% super luxury buses, 20% ordinary non-AC buses and 60% ordinary AC buses will be procured.

This will meet the demand of the residents to include more long-route buses. Moreover, no new bus has been added in the fleet for past five years.

The sources stated that the UT transport department has a budget of Rs 8 crore for this proposal.

An ordinary bus costs around Rs 22 lakh and a super luxury bus goes up to Rs 1 crore.

In the procurement of super luxury buses, the administration is working on a model of involving private sector and the said company will be responsible for the drivers and maintenance of the bus.

The transport department will deploy its conductors and will take a fixed share per km from the private operators.

The CTU is facing a shortage of over 219 buses, with 80 buses already phased out in the past two years.

No charge for differently abled aboard CTU AC buses

UT administration has decided to offer free travel to the differently abled in CTU air-conditioned buses. Last year, the administration had waived tickets on the non-AC buses for the disabled. The decision will be notified in couple of days.

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The front wooden door of the Dinanagar police station in Gurdaspur district stands dotted with bullet scarsa mute testimony of the first terror strike in Punjab by three Pakistani fidayeen on July 27 last year.

The cops proudly refer as wounds to the bullet marks and the bowl-like hole on the cemented floor near the entry point created by the first hand grenade that the ultras, armed with AK-56 rifles and armour-piercing ammunition, had lobbed to gain entry.

Stunned but not scared, the police and the home guards fought back determinedly with whatever they had and killed the terrorists in the dawn-to-dusk gun battle.

But this attack was a wake-up call to the border state police and its ruling political masters. And, the January 2 Pathankot airbase attack only confirmed the Pakistans intent to spread the jihadi arc to the frontier state.

Also read: Pathankot attack has striking similarities to Gurdaspur assault

The two back-to-back terror attacks in a span of six months laid bare the gaping holes in the states 553-km border with Pakistan, prompting police to draw out a long-term strategy.

Our objective is to build an effective second line of defence. The focus is on training the cops and equipping them with latest weapons. We have taken necessary steps post-Dinanagar, HS Dhillon, director general of police (law and order) told Hindustan Times.

Post-attack measures

Post-Dinanagar siege, the focus was shifted on creating a second line of defence by strengthening internal security apparatus.

For example, 24 cops of the SWAT (special weapon and tactics) underwent four weeks training at Nahan base of the Special Forces (1stPara). Four-dozen cops were given ghatak training for four weeks in Jalandhar, Pathankot and Zirakpur by different Army units and 15 police personnel were trained in dealing with the explosives.

This has given more muscle power to the SWAT team that currently has just 32 cops.

We focused on improving training, tactics and shooting skills of the SWAT team. Each SWAT commando is regularly trained in using modern weapons, an officer of the SWAT team said.

But there has been no progress on deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badals lofty promise of setting up another SWAT unit. A proposal was mooted on August 18, 2015, to set up the SWAT unit, which is gathering dust.

Sources say police deployed 24 companies (one company comprises 100 men with operational strength of 78 cops) of the Punjab Armed Battalion in sensitive locations to form the second line of defence. These strike groups equipped with bullet-proof jackets and lethal weapons were placed at Fazilka as well as Narot (Pathankot).

In Pathankot, Gurdaspur and Amritsar grid, another five strike teamseach team having 30 copstrained by the army are posted. This strike force is not deputed on routine duty.

We are keeping our powder dry, Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh, deputy inspector general of police (DIG), border range, Amritsar, said. We are always ready to retaliate with compound interest in case the enemy dares to enter Punjab.

Intelligence gathering

Another focus has been on intelligence sharing in real time with the army and the BSF. A new State Special Operations Cell (SSOC) is being set up at Fazilka for intensive intelligence generation. The SSOC at Amritsar currently deals with intelligence generation of the complete international border of Punjab. The government has created a post of assistant inspector general (AIG), counter intelligence, for the sensitive Pathankot and Gurdaspur border.

Dont miss: Why the Pathankot-Gurdaspur belt is vulnerable to terror attacks

New border police posts have been established for better engagement with residents and to develop intelligence at the grass-roots level. An example is the police post set up at Toor village bordering Pakistan.

We have put in place a sound mechanism to generate intelligence by establishing close links with the border residents. I have put in place a multi-pronged strategy to generate intelligence and if required, we can hit back without waiting for the reinforcement, DIG Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh, said.

Shopping list

To improve the operational efficiency of the force in the wake of twin (Dinanagar and Pathankot) terror strikes, police have placed orders for 777 bullet-proof (BP) jackets and 595 BP patkas (headgear).

Tenders have been floated to buy two pieces of ambush-protected vehicle (Casspir) that help in transporting the troops into the gun battle zone. Besides, there are plans to buy 27 armoured vehicles, 24 armoured tractors, 117 night-vision devices, 827 hand held dragon lights, 11 water cannon anti-riot vehicles, 100 hand-held thermal imagers and five micro and five unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).

Equipping the force with latest bullet-proof jackets, armoured vehicles, night vision devices and hand-held thermal imagers is underway. The process has begun and it will be completed within this fiscal, the DIG said.

Most of the equipment will come from abroad.

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Throwing a challenge at the Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal, the Aam Aadmi Party has demanded his resignation on the issue of the Sutlej Yamuna Link (SYL) canal.

Addressing a press conference here on Tuesday, AAP leader and senior Supreme Court lawyer Harvinder Singh Phoolka said the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and the Congress were indulging in a grand drama over the issue and it was high time their bluff was called.

He said the two parties had been responsible for the construction of the canal and bringing the situation to a passe. It is their doing and they should undo it. The SAD is in power and the chief minister should resign over the issue, said Phoolka.

He said the AAP had written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, demanding the withdrawal of the Presidential Reference on SYL Canal. In case the Presidential Reference is not withdrawn within a week, the CM Punjab should resign on moral grounds. He should accept his helplessness in saving Punjab waters, said Phookla. Accompanied by AAPs manifesto chairman Kanwar Sandhu and legal cell in-charge HS Shergill, Phoolka gave details of how the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had laid the foundation of the canal and Badal government had acquired land for it.

Read more: AAP protests across Punjab in support of MLA Yadav in sacrilege case

Reading out from the letter to the PM, Kanwar Sandhu said they had asked the PM to resolve the matter amicably by calling a meeting of chief ministers of Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan and reiterate Punjabs riparian rights to its river waters.

When asked about the neutral stand taken by the AAP-led Delhi government in the Supreme Court over the issue, Phoolka said the stand of the Punjab unit of AAP was different from that of the Delhi government. AAPs Punjab unit has already made it clear that Punjab has no water to share and it will not, he said.

He said Congress and SAD were trying to outdo one another in becoming the saviours of Punjab waters. But the fact is that these two parties are squarely responsible for the current situation. They are raking up the issue at a time when elections are a few months away. They are trying to befool the people of Punjab, he said.
The police remained mute spectator as the farmers managed to kick off their three-day protest outside Mini-secretariat on Tuesday.

The police made elaborated arrangements to restrict agitating farmers but all their efforts went in vain.

The farmer bodies were demanding government to waive of their loans, besides formulating a policy to put an end to farmer suicides.

The police also barricaded the spot but the farmers confronted police personnel and successfully managed to set up tents outside deputy commissioners office.

District president of Bhartiya Kisan Union (Ugarahan) Shingara Singh Mann said the farmers were fed up from anti-farmer policies of Punjab government, therefore no police could restrict them to hold protest for their rights.

The police was trying to create panic by deploying police personnel in large number at protest site even after the farmers unions announced peaceful protest. The police officials asked us to shift protest to some other place but we refused, Mann said.

BKU (ugarahan) state president Buta Singh Burjgill said the government was completely ignorant towards their demands.

The seriousness of the government could be gauged from the fact that it has failed to take serious note of corrupt practices in agriculture department. Even after last years (crop) loss, it is shameful that the senior officials of agriculture department were caught while making deals with pesticide dealers to allow them to sell spurious pesticides, Burjgill said.

He added that if government fails to pay heed to their demands, the farmers would intensify their protest.

Among other demands, the farmers want government to recalculate their debts, take action against defaulter commission agents, give compensation of `5 lakh and a government job to next kin of farmers who have committed suicides, withdraw Prevention of Damage To Public and Private Property Act and set minimum price of `4,500 per quintal for basmati 1509 variety and `5,000 for 1121 and clearance of dues of sugarcane growers.
The court of chief judicial magistrate issued a fresh notice to Raninder Singh, son of Punjab Congress president Captain Amarinder Singh, on Tuesday after he failed to appear before the court in a criminal complaint filed against him on March 19 by the income tax department.

Raninder is in the dock for allegedly lying to income tax department about his foreign bank accounts.

During the resumed hearing on Tuesday, Raninder didnt turn up as the summons issued against him couldnt be delivered.

Let fresh notice be issued to him to appear before the court on October 24, the next date of hearing. In case, he fails to appear even then, we can then contemplate issuing public proceedings, observed the CJM in the open court.

The income tax department has found that the former chief ministers son is a direct beneficiary of assets maintained and controlled through foreign business entities. These include accounts with c, Geneva. Raninder is also a trustee of the UK-based Jacaranda Trust.
Following directions from the University Grants Commission (UGC), Himachal Pradesh University (HPU) will now have to close all its study centres for distance learning outside the state.

UGC has prohibited state and private universities from establishing centres outside their territorial jurisdiction. This will not only mean loss of enrolment for various courses offered by the International Centre for Distance Education and Open Learning (ICDEOL) of the HPU but also leave students harried.

Every year, over 1,000 students from outside HP seek education through the ICDEOL for which the HPU has centres primarily in Delhi, Noida and Chandigarh. Now, those students will have to come to Shimla for the personal contact programme (PCP) classes and exams, as the centres will not be able to conduct any academic activities.

Also read | PU senate gives final nod to 30% hike in examination fee

This will also mean monetary loss  for instance, HPU had in 2008 constructed a building at Rs 8 crore for a Learning Resource Centre, ICDEOL, at Noida, and also hired staff.

We are bound by the directions of the UGC, said ICDEOL director PK Vaid said, However, there is no binding on admissions to ICDEOL courses from any part of the country, provided they take their exams and PCP classes at the study centre in Shimla or other centres within Himachal Pradesh.
Finally, after two years of investigation into the plundering of the Jodhwal village common land in Ludhiana district, Punjab Vigilance Bureau has booked senior officials of different state departments among other people.

The FIR (first-information report) registered on July 18 names deputy director of industries Vishav Bandhu, block development and panchayat officer (BDPO) Rana Pratap Singh, a retired mining officer, and two panchayat secretaries among the main accused. Ludhiana-based mining contractor Prashant Joshi and Jodhwal villager Virbhadra Singh are some of the accused related to the mining mafia.

The charges relate to corrupt practices and facilitating the mafia in plundering about 50 acres of the Sutlej river basin. A week after this FIR that alleges breach of trust by public servants and encroachment upon panchayat land among other things, the vigilance bureau is yet to arrest the accused, some of whom have retired.

Senior superintendent of police (SSP) Rupinder Singh of the vigilance bureaus economic offences wing in Ludhiana has his own reason for not arresting the accused. The investigation is on, he says. On the chances that the accused might get anticipatory bail in the absence of any action, so far, the SSP said the bureau would get the court notice in that eventuality.

Names missing

The FIR names only eight officers, though the special investigation team (SIT) had named more, including a few from the revenue and power departments. The FIR was based on the SIT report that mentioned forgery and misuse of the land-revenue record by everyone from patwari to tehsildar. The vigilance bureau omitted the relevant sections as well as the names of these officials.

In his report filed on September 5, 2012, a senior vigilance official had accused these revenue officials of forging the sale deeds and mutations of the village common land. HT has all the preliminary inquiry reports. The SIT formed in September 2014 had worked a year on the case. Whistleblower Lakhveer Singh, a former panch of Jodhwal, had moved the complaint to the Ludhiana deputy commissioner as long ago as 2012. The mining mafia of his own village assaulted him in October that year.

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The state government has told the Punjab and Haryana high court that law does not bar a chief minister (CM) from appointing a person with criminal antecedents as a minister.

The submissions were made in a public interest litigation (PIL), filed by Congress leader Sukhjeet Singh, in which he sought the removal of agriculture minister Tota Singh on the ground that he was convicted for corruption in 2012.

Also read | Pesticide scam: AAP demands Tota Singhs resignation

Referring to a Supreme Court judgment of 2014, the Punjab government said: The judgment in BR Kapurs case does not prohibit the chief minister from appointing any person as a minister, merely on the account of his criminal antecedents. The government counsel further argued that while the SC judgment was delivered in August, 2014, Tota Singh was inducted into the state cabinet in June 2014.

The high court had also put Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal on notice in this petition filed in November 2015. After his conviction in May 5, 2012, Tota Singh had submitted his resignation. The minister had been sentenced to one-year rigorous imprisonment for misusing a car belonging to the Punjab School Education Board.

The remaining period of his sentence, however, was suspended and he was released on bail.

Dont miss | FIR at Tota Singhs behest: Govt hands over record to CBI
Seven families from Zimbabwe, who are here to get their children treated for congenital heart disease under Chandigarh Rotary Clubs Heartline Project, say they are finding it difficult to adjust with spicy food and hot, humid weather.

Due to poor health services back home, open heart surgeries are not done. As a pilot project with the help of South Korea, the service was started, but its is still a costly affair, said Khulekani Neube, whose child underwent a heart surgery here.

Also read: First bone marrow transplant on less than a year old at PGI

Seven children arrived 15 days back for the free heart surgery. The club claims under the project, it saved the lives of nearly 620 children, including 120 from Afghanistan, Nepal, Pakistan, Iraq, and African countries of Malawi, Nigeria, Uganda, Rwanda and Zimbabwe.

Neube, who does travel and tourism business, added, The cost of a heart surgery is very high in Zimbabwe, which is one reason we are here. It is my first visit to India. Though our government is opening clinics in border areas, one has to cover a huge distance to go there.

Talking about the change in food, and climate, Neube said it took them a few days to get used to spicy dal, and humid weather. Among many other country food items, I miss sadza, a hard paste of cornmeal usually served with vegetables and meat, the most.

Gladys Takundwa, a home manager, said, The status of women is changing in our country. They are now given equal rights to inherit property. Her two children have been operated upon here.

The government in our country is now stressing on women safety, and theres a significant drop in crime, added Takundwa.

Macurity Shanu, who loves Punjabi culture and bhangra, says just like two dominant vernacular languages  Shona and Ndebele  English is taught right from the elementary level in Zimbabwe.

Dont miss | Organ donation: Two men gave new lease of life to 8 people in 2 days

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Award-winning Malayalam director, Jayan Cherian, has alleged that the censor board refused certification for his movie Ka Bodyscapes -- based on Keralas LGBT and feminist movements -- because it insulted and humiliated Hindu religion.

Jayan told HT on Tuesday that the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) felt that his 2016 movie ridiculed Hinduism and was, apparently, uncomfortable with an alleged portrayal of the god Hanuman with homosexual books.

The entire content is ridiculing, insulting and humiliating Hindu religion, in particular portraying Hindu gods in poor light, read a letter, purportedly from the censor board, and bearing the stamp of the regional CBFC office in Thiruvananthapuram.

Read: Strong state, weak will | Indias deafening silence on UN resolution on LGBT

The letter also pointed out problems with the movie showing a lady masturbating and highlighting gay by many gay posters.

Cherian rejected the charges, saying characters in the movie had struck a Hanuman pose in a scene holding some insignia against Section 377, Indias colonial-era law that criminalises homosexuality.

Here is a copy of the letter from CBFC office in Thiruvananthapuram:

This is a bizarre attack on creative freedom and sexual minorities, he told HT over the phone from New York. We have to fight growing authoritarianism.

Read: Remove Section 377 | Delhis LGBT urge again

The decision is likely to renew allegations that the censor board is acting at the behest of the ruling BJP administration -- a charge triggered two months ago when 89 cuts were demanded in the Shahid Kapoor-starrer, Udta Punjab.

After the NDA came to power two years ago, it has made controversial cultural appointments - such as that of actor Gajendra Chauhan as FTII chief -- amid allegations of rising cultural and religious intolerance, exemplified by the mob lynching last year of a Muslim man suspected of slaughtering a cow and the recent thrashing of four Dalit men by alleged self-styled cow protectors.

Read: CBFCs job is to certify, not censor, says Bombay HC on Udta Punjab

Ka Bodyscapes is set in Keralas Calicut city and follows the lives of three people -- a struggling gay painter Haris, his love interest, Vishnu -- a village boy with a right-wing family, and a young female factory worker Sia.

The movie captures the political tumult in recent years in the southern state that has been rocked by charges of growing fundamentalism and counter-movements such as the Kiss of Love campaign and LGBT prides in many cities.

Watch the trailer of Ka Bodyscapes here:

In the movie, Haris LGBT-themed painting exhibition is shown as vandalised by right-wingers. Sia fights the humiliation heaped on by her bosses for menstruation -- a recreation of viral social media campaigns #Happy to Bleed and Red Alert last year, where women spoke out against shrines such as Sabarimala and factory bosses discriminating against menstruating women.

The board alleged that the film used derogatory words for women but Cherian said the charge was bizarre as the movie was associated with many prominent Kerala feminists and was centred on a feminist campaign.

I feel deeply committed to the cause and will challenge it in the high court. We will fight for free speech, Cherian said. He pointed out that many mainstream movies that show gratuitous violence are often cleared for universal audience.

The film has already been shown at film festivals around the world.

The movie has already been shown at film festivals around the world but needs certification to be screened publicly in India. Cherians two previous feature films have won numerous awards, including honours from the Kerala government and the state-run Mumbai International Film Festival.

Read: Like Udta Punjab, 10 Hindi films slashed by CBFC, made to change title

He alleged that the certification process was dragged out because his was a small-budget movie. He said in April, the CBFCs Thiruvananthapuram regional office initially refused to certify the film and moved the process to Chennai, which cancelled the screening, saying they didnt have enough Malayalam-speaking experts. The final decision was conveyed to him on Monday.

The boards apparent discomfort with the homosexual themes disappointed many in the LGBT community.

Why is the board uncomfortable with gay elements in the form of posters and paintings? The movie is centred on a gay painters life. This shows how morality works to determine obscenity, said Jijo Kuriakose, an activist from Kerala.

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Bengali actor Swastika Mukherjee came in for much praise after her scintillating performance as a seductive yesteryear heroine, Anguri Devi, in Dibakar Banerjees Bollywood flick Detective Byomkesh Bakshi in 2015. But Swastika is unhappy that she is getting typecast and not getting to play a commoner.

This, she feels, is due to the fact that the directors in Bengali film industry are not sure if her known image of a sophisticated urban woman will sync with the image of a maid or vendor in train compartment.

Read: Sushant Singh Rajput tricked into kissing Swastika Mukherjee?

In Bollywood, directors have greater faith in actors. You can see an Alia Bhat portraying a pock-marked rural woman in Udta Punjab which is a departure from her micro-flaunting image.

In Bengali cinema the directors are not willing to experiment me beyond my known image as a sophisticated urban woman, Swastika, who essays coquettish Bibi in Pratim D Guptas Saheb Bibi Golaam said.

Watch the trailer of Saheb Bibi Golaam here:

I am ready for such roles, portraying a lower middle class woman, a poor woman, say a maid or a woman hawker I wish to do a role I will be absolutely in love with. As an actor I should not be stuck with one image. But here in Bengali film industry I am mostly not given that wide scope and drastically different from previous ones, Swastika said.

Asked about Roopa Ganguly having done a maids role in Nayanchapar Dinratri by Sekhar Das at the end of her career before joining politics, Swastika said, yes any character which excites me. But what frustrates me is the way people in the industry here feels my urban, sophisticated look cant be moulded enough for the role of a poor, mofussil girl in search of job.

Read: Wont do intimate scenes for the sake of it, says Swastika Mukherjee

Though she had portrayed a middle class commoners role in international festival winner Anubrata Bhalo Achho, these are few and far between, Swastika rued.

Tell me at this stage of my career how can I repeat myself, Swastika, having acted in Buddhadev Dasgupta films, said.

Happy with her look and appreciation in the Dibakar film in Hindi last year, Swastika said, I was given such an apparently simple but complex role in my debut Hindi film. If I get to explore my acting repertoire I am okay with more Hindi films but (I) will never allow myself to be used as set props in Bengali and Hindi.

Read: Bollywood is restricting Bengali films, says Swastika Mukherjee

Swastika who is excited about 10-12 different looks in Pratim D Guptas Saheb Bibi Golaam, apart from the look of housewife, said There is no similarity between the looks of one woman with the other in the film. But they are the same person.

From Pratim to Suman Mukhopadhyay (Asampto) to Mainak Bhowmik (Take One) I worked on characters I fell in love with. I dont believe in doing PRs for grabbing roles from other directors, she signed off.

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Netflix will collaborate with John Wells Productions for the recently announced feature film based on Panama Papers, one of the worlds massive leak of documents.

The movie is an adaptation of the book, The Panama Papers, by German investigative journalists Frederik Obermaier and Bastian Obermayer.

Read: 500 Indians named in the global list of secret firms in tax havens

Netflix is in talks with International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) to release the film, said The Hollywood Reporter. We are confident that between the expert investigative work of Obermaier and Obermayer, the ICIJ, and the master storytelling of John Wells Productions, we will be able to deliver a gripping tale that will deliver the same type of impact as the The Panama Papers when they were first revealed on the worlds front pages, said Ted Sarandos, chief content officer of Netflix.

Read: All you need to know about Panama Papers

While the features president of John Wells Productions, Rudnick Polstein, said, They (Netflix) have an excellent track record of producing top notch filmmaking and together, we are very much looking forward to getting started on shedding light on one of the most compelling news stories in recent memory.

It all started with a ping, when John Doe contacted us. That relationship and the work that came out of it grew to become the biggest data leak in history, and by far the biggest collaboration of journalists. The world has ever seen; with over 400 journalists ultimately participating in this investigation. We are proud that our newspaper was the starting point for this story which grew to be something monumental, Variety quoted Obermaier and Obermayer as saying.

More details about the movie are yet to be known.

Follow @htshowbiz for more
In the first remarks on what India and South Asia could expect from a Hillary Clinton administration, one of her senior aides indicated continuity on Tuesday.

There is already a real growth in our relationships, with key South Asian countries over the course of the last seven years, Daniel Feldman, a foreign policy adviser to Democratic nominee Clinton, told reporters in response to a question.

Theres enormous continued opportunity to expand and strengthen those relationships, and Im sure that she will continue to take advantage of that, he said.

Feldman served in US state departments office of the special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan and has dealt with South Asia at length over a long career, working with Clinton when she was secretary of state and her successor John Kerry.

Reproduced here are long stretches from his comments as these are the first policy remarks about a possible Clinton administrations policy on South Asia.

Look to her commitments to South Asia when she was secretary, her frequent travel there  and I accompanied her to India, to Pakistan, to Afghanistan, all numerous times, Feldman said. Her commitment to continue to try to knit together this  one of the least connected regions of the world, between South and Central Asia.

Clinton, as president, will remain committed to economic and commercial dialogues, including elevating strategic dialogues with several countries of the region.

Fedlman also referred to Clintons commitment to multilateral approaches to regional issues, whether from the broader international community, as we saw in Afghanistan, to continuing to try to strengthen and empower key regional initiatives like she did with the Heart of Asia process and others.

Neither Republican nominee Donald Trump nor his campaign have said much on South Asia, but their party platform (or manifesto) released during their convention last week called India a geopolitical ally and strategic trading partner and raised concerns about religion-related violence.

The platform also stressed the need to secure Pakistans nuclear arsenal and questioned its commitment to combatting terrorism.
President Barack Obama has said it is possible Russia is trying to interfere in the US presidential election after a leak of politically embarrassing Democratic National Committee emails was attributed by experts to Russian hackers.

What we do know is that the Russians hack our systems. Not just government systems, but private systems. But you know, what the motives were in terms of the leaks, all that  I cant say directly, Obama told NBC News in an interview.

Asked if the Russians were trying to influence the US elections, Obama replied: Anything is possible.

Obamas decision to identify Russia as almost certainly the culprit in hacking the Democratic National Committee and releasing the emails fits his administrations new penchant for openly blaming foreign governments for such break-ins.

But the Kremlin on Wednesday denied Moscow is interfering in the US election campaign after Obama refused to rule out that Russia could be trying to sway the vote in favour of Republican candidate Donald Trump.

Read: Michelle Obama, Sanders endorse Clinton on day 1 of Democratic convention

Democratic candidate Hillary Clintons campaign has blamed Russia for the embarrassing leak, propelling the Kremlin to the heart of American political debate as tensions between Moscow and Washington linger months before the US elections.

President Putin has repeatedly said that Russia has never interfered and does not interfere in internal affairs, especially in the electoral processes of other countries, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

The Kremlin spokesman earlier dismissed as absurd claims that Russia was involved in the hacking of emails released by WikiLeaks.

During the interview, Obama noted that Trump had repeatedly expressed his admiration for the Russian leader.

What I do know is that Donald Trump has repeatedly expressed admiration for Vladimir Putin, he said as the interviewer suggested it looked like the president was hinting that Putin might prefer Trump in the White House.

Well, I am basing this on what Mr Trump himself has said. And I think that Trumps gotten pretty favourable coverage back in Russia, Obama said.

Read: Russian hackers target computer network, steal research on Donald Trump

Obama traditionally avoids commenting on active FBI investigations. But he told NBC News outside experts have blamed Russia for the leak and appeared to embrace the notion that Putin might have been responsible.

The developing US strategy, unofficially dubbed name and shame, is intended to raise diplomatic consequences for foreign governments involved in state-sponsored hacking.

Obamas comments came after the release by WikiLeaks of emails obtained illegally by hacking into the server of the Democratic National Committee. The emails indicated the Democratic leadership supported Clinton in the primaries against her rival, Senator Bernie Sanders from Vermont.

The Democratic party and the Clinton campaign acknowledged more emails could be released in the coming weeks, with the timing scheduled to inflict most damage to the Democratic nominee.

The WikiLeaks leak was obviously designed to hurt our convention. I dont think theyre done. Thats how they operate, Jennifer Palmieri, communications director for Hillary for America, told a news conference.

We cant know, but its part of the reason that we wanted people to understand our belief that the Russians are behind this. People need to understand  when these leaks happen  what theyre designed to do, she said.

In an interview to CNN, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said the organisation plans to release more emails in coming weeks.

Read: US elections: Sanders to back Clinton. Will supporters follow?

I think this raises a very serious question, which is that the natural instincts of Hillary Clinton and the people around her, that when confronted with a serious domestic political scandal, that she tries to blame the Russians, blame the Chinese, etc, he said.

If she does that when shes in government, thats a political, managerial style that can lead to conflict.

Trump has made no secret of his admiration for Putin, leading some to suggest the Kremlin strongman was working to help propel the real estate billionaire into the White House. In December last year, Putin praised Trump as a very striking man, unquestionably talented.

Its not up to us to judge his virtues, that is up to US voters, but he is the absolute leader of the presidential race, Putin said.

Trump responded by hailing Putin as a strong leader, a powerful leader.
Breaking a historic barrier, Hillary Clinton triumphantly captured the Democratic nomination for president Tuesday night, the first woman ever to lead a major political party in the race for the White House.

Delegates erupted in cheers as Clintons primary rival, Bernie Sanders, helped make it official when the roll call got to his home state of Vermont  an important show of unity for a party trying to heal deep divisions.

I move that Hillary Clinton be selected as the nominee of the Democratic Party for president of the United States, Sanders declared, asking that it be by acclamation.

It was a striking parallel to the role Clinton played eight years ago when she stepped to the microphone on the convention floor in Denver in support of her former rival, Barack Obama.

This time, Clinton shattered the glass ceiling she couldnt crack in 2008. And in November, she will take on Donald Trump, nominated last week at the Republican convention in Cleveland.

The second night of the Democratic convention featured former President Bill Clinton, who was taking the stage to deliver a personal validation for his wife. Former presidents often vouch for their potential successors, but never before has that candidate also been a spouse.

Tuesday night wasnt all celebratory. Moments after Clinton claimed the nomination, a group of Sanders supporters left the convention and headed to a media tent to protest what they said was their being shut out of the party. Earlier, several hundred gathered at Philadelphias City Hall under a blazing sun chanting Bernie or bust.

Trump cheered the disruptions from the campaign trail. In North Carolina, he told a convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars that, our politicians have totally failed you.

Indeed, Clintons long political resume  secretary of state, senator, first lady  has sometimes seemed an odd fit for an electorate deeply frustrated with Washington and eager to rally around unconventional candidates like Trump and Sanders. Many voters have questions about her character and trustworthiness, suggesting her years in power give her the impression she can play by different rules.

Read: Michelle Obama, Sanders endorse Clinton on day 1 of Democratic convention

Clintons campaign views the four-day convention as an opportunity to introduce her to voters anew. Tuesday night featured three hours of speakers who highlighted issues Clinton championed for years, including health care and advocacy for children and families.

Among those pledging support for the Democratic nominee were the mothers of the movement  several black women whose children were victims of gun violence. Clinton has met privately with the mothers and held events with them, and theyve become an emotional force for her campaign.

Hillary Clinton has the passion and understanding to support grieving mothers, said Sybrina Fulton, whose son Trayvon Martin was killed in 2012. She has the courage to lead the fight for commonsense gun legislation.

Clinton aides believe a focus on policy is another way to rally Sanders supporters, especially those who have threatened to stay home or vote for Republican Trump. The Fights Of Her Life segments focusing on Clintons accomplishments were interspersed with videos featuring Trumps comments opposing abortion and bemoaning that womens pregnancies hurt businesses.

Clintons landmark achievement saturated the roll call with emotion and symbols of womens long struggle to break through political barriers. Jerry Emmett, a 102-year-old woman born before women had the right to vote, cast the ballots for Arizona.

Martha McKenna, a Clinton delegate from Maryland, said the night felt like a celebration for Sanders campaign as well as Clintons. She added, The idea that Im going to be here when the first woman president is nominated is overwhelming.

The Democratic convention drew the partys biggest stars to sweltering Philadelphia for the week-long event. On Monday night, first lady Michelle Obama made an impassioned case for Clinton as the only candidate in the presidential race worthy of being a role model for the nations children. President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden will speak Wednesday, along with Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine, Clintons new running mate.

Bill Clinton had the spotlight Tuesday night. The former president has campaigned frequently for his wife during the White House race, but mostly in smaller cities and towns, part of an effort by the campaign to keep him in a more behind-the-scenes role.

During Hillary Clintons first presidential campaign in 2008, her husband angered some Democrats with dismissive comments about Obama. This year, he  and she  were criticized after he met privately with Attorney General Loretta Lynch in the middle of the FBIs investigation into her email use at the State Department.

The roll call this year, when each state announced its delegate totals from the primary season, affirmed a nomination Clinton locked up weeks ago.

Read: America first: Trump thunders, accepts Republican presidential nomination
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump triggered a new controversy on Wednesday by publicly urging Russia to hack into his Democratic rival Hillary Clintons emails.

Russia, if youre listening, I hope youre able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing, Trump told reporters in Florida. I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press.

He was referring to the more than 30,000 emails that Clintons lawyers deleted from the private server she had used for official work while secretary of state from 2009 to 2012.

Russian intelligence agencies have been accused of hacking into the official email account of the Democratic partys headquarters and passing them on to WikiLeaks for release.

The emails, released on the eve of the Democratic National Convention that started here on Monday, showed officials siding with Clinton against her rival Bernie Sanders.

Read: DNC hack: Obama doesnt rule out Russia trying to influence US polls

Trump sought to use the controversy to re-inject into public debate the controversy about Clintons private email server, but ended up bringing some mud on himself.

Critics slammed his remarks as treasonous. Leading conservative columnist Stephen Hayes asked in a tweet, How can any Republican support a candidate who openly hopes for foreign cyberattacks on a political opponent?

Read: Kremlin dismisses allegations Russia hacked US Democratic Party emails

Republican Speaker Paul Ryans office issued a statement calling Russia a global menace led by a devious thug. It added, (Russian President Vladimir) Putin should stay out of this election.

Trumps own running mate Mike Pence tried to put some distance between himself and the nominee, saying in a statement, The FBI will get to the bottom of who is behind the hacking. If it is Russia and they are interfering in our elections, I can assure you both parties and the US government will ensure there are serious consequences.
Indian-origin director Mira Nairs latest offering, The Queen Of Katwe, will have its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) in September.

The film will be a gala presentation at the 41st edition of the premier movie event in North America. Nairs previous feature, The Reluctant Fundamentalist, also first showed at TIFF in 2012.

Described as a vibrant true story, the film tracks the unlikely path taken by 10-year-old Phiona Mutesi from the slum of Katwe in Kampala, Ugandas capital, to becoming a chess champion.

TIFFs artistic director Cameron Bailey told Hindustan Times about the selection: Its a really inspirational story and I think Mira was thrilled to direct a film in her native Uganda, as well.

Also returning to the festival is actor Dev Patel, who first came to attention when the film in which he debuted, the multi-Oscar winning Slumdog Millionaire, played at TIFF in 2008. Patel also starred in The Man Who Knew Infinity, a biopic about maths genius Srinivasan Ramanujan, which featured in TIFF last year.

He returns in another role based on a true story in Lion, a film about Saroo Brierley, who was adopted by an Australian couple after being separated from his Indian parents when just five years old, and used Google Earth a quarter century later to locate his family back in India.

Based on a true story appears to be the theme for films with an Indian connection at this years TIFF.

Actor Konkona Sen Sharmas directorial venture, A Death In The Gunj, too is from that genre, as it follows a shy young Indian student who quietly and fatefully unravels during a family road trip to McCluskiegunj.

Bailey said of the film: Its a beautiful story set in West Bengal, very powerful, very well written, highly textured drama.

Devon Terrell in the film Barry by Indian-American filmmaker Vikram Gandhi. The film about the young Barack Obama will have its premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in September. (Courtesy TIFF)

New York-based Indian-American director Vikram Gandhi brings his feature Barry to TIFF. Set in 1981, it follows a young Barack Obama during a crucial year in the life of the future American president.

Highlights of this years festival also include Oliver Stones Snowden, described as a politically charged, pulse-pounding thriller that reveals the incredible untold personal story of Edward Snowden, the polarising figure who exposed shocking illegal surveillance activities by the NSA and became one of the most wanted men in the world  considered a hero by some, and a traitor by others.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Edward Snowden in the film Snowden by director Oliver Stone, which will have its premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival. (Courtesy TIFF)

The 10-day festival will open on September 8 with American director Antoine Fuquas much-anticipated remake of the Western The Magnificent Seven.

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Two bomb blasts hit the northeastern Syrian city of Qamishli near the Turkish border on Wednesday, killing at least one person and injuring dozens, a monitoring group and state television reported.

The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said one of the explosions hit near a security headquarters of the Kurdish administration, including a local police station and a government building, that controls most of Hasaka province, where Qamishli is located.

Dozens of people were either killed or wounded in the blasts, the group said. Syrian state TV estimated that about 50 people were hurt in the attack.

Two bombs went of in Qamishli in Syria, close to the Turkish border, in which dozens died. Nobody has yet claimed responsibility for the double attack. (AFP Photo)

The state TV also said one blast was from a car bomb, which exploded on the western edge of Qamishli, and the other from a bomb on a motorbike. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the explosions.

Islamic State (IS), which is fighting against the Kurdish YPG militia and its allies in Hasaka and Aleppo provinces, has targeted Qamishli and the provincial capital, Hasaka city ,in the past with bombing attacks.

The predominantly Kurdish US-backed Syria Democratic Forces have been the main force fighting the IS in northern Syria and have captured wide areas from the extremists.
Floods and landslides triggered by torrential rains have killed 58 people and left thousands homeless across Nepal, officials said on Wednesday.

Home ministry spokesperson Yadav Prasad Koirala told Hindustan Times that scores of homes were destroyed by the floods and landslides since Monday.

Fourteen of the countrys 75 districts have been hit hardest by the flashfloods. In Pyuthan district, at least 24 people died and 20 more were reported missing, according to the home ministry.

Several bridges were swept away by flood waters. Thousands of people were displaced and hundreds of homes waterlogged after waters entered settlements in Kapilvastu, Parsa, Banke, Bardiya, Dang, Saptari, Morang and Jhapa districts, the home ministry said.

Thousands of people in the southern plains known as the Tarai or Madhesh were forced to spend the night under the open sky. The hill areas were affected by landslides while the plains, considered the agricultural basket of Nepal, were inundated by floodwaters.

In this photograph released by the Nepalese Army on Wednesday, army personnel rescue flood victims at Nawalparasi, 200 km southwest of Kathmandu. (AFP)

Around 2,000 residents of Jhapa district were displaced and the swollen Mechi river swept away an embankment on the Indian side. Naksalbari, Panitanki and other Indian markets were waterlogged, police officials in Jhapa said.

In Saptari district, 300 families were living precariously after a sudden rise in the Koshi river. Around 1,200 people were cut off from the district headquarters.

The flow of Saptakoshi river crossed this years highest mark after continuous rainfall for the past 10 days. The flow of the river was measured at 277,410 cusecs on Wednesday morning, a new high for this year.

Thirty-seven of 56 floodgates were opened and sub-inspector Bhim Raj Thebe said the water level had been continuously rising.

Authorities have been unable to conduct timely search, rescue and rehabilitation work because of the lack of preparation, funds and a mechanism to cope with natural disasters.

A meeting chaired by home minister Bhim Rawal on Wednesday decided to seek Rs 750 million from the prime ministers emergency relief fund to address the humanitarian crisis in the wake of floods, landslides and inundation.

In this photograph taken on Tuesday, floodwaters surround a dwelling in Bardiya, 400 km southwest of Kathmandu. (AFP)

The home ministry asked people affected by floods to remain vigilant to prevent the spread of diseases. It also decided to deploy medical teams in areas hit by floods and landslides.
One of two attackers who stormed a small-town church in France and killed a priest was under house arrest and awaiting trial on terror charges, officials said on Wednesday, as the nation struggled to come to terms with the third major attack in 18 months.

Adel Kermiche, 19, was one of two attackers who stormed a Catholic church in the northern town of Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray during morning mass, slitting the throat of an 86-year-old priest, Jacques Hamel, and leaving a worshipper with serious injuries, said Paris prosecutor Francois Molins.

The attack, claimed by the Islamic State group, comes with France still in mourning less than two weeks after Tunisian Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel ploughed a truck into a crowd in the Riviera city of Nice, killing 84 people and injuring over 300.

The carnage, the third major strike on France in 18 months, prompted a bitter political spat over alleged security failings and revelations over the church attack were likely to raise further questions.

Molins said that Kermiche first came to the attention of anti-terror officials when a member of his family alerted him as missing in March 2015. He was arrested by German officials and found to be using his brothers identity in a bid to reach Syria.

He was charged and released under judicial supervision, but in May fled to Turkey where he was again arrested and returned to France where he was held in custody until March 2016.

Kermiche was released and fitted with an electronic bracelet which allowed him to leave his house on weekdays between 8:00 am and 12:30 pm, said Molins.

It was during this time that he and another attacker entered the centuries-old stone Saint-Etienne church, taking hostage the priest, Hamel, three nuns and two worshippers.

Tuesdays attack prompted renewed opposition calls to further harden Frances anti-terrorism legislation.

But Socialist President Francois Hollande -- who faces a tough re-election bid next year -- rejected them, saying: Restricting our freedoms will not make the fight against terrorism more effective.

Changes made to legislation in 2015, and the extension of a state of emergency in the wake of the Nice attack, already gave authorities sufficient capacity to act, he said.

But the deputy chief of Frances police union, Frederic Lagache, said: It should not be possible for someone awaiting trial on charges of having links to terrorism to be released on house arrest.

Mohammed Karabila, who heads the regional council of Muslim worship for Haute Normandie, where the church attack took place, asked simply: How could a person wearing an electronic bracelet carry out an attack? Where are the police?

Kermiche and another assailant entered the centuries-old stone church of Saint Etienne, taking hostage the priest, Jacques Hamel, three nuns and two worshippers.

One of the nuns managed to escape and call police, who tried to negotiate with the hostage-takers.

The nun, Sister Danielle, told local radio RMC that the men were speaking Arabic and shouting, and had recorded the attack.

Three hostages were lined up in front of the church door, meaning police could not launch an attack, said Molins.

Two nuns and one worshipper exited the church followed by the two attackers, one carrying a handgun, who charged at police shouting Allahu akbar (God is greatest). Police gunned down the jihadists.

Joanna Torrent, a 22-year-old store employee, was stunned to see terror hit her small working-class town of 30,000 people, far from bustling tourist hubs like Paris and Nice.

I thought it would only be in big cities, that it couldnt reach here, she said.
A Hindu youth was killed and another seriously injured when they were shot by members of a mob following communal tensions in a town in Pakistans southern Sindh province on Wednesday.

The Hindus, both traders, were attacked in Ghotki district by a mob protesting the alleged desecration of the Quran a day earlier. Dewan Kumar, 17, succumbed to his injuries while his friend Avinash was fighting for life, police said.

Witnesses said Kumar and Avinash were having tea at a stall in Mirpur Mathelo, the main town of Ghotki, when they were attacked.

Ghotki district was tense over allegations of the desecration of the holy book by a Hindu man, who was arrested on Tuesday. Leaders of the Hindu community have demanded protection for their lives and properties following the violence.

Most of Pakistans Hindu minority live in Sindh, and Ghotki has a sizeable population of the community. Sindh has traditionally been more peaceful than other provinces but the region has witnessed a spike in sectarian tensions and radicalisation that has coincided with the entry of groups such as the Jamaat-ud-Dawah.

The trouble started on Tuesday when some burnt pages of the Quran were found outside an old mosque near Daharki town. Angry protesters assembled on the National Highway and held a sit-in for five hours, demanding the arrest of the culprit after which the police arrested the prime suspect.

Local police chief Amjad Shaikh went to the protest site in Daharki with his team and tried to persuade people to end their sit-in but his vehicle was attacked and damaged.

Police told the media that residents of Mehran Samejo village near Daharki had caught a Hindu man while he was allegedly desecrating pages of the Quran. Members of the Hindu community told reporters that the suspect, Amar Lal, was a drug addict who had begun living in a mosque after converting to Islam a few months ago. They said his mental condition was unstable.

Soon after the incident, protesters took to the streets in most towns of the district and staged demonstrations. They burnt tyres, tried to ransack shops owned by Hindus and clashed with police. Most towns of Ghotki district, including Daharki, Mirpur Mathelo, Ubauro and Khan Pur Mehar, remained closed on Wednesday due to the tensions, and cities were deserted for the second consecutive day.

Amar Lal was booked and taken to an undisclosed location by police, who have said they fear for his life. Leaders of religious parties, including Jamiat-e-Ulema-e-Islam Fazl (JUI-F) and Ahl-e-Sunnat wal Jamaat (ASWJ) have demanded severe punishment for the man.

Law enforcement agencies personnel have arrested more than 150 people on charges of rioting in overnight raids. Large police contingents have been posted in sensitive areas, particularly outside the homes of Hindus.
The online magazine of the Islamic State group has described how a 27-year-old Syrian asylum-seeker who blew himself up at a bar in the southern German town of Ansbach spent months planning the attack, once even hiding his home-made bomb in his room moments before a police raid.

The weekly Al-Nabaa magazines report, published late on Tuesday, added that Mohammad Daleel had fought both in Iraq and Syria with a branch of al Qaeda and the IS group before arriving in Germany as an asylum-seeker two years ago.

Daleel died and 15 people were wounded when the bomb exploded in a wine bar Sunday night after he wasnt allowed entry to a nearby open-air concert because he didnt have a ticket.

The Ansbach attack was the last one of four attacks in the country in the span of a week, two of which have been claimed by the Islamic State extremist group.

The attacks have left Germany on edge and Chancellor Angela Merkels policies of welcoming refugees under renewed criticism.

Conservative lawmakers have called for an increased police presence, better surveillance and background checks of migrants and new strategies to deport criminal asylum seekers more easily.

Al Nabaas Arabic-language report on the attacker said he initially fought against government forces with al Qaedas branch in Syria before pledging alliance to IS in 2013.

He also helped the group with its propaganda efforts, setting up pro-IS accounts online.

In Germany he started making the bomb, a process that took him three months, al Nabaa wrote.

It added that German police once raided his asylum shelter in an unrelated case and searched Daleels room without noticing the bomb that he hid moments before the raid.

A handout image released by Amaq News Agency, an online service affiliated with the Islamic State (IS) group, purportedly shows Mohammad Daleel, whom Amaq said was the Syrian asylum-seeker who detonated a bomb near a music festival in the German city of Ansbach. (AFP Photo)

The IS group earlier claimed the Ansbach attack, publishing a video it said of Daleel pledging allegiance to the group and vowing that Germanys people wont be able to sleep peacefully anymore. It appears to be the same video as the one found by German investigators on the suicide bombers phone.

Daleel unsuccessfully applied for asylum in Germany and was awaiting deportation, German authorities said.

The unprecedented bloodshed in Germany began July 18, when a 17-year-old from Afghanistan wielding an ax attacked people on a train near Wuerzburg, wounding five people before he was shot to death by police. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility.

The deadliest attack came Friday night in Munich. The German-born, 18-year-old son of Iranian refugees went on a shooting spree and killed nine people. The youth had obsessively researched mass shootings, and authorities said the attack does not appear to be linked to Islamic extremists.

On Sunday, a 21-year-old Syrian used a machete to kill a 45-year-old Polish woman in the southern city of Reutlingen. Authorities said assailant and victim knew each other from working in the same restaurant, and the incident was not related to terrorism.

Despite the fact that not all the cases were terror-related, they have caused concerns about the governments migration policy that saw more than 1 million people enter Germany last year.

A senior figure in the nationalist Alternative for Germany party, which has no seats in the national parliament but saw its popularity surge after last years migrant influx, suggested Wednesday that there should be a halt to immigration for Muslims to Germany until all asylum-seekers currently in the country have been registered, checked and had their applications processed.

For security reasons, we can no longer afford to allow yet more Muslims to immigrate to Germany without control, Alexander Gauland, a deputy party leader, said in a statement. There are terrorists among the Muslims who immigrated illegally and their number is rising constantly.

The interior ministry rejected the notion that Germany is still seeing uncontrolled migration. Spokesperson Johannes Dimroth said that for some time all new arrivals have been registered and checked against security databases.

As for the concrete question of whether you can act differently according specifically to a persons religion, as I understand it that simply would be incompatible with our understanding of freedom of religion, he said.

German train operator Deutsche Bahn said on Wednesday that following the attacks it would invest heavily in increased security and hire hundreds of security staff to control trains and train stations across the country.

The city of Munich said it is re-evaluating its security concept for the annual Oktoberfest and is considering banning all backpacks from the popular beer fest.
Governor of Italys Lombardy region has urged the Pope to fast-track the awarding of sainthood to the elderly French priest slain by Islamic State (IS) terrorists on Tuesday.

Father Jacques Hamel, whose throat was slit so horribly -- like an animal -- by two Islamist terrorists in his church should immediately be made a saint, tweeted Roberto Maroni, who is Italys former Interior Minister.

A prayer for a martyr of the faith and request to Pope Francis: Make Father Jacques a saint straight away #padrejacquessantosubito, Maroni wrote on Facebook.

Shortly after his appeal, the hashtag, which translates as sainthood immediately, began trending on Twitter.

84-year-old Hamel was allegedly beheaded on Tuesday by two armed men in his church in the Normandy town of Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, near Rouen, which was claimed by IS.

In the case of a martyr, only one miracle is needed for sainthood after beatification and a declaration by the Vatican that the person died for the faith.

The regular canonisation process is a lengthy one involving two miracles attributed to the candidate.
A Japanese man who admitted to murdering 19 people at a centre for the mentally disabled grinned at news cameras on Wednesday before being questioned over the countrys worst killing spree in decades.

Police searched the home of the 26-year-old, who reportedly said he wanted all disabled people to disappear, after the knife rampage that left his victims in pools of blood, including some who were stabbed in the neck.

With a blue jacket draped over his head, Satoshi Uematsu was escorted out of a police station into a waiting van before a crowd of flashing cameras.

Inside the vehicle with the jacket removed, he smiled broadly in footage broadcast on morning news shows.

Uematsus self-styled mission to rid the country of the mentally disabled -- laid out earlier this year in a long letter that came to light Tuesday -- has shocked Japan, as has the carnage at the Tsukui Yamayuri-en centre in the city of Sagamihara, outside Tokyo.

An official at the Tsukui police station, where Uematsu was held after the attack, declined to comment on the investigation, only confirming that he was being transported to prosecutors for questioning.

Plainclothes police officers were seen searching his house where yellow tape declared it a no-entry zone. The two-storey dwelling is in the same neighbourhood as the care centre.

Police officers enter the house of Satoshi Uematsu, the suspect in a mass stabbing attack, in Sagamihara, outside of Tokyo on July 27, 2016. The suspect was being transferred from a local police station to the prosecutor's office in Yokohama. (AP Photo)

Local media said Uematsu has told police that he wants to apologise to bereaved families about the sudden loss of their loved ones, though he still justified what he did.

I saved those with multiple disabilities, he told police, according to private broadcaster TV Asahi, citing investigative sources.

Uematsu broke into the care centre in the forested hills of Sagamihara in the early hours of Tuesday.

History of Disturbing Behaviour

He reportedly tied up two caregivers before stabbing residents using five knives in total -- leaving 26 people injured, 13 of them severely.

He quickly turned himself in at a police station, carrying bloodied knives and admitting to officers: I did it.

Uematsu reportedly also said: The disabled should all disappear.

Security camera footage taken near the centre showed a vehicle arriving there shortly before the attack began. The driver opened the boot to remove objects before walking toward the facility.

At around 2:50 am, shortly after an emergency call was made to police from the centre, the footage shows the driver dashing back to the vehicle, carrying a large bag.

A police officer walks at the Tsukui Yamayuri-en, a facility for the mentally disabled where a number of people were killed and dozens injured in a knife attack, in Sagamihara, outside of Tokyo. (AP Photo)

Uematsu left his job at the care home and was forcibly hospitalised in February after telling colleagues he intended to kill disabled people at the centre.

But he was discharged 12 days later when a doctor deemed he was not a threat.

He had previously delivered a letter to the speaker of the lower house of parliament in which he threatened to kill hundreds of disabled people, outlining a broad plan for night-time attacks against Tsukui Yamayuri-en and another facility.

In the rambling letter he presented a vision of a society in which the seriously handicapped could be euthanised with the approval of family members since handicapped people only create unhappiness.

Japan has one of the lowest rates of violent crime in the developed world. The killing spree is believed to be the nations worst since 1938, when a man armed with an axe, sword and rifle went on a rampage that left 30 people dead.
The Kremlin on Wednesday dismissed allegations Russia had hacked Democratic Party emails as horror stories dreamt up by US politicians, saying it never interfered in other countries election campaigns.

Moscow is at pains to avoid any words that could be interpreted as direct or indirect interference in the election process, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told a conference call with reporters.

...We see that the Russian card is in the red corner on the writing table of all Washington politicians during the election campaign, and that very often they make it a trump card in their game.

Peskov was responding after US President Barack Obama in an interview with NBC News said it was possible Russia would try to influence the US presidential election after a leak of Democratic National Committee emails that experts have blamed on Russian hackers.

This reminds me of a company where they tell each other horror stories and then start being frightened of their own stories, said Peskov.

The Kremlin on Tuesday said unidentified individuals in the United States were trying to cynically exploit fear of Russia for electoral purposes.
Police say a man playing Pokemon Go in an Ohio park was robbed of his cellphone and shot three times.

Columbus police say 26-year-old Gregory Wheeler and a woman were playing the smartphone game Tuesday night when a 14-year-old boy asked to use the phone to call his mother.

Police say the teenager fled with the phone and Wheeler was first struck in the head by another person when he chased after the boy, then shot. Wheelers condition wasnt immediately available Wednesday.

The Columbus Dispatch reports the 14-year-old was charged as a juvenile with aggravated robbery and felonious assault. They are searching for the other person, also believed to be about 14.

Franklin County Prosecutor Ron OBrien on Wednesday urged Pokemon Go players to be aware of their surroundings.
Trade and investment dominated the first contact between Britains new Prime Minister Theresa May and Prime Minister Narendra Modi when they discussed Indo-UK relations on the phone on Tuesday, official sources in London said.

Trade and investment featured strongly in the conversation with Prime Minister Modi who expressed his hope that the relationship would become even stronger and closer in the future, particularly given the shared values and common interest, said a spokesperson at 10, Downing Street.

May pointed out that the launch next month of the first rupee-denominated bond in London was a concrete example of close and growing economic cooperation and underlined that the city remains a global hub for innovative finance, the spokesperson added.

The initiative for raising funds in London for India's infrastructure development was taken during Modi's visit to London in November 2015.

The Prime Minister also emphasised the UKs continued commitment to our defence and security partnership and support for Indias increasing role in international fora. Finally, both welcomed the valuable contribution of the Indian diaspora to the UK, the spokesperson said.

Mays phone conversations with world leaders on Tuesday included one with Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, in which she reaffirmed Britains commitment to support Pakistans democratic development.

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A mortar attack south of Baghdad at a camp for people displaced from the war with Islamic State killed four children and a woman on Wednesday, while a separate suicide bombing in a northern district killed a policeman, security sources said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for either attack. The ultra-hardline Sunni Muslim militants of Islamic State regularly bomb security forces and civilian areas in the capital. Mortar attacks are less frequent in the city of four million where many armed groups operate.

Three mortar shells landed inside Al Salam camp, one falling in the centre and two others in a market area, a statement from the U.N. refugee agency, which operates there, said.

It was the third such attack on the camp in as many months, including one in early July which killed four people, the statement added.

Al Salam is the largest camp for displaced people in Baghdad, serving civilians who fled violence in Salahuddin province north of the capital and Anbar province to the west.

Islamic State, which seized a third of Iraqi territory in 2014, has been kicked out of more than half of that land by US-backed Iraqi forces over the past two years.

The authorities say several hundred thousand people have returned to their homes, but more than 3.4 million people across the country are still displaced, most of them Sunnis.

The war with Islamic State has exacerbated Iraqs sectarian conflict, mostly between the Sunni minority and the Shiite majority, that emerged after the U.S.-led invasion in 2003 which toppled Saddam Hussein, a Sunni.
Floods and landslides triggered by monsoon rains in Nepal have killed 54 people over the last two days, an official said on Wednesday.

At least 20 people are missing, said home ministry spokesperson Yadav Prasad Koirala. The government has launched rescue and relief operations in 14 of Nepals 75 districts that have been affected by the floods, he said.

Hundreds of people have been displaced after swollen rivers breached their banks and flooded homes. Soldiers and volunteers used rubber boats to rescue people marooned by the flooding, while helicopters were being used to drop food supplies.

Koirala said the situation was serious in eight districts, and that road links to some areas were cut by the flooding.

Water levels in some of the major rivers were close to dangerous levels, posing a threat of massive flooding and causing panic among the local population.

Tens of thousands of Nepalese are still living in tents following a set of devastating earthquakes that hit the Himalayan country last year.
South Korea on Wednesday accused rival North Korea of floating propaganda leaflets down a river in the first such incident.

South Koreas military discovered dozens of plastic bags, each carrying about 20 leaflets, near the estuary of Seouls Han River close to the tense Korean border last Friday, according to the Souths Defence Ministry. Seoul is only an hours drive from the border.

The leaflets contained threats to launch missile attacks and a repeat of the Norths long-running propaganda such as that the North won the 1950-53 Korean War, a ministry official said, requesting anonymity because of department rules.

The war ended with no ones victory. An armistice that stopped the fighting has yet to be replaced with a peace treaty, leaving the Korean Peninsula split along the worlds most heavily fortified border and at a technical state of war. Wednesday marks the 63rd anniversary of the armistices signing.

North Korea recently warned of unspecified physical measures in response to a US plan to deploy an advanced missile defence system in South Korea by the end of next year. North Korea last week fired three ballistic missiles into the sea, according to Seoul defence officials.

The rival Koreas resumed old-fashioned, Cold War-era psychological warfare in the wake of North Koreas fourth nuclear test in January.

Seoul began blasting anti-Pyongyang propaganda broadcasts and K-pop songs from border loudspeakers in retaliation for the Norths atomic detonation. Pyongyang quickly matched Seouls campaign with its own border broadcasts and launches of balloons carrying anti-South leaflets across the border.

The latest discovery of propaganda leaflets marks the first time for North Korea to use a river to send leaflets, according to the South Korean defense official. He said North Korea is believed to have used a river because the direction of wind isnt favourable in the summer to fly propaganda balloons from north to south.

Many in South Korea believe their broadcasts could sting in Pyongyang because the rigidly controlled, authoritarian country worries that the broadcasts will demoralize front-line troops and residents and eventually weaken the grip of absolute leader Kim Jong Un.

Nearly 30,000 North Koreans have fled to South Korea since the end of the Korean War, mostly for political and economic reasons. South Koreans defecting to the impoverished, authoritarian North is highly unusual.
An US Army aviation unit with 800 soldiers and attack and transport helicopters will be deployed in Afghanistan later this summer to support Afghan troops engaged in the campaign against the Taliban and other militant groups.

The 1st Combat Aviation Brigade of the 1st Infantry Division will deploy on a regular rotation of forces to Afghanistan in support of Operation Freedoms Sentinel, the campaign against the Taliban, Islamic State, al Qaeda and other groups.

The unit is equipped with Black Hawk, Chinook and Apache helicopters and has the primary mission of supporting Afghan military efforts, spokesman Lt Col Kimeisha McCullum told Stars And Stripes, the official newspaper of the US armed forces.

McCullum said the US unit can expect medical evacuation and logistical support missions, but declined to say whether the troops will play a role in close air support or training their Afghan counterparts.

The deployment comes amid violence threatening to further destabilise the NATO operation in Afghanistan. A suicide bombing in Kabul on Saturday, which was claimed by the Islamic State, killed 80 people.

Afghan police and military forces have struggled to maintain security after President Barack Obama declared an end to the US militarys combat role in 2014. American forces now act in an advisory and assistance role, though there have been occasional US-led special operations.

NATO decided in May to extend operations in Afghanistan beyond 2016, and about 9,800 US troops remain in the country.

Earlier this month, Obama announced a change in plans for US troop deployments in Afghanistan, saying 8,400 personnel will remain in the country till next year. Obama had initially planned to cut the US troop presence to 5,500 before he left office at the end of the year.
Former president Asif Ali Zardari has ruled out a nuclear war between Pakistan and India over the Kashmir issue, saying both sides wouldnt risk using an atomic bomb as a weapon of aggression.

You can develop it, you can have it, you can display a photograph of it but nuclear weapons are no joke, Zardari said in an interview with Russia Today channel. He was responding to a question on the possibility of a nuclear clash between the two countries over Kashmir.

Zardari attributed the tensions between Pakistan and India to the situation in Jammu and Kashmir. Look at it from the fact that how many Kashmiris are residing in Pakistan. In fact, our current prime minister is also a Kashmiri, he said.

Its about time for the world to stop pointing fingers at each other and think how we can get rid of this menace.

Zardari, who was president from 2008 to 2013, had declared in November 2008 that Pakistan would not be the first to use nuclear weapons against India. His remarks went against the Pakistani militarys policy for using nuclear weapons and Zardari was forced to change his stance later

He also said during the interview that his Pakistan Peoples Party had criticised Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his family after Sharifs children were named in the Panama Papers leaks.

Sharif had joined hands with Zardari to form a coalition government after the 2008 general election but the two leaders soon fell apart.

Asked to comment about Osama bin Ladens presence near the Pakistan Military Academy in Abbottabad, the town where the al Qaeda leader was killed in 2011, Zardari denied that bin Laden had lived just across from the military institution.

He was living in Abbottabad city, its just like living in any other big city where (we) cant just check every other house, he said.

We dont have as many intelligence resources as the US; still they couldnt catch him (bin Laden) in Afghanistan where they carried out a massive manhunt. Then how come they expected us to locate him in a place where he slipped in despite all available US intelligence?

Talking about US drone strikes inside Pakistan, Zardari said he had repeatedly asked the US to hand over drone technology to Pakistan when he was president.

The effect will be different if we use it instead of the US. Currently we are using F-16s to bomb terrorist hideouts, but we are short on those jets too, he said.

It wont make much of a difference to the US or any other country opposing it if we are given eight or so fighter jets, Zardari said in an apparent reference to Indias opposition to recent US plans to sell eight F-16 jets to Pakistan. The deal fell through after Congress opposed the US governments plan to heavily subsidise the jets.
NEW DELHI: Bangladesh police raided a building in the capital on Tuesday and killed nine suspected militants possibly linked with the banned Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), the countrys police chief said.

One suspect was shot and arrested and was being treated in the state-run Dhaka Medical College Hospital, said inspector general of police A KM Shahidul Haque.

Haque did not name the group the suspects belonged to but said their clothing and other evidence suggested they were members of the JMB, which was blamed for the July 1 attack on a cafe in Dhakas upscale Gulshan area. At least five gunmen killed 20 people, most of them foreign nationals from countries such as Italy, India and Japan, during that attack.

A SWAT team stormed the five-storey building in Kalyanpur, police said, adding a search conducted within the structure after the raid ended at 6.51am.

Earlier, the militants intermittently exchanged fire with police through the night and shouted Allahu Akbar (God is great) as the neighbourhood was sealed off by hundreds of heavily armed policemen and personnel from the elite Rapid Action Battalion, officials said.

The Daily Star newspaper reported the arrested man had been identified as Hasan and hailed from northern Bogra district.

He reportedly told doctors at DhakaMedical College Hospital, where he was being treated for bullet injuries, that he used to cook for the nine other men living in the building.

Dhaka Metropolitan Police commissioner Asaduzzaman Mia told a news conference that primary evidence suggested the dead militants belonged to the group that was behind the July 1 attack on Holey Artisan Bakery.

The dead men were aged between 20 and 25 years. Their photographs have been taken. We are working to identify them, Mia said.

He described the operation as successful and said police recovered revolvers, 23 grenades, five kg of explosives, knives, a sword and two black flags.
KABUL: The Islamic State is threatening more attacks against Afghanistans Hazara minority after Saturdays suicide blasts in Kabul that killed 80 people, pledging to retaliate against support by some in the mainly Shia group for the Assad regime in Syria. But assessing the threat from Daesh, as Islamic State is known in Afghanistan, is difficult. Some question whether it was really responsible for Saturdays blasts and some officials ask whether the ultra-radical Sunni movement, hitherto largely confined to an area near the border with Pakistan, poses a wider challenge.

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LONDON: Major Gen (retired) Ian Cardozo, a hero of the 1971 war that led to the creation of Bangladesh, paid tribute to BBCs coverage of the hostilities on Monday but recalled its one mistake that benefited India in taking on Pakistani forces.

At the time, Cardozo was a major in a 5 Gorkha Rifles battalion, comprising about 750 soldiers, that was tasked with capturing Atgram near Sylhet.

It was short of artillery and food supplies, but ultimately managed the surrender of two Pakistan Army brigades, including three brigadiers, a colonel,107 officers, 219 JCOs and 7,000 troops in one of the most incredible successes of the war.

Speaking at a book release event here, he said: Today I would like to use this platform to pay tributes to the BBC. They were the only reliable broadcasting station at that time, giving news as it happened. The Indian Army had nothing to hide, so the British war correspondents were going along with our troops.

They were reporting minute-to-minute the progress of the battle. But they made a mistake. They announced that a brigade of Gurkhas had landed at Sylhet. We heard it, as well as the Pakistanis. So we decided to pretend that we were a brigade.

Taking advantage of the misinformation, Cardozos battalion built on small victories and created a situation where the Pakistani troops offered to surrender on December 15, 1971. Until it happened, Cardozo and others believed a Pakistani brigade was in the area, but they were surprised to discover the final number was more than twice the strength of a brigade.

One of the most decorated officers of the Indian Army, Cardozo recalled the vital operation to capture Sylhet during a packed invitation-only event to celebrate the life of Lt Gen FN Bilimoria, former head of the central command and father of K ar an Bili moria, a member of the House of Lords. Cardozo, acontemporary of Lt Gen Bilimoria, penned the book Lieutenant General Bilimoria: His Life and Times, which was recently presented to Indian Army chief Gen Dalbir Singh in New Delhi.

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PHILADELPHIA: Michelle Obama was classy, inspirational and moving. Elizabeth Warren was spunky as always and others were effective. But it was Bernie Sanders who delivered, or tried to.

He gave Hillary Clinton his endorsement, his blessings and, hopefully, for the Clinton campaign, his supporters, ending talk of him using the Democratic convention to resurrect his campaign.

It is no secret that Hillary Clinton and I disagree on a number of issues, Sanders said, addressing his supporters at the convention, some of whom had tears in their eyes.

But, he assured them, Clinton was his candidate now, who agreed - he said repeatedly - with his ideas and would be a trusted surrogate of the revolution they had started.

What we have done together is unprecedented, butourfightis not done, said the senator from Vermont, who has made the word revolution trendy in a typically American way.

Sanders endorsed Clinton a while ago, but his supporters hadn t and they dragged that battle to the floor of the convention, hoping to kick some life into it.

They chanted Bernie, Bernie as they had at his rallies, wore T-shirts blithely warning, Feel the Bern, and booed speakers pitching Clinton, yelling, She stole the nomination.

Refusing to accept Sanders exit. some of them said they still believe he can get the nomination in the call of rollsa count of delegates on the floor of the convention on Tuesday.

Robin Savage, a Montana woman who ducked into a church offering protestors rest and respite downtown, told Hindustan Times she believed something was afoot.

There is going to be a contested convention, she said, tucking back a clutch of sweatdrenched hair under her hatit was a hot and humid afternoon, and Bernie will get the nomination. But hasnt he already conceded, and asked his supporters to support and vote for Clinton? Oh, we have been told, Savage said, dropping her voice, to ignore him and what he is saying.

Seriously? Yes, she said, Bernie( to his supporters, Sanders is always Bernie and Clinton is always Hillary) is saying things he has to but that s not how things will turn out.

Their obstinacy, however, had begun to irritate Democratic leaders and even Sanders surrogates, who were urging them to take the blow, let off some steam and move on.

Sarah Silverman, a comedian who backed Sanders, had some tough words for fellow Bernie backers to Bernie or bust people( I say ) you are being ridiculous . Perhaps they were. And they stared back, sullenly.

PaulSimon, who backed Clinton (Art Garfunkel supported Sanders) evensangtothem the iconic Bridge Over Troubled Water.

The catcalls and boos quietened down during Michelle Obamas electrifying speech  she has a temper, they remembered  that drove many delegates to tears.
SAINT-ETIENNE-DU-ROUVRAY: The Islamic State group said on Tuesday that two of itssoldiers had attacked a French church, slitting a priests throat in a country stunned by a series of jihadist attacks.

The host age drama in the Normandy town of Saint-Etiennedu-Rouvray comes with France already shaken to the core after a massacre in the French Riviera city of Nice less than two weeks ago, which left 84 people dead and was also claimed by IS.

President Francois Hollande said the two men who stormed a church before killing the elderly Catholic priest had claimed allegiance to the Islamic State group before being shot dead by police.

Shortly afterwards the IS-linked Amaq news agency, citing a security source, said the perpetrators were soldiers of the Islamic State who carried out the attack in response to calls to target countries of the Crusader coalition.

The two attackers stormed the church during morning mass, taking the five people inside hostage, including the priest, interior ministry spokesman Pierre Henry Brandet said.

He said the church was surrounded by polite from the elite BRI unit, which specialises in kidnappings, and that the two assailants came out and were killed by police.

The priest died after his throat was slit, sources close to the investigation said.

The archbishop of the nearby city of Rouen, Dominique Lebrun, named him as 84-year-old Jacques Hamel, although the website of the archdiocese states he was born in 1930.

Three of the hostages were freed unharmed, and another was fighting for their life, said Brandet.

Hollande appealed for unity in France, wherepolitical blametrading has poisoned the aftermath of the truck attack, the third major strike in the country in 18 months.
CILACAP: A group of drug convicts including foreigners will face the firing squad in Indonesia this week after authorities on Tuesday gave notice of their executions, a diplomat said, despite protests from governments and rights groups. Syed Zahid Raza, the deputy Pakistani ambassador in Jakarta, said the convicts, who include a Pakistani, could be executed around midnight Friday after officials signalled the start of a 72-hour notice period at a meeting with diplomats Nationals from Pakistan, India, Nigeria and Zimbabwe are expected to be executed.

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TOKYO: A knife-wielding man stabbed and killed 19 people as they slept at a facility for the disabled in a town near Tokyo early on Tuesday, a senior government official said, Japans worst mass killing in decades.

At least 25 other residents of the facility were wounded in the attack .This is a very heartwrenching and shocking incident in which many innocent people became victims, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a scheduled news conference in Tokyo.

Police have arrested Satoshi Uematsu, 26, a former employee at the facility in Sagamihara town in Kanagawa Prefecture, about 25 miles (40km) south west of Tokyo, a Kanagawa official said. At least one media report said Uematsu had called for euthanasia of the severely disabled.

Uematsu had turned himself in, the Kanagawa prefecture official, identified only by his surname of Sakuma, told an earlier news conference carried on public broadcaster NHK.

Another 25 people were wounded, 20 of them seriously, Sakuma said. Kyodo news agency said the dead ranged in age from 19 to 70 and included nine males and 10 females.

Earlier media reports had said as many as 45 people had been wounded.

Staff called police at 2.30 am local time (1730 GMT Monday) with reports of a man armed with a knife on the grounds of the Tsukui Yamayuri-En facility, media reported.

The 7.6-acre facility, established by the local government and nestled on the wooded bank of theSagami River, cares for people with a wide range of disabilities, NHK said, quoting an unidentified employee.
KABUL: An Afghan official says a military offensive has been launched against the Islamic State group in the countrys far eastern region. Dawlat Waziri, spokesman for the defence ministry, said on Tuesday that the offensive began over the weekend in Nangarhar province, bordering Pakistan. It started hours after an IS suicide bomber killed at least 80 people who were taking part in a peaceful demonstration in Kabul on Saturday.

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ISLAMABAD: Pakistani police said on Tuesday they were investigating the murder of a British-Pakistani woman whose husband has accused her family of killing her to protect its honour.

Mukhtar Kazim filed a complaint with police at Jhelum in Punjab province that alleged his wife, 28-year-old Samia Shahid, was the victim of an honour killing in her familys village last week.The couple had been married for two years and were living in Dubai. Samia was a beauty therapist from Bradford.

Kazim said in his first information report( FIR) he suspected that Samias family had killed her because she married without their consent. Samias parents have insisted she died of natural causes and her father told media he did not want an investigation.

Mohammad Aqeel Abbas, the station house officer for Jhelum district who is investigating the case, said an autopsy was carried out immediately after Samia died. She was then buried in the village graveyard. There were no visible injuries or signs of violence on her body, he said.

A Foreign Office spokesman confirmed Samias death and said: We are providing support to the family of a British national who has died in Pakistan, and are in contact with the local authorities to seek further information.

According to news reports, Kazim said Samiaflewto Islamabad on July 14 after she was told that a relative was gravely ill in Pakistan.

Samia was due to return last Thursday, but Kazam said one of her cousins called him on Wednesday and said she had died of a heart attack.
WASHINGTON: Two women will soon be the first female soldiers to undergo training to become members of the Green Berets, the US Armys special forces, the military said on Monday. They are the first two women who have been selected for special forces assessment following the elimination of the ban on women in combat roles, said Major Melody Faulkenberry, a spokeswoman for the US Army John F Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School. She did not give details.

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When Robert E. Lee met with Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox, Virginia, on the momentous morning of April 9, 1865, the Union commander insisted on introducing his staff members to Lee individually. The Rebel leader, ever courteous, shook each mans hand. Among the men in Grants entourage was Lieutenant Colonel Ely Parker, a Seneca Indian. Lee hesitated upon meeting the swarthy Parker, apparently mistaking him for a freedman or mulatto; however, he quickly realized his error, extending his hand to Parker with the gracious comment, I am glad to see one real American here. Parker accepted the proffered handshake, responding, We are all Americans.

After exchanging small talk, the two commanders began the arduous business of drafting the articles of surrender for the Confederate Army. Among his other duties, the 37-year-old Parker served as one of Grants military secretaries. Once the generals had agreed on conditions, Parker was directed to copy the articles of surrender into a manifold book, a bound pamphlet in which multiple copies could be produced through the use of carbon-paper inserts. This done, he passed the book to Colonel Theodore Bowers, another of Grants aides, who was to prepare the final copy in ink for the commanding generals signatures. Bowers, however, was so unnerved by the magnitude of the occasion that he was forced to leave the task to the unflappable Parker, who quickly produced the copy in his graceful hand.

When the document was complete, Lee examined it briefly, then had an aide draft a short letter accepting the terms. Grant accepted the letter unopened, and the surrender was complete. Parker casually put a copy of Grants original draft in his jacket pocket. Later, signed by President Grant, who attested to the documents authenticity, it became a favorite heirloom of the Parker family.

Although Ely Parker is best known for his role in drafting the terms of surrender that ended the Civil War, his lifes work was far greater than that single act. This one real American, as General Lee referred to him, was born destined for greatness, or so it had been prophesied. In 1828, four months before his birth at the Tonawanda Seneca reservation in Indian Falls, N.Y., Parkers mother had an unsettling dream in which she beheld a broken rainbow reaching from the home of Indian agent Erastus Granger, in Buffalo, to the reservation. Troubled, Elizabeth Johnson Parker (known to her people as Gaontguttwus) visited a Seneca dream interpreter in an attempt to better understand what she had seen. His translation of her vision was nothing less than spectacular. The dream interpreter told Parker: A son will be born to you who will be distinguished among his nation as a peacemaker; he will become a white man as well as an Indian, with great learning; he will be a warrior for the palefaces; he will be a wise white man, but will never desert his Indian people or lay down his horns as a great Iroquois chief; his name will reach from the East to the Westthe North to the South, as great among his Indian family and the palefaces. His sun will rise on Indian land and set on the white mans land. Yet the land of his ancestors will fold him in death.

As it happened, the prophesy came true.

Hasanoanda, or Leading Name, was born in 1828 to Elizabeth Parker and her husband, William, also known as Jonoestowa (Dragon Fly). Shortly thereafter he was bequeathed an English name, Ely Samuel Parker. He acquired his unusual first name (pronounced not Ee-lye but Ee-lee) from a Baptist missionary, Elder Ely Stone. His surname had been acquired by his grandfather, in honor of a captured British officer eventually adopted into the tribe.

Young Ely was educated at Elder Stones Baptist school early in life, but little of this introductory education stuck; even his attempts to learn English failed. After his initial schooling, Parker was sent to an Iroquois settlement in Ontario to learn woodcraft. There he remained from ages 10 to 13, when homesickness led him to strike out for his familys home in New York. An incident on the way, in which he was ridiculed by British officers because of his poor grasp of English, hardened his resolve to learn the foreign language and the inscrutable ways of his peoples conquerors.

Parker returned to the Baptist school, where his diligence and intelligence eventually won him tuition-free admission to Yates Academy, a noted school in nearby Orleans County. There he quickly mastered the English language in both its spoken and written forms, and became noted for his oratorical abilities. His stay at Yates Academy was a busy one: He had an active social life, and at various times was called upon by his tribal elders to represent the reservation in Washington regarding several treaty disputes with the United States government. Involved in these disputes from the age of 15, Parker acquitted himself well against a variety of miscreants who were attempting to use two illicit treaties, signed by puppet chiefs in 1838 and 1842, to take the Senecas lands. He so impressed Washington society that he was invited to dine with President and Mrs. James K. Polk at the White House when he was only 18 years old.

Two years earlier, a chance encounter with noted anthropologist Lewis Henry Morgan led to Parkers collaboration on the landmark 1851 treatise League of the Ho-de-no-sau-nee, or Iroquois, widely recognized as the first scientific study of an Indian people ever published. Parker and his family supplied Morgan with much of his information, and in the frontispiece of the book Morgan acknowledged his debt with the inscription: To Ha-sa-no-an-da (Ely S. Parker), A Seneca Indian, this work, the materials of which are the fruit of our joint researches, is inscribed: in acknowledgement of the obligations, and in testimony of the friendship of the author.

Later, with Morgans help, Parker matriculated in the prestigious Cayuga Academy in Aurora, Ontario. His stay was mostly a pleasant one; again he was socially active and became involved in the schools debate club, which stimulated his interest in the law. An attempt to get into Harvard in 1847 failed. Undeterred, Parker became a law student under district attorney and Indian subagent William P. Angel in Ellicottville, N.Y. Parkers career as a lawyer was unfor-tunately curtailed when his patron fell out of favor with the ruling Democratic Party; shortly thereafter, Parker was declared ineligible for the bar because he was not an American citizen. But despite being shunned by the legal community, Parker did find a place in society where he was welcome throughout his life. In 1847, Parker became a member of the Batavia Lodge Number 88, and remained a Mason until the day he died.

Following his thwarted attempts to practice law, Parker elected instead to become an engineer. He may have briefly attended Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, acquiring an education in civil engineering; however, the school has no record of his attendance, and the story may be apocryphal. Whatever the case, in 1849 Parker accepted an engineering position on the nearby Genesee River. He began as second assistant engineer in a project to extend the Genesee Valley Canal toward the Allegheny River; in 1851 he was promoted to first assistant engineer, a position he would hold for four years. During this time, he also worked on improvements to the Erie Canal.

Also in 1851, the Iroquois bestowed upon Parker their greatest honor in recognition of his tireless service: He became Grand Sachem of the Six Nations, and was asked to serve as mentor and intermediary for his people. With this title the 23-year-old also acquired the sacred name of Donehogawa, Keeper of the Western Door of the Iroquois Longhouse. In 1853, the governor of New York formally recognized Parker as the chief representative of the Iroquois confederacy, and the state government treated him as the head chief in any dealings with the confederacy.

The next few years were busy ones in both the worlds that Ely Parker served. The Seneca kept him active in his ceremonial and secular duties, requiring him to go to Washington and to the New York Legislature numerous times to argue their case in ongoing treaty negotiations. His success was limited, but his efforts enabled the Tonawanda Seneca to eventually save three-fifths of their reservation from the Federal government. For this feat, Parker was awarded 50 acres to add to his personal farm.

Parkers star continued to rise in the white mans world as well. He assumed the mantle of Knight Templar in the Royal Arch of the Masonic Order, became a captain of engineers in the 54th Regiment of the New York state militia, and rose rapidly through the states engineering ranks. Parker was highly regarded for his capabilities in the construction of levees, buildings and canals, and in 1857 he was appointed superintendent of lighthouse construction on the upper Great Lakes.

Shortly after arriving at his new posting in Detroit, however, Parker was reassigned to supervise the construction of a customhouse and marine hospital in Galena, Ill. His stay there was brief, as he was simultaneously assigned to the construction of similar facilities in Dubuque, Iowa, and made his home there. Nevertheless, he was obliged both by government and Masonic business to visit Galena often. It was there, in 1860, that he struck up a lifelong friendship with a down-and-out former Army officer and harness store clerk, one Hiram Ulysses Grantthe same man who, due to a clerical error at West Point, would become known to history as Ulysses S. Grant.

In early 1861, Parker, like his legal mentor before him, ran afoul of the political machine running New York. It became known that he had backed Stephen Douglas in his failed bid against Abraham Lincoln in the presidential election of 1860, and had even stumped for Douglas throughout the state. The newly installed Republican state Legislature moved to discharge Parker from his position and to appoint in his place a less competent but more politically acceptable engineer. Disgusted, Parker went home to Tonawanda and vowed to never again hold any public position.

Then Confederate gunners fired on Fort Sumter in April 1861, and Parker and his brethren were embroiled in the Civil War. Following the lead of his friend Grant, he attempted to join the Union Army. In mid-1861, he went to Albany and offered to raise a volunteer regiment of Iroquois to fight for the Union. He was flatly refused; the governor made it clear that Indians were not wanted in the New York Volunteers. Later, Parker offered his services to the Federal government as an engineer; again he was rebuffed. Secretary of State William Seward put it to him bluntly: The fight must be settled by the white men alone. Go home, cultivate your farm, and we will settle our troubles without any Indian aid. Dispirited, Parker returned home, where for two years he tended his crops, busied himself in Masonic and Seneca activities, and worked behind the scenes to obtain a commission in the Union Army.

In 1863, after slicing through miles of red tape, engineer-hungry Grant fulfilled Parkers wish, and Parker was breveted as a captain of engineers in the U.S. Army. Although according to Iroquois custom no Grand Sachem could go to war and retain his tribal title, a special dispensation was made for the honored Donehogawa, as this was not a war against another tribe, but between white men.

Beginning as an assistant adjutant general in Brig. Gen. J.E. Smiths division at Vicksburg, Miss., Parker quickly worked his way up the ladder, proving himself as capable at directing volunteer soldiers as he had been at engineering, public speaking and lobbying for his people. He served with distinction at Grants side at Vicksburg, and by mid-1864 had been placed on Grants personal staff, where he served as the commanders de facto personal military secretary. This position was made official in August 1864, when Parker replaced Lt. Col. William Rowley, a longtime colleague of General Grants who was forced to retire due to ill health. The promotion brought with it the rank of lieutenant colonel, which, in the view of New York Herald correspondent Sylvanus Cadwallader, was merely a partial reward for invaluable services.

Much was made of Grants Indian, as Parker inevitably came to be called. He was something apart from the normal officer, a physically imposing man who, though just 5 feet 8, packed some 200 pounds on a broad-shouldered, well-proportioned frame. His stern countenancehighlighted by a swarthy complexion, drooping mustache, hooded but piercing black eyes and a broad, arched nosewas belied by his nature, which one observer called gentle and kind as a womans. Fluent in English, he spoke with the peculiar intonation of a man whose mother language did not require the use of the lower lip. He was recognized to be fiercely strong and extraordinarily intelligent, two hundred pounds of encyclopedia, one of his Army friends called him. Soft-spoken and polite, he was a positive contribution to Grants inner circle. During his service in the war, he struck up numerous friendships with such major figures as Abraham Lincoln and Mathew Brady, the famous photographer.

Parkers selection to draft the surrender papers at Appomattox was a just recognition of his exquisite penmanship and skill with the English language. After joining Grants staff, he took care of most of the generals personal papers. Once Grant had drafted each days orders and correspondence (pushing the papers off the table and onto the floor of the tent as he wrote, to the amazement of his visitors), he would sort them all into a tidy pile and hand them to Parker, who would then make copies as necessary. He typically signed his generals orders By Command of Lieut. Gen. Grant, E.S. Parker, Asst. Adjt Genl, in a clear, elegant hand much beloved by his superiors.

The drafting of the articles of surrender, literally Parkers last act in the war, was unquestionably the crowning moment of his military career, and one of the highlights of his life as well. Certainly it provided him with much currency (social and otherwise) later in life. However, the U.S. military wasnt finished with Parker, or he with it. He stayed on as a member of Grants staff until 1869, eventually rising to the rank of brigadier general. During his postwar service, Parker occasionally toured military facilities in the occupied South, making recommendations on where he thought the Army could safely cut costs, close facilities and muster out its troops.

Most of Parkers time, however, was spent as an emissary to Indian tribes in the West. He traveled constantly, especially in Oklahoma and on the Plains, settling differences resulting both from the turbulence of the war and from the nations notoriously corrupt Indian policy. He was popular among other Indians, who were gratified that the politicians in Washington would send another Indian to treat with them. Parkers experiences out West prompted him to submit to the government a four-point plan for establishing a permanent peace with the native Americans, one in which all dealings would be fair and aboveboard. His plan was well received by his superiors, and much of it consequently was adopted as national policy. Ironically, it would later come back to haunt him.

In 1867, Parker finally married. His bride was a young Washington socialite, Minnie Orton Sackett. She was white, the stepdaughter of Lt. Col. William Sackett, a New York Volunteer killed at Trevilian Station in June 1864. They were married on Christmas Eve; Grant stood as best man and gave the bride away in the absence of her father. The mixed marriage caused something of a stir in Washington society, however, and the couple was maltreated on more than one occasion by less-enlightened contemporaries.

The presidential election of 1868 brought an abrupt change in Parkers career. In November of that year, Civil War hero Lt. Gen. Grant became President-elect Grant, and he soon brought his friends with him into the White House. Parker was appointed commissioner of Indian Affairs, based on his previous experience and on the assumption that no one was better qualified to helm the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA). Thus Parker became the first Indian to hold the office. On April 26, 1869, after being confirmed by Congress, Parker resigned his Army commission and took his place as head of the BIA. His two-year reign was a tempestuous one; he was too honest, too interested in the cause of justice for his own race, for it to be otherwise.

Parkers first act was to sweep his agency clean of its entrenched bureaucracy, which was dominated by unscrupulous Indian agents who all too often sold their clients supplies and pocketed the profits. This was the established way of doing business in the BIA. Not all the agents were guilty, but enough were to tarnish the agencys reputation. It was just such corruption that had decimated the Cherokee as they passed along the Trail of Tears in the 1830s.

Parker set out to change all that. Following the plan he had previously formulated in his postwar days, he cleared the BIA of the old civilian agents and replaced them with reputable Army personnel and Quakers, whom he believed would be less corruptible. Although Parker was somewhat naive in this belief, his actions did serve to quell much of the wheeling and dealing going on at the Indians expense. But his changes to the system inevitably earned him powerful enemies who were determined to break him politically.

In the end, it was one of Parkers own commissioners, a man he had trusted as a friend, who brought him down. William Welsh was a Philadelphia merchant who headed the Board of Indian Commissioners, a body that had been formed at Parkers recommendation before he left the Army. Variously described as a Quaker and an Episcopalian, Welsh was a pugnacious Indian missionary who placed the blame for all the corruption in the BIA on the shoulders of Ely Parker, whom he considered but a remove from barbarism.

In the summer of 1870, Parker toured the American West and personally examined the Indian situation there. It soon became obvious that food shortages along the Missouri River were leading to short tempers on the reservations. In order to keep the Indians on their reservations and away from dangerous confrontations with white settlers, it was necessary to feed themand quickly. As the governor of the Dakota Territory told Parker, We must feed or fight the Indians in this superintendency.

Unfortunately, Parkers enemies in Congress conspired to delay the appropriations necessary to quickly purchase the needed supplies. In order to forestall Indian attempts to break away from the reservations to fend for themselves, Parker found it necessary to go outside proper channels in order to acquire urgently needed supplies for the desperate Indians. He broke some minor rules in making arrangements on the spot with a local contractor, but in the end probably averted a new Indian war.

Nevertheless, Parkers actions, which were mild compared to what had transpired before he had taken office, were enough for Welsh and his followers to press charges of fraud against the commissioner. In December 1870, Welsh forwarded a letter to Secretary of the Interior Columbus Delano, charging that a few adroit manipulations on contracts and purchases have made at least $250,000 for Parker and his contractor. Parker was also implicitly blamed for all that was wrong with the bureau, despite the fact that much of the trouble had started long before he had taken over as head of the BIA. Parkers real crime lay in bypassing the Board of Commissioners and ignoring their suggestionswhich by law he had every right to do, especially in an emergency situation.

Welshs letter was published in the Washington newspapers, and immediately instigated a sensational backlash against the charming head of the BIA. In February, Parker was called before the House of Representatives to answer Welshs charges. After a lengthy hearing that stretched into July, he was exonerated of any wrongdoing, and was even complimented for averting a major Indian war that might have cost the Treasury millions of dollars to extinguish. However, in its subsequent report, the committee berated Parker for not consulting the Board of Indian Commissioners in this and other matters, and at Welshs insistence Congress quickly passed a law that required Parker to consult the board on all matters, in effect relegating him to a figurehead role.

This was too much for the proud Seneca to bear. After several months of soul-searching and testing the new limits of his power, Parker resigned from his position. Although he publicly stated that he was leaving voluntarily to go into business, he privately told his friends that he had resigned because he had become a rock of offense for the administration. He was also hurt by Grants lack of support, as the president had distanced himself from Parker during the course of the proceedings, lest his administration be tarnished with yet another taint of scandal. Ironically, Parker was probably the most honest of Grants appointeesthe real scandals were yet to come.

Despite his ignominious downfall, Parkers accomplishments as head of the BIA were significant. He engineered a peace policy with the Indians for which Grant was to become famous, and he managed to root out (at least temporarily) much of the rot within the system. Furthermore, the simple fact of his being an Indian impressed the tribes under his care and put them at their ease. In addition, he put an end to the treaty-making policy of previous administrations, which had always been strictly to the advantage of the whites. And he could boast that, although some violence had occurred during his tenure, there had been no Indian wars during the two years he was in office. Although his contemporaries were less than fair to him, history has treated Commissioner Parker kindly.

After he left government service, Parker moved to Wall Street and proceeded to make a fortune on the stock market; he lost it just as quickly in the market troubles of 18731875. Thereafter, he made an attempt to re-enter the profession of civil engineering, but found to his dismay that it had run away from him during his absence. In 1876, he was forced to take a low-paying job as a clerk in the New York City police department. But Parker still managed to stay active in the militia, various military societies and the Masons, achieving high rank within each organization. Likewise, he and his wife were well respected in New York social circles.

Their only child, a daughter, was born during this less-than-affluent period. Maud Theresa Parker was an engaging little tomboy who was proud of her Indian heritage, and whom Parker fondly referred to as Ahweheeyo, or Beautiful Flower, in his native tongue. She eventually married Arthur Bullard, a member of one of the more prominent old Massachusetts families.

Plagued by strokes and diabetes in his last years, Parker died on August 30, 1895, at his country house in Fairfield, Conn. He was buried with full military honors and much fanfare at Oak Lawn Cemetery in Fairfield. In 1897, he was reinterred next to the remains of his famous ancestor, the Seneca orator Red Jacket, at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Buffalo, N.Y. This cemetery, which was located much closer to the Tonawanda Reservation, had once been part of the old Granger farmultimately fulfilling his mothers prophetic dream. After successfully carving niches for himself in two dissimilar worlds, Grand Sachem General Ely Parker was at last laid to rest within the comforting bosom of his ancestral homeland.

This article was written by Floyd B. Largent, Jr. and originally appeared in Americas Civil War magazine.

For more great articles be sure to subscribe to Americas Civil War magazine today!
This is something I find myself saying almost every day now. Senior hotel managers must understand technology or they're dead! And for good reason, technology will save your property if you are smart about it.

And so, this brings us to late June in New Orleans, Louisiana for HITEC 2016 to learn about the latest and greatest in hospitality technology. While the evenings would find my stomach hungering for crayfish remoulade and Cajun-spiced gumbo, my two days at the eponymous tradeshow were a flurry of amazing new devices and software that can help hotels solve their business needs.

Unlike previous years where I came in with fresh eyes, this time I attacked HITEC with a singular purpose. I wanted to know specifically how each product or company would help alleviate problems associated with OTA dependency and the proliferation of alternate lodging providers. Several dozen interviews later, I am eager to share six companies with you that I see as viable candidates for helping you drive online direct bookings and improving the onsite guest experience.

To inject a little fun, I've organized these in an awards show presentation. And please keep in mind that these are the six that piqued my interest, although there are lessons to be learned from every single exhibitor. The vendors at HITEC really are the smartest people in the room, and I would encourage you to attend next year in my hometown of Toronto.

Best First Timer: CrowdRiff

New to the show and with unmistakable innocence on their faces, the company's founders were nevertheless in fine form as they debuted their intriguing platform that pulls images from social media and embeds them onto website landing pages. Rather than pay for expensive photoshoots with retouched models and overly staged settings, CrowdRiff lets you tap into any social network to source compelling visual content for your site as well as switch out any of these photos or videos from an intuitive content management system. I'm a big fan of local, authentic experiences, and this platform allows a brand.com to showcase just that.

Strange Attractor: Novility

A strange award for an unorthodox usage of technology, this promising Dutch startup uses motion capture to record and retrain housekeepers on proper etiquette and mannerisms to guests heighten efficiency and improve their interactions with. Although they have plans to extend their product to all types of frontline staff, the initial focus is on this critical back-of-house operation. In other words, it's Microsoft Kinect for your housekeeping team, with the added benefit of boosting accountability, reducing hours devoted to direct oversight or training and, above all, augmenting online reviews by making room cleanliness a non-issue.

Best Sleeper Product: b4easypost by b4checkin

A quaint ten-by-ten booth with a modest spread of brochures and small lizard keepsakes to advertise their premier booking engine platform couldn't hide the fact that this tech startup has developed an industry first for online credit card payments. The b4easypost product is PCI compliant and has already been fully vetted a select group of hotels across the southern states. By helping eliminate manual authorization forms, this software bolt-on will all but eliminate human error during credit card processing while simultaneously heightening security and adding new data points to guest profiles.

Environmental Award: EcoSmart by Telkonet

While the last few years have seen the rise of smart thermostats to augment energy efficiency, the next couple will see the elimination of thermostats altogether. That is, why have a separate wall-mounted device when such functionality can be easily controlled via your television and universal remote control. Not only has Telkonet developed a fluid software interface for a smartscreen near you, but all preferences are also saved and added to that guest's profile, meaning that those exact conditions can be instantly replicated for any future stay and deployed well in advance of the customer's arrival onsite.

Most Improved Player: Kaptivating

I stumbled across these guys last year with their barebones, last-minute cubicle being manned by the president, CTO and owner. Normally such a paltry effort would only yield a cursory glance, but the product was beyond clever. By using their targeted algorithms, hotels can send real-time offers to potential customers through social media, effectively circumnavigating OTA channels and any inscribed rate parity contracts. Fast forward 12 months and Kaptivating lives up to its namesake, commanding a booth four times the size with impressive displays and a full sales force. I thought the product was genius at Austin in 2015, and indeed by the time I once again rolled by in New Orleans they looked the part and were more than ready to scale.

Best in Show: Samsung

Yes, I went with a juggernaut here, but for good reason. While UltraHD and 4K are still in their infancy on the price and content side, Samsung has moved beyond mere pixel quality upgrades as they now pose the question: how can we use screens to change the way people interact with a physical space? Rather than plop down an oversized yet standardized tradeshow kiosk, Samsung constructed a bespoke mini-hotel for hoteliers to highlight how their plethora of smartscreens are changing not only the in-room guest experience, but also back-of-house controls and all manners of interior or exterior design.

Interactive bathroom mirrors, bedroom televisions with seamless device casting functionality, see-through screens perfect as partial wall dividers, weather-proof outdoor displays and Tetris-like multi-screen wall art are just a taste of what they are offering to help usher hotels into the 21st century. My key observation from my guided tour of Samsung's booth is that these sorts of impressive smartscreen upgrades are near-impossible to replicate by independent Airbnb hosts. Yes, such futuristic televisions and monitors represent a hearty capex, but they represent a decisive way to visually differentiate your property and inject new life into a weary environment.

Larry Mogelonsky

Hotel Mogel Consulting Limited

View source
Bangkok -- Dusit International announces the opening of its new chic mountain resort dusitD2 Khao Yai on 2 August 2016.

Located on the fringe of Thailand's famed Khao Yai National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site just a two-hour drive from central Bangkok, dusitD2 Khao Yai provides the perfect springboard to a host of adventures such as hiking, rock climbing, canoeing, biking, and feeding alpacas. The pet-friendly hotel is perfect for families. The outdoor swimming pool lets guests take in the incredible views of the surrounds while state-of-the-art indoor & outdoor function space can cater to different events from high-level meetings to intimate social occasions.

dusitD2 Khao Yai is the latest addition to Dusit's D2 collection, the chain's "next generation" brand that caters to today's international travellers seeking cutting-edge design, high-tech connectivity and efficient, modern convenience in environments that are contemporary, colourful and chic. This concept is brought to life through dusitD2 Khao Yai's interior design, with its creative and striking artworks on display throughout public areas, the plug n' play facilities in each of its stylish 79 guest rooms and suites, and even in the inventive cuisine available at its stunning international restaurant, Musi Grill. Cocoon, a unique treetop dining pod which provides a bird's-eye view of the resort and surrounding mountain range, is one of the resort's unique features.

Expressing her confidence in the management and hospitality expertise of Dusit, Ms. Oraphan Laoprapassorn, President of Vilailux Development Co., Ltd. said, "We are delighted to announce the soft opening of the dusitD2 Khao Yai. This unique hotel raises the bar in terms of quality, service and innovation, and serves as a great example of a collaboration between two companies sharing one vision. We look forward to a long and successful business relationship with Dusit."

"dusitD2 Khao Yai is an exciting addition to our expanding portfolio of hotels," commented General Manager of dusitD2 Khao Yai, Jerome Sim. "Khao Yai is fast becoming one of Thailand's most popular year-round holiday destinations, attracting an ever-increasing number of young, tech-savvy travellers, and dusitD2 Khao Yai is perfectly positioned to meet their needs. We are very much looking forward to welcoming guests to experience our unique facilities and Dusit's signature warm, gracious hospitality."

To mark its opening, dusitD2 Khao Yai is running an introductory special offer 'D2 Debut' priced at just THB2,999++ per night which includes a dining credit of THB900, complimentary rock climbing and other benefits. The offer is available for all guests who stay before 31 October 2016. For more information, please visit www.dusit.com/dusitd2/khaoyai

Gateway to adventure

Khao Yai ("large mountain" in Thai) is a lush, verdant area within the Sankamphaeng mountain range region, just a three-hour drive from central Bangkok. The higher altitudes here  from 350m to 1,350m in Khao Yai National Park, with the highest point at Khao Rom  mean that temperatures are generally lower than in other rural regions outside of the capital. The unique climate also means that Khao Yai is perfect for experiencing the Thai outdoors in a different way.

Hiking, rock climbing, canoeing and biking are all popular activities here (and can be easily arranged at the hotel). The area's lesser-known food and wine trail is also ripe for exploring. Guests traveling by car can follow a route extending from the town of Pak Chong which will take them past stops including Farm Chokchai (farm tours, ice cream and steaks), Suwan Farm (corn juice, sunflower cookies and boiled sweet corn), Prapatsorn Grape Farm (tamarind juice), GranMonte (several varieties of red and white wines and Thai-international cuisine at Vincotto, its in-house restaurant) and PB Valley (a large winery that offers wine, homemade cookies and other products).

Scattered around the region are little man-made towns and villages that seem to have been plucked out of suburban Europe. At Primo Piazza in Pak Chong District, a Tuscan-style complex, visitors may enjoy relaxing meals at the cafes and restaurants, or seek out nearby grazing sheep, donkeys and alpacas (feeding is allowed). Just a 10-minute drive away, Palio Village, with its own cluster of Tuscan plazas, awaits with quirky shops. There's also Thames Valley, a piece of Khao Yai that resembles the southern English countryside.

About Dusit International

Established in 1948, Dusit International or Dusit Thani Public Company Limited (DUSIT) is a leading hospitality group listed on the Stock Exchange of Thailand. Its operations comprise five distinct yet complementary business units: hotels and resorts, hospitality education, food, property development, and hospitality-related services.

The group's portfolio of hotels, resorts and luxury villas includes more than 300 properties operating under a total of six brands (Dusit Thani, Dusit Devarana, dusitD2, Dusit Princess, ASAI Hotels, and Elite Havens) across 16 countries worldwide. The group also operates culinary schools and hospitality colleges in Thailand, plus catering companies for the education sector in Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam.

Dusit International's diversified investments in real estate development, hospitality-related services, and the food sector are part of its long-term strategy for sustainable growth, which focuses on three key areas: balance, expansion and diversification.

For more information, please visit dusit-international.com.

Sureerat Sudpairak

Corporate Manager  Public Relations

+66 (0) 2200 9999 ext. 3321

Dusit
Highlights

Planning permission granted for the Arora Group to develop a new hotel at The Queen's Terminal at London Heathrow

The new 298 bedroom hotel will be the first in the Central Terminal Area

When combined with the new development at London Heathrow Terminal 4  the Crowne Plaza London - Heathrow Terminal 4 and Holiday Inn Express London - Heathrow Terminal 4, means the Group has a significant 1048 new bedrooms in the pipeline in the Heathrow area

Group is in detailed talks regarding potential partnership with leading brands

Part of the Group strategy to focus on larger assets with high revenue potential, building on strategic advantage the region

New jobs creation in the local economy

The Arora Group ("Arora" or the "Group") is pleased to announce that it has been granted planning permission to develop a new hotel at London Heathrow.

The new hotel is part of the ongoing strategy to focus on larger assets with high revenue potential; it has been granted planning permission to develop a new hotel at London Heathrow with direct access to the Queen's Terminal, Terminal 2.

The Arora Group are experts in end-to-end delivery of developments like this, working from the start of the project until opening and beyond. This hotel is another opportunity for the group to utilise its specialist divisions and skill set across the construction, property and hotel development & management arms, exploiting multiple synergies for the group and developing a best in class facility. It will also build on its deep understanding of the area and its construction division, Grove Development's, long-term relationships with local businesses at the development stage.

This new hotel builds on the experience of the group in the region, having announced the development of a new World Business Centre bespoke office building with 85,000sq ft of CAT A office space earlier this year, matching the requirements of its client to the design of the building. It also adds to the Arora Group announcements in the last 6 months regarding the development of two new hotels, directly connected to London Heathrow Terminal 4  the Crowne Plaza London - Heathrow Terminal 4 and Holiday Inn Express London - Heathrow Terminal 4, the purchase of the franchise and the occupational lease of Hilton London Stansted, and the opening of the landmark InterContinental London - The O2.

With these developments and on top of managing 1,000,000 sqft of office space, the Arora Group has 8 hotels and 2,300,000 sqft of hotel property in the UK.

The new hotel, which will have 298 bedrooms, will be directly linked to The Queen's Terminal, Terminal 2, helping to improve passenger experience by giving them instant access to the airport from their doorstep.

It will be the first hotel in the Central Terminal Area which is set to undergo a state of the art transformation as part of a new look Heathrow.

Click here to see what the new Central Terminal Area will look like.

Surinder Arora, Founder and Chairman of the Arora Group said:

"The people at the Arora Group are experts in this kind of development and we proudly bring another hotel to the Heathrow area with a direct connection to the Queen's Terminal, Terminal 2. It will meet the demand of guests for a new hotel a short walk to Terminal 2 and will have 298 bedrooms, a restaurant and bar.

Our team has been working hard across the group to enhance our capabilities in commercial property, construction and asset management areas and with some of our recent deals we will manage circa 1,000,000 sqft of commercial real estate, 3,200 bedrooms, with over 1,000 more in the pipeline and over 1.5 billion of property assets under management."

Stephen Wilkinson, Heathrow Property Director, said:

"This hotel is a further step in Heathrow's strategy to provide the World's best airport facilities and services for our passengers.

The new hotel will be directly linked to Terminal 2, the Queen's Terminal and we are confident it will deliver an amazing experience for hotel guests travelling from Heathrow.

We are proud of our strategic partnership with the Arora Group and this is our second recent terminal-linked hotel development, following the new 750 bed dual hotel at Heathrow's Terminal 4, which is due for completion in 2017."

Arora Group

The Arora Group is a successful UK-focused private group of companies, which leverages synergies across its specialist property, construction and hotel divisions to its strategic advantage. Since 1999, the Group has built its standing through meticulously managing projects from inception to delivery and beyond. Today, it owns and manages a diverse portfolio of flagship assets across the nation's key business locations, partnering with some of the world's most recognised brands to deliver consistently high service levels and sustainable growth. For more information please visit www.thearoragroup.com.

Eleanor Purdon

Senior Consultant, Strategic Communications EMEA

+44 (0)20 3727 1606

Arora Group
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Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts, the worlds leading luxury hospitality company, announces the following appointments and promotions, as it continues to strengthen its operational leadership team. Christian Clerc will assume the role of President of Hotel Operations - Americas, succeeding Chris Hart, who is leaving Four Seasons after a 32-year career with the company. Clerc moves into his new role after spending two years based in Dubai as President, Hotel Operations - Europe, Middle East and Africa. During this time Four Seasons opened several new properties across Europe and Africa including those in Johannesburg, Casablanca, Moscow and Cap-Ferrat, France, and continued to strengthen its presence in the Middle East with key openings in Bahrain, Abu Dhabi and Dubai. Born and educated in Switzerland and a graduate of Ecole hoteliere de Lausanne, Clerc has enjoyed an exemplary 16-year career with Four Seasons. In 2003 he received his first General Manager (GM) assignment in Punta Mita, Mexico and was quickly promoted to Regional Vice President (RVP). Clerc continued his Four Seasons journey with senior operational roles in Chicago and Washington, DC before assuming the role of GM of the iconic Four Seasons Hotel George V, Paris in 2013, while also overseeing properties in Europe and Africa in his capacity as RVP. He was promoted to President, Hotel Operations - Europe, Middle East and Africa in 2014. In his new role Clerc will oversee operations for the companys largest region, which will soon see new properties opening in New York (Downtown), Anguilla and Surfside, Florida. Other upcoming developments in the region include recently announced luxury resorts in Los Cabos and Napa Valley and a property in Sao Paulo, which will mark the companys highly anticipated entry into Brazil.
Hyatt Hotels Corporation (NYSE: H) announced today that a Hyatt affiliate has entered into a management agreement with Vision Developments Inc. for a Hyatt Centric hotel in Carlisle Bay, Barbados. Hyatt Centric Carlisle Bay, Barbados is expected to open in 2019, and will mark the first Hyatt-branded hotel on the island of Barbados. The project will be led by celebrated international firm SB Architects and the hotels interiors will be designed by DAS Concepts.

Hyatt continues to focus on expanding its presence in Latin America and the Caribbean where our loyal guests want to travel. We are thrilled to announce that the Hyatt Centric brand is coming to this vibrant tropical island, and we believe Hyatt Centric Carlisle Bay, Barbados will offer a fresh new option for travelers looking to explore this historic and picturesque destination, said Pat McCudden, senior vice president, capital strategy, real estate and corporate development for Hyatt. The addition of Hyatt Centric Carlisle Bay, Barbados to the brands portfolio allows us to meet the needs of our guests traveling on leisure or business in this important region, added McCudden.

Hyatt Centric Carlisle Bay, Barbados will be ideally located adjacent to the capital city of Bridgetown, allowing guests to easily explore and discover all that Barbados has to offer. The 237-room resort will be situated on almost three acres of waterfront along Carlisle Bays scenic Brownes Beach, one of the largest beaches in Barbados. Carlisle Bay offers numerous shipwreck diving and snorkeling opportunities for guests and locals, as well as renowned reefs and pristine white sand beaches. Guests can also stroll through historic Bridgetown and St. Anns Garrison, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and local hub for social and commercial activity.

Additionally, Hyatt Centric Carlisle Bay, Barbados will feature 32 Hyatt Centric-branded residential condominium units and several world-class dining options such as a signature restaurant, pool bar and grill, and a market style cafe. Other hotel features will include a full- service spa with six treatment rooms, a fitness center, outdoor pool, kids club, beach activities, and 6,135 square feet (570 square meters) of meeting and event space. Guests will also have easy access to Grantley Adams International Airport, located approximately eight miles from the hotel.

Vision Developments is excited to partner with Hyatt to bring the Hyatt Centric brand to Carlisle Bay. We believe this project will serve as a catalyst for the development of many more hotel and real estate projects in the area, continuing Carlisle Bays transformation into a world-class resort destination, said Mark Maloney, director of Vision Developments Inc. Our team will ensure that the natural beauty, culture and heritage of Barbados will be reflected in the design and construction of Hyatt Centric Carlisle Bay, Barbados, and we look forward to working with the government, local regulatory agencies, companies and tradesmen on the island to make this project a success.

The Hyatt Centric brand recently started its global expansion with its first hotel outside the United States opening in June 2016 in Montevideo, Uruguay. Hyatt Centric Carlisle Bay, Barbados marks a significant milestone for the Hyatt Centric brand as the first resort in its portfolio, boosting the brands global visibility in key markets. Additional Hyatt Centric hotels include Hyatt Centric The Loop Chicago (Chicago, Ill.), Hyatt Centric Fishermans Wharf (San Francisco, Calif.), Hyatt Centric Park City (Park City, Utah), Hyatt Centric Santa Barbara (Santa Barbara, Calif.), Hyatt Centric The Pike Long Beach (Long Beach, Calif.), Hyatt Centric South Beach Miami (Miami, Fla.), and Hyatt Centric The Woodlands (Houston, Texas).
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Compared with Q2 2015, the Canadian hotel industrys occupancy was nearly flat (+0.4% to 67.1%). Average daily rate was up 2.5% to CAD146.90. Revenue per available room increased 2.9% to CAD98.62.

The Canadian hotel industry reported positive results in the three key performance metrics for the second quarter of 2016, according to data from STR.

Compared with Q2 2015, the Canadian hotel industrys occupancy was nearly flat (+0.4% to 67.1%). Average daily rate was up 2.5% to CAD146.90. Revenue per available room increased 2.9% to CAD98.62.

Among the provinces, Prince Edward Island recorded the largest year-over-year increases across the three key performance metrics. Occupancy in the province rose 10.0% to 58.7%; ADR was up 6.6% to CAD137.61; and RevPAR grew 17.3% to CAD80.82.

The only other double-digit increase came in Nova Scotia, where RevPAR was up 14.7% to CAD91.63.

Alberta experienced the steepest declines in occupancy (-7.8% to 57.3%) and RevPAR (-11.1% to CAD82.79).

Saskatchewan reported the largest drop in ADR (-4.7% to CAD127.50) and the only other double-digit decline in RevPAR (-10.2% to CAD72.92).

About STR

STR provides clients from multiple market sectors with premium, global data benchmarking, analytics and marketplace insights. Founded in 1985, STR maintains a presence in 10 countries around the world with a corporate North American headquarters in Hendersonville, Tennessee, and an international headquarters in London, England. For more information, please visit str.com.
Queens-based rapper Justin Rose hits us with the premiere of his new mixtape, Water White, which was led by leaks like the Playboi Carti-featured Speedy Gonzales. In a quote via e-mail, Rose spoke on his goal for the mixtape and the concept behind it. Just dont put him in a box.

I wanted Water White to sound like summer nights in NY, which are for the most part pretty fuckin lit. Also, Water White is shows people that Im different from the typical New York rapper or sound and that I cant be put in any one box, the NY native says. With me and babyxwater handling the production, our only goal was to make the waviest mixtape we could put together. To really give people an idea of what it sounds like to be wavy outside of just Max B, or Chinx or French. New York is the wavy city, so if anything I wanted to shed light to a genre of music that my city has been holding down. This is my take on wavy music.

Along with the mixtape, Justin Rose is premiering the music video for the title track, shot by Uber Everywhere director Mike Ellwood. Watch that below and download the tape.
A man is lucky to be alive after a suspect wearing a clown mask pistol-whipped and shot him during a robbery late Tuesday night at an apartment complex in southwest Houston.

The robbery happened about 11:50 p.m. in the 7800 block of Corporate near Langdon, said Lt. Larry Crowson of the Houston Police Department.
The woman whose company has put out a controversial "Mexican American Heritage" textbook says it is "not careless and is certainly not racist."

In an interview with the Houston Chronicle on Tuesday, Cynthia Dunbar said she was saddened by the criticism and defended the work, saying "the last thing in the world that we want this book to do is to promote any kind of negative impression of Mexican-Americans."

Dunbar said she had not agreed to interviews previously because the book is still being vetted by the Texas State Board of Education.

"I never, ever heard of a book in the history of the Texas state board that has been attacked prior to completion," she said. "So the entire process seems a little bit unorthodox."

Mexican-American educators in Houston are urging people to sign a petition against the textbook, which the state board will vote on this fall.

But the book is already on sale, with a hardcover version going for $69 apiece, according to Lupe Mendez, a Mexican-American art teacher at a private school in Houston.

Mendez found out about the price after contacting Dunbar, who is CEO of Virginia-based Momentum Instruction and a former member of the Texas State Board of Education. Mendez and Dunbar traded a series of emails, later obtained by the Chronicle.

Dunbar told the Chronicle that "the book is not technically for sale yet. People can get review copies."

But in the emails, Dunbar told Mendez that he can get copies right away, including a classroom set for 25 students priced at $1,650.

"The final version is not completed," she said. "People can buy it in advance, I suppose, if they wanted it."

'Exploiting a narrative'

Dunbar said that her company is working with experts to clarify or fix anything that needs to be changed, so as to put out a "most excellent book."

Elizabeth Conley/Staff

Mendez criticized Dunbar for not using experts who specialize in Mexican-American history. "She is just seeking to make money on the backs of Mexican-Americans, exploiting a narrative that is not her own," he said.

Dunbar, a Christian conservative who opposes teaching evolution, was elected to the board in 2006. In 2008, while serving on the board, she published the book "One Nation Under God." In it, she described public education as "tyrannical" and said that sending children to public schools is like "throwing them into the enemy's flames, even as the children of Israel threw their children to Moloch."

"Mexican American Heritage" has generated national attention for what critics describe as a flawed and offensive book, which depicts Mexican-Americans as violent and lazy people.

Dunbar told Mendez, via email, that Momentum is also working on a textbook about African-American history.

Agustin Loredo, vice president of the Goose Creek CISD board of trustees, said he found out by communicating with Dunbar that the company also has a book about women in history planned for release by the end of next year.

Mendez and Loredo are Houston members of a coalition reviewing the Mexican American Heritage textbook. The coalition aims to have a detailed report before September, when the SBOE has a scheduled meeting.

The board will hear recommendations from experts and the public before taking a final vote in November, though one board member last week tearfully asked colleagues to reject the textbook. Erika Beltran, a Democratic member from Fort Worth, cited the impact on Hispanic students should they be exposed to the language that appears in the book.

One of the most cited passages describes Chicanos' role during the civil rights movement as people who "adopted a revolutionary narrative that opposed Western civilization and wanted to destroy this society."

Another section says, "industrialists were very driven, competitive men who were always on the clock and continually concerned about efficiency," but, "in contrast, Mexican laborers were not reared to put in a full day's work so vigorously. There was a cultural attitude of 'manana,' or 'tomorrow,' when it came to high-gear production."

Dunbar said the book doesn't promote that image. It was meant to reflect stereotypes that Mexican-Americans had to overcome, she said.

"Personally, I think that every single minority group should have their history told. Being a Native American woman, I know what it is like a lot of times to not have your stories really told," she said. "And the goal of this book was to try to use a lot of original source documents to avoid controversy."

'This is a national issue'

Tony Diaz, host of Nuestra Palabra (Our Word) radio program in Houston and director of intercultural initiatives at Lone Star College-North Harris, said the coalition is concerned that the textbook "is not just a Texas problem; this is a national issue."

Although books listed by the SBOE are not required for school curriculums, Texas is a main player in the textbook business nationwide, and its materials are used as references for acquisitions in the state and around the country.

If "Mexican American Heritage" receives final approval, Diaz said, "schools nationwide would be inadvertently choosing a racist book to teach their students."

Coalition members say Dunbar hijacked the process by using her knowledge of textbook selection to step ahead of true historians, who are working on their own versions. The textbook now being debated is the only one on Mexican-American history ever vetted by the SBOE.

Olivia.Tallet@chron.com

Twitter: @oliviaptallet
The Houston Rural Fire and Department hosted its third annual Poker Run fundraiser last Saturday afternoon.

Houston Rural Fire Chief Don Gaston said more than 40 riders participated, with Houston resident Bruce Foster turning in a straight for the winning hand and $300 top prize.

Gaston said a total of about $5,000 was collected, about $2,400 resulting from a raffle for a Bushmaster AR15 rifle. Close to another $1,000 was collected via an auction of items donated by various area businesses, with local auctioneer Darren Scheets donating his efforts.

All proceeds from the event will go toward rescue equipment.

It was hot, Gaston said. We would have had twice as many riders if it hadnt been so hot. But as far as I could tell, everyone enjoyed themselves. Overall, it was a great success for the fire department and we want to thank everyone who helped us pull it off.

Were already hoping to come back with a bigger and better version next year.
Some Missouri delegates to the Democratic National Convention who supported the presidential campaign of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders remained reluctant Monday to heed his call to now back former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Sanders spoke to his supporters before for the opening of the convention in Philadelphia where Clinton is likely to receive the partys presidential nomination. He was booed by many of his own loyalists when he declared, we have got to elect Hillary Clinton in order to defeat Republican nominee Donald Trump.

It really sucked the energy out of the room, said Brent Welder, a St. Louis attorney who is a Sanders delegate.

Sanders is sticking by his endorsement of Clinton, despite recently leaked emails from the Democratic National Committee that appear to show party leaders favoring Clinton over Sanders during the primary campaign  an assertion long made by many Sanders supporters.

Welder joined in the booing, chanting in reference to Sanders endorsement of Clinton: take it back.

Some other Sanders delegates from Missouri also were displeased, though not all as vocally. Jackson Thompson, a software engineer from St. Charles County, said he refrained from booing the suggestion to support Clinton.

I looked at the person next to me and held my nose, said Thompson, also a Sanders delegate. But he said he would reluctantly support Clinton, only out of necessity to defeat Trump.

But Welder, who organized volunteers for Sanders in Missouri and previously worked on the presidential campaigns of Barack Obama and John Kerry, said he isnt yet ready to support Clinton. He pointed to the party emails posted by WikiLeaks as evidence of a rigged political system against Sanders.

We now have proof and documentation that the fix was in during this entire election, Welder said.

Welder said he hopes superdelegates, who are not bound to any particular candidate, will still shift their support to Sanders instead of Clinton. But that appears unlikely to happen.

Missouri Democratic Party Chairman Roy Temple, a superdelegate who supports Clinton, said he expects Sanders to make the case that Clinton is the best candidate to lead the U.S.

An online exclusive is an article or story that does not run in the print edition of the Houston Herald. Typically 2-3 are posted online every Wednesday morning. It is another feature for users who purchase full web access from the Herald.

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Memory loss may not always be the first warning sign that dementia is brewing  changes in behavior or personality might be an early clue.

Researchers on Sunday outlined a syndrome called mild behavioral impairment that may be a harbinger of Alzheimers or other dementias, and proposed a checklist of symptoms to alert doctors and families.

Losing interest in favorite activities? Getting unusually anxious, aggressive or suspicious? Suddenly making crude comments in public?

Historically those symptoms have been written off as a psychiatric issue, or as just part of aging, said Dr. Zahinoor Ismail of the University of Calgary, who presented the checklist at the Alzheimers Association International Conference in Toronto. Now, when it comes to early detection, memory symptoms dont have the corner on the market any more.

Alzheimers, the most common form of dementia, affects more than 5 million people in the U.S., a number growing as the population ages. It gradually strips people of their memory and the ability to think and reason.

But it creeps up, quietly ravaging the brain a decade or two before the first symptoms become noticeable. Early memory problems called mild cognitive impairment, or MCI, can raise the risk of later developing dementia, and worsening memory often is the trigger for potential patients or their loved ones to seek medical help.

Its not uncommon for people with dementia to experience neuropsychiatric symptoms, too  problems such as depression or sundowning, agitation that occurs at the end of the day  as the degeneration spreads into brain regions responsible for more than memory. And previous studies have found that people with mild cognitive impairment are at greater risk of decline if they also suffer more subtle behavioral symptoms.

Whats new: The concept of pre-dementia mild behavioral impairment, or MBI, a term that describes specific changes in someones prior behavior that might signal degeneration is starting in brain regions not as crucial for memory, he said.

Ismail is part of an Alzheimers Association committee tapped to draft a checklist of the symptoms that qualify  new problems that linger at least six months, not temporary symptoms or ones explained by a clear mental health diagnosis or other issues such as bereavement, he stressed. They include apathy, anxiety about once routine events, loss of impulse control, flaunting social norms, loss of interest in food. He even cites extreme cases, like a 68-year-old who started using cocaine before anyone noticed her memory trouble.

If validated, the checklist could help doctors better identify people at risk of brewing Alzheimers and study changes over time.

Its important for us to recognize that not everythings forgetfulness, said Dr. Ron Petersen, the Mayo Clinics Alzheimers research chief. He wasnt involved in developing the behavior checklist but said it could raise awareness of the neuropsychiatric link with dementia.

Technology specialist Mike Belleville of Douglas, Mass., thought stress was to blame when he found himself getting easily frustrated and angry. Normally patient, he began snapping at co-workers and rolling down his window to yell at other drivers, things Id never done before, Belleville said.

The final red flag was a heated argument with his wife, Cheryl, who found herself wondering, Who is this person? When Mike Belleville didnt remember the strong words the next morning, the two headed straight for a doctor. Physicians tested for depression and a list of other suspects. Eventually Belleville, now 55, was diagnosed with an early-onset form of dementia  and with medication no longer gets angry so easily, allowing him to volunteer his computer expertise.

If you see changes, dont take it lightly and assume its stress, Cheryl Belleville said.

Also at Sundays meeting:

 Complex jobs that require working with people may help the brain build resilience against dementia, whats called cognitive reserve, University of Wisconsin researchers reported.

The team tested 284 adults in late middle-age whose brain scans showed changes that have been linked to an increased risk of Alzheimers. Comparing their cognitive ability and their careers, the researchers found those who worked primarily with people, rather than objects or data, functioned better even if brain scans showed more of that quiet damage.

 Preliminary results from a study of brain training suggested one type might help delay cognitive impairment.

Researchers examined records from 2,785 older adults whod participated in a previous trial that compared three cognitive training strategies  to improve memory, reasoning or reaction times -with no intervention. A decade later, that reaction-time training suggested benefit: 12 percent of people whod completed up to 10 hours had evidence of cognitive decline or dementia compared with 14 percent in the control group, said Dr. Jerri Edwards of the University of South Florida. The figure was lower  8 percent  for people who got some extra booster training.

Its the first hint for a cognitive training intervention like this, but more research is needed, said Dr. Jonathan King of the National Institute on Aging, who wasnt involved in the new study.

To view a 360 video journey inside the brain, click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0DaIHWTxHw&feature=youtu.be

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The Texas County Genealogical and Historical Society has a library open on Tuesdays from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at its Grand Avenue building. Its meetings are on the first []
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taurant delivery firm Deliveroo is stating in its contracts for self-employed workers that they cannot take the company to an employment tribunal over their employment status, a UK paper reports.A clause within the firms contract for its drivers states that the workers cannot take the company to a tribunal to try and become recognised as staff, and must pay Deliveroos costs if they do, The Guardian reports.The clause reportedly states: You further warrant that neither you nor anyone acting on your behalf will present any claim in the employment tribunal or any civil court in which it is contended that you are either an employee or a worker.However, doubt has been cast over the enforceability of the clause.Michael Newman, partner at law firm Leigh Day, told The Guardian: Penalty clauses in contracts are unenforceable and it is likely that any clause attempting to bar access to an employment tribunal would be seen as without commercial justification and unconscionable, and therefore a penalty.He continued: Theyre put there to scare the worker. They are going to think twice before they do anything.The report is the latest to highlight the issue of employers liability to self-employed workers.HRM reported last week that a number of Uber drivers in the UK have taken the company to a tribunal over claims the taxi-app firm deliberately categorised them as self-employed to avoid paying national minimum wage and holiday pay.The World Wrestling Federation (WWE) is also the subject of a class-action lawsuit in the US, brought by former wrestlers who claim the company classed them as independent contractors to avoid liability under workers rights.In response to the claims, Deliveroo said: We provide a platform for people to work with us on a freelance basis.This allows riders to work flexibly around another commitment, like studying or other work. Weve worked with legal experts to design our contracts to reflect that and were proud to be creating opportunities for over 5,000 riders across the UK.
ormer accounts clerk who had worked at Auckland International Airport for almost two decades has admitted to defrauding her employer of an estimated $1.8 million.Long-service employee Teremoana Kimiangatau had been with the organisation for 18 years before her deception was uncovered in February 2016.Kimiangatau appeared in the Auckland District Court yesterday and pleaded guilty to three charges of obtaining by deception laid by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO)."Mrs Kimiangatau's responsibilities allowed her to pass invoices for authorisation many times and make changes to client information without being challenged," explained SFO director Julie Read.The SFO claims Kimiangatau transferred funds from Auckland Airport's bank account into her personal account by changing client bank account numbers to her own within the airport's accounting system.Read went on to stress the importance of a vigilant approach to checks and balances, warning employers to treat the measures as more than just a box-ticking exercise.Auckland Airport's CFO Philip Neutze said he was unable to offer comment as the matter was still before the courts but confirmed the company had completed a review of its internal processes and made some changes following the revelation.Kimiangatau will appear again in the same court on November 9.
Canadians may rank among the the world's most prolific drinkers, but when it comes to cash spent, they don't come close to American pot smokers.

The latter spend far more on marijuana that drinkers do on booze, according to a report released by cannabis market intelligence firm Headset last week.

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The Seattle-based firm said the median cannabis customer in the U.S. spends about C$850 per year on marijuana, and that over 57 per cent of consumers spend almost $660 annually.

By contrast, the average U.S. household spends just over $570 on beer, wine, and spirits every year, according to Forbes.

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Up north, statistics show Canadians spending just under $700 annually on alcohol.

Dataset noted that most marijuana customers spend anywhere from $30 to $60 when they go to the store. About 34.7 per cent of customers spend less than $13, while 8.2 per cent spend over $130.

American demographic

Headset's data also shows that the average U.S. pot smoker isn't some twenty-something man toking up in his parents' basement.

The average customer age at pot dispensaries is just over 37 years old, "which is higher than one might expect given stereotypes about marijuana users," the firm said.

Headset noted, however, that 25- to 29-year-olds make up the highest proportion of membership (20 per cent) in dispensaries' customer loyalty programs.

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The report provides some insight into marijuana consumer behaviour as Canada takes steps to legalize the substance.

Canadian Health Minister Jane Philpott announced on April 20 that the federal government would introduce legislation to legalize marijuana in the spring of 2017.

The Liberals believe that legalizing the drug will help keep it out of children's hands, and prevent criminals from profiting off its trade.

But concerns about the effects that certain marijuana-based products can have on kids still run rampant in the country.

Earlier this year, a federal paper on marijuana legalization found that small edibles such as cookies and candies present a "significant risk" to children.

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Malia and Sasha Obama grew up in the White House thanks to their father, Barack, who became the 44th President of the United States when they were just 10 and seven years old, respectively.

Today, the Obama girls are teens. Malia, now 18, has graduated from high school and is expected to take a gap year before attending Harvard University in fall 2017.

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Sasha, now 15, is continuing her studies at Sidwell Friends School in Washington, D.C., which is the same private school her older sister recently graduated from.

Now that their fathers presidency is coming to an end, were taking a look back at how much the girls have grown and changed over the past eight years.

Flip through the slideshow below to see for yourself!

Malia & Sasha Obama Through The Years See Gallery





Speaking about his daughters' life in the limelight, President Obama told Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon: Theyve handled it so well. They are just wonderful girls. Theyre smart and funny, but most importantly, theyre kind.
Hillary Clinton made history Tuesday when she became the first woman nominated to lead a major American party into a presidential election. By any standard, that's front-page news.

But several major U.S. newspapers ran the story with photos of a man on page A1  Clinton's husband and former president Bill Clinton, who sang his wife's praises with a speech to the Democratic National Convention Tuesday night. The photo choice sparked discussions about sexism and gender biases on social media Wednesday.

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"For people who still don't think gender bias is a significant issue in this election, I'd like you to tell me the last time a man's accomplishment was accompanied by a picture of his wife in his stead," blogger Ramblin' Mama wrote on Facebook, with a screengrab of the Chicago Tribune's front page.

"Go ahead, I'll wait."

Many took to Twitter with screengrabs of newspapers such as The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post that also featured a photo of Bill with a headline celebrating Hillary.

Kelsey McKinney, a staff writer for Fusion, shared many examples online.

Hillary Clinton, first woman to win the presidency! Let's put a big pic of her husband on the front page! pic.twitter.com/hRzu9VxuSE  kelsey mckinney (@mckinneykelsey) July 27, 2016

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Husbands are important! More big pics of Bill! pic.twitter.com/a9BKH91KzT  kelsey mckinney (@mckinneykelsey) July 27, 2016

Hillary clinched a historic nomination. So why does her husband get the front page photo?https://t.co/gW2J9v4NOXpic.twitter.com/ssYP9ZKYPM  kelsey mckinney (@mckinneykelsey) July 27, 2016

An image of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who ran against Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination but called Tuesday for her to be named the the nominee by acclamation, was also featured by some papers.

A print deadline issue?

Wall Street Journal reporter Byron Tau suggested his paper's decision merely reflected the reality of "print deadlines," as Bill Clinton addressed delegates late Tuesday night. A late edition of the Journal showed a photo of Clinton addressing delegates via a video message.

Simple proof of print deadlines. You have an early edition. She is on the late. @annehelenpic.twitter.com/qAMFCMtbCI  Byron Tau (@ByronTau) July 27, 2016

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At some point overnight @WSJ decided "Hillary Clinton Wins Nomination" headline needed a picture of Hillary. #pickspic.twitter.com/uBiZiIIQte  Pat Kiernan (@patkiernan) July 27, 2016

That excuse didn't wash with many who argued that every media outlet has ample photos of Hillary Clinton on file by now.

and don't tell me they didn't have a picture of her. SHE IS THE FIRST FEMALE NOMINEE FOR PRESIDENT, YOU'VE GOT SOMETHING ON FILE  Anne Helen Petersen (@annehelen) July 27, 2016

And  according to a round-up by Poynter  many newspapers opted to go with an older photo of Hillary on their front pages.

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And some, like The New York Times, went with a photo of ecstatic women cheering on the monumental moment.

.@Art_Mah@RosettaStone1 Times made the smarter choice. A picture of (women in) audience at historic Clinton moment. pic.twitter.com/7U6nEGiWSV  Pat Kiernan (@patkiernan) July 27, 2016

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The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have accepted an invitation to visit Canada this fall, the governor general announced.

"Their Royal Tour will take them to the beautiful province of British Columbia and the scenic territory of Yukon. Our true Canadian pride and spirit will shine and be at the very heart of this visit so they can feel at home," said David Johnston in a news release Wednesday.

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In July, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau sent an invitation to the duke and duchess to visit Canada with their kids.

It's unknown if Prince William and Kate Middleton will be bringing Prince George and Princess Charlotte on this trip. A detailed itinerary will be released at a later date, said Johnston.

TRH hold very happy memories from their last visit to Canada in 2011 - their first overseas tour as a married couple pic.twitter.com/5snXeRfSv2  Kensington Palace (@KensingtonRoyal) July 27, 2016

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This will be the royal couple's second visit to Canada. Their first tour of Canada in 2011 took them to Ontario, Quebec, P.E.I., Alberta and the N.W.T.

A spokesman for Kensington Palace said on Wednesday, "The Duke and Duchess are delighted to be returning to Canada. They hold very happy memories from their visit in 2011  their first overseas tour as a married couple. They are really looking forward to seeing other parts of this beautiful country and having the opportunity to meet many more Canadians along the way."

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OTTAWA  Former Liberal cabinet minister Hunter Tootoo is not being welcomed back into the Liberal caucus after his stint in rehab, The Huffington Post Canada has learned.

The former fisheries minister announced Wednesday that he was back at work after 52 days in a rehabilitation facility. He was struggling through deeply personal and private issues and turned to the bottle to cope, he told constituents and media in his first public appearance since his abrupt resignation from cabinet and the Liberal caucus.

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Hunter Tootoo answers a question during question period in May 2015. (Photo: Adrian Wyld/Canadian Press)

As you know, alcohol is often a coping mechanism for trauma, he said, noting that trauma is far too common in indigenous communities.

I know I let people down  my family, friends, and the people of this riding  and myself. I have work to do to regain their trust and respect. That work begins now.

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In an interview with HuffPost, Tootoo said drinking was his only problem.

That was the extent of my addiction, he said. Just alcohol, that was my drug of choice, if you want to call it that.

It has been a very difficult journey for me, he added. I recognized I was going down a path that I didnt want to go on, and that I needed help and thats what I decided to do.

I knew that I needed to focus all my energy and my attention on my healing process and thats what I chose to do.

The Prime Ministers Office, as it has for the past two months, refused to offer any explanation for Tootoos exit from caucus

We wish Mr. Tootoo well as he resumes his Parliamentary functions as MP for Nunavut. His status with regard to the Liberal caucus remains unchanged, Prime Minister Justin Trudeaus press secretary Cameron Ahmad wrote in an email.

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Tootoos decision to step down from cabinet and leave the caucus was his choice alone, the MP repeated on Wednesday. No incident in particular had led to his decision, he said.

I knew that I needed to focus all my energy and my attention on my healing process and thats what I chose to do.

Tootoo left the Liberals on May 31 and two days later, he checked himself into a rehab facility somewhere in Canada.

For privacy reasons, I am not going to divulge where I went but it was a very good program and I cant thank the staff [enough] that I worked with as well as other individuals that were there. They were a tremendous inspiration for me and helped me through this process, he said.

Focus on MP duties

Government House Leader Dominic LeBlanc, who took over Tootoo's cabinet responsibilities, is expected to stay in the Fisheries portfolio while a new minister will take over the House leader portfolio.

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Tootoo wouldnt say whether he had asked to return to the Liberal team, but he told HuffPost he would look into it this fall when he returns to Ottawa.

My focus right now is doing my job as the MP for Nunavut and reconnecting with my constituents.

Hunter Tootoo is sworn into cabinet in 2015. (Photo: CP)

Iqaluit Mayor Madeleine Redfern told The Canadian Press it would be a tremendous loss to the territory if Tootoo is not welcomed back by the government.

"It is important when you're in a territory with only one member of Parliament to have an effective MP who has access to the government in power, who has access to ministers and the senior bureaucracy, the decision-makers," she said.

Redfern also admitted she is struggling to understand why it was necessary for Tootoo to resign from caucus.

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"There was no need for another MP [Newfoundland Liberal Seamus O'Regan], who sought treatment earlier on, to resign from caucus," she said.

"It leaves open the question of whether or not he will be able to return."

MP Seamus O'Regan returned to caucus after attending rehab. (Photo: Facebook)

Tootoos treatment by the prime minister has raised eyebrows because Trudeau was very supportive of ORegan, a fellow caucus member and close friend, when he announced he had checked himself into rehab over the Christmas holidays.

At the time, Trudeau tweeted his "full support."

O'Regan did not leave the Liberal caucus and was back at work in mid-January after 40 days of sobriety.

In contrast, Trudeau said of Tootoos caucus departure in May: "This was his own choice, after a very difficult situation. We will have nothing else to say on this matter.

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Tootoo said hes not sure why the prime minister is treating his case differently but said he continues to believe in the Trudeau government and has utmost respect for the man.

Im stronger now. Im focused now

On Wednesday, Tootoo told reporters he plans to continue attending Alcoholics Anonymous meetings.

He thanked his constituents for the patience they granted him during his healing process.

You believed in me even when I didnt believe in myself. Those words of encouragement made all the difference in my recovery, he said.

After two months of treatment, Tootoo said hes feeling healthy.

Im stronger now. Im focused now, and Im ready to move forward.

With files from The Canadian Press

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Behold, Kim Kardashian has blessed us with a rare photo of her son, Saint West.

On Wednesday, the reality star shared a short clip of her baby boy on Snapchat, showing off his chubby cheeks in all their glory.

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Believe it or not, this is only the fourth photo weve seen of Saint. Since his birth in December, Kardashian has been careful to keep her and Kanye Wests son out of the limelight.

The last time we saw Saint was in June, when his mom shared a photo of him on her social media accounts. In the sweet snap, the seven-month-old is pictured laying down and nibbling on his fingers.

A photo posted by Kim Kardashian West (@kimkardashian) on Jun 23, 2016 at 10:06pm PDT





Comparing this photo to Saint's most recent one, we can see that the little one has grown significantly, but is still as sweet as ever!

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Kardashians recent snap of Saint comes one day after the baby boy made his public debut. On Tuesday, the 35-year-old and her son went on a family outing to visit his great-grandmother Mary Jo, who is Kris Jenners mother.

The family went to visit great-grandma MJ in San Diego to celebrate her birthday, and the event was filmed for their reality show Keeping Up with the Kardashians.

Clearly Kardashian is getting a head start in making Saint a celebrity. But with chubby cheeks like his, he really doesnt need any help! Were already in love.

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Ottawa isn't all politics, it has an awe-inspiring side you need to experience first-hand. From zip lining in Gatineau Park to exploring a Cold War-era bunker, Ottawa is brimming with fun.

Dan Rodo, host of "Like A Tourist," knows that concept well. In this episode of the series, he takes a local couple on an adventure they won't soon forget. Watch the full episode here.

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What To Eat: The Ministry Of Coffee

279 Elgin Street, Ottawa, K2P 1M1

Start your morning off at The Ministry Of Coffee where you can bite into a flaky butter croissant and sip on a beautifully-designed latte. It's the perfect spot to kick off a jam-packed day.

What To Do: Swing From The Trees In Camp Fortune Gatineau Park

300 Dunlop Rd, Old Chelsea, Que.

Imagine zip lining through the trees at Gatineau Park, located only 15 minutes away from Ottawa's downtown core. It's an experience of a lifetime that will put your balance to the test and get the adrenaline flowing. Definitely something not for the faint of heart.

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Where To Go: Diefenbunker Canada's Cold War Museum

3929 Carp Rd., Carp, Ottawa, K0A 1L0

Built in secrecy between 1959 to 1961, the Diefenbunker is a four-storey underground structure meant to house government officials in the event of a nuclear war.

It was fully operable for 32 years, with its pantries and cupboards fully stocked with fresh food and rations, but in 1994, the Diefenbunker was given National Historic Site status. Today, tourists can explore the bunker for themselves and imagine what it would be like to live in an emergency situation.

Like A Tourist Takes On Ottawa

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Things To Do In Ottawa See Gallery
ASSOCIATED PRESS Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. listens as Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton speaks during a rally in Portsmouth, N.H., Tuesday, July 12, 2016, where Sanders endorsed Clinton for president. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

Bernie Sanders had failed to live up to the expectation of his people in the wake of the controversy surrounding the democratic nomination process.

He might have chosen to go with the flow to avoid rift in the party -- a move that would weaken their momentum and strengthen their adversaries.

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He might have chosen the principle of forgive and forget for the betterment and well-being of the party, in order to create a unity to defeat Mr. Trump in the November election.

But those who have trusted him will feel betrayed. They have expected a lot from him when he had the chance to speak to the American people on the first night of the convention.

He could have chosen a different path in support of principle and conviction by offering a viable alternative to those who are not satisfied with how things are going. He could have risen to the challenge by forming an alternative to both Trump and Clinton. He would have made history if he had reinvented the political wheel and brought some fresh air into the room.

His people are overwhelmed by frustration and anger. As indicated by the BBC News, many were angry and frustrated at the prospect of having to choose between Republican nominee Donald Trump and Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. Many said they would vote for Green Party candidate Jill Stein to avoid having to vote for Mrs Clinton.

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Bernie Sanders' supporters felt betrayed by his move to support Hillary Clinton for nomination. Disappointment in Mr. Sanders cascaded across the Internet as he embraced his former rival, as reported by the New York Times, describing her as a comrade in the fight to overhaul a rigged campaign finance system and lift the poor out of poverty. The sadness was most evident on the Facebook page where the Vermont senator explained his decision in a message titled "Forever forward," drawing responses infused with a skeptical refrain: Never Hillary.

"You broke my heart and betrayed the left Senator Sanders," wrote Cesar Agusto Diaz, a Sanders supporter from New York.

As I wrote in my letter to the National Post:

The American people are faced with a big dilemma. As polls after polls show, the majority are not happy with either Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton. Bernie Sanders should rise to task to offer an alternative -- a viable alternative to the two offers on the table.

He should consider making history by forming a viable team in the arena so that those are not comfortable with the menu can still have something else to consider. The world is vast enough and should have more alternatives for people to choose from, instead of making it look narrow.

Sanders has a moral obligation to make history by opening an area for people to be able to breathe for fresh air. They now feel the room has be closed tight with small area to maneuver.

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leezsnow via Getty Images Woman receiving an led blue light therapy treatment during her facial. Low key photo shot in the darkened room; treatment is often performed in dim light to enhance relaxation.

If you follow any celebrities on Instagram, chances are you've come across a picture of an LED treatment before.

You know that strange-looking serial killer mask that retails for about $2,000? That's it. Or perhaps you've thought of trying one of the many at-home handheld devices, such as the Quasar MD Plus that Kim Kardashian uses (apparently, she's "really big on laser facials"). Or maybe you've seen someone wearing funky protective eyewear at a medispa or doctor's office and all kinds of bright lights were involved? Yep, that would be it as well. LED skin treatments all the rage nowadays. Here's what you need to know about them.

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Blue light or red light?

There are various kinds of LED facials available on the market today, and the technology is rapidly evolving. Some skin treatments involve the use of blue light, while some only use red light.

The basic premise of LED skin therapy is that different colours trigger different reactions beneath the epidermis and penetrate the skin at varying depths. Blue light is generally used to kill the bacteria that causes acne, providing an effective treatment for blackheads and whiteheads, whereas wavelengths of red light are normally used to speed up healing and stimulate collagen production, simultaneously shrinking enlarged pores and tightening the skin.

LED treatments are painless, non-invasive and no downtime is required. According to Sacha Bourdage, Director of Laser Services at the Victoria Park Medispa in Montreal, Canada, "people are looking for a lot of alternatives these days... An LED treatment is great for targeting areas that are hard to hit with Botox and injectables, bringing out the plumpness and reducing the appearance of crow's feet and other wrinkles."

Do LED light facials really work?

The treatments can last a mere few minutes, depending on the type of technology used. That's right! Perfect during lunch hour, much?

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OK, but do they really work?

Dr. R. Glen Calderhead, one of the world's leading experts in phototherapy and photosurgery, seems to think so. In a recently published study, he states that "low-level light therapy (LLLT) with light-emitting diodes (LEDs) is emerging from the mists of black magic as a solid medico-scientific modality, with a substantial buildup of corroborative bodies of evidence for its efficacy and elucidation of the modes of action. Reports are appearing from many different specialties; however, of particular interest to plastic surgeons treating the aging face is the proven action of LED-LLLT on skin cells in both the epidermis and dermis and enhanced blood flow. Thus, LED-LLLT is a safe and effective stand-alone therapy for patients who are prepared to wait until the final effect is perceived."

So, yes -- but not overnight.

And the price is rather steep, too: count on average $50 to $300 per treatment. And although some customers who've undergone blue light therapy claim that most of their dimples disappeared after a single treatment, Bourdage advises caution: "It's not a cure. It's a treatment." Typically, you'll need at least four treatments before you start noticing results. In order to rejuvenate the skin's appearance, improve its texture and reduce the appearance of wrinkles, a few weeks will be required. The good news? The benefits are cumulative, and one treatment per year is normally sufficient to maintain the results afterwards.

You can do it at home, too: according to prominent New York City aesthetic medicine expert Dr Z. Paul Lorenc, using a pharmacy-bought LED skincare device can be a great alternative to clinical-grade treatments: "Probably the biggest pro is that it works. Studies conducted using LED for acne and anti-aging showed significant improvement in both. The biggest con is that you have to commit to using it every day. This needs to become part of your daily skin care regimen. For some this may be a burden!"

For patients that lack discipline, opting for a more powerful machine might be a better option: "Light is measured in nanometers, and LED lights have different depths. Devices like the one that we have here can only be used in medispas or on a medical level... It all comes down to the expectations you have," says Dr. Lorenc.

"LED light has demonstrated significant efficacy for various skin pathologies," says Bourdage. "The LED light by itself can stimulate specific cell lines and improve certain aspects of the skin, and the technology can be further improved when combined with light-absorbing chromophore gel, which allows the LED light to penetrate deeper into the skin. We use Lumibel to reduce the appearance of crow's feet, marionette lines, forehead lines and pore size. For patients with acne-prone skin, we offer a treatment called Lumibel."

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Here's how a typical LumiBel light-emitting diode session unfolds: the patient comes in after having her picture taken and lies down on an examination table, where the aesthetician uses a gentle cleanser to remove any makeup or impurities before applying a special gel onto her face. The multi-LED LumiBel blue light system is then used to activate the gel, converting the light from the lamp into different color wavelengths. The light panels can also be used on other acne-prone body areas, such as the chest or back.

Although the machine never actually touches the skin, the patient must wear protective eyewear. At Victoria Park & other medispas, small stickers can be placed over the eye area in order to treat crow's feet. "How can you expect the LED light to treat your crow's feet if you're wearing these huge goggles?" exclaims Bourdage. Indeed... Make sure you keep this in mind when booking your next appointment! Don't be afraid to ask the receptionist if stickers -- not just goggles -- are available at your local medical spa or dermatologist's office.

This particular treatment lasts nine minutes (most LED treatments are over in less than twenty minutes), during which a warm, pleasant sensation can be felt over the entire face. While you're there you can listen to some background music, mediate, even take a power nap -- honestly, the whole process really isn't as freaky as it may sound.

After the treatment, once the gel is delicately removed, a moisturizer is applied along with an SPF to protect the skin from UV rays. Flushing very rarely occurs. That's right, you're free to walk around town or go right back to work -- no one will ever guess what you were doing just a few minutes before. "Most of our patients find it relaxing!" Bourdage candidly points out. And based on their comments and the technology's commercial success, it certainly seems like it's here to stay.

Article originally published on Zwivel.com

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Even before Canada's Premiers departed Whitehorse on Friday, media coverage was applauding a "ground-breaking" and "historic" agreement on internal trade within Canada.

Not so fast.

The official statement announcing a new "Canadian Free Trade Agreement" (CFTA) is only 191 words long and omits any of those pesky details where the devil is reputed to lurk. Already the whiff of sulphur can be detected in talk of "exception" to protect "local interests." Truly historic moments rarely come with caveats.

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One key omission was immediately evident. When it comes to alcohol, the agreement will establish "a working group on alcoholic beverages, which will explore opportunities to improve trade in beer, wine and spirits across Canada." I've helped draft enough summit communiques to feel confident translating this for you: "don't hold your breath."

Alongside the CFTA statement, the premiers of Ontario, Quebec, and British Columbia announced a separate proposal to create an e-commerce site to allow the people of their respective provinces to purchase wine through the provincial monopoly boards of the other provinces.

While almost any development would be an improvement on the current, prohibition-era restrictions on the movement of alcohol within Canada, this deal is a move in the wrong direction. Rather than loosening the provincial alcohol monopolies that deny consumers choice and producers a national market, this deal would build on those restrictions, further entrenching them.

To their credit, Premiers Clark and Couillard acknowledged the modesty of their ambition, with Clark admitting that "We have not freed the grapes completely" and Couillard responding that, at least "we've unshackled them." Such small mercy might mollify a prisoner, but it should not satisfy Canadian consumers.

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Ironically, while 191 words were not enough reform Canada's "byzantine" (Premier Clark's word, which if anything understates the problem) internal trade rules, there is already an even shorter statement that the Premiers could have turned to for a solution.

Section 121 of the Canadian Constitution, adopted during confederation 149 years ago, already mandates free trade between provinces. Needing just 29 words, Section 121 says in its entirety: "All Articles of the Growth, Produce, or Manufacture of any one of the Provinces shall, from and after the Union, be admitted free into each of the other Provinces."

How beautifully succinct; how pellucidly clear. No need for clumsy jargon about "growing the economy," gauzy "visions for promoting trade," or cross-fingered promises of "working groups" to "explore opportunities." And the best part: it's already part of the supreme law of the land.

State-run e-commerce hubs are not necessary for consumers to buy food, books, or clothes from other provinces.

The promise of Section 121 was recently upheld in New Brunswick, where a trial judge threw out a fine against Gerard Comeau, who had legally bought beer and spirits in Quebec and driven them home across the New Brunswick border. The court recognized that the Fathers of Confederation intended their new country be a single economic unit for purposes of trade, and that Section 121 means the provinces cannot prevent the free movement of goods among themselves.

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Unfortunately, Canada's premiers do not seem to have read Judge LeBlanc's decision, which is an 88-page lesson in economic history, constitutional exegesis, and political misfeasance. Nor do they appear to have absorbed the lesson of multiple academic and political studies that estimate the loss to the Canadian economy of internal-trade barriers at between $50 billion and $130 billion every year.

As a result, the new agreement on wine sales will perpetuate the unconstitutional restrictions against purchasing or shipping wine (to say nothing of beer and spirits, which appear to be excluded from the scheme) directly from producers or suppliers. It will also continue to shut out small wineries who can't afford the substantial cost and red-tape of distributing through provincial monopolies, so consumers will continue to be denied access to some of the best wines made in other provinces.

State-run e-commerce hubs are not necessary for consumers to buy food, books, or clothes from other provinces. Why then do the premiers persist with these anachronistic and unconstitutional restrictions on the sale of alcohol? Until the provinces stop violating Section 121 of the Constitution, the vision of our country's founders, the rights of Canadian drinkers, and tens of billions of dollars of annual economic growth will continue to be scotched by their parochial interests.

Howard Anglin is the Executive Director of the Canadian Constitution Foundation, which was proud to support M. Comeau's case and which will continue to defend his constitutional rights, and the constitutional rights of all Canadians, now that the Government of New Brunswick has appealed the decision.

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Caiaimage/Paul Bradbury via Getty Images Mother with her sons watching tablet in bed

Last week, the new Canada Child Benefit (CCB) was finally rolled out, with direct deposits or cheques given to families nationwide. It was a surprise to no one... or at least it shouldn't have been. Trudeau campaigned on it, online calculators have been making the social media rounds for months, and news outlets have been intermittently reminding us that it was coming.

By way of background, this new benefit is meant to "lift some 315,000 Canadian children out of poverty" by adding to household income, tax-free, for those most in need. It is based on Adjusted Family Net Income, a line item on our tax returns (which doesn't allow for a lot of nuance, I'll concede, but still seems more fair than not). It replaced the previous taxable, universal benefit ushered in by the Conservatives. You're probably familiar with the CCB. Most people, especially parents and guardians, are.

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Let me now preface what I'm about to say with this: my household saw a reduced benefit. Not a crazy reduction, but a reduction nonetheless. And no, I was not surprised. In fact, I was happy -- for two reasons.

First, I was happy because this new benefit, albeit smaller, is now tax-free, so no guessing on how much will actually remain "in our pockets" (as an aside, is anyone else growing weary of this capitalist expression?).

Second, and frankly more important, I was happy because this reduced benefit means that we take home an income so great that we likely don't need the CCB. This benefit, and our government, now recognize the important difference between equity and equality. We're not a household really in need, and isn't that the point?

The new Canada Child Benefit is meant to be fair and just, and to help those who really need it, those struggling with real poverty.

Most people seem to get this. But last week, when parents across Canada received their benefit -- or didn't, it became glaringly obvious that many people still don't understand. Social media became a sounding board for unfounded complaints, and parents seemed emboldened to say things that were, at best, misguided, and, at worst, downright bigoted, dripping with unstated privilege, and wrong.

While I'm aware that the Internet gives people a platform for things they would never, ever say in real life, it was shocking to see the sheer number of comments that began with, "I believe in helping those in need, but..." But nothing. That sentence ends with the word "need." There is no place for flimsy arguments.

The new Canada Child Benefit is meant to be fair and just, and to help those who really need it, those struggling with real poverty. Only time will tell if it hits the mark, as reports have already surfaced that Indigenous children are more likely to miss out on this benefit because it is based on income reported on tax returns, which is obviously highly problematic.

But for those of us with children whose benefit was reduced or even eliminated, I hope you can rest assured that this is money that may mean the difference between shoes and no shoes, rent or homelessness, food or no food. And these desperate choices -- choices many of us are lucky enough to not have to make -- are more important than just "feeling a little pinch."

It can be sad to get money and then to not get money. I'll admit to that. I get what it's like to live in an expensive Canadian city and even then pay more in daycare for two children than I do in rent. The daily expenses of child-rearing make it tempting to substitute one's perception of need for actual need. I catch myself making privileged statements all the damn time. But that doesn't mean that I'm right. I have choices, and exercise my right to make them every day. And chances are if your CCB was reduced, you have these choices, too.

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When it comes down to it, social justice, at its best, happens when we all participate. When NIMBYism isn't allowed to proliferate. When we are comfortable making real and tangible sacrifices for the greater good (universal daycare strategy, anyone?).

Because in the end, life is about choices -- but only when you're lucky enough to have them.

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It doesn't matter if you agree or disagree with my interpretations; even the classical Qur'an commentators disagreed on many details. Disagreement deepens our understanding of the Qur'an. -- Muhammad Asad

Post-Orlando, some conservative Muslims supported a rebuttal of the LGBT affirming and life saving work by American Muslim scholar, Scott Siraj al-Haqq Kugle. The critique perpetuates the equation of Lot's people with LGBT Muslims. However, this is an exercise in forced hermeneutics.

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It is argued that the exegetical literature supports the prohibition of homosexuality and that Lot's offer of daughters affirms heterosexuality. Same-sex relationships are viewed through the lens of urges and addiction and uncritical extrapolation from religious texts is attempted. Finally, based on a frozen jurisprudential outlook, LGBT Muslims are prescribed chastity as martyrs of love.

However, in the following five ways, LGBT Muslims can resist these hermeneutical gymnastics, which are instigated by a deep-rooted heterosexism.

1.Exegetical paradoxes negate a clear position on homosexuality

Exegetical works lead to paradoxical conclusions on the conduct of Lot's people. Some exegetes mention that Lot's people engaged in anal sex with both men and women. Others depict them as uninterested in marriage and women. Some assert that Lot's people were aware of the immorality of same-sex acts, others mention they deemed homosexual intercourse as legitimate and right.

The exegete Ibn Kathir even claimed that penetrating men was invented by Lot's people (around 1800 BCE) but such acts existed in 3000 BCE Mesopotamia and as far back as 10,000 years in the Melanesian region and 40,000 years ago among aboriginal people of all racial lines. Such paradoxes do not allow for extrapolating a clear position on homosexuality.

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2.Lot's offer is better explained by implied consent

Lot's offer of daughters as a "purer" option to the unruly mob challenged the exegetes. However, whether Lot offered his own daughters, the town women, their wives, as hostages or for marriage, or merely to prick their conscience, all rest on the idea that to sexually approach women is less dirty of an option in contrast to approaching men. This is because women are generally receptive to the advances of men, whereas men are generally not receptive to the overtures of other men. Thus, Lot's offer is better explained through the notion of implied consent. If the offer is explained by affirming heterosexuality, the concern about consent will remain unresolved.

3.LGBT relationships rest on affection and companionship not urges and addiction

Some claim that repeated rape by Lot's people led to consensual intercourse with pleasure and therefore deduce the prohibition of homosexuality. However, this reflects an understanding of sexuality through the lens of addiction, in which consent can never be assumed.

Merely on the basis of deviant urges, some equate same-sex relationships with rape, incest, bestiality and necrophilia. However, such analogies do not hold because these instances are marked by lack of consent, exploitation, severing of family ties and closeness due milk, semen and blood ties.

Non-procreative sexual acts beyond vaginal intercourse and the benefits of affection, intimacy and companionship are allowed through marriages of elderly women and sterile couples. Therefore, there seems no reasonable objection to deny the same to gay couples.

4.Extrapolating from texts warrants a critical approach

Like many others, the 11th century jurist Ibn Hazm cautioned againsttaqlid (imitation) of past scholars. Mindlessly parroting past opinions is unwarranted. For instance, confirming the prohibition of homosexuality from the text on the first Caliph having burned a man for amal qaum lut (actions of Lot's people) is problematic. Such an extrapolation sidelines the context of apostasy wars, false prophethood, rebellion and the murder of many Muslims to focus on anal penetration.

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Likewise, deducing the prohibition of homosexuality from the texts on awra (nakedness) and the mukhannathun (effeminate men) is unwarranted. The awra texts are about modesty instead of legal relationships, for looking at the awra of the opposite gender is also forbidden. The mukhannathun texts are about the lewdness of intimately describing women to unrelated men. Therefore, any deduction from the texts warrants a critical approach.

5.Medieval jurisprudential assumptions on homosexuality should be updated

Past Muslim scholars have been noted for composing pederastic poetry and becoming fatally ill in love of boys, which allowed jurists like al-Ramli, al-Iraqi and Ibn Qayyim to tolerate glances and kisses to prevent the greater evil of the lover's death. This does not mean that Muslim LGBT youth today should be advised to love from afar, glance and kiss, compose pederastic poems and expect martyrdom through inner struggles. Indeed, medical knowledge, social norms and juristic opinions cannot be frozen in the times of the past jurists. This warrants updating the jurisprudential assumptions that informed past legal opinions.

In conclusion, hermeneutical gymnastics that equate LGBT Muslims with Lot's people and which downplay the legitimate human need for affection, intimacy and companionship as mere urges and whims are instigated by a deep-rooted heterosexism. The same prejudice allows placing the prohibition of homosexuality on par with the six articles of faith and the five pillars of Islam.

Masking this deep-rooted prejudice by the loud touting of God's law is a polemical and unjustifiable tactic. Indeed, peddling zulm (oppression) by resorting to "Allah says so" is still oppression.
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I arrived at St. Maarten's Princess Julia International Airport in the late afternoon, only a compact carry-on in hand. I was advised to pack light: space is limited on a sailboat and realistically passengers don't require anything other than some swimsuits and industrial-strength sunscreen.

This was my first time going on a chartered yacht, a vacation I never thought I'd be able to take. "Chartering a private yacht" is just one of those catastrophically pricey travel aspirations that most of us don't even bother putting on our bucket list. I've long assumed that the closest I'd ever come to letting my nautical flag fly would be passing by the J. Crew flagship adjacent to my landlocked condo.

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What fundamentally makes private yachting so prohibitive is that a disproportionately small number of travelers must cover the oppressive fixed costs of operating an entire boat. Fiscally, this formula is the equivalent of renting out a whole hotel complex when all you need is one room.

Cue TradeWinds, my yacht in shining armour.

The family-run fleet of "floating hotels" permits guests to book single berths, instead of entire vessels, and subsequently aggregates individual reservations to fill up a boat. Should any initial social lubrication be needed between guests there is an open bar onboard with enough Cotes de Rhone rose and exotic rum to last an eternity of cocktail hours. Collaborative consumption meets chartered catamaran cruises. Genius.

Compared to the cool five figures it ordinarily costs to charter a luxury yacht, the average week-long trip, which includes a private captain, crew, personal chef, and all food and booze comes in at just US$5,750 per couple (about US$400 per person per day), around the same price as a vacation on terra firma.

Spotting a gregarious group of people gathered around a 'TradeWinds' sign, I deduced that these were my fellow helmsmen. I introduced myself and fell into effortless conversation, as if to prove to any sociologist that might be in earshot - or maybe just to myself - that people can still have social skills. Which is a very fortunate thing, because as we loaded into a pair of dinghies and departed for our yacht, cell service faded, every last signal swallowed by the mighty sea. Let the digital detox begin.

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We whizzed through the bustling Simpsons Bay Lagoon toward a 59-foot Monaco-made catamaran. Within seconds of stepping on board, freshly shaken rum cocktails were thrust into our hands, a welcome diversion from the impossible task of trying to comprehend the sorcery that was this sailboat. Not a single person spoke as we slurped down our drinks - not out of shyness but sheer stupefaction.

"Mara...Mara...!" I barely registered the captain calling my name, "Let me show you to your sleeping quarters." In my bewildered state I hadn't noticed that the rest of the group - two couples, a best friend duo, and a solo sailing enthusiast - had already dispersed below deck. I hurried to lay claim to the last remaining cabin, a spacious stateroom with a queen-size bed, en-suite bathroom, and A/C, should the sea air not provide enough breeze come nightfall. I couldn't believe I was in a hull and not a luxury hotel.

Very little time was spent in our rooms, however. The sun-kissed communal dining table was the collective centre of action, a heavenly feast for ten dished up every breakfast, lunch, and dinner by the boat's private chef. Each meal was an artisanal spread of locally-sourced fare, from tuna sashimi caught off the back of the boat to tropical fruit picked up daily from farmers' markets. This locavorism was an act of sustainability I rarely witness in the import-addicted Caribbean travel industry and reflected Tradewinds' commitment to protecting our planet's fragile coral reefs and the oceans that cradle them.

Yet, the vibe onboard was refreshingly way more summer camp than supper club. I had packed three books thinking I'd spend most days in a perpetual state of catnap, but no work of literature or plush chaise could ever compete with the boat's inventory of playthings: snorkel gear, dive equipment, stand up paddle boards, kayaks, windsurf rigs, sport-fishing rods, the list goes on and on. Day after day I manically cycled through this holy grail of activities like a hamster in a wheel.

Or, like a person who spends most waking hours sitting at a desk.

For a week we hopped from isle to Antillean isle, meeting with our captain each morning to create a bespoke itinerary for the day ahead. First stop: Ile Fourchue, an island between St. Maarten and St. Barths, regarded as one of the Eastern Caribbean's best scuba spots.

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Those of us that were certified divers spent the morning 70 feet below the boat. Godzillian barracudas, dazzling Spotted Eagle Rays, and even a dolphin modelled for us on a catwalk of Seussian sea sponges, a spectacle I've since mulled over many times: Just how much longer will this underwater environment be in tact? The Caribbean has already lost 80% of its coral cover, the waters around St. Maarten among the hardest hit. Will stories of seeing a living reef soon be the stuff of folklore?

Ascending just in time for lunch, I towelled off and chewed over this unpalatable conundrum before joining the group for Nicoise and a midday Chardonnay. After all, it was 5 o'clock in island time, not to mention I had to hydrate somehow before the afternoon hike up to the lookout on Ile Fourchue's rocky peak.

It was an incomprehensibly clear evening and from the summit we had a sweeping view of Saba and all the Saints (Maarten, Barths, and Eustatius). Overlooking the cartographic vista, we resolved that the most logical way to pick our next destination was to play a life-size game of spin the bottle: one of us would close our eyes, spin around, and stick out a finger. Whichever piece of land was in its path would be our next port of call.

And that's how we ended up on a custard-tart shopping spree at the century-old Patisserie Choisy on St. Barths. Arteries be damned, we ate enough to bring about the pastry apocalypse, thereupon scurrying into hiding before the world could discover who had ended dessert forever. We sought refuge on the island's most exclusive beach, Anse de Columbier, an untouristed but heavily-Tortoised bay accessible only by boat. Far removed from the intolerable pretense that plagues much of the French protectorate, we sunbathed and snorkelled the day away in solitude before heading back off the beaten path.

The next stop was Sandy Island, a speck of land that quietly exists as if in an altogether different dimension. One of the few atolls in the Atlantic, Sandy Island is perhaps best known (by those lucky few who are in the know) for its little lime-green beach bar, a church of cold beer and crayfish, which large as lobster, sweet as candy, and addictive as The Voice, should be classified as a Schedule 1 crustacean.

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I could have stayed on Sandy Island for several days, if not the rest of my days; but, we all know how Lord of the Flies turns out. So, I concluded it would be best to avoid the inevitable and get back on the boat. Which proved to be a very wise decision on my part since Anguilla, our next and final stop, ended up being my favourite of them all.

Prior to visiting I was under the impression that Anguilla was analogous to other overrated Hollywood hideouts like Aspen. After all, it's the getaway of choice for pop cultural royalty and its vacation homes more often than not have helipads. I anticipated arriving on a mutant island, its coastline conquered by other nations' natives and its landscape disfigured by the overbreeding of infinity pools.

However, we arrived to find anything but this Moet-fueled abomination. As we made landfall there wasn't a chlorinated body of water nor pair of satellite dish-sized sunglasses in sight. Instead we beheld a laid-back belt of eclectic beach bars known as Sandy Ground.

We wandered over to the closest cabana, an antique sailboat turned wet bar with a hand drawn driftwood sign that read, 'Elvis's', and ordered a round of the house special, a stiff and spicy potion called Mamajuana, which in addition to being delicious is fabled to work as a holistic remedy for sexual impotence.

It did at least arouse our appetites and we ascended to The Strip, a hilltop boulevard bound by food trucks and roadside eateries. Anguilla is dubbed one of the culinary capitals of the Caribbean, so we spent the late afternoon conducting a very formal investigation into this claim. Not that we had any doubts, but doing things 'in the name of science' is always a good way to rationalize unbridled spending, so we took on this noble cause, virtuously gathering samples of curried conch soup, oxtail stew, blackened snapper, and steaming Johnny cakes to carefully analyze at our picnic table laboratory.

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We kicked off our second day of Anguillian-immersion with a kayak trip to top-secret Little Bay beach, a breathtaking cove wedged between towering limestone cliffs. This secluded slice of heaven is easily one of the most picturesque spots on the Caribbean and we spent the morning alone with the sea and sky before embarking on part two of our street food safari.

This time we were on a mission to try the island's best barbecue, trekking to Nat's Place at Junks Hole beach, an Anguillian institution that gives the southern United States a run for its ribs. Reachable only by dirt road, the remote dive is one of the crown jewels of the island's culinary scene, churning out gourmet grub so exceptional it should get its own cooking show.

Satiated and sun-kissed, we boarded our boat and hoisted the sails one last time. After a week of adventure and relaxation, it was time to head home. As Anguilla disappeared from sight, we debated about the next trip we could take as a sandy-footed family. This would undoubtedly be the first of many adventures together since TradeWinds offers trips all over the world.

Next time, we concurred, we would cruise the jewel-like Grenadines and Tobago Cays, a cluster of 32 idyllic islands hidden away in the southeastern Caribbean. Or perhaps we would head overseas to the Aegean and comb the Turkish and Grecian coasts? The year after that, we pinky swore, we'd reunite in French Polynesia, the indisputable pinnacle of nautical pursuits. These discussions went on and on until we docked in St. Maarten, where cell service was now available but no one cared to turn on their phones.
Sophie Gregoire Trudeau and first lady Michelle Obama stand together during the arrival ceremony at the White House, Mar. 10, 2016. (Photo: Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP Photo)

A citizen's advocacy group has recently called Sophie Gregoire Trudeau out for accepting gifts and loans of clothing from fashion labels, deeming her "for sale" for daring to wear support for our country's industry on her sleeve.

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"Pay for your own clothes, like everyone else has to, and rent them if it's for a special event, like everyone else has to," urges Duff Conacher, co-founder of Democracy Watch.

I can see how gifts and loans can make for some bad optics, even if the role of prime minister's wife has little real political oomph behind it. However, in a world where few powerful individuals direct their influence toward social good like Gregoire Trudeau does, Democracy Watch's threadbare argument seems to be more about populist-pleasing celebrity shaming than hypothetical conflicts of interests.

The possibility of a Pink Tartan tuxedo turning into a political kick back seems laughably low given the historical lack of provincial and federal government support for our fashion industry at a policy level.

I agree that the government and all its players must always be held to account, particularly when receiving gifts that may sway policy in favour of a lobby. To this end there are several mechanisms in place -- for one, Gregoire Trudeau must disclose all gifts valued at more than $200 on a public registry. Loans over that price point must also be mentioned. Items valued at over $1,000 must be forfeited to the Crown, though Gregoire Trudeau did not note some items like the Lucian Matis dress she wore to the White House (it was a sample and did not have a market value).

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As far as we know, Gregoire Trudeau has held up her end of the bargain and there have been no accusations of fashion-fuelled conflicts of interest levelled at her so far. (In fact, the possibility of a Pink Tartan tuxedo turning into a political kick back seems laughably low given the historical lack of provincial and federal government support for our fashion industry at a policy level, but I digress.) Until there is evidence, it appears Conacher and Democracy Watch are peddling more in theory than in substance.

I'm sure the thought of a powerful, well-dressed woman leveraging her influence on a global scale is enough to evoke resentment in some circles, but if Gregoire Trudeau has done nothing demonstrably wrong, why sound the alarm? If it's not a matter of legal process, implies Conacher, then it's a matter of "personal ethics."

"You don't get that perk just because you're the wife of the prime minister, sorry," says the Democracy Watch rep.

How exactly is supporting Canadian fashion -- something the ever-glamorous Gregoire Trudeau is passionate about -- compromising her personal integrity? If anything, it proves her moral compass points true north.

Now, Conacher admits he has no issue with Gregoire Trudeau supporting designers, but suggests that by accepting gifts, Gregoire Trudeau gives the "impression" that she will wear a label if it's free, discounted or loaned.

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He may be the last person in Canada to hold this impression, because she has eliminated any confusion a long time ago about what she stands for: she wears it because she loves fashion and makes a point of wearing independent Canadian designers at events. Like many in the fashion world and beyond, the only "impression" I get is that Gregoire Trudeau is willing to support causes she believes in.

Sophie Gregoire Trudeau poses with husband Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Canadian artist, The Weeknd, at the Canada 2020 reception. Sophie wears an Ellie Mae "Yazmin" jacket. (Photo: Hannah Thomson for Canada 2020)

Then there's the straw-grasping argument that it's unfair for designers who can't afford to send her gifts. This problematically assumes that she is somehow obligated to wear everything she gets for free and must offer universal support to all designers, regardless of whether it's her style. Last I checked, a price tag or lack thereof is not about to sway a style icon we know has deep respect for the industry and her position within it.

Finally, why doesn't she just buy all of her clothes, you ask? Certainly, splashing on new threads would be the best way to support designers -- they would make a profit, directly supporting their livelihood. But then again, perhaps the next op-ed we read would be by pundits criticizing her lavish spending habits instead.

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These arguments would make sense if Gregoire Trudeau were promoting top-paying brands like a Kardashian or lining her wardrobe with handouts like an Instagram star, but the reasons behind what she wears go well beyond whether she scored something gratis.

Gregoire Trudeau doing her part to put home-grown designers on the map shouldn't be policed -- it should be celebrated.

Much like her counterpart to the south, FLOTUS Michelle Obama, Gregoire Trudeau actively works to increase the visibility of the brands she wears, establishing or confirming many as household names: Sentaler, Moose Knuckles, Ellie Mae, Greta Constantine. The list goes on. But unlike the entities actually profiting from political pay-to-play on the DL (the ones that Democracy Watch does a great job covering, by the way), these designers can only measure their ROI in cultural clout.

The exposure pays dividends for Canada as a whole, too -- just look at how much publicity the Trudeaus' visit to the White House stirred up earlier this year. This attention entices creatives and investors alike to set up shop in our country, and further increases the country's influence on global culture as well.

Indeed, perhaps in viewing Canadian fashion through a lens of lobbying, Conacher's conflict-of-interest insinuations lose sight of the fact that boosting designers is more than a business interest -- it is a cultural transaction supporting a sector that is part of our increasingly trendy national identity.

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For this reason, Gregoire Trudeau doing her part to put home-grown designers on the map shouldn't be policed -- it should be celebrated.

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A police officer blocks off Airline Highway near the scene of a fatal shooting of police officers in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, United States, July 17, 2016. (Photo: REUTERS/Joe Penney)

On Sunday July 17, his birthday, a black man, former highly-regarded U.S. Marine Gavin Long, shot and killed three Baton Rouge police officers and injured three others.

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The murders, following the killing of five officers in Dallas, also by a black man, increased racial tensions and hatred in the United States beyond the crisis level of the 1960s, when black people were attacked and beaten across the South during their fight for civil rights.

Gavin Long's attack on Baton Rouge police was calculated and brutal. Nevertheless, an analysis of Long's actions and the response of the Baton Rouge police reveal the failure and poor procedures of the policing system that almost certainly exist in many American communities.

Had police acted differently and if policing techniques were more sophisticated in Baton Rouge, fewer police might have been killed -- or the deadly confrontation might not have occurred at all.

The militarization of local police forces across the U.S. made Gavin Long, and no doubt many like him, fear and mistrust police. Many police departments now behave more like a military force, sometimes abusing people rather than acting like a community service with the goal of protecting all citizens.

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Long lived in Kansas City. On July 5, he heard that a black man, Alton Sterling, had been killed in Baton Rouge for no good reason.

While Long was planning his assassination trip to Baton Rouge, others had the same idea.

On July 11, police arrested three teenagers accused of stealing several handguns as part of what police called a 'substantial, credible threat' to harm police officers in the Baton Rouge area.

On July 12, Long rented a car in Kansas City and drove to Baton Rouge.

Gavin Long was a well-trained marksman and military expert. He was more than well equipped with an IWI Tavor SAR 5.56 calibre rifle, a Stag Arms M4 variant 5.56 caliber rifle, a pistol and enough bullets to wreak havoc.

Police moved in too quickly

But how much did police know about what they were walking into?

Someone reported to police they had seen a suspicious man with a weapon.

Knowing there was a man on the street with a weapon -- and in view of the fact police had killed Alton Sterling just days before -- should have warned them to proceeded with great caution. But they did not.

After an officer yelled "Man down!" over his phone system, perhaps as many as eight or nine officers raced in a disorganized manner to the scene of the shooting.

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Police couldn't tell where the shots were coming from. For several hours -- just like in Dallas -- they thought there were three shooters. Total chaos ensued.

Meanwhile, Long shot five more officers. When he was caught, he apparently had thrown away his weapons. Two policemen pinned him to the ground and then shot him six times. The officers were placed on temporary leave.

Earlier, when the call came in about a man with a gun, it's easy to understand they wanted to help a fellow officer. But, viewed in hindsight, it was foolish for a swarm of police to rush into an open area when they have no idea what they were up against.

Police clearly bungled the situation. If they had behaved differently, lives likely could have been saved.

If they were following "proper procedures," changes are needed. At a minimum, officers need to use common sense and stay as hidden as possible until they know what's happening around them.

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Police used a robot to determine if there were explosives at the scene. Perhaps a robot could have helped identify the location of the shooter, and perhaps could have even been ordered remotely to fire on the shooter.

When the U.S. military uses sophisticated equipment such as drones to avoid casualties, why are local police departments still operating as though it's the 1950s?

Identifying dangerous people

Baton Rouge police and other police across the U.S. don't do nearly enough to identify potential mass murderers ahead of time.

The U.S. spends more than $16-billion a year on counter-terrorism, mainly monitoring and investigating the Muslim community. But of the 26 major attacks since 9-11 defined as terror, Muslims carried out only seven.

The FBI has stepped up efforts to identify terrorists (i.e. radical Muslims) using social media, but apparently there are few co-ordinated efforts to search out radicals and malcontents.

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One way to spot dangerous people is obviously easy: Monitor Facebook and YouTube. Some mass murderers like to publicize their plans before they go into action.

On July 10 -- one week before shooting the six officers in Baton Rouge police -- Long posted videos on YouTube advocating revolution and telling people to attack their oppressors. He used the pseudonym Cosmo Setepenra.

Hinting at what was to come, Long posted he would rather die fighting instead of coming back alive.

Micha Johnson, who shot and killed five policemen in Dallas earlier this month, discussed his plans ahead of time on social media.

If security forces had been adequately monitoring social media they might have known that both Long and Johnson were serious threats.

The crisis of police racism

Police departments across the U.S. need to be radically changed. Brutally racist officers, often working in teams, thrive in too many departments. American police killed 1,134 black people in 2015, the highest number ever.

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A massive effort is required to weed out as many racists as possible and rehabilitate those capable of changing. In addition, before people are recruited to forces, they need to be tested to make sure they do not have racist tendencies. These tasks must be taken on by local governing councils, and if they refuse to do the job -- just like many jurisdictions in the 1960s -- the federal government needs to step in.

Incidentally, I scanned U.S. mainstream media to find out if any paper or TV network has concerns about whether police did their job adequately in Baton Rouge and Dallas. Not a word. When such horrendous events occur, mass media totally sympathize with the police.

This too needs to change.

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Jacky Naegelen / Reuters IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde attends a news conference after a seminar on the international financial architecture in Paris, France, March 31, 2016. REUTERS/Jacky Naegelen/File Photo

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is an organization that represents 189 countries and manages over US$650 billion (yes with a "b"). Its role, based on Global Affairs Canada, is to support member states in their quest for economic prosperity -- by "working to foster global monetary cooperation, secure financial stability, facilitate international trade, promote high employment and sustainable economic growth, and reduce poverty around the world."

That's great. In various countries, the IMF has had a major economic role to play by lending substantial amounts of money, but also by imposing drastic conditions on the recipient country. The major changes in Greece to taxation, pension systems, health care and other key social programs are a good example of the IMF's impact.

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To continue successfully in its role, the IMF must maintain credibility. And it won't if it doesn't take swift action and ask its managing director, Christine Lagarde, to resign.

Ms. Lagarde is a former French minister of finance who held various cabinet posts and, prior to her political career, was previously an antitrust and labour lawyer. She received various distinctions and was named as the "best Finance Minister" in the Eurozone by the Financial Times in 2009 and the fifth most powerful woman in the world by Forbes magazine in 2014.

She was appointed to the IMF in 2011 and reappointed to another five-year term in 2016.

She is also paid over US$450,000 per year (tax free, of course) that is supplemented by tax-free allocations and expenses (of over US$100,000).

She will now be facing a trial in France for "negligence" after allowing a compensation payment of close to US$600 million to a French politician and businessman. That payment was described by investigating judges as a "sham."

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This is not the first time a former French politician has gotten into trouble while heading the IMF. Who can forget her predecessor, the infamous Dominique Strauss-Kahn and his sex parties? That even made the current French president's affairs pale in comparison. President Hollande, now at 13 per cent in the polls, was memorably caught on a scooter leaving the French president's palace to visit his mistress.

The IMF is not a joke. Its decisions affect people's lives. At the darkest of times, its economic impact resulted in people committing suicide, declaring bankruptcies and hundreds of thousands of jobs were lost. Yet, some countries have also profoundly changed their systems (and we're still waiting, and hoping, to see if it is for the better).

Europeans argue that the IMF helm is usually reserved for a European. They brought forward Ms. Lagarde and reappointed her despite the clouds over her.

Canada ranks eighth in terms of our contribution to the IMF. We're not a major player but we're still respected. And our prime minister has quickly built an international reputation. He is seen as part of the "next generation" of leaders.

The prime minister and his international trade minister can and should request that changes be made at the IMF and that Ms. Lagarde, despite the fact that she has not been convicted, be asked to step aside and someone else be appointed.

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You can't expect countries to bow to Ms. Lagarde's demands while she's been accused, by investigating judges, of negligence on a payment of that size (or any size for that matter) to a friend of her government.

Canadians would not accept that a politician, being tried for something like this, remain in power while the trial was going on.

If France and European governments can't put forward serious candidates to run the IMF, we can and we should.

The opinions expressed in this article are the author's own and do not represent the views and opinions of Flagship Solutions and its clients.

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'SKIN SHOULD NOT BE A DEATH SENTENCE' was scrawled across a large piece of cardboard elevated above heads amidst a crowd outside the US Embassy in London on Tuesday 12 July.

Upon approaching the arena of people, a black man holding a megaphone in the centre of the masses was reciting an encounter in prison where a police officer had told him it was "banana time".

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People of all different creeds and colours stood listening intently to the individuals who proceeded to the platform to share their painful encounters of racial inequality and injustice. From electric blue eyebrows to purple dreads - the diverse crowd stood in unity, firmly holding placards that read: 'Jail racist cops' and 'racist police officers off our streets'.

The Black Lives Matter (BLM) protest had been organised in response to the shooting of black American Alton Sterling by two white police officers in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, exactly a week prior to today's protest. Alton was shot at point-blank range. As shocking as it was, this form of police brutality was not the first of its kind.

In Minnesota, just a day before Alton Sterling's unjust fatality, a black American called Philando Castile was also shot at point-blank range. He had been pulled over by the police for a broken tail light, and killed as he followed an officer's command to take out his driver's license.

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In 2015, young black men killed by US police hit its highest rate.This figure was five times higher than the white equivalent . Again in the US, around 13% of all black people who have been fatally shot by police since January 2015 were unarmed, compared with 7% of all white people. Needless to say, these faceless figures reflect the cold fact that black people are being disproportionately killed by the police.

But this issue of systematic racism is not just in America. Figures released in 2015 revealed that black people are up to 17.5 times more likely than any other ethnic group to be stopped and searched by the police in certain areas of the UK such as Dorset, while an inquiry into the 1981 Brixton riots concluded the protests had been sparked by disproportionate stop and search tactics.

On sunday 10 July, twenty-five years after the riots, for six solid hours Brixton's streets were occupied by those still fighting to convince the system that black lives matter. Today's BLM protest was stage two.

A young mixed-race girl entered the ring to poetically convey her anguish at being criticised for 'not being one or the other': "I am not black. I am not white. And I am not mixed-race. I am human!", she exclaimed to cheers of consensus.

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As we stood beneath the US Embassy listening to the tales of victims of racial discrimination, two rainbow flags draped down either side of the entrance of the building blew gently in the breeze. Another individual took to the platform to assert that, "you cannot speak out against Islamophobia, without speaking out against homophobia and you cannot speak out against homophobia, without speaking about racism".

Within a climate of post-Brexit xenophobia and in light of the homophobic Orlando shootings, the promulgation of intersectionality has become increasingly imperative. Society's biggest and most important challenge is to achieve equality through combatting all categories of discrimination simultaneously. For discrimination is categorically one ugly obstacle comprised of its many entwined forms. If we are to build a civilisation that is fair and equal, we must create communities that thrive on the basis that we help each other to succeed and flourish regardless of race, gender, faith, class or sexuality.

A final speech highlighted the need to stop purchasing goods from racist brands; to boycott any outlet that contributes to the oppression of black people. Subsequently, the MC with the megaphone declared that we march to Oxford Street to call upon shops guilty of abetting inequality. The protest commenced and before we knew it, there were hundreds of people marching down the middle of Oxford Street, stopping buses, taxis, rickshaws and shoppers. And then there were thousands. The protest shut down every road it strode through.

"Hands up. Don't shoot!"

"No justice. No peace. No racist police!"

"What do we want? Justice. When do we want it? NOW!"

In the thousands we marched and chanted down Regent Street, to Piccadilly Circus, across Leicester Square, through Trafalgar Square and all the way down Whitehall until we reached Number 10.

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Characters from all corners of the city emerged to wave their support and encourage the protestors. Black, asian and white bus drivers honked their horns in solidarity despite being quite literally stopped in their tracks. Tourists waved and engaged in our chants. While pushing through Leicester Square a bearded homeless man slumped on the floor with his acoustic guitar suddenly started strumming the instrument frantically while singing "fuck the system!".

As we reached Downing Street a dozen police officers were already lined up against the gates with their arms firmly crossed. It was David Cameron's last night as Prime Minister and he was yet to speak up for racial justice and equality in light of the racist killings in America. So we did it for him, and for all of the other Parliamentary representatives who had failed to come forward to show solidarity for the Black Lives Matter movement.

More impassioned speeches commenced and then silence ensued. Unexpectedly, moments later a lone voice in the crowd began singing, "all I want to say is they don't really care about us". Others joined in and soon after the entire crowd outside Number 10 Downing Street was singing the chorus of Michael Jackson's 'They Don't Care About Us'.

And then we marched to Parliament, a true vanguard making waves across the capital's concrete jungle. Daylight retired and the protest embraced a calm halt along Westminster Bridge. The remaining BLM protestors fell down on to their knees and raised their hands to collectively repeat:

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"Hands up. Don't shoot".

That evening, the BLM protest had proliferated and in its steps it had communicated a powerful message of solidarity to those victims of injustice, that systemic, institutional racism will not be tolerated by society.

While we are all human and it is unequivocally true that all lives matter, for as long as black lives are lost disproportionately to white, we must continue to take to the streets to ensure that black lives matter equally.
I remember the first time I read the Daily Mail. It was a Saturday afternoon. I was 16, in the middle of my first ever shift in our local supermarket, and I'd just walked into the staff canteen. There was, as is customary for staff canteens, a rack of newspapers on the wall. 'I'll read the paper', I thought. All grown up. 'But which one? Not The Sun, that's just a comic. The Times? Mmm, too big. Oh look, what's this? It looks important, like the Telegraph, but smaller. That'll do. From the moment I sat down I had this funny feeling that something was not quite right.

Sixteen years later I find my first major public art project, a crowd-funded campaign to manufacture 1,000 t-shirts emblazoned with Jeremy Corbyn's name in a Superman-style, is the catalyst for yet another smear campaign against the very person the project was intended to celebrate. I'm angry, I'm embarrassed, and I need to get a few things straight.

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Firstly, the emotive images of the two Bangladeshi women holding my shirts clearly imply that Jeremy Corbyn branded items are coming directly off a production line in Bangladesh. I would expect every person who saw them has assumed as much, however, this is not true. In reality, the shirts have only ever been printed right here in London. If the photos were taken in Dhaka, then the photographer must have purchased them here and travelled out with them.

Secondly, the initial decision to use Gildan shirts was made by me and me alone. Jeremy Corbyn had, contrary to the implication of the headline, absolutely nothing to do with it. Why did I chose Gildan? I've designed t-shirts in the past, for my music and other projects, and I always used them simply because that's what every other band used. They are, by far, the most popular brand of t-shirt for this type of activity in the UK. When I realised this project would be on a much bigger scale than my previous, I did some more research and saw they were accredited by the Fair Labor Association as a socially responsible employer. I suppose at the time I felt like that was good enough for me, which in hindsight was a mistake. Momentum's decision to order Gildan from the same London-based printer is likely to have been simply a matter of them following my lead. I would suggest, if the conditions really are as described in the Mail on Sunday's article, then the Fair Labor Association, who are supposedly a reputable authority, should seriously reconsider Gildan's stamp of approval.

It infuriates me that the Mail can and will continue to use Corbyn's admirable position on absolutely anything as constant fodder for accusations of hypocrisy. It's a sad fact that products made with cheap labour are everywhere. Anyone who has ever bought anything from Apple, H&M, GAP, Primark, Nestle, Nike, Adidas or any one of the long list of retailers and brands that use cheap labour is complicit. This is clearly not the result of Jeremy Corbyn, or Momentum, or my stupid t-shirts, but is indicative of and perpetuated by this mutant form of capitalism that we are so enthusiastically encouraged to embrace under economic neoliberalism - the ideology behind privatisation, deregulation and austerity. Ironically, these are precisely the same ideals that drive the agenda of the Mail. Surely that's the very definition of hypocrisy.

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Police across the United Kingdom have reacted with a mixture of sorrow, anger and a huge degree of foreboding to events in Dallas, Nice, Baton Rouge and Munich. As each of these tragedies unfolded and as word reaches them of further incidents such as those at Wurzburg, Ansbach and now Saint-Etienne-Du-Rouvray, they will be asking themselves: 'What if.'

Make no mistake, every single officer in this country, most of whom perform duties unarmed, would be mentally rehearsing their actions if and indeed when, they are confronted with similar scenarios in our cities, towns and resorts.

Their collective view is perhaps summed by the legendary serving police blogger 'Inspector Gadget' who tweeted; "UK cops watching armed police on Sky News rushing to contain the Munich scene thinking what in God's name would we do here. "

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Munich police asserted that they were able to deploy more than 2,300 armed police officers in a short space of time. Within minutes the area swarmed with police who included heavily armed plain clothes officers resplendent in shorts. It's a sobering thought that the figure of 2,300 is probably in excess of the number of armed police who would be working throughout the UK mainland at any one time.

The threat grows; UK armed police numbers fall.

Armed officers in the UK began to feel concerned after the Mumbai massacre in 2008 and these concerns escalated after the murder of Lee Rigby and the Westgate shopping mall slaughter in Nairobi.

Since then, outside conflict zones, terrorist incidents across the world including Boston, Ottawa, Sydney, New York, Melbourne, Souse, multiple incidents in France and Belgium together with numerous plots frustrated by the British security services and police, still failed to move the government

Amazingly, between 2009 and 2015 the number of highly trained armed officers actually fell by 1,300. Only with the Paris massacre in November last year did the government and the current Prime Minister, Theresa May, realise that political suicide was inevitable unless action were taken. Extra funding was at last provided and frantic attempts are now being made to recruit additional armed officers which will increase numbers but only to just above 2009 levels.

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These efforts involve the somewhat unedifying spectacle of desperate forces attempting to 'poach' qualified firearms officers and instructors from each other. Recruitment in some forces however is also being hampered by the fears held by many officers as to the consequences involved if they have to 'pull the trigger.'

The emaciated blue line

Such is the sorry state of policing in the UK that there is not even an unarmed police presence in many substantially populated country towns and seaside resorts. The austerity closures of hundreds of police stations and the decimation of community policing means that much of the population will only see police on the occasional drive through or when responding to a call.

If that call is to a terrorist incident, a deranged active shooter or even an individual determined to kill police officers, it could still be some considerable time before there is an unarmed police response or assistance to the targeted officer let alone an armed response

Even arriving officers in Armed Response Vehicles's (ARV's) could be 'outgunned' by a one or more active shooters or find it impossible to stop a Nice type truck. Until the arrival of an ARV, unarmed officers would consider all options including, as in a Lee Rigby type scenario, using the car as a weapon -thereby risking the wrath of the loathed Independent Police Complaints Commission-or at least assist in evacuating and /or rendering first aid to members of the public.

The government talks of a surge of armed officers in the event of a major incident, the use of the army and the armed Civil Nuclear Constabulary (who have been told to expect to work until they are 68!) yet these would be deployed in the aftermath of an attack in order to deter further outrages.

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The concern of front line officers relates to the police response to that crucial first attack especially if that attack is fast moving. I tweeted recently that 'minutes matter;' Kevin Hurley, the former Surrey Police and Crime Commissioner and senior police officer ,who has served and narrowly escaped death in Iraq, promptly responded by tweeting "seconds matter."

Recent Events: UK

The recent incident where an attempt was made to abduct a serviceman near RAF Marham rang alarm bells for all armed forces personnel and police officers and once again those police officers spoke scathingly of 'be vigilant' emails. They have little choice but to emerge from their obvious places of work to walk to parked cars or public transport yet the powers that be still refuse to allow them to be in possession of either their expandable batons or incapacitate spray when travelling to and from work .

Of equal concern and mentioned only in passing by the media, was the conviction on the 13th of July 2016, of Gavin Rae also known as Yakub Rae, a former British soldier and a convert to the extreme form of Islam. In a superb operation, doubtless initiated by the Security Service, undercover police foiled his attempts to purchase firearms and ammunition. Rae even enquired about obtaining an Uzi. The unanswered question remains; namely the nature of the atrocity he was planning to carry out. Whatever it was, had he succeeded, he would have grabbed headlines around the world. The question is how many other Yakub Rae's are out there?

Dallas, Baton Rouge, the UK and anti-police rhetoric.

The deaths of police officers in both Dallas and Baton Rouge evoked huge sympathy from across the British policing community. The difficulties facing black officers following the emergence of the Black Lives Matter movement were movingly articulated by Officer Montrell Jackson in a post written just days before he was murdered at Baton Rouge. Jay Stalien, a black New York cop, also wrote inspirationally and at length about the hatred and mistrust directed at him even by his own family members despite the fact that he would be prepared to lay down his life for the community that is so hostile to him.

The question clearly being asked by American law enforcement is whether the violent ant-police rhetoric espoused by extreme factions of Black Lives Matter increased the dangers faced by police officers at the hands of militant activists, thugs and criminals across the country.

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There is little doubt that the American Black Lives Matter movement poses questions that demand answers but in doing so appears to have stigmatised every law enforcement officer regardless of the fact that those officers will drive and run towards shots and explosions in order to save lives. In the UK, Black Lives Matter protests have thus far been largely peaceful yet the chant "Black Lives Matter" could be heard from youths confronting police during disorder seen across London just last week.

The bile emanating from black British activists such as Lee Jasper is as inflammatory as anything heard from the most virulent African American militant in the US. Jasper's infamous comment directed to a black UK officer on twitter referred to that officer as; 'Some kind of wretched ass kissing Uncle Tom' which will presumably apply to all black officers whether in the UK or USA .

Both British and American police are facing unprecedented pressures and with these pressures are increasing risks of injury and death. Inflammatory rhetoric from the likes of Jasper can only increase the risks faced by officers but even more damaging is the insidious criticism from leading politicians be they David Cameron or Theresa May. Add to this mix, constant denigration by the national media, eager to pounce on any transgression then the inevitable result is a greater willingness of the criminal, the thug and the terrorist to confront police.

The crocodile tears of those same individuals and same sections of the media, be they in the US or the UK, when tragedy strikes is not lost on grieving officers. In the UK police are facing more abuse, confrontation and violence than ever before in the face of a massive terror threat together with an increasing menace from gangs especially in UK cities.

The future holds?

Sooner or later, somewhere in the UK, a mass tragedy will strike which our thinly spread emergency services will have to deal with. If the result is a preventable loss of life due to lack of resources, a predictable chain of events will occur.

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Home Office ministers, officials and culpable senior police officers will, at any subsequent inquest or 'full and frank' government enquiry, desperately strive to keep out of the mire while attempts will be made to stifle the views of rank and file officers. Someone, somewhere will then draft a 'whitewash' report.
Brian Snyder / Reuters

Diane Abbott's Daily Reports from the floor of the DNC: Day Two

It took a black woman, in the shape of Michelle Obama, to bring some semblance of unity to the Democratic National Convention on its opening day on Monday. Boisterous Bernie Sanders supporters had booed loudly every time Hilary Clinton's name was mentioned from the platform. They even booed when their hero, Bernie Sanders himself, tried to entreat them to support both Hilary and her centrist Vice-Presidential pick Tim Kaine.

But First Lady Michelle Obama finally brought the convention together with soaring speech urging support for Hilary which brought tears to the eyes of many delegates. One of the most moving passages was when Michelle described how she woke up every morning "in a house that was built by slaves. And I watch my daughters, two beautiful, intelligent black young women, playing with their dogs on the White House lawn. And because of Hillary Clinton, my daughters and all our sons and daughters now take for granted that a woman can be president of the United States." And the speech was all the more moving because it is widely understood that, after the bruising 2008 primary battle between Barack and Hilary, there was no love lost between Michelle and Hilary.

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Today black people will also be centre stage at the Convention. On the actual stage will be a group of black women described in the program as "Mothers of the Movement" They are all the mothers of black men who have died at hands of police and vigilantes. Among them will be the mothers of Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner and others. After a "summer of blood", in terms of police brutality against black men, this is probably appropriate. But it also the case that showcasing black campaigns in this way, was the least Hilary Clinton could do. Because without black voters, Hilary could not have won the Democratic nomination. Bernie Sanders policies may have been better for ordinary black people. But black Democrats chose to follow Barack Obama in forgiving Hilary her, borderline racist, 2008 Democratic primary campaign. They also went with the Clinton brand that they knew, rather than Sanders who was unknown to them until the beginning of the primary season.

But there will also be another black intervention at the Convention today. There will be a major march to the Convention centre by the Black Lives Matter movement. Unlike the "Mothers of the Movement" they will not be endorsing Hilary Clinton. Instead they want to encourage her to adopt more radical policies on race and civil liberties.

By contrast with the Democratic Convention's attempt to engage with race, Donald Trump's speech to the Republican National Convention was used to announce that he would be the most overtly racist nominee from either of the two main parties in the modern era. His politics are similar to those of the racist and segregationist George Wallace, who repeatedly failed to win Democratic Party nomination.

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Trump describes himself as the 'Law and Order Candidate'. Under President Trump all black people, all Latinos as well as what he terms 'border-crossers' had better watch out. In a context where black people and all people of colour are being killed by police and others Trump says he will remove all checks and restraints on them. Trump blames immigrants for the decline in US wages - a message which is increasingly echoed by racists the world over. In reality of course, the economic crisis and low wages are not caused by immigration. They are caused by exactly the policies that Trump is an extreme advocate for, under-investment by government, falling tax revenues and abolition of protective regulations on the environment, workers' rights and consumer rights.

Despite the justified criticisms from the Black Lives Matter movement, the Democratic Party today will be attempting to show that they are moving forward on race and immigration. Sadly the Republican Party is unashamedly going backwards.
At the League Against Cruel Sports, we campaign on a wide range of issues. We are known for our campaigns on hunting, on bullfighting, and most recently uncovering the scourge of dog fighting in the UK. But one of our main priorities is one of the least known - snares. Snares are thin wire nooses set to trap animals seen as a pest or threat, usually foxes and rabbits. They are intended to catch animals around the neck like a lasso.

But that's not exactly how they work in practice. In reality, the primitive design of a snare means it silently garrottes its victims, and often leads to a painful and lingering death. Government figures suggest that 1.7 million animals are caught in snares every year. The scale of suffering for British wildlife is devastating, but this suffering goes largely unheralded.

That is why it was so good to see a full debate on snares in the House of Commons yesterday. Brought forward by Jim Dowd, MP for Lewisham and Penge and an honorary life member of the League, the motion called on MPs to support a ban on the manufacture, sale, use, and possession of snares. The vast majority of MPs spoke in favour of a ban. Jim Dowd said that it is imperative that MPs take action on behalf of those who cannot take it for themselves, and this includes animals. He rightly pointed out that only one quarter of the creatures caught in snares are foxes. Cats, dogs, deer, badgers, and otters can all fall victim to these devices.

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His sentiment was echoed by other Members. George Howarth said that "most people are appalled by the barbarity and cruelty of the practice". Kirsten Oswald said animal welfare should be a top priority for MPs, as it is for their constituents. It was encouraging, too, to hear Labour's Environment Spokesperson Rachael Maskell say that Labour favour a ban, and the League very much welcomes that commitment.

There were, sadly, those who attended the debate merely to defend the use of snares and they were, predictably, closely aligned with the shooting industry. Simon Hart, MP and a consultant for the Countryside Alliance, and Geoffrey Clifton-Brown MP, who has enjoyed hospitality from the British Association for Shooting and Conservation, both spoke in favour of snares.

As Labour MP Ann Clwyd stated during the debate, snaring is cruel, lethal and a sop to the commercial shooting industry.

The debate also saw the debut of Therese Coffey as a Minister in the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. Her response to the debate was deeply disappointing. She said that there was no need to worry about the suffering inflicted on animals by snares because the Countryside Alliance and the BASC have devised a new code of conduct. Forgive me if I don't hold my breath waiting to see if this improves the lives of animals.

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The reality is that no code of conduct is sufficient. Snares, by their very nature, are indiscriminate. As long as they are legal, they will catch not only foxes but also badgers, hares and pet cats and dogs.

Therese Coffey said during the debate that Britain has the highest animal welfare standards in the world. When it comes to snares, that's utter nonsense - we're practically alone in Europe when it comes to allowing their use. I believe that it's time for the Government to back up those words with action. It's time for a ban on snares.
I've read thousands of words about why Donald Trump won't be President. Surely, he can't. Really, he mustn't. Honestly, he shouldn't. But the intellect of these highly paid and pleading columnists is nowhere near as revealing as the extraordinary conversation I heard the other day in one of New York's most exclusive areas.

After ten minutes listening to them argue over breakfast, I became convinced that, if luck is on his side and he doesn't do anything too stupid (no guarantee), Donald Trump will win. I hope he doesn't but I think he might.

I've been criss-crossing America and in every city I've asked my hosts about his chances. Nobody in Seattle, Salt Lake City, Los Angeles, Chicago and New York said they'd vote for him but none was confident he'd lose.

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Anyway, on a day off I decided to live as New Yorkers do. I ran around the Central Park lake a couple of times and then sought out a fabled deli on the Upper West Side for wonderful bagels and terrible coffee.

I heard a bickering couple settle in behind me. Imagine Woody Allen and Diane Keaton circa Manhattan Murder Mystery (1993). Honestly, being in New York is like being in a film. Anyway, the conversation went like this:

Woody: 'I don't care what you say, he's dangerous. He's a moron. It's a joke. The sooner we get to November the better.'

Diane: 'Well, I don't know.'

Woody: 'What? 'What da ya mean you don't know?'

Diane: 'They say things about him but I don't know.'

Woody: 'You don't know! You don't know! What is there to know? He's a monster.'

Diane: 'And she isn't?'

Woody: 'She's not him.'

Diane: 'Well I just think maybe he'll be different, he's got a point, maybe he'll...'

Woody: 'Do you mind doing me a favour. First, I'm trying to eat and you're making me feel sick. And second, you do whatever you want to do but for God's sake don't tell anyone we know.'

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And there's the nub of it. If you're going to vote for the person seemingly opposed to everything a wealthy, liberal, smart Upper West Sider is meant to stand for, keep quiet. People will say one thing and then do another. They'll pretend to be the person their colleagues, family and friendly pollsters think they are and then do the opposite in the voting booth.

It's what happened in two successive British votes in just over a year and points to a shift in how we vote - or say we vote - and why we shouldn't trust polls.

First, in the 2015 General Election in which David Cameron benefited from the 'shy Tories'. They told pollsters they'd vote for Labour and hapless Ed Miliband (partly out of loathing for the elite posh boys club Cameron chose to run the country). But when faced with the prospect of 'Red Ed' in the voting booth, they chose Cameron, hoping no one would ask or notice.

That's why Cameron benefited from an unlikely majority and also why he recently lost his job. Nobody sane would vote Brexit in the EU referendum he surmised. Who'd be so irresponsible to willingly spark chaos?

And everyone dutifully nodded their head yet hid their true feelings. So the polling gurus became convinced Britons would vote 'in' and, a few hours before the results were known, they foolishly told Cameron he'd secured 60 per cent of the vote.

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A large section of the population has been marginalised and taken for granted by politicians and the media for years, and now they've had enough. But they're not brave enough to admit they'd push the 'emergency' button to burst the establishment's self-satisfied bubble.

The media is as much to blame as politicians, dedicating acres of space to those who see things through an intellectual and rational prism. Emotionally, however, they are far removed from uncomfortable realities people face. Fear, envy, hatred, abandonment, loss.

People are often not rational, intellectual or well-informed. Or, if they are, they are not the predictable voters of the past, a lesson the discredited polling companies - fooled by respondents' dishonesty - are learning.

This is a Presidential election like no other because masses of voters won't admit the unpalatable truth - they're going to pinch their nose and vote not for Hillary Clinton but the person who'll collapse the unedifying house of cards. Just like the Brexiteers who wanted to give the establishment a kick without regard for the perilous long-term consequences, so Trump will benefit from the disillusionment of a Disunited States of America.
Owen Smith, the blandidate-in-chief of the PLP in its war against Corbyn, has announced that he will support the continued use of all-women shortlists in the selection of parliamentary candidates, and fill half of his shadow cabinet with women, should he take over as leader of the party.

It's no wonder that Smith is a shortlist supporter. They have created the only environment in which he could possibly be seen as leadership material: an environment of mediocrity.

The Labour Party began its error of selecting constituency candidates from all-women shortlists at the 1997 general election, after the policy was officially adopted at the 1993 party conference. Tony Blair -- the first party leader to take charge of shortlisted candidates -- described all-women shortlists as "not ideal at all", and side lined them at the 2001 general election. But, to quell internal pressure at a time of electoral uncertainty, they were reinstated at the 2005 election.

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Since then the Labour Party has selected 170 candidates from all-women shortlists. Yet just 48% of them have managed to reach the Commons. The poor electoral record of shortlisted candidates is not the result of them being tucked into Tory safe seats. Quite the contrary; shortlisted candidates are often assigned to winnable marginal seats like Nuneaton and Thurrock. The theory is that this will increase the number of female Labour MPs, and thus would-be political role models for women interested in engaging with politics.

In reality, the number of female Labour MPs has fallen from 101 in 1997, to 99 following Miliband's defeat in 2015. Worse still, shortlisted candidates aren't proving to be role models. They are either failing to win their winnable seat - depriving the party of fresh talent - or taking their seat only to prove absent from the public eye, void of innovative policy proposals, or, in the worst cases, altogether poor as a politician.

Jess Phillips -- selected via all-women shortlist at the last election -- is a prominent beneficiary of the scheme. She hasn't attracted attention to herself with a memorable maiden speech, or exceptional debate performances. Phillips is better known for laughing at the suggestion men's issues (such as high suicide rates) should be discussed on International Men's Day, asserting that Cologne-style sex attacks are a weekly event in Birmingham and telling Diane Abbott to "f**k off".

Pat Glass -- a shortlistee from the 2010 intake -- is no more a role model than her parliamentary junior. Almost absent for her first five years in Parliament, Glass has clearly decided to roll her sleeves up in 2016. So far she has taken on the responsibilities of the shadow education secretary for two days before resigning, and appealed to voters with concerns about immigration by calling one a "horrible racist". A true statesman if ever there was one.

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And finally we have Emily Thornberry. The serial sneerer was elected to her Islington constituency in 2005, having been selected from a shortlist, and has done her utmost to cremate the Labour Party's reputation with its patriotic working class core. The poll numbers of Jeremy Corbyn -- who first appointed her as shadow defence secretary before anointing her shadow foreign secretary -- would suggest she's doing a good job of it.

Giving these examples isn't to say that there aren't mediocre male MPs on the Labour benches - the memoirs of Andy Burnham are unlikely to attract much interest. But the existence of average male MPs does not change the fact that all-women shortlists, in their affront to meritocracy, have clearly damaged the reputation of women in politics by installing sub-par representatives into the Commons, solely because of their gender.

And that isn't where the damage ends: shortlists are also stifling the prospects of female Labour MPs selected for their ability, rather than their gender.

Research into the effect co-workers have on their colleagues, published in the Journal of Applied Psychology, found that co-workers are "an important source of information" and advice to one another. The research also surmised that co-workers could "influence employee opinions and attitudes" which could have "profound positive and negative effects" on outcomes for an individual.

How then can female Labour MPs selected for candidacy on their merits be expected to thrive in a party where 78 out of 99 of their female co-workers - people they will be turning to for influence, advice and policy ideas - have not been selected on the promise of their talent? They simply can't.

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Take Yvette Cooper for example. At the time of her election in 1997 -- when roughly a third of her female peers had been selected from shortlists -- she was an interesting newbie emerging from the ranks, involved with select committees and the Department of Health. Fast-forward to the present day -- a time where over 75% of her female colleagues have been on an all-women shortlist -- and she has dimmed to the backbenches after a dismal defeat at the 2015 leadership election.

What can be seen arising from the Labour Party policy of all-women shortlists is the smashing of one glass ceiling (the number of female representatives in parliament), and the creation of a new ceiling. A ceiling on the potential of Labour women, and the reputation of female politicians on the left.

Labour does not need all-women shortlists to get top talent on its side. Barbara Castle, one of the longest serving female MPs in history, and a women described by Harold Wilson as "good at whatever she touched", was not elevated to her position on an all-women shortlist, and nor were her peers.
It is the sort of breaking news you can neither comprehend nor believe. When I heard that Father Jacques Hamel, an 84 year old priest, was murdered by having his throat cut in St-Etienne-du-Rouvray, in Northern France, by two men claiming to be part of ISIS, I just could not believe it.

In a way it seems even more horrific than the attacks on Paris and Nice that we have seen over the past year. Those cities may have lost many more lives, but the sheer horror of this elderly and somewhat frail-looking priest being forced to his knees and his throat being slit is such a shocking mental image. It is very jarring because this particularly barbaric method of killing resembles the slaughter we learn of from afar, in some of ISIS' worst atrocities in Iraq and Syria, or in gruesome videos released of Western journalists murdered at the hands of ISIS. The thought of a church in rural France being attacked in this way is terrifying to us all. And I suppose that is exactly the intention of ISIS, if they were indeed behind it, as they claim.

So many of us have passed through a town just like St-Etienne-du-Rouvray on our French holidays. Or we can picture our own elderly vicar from our village back home. This sort of attack seems even more personalised and wounding than mass carnage in a city centre. Again, this must be exactly the intention of ISIS, to bring the worst of their terror tactics onto the home turf of France and Europe.

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And how can and should France react? I don't question for a second their right to be robust in their response to ISIS. They can and should remain resolved to defeat the terrorists. My fears are more around how French society, media and civil society react to this new form of wound. I hope the anger is directed solely at the culprits ISIS and does not extend to the peaceful and genuine Muslims of France. I have lived in France for almost five years and I don't think many would question that anti-Muslim sentiment is bubbling beneath the surface. My Muslim friends are fearful that their peaceful religion is becoming more and more misunderstood. From some French friends I once thought liberal, I can see that they are becoming fearful, and that their views of Muslims and wider immigration are slowly becoming poisoned by ISIS. For example they are becoming harder in their views about a Muslim woman's right to wear her own preferred style of dress such a headscarf. I fear the government needs to do more to integrate immigrant communities and create more equality of opportunity, to build more bridges and acceptance.

After the Charlie Hebdo attacks, which included an attack on a kosher Jewish supermarket, Prime Minister Manuel Valls said that "France without Jews is not France' which was a very welcome message for all of us to hear. I would argue that France needs to make a similar affirmation that France would not be France without her Muslims either, that they are a wanted and integral part of France. That needs to be shouted louder than the divisive and poisonous messages from the terrorists. If France becomes divided, ISIS win.
Doug Armand via Getty Images

Voting is now open for the election of the Summer. And no, it's not for the next Labour leader.

The Greens are currently deciding who will take over from Natalie Bennett after two terms in office. After a month of - it has to be said, relatively low-profile - campaigning, the 65,000-odd Green Party members will pick who will lead the party in the most unstable period British politics has seen in decades.

The low-level (and good natured) state of the Green race is not for lack of candidates - there are seven potential victors, or six leadership 'options', with Lambeth's Jonathan Bartley and Brighton-based Caroline Lucas MP running on a joint ticket.

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So, who are the candidates? In reverse alphabetical order...

In what is an interesting mix of candidates, Warin, 29, is a relative outsider to many Green members. Warin describes himself as an 'eco-socialist' - appealing to the Green Left faction of the party and those who joined more out of the lack of a prominent socialist party in the UK than perhaps other factors. As a young person and a serving parish councillor in Easington (County Durham), Warin may have appeal to left-wing activists outside London - however his presence has been largely lacking from the campaign.

Williams joins the 'councillor bloc' of candidates, having represented the Greens on Oxfordshire County Council since 2013. Williams, who is in his sixties, has been active in politics for 40 years, previously being a prominent Labour Party member (interestingly, he helped to draft Labour's 1983 manifesto). Williams stood for Labour in Rochdale in 1992, coming within around 2,000 votes of winning. He is focused on the need for Green leadership post-Brexit, and is pitching as the 'experienced' candidate who can appeal to Labour voters.

Malone, an independent film-maker based in Yorkshire, is arguably running as the 'knowledgeable' candidate, with a strong focus on economics, science and finance. Aged 54, Malone stood in the General Election for Scarborough and Whitby, coming fourth with 4.6% of the vote. He has written about the financial crisis, and told me last week that 'If we wish to be electable then people must stop thinking we are nice people who save whales' - i.e. that the Greens need to be clued-up on economics. He is likely to win the support of many not backing the Bartley-Lucas ticket, and is likely to come in the top three.

Clive Lord is the most well-known of the 'non-Caroline' candidates, in the Greens - and in the wider 'green movement' - as the co-founder of the PEOPLE Party in 1973, the (very distant) forerunner to today's Green Party. Now in his 80s, Lord sits firmly on the 'deep Green' wing of the party - the traditional environmentalist section - that has been somewhat left behind following the 'Green surge' of young, left-wing members over the past two years, as well as the broader Lucas/Bennett-led shift to the left which we have witnessed since 2008. Lord is strongly focused on securing a Universal Basic Income - otherwise known as a Citizens' Income - and, of course, tackling the climate crisis, arguing 'our message need not be "The end of the world is at hand", but "The end of the world need not be at hand"'. Lord also suggested 'A Recession can be Fun' as an early slogan. Lord's vote share will be a litmus test on how much the Greens have changed over the past decade.

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Southend-based Cross is standing as the 'grassroots candidate', in the face of what some feared would be a Bartley/Lucas dominated contest. Cross describes himself as 'straight-talking and a listener', and stood for the Greens in 2015 for the Rochford and Southend East Constituency, securing his deposit with 5% of the vote. Originally from Sheffield, works in ethical sales and prioritises securing electoral reform and increasing diversity within the party: 'Those left behind must know that a Green voice is their voice'. But Cross will be competing with Lord for the traditional Green vote - 'Our key platforms must be the environment and climate change', he says.

Finally, we come to the joint ticket. Little needs to be said of the latter, who has been MP for Brighton Pavilion since 2010 and led the party between 2008 and 2012. Lucas is the only female candidate in what is a very male-dominated race, which could add to her appeal, while Lambeth-based Bartley is the founder of the progressive Christian think tank Ekklesia, standing down as Co-Director this year to run for leader of the party.

Their campaign has undoubtedly been the most prominent, using the high profile of both to great advantage. While this initially sparked concerns that the election could turn out to be a mere 'coronation', the relatively wide field suggests this isn't the case - although, admittedly, few come close to the popularity and visibility of this joint ticket.

Anything could happen though - don't underestimate Greens' love of an underdog.

Voting closes on the 25th August, so there's still a month to go of voting. Given the low turnout for leadership elections (under 3,000 people voted in 2014, albeit with a smaller membership at the time), every vote is going to count. Watch this space.

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Violence against women and girls is one of the most widespread forms of abuse worldwide, affecting 35% of women in our lifetimes. Such violence is a daily reality for millions of women and girls, including in the UK. In England and Wales, two women are killed a week by their current or former partner. In Uganda, more than half of women have experienced physical violence at least once since the aged of 15. In Ethiopia, 74% of women aged 15-49 have undergone FGM.

In all countries in the world, gender-based violence exercised through individuals, communities and institutions, violates the human rights of women and girls. It negatively impacts on women's health, their choices and opportunities, and prohibits women and girls from achieving their full potential.

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Shelter services are under threat

Despite violence against women and girls being a global issue, the services that protect women are under threat. Funding cuts, closure of shelters and pressure to provide so-called gender-neutral approaches are putting essential services for survivors at risk. Here in the UK, 155 women on average are turned away from refuges each day, and the situation is even more serious in countries such as Ethiopia and Zimbabwe where there are even fewer services.

Womankind Worldwide's most recent report, 'More than a roof: Documenting the work of specialist women's organisations providing holistic shelter services in Ethiopia and Zimbabwe', adds to the growing body of evidence on women's services. Womankind researchers spoke to women survivors of violence, specialist staff that support them and key members of the community in both countries, including government officials and the police. The report highlights the high quality, critical work being carried out by the organisations we partner with, the Association for Women's Sanctuary and Development (AWSAD) in Ethiopia, and Musasa in Zimbabwe and some of the pressing challenges they face.

Violence against women is a daily battle

In Ethiopia, intimate partner violence is highly prevalent and widely socially condoned. Nearly half of all women aged 15-49 experience physical violence in their lifetime and 59% reported sexual violence. Our partner AWSAD runs four women-only shelters in Ethiopia, all of which are facing daily battles with lack of beds and resources for women and girls who have experienced violence. The shelters not only provide a safe and positive environment for women and girls to overcome the trauma of violence, but also recognise that a holistic approach to shelter provision is critical in making women feel empowered and helping them recover more effectively. This means addressing the multiple needs of survivors to include offering immediate and long-term healthcare, responding to sexual and reproductive health needs, facilitating their access to the police and justice system, and also providing opportunities for women to learn new vocational and life skills.

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Similarly, in Zimbabwe, where at least 30% of women aged 15-49 have experienced physical violence, our partner Musasa supported 25,880 women and girls across its services in 2015. Like AWSAD, the focus is on holistic services that empower women, and includes two urban shelters, seven community shelters, and a free national counselling line. Musasa is the only organisation providing specialist shelter services in Zimbabwe.

Holistic, women-led shelter services

Despite the different contexts the organisations are working in, there are key similarities and lessons from their work.

First, a holistic approach is key. As the report shows, providing 'more than a roof' means treating the initial needs of women, and then working with them to ensure they have the skills, the confidence and the support to rebuild their lives. From skills training to self-defence lessons, clients told us time and again how the services provided had supported them to gain confidence and feel empowered.

Second, women-led specialist organisations and women-only safe spaces are vital in ensuring holistic, empowering services to women. Organisations such as Musasa and AWSAD take a feminist approach that recognises violence against women and girls as rooted in broader gender inequality and that service provision must aim to empower women and support them to live independent lives free of violence. They have the skills, experience and commitment to make a real difference to the lives of women.

Third, a common challenge faced by each organisation is lack of core, flexible and long-term funding. In Ethiopia, AWSAD is turning away between ten and 20 women a day from one shelter in Addis Adaba. Limited funding means that Musasa cannot recruit more staff which places pressure on existing staff.

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Yet we know their support is having an impact on women's lives. As one survivor in Zimbabwe told us "now [after going to Musasa shelter] I am being called a person among other people. I never considered myself a person in my life."

We must make a commitment
"This is a historic moment for the humankind," UN Secretary Ban Ki-Moon said to the pioneer and pilot Bertrand Piccard during an internet videoconference, few hours before the arrival of the airplane Solar Impulse in Abu Dhabi. "This landing is the start of what will come next" answered Piccard. On July 26 (5:00 local time, UTC+4) this unique aircraft completed a 40 000 km round-the-world journey propelled only by the energy of sun. The fuselage of Solar Impulse flies also the flag of the European Union and the President of the European Parliament Martin Schulz promised to Piccard, in a videoconference on July 14, the commitment of the European Union to accelerate the energy transition.

Put the sun at the glowing heart of progress! This is the message of Solar Impulse. For two centuries technological civilization has revolved around the energy of fossil fuels, but now humankind has the capability and knowledge to make the energy of the sun the centre of its development. If by rightly putting the sun at the centre of the solar system the "Copernican revolution" corrected a factual knowledge mistake, the "solar revolution" in technology must now correct an error in moral choice. This error consists in continuing to burn coal, oil and gas in order to provide eighty per cent of the world energy, whilst accepting the increasing damage this causes to people and environment.

Of course, thanks to fossil sources of energy, last century saw an unprecedented boost of the world's population, the average longevity of humans, and the well-being of the richest bracket of them. Yet, now we know that fossil fuels have unacceptable environmental consequences, such as the disruption of the climate and increasing pollution, as well as dramatic social consequences, such as the bloody conflicts over fossil fuels, the impoverishment of entire populations and exponentially growing mass migration due to climate change.

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This ecological and social harm makes the transition to a solar civilization an "energy imperative". This is the title of the last book by Herman Scheer (1944-2010), the pragmatic and visionary politician who perhaps did more than anybody else to implement the solar vision. When in the '80s he dedicated himself completely to the energy revolution, perhaps even Scheer did not dare to imagine the scene of July 26: a majestic electric butterfly with the same wingspan of a Jumbo jet and powered by two hundred square meters of photovoltaic panels, landing with a slight hum in Abu Dhabi, a few kilometres from the world headquarters of the International renewable energy agency (IRENA), the institution conceived and advocated by Scheer for decades, and finally established in 2009.

Through its outreach program futureisclean this solar airplane aims to support, especially in schools, hundreds of initiatives which aim to educate people in saving energy and a transition to renewable energies. Kofi Annan, Mikhail Gorbachev, Achim Steiner (UNEP), Sir Richard Branson

are among the prestigious initiators of this educational program, which testifies that the true mission of Solar Impulse is the communication of a message, rather than the development of a technology.

Indeed, the technologies making this plane fly have been known for years and the novelty is "only" in having them assembled together, for doing something that was deemed impossible just a short while ago. This is a good approximate metaphor of our world, where we aren't certainly lacking technologies for the energy transition, but we rather lack political initiative and coordination, we lack real willingness to subordinate the vested interests to the common good, and we especially lack the individual and collective awareness for doing it. In order to arouse the latter in the whole population, symbols and images are more effective than graphs and statistics. To touch the hearts and minds, it is better to tell a story than to display calculations.

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The argument advanced by leading Remain campaigners during the referendum was if the UK left the EU a trade war would ensue causing the loss of 3 million jobs. With a month having passed already since the vote to Leave the EU in the referendum, these prophecies of doom have failed to materialise. Trade wars and job losses are not in the economic interests of the UK or the EU. Worse still for Europhiles, a punishment policy would destroy the European Project, and as a consequence destroy their chance of creating a European federation.

The 3 million jobs claim was incorrect right from the beginning. This claim first appeared in a report by NIESER which argued 3 million jobs are linked to trading with EU Member States. The use of this statistic was manipulated to make people believe 3 million jobs would be lost if the UK left the EU. To reach this figure, the UK would not trade at all with any of the EU Member States following Brexit. To put this in context, it is premised upon, for example, no BMWs or champagne etc. being sold in the UK after Brexit. In fact, to reach this figure you would have to believe France would trade more with Zimbabwe than the UK outside the EU, a risible argument. The misuse of the NIESER report has been described as 'pure Goebbels' by Martin Weale - the director of NIESER!

However, if one used the same flawed analysis in relation to jobs in the EU which depend on UK trade, it would result in 5.5 million EU jobs being lost! In reality these EU and UK jobs are safe because trade will continue once Brexit occurs.

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Trade will carry on because the UK is such an important market to the EU. To refuse to trade would be the most extraordinary act of spite, and would be a case of cutting off their nose in order to spite their face. The UK is the EU's largest export market in goods, making up 16% of the total, and the UK only has a trade surplus in goods with Ireland, Luxembourg and Malta. In relation to goods and services, the UK has a trade deficit of 67.8 billion with the EU, and a trade surplus of 31.1 billion with the rest of the world.

The UK also has global economic influence through membership of the G7 and the G20. Our economy is the 5th largest in the world and the 2nd largest in the EU, after Germany. Most EU countries are not even close to the economic might of the UK. We have heard a great deal from EU leaders about their attempts to achieve comprehensive trade deals with large economies, surely the UK - whose economic policies are currently harmonised with the EU's - presents an excellent opportunity for EU leaders to celebrate success.

There is a deep understanding of this in Germany, where senior politicians - right up to Merkel herself - are calling for a conciliatory tone in Brexit negotiations. Merkel understands the disastrous impact on the EU's economy if the EU and the UK don't forge close economic ties.

The EU's economic influence around the world is falling too, and this is even before Brexit is finalized and which will increase the decline. The EU's share of world GDP has fallen from 30% in 1980 to 16.5% in 2016. This is due to the over regulatory model of the single market, which creates standards which are so onerous only large companies with sprawling compliance departments can cope with the enormous amount of rules. As a result, smaller companies without these departments are denied a place in the market. Clearly the enormous amount of lobbying by multinational corporations is paying off, and therefore no surprise they supported the Remain campaign. Due to this lack of competition, some large companies have become inefficient, resulting in them being overtaken by companies from the rest of the world.

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Since the financial crash of 2008 the EU has been in the grips of a crisis of its own making - the Eurozone crisis - which has still not gone away. Many of the Eurozone countries' banks are heavily laden with debt, with some describing the Italian banking crisis as a greater threat than the perceived risks of Brexit on the continent. If the Eurozone was plunged back into another financial mess, then this would surely be the end of the Euro. The Euro has exhausted all its political capital with the previous bailouts, and another bust after only a vague trace of a boom would cause the Euro to run out of all economic capital too. Once this occurs the Euro cheque will be marked 'insufficient funds' never to be deposited again!

A Brexit punishment - contrary to popular belief - would not dissuade other countries from leaving the EU, but would encourage others to jump ship, specifically Ireland. Ireland's economy is heavily dependent on trade with the UK, as it imports 26.9 billion and exports 17.1 billion worth of goods and services to the UK. The reason for this enormous amount of trade is political, historical and geographical, with very little room to trade elsewhere. Consequently, EU trade barriers with the UK would increase the cost of their imports and exports to the UK, forcing Irish companies to sacrifice profits, downsize, relocate or go out of business. The sacrifice of Ireland's trade relationship with the UK would be another boost for an already Eurosceptic nation after the disgraceful deception which occurred during the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty.

It could be argued the EU isn't even allowed to dish out punishments on the basis of Brexit under its own law - Article 3(5) of the Treaty on European Union states the EU shall contribute to free and fair trade. To refuse to strike beneficial free trade deals because a country left the European Union would surely fall foul of this provision.

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Stamping out child abuse is the responsibility of everyone who works with children and NHS staff - from receptionists to nurses and doctors - are ideally placed to spot the signs of child sexual abuse and exploitation.

That is why The Children's Society has joined forces with the Department of Health to develop a new initiative for hundreds of thousands of health professionals across the UK.

Seen and Heard-- a powerful, interactive e-learning course with video -- created by The Children's Society will support three quarters of a million staff across the NHS to recognise the signs of child sexual abuse or exploitation, as well as understand how to make children feel able to speak about what is happening to them.

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In 2014, the Government declared child sexual abuse one of the greatest threats facing the UK today. Alarmingly, 1 in 20 children in the UK has been sexually abused. Many children don't feel able to report their abuse because they are afraid or feel they won't be believed. Frequently, their pain goes unnoticed or the signs that they are being abused or exploited are misunderstood. And sometimes, child victims are wrongly seen as difficult, moody or uncooperative.

Too often children are expected to shoulder the burden of disclosing what is happening to them, which is a huge and often frightening step for any child to take. Through Seen and Heard, we hope to break down these barriers so children can get the help and protection they need as soon as an adult suspects sexual abuse is taking place.

We worked with over 100 young people, some of whom are victims of sexual abuse, in order to make sure their concerns are central to the training.

Although the training focuses on staff working in the health service, it is relevant to anyone who works with children and is freely available to all. Recognising the warning signs and creating the right opportunities for children to talk is everyone's responsibility and this is an important step forward in making this a reality.

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By recognising the signs of child sexual abuse, these vulnerable children will be both seen and heard so they can get the protection and support they need in order to recover from these horrific crimes.
The international community works not in mysterious ways, as Pakistani politicians like to believe. It engages in cooperation on the basis of broad guiding principles found in international treaties and covenants. The All Parties Conference (APC) decided (as a rather late reaction) to take up the issue of drones in the UNSC. If this is being hailed as a sensible decision, let's just clarify a few misconceptions. While the Pakistani position on drones remains confused and without detailed, informed legal basis, the US Administration has carefully evolved their legal standing on the issue. We have merely used the slogans of "sovereignty," "human rights," and other fluffy concepts without ever understanding their legal implications.

Sovereignty has evolved drastically as a concept since the Peace of Westphalia, whether our inept politicians like to accept it or not. There have been charters and concepts that have eroded the idea of absolute sovereignty. In the 21st Century, for better or worse, there is no longer absolute sovereignty. Have the bright minds that attended the APC ever heard of humanitarian intervention or Responsibility to Protect (R2P)? Have they even read their own Constitution which technically does not even make clear whether the people of FATA have fundamental rights or not? I doubt any of our politicians can even begin to understand the implications of Article 267 of the Constitution. The Article clearly states that FATA is an area where even the Superior courts cannot exercise jurisdiction relating to certain matters. It has a series of implications that are unexplored as there is no clear judicial precedent on what exactly the status of FATA is since it is not treated in the same manner as any other region in the country.

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The fact that drone strikes are carried out in an area where we're not even sure on what our classification of that area is has given the US room to formulate a clever justification founded on concrete international law principles. And what is the Pakistani position? A little condemnation here, and a little sloganeering there. The sincerest advice one could give our politicians, who remain blissfully unaware, is to get together a legal team to formulate an actual position on drone strikes. A legal position. The UN Security Council does not care, and in-fact will laugh, at our representatives if they go on using words they have no understanding of. Yes, drone attacks violate our sovereignty but the US has given a justification to that - have we formulated a legal response? Or are we just going to go on and use a refuted argument. Technically, if FATA isn't even governed under the same laws as Pakistan, the US has no problem justifying the sovereignty issue.

Yes drone attacks violate human rights - but the US has also made it clear that they are in a state of war with terrorists. What this means is that the law of war governs their actions - not the law of peace. It might be a good idea to get a grip on those concepts and develop a legal justification as to why the law of peace operates.
Article 2 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that all individuals have rights based upon their race, colour, gender, language, religion, property, and others. But, unfortunately, not everyone enjoys all of these privileges; the Rohingya community is a prime example.

Born as a Rohingya in Myanmar is considered as a big mistake, a disgrace, and an abominable sin that must be borne. They face hatred from their fellow countrymen and injustice from their government. The consequence is clear. The Rohingyas have become the butt of all forms of injustice: living in Rakhine state that resemble a ghetto; prohibited from living in their homeland without the government's permission; not recognised as one of 135 legitimate ethnic groups in Myanmar; not considered citizens of their own country; and expressly forbidden from participating in all forms of politics. The reason for such discrimination is simple; they belong to the Rohingya ethnic minority. Their skins are not as light as other Myanmarese and they are not Buddhist.

While historians continue to argue over the origin of Rohingyas, whether they are indigenous to Rakhine state or migrants from Bengal during British colonialism, it cannot be denied that the Rohingyas have inhabited Myanmar for hundreds of years. This is evidenced by a census conducted by the British in 1891, which reported approximately 58,255 Muslims living in Arakan; known presently as Rakhine state. Nonetheless, the current number of the Rohingya community continues to erode. Even in Aung Mingalar, a ghetto area in Sittwe, the capital of Rakhine state, only 4,000 Rohingyas remain. This population decline is caused by Rakhine state no longer being friendly towards Rohingyas and forcing people to leave their homelands.

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Leaving the Rakhine state is essential for the Rohingyas. To resist is to surrender their lives to the Buddhist extremists who target them. History doesn't lie. Abominations against Rohingyas in 2012, for example, have resulted in hundreds of deaths. Ironically, these inhumane actions were supported and orchestrated by many Buddhist religious leaders through their religious classes that reek of chauvinism. They tell their followers that if ethnic Rohingyas are not crushed, Myanmar will become a Muslim country and their position as a majority will turn into a minority. Of course, all such claims are unfounded.

One Buddhist figure most active in spreading the seeds of hatred against Rohingyas is Ashin Wirathu. Head of the 969 movement, a controversial Buddhist group in Myanmar, he regards Islam as the greatest threat to the country. Therefore, he believes that its development must be suppressed by making the lives of its adherents uncomfortable. Strategies adopted by Wirathu include urging people to boycott Muslim-owned shops, prohibiting interracial marriage, and disseminating the notion that mosques are 'enemy bases.' Therefore, it makes sense that Wirathu is considered by many as the 'Bin Laden of Burma.'

The Myanmar government deliberately helps suppression of the Rohingya community through official policies. For instance, these people are not permitted to have more than two children. Young couples who wish to get married should seek permission from the government.

Efforts to disrupt the lives of Rohingya have troubling consequences. Besides those who have been slaughtered, thousands more have been forced to leave their homes. Many decide to risk their lives crossing the ocean in search of shelter. Unmitigated, the number of 'boat people' - a term used to describe Rohingyas fleeing Myanmar by sea - for the first three months of 2015 alone has reached 25,000 people. Today, this number continues to rise.

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Unfortunately, fleeing suppression in Myanmar does not necessarily end their unfortunate fate as Rohingyas. Stories of their grief continue with different plots. 100 individuals were reportedly killed in Indonesia, and 200 were killed on their way to Malaysia. It is important to note that these figures are those that are known; many more lives have been lost at sea, which are, of course, more difficult to report.

Throughout this time, Rohingya who seek shelter in neighbouring countries have been kicked to and fro by those governments. Malaysia, Indonesia, and Thailand deny these people entry for a variety of reasons. Those who have successfully entered also receive unpleasant welcomes. They are not awarded permanent residency and have to content themselves with remaining in the refugee camps where there are limited water and food supplies.

The return of Myanmar to the system of democracy with the election of Aung San Suu Kyi as the country's counsellor had not brought fresh wind to the Rohingya community. Even the Nobel Peace Prize receiver still refuses to call the ethnic minority by the name 'Rohingya', because they are not considered citizens of Myanmar. Not only that, she was also furious when she found out that the person who interviewed her on BBC Today, Mishal Husain, is a Muslim. Such discriminatory and racist attitudes certainly make many people question the propriety of San Suu Kyi to being a recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize.

What happens to Rohingyas in Myanmar is undoubtedly inhumane and unacceptable. It is time for the international community to put pressure on the Myanmar government to stop their suppression of the Rohingyas. Basic human rights, as they are written in the UDHR, must be afforded to everyone, including the Rohingya community.
Christopher Furlong via Getty Images

On June 23, the UK was divided into three groups: Leavers, Remainers and non-voters.

Now, we are all in one group: Waiters.

We are all waiting to see what the three Brexiteers - Liam Fox, David Davis and Boris Johnson - do next.

We are all waiting to see if the UK gets access to the Single Market.

We are all waiting to see if freedom of movement into the UK is scrapped.

We are all waiting to see if those trade deals we were promised will materialise.

But one person is not waiting, and that is Nick Clegg.

Remember him? The former deputy prime minister who helped prop up David Cameron as Prime Minister for five years in what became a near-fatal act for his own party?

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After the 2015 General Election, Clegg laid low. When new Lib Dem leader Tim Farron dished out shadow portfolios, his predecessor was notably absent from the rostra.

Having been bruised by Ukip leader Nigel Farage in two TV debates on the EU ahead of European Parliament elections in 2014, Clegg kept a relatively low-profile during this year's referendum campaign.

Indeed, when he stood up in Parliament and demanded an early election in the wake of Cameron's resignation, many joked it was because he wanted an excuse to quit parliament completely.

But as of last week he is back in front line politics as the Lib Dem's Brexit spokesman - and thank goodness he is too.

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Whether you voted Leave or Remain on June 23, you should be pleased Clegg has taken on this role. His knowledge of the intricacies of Brussels is second-to-none. Before becoming an MEP in 1999, Clegg worked as European Commission trade negotiator. Thanks to his five years at the heart of Government, he knows how Whitehall operates. He knows how things are done abroad and at home.

At a briefing with journalists today, he released the first of a series of briefing notes on the various dilemmas facing the Brexiteers.

Today's was focused on the UK's access to the Single Market.

Does the Government distinguish between 'access' to the Single Market and 'membership'?

If we are outside the Single Market, will the UK mimic the harmonised rules to make it easier to export to the EU?

Would the Government be prepared to pay in some money to the EU budget to get access to the Single Market, as Norway, Iceland and Switzerland do?

These were just some of the questions he flagged up.

Clegg also questioned why Fox was trying to sort global trade deals before he had settled the UK's relationship with the EU. After all, any country seeking to sign a deal with the UK will want to know exactly what they get out of any agreement.

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The same is true of World Trade Organisation rules. Some Brexit campaigners point to the fact that under WTO rules countries can't impose punitive tariffs on the UK, but currently we don't have our own status within the WTO as we are part of the EU. The UK needs to negotiate that agreement, as well as individual trade deals.

What happens to the UK's financial sector, which currently benefits from "passporting rights" whereby banks and other businesses can offer their services across the EU from a UK base? Will that be secured? If so, how?

How does the Government plan to deal with Michel Barnier - the man chosen by the European Commission to handle Brexit negotiations?

These are not hypothetical questions designed to trip up Leave campaigners in the heat of the EU referendum debate.

These are legitimate, nitty-gritty concerns which both sides of the EU debate will want answers to.

It's not as if Labour is able to scrutinise the Three Brexiteers at the moment. The party hasn't even got a Shadow International Trade Secretary, and Emily Thornberry is having to double up as both Shadow Foreign and Shadow Brexit.

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The Scottish National Party is too busy trying to convince everyone the UK-wide referendum result does not apply to Scotland, and so will be more focused on looking for loopholes than analysing agreements.

Clegg therefore finds himself in the position of Scrutineer-in-Chief as the Brexiteers get to work.
Watching the situation which has come to a crescendo in the States hurts deeply. As a young man of colour, I looked to America to find the sense of identity I was longing for in the UK. Back then, I felt that whenever I tried to carve out my place I was being told that I did not belong. The conflicts I experienced with my own sense of masculinity and what it was to be male, just compounded this, leading me to search for some sense of significance and self-worth within an eco-system that often claimed that I, and people like me, had disturbed it. During adolescence it is all too easy to internalise these struggles and that can affect every interaction, if you allow it to.

That leads me to another cultural dilemma. For many of us, growing up meant searching for a history we could own and, for some, a history in which many people who looked like us had been exploited was difficult to buy in to. Being told you didn't belong here just buttressed that view. As I got older, I saw the legacy of black Britons stretching back for hundreds of years. Everywhere I looked, from science to politics to sport and music, I saw the influence of people who looked like me. Let's face it, we all know how Lions became a prominent symbol in England and it isn't because they are indigenous to the countryside. And, there is a reason the jewel in the Queen's crown is called the "Star of Africa".

But as a young man, I looked to America for guidance because everything I saw associated with people of colour seemed to be emerging from there. I found heroes and sheroes in abundance, from Angela Davis to James Baldwin. Then when my parents moved to the Boston neighbourhood of Roxbury in the late 80s, I was quick to follow - only to find myself longing to return to the UK.

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Why? Well, the poverty I saw there begat a desperation, and in some cases despair, that I had never experienced before. People living in houses which had clearly been condemned and with no facilities. Young men the same age as me were carving up into zones a neighbourhood which had little in the way of assets and using their own law to protect themselves and survive via gangs.

I had seen some of this on TV. And while it was sometimes daunting to leave my parents' flat and walk past these groups of young men, nothing was as worrying as the attitude of the police to me as a young black male. The relationship was very clear as their hands hovered around the holster area on their hip. It was not a relationship of respect based on authority or trust, it was based on fear. They had guns and would not hesitate to use them if they felt threatened or disobeyed. It was the most vulnerable I had ever felt.

When the chief of New York police, Bill Bratton came to the UK in 2012 to "advise" on policing issues, he labelled UK gangsters as "wannabes" who were trying to copy criminals in the US. He had introduced zero-tolerance policing to New York and Los Angeles and his comments echoed some of America's less attractive qualities. Those included a very healthy gun culture about which he seemed almost to be bragging. That may offer some interesting insights into the combative nature of American policing and the "them and us" environment which creates friction, especially in the black community.

With deaths in custody, institutional racism and incident after incident involving corruption, we have challenges of our own in the UK. The lives ruined tell their own tale. When I was growing up, the police often stopped us whether we were on our way to the park or library, or coming back from a party. Sometimes they were ok and other times things took a violent or racially abusive tone. But I never quite felt the way I did in the US. (It is important to say that I have visited several US states since then and had great experiences. I've found the police helpful and courteous. But I was obviously a tourist and was usually in the nicer parts of the city.)

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We often look to America, particularly for solutions to inner city social issues. In fact, many of our recent approaches to issues like gang violence are tempered using methods in circulation in the US. "Shield", a "collective punishment" scheme was designed by American criminologist Professor David Kennedy and received a mixed reaction here in the UK. I recall many of the young men and boys we had begun working with at Working With Men bringing us letters from the police addressed to each young person individually. These letters informed them that the police were not going to stand for their activities and behaviour any more and as a result would be clamping down on them as a group. As you can imagine, instead of invoking fear, the response was anger in many cases and ambivalence in others, especially when they had worked hard to move away from that lifestyle.

Any programme or initiative which focuses on gangs and knives instead of the motivations of the people behind them will ultimately fail in the long term. Our time is better spent addressing issues like the skills gap, institutional racism, poverty and misunderstood ideas of masculinity by using evidence-based programmes to ensure high degrees of social identity, social intelligence, collaboration, empathy, good judgement and self-efficacy.

You may think I am talking about young people in the community, but we also need to ensure that our law enforcement officers are equipped with these same skills.

If there is any time to be learning from America it is right now. Guns and community policing don't go together. In the UK, we are courageous enough to make our communities safe without them. We have seen time and time again throughout history that in the long term you cannot control people using fear, violence and oppression. And we've seen that when those who have vowed to protect our communities lose the trust and faith of those communities, the system begins to fail.

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Last week's International AIDS Conference in Durban, South Africa was a reminder that HIV and AIDS remains at the forefront of the global health agenda.

One of the critical issues as governments and NGOs develop strategies to counter HIV/AIDS is gender inequality: a major topic throughout the first few days of the conference. In sub-Saharan Africa, where two thirds of those affected by HIV/AIDS live, 56% of new infections among adults and 66% of new infections among young people are women. In rural Tanzania, the concept of the "left ones" is often used to talk about women whose husbands abandoned them following their HIV diagnosis, leaving them to support families and raise children in the face of the social and economic exclusion.

It was in this context that I embarked on a project to provide a voice for these women and to gain a greater understanding of the socio-economic risks they face on a day-to-day basis, supported by the AXA Research Fund. PILI, a feature length drama, is a film based on the testimony of 85 local women from the Pwani region of Tanzania. The women all had a worryingly similar story to tell when we asked them to articulate their experience of HIV. Lack of formal employment, social stigma, problems with access to treatment, and poverty were the experience of almost all of the women along with the daily pressures of trying to raise their families alone.

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Rather than professional actors, the stars of PILI are the real women of rural Tanzania who are managing HIV and the challenges that go alongside it. As 65% of PILI's cast members are HIV positive, we wanted their experience, challenges and emotion to drive the film. PILI provides an opportunity for these marginalised women to tell their own story, in their own words, in their own language.

The protagonist of the film, Pili, played by Bello Rashid, captures the grievances of the women from the local community. Pili's life is restricted by the structures of poverty, gender and her HIV status, much like many of the women with HIV/AIDS we spoke to from the Pwani region. Pili is also self-stigmatizing; ashamed of her HIV Positive status and keeping it to herself. Instead of accessing the free anti-retroviral drugs at local clinics, Pili chooses to pay the local dispensary for under the counter drugs with the little money she has in order to hide her disease from her community. In Africa, free treatment and care is often available however a mere one-third of those eligible are able to access it. The film follows Pili over a four-day period as she tries to better her life, for herself and her children, by attempting to rent a market stall, and the problems she faces trying to do so. This is reflective of Bello's dream; to go back to school and study to become a nurse, driven by the desire to show someone from her background can achieve more than working in a field.

Making PILI was a challenge. The team failed to secure a film permit ahead of shooting, despite submitting paperwork, and the required 1,000 fee, months ahead of time. This set the scene for a filming process fraught with risks, with the crew facing illness, an extortion attempt, local government corruption and a near miss with a ravine. Support from the community, regional and local health workers and the local women who feature in the film was the only reason we were able to finish this film. The consistent determination of the women involved in the project, who face daily hardship, put our grievances into perspective.

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PILI provides a platform for the story of these marginalised women. The film aims to emphasise the socio-economic impact of HIV/AIDS on women in one community in rural Tanzania, unravelling perceptions of the virus through personal experience. This film is not just Pili's story but the reality for thousands of woman in rural Tanzania who are struggling with the daily impact of the disease, poverty and their determination to do the best for their family.
Having opted out of social media because of death threats, I've encountered the dark misogyny that seeks to silence opinionated women. So I despaired when I saw this very real malaise being hijacked by prominent Labour MPs, including Heidi Alexander and Angela Eagle, to score points against a man they want to oust. Women in politics face many threats, Jeremy Corbyn isn't one of them.

Anger expressed as abuse is unacceptable and it's scandalous that women in public office are subjected to significantly more than their male counterparts (though Blairite Ian Austin's recent bullying of Corbyn during PMQs was disgraceful). Regarding Labour's leadership election, all the evidence suggests that members, and the public, are angry at proponents of New Labour - irrespective of gender.

Ordinary people are under constant siege. Relentlessly having to mobilise and ward off threats to our libraries, leisure centres, schools and hospitals. Bit by bit the heart of our communities are being ripped asunder by ruthless, ill-conceived Tory cuts. In this, the country's hour of greatest need, Labour's NEC has banned constituency meetings. The wrath unleashed by Labour plc, who fiddle while Rome burns, should come as no surprise.

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Austerity has hit women twice as hard as men. Women in work are reliant on food banks and skip meals to feed their children. 85% of all the cuts have been at women's expense and recent research shows violence against women has increased with austerity cuts to domestic violence services.

Is it any wonder the public is angry with Alexander, Eagle, and their New Labour colleagues who back austerity and failed to vote against Tory welfare cuts? It was Tony Blair's de-regulation of financial services that precipitated the recession, which left the richest 64% richer and the poorest 56% poorer. Decades of market-based capitalism has left the UK one of the most unequal countries in the OECD. When David Blunkett announced in 1997 that "re-distribution of wealth is no longer an objective of the (New) labour party", he wasn't kidding.

Far from getting the 350m a week extra promised for the NHS, within days of Brexit, plans to accelerate the closure of my local A&E were approved. As the party that founded the NHS, Labour should be providing strong opposition to Tory cuts. That wasn't the case under Heidi Alexander's stewardship. Her failure to support Caroline Lucas' NHS Reinstatement Bill (reversing privatisation) felt like a betrayal to those of us on the front line (mostly women) in a battle for which the stakes couldn't be higher.

Angela Eagle angered her CLP, who backed Jeremy Corbyn, when she defied them and stood against him. It's ironic that she called upon Corbyn to resign because he couldn't command the support of his PLP, yet her own CLP passed a vote of no confidence in her last week.

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Anarchy is what happens when those with power abuse the democratic process, not least by stifling and criminalising legitimate dissent.

The 25 membership fee is entirely in keeping with the New Labour exclusive brand, wherein the right to vote was extended only to those who could afford to buy it. Owen Smith, whose proclaimed anti-austerity credentials are risible, didn't object to the fiscally prohibitive membership fee, despite it discriminating against those most impacted by austerity. Unfortunately for Smith, the public are more discerning than in the Blair era and, having been spun to within an inch of our lives, post Brexit we're reading the small print.

We can deduce, for example, that Smith is the candidate supported by the right wing Labour group progress who the GMB union accused of instructing Labour's front bench to support Tory cuts in 2012. Large sums of money have been donated to Progress by corporations such as Pfizer, for whom Smith worked as a lobbyist. Pfizer was recently accused of breaching UK law by increasing the cost of an epilepsy drug by as much as 2,600 percent. As a result, the NHS bill for the drug rose from around 2 annually to more than 40 million in 2014.

In a Wales Online interview in 2006, Smith seemed to extol the virtues of PFI (which is bankrupting the NHS), private sector "choice" in the NHS and academies. He was also nonchalant about Iraq.

If New Labour MPs are concerned about the misogyny endured by ordinary women on a daily basis they should denounce austerity, which the New Statesman described as "an economic and cultural assault on women". They should also countenance the wisdom of Einstein who understood that "Problems cannot be solved with the same mindset that created them".

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The referendum result, the appointment of a new prime minister and a reshuffle may have briefly muted think tanks, but not for long. Devolution was very much on the agenda this week - but why?

At Think Tank Review, we've been tracking the effects of Brexit on the machinery of central government with our partners at the Institute for Government. Of the twenty projects covered in the latest update, only four are progressing. Is it the time for local government to lead? At NGLN, Simon Parker argued that Brexit could "could usher in a moment of genuine constitutional change" which finally replaces the UK's centralised model of economic development. But the constitutional settlement around localism and its economics are connected, and both depend on political appetite for change.

This year's Cities and Local Government Devolution Act makes devolution to combined authorities legally possible, but does not specify the terms of negotiation. This makes the process dependent on political personalities and deals behind closed doors. In Greg Clark, the Department for Communities and Local Government has lost one of the ruling party's most fervent supporters of devolution. The new Secretary of State, Sajid Javid, faced a brief but focussed grilling on devolution in parliament on Monday. He gave no commitments on how EU regional funding would be replaced, but insisted that local government would have a seat at the table for Brexit negotiations. He reiterated the government's broad commitment to the project, and asserted there was "no need to reconsider any of the deals". Peers approved draft orders for the election of mayors in Sheffield, Liverpool and the West Midlands this week, but they are already expressing doubt over the potential financial benefits of devolution.

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For David Cameron (now 'chillaxing' on the backbenches), devolution was a key principle guiding a smarter state. He argued it was "a proven reality that money spent closer to people is often money spent wiser". Theresa May's 2013 speech to Conservative Home has been obligingly edited this month - but she appears to still be in favour of a "small, strong, strategic state". This is roughly in line with what British voters say they want - in 2012, two-thirds of respondents to a YouGov/ConHome poll preferred a state with "a limited role in society, providing services and a safety net in hard times but where we largely rely on families, education and job creators to create a good society."

Sajid Javid insists that "it is not right for central Government to impose deals on any area". Yet Osborne had shaped the process by insisting on metro mayors as a precondition to devolution deals. As a Public Accounts Committee report concluded last year:

The rhetoric surrounding devolution is that local areas are the driving force behind the deals. However in practice central government is stipulating certain requirements, such as around local governance, without making them sufficiently clear up front.

The act itself also grants the Secretary of State powers over the governance arrangements of local authorities, the constitution and membership of local authorities, and structural and boundary arrangements. LGiU has previously voiced the concerns of smaller local authorities that devolution may actually amount to "restructuring by another name".
On August 7, 1998, between 10:30 and 10:40 a.m. local time, the U.S. embassies in Nairobi , Kenya and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania were attacked in coordinated truck bombings. Approximately 212 people were killed and an estimated 4,000 wounded in Nairobi,, while the attack killed 11 individuals and wounded 85 in Dar es Salaam. The bombings were timed to mark the eighth anniversary of the deployment of U.S. troops to Saudi Arabia and were later traced to Saudi exile and al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

President Bill Clinton ordered retaliatory military strikes on August 20. In Afghanistan, some 70 American cruise missiles hit three of Osama bin Laden's training camps. An estimated 24 people were killed, but bin Laden was not present. Thirteen cruise missiles hit a pharmaceutical plant in Sudan where bin Laden allegedly made or distributed chemical weapons. In November 1998, the United States indicted Osama bin Laden and 21 others, charging them with bombing the two U.S. embassies and conspiring to commit other acts of terrorism against Americans abroad. To date, nine of the al Qaeda members named in the indictments have been captured.

This Moment was compiled from an interview by ADST with Vella G. Mbenna (interviewed beginning in 2016), a Support Communications Officer at Embassy Dar es Salaam. You can read the entire Moment on ADST.org. This Moment was edited by Erika Saunders.

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MBENNA:I went to my office and opened up and started my morning IT/communications routine. Shortly afterwards, the young lady who had just arrived a day or two before to replace me came in.

I needed to give her a turnover briefing because she was going to work alone until the new chief of communications arrived in about a week or two. I shared a few things with her, but before we got to the heavy and critical turnover known as COMSEC [communications security], she asked if she could in-process with a particular office because the person in charge was leaving for vacation.

So, I was glad for the break because I could run down to get the female guard application. However, about 20 minutes earlier I had asked the operator to place a call to the Embassy in Pretoria, South Africa....

After leaving the center where I worked and passed the area around the corner where the Front Office was located, I heard a faint phone ringing. I stopped in my tracks, turned around and entered the communication center to find out that it was my phone.

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I quickly went to the back of the center to my office to get it. It was Pretoria on the line and I was glad. I sat in my chair and said these words to them, "I am Vella from Dar es Salaam and I was wondering why our system's staff ....."

Before I finished the sentence, the blast occurred because the wall I was facing came back in my face and slammed me into racks of equipment across the room. I recall getting up, brushing myself off and proceeding to alert Washington via my equipment that something bad had happened and to close our circuits for now. Then I proceeded to check on colleagues in the communications suite and putting communication and IT stuff in a safe.The security Selectone [alarm] sound was loud and constant and annoying but music to my ear to keep me on my toes quickly securing things.

After I was comfortable that my communication center was OK, I got my purse and my INMARSAT [satellite communication system], secured the communications center, and started walking around the corner to get out of the Embassy.

When I turned the corner, I saw the devastation that had occurred. Furniture, paintings, parts of the building, window glass, paper, pencils, and much more were in the walkway. I had to carefully work my way through it.

When I got to the Executive Suite [where the Ambassador and Deputy Chief of Mission have their offices] door, I looked in and saw no one but I thought I was dreaming. The place was in shambles and the window glasses out. Desks were turned over, couches turned over, office supplies everywhere.

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I then thought, "Where are they?" After about a minute of just staring to see if there was life in that suite, I proceeded to walk to towards the narrow catwalk that connected the two parts of the building. In the center of the catwalk was the stairs that led downstairs behind Post One [the Marine Security Guard post at the embassy's main entrance] and out the front of the Embassy.

I looked down and saw things and ceiling debris on it. Before I attempted to go down it, I wanted to go to the other side of the door I was facing to see how the other Americans and FSNs were doing.

I was afraid and then I realized something else. It was quiet. I did not hear the security Selectone anymore. I had no idea how long it was quiet, but I know I could hear the quiet...It was crazy, but I really could hear the silence.

I walked on and opened the door to the Admin building side of the building....What I saw without even entering deep into the building was complete chaos. It was more of what I saw in the Executive Office, but to a greater extent. It was like a meteorite had hit the Embassy. Even worse was that the entire wall and windows facing the road was gone.

I started having a really bad feeling because most of all I saw or heard no one. Why was everyone gone except me? I backed out of the door and back onto the catwalk and started down the stairs.As I started down the stairs I realized that something bad had happened, something really, really bad. I thought that maybe that if it wasn't a meteorite, then a space ship came down and the aliens took up everyone except me.

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I wanted to start screaming for help...Then I thought, no one would know exactly what happened to us all. So, I tip-toed down the rest of the stairs.

When I saw more devastation and how I appeared to blocked in, I had to scream. I started screaming for help, first a low scream...and then louder....

After about a minute and a half I heard a familiar voice calling out asking who was there. It was a Marine. I told him it was Vella, the communications officer from the 2nd floor. I wanted to be as clear as possible, even though I knew the voice. Once I told him exactly where I was, he told me to try to climb over the rubble and look for his hands. I told him I was going to throw up the INMARSAT first and I did.I started carefully climbing until I saw his arm reaching out. I grabbed his hands and he carefully helped me around the mound of rubble. I followed him to a set of emergency stairs to the outside of the building. On the outside is where I found the CDA [charge d'affaires] John Lange, our security officer, a few Marines, and some other Embassy officials. I quickly ran to the CDA and asked him if he wanted me to set my INMARSAT.

He said no, and that I should leave for the safe haven (the DCM's house not too far from the Embassy). Someone told me that the van was on the outside of the back wall and we walked quickly to the area. The driver of one of our Embassy vans waved for me to come and get in. I grabbed my INMARSAT and ran into the van.

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There were a few other folks on the bus and everyone looked terrified. I then realized that I needed to find the new lady who came to replace me. No one knew but then I heard this cat-like voice from someone sitting a few rows behind me.

I looked at the person and the tip of the nose was ripped almost off. It looked bad. I did not recognize the person so I asked again for the lady who was there to replace me. I heard the cat-like voice again, and again I looked around, and this time the lady waved at me and I heard, "It's me, Liz." I had to look closer. It was her and I was relieved.

After a minute or so more, the driver came in and we drove to the safe haven. After just some minutes there and realizing that folks could not talk on the radio, I figured the repeater on the Embassy roof was down.

I ran to find a driver to take me to my house to turn on the backup radio system. I could not find anyone, so I ran onto Toure Drive and tried to wave down a cab, but no one stopped.After about a minute, I was determined to stop a taxi, so when I saw one coming from afar, I jumped in the road and started waving my arms for it to stop. He did. I told him that something bad had happened at the Embassy and that I needed to go home down the street....

When I got home, my house girl Sabina saw me and immediately started wiping the blood from me and pulling my shirt off. She asked what happened and I told her something happened at the embassy but did not know what....

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I started hearing talk on the radio and it was music to my ears because I knew the embassy folks could communicate now. Over the next few hours and days and weeks, I did quite a bit to get communications back up and running at an alternate location in town. It was a lot of work and people pitched in to help....

The building was destroyed, so yes, that facility was permanently closed. We set up a temporary safe haven at the DCM's house for a few days. Then, we took over the Public Affairs Office (PAO) house as a semi-temporary location to work from. I started working closely with the Ops Center and the Information Resource Management Bureau (not called that back then), to secure approval to set up communication with what I had beyond a phone line and fax. The embassy did not have much to work with, but we were able to communicate....

One thing I admired about leadership that day and as long as I remained there is that Ambassador John Lange really cared about us and stopped to ask if we were OK or had everything we needed or told us to take a rest. He also saw the worth in my expertise and had me tag along to several meetings in case he needed to place a call or receive a call.

It made me feel really special that he valued his communications officer. He was a nice and respectful person, even before the attack and he gets in touch with us (those under his regime during that period) every year around that time.

Not many were killed in Tanzania -- less than ten. Unfortunately, the female Tanzanian guard at the booth who was waiting for me to get her application was one of those killed that day.

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This article was originally published on Raseef22.com in Arabic, 5th July 2016. ______________________________________________

Visualization is an integral part of how we perceive the world, so visual images about Yemen do construct how Yemen is perceived. That's the case, as well, in how Yemenis perceive each other. Having said that, I tackle Yemen and Image Politics on two levels. One, how western media use images to portray Yemen? Second, how Yemenis use images to narrate stories about each other. Between the misleading political image and misogynic image, images from Yemen are confusing.

Yemen's Image in Western Media

It is difficult to tell when exactly the relationship between the western media and the Old Sana'a's beautiful architecture began. That relationship was contagious that it was duplicated in the Arab media. No doubt that the Old Sana'a's dazzling architecture is difficult to ignore; but as I just mentioned, it's called the "Old" Sana'a; meaning that there is a new one. To box all Yemen, with all its cities and diversity, in a bunch of images from the Old Sana'a is not only doing injustice to the rest of Yemen's cities and their beauty, but it also gives a flawed impression that Yemen is just the Old Sana'a. And when western media wants to dig deeper into Yemenis' lives, it boxes their lives in limited topics about weapons, tribal culture and Qat, and other easy and repeated topics.

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The image of an Arab has always been demeaned in Western media; we are told that we, Arabs are barbarians, terrorists and uncivilised. Yemen falls into that stereotyped image which perhaps can be summarised in the "Salmon Fishing in -the- Yemen" movie. The movie demonstrates to be one of the best movies that wrongly portray Yemen. It's based on the novel with the same title for a novelist that has never been to Yemen. The movie crew, including the actors and the actresses never been to Yemen, as well. The movie was never shot in Yemen. How can we have a movie depicting a country without touching its ground for real is something I don't understand!

Images' Use among Yemenis

As movies are discussed, here is a Yemeni movie that's one of the best movies that genuinely used images to relate to Yemenis. "I am Nojoom, Age 10 and Divorced" by the Yemeni filmmaker, Khadija al-Salami is a movie inspired by the book "I Am Nujood, Aged 10 and Divorced" which was about the real story of the Yemeni child Nujood who is believed to be the first Yemeni child to get divorced in Yemen. The movie was shot in Yemen and following its release has won several international awards. The movie is genuine and honest; its message is to raise awareness about the child marriage tragedy in Yemen. Unfortunately, the movie has not been shown in Yemen, due to the absence of established cinema and, most importantly, the consecutive occurrence of armed conflicts and violence, since the release date of the movie in 2014. This made politics dominate any intellectual and cultural debate in the country.

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Media in Yemen is obsessed by a political debate that mainly revolves around today's political leaders. For instance, topics that dominate media in Yemen are the states of the ousted president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, president, Abdurabou Mansour Hadi, and Houthis' leader, Abdelmalik al Houthi. Images about this or that political leader represent a mirror in which Yemenis see through each other. Polarisation is extreme and any middle ground is inevitably absent.

In this regard, one of the issues that concerned me the most is the issue of Misogyny and how images are used in Yemen's political debate. Throughout the past 5 years, since the beginning of Yemen's 2011 uprising, and along the way with my blogging experience, I found one pattern of a concept being repeated whenever images are used and meant to demean a political leader. That is, whenever any political camp wants to insult another political camp, the easiest thing to do is to portray him as a woman. For example, when ousted president Saleh is meant to be demeaned, he's being portrayed with full make-up and jewellery so he can supposedly look like a woman. In that way, there is an association being drawn between a demeaned status for men and being a female; an expression of an insult is channelled by describing the other as a female.

I collected the following images over the past five years. As the political phases in Yemen develop, Yemen's social media users seemed busy designing and posting these images - which sometimes found their way to the streets' protests as posters.

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Speaking of protests, the world was impressed in 2011 by Yemeni women's participation. Little did they know that those women were to a large extent affiliated to the second largest political party, the Muslim-brotherhood version in Yemen, Al-Islah party. Their participation was only out a decorative move. However, the women who took the streets independently, challenging ousted president Saleh's regime and Patriarchy -which obliges a gender-based segregation between the two sexes in public space- did not receive the same worldwide attention; even worse, they were doomed to be hit by the walls of Patriarchy. These women's rebellion provoked Yemeni men. At the beginning of Yemen's 2011 uprising, a group of men and women tried to hold a gender-mixed protest, but the protest was not only fated to be dispersed but also to be violently attacked. In particular, the women had the biggest share of humiliation and assault.

The perception that women are inferior exists in Yemen; as much as, it exists in the Arab world. Women are believed to be "3awrah". At the start of the Arab Spring, a group of Arab feminists created a page on Facebook that calls for the uprising of women in the Arab world. People rushed to the page with their posts, protesting against how females are treated in the Arab world; as 2nd class citizens, if not even worse. I was struck by this post from Yemen, which dismays any claim that says women in Yemen are not perceived as inferior.

(I am Shima'a Al-Ahdel with the Uprising of women in the Arab world. My brother is ashamed to say my name and my mother's name.)

The problem of insulting a male political leader by describing him as a female is something that a Yemeni man won't understand unless we reverse the meaning. I once had a discussion with a Yemeni male friend who used to like using sexy women images on his facebook to tease and provoke the rival political camp. "I don't mean to insult women," he told me, "I just want to tease my enemies." I said, have you ever seen a woman using images of sexy men to insult her enemies?" My friend stopped to do such moves after he understood my point.

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The issue of "Misogyny" and media is a global problem and it doesn't only exist in Yemen, but it is rarely discussed in the Arab and Yemeni media. We often condemn how western media portray us, Arabs; but we don't condemn how our media portray our women. And here, Yemeni media concerns me the most.
Professional services companies whose returns and growth are based on leveraging this talent have to rapidly change the way they manage their businesses. Millennials are the first digital generation which comes along with two very different points of view versus Baby Boomers and Gen X'ers: They use their own mobile technology in every aspect of their life including work - 83% sleep with their smartphones within arm's reach They expect to work outside of the office - 37% claim mobile technology increase the amount of work they do outside of the office and 87% view office as a "thing" not a place So how do companies compel millennials to track their time when they don't want to be tied down? Tracking employee productivity, allocating time for projects and determining optimal staffing seemingly gets much more difficult when employees no longer want to be tied to a PC in the office and input their hours at the end of each day. I recently spoke with John S. Howell, Jr., Executive Chairman of BigTime Software, Inc . to find out where the industry of time and billing software is heading with millennials becoming a greater percentage of the employee (and potential profit) base. BigTime is a top-rated time and billing software application that runs on the cloud. It has complete integration with all versions of QuickBooks and was used by customers to bill over $2 billion in invoices in 2015. It was also recently named one of the Top 6 Indispensable Small Business Tools for Productivity in 2016 by Business.com.

But, millennials have to be allowed to track time on their own terms...



Many smaller companies use basic spreadsheets to track time which has serious limitations for the millennial who works remotely and views work as a thing, not a place. But for all companies with offices in multiple cities and employees in different places working on the same project, how do you track time spent on a project or billable hours for a client?



According to Howell, "Many firms come to us who are moving up from spreadsheets and other tools that, while powerful, are almost impossible to integrate into a full solution. They have hit the wall due to the growing complexity of having to manage more people, projects and tasks. They need a new solution that integrates with their accounting software, is easy to deploy, and can be used remotely."



Howell is no stranger to spreadsheets. He is the co-founder and CEO of Solomon Software International, a company that is now part of Microsoft Corporation and winner of PC Magazine's Editor's Choice award.



Microsoft Office is one of the best suites of products available. Unfortunately, using an Excel spreadsheet for time and billing no longer meets the needs of even the smallest professional service firm.



And in their own place....



As everything is moving to the cloud, time and billing software is no exception. The cloud makes it possible for companies to manage multiple projects from multiple locations and is easier for employees to use. And, millennials can use it whether working from home or the beach.



"Millennials don't want to be restricted to just working from their desk on a Windows machine," adds Howell. "They want to use Macs, Chromebooks, smartphones and tablets. This helps productivity, it helps them pursue other interests and ventures and keeps them more satisfied in their jobs."



And, the cloud is critical for running a business in which your employees are your capital. According to Howell, "One of the underappreciated elements of cloud computing is the ease with which vendors can integrate their applications behind the scenes for a completely seamless customer experience. For example, there are 6 million businesses that use QuickBooks for accounting - many are professional service firms." It should be noted that BigTime has one of the best QuickBooks integrations in the industry.



And simply enough to make time for them to pursue opportunities outside of the office.



Other things important to all employees, not just millennials, is to make it easy to use.



The purpose of time and expense tracking software is to save money, plain and simple. You need to know how much a project costs and how much you are paying employees to complete the project. Before introducing a new software solution, firms should be aware that the time their employees spend learning a new program is time not being spent on billable client work. So, keep it simple, because if it isn't easy, people won't use it.



The ROI is higher than you think.



Companies who can get all employees on board to tracking time and running their businesses better will reap the rewards for years to come. "The more information that is available, the smarter we get in running professional services companies." says Howell. "These systems ultimately can act as brilliant business advisers. It would be like having an MIT genius who mines your data and serves up data-driven metrics and insights; a genius who costs you practically nothing but is instrumental to your company's success."
As July 15 was coming to an end in Tehran, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif was on the phone with his Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu, whose government was under the threat of being overthrown by a military coup. Meanwhile, Ali Shamkhani, the secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council (SNSC), was on another line with security officials in Ankara. All the while, Qasem Soleimani, the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' Quds Force, Iran's regional military arm, was busy pursuing and reviewing various scenarios that might emerge.

"It's not a secret anymore," an Iranian official told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity. "Zarif, Shamkhani and Soleimani were executing higher orders. The whole establishment was too concerned. Turkey is a neighboring state. President [Recep Tayyip] Erdogan and his government are strong partners of Iran. Our nations enjoy strong brotherly ties, so it's the least we can do to show solidarity and try to offer any help they might need in such critical times."

Within hours after the coup attempt began late July 15, the SNSC convened to discuss developments in Turkey. Following the meeting, which was chaired by President Hassan Rouhani, Shamkhani publicly condemned the coup attempt, telling local media outlets, "We support Turkey's legal government and oppose any type of coup -- either [initiated] domestically or supported by foreign sides." Shamkhani said, "What determined the fate of developments in Turkey were the will and presence of the [Turkish] nation and the vigilance of political parties, whose contribution thwarted this coup. Shamkhani concluded, "Our stance is not exclusive to Turkey either. We have pursued the same stance in Syria too. Our position toward all regional countries is that we always prefer people's votes [to decide governments] rather than tribal, sectarian and hereditary governments, and this means democracy."

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"A coup in Turkey isn't something Iran can tolerate," another Iranian politician told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity. "It's true that there are differences over Syria, and sometimes in Iraq. Yet the fact is that there is no direct problem between Iran and Turkey; on the contrary, [bilateral] relations are always advancing for the better. Besides, Iran is opposed to any kind of change by force, and especially when the government [in question] is democratically elected." The Iranian politician added, "The most important thing is that this experience [the coup attempt] might be an opportunity for Mr. Erdogan to understand the situation in neighboring Syria."

Indeed, multiple Iranian officials, including Ali Akbar Velayati -- foreign policy adviser to Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei -- brought up Syria in their condemnation of the coup attempt in Turkey. While condemning the coup, Velayati -- a former foreign minister -- said he hopes "the Turkish government will respect the views and votes of the Syrian people and allow them to decide their own government." It was a clear message from Iran to Turkey regarding Syria and the future of the struggle in the region. For five years now, Iranian officials have on repeated occasions stated that they have been trying to engage the Turks on a path to address the situation in Syria, and while unsuccessful, have never given up on this approach.

But why is Iran so concerned about the coup attempt in Turkey?

"The stability of the region would have been seriously threatened if the coup attempt had succeeded. Turkey is a major player. Besides, there is the fear that such a move might trigger internal strife," an Iranian official told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity. He explained that given the past five bloody years in the region, any such development in Turkey "will shake the whole region" in addition to "Europe, Iran and the Caucasus." The Iranian official added, "Besides the already shaken Arab countries, what about the [various] ethnic groups within Turkey? Has anyone thought about what they might do?"

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Some conservative figures and journalists in Tehran have shown a different reaction toward development in Turkey, influenced mainly by the crisis in Syria.

"It was clear that there's a gap between the street and the government with respect to what was going on in Turkey," a conservative Iranian political figure told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity. Many whose understanding of the region is influenced by the war in Syria think the fall of Erdogan would have been a positive development -- not only in Iran but also in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon. In this vein, the Iranian political source said that many within this camp "were surprised to see the Iranian government reacting before any other government in the whole world and backing the legitimate [Turkish] government."

It is important to bear in mind the other important reasons why Iran sees the security and stability of Turkey as pivotal to its own national security. With an Islamic-oriented government in power in Ankara, bilateral relations have improved in the past decade, paving the way for common ground despite differences over regional developments. The latter has been possible thanks to Iranian-Turkish proximity in terms of grander objectives and also similarities in their ways of thinking. Indeed, at the height of the nuclear-related sanctions on Iran, Turkey played a vital role in easing the pressure on its eastern neighbor. Erdogan certainly paid the price for the holes he was accused of creating in the web of sanctions imposed on Iran through what came to be known as the "gold-for-oil scheme" -- even while economic ties between the two countries greatly expanded in the sanctions era. With the implementation of the nuclear deal, the two countries now plan to triple their trade volume to $30 billion.

So, beside its public condemnations, did Iran play a role in directly thwarting the coup? Did it, for instance, share intelligence that helped Erdogan preserve his reign? Al-Monitor put forward this question to a senior Iranian official who was in direct contact with Turkish officials during the hours of the coup attempt. His answer was short but to the point: "No."

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Another Iranian official saw parallels between the successful coup against Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh in 1953 and this year's coup attempt in Turkey. The official told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity, "What we know is that this move was triggered by foreign hands. We went through the same in the past, and because Mr. Erdogan is today looking forward to playing a better role in the region, they want him down." The Iranian official said, "There was a message that was conveyed to Turkish security officials: Don't leave the streets. This coup might be made up of several waves; it happened in Iran in 1953. When the first coup failed, they had another one ready -- and they succeeded."
Now that Iraqi forces, with the support of the international coalition, are gearing up to recapture Mosul -- ISIS's last major stronghold in Iraq -- the question that looms high is what will be the fate of the Iraqi Sunni community following ISIS' inevitable defeat? I maintain that unless the political discussion begins now between the Shiite-dominated Iraqi government and the Sunnis (under the auspices of the U.S.) to determine the fate of the Sunni community, defeating ISIS alone will not end the ongoing Sunni-Shiite civil war in Iraq that has claimed the lives of tens of thousands since 2003.

As long as the Iraqi Sunnis do not know what the future has in store for them, they have no reason to put their lives on the line to fight against ISIS and make all the sacrifices only to benefit the Shiite government in Baghdad, which they reject and despise even more so than ISIS.

The Obama administration should, parallel to the fight against ISIS, immediately start to negotiate the future status of the Sunni Iraqis with the Iraqi government and agree on establishing an autonomous region in their three provinces -- Ninevah, Salahildin, and Diyala -- to run their own affairs along the lines of Kurdish autonomy in the north, with a loose connection to the central government in Baghdad.

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For this to succeed, it will be necessary to provide the Sunnis, soon after the defeat of ISIS, with substantial financial aid to build the institutions they need during a transitional period of five to ten years, including health care facilities, schools, and social services to buttress the foundation for the establishment of such autonomy.

To assume that Iraq will somehow be stitched together following the defeat of ISIS is a gross illusion, as Iraq's de facto partition into three states was ordained immediately following the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

Liberating Mosul from ISIS will be extremely difficult under any circumstances. Indeed, for ISIS the fight over Mosul is a do-or-die battle and they should be expected to resort to any means at their disposal, however cruel and inhumane, to deny the coalition and Iraqi forces from realizing their objective.

The fight can be expected to be street-to-street and house-to-house, with many thousands of potential civilian casualties while likely destroying much of the city's infrastructure.

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The only way to reduce the scale of devastation and bring a gradual end to the Sunni-Shiite civil war in Iraq is to entice the Sunni communities inside and outside Mosul to join the fight. This, however, comes at a price that the central Iraqi government must be prepared to pay, which is negotiating the establishment of an autonomous Sunni region in their three provinces.

The capture of Mosul by ISIS had precipitated the exodus of hundreds of thousands of minorities, including Turkmen, Yazidis, Christians, Shiites, and others. As a result, the Sunni community still constitutes the absolute majority of the population. Due to their concerns over continuing instability, discrimination, and bloodshed, many who fled will not be able or willing to return after the defeat of ISIS.

To that end, as a former top Iraqi official said to me, there is a need for an "urgent comprehensive dialogue between the stakeholders to align [the] political roadmap to the military liberation [of Mosul] roadmap."

Among the more than 700,000 Sunnis currently residing in Mosul, nearly 100,000 are of fighting age who can join the fight against ISIS from inside the city if they see a clear path that would lead them to the establishment of a self-governing entity.

This will not only accelerate the demise of ISIS and potentially reduce the level of death and destruction, but will eventually bring a gradual end to the Sunni-Shiite civil war. The same source stated that "Iraqi officials need to embrace a new culture of dialogue and compromise to project to its constituency its ability to adapt to the needs of its people's welfare."

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Having lost their dominance of Iraq to the Shiites in 2003 after 81 years of continuous rule, the Sunnis still refuse to accept what they consider to be a historic travesty. This was further aggravated by eight years of the Shiite government led by Nouri al-Maliki, who abused his power and marginalized, mistreated, and victimized the Sunni community.

Sadly, the mistreatment of the Sunnis continued under the current Abadi government in spite of the fact that the US pressured Abadi to establish a unity government united in their purpose, given the necessity of defeating ISIS as a prerequisite to stabilizing the country.

The presumed "unity government" in Iraq that the U.S. sought is a farce. The Sunnis will never accept a subordinated position to the Shiites knowing that, at least for the foreseeable future, they will continue to suffer under the heavy hand of a Shiite government.

Prime Minister Abadi is weak, his government is largely corrupt, and has done little to pacify the Sunni community. Iran continues to exert significant political influence in Baghdad, engendered from religious affinity and the fact that Iran provided shelter to thousands of Iraqi exiles during Saddam's reign.

Now that Iran is actively participating in the fight against ISIS through its militia, to which the U.S. has quietly acquiesced, the Sunnis do not view Iran's involvement and its considerable influence on Iraq as transient. As a result, the Sunnis find themselves inadvertently and often voluntarily supporting ISIS, as they are more religiously aligned with ISIS than with the Iraqi Shiites.

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Knowing the Shiites in Iraq will remain the dominant power, the majority of the Sunni Arab states, led by the Saudis, strongly feel that the establishment of Sunni autonomy will limit Iran's significant influence over the Shiite Iraqi government.

There is no doubt that the future of Mosul following the defeat of ISIS will seriously be contested and the Iraqi government will resist any arrangement that will not restore Mosul as an integral part of Iraq.

I believe, however, that there will be no end to the Sunni-Shiite violent conflict unless the city of Mosul, which is in the center of the Sunni Ninevah province, becomes the provincial capital of the newly established Sunni entity.

The central issue that must be incorporated into any agreement on Sunni independence is major foreign investments, and in particular the equitable distribution of the country's oil revenue, which would require a strict, internationally guarded, and binding mechanism from the UN Security Council to ensure permanent and full implementation.

An equitable agreement on sharing oil revenue could also pave the way to better and closer relations between the Kurds, Sunnis, and Shiites, which will lead to greater cooperation in many other fields, including joint economic development programs, security cooperation, trade, etc.

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The Obama administration lacked a clear strategy in Iraq, to which President Obama admitted in early 2015. Now that the conditions on the ground have changed and ISIS is on retreat, Obama can help with the full support of its coalition partners in shaping Iraq's future by negotiating a new political arrangement with Iraq's central government that will grant the Iraqi Sunni community autonomous rule.

This may well be the only practical recipe that will bring about the defeat of ISIS and end the vicious Sunni-Shiite civil war in Iraq and other Arab states.
When I envision perfect summer days, there isn't just one image; it's an amalgam of images. One that remains consistent, however, is me in a car with loved ones, staring out the window enjoying the view, waiting for a song to come on the radio that we all agree on, and the air condition blasting because I don't have that romantic image of the windows rolled down on a hot day.

I'm a city boy that doesn't have a driver's license, but I'm fortunate to have married a great driver. This summer plan to be in a car as a passenger as often as possible. This past year I have grown to appreciate car travel. You see, my family and I had spent the past year traveling, and when we arrived in Europe, we decided for the first time in our many years of wandering, to journey from one destination to the next via car. And we loved it!

Our travels through the United Kingdom and Europe with a car gave us the opportunity to see and experience moments we otherwise would not have if it weren't for the spontaneity that an automobile gave us. We used our partners, Auto Europe which facilitated the process of renting a car abroad by always finding us the right car for our needs at the most convenient location, no matter where we were.

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Though I won't be in Europe this summer, I can still imagine the somewhat cool English Countryside, with the spring lamb maturing into full growth, and the pastoral landscape green as ever. I recapture that visual of families along the English Riviera taking cover in the colorful cabanas that line the beach to protect their pale bodies from the sun while enjoying some clotted cream flavored ice cream.

I picture the roads we had driven through in France, as we weaved in and out of beautiful small villages, passing romantic vineyards and chateaus along the way. I can still smell how the air changed when we neared the coast and pulled into a town like Antibes. Snapshots of markets and brown bodies coming off the sand beach come to mind.

I dream of how we stayed on that same road, crossing the French border into Italy. I can almost taste the fried seafood we had near the sea in the Cinque Terre town of Vernazza while we watched fishermen scraping the algae off their small boats and painting over the green residue with fresh white paint that reflected the harsh sun.

The fields were filled with windmills, and I couldn't help but feel like Don Quixote, as we roamed through Spain's arid landscape, watching the heat rising off the ground from the cool of my seat in the car. We were to hit the shore and enjoy the sea, but not until we saw the towns of Cordoba and Granada and had some of the best tapas the country had to offer.

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There were always large groups walking near the road making their pilgrimage to one of the many cathedrals that sat at the center of the medieval towns on top of hills. There were olive trees and vineyards that lined the slopes and the valley. Every turn, on every small street, smelled of truffle being used in some dish. From the passenger's seat, I appreciated why they call the region of Umbria, "The Green Heart of Italy".

These are just vignettes of what we were able to see while driving through these beautiful countries. Create your own images behind the wheel, or as in my case, from the passenger's seat.
USA, Illinois, Metamora, Close-up of police officer holding handgun

The other day, my younger son asked me if women could be sexist. Professor Mom explained that women could have stereotypes based on sex. (I figured I wouldn't hit him with the whole "social construction of gender" discussion until seventh grade.) And stereotypes are bad because they stop us from seeing people as unique individuals. However, stereotypes are not the same as sexism. Sexism involves political and economic inequities which mean that men can act on their prejudice to affect women's lives in a way that women, as a group, cannot do to men. We can make all the jokes we want about failures to read instructions or pick up dirty socks, but that does not affect men as a whole in the way that male stereotypes affect women. Sexism, in short, is less about stereotypes than about the power that men have over women. That power is not always wielded deliberately or even consciously, but it is wielded collectively, in and through every institution in our society.

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The same holds true, of course, for racism. I hadn't considered writing about police shootings and the black lives matter movement because so much has been said, by smart and thoughtful people with whom I agree. In response to the counter-claim that "all lives matter," for example, I would echo those who say yes, all lives matter, but not all lives are equally at risk today. I haven't seen a good reason for me to repeat what many others have already said so well. And, of course, there are so many caveats: police lives matter too. We need stricter gun laws. We need better support for people with mental illness. And on and on. So many voices are involved in so many different conversations.

I may still simply be repeating what others have said, but I am no longer content to be a bystander. That's because of Charles Kinsey. Mr. Kinsey was trying to calm one of his patients, an autistic man who had gone into the street holding a toy truck. Someone thought the toy was a weapon and called the police. When the police arrived, Mr. Kinsey worried they would shoot the disabled man. (His fears were well-grounded, since people with cognitive disabilities are yet another group with a disproportionate risk of being shot by police.) Mr. Kinsey lay in the street on his back, holding his hands high in the air, instructing his patient to do the same. A video of the incident records Mr. Kinsey shouting, "All he has is a toy truck,. I am a behavior therapist at a group home." Mr. Kinsey recalled that at the time, "I was more worried about him than myself. As long as I've got my hands up, they're not gonna shoot me, that's what I'm thinking."

He was overly optimistic, and a police officer did shoot him. As Mr. Kinsey lay bleeding in the street, the officer approached. His victim asked why he pulled the trigger. He said, "I don't know."

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Fortunately he did not kill Mr. Kinsey, but he so easily could have, still not knowing why. Regardless of what other complex motives and fears caused this particular shooting, surely one of the reasons is power. Cops have the power to shoot people. Like many other victims of police violence, Mr. Kinsey did everything he should have done. He obeyed the law, he followed instructions - and he was still shot. As the media discussed the incident, headlines like this were common: "Charles Kinsey Did Everything He Possibly Could Not to be Shot" (from Slate) and "Charles Kinsey Did Everything Right" (from the Daily Beast).

Obviously Mr. Kinsey was wrong when he thought "As long as I've got my hands up, they're not gonna shoot me." Yet this will not convince the people who keep insisting that people are only at risk if they disobey or threaten the police. Just today, my local paper printed is yet another letter claiming that the solution is for "civilians . . . to learn the laws of the land and respect the law and the police." The writer does not specify black civilians, yet surely that is what is meant.

When I was a recent college graduate, in the late 1980s, I lived with several other young white women in a rented house in Oakland, California. The neighbor kids liked to visit us, for our prolific plum tree and friendly dogs. One day a little boy, maybe seven or eight years old, repeated his mother's instructions for encounters with the police. "You just stand still and don't run," he explained. "Don't run. Hold your hands out. Say 'yes, sir' and 'no, sir.'"

I think my parents told me to find a police officer if I ever got lost at an amusement park, but otherwise, I don't remember any advice or instructions regarding law enforcement. I didn't need any. I was a middle-class white girl, and it was unlikely, first, that I would have much interaction with law enforcement, or, second, that my manners or movements would have any bearing on whether or not I survived the encounter. The issue wasn't whether or not I would follow instructions. The issue was power, in this case the power of whiteness. My whiteness tips the balance in my favor, just as - surely no one can deny - Charles Kinsey's blackness tipped the balance against him.

Other times, my femaleness tips the balance against me, and here again we hear parallel arguments. If a woman doesn't go outside at night or wear a skirt that's too short, she won't get raped. If she follows the rules, the system will work for her. But it won't, because sexual violence is about male power. And just as rape is not about obeying the unwritten codes that govern "respectable" women's behavior, police violence is not about obeying the police or respecting the law. It's about power: who has it, and whose lives it can end.
Image: Ethnic Armenians have been protesting in and out of the country in recent years. This sign at a Los Angeles rally refers to many Armenians' belief that Russia interferes in their country's affairs. (Twitter: @S_Zoppellaro)

YEREVAN, Armenia -- Lines are hardening in the stand-off between Armenian authorities and supporters of a jailed fringe occupation figure who stormed a police station in the capital of Yerevan on July 17.

The danger for the government is that the increasing tension could lead to either side making a mistake that ignites a general uprising.

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Authorities shot two of the station occupiers as they patrolled outside the facility on July 26. Later an agreement was reached for the two to be allowed to go to a hospital for treatment.

The shooting further galvanized about 2,000 occupation supporters who have been marching near the station.

The day before the shooting, authorities cut off the dozen occupiers' cellphone service, electricity and food.

The raiders had released the four remaining hostages in the station on July 23 as a gesture of good faith. They initially took seven hostages, but released those who had been wounded.

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When the authorities responded to the final hostage releases by trying to starve out the occupiers, the raiders, feeling betrayed, burned three police cars.

On July 26 authorities accused the raiders of firing guns willy nilly in the air outside the station, endangering those living in the area. The raiders' supporters countered that they, not the occupiers, had fired the shots to dramatize their demand that they be allowed to talk to those inside the station.

Also keeping tension high was supporters' refusal to move their demonstrations to an area away from the police station as authorities requested.

The Armenian chapter of Transparency International has jumped into the stand-off by contending that authorities' continuing use of violence against dissent flies in the face of an Armenian commitment to police reform. The agreement was reached between Armenia and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

Accusing the authorities of roughing up demonstrators on the streets and in jail during the police-station stand-off, Transparency International called on the rest of the world to stop pouring money in Armenian police reform, saying the effort clearly had failed.

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The government has made some conciliatory gestures on the station stand-off, but so far the occupiers and their supporters have refused to bite.

The most important overture was a government assertion that the occupiers could avoid prosecution if they surrendered.

Armenian law allows those who embark on a crime to avoid prosecution by ending it.

The problem with a blanket amnesty is that some of the occupiers killed one of the officers in the station and wounded two.

Can the government really let them walk away from the occupation without being charged?

The occupiers tried to help their case for a blanket amnesty by contending that the officer who was killed was shot by accident rather than intentionally.

The other overture the government has made to the occupiers came from President Serzh Sargsyan himself.

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He offered to meet with the man the occupiers want released -- Jirair Sefilian -- about how the stand-off can be resolved without additional bloodshed.

The men who took the station did so to try to force the government to release Sefilian, head of the small opposition political group Founding Parliament, whom the authorities jailed last month on allegations of planning a coup.

In addition to Seflian's release, the raiders have demanded Sargsyan's resignation.

Seflian, who fought in the war between Nagorno Karabakh separatists and Azerbaijan from 1990 to 1994, has been unhappy about Sargsyan's response to a renewal of the conflict this year.

He's particularly incensed that Sargsyan has refused to commit to retaking small slices of territory that Azerbaijan reclaimed during a flare-up in the fighting in April.

The Nagorno-Kazabakh war started when the mostly ethnic Armenians in the territory declared their independence and neighboring Azerbaijan objected because it considers the enclave its territory. Armenia has always supported the separatists.

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Seflian has also objected to Sargsyan cooperating with Russian President Vladimir Putin's bid to forge a new Nagorno-Karabakh truce between Armenia, Azerbaijan and the separatists.

Sefilian, who served 18 months in prison on a weapons charge in 2007 and 2008, has called openly for an overthrow of the Sargsyan government.

Although he commands a relatively small group of followers, many Armenians who have dismissed him as a fringe politician have been sympathetic to the occupiers and their supporters for standing up to a government they see as corrupt and unresponsive.

The release of the remaining hostages has shifted the leverage in the station stand-off from the occupiers to the authorities.

But it's still a very dangerous situation. One wrong move on either side could provoke a much larger confrontation.

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[Trash on Perhentian Kecil beach in Malaysia./ Source: Wikimedia]

By AsiaToday reporter Kim Ji-soo - Asia is seeking to solve growing waste problem.

Nearly 2,200 tons of waste - equivalent to the combined weight of 300 adult African elephants - is thrown every month in Malaysia, reported Singapore media outlet Straits Times.

"Despite the government's 10 years of 'clean river' campaigns, 700kg of garbage is dumped to Sungai Klang, the river that flows into downtown Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia," said Datuk Hanapi Mohamad Noor, a former director at the government's Department of Irrigation and Drainage. A spokesperson for the Sungai Klang Basin office of the Department of Drainage and Irrigation said, "We've found things like sofa sets, mattresses, refrigerators, washing machines and even motorcycle frames."

Director Noor said, "The government should carry out a steady program all year long instead of having occasional campaigns." The Malaysian government plans to invest RM3 billion for the 'River of Life' project until 2020 in order to clean the Sungai Klang river.

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China is suffering from the waste problem as well. Chinese police have detained a group of men for transporting nearly 2,000 tons of industrial waste from Shanghai and dumping them in a farm in Haimen in Jiangsu Province, reported the China News Service on July 19. Last month, a group of people were detained by police for dumping more than 12,000 tons of garbage to a lake in Suzhou in Jiangsu Province. Environmentalists pointed out that this cases reveal the loopholes in waste management by the Chinese government.

Hong Kong is troubled with a significant waste problem, too. According to a recent data released by Hong Kong government, Hong Kong citizens generate more waste per capita than any other city in Asia. Dr. Jeffrey Hung from environmental organization Friends of the Earth said the current rate of consumption of Hong Kong residents was "highly unsustainable", pointing out that over-consumption is one of the major causes.

A large amount of garbage that flew from mainland China to Hong Kong beaches created a conflict between China and Hong Kong. From July 1 to 9, Hong Kong government collected 78,000 kg of waste during a beach clean-up in Lantau. Chief executive Leung Chun-ying said he would follow up with Guangdong Province authorities about the situation.

Indonesia, which produces 64 million tons of waste a year, set up a 'garbage bank' system to reduce the volume of waste at the household level. Under the system, customers would bring their trash to the bank and the bank would transfer money to the customers' accounts. After a certain period of time, customers can take out the money from their accounts. According to the Indonesian Ministry of Environment, there are nearly 2,800 garbage banks are operating in 129 cities across the country, and nearly 175,000 people opened their accounts in the garbage banks.

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By Hong Soon-do, Beijing correspondent, AsiaToday - Yantai of Shandong province is one of the biggest industrial cities in China, and is looking to lure more Korean companies. The Chinese branch of the Korean Center for Creative Economy and Innovation established by the Korean government is set to open in August in Zhifu District, the hub of the city. Ahead of its launch, the center came forward to attract Korean startups with special benefits. As a result, Yantai is expected to be a new investment market in China for Korean companies.

[Fang Chao Feng, Director of Investment Promotion Bureau of Yantai City, explains about the Chinese branch of the Korean Center for Creative Economy and Innovation. He promised a massive support for S. Korean startups to find business opportunities in Yantai./ Photographed by Hong Soon-do]According to Yantai City's Investment Promotion Bureau Director Fang Chao Feng, the Chinese branch of the Korean Center for Creative Economy and Innovation is a part of the project of building three Korea-China industrial complexes in China agreed between Korea and China when the Korea-China FTA went into effect. Since the center is backed by both governments, the chosen companies will be given a special deal. First of all, the center will be offering six months of free office space. That means, you don't have to worry about the rent.

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There are many other benefits, including financial support and tax benefits. Director Fang said, "We are currently remodeling a hotel owned by Zhifu District into the Chinese branch of the Korean Center for Creative Economy and Innovation. It is scheduled to open in early August. Once the companies enter the center of 30,000 square meters, we will give them full support."

[Inside the Chinese branch of the Korean Center for Creative Economy and Innovation located in Zhifu District, Yantai./ Photographed by Hong Soon-do]

Song Yijun, Deputy Director of Investment Promotion Bureau of Yantai City, said, "There are nearly 10 business incubators in Yantai, but this is the first time that the city is opening a special center for Korean startups." He said, "We plan to establish a system to facilitate startups to find vendors and investors in China."

[Korean startups who are going to move to the Chinese branch located in Zhifu District attend a briefing session./ Photographed by Hong Soon-do]

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According to CFA Institute's recent survey From Trust to Loyalty: A Global Survey of What Investors Want, millennials (aged 25-34) are more likely than their older peers to embrace new technology to execute their financial strategies. While they may be completely at ease with fintech, the comfort and the trust that millennials place in technology can come at a steep price as it opens the door to fraud and identity theft.

Growing influence

Millennials offer a distinct worldview that influences their lifestyle choices when it comes to marriage, housing, healthcare and large asset purchases. As millennials move into their prime earning years in the near future, their worldview will undoubtedly have a significant impact on the overall economy, as illustrated by a recent infographic from Goldman Sachs.

General indifference to brick and mortar banks among millennials combined with their early adoption of mobile banking and money management applications have some banks rethinking their business models. It may be investment advisory businesses however, that feel the largest reverberations from this generational shift.

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Millennials' early support for and trust of robo-advisor platforms has led to the emergence of new, low-fee competition for traditional advisory businesses in the form of large scale service providers like Wealthsimple and Nest Wealth. The principal reason for early adoption and trust in algorithmic investment services is that millennials have grown up with the internet and are used to interacting in an online marketplace. The question that remains is whether or not the availability and use of technology will be a long-term motivator for millennials when choosing or evaluating investment advice.



Trust in technology

To help answer this question and determine the reason why clients remain loyal to or leave their investment advisors, CFA Institute surveyed 3,312 retail and 502 institutional investors from across the globe.

The survey, From Trust to Loyalty: A Global Survey of What Investors Want, asked retail investors what would be more important to them in three years' time: having access to the latest technology platforms and tools to execute their investment strategy, or having a person to help navigate what is best for them and execute on their investment strategy. With the exception of investors in China and India, respondents overwhelmingly favoured human interaction (68 per cent) over technological access (32 per cent).

However, the results change meaningfully when parsed by age. Although the majority in every other age group expects to value a traditional, human advisor over the latest in investment management technology, millennials narrowly expect to prefer technology in three years' time. As this generation begins to accumulate greater wealth, advisory businesses are going to have to find innovative investment management strategies in order to provide continued value and differentiate themselves from the competition.

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The survey highlights several factors that investors value as much as investment performance. Advisory businesses will need to consider and focus on these key areas moving forward if they want to attract new clients and retain existing ones:

Investment costs are even more important than performance to global investors and firms are not meeting expectations in this area

Institutional investors rank ethical standards above all else when it comes to the firms they hire

Transparency and cyber security are key concerns



Be wary of where you place your trust

Relationships between technological platforms and clients are built to function without any human interaction, which sometimes makes it hard for people to evaluate if their information and interests are adequately safeguarded. Without sufficient, easy to understand information or an advisor to help make sure information is understood, there is greater risk that investors will be confused about what services or securities they are purchasing.

Take Oculus for example, the virtual reality company that was sold to Facebook in 2014 for US $2 billion. Many of the 10,000 or so people that contributed money via the crowdfunding platform Kickstarter to help get the company off the ground, felt taken or at the very least surprised when they found out that as far as Oculus was concerned their cash investments in the startup were really just donations.

There are growing reports of fraud by people using crowdfunding applications like Kickstarter, Indiegogo, or GoFundMe, that promise an investment return or other incentives that are never realized.

Beyond the resulting shock when investments are not properly understood, new advisory technologies also add an extra element of risk in the form of cybercrime.

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Fraud and identity theft are more likely to occur when people overshare information or are not diligent about securing personal details that can be used to determine passwords and answer security questions. Younger people are also more apt to use new applications before a reputation and a basis of trust can be formed. Because of Know Your Customer (KYC) regulations, financial applications must ask for information such as social security numbers, birthdates, and credit card numbers, and there is always a risk this information will be used for purposes other than what they were intended for.

As millennials look for new and innovative technical solutions to manage their investment portfolios, they need to always be wary about the security of their information and their money.
In the seventies the basement of Studio 54 was a rundown cavernous hiding place where I did coke with one of its owners. On a separate occasion in the above disco my hair caught fire while in the throes of being chic with the rich and famous.

Today this run down cavernous hiding place of yore has been converted to a glamorous Broadway Supper Club at 254 W. 54 called Feinstein's 54 Below which BTW has delicious food. It was a shock to see this disco through sober eyes In 1980 I got the message.





On July 24 along with friends I had the privilege of hearing 54 Sings Hair featuring Natalie Mosco, Marjorie Lipari, Dale Soules who is so magnificent in Orange is the New Black, Allan Nichols who wrote and starred in Robert Altman's great films-- the Wedding, A Perfect Couple, Nashville-- and Heather Mac Rae. And when Heather Mac Rae sang Sheila's song Easy to Be Hard, during the second show the audience hooted and hollered and gave her a standing ovation for five minutes applauding "the voice." Heather has her father's voice. He was the musical superstar Gordon- OKLAHOMA! - Mac Rae.



Photo by: Bettina Cirone

Tears came to my eyes to see and to hear my dear friend sing a song that was catapulted to fame in 1968. Heather says, "I think the music of Hair is amazing and people never tire of listening to it. I never get tired of singing Easy to be Hard. It just gets better with age. Like us."

James Rado, who wrote Hair with Jerome Ragni and who is pictured below, stood and applauded along with the audience. Rado, as you would expect, was down to earth and charming beyond belief and happy to see his creation revived. In the original Hair Diane Keaton was the understudy to Lynn Kellogg and Heather replaced Keaton.

The show, was sold out for two performances. Scott Coulter, a cabaret and concert artist, asked Heather, "Do you think you could get some of the original cast members to perform at Feinstein's 54 Below" And voila! Heather helped to round up the cast for the hour and a half show filled with the top tunes from Hair and some original cast members.

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I drove from Philadelphia to New York just for this event. My good friend, Diane Reed was my companion. She owns Tom's Pet Shop and sold me the love of my life, Herbert, a five lb. Maltese. We met celebrity attorney Robert Hantman, Esq, who has been honored by the Navy Seals.
I am sitting in the media tent at the Wells Fargo Center, normally a pretty backwater sort of place at the Democratic National Convention. Things are generally pretty unexciting here, which is kind of the whole point. It's a place where media types can find a desk, a power supply, and some peace and quiet to write their stories up without the distractions of the convention itself, which is right next door.

However, a mild form of chaos has erupted. Almost immediately after Hillary Clinton was officially nominated by Bernie Sanders, at the end of the roll call of the Democratic delegates, hundreds of people streamed into the tent in a coordinated protest. From where I sit -- literally about fifteen feet from the action -- it seems like the aftermath of a major walkout of Bernie Sanders delegates from the floor of the convention.

I say it's a mild form of chaos because the protest (so far) has been one of the quietest I've ever witnessed, and I've been to protests of all sorts for decades, now. Most of the protesters are sitting peacefully on the floor or standing with black gags tied across their mouths. When they first entered, there were a few scattered cries ("Fire the DNC!" and whatnot), but since then they have been in small groups clustered around the widest areas of the floor.

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The police presence, as you might guess, is numerous, although also fairly quiet. The cops early on realized something was going on and barricaded the doors in, preventing hundreds of other protesters from entering the media tents. I've heard that media credentials will get you in and out of the doors, but have not personally tested this yet. Delegate credentials are being barred from entry, which is kind of a turnabout of the normal status of the badges -- delegate badges normally allow you on the floor of the arena, while media have to make do with temporary 30-minute floor passes.

Nobody has any idea how this is going to end, and I have currently no way of knowing how the television networks are covering it (the only screens inside the tent merely have the straight feed of what is happening inside the arena. The show seems to be going on without pause, but inside these tents (there are actually three gigantic interconnected tents in a large air-conditioned complex) house all the major networks and other key media (print, electronic, etc.).

So we seem to be at a standstill. Caught inside, not really knowing if the protester's story is getting out, I just had to jot down a quick dispatch to get the story out. As I said, there isn't much central organization or any spokespeople in evidence, so it's not like they're making demands or anything, so all I can say at this point is that this is a developing story. I apologize for being caught without any multimedia devices (not even a digital camera) so I cannot provide any images. But it has got to qualify as the strangest thing to happen at a political convention in a long time.

I'll try to post more later, if the situation develops any further.

Chris Weigant blogs at:
With exotic creatures, rare ecosystems found nowhere else in the world and a colorful history and indigenous culture, is Australia the real-life Neverland of Peter Pan? Maybe you won't have to battle pirates, but your imagination and thirst for raw adventure will be ignited when surrounded by prehistoric fauna in Daintree Rainforest or when staring into the gaping mouth of a giant clam in the Great Barrier Reef.

Thrill seekers flock to Australia to experience all this country has to offer, but to really get off the ol' beaten track, travelers with a taste for the unknown are turning to the outback towns in Australia, where lonely landscapes stretch to the sun, mining history tells the story of challenges and chance in the search for prosperity and everything from the bizarre to the beautiful can be discovered. Check out these 8 outback towns that may be small, but are packed with plenty to do and see.

Miles, QLD

Now that the Aerodrome has been completed, it's possible to fly direct from the state capital to remote Miles in Queensland and spend time exploring this rural outback town and it's dedication to preserving the area's history and culture. Visitors can delight in the exquisite recreation of the town's main street as it was at the turn of the century and walk through an old time post office, general store, pub and more. Other must-see sites include Dogwood Crossing@Miles and Chinaman's Lagoon for rare waterlilies.

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Coonabarabran, NSW

Reach for the stars in Coonabarabran, where the sky is clear and clean- perfect for star gazers. Warrumbungle National Park features a unique mountain range consisting of towering, circular outcrops jutting high into the clouds from fluffy, green forest below. Camping, walking and bird watching are popular activities, with an abundance of various bird species and docile grey kangaroos. The park is Australia's only Dark Sky Park, and the Siding Spring Observatory, located on the outskirts of the park, houses the country's largest optical telescopes.

Melrose, SA

Take a stroll through time in this historical little mining town or stroll your way through the natural wonders of Mount Remarkable National Park, where walking trails through Alligator Gorge and Hidden Gorge will transfix you with colorful flora and dazzling red quartzite cliffs. Melrose is a haven for mountain bikers, boasting a multitude of trails in the foothills of Mount Remarkable and beyond. During June Long weekend, bike enthusiasts from all over Australia gather for the Fat Tyre Festival, one of Melrose's biggest events of the year.

Longreach, QLD

History buffs should check out Longreach, where excellent museums abound. Learn all about Australia's stockman, where you can navigate the The Australian Stockman's Hall of Fame and Outback Heritage Centre. Longreach is also home to Qantas Airlines, with an award-winning museum that tells a story of the airlines origin through hands on displays and and detailed exhibits. If you want to get outdoors, charter flights are available to explore the stunning Lake Eyre Basin.

Alice Springs, NT

The attractions in Alice Springs are endless, bursting with history, indigenous art and wilderness adventure. Located close to World Heritage site, Uluru, you get more than just breathtaking ancient rock formations and unique terrain, but you can delve into aboriginal culture and the spirituality surrounding this vast desert land. Ever wanted to ride a camel? Hop aboard the hump of one of these gentle giants for a ride through Uluru-Kata Tjuta. At the end of the day, the subtle glow of star dappled skies beckon relaxation as you enjoy a romantic gourmet dinner amongst the dunes.

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Coober Pedy, SA

Home to the largest opal-mining community in the world, this outback town in South Australia has a reputation for producing ample amounts of gem quality opal. Visitors can learn about the Coober Pedy mining history at Umoona Opal Mine & Museum and shop for fine, one-of-a-kind jewelry. Another distinctive feature of the town are the "dugouts" or caves that were carved out of the ground. These unusual abodes allow residents to enjoy a more temperate climate and escape the scorching summers. Over 3000 people live underground and besides houses there are "dugout" hotels, bars, churches and art galleries.

Kalgoorlie, WA

There is plenty of fascination found in Kalgoorlie- Boulder; twin towns birthed from the discovery of mining opportunities. Visitors can observe regular blasts at an open-cut mine still in use or get a glimpse into Australia's pioneer past at the mining ghost towns that still haunt the region. The wilderness is not to disappoint, with salt lakes that shimmer white and stretches of land colored burnt red and orange. Lake Ballard is home to 51 steel sculptures by famous British artist Antony Gormley; a collection of lonely skeletal figures wandering the barren white salt plains like mirages of the lost.

Birdsville, QLD
A young girl prays near flowers and candles at the town hall in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, near Rouen in Normandy, France, to pay tribute to French priest, Father Jacques Hamel, who was killed with a knife and another hostage seriously wounded in an attack on a church that was carried out by assailants linked to Islamic State, July 26, 2016. REUTERS/Pascal Rossignol

A pair of killers in provincial France slit the throat of an elderly priest while he was celebrating mass. The killing, and hostage taking in a church, was shocking, but should not surprise.

Terrorists inspired by the Islamic State, al-Qaeda and other radical groups in the Middle East have a long history of killing Christians. In Iraq and Syria, home territory for ISIS and other such groups, priests have been targeted for years. Killing a Christian religious leader warns all members of the community that they are not safe.

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The Islamic State, both when it was operating solely in Iraq and now in both Iraq and Syria, killed priests and bishops with wanton gusto. Sometimes they shot them or stabbed and dismembered them. They held clerics for ransom or simply disappeared them into the anarchic fog of the two countries.

Over the years since 2003, when President George W. Bush invaded Iraq, insurgents bombed churches, kidnapped Christians and other minorities, emptied Christian neighborhoods of inhabitants, all in the name of creating a pure Islamic holy land emptied of infidels. Two year ago, ISIS expelled the entire population of Mosul, Iraq's second largest city.

As for the murder of Fr. Jacques Hamel, what would be the rationale for such an attack? Islamic State tacticians have concocted a view that jihad ought to include killing civilians anywhere, and in France's case, against a country that is involved in bombing ISIS. A church, unguarded, is the softest of targets. Small group and so-called "lone wolf," individual terror attacks are encouraged, even without orders from Islamic state commanders.

You just have to go online to get how-to instructions.

The killing ought also to be viewed in the context of the holy warriors' long list of civilians they regard as deserving punishment: non-believers generally, women who do not follow strict Islamic social norms, gays, and anyone deemed as having offended Islam in any way. That's what ties together such seemingly disparate killings in Orlando, San Bernardino, the mass killing in Nice and recent assaults in Germany.

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Muslims are far from exempt from the jihadists' furious cruelty, especially members of non-Sunni Muslim sects, among them Shiites, Ismailis, Druze and Alawites. Sunni Muslims may also face punishment if they simply are insufficiently pious or show a lack of enthusiasm for holy war.

The jihadists base their judgments on archaic versions of Islam and restrictive texts that demand obeisance to a one-dimensional view of the religion. They reject Islamic restrictions on killing civilians developed through centuries of Muslim history.

The murder in France was done in Islamic State style, as if the priest was a sheep for slaughter. He was forced to his knees before they slashed his throat. Reportedly, the event was video recorded, according to a nun who witnessed the murder. Such recordings, of course, are meant to strike fear widely, as have the scores of other videotape beheadings by ISIS that have taken place in Syria and elsewhere.

The attack, which took place in a working class suburb of Rouen, an out-of-the-way place in northern France, is likely to fuel the anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim National Front party of Marine LePen.

France's President Francois Hollande blamed cowardly attackers "linked to the Islamic State" and said the goal of the two killers was to "divide" the French, presumably by setting off an Muslim/non-Muslim civil war. President Obama has yet to comment. If he does, he will probably pronounce the killers as having distorted Islam and send his condolences. He has only reluctantly acknowledged that Christians in the Middle East are specifically targeted by the terrorists.

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Both Hollande and Obama, with their vague pronouncements, do a disservice to the vast majority of Muslims who do not subscribe to the tactics and ideology of the Islamic State. ISIS draws its vicious notions from two ultraconservative branches of Sunni Islam: Salafism, which contends that the earliest generation of Muslims set the ideal for present day action; and Wahhabism, a similar sect which features an aggressive promotion of holy war, including the killing of adherents of other religions and even groups within Sunni Islam. Both draw punishments like beheadings and burnings-alive from ancient practices.

Muslim leaders in the Middle East (if there are any who themselves are not tormenting their Muslim citizens) are also reluctant to speak plainly about the sources of ISIS doctrine. They fear accusations of fomenting Islamic disunity. But the sectarian toll on Muslims in places as far afield as Iraq, Pakistan, Yemen and Syria ought to be enough to persuade them to speak up and denounce ISIS ideology (by the way, Sunnis are not the only guilty practitioners of wanton killing of the innocent: in the case of Iraq, Shiite militias sponsored by Iran are violently tormenting Sunni refugees; in Syria, Alawite security forces persecute Sunnis with indiscriminate bombing, torture and disappearances).

It does not seem to me to be an insult to Islam or Muslims to point all this out. Muslims by and large are aware of the venom heaped on Christians, Shiites, other Muslims and non-monotheistic worshippers on satellite TV and the Internet. They would not be offended by plain speaking about the dangers of extreme sects that pretend to represent their religion.
If someone had told me one of my favorite plays of the almost one-quarter-completed 2016-17 theater season would be a raucous comedy placed in the early days of The Civil War, I'd have had a good laugh. Nevertheless, here it is, sent from its New Jersey Repertory Company premiere to 59E59 Theatres. It's Richard Strand's Butler, and I'm having many genuine laughs--with it, not at it.

Strand, new to me but apparently writing plays for some time, couldn't be more welcome with his tale of what happens in the early days of the war when runaway slave Shepard Mallory (John G. Williams) arrives at Virginia's Fort Monroe to make demands of Major General Benjamin Franklin Butler (Ames Adamson), a lawyer newly assigned as the fort's commanding officer.

Butler has only just dressed down Lieutenant Kelly (Benjamin Sterling) for repeating "demand"--a word he loathes and has ordered not be spoken with his earshot--when he invites Mallory into his well-appointed office (Jessica L. Parks designed it) after the word "request" has been substituted for "demand."

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The ensuing conversation has its ups and downs (mostly downs) with Mallory frequently overstepping his bounds. The volatile Butler allows the liberty for the anything-but-liberated Mallory because despite everything indicated to the contrary, he's beginning to like the man.

In a following scene, Butler even offers Mallory, who's in the company of two other (unseen) slaves, a chance to escape north. The major general has predicated his decision on Mallory's exposing the latticework of scars on his back, all of them administered by his owner, also surnamed Mallory, to whom the fugitive slave must legally be returned.

Mallory refuses to accept the offer, however, and does so in the educated language he's exhibited ever since his now cocky, now deferential entrance. He begs Butler not to have him and his fellow slaves returned.

Every time Butler and Mallory clash, often with Lieutenant Kelly joining in or admonished by Butler not to, they're both at odds with each other and rib-ticklingly funny about it. Mallory repeatedly says he's a hated man by everyone who knows him. Butler is ready to join that club--so is Kelly--and through Butler's two acts their exchanges are a hoot.

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In the second act, artillery expert Major Cary (David Sitler), the Confederate officer dispatched to retrieve Malory (and two friends) is ushered in to make his legal demands of Butler. His having to be admonished for that employment of "demands" is only the first of the circles Butler dances around him. To bamboozle Major Cary, the major general neatly works some legal tricks and more laughs ensue. He also elicits better tidings for quick-tongued Mallory.

Joseph Discher directed Adamson, Sterling, Williams and Sitler, and they respond with agile, amusing portrayals. They help light up (Jill Nagle is the lighting designer, Patricia E. Doherty the costume designer) a play that more than resonates with 2016, this benighted year when disturbing racist attitudes seem particularly persistent. Kudos to playwright Strand for a comedy that also slyly impresses as a timely drama.

******************

With A Class Act, Norman Shabel has written a nail-biting play about corruption gnawing away throughout a class action suit against a major chemical company. (The company is fictional--not Merck, which is mentioned a few times). Shabel's scorcher, at New World Stages, progresses invitingly but not without borrowing critical plot turns from The Best Man, Mad Men and even Dirty Rotten Scoundrels.

The boardroom thriller--you could call it a law procedural--follows lawyers on both sides of a suit in which the plaintiffs are past, present and perhaps future victims of carcinogens that the stock-plummeting General Chemical Corporation knew to be polluting waters in communities where company factories are located.

The small Alessi & Warsaw firm--Phil Alessi (Stephen Bradbury) and Frank Warsaw (Matthew DeCapua)--is representing the plaintiffs with another lawyer, Ben Donaldson (Lou Liberatore). These Davids facing law-firm Goliaths are in poised to demand a whopping settlement. They possess a General Chemical in-house study confirming the contaminated waste.

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Lawyers for the defendants include the very moral Ignatio Perez (Andrew Ramcharan Guilarte), John Dubliner (Nick Plakias), Edward Duchamp (David Marantz) and Dorothy Pilsner (Jenny Strassburg). Dorothy is the reason why the plaintiff's lawyers want to settle. They've watched her work her feminine wiles on susceptible judges and don't want to take a chance on her in court.

Since we're living at a time when there is assumed to be no clear-cut good and evil--no black-and-white but only 50 shades of dark grey (okay, Ignatio is a much lighter shade of grey)--A Class Act is another instance of a play in which the suspense isn't based on how good eventually triumphs over evil. It's about which determinedly pragmatic side will prevail in the heated who's-zoomin'-who competition.

Most of the scenes in the intermissionless 90-minute script take place in conference rooms where the two sides confront each other with big, bad wolf smiles while plotting destructive tactics. A few alternating scenes feature Dorothy meeting surreptitiously with Ben or Frank to present them with damning information on their private lives. The General Chemical schemers think these revelations will disarm the opponents.

Whether or not the blackmail info succeeds whenever Dorothy lets her hair down and exposes her cleavage will not be disclosed here for fear of spoiling the Class Act fun and games. All the same, it can be divulged that expected results don't materialize.

Playwright Shabel is obviously upset about large corporation disregard when truth threatens to affect revenues, and director Christopher Scott and the cast maximize his anger. The bad will shot by all members of the combatting teams across Josh Iacovelli's economical set (mostly a conference table, ergonomic chairs and black curtains) is palpable.

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As a young entrepreneur, I always question the relevance of advice from older businesspeople. Though I certainly believe in learning from experience, I feel advice can quickly become outdated, especially in the current connected environment. Nowadays there are several new tricks we can use to manage our time more wisely and glean only the usable information.

To gather relevant tips, I recently spoke with Nathan Resnick, a 22-year-old entrepreneur who currently serves as the co-founder and CEO of Sourcify, a marketplace for the world's top manufacturers.

In the past couple of years, Resnick has brought dozens of products to market, launched several Kickstarter campaigns, started a few successful ecommerce brands and been featured in leading publications such as the New York Times, Bloomberg and Fast Company.

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Resnick started out like many other wannabe entrepreneurs, eager to apply new innovations to other industries. For example, when he was twelve, he helped implement the Autism Society of America's awareness wristband, raising over $200,000 for the nonprofit organization. This idea was sparked by the rise in popularity of Livestrong bracelets.

If you're looking to start out on the right foot as an entrepreneur, Resnick offers the following three tips:

1. Share your ideas.



One of the biggest flaws in many young entrepreneurs' mindsets is a belief in secrecy. An unwillingness to share your concept won't get your business anywhere. Collaboration can work wonders, and you never know how others may be able to help.

When Resnick was starting Sourcify, a marketplace for the world's top manufacturers, he consulted key mentors and friends to gain valuable insights. Without their advice, Resnick says, Sourcify wouldn't have recognized key performance indicators that have become invaluable to their growth.

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2. Horizontal innovation.



If you're looking to find a new business to start, one of the most effective ways to ideate is to look for horizontal innovation plays. This means taking an existing product or technology, and applying it to a different industry.

For example, when Resnick was starting Cork Supply Co, he noticed an uptick in sustainably focused brands like Original Grain. Though he didn't use wood and didn't focus on the watch industry, the brand Cork Supply Co took similar roots in a fashion-forward sustainable outlook. This approach enables you to expand on proven businesses and move them toward your expertise or interests.

3. Be driven by results.



As an entrepreneur, you need to focus on data-driven results. You can talk and theorize all you want, but until you implement and test, your business won't be proven. That is why Resnick believes results outweigh any theories.

When testing new business ideas, Resnick starts by launching a simple landing page and driving traffic to it. He then tests the conversion rate of signups on that page to see if his business idea could gain traction. This method enables entrepreneurs to stay lean before investing too much in their ideas.
Jeffrey thought the battles in his life were over. But following his service in Iraq as a combat solider, Jeffrey fought drug addiction and was later diagnosed with HIV. The next blow came when he learned that he was infected with the Hepatitis C virus (HCV), a blood-borne virus that can cause chronic liver disease, serious liver damage, and liver failure.

Jeffrey joined Amida Care -- New York's largest Medicaid special needs health plan for people living with chronic health conditions such as HIV/AIDS -- and was able to take control of his health through holistic care. Through Amida Care, Jeffrey was also able to access groundbreaking treatment that cured him of HCV in just 12 weeks.

Not everyone has this opportunity, however -- the high price of HCV medication keeps it out of reach for many. July 28 is World Hepatitis Day, which brings awareness to the goal of eliminating viral hepatitis as a public health threat by the year 2030. Without increased access to treatment, this goal cannot be achieved, and the health of those living with HCV or who are co-infected with HIV and HCV will remain at risk.

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HCV is a silent epidemic. People can be infected with HCV for decades without experiencing symptoms. Compared with other age groups, people born between 1945 and 1965 are four to five times more likely to be infected with HCV. In accordance with New York State law, Baby Boomers in New York are now routinely offered the opportunity to be tested for HCV. The good news is that HCV can now be cured, with medications that are faster-acting than ever before and have no serious side effects.

As many as 25-30 percent of people living with HIV are co-infected with HCV. Those who are co-infected often have a weaker immune response to HCV compared to those who aren't co-infected. HIV co-infection more than triples a person's risk for liver disease, liver failure, and liver-related death from HCV.

Until recently, HCV was an incurable chronic infection for most HIV-positive people. However, with newly developed medication -- interferon (IFN)-free direct acting antiviral (DAA) regimens -- a recent study found that 95 percent of co-infected patients can be cured of HCV.

Amida Care has covered treatment for hundreds of HIV-HCV co-infected members. Of those who have already completed the drug regimen, 400 (98 percent) have been cured of HCV. Our ability to provide access to HCV medication and early treatment has helped hundreds of people like Jeffrey improve their health and live their lives HCV-free.

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The availability of HCV treatment is an exciting medical development, and there have been important policy victories as well. Previously, New York State Medicaid covered Hepatitis C treatment only for those in advanced stages of liver disease or co-infected with HIV, but earlier this year, the state removed those restrictions. Several commercial insurance companies have lifted restrictions as well.

This is the right thing to do -- we can't stand by and let people die if we have the tools to save them. Unfortunately, the high price of these life-saving medications will continue to create barriers to care for people who could be cured.

In 2013, the profit margin for pharmaceutical companies ranged from 10 percent to 42 percent, with an average of 18 percent --factoring in the cost of research and development, which pharmaceutical companies cite as an explanation for the high price of the medication. The most frequently used drug costs $1,000 per pill, upward of $70,000 per 12- to 24-week course of treatment, totaling an estimated $3.5 billion in sales from April to June 2015.

Simply stated, prohibitive cost is preventing thousands of people from receiving life-saving treatment. It's time to make HCV medication available to all who need it. The upfront cost of the treatment also saves hundreds of thousands of dollars in long-term lifetime costs associated with infection.

Lower drug prices could be a win for all involved. If drug prices are lower, more people can access treatment and get well. Increased access means higher volume, which would in turn benefit pharmaceutical companies.

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It's also important to ensure that those who receive treatment avoid re-infection. The goal, after all, is to see to it that once someone is cured, they are cured for life. We need to help people understand the importance of adhering to treatment and provide resources on safe sex practices and needle exchanges.
Tone and language are the building blocks to customer perception. They determine whether a customer walks away elated and raving about your service, or, if used poorly, confirm a commonplace and pervasive belief that most customer service nowadays is laughable at best.

How many of us are walking around saying, "Jeez, there's just so much great customer service I don't know what to do with myself." No, instead it's widely known how it feels to be disregarded and ignored.

The glass half-full perspective, however, says that a low bar gives us the change to exceed these low expectations -- there is a sincere opportunity awaiting those companies willing to do what others won't; to take their service seriously and surprise customers through a channel that has lost some of its luster.

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Everyday businesses are turning their customers away with the wrong tone and language. These customers are looking for choices but are afraid of falling into yet another fruitless relationship.

This also happens to be a company's greatest opportunity, because while everyone else is racing to the bottom, ignoring empathy and a human touch, this becomes a defining moment where the right tone and language can change hearts and minds, where they create more room for conversation. This is evermore important for online businesses, because smiles and body language are invisible. We express what's ultimately missing through language and tone.

What People Were Saying in 1993 about Customer Service

In Raving Fans: A Revolutionary Approach to Customer Service, Harvey Mackay writes in the foreword:

"Since most service is awful, America is ripe for a revolution. Although we may not be following mission statements and wall posters, the recognition of the need for customer service is there. More and more, managers in individual organizations are zeroing in on customers, and their success stands as a beacon for others. Five to eight years ago, the quality wave was about to break over us. We discovered quality isn't enough. Today the customer-service is swelling larger than the quality wave, and when it fully hits, those not prepared will be washed into history."

He wrote this in 1993!

I empathize with those in the hospitality business. Repetitive habits begin as cobwebs but can end up as chains, making dull, automated behavior an easy trap to fall into--but it's no excuse.

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Excessive automation inhibits personalization, and it is still those ordinary moments which are most responsible for positive memories.

It doesn't require lavish treatment. A customer's potential recommendation is directly tied to the memory of how he or she was treated. The "extra mile" has become a trope in customer service, but that doesn't change the fact that the smallest gesture can often cause the largest ripple. It takes a company-wide mindset to consistently deliver this value to customers, however.

To start building this mindset requires an appreciation of language itself and the understanding that even a single word can make a difference. Let's dig into why language establishes expectations and why every word you use matters.

Words Move People

In 1996, Yale professor John Bargh conducted a fascinating study on the power of words.

He organized university students into three groups to unscramble thirty separate five-word sentences. One group unscrambled sentences associated with aggression, containing words such as "bluntly" and "disturb." Another group unscrambled polite sentences, with words like "courteous." The third group (control group) had words like "exercise" and "prepares."

After the assignment was completed, the students were told to approach the researcher to let him know they were finished; however when they found the researcher, he was already engaged in a conversation (with an actor). The researcher ignored the students until he was interrupted or when 10 minutes had passed.

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The results? The polite-word group waited on average 9.3 minutes to interrupt; the neutral group waited about 8.7 minutes; the rude-word group waited 5.4 minutes. More than 80% of the polite-word group waited the full 10 minutes, whereas only 35% of the rude-word group chose not to interrupt. Afterwards, the subjects were interviewed to see if they knew why they did or didn't intrude, and they couldn't identify why.

What this study illustrates is the lasting influence words can have on social interactions. There is a meaningful difference between, "What else do you need?" versus "Let me know if you need anything else!" While the information relayed is the same, it is the wording which ultimately defines the emotional experience.

In the words of Edgar Allan Poe, "Of the innumerable effects or impressions of which the heart, the intellect, or (more generally) the soul is susceptible, what one shall I, on the present occasion, select?"

How a Non-Support Guy Jumped in Head First

I recently got my first hands-on experience with Whole Company Support, the art of making customer success a priority for every department (even mine!). In all my previous experience, email has been about brevity. When it comes to support, I realize that brevity isn't always what's best. A novel isn't necessary, but acknowledging the issue at hand while speaking in a way that is instructive and friendly always wins.

Turns out, this is much easier said than done. From a team that focuses on excellent support, I received excellent training and wisdom from those on the front line. This is a practice, not just a belief. My goal is to get better at communicating and helping the customer with every email.

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Here are 5 tips that have helped me build my mindset in speaking to customers as if they are my comrades--because they are.

Empathy, empathy, empathy--Your customers are your friends, your allies. They're the lifeblood of your business. Picture them sitting across from you when asking for help. Are you really going to end the conversation with, "What else do you want?" That sentence has an undertone of, "Anytime you're ready to get out of my hair...." Think about how difficult it can be to ask for help. Do not begin your reply like you're lecturing or talking above the person. Always put yourself on a level playing-field, and speak like they're your closest ally and you're happy to help.

Every. Word. Matters--Mark Twain once famously said, "The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug." Enter conversations, don't just close tickets. When responding to customers, use language that they use.

Think of your words as signposts--It doesn't hurt to emphasize specific words to let customers know where you want them to go. Think of it like this: when a customer comes to you for help, it's like they're asking for directions. How you use your words determines whether they get to the destination or not. The easier they get there, the happier they'll be.

Always ask for feedback--The beauty of drafts is that they can be edited. From a writer's perspective, I don't know anyone who publishes a first draft because it's often muddled with mistakes. Ask your team to review your response. Does it show empathy and care and provide the solution in an insightful, clear way? Does it abide to the values and standards of the company and what they desire to reflect? Ask your team how they would respond or how they would like to be responded to. Put your response in perspective so that what you say has an impact on creating a positive emotional experience.

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Study previous examples--I spend a greater amount of time reading closed conversations than new ones. By studying what the veterans are doing on the front lines of customer support, I can learn from them by paying attention to their language and tone. I can find patterns for very basic issues, like where to find something, and immediately have the solution in mind for when an issue arrives. Whether you're a veteran or not, study the old conversations you had with customers, learn from those experiences, and implement a strategy to help you make the next conversation a little better.

Rudyard Kipling once claimed, "Words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind." Indeed, give too little and you'll make the customer feel misunderstood; administer too much and the customer will feel like you're pandering. Getting to the sweet spot is an art, one that will take a few failures, but nevertheless worthy of your time and effort.

In many ways support is the foundation of any growing company. A weak foundation can crumble a home, but a strong one sustains it. In fact, Jason Lemkin, former founder of EchoSign and venture capitalist, would argue that it is service that separates young companies from the pack. Comcast may rather be feared than loved, but Lemkin contests that if you want to go the distance, you have make the effort to wow customers:

However, if word-of-mouth matters. If second-order revenue and upgrades and upsells matter. If you have a recurring revenue product, and have to re-earn that customer every month, every year, then customer service is the single most important thing you can do to move the needle.
This is the third post in my Creative Disruption trilogy. The first one provided strategies to protect your company from disruption. The second talked about the obstacles disrupters are likely to face when introducing a disruptive company, product, or technology. In this one, I focus on overcoming these obstacles so that companies can successfully introduce breakthrough products and technologies that improve lives and make the world a better place.

Overcoming the habit obstacle

Penetrating the habit obstacle is rarely trivial or easy. Even so, it is usually not that difficult if you appreciate the difficulty of the task, know your marketplace sufficiently well, and employ the strategies and tools required. There are three big steps that can take you to the place you want to go.

Step One. To overcome well-ingrained habits, the first step is to identify important needs that are not being filled. To do this, organizations need to do market research as part of their marketing information system strategies.

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Step Two. Create a brand that (1) identifies the target audience with the unfilled needs (I call this the "lock" component of positioning) and (2) develops an image of the product that fills those needs better than competitors (I call this the "key" component of positioning to complete the lock and key metaphor). With the right key, the company can find an effective and memorable shortcut into the brains of the target audience.

Step Three. Communicate the brand benefits to the target audience using effective promotion strategies. To be effective, promotions have to have (1) compelling content, (2) be inserted into the right media the target audience consumes, (3) at the right times, and (4) within the promotion budget available.

Reducing the push back from the disrupted

After you have the right keys for the right locks and communicate effectively, you will be well on your way to getting your target audience to change its habits and try your products. If your products meet or exceed the expectations you set in your branding, customers and prospects will help you fight the inevitable battles you will face with those that are disrupted. Of course, you can help your own case if you develop a strategy that demonstrates how competitors that feel threatened can benefit from your creations. There are several ways you can do this.

Convince them they need to change to survive. Convince them that the changes you are introducing are inevitable as technology advances. If you do not introduce these advances, others will. The sooner the disrupted make adjustments to focus on what they do better, the better off they will be. Since Uber entered the transportation market, taxicab companies upgraded their vehicles and procedures to better compete. Travel agencies that successfully weathered the Internet storm are those that offered unique curated trips that travelers could not easy find on the Internet.

Form alliances with the disrupted. You can form alliances with your rivals to refer business to them for what they do better so they will do the same in reverse. Rather than lose out to Amazon, many re-sellers sell there products through Amazon. You can also suggest they invest in you to hedge their bets. Steve Jobs convinced Bill Gates and Microsoft to invest in Apple when it was in financial straights.

Create alliances with influential customers. Uber has contracts with universities and big businesses to provide transportation services to their students and employees.

Overcoming Government obstacles

Governments feel compelled to protect their constituents. They are less comfortable with disruptive products since they do not have a track record of safety. Focusing on the compelling benefits of your creative disruption that will make the lives of their constituents better can quiet these concerns. You have to look at marketing to government decision makers as an essential component in your marketing strategy. Uber has run afoul of some governments because the company did not address the concerns of groups that feel threatened by Uber. As a result, many cities around the world have prohibited Uber from operating.

Uneducated obstacles

Similar to the strategies you employed to overcome habits, you have to use marketing information system, branding, and promotion strategies to educate buyers and resellers of your products on the unique benefits your product provides them.

When the automobile was introduced, very few knew or understood the term. To get buyers and sellers in the marketplace to understand what an automobile was, manufacturers were compelled to express the new invention in terms of the older technology it replaced. Therefore, they called early automobiles horseless carriages until such time and the marketplace was comfortable with the new term.

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When Apple introduced the iPhone, they formed an exclusive reseller relationship with ATT. This limited their distribution for quite a while. Why was this necessary? Only ATT was willing to accept the stringent requirements Apple thought it needed to be successful in the mobile phone business. Once the marketplace became educated on the unique benefits of the iPhone, the other big resellers - Verizon, T-Mobile, and Sprint were eager to add the iPhone since they all lost significant business from not having the iPhone in their product offerings.

Politics

Politics can stifle new inventions that disrupt older businesses. When the oil industry was in its infancy, it convinced those in positions of power that it needed incentives to survive, grow, and thrive. As a result, Government subsidies to the oil industry have been in place since 1916 and are estimated to be between $4 and $52 billion annually. The worldwide figure is pegged between $775 billion and $1 trillion. Many believe that at least some of these subsidies should be diverted to renewal energy sources so that they have the same infancy protection the oil industry had. To date, the lack of such subsidies is often cited as a reason why alternative energy sources have been slow to develop.

Through Tesla and Solar City, Elon Musk has been making a valiant effort to overcome political obstacles. He has had some small victories with positive reviews of his Model S Tesla, a large backlog for the Model 3, and the fact that several automakers are now offering high-powered electric automobiles. He might be further along if he employed a bigger arsenal of marketing strategies to overcome political barriers erected by entrenched forces in the fossil fuel and automobile industries.

Financing sources

The same marketing strategies needed to overcome habits and government barriers should be employed to clear financing hurdles. To get financing in early stages, disruptive companies have to use their own funds, crowdfunding, friends and family, or find angel investors. In addition to good branding and communications, smart money people often cite determination and belief in your product near the top of the list of reasons why they decide to invest in a business.

Change avoidance

To overcome the change avoidance obstacle, it is important to translate the benefits or your breakthrough products into tangible time and money components. Everyone understands time and money. If you can show how your product or technology will do that, you can get most people to buy what you are selling.

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Disruption made easier

While it is never easy, creative disruption can work really well when you translate the benefits into terms that just about everyone can understand. This "everyone" group can include: purchase initiators, funders, referral sources, influencers, decision makers, buyers, resellers, users, and disposers. Even though one person can perform any number of these roles and some roles may overlap, the more of them you identify and consider in your marketing, the more your "creatively disruptive" product is likely to succeed.
PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA -- In its first night, the 2016 Democratic National Convention played host to First Lady Michelle Obama. All over social and traditional media outlets, her speech is being given high praise and many feel it could help thaw the ice between entrenched "Bernie or Bust" voters and mainstream Democrats. However, in a shocking turn of events, it appears that Mrs. Obama may have been guilty of doing the same thing that Melania Trump did at the Republican convention last week -- plagiarizing Michelle Obama.

"We have it on good authority that the speech given by the First Lady last night was the work of blatant plagiarism," Richard Coleman of the Americans For More Liberty and Freedom League told reporters at a press conference outside the headquarters/laundromat near his home."



Coleman says that anyone with "half a brain can tell" the First Lady's speech was actually "written by Michelle Obama and/or her team." Mr. Coleman said he "know[s] for a fact" he's heard many of the same things Michelle Obama said in her speech somewhere else. Namely, in other Michelle Obama speeches.

"It just seems kind of odd to me," Coleman said, "because I know for a fact that I've heard Mrs. Obama talk about the importance of unity and doing things together. I'm pretty sure I've heard her speak about what it's like to be in the first black First Family in our country's history."

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As chairman for the AFMLFL, Coleman says it's his job to call out politicians when they act like hypocrites. He says that he understands why Mrs. Obama would steal her material from Mrs. Obama, because she's such a "tremendous and gifted speaker." This is why Melania Trump's speechwriter used passages from the First Lady's speech as well. He just doesn't think Mrs. Obama should get away with plagiarizing Mrs. Obama if Mrs. Trump was criticized for it.

"Hey, I get it," Coleman told reporters, "Michelle Obama is such a tremendous and gifted speaker. If I were going to give a speech on a stage like that, I'd probably be tempted to lift stuff from her too. But if Melania's going to get called out for plagiarizing Mrs. Obama, so too should Mrs. Obama be called-out for plagiarizing Michelle Obama.

Mr. Coleman says he plans to do extensive research to determine just how much of Obama's speech she plagiarized from herself.

"I will scour every YouTube video, Vine, and SnapChat I can find," Coleman said, "and I will not stop until I figure out just how much of her speech Michelle Obama stole from Michelle Obama."

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Reached for comment, Melania Trump said she "really enjoyed" Mrs. Obama's speech and she looks forward to hearing it again when she delivers it in another four years.
Gardner has called for acting on immigration reform. He stood and clapped when Obama asked in is SOTU in 2014 calling for Congress to get it done. He's for a path to legal status. Yes, he says the border situation has to be secure, and I understand that some use that condition to dodge real reform, but Gardner has for the last two years been more friendly to the issue than others.

I include this piece from Mark Matthew's in 2014 to show what I mean.

I get it that the use of the word "comprehensive" is too much of a buzzword and it isn't specific enough. And were I writing specifically about immigration I would have had to have been more detailed. But in the context of a broader editorial about leadership styles, a 10,000-foot view comparison between Gardner's approach and Cruz/Trump, Gardner is much different. Cruz called for deporting 12 million people in the country illegally, for example
For the first time ever, a national human rights body has ordered the world's largest fossil fuel companies to respond to allegations that they have contributed to human rights abuses in the Philippines. Last year, disaster survivors, community-based organizations, and individual Filipino citizens, side-by-side with Greenpeace Southeast Asia (Philippines), filed a petition with the Commission on Human Rights of the Philippines (Commission) asking for an investigation into 47 industrial carbon producers (big polluters) for putting their fundamental human rights at risk from climate change. The Commission heeded the petitioners' call to investigate these wrongs, and the probe is now at a critical juncture. This week, the Commission enjoined the companies to submit responses to the allegations. While some companies might stick to business as usual and ignore the order, or even worse, attempt to silence those who are seeking justice, others may change tack, and come to the table. Then we can start rapidly changing behaviors, investments, politics and policies, prevent further harm to people vulnerable to climate change, and move towards the inevitable renewable energy future. Here are five good reasons why CEOs of fossil fuel companies should respect the lives and livelihoods of those living on the front lines of climate change and answer the Filipinos' petition.

1. Deadlines focus the mind



The Commission has ordered the big polluters to respond to the petition within 45 days. The issues raised should come as no surprise. Shareholders have repeatedly requested that fossil fuel companies submit business plans in light of the urgency to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This year, a whopping 38% of Exxon shareholders supported a resolution requiring Exxon to publish an annual report explaining how it will adjust to a 2 degree world. Like Exxon's shareholders, the petitioners in the Philippines want the big polluters to submit plans on how the business model will change in light of urgent need to limit temperature rise and prevent human rights impacts.



Fossil fuel CEOs should be under no illusions. It is now in their job description to consider how their company's business strategies must change to keep fossil fuels in the ground.



2. The writing is on the wall



The Paris Agreement signals the end of the fossil fuel era. Business-as-usual is no longer a viable option. The divest-invest movement is unstoppable. A recent report explains that with 'over 500 hundred institutional investors and tens of thousands of individuals, the assets under management of divesting institutions exceeded $3.4 trillion'.



Last year, Greenpeace Norway and many others successfully campaigned to get the country's $900 billion sovereign wealth fund to divest from coal, impacting 122 companies across the world. Money is now flowing away from fossil fuels, and the world's energy system is rapidly transitioning to be powered by the sun and the wind. All of the CEOs can use the opportunity to report to the Commission on the company's position on the transition into this new era of renewable energy.



3. Honesty is the best policy



Some companies may have tried to hide the truth about climate change, in order to protect profits. Recent investigations revealed that despite understanding the risks of climate change years ago, Exxon has been involved in a disinformation campaign aimed at confusing the public and investors about these risks. Meanwhile, it was using this information to make its business plans.



The Union of Concerned Scientists has called on fossil fuel companies to stop disseminating misinformation on climate change. CEOs should report to the Commission on efforts to completely cut ties with front groups, contrarian scientists, elected officials, and any others who undermine climate science in order to derail action.



4. Talk now or get sued later



Climate change litigation is a material risk. Delaying action to address the human rights impacts of fossil fuels will only heighten the risk of lawsuits for CEOs and corporations. In a recent letter to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Greenpeace USA and other NGOs commented that some companies and directors face the real possibility of tort and fiduciary liability if they fail to consider the legal risk of continuing to contribute to climate change or misleading the public and investors about the threats of climate change. Fossil fuel corporations could face lawsuits similar to tobacco companies for misrepresenting harms from cigarettes, and they were held accountable for lying to the public.



Smart CEOs can head off high-profile investigations and lawsuits by ending climate denial and embracing the renewable energy transformation. One company has already acknowledged that some fossil fuel reserves will have to stay in the ground.
The silhouettes of photographers are seen as Hillary Clinton, 2016 Democratic presidential nominee, speaks on screen during the Democratic National Convention (DNC) in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S., on Tuesday, July 26, 2016. Democrats began their presidential nominating convention Monday with a struggle to fully unite the party, following a dramatic day of internal squabbling and protests. Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images

My wife, a schoolteacher, watched the DNC for hours today, tearing up as Hillary Clinton was nominated for president. But my thirteen-year-old daughter didn't share the same emotion, wondering what the fuss was all about. She's now used to hearing about the accomplishments of women. And that's a good thing.

When I came home, I was surprised to see my wife home early, with the television on, watching the DNC roll call for states. She had put aside her lesson plans for the fall for her English classes on Tom Sawyer, counting the votes like a CNN pundit. "Did they do this for Trump?" she asked me. "I think they just ended it with Alabama," I replied.

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She saw the votes pour in for Bernie Sanders. "Are these the votes he got, or is he picking up votes?" she asked. She had seen all the support for Sanders and saw me watching Fox News Channel's coverage of the protests the previous day. I assured her that Clinton had it in the bag. "But it's a little too close for comfort for me."

She's not a political science teacher, or even a major. We do watch "House of Cards" and "Game of Thrones" as well as Samantha Bee's show, but her world doesn't revolve around politics like mine does. But then it hit me. Like so many women her age that I know, they've grown up in a world where teachers told her that a woman could be elected president, but political pundits pooh-poohed every candidate who seemed to come close while voters shied away from ending tradition, undercutting each one.

Hillary Clinton's campaign in 2008 got her excited, and she was sad to see the New York Senator just come up short. Her disappointment didn't lead her to back McCain, just because he put Sarah Palin on ticket.

I have noticed that she seemed more interested in the political campaign this year than any other year. I just assumed it was the high stakes, the Trump candidacy, the close polls, but maybe it was about seeing a woman break through the glass ceiling. She wasn't watching CNN's coverage for me. It was for her, and her daughter. Polls now show that a majority of Americans are comfortable with a female nominee for president, according to Ariel Edwards-Levy with Huffington Post.

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"My son and I are watching this," her sister messaged me on Facebook. "He wants to see which state gives Hillary the winning vote." She's a physics professor at another college, and just as eager as her sister to see Clinton win the nomination, watching it with her twelve-year-old son. After all, she spends a lot of time helping women in STEM classes overcome gender bias, giving them the same opportunities as male students.

My teenage daughter seemed to be the lone holdout. It just didn't seem so important for her. I've heard that this is sometimes the case for younger Sanders supporters. I admit being a little puzzled by her decision. But it isn't that she doesn't like Clinton. She's a rare voice of support for Hillary at her school, dominated by conservative kids.

But all her young life, she's seen cases of women succeeding, in politics, sports, business, and everyday life. It's not that Hillary Clinton's nomination held no meaning for her. It just didn't seem so unusual anymore. When Clinton spoke of all the cracks in the glass ceiling, it wasn't just one woman who made them all. It was millions of women across America who made them in their everyday lives.

In a number of European countries, there are gender quotas for elections, where a certain number of female candidates have to be on the ballot for each party to qualify (and women still lack power in some countries that adopt quotas, like Poland and Spain). America doesn't have that, despite calls for it. I suppose that makes Clinton's accomplishment all the more impressive. My daughter still doesn't understand that part, or know about what America was like before the 19th Amendment, but I hope one day she will.
Try to imagine -- twelve, eight, or even four years ago -- a candidate for president citing "fought for common-sense gun reform" and "took on the gun lobby" as the qualifications she or he was looking for in a running mate.



Then imagine that potential veep doubling down, and promising not to rest until America closed the loopholes that allow dangerous people to buy guns without a background check.



That was the scene last Saturday in Florida, as Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine together sent a clear political signal. For the Clinton-Kaine ticket, saving lives from gun violence is a winning issue. And this new calculus amounts to nothing less than a sea change in how candidates talk about gun safety on the campaign trail.



You might remember how nominees and running mates, in both parties, used to talk about this issue.



We don't need stronger laws, they said. "We have to enforce the laws we've already got."



The best way to prevent violent crime? Forget the loopholes that let dangerous people buy guns. Instead, "Teach people good discipline, good character."



The conventional wisdom was that you couldn't touch the gun issue -- except, of course, if you were promoting your gun owner bona fides. It was too polarizing, too controversial. You either cited the gun lobby's talking points with the zeal of a convert, you reminisced about hunting, or you changed the subject. Otherwise, you couldn't win.



That was then. So what changed?



Starting in Virginia -- home of NRA headquarters, no less -- then-Governor Kaine led a successful push to strengthen the state's background check system after the mass shooting at Virginia Tech. The governor earned an "F" grade from the NRA, which then spent big trying to defeat him in his 2012 Senate race. Kaine won, and the NRA lost.



Politicians noticed.



After the mass shooting at Sandy Hook, Colorado and Connecticut were among the first states to go beyond federal law and require a background check on all gun sales. The NRA's political arm made those states' gun safety governors top targets when they ran for reelection. They won anyway. The gun lobby lost.



Politicians noticed.



DC remains gridlocked on practically every issue -- from gun safety to funding the fight against Zika, you name it. But across the country, the states are breaking logjams on gun safety.



Background checks won in Washington State, thanks to a citizen-led ballot initiative. Voters didn't settle for the status quo, the same old divide between the people and their representatives. In fact, they bucked the state legislature, which, in the grip of the gun lobby, had turned down a background check proposal two years in a row. Now Nevada and Maine are holding similar ballot initiatives this Election Day.



After Oregon enacted a background check law, a gun lobby attempt to recall four lawmakers who supported it fizzled. Over a dozen states -- including Nikki Haley's South Carolina and Wisconsin's Scott Walker -- passed strong gun and domestic violence laws with bipartisan support.



Politicians are noticing.



Again and again, polls show that voters overwhelmingly back strong, sensible gun laws. Ninety percent of Americans support background checks, for example. The writing is on the wall, and this year, the candidates who choose to read the people's will on gun safety stand to reap the benefits.



In the presidential election, the choice is clear. Clinton and Kaine are the gun sense champions. They agree we can reduce the too-easy access to guns in America -- and reduce gun deaths -- without infringing on anyone's rights. They understand that freedom means being able to pray, go to the movies, go to a dance club, without fearing for your life.



The alternative is the gun lobby's vision for the country -- guns for anyone, anywhere, anytime.



We can take common-sense, constitutional action that's well within the political and legal mainstream. Or, we can yoke ourselves to the gun lobby.



When Senator Kaine takes the convention stage as a candidate for vice president on Wednesday, he'll speak after Erica Smegielski -- an advocate with Everytown for Gun Safety, and the daughter of the principal who was fatally shot at Sandy Hook. Lucy McBath -- a spokesperson for Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, and whose son was shot and killed in a dispute over loud music -- will already have spoken on Tuesday night.



Call it the Year of Gun Safety. This issue has moved from the shadows to center stage, as more Americans will see in prime time starting this week.


Photo: Ariel Skelley/Getty Images

Foreclosure casualties continue to mount almost a decade after the housing crisis began. Between 2006 and 2014, 9.3 million families lost their homes, and the body count continues. Similar to cancer, the cure to foreclosure is elusive. Recalcitrant mortgage holders and servicers, a sputtering economy, stagnant wages for many households, and falling real estate values in America's lowest income neighborhoods all are contributors. Upon occasion, though, stories emerge from the battlefield to restore hope for those still fighting.

Mourning the death of her sister to cancer, a Gary, Indiana woman could never have imagined that just a year later, she would be living in her late sister's house and receiving her own cancer diagnosis. She resided in Houston when she learned that her sister had passed at only forty-six years old. "My sister's home is on land my father used to own. He needed someone to take care of the house and finances, so I stepped up to the plate."

She returned to her hometown of Gary to reciprocate her sister's support. "One of my daughters lived with my sister for a while," she said. "She took her in, so I felt responsible for taking on the house." She did not anticipate the hardships that would ensue.

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Once known as the "City of the Century," Gary crumbled with the decline of American industry. Established in 1906 by the United States Steel Corporation, Gary was once a hub of domestic production. Beginning in the mid twentieth century, however, Gary felt the pain of a slumping manufacturing sector. The once booming city is now relatively a ghost town. Scores of homes are abandoned, becoming magnets for blight and criminal activity. Fifty-five percent of its population has fled. Once housing 178,320 residents, Gary is now home to only 80,294. The deterioration of communities compounds the hardships of the struggling homeowners who remain.

After being diagnosed with the same disease that killed her sister, she next embarked on a battle with uncooperative lenders. "I came into the house blinded," she explained. "My sister just died and I didn't know what I had to pay. The lenders didn't want to give me information."

When the homeowner finally uncovered the payment amount, lenders increased her rate. "They kept making the payments go up and up," she said. "My experience with those lenders was horrible."

As stage two breast cancer interrupted her life, she feared the fate of her home. "I had to stop working and I couldn't make the payments," she explained. "I was worried that the house would go into foreclosure. If that happened, it would have been tough times for me."

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According to a 2012 study conducted by Sun Life Financial, nearly half of all foreclosures are a result of health crises. As medical bills mount, homeowners grapple with their mortgage payments. In that same year, Wells Fargo refused to modify the mortgage of a North Carolina cancer victim despite her stage four diagnosis. As Cindi Davis underwent a four-year battle with breast cancer, Wells Fargo declined multiple modifications and instead increased her monthly payments. With chemotherapy hindering her ability to work, Davis feared that she would be forced to fight cancer while living in a truck.

Like Davis, the Gary homeowner discovered the inflexibility of many lenders, even during tragedies. Fortunately, lenders often sell their nonperforming mortgages at discounts. Some debt buyers are willing to share the discounts with families. The Gary, Indiana woman's mortgage was sold to my company, American Homeowner Preservation, and we promptly agreed to do what the prior lender should have. The delinquent payments had spiraled to over $50,000, more than the value of the home. As a result, AHP settled all the delinquent payments for $2,000, forgave the difference, and dropped the monthly payment from $630.67 to $500. "AHP was better than all of the other lenders," she beamed. "More reasonable than anyone I worked with."

As this homeowner's situation improves, so does the fate of Gary. With demolitions and redevelopment plans underway, the city inches closer to renewal. Just as her hometown makes strides, an affordable mortgage modification, cancer treatments, and the love of her six children have allowed this homeowner to move forward, all while cherishing the memory of her sister.
America is afraid. There is fear of daily new terror attacks here or abroad. There is growing fear of rampant domestic gun violence. Fear that this person or that is ruining the country. It is fear aimed outward: witness the pervasive discourse of threat at the recent Republican National Convention. It is fear aimed inward: witness our 2.2 million people behind bars, a highly disproportionate number of whom are people of color. If our country were a person, we would view that person as anxious, reactive and reeling from years of trauma: major symptoms of PTSD.

Suggesting the country itself has PTSD is hyperbolic to make a point: a shocking number of Americans do in fact suffer from PTSD. Current statistics suggest that between 6.8 and 10.1 percent of Americans will develop PTSD in their lifetimes making it the 5th most common psychiatric illness. For perspective, that's somewhere between the population of Texas and California who will require treatment. By contrast, rates are much lower in other westernized countries like Germany (2.3%) or Spain (.56%).

The symptoms of PTSD (hyper-arousal, flash-backs, avoiding reminders of trauma) are debilitating. Making things worse is the common co-occurrence of depression and other anxiety disorders. These problems cause other physical illnesses that lead people with PTSD to visit the hospital much more often than other citizens making it an enormous burden on the U.S. health care system.

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We have made great progress increasing awareness and understanding of stress disorders afflicting military service members. Programs targeted at returning soldiers bring community support and de-stigmatize this understandable reaction to the traumas of war. Programs like the Wounded Warrior Project and MGH Home Base Project help veterans stay integrated with their community through engagement and job training while providing both physical and mental rehabilitation. Most major research projects like the Consortium to Alleviate PTSD or the National Center for PTSD are aimed at treating PTSD in veterans.

This progress is commendable, but we do have to ask: what about everyone else? PTSD continues to occur at high rates among civilians because up to 80% of us will experience at least one trauma such as an assault, traffic accident, or natural disaster.

Events like those at the Pulse in Orlando or any of the 58 mass shootings since highlight the conventionally combat-like situations people experience or witness. Research following the September 11th World Trade Center attack demonstrates that witnessing disasters, even on television, is enough to trigger PTSD. Also, lets not forget natural disasters like Hurricane Katrina and recent flooding in West Virginia, which can directly affect thousands.

These tragedies are dramatic, well publicized and lead to outpourings of support. This is in contrast to the scant national attention paid to the violence and trauma experienced at incredible rates by people in America's inner-cities. People living in inner-city Chicago and similar neighborhoods in Detroit, Washington D.C. and Atlanta, have rates of PTSD equivalent to those seen in soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. This means that in terms of mental health outcomes it is as if these residents live in a war zone.

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Where are the national fundraising campaigns for inner-city kids who are assaulted at twice the rate as suburban kids?

The problem is that most of the time people don't think of civilian PTSD as being in the same league as military PTSD, but this couldn't be more wrong. Among all populations the more traumatic experiences you have the more likely you are to have PTSD. Especially at risk are those people who grew up in stressful and uncertain environments like the inner cities where rates of trauma are especially high.

So, we must have created systems to treat civilians for PTSD just like we have for veterans, right? Wrong, these people are largely forgotten. Between 2009 and 2012 $4.35 billion of funding was cut from state mental health budgets and funding cuts have widely continued since. These cuts disproportionately affect low-income families and transfer costs back to local hospitals, families and taxpayers.

The often overlooked consequences of high rates of PTSD are its contributions to community dysfunction and mass incarceration. Victims of violence, especially children, are very often alienated from their communities and, without sufficient support structures, are more likely to have substance abuse problems, behavioral problems and in the end are more likely to be arrested and incarcerated. Incarceration in turn increases rates of PTSD, substance abuse and health problems feeding a cycle of violence, mental illness, and incarceration.

This cycle is especially devastating for youths who experience trauma early in life. These kids are much more likely to develop PTSD, substance abuse and behavioral problems later in life. Once they have spent even a short time in in the criminal justice system they are much more likely to recidivate and return to jail or prison, ushering them into the so-called "Cradle to the Prison Pipeline."

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What can we do to break the cycle? Community treatment initiatives like the Grady Trauma Project show that starting treatment in the Emergency Department can greatly reduce the risk for PTSD. Other initiatives like Chicago's "Safe Start" and the Obama administrations "Brother's Keeper" begin to provide community resources that will prevent at-risk youth from entering into destructive cycles. These programs are currently relatively small-scale, but with sufficient funding could make huge impacts in at-risk communities.

The bottom line is that America has a problem with PTSD. No matter what we decide to do about it, continuing to ignore the problem and locking away huge numbers of mentally ill people only perpetuates cycles of violence, mass incarceration and fear. With proper attention and funding this could be a manageable problem whose treatment would promote mental health and safety for all Americans.

Judith G. Edersheim, JD, MD. Co- Director, The Center for Law, Brain and Behavior, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School
What if millions of American workers were being denied health insurance, job security and the most basic legal protections, from overtime pay to workers compensation to the right to join a union? What if tens of billions of dollars in taxpayer revenues -- money desperately needed to address everything from crumbling roads to education to health care -- were never making it to local, state and federal treasuries? What if thousands of companies were violating the law with impunity?

That is exactly what is happening in the U.S. today, thanks to a rampant practice known as worker misclassification - illegally labeling workers as independent contractors when in fact they are employees under the law. In some cases it's occurring in plain sight, in others it's more hidden -- but regardless of the circumstances, it is taking an enormous toll on the country.

According to the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), workers misclassified as independent contractors can be found in nearly every industry, and the phenomenon has grown considerably with the rise of the gig economy. Uber, the ride-hailing company, has become the poster child for worker misclassification, with numerous lawsuits alleging that Uber wrongly classifies its drivers as independent contractors. But Uber is hardly alone - examples of worker misclassification can be found in scores of new sectors, from housecleaners to technical workers.

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Workers misclassified as independent contractors are also legion in established sectors of the economy, notably residential construction, in-home caregiving and the port trucking industry. Conditions for these workers have been compared to indentured servitude, and for good reason. Misclassification enables employers to get away with widespread wage theft and a range of other illegal practices.

In a 2015 report, EPI described the advantages to employers of misclassifying workers. "Employers who misclassify avoid paying payroll taxes and workers' compensation insurance, are not responsible for providing health insurance, and are able to bypass requirements of the Fair Labor Standards Act, as well as the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act." If this weren't enough, the report continues, "misclassified workers are ineligible for unemployment insurance, workers' compensation, minimum wage, and overtime, and are forced to pay the full FICA tax and purchase their own health insurance."

How do employers get away with such violations? The answer is complex, involving anemic labor laws, lax enforcement of the protections that do exist and the savvy exploitation of both by companies in key industries. While some businesses misclassify their workers out of ignorance, others do it very deliberately, and have spent millions of dollars defending the practice.

A case in point is the port trucking industry, which was deregulated in the 1980s, leading to a proliferation of companies whose business model was predicated on the use of independent contractors. That model has resulted in a workforce of close to 75,000 truck drivers at ports across the country laboring in mostly abysmal conditions. Among the indignities endured by drivers are such neo-Dickensian schemes as negative paychecks - an inconceivable but well-documented occurrence in which drivers labor full time or more, yet actually owe money to the trucking companies they work for due to paycheck deductions for everything from truck payments to insurance to repairs.

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In the last several years, port truck drivers and their labor, community and political allies have begun to successfully challenge misclassification, winning a series of legal victories, particularly in California. Every government agency that's conducted an investigation into the practices of the port trucking industry -- from the United States Department of Labor and National Labor Relations Board to the California Labor Commissioner and Economic Development Department -- has determined that port drivers are employees, not independent contractors. The state's labor commissioner alone has issued more than 300 decisions on misclassification of drivers in Southern California, and drivers have prevailed in every decision, winning over $35 million in back pay.

How can these successes be replicated and enhanced to end misclassification? Three strategies stand out:

Litigation: The successful track record in California has proven that misclassification is vulnerable to sustained litigation. An important factor is whether elected and appointed officials are willing to aggressively pursue or support such litigation - if not, the efforts will yield far less favorable results.

Policy changes: The enactment of policies that clamp down on misclassification, increase penalties and ban law-breaking companies from operating can have significant impact. However, as with litigation, this strategy depends on the presence of lawmakers willing to take on the issue.

Worker organizing: In Los Angeles, port truck drivers frustrated with the exploitative conditions in their industry have waged a multi-year campaign to expose the practice of misclassification. That effort, which has included multiple strikes, has been supported by a broad coalition of community groups - a potent combination that has played a crucial role in challenging the trucking industry's "independent contractor" business model.

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Taking on misclassification is important not just to workers, but to businesses and taxpayers as well. In the current system, law-abiding companies are forced to compete with low-road operators, creating an uneven playing field. Likewise, the cost to taxpayers in lost revenues from employers that illegally misclassify workers as independent contractors is enormous, cheating government out of resources that could and should be used for the common good.
One of the country's first fraternal orders, named after a storied Native American called Tammend, developed a political wing and built a meeting place in New York that would later become synonymous with Democratic machine politics: Tammany Hall.

Occasionally forced into endorsing a political vision, in the main Tammany preferred to keep the machine running by operating as a gatekeeper for municipal contracts or, in the days of government chartered banks, government money. In exchange for exquisite constituent service, or perhaps access to the Tammany job machine, loyalists resigned themselves to supporting power without purpose, and access to national conversation without any great consequence.

In similar fashion the leaders of the Democratic Party opened their convention in the Philadelphia cheered by an arena of enthusiastic operatives--and a handful of noisy disruptors, eager to put their narrow politics and self-regard on display for the cameras. As I listened to the speeches--some exceptional, many good--they fell into an identifiable pattern: identify a premise (usually a problem); praise Hillary Clinton's position; deride Donald Trump's.

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The most successful speech of the night, delivered by Michelle Obama, was also the only one to significantly depart from this pattern--or, one could also argue, adopt it with such conviction that the framework receded in favor of substance. Her disparagement of Trump was no less powerful for being implicit; her praise of Hillary Clinton more convincing because it was couched within (and confined to) her well-developed theme of the power of example in the Oval Office.

Taken together, the speeches of the night provided no great argument as to why voters should choose Democrats in the fall that did not also depend on character witness.

This strikes me a precarious and self-limiting posture. Those most susceptible to its persuasion are already Hillary Clinton supporters; for those who are not, no conceivable collection of public figures could vouch for Clinton, or defame Trump, in such a fashion so as to alter the balance of power.

Instead these voters search for a party defined by more than a belief in the relative superiority of one particular person. For those with no reservations regarding Hillary Clinton, this endeavor is intended to empower the Democratic nominee; for those like myself, who feel well-grounded in harboring reservations, it is intended to hold her accountable. Either pursuit is valid.

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As yet, neither seems of interest to the Democratic convention. Even the specific policy positions recounted from the dais seem purchased by an interest group rather than grounded by an over-arching vision, and it is perhaps for this reason speakers left the field of foreign policy virtually untouched.

In the past I have bemoaned the fact that Democrats treat ideas as something to inoculated against. Day one of the Democratic wigwam, a parade of character references for Boss Tweed, ratified those concerns. Say what you will about the Republican Party--and of course there is plenty to say--a careful analysis of Day 1 of both conventions would find a cult of personality haunting both. To be sure, less pedigreed and far less gifted speakers made more overt assertions of the indispensability of behalf of Donald Trump. But they did so in the context of and with the benefit conferred by a party that has made a fetish of ideology. (I mean that quite literally.)

In contrast, on the Democratic side, a more talented set of individuals made less imaginative appeals, rushing to placate one interest group after another. In particular they failed to decry, as a Tammany insurgency once forced New York presidential candidate Martin Van Buren to do, that "the institution of government, intended as a shield, [has been] converted into a sword," used to benefit of the few at the expense of many. Maybe that is because so many in the convention hall stand implicated in that indictment.
As the nation's two parties gather for their nominating conventions, we hear a lot of talk about homeland security, public safety, and economic opportunity. But what we don't hear much about is the plight of homeless youth in America. Aren't they entitled to be part of both parties' visions for a better America? We believe that, given the opportunity, they can be among the brightest stars in our future.

We at Covenant House do know one thing from watching the conventions -- the host cities sure do clean up well. Cleveland and Philadelphia put on their finery and pulled out all the stops to create an environment that allowed convention visitors to experience the best of what they had to offer. But where were our kids? Homeless adults were a bit in the spotlight during the ramp-up to both conventions. Their increasingly visible presence in downtown Philly has concerned some in the community.

Recent construction projects at the downtown LOVE Park and Benjamin Franklin Parkway have uprooted homeless adults who used to stay there. About 50 have been sleeping under the underpass of the Philadelphia Convention Center, in the heart of Center City, seven miles from the Wells Fargo Center, where the Democrats will be meeting, but very close to many hotels and restaurants.

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The city recently agreed to provide an additional 100 temporary beds for homeless people, similar to beds that open up during freezing temperatures. Some observers believed the city was merely tidying up the streets for its expected 50,000 visitors.

"So it's an emergency when it's freezing and when we have company," wrote Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Mike Newall.

Mayor Jim Kenney tried to dispel that view in May, when he announced new outreach workers to encourage people to leave the streets.

"I think we have an opportunity to utilize some of the clout the Democratic Party is bringing," he said, "but it's not getting ready for the Democratic Party."

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City officials have said they do not want to make the 100 beds permanent, because they want to focus on permanent supportive housing. But there's not enough of any kind of bed to go around, with an estimated 700 homeless people in Philadelphia.

These discussions have left unsheltered young people behind, despite their greater vulnerability and invisibility.

"None of this is targeted for youth, who are being massively under-resourced," said John Ducoff, executive director of Covenant House Pennsylvania, which last year served 512 homeless young people, but turned away 546 more. The city's effort to provide 100 extra beds keeps the focus on the very visible adult homeless population, while homeless young people don't cross the city's radar enough.

"The city of brotherly love hasn't yet shown that love to all of its homeless young people," Mr. Ducoff said. "They're moving from couch to couch to couch, from friend to friend to friend, until they run out of friends. They're hiding in plain sight."



Adult homeless people were in the news in preparation for the Republican National Convention last week. Cleveland had to reduce the size of its proposed 3.3-square-mile event zone, the largest ever, after a lawsuit by a coalition including the Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless. Represented by an American Civil Liberties Union lawyer, the group argued that the zone, which included four homeless shelters and some homeless encampments, would result in homeless residents being searched and harassed unlawfully. In the zone people were prohibited from carrying canned food, coolers, tents, and umbrellas. As a result of the suit, the city also agreed to let a Parade to End Poverty finish up downtown instead of in an unpopulated neighborhood, as originally proposed.

Covenant House Pennsylvania has been part of an anti-trafficking awareness effort in anticipation of the convention. Large sporting events and conventions that attract many out-of-towners to a city have been known to attract pimps and trafficked young people as well. In some cities, Covenant House studies have shown that about a quarter of the homeless young people interviewed have been trafficked or otherwise commercially sexually exploited.

Before the convention, the DNC Human Trafficking Collaborative, which Covenant House Pennsylvania joined, distributed posters, set up an information table at the convention, and reached out to hotel personnel, offering trainings on how to recognize signs that a guest may be trafficked.
via Pixabay Images

"How do you have money to travel?"

I frequently get asked this question. As a lifelong nonprofit professional and a millennial with student loan debt, any discretionary income is a luxury. Beyond being diligent about budgeting and saving, I've created several sources of income throughout the years that helped to fund my travels.

Here are five of my favorite "side hustles" that can help to finance that next trip!

1) Provide Referrals

This is an such an overlooked way to get extra cash and requires little time. Companies are always looking to hire good people and the best way to do that is through its own employees. Check with your HR to see how much you can earn by referring a friend or contact to an open position - your friend gets a job and you can snag anywhere from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars!

Company doesn't offer anything? Recruit for other companies that do! For example, Vecna pays you $4000 for a good referral whether you work there or not!

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Finished a professional development class? Enjoyed a tour? Love your dentist? Those businesses and services you've already paid for likely have referral bonuses. I've racked up a list of my own Deals & Discounts of my satisfied customer experiences here.

2) Participate in Research Studies

When I was in college, graduate students and professors were always looking for research subjects. Typically paying $20/hour or more, the studies could consist of playing computer games or answering surveys. Personally, I don't do anything evasive (like blood tests), but to each their own.

Participation requirements are sometimes very general (such as healthy adults between the ages of 18-45) or very specific (right-handed females who drink an energy drink a day), but can be lucrative. The most recent one I did was for McLean Hospital - $200 for a day of playing games and a free MRI scan.

Beyond online research databases, check your local hospitals, university newspapers, community boards, and even public transportation ads.

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3) Launch a Side Business or Freelance



This is my favorite type of side hustling. Outside of your day job, what are you passionate about? Or at least what can you do outside the 9-5? Maybe it's graphic design or pet-sitting. Maybe you promote networking or nightlife events and get people to attend. Try things out and see what works for you!

For me, I always had a knack for resume writing and getting jobs. As part of a new year's resolution, I launched my career consulting service aimed at helping young professionals jobs - go side hustling!



4) Sell Old and Unnecessary Stuff

Travelers typically have less material possessions that the average person (except for their storage boxes of souvenirs of course!) and selling is the way to go to de-clutter and get extra cash.

Have old textbooks? Send them in with free shipping to Textbook Rush or Chegg. Clutter around the house? Have a garage sale or sell it on the app OfferUp. Got unused giftcards? Exchange them for cash with Gift Card Granny.

I often enter event raffles as the prizes far exceed the ticket value. $1 for a snowboard? If I win, that snowboard's getting sold!

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5) Work as a Brand or Event Ambassador

This is a great way to not only get entry into cool events, but earn a decent cash flow typically anywhere from $12-$25 an hour. I worked the U.S. Open of Surfing years ago manning a keychain-making booth and earned $400 over the 4-day beach festival. In Boston, I managed a talent casting call during a weekend for $230. Not too shabby!

Gigs can be found on sites such as Craigslist or local promotion agencies. An additional plus is that if a company likes you, they'll often keep calling you back. Also note that you should never need to front money for membership or access to these events.

Of course, use proper discretion when working side businesses as you should only do whatever you are comfortable with. From some or all of these side hustles, you could earn yourself a nice vacation!
I adore Miffy, the cute Dutch bunny -- and took advantage of a Netherlands stopover to visit all her themed attractions.

During my 24 hour layover, I made a pilgrimage to her new Nijntje Museum in Utrecht. I walked through the rabbit's traffic crosswalk, and shopped for plush toys at her gift store.

Here's my guide to spending a day with Miffy in her homeland, with more photos on La Carmina blog.

I arrived Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport 10am, and easily checked into citizenM hotel using a touchscreen. The M in the name stands for "mobile," not Miffy -- but the sleek modern decor perfectly matched the theme of my trip.

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I lounged in the colorful lobby, and used citizenM's free Wi-Fi to check the train schedule. I only had to walk five minutes to the airport station, and take a direct 30 minute train to get to Utrecht Centraal.

Most of Miffy's attractions are in this city because it is the hometown of her creator, Dick Bruna.

I met vlogger Leyla and her son Danny at Utrecht station, and we decided to take a 15 minute bus ride to the Miffy Museum (it would take about the same amount of time to walk).

At the front of the building, we posed with one of the giant works from the Miffy Art Parade. Dozens of artists customised statues of the bunny to celebrate her 60th anniversary in 2015.

Miffy was created by illustrator Dick Bruna, who released her first book in 1955. Since then, she's become a beloved "kawaii" icon. Worldwide fans are flocking to the Nijtnje Museum (that's her name in Dutch), which opened earlier this year.

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The museum brings Miffy's world to life, with two floors of interactive displays. Fans can pose with Dick Bruna's animal characters, depicted in his signature minimal, colorful style.

Each room is designed to fuel a child's imagination with puzzles, games, cars and crawl-spaces. The displays also help them learn lessons, such as how to safely cross the road.

However, the museum is geared to all ages, and the descriptions are written in multiple languages including Japanese. I personally enjoyed seeing Dick Bruna's lesser known but equally impressive works, such as his medical drawings.

Across the street, Centraal Museum has preserved Dick Bruna's studio, down to his original drafting table and mementos from fans.

I watched a fascinating video of the artist at work: it takes many careful brushstrokes to create the X of Miffy's mouth.

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A short walk away is Nijntje Pleintje, a black metal bunny statue created by Dick Bruna's son, Marc. It's located on in a little grassy square, at the beginning of the Van Asch van Wijckskade.

Also located in Utrecht is Miffy's crosswalk. The bunny graces the traffic lights of the rainbow pedestrian crossing, in front of the shopping mall at St. Jacobsstraat.

I couldn't leave the Netherlands without a few souvenirs. Miffy has gift stores at both Nijntje and Centraal museums. In Amsterdam, she has two large boutiques called De winkel van nijntje.

Back at Schiphol Airport, I found Miffy goods both before and after checking in. There are Dutch blue ceramics and clogs featuring the mascot, as well as books and plush toys.

I even found miniature statues of the bunny as a Goth punk vampire!

Jet-lagged, I stumbled back to citizenM Schiphol to sleep until my flight the next morning. Although my Netherlands journey was short, I felt I managed to see the best of Miffy's world -- with ample reason to come back.

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I have never really considered myself a spiritual being or given it much thought. To be honest I've always thought spirituality had a weird vibe to it - or even an annoying form of arrogance: An exclusive club for the enlightened few that we 'normal people' could never fully understand. But this past year something has happened in the world - and with me personally - that has fully changed my perception. Allow me to explain:

During the past century, the human race has all too successfully destroyed much of the planet we inhabit. We produce and consume, pollute and exploit in ways we know are highly unsustainable. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has warned us for years that "severe, widespread, and irreversible impacts" are now happening due to climate change caused by human behavior. The consequences of this are far too complex and overwhelming to most people. According to neuroscientists, our brains tend to simply avoid or reject such daunting challenges, as we cannot fully comprehend or analyze our way out. We're wired to deal with what's in front of us - what we can actually see and feel.

To address this challenge, I helped launch Sustainia five years ago with a clear mission of making sustainability more attractive to ordinary people as well as decision makers. Rather than joining in the chorus of the doom and gloom scenarios, Sustainia makes sustainability tangible and solution-oriented.

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The project that changed my view on spirituality

Through my role as CEO for Sustainia I got involved in an exciting project trying to reintegrate spirituality and world religious leaders into the discussions leading up to the important political Climate Change Summit in Paris last year - the COP21. The project, Green Faith in Action, had an overall mission of making the pilgrim cities beacons of not only their particular faith, but also of sustainability. Each year, over 330 million pilgrims travel to pilgrim cities leaving behind a trail of waste that is rapidly destroying these precious holy cities. Imagine if these pilgrim travelers not only had a life-changing religious experience but also a spiritual journey that connected them with the planet they inhabit and the importance of not leaving polluting footsteps on their journey.

And what an eye-opener this process became...

The first phase of the Green Faith in Action was a series of sessions bringing together top leaders from business, politics, religions and NGOs led by the Regions20 that has spent the past 5 years helping regions implement low-carbon solutions. A Monastery in Switzerland set the scene for our first meeting. At this session we sat down in silence, held each other's hands, shared our inner dreams and generally allowed time to connect with the person behind the title. To me, it was uncomfortable at first. I felt annoyed and impatient. In my usual high-tempo, action-oriented business mode, I desperately wanted to convert the meeting into a classic business meeting with action points and delegation of tasks and responsibilities. Instead something far more powerful happened. We were allowed time to step back and reflect on the higher purpose of our work and through a reconnection with our own purpose we created an energized and passionate momentum. No traditional business meeting could ever have accomplished this.

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Our group went on to help the French President - the host of the COP21 - facilitate 'The Summit of Conscience' gathering religious and political leaders, climate negotiators, artists and CEOs. It wasn't a traditional high-level summit but a day dedicated to allow these leaders to step out of the traditional structures and procedures that normally dominate high-level gatherings. Instead of hiding behind prepared speeches of (somewhat) superficial government declarations, all leaders were asked to address why they cared about the planet and what they would do to ensure their grandchildren would have a place to live and thrive.

This Summit became a very emotional day and is said to have played a huge part in ensuring a successful political outcome at the COP21 in Paris. It took away the placing of blame and fighting over targets and instead allowed space for connecting with what was really at stake at the COP21; The wellbeing of our planet and thereby the wellbeing of life on earth.

An accident forced me to be still and reconnect with myself

I never went to the COP21 as I sustained a severe concussion and whiplash that demanded rest and silence. For months on end I could only cope with complete silence and darkness. At first, this utter stillness was terrifying. But my body needed it so desperately that I had no choice but to give in, retreat and rest. And in that stillness grew a greater attention and awareness of an inner dimension that was entirely new to me. I became addicted to the silence, not only because my brain coped poorly with sounds, light, and movement, but also due to the calming clarity that arose from that silence. The power and the strength.

And why is this relevant? In these months of living a very still and secluded life, my mind kept going back to these somehow brutally honest and warm meetings, in which leaders from all walks of life actually connected with each other at a deeper level - despite different backgrounds and religious beliefs. This realization combined with my own personal journey of reestablishing a deeper inner connection in order to heal has changed my perception of what spirituality really is all about. To me, it is no longer an exclusive club for a few self-proclaimed 'enlightened beings', but a term that symbolizes the importance of being in sync with yourself and your values.

We do see a slow shift towards leadership that values the importance of an inner connection as well as a commitment to a higher purpose. The concept of Conscious Capitalism coined by Wallmart CEO John Mackey and Ray Sisodia, the adoption of mindfulness and meditation among top-executives and the impressive #sleeprevolution by Arianna Huffington are all examples of a shift in mindset and leadership.

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This shift is critical if we are to solve the greatest challenge of mankind: Climate Change. Leaders have to stop hiding behind a narrow-minded focus on quarterly returns and the delusion that this "environmental thing" is not of relevance to their shareholders. No man or company is an Island - our survival is dependent on the wellbeing of our planet.

The events of this past year has forever changed me and I cannot wait to venturing back into the world doing what I love - helping sustainable solutions and ideas scale - with a greater respect and understanding of spiritual leadership practice. I truly believe that if CEOs prioritized time to connect with themselves and the planet they inhabit we would see a radical shift in mindset and business practice. A business practice focused on creating value and profits from products and services that were in sync with our own boundaries as well as the boundaries of this planet we call home.
For those of us who are committed to making a positive impact on the food landscape of New York City, it's an immensely hopeful time for progress. There are more New York-based organizations working to bring healthier food to more people today than ever before. Supportive policies are in place so governments can serve their constituents at the state and municipal levels. And businesses are adopting sustainable practices to responsibly participate in the supply chain, from implementing food waste-alleviating practices to sustainable sourcing of their products. And last month several of the Laurie M. Tisch Illumination Fund's grantees and partners were selected by the New York City Food Policy Center at Hunter College for its inaugural list of 40 Under 40--leaders in the field who are working to transform the city's food system and are doing so through innovative ideas and new partnerships.

Despite the great progress made to date, something that we often hear is a desire for more opportunities to learn from each other and other leaders in the field. For all the leaps and bounds made in the food access field, leadership development and information-sharing are often considered as an afterthought, put aside for later in the face of more pressing challenges.

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However, in our experience as longtime advocates for community-based approaches to change, we have found that organizations greatly benefit their constituents and their staff by offering opportunities to learn from others and polish their leadership skills. Many in the food access space approach the work from the perspective of a specific discipline, whether it's nutrition, community development, agriculture, academia or policy. But the reality is that the issue of food access is fundamentally interconnected and thus requires an intersectional approach to truly address the roots of inequality. Collaboration is vital.

One way to encourage such collaboration is for funders and other network hubs to take on more responsibility for developing leadership, both through convening their networks in service of information-sharing and through supporting programs that encourage and enable leadership and skills development.

Leadership development is a fundamental part of our Healthy Food & Community Change initiative, a $15 million, five-year commitment to making an impact on the food landscape of New York City. The initiative supports innovative, community-based programs such as LISC NYC's Communities for Healthy Food and City Harvest's Healthy Neighborhoods Initiative, both programs that empower community members to take charge of their health. And one of our earliest projects in the food access space was in academia, where with the formation of the Laurie M. Tisch Center for Food, Education & Policy at Teachers College, Columbia University, we hoped we could provide a place for the next generations of leaders to share ideas and learn from each other.

It was through that work that we realized that collaboration needed to take place outside the classroom as well as an integrated part of a holistic strategy to enact change. We saw that there was a need for the field as a whole to reexamine its leadership pipeline, to ensure that others are given opportunities to be exposed to different schools of thought and to provide opportunities to enable collaborations. In addition, to truly enact change that persists, organizations need to provide opportunities for community members to be included in the process.

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That's why we were proud to see several of our program partners in the "40 Under 40" list, which includes community advocates, policymakers, educators and other sector leaders.

For example, Colleen Flynn, director of programs at LISC NYC, spearheaded the creation of Communities for Healthy Food NYC, which integrates access to healthy and affordable food into neighborhood revitalization programs at community development corporations in high poverty neighborhoods , and two of her partners on the ground, Bianca Bockman of Bedford Stuyvesant's Northeast Brooklyn Housing Development Corporation and Taisy Conk of New Settlement Apartments, were also among the 40 Under 40. Together they are working to increase overall community health through outreach, education, job generation and improving healthy food access points.

Other partners included in the list are Claire Uno at the Laurie M. Tisch Center for Food, Education & Policy and David DeVaughn of City Harvest, who joined forces to advocate for the reauthorization of the federal Child Nutrition Act. And Ashley Fitch, previously the director of the Fruit and Vegetable Prescription Program at Wholesome Wave, led the launch of the program in New York in partnership with NYC Health + Hospitals--enabling healthcare providers at public hospitals to write prescriptions for fruits and vegetables that can be filled at local farmers markets.

Colleen, Bianca, Taisy, David, Claire and Ashley all joined the Laurie M. Tisch Illumination Fund for last year's Healthy Food & Community Change grantee convening, where they shared learnings and expanded networks.
diagnosis concept

When you feel sick, even before you go to the doctor, where do you look for information? Many go to Google or other search engines, but that information isn't always reliable. Besides, it is often downright scary. And how can anyone trust TV advertisements that promise fields of flowers and happiness to anyone who takes the medication, all while a dispassionate voice-over lists terrible side effects.

We are all supposed to be "engaged patients". We are supposed to research our symptoms and diagnoses. But "patient engagement" is one of the most overused and least understood terms in health care discussions today. Everyone talks about the need for it, but few know how to really use patient input. Some doctors welcome an informed patient; others not so much. Some organizations will put one patient on their board or advisory committee and consider patient engagement done.

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As someone who has served as a consumer representative on boards that evaluate new treatments, I can tell you that patient engagement is critically important to assessing what really works in terms of treatment and care, and what research is needed to inform decision making.

Yet few opportunities for this exist.

In fact, special interests and those frightened of change, are challenging evidence-based efforts to evaluate health care system innovations and high-cost drug treatments. Instead of fighting these efforts, they should be demanding more of them and insist that patient voices are part of the discussion.

You may have heard that less than 20% of what physicians do has solid medical research to support it. That's kind of astounding when you think about it. Doctors do something because that's the way they were trained to do it, and until new information comes to light, they will continue to do it the same way. Take the treatment for ear infections in kids. Doctors prescribe or parents demand tubes, antibiotics, anything to stop the pain. But good research shows that too many antibiotics have negative outcomes. As a result, treatment for ear infections has changed appropriately over the past several years. Same for tonsillectomies, the third most frequent surgery for children.

Fortunately for patients, there are two places where their voices will be heard and where they can find good, evidence-based information. One is a non-governmental nonprofit program called PCORI (Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute); the other is a nonprofit called ICER (Institute for Clinical and Economic Review). PCORI was funded in 2010 by the federal government as part of the Affordable Care Act (one of the many aspects of "Obamacare" most don't know about). The Institute's money comes from the government and fees assessed to private insurance and self-insured employer-based plans, but PCORI is completely independent and conducts its business in public. PCORI's mission is "to help people make informed healthcare decisions, and improve healthcare delivery and outcomes, by producing and promoting high-integrity, evidence-based information that comes from research guided by patients, caregivers, and the broader healthcare community." PCORI meetings are public and patients are heavily involved in deciding what research should be done and by whom. PCORI's research has included how to best manage side effects of cancer treatment, how to help people recover from strokes more rapidly, and how to pull specialists together to more effectively treat lung cancer. These research projects were all selected and guided by patient input.

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Patient voices are also being sought in the evaluation of drugs for conditions like diabetes, multiple sclerosis, high cholesterol, or psoriasis. Many of these drugs are advertised constantly on TV with little helpful information for patients about which of the side effects is most prevalent or serious, how effective the drug is or how much it costs. ICER provides this information. Seventy percent of ICER's funding comes from nonprofit foundations (70%) with the remaining coming from life science companies and health insurance companies. ICER is "dedicated to improving patient care by providing independent, completely transparent evaluations of how new drugs compare to existing treatments". ICER differs from the FDA by looking at the cost of treatments as well as their effectiveness in two ways - in comparison to no treatment (as the FDA does) and in comparison to existing treatments (as the FDA does not do). This is helpful for patients making their decisions when their insurance does not cover the drug or when deductibles or coinsurance may be very high.

ICER works through three independent review bodies of practicing physicians, methodology experts and patient advocates that meet three times a year in New England, the Midwest and California to look at the evidence for the effectiveness of new treatments or drugs. I was a consumer member of the California panel, CTAF (California Technology Assessment Forum) for many years, so I know how challenging it is to integrate a non-clinical voice in the decision-making. The issues are complex and the information is often incomplete or highly technical. However, patients or consumers can bring a practical focus to the discussion, especially when we try to define terms such as "quality of life" or question the value of a drug that costs hundreds of thousands of dollars and extends life by only a few weeks.

PCORI and ICER are great resources for patients and their providers. The reports they issue are more reliable than what any internet search can provide. ICER is the only independent national resource that offers credible information about the real elephant in the room--the cost of a new drug, particularly as it compares to existing drugs for the same condition. And ICER involves patients in making those determinations.

ICER's process first assesses how well a drug works, the side effects it produces, and how it compares to similar drugs and treatments. Only after this analysis does ICER look at cost. Will a medication reduce future costs by keeping you healthier? Does it offer benefits that no other medication on the market can? Or will it lead to escalating and unsustainable costs for you and for the entire health care system to the point where no one will be available to afford the innovative treatment? For example, ICER recently issued a report that concluded that Entresto does offer excellent long term value to treat patients with Congestive Heart Failure. Some payers were concerned that the drug was too expensive and so were hesitant to approve it. The ICER report found that its price, when normal discounts were factored in, represented a good value. This report increased the likelihood that patients who might benefit from the drug will have it covered by their insurance.

ICER calculates a fair benchmark price to the manufacturer, the payer, the patient and the overall health system, so that these decisions can be made collaboratively in full view of you, the patient. These decisions have always been made behind closed doors, so the fact that cost is being addressed and discussed openly provides patients with a significant advantage.

Still, when it comes to considering costs, some patient advocacy groups get nervous when the subject comes up. I would not be fair if I did not address some of the key questions many patient advocates worry about, perhaps the biggest one being "will the consideration of cost mean I lose access to a drug or treatment I need?"

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Why should cost be considered if a drug can significantly improve my health? The most important question you should ask is whether or not a treatment or drug actually works for your individual condition. But the cost of that treatment is also important. You may have a very high deductible to pay, and if the treatment is of questionable effectiveness, that cost factor may be very important in your decision making process. Looked at more broadly, it would be irresponsible for a physician to recommend treatments without any assessment of value or the budget impact over the long-term. Is the cost so high that it will strain state health budgets, force cutbacks in other community services or generate unaffordable increases in insurance premiums?

How much influence do the drug manufacturers or insurance companies have over decisions made by PCORI and ICER? PCORI's Board of Directors is selected by the Comptroller General of the United States and is mandated to include at least three patient representatives, along with physicians, researchers, and insurance companies and other payers. ICER's Governance Board has fiduciary responsibility for the overall operations of ICER, and provides important strategic counsel to ICER's leadership team. The Governance Board represent a broad range of stakeholder perspectives, including patient and consumer groups, health plans, manufacturers, and other national leaders in health policy. In fact, two new members were recently elected to ICER's Governance Board - Ellen Andrews, PhD and Frances Visco, JD. Both have extensive experience in patient and consumer advocacy.

Don't insurance companies dominate these organizations? Actually, insurers are not in the majority of decision making of either organization. They are at the table because they have a huge stake in deciding what to pay for, since they must distribute resources fairly to all patients who are members. Researchers and medical personnel are much more heavily represented on these boards and panels, because the complexity of research design is something that even insurance companies don't always understand. And ICER seeks direct input from patients and clinicians on what they feel is important to their care, what outcomes they seek, and what evidence should be assessed. For example, multiple myeloma patient groups told ICER that it was very important to them to have options for oral medication given how often they have to go to clinics for IV administration.

If drug prices are questioned, will that stall innovation? Innovation is essential to improving patient health. We are fortunate to have a drug manufacturing industry that is producing a burgeoning pipeline of new promising drugs for a range of medical conditions. But many of these drugs are landing on the market with hefty price tags that are out of range for many people. There is no point to innovation if no one can afford the new drugs or benefits that they offer.

Why do we need a PCORI or ICER anyway? Most patients would not want to take a drug if they didn't know it worked, yet we do it all the time. The FDA assesses drugs for safety but does not compare one drug to another or look at the cost of a drug. We need organizations that are objective, not dominated by one type of stakeholder or another, and that operate in an open environment where patients can voice their preferences and ask questions.
World Breastfeeding week is almost here -- a week to celebrate breastfeeding, to inform mothers and to show our support for normal infant feeding.

Yet life isn't always smooth sailing, is it? Proven by the fact that just days before this worldwide pro-breastfeeding celebration takes place, there has been yet another report of a mother's right to feed her baby being taken away from her.

In Argentina this week, a 22 year old mom was happily breastfeeding her baby in public, on a square in Buenos Aires, when two policemen informed her that nursing was prohibited and threatened to arrest her.

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This incident has led women across the country to hold a "Tetada" ("Breast Fest") in support of breastfeeding moms and in true Tetada spirit, these journalists decided to pledge their support live on air...

*Standing ovation.*

In 2013, a bill was passed in Argentina with a view of 'promoting public awareness' in regards to breastfeeding and it wasn't long ago that the world took note of Victoria Donda, an Argentine legislator who regularly breastfeeds her baby in congress:

Times are changing.

With an ever-improving catalogue of breastfeeding information and with ever-increasing support, more moms and babies worldwide will benefit from the normalization of breastfeeding.

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But there is still much work to be done.

More conversations to be had.

More stories to be shared.

More moms to empower.

And what better way than live on national TV, because after all -- "If it's natural, why hide it? We support breastfeeding."

If you support breastfeeding, join Mama Bean on Facebook today!
PHILADELPHIA -- Two people from Milwaukee took to the national stage at the Republican National Convention (RNC) and the Democratic National Convention (DNC) to present two very different perspectives on one of the most divisive issues of our time, the shootings of unarmed African Americans by police and civilians.

The conventions took place against a backdrop of traumatic news stories. The shooting death of Philando Castile and its dramatic aftermath, live-streamed on Facebook by his girlfriend, sparked national protests. At one protest in Dallas, Texas, five police officers were shot and killed by an African American military veteran who had served in Afghanistan. This was followed by the shootings of police in Baton Rouge. The very next week, Charles Kinsey, an African American caregiver for an autistic adult, was shot by police while he was on the ground with his arms raised.

While the terrible events and constant media churn left many wondering if the nation was coming apart at the seams, some fanned the flames of division.

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Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke, an African American and right-wing commenter for Fox News, who has blamed several of the victims of police killings, took to the floor in full dress uniform: "Ladies and Gentlemen, I would like to make something very clear: Blue Lives Matter!"

The message was echoed by Donald Trump days later. Trump declared himself the nation's "law and order candidate" and stated: "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!"

The victims of police violence were not mentioned on the RNC stage. This, in a city where 12-year-old Tamir Rice was shot and killed in an incident that resulted in the U.S. Department of Justice putting the Cleveland police under a consent decree. The Cleveland police, the Secret Service, and 7,000 other officers imported from multiple states, turned Cleveland's Quicken Arena into an armed fortress. Few delegates ventured outside the perimeter and the minor protests that did break out were instantly suppressed.

On Tuesday, the DNC chose a different path, featuring mothers who have lost children to police or civilian violence or abuse. The mothers of Milwaukee's Dontre Hamilton, Florida's Trayvon Martin, New York's Eric Garner, St. Louis' Michael Brown, and Texas's Sandra Bland walked onto the floor to a standing ovation.

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The mother of Sandra Bland, Geneva Reed-Veal, spoke first. "One year ago we lived the worst nightmare a woman can imagine. I watched as my daughter was lowered into a coffin, on permanent leave from this earth. She was found hanging in a jail cell after an unlawful traffic stop and an unlawful arrest. Six other women died in custody that same month," she said, naming each one. "So many of our children are gone, but they are not forgotten."

"You don't stop being a parent when your child dies. I am still Jordan Davis's mother," said Lucia McBath. "His life ended the day he was shot and killed for playing loud music. But my job as his mother didn't. I still wake up every day thinking about how to parent him. How to protect him and his legacy. How to ensure his death doesn't overshadow his life." Jordan Davis, a 17-year-old high school student, was fatally shot by a white man who invoked Florida's "Stand Your Ground" at trial.

"I am an unwilling participant in this movement," said a somber Sybrina Fulton, the mother of murdered teenager Trayvon Martin. "I would not have signed up for this. None of us would have....I did not want this spotlight, but I will do everything can to focus some of this light on a path out of the darkness. Hillary Clinton has the compassion and understanding to support grieving mothers and fight for common sense gun legislation."

In 2012, the killing of Trayvon Martin acutely focused attention on so-called "Stand Your Ground" laws, which give criminal and civil immunity to a person who claims they use deadly force because they allege a reasonable fear of harm. Because of the law, Sanford Police initially declined to arrest the shooter George Zimmerman because they apparently agreed it was "reasonable" to feel threatened after stalking an unarmed African-American teenager returning from a trip to buy Skittles and iced tea.

In 2012, CMD exposed that "Stand Your Ground" was developed by the NRA in Florida and taken to the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) as a "model" bill. From there it spread throughout the nation. After Color of Change, NAACP, and a coalition of groups came together to fight the legislation, ALEC cancelled its criminal justice task force and disavowed its bills. But ALEC has not worked to repeal the laws still on the books.

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Milwaukee's Maria Hamilton was also on the stage. On April 30, 2015, Milwaukee police received a call that a man, Dontre Hamilton, was sleeping in Red Arrow Park. Two police checks found Hamilton was doing nothing wrong. Apparently unaware of the previous checks, Officer Christopher Manney woke Hamilton up and tried to pat him down. Hamilton had a history of mental illness and had been treated for schizophrenia, but had no record of violence.

Manney claimed to have felt hard objects in Hamilton's waistband and pocket (though no weapons were later found), and that Hamilton resisted him and seized his baton. Manney shot Hamilton 14 times. Manney was later fired for not following department rules, but prosecutors declined to file charges against him.

Hamilton spoke to CMD about what needed to be done. "Police need to be held accountable for making the decision to kill people. They need to go to court like any other citizen in the United States," said Hamilton. "It is not discipline to put them on paid leave then give them their jobs back," she said.

And the problem is not just a few high-profile names. In battling for justice in his own hometown of Chicago, the Rev. Jessie Jackson Sr. told CMD that Chicago is a "killing field" with some of the highest number of shootings by police in the nation. "If these were white victims it would be front page news," said Jackson.

The major party platforms respond to the push for increased police accountability in dramatically different ways. The Republican Party's platform rejects calls for oversight as "politicized second-guessing" that undermines police. The Democratic Party's platform points in very different direction, with standards geared toward rebuilding the bonds of trust between law enforcement and the communities they serve.

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A "unity" amendment to the Democratic National Platform was put forward by former NAACP leader Ben Jealous, representing the Sanders campaign, standing shoulder to shoulder with Ben Crump, the head of the National Bar Association, representing the Clinton's side. At the platform committee meeting in Orlando earlier this month, Crump sported a "Black Lawyers Matter" t-shirt and the two spoke emotionally about the moment the nation was in.

See a video clip here.

"Last time we were together here in Orlando, we were fighting for justice for Trayvon Benjamin Martin about 40 miles from here," said Crump, who represented the family in their lawsuit against Zimmerman. "And Congresswoman Maxine Waters, the spirit of this goes directly to what happened in your own town in Ferguson, Missouri, when they came in with these weapons of war in our communities, and Cornel West and I were there fighting for the value of another teenager named Michael Brown."

"This amendment is the beginning of the revisiting of a brand new justice system. We don't have a justice system right today. We have a crime and punishment system. One that protects the profits and property of the wealthy and divides and controls the rest of us. It will divide you from your family and your wealth, will divide you from your breath," said another delegate at the platform committee.

The Amendment to the platform reads:

"We will work with police chiefs to invest in training for officers on issues such as de-escalation and the creation of national guidelines for the appropriate use of force. We will encourage better police-community relations, require the use of body cameras, and stop the use of weapons of war that have no place in our communities. We will end racial profiling that targets individuals solely on the basis of race, religion, ethnicity, or national origin, which is un-American and counterproductive.

"We should report national data on policing strategies and provide greater transparency and accountability. We will require the Department of Justice to investigate all questionable or suspicious police-involved shootings, and we will support states and localities who help make those investigations and prosecutions more transparent, including through reforming the grand jury process.

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"We will assist states in providing a system of public defense that is adequately resourced and which meets American Bar Association standards. And we will reform the civil asset forfeiture system to protect people and remove perverse incentives for law enforcement to "police for a profit."

Page 16 of the platform is the Criminal Justice section.

Activists with the Black Lives Matter movement have continually pushed Democratic candidates to address police violence from the earliest days of the campaign.

Last summer, protesters at the progressive Netroots Nation conference disrupted speeches by then-presidential candidates Martin O'Malley and Bernie Sanders.

In February, an activist confronted Clinton at a fundraiser with a sign quoting a speech from 1996, at the height of the "War on Crime" era. In the speech, Clinton referred to "the kinds of kids that are called 'super-predators,'" a discredited and racist theory about the causes of urban crime that helped justify the mass incarceration of young people of color.

Activists are not taking anything for granted. Hundreds of Black Lives Matter protesters marched in the streets of Philadelphia on Tuesday to keep the pressure on Democratic candidates and the Democratic Party. Their demand for justice in every city and every town could not be more timely. The very next day, in the liberal town of Baltimore, charges were dropped against three officers implicated in Freddie Gray's death; three others had been acquitted earlier.

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In 1946, when I was a year old, my father hung up his Navy uniform and joined the U.S. Foreign Service. He could have returned to a well-paid position at Borden Cheese, but he wanted to continue serving his country after World War II. First we went to Bucharest Romania ('47-49), then Paris ('49-52), then Sydney Australia ('53-56), then Bangkok Thailand ('56-58), with in between stays in Washington D.C. While I was in college, my dad served as chief economic officer in Belgrade Yugoslavia ('62-65). He then worked for the State Department until his retirement in 1970; his job included speaking on college campuses to defend the war in Vietnam. If he was disillusioned, he never openly let on--though he did mutter about how anti-Communist "know-nothings" in Congress made his job harder in Yugoslavia. Years later he commented on Ronald Reagan's 1983 invasion of Grenada (remember that, anyone?), "They must have found a couple of Communists under a bed."

On reading John Perkin's New Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, I kept thinking what stories my father could have told. Perkins began in 1971 as an economic consultant-- "economic hit man"-- with the engineering firm, MAIN, travelling to Indonesia, Panama, Colombia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and elsewhere. His job was to convince leaders to undertake wildly overambitious infrastructure projects that would enrich them and big U.S. engineering firms like Bechtel. In most cases, the projects would fail and leave nations beholden to US banks or the World Bank. Saudi Arabia was a special case; the flood of dollars from the new OPEC cartel would purchase both sophisticated infrastructure like desalinization plants and U.S. military protection against insurgents. Leaders who refused to cooperate with such plans would be picked off by CIA-supported "jackals". Thus the overthrow of Mohammad Mosaddegh in Iran (1953); the Jacobo Arbenz coup in Guatemala (1954); the Salvador Allende coup and murder in Chile (1973); the mysterious airplane explosions that killed Jaime Roldos in Ecuador and Omar Torrijos in Panama (1981); the overthrow and murder of Maurice Bishop in Grenada (1983); the bloody invasion and capture of Manuel Noriega in Panama (1989). Somehow Fidel Castro in Cuba successfully dodged dozens of assassination attempts.

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The economic hit man/ jackal strategy of debt and fear was a deliberate US policy to counter influence of the Soviet Union. Perkins relates a story from a 1975 dam-building project he directed in Colombia. Guerillas confronted a Colombian engineer at the dam site, firing AK-47s into the air and at his feet, and handing him a letter. The letter read: "We, who work every day just to survive, swear on the blood of our ancestors that we will never allow dams across our rivers. We are simple Indians and mestizos, but we would rather die than stand by as our land is flooded. We warn our Colombian brothers: stop working for the construction companies." Perkins lectured the terrified engineer; did that sound like a letter a farmer would write? He slammed his fist on the desk; did farmers with AK-47s make sense? And who invented the AK-47?

In a fit of conscience, Perkins quit MAIN in 1980. But he continued as an energy entrepreneur and consultant for another twenty years, while becoming increasingly involved in projects to help embattled natives in the Amazon. In 2005 he published Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, an immediate bestseller. In the new updated version, he focuses on how the debt-and-fear strategy is now at work all over the world, in developed as well as less-developed countries. For example, many local governments in the U.S. have been suckered into building public-private toll roads (see here and here and here), all of which eventually failed, sticking the governments with poorly constructed roads and piles of debt.

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A version of this post appeared recently on Matthew David's blog on the 360 Design Events website.

You can't host an event these days - private or fundraiser - without incorporating some kind of interactive element or even a few.

Interactive elements bring an added energy to an event, get your attendees more involved and invested in a cause, and even help inform guests about an organization or mission in a way that doesn't put them to sleep. In addition, interactive experiences are often key players in driving mentions on social media platforms from Facebook to Twitter, Instagram to Vine.

Social media is obviously important, but I think it's just as crucial to incorporate elements that drive the people at your event together, to get them talking and making connections with each other and ultimately having a good time. Because isn't that really what events are all about?

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Here are some of my favorite ways to incorporate interactive elements into events.

Tombola Wall

A Tombola wall is a fun mashup of decor combined with a game of chance. Guests can purchase boxes, all of which contain some form of a prize, from a wall of identical packages. It's guaranteed that the minimum value of each box is what the player paid, and in some cases, it's much more. I've seen people win everything from cell phone chargers to cases of wine to trips to Rome.

A Tombola wall is fun, gets people talking, and inspires some friendly competition among guests. It's also an interactive element that can be easily adapted to the look of your event.

The photo below shows a Tombola wall I created for a Children's Museum of Manhattan fundraiser.

Photo Travis Magee

Graffiti Wall

Graffiti walls are also a lot of fun for guests. They draw a crowd, start conversations, and are visually compelling. For this event we brought in a chalkboard artist to provide an interesting backdrop for the crowd of young professionals to answer the prompt: "What Is On My Bucket List."

We also worked in a social media element, printing on-site photos that guests tagged with a hashtag. Tip: in the same way an empty tip jar is less inviting than one with a few bills in it, a blank graffiti wall is less appealing than one with a few starter tags. Go ahead and grease the wheels!

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Photo Travis Magee

The New Photo Booth

Photo booths are hardly new, but they are fun, and provide guests with a nice souvenir of the event, which should be branded and sharable and tagged as much as it can be, naturally! One of the more recent iterations of the popular form is the gif photo booth from Bosco, which can produce both branded prints and an animated gif that's almost impossible not to share.

And don't forget selfies. You need to provide a backdrop that demands a selfie. Do you have talent or a personality that can donate time to drive photos? Give people a reason to capture and share a moment, and make your hashtag easy to write or integrate some branding into the scene.



Food and Drink

Depending on the event, the bar, buffet or passed hors d'oeuvres can be a real opportunity to get guests talking, interacting and loosening up. For example, I've featured mixologists at bars who explained the elements of various cocktails while serving them. Another amusing and unconventional serving method is this one from caterer Pinch. Below, churros are delivered via parasol at a recent fundraiser.
Woman shopping in grocery store

I met a woman from Denmark last week. She's been living in the United States for about a year. I asked her what she liked best about our country.

Her response (paraphrased as best as I remember) was immediate:

"You're not going to believe it, but it's Stop & Shop. And all the grocery stores like it. In Denmark, we spend half of our weekend shopping for food. Bread from the baker. Meat from the butcher. Produce from the grocer. It's ridiculous. You Americans put it all under one roof. I can finish my shopping in less than an hour. It's an amazing innovation, but I still watch my American friends drive everywhere for their food. This at Whole Foods. That at Trader Joe's. Stew Leonard's. Stop & Shop. Farmer's Markets. It's ridiculous."

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I couldn't believe it. I finally found someone who agreed with me on this grocery store shopping insanity happening all around me.

I watch my friends and family members drive all over town -- seemingly everyday -- for their groceries.

Meat from Whole Foods

Produce from Stop & Shop

Coffee from the artisanal coffee roaster

Paper goods and cleaning supplies from Costco

Prepared foods from Trader Joe's

Pet supplies from Petco

This is not an exaggeration. At a dinner party recently, a friend lamented that more than half of her marriage has been spent with she or her husband shopping for food.

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Why?

People tell me that it's outstanding quality and low prices that they seek. This place has the best meat. That place has the best fruit. This place has the best prices on paper towels.

It's insanity. And it's a mistake. A terrible, nonsensical mistake, for two reasons:

1. If I conducted a double-blind taste test of food quality between these stores, no person could reliably tell the difference. If I prepared a dinner of roasted chicken, asparagus sprouts, wild rice, and an apple pie for dessert using food purchased from Whole Foods, Stop & Shop, and Stew Leonard's and asked you to tell me which one came from which store, there is no way you or anyone else could consistently tell me the difference.

It feels good to think that you are improving the quality of your family's food, but it's an improvement that exists almost entirely in your mind.

2. More importantly, even if there was a discernible difference in quality or taste between stores, this marginal difference is not worth the time spent shuffling off to each of the stores for what my friend described as half of her married life.

This is what the woman from Denmark understands but Americans have forgotten:

Time is our most precious commodity. It should be guarded at all costs. Valued above all else. Spent with enormous care.

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There was a time when America was dotted with bakers and butchers and fishmongers and green grocers. Like Denmark, there was a time when the bulk of Saturday was spent going from shop to shop, purchasing food for the next week.

Then we built massive grocery stores and put everything under one roof, and for a time, we were happy. My mother would do all the grocery shopping in an hour at Shop-Rite while we clung to the cart and begged for sugary cereals.

Then something changed. Americans decided that this was no longer good. We decided that the marginal improvement in the quality of our green beans was worth the hour spent driving across town in order to purchase them. We decided that even though all of the stores have organic produce, this store's organic produce must be more organic because it costs more. We decided that it's better to buy olive oil from a store that only sells olive oil (a real thing) and pickles from an artisanal pickle maker even though we never cared about pickles very much before. We decided that the more time we spent gathering the food for our meals, the better we could feel about ourselves.

We constantly lament the lack of time that we have with our families. We bemoan our lack of sleep. We yearn for the time to read a book or watch a movie. We dream of the day when we can write a novel, learn to skateboard, take a nap, paint the living room, or simply lie down in the grass and stare at clouds.

You have that time. You spent it driving to Trader Joe's because you like their crackers.

You spent it driving to Whole Foods for their salmon.

You spent it driving to Costco to save $2.86 on paper towels.

When you're lying on your deathbed, you won't be wishing that you had eaten more flavorful green beans. You won't be lamenting the lack of quality quinoa in your life. You won't be regretting a lifetime bereft of farm fresh eggs.

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You'll regret the hours spent every week driving all over town in order to marginally (and probably indiscernibly) improve the quality of food in your home at the expense of time spent on better things.

Stop the insanity.

Place time spent with friends and loved ones ahead of the desire to optimize every food item in your cupboard, refrigerator, and freezer.

Prioritize the things you truly care about -- hobbies, exercise, books, films, those project you never seem to have enough time to start -- ahead of crunchier celery, more flavorful barbecue sauce, or cheaper toilet paper.

Accept the fact that a large amount of the difference between these products are marginal at best and likely only exist in your mind.
It's not easy running a small business with limited capital. If you are just starting out a new business venture, the challenges are even greater. Limited capital is the single biggest factor in determining how much you can, and cannot do to meet the needs of your customers. Having limited funds does not need to be the death nail of your business, if you know how to manage it well. Keep in mind that big businesses on a corporate scale were not the norm before the Industrial Revolution. Hundreds of millions of people throughout history have started and maintained their own small businesses without access to an unending supply of cash. Here are some tips and tricks to survive in a small business with limited capital.

1. Maintain Strict Receivables Policies

One of the biggest cash flow headaches small businesses face is keeping receivables flowing in. It is a mistake for any business with limited capital to assume they must offer 15-, 30- or 45-day terms. Do not set payment terms based on what everyone else is doing. Don't set them according to what you think your customers want. Your cash situation should determine your payment terms. Let your products and services sell your company, not generous payment terms.



2. Stick with Your Core Business

How many times have you read stories in the business section of the newspaper detailing a large corporation's desire to sell assets in order to return to their core business? It happens all the time. Big businesses attempt to expand and grow through acquisition only to discover that it does not usually work well. And if it doesn't work well for them, it is not going to work well for you either. Stick with your core business. Grow it by being better than your competitors and adding new customers. You will spend less cash trying to develop new products or services that will only require more resources to maintain.

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3. Talk about Your Business - A Lot

The best form of marketing has always been word-of-mouth. The company with limited financial resources is in the best position to take advantage of this marketing by starting the conversation. You can do it in-person or online through social media. As a business owner, be sure to tell everyone you know about what you do. Pass out as many business cards as you can get your hands on; start conversations on social media; run contests and reward programs that encourage your customers to tell others about your business. The more you speak positively about your business, the greater your reach - even if your marketing budget is limited.

4. Keep the Office Lean

You need to present a successful image in every area of your business that is customer-facing. However, that is not the case in the back office. Work out of your home, if you can. Companies with limited financial resources would do well to keep the office as lean as possible so that valuable capital can be invested where it is most needed to enhance the customer experience. For example, do not spend tens of thousands on new office furniture when you could get by with used furniture at a fraction of the price. A brand-new, state-of-the-art computer system might be nice, but is it absolutely necessary to make things work.

5. Keep Your Staff Minimal

Appointing human capital to get the work done doesn't always require hiring actual staff. If you ask me, hiring full-time staff for all your small business activities is overrated and costs you a whole lot of money. Outsource the things you can't do yourself and pay the freelancers just for the projects you actually need. This would save the extra costs that incur on hiring full-time staff such as employee payroll, health-care costs, tax-costs, other legal mandatory benefits, etc.

Running a small business with limited capital is a challenge, but not impossible. It does require a combination of creativity and willingness to think outside the established norms. If you are prepared to do so, you can be successful in building a business that eventually has more than enough capital to function the way you want it to.

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I'm a lifelong democratic socialist and a diehard supporter of Bernie Sanders and the political revolution he's embodied. I have long-standing objections to the Clintons and the way in which they've triangulated the Democratic Party rightward through the years.

But after a brief thought experiment--imagining what it would feel like to wake up on November 9th to the news that Donald Trump will be the next President of the United States--it becomes a no brainer to state that I'll vote for Hillary and do all I can to prevent her being defeated by Trump.

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I humbly suggest that my "Bernie or Bust/Never Hillary" friends (of which I have several) try the same thought experiment:

Are you ready? Close your eyes and imagine:

You wake up the day after the elections to discover that Donald Trump will be the next president. Would you feel happy, celebrating that "crooked Hilary" had gotten her cumuppence, and confident that the chaos to be created by President Trump would make it likely that the political revolution is just around the corner?

Or would you be sick to your stomach knowing that a majority of American voters had been overcome by fear and loathing and that the darkest, most racist, misogynist, and xenophobic elements of American society had prevailed? Would you be Googling how to move to Canada or another safe haven?

What would a President Trump mean?

First, if you care about overturning Citizens United and limiting the ability of billionaires to buy elections, fugettaboutit. Merrick Garland would never get a Senate vote. Trump would nominate Supreme Court Justices in the mold of Justice Scalia who would double down on Citizens United, block voting rights, side with corporate rights against citizens' rights, and possibly overturn Roe v. Wade, sending thousands of women to back alley abortionists. And even if he served for only one term, President Trump is likely to get at two more Supreme Court picks. (Remember, a President serves for four or eight years, but a Supreme Court Justice serves for life.) Whatever other shortcomings she may have, Hillary Clinton would likely appoint liberal Justices like those appointed by Bill Clinton (Stephen Breyer and "The Notorious RBG"--Ruth Bader Ginsburg). With two-three picks, Hillary could reshape the Court in a generally progressive direction for a generation.

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In order to implement his proposal to quickly deport 11 million undocumented immigrants, Trump would need to create a special force of tens of thousands of armed agents to invade workplaces, homes, and schools, and to stop cars and pedestrians to check papers and round up those without proper documentation. America would start to look like a police state.

Trump would deport Dreamers, immigrants who were brought by their parents to America at a young age and have spent most of their lives in this country going to school and working. Instead of contributing to American society, Dreamers would be forced to hide in the shadows.

People of the Muslim faith, and/or everyone from countries that had experienced terrorism, would be banned from entering the US. That includes people from friendly Muslim countries like Indonesia, Turkey (a member of Nato), and the United Arab Emirates, as well as people from countries that had experienced terrorism like France, the UK, and Germany. Travel, tourism, and commerce would be harmed, resulting in considerable damage to the economy.

Vladimir Putin would be drinking champagne. America's NATO allies, particularly those close to Russia, would be uncertain if the US would help defend them. Putin would feel liberated to engage in dangerous foreign adventures.

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The Iran Nuclear Arms Treaty would be torn up. With no restraints, Iran would have the ability to develop a nuclear weapon in about a year, threatening the stability of the Middle East and the security of Israel. There's a good chance that Israel would preemptively bomb Iranian nuclear sites, setting off a regional war.

Trump would start trade wars with China, Mexico and other countries, likely leading to a severe recession or depression.

Lacking his own domestic policy, Trump would likely outsource domestic policy to Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan. Look forward to a Republican Congress passing and President Trump signing legislation to abolish the Affordable Care Act and throw millions off of health insurance; to cut taxes for the wealthy and balloon the deficit' and to privatize Social Security and Medicare.

Nothing whatsoever would be done by the United States to combat climate change for at least the next 4 or 8 years. Trump would likely abrogate US commitments under the Paris Climate Change Agreement, leading other countries to reneg as well. At the end of a Trump Presidency, the planet would be closer to environmental catastrophe.

In short, America would become a very dark and dangerous place with the lives of untold millions of real people irreparably damaged. And the country would be farther, not closer, to a political revolution. In fact, it's even possible that the election of President Trump would be the last democratic election in American history.

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Now briefly reverse the thought experiment. Imagine waking up on November 9 to President Hillary Clinton:

Wouldn't you be at least a little relieved that disaster had been averted? It would hardly be the start of the political revolution. But wouldn't you feel at least a brief flash of pride at America electing its first woman President? There's a good chance of confirming Supreme Court justices who would overturn Citizens United And with the Democratic Party having moved significantly to the left, and embraced the most progressive platform in American history, circumstances, even if Hillary is a political opportunist, she's likely to govern less from the center than Bill Clinton.

If she doesn't, Bernie's political revolution would be there to protest and try to keep her honest. Bernie and other progressive Senators like Elizabeth Warren and Sherrod Brown would be there to object to corporatist policies, and the political revolution would bring tens of thousands of people in the streets.

Are you done with the thought experiment? Now, however disappointed we are that Bernie fell just short, and however angry we may be at the manipulation by the Democratic National Committee, wouldn't waking up to Hillary as President be better than waking up to President Trump?

If so, get your asses to the polls on November 8, hold your nose, if necessary, to vote for Hillary, and bring five of your friends. At the same time, keep participating in the political revolution.
For Clete Walker (CEO of Virtuo Health), the idea to bring together physicians focused on elevating treatment of prostate cancer is personal.

Years ago, when Walker's father faced the disease, Walker was shocked to find the lack of treatment options available to men with prostate cancer in the U.S. When he discovered high intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU), an outpatient procedure used to treat prostate cancer that had a dramatically reduced side effect profile, he knew he found the alternative for which he had been searching. The question remained, though, how do we bring this treatment to patients in the U.S.? The answer: doctorpreneurs.



Dubbed the "latest trend in healthcare startup funding," doctorpreneurs are physicians who are investing their own capital into new companies or technologies that are working to evolve and improve the delivery of healthcare.

One area of particular interest among these doctorpreneurs is cancer. In 2016 alone, it is estimated that there will be more than 1.6 million newly diagnosed cancer cases and nearly 600,000 cancer-related deaths in the U.S.

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Vituro Health, a Birmingham, Ala.-based startup funded by a national network of physician partners and practices, has embraced the doctorpreneur concept and is looking to bring the latest in prostate cancer care to the 1 in 7 men in the U.S. who will face the disease.

"We have a partnership of doctors who are invested in a company that provides a better way to manage a disease -- prostate cancer," Walker explained. "When the doctors are invested, their resources and intent are aligned, so they give their time, consideration and efforts to continue seeking ways to make prostate treatment better for patients."

And it's not always about the paycheck, Walker said. At the end of the day, these doctorpreneurs want to make a lasting impact on cancer care. "It is really about how to make healthcare delivery easier, the patients' experiences better and effective treatment options more accessible," Walker says. "Some people might wait on longitudinal data to choose to try out new treatments, but doctorpreneurs who are invested in cutting-edge treatments, I have found, make informed, educated decisions and see anecdotally how their patients react positively to those treatments."

In researching HIFU, Walker was introduced to Stephen Scionti, M.D., a physician who long ago decided to pursue HIFU and perform HIFU procedures outside the U.S. for a decade (HIFU was not cleared by the FDA until October 2015).

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"HIFU is a great example of a treatment made better by doctorpreneurs. It never would have evolved without physicians seeing the benefit and taking personal risk to improve patient outcomes. As a result of doctors working side-by-side with industry leaders, tremendous advances in technical refinements have been achieved, improving treatment platforms and software applications, and advancing techniques to minimize side effects," Scionti, now medical director of Vituro Health, explained. "This procedure is where it is today, and now FDA cleared, because of efforts by private physicians. I believe that much of the progress and many of the revolutions in medicine over generations have come out of the private side of healthcare."

Interventional oncologist Gerald Grubbs, M.D., a Vituro Health board member, also pursues the latest advancements that can help make an impact on cancer.

"I really invest in technology," Grubbs says. "There are so many players out there in differing realms, but I choose to invest in the technologies that I think will keep costs down and give patients the best outcomes."

Getting the best treatments and care for cancer patients comes from physicians partnering with people and companies offering state-of-the-art technologies, Grubbs says.

"The whole premise of patient care -- whether treating cancer or kidney stones -- is quality, which has to drive all decision-making processes," explains Mark DeGuenther, M.D., president of Urology Centers of Alabama and a Vituro Health partner physician. "Quality is difficult to control when you are outsourcing a lot of the care components -- that's true in any industry, and certainly is true in medicine."

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DeGuenther's practice has found that, by making the investment and bringing cancer care in-house, it can provide a stronger quality product to and better outcomes for patients.

"Talking specifically about cancer care, it becomes even more important because cancer patients often are seeing several doctors, which can result in the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing, and some steps can get skipped or duplicated -- all leading to harmful effects on the patient," DeGuenther says. "For that reason, investing in an integrated system and having everything under one roof is important for the patient."

"We invest in our practice and we spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on cutting-edge technology," DeGuenther added. "The reason we do this is because, if we are going to provide top quality care, we are obligated as practicioners to invest, even if the ROI isn't immediately there."

"It is easier for business guys like me to partner with doctors who are looking at the healthcare environment as a much broader picture than just their practice, and are willing to take a risk, try new things and experiment -- much like a true entrepreneur," Walker said. "When you look at doctors who have the drive to take it upon themselves to try to make things better and continuously improve patients' experiences, they will have a definite impact on cancer."
Signed in December 2015, the Paris Agreement on climate change is a milestone for both the environment and global development. Breaking with high cost carbon pollution, the post-Paris world has a clear mandate: accomplish the transition to new energy sources and invest in climate-positive infrastructure and climate-friendly products.

Accelerating the transition to low-carbon, carbon-free and renewable energy sources has many advantages in the near-term, including reducing air pollution and the use of hazardous chemicals. However, despite positive signs from Paris, there is anxiety about financing options. Some climate experts fear that the Paris Agreement could have little impact, if the initial $100 billion per year (by 2020) doesn't attract a significant amount of follow-on capital.

This article highlights three avenues that have the potential to raise funds for climate mitigation and adaptation--and also to catalyze global financial actors to invest in low-carbon development beyond the initial 2020.

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Getting prices right: the need for fossil fuels subsidy reform

The Global Subsidies Initiative (GSI) of the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) estimates that global fossil fuel subsidies could currently reach up to US$600 billion per year. These subsidies distort market signals and come with large economic, social and environmental costs. The New Climate Economy report finds that fossil fuel subsidy reforms could deliver GHG emissions reductions up to 13% by 2040. Countries are making efforts to advance this reform, notably through their Intended National Determined Contributions (INDCs) under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. INDCs, when coupled with other economic instruments, such as transport fuel duties and carbon taxes, could provide around USD$3 trillion in additional savings for governments. These governments use taxpayer money to subsidize carbon polluters and distort true costs.

Even if intuitive, these reforms are not politically frictionless. National fiscal policies often lack transparency and international monitoring. Implementing the "polluter pays" principle (as in the case of a carbon tax) invites social and political resistance. Reform is technically complex, politically difficult and slow. Larger political pressure can help fight the inertia.

Leveraging private finance for climate mitigation and adaptation

The second suggestion relates to a popular idea that is under-exploited: private finance for climate mitigation and adaptation. Considering the urgency to balance the carbon budget, the private sector is a large part of the answer. Its role won't be without controversy. Leaders from Venezuela and Bolivia, for instance, repeatedly raise concerns about the use of private finance. But the recent established Green Climate Fund (GCF) is widely expected to promote and extend private capital to fund the low carbon transition in developing countries.

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Public finance lags far behind targets and cannot provide adequate funds solely by itself. According to the World Economic Forum, by 2020, the world will have to invest about US$5.7 trillion annually in green infrastructure to achieve the minimum 2 C pathway and avoid the most harmful impacts of climate change. Using private finance does not undermine the vital role of public finance. It's probably best for private investors and national leaders to look at the climate emergency as an unprecedented opportunity for 'complex interdependence' in decision-making, a unique opportunity for complementary purpose. The value of carbon stability is both existential and plainly financial.

Carbon reduction: the new "gold" of the 21st Century?

The third way to buoy resources for climate adaptation and mitigation relates to a promising new idea: positive carbon pricing. Across the world, many people recognize that fossil fuel use has provided rapid development benefits but also massive and unsustainable carbon emissions. Currently, these externalities are not factored into the price of fossil fuels, and proponents of positive carbon pricing would like to see a "true cost" established. One way to factor in the negative impacts of fossil fuel use would be a carbon tax. Implementing this aforementioned 'polluter-pays' principle is difficult and controversial but necessary.

Positive pricing, according to its supporters, is different than carbon taxing as popularly understood. Proponents believe that the social and economic cost of carbon must be recognized upfront. When fossil carbon is properly accounted for, businesses will have incentives to leave fossil fuels in the ground and look for alternative energy sources. Positive carbon pricing is the 'flip side of the coin' of subsidy reform, working to disincentive fossil fuels exploitation. This approach is gaining ground with the endorsement of a key decision at the UN Climate Conference in 2015 (COP21). Paragraph 108 of the Decision of the Adoption of the Paris Agreement "recognizes the social, economic and environmental value of voluntary mitigation actions and their co-benefits for adaptation, health and sustainable development."

This proposal should not be read as a replacement of carbon taxation. Positive carbon pricing is a chance to reward faster-acting, early adoption countries. As Alfredo Sirkis, executive director of a Brazilian climate think tank, said in an interview, it is the "Green Bretton Woods," a reference to the Bretton Woods agreement and its foundational system for monetary and exchange rate management created in 1944. He adds, "it's about carrots rather than sticks." In practice, this idea would require some deep-seated changes in the way we do business. The intention so far is to have a group of willing governments, central and development banks, and multilateral institutions, form a "climate club" responsible for giving guarantees for carbon-reducing assets. These carbon-reducing assets could ultimately be a convertible reserve currency. Following the "Green Bretton Woods" analogy, carbon reductions could themselves become the "new gold" of the 21st Century. As argued in "Moving the trillions a debate on positive pricing of mitigation actions", the ultimate goal is to achieve a more effective capital mobilization towards a low carbon economy while reducing the risks for investors.

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by Alec Goodwin

The Wikileaks release of Democratic National Committee emails has roiled the first days of the party's presidential nominating convention in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Rex Features)



Email exchanges involving top officials at the Democratic National Committee released along with private documents by WikiLeaks show that DNC officials hoped to reward top donors and insiders with appointments to federal boards and commissions in coordination with the White House.

The revelations give an inside look into how the Democratic Party attempted to leverage its access and influence with the White House to bring in cash.

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In an April 20, 2016 email, DNC National Finance Director Jordan Kaplan canvassed what appears to be the committee's finance department - its fundraising office - for names of people (mainly donors) to reward with federal appointments on boards and commissions.

That email exchange yielded a list compiled by DNC Finance Chief of Staff Scott Comer and emailed to Kaplan on April 26 titled "Boards and Commissions Names_Final," which listed the names of twenty-three DNC donors and insiders.

Kaplan emailed the list to Amanda Moose, special assistant to the president for presidential personnel, later that day. In an email without a subject line, Kaplan wrote just one line: "For your review," seemingly referring to a previous conversation or exchange.

Then on April 28, Kaplan missed a call with Moose. He emailed Comer asking for Moose's number that afternoon, presumably to call her back. Comer sent Kaplan the number. It's unclear if Kaplan and Moose spoke.

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But the two may have spoken several days later; a May 3 email from Comer to Kaplan shows that Moose wanted to set up a "20 minute conversation" with Kaplan.

None of the individuals on the list have been appointed to boards or commissions since the email exchanges took place almost three months ago. A few were named to slots in previous years.

The White House strongly denied any link between financial support for the party and appointments.

"Being a donor does not get you a role in this administration," said White House spokesman Eric Schultz in an email to OpenSecrets Blog, "nor does it preclude you from getting one. We've said this for many years now and there's nothing in the emails that have been released that contradicts that."

The people on the list weren't just hefty donors to the DNC; many also gave big money to Obama.

The practice of rewarding big donors with federal positions dates back to the times of the founding fathers.

Bob Biersack, who spent 30 years at the Federal Election Commission and is a senior fellow at the Center for Responsive Politics, said that "Big donors have always risen to the top of lists for appointment to plum ambassadorships and other boards and commissions around the federal landscape. This example shows that party fundraisers continue to see these appointments as an important tool in the donor maintenance process."

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Most of the people on the list gave huge sums to the Democratic National Committee, as well as the party's primary fundraising arms for its congressional candidates: the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.

Below is the full breakdown of donations made by individuals on the list from the beginning of the 2008 cycle through the end of June 2016. We included donations to candidate committees, PACs, super PACs and joint-fundraising committees.

As the table shows, the people whose names were on the list for possible federal appointments are big donors to the DNC, hold important positions there, and/or are big donors to Obama.

Many on the list bundled for the Obama campaign and are bundlers for Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. Notably, the individuals on the list gave significant sums to Clinton and none to Bernie Sanders.

Wade Randlett, also who formed the Democratic PAC, was appointed to the Advisory Committee on Trade Policy and Negotiations in 2014. Another on the list -- Shekar Narasimhan -- was appointed to Obama's Advisory Commission on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in 2014. David Shapira, CEO of supermarket company Giant Eagle, was nominated to be on the board of governors of USPS by Obama in 2014, but the nomination was blocked by Congress.

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In the emails leaked by WikiLeaks, Kaplan wrote "this is the last call for boards and commissions; if you have someone, send to Comer - full name, city, state, email and phone number."

"Send as many as you want, just don't know how many people will get to," Kaplan wrote in an email sent April 20 to what appears to be the DNC's finance department.

Comer clarified in a later email, "Any folks who you'd like to be considered to be on the board of (for example) USPS, NEA, NEH. Basically anyone who has a niche interest and might like to serve on the board of one of these orgs."

These emails suggest that DNC finance staffers - the DNC's fundraising staff, in other words - could suggest people they felt should be rewarded with federal appointments.

Responding to another question, Comer wrote "I should say, though, that the likelihood of landing a spot on ones as prestigious as NEA/USPS is unlikely. It's much more likely they'll get something like 'President's Commission on the Celebration of Women in American History.' (no shade to women)." In that same email, sent on April 21, Comer also said "when you submit your names, we don't need specific designations."

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Comer's statements imply that the DNC could neither guarantee any specific position nor ensure that a person suggested would receive an appointment at all from the Obama administration.

Reached at her office in the White House, Moose said she was not authorized to comment. OpenSecrets Blog did manage to contact Kaplan, but he hung up after realizing it was a reporter. Comer directed our request for comment to a political consultant, who forwarded it to the DNC, which did not respond by press time.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump bows his head during a prayer at a town hall with vice presidential candidate Gov. Mike Pence, R-Ind., Monday, July 25, 2016, in Roanoke, Va. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

A few weeks ago, I urged everyone to sign a petition telling the Obama Administration not to provide Donald Trump a security briefing. Trump will use whatever they tell him for his own dark purposes.

Read the article, and sign the petition here.

There is no legal requirement for the President to provide that briefing. Let me repeat: There is no legal requirement for the President to provide that briefing.

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We now have two more reasons to make sure that no how, no way, does Trump receive intelligence briefing.

The first reason is Vladimir Putin. As more information and analysis shows a Trump link to Putin, providing Trump a security briefing would be tantamount to providing Putin the information itself.

The second reason is the Trump campaign manager, Paul Manafort who, for example, was a consultant to deposed and disgraced Ukrainian dictator, Viktor Yanukovitch, himself a close ally of Putin.

This is a very dangerous circle.

Trump is putty in Putin's paws. Putin knows how to manipulate him. All he need do is heap praise upon him, tell everyone how wonderful he is, let him build a hotel someplace in Moscow... .and, Trump will tell everyone how terrific, how beautiful, how amazing Putin is. And, for good measure, provide no resistance as Putin expands into former Soviet states.

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From Putin-to Manafort -- to Trump.
The Republican candidate for the presidency has recommended torturing terrorist suspects. While former Vice President Dick Cheney was known to advocate the use of torture in some circumstances, many thought torture had been abandoned by President Obama. The president chose not to condemn those who in the past may have used torture, a policy justified as looking forward not backwards, but the failure to do so has been criticized for (Z Roth) making it easy to reinstitute torture. The administration has also been accused, with no denial, of sending suspects for interrogation to Afghanistan, which is known to use torture. So ... the question remains -- should the U.S. government torture terrorist suspects, or collude in having other countries do so for us?

If it was certain that torture provides unreliable information that would settle the matter, but it is not certain. There are persuasive advocates on both sides of the issue who cite examples of the benefits or the losses incurred by the use of torture, and no objective way to settle the matter. Even if we were to grant that torture sometimes does provide useful information and that it is possible to know when the information provided is accurate, the question would still remain about whether the United States or its allies should use torture.

Torture violates the eighth amendment to the Constitution, which prohibits cruel and unusual punishment. There has been argument about whether non-citizens are entitled to the protections afforded by the constitution. There is no agreement about whether this amendment prohibits what we do to anyone or only what we do to our fellow citizens.

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Have so-called "harsh" interrogation methods protected us from attacks on the homeland since 9/11? Or do we owe our safety to more traditional human intelligence, non-coercive interrogations, and cyber intelligence?

Not even brutal totalitarian societies (e.g., the Nazis and the Soviets), which had no qualms about using torture, were able to completely prevent violent attacks against leaders or civilians. Nor could England stop all IRA attacks even when it used methods later considered reprehensible by a Royal Commission and found illegal by the European Court. The Israelis reportedly used torture (despite it being illegal in Israel) but did not succeed in preventing all violent attacks on non-combatants.

The reality is that all societies are vulnerable to some, hopefully few, attacks on their civilian populations. No matter how harsh the method used to interrogate suspects, such attacks cannot be completely prevented. If neither science nor passionate advocates can settle the matter about whether we should use torture to uncover threats, where should we look for guidance about how what we should do? Surely it must be, as President Obama has recently said, to the principles for which we stand: humane treatment even to those suspected or known to be intent on killing non-combatants. We must also remember and take heart from one more lesson from history: societies do survive attacks on their civilian population. Yes, we are vulnerable, but we won't be destroyed unless, out of desperation, we abandon the moral foundation on which this country has been built.

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Burning dry grass at night

As the reports started to surface about connections between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin the New York Times headline reads "Russian Subplot Raises Intrigue". This follows on Anne Appelbuam's Washington Post column "How a Trump Presidency Could Destabilize Europe" where she highlights Trump's connections to Russia and uses Franklin Foer's column in Slate "Putin's Puppet" to detail some of the allegations.

Applebuam writes "Trump has made multiple forays into the post-Soviet world, investing with oligarchs in Russia and Azerbaijan, staging a Miss Universe contest in Moscow, angling to attract Russian money to his projects in North America. He has also surrounded himself with people whose deep links to the corrupt world of Russian business would normally disqualify them from U.S. politics. He brought in a foreign policy aide, Carter Page, who has long-standing connections to Russian companies, including Gazprom, and has supported the Russian invasion of Ukraine. His campaign manager, Paul Manafort, worked for many years in Ukraine on behalf of Viktor Yanukovych, the pro-Russian president ousted in 2014." She goes on "Trump has begun repeating arguments identical to those used on Russian state television. These range from doubts about the sovereignty of Ukraine -- earlier this week, Trump's campaign team helped alter the Republican Party platform to remove support for Ukraine -- to doubts about U.S. leadership of the democratic world."

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We know Trump has said he wouldn't automatically come to the aid of a NATO member if they were invaded totally abrogating the Alliance which has led to headlines in European news outlets like the Daily Mail in London fearing for Europe's security.

On Wednesday the smoke around Trump's connections and contacts got even heavier when Paul Manafort, Trump's campaign manager said "Mr. Trump has said that his taxes are under audit and he will not be releasing them. It has nothing to do with Russia, it has nothing to do with any country other than the United States and his normal tax auditing process." With this statement there is more and more to indicate there is a fire burning and the flames will soon singe Donald Trump. Just hope the flames don't reach his hair or he will be quickly engulfed.

Many of us of a certain age remember growing up during the cold war and having drills in school where we either all went into the hallways or just ducked under our desks to keep us safe from bombs that would come from the Soviet Union. People were building bomb shelters in their back yards and fear was rampant. It has been a long time since there was such fear of Russia but Vladimir Putin has been saber rattling once again, attacking former members of the Soviet Union and moving troops into Ukraine. Trump's statements about Putin clearly support a stronger Russia. With regard to the hacking of the DNC emails President Obama said "What we do know is that the Russians hack our systems, not just government systems but private systems. What the motives were in terms of the leaks, all that -- I can't say directly. What I do know is that Donald Trump has repeatedly expressed admiration for Vladimir Putin."

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Foer writes "Vladimir Putin has a plan for destroying the West--and that plan looks a lot like Donald Trump." He goes on "One of the important facts about Trump is his lack of creditworthiness. After his 2004 bankruptcy and his long streak of lawsuits, the big banks decided he wasn't worth the effort. They'd rather not touch the self-proclaimed "king of debt." This sent him chasing less conventional sources of cash. BuzzFeed has shown, for instance, his efforts to woo Muammar Qaddafi as an investor. Libyan money never did materialize. It was Russian capital that fueled many of his signature projects--that helped him preserve his image as a great builder as he recovered from bankruptcy."

There has always been a truth to the idiom 'where there is smoke there is fire' and Donald Trump's statements and actions seem to be fanning a huge blaze. His entire campaign, as evidenced by the Republican convention, is geared to incite the worst in the American people and to scare them into voting for him. Hitler and Mussolini did the same.

He lies about rising crime rates when they have actually gone down and he threatens to close United States borders to Muslims and other immigrants, deporting eleven million people and building a wall across our Southern Border. He pits one group against another insulting Muslims, Women, African Americans, and Mexicans. He is running on a platform which may be the most regressive in Republican Party recent history. It promises to take away all the progress made by the LGBT community overturning marriage-equality; overturning Roe v. Wade; and ensuring Citizens United, which allows unlimited money into campaigns, remains in force.

Franklin D. Roosevelt in his 1933 inaugural address said "We have nothing to fear but fear itself". Today we need to fear the fear Donald Trump is trying to instill and encourage in our fellow Americans. We cannot give into fear but instead must reject it; and to do so we must reject Donald Trump in no uncertain terms.

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With the premiere episode of Starz's hit show Power drawing a total audience of 2.26 million, in it's new Sunday night slot, Omari Hardwick's leading man status just got cemented. As if it was ever a question in the minds of fans that remember the star from Ava DuVernay's Middle of Nowhere, BET's Being Mary Jane, Tyler Perry's For Colored Girls and Spike Lee's Miracle At St. Anna. Still, things couldn't be going better for Omari Hardwick's acting career. And while many may attribute some of Power's record ratings to the #BaeWatch moments that Hardwick's character Ghost creates, I'd have to disagree. Sure the guy is freaking gorgeous and I'll be the first to take up an offering -Baptist church style--for whomever is training Omari in the gym. Whoever you are, wherever you are thank God for you!

But it's not his chiseled abs that has fans tuned in at record numbers for two and now a third season. I'd even dare say it's not the plotline. We are definitely not witnessing some rare re-imagined "The Wire" style narrative on the drug game. Ghost the character--a drug dealer who wants to go legit--isn't fresh material either. But Omari Hardwick's approach to this role is. It's unique and fervent and still 100% believable. Hardwick can seamlessly transition from heartless drug king pin, to articulate uber intelligent strategic businessman in the blink of an eye. Ghost is the guy who will charm you right out of your panties wile plotting your death, and somehow we still like him. He's dangerous yet lovable and we all want to see him win. Comparable to Denzel Washington's portrayal in American Gangster, you find yourself constantly cheering for the bad guy no matter how many people he betrays. That's no easy feat for an actor.

I sat down with Harwick at ABFF to talk about his approach to acting and of course his first game changing callback. Check out the video below:
Paradigm Shifters is a series of interviews with a select group of women and men from eclectic walks of life. It will highlight unspoken, real-life insights on how they have been able to turn weakness into strength. A naked soul point of view of how their breakdowns were really a preparation for breakthroughs. They are your quintessential paradigm shifters; internal shifts converted into genuine change.

Everything I have ever done has been focused on this underlying theme of shifting the paradigm because, "What we think determines what we feel and what we feel determines what we do." Hence, why Empowered by You takes lingerie, which has traditionally been seen merely as a tool of seduction and redirected that energy as a tool of empowerment.

I hope from these stories you will look at your own situations, struggles and accomplishments through a different lens. At the very least you will be more equipped with real life tools to change your own paradigm. At the end of the day, we are our own Alchemist turning the silver we were born with into the gold we are destined to become.

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Lizanne Kindler, Talbots, CEO

Best advice you've received?

It was from my parents. They remind me how best to use the hand you are dealt. They also instilled in me to not let anyone define you, you define yourself. They would tell me all the time "we don't care what you do, you're amazing just use your talent" and this gave me the confidence to be who I am. I've used that advice in my career and it has helped to open many doors for me which has encouraged me to want to do the same for others. If I can help someone "open the door" to an opportunity, it gives them the likelihood of a prospect and the rest is up to them.

Growing up both your parents were deaf. How did growing up in that circumstance mold or enhance your life?

My parents were my backbone growing up and I don't think of their impairment as a disadvantage. They enjoy life to the fullest and never let a handicap constraint get in their way. They always want to reach out, travel, meet people. They're so curious about people, about situations and extremely passionate about living life and having fun. It doesn't matter what your circumstance is. Life is amazing and you make it the best it can be regardless of the hand you're dealt. My parents taught me to not be afraid and if you are, don't let that fear constrain you. If you fail, accept it and move on. Sometimes things don't work out the way you want them to but you're still a good person and capable of many things. My upbringing taught me so much about life. There were certain things my parents couldn't do, like pick up the phone to buy plane tickets or fix their tax return, so I became the forefront of their communication. This helped shape my enjoyment of life and desire to connect with people. I learned very early that communicating with people is powerful, and that has been very prevalent in my career.

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How does that lead into your leadership skills? What kind of leadership format do you impose with your colleagues?

Trust is the word that comes to mind for me. Having a deep appreciation that human beings are different and bring different things to the table is incredibly important. This is hard to do because you don't always know what someone is capable of so it's important to gain that trust and respect. Each person has their own individual strengths and it's important to understand their leadership qualities. Once this is established, I instill my trust in them to grow as an individual and succeed in their career. I enjoy sitting with people and emphasizing their strengths, telling them to "feel" their talent being used. The magic is when you pull the talent out and bring people together.



Dress for success? Elaborate?

Talbots has always been a community based brand and connecting with people is at the forefront of what we do and I feel very fortunate to be a part of that. When I returned to Talbots, one of my goals was to find new ways to give back to the community and enrich the lives of others. Dress for Success was a natural fit for Talbots to achieve this goal by helping less fortunate women get back into the workforce with a new suit and renewed confidence. In addition, the collaboration with DFS resonated with our female customers, who genuinely cared about the DFS client and wanted to do their part to help them succeed in life both personally and professionally. I've been to many of the Dress for Success events and I am amazed by the strength of the women who have been through the program. They are driven to establish a better life for themselves and their families, and I am honored to be a part of their success.



Breakdown to breakthrough?

My experience at Talbots defines both the breakdown moment and the breakthrough moment.

When I was with Talbots the first time, my vision for the brand was not in alignment with the direction leadership was taking and I became increasingly frustrated and disillusioned. I remember a conversation with my husband about the inevitable downturn of the company and it made me sad because I believed in the brand and I felt helpless. So with the support of my family, I made the difficult decision to leave and took the role of EVP of Product Development at Kohl's in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Ironically, Sycamore Partners then reached out asking me to come back to Talbots as President. As you can imagine, I had so many mixed emotions, as I truly loved the Talbots brand, and wanted it to succeed, but I also struggled with uprooting my family once again. Falling back on the advice my parents gave me as a child, and how to best use the hand you're dealt, I made the decision to leave Kohl's and return to Talbots. If I hadn't gone through that challenging first experience, I would not have been as successful as I am right now. I came back to Talbots with a clear head and vision of success for the brand, and I can honestly say that I love my job and couldn't be happier.

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Legacy?

I've never thought of it as my "legacy" but what I would like people to think of when they think of me is my immense passion for everything I do in life, with my family and in my job. I bring passion to everything I do, and have a very optimistic view. I always tell my children do everything and anything with your whole heart.

If your life were a book, what would be the title of 2015 and 2016?

For 2015, I would say "The Power of Focus," if I'm doing a serious title. If you want a more amusing title I would title it "Haagen-Dazs and Heels for the CEO." I have this passion for Haagen-Dazs ice cream, which is well known around the office, it just really fuels me! For 2016, it's obviously not fully written but I think a lot about maximizing opportunities. I live by minimizing risks and maximizing opportunities. 2016 is less about minimizing the risks, rather more concentrated on taking full advantage of the opportunities. So I guess it would be "Maximizing Opportunities."
Even after his gradually rolled-out defection to the dark side of Clinton Inc. was all but complete, many Bernie supporters continued to believe in Bernie, bless their hearts.

Some apologists argued that Sanders' otherwise unexplained surrender to the corrupt Democratic Party had a deeper secret motive. He did it in order to give his Big Speech at the Convention, they said. The Big Speech is now history. It is all Sanders will write in this Convention, other than some changes in the irrelevant platform and possibly in a few rules of unknown prospective value that Clinton allows. His uninspired choices of surrogates to place him in nomination and his ritualized "unity" motion at the end of the balloting dampened any remaining enthusiasm of delegates to fight the rigged process.

We can now judge whether the Convention speech was worth the compromise of Sanders' integrity by surrendering the fight, and supporting the very same corrupt plutocrat who it was the ostensible and well-funded purpose of his campaign, and of his supporters, to defeat.

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The Big Speech had three essential parts. One part recited the list of New Deal-type policy reforms that majorities support and which would therefore already be implemented if the US were a democracy. Sanders said these policies were what his campaign was about. In a way it was, to the extent his campaign was merely a demonstration of what could be accomplished if the United States were a democracy.

The second part of the speech was a pitch for Lesser of Two Evils voting, along with an implicit claim that Clinton is the lesser evil. This part of Sanders' speech surfed on the propaganda about Trump in which the plutocratic media is already awash. It lacked the intellectual integrity of actually dealing with the fact that, on the core progressive issues of imperialism and plutocracy, Trump has leapt right over the rightward march of Clinton Inc. to land on the progressive side of Clinton, thereby outflanking the Democrats on these fundamentals.

The Democratic Party will not give up identity politics as its principal disguise for its plutocratic ownership. Thus the 2016 election witnesses a split between those attracted to identity politics who pretend to be progressive and those who understand that the reason for the inequality that gives rise to identity-based claims for relief is the very lack of an effective franchise in a plutocracy. Plutocracy deprives everyone of their democratic equality. Political disenfranchisement by plutocracy hurts most of all socially and economically disadvantaged or otherwise isolated groups, of course. But the more Democrats support plutocracy and undermine democracy, the more they can claim to represent such separate identity-based complaints, served mainly through symbolic gestures. Plutocracy is thus good for the Democrats' basic business of identity politics, and vice versa.

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Others have discussed the failure of liberals to honestly assess Trump's stated positions by which he has overtly appealed to Sanders' progressive supporters. The subject need not be addressed further here, other than to mention that Sanders' added nothing to the general anti-Trump discourse that has been going on for months, other than simply piling on the standard identity politics narrative against Trump. It was gratifying that, when Sanders tried this narrative out on his own delegates on Monday morning, they did not take the bait. Many had already likely heard enough about Trump in their state conventions.

What Sanders left off the list of his campaign's policy goals in the first part of his speech was his most clearly progressive goal. This was commonly defined throughout his campaign as its central issue upon which all else depends: "Very little is going to be done to transform our economy and to create the kind of middle class we need unless we end a corrupt campaign finance system which is undermining American democracy." This was the statement that made his long list of campaign promises honest. This was Sanders' answer to Obama, Clinton and others who accused Sanders of dishing out to his followers pie-in-the-sky fantasies that were not "pragmatic." The "pragmatic" critics could not imagine overthrow of the plutocracy they serve, while Sanders and his supporters could.



This central message of Sanders' campaign -- that none of his majoritarian New Deal policy reforms can be accomplished unless the corrupt plutocracy is first turned back to a democracy -- was missing from his Convention speech. Instead of making this clear statement about priorities, Sanders simply tacked on to the end of his list of policies the following statement:

"Brothers and sisters, this election is about overturning Citizens United, one of the worst Supreme Court decisions in the history of our country. That decision allows the wealthiest people in America, like the billionaire Koch brothers, to spend hundreds of millions of dollars buying elections and, in the process, undermine American democracy."



The first sentence refashions Sanders key campaign goal, to "end a corrupt campaign finance system," as a far lesser demand. The second sentence shows that Sanders is either grossly misinformed about, or careless in describing, what Citizens United actually held. It was not Citizens United (2010) but the much earlier Buckley v Valeo (1976) that allows the Koch brothers to spend vast millions on elections, provided they spend their own private money. Even corporations could, prior to Citizens United, spend all they wanted on sham "issue ads" that were actually electioneering ads. The ruling in Citizens United only allowed plutocrats to also make independent political expenditures through their corporate entities, if they chose to do so. Most plutocrats do not choose to do so, at least not until President Obama legalized dark money by his deliberate inaction. Since Speechnow.org (D.C.Cir. 2010) all independent electioneering expenditures are unlimited.

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If Sanders did want to stop the Koch brothers from spending their personal fortune on the political investments from which their businesses profit, it would be wrong for him to reduce his original campaign demand to recover government from the Koch's "billionaire class." If now, instead, "this election is about overturning Citizens United," that will not suffice. "Overturning Citizens United" would have virtually no impact -- at most inflict some modest inconvenience -- upon the plutocratic opposition to Sanders' New Deal reforms.

Sanders later elaborated on this subject by noting that "Hillary Clinton will nominate justices to the Supreme Court who are prepared to overturn Citizens United and end the movement toward oligarchy that we are seeing in this country." The first part of the sentence is true. Clinton did make such gestures as early as Iowa. See Vol I. This was not a concession in return for Sanders' capitulation. But her gestures do not mean much, since even Jeb Bush was able to oppose Citizens United by the time of the New Hampshire primary. This litmus test for Clinton's Supreme Court appointees will not be difficult to meet because it would not significantly impede plutocracy. Far more important would be a litmus test of reversing the Supreme Court's recent McDonnell decision legalizing certain kinds of bribery, which none of the current justices, including those appointed by Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, could pass, in addition to Buckley v Valeo.

The second part of Sanders' sentence is deceptive in several ways.

First, Sanders has pulled a another switch in this part of his speech. A campaign "about ending a campaign finance system which is corrupt and allows billionaires to buy elections" is what Sanders had clearly, repeatedly and accurately promised as the minimal prerequisite for obtaining any of his New Deal policy reforms. Now he has switched to a weaseling objective. He would merely "end the movement toward oligarchy." Ending such "movement" would leave us exactly where we are right now. The current status quo is not at all what "Our Revolution" had promised. People who had in 2008 already been betrayed by promises of "Change" are now ready for revolution. But Sellout Sanders in his Big Speech is promising to maintain the status quo of systemic corruption with Clinton.



Second, "overturning Citizens United" would not even, as Sanders suggests, "end the movement toward oligarchy that we are seeing in this country." That movement could and did proceed quite effectively before Citizens United was announced in 2010. It would have continued after Citizens United, under Supreme Court decisions that had nothing to do with the ruling in Citizens United, such as Arizona Free Enterprise Club (2011) and McCutcheon (2014), even had Citizens United altogether disappeared from the Supreme Court's pro-corruption canon. It is Buckley v Valeo that must be overturned to again restore the judicially-repealed anti-corruption measures of all kinds. Every money is speech pro-corruption decision, except possibly McDonnell, relies on Buckley.

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The narrow channel for corrupt political investments which Citizens United legalized, involving just the independent political expenditures of corporations, account for a narrow and inessential means for plutocrats to buy influence. Though it is the most publicized because of its inflammatory and sloppy rhetoric it is one of the least significant of the Court's many pro-corruption rulings that need overturning. It is a twig not a root of the Court's noxious weed-tree of corruption growing on the rotted remains of the Constitution.

Third, Sanders must need a new prescription since we are not "seeing a movement" toward oligarchy (as Sanders calls plutocracy). The US is already clearly seeing the plutocracy itself according to most polls. No further movement is required to reach that destination. Jimmy Carter has for some years now explained that the US is already an "oligarchy instead of a democracy" due to money in politics. Sanders should need no more proof of this fact then the election fraud by which Clinton's biased party stole the nomination from him on behalf of plutocrats who fund he party. If Wikileaks' emails did not awaken him to that fact, he must know of Gilens' Princeton research showing that in contemporary politics money buys policy, and mere voters without money "have essentially no impact on which policies the government does or doesn't adopt." That is the definition of plutocracy. Systemically corrupt US politics has already destroyed democracy without further "movement" being at all necessary.

The third part of Sanders speech was where he spoke about what Hillary Clinton "understands," or "sees," or some other imprecise verb describing her positions on Sanders' New Deal policy agenda. His sole evidence for such confidence that Clinton will accomplish all these essential and belated reforms is what he calls the "most progressive platform in the history of the Democratic Party." I will leave it to someone else to analyze the veracity of that assertion. It can be noted here that none of the reforms of the platform that Sanders did mention have anything to do with money in politics, which is, if interpreted to include all forms of election theft by plutocrats, both the most clearly progressive reform, as well as the key reform, of his whole campaign.

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Progressives by definition prioritize recovering democracy from plutocrats over any other issue. This can only be done by prohibiting the plutocrats' investments in politicians and in other means of committing election theft and subverting the now non-existent consent of the governed. None of the understandings, etc., Sanders listed for Clinton had anything to do with money in politics.



Moreover the existing 2012 Democratic Party platform already contained the platitude: "We support campaign finance reform, by constitutional amendment if necessary." This platform provision has meant nothing and is indeed designed for diversion from anything that might be effective. Even if the platform had improved upon this statement by adding effective policy details, the party's position stated in its platform would continue to have no bearing whatsoever on actually accomplishing this goal in a manner that would be effective. Clinton has obviously made Sanders no such promises, and her plutocratic funders would absolutely prohibit her from carrying it out if she had.

This lack of any significant attention to money in politics was a glaring omission in Sanders most formal capitulation speech. Immediately after his speech, however, Sanders sent out an email to his list of supporters, pitching his new fundraising operation called "Our Revolution." In this email, Sanders hastened to make a gesture toward remedying the obvious omission from his speech of any effective understanding or agreement about the central issue of his campaign.



The very first sentence of Sanders' email thus reads: "Our campaign has always been about a grassroots movement of Americans standing up and saying: "Enough is enough. This country and our government belong to all of us, not just a handful of billionaires." This does minimally evoke the central campaign goal that Sanders excluded from his speech. Maybe it was a condition of his surrender to omit any mention of his campaign's central issue, except in terms carefully sanitized in advance by Clinton to prevent any possibility of causing plutocrats inconvenience in their buying of influence.

This emailed addendum to his speech for the benefit of progressive supporters Sanders is losing suggests that Sanders still recognizes the same progressive priority he stated during his campaign. Some supporters who do not parse the speech too carefully might think that he discussed the need for restoring democracy as the prerequisite for accomplishing any of those New Deal reforms he did list in his speech. But in fact his communication separately by email of the central point omitted from the speech emphasizes that Clinton does not share this priority. How could the plutocrats' own candidate, the one the Kochs themselves prefer, accept such a priority?

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During the nomination contest it was clear - and Trump will be sure that every voter who missed the nomination contest understands for purposes of the general election -- that the Clinton organization is totally sold out to plutocracy and always has been. Hillary Clinton embodies the plutocracy, has weathered many related scandals, and is totally weaponized by Clinton Inc. to shoot down every New Deal program that plutocrats pay her to oppose. She is not in any way even verbally committed to the single reform that Sanders' "campaign has always been about," that is, taking the government back from "just a handful of billionaires." She no doubt censored Sanders' speech to exclude it. The Clintons work for those billionaires. The one reform that Clinton does support that even relates to government by billionaires is the well-practiced diversion of "overturning Citizens United."

Therefore, by Sanders' own terms taken directly from the center of his campaign, he understands that none of the New Deal policy reforms he advocated in the first part of his speech and upon which he claims Clinton has taken some unspecified position in the third part of his speech, will have any chance of being accomplished if Sanders gets his wish of helping to elect Clinton as president. A speech that sacrifices the lynch-pin of his whole campaign cannot therefore justify his capitulation to a plutocrat. He must have received something other than the speech because the speech itself was a retreat at best, and deceitful at worst, and certainly not a clever maneuver to achieve anything of public importance.
The arts enrich our lives so much. When tyrants and dictators want to control a society they begin by censoring the press, banning books, and raiding museums of artifacts and works of art. Nina Simone said, "It is an artist's duty to reflect the times." Maya Angelou said, "When a writer or an artist tries to tell the truth and tries to tell it eloquently, it appeals to all people, regardless of race." It is no wonder that dictators take great pains to burn books and destroy art in attempt to erase history and silence the voice of the people.

Many rappers talk about Basquiat to prove that they "have arrived." I wonder how many of its listeners know the significance of Basquiat and other black artists or even own their works? Aside from Ernie Barnes, whose work was featured in the sitcom Good Times, and Annie Lee, I was not familiar with other African-American artists and painters. After viewing an exhibit of Romare Bearden, I looked into more African-American artists like Archibald Motley, Jacob Lawrence, Jonathan Green, and Carrie Mae Weems. Unfortunately, many of the great black artists' works are privately owned and not by us.

I recently spoke with painters Raub Welch and Debra Cartwright. I asked them to address the importance of blacks: 1) investing in black art; 2) supporting black artists; and 3) blacks not stealing and appropriating the work of black artists. Raub Welch is a painter and interior designer based in Chicago. His work has been exhibited at the DuSable Museum and around the world. His home doubles as his art gallery and as such has been featured in many publications. Debra Cartwright is a painter and graphic designer based in New York. Her work has been featured in Ebony and her designs have been commissioned by McDonald's in its sponsorship of the Essence Festival. She has exhibited at the Sol Studio in Harlem.

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How did you get started?

Debra Cartwright (DC): I was constantly painting and drawing Disney characters. My mom wanted to put me in extracurricular for the weekends. People ask why watercolor? It was the class that had openings. But, isn't watercolor everyone's first introduction to art and painting? Graphic design pays the bills. Being a painter and illustrator is my passion.

Raub Welch (RW): I always wanted a beautiful life and to travel. I didn't want to be a starving artist. Although I had work as an artist, I couldn't live off it. Even if you exhibit and your pieces sell, the gallery takes 50-60% for commission. I had to do something to support myself in between gallery exhibits. I got a retail job and started decorating store displays. I begin hosting parties at my home. People were so impressed with my decor that they asked me to decorate their homes.

Photo Credit: Devin Mays

What was your big break?

DC: Most people knew me through my "protest" art. After Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown, I painted "Don't Shoot." McDonald's contracted with the advertising firm Walton Isaacson for Essence Fest. They wanted to use a black illustrator. Tracey Coleman saw my "Don't Shoot" painting on Instagram and reached out to me.

RW: My mentor bought me gallery space in Wicker Park to display my art. One day, an art buyer for Oprah walked into the gallery and bought some of my work. It was a collage piece. It's ironic because I am a painter, but I am best known for my collage work. That restarted my art career. However, I still do interior design because it's cash flow between exhibitions.

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Photo Credit: Debra Cartwright

Why is it important for blacks to invest in black art?

DC: There is not enough exposure in our community to black artists. When my fans/followers ask who my influences are and I name black artists, they do not know who these artist are. Exposure to art is not as prevalent in our community. Also, a lot of black art has been appropriated by white artists.

RW: As a black artist, I cannot stress how important it is for black people to support black artists and buy their work. You may not buy a Basquiat, but you can buy original works from a local artist. Major works of black art are not owned by us. We don't own our on legacy and history. My daughter goes to gallery showings with me. Art is an equity investment. If we don't own our own history, do our children even know their legacy? Buy original works and buy what you love. Buy the best piece you can afford. For tips on collecting art, I wrote a post Collecting 101.

What about people who say that art is too expensive?

DC: Art is an appreciating asset. Unlike a car that depreciates as soon as you drive it off the lot, art is an investment that increases in value. Invest in art you like. Buy original pieces.

RW: People say art is expensive. Yet, we buy Tom Ford, Ferragamo, Versace, and Gucci. I like beautiful things too, but which one appreciates in value? Art is an equity investment and legacy piece. It increases in value as it decorates our wall. That's why Jay Z buys Blue Ivy a Basquiat - for legacy. She may outgrow her Tom Ford clothes but her Basquiat continues to increase in value. It is part of pop art American history and black American history.

Photo Credit: Debra Cartwright

Debra your artwork is widely shared on social media and often plagiarized and illegally used. Why is it important for people to not steal artist's work without permission and give credit when they repost or share?

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DC: When I first started, I didn't think about that until later someone stole "appropriated" my work as their own. I learned the hard way that artists need to protect their work from exploitation. I do not mind showcasing my work, but you must balance what's fair versus exposure. You need protection from online pirates. We [black people] are so used to our stuff being stolen [music, culture] that we devalue our own work if it's not stolen. We have more respect for other artists than black artists. Someone told me that they loved my work so much that they put it on a t-shirt and started selling it! That's illegal. Everyone understands that you can't use the Louis Vuitton or Versace logo for personal profit. Yet, people become upset at me when I tell them they can't use my work. I have to protect my intellectual property and copyright. People erase my watermark to infringe. I have to hire lawyers to send copyright infringement notices. Even if I get a judgment in my favor, I still lose because most of these people have spent the money they illegally earned from using my images. It's like being a baker and having your bread stolen every day. At some point, you decide to stop selling bread. I put my blood sweat and tears in my work, so please respect and honor that by paying and getting permissions and proper licensing to use my work. The theft of my artwork becomes too emotionally and legally draining that I do not have the energy to be a creative voice for my people and generation. In the end, we all lose - the artist, black culture, and society.

Raub, final words?

RW: As black people, we have a duty to share and protect our heritage and legacy. If all of the black art is own by non-black private collectors, then we lose. We must make a conscious choice to buy black art.

To support Raub and Debra, be sure to check out Debra's website, Debra Cartwright, and Raub's blog, Afro-Opulence.
Born and raised in California, I was brought up to believe that the west coast is indeed the best coast. But I must say, after spending a summer in New York City, the concrete jungle has definitely won my heart and I now find myself in a long-distance relationship with the "city that never sleeps," constantly looking to plan my next visit. So whether you are just in town for a weekend or moving to NYC for good, here is your guide to some of the best spots that the Big Apple has to offer.

Where to Stay:

Gansevoort (18 9th Ave, New York, NY 10014)

This trendy hotel located in the heart of New York's happening Meatpacking district, has an unbeatable view of the city's signature skyline. Beat the summer heat by taking a dip in their rooftop pool, which is sidelined with comfy lounge chairs and a bustling bar (comparable to West Hollywood's Mondrian Hotel.)

The Dream Downtown (355 West 16th St, Near 9th Ave, New York, NY 10011)

Nothing but sweet dreams at this hotel. The best part? The penthouse floor is home to one of the city's most popping rooftop bars: PHD. They're known for "Sunset Saturdays," which celebrate the golden hour with guest DJs, live performances and a unique crowd of partygoers from all over the world. If you happen to visit in the winter, The Dream provides complimentary hot apple cider in the lobby to save you from the cold.

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The Pierre (2 E 61st St, New York, NY 10065)

Positioned just off Fifth Avenue on East 61st Street, one of the perks of staying at The Pierre is its location - just a short walk from the city's best shopping area and Central Park! Built in the 1920s, its classic architecture and luxurious rooms are timeless and coupled with top-notch service (their concierge is among the best and can help you snag reservations at some of the city's most in-demand restaurants!) Just off the lobby you'll find their Two E Bar & Lounge, which offers a delightful afternoon tea service featuring traditional teas, freshly-baked pastries and of course, champagne if you're in the mood.

Where to Eat:



Beauty and Essex (146 Essex St, New York, NY 10002)

A trip to NYC is not complete without a visit to Beauty and Essex. Located beyond the doors of an old jewelry store-converted restaurant, the food itself is nothing short of dazzling. Their menu offers tapas ranging from tuna poke wonton tacos to grilled cheese and tomato soup dumplings to "orange kissed" salmon ceviche, perfect for big groups and special occasions. Rumor has it that "Chopped" judge Chris Santos is planning on opening a Beauty & Essex outlet in Hollywood sometime in 2016, so get excited fellow Californians!

Tao Downtown (92 9th Ave, New York, NY 10011)

Behind its larger than life buddha statue, Tao is home to both a top notch Asian-fusion cuisine and a raging nightclub that is a go-to spot for a night out, New York style (especially popular on Tuesdays!). To drink, you must try their Tao-tinis or a Peach Cosmopolitan. For food, you can't go wrong as their menu offers the classics such as chicken satay, while also mixing it up with their own signature dishes including miso-glazed sea bass, lobster wontons, and the Tao "surf and turf" roll. To end your meal on a sweet note, be sure to order Tao's giant fortune cookie dessert filled with both white and chocolate mousse and paired with mochi ice cream and fresh fruit on the side.

Bar Pitti (268 Ave of the Americas, New York, NY 10014)

Stationed in West Village, Bar Pitti is about as close as you can get to an authentic Italian trattoria. Their well-known dishes include their tomato and burrata salad and the spaghetti with truffles. Be sure to sit outside, as their Sixth Avenue post offers a prime spot for people-watching.

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Where to Brunch:

Lavo (39 E 58th St, New York, NY 10022)

New York City does brunch like no other. With their signature Saturday champagne brunch, Lavo takes it to a whole other level. You can be sure to expect some table dancing, popping hip-hop music, strobe lights and fog machines. Keep in mind that Lavo brunch is an all day affair, so mark your calendars! They even have special occasion brunches such as their holiday Santa themed brunch - a great way to kick-off your weekend!

Two Hands (164 Mott St, New York, NY 10013)

If you're looking for a healthy start to your day, try Two Hands, a cafe seeking to provide simple and nutritious food to get your day going on a high note. Their avocado toast and acai bowls are made to order!

Sarabeth's (40 Central Park S, New York, NY 10019, also locations in Tribeca, Upper East Side and Upper West Side)

Live life like Gossip Girl with Sarabeth's brunch (Blair and Serena were spotted brunching there in an early episode!) A New York classic, Sarabeth's has all the bases covered with extraordinary omelettes, a salmon eggs benedict and if you have a sweet tooth, their lemon ricotta pancakes are to die for. With your omelette, you can choose from a variety of homemade scones paired with fresh-made jam as an added bonus. Complement your meal with the Sarabeth's "four flower" mimosa or a peach bellini!

Where to Go Out:

Loopy Doopy Rooftop Bar (102 North End Ave, New York, NY 10282)

Located in the financial district on the top floor of the Conrad Hotel, Loopy Doopy is known for their signature popsicles and prosecco drinks. With 360-degree views of lower Manhattan, this buzzing bar is definitely one of the city's most picturesque.



Le Bain at The Standard (444 West 13th Street, New York, NY 10014)

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For arguably the best view of New York City, check out Le Bain - The Standard Hotel's rooftop bar and lounge. With panoramic views of Chelsea and beyond, there is no better place to enjoy a drink and the city's skyline. The best part? If you go around sunset, they have a crepe stand with both sweet and savory crepes, made in minutes!

B Bar (40 E 4th St, New York, NY 10003)

If you're looking for a college reunion, head to B Bar where you will surely run into someone you know from either high school or college. Known as a popular intern bar, grab some of your co-workers and head to East Village for a fun night on the town.

Up 'N' Down (244 W 14th St, New York, NY 10011)

If you're looking to go clubbing, be sure to add Up 'N' Down to your list - a bougie nightclub with two levels; the upstairs features modern hip-hop music and the lower floor plays tunes from both up-and-coming DJs and well-established artists. Get ready to break out your best dance moves and don't be surprised if you run into your favorite celeb on the dance floor!

For Dessert:

Black Tap (529 Broome St, New York, NY 10013)

Don't be turned off by the lines that wrap around the entire block. Black Tap's milkshakes are nothing like any milkshake you've ever had before and well worth the wait. Each shake is over the top and adorned with all kinds of sweets ranging from cotton candy to brownies to lollipops. Get your camera ready because these shakes are definitely insta-worthy!

Dominique Ansel Bakery (189 Spring St, New York, NY 10012)

If you need a little afternoon pick-me up, stop by Dominique Ansel Bakery in Soho for their signature after school special: chocolate chip cookie shots. An edible shot glass made out of chocolate chip cookie and filled with milk is hands-down the tastiest shot you will ever take.

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Levain Bakery (167 W 74th St, New York, NY 10023, note: another location in Harlem)
Engaged employees yield many benefits to businesses today - increased productivity, talent retention, and the enablement of better customer experiences being just a few. But, as Gallup's State of the Global Workplace report illustrates, with 87% of employees not engaged or actively disengaged, building a culture of engagement is no easy feat. This is especially true in a world of 24/7 access, where 80% of organizations believe their employees are overwhelmed with information and activity at work. For Employee Engagement to be a business strategy that will actually foster a culture of engagement, companies need to focus holistically and different functions need to all come together. Instead, what we often see is each function driving their own strategy in siloes - leading to unengaging and unproductive experiences.

We have all been in the conference room, where the large projector was replaced by a very high-tech flat screen - only for the people in the room to be left squinting at the 100 row Excel that the presenter is sharing out, then self-hacking the situation so that they can actually get their work done by sharing out to their individual laptops whilst still in the room together. This is what happens when engagement and productivity are not designed together - people have to focus on how they will get the work done, rather than on the work itself.

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So, if you want the outcome that has been touted, namely that engaged employees are more productive and can positively impact a company's profits, you need to recognize that there are two main factors in fostering employee productivity; 1) making sure they can actually do what they need to, and 2) making sure they feel the desire and passion to do it. For example, an employee can have great tools that allow them to complete their work easily, but, their manager doesn't really give them good direction on what's next in their career. They don't want to do this forever, and what's more, the office is a drab sea of grey cubes. In this situation, the employee is very unlikely to be doing the best and most productive job ever. Enabling them to be productive in this case would span many factors - the tools to complete the job would need to be available and working, there must be good employee management, exciting and achievable career opportunities, as well as an engaging physical workplace to bring everything together in.

Technology, in fact, can enable all of these facets, playing a role in much more than just ensuring that the actual systems that employees use for work are functioning. While people are at the core of engagement, technology plays a huge role in today's Employee Experience agenda. Quite simply, it provides the effective means to create working environments in which the drivers of engagement can be cultivated.

To begin understanding how technology fosters an engaging workplace, you first need to open your mind to what engagement really means - it goes beyond launching a "social" tool, or ensuring employees get "pats-on-the-back". Engagement, for an employee, encompasses many factors from their daily work, career growth and development, the workplace itself, their purpose, their manager and leadership, to their social environment, their compensation and benefits and the teams they work in. It is a complex mix of many components that can only be holistically achieved, cross-functionally, through the collaboration of the teams responsible, including HR, Facilities, Communications and Branding, the Business Units and IT.

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Technology plays a fundamental role in empowering teams by creating working environments in which all of these engagement drivers can thrive. Some of these ways include:

Technology as a part of the user solution itself: providing the systems, applications, hardware or other technology needed to do the job. This spans many solutions such as performance management software, company social networks, smart campus objects, or a meeting room scheduler.

Infrastructure: providing the capacity to enable the available tools to work effectively and securely. This covers the quality with which employees can complete their tasks, e.g. access documents quickly, hold a video conference with good audio and visual, collaborate on shared documents, have meetings on the go, etc.

Information and tracking: providing ways to access various data streams, such as social and sentiment, and to analyze these streams to provide information in a meaningful, actionable and useful manner. Technology can enable organizations to garner employee feedback through tools and methods in real time and with frequency. This includes closing the feedback loop with employees and could also lead to predictive analytics for identification of potential low engagement so that organizations can be proactive.

Process enablement: while some of the processes for engagement are human orientated (e.g. manager feedback or reviews), technology can help people to follow these processes easily and efficiently by providing easy-to-use tools, reminders, and tracking.

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Workplace technology: the digital and physical worlds have collided. With connected furniture and smartphones enabled as control devices it is imperative for technology to enable and connect the physical workplace to make spaces fluid, engaging, and productive.

Mobility optimization: enabling people to work wherever they need, provides them with a sense of control over what can seem like a very crazy life, full of work. The hours of 9-5 rarely exist. We can pay a bill while waiting for a coffee, so why can't we get some work done in the same way?

IT enablement to business: providing the means for business-necessary tools to be deployed through partnering with other business functions. For example, if HR wants to deploy a tool for employee rewards, IT can help to ensure that there is process and capability in place so the tool can actually be deployed. This might include infrastructure, provisioning, security, supportability and scalability checks.

Obviously, teams and businesses cannot do everything all at once; you will often find that employee initiatives have limited funds and resources in comparison to competing goals within a business. For this reason, it is crucial to make smart investments that will actually impact Employee Engagement to avoid wasting time and money.

To make these decisions and optimize investments, you must first find your engagement drivers. Start out by understanding what your employees need to help them feel motivated and actively engaged. Then, you will be able to see where you currently stand for each of the identified drivers, i.e. what is your employee engagement level overall and for various segments. Once you know this, you can materialize the strategy needed to drive an engaged workforce and work collaboratively across functions with a common, shared purpose and goal. But, do not forget that implementing technology alone will not have the desired impact. The human element, supporting processes and people enablement will all be needed for a successful Employee Engagement Strategy.

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Chronic unemployment in Kenya leaves 68 percent of youth without a stable income. In the slums, young men and women struggle to find a source of income. Some youth sell their bodies, rob their neighbors, or are recruited by Al-Shabbab to launch grenades into neighborhood markets. The problem is worsening quickly as the slum population is expected to double by 2030.

One social enterprise, LivelyHoods, trains youth and women in the slums to sell clean cookstoves, solar lamps, and other products through door-to-door sales, popup sales events, and business-to-business (B2B) sales to small and informal retailers.

So far, LivelyHoods has trained over 2,000 youth and created over 900 jobs, generating over $115K in income for their sales agents. LivelyHoods estimates that the 14,000 cookstoves and 1,700 solar lamps sold through their network have prevented 175,000 tons of carbon emission--the equivalent of taking 36,000 cars off the Nairobi roads.

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Alex's Story: From Stealing and Trash-Picking to Managing Sales Training

"You can't imagine how hard it was to live in the streets," says Alex Beru, one of LivelyHood's first hires. "Before I joined as a sales agent--you can't imagine. It was hard for me to get food there in the streets. We were collecting scraps to get food, snatching anything. But now I can earn money, through working hard, selling products to the community. Now we're selling things that bring impact to the lives of people living in the community."

In the slum where Alex lived, his neighbors feared and disdained him. "I felt isolated," he recalls, "because people think negatively about street boys and ignore them . . . Even the dogs would bark at me. Because everybody thought we [street boys] were bad people, we didn't have opportunities to work and earn a living; and so we ended up engaging in criminal activities like pick-pocketing, gambling, and stealing. Rehab centers and orphanages don't really change outcomes, according to Alex. "I was in many organizations--rehab centers [rehabilitation centers for street kids], orphanages, that would try to help us by giving us food and clothing and offering showers, but nothing was working for me," he says. "At the end of the day, we would just go back to sleep in the street and we wouldn't be any better off than before. It is like the saying, 'You give a man a fish, you feed him for a day; but teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime.'"

To Alex, LivelyHoods offered a pragmatic solution to poverty. "Our program trains youth in entrepreneurship and then gives them a loan to start their own businesses," he explains.

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"While I was attending that training, I explained that we [the youth] wanted to have more experience in business before taking on a loan and possibly going into debt trying to start our own business. After that, we decided to change the program. I helped survey the community and ask what products they were using at home and what products they would like to have. Many people that we talked with said that they wanted electricity, so from that survey we decided to sell solar lamps in the slums."

People can't even believe Alex is the same boy they used to see in the streets. "Now that I'm the Recruitment and Training Manager, a lot of people in the community can't imagine that I used to live in the street. They see a big change and how LivelyHoods has really changed my life. I'm happy because I'm trying to imagine how we'll grow big in the years to come. Our aim is to reach many youth."

How LivelyHoods Builds Jobs

LivelyHoods partners with local organizations that are not providing income-generating activities and offers services to their clientele. They provide trainees with a week-long comprehensive classroom sales and marketing training that covers a range of employable skills, followed by a week of field training with instructors and experienced sales agents.

Sales agents receive products on consignment and earn commission for each product sold. Micro-consignment borrows heavily from traditional microfinance. Instead of borrowing money to buy product, however, their youth choose which products they want to sell and only repay the cost of the product after successful sales--a low-risk alternative to microloans.

Sales agents are also offered ongoing and refresher trainings to stimulate growth and learning. These trainings vary in topic ranging from ethical decision-making to closing deals.

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The Future of Jobs in Kenyan Slums

LivelyHoods is now working toward becoming a financially sustainable social business. Their strategy is based on scaling their model to 38 slum communities throughout Kenya, and they are already a third of the way there with 12 branches currently operating across Nairobi and Mombasa. See their blog for details and branch locations around Nairobi and Mombasa.

Over the next four years, LivelyHoods will create 5,200 jobs and save 3.7 million trees. LivelyHoods is also exploring franchising, which would allow organizations and entrepreneurs all over the world to implement their job creation and product distribution model. By the end of this year, they will pilot a franchise in Moshi, Tanzania.
Honor killings in Pakistan have climbed to an acme in recent years. Every year, countless girls and women, naive otherwise, are persecuted as a consequence of having relationships with individuals of their own choice. Historically speaking, this gruesome crime, which plagues every nook and corner of Pakistan, sparing none, has deep roots within and a profound connection with the way feudalism operates and has always operated in Pakistan. To elucidate further, let's take a brief glimpse into Pakistan's oblivious past.

Traditionally, wealthy feudal lords possessed wide stretches of lands, and in an era of materialistic aspirations and ideals, having such possessions was unanimously considered a source of ultimate power. Since these feudal lords soon grew well accustomed to the blandishment that sprouted from their acquaintances, they felt that the ultimate source of power rested in their domain. In the same context, they felt, not surprisingly, that their sons, daughters, and wife, who were their blood relations, ought to succumb to their ultimate dynasty, which never was. Therefore, these bigoted, uneducated and unambiguously parochial perpetrators barred their daughters from marrying the men of their choice. In their world, every choice, regardless of its nature, was theirs to make; every decision, regardless of its implication, was theirs to take. Thus, every now and then, whenever any feudal lord was intimated about a breach of his power, he would jolt awake. Unfortunately, this breach mostly came from their daughters who were now growing in a more accepting world overall, refining their tastes in who they chose for their lives and how they desired to live their lives. But in their forefather's domain, this idea of liberty for women only had nefarious implications. Of course, allowing a woman to be self-dependent leads solely and categorically to her fostering a morally weak character, right? And if so, how can we possibly allow our daughters to be self-cognizant, aware of their surroundings and future, and in-turn to marry the man of their liking?

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For these people, a better alternative seemed to be execution of their daughters. Extrapolating from what we know about these people, we can easily anticipate their thought processes. For them, since after execution and killing there would be no daughters, there would be no place for a fecund mind to burgeon, for novel ideas to take place; since there would be no daughters, there would not be an incubator for personal thought which would, according to them, have questioned their ideals and supremacy.

Fast-forward a few decades, and Pakistan is still there--stuck in an episode of patriarchy that not even God can question. Honor killings have always been a bane for Pakistan, but people have recently become more expressive in the aftermath of Qandeel Baloch's murder at the hands of her own brother. And guess what? After being put behind the bars, Qandeel's murderer exclaimed that he was happy and "proud" that he killed his sister, manifesting a wide, sated grin that masked any hint of regret. His justification? Well, other men wrote "wrong" comments on the semi-nude videos that his sister uploaded. But dare I ask, who was HE to hold Qandeel accountable? A brother with his so-called sacred "honor" at stake, or a money-mongering goon who lived off Qandeel's income, and then back-stabbed her himself?

Whatever the case might have been, there is a riveting conclusion that ganders coldly in our eyes: there is an urgent need to set a death-penalty, or a similarly punitive penalty, for men or women who murder under the name of honor. And I say this based on sound reason. Islamically, the family of a murdered victim can spare the murderer in exchange of money. Since several religious groups in Pakistan exert pressure on the government every so often, the government ends up passing laws that are in compliance with the sharia, but without paying any regard to the context the sharia was written in. Thus, conventionally, the rich and wealthy are set assail into an open world even after they have committed something as heinous as murder.

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Murders NEED to end NOW.

Honor killings need to end, whatever the reasons, by hook or by crook.

Their time is over; the time to make amends is now.
By Elizabeth Santiago

UCF Forum columnist

Children usually begin speaking their first words about 11 or 12 months old. From "mama" and "dada" come more complex words and thoughts.

These infants begin to take in the outside world and make it their own with each new experience. With those new experiences and growth come a perspective on the world and the ability to share it. We learn our methods of communication quickly, but how many of us truly understand the impact our words have?

Words have the power to console those in grief, uplift the downhearted, and inspire those who feel defeated. History shows us how influential speeches are to groundbreaking movements and changes. It's hard to imagine where we would be without Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream..." speech, or Ronald Regan's speech calling for Russia to tear down the Berlin Wall.

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Although best as a positive influence, words can also lead to painful ramifications. Through his persuasive techniques, Hitler managed to persuade numerous countries to kill more than 6 million innocent people just because of their religion. What started out as a way to communicate to survive, has the capability of being the vessel in which hate and destruction flow through.

At a young age, I experienced how hurtful words could be. When I was bullied at school, my mom incessantly recited "Sticks and stones can break my bones, but words can never hurt me" as a form of comfort. As bad as I wanted that phrase to be true, life had taught me a lesson that I could not ignore.

I learned that the pen is truly mightier than the sword. The impact of words has the ability of molding the lives of others. For example, my mother was constantly ridiculed for her Hispanic accent while speaking English. Hollywood hadn't glamorized the way Latinos spoke English yet, so this proved to be a traumatic experience for her. This, in turn, caused her to emphasize English over Spanish when raising her children. Having a limited grasp of Spanish, however, caused me to struggle with my identity as a Latin American woman.

Though mightier than the sword indeed, the pen shares the double-edged blade characteristic with its counterpart. It is for that reason we must be cognizant of what we say and how we say it.

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With the tragic events that have taken place recently around the world, we have seen the power of our words at work. We have witnessed vile words turn into actions of hate, only to leave us with an unbearable loss. We can put an end to this; we must put an end to this.

In theory the answer is simple, but the answer is far more complex in practice. What if we listen to others and learn to communicate? What if we promote and invest in love as much as we do our businesses, companies, and sources of income? What if, we stop ourselves from speaking negatively and instead speak words of encouragement and kindness?

It is easier to refrain from something when it is not actively portrayed in our society. In these past couple weeks, I have made it my mission to spread positivity in any way I can. Whether it is making small talk in a waiting room, smiling to those who cross paths with me on the way to work, or even voicing my appreciation, I have noticed that the attitude becomes infectious.

It's amazing that after learning how to convey our thoughts and emotions as we age, we don't do it nearly as much as we should. In fact, I challenge everyone reading this to do a random act of kindness or genuinely vocalize their appreciation for someone today.

As Gandhi said, "Be the change you wish to see in the world."

Have the strength to speak your mind, the wisdom to know when to hold your tongue, and the compassion to love continuously.

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Maybe 35 years ago I was in this lovely town by the sea. I can't recall specifically the reason I was here, maybe a spillover of a family visit to the Hearst Castle a way up the coast. In any case during my visit I happened to be here the night that Norman Cousins was speaking about his memorable book, The Anatomy of an Illness that he had published in 1974. This book became very important to me, as it was to many others. It was vital because of Norman's unique way of expressing the turmoil that all of us experience when we are seriously ill. Except that he did it better than any of us could. Anyhow he was presenting his book at a series sponsored by the City College of Santa Barbara, with a spectacular campus overlooking the Pacific.

I did not know then that Santa Barbara City College, SBCC, is generally regarded as the top city college in America. Its faculty, curriculum, and facilities are outstanding. The continuing education division with which I'm currently involved has a wide variety of topics ranging from needle pointing to medieval music. I am proud to be a part of it.

Little did I know that this encounter was to impact the rest of my life as it did. First, Norman and I were to become intimate friends. For a number of years we shared many visits at his home in Los Angeles and he at our home in Palo Alto. We co-spoke at several wellness get-togethers, including an AMA meeting in Las Vegas where Linus Pauling, Norman's close friend, sat in the front row. A treasury of memories are recorded.

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The second imprint of that first meeting was a familiarity with the City College where now, in September, I am preparing my own series, an eight week course entitled the Science of Longevity. This is my mantra. I've given my course twice at Stanford, once at Berkeley, once at Santa Clara University, and snippets at many other places. Together with my writing my ninth book, in progress, Aging is Negotiable, these two activities sum up my raison d'etre, my search for my life's meaning. I was a loyal husband for 63 years, now finished with Ruth Anne's death last year, I fathered four wonderful children all now on their way to stardom, I have grandfathered nine great kids each ready to play in the main ring. I've completed all of these biologic tasks. But when I look in my personal mirror I ask that since my biologic role is finished what further role is there yet to play? My answer emerges that Mother Nature is not yet ready for me to end my personal contribution. This is the reason behind my course here in Santa Barbara which starts on September 17. I still have work to do to complete my human potential, which I take to be the universal answer to:"Why Live?" Not having lived a long fully responsible life I assume to be an abortion. I don't like this word in connection with myself.

Now all of this takes on an even rosier resume because my second daughter, Gretchen has a lovely home here that always has a welcoming bedroom. I am living the best of two worlds, still deeply involved in the rich intellectual broth of Stanford that is perpetually stimulating, and now having this wonderful new platform here in Santa Barbara I'm doubly enriched. I still have work to do.

This lovely city of Santa Barbara comes as close to being a contemporary version of Eden as any city anywhere. Blossoms abound. No wonder Oprah hunkers down here.

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By John Rampton

I've always had a vision of what my life would look like. I'm goal-oriented, and all of my time, energy and thoughts have been focused on my entrepreneurial career -- and not so much on my personal life. Once I got married, I started to think about savings, an emergency fund, and retirement (in passing). Now that my daughter has arrived, things like life insurance, college funds, and a more important concentration on investment accounts are at the top of my mind.

A 2013 survey from TD Ameritrade found that 70 percent of entrepreneurs aren't contributing to a retirement plan, 40 percent of self-employed individuals aren't saving regularly, and 28 percent aren't saving at all. The survey also found 29 percent of self-employed individuals in Generation X and 32 percent in Generation Y aren't saving for retirement.

It's quite common to hear a millennial entrepreneur say they haven't given retirement much thought. After all, it's a lifetime away -- or so it seems. The only problem is that life actually starts speeding up, and before you know it, the amount of time left to put money away for retirement has shrunk considerably. As an entrepreneur, you can't allow yourself to think that you'll generate enough income to see you through retirement as soon as your startup becomes successful. You also can't think selling your business will be the answer for those missing retirement funds.

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If you are one of those entrepreneurs who struggles to strike a balance between investing in your business today and investing for your future, consider these retirement tips that I've found to be useful:

Establish an automatic savings plan for retirement. Even if it only involves a small amount, contributing regularly is much better than contributing nothing and thinking you'll just invest larger amounts later on. The truth is that "later on" may never happen.

Open a Simplified Employee Pension (SEP) IRA. This is designed for self-employed individuals and small business owners, and is similar to a traditional IRA. The tax break offered can be ideal for those who are burdened with self-employment taxes, as this type of savings can offset a small part of that tax expense.

Consider an individual 401(k) plan. You can contribute to this plan if there aren't any employees in your small business other than yourself. This type of 401(k) follows the same guidelines as a regular 401(k), but you can contribute as an employer and an employee with a certain maximum total amount being declared each year. It can be a traditional or Roth IRA.

Investigate both traditional and Roth IRAs. A traditional IRA defers your taxes, so you get a break while you're contributing, but your withdrawals will be taxed later on. A Roth IRA is just the opposite, so you will need to consider which option is best for your financial and tax situation.

Take a look at options to try other plans. A profit-sharing plan is ideal for a business with varying profits and contribution schedules. A money purchase plan requires that a fixed percentage of your income be contributed each year. A defined benefit plan is essentially a traditional pension plan. You start with what you want to be paid at retirement, and then an actuary determines the minimum funding levels you will have to produce each year to make that happen.

Meet with a financial advisor. Go over your options and get sound advice on your individual situation, needs and retirement goals. I've found percentages work best for me. For example, you could start by adding 1 percent to your savings. It's small enough not to notice. In six months, you could start putting in 2 percent. Remember, this all comes out of pre-taxed income. Then, bump it up to 5 percent. Put all of your bonuses into your savings account, and bingo, 7 percent of your gross salary is going into savings, and you wouldn't have even noticed. If you are afraid to begin the process, just start out small and you'll be well on your way to planning successfully for retirement.

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Bolivia's disability rights campaigners have been protesting and camping out in La Paz for over 4 months. Not far from Plaza Murillo, which is a Bolivian legislative building, many have set up a make shift village full of tents and sleeping bags in the middle of the streets. Bolivian police placed fences around the plaza to prevent the protesters from reaching further Handicapped or not.

Many disabled activists took to the streets in the central Bolivian city of Cochabamba to demand the government to give them basic rights of a disabled citizen, due to many of them unable to work due to their impairments. When the initial protests proved to be silent on the Bolivian government ears the disabled activists took the streets and marched over 400 km from Cochabamba to La Paz. Many have died during and after this trek, which took over a month to reach to the final destination.

The militarized police respond with cold faces and iron hands as they fight against the protestors. "The police have beat me with their guns, clubs and sprayed me and my family with tear gas. I have no legs and can only use one hand and this is how they treat people like me", Carlos Santiago a local protestor says before breaking down and crying.

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The government's stance is to not negotiate and grant any benefits stating the country can't afford to pay anything. The catch 22 is, Bolivia has a law that only extreme cases of disabilities are warranted for funds of 1,000Bs per year in state benefits. This amount is still not enough to cover basic living and medical care costing almost 1,000Bs. They also need a highly sought after I.D. to just claim these benefits, which is a second hurdle because they are required to pay neurological examinations costing 500Bs, which most do not need because they are sane and can not afford. Protestors demand that an additional 500Bs monthly benefit would indeed help but physical therapy, free medicine and housing will be suffice in the interim.
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.
5 Things Songwriters Must Know About Consent Decrees

In this article we discuss how recent major changes to the federal agreement governing how performing rights organizations like ASCAP, SESAC, and BMI operate has much of the music community up in arms.

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In a recent posting on MusicThinkTank, Brian Penick breaks down how the consent decree works and how new major changes to will likely effect songwriter.

"There are two major decisions proposed by the Department of Justice for the Consent Decree. The first is no partial withdraw. This means that publishers either have to be all-in or all-out with PROs. Music publishers, with the assistance of the PROs have been asking the DOJ to update the Consent Decrees to allow for partial withdraw."

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The US Department of Justice may have filed a lawsuit halting two health insurance mega-mergers, but the companies behind the proposed acquisitions are not raising the white flag of surrender quite yet.Aetna Inc. issued a lengthy and strongly-worded statement this week, promising to vigorously defend its merger with rival Humana against DOJ allegations that it would significantly reduce competition, particularly in the Medicare Advantage market.A combined company will result in a broader choice of products, access to higher quality and more affordable care, and a better overall experience for consumers, Aetna said.It pointed out that far from being in danger of a noncompetitive market, 91% of Medicare Advantage participants can choose from at least five carriers. The company also argued that the broader Medicare market is still occupied by the traditional, government-run program.Aetna Chief Executive Mark Bertolini is so confident of the insurers success, he told the New York Times, I like my chances in front of a judge.The Aetna-Humana cause has also been backed by some states, including Kentucky, whose attorney general says he will not join the suit against the $37 billion deal.Anthem also responded to allegations against its proposed acquisition of Cigna Corp., but used less heated rhetoric. The carrier simply said the merger would create efficiencies that allow it to deliver better, more affordable products to consumers. It also indicated it would be willing to divest itself of some of its assets, although the DOJ has said any such actions are not likely to save the proposed transaction.In its lawsuit filed to block the mergers, the Justice Department claims the deals violate antitrust laws and would harm competition and affordability for consumers.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, said US Attorney General Loretta Lynch.Legal battles over the mergers are likely to take some time, and the involved companies are continuing to run business as usual. Earlier this week, Cigna announced its plans to enter the Affordable Care Act marketplace in Chicago for the first time, bringing new competition in an area that sorely needs it.Aetna also has plans to introduce new health products in the next few months and will work very closely with impacted members so they understand these new products, the choices available to them and their best option, according to company spokesman Rohan Hutchings.
Top brokerage firm Jardine Lloyd Thompson (JLT) has revealed more than 300 job cuts in one of its businesses as part of a cost-saving and restructuring programme.In its half-year report released on Tuesday, JLT said decisive action has been completed to better align costs with revenues in the groups UK and Ireland employment benefits business.The completed action included the introduction of a flatter, more client-centric structure that has resulted in a decrease in headcount by over 300 employees.The restructuring programme is expected to deliver savings of 9 million in 2016 and 14 million in 2017, JLT said.The UK and Ireland employment benefits business were among the factors that held back JLTs overall group performance in the first half of the year.According to JLTs report, the 10.2 million restructuring expenses of the employment benefits business  among other exceptional costs  hit the companys interim results.In the first six months, underlying pre-tax profit was 89.2m, down 7% compared to the second quarter of 2015.Other factors that affected JLTs half-year performance was the 17.2m net investment in JLT USA, a 22 million settlement in a concluded litigation, and a 1.4m loss following the disposal of a business in Indonesia.The brokerage giant is still satisfied with its half-year results, with group CEO Dominic Burke expecting the company to withstand economic headwinds."During the first half of this year we have been encouraged by the level of client wins, which have been as strong as at any time since I became CEO, Burke said.Economic and industry conditions remain challenging; nevertheless we remain confident about the Group's ability to deliver year-on-year financial progress, he added.
The Tesla Model S driverless car involved in a fatal crash in Florida was speeding.Thats the finding of a preliminary report on the crash by the National Transportation Safety Board which does not contain any analysis of data and does not state probable cause for the crash.Although not proportioning blame, the report says that the Tesla was traveling at 75 mph when the speed limit on the section of US Highway 27A where the crash with a truck tractor occurred was 65 mph.The report highlights that: The cars system performance data also revealed the driver was using the advanced driver assistance features Traffic-Aware Cruise Control and Autosteer lane keeping assistance. The car was also equipped with automatic emergency braking that is designed to automatically apply the brakes to reduce the severity of or assist in avoiding frontal collisions.Tesla and the Autopilot chipmaker Mobileye have ended their association and Tesla is believed to be working on its own replacement for the third-party technology.Health insurer Oscar has announced that its slashed its network of doctors and medical facilities in half as it looks to recover from large losses.The firm, co-founded by the brother of Donald Trumps son-in-law, lost $92.4 million just in New York last year and the New York Daily News reports that thousands of customers will be left high and dry by the changes.On the insurers blog, CEO and co-founder Mario Schlosser addresses the cut from 40,000 doctors to 20,000 and the drop in facilities offered to 31 from 77: Our new network will not contain every hospital or doctor we have today, but this is a good and necessary change.Nevertheless, there will be some healthcare critics, entrenched in their views on an outdated system, who will say we are only changing our network to improve our bottom line.Schlosser goes on to say that no customers will be affected immediately but for 2017 there may be some who have started care with a particular provider who will be leaving the Oscar network. We will assist those members, even if it means helping them find a competitors plan, he promised.Zenefits has reached a settlement with Tennessee Department of Commerce and Insurance regarding its use of unlicensed insurance brokers.The firm will pay $62,500 in fines to the Department and will continue to operate in the state, Reuters reports.It is the first agreement reached with a state over the matter, which is also being investigated in at least three other states  Washington, California and Massachusetts - and led to a change of CEO at the firm.In a blog post, Zenefits CEO David Sacks explained why Tennessee has been relatively lenient with its penalty: "The state explained that more severe fines or penalties were not warranted because Zenefits self-reported its violations and took extensive remediation measures.
New advancements in technology and changes in consumer preference are contributing to rapid development in nearly every industry  the kind that trickles down and creates exciting new opportunities for insurance professionals.At the edge of some of these new frontiers is the surplus lines industry. With freedom of rate and form, they are often the first to blaze trails for new business models and have a keen eye for whats on the horizon.Insurance Business America recently interviewed several subject matter experts on the new business opportunities that excite them the most. You can find full commentary in our latest video , but here are some highlights.Marijuana is obviously already here and happening. Its a huge growth area, and I dont see that changing, said Emily Lomax, executive vice president for Worldwide Facilities  MGA division.Indeed, the marijuana industry is among the fastest growing the US, with an estimated size of $7.1 billion 2016. Its a boost of more than 25% over the year 2015, and more states are poised to join Colorado, Washington and Oregon in legalization.New specialty insurance firms are sprouting across the country, and producers are winning more business than they can handle in working with growers, event coordinators, dispensary operators and more.Chris Peterson, vice president with Chris-Leef General Agency, described drone technology as the biggest thing were keeping our eye on.Understanding if its an aviation product or if its going to be covered under your personal lines products  I think there are going to be some big questions there, Peterson said.Privacy issues are currently being considered in courts and among key stakeholders in the drone industry, and as the Federal Aviation Administration releases guidelines on commercial use of the unmanned aerial vehicles, those questions will become more important for insurance professionals in years to come.Insurance regulation has been top of mind for those working in the so-called shared economy, which encompasses unique businesses like Uber and Airbnb and caters largely to a younger crowd.One of the problems for regulators, as well as for underwriters looking to craft policies for these companies, is the status of each player involved in a service.[In] the shared economy, you have three different people coming together. Youve got the Internet platform of an Uber, you have the driver whos a contracted employee and you have a customer whos using an app to get the service, explained Robert Newmarker, head of sales with Zurich Programs. How do you insure that? How do you develop insurance products that will meet the needs of those three different insurance customers?The National Association of Insurance Commissioners has formed a special committee to consider these issues, and carriers continue to release new products for this space  particularly for ride-sharing services.Catch full comments from experts on these issues and more here
Yurizan Cuevas, who worked full-time while claiming to be unable to attend work, pleaded guilty to felony theft, the Washington Department of Labor and Industries announced.The chain of events started in November 2010 when Cuevas, 33, was working at a cafe in Seattle that was targeted by a robber. While running away from the robber, Cuevas collided with wall, causing an injury to her back. Cuevas health care providers confirmed that the Federal Way woman was unable to return to work as a result of her injuries. The decision meant that Cuevas was eligible to receive wage-replacement payments from Labor and Industries.Cuevas, who then worked as a nanny for nearly two years while receiving her wage-replacement payments, was told to repay the $24,847 she received. Bruce Heller, King County Superior Court Judge, also sentenced Cuevas to 20 days jail, which was then converted to 160 hours of community service.The Washington Attorney General's Office pursued the case against Cuevas based on an investigation by the Department of Labor and Industries; Cuevas eventually pleaded guilty to second-degree theft. Annette Taylor, deputy assistant director of the department's Fraud Prevention and Labor Standards office, said: "Workers' compensation is intended to help employees heal from on-the-job injuries so they can return to work. People like Ms. Cuevas who try to game the system are cheating their employers and fellow employees."
Berkshire Reps Proud to Be Part of Historic Moment

PITTSFIELD, Mass.  State Rep. Tricia Farley-Bouvier began her Tuesday rounding up all of the Hillary Clinton delegates from Massachusetts.

As a Massachusetts whip for the Clinton campaign at the Democratic National Convention, she was the one with the forms for them to cast their votes. The delayed flight of one delegate meant logistics had to be figured out to get that vote in. Other delegates were in different parts of Philadelphia. She worked to get the voting forms into each delegate's hand.

"My role is to make sure all of my delegates did that so there was some corralling. We needed to have people in their seats," Farley-Bouvier said.

The votes were tallied and, at 3:30 p.m., she took attendance of the Bay State delegates inside the Wells Fargo Center. And then again at 4 p.m., when the convention was gaveled in.

"While the votes were already cast, you want everybody to be there," Farley-Bouvier said.

State Democratic Party Chairman Thomas McGee took the microphone and read off Massachusetts' 68 votes for Clinton and 46 for Vermont's U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders.

That's when Farley-Bouvier snapped out of the hectic focus on her job. It was done, the votes were cast. She listened to the other states and it truly hit her: For the first time in history the Democratic Party was going to nominate a woman for president.

"It was when it finally started and Massachusetts was ready and casting the vote," she said of that moment it struck her. "We had to take a moment to absorb it and realize we are part of a historic moment."

State Rep. Paul Mark was one of those 46 delegates voting for Sanders  as he was pledged to do. He was elected by the Sanders campaign to cast such a vote in the roll call but he also knew that he was going to be on the losing end. It was clear who the nominee was going to be and the focus was one of uniting the two camps under the Clinton campaign.

"It is a very special moment. For the first time in history we nominated a woman," Mark said. "It is a big deal."

The others states read the votes, except for Sander's home state of Vermont, which passed until all other votes were cast. It circled back and Sanders moved for the nomination of Clinton as the party's standard-bearer by acclamation.

"It was really important for the Sanders campaign that every vote was cast," Farley-Bouvier said.

With that, the former secretary of state became the Democratic nominee for president of the United States of America.

And when the speaking portion rolled out after the vote, the two representatives found they shared one thing in common with that evening's emcee: Pittsfield.

Pittsfield native and actress Elizabeth Banks took to the stage as the host for the majority of the evening. Farley-Bouvier's district is entirely in Pittsfield and Mark has a small portion of the city.

"Elizabeth Banks played an extremely important role. She was at the podium six, seven, eight times," Farley-Bouvier said, adding that the actress gave a "shout out" to Pittsfield, which led to her social media network lighting up and a number of looks from others in the delegation.

As the speaking portion rolled out, Farley-Bouvier was particularly struck by an onstage gathering of women in the U.S. House of Representatives.

"The stage was full and they all spoke about how important it is to elect women," she said.

The keynote speaker of the evening was former President Bill Clinton. His hourlong address focused on the election and the issues somewhat but what really took over the conversation following the address was his personal stories of his wife. Bill Clinton spoke about their early courtship, their marriage and raising their daughter, Chelsea.

"It was a really nice personal touch he gave," Mark said. "I thought he made a heartfelt explanation of why she is a good candidate."

But beyond the public speaking programs being broadcast by news channels, a lot of professional connections are being made behind the scene.

With gatherings such as Wednesday's luncheon featuring state House Speaker Robert DeLeo or a late-night rally put on by U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, the two legislators say they are making strong connections and helping to build the Democratic Party.

Mark is attending a Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee meeting Wednesday evening at which he hopes to find out what the state's Democrats can do to help with the campaign in key states. He's talking to other party officials and planning campaign events in New Hampshire to rally support for Clinton because even though Mark was a Sanders supporter, he doesn't want Republican nominee Donald Trump in office.

"We all came into it knowing where we need to be at the end of the week," Mark said.
Williams College and the town of Williamstown have partnered to build a solar array atop the town landfill similar to this one atop the North Adams landfill.

Williams, Town Partner to Build Solar Array on Capped Landfill

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass.  Williams College and the town of Williamstown have signed an agreement that moves forward a previously stalled solar energy project that will provide low-cost, renewable energy to town facilities, the fire district and the regional school district.



The project aligns with the colleges climate change response plan goals to support local and regional renewable energy projects.



Under the terms of the agreement, Williams will invest approximately $6 million to complete construction of a 1.9-megawatt solar array on the capped town landfill on Simonds Road. The town began the project in 2014 with a commercial developer but after initial designs and studies were completed, the need for major infrastructure upgrades rendered the project economically unfeasible for the developer. After speaking with Williamstown Town Manager Jason Hoch, the college began exploring ways to assist the town. As a result of Williams' lower return requirements and commitment to local renewable energy, the college was in a position to get the project back on track.



"We had reached a point where the installation as originally planned was no longer financially viable and faced the difficult prospect of abandoning the project altogether," Hoch said. "Williams interest came at precisely the right time to allow us to proceed with this important solar facility that will benefit all of Williamstown."



Williams will provide the initial $6 million investment to construct the project. The college is seeking a tax equity partner that would co-own the solar array and provide $2 million toward the project during the final stages of construction.
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
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Imperial Valley News Center

USDA Seeks Applications for Funding to Help Develop Advanced Biofuels and Biobased Products

Washington, DC - Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack today announced that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is seeking applications for funding to help support the development of advanced biofuels, renewable chemicals and biobased products.

"The bioeconomy is a catalyst for economic development in rural America, creating new jobs and providing new markets for farmers and ranchers," Vilsack said. "Investing in the businesses and technologies that support the production of biofuels and biobased products is not only good for farm incomes. The whole economy benefits from a more balanced, diversified and consumer-friendly energy portfolio, less dependence on foreign oil and reduced carbon emissions."

Funding is being provided through the Biorefinery, Renewable Chemical and Biobased Product Manufacturing Assistance Program, formerly known as the Biorefinery Assistance Program. Congress established the program in 2008 to encourage the development of biofuels that use renewable feedstocks. The 2014 Farm Bill expanded the program to include renewable chemicals and biobased product manufacturing. The program now provides loan guarantees of up to $250 million to develop, construct and retrofit commercial-scale biorefineries and to develop renewable chemicals and biobased product manufacturing facilities.

USDA has provided $844 million in loan commitments to 10 businesses in the Biorefinery, Renewable Chemical and Biobased Product Manufacturing Assistance Program since the start of the Obama administration. Companies receiving these commitments are projected to produce 159 million gallons of advanced biofuels.

In 2011, under this program, USDA provided Sapphire Energy a $54.5 million loan guarantee to build a refined algal oil commercial facility. Sapphire's "Green Crude Farm" in Columbus, N.M., is an example of how USDA funding and partnerships with the private sector are helping to support the development of biorefineries.

The plant opened in May 2012 and is producing renewable algal oil that can be further refined to replace petroleum-derived diesel and jet fuel. According to the company, more than 600 jobs were created during the first phase of construction at the facility and 30 full-time employees currently operate the plant. After Sapphire received additional equity from private investors, it repaid the remaining balance on its USDA-backed loan in 2013.

USDA is helping to develop the bioeconomy, which has the potential to spur unprecedented growth in the rural economy by creating opportunities for the production, distribution and sale of biobased products and fuels. For example, USDA has partnered with the U.S. Department of Energy and the Navy to create advanced drop-in biofuels that will power both the Department of Defense and private-sector transportation throughout America. Over the course of this Administration, USDA has invested $332 million to accelerate research on renewable energy ranging from genomic research on bioenergy feedstock crops, to development of biofuel conversion processes and cost/benefit estimates of renewable energy production. For more information on how renewable energy factors into USDA's work to reduce greenhouse gases, visit the latest chapter of USDA's Medium entry, How Food and Forestry Are Adapting to a Changing Climate.

The Department has also taken steps to support biobased product manufacturing that promises to create new jobs across rural America  including adding new categories of qualified biobased products for Federal procurement and establishing reporting by Federal contractors of biobased product purchases. The more than 2,200 products that have received certification to display the USDA Certified Biobased Product label are creating and increasing consumer and commercial awareness about a material's biobased content as one measure of its environmental footprint. A 2015 USDA study of the bioeconomy found that the biobased products industry generates $369 billion and 4 million jobs each year for our economy. Biobased products industries directly employ approximately 1.5 million people, while an additional 2.5 million jobs are supported in other sectors.

For this announcement, USDA will seek applications in two cycles. Applications for the first funding cycle are due October 3, 2016. Applications for the second cycle are due April 3, 2017. For more information, see page 48377 of the July 25, 2016, Federal Register. Application materials can be found on USDA's Rural Development website.

In October 2015, Rural Development implemented a redesigned two-phase application process. This new process helps the Agency identify the projects that have made the most progress in the development stage and have the greatest capacity for implementation and loan closing. The first two application cycles under the new process yielded complete applications from projects producing biogas, biodiesel, cellulosic ethanol, biobased lubricants and oils, lignin cake and syrup, and fertilizers.

Eligible borrowers include individuals, corporations, federally-recognized tribes, units of state or local government, farm cooperatives and co-op organizations, associations of agricultural producers, national laboratories, institutions of higher education, rural electric cooperatives, public power entities  or a consortium of any of these borrower types. Entities that receive program financing must provide at least 20 percent of the funding for eligible project costs.
Imperial Valley News Center

Large Deposits of Potentially Producible Gas Hydrate Found in Indian Ocean

Washington, DC - The USGS has assisted the Government of India in the discovery of large, highly enriched accumulations of natural gas hydrate in the Bay of Bengal. This is the first discovery of its kind in the Indian Ocean that has the potential to be producible.

Natural gas hydrates are a naturally occurring, ice-like combination of natural gas and water found in the worlds oceans and polar regions. The amount of gas within the worlds gas hydrate accumulations is estimated to greatly exceed the volume of all known conventional gas resources.

Advances like the Bay of Bengal discovery will help unlock the global energy resource potential of gas hydrates as well help define the technology needed to safely produce them, said Walter Guidroz, USGS Energy Resources Program coordinator. The USGS is proud to have played a key role on this project in collaboration with our international partner, the Indian Government.

This discovery is the result of the most comprehensive gas hydrate field venture in the world to date, made up of scientists from India, Japan and the United States. The scientists conducted ocean drilling, conventional sediment coring, pressure coring, downhole logging and analytical activities to assess the geologic occurrence, regional context and characteristics of gas hydrate deposits in the offshore of India.

This research expedition, called the Indian National Gas Hydrate Program Expedition 02, is the second joint exploration for gas hydrate potential in the Indian Ocean. The first expedition, also a partnership between scientists from India and the United States, discovered gas hydrate accumulations, but in formations that are currently unlikely to be producible.

Although it is possible to produce natural gas from gas hydrates, there are significant technical challenges, depending on the location and type of formation. Previous studies have shown that gas hydrate at high concentrations in sand reservoirs is the type of occurrence that can be most easily produced with existing technologies.

As such, the second expedition focused the exploration and discovery of highly concentrated gas hydrate occurrences in sand reservoirs. The gas hydrate discovered during the second expedition are located in coarse-grained sand-rich depositional systems in the Krishna-Godavari Basin and is made up of a sand-rich, gas-hydrate-bearing fan and channel-levee gas hydrate prospects. The next steps for research will involve production testing in these sand reservoirs to determine if natural gas production is practical and economic.

The results from this expedition mark a critical step forward to understanding the energy resource potential of gas hydrates, said USGS Senior Scientist Tim Collett, who participated in the expedition. The discovery of what we believe to be several of the largest and most concentrated gas hydrate accumulations yet found in the world will yield the geologic and engineering data needed to better understand the geologic controls on the occurrence of gas hydrate in nature and to assess the technologies needed to safely produce gas hydrates.

The international team of scientists was led by the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited of India on behalf of the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas India, in cooperation with the USGS, the Japanese Drilling Company, and the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology. In addition, USGS is working closely with the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology Japan on the analysis of pressure core samples collected from sand reservoirs with high gas hydrate concentrations.

The USGS has a globally recognized research program studying natural gas hydrates in deepwater and permafrost settings worldwide. USGS researchers focus on the potential of gas hydrates as an energy resource, the impact of climate change on gas hydrates, and seafloor stability issues.
Local Youth Land Summer Jobs Working with the National Park Service

Los Angeles, California - They helped out on fire recovery after a blaze ripped through Calabasas. Habitat restoration was performed in Griffith Park in L.A. and on Santa Cruz Island, part of Channel Islands National Park. A taste for science was acquired by sampling dragonfly larvae for a national air pollution project. And those were just some of their job duties during the first half of their summer jobs.

The 22 youths--half from inner-city Los Angeles;half from the Oxnard area--were hired as part of a National Park Service program called SAMO Youth. In addition to providing paid summer employment, the highly selective program introduces high school juniors and seniors to environmental careers through specialized training in the outdoors.

"The National Park Service has long tapped the best and brightest from our communities," noted Antonio Solorio, program manager for the National Park Service's SAMO Youth program. "Engaging these students is key to preserving these lands for younger and more diverse audiences."

Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, a unit of the National Park Service, provides transportation for the students, delivering them to their work sites at 7:00 a.m., five days per week. Working side by side with National Park Service employees, the youth have restored habitat, maintained trails, conducted scientific surveys, and assisted visitors. The eight-week-long program also includes a week-long work trip to Channel Islands National Park.

Started in 2000, more than 150 high school and college students have graduated from the SAMO Youth program. This year's participants were selected from more than 100 applicants from Los Angeles and Oxnard high schools. The small size of the cohort allows the National Park Service to provide one-on-one mentoring and more in-depth exposure to a variety of careers within the agency.

An extensive evaluation of the program by the School of Education at UC Davis found that, although most participants attended "high needs" high schools, 95% of the respondents reported attending college after program completion. Graduates have gone on to work at more than 15 national parks throughout the country.

The program is supported through a partnership with the Santa Monica Mountains Fund, the nonprofit friends group for Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area. Significant financial support is also provided by the National Park Foundation.

Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area (SMMNRA) is the largest urban national park in the country, encompassing more than 150,000 acres of mountains and coastline in Ventura and Los Angeles counties. A unit of the National Park Service, it comprises a seamless network of local, state and federal parks interwoven with private lands and communities. As one of only five Mediterranean ecosystems in the world, SMMNRA preserves the rich biological diversity of more than 450 animal species and 26 distinct plant communities.
Major Marijuana Cultivation Sites Destroyed at Whiskeytown National Recreation Area, 5 Men Arrested

Whiskeytown, California - Law enforcement rangers from the National Park Service and the Bureau of Land Management and Wardens from California Department of Fish and Wildlife located and destroyed two large marijuana cultivation sites within Whiskeytown National Recreation Area. The first raid took place in the Crystal Creek drainage where two men were found sleeping in their barbed wire protected "camp." Some 7,680 plants were removed and over 3,000 pounds of garbage was flown out utilizing a National Guard Black Hawk helicopter.

The second raid occurred the same week, in the Whiskey Creek drainage. The Whiskey Creek cultivation site had 4,641 plants and the National Guard helicopter flew out over 4,200 pounds of marijuana. Over 1,200 pounds of garbage were removed from the Whiskey Creek cultivation site. Rangers arrested three men at the cultivation site as they were processing marijuana. The seized marijuana was destroyed by the National Park Service on the same day it was confiscated.

As in years past, both illegal cultivation sites were associated with cartel organizations. The marijuana sites are located in remote back-country locations with the intent of harvesting, distributing and selling the finished product throughout California and the rest of the United States. Each of the cultivation sites are checked by law enforcement for illegal pesticides and fertilizers commonly found at cultivation sites. "This is potentially highly contaminated marijuana that is distributed and sold on the black market across America," stated Superintendent Jim Milestone. "The public should be aware that pollution from these illegal marijuana cultivation sites has a huge impact on the park's wildlife and water quality in our park's streams, as researchers from U.C. Davis are discovering," Milestone added.

Since 2001, the National Park Service at Whiskeytown has been orchestrating raids on drug trafficking organizations' illegal cultivation sites. Each year the park destroys marijuana worth millions of dollars, but new cultivation sites continue to be found.
Border Patrol Arrests Sex Offender; Seize Narcotics at Checkpoint

Calexico, California - El Centro Sector Border Patrol agents arrested a previously deported sex offender on Friday and a man suspected of narcotics smuggling on Saturday.

The first arrest occurred on Friday, when agents observed a man north of the International Border fence. Agent made contact with the man and determined that he was illegally present in the United States at approximately 2:55 p.m. The man was placed under arrest and transported to the Calexico Border Patrol station for further processing.

Border Patrol agents conducted records checks which revealed the man, a Mexican national, was convicted of a sexual offense with a minor on Sept. 21, 2005 and sentenced to 180 days of confinement and 36 months of probation. The man was previously removed from the United States on Jan. 12, 2006.

The man will be criminally prosecuted for Re-Entry after Removal as a convicted sex offender.

The second arrest occurred on Saturday, at approximately 11 a.m., when a 35-year-old Mexican national approached the Highway 86 checkpoint driving a white 2002 Chevrolet Trailblazer.

A Border Patrol detection canine alerted to the vehicle. Agents referred the man to the secondary inspection area for a closer examination. After an intensive search, agents discovered a cloth-sealed package containing large crystals, which was later confirmed to be methamphetamine, hidden in the vehicles muffler.

The methamphetamine had a weight of 14.3 pounds with an estimated street value of $57,200.

The man, the vehicle, and narcotics were turned over to the Drug Enforcement Administration for further investigation.

From Oct. 1, 2015 through June 30, 2016, El Centro Sector had 13,710 apprehensions, and seized more than 1,141 pounds of methamphetamine.

The El Centro Sectors Community Awareness Campaign is a simple and effective program to raise public awareness on the indicators of crime and other threats. We encourage public and private sector employees to remain vigilant and play a key role in keeping our country safe. Please report any suspicious activity to the Border Community Threat Hotline at 1-800-901-2003.
U.S. Participates in Trilateral Meeting on Next Steps in Syria

Washington, DC - The United States participated in a trilateral meeting today in Geneva with Russian officials, convened by the UN Special Envoy Staffan De Mistura. The UN Special Envoy updated the two chairs of the International Syria Support Group (ISSG), the United States and Russia, on the status of his consultations with the parties and shared his perspectives on the next round of talks.

The United States and Russia urged the UN to prepare a proposal for political transition based on relevant UN Security Council resolutions and input given by the Syrian parties in previous rounds of intra-Syrian talks and in subsequent technical consultations. This proposal should serve as the starting point for future negotiations.

In addition, the United States emphasized the need to restore compliance with the terms of the cessation of hostilities  particularly in Aleppo city  as well as the need to improve humanitarian access, as positive progress in these areas would significantly improve the prospects for successful talks.
American political speech is increasingly partisan

Stanford, California - Heres a test for measuring partisanship in American politics today: Turn on C-SPAN and  without looking at the name of the lawmaker on screen  see how long it takes to tell whether the member of Congress is a Republican or a Democrat. Chances are high that youll figure it out in less than a minute.

Never before has American political speech been so partisan and polarizing, according to new research by Stanford economist Matthew Gentzkow.

Democrats today consistently use phrases like undocumented workers and tax breaks for the wealthy, while Republicans talk about illegal aliens and tax reform. After the June killing of 49 people at an Orlando nightclub, Democrats talked about a mass shooting. Republicans called it an act of radical Islamic terrorism.

The extent to which lawmakers speech reflects deep party divisions is unprecedented, according to Gentzkows research conducted with fellow economists Jesse Shapiro of Brown University and Matt Taddy of the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

The partisanship of language has exploded in recent decades, said Gentzkow, a senior fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research. The ways both parties use speech to promote their different visions is much different today than it was in the past.

Gentzkow says his teams findings  laid out in a new working paper  have potentially profound implications, as political framing and language affect public opinion.

And its possible, he adds, that the starkly different languages Democrats and Republicans speak today is contributing to the hostility members of both parties harbor for one another.

We know that language is a powerful driver of tribal identity, said Gentzkow, and tribal identities are getting stronger.

Surprise discovery

The study examined speeches in the United States Congressional Record from 1872 to 2009. Gentzkow and his colleagues developed a machine-learning algorithm that analyzed 530,000 unique two-word phrases spoken 297 million times during that time period by Republicans and Democrats. Working its way through the first 135 years of data, the algorithm had about a 55 percent chance of correctly identifying whether one minute of a speech was uttered by a Democrat or a Republican.

The accuracy began improving dramatically based on speeches from 1994, when Republican congressional representatives started talking about a Contract with America that helped win them control of the House in 1994. By the time the algorithm was crunching the most recently available data from 2008, it now registers an 83 percent chance of identifying the correct party affiliation.

The results are striking. While other studies looking at signs of growing partisanship  mostly by counting congressional votes  have also seen a rise in recent decades, the increase has been gradual. Theyve also shown that the current level of partisanship is similar to the landscape earlier in the 20th century.

By comparison, the degree to which lawmakers began to pepper their speeches with party talking points changed almost overnight, in 1994.

This was not at all what we expected to see, said Gentzkow. At minimum, he and his colleagues predicted a strong correlation between legislative votes and increasingly partisan language in Congress.

Also, existing research into partisan speech had reached a different conclusion  showing that partisan language, while on the rise, was similarly prevalent in the past. But Gentzkow said the methodology used in his study improved upon past approaches and could potentially set a new standard for similar studies in the future.

A seminal moment

What, exactly, happened so dramatically in 1994? More than ever, Republicans began using focus groups, high-priced consultants and polling in a systematic way to identify language that resonated with voters and to coordinate messaging. The strategies were laid out by Newt Gingrich, then the House minority whip, and the political pollster and consultant Frank Luntz.

Soon, Democrats were following the same playbook.

The researchers note that the recent rise in partisanship isnt because the topics of discussion have changed among Republicans and Democrats. Theyre still talking about the same issues  immigration, crime, health care and taxes  but in an entirely new and highly coordinated way.

Even so, the introduction of savvy marketing into party politics doesnt tell the whole story, said Gentzkow. C-SPAN and the rise of around-the-clock, partisan-leaning cable news shows may have given political leaders another reason to come up with a common narrative and rally party members to echo it.

It seems very plausible that C-SPAN and cable television reinforced the parties increased sophistication in marketing, said Gentzkow.

As Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders have seemingly pushed political rhetoric into even more divisive tones while ditching scripted talking points in favor of more spontaneous speeches, Gentzkow said its anybodys guess whether Republicans and Democrats will stick to the language in their respective scripts.

What will happen between 2010 to 2020? I can imagine the line [on a graph showing the steep rise in partisan speech] will keep going up and up, Gentzkow said. But I can also imagine its going to peak and come back down again because of voter backlash.
U.S. Department of Education Releases Guidance On Civil Rights of Students with ADHD

Washington, DC - The U.S. Department of Educations Office for Civil Rights (OCR) today issued guidance clarifying the obligation of schools to provide students with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) with equal educational opportunity under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973.

On this 26th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, I am pleased to honor Congress promise with guidance clarifying the rights of students with ADHD in our nations schools, said Catherine E. Lhamon, assistant secretary for civil rights. The Department will continue to work with the education community to ensure that students with ADHD, and all students, are provided with equal access to education.

Over the last five years, OCR has received more than 16,000 complaints that allege discrimination on the basis of disability in elementary and secondary education programs, and more than 10 percent involve allegations of discrimination against students with ADHD. The most common complaint concerns academic and behavioral difficulties students with ADHD experience at school when they are not timely and properly evaluated for a disability, or when they do not receive necessary special education or related aids and services.

Todays guidance provides a broad overview of Section 504 and school districts obligations to provide educational services to students with disabilities, including students with ADHD. The guidance:

Explains that schools must evaluate a student when a student needs or is believed to need special education or related services.

Discusses the obligation to provide services based on students specific needs and not based on generalizations about disabilities, or ADHD, in particular. For example, the guidance makes clear that schools must not rely on the generalization that students who perform well academically cannot also be substantially limited in major life activities, such as reading, learning, writing and thinking; and that such a student can, in fact, be a person with a disability.

Clarifies that students who experience behavioral challenges, or present as unfocused or distractible, could have ADHD and may need an evaluation to determine their educational needs.

Reminds schools that they must provide parents and guardians with due process and allow them to appeal decisions regarding the identification, evaluation, or educational placement of students with disabilities, including students with ADHD.

In addition to the guidance, the Department also released a Know Your Rights document that provides a brief overview of schools obligations to students with ADHD.

The mission of OCR is to ensure equal access to education and to promote educational excellence throughout the nation through the vigorous enforcement of civil rights. Among the federal civil rights laws OCR is responsible for enforcing are Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964; Title IX of the Education Act of 1972; Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973; and Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act. For more information about OCR and the anti-discrimination laws that it enforces, please visit its website and follow OCR on twitter @EDcivilrights.
Lebanese National Extradited from Malaysia to Face Charges in Wide-Ranging Counterfeit Currency Plot with Ties to Lebanon and Iran

Washington, DC - On July 22, Louay Ibrahim Hussein had his initial appearance at the federal courthouse in Brooklyn, New York, before U.S. Magistrate Judge Lois Bloom. Hussein is charged in connection with his leadership role in a wide-ranging scheme to distribute large quantities of high-grade counterfeit U.S. currency believed to be produced with support from sponsors in Lebanon and Iran for sale and use in markets across the globe, including in the United States and Europe.

Hussein, a Lebanese national, was arrested in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in 2014, and arrived in the United States on Thursday, July 21, following extradition proceedings. Earlier today, Hussein was ordered detained by U.S. Magistrate Judge Robert M. Levy until he can satisfy the terms and conditions of a proposed substantial bond package.

The charges were announced by U.S. Attorney Robert L. Capers for the Eastern District of New York, Special Agent in Charge David E. Beach for the U.S. Secret Services New York Field Office and Assistant Director in Charge Diego G. Rodriguez for the Federal Bureau of Investigations New York Field Office (FBI).

As alleged in the complaint and related filings, the charges against the defendant arose from a long-term undercover investigation in which the defendant and his co-conspirators sold hundreds of thousands of dollars in counterfeit currency to an agent with the U.S. Secret Service who was posing as a member of a New York-based criminal enterprise. Over the course of several months in 2012, the defendant, through intermediaries located overseas, sold the agent nearly $150,000 in high-quality counterfeit $100 bills and nearly $150,000 in counterfeit Euro notes. In October 2013, the defendant attempted to make another sale to the agent in Cyprus of approximately $300,000 in counterfeit currency, again through intermediaries. In June 2014, the defendant and co-defendant Nazer Al-Shekh Mosa aka Mohammed Hasan Haidar, a Syrian national, sold the undercover agent approximately $170,000 in counterfeit currency in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Hussein and Mosa were arrested in August 2014 in Malaysia, pursuant to provisional arrest requests from the United States, during an attempt to sell additional counterfeit currency to the undercover agent. Mosa waived extradition last year, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute counterfeit currency on April 20, and is awaiting sentence. A U.S. - based co-conspirator, Mouafak Al Sabsabi, also was arrested in August 2014. Al Sabsabi pled guilty to conspiracy to distribute counterfeit currency and was sentenced principally to time served and a three year term of supervised release on May 31.

The investigation has revealed that Hussein and his co-defendants are members of a multinational criminal network engaged in the production and distribution of counterfeit U.S. currency. In conversations with the undercover agent and others, Hussein claimed to have access to as much as $800 million in high-quality counterfeit U.S. currency for sale to clients based in Iran and elsewhere, and offered to procure weapons, narcotics and counterfeit currency and to have them shipped through U.S. ports.

The reliability of U.S. currency is a pillar of the global financial system. As alleged, counterfeiters such as the defendant and his co-conspirators exploited that reliability and threatened the stability it provides, all to serve their own greed, said U.S. Attorney Capers. This investigation sends the message around the world that counterfeiters, wherever located, can and will be brought to justice.

U.S. Attorney Capers extended his grateful appreciation to the New York Field Offices of the U.S. Secret Service and the FBI, to the Justice Departments Office of International Affairs and to the Royal Malaysian Police and Attorney Generals Chambers for their assistance in the investigation and in effecting the defendants extradition.

This investigation highlights the immeasurable effectiveness of law enforcement partnerships in combatting fraud, said Secret Service Special Agent in Charge Beach. We will continue to work closely with our domestic and international partners to defeat criminal enterprises and protect the Nations financial infrastructure.

We are pleased that Louay Ibrahim Hussein was extradited and will now face the U.S. justice system for his role in a charged international counterfeit currency ring, said Assistant Director in Charge Rodriguez. As uncovered in a multi-year investigation with the U.S. Secret Service, we allege Hussein and his co-conspirators sold more than a half a million dollars of counterfeit U.S. currency with the help of sponsors in Lebanon and Iran. Additionally, Hussein claimed to have access to millions more. Counterfeit currency doesnt just devalue authentic currency, it weakens markets and global economies.

The charges in the complaint are merely allegations and the defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

The governments case is being handled by the Offices National Security & Cybercrime Section. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Samuel P. Nitze and J. Matthew Haggans are in charge of the prosecution.




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!
Desi Couple Uses Forklift to 'Fly' Over a Car During Pre-Wedding Shoot, Video Goes Viral
Get our free weekly email for all the latest cinematic news from our film critic Clarisse Loughrey Get our The Life Cinematic email for free Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the

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After extricating himself from the furious debate surrounding the Ghostbusters reboot, Paul Feig is to produce a film based on a true story about a load of supermodels getting stranded in a snowstorm, partying and doing a bunch of drugs.

In case you were worried that this synopsis is misleading, be advised the film is literally (and ambiguously) titled Supermodel Snowpocalypse.

The film doesnt yet have a director or cast, according to The Hollywood Reporter, but will be based on the brilliantly titled Elle article: This Drug-Fueled, Multimillion-Dollar Supermodel Snowpocalypse Has Been Fashions Best-Kept Secret Since 77: The Epic, Never-Before-Told Story Behind Possibly the Greatest Fashion Emergency in History and a Daring, Near-Deadly Escape.

The expose told the story of a Neiman Marcus fashion shoot gone wrong in the Andes. A group of supermodels, including the then not so famous Jerry Hall, were shooting for a fur catalogue when they became snowed in at Chiles Hotel Portillo. Not wanting this to put a dampener on things, they reportedly turned the hotels disco into a Studio 54-esque environment, threw fashion shows and hoovered up boatloads of cocaine. They were eventually rescued by Chilean military helicopters, while the rest of the hotels guests had to wait for the storm to clear.

It remains to be seen who will direct the movie (it sounds up Martin Scorsese or David O. Russells street to me) and Feig (Bridesmaids, Spy, The Heat) is unlikely to get behind the camera for this one.
Stay ahead of the trend in fashion and beyond with our free weekly Lifestyle Edit newsletter Stay ahead of the trend in fashion and beyond with our free weekly Lifestyle Edit newsletter Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the

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Sexism is sadly a lingering and pervasive fact of life. It may be 2016, but how much you earn, what degree mark you get, how seriously youre taken in meetings are all still dictated by your gender. Yet while the gender pay gap has been widely acknowledged, an even more sinister yet seldom-discussed picture is emerging that a gender pain gap may exist too.

Its a disturbing thought, but one which mounting evidence is making harder to ignore. Womens pain is taken much less seriously by doctors than mens is.

This gender pain gap has a number of serious and far-reaching implications; including that women in acute pain are left to suffer for longer in hospitals, they are more likely to be misdiagnosed with mental health problems due to misogynistic stereotypes that women are emotional even when clinical results show their pain is real and they are consistently allocated less time than male patients by hospital staff due to mens complaints being seeing as more authoritative and important.

Research has found that in A&E, when women and men present the same severity of abdominal pain, men wait an average of 49 minutes before being treated, while the average wait for women is 65 minutes. Similarly, women are consistently prescribed less pain-relieving medication, even when controls for weight are applied.

Medical professionals take longer to address womens pain, and do less to address it when they eventually do, even when they have the same symptoms as men.

One reason for this gender disparity may be that doctors wrongly perceive women are being more irrational and emotional than men, and therefore dismiss their complaints about pain as being all in the mind rather than having a physical basis. Clinical studies have also found that doctors are more likely to think womens pain is caused by emotional issues rather than physical causes, even in the presence of clinical tests which show their pain is real. Similarly, researchers J.Crook and E.Tunks found in their study Women With Pain that women with chronic pain conditions are more likely to be wrongly diagnosed with mental health conditions than men and prescribed psychotropic drugs, as doctors dismiss their symptoms as hysterics.

It is thought that this wrong conflation with mental health may be due to sexist stereotypes that women are irrational or emotional, which means doctors find it easier to believe womens expressions of pain have no physical basis. Conversely, men are seen as more rational and when they say they are feeling acute pain, doctors take their symptoms seriously as having physical cause rather than assuming an emotional basis.

This gender divide in diagnosis has serious implications for treatment, meaning that men and women can receive different care in hospitals for the same conditions and symptoms. Researcher Karen Calderone found that when men and women have the same symptoms, women are more likely to be given sedatives as treatment, instead of pain-relieving drugs. This suggests they are perceived as being more anxious than truly in pain and doctors focus on prioritising returning women to a calm and rational state above relieving their actual pain.

This may also indicate how society feels uncomfortable with emotional women and seeks to stop their loud or chaotic behaviour through sedation, above actually addressing the cause of their distress. This means women may be left in severe pain for longer than men as sedatives may make them appear calmer on the outside while continuing to feel pain acutely. They can mean they stay in extreme discomfort for longer periods and could mean serious symptoms related to other conditions may go unnoticed and undiagnosed as they are rendered too docile by the sedatives to alert doctors to them.

Similarly, research elsewhere has found that male patients are consistently given more time and attention from medical professionals than female patients with the exact same symptoms. In a test case to examine this gender bias conducted by D. McDonald and R.G.Bridge in Gender Stereotyping and Nursing Care, nurses were given vignettes with imaginary patients, listing their supposed symptoms and medical history. The nurses were then asked to calculate how much time the patient would require for treatment and emotional support. Male patients were consistently allocated more time, even when they had the same symptoms and background as female patients.

Health news in pictures Show all 40 1 /40 Health news in pictures Health news in pictures Coronavirus outbreak The coronavirus Covid-19 has hit the UK leading to the deaths of two people so far and prompting warnings from the Department of Health AFP via Getty Health news in pictures Thousands of emergency patients told to take taxi to hospital Thousands of 999 patients in England are being told to get a taxi to hospital, figures have showed. The number of patients outside London who were refused an ambulance rose by 83 per cent in the past year as demand for services grows Getty Health news in pictures Vape related deaths spike A vaping-related lung disease has claimed the lives of 11 people in the US in recent weeks. The US Centre for Disease Control and Prevention has more than 100 officials investigating the cause of the mystery illness, and has warned citizens against smoking e-cigarette products until more is known, particularly if modified or bought off the street Getty Health news in pictures Baldness cure looks to be a step closer Researchers in the US claim to have overcome one of the major hurdles to cultivating human follicles from stem cells. The new system allows cells to grow in a structured tuft and emerge from the skin Sanford Burnham Preybs Health news in pictures Two hours a week spent in nature can improve health A study in the journal Scientific Reports suggests that a dose of nature of just two hours a week is associated with better health and psychological wellbeing Shutterstock Health news in pictures Air pollution linked to fertility issues in women Exposure to air from traffic-clogged streets could leave women with fewer years to have children, a study has found. Italian researchers found women living in the most polluted areas were three times more likely to show signs they were running low on eggs than those who lived in cleaner surroundings, potentially triggering an earlier menopause Getty/iStock Health news in pictures Junk food ads could be banned before watershed Junk food adverts on TV and online could be banned before 9pm as part of Government plans to fight the "epidemic" of childhood obesity. Plans for the new watershed have been put out for public consultation in a bid to combat the growing crisis, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) said PA Health news in pictures Breeding with neanderthals helped humans fight diseases On migrating from Africa around 70,000 years ago, humans bumped into the neanderthals of Eurasia. While humans were weak to the diseases of the new lands, breeding with the resident neanderthals made for a better equipped immune system PA Health news in pictures Cancer breath test to be trialled in Britain The breath biopsy device is designed to detect cancer hallmarks in molecules exhaled by patients Getty Health news in pictures Average 10 year old has consumed the recommended amount of sugar for an adult By their 10th birthdy, children have on average already eaten more sugar than the recommended amount for an 18 year old. The average 10 year old consumes the equivalent to 13 sugar cubes a day, 8 more than is recommended PA Health news in pictures Child health experts advise switching off screens an hour before bed While there is not enough evidence of harm to recommend UK-wide limits on screen use, the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health have advised that children should avoid screens for an hour before bed time to avoid disrupting their sleep Getty Health news in pictures Daily aspirin is unnecessary for older people in good health, study finds A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine has found that many elderly people are taking daily aspirin to little or no avail Getty Health news in pictures Vaping could lead to cancer, US study finds A study by the University of Minnesota's Masonic Cancer Centre has found that the carcinogenic chemicals formaldehyde, acrolein, and methylglyoxal are present in the saliva of E-cigarette users Reuters Health news in pictures More children are obese and diabetic There has been a 41% increase in children with type 2 diabetes since 2014, the National Paediatric Diabetes Audit has found. Obesity is a leading cause Reuters Health news in pictures Most child antidepressants are ineffective and can lead to suicidal thoughts The majority of antidepressants are ineffective and may be unsafe, for children and teenager with major depression, experts have warned. In what is the most comprehensive comparison of 14 commonly prescribed antidepressant drugs to date, researchers found that only one brand was more effective at relieving symptoms of depression than a placebo. Another popular drug, venlafaxine, was shown increase the risk users engaging in suicidal thoughts and attempts at suicide Getty Health news in pictures Gay, lesbian and bisexual adults at higher risk of heart disease, study claims Researchers at the Baptist Health South Florida Clinic in Miami focused on seven areas of controllable heart health and found these minority groups were particularly likely to be smokers and to have poorly controlled blood sugar iStock Health news in pictures Breakfast cereals targeted at children contain 'steadily high' sugar levels since 1992 despite producer claims A major pressure group has issued a fresh warning about perilously high amounts of sugar in breakfast cereals, specifically those designed for children, and has said that levels have barely been cut at all in the last two and a half decades Getty Health news in pictures Potholes are making us fat, NHS watchdog warns New guidance by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), the body which determines what treatment the NHS should fund, said lax road repairs and car-dominated streets were contributing to the obesity epidemic by preventing members of the public from keeping active PA Health news in pictures New menopause drugs offer women relief from 'debilitating' hot flushes A new class of treatments for women going through the menopause is able to reduce numbers of debilitating hot flushes by as much as three quarters in a matter of days, a trial has found. The drug used in the trial belongs to a group known as NKB antagonists (blockers), which were developed as a treatment for schizophrenia but have been sitting on a shelf unused, according to Professor Waljit Dhillo, a professor of endocrinology and metabolism REX Health news in pictures Doctors should prescribe more antidepressants for people with mental health problems, study finds Research from Oxford University found that more than one million extra people suffering from mental health problems would benefit from being prescribed drugs and criticised ideological reasons doctors use to avoid doing so. Getty Health news in pictures Student dies of flu after NHS advice to stay at home and avoid A&E The family of a teenager who died from flu has urged people not to delay going to A&E if they are worried about their symptoms. Melissa Whiteley, an 18-year-old engineering student from Hanford in Stoke-on-Trent, fell ill at Christmas and died in hospital a month later. Just Giving Health news in pictures Government to review thousands of harmful vaginal mesh implants The Government has pledged to review tens of thousands of cases where women have been given harmful vaginal mesh implants. Getty Health news in pictures Jeremy Hunt announces 'zero suicides ambition' for the NHS The NHS will be asked to go further to prevent the deaths of patients in its care as part of a zero suicide ambition being launched today Getty Health news in pictures Human trials start with cancer treatment that primes immune system to kill off tumours Human trials have begun with a new cancer therapy that can prime the immune system to eradicate tumours. The treatment, that works similarly to a vaccine, is a combination of two existing drugs, of which tiny amounts are injected into the solid bulk of a tumour. Nephron Health news in pictures Babies' health suffers from being born near fracking sites, finds major study Mothers living within a kilometre of a fracking site were 25 per cent more likely to have a child born at low birth weight, which increase their chances of asthma, ADHD and other issues Getty Health news in pictures NHS reviewing thousands of cervical cancer smear tests after women wrongly given all-clear Thousands of cervical cancer screening results are under review after failings at a laboratory meant some women were incorrectly given the all-clear. A number of women have already been told to contact their doctors following the identification of procedural issues in the service provided by Pathology First Laboratory. Rex Health news in pictures Potential key to halting breast cancer's spread discovered by scientists Most breast cancer patients do not die from their initial tumour, but from secondary malignant growths (metastases), where cancer cells are able to enter the blood and survive to invade new sites. Asparagine, a molecule named after asparagus where it was first identified in high quantities, has now been shown to be an essential ingredient for tumour cells to gain these migratory properties. Getty Health news in pictures NHS nursing vacancies at record high with more than 34,000 roles advertised A record number of nursing and midwifery positions are currently being advertised by the NHS, with more than 34,000 positions currently vacant, according to the latest data. Demand for nurses was 19 per cent higher between July and September 2017 than the same period two years ago. 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Getty Health news in pictures Over 75,000 sign petition calling for Richard Branson's Virgin Care to hand settlement money back to NHS Mr Bransons company sued the NHS last year after it lost out on an 82m contract to provide childrens health services across Surrey, citing concerns over serious flaws in the way the contract was awarded PA Health news in pictures More than 700 fewer nurses training in England in first year after NHS bursary scrapped The numbers of people accepted to study nursing in England fell 3 per cent in 2017, while the numbers accepted in Wales and Scotland, where the bursaries were kept, increased 8.4 per cent and 8 per cent respectively Getty Health news in pictures Landmark study links Tory austerity to 120,000 deaths The paper found that there were 45,000 more deaths in the first four years of Tory-led efficiencies than would have been expected if funding had stayed at pre-election levels. On this trajectory that could rise to nearly 200,000 excess deaths by the end of 2020, even with the extra funding that has been earmarked for public sector services this year. Reuters Health news in pictures Long commutes carry health risks Hours of commuting may be mind-numbingly dull, but new research shows that it might also be having an adverse effect on both your health and performance at work. Longer commutes also appear to have a significant impact on mental wellbeing, with those commuting longer 33 per cent more likely to suffer from depression Shutterstock Health news in pictures You cannot be fit and fat It is not possible to be overweight and healthy, a major new study has concluded. 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The class is therefore predominantly aimed at parents but you actually do not have to have children to take part Getty Health news in pictures 'Fundamental right to health' to be axed after Brexit, lawyers warn Tobacco and alcohol companies could win more easily in court cases such as the recent battle over plain cigarette packaging if the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights is abandoned, a barrister and public health professor have said Getty Health news in pictures 'Thousands dying' due to fear over non-existent statin side-effects A major new study into the side effects of the cholesterol-lowering medicine suggests common symptoms such as muscle pain and weakness are not caused by the drugs themselves Getty Health news in pictures Babies born to fathers aged under 25 have higher risk of autism New research has found that babies born to fathers under the age of 25 or over 51 are at higher risk of developing autism and other social disorders. 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Another disturbing trend in medical research has found that the more attractive medical staff find a patient, the less treatment they receive. In the research paper Beautiful Faces in Pain T. Hadjistravropoulos found that due to a strong beautiful is healthy stereotype, doctors subconsciously assume people who look better on the outside, are healthier and subsequently require less treatment. As sexism in staffing hierarchies means men are more likely to be the ones in senior positions making decisions about patients, and men are predominantly heterosexual, is it possible that they underestimate womens pain due to this attractiveness bias.

The medical world has long prided itself on providing impartiality and objectivity compared to other areas of life due to its reliance on cold, hard, scientific facts. But an emerging body of research suggests that sexism may be perpetuated in hospital wards and operating rooms as much as anywhere else in society and a gender pain gap is a real and unignorable barrier to women accessing healthcare.
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Overtime pay for NHS consultants has increased by more than a third over the past two years, including one doctor who pocketed at extra 375,000 on top of their salary.

The figures have been released to the BBC under freedom of information rules. They suggest that staff are paid around 600 overtime for a four-hour shift, around 300-400% of normal pay for consultants. However, the rate varies by trust and by hospital.

It is feared the costs may be spiralling as staffing cuts mean some NHS Trusts have serious staffing shortages and have to turn to overtime payments to plug the gaps, risking costing more in the long run.

In May, a report by the Public Accounts Committee found there is a frontline staffing shortfall of about 50,000 members of staff across the NHS. The report expressed concerns staffing shortages could widen under plans to introduce a 7-day NHS, putting further demand on limited resources.

Shadow Health Minister Diane Abbott said the figures were truly shocking. She said: It shows the completely false economy of the Tory Government under-funding the NHS. It has created staff shortages even at the highest levels because there are real pressures of an ageing and growing population which are not being met.

A properly funded NHS would make these overtime bills unnecessary.

Professor Mark Pugh, medical director at Lancashire Teaching Hospitals told the BBC that the figures were clearly not sustainable. He said: There is an acute shortage of consultants for some of these specialities and as we have not been able to source the additional staff we need as demand has risen, we have paid overtime to the existing workforce to deliver extra clinics so that patients can be seen and treated as quickly as possible.

Health news in pictures Show all 40 1 /40 Health news in pictures Health news in pictures Coronavirus outbreak The coronavirus Covid-19 has hit the UK leading to the deaths of two people so far and prompting warnings from the Department of Health AFP via Getty Health news in pictures Thousands of emergency patients told to take taxi to hospital Thousands of 999 patients in England are being told to get a taxi to hospital, figures have showed. The number of patients outside London who were refused an ambulance rose by 83 per cent in the past year as demand for services grows Getty Health news in pictures Vape related deaths spike A vaping-related lung disease has claimed the lives of 11 people in the US in recent weeks. The US Centre for Disease Control and Prevention has more than 100 officials investigating the cause of the mystery illness, and has warned citizens against smoking e-cigarette products until more is known, particularly if modified or bought off the street Getty Health news in pictures Baldness cure looks to be a step closer Researchers in the US claim to have overcome one of the major hurdles to cultivating human follicles from stem cells. The new system allows cells to grow in a structured tuft and emerge from the skin Sanford Burnham Preybs Health news in pictures Two hours a week spent in nature can improve health A study in the journal Scientific Reports suggests that a dose of nature of just two hours a week is associated with better health and psychological wellbeing Shutterstock Health news in pictures Air pollution linked to fertility issues in women Exposure to air from traffic-clogged streets could leave women with fewer years to have children, a study has found. Italian researchers found women living in the most polluted areas were three times more likely to show signs they were running low on eggs than those who lived in cleaner surroundings, potentially triggering an earlier menopause Getty/iStock Health news in pictures Junk food ads could be banned before watershed Junk food adverts on TV and online could be banned before 9pm as part of Government plans to fight the "epidemic" of childhood obesity. Plans for the new watershed have been put out for public consultation in a bid to combat the growing crisis, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) said PA Health news in pictures Breeding with neanderthals helped humans fight diseases On migrating from Africa around 70,000 years ago, humans bumped into the neanderthals of Eurasia. While humans were weak to the diseases of the new lands, breeding with the resident neanderthals made for a better equipped immune system PA Health news in pictures Cancer breath test to be trialled in Britain The breath biopsy device is designed to detect cancer hallmarks in molecules exhaled by patients Getty Health news in pictures Average 10 year old has consumed the recommended amount of sugar for an adult By their 10th birthdy, children have on average already eaten more sugar than the recommended amount for an 18 year old. The average 10 year old consumes the equivalent to 13 sugar cubes a day, 8 more than is recommended PA Health news in pictures Child health experts advise switching off screens an hour before bed While there is not enough evidence of harm to recommend UK-wide limits on screen use, the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health have advised that children should avoid screens for an hour before bed time to avoid disrupting their sleep Getty Health news in pictures Daily aspirin is unnecessary for older people in good health, study finds A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine has found that many elderly people are taking daily aspirin to little or no avail Getty Health news in pictures Vaping could lead to cancer, US study finds A study by the University of Minnesota's Masonic Cancer Centre has found that the carcinogenic chemicals formaldehyde, acrolein, and methylglyoxal are present in the saliva of E-cigarette users Reuters Health news in pictures More children are obese and diabetic There has been a 41% increase in children with type 2 diabetes since 2014, the National Paediatric Diabetes Audit has found. Obesity is a leading cause Reuters Health news in pictures Most child antidepressants are ineffective and can lead to suicidal thoughts The majority of antidepressants are ineffective and may be unsafe, for children and teenager with major depression, experts have warned. In what is the most comprehensive comparison of 14 commonly prescribed antidepressant drugs to date, researchers found that only one brand was more effective at relieving symptoms of depression than a placebo. Another popular drug, venlafaxine, was shown increase the risk users engaging in suicidal thoughts and attempts at suicide Getty Health news in pictures Gay, lesbian and bisexual adults at higher risk of heart disease, study claims Researchers at the Baptist Health South Florida Clinic in Miami focused on seven areas of controllable heart health and found these minority groups were particularly likely to be smokers and to have poorly controlled blood sugar iStock Health news in pictures Breakfast cereals targeted at children contain 'steadily high' sugar levels since 1992 despite producer claims A major pressure group has issued a fresh warning about perilously high amounts of sugar in breakfast cereals, specifically those designed for children, and has said that levels have barely been cut at all in the last two and a half decades Getty Health news in pictures Potholes are making us fat, NHS watchdog warns New guidance by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), the body which determines what treatment the NHS should fund, said lax road repairs and car-dominated streets were contributing to the obesity epidemic by preventing members of the public from keeping active PA Health news in pictures New menopause drugs offer women relief from 'debilitating' hot flushes A new class of treatments for women going through the menopause is able to reduce numbers of debilitating hot flushes by as much as three quarters in a matter of days, a trial has found. The drug used in the trial belongs to a group known as NKB antagonists (blockers), which were developed as a treatment for schizophrenia but have been sitting on a shelf unused, according to Professor Waljit Dhillo, a professor of endocrinology and metabolism REX Health news in pictures Doctors should prescribe more antidepressants for people with mental health problems, study finds Research from Oxford University found that more than one million extra people suffering from mental health problems would benefit from being prescribed drugs and criticised ideological reasons doctors use to avoid doing so. Getty Health news in pictures Student dies of flu after NHS advice to stay at home and avoid A&E The family of a teenager who died from flu has urged people not to delay going to A&E if they are worried about their symptoms. Melissa Whiteley, an 18-year-old engineering student from Hanford in Stoke-on-Trent, fell ill at Christmas and died in hospital a month later. Just Giving Health news in pictures Government to review thousands of harmful vaginal mesh implants The Government has pledged to review tens of thousands of cases where women have been given harmful vaginal mesh implants. Getty Health news in pictures Jeremy Hunt announces 'zero suicides ambition' for the NHS The NHS will be asked to go further to prevent the deaths of patients in its care as part of a zero suicide ambition being launched today Getty Health news in pictures Human trials start with cancer treatment that primes immune system to kill off tumours Human trials have begun with a new cancer therapy that can prime the immune system to eradicate tumours. The treatment, that works similarly to a vaccine, is a combination of two existing drugs, of which tiny amounts are injected into the solid bulk of a tumour. Nephron Health news in pictures Babies' health suffers from being born near fracking sites, finds major study Mothers living within a kilometre of a fracking site were 25 per cent more likely to have a child born at low birth weight, which increase their chances of asthma, ADHD and other issues Getty Health news in pictures NHS reviewing thousands of cervical cancer smear tests after women wrongly given all-clear Thousands of cervical cancer screening results are under review after failings at a laboratory meant some women were incorrectly given the all-clear. A number of women have already been told to contact their doctors following the identification of procedural issues in the service provided by Pathology First Laboratory. Rex Health news in pictures Potential key to halting breast cancer's spread discovered by scientists Most breast cancer patients do not die from their initial tumour, but from secondary malignant growths (metastases), where cancer cells are able to enter the blood and survive to invade new sites. Asparagine, a molecule named after asparagus where it was first identified in high quantities, has now been shown to be an essential ingredient for tumour cells to gain these migratory properties. Getty Health news in pictures NHS nursing vacancies at record high with more than 34,000 roles advertised A record number of nursing and midwifery positions are currently being advertised by the NHS, with more than 34,000 positions currently vacant, according to the latest data. Demand for nurses was 19 per cent higher between July and September 2017 than the same period two years ago. REX Health news in pictures Cannabis extract could provide new class of treatment for psychosis CBD has a broadly opposite effect to delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the main active component in cannabis and the substance that causes paranoia and anxiety. Getty Health news in pictures Over 75,000 sign petition calling for Richard Branson's Virgin Care to hand settlement money back to NHS Mr Bransons company sued the NHS last year after it lost out on an 82m contract to provide childrens health services across Surrey, citing concerns over serious flaws in the way the contract was awarded PA Health news in pictures More than 700 fewer nurses training in England in first year after NHS bursary scrapped The numbers of people accepted to study nursing in England fell 3 per cent in 2017, while the numbers accepted in Wales and Scotland, where the bursaries were kept, increased 8.4 per cent and 8 per cent respectively Getty Health news in pictures Landmark study links Tory austerity to 120,000 deaths The paper found that there were 45,000 more deaths in the first four years of Tory-led efficiencies than would have been expected if funding had stayed at pre-election levels. On this trajectory that could rise to nearly 200,000 excess deaths by the end of 2020, even with the extra funding that has been earmarked for public sector services this year. Reuters Health news in pictures Long commutes carry health risks Hours of commuting may be mind-numbingly dull, but new research shows that it might also be having an adverse effect on both your health and performance at work. Longer commutes also appear to have a significant impact on mental wellbeing, with those commuting longer 33 per cent more likely to suffer from depression Shutterstock Health news in pictures You cannot be fit and fat It is not possible to be overweight and healthy, a major new study has concluded. The study of 3.5 million Britons found that even metabolically healthy obese people are still at a higher risk of heart disease or a stroke than those with a normal weight range Getty Health news in pictures Sleep deprivation When you feel particularly exhausted, it can definitely feel like you are also lacking in brain capacity. Now, a new study has suggested this could be because chronic sleep deprivation can actually cause the brain to eat itself Shutterstock Health news in pictures Exercise classes offering 45 minute naps launch David Lloyd Gyms have launched a new health and fitness class which is essentially a bunch of people taking a nap for 45 minutes. The fitness group was spurred to launch the napercise class after research revealed 86 per cent of parents said they were fatigued. The class is therefore predominantly aimed at parents but you actually do not have to have children to take part Getty Health news in pictures 'Fundamental right to health' to be axed after Brexit, lawyers warn Tobacco and alcohol companies could win more easily in court cases such as the recent battle over plain cigarette packaging if the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights is abandoned, a barrister and public health professor have said Getty Health news in pictures 'Thousands dying' due to fear over non-existent statin side-effects A major new study into the side effects of the cholesterol-lowering medicine suggests common symptoms such as muscle pain and weakness are not caused by the drugs themselves Getty Health news in pictures Babies born to fathers aged under 25 have higher risk of autism New research has found that babies born to fathers under the age of 25 or over 51 are at higher risk of developing autism and other social disorders. The study, conducted by the Seaver Autism Center for Research and Treatment at Mount Sinai, found that these children are actually more advanced than their peers as infants, but then fall behind by the time they hit their teenage years Getty Health news in pictures Cycling to work could halve risk of cancer and heart disease Commuters who swap their car or bus pass for a bike could cut their risk of developing heart disease and cancer by almost half, new research suggests  but campaigners have warned there is still an urgent need to improve road conditions for cyclists. Cycling to work is linked to a lower risk of developing cancer by 45 per cent and cardiovascular disease by 46 per cent, according to a study of a quarter of a million people. Walking to work also brought health benefits, the University of Glasgow researchers found, but not to the same degree as cycling. Getty

A spokesperson for the Department for Health told The Independent: Consultants do a vital job and should be properly rewarded, but this analysis shows why we are working with the British Medical Association to replace a unique evening and weekend opt-out in the existing contract.

"This will allow us all to promise patients urgent and emergency care of a consistently high standard across the week, and  as the hospitals themselves say  make better use of operating theatres while reducing unjustifiable overtime bills. We are helping to ensure the NHS will have over 11,000 more doctors, including consultants and GPs by 2020.
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Brexit, Trump, murders, mayhem. The appeal of a private island grows with every day: somewhere you can choose the humans with whom you interact; somewhere in which you have dominion over land and beast as you please. Even, given that private islands can cost less than many tiny apartments in cosmopolitan city centres, somewhere that you can afford  and with a few more acres in which to express the many facets of your personality than the average studio flat.

Luckily for wannabe Prosperos and Dr Nos, the 23-acre Turtle Island off the coast of Gladstone, Queensland, is on the market for A$4m (2.3m). Positioned on the southern area of the Great Barrier Reef, the island boasts views of the precious world heritage site (as well as a helicopter pad and swimming pool, naturally). But if that doesnt tickle your fancy, around the world, there are nearly 1,000 private islands for sale in a market which has grown significantly since the global financial crash, according to recent research by Sothebys Realty. Popular locations include the Caribbean and the Mediterranean, as well as south-east Asia, Canada, Belize and the UK.

But, with a little digging, you discover that island retreats can come with spadefuls of hassle, despite an average appreciation in value of 10 per cent.

We recommend everyone interested in buying an island rents one in the same area for a week first, says Farhad Vladi, the founder of German-based estate agent Vladi Private Islands. Once settled on an island, diligent potential buyers should work through a check-list that includes securing building permits, understanding your legal rights if you are not a citizen of the state the island is in  and ensuring you actually own the plot. Its also a good idea to check the location of the nearest hospital, too, adds Vladi, as some remote islands can take hours to get to.

This process can take months and be expensive. Environmental impact studies in the Bahamas, for instance, can cost $50,000 (38,000), while pesky laws in Greece mean dozens of permits are required before anything can be built on islands. In Canada, development is prohibited on any untouched land less than a square acre. And undeveloped islands off the coast of the UK cannot be built on at all, says Vladi. But if or when development is cleared, structures must be designed to withstand the elements, including rain and rogue sea water. And thatll be the least of your worries.

Ile de Granit Rose on the French coast is on sale for 1.7m (1.4m; vladi-private-islands.de) (vladi-private-islands.de)

You must consider the cost of drinking water, of workers  unless you are literally building your home Swiss Family Robinson-style  and protecting it when you aren't there. The list is long, says Park Wilson, the co-founder of Viva Tropical which specialises in property and land in the Latin Tropics.

On the other hand, there is tremendous freedom and reward in starting from scratch. An uninhabited island is like a blank canvas. And your options of where to go from there are only limited by your imagination. And all those laws, and the legal fees that youll need to pay for advice on them.

And even then, your money may not talk. Take the American couple who bought seven-acre Dobbins Island in the mouth of Magothy River, Maryland, in 2003. Theyve been battling ever since with environmentalists and boaters over public access and development. More recently, the Hollywood actor Mel Gibson, faced a legal challenge from a landless tribe after he bought the 5,411-acre Fijian island of Mago, believed to be the largest privately owned island in the Pacific. (It was agreed hed build a house, but any other plans were shelved.)

Top 10 islands in the world 2016 Show all 10 1 /10 Top 10 islands in the world 2016 Top 10 islands in the world 2016 10 - Fernando de Noronha, Brazil

The archipelago of Fernando de Noronha is a UNESCO World Heritage Site with a delicate ecosystem. Visitors are restricted, but the lucky few are rewarded with unrivaled beaches and soothing warm waters filled with dolphins and sea turtles, making Noronha one of the worlds top diving destinations Find hotels in Fernando de Noronha EVARISTO SA/Staff Top 10 islands in the world 2016 9 - Bora Bora, Society Islands

Turquoise lagoons, soft white sands, and deep tangerine sunsets set the scene for romance on the island so nice they named it twice Find hotels in Bora Bora Top 10 islands in the world 2016 8 - Phuket, Thailand

Thailands largest island is an international magnet for beach lovers and serious divers, who enthusiastically submerge themselves in the Andaman Sea Find hotels in Phuket Top 10 islands in the world 2016 7 - Mauritius, Africa

Mauritius is arguably Africas wealthiest destination, a tropical paradise with tons to do Find hotels in Mauritius Top 10 islands in the world 2016 6 - Majorca, Balearic Islands

The dreamy island that provided inspiration to Chopin and Miro now has a reputation as a spring break beach destination Find hotels in Majorca Top 10 islands in the world 2016 5 - Bali, Indonesia

Soak up the sun on a stretch of fine white sand, or commune with the tropical creatures as you dive along coral ridges or the colorful wreck of a WWII war ship Find hotels in Bali Top 10 islands in the world 2016 4- Providenciales, Turks and Caicos

The most populated of the Turks and Caicos islands, Providenciales is one of the worlds top beach destinations Find hotels in Providenciales Top 10 islands in the world 2016 3 - Jamaica

Jamaicas forests feature prime hiking and bird watching. History buffs can the heritage sites of Trelawny, while reggae and dancehall fans will love the authentic music clubs of Kingston. Montego Bay is perfect for snorkeling and shopping, while the spas of Ocho Rios can make any stresses melt away Find hotels in Jamaica Top 10 islands in the world 2016 2 - Santorini, Greece

Even if youve never been to this Cyclades island in the Aegean Sea, youd still recognize it immediately  candy-colored houses carved into cliffs, sapphire waters, gleaming white buildings topped with half-spheres the color of a stormy sky Find hotels in Santorini Top 10 islands in the world 2016 1 - Maui, Hawaii

The Hawaiian island of Maui is a destination for true nature lovers Find hotels in Maui

This is the danger with people who have cash, observes Vladi, If you buy into a social environment, you should speak to people and see if you get along with them. If you dont do that, its your own fault. Some stupid people havent and have had to live with the consequence.

Not that the owners of tropical island of Kosrae, 3,800km from Brisbane, are stupid. Its just that  contrary to the idyll of solitude  theyve built a 16-bedroom resort there and now cant get the price they want to sell it on. For the 38 price of a raffle ticket, it could be all yours.

Islands pictured on sale through Vladi Private Islands, vladi-private-islands.de.
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UK wages have dropped 10 per cent since the financial crisis - worse than anywhere else in Europe apart from Greece.

The Trades Union Congress crunched numbers from the OECD's employment outlook and found that only three countries have seen wage declines since the financial crisis, Portugal, Greece and the UK.

Of these, UK and Greek wages have declined around 10.4 per cent.

Over the same 2007 to 2015 period, real wages grew in Poland by 23 per cent, in Germany by 14 per cent and France by 11 per cent.

Across the OECD, real wages increased by an average of 6.7 per cent.

Frances O'Grady, general secretary of the TUC, said: Wages fell off the cliff after the financial crisis, and have barely begun to recover,"

People cannot afford another hit to their pay packets. Working people must not foot the bill for a Brexit downturn in the way they did for the bankers crash."

Chart: Statista

The UK ranks in the middle of the chart for employment gains at 16 of 42. The Government argues that more flexibility to lower wages has been behind the increase in employment.

But the figures do not bear this out. The countries with the highest employment gains, like Poland and Germany, also sit at the top of the table for wage gains.

In fact the UK is the only country in Europe where modest employment gains have been met by wage declines.

"We knew already that the UK had endured the longest and steepest decline in real wages since at least 1830.

"We now know that this decline is matched by no other country apart from Greece. Gains in employment are not adequate compensation," said Geoff Tily, senior economist at the TUC.

Business news: In pictures Show all 13 1 /13 Business news: In pictures Business news: In pictures Flybe collapses Airline Flybe has collapsed. All future flights on the Exeter-based airline have been cancelled  leaving more than 2,300 staff facing an uncertain future, and wrecking the travel plans of hundreds of thousands of passengers. The chief executive, Mark Anderson, said: Europes largest independent regional airline has been unable to overcome significant funding challenges to its business. AFP via Getty Business news: In pictures Future product placement will be 'tailored to individual viewers' Marketing executives say that product placement in films and televison shows on streaming services such as Netflix may be tailored to individuals in future. For instance, if data shows that a viewer is a fan of pepsi, a billboard in the background of a shot would host an advert for pepsi, while for a viewer known to have different tastes it could be for Coca-Cola Paramount Business news: In pictures Corbyn wishes Amazon a happy birthday In a card sent to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos on the company's 25th birthday, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn writes: "You owe the British people millions in taxes that pay for the public services that we all rely on. Please pay your fair share" Business news: In pictures No deal, no tariffs The government has announced that it would slash almost all tariffs in the event of a no-deal Brexit. Notable exceptions include cars and meat, which will see tariffs in place to protect British farmers Getty Business news: In pictures Fingerprint payment NatWest is trialling a new bank card that will allow people to touch their hand to the card when paying rather than typing in a PIN number. The card will work by recognising the user's fingerprint NatWest/PA Wire Business news: In pictures Mahabis bust High-end slipper retailer Mahabis has gone into administration. 2 Jan 2019 Mahabis Business news: In pictures Costa Cola Coca-Cola has paid 3.9bn for Costa Coffee. A cafe chain is a new venture for the global soft drinks giant PA Business news: In pictures RIP Payday Loans A funeral procession for payday loans was held in London on September 2. The future of pay day lenders is in doubt after Wonga, Britain's biggest, went into administration on August 30 PA Business news: In pictures Musk irks investors and directors Elon Musk has concluded that Tesla will remain public. Investors and company directors were angry at Musk for tweeting unexpectedly that he was considering taking Tesla private and share prices had taken a tumble in the following weeks Getty Business news: In pictures Jaguar warning Iconic British car maker Jaguar Land Rover warned on July 5, 2018 that a "bad" Brexit deal could jeopardise planned investment of more than $100 billion, upping corporate pressure as the government heads into crucial talks AFP/Getty Business news: In pictures Spotif-IPO Spotify traded publically for the first time on the New York Stock Exchange on Tuesday. However, the company isn't issuing shares, but rather, shares held by Spotify's private investors will be sold AFP/Getty Business news: In pictures French blue passports The deadline to award a contract to make blue British passports after Brexit has been extended by two weeks following a request by bidder De La Rue. The move comes after anger at the announcement British passports would be produced by Franco-Dutch firm Gemalto when De La Rues contract ends in July. The British firm said Gemalto was chosen only because it undercut the competition, but the UK company also admitted that it was not the cheapest choice in the tendering process. Business news: In pictures Beast from the east economic impact The Beast from the East wiped 4m off of Flybes revenues due to flight cancellations, airport closures and delays, according to the budget airlines estimates. Flybe said it cancelled 994 flights in the three months to 31 March, compared to 372 in the same period last year.

The Treasury noted that the TUC study did not take into account living standards, which was affected by changes to taxes and benefits.

This analysis ignores the point that following the great recession the UK employment rate has grown more than any G7 country, living standards have reached their highest level and wages continue to rise faster than prices  and will be helped by the new national living wage," a spokesperson said.

However, the Treasury added: There is more to do to build an economy and country that works for everyone not just a privileged few, and we are determined to do exactly that.
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"In the spring of 1971 I met a girl."

So began Bill Clintons speech to the Democratic National Convention, an address that was part love story, part campaign pitch, and in which he sought to humanise a woman long criticised for behaving too robotically.

It was clear he spoke from the heart. And while Mr Clinton showed he was no longer quite the energetic, bounding speaker he once was, he himself earned a standing ovation

Bill Clinton said no one was better qualified for the White House than his wife (AP)

But if some people were moved by Mr Clintons comments - This woman has never been satisfied with the status quo about anything  others were critical about what was elided.

Indeed, commentators on social media and elsewhere, were quick to point out that while he found time to talk about meeting his wife, marrying her, finding a house in Arkansas and raising their daughter, Chelsea, he failed to mention any of the sex scandals that have engulfed him.

Most notably among these, was his involvement with a 22-year-old White Hosue intern called Monica Lewinsky. His lying about the affair led him to endure the scandal of being impeached, and for Hillary Clinton to suffer the pain of her husband being publicly exposed as a cheat.

The harder the Clintons have worked to preserve their marriage, the less easily that marriage has fit into easy stories about what true love should look like, Alyssa Rosenberg wrote in the Washington Post.

The Lewinsky Scandal In Pictures Show all 13 1 /13 The Lewinsky Scandal In Pictures The Lewinsky Scandal In Pictures Holding hands at Christmas: Monica Lewinsky in 1997. The Lewinsky Scandal In Pictures Greeting guests: Monica Lewinsky in 1997. The Lewinsky Scandal In Pictures Lewinsky attends a White House function with Clinton in 1997. The Lewinsky Scandal In Pictures The now infamous blue dress, among other gifts given to Lewinsky by Clinton that would be used as evidence in his impeachment trial. The Lewinsky Scandal In Pictures Lewinsky leaves court on 20 August, 1998, after testifying before a grand jury investigating Clinton. The Lewinsky Scandal In Pictures A handwritten note to Clinton by Lewinsky that would be later counted on as evidence in his 21-day Senate trial. The Lewinsky Scandal In Pictures Marcia Lewis, the mother of Monica Lewinsky, prepares to meet reporters on February 10, 1998, outside of the US District Courthouse in Washington. The Lewinsky Scandal In Pictures Another note from Lewinksy to Clinton, also used as evidence in his trial. The Lewinsky Scandal In Pictures Clinton's lawyer, Robert Bennett, addresses the press outside the courtroom on March 5, 1998. The Lewinsky Scandal In Pictures Lewinsky is escorted by police officers, federal investigators and her attorney, William Ginsburg, as she leaves the Federal Building May 28, 1998. The Lewinsky Scandal In Pictures The impeachment hearing in progress in November 1998. The Lewinsky Scandal In Pictures Clinton apologises to the nation for lying to them over his affair with Monica Lewinsky in December 1998 The Lewinsky Scandal In Pictures Monica Lewinsky escorted to her hotel in New York, ahead of her video taped deposition to Republican prosecutors.

And whenever the Clintons put their marriage at the centre of the political cases they make for each other, the relationship becomes more vulnerable to criticism and dissection at the moments when its asked to carry the greatest public weight.

Ben Mathis-Lilley wrote in Slate: Could Bill Clinton possibly give a speech explicitly about his relationship with Hillary without mentioning his high-profile public infidelities? The answer turned out to be yes.

On Tuesday night, Mr Clinton highlighted his wifes strengths as a mother, and as someone who worked for those with less. He said there was a stark difference between the image he was painting and that which had been portrayed by her opponents at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland last week.

How do you square the things I told you with the picture the Republicans painted of their opponent in Cleveland? You cant, he said. Well, One is real; the other is made up.

CNN presenter Jake Tapper, whose early career included a stint at the Washington City Paper where he wrote about a date he went on with Ms Lewinsky, also did not mention the affair during his commentary on Tuesday night. Instead he called Mr Clinton a speech giver.
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YouTube star Alfie Deyes is urging fans not to go to the event fellow YouTube sensation Marina Joyce has been publicising.

Fans of Joyce, a beauty and fashion vlogger with over 700,000 subscribers, became increasingly concerned for her welfare after she posted a cryptic video where she appeared disorientated with bruise-like marks on the back of her arms.

Some said they could hear the message help me in the background and speculated she may be being held against her own will. After growing concern, police visited her home in north London and told the Independent she was found safe and well. Joyce also assured fans she was not in danger in a livestream video today.

The Highest-Earning YouTubers of 2015 Show all 10 1 /10 The Highest-Earning YouTubers of 2015 The Highest-Earning YouTubers of 2015 Smosh Smosh: $8.5 million Youtube The Highest-Earning YouTubers of 2015 Rosanna-Pansino Rosanna Pansino: $2.5 million The Highest-Earning YouTubers of 2015 Roman-Atwood Roman Atwood: $2.5 million Youtube The Highest-Earning YouTubers of 2015 Rhett-and-Link Rhett & Link: $4.5 million Youtube The Highest-Earning YouTubers of 2015 PewDiePie PewDiePie: $12 million Youtube The Highest-Earning YouTubers of 2015 Michelle-Phan Michelle Phan: $3 million Youtube The Highest-Earning YouTubers of 2015 Lindsey-Stirling Lindsey Stirling: $6 million Youtube The Highest-Earning YouTubers of 2015 Michelle-Phan Michelle Phan: $3 million Youtube The Highest-Earning YouTubers of 2015 KSI KSI: $5 million Youtube The Highest-Earning YouTubers of 2015 Fine-Brothers Fine Brothers: $8.5 million Youtube

But Joyce has also sparked further alarm for asking followers to meet her in east London at 6.30am on 3 August for a daytime rave event.

Deyes, a popular YouTuber who has 2.5 million subscribers, has urged fans not to attend the event.

Please please do not attend @MarinaJoyce7's meet up tomorrow morning. I'd hate for anyone to be in danger #savemarinajoyce x, he tweeted.

Deyes, who is in a relationship with fellow YouTube sensation Zoella, holds a great deal of influence in the YouTube community and his tweet regarding Joyce has been retweeted over 32,000 times.

I've seen many tweets from people telling others that this is the event? If so, please do NOT go, Deyes later added.

A spokesperson for the Metropolitan Police told the Independent it was too early to say whether there would be a police presence at the event. The force only issues statements for public gatherings "a couple of days" before the event.

The same would apply if it was a march in central. As of now, we havent issued any statement urging people not to go, the spokesperson said.
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Michelle Obamas rousing speech at the Democratic National Convention has become one of her most defining moments as First Lady of the United States.

A part of her inspiring address which struck a chord across the US came when Obama highlighted the history inherent within the White House that makes her familys place within it particularly significant.

"That is the story of this country," she said. "The story that has brought me to the stage tonight. The story of generations of people who felt the lash of bondage, the shame of servitude, the sting of segregation, who kept on striving, and hoping, and doing what needed to be done," she said.

I wake up every morning in a house that was built by slaves. And I watch my daughters - two beautiful intelligent black young women - play on the White House lawn."

Democratic National Convention 2016 in pictures Show all 15 1 /15 Democratic National Convention 2016 in pictures Democratic National Convention 2016 in pictures First Lady Michelle Obama called on Democratic party members to trust in the 'steady and measured' Mrs Clinton, in a speech critics described as "show-stealing" Getty Images Democratic National Convention 2016 in pictures The first day of the convention was attended by a vast crowd of approximately 50,000 as the event got into full swing in Philadelphia Getty Images Democratic National Convention 2016 in pictures Senator Bernie Sanders delivered an impassioned speech endorsing Mrs Clinton, and asking the party to unite for their prospective candidate REUTERS Democratic National Convention 2016 in pictures Two advocates of the former candidate Sanders were reduced to tears as details of an alleged conspiracy against his nomination were gradually revealed REUTERS Democratic National Convention 2016 in pictures Senator Elizabeth Warren was repeatedly heckled and booed as she endorsed Hillary Clinton for the Democratic presidential candidacy Getty Images Democratic National Convention 2016 in pictures Former president Bill Clinton (left) looks pensive as the resentment against his wife's nomination appeared to grow during day one of the convention Getty Images Democratic National Convention 2016 in pictures A Bernie Sanders supporter taped her mouth shut in protest against his perceived mistreatment at the hands of the Democratic party AFP/Getty Images Democratic National Convention 2016 in pictures Senator Cor Brooker called for unity within the party, saying: "We are called to be a nation of love" REUTERS Democratic National Convention 2016 in pictures Actress Eva Longoria gave a heartfelt speech in which she called upon members to trust in Mrs Clinton as their candidate Getty Images Democratic National Convention 2016 in pictures Senator Al Franken was joined on stage by comedian and actress Sarah Silverman, with critics praising their double act Getty Images Democratic National Convention 2016 in pictures Delegates danced joyously at the convention in the Wells Fargo Center as musical entertainment was provided Getty Images Democratic National Convention 2016 in pictures Pop singer Demi Lovato told the DNC she was "living with mental illness" before performing her hit single 'Confident' Getty Images Democratic National Convention 2016 in pictures Legendary singer-songwriter Paul Simon was another high-profile performer to entertain the crowd on day one Getty Images Democratic National Convention 2016 in pictures Anastasia Somoza, an international disability rights advocate, also delivered remarks on the first day of the convention Getty Images Democratic National Convention 2016 in pictures A delegate holds a sign that reads "Stronger together" as the first day of the convention drew to a close Getty Images

Obamas 15-minute speech was the high point of the convention and praise for the First Lady from the President became the most shared message on Twitter.

Her words continue to resonate around the world, but the importance of her message appeared to be lost on some of listeners. Kelly Clarkson was one of a number of people to celebrate her speech when one user responded: Im not sure I liked the part where she said the White House was built by slaves.

Clarkson replied:

The user has since deleted their message.

Fox News host Bill OReillys tone deaf response has also elicited anger after he suggested the slaves who built the White House were well fed and cared for.

Slaves that worked there were well fed and had decent lodgings provided by the government, which stopped hiring slave labour in 1802, he said.

However, the feds did not forbid subcontractors from using slave labour. So, Michelle Obama is essentially correct in citing slaves as builders of the White House, but there were others working as well. Got it all? There will be a quiz.
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Last week, we found out that Donald Trump's wife, Melania Trump, is apparently a fan of Michelle Obama's. In explaining her inadvertent plagiarising of the first lady's 2008 convention speech, Melania Trump's speechwriter said, "A person she has always liked is Michelle Obama."

Is it possible that Melania Trump's husband agrees with her?

As I noted last week, it's not that unusual for prospective or actual first ladies to say nice things about one another. There is something of a kinship, it seems, and they don't often get involved in the political sniping.

 10 of the scariest things Donald Trump has ever said

But here's the thing: Obama has now delivered two speeches that were very tough on Donald Trump -- albeit without mentioning him by name in either. There was one in an early June commencement speech and now on Monday night at the Democratic National Convention. Trump's response to each one has been silence.

Update: Trump has now broken his silence -- to praise Obama. In an interview with the Hollywood Reporter, Trump says of the speech that clearly targeted him in all but name: "I thought her delivery was excellent. I thought she did a very good job. I liked her speech."

And indeed, despite Obama's status as a first lady many conservative Republicans love to hate, Trump doesn't appear to have ever really gone after her for anything, really.

That's surprising from a guy who is nothing if not fond of doing things to stir up the GOP base. This is also a guy, mind you, who doesn't take incoming political fire without responding in kind. "I'm a counter-puncher," he has said repeatedly during this campaign. It's his explanation for many of his feuds.

It's also not as though he's opposed to engaging in political fights with women. Rosie O'Donnell, Megyn Kelly, Carly Fiorina, Elizabeth Warren -- the list goes on and on. And we all know how Trump feels about Obama's husband.

And yet, even as he tweetstormed during the big speeches of the convention Monday night -- especially during speeches by Warren, Cory Booker and Bernie Sanders -- not a word about the first lady, even as she made a very forceful case against him in no uncertain terms.

"I want someone with the proven strength to persevere," she said. "Someone who knows this job and takes it seriously. Someone who understands that the issues a president faces are not black and white and cannot be boiled down to 140 characters. Because when you have the nuclear codes at your fingertips and the military in your command, you can't make snap decisions. You can't have a thin skin or a tendency to lash out. You need to be steady, and measured, and well-informed."

It didn't escape notice:

"Donald Trump ranted about all the DNC speakers on Twitter -- except one," Business Insider said.

"There's One Person Donald Trump Did Not Try to Mess With Last Night: Michelle Obama," Slate said.

Some indeed painted it as Trump not wanting to pick a fight with a powerful and eloquent first lady who gave a fantastic speech.

But Trump's feuds are never quite so calculated. If he doesn't worry about "counter-punching" with Pope Francis -- the pope! -- why would he shy away from doing the same with Obama? This is not a guy who knows how to just let something go or can be prevailed upon to avoid an unhelpful political feud.

There is something about the first lady, it seems, that's different for Trump. And looking back, it's not clear that he has ever really targeted her in a forceful way.

In fact, four years ago at this very juncture in the presidential process, Trump actually praised her Democratic National Convention speech.

The year 2012 was not back when Trump was a Democrat, mind you. This was after he spent years questioning whether Obama's husband was born in the United States and was a legitimate president. His other tweets during that year's Democratic convention weren't nearly so kind.

And yet, praise for Michelle Obama.

Earlier that year, Trump did take a little dig at the first lady.

But that appears to be about the worst thing he's said about her. Other tweets mentioning her include asking what people thought of her haircut.

And he complimented her and her husband on their 20th anniversary in 2012.

Trump has always been a fan of stirring up controversy and appealing to the GOP base's antipathy toward everything Obama -- except, apparently, for Michelle Obama. Not yet, anyway.

Copyright Washington Post
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Theresa May has said she has an open mind about the impending Brexit negotiations and that Britain should not necessarily adopt a model that is on the shelf already.

The Prime Minister, who on Wednesday travelled to Rome to meet the Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, said Italy and the UK had agreed on the importance of maintaining the closest possible economic ties once Britain formally leaves the EU.

She added that the EU referendum sent a clear message that the British people want some control over free movement but that she would also strive to achieve the best possible deal on free trade during the negotiations.

Recommended Read more European Commission appoints chief Brexit negotiator

Appearing to dismiss the Norway model for Britains post-Brexit future, she said: But, on the other side, we do of course need to ensure that we get the best possible deal in relation to trade in goods and services. And Im looking at this with an open mind.

I think we should be developing the model that suits the United Kingdom and the European Union, not adopting necessarily a model that is on the shelf already, but saying what is going to work for the UK and what is going to work best for the European Union in ensuring that we can maintain that economic relationship which has been of benefit to us in the past.

During their joint press conference, Ms May revealed that she had chaired the first meeting of a Cabinet committee on exiting the EU to prepare and plan for an orderly departure.

Ms May also said that  provided the rights of Britons living on the continent were respected  she intended to guarantee the rights of EU citizens currently living in the UK. On the issue that you raise of Italian and other EU citizens who are living in the UK, I want to be able to guarantee their rights in the UK, I expect to be able to do that, I intend to be able to do that, to guarantee their rights, she said.

Brexit protest: Thousands march in London Show all 12 1 /12 Brexit protest: Thousands march in London Brexit protest: Thousands march in London A woman poses with a home-made European Union flag as Remain supporters gather on Park Lane in London to show their support for the EU in the wake of Brexit PA Brexit protest: Thousands march in London Remain supporters demonstrate in Parliament Square PA Brexit protest: Thousands march in London Tens of thousands of people gathered to protest the result of the EU referendum PA Brexit protest: Thousands march in London A majority of people in the capital voted to remain in the European Union Reuters Brexit protest: Thousands march in London Protesters chanted: What do we want to do? Stay in the EU PA Brexit protest: Thousands march in London The march follows a similar rally in Trafalgar Square that was cancelled due to heavy rain  but which tens of thousands of people turned up to anyway Reuters Brexit protest: Thousands march in London Britain voted to leave the European Union in a referendum by 52 per cent to 48 per cent Reuters Brexit protest: Thousands march in London But support for the Leave campaign in urban areas and among young people was significantly lower Rex features Brexit protest: Thousands march in London Marchers gathered at Park Lane at 11am and marched towards Parliament Square PA Brexit protest: Thousands march in London Some protesters held up baguettes in a display of affection for our continental neighbours PA Brexit protest: Thousands march in London The disparity between different parts of the country has promoted a four million signature petition calling for a second referendum and even a renewed push for Scotland to cede from the UK PA Brexit protest: Thousands march in London The events organiser, Kings College graduate Kieran MacDermott, wrote: We can prevent Brexit by refusing to accept the referendum as the final say and take our finger off the self-destruct button" Reuters

The only circumstances in which that would not be possible would be if the rights of British citizens living in other EU member states were not guaranteed. But I hope that this is an issue we can address early on.

The Italian PM added that the negotiations must be as efficient as possible and called for a timeline to be set out. It's in everybody's interest to succeed in the end, to succeed in having a vision or a specific timeline which will make this pass easier, he said.

We must ensure that everything is as clear as possible. We must rid ourselves of uncertainties with regard to the decision that was made by the United Kingdom to leave the institutions of the 28 countries of the European Union.

Of course we are saddened by this and we, to a certain extent, understand the public opinion. It's a decision that was made by the British people and we respect it, however painful it is. Now we have to deal with it with common sense.

It comes as Nick Clegg, the former Deputy Prime Minister and Liberal Democrat EU spokesperson, launched his first briefing paper analysing the options facing the Government if it intends to retain access to Europes tariff-free market.

Theresa May has said she wants to have the closest possible economic relationship with Europe but has not spelt out what that means or what price she is prepared to pay for it. The hard truth is there is no easy, cost-free option. We can't expect one set of rules for us and another for everyone else, he said.

Not only is freedom of movement a fundamental part of how the Single Market operates, but even if she were able to cut a deal on that we would still be subject to the rules that govern the market without any control over them.
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An Isis sympathiser who went on a bloody rampage at a London Underground station could be given a hospital order rather than a prison sentence because of his mental health.

Lawyers representing Muhiddin Mire told the Old Bailey his delusions included the belief that Tony Blair was his guardian angel, as part of paranoid schizophrenia dating back several years.

The 30-year-old attempted to behead a passer-by in December with a rusty blade in Leytonstone and slashed another man in the neck while shouting about the Syrian war.

Muhiddin Mire was found guilty of attempted murder last month

He was found guilty of attempted murder last month but on Wednesday the court heard he needed ongoing psychiatric treatment during the first day of a sentencing hearing.

Mire, a Muslim born in Somalia, has a history of mental illness and psychosis, including the belief that he was being persecuted for his religion and stalked by MI5 and MI6.

The court heard the taxi driver has been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and suffered his first episode of psychosis in 2006.

Mire appeared in the dock for the hearing wearing a blue tracksuit and flanked by several dock officers.

Dr Shaun Bhattacherjee, a consultant psychiatrist treating Mire at Broadmoor Hospital, said he was clearly mentally ill.

"It is clear at the time of the offence he was very psychotic and manifested a significant number of psychotic symptoms," he told the court. Mr Bhattacherjee said that Mire posed a "very severe" risk to the public and needs ongoing psychiatric treatment.

In pictures: Leytonstone stabbing Show all 5 1 /5 In pictures: Leytonstone stabbing In pictures: Leytonstone stabbing Mobile phone footage shows the suspect being tasered and arrested at Leytonstone Tube station In pictures: Leytonstone stabbing Mobile phone footage shows the suspect being tasered and arrested at Leytonstone Tube station In pictures: Leytonstone stabbing Mobile phone footage shows the suspect at Leytonstone Tube station In pictures: Leytonstone stabbing Mobile phone footage shows the suspect at Leytonstone Tube station In pictures: Leytonstone stabbing Mobile phone footage shows the suspect at Leytonstone Tube station

"Because of the significant risk to the safety of others, he added. It's necessary that that treatment is continued in conditions of high security."

Alphege Bell, a lawyer for the defence, said Mire suffered from a number of unfounded beliefs, including that the former prime minister "Tony Blair was his guardian angel". He also thought he was possessed by evil spirits and underwent a number of "exorcisms" by imams, the court was told.

Mire had been referred to mental health services by his GP a month before the attack but was not taking medication, and had recently started to wear traditional clothes rather than his usual jeans and T-shirt. The defendants family were also concerned about his mental state and had contacted police, as well as unsuccessfully trying to persuade him to travel back to his native Somalia.

Defence witness Dr Nigel Blackwood, a senior lecturer at Kings College and consultant psychiatrist at HMP Wandsworth, said Mires extremism was intimately associated with mental illness.

Cannabis use made a "significant" contribution to what was "probably" a case of paranoid schizophrenia, according to consultant forensic psychiatrist Dr Philip Joseph.

But prosecutors argued Mire had watched Islamist videos for several years and was deliberately trying to recreate an Isis beheading with his attack. Mire had images of Fusilier Lee Rigby, who was murdered by extremists in 2013, on his phone as well as pictures of Mohammed Emwazi, the British Isis terrorist known as Jihadi John, and material linked to the terrorist group.

Mire had travelled on the same Central Line train from Stratford as his victim, Lyle Zimmerman, on 5 December.

Muhiddin Mire attempted to behead a random passenger during the attack in December

He followed him out of the carriage and produced from his pocket a black-handled knife with a serrated edge, pushing the musician to the floor as he approached the barriers.

Mire kicked him repeatedly in the head and body as a woman called out for him to stop, then crouched down and began to saw at his neck with the serrated blade in front of shocked passengers.

A junior doctor on his way home rushed in to help stem the blood flowing from Mr Zimmerman's neck as Mire went up to street level.

In a statement read during Mire's sentencing hearing, he said he was lucky to have survived. "I have been left with a scar on my neck which I am aware of only because it pulls when I use my voice but is otherwise superficial and healing well," he said.

"I am somewhat more cautious about interacting with strangers since the attack. Overall I have not been significantly traumatised by the attack psychologically.

Prosecutor Jonathan Rees QC praised him for his philosophical view of his injuries and commended the bravery of passers-by who intervened in the attack.

Mire lashed out at Serena Valori before coming face to face with Russian security guard Andrius Sabaliauskas, who tried to talk to him. But despite the efforts to calm him down, Mire tried to slash lift engineer David Pethers before police arrived with tasers.

Mire ran at an officer and the security guard, shouting: This is for my Syrian brothers. I'm going to spill your blood, before he was finally subdued.

An onlooker was heard shouting, You ain't no Muslim, bruv, after Mire claimed he was carrying out the attack for my Syrian brothers and shouted Allahu Akbar as police took him down with Tasers.

Counter-terrorism officers investigated the incident (PA)

No formal link to Isis was uncovered but terrorism specialists at Scotland Yard are warning that the group is deliberately targeting mentally ill people with propaganda.

After last months guilty verdict Commander Dean Haydon, head of the Metropolitan Police Service Counter Terrorism Command, said Mire was inspired by Isis to carry out the unprovoked attack. This was a random attack, completely unprovoked, he added. He wasn't a member of Isis [but] he was inspired by Isis.

Judge Nicholas Hilliard QC, Recorder of London, said he could not pass sentence on Wednesday because of the need to consider Mire's mental health problems. There are obviously a whole range of options as far as the offence of attempted murder is concerned, he added. That includes the possibility of an indeterminate custodial sentence at one end and the possibility of a hospital order at the other.

His sentencing remarks will be video-recorded as a pilot case exploring the potential for public broadcasting of court hearings.

Additional reporting by PA
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Churches in areas where there is a threat of radical jihadism in the UK should consider having their own guards as part of tighter security measures following the terrorist attack on a French priest, according to a former top intelligence adviser to the government.

Colonel Richard Kemp, a former chair of the government's Cobra crisis response group, has said in interview with The Independent that community-funded guards, security fences and CCTV ought to be considered by churches.

He emphasised such measures could not "guarantee" total safety but that similarly visible security outside Jewish synagogues was already being used as a "deterrent" and the Church of England and Catholic Church may wish to do the same.

In the interview Colonel Kemp, who was the first commander of British troops in Afghanistan after 9/11, also said:

Many Muslims were "sympathetic" to the aims and tenets of radical jihadism as displayed by terrorist group Isis

Bombing Isis in Syria and Iraq was the only way to reduce the attraction of the extremist group for potential recruits

Muslims everywhere should voice their condemnation of the group as loudly as possible.

But he said the immediate response to the murder in France should be to consider the security around many churches.

He said: "Both the police in the UK and church authorities should review the security of churches. The reality is not that a church has suddenly become a new target and nothing else - there is virtually nothing else in the UK that is not a target, with the possible exception of mosques.

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

"But churches should think about use of CCTV as a deterrent, and the presence of security outside. But in the same way as a shopping centre or railway station, churches cannot become a fortress because people need free access to it.

"They couldn't actually stop an attacker getting in who really wanted to, but especially in areas where there has been a threat from radical jihadists, they might want to consider that.

"It's about that balance between safety and living freely and in a democracy."

The Home Office announced on 26 July that a 2.4m fund would be made available to any place of worship - church, mosque, synagogue or temple - which bidded successfully for an increase in its security measures.

And although the National Police Chief's Council is also circulating "specific advice" on security to Christian places of worship, a spokesperson said: "There is no specific intelligence relating to attacks against the Christian community in the UK. However, as we have seen, Daesh and other terrorist groups have targeted Christian as well as Jewish and other faith groups in the West and beyond."

The advice was issued after two young men hailed by Isis as "soldiers" murdered a clergyman near Rouen in France, with the main perpetrator's relative saying his nephew had been radicalised.

Colonel Kemp told The Independent only bombing Isis in Syria and Iraq would make the group seem less successful - and so less inspirational - to would-be jihadists in Europe and elsewhere.

He said that although mosques from "the wrong sect" of Islam and Muslims who spoke out against extremists were also at risk from attack, too many Muslims were sympathetic to Isis's aims. And he claimed they did not voice their condemnation loudly enough.

"Those Muslims who disagree with the violence of jihadists need to stand up, because it can only really be dealt with by them," he said.

"Frankly I don't think the answer is for us to be seen to be behind them - it has to come from them.

"But there is a worryingly large number of Muslims who support the Islamic state. Many Muslims believe that what the Islamic State are doing is Islam.

"I mean Muslims everywhere, they follow the Quran, they follow the same faith. Many are sympathetic to the Islamic State."

Pew Research Centre showed that, with the exception of Pakistan, countries in the Middle East were overwhelmingly critical of Isis, with upwards of 80 or 90 per cent of populations saying they felt unfavourably towards it.

The Church of England said it would double-check security provision in areas with "known risks".

"Church buildings are public buildings that are open to all. Where there are known risks, churches take measures to ensure the safety and security of worshippers and visitors," said a spokesperson.

"We welcome the Home Office announcement yesterday of funding for security measures for places of worship, which will benefit all faith communities. All public ministry involves being vulnerable to others, so security measures are good sense in uncertain times.
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The Government is not doing enough to meet its commitment to find places in Britain for 20,000 Syrian refugees by 2020, an influential group of MPs has warned.

The Home Affairs Select Committee said progress on accepting Syrian familes had been slow, with fewer than 2,000 resettled at the start of the second quarter of 2016.

The cross-party committee also warned that a separate, more recent commitment to resettle unaccompanied children was at risk.

 Asylum seekers in UK struggle to build new lives

We remain concerned about the Governments ability to increase capacity sufficiently to meet its commitment to resettle 20,000 Syrian refugees by 2020, and the separate commitment to resettle thousands of unaccompanied children, which the Government has rightly made, the report said.

Very slow progress during 2014 and most of 2015 means the Government has a lot of catching up to do to meet its 20,000 target. Until the final period of 2015 no more than 53 refugees arrived in any one quarter of the year, figures produced by the committee and attributed to the Home Office show.

Significantly more people have arrived in recent months, however, with over 1000 in one recent quarter. Whether future progress will be enough to meet the commitment remains to be seen.

The Government last week announced the launch of a community sponsorship scheme for refugee families with the intent of speeding up the resettlement process. Sponsors would provide assistance and housing for refugees.

The Independent understands that key charities are optimistic that the new scheme, which was announced before the report was drawn up, will help resolve the situation.

The report also raises other concerns about the way in which Britain deals with asylum seekers and refugees. In particular it noted a backlog of asylum claims, with the number of applications received outstripping the number of decisions made leading to growing delays.

Syrian refugee families arrive at their new homes on the Isle of Bute on December 4, 2015 in Rothesay, Isle of Bute, Scotland. (Getty Images)

As of the start of this year 34,201 applications were pending a decision  a figure the committee says is the highest figure on record. It attributes this to worse performance.

Lisa Doyle, head of advocacy at the Refugee Council charity, said the system was leaving people in limbo.

Its extremely concerning that so many people are still waiting for a decision on their asylum claim, years after first applying. Behind these statistics are individuals, many of whom will have suffered extreme trauma, forced to live day to day in uncertainty while they await the outcome of what could be a life or death decision, she warned.

While people are in the asylum system they are living in limbo; they are banned from working, are living in poverty and are simply unable to begin recovering from their experiences and rebuilding their lives.

Its very important that the Home Office makes decisions in a timely manner, but its even more important that it gets its decisions right first time. Its vital that people who come here fleeing persecution have access to a fair and effective asylum process.

The Home Office Committees criticism highlighted the unacceptable treatment of asylum seekers being wrongly returned to violence and persecution in the countries they fled.

An unacceptably high number of asylum applications are being dealt with inappropriately  resulting in people being returned to countries like Eritrea which the Government knows is unsafe  or successfully appealed, the report concluded.

Refugee crisis - in pictures Show all 27 1 /27 Refugee crisis - in pictures Refugee crisis - in pictures A child looks through the fence at the Moria detention camp for migrants and refugees at the island of Lesbos on May 24, 2016. AFP/Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures Ahmad Zarour, 32, from Syria, reacts after his rescue by MOAS (Migrant Offshore Aid Station) while attempting to reach the Greek island of Agathonisi, Dodecanese, southeastern Agean Sea Refugee crisis - in pictures Syrian migrants holding life vests gather onto a pebble beach in the Yesil liman district of Canakkale, northwestern Turkey, after being stopped by Turkish police in their attempt to reach the Greek island of Lesbos on 29 January 2016. Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees flash the 'V for victory' sign during a demonstration as they block the Greek-Macedonian border Refugee crisis - in pictures Migrants have been braving sub zero temperatures as they cross the border from Macedonia into Serbia. Refugee crisis - in pictures A sinking boat is seen behind a Turkish gendarme off the coast of Canakkale's Bademli district on January 30, 2016. At least 33 migrants drowned on January 30 when their boat sank in the Aegean Sea while trying to cross from Turkey to Greece. Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures A general view of a shelter for migrants inside a hangar of the former Tempelhof airport in Berlin, Germany Refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees protest behind a fence against restrictions limiting passage at the Greek-Macedonian border, near Gevgelija. Since last week, Macedonia has restricted passage to northern Europe to only Syrians, Iraqis and Afghans who are considered war refugees. All other nationalities are deemed economic migrants and told to turn back. Macedonia has finished building a fence on its frontier with Greece becoming the latest country in Europe to build a border barrier aimed at checking the flow of refugees Refugee crisis - in pictures A father and his child wait after being caught by Turkish gendarme on 27 January 2016 at Canakkale's Kucukkuyu district Refugee crisis - in pictures Migrants make hand signals as they arrive into the southern Spanish port of Malaga on 27 January, 2016 after an inflatable boat carrying 55 Africans, seven of them women and six chidren, was rescued by the Spanish coast guard off the Spanish coast. Refugee crisis - in pictures A refugee holds two children as dozens arrive on an overcrowded boat on the Greek island of Lesbos Refugee crisis - in pictures A child, covered by emergency blankets, reacts as she arrives, with other refugees and migrants, on the Greek island of Lesbos, At least five migrants including three children, died after four boats sank between Turkey and Greece, as rescue workers searched the sea for dozens more, the Greek coastguard said Refugee crisis - in pictures Migrants wait under outside the Moria registration camp on the Lesbos. Over 400,000 people have landed on Greek islands from neighbouring Turkey since the beginning of the year Refugee crisis - in pictures The bodies of Christian refugees are buried separately from Muslim refugees at the Agios Panteleimonas cemetery in Mytilene, Lesbos Refugee crisis - in pictures Macedonian police officers control a crowd of refugees as they prepare to enter a camp after crossing the Greek border into Macedonia near Gevgelija Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures A refugee tries to force the entry to a camp as Macedonian police officers control a crowd after crossing the Greek border into Macedonia near Gevgelija Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees are seen aboard a Turkish fishing boat as they arrive on the Greek island of Lesbos after crossing a part of the Aegean Sea from the Turkish coast to Lesbos Reuters Refugee crisis - in pictures An elderly woman sings a lullaby to baby on a beach after arriving with other refugees on the Greek island of Lesbos after crossing the Aegean sea from Turkey Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures A man collapses as refugees make land from an overloaded rubber dinghy after crossing the Aegean see from Turkey, at the island of Lesbos EPA Refugee crisis - in pictures A girl reacts as refugees arrive by boat on the Greek island of Lesbos after crossing the Aegean sea from Turkey Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees make a show of hands as they queue after crossing the Greek border into Macedonia near Gevgelija Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures People help a wheelchair user board a train with others, heading towards Serbia, at the transit camp for refugees near the southern Macedonian town of Gevgelija AP Refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees board a train, after crossing the Greek-Macedonian border, near Gevgelija. Macedonia is a key transit country in the Balkans migration route into the EU, with thousands of asylum seekers - many of them from Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq and Somalia - entering the country every day Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures An aerial picture shows the "New Jungle" refugee camp where some 3,500 people live while they attempt to enter Britain, near the port of Calais, northern France Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures A Syrian girl reacts as she helped by a volunteer upon her arrival from Turkey on the Greek island of Lesbos, after having crossed the Aegean Sea EPA Refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees arrive by boat on the Greek island of Lesbos after crossing the Aegean sea from Turkey Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures Beds ready for use for migrants and refugees are prepared at a processing center on January 27, 2016 in Passau, Germany. The flow of migrants arriving in Passau has dropped to between 500 and 1,000 per day, down significantly from last November, when in the same region up to 6,000 migrants were arriving daily.

The committee found that a number of Eritreans had been sent back to the country despite a litany of human rights abuses documented in the authoritarian state.

Eritreans make up the fifth-largest nationality of refugees currently risking their lives to reach Europes shores, after a damning United Nations report chronicled 25 years of crimes against humanity perpetrated by the countrys government.

The Home Office Committee found that a success rate of almost 90 per cent for Eritreans appealing unsuccessful asylum requests showed they had been incorrectly refused, sparking lengthy and costly court cases.

It blamed a delay in new government guidance on the country, which is lagging behind the current human rights situation, and urged the Home Office to suspend decisions until updates were made.

Further concerns were raised over the guidance on Iranian asylum seekers, who have more than half of appeals against refusals allowed.

The report also condemned perverse rules denying lone child refugees the right to be reunited with their families and the automatic removal of financial support and housing when refugee status is granted, leaving many homeless and destitute.

Update: The Home Office has responded to The Independent's request for a comment.

A spokesperson for the Home Office said the committee's assertion that outstanding asylum claims are at an all-time high was incorrect as the number was outstripped for several years leading up to 2004.

UK Visas and Immigration is now consistently meeting service standards and Asylum Operations is currently recruiting and training additional decision makers to ensure we manage intake levels and continue to meet our customer service standards, he added.

We have contacted the Home Affairs Select Committee to correct this error.

The spokesperson said the Government remains committed to resettling 20,000 Syrian refugees through the Vulnerable Persons Resettlement scheme by 2020.

The numbers resettled in a particular period will depend on a range of factors including the flow of referrals from UNHCR in the field and the availability of suitable accommodation and care packages in the UK. We will manage the flows based on need and in support of the wellbeing of the people and communities involved.
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The British government gave the go-ahead to 3.3 billion in arms exports to Saudi Arabia during the first year of that countrys bombardment of Yemen, new figures show.

The UK has ignored repeated calls to stop selling the autocratic petrostate bombs and other military equipment as allegations and reports of war crimes and the targeting of civilians continue to emerge.

Between April 2015 and March 2016 the UK signed off exports of 2.2bn worth of so-called ML10 licences  which include equipment like drones, helicopters, and other aircraft.

Recommended Read more UK quietly admits it was wrong to say Saudi is not targeting civilians

1.1bn worth of ML4 licences were issued  relating to bombs, missiles, grenades, and countermeasures. The UK also signed off 430,000 of licences for armoured vehicles and tanks.

In January a UN panel accused Saudi Arabia of breaking international humanitarian law during its assault on the country. The country has blown up schools, hospitals and weddings during the bombardment, according to observers.

Labour, the Liberal Democrats, and the SNP have all called for arms licences to be suspended, as has the European Parliament and the House of Commonss own international development committee.

Recent moves by the Foreign Office show the Government itself is also less confident than ever that Saudi Arabia is not committing war crimes. Previous statements by the former Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond were quietly corrected on the last day before parliamentary recess to water down endorsements of Saudi Arabian forces.

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

Mr Hammond had said the Government have assessed that there has not been a breach of international humanitarian law by the coalition. This was later changed to: we have not assessed that there has been a breach of international humanitarian law by the coalition.

Saudi Arabia is intervening in Yemen on the side of the internationally-recognised government, which has lost control of large swathes of the country to Houthi rebels.

Andrew Smith of Campaign Against Arms Trade, which collated the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills's figures, said: The UN has accused Saudi Arabian forces of violating international humanitarian law, the European Parliament has been calling for an arms embargo, but, as usual when it comes to Saudi Arabia, the UK government has focused on arms sales.

The British government says it has one of the most rigorous arms export control systems in the world. David Cameron has said that Britains alliance with the Saudi Arabian monarchy is important for its security.
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The European Commission has appointed a chief Brexit negotiator but has made clear he will not engage with Britain until Article 50 is formally triggered - nor start work until 1 October.

Michel Barnier, a former French government minister and ex-European Commission vice-president, will start work after the holiday season and then spend the next few months preparing the ground in Brussels for the negotiations. His appointment was announced by commission president Jean-Claude Juncker, who said he wanted "an experienced politician for this difficult job".

Describing Mr Barnier as "a skilled negotiator with rich experience in major policy areas relevant to the negotiations", Mr Juncker said: "I am very glad that my friend Michel Barnier accepted this important and challenging task. I wanted an experienced politician for this difficult job.

"He has an extensive network of contacts in the capitals of all EU member states and in the European Parliament, which I consider a valuable asset for this function.

 Angela Merkel insists Article 50 must be triggered before Brexit talks

"Michel will have access to all Commission resources necessary to perform his tasks. He will report directly to me, and I will invite him to brief regularly the College [of commissioners] to keep my team abreast of the negotiations. I am sure that he will live up to this new challenge and help us to develop a new partnership with the United Kingdom after it will have left the European Union."

Mr Barnier, who is known as a tough negotiator, said in a Tweet he was "honoured" by the appointment.

He is known to be a purist on the principles of the single market as a fundamental tenet of the EU.

When he was European commissioner for internal markets in 2013, Mr Barnier attacked UK eurosceptics for attempting to negotiate a pick and mix approach to EU financial services regulation while remaining in the EU.

He told a group of MPs in London at the time: "The single market cannot be pick and mix. I have heard some people say financial services should be repatriated. It is clearly the wrong cause to fight for because financial services are an integral part of the single market and the single market is the heart of Europe.

"By definition there cannot be two single markets; one for financial services and one for other sectors; one for the City and one for the rest of the EU. This is out of question.

Repatriating powers of financial services would mean leaving the single market and de facto the EU. I believe the UK would lose out on many of its own interests.

Mr Juncker acknowledged earlier this week that the UK Government may need several months to prepare its position before negotiations start. In a French TV interview on Monday, he said he had no "deadline" for the talks to begin, adding: "The British Government needs several months to fine tune its position. Our British friends know that there will be no negotiation before notification of their farewell letter."

However he reiterated that Britain will have to accept four EU freedoms - including the free movement of people - "without exception or nuance" if it wants to keep full access to the single market after Brexit.

It comes as Ms May continues her diplomacy tour of Europe with a visit to Italy on Wednesday to meet Prime Minister Matteo Renzi in Rome. This will be followed by a trip to Slovakia and Poland on Thursday where she is expected to engage with the European leaders on Brexit. A Number 10 spokesman said Mrs May wanted an early visit to Italy after becoming PM earlier this month, because of the close relations it has with the UK.
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Jeremy Corbyn first announced many of the policies being put forward by Owen Smith months ago, the incumbent leaders campaign team has suggested.

The Labour leadership challenger today laid out plans to bring back sectoral wages councils to regulate low pay and establish a Ministry of Labour to bring about full employment.

Mr Smith made the pledges in a speech in Yorkshire, where he set out 20 different policies. They include banning zero-hours contracts, reversing planned cuts in corporation tax, and unveiling a 200bn investment programme.

Recommended Read more Owen Smith says Jeremy Corbyn would get a job in his shadow cabinet

A spokesperson for Mr Corbyn welcomed Mr Smiths adoption of the policies and suggested many of them were copied from, or similar to, those of the current Labour leader.

We welcome Owens focus on equality of outcome, reindustrialisation and workers' rights  and his support for policies announced in recent months by Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell, the spokesperson said.

We are delighted he has echoed John McDonnells call for the reinstatement of a Ministry of Labour, made last month at the Institute of Employment Rights, and Jeremy Corbyn's call for a ban on exclusive workforce recruitment from abroad, made during the referendum campaign, among other policies.

Owens speech today shows the leadership that Jeremy Corbyn has demonstrated he is placing economic justice and fairness back at the heart of Labour politics. Under Jeremy, Labour has put restoring dignity and pride in our communities worst hit by decades of neglect at the core of our politics.

Mr Corbyn suggested creating a Ministry of Labour during the 2015 contest and the policy was repeated by Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell this year.

Owen Smith speaks during a campaign rally (EPA)

Mr McDonnell also earlier this month made a similar investment pledge to Mr Smith, pledging 500bn of infrastructure investment through a National Investment Bank system.

The similarity between the two policy platforms shows Mr Smiths determination to neutralise the popularity of Mr Corbyns policy platform with his supporters. Instead, his campaign has previously stressed a perceived difference in competence.

Earlier this week he attempted to woo Mr Corbyn's supporters by offering his rival a place on any Shadow Cabinet he formed.

Dave Brown on Jeremy Corbyn Show all 12 1 /12 Dave Brown on Jeremy Corbyn Dave Brown on Jeremy Corbyn Dave Brown on Jeremy Corbyn Dave Brown on Jeremy Corbyn Dave Brown on Jeremy Corbyn Dave Brown on Jeremy Corbyn Corbyn's reshuffle Dave Brown on Jeremy Corbyn Corbyn and the Syria bombing vote Dave Brown on Jeremy Corbyn Corbyn asks questions from the public at PMQs, meanwhile backbenchers plot to oust him Dave Brown on Jeremy Corbyn Corbyn is unavailable to attend the Privy Council Dave Brown on Jeremy Corbyn Conference rejects Corbyns call to debate Trident Dave Brown on Jeremy Corbyn At Labour conference Corbyn and McDonnell press for a Robin Hood tax Dave Brown on Jeremy Corbyn Corbyns hopes for a new politics look optimistic in the face of a media barrage Dave Brown on Jeremy Corbyn Corbyn enters Labour leadership race

Mr Smith has also questioned Mr Corbyns values, attacking him as metropolitan.

Im not sure Ive heard him talking much about Scotland as an identity, or Wales as an identity, or indeed about England as an identity. I suspect Jeremy has a rather more metropolitan sense of that, and thats not one I think is central to the Labour tradition, the challenger told BBCs Newsnight programme earlier this week.

Hes got a set of liberal perspectives and left perspectives on things, and nationhood and nationalism and patriotism arent really part of his make-up,

There remain some distinctions between the two campaigns on policy, however. Mr Smith supports building more Trident nuclear weapons and has suggested holding a second EU referendum to confirm any negotiated deal before Brexit.

The two candidates will go face-to-face against each other at a hustings event in Cardiff on 4 August. Other televised hustings are also expected.

The winner of the contest will be announced before the Labour conference in the autumn.
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Owen Smith has been forced to apologise after saying it pained him Labour did not have the strength to "smash" Theresa May "back on her heels".

After initially brushing off criticism of his comment, the Labour leadership candidates spokesman said: It was off script and on reflection it was an inappropriate choice of phrase and he apologises for using it.

Mr Smith, the MP for Pontypridd and the former shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, made the remark as he set out 20 left-wing policies he will use to appeal to Jeremy Corybn's supporters in the party.

Ahead of a speech to be delivered on the highly-symbolic site of the former Orgreave coking plant in South Yorkshire, Mr Smith said: Theresa May even had the temerity to lecture Labour on social injustice, on insecurity at work and Ill be honest with you it pained me we didnt have the strength, the power and the vitality to smash her back on her heels and argue that these are our values.

But Mr Smith described his remarks as robust rhetoric, adding: "We should be smashing the Tories back on their heels. Their ideals, their values, let's smash them, let's get Labour in.

It's rhetoric, I don't literally want to smash Theresa May back on her heels, I'm not advocating violence in any shape or form.

The leadership contender, who is standing on a save Labour platform, also agreed that a poll suggesting around 29 per cent of those who voted Labour at the 2015 general election would now prefer Ms May as PM reflected a major problem for the party.

I read that in the paper this morning and my heart sank," he said.

 Owen Smith says Jeremy Corbyn would have a place in his Shadow Cabinet

What a measure of how low we have fallen as Labour - it should be a wake-up call for us all in Labour that it is high time for us to become a much more powerful opposition and a government in waiting.

"What an indictment of us that anybody can consider the Tories to be a better bet than us."

Mr Smith also gave Mr Corbyn some gratitude for the way in which he helped the Labour party reconnect with radicalism and pushed us towards being a bit more radical and robust in our policy.

Former shadow Cabinet minster Lisa Nandy, an ally of Mr Smith's, said his choice of language was wrong but insisted he was not sexist. "I think he has recognised, rightly, that was the wrong choice of words," she told BBC Radio 4's World At One.

 Owen Smith on Newsnight

"He regretted the choice of words that he used because it created an impression that he was talking about Theresa May's heels when, actually, what he was trying to say is it's horrendous that in the last few months we haven't been able to take on the Government about some of the things they are doing."
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Owen Smith, Jeremy Corbyns challenger, has vowed that if he is Prime Minister, he will recreate the Ministry of Labour, a government department that was abolished by a Labour Prime Minister 48 years ago.

He has also promised that if elected Labour leader, his front bench team will include a shadow Secretary of State for Labour.

Labours bitterly fought leadership contest is continuing despite a court case heard on Tuesday which could derail it. Michael Foster, a wealthy Labour donor and former parliamentary candidate, is asking a High Court to overturn a decision by Labours national executive that gave Mr Corbyn an automatic place on the ballot paper, when his challenger was obliged to collect nominations from at least 50 MPs or MEPs.

Recommended Read more Date announced for first Labour hustings between Corbyn and Smith

Gavin Millar QC, representing Mr Foster, asked the judge to halt the contest and give Mr Corbyn 48 hours to garner the necessary nominations before proceeding, though it is not certain that Mr Corbyn could find that many MPs prepared to nominate him. The judge has said he will deliver a verdict on Thursday.

In the expectation that Mr Corbyn will still be in the running, Labours general secretary Iain McNicol has announced that the pair will go head to head at their first hustings in Cardiff on 4 August.

Mr Smiths latest promise is strikingly similar to one made by Mr Corbyn when he was running for the leadership a year ago, but which he has yet to act on. The challengers campaign pitch is to present himself as more competent than the incumbent leader, and more in tune with the instinctive patriotism of working class voters, at a time when Labour is trailing badly in opinion polls. An ICM poll had the Conservatives on 43 per cent, their highest figure in an ICM poll since 2009, and Labour on 27 per cent, their lowest since 2009. However, there are few signs that opinion polls, or the question of competence, will put off Mr Corbyns highly committed supporters, who number in the hundreds of thousands.

In a major speech setting out his stall for the forthcoming Labour leadership election, Mr Smith will say that in his pursuit of greater equality in a Britain, he will campaign for workers rights, and establish a Ministry of Labour if he is Prime Minister and appoint a shadow of State for Labour if he is elected party leader.

 Owen Smith says Jeremy Corbyn would have a place in his Shadow Cabinet

The Ministry of Labour was originally set up in 1916 by the wartime coalition government of Liberals and Conservatives headed by David Lloyd George, but was absorbed in 1968 into the new Department for Employment, which in turn was absorbed into the Department for Work and Pensions. The last Minister of Labour was a former railway worker and wartime Army captain named Ray Gunter, nicknamed Gunter the Grunter, who lost the post in 1968 when he clashed with Harold Wilson over union rights.

Mr Smith is due to visit a modern business hub in Yorkshire, on the site of the former coking plant at Orgreave, near Sheffield, scene of a pitched battle between pickets and police during the miners strike in June 1984. The speech he is expected to deliver there will have a distinctly Old Labour flavour - evidence that the challengers strategy is to pitch his appeal to Labours soft left, on the assumption that the Blairite wing of the party will vote for him anyway.

Mr Smith is expected to say: We need to rediscover a sense of national mission for Britain - a faith in our country as having a future as bright as its past. And one where the fruits of our collective success are shared more equally between us, where outcomes can be equal, not just the opportunities we create.

That is why I am in politics. The Labour Party has achieved so much for social justice, but we need to be more than just our history.

So in the next few weeks I'll be setting out my vision for Labour's future - a future of fair taxes, fair employment and fair funding. That means investment, not cuts, with a British New Deal to defeat Tory austerity and re-balance the country. And under my leadership, it would mean a strengthening of employment rights including creating a new shadow Cabinet Secretary of State for Labour tasked with making Britain the envy of the world for the quality of our jobs and the protections they have, so workers have access to better terms and conditions.

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.

Mr Smiths emphasis on equal outcomes, as opposed to equal opportunities, is in direct contrast to what Tony Blair advocated in the 1990s as he tried to break away with what he called Old Labour. Interviewed by Jeremy Paxman, for the BBC, in 2002, the then Prime Minister said: Does equality mean equality of outcome? Or does it mean equal status, which includes equal opportunity? In my view it means equal opportunity.

But Mr Smiths emphasis on workers rights echoes one of Mr Corbyns themes during last years leadership campaign. Last August, he promised that if he were Prime Minister he would create a Ministry of Labour to deal with work, working conditions, and the issue that go with that.
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A second poll in the space of 24 hours has provided Theresa Mays Conservatives in a commanding position with a 12-point lead over the Labour party.

The YouGov poll for the Times suggests Labour has 28 per cent of the vote share while the Conservatives are on 40 per cent  providing them with a 12-point lead. It appears to be the biggest gap between the two parties since the end of Gordon Browns premiership in 2010 following the financial crash.

Interestingly, when Labour voters were asked by YouGov to choose between Ms May and Jeremy Corbyn as Prime Minister a large proportion  29 per cent  opted for the Tory leader. If compared with the 9.3 million who voted Labour at the general election in 2015 it would be equivalent to 2.7 million voters.

The poll added that among voters generally around 19 per cent thought Mr Corbyn would make a better Prime Minister than Ms May.

A second poll on Tuesday appeared to show the Tories with a 16-point lead. On current parliamentary boundaries, the latest four opinion polls would increase Theresa Mays wafer-thin majority of 12 to 102. Around 44 Labour MPs would lose their seats if the ICM poll were borne out, leaving the party with 188 MPs.

Martin Boon, ICMs director, said: Clearly, the relative calm associated with the handover of power from David Cameron to Theresa May, allied to the current Labour leadership challenge, weighs heavily on electors minds.

 John McDonnell pleas for Labour unity

It comes after weeks of bitter recrimination in the Labour party, dozens of resignations from the shadow Cabinet, an overwhelming vote of no confidence in Mr Corbyn and the beginning of a two month leadership battle.

Launching his campaign on Saturday the Labour leader's rival, Owen Smith, said he was genuinely afraid of a split in the party. We are in my view the greatest institution for social justice, for economic fairnessthat our country has ever seen. So for us to be in such a low place, for us to be teetering on the brink of what I fear could be a split in our party, the destruction of our party and the parting of waters that would allow radical right wing parties to sweep into the gap that we would leave  that is something that should leave all of us genuinely afraid, he added.
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Having seen his lifes work completed with Britains vote to leave the European Union, Nigel Farage stepped down as leader of the UK Independence Party. Now the task of finding someone to guide the party in post-Brexit Britain has begun. Here are some of the key questions surrounding the upcoming leadership contest:

What has Ukip been up to since Brexit?

Ukip is doing what the Labour Party is doing, and what the Conservatives did for a couple of weeks: they are having a leadership election. Their leader, Nigel Farage, did not have to resign, as David Cameron did, nor was anyone trying to force him out, as is the case with Jeremy Corbyn, but he chose to quit, announcing at a press conference on 4 July: During this referendum campaign I said I want my country back. Now I want my life back. He had after all achieved what had been his mission in life for more than 20 years.

 'I Want My Life Back' - Farage Resigns as UKIP Leader

Nominations for the resulting leadership contest close this Sunday. Ballot papers will go out on 1 September, and the votes will be counted on 16 September.

Is that the last we will hear of Nigel Farage?

It is impossible to believe that Mr Farage will go gently out of public life. He is still a member of the European Parliament, where he leads a band of 22 Ukip MEPs. Last week, he was in Ohio for the Republican National Convention, cheerfully giving interviews about Donald Trump, and what he believes to be the imminent disintegration of the EU. He suggested that the next countries to go could be Denmark, the Netherlands, and Sweden  Dexit, Nexit and Sexit  and announced that he is planning a European tour to encourage everyone who is prepared to listen to him on what they can do to dismantle the EU. He has also given Theresa May notice that if she does not begin the formal process of Brexit by invoking Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty within five months of the referendum, he will make trouble.

Besides, Mr Farage has resigned from the leadership of Ukip twice before, in 2009 and 2015. In neither instance was he gone for long.

Who are Ukip's best known leaders, apart from Farage?

Ukip's only MP, Douglas Carswell (Getty Images)

Douglas Carswell is Ukips only MP. Paul Nuttall has been Deputy Leader since 2010. Suzanne Evans is an articulate former Tory councillor whom Mr Farage once named as his preferred successor. Patrick OFlynn is an MEP and former Political Editor of the Daily Express. And, the multi-millionaire Aaron Banks has been their biggest financial backer.

So which of these is running for the leadership?

None.

Is something the matter?

Multi-millionaire Aaron Banks has been Ukip's biggest financial backer (Rex)

Like other political parties one could mention, Ukip is riven by in-fighting. It is so serious that in the months preceding the June referendum, they could not agree on which anti-EU campaign to support. Mr Carswell, Ms Evans and Mr OFlynn were part of the official Vote Leave campaign fronted by Boris Johnson and Michael Gove. While Mr Farage was the main front man for the unoffical Leave.EU campaign, bankrolled by Mr Banks. When Mr Banks found out last September that Mr Carswell was supporting Vote.Leave, he threatened him with deselection and denounced him as a borderline autistic with mental illness wrapped in  for which he later apologised.

This dispute was not simply about personalities. Leave.EU was prepared to use the immigration as a vote winner for Brexit with a ruthlessness that disturbed people in Vote.Leave.

What happened to Suzanne Evans, the preferred successor?

Nigel Farage once named Suzanne Evans as his preferred successor (Getty Images)

Mr Farage hailed Ms Evans as a tower of strength when she took over as temporary leader after he resigned in May last year. But she was not pleased when he promptly unresigned, and described him as divisive. She lost her positions as the partys policy chief and deputy chair. In March, she signed a petition calling upon Ukip to remove Alan Craig from the partys candidates list for the London Assembly, because he had previously likened gays to Nazis, claiming society was being crushed under the pink jack boot.

This was treated as disloyalty, and she was suspended from Ukip for six months, preventing her from running for the London Assembly or the leadership. She tried to get a court to overturn the suspension, and Mr OFlynn organised a petition calling for her reinstatement, but neither was successful. Rather oddly, she called a press conference in Westminster on Tuesday to announce that she has given up hope of being able to contest the leadership.

So who are the candidates?

Steven Woolfe MEP is Ukips migration spokesman (Getty)

The frontr unner in the current leadership election is Steven Woolfe, a former barrister who is the partys spokesman on immigration. Mr Banks has publicly backed him, which is perhaps a clue as to whom Mr Farage would like as his replacement. However, Huffington Post has seen documentary evidence that Mr Woolfe allowed his Ukip membership to lapse in December 2014, and did not renew it until four months ago. On one reading of the party rule book that disqualifies him as a candidate, because candidates have to have been Ukip members for at least two years; but the fact that he has been a Ukip MEP in good standing since July 2014 may be taken to mean that he satisfies the membership criteria.

His main challenger will be Lisa Duffy, a former store manager and the leader of the Ukip group on Huntingdonshire District Council. She has the backing of Ms Evans, Mr OFlynn and Mr Nuttall.

Nigel Farage's most controversial moments Show all 12 1 /12 Nigel Farage's most controversial moments Nigel Farage's most controversial moments When he unveiled that 'breaking point' poster during the referendum Mr Farage was accused of deploying Nazi-style propaganda when he unveiled a poster showing Syrian refugees travelling to Europe under the next Breaking point. Users on social media were quick to compare the advert to a Nazi propaganda film with similar visuals and featuring Jewish refugees. The poster was particularly controversial because it was unveiled the morning of the killing of Labour MP Jo Cox Rex Nigel Farage's most controversial moments When he said hed be concerned if his neighbours were Romanian In May 2014 Mr Farage was accused of a racial slur against Romanians after he suggested he would be concerned living next to a house of them. I was asked if a group of Romanian men moved in next to you, would you be concerned? And if you lived in London, I think you would be, he told LBC radio during an interview. Asked whether he would also object to living next to German children, he said: You know the difference Bongarts/Getty Images Nigel Farage's most controversial moments When he said the EU campaign was won 'without a bullet being fired' Nigel Farage has said the next Prime Minister has to be a Leave supporter AFP/Getty Nigel Farage's most controversial moments When he resigned as Ukip leader and came back days later After failing to win the seat of South Thanet at the general election, Nigel Farage stepped down as Ukip leader  as he had promised to do during the campaign. Days later on 11 May he un-resigned and said he would stay after being convinced by supporters within the party. Well see how long his resignation lasts this time AP/Matt Dunham Nigel Farage's most controversial moments When he blamed immigrants for making him late Mr Farage turned up late to a 25-a-head meet the leader style event in Port Talbot, Wales in December 2014. Asked why he was late, he blamed immigrants. It took me six hours and 15 minutes to get here - it should have taken three-and-a-half to four, he said. That has nothing to do with professionalism, what it does have to do with is a country in which the population is going through the roof chiefly because of open-door immigration and the fact that the M4 is not as navigable as it used to be Getty Nigel Farage's most controversial moments When he wanted to ban immigrants with HIV from Britain Mr Farage has used his platform as Ukip leader call for people with HIV to be banned from coming to Britain. Asked in an interview with Newsweek Europe in October 2014 who he thought should be allowed to come to the UK, he said: People who do not have HIV, to be frank. Thats a good start. And people with a skill. He also repeated similar comments in the 2015 general election leadership debates Getty Nigel Farage's most controversial moments When he defended the use of a racial slur against Chinese people Defending one of Ukips candidates, who used the word ch**ky to describe a Chinese person, Mr Farage said: If you and your mates were going out for a Chinese, what do you say you're going for?" When he was told by the presented that he honestly would not use the slur, Mr Farage replied: A lot would Lintao Zhang/Getty Images Nigel Farage's most controversial moments When he said parts of Britain were like a foreign land The Ukip leader used his 2014 conference speech to declare parts of Britain as being like a foreign land. He told his audience in Torquay that parts of the country were unrecognisable because of the number of foreigners there. Mr Farage has also previously said he felt uncomfortable when people spoke other language on a train Screengrab Nigel Farage's most controversial moments When he said the British army should be deployed to France At the height of trouble at Britains Calais border Mr Farage proposed a novel solution. The Ukip leader called for the British army to be sent to France to put down a migrant rebellion. In all civil emergencies like this we have an army, we have a bit of a Territorial Army as well and we have a very, very overburdened police force and border agency, he said. If in a crisis to make sure weve actually got the manpower to check lorries coming in, to stop people illegally coming to Britain, if in those circumstances we can use the army or other forces then why not AFP/Getty Nigel Farage's most controversial moments When he said breastfeeding women should sit in the corner Mr Farage sparked protests from mothers after he told women to sit on the corner if they wanted to breastfeed their children. I think that given that some people feel very embarrassed by it, it isnt too difficult to breastfeed a baby in a way that's not openly ostentatious, Mr Farage said. He added: "Or perhaps sit in the corner, or whatever it might be AFP/Getty Images Nigel Farage's most controversial moments When he said the gender pay gap exists because women are worth less At a Q&A on the European Union in January 2014 Mr Farage said there was no discrimination against women causing the gender pay gap. Instead, he said, women were paid less because they were simply worth far less than many of their male counterparts. A woman who has a client base, has a child and takes two or three years off - she is worth far less to her employer when she comes back than when she went away because that client base won't be stuck as rigidly to her portfolio, he said Getty Nigel Farage's most controversial moments When he said he actually couldnt guarantee 350m to the NHS after Brexit During the EU referendum campaign the Leave side pledged to spend 350 million a week on the National Health Service  claiming that this is what the UK sends to Brussels. Nigel Farage didnt speak out against this figure and also pledged to spend EU cash on the health service and other public services himself. Then the day of the election result he suddenly changed his tone, saying he couldnt guarantee the cash for the NHS and that to pledge to do so was a mistake Getty

But what is the point of Ukip?

Ukip began as a single issue campaign, and achieved its original purpose when the country voted Brexit, so, on the face of it, it would seem to have nothing left to do except keep watch over the Brexit negotiations. However, those 17 million people who voted for Brexit may well feel unrepresented, since none of the main political parties is led by a Brexit supporter. Ukip was the only political party of any size whose official policy was to support what the country eventually voted for.

Labour, in its current turmoil, is particularly vulnerable to having its support eaten away by a reinvented Ukip with a new purpose. Mr Woolfe, who comes from a Labour background and from an ethnically mixed family background, has said that if elected he will make social mobility the theme of his time as leader and will keep racists out of Ukip.
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An HIV-positive man has been arrested in Malawi after saying he was paid to have sex with children and young women as part of a 'cleansing ritual'.

Eric Aniva, a sex worker, told local and international media that families paid him to have sex with their children as part of an initiation rite at puberty. He allegedly also admitted he did not tell the families he was HIV-positive.

After publicly saying he wanted to stop doing this, Mr Aniva was arrested by police and condemned for committing "evil acts" by Malawi's President Peter Mutharika.

Mr Mutharika said the revelation had damaged the reputation of the south-east African nation.

"All people involved in this malpractice should be held accountable for subjecting their children and women to this despicable evil," he said in a statement.

"These horrific practices, although done by a few, also tarnish the image of the whole nation of Malawi internationally and bring shame to us all."

He added that Mr Aniva, who has been charged with multiple charges relating to have sex with children, would be "further investigated for exposing the young girls to contracting HIV and be charged accordingly".

Police inspector general Lexten Kachama said: "Out of the many women he had sex with, most of them were under-aged children."

human rights lawyer, Chrispine Sibande, said that Mr Aniva's role in the ritual was well-established across parts of Malawi. It is related to another practice in which men called "hyenas" have sex with women who cannot get pregnant.

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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. 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Ms Sibande welcomed the president's condemnation of Mr Aniva's actions and his promise that such crimes should be investigated.

"The practice is very rampant in some parts of the country," she said.

Malawi's government raised the age at which people can get married from 15 to 18 last year.

Additional reporting from the Associated Press
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A Bolivian tour guide unwittingly discovered one of the largest dinosaur footprints of its kind.

Paleontologists believe that the metre-wide print dates back some 80 million years and likely belongs to the carnivorous predator, the abelisaurus.

This print is bigger than any other we have found to date in the area, paleontologist Sebastian Apesteguia told Reuters. It is a record in size for carnivorous dinosaurs from the end of the Cretaceous period in South America.

Paleontologist Sebastian Apesteguia points out the giant footprint (Reuters)

The tour guide found the print earlier this month near the central-Bolivian city of Sucre. Bones belonging to the abelisaurus had previously been found in South America.

The abelisaurus was first discovered by Argentine paleontologists Jose F Bonaparte and Fernando E Novas in 1985. Upon the finding of a complete skull in Rio Negro, Argentina, the scientists determined that the dinosaur belonged to a new family of predators  rather than that of the closely similar Tyrannosaurus.

Although the skull had previously been discovered, little was known about the relative size of the dinosaur. The footprint may give researchers a better idea of the scale of the abelisaurus.
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David Beautiful Bald Eagle Jr, the prominent Native American chief and actor who appeared in movies including the Oscar-winning Dances with Wolves, has died at his home on the Cheyenne River Indian Reservation in South Dakota. He was 97.

A paratrooper, dancer, Wild West show performer and musician, who acted in more than 40 Hollywood films, Bald Eagle also spent several years as the face of the Mount Rushmore states tourism promotion campaign.

Recommended Read more Native American actor vows to give his people a voice in Hollywood

His grandfather, Chief White Bull, led a charge against General Custers Seventh Cavalry at the Battle of the Little Bighorn in 1876. A member of the Lakota Sioux tribe, Bald Eagle was born in a teepee at Cherry Creek village on the Cheyenne River reservation in 1919. He won a Silver Star for valour while serving in the US army during World War 2, landing as a paratrooper at Anzio in Italy and again in Normandy on D-Day, where he was wounded by German gunfire.

A drummer for the Cliff Keyes Big Band and a ballroom dancer, he lost his first wife and dance partner, Penny, in a car accident. He met his second wife, Josee, while performing in a Wild West show at the Worlds Fair in Belgium in 1958.

Meanwhile, he made the move into Hollywood, working with Golden Age stars such as John Wayne and Errol Flynn as a riding and weapons trainer and stunt double. He was also a longstanding fixture of the annual Days of 76 historical parade in Deadwood, South Dakota.

In 2001, he was elected the first Chief of the United Native Nations. Chiefs are chosen by acclamation but they have to meet certain criteria: being humble, being brave and other values we embrace as a people, said Sonny Skyhawk, an actor and founder of the advocacy group American Indians in Film and Television.

Dave Bald Eagle qualified in all those values. We dont have many chiefs left because most of them have made the journey to the spirit world, but Dave carried the name of chief very well. He was a very special and extraordinary human being. He stood for his people, honoured his people and educated others about them.

His final film was the drama Neither Wolf Nor Dog, which recently premiered at the Edinburgh Film Festival. He was an astonishingly beautiful man, the film's director, Steven Lewis Simpson, told the BBC. His life was more extraordinary than of those that most great biographies are written about.

Bald Eagle died on 22 July and a traditional four-day wake in his honour began on Monday. His funeral will take place on Friday at the Black Hills National Cemetery in Sturgis, South Dakota.
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Prosecutors have dropped all charges against the remaining three Baltimore police officers involved in the death of Freddie Gray.

It is the latest blow to campaigners and relatives of Mr Gray, who died after suffering a catastrophic spinal injury in a police van, following the failure of prosecutors to secure a single conviction in three earlier cases.

State Attorney Marilyn J Mosby delivered an impassioned statement outside the Gilmore Homes in West Baltimore, where Mr Gray was apprehended. Ms Mosby accused police officers of interfering with the investigation.

"There was a reluctance and an obvious bias that was consistently exemplified not by the entire Baltimore police department, but by individuals within the police department in every state of the investigation, which became blatantly apparent in the subsequent trials," she said.

Mr Gray's stepfather, Richard Shipley, expressed his gratitude to Ms Mosby and prosecutors and said the family stands with them.

"[Prosecutors] handled the case to their ability," Mr Shipley told reporters. "Westand behind Marilyn and her prosecuting team, and my family's proud to have them represent us."

After Freddie Gray: Baltimore unrest in pictures Show all 22 1 /22 After Freddie Gray: Baltimore unrest in pictures After Freddie Gray: Baltimore unrest in pictures Baltimore riots Police and firefighters respond in front of a building that caught fire as protests of the death of Freddie Gray continue in Baltimore After Freddie Gray: Baltimore unrest in pictures Baltimore riots A Baltimore firefighter cuts his way into a burning convenience store with a saw to attack a fire set by rioters at East Biddle Street and Montford Avenue in Baltimore After Freddie Gray: Baltimore unrest in pictures Baltimore riots A Baltimore firefighter climbs onto a rooftop to attack a fire set by rioters in a convenience store and residence at East Biddle Street and Montford Avenue After Freddie Gray: Baltimore unrest in pictures Baltimore riots Baltimore firefighters attack a fire in a convenience store and residence during clashes after the funeral of Freddie Gray in Baltimore After Freddie Gray: Baltimore unrest in pictures Baltimore riots Gloria Darden, mother of Freddie Gray, covers her face during a news conference after a day of unrest following the funeral of Gray After Freddie Gray: Baltimore unrest in pictures Baltimore riots The family of Freddie Gray gather with clergy and pray during a news conference in Baltimore After Freddie Gray: Baltimore unrest in pictures Baltimore riots Rioters burned police vehicles and pelted officers with stones AP After Freddie Gray: Baltimore unrest in pictures Baltimore riots A man has pepper spray cleaned from his eyes Getty Images After Freddie Gray: Baltimore unrest in pictures Baltimore riots Baltimore police officers form a line in front of protesters Getty Images After Freddie Gray: Baltimore unrest in pictures Baltimore riots Looters ransacked shops and torched police cars amid the unrest AP After Freddie Gray: Baltimore unrest in pictures Baltimore riots A CVS chemist outlet burns in Baltimore after it was set alight by rioters AP After Freddie Gray: Baltimore unrest in pictures Baltimore riots The Shaheed family assess the damage to their store in downtown Baltimore David Usborne After Freddie Gray: Baltimore unrest in pictures Baltimore riots The riots broke out just a few streets from the church where the funeral was held AP After Freddie Gray: Baltimore unrest in pictures Baltimore riots A protester is detained in Baltimore following the funeral of Freddie Gray earlier in the day AP After Freddie Gray: Baltimore unrest in pictures Baltimore riots Police in front of a building that caught fire after being looted EPA After Freddie Gray: Baltimore unrest in pictures Baltimore riots A youth washes out pepper spray from his eyes near a building that caught fire after being looted EPA After Freddie Gray: Baltimore unrest in pictures Baltimore riots People pose for photographs on the hood of a Baltimore Police car destroyed by demonstrators GETTY After Freddie Gray: Baltimore unrest in pictures Baltimore riots The riots broke out just a few streets from the church where the funeral was held for Freddie Gray GETTY After Freddie Gray: Baltimore unrest in pictures Baltimore riots Demonstrators threw rocks and other objects at police following the funeral of Freddie Gray AP After Freddie Gray: Baltimore unrest in pictures Baltimore riots Arrests have been made, with many of those involved appearing to be school children and students AP After Freddie Gray: Baltimore unrest in pictures Baltimore riots Protests over Freddie Gray's death turned violent Reuters After Freddie Gray: Baltimore unrest in pictures Baltimore riots The circumstances surrounding Freddie Gray's death in custody still remain unclear AP

Circuit Judge Barry G Williams acquitted Lieutenant Brian Rice, Officer Edward Nero, and Officer Caesar Goodson Jr during bench trials beginning in May. Officer William Porters case was declared a mistrial when it ended with a hung jury. Porter was scheduled for a retrial in September before Wednesdays announcement.

Officer Garrett Miller, the officer who arrested Mr Gray, was supposed to begin his trial Wednesday. He was charged with second degree assault, misconduct in office, and reckless endangerment.

[scald=3791106:sdl_editor_representation]

The death of Freddie Gray sparked street disturbances in Baltimore last year, following a string of cases in which black men died at the hands of police.

Mr Gray, 25, was arrested on April 12, 2015. He died a week later.

Baltimore became the centre of growing protests against police brutality.

Wednesdays acquittal could further inflame passions, with prosecutors accused of failing to hold police officers to account.

Campaigners already accuse the police department of failing to learn lessons from the case.

In June, the Baltimore Police Department introduced a new use of force policy that stresses de-escalation policies, rather than the broken windows-type policing that resulted in the arrest of Mr Gray  who was pursued after making eye contact with an officer and running. The new guidelines also list preserving the sanctity of human life as one of its top priorities.

However, community activists dismissed it as way for the police to save face amid national scrutiny.

Its just a smokescreen to those who arent really affected [by Baltimore Police Department culture], prominent activist Kwame Rose previously told The Independent. Nobody who is affected by the culture of the Baltimore Police Department will see a change in policing.
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After 35 years in a psychiatric hospital, the man who tried to kill President Ronald Reagan is expected to be released this month.

John Hinckley Jr attempted to assassinate Mr Reagan and shot three others outside the Washington Hilton Hotel on 30 March 1981.

A federal judge has ruled in favour of his release.

Recommended Read more John Hinckley Jr seeks more time outside mental hospital

Hinckley, 61, now no longer poses a danger to himself or others, the judge has ruled. He will live full-time with his mother in Williamsburg, Virginia, as soon as 5 August.

He will still be subject to dozens of temporary restrictions and monitoring conditions, said US District Judge Paul Friedman, who took over the case of Hinckleys re-integration into society since 2001.

These restrictions, including not straying more than 50 miles outside of Williamsburg, turning over information about his mobile phone and any vehicle he drives, as well as being barried from social media, could be phased out between 12 and 18 months.

Reagan narrowly escaped with his life from the shooting (Reuters)

If he relapses or violates the terms of his release, he could be returned to St Elizabeth's Hospital, where he lived full time since the 1990s. He was gradually allowed to spend 17 days per month at the home of his 90-year-old mother.

Court documents said he had shown no symptoms of active mental illness since 1983.

In the view of most of the experts who testified before this court, Mr Hinckley has by now received the maximum benefits possible in an in-patient setting, it concluded.

Hinckley was 25 years old when he used a .22-caliber pistol to wound Mr Reagan, his press secretary, James Brady, a US Secret Service agent Tim McCarthy and police officer Thomas Delahanty.

Everyone survived the attack, but Mr Brady was left paralysed with a shot in the head. He died in 2014, and spent the years before his death campaigning for gun controls. Mr Reagan narrowly escaped from the attack. He died in 2004 at the age of 90, after suffering from Alzheimers for more than a decade.

The footage aired live on television and was seen by millions. He became one of the most famous mental health patients in the country.

He said he had attempted to kill the president to impress actress Jodie Foster, with whom he was obsessed, after he saw the film Taxi Driver.

Jodie, Im asking you now to please look into your heart and at least give me the chance, with this historic deed to gain your respect and love, he wrote in a letter that was found later by police.

He was diagnosed as delusional and suffering from a personality disorder, but was not found to present classic signs of schizophrenia, as reported by The Washington Post.

In Williamsburg, Hinckley will have to continue therapy and not talk to the media, and will volunteer three or four times a week.

He has lived with his mother for the majority of the month since December 2013, where he carries a trackable phone, logs his daily activities and takes unsupervised walks.
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A man who was filmed hitting a turtle to death with a hammer has claimed he killed the reptile in self-defence.

Terry Wayne Washington was seen by a crowd of witnesses killing the turtle with a hammer after he and a man, later identified as his friend, accidently reeled in the animal while fishing on Lady Bird Lake in Austin, Texas on 21 June.

According to Austin police, witnesses, one of whom filmed the incident, said Washington's friend pulled the turtle to shore with a hammer after it became caught in his line. Washington then took up the tool and used the blunt end to hit the turtle while it was still attached to the fishing line, Fox 7 reports.

A witness films Terry Wayne Washington hitting a turtle with a hammer in Austin, Texas (Fox 7 News ) (Fox 7 News)

Washington hit the turtle more than 10 times, breaking its shell and crushing its head, according to police. He then dragged the carcass under a bridge and left it at the scene.

The 55-year-old has admitted killing the animal, which weighed around 40 pounds, saying he smashed it in self-defence after it lunged at him and attempted to bite him.

Washington's friend, who has not been identified in reports, told police, the turtles "were being a real nuisance that day because they kept eating their bait and scaring fish away," 3 News reports.

Witnesses have reportedly disputed Washington's claims, saying the turtle did not attack the fishermen and was instead attempting to return to the water.

In court documents, cited by 3 News, police say Washington could have easily cut the line to let the turtle free.

Where not to visit if you love animals Show all 9 1 /9 Where not to visit if you love animals Where not to visit if you love animals Monkey shows Chimpanzees are forced to perform demeaning tricks on leashes and are often subject to cruel training techniques. Animals who are confined to small, barren enclosures and forced to perform unsurprisingly show symptoms of stress and depression. Chimpanzees have been documented rocking back and forth, sucking their lips, salivating and swaying against enclosure perimeters in distress. Getty Where not to visit if you love animals Marine parks Some parks confine orcas to concrete tanks and force them to perform meaningless tricks for food - many die in captivity. Orcas are highly intelligent and social mammals who may suffer immensely, both physically and mentally, when they're held in captivity. Getty Where not to visit if you love animals Tiger shows Tigers are forced to live in an unnatural and barren environment and have to endure interactions with a constant stream of tourists. Since tigers never lose their wild instincts, across the world they are reportedly drugged, mutilated and restrained in order to make them safe for the public. However, every year, incidents of tiger maulings are reported at this type of tourist attraction. Getty Where not to visit if you love animals Donkey rides Sunning on the beach is great for humans  we can take a quick dip or catch a bite to eat when we get too hot or hungry. But it's pure hell for donkeys who are confined to the beach and forced to cart children around on the hot sand. Some donkey-ride operators at beach resorts in the UK even keep the animals chained together at all times. Getty Where not to visit if you love animals Swimming with dolphins Some marine parks use bottlenose dolphins in performances and offer visitors the opportunity to swim with dolphins. Unfortunately, people are often unaware that these animals are captured in the wild and torn from their families or traded between different parks around the world. Getty Where not to visit if you love animals Canned hunting Lions are confined to fenced areas so that they can easily be cornered, with no chance of escape. Most of them will have been bred in captivity and then taken from their mothers to be hand-reared by the cub-petting industry. When they get too big, they may be drugged before they are released into a "hunting" enclosure. Because these animals are usually kept in fenced enclosures (ranging in size from just a few square yards to thousands of acres), they never stand a chance of surviving. Getty Where not to visit if you love animals Running of the Bulls Every year, tourists travel to Pamplona for the Running of the Bulls. The bulls who are forced to slip and slide down the town's narrow cobblestone streets are chased straight into the bullring. They are then taunted, stabbed repeatedly and finally killed by the matador in front of a jeering crowd. The majority of Spaniards reject bullfighting, but tourists are keeping the cruel industry on its last legs. Getty Where not to visit if you love animals Horse-drawn carriages City streets are no place for horses. The animals toil in all weather extremes, suffering from respiratory distress from breathing in exhaust fumes as well as numerous hoof, leg and back problems from walking on pavement all day long. As easily spooked prey animals, horses subjected to the loud noises and unexpected sounds of city streets are likely to be involved in accidents, even deadly ones. Getty Where not to visit if you love animals Zoos The zoo community regards the animals it keeps as commodities, and animals are regularly bought, sold, borrowed and traded without any regard for established relationships. Zoos breed animals because the presence of babies draws visitors and boosts revenue, yet often, there's nowhere to put the offspring as they grow, and they are killed, as we saw with Marius the giraffe in Denmark. Some zoos have introduced evening events with loud music and alcohol which disrupt the incarcerated animals even further. EPA

Washington has been charged with cruelty to non-life stock animals.

In a further incident in June, an endangered turtle was badly injured after being beaten and stood on by people taking selfies on a beach in Lebanon.

The male loggerhead sea turtle is receiving treatment after being dragged out of the surf at Havana beach, just south of Beirut.

In February, a crowd on a beach in Buenos Aires, Argentina was accused of casual cruelty when footage emerged appearing to show them removing a baby dolphin from the water, causing it to overheat and die.
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New York City police officials were reminded of the popular 1995 film Heat  starring Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Val Kilmer and Jon Voight as they investigated a crew of burglars who used blowtorches to break into banks in two boroughs.

Suspects Michael Mazzara, 44, Charles Kerrigan, 40, and Anthony Mascuzzio, 36, were arrested on Tuesday in connection to the break-ins which took place in Brooklyn in 2012 and Queens in 2013. Approximately $5 million were stolen in the robberies.

These heists reminded me of one of my favorite movies, Heat, NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton said at a news conference in Manhattan. This crew was nearly perfect, but they left behind small pieces of evidence: plywood purchased at a nearby Home Depot and torches from a Brooklyn welder used to muscle into the vault.

Authorities have been investigating the robberies since 2014 and said that the suspects had been living lavish lifestyles ever since.

These guys then used the money and valuables to finance their lavish lifestyles. They bought new cars and motorcycles, Jet Skis and boats, FBI Assistant Director in Charge Diego Rodriguez told reporters. They partied in Las Vegas and took trips to Miami while the residents of Brooklyn and Rego Park got taken to the cleaners.
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In a speech that aides began composing last month, President Barack Obama will insist to delegates in Philadelphia on Wednesday that, there has never been a man or a woman more qualified than Hillary Clinton to serve as President of the United States.

You know, nothing truly prepares you for the demands of the Oval Office. Until youve sat at that desk, you dont know what its like to manage a global crisis or send young people to war. But Hillarys been in the room; shes been part of those decisions," Mr Obama will say in a speech set to last thirty minutes. Aides say he was up until 3 am on Monday putting final touches to the draft and practised delivering it in the White House Map Room on Tuesday afternoon.

Brief excerpts of the speech were released by the White House press office several hours before the President was due to deliver the primetime address of the third night of the Democratic convention in Philadelphia's Wells Fargo Center on a day that had been dominated by news of Donald Trump, the Republican nominee, inviting Russia to try to unearth what he said were the 30,000 emails still not handed over by Ms Clinton in the investigation of her use of a private email serve while she ran the State Department.

The stakes are high for the president and his partys nominee. It will be one of the last times America sees Mr Obama make a set-piece address before he leaves his office next January. For Ms Clinton, his words may count for more than anyone elses in helping a wary nation accept her as the right person to succeed him in November over MrTrump.

 David Usborne looks ahead to Barack Obama's DNC speech

Mr Obama, who has chosen largely to duck the traditional, big-scale donors meet-and-greet parties that are largely expected of a party leader at convention time, was to fly into Philadelphia on Air Force One while the convention was already in session hearing speeches from headliners like vice presidential nominee, Senator Tom Kaine.

Also on the docket to take the stage: Joe Biden, who has served as vice president for two terms, and the former Mayor of New York, Michael Bloomberg. Although Mr Bloomberg was originally elected as mayor as a Republican he decided to speak up for Ms Clinton at the confab because of his deep dismay with Mr Trump.

Mr Obama was to use the speech in part to push back against the Trump depiction of the United States as a nation in decline and permanent crisis. The America I know is full of courage, and optimism, and ingenuity, he was to say. The America I know is decent and generous.

As Ive traveled this country, through all fifty states; as Ive rejoiced with you and mourned with you, what Ive also seen, more than anything, is what is right with America. I see people working hard and starting businesses; people teaching kids and serving our country. I see a younger generation full of energy and new ideas, unconstrained by what is, and ready to seize what ought to be.

But above all, he will offer his own appreciation of Ms Clinton, the rival he defeated in the hard-fought primaries of 2008 but whom he later picked as his first Secretary of State.

Even in the middle of crisis, she listens to people, and keeps her cool, and treats everybody with respect, Mr Obama was to tell delegates. And no matter how daunting the odds; no matter how much people try to knock her down, she never, ever quits.

Thats the Hillary I know. Thats the Hillary Ive come to admire. And thats why I can say with confidence there has never been a man or a woman more qualified than Hillary Clinton to serve as President of the United States of America.
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He is older now, his hair more grey, and possessing a voice softened by the years.

And yet on Tuesday night, at the Democratic National Convention, a man considered by many the most natural politician of his generation, turned back the years to tell the world about a women he fell in love with more than 45 years ago, and whom he urged America to elect as its first female president.

This woman has never been satisfied with the status quo about anything, said Bill Clinton. If you believe in making change from the ground up. Shes put years into making peoples lives better.

Mr Clinton was rewarded with huge applause (AP)

He added: This time Hillary is uniquely qualifiedShe is still the darn best change maker I have ever know.

Mr Clinton, 69, the 42nd president of the US, wove a speech that was private yet universal, quiet and still rousing. Over the course of around 40 minutes, he sought to paint a picture of a woman who has been in the headlines for the past 20 years and more, and yet who to many remains a mystery.

His story began four decades ago, when the part were students at Yale. In the spring of 1971, I met a girl, he declared. She walked the whole length of the corridor and said Look if you're going to keep staring at me, which both ought to know each others name.

During his own terms as president and subsequently, while campaigning for his wife, Mr Clinton has not always been great asset to his wife. He was impeached in 1998 after being accused of perjury and obstruction of justice relating to his affair - one of many apparently - with a White House intern, Monica Lewinsky.

The affair scandalised Washington and might have ended their marriage. Instead, Ms Clinton took the decision to stick with her husband, a decision the wisdom of which has divided opinion ever since.

 DNC 2016: Demi Lovato speaks about mental health as she endorses Hillary Clinton

And on the campaign trail, Mr Clinton has been a mixed blessing to his wife. In 2008, he caused controversies and was even accused of racial stereotyping over comments he made following his wifes defeat to Barack Obama.

In the 2016 campaign, he has found himself at the center of controversy when he fought with Black Lives Matter activists over his 1994 Crime Bill, a piece of legislation that was widely seen to discriminate unfairly against black and minority communities.

Mr Clinton pointed at the protesters and said: I dont know how you would characterise gang leaders who got 13-year-old kids hopped up on crack and sent them out on the street to murder other African-American children.

Referring to his wifes stance, he added: Maybe you thought they were good citizens. She didnt.

On Tuesday night, Mr Clinton highlighted his wifes strengths as a mother, and as someone who worked for those with less. He said there was a stark difference between the image he was painting and that which had been portrayed by her opponents at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland last week.

How do you square the things I told you with the picture the Republicans painted of their opponent in Cleveland? You cant, he said. Well, One is real; the other is made up.

Democratic National Convention 2016 in pictures Show all 15 1 /15 Democratic National Convention 2016 in pictures Democratic National Convention 2016 in pictures First Lady Michelle Obama called on Democratic party members to trust in the 'steady and measured' Mrs Clinton, in a speech critics described as "show-stealing" Getty Images Democratic National Convention 2016 in pictures The first day of the convention was attended by a vast crowd of approximately 50,000 as the event got into full swing in Philadelphia Getty Images Democratic National Convention 2016 in pictures Senator Bernie Sanders delivered an impassioned speech endorsing Mrs Clinton, and asking the party to unite for their prospective candidate REUTERS Democratic National Convention 2016 in pictures Two advocates of the former candidate Sanders were reduced to tears as details of an alleged conspiracy against his nomination were gradually revealed REUTERS Democratic National Convention 2016 in pictures Senator Elizabeth Warren was repeatedly heckled and booed as she endorsed Hillary Clinton for the Democratic presidential candidacy Getty Images Democratic National Convention 2016 in pictures Former president Bill Clinton (left) looks pensive as the resentment against his wife's nomination appeared to grow during day one of the convention Getty Images Democratic National Convention 2016 in pictures A Bernie Sanders supporter taped her mouth shut in protest against his perceived mistreatment at the hands of the Democratic party AFP/Getty Images Democratic National Convention 2016 in pictures Senator Cor Brooker called for unity within the party, saying: "We are called to be a nation of love" REUTERS Democratic National Convention 2016 in pictures Actress Eva Longoria gave a heartfelt speech in which she called upon members to trust in Mrs Clinton as their candidate Getty Images Democratic National Convention 2016 in pictures Senator Al Franken was joined on stage by comedian and actress Sarah Silverman, with critics praising their double act Getty Images Democratic National Convention 2016 in pictures Delegates danced joyously at the convention in the Wells Fargo Center as musical entertainment was provided Getty Images Democratic National Convention 2016 in pictures Pop singer Demi Lovato told the DNC she was "living with mental illness" before performing her hit single 'Confident' Getty Images Democratic National Convention 2016 in pictures Legendary singer-songwriter Paul Simon was another high-profile performer to entertain the crowd on day one Getty Images Democratic National Convention 2016 in pictures Anastasia Somoza, an international disability rights advocate, also delivered remarks on the first day of the convention Getty Images Democratic National Convention 2016 in pictures A delegate holds a sign that reads "Stronger together" as the first day of the convention drew to a close Getty Images

Mr Clinton closed his speech with an appeal for action.

So look, this is a really important point for you to take out of this convention, he continued, If you believe in making change from the bottom-up, if you believe the measure of change is making peoples lives better, you know it is hard and some people think it is boring. Speeches like this are fun. Actually doing the work is hard.

If you love this country and would like to become a citizen. you should choose immigration reform over someone who wants to send you back, he said.

If you love freedom and hate terror stay here and help build a future together."

He added: "If youre a young African American disillusioned and afraid, help us build a future where no one is afraid to walk outside. Hillary will make us stronger together.
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President Barack Obama risks getting a hostile reception from some in his own party when he addresses the Democratic Convention on Wednesday night because of his stance on trade.

Skittish party managers are toiling to ensure that when Mr Obama takes the podium in Philadelphia delegates opposed to his signature Pacific trade deal do not try to seize the televised moment to air their grievances with chants or boos. It wasnt clear ahead of time, if Mr Obama would discuss the treaty directly or opt for safety and leave out all mention of it.

Recommended Read more Democrats formally nominate Hillary Clinton for president

The fate of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, TPP, has divided Democrats as they strive to hold on to the White House. There were wild scenes at the convention on Monday night as delegates, especially those who had backed Bernie Sanders, booed several speakers while waving anti-TPP placards and raised a banner saying, Economic Justice, Climate Justice, Trade Justice.

After helping to negotiate the deal, which promises to lower barriers between twelve countries around the Pacific rim to create a near single market of 800 million people, twice the size of the European Unions, Ms Clinton, under pressure from the partys left, has now declared herself opposed to it.

Those negotiations are now completed and the treaty awaits ratification by the US and the other members - Japan, Malaysia, Vietnam, Singapore, Brunei, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Mexico, Chile and Peru. If it can be done, it would be central to Mr Obamas legacy as president.

Demonstrators protest against the TPP in Washington, DC in May 2015 (SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images)

But few issues in Philadelphia - both in the convention hall and amidst the throngs of protesters who have jammed the city daily - have incited more passion than the TPP. On Wednesday morning, a member of the US Congress from Wisconsin, Ron Kind, who supports free trade, was virtually encircled by furious protestors, one shouting at him directly to his face, as he arrived to deliver a breakfast speech to members of his states delegation.

 David Usborne looks ahead to Barack Obama's DNC speech

The displays at the convention on Monday, when the floor became a sea of red signs with the initials TPP and a slash across them, came amidst anger that that there is no commitment to ditch the treaty in the official party platform adopted on the eve of their gathering in Philadelphia.

The animosity has been fueled notably by Mr Sanders who has repeatedly tied its provisions to the NAFTA trade deal linking Mexico and Canada to the US. Signed by Ms Clintons husband, Bill Clinton in 1993, it has been blamed by the liberal wing for sending jobs abroad and helping accelerate the decline of US manufacturing.

The US Congress has already voted to give Mr Obama so-called fast track authority to submit the treaty for approval by a straight up and down vote without amendments.. But its fate is now in doubt as a growing contingent of Democrats and also Republicans have begun to waver.

Traditionally supportive of free trade agreements, the Republican Party also now finds itself with a nominee in Donald Trump who has also sought to exploit economic anxiety, especially in the American rust belt, to stir opposition to the TPP, which he has said he would not accept while also vowing to demand a renegotiation of NAFTA.

On Tuesday, Mr Trump questioned Ms Clintons commitment to opposing the TPP when one of her closest and oldest allies, Terry McAuliffe, the Governor of Virginia, said in an interview on the fringes of the convention that he expected her to soften her position once she is president and sign the treaty after a few tweaks.

Once the elections over, and we sit down on trade, people understand a couple things we want to fix on it but going forward we got to build a global economy, he said. Asked specifically if she would sign it, he replied: Yes, adding, Listen, she was in support of it. There were specific things in it she wants fixed.

The Trump campaign wasted no time suggesting his words were proof that Ms Clinton was not to be trusted on the issue. This should surprise nobody! tweeted Donald Trumps campaign chairman Paul Manafort.

"If Hillary gets in she is lying", Mr Trump told reporters at a press conference in Florida on Wednesday. "TPP will happen, there is no one closer to Clinton than McAuliffe".

While opposing TPP helps Mr Trump bolster support from blue collar whites and gives Ms Clinton a bridge to the left-liberal flank of the party that is generally suspicious of her, there is a disconnect with the country as a whole. An NBC poll earlier this month showed that 55 per cent of the country favours expanding free trade with other nations and that it is good for America.

Even the top tickets of both parties are riven down the middle on the issue. Both Governor Mike Pence of Indiana and US Senator Tim Kaine, respectively the running mates of Mr Trump and Ms Clinton, have been staunch supporters of free trade and of the TPP itself.

The comments from Mr McAuliffe questioning Ms Clintons commitment to block it sent party managers into an instant scramble to distance the candidate from them.

While Governor McAuliffe is a supporter of the TPP, he has no expectation Secretary Clinton would change her position on the legislation and she has never told him anything to that effect, the Clinton campaign said. Its manager, John Podesta, underscored the point on Twitter.

Love Gov. McAuliffe, but he got this one flat wrong, he tweeted. Hillary opposes TPP BEFORE and AFTER the election. Period. Full stop.
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What to say about nine women who take to a stage and talk about their children - shot or killed before their time, by the police or else by strangers?

On Tuesday night, as a succession of women stood before the Democratic National Convention stage in Philadelphia and spoke about those they had lost, most people chose simply to listen, to admire their courage. The women - all of them African American - spoke of the need to address race relations and police reform, while acknowledging the dangers police officers face.

We have to be here so that we can still say Sandys name, said Geneva Reed-Veal, the mother of Sandra Bland, a 28-year-old black woman who died in in a police cell in Texas, after being arrested and jailed for a traffic violation. Im still her mother.

A poster of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, who was killed in Sanford, Florida in 2012 (Getty Images)

Ms Reed-Veal was one of nine women, the so-called Mothers of the Movement, who took to the stage on Tuesday, urging people to vote for Hillary Clinton and backing her demand for gun regulation and criminal justice reform.

During the course of the primary campaign, Ms Clinton shared stages with the women. Sometimes she was accused of exploiting their tragedies; others said she was giving them a voice.

You dont stop being a mother just because your child dies, said

 Footage shows Sandra Bland in prison

Lucia McBath, mother of 17-year-old Jordan Davis, who was shot by Michael Dunn in Jacksonville, Florida in 2012. The shooting occurred after Mr Dunn, who is white, complained that the music Mr Davis and his friends were playing in their car was too loud.

Ms McBath said that Ms Clinton, who made gun control a central part of her campaign, said she still woke up every day worrying about caring for her son, and honoring his memory.

 DNC 2016 - The Independent reports from the convention floor

She isnt afraid to sit at a table with grieving mothers and feel the full force of our anguish, she said. We are going to keep on telling out stories and keep saying their names.

Democratic National Convention 2016 in pictures Show all 15 1 /15 Democratic National Convention 2016 in pictures Democratic National Convention 2016 in pictures First Lady Michelle Obama called on Democratic party members to trust in the 'steady and measured' Mrs Clinton, in a speech critics described as "show-stealing" Getty Images Democratic National Convention 2016 in pictures The first day of the convention was attended by a vast crowd of approximately 50,000 as the event got into full swing in Philadelphia Getty Images Democratic National Convention 2016 in pictures Senator Bernie Sanders delivered an impassioned speech endorsing Mrs Clinton, and asking the party to unite for their prospective candidate REUTERS Democratic National Convention 2016 in pictures Two advocates of the former candidate Sanders were reduced to tears as details of an alleged conspiracy against his nomination were gradually revealed REUTERS Democratic National Convention 2016 in pictures Senator Elizabeth Warren was repeatedly heckled and booed as she endorsed Hillary Clinton for the Democratic presidential candidacy Getty Images Democratic National Convention 2016 in pictures Former president Bill Clinton (left) looks pensive as the resentment against his wife's nomination appeared to grow during day one of the convention Getty Images Democratic National Convention 2016 in pictures A Bernie Sanders supporter taped her mouth shut in protest against his perceived mistreatment at the hands of the Democratic party AFP/Getty Images Democratic National Convention 2016 in pictures Senator Cor Brooker called for unity within the party, saying: "We are called to be a nation of love" REUTERS Democratic National Convention 2016 in pictures Actress Eva Longoria gave a heartfelt speech in which she called upon members to trust in Mrs Clinton as their candidate Getty Images Democratic National Convention 2016 in pictures Senator Al Franken was joined on stage by comedian and actress Sarah Silverman, with critics praising their double act Getty Images Democratic National Convention 2016 in pictures Delegates danced joyously at the convention in the Wells Fargo Center as musical entertainment was provided Getty Images Democratic National Convention 2016 in pictures Pop singer Demi Lovato told the DNC she was "living with mental illness" before performing her hit single 'Confident' Getty Images Democratic National Convention 2016 in pictures Legendary singer-songwriter Paul Simon was another high-profile performer to entertain the crowd on day one Getty Images Democratic National Convention 2016 in pictures Anastasia Somoza, an international disability rights advocate, also delivered remarks on the first day of the convention Getty Images Democratic National Convention 2016 in pictures A delegate holds a sign that reads "Stronger together" as the first day of the convention drew to a close Getty Images

Sybrina Fulton, the mother of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, who died after being shot by neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman in 2012 in Sanford, Florida, said she was not taking part in the group by choice. Neither, she said, were any of the women.

But Ms Fulton, who had watched her sons killer cleared of murder charges, said it was important to vote for a candidate who was going to address the issue, rather than ignore it.

She said: Hillary is one woman who can make sure our moment succeeds.


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The US election campaign has plunged to new a level of accusation and toxicity after Donald Trump claimed Russian leader Vladimir Putin had no respect for Barack Obama and appeared to imply he used a racial epithet to describe the American president. He also encouraged Russia to hack the emails of his election rival Hillary Clinton.

In comments that were extreme even by the standards Mr Trump, the Republican candidate was asked by reporters in Florida about the controversy surrounding the alleged Russian hacking of Democratic National Committee (DNC) emails.

Mr Trump said Mr Putin had neither respect or affection for Mr Obama. He implied that he had heard the Russian leader use a racial slur to describe the US president.Trump talking Putin goes from "he called Obama the n-word" to "I hope he likes me" in 20 seconds.

I was shocked to hear him mention the N-word, said Mr Trump, who has previously spoken of his admiration for the Russian leader. You know what the N-word is.

He added: Number one he doesnt like him and number two he doesnt respect him. I think hes going to respect your president if Im elected and I hope he likes me.

In comments that were in sharp contrast to a statement issued by his Republican running mate, he also appeared to sanction cyber-spying of a foreign power when he suggested Russia should hack into Ms Clintons computer system and locate the missing emails. Ms Clinton has been accused of destroying thousands of emails after she was investigated for using a private server while serving as Secretary of State.

Russia, if youre listening, I hope youre able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing, Mr. Trump said I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press.

Later, asked directly if he was actually asking a foreign nation to hack into Ms Clintons emails, he dismissed the question.

Thats up to the president, Mr Trump said, telling the female questioner to be quiet.

He also declined to unequivocally call on Mr Putin, the Russian president, not to meddle in the election. Im not going to tell Putin what to do, Mr Trump said. Why should I tell Putin what to do?

Mr Trump has been dragged into the controversy surrounding the hacking of DNC emails, around 20,000 of which were released by Wikileaks. At the weekend, Ms Clintons spokesman claimed that Mr Trump was favoured by Mr Putin and that he was somehow behind the effort to to embarrass the Democratic Party. The emails revealed a plot to try and smear Ms Clinton's rival, Bernie Sanders, something that led to the resignation of the DNC chairperson.

Donald Trump's most controversial quotes Show all 14 1 /14 Donald Trump's most controversial quotes Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On Isis: "Some of the candidates, they went in and didnt know the air conditioner didnt work and sweated like dogs, and they didnt know the room was too big because they didnt have anybody there. How are they going to beat ISIS?" Getty Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On immigration: "I will build a great wall  and nobody builds walls better than me, believe me and Ill build them very inexpensively. I will build a great, great wall on our southern border, and I will make Mexico pay for that wall. Mark my words." Reuters Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On Free Trade: "Free trade is terrible. Free trade can be wonderful if you have smart people. But we have stupid people." PAUL J. RICHARDS | AFP | Getty Images Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On Mexicans: "When Mexico sends its people, theyre not sending their best. Theyre sending people that have lots of problems. Theyre bringing drugs. Theyre bringing crime. Theyre rapists." Getty Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On China: "I just sold an apartment for $15 million to somebody from China. Am I supposed to dislike them?... I love China. The biggest bank in the world is from China. You know where their United States headquarters is located? In this building, in Trump Tower." Getty Images Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On work: "If you're interested in 'balancing' work and pleasure, stop trying to balance them. Instead make your work more pleasurable." AP Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On success: "What separates the winners from the losers is how a person reacts to each new twist of fate." Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On life: "Everything in life is luck." AFP Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On ambition: "You have to think anyway, so why not think big?" Getty Images Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On his opponents: "Bush is totally in favour of Common Core. I don't see how he can possibly get the nomination. He's weak on immigration. He's in favour of Common Core. How the hell can you vote for this guy? You just can't do it." Reuters Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On Obamacare: "You have to be hit by a tractor, literally, a tractor, to use it, because the deductibles are so high. It's virtually useless. And remember the $5 billion web site?... I have so many web sites, I have them all over the place. I hire people, they do a web site. It costs me $3." Getty Images Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On Barack Obama: "Obama is going to be out playing golf. He might be on one of my courses. I would invite him. I have the best courses in the world. I have one right next to the White House." PA Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On himself: "Love him or hate him, Trump is a man who is certain about what he wants and sets out to get it, no holds barred. Women find his power almost as much of a turn-on as his money." Getty Images Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On America: "The American Dream is dead. But if I get elected president I will bring it back bigger and better and stronger than ever before and we will make America great again." GETTY

Ms Clinton's campaign spokesman, Robby Mook, told ABC that the emails were leaked by the Russians for the purpose of helping Donald Trump.

Mr Trump has denied that he was in any way involved in the hacking of the emails or that their release by Wikileaks on the eve of the Democratic convention in Philadelphia. US media has reported that US intelligence believes Russia is behind the hack of the emails, though Mr Trump has denied that the evidence is clear.

The Associated Press said that Mr Trump has said that he has zero investments in Russia and has insisted that his company had not received any significant investments from the country.

He also has downplayed his affection for Mr Putin and said he would treat the Russian leader firmly, though he said he wanted to improve relations with Russia. Some Democrats and security experts have said that Mr Trumps proposal to set conditions on NATO allies could risk Russian expansion in Eastern Europe.

Mr Trumps vice presidential running mate, Mike Pence, on Wednesday vowed there would be serious consequences if the FBI determined that Russia was behind the recent hacking, or was trying to meddle in the election.

If it is Russia and they are interfering in our elections, I can assure you both parties and the United States government will ensure there are serious consequences, said the Indiana governor.
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American police officers killed or injured more than 55,000 people during legal interventions in 2012, according to damning new research on excessive police force.

An estimated 55,400 people were harmed in one year as a result of stop and search incidents and arrests, according to the data published in the Injury Prevention journal.

In 2012, there were an estimated 12.3 million arrests, around 2.8 million stop and searches, as well as around 1 million traffic stops.

During these incidents, US police fatally injured an estimated 1,000 people.

Another 54,300 required hospital treatment for their injuries.

The numbers show that members of ethnic minorities were much more likely to be victim to injury at the hands of law enforcement.

Black people, Native Americans and Hispanics were found to have higher stop and search and arrest rates per 10,000 of the population than white people and Asians.

Out of all groups, black people were by far the most likely to be stopped, and more likely than white people to die from police contact.

 Beyonce pauses performance to honour black victims of police violence

One significant discrepancy found by the researchers is that when black people are stopped or arrested by US police, they are no more likely than white people to be killed during that incident.

Ted Miller, author of the report, told The Independent, said this particular result was surprising".

Once a stop is in progress, the likelihood of that injury or death at that stop is dependent on what happens and not on the race of that person, he said.

But we did find that younger people were less likely to be seriously injured than older people. The big question is why. Are young people less likely to carry guns? Is there more mental illness and substance abuse among the older generation? We dont know why.

 Texas police body-slam black teacher

The answer to that question and the one about the likelihood of black people being killed in the hands of police during legal interventions is marred by the availability of accurate data to researchers.

This deficiency includes the lack of reporting on the income levels of those affected, and the fact that over 50 per of coroner and medical examiner records do not report police involvement in a death.

There are many questions to ask, including who is getting stopped and who is arrested once they are stopped? said Mr Miller.

 Unarmed black care worker shot by US police while he was calming autistic patient

Some of the findings - particularly that the likelihood of death while being searched or arrested is not dependent on race - may be hard to swallow, especially in the light of such public killings of black men this year and heightened racial tensions.

The killing of black men Alton Sterling and Philando Castile in Louisiana and Minnesota sparked large protests. One such peaceful protest in Dallas turned sour when five white police officers were killed and seven more were wounded - by a black man who was not affiliated to the protest. Three police officers were also killed a week later in Baton Rouge.

Police officers killed by sniper at protests in Dallas Show all 20 1 /20 Police officers killed by sniper at protests in Dallas Police officers killed by sniper at protests in Dallas A Dallas Area Rapid Transit police officer receives comfort at the Baylor University Hospital emergency room entrance in Dallas Dallas Morning News/AP Police officers killed by sniper at protests in Dallas Emergency services help an unknown patient on a stretcher as law enforcement officials stand nearby at the emergency receiving area of Baylor University Medical Center AP Police officers killed by sniper at protests in Dallas Dallas Police shield bystanders after shots were fired, during a protest over two recent fatal police shootings of black men AP Police officers killed by sniper at protests in Dallas Bystanders run for cover after shots fired at a Black Live Matter rally in downtown Dallas AP Police officers killed by sniper at protests in Dallas Police check a car after snipers opened fire on police officers in Dallas AP Police officers killed by sniper at protests in Dallas A man raises his hands as he walks near a law enforcement officer, following the shootings of several police officers in downtown Dallas AP Police officers killed by sniper at protests in Dallas A Dallas police officer steps out of a vehicle as he arrives in front of Baylor University Medical Center AP Police officers killed by sniper at protests in Dallas Dallas police officers face protesters on the corner of Ross Ave. and Griffin street after police officers were shot during a peaceful protest in Dallas EPA Police officers killed by sniper at protests in Dallas A Dallas police officer covers his face as he stands with others outside the emergency room at Baylor University Medical Center AP Police officers killed by sniper at protests in Dallas Law enforcement officials escort a couple in through the emergency room entrance at Baylor University Medical Center AP Police officers killed by sniper at protests in Dallas Dallas Police respond after shots were fired at a Black Lives Matter rally in downtown Dallas AP Police officers killed by sniper at protests in Dallas Dallas Police respond after shots were fired at a Black Lives Matter rally in downtown Dallas AP Police officers killed by sniper at protests in Dallas Police cars sit on Main Street in Dallas following the sniper shooting during a protest AFP/Getty Images Police officers killed by sniper at protests in Dallas A Police officer stands guard at a barricade following the sniper shooting in Dallas AFP/Getty Images Police officers killed by sniper at protests in Dallas Police stand near a barricade following the sniper shooting in Dallas AFP/Getty Images Police officers killed by sniper at protests in Dallas Dallas police check a car after detaining a driver after a shooting in downtown Dallas AP Police officers killed by sniper at protests in Dallas Dallas police order people away from the area after several police were shot in downtown Dallas AP Police officers killed by sniper at protests in Dallas Dallas police move to detains a driver after several police officers were shot in downtown Dallas AP Police officers killed by sniper at protests in Dallas Dallas police detain a driver after several police officers were shot in downtown Dallas AP Police officers killed by sniper at protests in Dallas Dallas Police respond after shots were fired at a Black Lives Matter rally in downtown Dallas Dallas Morning News/AP

Another recent and high profile example of police violence is against Charles Kinsey, a black behavioral therapist who was shot in July while he was lying on the ground in a car park, his arms raised, after he had tried to calm one of his autistic patients.

He was hit in the leg and is expected to make a full recovery. When he asked the officer why he was shot, the officer reportedly replied: I dont know.

Polices use of undue force - this isnt a new problem which is exploding, said Mr Miller. This has been going on for ever.

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 biggest drawback in the new data, according to Marjorie Cohn, professor emerita at the Thomas Jefferson School of Law, is the definition of the polices so-called legal interventions, otherwise known as arrests and searches.

There is no information on whether these legal interventions are supported by warrants of 'probable cause' or 'reasonable suspicion', she said.

If not, they are not legal. It is racial profiling. Racism affects who is stopped, who is arrested, what they are charged with, what the sentencing is and who gets the death sentence.

As it exists today, there is no current federal watchdog for the police, and there is no federal mandate that requires officers to submit their reports following a stop and search or an arrest.

 Why you should care about #BlackLivesMatter

There are two reporting systems from the Federal Bureau of Investigation - one is voluntary and other is reportedly mandatory, yet both systems have recorded different sets of deaths, suggesting the number of fatalities is much higher than either system has reported.

State systems also vary, which results in either late, inaccurate or a complete absence of reporting.

A new system reporting - similar to what newspapers and researchers have done - is likely to be set up at a federal level due to a current investigation by Attorney Generals office. The new system, which would be unlikely to cover new ground compared to newspaper reporting, is outrageous, according to Mr Miller.

Mr Millers research used national data from various sources including the Vital Statistics Mortality Census, the 2012 Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project nationwide inpatient and emergency department samples, two newspaper censuses of deaths, FBI reports for 2012 and 2014 arrests as well as the 2011 Police Public Contact Survey.

Kristian Williams, author of Our Enemies in Blue: Police and Power in America, argued that American police officers use force at higher and deadlier levels than the citizens they are serving. The book was published in 2004.

Is there any evidence, according to Mr Millers research, that the number of people being killed in the US will decline in the future, or already has done so since 2012?

No," he said. "Not at all."
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Mystery surrounds the whereabouts of a British man who was among the hostages held by Isis militants during a deadly assault on a cafe in Bangladesh - only to be arrested by authorities and imprisoned in a secret location for almost a month after the terror attack.

Relatives of Hasnat Karim say he was forced to carry out tasks for the five gunmen after they burst into a cafe where he was celebrating his daughters 13th birthday with his family.

The extremists massacred more than 20 mostly foreign hostages and two police officers in a siege that lasted 10 hours, before being shot dead by police.

 Bangladesh in mourning after deadly Dhaka cafe siege

Mr Karim, who holds dual British-Bangladeshi citizenship, was freed with his wife and two children after being ordered to recite verses from the Quran, but the father disappeared after being taken for questioning.

Legal representatives filed a petition asking the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention to investigate the case on Wednesday as Bangladeshi authorities continued to refuse access to lawyers and his family.

Sharmina Parveen, Mr Karims wife, told The Independent his detention had compounded the agony of her familys ordeal.

She described how the couple had bought a birthday cake for their daughter on 1 July before taking her to the Holey Artisan Bakery in Dhaka for a special dinner.

We were sitting for only a few minutes when we suddenly heard gunshots and screams coming from the seating outside the restaurant, she said.

Then suddenly the gunmen entered the restaurant. We were immediately asked if we were Muslim. When we said yes, they asked us to put our heads down and said, We love Muslims, you can trust us, we will not harm you.

The family were made to sit at a table with other hostages in silence at gunpoint before they were made to recite the first chapter of the Quran.

My husband was nervous when he was reciting the Sura Fatiha and one of the gunmen reprimanded him for not understanding its true meaning, Mrs Parveen said.

Hasnat Karim's family and legal representatives say he is being detained unlawfully after the terror attack (Supplied)

The militants attention was drawn to Mr Karim again when his phone rang. His lawyers said he was ordered to return the call to his uncle and issue an order to police not to advance on the cafe, claiming they would kill the hostages if any approach was made.

Mr Karim was then allegedly forced to carry out menial tasks and walk in front of the gunmen to form a shield against the snipers stationed outside, matching witness reports of a bald man walking to and fro.

When the gunmen found out we were my husbands family, that is when they picked him out as a human shield, Ms Parveen said. I think they chose him because they knew he would not run away if his family were there too.

I cannot describe to you in words how it felt. They kept taking him away and then bringing him back and every time they took him I had no idea if we would ever see him again.

I was terrified and nervous but had to remain as calm as possible for my children. I do not think they will ever recover from the terror of that night.

Rodney Dixon QC, an international human rights lawyer representing the family, said requests for Mr Karim to be allowed legal representation and family visits had gone unanswered and that police would not confirm where he is being held.

We are using the petition to the UN to try to bring pressure to bear and get the Bangladeshi authorities to do what is right, he told The Independent.

The family has been through a terrible ordeal and for Hasnat to be detained just draws out the agony.

Security personnel keep watch, after gunmen stormed the Holey Artisan restaurant and took hostages, in the Gulshan area of Dhaka, Bangladesh July 2, 2016. (Reuters)

Mr Dixon said there was no evidence Mr Karim colluded in the attack or justification for continuing his interrogation when he had not been charged with an offence.

He is being kept incommunicado somewhere, we dont know where and no access has been given for lawyers or his family. His fundamental rights are being denied, he added.

At this stage the key priority is to get him released, his detention is completely unlawful.

Mr Karim, who was born in Bangladesh but moved to the UK as a teenager, completed a civil engineering degree Queen Mary University in London and worked for WS Atkins before taking a masters degree at Leeds University.

He moved to the US for three years in 1993 and then returned to the UK before moving to Bangladesh in the early 2000s.

He became a professor in the business faculty of Dhakas North South University in 2008 but has since left teaching to join his fathers civil engineering firm.

Amnesty International is among the groups concerned over Mr Karims enforced disappearance, demanding Bangladeshi authorities confirm his wellbeing and whereabouts since he was not released with other questioned hostages on 3 July.

Champa Patel, the organisations South Asia Director, said: The arbitrary response of the Bangladeshi authorities to Hasnat Karims case risks further undermining the trust of the population in the governments ability to defend their rights to life and liberty.

A tribute to the victims of the Dhaka attack (AP)

The victims of the 1 July attack deserve justice.

Enforced disappearances are considered a violation of international law, typically occurring when state authorities refuse to acknowledge the detention or whereabouts of a prisoner.

A Home Office report on prison conditions in Bangladesh said they were so poor as to amount to inhuman or degrading treatment and that cases of torture had been recently reported.

A spokesperson for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office said diplomats had raised Mr Karims case.

Our staff in Dhaka are in contact with Bangladeshi authorities following the detention of a Bangladeshi-British citizen and have requested consular access, she added.

We cannot interfere with the legal system of another country, just as other countries cannot interfere with the justice system in the UK.

In pictures: Bangladesh attacks Show all 10 1 /10 In pictures: Bangladesh attacks In pictures: Bangladesh attacks Bangladesh attacks Hindu ashram worker Nityaranjan Pande, 62, was hacked to death in Pabna on 10 June 2016 AP In pictures: Bangladesh attacks Bangladesh attacks Hindu priest Anando Gopal Ganguly, left, was murdered in Jhenidah in Bangladesh on 7 June 2016 EPA In pictures: Bangladesh attacks Bangladesh attacks Mahmuda Khanam Mitu, wife of the Deputy Commissioner of Chittagong Metropolitan Police, was murdered in Chittagong, Bangladesh on 5 June 2016 EPA In pictures: Bangladesh attacks Bangladesh attacks Bangladesh Students Union arranged a torch procession in protest over recent murders of free thinkers in Dhaka NurPhoto In pictures: Bangladesh attacks Bangladesh attacks Murdered gay rights activist Xulhaz Mannan, who was editor at Bangladeshs only LGBT magazine Rex In pictures: Bangladesh attacks Bangladesh attacks A Bangladeshi policeman stands guard at the site of the murder of a law student, hacked to death by four assailants the night before, in Dhaka on April 7, 2016 AFP/Getty In pictures: Bangladesh attacks Bangladesh attacks People have protested against the murders around the world, seen here in Kolkata AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Bangladesh attacks Bangladesh attacks A relative of dead Bangladeshi blogger Washiqur Rahman reacts after seeing his body at Dhaka Medical College in Dhaka on March 30 AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Bangladesh attacks Bangladesh attacks People gather on the spot where Bangladeshi blogger Avijit Roy was killed in a street in Dhaka (EPA) EPA In pictures: Bangladesh attacks Bangladesh attacks Bangladeshi social activists shout slogans during a protest against the killing Avijit Roy in Dhaka on February 27, 2015 AFP/Getty Images

The Bangladeshi government has repeatedly denied Isis' presence in the country and sought to blame local groups for a wave of terror attacks.

Mr Karims family have started a campaign to free him while continuing desperate attempts to contact him in jail.

His wife said she was extremely anxious and worried and had been trying to send medication to the Detective Branch headquarters for a heart condition.

Imagine surviving a gruesome terrorist attack for over 10 hours and then having the nightmare prolonged for over 3 weeks, Ms Parveen added.

My children keep having nightmares and are crying in their sleep, they asked if the gunmen will come back.

She said her husband has no links to extremism, is not very religious and has little interest in politics.

He had nothing to do with this horrific attack. He was a hostage and has since been detained by the authorities without any lawful basis.

My husband has suffered enough. Our two young children have suffered enough. Please let Hasnat come home to us.
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North Korean border patrol guards have reportedly been ordered to capture snakes allegedly released by South Korea's spy agency.

Pyongyang has purportedly told the military that Seoul's spy agency is behind the "unreasonably high number" of snakes in Ryanggang Province.

From early this month, border patrol units received orders to capture snakes before they crawl over the banks of Amnok [Yalu] River, a source from Ryanggang Province told Daily NK.

The key message from the Party was that the Souths National Intelligence Service had released snakes as part of a cunning scheme to challenge our unity.

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

Soldiers have been ordered to capture the snakes before they reach land and hatch eggs, so have had to wade into the river, which the source said has led to complains.

Some grumble among themselves about the nature of the states claims," they added, "justifiably pointing out that not even a three-year-old would believe that the South would attack us with snakes over [anti-regime] propaganda leaflets or CDs.

The North's Ministry of People's Security and other public agencies are reportedly urging residents to stay alert to snake danger at all times, with rumours spreading of people dying from snake bites in some areas.

North Korea weapon tests

The source told Daily NK the claims could be an attempt to "psychologically arm the people [against the South] during the 200-day battle", a mass mobilisation campaign to jump-start a new economic plan.

State propaganda has previously proclaimed the excessive number of stick insects in North Korean corn fields in the past was a result of US imperialist scheming, the source added.

The rhetoric will taper off eventually because, contrary to this outlandish narrative, few people have actually spotted any snakes.

North Korea recently warned of unspecified "physical" measures in response to a US plan to deploy an advanced missile defense system in South Korea by the end of next year.

Last week North Korea fired three ballistic missiles into the sea, according to Seoul defense officials.

The rival Koreas resumed old-fashioned, Cold War-era psychological warfare in the wake of North Korea's fourth nuclear test in January.

Seoul began blasting anti-Pyongyang propaganda broadcasts and K-pop songs from border loudspeakers in retaliation for the North's atomic detonation. Pyongyang quickly matched Seoul's campaign with its own border broadcasts and launches of balloons carrying anti-South leaflets across the border.

Additional reporting by agencies
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The bomber who blew himself up and wounded 15 people in Ansbach fought for Isis before travelling to Germany, the group has claimed.

The group's weekly al-Nabaa online magazine said Mohammad Daleel took three months to prepare the bomb used in the attack.

The magazine, published late Thursday, said the 27-year-old Syrian, who went to Germany as an asylum-seeker, had previously fought for a branch of al-Qaida in Iraq.

After the Syrian civil war erupted in 2011, Daleel formed a cell specialising in attacking Syrian government forces with hand grenades and Molotov cocktails.

An article in the al-Nabaa online magazine, published late Thursday, claims Ansbach bomber Mohammad Daleel carried out attacks against Syrian government forces using hand grenades and Molotov cocktails before seeking asylum in Germany

When Jabhat al-Nusra, al-Qaida's branch in Syria, was founded, Daleel fought for them until he was wounded in a mortar shell attack, al-Nabaa says.

Daleel, who was allegedly known as Abu Yusuf al-Karrar, pledged allegiance to Isis after the group split from the Jabhat al-Nusra in 2013.

According to the article, he left the country for treatment and went to Europe, though the magazine does not say exactly where he went or how he got there.

Unable to return from Europe to fight with Isis, the magazine says he supported the group from afar by sharing their propaganda on social media before deciding to carry out an attack in Germany.

The magazine says he was in constant contact with an Isis soldier who encouraged him while he spent three months building the bomb.

During that period, the article alleges German police raided his home but failed to detect his plans.

 Explosion in Ansbach, Germany

Following the suicide bombing, which wounded 15, video emerged of Daleel pledging allegiance to the leader of Isis.

Bavaria's top security official Joachim Herrmann said according to an initial translation of the Arabic-language video the attacker announced a "revenge" attack against Germany.

"A provisional translation by an interpreter shows that he expressly announces, in the name of Allah, and testifying his allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, a famous Islamist leader, an act of revenge against the Germans because they're getting in the way of Islam," he said at a news conference.

Mr Herrmann added: "I think that after this video there's no doubt that the attack was a terrorist attack with an Islamist background."

Police officers operate on a scene following an explosion in Ansbach, Germany, (EPA)

Officers also said Daleel was facing deportation to Bulgaria when he blew himself up.

"Syrians cannot at the moment be deported to Syria at the moment, but that doesn't mean that Syrians overall cannot be deported," Tobias Plate told a news conference.

"The Syrian in Ansbach was facing deportation and this was to Bulgaria," he added.

Mr Plate said the man had received two deportation notices, most recently being told on 13 July he would be deported to Bulgaria.

He says the man was to be deported to Bulgaria because he had submitted his first asylum request in the southeastern European country.

Special police officers secure a street near the house where Mohammad Daleel lived before the explosion in Ansbach, southern Germany, Monday, July 25, 2016 (AP)

Last year his application for asylum was rejected by German authorities, though due to the Syrian civil war he had been allowed to stay in the country.

A government spokeswoman told the same news conference it was too early to decide on changes to Germany's refugee policy before results from the investigation into the attack were published.

"The acts of the last days and weeks do not show a uniform picture," Ulrike Demmer said.

"Most terrorists who carried out attacks in Europe over the last months were not refugees."
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More than 100 startup companies in London are looking into relocating to Germany's capital following the UKs decision to leave the EU, a senior Berlin politician has claimed.

During a presentation at the financial technology industry's conference London Fintech Week 2016, Senator Cornelia Yzer said every time she speaks publicly about Berlin post-Brexit, a number of startup companies approach her office about moving to Berlin.

Not 10 or 20 or 30, more, over 100, she said, according to International Business Times.

"Berlin is a boom town for companies focusing on fintech, ecommerce, mobile apps and a growing number of multinational companies are coming into town, opening incubators, accelerators, digital units to co-operate with the startup community."

Ms Yzer, the city's senator for economics, technology and research, sent hundreds of letters to British businesses and attended London Fintech week to lobby startups, a term used to describe newly established companies in fast-growing sectors such as communications, computer games and the internet generally.

Cornelia Yzer, the Berlin senator for economics, technology and research. (Sean Gallup/Getty Images)

Fintech covers businesses that use software to provide financial services in contrast to the traditional business models of established banks.

Deutsche Bank and Microsoft have already opened an 'accelerator' firm in Berlin and Commerzbank is partnering in the city.

The German capital secured 10 major fintech deals in 2015, totalling up to $80bn (about 61bn), according to Ms Yzer.

 Theresa May says she has an 'open mind' over Brexit negotiations

"Berlin is the third-largest market for offices in Europe and rents are fair; commercial real estate that works out at about a fifth of the cost of office space in London, she said.

"The Berlin government does not only provide funding, but also support to guarantee companies that want to relocate to Berlin a soft landing.

"There is no doubt these companies will be interested in being in the European Union."

Travis Todd, the founder of Silicon Allee, a group building a six-floor campus for startups in central Berlin wrote on his website: "Its an exciting time for Berlin because the city itself is still adapting, growing and finding its creative potential. Luckily for tech startups, the government has embraced the new economy and is trying to help out where they can."

Berlin attracted two billion euros in venture capital investment in startups in 2014, outstripping London, an Ernst and Young report found last year.

The German capital currently has about 100 fintech startups.

This month, a white truck with a placard reading Dear startups, keep calm and move to Berlin, paid for by Germany's FDP party, drove around the streets of Westminster and Shoreditch.
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Britains new International Trade Secretary, Liam Fox, has said he expects Britains relations with the EU to be settled by 2020.

The Brexit MP said it is likely Article 50, which begins the formal process to leave the EU, will be triggered early next year after the country narrowly voted to leave the union in a referendum on 23 June.

The MP, who returned to the Cabinet under new Prime Minister Theresa May after being forced to resign in disgrace in 2011, also said it was unlikely the UK would join a customs union with the EU.

In an interview with the Wall Street Journal during a three day visit to the US, he said he wanted to dispel the idea that Britain leaving the EU is somehow an anti-free market decision.

He said it was in fact the reverse and he looked forward to Britain becoming a much more outward-looking country.

His visit to the US is part of a bid to quieten the concerns of officials and businesses who worry about Britains future role in the global economy.

Speaking during the campaign, US President Barack Obama said Britain would go to the back of the queue when it came to trade negotiations if it voted to leave.

Brexit protest: Thousands march in London Show all 12 1 /12 Brexit protest: Thousands march in London Brexit protest: Thousands march in London A woman poses with a home-made European Union flag as Remain supporters gather on Park Lane in London to show their support for the EU in the wake of Brexit PA Brexit protest: Thousands march in London Remain supporters demonstrate in Parliament Square PA Brexit protest: Thousands march in London Tens of thousands of people gathered to protest the result of the EU referendum PA Brexit protest: Thousands march in London A majority of people in the capital voted to remain in the European Union Reuters Brexit protest: Thousands march in London Protesters chanted: What do we want to do? Stay in the EU PA Brexit protest: Thousands march in London The march follows a similar rally in Trafalgar Square that was cancelled due to heavy rain  but which tens of thousands of people turned up to anyway Reuters Brexit protest: Thousands march in London Britain voted to leave the European Union in a referendum by 52 per cent to 48 per cent Reuters Brexit protest: Thousands march in London But support for the Leave campaign in urban areas and among young people was significantly lower Rex features Brexit protest: Thousands march in London Marchers gathered at Park Lane at 11am and marched towards Parliament Square PA Brexit protest: Thousands march in London Some protesters held up baguettes in a display of affection for our continental neighbours PA Brexit protest: Thousands march in London The disparity between different parts of the country has promoted a four million signature petition calling for a second referendum and even a renewed push for Scotland to cede from the UK PA Brexit protest: Thousands march in London The events organiser, Kings College graduate Kieran MacDermott, wrote: We can prevent Brexit by refusing to accept the referendum as the final say and take our finger off the self-destruct button" Reuters

During a speech in Chicago, Dr Fox said he favoured negotiating a free trade agreement with the EU and said it was in the other member countries interest to come to an agreement, the Guardian reports.

He said the EU had built up a net 70bn trade surplus with the UK which was why it is in the interests of fellow European Union members that we leave in a way that creates minimal disruption for the continent.

In contrast, he said of the top 10 countries the UK had a trade surplus with, only one, Ireland, was in the EU.

The MP for North Somerset said: We will have the opportunity to make our tax systems even more competitive, take an axe to red tape that can hinder businesses, and shape a bright future for the UK as a beacon for open trade.

Dr Fox's optimism is in contrast to a statement by Chancellor Philip Hammond, who said Brexit will cast a two-year "shadow" over the world economy while the UK's departure is being negotiated.

He told Sky News it was not a surprise that international markets went into freefall after the result: "It was a shock to the economic system, it was not something markets or businesses were expecting, so obviously there was going to be a reaction or a response to that.

Philip Hammond said Brexit would cast a two-year shadow over the global economy (Getty)

"And because there will now be a fairly lengthy negotiating period there is going to be uncertainty about the outcome hanging over the world economic outlook for the next few years".

The Department for International Trade and the Department for Leaving the European Union, run by another Brexiteer David Davis, were formed by Ms May in the wake of the decision to leave the EU.

Despite backing the Remain side, Ms May made overtures to the profoundly Eurosceptic Conservative membership during the Tory leadership campaign by declaring "Brexit means Brexit".
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When Michel Barnier visited Britain during his spell as a European Commissioner, he would say with a smile that he was an Anglophile and most definitely not the most dangerous man in Europe as our Eurosceptic tabloids labelled him.

The former French foreign ministers brief as Internal Market Commissioner covered the City of London, which led to a series of clashes with George Osborne, who tried to defend Britains financial services industry from a blizzard of EU regulation introduced by Mr Barnier.

So the Treasury and the City will be worried to discover that they have not seen the back of the 65-year-old Mr Barnier, whose term in Brussels ended in 2014.

He has been unexpectedly recalled to be the commissions chief negotiator in talks with the UK over its exit from the EU. The future of the City will be a critical issue when access to the single market is discussed.

He is no friend of the City of London, said Nick Clegg, the former Deputy Prime Minister and commission official, who knows Mr Barnier.

I think he is going to drive a very hard bargain indeed. I wouldnt be surprised if alarm bells are ringing across the City.

Mr Barniers appointment as head of the commissions taskforce on Brexit looks like a provocative act by Jean Claude-Juncker, the commission president.

Mr Juncker, who wanted Theresa May to start formal exit negotiations immediately, has reluctantly agreed that she needs more time to prepare  a recognition that Brussels could not force the UK to trigger Article 50 of the EUs Lisbon Treaty.

Once the process has started  probably early next year  the EU, rather than the UK, will be in the driving seat.

Ms May, who is on a charm offensive with other EU leaders as she tours European capitals, will try to cut deals with them, but the commission  and Mr Barnier  will have a pivotal role when the fine print is negotiated.

Mr Barnier is also no friend of the Tory Eurosceptics, who he will probably assume now call the shots inside the British Government.

In 2013 on a visit to London, he accused them of having a pick and mix approach towards EU financial rules. He issued a warning which now sounds ominous: Repatriating powers [from Brussels to the UK] over financial services would mean leaving the single market and de facto the EU. I believe the UK would lose out on many of its own interests."

In his previous role in Brussels, he introduced more than 40 laws to toughen the regulation of banks, markets and insurance.

No fan of Anglo-Saxon capitalism, his plans to cap bankers bonuses led to a major dispute with the then-Chancellor George Osborne. But there was a reason for his interventionist approach: he believed the 2008 financial crisis was made in Wall Street and was determined that London and the rest of Europe would not repeat the same mistakes.

A centre-right politician, Mr Barnier had hoped to land the commissions top job in 2014 but was beaten to the European Peoples Party nomination by Mr Juncker, the former Luxembourg Prime Minister.

Mr Barnier has a vast network of contacts throughout Europe, after serving as Frances agriculture minister and foreign affairs minister.

In France he was seen as a technocrat with a populist touch and an eye for a TV camera, rather than an intellectual. He was sometimes a victim of snobbery from Frances elite because he was not educated at the prestigious Ecole Nationale d'Administration.

He was cruelly dubbed "le cretin des alpes" -- a dig at his origin in the mountains of Savoy that references the Alpine valley dwellers who suffered brain damage caused by iodine deficiency in the 18th century.

Brexit racism and the fightback Show all 9 1 /9 Brexit racism and the fightback Brexit racism and the fightback Demonstrators protest against an increase in post-ref racism at London's March for Europe in July 2016 PA Brexit racism and the fightback These cards were found near a school in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, the day after the EU referendum Twitter/@howgilb Brexit racism and the fightback Getty Brexit racism and the fightback Romford, Essex, June 25 @diamondgeezer Brexit racism and the fightback A worker at this Romanian food shop was asleep upstairs at the time of this arson attack in Norwich on July 8, but escaped unharmed. Hundreds later participated in a love bombing rally outside the shop to express their opposition to racism and their support of the shop owners. JustGiving/Helen Linehan Brexit racism and the fightback This neo-Nazi sticker was spotted in Glasgow on June 26 Courtesy of Eoin Palmer Brexit racism and the fightback But after news emerged of neo-Nazi stickers appearing in Glasgow, some in the city struck back with slogans of their own. Courtesy of Eoin Palmer Brexit racism and the fightback Getty Brexit racism and the fightback More signs began to appear in some parts of the UK, created by people who wanted to show their opposition to post-referendum racism Courtesy of Bernadette Russell

Mr Barnier served two terms at the commission, holding the regional affairs brief before moving up to the plum internal market job. He is a former member of the European Parliament, where his former colleagues will lobby him not to give Britain any special favours. He is unlikely to need such encouragement.

However, Mr Barnier may prove not to be the ogre depicted by the tabloids. He worked hard at winning over the City and frequently pressed the flesh in London rather than rained down directives from the safety of his Brussels base.

He won some plaudits after the initial hostility to his stream of regulations, and his relationship with Mr Osborne improved too.

My line has been the middle line, he told the Financial Times. My first wish was to build a compromise. It was never easy, it was sometimes impossible. For the rest we reached agreement and it was never by chance.

Syed Kamall, leader of the Conservative MEPs, described Mr Barnier as first and foremost a very pragmatic politician, a dealmaker.

And there will be an awful lot of deals to be done over the next two and a half years.
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France's political leaders have expressed fears of a religious war, after the murder of a Catholic priest marked a grim new direction for jihadi terrorism in the country.

Prime Minister Manuel Valls said the intention of the highly symbolic murder was to provoke a war of religion in France.

On Wednesday morning, President Francois Hollande met religious leaders in a bid to calm tensions and prevent further violence.

 Who is Adel Kermiche?

Recommended Read more Adel Kermiche identified as Normandy church attack suspect

The murder of Father Jacques Hamel, 85, has shocked France, where the majority of people identify as Catholic. The priest and four worshippers at the Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, near Rouen, Normandy, were held hostage by Adel Kermiche, 19, and another man, who has not yet been identified. They were later shot dead by police.

While France has suffered numerous terrorist attacks in the last 18 months, some observers said the latest atrocity is the first attempt to deliberately target the core, rural section of French society. The priest was killed in a church close to Rouen, where Joan of Arc was martyred in 1431.

In comments reported by the Irish Times, Mr Valls said: By attacking a priest, in a Catholic church, the objective was to pit French people against each other, to attack one religion to provoke a war of religions.

In some quarters, there were elements which appeared encourage this. Marion Le Pen, Catholic niece of the right wing Front National party leader, Marine Le Pen, tweeted on Tuesday: In the West as in the East, Christians must stand up to resist Islam!

She added: Faced with the threat that weighs on the France, I decided to join the military reserve. I invite all the young patriots to do the same.

Normandy church attack in pictures Show all 16 1 /16 Normandy church attack in pictures Normandy church attack in pictures The victim was the 84-year-old priest at the church, Jacques Hamel. AFP/Getty Normandy church attack in pictures French police at the scene of the attack on a church in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, northern France, on July 26 AFP/Getty Images Normandy church attack in pictures More police at the scene BFM TV Normandy church attack in pictures French President Francois Hollande shaking hands with security personnel at the scene AP Normandy church attack in pictures French soldiers standing guard outside the scene of the attack AP Normandy church attack in pictures A policeman secures a position in front of the city hall after two assailants had taken five people hostage in the church at Saint-Etienne-du -Rouvray near Rouen in Normandy Pascal Rossignol/Reuters Normandy church attack in pictures A policeman holds a HKG36 assault rifle as he secures the position in front of the local town hall following the attack REUTERS Normandy church attack in pictures French judicial inverstigating police apprehends a man during a raid after a hostage-taking in the church in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray near Rouen in Normandy, France REUTERS Normandy church attack in pictures AFP/Getty Images Normandy church attack in pictures REUTERS Normandy church attack in pictures REUTERS Normandy church attack in pictures AFP/Getty Images Normandy church attack in pictures AP Normandy church attack in pictures AP Normandy church attack in pictures French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve visits the church REUTERS Normandy church attack in pictures AFP/Getty Images

A blog post written by Front National in reaction to the attack said: It is now the heart of the cultural identity of our nation that is intentionally touched. This sentiment is likely to be shared among French society more broadly.

But others have called for restraint. In a statement, the Archbishop of Rouen, Dominique Lebrun, said: The Catholic Church can take up no other weapons than prayer and fraternity between men.

Mohammed Karabila, president of the Regional Council of the Muslim Faith for Haute-Normandie, frequently met with Father Hamel as part of an interfaith council and considered him a friend.

I dont understand, all of our prayers go out to his family and the Catholic community, Mr Karabila said. He was someone who gave his life to others. We are stunned here at the mosque.

Of his conversations with Father Hamel, Mr Karabila said: "We talked about religion and how to live together.

"It has been 18 months that civilians have been attacked, now they are attacking religious symbols, using our religion as a pretext. It is no longer possible."

Previous jihadi attacks in France targeting other religions have focused on murdering Jewish people. In January 2015, a kosher supermarket was attacked by gunman Amedy Coulibaly. The consequent siege resulted in the death of four hostages and hurt nine more.

There have been numerous other smaller scale attacks on the Jewish sites but their culmination was effective in instilling fear in the Franco-Jewish community.
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A suitcase filled with aerosol cans has exploded outside a reception centre for refugees in Germany.

The blast was reported outside the facility in Zirndorf, Bavaria, on Wednesday afternoon as tensions in the country remained high following a series of terror attacks.

A spokesperson for Middle Franconia Police said the explosion was reported shortly after 2.15pm local time (1.15pm BST).

The remains of a burned out suitcase in a blue plastic bag near the reception centre for refugees in Zirndorf, Germany, 27 July 2016. (EPA)

Officers arrived to find a suitcase burning on a path and quickly extinguished the blaze before explosives experts started an investigation.

No evidence has yet been found that an explosive device was detonated inside the suitcase, a spokesperson said.

It is possible that aerosol cans stored in the suitcase caused the explosion in question.

It appears that no one was in danger at any time. No injuries have yet been reported to the police.

Officers were searching the area for two people seen with the suitcase shortly before the incident.

Refugees enter the reception centre for refugees in Zirndorf, after a suitcase exploded near the building on 27 July 2016. (EPA)

They were described as a man of Mediterranean appearance in his 30s wearing a jumper and jeans, and a slim woman aged around 25 wearing a black jacket and jeans.

Photos of the scene showed police officers surrounding the remains of a suitcase on a footpath around 100 metres from the reception centre.

The incident came just days after a failed Syrian asylum seeker blew himself up in a suicide bombing outside a music festival in the Bavarian town of Ansbach.

Mohammad Daleel, 27, had pledged allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of Isis in a video shared by the terrorist group.

Earlier the same day, a 21-year-old Syrian refugee killed a pregnant woman with a machete and injured several others in an attack in Reutlingen.

In pictures: German train axe attack Show all 8 1 /8 In pictures: German train axe attack In pictures: German train axe attack Blood stains are seen on the regional train on which a man allegedly wielding an axe attacked passengers in Wuerzburg EPA In pictures: German train axe attack A patch of blood and the remains of bandaging material lie on a sidewalk near Wuerzburg EPA In pictures: German train axe attack The body of a 17-years-old attacker is carried to a hearse in Wuerzburg AP In pictures: German train axe attack Police officers search for evidence near Wuerzburg EPA In pictures: German train axe attack Police stand by the regional train on which a man wielding an axe attacked passengers in Wuerzburg EPA In pictures: German train axe attack Firefighters stand at a road block in Wuerzburg EPA In pictures: German train axe attack Rescuers gather on a road near railtracks in Wuerzburg after a man attacked train passengers with an axe AFP/Getty Images In pictures: German train axe attack German emergency services work in the area where a man with an axe attacked passengers on a train Reuters

It came after a German teenager of Iranian heritage shot nine people dead before turning the gun on himself in Munich on 22 July.

In another attack on 18 July, a teenage Afghan refugee attacked train passengers with an axe in Wurzburg and was shot dead by police.

 Timeline: Germany rocked by week of deadly violence

The wave of attacks has fuelled growing anti-migrant sentiment in Germany, where more than 1 million asylum seekers arrived last year during the continuing refugee crisis.

A government report found that 2015 was a record year for political violence as rising tensions drove clashes between right and left-wing protesters and more than 1,000 crimes targeting asylum seeker accomodation, including attempted murder, grenade attacks and arson.
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During the battle for Aleppo, four years ago, we saw fighters of Jabhat al-Nusra, the al-Qaeda affiliate in Syria, flee, abandoning their weapons when President Bashar al-Assads tanks burst through the frontline. A year later we saw some of them, who have switched to the newly arrived Isis, take part in a futile, suicidal charge against regime forces. They have become majnoon, said my friend Yusuf, making circling motions with his finger next to his head, stupid, but also dangerous.

This week Yusuf, one of a dwindling band of relatively moderate Syrian rebels, telephoned me from Turkey while I was covering the killings in Munich. He observed: I see the majnoon are truly in Europe now. That is indeed the case, those supposedly majnoon  meaning crazy in Arabic  have been held responsible for some of the most savage acts of extreme violence across the continent recently.

The psychological factor may camouflage other ones, but the fact remains that Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel, from Tunisia, who used a 19 tonne truck to murder 84 people in Nice, had received extensive psychological treatment: as had Ali David Sonboly, who shot dead nine in Munich: as had the Syrian Mohammed Daleel, who blew himself up injuring 15 in Ansbach. Adel Kermiche, of Algerian background, one of the two men who murdered 86-year-old Father Jacques Hamel in Rouen, also had mental health problems: as did a Syrian refugee who killed a Polish woman in Reutlengen, near Stuttgart. Mohammed Riaz Ahmadzai, who carried out an axe attack on a train near Wurzberg, is not known to have a history of psychological illness, but then very little of the history of the asylum seeker, who claimed to be an Afghan, but was likely to be a Pakistani, is known. He was, however, said to be distraught due to the death of a relative when carrying out the attack.

Not all the attacks, which have taken place in just 12 days, have terrorist connections, although Isis, ever opportunistic, has laid claim to all of them. But it does show the trend of psychologically damaged people attempting to present religious justification to their acts of extreme violence  a twist to one of the most difficult threats already facing the security agencies, that of the lone wolves.

There have been instances of Islamists targeting and grooming the psychologically or emotionally damaged to carry out attacks. But that, say security officials, is not necessarily needed; the call to jihad on the internet often suffices. The appeal by Abu Mohammed al-Adnani, of Isis, for true believers to use whatever means are available to strike at the infidel, including vehicles, and the exhortation that the smallest action you do in their heartland is better and more enduring to us than what you would, if you were with us, has gained massive traffic in Islamist social media since it was made last month.

Father Jacques Hamel was murdered in his church in Rouen (AFP/Getty Images) (AFP/Getty)

The lone wolves  one or two attackers  with or without psychological issues, can be used to carry out shocking acts of individual atrocity, such as the slaughter of Father Hamel in Rouen and Gunner Lee Rigby in London, with the attendant publicity that Isis and al-Nusra crave. But although a truck was used to such a devastating effect in Nice, the ability to inflict large scale casualties are normally limited in such assaults. The reason that Daleel managed to kill only himself in the blast in Ansbach, and injure rather than kill others, was because his bomb was not well assembled, according to security sources, who do not want to disclose details which would allow the next bomber to learn from Daleels mistake.

There has been growing public criticism over the failure to prevent the atrocities in France and Germany. The French Prime Minister, Manuel Valls, and fellow ministers were booed when he came to commemorate the dead in Nice. The law agencies in both countries point to the difficulties of monitoring individuals who are not high in the jihadi chain of command, of distinguishing between genuine violent political and religious threats made by these people and those made due to mental illness. Robert Emerson, a security analyst, held this was a valid point. They have to decide whether someone is really bad or mad. Resources are very often tight, so these are huge judgment calls one has to make he said.

French anti-terrorist officers in Rouen (AP)

Officials in France and Germany say they are addressing one particular complaint, the slowness in reacting to attacks. How were Lahouaiej Bouhlel and Sonboly able to continue their rampage for so long without being stopped when armed police were present? The French point out that in Rouen, the anti-terrorist unit moved in swiftly, shooting dead the two murderers. The train axeman, the Germans point out, was also shot dead almost immediately. However, of the 58 shell casings found in the scene of the Munich massacre, all but one was fired by Sonboly, the police shot at him just once as he carried out his executions.

 At least nine killed in Munich mall shooting

Western officials are in agreement that Isis and other terror groups also desperately want to carry out the spectaculars, coordinated attacks of the Mumbai and Paris type. The use of large numbers of terrorists gives the security agencies more opportunities to intercept communications and track movements. But international cooperation remains poor with Belgium, the spawning ground for an alarming number of extremists, coming under criticism. Jean-Marie Delarue, the recently retired chief of the French agency overseeing surveillance, was blunt: We think there should be cooperation, we rely on other countries to give it to us and I dont think the Belgians gave us precise information.

Before the UK referendum on the European Union, two former chiefs of MI6 and MI5, Sir John Sawers and Jonathan Evans warned that intelligence sharing, especially the framing of the sharing of data, with European partners will be lost if Brexit takes place. It remains to be seen how this will be resolved in the future, but cross-channel liaison has been stepped up ever since the Charlie Hebdo murders in Paris last year.

Former MI6 chief Sir John Sawers warned that intelligence sharing would be lost following Brexit (AFP/Getty)

Scotland Yard Deputy Assistant Commissioner Neil Basu said after the Rouen attack that there is no specific intelligence relating to attacks against the Christian community in the UK [but] following recent events in France we are reiterating our protective security advice to Christian places of worship While the threat level from terrorism remains unchanged at severe, we urge the public to be vigilant.

The British security and intelligence agencies have been remarkably successful in foiling recent terrorist plots - but the plots continue to be hatched. Abduction remains one of the aspirations of terrorists in this country said an official. We were quite surprised, relieved, that the Rouen attack did not turn into a hostage situation, that would have been really messy. We are in a fortunate position that firearms are not so readily available in this country and we do actually have better control of our borders.

In pictures: The rise of Isis Show all 74 1 /74 In pictures: The rise of Isis In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters Fighters of the Islamic State wave the group's flag from a damaged display of a government fighter jet following the battle for the Tabqa air base, in Raqqa, Syria AP In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters Fighters from Islamic State group sit on their tank during a parade in Raqqa, Syria AP In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters Fighters from the Islamic State group pray at the Tabqa air base after capturing it from the Syrian government in Raqqa, Syria AP In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters Fighters from extremist Islamic State group parade in Raqqa, Syria AP In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis kidnapping A video uploaded to social networks shows men in underwear being marched barefoot along a desert road before being allegedly executed by Isis Getty Images In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis kidnapping Haruna Yukawa after his capture by Isis In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis kidnapping Khalinda Sharaf Ajour, a Yazidi, says two of her daughters were captured by Isis militants Washington Post In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters Spokesperson for Isis Vice News via Youtube In pictures: The rise of Isis A pro-Isis leaflet A pro-Isis leaflet handed out on Oxford Street In London Ghaffar Hussain In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters Isis Jihadists burn their passports In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis controls Syrian Aid A man collecting aid administered by Isis in Syria In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis controls Syrian Aid A woman collecting aid administered by Isis in Syria In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis controls Syrian Aid Local civilians queue for aid administered by Isis. Since it declared a caliphate the group has increasingly been delivering services such as healthcare, and distributing aid and free fuel In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq crisis Iraqi security forces detain men suspected of being militants of the Isis group in Diyala province In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq crisis Mourners carry the coffin of a Shi'ite volunteer from the brigades of peace, who joined the Iraqi army and was killed during clashes with militants of the Isis group in Samarra, during his funeral in Najaf In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraqi refugees An Iraqi Shiite Turkmen family fleeing the violence in the Iraqi city of Tal Afar, west of Mosul, arrives at a refugee camp on the outskirts of Arbil, in Iraq's Kurdistan region In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi A photograph made from a video by the jihadist affiliated group Furqan Media via their twitter account allegedly showing Isis leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi delivering a sermon during Friday prayers at a mosque in Mosul. Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared an Islamist caliphate in the territory under the group's control in Iraq and Syria In pictures: The rise of Isis Islamic extremists destroying mosques in Iraq Shiite's Al-Qubba Husseiniya mosque explodes in Mosul In pictures: The rise of Isis Islamic extremists destroying mosques in Iraq Smoke and debris go up in the air as Shiite's Al-Qubba Husseiniya mosque explodes in Mosul. Images posted online show that Islamic extremists have destroyed at least 10 ancient shrines and Shiite mosques in territory - the city of Mosul and the town of Tal Afar - they have seized in northern Iraq in recent weeks In pictures: The rise of Isis Islamic extremists destroying mosques in Iraq A bulldozer destroys Sunni's Ahmed al-Rifai shrine and tomb in Mahlabiya district outside of Tal Afar In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq crisis Iraqi security forces celebrate after clashes with followers of Shiite cleric Mahmoud al-Sarkhi, in front of his home in the Shiite holy city of Karbala, 50 miles (80 kilometers) south of Baghdad In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq crisis Iraqi security forces arrest a follower of Shiite cleric Mahmoud al-Sarkhi after clashes with his followers in the Shiite holy city of Karbala, 50 miles (80 kilometers) south of Baghdad In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq crisis Iraqi security forces arrest a follower of Shiite cleric Mahmoud al-Sarkhi at his home after clashes with his followers in the Shiite holy city of Karbala, 50 miles (80 kilometers) south of Baghdad In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq crisis Iraqi security forces arrest a follower of Shiite cleric Mahmoud al-Sarkhi after clashes with his followers in the Shiite holy city of Karbala, 50 miles (80 kilometers) south of Baghdad In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq crisis A vehicle burns in front of a home of a follower of Shiite cleric Mahmoud al-Sarkhi after clashes with his followers in the Shiite holy city of Karbala, 50 miles (80 kilometers) south of Baghdad In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraqi refugees An Iraqi woman holds her exhausted son as over 1000 Iraqis who have fled fighting in and around the city of Mosul and Tal Afar wait at a Kurdish checkpoint in the hopes of entering a temporary displacement camp in Khazair In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraqi refugees Displaced Iraqi women hold pots as they queue to receive food during the first day of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, at an encampment for displaced Iraqis who fled from Mosul and other towns, in the Khazer area outside Irbil, north Iraq In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters in Syria A militant Islamist fighter waving a flag, cheers as he takes part in a military parade along the streets of Syria's northern Raqqa. The fighters held the parade to celebrate their declaration of an Islamic "caliphate" after the group captured territory in neighbouring Iraq In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters in Syria Isis fighters wave flags as they take part in a military parade along the streets of Syria's northern Raqqa province Reuters In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters in Syria Isis fighters travel in a vehicle as they take part in a military parade along the streets of Syria's northern Raqqa province In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters in Syria Fighters from the Isis group during a parade with a missile in Raqqa, Syria. Militants from an al-Qaida splinter group held a military parade in their stronghold in northeastern Syria, displaying U.S.-made Humvees, heavy machine guns, and missiles captured from the Iraqi army for the first time since taking over large parts of the Iraq-Syria border In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters in Syria Isis fighters during a parade in Raqqa, Syria In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters in Syria Fighters from the Isis group during a parade in Raqqa, Syria. Militants from the splinter group held a military parade in their stronghold in northeastern Syria, displaying U.S.-made Humvees, heavy machine guns, and missiles captured from the Iraqi army for the first time since taking over large parts of the Iraq-Syria border In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters in Syria Isis fighters hold a military parade in their stronghold in northeastern Syria In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters in Syria Isis fighters during a parade in Raqqa, Syria In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters in Syria A member loyal to the Isis waves an Isis flag in Raqqa In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq crisis Iraqi anti-government gunmen from Sunni tribes in the western Anbar province march during a protest in Ramadi, west of Baghdad. The United Nations warned that Iraq is at a "crossroads" and appealed for restraint, as a bloody four-day wave of violence killed 195 people. The violence is the deadliest so far linked to demonstrations that broke out in Sunni areas of the Shiite-majority country more than four months ago, raising fears of a return to all-out sectarian conflict In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq crisis Iraqi security forces hold up a flag of the Isis group they captured during an operation to regain control of Dallah Abbas north of Baqouba, the capital of Iraq's Diyala province, 35 miles (60 kilometers) northeast of Baghdad In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters in Iraq Isis fighters parade in the northern city of Mosul In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq crisis Volunteers, who have joined the Iraqi army to fight against the predominantly Sunni militants from the radical Isis group, demonstrate their skills during a graduation ceremony after completing their field training in Najaf In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq crisis Kurdish Peshmerga troops fire a cannon during clashes with militants of the Isis group in Jalawla, Diyala province In pictures: The rise of Isis Lieutenant General Qassem Atta speaks during a press conference Iraqi Prime Minister's security spokesman, Lieutenant General Qassem Atta speaks during a press conference about the latest military development in Iraq, in the capital Baghdad. Iraqi forces pressed a campaign to retake militant-held Tikrit, clashing with jihadist-led Sunni militants nearby and pounding positions inside the city with air strikes in their biggest counter-offensive so far In pictures: The rise of Isis A police station building destroyed by Isis fighters An exterior view of a police station building destroyed by gunmen in Mosul city, northern Iraq. Iraq's new parliament is expected to convene to start the process of setting up a new government, despite deepening political rifts and an ongoing Islamist-led insurgency. Iraqi President Jalal Talabani issued a decree inviting the new House of Representatives to meet and form a new government In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters in Iraq Smoke billows from an area controlled by the Isis between the Iraqi towns of Naojul and Tuz Khurmatu, both located north of the capital Baghdad, as Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga forces take part in an operation to repel the Sunni militants In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraqi refugees An elderly Iraqi woman is helped into a temporary displacement camp for Iraqis caught-up in the fighting in and around the city of Mosul in Khazair In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraqi refugees An Iraqi Christian woman fleeing the violence in the village of Qaraqush, about 30 kms east of the northern province of Nineveh, cries upon her arrival at a community center in the Kurdish city of Arbil in Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraqi refugees An Iraqi woman, who fled with her family from the northern city of Mosul, prays with a copy of the Quran AP In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters in Iraq The body of an Isis militant killed during clashes with Iraqi security forces on the outskirts of the city of Samarra Reuters In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq crisis Iraqi civilians inspect the damage at a market after an air strike by the Iraqi army in central Mosul EPA In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq crisis Members of the Al-Abbas brigades, who volunteered to protect the Shiite Muslim holy sites in Karbala against Sunni militants fighting the Baghdad government, parade in the streets of the city AP In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq crisis Shia tribesmen gather in Baghdad to take up arms against Sunni insurgents marching on the capital. Thousands have volunteered to bolster defences AFP/Getty In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq crisis A van carrying volunteers joining Iraqi security forces against Jihadist militants. Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki announced the Iraqi government would arm and equip civilians who volunteered to fight AFP/Getty In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Fighters of the Isis group parade in a commandeered Iraqi security forces armored vehicle down a main road at the northern city of Mosul In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq An Islamist fighter, identified as Abu Muthanna al-Yemeni from Britain (R), speaks in this still image taken undated video shot at an unknown location and uploaded to a social media website. Five Islamist fighters identified as Australian and British nationals have called on Muslims to join the wars in Syria and Iraq, in the new video released by the Isis In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Al-Qaida inspired militants stand with captured Iraqi Army Humvee at a checkpoint belonging to Iraqi Army outside Beiji refinery some 250 kilometers (155 miles) north of Baghdad. The fighting at Beiji comes as Iraq has asked the U.S. for airstrikes targeting the militants from the Isis group. While U.S. President Barack Obama has not fully ruled out the possibility of launching airstrikes, such action is not imminent in part because intelligence agencies have been unable to identify clear targets on the ground, officials said In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Militants attacked Iraq's main oil refinein Baiji as they pressed an offensive that has seen them capture swathes of territory, a manager and a refinery employee said In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Militants from the Isis group parading with their weapons in the northern city of Baiji in the in Salaheddin province In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq A smoke rises after an attack by Isis militants on the country's largest oil refinery in Beiji, some 250 kilometers (155 miles) north of the capital, Baghdad. Iraqi security forces battled insurgents targeting the country's main oil refinery and said they regained partial control of a city near the Syrian border, trying to blunt an offensive by Sunni militants who diplomats fear may have also seized some 100 foreign workers In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Militants of the Isis group stand next to captured vehicles left behind by Iraqi security forces at an unknown location in the Salaheddin province. For militant groups, the fight over public perception can be even more important than actual combat, turning military losses into propaganda victories and battlefield successes into powerful tools to build support for the cause In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq An injured fighter (C) from the Isis group after a battle with Iraqi soldiers at an undisclosed location near the border between Syria and Iraq In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Fighters from the Isis aiming at advancing Iraqi troops at an undisclosed location near the border between Syria and Iraq In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Fighters from the Isis group taking position at an undisclosed location near the border between Syria and Iraq In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Fighters from the Isis group inspecting vehicles of the Iraqi army after they were seized at an undisclosed location near the border between Syria and Iraq In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq One Iraqi captive, a corporal, is reluctant to say the slogan, and has to be shouted at repeatedly before he obeys Sky News In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Iraqi captives held by the extremists Sky News In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Iraqi captives held by the extremists Sky News In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Militants of the Isis group force captured Iraqi security forces members to the transport In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Militants of the Isis group transporting dozens of captured Iraqi security forces members to an unknown location in the Salaheddin province ahead of executing them In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq A major offensive spearheaded by Isis but also involving supporters of executed dictator Saddam Hussein has overrun all of one province and chunks of three others In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Militants of the Isis group executing dozens of captured Iraqi security forces members at an unknown location in the Salaheddin province In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Isis militants taking position at a Iraqi border post on the Syrian-Iraqi border between the Iraqi Nineveh province and the Syrian town of Al-Hasakah In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Isis rebels show their flag after seizing an army post AFP/Getty Images In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Isis militants waving an Islamist flag after the seizure of an Iraqi army checkpoint in Salahuddin Getty Images In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Demonstrators chant slogans as they carry al-Qaida flags in front of the provincial government headquarters in Mosul, 225 miles (360 kilometers) northwest of Baghdad. In the week since it captured Iraq's second-largest city, Mosul, a Muslim extremist group has tried to win over residents and has stopped short of widely enforcing its strict brand of Islamic law, residents say. Churches remain unharmed and street cleaners are back at work

The Islamists have used the inflow of refugees to smuggle in terrorists and that, say the security agencies, will continue. Hans Georg Massen, a senior German intelligence official, stated earlier this month that at least 17 Isis members have used the route recently.

The attacks in Germany have led to rising criticism of Angela Merkels policy towards refugees which has seen a million people from Syria and elsewhere arrive in the country. Challenged at a press conference in Berlin on whether Mrs Merkel's assertion that we can manage it was unravelling, Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said that none of those who had carried out the attacks over the last week were among refugees who had arrived after the announcement of the open door policy last autumn. Thus, argued Mr de Maiziere, the policy of Mrs Merkel could not be held responsible.

Mubariz Mahmood, a refugee from Pakistan who knew Daleel in Ansbach, said that Syrian had been confident he would get the asylum he sought in Germany and not be deported to Bulgaria, the first state he had entered in Europe through Turkey. The bombing was carried out after the legal process to stop the deportation was exhausted. A Bavarian official remarked: If we declare at first everyone welcome and then say sorry we are throwing you out, then some people will feel very angry. And if a few of them have very aggressive psychological tendencies and a handy banner under which to be violent, then one shouldnt be too surprised when there are these terrible events.
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A string of terror attacks in Europe  including the brutal murder of a French priest  is proof the world is at war, Pope Francis has said.

Speaking on Wednesday on a plane en route to Poland, the Pope clarified he was not talking about a war of religion, but one of domination of peoples and economic interests.

The Popes comments follow the murder of an elderly French Catholic priest by two jihadists on Tuesday.

Normandy church attack in pictures Show all 16 1 /16 Normandy church attack in pictures Normandy church attack in pictures The victim was the 84-year-old priest at the church, Jacques Hamel. AFP/Getty Normandy church attack in pictures French police at the scene of the attack on a church in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, northern France, on July 26 AFP/Getty Images Normandy church attack in pictures More police at the scene BFM TV Normandy church attack in pictures French President Francois Hollande shaking hands with security personnel at the scene AP Normandy church attack in pictures French soldiers standing guard outside the scene of the attack AP Normandy church attack in pictures A policeman secures a position in front of the city hall after two assailants had taken five people hostage in the church at Saint-Etienne-du -Rouvray near Rouen in Normandy Pascal Rossignol/Reuters Normandy church attack in pictures A policeman holds a HKG36 assault rifle as he secures the position in front of the local town hall following the attack REUTERS Normandy church attack in pictures French judicial inverstigating police apprehends a man during a raid after a hostage-taking in the church in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray near Rouen in Normandy, France REUTERS Normandy church attack in pictures AFP/Getty Images Normandy church attack in pictures REUTERS Normandy church attack in pictures REUTERS Normandy church attack in pictures AFP/Getty Images Normandy church attack in pictures AP Normandy church attack in pictures AP Normandy church attack in pictures French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve visits the church REUTERS Normandy church attack in pictures AFP/Getty Images

Father Jacques Hamel, 86, who had served the local area for decades, had his throat slit during the attack in Normandy.

The killing is the latest in a wave of attacks in Europe in recent weeks. There have been at least three Islamist terror incidents in Germany in the past week and the events in Nice on 14 July where a lorry driver ploughed a car into the Bastille Day crowd killing 84 people.

The word that is being repeated often is insecurity, but the real word is war," he said.

"Let's recognise it. The world is in a state of war in bits and pieces," he added, saying the attacks could be seen as another world war, specifically mentioning World War One and Two.

"Now there is this one [war]. It is perhaps not organic but it is organised and it is war," the Pope said. "We should not be afraid to speak this truth. The world is at war because it has lost peace.

"Not a war of religion. There is a war of interests. There is a war for money. There is a war for natural resources. There is a war for domination of peoples. This is the war.

"All religions want peace. Others want war. Do you understand?

Pope Francis gives life advice: in pictures Show all 10 1 /10 Pope Francis gives life advice: in pictures Pope Francis gives life advice: in pictures Pope Francis' guide to happiness Pope Francis: 'Live and let live.' GETTY IMAGES Pope Francis gives life advice: in pictures Pope Francis' guide to happiness Pope Francis: 'Proceed calmly" in life' AFP/Getty Images Pope Francis gives life advice: in pictures Pope Francis' guide to happiness Pope Francis: 'Be giving of yourself to others' AFP/Getty Images Pope Francis gives life advice: in pictures Pope Francis' guide to happiness Pope Francis: 'Even though many parents work long hours, they must set aside time to play with their children' AFP/Getty Images Pope Francis gives life advice: in pictures Pope Francis' guide to happiness Pope Francis: 'Sunday is for family' AFP/Getty Images Pope Francis gives life advice: in pictures Pope Francis' guide to happiness Pope Francis: 'Respect and take care of nature' OSSERVATORE ROMANO/AFP/Getty Images Pope Francis gives life advice: in pictures Pope Francis' guide to happiness Pope Francis: 'Stop being negative' AFP/Getty Images Pope Francis gives life advice: in pictures Pope Francis' guide to happiness Pope Francis: Respect others' beliefs' AFP/Getty Images Pope Francis gives life advice: in pictures Pope Francis' guide to happiness Pope Francis: 'Peace sometimes gives the impression of being quiet, but it is never quiet, peace is always proactive' FP/Getty Images Pope Francis gives life advice: in pictures Pope Francis' guide to happiness AFP/Getty Images

Pope Francis arrived in Poland for a five-day visit on Wednesday, which will include open air Masses and prayers and visits to the site of the former Nazi death camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau and to Poland's holiest shrine of Jasna Gora.

Speaking in the southern Polish city of Krakow, he urged Poland's leaders "to overcome fear" and show compassion to migrants.

Noting that many Poles have emigrated from their country, Francis spoke of the need to facilitate their return if any hope to repatriate, and understand the reasons that caused them to leave.

He added: "Also needed is a spirit of readiness to welcome those fleeing from wars and hunger, and solidarity with those deprived of their fundamental rights, including the right to profess one's faith in freedom and safety."

Additional reporting by agencies
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The Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has described the influx of refugees and other migrants into Europe as a poison" that his country "won't swallow".

So far this year, about 18,000 migrants have entered Hungary, according to the AFP news agency.

A House of Lords report published on Tuesday concluded Britain was failing to take in its fair share of unaccompanied child refugees.

Mr Orban, at a joint press conference in Budapest with Austrian Chancellor Christian Kern, said: "Hungary does not need a single migrant for the economy to work, or the population to sustain itself, or for the country to have a future.

"This is why there is no need for a common European migration policy  whoever needs migrants can take them, but don't force them on us, we don't need them.

"For us migration is not a solution but a problem... not medicine but a poison, we don't need it and won't swallow it."

Mr Orban strongly opposes the EUs plan to use a mandatory quota system to distribute migrants across the 28-nation bloc.

Hungary will hold a referendum on 2 October on its participation in the EU migration relocation scheme.

Last year hundreds of thousands of migrants travelled through Hungary and Austria to try and reach other European nations.

(Getty Images)

But Mr Orbans government curbed the flow by erecting razor wire and fences along Hungarys southern borders.

Budapest, the country's capital, introduced further anti-migrant laws this month, including a return of the controversial no-mans land on the Hungarian-Serbian border, where the land is not recognised as either country's territory. Hundreds of refugees and migrants are stuck in camps there.

Mr Kern said migration to Austria and Germany had declined due to Hungarys stricter border controls.

The comments come after Mr Orban said the tough foreign policy of US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump was good for Europe and vital for Hungary.

Additional reporting by AFP.
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Turkey is introducing treatment to lower or eliminate the sexual drive of those convicted of sex offences.

Individuals convicted of sex offences may be chemically castrated while they are serving time or during the control period if they are conditionally released.

The regulation was published in the Official Gazette on Wednesday, 26 July.

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

"Convicts for whom medical [castration] has been ordered may be sent to the related medical establishment if necessary, the new regulation reads, according to a translation by Hurriyet Daily News.

The regulation also says further punishments will be given to non-compliant convicts.

Under the new regulation, sex offenders are obliged to join treatment programmes.

They are also barred from approaching the area where their victim works or lives, and cannot work in an environment where they would be in contact with children.

The regulation will not apply to those under 18.
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A British woman has been held in a cage in Saudi Arabia by her father, who controls nearly every aspect of her life, a court was told this week.

Swansea-born Amina Al-Jeffery, a 21-year-old dual British-Saudi citizen, was taken from her home in Wales by her father Mohammed Al-Jeffery, 62, four years ago, the court heard. Her father reportedly disapproved of her behaviour when she lived in the UK.

The High Court was told she is now being held against her will at her fathers home in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, The Times reported.

Ms Jeffery is kept caged when her father leaves home, suffers physical abuse and is not properly fed, the court was told. She is also not free to marry whoever she wants.

Steps need to be taken to ensure Ms Jeffery is returned to the UK where her safety can be guaranteed, the Foreign Office's Forced Marriage Unit said.

It added that Ms Jefferys British citizenship was not recognised by the Saudi authorities. Mr Jeffery is said to have ignored orders to take his daughter to the British consulate in Jeddah earlier this week.

Henry Setright, Ms Jefferys lawyer, said the father believed Ms Jeffery was someone he has a duty to control, including her freedom of movement.

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

Mr Jeffery disapproved of Ms Jefferys relationships and conduct, Mr Setright said.

But Anne-Marie Hutchinson, from the Academy of Family Lawyers, acting for Ms Jeffery, said: She is a normal Welsh girl and still has her Welsh accent.

She wants to return home so she can have control of her own life and make her own choices.

The case continues.
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Isis has carried out two bombings in the predominantly Kurdish city of Qamishli in the Syrian Kurdish enclave in north east Syria, killing 44 people and injuring over 100. The explosions tore apart a security headquarters along with government ministries in what may have been Isis retaliation for a Kurdish-backed offensive that threatens to seal off the self-declared caliphate from the outside world.

A truck packed with explosives blew up on the western side of Qamishli, which is the de facto capital of the Kurdish controlled zone, and this was followed with the explosion of a bomb on a motorcycle. Rescue teams are working to find people under the rubble. It was a massive explosion, local journalist Idris Ali told the Kurdish news agency Rudaw. The bang was heard across Qamishli. Every hospital is receiving the wounded.

The Syrian Kurdish zone stretches from the Tigris to the Euphrates River across northern Syria just south of the Turkish border. Its Peoples Protection Units (YPG) receive close air support from US planes, greatly increasing their firepower and enabling them to advance south and west since 2012, when the Syrian Army largely abandoned the area. The Army has some troops in Qamishli controlling the airport and a limited sector in the city.

The YPG is one of the most effective military forces fighting in the war that is being waged in Iraq and Syria, establishing effective check points at which documents and loads are carefully scrutinised. But, if suicide bombers are intercepted, they normally blow themselves up at the checkpoints, inflicting heavy loss of life among security forces and those waiting to pass through. However, although the enclave known to Kurds as Rojava, stretches a long way east to west, Isis forces are not far to the south and have in the past penetrated into Kurdish cities and towns to carry out bombings and killings. In June 2015 an Isis detachment of about 80 entered the Kurdish city of Kobani west of Qamishli and killed at least 220 civilians and 35 YPG fighters before being killed themselves.

Qamishli resident and writer Suleiman Youssef was quoted as saying that he heard the first explosion from a few miles away. He said the blasts levelled several buildings and many people were trapped under the rubble. Most of the buildings at the scene of the explosion have been heavily damaged because of the strength of the blast, he said.

One motive for the bombing may be that an offensive by the YPG-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) is fighting its way into the town of Manbij west of the Euphrates, which has been held by Isis for two years. If it falls, this will cut off Isis from the one place where they can gain access to Turkey and the outside world. It would also cut off the movement from the heavily populated and highly fertile land of northern Aleppo, that has a population of about 600,000. The SDF says that it gave Isis fighters time to leave the town, but they have not taken advantage of the offer.

The Syrian Kurds, numbering about two million or 10 per cent of the population, were a marginalised and persecuted minority up to 2011, when they threw off Syrian government control, only to find themselves under attack from the Syrian branch of al-Qaeda, the Nusra Front, and later Isis. The reason the Kurds are so militarily effective is that PYD, the party running the enclave, is the Syrian of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) which has fighting a guerrilla war against the Turkish army since 1984.

Isis is under pressure in both Iraq and Syria and has responded with a string of massacres through carefully organised bombings in Baghdad, where 292 people were killed at the end of Ramadan, and another in the Syrian government heartlands at Tartous and Jableh. Attacks on civilians has always been a central part of Isis tactics to show strength and defiance as well as to sow fear. Another aim is to tie down security forces defending potential civilian targets.
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The Palestinian president has announced his intention to sue the British Government over a 1917 declaration that paved the way for the creation of Israel.

Mahmoud Abbas statement, delivered in his absence by foreign minister Riyad al-Maliki, was given at the opening of this weeks Arab League summit in Mauritania.

It called on other states in the alliance to help the Palestinian government launch a lawsuit against the UK over the Balfour Declaration and the subsequent creation of Israel in 1948.

British soldiers patrol the streets of Jerusalem at the time of a visit by Lord Balfour, 2nd April 1925. (Getty Images/Hulton Archive)

Mr Abbas accused Britain of supporting Israeli crimes since the end of the Mandate for Palestine, and claimed the country was among the parties responsible for the exodus of Palestinian refugees.

Nearly a century has passed since the issuance of the Balfour Declaration in 1917, his statement said according to a transcript published by the Wafa news agency.

 Turkey sends Gaza first aid in six years

And based on this ill-omened promise hundreds of thousands of Jews were moved from Europe and elsewhere to Palestine at the expense of our Palestinian people whose parents and grandparents had lived for thousands of years on the soil of their homeland.

Mr al-Maliki told delegates in Nouakchott the lawsuit would be filed in an international court but did not give further details.

The speech characterised the Balfour Declaration as a fateful promise from those who do not own to those who do not deserve.

A letter from British Foreign Secretary Arthur James Balfour to Lionel Walter Rothschild, a leader of the British Jewish Community, it said the government of the time favoured the establishment of a national home for the Jewish people in Palestine.

The text was read as support for the Zionist movement and was later incorporated into a peace treaty with the Ottoman Empire and the British Mandate for Palestine, despite contradicting other agreements.

Israel: From independence to intifada Show all 7 1 /7 Israel: From independence to intifada Israel: From independence to intifada 26973.bin Israel: From independence to intifada 26974.bin Israel: From independence to intifada 26975.bin Israel: From independence to intifada 26976.bin Israel: From independence to intifada 26977.bin Israel: From independence to intifada 26985.bin Robert Capa/Magnum Israel: From independence to intifada 26986.bin Robert Capa/Magnum

Israel declared independence in 1948 after the mandate expired and won the subsequent Arab-Israeli War, prompting significant demographic change in the region.

Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli Prime Minister, said the proposed lawsuit was part of attempts to deny the Jewish people's "strong connection to our land".

"Of course (the Palestinian Authority) will fail," he added. "But this shines a light clarifying the root of the conflict is the refusal to recognise a Jewish state in any borders."

Gilad Erdan, the Israeli public security minister, called Mr Abbas statement strange but not accidental coming in the lead-up to 2017, which will mark a century since the declaration and 50 years since the Six Day War that saw Israel seize control of the Gaza Strip, West Bank and East Jerusalem.

Palestinian leaders haven't been interested in peace for some time already, Mr Erdan told Haaretz. The only goal is to de-legitimise Israel.

A spokesperson for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office told The Independent it was aware of Mr al-Malikis speech on Monday but gave no further comment.

The speech came at a time of heightened tension in Israel and the West Bank following a series of attacks by Palestinians and security crackdowns by Israeli forces that have prompted concerns over excessive use of force by the UN.
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Sometimes it's hard to imagine what politicians and dictators were like before they left their marks on the global stage.

We collected old photos of major leaders, past and current, to give a taste of who they once were.

Unfortunately, we were limited by photo availability, so not every major figure from the 20th and 21st centuries made it into the post.

Check the pictures out below.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani in a military service uniform in an undated photograph.

Wikimedia

Kim Il Sung, the former leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, as a 16-year-old in 1928. He joined a communist youth organization around that time and was arrested and jailed for activities with the group.

Associated Press

Source: Britannica

An undated photo of Saudi Arabia's King Salman. He was first made deputy governor of Riyadh in 1954, at about age 19.

Wikimedia

German Chancellor Angela Merkel with fellow Christian Democrat Lothar de Maiziere in 1990.

Wikmedia

Russian President Vladimir Putin as a young child in Russia in the 1950s.

Wikimedia, The Kremlin

Eight-year-old Justin Trudeau, future prime minister of Canada, feeds pigeons with his father, then prime minister Pierre Trudeau, in Venice in 1980.

Massimo Sambucetti/AP

Joseph Stalin, who later became the leader of the USSR, in 1902, a few years after he dropped out from seminary school.

Future Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi appeared on Italy's Ruota della Fortuna (Wheel of Fortune) in the early 1990s at age 19. He won the equivalent of tens of thousands of euros.

Youtube/italfilmsubs

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe as a child, left, with his family in 1956. His father, Shintaro Abe, was foreign minister between 1982 and 1986.

Wikimedia

A mugshot of Benito Mussolini, who later became the leader of the Italian Fascists, after his arrest by Swiss police in 1903.

Wikimedia, via State Archives of the Canton of Berne

Aung San Suu Kyi, state counsellor of Myanmar, as a 6-year-old in 1951. She was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 but has since been criticized by rights groups over her failure to speak up for minority groups.

Wikimedia via Freedom from Fear

Dictator Adolf Hitler as a baby.

 11 most corrupt countries in world

Queen Elizabeth II, right, practices bandaging with her sister, Margaret, who both joined the 1st Buckingham Palace Company of Girl Guides, in 1943. The two stripes on her uniform indicate that she's patrol leader.

Associated Press

Wikimedia, Colegio Salesiano Don Bosco de Ramos Mejia

Former US President Bill Clinton on a pony near his childhood home in Arkansas.

Jeff Mitchell/Reuters

British Foreign Minister Boris Johnson, then president of the Oxford Union, speaks with Melina Mercouri, Greek minister for culture, in 1986.

Brian Smith PN/Reuters

Brazil's Dilma Rousseff, center, in an undated photo with her family. The Senate of Brazil suspended her powers and duties for up to six months in May 2016.

Wikimedia via Biografia

Then Lt. Col. Hugo Chavez, center, walking with military intelligence officers after being arrested for trying to overthrow Venezuela's government in a failed coup in 1992. He was elected president several years later.

Andres Leighton/AP

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in 1986, when he was the Israeli ambassador to the United Nations.

Ed Bailey/AP

US President Barack Obama with his grandparents, Stanley Armour Dunham and Madelyn Dunham, in New York in the 1980s.

Obama for America

Former US President Franklin D. Roosevelt with a bow and arrow, circa 1890.

AP

Former US President George W. Bush served in the Texas Air National Guard from 1968 to 1973.

Wikimedia

Nicolae Ceausescu, the former head of Romania's Communist Party, as a 16-year-old, in 1934.

Wikimedia

Mahatma Gandhi, right, with his brother Laxmidas in 1886.

AP

Read more:

 13 useful life hacks you can learn in a minute

 Why Microsoft's chatbot turned into a racist

 Everyone is worried that the China bubble will pop

Read the original article on Business Insider UK.  2016. Follow Business Insider UK on Twitter.
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Iran and Saudi Arabia have together executed more than 350 people this year, according to statistics released by human rights groups this week.

Iran carried out at least 250 people death sentences in the first six months of 2016, putting it second after China on the list of most state executions, a report by Iran Human Rights (IHR) found. This represents an average rate of about four executions every three days.

In the same period, Saudi Arabia executed 108 people, according to a Human Rights Watch report.

Protesters against the beheading of foreign workers in Saudi Arabia stage a mock beheading. The Kingdom's death sentence toll is set to rise again this year. (Rex Features) (Rex)

The figure for Iran actually represents a dramatic fall compared to last year. In the first seven months of 2015, Iran executed more than 700 people, with 969 people killed by the end of the year  the highest total in 25 years.

However Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, the spokesperson for Iran Human Rights, said there was no indication of any change of policy by the Iranian authorities.

The numbers are lower than last year most probably because of the parliamentary elections in February and March of this year and the Muslim holy month of Ramadan in June," he said.

Also, the Iranian authorities do not report all executions that take place, so the number may be much higher than reported, according to IHR.

The majority of the executions carried out so far this year were of people convicted of murder and drugs offences.

Meanwhile Human Rights Watch said Saudi Arabia was on track to match the 158 executions it carried out in 2015.

Out of the 108 people executed by Saudi authorities this year, 47 were convicted of murder, 13 were drug smugglers and one was convicted of rape, according to Human Rights Watch.

Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement: Executions are never the answer to stopping crime, especially when they result from a flawed justice system that ignores torture allegations.

There is simply no excuse for Saudi Arabias frequent use of the death penalty for non-violent drug crimes.

Nearly half of those executed by Saudi Arabia this year were killed on the same day, 2 January, when 47 people were put to death after they were convicted of terrorist offences.

They included a prominent Shia cleric, Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, whose death sparked international condemnation.

In 2012, the UN General Assembly called on countries to establish a moratorium on the use of the death penalty, to reduce the practice with the view toward its eventual abolition.
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A billionaire suspected of helping fuel an African civil war by masterminding illegal shipments of AK-47s, missile launchers and tanks from the comfort of his Ibiza mansion would threaten anyone who crossed him with the words, I will put you in a glass jar, it has been claimed.

Pierre Konrad Dadak reportedly spent hundreds of thousands of euros turning his Ibiza mansion, with a fleet of supercars in the garage, into a fortress. But when it came for paying for a 12,000-euro (10,000) specially reinforced glass shower door, Mr Dadak is said to have refused to pay the labour costs.

The Spanish news site El Espanol reported that the builder decided not being paid was preferable to ending up inside a glass jar.

The news site also reported that police suspect that Mr Dadak has been involved in numerous arms shipments to factions in South Sudan, where 10,000 civilians have so far been killed in a civil war that began in 2013. Investigators reportedly found an email in which Dadak offered to smuggle 200,000 Kalashnikovs, as well as rocket launchers and tanks, into the troubled East African country.

Mr Dadak is now in custody, suspected of arms trafficking, and Europol has issued a statement declaring: Several members of the crime network were arrested. They are suspected of offences related to organised property crime, extortion, money-laundering, fraud, bribery and disclosure of official secrets.

In a case that seems to echo the fictional plot of the recent mini-series The Night Manager, in which Tom Hiddlestons character infiltrates an arms-trafficking ring run from a mansion on the Spanish island of Majorca by Hugh Lauries Richard Onslow, Mr Dadak was arrested in a dawn raid on 14 July.

After armed Spanish police subdued his bodyguards, Mr Dadak reportedly spent 30 minutes holed up in the mansions panic room before being captured as he tried to escape through a window.

Among those reportedly arrested with him was his ex-partner Kateryna Dirgina, a Ukrainian model.

The arrests, which coincided with simultaneous searches of companies in Germany and Switzerland, are thought to have been the culmination of a four-year international investigation.

Mr Dadak, a former Polish army officer, is said to have arrived in Ibiza  a party island renowned for its nightclubs and visited by 700,000 Britons every year  in 2011.

In what appears to have been an elaborate ruse to protect himself from scrutiny, the dual French-Polish national acquired a diplomatic passport from the West African state of Guinea-Bissau. He reportedly did this by promising to make large investments in the country.

It is thought that when the promised investments failed to materialise, the Guinea-Bissau authorities revoked his diplomatic privilege.

By that time, however, Mr Dadak had put a plaque up outside his Ibiza mansion, declaring it a consular residence owned by Guinea-Bissau, and therefore immune  along with the Lamborghinis and Ferraris parked there  from being searched by the Spanish police.

It is understood, however, that Mr Dadak soon drew attention to himself with his extravagant lifestyle.

El Espanol reported that despite having no obvious means of acquiring vast wealth, Mr Dadak had his own private jet and dined regularly at Ibizas Blue Marlin beachside restaurant, which has its own water taxi service to take diners to and from their yachts.

The Night Manager starred, from left, Hugh Laurie, Tom Hiddleston, Elizabeth Debicki, Olivia Colman and Tom Hollander (Mitch Jenkins/BBC)

It was reported that wherever he went, he was accompanied by an entourage of armed bodyguards. His business cards, meanwhile, allegedly declared him to be the president shareholder of a Warsaw-based company.

El Espanol also claimed that this year, members of Marseilles notorious Barresi clan paid for him to enjoy his 40th birthday party in France.

In what was alleged to be a sign of both Mr Dadaks links to organised crime and his uncompromising attitude to those who upset him, a Spanish police spokesperson was quoted as saying he once hired a Dutch criminal gang to go to Marbella to collect a debt of four million euros (3.35m.)

After his arrest, the Europol statement, which did not name Mr Dadak, alleged: By piecing together information gathered internationally, law enforcement authorities and Europol specialists discovered that the suspect had supplied firearms to several crime networks in Europe.

Moreover, investigations showed that he supplied significant amounts of weaponry to an African country, estimated at some 200,000 Kalashnikov AK-47 assault rifles, missile launchers and tanks, via Polish companies he controlled.

The investigation continues to identify eventual international links, further to those with Belgium, France, Germany, The Netherlands, Poland, Latvia, the UK and the US.

The statement added that four of Mr Dadaks very expensive vehicles have been seized by the Spanish authorities.
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Graduates who move overseas and fail to repay their student loans after their studies should be arrested, suggests an education expert who has authored a report on what the UK can learn from New Zealands higher education sector.

Sam Cannicott, former Regents University London employee who now works for Statistics New Zealand, described how New Zealands no-nonsense approach to collecting student loan repayments from graduates overseas highlights the timidity of the steps taken in the UK.

He said: Former students who fail to make repayments face arrest at the New Zealand border, which is proving to be a strong deterrent.

His comments have come on the day the Higher Education Policy Institute (Hepi) publishes a major comparative study, Higher Education in New Zealand: What might the UK learn?, which has highlighted how New Zealands total student loan debt sits at around 6.8 billion - just six per cent of GDP. The UKs total student loan debt, however, is approximately 70 billion, 16 per cent of GDP.

Although the countrys higher education sector is considerably smaller than the UKs, the report insists British universities must learn from New Zealand post-Brexit, a nation which consistently performs well in international league tables.

As well as tougher controls over student loan repayments, the report suggests that, like New Zealand, the UK must provide a red carpet to international students, and also move to protect quality when liberalising student number controls.

Cannicott explained how breaking the link between income and loan repayments for graduates who head overseas, as New Zealand has done, removes bureaucratic barriers that make it difficult to chase repayments. He continued: Brexit presents an opportunity for the UK to learn from New Zealand because there is less need to ensure the repayment terms of EU students are the same as those for domestic students.

The UK is missing a trick by concentrating international student recruitment at the tertiary level. By following the New Zealand model and opening up the school system to international pupils, the UK could develop a useful pipeline for higher education institutions.

 The 20 hardest universities to get into

The report has come after a study from social mobility charity, the Sutton Trust, found England to have the highest level of debt per graduate than any other country in the English-speaking world. With Englands grads now leaving with almost 45,000 of student debt, New Zealands graduates leave with just 23,300, the lowest of any other anglophone nation.

Nick Hillman, director of Hepi, supported New Zealands tough action against those who avoid paying their loans, and said: Tax evasion and benefit fraud rip taxpayers off. Defaulting on your student loan could be regarded as just as bad. Yet it is fairly common among both Brits and EU citizens who study in the UK before working abroad. Whitehall has never gripped this problem fully, but New Zealands experience suggests strong enforcement action works.

If the Government is serious about wanting to sell off the student loan book to the private sector, tougher penalties for non-repayment would also increase its value. Given that the 9,000 fees regime is now maturing and postgraduate loans are being introduced, a new repayment regime for those living overseas should be a more urgent priority than ever before. Ministers, MPs, and peers should consider amending the Higher Education and Research Bill currently before Parliament to ensure higher repayment rates.

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Earlier this year, in a statement to the House of Commons, Universities Minister Jo Johnson warned the Government would prosecute graduates from across the UK and overseas who failed to pay their student loans back on time as part of a new strategy.

He said the new plans were needed to ensure the repayment system remains fair, robust, and efficient as the higher education system sees more people gain entry than ever before, due to a cap-lift on numbers.

The politician described how the Government is committed to maintaining the UKs world-class education system while living within its means, and said: As more loans are issued to new students each year, it is vital the repayment process is robust, convenient for borrowers, and working efficiently to ensure the sustainability of the student finance system, and value for money, for the taxpayer.

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The Tories, however, were accused of maxing out the nations credit card with students and graduates now being left to foot the bill at a recent parliamentary debate on a retrospective loan hike.

The debate was triggered following mass outrage when the Government made a U-turn on a 2012 promise by freezing the student loan repayment threshold at 21,000 until at least 2021, meaning graduates are now being forced to pay back more on their loans than originally promised.

In a hard-hitting statement which was echoed by other MPs throughout the debate, Helen Jones, Labour MP for Warrington North and chair of the debate, said: The worst thing about this decision is it is retrospective. A commercial organisation would not be able to do this, but the measures it imposes on others it appears [the Government] is not prepared to adhere to itself.

Johnson - the only Tory present at the debate - sought to address concerns by insisting the move ensures Englands higher education system is on a sustainable footing. He also described how university graduates today benefit hugely in terms of jobs compared with non-graduates, meaning higher salaries, and said: We need to make sure higher education funding remains sustainable.
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Cracks are starting show in Barcelona.

Not in any of the Gaudi facades, but in the relationship between the citys 1.6 million inhabitants and the visitors that descend upon them from cruise ships and cheap Ryanair flights, seeking a break in the sun. The old city, Ciutat Vella, has lost tens of thousands of residents in the past year as apartments are turned into holiday flats to bring in cash. Citizens elected a new mayor in 2015, Ada Colau, with a mandate to stem the building of new hotels and holiday apartments.

Enter Casa Bonay, a hotel made for the people of Barcelona. It's the opposite end of the spectrum from the walled luxury of brands such as W, Mandarin Oriental and Renaissance that have sprouted here in the past decade to accommodate swelling tourist numbers of almost 10 million a year.

Casa Bonay was previously an apartment block (Nacho Alegre)

The hotel is set within a converted 1869 apartment building and opened its doors to guests this year. We meet Lara Monset, general manager, in the interior marble spiral staircase, bathed in natural light and dotted with succulents in terracotta pots. Normally when a hotel opens somewhere it is not a place for local people. We want this to be a place where people in Barcelona want to go, she says.

Location

Passersby might not even realise this is a hotel. Below its 67 rooms, two shop fronts flank the entrance to the staircase where Lara speaks to me. Satans  a craft coffee shop  and cold-pressed-juice company Mothers share the shop on the left, which is just as likely to be filled with locals reading the paper as hotel guests buying a flat white before heading out to explore the city.

On the right, a pop-up called TET serves Vietnamese lunches of barbecued pork and deep-fried spring rolls. At night, the restaurant Elephant, Crocodile, Monkey takes over. Chef Estanislao Carenzo specialises in small plates, regional ingredients and natural wines. Its quiet when we visit on a Monday save for another couple, who come in off the street speaking Catalan.

Some rooms have private roof terraces (Nacho Alegre)

Casa Bonay is situated on Gran Via de les Corts Catalanes, in the Eixample district. Turn right out of the hotel and you will come to Parc de la Ciutadella, with its magnificent fountains and the city zoo. Gaudis masterpiece, La Sagrada Familia, is just 15 minutes walk north. Take a left and you will come to Placa de Catalunya, which was once home to the citys Occupy movement. It is now a sanitised open square funnelling tourists down Las Ramblas.

Comfort

Though it is home to many businesses, the thing that unites Casa Bonay is impeccable design. Co-owner Ines Miro-Sans collaborated with Brooklyn-based design company Studio Tack to restore the building to its former glory. On the upper floors, lino floors were painstakingly chipped away by hand to reveal magnificent original mosaic tiles.

Every room has natural light and stylish furniture (Metrixell Arjalaguer)

Part of the back of the building was removed to ensure each room had natural light  like a slice taken out of the middle of a loaf of bread. Interior rooms have their own front doors that open on to this slim inner courtyard. On upper floors, guests have access to small private roof terraces with sunbeds.

Local designers Batabasta created exotic fruity prints that appear throughout the hotel: bathroom wallpaper, cushions in the rooms, coasters in the restaurants and even the shirt worn by our waiter in Elephant, Crocodile, Monkey bore the graphics. You can buy the shirts at the hotel front desk, which is tucked away in a side-door behind Satans.

Those who wander in from Gran Via pass bookshelves stocked by local independent publisher Blackie Books before they are drawn back into the hotels bar-restaurant, Libertine. Once the garage of the house, Libertine is now a vast dark green lounge with original iron columns. In the morning, as dappled light streams from the ceiling over bamboo chairs and velvet sofas, Marcos from Satans pours single-origin coffee and serves breakfast with a twist. Libertine serves comfort food for the rest of the day.

Libertine restaurant (Metrixell Arjalaguer)

Casa Bonay has started hosting barbecues on the roof and fine nights, or Las Finas Noches, at Libertine to bring hotel guests and locals together. At the latter, Chef Carenzo serves casserole in the middle of the room, sherry flows, and tables are pushed aside for dancing to DJs. When I ask Lara if locals have started taking part, she laughs: Its so popular that the hotel guests are more likely to be the ones asking if they are allowed to join in!

The essentials

Casa Bonay is situated at Gran Via 700, Barcelona, Spain (00 34 93 545 80 70; casabonay.com). Double rooms cost from 130, excluding breakfast.

Wi-fi: free

Access: there are two rooms with disabled access

Pets: the hotel offers beds for smallmedium sized dogs, they also include a dog bowl and will put treats inside the room for your pet. This costs 20 per night. Dogs are also welcome in the Libertine lobby bar for locals and guests.

Rooms: ****

Service: ****

Value: ****
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I received 90 interesting comments on my argument that the referendum campaign, with both project fear and its false optimism, had reduced trust in our politicians to dangerously low levels and what we might do about it. Naturally, not everybody agreed with me.

One reader commented: Far from broken, British democracy is in fine form. A political class that had detached itself from the electorate has been pulled up short and is now realigning itself so that it supports the views of the UK voters. No revolution, no blood on the streets, good old common sense British democracy.

Yes, indeed, among the attributes of the British political system is the flexibility derived from the absence of a cumbersome written constitution. And looming over everything is the supremacy of Parliament. So the intolerable situation that developed immediately after the referendum result was quickly regulated and a new Government formed.

But that doesnt, in itself, restore trust.

 Amol Rajan and Andreas Whittam Smith discuss whether British politics is 'broken'

As another reader put it: You destroy trust by lying and getting caught. Getting caught is inevitable. That is exactly the hole that Parliament has dug itself into. Restoring betrayed trust takes a long time, so if politics wants to shed its spin-doctor image [politicians] had better start immediately and be prepared to allocate a lot of time and effort to it.

As a remedy I put forward the proposal that MPs should be subject to term limits. This would mean that they would be able to serve for, say, only three sessions of parliament. To put it another way, they could stand for re-election no more than twice. As a result, MPs would have to have had careers outside politics to which they could return. That would extinguish the notion of a political class  people who do nothing but politics their entire lives. Instead, being an MP would come to be seen as a satisfying public duty.

Readers came up with numerous objections. Wouldnt imposing a time limit be likely to make politicians even more acutely aware of their own career and advantage than they are now? They would have only a limited time to secure a post-politics career, so would be even more susceptible to pressure from powerful lobby groups. Another observed that many MP's evolve into excellent statesmen after two terms and are at their peak of effectiveness after three terms.

What I think was the strongest objection was that fixed maximum terms of office would favour some professions over others  its a lot easier to return to a career in banking, it was argued, or political lobbying than it would be to return to a career in midwifery or engineering, for example. Three political terms of office might actually enhance the CV of someone working in the financial services industry (good contacts are everything) but would do little for those working in social work or education (where a serious updating of basic skills/qualifications would be demanded).

Readers also drew attention to the role of the media. As one commented: So while we can accept that our Government could do with a few less career politicians and a few more who have achieved something elsewhere, we have to wonder why the press, and The Independent in particular, constantly oil the wheels of this self-serving machine.

Another added that the problem is that journalists buy into the spin, because they get stories out of it too. However, along comes a political leader who doesn't use spin, Jeremy Corbyn, and the media hates him. The media are a part of the problem.

Recommended Read more The two simple things that could fix our broken democracy

I do not think this criticism is merited. It was the press that quickly characterised the Remain tactics as project fear and which was merciless in its treatment of the Leave campaigns mindless optimism. On the other hand, we do cheerfully relay politicians sound bites.

However, a reader in Llandudno sent me a communication privately two days ago that takes the debate into a new realm. Agreeing with my proposals so far as they went, he argued that we also need a general acceptance that a citizen's right to vote carries with it a duty of understanding both what any given vote is about and how our voting choice is most likely to affect others ... but it is obvious this understanding is seriously wanting.

Wouldnt we consider it outrageous, he goes on to argue, for anyone to have a say in determining the fate of an accused other than a juror. And, he adds, juries are directed to reach their decisions after weighing up only what is relevant to a case, as presented by the various parties, including expert witnesses; and they do this aided by a judge's summary of the significant issues.

Thus, he concludes: The challenge now, surely, is to find ways of using newly available technology to allow these core judicial values and practices to find fuller expression in the political arena. Until we achieve some measure of success in this, we cannot expect to revive an inclusive public-interest-oriented notion of citizenship, or attract enough new blood into Parliament and government to clear out the present dysfunctional lot.

Recommended Read more How spin doctors destroyed our democracy

In fact, the jury system, with its random selection of jurors from the local community and their thorough briefing as result of the hearing and challenging of evidence, has often been examined as providing a model for democracy. David Van Reybrouck has just written a book, Against Elections: the Case for Democracy. He argues against what he calls electoral fundamentalism, an unshakeable belief in the idea that democracy is inconceivable without elections, and elections are a necessary and fundamental precondition when speaking of democracy.

Im afraid I am an electoral fundamentalist. But Van Reybrouck argues that a much better way is to return to the central principle of Athenian democracy: you do not ask everyone to vote on an issue few people really understand, but you draft a random sample of the population and make sure they come to the grips with the subject matter in order to take a sensible decision. A cross-section of society that is informed can act more coherently than an entire society that is uninformed.

How to reform our political system is, then, a difficult and urgent question. We need to find a way of debating it widely among ourselves  and get on with it.
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The last 30 days have been blood-soaked in unparalleled tragedy. From Turkey to Baghdad, from Nice to the US, terrorism has taken numerous innocent lives. There is no longer time to mourn; before commentators can even try to piece events together, yet more numbing news breaks.

Youd be forgiven, then, for thinking that yesterdays stabbing spree at a centre for the disabled just outside Tokyo, which left 18 dead and 27 injured, was another part of this new world of fear and terror. But Japan is different. This was not just an act of terrorism; it was a premeditated hate crime against disabled people  and the worst massacre in Japans history since World War II.

Satoshi Uematsu, a 26-year-old former employee of the facility, crept in on his former patients at dawn, stabbing each victim, one by one in their sleep. I did it, he told police as he handed himself in. It is better that disabled people disappear.

Chillingly, Uematsu had previously written to Japanese authorities offering to methodically wipe out Japans disabled community. His letter repeats the claim that all disabled people should cease to exist. I envision a world where a person with multiple disabilities can be euthanised, he wrote.

 Japan stabbing: Attacker wanted the disabled to disappear

This atrocity has all the hallmarks of a psychopath-at-large; another quiet, unsuspecting, Xbox-loving weasel comes out of the woodwork to thrust the world into a state of perplexed grief. It would be easy to confine this latest tragedy to that peculiar, theatrical set of facts. Yet, Uematasus attack on the outskirts of Tokyo is symptomatic of a wider problem.

What makes Uematsu a psychopath is the utterly savage manner in which he acted on his contempt for the disabled, but behind his grotesque act of terror lies a sobering reality: we, the disabled, are oppressed, dehumanised and hated.

We are seen as a hindrance to society, sucking the life out of a dying economy, feeding off the struggling state. We are the lazy leeches who rob you, the taxpayer, of your hard-earned wages.

The UK is no exception. As a disabled person, I have felt the sting of ablest contempt. It comes in the form of irritation from passengers who give up their seats on the bus because its now rude not to. It comes as shouting, impatient doctors who conflate my blindness for deafness. Its the indignant lecturers who are asked to reformat their inaccessible PowerPoint presentations. And its the bouncer in Norwich who assaulted me because my loopy eyes suggested I was too fucked to get into the club.

Fortunately, at the time of writing, I havent been the subject of hate crime. Yet. Last year saw a 213 per cent rise in hate crime against people with disabilities. According to the charity Scope, one in six disabled people have experienced intimidating or aggressive behaviour.

7 ways the Tories have helped disabled people Show all 7 1 /7 7 ways the Tories have helped disabled people 7 ways the Tories have helped disabled people Closing Remploy factories The Work and Pensions Secretary called time on Britains system of Remploy factories, which provided subsidised and sheltered employment to disabled people. People employed at the factories protested against their closure and said they provided gainful work. Is it a kindness to stick people in some factory where they are not doing any work at all? Just making cups of coffee? Mr Duncan Smith said at the time, defending the decision. I promise you this is better. The Remploy organisation was privatised and sold to American workfare provider Maximus, with the majority of the organisations factories closed. The future of the remaining sites is unclear 7 ways the Tories have helped disabled people Scrapping the Independent Living Fund The 320m Independent Living Fund was established in 1988 to give financial support to people with disabilities. It was scrapped on July 1 2015, with 18,000 often severely disabled people losing out by an average of 300 a week. The money was generally used to help pay for carers so people could live in communities rather than institutions. Councils will get a boost in funding to compensate but it will not cover the whole cost of the fund. This new cash also doesnt have to be spent on the disabled 7 ways the Tories have helped disabled people Cut payments for the disabled Access To Work scheme Iain Duncan Smith is bringing forward a policy that will reduce payments to some disabled people from a scheme designed to help them into work. The 108m scheme, which helps 35,540 people, will be capped on a per-used basis, potentially hitting those with the more serious disabilities who currently receive the most help. The single biggest users of the fund are people who have difficulty seeing and hearing. The cut will come in from October 2015. The charity Disability UK says the scheme actually makes the Government money because the people who gain access to work tend pay tax that more than covers its cost. The DWP does not describe the reduction as a cut and says it will be able to spread the money more thinly and cover more people 7 ways the Tories have helped disabled people Cut Employment and Support Allowance The latest Budget included a 30 a week cut in disability benefits for some new claimants of Employment and Support Allowance (ESA). The Government says it is equalising the rate of disability benefits with Jobseekers Allowance because giving disabled people more help is a perverse incentive. The people affected by this cut are those assessed as having a limited capability for work but as being capable of some work-related activity. A group of prominent Catholics wrote to Mr Duncan Smith to say there was no justification for this cut. Mental health charity Mind, said the cut was insulting and misguided 7 ways the Tories have helped disabled people Risk homelessness with a sharp increase disability benefit sanctions Official figures in the first quarter of 2014 found a huge increase in sanctions against people reliant on ESA sickness benefit. The 15,955 sanctions were handed out in that period compared to 3,574 in the same period the year before, 2013  a 4.5 times increase. The homelessness charity Crisis warned at the time that the sharp rise in temporary benefit cuts was cruel and can leave people utterly destitute  without money even for food and at severe risk of homelessness. It is difficult to see how they are meant to help people prepare for work, Matt Downie, director of policy at the charity added 7 ways the Tories have helped disabled people Sending sick people to work because of broken fitness to work tests In 2012 a government advisor appointed to review the Governments Work Capability Assessment said the tests causing suffering by sending sick people back to work inappropriately. There are certainly areas where it's still not working and I am sorry there are people going through a system which I think still needs improvement, Professor Malcolm Harrington concluded. The tests are said to have improved since then, but as recently as this summer they are still coming in for criticism. In June the British Psychological Society said there was now significant body of evidence that the WCA is failing to assess peoples fitness for work accurately and appropriately. It called for a full overhaul of the way the tests are carried out. The WCA appeals system has also been fraught with controversy with a very high rate of overturns and delays lasting months and blamed for hardship 7 ways the Tories have helped disabled people The bedroom tax The Governments benefit cut for people who it says are under-occupying their homes disproportionately affects disabled people. Statistics released last year show that around two-thirds of those affected by the under-occupancy penalty, widely known as the bedroom tax, are disabled. There have been a number of high profile cases of disabled people being moved out of specially adapted homes by the policy. In one case publicised by the Sunday People last week, a 48 year old man with cerebral palsy was forced to bathe in a paddling pool after the tax moved him out of his home with a walk-in shower. The Government says it has provided councils with a discretionary fund to help reduce the policys impact on disabled people, but cases continue to arise

Some of these crimes are more than just petty attacks. In Newcastle, 24-year-old Lee Irving, who had autism, was brutally murdered in what police believed to be a disability hate crime. He, like the Japan victims, was stabbed to death, his body abandoned on a patch of yellowing grass, 10 miles from his mothers home.

The world is a bitterly ugly place to live in right now; wars, coups and bombs plague us. But for disabled people, living in an atmosphere of fear and anxiety is nothing new. Its the way its always been for us, and unless perceptions of our place in society change, it looks like its going to stay that way.
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Faced with the murder and beheading of seven of his monks by Islamists 20 years ago, the Archbishop of Algiers went one better than the Archbishop of Rouen this week. He didnt talk about the slaughter of an elderly priest as the unnameable. He saw the road of Calvary. In fear of his own life amid a ferocious conflict, Monseigneur Henri Teissier, 67 years old and a French professor of Arabic, responded by celebrating mass for six nuns and monks all those years ago by reading from St Matthews, Chapter 25, verse 13: Watch, therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of Man cometh.

The tiny congregation had originally gathered that day in 1996 to remember one of Frances first religious martyrs in Algiers, Vicomte Charles de Foucauld, the soldier-turned-priest who was assassinated by an Islamist in Tamanrasset in 1916; his murder set an awful precedent for the killing of all French priests by those who claimed they were motivated by Islam. Surely Father Jacques Hamel would have known of him. The Vicomte was killed only 14 years before he was born.

But when Teissier talked to me of the seven monks taken from their monastery in the beautiful hills above Tibherine, his words might have been uttered about the killers of 86-year-old Father Hamel. They will kill a boy of two or an old man of 85 [sic]. I think they are out of their consciences. They work under their understanding of Islamic law  We have to kill the enemies of the Lord  and it is finished. We think not only of our life but of the lives of all the people in Algeria A generous man, Teissier.

The Algerian civil war  between a brutal Islamist army and the equally savage Algerian army which had fatally cancelled elections which Islamists would have won in 1992  had by 1996 already reached Syrian proportions: babies with their throats cut, women massacred in front of their husbands, men routinely decapitated. The police tortured their prisoners by pumping water into their stomachs until their victims exploded. It was inevitable that the killers from the GIA, the Islamic Armed Group, would turn upon all foreigners  and that also meant priests and bishops.

The monks of Tibherine, whose own Golgotha would be made into a poignant and superb film, Of Gods and Men, were taken from their monastery where they had looked after and given medical aid not only to the local Algerian Muslim villagers, but to the Islamist fighters themselves. That may have been their undoing. More on that later.

But first, back to Teissier and his appalling, magnificent reflections upon their deaths. It is true that we found only their heads, he said quietly on that hot Algiers afternoon, the sound of police sirens echoing over the city. Three of their heads were hanging from a tree near a petrol station. The other four heads were lying on the grass beneath. But it is marvellous that the families of those monks maintained their friendship for us and for all Algerians. They had visited the monastery. They had been able to accept the loss of their sons. They knew it was not all Algerians who did this thing.

 France: Priest killed in ISIL-linked attack on church

Could such words be repeated today, I wonder, to the racists and right-wingers who demand the punishment of all Muslims for the crimes of a few? At 87, Teissier, who took Algerian citizenship in 1962 after the countrys ghastly independence war against the French, is still alive; indeed, he pleaded for good Christians and good Muslims to remain together and build bridges, as he put it, after the Charlie Hebdo massacre in January last year. He is, after all, an expert at the grotesquerie as well as the magnificence of faith.

So here is what he also said to me on that broiling Algiers day two decades ago: The most difficult thing is to know that every day some people die, mothers cry for their sons and daughters. We ourselves are not in the same situation as we were before this [Algerian] crisis. When you begin celebrating the Eucharist, you cannot help remembering that Jesus was murdered by human violence  in the name of religion. Now we have to understand the risk in this society, that we are walking in the footsteps of Jesus. We cannot look at the cross of Jesus as we have done before. Before it was an abstract thing. Now it is a daily reality.

How wonderfully spoken. How appropriate are these words amid the horror of Father Hamels sacrifice. But is that what it was? A sacrifice? Or does that obscure the act of murder most foul?

It was Teissier who took the phone call which told him that all seven monks had been decapitated. The Algerian authorities blamed the GIA led by a man called Sayah Attia, who one of the Tibherine monks had supposedly recognised when he answered the door, the same man whose face had appeared in a photograph that identified him as the murderer of Yugoslav civilians whose throats had been slashed close to the monastery.

But there is, alas, another deeply disturbing story about the monks. Enquiries by the French security services  and by journalists on Le Monde newspaper  suggested that after the GIA had kidnapped the seven men, the Algerian army, which maintained close liaisons with the French military, attempted a rescue mission. But they blundered. Not only did they kill the GIA men but shot dead the monks as well. Unwilling to reveal their disastrous operation, they then cut off the heads of the monks  as if they were the result of Islamist murders  and buried the bullet-riddled torsos of the seven. Hence only the heads were found.

The countries most impacted by global terrorism Show all 11 1 /11 The countries most impacted by global terrorism The countries most impacted by global terrorism Thailand Thailand The countries most impacted by global terrorism Libya Libya The countries most impacted by global terrorism Somalia Somalia The countries most impacted by global terrorism Yemen Yemen The countries most impacted by global terrorism India India The countries most impacted by global terrorism Syria Syria The countries most impacted by global terrorism Pakistan Pakistan The countries most impacted by global terrorism Nigeria Nigeria The countries most impacted by global terrorism Afghanistan Afghanistan The countries most impacted by global terrorism Iraq Iraq The countries most impacted by global terrorism France

Another theory  and we shall never know the truth  is that the Algerian security police wanted the monks kidnapped and dead as a punishment for all those who assisted the GIA, even when their only sin was to give them medical aid.

There is still doubt as to who, in the very same year, murdered the Bishop of Oran. Mgr Pierre Claverie died in a bomb explosion on the very same day he had met the French Foreign Minister, Herve de Charrette. The bomb went off in the street, Teissier told me then. He was crushed by the door of the chapel and his brains were found on the chapel floor. It was absurd, idiotic, unconscionable.

But there is no doubt about who killed Father Hamel. Adel Kermiche was one of two men who murdered the old priest. He was born only a few months after the Tibherine monks were murdered. No connection, of course. But according to neighbours, Kermiche was born in Algeria. Now theres a historical clue if anyone has the courage to search for it.
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Since the producer of the worlds best feta cheese and vine leaves suffered economic collapse, Were not Greece! is a favourite refrain of world leaders.

Pedro Passos Coelho, the Portuguese Prime Minister, said it when questioned in 2015 over his countrys Euro bailout programme. US President Barack Obama said it in 2011, when asked about how he would fix his economys deficit. And, in the run up to the EU referendum, Brexiteers commandeered the phrase when challenged on the predictions of leading economists that a vote to leave the European Union would do terrible things to the British economy.

Well now its time to retire the statement, in the UK at least: we are Greece, after all. A report by the Trade Union Congress, based on data collected by the OECD, has revealed that Britain suffered a bigger fall in wages in real terms than any other advanced nation apart from  you guessed it  Greece since the beginning of the financial crisis back in 2007.

If youre feeling a little lighter of pocket these days, thats no surprise: real earnings (that is, what the money you are paid is actually worth in the economy in which you are spending it) have dropped by 10 per cent in just under a decade. Over the same period, real wages grew in Poland (by 23 per cent), Germany (14 per cent) and France (11 per cent). The average for OECD nations was 6.7 per cent. And all this is even before we take into account the economic shock of Brexit, and the knock-on effect it will have on average earnings, including redundancies, slashed hours and low rates of pay offered by struggling employers. Yes, we are like Greece  and we are getting left behind.

Welcome to low wage Britain, where Theresa May talks about inequality and social mobility while the cleaners servicing the offices of Her Majestys Revenue and Customs end up losing money after their hours were slashed because the same Conservative administration introduces a higher minimum wage without also preventing employers from finding loopholes to avoid it pushing up their bill.

And its not a problem that the left has any answers to, either. Owen Smiths suggestion for tackling zero hours contracts, revealed this week, includes creating a new type of employment contact which sets a specific minimum number of hours  even if its just one hour. One hour of work a week; unless thats for an hour spent in management consulting, thats not going to cut it.

The 10 worst areas for earning the living wage Show all 10 1 /10 The 10 worst areas for earning the living wage The 10 worst areas for earning the living wage 1. West Somerset 41.9% The 10 worst areas for earning the living wage 2. Harrow 41.8% The 10 worst areas for earning the living wage 3. Torridge 41.6% The 10 worst areas for earning the living wage 4. North East Derbyshire 39.6% The 10 worst areas for earning the living wage 5. Breckland 39.3% The 10 worst areas for earning the living wage 6. Waltham Forest 39.0% The 10 worst areas for earning the living wage 7. West Lancashire 38.2% The 10 worst areas for earning the living wage 8. North Norfolk 37.8% The 10 worst areas for earning the living wage 9. Melton 37.0% The 10 worst areas for earning the living wage 10. West Devon 36.7%

Ignore, for one moment, the squeals of business leaders and listen instead to the economists, whose job it is to take the long view. Low pay is bad for individuals and it is bad for the economy.

The UK has a productivity problem, and the scourge of low pay is making it worse. Low wage sectors, including retail, food and administration, employ a third of all our workers and account for 23 per cent of our gross value added. But, according to the think tank IPPR, these low wage jobs are 29 per cent less productive than the economy as a whole. The people we pay badly are not contributing as much to our national growth rate as they might.

The IPPRs study, published earlier this year, does not speculate why this might be, but Ive got a few simple answers.

Perhaps its because living on a low wage expends so much mental energy that could otherwise be better channelled at work or in the community  energy that is gobbled up calculating how to stretch a meagre income to cover the weeks essential outgoings, whether its possible to both buy a child a birthday present and cover the winter gas bill, whether its worth risking not making non-essential repairs to a car for fear theyll escalate to the point where repair will become entirely unaffordable, and scrapping the only option.

Perhaps its because  while well paid professionals may describe getting other benefits from their achievements at work, such as sense of self-worth and achievement  being paid badly means workers feel undervalued and their efforts ignored. Why should they bust a gut for you, dear employer, when you pay them so little they need benefits to support their family despite living in a household where two adults work full-time?

 Owen Smith on Newsnight

If a third of the workforce feels their efforts go unrewarded, no wonder the biggest problem for Britain is our sluggish economy. The productivity puzzle isnt really a puzzle at all.

A survey published by the CBI this week found that the retail sector  another low pay industry  is in freefall after Brexit, losing orders at the fastest pace since the height of the 2009 recession. Its fair to assume that, even if only in the short term, prices on all consumables are going to rise as we seek bespoke trade deals in a world without the protection of the EU (I tend towards a bleaker perspective that this is a long term trend). With basic living costs rising and real terms wages ever falling, rebuilding our economy isnt just a matter of negotiating a good trading deal for companies but a good working deal for employees.

Until the economy is rebalanced in favour of those producing the wealth, not just those skimming off the benefits at top, well be stuck with an unproductive economy facing unflattering comparisons to Greece.
76% of users of the service are women (picture posed by model)

More than 30 people a day contact Ireland's national rape helpline, latest figures show.

Almost 12,000 callers sought help from the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre's helpline last year, it has revealed in its annual report.

More than half of the contacts are first time callers looking to speak about rape or sexual abuse.

The numbers calling for the first time rose 16% from the previous year.

This has had a knock-on rise in demand for face-to-face therapy which is already over-subscribed, the support group has warned.

Nearly a quarter (23%) of callers to the national helpline are men, with the majority (76%) women. Less than 1% were transgender.

Slightly more calls last year related to adult sexual violence compared to childhood sexual abuse, the centre said.

Face-to-face therapy was provided to 499 people as well as accompanying victims to the Rotunda sexual assault treatment unit, court and Garda stations.

Speaking at the launch of its annual report for 2015, Head of Clinical Services at the Centre Angela McCarthy highlighted a 16pc increase in the numbers contacting the National 24-hour helpline for the first time.

"Compared with 2014, 2015 saw a resurgence in calls relating to childhood sexual abuse with a small decrease in calls relating to adult sexual violence," she said.

"We have seen an increase in adults in mid-life looking for therapy for childhood sexual abuse, often after many years of suffering and silence."

The Centre last year also provided face-to-face therapy to 499 people and accompanied victims of sexual violence to the Rotunda Sexual Assault Treatment Unit, as well as to court and Garda stations in the Dublin area.

One service user of the Rape Crisis Centre, Bernie, said the help provided made her "feel at ease" after she was raped in her marital home.

"Rape is the invasion and destruction of a person by another person," said Bernie.

"I am a victor of rape rather than a victim.

"Coming to the Rape Crisis Centre was wonderful."

Launching the report, Minister for Children and Youth Affairs Katherine Zappone commented on the "enormous contribution" Rape Crisis Centres across the country have made.

"Without them the taboo of rape would not be so openly talked about today," she said.

About the figures she added: "It's bad that they have to call but it's good that they are calling."

Incoming chief executive Noeline Blackwell said around two-thirds of the centre's funding came from the State, with the rest coming from fundraisers.

"While the grants received are essential, they only partially cover the costs," she said.

"Recession cuts to funding have not been reversed which means that we cannot do all we would like to do."

Speaking on RTE Radio Ones Morning Ireland, Ms Blackwell said the centre hopes the rise in first time callers reflects a change in peoples attitudes.

"Were hoping this is part of a general outlook that people have that they feel they can talk about rape and sexual assault," she told the programme.

"One of things we are all aware of is that rape and sexual assault are not in peoples everyday world, but when it happens to someone its a profound change in their lives and can affect their lives for a very long time, if not forever."

Despite the large number of calls, it is estimated that just one third of sexual assault survivors report the crime to police.

"Its very hard to report rape and sexual violence. First of all, people are very shocked and traumatised themselves," Ms Blackwell said.

"Then theres the fact that most rapes are by someone who is known to you, so theres the whole business of recognising that someone you know, and in a quarter of the cases that we document its someone you know very well, its a boyfriend, husband or partner, that they have violated you in this way."

She added that the process of going through the courts system and gathering enough evidence can also be a source of stress for many survivors.

However, she noted that there had been an increase in people reporting when they had been sexually assaulted by someone they knew.

"We are noticing that for the second year in a row, slightly more people who know the offender are choosing to report," Ms Blackwell said.

"It used to be the case that it was easier to report when you didnt know the offender, now people are beginning to recognise that sexual abuse isnt acceptable and are starting to report it."

Additional reporting by PA
Agriculture Minister Michael Creed has warned that there is "no upside to Brexit" for Ireland and said authorities must work to minimise the fallout for farmers and food exporters on both sides of the border.

Mr Creed stressed that the multi-billion-euro agri-food sector was a particular cause for concern; this is recognised both in Dublin and Belfast.

"The border is a particular difficulty for us; there is so much (agricultural) traffic over and across it," he said.

"(There are) 350,000 sheep that come south for slaughtering every year, there are about 10,000 pigs a week that go north for slaughter.

"In 2015 alone, 50,000-plus cattle went over the border. But probably the most complex (thing) of all is that we process milk from Northern Ireland in Leckpatrick and Lakeland Dairies in Co Monaghan."

Mr Creed said that such a large movement of milk raised major issues in the light of Brexit and EU labelling.

"When you mix milk from the queen's cows with Paddy's cows, what do get? Irish butter, sour cream or Irish milk? That is an issue because labelling is part of what we do."

The minister has already met with his northern counterpart, given the importance of the matters involved and the implications for farmers and food producers.

"We had done a lot of work in the department prior to the (Brexit) vote. I think the realisation is dawning, significantly in Northern Ireland now, about the challenges that they face."

Mr Creed added: "As I have said in the department and in the Government, there really is no upside to Brexit for Ireland."

Meanwhile, the IFA has argued that a three-year tax-deferral system would ease Brexit's impact on volatile farm incomes.

This is one of a raft of short -term measures the IFA is calling for in its pre-Budget submission.

Its president Joe Healy highlighted the "huge pressure" that farming families face as cash flow tightens and the viability of their farms is put at risk.

"Brexit has created major uncertainty and immediate price challenges," he said.

The IFA proposes that in a year when farm incomes fall significantly, tax should be paid based on the actual income earned, rather than the average tax due arising from five years' income.

The deferral would be carried forward and paid over a three-year period.
Tough talks are continuing on with EU trade agreements, particularly with Canada and the US.

The proposed agreements could offer new market opportunities for Irish agri-food products.

But critics say they will lead to the lowering of health, social and environmental standards in the EU, and hand corporations too much power.

The US deal is far from finished, but US Secretary of State John Kerry said in Brussels last week that the agreement - known as the transatlantic trade and investment partnership, or TTIP - was "a priority", particularly in the light of the recent Brexit vote.

"It has the ability to act as a counter to whatever negatives may or may not ultimately attach themselves to whatever construct is negotiated between the UK and Europe," Mr Kerry said.

The UK will still be able to join TTIP when it leaves the EU, officials have confirmed.

Meanwhile, the controversy continues over a trade deal with Canada - known as a Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement, or CETA - which has been agreed but not officially signed.

Germany's far-left Die Linke party has filed a complaint against the deal with the German Constitutional Court, saying it violates fundamental law, European law and human rights.

And Sinn Fein MEP Matt Carthy has urged enterprise minister Mary Mitchell O'Connor to delay it. The Commission this month went against its own legal advice by sending it back to parliaments for final sign-off, and says it intends to sign and start the deal in October at the EU-Canada summit.

Mr Carthy said Ms O'Connor was "reckless" for supporting early application before the parliamentary votes have had time to go through.

"Almost all of the dangers that have been highlighted in the TTIP US trade deal are also contained within CETA," Mr Carthy said.

However, EU companies have recently appealed to Donald Tusk, who chairs regular EU summits, to make sure the agreement takes effect as soon as possible. BusinessEurope, a group representing EU companies, said the swift signature of the agreement was a "important signal in a time of so many challenges and uncertainties".

"If the provisional application of CETA is delayed, the signal sent to European companies and other trading partners would be that the EU is no longer able to deliver on one of its key policy areas, one that is critical for boosting economic growth and job creation," the group said in a letter to Mr Tusk last week.

Despite the controversies, the EU is pressing ahead other trade talks, launching negotiations last week with Indonesia.

Climate targets will pose big challenge for agri sector

Last week saw the EU hand out national 2030 emission reduction targets for certain sectors, including agriculture.

The climate targets will be a challenge, as they call for major investments to clean up Ireland's largest-emitting sector.

Agriculture is Ireland's largest indigenous industry, generating 10.7pc of all goods exports and accounting for 8.4pc of total employment, according to government figures.

But it also accounts for 30pc of Ireland's total carbon emissions, and emissions in the sector are rising, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

A recent study by NGO coalitions Stop Climate Chaos and the Environmental Pillar found that Irish agriculture emits more per calorie of bovine food produced than the European average.

Minister for Agriculture Michael Creed has said Ireland's approach is one of "carbon neutrality in the agriculture and land-use sector, including forestry".

The EU's national emission reduction targets range from zero to 40pc for agriculture, transport, buildings and waste (compared to 2005 levels).

The targets allow nine small, agriculture-heavy or forest-rich countries - including Ireland - to use carbon sinks, such as forests and grasslands, to help meet the targets, and allow all countries some flexibility to transfer excess credits from the emissions trading scheme (ETS).

Ireland got a 30pc target but is entitled to the highest leeway on forests and ETS allowances.
Now is an ideal time to assess your fodder stocks for the winter. It is important to take action if you anticipate a fodder shortfall.

Apart from a couple of weeks in May, weather conditions have been quite poor this summer for saving quality fodder and many farmers are behind target in the amount of silage that they have saved.

We've calculated fodder figures for Conor Greene, one of 10 participating farmers in the Teagasc Green Acres calf to beef programme.

Firstly you need to know how much fodder is required for the winter period.

It is also advisable to add 10pc extra as insurance against an extra long winter due to bad weather resulting in early housing or late turn out to grass in the spring.

Conor reared 112 calves this spring and now has these animals to winter as weanlings.

Also 74 animals that were reared in 2015 are still on the farm and will be wintered. In this case, Conor would require 960 tonnes of silage for a five month winter including a ten per cent buffer, this figure assumes only silage fed and no supplementation with concentrates.

A decision on how much concentrates to feed will be made by testing the silage in September with a target to have all animals gaining a minimum of 0.6kg daily gain over the winter period.

A minimum of one kg per animal will probably be fed over the winter.

Turnout

If we assume all animals, weanlings and stores get 1kg of meal for four and a half months, cutting them off for the two weeks before turnout, we have 186 animals x 135days x 1kg per day = 25,110 kgs.

We can take it that every one kg of concentrate fed will reduce the silage requirement by four to five kgs.

Multiplying 25,110 by 4 = 100,440kgs (100 tonnes) of silage saved.

The next step is to calculate Conor's feed supply.

There was a block of silage left over in the back of the pit this year amounting to 139 tonnes.

Conor cut 45 acres of first cut silage this year with a yield of 9 tonnes per acre which is already in the pit. 30 acres has been let out for second cut silage with an expected yield of seven bales per acre. This should be ready for cutting this week.

There are also a number of paddocks that have become too strong for grazing and will be removed as baled silage.

Three of these paddocks (13 acres) are quite heavy as they couldn't be cut with the poor weather conditions and will yield around 10 bales per acre. The other paddocks (15 acres) are lighter and will yield around six bales per acre.

Therefore, the total demand is 960 tonnes and current supply is 953 tonnes.

In Conor's scenario supply more or less meets demand and with concentrates to be fed he will have enough silage to see out a five month winter. In many cases, farmers aren't as fortunate and a shortfall could exist.

Gordon Peppard is programme advisor for the Teagasc Calf to Beef Programme

Seven steps to avoiding winter fodder shortages

What are the options if you are short of winter fodder?

A combination of actions can be undertaken, but the important thing is to take action now. The options include,

1 Reduce feed demand, by offloading stock. Sell some weanlings/stores/culls in the autumn. This would not be an option on Conor's farm as he is trying to build stock numbers and increase output on the farm. Also he will have a lot of grassland to graze next spring and reducing numbers now that are destined for spring grazing will only cause further problems in 2017.

2 Feed some meal to weanlings over the winter. This is a very viable option for Conor, as unless the silage is of exceptionable quality there will be a need to feed a certain level of meal anyway to ensure that stock meet their targets of 0.6kgs average daily gain over the winter period. As above, if Conor feeds one kg to all animals he will save around 100 tonnes of silage.

3 Maximise grass growth on farm now - apply fertiliser and remove surplus grass as bales. Conor has most of his finishers sold and with silage ground to come back into the rotation, extra silage could be saved by taking out extra paddocks in August.

4 Buy a standing crop of silage if extra fodder can't be made on your own farm. Also need to consider quality and value for money.

5 Buy silage bales. Difficult to be sure of the quality unless you saw the silage before it was cut and wrapped.

6 Buy alternative forages like maize silage, whole crop silage or fodder beet.

7 Grow forage crop if suitable. This will not be viable for all farmers. Consideration needs to be taken for cross compliance issues and cost of reseeding the field afterwards.

The important thing to remember, once you have at least 50-60pc of your winter silage requirements you have options. Cost is important but other factors also need to be considered.

These include the risk of poor yields and quality, the need for storage and handling facilities, the cost of balancing for protein and minerals, cash flow implications and feeding space requirements. Consider the options carefully and don't panic buy.
"Every drop of rain that comes into the country seems to come up along those mountains!"

It was half joking, but all in earnest as Conor Creedon took Irish Grassland Association around his farm on the foothills of the majestic Macgillycuddy Reeks.

The recent Zurich Farming Independent Dairy Farmer of the Year finalist has one of the top performing dairy herds despite the 1.95m of rainfall that drenches his farm annually.

Thankfully, it was a blistering day when the Irish Grassland Association brought their summer tour to the farm located between Rathmore and Killarney on the Cork Kerry border.

Expand Close Mick Lannigan, Thurles, Co. Tipperary at the IGA event on Conor Creedon's farm / Facebook

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Whatsapp Mick Lannigan, Thurles, Co. Tipperary at the IGA event on Conor Creedon's farm

Indeed, many of the farmers attending were working up a serious sweat as they climbed 1.2km up the 950ft that Creedons milking platform reaches up to.

The views were impressive, but it was the all-round performance of this unit despite the obvious challenges that really took farmers' breaths away.

Predictably, the entire operation revolved around grass, with Conor obsessively walking his fields every five days to gauge growth.

However, the attention to detail has paid off, with the Kerryman succeeding in harvesting 12.5t/ha of drymatter (DM) last year.

This is only achieved with a serious stocking rate on the milking platform, with 1.5 cows per acre - a good 50pc higher than most farmers are achieving.

This is partly a result of the particular type of cow that Creedon has favoured over the last six years.

After going through the financial wringer in 2009, he decided to try to reduce the impact of yo-yoing milk prices by increasing his milk solids. Cue the move to cross the entire herd with Jersey bulls.

"You could say that it was a brave move to go 100pc crossbreeding in 2010, but we had visited a lot of farms and talked a lot to the likes of Frank Buckley in Teagasc, so we weren't going in with our eyes closed. When I averaged 22c/l for my milk in 2009 I just said that it couldn't continue," explained Conor.

"I said the only way to make a difference was to do the whole lot. And I felt that even if we weren't happy after three years that we could always switch again and breed the Jersey out of them fairly quickly."

As it happened, the Creedons have no regrets about the move to crossbreeding. Not only has it helped boost his milk cheque - they are more like the 'invisible cow' that hardcore grazers like to breed.

"You'd turn your back and the cow would be calved, and the calf would have the cow sucked and was away.

"It really halved the work. We're in our second year of milking the crossbred cows, and while there's ones that cause a few problems, when I went back to look at the records, I found that they were all ones with a maintenance index of less than 12," he said.

For this reason Conor is only using breeding bulls that have a minimum maintenance index of 30, which has ruled out most of the high EBI Friesian bulls.

"That's really narrowed down the number of bulls available to me. I want a bull that has high solids and good fertility too.

Robust

"But they've got to be able to produce a robust cow that is able to hack climbing up from 350ft to 950ft."

After three years of using Jersey on the herd, Creedon wanted to switch back to a different breed, and flirted with the idea of using Norwegian Reds, but in the end has relied mostly on Kiwi crossbreds.

"We've reached about 40pc Jersey in the genes, and I don't want to go too much higher, so that required a change in genetics this year."

One of the concerns that many have with crossbreeding is what will happen with the much derided Jersey bull calf.

"It was actually one of the things that convinced me to give cross-breeding a go because in 2010 even the Friesian bull calves weren't very exciting. And coming up to the first of the crossbred calvings in 2011, I heard all the scare stories and I was wondering if we'd even get the price of the tag for them.

"But when I started asking around, I ended up getting 20-25/hd for them, and we now have a regular customer for the whole lot of them."

After over 15 years of using Kiwi Friesians, Jerseys and crossbreds, Conor has seen his milk solids and, crucially, his milk cheque get a serious bounce.

"I didn't really believe the data that was coming out of Teagasc claiming that a 100 cow herd would be 18,000 better off.

"But our milk price this year is 5.5c/l higher than the base price. We've effectively raised our milk solids by 1pc to 8.6pc now. The target is to get to 9pc."

Creedon has experienced other benefits from the move away from a pure Friesian herd.

"I haven't lifted a cow's hoof in five years. They get foot-bathed maybe once or twice a week, but that's it.

"Our six week calving rate moved from the mid 80s to the mid 90s now, with an empty rate of 9pc," he said.

Nitrates conundrum

One of Conor Creedons biggest bugbears is nitrates directives.

The amount of phosphorus that he can apply annually barely matches the rate that the nutrient leaves in his soils.

Its a problem that affects the very top-end of producers who are extremely intensive in terms of their grass output and utilisation, explains local Teagasc dairy advisor, Ger Courtney.

He estimates that farmers producing 14t/ha of grass drymatter have an annual phosphorus requirement of 30kg/ha.

However, nitrate regulations limit the typical phosphorus application to 15kg/ha for soils that are index 3. Even soils that are rated index 2 are limited to 25kg/ha, preventing farmers like Conor from ever getting their fields into optimum fertility status.

Despite an intensive fertiliser regime, he has seen his phosphorus indexes fall on the farm to the point where less than half of his land is as the optimum index 3. Five years ago 58pc of his farm was at index 3.

I need to have my soils at index 3 to maximise the potential of what Im doing, said Conor. But not only that, I need them to be high index three so ensure that Im getting maximum grass growth on the shoulders during the spring and autumn.

So not only do we need higher allowances, we also need an acknowledgement by the people that set the rules that a low index 3 soil will not produce as much grass as a high index 3 soil. We really need a three-way sub-division in index three to allow this to happen. But the research is all pointing this way, so we need the science to be put in front of the politicians so that they can make a case to the powers that be in Brussels.

Grazing to the board

Its one thing growing a lot of grass, but its another to get it properly utilised. Conor Creedon appears to have mastered this with a massive 12.5tDM/ha utilised last year.

Despite being located on what many would consider very marginal soils, Conor manages to average 11 grazings per year, with cows normally out a week later than the likes of the Teagasc herds at Moorepark.

Its grazing Kerry-style, claimed Conor.

We practice a lot of on-off grazing where the cows are brought back in after 3 hours, and use things like cow passes, which are basically narrow lanes made from sand. On the out farm we would put the heifers in different fields in bunches of three or four until ground conditions improved.

I treat February as a training month, where we are training the cows how to graze right down. Im really focused on getting cows to graze to the board because theres a lot of my land that you cannot every top or mow.

For this reason I dont buffer feed any silage if at all possible. I will feed meal up to 4kg/cow per day, but after that Ill resort to feeding silage because I feel the cow needs to feel like shes had a good fill at least once every day  shes never going to have that from a pile of concentrates.

As weve got better at grazing, Ive become more comfortable with grazing on to the point where we might only have 120kgDM/cow available across the whole farm. Ten years ago we were vary of ever going below 200kgDM/cow.
NEW EU proposals have set new targets for member countries to reduce their energy emissions before 2030.

The proposals relate to the agreement reached at last year's Paris climate talks where 196 countries signed up for joint action aimed at keeping global warming from rising 2C above pre-industrial levels.

The EU has agreed to a 40pc reduction on 1990 greenhouse gas emission levels by 2030. Each member state has been given an individual reduction target, which take into account a range of factors aimed at sharing the burden as fairly as possible.

EU Commissioner for Climate Action and Energy Miguel Arias Canete said: "The national binding targets we are proposing are fair, flexible and realistic.

"They set the right incentives to unleash investments in sectors like transport, agriculture, buildings and waste management. With these proposals, we are showing that we have done our homework and that we keep our promises."

In its latest briefing on climate change, the European Commission (EC) proposed that Ireland reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 30pc compared to 2005.

Ireland's targets are the 12th highest in the EU overall.

Latest forecasts indicate that European greenhouse gas emissions will be 26pc lower in 2020 than the levels recorded in 1990. In 2030 emissions will be 35pc lower and will fall by 48pc by 2050. The UK will have to cut emissions by 37pc, while The Netherlands and Denmark will have to reduce their greenhouse gas output by 36pc and 38pc respectively in order to meet the 2030 objectives.

Germany will be required to reduce its emissions by 38pc, France by 37pc and Italy by 33pc. Less industrialised countries with lower levels of GDP per capita get more leeway, with Spain and Greece required to reduce emissions by 26pc and 16pc respectively.

Under the Paris initiative, the EU must derive at least 20pc of its overall energy supply from renewable energy sources by 2020. Documents published last week revealed that Europe is already behind on those targets.

Renewable energy will account for 19pc of Europe's total energy generation in 2020, it's now thought. That figure will rise to 25pc in 2030, and 36pc by 2050.

The EC indicated that wind will account for the largest proportion of renewable energy over that time, yet solar and biomass are also forecasted to increase, while the use of nuclear energy will be reduced. Ireland faces a challenge in meeting its renewable obligations by 2020.

Eurostat figures show the country's renewable sector accounted for 8.6pc of its overall energy output in 2014, well below the 16pc required by 2020.

Germany is 4pc lower than its target of 18pc, while France must improve its output by almost 10pc to meet its objective of 23pc.

The UK needs to more than double its production of renewable energy to meet the target of 15pc of total energy output. The EC will also seek to stimulate additional action from agriculture. This will allow up to 280 million tonnes CO2 to be credited in relation to the use of agricultural land.

Ireland has been granted a flexibility score of 5.8pc on its overall emissions target because of the large scale nature of agriculture in the country.

This is the highest amount of flexibility given by the EC to any member state but is dependent on Ireland's efforts in areas such as afforestation.
Ease of management is the trait around which the success of the Charolais herd on Hubert Nicholson's farm has been built over the past two decades.

Established 24 years ago by Hubert, the Heemskerk Ireland Ltd herd at Fennor, in the shadow of the historic Hill of Slane, ticks all of the boxes on the 'model' suckler herd checklist.

"My aim is to breed for the maternal traits" says Hubert.

He singlehandedly runs the herd of 116 sucklers, whose progeny perform at an average of 1.21kg/day "off grass only" from birth to weanling stage.

It's a performance which many of the suckler farmers who enjoyed a recent farm walk on the land would be very pleased to be able to replicate on their own farms.

The open day on Hubert's farm, was organised by the Irish Charolais Cattle Society to demonstrate what can be achieved with the breed, and what is realistic in a practical farm situation.

The Slane herd - winner of the Charolais Society Suckler Herd of the Year award for 2015 - is an excellent example of what can be achieved by focusing on development of the maternal traits of the breed for suckler production.

The 116 breeding females in the spring calving herd comprise 52 pedigree Charolais, with a further 60 Charolais crossbred and a few Simmentals.

"I plan to have the cows calving between mid-February and mid-April and use synchronisation to keep the calving pattern compact", explains Hubert.

"I don't want the calves too early in February because it is longer to get them out to grass - there is no meal fed - and I like to have the calves in good batches for ease of management", he added.

Like all beef production units calving time can be very busy on the farm.

"I aim not to have more than five or six cows calving the same day, because that is about what can be handled in a one man unit."

Sires for the herd are carefully selected for their maternal traits and ease of calving with the focus on breeding replacement females to make good mothers.

The majority of the bulls used over the years have been tested through the ICBF Maternal Gene Ireland Programme.

Hubert recalls some of the early test bulls like Mandela Veron and Dromiskin Viceroy, two bulls which had very positive impacts on the herd as has had Coom Indurain and Heracles both of which have been used heavily.

"I have found that Croom Enduran is very good for easy calving and I am very happy with the length of the calves after Heracles."

Two stock bulls have also made an impact on herd.

The first bull is Dreena Bevis, a nine year old sire who has a calving figure of 4.3pc and a five star replacement index. Bevis is a son of Vera Cruz out of a Doonally Olmeto bred cow.

The second is a young homebred sire, Fennor's Inferno. This young bull is sired by Rancard and he also boasts a five star replacement index.

Both bulls were selected for their ease of calving and their maternal traits.

Hubert is quick to highlight the huge emphasis he always puts on sire selection for easy calving, milk, fertility and most importantly docility.

Over the years sons of bulls like Repair, Meath Alcazar and Urtillo BP have been used within the herd. The majority of the cows on the farm today are bred down from these lines.

The system of production in place on the farm is calf to weanling for the bulls, and calf to yearling for the heifers.

The bulls are sold privately off the farm to repeat buyers annually who then bring them to bull beef. The majority of which are slaughtered at under 16 months of age.

The heifers are sold in early spring as yearlings, with the top 25-30pc being kept as replacements.

The performance figures are very impressive with the weanlings averaging a daily live weight gain of 1.21kg/day from birth, solely on their mothers off grass.

So what is the secret of success for such performance without meal feeding?

"Grass quality is very important. With the spring calving I try and hit the peak time of the year for grass quality and operate a rotation of reseeding 10-15 acres of the farm every year," he says.

The herd's calving interval in 2014 was 393 days considerably shorter than the national average of 412 days.

The average number of calves produced per cow in the herd in 2014 was 0.89, which was well above the national average of 0.79. Hubert is continuing to target further shortening the calving interval.

The herd demonstrates exactly what can be achieved from good milky cows, that calve every year, producing calves that are vigorous at birth with a will to survive and underlines what the Charolais breed can produce as a maternal type animal.

The visitors to the farm could not but be impressed with the herd and the practical approach which Hubert has adopted to getting the best out of the breed.
Shares in Irish food group Greencore fell over 3pc yesterday despite issuing what analysts said was a solid third-quarter update.

The company, which is headed by chief executive Patrick Coveney, also said that while the long term implications of the UK's exit from the EU remain unknown, the short-term effects are "likely to be modest".

The group's total revenue in the latest quarter rose 4pc on a reported basis to 360.4m (430.8m). In the year to date, total revenue is up 6.7pc at 1.05bn (1.25bn).

Greencore is the world's biggest maker of sandwiches and is heavily involved in the production of other food products, such as ready meals.

While the majority of its sales are generated in the UK, it has also been intensifying its presence in the United States.

In the UK, its third-quarter revenue rose 5.7pc in the third quarter, with growth driven by Greencore's food-to-go business.

It said that the segment has benefited from new business wins and the impact of new product launches. Greencore's products are sold by major retailers such as Tesco, M&S, and Sainsbury's.

In relation to Brexit, Greencore pointed out that its businesses in the UK import less than a quarter of their ingredients and packaging materials.

"Given forward purchase arrangements, the depreciation in sterling is not expected to impact profit delivery in the current financial year," it noted. "However, if current exchange rates persist, net debt at year end will be higher than expected at the half year due to translation of US dollar-denominated borrowings."

On Monday, Greencore announced that it had agreed to pay 15m to buy The Sandwich Factory, a unit of Cranswick. The unit generated revenue of 54m in the year to the end of March. Its net revenue from manufactured products was 42m.

In the United States, Greencore's reported revenue in the third quarter was up 4.1pc. In the year to date, revenue there is 12.4pc higher, and 6.5pc higher on a constant currency basis.

The company has invested heavily in new production facilities on the east and west coasts of the US. Its major clients there include Starbucks. It said its performance in the US during the third quarter was "encouraging".

However, Davy Stockbrokers' analyst Cathal Kenny said Greencore's US foray remains a work in progress. "The development of the US revenue base is proving more volatile than anticipated owing to customer concentration and lumpiness in the off-take," he said.

Greencore said it is on track to deliver a group performance "in line with market expectations".
The sale of the country's only oil refinery - at Whitegate in Cork - is understood to have been effectively sealed by US owner Phillips 66.

The refinery has been up for sale on and off by Texas-based Phillips 66 since 2013.

It was reported in May that a deal to offload the refinery would be announced within weeks. It's believed the sale has now been agreed.

The company announces second-quarter results on Friday and could be in a position then to confirm the sale to investors.

A spokesman for Phillips 66 declined to comment beyond a statement the company made previously.

"We anticipate closing during the second half of 2016 if appropriate value is achieved and after customary government approvals," he said of the sale.

Family-owned Canadian firm Irving Oil has been touted as the front runner in the tussle to buy the refinery, which can process up to 71,000 barrels of oil a day.

Other interested parties in the asset were reported to be ArcLight Capital, Valero Energy and UK-based PTFPlusOne.

The refinery is directly owned by an Irish firm which is a subsidiary of a UK-based Phillips 66 company.

In 2014, Phillips 66 had pulled a planned sale of the refinery. The group's chief executive, Greg Garland, said at the time that the company had had "limited to negative interest" in the facility.

Just over a week ago, the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Denis Naughten, confirmed in the Dail that the sales process was on-going.

He pointed out that as part of the deal by the State to sell the refinery in 2001, the owner had a legal obligation to operate the facility until at least July this year.

"The Government views the continued operation of the Whitegate refinery on a commercial basis as highly desirable from an energy security and economic perspective," the Minister said.

"Security of supply remains a fundamental tenet of our energy policy and our overarching strategic energy security objectives," he added.

Ireland is obliged under EU and other rules to maintain oil reserves equivalent to 90 days of Ireland's normal requirements. Those reserves amount to 70,000 tonnes of crude oil and just over 1.5m tonnes of refined product.

About one third of those emergency reserves are held abroad, and the remainder in Ireland, including at Whitegate.

The refinery currently supplies between 30pc and 40pc of the requirements of the Irish retail market, excluding jet kerosene.

However, it's very possible that Whitegate's role as an active refinery will cease when the new owners take charge.

Low refinery margins and Whitegate's lack of strategic importance to a new owner mean it could be destined for use as a storage facility.

That will have significant implications for the 160 full-time employees and 130 contractors that work on the site.

Irving Oil is based in St John's, Newfoundland.

It was founded in 1924, and operates Canada's largest refinery, in New Brunswick.

Over 80pc of the refinery's production is exported to the United States, and it accounts for 75pc of all Canada's petrol exports to the US.

The group is also involved in other downstream oil activities, including the operation of over 900 retail forecourts in Canada and the United States.
West Cork Distillers has sold a stake in the business to Halewood Wines & Spirits.

Halewood is a UK-based drinks manufacturer and already acts as a distributor for West Cork Distillers in a number of markets.

The new deal will seek to expand the global reach of the whiskey brand.

Halewood purchased a 50pc in the "Pogues Whiskey" brand, which is part of the West Cork stable, earlier this year.

West Cork Distillers was founded in 2003 in Skibbereen. Stewart Hainsworth, chief executive of Halewood Wines & Spirits, said: "This purchase reflects our commitment to working with West Cork Distillers to develop a long-term partnership, for the Distillery, Skibbereen and the beautiful county of Cork.

"West Cork Distillers has a great brand story to tell, and their innovation and passion for whiskey will help to deliver further success."

The deal looks to capitalise on increased interest in Irish whiskeys, a market which has grown both in terms of volume and value in recent years. The North West of England and Scotland have been key drivers of Irish whiskey consumption, and the partnership with Halewood will allow the company to benefit further from the trend.

West Cork Distillers' co- founder, John O'Connell, said the deal will help the business to develop a more cohesive marketing strategy.
Technology platform provider PTC is to create 50 new jobs across the areas of engineering and architecture over the next two years.

The jobs, which will be made up of DevOps engineers, cloud architects, and security architects, will be based at the company's newly established research and development centre in Dublin.

Jobs minister Mary Mitchell O'Connor welcomed the new jobs.

"This is a strong vote of confidence in Ireland and in the skills of the Irish workforce. Ireland has developed extensive expertise in ICT generally, particularly in software development.

"We have a very strong position in a range of IT specialities and we are very much aware that the 'Internet of Things', involving a world of connected devices, represents a new wave of potential and of growth opportunities," she said.

The investment into Ireland comes after PTC installed its academic program as part of curriculum in academic institutions such as Trinity College Dublin, DIT, ITT Dublin, GMIT, AIT, and University of Limerick.

PTC group president of its IoT solutions group Craig Hayman was pleased with the expansion into Ireland.

"Ireland is a strong location with a well-established technology sector well suited to complement the work we will be doing at our IoT Solutions research and development facility. The establishment of the Irish operation is key to PTCs global growth strategy.
Britains Civil Aviation Authority will supervise the testing of drone technology by Amazon in UK airspace. Photo: Bloomberg

Amazon and the British government have announced a partnership to test the e-commerce giant's aerial drone parcel delivery technology.

The trial will be supervised by the UK's aviation safety regulator, the Civil Aviation Authority, and will test the drones when they are out of sight from operators, measure their ability to identify and avoid obstacles and gauge the success of operators flying multiple drones at once, Amazon said yesterday.

"We want to enable the innovation that arises from the development of drone technology by safely integrating drones into the overall aviation system," Tim Johnson, policy director at the CAA, said in a statement.

"These tests by Amazon will help inform our policy and future approach."

Lior Yekoutieli, head of Global Technology Alliances at Deloitte Israel, said Amazon's collaboration with the UK was necessary to get commercial drone technology off the ground.

"The UK is gaining short-term advantage, but this agreement will have benefits for the worldwide drone delivery market," Yekoutieli said. "There needed to be collaboration between a technology company and regulator to make it all happen."

Amazon, which is trying to reduce its dependence on logistics companies such as UPS and FedEx, applauded the UK over its decision.

"The UK is charting a path forward for drone technology that will benefit customers, industry and society," said Paul Misener, Amazon's vice president of global innovation policy and communications. The partnership comes a month after the US Department of Transportation's Federal Aviation Administration finalised the first operational rules for commercial use of drones that require pilots to keep the unmanned aircraft within line of sight.

In April, a UK government official criticised Amazon for not providing guidance about the safe operation of drones to customers. The company responded by saying such information was included on its website.

Also that month, a British Airways pilot landing at Heathrow airport reported a drone had struck the plane, an incident that hasn't been confirmed, although a number of near-misses in 2015 were acknowledged.
Enterprise Insurance: described in court as hopelessly insolvent (Stock image)

ENTERPRISE Insurance has had a provisional liquidator appointed by the Gibraltar Supreme Court.

The firm was said to be "hopelessly insolvent".

The Gibraltar-based firm whose collapse last week has hit 14,000 Irish motor customers, has been described in court as "hopelessly insolvent".

Gibraltar's Financial Services Authority said that Frederick David John White of Grant Thornton has been appointed as provisional liquidator.

According to reports in Gibraltar, it is estimated that the motor insurance company's liabilities could exceed its assets by up to 18m (21.5m).

"It is a huge deficiency," chief justice Anthony Dudley told the Gibraltar Supreme Court.

Gibraltar-regulated Enterprise Insurance was ordered to cease business last week.

It operated here through broker Wrightway, a company owned by Zurich.
Irish authors such as Donal Ryan, Eimear McBride, and Emma Donoghue had been hotly tipped to make this year's longlist for the Man Booker Prize.

Donal Ryan's "All We Shall Know", Eimear McBride's "The Lesser Bohemians", Emma Donoghue's "The Wonder", and Kevin Barry's "Beatlebone" all failed to be nominated by this year's judges.

Author JM Coetzee could become the first triple winner of the Man Booker Prize after being longlisted for his new novel The Schooldays of Jesus.

Only three writers - Australian Peter Carey, Wolf Hall author Hilary Mantel and South African-born Coetzee - have won the famous literacy prize twice.

No Irish made the Man Booker Dozen #ManBooker pic.twitter.com/CI0zPHqBed  Florence McDonald (@FlorMcD) July 27, 2016

The longlist features four debut novels, including The Many by British writer Wyl Menmuir, a Stockport-born freelance editor who lives on the north coast of Cornwall.

The other three debuts are by US authors David Means, Ottessa Moshfegh and Virginia Reeves.

A crime story, by Scottish writer Graeme Macrae Burnet, also makes this year's longlist in the form of His Bloody Project, a memoir exploring the life of a 19th century crofter.

The author recounts the murders, in 1869, of three people in a remote crofting community and the subsequent trial of 17-year-old Roderick Macrae, one of the writer's ancestors.

The book, released by a newcomer on the publishing scene, Contraband, features the teenager's memoir, along with court transcripts, medical reports, police statements and newspaper articles.

The longlist also features Scottish writer AL Kennedy for Serious Sweet, a novel set in a single day.

Other British names on the list are Deborah Levy (Hot Milk), Ian McGuire (The North Water) and David Szalay (All That Man Is).

Ian McEwan had been tipped to make the longlist for his new work, Nutshell, told from inside a mother's womb, but the author is absent this year.

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The literary prize was opened up to US writers in 2014 and this year there are five US writers on the longlist.

First awarded in 1969, the Man Booker Prize for Fiction is open to writers of any nationality, writing originally in English and published in the UK.

Chair of the judges Amanda Foreman said: "This is a very exciting year. The range of books is broad and the quality extremely high. Each novel provoked intense discussion and, at times, passionate debate, challenging our expectations of what a novel is and can be.

"From the historical to the contemporary, the satirical to the polemical, the novels in this list come from both established writers and new voices. The writing is uniformly fresh, energetic and important."

The shortlist of six books will be announced on September 13, and the winner on October 25.

The Longlist:

Paul Beatty, The Sellout

JM Coetzee, The Schooldays of Jesus

AL Kennedy, Serious Sweet

Deborah Levy, Hot Milk

Graeme Macrae Burnet, His Bloody Project

Ian McGuire, The North Water

David Means, Hystopia

Wyl Menmuir, The Many

Ottessa Moshfegh, Eileen

Virginia Reeves, Work Like Any Other

Elizabeth Strout, My Name Is Lucy Barton

David Szalay, All That Man Is

Madeleine Thien, Do Not Say We Have Nothing
DJ Colm Hayes has warned any DJ in 2FM who is over the age of 40 to look over their shoulder.

The stars warning comes after yesterdays announcement that he is leaving national radio station 2FM after a decade on air.

I think any DJ in 2FM now who is over 40 should be looking over their shoulder, he told todays Irish Sun.

At the moment, 2FM are chasing a new younger audience, and believe having a veteran DJ on air might put kids off switching over.

The star admitted that he has now reached a crossroads in his career, but he insisted that his broadcasting ambitions will continue.

Im not retiring. I love radio and being who I am but I need to step into a more mature style of broadcasting.

It seems 2FM are burning off the older audience but cant recruit the younger audience quick enough to replace them.

Thats why theyve seen a wobble in the past year. Only time will tell if they can do it.

Colm joined RTE ten years ago, initially to co-present 2fms flagship Colm and Jim Jims Breakfast Show.

In 2014, he was one of the highest-paid presenters at the national broadcaster, earning 169,992.

Al Porter has been earmarked for Hayes' weekend slot on RTE, the Herald revealed today.

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Red Rock star Cathy Belton has revealed theres a sizzling new storyline in store for her character Patricia Hennessy.

The hit drama will return to TV3 this autumn when the second half of series two resumes.

She said that viewers can expect to see the powerful matriarch enjoying a serious romance in the next instalment.

Theres a lot in store for Patricia, she told the Herald.

She has a new love life storyline coming up. Thats very exciting. Its a new relationship which is beautiful. Its really beautifully written, so I think theres a lot planned for her.

She said she relishes playing such a multi-faceted character in the drama, which started showing recently on BBC One.

Shes wonderful, shes a great, strong female and thats what I think Red Rock are good at, she said.

They really write powerful women with loads of dimensions and loads of flaws and vices and great attributes as well.

Belton travelled over to London at the start of this month for the launch of the show on daytime TV.

It is attracting an average of 1.1m viewers as it continues to impress on the international stage.

I was at the launch about three weeks ago and they just watched three episodes and they were hooked. We shot that two years ago, so it was a lovely reminder that its there in the can and its selling and people are watching it, she said.

She added that the life of a jobbing actor is far from glitz and glamour as she spoke about the insecurity of the industry.

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At the end of the day, its a freelancing job so youre only as good as your last gig and you have to keep going. I think anyone whos a freelancer, its tough. You have to just keep going.

Its not a permanent, pensionable job but whats brilliant about Red Rock is the regularity of it, she said.

Belton will be working on stage during the Dublin Theatre Festival in Helen and I in the Civic Theatre from September 27.

Being able to work on TV and in the theatre is the perfect balance she said, as it indulged both her passions.
These scenes of joy are a sight to behold.

When this Irish woman made a gruelling four-day journey back from Melbourne, she decided to give her mother the surprise of a lifetime.

Ciara Redmond from Glanmire in Cork surprised her stunned and overjoyed mother when she appeared in the living room of her Wexford holiday home on Saturday.

Ciara had endured a 19-hour layover in Delhi as well as a cancelled flight from Frankfurt but she insisted "it was well worth the surprise!".

These scenes of joy are a sight to behold.
A lone yachtsman has been rescued from an overturned vessel off the Wexford coast.

The Marine Rescue Centre in Dublin picked up an alert when the man activated his Personal Locator Beacon (PLB) at about 8pm on Tuesday night.

The Waterford Coast Guard helicopter (R117) was immediately launched to the position, which was tracked to be 20 miles south off the Wexford coast.

The man was discovered sitting on the hull of an overturned yacht, and was winched to safety on the helicopter before being transferred to Waterford Regional Hospital.

Gerald OFlynn of the Irish Coast Guard told RTE Radio Ones Morning Ireland that the yachtsman was in a reasonable health condition when rescued.

Mr OFlynn added that the personal locator beacon (PLB) is a means of electronically raising the alert, and that the yachtsman was located within an hour of activating the PLB.

He explained that, in contrast to the emergency position indicating radio beacon (EPIRB) which belongs to an individual craft and transmits the name and position of the vessel, a PLB can be carried by an individual and triggered when they require assistance.

It highlights the importance of the ability to communicate if you get in trouble on the sea and the capacity to stay afloat if you fall in the water, Mr OFlynn said.
A carpenter who fled to Australia after he was wrongly labelled a rat following a drugs conviction has been sentenced to six years.

Damien Halpin (29) left Ireland in fear in 2011 when graffiti appeared in his estate and his house was shot at following his initial sentence hearing. He was facing sentence for possession of 17,318 of cocaine. Finalisation of the case had been adjourned to March 2012.

Halpin, with an address at Cushlawn Park, Tallaght, Dublin pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to possession of cocaine in Firhouse, Dublin on October 31, 2009.

He also pleaded guilty to assault causing harm at Gibson Hotel, East Wall, Dublin on December 12, 2010. He was on bail for the drugs offence at the time of the assault.

Halpin worked in Australia until he was convicted there in 2015 for arson, assault and being armed with intent in what he described as a prank gone wrong. The court heard a row had broken out and a Christmas tree that was knocked over went on fire causing substantial damage.

Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard Halpin served one year in prison in New South Wales and was then deported to Ireland where he was arrested by gardai at Dublin Airport in January 2016.

He also has 21 previous convictions in Ireland mainly for road traffic and public order offences.

Judge Melanie Greally had adjourned sentencing having heard evidence last month and ordered a probation report.

She said today that the assault was a serious one, during which Halpin had glassed the victim in the face.

The judge accepted that Halpin made admissions in relation to the drugs, that he didn't gain financially and had a chaotic lifestyle at the time.

Judge Greally accepted that Halpin had since taken a very positive pro-active attitude towards his time in custody, was a model prisoner and was also making a positive contribution to the lives of other prisoners.

She said, however, that Halpin, had taken so long to face up to the consequences of the offences before she imposed consecutive sentences totalling six years. She suspended the final two years on strict conditions.

Garda Gavin Cooke agreed with defence counsel, Sarah Jane O'Callaghan BL, that evidence had first been heard in Halpin's case in March 2011 and finalisation was adjourned for a year to give him a chance to prove himself.

He agreed with Ms O'Callaghan that Halpin had not been in a position to give material assistance to the gardai during the investigation and he had indicated he would be in fear for his life.

The garda agreed with counsel that the prevailing view following his sentence hearing had been that he had assisted gardai. Graffiti had appeared in his estate saying he was a rat, his home was shot at and his family were taunted.

Gda Cooke said Halpin had not given information to gardai. People put two and two together and came up with five, he told Ms O'Callaghan.

He agreed that Halpin left for Australia where he had been in employment until the arson offence.

Bench warrants were issued for Halpin in March 2012 in Ireland when he failed to appear in court in relation to both cases. He was deported from Australia to face these charges in January 2016 when he finished his sentence there.

Ms O'Callaghan told Judge Greally that in relation to the drug offence, Halpin was acting under instruction, and was not by any means at the top of the ladder. She said he got in over his head because of a drug debt arising out of his addiction.

Counsel said the assault was not pre-meditated and her client wrongly believed that the victim was chatting up his girlfriend. He behaved irrationally and has demonstrated genuine remorse for his actions, Ms O'Callaghan said.
A former librarian who stole hundreds of rare antique books worth nearly 200,000 from the National Library of Ireland has received a suspended sentence.

Lawyers for John Nulty (37) said that for nine years he was compulsively taking the books and hoarding them in his home. When gardai arrived at his Dublin home in April 2013 with a search warrant they found an Aladdin's cave where Nulty was living surrounded by books.

Nulty of Portersgate, Clonsilla, Dublin pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to eight sample counts of theft from a total of 216 charges. Most of the charges relate to theft from the National Library between July 5, 2004 and April 24, 2013.

Nulty also admitted to two counts of stealing from Brother Tom Connolly at the Allen Library, North Richmond Street, between November 2003 and July 2004, when he worked there. His only other previous conviction is for a minor public order offence.

The books taken included Ernest Hemingway's 'For Whom The Bell Tolls' and books on Anglo Irish history and Celtic mythology. Some of the books were first editions and some were signed while others were valuable because of their historical and national interest. Nulty would put the books in his bag and walk out with them.

Judge Martin Nolan said that Nulty was an eccentric man who became obsessed with hoarding the books and took some satisfaction from having them.

He said that if Nulty had sold all the books and made a profit, a jail term would be inevitable. He noted that, given most of the books had been recovered intact, the actual loss to the library was around 5,000.

He said it would be unjust to imprison him immediately and he suspended a sentence of two and a half years on condition he is of good behaviour for that period.

Detective Garda Declan O'Brien told Garret Baker BL, prosecuting, that the thefts came to light when Gerard Long, an assistant keeper at the National Library, noticed that two books which were part of the Sean O'Casey library were for sale online.

The books had been sold by Nulty to a seller of rare books who had in turn placed them for sale online. Nulty had kept most of the other books and stored them in his home and also at an off site storage facility.

Some of the books were stored in conservation boxes to protect them. Det Gda O'Brien said the estimated value of the stolen books was 199,322.

Sean Gillane SC, defending, said that at one point Nulty considered burning all the books in order to put it all behind him but his respect and love for their value prevented him from doing this. He said that Nulty felt a certain relief when he was caught.

Counsel said that Nulty came from a terribly decent family and was terribly remorseful and sorry for the shame it had brought them and for breaching the trust of his employers.
An accountant has admitted misappropriating 161,000 in charity funds after his business got into financial difficulty and he ran up debts of close to 1m.

Greg Walsh (67) said his "fraudulent activities" had brought "shame and humiliation" on his family.

The cash was misappropriated from the Carline Learning Centre, a State-funded organisation supporting disadvantaged teenagers in west Dublin, where Mr Walsh had been treasurer.

In a High Court filing, Mr Walsh said he "unreservedly apologised" for taking the cash, which was supposed to have been used to cover tax and other liabilities of the charity.

In an affidavit, Mr Walsh told the court his office had been raided by gardai following a complaint from the charity and he intended to plead guilty should any criminal charges be brought against him.

He revealed he had debts of 924,000 and just 5,367 in his bank accounts.

Read more: Audit raised suspicions at charity that its treasurer allegedly paid 161k into his own bank accounts

Mr Walsh, a low-profile accountant with past links to Fine Gael and business addresses in Kimmage and Celbridge, has offered the charity the proceeds of his life assurance policy as a token of his remorse.

Carline issued proceedings against him earlier this month after an investigation by its auditors found discrepancies in its books.

A report by the auditors concluded that 161,337 had been misappropriated by Mr Walsh by way of cheques made out to his company, Walsh and Associates, and two other firms.

Some 72,309 of this was supposed to have been paid to the Revenue Commissioners.

Carline's chairman John McKernan previously told the High Court that Mr Walsh had been treasurer for a number of years and had been completely trusted.

When challenged about the discrepancies, Mr Walsh told the board there had been a mix-up over payments to Revenue which had since been rectified.

But the charity moved swiftly after concluding a letter of explanation penned by Mr Walsh was "a work of fiction". It sought orders, to which Mr Walsh consented, requiring him to repay the cash and disclose what had become of the diverted funds.

Its board is now focused on ensuring the charity survives the controversy and maintains its educational services for marginalised teenagers.

Read more: Accountant to meet charity over 'missing' 161,000 in funds

In his affidavit, Mr Walsh said: "I must regretfully inform the court and the plaintiff that I have misappropriated the sum of 161,000 or thereabouts from the plaintiff."

Mr Walsh said he was in the process of verifying the exact amount when his business premises and residence were visited by members of the Lucan district detective unit.

Mr Walsh said he had been advised by his solicitor of his right to silence.

However, he said: "I say it is my intention to plead guilty to any criminal charges that must inevitably be brought and that all I can now do is apologise to the plaintiff and my other clients who are at a loss.

"I will co-operate with any inquiries in this regard."

He said that until mid-2014 he had traded as an accountant and bookkeeper without any breach of his fiduciary duties.

But he then found himself in a situation where he had promised clients investment returns which did not materialise and the situation "spiralled out of control".

"I regretfully used client funds to repay existing clients and honour financial commitments to clients and pay my way," he said.

Mr Walsh revealed that two clients sued him last year for a liability of around 560,000.

As a result he was obliged to sell his family home in Celbridge for 351,000, with 291,000 of the proceeds paid to his debtors. Also surrendered was his beneficial interest, worth 200,000, in a property in Rosslare. The litigation was settled out of court.

Mr Walsh said his wife and immediate family had "absolutely no knowledge of the extent of my fraudulent activities".

"I told them I had debt and that I was legitimately trading my way out of my negative financial position," he said.

"I have not been candid with them regarding how bad matters were and I can only apologise to my family for the shame and humiliation I have brought to their door through their association with me."

The case returns to court today.
Ross Allen, a father of two, from Clara, Co Offaly was found not guilty of murder but guilty of manslaughter

A 26-year-old man has been jailed for eight years for the manslaughter of a father of eight by keeping lookout while he was beaten and shot to death.

Ross Allen, a father of two, from Clara, Co Offaly was found not guilty of murder but guilty of manslaughter last month for his part in the killing of Christy Daly on December 29, 2013. The 47-year-old was killed beside the caravan where he lived at Bog Lane in Clara.

Allen, who was born suffering the ill-effects of hard drugs, had spent five weeks on trial at the Central Criminal Court.

Mr Justice Patrick McCarthy noted Wednesday morning that he had been prosecuted for murder on the premise that he was engaged in a common purpose to kill. However, the jury was not satisfied that he was, and he said that the case was to be regarded as an assault manslaughter.

The judge acknowledged that Mr Daly had a rather checkered life and had finished serving a prison sentence shortly before his death.

He said that no victim impact statement had been supplied, which he suggested might reflect his isolation in society.

The deceased began living in a caravan on Bog Lane. Unbeknownst to him, the accused hid E30,000 worth of cannabis in the area for people involved in seriously gangland activity. The trial heard that this was one of the odd jobs he did to pay for his cannabis habit.

He noted that the drugs had gone missing and the blame was put on the deceased. The accused said he was afraid of being blamed and that his life would be in jeopardy.

Allen co-operated on the night in what he knew would be violence. He collected the car used, had a meeting before the attack and recovered a sawn-off shotgun. He was also aware that a person in the back of the car was carrying a semi-automatic pistol. The judge described this as the fatal firearm.

He told gardai that he thought the guns were for protection and not to kill Mr Daly and he acted as a lookout while other people attacked the deceased, who was shot eight times. He burnt the car the next day.

Undoubtedly, he was murdered by people other than the accused, said the judge.

He made admissions when arrested, but did not identify the murderers. He said he had drug debts to them and was in fear.

The judge said that Allen undoubtedly had an extremely troubled life. He noted that he had been born, suffering from the ill-effects of hard drugs; he was the son of drug addicts.

He spent his first seven years in different foster homes and was still hungry when he finally got a stable foster home. He became homeless at 17.

He noted that, while on remand in prison, he had done a number of courses and charitable work.

I think theres hope for the future, he said, noting that a reference from his partner had described their young child as a stabilising factor. He also acknowledged his good work record.

The judge described his offence as very grave because of the use of firearms, and that violence was to be inflicted by people engaged in serious criminal activity. He said his degree of culpability was high.

He imposed a 10-year sentence, but suspended the final two years on condition he keep the peace, be of good behaviour and co-operate with the probation services for four years following his release. He said that this was his way of holding a light at the end of the tunnel for him.

He backdated the sentence for 15 months, the time he has already served.

No member of Mr Dalys family was in court for the sentencing. A number of Allens supporters were present and left as Allen was led away by prison officers.

Evidence at trial

The trial heard that Ross Allen revealed his part in the killing during garda interviews in February 2014 when he waived his right to silence. He told gardai that he was addicted to cannabis and had gotten into debt to a local drug dealer after losing his job.

To pay off his debt he would do odd-jobs like hide drugs and weapons around the countryside or move stolen cars from place to place.

In December he hid a bag of drugs, worth about e30,000, on Bog Lane but when he went to retrieve it, it had disappeared. He panicked, telling gardai he thought he was "f**ked". He said he was afraid of the drug owner and that he thought he might kill him.

When he reported the missing stash it was assumed that Christy Daly was responsible. He was the only person living on the lane.

Outlining Allen's involvement in what happened next, Mr Marrinan said he was told to drive a Volvo car to a location just outside Clara. The Volvo was an "offside car" that was used for criminal activity. It would later be used to take the gang to Mr Daly's caravan.

Having left the car at the planned location Allen went to a house in Esker Hills where two Dublin gang members and the owner of the cannabis discussed what to do.

Mr Allen was given money and told to go to Tesco in Tullamore to buy tracksuits and tights.

When he returned the men put on gloves, the newly purchased tracksuits and put the tights on top of their heads, ready to pull down over their faces. One of them had a semi-automatic machine gun, the weapon that would later be used to shoot Mr Daly. They left their mobile phones behind and drove to the accused's apartment where he picked up a hammer and a torch.

When asked by gardai if the hammer was to be used on Christy Daly he said it would be, if necessary. They then traveled to another site where Mr Allen retrieved a shotgun and cartridges that he had hidden behind a farm gate.

He handed the gun to one of the Dublin men sitting in the back of the Volvo car and saw him load it.

Having kitted themselves out they traveled to the remote lane that leads into the bog at Kilbride in Clara where Mr Daly lived and the drugs had last been seen.

Allen was told to stand at the gate and act as lookout while the two Dublin men and the driver of the car continued on. Mr Allen waited with the tights on top of his head rather than over his face.

When gardai asked him what he would have done if someone arrived he said he wasn't really sure. They hadn't discussed that. After a few minutes he heard two shots from the direction of the caravan and presumed they were fired as a warning to Mr Daly.

What actually happened to Christy Daly was revealed by state pathologist Professor Marie Cassidy. She told the trial that Mr Daly suffered blunt force trauma to the face and head. His attackers knocked out five of his front teeth and broke his nose before using a semi-automatic machine gun to shoot him nine times.

Most of the bullets hit him in the legs, severing arteries and smashing bones. It was these injuries that caused his death, she said.

After the assault the two Dublin men and the driver picked Mr Allen up and sped back towards Clara. Witness Niamh Heffernan, who lived at the meeting house in Esker Hills, told the court the two Dublin men stayed up until 5am doing cocaine in the living room.

The next day Mr Allen was told to burn out the Volvo car and he did so. He told gardai that he thought this was a strange request because at that time he did not know that Mr Daly was dead.

During the interviews he was asked several times what he thought they intended to do when confronting Mr Daly. He said he thought they would give him "a few clouts" or a "beating" but that he had no idea how far the Dublin men were going to take it.

He told gardai he was sick when he found out and that it gave him trouble sleeping.

After he had revealed his role he told gardai that it felt like a weight had been lifted off him. He will return to court on July 18 for a sentencing hearing.
A man accused of murder told gardai the victim's daughter had been "chanting" that he was a paedophile for three months before he "lost it" and shot her mother dead, a trial jury has heard.

James Redmond (60), of Killinarden Estate, Tallaght, Dublin 24, is charged with murdering Mary Dargan and attempting to murder Karina Dargan at their home in Killinarden Estate on March 15, 2014.

Mr Redmond pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to the two charges at the Central Criminal Court.

Yesterday, prosecution counsel Paul Carroll told the jury they would hear three interviews conducted with James Redmond in Tallaght Garda Station on March 16, 2014.

In the first, the accused told gardai that Karina had been "chanting" that he was a paedophile "day and night for nearly three months" prior to the incident.

"My nerves are shattered, I'm not sleeping at all, two hours sleep every night. It just got too much. I was lying on the bed and took a handful of cartridges out of a box and went next door. I seen the two of them, I pulled the trigger twice, maybe three times," he said.

Ms Pauline Walley SC then recalled a Detective Garda who was a senior member of the investigating team.

The detective garda agreed with counsel that the evidence given by Mary Dargans three children had established that relations between the two families were absolutely fine and there had never been anything untoward going on.

He also also agreed that there was no substance or truth to allegations made by Mr Redmond about chanting or laughing or someone suggesting he was a paedophile.

The court heard that this had no basis in reality and it was all inside Mr Redmonds head.

The court heard that he had owned his "double-barrel full length shotgun" for 20 years and he used it to shoot rabbits.

Forensic psychiatrist Dr Conor O'Neill, who is attached to the Central Mental Hospital in Dundrum, told the jury that Mr Redmond was suffering from "severe depressive episodes with psychotic symptoms" and would have been unable to refrain from his actions.

The court heard that the accused's mother had been diagnosed with schizophrenia when she was 70 years of age.

Mr Redmond had worked with Dublin County Council between the ages of 27 and 35 but had no formal employment after that. He got married at 23 and has five children.

Dr O'Neill said the accused told him he had never seen a psychiatrist and his mood became "low" in November 2013 when he started to hear voices.

Dr O'Neill said the accused told him he had a headache on the afternoon of March 15, 2014 and went to bed. He thought his head was going to burst when the chanting got louder. He then got his gun from a locked cabinet went to the Dargans' house.

The court also heard that Mr Redmond's daughter moved back into the house as she had concerns over her father's mental health in late 2013.

The trial continues.
OVER 200 victims of crime whose cases went unprosecuted have had the issues involved explained to them by the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) in the past eight months.

Summaries of reasons not to prosecute have been provided since an EU directive on victims rights came into effect last November.

Although legislation has yet to be introduced in Ireland in response to the directive, the DPP has been abiding by it.

Since then the DPP has had 333 requests for reasons in cases where a decision was taken not to prosecute.

Reasons were given in 216 cases and reasons refused in 68. Some 49 requests are currently under consideration.

The figures are detailed in the DPPs 2015 annual report, which was published today.

DPP Claire Loftus said the number of requests received was very significant.

A communications and liaison unit was set up in July 2015 to handle obligations under the directive.

The EU directive is a very important measure establishing rights to assist victims who have suffered physically, emotionally and financially as a result of crime, she said in the foreword to the report.

There remained, however, limited exceptions where reasons could not be communicated to victims.

In 78pc of cases last year where no prosecution took place, this was down to insufficient evidence.

Other reasons included the use of juvenile diversion programmes or adult cautions, while there were also cases involving undue delay or where injured parties withdrew complaints.

Since November there have also been 135 requests for reviews of decisions not to prosecute. None of these resulted in the original decision being overturned.

Prior to the directive being introduced the DPP only had a policy of explaining reasons not to prosecute in fatal cases.

This meant the number of cases was very small, with just 97 requests made between October 2008 and November 2015, of which 92 were granted.

Meanwhile, the report shows fees paid to barristers to prosecute cases jumped by 1m in just two years  rising from just over 13m in 2013 to 14m last year.

Ms Loftus said this was due partly to the lengthy trials and a significant increase in cases processed in the first full year of operation of the Court of Appeal.

Over half of those fees were paid to barristers operating in the circuit criminal courts.
GAYLE Dunne, wife of property developer Sean Dunne, has failed to stop a High Court inquiry into 100m worth of assets which it was alleged were invalidly transferred from her husband to her.

Ms Justice Caroline Costello ruled Ireland was the correct location for the hearing of whether the asset transfers were invalid.

The assets are worth around 100m.

Chris Lehane, the official administering Mr Dunne's Irish bankruptcy, has sought orders setting aside the transfers.

His proceedings against Mrs Dunne related to two alleged agreements between the Dunnes in 2005 and 2008.

They concerned assets including the Lagoon Beach Hotel, Cape Town, South Africa and interests in properties in Dublin, including on Shrewsbury Road and in Wicklow.

In March 2013, Mr Dunne filed for bankruptcy in the US state of Connecticut, where he was based.

In July 2013, he was adjudicated bankrupt in Ireland. That adjudication was upheld by the Supreme Court.

Mrs Dunne claimed the transfers were entered into as compensation for when she started a family with Mr Dunne over her career as a journalist and prospective career as a lawyer.

Mr Lehane claimed the alleged agreements have no legal status.

In a preliminary application to the High Court, Mrs Dunne, with an addresses at Greenwich, Connecticut, and in London, wanted the proceedings aimed at setting aside the transfer discontinued.

She claimed the transfers are already the subject of bankruptcy proceedings in the US, where Mr Dunne has also been adjudicated bankrupt.

The Irish proceedings are oppressive and any challenge to the alleged transfers should be determined by the US courts, she claimed.

It was also argued Mr Lehane lacked the legal standing to seek to set aside the transfers, and has no entitlement to sue.

This was because the estate of Mr Dunne was vested in the US bankruptcy trustee and not with Mr Lehane's office. There was also a duplication of issues in various proceedings brought in Ireland and the US, which she argued was unfair.

Mr Lehane opposed the application and denied there was any unfairness or an abuse of process.

The assets involved were either Irish assets or entities held through an Irish company, he said.

Ms Justice Costello Wednesday (July 27) dismissed Mrs Dunne's application.

The judge said Mrs Dunne had "failed to establish that Ireland was not the correct forum for the trial of the proceedings."

Ireland is the forum "with the most real and substantial connection to the dispute the subject matter of the proceedings," she said.

Mrs Dunne had also failed to establish that "there exists another jurisdiction where it is more convenient for the issues in dispute to be tried and determined".

Mrs Dunne had also failed to establish that the continuance of the proceedings amounted to an abuse of process or represent an injustice to her.

The judge adjourned the matter to a date in October.
The controversy over a Repeal the 8th mural has taken a unique turn, with a popular Dublin donut shop creating a pastry inspired by the installation.

Aungier Danger has backed the repeal movement by creating a donut in tribute to the installation, which was removed from the front wall of the Project Arts Centre in Temple Bar on Monday.

Owner of the Dublin 2 cafe, Phil Costello, said that this was a direct response to the official warning issued by Dublin City Council.

Mr Costello told Independent.ie: "The removal of the mural at the Project Arts Centre the other day compelled us to produce them. You cannot censor art in a digital age.

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"For us at AD the mural was a message of hope and progress for women's rights but once again darker forces have conspired to try keep us in the dark ages."

Both sides of the argument have reacted to the removal of the Irish artist Maser's installation, with a protest over censorship being held in Temple Bar yesterday.

Attendees painted themselves blue, to argue that something doesn't just disappear if you paint over it.

The Pro Life Campaign responded to the removal by claiming the installation had "nothing to do with art".

The right decision has been taken to remove this highly political mural which had everything to do with campaigning and nothing to do with art, Cora Sherlock of the Pro Life Campaign said in a statement.
Garda Commissioner Noirin O'Sullivan has reshuffled her top team to tackle serious crime, with a spate of promotions and transfers in the senior ranks.

The moves follow Cabinet approval for the appointment of four new assistant commissioners, 10 chief superintendents and 18 superintendents.

Despite the raft of changes, some of the management posts remain unfilled, including in the Wexford division where there will only be two, instead of four, superintendents.

Three of the key Garda national specialist units have new bosses. Eugene Corcoran, former head of the Criminal Assets Bureau, will take over the south-eastern region after his promotion to assistant commissioner. He is replaced by Chief Supt Pat Clavin of Dublin west.

One of the main organisers of Operation Thor, which has cracked down on travelling crime gangs, Det Chief Supt Jim McGowan, takes charge of the drugs and organised crime bureau. He succeeds newly promoted assistant commissioner Michael O'Sullivan, who has been allocated to the executive support and corporate services section.

The other new assistants, John O'Driscoll and Ann Marie McMahon, take over in the northern and southern regions. They were formerly in charge of the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation and the Garda college at Templemore respectively.
Supreme Court judge Mary Laffoy will chair the Citizens Assembly, which will examine the issue of the Eighth Amendment.

Ms Justice Laffoys appointment was approved by Ministers at their final Cabinet meeting before the summer recess.

The assembly, which will comprise of 99 citizens selected at random, is due to hold its first meeting in September.

Some 600,000 has been budgeted for the assemblys work.

Ms Justice Laffoy is highly regarded within legal circles and presided over the commission of inquiry into child abuse.
Twitter is good for many things, from observing celebrities fighting to discovering witty memes, not to mention watching events unfold around the world in real time. But had you ever thought about it as the place to find the love of your life?

Last week, a British woman made headlines when she revealed that she had done just that. Four years ago, Twitter user Victoria O'Brien posted: "Well I'm in love with whoever is manning the @WstonesOxfordSt account. Be still my actual beating heart." She was referring to the social media manager whose witty quips and book trivia had piqued her interest, but had no idea who the man himself was. Then last week, she wrote a follow up post. "Dear reader, I married him #noreally #yeahidunnohoweither".

Sharing their wedding pictures with their followers online this week, Victoria and the mystery man behind the account, Jonathan, revealed how they met on the site.

After a few exchanges, it was Victoria who took things in to the realm of reality and brought him doughnuts at work. He followed up with a DM (direct message, for the uninitiated) days later, and they've been inseparable ever since.

But their story is not unique. Interacting on Twitter has been a mere hop, skip and a jump from the aisle for many Irish couples too. Photographer Nathalie Marquez Courtney met Ben Keenan on the micro-blogging site five years ago, and the two got engaged last spring.

"I tweeted something very witty, probably, and saw a familiar-looking name retweet it," explains Keenan (31) of their first online interaction. "It was an ultra-nerdy joke about Steve Jobs and Adobe and I chortled at it," remembers Nathalie. "He asked if he knew me from somewhere. Looking back, that now sounds like a total line!"

It turned out Ben remembered Nathalie from her work at the UCD college paper, her long name sticking in his head. "We struck up an online conversation straight away. I immediately found her easy to talk to. She was funny and self-assured, and most importantly thought I was funny too; I found myself wanting an excuse to talk to her without being constrained by 140 characters."

The two had a shared interest in photography, so Ben asked Nathalie for her email address for some advice. "I was working unsociable hours at the time and would take time most nights to send her a long email. I'd break into a big smile the next day when I'd wake to find one from her. I wasn't looking to meet someone, but I knew that romantic or not, I'd connected to someone really deeply."

"At the time, we didn't think we had any mutual followers," Nathalie recalls. "But it turns out we had loads. One night I was sitting there when a tweet came in addressed to us both, saying "What's going on between you two!? It's like watching something beautiful blossom!" and I remember grabbing a nearby cushion and burying my face in it in mortification. I mean, I knew it wasn't private, but at the same time, I didn't think anybody had been following along either!"

Their first meeting came as the result of a Dublin "tweet-up", or a night out for people who regularly chatted on the site. "It was in my local pub, so couldn't have been more perfect, but that didn't stop me from hiding in the snug for a good 40 minutes," laughs Nathalie. "As soon as we met, we cracked a joke and basically didn't stop talking for the rest of the night."

After that, their romance deepened and after five years together, Ben popped the question in San Francisco, the home of Twitter. The couple say their upcoming wedding might have a hashtag, but that's about it as far as a nod to the website where they met.

One couple that have already tied the knot after a Twitter meeting are Jules Keeley (41) and Christian Hughes (36).

"Twitter was a very different beast back in 2009, a small community in Ireland, so we met through mutual friends," says Jules. "I'd been organising tweet-ups in Dublin so it was only natural, I suppose, that our paths would cross, given his career in digital marketing. I was at a place in my life where I was ready to start seeing someone seriously; he came along at the right time. Serendipity, I guess. I was drawn to his honesty, kindness, wit and charm."

By chance, Christian was attending a birthday party in Jules' native Drogheda one weekend soon after; they arranged to meet that night and instantly hit it off. "We went from dating to living together in the blink of an eye," she explains. "I was commuting to Dublin from Drogheda, so it began with me staying over a couple of nights a week in his place, and he'd come up to me in Clogherhead at the weekend."

After a stint living in Dublin together, Christian left the city behind to live with Jules in the rural beach town in 2013, and months later Jules discovered she was pregnant with their son Beckett, now aged two. Nine months after that, Christian proposed. "There was never any question in my mind that I was going to marry Jules. I knew very early on in the relationship that she was 'the one'."

Meanwhile RTE 2fm's director of music, Alan Swan, met his now-wife Gillian on Twitter in 2011. "Twitter suggests people you should follow judging from your own current followers and interests; it suggested that I follow Alan and I did," explains Gillian. "One day I referenced the fact that I was getting my braces off, and Alan tweeted me trying to be funny about it. One was not amused, tweeted him back to tell him so and from that point the tweeting was relentless.

"We had great banter, and it got to a point where we would be messaging each other until 4am. Alan told me afterwards he was literally shaking with tiredness as he used to have early starts while producing the Hector breakfast show on 2FM and was getting no sleep!"

The two took things offline and on to the phone a couple of months later. "I was sick with nerves expecting Alan's call. When he did ring, I was out in the car and I pulled over. It was winter and it was absolutely Baltic. We spoke for over an hour and I nearly had frostbite after it, but was glowing because our virtual banter translated easily!"

Alan then asked Gillian out to dinner, and he says it was love at first sight. Even though he was based in Galway and she in the capital, love prevailed, and the couple traversed the country to see one another for almost two years until Alan was relocated to Dublin. Fast forward to present day and the two are married and parents to baby Serena.

A place that fosters a meeting of like-minded people, without any blatant dating agenda, it seems Twitter is where love strikes quite organically. So bear that in mind when hitting the follow button - you could just be clicking on your soul mate.

Alternative places to meet online

Dating websites and apps are all well and good, but for some, signing up feels a little too scary.

However, there are other places on the internet you can meet someone with a shared interest

 YELP

Not many know that Yelp has a messaging function that allows you to send a note to someone via their profile - and you can even send them a compliment... So next time you see someone with a nice avatar and er, great reviews, ping them a message and see what happens.

 INSTAGRAM

The photo sharing network has a direct message service, so it's easy to chat if you like the look of someone's pictures. Just beware, you need to send a message request to someone who's not following you, and they may not see it right away.

 LINKEDIN

Sending saucy messages on a professional network is definitely a bad idea, but LinkedIn is a good place to connect with those in a similar field to you. You never know, you could link up with lovely John from finance
Vintage engines revved with delight in Glinsk, Co Galway as the small but mighty local community raised almost 40,000 for local worthy causes.

Locals turned out in thousands to enjoy the colourful display of tractor, lorry and truck drivers from across the country as they weaved their way through Williamstown, Kilnalag, Cashel Cross, Glenamaddy, Creggs and back to the small rural village located in River Suck valley.

Almost 90 trucks and 80 tractors participated. A special "more leisurely" route was organised for veteran vintage entrants though Corgarve, Sonnagh, Moate and Keelogues and returning to Glinsk. All participating vehicles were supplied with sponsorship cards.

Children from the Caislean Oir play school brought along their own toy tractors to join in the fun. Drivers including Amanda O'Hara also demonstrated impressive motoring skills.

Glinsk native Michael Fitzmaurice, Independent TD for Roscommon-Galway, acted as auctioneer for the day. He praised the local community for their dedication to the event which he described as a "rip-roaring success". "We made over 38,000 on the day and more donations are still coming it. It's a great testament to the power of community, they all came together for a great cause and they should all be very proud of themselves," he said.

"I signed the golden hammer I was using for the auction and attendee Ambrose Cuddy bought it for 1,050.

"The butcher's coat I wore for auctioneering went for 350 and I sold concrete for 400, we'd a drone and all on display. I couldn't believe it, that will tell you the goodness in people out there and they need to be commended, it was some community effort for one day," he said.

Marty Ward, event organiser, also said the charity fun day was a terrific success. "It was a local worthy cause that the people really got behind.

"I'd say we're edging closer to the 40,000 mark at this stage, all the grounds were packed with people.I'd say there were up to 2,000 spectators there at the height of the show, they came from all over counties Roscommon and Galway," he said.

Vintage show fever also heated up in other parts of the country at the weekend with the Coolmoyne and Moyglass Vintage Club run in Co Tipperary, the annual Askamore vintage club car and tractor run in Gorey, Co Wexford and Ballincollig and District vintage and classic car show in Cork.

The beneficiary for the latter event was Oglaigh Naisiunta na hEireann - a national support organisation for ex-service men and women of the Irish Defence Services.

Macra social calendars

Macra na Feirme clubs may be taking a summer hiatus from competitions but club social calendars remain in full swing.

Last weekend, Dublin Macras Hill 16 crew headed to Westport, Mayo, where they hopped on their bikes and cycled 18km along the Great Western Greenway from Newport to Mulranny.

Lorraine Maguire, Hill 16 chairperson, said members had a blast. Around 13 of us went and it was brilliant craic, the sun was shining and everyone was in great form. The Greenway was class, we were blown away by the sights along the way. We had a great night out and a couple of the lads even conquered Croagh Patrick the next morning, she said.

Members from Shannonside Macra were also in the pretty town along the south-east corner of Clew Bay for the weekend.

Other upcoming club social events include: Maudabawn Macra annual Shindig In The House event at Gallonray House, Cootehill, Co Cavan on Saturday, July 30, with lively Donegal band Tenth Avenue set to perform.

Meanwhile this Sunday, Inthru Macra na Feirme will hold a tractor pulling competition at the Glencolmcille Agricultural Show in Donegal. Teams will pull Massey Ferguson 35s as fast as they can over a distance of 50 metres.
A Limerick mum who transformed her body and shifted seven stone said a fear of embarrassing her children was the motivation behind her massive weight loss.

Sarah Lynch (38) once weighed more than 17 stone and said she was afraid of missing out on the lives of her four children because of her weight.

I have been big all my life, but my weight really began to bother me when I had children. I didnt want to be the fat mum who sat on the sidelines or who waited in the car, said Sarah, who is originally from Birmingham but lives in Ballingarry.

I was never embarrassed of my mum and I didnt want my children to feel that way either. Children can be cruel, and everything is so social media focused. I never wanted my kids to hear someone say Jesus have you seen the size of the twins mum?

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The stay-at-home mum said she battled with her weight for as long as she can remember, but the pounds really crept on when she had children. Sarah and her husband Aidan have four kids, twins Lisa and Orla (14), Eoin (11) and Edward (7).

I got married when I was 22 to my best friend, and soon had twin girls. I just got bigger and bigger. Throughout the next few years, I had two more children and weight just became more of a problem for me.

To the outside world I always made sure to adopt this bubbly and bright personality. I always tried to be the belle of the ball whenever we were socialising, but it was all a front.

I was a huge comfort eater. I became a stay-at-home mum when my third child was born, and Id have the dinner ready for the kids when they came home from school at 3. I was clearing their plates and Id be picking at everything that was left over on them with the attitude that throwing it away was such a waste."

Before Sarah joined Weight Watchers, she had reached 17 stone and was wearing a size 22 and said she was envious of her friends who could buy whole outfits on the high street for a reasonable price.

I used to spend a fortune on clothes, trying to get ones that fitted me. While all my friends were spending 40 or 50 on a whole outfit, I was spending the same on a pair of underwear. When I lost that first four stone, one of the best things was being able to fit in normal sizes again, to be able to buy things on the high street really easily.

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Before when I was going out for a date with my husband Aidan, hed be baffled when I said I had nothing to wear despite my busting wardrobe but there isnt a worse feeling than trying to squeeze into jeans that dont fit you or to pull on a tight top.

I was a size 22 before but now I know that if I go into Penneys and pick up a size ten it will fit me.

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In total, Sarah has lost more than 7 stone in Weight Watchers and is now a clerk in the weekly meeting in Newcastle West led by Sandra Maher.

I decided to join Weight Watchers to keep my friend company and I was surprised to find how simple it was. I really began to go hell for leather with it and lost four stone within a short period of time. The thing I like most about it is that there is no measuring or calorie counting, which made it so simple for me. It felt like I could achieve it. When I got down to 13 stone, I really started to feel great.

People began telling me how great I was looking and I began to find bones that I never knew existed. The weekly meeting soon became something of a social outlet for me. I made such great friends and now, the only reason Id miss a meeting is because of the children.

My husband Aidan has been a huge support to me. We fell in love when we were young and married when we were 22. Hes my best friend and as one of my treats we go for two Calypso coffees in Adare every Wednesday evening after Weight Watchers. I still have my treats, I just know where to draw the line now.

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The mum-of-four admitted that fashion is something she really relishes now that she has tackled her weight, and said it is a thrill to pick up a size ten dress and know it is going to fit.

My only regret about losing weight is that I didnt do it sooner. When I was getting married, I bought a dress and the lady told me not to worry that Id fit into it because I would lose weight with the stress of wedding planning. I didnt lose any weight and instead, I had to put inserts on either side of my dress in order to fit. I hate looking at that picture.

It is a big comparison to when I did my Weight Watchers photoshoot because the stylists had to pin a size 12 dress behind me because it was way too big. Its a great feeling and one I never want to go away, she said.
Brendan Keenan: 'Better laws and foreign money needed to overcome worrying homes shortage'

There is a district in Belfast known as the Holy Land. Not because of its religiosity, but because the streets - Jerusalem Street, Damascus Street and so on - are called after places in that region. Once, there were others; Little Crimea, India, and so on. Seemingly, houses were built so quickly for the city's huge expansion in the 19th century that it was too much trouble to think up original names. They eventually gave up altogether, so far as names were concerned. The Shankill area got First Street, Second Street etc, all the way up to Tenth.
Nelson Mandela with his then wife, Winnie, as Mandela walked free from prison in 1990 after 27 years in jail. The Apartheid regime made a huge effort to segregate South Africa  but ultimately failed. Photo: Greg English/AP

Today, my column comes from Johannesburg, written in the cafe of the Apartheid Museum close to Soweto. Here is an example of what the great German philosopher Hannah Arendt, reporting on the Adolf Eichmann trial, described as "the banality of evil". The sheer effort the Apartheid regime put into keeping people segregated is phenomenal in its tedious attention to the smallest detail, snooping, spying, humiliating, terrorising and, ultimately, losing.

When the change came, it came swiftly and largely peacefully.

Twenty years on, South Africa no doubt has its economic problems. The upper echelons of the ANC have turned large parts of the productive economy into, if not quite a kleptocracy, something of a cronies' free-for-all. But the big picture shouldn't be forgotten. The country survived. There was no civil war and large swathes of the population benefited.

What is it about race that so divides humans?

When you are sitting in this museum here in Africa, or looking at the black/white tensions in the US, or even reading about the caste system in India, one strange human weakness reappears over and over again, and it is racism. Why do/did many whites feel superior to blacks? Why are darker people in India considered to be from a lower caste and discriminated against? Why do African and Indian women spend millions of euro each year on "whitening" products?

Why do we have different skin colours in the first place and why does it matter to so many people?

Let's leave Africa and go far north from here to just south of the Arctic circle and a small Swedish town of Matfors. Mat in old Swedish means food and fors means stream. Matfors is full of salmon. The river is bursting with these fish and that is what the people have been eating for years. However, by the late 19th century the people had reached 'peak salmon'. By then, the town was operating a successful paper mill and wanted to attract more workers. As well as good wages, one of the perks of the job - written explicitly in the job advertisement - was a commitment from the management not to feed the workers salmon more than three days a week. The Swedes were simply sick of salmon.

How could that be, particularly today when all doctors tell us to eat more, not less fish?

And critically, what relevance has this 'peak salmon' story (which I came across for some other research) got to do with race and skin colour and Apartheid?

Permit me a bit of a digression here.

As you head to the sun for a week or two, have you ever asked yourself why Scandinavians tan in the sun and Irish people don't? There are far fewer hours of sunlight in northern Scandinavia than Ireland and yet when the Swedes go abroad on holiday to the sun, these very blonde, fair people go a deep bronze colour in a matter of hours. The Irish, who in the winter look like Scandinavians and share a preponderance for red hair, fair skin and blue eyes, are burnt to a crisp on the beach. Why is this?

The reason is Vitamin D.

The reason we have black, white and yellow people is because of Vitamin D. We all need a minimum of Vitamin D, which we get by either absorbing it through our skin from sunlight or we ingest it in certain foods. We need Vitamin D for our bones to strengthen. This is why people with a Vitamin D deficiency can get rickets. (The science is a little more complicated and involves Folic Acid as well as Vitamin D; for a more detailed, yet accessible, explanation see 'Skin', a biography by Dr Sharad Paul.)

Black skin is a protector against the sun. It repels sunlight and this obviously helped the first humans not to 'overdose" on the abundant Vitamin D that they were getting from the sun's rays.

We were all black when we walked out of Africa about 120,000 years ago and headed on a slow march North and East. But as we moved north from sunny Africa to less sunny Europe, our black skin began to lighten to allow it to absorb more Vitamin D from less sunlight. The more sparse the sunlight, the whiter the people became until you went to northern Europe, to Ireland and Scandinavia, where the people's hair and skin lightened in order to eke out the maximum Vitamin D from the very few hours of sunlight we were exposed to.

But what explains the Swedes tanning and the Irish burning? This is where the salmon comes in.

Sweden and Ireland, although very far north, are distinguished by one major climatic difference. We get the Gulf Stream and they don't. This makes our climate a lot warmer and wetter. This warmer climate allows cereals and grass to grow. This means that the cultivation of cereals, cattle and sheep is much more suited to us. This is how the ancient Irish derived protein. Because large parts of Sweden are too cold for grass, they had to find their protein in fish. Fish, and salmon in particular, are very rich in Vitamin D.

So over thousands of years, Swedes supplemented their meagre Vitamin D intake from the sun by gorging on salmon. As they did, their skin went darker because they didn't need to be so pinkish white and open to sunrays to absorb the precious Vitamin D.

This is why they tan and we don't.

Our cereal-based economy, due entirely to the warm influence of the Gulf Stream, may also explain why fishing in Ireland was never as developed as fishing in Scandinavia, despite our better Atlantic position.

So you see that skin colour is just the result of the great human battle for Vitamin D. The more constant your supply of Vitamin D, the less white you had to be to absorb it. In contrast, the more deprived of sun you were, the whiter you had to be - unless like the Scandinavians, you ate so much fish that you got sick of it!

As I walk around this museum, the horrific and very human results of the great battle for Vitamin D are all too evident and, in terms of the great march of humanity, all too pathetic to behold.
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John Downing Opinion New British prime minister Rishi Sunaks succession proves an important milestone in British political inclusivity

There is an old saying in British politics that goes: The right looks for converts while the left seeks out traitors. It comes to mind when one reflects upon the election of Rishi Sunak as the UKs first non-white prime minister in a party traditionally seen as most opposed to mass immigration and the dilution of national identity via multiculturalism.
When militants loyal to Isil seek to inflict pain on Europe, France is their preferred target, a grim reality borne out yet again with yesterday's knife slaughter of a Catholic priest.

Since January 2015, Isil-inspired attackers have killed at least 235 people in France, by far the largest casualty rate of in the West. French citizens or French-speaking residents have committed the overwhelming majority of strikes, often employing suicide tactics alongside command of their home surroundings.

French President Francois Hollande argues that France is Isil's top enemy on the continent because of his homeland's reputation as a cradle of human rights and democracy. "If terrorists strike us, it is because they know what France represents," Hollande said after this month's Bastille Day truck attack that killed 84 people on Nice's crowded waterfront.

Analysts agree that Isil propagandists particularly target France as a land anchored in secular values, liberal freedoms and life's pleasures. But its colonial history, demographic tensions and interventionist policies against militant Muslims abroad point to deeper reasons why anti-Western killers seek so ruthlessly to bring grief to France's door.

France has the largest population of Muslims in Europe, more than five million in a nation of 66 million, a legacy of its colonial domination of large swathes of Africa and the Middle East. Most have grown up speaking French alongside Arabic and are disproportionately represented in France's poorest, most alienated districts.

French soldiers and special forces remain committed today in predominantly Muslim corners of former overseas possessions, fighting Isil-linked extremists in Africa and fuelling calls for retaliation on French soil. France's exceptional public focus on promoting integration into a secular society has fuelled chronic tension with its Muslim minority, exemplified by a 2010 ban on wearing face-covering veils and a 2004 ban on Islamic headscarves in the classroom.

"France's model of integration is generous in its principles but too rigid in its practice," Farhad Khosrokhavar, a sociologist who is an expert on the Muslim experience in French life, wrote in the 'New York Times'.

"Although France has managed to integrate many immigrants and their descendants, those it has left on the sidelines are more embittered than their British or German peers, and many feel insulted in their Muslim or Arab identity," he wrote, noting that alienation can run particularly deep among those from France's nearest Muslim neighbours: Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria, across the Mediterranean Sea.

France has suffered terrorism incubated in Algeria since the late 1950s as the French fought an ultimately doomed war to retain their major North African possession. France withdrew from Morocco in 1955, Tunisia in 1956 and Algeria in 1962.

The French military footprint in former African colonies threatened by Islamic extremists has also grown under Hollande. French forces intervened in Mali in 2013 and today are present through much of West Africa.

It's no surprise, analysts say, that the majority of today's attackers in France have family ties to North and West Africa, not the Middle East.

Sons and daughters of these African immigrants now seek to answer the Isil recruitment call at rates unseen in other European nations. An estimated 1,000 French citizens and residents, mostly of African Muslim background, have travelled to Syria, or been caught trying, to join Isil forces ever since the nation - another former French possession - started to unravel five years ago.

The French recruiting influence in the Isil power base of Raqqa reflects the common languages spoken there, Arabic and French. This, in turn, spurs the production of slick Francophone propaganda tailored specifically to insult and intimidate French eyes and ears. Isil has threatened France, using native French speakers, in nine communiques in three months.

One video released this month features an a cappella song in French titled 'My Vengeance' alongside footage of November's attacks on Paris nightspots that killed 130 people. Its lyrics advise France-based followers to "shed the blood of the pigs ... Make France quake."

France's response to the Nice carnage was to call up several thousand police and army reservists. Hollande also pledged to send more military advisers and artillery for the US-led fight against Isil in Iraq and Syria. But some analysts say France's fundamental challenge is that it hosts the greatest concentration of marginalised Muslims on the continent.
Parlez-vous Brexit? More than a month after the UK voted to leave the European Union, the biggest barrier to real progress is language.

Every EU leader is walking a tightrope of words trying to reassure their domestic audience while simultaneously speaking to the whole continent.

Paddy likes to know. But so does Pierre, Manuel, Gunter and Harold.

And that is why European leaders need to stop the phoney war and engage in proper talks.

It has been argued that no genuine negotiations on the future of Europe can take place until Britain formally requests to leave - but government sources accept this is a ridiculous position that isn't actually grounded in the reality of what is happening.

Otherwise why would Mr Kenny have met with Angela Merkel, Francois Hollande and Theresa May in the past fortnight.

Depending on who you listen to and what day of the week it is, you will be told that Ms May must trigger Article 50 immediately or 'stay calm' and take time to get it right.

Initially after the result came in, Mr Kenny was among the minority of EU leaders calling for Britain to be given time and space to etch out their exit strategy.

Ms Merkel and Mr Hollande (inset below)were shouting 'out now' before both eventually struck a more consolatory "as soon as possible" tone. The Taoiseach has also now moved towards that position.

Similarly on the question of the border between the Republic and the North, Ms May refuses to use the phrase "hard border" and instead rules out a return to "the borders of the past".

Taoiseach Enda Kenny is emphatic in his view that he will "not agree to a hard border". Yet the two prime ministers claim to be speaking in unison.

Mr Kenny's line is exactly what Irish people want to hear, but Ms May is clearly trying to speak to a variety of audiences.

In Northern Ireland on Monday, the British PM said some form of border would have to result from a Brexit - but has since refused to elaborate on what that might entail.

After his meeting in Downing Street, Mr Kenny offered the idea of a virtual border where movement is monitored but in the main traffic flows freely.

The Taoiseach went to Berlin where Ms Merkel appeared to shoot down the idea of making Ireland a 'special case', saying all voices would be heard equally. But days later Mr Hollande came to Dublin and declared that he understood our "special situation".

Government officials in Dublin continue to insist the French and Germans are saying the same thing.

Meanwhile, over in Brussels a battle is raging for control of the EU negotiating team between the EU Commission and EU Council.

Supporters of Council boss Donald Tusk argue they are in charge and member states do not want a "federalist", like Commission president Jean-Claude Junker, taking the lead.

The Commission believes their mandate places them at the centre of any talks.

So it's little wonder Europe is in a state of confusion.

The 'Double Dutch' coming from politicians and bureaucrats on issues like Brexit is a large part of the reason voters feel disenfranchised by the EU.
For more than two years, Isil has waged war on the religious mosaic of the Middle East. It has slaughtered all those they consider apostates in increasingly lurid fashion, targeting Christians, Yazidis, Shia Muslims, and countless Sunnis, too.

As the jihadists' war extended into Europe, they chose methods - such as the butchery of Nice - that even Osama bin Laden had rejected as indiscriminate.

But if Isil's target list is broad, it is not without priorities. In his speeches, Isil's so-called caliph, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, has repeatedly picked out Christians and Jews as enemies of particular note. Isil adherents have already deliberately killed Jews on European soil, beginning with the attack on the Jewish Museum of Belgium in May 2014. The only surprise is that churches have escaped violence for so long.

A war on Christians has for decades been part of the cocktail of fascist, fanatical and fundamentalist ideas that make up Islamist extremism. In 1998, an infamous fatwa by Bin Laden declared jihad against Jews and "crusaders". In the 2000s, as Iraq fell apart and violence spread, the historic presence of Christianity in the Middle East came under attack. Christians made up 14pc of the region's population in 1910; they comprise just 4pc now.

Thousands of churches have been attacked, and more than 100,000 Christians fled from Iraq alone.

Read more: Murder of priest in church marks new tactic for Islamic State group

Expand Expand Previous Next Close This is an undated image of French Priest Jacques Hamel made available by the Catholic Diocese. (Doicese of Rouen via AP) An undated photo shows French priest, Father Jacques Hamel of the parish of Saint-Etienne. Photo Courtesy of Parish of Saint-Etienne via Reuters / Facebook

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Whatsapp This is an undated image of French Priest Jacques Hamel made available by the Catholic Diocese. (Doicese of Rouen via AP)

The killing of Fr Jacques Hamel in Normandy yesterday, kneeling in his church, was foreshadowed in countless such acts outside Europe, such as the 16 Ethiopian Christians beheaded on a Libyan beach last year.

Isil's so-called "soldiers" in Europe appear to share some characteristics. They frequently have criminal backgrounds, while many have had mental problems. Most have a poor grasp of religious ideas, and are rarely pious. Isil's war in Europe will evolve in unpredictable and erratic ways, because the generals do not command the troops. There is little evidence that Isil has control, let alone forewarning, of some of the recent attacks. Yet it reaps the rewards - publicity and the illusion of success. It is a strategy that has evolved, bottom-up, from the individual choices of unconnected jihadists: sweeping attacks, like Nice, complement selective assassinations, like that in St Etienne-du-Rouvray.

Read more: 'Isis soldiers' filmed blade attack on priest in French church - witness

The sheer scale of terrorist attacks in Europe, notably in France and Germany over the past few weeks, is psychologically dislocating, resulting in acute social and political pressure. There will be redoubled pressure on the government of President Francois Hollande to curb civil liberties - something a large majority of the French population favours - and get a grip on a situation that seems to be spiralling out of control.

Expand Expand Expand Expand Previous Next Close Police officers speak to a driver as they close off a road during a hostage situation in Normandy, France (BFM via AP) Police officers close off a road during a hostage situation in Normandy, France (BFM via AP) The bell tower of the church is seen after a hostage-taking in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray near Rouen in Normandy, France, July 26, 2016. REUTERS/Pascal Rossignol The bell tower of the church is seen after a hostage-taking in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray near Rouen in Normandy, France, July 26, 2016. REUTERS/Pascal Rossignol / Facebook

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Whatsapp Police officers speak to a driver as they close off a road during a hostage situation in Normandy, France (BFM via AP)

France may choose to further escalate its air strikes in Iraq and Syria.

Border controls will ratchet upwards, accelerating the erosion of the Schengen system across Europe.

These measures will have only limited effect on a problem that lies largely within, rather than across, borders and that lies in the realm of ideology and inspiration rather than elaborate plots.

This is not a clash of civilisations or a war between religions, but it is evidently an assault upon both.

Shashank Joshi is a senior research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI)
Of all the places Islamist terrorists have chosen to ply their wicked trade in Europe these past few weeks, the sleepy French town of Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray is one of the more unlikely settings for committing acts of extreme violence.

Unlike the high-profile, Isil-inspired attacks France has suffered in Paris and Nice, yesterday's ordeal in this small town in Normandy, situated 6km south of the great French cathedral city of Rouen, began with an attack on a group of worshippers attending morning Mass.

After entering the town's Norman church and taking several worshippers hostage, the two knifemen were heard to shout "Daesh" - the Arabic acronym for Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (Isil) - before slitting the throat of an 85-year-old Catholic priest, Fr Jacques Hamel.

By targeting this quiet French town, the killers, who were subsequently shot dead by French police marksmen, have shown that nowhere is safe from the malign designs of Islamist fanatics. Nor is the growing threat posed by Isil militants confined to France.

As the seemingly relentless wave of terror attacks Europe has suffered in recent weeks demonstrates, Isil extremists now appear capable of striking at will at any point on the continent that they choose.

Intelligence officials have issued several stark warnings that Isil has actively sought to exploit the migrant crisis to set up a network of terror cells in Europe, specifically targeting key European countries like Britain, France, Italy and Germany.

Now it seems all of these warnings are being borne out, with all the implications that could have not only for European security, but for the continent's future political stability. It has long been a central tenet of Islamist ideology that, if the extremists were able to destroy liberal, Western democracies, they would then be able to establish a regime based on Islamist principles in their place.

It might seem far-fetched that a bunch of ill-disciplined barbarians living in their self-styled caliphate in northern Syria could actually destroy the civilised world. But they are deadly serious about achieving their aims.

Western Europe has been here before, of course. Just like today, terrorist atrocities became a feature of everyday life in the 1970s and 1980s when far-left activists, such as Germany's Baader-Meinhof gang and Italy's Red Brigades, undertook a series of high-profile terrorist attacks aimed at destroying Western democracies in the hope that they would be replaced by communist rule.

Ultimately, these ideologically-driven groups failed because they were active at the height of the Cold War, when few Europeans were keen to sacrifice their personal freedom for dedication to the Soviet cause.

Now, as Europe faces disruption on a similar scale generated by a new generation of Islamist-inspired terrorists, its leaders must show similar resolve if they are not to fall into Isil's trap of allowing the current wave of terror attacks to bring about a true European political crisis.

The political reverberations from this new wave of atrocities, which began with the Bastille Day attacks in Nice that claimed 84 lives, are certainly starting to be felt throughout Europe. And with elections due in Germany and France next year, they could have worrying implications for the continent's future.

In Germany, the government's failure to grasp the public's mounting resentment towards Chancellor Angela Merkel's open- door policy in handling the migrant crisis has caused the remarkable rise of the Alternative for Germany party, which won almost 25pc of the vote in a state election in Saxony-Anhalt in March, almost beating Mrs Merkel's Christian Democrats.

In France, meanwhile, Front National leader Marine Le Pen has been quick to exploit the wave of anger directed towards President Francois Hollande over his handling of the terror threat. Yesterday, commenting on the attack at Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, she accused the entire French establishment, both left and right, of sharing "immense responsibility" for creating the circumstances in which Islamist terrorists can operate in France.

The prospect of right-wing nationalists exercising real political power in France and Germany is one that even the most ardent Brexiteer will view with dismay.

But the longer Isil is able to maintain its terrorist offensive against Europe, then the more likely this becomes, especially if the fanatics continue to attack soft targets like the church selected in yesterday's attack.

For all the Republic's secularist pretensions, Catholicism remains part of France's national identity, and the murder of an elderly priest is just the kind of attack that could provoke sectarian tensions of the sort we are more used to seeing in the Middle East, as opposed to the heart of Europe.

This is just the kind of political chaos Isil wants to create in Europe, which is why its political leaders must steer clear of this simple but deadly trap.
These events provided participating countries the opportunity to review their relations and cooperation over the past year and work out orientations to step up connections in the coming year, along with deliberating regional and international issues of shared concern and discussing preparations for the upcoming ASEAN Summit with several partners, in Vientiane in September.



Participating countries gave a lot of time to discuss the situation in the Korean Peninsula, the Middle East, terrorism, extreme violence, navigation security and migration and expressed their concerns about intensive and extensive impacts of these issues on peace, security and development in the region. They agreed to speed up cooperation to tackle these challenges.

On the East Sea issue, many countries shared their concerns about recent and underway happenings in the waters, including the building of man-made islands and militarisation.

They underscored that the maintenance of peace, security, safety and freedom of navigation in and overflight above the East Sea is a shared benefit and responsibility of all relevant countries.

They highlighted compliance to international law and the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea 1982 as well as exercising self-restraint, committing no actions to complicate the situation, not using or threatening to use force, implementing the Declaration of the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea (DOC) and working towards the introduction of a code of conduct (COC).

For his part, Deputy PM and Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh spoke highly of progresses made in the cooperation, within the framework of ASEAN+3, EAS and ARF.

He suggested the ASEAN+3 concentrate on actualising the measures left in the 2013-2017 Working Plan, giving priority to the development of small- and medium-sized enterprises, investment, infrastructure connectivity, collaborative response to climate change, transnational crime, maritime security, natural disaster management and cyber security.

At the East Asia Summit, the Vietnamese leader asked participating countries to support ASEANs centrality and establish maritime security as a priority of the EAS.

During the ARFs meeting, he suggested the forum switches to preventive diplomatic measures while continuing efforts to build trust through practical activities, to contribute to ensuring peace and security.

Regarding regional and international situations, he asserted the importance and significance of safeguarding maritime security, saying the work is a common interest of countries, regions and the globe.

Past and current complicated events in the East Sea, especially land reclamation and large-scale construction and militarisation, continue to spark profound concerns, altering the status quo in the East Sea, and eroding trust in the region, he emphasised.

Regarding the recent legal and diplomatic processes related to the East Sea issue, Vietnam expressed its position on the arbitral tribunal, set up in compliance to Annex VII of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea 1982, he noted.

The Vietnamese delegation stressed the need to place importance on dialogue and negotiations and begin the next phase to stabilise the situation and settle the dispute on the basis of abiding by international law and the Convention on the Law of the Sea 1982, and upholding a constructive spirit.

Therefore, Vietnam called on involved sides to exercise self-restraint, not perform any activities that could fuel tension, and promote bilateral negotiations as well as the implementation of the DOC and the early formation of the COC between ASEAN and China.

The EAS and ARF play an important role in promoting the exchange of viewpoints, deterring conflicts, proposing measures, and supporting the involved sides in tackling disputes, viewed the Vietnamese delegation.

After the ARF-23, Deputy PM and FM Pham Binh Minh and his entourage left Vientiane for Hanoi./.
Life stories: Dubliner Shauna Keogh has worked on shows such as Too Fat for Fifteen, which was nominated for a Daytime Emmy.

Maria Walsh is officially off the market as she confirms new romance with Emmy-nominated TV producer.

She has been single for two years but TV presenter has confirmed she is in a relationship with TV producer Shauna Keogh.

The Dublin-born documentary maker has been linked with the former Rose of Tralee winner since February when the pair arrived to a red carpet event together.

At the time, both insisted there was no romantic connections and their relationship was purely business-based as they worked on a number of TV projects together.

Gracias Novia y Madrid. A photo posted by Maria Walsh (@honorawalsh) on Jul 13, 2016 at 1:33pm PDT

However, they now seem comfortable to go public with their relationship as Maria confirmed to Evoke that they have been a couple for "several weeks now".

The 29-year-old was joined by Shauna in Spain as she completed the Camino de Santiago and the glamorous pair enjoyed a short holiday in Spain.

Expand Close Life stories: Dubliner Shauna Keogh has worked on shows such as Too Fat for Fifteen, which was nominated for a Daytime Emmy. / Facebook

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Whatsapp Life stories: Dubliner Shauna Keogh has worked on shows such as Too Fat for Fifteen, which was nominated for a Daytime Emmy.

Shauna has just returned to Ireland after spending 13 years living between London and New York.

The 33-year-old has worked on a number of successful reality documentaries, including Too Fat for Fifteen for the Style Network in the US which was nominated for a Daytime Emmy in 2011.

She's also the producer behind When Jordan Met Peter, a behind-the-scenes reality show with Katie Price and Peter Andre which aired on ITV2 , Kerry Katona: 12 Months of Mayhem for MTV and 40-Year-Old Virgins for Channel 4.

Like her ambitious girlfriend, Maria has been fortunate enough to carve her way into a media career since winning the Rose of Tralee in 2015, making regular appearances on RTE's Nationwide and The Seven O'Clock Show on TV3.

Expand Close Maria Walsh at the VIP Style Awards. Pic: Damien Eagers / Facebook

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Whatsapp Maria Walsh at the VIP Style Awards. Pic: Damien Eagers

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She's also launching a wedding and events planning business, while Shauna is currently working on a documentary for RTE which examines the struggles of growing up gay in rural Ireland.
The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for a twin bombing has struck a crowd in a predominantly Kurdish town in northern Syria, killing 44 people and wounding dozens more.

A truck loaded with large quantities of explosives blew up on the western edge of the town of Qamishli, followed by an explosives-packed motorcycle a few minutes later in the same area.

The blasts caused massive damage and rescue teams have been working to recover victims from under the rubble, the SANA news agency said.

Qamishli, near the Turkish border, is mainly controlled by Kurds but Syrian government forces are present and control the town's airport.

Syrian state TV broadcast footage showing people running away from a mushroom of grey smoke rising over the town and others running amid wrecked or burnt cars.

Qamishli resident and writer Suleiman Youssef, said he heard the first explosion from few miles away.

He said the blasts levelled several buildings and many people were trapped under the rubble.

"Most of the buildings at the scene of the explosion have been heavily damaged because of the strength of the blast," he said.

The Islamic State group, in a statement published by the IS-linked Aamaq news agency, said it carried out the attack in Qamishli.

The extremist group described it as a truck bombing that struck a complex of Kurdish offices.

The group has carried out several bombings in Kurdish areas in Syria in the past.

The predominantly Kurdish US-backed Syria Democratic Forces have been the main force fighting IS in northern Syria, capturing significant territory from the extremists over the past two years.

Wednesday's explosion came as US-backed Kurdish forces pressed ahead with their offensive to take the IS-held town of Manbij, also in northern Syria but further to the east of Qamishli.

AP
A mysterious hot spot in Jupiter's upper atmosphere is caused by the planet's most famous feature, say scientists.

The Great Red Spot - a massive storm system three times wider than the Earth - is heating the atmosphere high above it to temperatures hundreds of degrees warmer than anywhere else on the planet.

Scientists made the discovery after observing Jupiter's infrared light emissions, which allowed them to make temperature measurements.

At high altitude, some 500 miles above the planet's visible cloud tops, temperatures were much greater than would be expected as a result of warming by the distant sun.

"We could see almost immediately that our maximum temperatures at high altitudes were above the Great Red Spot far below - a weird coincidence, or a major clue?" said Dr James O'Donoghue, a member of the team from Boston University in the US.

The Great Red Spot (GRS) was first officially recorded in 1831 but may have been the same "permanent spot" identified by Italian astronomer Giovanni Cassini in 1665.

It consists of a hurricane-like system of gases swirling at speeds of up to 425mph. Because of its size, the winds can take six days to complete one revolution.

Study co-author Dr Luke Moore, also from Boston University, said: "The Great Red Spot is a terrific source of energy to heat the upper atmosphere at Jupiter, but we had no prior evidence of its actual effects upon observed temperatures at high altitudes."

Writing in the journal Nature, the scientists concluded that the GRS produces "acoustic waves" of energy - waves that vibrate in the direction of their travel - that heat the upper atmosphere.

A similar effect on a much smaller scale has been observed over the Andes mountains on Earth.
Flowers, candles and messages are placed near the home of Father Jacques Hamel in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray (AP)

Prime Minister Theresa May has vowed that Islamist terrorists "will not prevail" in the wake of Tuesday's murder of a Catholic priest in northern France.

The Islamic State terror group has claimed responsibility for the killing, describing the two knifemen who slit the throat of 85-year-old Father Jacques Hamel and seriously injured an 86-year-old parishioner as its "soldiers".

French President Francois Hollande - who met faith leaders and spoke with Pope Francis following the attack - said his country was at "war" with IS, adding: "To attack a church, to kill a priest, is to profane the Republic."

Speaking during a visit to Italy, Mrs May called on European states to step up intelligence-sharing, which she said was "one of the best ways in which we can work together to ensure that we deal with this threat, to protect our citizens, but also to ensure that the terrorists do not win".

And she added: "They are trying to attack our values. They are attacking our way of life. They will not prevail."

Mrs May described Father Hamel's murder as "ye t another brutal reminder of the threat that we all face".

"Following on from the atrocities in Nice and Germany, it reinforces the need for action both in Europe and on the wider global stage," she said.

"In Europe, we must increase further our intelligence co-operation and share vital information swiftly and effectively, enabling us to better protect ourselves from these terrorists who seek to destabilise us."

It emerged that one of the two attackers shot dead by police in Normandy was wearing an electronic surveillance tag at the time of the attack, having been released from prison where he was being held after twice attempting to travel to Syria.

France's anti-terrorism prosecutor Francois Molins said 19-year-old Adel Kermiche 's tag was deactivated for a few hours every morning, and the attack took place while it was not operating.

Kermiche and his accomplice took five hostages at the church in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray after bursting in during morning mass. One had three knives and a fake explosives belt, while the other carried a kitchen timer wrapped in aluminium foil and had fake explosives in his backpack, said Mr Molins.

They used nuns as "human shields" as police tried to end the hour-long siege by entering the church.

Mr Molins said the attackers, who claimed allegiance to Islamic State, cried "Allahu Akbar" - God is great - during the attack on the priest.

He added that a minor, believed to be a 16-year-old younger brother of somebody wanted by police for trying to go to Syria or Iraq in 2015, had been detained in connection with the investigation.

A nun, identified as Sister Danielle, described how Father Hamel was forced to kneel on the floor before his throat was cut.

She told BFM television: "They forced him to his knees. He wanted to defend himself. And that's when the tragedy happened.

"They recorded themselves. They did a sort of sermon around the altar, in Arabic. It's a horror."

The National Police Chiefs' Council has urged Britain's Christian community to be alert in the wake of the attack.

Deputy Assistant Commissioner Neil Basu said: "There is no specific intelligence relating to attacks against the Christian community in the UK. However, as we have seen, Daesh and other terrorist groups have targeted Christian as well as Jewish and other faith groups in the West and beyond.

"Following recent events in France, we are reiterating our protective security advice to Christian places of worship and have circulated specific advice today. We are also taking this opportunity to remind them to review their security arrangements as a precaution."

The advice came after Home Secretary Amber Rudd made a prearranged announcement of new measures to combat hate crime, including a 2.4 million fund to pay for extra security at places of worship.
Rikki Neave (6) who was found naked and strangled in a patch of woodland in Peterborough in 1994

An alleged child murderer who fled the UK while on bail has posted photos of him drinking beer in the sunshine.

James Watson was arrested in April on suspicion of the murder of six-year-old Rikki Neave who was found naked and strangled in a patch of woodland in Peterborough in 1994.

But after being released on police bail, he absconded from a hostel in Northamptonshire last month and smuggled himself out of the UK in a mobile home.

He is now believed to be hiding in Portugal from where he has posted a string of photos of him enjoying himself on the beach, the Mirror reports.

In a string of messages on Facebook he said: "The best thing is I don't even have a passport. I just walked out of our country.

"Me and a mate left the UK in a mobile home.

"Booked it on the ferry, drove on and that was that. No checks, nothing."

He said he was getting the sun on me and making some memories for dark days and said the recent months had been the most stressful of his life.

The 35-year-old said the charges were all b****** and claimed they came after an ex-girlfriend said he tried to strangle her during sex.

Watson said she had made the allegations up because she was mad he later came out as gay.

The convicted arsonist was first arrested in April in connection with the murder and was held for several days of questioning before being bailed on 15 June.

Police were made aware that he had breached his bail conditions on 15 July and said they were working with their Portuguese counterparts to find him and bring him back to the UK.

Schoolboy Rikki went missing near the Welland Estate in Peterborough on 28 November 1994 and was found the following day in a woodland nearby.

His mother, Ruth Neave, was originally charged with his murder but was found not guilty by a jury in 1996.

A spokesman for Cambridgeshire Police said: "We have reason to believe that the 35-year-old man from Peterborough who was arrested in connection with the historic murder of six-year-old Rikki Neave left the country while on police bail.

"We have been in communication with him and are working with him and partner agencies in order for him to return to the UK promptly."
Pope Francis travels in the popemobile with Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, Archbishop of Krakow to a welcoming ceremony at Wawel Royal Castle in Krakow, Poland July 27, 2016

The world is at war, but it is not a war of religions, Pope Francis has said.

Francis spoke on the papal plane en route to Poland on his first visit to central and eastern Europe in the shadow of the slaying of a priest in France.

Asked about the killing, Francis replied: "It's war, we don't have to be afraid to say this."

He said that when he speaks of war, he is speaking of "a war of interests, for money, resources, dominion of peoples."

"I am not speaking of a war of religions. Religions don't want war. The others want war," Francis said.

The killing of the 85-year-old priest in a Normandy church on Tuesday added to security fears surrounding Francis' five-day visit for the World Youth Day celebrations.

These concerns were already high due to a string of violent attacks in France and Germany.

Polish officials said they have deployed tens of thousands of security officials to cover the event.

A pensive Francis was greeted at Krakow airport by Poland's president Andrzej Duda, first lady Agata Kornhauser-Duda and other state officials, as well as hundreds of faithful who had waited for hours to see him.

The Polish Army band played the anthems of the Vatican and of Poland.

Francis then travelled in an open car through the city, waving at crowds as he headed to the Wawel Castle for the main welcoming ceremony.

He is due to appear in the window of the residence of Krakow bishops, where he will be staying.

Francis will chat with some among the hundreds of thousands of pilgrims from around the world gathered for the World Youth Day celebrations running until Sunday.

"Let's live WYD (World Youth Day) in Krakow together!" the pontiff tweeted before departing from Rome, where he was bid farewell outside his Santa Marta residence by 15 refugees, new arrivals in Italy.

Groups of cheerful young pilgrims were seen in the streets of Krakow just hours before Francis' arrival for the major Catholic event.

Relics of St Mary Magdalene came to the St Casimir Church from France for the duration of World Youth Day, and were displayed in a case by the altar.

"Their presence helps us concentrate on our prayers and brings us closer to God," said Nounella Blanchedent, 22, from the French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe.

Ms Blanchedent was one of the volunteers helping with security and logistics at the packed church, where a Mass was held in French for pilgrims from France, Belgium and other countries.

Poland, a predominantly Catholic country, remains proud of the late pontiff, St John Paul II, who served as priest and archbishop in Krakow before becoming pope.

A sense of excitement was apparent in sunny Krakow on Wednesday with papal white-and-yellow flags and images of Francis and John Paul II decorating the streets.

Stages were put up at many locations for concerts and other activities that are being held by and for the pilgrims in Krakow.

There was a heavy presence of police and other security forces across the city, as crowds were increasing everywhere.

"I have never seen so many people in Krakow," said souvenir shop owner Anna Gazda.

"It's difficult to move around even though offices have closed (for the event) and many people have left the city."
Special police officers secure a street near the house where a Syrian man lived before the explosion in Ansbach, Germany (AP)

A 27-year-old Syrian asylum seeker who blew himself up in the southern German town of Ansbach was chatting online with a still-unidentified person immediately before the explosion, Bavaria's interior minister has said.

Attacker Mohammed Daleel died and 15 people were wounded when his bomb exploded outside a wine bar on Sunday night after he was denied entry to a nearby open-air concert because he did not have a ticket.

"There was apparently an immediate contact with someone who had a significant influence on this attack," state interior minister Joachim Herrmann said in Bavaria, news agency dpa reported.

It was not clear whether Daleel was in contact with Islamic State or where the other person involved in the conversation was, Mr Herrmann said.

He said investigators checking the assailant's mobile phone came across the "intensive chat" and that "the chat appears to end immediately before the attack".

"Because of witness testimony on what happened and also the course of the chat, there are indeed questions about whether he intended to set off the bomb at that moment," Mr Herrmann said.

On Tuesday night, the online magazine of IS said the attacker spent months planning the attack, once even hiding his homemade bomb in his room in a state-supported asylum shelter moments before a police raid.

The weekly Al-Nabaa magazine's report added that Daleel had fought in Iraq and Syria with a branch of al Qaida and IS before arriving in Germany as an asylum seeker two years ago.

Mr Herrmann said a roll of 50-euro notes was found on the attacker. It is unclear where the money came from - but it is "unlikely that it could have been paid for solely from what an asylum seeker in Germany gets in the way of pocket money". He did not disclose the total value of the cash.

The Ansbach explosion was the last of four attacks in Germany in a week, two of which were claimed by IS. Islamic extremism was not the motive in the other two - including the deadliest, Friday's shooting in Munich in which nine people were killed.

The German government said US president Barack Obama offered his sympathy to Chancellor Angela Merkel over the attacks in a phone call on Wednesday. Both stressed their will to continue fighting international terrorism together and with determination, the government said.

The attacks have brought Mrs Merkel's policy of welcoming refugees - more than one million last year - under renewed criticism.

A senior figure in the nationalist Alternative for Germany party, which has no seats in the national parliament but saw its popularity surge after last year's migrant influx, suggested that there should be "a halt to immigration for Muslims to Germany" until all asylum seekers now in the country have been registered, checked and had their applications processed.

"For security reasons, we can no longer afford to allow yet more Muslims to immigrate to Germany without control," Alexander Gauland, a deputy party leader, said in a statement. "There are terrorists among the Muslims who immigrated illegally and their number is rising constantly."

But interior ministry spokesman Johannes Dimroth said that "for some time" all new arrivals have been registered and checked against security databases.

As for whether people could be treated differently depending on their religion, "as I understand it that simply would be incompatible with our understanding of freedom of religion", he said.

Conservative politicians have called for an increased police presence, better surveillance and background checks of migrants - and new strategies to deport criminal asylum seekers more easily.

Al Nabaa's Arabic-language report on the attacker said he initially fought against government forces with al Qaida's branch in Syria before pledging allegiance to IS in 2013. He also helped the group with its propaganda efforts, setting up pro-IS accounts online.

In Germany, he started making the bomb, a process that took three months, al Nabaa wrote.

IS earlier claimed the Ansbach attack, publishing a video it said was of Daleel pledging allegiance to the group and vowing that Germany's people "won't be able to sleep peacefully anymore". It appears to be the same video as the one found by German investigators on the suicide bomber's phone.

Daleel unsuccessfully sought asylum in Germany and was awaiting deportation to Bulgaria.

The bloodshed in Germany began on July 18, when a 17-year-old from Afghanistan wielding an axe attacked passengers on a train near Wuerzburg, wounding five people before he was shot dead by police. IS claimed responsibility.

German train operator Deutsche Bahn said it would invest heavily in increased security and hire hundreds of security staff to control trains and train stations across the country.

The city of Munich said it is re-evaluating security for the annual Oktoberfest and is considering banning backpacks from the popular beer festival.

AP
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
Thieves made off with a boys prosthetic leg during his first trip to the beach in California last weekend.

The theft happened while Liam Brenes (4) was visiting Crystal Cove State Beach, Orange County with his family on Sunday.

Expand Close Liam Brenes, four, with his parents, Amanda McFarland, and Frank Brenes, / Facebook

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Liams father, Frank had told him to leave his Star Wars themed prosthetic leg with the familys other belongings on the sand to ensure it wouldnt be damaged in the water.

Liam spoke to KABC-TV Los Angeles after the incident, explaining: We were in the water for two hours. And came back and everything was gone. They stole my leg.

His mother, Amanda told the station: Its just heartless. Its a childs leg, you know? He needs it to be able to get around and function normally.

When Liam was a one-year-old he developed a rare bone disorder called fibular aplasia, tibial campomelia and oligodactyly (FATCO) syndrome, which led him to having to use a prosthetic leg.

Following the theft, which also included the familys phone, camera and wallet, the young boy had planned to ask for a new prosthetic leg from Santa for Christmas.

However a family friend set up a GoFundMe page for the cause and which has managed to raise $16,700 so far.

Robert Herjavec, who stars in TV series Shark Tank also made an offer to pay for the new prosthetic leg.

Herjavec also arranged a trip to Disney for the family.

Speaking to ABC Herjavec said: It just broke my heart. I mean to think about what the little boy has gone through and with everything thats happening in the world and so much negativity.

I just thought if I had the opportunity to make him grow up in an environment where he thinks there are some good people in the world, why not?, he added.
Hillary Clinton's campaign chairman suggested that Russia might be attempting to interfere with the US presidential election, leaning into the relationship that he believes Donald Trump has with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"He certainly has a bromance with Mr Putin," John Podesta said at a Bloomberg Politics breakfast in Philadelphia on the second day of the Democratic National Convention, when asked if there are closer ties between the two men than is publicly known.

The publishing by Wikileaks last week of some contents of the Democratic National Committee's email archives knocked the party off its equilibrium just as it prepared to begin its convention this week. Some messages showed DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz and her team leaning toward Clinton during the primary race when they were expected to stay neutral.

The FBI is investigating the incident, which is believed to have been orchestrated by Russian hackers, something Podesta also said. "We know pretty well now that the attacks came from Russia," he said.

It would be reaching into new territory for Russia to attempt to interfere with the presidential race, Podesta said.

"I think that the Russians do have a history of interfering with democratic elections in Europe," he said. "I think it would be unprecedented in the United States."

Podesta also suggested it's possible that Republican National Committee (RNC)Chairman Reince Priebus has some intelligence about the hack of the DNC and, perhaps, other Democratic groups.

"Maybe he has inside information," Podesta said, in response to a question from NBC's Andrea Mitchell, who said that Priebus had told her he expected more leaks on Clinton during the presidential race. "It's interesting he's so confident about that," he said.

The RNC did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Podesta declined to call Trump a racist, but said some of the positions he's taken have been rooted in racism.

"Saying he's a racist sort of implies that I know him or that anyone knows him," Podesta said. "Saying a judge can't fairly decide a case, a judge born in Indiana, because his parents were born in Mexico, that's racist," he said, adding Trump's proposed Muslim ban and comments on other Mexican immigrants to the list of racist things Trump has said.

"If you look at that you can't call it" anything other than racism, Podesta said. "He's running a campaign of racial division and it's unbecoming of a major national candidate. "
A young girls prays near flowers and candles at the town hall in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray. Photo: Reuters

Isil began a new front in its war with the West yesterday by murdering a French priest in the first such attack on a Christian church in Europe.

Two terrorists - one of whom had an electronic tag due to terror links - cut the throat of Fr Jacques Hamel (85) after taking worshippers hostage during Mass at a church in Normandy. They were later shot dead by police.

Experts said the atrocity, in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray near Rouen, was a departure for the jihadists following attacks on places of worship in the Middle East, Africa and Asia.

Fr Hamel - forced to kneel by his two killers, who filmed the execution - was last night hailed as a "martyr of faith".

French president Francois Hollande promised to win the war against terrorism.

"To attack a church, kill a priest, is to profane the republic," he said.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny also expressed his condolences.

"For centuries the church has been a place of sanctuary and it's particularly brutal that terror and murder have been visited upon innocent people at a time when they have been so physically vulnerable and so spiritually hopeful," he said.
German police said Algerian suspect missing in Bremen, Germany, had made statements sympathising with a gunman who killed nine people in Munich, and with Islamic State, but they had no evidence he had any concrete plans or ties to the militant group.

The 19-year-old man made the comments while in police custody in the state of Lower Saxony this past weekend for several thefts, a spokesman said.

He was transferred to a psychiatric facility after he tried to hurt himself multiple times and authorities determined he had consumed drugs and posed a possible danger to himself and others, the spokesman said. The man fled that facility earlier Wednesday, yelling, "I'll blow you up."

Authorities evacuated a shopping centre in Bremen on Wednesday evening as police hunted for the suspect after people there called police to report what they described as suspicious behaviour. Earlier, a suitcase exploded near a reception centre for migrants in southern Germany, but authorities said the blast may have been caused by an aerosol can, and there was no sign of any explosives involved
The Taoiseach and senior Irish clergymen have condemned the terrorist murder of Fr Jacques Hamel.

Archbishop of Dublin Michael Jackson said the atrocity had shaken the nation and the world beyond. "An atrocity which has seen a priest murdered while saying Mass and hostages taken in the church in the small town of Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, in the suburbs of Rouen in Normandy, has brought the violence and hatred to a place of worship, to a Christian church." Dr Jackson said.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny, speaking outside Downing Street alongside British Prime Minister Theresa May, expressed his condolences to the people of France following the latest terror-related incident.

"For centuries, the church has always been a place of sanctuary and it is particularly brutal that terror has been visited upon people at a time when they have been so physically vulnerable and so spiritually hopeful," Mr Kenny said.

Social Protection Minister Leo Varadkar condemned the Normandy murder, saying: "Evil attacks the weak. "I want to add my condemnation of the attack that occurred in France, in Normandy, and condemn it on behalf of the Government.

"Evil attacks the weak and only cowards attack people at prayer, whether it's in a church, or in a mosque or in a temple. Once again, Ireland stands in solidarity with France today and extends its condolences to all the people of France," he said.
One of the terrorists who cut the throat of Fr Jacques Hamel had been under police supervision and wearing an electronic tag.

French police and intelligence services were last night under intense scrutiny, after it emerged that one of the killers, named as 19-year-old local man Adel Kermiche, was known to have been radicalised and on a watch list as a potential threat to national security.

His tag was turned off for a few hours every morning, exactly the time of the church attack.

It was also reported that the church had been on a "hit list" found on a 24-year-old Algerian jihadist who had planned attacks last year in a Parisian suburb. Sid Ahmed Ghlam, a computer science student, was arrested by French police who are investigating whether he was directed to carry out attacks on churches by Isil.

The country's security services have been accused of a series of failings after attacks by Islamist jihadists in the past 18 months.

Kermiche began making contact with radicals on the internet after the 'Charlie Hebdo' and kosher supermarket attacks in January 2015 and came to authorities' attention when he tried to help a teenager from Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray join Isil.

He also twice attempted to go to Syria himself, but was arrested once in Munich and later sent back from Turkey to Geneva, where he was charged with "criminal association in connection with terrorism".

He was returned to France and jailed for 10 months. When he came out of prison in March this year, he was tagged so he could be tracked. A French security source said Kermiche was known to be in contact with Maxime Hauchard, a French jihadist identified as an Isil executioner.

Mohammed Karabila, the head of the Regional Council of the Muslim Faith for Haute-Normandie, said: "The person who committed this odious act is known and he has been followed by the police for at least one-and-a-half years."

Right-wing opposition parties have accused the ruling Socialist government of not doing enough to prevent recent attacks. Former centre-right president Nicolas Sarkozy, who has been intensely critical of the government's response to terrorism in the wake of the Nice massacre on July 14, urged it "to immediately implement the recommendations of the right".

Among the measures Mr Sarkozy wants introduced are the deportation of foreign nationals who break the law, even if the crimes are relatively minor, and tagging of anyone suspected of radicalisation.

President Francois Hollande rejected the criticisms, saying: "Restricting our freedoms, granting exceptions from our constitutional rules would not bring efficiency to our fight against terrorism and would weaken the necessary cohesion of our nation."

He said France's state of emergency, in place since the Paris attacks last November, would be strengthened, vowing: "We will win this war."

Meanwhile, police in Nice have been forced to hold an internal investigation into their preparations for the city's Bastille Day event amid accusations it was woefully unprotected.

Telegraph Media Group Limited [2022]
By Mike Ellis of the Independent Mail

A dragonfly with a busted wing buzzed around Angie Hammond's head Sunday and would not leave her as she readied herself for the anniversary of her son, Zachary, being shot to death by police.

It was green, 19-year-old Zachary's favorite color.

"The dragonfly's upper left wing was broken off," Angie Hammond said. "Zach was shot in the left side. This dragonfly's still flying around.

"I do get signs like this. It gives me hope, sometimes, that he's OK. It's us down here who are hurting."

Unarmed Zachary Hammond was fatally shot when he drove his 2002 Honda Civic away from Seneca Police Lt. Mark Tiller during a botched police drug sting in a Hardee's parking lot on July 26, 2015.

Seneca police quickly arranged the sting when Hammond's female passenger, the target of the operation, mistakenly sent a text message about drugs to a state trooper  she was wrong by one digit on the phone number. Small amounts of marijuana and cocaine were found in the car and on Hammond's body, according to a state investigation.

Dash camera video of the shooting, which was withheld for three months from the public despite a lawsuit from the Independent Mail and other newspapers, shows Tiller's cruiser racing into the parking lot and the officer jumping out, running up to Hammond's car as the teen drove off, and firing into the driver's side window.

Tiller was not charged with any crime and remains on paid leave from the Seneca Police Department, Chief John Covington said Tuesday.

Covington said department policies have not changed as a result of the shooting and that he is limited in what he can say because of a pending federal investigation.

In announcing the decision to not charge Tiller, 10th Judicial Circuit Solicitor Chrissy Adams said last year the officer had escalated the situation, but his actions did not rise to the level of a crime.

The U.S. Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division investigation into the death of Hammond remains open, a spokesman for the Department of Justice said Tuesday in an email. The department declined to say what is being examined in the investigation and would not give a time frame for its conclusion.

The city of Seneca reached a $2.15 million settlement with the Hammonds in March, a settlement that allowed Tiller to avoid a video deposition in the case. The settlement admits no fault and covers the city, the police department, Tiller and Covington.

The shooting has led to several bills, including one that would allow a judge to rule within 15 days on whether video would be kept private with the default being the video footage released to the public.

That bill was not approved this year, and attorneys for the Hammonds said the family will be pushing for that bill and others to become law next year.

One of those other bills is being pushed by state Sen. Todd Rutherford, a Columbia Democrat and House minority leader. He plans to introduce a bill that would bar officers statewide from shooting into vehicles.

He said there would be leeway in special circumstances, including an attack in Nice, France, in which the attacker used a truck as a weapon to kill scores of people.

Rutherford pointed to Hammond's shooting as a case in which law enforcement could have caught up with their target within a minute as he left the parking lot or soon after as he drove away.

"We need to stop the situations where an officer finds his way into danger and then has to shoot his way out," Rutherford said.

He said police agencies adopting policies about shooting would be preferable to a law, but he hasn't seen many departments in South Carolina adopting the policy. Such policies, he said, are common in large departments elsewhere and has not led to more people eluding or endangering police.

Major Florence McCants, spokeswoman for the South Carolina Criminal Justice Academy, said the law would need to have clear exemptions for scenarios officers encounter.

"To say that at no time can an officer shoot into a car? That won't work," she said.

The academy plans to show the dash camera footage of the Hammond shooting to future recruits, McCants said.

It has not entered the curriculum yet because of the outstanding federal investigation, but it will be added when that is finished, she said.

"We will discuss the tactics of it, the placement of the vehicle and the placement of the officer, and we will not be judging but letting them decide when you stand here, this is what happens," McCants said. "We will discuss when and where the use of force is allowed and the way they'd handle it."

Angie Hammond said she hopes that the federal investigation can lead to more consequences for Tiller and the police department.

"Until then, we muddle through the best we can," she said. "Tomorrow's another day."

Follow Mike Ellis on Twitter @MikeEllis_AIM
SHARE Volunteers get ready to divide up supplies during a school supply packing event at Calvary Home for Children in Anderson. Roberta Trotter (right) of The Carpenter's House church in Powdersville picks folders during a school supply packing event at Calvary Home for Children in Anderson. Laura Lindsley looks over backpacks donated for over 100 children at Calvary Home for Children in Anderson. School supplies were donated for over 100 children at Calvary Home for Children in Anderson.

By Charmaine Smith-Miles of the Independent Mail

Vida Martin has worked with foster children before and has seen the effect a loving family can have on them.

That is why Martin spends so much time at the Calvary Home for Children. The home, located on Simpson Road in Anderson, serves as a home for children who are in foster care. The charity's staff also provide support to families who agree to become foster parents of children who are in the care of the South Carolina Department of Social Services.

"I like to see children in homes, and them not being split up," she said. "Here, they keep siblings together. They don't split them up. And here, we know that these children are getting nurtured."

Martin was one of about 14 people who showed up at the Calvary Home for Children's office on Tuesday and packed 100 plastic bags full of school supplies.

All of the supplies were donated to the charity, and later handed out to Anderson County foster children at an ice cream social Tuesday evening.

Some of the children who received supplies are in care at the Calvary Home for Children and other children are currently assigned to foster homes around the county.

"All of these supplies will go to Anderson County children, and most of the supplies came from people in Anderson County," said Greg Skipper, the director of the Calvary Home for Children. "We are excited about that."

All of the volunteers for Tuesday's packing party came from six churches.

Martin and two of her friends, Phyllis Brown and Roberta Trotter, represented The Carpenter's House. Martin said she has volunteered with Calvary Home for Children since 2007. For Brown and Trotter, it was their first time at the local charity.

"I've done everything from pull weeds to mop floors here," Martin said, laughing. "There's always something you can do here."

Denny Stull and his wife, Sharon, who came from Covenant Presbyterian Church in Easley, said they felt the same way. The Stulls just moved to the area from Ohio and heard about the Calvary Home for Children through fellow church member Carole Walters.

Walters works as the director of community relations and development for the Calvary Home for Children.

"This sounded like a good thing to get involved in," Sharon Stull said.

Follow Charmaine Smith-Miles on Twitter @Charmaine_AIM.
SHARE

By Charlie Bauder, WNEG FM 93.1/AM Special to Independent Mail

Georgia's annual back to school sales tax holiday is this weekend.

On Saturday and Sunday, Georgia will not charge sales tax on items including clothing and footwear with a sales price of $100 or less per item; computers, computer components and software purchased for noncommercial home or personal use with a sales price of $1,000 or less per item; and school supplies purchased for noncommercial use with a sales price of $20 or less per item.

National Federation of Independent Business Georgia State Director Nathan Humphrey said his organization hopes the annual sales tax holiday will be a boon to businesses across the state.

He said while parents could go back-to-school shopping regardless, the sales tax holiday could also attract cash-strapped shoppers who have delayed buying new clothes and devices.

The sales tax holiday applies not only at large retail stores, but at small businesses as well.

"Malls are great and some of the big box retailers are great to visit, but your small businesses are people that live and work in your community and those tax dollars and the money you spend are going to help businesses that employ your neighbors and people you see at church and in your neighborhood," said Humphrey. "It is a great opportunity to support people that you live with."

Humphrey said not only should this weekend's back-to-school sales tax holiday help people get a bigger bang for their buck, it will also hopefully help the bottom line for businesses across Georgia.

"It has not been a great year," said Humphrey. "Small businesses in general have just kind of been maintaining and trying to just hold on. They are risk averse right now; not sure what is going to happen with the economy, what new regulations and taxes are going to come their way. This year has been a little slower and this is a good opportunity, hopefully with the sales tax holiday, to get a good bounce and hopefully get an uptick in some business."

For more information about the back-to-school sales tax holiday on Saturday and Sunday, visit the Georgia Department of Revenue's website at www.dor.georgia.gov.
SHARE Mason Phillips' ozobot follows the path of the words STEMCAMP at a summer camp at Mount Lebanon Elementary School in Pendleton. Emma Yost (left) and Blaine Rickey program their ozobot to follow lines of different colors on paper at a summer camp at Mount Lebanon Elementary School in Pendleton. Blaine Rickey gets her ozobot ready to bowl at a summer camp at Mount Lebanon Elementary School in Pendleton. Matthew Slaton (left) and McConnell Burdette successfully get their programmed ozobot to bowl at a summer camp at Mount Lebanon Elementary School in Pendleton.

By Frances Parrish of the Independent Mail

Rising sixth-graders McConnell Burdette and Matthew Slaton stood anxiously watching their Ozobot, a miniature robot, knock down tiny bowling pins Wednesday morning.

They tested their robot's movement coding nearly a dozen times. When their robot would go off course, they would check its placement and their code sequencing on an iPad.

But when the robot got a strike, the boys high-fived and jumped in the air to celebrate their success.

About 30 Anderson School District 4 students sat in the hallways and the engineering lab at Pendelton's Mount Lebanon Elementary School working on robot coding exercises as part of the district's summer science and technology camp.

"This is a thinking and logic camp," teacher Beth Harrison said. "Kids naturally are intuitive. They're playing, but they don't realize their learning."

The two-week camp is for gifted and talented rising sixth-grade students. The students can participate in the camp for free because of a grant from Bosch.

The grant pays for the camp, which included a trip to Charleston where the students visited the H.L. Hunley, a Civil War-era submarine, and the Boeing factory.

Camp activities also included computer programming as well as robot-driven Lego chariot races and robot bowling.

"My favorite part is working with the Ozobots, doing the coding and bowling with them," said Emma Yost.

The 11-year-old student from Mount Lebanon Elementary sat on the floor drawing a path for her robot with different colored markers on a roll of paper several feet long. The different colors act as codes for the robot, which follows the lines.

The number of STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) initiatives such as the camp is growing since the state Department of Education's adoption of the new Profile of the South Carolina graduate. The profile is a model of skills a high school graduate should have, such as critical thinking and problem solving skills.

"We are teaching students to approach standards in a different way," said Mount Lebanon Principal Elliot Southard. "It's about trial and error. We are reprogramming the brain. So often kids think about the final product. STEM helps them focus more on the process."

Through the camp, Bryson Pardue, a Pendleton Elementary School student, has found a new interest and possible career.

"If I did this more, I could learn how to make apps (games)," Bryson said. "I didn't think about doing that until now."

District 4 Assistant Superintendent Charlotte McDavid said because of the camp's success, she wants to expand it in the future to include the district middle school to recruit them to STEM pathways in high school.

"It's a tremendous asset to students to help them connect what they're learning in the classroom," McDavid said.

Follow Frances Parrish on Twitter @frances_AIM
KANNAPOLIS Vulcan Materials Company, Carolinas Healthcare System Healthworks, North Carolina Petroleum & Convenience Marketers and Food Lion were recently recognized at a Rowan-Cabarrus Community College Board of Trustees meeting for in-kind donations.

Vulcan Materials Company donation of washed stone will allow the college to refurbish and expand its existing walking trail located at the North Campus in Salisbury to better support its health and wellness efforts. Vulcan has been a strong proponent of the college and contributed to the original construction of the walking trail in 2013.

We appreciate Vulcan Materials Company and their commitment to support wellness at the college, said Dr. Carol S. Spalding, president of Rowan-Cabarrus Community College. The in-kind donation, contributed to the RCCC Foundation in support of the Building a More Prosperous Community Major Gifts Campaign and The Leon Levine Foundation Challenge Grant, will allow the college to expand its efforts in making the North Campus a healthier place to work.

Carolinas HealthCare System Healthworks recently donated time and resources to train Rowan-Cabarrus employees in the area of mental health first aid. Mental health first aid is designed to help trainees recognize, understand and respond to signs of mental illness and substance abuse disorders.

The training helps develop skills to reach out and provide initial help and support to someone who may be experiencing a form of mental crisis.

We are grateful to Carolinas HealthCare System Healthworks for providing this important training which has helped the college become more knowledgeable about mental health first aid, said Spalding.

Additionally, Rowan-Cabarrus Community College prides itself in developing graduates who are workforce ready, and with two recent donations from North Carolina Petroleum & Convenience Marketers and Food Lion, it can continue to achieve that mission.

Industry-recognized equipment is critical to the success of our programs and our graduates, said Spalding. Students who are trained to operate equipment that an employer uses are much more likely to be successful in the workplace and in their careers.

It is critical that students have access to pertinent equipment for training purposes to ensure that they are more marketable and employable.

Educating skilled technicians and entrepreneurs is a critical part of the Rowan-Cabarrus Community College mission, and NC Petroleum & Convenience Marketers and Food Lion are supporting this important effort, said Spalding.

Raleigh-based North Carolina Petroleum & Convenience Marketers donated a Thermo Pride oil furnace. The furnace, a product of a leading heating and cooling equipment company, will be used in the colleges Air Conditioning, Heating and Refrigeration (AHR) program.

The AHR program feels privileged to have received such a generous donation of the Thermo Pride furnace from the NC Petroleum & Convenience Marketers, said Joe Christie, chair of the colleges Construction Technology program. The furnace will be a great addition to our AHR program. It will allow students to better understand how modern oil furnaces are being constructed, operated and repaired, thus adding to their skills as they search for employment opportunities in the HVAC field.

The college also received an in-kind donation from national grocery store company Food Lion, headquartered in Salisbury, for their donation of five pharmacy scales. The scales will be used by the colleges pharmacy technician program.

We are so appreciative of Food Lion for their donation, said Jan Corriher-Smith, program manager of training services at Rowan-Cabarrus Community College. The scales will allow us to continue delivering hands-on training on real-world equipment to our students.

Donations like these are very important to Rowan-Cabarrus, and the Colleges Foundation is proud to partner with corporations to ensure that the colleges programs have adequate equipment investments. Working with industry partners, we have assessed our needs and developed a case for support to seek private and philanthropic donations, said Carla Howell, chief officer of foundation, governance and public relations at the college.

Strengthening the fundraising muscle of the colleges foundation is not only important for the immediate future, but also for the long-term vitality of the college and the tens of thousands of students it serves each year.

The Rowan-Cabarrus Community College Foundation provides financial assistance to the students and programs of Rowan-Cabarrus. The foundation furthers the mission of the college by creating giving opportunities that expand college financial resources and develop sustainable programming for long-term fiscal stability.

The Rowan-Cabarrus Community College Foundation welcomes in-kind donations, which help the college keep pace with changing technology and equipment needs and meet the demands of increased enrollment.

Gifts in kind must:

 fulfill a stated need of one or more college departments, and

 be approved by the Rowan-Cabarrus Community College Foundation.

For more information about Rowan-Cabarrus Community College, please visit www.rccc.edu or call 704-216-RCCC (7222). The college is currently accepting applications for the fall 2016 term. Fall classes begin on August 15.
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Wipro, a leading global information technology, consulting and business process services company today announced that it has launched a three-year Corporate Social Investment project in South Africa in partnership with the country's Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) to set up 29 computer laboratories that will benefit 28,000 students from rural areas.The labs to be used primarily by students from grade 7-12 will be set up in 29 schools adopted by IDC in provinces across the country. The program will first be rolled out in the Mpumalanga, Northern Cape and Eastern Cape regions. Most of these schools are located in places where the need for technology education is paramount. The programme will provide fully-equipped and connected computer labs to each school, supported by a sustainable programme of computer education for approximately 800 teachers as well as school students. IDC will appoint and train one unemployed youth from the community to help each school run its computer lab.Gavin Holme, Business Head, Wipro Africa said, "Wipro is committed to supporting the growth of a sustainable economy in South Africa and has over the years unveiled several initiatives in this direction. Many rural schools in the region continue to be disadvantaged by limited levels of access to technology resources, resulting in lower levels of information and communications technology literacy among both teachers and students. Our partnership with the IDC will provide thousands of learners with the access and skills that are essential for the digital age."He further added, "We are committed to provide a broad range of hardware, software, connectivity, education and programme management resources to ensure that we deliver the real impact we have envisioned."Zama Luthuli, IDC's Divisional Executive for Corporate Affairs, said, "Wipro is the ideal partner for this initiative given their extensive experience in launching education-based technology projects. Wipro's approach mirrors our own, in that both organisations are passionate about making a sustainable difference in the South African education system."Wipro is a Level 2 Broad Based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE) contributor in South Africa. The company runs several initiatives under its flagship programme Siyapha, including a popular Graduate Internship Programme to train tertiary level graduates. To date, has provided technology training and access to over 4,800 people in South Africa.The spirit of this initiative aligns with the government of South Africa's Operation Phakisa in information and communications technology in the education sector.Wipro Ltd is currently trading at Rs. 547.9, up by Rs. 1.05 or 0.19% from its previous closing of Rs. 546.85 on the BSE.The scrip opened at Rs. 546.9 and has touched a high and low of Rs. 547.9 and Rs. 545.15 respectively. So far 24479(NSE+BSE) shares were traded on the counter. The current market cap of the company is Rs. 132924.6 crore.The BSE group 'A' stock of face value Rs. 2 has touched a 52 week high of Rs. 613 on 01-Oct-2015 and a 52 week low of Rs. 508.9 on 29-Feb-2016. Last one week high and low of the scrip stood at Rs. 550.9 and Rs. 511 respectively.The promoters holding in the company stood at 73.25 % while Institutions and Non-Institutions held 16.31 % and 9.84 % respectively.The stock is currently trading below its 200 DMA.
Take it with a pinch of salt!, is what historian Anita Rane-Kothare, head of the department of Ancient Indian Culture and Archaeology at St. Xavier's College, Mumbai, told us, when we asked about whether Ashutosh Gowarikers Mohenjo Daro would do justice to the historical story of the ancient Indus Valley Civilisation.

From showing jumping crocodiles to women wearing feathery headgear, Gowariker is facing flak for showing distorted facts about the 5000-year-old civilisation. The name itself is wrong as its not a name, but a term used to describe the civilisation, informs Dr Anita Rane-Kothare.

Lets brush up our history and try to understand some facts about the fascinating civilisation which was way ahead of its time.

1. Mohenjo Daro is not the real name of the 5000-year-old city. In fact, nobody has deciphered the original name yet

Image Credit: science.nationalgeographic

Mohenjo Daro literally means the mound of the dead, which is just a term used to describe the 5000-year-old city. It was during the proto-historic period that a full-fledged, planned city started functioning. Its architectural beauty stunned modern architects around the world, as there was a well-planned street grid, along with a proper waste disposal system that would put our current waste management means to shame!

2. The people in the Indus Valley Civilisation did not dress up in slits or feathery headgear

Ladies in the Indus Valley Civilisation did not look like Mohenjo Daros Pooja Hegde. Dr. Anita Rane-Kothare tells us that the attire of the Indus Valley Civilisation is being continued in some tribal communities today as well. According to archaeological evidence like the dancing girl statue it is speculated that they wore bangles from their upper arm. They might be nude till the waist, however the nudity was covered with jewellery. For men, they must have been wearing a toga kind of a thing because a statue of a Bearded Man shows the same. The Pashupati seal which was discovered also shows that they wore horned headgear. Now, Gowariker's got that one thing right.

3. Climate change might have been the reason behind its destruction

Image Credit: thinkglink

There are many speculations about why the city turned into the mound of the dead. From nuclear radiation to alien invasions, there are many theories that try to explain its destruction. Its due to climatic change that made the river change its course. Since it was a riverside civilisation, and the river changed the course, it brought a famine-like situation which forced the people to relocate to other locations because they had used up all the resources, says Dr. Anita Rane-Kothare.

4. There was no king or queen that ruled the city

Image Credit: urbanasian

Unlike Maham, the evil politician who wants to rule the city in the movie, there is no evidence of a king, a queen or a ruler who ruled the city. There is no evidence of weapons or arms, which indicates that the people were peace-loving.

5. The Great Bath discovered at the site denotes what neat freaks these people were

Image Credit: harappa

Imagine the idea of a swimming pool that is 5000 years old! With an 8-foot deep and 23-foot wide public bathing pool, The Great Bath was used for religious functions. Built with walls of baked bricks, there were small bathrooms and changing rooms built around it, which shows that hygiene was a priority.

6. There could have been a trade exchange between the Indus Valley Civilisation and the Mesopotamian Civilisation

Image Credit: reference

The kind of attire they wore was somewhat similar to the people from Mesopotamia civilisation, and therefore there might be exchange of ideas, trade between the Indus Valley people and the Mesopotamian people, says Dr. Anita Rane-Kothare.

7. The mode of transport back then was bullock carts, not white horses

Image Credit: harappa.com

Archaeological evidence shows that wheels were used during the period as a mode of transport. A clay bullock cart was found at the Mohenjo Daro site, which shows us that bullock carts were mainly used as a mode of transport, explains Dr. Anita Rane-Kothare.

8. If Mohenjo Daro interests you, these are the books you must read about the Indus Valley Civilization

Image Credit: harappa/tulika

If this significant historical excavation interests you, Dr. Anita Rane-Kothare has some reading recommendations. She suggests S.R Raos Lothal and the Indus Valley Civilization and Shereen Ratnagars Understanding Harappa for readings on Harappa and Mohenjo Daro.

9. Today, Mohenjo Daro lies in Pakistan's Sindh province

Image Credit: mediacellppp.wordpress.com

It is on the verge of corrosion. Today, the walls are fast crumbling down and the soil beneath it is decaying. The conservation responsibility has now shifted from the government of Pakistan to the Sindh province authorities who have set up a technical community which is trying to stop the damage.
Hindu

New York-based filmmaker Jayan Cherian was in the limelight a while back, because of his first film, Papilio Buddha, ran into trouble with the Censor Board. And now it looks like, history is going to repeat itself. His second film, Ka Bodyscapes, based on the LGBT theme, too, is facing issues with the Censor Board. The film has reportedly been banned by the censor board. Dr Prathibha, Regional Officer of the Censor Board, Kerala, has issued a statement with the reasons, which range from ''ridiculing the Hindu religion'' to ''obscenity''.

twitter

The rejection letter sent to the filmmaker reads, " The entire content of the film is ridiculing, insulting and humiliating Hindu religion, in particular, portraying Hindu Gods in a poor light. Derogatory words are used against women. The Hindu God Hanuman is shown as coming in the Books titled 'I am gay' and other home sexual books. The film offends human sensibilities by vulgarity, obscenity and depravity."



The letter also pointed out problems with the movie showing a lady masturbating and highlighting gay by many gay posters. Cherian rejected the charges, saying characters in the movie had struck a Hanuman pose in a scene holding some insignia against Section 377, Indias colonial-era law that criminalises homosexuality.
Priyanka Chopra is on a roll it seems! After becoming a full-throttle brand internationally, the 34-year-old actress met 'U Remind Me' hitmaker to announce an upcoming event Global Citizen Festival.

The United Nation's Global Citizen Festival, that is held in order to spread awareness about global issues will be held on 24 September in Central Park, New York. Joining PC would be popular television anchor Seth Meyers, actors Neil Patrick Harris and Salma Hayek Pinault too will be hosting this annual event.

Twitter

Priyanka took to Twitter to share a photo of herself posing with Usher, 37. Here's what PC tweeted:
No matter if you're a Rajinikanth fan or not, stories of fandom do surprise everyone. His films have made him achieve a godly status in southern part of India and his gestures for his fans have time and again proved that he reverts the affection of his fans with kindness and humility.

Twitter

After the success of his recent film Kabali, Rajinikanth wrote a hand-written two-page letter for his fans.

(Also read: These Are The 10 Records That Rajinikanth's 'Kabali' Has Shattered On Its Very First Day!)

Tamil superstar Rajinikanth has thanked his fans for the success of his latest film Kabali via a handwritten two-page letter. The letter written on Rajinikanths letterhead and signed by the thalaivar has been penned down by him especially for his female fans.

After box-office failures like Kochadaiiyaan and Lingaa, Rajinikanth has proved that he is an undisputed superhero! Explaining the sabbatical he took, he took an opportunity to thank everyone who was involved with the film.

Here are the excerpts of Rajinikanth's letter:

Twitter



Greetings to all Tamil people, because of whom I exist. Because of having worked tirelessly on director Shankars 2.0 and director Pa Ranjith and producer and long time friend S Thanus revolutionary, emotional and very unique movie shot in Malaysia and India - Kabali, I needed to rest my body and mind.

Twitter

And so I went abroad with my daughter Aishwarya, rested and also took care of my medical needs. Having done so, I returned to my home soil, to witness first hand the grand success of Kabali,about which I was told by friends in the US. I thank the producer and long time friend, S Thanu, the director, Pa Ranjith, my co-actors, all of the crew for this.

I also thank my dear fans, public, the youth and most importantly, the women, the press the members of all other organisations and sections of the society. Magizhchi.



Rajinikanth
Uttarakhand government has confirmed reports of a Chinese Army incursion in Chamoli district.

"This is a matter of concern. Our border has been peaceful. We have asked to increase vigilance. I am sure the central government will take cognizance of the issue," Chief Minister Harish Rawat said.

refernews/ Representative Image

Rawat however said the "Chinese have not touched an important canal there."

Rawat's statement confirms an ITBP report to the home ministry on July 19 which informed about the Chinese presence in the state.

Uttarakhand which shares a 350 Km boundary with China have in the past too reported intrusions from across the border.

Indiandefencenews/ Representative Image

According to a 2013 report by the then state government from 2007 to 2012 there were around 37 such attempts by the Chinese.

Beijing also has a long history of sending its troops into areas of Arunachal Pradesh which it calls South Tibet.

PTI

The move also came days after India deployed 120 T-72M1 main battle tanks (MBTs) to Ladakh along a portion of the 4,057 km Line of Actual Control (LoAC).

In its response China had said the two countries should abide by pacts to maintain peace in border areas while Chinese media warned that the move may affect flow of investments into India.

Last week India had also refused to extend the visas of three Chinese journalists.

Ever since the Chinese snub of India at NSG and the recent developments at the South China Sea, the ties between the two Asian giants which had improved in the recent years had strained.
While the fight against the 'triple talaq' form of instant divorce in Islam has earned criticism across India, this is where it might have been well deserved.

Mohsina, a young woman in UP's Baghpat district had her wedding cancelled after the husband demanded dowry

reuters

Her husband apologised, but that wasn't enough - she said "talaq, talaq, talaq" the Telegraph reported.

A woman using triple talaq, despite protests across India against it may seem hypocritical, but the incident should serve as a wake up call to the Muslim world, who have been hesitant to abolish it.

There is an endless litany of incidents of Muslim men filing for instant divorce via SMS, phone call, social media, and direct verbal command

reuters

Now Mohsina, needs a 'khula' from a qazi to formalize the divorce. A local panchayat, comprising both Hindu and Muslim elders reportedly tried to reach an amicable solution. Dowry has been declared illegal in the district by the panchayat, the family of Mohammed Sattar, the girl's father-in-law may be banned from organising any marriage ceremonies for the next 3 years.

During his bid to apologise in front of an unofficial "panchayat", Mohammed Arif, her beau-to-be called her, put her call on speaker, and apologised.

Her "Talaq" proclamation was, deservedly broadcast to the 500 onlookers who attended this panchayat. She then cut the call.

What was even more heartening was the response from Mohsina's mother Anwari Begum, who supported her decision, and asked her to return home straightaway after hearing the dowry demands.

The panchayat surprisingly supported her decision, asking the family to acknowledge the Talaq, and pay the girl's mother the 2 lakh Rupees spent on the wedding.
Famed ancient Indian center of learning, Nalanda University which opened its gates to students in September 2014 is all set to hold the students convocation in August - its first in nearly 800 years.

The ceremony, on August 27, will be attended by President Pranab Mukherjee, in which five graduates from the School of Historical Studies and eight from the School of Ecology and Environment Studies are receiving their postgraduate degrees.

BCCL

Built in the 5th century as a Buddhist center of learning adjacent to a monastery, Nalanda is regarded as one of the oldest universities in the world, predating Al Azhar University in Egypt, Italys University of Bologna and Oxford University in the United Kingdom.

Nalanda University

Once a thriving educational center which attracted scholars and students from near and far with some travelling all the way from Tibet, China, Korea, and Central Asia, Nalanda was forced to shut down in the 12th century following an invasion by a Turkish Army.

UNESCO

The revival of the university began in 2010 and the first batch of classes began in 2014. The university also has plans to go back to its roots - Buddhism. It will soon have the first batch for the School of Buddhist Studies, Philosophy and Comparative Religions next month, with about 40 to 50 students.

Earlier this month the UNESCO had declared Nalanda a World Heritage Site.
Last week Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi tried for a face saver, just a day after he was caught napping while the parliament was discussing the a attack on Dalit youths by gau rakshaks.

Rahul went to Una, met with the families, visited the victims in hospital and attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the incident.

It all went well for the Nehru-Gandhi family scion - that was until it came out that one of the 'victims' that Mr. Gandhi met in hospital was discharged by doctors earlier in the day, but was readmitted in hospital "under pressure."

If that wasn't embarrassing enough for the Congress VP, now it has emerged that a woman that was presented in front of TV cameras as the mother of one of the victims, is not even a distant relative of any of them.

The woman identified as Ramaben Muchhadiya, was "planted" by local Congress leaders to make the scene more real.

State Congress general secretary Hemang Vasavada has admitted of doing the same.

The embarrassment didn't end there - more skeletons keep tumbling out - the woman in question is involved with the bootlegging mafia and has a criminal record for cases of extortion and rioting.

ANI

The 55-year-old when asked about it however had this to say "As a Dalit mother, I decided to visit them (the victims) in the hospital. I even took two tiffins for the victims. I got passes to enter the ward and was checking on the health of one of the victims when Rahul Gandhi walked in. At that point, I had tears in my eyes after seeing the condition of the victims; then he hugged me.''

The entire episode has given some ammunition to the BJP which has been on the back-foot ever since the entire episode began.

"That's classic Mr Rahul Gandhi for you. He always puts his party in an embarrassing position. So much for showing compassion for Dalit victims," said BJP spokesman Raju Dhruv.
Earlier this month a video which went viral on social media which showed a group of cow vigilantes in Gujarat beating up some dalit men accusing them of cow slaughter.

Turns out, the cow was killed by a lion and not by the youths as accused by the gau rakshaks.

The Gujarat CID which is investigating the incident said as per eyewitness statements it has been established that the cow was in fact killed by a lion and the men who were trashed by the gang was only skinning it before it was buried.

Balu Sarvaiya, father of one of the victims, Vasaram, told The Indian Express that he got a call around 8 am from Najabhai Ahir of Bediya village, who said a lion had killed his cow and he needed someone to dispose the carcass.

Vasaram along with his brother Ramesh, cousin Ashok and relative Becharbhai went and collected the dead animal.

Also read: The Making Of A Cow Vigilante

According to Balu, while they were skinning the cow, a vehicle passed them, only to return later accompanied by other vehicles.

There were around 30-35 men with stick who began beating them up claiming that the youths had killed the cow.

Even though 16 people have been arrested in connection with the attack, they are still looking into who passed the information of the alleged cow slaughter to the vigilantes

They are also looking into the actions of the the Gir Somnath police.

We are probing the policemen on duty and the role of the accused. While police papers of the investigation do not mention any post-mortem examination of the cow, they do record that samples have been taken for forensic examination. We are also investigating what happened to an input from the state police control room about beef being transported in Una, Keshavji Saradava, Deputy Superintendent of Police, CID (Crime) told The Indian Express.

The incident which came to light through a video shot and circulated by the vigilantes themselves had caused a massive stir in Gujarat.

Dalits had boycotted collecting dead cows which resulted in a lot of them being rotting on the streets.
Amid attempts by the government to resuscitate India's claims over the Kohinoor diamond, Britain has declared yet again that there is no legal ground for restitution in the case of the famed diamond which continues to evoke passions in India.

indianexpress.com

The Narendra Modi government had told Supreme Court in April this year that the diamond could not be described as stolen as it was gifted to the British by Duleep Singh, the son of legendary Sikh king Maharaja Ranjit Singh.

Since then though, the government has sought to review its position keeping in mind the outrage in the country over what was seen as an attempt to relinquish India's claims over Kohinoor, which is currently on display at the Tower of London.

"It is the UK government's view that there aren't any legal ground for restitution of the diamond," said Alok Sharma, Britain's new minister for Asia and the Pacific who is currently on a 3-day visit to India.

vorsten.nl

Sharma's visit is the first high-level engagement between the two countries since the new Theresa May government took over in UK, following Britain's exit from EU.

During his visit, Sharma met MEA minister of state MJ Akbar, foreign secretary S Jaishankar and also road transport and highways minister Nitin Gadkari.

Speaking in Parliament in May, culture minister Mahesh Sharma, in a complete turnaround, announced that his ministry was working with MEA for a satisfactory resolution of the issue with UK. This was after the government received criticism for ignoring the fact that Duleep Singh was just a kid when he was forced to part with the diamond by Lord Dalhousie. Mahesh Sharma met foreign minister Sushma Swaraj over the issue last week and discussed taking up the issue with Britain.

static.independent

Sharma, however, chose not to comment on Kingfisher chief Vijay Mallya who escaped to London fearing prosecution for unpaid loans to Indian banks worth Rs 9000 crore. UK authorities had earlier said that he couldn't be deported to India but that they were still willing to help India under mutual legal assistance or the extradition treaty.

Sharma expresses satisfaction though that the 2 countries were working to make the extradition arrangement work. While the 2 countries have had an extradition treaty for the past 23 years, this has hardly resulted in the extradition of any high-profile offender. ``Both our governments need to understand each other better (on extradition),'' said Sharma, adding that there had been some progress in talks held in the recent past on extradition issues and that this had to be welcomed.

newsx.com

Assuaging concerns in India over Brexit, Sharma said Britain still remained an "incredibly outward-looking" country and that it was not going to change.

India was Sharma's first port of call after he took over as minister for Asia and the Pacific. "I hope this will give a signal as to how seriously we take our relations with India," said Sharma. On recent developments in Kashmir, Sharma said Britain encouraged India and Pakistan to talk but added this was a matter for the 2 countries to come to a conclusion on.
India for the first time will have penguins at its zoo. A colony of eight Humboldt penguins have arrived at Byculla Zoo in Mumbai all the way from South Korea.

Penguins-world

The three males, three females and two female infant penguins arrived on Tuesday with a trainer who will spend the next three months training them. The penguins will be housed in an isolated-temperature controlled environment till they accustom themselves to the new environment. After that they will be moved to their new home in a 1,500 sq.ft. area which will have a pool and a feeding area.

The Hindu reported that animals activists have protested the relocation of these penguins to Mumbai because of the poor conditions of the zoo as well as the climatic difference between South Korea and India.

Humboldt penguins are typically found in colder regions of South America, particularly Peru and Chile.
Do you need a little cash? Maybe enough to score one of the more affordable iPhones? Look no further  convert to Islam.

Ongoing investigation into radical Islamist preacher Zakir Naik and his Islamic Research Foundation (IRF) has revealed that money may have been used to seduce people to convert to Islam, Asian Age reported.

reuters

And, if Rs. 50,000 Rupees, the alleged sum used as incentive wasnt enough, they may have used force, a former IRF employee revealed under questioning:He used to provide some monetary help to them, but if it did not have the desired effect then force was used.

Rizwan Khan and Arshi Qureshi, aides of Naik were recently arrested by the Mahashtra Anti Terrorism Squad (ATS), and were found with records of 800 former Christians and Hindus people who had been converted.

The 2 were taken into custody after they were suspected of converting a woman who went missing from Kerala, possibly to join ISIS after links of many had left home to join the terrorist organisation.

Khan denied allegations of use of force.

The IRF has been accused of a large-scale conversion programmes, especially among college students and prison inmates offering them financial and legal help respectively.

Ebin Jacob (25), the brother of Merin alias Mariam who is missing along with her husband Bestin Vincent alias Yahia from Kerala, had told police that there was an attempt to forcibly convert him to Islam and make him join IS. Ebin had told Kochi police that Bestin and Qureshi were behind the attempted conversion.

Based on this statement, the Palarivattom police slapped charges under Section 13 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) on the duo and booked them under sections of the IPC. "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.

The case against Qureshi and Bestin could be the first registered under UAPA against any of the 21 Keralites who have gone missing and allegedly joined the IS.

Watch: Zakir Naik Supports Taliban's Decision To Destroy Buddha Statues, Calls Buddhists 'Drug Addicts'!
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Trump and Those Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Russians



By Finian Cunningham



July 25, 2016 " Information Clearing House " - " Sputnik " - In an amazing feat of American reality-inversion, this week saw revelations about how the US electoral system is rigged by the rich and powerful. Yet the story is flipped to outlandish allegations that Russias President Vladimir Putin is a villain out to destroy Western democracy. US media outlets from the august New York Times to various others were saturated with claims that Putin is trying to determine the forthcoming American presidential elections by damaging Democrat candidate Hillary Clinton in favor of Republican nominee Donald Trump. In an article in Slate magazine, we are told: Putin plan for destroying the West  and it looks a lot like Donald Trump. The billionaire property magnate is now being labelled as Putins puppet and the Kremlins candidate. This is a re-run of American establishment paranoia that dominated the Cold War decades, when any political challenger for high office in the US could be blackballed by mere assertion that he was a fellow-traveller of the Soviet Union. Today, communism is replaced with allegations of being friends with Moscow tyranny. But lets deal with the facts here. What we know is that a huge leak of emails from the Democrat National Committee was released last week by Western-based whistleblower organization, Wikileaks, run by Australian journalist Julian Assange. The emails are a devastating indictment of how the Democrat party leadership has from the outset sought to make sure Hillary Clinton becomes the presidential nominee by crushing her populist rival Bernie Sanders. Clinton is backed by big business, Wall Street and the Pentagon. The Wikileaks email revelations on the eve of the Democrat convention this week in Philadelphia is proof that what passes for American democracy is a rigged system, ordained by the rich and powerful to elect their candidate to do their bidding when in office. Sanders acknowledged how the political system was unfairly stacked against him and his supporters. Nevertheless, the Vermont senator has gone on to endorse Clinton, to the disgust of many of his supporters. Rather than focusing on what is a teachable moment of corporate control of politics, the US media performed mental gymnastics by shifting this real story on to wild speculation that the Democrat email leaks were masterminded by Russian intelligence. The allegation was flatly denied by Wikileaks. So now, instead of the public examining how powerful American interest prevail on their democratic choice, the narrative becomes one of accusing Vladimir Putin of subverting the US presidential elections. The slander against Russia is only afforded a semblance of credibility because it is piled on a heap of previous slander, in which Moscow is accused of annexing and invading Ukrainian territory, posing a threat to Eastern Europe, assassinating political opponents, shooting down civilian airliners and sponsoring illicit drugs in Olympic sports. One again, rumor, insinuation and vilification triumph over facts in the Western medias so-called news services. The story of Russian state-sponsored hackers breaking into the Democrat partys email system first surfaced more than a month ago. As pointed out previously, the source of claims that it was Russian cyber-espionage was a private US security firm, CrowdStrike, which is closely linked to the Washington DC-based think tank Atlantic Council. The Atlantic Council is, in turn, tightly aligned with the US-led NATO military alliance. The claims made against Russian state hackers are unverifiable. They are simply assertions from a partisan source, which are then amplified into seeming fact by the dutiful Western media. Incredibly, this anti-Russian smear is then parlayed into a smear against Clintons Republican rival, Donald Trump. Using stilted reasoning and scant regard for facts, the US media are charging that the Kremlins hack is an effort to elect Donald Trump. The brash business mogul is now being portrayed as a Russian fifth columnist orchestrated by Vladimir Putin to undermine American world power. This is a refrain of much-vaunted allegations that Putin is trying to wreck the European Union by financing anti-EU political parties; that Putin engineered Britains Brexit vote to quit the EU last month; or that the Russian leader is working a dastardly policy of sowing division among NATO members. Trump has derided the Putin puppet allegations as ludicrous. It is true that Trump has previously spoken favorably about Putin, and that he has promised to improve relations between the US and Russia if elected in November. As for Moscow, the Russian government has been careful not to make any public comments on the US elections that could be construed as favoring one candidate over another. Moscow has scrupulously kept out of US election affairs. Putin did refer once to Trump as being a bright and talented person. So what? Underneath the mountain of hype and disinformation, one suspects that Trumps comments last week dismissing NATO are the real bone of contention. Trump told the New York Times that he wouldnt order US forces automatically to defend Eastern European NATO members if they were attacked. The Republican candidate overturned a cornerstone of US foreign policy since the Second World War noted various Western media outlets. In a refreshing use of independent reasoning, Trump in fell swoop rejected the whole Washington-led narrative of NATO defending Europe from Russian aggression. This narrative has been recklessly contrived and pushed by Washington over the last two years, which has heightened the danger of an all-out nuclear war with Russia. Donald Trump may turn out a huge disappointment if elected to the White House. But at this stage, one has to acknowledge that his views, at least in regard to Russia, are significantly more welcome than Hillary Clintons, who is a Pentagon hawk in liberal clothing. Trumps refusal to sing from the same Pentagon hymn sheet of panning Russia as a global threat and calling for increased NATO militarism on Russias border is sheer anathema to the Washington establishment. That is why the US powers-that-be are moving to discredit Trump as a Russian puppet. And recall, the source of the Russian email hacker claims is a security firm linked with the Atlantic Council/NATO nexus. Trumps indifferent views on NATO and alleged Russian aggression in Europe are in total discord with the geopolitical interests of Washington and its drive for hegemony. Since the Republican candidate gave his tepid views on NATO last week, there has been a parade of Western security pundits lambasting him as a patsy for Putin. It is a disturbing sign of how brainwashed Western public discourse is that when someone questions Washingtons reckless war beat towards Moscow, then that person is summarily dismissed as a Kremlin tool. This is the practice of a totalitarian system, ironically under the illusion of a free-thinking, independent media. The real story here is how American democracy is bought and paid for by powerful elite interests within the country. The email hacking issue on how Clinton is being selected as the next president by powerful corporations and the military industrial complex should be focus. But no. The publics attention is diverted by fantasies over villainous Vlad and his comrade Trump. American politics has long been scoffed at by international observers as a joke version of democracy. Now we know it is a joke, and its not funny.
The Real Secret of the South China Sea By Pepe Escobar July 27, 2016 " Information Clearing House " - " Sputnik " - The South China Sea is and will continue to be the ultimate geopolitical flashpoint of the young 21st century  way ahead of the Middle East or Russias western borderlands. No less than the future of Asia  as well as the East-West balance of power  is at stake. To understand the Big Picture, we need to go back to 1890 when Alfred Mahan, then president of the US Naval College, wrote the seminal The Influence of Sea Power Upon History, 1660-1783. Mahans central thesis is that the US should go global in search of new markets, and protect these new trade routes through a network of naval bases. That is the embryo of the US Empire of Bases  which de facto started after the Spanish-American war, over a century ago, when the US graduated to Pacific power status by annexing the Philippines, Hawaii and Guam. Western  American and European  colonialism is strictly responsible for the current, incendiary sovereignty battle in the South China Sea. Its the West that came up with most land borders  and maritime borders  of these states. The roll call is quite impressive. Philippines and Indonesia were divided by Spain and Portugal in 1529. The division between Malaysia and Indonesia is owed to the British and the Dutch in 1842. The border between China and Vietnam was imposed to the Chinese by the French in 1887. The Philippiness borders were concocted by the US and Spain in 1898. The border between Philippines and Malaysia was drawn by the US and the Brits in 1930. We are talking about borders between different colonial possessions  and that implies intractable problems from the start, subsequently inherited by post-colonial nations. And to think that it had all started as a loose configuration. The best anthropological studies (Bill Solheims, for instance) define the semi-nomadic communities who really traveled and traded across the South China Sea from time immemorial as the Nusantao  an Austronesian compound word for south island and people. The Nusantao were not a defined ethnic group; rather a maritime internet. Over the centuries, they had many key hubs, from the coastline between central Vietnam and Hong Kong to the Mekong Delta. They were not attached to any state, and the notion of borders didnt even exist. Only by the late 19th century the Westphalian system managed to freeze the South China Sea inside an immovable framework. Which brings us to why China is so sensitive about its borders; because they are directly linked to the century of humiliation  when internal Chinese corruption and weakness allowed Western barbarians to take possession of Chinese land. Tension in the nine-dash line The eminent Chinese geographer Bai Meichu was a fierce nationalist who drew his own version of what was called the Chinese National Humiliation Map. In 1936 he published a map including a U-shaped line gobbling up the South China Sea all the way down to James Shoal, which is 1,500 km south of China but only over 100 km off Borneo. Scores of maps copied Meichus. Most included the Spratly Islands, but not James Shoal. The crucial fact is that Bai was the man who actually invented the nine-dash line, promoted by the Chinese government  then not yet Communist  as the letter of the law in terms of historic Chinese claims over islands in the South China Sea. Everything stopped when Japan invaded China in 1937. Japan had occupied Taiwan way back in 1895. Now imagine Americans surrendering to the Japanese in the Philippines in 1942. That meant virtually the entire coastline of the South China Sea being controlled by a single empire for the fist time in history. The South China Sea had become a Japanese lake. Not for long; only until 1945. The Japanese did occupy Woody Island in the Paracels and Itu Aba (today Taiping) in the Spratlys. After the end of WWII and the US nuclear-bombing Japan, the Philippines became independent in 1946; the Spratlys immediately were declared Filipino territory. In 1947 the Chinese went on overdrive to recover all the Paracels from colonial power France. In parallel, all the islands in the South China Sea got Chinese names. James Shoal was downgraded from a sandbank into a reef (its actually underwater; still Beijing sees is as the southernmost point of Chinese territory.) In December 1947 all the islands were placed under the control of Hainan (itself an island in southern China.) New maps  based on Meichus  followed, but now with Chinese names for the islands (or reefs, or shoals). The key problem is that no one explained the meaning of the dashes (which were originally eleven.) So in June 1947 the Republic of China claimed everything within the line  while proclaiming itself open to negotiate definitive maritime borders with other nations later on. But, for the moment, no borders; that was the birth of the much-maligned strategic ambiguity of the South China Sea that lasts to this day. Red China adopted all the maps  and all the decisions. Yet the final maritime border between China and Vietnam, for instance, was decided only in 1999. In 2009 China included a map of the U-shaped or nine-dash line in a presentation to the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf; that was the first time the line officially showed up on an international level. No wonder other Southeast Asian players were furious. That was the apex of the millennia-old transition from the maritime internet of semi-nomadic peoples to the Westphalian system. The post-modern war for the South China Sea was on. Gunboat freedom In 2013 the Philippines  prodded by the US and Japan  decided to take its case about Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs) in the South China Sea to be judged according to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). Both China and Philippines ratified UNCLOS. The US did not. The Philippines aimed for UNCLOS  not historical rights, as the Chinese wanted  to decide what is an island, what is a rock, and who is entitled to claim territorial rights (and thus EEZs) in these surrounding waters. UNCLOS itself is the result of years of fierce legal battles. Still, key nations  including BRICS members China, India and Brazil, but also, significantly, Vietnam and Malaysia  have been struggling to change an absolutely key provision, making it mandatory for foreign warships to seek permission before sailing through their EEZs. And here we plunge in truly, deeply troubled waters; the notion of freedom of navigation. For the American empire, freedom of navigation, from the West Coast of the US to Asia  through the Pacific, the South China Sea, the Malacca Strait and the Indian Ocean  is strictly subordinated to military strategy. Imagine if one day EEZs would be closed to the US Navy  or if authorization would have to be demanded every time; the Empire of Bases would lose access toits own bases. Add to it trademark Pentagon paranoia; what if a hostile power decided to block the global trade on which the US economy depends? (even though the premise  China contemplating such a move  is ludicrous). The Pentagon actually pursues a Freedom of Navigation (FON) program. For all practical purposes, its 21st century gunboat diplomacy, as in those aircraft carriers showboating on and off in the South China Sea. The Holy Grail, as far as the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is concerned, is to come up with a Code of Conduct to solve all maritime conflicts between Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and China. This has been dragging on for years now because mostly the Philippines wanted to frame the Chinese under a set of binding rules but was only ready to talk until all ten ASEAN members had agreed on them first. Beijings strategy is the opposite; bilateral discussions to emphasize its formidable leverage. Thus China assuring the support of Cambodia  quite visible early this week when Cambodia prevented a condemnation of China regarding the South China Sea at a key summit in Laos; China and ASEAN settled for self-restraint. Watch Hillary pivoting In 2011 the US State Department was absolutely terrified with the planned Obama administration withdrawals from both Iraq and Afghanistan; what would happen to superpower projection? That ended in November 2011, when then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton coined the by now famous pivot to Asia. Six lines of action were embedded in the pivot. Four of these Clinton nicked from a 2009 report by the Washington think tank CSIS; reinvigorating alliances; cultivating relationships with emerging powers; developing relationships with regional multilateral bodies; and working closely with South East Asian countries on economic issues. Clinton added two more: broad-based military presence in Asia, and the promotion of democracy and human rights. It was clear from the start  and not only across the global South  that cutting across the rhetorical fog the pivot was code for a military offensive to contain China. Even more seriously, this was the geopolitical moment when a South East Asian dispute over maritime territory intersected with the across-the-globe confrontation between the hegemon and a peer competitor What Clinton meant by engaging emerging powers was, in her own words, join us in shaping and participating in a rules-based regional and global order. This is code for rules coined by the hegemon  as in the whole apparatus of the Washington consensus. No wonder the South China Sea is immensely strategic, as American hegemony intimately depends on ruling the waves (remember Mahan). Thats the core of the US National Military Strategy. The South China Sea is the crucial link connecting the Pacific to the Indian Ocean, the Persian Gulf and ultimately Europe. And so we finally discover Rosebud  the ultimate South China Sea secret. China under Clintons rule-based regional and global order effectively means that China must obey and keep the South China Sea open to the US Navy. That spells out inevitable escalation further on down the sea lanes. China, slowly but surely, is developing an array of sophisticated weapons which could ultimately deny the South China Sea to the US Navy, as the Beltway is very much aware. What makes it even more serious is that were talking about irreconcilable imperatives. Beijing characterizes itself as an anti-imperialist power; and that necessarily includes recovering national territories usurped by colonial powers allied with internal Chinese traitors (those islands that The Hague has ruled are no more than rocks or even low-tide elevations). The US, for its part, is all about Exceptionalism and Manifest Destiny. As it stands, more than Russias western borderlands, the Baltics or Syraq, this is where the hegemon rules are really being contested. And the stakes couldn't be higher. Thatll be the day when the US Navy is denied from the South China Sea; and thatll be the end of its imperial hegemony.
Speaking with State House correspondents at the end of the groups meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, the Chairman of APC Governors Forum, Rochas Okorocha said the governors decided to look into the National Asembly crisis because of so many reasons. INFORMATION NIGERIA in this piece put together the 3 reasons they cited.

1. There is the alleged N40 billion padding of the budget by the House of Representatives leadership.

2. Senate President Bukola Saraki and his deputy, Ike Ekweremadu, are also facing forgery trial.
A former Head of State, Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar, on Tuesday, called on Nigerians to support the current efforts of the Federal Government to fight corruption in public service.

He challenged professional bodies in Nigeria to sanction their members who aided and abetted corrupt tendencies.

The ex-Head of State also called on professional bodies to eliminate quackery in their professions, noting that Nigeria had continued to lose several lives and property as a result of the activities of quacks.

Abdulsalami stated, Nigerians should assist the current administration to fight corruption in the public service and should not believe that the anti-graft crusade is political. The war against graft is not for government alone, but the responsibility of every citizen.
The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Akwa Ibom State has hailed President Muhammadu Buharis appointment of former Deputy Governor Obong Nsima Ekere as the new Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).

The party commended the president for reconstituting the intervention agencys board just as it reposed confidence in the new management to achieve successes in its assignment.

In a statement by the partys State leader and Chairman, Obong Umana Umana and Dr Amadu Attai, on the appointments of Ekere and Samuel Frank as NDDCs managing director and commissioner respectively, the APCs State Working Committee (SWC) praised President Buhari for looking out for experience, competence and integrity in his choice of appointees.

The statement reads: On behalf of the State Working Committee and the membership of the Akwa Ibom State chapter of the APC, we want to commend President Buhari on the reconstitution of the board of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).

We are delighted at the high quality of appointees to the new board of the commission and want to register our appreciation of the Presidents careful and well-considered choices, which reflect deep concern for experience, competence and integrity.

We are confident that the new Board under the able chairmanship of the highly experienced Senator Victor Ndoma-Egba will effectively steer the affairs of the commission for the fulfilment of its mandate to the people of Niger Delta.

The Akwa Ibom APC described the former deputy governor as the right pick for the top job at the commission in terms of track record, exposure and other indicators of leadership ability and expressed confidence in him and his ability to discharge the Office of Managing Director of the NDDC with utmost prudence, dedication and exemplary sense of duty.

The statement also expressed delight at the choice of the commissioner-designate from the state, describing Mr. Frank as a man known for his self-control, loyalty to any cause he believes in and commitment to duty and wished the appointees success in their new assignments.
Confusion has trailed the purported removal of the Chairman of the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, Kebbi State chapter, Comrade Murtala Usman.

Comrade Usman was removed at a meeting held by the State Executive Council of the NLC at its secretariat yesterday in Birnin Kebbi, the state capital.

Addressing journalists after the meeting Tuesday, the congresss vice chairman, Comrade Sabitu Lawal, said the NLC decided to replace Usman with Comrade Umar Halidu Alhassan following the former chairmans dismissal by his employer, the Kaduna Electric Distribution Company (KEDCO) in July last year.

By this, he was automatically disqualified from being the state chairman of the NLC, Mr. Lawal said, adding that Usman refused to abide by earlier efforts to allow him to resign.

Dismissing the action of the Kebbi EXCO, Chairman of the National Union of Teachers in the state, Sanusi Umar, insisted that the impeached chairman remained the leader of NLC in the state.

As I speak to you, he is on his way to Abuja to represent the congress at a national assignment, Umar said.
The Department of State Services (DSS) in Kogi State said on Wednesday that it had arrested 10 suspected kidnappers.

The state DSS Director, Mr. Joseph Okpo, told newsmen in Lokoja, the state capital that the suspects were arrested in different parts of the state in the past two weeks.

Okpo, who spoke while parading four of the suspects before newsmen, said that the suspects were arrested in full military combat uniform last week.

According to him, the suspects are Haruna Saleh, Kabiru Shuaibu, Mumuni Adamu and Tukur Shuaibu.

The SSS Director said that the suspects were arrested on the Lokoja-Abuja road on their way from Kaduna with the intent to link up with their other accomplices in Obajana area, where they had planned to kidnap some people.

He said that the suspects had started making useful statements, adding that the state Police Command had been contacted to investigate the source of the military uniforms.

Okpo said that the suspects, during interrogation, confessed to have carried out six operations between the Ramadan period and the day they were caught.

Investigation has revealed that most of the kidnappers operating in the state are from outside Kogi. The people are taking advantage of the geographical location and the route structure of the state, the DSS director said.

Okpo pledged the commitment of the Service to cooperate with other security agencies to address the security challenge facing the state.

One of the suspects, Mumuni Adamu, said that they bought the military uniforms from a commercial motorcycle operator at the cost of N1,500 a pair.

Adamu, who claimed to be the leader of the gang, said that he had been living in Obajana for almost six years but got involved in Kidnapping and other criminal activities in 2015. (NAN)
It is no longer news that both the Senate President, Bukola Saraki and his deputy, Ike Ekweremadu are both standing trial for forgery.

Justice Adeniyi terminated further hearing on the matter after the plaintiffs who are five Senators

Abu Ibrahim, Kabir Marafa, Ajayi Boroffice, Olugbenga Ashafa and Suleiman Hunkuni, applied to withdraw the suit.

At the resumed sitting on the case yesterday, the plaintiffs, through their

lawyer Chief Mamman Osuman (SAN), said their decision to discontinue further hearing on the

matter was in view of the fact that the essence of the suit had been overtaken by events.

They noted that the Senate leadership under Saraki and Ekweremadu, despite the pendency of the suit, had carried out several legislative actions, among which they said included the constitution of different committees for the 8th Senate.
The Brazilian mother-in-law of Bernie Ecclestone has reportedly been kidnapped in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

According to reports, her abductors are demanding $36.5m for her release.

Aparecida Schunck, 67, was abducted from her home in the Interlagos suburb of the city last Friday night.

Ecclestone, 85, is a British businessman who is a chief executive of Formula One Group. He is worth an estimated $3.1bn.

He married Fabiana Flosi in 2012. She was the Vice-President of marketing for the Brazilian Grand Prix.

Brazilian police are yet to comment on the reports.
How can anyone ever survive on such meagre amount? An amount too little to get recharge cards for several people, too little to even get lunch!

Moved by these questions within us, and those coming from our numerous followers online, The Pulse TV went back to the streets, brought him in to our studio to learn more about him

Gideon Ime Charlie, 25, from Ukanafan Local Government of Akwa Ibom has had a life experience that many people his age, even older people, cannot ever deal with.

When asked to narrate the story of his life from the beginning, one of his first statements by him appropriately captured it all

I actually come from a good home, but there is no money, he said.

Owing to that very fact, he could not get any education beyond JSS 3, dropping out to allow his other five siblings a shot at education, and hopefully, a better life.

Having dropped out of CJC Comprehensive Secondary School in Otoro, Akwa Ibom State, Gideon got a call from someone in Lagos about the groundnut-selling business, and found his way to Lagos.

About taking up the job, he said [The man already told me hed pay #1500] and Ill be eating there two times per day I accepted because I know that if I should stay in the village, [Ill be] a kind of trouble to my parents.

When answering the biggest, most pressing question of how he manages to live monthly on such a little amount, Gideon, who comes off as a humble and determined young man says,

It is not easy, but as a man who is looking for something, I try to save #500.

However, the money is never enough to spend, let alone save, even with his needs being the most basic  toothbrush, bathing soap, body cream slippers, bottles for his groundnut, etc.

The 25-year old, despite being on the street always, is still paying attention to his dream of being a musician and songwriter, revealing that he has some songs written and recorded on his phone, and actually taking every opportunity to show what he can do. [And he really can do a lot of singing, cant he?

Away from sarcasm, it is really impressive to see a young man [or anyone at that], forging on resiliently in the face of what Gideon Gideon had had to face  you really need to watch the video attached to this article to see where he stays, and how he lives to fully understand how amazing it is to see that his faith in a better tomorrow remains unflinching.

Perhaps, this is what moved a number of people and at least an organization, to show an interest in helping out the young man.

When asked how hed feel if people decided to assist him, Ill feel so happy, he says. [Ill feel so grateful] and Ill thank my God.

As a man who comes from a good home, I think I have plans for my life, I need to think of my past Ill like going to school further my education and while Im in school, I will [do more] on my music because I know I have to do that.

Just as he showed when he dropped out of school enable his younger ones continue, Gideon has a deep sense of responsibility to his family and has hopes of assisting his them, citing a new home as the biggest need they have.

I have to build and take my mum from the mud house to the normal house.

Head of Pulse, Rich Tanksley, who was moved by the predicament of the groundnut hawker, led the way by awarding him a cash gift of #20, 000.

Living in Nigeria these days, as many of us can testify to, has become hell. And that is me being really mild about it. But this is not what Gideons story shows.

What stands out from all of this, is that there are some hells hotter than some others. And regardless of where you find yourself, theres no point sitting on your backside, blaming everyone but yourself for your status, or situation.

Everyone has a shot at success, and sitting down, playing the blame game is not the way to shoot your shot at it.

Source: Pulse
A gunman is reportedly on the run after opening fire in a busy shopping centre Sweden. A man was shot in the leg and taken to hospital, according to police.

The shooting is not believed to be terror-related but the incident is being investigated as an attempted murder or aggravated assault.

Its believed the shooting came after a fight broke out in the centre.

The Rosengard shopping centre in Malmo was cordoned by police with no shoppers allowed in or out as Sniffer dogs were used to search the shopping centre the gunman and weapons.

Officers said the suspect has not been identified and no arrests have been made.

It is believed that gunman escaped on foot.
No fewer than 14persons were killed on Monday, in an attack on Gaambe-Tiev, Logo Local Government Area of Benue State, by rampaging herdsmen, despite efforts by several parties to halt the unending invasion of Benue communities.

Vanguard learned that the invaders stormed the community at about 7:30a.m., shooting sporadically and razing buildings and farmland in the area.

According to an eyewitness, the invaders successfully razed several homes, killed and injured most of the victims at Adeyohor village along Uwer-Gov Sevav Road.

He said: The herdsmen, in their usual fashion, stormed Gaambe-Tievthis morning (yesterday), around 7:30a.m. in their numbers, shooting sporadically and shouting. The people never expected it.

Everybody, including women and children, ran for their lives. Unfortunately, several persons lost their lives and many more were injured. Bodies of some of those killed are being recovered from the farms and we are still counting.

Reacting, member of the state House of Assembly representing Logo constituency, Dr. Kester Kyenge, who confirmed the latest attack, said the number of the dead could be far more than the 14 being circulated.

He said: By tomorrow (today), we will have a clearer picture of the number of the dead. I plead with the government to act fast to stop these attacks and killings.

Contacted, Benue State Police PublicRelations Officer, Assistant Superintendent Moses Yamu, said he was yet to be briefed on the matter.

Source: Vanguard
The drama in the House of Representatives seems to have taken a new turn as the House has now hit back at Honorable Adulmumin Jibrin.

Hon. Jibrin was formerly the Chairman of the committee on Appropriation and he went on to claim that his removal was primarily because he knew about about a scheme to pad the controversial 2016 budget.

The Spokesperson for the House of reps has hit back at Jibrin, saying his removal as chairman was primarily as a result of incompetence.

His removal was based on sundry acts of misconduct, incompetence, immaturity, total disregard for his colleagues and abuse of the budgetary process, among others.

One of the fundamental reasons why the house leadership removed him is that he was found not to be fit and proper person to hold such a sensitive office, which exposes him to high officials of government at all levels.

Furthermore, in the course of the performance of his duties as chairman of appropriations committee, it became evident that he does not possess the temperament and maturity required for such a high office.

The House spokesperson also noted that Jibrin had a tendency and proclivity to blackmail colleagues and high government officials, and misuse and mishandle sensitive government information.

He was in the habit of collating, warehousing and manipulating sensitive information to blackmail people sometimes apparently for pecuniary purposes. And by virtue of his position as appropriation chairman, he usually met with very high and senior public officers at all levels, Namadas continued.

The speaker and the leadership were inundated with complaints by heads of ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) over harassment from the house appropriation chairman to engage in conduct and acts unbecoming of their offices.

The leadership launched an internal investigation into these allegations and was largely satisfied that action had to be taken to remove him, in the interest of the integrity of the house.

One clear example is the insertion of funds for the so-called Muhammadu Buhari Film Village in his constituency in Kano without the consent or solicitation of Mr President. This has brought both Mr President and the government to disrepute.

Again, it was found out that he was fond of inserting projects into prominent persons constituencies without their knowledge to curry favour and possibly use it as a means of blackmail against them when necessary.

One of such is the numerous projects he claimed in a Channels TV interview in April 2016, to have cited in Mr Presidents home town of Daura, Katsina state without Mr Presidents solicitation or knowledge, in a desperate attempt to blackmail Mr President as an answer and justification for allocation of N4.1 billion to his constituency when confronted by the interviewer.

He did not stop there. Hon Abdulmumin went about soliciting honourable members to nominate projects for him to help them include in the budget. When called upon to defend his actions as appropriations chairman, all he did was to be calling names of those members and the amount he helped include for them in the budget in an unsuccessful bid to silence them.

Most of the affected members took serious exceptions to his despicable antics and sundry acts of blackmail and protested to the Leadership to prevail on Hon Abdulmumin to expunge from the budget what he claimed he allocated to them since they did not solicit for those projects.

To attempt to drag the name of Mr President, honourable members and others to his new low through sundry acts of blackmail was one of the matters the house leadership found off limits and totally unacceptable.
Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State has raised the alarm that democracy is being threatened in the country with the way the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is handling elections since President Muhammadu Buhari assumed office over a year ago.

The governor, who alleged manipulation of the Imo North Senatorial District rerun election, also described the postponement of the Rivers State rerun elections as another dangerous signal of what to come in 2019.

The INEC had on Sunday declared the Imo North Senatorial rerun polls inconclusive with the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate  Ben Uwajumogu  leading his Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) counterpart, Athan Achonu by 48,921 votes to 40,142. The commission also postponed the July 30 federal and state legislative rerun polls in Rivers State following the bombing of its office in Khana local government area last Friday by unknown persons.

Reacting to the developments, Gov. Fayose, in a statement issued on Tuesday by his Special Assistant on Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka, reiterated his fear that democracy in Nigeria is being threatened by INEC and this should call for national and international reflection.

He said; Lovers of democracy in Nigeria and the entire world should be worried that after conducting inconclusive elections in Rivers State in March this year, INEC postponed conclusion of the elections twice.

INEC had on June 20 after a meeting with relevant stakeholders, fixed June 30 as new date for the conclusion of the poll.

However, the electoral commission postponed the elections for the second time, claiming reports of violence, and one wonders how INEC will be able to conduct elections in 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory in 2019 if it has not been able to conclude elections in Rivers State in four months!

Speaking further, the governor said President Buhari should be concerned that since he assumed office, all elections conducted by INEC ended inconclusive, adding it should be clear to the president and his party men that absence of free, fair and credible electoral process is a direct invitation to anarchy.
A migrant was hacked to death during a gang fight between refugees in France seeking asylum in Britain.

The incident happened early hours of Tuesday at the Calais Jungle camp as Police confirmed an investigation has been opened into the bloodbath that involved about 200 African and Afghan migrants in the giant shantytown.

6 people were badly injured during the fight while a 37 year-old Ethiopian man was stabbed to death.

He is the eighth migrant to be killed in the Jungle this year, police said.

A Calais Police spokesman, said: Two fights broke out close to the camp between African migrants and Afghans between 2am and 4am.

Knives and batons were being used, causing one death and leaving six other Ethiopians seriously hurt.

The murder victim was rushed to hospital by an activist with the No Borders protest group, the spokesman added.

He said: The Ethiopian died from the wounds.

Riot police immediately sealed off the scene and launched a murder enquiry. They also examined roadside CCTV footage.
Punch

The Independent National Electoral Commission has recognised the National Caretaker Committee of the Peoples Democratic Party over the Sen. Ali Modu Sheriff faction based on the judgment of the Federal High Court, Port-Harcourt.

Vanguard

The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed has said that the President Mohammadu Buhari-led administration is on the right track and there is no alternative to what it is doing.

The Sun

They wore black attire and most of them wailing; they have been saddened beyond consolation.

Thisday

Embattled Abia State Governor Okezie Ikpeazu got a huge relief on Tuesday as the Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja told him to retain his seat pending the time the court will hear his appeal challenging the judgment of a Federal High Court which removed him from office.

Guardian

Gov. Nasiru El-Rufai of Kaduna State has set up a nine-man committee to produce a white paper on the report of the Judicial Commission of Inquiry into the Army/Shiites clash in the state.

Daily Trust

Kogi Assembly speaker resigns, Imam takes charge

The embattled speaker of the Kogi State House of Assembly, Alhaji Momoh Jimoh Lawal, has resigned from office after months of leadership tussle that bedeviled the state legislature

Leadership

Fifty-nine officials of the Lagos State Judiciary have petitioned the Governor of the state, Akinwunmi Ambode, asking him to intervene and call the Lagos judiciary authorities to order over their refusal to regularise their employment.

The Nation

The police in Ogun on Wednesday arraigned six men in an Ota Chief Magistrates Court for burglary.

New Telegraph

The leadership of the House of Representatives has opened up a can of worms on the padding of 2016 budget and corrupt practices in the parliament.
Scientists from the Nigeria Nuclear Regulatory Authority (NNRA) have arrived Adamawa State to inspect the site of uranium radiation that allegedly killed villagers in Michika Local Government Area.

The Commissioner for Solid Minerals, Shanti Sanshi Victoria, yesterday said an expert team from the NNRA, Abuja, had arrived the state to inspect the site of possible radiation.

The commissioner, who rejected assertions that radiation killed several people in five villages in Michika, stressed that the outcome of the scientific tests by the experts would provide a clue to the possible health problems in the area as there was still no proven scientific evidence upon which to draw conclusions.

The Ministry of Solid Minerals Development has established the presence of large deposits of highly valued uranium in six states. They are Cross River, Adamawa, Taraba, Plateau, Bauchi and Kano.

It would be recalled that the Director of Geology at the Adamawa State Ministry of Solid Minerals, Dlama Zira, had during a recent presentation at the Government House in Yola, said several people had died of radiation from uranium deposits in five communities in Michika, namely Garta, Futubou, Himike, Sina-Kwande Nkala and Ghumthi.

Mr. Zira said since the 1950s, villagers had attributed deaths from radiation to evil spirits.

The people of the affected communities for many years sacrificed hundreds of goats to appease their deity, seeking protection from evil spirit that they believed were causing unidentified illnesses and sudden deaths in the communities. They didnt know that they were sitting on and drinking water from huge uranium deposits identified by radiation experts as the cause of the illnesses and rampart deaths, he was quoted as saying during the presentation.
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has advised the Federal and state governments on what steps to take to overcome the prevailing economic hardship currently being experienced by country and the citizens.

The former president counseled that times are hard such as the one the nation contends with today, governments must not only increase the Internally Generated Revenue (IGR), but also endeavour to shrink their sizes and reduce waste.

Chief Obasanjo gave the advice in Abeokuta, the Ogun state capital, when the management of the Joint Tax Board (JTB) led by the Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Babatunde Fowler, visited him at his Oke-Mosan Hilltop residence, Abeokuta, on Tuesday.

The JTB management team was accompanied on the visit by Chairmen of the 36 states Internal Revenue Services, representatives of the Revenue Mobilisation and Fiscal Allocation Commission (RMFAC), the Nigerian Customs Service and the Immigration Service.

Obasanjo, who suggested that governments should become slimmer, also called for a merger of institutions that have continued to exist separately in order to be able to cope with the financial crisis as a result of economic downturn.

According to him, those measures are some of the things the tiers of government have to do to get Nigeria and Nigerians out of the (current) tight situation.

When times are hard, it is when the government needs more Internally Generated Revenue, and it is also the time that those from whom the government would want to generate fund are hard to be able to get money.

What do we have to do? They must continue to try with increase as much as possible, what each state can generate in terms of Internally Generated Revenue, but states must also embark on a number of things.

One, reducing waste. Two, they have to look into becoming slimmer, government can do a lot by looking at their own establishments. Where do they have to bring together institutions that dont need to continue to exist separately?

And, generally, also show that the money they generate, the tax that the citizens pay are well utilised and they can show the people that, look you paid for this, and it has been well utilised. They must continue to try to increase as much as possible, what each state can generate in terms of Internally Generated Revenue, but states must also embark on a number of things.

I think these are some of the things we have to do to get us out of the tight situation that we are all in and we pray that the tax will roll in sooner than later, Obasanjo said.

Speaking earlier, Mr. Fowler said although the tax board is to raise money for government, it (government) also must eradicate waste.
Three persons were shot dead yesterday, during a shootout between hoodlums and some officers attached to the Federal Operations Zone A, Ikeja, of the Nigerian Customs Service, NCS, at White Sand community in Ijora Badia area of Lagos State.

Three others, among who was a Customs officer, also sustained gunshot injuries.

Trouble started, Monday, following a clash between Hausa and Yoruba residents over accusation by the latter that the former had been terrorising the area.

A resident, Tajudeen Shamsudeen, explained that a boy, identified as Ojo, said to be on his way home, was allegedly stabbed to death by some Hausa boys.

Shamsudeen said: For long, these Hausa boys have been attacking people here. They waylay people, dispose them of cash and belongings. Even rulers of both ethnic groups are aware of the issue.

The attack on Ojo, according to him, sparked a riot during which dangerous weapons were freely used by both parties.

But for the timely arrival of policemen from Ijora Badia, the situation would have assumed a violent dimension. 10 persons were said to have been arrested in connection with the unrest.

Demolition

Vanguard gathered that demolition of shanties in the troubled community started yesterday morning.

While unconfirmed reports had it that it was on the order of the state government, the Hausa alleged that the demolition was carried out in their places of abode only.

While the demolition was ongoing, some Custom officers, who residents alleged were invited by the Seriki Hausa, stormed the community in three patrol vehicles at about 2.30p.m. They were alleged to have fired sporadically to scare off some hoodlums, who were roaming the area.

The hoodlums were said to have resisted the Customs men, who allegedly attempted to stop the demolition, an action that led to a shootout, during which three persons were felled by bullets.

One of the bullets from the hoodlums hit a Customs officer. The Customs men then fled the scene, heading towards Apapa.

As at 5p.m., Vanguard gathered that the injured officer was being treated at the Lagoon Hospital, Apapa, with two police patrol vans stationed within the hospital premises.

One of those hit by a stray bullet was Azeez Tajudeen. Eyewitnesses said he was first taken to the police station for a police report, before being rushed to an undisclosed hospital.

Police story

Confirming the incident, the state Police Public Relations Officer, Dolapo Badmus, a Superintendent of Police, however, said only one person died, while two others are recuperating in the hospital.

She said:The community and the police were on a joint operation of raiding black spots within the community and arresting suspected criminals yesterday.

In the process, some officers of the Nigerian Customs Service officers, who were with officials of the National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA, had an encounter with some of the hoodlums.

They fired some shots and three people were hit. As a result, one death was recorded, while two others are receiving treatment in the hospital. Policemen are not involved.

Source: Vanguard
The Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra, MASSOB, yesterday, said it had uncovered the reason behind President Muhammadu Buharis perceived hatred for the Igbo ethnic group.

It stated that the presidents hatred for Ndigbo was one of the reasons Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu is being harassed and threatened by agents of the federal government, and not because of party affiliation.

According to the group, Buharis biased fight against corruption did not see major Igbo progressive leaders for rubbishing, hence he shifted his political muscle against Ekweremadu, who is the highest Igbo political office holder in his administration.

In a statement signed by the leader of MASSOB, Comrade Uchenna Madu, the separatist group called on Ndigbo to be wary of President Buharis antics against Ndigbo.

The statement read in part: MASSOB has discovered the major reasons behind President Buharis hatred against Ndigbo and Biafrans in general.

Buharis grouse against Ike Ekweremadu is because he is an Igbo man. If a non-Igbo PDP senator replaces Ike Ekweremadu, Buhari, Tinubu and their likes will relax their nerves. MASSOB also reminds Ndigbo that this is the time to be your brothers keeper.

President Buhari is always rattled and unsettled whenever he sees, hears or encountered the magnanimity of economic dominance and booming enterprising exploits of Ndigbo both in Nigeria and in diaspora.

Today in Nigeria, Ndigbo owns 70% of private, economic and social investments in Nigeria, this Jewish and Zionist advancement of Ndigbo also stretched to many countries of the universe. Ndigbo is divinely, naturally, humanly, academically, religiously destined to lead in every field of nation building.

Ndigbo and their Biafran brethren have never been deterred, frustrated or admitted failure in all endeavors of life, we are always progressives, Republican, conquering every obstacles of lives including the environment we found ourselves.

MASSOB declares that any person or group of people that hates Ndigbo as a result of religious beliefs, tribal/ ethnic sentiments, personal envy or tutorial orientation will constantly experience unfulfillment, unprogressiveness and backwardness.

Biafrans are direct legitimate descendants of Abraham. God of Abraham (Chukwu Okike Abiama) always bless friends of Biafrans and curse our enemies.

MASSOB wish to inform President Muhammadu Buhari that all his political, economic and religious persecutions of Ndigbo and anti-Igbo policies of his government will never derail, deter, frustrate or shortchange the domineering nature or economical prowess of Biafrans.

The more our people are persecuted, the more we are united and resolute, irrespective of our Billions dollar investments and establishments in Nigeria, we shall not relent in our genuine and legitimate pursuit for Biafra restoration.

MASSOB reminds Igbo Leaders that Nnamdi Kanu, arrowhead of new Biafra agitation, Benjamin Onwuka, 23 members of MASSOB in Onitsha/Awka prisons, Chidiebere Onwudiwe are still languishing in Nigeria prisons and DSS cage including Lotachukwu Okolie who is been detained in Norway prisons since 2013.

Igbo Political, Religious, Traditional, Progressive leaders including Elder statesmen should rise up now in defence of our people and living heroes; MASSOB shall hold Igbo leaders responsible if any harm befall on these innocent Biafra detainees.
A 16 year-old girl was held prisoner by her own father in Saudi Arabia for more than 4 years after she was accused of un-Islamic behaviour.

Amina Al-Jeffery, now 21 years old, was born in Swansea, Wales but then taken to Saudi Arabia because her father did not agree with her western lifestyle.

Her father Mohammed Al-Jeffery, 62, works at the King Abdulaziz University in Jeddah and has reportedly received state funding from the Saudi government in order to object to the High Courts order to return his daughter to Britain.

The father of 9 moved to Swansea before Amina was born. The family is said to have claimed benefits and his children were educated at British schools and universities.

The forced marriage unit of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office said that steps need to be taken to ensure Amina is returned to the UK where her safety can be guaranteed as Saudi authorities refuse to recognise her British citizenship.

Mr Al-Jeffery had been ordered by the High Court to take his daughter to the British consulate in Jeddah on Monday so she could have a confidential discussion with her lawyers, but he refused to do this.

It was until he received a guarantee from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office that his daughter would not be granted sanctuary that he allowed her to attend a meeting with consular staff at a hotel under the supervision of someone he employed.

The case is currently receiving a court hearing.
The speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara has issued an ultimatum to Honorable Abdulmumin Jibrin.

Jibrin accused the Speaker and some of the principal members of the House of reps of budget padding of the controversial 2016 budget.

SEE ALSO: Hon. Jibrin Was Sacked For Incompetence

Dogara has responded through his lawyers and has threatened to slam Jibrin with a libel suit.

The letter, entitled, REQUEST FOR A RETRACTION AND AN APOLOGY OF A LIBELOUS PRESS STATEMENT ISSUED BY YOU ON MONDAY 25TH JULY, 2016, noted that the claims of the former Appropriations chairman, who was removed for padding the budget and other actions, that the speaker is corrupt and abuses his office is aimed at tarnishing his image at home and abroad and is a clear case of libel.

The letter read in part, We act as solicitors to Rt Hon. Yakubu Dogara, Speaker of House of Representatives of Three Arm Zone National Assembly Complex, Abuja herein after referred to as our client and on whose instructions we write this letter to you.

The attention of our client has been drawn to a libelous press statement you issued on Monday 25th July 2016 which was made available to members of the press (print and electronic media) titled THE CORRUPT SPEAKER YAKUBU DOGARA AND HIS 3-MAN CABAL.

In the said publication, you published words to the following effect concerning our client and three other principal members of the House of Representatives-

Honourable colleagues and fellow Nigerians, I wish to make further revelations.

Speaker Yakubu Dogara and his senior cabal namely Deputy Speaker Lasun, Whip Doguwa and Minority leader Ogor has (sic) promoted corruption so badly in the House that if President Muhammadu Buhari with his disdain for corruption and corrupt people have the slightest idea, he will ban the QUARTET permanently from the Villa before they eventually allow for proper and unbiased investigation by the House.

Mr Speaker and Deputy Speaker Yusuf Lasun diverted millions of Naira all in the name of paying for guest houses and official residence. The issue became so messy that the Deputy Speaker openly accused Hon Herman Hembe of short changing them of millions of naira in the deal to the shock of many Hon Members.

Speaker Yakubu Dogara frequently abuse his office amounting to conflict of interest by soliciting for inappropriate favours from agencies and Multinational companies. He forced an agency to grant loans and a construction company blackmailed to do some work at his Asokoro plot

Speaker Yakubu Dogara has carefully designed a scheme to scam Hon Members through deduction from their salaries certain amount of money for a so called mortgage arrangement to build houses for members. He has been applying every under hand tactics to ensure Members agree to the deal.

Speaker Yakubu Dogara has consistently refused members access to the financial dealings and internal budget of the House. He runs the financial management of the House like a cult aided and abated by the Chairman House services Hon Babanlle Ila. It is no longer news that all over the House, Hon Members are aware of the monumental fraud perpetrated by Speaker Yakubu Dogara in this regard.

We are even told that this is a childs play compared to the mess and allegations of money laundering he left behind as Chairman house services in both the 6th and 7th Assembly. The EFCC should have something to start working with in respect to his tenure as Chairman House services if they properly dust their files.

These members of the body of principal officers were not comfortable with my independent disposition and my refusal to cover up their unilateral decision to allocate to themselves N40bn out of the N100bn allocated to the entire National Assembly.

The four of them met and took that decision, in addition to billions of wasteful projects running to over 20bn, they allocated to their constituencies. They must come out clean. My inability to admit into the budget almost 30bn personal requests from Mr. Speaker and the three other principal officers, also became an issue.

It continued, The personal references are obviously directed at our client, and amount to a very serious libel.

By the said publication and without putting to the public any shred of evidence, our client is portrayed as a criminal, corrupt, dishonest, fraudulent, dishonourable and unfit to ho
After six years, container orchestration system Apache Mesos has hit 1.0, with a refined API and broad-spectrum support for different container types.

The 1.0 release comes as the other major container orchestration solution, Google's Kubernetes, has risen to the point where OpenStack is being reworked to use it as a deployment technology.

[ Dig into the the red-hot open source framework in InfoWorld's beginner's guide to Docker. Pick it up today! | Get a digest of the day's top tech stories in the InfoWorld Daily newsletter. ]

But Apache Mesos is striving for different goals. Kubernetes deals with containers, but Mesos' ambitions involve running clusters as well, with containers as simply one possible ingredient.

How to get to 1.0

Ben Hindman, co-creator of Apache Mesos and current chief architect at Mesosphere, described in a phone interview how getting Mesos to a full 1.0 release was about having a refined, stable, consistent, and broadly useful API.

The 1.0 API is HTTP-based, but not RESTful; it's closer in spirit to Google's GRPC system for remote procedure calls. It was also built to replace libraries provided for different languages, meaning future changes to the API can be made without as much breakage.

Mesos 1.0 also adds what Hindman called the "unified containerizer" -- a universal container runtime designed to work with Docker, CoreOS's rkt format, the appc image format created as part of the Open Container Initiative, and any others that might arise in the future.

Originally, the containerizer was devised to run Docker images back when the Docker daemon was still not very stable. The actual runtimes for each of these formats was not used, but Mesos leverages the containerizer to provide features that aren't native to those runtimes in the first place. Recently, Nvidia added support for GPU-powered applications by way of a Docker plugin, but Mesos' runtime is allegedly able to provide the same support natively.

Version 1.0 also has planned support for Mesos on Windows. It's well-timed, given Microsoft's release of a container-supporting version of Windows Server later this year.

Where to go next

To make clear how Mesos stands apart from Kubernetes, Hindman stated that while the two projects are in roughly the same space, Mesos runs as a lower-level component and encompasses a different class of problems. While Kubernetes deals mainly with container management, Mesos is about running clustered systems that have a great deal of state.

One way to illustrate this: Kubernetes can run on Mesos, and the code used to do this has since been released as an open source project. Among the folks who picked up on it are IBM, which Hindman says has used Mesos to run Kubernetes as well as big data workloads like Spark. (Mesosphere's data center management solution DCOS, which uses Mesos, was designed to do this as well.)

"Mesos really came from this area where people were thinking about cluster management with respect to big data technology," said Hindman. That was where the project started, but its maturity was "all about containerization," during its trials at Twitter.

Where Mesos goes from here, though, is about far bigger issues than containers at scale alone. The changes rolled out for 1.0, said Hindman, make it possible to think about what's next, like multitenancy and multiregion workloads, and how Mesos can address both containers and what's beneath them.

"Getting containers up and running is kind of the easy part." Hindman said. "But making it so that people can actually operate their systems on top is challenging."
Microsoft's plans for the F# "functional first" language include an upgrade later this year that adds capabilities ranging from struct tuples to improved error messages. Backing for .Net Core, a multiplatform, open source version of the .Net programming model, also is in the works.

F# 4.1 focuses on flexibility and incremental improvements, the Microsoft Visual FSharp team said. It features struct tuples and interoperability with Visual C# 7 and Visual Basic tuples.

Tuples are a data structure that can store a finite sequence of data of fixed sizes and can return multiple values from a method. Struct tuples improve performance when there are many tuples allocated in a short period of time.

"The tuple type in F# is a key way to bundle values together in a number of ways at the language level," the team said. "The benefits this brings, such as grouping values together as an ad-hoc convenience, or bundling information with the result of an operation, are also surfacing in the form of struct tuples in C# and Visual Basic."

Version 4.1 will also feature a struct records capability. "In F# 4.1, a record type can be represented as a struct with the [<Struct>] attribute. This allows records to now share the same performance characteristics as structs, without any other required changes to the type definition."

Single-case struct unions, meanwhile, also are enabled. "Single-case union types are often used to wrap a primitive type for domain modeling," the team said. "This allows you to continue to do so, but without the overhead of allocating a new type on the heap."

Error messages will be enhanced in F# 4.1, featuring improvements in suggested fixes with information already contained in the compiler, and a fixed keyword capability is planned as well. The .Net Intermediate Language enables a developer to pin a pointer-type local on the stack; C# supports this with the "fixed" statement preventing garbage collection within the scope of that statement. "This support is coming to F# 4.1 in the form of the 'fixed' keyword used in conjunction with a 'use' binding," said the team. Underscores in numeric literals version 4.1, meanwhile, will enable grouping of digits into logical units for easier reading.

F# 4.1 will enable a collection of types and modules within a single scope in a single file to be mutually referential, and it will include an implicit "module" suffix on modules sharing the same name as a type. "With this feature, if a module shares the same name as a type within the same declaration group -- that is, they are within the same namespace, or in the same group of declarations making up a module -- it will have the suffix 'Module' appended to it at compile-time."

Visual F# Tools for F# 4.1 will support editing and compiling .Net Core and .Net Framework projects. "Our compiler and scripting tools for F# 4.1 will be the first version to offer support for .Net Core," the team said. Planned tooling includes a cross-platform, open source compiler tool chain for .Net Framework and .Net Core for use with Linux, MacOS X, and Windows.

Visual F# IDE tools will be upgraded for use with the next version of Visual Studio, and F# 4.1 support will be included in Microsoft's Xamarin Studio and Visual Studio Code tools. The upgrade will be supported in the Fable F#-to-ECMAScript transpiler and in Roslyn Workspaces, for code analysis and refactoring in the Roslyn compiler platform.
Cocoa (CC) Tries Forming Higher Oct Low VS Sep Low Tradable Patterns - Thu Oct 27, 11:57PM CDT Cocoa (CCZ22) bounced more than 1.5% yesterday, closing back above the psychologically key 2300 whole figure level. With the near complete weekly Doji, odds are now elevated for a higher Oct low versus... CCZ22 : 2,314s (+1.58%) NIB : 24.43 (+1.67%)

Its Five OClock Somewhere Stock Market (and Sentiment Results) HedgeFundTips.com - Thu Oct 27, 7:53PM CDT While the Hang Seng plummeted, U.S. equities rallied and we wound up +1.5% on the day. How the hell that happened, Ill never understand, but its far different from the outcome I expected coming...

RFD-TV Interview: Grain and Livestock Markets Blue Line Futures - Thu Oct 27, 5:19PM CDT Will the South American weather be the catalyst, or will the US Dollar take the cake? Oliver Sloup, Vice President of Blue Line Futures, explains the grain markets to RFD TV.

Hogs Fall Triple Digits on Thursday Barchart - Thu Oct 27, 4:48PM CDT Front month lean hog futures worked lower on Thursday with Dec futures getting within 20c of a limit drop on the days low. Dec hogs ultimately closed down by $3.37, with $0.87 to $2.85 losses in the... HEZ22 : 85.125s (-3.81%) HEJ23 : 92.125s (-2.18%) KMZ22 : 95.775s (-0.98%)

Cotton Weakens Triple Digits Barchart - Thu Oct 27, 4:48PM CDT Cotton futures closed off their lows by ~20 points, but were still down by 142 to 271 at the bell. The ($DXY) was higher on Thursday after a GDP growth of 2.6% for Q3. Cotton export sales were 68,437... $DXY : 110.87 (+0.29%) CTZ22 : 74.30 (-1.08%) CTH23 : 74.05 (-1.02%) CTK23 : 73.76 (-1.03%)

Wheats End Red on Thursday Barchart - Thu Oct 27, 4:48PM CDT The KC HRW futures market pulled back on Thursday and closed with 5 1/2 to 8 3/4 cent losses despite improved export sales. CBT futures ended the day firmer with losses limited to 2 cents in the front... ZWZ22 : 829-2 (-1.10%) ZWH23 : 849-0 (-1.05%) ZWPAES.CM : 7.7193 (-0.26%) KEZ22 : 921-0 (-1.21%) KEPAWS.CM : 8.9049 (-0.94%) MWZ22 : 946-4 (-0.42%)
One of the more intriguing trends in arts philanthropy as of late is funders' enthusiasm for storytelling.

For compelling proof, look no further than our recent post looking at the creation of the Flex Fund, whereby the Ford and Skoll Foundations will provide second-stage funding for joint projects by social entrepreneurs and filmmakers that aim to reduce inequality.

"We believe creative visual storytelling is vital to the pursuit of justice and equity in the 21st century," Ford said through its press release.

So, storytelling is clearly importantbut there's a catch. The underlying thesis of Ford's endorsement of the form suggests that there's storytelling and then there's storytelling. In other words, we could spin a fascinating tale to you over a cup of coffee at the nearby cafe, but this kind of "storytelling," broadly speaking, is less impactful than creating a multimedia end product brought to fruition with the help of experts.

It's precisely this logic that also guides a new incubator program made possible by the Saul Zaentz Charitable Foundation.



The Saul Zaentz Innovation Fund in Film and Media at John Hopkins University aims to "empower and embolden new voices by bringing unique projects to life, connects selected applicants with prestigious artists, veteran executives, and successful entrepreneurs to further develop and produce their projects."

Initiatives include a mentoring program, an intensive lab where fellows analyze and improve their projects, and Brain Trust meetings where special industry guests lead brainstorming sessions to try and solve project-specific challenges.

The fund welcomes all kinds of projects related to audio-visual content development, production, and delivery, including short and feature-length screenplays, documentaries, virtual reality projects, experimental work, new production models, and more. What's more, the fund will also consider technology, video game, and emerging media projects.

Applicants from across the country with technology, video game or emerging media projects can apply. However, those applicants with projects related to audio-visual content development production and delivery (short and feature-length screenplays, documentaries, virtual reality projects, experimental work, new production models and more) must be Baltimore residents, students from Johns Hopkins, MICA, Peabody and Hopkins alumni (located anywhere in the country).

And as Hollywood continues to grabble with its diversity problem, it's also worth noting that the incubator program isn't plagued by similar difficulties. "From transgender artists and a 50+ year old African American producer to a Jewish writer and an African American lesbian preacher," the program states, "the fellows' races, ages, religions and genders vary much like the stories they are telling."

To followers of Saul Zaentz, this support for the incubator makes perfect sense. After all, as previously noted, the the Saul Zaentz Company has provided consistent financial support to the Berkeley FILM Foundation. And the incubator fund itself was launched in March 2016 through a $1 million grant from the Saul Zaentz Charitable Foundation.

Interested artists can fill out and submit an application form at zaentzfund.com. The application period for the fund opens Monday, August 1st.
These are boom times for libertarians. Over the past decade or so, the political right has moved away from its long entwinement with Christian evangelicals, talked less about "moral values," and focused more on downsizing government and protecting individual rights.

While the official Libertarian Party is a political lightweight, libertarian candidatesRon and Rand Paulhave made serious runs for the presidency in recent electoral cycles. Also, even if the Tea Party has lost some of its influence lately, it still stands as among the most successful libertarian-infused social movement in U.S. history.

A number of factors explain the recent surge in libertarianism, including demographic shifts. Younger Americans are more likely to embrace a secular and socially permissive brand of conservatism. But without question, philanthropy has been a key factor.

Starting just before the Reagan era, a cadre of dedicated funders worked hard to bankroll libertarian politics. They built a robust infrastructure of policy groups, legal organizations, and leadership training institutes to develop the intellectual and human capital to power a movement. They established specific goals for dismantling entitlement programs, rolling back large swaths of regulation, privatizing key government services, strengthening specific individual rights, and opening the global trading system.

Unlike the religious right, which has largely lost the culture war, libertarian funders have enjoyed a good deal of success, pulling Democratsand the nationcloser to the center on economic policy.

Conservative and libertarian giving overlaps, and some of the top funders on this list check both boxes. But as things have shaken out on the right in the past decade, it's become clearer thaton the funding side, anywaylibertarianism was always the far richer tributary in the conservative river of philanthropic wealth.

Without further ado, todays top libertarian funders.

1. The Koch Brothers

Libertarianism would not be what it is today without the sibling philanthropists America loves to hate. While Charles and David Koch have lately become infamous for the boost they've given Republicans during the Obama years, these industrialists have long believed that investing in libertarian ideas through think tanks and universities offers more bang for the buck. And they've recently indicated that such philanthropic giving is likely to take priority over political giving in coming years.

The Koch funding apparatus is complex, but the core philanthropic pieces are the duos charitable foundations, which have been dispensing grants to libertarian groups for some four decades. In terms of overall impact, the Koch brothers may have done more for the libertarian cause in America than any other funder. (In 1980, David Koch was even the Libertarian Partys vice presidential nominee.)

The Cato Institute, which Charles Koch helped create in 1974 and which was initially named after him, stands as the signature achievement of the Kochs' public policy philanthropy. It isn't just the flagship libertarian think tank in America, but it's consistently been ranked as among the top 25 U.S. think tanks overall in terms of influence.

Another major recipient of Koch money (to the tune of $30 million) is the Institute for Humane Studies, which describes itself as a "nonprofit educational organization that engages with students and professors around the country to encourage the study and advancement of freedom." The institute is the nerve center of a sprawling grantmaking operation funded by Charles Koch that channels some $20 million a year to several hundred U.S. universities to promote libertarian studies and activities on campus.

No university has received more Koch money than George Mason in Virginia, which has emerged as a leading home for libertarian scholars, thanks to tens of millions in Koch donations.

Koch grants have also gone to a wide range of other groups that promote libertarian policies, such as the Institute for Justice, the Federalist Society, the Bill of Rights Institute, the Foundation for Economic Education, and the Mercatus Center. (Visit Conservativetransparency.org for handy-one stop shopping to research this and other funders on the right.)

Related:

2. Dunns Foundation for the Advancement of Right Thinking

From his foundations name alone, we know quant trader William A. Dunn is a man who feels strongly about what he believes. Dunns Foundation operates with a laser-like focus to advance libertarian policy.

It isnt the oldest or wealthiest funder on this list, but Dunns Foundation deserves a spot near the top for its ideological and strategic purity. Since the foundation set up shop in 1994, it has channelled over $60 million to libertarian policy shops, education initiatives and legal groups. Social conservatives get nothing from Dunns. In fact, one of its only acts in the culture wars has been to support the pro-legalization Marijuana Policy Project.

Dunns Foundation enjoys a tight-knit relationship with the Cato Institute and the Reason Foundation, and William Dunn sits on both boards. Thomas A. Beach, current Reason Foundation president, is a Dunns Foundation trustee. Some other libertarian heavyweights receiving Dunns money are the Competitive Enterprise Institute, the Institute for Justice, the Atlas Society, the Mackinac Center, and the Foundation for Economic Education.

Related:

3. DonorsTrust

The top donor-advised fund on the right, DonorsTrust has grown rapidly in the last 15 years, and now channels over $100 million annually to a wide range of conservative and libertarian policy groups. This money comes from its many clients with funds at the trust, and they are not exclusively a libertarian crowd. You'll find plenty of grants going to conservative groups involved in the cultural war. But donors moving money through DonorsTrust definitely lean strongly in the libertarian direction in their grantmaking, supplying a steady stream of funding to nearly all the top libertarian groups in the U.S. The president of DonorsTrust, Lawson Bader, is the former CEO of the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a libertarian policy outfit in Washington, D.C.

Related: Inside DonorsTrust: What This Mission-Driven DAF Offers Philanthropists on the Right

4. The Sarah Scaife Foundation

When Richard Mellon Scaife passed away in 2014, much of his $1.4 billion fortune went into the family foundations he nurtured, especially the Sarah Scaife Foundation. Now, with assets of over $700 million and a total giving history that tops $368 million, this foundation is one of libertarian policys foremost backers.

In the 1970s and over the following decades, Richard Mellon Scaife emerged as a conservative philanthropy champion. His giving allowed a young Heritage Foundation to flourish, and helped establish the policy-focused grantmaking strategy that has done so much to keep free market principles in the limelight.

Like the Kochs, Scaife was unafraid to enter the political fray. In fact, he emerged on the giving scene as an early financial supporter of Nixons 1972 campaign. He was also the money behind the investigative journalism that led to Bill Clintons impeachment, and, perhaps, Al Gores loss in 2000.

As the largest of the Scaife family foundations, Sarah Scaife carries on that tradition, granting large sums to think tanks, academics and foreign policy shops. The foundation's giving strategy covers a wider territory than Dunns, encompassing a distinct foreign policy element, but that territory is still well within the realm of libertarian/conservative politics.

Key grant recipients include the Hoover Institution, the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, the Manhattan Institution, the Reason Foundation, the Competitive Enterprise Institute, and many others.

Related:

5. Searle Freedom Trust

Closely associated with top conservative organizations like DonorsTrust and the American Enterprise Institute, Searle Freedom Trust is a steadfast source of funding for libertarian think tanks and intellectuals. Founded to assuage Daniel C. Searles worry that future generations would end up living in a world dominated by big government, devoid of ethical values, and lacking in individual initiative and responsibility, this funder gives away upwards of $14 million a year.

Some of its key beneficiaries are the Reason Foundation, the Manhattan Institute, Cato, and the Competitive Enterprise Institute. In other words, the same group of free market thought leaders that shows up time and again on this list. Like the Kochs, Searle also looks for ways to influence policy through lobbying, notably via the Pacific Research Institute's battles against the Affordable Care Act.

Taking its cue from the spent-down John M. Olin Foundation and the recently sunsetted Earhart Foundation (another libertarian stalwart), the Searle Freedom Trust is set to deplete its assets by 2025.

Related:Conservative Intellectuals Love This Foundation. Here's Why

6. Jaquelin Hume Foundation

Heres another funder that's spending down its assets. According to the Philanthropy Roundtable, Jaquelin Hume has another three or four years left to finish its grantmaking, a focused effort beginning in the 1970s to push free market economics education in American high schools.

In this, Hume has a lot in common with the Institute for Intercollegiate Studies, a nonprofit that promotes libertarian/conservative principles on college campuses. That organization gets a lot of money from another funder on this list, the Sarah Scaife Foundation. Weve also covered Humes support for blended learning approaches, a technique that (at some level) moves the focal point of instruction away from government and toward the individual.

Related: What Do Free Market Ideas Have to Do With Blended Learning? Ask the Hume Foundation

7. Claws Foundation

Founded and overseen by Philadelphia investor Arthur Dantchik, the Claws Foundation is a regular contributor to the libertarian policy universe. With a relatively limited roster of grantees, Claws focuses its resources, giving away about $15 million a year.

On the policy side, beneficiaries include the Institute for Justice (where Arthur Dantchik sits on the board), the Cato Institute, the Reason Foundation, the Atlas Economic Research Foundation, and the Ayn Rand Institute. Claws also channels lots of money to the Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia and various Jewish causes.

8. John William Pope Foundation

With nearly $150 million in assets, this North Carolina funder is undoubtedly libertarian. But it's hardly purist in this respect, also promoting a conservative values agenda that has recentlyand famouslyincluded restrictions on LBGT rights in North Carolina. Directing the action, here, is Art Pope, who started the foundation with his father in the 1980s and also took over as CEO of Variety Wholesalers, which is largely a family business. Grantees include the John Locke Foundation, the Civitas Institute, the Americans for Prosperity Foundation, and the Institute for Humane Studies. The John William Pope Center for Higher Education Policy got its start from Pope donations.

Related:

9. The Pierre F. and Enid Goodrich Foundation

This foundation and the next on the list are notable for their libertarian focus, not their overall level of giving, which is relatively small in both cases. But the Goodrich Foundation started from a position of strength: Its eponymous founder started the Liberty Fund, a major libertarian educational nonprofit and publisher.

Most of Pierre Goodrichs philanthropy fittingly went to the Liberty Fund, but the foundation he started with his wife continues to support libertarian education nationwide. Major grantees include the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, which we discuss above, the Foundation for Economic Education, the Mont Pelerin Society, the Institute for Humane Studies, the Atlas Economic Research Foundation, and the Cato Institute.

10. The Rodney Fund

With total assets under $10 million, the Rodney Fund follows the example of its larger compatriots, giving almost exclusively to policy shops and public affairs institutes. The Michigan-based funder doles out to the local Mackinac Center for Public Policy and has given decent sums to other libertarian powerhouses like Cato, the Foundation for Economic Education, the Ludwig von Mises Institute (which formed because Cato wasnt free market enough), and the Ayn Rand Institute.

***

This overview of libertarian funders has only focused on those operating through transparent foundations. But lots of money flows to libertarian causes outside of those channels. Cato, for example, relies heavily on individual donations from wealthy individuals and this money can be harder to track. Much of it comes from donors in the financial world.

See Also:
Earlier this year, human rights activist Berta Caceresa Honduran environmental activist and indigenous leaderwas senselessly murdered. Caceres killing not only brought the plight of human rights defenders to the forefront of the larger global dialogue on human rights, but also shined a brighter light on people and groups fighting for the rights of indigenous people around the world.

While the big funders in this space tend to get all the attention, we wanted to take a moment to spotlight what several smaller players are up to. Three small but powerful funders in this field are the Global Greengrants Fund, the Angelica Foundation and the Mize Foundation. Heres a closer look at what these organizations are all about.

Global Greengrants Fund

Global Greengrants typically awards grants that are based on environmental conservation and protection, with a heavy focus on the rights of women and indigenous communities. Much of the fund's grantmaking revolves around disreputable activities conducted by corporations and governments that threaten the livelihoods of local communities like illegal land grabs, resource pillaging, exploitative extractive industries practices, and the pollution of water, air, and soil that occurs during the course of operations.

Related: Global Greengrants Fund: Grants for Human Rights

Global Greengrants may be taking on the big guys with its grantmaking, but awards are modest here, usually around $5,000. But small amounts of money don't equate with small impact. The fund supported efforts that led to some pretty big wins for indigenous people in Ecuador and the Niger Delta.

In Argentina, Global Greengrants protected the Sarayaku people living in Ecuadorian Amazon in their battle with an Argentine company that was prospecting for oil on their land. In 2012, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights officially ruled that the government was violating the rights of the Sarayaku, effectively keeping big oil off their land.

The Niger Delta, which is one of the most oil rich regions of the world, has long suffered from heavy oil development, which has been going on since the 1950s. This decades-long destruction resulted in the Ogoni peoples land being among the worlds most polluted ecosystems. Global Greengrants is currently backing the Ogoni Solidarity Forum to advocate for substantial environmental remediation of the land.

Angelica Foundation

A self-described progressive philanthropist, Suzanne Gollin, co-founder and director of the Angelica Foundation, spent a good deal of her childhood in Mexico. As a result, her foundations human rights grants are directed to groups working in the countrywhere, by the way, human rights violations are among the most egregious.

Angelicas indigenous peoples rights work includes the support of Assembly of indigenous peoples in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec region of Oaxaca for its work protecting their land rights in the face of green energy companies building wind power projects on their land, often without consent or payment. The foundation has also backed efforts mounted by Oaxaca-based organizations to fight against mining projects, dam construction, natural resources, and land rights.

Related: Angelica Foundation: Grants for Human Rights

Angelicas grants are oftentimes on the modest side, as well, generally starting at $10,000. However, the foundation has been known to make awards in the $100,000 to $200,000 range.

Mize Family Foundation

The Mize Family Foundation supports groups fighting for natural resource rights of marginalized and indigenous communities. Mize funds efforts in womens rights as well.

Mizes grantmaking is largely focused on the impact of climate change on indigenous people and communities around the world. A major goal, here, is to support grassroots groups that are equipped to protect local communities in regard to their land and other natural resources rights. The foundation also supports movements to combat the expansion of industrial agricultural systems, the construction of large dams, and fossil fuel extraction on indigenous lands.

Related: Mize Family Foundation: Grants for Human Rights

Again, grants are modest here, typically ranging from $15,000 to $20,000.

***

These three small, but powerful funders clearly demonstrate that it doesnt take millions upon millions of dollars to effectively back movements fighting for the rights of indigenous communities. With a keen focus on local and grassroots groups, Global Greengrants, Angelica, and Mize are the embodiment of how a relatively small amount of money can affect big changes.
Lenders appear to be steering clear of self-storage financing in Hong Kong after two storage-facility fires last month killed two firefighters and injured another. The blazes prompted government officials to suspend self-storage development inside industrial buildings, while agencies conduct safety checks throughout the region. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority, the citys currency board and central bank, this week indicated it had no plans to issue self-storage lending guidelines to banks since lenders already have their own procedures to manage risks, according to the source.

Derek Chung Siu-kuen, assistant general manager and head of retail banking at Wing Lung Bank, told the source the lender has stopped processing new mortgage applications from self-storage operators out of concern over compliance with potential new fire and safety requirements that may result from ongoing investigations.

Government officials have committed to spending two months examining 487 self-storage locations, primarily looking for safety violations.

A reduction or outright ban of using industrial buildings for self-storage could cause widespread vacancies and negatively impact investment values in those properties, according to Marco Chan Kam-ping, head of research for CBRE Hong Kong, Southern China and Taiwan, a commercial real estate services and investment firm.
A spate of bank heists perpetrated by cybercriminals, that have incurred tens of millions of dollars in losses, has heightened fears of the financial sector becoming an increasingly attractive target of cyberattacks, reported AFP.Banks in Bangladesh, the Philippines, Vietnam, and Ecuador have been hacked over the past year on the global interbank service SWIFT, and some analysts expect more attacks to become public, said the report.After news broke out of a spectacular US$81 million Bangladesh bank heist, SWIFT said the incident was not a single occurrence, but part of a wider and highly adaptive campaign targeting banks."Cyber criminals are no longer targeting grandmothers at home for small amounts, but going directly where the money is," Juan Andres Guerrero-Saade, a researcher with security firm Kaspersky, told AFP.Guerrero-Saade said its not clear where the attacks are launched, but that the hackers are using techniques similar to those developed for cyber espionage."I don't think this implies it's nation-states, it's more of an evolution. It's criminal actors taking on some of those techniques," said the analyst.Kaspersky researchers have discovered last year a hacker group which targeted banks in Eastern Europe, estimating total losses up to $1 billion.Dan Guido, cofounder of security group Trails of Bits and resident hacker at New York Universitys engineering school, said recent security breaches are not surprising; and that a relatively small team of determined hackers can carry out the kind of hacks that went through SWIFT or the Brussels-based Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication.In the United States, officials, industry leaders, and lawmakers have raised concerns about the potential threats hackers pose to banks.Senator Tom Carper asked the Department of Homeland Security for a briefing for an investigation into the vulnerabilities of the US financial system.The American Bankers Association and other financial and security organisations, on the other hand, have issued a warning that called for new controls and safeguards against cyberattacks:"While recent events targeted national financial institutions with access to a global payment network, financial institutions should assess the risk of all critical systems to ensure appropriate controls are in place."Guerrero-Saade said that to stay ahead of hackers and to enable security solutions, it is critical that companies share information about threats."Sadly most companies don't tend to be very forward looking, they think that if they don't sound the bell themselves no one will find out," he said."It's much better for us to get ahead of this as an international community."
The University of Massachusetts has won state and federal approval of plans to protect the systems campuses from natural hazards.

School officials say its necessary to prepare for threats such as storms or flooding amid climate change and the extreme weather tied to it.

The university began preparing its plans four years ago. They were recently approved by the Federal Emergency Management Agency and its state counterpart in Massachusetts.

The university has also been awarded $1 million in state grants to purchase emergency generators.

Having emergency plans approved by FEMA makes the university eligible for additional grants if a natural disaster does strike.

UMass officials say that only one other public university in New England, the University of Maine, has received state and federal approval for plans of this type.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Education Universities
Irish recruiters are already filling jobs for financial services firms which are shifting some operations from the United Kingdom, with Dublin moving fast to steal a march on rivals just a month after Britons voted to leave the European Union.

While France has begun courting bankers with new tax breaks for expatriates and Frankfurt, Amsterdam and Luxembourg are also making pitches, Ireland is presenting itself as the only English-speaking country that offers a base in the euro zone and a future in the EU.

Before the June 23 referendum, the government warned that a departure of Irelands nearest and biggest trade partner from the EU would pose a major strategic risk, with exporters to Britain particularly worried.

But Brexit also presents opportunities for Ireland, which has decades of experience in attracting multinational investment, and it is determined to seize them.

Ireland is already one of the worlds largest centers for back office banking functions such as settling transactions, many of them farmed out from London  Europes financial capital but whose future outside the EU is beset by uncertainty. On top of that, Ireland hosts a growing financial technology industry.

Some headhunters say its too early to spot any definite trend. Nevertheless, Dublin-based Sigmar Recruitment is more than doubling its own workforce, hiring 150 extra staff over the next two years to handle foreign demand that was already increasing before the referendum and has accelerated since.

We have two particular projects relocating from the UK and then maybe another three that were considering two to three locations across Europe  and those have all gone in Irelands favor, said Robert Mac Giolla Phadraig, Sigmars Chief Commercial Officer. The headcounts for some of the projects are anywhere between 50 and 200.

He told Reuters that Sigma now has to find candidates for a total of 1,500 to 2,500 positions, mainly from U.S. and European firms. The jobs are in many areas including internal departments that ensure firms are complying with regulatory rules on managing their financial risk, as well as financial technology and IT support.

More Attractive Than Ever

A major opportunity for Ireland is the risk to London-based operations if Britain loses access to the EUs passporting arrangement, which allows businesses regulated in member states to sell financial services across Europe.

Beazley Plc, which manages six Lloyds of London syndicates, said last week it was working to get European insurance licenses for its Irish reinsurance business. British asset manager M&G Investments, the fund arm of insurer Prudential, is also looking at expanding its operations in Dublin.

Brightwater, another specialist Irish financial recruiter, has got go-aheads from bigger companies, mostly banks, for jobs in the low hundreds moving from Britain, according to head of marketing Eileen Moloney.

Other firms are at an earlier stage of planning, such as DueDil, a financial technology startup employing just under 100 people in London that was looking at expanding into Europe regardless of the referendum result.

What Brexit does is it makes us re-evaluate the distribution and types of teams we would be hiring, co-founder and chief executive officer Damian Kimmelman told Reuters.

Kimmelman gave inside sales  those made over the phone or online rather than face-to-face with clients  as an example.

Should we hire our inside sales (team) in the UK or should we hire them in Ireland? Irelands always been attractive as a hub for inside sales, but it becomes even more attractive now than it was before, he said, adding that his firm could be employing 20 people in the country within a year.

Trickle, Not a Torrent

The pick up in Ireland has coincided with flagging recruitment in Britain even before the referendum, due to uncertainty over its outcome. British recruiter Hays said net fees in the UK and Ireland fell 4 percent on a like-for-like basis in the quarter to end-June, but taken alone, fees in Ireland grew 22 percent.

Randstad, the worlds second largest employment services company, has seen a low level of hiring in the British financial sector, its CFO told Reuters.

The state agency in charge of attracting foreign direct investment (FDI) to Ireland reports similar trends to the recruiters.

From our end, Brexit is coming up in all our discussions with clients and potential clients, said Martin Shanahan, the chief executive of IDA Ireland which reported a pick up in jobs in the first half of the year following record growth in 2015.

The most significant increase is in financial services. Weve seen a major increase in traffic into Ireland over the past number of weeks across all areas  banking, insurance, funds and payments  wanting to talk to us about possibilities.

Shanahan, who oversees a strategy responsible for around 190,000 jobs or almost one in every 10 Irish workers, also sees opportunities in the technology and pharmaceutical sectors and expects it will be well into next year before the full impact becomes apparent.

Companies hunting for the right talent in Ireland, where unemployment has halved to 7.8 percent since 2012 amid a sharp economic recovery, will still have abundant choice, if initial inquiries are anything to go by.

Recruiters say theyve seen big jumps in British-based candidates seeking Irish positions since the referendum. Some are Irish looking to return home, but others are Europeans and Britons who now consider Ireland a more stable place to work.

Job website Indeed.com says searches for Irish positions made from Britain were 2.5 times higher in the days after the vote than the average before, and have remained at a high level.

Ireland also appeals to companies due to its easy access to the United States.

Joe Bollard, head of International Tax Services for EY in Ireland, said he is aware of one new FDI investor that has already gone back to its board to reconsider a decision to base its European headquarters in Britain.

The company was starting the process of hiring, leading to several hundred jobs long term. Although a large number may still go to Britain, Bollard said Ireland is the most likely credible alternative because of its record in the sector involved.

Its a trickle rather than a torrent at this early stage but this does create a real medium term window of opportunity for Ireland, said Bollard.

(Esha Vaish reported on this story from Bengaluru; additional reporting by Anthony Deutsch in Amsterdam; editing by David Stamp)

Related:

Topics Europe Talent London
Capsicum Re*, the specialist reinsurance broker, announced it has hired Patrick Bousfield, Jane Palmer and Alice ODwyer-Smith to its cyber team. They are based in the London office and report to Ian Newman, a partner in Capsicum Res London property and specialty division.

Bousfield has multi class experience in treaty and facultative reinsurance and joined from EC3 Brokers, where he focused on Canadian business development and SME and public entities cyber. Prior to EC3 Brokers, he spent over five years at Beach & Associates working in Toronto, Sydney and London.

Palmer was most recently a broker in the specialty casualty team at BMS Group where she worked predominantly on North American business including E&O, D&O, MedMal and GL. Prior to this she was a broker at THB Group and focused on North American EPL.

ODwyer-Smith joined from Willis where she was on the reinsurance broking graduate scheme working within Willis Res non marine team. She worked across a diverse portfolio of specialty clients primarily focusing on terrorism, onshore energy, political risk and trade credit.

* Founded by Grahame Chilton and Rupert Swallow in 2013, Capsicum Reinsurance Brokers LLP Group is a reinsurance broker working in partnership with Arthur J. Gallagher as its primary treaty reinsurance broking outlet.

Source: Capsicum Re

Topics Cyber Agencies Reinsurance London
A former city commissioner in Bismarck has filed a complaint with the North Dakota Department of Health accusing the city of neglecting to address sewer wastewater and storm water problems on the citys south side for decades.

A June 28 petition with Steve Schwabs letter was signed by more than 40 residents, The Bismarck Tribune reported.

Schwab said inadequate infrastructure has damaged buildings and created health concerns. He wants the city to find a solution.

Despite numerous complaints to the city, and news video broadcasts of the flooding, the city chooses to ignore the problem and the effects it has on residential dwellings and businesses, Schwab said in the complaint. Due to the city of Bismarcks negligence, the situation has deteriorated over the years to such an extent is has now become a full-blown health and environmental hazard.

In a response, city officials said July 1 that flooding is an ongoing concern thats being addressed, but dispute sewage is an issue.

It may be possible that residents are seeing surcharge to the storm sewer system which can cause water to come out of storm water manholes and mistaking this for a sanitary sewer overflow, said Michelle Klose, Bismarck Public Works director of utility operations.

The health department has no other complaints on file about sewage, according to Karl Rockeman, the agencys water quality director.

If there are any specific complaints that come up in the future that would certainly be something we would look into, Rockeman said.

Klose said the city completed a storm water management plan in 2013 and has nearly finished an update.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Flood Leadership
Chubb Ltd. weathered claims from major storms in Texas and other U.S. states, Canadian wildfires and earthquakes in Japan and Ecuador in the second quarter to record solid operating results.

Operating income at the giant insurer formed with the merger of ACE Ltd. and Chubb in January was $1.1 billion compared with $788 million for the same quarter last year. Operating income excluding catastrophe losses was $1.4 billion compared with $894 million.

Net income for the quarter came in at $726 million, compared with $942 million for the same quarter last year.

The property/casualty combined ratio for the quarter was 91.2 compared with 87.7 for the prior year second quarter.

Chubb produced very good operating results in the quarter despite a greater level of industry natural catastrophe losses globally than has occurred in recent years, though industry insured losses appear in line with longer-term historical averages, Evan G. Greenberg, chairman and chief executive officer of Chubb Limited, commented in prepared remarks.

Greenberg said the ACE-Chubb integration is going well and the company is enjoying the benefits of cross-selling opportunities between legacy Chubb and ACE customers.

In fact, the strength of the new Chubb, including cross-selling and the introduction of our total product portfolio to an expanded distribution base, is receiving greater attention and, while early, the efforts are beginning to contribute to revenue growth, Greenberg said.

In a call with analysts, Greenberg, citing high retention rates on legacy ACE and legacy Chubb business, said he is feeling pretty good about how the integration is going.

Lower retention on business assumed with ACEs acquisition of Firemans Fund personal lines business is due largely to planned non-renewal of some of the accounts and repricing on Chubb/ACE terms. The lower retention was anticipated and will gradually improve, Greenberg told analysts.

In response to analysts questions, the CEO said current political trends favoring protectionism over globalization are worrisome and he called for political leaders to speak out on the benefits of global trade to the U.S.

He also criticized attacks on immigration as misguided populism.

He said Brexit, Britians vote to exit the European Union, should have no short-term effect on Chubb, while its long-term effect will depend on what is negotiated going forward.

Topics Chubb
A Little Rock, Ark., doctor whose clinic improperly billed massage therapy services as physical therapy has received two years in prison and has been ordered to pay insurers and patients more than $700,000 in restitution.

Robert Barrow pleaded guilty to healthcare fraud conspiracy. He said he had been deliberately ignorant to the fact that his office used a billing code for physical therapy services to seek get more than $2.2 million over a seven-year period for services which are not usually covered by insurance companies.

Federal prosecutors say Barrow contracted two massage therapists to use space at the Your Doctors Office clinic and that in exchange for low rent and overhead expenses, the therapists agreed to give Barrow a percentage of the profits from services they performed on patients Barrow referred for physical therapy.

Authorities say an investigation showed that patients believed theyd been receiving and paying for physical therapy.

Barrow maintained that billing errors were his staffs fault, but told a judge that he did not regularly review the therapists records to make sure patients were being properly treated and progressing.

The investigation was started after an insurance employee was surprised that the small clinic was the second-highest biller of physical therapy services in the state, even surpassing clinics that specialize in rehabilitative and physical therapy services.

Barrows medical license was suspended after he pleaded guilty.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Fraud Arkansas
An employee who sabotaged Citibanks computer system because he believed he was about to be fired has been sentenced to nearly two years in prison.

Investigators say Lennon Ray Brown of Dallas transmitted a code and command in 2013 leading to loss of connectivity to 90 percent of Citibank networks in North America.

Brown was sentenced Monday to 21 months in federal prison and fined more than $77,000. The 38-year-old Brown pleaded guilty in February to intentional damage to a protected computer.

Investigators say Brown caused the damage after a discussion with a supervisor about his work performance at the Citibank Regents Campus near Dallas in December 2013.

Brown later texted a co-worker saying he was about to be fired from Citibank and had beat them to it.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Disabled Veterans Insurance Careers (DVIC), the non-profit organization that helps train, educate and create employment opportunities within the insurance industry for disabled veterans, celebrated the graduation of Joanne Smith on June 30. Smith completed DVICs insurance training program.

The five-month program prepares disabled veterans to embark on a customer service career in property/casualty insurance, with an emphasis on personal auto and homeowners lines.

According to Gary Bryant, president and CEO of DVIC, Smith spent the last six months training and working toward the goal of completing the program.

With her military training and insurance training combined, she has a very successful career ahead of her, Bryant said.

Smiths career is already underway, as she was recently hired by the Gary Green Insurance Agency, a State Farm agency in Fort Myers, Fla., thanks in part to her training from DVIC.

DVIC is a not for profit 501(c)(3) organization, established in 2011 with the mission to educate, train and create meaningful employment opportunities within the insurance industry for disabled veterans.

The organizations operating board consists of: retired U.S. Army Major General, James L. Dozier; Roger C. Mercado Jr., director of Lee County Human and Veteran Services; Gary V. Trippe CIC, co-founder and chairman of Oswald Trippe and Co.; retired insurance agency executive Gay Trippe; John Pollock CIC, regional insurance president, Florida, Pennsylvania, Tennessee of BB&T Insurance Services, Inc.; retired U.S. Army Colonel Thomas A. Dials, chairman emeritus of the Armed Forces Insurance Corporation; Dr. J.R. Harding of the Agency for Persons with Disabilities; former U.S. Air Force Captain and professional speaker, Wayne Smith; Todd E. Gates, chairman of Gates Construction; and retired U.S. Army Captain Jae Barclay of CRC Insurance Services . Retired U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel Gary L. Bryant is the president and CEO of DVIC.

Topics USA Florida Talent Training Development
The state is making millions of dollars in minigrants available for small businesses damaged by deadly floods last month.

Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin announced Monday that grants up to $10,000 will be awarded to small businesses through the RISE West Virginia public-private partnership.

Tomblin set a minimum goal of $2 million through private donations and state money.

Tomblin plans to use some of the $4.5 million in state money usually earmarked for casinos.

Brad Smith, CEO of software company Intuit, is donating $500,000 and offering free software for affected small businesses.

Prospective donors can contact the West Virginia Development Office. Small businesses can apply for grants through the West Virginia Chamber of Commerce.

The June 23 floods killed 23 people and ravaged homes, businesses and infrastructure.

Related:

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Flood Virginia
State parks along the Californias famed Big Sur coastline were closed Tuesday as one of the states two major wildfires threatened the scenic region at the height of the summer tourism season.

The Big Sur fire threatened a long stretch of forested mountains that hug the coast and sent smoke billowing over Pacific Coast Highway.

The Big Sur closures were put into place for parks that draw 7,500 visitors daily from around the world. Campgrounds were closed due to smoke dangers.

The park shutdowns came as a fire that started Friday just north of Big Sur grew to 36 square miles by Tuesday. It was 10 percent contained, and 20 homes have burned in the area while residents of 300 more homes were ordered to evacuate.

In Southern California, a fire in the wilderness between the northern edge of Los Angeles and Santa Clarita grew to 59 square miles, however containment grew to 25 percent.

Acting Gov. Tom Torlakson, substituting for Gov. Jerry Brown who is at the Democratic National Convention with other top state officials, declared a state of emergency for both fires on Tuesday night.

Related:

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Topics California Catastrophe Natural Disasters Wildfire
Farmers Insurance has made some organizational changes it says are aimed at improving its customer experience.

Tim Madden, former head of the company's Bristol West subsidiary, becomes personal lines chief product officer, tasked with "driving initiatives to maintain profitable growth and raise customer retention."

In addition, Chanda Sperry, former VP of Farmers Direct Services, takes on the role of head of service operations for the company. Reporting to COO David Travers, Sperry's "commitment to customer satisfaction will help her drive continued success in leading customer experience enhancements at Farmers," the company says in a statement.
Even six years after the Panama Papers leaked a confidential list of offshore accounts held by the global elite, tax morality is still very much on the table.
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REE Stock News - Defense Metals (TSX-V: DEFN.V) (OTCQB: DFMTF) Drills 113 metres of 2.50% Total Rare Earth Oxide at Wicheeda

Vancouver, British Columbia - October 26, 2022 (Investorideas.com Newswire) Mining / Metals / Green Energy Stock News - Defense Metals Corp. (TSX-V: DEFN / OTCQB: DFMTF/ FSE:35D) is pleased to announce high-grade Rare Earth Element ("REE") assay results from one additional core hole, totalling 383 metres (m), collared within the northern area of Defense Metals' 100% owned Wicheeda REE Deposit.

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Health and Wellness Stock News - Endexx (OTCBB: EDXC) Secures Third Order for Non-Nicotine Vape Product HYLA Worth Approximately $1.5M in Revenue for First two Fiscal Quarters of 2023

CAVE CREEK, Ariz. - October 27, 2022 (Investorideas.com Newswire) Endexx Corporation (OTCBB:EDXC), a provider of innovative, plant-derived, and sustainable health and skincare products, today announces it has secured three key significant orders for its newly acquired, non-nicotine plant-based vape product, HYLA.

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Breaking EV Stock News: Mullen (NASDAQ: MULN) FIVE 'Strikingly Different' EV Crossover Tour Starts Tomorrow, Oct. 27, in Pasadena, California; New Los Angeles Area Stop Added

BREA, Calif. - October 26, 2022 (Investorideas.com Newswire) Mullen Automotive, Inc. (NASDAQ: MULN) ("Mullen" or the "Company"), an emerging electric vehicle ("EV") manufacturer, announces today the beginning of the Mullen FIVE Strikingly Different EV Crossover Tour, which will commence on Oct. 27 in Pasadena, California. Due to overwhelming interest, new dates have been added for Nov. 1 and 2 at Angel Stadium in Anaheim, California.

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Breaking AI Stock News: FatBrain (OTCQB: LZGI) Acquires Confidential Computing Platform ZeroTrust to Protect Data Privacy and Accelerate Innovation for Millions of Growth Businesses

NEW YORK, NY - October 19, 2022 (Investorideas.com Newswire) FatBrain AI (LZG International, Inc.) (OTCQB: LZGI), the leader in powerful and easy-to-use artificial intelligence (AI) solutions for star enterprises of tomorrow, has acquired the confidential computing and privacy intellectual property (IP) plus software assets of Zero2A PTE LTD ("ZeroTrust Platform"), a software company based in Singapore.

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While major Indian operators like Airtel and Vodafone have already rolled out their 4G services in the country, none of them offer VoLTE as their existing infrastructure is simply incapable of offering it. Reliance Jio, however, is aiming to be the first operator in the country to offer true LTE experience in the country with VoLTE support.

Not only is Reliance using the most efficient band compared to other operators, it will also the only one whose backend supports VoLTE. While it still remains unclear as to when Reliance Jio will be launched commercially, the company is already conducting a public trial of its network. It is doing this by offering its Lyf phones with a Jio SIM with free 3 months of unlimited data and calls.

Recently, the company also expanded its testing base by launching an offer for certain Galaxy devices that make their owners eligible for a free Jio SIM with the same benefits i.e. 3 months of unlimited data, voice calls, and messages.

So, in case you are wondering how to get a Reliance Jio SIM card and use it with your iPhone in India, read below.

How to get Reliance Jio SIM

There are two ways through which you can get your hands on a Reliance Jio SIM. The first one involves buying a Lyf phone, which as mentioned above comes with a Jio SIM bundled.The cheapest Lyf phone from Reliance costs Rs. 3000 ($50), but since the SIM card bundled with the handset is IMEI locked, it cannot be used in other phones. You can, however, create a hotspot and connect your iPhone to it to enjoy the unlimited data.

The second method requires you to have access to a Samsung phone. Reliance is offering a free Jio SIM card with the following Samsung handsets:

Galaxy S7 edge

Galaxy S7

Galaxy Note 5

Galaxy Note 5 Dual SIM

Galaxy S6 edge+

Galaxy S6 edge

Galaxy S6

Galaxy Note 4

Galaxy A5 (2016/15)

Galaxy A7 (2016/15)

Galaxy A8

The steps to redeem the SIM card are pretty easy. Install the MyJio app on the handset. When you open it, you will see a Get SIM button on the screen. Tap on it, select your region following which you will get a barcode.

Now, head over to your nearest Reliance Digital/Xpress store with your ID proof like Passport, driving license, and 1 photo. Show them the barcode, submit your documents, sign on the forms, select a Jio number, and you should be good to go. You will have to wait for up to 48 hours for your Jio number to be activated. While the SIM card can be activated from any phone, you must insert it into a Samsung device that is eligible for the offer to activate the unlimited data, calling, and messaging plan. Otherwise, you will only get 2GB of free data and 90 mins of calling for free. While there were hacks to activate this unlimited plan on any phone earlier, they have all been patched by Reliance now.

Using Reliance Jio on an iPhone

Once the SIM card is activated with the unlimited plan, you can insert it in your iPhone and use it without any issues. However, only the following iPhones support the bands and VoLTE on which Reliance Jio works.

iPhone 6 (Requires operator update)

iPhone 6s

iPhone 6 Plus (Requires operator update)

iPhone 6s Plus

iPhone SE

On incompatible iPhones, you will likely be able to use data, with voice calls being completely unavailable.

When you first insert the Jio SIM in your iPhone, you will likely receive a provisioning update with the carrier settings. Make sure to install it.

If you do end up getting a Reliance Jio SIM card for your iPhone by following the steps above, do let us know how your experience with it turns out to be.
Three of the largest banks in Australia have filed a joint application with anti-trust regulators to negotiate with Apple over Apple Pay restrictions and install their own mobile payment application on iPhones. The three banks include National Australia Bank (NAB), Commonwealth Bank of Australia, and Westpac Banking Corp.

Smaller banks like Bendigo and Adelaide Bank have also joined the three major banks in their application to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.

Apple Pay is completely closed for third-party integration, so it is currently not possible for banks to promote their own mobile banking app through it. In comparison, Samsung Pay and Android Pay accept third party app integrations.

The banks in their joint application argue that by limiting the use of NFC inside the iPhone to its own mobile wallet solution, Apple is stifling competition. All the three banks are yet to support Apple Pay, which launched in Australia earlier this year. ANZ is the only major bank in the region to support Apples mobile payment system.

Mobile payment systems are going to change the face of banking in the coming years, and by limiting Apple Pay, the Cupertino company is trying to be right in the middle of the action and rake in some additional moolah.

[Via Reuters
Updated: April 2022

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Press Release

UN resolution on interaction between the UN, national parliaments and the IPU breaks new ground

Geneva, 27 July 2016

IPU President addresses UN General Assembly. UN Photo/JC McIlwaine

The United Nations General Assembly adopted on 25th July by consensus a resolution on Interaction between the United Nations, national parliaments and the Inter-Parliamentary Union. It is the 15th resolution in a series that started in 1995.

Meeting under the chairmanship of the President of the UN General Assembly, Mr. Mogens Lykketoft of Denmark, the General Assembly examined a comprehensive Report of the UN Secretary-General which attests to the breadth and scope of cooperation between the UN, parliaments and the IPU in a wide array of areas ranging from peace and security, to democracy and human rights, to climate change and sustainable development.

Among other things, the resolution welcomes IPUs engagement in a number of new areas, such as migration, non-proliferation and disarmament, as well as South-South cooperation. It also welcomes a regular parliamentary side event of the UN High Level Political Forum on sustainable development, which provides the main global mechanism to track the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals.

Representatives of several UN Member States took the floor in support of the Resolution, introduced by Ambassador Masud Bin Momen of Bangladesh. In their interventions, the representatives  which included Speaker Adrien Houngbedji of Benin and Roberto Leon of Chile, President of the IPU Geopolitical Group of Latin America and the Caribbean  hailed the joint action of the UN and the IPU to advance the rule of law, democracy and development around the world. They also underscored the critical importance of enhanced cooperation, based on new Common Principles pioneered by IPU and UNDP, in strengthening parliamentary capacities with a view to ensuring good, accountable and effective governance geared towards meeting the needs and expectations of the citizens.

In his statement before the UN General Assembly, IPU President Saber Chowdhury welcomed the adoption of such a substantive and forward-looking resolution. He noted that through this decision the UN General Assembly recognizes the key role of parliaments and of IPU in helping build political will to tackle the worlds many challenges. I am confident that it will provide a valuable framework for taking our strategic partnership even further, for the good of our global community.

The Resolution enjoyed overwhelming support by Member States and was adopted with close to 80 countries signing on formally as co-sponsors. Together with the recently concluded UN-IPU Cooperation Agreement and the Report of the UN Secretary- General, it constitutes a solid foundation for our joint work ahead.

The Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) is the global organization of national parliaments. It works to safeguard peace and drives positive democratic change through political dialogue and concrete action.
As Islamic State is defeated in Iraq and Syria, a chance for stable political future in this region is about to begin.

Mina Al-Oraibi, a senior fellow at the Institute for State Effectiveness, stated that there is no reason to think Iraq is only benefitted due to defeat of ISIS, it can provide economic boost as well as peace to the whole world.

US government is expected to provide $2 billion aid to Iraq. However, this money is required to be distributed in various industrial sectors.

Ms. Al-Oraibi, a scholar, explained that the region needs humanitarian aids to revive from post-ISIS trauma.

Liberated territories still need security forces that will be acceptable for locals, displaced populations need to return to their homes and towns have to be rebuilt. The most important thing is driving out ISIS from Mosul, an important city of Iraq.

Security forces of Iraqi government have made several attempts to drive out ISIS. The US has also given commitment to send 560 more troops to Iraq. While Iraqi and U.S. officials have not announced a date for an offensive, Prime Minister Haider Al-Abadi wants to enter Mosul by October. The city is strategic and there will be a focus on the military push to recapture it, said Ms. Al-Oraibi.

Salim Al-Jabouri, speaker of the Iraqi Council of Representatives, stated that Iraq needs continuous aids from the world. Mr. Al-Jabouri expressed his gratitude for the aid provided to Iraq by the international community and stressed the importance of using these funds for reconstruction.

Ms. Al-Oraibi said, Building trust and organizing communities will be the biggest challenge but the most important component for long-term success.

The creation of jobs in liberated areas needs to be a focus along with providing stable, trustworthy security forces. The government will have to show that the politics are working and Baghdad will have to rebuild a relationship with citizens, especially those who were forced to leave their homes because of ISIS.

Bilal Wahab, assistant professor at the American University of Iraq, said that Kurdistan also needs to resolve issues in order to remain a beacon of hope in an otherwise turmoil and volatile region.

He also appreciated Kurds for standing their grounds during fight against ISIS. Now, the region needs economic reforms for success in future.

There will need to be a reduction of Erbils control on the economy as well as clear division and sharing of oil revenues, said Mr. Wahab. If not, he warned that conditions will allow for the emergence of a new terrorists group  just how the Islamic State emerged after the defeat of al Qaeda.

At their strongest, the Islamic State captured 30 percent to 40 percent of Iraqi territory. While it has reduced to less than 10 percent now, radical Islamists continue to inflict damage throughout the region.

Most recently, the Islamic State has claimed responsibility for attacks in Orlando, Florida; Nice, France; and central Baghdad.

Recapturing Mosul from ISIS will be a real test for armed forces of Iraq.

| Soruce: The Washington Times | By S.Seal
It has been reported that France will send artillery to assist Iraqi armed forces. It will further deploy an aircraft carrier to the region to give more advantages to Iraqi forces to fight against ISIS.

After Nice terrorist attack, President Francois Hollande has declared these things. Hollande spoke after a meeting with defense and security officials regarding the truck attack that left 84 people killed and over 300 injured during Bastille Day celebrations in Nice.

He stated, "We will support our allies in Syria and Iraq, but we won't put boots on the ground."

The aircraft carrier "Charles de Gaulle", which has already participated in various missions in the region, will return to boost airstrikes towards the end of September.

A terrorist apparently inspired by the IS, drove a heavy duty white truck along the Promenade des Anglais into the crowds celebrating the Bastille Day. The IS claimed responsibility for the attack.

To make security more advanced and vigil, a series of measures have been taken. Additional 10,000 soldiers have been added for maintaining security in France.

Mr. Hollande said that by the end of July 2016, 15,000 reserves from the gendarmerie, national police and army will be mobilized.



| Soruce: Business Insider | By S.Seal
The Asia-Pacific boasts the world's most dynamic economies, highly lucrative markets and captivating cultural diversity. It could well become the future of the world.Starting from Sunday, foreign ministers of the East Asia Summit countries will be under the same roof in the Laotian capital of Vientiane for a series of meetings. The coming days are a chance for the top diplomats to start engaging in damage control after the recent null and void award on the South China Seaarbitration, a blow to peace and stability in the region. more>>
When Hillary Clinton takes to the podium Thursday evening to accept the nomination of her party as its candidate for president, not a few of those watching on TV or online will be undocumented immigrants.

Many of them Irish.

Clinton will be speaking to Novembers election, and what she plans to do should she win it.

Part of that plan, outlined in the Democratic Party Platform, is to push for comprehensive immigration reform.

CIR has been a political staple for years.

It has marched right up to the finishing line more than once, only to stumble at the last moment.

Some of the biggest political names in the country have been associated with the long running battle to have reform enshrined in law: Kennedy, McCain, Schumer among others.

Now Clinton.

Her party platform states that America needs comprehensive immigration reform with a pathway to citizenship.

And it further states that Hillary Clinton, as president, will:

Enact comprehensive immigration reform to create a pathway to citizenship, keep families together, and enable millions of workers to come out of the shadows.

End family detention and close private immigrant detention centers.

Defend President Obamas executive actions to provide deportation relief for DREAMers and parents of Americans and lawful residents, and extend those actions to additional persons with sympathetic cases if Congress refuses to act.

Those executive actions, which would have a positive effect on the lives of an unknown number of undocumented Irish families, have become ensnared in the courts, and additionally face a hostile congressional majority.

There is no guarantee, of course, that even if Clinton wins in November that she will be in a position to work with a Congress favorable to comprehensive reform.

The platform allows for such a possibility when it states: If Congress continues its refusal to act on comprehensive immigration reform, Hillary will put in place a simple, straightforward, accessible system for parents of DREAMers and others with a history of service and contribution to their communities to be able to make their case and be eligible for deferred action as well.

The undocumented Irish, many of them having lived in the shadows for decades, will be hoping, if for nothing else, that 2017 might see a lifting of the bars against returning to the U.S. should they travel back to Ireland.

The platform speaks to this issue when it pledges to end the three and ten year bars.

Current immigration law forces families - especially those whose members have different citizenship or immigration statuses - into a heartbreaking dilemma: pursue a green card by leaving the country and your loved ones behind, or remain in the shadows. Hillary will call on Congress to repeal the 3 and 10 year bars to keep families together.

For the undocumented Irish, heartbreaking dilemma is something of an understatement.

Given the difficulty of legally emigrating from Ireland to the U.S. since passage of the 1965 immigration reform act, returning to Ireland, for most, would not be a mission in pursuit of a green card.

Rather, it might be to attend a personal or family gathering: a marriage of a sibling or friend, the funeral of a loved one, a parent.

The undocumented Irish do not face the potential problem of a big wall keeping them out of America.

They are already here, imprisoned by a legal wall that reaches into the heavens.
New Jersey Democrat John W. McCarthy, currently Vice President of the Irish American Democrats PAC, is Hillary Clintons latest hire, focused on outreach to the Catholic and Irish communities.

A former consultant to civic associations, McCarthy has organized several Irish Americans for Hillary events throughout the primary campaign, including a day of lobbying before the New Hampshire vote, all in a voluntary capacity. He now joins the Clinton campaign to focus on Catholic outreach and outreach to those heritage communities are represented in the DNC's National Democratic Ethnic Coordinating Council (NDECC), on which he serves as Faith Council Chair.

A legislative aide to Congressman Frank Pallone Jr. (D-NJ), McCarthy will bring his experience as co-chair of "Catholics for Obama" in 2012 to the Clinton team, as well as his experience as a civic innovator, democratic strategist and philanthropic advisor.

McCarthy graduated with honors from the Catholic University of America where he studied politics and theology, before becoming an advocate for civic engagement and for youth involvement in the political process.

He was one of the founding members of of the ACE Applied Research Network for the ACT Foundation, which aims to to address the difficulties in accessing learning opportunities faced by young, low-income working learners and he served as the first Director of Social Innovation Programming at Impact Hub D.C where his work focused on social entrepreneurship and encouraging civic entrepreneurs to solve civic problems.

As Executive Director of Future Civic Leaders, he again looked to engage youth in the countrys politics by empowering low-income students to play a part.

In addition to working with with youth involvement and civic engagement, McCarthy is an active member of the Irish community in D.C. and serves on a number of non-profit boards and advisory committees including The Clinton International Summer School in Northern Ireland, The Irish Network of Washington, The Council for American Ireland Relations, and the American Ireland Funds DC Young Leaders.

Named among the Irish Echos 40 under 40 in 2014, McCarthy was also listed as one of the Most Influential Leaders Under 40 in Washington Life magazine.

His new role within the Clinton Presidential campaign will see McCarthy build on his work on previous campaigns on both a federal, state and local level, and on his role with the NDECC.
Congressman Joe Crowley became an unlikely star on the second night of the Democratic convention in Philadelphia.

Essentially, Crowley, who represents Queens, NY accused Trump of profiting from 9/11 by claiming $150,000 in federal funds earmarked for small businesses which were badly impacted.

"Donald Trump saw 9/11 as a payday for his empire, collecting 150k, Crowley said to thunderous applause.

Crowley was telling the truth, according to an article in the Weekly Standard, a conservative journal that opposes Trump.

In 2005, Trump valued 40 Wall Street at $400 million, and the Trump Organization describes the building as an "impressive, landmark property." And as Trump said immediately following 9/11, none of his properties were directly damaged by the attack on the World Trade Center. But through a loophole in the rules, Trump was able to squeeze $150,000 of money from taxpayers for his valuable landmark property.

Crowley also pointed out that Trumps voice was silent despite being one of the most prominent New Yorkers in the effort to have funds routed to New York as soon as possible.

Trump was nowhere to be seen or heard on or after 9/11 said Crowley, a far cry from Trumps usual overwhelming presence.

The Irish American Queens congressman, who is number four in the Democratic House leadership, did his prospects of someday becoming speaker no harm with a devastating attack on Donald Trump.

He stated: Where was Donald Trump in the days, and months, and years after 9/11? He didnt stand at the pile. He didnt lobby Congress for help. He didnt fight for the first responders. Nope. He cashed in - collecting $150,000 in federal funds intended to help small businesses recover  even though days after the attack Trump said his properties were not affected.

"Hillary sought these funds to help local mom and pop shops get back on their feet. Donald Trump sought a payday for his empire.

Read more: Disabled daughter of Dublin mother wow Democrats convention

It was one of our nations darkest days, but to Trump, it was just another chance to make a quick buck.

Trump as war profiteer is certainly a devastating angle and one that will surely feature prominently as Trump has given a very different account of his actions after 9/11.

Crowley certainly has the credibility on 9/11. He talked about being alerted on a plane on the runway in New York that two planes had hit the World Trade Center.

He immediately worried about his two cousins, two New York firefighters, both of whom were off duty but who had raced down to the WTC to help their overwhelmed colleagues.

Tragically, his cousin, Fire Department Battalion Chief John Moran, was among the brave first responders who died that day in World Trade Center Tower 2.

Crowley led the fight for federal funds for New York and funding for medical care for the many first responders who suffered dreadful complications from inhaling toxic fumes.

When Crowley talks about 9/11 he does so with authority and personal experience. He may also have opened a new and major line of inquiry into Donald Trumps business practices and his version of the truth.

Read more: Old and new Irish voices at the Democratic National Convention
The disabled daughter of an Irish immigrant wowed the audience on the first night of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, bluntly telling Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump that you dont speak for me.

Anastasia Somoza, 32, the New York-born daughter of Dublin native Mary Somoza, a nationally known activist on disability matters, took to the stage on prime time Monday night at the personal invitation of Hillary and Bill Clinton, who she and her family have been friends with since 1993 when Anastasia, then nine, asked President Bill Clinton in a nationally televised childrens forum why her disabled twin sister Alba couldnt attend the same classes as her.

The Somoza twins became media sensations at the time, and the Clintons were charmed by Anastasias determination to look out for her twin. They intervened on behalf of the Somozas, and their mother Mary has waged battles for years with New York City government to ensure equal opportunity education for her girls.

Read more US politics news and opinion here

The twins were born with a severe case of cerebral palsy and spastic quadriplegia  Alba is also non-verbal  but that didnt prevent Anastasia from assuredly speaking in front of the world on Mondayfor four minutes. With regards to the Democratic presidential nominee, she said, Over the past 23 years she has continued to be a friend and mentor, championing my inclusion and access to classrooms, higher education and the workforce.

She has never lost touch with people like me. She has invested in me, she believes in me and in a country where 56 million Americans with disabilities so often feel invisible, Hillary Clinton sees me.

Mary Somoza, who has also been active in New Yorks Irish community, particularly with the Lavender and Green Alliance, was bursting with pride when she spoke to theIrish Voiceabout Anastasias star turn, which came together the week before the convention kick-off thanks to a personal phone call from Huma Abedin, Hillary Clintons top aide.

Huma said Bill and Hillary really wanted Anastasia to speak. Of course we couldnt have been more thrilled to do so, said Mary, who was sworn to secrecy until the Democratic National Committee revealed the speaking lineup late last week.

The Somozas received help from a speechwriter who has written for President Obama in the past, and journeyed by train to Philadelphia on Sunday morning for a walk-through of the Wells Fargo Center, site of the convention. Alba and Gerardo Somoza, Marys husband and the girls father, remained in New York to watch the event on TV.

Read more: Rep. Joe Crowley slams Trump on 9/11 funds he took

Anastasias physical limitations didnt deter her from prioritizing education. A graduate of Georgetown University and the London School of Economics, she works as a disability rights consultant and lives at home with her parents and Alba, and their round the clock health aides. Alba is now an accomplished artist who attended Queens College and paints at Pure Vision Arts, a Manhattan studio for those with disabilities.

Hillary Clinton, Anastasia said on Monday night, sees me as a strong woman, a young professional, a hard worker and the proud daughter of immigrants, my father from Nicaragua and my mother from Ireland.

Donald Trump, who openly ridiculed a reporter with disabilities during his campaign, would be a disaster in the White House, Anastasia said.

I know we will show each other and the world who we really are in November when we choose genuine strength and leadership over fear and division, she said.

Donald Trump doesnt see me, he doesnt hear me and he definitely doesnt speak for me.

Social media christened Anastasia as the star of the convention after her speech. She received shout-outs from the likes of Arianna Huffington and formerVanity Fair editor and Daily Beast founder Tina Brown, who called her moving and brave.

DisabilIty advocate Anastasia Somoza gave arguably the most moving speech so far at the DNC https://t.co/dwq7MTeg0J pic.twitter.com/ddRFYs72LQ  UPROXX News (@UPROXXNews) July 26, 2016

No doubt the Clintons felt the same. The families have remained extremely close since 1993. Anastasia worked as an intern in Hillary Clintons New York Senate office and served as a delegate to her 2008 presidential campaign, Bill Clinton attended Albas high school graduation, and both Clintons have written numerous letters of recommendation for the Somoza twins to help them achieve their goals. Mary Somoza couldnt be more effusive in her praise.

They have been there for us all the time, whenever we needed. We just love them. They could have forgotten about us but they never did. We wont forget that, she said.

Mary, Anastasia and her aide will remain in Philadelphia for the duration of the convention, and Anastasia is again a New York delegate. The Somozas had two more children after the twins were born, Gabriella and Oliver, and Mary Somoza offers not a hint of weariness over her non-stop busy life. Advocating for her girls has been her lifes mission, one she says she would never change.

Its what moms do! she says.
In May and July 1844, Philadelphia suffered some of the bloodiest rioting of the antebellum period, as anti-immigrant mobs attacked Irish-American homes and Roman Catholic churches before being suppressed by the militia. The violence was part of a wave of riots that convulsed American cities starting in the 1830s. Yet even amid this tumult, they stand out for their duration, itself a product of nativist determination to use xenophobia for political gain. In the aftermath of the riots, shocked Philadelphians began debating new methods of maintaining order, a discussion that contributed to the consolidation of Philadelphia County in 1854.

Ethnic and religious antagonism had a long history in the city. Since the 1780s, Irish textile workers had come to Philadelphia after losing their jobs to mechanization in the British Isles. As early as 1828, when an off-duty watchman was killed after disparaging bloody Irish transports, Catholic presence had provoked anxiety among American- and Irish-born Protestants. In 1831, Irish Catholics battled along Fifth Street with Protestants celebrating the anniversary of the Battle of the Boyne.

Anti-Catholic agitation increased in the early 1840s, organized in part around a perceived threat to the Bible in the public schools. Catholic Bishop Francis Patrick Kenrick (1796-1863), an Irish immigrant himself, objected to Protestant teachers leading students in singing Protestant hymns and requiring them to read from the King James Bible. Nativists used Kenricks complaints to gain followers. In 1842, dozens of Protestant clergymen formed the American Protestant Association to defend America from Romanism. In early 1843, editor Lewis Levin (1808-60) made the Daily Sun an organ for attacks against Catholicism and Catholic immigration, and in December of that year, he helped found a nativist political party called the American Republican Association.

Bible Reading as Flashpoint

In 1844, the Bible controversy intensified in the district of Kensington, a suburb to the northeast of Philadelphia City and home to many Irish immigrants, both Protestant and Catholic. In February, Hugh Clark (1796-1862), a Catholic school director there, suggested suspending Bible reading until the school board could devise a policy acceptable to Catholics and Protestants alike. Nativists saw this as a threat to their liberty and as a chance to mobilize voters, and they rallied by the thousands in Independence Square. On May 3, 1844 they rallied in Kensington itself but were chased away.

The first serious violence broke out three days later. On May 6, the nativists reassembled in Kensington, provoking another fight, during which a young nativist named George Shiffler (1825-44) was fatally shot. By days end, a second manapparently a bystanderwas dead, and several more nativists were wounded, two mortally. The next day, the First Brigade of the Pennsylvania Militia, commanded by Brigadier General George Cadwalader (1806-79), responded to the sheriffs call for help. The troops faced little direct resistance, but they proved unable to stop people from starting new fires. On May 8, mobs gutted several private dwellings (including Hugh Clarks house), a Catholic seminary, and two Catholic churches: St. Michaels at Second Street and Master and St. Augustines at Fourth and Vine. Only a flood of new forcesincluding citizen posses, city police, militia companies arriving from other cities, and U.S. army and navy troopsended the violence by May 10.

The city remained superficially calm for the next eight weeks, but both nativists and Catholics anticipated further violence. In Southwarkan independent district south of Philadelphia City and a seat of nativist strengtha Catholic priests brother began stockpiling weapons in the basement of the Church of St. Philip de Neri on Queen Street. On Friday, July 5, a crowd of thousands gathered to demand the weapons. When the crowd reassembled the following day, the sheriff requested militia troops, and Cadwalader led about two hundred into Southwark. Saturday ended without bloodshed, but the situation remained tense, with a small group of militiasome of them Irish Catholics themselvesguarding the church and a group of nativist prisoners inside it.

Armed Clash in Southwark

On Sunday, July 7, the crowd reassembled, and this time it armed itself with cannon. Egged on by nativist speakers, the crowd forced the militia to surrender the church and its prisoners. Cadwalader returned to Southwark about sunset at the head of a column and tried to clear the area around the church. When the crowd attacked the militia with bricks, stones, and bottles, the militia fired on them, killing at least two and wounding more. Starting around 9pm, the crowd counterattacked. For the next four hours, rioters and militia battled in the streets of Southwark, with both sides firing cannon. By morning, four militiamen and probably a dozen rioters were dead, along with many more wounded. Southwarks aldermen negotiated the militias withdrawal from their district, but thousands of militia troops from other parts of the state arrived to patrol the City of Philadelphia.

Although American cities, particularly Philadelphia, had endured a surge of riots since the early 1830s, few individual riots lasted for more than a day, making the 1844 riots extreme in their severity and duration. While some of the violence had been spontaneous, the ambitions of the nativist newspapers and political party in an election year likely sustained nativist fury through the spring and summer. Though the riots were more than the simple transplantation of anti-Catholic violence from Northern Ireland, they echoed the deliberate provocation seen there.

The riots did not resolve the place of the Irish in the city. On the one hand, few Philadelphians were willing to endorse publicly the attacks on Catholics, and more than two thousand Philadelphians signed an address praising the militias use of lawful force which unlawful force made necessary. On the other hand, in the October elections, amid the heaviest turnout in Philadelphias history, Levin and another nativist won congressional seats and other nativists took lesser posts.

Meanwhile, Philadelphians began discussing plans for a stronger police force to deter future riots. In April 1845, the legislature passed a law requiring each major city and district of Philadelphia County to support at least one police officer for each 150 taxable inhabitants, and in 1850 it created a new Philadelphia Police District to cover the entire metropolitan area, including the outlying districts of Kensington and Southwark. Though not the sole cause, these steps contributed to the consolidation of Philadelphia County into a single government in 1854.

* Zachary M. Schrag is a professor of history at George Mason University. He is at work on a book about the 1844 riots. This article has been taken from the Philadelphia Encylopedia website, a project created by Rutgers University.
A former Sinn Fein Councillor and his father who appeared today at the Special Criminal Court have been charged with falsely imprisoning, assaulting and threatening to kill another man.

Each of the three charges against Jonathan Dowdall (aged 39) and Patrick Dowdall (aged 59) are alleged to have taken place at Navan Rd, Dublin 7 on January 15 this year.

The men, with an address at Navan Road, Dublin 7, were charged with falsely imprisoning Alexander Hurley by detaining him without his consent.

They were also charged with assaulting Mr Hurley, causing him harm.

Additionally, they were charged with threatening Mr Hurley that he would be killed, intending him to believe that the threat would be carried out.

Last month, the Dowdalls were charged with possessing a firearm or imitation firearm, which appeared to be a sawn-off shotgun and a handgun, with the intent to falsely imprison Mr Hurley, at the same place on the same date.

Detective Sergeant Padraig Boyce, of the Special Detective Unit (SDU), told State solicitor Michael O'Donovan today that he met Jonathan Dowdall in the precincts of the court, where he showed him the charge sheet, read it over to him and explained it in ordinary language.

Jonathan Dowdall made no reply, the court heard.

Detective Garda Colm Finnerty, also of the SDU, told Mr O'Donovan that he met Patrick Dowdall before the sitting of the court and read him the charge, to which the accused man made no reply.

After the court's registrar read the charges to the men, Mr O'Donovan told the judges that the books of evidence were ready to be served on the accused men.

Det Gda Finnerty handed the books of evidence to the men.

Counsel for the State, Vincent Heneghan BL, applied to the court to remand the men in custody until October.

Michael O'Higgins SC, for Jonathan Dowdall, consented to the application, saying that in the meantime the book of evidence will be considered.

Patrick Dowdall's counsel, Dean Kelly BL, also consented to the State's application.

Mr Justice Paul Butler, presiding with Judge Alison Lindsay and Judge Cormac Dunne, remanded both men in custody until October 7, when their case is listed for mention again.
Republican US presidential nominee Donald Trump has made an extraordinary plea for a foreign power to locate the 30,000 missing emails from Hillary Clinton's private email server, saying they would reveal "some beauties".

"Russia, if you're listening, I hope you're able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing," Mr Trump said at a press conference in Miami. "I think you'll be rewarded mightily by our press."

Mrs Clinton's campaign claims that Russia hacked computers belonging to the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and released those emails on the eve of the party's convention to benefit Mr Trump's candidacy.

The emails, published by WikiLeaks last week, revealed that the DNC favoured Mrs Clinton's candidacy over rival Bernie Sanders, triggering a leadership shake-up within the DNC.

Mr Trump dismissed the claims, saying it is not clear who hacked those emails, but said the incident is a sign that foreign countries no longer respect the US.

"If it's any foreign country, it shows how little respect they have for the United States," said Mr Trump, who added that he was "not an email person myself because I believe it can be hacked".

Mr Trump's running mate Mike Pence condemned the possible cyber-espionage, breaking from Mr Trump for the first time since being selected as his vice president.

"If it is Russia and they are interfering in our elections, I can assure you both parties and the United States government will ensure there are serious consequences," Mr Pence said in a statement.

Mr Trump, whom Democrats have accused of having cosy ties with Russian president Vladimir Putin, repeatedly declined to condemn the actions of Russia or any other foreign power of trying to intervene in the US election.

"No, it gives me no pause," the celebrity businessman said. "If Russia or China or any of those countries gets those emails, I've got to be honest with you, I'd love to see them."

Clinton campaign not even remotely amused by Trump suggestion that Russia hack Clinton emails. pic.twitter.com/kphfLFYAf8  Tamara Keith (@tamarakeithNPR) July 27, 2016

The Clinton campaign immediately denounced Mr Trump's call.

"This has to be the first time that a major presidential candidate has actively encouraged a foreign power to conduct espionage against his political opponent," senior policy adviser Jake Sullivan said in a statement.

"That's not hyperbole, those are just the facts. This has gone from being a matter of curiosity, and a matter of politics, to being a national security issue."

Mr Trump also suggested that Mrs Clinton should not receive any security briefings due to the hack that would ensure "that word will get out".

Mr Trump has said that he has "zero investments" in Russia and insisted that his company had not received any significant investments from the country.

He has also downplayed his affection for Mr Putin and said he would treat the Russian leader "firmly", though he said he wanted to improve relations with Russia.

Some Democrats and security experts have said that Mr Trump's proposal to set conditions on Nato allies could risk Russian expansion in Eastern Europe.

US president Barack Obama, meanwhile, said "anything's possible" when asked during an interview whether the Russians could be working to sway the election towards Mr Trump.

"Donald Trump has repeatedly expressed admiration for Vladimir Putin," Mr Obama said during the interview with NBC News that aired on Tuesday. "And I think that Trump's gotten pretty favourable coverage back in Russia."
Ukraine's Cabinet of Ministers intends to appoint Deputy Health Minister Ulana Suprun as acting health minister.

"At present, we should support the changes in the leadership of the Health Ministry. If government backs this, and I think it will, on August 1 we will nominate Ulana Suprun as acting health minister," Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman said at a government meeting on Wednesday.

The prime minister said that he expects Suprun to present a concept of a healthcare reform at the next meeting of the Cabinet. According to him, the country needs a healthcare reform badly.

Groysman also said that special attention should be paid to the training of and proper salaries for doctors.

On July 12, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko met with a doctor, volunteer, director of humanitarian initiatives at the Ukrainian World Congress, Ulana Suprun, and asked her to become deputy minister of health of Ukraine.

On July 22, Ukraine's Cabinet of Ministers appointed Suprun deputy health minister.

Suprun is an American of Ukrainian descent. Since the fall of 2013, she has lived in Ukraine. During the events of the Revolution of National Dignity she worked in a medical service. In 2014 she headed the humanitarian initiatives of the Ukrainian World Congress.

In 2014 she founded the Patriot Defense organization, which holds trainings for first aid treatment and provides Ukrainian servicemen with improved NATO-standard individual first aid kits.

On July 11, 2015, Poroshenko granted Ukrainian citizenship to Ulana and her husband Mark Suprun.

Earlier in July, officers of Security Service of Ukraine and the Prosecutor General's Office detained Deputy Health Minister Roman Vasylyshyn for bribe-taking. Vasylyshyn was suspended from his office.
Update 4.56pm: German police have deployed officers near a refugee centre outside Nuremberg where an explosion involving a suitcase was reported today.

A branch of the country's office for asylum-seekers is also in attendance.
About 60% of UK population of 65 and older voted to leave the worlds largest trading bloc, the most of any age group, according to two separate exit polls.

The glaring irony is that senior citizens are also the most reliant on pensions, which face a worsening funding gap since the Brexit vote.

The combined deficits of all UK defined-benefit pension schemes, normally employer-sponsored and promising a specified monthly payment or benefit upon retirement, rose 80bn (95.6bn) overnight following the referendum to 900bn, according to pensions consultancy Hymans Robertson.

Since then, it has grown further to a record 935bn as of July 1.

A sharp drop in UK government bond yields to record lows, and a similar decline in corporate bond yields, is largely to blame for the uptick in defined-benefit pension liabilities.

Thats because fixed income represented 47.5% of total 2014 assets for corporate pensions funds, of which about three-quarters were issued by the UK government and/or sterling-denominated, according to the 2015 Investment Association Annual Survey.

And the slump may not be over yet. While the Bank of England held off on cutting rates at its July 14 meeting, early signals point to serious pain ahead for the UK.

If additional quantitative easing is required to offset growing uncertainty, this would suggest that bond yields are going to fall, which makes pensions a lot more expensive to provide, former pension minister Ros Altmann said last week.

Deficits would be larger if gilt yields fall further.

If companies have got to put even more into their pension schemes than they have previously, then clearly their business will be further weakened, Ms Altmann said. Bad news, in other words, for Brexits biggest supporters.
Analysts said the proposals were unlikely to increase costs or damage profits at BT in the short term and its shares rose 4% yesterday.

Britain currently ranks favourably with its European peers in terms of broadband speeds and costs, but with much of the infrastructure based on BTs copper network, the regulator fears the worlds fifth-largest economy will fall behind unless it upgrades to fibre.

Plans set out yesterday by Ofcom are designed to improve the running of the BT Openreach network and incentivise both BT and its rivals to invest in new infrastructure to enable Britain to be able to compete with the likes of South Korea and Japan.

They are also designed to address years of industry complaints that BT runs the national network to its own benefit  ploughing profits from the division into boosting BTs consumer broadband and TV offering  at the expense of the network and the smaller competitors who rely on it to offer services.

I think BTs Openreach network has not done a good enough job on customer service, Ofcom chief executive Sharon White told reporters.

Today is as much about ensuring that the investments that happen in this country arent just about serving BT Retail, its about serving all customers, she said.

BT rivals which rely on Openreach had called for BT to be broken up, but in its findings Ofcom said one of the biggest obstacles to a full separation was the BT pension scheme, one of the largest in Britain.

BT, the 170-year-old former monopoly that leads the market in mobile and fixed-line telecoms, said it agreed to most of Ofcoms proposals but needed to hammer out the finer details of how the separation would affect asset allocations and staffing.

Under the plans, the BT Openreach division will be placed in a legally separate company, with an independent board taking control of its budget, staff and customer relations.

A majority of non-executive directors, including the chairman, will be appointed and removed by BT in consultation with Ofcom.

When making decisions on large-scale investments, the board will also be obliged to consult with customers such as Sky and TalkTalk, who compete with BT in telephony, broadband and TV.

The aim is to make Openreach more independent, enabling it to make investments that work for all operators.

As a legally separate company, Openreach and its directors would be required to make decisions in the interests of all Openreachs customers, and to promote the success of the company.
Unlike US-based ride hailing start-up Uber, which established itself to compete against taxi companies, the new company will operate using taxi firms.

It is the latest push by traditional carmakers to enter the taxi ride hailing services market dominated by Uber and other technology companies. The companies declined to disclose financial terms.

Its a paper deal. Daimler will own 60% of the new entity and the stakeholders in Hailo will own 40%, said Hailo chief executive Andrew Pinnington, who will be chief of the combined company.

The merged entity will operate under the mytaxi brand.

It will have 70m passengers and 100,000 registered taxi drivers in over 50 cities across nine countries in Europe, the companies said.

In similar deals this year, Volkswagen took a $300m (273m) stake in Gett, and General Motors invested $500m in Lyft.

Hailo, which operates here, in Britain, and Spain, will combine with mytaxi, which is available in Austria, Germany, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Spain, and Sweden.

The combined company will be headquartered in Hamburg in Germany.

Mytaxi founder Niclaus Mewes will take a seat on the supervisory board and, in addition, he will become managing director of Daimler Mobility Services.
Joe Healy, president, launching the associations pre-Budget submission in Dublin, said longer-term measures to tackle income volatility must also be delivered.

A farm income crisis is being experienced in many sectors in Ireland in 2016, caused by a combination of low product prices, a bad spring, and negative political events. Farm families are under huge pressure as cash flow tightens and the viability of their family farm is put at risk.
Sterlings precipitous drop of 11% since the June 23 Brexit vote has implications for many manufacturers in Britain because it threatens to push up their raw materials and energy costs.

However, Greencore, which makes millions of pre-packed sandwiches, quiches, and other ready meals for grocers and coffee shops in the UK and the US, said there will likely to be no effect from sterlings depreciation, though its debt could be higher than anticipated due to translation of US dollar denominated borrowings.

In a trading update, the company said its UK food operations import less than a quarter of its ingredients and packaging from outside Britain, suggesting that it is in part sheltered from sharp falls in the value of the pound.

Sales overall in the third quarter had risen 4% to 360.4m (431m), with the UK driving the performance. US sales were over 4% higher, but fell by 1% when currency considerations are taken into account.

Overall revenue momentum slowed sequentially in Q3, led by a modest revenue decline in the US, Cathal Kenny, analyst at Davy Stockbrokers said.

The development of the US revenue base is proving more volatile than anticipated owing to customer concentration and lumpiness in the off-take.

"Commentary on financial performance in North America is more encouraging and the UK business remains in excellent health. We envisage no material change to full year 2016 earnings per share forecasts, the broker said.

Shares in Greencore had been falling before the UK referendum but had clawed most of their losses suffered since June 23. The shares were trading yesterday at 313 pence, down around 12% this year. That values the business at 1.3bn.

Greencore earlier this week said it had bought The Sandwich Factory, a UK firm which it described as a bolt-on for its enlarged facility, in Northampton. Yesterday, it said it had completed its new US facility in Seattle.

Liam Igoe at Goodbody Stockbrokers said Greencores expansion and commissioning plans in the UK and US have gone ahead as planned.

The EU referendum has resulted in greater uncertainty with regard to the UK economic outlook and the longer-term implications remain unknown, the firm said.

At this stage, our assessment is that the short-term impact on Greencore is likely to be modest.
European Agriculture Commisioner Phil Hogan made the claim at the general assembly in Brussels of CEJA, the European Council of Young Farmers, headed by former Macra na Feirme president Alan Jagoe from Carrigaline.

Noting that other players are taking the bull by the horns, Mr Hogan referred to the innovative MilkFlex Fund in Ireland.
Well, Brian Cashin has done just that. After spending two years in Canada with fiancee Hazel, he returned to his native country only to realise that they had never really explored Ireland.

Brian decided to jump through all 32 counties to find out about all the great things Ireland has to offer.
Three Ukrainian servicemen injured in Donbas in past 24 hours

Three Ukrainian servicemen were injured in the hostilities in eastern Ukraine in the past 24 hours, Ukrainian Presidential Administration spokesman Andriy Lysenko said at a press briefing in Kyiv on Wednesday.

"The Ukrainian army suffered no combat losses in the past 24 hours, yet three soldiers suffered injuries," Lysenko said.
Professor Michael Curran, an economist at Villanova University in Pennsylvania, said that while the UKs decision to leave the EU was unambiguously bad for Ireland and the UK as a whole, Northern Ireland would be hardest hit.

In particular, Northern Irish farmers who count on the EU for more than 80% of their income would feel the brunt of the fallout, he said.

In terms of agriculture, the Republic of Ireland itself accounts for about 33% of Northern Irelands goods exports, and most heavily in terms of agriculture. About 82% of farm income in Northern Ireland comes directly from the EU; from the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) grants.

Now, thats something thats pretty much going to go as soon as theyve actually implemented Brexit. So thats massively going to impact upon the agricultural sector from a Northern Irish perspective, he said.

From 2014 to 2020, its estimated the agriculture and rural sector in Northern Ireland was set to receive 2.53bn from Europe.

Farmers in the North were divided over whether to remain part of the EU or take their chances without the support of the CAP grants  which will remain until 2019 regardless  and easy access to the EU market.

The Norths largest unionist party, the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), campaigned for a leave vote while the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) came out in favour of remain.

The Ulster Farmers Union (UFU) declined to take a position throughout the campaign but since the result have issued a list of 10 post-Brexit priorities.

The union said it wants the best possible access to the EU market, action to ensure local food production isnt disadvantaged by cheap imports and a commitment from Westminster to replace the CAP grants with government support while also maintaining existing levels of financial support from London.

Prof Curran also warned that the potential reintroduction of border and custom controls would significantly dent Northern Irelands GDP: Some research has shown that just these non-tariff barriers could raise costs for NI farmers by between 2% and 4% and a recent study by the Centre for Economic Performance (CEP) found that a 2% increase in non-tariff barriers could actually reduce [the Norths] GDP by 1.4% in the long-run.

The eventual trade deal struck with the EU will ultimately determine the degree to which Northern Irelands agriculture sector is hit by Brexit.

The best-case scenario would be a Norwegian-style deal with access to the European Free Trade Area and membership of the European Economic Area.

The worst scenario would see no preferential trade deal struck between the UK and EU and the imposition of tariffs of up to 5% on exports which Prof Curran said he was almost 100% sure wouldnt happen.

He also warned that a special deal between Ireland and the UK is highly unlikely, saying we cannot return to the kind of trade agreements that existed pre-EU membership in 1973 which provided special access for agricultural products. Thats not legally possible anymore because of the [EU] treaties.
The huge site came on the market a number of weeks ago with a price tag of 2.5m. It is being sold on behalf of the estate of the late developer Liam Maye.

However, the site, which is mostly wilderness, is of little commercial value. It is hoped the State might step in to purchase it for use as a national park.

The fear is that if the State does not purchase the site, it will be bought by a private party.

I think we are going to be able to win this. Its not a development site, 93% of it is a conservation area. Its not of huge commercial value, Green Party TD Eamon Ryan told the Irish Examiner.

It doesnt have national park status. The site goes to the edge of the national park in Wicklow , so it would be the perfect extension. It would bring that park right up into Dublin and increase it by 10%.

Mr Ryan brought up the matter in Leinster House last week with Minister of State for Regional Economic Development Michael Ring, who is appointed to the Department of Arts, Heritage, and the Gaeltacht, which has responsibility for the National Parks and Wildlife Services.

Mr Ryan hopes the wildlife service will step in to buy the land. He has started a petition to show ministers the public sentiment behind his proposal.

We put the petition up at 3pm on Monday and its to show Minister Ring and Minister for Finance Michael Noonan that people want to stop the sale. The fear is that someone from the private sector could come in and buy it, said Mr Ryan. The ball is in the court of the National Parks and Wildlife Service and the State to come up with an offer and to get a deal done. There is a certain urgency because there will be horrific haggling with a private party if one were to move in and buy it.

Commercial real estate firm CBRE is in charge of the sale.

The site, called Glenasmole Lands, is located 3.5km to the south-west of Tallaght and extends to the borders of Wicklow and the Wicklow National Park.

The development potential of the Glenasmole Lands is very limited, says CBRE.

The land is predominantly undeveloped and is generally classified as moorland/mountain land.

A spokesperson for the Department of Arts, Heritage, and Gaeltacht said the minister is actively considering the issue.
Yesterday Health Minister Simon Harris launched the National Treatment Purchase Funds (NTPF) 1m endoscopy waiting list 2016 initiative to outsource endoscopy procedures for patients currently waiting more than 12 months, or who would have been waiting over 12 months by the end of this year.

An endoscopy involves a flexible fiberoptic endoscope with a tiny camera attached being passed into the esophagus, stomach, and upper small intestine, allowing the doctor so see the inside lining of the digestive tract.

The Department of Health expects that around 3,000 patients will be cared for under this initiative, developed between the department, the NTPF, and the HSE.

A similar 1m initiative was commissioned across 13 hospitals in March 2014 to fund 2,000 extra scopes but waiting lists continued to grow.

By September that year, the numbers waiting more than 13 weeks stood at 4,483  a 12.7% increase compared to the previous month.

Almost two years later, that figure has more than doubled to 9,397, or 46.2% of the total number of waiters. The RCSI hospital group has the largest waiting list, with 5,324, including 2,764 in Beaumont Hospital. Mr Harris said the RCSI group was also undertaking an insourcing endoscopy initiative within its group of hospitals and that under this initiative, some patients on Beaumonts waiting list could have their procedure carried out at other hospitals in the group, such as Connolly or Cavan General Hospital.

The Dublin Midlands Group also has a large waiting list of 5,185.

Yesterday Fianna Fail claimed the credit for securing the restoration of the NTPF under which 50m is due to be invested from 2017.

Health spokesman Billy Kelleher said the party insisted it be included in arrangements to facilitate the formation of a minority government.

The previous Fine Gael-led government decided to abolish the NTPF despite several organisations warning that the decision would have a detrimental impact on our health service, he said. The decision to abolish the NTPF proved to be disastrous, and led to record waiting lists in our hospitals and chaos in our health service.

On a more positive note, the majority of urgent colonoscopy cases are seen within the target four-week timeframe set by the HSE although that figure has been climbing. Figures from the most recent HSE performance monitoring report show that as of the end of April, 54 urgent cases had not been seen within the target time. The majority of these were within the RCSI group, 35 at St James Hospital and 13 at Tallaght.

The strict referral time for urgent colonoscopies was set amid a public backlash in 2007 to the death of Susie Long,who, as a public patient, had to wait seven months for a colonoscopy to diagnose the bowel cancer that subsequently claimed her life.
Barrister Susan Lennox told the court that Blathnaid Morrison was almost two years old when the accident happened in November 2008 at Dublin West Childcare & Learning Services, Bawnogue Enterprise Centre, Bawnogue Rd, Clondalkin.

Ms Lennox said Blathnaid had been playing when she fell and hit the ground, lacerating her forehead.
Paul Gill said lone actor terrorists generally leave clues in planning their attacks and also tend to tell someone what they are going to do  all of which provides opportunities for intervention.

Irish academic Dr Gill, based at University College London (UCL), said the traditional law enforcement model needed to expand to a multi-agency approach.

His comments come as jihadist terrorism returned to France again yesterday after an 84-year-old priest Fr Jacques Hamel had his throat slit by two knife-wielding attackers, who also seriously hurt a nun.

The outrage in Rouen, which was claimed by Islamic State (IS), comes less than a fortnight after the Nice massacre and follows a week of attacks in Germany, one of which was not jihadist.

While one of the Rouen attackers was on the French terror watch-list, the other attackers were not on the radar of security services.

Dr Gill, who has conducted extensive work on terrorism for US, EU, and British funding bodies, said his big worry was that the attacks would spark violence by the far right which, he said, would play into the hands of IS.

The senior lecturer in crime and security at UCL conducted a five-year study of 110 cases of lone actor also known as lone wolf  terrorists.

Generally, somebody knows something, said Dr Gill, author of Lone-Actor Terrorists. Other people become aware that they have adopted an ideology, that they have a grievance, against society or some target.

Fr Jacques Hamels throat was slit in his own church

He said that, in 60% of cases, the suspects leaked specific information about the attack.

They become so fixated on what they are going to do, they end up telling people or they dont want to be a lone actor and tell a friend or family member and ask do they want to come on board, he said.

The lone wolf attacks could turn into so-called dyad attacks, of two assailants, as in the cases of the Charlie Hebdo and Lee Rigby attacks, and seemingly in Rouen yesterday.

Dr Gill said the terrorists also often tell other people their plans because they want people to know why they did it.

He said the issue of how this information could be shared with police and security agencies was the 64 million dollar question. He said the issue was known for decades as the Bystander Effect in psychology circles  where a person sees something but will not communicate it.

He said fellow Irishman, US-based John Horgan, had conducted research among at-risk people in an area affected by radicalism.

Asked would they pass on information about someone being radicalised, the answer was overwhelmingly No.

Dr Gill said those interviewed said they would not want to get someone into trouble.

The key is that this is not just a police or criminal justice route, but collaborative, with social workers, mental health practitioners, community leaders, and imams. It needs to be co-ordinated.

Dr Gill said each person will have different needs and different drivers.

He said the required approach would need some type of multi-agency structure, not dissimilar to child protection services.

Dr Gill said the differences of lone actors defined them, as there was no one pathway.

His research found that 40% of lone attackers had mental health issues, compared to 25% in the general population. In addition, the severity of disorders were different, with significantly higher cases of delusional disorder and schizophrenia.

Adel Kermiche, 19, was one of two attackers killed by police

However, he stressed that there were loads of other factors, including breakdown of family or personal relationships, grievances or loss of a job.

Dr Gill said the role of religion, as with all factors, varied, with some very devout and others quite illiterate religiously.

He said that, traditionally, security services would monitor communications of suspects, but for lone attackers it was more difficult, as they typically radicalised and planned attacks by themselves.

He said what was key was spotting the planning process, such as the purchase and handling of materials, such as bomb parts.

Generally speaking, its not spontaneous. Its not a flick of a switch: Often there is a big build up, said Dr Gill.

He said the most difficult cases to spot were those such as the Bastille Day attack on Nice, the Wurzburg train attacker, and now Rouen, where knives, axes, or trucks were used.

Dr Gill said Ireland should not think this was just an issue for other European countries: We know for a fact that Irish citizens have gone over as foreign fighters. At some point, if it hasnt already happened, they will come back.

Even if its a small number, it only takes one person.

He said Irish fighters could have built up connections with jihadists from other parts of Europe.
The Dublin Rape Crisis Centres incoming chief executive, Noeline Blackwell, said there was a resurgence in calls last year relating to sexual abuse.

Some of the people who are disclosing childhood sexual abuse have never been able to talk about it and have gone through their lives with that burden, she said.

The DRCC wants the Dail to implement the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Bill when it returns in the autumn.

The legislation, given priority status when reintroduced by the Government, is aimed at protecting children from sexual exploitation, child pornography, and online grooming.

The fact that about half of the counselling and therapeutic work of the centre is with adults who have suffered abuse as children makes our call for better protection for todays children even more urgent, said Ms Blackwell.

The Sexual Offences Bill that tackles internet abuse, which is still not illegal in Ireland, will give todays children a much better chance of staying safe than they have right now.

At the launch of the DRCCs 2015 annual report today, head of clinical services Angela McCarthy will give an overview of the centres therapy and counselling work.

Compared with 2014, 2015 saw a resurgence in calls relating to childhood sexual abuse, with a small decrease in calls relating to adult sexual violence, said Ms McCarthy.

We have seen an increase in adults in midlife looking for therapy for childhood sexual abuse, often after many years of suffering and silence.

In 21% of all incidents of childhood sexual abuse, additional violence was disclosed, predominately psychological abuse, harassment, or intimidation and physical abuse.

Ms McCarthy said a 16% increase in the number of people contacting the national 24-hour helpline for the first time last year had resulted in growing pressure for face-to-face therapy, to a point where demand exceeded available resources.

Figures released by the DRCC show that last year, almost 12,000 people contacted the organisations national helpline and over half were calling it for the first time about rape or sexual abuse.

Ms Blackwell said while the number of calls made to the helpline last year had been similar to 2014, they were becoming more complex.

Volunteers staffing the helpline, particularly at night and during the weekend, had noticed a sense of hopelessness, with callers also struggling to access housing and other services.

Just over half of calls were about adult sexual violence, including rape, sexual assault, and sexual harassment, with the remainder (49%) relating to childhood sexual abuse, including ritual abuse.

Most callers (95%) were Irish, and the remainder represented 57 other nationalities.

In 24% of all incidents of adult rape or sexual assault, there was additional violence, predominantly physical abuse, psychological abuse, and harassment or intimidation.

Among the 318 cases where the reporting status was known, 113 were reported to gardai, a reporting rate of 36%.

More than a third related to childhood sexual abuse.
A boy who celebrated his 13th birthday yesterday had a settlement approved for 5m in the High Court for a severe, traumatic brain injury suffered in a road incident in Cork eight years ago.

As a child, Ryan Bastin had been on summer holidays with his family at his grandparents home near Mitchelstown.

He had ran out on to a road and was struck by the wing mirror of a car.

He had intended to follow his father, brother, and sister who were looking at cows in a field.

The mirror on the drivers side of a car, travelling within the speed limit, struck the little boy on the head, fracturing his skull.

John OMahony, for the boy, told the court the then five-year-old suffered an extremely serious injury when he was struck by the car mirror.

Mr OMahony said the reality was the driver, who was travelling in a direction out of Mitchelstown, had 1.75 seconds to react.

The driver, counsel told the court, said she heard a thud and did not see the boy at all.

Mr Justice Kevin Cross was told that Ryan, who turned 13 yesterday, has been left intellectually impaired as a result of the incident.

Ryan, who lives in Brussels, had, through his father Christian Bastin, sued the driver of the car, Hannah Murray, Lisfuncheon, Ballyporeen, Co Tipperary, as a result of the incident on August 13, 2008, outside his grandparents home in Mitchelstown.

It was claimed there was an alleged failure by the driver to keep any proper lookout and to see the boy as he crossed the road.

The claims were denied.

The boy, immediately after the incident, stood up and started to cry and he vomited.

During his transfer to Cork University Hospital, he lost consciousness.

Ryan suffered an extensive skull fracture, spent a prolonged period in intensive care, and also had to have a number of operations.

After his return to Brussels, he underwent treatment at a rehabilitation hospital.

Mr OMahony told the court Ryan was on summer holiday with his family at the home of his grandparents, Joe and Angela Mullins, at Kildrum, Mitchelstown.

Ryans father went with an older brother and younger sister to look at cattle grazing in a field.

Ryan stayed at home but then decided to follow.

Mr OMahony said his side would have contended the driver should have seen the others at the other side of the road as they stood at at a gate looking at cows in a field and this should have alerted her.

A little swerve, counsel said, would have avoided the boy.

Ryans mother, Sinead Mullins, said her son now has difficulties with language and needs a lot of assistance, but he is an active boy who loves horse riding.

Approving the settlement, Mr Justice Cross said he determined the case as 60% liability against the driver.

The judge wished the boy and his family all the best and wished the boy luck with the horse riding.
The French woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, had claimed that she came to Ireland to protect her son. However, French authorities said that she is wanted for child abduction and for failing to deliver the boy to his father, who is entitled to joint custody.

The boy is now 17 years old.

The court previously heard that the mother flew to Ireland with her son one day after she was due to hand him over to her ex-husband. She said that she feared that if she returned her son to his father, the boy could end up in a psychiatric institution and become institutionalised for life.

The boy was aged 16 at the time.

Yesterday, Ms Justice Aileen Donnelly rejected the French authorities request to surrender the woman for extradition.

The issue in the case, the judge said, was if the child lacked the capacity to consent to being taken to Ireland.

During earlier hearings, counsel for the Minister for Justice, Vincent Heneghan BL, made the argument that the charge of child abduction in France was equivalent to the charge of false imprisonment in Ireland.

Michael Lynn SC, representing the French woman, argued that the boy came to Ireland willingly.

The boys autistic condition did not mean that he was incapable of making a decision for himself and no evidence had been heard to contradict that assumption, he said.

Mr Lynn further stated that the boy was not forced in any way and that, as a 17-year-old, he was considered capable of making his own decisions under Irish law.

In her judgement, Ms Justice Donnelly said she was satisfied that the facts set out in the European Arrest Warrant and the case did not demonstrate a lack of consent on the boys part.

Therefore, she said, there was no correspondence between the offence of child abduction and that of false imprisonment.

The French woman was discharged from the court and her case was listed for mention again tomorrow morning.
But Judge David Riordan dismissed the case brought by Jonathan Heaphy, aged 34, and said he was satisfied gardai acted in good faith.

Mr Heaphy appears to be of the view that my house was trashed, they found nothing, I need to be compensated.... He has that expectation but that is not the law: he has to prove that gardai came to his house in bad faith. Bad faith would have been, in an extreme example, that they knew there was nothing there but they trashed the place anyway. It has not been proved that the guards went with an animus to do damage without cause, he said at Cork Circuit Court.

Heaphy said 10 gardai were involved in a nine-hour search of his home at 11 Kerryhall Road, Fairhill, Cork, on April 11, 2014. He said he refused to sign a document afterwards saying he was happy with it.

The house was wrecked, it was destroyed. There was holes in walls, boards pulled up in the floor. They drilled holes in the plasterboard. When they took out the drawers [in the divan bed] you couldnt put in the drawers no more. They took wallpaper down as well. Trying to put the floor down, all the clips were broken, it wasnt going back. I moved over to my mothers house  it was too dangerous to live in. I didnt put the skirting boards back properly, they are just resting against the wall, said Heaphy.

Philip ODoherty, consulting engineer, said a builders quoted price of 12,000 for repairs seemed about right for what he described as almost the destruction of the whole inside of the house.

Siobhan Lankford, for the State, said this was exaggerated and that gardai used fibre-optic cameras rather than removing large sections of plasterboard.

She said Heaphy pleaded guilty to money-laundering arising out of money and post office books found in homes of other family members. She said that in searches of those houses the previous month, cash and post office books were found in concealed locations. For instance: 29,500 in cash rolled up inside the leg of a TV stand and post office books in a sock behind the kick-boards in a kitchen.

Heaphy said he bought his house in 2013 for 70,000, in cash. He said he was on 186 per week in disability payments at the time and the house was paid for out of money which included compensation of 10,000 he got for car accident injuries and a total of 40,000 received by other family members from the same accident. He said gardai found nothing in the search of his house.

Det Sgt Clodagh OSullivan said in the course of this money-laundering probe where their information was that money was concealed in the structure of the house they went into Heaphys house with the intention of causing as little damage as possible. She said 1in holes were drilled in walls as access for a fibre-optic camera.
Ukraine's Finance Ministry has again said that Kyiv was forced to raise the $3 billion loan from Russia during the presidency of Viktor Yanukovych in 2013 under pressure, Finance Minister of Ukraine Oleksandr Danyliuk.

"There (in the High Court of Justice in England) our position is stated clearly: this was a political loan which we were forced to take...," he said on the air of Espresso.TV on Tuesday evening.

Danyliuk also recalled that Ukraine repeatedly offered Russia to restructure the debt on the same terms as other creditors, but the latter refused.

As reported, on May 27, 2016, Ukraine filed a lawsuit in the High Court of Justice in England against claim brought by Russia against Ukraine after the country defaulted on $3 billion in bonds issued in 2013.

Ukraine's defense arguments are divided in four groups.

The first says that the decision to release $3 billion eurobonds in 2013, eventually bought by Russia using funds from the National Welfare Fund (NWF), was taken in violation of Ukrainian legislation and Ukrainian regulatory procedures.

It says some decisions on the loan were taken out of their proper (legal) sequence. Ukraine notes other violations of procedure, arguing the decision to borrow was not made in line with Ukrainian legislation.

The second set of arguments says the deal is invalid because the loan was procured through duress created by Russia during 2013.

The document gives examples of duress after Ukraine initialed the Ukraine-EU Association Agreement in March 2012.

Ukraine also provides evidence of Russia's military interference in Crimea, culminating in the annexation of the Black Sea peninsula in March 2014.

Russian steps aimed at destabilizing the situation in eastern Ukraine are listed separately.

The third set of arguments deals with implied terms for the eurobond issue. Ukraine says the eurobond loan document implied that Russia would exert pressure on Ukraine. The implication was misleading and Ukraine cannot stick to the terms and conditions outlined in the document.

The fourth set of arguments is based on a concept of counter-measures involving international public law. Ukraine claims Russia does not observe its international and legal liabilities to Ukraine, which has the right to take counter-measures, including the suspension of its liabilities under the loan agreement.
The family of the late Donegal Person of the Year, Hugh Green, are back in court in New Zealand as part of a long-running courtroom battle between his three adult children over his will.

Mr Green left his native Donegal in 1951, aged 19 and penniless, but went on to build a huge fortune through farming and land deals.

He died of cancer in 2012 at the age of 80, leaving an estate of NZ$400m.

Now, three Court of Appeal judges in New Zealand have been asked to overturn a finding that Mr Greens last will, from April 2012, should be set aside because it was made under the undue influence of his eldest son, John.

If the High Court judgment to set aside the will is allowed to stand, John Greens sister Maryanne, who worked alongside her father for many years in the family business, would be the only family member still a trustee.

Lawyer Mark OBrientold the court If Hugh was looking down on us, he would not be happy.

The president of the Court of Appeal, Mr Justice Stephen Kos, said it would be a great shame if there was no dialogue.

Lawyer Harry Waalkens, said there was no quibbling with the High Court judges finding that Mr Green was vulnerable when he made his last will, but the question was the degree to which he was susceptible to influence.

His strength of character was a common theme of the evidence, and it beggared belief that he would have allowed anything that did not accord with his own wishes, Mr Waalkens said.

Mr OBrien said the dispute was not about the money for anyone involved.

The appeal was brought because the wider family wanted Mr Greens wishes respected. He wanted a fair bit to go to charity, and for the family to keep the businesses. But he did not want Maryanne to be a trustee if she would not work with siblings John and Frances, Mr OBrien said.

Judge Kos said the trusts could be headed for a period of court supervision before being returned to family control when things had settled down. The hearing is expected to take several days.

Mr Green, born in Raphoe but raised in Letterkenny where he often returned to in his later years to spend the summer, was awarded the joint Donegal Person of the year in 2012. He regularly donated to local charities, including 200,000 to Letterkenny General Hospital for a training academy.
The Lead in Drinking Water Mitigation Plan includes more widespread sampling  already underway. The sampling is used to inform people of the health risks of lead in drinking water and prioritise action taken by Irish Water.

Irish Water is now testing 35,000 random samples of water quality annually, compared with 3,000 previously.

The utility estimates that about 180,000 homes and hundreds of commercial and public buildings still have lead plumbing, including lead service pipes from the water main to the stopcock.

Of the homes affected, about 40,000 are thought to have shared backyard (common service pipes) that Irish Water will be replacing over the next five years.

Irish Water has urged all homeowners whose houses were built before 1980 to check their internal plumbing for lead pipes.

The draft plan is based on major surveys, a review of international practices and consultation on the issues with the main health, environmental and other interested parties.

The Irish Water managing director, Jerry Grant, said drinking water produced at the utilitys plants was lead-free, and all lead water mains in the distribution system had been replaced.

A programme to replace remaining lead service connectors, short pipes connecting the water main to property boundaries, has begun.

Mr Grant said the replacement of common or shared backyard service pipes had been prioritised.

The greatest risk remaining from lead in drinking water is, therefore, arising on private property from internal plumbing, he said.

While full lead replacement was the best option, this had taken decades in other countries so the possibility of treating the water to reduce the risk was an option.

A food-grade product called orthophosphate can be added to drinking water at our plants to coat old lead pipes in peoples homes and reduce exposure and consequent health risk until the pipes are replaced, said Mr Grant.

He pointed out that orthophosphate was extensively used in Britain, Northern Ireland, and widely across North America.

However, Irish Water is legally obliged to consider the potential impact on the environment, and this would involve individual assessment for each Irish water supply.

We are now asking members of the public to look at the plan and give us their feedback on our proposed approach. In the meantime, we are also asking all property owners, especially those with young children, to check for lead pipes and to have them replaced if at all possible, said Mr Grant.

The Department of the Environment has established a grant scheme to assist low-income households in replacing lead pipes.

The public consultation on the draft plan will run from today until September 2. It can be viewed online at www.water.ie/lead and at local authority offices.
His was just one of the many tributes that poured in for the 41-year-old whose death brought the Galway racecourse at Ballybrit to a silent standstill at the beginning of day two of its festival.

Former champion jockey AP McCoy described Mr McNamara as a remarkable man and a brilliant rider.

His passing three years after a fall at Cheltenham was felt particularly hard by Mr Mr McManus, whose distinctive green and gold silks Mr McNamara often wore to victory.

He paid tribute at his home in Limerick to the wonderful kindness and loyalty of the jockey who was loyal to a fault either to man or horse. Mr McNamara enjoyed many of his 600 race wins wearing Mr McManuss green and gold silks.

When JT had his accident in Cheltenham he could have died that day, but the will of the man to live at the time, and the good that came out of that afterwards from the hundreds of people who rallied to support him and his family; that is his legacy, said Mr McManus.

He was a very caring person and very direct. He never used two words when one would do instead. He was loyal to a fault either to man or horse, he stuck with horses at times when he had the option of riding a better one but he felt he owed it to the horse, when often it might have been the horse that owed him. He had a great love for the animal he was riding.

The Turf Club, Irish Injured Jockeys, the Injured Jockeys Fund, and Mr McManus were all instrumental in assisting Mr McNamara and his family adapt to his new life when he returned home to Co Limerick in June 2013.

There were hundreds of people who showed support. He had a fan base he didnt know he had who all wanted to help in their own way, I was just one of hundreds, Mr McManus said.

Sport and Tourism Minister Patrick ODonovan described Mr McNamara as a proud Limerick man who was an inspiration in the very dignified and courageous way he adapted to his vastly changed circumstances.

My thoughts are particularly with his wife Caroline and his three children, Dylan, Harry, and Olivia at this very difficult time, he said.

Mayor of Limerick Kieran OHanlon said that Mr McNamara had a stellar career and he plans to speak to his family and the local horse racing community in the coming months to see how the jockey can be honoured.

News: 3

Editorial: 10

Wednesday Sport
Mr Kenny yesterday signalled for the first time that measures to monitor the movements of people and goods over the border could involve modern technology.

Ms May noted that the borders between Ireland and Britain would be strengthened, through a common use or sharing of air passenger data.

Following his first face-to-face meeting with Ms May at 10 Downing St, Mr Kenny pointedly dodged questions on the possibility of a United Ireland.

The leaders met for over an hour and discussed trade, the peace process, and the next steps following the Brexit vote, including the benefits of the common travel area.

Mr Kenny last week said it would be unacceptable to return to the days of a hard border from Dundalk to Derry.

Ms May, speaking in the North this week, said nobody wanted that. However, she left the door open on the issue by suggesting some sort of border was needed in the North when Britain eventually leaves the EU.

Mr Kenny struck down any doubts on the issue yesterday.

We are in agreement that we dont wish to see any return to the borders of the past on the island of Ireland, he said in a statement after the meeting.

Mr Kenny told reporters afterwards: A hard border in normal circumstances means customs posts and customs checks on a very regular basis.

There will be no return to the hard border of the past. The hard border between the Republic and Northern Ireland in the past included towers, obviously military equipment, for many reasons.

So obviously, I do not favour, I would not agree to a hard border with a whole range of customs posts and neither does the prime minister.

Mr Kenny, meanwhile, also signalled for the first time what now is being examined as an alternative to monitoring the movement of goods or people across the border in the North.

There are other ways of dealing with modern technology in terms of checking trade, he said.

Asked by the Irish Examiner if this included a model similar to that between the US and Canada, which involves automatic number plate recognition, he said: Yeah, I think these are things that need to be looked at creatively and imaginatively.

Mr Kenny refused to answer questions about whether Brexit had now made the possibility of a united Ireland more of a reality.

Social Protection Minister Leo Varadkar raised the issue last week when he said it would be a reality during his lifetime.

In what was viewed as a cordial opening meeting between Mr Kenny and Ms May, they both agreed to maintain the close relationship.

Ms May said there was a strong will to preserve the free movement of people between Britain and Ireland.
Minister Simon Harris revealed the decision to remove the ban last month, days after the reform was recommended in a report by the board of the Irish Blood Transfusion Service (IBTS). The ban was introduced in the 1980s when Aids became a major sexual health risk.

The lifting of the ban will allow men who have sex with men to donate blood a year after being sexually active or five years after they have been cleared of a sexually transmitted infection.
The 41-year-old man, who cannot be named to protect the identity of the victim, was convicted by a jury at the Central Criminal Court following a four-day trial earlier in the month.

He had pleaded not guilty to raping the woman at a caravan park in Dublin on March 7, 2014.

Garda Jacinta Martin told Dominic McGinn, prosecuting, that the victim and her husband were asleep in their caravan along with their four children when the defendant came in at around 3am, intoxicated, and claimed he was looking for money for a taxi fare.

The victim was half asleep and on medication when she discovered a man was fondling her. Her baby was lying beside her. She assumed it was her husband wanting sex and she allowed herself to be on top of him.

She said the man had sex with her and straight afterwards she became confused as she realised there was another man in her bed.

She jumped off the defendant and woke her husband up. The defendant was trying to put his clothes back on when he said something to the woman and she recognised his voice as that of her husbands uncle.

When she fully woke up the next morning, she realised what had happened and scrubbed herself before stripping the bedclothes and went to the Rape Crisis Centre. The defendants mobile phone was found in the bedroom.

During the trial, the defendants sister said he had called to her caravan a bit worse for wear from drink and said he was looking for money for a taxi fare. He said he was going to his nephews caravan and while there he took the opportunity to rape the woman, the court heard.

In a victim impact report, the woman said she feels physically sick and traumatised by the incident.

Garda Martin agreed with Damien Colgan, defending, that no threats were made on the night.

Mr Colgan said the 41-year-old married man, who has 21 previous convictions, had no great job prospects and suffers from conditions such as depression, anxiety, and lower back pain.

Mr Justice Tony Hunt said the man 

took advantage of an opportunity to rape a woman who was lying asleep while she was on medication.

He ordered the man to stay away from the injured party and her family for five years post-release. He praised the injured party, saying that she did the right thing by going to the gardai.
Transport Commissioner Violeta Bulc wrote to US transport secretary Anthony Foxx yesterday confirming that following consultation with EU member states, the commission is taking the unprecedented step of triggering arbitration.

The process relates to Norwegian Airs Irish subsidiary, Norwegian Air International (NAI), which applied to the US authorities for a foreign carrier permit in 2013 to operate a Cork Boston route this year, and a Cork New York route next year. It has also flagged the possibility of US routes from Shannon.

But its application has faced stiff opposition from unions on both sides of the Atlantic, which have claimed NAI will undermine wages and working conditions.

While the US Department of Transportation (SoT) granted tentative approval for the licence in April,with three weeks for submissions, a final decision is still awaited. The arbitration is not linked to the low-fares giants British subsidiary, NAUK, which had its application for a foreign carrier permit delayed by US authorities last month.

A senior EU source said the Commission, and the EU member states, share the view that the failure of the US DoT to act on NAIs 2013 permit request constitutes a breach of the EU-US Air Transport Agreement.

The Commission informed the US authorities of its view in November 2014 and regrets that no suitable solution could be found despite intensive discussions at all levels, the source said.

The Commission acted in good faith during this process and still invites the US authorities to comply with the EU-US Air Transport Agreement in order to reach an amicable solution.

A spokesman for Norwegian said they were pleased with the move to arbitration.

It is expected that the arbitration process will get underway within weeks, and could take several months.

However, the decision to trigger arbitration could compel the US authorities to make a decision sooner.
The entire racecourse  trainers, jockeys and punters alike  stood in silence before the off of the second race of the day as a mark of respect to the jockey who passed away on Monday night at the age of just 41.

The Limerick rider had spent three years battling against catastrophic injuries he sustained in a fall at the Cheltenham Festival in 2013.

The Croom native won over 600 races during his illustrious career.

He won the 2002 National Hunt Chase on Rith Dubh and the same race again in 2012 on Teaforthree.

He also won the Cross-Country Chase with Spot Thedifference in 2005 and the 2007 Fox Hunter Chase on Drombea.

The father of three suffered paralysis after breaking his neck when his horse, Galaxy Rock, fell at the first fence in the 2013 Challenge Cup.

It was touch and go for the first few weeks after his horrific fall but his tenacity saw him through and he spent 15 months in rehabilitation in Britain and Ireland before returning to Croom.

Its understood McNamara suffered medical complications last Friday and was taken to University Hospital Limerick. He was later discharged to spend his final days with his family.

Mr McNamara is survived by his wife Caroline and three children, Dylan, Harry, and Olivia, and was remembered by the racing community as one of their most skilled and bravest riders.

AP McCoy, the 20-time champion jockey, paid tribute to a remarkable man who was a brilliant rider.

It is a very sad day for everyone in racing, especially his family. His wife Caroline, shes a very tough and amazing woman, she has been since shes been caring for JT. He was a remarkable man.

He was a little bit like myself at times, he could be grumpy enough. But was very good-humoured, a fantastic, brilliant rider. If anyone watched his ride on Rith Dubh at the Cheltenham Festival, it was as good as you could ever wish to see, he told RTE.

The retired jockey said the day of the fall was one that he would never forget.

Ill never forget Adrian McGoldrick, who is the jockeys doctor in Ireland, coming in to me just after the race and telling me, because I was president of the Injured Jockeys Fund in England, that he was very ill and it was very serious.

I remember looking over at his peg and seeing his clothes hanging up, and to this day I can picture it in my head and thinking that hes never going to be back in here. And thats something Ill never forget, he said.

Writing on his Paddy Power blog, jockey Ruby Walsh described Mr McNamara as a straight-talking man whom he looked up to as a young jockey at Enda Bolgers stable.

I was 17 or 18 and he was a few years older  maybe 21 or 22. I looked up to him. He was a genuine guy and someone whose opinion you respected. Honesty was one of his main characteristics and if he had something on his mind, he wasnt long about letting you know. I appreciated that in him back then and all the times since. Its such a sad loss, he said.

Trainer Ted Walsh also paid tribute to Mr McNamara as having everything youd want in a man.

Mr Walsh was also present at Cheltenham when the accident occurred and said it was a day forever etched in his memory.

It was a simple enough fall. He caught the top of the fence, turned over and he never moved. For a moment youre thinking its an ordinary fall, but then a kind of a hush came over the place that JT was pretty seriously injured.

We all gathered around, everybody that was there. Then the helicopter came in and when you see a helicopter coming in to move somebody you know its pretty serious. We didnt know how serious, but there was a terrible hush around the place  absolutely dreadful, Ill never forget it.
John Condon, who has been a solicitor for 35 years and is principal of McMahon and Tweedy, Merchants Quay, Dublin, challenged a Law Society committees requirement that his practising certificate for 2016 would only be issued on the basis of him being supervised by a lawyer of 10 years standing.

He claimed he did not require supervision at all and that he had been given no opportunity to make submissions to the societys complaints and clients relation committee before it imposed the condition.
Cabinet is also expected to rubber-stamp plans for a separate taskforce to ensure people with disabilities are given a say in how money is spent on services they use.

The taskforce on youth mental health will include high-profile celebrity advocates and representatives of social media and broadcast media and will be chaired by Minister of State for Mental Health and Older People Helen McEntee.

She said: It will be very much tasked with being an action group, so its not going to put together a report that is going to sit on a shelf  it will put together actual physical actions that can be implemented within communities.

It will be made up of a variety from the Department of Children, Department of Education, Department of Health, you will also have a separate non-political element to it, you will have people who are leading in the particular fields.

Disabilities Minister Finian McGrath will also bring forward plans which were first outlined in the programme for government.

Mr McGrath wants to introduce a personalised budget system which will give people with disabilities control over how money is spent to best suit their needs.

The move will be overseen by a new task force led by current KARE disability services chief executive Christy Lynch who has repeatedly campaigned for the de-institutionalisation of people with disabilities and may result in an official state agency being set up to address the issue within five years.

Separately, Government ministers will also be told today that they cannot ban any TD convicted of corruption from running again for a Dail seat as such a block would be unconstitutional.

Due to advice from attorney general Maire Whelan, Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald will advise Cabinet to abandon a previous initiative to ban any corrupt TDs for up to a decade.
The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) has placed State Land Bank to the list of insolvent banks, the regulator has reported on its website.

Decision No. 165-sh was made by the NBU Board on July 26, 2016.

The NBU said that the bank was placed to the list of troubled banks in March 2016, as a conflict of interests was registered at the bank.

"The bank did not observe the NBU's requirements to remove legislation infringements. The situation has started worsening," the central bank said.

The central bank said that the bank did not have deposits of individuals, and there is no burden on the Deposit Guarantee Fund.

As reported, the Ukrainian government on July 2, 2012 decided to establish the State Land Bank. In the conditions of no amendments to legislation from the moment of receiving the banking license the bank almost did not operate.

The government at the end of 2015 proposed to parliament to take measures to reorganize or privatize the bank via the State Property Fund. The bank was in the state of liquidation.

Ukraine's Verkhovna Rada decided to liquidate State Land Bank on June 17, 2014.
Quantity surveyor Olaf Maxwell issued a statement to the Irish Examiner yesterday saying he was satisfied recent works he arranged at the listed, but near-derelict, Georgian villa had fully protected it against random vandalism.

But despite the extensive fire damage, he believes demolition would be completely unnecessary.

I do not see a need at this time for the demolition of what remains of one of Corks greatest landmarks, he said.

Gardai believe a gang of teenagers set a fire inside the 18th century property before the alarm was raised at around 9.40pm on Sunday.

It took more than 30 firefighters almost 10 hours to bring the blaze under control.

The building has been completely gutted, and its ornate internal structures, and renowned ceiling and wall paintings by Nathaniel Grogan, have been destroyed.

Engineers inspected the building on Monday and declared it unsafe to enter, sparking fears of demolition.

Mr Maxwell confirmed Vernon Mount House and its grounds were purchased in 1997 by VM Development Company Ltd, whose ownership is shared between Massilla Ltd, of which US investor Jonathan Moss was a director and Mr Maxwell is company secretary.

In 2006, the house ownership was transferred to Vernon Mount House Restoration Ltd (VMRL), with the same beneficial ownership as VM Development. The grounds are still owned by VM Development.

Mr Maxwell said Mr Moss is neither a personal nor sole owner of Vernon Mount House.

Mr Maxwell also said that when the house came on the market in 1997, he spotted an opportunity to provide for its long-term management and that Mr Mosss financial management and professional skills in conservation and construction provided a solid platform to achieve this.

Following extensive discussions with Cork County Council for a hotel development, a planning application was lodged.

The pre-planning discussions were very positive and enthusiastic but the application was refused after outside interventions.

Subsequent efforts were made to arrive at a redesign that would be acceptable, said Mr Maxwell.

To facilitate proposals going forward, the house and grounds were separated, with the ownership of the house transferred into a separate company (VMRL) in 2006.

In the period up to 2006, extensive maintenance was carried out at the house by Massilla Ltd, with roof works approved by the council being carried out. The house was in in good standing with contracted outside security in place and secured for a restoration in due course.

Mr Maxwell said he also engaged in extensive discussions with the council and National Roads Authority consultants, Arup, during the Kinsale Rd flyover works to provide access to Vernon Mount in anticipation of future renovations that would open up the house to public use.

Further talks led to plans for a public route from Grange Rd, through the grounds, and a bridge across the N40 dual carriageway and into Cork City.

Even in 2009/2010, there were discussions with a proposed joint venture partner. These viable proposals were presented to Mr Moss for consideration, said Mr Maxwell.

At all times, the council were involved in the discussions and proposals.

In fairness to the council they were working within many planning and legal constraints yet the outcome from our point of view was very positive and we were happy with the outcome.

Sadly for all the financial events of the time stalled progress. The present outlook now on the horizon means these proposals are more likely to see the light of day.

Mr Maxwell said his office has been working on these recently with a view to entering further discussions with the council.

However, he said that neither VM Development nor VMRL have received any correspondence from An Taisce, or other heritage bodies, about the house.

An Taisce did write to Mr Moss at an address in California last month asking him to consider donating the house and grounds to the State.

Mr Maxwell said he is open to having meaningful discussions with the council, An Taisce, and the Grange Frankfield Partnership to discuss what happens next.

Meanwhile, Cork County Council confirmed that while it did consider a CPO of Vernon Mount House, it was ruled out on cost grounds.

This decision was taken in the context of available council resources and overall service delivery responsibilities of the council in difficult economic circumstances, said a spokesman.

Although the house is privately owned, the councils strategy at the beginning of the decade was to secure the house by carrying out works to the roof in order to limit damage to the interior of the house.

The council awaits the outcome of the ongoing Garda investigation.
IN SOME ways, the most worrying thing about 2016 is that there are still more than five months of it left. Given just how much bad news has been packed into the year so far, the question has to be asked  what else could go wrong?

The answer, of course, is a lot.

It may well be that the mass casualty assaults in Paris, Brussels, Nice, Munich, and Orlando are only the beginning. Not all are necessarily linked to Islamist militant groups, but in each case they are raising the temperature of politics in a distinctly dangerous way.

In the Middle East, Islamic State is unquestionably losing ground in Iraq and Syria, but that may not make the group any less likely to strike out. This weekends bombing in Kabul  as well as other similar incidents in Iraq and elsewhere  act as a savage reminder that the level of terror attacks in the West remains incredibly low in comparison.

Nor are these the only  or necessarily even the greatest  dangers. Tensions with both Russia and China could well ratchet higher. The European Union has to deal with Brexit.

The number of countries suffering some kind of internal political crisis is also alarmingly high. After its attempted coup on July 15, Turkey appears more unstable than at any time in recent history  which is awkward, as it is something of a linchpin to Western policy on a variety of fronts.

Russia must deal with a falling oil price, China with potentially flagging growth. Many Western countries, including the United States, UK, France, and Germany, are socially divided on a scale not seen in decades if not generations.

And, of course, its still far from impossible that the United States will elect Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump to the White House in November.

On balance, of course, Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton remains the favorite  although polls from the Republican convention last week suggest her lead might be slipping.

Attacks like those in Brussels and Orlando have tended to help Trump. So, quite possibly, might a string of recent attacks on US police officers  although the widespread outrage over killings of often unarmed African-Americans may also boost turnout for the Democrats.

Its hard to escape the conclusion that the worse the rest of the world looks, the more it plays into Trumps narrative  even though its equally difficult to conclude he would be anything other than disastrous at handling those crises.

In almost every country, there are some deeply disturbing political trends.

Even without deliberately co-ordinated attacks by militants like IS, there seems to be a worrying tendency for more erratic individuals to become politically radicalised and conduct sometimes devastating attacks  a common thread that looks to run from the Nice attack through many of the mass shootings in the United States to the apparently politically-motivated killing of British parliamentarian Jo Cox in June.

These political divisions are getting more dangerous in part because the centre ground in many countries has been drastically eroded.

In the British EU referendum, one of the things that was both striking and disappointing was that neither side seemed willing to acknowledge that the other might have a point. Thats true in many other places as well, from the United States to Turkey.

When the center ground vanishes, theres inevitably a tendency for those on all sides to be pushed more towards extremes and absolutes.

Even when that doesnt lead to violence, it makes consensus and decision-making that much more difficult. (Thats even true within established political parties, as evidenced by infighting within both the Republicans and Democrats as well as overseas in entities such as the UK Labour Party.)

In short, its entirely possible the rest of the year will continue along similar lines to the first half, with periodic unpleasant and often violent events  even if only carried out by one or a handful of people  continuing to raise the political temperature in a variety of locations. Even without that, political crises will continue and with that bring a rising risk of unorthodox and unpleasant outcomes.

Brexit is a clear example of this, a Trump victory could yet be another.

Both Germany and France have seen the rise of the far right, with Germanys Alternative for Deutschland party winning a share of the vote unthinkable since the Nazis.

Summer seasons often also throw up their own unexpected dramas, both conflict-related and financial.

Russia could yet decide to make another land grab against its neighbors, perhaps non-Nato Ukraine and Georgia or even the Baltic states. We dont yet know how China will react to this months international court decision pushing back against its territorial claims. At worst, such conflicts could yield nuclear war.

We could also yet see another Lehman Brothers 2008-style market crisis, perhaps triggered by an incident in the eurozone or the UK finally biting the bullet on invoking Article 50 to quit the EU (although this now looks more likely to be put off until next year). The collapse of the euro  still entirely possible if a country like Italy leaves  could be even worse.

Despite all that, however, its worth noting that on some fronts things are not getting worse. Migrant arrivals in the European Union have dropped significantly from last year, giving European governments a much-needed respite even as they struggle with the militant threat.

The market turmoil from the UK referendum has yet been less than many feared. And while political parties may continue to polarize and divide, opinion polls generally show that voters in the West  and the United States in particular  are hungry for a much less partisan, more consensual approach.

In many ways, the years to come could be among the most dangerous in recent human history, particularly with the risk of both outright collapse and great power conflict higher than theyve ever been.

Many of the drivers that had been seen delivering greater stability  globalisation, international consensus, a move to the political center in many countries  are now under threat or have unraveled completely.

Things will hopefully be okay. But it looks likely to be one hell of a ride, with some more distinctly unpleasant  as well as deeply, deeply uncertain  days to come.

Peter Apps is Reuters global affairs columnist, writing on international affairs, globalisation, conflict and other issues. He is founder and executive director of the Project for Study of the 21st Century; PS21, a non-national, non-partisan, non-ideological think tank in London, New York and Washington. Since 2016, he has been a member of the British army reserve and the UK Labour Party.
But the practical solutions with regards to the North which will be put in place when Britain pulls the trigger and leaves the EU have yet to be revealed.

Both Enda Kenny and Theresa May yesterday hinted at what may become part of the arrangements, and the possibility of beefed-up security between the two islands.

The Taoiseach, while blatantly avoiding any questions about Irish unity yesterday, managed to win more support for the island of Ireland to be given a special status when Brexit talks begin.

It was his first face-to-face meeting with Theresa May since she became UK prime minister on July 13.

This was always going to be a cordial affair, a get-to-know you meeting.

Mr Kenny came to 10 Downing St armed with support from Francois Hollande, after the French president last week said Ireland should be considered a special case in the Brexit talks, especially given the history of the peace process and the Good Friday Agreement.

This was exactly what Mr Kenny managed to extract during the hour-long meeting with Ms May.

It seems both Mr Kenny and Ms May have agreed, no matter what the outcome of the protracted Brexit negotiations, that there will be no hard border between the Republic and the North.

Ireland could be a special case within the whole EU.

There will be no return to customs posts along the 499km stretch from Dundalk to Derry.

A hard border in normal circumstances means customs posts and customs checks on a very regular basis, said Mr Kenny outside 10 Downing St.

There will be no return to the hard border of the past. The hard border between the Republic and Northern Ireland in the past included towers, obviously military equipment for many reasons.

But how can the border actually be as porous as it is today once it becomes what an external frontier when Britain leaves the European Union?

Mr Kenny was not too specific. There are other ways of dealing with modern technology in terms of checking trade, he said.

It is thought this could include some kind of monitoring of vehicle licence plates, as happens between the US and Canada, especially when it comes to replacing the EU customs agreement that Britain would leave.

This is one of the larger concerns around Brexit, that the border will become an even bigger area for smuggling and a backdoor for people wanting to get into Britain or the EU.

Furthermore, Ms May, in her own statement, signalled that a strengthening of the borders around Ireland and Britain, around the islands as part of the common travel area, is also being examined.

We should continue our efforts to strengthen the external borders of the common travel area, for example through a common approach to the use of passenger data, she said.

Irish Government sources say there is already agreement on the sharing of air passenger data and that Ms May was indicating it could be beefed up.

It could, in effect, amount to a harder border around the two islands, where there may be a greater screening of passengers arriving.

This is unlikely to be a substitute for ending the free movement of people, as proposed by Britain under Brexit.

However, such strengthened passenger screening would become part of some temporary curbing of immigration by Britain, as has been flagged in recent days, which would only last a few years.

The question still remains, though: Would having no border controls still leave open the option of having some kind of manned checkpoints, even if it was based around technology?

Ms May said earlier this week, during a visit to the North, that some kind of border was inevitable.

The wording of checks evokes memories, in the minds of those living along the border, of army checkpoints, barbed wire, and backroad lanes being sealed off. This, for now, has been ruled out.
ON FEBRUARY 3, in the final moments before the general election campaign began, Taoiseach Enda Kenny told the Dail his government would get to the bottom of disturbing claims of decade-long sexual abuse in a state-run foster home.

During a debate on plans to establish a commission of investigation into the Grace case, an incident involving the alleged abuse of a mute woman with severe physical and intellectual disabilities, Mr Kenny said such an inquiry was needed to find out what happened at the home.

Those who left her to her fate pressed the mute button on her young life and her appalling experience, he said. Was the system blind, was the system deaf? Did the system possess so little awareness and so little accountability that it could become a stone to Grace?

The commission of investigation, I expect, will answer these questions. It will get the answers the people need.

The comment was a fair and honest reflection of the views held across the political spectrum, with all parties publicly stating both before and after the election that they will support an inquiry being set up.

It also underlined the belief any investigation would be prioritised due to the gravity of the claims involved.

However, six months on from such a clear statement of intent, Grace and those representing her are still waiting for such a commission of investigation to be established and the answers they want it to provide.

The reason for the delay is seemingly wrapped up in complicated legal red tape. However, at its core it is surprisingly straightforward.

In order for the Government to set up a commission of investigation, they must wait for an independent report on the scandal  and specifically whether there were attempts by senior HSE officials to cover it up  from senior counsel Conor Dignam.

And, while the report is practically completed, the latest in a series of delays last weekend means any possibility of its recommended commission of investigation terms of reference being put to the Cabinet before its final meeting today has now been extinguished, delaying the inquiry until the autumn.

In the immediate aftermath of the general election, Mr Dignam was given until early April to complete his report into whether two HSE-commissioned investigations had adequately addressed the issues raised by the Grace scandal, including claims that the case was covered up.

Mr Dignam had initially been given until last Christmas to complete this scoping exercise, before being given an extension until April by then minister of state Kathleen Lynch.

However, while he initially believed the work could be completed by this date, when April came it was agreed to push out the deadline until June due to the scale of the issues that were being uncovered.

By June, new Disabilities Minister Finian McGrath was expected to get the report, allowing him to put Mr Dignams recommended terms of reference for a full scale commission of investigation to the Cabinet  an issue that numerous sources said would be little more than a rubber-stamping exercise before the State inquiry was set up.

However, due to the amount of work involved, the deadline was delayed until early July, before being pushed out further again to last weekend.

While the report is now practically complete and Mr McGrath had drawn up a memo for todays Cabinet meeting, due to the need to allow individuals referenced in the file to have space for a right of reply, its release to the minister has been delayed again until August 2.

And while the seven-day extension is in itself only a short-term issue, it means agreement on the terms of reference for a commission of investigation into the disturbing abuse case will not be made today at Cabinet  which means no inquiry will be set up until at least September.

Speaking to the Irish Examiner last night, Mr McGrath said he understood the legitimate legal reasons why Mr Dignam must approach with caution, but admitted his frustration at the situation and stressed that the establishment of the inquiry must be prioritised.

It is a position that this sentiment is similarly echoed from both the Government and opposition parties.

However, for those representing Grace, it is another frustrating delay in a case that appears to be facing delay after frustrating delay with no clear end in sight.

Seven years on from first raising the case with authorities, they remain in the dark over when they will receive the answers they dont just, as Mr Kenny said on February 3, need, but deserve.

We are very disappointed with the delays to the Dignam report, the whistleblower who first raised the Grace case said yesterday.

We wrote to the minister on July 5 expressing our dismay at the delays and lack of communications regarding publication of the report.

I look forward to seeing the terms of reference and hope they encompass the broad range of concerns regarding this case, including the allegations of a cover-up by the HSE of its failings in this case.
The announcement yesterday that a pilot microcredit scheme for people in receipt of social welfare payments is to be rolled out nationwide is in the best tradition of this not-for-profit movement of financial co-operatives which began in Germany in the 1860s and is now a worldwide phenomenon.

It was introduced in Ireland in the 1950s through the efforts of three pioneers, Nora Herlihy, from Ballydesmond, Co Cork, an aunt of RTEs Marian Finucane; baker Sean Forde; and Seamus P MacEoin, from Kilkenny, a civil servant working in Dublin. We should have a statue to all three.
The clues are often there, he says; all you need are the right tools to find them.

The murderous activities of ideologically driven lone terrorists continue to defy law enforcement efforts in the United States, France, Germany, Belgium, the UK and elsewhere.

While police and other agencies rely on monitoring electronic communications to detect terrorists planning an attack, this will be of little use in pinpointing someone who is acting alone and may be a loner by nature.

The fact that such killers are often suicidal and care as little for their own lives as they do for their victims makes them harder to spot.

But not impossible, according to Dr Gill who advocates a multi-disciplinary approach to detecting the bomber or gunman in the making.

Terrorists are big on publicity. They want the world to know who they are  or were  and why they did what they did and the cause they espouse. In that event, they are likely to communicate at least some of their intentions.

As the recent outrages show, terrorists have no respect for borders.

Up to recently, Germans considered themselves largely immune from terrorism but the huge influx of migrants into the country has changed that.

Spared for a while the fate of Paris, Brussels and Nice, Germans thought they were safe but they have now endured four terror attacks in the space of a week. And the sad reality is that most of these attacks were the products of Islamist fundamentalism.

Neither do the terrorists have any respect for the traditional sanctuary of a church, as the brutal assault and murder yesterday of a Catholic priest in Normandy shows.

If the likes of Islamic State and other murderous groups can achieve their desire to spread fear and terror by simply inspiring disaffected youngsters to do their dirty work for them, they will do so and it will not bother them that their soldiers of Islam are likely to die in the process.

Our democratic institutions and our way of life is being challenged by an insideous force of evil and we need to find new ways to combat it. The old method of squaring up for battle will not work any longer.

It may be that we will need more than a military solution to combat this latest form of terrorism. It took the British government 30 years to realise that the IRA could not be defeated by military might alone. Hearts and minds had to be won also and genuine grievances recognised and countered.

We need to use brain as well as brawn to meet the challenge of 21st century terrorism.

Our very lives and the lives of our children may depend upon it.
Ford, who was knocked to the ground and pinned down by the heavy door, could have been killed in the incident as he rehearsed during shooting for Star Wars: The Force Awakens at Pinewood Studios in Buckinghamshire on June 12, 2014, a court heard.

The then 71-year-old was reprising his role as Han Solo when he was hit by the door, which had been designed to mimic the action of a door on the original set.

Foodles Production (UK) Ltd, which is owned by Disney, admitted two breaches under health and safety law.

Prosecuting at Milton Keynes magistrates court, Andrew Marshall said that Ford had gone through the door with another actor and hit a button, He started to walk back through the door, believing the set was not live and that it would not close.

But the court heard it was remotely operated by another person, and that as the star passed underneath it he was hit in the pelvic area and pinned to the ground.

Mr Marshall said there was a risk of death, saying: It could have killed somebody. The fact that it didnt was because an emergency stop was activated.

The actor was severely injured and left with a broken left leg in the incident, and was airlifted to hospital in Oxford.

Mr Marshall said the circumstances created a risk of death and had the emergency stop button not been pressed the situation could have eventuated differently.

The health and safety executive (HSE) said the the power of the rapidly closing metal-framed door meant Ford was hit with a power comparable to the weight of a small car.

Ford himself talked about the incident during an appearance on The Jonathan Ross Show before Christmas, referring to the fucking great hydraulic door.

He said in the original film a door would have been closed with a pulley and a stage hand.

But now we had lots of money and technology and so they built a fucking great hydraulic door which closed at light speed, he said.

Foodles pleaded guilty to one count under section two of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, which related to a breach of duty in relation to employees, and a second under section three, a breach over people not employed by the company.

Two further charges, under Regulation 3(1) of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999, and one under Regulation 11(1) of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 were both withdrawn as the facts will be incorporated into the two admitted breaches.

The company will be sentenced at Aylesbury crown court over the breaches. Sentencing is expected to happen on August 22.
The technology giant has been developing drones that can deliver its parcels to private addresses over a short distance as part of its Prime Air initiative.

It will now work with the government and the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) to develop better safety regulations and improve drone technology  the first tests of their kind in the UK.

Current regulations do not permit drone operators to lose line of sight of their device or operate over densely populated areas unless they have CAA permission.

Technology to overcome these restrictions will be explored in the programme, which will also test sensor performance to help drones detect and avoid obstacles.

Paul Misener, Amazons vice president of global innovation policy and communications said: The UK is a leader in enabling drone innovation  weve been investing in Prime Air research and development here for quite some time.

This announcement strengthens our partnership with the UK and brings Amazon closer to our goal of using drones to safely deliver parcels in 30 minutes to customers in the UK and elsewhere around the world.

Using small drones for the delivery of parcels will improve customer experience, create new jobs in a rapidly-growing industry, and pioneer new sustainable delivery methods to meet future demand, Mr Misener added. The UK is charting a path forward for drone technology that will benefit consumers, industry and society.

The CAAs policy director Tim Johnson said: We want to enable the innovation that arises from the development of drone technology by safely integrating drones into the overall aviation system.

These tests by Amazon will help inform our policy and future approach.
Seeking to bridge deep Democratic divides, Sanders endorsed former rival Clinton as a champion for the same economic causes that enlivened his supporters, signalling it was time for them too, to support her in the campaign against Republican White House candidate Donald Trump.

Any objective observer will conclude that, based on her ideas and her leadership, Hillary Clinton must become the next president of the United States, Sanders declared in a headlining address on the opening night of the Democratic convention in Philadelphia.

Sanders joined a high-wattage line-up of speakers, including Michelle Obama, whose address all but wiped away earlier tumult in the convention hall that had exposed lingering tensions between Clinton and Sanders supporters.

Obama, who has spent nearly eight years in the White House avoiding political fights, took numerous swipes at Trump, while avoiding mentioning him by name.

This election and every election is about who will have the power to shape our children for the next four or eight years of their lives, she said.

There is only one person I trust with that responsibility, only one person I believe is truly qualified to be president of the United States, and that is Hillary Clinton.

While Sanders had endorsed Clinton previously, his remarks early yesterday marked his most vigorous and detailed praise of her qualifications for the presidency.

It came at a crucial moment for Clintons campaign, on the heels of leaked emails suggesting the party had favoured the former secretary of state through the primaries despite a vow of neutrality.

Sanders scored the resignation of party chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a nemesis in the primaries  but that was not enough to quell the anger of supporters.

As the convention opened, they still erupted in chants of Bernie and booed Clinton the first several times her name was mentioned. Outside the convention hall, hundreds marched down Philadelphias sweltering streets with signs carrying messages such as Never Hillary.

Behind the scenes, Sanders and Clinton aides joined forces to try to ease tensions. Clintons campaign quickly added more Sanders supporters to the speakers line-up and Sanders sent urgent messages asking them not to protest.

By the time Sanders took the stage for the nights closing address, much of the anger had been overshadowed by speeches promoting party unity.

Celebrities unite to oppose Trump

Julianne Moore, Bryan Cranston, Kerry Washington, Mark Ruffalo, Neil Patrick Harris, Lena Dunham, and Macklemore are among more than 100 celebrities who have joined a campaign to urge Americans to deny Donald Trump the White House.

The campaign is part of MoveOn.org Political Actions #UnitedAgainstHate campaign.

We believe it is our responsibility to use our platforms to bring attention to the dangers of a Trump presidency, and to the real and present threats of his candidacy, says an open letter signed by the celebrities.

Donald Trump wants to take our country back to a time when fear excused violence, when greed fuelled discrimination, and when the state wrote prejudice against marginalised communities into law... Some of us come from the groups Trump has attacked. Some of us dont. But as history has shown, its often only a matter of time before the other becomes me.

The letter says, we call upon every American to join us.
If they succeed this November, the two women, both of whom have been vilified by their opponents, will be aiming to leave their mark on the countrys political future, especially for women.

As Ms Pelosi, who fired up the 2016 Democratic National Convention last night, likes to put it: Our country was built by strong women and we will continue to break down walls and defy stereotypes.

Ms Clinton, who says she believes the rights of women and girls around the world is the unfinished business of the 21st century, will be assured of a place in the history books if she becomes Americas first female president, but her election could also propel Ms Pelosi once again into history.

In 2007, Ms Pelosi became the first woman in American history to lead a political party in the US Congress when she became Speaker of the House of Representatives, a post she held until 2011, when Republicans won back the chamber.

Now, at 76, she hopes to recapture the post. If Ms Clinton wins the presidential election and if her coattails prove strong enough to also elect a Democratic majority in the House, Ms Pelosi looks assured of again becoming Speaker, from which post she and Ms Clinton would combine to shape Americas future.

They would lead two separate branches of government  a legislative arm of Congress (the House of Representative) and the executive arm in the White House  but its also a relationship that could test their friendship.

Ms Pelosi has left her progressive imprint on most of Americas political milestones over the past 30 years, but Ms Clinton will be aware that when Ms Pelosi faces down presidents, she doesnt blink.

While she was key to Barack Obama securing congressional backing for the Iran nuclear deal last year, on another occasion she joined liberal Democrats in blocking trade votes linked to the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP), which Ms Obama supports.

Ms Pelosi was born on March 26, 1940, into a powerful Italian Catholic family who ran Maryland Democratic politics. Her mother fancied her daughter might become a nun, Ms Pelosi once recalled in an interview with the National Catholic Reporter.

I didnt think I wanted to be a nun, but I thought I might want to be a priest because there seemed to be a little more power there, she said.

As it turned out, she discovered there was far more power in the halls on Congress and, once elected to represent San Francisco in 1987, she soon rose through the ranks.

It was Ms Pelosi who was among the first to spur on Ms Clinton to run for the presidency.

I am frequently introduced as the highest-ranking woman in political office in our country [but] Id like to give up that title and elect a Democratic woman for president of the United States. And soon, she has said.

Their friendship was tested, however, when Ms Clinton ran for the White House in 2008 and Ms Pelosi backed Mr Obama for the Democratic nomination. Nevertheless, both women have again become firm friends and allies in their shared political destiny.

Ms Pelosis political clout has become legendary in Washington. Her central achievement has been securing the passage of Mr Obamas affordable healthcare act, which has insured millions more Americans since it was introduced in 2010.

She called the act my main mission and best accomplishment, but Republicans, who want it repealed, saw it differently and their criticisms of her were, at times, almost as virulent as those now directed at Ms Clinton.

Ms Pelosis political prowess is matched only by her financial clout. She has raised over $56m to help Democrats get elected this year and, in the last 14 years, she has raised close on $500m for her party.

Yet she has her critics and some Democrats in Congress would like to see her handing over leadership to a younger generation. But no one hands over power easily in Washington and Ms Pelosi is no exception. If Ms Clinton fails to win the presidential election and the party fails to wrest control of the House from Republicans, its possible that Ms Pelosi may rethink her position.

But until then the destinies of both women are inextricably linked.
Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman has proposed to discuss the program to reform the coal sector at the next meeting of the governmental committee and approve it in August.

"The strategy should be created and proposed to the government Let discuss and approve it in August and understand what financing is required. That's all. We will find mechanisms for solving the issue," he said at a government meeting on Wednesday.

The prime minister said that government secured financing could be raised for the program.

"Let's make the government-secured coalmine restructuring program. This should be made urgently The government should take a political decision. I then will find one hundred and one mechanisms for financial support of modernization and restructuring of coal mines. This should be done once and then we can move on," Groysman said.

In May 2016 Ukrainian Energy and Coal Industry Minister Ihor Nasalyk said announced the proposal to liquidate 11 state-run coalmines, bring to breakeven 15 coal mines and put them up for sale.

He said that liquidation of coal mines will be accompanied by social programs for mines. Cooperation with the British adaptation program has started.
The nun, identified as Sr Danielle, said she saw the two attackers video themselves and give a sermon in Arabic around the altar at the church near Rouen in Normandy.

IS has claimed responsibility for the attack, the first in a church in the West.

Sr Danielle told BFM television: They forced him to his knees. He wanted to defend himself. And thats when the tragedy happened.

They recorded themselves. They did a sort of sermon around the altar, in Arabic. Its a horror.

Of her fallen colleague, she said: He was a great priest.

Police rescued three other people inside the church  including a second nun  in the north-western town of Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, said interior ministry spokesman Pierre-Henry Brandet. One person injured in the attack is no longer in a life-threatening condition.

A regional Muslim leader said one of the two attackers  both killed outside the church  was known to police. A police official said he had tried to go to Syria.

Mohammed Karabila, head of the Regional Council of the Muslim Faith for Haute-Normandie, said: The person who committed this odious act is known and he has been followed by the police for at least one and a half years. He went to Turkey and security services were alerted after this.

Adel Kermiche, 19, was arrested in Germany in March 2015 trying to join extremists in Syria using his brothers ID, and was then arrested in Turkey two months later using a cousins ID.

Kermiche was wearing an electronic tag when killed, said Paris prosecutor Francois Molins.

A 16-year-old, believed to be the younger brother of someone wanted by police for trying to go to Syria or Iraq in 2015, has also been detained as part of the investigation.

It was the first known attack claimed by IS inside a church in the West. A church outside Paris was targeted last year, but the attack never was carried out.

A statement published by the IS-affiliated Amaq news agency said the attack was carried out by two soldiers of the Islamic State who acted in response to calls to target nations in the US-led coalition fighting IS in Iraq and Syria.

The statement echoed claims in other recent attacks in France and neighbouring Germany. It repeated its threat to Western crusaders.

The RAID special intervention force carried out a search for possible explosives in or around the church.

The investigations are ongoing. There are still unknowns, said Mr Brandet.

There are dogs, explosive detectors and bomb disposal services at the church outside Rouen.

The priest was always ready to help, said Rouen diocese official Philippe Mahut. He said Fr Hamel had been at the church for the past decade.

Sometimes he was running all around, and his desire was to spread a message for which he consecrated his life, said Mr Mahut.

And he certainly didnt think that consecrating his life would mean for him to die while celebrating a Mass, which is a message of love.

French president Francois Hollande, arriving on the scene, called it a vile terrorist attack and one more sign that France is at war with IS, which has claimed a string of attacks on France plus two in Germany.

We must lead this war with all our means, he said, adding that he was calling a meeting of representatives of all religions for today.

He expressed solidarity with local Catholics, saying they have been terribly hit by the killing of the parish priest by two terrorists claiming to belong to Daesh. I have met with the family of the priest.

The town mayor, Hubert Wulfranc, denounced the barbarism and, breaking down, pleaded: Let us together be the last to cry.
He is among world leaders who have paid tribute after Catholic priest Fr Jacques Hamel, 84, was murdered and a member of the congregation seriously injured in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, south of Rouen, Normandy.

The Vatican said: We are particularly struck because this horrible violence has occurred in a church  a sacred place where we pronounce Gods love  with the barbaric murder of a priest and worshippers affected.

French president Francois Hollande travelled to the site of the attack as forensic officers began their investigations.

In a tweet addressed to the families of the victims and all Catholics in France, Mr Hollande offered solidarity and compassion.

Confirming Fr Hamels death, the Archbishop of Rouen, Dominique Lebrun, who cut short a visit to Poland to return to his diocese, said: I cry to God with all men of good will. The only arms which the Catholic Church can take up are prayer and brotherhood between men.

French prime minister Manuel Valls said: All of France and all Catholics are bruised. We stand together.

Chief rabbi Mirvis offered prayers with our Catholic friends on Twitter.

He said: Attack in Normandy a despicable desecration of the sanctity of human life in a place of peaceful worship.

In England, the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby said: Evil attacks the weakest, denies truth and love, is defeated through Jesus Christ. Pray for France, for victims, for their communities.

British prime minister Theresa May said Britain would stand shoulder to shoulder with France, adding that a terrorist attack in the UK was highly likely.

She said: What is necessary is for us all to work together and stand shoulder to shoulder with France. We offer them every support we have in dealing with this issue and this threat that they, and the rest of us, are facing.

But on one thing, I think, we are all absolutely clear, and that is the terrorists will not prevail.

They are trying to destroy our way of life. They are trying to destroy our values. We have shared values and those values will win through and the terrorists will not win.
Rocky the ginger ape has astonished experts by producing sounds similar to words in a conversational context.

Researchers conducted a game in which Rocky mimicked the pitch and tone of human sounds and made vowel-like calls.

Comparing Rockys sounds against a large database of recordings of wild and captive orangutans showed they were markedly different.

Rocky was able to learn new sounds and control the action of his voice in the way humans do when they conduct a conversation, the scientists concluded.

They believe Rocky could be the key to understanding how human speech evolved.

Lead researcher Adriano Lameria, from the University of Durham, said: Its not clear how spoken language evolved from the communication systems of the ancestral great apes.

Instead of learning new sounds, it has been presumed that sounds made by great apes are driven by arousal over which they have no control, but our research proves that orangutans have the potential capacity to control the action of their voices.

Eight-year-old Rocky was studied at Indianapolis Zoo in the US, where he still lives, between April and May 2012.

In the do-as-I-do game he attempted to copy random sounds made by the experimenter which included variations in tone and pitch.

The findings are published in the latest issue of the journal Scientific Reports.

Scandal inflates

Italy: The outspoken leader of Italys anti-immigrant Northern League party has drawn a chorus of criticism for comparing the woman speaker of the lower house of parliament to an inflatable sex doll.

While Matteo Salvini addressed the crowd at a rally near the northern city of Cremona, a blow-up doll was held up by supporters behind him.

Boldrinis clone is here on the stage, said Salvini, referring to lower house speaker Laura Boldrini. He gave no explanation why he made the comparison.

The remark was greeted with raucous laughter among the crowd but roundly condemned by politicians from across the political spectrum.

The Northern League leader often targets Boldrini, who comes from a small left-wing party, because of her appeals for humane treatment for immigrants. Before being elected to parliament, she was Italys spokeswoman for the UN High Commission for Refugees.

Salvini misses no opportunity for insults and vulgarity but with this rally he has passed every limit of decency, said Emanuele Fiano, a prominent deputy for prime minister Matteo Renzis Democratic Party.

Maria Elena Boschi, the minister for constitutional reforms, accused Salvini of squalid sexism which she said offended not only Boldrini but all Italian men and women.

War stories

Britain: Hundreds of letters have been unearthed which shed new light on life during the two world wars and the civil rights movement in the US.

The Royal Mail has received 340 letters after it launched a campaign marking its 500th anniversary.

People were asked to look in attics and garages to search for long-forgotten letters or postcards giving personal accounts of life in previous decades.

The letters include one addressed to an English family giving a detailed account of a Jewish womans fight to leave Germany in 1938.

David Gold, of Royal Mail, said: It has been great to see the support that the campaign has received from the public already. We have been sent letters from all corners of the country covering everything from fighting in the First and Second World Wars to sage advice from a grandfather to his grandson.

While at times the letters have been hard to read, they have given us a special glimpse into life across the UK through the centuries. We cant wait to see what other pieces of history the public share with us over the next couple of months.

Fishy business

Alaska: Alaskans are always excited by salmon runs, unless its across a highway.

A truck carrying chum salmon to a cannery in Alaskas capital city rolled on Monday afternoon, spilling the fish across three of the highways four lanes and backing up traffic for about 90 minutes.

Juneau police spokesman Lt. David Campbell said his police chief, Bryce Johnson, was one of six officers who responded to the scene, and confirmed the area did smell.

Campbell says the amount of fish spilled wasnt immediately known, but men who looked like fishermen in slickers were cleaning fish off Egan Highway.

The fish was destined to one of the canneries in Juneau, and Campbell says he didnt know if the men cleaning it were from the cannery or the transport company.

The driver had minor injuries, but wasnt taken to hospital.
Burma ALP Officer Arrested for Accusing Burma Army of War Crimes

An Arakan Liberation Party officer is detained in Sittwe, facing incitement charges for accusing the Burma Army of committing war crimes in Arakan State.

RANGOON  The communications officer of the Arakan Liberation Party, Khine Myo Htun, was detained on Monday in Sittwe, the Arakan State capital, where he is facing incitement charges for accusing the Burma Army of committing war crimes in the state.

According to local sources, he had received bail after initial charges were made, but had not shown for two consecutive court hearings, after which the judge ordered his arrest.

During a court hearing on Wednesday, more than 50 Sittwe residents stood for several hours outside, reportedly eager to enquire about Khine Myo Htuns status.

The Arakan Liberation Party (ALP)whose armed wing, the Arakan Liberation Army, is estimated to have minimal fighting capacitywas among eight non-state ethnic armed groups that signed the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement with the previous government in October last year.

On April 24, Khine Myo Htun released a statement on behalf of the ALP that made multiple allegations against the Burma Army of committing war crimes and breaching the Geneva Convention by forcing local civilians to porter for their battalions, using them as human shields, and torturing them for information during campaigns against the Arakan Army (another ethnic Arakanese armed group) in Kyauktaw Township of Arakan State.

Quickly after, the Arakan State Security and Border Affairs Minister Col Htein Lina military appointeesummoned Khine Myo Htun and demanded concrete evidence for the accusations, threatening him with arrest if no proof was given. In early May, Khine Myo Htun delivered 15 audio and visual files to Col Htein Lin as evidence.

However, the military responded by charging Khine Myo Htun under Article 505 of the Burmese penal code, which covers broad incitement provisions and carries a maximum sentence of two years in prison.

A central committee member of the Arakan National Party, Khin Pyay Soe, confirmed that Khine Myo Htun had been sued by the military but had since been released on bail.

A junior officer of the ALP, who wished to remain anonymous, confirmed that Khine Myo Htun was arrested on Monday because of the April statement and was escorted by police to the Sittwe courthouse on Wednesday morning.

Nyo Aye, who sits on the board of directors for the Arakan Natural Resources and Environmental Network and has worked with Khine Myo Htun, told The Irrawaddy that they were preparing to meet with the security and border affairs minister to discuss Khine Myo Htuns case, and were making urgent moves to hire a lawyer.

Nyo Aye explained that Khine Myo Htun had been absent from two previous court hearings, prompting his arrest on Monday, because he had been away from Sittwe.

The Irrawaddy phoned the ALPs joint general-secretary Khine Aung Soe Than but he could not be reached for comment because he was en route to attend the Mai Ja Yang summit of ethnic armed groups, hosted by the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) in Kachin State.
Burma Burma Appoints New Permanent Representative to the UN

Burmas Ministry of Foreign Affairs appoints Htin Lynn as the permanent representative to the United Nations (UN) and other international organizations.

RANGOON  Burma has appointed Htin Lynn as the permanent representative to the United Nations (UN) and other international organizations, according to a statement issued by the foreign affairs ministry on Wednesday.

Previously acting as a director-general of the ministrys international organizations and economic department and deputy permanent representative to the UN, he has served with the ministry for more than three decades, Aye Aye Soe, ministry spokesperson and member of the consular and legal affairs department, told The Irrawaddy on Wednesday.

In May of last year, he joined the Special Meeting on Irregular Migration in the Indian Ocean, in Bangkok, Thailand, as Burmas special representative. At the meeting, he rejected Burma being singled out by the UN when addressing the issue of thousands of Rohingya and Bangladeshi migrants attempting to reach Malaysia and Indonesia by boat.

Htin Lynn has been recognized as a staunch defender of the previous administrations stance on the Rohingya. According to a report issued by the state-run daily Global New Light of Myanmar last January, he said that Burmas 1982 Citizenship Law would decide their citizenship eligibility.

He has denied accusations of discriminatory policies in the country toward the Rohingya, while recognizing that some ethnic groups were left behind due to geographical difficulties and poor infrastructural development.

Recently, he represented Burma at the World Humanitarian Summit, which was held in Istanbul on March 24.
Burma Ethnic Armed Group Leaders Discuss Formation of a Burman State

On the second day of a summit in Mai Ja Yang, Kachin State, ethnic armed group leaders propose combining three divisions to form a Burman state within a federal union.

MAI JA YANG, Kachin State  On the second day of a summit in Mai Ja Yang, Kachin State, ethnic armed group leaders discussed a draft constitution which proposes a single Burman state within a federal union.

Currently, Burma is made up of seven ethnic statesnamed for the Chin, Kachin, Karen, Karenni, Mon and Shanand seven divisions. The proposed change is to combine three of these divisionsin which the majority population in most regions is thought to be Burmanto form a single Burman state. Ethnic minority leaders believe that this will foster more equitable political representation and sharing of resources.

While data from the 2014 census on the size of Burmas ethnic populations has yet to be released, Burmans, or Bamar, have long been considered to comprise around 60 percent of the national population.

Nai Hong Sar, vice chairman of the ethnic armed group coalition United Nationalities Federal Council (UNFC), explained that ethnic minority leaders have difficulty accepting the current constitutional allowance for Burmans to retain political control over seven regions in the country and be allocated what he says are a larger share of resources.

They [the Burmans] get seven kyats, but our ethnic group has only one state and we will get only one kyat, he said, in an allusion to the famous remark by Gen Aung San in 1947 to the effect that if Burmans received one kyat, ethnic minority groups would receive the same. Therefore, we cannot accept their constitution, Nai Hong Sar added, explaining how he feels the controversial 2008 Constitution marginalizes ethnic minorities.

Based on our current draft, Mandalay, Magwe and Pegu [divisions] will become a state for Burmans, he said, adding that, We all should all be equal.

Ethnic armed group leaders adopted a draft federal constitution in Feb. 2008, after forming the Federal Constitution Drafting and Coordinating Committee (FCDCC). Burmas current constitutionalso ratified in 2008was written by the countrys former military government and ratified by a nationwide referendum widely considered fraudulent.

The constitution has been extensively criticized for entrenching the armed forces presence in the legislature, for barring now-State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi from the presidency, and for granting little autonomy to ethnic states.

Burmas seven divisions are listed in the 2008 Constitution as Rangoon, Sagaing, Magwe, Mandalay, Irrawaddy, Pegu and Tenasserim. The FCDCC recommends that Rangoon, Sagaing, Tenasserim and Irrawaddy divisionswhich have large ethnic minority populationsinstead become what they term as nationalities states.

Nai Soe Myint, a senior leader from Mon National Party agreed with the proposed change. For example, the ethnic Chin nationality lives [also] in Sagaing Division. The division does not only have Burman people. This is why we will call Sagaing a nationalities state, he said.

Gen Bee Htoo, chief of the Karenni National Progressive Party and a senior UNFC leader, said that a federal system based on nationalities would solve many of the countrys problems stemming from what has long been perceived as Burman domination of political affairs, institutions and culture.

Not all were in agreement, however. The Restoration Council of Shan Statewhose armed wing is known as the Shan State Army-South, and claims defend ethnic Shan interestsobjected to the idea of Shan State being called a nationalities state. Shan State covers a large area of exceptional pluralismin addition to the Shan it is home to considerable numbers of ethnic Palaung (Taang), Pa-O, Wa and Kachin, among many other groups, and a significant population of Chinese descent.

Three groups absent from the meeting were the United Wa State Army, the Taang National Liberation Army and the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Armyall of which are active in Shan State, leading some ethnic delegates, including Bee Htoo, to recommend further discussion for a future nationalities state in the region. Other ethnic leaders present at the summit have suggested centering future talks around a federal Shan State instead, but clarified that such discussions remain in the early stages.

Naw Zipporah Sein, the vice chairperson of the Karen National Union (KNU), said that additional changes have been made to the FCDCCs alternative draft constitution up through 2015.

We will discuss and analyze the draft today. Then, if we need to, we could add more to it and approve it at this meeting, she said on Tuesday at the Mai Ja Yang summit.

She added that the representatives from 17 groups present at the event would focus on discussing how to most effectively participate in the upcoming Union Peace Conferenceslated to be held in late August in Naypyidaw.

It is important for us to establish common ground, Zipporah Sein said. One group alone cannot build a federal union, or peace. We will only succeed in reaching our goal when all groups are included: political parties, democratic forces, and our armed forces, she said.

The UNFCs Nai Hong Sar said that current events have forced the Burma Army, which has long opposed the political aspirations of ethnic nationalities, to be more open to their demands.

In the past, the Burma Army was opposed to federalism, but not anymorethey accept it now. They are worried that our ethnic groups will secede from the country. But no one is asking to secedewe just ask for our future federal system to have democracy, equal rights and self-determination. We just ask for this, he said.

This article has been slightly amended to include the reference to Gen Aung Sans 1947 remark on Burman/ethnic relations.
Burma Four Ethnic Armed Groups Absent From Mai Ja Yang Summit

Four ethnic armed groups, including the UWSAthe largest non-state armed group in Burmaare absent from an ongoing ethnic armed group summit in Kachin State.

MAI JA YANG, Kachin State  Four ethnic armed groups, including the United Wa State Army (UWSA)the largest non-state armed group in Burmawere noticeably absent from an ongoing ethnic armed group summit in Kachin States Mai Ja Yang.

Leaders representing 17 ethnic armed groups gathered in Mai Ja Yang on Tuesday to seek common ground in working toward federalism.

Among the other absentees were the Taang National Liberation Army (TNLA), the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) and the Nationalist Socialist Council of Nagaland-Khaplang (NSCN-K).

Even before the Wa group received the [summit] invitation from us, they had set up a time and venue for talks with the government. They might have had difficulties choosing a delegation of leaders to attend the summit, said Khu Oo Reh, chairman of the summit organizing committee.

Despite the fact that the UWSA did not attend the event, its allythe National Democratic Alliance Army (NDAA), better known as Mongla Groupjoined the summit as an observer. Also, the Arakan Army (AA)a TNLA and MNDAA allywas present.

The TNLA and MNDAA wanted to attend but there were difficulties for the time being. Please forgive their absence. They will be present and cooperate in the next stages, said Khu Oo Reh, who is also secretary of the United Nationalities Federal Council (UNFC).

The AA, TNLA and MNDAA are all members of the UNFCa coalition of nine ethnic armed groups who opted out of signing a nationwide ceasefire agreement (NCA) with the previous government in 2015. The UNFC has stuck to its all-inclusive policy regarding a ceasefire with the government, and opted out of signing the NCA because the former administration had not included the MNDAA, TNLA, and AA in the peace process.

The TNLA stated that it chose not to attend the summit because of concerns that its presence might affect other ethnic armed groups, citing previous demands issued by the Burma Army for participation in peace process. The military demanded that the TNLA, MNDAA and AA disarm in order to join the process, said TNLA general secretary Tar Bone Kyaw.

We are ready to participate in the peace process if the National League for Democracy government and the Burma Army allow us to join like other ethnic [armed] groups in line with the ceasefire policy. But the Burma Army has insisted that we lay down our arms before joining the peace process, he told The Irrawaddy.

Regarding the inclusion of the MNDAA and the TNLA in the peace process, Khu Oo Reh told reporters, Our view is that we will continue discussions with the government. But, we think the concerned groups and the government should answer for themselves rather than us answering on their behalf.

The NSCN-K is based on the India-Burma border and is an independent group with no alliance to other ethnic armed groups. The group has said that it will not attend the Union Peace Conference, which is scheduled for the end of August.

Translated from Burmese by Thet Ko Ko.
Burma Lawmaker and Real Estate Developer Condemns Suspended High-Rise Construction

A Lower House MP behind a Rangoon high-rise project has criticized the divisions chief minister for a decision to suspend the construction of more than 200 buildings.

RANGOON  A Lower House lawmaker behind a Rangoon high-rise project has criticized the divisions chief minister for a decision to suspend the construction of more than 200 buildings in the commercial capital.

During an interview with Radio Free Asia on Saturday, Thet Thet Khine, a businesswoman who is also a National League for Democracy (NLD) MP from Rangoons Dagon Constituency, said that Chief Minister Phyo Min Theins decisionmade in Mayhas negatively affected job opportunities for local workers on sites where construction was halted.

The government can change policies if they dislike them. It is for this that the people elected us. But their way of making changes needs to be right, she said.

In May, the Yangon City Development Committee (YCDC) announced a halt to the construction of more than 200 buildings in Rangoon that were to be nine or more stories high, declaring that resumption would be permitted only after on-the-ground investigations were conducted to determine whether those projects had followed construction regulations. A review committee was then formed in June to perform these assessments.

The move has since been criticized by developers who say that the YCDCs action has had serious consequences: labor issues, complaints from buyers of unfinished apartments, delays on repaying bank loans, cash flow problems and a lack of business for construction suppliers.

The YCDC acknowledges that the previous Rangoon divisional government and municipal council had given initial approval for proposals to build more than 200 high-rises from 2013 until March 31 of this year.

[Their projects] were in line with the previous governments regulations. Now, they are changing them, said Thet Thet Khine, who is planning the construction of a high-profile condominium building housing 68 residences. The project is slated to be built on the corner of Kabar Aye Pagoda and Saya San roads, near the countrys landmark Shwedagon Pagoda.

Thet Thet Khine highlighted NLD-party head Aung San Suu Kyis promise during the 2015 general election campaign period that a new government would hold no grudge against the previous administration. What the Rangoon Division leadership is doing now, Thet Thet Khine alleges, is backsliding into an attitude of just follow my orders.

What I want to say is that they can make a new policy, but before that, they should listen and discuss the voices of those who will need to follow that policy. They should consider the impacts, and the pros and cons [of the policy change], Thet Thet Khine added.

The Irrawaddy tried to contact Thet Thet Khine by phone on Wednesday but were not able to reach her at the time of publication.

The suspension of the projects comes at a time when Burmese urban specialists, who contend that Rangoon is under threat due to the lack of proper urban planning and controls, have been calling on the government to take urgent action to rein in unruly projects. They have also called for the formation of a committee of experts on sustainable urban management.
Burma Trade Troubles on the Chinese Border

Due to heavy rains in Shan State and increased scrutiny from Chinese officials, Burmese traders are unable to offload their goods in China, sources say.

RANGOON  Due to heavy rains in northern Shan State and increased scrutiny from Chinese officials, Burmese traders who typically sell unsanctioned goods in China have been stuck in the border town of Muse, unable to offload their products, sources said.

Weeks of rain have raised the Ruili River, which divides Burma and China, to a dangerous level. Rice, bean, sugar and corn exporterswho have transported their goods illegally via truck to China in the pastare now attempting river crossings, said Muse-based fruit exporter Sai Khin Maung.

According to Min Ko Oo, the secretary of the Myanmar Beans and Pulses Traders Association, the Chinese government has recently undertaken harsher scrutiny of exporters, causing illegal traders to ship their goods via ferrya dicey method due to the intense rains.

Rice, corn, bean and sugar traders are hesitant to travel to Muse because of uncertainty on the Chinese side, but people who export legal products are still making the trip, traders said.

According to the Ministry of Commerce, Burma has 16 border trading posts. More than 1,500 trucks cross the Muse border into China daily during normal trading periods; however, due to the rains and the stricter control measures, that number has been significantly reduced. According to sources on Muses 105-mile border trade gate, fewer than 500 trucks now cross each day.

Traders are waiting to see what happens before going to Muse. Because major export item trading is almost at a standstill now in China, the trade volume will be lower than usual this month, a Muse border gate source said.

He added that the resurgence of trade would depend on weather conditions and control measures on the Chinese side.

According to the Ministry of Commerce, trade volume in Muse this year is down US$81 million from last years volume for the April to July fiscal quarter.
From Pam:

Runners head to the trails to get away from lifes problems and to escape from the responsibilities of modern life. But trail running can present some problems of its own, particularly if one gets a little too carefree when heading out into nature. Many of the problems in trail running stem from poor preparation or safeguards against the most common problems. But other issues can arisesuch as injuries or animal encountersand it behooves you to have some general knowledge of what to do in these situations.

As the saying goes, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. The most common things that happen to trail runners are getting lost, getting stuck out in bad weather, and not having enough food and water. All of these problems can be mitigated or avoided by bringing a few basic items. And while this may seem like beginner-level advice, Ive heard countless stories from very experienced runners who have run into trouble by being under-prepared.

Just recently, a friend of mine who was crewing at Western States set out for what she thought was an easy eight-mile run on some unfamiliar trails at Squaw Valley, California without any food or water. She ran into deep snow at high elevations and had to retrace her steps, turning her eight-mile run into 12. To make matters worse, it was a lot hotter than she expected. By the time she was finished, she was severely dehydrated and laid up all afternoon from exhaustion and vomiting.

Earlier this spring, I went for a run with some friends in nearby McDonald Forest, a place where we all knew the trails well. Or, at least we knew the trails we always run on well! When the main connector road was impassable due to logging, we decided to take a spur that none of us had ever done before. It turns out the road did NOT go where a few people assumed it did, and we ended up in a valley on the wrong side of the mountain 18 miles into a planned 20-mile run and still at least 12 miles from the car. To make matters worse, it had started to pour and none of us had jackets. Fortunately, one person knew someone who lived nearby and we sheepishly knocked on the door and got a ride back to our cars!

If you arent super familiar with the trails you are on, you should bring a map. I like to print maps that I find online and put them in a plastic Ziploc in my pack. This takes minimal investment on my part, but ensures that Ill have a reference to double check when I come to a junction. For most trail systems a simple printout is sufficient, but if you are headed out into more remote areas, it is a good idea to pick up a topographic map of the area and learn how to use a compass.

Always bring more food and water than you think youll need. Even if you dont get lost, trail conditions can make things a lot slower than you expect, natural water sources can be unreliable, or the weather conditions can make you need more than usual. I find I like to eat more than usual when it is cold and I drink more than usual when it is hot. Plan accordingly. Two or three hundred extra calories only weighs a couple ounces, but it may prevent that bonk when you are the most desperate! Similarly, there are many lightweight jackets and rain shells that weigh only a couple ounces and fit in a small pocket. Weather in the mountains can change quickly, even if it looks like a beautiful bluebird day.

Despite the best preparations, things can still go wrongusually in the form of an injury. Fortunately, we have Liza on our team, an instructor for the Wilderness Medicine Institute and the National Outdoor Leadership School, to help us out here!

From Liza:

Okay, Ive got to break the fourth wall a la Harvey Korman for a moment. Pam writes so well, and is always on point, and when she sent me what shed written this month, I just couldnt come up with anything to add besides: You all should go take a 16-hour Wilderness First Aid course.

The truth is, while Ive run and worked in the mountains and other wild places, Ive spent the majority of the last 10 years running trails in San Antonio, Texas. Our trails are beautiful and plentiful, but they dont lend themselves to memorable trail-safety stories. Our snakes are disinterested, and while you can get lost for a while, its impossible to stay lost. Certainly heat emergencies are a safety hazard here, but the heat is really the last thing to inspire memorable writing at the end of July in Texas.

I decided to circle my neighborhood until I came up with a good angleor a story that might drive home an important point, or at least something amusing. It was 9:30 p.m., and the Fiesta Texas fireworks were reaching their climax. (I always pretend the fireworks are celebrating my decision to run. Nice job, Liza!) But six miles of slow looping didnt help, and Id started to despair. My two year-old gets up at 5 a.m, and she frowns on computer time for anyone but herself.

Then the giant raccoon rushed out from behind a garbage can. It froze when it saw me and stared with his big glowing eyes. I could smell the rabies on its breath. I turned, sprinted down the road, up my driveway, tripped, twisted my ankle, skinned my knee, and sliced my finger open. I got up and hobbled into the house inspired.

So, listen, you really should take a 16-hour Wilderness First Aid (WFA) course. Its the best investment after shoes and socks youll make as a trail runner. Cuz chances are youre going to get hurt.

Or your good friend is going to get hurt.

Or some nice stranger is going to get hurt.

[Editors Note: The Trail Sisters have provided two more images of more severe trail injuries. Click to the links provided here to view them but be forewarned that they are graphic. Both individuals recovered. This head-injury image is of Kevin Jones after a fall running along the bluffs in Carlsbad, California. This finger-injury image is from John Fritchey after he fell and rolled over his hand at a trail race in Kansas.]

And it will happen somewhere along a trail where help wont be quick in comingsomewhere you wont be able to just walk into your house, call it a day, and lie on the couch with a bag of frozen peas on your ankle watching this seasons Salomon Running TV videos.

And what youre able to do at the scene can be critical. As valuable as the first-aid skills youll learn on a these short courses are (taping rolled ankles, supporting twisted knees, wound care, and more), WFAs also teach a system for gathering information. You cant make good decisions or exercise good judgment without good information.

The runner youre pacing runs into a low-hanging tree branch, gets knocked down, and sees black for a few eye blinks. Should they keep running if they feel up to it? Should they seek medical attention later? Should they seek it now?

Your friend comes into the Twin Lakes aid station at the Leadville 100 Mile. Shes complaining of a splitting headache, nausea, and lightheadedness. Should she continue up and over 12,600-foot Hope Pass? What if shes coughing a bit?

You stumble into a cactus and one-inch spine punctures your calf. How do you clean the wound so it doesnt get infected?

Snake bites, allergic reactions, blisters, hyponatremia, immersion foot Its wonderful to have skills and knowledge that allow you to help other peopleespecially other people who are runners. Wilderness First Aid training puts you in that position. And if youre running or racing in remote wilderness areas, and you dont have these basic skillswell, I think you should get them.

Three of the most widely recognized organizations in the United States that offer wilderness medicine training are: The Wilderness Medicine Institute (WMI), Wilderness Medical Associates (WMA), and Stonehearth Open Learning Opportunities (SOLO). A Wilderness First Aid course is 16 hours long and taught over two daysand its more fun than any standard first-aid class youve ever taken. Prices vary, but are often in the $200 range. There are also some wonderful resources WMI has online and a great free app you can use to record information. Please let me know if you have any questions (or want to share scary raccoon stories.)

From Gina:

I have to say, Pam and Liza have nailed just about everything I could have suggested. Map, extra food and water, lightweight rain shell, and a course in wilderness first aid, but the one thing that I would like to add is the simple task of telling a friend or loved one where you plan on running and an approximate time you will return. Sure, your plans may change a bit when you are out on the trail, but alerting someone to your proposed route or trailhead can be a life saver.

A friend of mine from Carbondale, Coloradolets call him Tedwent for what he thought would be a 10-mile run in the Maroon Bells-Snowmass Wilderness. He wanted to link up a few trails but would need to do some bushwhacking to connect them. Ted told me hed be out for approximately two to 2.5 hours. Four hours rolled by along with a nasty storm and I hadnt heard from him. We planned on grabbing a bite after his effort, so I was expecting his call. Five hours went by and I was now worried that something had gone wrong. With knots of worry in my stomach, I hopped in my car and drove to the trailhead from which Ted was starting. Sure enough, his car was still in the parking lot. I brought some extra food, water, and an extra rain jacket since it had just stormed (and since they weigh next to nothing). I ran for about five miles following his route and found the area he had planned to bushwhack. I made my way through the brush and up to the scree field where Ted planned on trekking. About 30 minutes in, I heard him yelling my name. I looked up the scree field and about a quarter of the way down from the top was Ted curled up in a ball, drenched, and shivering. He severely rolled his ankle and was forced to take cover (the best he could) during the storm. By the time the storm passed, his ankle was so swollen that he was practically crawling down the scree field.

I worked my way up to Ted, and gave him the jacket, food, and water. We decided to wrap his ankle with my Buff to provide it with some support, and then made our way down the scree field and eventually back to the car.

Since Ted had alerted me to his route I was able to find him and provide help. A few more hours out would have put him in the chilly temps of the nighttime mountain air. He easily could have become hypothermic, which would have led to larger problems, and even possible death. So, always, always, always, tell someone where you are going!

From Liza:

The most unsafe Ive probably ever been on a trail run was coming off Mount Elbert in Colorado in a lightning storm. Id hiked up there to do some acclimatization before the Leadville 100. Id started later than Id planned, and it had taken me a bit longer than I thought it would, and low black clouds moved in quickly over the summit while I was eating a PB&J sandwich. I packed up and was halfway to treeline when the thunder started. Lightning followed quickly. Then hail.

And still more thunder. I sprinted, eyes on treeline, thinking about how no one would feel sorry for me if I got hit by lightning running off the top of Mount Elbert in a storm. Well, of course she got struck by lightning. Why didnt she descend earlier? Its not like afternoon thunderstorms are a surprise in the Colorado mountains. And I knew better. Id just really wanted the time up high before the race. Flashes of lightning followed me into the trees and kept me moving fast for another 15 minuteslong enough to be sore the following day.

I sat in my car afterward, relieved my family wouldnt have to apologize for my stupidity to a search-and-rescue team.

The whole thing was such a tired example of letting a plan or an important goal or time pressure supersede thoughtful hazard evaluation and decision making. I promised myself Id think about setting turnaround times before I headed out on a run in the mountains in the futurewhen thunderstorms were likely.

From Pam:

Most trail runners have a good story of something gone wrong or disaster nearly averted. When you are on a trail there are plenty of things to trip you up, both literally and figuratively. A little extra forethought and some basic first-aid training will go a long way to help you battle all the trail trolls that might be there to thwart a great run.

From Liza:

Or at least give them the finger. ;)

Call for Comments (from Meghan)

What is your close-call story, where you took a tumble, came across an accident on the trail, got stuck out in storms, or temporarily lost your way?

More importantly, can you articulate the lessons you learned from your close call and what you regularly do differently now to prevent something similar from happening again in the future?
German Foreign Minister and OSCE Chairperson-in-Office Frank-Walter Steinmeier is satisfied with the outcomes of his visit to Chisinau and Tiraspol.

"I believe the visit was appropriate. I believe this was the right approach to come here and meet with both conflicting parties," Steinmeier said at a news briefing in Tiraspol on Tuesday.

Germany, as the country currently holding the OSCE presidency, remains committed to assisting the parties in reaching agreement "on minor issues," he said.

"Our experience suggests that the settlement of such longstanding and long-drawn conflicts needs to be started with the discussion of minor issues to build confidence, based on which the parties could then move toward resolving more complicated issues," he said.

"I learned both in Chisinau yesterday and here in Tiraspol today that this is a difficult way. But we are determined to further follow this way of small steps, and this is why we are here. We will continue to address issues in the 5+2 format so as to improve the living conditions for the people on both sides of the Dniester river," Steinmeier said.

Among the problems that need to be settled in a priority manner, Steinmeier mentioned issues regarding telecommunications, the recognition and verification of higher education diplomas, and car license plates.

During his visit to Tiraspol, the German foreign minister met with Transdniestrian Prime Minister Pavel Prokudin, acting Foreign Minister Vitali Ignatiev, and parliamentary speaker Vadim Krasnoselski.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and German Chancellor Angela Merkel have discussed over the phone the elaboration of a detailed roadmap for the implementation of the Minsk peace agreements on Donbas.

"The officials agreed to intensify work in the Normandy and other formats. In particular, they talked about the elaboration of a clear roadmap for the Minsk agreements implementation, which should include the fulfillment of the security component by Russia," the Ukrainian government's press service reported about the results of the conversation.

Poroshenko called on Germany to facilitate the release of Ukrainian political prisoners from Russian jails and Ukrainian hostages from occupied territories.

Special attention was paid to decision-making on visa-free travel for Ukraine.

During the phone conversation, the Ukrainian president also expressed sincere condolences to the European counterparts over numerous casualties caused by recent acts of terror.
There is a lot of excitement following Samsung's upcoming release of the Galaxy Note 7. It is expected to come with plenty of new innovations, so the anticipation is at an all time high. After all, the release is only a few days away. Despite this, however, there is already buzz about the Galaxy S8, which is expected to highlight the VR innovations from Samsung.

It is no secret that Samsung has taken some time and resources to develop the virtual reality arm of the company. It would see, however, that the Korean tech giant is going to incorporate this knowledge into the S8.

GSM Arena claims that, unlike the Note 7, the Samsung Galaxy S8 will come in a standard and an Edge option. Both variants will have a UHD Screen, which is 3840 x 2160px. This is actually a better resolution than the current Oculus Rift, that has a resolution of 2160 x 1200px. The display itself is estimated to be at least 5.5 inches, which is optimal for virtual reality.

However, there is more to VR compatibility than just a good resolution and a well-sized screen - there has to be power behind that still.

Although unavailable in the market as of now, the Galaxy S8 is expected to come powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 830 processor, or an Exynos alternate. Yahoo! News adds that it will also run on at least the Android Nougat 7.0, or the latest OS for Android at the time of release.

Of course, Samsung already has a VR headset in the market, which is compatible with present gadgets. That is, the Gear VR. It is currently battling it out with the Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and Google's Daydream VR. However, creating a handset that is set specifically to the needs and specs of the Gear VR may just be what Samsung needs to bring VR to the next, more publicly friendly level.


The security subgroup of the Contact Group has gathered in the Belarusian capital city of Minsk, the Luhansk information center said on Wednesday.

A source from the negotiations told Interfax earlier that "the security subgroup would focus on settling disagreements over disengagement of the sides near Stanytsia Luhanska."

The other three theme subgroups will also meet on Wednesday. The meetings will begin at 11 a.m. "The political subgroup will continue to discuss modality of local elections, the humanitarian subgroup will speak about on the exchange of prisoners, and the economic subgroup will confer on restoration of damaged regional infrastructures," the source said.

The Contact Group is to meet at 3:30 p.m.
The Soft Gold version of OnePlus 3 launched last month has finally arrived in the United States.

The Shenzhen-based Chinese smartphone company OnePlus has launched its third-generation flagship earlier this year. At the moment when it has arrived on the market, OnePlus 3 was available in just the Graphite color.

On Monday, July 25, the company posted an official announcement on the OnePlus blog, notifying its customers that the Soft Gold OnePlus 3 phone has arrived in the U.S. The company also explains that the golden hue on its flagship smartphone is not the typical "gaudy gold", but a more aesthetically pleasing color an elegant and light look.

Instead of a jewel-encrusted device, the company has gone for a toned-down take on gold in order to keep the phone's budget-friendly price. According to Engadget, the Soft Gold option for the OnePlus 3 smartphone is already listed on the company's U.S. specific site for the exact same $399 price-tag as the standard-issue Graphite option.

Even if it could be considered as a luxury option, the Soft Gold version won't cost anything extra for U.S. buyers. The American market is the first to have received the new color option. The Soft Gold model will arrive to Hong Kong, Canada and Europe on August 1.

The OnePlus 3 mobile device comes with a 5.5-inch Optic AMOLED 1080p display panel that features Gorilla Glass 4 protection. The smartphone 64 GB of internal storage and 6 GB of RAM and is powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon 820 SoC.

According to Android Headlines, the flagship OnePlus 3 device comes with LTE Cat.6 connectivity and carries a 3,000 mAh battery with Dash Charging support. Imaging options include a front-facing selfie shooter that comes with an f/2.0 aperture and a 16-megapixel primary camera with f/2.0 aperture, optical image stabilization and phase detection autofocus. The Chinese built OnePlus 3 smartphone runs on Oxygen OS 3.2.2 that is based on Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow.
Fujitsu has acquired US-based communications infrastructure engineering contractor TrueNet Communications in a deal which the Japanese ICT services giant says creates a global industry leader in the delivery of design and management services.

The deal, for an undisclosed amount, sees Jacksonville Florida-based TrueNet retain its own brand identity as a wholly owned subsidiary of Fujitsu Network Communications.

Greg Manganello, senior vice-president and head of services at Fujitsu Network Communications, says the combination of Fujitsu Network Communications' Inside Plant (ISP) and TrueNet's Outside Plant (OSP) expertise can deliver the design and management services necessary to support every stage of a broadband network's lifecycle.

This new leader reduces operational, organisational and communication silos, creating cohesive services to any organisation considering investment in hybrid broadband infrastructure, Manganello says.

He also said the acquisition greatly expands Fujitsu Network Communications' potential range of offerings as a prime contractor, and enhances the company's ability to deliver complete, end-to-end solutions for designing, building, operating, and maintaining fibre and wireless communications infrastructure.

"TrueNet's OSP capabilities are an ideal complement to Fujitsu's portfolio, creating a total broadband solution provider.

"With this ISP/OSP design control and single point of responsibility, Fujitsu can ensure a seamless, integrated broadband network and minimise project risk.

As a result of this acquisition, whether customers select individual services or an end-to-end solution, we can now help them realise their visions faster. We believe that broadband turns towns into communities, states into job creators, and enterprises into powerhouses. Now we can help our customers harness the transformative power of broadband even faster."
You pay for electricity, water, and gas as you go  no upfront costs  and if you dont use it you dont pay. Why not computer infrastructure as well?

French Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise (ALE), but as Aussie as they come, has announced two new services  Network on Demand (NOD) and Unified Communications (UC) on Demand (Rainbow). If these are not disruptive then we need to invent different words  these are vive la revolution.

Before you think I am a Francophile  and I am, as I love and drive Citroen and Peugeot  this company has drilled down to the essence of business. Do I buy technology that will be out of date before it is depreciated or do I simply rent it?

Renting/leasing, however, are not the right terms  that implies a financial transaction with terms and payouts. ALE has a true pay-as-you-go, totally scalable model with risk shared between it, its value-added partners and, to a lesser degree, the client.

ALE has realised that competition at the hardware level sucks  comparison of switches, routers, UC systems, and more lead to technology, not business based decisions. It is far more important to simply specify what a client wants and the service levels they expect than lock down rubbery specifications that can end up as inflexible and totally wrong for an organisation.

For example, a hotel may have 300 rooms  that implies fixed costs for 300 Internet connections, phone handsets, and an old metal PABX. ALE offer hotels the ability to pay for each room used, when it is used.

A university may have 10,000 students, but it needs only to provide 50% of that with wireless and Ethernet ports  and what about semester breaks and holidays?

ALE has launched new business models for its partners and customers to take advantage of alternative methods to consume technology. It is an access on-demand system  no upfront costs.

Businesses are challenged to seek a better way to match technology expenses with business needs. They also find it difficult to acquire the skills to support and operate new technologies. To relieve these challenges, according to IDC, by 2020, 80% of all IT infrastructure will be on a pay-as-you-go basis".

This new consumption model from ALE offers companies an alternative to capital expenditure, enabling them to focus investment on key business priorities while linking infrastructure operational spending with changes in their business requirements.

Two new services from ALE include:

Alcatel-Lucent Network on Demand (NOD), a pay-per-use networking (LAN and WLAN) service being launched in Australia, enables businesses to gain the latest networking technology on a pay-per-use basis.

Network on Demand is a unified and secure LAN/Wi-Fi managed service and in Australia will be delivered via partners Nexon, BTAS and UXC Connect (now a company of CSC) With its automated, out-of-the-box cloud managed tools, business partners offering managed services simplify operations and improve the satisfaction of their customers.

Alcatel-Lucent Rainbow Workplace delivers collaborative team interactions as a borderless and free, cloud-based, mobile and desktop communications application that is installed with the click of a button. From a functional perspective, it will encompass IM, presence, voice and video conversation. Rainbow will interoperate with a range of PABX vendors, enabling customers to extend the life of their PABX infrastructure. It will be available worldwide in Q4/2016.

These two new services follow the already successful UCaaS offering known as Alcatel-Lucent OpenTouch Enterprise Cloud (OTEC). OTEC is already helping businesses like Accor Hotels Asia-Pacific to offer customers easy access to connect to the Internet, improving the guest experience with advanced technology while saving on operational costs.

Steve Saunders, APAC cloud director, ALE, said, Many industries today are cyclic in nature, and its in these industries that new business models will help business adopt the technology transformation. The new business models strategy simply allows a customer to change the way they buy utility services of network, communications and collaboration and transition from being an owner of infrastructure assets to being a consumer of infrastructure services.

Saunders further added that these new products make up "what we call our new business model approach. We empower our customers to adopt to this digital transformation and are working with our business partners, not on a technological level but on a business outcomes level to assure our customers success.

Businesses in Australia and Singapore will be able to leverage these new business models in the coming months.

Rob McCabe, general manager, UXC Connect, ALE business partner, said: We have been a long time Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise business partner and it is great to see them leading the way in supporting our clients and our mission by providing true consumption based solutions. This is not new to ALE, we have built other OTEC offerings and have been providing this service to many clients over the last few years.

Comment

My call is that eventually, everything will be aaS  as a service. I was very impressed with ALEs new business models and suspect they are in the right place to blitz UC and networking as a service. aaS is applicable to 200 seats or more.
Just when you didnt think memory could get any denser (there has to be a joke in that somewhere), Toshiba ups the ante and is shipping samples of the worlds first 64-layer, three-dimensional, stacked Flash memory.

It succeeds the 48-layer BiCS Flash with 40% more capacity, reduces the cost per bit, and increases the manufacturability of memory capacity per silicon wafer.

Toshiba will produce the new 64-layer BiCS FLASH in its New Fab 2 at Yokkaichi Operations, which was officially opened earlier this month. Mass production is scheduled to start in the first half of 2017.

The new memory will start to be seen in 2017 models of premium enterprise and consumer SSD, smartphones, tablets and memory cards.

Comment

The announcement is more about Moores Law  the number of transistors per square inch on integrated circuits has doubled every year  and its impact on new devices. Apart from the R&D and tooling investment it costs no more to produce higher capacity, faster, cheaper, better devices.

Similar work is happening on central processors, graphics processors and even the Tin Nanode for lithium-ion batteries. We will see an exponential increase in compute power in the next three years as artificial intelligence and machine learning are now capable of creating better versions of themselves. Enter Skynet.
An Israeli, Washington-based cybersecurity start-up, which uses big data, behavioural analytics and machine learning to automatically hunt down complex cyberattacks in real time, has been judged by Juniper Research as the worlds top disruptive tech innovator.

The firm  Cybereason  pipped Swedish ecommerce & frictionless payments vendor Klarna, Junipers number two technology innovator and disruptor, with London-based start-up what3words, which has launched a universal addressing system, in third position.

According to Juniper, what Cybereason does differently to other security companies is to determine the exact timeline of an attack, including information on what the hacker extracted at any moment. In other words, it reveals the attackers story rather than merely flagging the existence of a virus.

This is crucial because attackers can squat for weeks inside a system before deciding to take action. Cybereasons solution allows accurate tracking of the specific vulnerability that the attack exploited, to prevent attacks happening again, Juniper says.

Indeed, Cybereason reckons an average attack can run for 210 days. Detecting suspicious patterns can therefore prevent disruption before it happens.

Cybereason was founded by former members of the Israeli Intelligence Agencys cybersecurity unit 8200.

According to Juniper, there has been technological innovation for three centuries, but the rate of change has accelerated dramatically in the last 20 years, with the second phase of the new "disruptive innovation" now underway.

It is being driven by a drastic reduction in set-up costs (companies can pay affordable fees for subscription services like Amazon Web Services and Stripe payment processing rather than build them in-house) and the power of big data to organise complicated things in an instant. This makes it possible to transform the distribution of, and access to, physical goods and services, Juniper says in a newly published whitepaper.

Technology is becoming an integral part of many peoples lives across the globe, research co-author James Moar says.

Many of the most exciting aspects of technology today, and many of the innovative start-ups, are not so much about new technologies, but how the vast connected computational power already available is being applied. Adapting the technology thats already in peoples lives in new ways is the best kind of innovation.

On Swedens Klarna, Juniper says the company is sometimes described as a payment intermediary, a company that reduces the friction of online shopping, a little like PayPal.

In reality, what Klarna does is far more audacious. It not only makes shopping more pleasant, it also changes the way the e-merchant is paid.

Of course, many companies are dedicated to providing a smoother checkout on eCommerce, and especially mCommerce, sites, where shoppers routinely abandon a planned purchase. However, Klarnas offering goes much further by not just easing the payment process, but delaying it completely.

In doing so, its method radically improves 'conversion rates', which is the percentage of people who actually follow through with a purchase after looking at it or putting it in their basket.

And, on London start-up what3words, Juniper says it comes in third in the tech innovator/disruptor stakes for its simple strategy of giving every location an address through short three word combinations.

The idea means that millions of people in developing markets could have an address at last. The benefits in terms of citizenship and commerce could be huge.

what3words says around 4 billion people may be able, for the first time, to report crime, receive deliveries or exercise many of their statutory rights. What is the best way to find an exact location anywhere in the world? The obvious answer is with an address or postcode, but that only works for official destinations. An alternative is map co-ordinates. However, they are not readily understood by most people and are certainly not easy to remember.

Juniper says the what3words solution takes up less than 10MB, small enough to install on almost all smartphones and is usable even if the phone is offline, and offers its solution as a plug-in via an API.

This means that any business can enhance its own products with simple and memorable mapping that reaches every corner of the planet. what3words makes money by licensing latitude and longitude conversion tools. For logistics companies, the ability to find destinations without fuss could save millions of dollars and hours, Juniper concludes.
Housing management companies that use budget funds in the regions will be inspected for cooperation with fake enterprises, as up to 40% of targeted budget funds are involved in money laundering, Ukrainian Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko has said.

"The separate issue I raise before all the regions  inspection of budgets funds that arrive to the region: for roads, hospitals and schools. All funds provided are to be inspected for money laundering via fake structures," he said, presenting the new prosecutor of Chernihiv region on Monday.

"I am preparing instructions for all regions. In the shortest term, a month and a half, functioning of all regional water supply companies, heat supply companies, gas supply organizations must be inspected if they cooperate with fake structures, using which from 20% to 30% of the cash cost of provided services are involved in money laundering. In some regions up to 40%," he said.
BlackBerry's new DTEK50 may be the world's most secure Android smartphone, as the company claims, but there's no real indication of when it will reach our shores.

The DTEK50 is BlackBerry's second Android-based phone. The first was the PRIV.

Customers in the US, Canada, UK, France, Germany, Spain, Italy and the Netherlands can pre-order a DTEK50 for US$299. As for Australia, all we're told is that "availability of the smartphone in other channels and countries will be announced at a later date".

The DTEK50 runs Android Marshmallow 6.0 with BlackBerry's security enhancements.

These include Android hardening, rapid security patching (same day as Google), the DTEK app (monitors OS and app security, including warnings when apps take pictures or videos, activate the microphone on, send a text message, or access contacts or location), secure boot, and FIPS 140-2 compliant full disk encryption.

"We take our customers' privacy seriously. That's why we're excited with all the security and functionality that's built in our newest Android smartphone. DTEK50 merges the unique security and connectivity features BlackBerry is known for, with the rich Android ecosystem", said BlackBerry chief operating officer and general manager of devices, Ralph Pini.

"This device adds to BlackBerry's line-up of secure smartphones, providing choice to our customers with different price points on both, BlackBerry 10 and Android platforms."

BlackBerry chief security officer David Kleidermacher said "With an increase in cybercrime on smartphones, consumers need to recognise that the private details of their lives  where they live, their bank info, pictures of their kids  are at risk on their personal device.

"You wouldn't leave the doors of your house unlocked at night. Having a smartphone that doesn't take your privacy seriously is the equivalent.

"It's equally important for businesses to protect their sensitive data from cyberattacks at all points of their mobile environment  from the device to the network and servers."

So DTEK50 includes Android for Work and Google Play for Work, and works with BlackBerry's enterprise mobility management and secure productivity apps including WatchDox, Good Work, SecuSUITE for Enterprise, BBM Protected for encrypted messaging and BES12.

For user convenience, the DTEK50 includes the BlackBerry Hub unified for email, calendar, social and phone calls, and the customisable BlackBerry Convenience Key for quick access to the most used applications and other capabilities.

Hardware features include a 5.2-inch full HD display with oleophobic surface, support for microSD cards up to 2TB, an 8MP front camera and a 13MP rear camera with phase detection auto focus (for instant focusing) and dual-tone LED flash for realistic looking photos in low light.
Vodafone Australia chief technology officer Benoit Hanssen is leaving the company after three years to take up a new post with the Hutchison Group.

Hanssen, who joined Vodafone Australia in 2013, will leave the company in late August, reportedly to join Hutchison outside Australia in a role yet to be announced.

Vodafone Hutchison Australia is a 50-50 joint-venture between Hutchison Telecommunications and Vodafone Group .

Vodafone Australia has started a search for Hanssens replacement, with general manager access network delivery, Kevin Millroy, to act as chief technology officer after his departure in August.

Vodafone Australia chief executive Inaki Berroeta says Hanssen has made an enormous contribution to the business through his leadership of Network and Technology.

In his three years as chief technology officer, Benoit has led the transformation of the VHA (Vodafone Hutchison Australia) network," Berroeta said.

"Among his many achievements, Benoit has overseen the launch and rollout of 4G on the VHA network, the upgrade of VHAs core network, and the commencement of the fibre transmission network rollout."

Berroeta also said Hanssen had been a driving force in VHAs campaign for increased coverage and competition in regional and rural areas, including through our participation in the Mobile Black Spot Programme.

Under Benoits leadership, VHAs network has improved significantly, with the 4G network now reaching more than 22 million Australians, Berroeta said.

On the back of this improvement, the VHA customer base has returned to growth and we have set new benchmarks in the area of customer complaints with VHA achieving the lowest ratio of complaints amongst the major carriers for the past three quarters.

Prior to Vodafone Australia, Hanssen was head of global managed services at Ericsson based in Stockholm, and also served as chief technology officer at Hutchison Indonesia.

Hanssen says his time at Vodafone Australia had been a highlight of his career.

Im really proud of the VHA network, and all that the team has achieved over the past three years. Its been a privilege to play a part in the transformation of the network, which is now a network our customers love and trust, he said.

The VHA network is the best it has ever been  its fast and reliable, and Im confident it will continue to get even better.
To get around ransomware and other trojan detection methods, cyber criminals have turned to PayPal, using its money request transfer system to distribute the Chthonic Trojan.

Global security vendor Proofpoint says the message from PayPal is legitimate  it is a Youve got a money request that comes from PayPal. The sender does not appear to be faked: instead, the spam is generated by registering with PayPal (or using stolen accounts) and then using the portal to request money.

Email clients like Gmail and others dont block legitimate PayPal emails  because they are not spoofed. The malicious URL is included in a kosher looking note that purports to provide proof of the transaction request.

Clicking on the link has two effects  it debits your account for $100, and it infects your Windows system with the Chthonic Trojan.

Proofpoint researchers also noticed that Chthonic would also download another module called AZORult. At this time, there are no details on what this module does, and Proofpoint researchers are still investigating its code.

Kevin Epstein, Proof Points vice-president, threat operations, said, "This isn't the first time that we've seen threat actors use legitimate services to distribute malware. However, this attack is carefully engineered to not just bypass traditional defences because the messages come from PayPal but also to trick users into paying and clicking through malicious links.

"These kinds of threats are difficult to catch at the client level. Instead, organisations need to be able to dynamically scan URLs at the network/email gateway and detect communication with command and control infrastructure. Of course, user training should come into play as well."

While the campaign is low intensity at this stage, it appears that we cannot trust any organisation that communicates via email  that bodes well for Australia Post and the humble, not so cheap, letter or Telstra and faxes!
The Macquarie Telecom group has rebranded the company to reflect and bring a clearer focus to its three businesses operating in the areas of cloud services, telecommunications and government.

The branding reflects the three distinct Macquarie Telecom businesses  Macquarie Cloud Services, Macquarie Telecom and Macquarie Government  while also bringing to the fore our single most important strength, our people, says chief executive David Tudehope.

This is not simply a fresh coat of paint  far from it.

.

The new look continues the evolution of the business over the past two years, builds on our strengths, communicates our difference , and separates us from competitors.

More clearly separating the businesses had brought them a clearer focus on their customers and helped them become even more responsive to their needs. The objective (of) our new brand is to make our communications clearer and simpler. People have always been at the centre of everything we do  this is now evident (in) our new brand.

According to Tudehope, Macquarie Telecom Group has rebranded to recognise and reinforce these values and strengths, while also showing respect and ownership of where weve come from.

By putting those values front and centre, the new branding creates a platform for even stronger growth across our businesses.

Our customers tell us that its our people who really set us apart.

They reflect our humanity, our insights, our authenticity and our technological literacy. Thats why weve made our own people  not models  the heroes of our brand.
Qualcomm has agreed to pay US$19.5 million to settle a gender discrimination class action lawsuit that alleged that women at the company get lower pay and have lesser chances of promotion under its current programs.

The settlement on behalf of a class of about 3,290 female employees was reached before suit was filed, but still requires the filing of a class complaint and a move for preliminary approval of the agreement from a judge in a federal court in California, according to Sanford Heisler, the legal firm representing the women.

The complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California alleges that in Qualcomms U.S. operations, women in science, technology, engineering, and math, known together as STEM, and related roles face discrimination in pay and promotions.

Women hold less than 15 percent of the jobs defined by the company as senior leadership positions, and women in STEM and related positions earn less than their male colleagues that are performing equal or substantially similar work. The pay and promotion discrimination is higher for women with caregiving responsibilities, according to the complaint.

The complaint was initiated by seven female STEM and related employees of Qualcomm, including a current employee.

Qualcomms promotion policies are said to discriminate against women by basing promotions on a sponsorship model, whereby managers, the overwhelming majority of whom are male, must select the subordinates they wish to promote.

There is no system whereby an employee may self-nominate for a promotion, with the exception of lobbying her manager, according to the complaint. The overwhelming majority of managers making promotion decisions are male.

Qualcomm said in a statement Tuesday that it is committed to treating its employees fairly and equitably. While we have strong defenses to the claims, we elected to focus on continuing to make meaningful enhancements to our internal programs and processes that drive equity and a diverse and inclusive workforce which are values that we share and embrace, Christine Trimble, the company's vice president of public affairs, said in the statement.

The company and the women agreed to mediate their dispute in January. Both sides retained skilled labor economists to analyze the class data, according to court records.

Under the settlement, Qualcomm will also take steps to change its policies and practices to help eliminate gender disparities and foster equal employment opportunity going forward, Sanford Heisler said in a statement Tuesday.

The company is also required to hire independent consultants in industrial organizational psychology to provide recommendations on reducing gender disparities. An internal compliance official will ensure the company's implementation and continued compliance with the terms of the settlement.

Class members will get paid from the $19.5 million settlement fund depending on factors such as their pay in the company and their length of employment within the class period. The net amount in the fund after lawyers' fees and other allocations will be about $13 million and the average pre-tax recovery for class members is approximately $3,953, according to a court filing.
Real-time bidding is an aspect of digital marketing that can seem overly complex for the average bear, so it was only a matter of time before AI entered the picture. This week, Google brought machine learning into the process to help make it easier.

Tapping some of the same artificial-intelligence technologies that have already appeared in Google Photos and AlphaGo, Smart Bidding is a new capability for conversion-based automated bidding across AdWords and DoubleClick Search to help companies determine their optimal bid for any given campaign or portfolio. It can factor in millions of signals, Google says, and continually refines models of users' conversion performance at different bid levels.

"Smart Bidding's learning capabilities quickly maximize the accuracy of your bidding models to improve how you optimize the long-tail," Anthony Chavez, Google's product management director for search ads, wrote in a blog post explaining the new service. "It evaluates patterns in your campaign structure, landing pages, ad text, product information, keyword phrases, and many more [data points] to identify more relevant similarities across bidding items."

Essentially, Smart Bidding tailors bids to each auction across Google's properties and allows buyers to factor in a wide range of contextual signals, including device and location. Focusing on device performance, for instance, advertisers can set separate cost per acquisition (CPA) goals by device. A telecom advertiser whose best leads come in via mobile, for instance, could set a higher target CPA for that platform compared with other devices.

New reporting features, meanwhile, show companies exactly how their bid strategies are performing and flag any issues requiring attention.

Current users of AdWords Smart Bidding include AliExpress, SurveyMonkey, and Capterra, Google says.

"Google is trying to maximize effectiveness of search marketing as well as its own revenue," said Greg Sterling, vice president for strategy and insights with the Local Search Association. "Bringing machine learning to bear on bidding should advance both objectives."

Google is increasingly in competition with Facebook and other channels, Sterling added, so "it needs to continually invest and improve paid search to keep marketers engaged."
Heres something you may want to chew on while you ponder whether or not one of the new Moto Z phones should be on your wish list.

According to an Ars Technica report, Motorola would only commit to regular security patches instead of the specific monthly update scheme established by . Motorola, which went to great lengths to proclaim how revolutionary the Moto Z line was at novo Tech rld, went into further detail with a statement issued first to Ars:

Motorola understs that keeping phones up to date with Android security patches is important to our customers. strive to push security patches as quickly as possible. However, because of the amount of testing approvals that are necessary to deploy them, its difficult to do this on a monthly basis for all our devices. It is often most efficient for us to bundle security updates in a scheduled Maintenance Release (MR) or OS upgrade. As we previously stated, Moto Z Droid ition will receive Android Security Bulletins. Moto G4 will also receive them.

In essence, the novo-owned company will regularly update its latest phones, but they wont come as rapidly as Nexus devices (to be fair, very few phones do). Its worth noting the Motorolas recent track record isnt great, as the 2015 Moto X tends to get security releases about once a quarter. And even the just-released Moto Z is on the May security patch, placing it two months behind.

The impact on you: How a company treats security updates is one of the details you should consider when deciding on your next smartphone purchase. Theres plenty of malware, though with regular updates good practices you should be fine. Its easy to check if you have the latest Android security patch, which is issued every month by . Being smart should keep you safe, but if those monthly updates are important you may want to look elsewhere.
U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump has called on Russia to hack his rival Hillary Clintons email.

Russia, if youre listening, I hope youre able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing, he said during a press conference Wednesday. I think youll probably be rewarded mightily by our press.

Trumps remarks came as reporters questioned him about ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Security experts and government officials have suggested Russian hackers were behind a breach at the Democratic National Committee that lead to WikiLeaks publishing unflattering internal campaign emails.

Even as some people blasted Trump's position, he seemed to double down with a tweet: "If Russia or any other country or person has Hillary Clinton's 33,000 illegally deleted emails, perhaps they should share them with the FBI!"

If Russia or any other country or person has Hillary Clinton's 33,000 illegally deleted emails, perhaps they should share them with the FBI!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 27, 2016

Republican vice presidential candidate Mike Pence seemed to depart with Trump, however. Pence warned Russia about hacking U.S. political parties.

"The FBI will get to the bottom of who is behind the hacking," Pence said in a statement. "If it is Russia and they are interfering in our elections, I can assure you both parties and the United States government will ensure there are serious consequences."

During the press conference, Trump denied coordinating with Russians on the email leak. Democrats blaming the Russian government is "just a total deflection" of the controversy of the emails showing the DNC coordinating with the Clinton campaign during the Democratic primary election, he said.

"I know nothing about it," Trump said. "It's one of the most far-fetched [allegations] I ever heard."

Trump said he has "nothing to do" with Putin and has never met the Russian leader. That's a different story than one he told in a debate last year when he claimed to have met Putin on the set of TV news show "60 Minutes."

"I got to know him very well because we were both on '60 Minutes,' we were stablemates," Trump said then.

Several people condemned Trump's apparent call on the Russians to hack Clinton's server, even as his defenders suggested he was joking.

"Will any Trump endorser withdraw his/her endorsement in light of Trump willingness to exploit foreign cyberattacks on political opponents?" tweeted Stephen Hayes, senior writer at conservative publication The Weekly Standard.

IT security consultant Kevin Mitnick tweeted: "Donald Trump invites Russia to hack Clinton's emails. Isn't that aiding and abetting" under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act?

Senator Chris Murphy, a Connecticut Democrat, called Trump's comments possibly "treasonous" during an interview on CNN.

Last week, WikiLeaks published over 19,000 emails taken from the DNC, some of which could potentially weaken support for Clintons campaign.

The breaches added to speculation that Russian hackers may be trying to influence the election. Trump is seen as a favorable candidate for Russia, because of his opposition to NATO and other policies.

The FBI investigated Clinton for using a private server to host official government emails during her time as Secretary of State. During that investigation, she handed over 30,000 emails to U.S. authorities, but also deleted nearly 32,000 others, which she said were of personal nature.

Trump, however, has suggested that Clinton was trying to hide something by deleting the emails. On Wednesday, he added: If they (Russia) hacked, they probably have her 30,000 emails. I hope they do.

The FBI is still investigating the DNC breach, but U.S. intelligence agencies are reportedly confident that the Russian government was involved. Russian officials have flatly denied that assertion.
The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) has confirmed the detention of Moldovan national Veaceslav Platon, who has been put on international wanted list by Moldova.

"Law-enforcers detained the offender near an office center in the capital city. In addition to an illegally obtained Ukrainian passport, police seized a diplomatic passport and a regular passport of Moldova, credit cards and over UAH 500,000," the SBU press service reported.

According to police, Platon is wanted internationally on suspicion of money laundering and banking fraud.

"At present, Veaceslav Platon is at the SBU detention center. The reports on his arrest and search have been sent to prosecution agencies, which will decide on his extradition," the report reads.

Moldovan publication NewsMaker reported earlier referring to its source in Moldovan government agencies that businessman Veaceslav Platon, who is wanted by Moldovan law-enforcement agencies, was detained in Kyiv on Monday, July 25.

The publication said quoting the head of Moldovan anti-corruption prosecutor's office, Platon is a suspect in the case on unsecured loans issued by Banca de Economii, Moldova's large bank which has ceased to exist, by legal entities controlled by people close to Platon. He has been put on an international wanted list.

Platon was arrested in compliance with the Criminal Code of Ukraine with the aim of his further extradition to Moldova, where he is charged under part 5 of Article 190 (money laundering) and part 3 of Article 243 (fraud in the banking sector) of the Criminal Code of Moldova.

His possible involvement in crimes on the territory of Ukraine is also being investigated.

  
The Georgian Central Elections Commission has declined the Kartuli Dasi opposition party's request for holding a referendum on Georgia's entry into NATO simultaneously with the October 8 parliamentary elections.

"Unfortunately, the Central Elections Commission has rejected our initiative to hold a referendum on a highly topical matter. The attitude of the Georgian population to NATO has significantly changed in recent years. An increasing number of our citizens wish that Georgia would not enter into any military blocs and would be a neutral country," Kartuli Dasi leader Jondi Bagaturia told the press on Wednesday.

He said his party intended to challenge the decision of the Georgian Central Elections Commission in court.

The party suggested that the referendum ask one question, "Do you want Georgia to enter into NATO?"
From 8,000 to 10,000 believers gathered on Volodymyrska Hirka in Kyiv

Up to 8,000 believers and participants in the religious procession of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate) have gathered on Volodymyrska Hirka (St. Volodymyr Hill) in Kyiv for a prayer on the Day of Christianization of Rus, the Kyiv National Police told Interfax.

"There are now some 7,000-8,000 people on Volodymyrska Hirka," the Kyiv National Police press service told Interfax.

The Kyiv National Police press service said it is currently difficult to give the exact number of people who have come for the prayer because believers keep coming to the site.

Andriy Kryschenko, the head of the Kyiv National Police, said on 112.Ukraine television that 10,000 believers have gathered on Volodymyrska Hirka.

"People keep coming. There are already 10,000 people on Volodymyrska Hirka. We are not taking any extra security measures. What is being done is enough [...] There are up to 6,000 law enforcement officers, like before," Kryschenko said.

No prohibited or suspicious objects have been seized, he said.

According to police information, no serious incidents have so far been registered.
A shipment of drones worth more than $12 million has arrived from the U.S., the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine has said.

"Within the framework of the Initiative of Restoration Trust in Europe program, the U.S. Department of Defense has transferred to the Armed Forces of Ukraine a considerable number of the most advanced unmanned drones, RQ-11B Analog Raven Systems, worth more than $12 million," the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said on its Facebook page.

The note says the assistance is non-lethal, as the UAVs are not equipped with weapons.

"RQ-11 Raven is a reconnaissance drone, which weighs less than 2 kg with an installed digital camera that operates at night or during the day. This type of drone can be launched and landed easily. The radius of operation is 10 km," the report says.

U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt last week said the U.S. will continue boosting Ukraine's security and defense. Assistance to the Armed Forces of Ukraine is one of the U.S. foreign policy priorities for the mid-term and long term prospective.
Viktor Medvedchuk, the leader of the All-Ukrainian Public Movement Ukrainian Choice, said that over 600 people whose release is sought by representatives of some territories of Donetsk and Luhansk regions are being held in the territory of Ukraine.

"I have worked on the release of illegally held persons since December 2014. Since then, I have organized the release of 402 people. The situation in the past few months has been the way it has been because hundreds of people, more than 600 people whose release is sought by Donetsk and Luhansk, are in the territory controlled by Kyiv. Kyiv is only seeking to get 108 people in exchange for the people illegally held in Donetsk and Luhansk. This difference means one thing: we changed the proportion at some point," Medvedchuk said in an interview with Radio Liberty.

There were times when ten to 30 people were released without an exchange and now representatives of some territories of Donetsk and Luhansk regions are declining Kyiv's requests to exchange 50 people for 25, insisting on the adoption of the law on amnesty envisaged by the Minsk Agreements, he said.

Medvedchuk also said he is the only person conducting negotiations with Donetsk and Luhansk on the release of hostages.

"I have never insulted any representatives of the DPR and the LPR, any representatives of Russia, because I have to talk with them. The special thing is that I am the only person conducting negotiations on the issue of the release of illegally held persons. Not in Minsk - because there are a lot of people who are negotiating in Minsk, but in Minsk this issue is unfortunately not resolved - I am the only person conducting negotiations with the administrations of the self-proclaimed LPR and DPR, with the administration of the Russian Federation," Medvedchuk said.
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Observers from the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) have recorded shooting attacks on their unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) in the conflict area in Donbas in eastern Ukraine, the SMM press service told Interfax-Ukraine on Wednesday.

"At 12:48 on July, 25 the SMM conducted a flight of its mini UAV on the southern edge of LPR [the self-proclaimed Luhansk People's Republic]-controlled Kalynove (58 km west of Luhansk). The SMM heard four shots which it assessed as being fired from an assault rifle targeting the UAV. At the time of the incident, the UAV was flying 800 meters south-west of the launch site," the SMM press service said.

The shots were judged by the observers to have been fired from a location assessed as less than one kilometer west of the SMM's position, it said.

"The SMM managed to land the UAV, which did not sustain any damage, and proceeded to leave the location safely," it said.

"At 14:05 on July 25, while attempting to conduct another flight with the same mini UAV south-west of 'LPR'-controlled Kadiyivka (formerly Stakhanov, 50 km west of Luhansk), the mini UAV again came under fire approximately four minutes into its flight (some 300 meters west of the launch site), this time by eight shots from what was assessed as a pistol," the SMM said, adding that the shots were supposedly fired from a location 300-500 meters west of the SMM's position.

Likewise, at 23:51 on July 25, while flying over government-controlled Avdiyivka, "an SMM long-range unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) experienced a loss of signal from the Ground Control Station and the SMM lost all communication with the UAV," the SMM said.
RICHMOND, Va.  Two former Virginia Tech students were indicted Tuesday in the slaying of a seventh-grade girl who was found dead last January days after authorities say she sneaked out of her window to rendezvous with the older teens, a county prosecutor said.

Nineteen-year-old David Eisenhauer was indicted by a grand jury on charges of first-degree murder, abduction and hiding the body of 13-year-old Nicole Lovell, Montgomery County Commonwealths Attorney Mary Pettitt said in a statement.

Natalie Keepers, also 19, was charged with being an accessory to kidnapping and murder and with helping hide the body, the commonwealths attorney said.

Trial dates in March were set Tuesday in both cases, Pettitt said. Eisenhauer and Keepers both face up to life in prison, she said.

Eisenhauer will not face the death penalty because theres no physical evidence he had sexual contact with Lovell the day she was killed, Pettitt said in an email.

Prosecutors would have had to show he abducted her with the intent to sexually defile her in order to pursue a capital murder charge against him, she said.

Eisenhauers attorney declined to comment on the indictment Tuesday. Keepers attorney did not immediately respond to messages and emails seeking comment.

Authorities have not provided clues about a motive.

But a friend of Eisenhauer told The Roanoke Times in May that Eisenhauer texted him about meeting a teenage girl at a party and later learning that she was underage. Bryce Dustin of Pulaski, whose phone was seized by police, said Eisenhauer feared the girl would expose him and asked if he knew where he could hide a body.

A neighbor told The Associated Press in February that Nicole told 8-year-old friends before she vanished from her mothers home that she planned to sneak out to meet her 18-year-old boyfriend, who she said was named David.

Lovells disappearance in January set off a massive, days-long search. The girl, who suffered from bullying at school and online over her weight and a tracheotomy scar, needed daily medication after surviving a liver transplant, lymphoma and a drug-resistant bacterial infection as a child.

At a preliminary hearing in May, Blacksburg police Detective Ryan Hite said Keepers told investigators she and Eisenhauer discussed several ways to kill Nicole: drugging her, making it look like suicide and knocking her unconscious and leaving her to die of exposure.

They settled on what Keepers called the official plan, Hite said: Grab her from behind, cover her mouth and slit her throat.

Keepers told investigators she was not present for the actual killing. She said she participated because it made her feel like part of a secret club, calling Eisenhauer a sociopath and herself as a sociopath in training, investigators said.

Blacksburg Detective D.L. Twigger testified in May that Eisenhauer said he arranged to pick Nicole up outside her apartment, but he thought she was much older. He said Nicole did not get in his car and started walking back toward her apartment, and he drove away.
CHRISTIANSBURG  Theres no physical evidence 13-year-old Nicole Lovell and former Virginia Tech student David Eisenhauer had sexual contact on the day she was abducted and murdered, Montgomery County Commonwealths Attorney Mary Pettitt said Tuesday.

While there is evidence Lovell had some type of relationship with Eisenhauer  now charged with her abduction, murder and concealment  before she went missing, Pettitt said its unclear at this time what the nature of that relationship may have been.

Had her office been able to charge Eisenhauer with a sexual offense in relation to the teens death, the prosecutor added, she would have.

Pettitt said thats why she determined a capital murder charge was not appropriate in Eisenhauers case.

She said Virginia law does allow for a capital charge when someone commits abduction and murder together. But the statute only applies when the abduction is committed with intent to sexually defile.

Instead, the former Virginia Tech cross country runner faces life in prison on the first-degree murder charge and 10 years on the abduction count  and five years for the concealment charge that a grand jury added through a direct indictment on Tuesday.

Natalie Keepers, a former Virginia Tech student whos accused of plotting the slaying with Eisenhauer, was also indicted Tuesday on counts of concealing a body and accessory before the fact in the killing. She faces life plus five years.

Pettitt said Tuesday she does not anticipate discussing plea deals with either defendant. When asked by a member of the media Tuesday if Eisenhauer or Keepers may testify against each other, Pettitt said neither are on her witness lists at this time.

Were happy with our case the way it is, Pettitt said.

Eisenhauer and Keepers, both 19, appeared in court for separate hearings Tuesday to schedule their respective multiday trials.

Motions hearings in Eisenhauers case are set to begin on Feb. 8, and the trial is scheduled to run March 6 through March 15.

Keepers, meanwhile, is scheduled to have motions hearings beginning on Jan. 27. Her trial is scheduled for March 27 through March 31.

Both wore orange jumpsuits and shackles in the courtroom Tuesday and spoke in short, yes or no answers when asked questions by the judge. Keepers wore her hair down, with two strands of braids running around her head.

Judge Colin Gibb, who was filling in on the bench for Judge Robert Turk, initially granted a motion filed by The Roanoke Times for photography access at Tuesdays hearing. The order would have provided the first public view of Eisenhauer and Keepers in a courtroom, but Gibb changed his mind and barred photography as the proceedings began.

Tony Anderson, one of Eisenhauers lawyers, objected to the photographers presence, saying his client didnt have a chance to change into street clothes.

Photos of Eisenhauer in a jumpsuit, the lawyer argued, could bias a jury down the road.

Gibb upheld Andersons objection.

Even without photo access, both local and national reporters showed up Tuesday for the latest in a case that has garnered widespread attention.

It began when Lovell was reported missing from her Blacksburg apartment on Jan. 27. Her body was found with stab wounds three days later in Surry County, North Carolina.

Prosecutors said at a February bond hearing that Eisenhauer and Keepers worked together to plot the slaying in the days leading up to the teens death. They bought a shovel and drove around rural areas outside of Blacksburg to find a place to commit the crime, Pettitt said in court.

The plan, according to Pettitt, was for Eisenhauer to lure Lovell from her apartment under the guise of a date, take her to a wooded area and slit her throat.

Investigators later testified at a May preliminary hearing that Keepers told them she was not present at the time of the slaying. She did tell police she helped Eisenhauer move the body from where he initially left it along Craig Creek Road, according to testimony.

Investigators also presented data logs from a GPS device found inside Eisenhauers car that they said gives a detailed account of his movements during the time of the killing.

The logs showed his car traveled near Lovells apartment on Fairfax Road in Blacksburg and then to Craig Creek Road about 2 a.m. on Jan. 27.
The Ukrainian authorities are concerned about attempts to down UAVs operated by monitors from the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) by representatives of the self-proclaimed republics in Donetsk and Luhansk regions and regard this situation as an attempt to hide information about the location of their military equipment that is banned by the Minsk Agreement.

"Alarming are systematic attacks by militant representatives on OSCE SMM drones. This week alone, one drone was shot down and two were damaged. The attacks on drones have an explanation... They collect information about the location of military equipment, and this data shows the non-fulfillment of the Minsk agreements by militant representatives," Darka Olifer, the press secretary of Ukraine's envoy to the Trilateral Contact Group Leonid Kuchma, wrote on Facebook following a group meeting on Wednesday.

It also indicates an increase in the number of ceasefire violations in the occupied territories in Donbas, noting that the attacks are also made from the weapons prohibited by the Minsk agreements.

The issue of control by Ukraine of the Ukrainian-Russian border also remains principal. "Ukraine states: regaining control of this stretch of the state border will contribute to improving the security situation. That is why we insist on discussing this issue in the framework of the Trilateral Contact Group, as well as granting the OSCE SMM access to that stretch of the border," Olifer wrote.
Madison developer Chris Houden planned to build a 192-unit building, at 1550 N. Prospect Ave., behind the historic Goll House. Credit: Kahler Slater

Land and Space Journal Sentinel business reporter Tom Daykin talks about commercial real estate and development. SHARE

By of the

Concerns about a proposed apartment tower's general contractor, and whether it would hire local union labor, was a factor in the $55 million project's rejection at Tuesday's Common Council meeting.

The council voted 10-5 to support the project, falling two votes short of the supermajority needed for approval. The zoning change needed 12 votes because a protest petition was signed by enough adjacent property owners.

Madison developer Chris Houden wanted to build the 27-story, 192-unit building at 1550 N. Prospect Ave., behind the historic Goll House.

The opponents were Ald. Robert Bauman, whose district includes the site, along with aldermen Cavalier Johnson, Mark Borkowski, Jose Perez and Tony Zielinski.

Only Bauman discussed his opposition during the council debate before the vote.

The development was opposed by several condo owners at the adjacent building, at 1522 N. Prospect Ave. They were worried about the proposed high-rise's scale, and its effects on traffic and parking.

Bauman repeated his arguments from last week's Zoning, Neighborhoods and Development Committee meeting that the apartment tower would be too large for its site.

Johnson, in an interview after the council meeting, agreed with Bauman on that issue.

But Johnson also mentioned a last-minute claim by Houden that his firm would use a general contractor that hires union workers.

That didn't seem like a firm commitment, said Johnson. He said union labor would do a better job of providing family-supporting jobs for Milwaukee residents.

Zielinski cited the opposition from the neighboring condo owners.

"The developers were attempting a development without proper zoning," Zielinski wrote, in an email response.

"If they want to change the zoning they need to get the impacted residents on board. There is always an opportunity to develop that site by addressing residents concerns." he said.

Perez said he opposed the high-rise because its size and density amounted to "bad urban planning."

Borkowski didn't respond to requests for more information about his decision to oppose the project.

The labor issue surfaced during the July 19 zoning committee hearing.

Bauman said then it appeared that Madison-based Stevens Construction Corp. would be the project's general contractor.

Stevens is "not an area contractor," said Daniel Bukiewicz, Milwaukee Building and Construction Trades Council president, at the committee meeting. He questioned whether a contractor not based in Milwaukee would meet voluntary goals for hiring local residents.

The apartment high-rise would be privately financed, so it wouldn't have to meet mandated city standards for local hiring.

Also, union bricklayer Timothy Brown told committee members that "allowing substandard contractors to come here and get vital work" would hurt Milwaukee residents.

Houden responded that two other contractors, Neenah-based Miron Construction Co. and Fitchburg-based Tri-North Builders Inc., had joined Stevens in bidding on the project.

He and project architect Thomas Miller, of Milwaukee-based Kahler Slater Inc., also said there were discussions with Milwaukee-based C.G. Schmidt Inc., and that a general contractor had not yet been hired.

"We fully expect to have a high percentage of union involvement on the job," Miller said.

Ald. James Bohl, zoning committee chair, alluded to the issue at Tuesday's council meeting. Without mentioning the firm by name, Bohl said Stevens was "not known as a union construction firm."

Bohl, who supported the development, also said he was told Monday that Stevens was no longer "in the running" for the high-rise project.

Houden declined to respond to requests for comment on the issue.
By of the

Philadelphia  Opponents of a new trade deal interrupted a speech by Democratic Cong. Ron Kind of La Crosse at a breakfast meeting of Wisconsin delegates, then confronted Kind in a hallway afterward over his pro-trade stance.

Folks, lets try to be civil with one another. Were here as a party trying to win elections, said Kind, when about a half-dozen people stood and chanted during his remarks, holding signs expressing their opposition to the Trans-Pacific Partnership. The TPP is a 12-nation trade deal backed by Pres. Obama, but opposed by Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and by Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. Opposition to the deal was a central piece of Sanders campaign agenda.

Kinds lengthy talk was interrupted for less than a minute, but when Kind concluded his remarks with a defense of TPP, he drew more chants and boos. Then he was confronted in the hallway afterwards by a group that included some Sanders delegates from Wisconsin.

Weve lost thousands and thousands of jobs  we dont want these trade agreements, but he doesnt listen, said Alicia Leinberger, a Sanders delegate from Kinds district who is running for State Assembly.

Protesters shouted No TPP! at Kind as he spoke with reporters afterward and followed him down the hallway.

"I want to know why you want to export my job," Andrew Walsh, a Sanders delegate from Appleton, asked Kind. "Just give me an answer!"

"We can sit down if you want, we can talk about this ... give me a call," said Kind.

Walsh told reporters moments later, Were going to apply pressure on anyone who supports it. Were going to hold their feet to the fire."

Kind was the first of several speakers at the daily breakfast for delegates from Wisconsin, Alaska and Montana.

State Democratic chair Martha Laning spoke to the protesters during the meeting, encouraged them to talk to Kind at another time and asked them to be respectful.
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Madison-based Alliant Energy Corp., which owns utilities serving four U.S. Midwestern states, plans to spend $1 billion over the next five years to expand its wind power in Iowa by as much as 500 megawatts.

The company is seeking regulatory approval to enlarge its Whispering Willow Wind Farm in Franklin County and potentially build developments elsewhere in Iowa, Alliant said in a statement Wednesday.

The move is part of a broader initiative by Alliant to reduce its carbon emissions by 40% below 2005 levels by 2030.

Iowa is the second-largest wind-energy producing state in the United States, with more than 6,000 megawatts of capacity, according to the American Wind Energy Association.

Alliant CEO Patricia Kampling announced the project Wednesday with Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad in Cedar Rapids, headquarters of Alliant's Iowa utility, Interstate Power & Light.

"Our customers expect low-cost, clean energy, which is exactly what this project will bring to our communities," said Doug Kopp, president of Interstate Power & Light. "Wind has no fuel costs and zero emissions, making it a win-win for Iowans and the Iowa economy."

The project will add enough energy to power about 215,000 Iowa homes, the utility said. In April, Warren Buffett's Des Moines-based MidAmerican Energy Co. announced it would spend $3.6billion to build a 2,000-megawatt wind farm in Iowa.

The Des Moines Register of the USA TODAY NETWORK contributed to this report.
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Anthem Inc. said its proposed $48 billion merger with rival health insurer Cigna Corp. will lower consumer costs and extend coverage to more people, in response to a U.S. lawsuit seeking to block the deal.

The Indianapolis-based company also said the combined carrier would fortify the online insurance exchanges created under the Affordable Care Act at a time when other insurers are withdrawing from them, according to papers filed late Tuesday in federal court in Washington, D.C.

Anthem's "acquisition of Cigna will significantly increase consumers' access to the exchanges with the combined firm entering into new territories in nine states where the two firms are not currently participating," according to the filing. With operations in 14 states, including Wisconsin, Anthem is the largest member of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association.

The Justice Department sued to stop the Anthem-Cigna deal on June 22, the same day it also sought to block Aetna Inc.'s $37 billion bid for Humana Inc., saying the tie-ups will cut the number of major American health insurance companies from five to three, raising costs and reducing competition.

Anthem Chief Executive Officer Joseph Swedish said on the company's second-quarter earnings call Wednesday that he plans to extend the agreement to buy Cigna to the end of April. The trial, which the company has asked the judge to set for October, is likely to last about four months, he said.

Anthem is the first of the four insurers to respond to the U.S. lawsuits. On Monday, the company asked U.S. District Judge John D. Bates to fast-track the case, setting the trial in about three months, with a decision about a month later.

Cigna, based in Bloomfield, Conn., said last week it would review its options under the merger agreement.

The case is U.S. v. Anthem, 16-cv-1493, U.S. District Court, District of Columbia (Washington).

Anthem, the No. 2 U.S. health insurer by membership, said Wednesday that its medical spending rose in the second quarter, driven by higher costs from the insurer's Affordable Care Act plans and Medicaid business.

Anthem said it spent 84.2 cents of every premium dollar on medical care, up from 82.1 cents a year earlier.

Sicker customers in Affordable Care Act plans led Anthem to say it now expects to lose money on those policies this year, though premium increases may help the insurer post profits next year. The insurer had previously said it was planning to break even on the ACA, also known as Obamacare, in 2016. The losses in Medicaid stemmed from Iowa, which shifted medical coverage for the poor to private companies as of April 1.

Anthem managed to rein in administrative spending, helping adjusted profit top analysts' estimates. Earnings, excluding some items, were $3.33 a share, Anthem said Wednesday in a statement, compared with the $3.23 average of estimates compiled by Bloomberg.

Other highlights from Anthem's second-quarter results:

Revenue increased 7.2% to $21.5 billion.

Membership increased to 39.8 million members, from 39.6 million in the first quarter.

Anthem expects 39.6 million to 39.8 million members for the full year. Some customers typically drop their policies throughout the year, especially in the new individual markets created by Obamacare.
SHARE J.K. Rowling calls Harry Potter and the Cursed Child the eighth story in the series.

By of the

When it comes to orchestrating a book launch, J.K. Rowling still has a magic touch.

Milwaukee-area bookstores are planning Saturday evening store parties to launch their sales of "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Parts One and Two" (Arthur A. Levine Books), which Rowling has dubbed the eighth installment in her wizarding franchise. The Barnes & Noble bookstore chain reports that "Cursed Child" is its most-preordered book since "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" in 2007.

Milwaukee's Boswell Books, 2559 N. Downer Ave., has had more advance sign-ups for the "Cursed Child" book launch event than for last year's buzz book, Harper Lee's "Go Set a Watchman," said store owner Daniel Goldin. "This series never fails to bring out people," he said.

More than 450 million copies of the original Harry Potter novels have been sold around the world, according to American publisher Scholastic. Even more significantly, the Potter series excited a generation about reading for pleasure. "Not since the serial novels of Charles Dickens in the middle of the 19th century had the works of a single author excited such universal and immediate interest," Norman Lebrecht wrote in The Wall Street Journal.

So the book world welcomes an echo of those glorious years. However, "Cursed Child" comes with a few asterisks. It's not a novel: The publisher calls it a "special rehearsal edition script" for the play of the same name, which formally opens Saturday in London.

The story is credited to Rowling; John Tiffany, a stage veteran who is directing the London production; and Jack Thorne, a British playwright and screenwriter. Thorne wrote the two-part play. It takes place in a time period following the epilogue of "Deathly Hallows," featuring the adult Harry, who now works for the Ministry of Magic, and his son Albus Severus, a new student at Hogwarts.

Given that "Cursed Child" is not a Rowling novel per se, Goldin thinks a reader's level of satisfaction may well depend on expectations. "If you're thinking it is going to be the same experience as No. 7 ('Deathly Hallows'), it is not," he said. But if a potential reader approaches the new book simply as something that could be interesting, they "could be very happy."

Goldin believes a number of people want "to read everything" connected to Harry Potter.

Boswell's launch party begins at 10 p.m. Saturday with trivia and costume contests. The local Rufus Kingsley Chapter of the nonprofit Harry Potter Alliance is leading a "Save Dobby" sock fundraiser for St. Ben's Clinic. Book sales begin at midnight.

Here's a sampling of other planned local "Cursed Child" events:

Oconomowoc's Books & Company, 1039 Summit Ave., begins its Potter party at 10:30 p.m. Saturday with trivia and games. Admission is included with advance purchase of the book. Doors open to the public for book sales at midnight. At 12:20 a.m., theater students will give a short dramatic reading of the script.

Barnes & Noble stores at Mayfair, Bayshore Town Center, Brookfield Square, Greenfield and Racine plan to begin their Potter countdowns at 8 p.m. Saturday and book sales at midnight. They also plan to continue celebrations at 9 a.m. Sunday.

Half Price Books locations at 17145 W. Bluemound Road, Brookfield, and 5032 S. 74th St., Greenfield, will begin handing out passes at 10 p.m. Saturday to purchase "Cursed Child" at midnight.
OSCE envoy Sajdik calls on parties to Donbas conflict to implement all Minsk commitments by year's end

Martin Sajdik, the Special Representative of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), has called on the conflicting parties in Donbas to implement all Minsk agreements by the end of this year.

"We must try to carry out these agreements as early as this year," Sajdik told journalists in Minsk on Wednesday after a meeting of the Trilateral Contact Group which mediates the conflict in eastern Ukraine.
UW-Milwaukee is ramping up efforts to recruit Illinois students amid that states budget problems affecting higher education. Credit: Journal Sentinel files

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Three state universities in southeastern Wisconsin are aggressively turning their attention south to pull more students  and tuition revenue  from the Land of Lincoln.

Whitewater, Parkside and Milwaukee campuses in the University of Wisconsin System for years have drawn students from northern Illinois because of their close proximity to the border.

Working in their favor is the fact tuition for Illinois students to attend a UW campus is remarkably close to, or even less, than what they would pay at their own state schools. Illinois also is in the midst of a state budget crisis with lawmakers failing to approve an annual budget beyond a stopgap that only partially funds higher education.

It's a perfect storm for recruiting Illinois students to Wisconsin, as Wisconsin campuses look to offset their own state budget cuts and enrollment stagnation. Illinois in recent years has seen a dramatic rise in students leaving the state for college elsewhere.

In 2004, about 15% of Illinois high school graduates left their home state for college. In 2014, 22% left  that's 10,000 more Illinois students than a decade ago, according to national data. Illinois' migration percentage is higher than other Midwestern states.

Wisconsin's flagship campus, UW-Madison, attracts the most Illinois students of the UW campuses  2,636 undergrads last fall. But the public universities closest to Chicagoland are seeing the most significant boosts to their bottom line.

Growing tuition revenue from Illinois residents may help offset UWM's loss of millions of dollars in tuition revenue since 2010, when high school graduating classes in Wisconsin began shrinking due to demographics. UWM's overall enrollment last fall fell by 3% to 27,156  an estimated loss of $6.5 million in tuition revenue. The university has lost a total $22.1 million in tuition revenue since 2010.

Whitewater, Parkside and Milwaukee campuses have seen Illinois student enrollment increases by stepping up recruiting efforts in northern Illinois high schools, and with small scholarships to entice students to attend college one to two hours from home.

"We want to invest more in Illinois," said Alberto Jose Maldonado, assistant director for undergraduate and transfer recruitment and community relations with UWM's Office of Undergraduate Admissions.

"Affordability plus quality of educational programs equals a good match for these students looking for an alternative," he said. "For us, the card we've played more aggressively is affordability and how close we are to Illinois. There's always been a history of Illinois families coming to Wisconsin for vacation and other activities."

UWM adds recruiters

Toward that end, UWM two years ago added a full-time regional recruiter who lives in northern Illinois. UWM hopes to add two more recruiters in Illinois  one to attract graduate and transfer students, and a second to recruit prospective freshmen, Maldonado said.

Applications from Illinois high school students doubled in the past four years, from 500 to more than 1,000, Maldonado said. Those 1,000-plus applications yielded 257 of the total freshman class of about 3,200.

Total enrollment of Illinois students at UWM  including both graduate and undergraduate  rose more than fivefold since 2006, from 200 to 1,066 students.

Roughly 5% of all UWM's undergraduates now hail from Illinois, second to Wisconsin, which makes up more than 80%. Part of the draw is academic programs, but the amenities of an urban area also attract Chicagoland students who want to leave home but still attend school in a city, Maldonado said.

Students from Illinois pay less tuition at UWM than they pay to attend many of their own public universities, Maldonado said. Tuition and fees last year at Illinois State University was about $14,500, and $15,630 to $20,624 at University of Illinois, depending on the campus. At UWM it was about $13,500.

UWM five years ago joined the Midwest Student Exchange Program, which offers tuition discounts for students attending school in any of seven participating states. As part of that program, Illinois students pay 150% of what Wisconsin residents pay, rather than the usual double nonresident tuition.

About two years ago, UWM also stepped up its game by creating a Milwaukee Advantage Program that gives all Illinois students $1,000 in tuition grants. The university is aggressively seeking articulation agreements with two-year colleges in Illinois to encourage transfers.

UW-Whitewater is about 25 miles from the Illinois border as the crow flies.

Since 2009, the school has doubled admissions applications and enrollment of Illinois students. Illinois residents made up 9% of the freshman class in 2009; now they are about 16% of the freshman class, with the largest number coming from McHenry and Lake counties. Wisconsin resident enrollment is holding steady, according to school officials.

Two years ago, UW-Whitewater added a second recruiter for northern Illinois high schools. Alumni also are actively involved in recruitment.

When Matthew Aschenbrener was named assistant vice chancellor for enrollment and retention at UW-Whitewater five years ago, he pushed for creation of a merit scholarship to entice more out-of-state students, ranging from $2,000 to $4,000, depending on grades and ACT scores.

UW-Whitewater is not part of the Midwest Student Exchange Program.

"Many of the schools we recruit from in Illinois are between an hour and an hour and a half away, which is common for most of our students," Aschenbrener said. "We have been very intentional in meeting with counselors at high schools in northern Illinois about the academic programs we offer and this has helped our growth in applications."

A year ago, UW-Whitewater hired Jeremy Smith, who grew up in Mokena, Ill., and attended college in Illinois. Smith is the nonresident coordinator and recruits students primarily from Cook, DuPage, and Lake counties  the northeastern-most counties in Illinois.

UW-Whitewater Admissions Director Jeremy Reed said the education and business schools are the university's biggest draws.

Smith said the cost of living off campus also is less expensive than many cities in northern Illinois.

"Value is the nexis of affordability and outcomes," Reed said.

UW-Parkside has seen a 20% increase in applications from Illinois over the past three years, compared with the previous three-year period, according to spokesman John Mielke.

"We place a high priority on recruitment of students from Illinois, especially from Lake County, and we have for decades," Mielke said in an email.

Lake County ranks fourth in contributing to UW-Parkside's overall enrollment, with 8.1% of the school's students coming from that county. The top three student enrollment counties are Kenosha (32%), Racine (30%) and Milwaukee (8.5%).

The College of Lake County ranks second in transfer students to UW-Parkside behind Gateway Technical College, Mielke said.
The Milwaukee County Board is at odds with County Executive Chris Abele over whether to raze or repair the Estabrook Dam on the Milwaukee River in Glendale. The board wants to repair the dam, but Abele prefers an option to demolish the dam, saying it would be cheaper. Credit: Rick Wood

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The future of the Estabrook Park dam on the Milwaukee River is in limbo now that Milwaukee County Board Chairman Theodore Lipscomb has blocked supervisors from acting on a dam demolition resolution at their meeting Thursday.

Lipscomb, an advocate for repairing the 1930s-era dam, is in violation of a county ordinance that requires the board chair to refer a resolution to the appropriate committee within five days of receiving the document, according to Raisa Koltun, chief of staff to County Executive Chris Abele.

But Lipscomb did not forward the resolution to the parks committee for its July 19 meeting, and he did not schedule a special committee meeting before Thursday's board meeting. Consequently, supervisors could not discuss demolition and vote on it.

Lipscomb, a proponent of spending $4.1 million to repair and upgrade the dam with a fish passage, said he does not trust the Abele administration's report that the project is more than $600,000 short of the money it needs this year to do the work.

Lipscomb has asked the Comptroller's Office to review the repair project's budget, including revenues and expenses since 2010. The review should determine whether the administration's report is accurate, according to Lipscomb.

That recent budget analysis halted earlier Parks Department plans to award a construction contract and begin work this summer.

The shortfall also prompted the department to ask the County Board to reconsider its past support of repairs and approve demolition.

The dam could be removed at a cost of $1.7 million, according to the resolution.

An online petition started last week by Abele urges Lipscomb to allow supervisors "to at least take a vote on removing the dam."

More than 500 people have signed the petition, according to an Abele spokeswoman.

In addition, the Milwaukee Common Council, Shorewood Village Board and the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District's commission support removal of the dam.

The County Board is in recess during August. The earliest that supervisors could decide on demolition or borrowing more money for repairs would be September.

Even so, Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Rebecca Dallet has scheduled an Aug. 12 hearing on two dam lawsuits.

The hearing had been scheduled with the expectation that the county would confirm that it has sufficient funds to move forward with repairs. The hearing was scheduled before the recent budget analysis finding the $600,000 shortfall.

In one of the lawsuits filed by the Milwaukee Riverkeeper in 2011, a different judge declared the dam a nuisance. The judge ordered the county to repair the dam or demolish it.

In a March 2016 lawsuit, the Milwaukee Riverkeeper is asking Dallet to block the County Board from spending public funds this year on what the group calls a private purpose: repairing the dam for the benefit of a small number of upstream private property owners.

After repairs, dam gates would be closed to hold back water to restore a shallow pond for their use. Lipscomb says that the pond also benefits users of the river at Lincoln Park.
Lori Gramling is a psychologist and artist and uses both to make the world a better place. Here, she works with Danny Ramirez, 10, among students from a summer camp at Ascension Lutheran Church who were making making ceramic tiles for a mosaic to be placed along the sidewalk next to the church. Credit: Michael Sears

As a psychologist and an artist, Lori Gramling has seen the power of both to ease our fears and spark the courage to go forward.

In recent months, mass murders, police shootings and other tragic events around the world have been surfacing more often during the psychotherapy she provides.

"There has really been a shift," Lori said. "Usually people who come for therapy tend to be pretty focused on their own world. They're hurting and they're trying to find solutions. In these last few months, that bigger world is definitely coming into the office, for good or bad. I can see ways that's good. It's opening everyone up, and in groups we've had very powerful discussions."

Recently, Lori found healing in her artistic side when she created 49 ceramic doves, one for each person killed in the shooting rampage at an Orlando nightclub in June. On one side of each dove is the LGBT rainbow image and the words courageand full heart.On the other is a victim's name.

"In my therapy groups, we talk about the word couragea lot. The etymology of the word, it literally means full-hearted. That's the point I've been trying to make. People are so afraid, so discouraged, that we need to find a true kind of heart that then really gives us strength and courage to be able to stand up, speak out, not be discouraged, not be overwhelmed, not be cynical, not be frightened," she said.

You can see the doves in the gathering space at Ascension Lutheran Church, 1236 S. Layton Blvd., which is around the corner from the house  previously owned by former Milwaukee Mayor John Norquist  where Lori and her husband, Chris Gramling, live. Her art studio is in a carriage house out back, and her office is in Walker's Point.

This is a hands-on exhibit. People are encouraged to touch the doves and turn them over to read the names. Even children can reach them. Other churches have asked to display the artwork next.

"To me, the idea of beauty and especially public art has an opportunity to inspire, to touch people's hearts," Lori told me. "When people have asked, 'Well, what about our own city?' My feeling is, 'Yeah, absolutely, let's do it, let's roll. What can we keep doing?'"

Lori is a native of Cleveland who came to Milwaukee to attend Marquette University. She hopes to work as a therapist until she's 80, but now at age 66 she has pulled back a bit from that career to concentrate more on art  and on her six grown kids and 15 grandchildren.

She has been promoting public art in her neighborhood near the Mitchell Park Domes the last couple years, including ceramic medallions and murals in the alley out back.

On Monday, teens from Ascension's summer Bible camp came to her studio to glaze tiles that will form mosaics outside the church. The youths were asked to think of words that might comfort or inspire people who pass by. They came up with many: smile, you're loved, forgive and forget, be happy, you're beautiful.

Lori thinks about that poem, the one about wearing purple when you get old. "I feel that way," she said. "At age 66, I can really do what I want, and also understand that long after I'm somewhere else, some of those kids or some of the people who worked on this will have their own ideas."

Sad to say, the massacre in Orlando already is receding in our memories as we're horrified anew by events in Dallas, Baton Rouge, Minneapolis, Munich, France again, Japan, and on Monday yet another mass shooting at a nightclub in Florida.

Lori said we need to be careful about political candidates who appeal to our primal emotions of fear, despair and helplessness.

"Either we're going to become more and more base and devolve into a kind of subhuman reaction, or we have to find something that pulls us up beyond our own tier of life. That's what it seems like to me. In times of real desperation, you need to really be inspired," she said.

Lori is just trying to plant a few seeds to grow a positive outcome. "I think each of us," she said, "in our little corner, in our little sphere, that's what we need to do."

Call Jim Stingl at (414) 224-2017 or email at jstingl@jrn.com. Connect with my public page at Facebook.com/Journalist.Jim.Stingl
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally, Monday in Winston-Salem, N.C. Credit: Evan Vucci

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Dear Mainstream Media and Democrats: Its your turn. Now that Donald Trump has been formally nominated, the formal responsibility to stop him passes from the right to the left, from Republicans to Democrats and the journalists who amplify their values.

Youre going to find it a very tough slog. And its your own damn fault.

During the primaries, the task of exposing the true nature of the Trump takeover fell disproportionately to a few conservative magazines, columnists, renegade radio hosts and behind-the-scenes activists. We all failed.

We failed in part because the mainstream media was having too good of a time to help. Last spring, Stop Trump operatives told me they brought damning stories to mainstream outlets. The response was usually: Were not interested in covering that  right now.

By May, Trump already had received roughly $3 billion worth of free media, thanks to ratings-hungry TV networks. CBS chief Les Moonves summarized it well at an investor conference in February: Trumps rise may not be good for America, but its damn good for CBS.

Only slowly has the media come around to the realization that Trump is an actual threat, but now it may be too late because it has a serious cry wolf problem. Millions of Americans firmly believe that journalists are water carriers for the Democrats and will tune out much of what they have to say about Trump now that hes the nominee.

You can start the timeline as far back as the World War II era. In 1944, Franklin Roosevelt told the country that if Republicans were returned to power, even though we shall have conquered our enemies on the battlefields abroad, we shall have yielded to the spirit of fascism here at home. The press nodded along.

In 1964, CBS News Daniel Schorr claimed that Barry Goldwaters planned post-convention vacation in Europe was really an effort to coordinate with right-wing Germans in Hitlers one-time stomping ground.

In recent years, as the distinctions between news and opinion, analysis and advocacy, reporting and click-baiting has blurred, the problem has only gotten worse.

Every election cycle, the GOP nominee is smeared as a racist by the Democrats or the press  or both. Rep. John Lewis of Georgia trades in a bit more of his hard-earned moral authority each time he insinuates that the GOP nominee is like George Wallace or wants to bring back Jim Crow, and political columnists relinquish a bit more of their claim to objectivity each time they let his comments pass without condemnation or criticism.

George W. Bush revived for the left the paranoid style in American politics, and if you Google John McCain, racist, 2008 youll see he was lazily demonized, too.

In 2012, pundits said Paul Ryan wanted to throw old ladies over cliffs because he wanted to reform Social Security. When Mitt Romney spoke to the NAACP, the response from many in the media was, per usual,

Racist! (Its ironic that many of the notable Republicans rebuking Trump this year are the ones pundits were only too happy to paint as racist not long ago.)

I have no doubt many journalists would defend their smears and professional failures, but that doesnt change the fact that many Americans outside the mainstream media/Democratic bubble find it all indefensible. More important, they find it all ignorable  because the race card and the demagogue card have been played and replayed so often theyre little more than scraps of lint.

Already, editorial boards are preparing their indictments of what they believe to be Donald Trumps incompetence, bigotry and authoritarianism. Trump operatives will undoubtedly respond: Thats what they always say about Republicans. And theyll be right.

Jonah Goldberg is a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and a senior editor of National Review. Email goldbergcolumn@gmail.com Twitter: @JonahNRO
Campaign signs regarding ethanol are seen in this Jan. 28 photo taken in Des Moines just before the Iowa Caucuses. Credit: Getty Images

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Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) dont agree on much  but then again, U.S. senators from different parties rarely seem to agree on anything these days.

Thats why it was encouraging to see democracy at work, when leaders from across the political spectrum recognized the importance of the Renewable Fuel Standard, and decided to work across the aisle to make the program a success. Thats exactly what happened last month among 39 bipartisan champions of the RFS  including Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.)  who sent a joint letter to the Environmental Protection Agency urging the administration to stay true to the goals of Americas best renewable energy policy.

In the letter, lawmakers from Connecticut to Hawaii made a simple request to the EPA: follow the law. Since 2005, the RFS has required oil companies to offer consumers renewable fuel blends at the gas pump. As a result, 97% of the fuel in every tank contains some amount of ethanol or other biofuel, grown right here in the United States. That renewable share is meant to grow, weaning America off foreign oil, while keeping the air clean and supporting a flourishing homegrown energy sector to replace exporters in the Middle East.

The strategy has been a clear success. Thanks to the RFS, growth in the biofuels sector now reverberates throughout our economy. Americas ethanol industry supports 28,000 manufacturing jobs across the United States, and many of those jobs are among manufacturers of equipment farmers use to grow, maintain and harvest feedstocks for ethanol production.

It also turns out that ethanol is the least expensive way to boost the octane in fuel, allowing for more efficient engine performance and eliminating the need for the kind of poisonous additives that refiners used in the past, such as MTBE and lead.

Fortunately, our senators seem to see the advantages of not relying on oil from the Middle East, if for different reasons. Some like that it attracts investments that would otherwise go to China or Brazil and that it gives America greater leverage against petroleum ministers in Russia and Iran. They also like that it supports American jobs and saves consumers anywhere from 50 cents to $1 per gallon during periods of high oil prices.

On the other side of the political spectrum, the RFS is part of the green energy revolution. Biofuels are helping to decarbonize Americas transportation sector and clear the air of smog, particulates and ozone. The average corn-based ethanol slashes greenhouse gas emissions by 34% compared to gasoline, while some of the newer cellulosic biofuels are essentially carbon neutral, according to Department of Energy-sponsored research.

Whatever their motivations, these senators demonstrated that good policy doesnt always have to fall prey to partisan power struggles. The question now is whether the EPA is listening. Earlier this year, the agency proposed cutting 2017 conventional biofuel targets by 200 million gallons. The proposal is still under review, and with the end of an official comment period this week, regulators have until Nov. 30 to issue a final rule.

The choice policymakers make now will determine how painful the next spike in gasoline prices will be. When that happens, itll be too late for new oil drills or fresh windmills to protect our economy, but those who reached across the aisle to support Americas most successful green energy program will deserve our thanks for thinking ahead.

Thats good news for both consumers and the manufacturers across America who support thousands of jobs thanks to the RFS.

Jim Wessing is president of the Kondex Corp., an equipment manufacturer in Lomira.
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Philadelphia  Taking on the role of devoted political spouse, former President Bill Clinton declared his wife Hillary Clinton an impassioned "change-maker," serving as character witness for her on Tuesday, the day that she triumphantly became the first woman nominated for president.

Hillary Clinton put an electrifying cap on the night, appearing by video from New York and declaring: "We just put the biggest crack in that glass ceiling yet."

Minutes earlier, Bill Clinton said of his partner of more than 40 years and the Democratic Party's new standard-bearer in the race for the White House: "She's been worth every single year she's put into making people's lives better."

For a man more accustomed to delivering policy-packed stem-winders, Bill Clinton's deeply personal address underscored the historic night for Democrats and the nation. If she wins in November, the Clintons would be the first married couple to each serve as president.

Hillary Clinton will take on Donald Trump, who won the Republican nomination a week ago. Trump, who campaigned Tuesday in North Carolina, mocked the former president's speech in advance, calling him "overrated."

Referring to Trump, though not by name, Bill Clinton said there are real and affordable solutions to problems facing the nation but "we won't get to them if America makes the wrong choice."

The former president traced his relationship with his wife back more than 40 years, recalling in great detail the first time that he spotted her on campus and the impact that she had on pushing him into politics.

"Hillary opened my eyes to a whole new world of public service by private citizens," he said, addressing a convention hall packed to the rafters with delegates listening raptly.

He officially closed the second night of the Democratic convention, a jubilant celebration of Hillary Clinton's formal nomination for president. In an important move for party unity, her primary rival Bernie Sanders helped make it official when the roll call got to his home state of Vermont, prompting delegates to erupt in cheers. It was a striking parallel to the role that Hillary Clinton played eight years ago when she stepped to the microphone on the convention floor in Denver in support of her former rival, Barack Obama.

This time, Hillary Clinton shattered the glass ceiling that she couldn't crack in 2008.

But she leads a party still grappling with divisions. Moments after Hillary Clinton claimed the nomination, a group of Sanders supporters left the convention and headed to a media tent to protest what they said was their being shut out of the party. At the same time, protesters who had spent the day marching in the hot sun began facing off with police.

Trump cheered the disruptions from the campaign trail. In North Carolina, he told a convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars that "our politicians have totally failed you."

Indeed, Hillary Clinton's long political resume  secretary of state, U.S. senator from New York, first lady  has sometimes seemed an odd fit for an electorate deeply frustrated with Washington and eager to rally around unconventional candidates like Trump and Sanders. Many voters have questions about her character and trustworthiness, suggesting that her years in power give her the impression that she can play by different rules.

Bill Clinton spoke after three hours of testimonials from lawmakers, advocates, celebrities and citizens who argued otherwise. Each took the stage to vouch for Hillary Clinton's commitment to working on health care, children's issues and gun control.

"Hillary Clinton has the passion and understanding to support grieving mothers," said Sybrina Fulton, whose son Trayvon Martin was killed in 2012. "She has the courage to lead the fight for common-sense gun legislation."

Former President Jimmy Carter said in a video address to delegates that Hillary Clinton has his support and "I know she will also have yours." He said these are "perilous times" and the nation needs someone with a "strong heart," a deep understanding of issues and a "steady hand."

Carter also thanked Sanders for energizing young people and bringing them into the political process.

The significant time devoted to character testimonials for Hillary Clinton underscored the campaign's concerns about how voters view her. Public polls consistently show that a majority of Americans don't believe that she is honest and trustworthy. That perception that was reinforced after FBI Director James Comey's scathing assessment of her controversial email use as secretary of state, even though the Justice Department did not pursue charges.

Bill Clinton complicated the email controversy last month when he met privately with Attorney General Loretta Lynch in the midst of the FBI investigation. Republicans cast the meeting as a sign that the Clintons play by different rules, while Democrats bemoaned that at the very least, it left that impression.

The former president has campaigned frequently for his wife during the White House race, but mostly in smaller cities and towns, part of an effort by the campaign to keep him in a more behind-the-scenes role. His convention address was his highest-profile appearance of the campaign.

Hillary Clinton's landmark nomination saturated the roll call with emotion and symbols of women's long struggle to break through political barriers. Jerry Emmett, a 102-year-old woman born before women had the right to vote, cast the ballots for Arizona.

Martha McKenna, a Clinton delegate from Maryland, said the night felt like a celebration for Sanders' campaign as well as Clinton's. "The idea that I'm going to be here when the first woman president is nominated is overwhelming," she said.

Also among those taking the podium Tuesday were former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright; Howard Dean, former Vermont governor and unsuccessful Democratic presidential hopeful in 2004; "Hunger Games" actress Elizabeth Banks; and actress Meryl Streep.
A sign with a quote by former Secretary of Veterans Affairs Jesse Brown stands at the main doorway of the Clement J. Zablocki VA Medical Center. Credit: GARY PORTER

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Republican U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson sent a letter to the Department of Veterans Affairs requesting information on security problems  including an overdose death  at the inpatient drug rehabilitation unit of the Clement J. Zablocki VA in Milwaukee.

"In particular, it appears that veterans and visitors have been able to easily transport illegal drugs and other contraband into the domiciliary unit," Johnson wrote VA Secretary Robert A. McDonald on Tuesday.

"The free flow of illicit substances into the domiciliary has led to reports of multiple veterans overdosing on drugs while receiving treatment at the facility," said Johnson, who chairs the U.S. Senate Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs Committee.

In November, Cole Schuler, 26, a former U.S. Army Ranger from the Fox Valley, died of a heroin overdose in the Zablocki Residential Treatment Program.

Johnson wrote that in a briefing with his staff, "VA officials stated that in the wake of Mr. Schuler's passing, the Zablocki VA increased security checks and monitoring for contraband at the facility. Even with the changes made in the wake of Mr. Schuler's death, the Zablocki VA should work to ensure that other veterans do not have access to illegal drugs in the domiciliary unit."

"After the death of Mr. Schuler, an Administrative Investigation Board (AIB) made 16 recommendations that were reportedly implemented; however, subsequently, another veteran was apparently able to obtain and overdose on heroin while receiving treatment at the facility," Johnson wrote.

Johnson said the "recent overdose  after Mr. Schuler's death  raises questions about potentially larger problems at the Zablocki VA."

The second overdose did not result in the patient's death.

In his letter, Johnson asked what recommendations were made to improve security and what is the status of the Zablocki VA's implementation of the recommendations. He also asked for a status update on the VA investigation into Schuler's overdose death, as well as policies the agency is implementing "to prevent illegal drugs from entering VA medical facilities."

Gary Kunich, a spokesman for the Milwaukee VA Medical Center, said officials "welcome the opportunity to answer Senator Johnson's concerns."

"We want to invite him out here so he can see the programs firsthand," Kunich said. "He can see a lot of the changes we've made to prevent any future tragedies."

Kunich said 300 veterans have successfully completed the residential treatment program in the past year.

"We welcome the opportunity to introduce Senator Johnson to meet some of the veterans who have completed the program to hear their stories how the VA has helped them," Kunich said. "A lot of the things that Senator Johnson has talked about we have addressed. We've implemented several different security measures here, including extra cameras, more random searches. We've changed the curfew time."

Previously, Johnson's committee investigated the troubled Tomah VA Medical Center, where a 35-year-old former U.S. Marine named Jason Simcakoski died from a mixture of medications while being treated there in 2014. Earlier this year, Republicans on Johnson's committee concluded a "culture of fear" permeated the facility.

David Houlihan  a psychiatrist who was chief of staff at the Tomah center  was dubbed the "candy man" by some veterans for his supposedly easy and widespread distribution of painkillers to his patients.
Maria Hamilton (left), mother of Dontre Hamilton, and other members of Mothers of the Movement take the stage during the second day of the Democratic National Convention on Tuesday in Philadelphia. Credit: Associated Press

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Philadelphia With mothers of police violence victims on the stage and anti-gun protesters in the streets, Democrats gave gun control and efforts to curb police violence a starring role at their convention on Tuesday.

Known as the Mothers of the Movement, a group of nine women who have lost children to gun violence or after contact with police, including Maria Hamilton of Milwaukee, mother of Dontre Hamilton, took the stage with red flowers pinned over their hearts, to applause and chants of "black lives matter." Dontre Hamilton was fatally shot by former Milwaukee police officer Christopher Manney in April 2014.

In a video introducing the organization, Maria Hamilton said the group's meeting with Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton "wasn't about politics. I believe in my heart that Dontre was the seed planted, so that me and these moms ... could give real change. Stop hating one another. Stop taking from each other. Let's build."

The group also includes Sybrina Fulton, whose 17-year-old son, Trayvon Martin, was killed by a neighborhood watch volunteer in Sanford, Fla., in February 2012; Lezley McSpadden, whose 18-year-old son, Michael Brown, was fatally shot by police in Ferguson, Mo., in August 2014; Gwen Carr, whose son Eric Garner died after being put in a chokehold by a New York City police officer in July 2014; Lucia McBath, whose 17-year-old son, Jordan Davis, was fatally shot by a 45-year-old software developer in February 2012 in his car in Jacksonville, Fla., for playing loud music; and Geneva Reed-Veal, whose daughter Sandra Bland was found hanged in a Texas jail cell in July 2015 after her arrest during a traffic stop.

Fulton, Reed-Veal and McBath delivered speeches on the convention stage.

"Hillary Clinton has the compassion and understanding to support grieving mothers," Fulton said. "She has the courage to lead the fight for common sense gun legislation."

Reed-Veal said, "I am here with Hillary Clinton tonight because she is a leader and a mother who will say our children's names."

Also taking the stage Tuesday were former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and Pittsburgh Chief of Police Cameron McLay, who said it is possible "to respect and support our police while at the same time pushing for these important criminal justice reforms."

Clinton has made gun safety one of the foundations of her presidential campaign, vowing to overcome the legendary resistance of gun-rights advocates and their GOP allies to push for expanded criminal background checks and a renewal of a ban on assault weapons.

Her search for a breakthrough comes as Donald Trump has repeatedly touted the benefits of access to firearms as a way to counter acts of violence. The Republican nominee promoted a law-and-order message at his convention, where speakers, including Milwaukee County Sheriff David A. Clarke Jr., routinely expressed solidarity with police officers and decried the recent slayings of officers in Dallas and Baton Rouge, La.

Yet Democrats view the recent spate of mass shootings and police-involved killings as turning the tide in favor of new restrictions on firearms and a catalyst for criminal justice reform. "This is the moment," said Melissa Mark-Viverito, the speaker of the city council in New York.

Despite a spate of high-profile shootings in recent years, including the December 2012 slaying of 20 first-graders and six adults at a Connecticut school and the murder of nine African-American church members at a Charleston church in June 2015, Democrats have largely failed in their efforts to change federal gun laws.

Americans increasingly favor tougher gun laws by margins that have grown after the spate of recent mass shootings, including the killing of 49 people at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Fla., on June 12, according to a recent Associated Press-GfK poll. Almost two-thirds say they support stricter laws, with majorities favoring nationwide bans on the sale of semiautomatic assault weapons such as the AR-15 and on the sale of high-capacity magazines holding 10 or more bullets.

But less than half of Americans in the poll said they believe that gun laws will get tougher in the coming year.

Still, advocates for gun control say the political landscape has changed dramatically since the 1990s, when then-President Bill Clinton blamed heavy losses in the 1994 midterm elections in part to a public backlash against the ban on certain military-style weapons. That ban expired after 10 years and has not been renewed.

"It's clearly not 1994 anymore," said Mark Kelly, the husband of former Arizona Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, who was seriously wounded in a 2011 shooting in Tucson that left six people dead.

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) said the shifting landscape is the result of several factors, including the high-profile killings of black men. "For the first time, this is a winning issue in the general election," he said.

Jessie Bekker of the Journal Sentinel staff contributed to this report from Milwaukee.
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The 12-year-old Pewaukee girl struck by a car while riding her bike last week died from her injuries Tuesday, according to a Waukesha Sheriff's Department news release.

Ashlyn Flegel was riding her bike through a stop sign northbound on Apple Tree Lane toward Prospect Ave. on July 19 when the 34-year-old female driver of a Honda Civic struck Flegel.

The investigation is ongoing, the release said.

A crowd of hundreds attended a prayer vigil at Pewaukee High School Sunday, many of whom were strangers eager to show support, WTMJ-TV reported.

Flegel's parents, Tony and Shannon, told the station that their daughter, about to enter seventh grade, loved to dance and loved her friends.

Those same friends shared secrets about Flegel with her mother and recorded themselves singing "Fight Song" by Rachel Platten for Flegel's parents to play for their daughter in the hospital, according to WTMJ.

A GoFundMe page created on July 20 to help the Flegel family battle medical expenses raised more than $28,000 of its $30,000 goal by Tuesday evening.
Sajdik hopes terms of disengagement in Donbas will be agreed at next Contact Group meeting in Minsk

Special Envoy of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Martin Sajdik has announced that no solution to the issue of disengagement along the contact line in Donbas has been found and he hopes the sides will reach a consensus at the next Trilateral Contact Group meeting in Minsk.

"One question remains open, it's a matter of principle," he told journalists in Minsk on Wednesday, following the meeting of the Trilateral Contact Group on Donbas.

"We haven't yet lost all hope to resolve this issue [the pullback of the forces from the contact line]. We hope it will become possible next time," he said.
People take a close look at an original 1909 Curtiss Pusher aircraft at the Experimental Aircraft Association's AirVenture in Oshkosh. Several years ago, a collection of 84 aircraft parts were discovered in the attic of a home in Massachusetts home. It's believed the plane had never been flown before its restoration. Credit: Mark Hoffman

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Oshkosh  More than a century ago, a 19-year-old man bought a plane.

Actually it was part of a plane, and whether the young man lost interest in assembling the aircraft or acquired something newer is unknown. But a few years ago the aircraft remnants were found in a Massachusetts attic by an estate appraiser.

Wrapped in 1915 Boston Globe newspapers, the plane parts survived for more than a century in obscurity. And then, through detective work, restorers learned it was an extremely rare 1909 Curtiss Pusher.

It's not fair to say the discovery has been restored to its former glory, because quite likely it never was fitted together and flown.

Karen Barrow, who spent 14 months putting together and restoring the aircraft, said no other 1909 Curtiss Pusher is believed to have survived. Why?

"Pfffftt," she said, making a diving motion with her hand  meaning all of them either augured into the ground or otherwise disappeared over the decades.

The Curtiss Pusher is the oldest plane among thousands of old planes at EAA AirVenture. It's drawing crowds eager to snap photos of the spindly biplane with a tricycle undercarriage and engine located behind the pilot, hence the name.

"Look at that seat. It was creature comforts all the way," joked Rick Roseberry of Columbus, Ind., who flies single-engine planes with decidedly more comfortable seats  meaning they feature padding.

Matt McDaniel of Oak Creek, also a private pilot, noted that although planes now look nothing like the 1909 Curtiss Pusher, "This was the leading edge of technology at the time."

Gravitated toward aviation

Glenn Curtiss was an innovator who started out as a bicycle mechanic, like the Wright Brothers, and moved on to motorcycles. He was a speed demon who gravitated toward aviation and applied his interest in mechanics to invent aileron technology between the wing panels instead of the Wright Brothers' wing warping to handle lateral control.

Later Curtiss Pushers, not the same model on display in Oshkosh this week, were the first aircraft to take off and land from the decks of ships and were sold to the military.

"We like to call this a transition plane. The next design in 1910 was a little better and the one after that was better," said Barrow, who has restored numerous warbirds and vintage planes with Mark Smith, her partner in Century Aviation, which is based in East Wenatchee, Wash.

The 1909 Curtiss Pushers were sold to individuals either in kits to be assembled or as fully built. A young member of the Sturtevant family, founders of the heating and cooling systems company, bought the kit. Of the 64 pieces found wrapped in newspaper almost all were in good enough shape to use. All the ribs, spars and 15 of the 16 struts are original, and a 1918 original OS-5 engine was used to power it.

The controls, seat and undercarriage are new, but true to the period. Barrow knew the weight of the cotton fabric she needed to attach to the wings and managed to find the 300 to 400 square feet required still being made by a New York factory. She also found a maker of No. 2 tacks, similar to the type that would have been used in 1909, and used 2,000 of them to attach the fabric.

At a cruising speed of 30 mph, the 1909 Curtiss Pusher doesn't go anywhere fast. But the owner, EAA member William Nutt, plans to fly it a few times and eventually put it on display in a museum.

"When you consider that's six years after the first powered flight, to have something like that here is amazing," said EAA AirVenture spokesman Dick Knapinski. "People should see it to see how far we've come."

The 1909 Curtiss Pusher will be on display at EAA AirVenture through Sunday.
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By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) |  

As I pointed out, it is all very nice that Hillary Clinton is the first American woman to be nominated as the standard-bearer for her partys presidential bid, but 11 Muslim women have already served.

Women comprise 51% of the US population but they are only roughly 20% of Congress.

Only 14% of interviewees on Sunday news talk shows are women.

That said, it is a great moment for womens rights in the US.

Here are some people who helped break through the glass ceiling over the decades:

Jeanette Rankin was the first woman elected to Congress, from Montana in 1916. She later cast the lone vote against entering World War I.

Ophelia Wyatt Caraway, a Democrat from Arkansas, was the first woman elected to the US Senate, in 1932.

Frances Perkins was the first woman to serve as a cabinet secretary. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt appointed her secretary of labor in 1933, and she made important contributions to social security and the New Deal.

Eugenie M. Anderson, who in 1949 became the first woman appointed a United States Ambassador. She was sent to Denmark by the Truman administration.

Geraldine Ferraro was the first woman to run for vice president, in 1984. She ran on the ticket with Walter Mondale.

Air Force Gen. Lori Robinson has become head of the U.S. Northern Command, the first woman to to serve as combatant commander.

Last week, July 2016, Carla Hayden became the first woman and the first African-American to serve as Librarian of Congress.

The United Statess constitution was a frontier experiment, aiming at representative govermtent. Only over time did its implied inclusivity become realized, even if very imperfectly. We came a step closer to that inclusivity today.

-

Related video added by Juan Cole:

PBS NewsHour: Why its harder for women to run for office
TORONTO, July 27, 2016 /CNW/ - New Gold Inc. ("New Gold") (TSX:NGD) (NYSE MKT:NGD) today announces its 2016 second quarter results and provides an update on the construction of the company's Rainy River project.

2016 SECOND QUARTER HIGHLIGHTS



Gold production of 99,423 ounces increased by 15% relative to 2015 and copper production of 25.7 million pounds increased by 9%

All-in sustaining costs (1) decreased to $717 per ounce, including total cash costs (2) of $334 per ounce All four operations generated free cash flow during the quarter

decreased to per ounce, including total cash costs of per ounce Cash generated from operations before changes in non-cash operating working capital (3) of $82 million , a 31% increase compared to 2015

of , a 31% increase compared to 2015 Cash generated from operations of $79 million , a 39% increase from 2015

, a 39% increase from 2015 Adjusted net earnings (4) of $14 million , or $0.03 per share, relative to an adjusted net loss of $1 million , or nil per share, in 2015

of , or per share, relative to an adjusted net loss of , or nil per share, in 2015 Net loss of $9 million , or $0.02 per share, compared to net earnings of $9 million , or $0.02 per share, in 2015

, or per share, compared to net earnings of , or per share, in 2015 Rainy River construction approximately 40% complete at June 30, 2016 with $107 million in capital expenditures during the quarter

construction approximately 40% complete at with in capital expenditures during the quarter June 30, 2016 cash and equivalents of $220 million

"We are proud to have delivered such strong second quarter results," stated Randall Oliphant, Executive Chairman. "The combination of higher production, lower costs and improved gold prices enabled us to generate a 39% increase in our cash flow. We are on track to meet our full-year gold production guidance and pleased to be in a position to lower our cost guidance. We look forward to a strong finish to the year."

"At the same time, our Rainy River project is moving ever closer to production. The construction of the processing facilities and initial mining activities are both going very well and we are making good progress in resolving the challenge we encountered earlier this year related to the ground conditions at the water and tailings management facilities," added Mr. Oliphant.

CONSOLIDATED YEAR-TO-DATE OPERATIONAL RESULTS AND 2016 GUIDANCE

Consistent with the expectations the company outlined as part of its first quarter results, gold production increased quarter over quarter, resulting in consolidated gold production of 190,234 ounces in the first six months of 2016 which was 5% higher than the same period of the prior year. As a result of the company's strong first half production, New Gold is well positioned to meet its full-year gold production guidance of 360,000 to 400,000 ounces. At the same time, the company's first half copper production of 51.1 million pounds was higher than planned, increasing by 10% relative to the prior-year period, and New Gold now anticipates it will exceed the high end of its full-year copper production guidance of 81.0 to 93.0 million pounds. Consolidated full-year silver production is expected to be at, or slightly below, the low end of the guidance range of 1.6 to 1.8 million ounces.

For the six-month period ended June 30, 2016, New Gold's all-in sustaining costs of $736 per ounce and total cash costs of $343 per ounce were both well below the prior year and are tracking below the company's 2016 cost guidance. The $233 per ounce decrease in all-in sustaining costs relative to the first half of 2015 was attributable to the combination of a $106 per ounce decrease in total cash costs and a $125 per ounce, or $20 million, decrease in the company's consolidated sustaining costs(1), which include New Gold's cumulative sustaining capital, exploration, general and administrative, and amortization of reclamation expenditures.

Based on New Gold's first half operating results, and assuming current commodity prices and foreign exchange rates, the company now expects its 2016 full-year total cash costs to be $360 to $400 per ounce, a $75 per ounce reduction from the company's original guidance range of $435 to $475 per ounce. As total cash costs form a component of all-in sustaining costs, New Gold similarly expects a $75 per ounce reduction from its 2016 full-year all-in sustaining costs to approximately $750 to $790 per ounce as compared to the company's original guidance range of $825 to $865 per ounce.

NEW GOLD SUMMARY OPERATIONAL RESULTS Three months ended June 30 Six months ended June 30 2016 2015 2016 2015 GOLD PRODUCTION (thousand ounces) New Afton 25.3 24.4 50.4 48.3 Mesquite 25.6 22.5 52.9 48.2 Peak Mines 31.3 14.9 50.9 34.3 Cerro San Pedro 17.3 24.7 36.1 50.6 Total Gold Production 99.4 86.4 190.2 181.4 Total Gold Sales (thousand ounces) 101.8 87.8 187.9 180.2 Average Realized Gold Price per ounce(5) $1,267 $1,191 $1,239 $1,210 COPPER PRODUCTION (million pounds) New Afton 22.1 19.9 44.5 39.5 Peak Mines 3.6 3.7 6.6 7.1 Total Copper Production 25.7 23.6 51.1 46.6 Total Copper Sales (million pounds) 25.2 23.7 50.4 45.8 Average Realized Copper Price per pound(5) $2.14 $2.72 $2.14 $2.66 SILVER PRODUCTION (million ounces) New Afton 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 Cerro San Pedro 0.2 0.3 0.5 0.6 Total Silver Production 0.3 0.4 0.7 0.8 Total Silver Sales (million ounces) 0.3 0.4 0.7 0.8 Average Realized Silver Price per ounce(5) $17.39 $16.23 $15.96 $16.41 TOTAL CASH COSTS(2)($ per ounce) New Afton ($547) ($940) ($593) ($889) Mesquite 611 839 618 867 Peak Mines 521 1,157 620 974 Cerro San Pedro 898 879 917 944 Total Cash Costs(2) $334 $410 $343 $449 All-IN SUSTAINING COSTS(1)($ per ounce) New Afton ($131) ($235) ($198) ($295) Mesquite 999 1,533 1,044 1,632 Peak Mines 706 1,549 827 1,337 Cerro San Pedro 941 889 947 955 All-in Sustaining Costs(1) $717 $922 $736 $969

2016 SECOND QUARTER CONSOLIDATED OPERATIONAL RESULTS

New Gold's second quarter gold production increased by 15% to 99,423 ounces when compared to the prior-year quarter. The increase in quarterly gold production was attributable to New Afton, Mesquite and the Peak Mines all delivering higher production. This was only partially offset by planned lower production from Cerro San Pedro as the mine was in its final months of active mining. Quarterly copper production also increased by 9% to 25.7 million pounds when compared to the second quarter of 2015. Silver production of 0.3 million ounces remained in line with 2015.

During the second quarter, all four of New Gold's operations delivered production at all-in sustaining costs below $1,000 per ounce. As a result of this strong performance, consolidated second quarter all-in sustaining costs of $717 per ounce decreased by $205 per ounce relative to the second quarter of 2015. The significant decrease in all-in sustaining costs relative to the prior-year quarter was attributable to the combination of a $76 per ounce decrease in total cash costs to $334 per ounce and a $129 per ounce, or $6 million, decrease in the company's consolidated sustaining costs. The decrease in total cash costs was driven by the combined benefit of higher gold production, the depreciation of the Canadian and Australian dollars and New Gold's business improvement initiatives more than offsetting the impact of lower by-product revenues resulting from lower realized copper prices(5).

New Afton

Gold production at New Afton during the second quarter increased to 25,287 ounces. The increase relative to the prior-year quarter was due to a 16% increase in mill throughput which more than offset a planned decrease in gold grade. Gold recoveries remained consistent at 83% despite the significant increase in throughput. New Afton's average mill throughput during the second quarter was 15,320 tonnes per day.

As a result of the continued strong throughput, New Afton's quarterly copper production increased by 11% to 22.1 million pounds when compared to the second quarter of 2015.

The $104 per ounce increase in New Afton's all-in sustaining costs to ($131) per ounce was attributable to the impact of lower by-product revenues only being partially offset by the combined benefit of higher gold production, the depreciation of the Canadian dollar relative to the U.S. dollar and a $6 million decrease in sustaining costs. New Afton's second quarter total cash costs of ($547) per ounce were impacted by a $6 million, or $406 per ounce, decrease in by-product revenues relative to the prior-year quarter as the benefit of higher copper sales volumes was more than offset by the decrease in the realized price. As a result of the depreciation of the Canadian dollar relative to the U.S. dollar, the mine's operating costs, including mining, processing and general and administrative costs, decreased to $17.33 per tonne in the second quarter relative to $18.82 per tonne in the prior-year quarter.

New Afton's second quarter co-product cash costs were $543 per ounce of gold and $0.91 per pound of copper relative to $466 per ounce and $1.06 per pound in the prior-year quarter. The mine's second quarter co-product all-in sustaining costs were $711 per ounce of gold and $1.19 per pound of copper relative to the prior-year quarterly all-in sustaining costs of $708 per ounce and $1.61 per pound.

For the six-month period ended June 30, 2016, New Afton's gold production increased to 50,355 ounces when compared to the same period of the prior year. The increase in production was attributable to the combination of higher throughput and recovery more than offsetting a planned decrease in gold grade.

Similarly, the mine's first half copper production increased by 13%, or 5.0 million pounds, to 44.5 million pounds primarily as a result of a 15% increase in mill throughput.

For the six-month period ended June 30, 2016, New Afton's all-in sustaining costs increased by $97 per ounce to ($198) per ounce despite an $8 million, or $348 per ounce, decrease in by-product revenues relative to the first half of 2015 as a result of the decrease in the realized copper price. New Afton's first half sustaining costs decreased by $8 million to $20 million when compared to the first six months of 2015.

New Afton's first half co-product cash costs were $516 per ounce of gold and $0.89 per pound of copper relative to $480 per ounce and $1.04 per pound in the prior-year period. The mine's first half co-product all-in sustaining costs of $672 per ounce of gold and $1.16 per pound of copper were below the costs in the same prior-year period of $689 per ounce and $1.49 per pound.

Mesquite

Second quarter gold production at Mesquite increased by 14% to 25,564 ounces when compared to the prior-year quarter. The increase in production was primarily attributable to a 28% increase in gold grade which was only partially offset by a 13% decrease in ore tonnes mined and placed on the leach pad.

Mesquite's second quarter all-in sustaining costs of $999 per ounce and total cash costs of $611 per ounce were both significantly below the prior-year quarter. The mine's total cash costs benefitted from the combination of higher gold production and lower diesel prices. At the same time, Mesquite's quarterly sustaining costs decreased by $3 million, or $306 per ounce, to $12 million, which contributed to the $534 per ounce total decrease in all-in sustaining costs relative to the second quarter of 2015.

For the six-month period ended June 30, 2016, Mesquite's gold production increased by 10% to 52,935 ounces relative to the prior-year period. Mesquite's first half production benefitted from increased ore tonnes mined and placed on the leach pad as well as higher gold grade.

Mesquite's first half all-in sustaining costs of $1,044 per ounce and total cash costs of $618 per ounce were both significantly below the same period of the prior year. Mesquite's first half sustaining costs decreased by $14 million, or $339 per ounce, to $24 million, which led to a $588 per ounce total decrease in all-in sustaining costs relative to the six-month period ended June 30, 2015.

Peak Mines

Second quarter gold production at the Peak Mines of 31,285 ounces was more than double that of the prior-year quarter. The significant increase in gold production was attributable to the combination of higher gold grade and recovery which was only partially offset by lower throughput. Gold production in the prior-year quarter was well below average due to the impact of geotechnical challenges in the Peak Mines' most gold-rich ore body, Perseverance, which limited the amount of ore that was mined and processed from this area.

Quarterly copper production of 3.6 million pounds remained in line with the second quarter of 2015 as the impact of the decrease in throughput was offset by slight increases in both copper grade and recovery.

All-in sustaining costs at the Peak Mines decreased by $843 per ounce to $706 per ounce relative to the prior-year quarter. The decrease in all-in sustaining costs was a result of a $636 per ounce decrease in total cash costs to $521 per ounce coupled with a $207 per ounce decrease in sustaining costs. The decrease in total cash costs was primarily attributable to the increase in production with costs also benefitting from the depreciation of the Australian dollar relative to the U.S. dollar. The decrease in costs was achieved despite by-product revenues decreasing by $4 million, or $505 per ounce, relative to the prior-year quarter primarily as a result of the decrease in the realized copper price.

For the six-month period ended June 30, 2016, gold production at the Peak Mines increased by 48% to 50,881 ounces relative to the prior-year period. The increase in gold production in the first half of 2016 was driven by an increase in gold grade and recovery for reasons consistent with those noted above for the second quarter.

First half copper production of 6.6 million pounds was slightly below that of the same period of the prior year as an 8% decrease in throughput was only partially offset by 2% increase in copper recovery while copper grade remained consistent.

All-in sustaining costs at the Peak Mines in the first half of 2016 decreased by $510 per ounce to $827 per ounce. The decrease in all-in sustaining costs was attributable to the combination of a $354 per ounce decrease in total cash costs and a $3 million, or $156 per ounce, decrease in sustaining costs. The decrease in total cash costs was driven by the increase in production as well as the depreciation of the Australian dollar relative to the U.S. dollar, which more than offset the impact of by-product revenues decreasing by $5 million, or $251 per ounce, relative the first half of 2015 primarily as a result of the decrease in the realized copper price.

Cerro San Pedro

Cerro San Pedro's second quarter gold production decreased to 17,287 ounces as planned. As the mine was in its final months of active mining, the ore tonnes mined and placed on the leach pad decreased significantly when compared to the prior-year quarter. Cerro San Pedro finished active mining in late June and has now transitioned to residual leaching.

Cerro San Pedro's second quarter silver production was 0.2 million ounces.

Cerro San Pedro's second quarter all-in sustaining costs of $941 per ounce increased slightly relative to the prior-year quarter, driven by a $19 per ounce increase in total cash costs to $898 per ounce. The increase in total cash costs was attributable to the lower gold production.

For the six-month period ended June 30, 2016, consistent with the company's expectations, gold production at Cerro San Pedro decreased to 36,063 ounces as the operation was in the final stages of active mining.

First half silver production of 0.5 million ounces remained in line with the same period of the prior year.

All-in sustaining costs at Cerro San Pedro in the first half of 2016 decreased by $8 per ounce to $947 per ounce. The decrease in all-in sustaining costs was attributable to a decrease in total cash costs resulting from a significant decrease in total tonnes moved in the first half of 2016 relative to the same period of the prior year.

"Our four operations had a very solid second quarter and first half of the year," stated David Schummer, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer. "I am very proud of our operating teams. It is as a result of their efforts that we were able to reduce our cost guidance for the year."

FINANCIAL RESULTS

Three months ended June 30 Six months ended June 30 (in millions of U.S. dollars, except per share amounts) 2016 2015 2016 2015 Revenues $180.3 $167.7 $334.8 $336.6 Operating margin(6) 95.6 69.5 168.2 138.8 Adjusted net earnings/(loss)(4) 13.7 (1.3) 13.4 (6.4) Adjusted net earnings/(loss) per share(4) 0.03 - 0.03 (0.01) Net earnings/(loss) (8.8) 9.4 18.0 (34.4) Net earnings/(loss) per share (0.02) 0.02 0.04 (0.07) Cash generated from operations before changes in non-cash operating working capital(3) 82.4 62.7 144.5 130.1 Cash generated from operations 79.2 56.9 140.7 126.7

Second quarter revenues of $180 million increased by $13 million, or 8%, relative to 2015 as higher gold and copper sales volumes and a higher realized gold price more than offset a decrease in the realized copper price. Relative to the second quarter of 2015, the average realized price increased by $76 per ounce of gold, or 6%, and $1.16 per ounce of silver, or 7%, while the average realized price of copper decreased by $0.58 per pound, or 21%.

The company's second quarter operating margin(6) increased by $26 million, or 38%, relative to 2015 due the above-noted increase in revenues coupled with a $14 million decrease in the company's quarterly operating expenses. The decrease in operating expenses was attributable to the combined benefit of the depreciation of the Canadian and Australian dollars relative to the U.S. dollar, the planned slowdown of mining activity at Cerro San Pedro and the company's ongoing business improvement initiatives.

New Gold had adjusted net earnings of $14 million, or $0.03 per share, in the second quarter of 2016 relative to an adjusted net loss of $1 million, or $nil per share, in the prior-year quarter. The increase relative to the prior-year quarter was primarily attributable to the increase in operating margin noted above and an $8 million decrease in finance costs, which were only partially offset by an $11 million increase in depreciation and depletion expense and a cumulative $2 million increase in share-based payment and exploration and business development expenses. The decrease in finance costs was driven by a greater portion of the company's interest expense being capitalized against Rainy River.

The company reported a net loss of $9 million, or $0.02 per share, in the second quarter relative to net earnings of $9 million, or $0.02 per share, in the prior-year quarter. The change was primarily due to non-cash foreign exchange movements where the second quarter included a $5 million pre-tax foreign exchange loss while the prior-year quarter included a $4 million pre-tax foreign exchange gain. The second quarter of 2016 also included non-cash pre-tax losses of $10 million on the revaluation of the gold stream obligation and $8 million on the revaluation of the company's gold price options contracts, both of which did not have an impact on the prior-year quarterly earnings.

New Gold's second quarter cash generated from operations before changes in non-cash operating working capital increased by $20 million, or 31%, to $82 million. The increase relative to the second quarter of 2015 was primarily attributable to the company's strong operating performance and the higher realized gold price more than offsetting the decrease in the realized copper price. The company's cash generated from operations in the second quarter increased by $22 million, or 39%, to $79 million.

For the six-month period ended June 30, 2016, revenues of $335 million remained in line with the first half of 2015 as higher gold and copper sales volumes and a higher realized gold price offset a decrease in the realized copper price.

Driven by a $31 million decrease in operating expenses, New Gold's first half operating margin increased by 21% to $168 million.

New Gold had adjusted net earnings of $13 million, or $0.03 per share, in the first half of 2016 relative to an adjusted net loss of $6 million, or $0.01 per share, in the prior-year period. The increase in earnings was attributable to the increase in operating margin and a $14 million decrease in finance costs, which were only partially offset by a $14 million increase in depreciation and depletion expense and a $4 million cumulative increase in share-based payment and exploration and business development expenses.

The company reported net earnings of $18 million, or $0.04 per share, in the first half relative to a net loss of $34 million, or $0.07 per share, in the first six months of 2015. The change was primarily due to non-cash foreign exchange movements where the first half of 2016 included a $29 million pre-tax foreign exchange gain while the prior-year period included a $32 million pre-tax foreign exchange loss. The 2016 first half foreign exchange gain was offset by non-cash pre-tax losses of $26 million on the revaluation of the gold stream obligation and $4 million on the revaluation of the company's gold price options contracts, both of which did not have an impact on the first half of the prior year.

For the six-month period ended June 30, 2016, New Gold's cash generated from operations before changes in non-cash operating working capital increased by $14 million, or 11%, to $145 million. The increase relative to the first half of 2015 was primarily attributable to the decrease in the company's operating expenses. The company's cash generated from operations in the first half of 2016 increased by $14 million, or 11%, to $141 million.

FINANCIAL UPDATE

New Gold's cash and cash equivalents as at June 30, 2016 were $220 million. The company also has a $300 million revolving credit facility, of which $121 million has been used as at June 30, 2016 to issue letters of credit, with the balance remaining undrawn. In addition, the remaining $75 million of the stream deposit is to be received from RGLD Gold AG, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Royal Gold Inc., when 60% of the estimated Rainy River project development capital has been spent and other customary conditions have been satisfied, which is expected to be late in the third quarter or early in the fourth quarter of 2016.

During the first quarter, New Gold announced that it had entered into gold price option contracts. New Gold purchased put options with a strike price of $1,200 per ounce covering 270,000 ounces of gold and simultaneously sold call options with a strike price of $1,400 per ounce covering an equivalent 270,000 ounces. The contracts cover 30,000 ounces of gold per month for the nine-month period from April through December 2016. As the gold price traded between $1,200 and $1,400 per ounce during the second quarter, the first three 30,000 per month contracts expired unexercised. As at the beginning of the third quarter, there were 180,000 ounces covered by the contracts for the balance of 2016.

At June 30, 2016, the face value of the company's long-term debt was $800 million (book value  $789 million). The components of the debt include: $300 million of 7.00% face value senior unsecured notes due in April 2020 and $500 million of 6.25% face value senior unsecured notes due in November 2022. The company currently has approximately 513 million shares outstanding.

PROJECTS UPDATE

RAINY RIVER

Development activity at New Gold's Rainy River project, located in northwestern Ontario, continued to advance during the second quarter. The focus of the 2016 development activities is the construction of the processing facilities and supporting infrastructure as well as the initial stripping of the open pit.

RAINY RIVER  2016 SECOND QUARTER PROJECT UPDATES



Overall construction progress is currently over 40% complete

Plant site earthworks substantially complete

Concrete placement over 75% complete

Power line construction substantially complete

Installation of mechanical, piping, electrical and instrumentation underway in grinding building and primary crusher

First ball mill shell segment placed in grinding building

Pre-leach thickener tank 90% complete

Leach tanks over 30% complete

Received approval to being pumping an initial amount of water from Pinewood river to water management facility for storage

Approvals to commence remediation work on water management facilities expected in the coming weeks

Final submission of redesigns to tailings management facility planned for mid-August

225 people currently on full-time operations team with over 70% from local communities, including over 30% from Indigenous communities

Material moved for mine development on target

No Lost Time Incidents since New Gold acquired the project in 2013

Construction of the process facilities and the pre-production mining activities are advancing well. During the second quarter, the installation of the mechanical, piping, electrical and instrumentation equipment started both in the grinding building and the primary crusher and the first ball mill shell was installed. The mine operations team moved approximately 5.0 million tonnes of waste and overburden during the quarter, bringing the total material moved to date to over 7.0 million tonnes. The team continues to increase the mining rate and is now moving an average of approximately 68,000 tonnes per day.

As previously disclosed, during the course of the construction of the water management facility earlier in 2016, New Gold identified areas where the strength of the foundation is less than was estimated for the original designs. As a result, during the second quarter, the company submitted revised construction designs for regulatory review. Based on recent communications, New Gold anticipates receipt of the requisite permit amendments to begin the remediation work on the water management facility in the coming weeks. Consistent with New Gold's previous disclosure, the company's remediation plan includes the addition of rock toe buttresses at the base of the water management berms. Subsequent to the end of the second quarter, the company received approval to begin pumping an initial amount of water from the Pinewood river to the water management facility for storage.

The company is also finalizing its review of the tailings management facility design, parts of which are similarly impacted by the foundation conditions, and plans to submit its proposed redesigns for regulatory review by mid-August. New Gold's proposed redesign incorporates flatter slope angles and wick drains in some areas. Construction on both the water management and tailings facilities will recommence immediately after receiving the respective approvals.

With construction of the processing facilities and other components of the project on schedule, and the process of amending the water and tailings management facilities advancing as planned, the company continues to target first production at Rainy River in mid-2017. In support of this schedule, New Gold continues to work with Environment and Climate Change Canada towards obtaining a Schedule 2 Amendment, required to deposit mine waste in certain creeks, which is targeted to be received in mid-2017. However, the Schedule 2 Amendment is not required to maintain the planned mid-2017 start-up, as the company has also evaluated the potential to construct a smaller starter dam within the broader tailings management facility. The contemplated smaller facility would have capacity for approximately six months of mine waste and would not require a Schedule 2 Amendment.

Project capital expenditures at Rainy River during the second quarter totalled $107 million, bringing the total project development capital spending through June 30, 2016 to $501 million. Based on the development capital spent to date, and assuming a C$1.30/US$ exchange rate on capital expenditures going forward, the total Rainy River capital cost is expected to be approximately $940 million. The total capital cost estimate includes the previously announced $35 million of additional capital required to adjust the design of the water and tailings management facilities.

Overall, the Rainy River project enhances New Gold's growth pipeline through its manageable capital costs, significant production scale at below current industry average costs and exciting longer-term exploration potential in a great mining jurisdiction. Rainy River is expected to generate significant gold production growth for New Gold at costs below the company's 2016 guidance for all-in sustaining costs. Relative to the company's consolidated 2016 gold production guidance of 360,000 to 400,000 ounces, Rainy River alone is expected to produce an average of 325,000 ounces of gold annually, which will more than offset the decrease in production and cash flow arising from the transition of Cerro San Pedro to residual leaching. The company looks forward to advancing the Rainy River project and providing further updates on its development.

BLACKWATER

The company's Blackwater project, located in south-central British Columbia, is expected to produce an average of 485,000 ounces of gold per year at below industry average costs. The current focus at Blackwater is attaining the approval of the Environmental Assessment ("EA"). The coordinated Federal and Provincial EA technical review is in progress and New Gold is in the process of responding to the comments received from the Federal government, Provincial agencies and local Indigenous communities. The company continues to anticipate approval of the Blackwater Provincial EA by early 2017.

Capital expenditures at Blackwater during the second quarter and first half of 2016 were $3 million and $4 million, respectively.

EL MORRO PROPERTY  4% GOLD STREAM

As part of New Gold's 2015 sale of its 30% interest in the El Morro property to Goldcorp Inc. ("Goldcorp"), the company retained a 4% stream on future gold production from El Morro. The El Morro property forms part of Goldcorp and Teck Resources Limited's NuevaUnion project (formerly Project Corridor). A pre-feasibility study is expected to commence for NuevaUnion in the fourth quarter of 2016 and is expected to be completed in mid-2017. Environmental Impact Assessment baseline studies are expected to commence in the second half of 2016.

As at the end of 2015, 4% of the El Morro mineral reserves represented 357,000 ounces of gold. For a detailed breakdown of mineral reserves by category, as well as key assumptions, parameters and risks, refer to New Gold's Annual Information Form for the year ended December 31, 2015 filed on www.sedar.com.

WEBCAST AND CONFERENCE CALL

A webcast and conference call to discuss these results will be held on Thursday, July 28, 2016 beginning at 9:30 a.m. Eastern time. Participants may participate via webcast by registering on our website at www.newgold.com. You may also listen to the conference call by calling toll free 1-888-231-8191, or 1-647-427-7450 outside of the U.S. and Canada. A recorded playback of the conference call will be available until August 28, 2016 by calling toll free 1-855-859-2056, or 1-416-849-0833 outside of the U.S. and Canada, passcode 45491569. An archived webcast will also be available until October 28, 2016 at www.newgold.com.

ABOUT NEW GOLD INC.

New Gold is an intermediate gold mining company. The company has a portfolio of four producing assets and two significant development projects. The New Afton Mine in Canada, the Mesquite Mine in the United States, the Peak Mines in Australia and the Cerro San Pedro Mine in Mexico, provide the company with its current production base. In addition, New Gold owns 100% of the Rainy River and Blackwater projects, both in Canada, as well as a 4% gold stream on the El Morro project located in Chile. New Gold's objective is to be the leading intermediate gold producer, focused on the environment and social responsibility. For further information on the company, please visit www.newgold.com.

CAUTIONARY NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

Certain information contained in this news release, including any information relating to New Gold's future financial or operating performance are "forward looking". All statements in this news release, other than statements of historical fact, which address events, results, outcomes or developments that New Gold expects to occur are "forward-looking statements". Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts and are generally, but not always, identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "plans", "expects", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "targeted", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates", "projects", "potential", "believes" or variations of such words and phrases or statements that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "should", "might" or "will be taken", "occur" or "be achieved" or the negative connotation of such terms. Forward-looking statements in this news release include, among others, statements with respect to: guidance for production, total cash costs and all-in sustaining costs, and the factors contributing to those expected results, as well as expected capital and other expenditures; planned activities for 2016 and beyond at the Company's projects; the expected production, costs, economics and operating parameters of the Rainy River project; targeting timing for development and other activities related to the Rainy River project; and statements with respect to the payment of the remaining $75 million from Royal Gold.

All forward-looking statements in this news release are based on the opinions and estimates of management as of the date such statements are made and are subject to important risk factors and uncertainties, many of which are beyond New Gold's ability to control or predict. Certain material assumptions regarding such forward-looking statements are discussed in this news release, New Gold's annual and quarterly management's discussion and analysis ("MD&A"), its Annual Information Form and its Technical Reports filed at www.sedar.com. In addition to, and subject to, such assumptions discussed in more detail elsewhere, the forward-looking statements in this news release are also subject to the following assumptions: (1) there being no significant disruptions affecting New Gold's operations; (2) political and legal developments in jurisdictions where New Gold operates, or may in the future operate, being consistent with New Gold's current expectations; (3) the accuracy of New Gold's current mineral reserve and mineral resource estimates; (4) the exchange rate between the Canadian dollar, Australian dollar, Mexican peso and U.S. dollar being approximately consistent with current levels; (5) prices for diesel, natural gas, fuel oil, electricity and other key supplies being approximately consistent with current levels; (6) equipment, labour and materials costs increasing on a basis consistent with New Gold's current expectations; (7) arrangements with Indigenous groups in respect of the Rainy River and Blackwater projects being consistent with New Gold's current expectations; (8) all required permits, licenses and authorizations being obtained from the relevant governments and other relevant stakeholders within the expected timelines; (9) the results of the feasibility study for the Rainy River project being realized; (10) in the case of all-in sustaining cost outlooks at the Rainy River project, the assumed exchange rate being C$1.25/US$; and (11) conditions to the payment of the remaining $75 million from Royal Gold being satisfied later in 2016.

Forward-looking statements are necessarily based on estimates and assumptions that are inherently subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such factors include, without limitation: significant capital requirements and the availability and management of capital resources; additional funding requirements; price volatility in the spot and forward markets for metals and other commodities; fluctuations in the international currency markets and in the rates of exchange of the currencies of Canada, the United States, Australia and Mexico; discrepancies between actual and estimated production, between actual and estimated mineral reserves and mineral resources and between actual and estimated metallurgical recoveries; changes in national and local government legislation in Canada, the United States, Australia and Mexico or any other country in which New Gold currently or may in the future carry on business; taxation; controls, regulations and political or economic developments in the countries in which New Gold does or may carry on business; the speculative nature of mineral exploration and development, including the risks of obtaining and maintaining the validity and enforceability of the necessary licenses and permits and complying with the permitting requirements of each jurisdiction in which New Gold operates, including, but not limited to: in Canada, obtaining the necessary permits for the Rainy River, New Afton C-zone and Blackwater projects; and in Mexico, where Cerro San Pedro has a history of ongoing legal challenges related to our environmental authorization; the lack of certainty with respect to foreign legal systems, which may not be immune from the influence of political pressure, corruption or other factors that are inconsistent with the rule of law; the uncertainties inherent to current and future legal challenges New Gold is or may become a party to; diminishing quantities or grades of reserves and resources; competition; loss of key employees; rising costs of labour, supplies, fuel and equipment; actual results of current exploration or reclamation activities; uncertainties inherent to mining economic studies including the feasibility studies for the Rainy River, New Afton C-zone and Blackwater projects; the uncertainty with respect to prevailing market conditions necessary for a positive development decision at Blackwater; changes in project parameters as plans continue to be refined; accidents; labour disputes; defective title to mineral claims or property or contests over claims to mineral properties; unexpected delays and costs inherent to consulting and accommodating rights of Indigenous groups; risks, uncertainties and unanticipated delays associated with obtaining and maintaining necessary licenses, permits and authorizations and complying with permitting requirements, including those associated with the environmental assessment process for Blackwater. In addition, there are risks and hazards associated with the business of mineral exploration, development and mining, including environmental events and hazards, industrial accidents, unusual or unexpected formations, pressures, cave-ins, flooding and gold bullion losses (and the risk of inadequate insurance or inability to obtain insurance to cover these risks) as well as "Risk Factors" included in New Gold's disclosure documents filed on and available at www.sedar.com. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance, and actual results and future events could materially differ from those anticipated in such statements. All of the forward-looking statements contained in this news release are qualified by these cautionary statements. New Gold expressly disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, events or otherwise, except in accordance with applicable securities laws.

TECHNICAL INFORMATION

The scientific and technical information in this news release has been reviewed and approved by Mark A. Petersen, Vice President, Exploration of New Gold. Mr. Petersen is a SME Registered Member, AIPG Certified Professional Geologist and a "Qualified Person" as defined under National Instrument 43-101.

For additional technical information on New Gold's material properties, including a detailed breakdown of Mineral Reserves and Mineral Resources by category, as well as key assumptions, parameters and risks, refer to New Gold's Annual Information Form for the year ended December 31, 2015 filed on www.sedar.com.

NON-GAAP MEASURES

(1) ALL-IN SUSTAINING COSTS AND SUSTAINING COSTS

"All-in sustaining costs" per ounce is a non-GAAP financial measure. Consistent with guidance announced in 2013 by the World Gold Council, an association of various gold mining companies from around the world of which New Gold is a member, New Gold defines "all-in sustaining costs" per ounce as the sum of total cash costs, capital expenditures that are sustaining in nature, corporate general and administrative costs, capitalized and expensed exploration that is sustaining in nature and environmental reclamation costs, all divided by the ounces of gold sold to arrive at a per ounce figure. New Gold believes this non-GAAP financial measure provides further transparency into costs associated with producing gold and assists analysts, investors and other stakeholders of the company in assessing the company's operating performance, its ability to generate free cash flow from current operations and its overall value. This data is furnished to provide additional information and is a non-GAAP financial measure. All-in sustaining costs presented do not have a standardized meaning under IFRS and may not be comparable to similar measures presented by other mining companies. It should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for measures of performance prepared in accordance with IFRS and is not necessarily indicative of cash flow from operations under IFRS or operating costs presented under IFRS. Further details regarding historical all-in sustaining costs and a reconciliation to the nearest IFRS measures are provided below and in the MD&A accompanying New Gold's financial statements filed from time to time on www.sedar.com.

"Sustaining costs" is a non-GAAP financial measure. New Gold defines sustaining costs as the difference between all-in sustaining costs and total cash costs, being the sum of capital expenditures that are sustaining in nature, corporate general and administrative costs, capitalized and expensed exploration that is sustaining in nature, and environmental reclamation costs. Management uses sustaining costs to understand the aggregate net result of the drivers of all-in sustaining costs other than total cash costs. The line items between cash costs and all in sustaining costs in the tables below break down the components of sustaining costs. Sustaining costs is intended to provide additional information only and does not have any standardized meaning under IFRS and may not be comparable to similar measures presented by other mining companies. It should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for measures of performance prepared in accordance with IFRS.

(2) TOTAL CASH COSTS

"Total cash costs" per ounce is a non-GAAP financial measure which is calculated in accordance with a standard developed by The Gold Institute, a worldwide association of suppliers of gold and gold products that ceased operations in 2002. Adoption of the standard is voluntary and the cost measures presented may not be comparable to other similarly titled measures of other companies. New Gold reports total cash costs on a sales basis. The company believes that certain investors use this information to evaluate the company's performance and ability to generate liquidity through operating cash flow to fund future capital expenditures and working capital needs. This measure, along with sales, is considered to be a key indicator of the company's ability to generate operating earnings and cash flow from its mining operations. Total cash costs include mine site operating costs such as mining, processing and administration costs, royalties, production taxes, and realized gains and losses on fuel contracts, but are exclusive of amortization, reclamation, capital and exploration costs and net of by-product sales. Total cash costs are then divided by ounces of gold sold to arrive at a per ounce figure. Co-product cash costs remove the impact of other metal sales that are produced as a by-product of gold production and apportion the cash costs to each metal produced on a percentage of revenue basis, and subsequently divides the amount by the total ounces of gold or silver or pounds of copper sold, as the case may be, to arrive at per ounce or per pound figures. Unless otherwise indicated, all total cash cost information in this news release is net of by-product sales. This data is furnished to provide additional information and is a non-GAAP financial measure. Total cash costs and co-product cash costs presented do not have a standardized meaning under IFRS and may not be comparable to similar measures presented by other mining companies. It should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for measures of performance prepared in accordance with IFRS and is not necessarily indicative of cash flow from operations under IFRS or operating costs presented under GAAP. Further details regarding historical total cash costs and a reconciliation to the nearest IFRS measures are provided below and in the MD&A accompanying New Gold's financial statements filed from time to time on www.sedar.com.

TOTAL CASH COSTS AND ALL-IN SUSTAINING COSTS RECONCILIATION Three months ended June 30 Six months ended June 30 (in millions of U.S. dollars, unless otherwise noted) 2016 2015 2016 2015 Operating expenses $84.7 $98.2 $166.6 $197.8 Treatment and refining charges on concentrate sales 3.8 8.5 7.3 15.9 Adjustments 0.6 1.0 (0.2) 1.7 Total cash costs before by-product revenue 89.1 107.7 173.7 215.4 By-product copper and silver sales (55.1) (71.7) (109.3) (134.5) Total cash costs net of by-product revenue 34.0 36.0 64.4 80.9 Gold ounces sold 101,820 87,754 187,851 180,152 Total cash costs per gold ounce sold ($/ounce) $334 $410 $343 $449 Total cash costs per gold ounce sold on a co-product basis ($/ounce) $609 $704 $625 $717 Total cash costs net of by-product revenue 34.0 36.0 64.4 80.9 Sustaining capital expenditure 27.1 35.7 49.5 75.0 Sustaining exploration - expensed 1.8 1.2 4.2 1.6 Corporate G&A including share-based compensation 8.7 7.1 17.4 15.1 Reclamation expenses 1.3 0.9 2.4 2.0 Total all-in sustaining costs 72.9 80.9 137.9 174.6 All-in sustaining costs per gold ounce sold ($/ounce) $717 $922 $736 $969 All-in sustaining costs per gold ounce sold on a co-product basis ($/ounce) $871 $1,007 $885 $1,038

(3) CASH GENERATED FROM OPERATIONS BEFORE CHANGES IN WORKING CAPITAL

"Cash generated from operations before changes in working capital" is a non-GAAP financial measures with no standard meaning under IFRS, which exclude changes in non-cash operating working capital. Management uses this measure to evaluate the Company's ability to generate cash from its operations before temporary working capital changes.

CASH GENERATED FROM OPERATIONS BEFORE CHANGES IN WORKING CAPITAL RECONCILIATION Three months ended June 30 Six months ended June 30 (in millions of U.S. dollars) 2016 2015 2016 2015 Cash generated from operations $79.2 $56.9 $140.7 $126.7 Add back (deduct): Change in non-cash operating working capital 3.2 5.8 3.8 3.4 Cash generated from operations before changes in non-cash working capital 82.4 62.7 144.5 130.1

(4) ADJUSTED NET (LOSS)/EARNINGS

"Adjusted net (loss)/earnings" and "adjusted net (loss)/earnings per share" are non-GAAP financial measures. Net (loss)/earnings have been adjusted and tax affected for the group of costs in "Other gains and losses" on the condensed consolidated income statement. The adjusted entries are also impacted for tax to the extent that the underlying entries are impacted for tax in the unadjusted net (loss)/earnings from continuing operations. The company uses this measure for its own internal purposes. Management's internal budgets and forecasts and public guidance do not reflect fair value changes on senior notes and non-hedged derivatives, foreign currency translation and fair value through profit or loss and financial asset gains/losses.

Consequently, the presentation of adjusted net earnings and adjusted net earnings per share enables investors and analysts to better understand the underlying operating performance of our core mining business through the eyes of management. Management periodically evaluates the components of adjusted net earnings and adjusted net earnings per share based on an internal assessment of performance measures that are useful for evaluating the operating performance of our business and a review of the non-GAAP measures used by mining industry analysts and other mining companies. Adjusted net (loss)/earnings and adjusted net (loss)/earnings per share are intended to provide additional information only and do not have any standardized meaning under IFRS and may not be comparable to similar measures presented by other companies. They should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for measures of performance prepared in accordance with IFRS. The measures are not necessarily indicative of operating profit or cash flows from operations as determined under IFRS.

ADJUSTED NET EARNINGS RECONCILIATION Three months ended June 30 Six months ended June 30 (in millions of U.S. dollars, except per share amounts) 2016 2015 2016 2015 Net (loss) earnings before taxes ($3.0) $10.3 $18.2 ($26.7) Other losses (gains) 22.7 (10.5) 1.0 20.9 Inventory write-down (0.7) (0.6) - (0.8) Adjusted net earnings (loss) before tax 19.0 (0.8) 19.2 (6.6) Income tax expense (5.8) (0.9) (0.2) (7.7) Income tax adjustments 0.5 0.4 (5.6) 7.9 Adjusted income tax (expense) recovery (5.3) (0.5) (5.8) 0.2 Adjusted net earnings (loss) 13.7 (1.3) 13.4 (6.4) Adjusted earnings (loss) per share (basic) 0.03 - 0.03 (0.01) Adjusted effective tax rate 28% 68% 30% (2%)

(5) AVERAGE REALIZED PRICE

"Average realized price per ounce or pound sold" is a non-GAAP financial measure with no standard meaning under IFRS. Management uses this measure to better understand the price realized in each reporting period for gold, silver, and copper sales. Average realized price is intended to provide additional information only and does not have any standardized definition under IFRS; it should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for measures of performance prepared in accordance with IFRS. Other companies may calculate this measure differently and this measure is unlikely to be comparable to similar measures presented by other companies.

(6) OPERATING MARGIN

"Operating margin" is a non-GAAP financial measure with no standard meaning under IFRS, which management uses to evaluate the Company's aggregated and mine-by-mine contribution to net earnings before non-cash depreciation and depletion charges.

OPERATING MARGIN RECONCILIATION Three months ended June 30 Six months ended June 30 (in millions of U.S. dollars) 2016 2015 2016 2015 Revenues $180.3 $167.7 $334.8 $336.6 Less: Operating expenses (84.7) (98.2) (166.6) (197.8) Operating margin 95.6 69.5 168.2 138.8

CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED INCOME STATEMENTS (unaudited) Three months ended June Six months ended June (in millions of U.S. dollars, except per share amounts) 2016 2015 2016 2015 Revenues 180.3 167.7 334.8 336.6 Operating expenses 84.7 98.2 166.6 197.8 Depreciation and depletion 62.3 50.9 119.9 106.0 Earnings from mine operations 33.3 18.6 48.3 32.8 Corporate administration 5.9 5.5 11.6 11.5 Share-based payment expenses 2.8 1.9 5.8 4.0 Exploration and business development 2.0 1.2 4.5 2.3 Earnings from operations 22.6 10.0 26.4 15.0 Finance income 0.2 0.4 0.5 0.6 Finance costs (3.1) (10.6) (7.7) (21.4) Other (losses) gains (22.7) 10.5 (1.0) (20.9) (Loss) earning before taxes (3.0) 10.3 18.2 (26.7) Income tax expense (5.8) (0.9) (0.2) (7.7) Net (loss) earnings (8.8) 9.4 18.0 (34.4) (Loss) earnings per share Basic (0.02) 0.02 0.04 (0.07) Diluted (0.02) 0.02 0.04 (0.07) Weighted average number of shares outstanding (in millions) Basic 511.2 509.1 510.4 508.8 Diluted 511.2 509.8 511.6 508.8

CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF FINANCIAL POSITION (unaudited) As at June 30 As at December 31 (in millions of U.S. dollars) 2016 2015 ASSETS Current assets Cash and cash equivalents 219.5 335.5 Trade and other receivables 106.0 109.0 Inventories 141.0 145.9 Current income tax receivable 13.7 19.2 Prepaid expenses and other 5.4 5.0 Total current assets 485.6 614.6 Non-current inventories 140.3 115.4 Mining interests 2,966.5 2,803.2 Deferred tax assets 177.7 138.9 Other 3.6 3.4 Total assets 3,773.7 3,675.5 LIABILITIES AND EQUITY Current liabilities Trade and other payables 160.0 141.1 Current income tax payable 3.6 6.2 Total current liabilities 163.6 147.3 Reclamation and closure cost obligations 72.4 67.5 Gold stream obligation 13.6 9.2 Provisions 207.3 147.6 Derivative liabilities 2.1 2.1 Long-term debt 788.5 787.6 Deferred tax liabilities 410.0 414.4 Other 0.2 0.2 Total liabilities 1,657.7 1,575.9 Equity Common shares 2,854.2 2,841.0 Contributed surplus 100.8 102.3 Other reserves (10.7) 2.6 Deficit (828.3) (846.3) Total equity 2,116.0 2,099.6 Total liabilities and equity 3,773.7 3,675.5

CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF CASH FLOW (unaudited) Three months ended June Six months ended June (in millions of U.S. dollars) 2016 2015 2016 2015 OPERATING ACTIVITIES Net (loss) earnings (8.8) 9.4 18.0 (34.4) Adjustments for: Foreign exchange losses (gains) 4.9 (4.2) (29.0) 31.8 Reclamation and closure costs paid - (0.1) (0.9) (0.2) Depreciation and depletion 62.6 50.7 120.2 105.8 Other non-cash adjustments 6.0 (0.6) 4.8 (5.2) Income tax expense 5.8 0.9 0.2 7.7 Finance income (0.2) (0.4) (0.5) (0.6) Finance costs 3.1 10.6 7.7 21.4 Unrealized loss on gold stream liability 10.4 - 25.5 - 83.8 66.3 146.0 126.3 Change in non-cash operating working capital (3.2) (5.8) (3.8) (3.4) Income taxes (paid) refunded (1.4) (3.6) (1.5) 3.8 Cash generated from operations 79.2 56.9 140.7 126.7 INVESTING ACTIVITIES Mining interests (138.2) (73.9) (245.6) (143.1) Government grant received - - - 0.8 Proceeds from the sale of assets - - (2.1) - Gold price option contract investment costs 0.6 0.6 1.1 0.6 Interest received 0.2 0.4 0.5 - Cash used by investing activities (137.4) (72.9) (246.1) (141.7) FINANCING ACTIVITY Proceeds received from exercise of options and warrants 6.4 - 7.2 0.1 Financing initiation costs - - (0.3) - Interest paid (26.7) (26.1) (27.5) (26.1) Cash used by financing activities (20.3) (26.1) (20.6) (26.0) Effect of exchange rate changes on cash and cash equivalents (0.3) 3.1 10.0 (2.7) Change in cash and cash equivalents (78.8) (39.0) (116.0) (43.7) Cash and cash equivalents, beginning of period 298.3 365.8 335.5 370.5 Cash and cash equivalents, end of period 219.5 326.8 219.5 326.8 Cash and cash equivalents are comprised of: Cash 154.2 232.8 154.2 232.8 Short-term money market instruments 65.3 94.0 65.3 94.0 219.5 326.8 219.5 326.8

SOURCE New Gold Inc.
VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwired - July 27, 2016) - Columbus Gold Corp. (TSX:CGT)(OTCQX:CBGDF) ("Columbus") is pleased to announce that two Exclusive Exploration Permits ("PER") on strike of the east and west extensions of Columbus Gold's Montagne d'Or gold deposit, were granted on July 6th, 2016, by decree of the French Minister of Economy, and published in the Journal officiel de la Republique francaise on July 13th (JORF n0162). The two permits cover a total surface area of 54.8 km2.

The Montagne d'Or deposit hosts pit-confined Indicated mineral resources* of 83.2 million tonnes grading 1.45 g/t gold (3.9 million ounces) and Inferred mineral resources* of 22.4 million tonnes grading 1.55 g/t gold (1.1 million ounces). The resources have been drilled to within 250 meters of the western boundary of the concession hosting the deposit and to within 600 meters of the eastern boundary. The newly granted exploration permits provide Columbus with undrilled potential where gold-soil anomalies extend for up to 2.0 km to the west and 2.7 km to the east of the deposit. Only two holes have ever been drilled within the areas covered by the new exploration permits; one of those holes, drilled 750 meters east of the deposit, intercepted 31.94 g/t gold over 3.5 meters. The following map illustrates the expansion potential:

Furthermore, magnetic, electromagnetic and radiometric airborne geophysical survey data has traced the prospective geology (volcano-sedimentary sequence) hosting the Montagne d'Or gold deposit for up to 5 km to the west.

A first phase exploration program on the new permits will be implemented in September. The program will include prospecting and in-fill soil sampling west of the deposit. The sampling will be undertaken with an auger to collect saprolite material (weathered and oxide bedrock). Induced polarization ("IP") geophysical surveying is being considered for the second phase to enhance drilling targets. IP surveying was applied with success in the 1990's to trace the gold-sulfide mineralized horizons at Montagne d'Or.

Nord Gold SE (LSE: NORD LI) is funding a feasibility study as part of a minimum US$30 million exploration and development program pursuant to which they can earn a 50.01% (for a total of 55.01%) interest, in Montagne d'Or.

Rock Lefrancois, Chief Operating Officer for Columbus and Qualified Person under National Instrument 43-101, has reviewed this news release and is responsible for the technical information reported herein.

* NI 43-101 gold resource of 3.9 million ounces Indicated and 1.1 million ounces Inferred (83.2 million tonnes @ 1.45 g/t gold, and 22.4 million tonnes @ 1.55 g/t gold respectively, at a 0.4 g/t gold cut-off grade); (see news release dated April 21, 2015). Mineral resources that are not mineral reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD,

Robert F. Giustra, Chairman & CEO

This release contains forward-looking information and statements, as defined by law including without limitation Canadian securities laws and the "safe harbor" provisions of the US Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 ("forward-looking statements"), respecting Columbus: the expected exploration potential provided by the new exploration permits; the extent of and anticipated timeline to commence a first phase exploration program under the new permits; the estimation of mineral resources; the realization of mineral resource estimates; the realization of the expected economics of the Montagne d'Or deposit; and general exploration plans. Forward-looking statements involve risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results to be materially different from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements, including: the actual results of current and future exploration activities; changes in project parameters and/or economic assessments as plans continue to be refined; future prices of metals; possible variations of mineral grade or rates of recovery; ability to acquire necessary permits and other authorizations; environmental compliance; cost increases; availability of qualified workers and drill equipment; competition for mining properties; risks associated with exploration projects including, without limitation, the accuracy of interpretations; mineral reserve and resource estimates (including the risk of assumption and methodology errors and ability to complete a new resource estimate by the proposed target date or at all); the ability to meet proposed schedules for the completion of metallurgical tests; the ability to complete the feasibility study by the stated deadline or at all; dependence on third parties for services; non-performance by contractual counterparties; title risks; risks associated with Nord Gold N.V. electing not to exercise its option and make the related option payments; and general business and economic conditions. Forward-looking statements are based on a number of assumptions that may prove to be incorrect, including without limitation assumptions about the following: that the assumptions contained in Columbus' Preliminary Economic Assessment are accurate and complete; that the mineral resource update is positive; that the results of the Feasibility Study will be positive; general business and economic conditions; the timing and receipt of required approvals and permits; the availability of financing; power prices; the ability to procure equipment and supplies including, without limitation, drill rigs; and ongoing relations with employees, partners, optionees and joint venturers. The foregoing list is not exhaustive and Columbus undertakes no obligation to update any of the foregoing except as required by law.
TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - July 27, 2016) - Lundin Mining Corporation ("Lundin Mining" or the "Company") (TSX:LUN)(OMX:LUMI) today reported cash flows of $153.2 million generated from operations in the quarter, not including the Company's attributable cash flows from Tenke Fungurume. A net loss attributable to Lundin shareholders of $791.2 million ($1.10 per share) for the quarter ended June 30, 2016, included an asset impairment on the Company's interest in Tenke of $772.1 million.

Mr. Paul Conibear, President and CEO commented, "Our operations continued to perform very well during the quarter, positioning us to meet or improve upon full year guidance on metal production, capital spending, and cash costs. Positive cash flow generated at all operations has enabled the Company to further strengthen our financial position, with our net debt improving by almost $100 million during the quarter.

"We are pleased to announce that we have received the first of two key approvals necessary to commence construction of the main Los Diques dam at Candelaria, and that the second is expected shortly.

"As we progress through 2016 and beyond, we intend to maintain focus on consistent high performance at our operations, cost efficiencies, capital discipline, and brownfields growth available at each of our operations. During the quarter, we reached a milestone with the announcement of a maiden resource for the Eagle East high grade nickel/copper deposit and access ramp development has commenced based on favourable study results."

Summary financial results for the quarter and year-to-date:

Three months ended

June 30, Six months ended

June 30, US$ Millions (except per share amounts) 2016 2015 2016 2015 Sales 342.3 501.3 711.9 1,032.8 Operating earnings(1) 134.5 243.0 286.3 517.0 Impairments (772.1 ) - (772.1 ) - Net (loss) / earnings (787.9 ) 53.7 (803.4 ) 137.0 Net (loss) / earnings attributable to Lundin shareholders (791.2 ) 46.4 (813.3 ) 118.1 Basic and diluted (loss) / earnings per share (1.10 ) 0.06 (1.13 ) 0.16 Cash flow from operations 153.2 262.7 196.1 486.6 Ending net debt position(2) 341.9 497.2 341.9 497.2

(1) Operating earnings is a non-GAAP measure defined as sales, less operating costs (excluding depreciation) and general and administrative costs. (2) Net debt is a non-GAAP measure defined as cash and cash equivalents, less long-term debt and finance leases, before deferred financing fees.

Highlights

Operational Performance

For the second quarter of 2016, production and cash costs(1) results were favourable as the Company continues with its production optimization and spending restraint measures, but financial results were negatively impacted by a lower metal price environment, when compared to the prior year. The Company remains on track to meet or exceed full year guidance across all operations.

Candelaria (80% owned): The Candelaria operations produced, on a 100% basis, 36,907 tonnes of copper, approximately 345,000 ounces of silver and 22,000 ounces of gold in concentrate. As expected in this year's mine plan, copper production was 21% lower than the prior year comparable period due to lower head grades and recoveries. Copper cash costs of $1.28/lb for the quarter were marginally higher than the prior year, but better than full year guidance due to cost reduction plans, operational efficiencies, lower electricity and diesel prices, increased productivity, and higher sales volumes.

Early works on the Los Diques tailings project continue under budget and on schedule. To date, approximately $25 million has been spent on the project in 2016 with a further $35 million expected over the remainder of the year. The existing tailings dam freeboard permit has now been granted, which enables an extra year of capacity in the existing facility. We are also pleased to report that Sernageomin, Chile's National Geology and Mining Service, has now approved the construction of the main Los Diques tailings facility. Subsequent approval from Direccion General de Aguas ("DGA"), Chile's General Water Directorate, is expected shortly now that the prerequisite Sernageomin approval has been received.

Eagle (100% owned): Eagle produced 6,812 tonnes of nickel and 5,639 tonnes of copper in the current quarter, higher than the prior year comparable period for both metals due to higher head grades and recoveries. Nickel cash costs of $1.75/lb for the quarter were lower than the comparable period in the prior year and guidance due largely to cost control measures, excellent nickel and copper production results, and lower treatment costs.

On June 29, 2016 a maiden Eagle East Inferred Mineral Resource estimate was announced. Given the positive results from a Preliminary Economic Assessment, a Feasibility Study has been initiated and construction of a development ramp has been approved. The Eagle East access ramp has been started, supporting the fast track approach adopted for the project.

Neves-Corvo (100% owned): Neves-Corvo produced 12,146 tonnes of copper and 18,272 tonnes of zinc in the second quarter. Copper production was lower than the prior year comparable period due to lower mill throughput and lower recoveries, while zinc production in the quarter exceeded the prior year comparable period as a result of higher throughput, grades and recoveries. Zinc plant operations exceeded expectations year-to-date with stable, better than expected zinc recoveries. Copper cash costs of $1.49/lb for the quarter were marginally higher than the prior year comparable period, but lower than previous guidance ($1.60/lb).

Zinkgruvan (100% owned): Zinc and lead production in the second quarter of 2016 were 19% and 4% lower, respectively, than the comparable period in 2015, partially as a result of lower throughput due to harder ore milled and lower zinc head grades in the current period. Cash costs for zinc of $0.34/lb for the quarter were better than both the prior year comparable period and previous guidance ($0.45/lb) due primarily to higher by-product credits.

Tenke (24% owned): Tenke operations continue to perform well, generally meeting expectations for the quarter. Lundin's attributable share of second quarter production included 13,300 tonnes of copper cathode and 1,033 tonnes of cobalt in hydroxide. The Company's attributable share of sales included 13,539 tonnes of copper at an average realized price of $2.07/lb and 1,011 tonnes of cobalt at an average realized price of $6.58/lb.

(1) Cash cost/lb of copper, zinc and nickel are non-GAAP measures defined as all cash costs directly attributable to mining operations, less royalties and by-product credits.

Financial Performance

Operating earnings for the quarter ended June 30, 2016 were $134.5 million, a decrease of $108.5 million in comparison to the second quarter of the prior year ($243.0 million). The decrease was primarily due to lower metal prices, net of price adjustments ($72.9 million) and lower sales volumes ($36.5 million). On a year-to-date basis, operating earnings were $286.3 million, a decrease of $230.7 million in comparison to the first six months of 2015 ($517.0 million). The decrease was primarily due to lower metal prices, net of price adjustments ($153.4 million), lower sales volumes ($64.7 million), and the shutdown of the Aguablanca operations ($28.4 million).

Sales for the quarter ended June 30, 2016 were $342.3 million, a decrease of $159.0 million in comparison to the second quarter of the prior year ($501.3 million). The decrease was mainly due to lower metal prices, net of price adjustments, lower sales volumes ($70.7 million), and the shutdown of the Aguablanca operations ($24.7 million). On a year-to-date basis, sales were $711.9 million, a decrease of $320.9 million in comparison to the first six months of 2015 ($1,032.8 million). The decrease was mainly due to lower metal prices, net of price adjustments, lower sales volumes ($123.5 million), and the shutdown of the Aguablanca operations ($53.2 million).

Operating costs (excluding depreciation) for the quarter ended June 30, 2016 were $202.2 million, a decrease of $49.4 million in comparison to the second quarter of the prior year ($251.6 million). The decrease was largely due to lower sales volumes ($34.2 million) and the shutdown of the Aguablanca operations ($13.3 million). On a year-to-date basis, operating costs (excluding depreciation) were $412.5 million, a decrease of $89.7 million in comparison to the first six months of 2015 ($502.2 million). The decrease was largely due to lower sales volumes ($58.8 million) and the shutdown of the Aguablanca operations ($24.8 million).

Depreciation, depletion and amortization expense decreased for the three and six months ended June 30, 2016 when measured against the comparable period in 2015. The decrease was attributable to lower production in the current year at Candelaria and an increase in the Candelaria Mineral Resources & Reserves Estimate (Q2: $31.4 million, YTD: $55.2 million), and the shutdown of the Aguablanca operations (Q2: $6.6 million, YTD: $11.3 million).

Cash flow from operations for the quarter ended June 30, 2016 was $153.2 million, a decrease of $109.5 million in comparison to the second quarter of the prior year ($262.7 million). The decrease was primarily due to lower operating earnings in the current quarter. On a year-to-date basis, cash flow from operations was $196.1 million, a decrease of $290.5 million in comparison to the first six months of 2015 ($486.6 million). The decrease was attributable to lower operating earnings in the current year ($230.7 million) as well as changes in non-cash working capital and long-term inventory ($73.9 million).

During the second quarter, Freeport announced that it intends to sell its interest in Tenke. This was identified as an impairment indicator. The Company has re-estimated the recoverable amount of its interest in Tenke and as a result an impairment loss of $772.1 million was recorded in the period.

Net loss for the quarter ended June 30, 2016 was $787.9 million compared to net earnings of $53.7 million in the second quarter of the prior year, primarily as a result of the impairment loss of $772.1 million, as discussed above. Before the impact of the impairment, net loss for the current quarter was $15.8 million, which was impacted by:

lower operating earnings ($108.5 million); and

lower income from investment in Tenke ($9.8 million); partially offset by

lower depreciation, depletion and amortization expense ($42.3 million); and

comparative foreign exchange gains ($9.5 million).

On a year-to-date basis, net loss was $803.4 million, compared to the first six months of 2015 (net earnings of $137.0 million). Net loss in the current year was impacted by:

impairment of investment in Tenke ($772.1 million);

lower operating earnings ($230.7 million);

lower income from investment in Tenke ($24.0 million); and

comparative foreign exchange losses ($12.7 million); partially offset by

lower depreciation, depletion and amortization expense ($79.8 million); and

lower net tax expense ($22.8 million).

Corporate Highlights

 On May 9, 2016, Freeport-McMoRan Inc. ("Freeport") announced that it had entered into an agreement to sell its indirect interest in TF Holdings Limited ("TF Holdings") to China Molybdenum Co., Ltd ("CMOC"), which is subject to, among other things, Lundin's right of first offer.

TF Holdings is the holding company that indirectly owns an 80 percent interest in Tenke Fungurume Mining S.A. Lundin has an indirect 30 percent interest in TF Holdings and an effective 24 percent interest in Tenke.

On July 19, 2016, the Company announced that the period in which the Company has the right to acquire Freeport's indirect interest in TF Holdings had been extended to September 15, 2016 at 11:59 pm.

The Company, in consultation with its legal and financial advisors, continues to evaluate all its options in connection with its ownership interest in TF Holdings.

 On June 29, 2016, the Company announced a maiden Eagle East Inferred Mineral Resource estimate. Eagle East is located 2 km east and 650 metres below the Eagle mine deposit. The Company also announced the results of a Preliminary Economic Assessment that indicate that these Inferred Mineral Resources can potentially be mined with no significant changes to the current mine, ore transport, mill and tailings disposal infrastructure.

Similar mining methods to Eagle are proposed and the potential mine production will significantly increase nickel and copper production from 2020 and extend the mine life to at least the end of 2023.

Given the robust results of the Preliminary Economic Assessment, the Company has initiated a Feasibility Study on Eagle East, which is due for completion prior to year-end. In parallel, the Company has also commenced ramp development to Eagle East in order to fast track access to the deposit.

Refer to the new release entitled "Lundin Mining Announces Eagle East Mineral Resources, PEA Results and Project Commencement" on the Company's website (www.lundinmining.com).

Financial Position and Financing

Net debt position at June 30, 2016 was $341.9 million compared to $441.3 million at December 31, 2015 and $438.1 million at March 31, 2016.

The $96.2 million decrease in net debt during the quarter was largely attributable to operating cash flows of $153.2 million and receipt of distributions from Tenke of $14.6 million, partially offset by investments in mineral properties, plant and equipment of $38.8 million and net interest payments of $38.3 million. For the six months ended June 30, 2016, net debt decreased by $99.4 million due primarily to operating cash flows of $196.1 million and receipt of distributions from Tenke and Freeport Cobalt of $15.4 million and $6.3 million, respectively, partially offset by investments in mineral properties, plant and equipment of $86.3 million and net interest payments of $38.9 million.

The Company has a revolving credit facility available for borrowing up to $350 million. As at June 30, 2016, the Company had no amount drawn on the credit facility, only a letter of credit in the amount of $19.1 million (SEK 162 million).

Net debt at July 27, 2016 is approximately $385 million.

Outlook

Market Conditions

Production optimization, cost saving and cost deferral programs remain in place, pending improvements in market conditions. As metal prices improve, spending restraint programs will be reassessed.

2016 Production and Cost Guidance

Copper production guidance has increased to reflect higher than expected throughput at our Candelaria operations.

Cash cost guidance has been lowered at our Candelaria, Neves-Corvo and Zinkgruvan operations, reflecting the expected full year impact of cost savings initiatives and overall operating performance improvements.

Guidance on Tenke's cash costs reflect the most recent guidance from Freeport.

2016 Guidance Previous Guidance(a) Revised Guidance (contained tonnes) Tonnes C1

Cost Tonnes C1

Cost(b) Copper Candelaria (80%) 124,000 - 128,000 $1.45/lb 128,000 - 132,000 $1.35/lb Eagle 20,000 - 23,000 20,000 - 23,000 Neves-Corvo 50,000 - 55,000 $1.60/lb 50,000 - 55,000 $1.55/lb Zinkgruvan 2,500 - 3,000 2,500 - 3,000 Tenke (24%) 52,800 $1.32/lb 52,800 $1.28/lb Total attributable 249,300 - 261,800 253,300 - 265,800 Nickel Eagle 21,000 - 24,000 $2.00/lb 21,000 - 24,000 $2.00/lb Zinc Neves-Corvo 65,000 - 70,000 65,000 - 70,000 Zinkgruvan 80,000 - 85,000 $0.45/lb 80,000 - 85,000 $0.40/lb Total 145,000 - 155,000 145,000 - 155,000

Guidance as outlined in our Management's Discussion and Analysis for the three months ended March 31, 2016. Cash costs remain dependent upon exchange rates (forecast at EUR/USD:1.15, USD/SEK:8.30, USD/CLP:690) and metal prices (forecast at Cu: $2.10/lb, Ni: $4.00/lb, Zn: $0.80/lb, Pb: $0.75/lb, Au: $1,150/oz, Ag: $15.00/oz, Co: $11.00/lb). Prior guidance assumed exchange rates of EUR/USD:1.10 and USD/SEK:8.50 and metal prices of Zn: $0.75/lb and Co: $10.00/lb.

2016 Capital Expenditure

Capital expenditures (excluding Tenke) for 2016 are expected to be $185 million. This is a $35 million reduction from the previous guidance and is largely the result of further project deferrals and cost savings measures at Candelaria and Neves-Corvo.

The Company estimates its share of sustaining capital funding for 2016 at Tenke to be approximately $25 million, unchanged from previous guidance. All of Tenke's capital expenditures and exploration programs are expected to be self-funded by cash flow from operations. After capital expenditures, the Company expects to receive cash distributions from Tenke and Freeport Cobalt in 2016 of approximately $50 million to $60 million, in-line with previous guidance.

Revised Capital Expenditure Guidance ($ millions) Prior Guidance(a) Revisions Revised Guidance by Mine Candelaria Los Diques Tailings 70 (10 ) 60 Capitalized Stripping 35 (5 ) 30 Other Sustaining 15 (5 ) 10 120 (20 ) 100 Eagle 10 - 10 Neves-Corvo 55 (15 ) 40 Zinkgruvan 35 - 35 220 (35 ) 185

(a) - Guidance as outlined in our Management's Discussion and Analysis for the year ended December 31, 2015.

Exploration Investment

The Company's exploration expenditures (not including Tenke) are expected to approximate $50 million in 2016, a $10 million increase over previous guidance as additional efforts will be undertaken on near-mine targets at Candelaria and Eagle.

On Behalf of the Board,

Paul Conibear, President and CEO

The information in this release is subject to the disclosure requirements of Lundin Mining under the EU Market Abuse Regulation. This information was publically communicated on July 27, 2016 at 5:45 p.m. Eastern Time.

Cautionary Statement in Forward-Looking Information and Non-GAAP performance measures

Certain of the statements made and information contained herein is "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. This report includes, but is not limited to, forward looking statements with respect to the Company's estimated annual metal production, cash costs, exploration expenditures and capital expenditures, as noted in the Outlook section and elsewhere in this document. These estimates and other forward-looking statements are based on a number of assumptions and are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties which could cause actual events or results to differ from those reflected in the forward-looking statements, including, without limitation, risks and uncertainties relating to estimated operating and cash costs, foreign currency fluctuations; risks inherent in mining including environmental hazards, industrial accidents, unusual or unexpected geological formations, ground control problems and flooding; including risks associated with the estimation of mineral resources and reserves and the geology, grade and continuity of mineral deposits; the possibility that future exploration, development or mining results will not be consistent with the Company's expectations; the potential for and effects of labour disputes or other unanticipated difficulties with or shortages of labour or interruptions in production; actual ore mined varying from estimates of grade, tonnage, dilution and metallurgical and other characteristics; the inherent uncertainty of production and cost estimates and the potential for unexpected costs and expenses, and commodity price fluctuations; uncertain political and economic environments; changes in laws or policies, foreign taxation, delays or the inability to obtain necessary governmental permits; and other risks and uncertainties, including those described under Risk Factors Relating to the Company's Business in the Company's Annual Information Form. In addition, forward-looking information is based on various assumptions including, without limitation, the expectations and beliefs of management, the assumed price of copper, nickel, zinc and other metals; that the Company can access financing, appropriate equipment and sufficient labour and that the political environment where the Company operates will continue to support the development and operation of mining projects. Should one or more of these risks and uncertainties materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those described in forward-looking statements. Accordingly, readers are advised not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements.

Certain financial measures contained herein, such as operating earnings, net debt and cash costs, have no meaning within generally accepted accounting principles under IFRS and therefore amounts presented may not be comparable to similar data presented by other mining companies. This data is intended to provide additional information and should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for measures or performance prepared in accordance with IFRS.
TORONTO, July 27, 2016 /CNW/ - Orvana Minerals Corp. (TSX:ORV) (the "Company" or "Orvana") is pleased to announce that it has entered into a $12.5 million copper concentrates and gold dore prepayment agreement (the "Facility") with Samsung C&T U.K. Ltd. ("Samsung C&T"). All dollar figures are in US unless otherwise expressed.

Jeff Hillis, Interim Chief Executive Officer, said, "We are very pleased to announce this commercial and financing partnership with Samsung, a reputable and well-recognized global corporation. We are very proud that, after detailed due diligence by Samsung, Orvana's gold and copper production will form part of its future plans. The successful completion of this transaction, at a competitive cost of capital, represents a significant achievement for Orvana. The financing proceeds will allow us to expedite planned development and infrastructure investments at our El Valle Mine in Spain, as we continue on the path to increase metal production and lower unitary costs at the operation. Along with our recent announcement on May 30, 2016 of the US$7.9 million financing for the recommissioning of the CIL circuit at our Don Mario Mine in Bolivia, we believe that Orvana is now well-positioned for the future and will be able to capitalize on strengthening precious metals markets."

Under the terms of the Facility, Orvana will sell gold dore from its El Valle Mine in Spain and copper concentrate from its Don Mario Mine in Bolivia to Samsung C&T, on an exclusive basis for a period of thirty months (the "Facility Term"). In exchange, Orvana will receive $12.5 million in prepayment financing from Samsung C&T in two instalments. The first instalment of $8.0 million will be drawn upon closing and will be repaid beginning twelve months after drawdown in eighteen equal monthly payments. The second instalment of $4.5 million will be available for drawdown six to twelve months after closing and will be repaid beginning nine months after drawdown in nine equal monthly payments. The Facility will bear interest at LIBOR plus 4.5%. Interest payments and principal repayments will be made against Orvana's future shipments of copper concentrates and gold dore during the Facility Term. Samsung C&T has agreed to pay for copper concentrates and gold dore on at a price based on the prevailing metal prices for the gold, silver and copper content around time of shipment, less customary treatment, refining and shipping charges, and pursuant to the terms of the Facility.

The Company's obligations to Samsung C&T under the Facility are secured by the pledge to Samsung C&T of all of Orvana's shares of its indirectly wholly owned subsidiary OroValle Minerals S.L.U. which owns El Valle Mine in Spain.

Drawdown of the Facility is subject to satisfaction of customary closing conditions by Orvana for this type of transaction.

About Orvana

Orvana is a multi-mine gold and copper producer. Orvana's operating assets consist of the producing gold-copper-silver El Valle mine in northern Spain and the producing gold-copper-silver Don Mario mine in Bolivia. Additional information is available at Orvana's website (www.orvana.com).

Cautionary Statements - Forward-Looking Information

Certain statements in this information constitute forward-looking statements or forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities laws ("forward-looking statements"). Any statements that express or involve discussions with respect to predictions, expectations, beliefs, plans, projections, objectives, assumptions, potentials, future events or performance (often, but not always, using words or phrases such as "believes", "expects", "plans", "estimates" or "intends" or stating that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might", "will" or "are projected to" be taken or achieved) are not statements of historical fact, but are forward-looking statements.

The forward-looking statements herein relate to, among other things, Orvana's ability to achieve improvement in free cash flow; the potential to extend the mine life of El Valle and Don Mario beyond their current life-of-mine estimates; Orvana's ability to optimize its assets to deliver shareholder value; the Company's ability to optimize productivity at Don Mario and El Valle; estimates of future production, operating costs and capital expenditures; mineral resource and reserve estimates; statements and information regarding future feasibility studies and their results; future transactions; future metal prices; the ability to achieve additional growth and geographic diversification; future financial performance, including the ability to increase cash flow and profits; future financing requirements; and mine development plans.

Forward-looking statements are necessarily based upon a number of estimates and assumptions that, while considered reasonable by the Company as of the date of such statements, are inherently subject to significant business, economic and competitive uncertainties and contingencies. The estimates and assumptions of the Company contained or incorporated by reference in this information, which may prove to be incorrect, include, but are not limited to, the various assumptions set forth herein and in Orvana's most recently filed Management's Discussion & Analysis and Annual Information Form in respect of the Company's most recently completed fiscal year (the "Company Disclosures") or as otherwise expressly incorporated herein by reference as well as: there being no significant disruptions affecting operations, whether due to labour disruptions, supply disruptions, power disruptions, damage to equipment or otherwise; permitting, development, operations, expansion and acquisitions at El Valle and Don Mario being consistent with the Company's current expectations; political developments in any jurisdiction in which the Company operates being consistent with its current expectations; certain price assumptions for gold, copper and silver; prices for key supplies being approximately consistent with current levels; production and cost of sales forecasts meeting expectations; the accuracy of the Company's current mineral reserve and mineral resource estimates; and labour and materials costs increasing on a basis consistent with Orvana's current expectations.

A variety of inherent risks, uncertainties and factors, many of which are beyond the Company's control, affect the operations, performance and results of the Company and its business, and could cause actual events or results to differ materially from estimated or anticipated events or results expressed or implied by forward looking statements. Some of these risks, uncertainties and factors include fluctuations in the price of gold, silver and copper; the need to recalculate estimates of resources based on actual production experience; the failure to achieve production estimates; variations in the grade of ore mined; variations in the cost of operations; the availability of qualified personnel; the Company's ability to obtain and maintain all necessary regulatory approvals and licenses; the Company's ability to use cyanide in its mining operations; risks generally associated with mineral exploration and development, including the Company's ability to continue to operate the El Valle and/or Don Mario and/or ability to resume operations at the Carles Mine; the Company's ability to acquire and develop mineral properties and to successfully integrate such acquisitions; the Company's ability to execute on its strategy; the Company's ability to obtain financing when required on terms that are acceptable to the Company; challenges to the Company's interests in its property and mineral rights; current, pending and proposed legislative or regulatory developments or changes in political, social or economic conditions in the countries in which the Company operates; general economic conditions worldwide; and the risks identified in the Company's Disclosures under the heading "Risks and Uncertainties". This list is not exhaustive of the factors that may affect any of the Company's forward-looking statements and reference should also be made to the Company's Disclosures for a description of additional risk factors.

Any forward-looking statements made in this information with respect to the anticipated development and exploration of the Company's mineral projects are intended to provide an overview of management's expectations with respect to certain future activities of the Company and may not be appropriate for other purposes.

Forward-looking statements are based on management's current plans, estimates, projections, beliefs and opinions and, except as required by law, the Company does not undertake any obligation to update forward-looking statements should assumptions related to these plans, estimates, projections, beliefs and opinions change. Readers are cautioned not to put undue reliance on forward-looking statements.

The forward-looking statements made in this information are intended to provide an overview of management's expectations with respect to certain future operating activities of the Company and may not be appropriate for other purposes.

SOURCE Orvana Minerals Corp.
TORONTO, July 27, 2016 /CNW/ - Wesdome Gold Mines Ltd. (TSX: WDO) ("Wesdome" or the "Company") is pleased to announce the appointment of Duncan Middlemiss as President and Chief Executive Officer effective August 15, 2016. Rolly Uloth who has held the position for the past three years, will continue as a director of the Company as part of a planned succession resulting from his retirement.

Mr. Charles Page, Chairman of the Board, commented, "Rolly has been a dedicated and enthusiastic leader who has assembled an experienced management team and an accomplished board committed to growing Wesdome. On behalf of the Board of Directors, I would like to thank Rolly for driving Wesdome's vision during his term, renewing investor confidence, expanding operations at Eagle River and consolidating our holdings at this asset as well as Moss Lake. As a result of these and other accomplishments the Company is in excellent shape for our next phase of growth."

Mr. Rolly Uloth commented, "I have been involved with Wesdome for over 20 years, in the capacity of a director or executive management, and I have never been more positive about the Company's future than I am today. As part of my retirement, I am committed to overseeing a smooth transition period and am confident that Duncan's extensive mining and capital markets experience will result in further improvements at Wesdome as he oversees operations, and continues to enhance shareholder value."

Mr. Duncan Middlemiss commented, "I am very pleased to accept the President and CEO position at Wesdome. Rolly has done an excellent job in assembling a great asset package exclusively in Canada. In addition to aggressively exploring and growing production at our flagship Eagle River Mine Complex, Wesdome has two other highly prospective gold assets including the Moss Lake and Kiena projects. I look forward to working with the Wesdome team in what I consider one of the best gold opportunities in Canada."

Duncan Middlemiss was the President and Chief Executive Officer and a director of St. Andrew Goldfields Ltd. ("SAS") until its acquisition by Kirkland Lake Gold Inc. in January 2016. Mr. Middlemiss joined SAS in July 2008 as General Manager and Vice President Operations, later assuming the role of Chief Operating Officer. He was appointed as President and Chief Executive Officer in October 2013. He earned a B. Sc. in mining engineering at Queen's University in 1989 and worked for Inco Limited (now Vale Canada Limited) as Mine Design Engineer until 1995. At that time, he joined Barrick Gold Inc. at their Holt-McDermott Mine, where he held the position of Chief Mine Engineer. In 2002 he joined Foxpoint Resources (now Kirkland Lake Gold Inc.) where he was instrumental in overseeing the rehabilitation, development, and commencement of production at the Macassa Mine beginning as Engineering & Production Manager, and later as Mine Manager. Mr. Middlemiss is a native of Kirkland Lake, Ontario and has extensive experience in the mining of gold deposits in the Abitibi Greenstone Belt.

ABOUT WESDOME

Wesdome Gold Mines Ltd. is in its 28th year of continuous gold mining operations in Canada. The Company is currently producing gold at the Eagle River Complex located near Wawa, Ontario from the Eagle River and Mishi gold mines. Wesdome's goal is to expand current operations at both mines over the next four years through mill expansion and exploration. Wesdome has significant upside through ownership of its two other properties, the Kiena Mine Complex in Val d'Or, Quebec and the Moss Lake gold deposit located 100 kilometres west of Thunder Bay, Ontario. These assets are being explored and evaluated to be developed in the appropriate gold price environment. The Company has approximately 129 million shares issued and outstanding and trades on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol "WDO".

SOURCE Wesdome Gold Mines Ltd.
VANCOUVER, July 26, 2016 /CNW/ - Nevsun Resources Ltd. (TSX:NSU) (NYSE MKT:NSU) (the "Company" or "Nevsun") announces that its 60%-owned subsidiary Bisha Mining Share Company ("BMSC") will be increasing its total land package of exploration licenses to 814 square kilometers, up 1,891% from 41 square kilometers in Eritrea's Bisha Volcanogenic Massive Sulfide (VMS) District.

The increased exploration license area consists of two highly prospective land packages (see map attached):

184 square kilometers surrounding the existing BMSC mining licenses ("Tabakin Exploration License"), providing continuous coverage for 15 kilometers over the Bisha mine favourable stratigraphy; and

630 square kilometers in the vicinity of the Bisha mine over highly prospective geology, combining new and previously relinquished property and the current Mogoraib River exploration license that hosts the Hambok, Asheli and Aderat deposits ("New Mogoraib Exploration License").

"The Bisha VMS District remains vastly under-explored. Expanding our exploration land package has been a high priority that required a negotiation with the Ministry of Energy and Mines for extended and improved license terms. BMSC now has ownership of all of the exploration land in the Bisha district", stated Cliff Davis, President and CEO of Nevsun. "With greater access to additional high-priority targets and increased time to evaluate results, we have added another key element to our strategy to deliver shareholder value through exploration in this prolific mining district. We are proud leaders in the Eritrean mining industry and believe BMSC's exploration efforts will deliver mining for decades to come in the Bisha District."

The Tabakin Exploration License includes the highly prospective area between the Bisha and Harena mining licenses. Given the prospectivity and proximity to the existing process plant and the Bisha Mine, BMSC will be permitted to hold the land for ten years before any partial relinquishments. A number of untested geophysical and geochemical anomalies are present on this property and evaluation will begin immediately.

The New Mogoraib Exploration License provides a fresh start on the relinquishment terms for the entire 630 square kilometer land package and will be subject to the existing relinquishment regime for exploration licenses (three years of no relinquishment followed by two one-year renewals with a 25% annual area reduction beginning after year three). This additional land package will ensure BMSC has sufficient time to fully test the exploration potential using the successful exploration techniques of airborne geophysical surveys followed by systematic ground and borehole geophysics which have led to the exploration success at Harena and Asheli. BMSC management have already identified one specific high-priority target where drilling will begin in H2 2016.

Nevsun has funded its share of these newly acquired exploration licenses via a reduction in the amount receivable from the Eritrean National Mining Corporation (ENAMCO). This transaction, in addition to $12.5 million collected during Q2 2016, has reduced the amount receivable from ENAMCO to $10 million at June 30, 2016. ENAMCO has agreed to pay the remaining amount in two installments of $5 million, in each of October 2016 and March 2017. In exchange for this commitment, Nevsun will no longer be charging interest on the receivable. As a reminder, the receivable from ENAMCO arose in 2011 when ENAMCO agreed to a $254 million price for the acquisition of a 30% interest in BMSC. The Company has collected the principal and interest (total interest since 2011 is $15 million) from ENAMCO over the past five years. The collection of this receivable is a good example of the State of Eritrea demonstrating that it is a reliable jurisdiction for foreign direct investment. The additional investment by Nevsun in this exploration land package demonstrates our belief in the Bisha district, our confidence in operating in Eritrea and our strong relationship with the State of Eritrea.

Quality Assurance

Mr. Peter Manojlovic P.Geo., Nevsun's Vice President of Exploration, a Qualified Person as defined by NI 43-101, has reviewed the technical content of this press release and approved its dissemination.

About Nevsun Resources Ltd.

Nevsun Resources Ltd. is the 60% owner of the high grade Bisha Mine in Eritrea. Bisha has nine years of reserve life, generating revenue from both copper and zinc concentrates containing gold and silver by-products. Nevsun has a strong balance sheet with over US$200 million cash, no debt and pays a peer leading quarterly dividend. Nevsun is well positioned to grow shareholder value through exploration at Bisha and the newly acquired Serbian assets that include the high-grade copper-gold Timok Project.

Forward Looking Statements

The above contains forward-looking statements or forward-looking information within the meaning of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, and applicable Canadian securities laws. Forward-looking statements are frequently, but not always, identified by words such as "expects," "anticipates," "believes," "intends," "estimated," "potential," "possible" and similar expressions, or statements that events, conditions or results "will," "may," "could" or "should" occur or be achieved. Forward-looking statements are statements concerning the Company's current beliefs, plans and expectations about the future including but not limited to statements relating to the business, prospects and future activities of, and developments related to the Company, anticipated developments in operations, commercial production, estimated future production, future costs of production and capital expenditures, mine life of mineral projects, the timing and amount of estimated capital expenditures, costs and timing of exploration and development and capital expenditures related thereto, operating expenditures, and related cash flows, success of exploration activities, estimated exploration budgets, currency fluctuations, requirements for additional capital, government regulation of mining operations, environmental risks, unanticipated reclamation expenses, title disputes or claims, limitations on insurance coverage, the timing and possible outcome of pending litigation, the timing and possible outcome of regulatory and permitting matters, goals, strategies, future growth, planned future acquisitions and explorations activities, the adequacy of financial resources and other events or conditions that may occur in the future, and are inherently uncertain. The actual achievements of the Company or other future events or conditions may differ materially from those reflected in the forward-looking statements due to a variety of risks, uncertainties and other factors, including, without limitation, the risks that: (i) any of the assumptions in the historical resource estimates turn out to be incorrect, incomplete, or flawed in any respect; (ii) the methodologies and models used to prepare the resource and reserve estimates either underestimate or overestimate the resources or reserves due to hidden or unknown conditions, (iii) exploration activities or the mine operations are disrupted or suspended due to acts of god, internal conflicts in the country of Eritrea or Serbia, unforeseen government actions or other events; (iv) the Company experiences the loss of key personnel; (v) the Company's operations or exploration activities are adversely affected by other political or military, or terrorist activities; (vi) the Company becomes involved in any material disputes with any of its key business partners, suppliers or customers; (vii) the Company is subjected to any hostile takeover or other unsolicited attempts to acquire control of the Company; (viii) the Company is subject to any adverse ruling in any of the pending litigation to which it is a party; (ix) Reservoir's PEA is preliminary in nature and it includes inferred mineral resources that are considered too speculative geologically to have the economic considerations applied to them that would enable them to be categorized as mineral reserves; and other risks are more fully described in the Company's Annual Information Form for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2015, which are incorporated herein by reference. The Company's forward-looking statements are based on the beliefs, expectations and opinions of management on the date the statements are made and the Company assumes no obligation to update such forward-looking statements in the future, except as required by law. For the reasons set forth above, investors should not place undue reliance on the Company's forward-looking statements.

Further information concerning risks and uncertainties associated with these forward-looking statements and our business can be found in our Annual Information Form for the year ended December 31, 2015, which is available on the Company's website (www.nevsun.com), filed under our profile on SEDAR (www.sedar.com) and on EDGAR (www.sec.gov) under cover of Form 40-F.

NEVSUN RESOURCES LTD.

"Cliff T. Davis"

Cliff T. Davis

President & Chief Executive Officer

Revised Exploration Licenses held by Bisha Mining Share Company



SOURCE Nevsun Resources Ltd.
[JURIST] A Chinese military court on Tuesday sentenced former top General Guo Boxiong to life in prison for taking bribes. While the amounts of the bribes have not been officially disclosed, as the trial was held behind closed doors, the South China Morning Post [media website] reported in April that the bribes amounted [SCMP report] to an estimated USD $12.3 million. Guo has been deprived [Xinhua report] of political rights for life and his former title of general.

The Chinese government has increased the prosecution of domestic corruption increased following the appointment of President Xi Jinping [BBC profile] in 2013. In April the Supreme Peoples Court of China clarified [JURIST report] that the maximum penalty for the crime of corruption in the form of embezzlement or accepting bribes amounting to high sums of money will be the death penalty. In February the Hangzhou Christian Council announced [JURIST report] that a prominent Chinese Pastor was under investigation for corruption involving the embezzlement of state funds. In November a Chinese court jailed a top aide to the countrys former security chief Zhou Yongkang on corruption charges. In October Chinese state media reported that the former head of the countrys biggest oil firm was sentenced to 16 years in prison [JURIST report] for corruption. In September prosecutors in China announced that they will be investigating former China Supreme Court justice Xi Xiaoming on corruption charges [JURIST report]. In August a former general in Chinas Peoples Liberation Army, Gu Junshan, was sentenced [JURIST report] by a Chinese military court to death with a two-year reprieve for corruption charges.
A judge for the US District Court for the Northern District of California [official website] on Tuesday gave preliminary approval [order, PDF] to a $15 billion settlement [case materials] between German automaker Volkswagen AG (VW) [corporate website] and the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) [official website], California officials and consumers. Judge Charles Breyers ruling allows attorneys to begin gathering information from nearly 500,000 consumers whose diesel-powered vehicles were found to have violated US emissions standards. Under the terms of the agreement, owners will be able to choose between having Volkswagen buy back or fix the vehicles. Final approval for the settlement could come at a hearing on October 18.

VW is facing legal difficulty around the world over the emissions scandal. A law firm in Germany filed a class action lawsuit [JURIST report] in March on behalf of investors alleging a breach of duty to the capital market. Last year the Braunschweig public prosecutors office opened a criminal investigation [JURIST report] of former VW CEO Martin Winterkorn, following accusations that the company cheated on government emissions tests by manipulating exhaust valves. The investigation followed several criminal complaints, including one filed by VW, and came less than a week after Winterkorn stepped down as CEO of the company. In his statement he accepted responsibility for the irregularities that have been found in diesel engines and said that he was clearing the way for this fresh start with [his] resignation.
Representatives from the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics (DPR and LPR, respectively) are avoiding the issue of releasing hostages, Darka Olifer, a spokesperson for Leonid Kuchma, Ukraine's representative in the Trilateral Contact Group, said after the Group's meeting in Minsk on Wednesday.

DPR and LPR representatives "are shunning the discussion of the release of hostages and do not provide information on the whereabouts of many of our citizens," she wrote on Facebook.

Kuchma participated in the meeting via Skype.
Lawyers for a transgender Virginia teenager on Tuesday urged [response, PDF] the US Supreme Court [official website] not to block a ruling allowing him to use the boys restroom. The Gloucester County School Board [official website] had filed an emergency application [JURIST report] earlier this month asking the court to halt the application of both an order [text, PDF] by the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia [official website] and a ruling [text, PDF] by the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit [official website], which mandate that the student be allowed to use the restroom that aligns with his gender identity. The school board is concerned that if the mandate were to take effect it would disrupt the upcoming school year, but lawyers for the student argued that the school board has utterly failed to show that it would suffer lasting harm.

Gavin Grimm, a high school student at a Gloucester County school who identifies as male, was granted an order [JURIST report] by the district court in June allowing him to use the boys restroom while the court considers the legal issues of the case. This order came after a decision by the federal court in April, which reversed a lower court decision in holding Grimms rights under Title IX [official website], which prohibits discrimination in schools, were violated by the school board refusing his use of the mens restroom. It was at that time the Gloucester County School Board first stated its intention to ask the US Supreme Court to review the Fourth Circuit decision.
Thai military officials on Tuesday charged three human rights defenders with criminal defamation and violations of the Computer Crimes Act because of a report they published detailing acts of torture in Thailand. The defenders, Pornpen Khongkachonkiet, Anchana Heemmina and Somchai Homlaor, face up to five years [AFP report] in jail time if convicted. The report, Torture and ill treatment in The Deep South Documented in 2014-2015, details 54 incidents of torture and human rights abuses in South Thailand, and the activists hoped that it would cast a light on an issue so often glossed over due to marginalization and would encourage victims [Al Jazeera report] to share their experiences. Several rights groups have come out against the arrests in a joint report [text, PDF], calling them a reprisal against civil society groups seeking to bring to the authorities attention the continued abuse of power and ill-treatment of detainees in Thailand. The report urged the government to drop all charges against the rights defenders and ensure that retaliation is not allowed, as well as general human rights recommendations going forward.

Human rights groups worldwide have expressed growing concern over violations in Thailand since the military junta came to power in May 2014. In March Human Rights Watch urged [JURIST report] Thailand to stop harassing and charging human right lawyers for defending victims of the governments abuses. Also in March the Pheu Thai Party filed a complaint [JURIST report] with the UN Office of High Commissioner for Human Rights over the detention of one of its key figures, Watana Muangsook, accusing the government of serious human rights violations. In January UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Raad Al Hussein called on the Thai government to fully investigate [JURIST report] the whereabouts of at least 82 people listed as disappeared and criminalize forced disappearance through legislation. That same month, Thailand unveiled a new draft constitution [JURIST report], which human rights groups stated was aimed at increasing the power of the military under the guise of clauses intended to promote national security permitting them to commit human rights abuses without fear of punishment in violation of international treaties.
Poroshenko expects U.S. drones will assist in preventing truce violations in Donbas

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko expects that the unmanned aerial vehicles that have recently been handed over by the United States to Ukraine will let Ukrainian servicemen in Donbas boost efficiency of their service, in particular, in the prevention of violations of the ceasefire.

"Today, the Armed Forces of Ukraine have received a batch of 24 RQ-11B Raven UAVs. A transport plane of the U.S. Air Force with the equipment on board has successfully arrived in Kyiv," Poroshenko wrote on Facebook on Wednesday.

In his words, these drones will help "considerably boost the efficiency of the Ukrainian servicemen's work, including in preventing violations of the ceasefire."

As the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv wrote on Facebook, 24 RQ-11B Raven Unmanned Aircraft Systems (comprised of 72 aircraft and associated equipment) arrived at Boryspil International Airport on July 27. The Raven Unmanned Aircraft System is a hand-launched reconnaissance and surveillance tool. The system transmits live airborne video images and location information to ground control stations. This capability can provide day or night aerial intelligence and enables operators to navigate, recognize terrain, and record information for analysis.

Raven system is part of the European Reassurance Initiative package and on-going security assistance efforts in Ukraine.

"Several dozen Ukrainian soldiers already have completed training on Raven Unmanned Aircraft System in Huntsville, Alabama," the embassy said.

The United States has committed more than $600 million in training and equipment to help Ukraine better defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity.
Boca Raton, FL, USA, 07/27/2016 /SubmitPressRelease123/

Millions of foreign citizens visit South Florida each year reports Boca Raton car accident lawyer Joe Osborne. http://www.visitflorida.org/resources/research/ The beaches, restaurants, and nightlife make our communities a desired destination. Unfortunately, our congested roadways can be dangerous especially for those unfamiliar with traffic patterns or the timing of rush hour. Foreign citizens injured in car accidents are protected by the laws of our state both civilly and criminally. It is important for our visitors to understand their rights if they need a lawyer for a car accident with injuries, especially those that are significant.

As an example, Robert and Adrienne Hammond were born and raised in Ireland. Upon Mr. Hammonds retirement, they traveled to South Florida for a long anticipated visit. They rented a car and planned to sightsee. However, while driving in Miami-Dade County, the Hammonds encountered a truck driver delivering tile who was late and in a hurry. An illegal attempt to pass by the truck driver resulted in a collision with the Hammonds vehicle. The collision was direct and came without warning. Mr. Hammond was killed and Mrs. Hammond suffered a brain injury resulting in months of hospitalization and rehabilitation at Jackson Memorial Hospital. She ultimately returned to Ireland alone, a tragic outcome says car accident lawyer Osborne.

A lawsuit was filed in Miami-Dade County on behalf of Mrs. Hammond and her husbands estate against the driver and the trucking company for the horrific injuries they sustained. A confidential settlement was reached. Mrs. Hammond was compensated for the loss of her husband. Further, she could pay her medical bills and afford some of the day to day care she needs in Ireland for the rest of her life.

The Civil Justice System protects American citizens and foreigners if injured because of someones negligence. Under the law, all individuals have a duty to exercise reasonable care for the protection of others. Due to language barriers or a general unfamiliarity with civil remedies, many foreign citizens may not understand or realize their rights if they are hurt while visiting our shores. It is conceivable a visitors home country would not provide an avenue for recovery if injuries were sustained in a similar accident but the Unites States does. Therefore, if a foreign citizen is injured while visiting, he or she should seek help from the best car accident lawyer they can find to determine the appropriate course of action.

If you, a friend, or relative have been injured in a car accident while traveling in South Florida, contact a Boca Raton car accident lawyer at Osborne and Associates to discuss your legal rights to compensation for the pain, suffering, physical limitations, additional medical treatments and impact on your life, relationships and ability to work. We can discuss how the law may apply and the best ways to protect your legal rights and interests. Call (561) 800-4020.

Press Contact:

Personal injury lawyer Joseph Osborne

561-800-4020

source: http://www.oa-lawfirm.com/boca-raton-car-accident-lawyer-says-vacation-driving-florida-can-tragic/

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On Thursday, July 28, at 12.00, the Interfax-Ukraine News Agency's press center will host a press conference entitled "A Coalition of Extraparliamentary Political Parties and NGOs of Ukraine Recognizes Performance of the Verkhovna Rada and the Cabinet of Ministers Unsatisfactory." The participants will include MP of the second, third, fourth and sixth convocations, Head of the Fatherland Defenders Party Yuriy Karmazin, leader of the People's Democratic Party and an MP of several convocations Liudmyla Suprun, leader of the Patriotic Party of Ukraine Mykola Gaber, leader of Local Self-Government Party Oleksandr Kondrashov, representative of NGOs Tetiana Vatan (8/5a Reitarska Street). Admission requires press accreditation. For more details, please call: +38 063 785 4433.
China's gold consumption down, production slightly up in 1H

BEIJING, July 27 (Xinhua)-- China's gold production rose by 0.16 percent year on year to 229 tonnes in the first half of 2016, while consumption declined 7.68 percent to 529 tonnes.

The majority - 341 tonnes - of consumption went on jewelry, according to the China Gold Association on Tuesday.
(Flightradar24 screenshot used by Russian media in the report)

Air China refuted some Russian media's report, claiming that four Chinese civilian flights had appaeared in the "no-fly zone" above Seversk, the city where Russia's biggest nuclear power plant the Siberian Nuclear Power Plant is located.

Russian newspaper site "vzglyad.ru" (.) quoted witness's description and screenshot from flight tracker website Flightradar24, reporting that a total of four flights, all seemed to be civilian flights from China, appeared in the no-fly zone above Seversk on July 23.

"Civil aviation flights usually fly in a settled route that is subject to the air traffic control in relevant countries. There's no chance it would cause any problem, said a spokesperson of Air China. The relevant flights mentioned by Russian media's report were at least over ten kilometers away from the so-called "no-fly zone", the data quoted is erroneous, according to the spokesperson.
On July 23, a woman surnamed Zhong from southern China's Guangzhou province visited Vietnam. At the border, the Vietnamese border staff asked Zhong to hand over her passport and proceeded to write offensive language in it.

The Chinese Consulate-General in Ho Chi Minh City condemned this behavior as shameless and cowardly.' China has requested that a formal investigation be carried out, and that the guilty party be seriously dealt with to discourage others from repeating the behavior. The Vietnamese side said that an investigation will be launched at a later date.

Zhong's passport is scribbled with "F*ck you" by Vietnamese Border Staff.
Turkey has opened its first Traitors Cemetery in the aftermath of the July 15th coup attempt and Istanbul Metropolitan Mayor announced that the first burial has taken place.

There is a place needed, to be called the cemetery of the traitors; all passers-by to curse when around it. All those walking by should curse and spit on it; there shall be no resting in peace for them, even in their graves.  Kadir Topbas, Istanbul Metropolitan Mayor

Some days it feels like life in Turkey is a chapter in a dark and deep dystopian novel. Today is one of those days. On July 20th, only days after the failed coup attempt, Istanbul Metropolitan Mayor, Kadir Topbas announced his will to open a cemetery for the traitors who participated in the bloody coup on July 15th. According to media reports, the cemetery has just been opened and the first burial taken place.

The first body buried is Captain Mehmet Karabekir who killed the community chief in Istanbuls Acbadem neighbourhood on the night of the coup attempt. The mayor announced that the family of the dead did not want his body, so he was to be buried somewhere and the Traitors Cemetery was the venue for this occasion. The cemetery is located in Istanbuls Pendik district, at the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipalitys dog shelter.

Previously, the religious authority of the Prime Ministers Office, Diyanet had announced that there would be no religious services for those who died in an attempt to overthrow the government through a violent coup. Denial of religious services had previously been discussed for certain leftist/progressive academics and journalists, yet no matter how much reaction there was from right-wing supporters, the services still took place.

However, there are also many unknown graveyards of notable rebels of the state; Sheikh Said, the leader of an Islamist/Kurdish uprising in the 1920s; Seyid Rza, the religious leader of the Kurdish movement in the 1937-38 Dersim Rebellion; Said Nursi, an influential Kurdish Sunni cleric in the early years of the Republic who later inspired many Islamist movements formation and rhetoric. Their graveyards are still unknown to date.

Apart from rebel leaders, the body of Aziz Guler, who had gone to Rojava to fight against ISIS, was kept waiting for 2 months at the border before being given to his family for burial; and another disturbance occurred when Safak Yayla, the perpetrator who had taken prosecutor Mehmet Kiraz hostage at the Istanbul Court Palace, was killed, and his family had to bury him in the front yard of the house after violent mobs threatened to attack the body, which finally ended with his family pouring cement on the graveyard.

Attacks against graveyards are also a recurring theme in Turkeys history. After the 1960 military coup, when the prime minister at the time, Adnan Menderes, and two of his ministers were hanged by Alparslan Turkes (later founder of far right Nationalist Movement Party MHP), their bodies were buried in a neglected state on Imral island currently where the PKK leader Ocalan is kept in solitary confinement. However, Menderes remains were carried to a mausoleum in 1990.

The idea of a Traitors Cemetery and its location at the dog shelter is the new reality in Turkey  a country that feeds on hostility, even regarding the dead. Yet, the word traitor is used quite loosely by almost everyone, and who knows, perhaps some of those who are accusing each other of treason might lie side by side in that cemetery someday.

(Sources: BIA News Center, Dogan News Agency)
According to a senior media executive from Kenya, the country is enthusiastic about more Chinese investment in culture and education, which, alongside investment in infrastructure, can help tackle the problem of terrorism in the region.

The key thing for China to do is invest more in the education and culture of Kenya since much of the current investment is in infrastructure and energy. By investing in the culture I mean helping people to live, and also understanding other cultures so that we dont see other tribes as enemies, said Tom Mshindi, editor-in-chief of the Nation Media Group in Kenya.

Mshindi spoke with Peoples Daily Online in an exclusive interview on the sideline of the 2016 Media Cooperation Forum on Belt and Road, which opened on July 26 in Beijing.

The problem, according to Mshindi, is that terrorism usually comes out of poverty. He noted that countries must work to guarantee public access to national resources including education.

China can come in with resources to help with educational programs, cultural programs, particularly in the areas of creativity, art and dramatization, he added.

It is already widely recognized in Kenya that China plays a big role in many peoples daily lives, Mshindi said, referring to the $365-billion Mombasa-Nairobi Standard Gauge Railway project as an example.

It is seen as the biggest program that has been done in that country for the last 50 years. And we expect to see a lot of development...once you open up the country that way, he said.

Meanwhile, despite being one of the trading hub on the Belt and Road Initiative, which Mshindi called one of the worlds most ambitious projects, most people in Kenya are unfamiliar with the initiative.

From the media perspective, I think both the Chinese and [Kenyans] have failed because neither of us discussed this topic on our platforms, such as newspapers, televisions and broadcasts. So I think media should play a bigger role...because media is the connecting thread, the one that bridges between cultures and people, and its able to tell the story. Media is to explain to the world what the initiative is, what it means, what is in this initiative and ways [that it will function], he noted.
Supporters of Hillary Clinton cheer at the U.S. Democratic National Convention at Wells Fargo Center, Philadelphia, the United States on July 26, 2016. Hillary Clinton was formally anointed Democratic presidential candidate here on Tuesday, becoming the first woman to run for the White House on behalf of a major U.S. political party. (Xinhua/Bao Dandan)

PHILADELPHIA, the United States, July 26 -- Hillary Clintonwas formally anointed Democratic presidential candidate here on Tuesday, becoming the first woman to run for the White Houseon behalf of a major U.S. political party.

"Are we ready to make some history?" asked Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, secretary of the on-going Democratic National Convention (DNC) when a roll call vote by delegates began.

About one and half hour later, the 68-year-old former secretary of state, who enjoys near universal name recognition after almost four-decade public life, exceeded the 2,382-delegate threshold needed to clinch the nomination amid huge applause in the hall.

The tally included the overwhelming support by unpledged delegates or superdelegates for her. Superdelegates are party leaders who are free to vote at the party's convention.

However, her historic victory was overshadowed by the fallout of damaging leakage of internal emails revealing backroom bias against Clinton's rival Bernie Sanders during bitter primaries. The revelation sparked protests by thousands of Sanders supporters as the four-day convention kicked off here on Monday.
MINDEN  AgVenture of Nebraska LLC, a Minden-based seed company, has hired Stan Hansen of Minden to serve customers across central and western Nebraska as an AgVenture yield specialist.

For the past 20 years, Hansen has worked in the seed industry in a district sales management role. Prior to seed sales and management, he farmed in the Wilcox and Holdrege area.

AVN Seeds LLC Partner Tim Weeces said, Stan is a well-respected seedsman. He is approachable, knowledgeable and definitely keyed in to his customers needs. He has a strong passion for working directly with growers to advance their yields and profitability. Hes fully equipped and ready to put that passion to work. Were lucky to have him on board.
Police stand guard near the church where a priest was killed in Saint-Etienne du Rouvray, France on July 26, 2016. A priest was "assassinated," and another was seriously wounded on Tuesday after two armed men seized several hostages in a church in northern France, Pierre-Hernry Brandet, spokesman of the French Interior Ministry said. (Xinhua/Zhang Xuefei)

PARIS, July 26 -- Paris Prosecutor Francois Molins on Tuesday said one of the church attackers was known to intelligence services and tried to join radical insurgents in Syria twice in2015.

One of the knifemen who slaughtered a priest in a church northern France was "categorically identified" as Adel kermiche,19, Molins told reporters.

He was arrested twice last year after being intercepted by German police in March and Turkish authorities two months later last year while he tried to reach Syria using the ID of his cousin.

Returning home, he had been under house arrest and had been wearing an electronic tag allowing police to monitor his moving.

The identification of the second attacker was underway, Molins added.

The two men armed with knives entered a church in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, on Tuesday morning mass and seized six people before killing a priest and seriously wounding another person.

Paris prosecutor also confirmed that a 16-year-old teenager was placed under custody in the investigation. He was believed to be the brother of someone wanted by police for trying to go to Syria in the previous year.

The two men shot dead by police had fake explosives and used nuns as human shields, he added.
PYONGYANG, July 27 -- The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) convened a national meeting Tuesday to mark the 63rd anniversary of the end of the Korean War, the official Rodong Sinmun newspaper reported Wednesday.

"It is the firm determination and will of the WPK (Workers' Party of Korea) to achieve the final victory in the anti-U.S. struggle and the building of a powerful socialist country," Minister of the People's Armed Forces Pak Yong Sik told the meeting.

If the United Statesshould provoke another war on the Korean Peninsula, the DPRK would wipe out all the aggressors and accomplish the historic cause of national reunification, Pak warned.

Senior party, government and army officials attended the meeting.

The Korean Peninsula remains technically in a state of war because the 1950-1953 Korean War ended with an armistice rather than a peace agreement.
BEIJING, July 27 -- General Secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee Xi Jinping on Tuesday called for the building of strong armed forces through military reform.

Xi presided over a group study seminar of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, which focused on national defense and military reform.

He said that the reform is a comprehensive and revolutionary change, and obstacles and policy issues that may hold back reform measures must be addressed so as to build a strong armed forces commensurate with China's international status.

Cai Hongshuo, deputy head of the advisory team of the leading group for deepened national defense and military reform under the Central Military Commission (CMC), delivered a lecture on the issue and offered some suggestions.

Members of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee then discussed relevant issues during the study.

Xi said under the CPC's leadership, the armed forces have been constantly reformed and improved, adding that further military reform is needed to cope with changing international situation and develop the socialism with Chinese characteristics.

After the 18th National Congress of the CPC in late 2012, Xi said, the CPC Central Committee has attached great importance to defense and military reform. After the third plenary session of the 18th CPC Central Committee, the CMC established the leading group for the work, and later drafted a reform plan.

Based on the reform plan, the general command of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) Army, the PLA Rocket Force, and the PLA Strategic Support Force were established.

The previous seven military area commands were regrouped into five theater commands, and the four military departments -- staff, politics, logistics and armaments -- were reorganized into 15 agencies.

With those reforms, the PLA has a system in which the CMC is tasked with the overall administration of the armed forces, while theater commands focus on combat preparedness, and various armed services pursue development, Xi added.

These measures solved some deep-seated problems that many considered unsolvable, according to Xi.

The reform drive marks a historic change in the organization and structure of the PLA, he said.
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Theres no doubt physicians entering practice today leave their residency programs with a tremendous amount of medical education and training; what seems like a lifetimes worth of knowledge crammed into just a few, intense years of instruction.

Unfortunately, all the time residents spend on rotations, lecture, journal club, and myriad other obligations leaves little opportunity for getting oriented to the more mundane, yet absolutely critical components of practice. As a result, newly minted physicians are often completely unaware of the potential pitfalls they face as an attending, from liability insurance and malpractice to understanding their own employment contracts.

As the clinical leader of a 2,000-physician emergency medicine group, I see this issue all the time, both in the young doctors recruited to the group, and in the residents who train in the community program where Im based.

To address it, Ive started lecturing to those local emergency medicine residents on issues and problems to anticipate after their training is complete. We cover a wide range of topics  often chosen by the residents  which I have either learned about through hard-won, first-hand experience or from listening to my peers. Among the topics are:

Advanced practice clinician supervision. Nurse practitioners and physician assistants are caring for a growing percentage of emergency medicine patients. Most residencies offer no specific training in understanding these practices, their limitations and capabilities, and the implications of physician supervision. This understanding is vital for providing a safe work environment for APCs, supervising physicians and patients.

Contracting. Most graduating residents understand the importance of their employment contract. Many will perform good due diligence in presenting prospective contracts to an attorney or an attending for review prior to signing. Virtually all of them feel the contract offers them significant protection in their future employment. However, do they understand the contract their potential employer has with the hospital or facility where they want to work? Most of these contracts allow an unhappy CEO to demand termination of an individual provider for no cause. In these cases, the individual employee contract provides little protection. Surprise!

Credentialing. The typical emergency physician has little idea what goes into credentialing with a hospital or health organization because their employer insulates them from the process. By and large, most physicians find this a great thing. However, most also never realize the risk involved in credentialing forms that are filled out inaccurately.

Documentation. In addition to its importance in cases of alleged negligence or malpractice, documentation is critical for reimbursement. After residency, many physicians find their compensation tied to some measure of productivity, which often relies heavily on the quality of their documentation. This can lead to significantly less pay than anticipated as young providers struggle to make sense of a complicated electronic medical record.

Liability insurance. Residents typically have their insurance selected and provided for them without their input or understanding. After residency, they must understand the concept of covered activities, limits of coverage, terms, and options.

Malpractice and case evolution. There is a great deal of misunderstanding about this process. Most residents I talk to cannot define what constitutes malpractice, and even fewer understand the litigation process. Emergency medicine is a specialty with a great deal of risk, both in frequency and severity. A thorough understanding of this process is critical.

Performance metrics. Increasingly we practice in a world with measurements. Length of stay, door-to-doctor times and more are being measured down to the individual provider level. Resident physicians usually do not carry the burden of these measurements during training, and academic training centers often are not held to community standards. Perhaps most importantly, patient satisfaction looms large in the minds of every CEO because of the clear financial implications associated with this metric. Many physicians making the transition from residency are stunned to see their individual patient satisfaction scores posted in the department for all to see, along with patient comments.

A clear understanding of each of these topics is critical for a healthy and happy practice in emergency medicine. Resident physicians also tell me they want to learn about topics such as burnout, understanding employee benefits, democratic practice versus alternatives, and risky cases and their management. And not only do residents seem to appreciate the lectures, but more seasoned clinicians also show up to add value by sharing their personal stories.

I encourage all physicians still in training to seek out opportunities to better understand and prepare for what its like to practice after residency. And I welcome all my colleagues out there who, like me, learned some of these lessons the hard way, to share your stories, knowledge and guidance with the next generation.

Robert Frantz is an emergency physician, and president, TeamHealth Emergency Medicine West Group.

Image credit: Shutterstock.com
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CMS announced that they will remove questions related to pain from the hospital consumer assessment of health care providers and systems (HCAHPS), commonly known as patient satisfaction survey. This means that hospitals would continue to use the questions to survey patients about their inpatient pain management experience, but these questions would not affect the level of payment hospitals receive. This is a big victory for patients and the house of medicine.

Here is the story behind the announcement. I, along with several leaders in the prescription drug abuse epidemic have been advocating for this for the past four years. We said that patient satisfaction scores are a barrier to safe prescribing. How can you tell a patient, No, I cant give you more pain medication, when you realize they are going to complain, take it to administration, report you to the medical board, give you bad Yelp reviews, and give you bad patient satisfaction scores? It is much easier to say yes, than to say no. CMS is currently using these scores for hospitals, but next in line are emergency physicians, followed by the rest of the medical community.

For the past four years, I have talked about the problem with the satisfaction scores. Some of the stories that explain the problem include a hospital CEO, who threatened an emergency medicine group that if they dont improve their patient satisfaction scores, their contract would be in jeopardy and their jobs on the line. They were not told to prescribe more drugs, they were told, Get your scores up, I dont care how.

A medical director of a primary care group who is very proud of their high scores, admitted that they follow safe prescribing guidelines, but some physicians dont, and explain that patient satisfaction is a higher priority. A survey of medical directors at 20 different hospitals stated that most agreed that patient satisfaction scores are a barrier to saying no to patients who were demanding drugs.

My own experience is of a patient who threatened to get me fired for not refilling his pain medications from the emergency department. He said he got other doctors fired, and he vowed to do the same to me. Sure enough, he sent a letter claiming unprofessionalism, rude behavior, and Ive never been treated this way before.

My reply was I would rather have a patient blackmail me, threaten me, and give me bad patient satisfaction scores, rather than have a dead patient. Was the hospital going to promote patient satisfaction scores over compassionate safe prescribing?

The issue of satisfaction scores is an emotional subject for many physicians. When I speak at a conference, there is outrage how something so unscientific can be used against them. Such data would never be allowed in any medical journal, but is use to grade our performance and given the highest importance.

In January of this year, CMS held a webinar to address this concern. They specifically stated that, HCAHPS is designed and validated only for inter-hospital comparison, not comparison of wards, staff, etc. HCAHPS questions are not tailored for individual physicians, nurses or other staff. CMS strongly opposes use of the HCAHPS Survey to identify individual providers.

But when hospital administrators were shown this information they said the webinar is not going to change anything. When $2 million a year is at stake due to HCAHPS scores, then physicians will continue to get individual scores on a regular basis. How else can they improve the scores?

I am very proud of our advocacy efforts. I was told that the CMS would never change. Measuring the patient experience is part of the Affordable Care Act. The ACA requires measuring the patient experience, although there is no mandate to link money to the scores. The AMA, CMA, and ACEP stated that this battle had been lost. But people were dying, and government needed to do their share in fighting the epidemic.

I spoke to Senator Diane Feinsteins office, Director Michael Botticelli, the director of the National Drug Control Policy, and leaders at CDC. I wrote a resolution that were passed by CMA and ACEP to oppose financial incentives on satisfaction scores that were not evidence based.

And most importantly, I gained support of the parent community that is behind the fight of the opioid epidemic. The parents who lost sons and daughter to prescription drugs are similar to the Mothers Against Drug Driving. They have a strong voice. They were outraged that doctors pay can be linked to how happy their patients are. They would much rather have their son or daughter angry at the doctor for denying a prescription and be alive today.

We are fighting an epidemic where we need to change medical culture. 78 American die every day from an accidental opioid overdose. We need to undo the past ten years of medical education where physicians were told they were undertreating pain and needed to prescribe more. It is very hard to re-educate. It is even harder if there is money involved that can push the wrong decision.

Being a physician is more like being a parent, rather than customer service at Nordstroms. Sometimes the best parent is the one who says no and is strict rather than being permissive. Can you imagine giving your teenagers apparent satisfaction scores after you discipline them for being caught drinking alcohol or something else?

Thank you to all the advocates in the medical and parent community who helped remove the satisfaction score barrier from safe prescribing.

Roneet Lev is director of operations, Scripps Mercy Hospital Emergency Department, San Diego, CA, and a member of SanDiegoSafePrescribing.org.

Image credit: Shutterstock.com
China to crack down on damage to Great Wall

BEIJING, July 27 (Xinhua) -- The State Administration of Cultural Heritage (SACH) will launch a campaign to crack down on criminal damage to the Great Wall.

The campaign will involve regular inspections and random checks on protection efforts by authorities in 15 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities.

The SACH will open a special tip line for information about violations and damage to the Great Wall from the public.

Built from the third century B.C. to the Ming Dynasty(1368-1644), the Great Wall stretches over 21,000 kilometers from the northwestern province of Gansu to north China's Hebei Province.

According to SACH statistics, about 30 percent of a 6,200-km section of the wall built in the Ming Dynasty has disappeared, and less than 10 percent is considered well-preserved.

The Great Wall has faced threats from both nature and humans. Earthquakes, rain, wind and other natural elements have left the wall with many decayed and crumbling bricks.

Human activities, such as reckless development by some governments and theft of bricks by local villagers for use as building materials, as well as agriculture near the wall, have damaged the landmark, according to research by the China Great Wall Society.

A lack of protection efforts in remote regions and a weak plan for protection have also contributed to the damage, the society added.

In 2006, China released a national regulation on Great Wall protection. However, Great Wall experts have urged local authorities to draw up more practical measures to better implement the regulation.

This year, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region included Great Wall protection expenditures in its budget. The government of Fangcheng City, Henan Province, began a campaign for conservation experts and local residents to work together to protect the wall.
Having retired from lecturing in Mental Health Nursing at the University of the West of Scotland, Kilkenny man Michael Brennan spent two lengthy periods in 2011 and 2014 volunteering as a nurse teacher at Pantang Hospital  a very large mental health facility on the outskirts of Accra in Ghana.

Here, he delivered a teaching programme to the Nursing and Medical Workforce within the hospital on specific and requested aspects of mental health care.

Living and working in Scotland for many years but originally from Ballasalla, Johnswel, Michael now lives in Broxburn, near Edinburgh. Having trained to be a psychiatric nurse at St Lukes Hospital, Clonmel during the mid-70s, he still returns home regularly to follow the Kilkenny hurlers  his favourite team. Indeed, they get a significant mention in one of the early entries of his Blog Page.

Michael has spent the last 15 months campaigning and fundraising in order to improve the lives and living conditions of the many poor patients residing at Ward 3 in Pantang Hospital. Ward 3 is a busy Admission Ward in a pretty dreadful state of repair and in desperate need of renovation, refurbishment and upgrading in order to improve the care delivered to the patients who live there.

It is hoped that the donation of 10,000.00 to Pantang will help to make a significant difference to conditions at Ward 3 as well as serving to start a project dedicated to improving the overall standards of nursing and medical care at the hospital.

Michael is very grateful to the many people in Scotland and Ireland who have donated so willingly to his Mental Health Project in Ghana but especially to the parishioners of St John Cantius and Nicholas Parish in Broxburn for their very generous donations. Even more amazing was the wonderful contribution of the children at St Nicholas School, the local primary school in Broxburn.

The donation was made by Overseas Payment at the Morningside Branch of the Bank of Scotland in Edinburgh to a dedicated Pantang Hospital Account on an afternoon in July. The event was attended by Fr Jeremy Bath, Parish Priest in Broxburn, Derek Buglass, the Finance Director of the Archdiocese of St Andrews and Edinburgh and Michael Brennan, the fund-raiser.

Michael is also very grateful for the on-going help and support of Dr Anna Dzadey and Dr Frank Baning, Medical Directors at the hospital, for facilitating his volunteering placements at Pantang. They have agreed to monitor and supervise progress around the upgrading of Ward 3 while also ensuring transparency and accountability in relation to the safe spending of all of the donated monies.

When asked about his experience, Michael spoke of his love for the warmth and hospitality of the people of Ghana. Both of his volunteering periods there proved to be incredibly rewarding and enormously satisfying.

He discovered a compassionate approach to care within the facility but was perhaps most impressed by the real thirst for knowledge and skills evidenced by all of the staff at the hospital.

In the months ahead he plans to continue his fund-raising venture in order to tackle an adjoining rehabilitation ward at Pantang which is also in a deplorable state of repair.

His intention is to return to the hospital next year in order to see for himself the difference the fund-raising has made.

Readers who might wish to contribute to his cause can do so via the Paypal Donate Button on his Blog Page at: http://volunteermentalhealthghana.tumblr.com.
Graignamanagh, the town that drowned during Storm Frank at the end of 2025 has dried out, spruced itself up and announced plans for its annual three-day Town of Books Festival during the last weekend of August.

The town will be transformed into Irelands Town of Books as 27 booksellers from Ireland and Britain establish pop-up bookshops complemented by a host of fringe activities. The booksellers will offer thousands of second-hand, rare and antiquarian books - in all categories and price ranges - to appeal to both collectors and casual browsers. One shop will be devoted to publications by local authors. The festival is designed to appeal to families and to encourage children to take an interest in books while also attracting traditional book collectors.

Graignamanagh is a focal point on the Barrow Line riverside walk which was shortlisted among the top five destinations in the Irish Times Best Day Out in Ireland awards. A few months later the town was badly affected by the December 2015 floods when the River Barrow and its tributary the Duiske burst their banks. Dramatic images of the raging torrent on high Street made international headlines. But the homes and business have been dried out and repaired.

Town of Books festival director Martin OBrien said the event would be chance for Graignamanagh to show it has recovered from Storm Frank and is back in business. He said the programme of family-friendly fringe events included a busking competition (on Saturday, August 27 and Sunday August 28)  open to musicians in all categories with 1,000 in prize money; a food and crafts fair featuring local produce and guided walks of Duiske Abbey and the monks sculpture trail. The Graignamanagh Brass Band will perform to celebrate Graignamanagh rising again from the flood waters.

The festivals sponsor, Sheppards Irish Auction House will host an Antiques Roadshow-type event on Sunday afternoon from 2 to 5pm in the Boat House. Auctioneer Philip Sheppard said experts will offer valuations of art, antiques and historical collectibles including mementos of the 1916 Rising. The valuations are free but a voluntary contribution (5 for a single item, 10 for three) will raise funds for Gahan House Home for the Elderly. Last year, the event attracted large crowds seeking valuations on china, clocks, silver, guns, paintings, medals and coins.

For further information see www.graiguenamanaghtownofbooks.com
Measurements carried out at KIT will determine the effect of soiled solar panels on the output of photovoltaic systems caused by deposited mineral dust. (Photo: Sandra Gottisheim)

A hazy sky and dirty cars are well-known consequences of Saharan dust carried to Europe by air currents. As part of the PerduS project, the German Weather Service (DWD), the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and meteocontrol are currently examining how dust  as haze in the atmosphere and deposited on solar panels  affects the output of photovoltaic systems. The aim is to provide a more reliable forecast for the output of photovoltaic systems through a better prediction of the spread of dust.

When it comes to Saharan dust outbreaks, the photovoltaic output is reduced not only through a significant increase in atmospheric aerosol content by 10 to 20 percent, but also through dust deposition on the photovoltaic modules on subsequent days. These are the findings of preliminary investigations by the project partners. Often the term blood rain is used in combination with the soiling of cars by Saharan dust mixing with rain.

With Saharan dust outbreaks, atmospheric currents carry dust blown up in the Sahara over very long distances, even as far as Central Europe, Dr. Bernhard Vogel, meteorologist at KIT, explains. On a long-term average, we're observing this on four days a month in spring and summer in Germany, and in some years on up to nine days a month.

According to the Federal Statistical Office, six percent of total gross electricity was generated by photovoltaic systems in Germany in 2015. The installed capacity of all photovoltaic systems is around 39 gigawatts in the whole of Germany, which means that the systems can produce a peak output of more than 30 gigawatts on cloudless days. This corresponds to the output of more than 20 German nuclear power plants. So far, output forecasts cannot yet realistically take into account the effect of Saharan dust, but the project team thinks that this is necessary to ensure grid stability.

The Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy is funding the PerduS research project for four years. The primary objective is to bring together all components in a forecasting process, which are necessary for taking into account Saharan dust outbreaks for the prediction of the photovoltaic output. This involves expanding ICON, the numerical weather forecast model from DWD, with an improved dispersion prediction of desert dust in collaboration with KIT. The ICON-ART modelling system will then be used for future dust outbreaks alongside the commonly used numerical weather prediction. This means that the system will provide information on the sunlight which is reduced by simulated dust distribution. Based on this, the forecast service provider meteocontrol will produce power forecasts, and evaluate the technical and economic benefit of the new forecast system. The expected soiling of photovoltaic systems by the deposited Saharan dust will also be estimated, and how soon the dust will be washed off by rain later on.

ICON-ART modelling system and measuring systems used

To expand the ICON modelling system, which has been used at DWD for the daily numerical weather prediction since January 2015, the Institute of Meteorology and Climate Research at KIT developed the ART module (Aerosols and Reactive Trace Gases). It enables the dispersion of particles such as mineral dust and sea salt and their interaction with clouds to be simulated. In the past and also in collaboration with DWD, ICON-ART was used in forecasts for simulating the dispersion of ash particles following volcanic eruptions. KIT's main research objectives in PerduS are to further develop the description of dust emissions in the Saharan source region, and to better describe the interaction between dust particles and atmospheric radiation.

What's more, measurements at the solar power storage park at KIT Campus North are carried out to determine the level of soiling of the solar panels by deposited mineral dust and its effect on photovoltaic output. The scientists also use these measurements to record the effect of precipitation in cleaning the solar panels again. To achieve this they use precipitation radar, KIT's measuring tower, instruments for measuring droplet size distribution and the amount of precipitation, and DWD's Aerosol lidar system. The descriptions of the relevant processes derived from these measurements will then be integrated into the ICON-ART modelling system.

More information on the KIT Climate and Environment Center: http://www.klima-umwelt.kit.edu

Being The Research University in the Helmholtz Association, KIT creates and imparts knowledge for the society and the environment. It is the objective to make significant contributions to the global challenges in the fields of energy, mobility, and information. For this, about 9,800 employees cooperate in a broad range of disciplines in natural sciences, engineering sciences, economics, and the humanities and social sciences. KIT prepares its 22,300 students for responsible tasks in society, industry, and science by offering research-based study programs. Innovation efforts at KIT build a bridge between important scientific findings and their application for the benefit of society, economic prosperity, and the preservation of our natural basis of life. KIT is one of the German universities of excellence.
Weve all encountered them, the intelligent, charming, and persuasive gentlemen who are deeply interested in our welfare and want to let us in on a plan they have to become wealthy. One of the most skillful cons in history actually took place in the early 1820s at the hands of a man known as Gregor MacGregor, who would use the existing political and economic atmosphere to con his contemporaries out of nearly $1.3m.1 -- today, that amount would come to $3.6 billion. While it stands as a massive con game, it doesnt even come close to that being pulled by the US government involving the gold in Fort Knox.

The con started in 1933 with Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the man commonly referred to by adherents as FDR. The country was in the middle of a banking crisis that set the stage for a perfect con by the government, one couched in concern for the people of the US and framed in a way that made us believe it would benefit us. This couldnt be further from the truth, but just like the efforts of Gregor MacGregor, its a hallmark of confidence men that they sell us the belief that they care for us, when in fact theyre only interested in benefiting themselves.

What did this con include? In the middle of a banking crisis, people had begun to lose confidence in the banks (theres that word again, confidence), and it was the professed belief of FDR that " the banks will take care of all needs, except, of course, the hysterical demands of hoarders, and it is my belief that hoarding during the past week has become an exceedingly unfashionable pastime in every part of our nation.2 He made it clear that he believed that the banks were our salvation and that it was safer to keep your money in a reopened bank than it is to keep it under the mattress.2

Now, unlike the good MacGregor, there was no need for FDR to convince the American people of anything before the fact, he simply utilized the power of Executive Order to push EO 6073 through, known as the Emergency Banking Act (EBA). How suspicious was this maneuver? It entered the house, and exited it, in 40 minutes flat. Not a single printed copy was provided to the representatives.

So what exactly did all of this lead to? Simple It prohibited the owning of gold coins, gold bullion, or gold certificates, and ordered that those in possession of such items surrender them to the government, which led to the construction of Fort Knox so that all of it could be stored. Weve not had any clear idea of how much gold has been inside since, and the government refuses to allow a 3rd party audit to answer that question.

All of this comes down to reveal one fundamental truth, the government has absolutely no interest in our welfare, nor in assuaging our concerns about what happened to all the gold that was confiscated in that vanishing act so long ago. Thankfully, 50 years later, gold was once again made legal to be owned by the public.

Steve Forbes of the Forbes staff heralded this in an October 2012 article, stating that, an unstable dollar is wreaking havoc on our capital markets, depriving us of money for productive enterprises and future enterprises while subsidizing government debt on a scale never before seen in U.S. history.3

In essence, were discovering that the way our finances are being handled is having a devastating impact on the value of our wealth and stability of our income. In fact, many people feel that their actual incomes are falling in value, and every day it becomes more difficult to maintain any sort of financial foundation. So what are we to do?

According to Forbes the best response is to remove legal barriers to alternative, nongovernment currencies in the U.S. We are allowed to use pounds, yen, euros and any other currency to carry out a transaction. Why not allow metal-based or -backed currencies to be used?3 Currently attempts to do so have been devastating, with the Ur example being Bernard von NotHaus who created a company to produce coins and bills known as Liberty Dollars backed by Gold and Silver Bullion. The governments reaction was rapid and clear, he is currently facing significant jail time as a result.3

However it appears that there is a movement to start removing this impediment, and some of them are starting in the most unusual of places, specifically in Utah. eliminate all taxes on transactions in gold and silver bullion.3 Followed by a decree that U.S.-minted gold and silver coins are legal as currency.3 Which, really, is just a return to the days before the 1933 decree, when our government was in the business of issuing gold-based dollars.

With these clear signs that gold is on the rise as a valid currency again, it only makes sense to invest in these precious metals in preparation for a massive surge in their overall value. American finance may be in trouble as the promissory notes issued by our mints rise and fall in value, but gold retains its value regardless of our nations economy. Now thats a smart investment. With all of this to consider, feel free to sign up for your FREE newsletter and stay informed in the junior mining space.

Happy Investing!

By Kal Kotecha PhD

Editor of the Junior Gold Report

email: kal@juniorgoldreport.com

website: www.juniorgoldreport.com

References
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To this day Im not sure how we got on the topic, but Cheri and I were deep in a conversation about our dead relatives. From my perspective, they were a lot safer than talking about her living ones and we werent even married yet. What started out as just a passing comment became somewhat competitive.I mentioned that I was related to President Ulysses S. Grant. Um, she pondered and said, Do you still struggle with alcohol in your family? Cute was all I could come up with. Cheri mentioned that she was related to Sir Francis Drake, one of England greatest explorers.Hmm, thought I, so does your family still struggle with stealing under the guise of working for the government? Drake was a pirate. Cheri furled her brow. Without missing a beat I fired another shot across her bow, I guess theyre called politicians today, huh? I also suppose youre related to Matthew in the days of Jesus, he was a publican.Cheri reached down and gently took the gloves off as my oral diarrhea flowed over. Im related to Mary Queen of Scots. We are of the Stuart line, I proudly boasted with a horrible Scottish accent.Ignoring my attempt at imitating a Scot she sarcastically queried: So you tend to be born premature and unhealthy. Husbands are particularly in danger in your bloodline as Marys first husband lasted two years. Her second husband lived four years. She was arrested with her third husband, who was accused of murdering her second husband. After her release from prison, she attempted a coup of the King, her son, from her second husband. She took a breath and then continued.The coup failed and she fled to Elizabeth I, Queen of England, her cousin once removed. Since Mary felt Elizabeths throne rightfully belonged to her, Elizabeth threw her in prison again. There she remained for 18 years until she was found guilty of plotting the death of Elizabeth and was beheaded. So I guess youre from a long line of royal convicts who hold long grudges, dont believe in divorce as death is quicker and less expensive, and you always think you deserve someone elses kingdom?I felt like my ancestors were getting shafted, so I pulled another royalty relative out of my history, Im actually part Mohawk. Cheri did a double take. Yep, thats right. Im directly related to a famous Mohawk princess.Whats her name? Cheri asked.I dunno, its Mohawk and I cant pronounce it. It didnt fly as a smirk came over my lovely fiances face and she shared the following story.Im related to Hannah Dustin who was a colonial Massachusetts Puritan and mother of nine. She lived during the King William War and shortly after the birth of her ninth child (daughter), the Mohawks raided her colony, called the Raid on Haverhill, and killed 27 colonists.She broke her narrative like a station identification, paused, and then said, Hmm, your relatives tend to be rather mean spirited and use death as their method of conflict resolution. And you say youre majoring in International Relations? Its about time someone in your line learns diplomacy.This wasnt going well for my ancestors. So what happened to this Hannah of Green Gables? I asked. Its Hannah Dustin, she corrected me and continued. Well, when they raided the village, one of the raiding braves grabbed six-day old Martha and smashed her against a nearby tree and then took Hannah with the raiding party as a slave.Gadfree, was all I could say. I have a knack for intelligent comments sometimes.Soon Hannah was assigned into a group of 12 Indians and taken north. Six weeks into the experience, as the braves were drunk and asleep, Hannah, with the help of another captive, got loose and used a tomahawk to kill her captors and scalped them. Upon her return she collected a bounty for the Indian scalps and used them as proof of her ordeal.I was amazed at the story, but realizing the competition was still afoot, I gathered my thoughts, So youre saying that if I dont kidnap you, smash your daughter against a tree, and never get drunk, its safe to marry you?You are invited to come and learn about your family roots at the Family Discovery Day on Aug. 6 at the LDS church: 12002 Peacock Hill in Gig Harbor from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. All are invited and there will be a nursery provided for the little ones. (No known Mohawks will be in the nursery.) Classes are provided for all ages, 311, novices and experts. Lunch is provided.See you there!
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By Kathleen Parker

PHILADELPHIA  If political conventions tell us anything beyond the predictable, the one held last week in Cleveland and the other going on this week in Philadelphia pose contrasts so stark that one wonders if the two groups hail from the same country. Hint: One of them didn't present a diverse cross-section of America.

Whereas Cleveland's arena was a relatively sparsely populated panorama of predominantly pale faces animated by anger, Philadelphia's is a teeming, multicolored mass of (mostly) joyous celebration. In starkest contrast, Bernie Sanders, unlike Republican runner-up Ted Cruz, handed the baton and a passionate endorsement to his party's nominee.

The Democratic convention managed to wrestle unity from the Sanders crowd while Republicans left their gathering as divided as ever. Not even the storied email scandal  the hacked Democratic National Committee files released on convention eve, not Clinton's private server  failed to mute the enthusiasm of delegates.

On opening night, a series of speakers carefully culled from the trove of democratic demographics related personal stories that were lovely and touching, if at times it felt like a group-therapy session. Then along came comedian Sarah Silverman, who broke the spell with a little reality therapy, telling the "Sanders or Bust" crowd, "You're being ridiculous."

Did she just say that?

This is what passes for scandal when banal DNC emails make one yearn for the days of gloved burglars with flashlights. Even speculation about Russian intelligence being behind the hack and trying to influence the outcome of the presidential election (really?) pales next to the flesh-and-blood drama of Watergate.

The Russian conspiracy theories, loosely posited by the Clinton campaign and others, go something like this:

Donald Trump has expressed admiration of Vladimir Putin. Trump has recently turned more pro-Russia, suggesting he wouldn't interfere with Russian aggression if NATO members don't pay a fair share for their defense. Oh, and Trump has refused to release tax returns. Might they reveal business associations with certain Russian parties?

Then, too, the hackers, who did not breach the Republican National Committee, according to the FBI, could just be messing around.

Either the Russians have no interest in what Republicans chat about or they don't need to spy because (cue "Bourne Identity" soundtrack) Trump and Putin are already in constant contact. Actually, rumor has it that Trump's hairdo conceals a chip that feeds his thoughts directly into a computer located in an underground silo in remotest Kamchatka, where analysts celebrate the coming New Russian Empire with shots of Trump Vodka.

But I digress.

After Silverman, who was paired with the formerly funny Sen. Al Franken, came a series of heavy hitters, including fellow Sens. Cory Booker, Elizabeth Warren and Sanders with affirming and unifying messages. First lady Michelle Obama, who stole the show, was gracious as she serially insulted Trump without once mentioning his name  the ultimate put-down.

Contrast this to the direct, full-frontal, name-calling insult-a-thon that has been the Trump campaign. Even winning the nomination failed to improve his mood or personality. Winning has always been Trump's endgame, so why wasn't he happy?

By contrast, there's no reason to imagine that the first woman ever to be nominated to the presidency will maintain a grim expression as Trump did following his nomination. He obviously made a decision to forgo the victor's grin and instead bear the countenance of a general about to enter war. Happy warrior isn't in his repertoire.

Whatever one's political persuasion, objectively, the future belongs to the party that reflects the nation it aspires to lead. This would not be the party whose platform, though not binding, seeks to undo many of the rights  reproductive choice and same-sex marriage  that most Americans find acceptable.

The math simply doesn't support a viable Republican Party without a long period of reconstruction following the Trump demolition. This is true if Trump wins or loses.

In the meantime, sentient Americans aren't the only ones worried about what comes next. On Tuesday, I moderated a panel before an international audience hosted by National Democratic Institute. A woman from Africa summarized the sentiments of the larger group with her question. Noting that people around the world depend on the United States to be the shining light for all, she asked: Who is the best to provide the moral leadership of America?

The world awaits our answer.
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I already miss first lady Michelle Obama.

Her inspiring speech at the Democratic National Convention Monday night was one of the few times in this long chaotic political season that I actually felt hopeful that somehow, some way this country might actually rise above the hateful rhetoric and tragic pall we've been under.

Clearly, she was there to try to get Hillary Clinton elected. Yes, she spoke in support of protesters and police officers.

But in about 14 minutes, she eloquently got to the heart of what we all have in common: wanting the very best future for our children.

The words that resonated the most were about how she and President Barack Obama have had to teach their daughters not to listen to the hateful things people have said about their father's citizenship and faith.

And boy have people said some vile and racist things about both their parents. Crazy disrespectful stuff people go to great lengths to try to shield their children from. It's heartbreaking to imagine what those girls have probably heard and seen.

"Our motto is: 'When they go low, we go high,'" Michelle Obama said. Let those words sink in a minute.

That's the definition of grace and dignity. When people are cruel or negative, don't wallow in the muck with them. This is the foundation on which many of us were raised. It's a message we all needed to hear right here and right now.

Many political observers pointed out correctly that Michelle Obama stole the show on the DNC's first night. It's a given that people will throw partisan rocks and pick apart each word of her speech. Her candidate is not their candidate. That's fair game.

But I urge people to carefully listen to that speech again no matter who you favor in November.

Michelle Obama spoke of a country of people who have overcome obstacles. Of the greatness of a country in which a black family has lived in the White House for eight years that was built by slaves. Of inclusiveness and accepting differences. Of listening to each other when crisis strikes. Of gender equality.

No wonder she's so popular. Quite frankly, she's an optimistic breath of fresh air. She's been a steadfast advocate for women, children and veterans.

Democrat or Republican, she's represented all of us well. Here's hoping we'll still hear lots from her  even after she's left 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

Leona Allen is a columnist for the Dallas Morning News. Readers may email her at ldallen@dallasnews.com.
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By Leonard Pitts

We're not going to spend a lot of time talking about what happened.

Not that Austin Police Officer Bryan Richter's June 2015 takedown  let's not dignify it by calling it an "arrest"  of 26-year-old school teacher Breaion King is not worthy of discussion. As seen in a dashcam video unearthed last week by the Austin American-Statesman, Richter, who is white, hauls King, who is African American, out of her car, twice slams her to the ground, shackles her hands behind her back and forces her down to the hood of his patrol car, her arms held high to maximize pain and compliance.

King's sin? During a traffic stop, she gave Richter a little lip. "Could you please hurry up?" she snips. And he proceeds to lose his mind.

So what happened is certainly worth talking about. But it is what was said afterward that is ultimately more insidious. King, shackled in the back of a police cruiser, is convinced her mistreatment is related to the color of her skin. She asks another white officer, Patrick Spradlin, if he believes racism still exists.

Spradlin answers affirmatively. "But let me ask you this," he says. "Do you believe it goes both ways?"

She says yes, but starts explaining about how whites have more power. Spradlin isn't buying it. "Why are so many people afraid of black people?" he asks. "...Violent tendencies. ... That's why a lot of the white people are afraid and I don't blame them."

Spradlin is speaking, mind you, to a slightly built woman his beefy colleague just violently assaulted for no reason other than pique. More to the point, he is speaking to a woman whose heritage includes 400 years of kidnapping, lynching, bombing, burning, rape, riot and, yes, police brutality, at the hands of people who look like him.

But it is "black people"  note that no other qualifier is necessary  who, he says, have these supposed "violent tendencies."

And let us not ignore Spradlin's talk of how racism "goes both ways." Here's what King was trying to explain when he cut her off:

The black person who doesn't like white people can call names, maybe even physically assault some individual. But she has virtually no power to express that bigotry with impunity upon multiple victims through public institutions. If she is a cop she cannot, for example, physically assault white motorists for no reason and expect to get away with it. By contrast, do you know how Bryan Richter was "punished" for his brutality?

He had to go for counseling. Oh, and extra training.

Spradlin is not alone in embracing false equivalence, though. A 2011 study by Professors Michael Norton of Harvard and Samuel Sommers of Tufts University, finds that many white Americans now identify bias against them as a bigger problem than bias against blacks.

They can point to no statistic to support this absurd idea  there is none. Unfortunately, the new American ethos, as illustrated vividly last week at the GOP Convention, holds that the truth you "feel" is more authoritative than the truth that is actually, well ... true.

Since the video of Richter's brutality came to light, the police chief and various city officials have pronounced themselves appalled and there is talk of reform. That's all well and good, but this is bigger than police. Police reflect the society they serve. So, though most of them would know better than to say it out loud, Spradlin's thinking recurs in landlords who won't rent, bankers who won't lend, doctors who won't treat, executives who won't hire.

It recurs in an ongoing daily act of battery upon African-American aspiration. And hope. And faith.

Bryan Richter assaulted Breaion King. Of that, there can be no doubt. By contrast, Spradlin only talked to her, their conversation calm and composed. But make no mistake.

He assaulted her, too.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi(C) speaks to the press after the meetings in Vientiane, capital of Laos, on July 26, 2016.(Photo/Xinhua)

VIENTIANE, July 27 -- Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said here on Tuesday that the political manipulation behind the arbitral tribunal will be revealed, in response to the comments made by some foreign ministers on the South China Sea arbitration case.

Wang expounded on China's position when attending the 6th East Asia Summit Foreign Ministers' Meeting held in the Lao capital Vientiane.

Wang said China has not participated in the arbitration case and will not accept the so-called ruling, a position that China has made clear since day one and is supported by strong legal basis.

By adopting this position, China is safeguarding the sanctity and impartiality of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), said the Chinese foreign minister.

First, the arbitration unilaterally initiated by the former Philippine government violated the principle of having the consent of concerned parties as the basis of arbitration and failed to meet the prerequisite of conducting full exchange of views beforehand, thus lacking the legal conditions to be initiated.

What the former Philippine government had done also abandoned bilateral agreements between China and the Philippines and violated Article 4 of the Declaration on Conducts of the Parties in the South China Sea (DOC) as well as the principle of estoppel prescribed in international law, according to Wang.

Second, he said, the subject matters of the arbitration, however packaged, in fact directly concern territorial sovereignty and maritime delimitation which are beyond the scope of the UNCLOS and the jurisdiction of the ad hoc tribunal. It is a typical act of overstepping the power and ultra vires as well as the abuse of dispute arbitration mechanism.

Wang said by citing a prominent legal expert from Europe that the arbitration case undoubtedly touches upon territorial sovereignty which is not governed by the UNCLOS. The tribunal's practice of separating territorial sovereignty dispute with the status of islands and reefs is unseen in international law, which is like "putting the cart before the horse."

Third, the ruling of the ad hoc tribunal is full of obvious mistakes, Wang said. It blatantly uses its self-invented rules to negate and deprive the lawful and legitimate territorial sovereignty, maritime rights and interests of parties concerned. In particular, it says that Taiping Dao, the largest island in the Nansha Islands with an area of 500,000 square meters, is a rock and has no relevant maritime rights.

If such a judgment can legally stand, the sea map of the world will need to be redrawn, Wang said.

Wang stressed that this ruling runs counter to the spirit of international rule of law as well as the principle and spirit of the UNCLOS.

"This arbitration is imbued with question marks and fallacies in terms of procedure, legal application, fact finding and evidence gathering," he said.

The so-called ruling is illegal in three aspects: the initiation of the arbitration is illegal, the set-up of the tribunal is illegal, and the result of the arbitration is illegal. Therefore, China's stance is fully legitimate which serves the purpose of upholding international equity and justice and regional peace and stability, Wang said.

The Chinese foreign minister said more and more countries have come to see the nature and danger of the arbitration case, and understand and acknowledge China's stance to resolve disputes through direct negotiation and consultation, calling for respect to the rights of sovereign states to independently choose dispute settlement means including respecting the declaration on optional exceptions made under Article 298 of the UNCLOS.

There are also more and more legal experts around the world questioning the legality of the arbitration case and the fairness of the ruling, Wang said, noting that the illegal nature of the so-called South China Sea arbitration case and the political manipulation hidden behind the ad hoc arbitral tribunal will be further revealed.
The Herald reports:

A priest has been beheaded and a nun is fighting for her life after two knife-wielding Islamic State terrorists took worshippers hostage at a church in northern France.

The attackers were shot and killed after raiding a morning Mass at 9am Tuesday (7pm Tuesday NZT) in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, near Rouen in Normandy.

A third suspect  pictured wearing a white T-shirt and blue tracksuit pants  has been arrested.

Father Jacques Hamel, 84, was slaughtered by the assailants.

A nun who was in the church during the attack said he was forced to the ground before his throat was slit.
Jeremy Sammut writes at CIS:

Banning Muslim immigration  as TV personality Sonia Kruger has urged  would cause more problems than it would solve. It would, at a minimum, violate the first rule of a successful non-discriminatory immigration program, which is that you cannot invite people into a country, insult them, and not expect to compromise social cohesion.

I agree. Treating all 1.4 billion Muslims as identical in views and beliefs is as silly as thinking the Pope and Brian Tamaki have the same views and beliefs.

That said, Kruger does not deserve the abuse that has been doled out for thinking aloud about Islamist terrorism and throwing up the idea of a religion-based migration bar. The idea that Kruger is a racist is absurd. What is more telling is that someone who is far from being a culture warrior dared to cross a cultural fault line and express such an un-PC opinion. Kruger is a modern woman who, like most of us, takes the norms of western democratic societies for granted. Like most of us, as well, she finds it unfathomable that religious belief would motivate the kind of horrific acts of political violence that are proliferating in number and scale in countries with large Muslim populations. Unlike her critics, at least Kruger is honest, and takes the religious origins of terrorism seriously  and doesnt buy the myth that atrocities like Paris and Nice are nothing to do with religion.

Krugers solution was wrong, but you should be able to debate the issue.

So far this year there have been 1,309 Islamic attacks, which is about seven a day. And more and more of these are happening in Western countries, so it is no surprise that people are scared and want to debate how to make their communities safer.

There have, of course, been predictable claims made about hatred and Islamophobia  lead by local Islamic leaders and organisations. Once again, the Islamic community has failed to adopt a more constructive approach. Instead of denying that terrorism has anything to do with Islam, they should accept that the kind of concerns Kruger articulated about religiously-motivated terrorism are entirely legitimate. Many Australians simply do not understand why the Islamic community cannot come out strongly and state plainly that they share their fellow citizens concerns about what a minority of their co-religionists do in the name of their religion. If they did this, they would practise what I think is the second rule of a successful non-discriminatory immigration program: fears about social cohesion are best addressed not by migrant groups playing the perpetual victim, but by demonstrating that these groups fully share and believe in mainstream Australian values.

Well said.

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Chris Trotter writes:

Paul Gourlie broke all the rules of student politics. In pre-student loans New Zealand, when the universities were still capable of disgorging thousands of student protesters on to the streets, Paul re-defined what it meant to be a student politician. Not for him the varsity student uniform of jeans and T-shirts. To the consternation of the Otago student body, The Governor (as Paul styled himself) sailed across their campus in a starched wing-collar and a flapping under-graduate gown. His critics may have described him as a cross between Dracula and Batman  but Paul didnt care. He wasnt interested in the votes of the student activists who wore badges and carried placards. The votes he was after were those of the students who didnt protest. The scarfies who saw life at university as an opportunity to have fun. The ones who found student politics boring. Pauls crucial political insight was that student activism was a minority sport, and that the left-wing rhetoric spouted by those activists left most students cold. What he offered the great silent majority of Otago students (who were neither active nor left-wing) was a wildly charismatic, fun-loving alternative to the stereotypical student politician. Pauls flamboyant speeches were fast, furious, funny and almost completely devoid of content. Ordinary students cheered him to the echo.

I was at Otago after Gourlie was there but his legend lived on. Off memory he was President of both OUSA and OPSA.

The left-wingers on campus were completely flummoxed. No one had the slightest idea how to fight  let alone beat  a candidate who appeared to have escaped from the pages of Tom Browns Schooldays (or, for the benefit of younger readers, Hogwarts). The Lefts obvious discomfiture only increased Pauls popularity: his merciless mocking of their candidates drawing wild applause. For a while, Paul Gourlie was invincible: one of only a handful of student presidents to serve two consecutive terms. Though they unfolded nearly 40 years ago, there is something disturbingly contemporary about The Gourlie Years. The US presidential election campaign of 2016 is stirring up old memories. Paul Gourlie, the student anti-politician, and Donald Trump, the populist anti-President, have more than a little in common. Not the least of these commonalities is the challenge presented to the Left by right-wing candidates of such uninhibited flamboyance. And, if comparing Trump to Otago Universitys student president of 1979-80 seems just a little too weird, then think instead of Italys Silvio Berlusconi. He, too, built a political career on the insight that, eventually, a great many voters become tired  even resentful  of social-democracys high-minded expectations. Sometimes all the punters want is a little bunga-bunga  and lower taxes.

The comparison of Trump to Berlusconi is a good one. Trump is not a fascist, but he is authoritarian. If he becomes President I imagine he would be like Berlusconi. That isnt a compliment by the way.

The Clinton-Kaine ticket suggests that the Democratic Convention will be long on worthiness and short on spark. If this is the way it plays out, then the Clinton Campaign will find itself in serious bother. Conventional pundits may have slammed the chaos and confusion of the Republican Convention, but in doing so they entirely missed the point. Trump wasnt interested in staging a well-run convention. What he wanted, and what he produced, was a riveting political mini-series; replete with heroes and heroines, hucksters and villains. For a whole week it was all anyone was talking about. What distinguishes Trumps campaigning from Gourlies and Berlusconis is the darkness and brutality of his rhetorical palette. The latter exploited voters grown weary of the Lefts moral exhortations. They ran on the alluring promise of exuberant amorality and laissez-faire administration. Trumps voters, by contrast, are driven by a toxic mixture of moral indignation and the violent desire to discipline and punish an America they no longer recognise as their own. Trumps campaign blends flamboyance, demagoguery and recklessness in equal measure. My gut feeling is that the cautious Hillary Clinton will fare as badly against The Donald as I did against The Governor.

The latest average of the polls has Trump and Clinton tied on 42% each.

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Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi(C) speaks to the press after the meetings in Vientiane, capital of Laos, on July 26, 2016. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said here on Tuesday that China and members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have exerted joint efforts to make the ministerial meetings focus on dialogue and cooperation. (Xinhua/Liu Ailun)

VIENTIANE, July 27 -- Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said here on Tuesday that China and members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have exerted joint efforts to make the ministerial meetings focus on dialogue and cooperation.

Wang told the Chinese media after the meetings in the Lao capital that most of the foreign ministers from 27 countries came to Vientiane with desire for cooperation.

This year marks the 25th anniversary of China-ASEAN dialogue relationship.

"China and the ASEAN nations have agreed to build a closer community of common destiny," Wang said, adding that they have set six priority areas for further development of China-ASEAN ties.

China and the 10 ASEAN members agreed to jointly strive to boost cultural and people-to-people exchanges as the third pillar for their cooperation besides the other two pillars, political-security dialogue and trade and economic ties.

The top Chinese diplomat said the foreign ministers' meeting between China and ASEAN nations (10+1)has made preparation for a commemorative summit marking the 25th anniversary for their dialogue relationship in September.

The foreign ministers also discussed differences, such as the South China Seaissue.

China and the ASEAN nations have reached an important consensus in Laos that they agreed to return to the right track of solving their disputes through dialogue and consultation, Wang noted.

The so-called arbitration case unilaterally initiated by the Philippineshas soured China-Philippines relations, adversely impacted regional stability and disturbed the process of implementing the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea (DOC) and accelerating negotiations for a Code of Conduct (COC) by China and ASEAN members.

ASEAN foreign ministers have made it clear that ASEAN as a whole will not take a position on the so-called arbitration case, which they believe is a bilateral issue between China and the Philippines, Wang said.

He also mentioned that China and the ASEAN nations issued a joint statement on full and effective implementation of the DOC, which stipulates that disputes should be resolved peacefully through negotiation between the parties directly concerned, and China and ASEAN countries should work together to maintain peace and stability in the South China Sea.

While firmly defending its territorial integrity, China is also ready to work with the ASEAN members to safeguard peace and stability in the region, and properly manage their differences so as to further promote their relations.

As for the ASEAN Plus Three (China, Japanand South Korea) or "10+3" mechanism, Wang said China proposed to build an East Asia Community based on the ASEAN Community.

China has clearly stated that the East Asia Summit (EAS) should serve as a "leaders-led strategic forum," for both political-security dialogue and economic cooperation.

According to the Chinese foreign minister, the 27-member ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) is mainly designed for preventive diplomacy and China will continue to play an active role in pushing forward its healthy development.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi(right) meets with US Secretary of State John Kerry in Vientiane, capital of Laos, July 25, 2016. [Photo/Xinhua]

Kerry says he will encourage Manila to pursue negotiations with Beijing

Washington agrees with Beijing that "the time has come" to move away from the tensions in the South China Sea and to "turn the page", US Secretary of State John Kerry said, adding that he will encourage the Philippines to pursue dialogue and negotiation with China in their dispute.

He made the comments to reporters in Vientiane, the capital of Laos, while recalling his meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Monday.

Both Wang and Kerry attended a range of multilateral meetings of the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations from Sunday to Tuesday.

Kerry told a news conference on Tuesday that "we don't take a position, as I said earlier, on the claimants" in the South China Sea issue. He said the US "would like to see a process of dialogue" between Beijing and Manila.

"I will be leaving to the Philippines this afternoon, meeting with President (Rodrigo) Duterte tomorrow, and I would encourage President Duterte to engage in dialogue and in negotiation," he said.

The consensus between Kerry and Wang surprised many observers, since Washington has publicly pressed Beijing to accept the recent ruling by the Arbitral Tribunal of The Hague in a case unilaterally initiated by Manila in 2013.

Wang told China Daily on Tuesday night that the three-day meetings were a success, and "the biggest consensus between China and ASEAN this year is to return to the track of resolving disputes through dialogue and consultation" after the arbitration ruling.

Wang said that since ASEAN said during the meetings that it takes no position as a whole on the arbitral ruling, the hyping about the South China Sea did not resolve the issue, but instead "offered excuses to forces outside the region to impose intervention".

Chen Qinghong, a researcher on Southeast Asian and Philippine studies at the China Institutes of Contemporary International Research, welcomed Washington's milder tone. "The possibility cannot be ruled out that Washington may require Manila to make the ruling a condition for future talks with China, while this condition has been refused by Beijing," Chen added.

On the sidelines of the meetings, Foreign Minister Miroslav Lajcak of Slovakia, which assumes the chairmanship of the European Union this year, told China Daily that the EU believes the South China issue should be solved "in a direct dialogue of parties affected".

He said that "we are pleased by the joint communique" achieved on Monday in the meeting between ASEAN member states and China, which renewed commitment to managing the disputes.

"We believe that this is a step in the right direction, and we believe that in this spirit, the progress will continue in the future," he added.

Zhou Fangyin, a professor of Chinese foreign policy at Guangdong Institute for International Strategies, said the meetings "set a tone" for ASEAN's future South China Sea policies, and ASEAN's not taking a position on the arbitration ruling "will be a restraint for Manila".
CAITIE MCMEKIN / NEWS SENTINEL Mary Kilburn, of Messer Construction, Erin Harlow, of Michael Brady Inc., Lois Adcock, of Keenland Heights, Nicole Franse, of S&ME Inc., and Emmy Buckingham, also of S&ME Inc., pause for a photo in front of construction at University of Tennessee on Friday, July 15, 2016. The five women are part of the South East chapter of the National Association of Women in Construction, which is celebrating it's 50th Anniversary this year.

SHARE Mary Kilburn, of Messer Construction, Erin Harlow, of Michael Brady Inc., Lois Adcock, of Keenland Heights, Nicole Franse, of S&ME Inc., and Emmy Buckingham, also of S&ME Inc., pause for a photo in front of construction at University of Tennessee on Friday, July 15, 2016. The five women are part of the South East chapter of the National Association of Women in Construction, which is celebrating it's 50th Anniversary this year. (CAITIE MCMEKIN / NEWS SENTINEL) Mary Kilburn, of Messer Construction, Erin Harlow, of Michael Brady Inc., Lois Adcock, of Keenland Heights, Nicole Franse, of S&ME Inc., and Emmy Buckingham, also of S&ME Inc., pause for a photo in front of construction at University of Tennessee on Friday, July 15, 2016. The five women are part of the South East chapter of the National Association of Women in Construction, which is celebrating it's 50th Anniversary this year. (CAITIE MCMEKIN / NEWS SENTINEL)

By Ali James of the Knoxville News Sentinel

Long before women's liberation, there were women forging careers in male-dominated fields, including construction.

This week, the Knoxville chapter of the National Association of Women in Construction celebrates its 50th anniversary. The local chapter was started in 1966, and is part of a national organization with a membership of more than 5,500. The organization's main goal has been to advance the causes of all women in construction.

NAWIC originally began as Women in Construction of Fort Worth (Texas) in 1953. Sixteen women working in the construction industry founded it to create a support network. It was so successful that it gained its national charter in 1955.

The Knoxville chapter held a luncheon celebration on Tuesday at the Baker Donelson law office, which included state Sen. Becky Massey; NAWIC's national president-elect, Connie Leiperd; and Knoxville Deputy Mayor Christi Branscom.

Mary Kilburn has been a member since 2005 and is currently serving as the 50th Anniversary Celebration Event chair. Kilburn is a senior project accountant for Messer Construction.

Branscom, who attended on behalf of Mayor Madeleine Rogero, actually owns her own company, Grace Construction, which was lead builder on the Knoxville Extreme Home Makeover in 2012.

"Mayor Rogero has been a real advocate for our organization," Kilburn said. "Knoxville majors have given us a proclamation every year.

"We definitely want to bring the ladies who are in the construction industry together," Kilburn said. "Not just the people who are on a construction site -- the whole gamut of construction, architecture, engineering, banking, legal services -- any relation to construction."

Angie McNair was the Knoxville chapter president several times, she said.

She also was Region 2 director on the national board from 2004-06; the region included 15 chapters at the time.

"I joined the Fort Worth group where it all began and was privileged to have known some of the founding members of NAWIC," she said. "I returned to Knoxville in August 1999, and I immediately transferred to the Knoxville chapter."

McNair retired in 2014 after spending nearly all of her career in the construction industry. She started out as a receptionist and worked in various administrative and office manager roles. She credits the education and support she received through NAWIC for her success in the industry.

The Knoxville chapter members were much like the members in Fort Worth, according to McNair.

"The ladies of that era were classy, sassy, determined and would take on the world," she said. "The first president of the Knoxville chapter, Vivian Beretta of Beretta Tile, worked until her 90s and still did bookkeeping the old-fashioned way, with ledgers and accounts and no computer.

"During one particularly rough time [for the organization], she told me to get my chin up and do what she knew I was capable of doing," McNair said. "She told me she didn't help form the Knoxville chapter just to see it fail. Much of my determination to keep the chapter going, even when we were down to five members, came from the example set by these women."

Leira Douthat, client manager at S&ME, Inc. is the current chapter president.

"I'm starting my 20th year with the company," Douthat said. "We do geotechnical environmental testing and due diligence before construction begins.

"When I joined NAWIC in 2010, there were about 22 [local] members," she said. "Then of course there was the crisis in 2009, and we had seven members. Many companies had to cut their budgets and could no longer pay for their membership .Many people were taking pay cuts or losing their jobs."

The chapter changed when and where it meets, and has grown membership back to 19, with three more members ready to join. They currently meet on the third Tuesday of each month, often at Baker Donelson and occasionally hosted at vendor sites. The members network, talk business and listen to guest speakers over lunch.

Terri Adams has been chapter president three times. She has worked in the construction industry for 30 years and is currently an administrative assistant in the environmental department at S&ME, Inc. She previously worked as a risk manager for a general contractor.

"When I joined in 1995, I was able to meet many of the members who were active in the chapter when it formed," Adams said. "It was exciting to know that these women stepped out way before women's lib and tried to network, organize and befriend in a much more male-dominated industry. We now have chapters ... in Canada, Australia and South Africa.

Employer support for members is slowly increasing according to Adams.

"Some of the employers with more locations recognize the education focus and the national networking offered by NAWIC," she said.

"Having watched the organization through these years, I would like to point out to the young women in the field that there are still plenty of jobs for women in construction, and they are very much needed," Adams said.

According to Adams, NAWIC hands out scholarships to college students  both locally and nationally.

"A lot of them are architects, engineers or construction managers," she said. "We don't just need people who are college-educated. We need tradespeople, carpenters and the subcontractors."

The local chapter also participates in Mentoring a Girl in Construction (MAGIC), a nationwide, free, one-week, day camp designed to offer high-school-age girls the opportunity to learn about the opportunities available to women in the construction industry. The camp aims to engage young women via hands-on training in basic construction skills.
Pease Furniture Company, which started out as a grocery store in 1929 catercorner across Martin Mill Pike in South Knoxville before moving into this building in the 1930s, will be closing Aug 20, the owners say. The current owners are Sandy and Greg Snyder. Sandy Snyder is the granddaughter of the store's founder, Joe Pease.

SHARE Sandy and Greg Snyder stand in front of photos on the wall of Sandy Snyder's parents, Willie and Frances Pease, in their Pease Furniture Company store on Martin Mill Pike in South Knoxville. The Snyders are closing the store on Aug. 20; it was started in 1929. G. CHAMBERS WILLIAMS III/NEWS SENTINEL photos by G. CHAMBERS WILLIAMS III/NEWS SENTINEL Greg Snyder looks over a roomful of furniture at the Pease Furniture Company store on Martin Mill Pike that he runs with his wife, Sandy, who is granddaughter of the store's founder. A going-out-of-business sale is underway at Pease Furniture Company on Martin Mill Pike. The store, founded in 1929, will be closing Aug. 20 as the owners, Sandy and Greg Snyder, have sold the building and are planning to retire. G. CHAMBERS WILLIAMS III/NEWS SENTINEL

By Chambers Williams of the Knoxville News Sentinel

After Joe and Ama Pease opened their small grocery store on Martin Mill Pike in the Vestal community in 1929, they soon began stocking a few pieces of furniture, too, to see how that might work out with their budding new business.

The grocery side of the store didn't last long, but the Peases found a steady market for their furniture and appliances, and for more than 80 years, Pease Furniture Company has been a fixture on the same corner in South Knoxville just across the street from where the original grocery stood.

But now the business has run its course, says Sandy Pease Snyder, granddaughter of the store's founders. She is the current owner, along with her husband, Greg. They will close Pease Furniture on Aug. 20 to make room for an unnamed new owner, who plans to open at health and fitness center in the sprawling 29,000 square-foot building.

"This store has been my whole life," said Sandy Snyder, who began working there helping out her father, Willie Pease, in the late 1960s. Her husband joined the staff when the couple got married in 1971.

"My grandparents started the grocery across the street, and moved to this building when I was in high school," she said. "In the beginning, one half of the building was groceries, and the other half furniture. But it got to the point where we needed all of the space for furniture and appliances, and at one point we were the largest GE appliance dealer in East Tennessee."

Situated just across from Vestal United Methodist Church at the intersection of Martin Mill Pike and Ogle Avenue, the furniture store has grown over the years, with several additions, including the most recent -- a warehouse area at the rear. The whole complex sits on five parcels, Greg Snyder said.

The couple decided two years ago that they were ready to retire, and they put the building up for sale, rather than trying to sell the business, said Sandy Snyder, who is 69.

"We figured the best bet was just to sell the property," she said. "Although we've had it on the market for two years, this spring I got serious about it, dropped the price, and told the Realtor we needed to sell it."

There's a going-out-of-business sale under way now, but it's almost all furniture, as the appliance business -- including televisions -- dwindled to special orders only a few years ago as big-box stores began to undercut their prices, said Greg Snyder, who is 74.

The store even once had a booming business selling room air conditioners, back in the 1950s when they first became popular, well before the advent of central air conditioning.

The Snyders even have a black-and-white photo of Joe Pease demonstrating one of the air conditioners under a clear plastic tent in the store to a customer who had never experienced one.

"My father started working here when he was still in grammar school," Sandy Snyder said. "He was born in 1912, and passed away on Nov. 12, 1996. My mother, Frances, worked in both of the stores when she was younger."

Sandy Snyder's cousin Jerry Pease came to work in the store in 1971, and stayed until he retired about a year-and-a-half ago. He died June 6.

There is a proclamation on the wall from the Knox County Commission honoring the Peases for helping feed the poor from the grocery store during the Great Depression.

"They would give food to people who needed it during those hard times," she said.

Speaking of Willie Pease, Greg Snyder said:

"Sandy's daddy was one of the most honest people I've ever known. He did business the old-fashioned way, and so did we."
Tammy Ljunglbad/Kansas City Star/TNS Zucchini Soup is added to a base of low-salt chicken broth and flavored with the heat of a jalapeno and the fresh, pungent licorice-like flavor of basil.

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By Jill Wendholt Silva, The Kansas City Star (TNS)

In the 1970s, a bumper crop of zucchini was most often turned into quick bread and considered just shy of health food. James Beard even shares a recipe in "Beard on Bread," suggesting cooks could use whole-wheat flour in their breads, but they still contained prodigious amounts of sugar and vegetable oil.

But in most countries zucchini is treated as a vegetable. The French showcase zucchini in ratatouille, a tasty vegetable stew.

The Kansas City Star's Zucchini Soup offers another way to celebrate the flavor of summer without adding sugar and fat. The creamy soup is added to a base of low-salt chicken broth and flavored with the heat of a jalapeno and the fresh, pungent licorice-like flavor of basil.

The smaller the zucchini, the thinner the skin and the more tender the flesh. Look for zucchinis no longer than 8 inches in length. The flesh becomes too seedy in mature specimens and unappealingly fibrous.

This recipe can be pureed in a food processor, but this might be a good excuse to buy an inexpensive immersion blender.

ZUCCHINI SOUP

Makes 6 servings (total yield about 8 cups)

Ingredients

2 pounds small to medium zucchini (about 5 zucchini) stems trimmed but not peeled

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 large yellow onion, chopped

1 medium carrot, chopped

1/2 medium jalapeno pepper, seeded and minced

2 cloves garlic minced

1 (32-ounce) carton reduced-sodium chicken broth

Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste

1/4 cup coarsely chopped fresh basil

6 tablespoons freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Directions

1 Slice part of one zucchini into julienne strips to equal 1/2 cup strips, cutting each julienne strip about 1 to 1 1/2 inches long. Set julienne strips aside to use as a garnish. Quarter all the remaining zucchini lengthwise, then cut into 1/2- to 1-inch cubes. Set zucchini cubes aside.

2 Heat olive oil in a Dutch oven over medium high heat. Add onion and carrot, and cook, stirring frequently about 3 to 5 minutes or until onion is tender. Add jalapeno and garlic, and cook 1 minute.

3 Add broth and zucchini cubes. Season lightly with salt and generously with pepper. Heat until boiling. Reduce heat, cover and simmer 30 minutes or until zucchini is very tender.

4 Add basil and cook 2 to 3 minutes.

5 Remove soup from heat. Carefully, using an immersion blender, blend soup until smooth. (Alternately, pour soup into a large bowl and allow soup to cool slightly; ladle soup into a blender, in batches as necessary. Remove center from blender cover or cover leaving partially ajar so steam releases. Blend soup until smooth. Return soup to the hot pot and repeat with remaining soup.) Reheat soup if necessary.

6 To serve, ladle into serving bowls. Top each serving with julienne strips of zucchini and sprinkle with 1 tablespoon fresh grated Parmesan cheese.

Source: Kathy Moore and Roxanne Wyss
Greg Johnson, News Sentinel columnist.

Forget the boisterous booing in Cleveland and Philadelphia.

The battle of the establishment versus the insurgents has gone local, right here in the Tennessee Senate's 2nd District.

While your erstwhile commentator was perusing his smartphone last week, scrolling through stories on the USA Today website, there appeared state Sen. Doug Overbey, the incumbent Republican representing Blount and part of Sevier counties.

Then, this Tuesday on Real Clear Politics, came the ad again: "Sen. Doug Overbey tried to force Obamacare down Tennessean's throats! Learn even more "

The ad linked to the Tennessee Legislature website, to a bill Overbey sponsored at the request of the state's incredibly popular Gov. Bill Haslam. Overbey did, in fact, sponsor Haslam's "Insure Tennessee" reforms that would have expanded state-sponsored health care. The ad had nary a mention of the sponsor nor a hint of who paid for the spot on a national media platform.

But Overbey is under assault by Americans for Prosperity, a conservative group that ranks Overbey incredibly low, challenging Overbey's campaign slogan of "Effective Conservative Leadership." Overbey is opposed in the Republican primary by Scott P. Williams, a veteran, former IBM employee and financial adviser.

A list of Williams' contributors includes several tea party supporters and the Citizens for Home Rule PAC, making him the likely preferred candidate of AFP. Overbey's backers included financial services firms, several Sevier County businesses  including Dollywood  as well as health care, real estate, natural resources, and wine and spirits interests, in addition to numerous movers and shakers.

Overbey has a huge financial advantage with nearly $290,000 on hand as of his July 11 report, compared to Williams' $4,211. Overbey appears to hold an anecdotal edge in yard signs in Sevier and Blount counties, but his edge in elected officials' support is huge.

Pigeon Forge Vice Mayor Kevin McClure and Pigeon Forge Commissioner Ken Maples have endorsed Overbey on Twitter. Maples has been particularly active in his backing on Facebook as well. The Pigeon Forge Hospitality Association and the statewide Tennessee Hospitality and Tourism Association back Overbey.

Overbey narrowly defeated Ray Finney in the 2008 primary, so anything is possible. Overbey won a warmly contested primary in 2012 over a tea party challenger. With his calm conservatism and carefully cultivated local support, Overbey appears positioned to beat back the national group advertising on national media.
SHARE Christopher Anthony Burkett

By Jamie Satterfield of the Knoxville News Sentinel

When this 15-year-old girl refused to send a sexually explicit video of herself to the 19-year-old man she met on Facebook, he shut down all communication.

She was devastated. Her good-looking, sweet-hearted Internet beau had vowed love and marriage.

"I can't function at all," the girl wept in a voice mail left on his phone. "I've been crying my eyes out the whole day, crying in public at restaurants, crying at the Dairy Queen. I love you."

Little did she know her Facebook suitor was a 42-year-old Knoxville man living with his mother who not only had used similar "sextortion" tactics with other girls but allegedly had molested children in his past.

In the first child pornography case in East Tennessee and the second in the state to derive solely from distribution via Facebook's messenger service, Chief U.S. District Judge Tom Varlan sentenced Christopher Anthony Burkett on Wednesday to 250 months in prison, or just more than 20 years.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Morris played the 15-year-old girl's phone message at the U.S. District Court hearing Wednesday to drive home his point that although Burkett was not "physically in the room" with his victims when their naked selfies and videos were taken, his crimes were just as heinous.

"This is sextortion," Morris said. "This is a huge problem in our society."

The judge agreed.

"The defendant engaged in extensive emotional manipulation of minors," Varlan said. "He psychologically manipulated them to fulfill his own sexual desires. He told them he loved them, (promised) marriage."

Burkett eventually persuaded the 15-year-old, who lived in Minnesota, and a 14-year-old girl from North Carolina to send him explicit photos and videos in 2014 and had tried the same tactics with at least four others before the Knoxville Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force tracked him down.

Task Force Officer John Williams testified Burkett posed as a teenage boy recently dumped by a cheating girlfriend and filched a photo depicting a good-looking, muscled teenage boy from the Internet to send to the girls to convince them he was who he claimed to be.

Williams said he later learned Burkett allegedly molested a boy when the now-grown man was 11 and was suspected of molesting his own children, who did not live with him at the time of the sextortion.

Assistant Federal Defender Benjamin Sharp argued Burkett should receive no more than the minimum 15-year sentence, noting Burkett has a long history of alcohol abuse, depression and other mental health woes. His life spiraled down sharply in 2007 when he was placed on disability for "cluster headaches" and had to care for his ailing father, who later died, Sharp said.

"I was shut in all the time," Burkett said in a written statement. "I'm glad my father is not here to see this. I feel for the girls and their families and what they're going through. I'm truly embarrassed by what has happened."
A May 6, 1960, photograph shows workers demolishing the ruins of the Market House, which gutted by fire five months earlier. (KNS Archive)

SHARE Clad in buckskins, "Davy Crockett" actor Fess Parker is greeted by Mayor George Dempster on May 30, 1955, at Knoxville's Municipal Airport. The News Sentinel reported Parker was much impressed with the mayor's jokes. "The acting profession lost a fine comedian when Mayor Dempster decided to make money instead of movies," he said. (KNS Archive) Judd Acuff, a state representative from Fountain City who claimed Russian-born professors taught students at the University of Tennessee to be Communists, in a June 2, 1958, photograph. (KNS Archive) An arrow points out Republican presidential nominee Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower during an Oct. 15, 1952, campaign appearance at Knoxville's Municipal Airport. In his speech, Ike assured the crowd there was "no disposition on my part to impair the effective working out of TVA." News Sentinel Editor Loye Smith was among the dignitaries on the dais. (KNS Archive) In a September 1953 photograph, returned Korean War prisoner of war Carl O. Keller and his sister, Elizabeth Waggoner, provide a photo opportunity for the News Sentinel. The strange shadow is probably the photographer's camera strap. (KNS Archive)

By Matt Lakin

A stray spark did in an hour what war, weather and the whimsy of politicians couldn't do in a century.

Flames swept through the Market House that Sunday night of Dec. 6, 1959, and gutted the stalls at the heart of the building that had anchored commerce in downtown Knoxville since before the Civil War. The blare of sirens drowned out the ringing of church bells as firefighters converged on Market Square to try to save the historic structure.

"Several hundred persons gathered around the square to watch the blaze but could see little but the smoke pouring out the windows," the News-Sentinel wrote.

Firefighters contained the blaze to the building's core but estimated the cost of the damage at more than $170,000. The city had no insurance on the property. Neither did most of the vendors affected.

City officials said they wouldn't waste time or money on repairs ? even though the beloved spot had held a public farmers' market for the past 105 years. Some leaders secretly rejoiced at the chance to finally remove what they saw as a burdensome relic long past its prime.

Others warned if the Market House died, downtown might die with it.

The News Sentinel stood by at ringside as the battle shaped up between the prophets of progress and the defenders of tradition. Such clashes dominated Knoxville's politics since at least the 1920s and still shadow the city today.

The 1950s brought new battles and new stories ? from fires to fistfights at City Hall ? as the newspaper entered its seventh decade.

Loss of a landmark

The Market House had stood on the square in one form or another since 1854, when the first municipal farmer's market opened on the land deeded by William G. Swan and Joseph Mabry. The building the city knew and loved for so many years opened in 1897, dedicated by Mayor Samuel G. Heiskell.

Longtime Knoxvillians still recall the three-story, block-long brick edifice surrounded first by wagons, then by trucks loaded with produce hauled from farms as far away as the Kentucky, Virginia and North Carolina state lines. Butchers, florists, fishmongers and others lined the stalls inside, where a din of haggling voices and the smell of fresh-caught fish rose to the rafters.

City leaders had sought for years to do away with the Market House, which by the 1950s showed signs of dirt, dinginess and decay. Downtown boosters decried the landmark as an eyesore, a fire hazard and a money pit. Old-timers liked it fine the way it was.

The City Council voted 6-1 on Nov. 24, 1959, to condemn the building and tear it down to make way for an open-air mall. The resolution, introduced as an emergency measure, took effect on first reading with no one speaking against it.

The News-Sentinel cheered the vote as a victory for progress.

"Good riddance," an editorial declared. "The Market House, a stinking, rat-and-bug infested 19th Century blight on the downtown area, is at last to be done away with. We shed no tears, although it is possible that some disciples of the status quo will object."

'They will be sorry'

A petition to save the landmark had drawn 7,500 names by the night the Market House caught fire two weeks later. The ashes hadn't settled before charges of conspiracy began to fly.

"It's an awful big coincidence, isn't it?" said M.T. Scalf, a vendor who lost more than $16,000 in the fire. "Big monied interests wanting to tear down the Market House, against what the people want, and then this fire. ... The time will come when they will be sorry."

The flames turned out to be the work of a 14-year-old florist's son sneaking a smoke. Tommy Hope, whose father owned a flower stall in the Market House, admitted he caught a sheaf of tissue paper on fire trying to light a cigarette.

"I guess it's just as well it's out," the boy said. "I couldn't live with it anymore."

The last vendor moved out of the Market House in March 1960, and the building came down soon afterward. Bert Vincent, the News Sentinel's veteran columnist who remembered the market in its heyday, couldn't hold back an ink-stained tear.

To those who loved the Market House, downtown would never be the same.

"Really, does this picture look so ugly?," Vincent asked. "Is the architecture so awful? But anyway, it is going, going, going. Goodby old Market House!"

Downtown revenues dropped over the decades that followed with the rise of suburban shopping centers and malls. Those who missed the old Market House sighed and sometimes smiled bitterly.

Fists on the front page

The fight over the fate of the Market House marked just one political battle in another quarrelsome decade.

Politics in Knoxville had been fiery for at least a century before grocery tycoon Cas Walker burst onto the City Council dais in 1941. But the millionaire ex-coal miner gained a national audience when he and fellow City Councilman Jim Cooper nearly slugged it out during a council meeting March 6, 1956.

The men had feuded off and on over everything from tax assessments to peanut and popcorn concessions at Chilhowee Park. The running argument finally boiled over when the council's regular meeting turned into a half-hour name-calling contest.

"Shut up until I finish!" Cooper shouted when Walker tried to interrupt him.

"You make me," Walker said.

"Somebody will make you some day," Cooper warned.

"I've never run from any cur yet, and I won't run from you," Walker said.

Cooper stomped to Walker's end of the table, and Walker met him with a punch. The city welfare director, sitting in between them, ducked as the men struggled until a radio announcer and a police captain pulled them apart.

Somehow in all the shouting and swinging fists, not a single punch landed.

"Each was injured more by flying epithets than by flying fists," the News Sentinel wrote.

Insiders speculated the pair staged the fight for the cameras. They got their wish. A photo snapped by Tom Greene, a photographer for the rival Knoxville Journal, made Life magazine's Pictures of the Week.

Faltering fortunes

While Walker and others fought and mugged for the cameras, critics complained the issues that mattered went ignored. A writer for Fortune magazine visited the city in 1952 and marveled at Knoxville's civic inertia.

"Almost everyone thinks something should be done, but nobody does anything much," the magazine noted.

The building boom that followed World War II turned the quiet farmland outside the city limits into bustling suburbs as the price of city real estate climbed. Census figures showed the county population increased by 160 percent from 1950-1960 ? more than 37,000 people.

Meanwhile, Knoxville's population dropped by nearly 10 percent, from nearly 125,000 to about 111,000. The residents who stayed tended to be older, poorer and less skilled as workers.

Outdated machinery at home and competition from larger industrial centers drove traditional employers such as local textile mills onto the rocks and put thousands out of work. The Brookside Mills alone mailed out 1,000 layoff notices when it closed in May 1956.

"This will be the third major textile milling operation Knoxville has recently lost," the News Sentinel reported.

A new generation of postwar politicians challenged the old-fashioned style of government favored by Walker, trash-bin maker George Dempster and others. Jack Dance, elected mayor in 1956 in a race against Dempster, advocated for such reforms as construction of the Civic Coliseum, road improvements, new parks and creation of the Metropolitan Planning Commission.

Some of his ideas fell flat. Knox County voters in 1959, for example, rejected the first proposal to consolidate city and county governments ? a proposition that would surface again and again over the decades.

Some reforms came from the bottom up. Knox County had no organized rescue squad when Charles Howard, 15, dived into the Holston River in Strawberry Plains and drowned Sept. 16, 1956. Finding and recovering his body took 15 hours.

Ten men, including Howard's father, Willard, met in a Rutledge Pike garage a month later to form the Knoxville Volunteer Emergency Rescue Squad.

Dance died in office April 12, 1959. Walker, who opposed most of Dance's reforms for fear they might lead to tax increases, served briefly as interim mayor until a special election May 28 when voters elected John Duncan, the city law director, to fill the seat.

Duncan had hitchhiked to Knoxville from Scott County 20 years earlier to attend the University of Tennessee on a $100 scholarship. Service in World War II and the GI Bill enabled him to earn a law degree instead.

Duncan would serve three terms as mayor and use the coming decade to launch a Congressional career and to build a political dynasty that endures today.

War after war

The veterans of World War II hadn't been home five years before another war summoned East Tennesseans to duty abroad.

When Communist forces from North Korea crossed the 38th parallel into South Korea on June 25, 1950, President Harry Truman called for U.S. troops to enforce the United Nations Security Council's resolution against the invasion.

Reservists of the Marine Corps' Knoxville-based 19th Engineer Co. answered one of the first calls to duty two months later. Family, friends and News Sentinel reporter Carson Brewer gathered at the L&N railroad station the morning of Aug. 25, 1950, to see them off as the men left for training at Camp Pendleton, Calif., and deployment half a world away.

"Some cried openly," Brewer wrote. "Others fought bravely to hide the tears. Some husky non-coms, veterans of the last war, moved around easily, cracked a few jokes. Smooth-faced youngsters looked uncertain. ... But those left at the station were wondering what might come after."

What came after was a three-year war long on frustrations and short on clear-cut victories. More than 400 East Tennesseans never came home from a conflict that never won the sustained public support of World War II and foreshadowed the ordeal of Vietnam.

The war ended July 7, 1953, with an armistice that left the Korean border intact and called for the return of prisoners taken by both sides. One of the first to come home was Army Cpl. Carl Keller of Knoxville.

Keller, 38, survived a tour of duty in World War II unhurt but suffered two wounds before his capture in May 1951. He endured two years of frostbitten feet in a mining camp and watched friends die of fever, starvation, exhaustion and dysentery.

"The hardest battle was boredom and discouragement," he recalled the day he left the camp. "It was hard at times not to get the blues, to feel that you'd been forgotten and that you'd never get home."

Keller's brothers, sisters and a News Sentinel reporter and photographer welcomed him home in September with a dinner at his brother's house on Clinton Highway that included all the banana pudding he could eat. Two letters waited for him ? one from a presidential candidate offering congratulations and another from a woman asking for word of her brother who served with Keller at the time of his capture.

"I can't give it to her," Keller sighed. "Her brother died before the second day."

Turning tides

Change and uncertainty at home and abroad translated to a national attitude of outward tranquility and inward turmoil. Politicians capitalized on those fears as national suspicion of Stalinism turned into a full-blown panic.

Republican presidential candidate Dwight Eisenhower took a swipe at "Reds" in Washington when he stopped in Knoxville on Oct. 15, 1952, for a campaign speech at McGhee Tyson National Airport.

"We have a right to be suspicious of the judgment of leaders who failed to see the Red stain seeping into the most vital offices of our government," he said.

That suspicion fell even on the University of Tennessee, where state Rep. Judd Acuff, R-Fountain City, claimed Russian-born professors taught students to be Communists. He couldn't back up his claims, but the charges unnerved UT administrators in an era of limited academic freedom.

"Are we going to stand by and see all kinds of isms taught at UT?" he demanded.

The new medium of television offered a respite from the worrisome headlines. Knoxville's first TV station, WROL-TV (now WATE) took to the airwaves Oct. 1, 1953. WTVK (now WVLT) and WBIR followed.

Fess Parker, star of Disney's "Davy Crockett" TV series, visited Knoxville to promote a new movie on May 30, 1955. Children in coonskin caps greeted him by the hundreds ? even Mayor George Dempster tried on the famous hat.

Any relief wouldn't last long. The U.S. Supreme Court's 1954 decision in Brown vs. Topeka Board of Education had ordered schools across the country to desegregate "with all deliberate speed."

A court battle forced UT to admit its first black graduate student, Gene Mitchell Gray, for the 1952 winter quarter, although the university still refused to admit black undergraduates. Twelve black students walked up the steps of Clinton High School in 1956 to make it the first integrated high school in the U.S., and 17 black students sued Knox County Schools in 1959 for moving too slowly to integrate classes.

The struggle that followed would set the stage for a decade as turbulent as any in East Tennessee since the Civil War.
The Foothills Parkway near Walland. (ERIC BARGER/SPECIAL TO THE NEWS SENTINEL)

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By Morgan Simmons of the Knoxville News Sentinel

A 16-mile section of the Foothills Parkway in Blount and Sevier counties is a big step closer to final funding thanks to a $10 million federal transportation grant.

The unfinished section includes the "Missing Link," an infamous 1.65-mile stretch that will require nine bridges to span a series of ravines along the steep mountain slope.

The $10 million federal grant will be matched by $15 million from the state of Tennessee and an estimated $10 million from the National Park Service to complete the up to $35 million funding package needed to open the section of the parkway between Walland and Wears Valley, said Dana Soehn, spokeswoman for the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

"This is much more than the continuation of the park section between Walland and Wears Valley," Soehn said. "It will be a destination driving experience in itself."

The Foothills Parkway runs parallel to the northern boundary of Smokies. When finished, the scenic highway will stretch 72 miles between Cosby, Tenn., to the east and U.S. Highway 129 at Chilhowee Lake to the west. Congress authorized the project in 1944, but so far only 22.5 miles are completed and open to the public.

The "Missing Link" section is expected to be finished in early 2017, and the remaining 16 miles between Walland and Wears Valley are expected to be paved and open to the public in 2018, officials said.

U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander, who lobbied for the federal transportation grant, said in a news release that completing the Foothills Parkway will add to the region's economy.

"In 2014 the park hosted more than 10 million visitors who spent more than $800 million and supported more than 12,000 jobs, Alexander said. "The completion of this 16-mile section of the Foothills Parkway will continue to enhance tourism and economic development in the area."

Of the seven congressionally mandated scenic highways throughout the United States the Foothills Parkway is the only one that remains unfinished.

The Great Smoky Mountains National Park administers the Foothills Parkway and had hoped to have the Missing Link completed this year in time for the National Park Service's centennial celebration. Those plans were delayed due to geological complications at the construction site.
Next Urban League CEO shares plans: It's all about empowering

The community leader chats with Knox News about his priorities for the Urban League and how to continue serving the community as the next CEO.
The Times Square in New York City, the United States. (File photo)

A publicity video of South China Sea has been shown at Times Square in New York City.

The 3 minute and 12 second film features the stunning scenery of the South China Sea Islands, or Nanhai Zhudao, and reiterates the history that China is indeed the earliest country to find, name and exploit the South China Sea Islands and waters, displaying the historical and legal evidence of China's sovereignty over the South China Sea.

The video will be played 120 times per day in Times Square from July 23 to August 3, 2016.

Many tourists have been attracted by the film.

"It is necessary for people at the 'Crossroads of the World' to watch the film. The world needs to know the truth." Visitor Mr. Chen from north China's Shandong Province said after watching the video.

The video also has aroused strong approval among Chinese residing in New York.

Ma Yue, President of China Council for the Promotion of Peaceful National Reunification, said the video defines China's position towards the so-called South China Sea tribunal and facts will eventually disprove those fallacies presented by the tribunal.
Mark Harmon

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PHILADELPHIA  The goal of this diary is to bring you the colorful, locally oriented, quirky and revealing moments that take place off the main stage  at places like Tennessee delegation breakfasts, shuttle buses, conference rooms, and in the countless conversations grabbed in hallways or in quiet moments between big events.

No one can beat the Bernie Sanders delegates for great headgear. At Monday's big events for Bernie, many of his supporters wore green felt Robin-Hood-style caps, complete with feathers on one side. These were a delightful play on Sanders' message that wealth inequality is a consequence of the rigging of our economy and our politics. The "rob from the rich, give to the poor" metaphor was a subtle reply to the reactionaries on talk radio and Fox News.

Speaker after speaker has derided Donald Trump as divisive, and he certainly has been  but he is unifying Democrats in disgust at his candidacy. David Bone, a legislative assistant from Nashville, said, "The chickens have come home to roost on the Republican side of the ticket. You can't spend 30 years of policies trying to make people afraid and hate, and not expect to end up with a candidate like Donald Trump."

Dennis Patrick is a 72-year-old Vietnam combat veteran from Cleveland, Tenn. He says Trump is a bigot and only interested in helping himself.

"Trump is a loudmouth, a carnival barker trying to tell you what's under the tent," Patrick said. "Once you look under that tent, there's nothing there."

U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Memphis, denounced Trump as an embarrassment, a sociopath and a narcissist.

"If we get behind Hillary, we will get the Senate and make gains in the House," Cohen said of presidential nominee Clinton.

To him, the biggest issue will be appointees to the Supreme Court. Clinton's nominees, he declared, would be qualified and responsible; Trump's choices would move the court in dangerous directions for a generation.

My favorite convention story involves Michael Gibino, 34, a delegate from Minnesota who came here on foot, running the 1,200 miles. He covered roughly 40 miles a day over 30 days. His "Bino for Bernie" run raised several thousand dollars, splitting it between convention costs and Mile in My Shoes, a charity fighting to eradicate homelessness. He understandably will be taking a ride home.

The Minnesota and Michigan delegations are also in this hotel complex, Radisson Hotel on one side, the casino hotel on the other. Wednesday morning we joined our Minnesota friends for a combined breakfast meeting, several of us quite sleep-deprived from the "Delegates After Dark" party by the pool that started around midnight. A band played and sang classic rock hits in one room, while poolside a disc jockey led some dancing.

Fondness for the late U.S. senator from Minnesota, Paul Wellstone, formed a quick bond in the delegations as we mingled over breakfast. Nashville Mayor Megan Barry reminisced about attending a "Camp Wellstone" in Minnesota for progressive political training. Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton also praised the late senator, as did Congressman Keith Ellison.

Nashville-area Congressman Jim Cooper added that little more than 100 days remained to work hard to "make sure America goes in the right direction." He warned, "We cannot let Trump ruin America.  Bill Clinton carried Tennessee twice, so why can't we carry it for his wife?"
By Georgiana Vines of the Knoxville News Sentinel

Longtime Knox County Democratic activist Sylvia Woods says Scott Comer, finance chief of staff for the Democratic National Committee, called her Tuesday to apologize for a "smart-aleck" comment he made about Woods' dead husband in an email prior to a reception for outgoing DNC chair Debbie Wasserman-Schultz here in June.

Woods said Comer, a 28-year-old Knoxvillian, contacted her after she let Ronald Allen, the DNC's Southern regional director, know people were reaching out to her in a concerning way about the email, provided by WikiLeaks over the weekend.

Woods and her husband, Harold, long served on Knox County and state Democratic Party committees. Sylvia Woods is on the county board of governors representing a Democratic women's club and on the state executive committee. She is attending the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia as a member of the Platform Committee as a Hillary Clinton supporter and has obtained a floor pass to sit with the Tennessee delegation, she said.

Woods was reached by the News Sentinel as she boarded a bus to travel with the delegation from its hotel site in Valley Forge, Pa., to Philadelphia. She said Comer told her he would meet her at the convention site "and hug your neck just like Tennesseans do."

The emails regarding the Knoxville reception were written after Sylvia Woods contacted Allen on learning of the event, which was being planned without involving the Knox County Democratic Party or its chairman, Cameron Brooks.

Eventually Allen offered Woods two tickets. Woods told him she would be unable to attend and would appreciate a ticket for Brooks. Woods then mentioned she was using the iPad that had belonged to her husband, who died in 2014, and told Allen she would change the email to her own address for future correspondence.

Allen wrote to Comer, saying, "All good now and look at my well-crafted response lol! Can the Knox county chair come in her stead?"

"Of course!" Comer answered. "Glad she's placated and using her dead husbands (sic) iPad."

Brooks called Comer's comments "embarrassing and mean."

Woods agreed.

When Comer called Woods to apologize, "I gave him the motherly lesson," she said. "Pay attention. You can hurt someone's feelings. What he said was so unnecessary."

Amanda Kruel, a Knoxville delegate for Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, also was mentioned in some emails. She was vetted for supporting Sanders and wanting to attend the June reception, which eventually she was able to do. The emails showed the DNC staff basically was trying to help support Hillary Clinton instead of being neutral.

Wasserman-Schultz, also a Florida congresswoman, announced her resignation as DNC chair after the emails were revealed. She did not open the convention Monday night as scheduled because of the controversy the emails generated.
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By Joel Ebert And Joey Garrison, USA TODAY NETWORK-Tennessee

PHILADELPHIA  A strikingly personal speech from former President Bill Clinton that wove together past anecdotes to humanize his polarizing wife Hillary Clinton was met with strong reviews from leading Tennessee Democrats.

Bill Clinton refrained from referencing Hillary Clinton's Republican presidential opponent Donald Trump  or the election at all  for much of his highly anticipated Democratic convention speech Tuesday night. Instead, he talked about her career in law and social justice causes, the first time they met, the three proposals it took for her to marry him and the birth of their only child, Chelsea.

"President Clinton really told the story of Hillary Clinton's life and how she is the real thing who has been fighting for real change in people's lives the last 40 years," said state Sen. Jeff Yarbro, D-Nashville. "She did more before she was 30 than Donald Trump's done in his entire career.

"I think a lot of people learned a lot about Hillary Clinton tonight that they didn't know and I think you're going to see a lot more people give her a second chance, a lot more people (will) decide that she's the right person to lead the country."

Clarksville Mayor Kim McMillan, a Clinton delegate, said Hillary Clinton's early personal life is not something most voters know about.

"I think it's important for all of us to know what kind of a real person she is and what she means to people who have been in her life for so long," McMillan said. "I think it really humanizes her and makes her somebody that we can all truly believe in, not just for her achievements in her public life."

Clinton's speech was an effort to offer a glimpse of the human and private side of an oft-debated public figure who has been in the national public life for three decades.

"People say, 'She's been around a long time,' Clinton said. "She sure has. And she's spent every year working to make people's lives better."

Though the speech went in chronological order  beginning with the time he first met Hillary while standing in line to sign up for class in law school  Bill Clinton did not reference the time his marriage was challenged the most: his public scandal with Monica Lewinsky after he had sexual relations with the White House intern.

In tracing her public service as a U.S. senator from New York and later Secretary of State, Bill Clinton called Hillary Clinton "the best darn change-maker I've ever known." He also highlighted the difference between the "real" Hillary Clinton versus the "fake" one described at the Republican National Convention last week.

"Good for you," Clinton said. "You nominated the real one."

Knoxville Mayor Madeline Rogero applauded the speech, saying it was filled with stories that she's read about but that voters haven't heard in years.

"It showed the very personal side in terms of her as a [wife] and as a mother, raising Chelsea," Rogero said. "When you get on the national stage in politics, people who don't like your policies then try to devalue your entire life or what you're about.

"And the reality is that there are a lot of good and reasonable people that will disagree on policies, but we shouldn't diminish the quality of one's life or what they're about personally."

Rep. Harold Love Jr., D-Nashville, said Bill Clinton "set the tone by giving us line by line why Secretary Clinton should be the next president because of everything she's already done for the country: fighting for civil rights, fighting for children's rights, fighting for human rights, and now making the case to fight for our country in these desperate times."

Democratic Rep. Brenda Gilmore, also of Nashville, said each of the speeches so far in the DNC has taken viewers to "a different level."

"And it reveals more and more about Hillary Clinton and why she's uniquely qualified to be the president of the United States, not just the first woman, but to be a great president of the United States."
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Last week the Tennessee Press Association appropriately recognized the contributions of three leaders in the state House of Representatives for their support of transparency in government.

House Speaker Beth Harwell and state Reps. Bob Ramsey and Bill Sanderson have been staunch supporters of open government and have worked to block efforts to restrict access to public records.

News Sentinel Editor and TPA President Jack McElroy presented the awards at the organization's summer convention at the Franklin Cool Springs Marriott on Friday.

"These three individuals through their leadership, service and courage have advocated for and defended the principles of open government," McElroy said. "Preserving transparency is an important part of the mission of TPA and its 122 member newspapers. We could not do this alone and must rely on the commitment of our public officials and civic leaders."

As House speaker, Harwell has been a public access champion. She has stopped amendments to the Open Meetings Act that would have allowed more secrecy by public boards. In the House, she established an unprecedented policy that requires committee chairs to give notice of unscheduled meetings.

The new workplace discrimination and anti-sexual harassment policy Harwell instituted this year is more transparent than its predecessor.

Most recently, she demanded the release of the state attorney general's report on the sexual harassment investigation of Rep. Jeremy Durham. The report, which details allegations that Durham, a Franklin Republican, had interactions with 22 women ranging from unwelcome flirting to sexual contact, triggered outrage statewide. Harwell, Gov. Bill Haslam and Senate Speaker Ron Ramsey are leading a chorus of officials calling for Durham's resignation.

Harwell, a Nashville Republican, gets most of the headlines, but much of the hard work killing bills that would harm public access to government meetings and records comes in the committee trenches. That is where Ramsey and Sanderson, both Republicans, have toiled on behalf of government openness.

Ramsey, who is in his fourth term representing Blount County's 20th District, chairs the House State Government Committee.

Sanderson, who is in his third term representing the 77th District, covering Lake, Dyer and parts of Obion County in West Tennessee, leads the State Government subcommittee.

Ramsey and Sanderson have displayed courage and commitment as committee chairs to ensure bills affecting open government get a thorough review and aren't too broad.

One particularly odious bill that never made it to the governor's desk was a proposal that would have allowed government agencies to charge Tennessee citizens just to inspect public records.

Tennessee's Open Meetings Act, commonly called the Sunshine Law, and the Public Records Act are the citizens' primary means of monitoring the affairs of state and local governments. Harwell, Ramsey and Sanderson have proven they will fight for the public's right to hold their governments accountable and are well deserving of the TPA's accolades.
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The 2016 race for the presidency has certainly been a tumultuous one. Many voters don't like either candidate, and it's hard to blame them.

In my opinion, Clinton is by far the safest bet to be able to handle the immense responsibility of the office. The Trump nomination is very difficult to understand. Many of his supporters claim Clinton is a liar, but Trump leads the world in total number of lies told. And it's not even close. How any woman or minority could vote for him is beyond my comprehension. Many Republicans have said President Barack Obama has been a disgrace to our country. But in the eyes of many other world leaders Trump would be the ultimate disgrace. Does anyone really believe a wall will be built on the Mexican border? Of course not. Trump is a loose cannon, and would have us in a war in less than 6 months after taking office. Any reasonable person does not want to see our military personnel placed in harm's way if it can be avoided.

In closing, all I can say is God help us if this clown is elected.

William Wright, Seymour
VIENTIANE, July 26, 2016 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi(C) speaks to the press after the meetings in Vientiane, capital of Laos, on July 26, 2016. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said here on Tuesday that China and members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have exerted joint efforts to make the ministerial meetings focus on dialogue and cooperation. (Xinhua/Liu Ailun)

VIENTIANE, July 27 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Tuesday called on regional nations to enhance dialogue on bilateral and regional issues and explore precautionary diplomatic models.

After meetings in the Lao capital, Wang said China and members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have exerted joint efforts to make the ministerial meetings focus on dialogue and cooperation, and most of the foreign ministers came to Vientiane with desire for cooperation.

China-ASEAN cooperation is an important platform for China to take part in regional cooperation, Wang said. This year marks the 25th anniversary of China-ASEAN dialogue relationship. The next 25 years will be a period of maturity for the bilateral ties.

"China and the ASEAN nations have agreed to build a closer community of common destiny," said Wang, adding that they have set six priority areas for the further development of China-ASEAN ties.

China and the 10 ASEAN members agreed to jointly strive to boost cultural and people-to-people exchanges as the third pillar for their cooperation besides the political-security dialogue and trade and economic ties.

Meanwhile, China supports the development of the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) with practical actions, calling on the ARF to further promote regional dialogue and cooperation, he said.

At the 23rd ARF, Wang said China always attaches great importance to the role of the ARF and actively participates in the dialogue and cooperation in the ARF framework.

China believes that the ARF should adopt the principle of building trust throughout its whole process and explore precautionary diplomatic models step by step based on consensus, Wang said.

With a generally stable situation, the Asia-Pacific region has gained more important role in the global situation, Wang said. However, the region also faces terrorism, natural disasters, transnational crimes and other forms of nontraditional security threats.

All parties of the ARF should further enhance dialogue and cooperation so as to increase mutual understanding and trust among countries in the region, he said.

China is willing to promote the ARF to make more contributions to regional peace and stability through more dialogue and cooperation with all parties, Wang said.

On the South China Sea issue, China and the ASEAN nations have reached an important consensus that they agreed to return to the right track of solving their disputes through dialogue and consultation, Wang noted.

ASEAN foreign ministers have made it clear that ASEAN as a whole will not take a position on the so-called arbitration case, which they believe is a bilateral issue between China and the Philippines, Wang said.

He also mentioned that China and the ASEAN nations issued a joint statement on full and effective implementation of the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea, which stipulates that disputes should be resolved peacefully through negotiation between the parties directly concerned, and China and ASEAN countries should work together to maintain peace and stability in the South China Sea.
By Kim Jae-won



Rep. Park Young-sun of the Minjoo Party of Korea (MPK) submitted a U.S.-style class action bill, targeting German automaker Volkswagen for refusing to compensate local customers over its emissions cheating scandal, the four-term lawmaker said Wednesday.



The journalist-turned-politician said that it is urgent to adopt a class action bill with no limits here so consumers may receive full compensation from irresponsible companies. Forty-six legislators, including Park, signed the bill.



A class action suit is a type of lawsuit where the plaintiff is a group of people represented collectively by a member of that group. It allows the claims of all plaintiffs to be resolved in a single proceeding, providing all customers the same compensation.



It originated in the U.S. in 1938 and is predominant there. In Korea, it was introduced in 2005, but was limited to the securities business only.



"Volkswagen agreed to pay 17.5 trillion won in compensation to customers in the U.S., where the class action suit is well-developed," said Park in a press conference at the National Assembly. "But the company has no plans to compensate our citizens and seeks to avoid making payments by hiring big local law firms."



Last month, Volkswagen settled with the U.S. government to pay as much as $15.3 billion after admitting it cheated for years on diesel emissions tests.



The carmaker agreed to buy back vehicles from consumers and provide funding that could benefit creators of cleaner technologies.



Park's remarks come amid the Korean government's moves to nullify certification for 79 vehicle models of Audi Volkswagen Korea, which allegedly manipulated documents on the cars' noise level, fuel efficiency and emissions.



But the carmaker said that it made some mistakes in the process of drafting relevant reports during a hearing hosted by the environment ministry, denying it intentionally manipulated the documents.



Legal experts welcomed the bill saying the country needs to strengthen punishment for companies causing societal damage intentionally.



"A class action should come with punitive damages which impose much bigger compensation on companies neglecting their duties to protect customers," said Bae Keum-ja, a veteran attorney who has led lawsuits against KT&G over the harmfulness of cigarettes.



"If a class action is available in all industries, it can apply to manufacturers of toxic humidifier disinfectants which are suspected of ignoring the dangers of their products intentionally."



Reckitt Benckiser is under investigation by the prosecution as the British-based firm is accused of selling its toxic humidifier disinfectant under the brand name of Oxy which has been connected with more than 100 deaths here.



A special National Assembly committee on the case also investigated Reckitt Benckiser's local unit and Korean manufacturers SK Chemical and Aekyung for their alleged wrongdoings in the scandal.



Representatives of Volkswagen Korea did not respond to repeated calls from The Korea Times for comments over the class action bill.




Visitors look around the Discoveries from the Sinan Shipwreck exhibition at the National Museum of Korea, Monday. / Yonhap







By Kwon Mee-yoo

A large merchant vessel pulled up anchor at Qingyuan Port (now Ningbo City) in Zhejiang Province of the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368) and left on a voyage to the Port of Hakata (now Fukuoka) in Japan in 1323. The trade ship, estimated to be 34 meters long and 11 meters wide, was loaded with Chinese ceramics, wooden lacquerware and metal crafts, but it never reached its destination -- it foundered off the southwest coast of Sinan, South Jeolla Province.

The shipwreck was completely forgotten until a fisherman from Sinan caught several pieces of pottery in his net in 1975. The celadon was reported to authorities, and the Department of Korean Cultural Properties (now the Cultural Heritage Administration) embarked on a major excavation project in October 1976, unearthing the existence of the Sinan shipwreck.

The discovery was a breakthrough for underwater archaeology in Korea. Over 28 tons of coins and approximately 24,000 cultural properties were found from the shipwreck in 11 searches through 1984.





Discoveries from the Sinan Shipwreck / Courtesy of National Museum of Korea



The National Museum of Korea (NMK) hosts the "Discoveries from the Sinan Shipwreck" exhibition, commemorating the 40th anniversary of the excavation of the sunken ship, featuring around 20,000 artifacts dredged up from the vessel that sunk about 650 years ago.

At the Special Exhibition Gallery of the NKM, the exhibit sheds light on the historic significance of the relics from the merchant ship, especially cultural changes among East Asian countries through sea routes.

Previously, exhibits on the Sinan shipwreck only presented the most highly valued artifacts and only about 1,000 out of the total 24,000 artifacts have been shown to the public. This time, the museum offers as much as possible, giving visitors a glimpse of the vast quantity of relics from the shipwreck.

Scales, silver ingot used as currency and wooden tags found in the ship show how trading was carried out in the 14th century. The oldest Japanese chessboard was also on board the Sinan shipwreck.

The highlight of the exhibit is the porcelain and coin display, which overwhelms viewers with its quantity. Visitors can have a glimpse of the amount of relics found in the ship from the piled coins and layers of ceramics.

A small white porcelain dish decorated with pink leaves and a poetry quote wraps up the exhibit. The poem reads "Why is the stream running so hastily whilst in the deep palace I'm passing my idle days." Dating back to the Tang Dynasty, the poem written by a court lady recalls the victims of this shipwreck, now referred to as a treasure ship.

The exhibit runs until Sept. 4 at the museum in Seoul and then travels to the Gwangju National Museum from Oct. 25 to Jan. 30, 2017. Admission is 5,000 won for adults. For more information, visit museum.go.kr or call 02-2077-9000.
Lee Jin-wook

A woman in her 30s who accused actor Lee Jin-wook of sexual assault on July 14 admitted Tuesday that her accusations were false, according to the Suseo Police in Seoul.

According to the police, the woman had initially accused the actor of sexually assaulting her after she drank with him at his apartment on July 12 after their first meeting. But she changed her story and claimed that their intercourse was consensual.

Due to the woman's confession, Lee is likely to be cleared of the charges.

Lee had strongly denied the allegations, claiming the act was consensual. He filed a countersuit against the woman for defamation.

The police said they found circumstantial evidence that threw the charges into question in the process of their investigation, yet continued the investigation to collect more evidence. The woman's legal representatives resigned on July 23, when it became clear her accusations were false.

The woman and Lee were both summoned for questioning and were given a lie detector test.
Actor Park Hae-jin / Courtesy of Mountain Movement Management



By Lee Jin-a

Actor Park Hae-jin has donated 1.1 billion won ($970,000) over the past six years, his agency said.

According to Mountain Movement Management on Tuesday, the star of tvN's hit drama "Cheese in the Trap" gave the money from 2011 to 2016.

"Park believes he should return the love from his fans," the agency said. "He not only continues to make a donation but also participates in volunteer activities."

Park donated to Japanese earthquake victims and child-care centers in 2011 and gave 100 million won of daily necessities to Guryong Village in Gangnam in 2013.

In the following year, the actor contributed to the fund for victims of the Sewol ferry sinking and donated another 100 million won to a senior welfare center in Guryong Village. He also donated the same amount to help the victims of floods in Busan in August 2014.

Park contributed to the Community Chest of Korea last year and gave all proceeds of his fan meeting in China to a welfare center in Shanghai in April.
ASEAN-Korea Center Secretary General Kim Young-sun / Courtesy of ASEAN-Korea Center





By Kim Jae-kyoung

ASEAN-Korea Center Secretary General Kim Young-sun said that South Korea and ASEAN should work together to involve North Korea in international dialogue and open its doors to the outside.

"ASEAN and South Korea can make joint efforts to induce North Korea to participate in security and trust-building dialogue, and come forward to become a responsible member of the international community," Kim said in a recent interview with The Korea Times.

"Although there remain diverging views on the North Korea issue among the ASEAN countries, it is time for ASEAN to play a key role."

He explained that ASEAN countries can play a role in changing the reclusive country because they have maintained diplomatic relations with North Korea, and both South and North Korea are members of the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF).

According to him, ASEAN has been expanding its presence in ASEAN-led multilateral forums such as the ARF, ASEAN+3, East Asia Summit, and ASEAN Defense Ministerial Meeting.

"Furthermore, Myanmar and Vietnam's reform and open-door policies can be a more embraceable case that can set a good example for North Korea," he said.

Kim, who took the helm of the center in 2015, said that with remarkable progress in economic and cultural cooperation, South Korea can now work toward further enhancing its political and security cooperation with ASEAN.

"To strengthen its relations with ASEAN, Korea should explore further cooperation in non-traditional security fields such as environmental sustainability, climate change, health, cybercrime, maritime safety, and food and energy security," he said.

"These cross-border issues of common concern need to be addressed together for effective solutions."

The secretary general stressed that it is important for Korean players to see greater opportunities deriving from the launch of ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) at the end of 2015.

"Korean companies will have the chance to participate in various projects pertaining to the industrialization of ASEAN member states," he said.

"For example, there will be opportunities to take part in large scale infrastructure projects that aim to strengthen connectivity within the region."

The former Korean ambassador to Indonesia recommended Korean firms come up with strategies tailored to local markets and speed up liberalization of bilateral trade.

"Amid the changing landscape of the global economy brought about by the AEC, Korean companies should adopt glocalization strategies to successfully expand in the region," he said.












On July 26, bereaved family members of the 23 tour bus victims returned from Taiwan to the Chinese mainland with the ashes of their loved ones.

The victims of the accident, who came primarily from the northeastern city of Dalian, were killed when their tour bus crashed into a highway barrier and caught fire near Taoyuan Airport in Taiwan. The crash occurred on July 19. All the victims were cremated in Taiwan.

In addition to the tourists, a mainland tour guide, a local driver and a local guide were also killed.

Families of the victims from mainland China will receive 1.3 million yuan (approximately $200,000) in compensation. One family has also decided to file a lawsuit. In the mean time, according to one man whose nephew died in the crash,the causes of the accident have to be found.

Luan Xusheng, a member of the Dalian city work group, said that although the families have accepted civil compensation, they still retain the right to move forward with further prosecution if investigations reveal any criminal violations.
Kim Jong-il, former North Korean leader and father of the present leader, Kim Jong-un. /Courtesy of Flickr



By Park Jae-hyuk

An appeals court has cleared a former South Korean soldier of charges over his admiration of former North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, the father of incumbent leader Kim Jong-un.

According to the Seoul Eastern District Court, Tuesday, Park, 26, had praised Kim Jong-il after joining the army in Hwacheon, Gangwon Province, in 2011. He said at the time: "General Kim Jong-il is the greatest leader ever seen. Hail, General Kim Jong-il."

Park also taught communism to fellow soldiers and openly praised the late leader about 20 times until January 2012, the court was told. He was discharged that year.

Park mourned Kim's death in December 2011 and openly endorsed a withdrawal of United States forces from Korea. His pro-Pyongyang stance caused other soldiers to refer to him as "red" or "communist," the court heard.

Judge Park Jong-du ruled Park innocent of the charges, saying: "Other soldiers thought Park's statements were just a joke. The National Security Law should be applied restrictedly."

The first trial in February also found the soldier innocent, considering his statements did not threaten the nation.
By Jun Ji-hye



Korea and the United States held their first high-level talks in Washington, Tuesday, on the transfer of jet technologies for Seoul's project to develop its own fighter jets.



The Ministry of National Defense said the two sides discussed the vital intersection of foreign and national security policies on defense technology cooperation, including issues related to the transfer of technologies for the KF-X project.



It was the first high-level meeting of the Defense Technology Strategy & Cooperation Group (DTSCG), which followed the group's working-level talks held in March. The DTSCG was established last year based on an agreement between defense chiefs of the two nations.



During Tuesday's meeting, the Korea delegation, led by Vice Defense Minister Hwang In-mo and Deputy Foreign Minister for Economic Affairs Lee Tae-ho, stressed the need for the transfer of key technologies from the United States for the success of the KF-X project, according to a ministry official.



In response, the U.S. delegation, led by David Shear, assistant secretary of defense for Asian and Pacific security affairs, and Rose Gottemoeller, undersecretary of state for arms control and international security, said the two sides will continue to discuss the issue, the official said.



The official added that details about which technologies will be transferred were not determined during the meeting.



The joint press release of the two sides also said, "The U.S. delegation provided an overview of its conventional arms transfer and regional defense trade policies."



The release added that the two sides concurred on the need for regular information-sharing on relevant issues and decided to continue to utilize the DTSCG to advance policy and strategic discussions on technology security, foreign policy and defense technology cooperation in support of the ROK-U.S. alliance.



The 8.5 trillion won KF-X project is to replace the Air Force's aging fleet of F-4s and F-5s. The government will invest an additional 10 trillion won to produce 120 jets by 2032.



The project is proceeding with the help of the U.S. defense company, Lockheed Martin, which vowed to transfer technologies used in the F-35 stealth fighter in return for Korea's purchase of 40 F-35s, signed in September of 2014.



In early December, the U.S. government approved the transfer of 21 technologies in a "large frame," according to the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA).



Since then, negotiations between DAPA and Lockheed Martin officials have been ongoing to list the details, as hundreds of technical items are part of 21 technologies.



Before its official kickoff in January, the KF-X project had suffered a severe crisis after the U.S. government refused in April of last year to allow the defense firm to hand over four core technologies  the active electronically scanned array radar, electronic optics targeting pod, the infrared search and radio frequency jammer and the infrared search and tracking system.



The DAPA said the nation will domestically develop those four technologies.



During the meeting, the Korea delegation also asked the United States to give it technologies related to the development of the medium-altitude unmanned aerial vehicle (MUAV), the official said. Washington said that was being considered added.



The two sides plan to hold the next DTSCG high-level talks in 2017, according to officials.



On the sidelines of the defense talks, Hwang met Deputy Secretary of Defense Robert O. Work to discuss views on extended efforts between the two allies to cope with ever-growing nuclear and military threats from North Korea, according to the ministry.




By Jun Ji-hye



North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is believed to have spent at least 110 billion won ($97 million) firing a total of 31 ballistic missiles over the past five years, according to data from the Ministry of National Defense, Wednesday.



Kim has fired 16 Scud short-range ballistic missiles, six Rodong medium-range ballistic missiles, six Musudan intermediate-range ballistic missiles (IRBMs) and three submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs) since he inherited the totalitarian state from his father Kim Jong-il in late 2011, the data showed.



The number of missiles the young leader has launched over the last five years nearly doubled compared to the 16 fired during his father's 18-year rule.



Ministry and military observers believe that Kim has apparently spent at least 110 billion won on the launches, based on the estimated prices of each missile.



The price of a Scud or a Rodong is estimated at about 1 billion won to 2 billion won each, while a Musudan is estimated to cost about 3 billion won to 6 billion won. The price of an SLBM, which is still under development, is estimated at about 5 billion won to 10 billion won.



The ministry said the total expenses for the missile launches would have exceeded 110 billion won if labor costs had been added.



If the two nuclear tests conducted under the younger Kim's leadership are taken into consideration, the estimated expenses would be in the hundreds of billions of won, the ministry added.



"Kim has clung to launching ballistic missiles apparently because he wants to improve the regime's capability of mounting nuclear warheads in the missile tips," a ministry official said on condition of anonymity.



According to the 2014 Defense White Paper, the authoritarian state's Scud missiles are believed to have a range of 300 to 500 kilometers, while the Rodong and Musudan missiles can fly 1,300 and 3,000 kilometers, respectively.



Scuds are capable of striking anywhere on the Korean Peninsula, while the Rodong can hit targets on the Japanese mainland and Okinawa. The Musudan can reach Guam, home to U.S. naval and air bases.




South Korea will launch a foundation this week aimed at compensating Korean women who were forcefully conscripted by Japan more than seven decades ago, a move which the neighbors hope will lay to rest a long-running diplomatic feud, Seoul's foreign ministry said Wednesday.



The foundation, named Reconciliation and Healing, will set sail on Thursday to financially compensate the wartime victims and restore their dignity with 1 billion yen ($9.5 million) contributed by Japan, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.



The launch follows the deal reached by the foreign ministers of South Korea and Japan on Dec. 28 to end the diplomatic row once and for all. Under the deal, Japan expressed an apology for its colonial-era atrocities and committed to providing the fund for the foundation. The island nation had ruled over the Korean Peninsula from 1910 to 1945.



Up to 200,000 women, mostly from Korea, were enslaved to serve in front-line brothels for Japanese troops during World War II, according to historians.



Only a small number of them have come forward as victims of the sexual servitude, and there are only 40 confirmed South Korean victims alive today.



The focus of the foundation will be on financially benefiting the surviving victims and carrying out commemorative works for the sexually enslaved women, who have been euphemistically known as comfort women.



Headed by Kim Tae-hyun, an honorary social welfare professor at Sungshin Women's University, the foundation in Seoul is scheduled to open for business starting Thursday, the foreign ministry said.



Despite the launch, however, controversies are expected to linger over the foundation.



The Korean Council for the Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan, a vocal support group for comfort women, is challenging the foundation's representativeness. The group denounced the South Korea-Japan government deal as lacking Japan's official acknowledgment of liability and prior consultation with the victims.



How smoothly Japan would transfer the committed fund is another issue, with some observers speculating that it could be delayed because of the two countries' unsettled matter of whether to keep a bronze statue of a seated girl symbolizing comfort women in front of the Japanese Embassy in South Korea.



Seoul has said that the statue was set up by local civic groups and it has no authority to remove it. (Yonhap)




North Korean soldiers on guard near the Chinese border. / Courtesy of Twitter



By Park Jae-hyuk

A female North Korean defector who tried to return to the country has been handed a one-year suspended jail sentence and given two years' probation.

According to the Suwon District Court, Tuesday, Kim, 24, attempted to return to North Korea in March after her mother, who lives there, suggested it.

Kim fled North Korea and went to China in 2006, when she was a high school student. She came to South Korea in 2009. She sent money to her family in North Korea while working as a waitress for seven years.

Earlier this year, Kim got a message from her mother via an asylum broker, asking her to return home and stay for a while. In March, she bought a ticket to China.

Investigators arrested Kim at Incheon Airport on March 15. She denied she was attempting to return to North Korea.

"I was on my way to China to meet my relatives," she said.

But Judge Park Pan-gyu did not accept her claim.

"Her testimony was inconsistent and we already have her phone records," the judge said.

A prosecutor who investigated the case said: "It seems that the State Security Department of North Korea lured Kim's mother to extradite her back."
By Kang Seung-woo

Ri Yong-ho

The ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) in Laos was the first international gathering North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho had attended since he was promoted to the post in May by Kim Jong-un.

But he was often seen standing alone, surrounded by guards, while other diplomats were mingling together during breaks in the sessions and at banquets.

During the three-day event that ended on Tuesday, Ri was followed by a pack of reporters wherever he went but rarely talked to them. On the last day he organized an impromptu press conference to blame the United States for its hostile policy toward North Korea.

During a banquet on Monday, Ri was seen eating alone without socializing with other foreign ministers sitting next to him and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry reportedly ignoring him as he greeted other diplomats around Ri.

North Korea's isolation from the international community is deepening following its fourth nuclear test in January and repeated missile tests that have drawn global condemnation, including the United Nations sanctions. However, the repressive state has refused to abandon its nuclear weapons program.

Given that the ARF was Ri's debut at the multilateral forum, he was on the radar of the global media as well as with South Korean reporters.

However, Ri set up a threefold protective wall  comprised of North Korean body guards, Laotian security guards and Laotian police officers  against reporters. Even, the security guards threatened South Korean reporters with cattle prods to separate them from Ri who was heading to a meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi.

Ri's isolation was on full display at the gala dinner for the participating foreign ministers.

Although Ri was seated between top diplomats from Pakistan and Papua New Guinea, he rarely said a word to them after exchanging pleasantries and had dinner by himself.

Later, Kerry shook hands with every foreign minister at the banquet except Ri, whom the American secretary of state just passed by  in sharp contrast to how he treated South Korean Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se who was seated next to Kerry where the two were seen whispering to each other throughout the event.

"As the top diplomat representing North Korea at the ARF, his lack of contact left much to be desired," said an analyst.

"Amid North Korea's deepening diplomatic isolation, it is reasonable that he should have tried to meet as many people as possible and make the North's case."

People's Party floor leader Park Jie-won said Wednesday that the Kim Jong-un regime is bringing diplomatic isolation upon itself with its pursuit of nuclear weapons and cyber attacks against South Korea. "That is why the North Korean foreign minister was ignored at the ARF and ate alone," he said.
By Kim Se-jeong



The Ministry of Education has come under criticism for releasing a letter to 16 education offices across the country, urging them to teach students and parents about the safety of the planned deployment of a U.S. missile defense system on Korean soil.



According to a group of progressive teachers, the 10-page letter asked the provincial and municipal education offices to reach out to parents with the given information about the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) battery.



The papers elaborated on points that the defense system is safe, and it will not damage the environment.



"Because the radar beam will be projected diagonally upward into the sky, it poses no threat to humans or vegetation," the group quoted from the letter. "The THAAD's electromagnetic waves will be safe if you live 100 meters or more from the deployment site."



Earlier this month, the government announced Seongju, known for chamoe also known as oriental yellow melon, will be the new home for THAAD. The government failed to calm Seongju residents who claim the electromagnetic waves from the radar are not proven to be safe.



Angry residents, including students, are continuing to protest in the village and Seoul.



Critics say that instead of trying to communicate with Seongju residents, the government makes efforts to indoctrinate citizens.



The ministry played it down. "It's was simply a letter, which is not a big deal," one anonymous ministry official said.



The ministry is also at odds with schools in Seongju over how to handle 800 students who showed up at the protest earlier this month. The ministry is reportedly pushing schools to give students an "absence" mark, while schools want to give them full credits for their participation.



It is not the first time the top educators tried to imbue teachers on the ground and students with certain views. After the ferry Sewol disaster in 2014 which took more than 300 lives, the education ministry, in an attempt to silence the public about the incident, issued instructions banning teachers from talking about the incident in class.




The Statue of Peace in front of the Japanese Embassy in Jongno, downtown Seoul. /Korea Times file



By Park Jae-hyuk

A Japanese group is opposing the "Statue of Peace" to be erected in Sydney on August 6.

The monument, also known as the "Comfort Woman Statue", symbolizes Korean women forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese military during World War II.

Lawyer Park Eun-deok, a representative of the establishment committee, said the Japanese have threatened Pastor Bill Crews, who provided a place at his church for the statue.

The Japanese said they will sue the pastor unless he withdraws the offer.

"The statue humiliates and abhors Japanese," the Japanese group said, according to media reports. "It harms the harmony of multiculturalism in Australian society."

Pastor Crews said he will build the statue despite the threats, saying "the statue is related to human rights, justice and peace."

The first Statue of Peace was built in front of the Japanese Embassy in Jongno, downtown Seoul, in December 2011, by a private organization. Since then, the organization has built 30 statues in Korea and abroad. The statue to be erected in Sydney will have the same design as the others.
By Yi Whan-woo





The members of the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) raised concerns over North Korea's continuous pursuit of nuclear weapons development in a joint statement issued in Laos, Wednesday.



It said foreign ministers from the 27 countries at the ARF, an annual meeting on security issues on the Asia-Pacific region, "shared concern over current developments on the Korean Peninsula."



The statement also said Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions were "in violation of" U.N. Security Council (UNSC) Resolution 2270 imposed against the Kim Jong-un regime.



It cited that the military regime carried out its fourth nuclear test, Jan. 6, test-fired a long-range ballistic missile test, Feb. 7, and test-launched a submarine-launched ballistic missile, July 9.



"The ministers reaffirmed the importance of peace and security in this region and reiterated ASEAN's support for the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula in a peaceful manner," it read.



Most of the foreign ministers at the ARF asked North Korea to abide by UNSC Resolution 2270 while urging its members to make joint efforts to create a favorable environment to resume the dormant six-party talks on Pyongyang's denuclearization.



"It must have been difficult for the ARF members to raise objections on concerns over North Korea's nuclear ambitions in the statement," an official at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.



The statement came after the ARF wrapped up in Laos, Tuesday, without narrowing the gap between the United States and China over key security issues.



Seoul and Washington sought to exclude any clauses carrying concerns raised by Beijing and Moscow over the planned deployment of a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) battery in South Korea. The THAAD-related clause was not included in the statement



North Korea tried to convince its few remaining friends at the ARF to reject South Korea's suggestion to bolster sanctions on the Kim Jong-un regime.



Beijing was at odds with the U.S., the Philippines and other Washington-led allies over touching on the Permanent Court of Arbitration's (PCA) latest ruling against its claim over most of the South China Sea.



In 2015, the ARF adopted its statement four days after its meeting in Malaysia. The foreign ministers of the member nations back then urged the "refraining of taking any counter-productive moves" to ease tension on the Korean Peninsula.



Although Beijing reaffirmed its promise to carry out the UNSC's nuclear sanctions on Pyongyang, concerns have been raised that it will loosen these to protest the decision concerning THAAD, an advanced U.S. missile shield.



It was also speculated that North Korea will seek to separate its Cold War allies from its foes, mainly South Korea, the U.S and Japan, to continue its development of nuclear weapons.



Experts cited that Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi treated his counterparts from the two Koreas in contrasting manners in their bilateral talks on the sidelines of the ARF.



Wang made friendly gestures toward his North Korean counterpart Ri Yong-ho while being cold to Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se. He renewed Beijing's opposition to THAAD, claiming it could be used against China instead of deterring North Korean missile attacks.



China also expressed concerns jointly with Russia over the possible threat posed by THAAD in a draft statement circulated among ARF members.



Yun asked for the bolstering of support for UNSC Resolution 2270 aimed at ending North Korea's nuclear weapons development in his bilateral talks with several ASEAN member nations, including Laos, Brunei, Cambodia, the Philippines and Singapore.



But some diplomatic sources said Laos, which is friendly to North Korea, may have tried to influence Laos, the ARF chair, to not include this request.



Regarding the South China Sea dispute, Yun reiterated Seoul's stance that the South China Sea conflict should be settled in "a peaceful and creative manner."



Yun's remarks were seen as a move to not to provoke China.



But two other U.S. allies -- Japan and Australia -- reportedly angered China by siding with the U.S. and asked Beijing to comply with the PCA ruling.




Kwangwoon University President Chun Jang-ho speaks during an interview with The Korea Times at his office on the university's campus in Nowon-gu, northeastern Seoul, July 14. / Courtesy of Kwangwoon University



College of Software and Convergence to debut next year







By Chung Hyun-chae



Kwangwoon University has an ambitious plan to lead the nation's software education and research by taking advantage of its strength in information and communication technology (ICT).



"Given that Kwangwoon has long been strong in electronics engineering, I believe our new plan, if implemented successfully, will generate synergy by using our strength in ICT," Kwangwoon University President Chun Jang-ho told The Korea Times in a recent interview at his office on the university's campus in Nowon-gu, northeastern Seoul.



He has vowed to turn the focus of Kwangwoon, which has earned a reputation for specializing in ICT, toward software.



Chun said the shift to software is aimed at cultivating creativity and a challenging spirit.



He noted that not only Koreans but also people across the world have come to recognize the importance of software, especially since AlphaGo beat Korean go master Lee Se-dol in a historic match last March between machine and human.





An artist's concept shows a face-lifted campus of Kwangwoon University with new buildings and Kwangwoon Square. The construction work will be completed in autumn in time to celebrate the university's 80th anniversary.



AlphaGo is the AI computer program developed by Google subsidiary DeepMind.



Chun said that the competitiveness of universities as well as corporations will depend on their progress in software education and research.



Established as the Chosun Radio Training Center by Cho Kwang-woon in 1934, Kwangwoon University has long specialized in electronics engineering.



Now, the university's core strategy is to open the College of Software and Convergence next year.



The new college will have three schools: the Computer and Information Engineering, Software and Information Convergence.



"Although we set up two schools of computer and information engineering, and software by upgrading the existing departments of computer engineering and computer software, the School of Information Convergence is brand new," Chun said. "I expect it to be competitive as its curriculum will include artificial intelligence."





Students of the Department of Electronics Engineering make an electrical circuit on Kwangwoon University's campus in Nowon-gu, northeastern Seoul. Courtesy of Kwangwoon University



The college will recruit some 260 freshmen in the spring semester of 2017. The university is in the process of recruiting faculty for the new college.



"We will invite renowned software experts from both home and abroad," Chun said.

In line with its focus on software education, Kwangwoon will provide two mandatory lectures for all students  computational thinking and programming  starting 2017.



"Even those majoring in physical education or law will also be required to take such lectures to improve their capacity in software," Chun said.



The president also placed emphasis on bolstering cooperation between academia and industry.



"We are seeking ways to expand our programs which offer courses tailored for students who are interested in working for a specific company," he said.



Kwangwoon currently runs four such programs, three of which are supported by Samsung Electronics and one by LG Electronics.



The Samsung-supported programs are: the Samsung Talent Program that offers scholarships every year to five students who will be recruited by the company after graduation, the Samsung Software Track that provides scholarships to 15 excellent students and the Samsung Convergence Software Course that teaches basic software skills to students not majoring in software.



The LG Electronics-supported program is for juniors of the College of Electronics and Information Engineering and graduate students of Kwangwoon University.



About 20 to 30 students selected for the program do an internship at LG Electronics during winter vacation, and the company usually hires more than 10 of the participants.



Kwangwoon also runs a "family company" system in which the university and 438 firms cooperate to develop and transfer technology, nurture talent and conduct joint research.



"We also try to expand partnerships with overseas companies to provide our students with internships and work experience opportunities there," Chun said.



The university annually sends 20 students to Australia to work as interns at international companies including health product company Rainbow Nature and calling card company Tel Pacific.



"I think the most important factor in promoting international exchanges is to strengthen personality education," Chun said. "For example, students cannot go overseas without any challenging spirit and sometimes cooperation means sharing."



This is why Chun has been stressing the importance of honesty and sincerity in his students.



"For more than 30 years, I have made my students sign a pledge stating I swear to myself that I will not do anything that will bring shame on myself with scrupulous honesty,' before taking an exam," he said.



Chun also had all lectures start five minutes early so that students can learn the importance of diligence.



"Kwangwoon University can hardly catch up with Seoul National University, the nation's top university. But I believe our students may outperform Seoul National University students in competence and personality development if they try their best," Chun said.



Who is Chun Jang-ho?



Chun Jang-ho was appointed president of Kwangwoon University in January 2014.

He graduated from Kwangwoon with top honors in 1975 after studying electronics engineering.



Chun received his master's degree in electronics engineering from Yonsei University in 1978 and Ph.D. in electrical engineering and engineering physics from the Stevens Institute of Technology in the United States in 1984.



Since 1979, he has served as lecturer, associate professor and professor at his alma mater.



Chun was nominated as one of the finalists for the ENI Award, a prize awarded by the Italian oil and gas company ENI, in 2011 and 2012. The award is often dubbed the "Nobel prize of energy research."
South Korea and the United States will take steps to expand cooperation in defense technology exchanges and the conventional arms trade, the defense ministry said Wednesday.

In the first ever Defense Technology Strategy & Cooperation Group (DTSCG) meeting, Vice Defense Minister Hwang In-moo met his U.S. counterpart David Shear, principal deputy under secretary of defense for policy, to discuss ways to promote defense technology cooperation between the two countries, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said in a statement.

The meeting took place in Washington D.C. on Tuesday (local time).

"South Korea explained its defense technology protection policy and the need for bilateral defense technology cooperation to the U.S., while Washington outlined its trade policy for conventional weapons and basic rules and principles it follows in the defense trade," the statement said.

The two countries "tentatively" agreed to hold the second DTSCG meeting in 2017, but the venue for the meeting has yet to be decided, a ministry official said.

On the sidelines of the defense talks, Hwang met Deputy Secretary of Defense Robert O. Work to share views on extended efforts between the two allies to cope with ever-growing nuclear and military threats from North Korea, it said.

In its latest provocations, North Korea fired off three ballistic missiles claiming the move was aimed at preparing it forces to carry out pre-emptive strikes against South Korea ports and airfields. All three missiles were launched on July 19, with at least two flying some 500 to 600 kilometers. (Yonhap)
South Korea's deputy national security adviser, Cho Tae-yong, arrived in Washington on Tuesday for talks with U.S. officials about how better to pressure North Korea over its nuclear and missile programs.



Cho is scheduled to meet with Deputy Secretary of State Tony Blinken on Wednesday for the third round of high-level strategic talks on North Korea that were established under an agreement President Park Geun-hye reached with U.S. President Barack Obama at their summit in October.



"Having the same objective that we need to make sure to change North Korea's strategic calculus, South Korea and the U.S. have constantly been checking on specific strategies about how to realize the objective, and the high-level strategic talks are also part of such efforts," Cho told Yonhap News Agency upon arrival at the airport.



In this week's talks, the two countries will check what progress has been made in international efforts to sanction and pressure the North while at the same time trying to identify areas where more efforts are necessary, Cho said.



Just hours before Cho's arrival, North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho threatened that the communist nation could conduct yet another nuclear test depending on the "U.S.' attitude," as he spoke to reporters in Laos on the sidelines of a regional security forum.



"North Korea always tries to define the North Korean nuclear issue as a question between the U.S. and North Korea, but that is never true. North Korea's nuclear development is a violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions, which means that the international community is on one side and North Korea is on the other," Cho said.



"This is an issue between the entire international community and North Korea, not a matter between the U.S. and the North," he said.



Cho also said that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's "byeongjin" policy of seeking nuclear and economic development at the same time can never be successful.



"If North Korea cares about its people, it should take the path of nuclear abandonment at an early date," Cho said. That will open the way for cooperation with us and the international community, including economic development."



Cho also plans to hold meetings with White House officials and scholars before leaving for home on Thursday. (Yonhap)








North Korea has been importing a large amount of bear bile, used in traditional Asian remedies, from China for key officials of the ruling Workers' Party, a media report said Wednesday, citing testimonies by defectors.



A defector, who was not named, told Radio Free Asia (RFA) that there is a flow of bear gallbladders into North Korea from China. The source said transactions generally take place in China's border city of Suifenhe in Heilongjiang Province.



RFA said that gallbladder trade is able to be conducted given the lax oversight of the Chinese customs authorities in the border city.



Suifenhe is known to be a city where North Korea used to purchase Russian weapons through the black market in the past.



The defector said North Korea had some bear-breeding farms until early 2000, but they have now disappeared.



Another North Korean who escaped the country and now lives in South Korea told RFA that North Korea has been importing quite a large number of bear gallbladders from China because the Asian black bear population in the reclusive country has been gradually vanishing due to deforestation and other reasons.



He also said some of the North Korean laborers in Russia bring in gallbladders when they come back from Russia and give them to party officials as gifts or bribes.



RFA then highlighted a recent report posted on a Chinese internet media that claimed North Korea passed down the know-how of extracting bile from live bears in 1983.



Bile bears are bears kept in captivity and harvested for their bile, a digestive fluid produced by the liver and stored in the gallbladder, which is used by some traditional Chinese medicine practitioners.



In East Asia, bears are often kept in captivity and farmed for their gallbladders and the bile inside. It has been estimated that as many as 12,000 bears are farmed this way across the region. (Yonhap)




A majority of South Korean experts on inter-Korean ties believe the introduction of a "unification tax" is necessary to prepare for a unified Korea, a survey showed Wednesday.

They agreed that a reunification itself is in the interest of South Korea, but they were divided on an ideal format, according to the Hyundai Research Institute.

The think tank, affiliated with Hyundai Group, conducted the poll on 93 pundits from July 11-19. The margin of error is plus or minus 3.08 percentage points at a 95 percent level of confidence.

Among the respondents, 97.8 percent said reunification is needed and would be helpful to South Korea's national interest.

On the desirable type of unification, 44.1 percent said, "One nation and peaceful co-existence of two systems," while 30 percent said a complete reunification of the two Koreas is the only option.

Nearly 70 percent of them said reunification won't be possible within the next decade.

With regard to unification costs, 63.4 percent was in favor of introducing a unification tax.

In 2010, then-President Lee Myung-bak proposed a public debate on whether such a special tax is necessary. But relevant discussions have made little progress with the public opinion sharply split and inter-Korean relations soured.

The pundits, meanwhile, regarded the U.S. influence on the issue of reunifying the two Koreas as dwindling, while that of China is growing.

Asked to pick the most influential nation over the matter, 54.4 percent selected the United States, down from 63.2 percent in last year's poll. The ratio of those who chose China jumped from 36.8 percent to 45.6 percent.

Nearly half of those surveyed said the North may offer another round of family reunion events around the Aug. 15 Liberation Day. (Yonhap)
By Shim Jae-yun

What is the key to success for a company when it starts conducting business in another country? There are many cases of rises and declines of foreign companies doing business here. Also, numerous domestic firms undergo similar experiences in overseas markets.

In 2001, I did a series of interviews with some 50 CEOs of foreign-invested companies active here. I could draw a clear conclusion about the possible success of a foreign company here through conversations with them. What mattered is what we call "Glocalization."

With effective implementation of glocalization, they became successful. As a coinage of globalization and localization, glocalization refers to the need for a firm to pursue marketing and managerial tactics tailored to the local consumers and employees coupled with their tradition of global standards.

Most successful companies were those that managed to see peaceful and cooperative relations with their employees including unionized workers, in particular.

Take BMW Korea for instance. Under the leadership of Kim Hyo-joon, the German-based company has had steady growth, taking firm root in Korea. At a luncheon meeting with the writer in April, Kim underlined the need to initiate innovation to cope with the rapidly changing business environment. He also stressed the importance of human resources by respecting company employees as the basis for growth.

In contrast, foreign outlets like Carrefour and Wal-Mart had to bow out of the local market, unable to adopt efficient tactics to attract Korean consumers. They largely failed to read the locals' minds and were unaware of cultural differences, only pushing for their own business styles that worked in their home countries.

French-based L'Oreal Korea and Pernod Ricard are suffering from conflicts with their unionized workers. Recognizing the significance of peaceful relations with workers, GM Korea CEO James Kim has frequent contact with the unionized employees, sharing working launches with them.

Volkswagen of Germany has become a public enemy here, fiercely criticized by the people and the government.

Despite its apparent practice of cheating fuel efficiency and emissions tests with faked documents and rigged software, the company has so far failed to make a sincere apology to its customers and come up with appropriate compensation for them.

This triggered a strong public outcry because the German firm compensated U.S. customers with 17.4 trillion won ($15.3 billion), but nothing like that here.

British-based Oxy Reckitt Benckiser also aroused public anger after it was found to have sold humidifier disinfectant that killed more than 100 people and injured hundreds from 2001 to 2011. Though its Korean division head Ataur Safdar apologized, the controversy is expected to linger because the company sold the products only in Korea and tried to hide and contract the cases. As Safdar put it, five years have passed and they were late in making the claims.

Swedish self-assembly furniture maker Ikea has recalled 360 Malm dressers in the U.S. and 9 million in Canada. But it has yet to take any measures in Korea, just pledging compensation on request.

Experts say that the overseas companies' apparent discrimination against Korean consumers is chiefly due to loopholes in domestic law regarding the foreign-invested firms, offering diverse incentives in terms of land use, taxes and so on.

Given this background, Rep. Park Young-sun of the opposition Minjoo Party of Korea drew attention to the matter by initiating a class action bill targeting foreign-invested companies that commit discriminatory business practices against domestic consumers.

The bill features the punitive "opt-out" rule as seen in the U.S., obligating companies to compensate all victims once it loses a lawsuit filed by just one consumer. This will surely alert the foreign companies over their alleged mistreatment of Korean consumers.

But the bill, once in effect, will also likely have far-reaching impact on local companies as it will also probably lead to numerous lawsuits, causing huge burdens on them. U.S. companies had to prepare $265 billion in case of class action suits in 2010, accounting for 1.8 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) of the U.S. It is now high time for the foreign-invested firms to cherish the value of glocalization by honoring the interests of local consumers based on their global standards. That is the only way for them to ensure sustainability here without taking a huge toll, including their possible exit from here.
There are more questions than the anti-trust aspect about Qualcomm's market behavior that is now under scrutiny by the Fair Trade Commission (FTC).



Wrapping up a month-long investigation, the FTC is now deliberating whether the world's biggest chipmaker for smartphones has used its market dominance to charge bigger royalties. Qualcomm claims that so-called device-level licensing is an industry norm and as a matter of fact Samsung Electronics, its key customer, used the same logic in its patent fight against Apple.



The FTC is considering whether royalties should be decided on component-level licensing, which would help Samsung and LG pay Qualcomm far less than their current payments. Reports have it that Qualcomm may face up to 1 trillion won, or about $1 billion, in fines but the size will likely be smaller. China fined Qualcomm $1 billion for its anti-trust behavior there earlier this year, but considering the chipmaker's revenue in China is three times bigger than what it earns here, the penalty in Korea could be less.



There is more than what meets the eye in the Qualcomm issue.



The U.S. firm receives $1.3 billion in annual royalties from Samsung and LG.



Qualcomm Korea employs about 300 people, most of them engineers assisting its clients here but pays corporate taxes that are puny compared to its earnings.



So a fine imposed by the FTC can work as a kind of quasi-tax. Qualcomm was slapped with a 230 billion won fine in 2009. The chipmaker shrugged it off. After the size of fines was decided in China, its business was brisker obvious due to the removal of uncertainty. In other words, Qualcomm's behavior indicates that it sets aside enough to cover the risk of doing business in this part of the world.



Still, some industry experts say that often Qualcomm  as with other firms  feels the FTC's assertion is flimsy on logic but they often comply with it because they want to be on good terms with the powerful agency.



Instead of continuing this war of attrition, the government should find ways of taxing big profits made by Qualcomm and other multinationals, and legitimizing the process to the two parties' mutual understanding. Right now, Qualcomm doesn't pay anything on its royalties receipts as is the practice with other IT firms.




West Point cadets Daniel Whitfield, left, and Travis Moody, second from left, hold a discussion in a lab at Sogang University in Seoul, Friday, with Prof. Shin Kwan-woo, right, who chairs the Department of Chemistry and the Institute of Biological Interfaces at the university. / Courtesy of Sogang University



By Jun Ji-hye

Two U.S. Army cadets are currently visiting South Korea to participate in a joint research program operated by Sogang University, Harvard University and the United States Military Academy.

During the three-week program that kicked off on July 17, cadets Travis Moody and Daniel Whitfield, along with graduate researchers from Sogang University in western Seoul, have been attempting to hone a certain paper-based microfluidic device with relevant military applications under the leadership of Prof. Shin Kwan-woo, who chairs the university's Department of Chemistry and Institute of Biological Interfaces.

The annual program first began last year as part of efforts to foster intellectual and cultural exchanges between the two nations.

Whitfield explained in an interview that the device can detect many dangerous substances from heavy metals to dangerous bacteria.

"Further, it is adaptable, cheap and portable as it works using circuits printed onto paper with conductive ink," Whitfield said, noting that the program definitely helps enhance the friendship between Seoul and Washington.

Moody echoed Whitfield's view, saying, "The biggest takeaway has been the development of friendships and connections that bridge the cross-cultural divide between the United States and South Korea."

When asked about their feelings as future officers visiting Seoul when military tensions between the two Koreas have been raised due to the North's ongoing provocations, Whitfield said, "I feel that it is our duty to support South Korea as our ally against North Korea."

The authoritarian state fired three short-range ballistic missiles on July 19, which was the latest in a series of provocations.

But Whitfield said he did not think much about the tensions on a daily basis as he believes that the South Korean Army is world-class and easily outmatches what the North fields, and the U.S. Army stationed here provides additional support to its friends.

For his part, Moody said North Korea's recent actions have not changed his attitude about visiting Seoul because he has full confidence in the abilities of the ROK Army backed up by the U.S. Army.

The two West Point cadets also expressed their expectation for an opportunity to visit the heavily fortified Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) during the program.

"I think the DMZ will be very interesting to visit," Whitfield said. "It is really a physical representation of the uneasy tension between the Korean nations. Maybe some would consider visiting dangerous, but I definitely trust in our military forces. It will be cool to see such a unique site."

Moody also said, "I am excited to have the opportunity to tour the DMZ. There is a lot of historical significance as well as a certain ominous connotation associated with the area."
A panoramic view of a railway track in Bangladesh / Courtesy of LSIS



By Lee Min-hyung

LSIS has clinched an 18.9 billion won ($16.1 million) railroad communication system deal in Bangladesh.

The nation's top industrial electronic machinery manufacturer said Thursday that it won orders from the Bangladesh-China joint venture, CTM JV, for the four-year railway modernization project.

Under the turnkey contract, LSIS will supply its railroad safety systems  focusing on signaling and telecommunication  for Bangladesh's railroad tracks.

The project is joint venture between the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and Bangladesh Railway, improving outdated railroad systems for some 72 kilometers (km) of track near border areas between the country and India.

This is not the first time that the company has clinched deals with the country's state-run railway company. In December last year, the company won a 17 billion won railroad signaling system contract for tracks crossing some 11 stations between Chinki and Chittagong.

The company has won seven contracts in the country over the past 12 years, expanding its foothold and raising its profile in Asia.

"The latest achievement shows our project management capability is globally acknowledged," a company official said. "We will expand our work into other Asian countries  including the Philippines, Taiwan and Indonesia where European industry-leading players have dominated."

Meanwhile, the Bangladesh government plans to allocate some 34 trillion won on improving the nation's outdated railroad system, as part of its five-year economic development initiative.

"We hope to win more projects and look forward to generating synergy with local railroad operators," the official said. "LSIS has enough expertise in industrial safety systems, as we previously met the highest safety requirement, the Safety Integrity Level 4, from the Safety Instrumented System."
A promoter at Samsung Open House, New York, explains how Samsung's Family Hub system works with the company's home appliances, Wednesday. Samsung was the top appliance brand in the U.S. during the April-June period with a share of 16.7 percent, according to Traqline, a market research firm. / Courtesy of Samsung Electronics



By Kim Yoo-chul

A leading global credit ratings agency expects Samsung to maintain its strong market position in the company's key businesses over the next two years, thanks to strong brand power and solid vertical integration.

"S&P Global Ratings is affirming our A+ long-term corporate credit and debt ratings of Samsung Electronics. At the same time, we are affirming our A-1+ short-term corporate credit rating for Samsung Electronics," S&P said in a statement, Wednesday.

The influential ratings agency said its favorable view of Samsung is because the company will generate strong cash flow and maintain a robust net cash position over the next two years despite elevated shareholder dividends and share buybacks.

"Despite intensifying competition in the smartphone, display, and consumer electronics markets  especially from Chinese players  we believe Samsung Electronics' well-diversified business portfolio and strength in premium products will continue to help it effectively weather business volatility and generate a strong free operating cash flow," S&P's credit analyst Han Sang-yun said.

In the smartphone business, in which Samsung fiercely competes with budget Chinese competitors and Apple, S&P said despite growing challenges, Samsung will maintain a "stable operating performance" in smartphones over the next 12 months.

"Such expectations are because Samsung Electronics has effectively defended its market position over the past few quarters on the back of its strong vertical integration with leading technology in key parts such as memory chips and display panels," said the ratings agency.

But it warned that Samsung may face "substantial volatility" in the mobile device business over the next two years, given the narrowing gap in product quality and the relatively short product cycle.

Samsung was the leader in smartphones throughout last year, followed by Apple; however, Samsung is losing its share in two crucial markets  China and the United States.

More dividend payouts and share buybacks

About the outlook for the memory chip industry, in which Samsung Electronics has been the market leader over the past few decades, S&P expects the semiconductor sector to remain in a modest down-cycle that began in late 2015.

"Weaker-than-expected chip demand from personal computer and smartphone companies because of the weak global economy and market saturation may pose threats to Samsung's memory chip business," Han said in the release.

But given Samsung's continued efforts to migrate its chip-making technologies into thinner chips and advantages in handling mass-production of memory chips with good pricing, S&P said this will remain profitable over the next three years.

"Samsung Electronics is further strengthening its competitive position in the memory chip industry with moderately growing market share on the back of its technological leadership in premium products such as 3D NAND flash chips," Han said. "We expect Samsung's continued large investments in technology and fabrication facilities and high entry barriers in the chip industry to enable the company to sustain its leading position over the next two to three years."

While the company earlier vowed to increase its dividends to shareholders, S&P said this increase of spending won't drastically hurt its cash structure.

"Samsung's strong operating cash flow will be more than sufficient to cover its capital investments and shareholder returns, resulting in positive discretionary cash flow," said the analyst Han.

S&P expects Samsung's annual dividends and share repurchases to remain relatively high at about 6 trillion won to 11 trillion won over the next one to two years, compared with about 8 trillion won in 2015.

The ratings agency said it could raise Samsung's rating if the company sustains its solid financial risk profile with strong cash flow generation and a robust net cash position, while reducing its business volatility mainly by enhancing its market position in major businesses.

"But we also may lower our ratings on Samsung if the company's competitive position or profitability weaken significantly, particularly as a result of a sharper-than-expected deterioration in its smartphone business, and if its overall operating margin declines to below 10 percent," Han said.

"We could also lower the ratings if Samsung's financial policies or growth strategies become significantly more aggressive as a result of larger-than-expected acquisitions, dividends, share buybacks, or capital investments."
By Lee Han-soo

Japan's Mt. Sakurajima volcano, in the country's southwest, had an explosive eruption early Tuesday, spewing ash 5,000 meters into the air.

Kyodo News said the eruption in Kyushu Prefecture also created a spectacular thunderstorm.

This is the first eruption since August 2013 with such magnitude, according to the Kagoshima Meteorological Office.

It was Japan's 47th volcano eruption this year. The Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) has raised alert levels for 34 of the watch-list of 37 active volcanoes in the country.

The JMA also warned residents and travelers in the area of the danger of traffic accidents because of falling ash.
Baku, Azerbaijan, July 27

Trend:

OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs expect progress in the next meeting of Azerbaijani and Armenian presidents on the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, the US co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group James Warlick told RIA Novosti July 27.

The meetings held in Vienna and St. Petersburg played a role in ensuring relative stability and reducing tension on the line of contact between Azerbaijani and Armenian troops, said Warlick.

The expected meeting between the presidents should show the desire of the sides to adhere to the ceasefire, according to the US co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group.

Warlick said it is also expected that the next meeting will pave way for progress in the negotiation process and make it possible to continue the activities on reducing the tension between the sides.

It is expected that the sides will adhere to their obligations in the light of readiness expressed by the presidents for maintaining the ceasefire, he added.

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 27

By Elmira Tariverdiyeva  Trend:

The Russian embassy in Azerbaijan issued an official statement on its website in connection with the information and comments spread by media on the detention of Russian citizen Marat Ueldanov in Azerbaijan.

According to the message, the embassy received a note (#5/15-1401/15/16) from the Azerbaijani foreign ministry June 23, 2016.

According to the note, the representatives of the Azerbaijani State Security Service detained Russian citizen Marat Ueldanov and placed him into a detention center June 9, 2016.

Ueldanov was suspected of committing a crime under Article 234.4.3 of the Azerbaijani Criminal Code (illegal purchase or storage of large quantity of drugs with intent to sell), the message said.

According to the message, a few days later Mariana Mirzoyan appealed to the embassy, stating that the detainee is her brother and his real surname is Galustyan.

Mirzoyan added that Galustyan was detained on suspicion of espionage, rather than drug trafficking, the message said.

The embassy immediately appealed to the relevant Azerbaijani agencies with a request to explain and permit the representatives of the consular department to meet with the Russian citizen, the message said.

In support of the appeal, an official note was sent to the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry July 5, 2016, the message said.

According to the message, the embassy continues to work with the Azerbaijani side to rapidly clarify the issue and get permission to meet with the detainee.
Baku, Azerbaijan, July 27

By Ilham Isabalayeva  Trend:

A seven-year presidential term in a presidential republic will allow to fully implement the program set by the president, Siyavush Novruzov, deputy executive secretary of the ruling New Azerbaijan Party, told Trend.

Taking this into account, the amendment proposed to the Azerbaijani Constitution about extending the presidential term from five years to seven years, complies with the law, he added.

Novruzov said that the seven-year presidential term exists in around 30 world countries, stressing that the proposed amendment on a new presidential term in Azerbaijan has been stipulated by several factors.

"The main issue is that the municipal, parliamentary and presidential elections have been held in Azerbaijan for three consecutive years, he said. The various structures have been dealing only with election in the country for three years.

The issues related to the economy and governance may refer to other factors, he said. These issues include resolving of social problems, improvement work and creation of new jobs. In this aspect, the proposed amendment allows fully implementing the program set by the president.

Azerbaijani 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.

The Azerbaijani Constitutional Court approved the draft amendments to the countrys constitution at a session July 25. The referendum on amendments to Azerbaijans constitution was scheduled for September 26.
Details added (first version posted on 17:02)

Baku, Azerbaijan, July 27

Trend:

The results of the referendum on making amendments to Azerbaijans constitution will be announced by Oct.21, Azerbaijans Central Election Commission (CEC) said during its meeting July 27.

Azerbaijans President Ilham Aliyev signed a decree July 26 on holding a referendum on amendments to the countrys constitution on Sept.26, 2016.

Azerbaijans Central Election Commission was ordered to ensure that the referendum is held on the mentioned date, according to the decree.

The time schedule for preparations and holding the referendum on making amendments to the constitution was approved during the CEC meeting July 27.

The requirements on working out notifications about the referendum will be approved by Aug.17.

The organizations intending to hold exit polls, should submit documents by Sept.6.

On the day of voting, the CEC will release information about the voter turnout five times throughout the day.

Expert and working groups were created during the CEC meeting for reviewing complaints regarding the actions violating the electoral rights of citizens during the referendum.
Baku, Azerbaijan, July 27

By Anvar Mammadov  Trend:

The Azerbaijani State Committee on Property Issues has presented a new privatization portal (privatization.az).

The portal will greatly facilitate the process of privatization and it will be possible to achieve more transparency in this area, Rafig Jalilov, deputy chairman of the State Committee, said.

"All the information about the facilities to be privatized, their addresses, location and, finally, the initial cost, will be presented on the portal, he said. Moreover, it will be possible to participate in online auctions via the portal."

Shamil Shirinov, head of the department of strategic planning, innovation, monitoring and analysis of the State Committee, said that it will be possible for foreign companies to actively participate in the privatization.

"The portal has been designed in two languages - Azerbaijani and English, allowing foreign investors to actively participate in the process of privatization, he said. Moreover, there is Why Azerbaijan special section on the portal for foreign investors, which explains the reason of investing in our country."

There is the information on the portal about the two companies, namely, the Dashkesan Mining and Processing Plant and Baku Electroavtomat OJSC, which are being privatized.
The SLFP does not condone the continuation of the Emergency Regulations (The Public Security Ordinance) more than a day necessary

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Tehran, Iran, July 27

By Mehdi Sepahvand, Dalga Khatinoglu  Trend:

Azerbaijan is serious about the development of North-South transit corridor, Hossein Ashoori, vice president of operation and international transportation of Islamic Republic of Iran Railways told Trend.

He said that Iran, Russia, Azerbaijan hold a meeting every month to discuss the development of North-South corridor and Baku has taken a key role in this project.

Iran and India have also had two meetings during the current year, because one of the participanting transit countries in the mentioned route is India.

"We would launch combined transit system for now. The first experimental cargo transiting from India to Russia through Iran and Azerbaijan will be carried out in August. The cargo will be shipped from India to Bandar Abbas port by the Persian Gulf, then it will be transited via rail to the city of Qazvin, then carried by trucks to Azerbaijan's city of Astara near the border with Iran. Finally the cargo will be delivered to Russia though the Azerbaina-Russia railroad," said Ashoori.

Ashoori said that the only remained sector of the corridor is Rasht-Astara, which is expected to be completed in 4-5 years.

Qazavin-Rasht route, as well as the railway bridge with a length of 82.5 meters on the border of Azerbaijan and Iran over the Astarachay River as well as a pert of railroad in Azerbaijan (8 km) are expected to be completed in 6 months.

He said that the participant countries have defined two interim routes for combined transportation: Iran-Azerbaijan-Russia as well as Iran-Azerbaijan-Georgia (Batumi port).

Ashoori said that regarding the terror attacks on the Iran-Ankara-Europe rail route, the mentioned two interim routes can help Iran to have alternatives to Turkey route.

Ashoori added that trade and cargo transit through railroad between Iran and EU is expected to increase significantly in 2017 due to the result of elimination of sanctions on Iran in January 2016.

"Coning to Azerbaijan, the cargoes can be shipped in Iran's Amirabad port and be delivered to Alat or Baku ports, then they can be carried through railroad to Georgia. The second option is to load the cargoes in Astara to Azerbaijani trains and transporting to Georgia," he said.

Ashoori expressed hope that Azerbaijan will help with financing Iran's remaining section of the Rasht-Astara route.

Azerbaijan has agreed to allocate $500 million to the project. The agreement on the generalities has been achieved and the sides would start negotiations on the details on July 26.
PRESS RELEASE

Glass-Steagall Moves to the Forefront Internationally

July 26, 2016 (EIRNS)In the wake of the adoption of planks in favor of Glass-Steagall banking separation in both the Democratic and Republican Party platforms, there is a growing sense that the FDR-era law is very likely to be passed in the near future. On both sides of the Atlantic, the drumbeat in favor of the legislation, which has been a leading campaign by the LaRouche movement since the fall of 2008.

On July 22, the leading financial newspaper on the European continent, Handelsblatt, published an article by its Washington correspondent entitled Separate What Does Not Belong Together, which led off with the report of the Republican Party platforms inclusion of the plank. Handelsblatts Frank Wiebe writes that

the bank separation concept would probably make the financial system safer. The decisive point is that large banks are too large and a separation would make them smaller again. The argument is valid for Europe, where very large banks sit in relative[ly] small states, even more than for the USA. The Deutsche Bank business model, where a large investment bank sits on the foundations of a not too strong traditional bank is being discussed over and over again.

In the United States, the apparent inevitability of the re-enactment of Glass-Steagall is also increasingly discussed. Take Elaine Kamarck, a Clinton Democratic superdelegate and top campaign consultant. She wrote July 25 that

by agreeing to place reinstatement of Glass-Steagall in the Democratic platform, Hillary Clinton signaled that she too would support it.... To date there hasnt been much interest in this in Congress. But if the establishment heard one thing loud and clear in the 2016 primaries, it was that millions of Americans think that they were the victims of Wall Street and that the next president had better pay attention.

The strong support for restoring Glass-Steagall among Democrats was reflected in the fact that Bernie Sanders stressed it in his Democratic National Convention speech July 25.

Then theres CNBC. On July 26 it published an article on Why Big Banks Could Be Broken Up No Matter Who Wins the White House, featuring the same Keefe Bruyett & Woods investment bank analyst Brian Gardner whose warning last week that Wall Street should not dismiss the potential for GS to actually be passed was much reported after the Republican Party Convention. He adds to what he said last week:

Were now pretty sure were going to have a very close presidential election. I think a few weeks ago people thought Clinton would win this easily and Trump could implode and that would take down House Republicans. That now seems a remote possibility. Now the more likely build up a police state as Turkish President Erdogan is doing, and unacceptable to cooperate with precisely those countries whose role has been highlighted in the Chilcot Report and the 28 pages. Were going to go have a closely divided Congress and were going to have a president who in order to get anything done is going to have to negotiate.... In that kind of environment, people are foolish to dismiss the reintroduction of Glass-Steagall.

There is already a strong base in Congress for action on Glass-Steagall. More than 80 Congressmen, including some Republicans, have signed on to Rep. Marcy Kapturs HR 381, which would restore Glass-Steagall, and at least a tenth of the Senate has signed on to Sen. Elizabeth Warrens 21st Century Glass-Steagall Act.
PRESS RELEASE

Obama Administration Brawl over Russia/Syria Policy at Break Point

July 26, 2016 (EIRNS)Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov met today on the sidelines of the East Asian summit in Laos, to continue working out the details of the plan for greater U.S.-Russian cooperation in Syria agreed on during Kerrys July 14 meetings with Lavrov and Vladimir Putin in Moscow. Both spoke of progress being made after their meeting.

Lavrov told reporters that

"agreements were made on practical steps that should be made to effectively fight against terrorists, to prevent the situation when the so-called moderate opposition remains on terrorist-controlled territories and wants to participate in the ceasefire regime, and at the same time wants to ensure that this regime does not inflict any damage on Islamic State and Jabhat al-Nusra.... We discussed what needs to be done in order for this agreement to start working in practice, in the form of activities of Russian Aerospace Defense Forces and U.S. forces, as well as the US-led coalition."

For his part, Kerry reported that he is hopeful that if the U.S. and Russia continue

"doing our homework ... as effectively as its been done over the last days since I was in Moscow.... somewhere in early Augustthe first week or so, somewhere in there,"

a joint plan for Syria could be announced. We discussed today "the next piece of homework that needs to be completed before we are prepared to make a public announcement," he added. He specified that this "homework" involves quiet meetings between technical teams who are to address differences, beforehand.

Kerrys remarks were made in answer to a reporters question about statements from Defense Secretary Ash Carter and Gen. Joseph Dunford the day before, throwing cold water on Kerrys negotiations with the Russians.

Both Dunford and Carter reflected the anti-Russia, pro-jihadi policy which has been Obamas policy. Carter was the more bellicose. He twice insisted that U.S. policy will remain one of regime change before fighting terrorism, saying:

"Well see whether its possible ... for the Russians to begin to do the right thing in Syria. They obviously have been backing the regime, which has had the effect of prolonging the civil war. Whereas we had hoped that they would promote a political solution and transition to put an end to the civil war which is the beginning of all this violence in Syria. And then combat extremists, rather than moderate opposition which has to be part of that transition. So, theyre a long way from doing that."

Lest it were not clear the first time, Carter reiterated:
Fans have waited nine long years since the last installment of the magical Harry Potter book series came out  but as the clock ticks past midnight Saturday into Sunday, readers can once again immerse themselves in the world that is Harry Potter.

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is the book edition of the play  now on stage in London  by Jack Thorne based on a new story by Thorne, John Tiffany and, of course, Potter creator J.K. Rowling. Harry now works at the Ministry of Magic and is married with three children. His son, Albus, has trouble coping with such a family legacy, according to the plays website. (Rowling has asked those seeing previews of the play to resist sharing spoilers).

Los Angeles booksellers cannot release the book until 12:01 a.m. on July 31, but that is not stopping them or fans from celebrating in advance all over the Southland.

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In Los Angeles, the Harry Potter fan group Dumbledores Army is meeting at 5 p.m. Saturday at Kings Cross Station (actually Union Station) before singing the Hogwarts House song aboard the Hogwarts Express (the Metro Red Line) on their way to the Leaky Cauldron (1939 Public House in Los Feliz), where they will have Harry Potter-themed cocktails, said Adrienne Alwag-Aipia, who runs the group.

Dumbledores Army will be drinking the butterbeer (whatevers on tap) just down the way from Skylight Books, where the group will head for the release party that starts at 10 p.m. and includes a costume contest, face painting, a photo booth, food, dueling Trivial Pursuit games and giveaways of Harry Potter tattoos and pins.

A completely kid-oriented release party is taking place at Once Upon a Time in Montrose. Festivities will include potion-making, a costume contest, a Harry Potter birthday cake to celebrate Harrys birthday, photo booth, musical chairs, pin the glasses on Harry and trivia events, some of which will be easy and some that will be for the die-hard, owner Maureen Palacious said. The bookstore will also host a scavenger hunt that will lead to the elusive Moaning Myrtle hangout. And, of course, everyone will be separated into their proper houses. The party begins at 10:30 p.m. Saturday at the bookstore.

Vromans Bookstore has partnered with Gallery Nucleus, an Alhambra art gallery, for its event. In addition to another costume contest and photo booth, Vromans and Gallery Nucleus will have a wall where partygoers can write what Harry Potter means to them, themed food and drinks such as pretzel magic wands and butterbeer and Harry Potter-themed art. In the past, they had a Harry Potter art show. We all remember it with fondness, said Allison Hill, president and chief executive of Vromans.

To attend, fans must pre-order a book from Vromans. Everyone is allowed one guest, and the party begins 9 p.m. Saturday at Gallery Nucleus, 210 E. Main St. in Alhambra.

On Monday, Barnes & Noble announced that Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is the national chains most pre-ordered title since the last Harry Potter book, and that it expects it will be the biggest-selling book of the year. Barnes and Noble locations across the Southland will be having parties, too. Check our map for the location closest to you.

Email: Alex.Golden@latimes.com

Twitter:@alexgoldennews

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The oil and gas industry has never been shy about deploying its billions of dollars in resources to get what it wants from the political system. But seldom are its activities as flagrant as they are in a California legislative battle pitting two Democrats against each other.

The oil companies instrument in the race between incumbent Cheryl Brown (D-San Bernardino) and challenger Eloise Reyes is a committee dubbed the Coalition to Restore Californias Middle Class.

Bogus PACs masquerading as grass-roots organizations love to drape themselves with these uplifting monikers, but the states political spending laws require the backers to reveal themselves. In this case, 100% of the money funding the coalition comes from four oil companies: Chevron ($2 million), Valero Energy ($2 million), Tesoro Corp. ($1 million) and California Resources Corp., which was spun off from Occidental Petroleum in 2014 ($500,000). This is chump change for the oil companies, which collected a combined $257 billion in revenue last year.

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Our approach is focused on supporting good government, free enterprise and economic progress.  Chevron candy-coats its enormous spending in a local State Assembly race

So far the coalition has spent more than $1.6 million on California political races, but more than one-third of that has been paid out as independent expenditures in the Brown race, much of it for two Internet video ads. The independent spending by the industry has outstripped direct contributions to the Brown campaign, which have come to a little more than $400,000 this year, mostly from business interests (including $4,200 each from Chevron, Tesoro and Valero).

The ads actually target State Sen. Connie Leyva (D-Chino), who isnt in the race but has endorsed Reyes. As my colleague Patrick McGreevy reported this week, the ads have drawn fire from the Leyva camp, which called them racially divisive and reprehensible.

Its not hard to see why. Ethnic politics lie shallowly below the surface of the ads, which identify Brown as an African-American candidate and reports her support from the Democratic Party establishment and Cesar Chavez United Farm Workers.

A Chevron spokesman painted its political activities in pastel hues. Chevron regularly supports a host of candidates, ballot measures, and pro-business organizations and committees, such as Restoring our Middle Class, he said. Our approach is focused on supporting good government, free enterprise and economic progress. The company says it complies with the law in making political contributions, which appears to be true.

A Brown campaign spokesman says there was no coordination between Brown and the coalition. At the end of the day, shes beholden only to her constituents, said the spokesman, Daniel Sanchez. The PACs do what they want to do.

Yet youd need a decoder ring to understand whats really behind the oil industrys support for Brown, and its role in politics generally. So here goes.

See the most-read stories in Business this hour 

Brown long has been identified as a friend of the oil industry, notably when she held out last year on endorsing SB 350, a landmark environmental bill, until it was stripped of a mandate to cut petroleum use in California by 50% over time. The industry mobilized to kill the provision, spending some $16 million on Sacramento lobbying last year, while it was making its way through the Legislature.

After the gasoline provision was scrapped, Brown voted for the bill. In April, during Browns primary campaign, Chevron obliged her by contributing $1 million to an independent expenditure committee supporting her. This prompted a union-backed campaign supporting Reyes to dub Brown Chevron Cheryl.

Interestingly, Browns pro-industry stance isnt mentioned even in passing in the ads produced by the oil companies. They cite only her support of raising the minimum wage, passing a pay-equity law, and increasing school funding  all laudable goals and part of California Democratic orthodoxy, but hardly the oil industrys main concerns.

All this would be a footnote in local political history were it not for the oil industrys habit of injecting itself into local politics more broadly, if sometimes unsuccessfully. In 2010, Valero, Tesoro and Occidental spent more than $2 million to push Proposition 23, which aimed to eviscerate the states greenhouse gas regulations. (They lost.)

That same year, Venoco, an independent oil firm, tried to swamp the city of Carpinteria by spending heavily on a ballot initiative that would exempt itself from city building regulations, so it could operate a 10-story oil derrick round the clock next to a residential neighborhood and on the edge of ecologically-sensitive coastal bluffs. (It lost.)

Then theres Chevron, which is in a class by itself. In 2014, we reported on how the giant oil company had set up the Richmond Standard, a bogus news website in the California community where a major Chevron refinery is located, the better to purvey undigested Chevron publicity handouts and slanted reports about environmental activists. (If youre looking for a story thats critical of Chevron, youre not going to find it in the Richmond Standard, its lone staff writer, an employee of Chevrons publicity firm, told us at the time.)

Chevron also poured an astounding $2.9 million into Richmond municipal campaigns, including $1.4 million to a committee supporting pro-Chevron candidates and $500,000 in opposition to Mayor Gayle McLaughlin, a Chevron critic. As we mentioned at the time, the figures suggested that the company was preparing to spend at least $33 for the vote of every resident of the city 18 or older. The anti-Chevron slate won.

That doesnt make industry spending in our political campaigns innocuous, not by a long shot. The deployment of hundreds of thousands of dollars in local campaigns to support the narrow interests of business corporations should make every voter nervous. The individual is being outspent, big time, to the point where the individual vote may not mean very much at all.

Keep up to date with Michael Hiltzik. Follow @hiltzikm on Twitter, see his Facebook page, or email michael.hiltzik@latimes.com.

Return to Michael Hiltziks blog.

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UPDATES:

6:49 p.m.: This post has been updated with more background on Chevrons Richmond Standard website.
A U.S. lawmaker is renewing his push for Congress to toughen requirements on medical-device warnings, calling Olympus Corp.s 2013 decision against issuing a broad alert to U.S. hospitals about scope-related superbug outbreaks despicable.

Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Torrance) said internal Olympus emails about that decision, detailed for the first time in a Times article on Sunday, were incredibly disturbing and that the company officials involved should face questions at a congressional hearing. At least 35 patients in American hospitals have died since 2013 after developing infections tied to tainted duodenoscopes.

In company emails from February 2013, a senior executive at Olympus Tokyo headquarters told its U.S. managers not to issue a broad warning to American hospitals despite reports of scope-related infections in Dutch, French and U.S. hospitals. The executive added that they could respond to questions from a customer.

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Read the Olympus internal emails 

The company had issued an alert to European customers a month earlier but chose not to do so in the U.S. until last year.

The emails were filed in a Pennsylvania court this month as part of a patient lawsuit and obtained by Kaiser Health News working in collaboration with the Los Angeles Times.

Olympus actions in this case were despicable, Lieu said. They knowingly failed to warn hospitals and patients of their defective scopes.

After the company opted against a U.S. alert in early 2013, Virginia Mason Medical Center in Seattle discovered an outbreak involving contaminated gastrointestinal scopes manufactured by Olympus. The hospital said 39 patients eventually became infected and at least 18 of them died. The hospital acknowledged that the patients who died had other underlying illnesses.

Hospital patients in Los Angeles; Denver; Charlotte, N.C.; and other cities were also sickened by antibiotic-resistant bacteria, known as superbugs, after being treated with Olympus duodenoscopes.

We are very troubled by the now very clear facts that Olympus in Japan knew of the infection problems with their duodenoscopes long before the outbreaks we saw in America, and chose not to warn physicians, said Dr. Andrew Ross, section chief of gastroenterology at Virginia Mason Medical Center.

If they had done so, physicians could then determine what is best in how to treat and advise their patients, Ross said.

Virginia Mason is suing Olympus for fraud and misrepresentation in Washington state court. In court documents, Olympus denies the allegations and contends that the hospital failed to follow the instructions for cleaning the scopes.

Lieu filed a bill in April, known as the Device Act, which would make it mandatory for device makers to share safety alerts more widely, including those issued abroad.

Under the proposed legislation, companies would have to notify the Food and Drug Administration when they issue safety warnings in other countries related to the design and cleaning of their devices. The legislation also would require manufacturers to notify the FDA when they change the design or cleaning instructions of their devices, regardless of whether those changes warrant new government approval.

Lieu said he would press lawmakers to take up the bill in September when Congress reconvenes.

This is why Congress needs to act and pass legislation to make sure this doesnt happen again as well as hold a hearing, Lieu said. I believe it is now time for the decision-makers at Olympus to be held accountable and for Congress to hear what they have to say.

Olympus didnt have an immediate comment when reached Tuesday. The company has said previously that patient safety is a top priority and it is working with the proper authorities and our stakeholders to understand and address the potential root causes of contamination and infection tied to duodenoscopes.

Federal prosecutors are investigating Olympus and two other smaller scope manufacturers over their role in the superbug outbreaks at U.S. hospitals. In California, UCLAs Ronald Reagan Medical Center, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and Pasadenas Huntington Hospital have all reported infections linked to Olympus scopes.

At those three hospitals, 28 infections have been reported and 14 of the patients later died. Some of the patients who died were seriously ill and the role of the infection in their deaths is unclear.

Lieu has introduced an additional bill, a companion to legislation that Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) has filed, requiring that the cleaning instructions for medical devices be scientifically validated to ensure they work.

The duodenoscopes are long, flexible devices that are put down a patients throat during a procedure known as ERCP, or endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography. Nearly 700,000 such procedures are performed annually in the U.S.

Olympus holds an 85% share of the U.S. market for these devices and other specialty endoscopes. Pentax and Fujifilm are two other manufacturers.

Overall, as many as 350 patients at 41 medical centers worldwide were infected or exposed to contaminated scopes made by the three manufacturers from January 2010 to October 2015, according to the FDA.

Chad Terhune is a senior correspondent with California Healthline, a service of the California Health Care Foundation published by Kaiser Health News.

cterhune@kff.org

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Qualcomm Inc. has agreed to pay $19.5 million to settle a gender-discrimination lawsuit that alleged women engineers faced systemic roadblocks to equal pay and promotions at the company.

The settlement covers 3,300 women nationwide who worked in science, technology, engineering and math jobs at the San Diego-based company over a roughly four-year period.

The smartphone chip designer denied wrongdoing but agreed to change policies to help prevent pay and promotion shortfalls for female employees. It also agreed to hire independent consultants that specialize in organizational psychology to examine gender disparities and provide recommendations to make Qualcomm a more equitable workplace for women.

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Qualcomm is committed to treating its employees fairly and equitably, the company said in a statement Tuesday. While we have strong defenses to the claims, we elected to focus on continuing to make meaningful enhancements to our internal programs and processes that drive equity and a diverse and inclusive workforce.

Qualcomms move to settle before the lawsuit was even officially filed in court will probably encourage changes at other firms, said Wendy Patrick, a lawyer and ethics lecturer at San Diego State University.

You can bet there are other high-tech companies that have watched very closely the way Qualcomm has dealt with this, she said. One of the results of these suits is people who havent been sued begin to re-examine their gender policies.

The settlement came after months of talks between the company and lawyers at the Sanford Heisler law firm, which represented seven women leading the class action. Legal fees are expected to be about $5.85 million. The deal has yet to be approved by courts.

Felicia Medina, managing partner for Sanford Heisler in San Francisco, said Qualcomm was always open to hearing our perspective and the perspective of our clients, even though the company didnt think it did anything wrong.

Qualcomm is not scared of litigation, she added. They are involved in litigation on many different fronts. But here there was a real commitment on behalf of the company to be a role model for other technology companies to address these issues head on.

Of the seven lead plaintiffs, five were laid off when the company slashed its global workforce by 15% in November. One left in January 2015 over pay and promotion inequities and another remains employed at the company. Six of the seven reside in San Diego County.

The complaint alleged Qualcomm has a male-dominated culture, with women holding less than 15% of what the company defines as senior leadership positions. In its chip-making unit  the largest in terms of employment  women hold less than 10% of director or senior director jobs.

The company uses a performance-rating system for raises, incentive bonuses and stock awards. Without adequate guidelines for mostly male managers, the system resulted in lower pay for women, the complaint said.

Qualcomm also uses a sponsorship system in which supervisors recommend workers for promotions, instead of posting available jobs for everyone to apply. The system helped create a glass ceiling for women, the complaint alleged.

According to the complaint, unwritten practices at Qualcomm encouraged employees to be available at all times. In addition, employees who worked late into the night were rewarded over colleagues who arrived early and left at the end of a normal day. Such practices hurt workers  both women and men  who care for school-age children, according to the complaint.

Mary Walshok, dean of UC San Diego Extension, believes there is a link between successful women in a company and the number of women on a firms board of directors.

In addition, she said, having relatively few senior or middle managers who are women can hurt lower-level female workers because these are the people who often mentor and promote the younger engineers.

Without female mentors and managers, it is easy for women to get behind, Walshok said. They dont learn the nuanced rules of the workplace. They dont learn how to play with the boys. So they increasingly are perceived as not as competent, not as competitive, not as assertive.

Qualcomm has taken steps to encourage women to enter professions in science, technology, engineering and math, fields known collectively as STEM. It has donated $4.2 million to the Women Enhancing Technology (WeTech) program to support opportunities for girls and women in Africa, China, India and the United States. It also hosts the annual Qcamp for Girls in STEM, a two-week summer camp for middle school girls.

And Qualcomms Women in Science and Engineering is an employee network for women that promotes STEM education through outreach to female students in high schools and colleges.

This settlement and the programmatic changes should encourage more women to join this field, said Danielle Fuschetti, a member of the Sanford Heisler legal team. STEM is and will continue to be a critical component in the effort to close the wage gap.

mike.freeman@utsandiego.com

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Baku, Azerbaijan, July 27



By Rufiz Hafizoglu  Trend:



Eighty seven percent of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars (BTK) railway has been constructed in Turkey, Ahmet Arslan, Turkish minister of transport, shipping and communications, said, IHA agency reported July 27.



The BTK is being constructed on schedule, the minister said, adding that two bridges are being built over the Kars river.



The minister stressed that the BTK railway project is of particular importance for Turkey.



The Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway is being constructed on the basis of the Georgian-Azerbaijani-Turkish intergovernmental agreement.



Azerbaijan allocated a loan of $775 million for the construction of the railway's Georgian section. SOFAZ finances the project in accordance with the Azerbaijani president's decree 'On the implementation of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars project activities', dated Feb. 21, 2007.



The peak capacity of the railway will be 17 million tons of cargo per year.



Once the BTK railway is commissioned, it will transport five million tons of cargo a year, but the figure can rise up to 17 million tons in the future, Javid Gurbanov, head of Azerbaijan Railways CJSC, said earlier.



He added that the Georgian section of the BTK railway will be constructed by late 2016.
Music executive, producer and television competition judge L.A. Reid has made a splash on the Westside of Los Angeles, buying a modern mansion for $17.99 million, according to real estate sources not authorized to comment publicly on the sale.

Although the area containing the one-acre estate is generally accepted as Bel-Air, the L.A. Times Mapping Database considers it to be part of Beverly Crest.

Completed in 2015, the multi-level home can be best described as a modern tour de force. Open and vaulted interiors are set off by black granite walls, brilliant chrome accents and white oak floors. Pocketing walls of glass blur the lines between indoor-outdoor space, while taking in city and ocean views.

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More than 11,200 square feet of polished space includes a massive living room divided by a two-sided fireplace, a gym, an office, a 300-bottle wine cellar and a home theater with a wet bar. A modern chandelier tops a formal dining area and a chefs kitchen has light wood cabinets, two islands and a bar.

The light woodwork continues in the master suite, which has another fireplace and a view of the grounds. There are seven bedrooms, seven bathrooms, three powder rooms and four fireplaces in all.

Two floating glass staircases and an elevator service each of the homes three floors.

An infinity-edge swimming pool with a baja deck straddles the edge of the grounds, with the property tapering off down the hillside below. Adjacent to the pool is an outdoor kitchen/bar and a spa. A large terrace-balcony extends off the second level.

The house came to market last summer for $27.5 million and was more recently listed for about $20 million, records show.

Aaron Kirman of John Aaroe Group and Drew Fenton of Hilton & Hyland, an affiliate of Christies International Real Estate, were the listing agents, according to the Multiple Listing Service. Jesse Lally and Michelle Saniei, also of Hilton & Hyland, represented the buyer.

Reid, 60, has worked with such top-tier talents as Usher, Outkast and Sean Puffy Combs. He co-founded LaFace Records in the late 1980s and later headed up Def Jam Music Group for more than a decade before becoming the chairman of Epic Records, a division of Sony Records.

He served as a judge on the television music competition show The X Factor in 2011-12.

neal.leitereg@latimes.com

Twitter: @NJLeitereg

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With its $4.8-billion acquisition of Yahoo, Verizon has snatched up an Internet pioneer with a massive audience.

But it has also secured something equally coveted in Silicon Valley: real estate.

When the deal closes, the New York telecom giant will become one of the largest office landlords in the nations technology hub thanks to the roughly 1 million-square-foot campus Yahoo owns in Sunnyvale, Calif.  a desirable position amid the current tech boom.

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We have seen a big upswing in rents, said Jennifer Vaux, a Silicon Valley researcher for brokerage Colliers International.

Indeed, the office market has been on a multiyear upswing as tech giants and start-ups have expanded.

See the most-read stories this hour >>

Mark Ritchie, president of Ritchie Commercial, valued Yahoos Sunnyvale property at roughly $500 million. Thats one-tenth of what Verizon has agreed to shell out for the entire company  a percentage that reflects both Yahoos fall from grace as well as the demand for Silicon Valley land.

Average office rents in the second quarter were $4.17 a square foot, nearly 70 cents higher than a year earlier, according to commercial real estate brokerage JLL. Vacancy, meanwhile, ticked down 1.5 percentage points to 12.1%.

Silicon Valley is really difficult real estate-wise, said Ralph McLaughlin, chief economist at real estate firm Trulia.

Tech giants, in particular, have been active in purchasing and leasing real estate.

Facebook now has 3.5 million square feet in Menlo Park, Calif., and Googles headquarters totals 3.1 million square feet in a Mountain View, Calif., campus known as Googleplex. Apple is also under construction on a second campus, totaling 2.8 million square feet, thats set to open next year on 176 acres in Cupertino, Calif.

And developers are still building. In total, they broke ground on 2.5 million square feet of office space in the second quarter, according to commercial real estate brokerage JLL.

Still  like the tech boom itself  there are questions how long the good times can last, especially as venture capital funding declines. JLL said that leasing activity has slowed and new buildings are increasingly opening vacant.

That dynamic, JLL said in its recent report, reflects the beginning of a cooling period as tenants and landlords alike take pause to assess rent growth in addition to how much longer this cycle will last.

What Verizon ultimately plans to do with its new real estate hinges on answers to such larger economic questions, as well as some issues particular to the telecom.

Verizon spokesman Bob Varettoni declined to comment, other than to say it intends to acquire any real estate associated with Yahoos core business operations, including the Sunnyvale property.

There are several options once the deal is finalized, which is expected to happen early next year. Verizon could sell the real estate and lease it back, hold onto it and bet values will rise or sell it to another user.

Such decisions, of course, are usually based on staffing. The Yahoo deal comes a year after Verizon snatched up Yahoos longtime New York rival AOL, which it said it plans to integrate with the Sunnyvale firm.

How much overlap is found  and whether job cuts come primarily from Yahoo or AOL will go a long way in determining how much Silicon Valley real estate Verizon needs.

A lot of this is still up in the air, said Mark Rogers, a corporate governance expert who has been following Yahoos travails. This is going to take some time to shake out.

If Verizon sells the property, Ritchie said it would find plenty of willing buyers. Most of the slowdown, he said, has been in the smaller office spaces sought by start-ups, which are struggling to secure financing after years of easy money. Venture funding in the U.S. was down nearly 18% in the first half the year compared with last year, according to KPMG.

Potential buyers for Yahoos Sunnyvale campus could include tech giants like Google or foreign investors that have sought secure returns in Silicon Valley real estate amid uncertainty in global economies.

It would be a rush among institutional investors and technology owner users, Ritchie said.

If Verizon does decide to cash out, any sale could be a ways off. Bank of America, for example, acquired vast amounts of Southern California office space in 2008 when it purchased Countrywide Financial.

NEWSLETTER: Get the days top headlines from Times Editor Davan Maharaj >>

It took four years for Bank of America to sell 10 former Countrywide buildings to Los Angeles developer Rising Realty Partners, which has since resold eight of those.

Verizon must also decide what to do with the property Yahoo leases, which according to CoStar Group includes about 131,000 square feet in Playa Vista.

In recent years, Playa Vista, along with nearby Venice and Santa Monica, have become somewhat of a Silicon Valley south. Google and Facebook have set up shop there alongside homegrown L.A. tech companies such as Snapchat, the fast-growing messaging platform.

Carl Muhlstein, a broker with JLL who handles leasing for a Playa Vista project where Verizon leases about 130,000 square feet, said hes not convinced that theres overlap between the Verizon and Yahoo business units in Playa Vista.

Even if one downsized, Muhlstein said any empty space would be quickly filled, given the white-hot Playa Vista market.

I dont think anyone is worried, he said.

andrew.khouri@latimes.com

tracey.lien@latimes.com

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Veteran theater provocateur Erik Patterson stings once again in One of the Nice Ones, his new play presented by Echo Theater Company at the Atwater Village Theatre.

The title is a pointed misnomer. No one is remotely nice in this raucous comedy, which is set behind the scenes at a fly-by-night company called Tender Form Weight Loss Systems, a sterile corporate milieu nicely evoked in Amanda Knehans wittily offbeat set.

The wackiness commences when Roger (Graham Hamilton), the boss of this branch, summons one employee, Tracy (Rebecca Gray), a woman in a wheelchair suffering from a rare psychological syndrome, for her performance review. When Tracy learns that shes actually being set up for dismissal, she frantically lobbies to keep her job, throwing herself on Rogers mercy  and onto his desk for a comically steamy tryst.

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Rogers momentary lapse may place him in the duplicitous Tracys power  but when it comes to Machiavellian scheming, Rogers a past master. The two are soon locked in a fiery feud that threatens to incinerate everyone who gets in their way, including their hilariously hapless co-worker, Neal (Rodney To).

To reveal any more about the particulars of the plots is problematic. Pattersons play contains more twists than a mountain switchback, including one involving a weight-loss customer (Tara Karsian). Its a plot line that, in retrospect, seems startlingly unmotivated. Considering her unremitting nastiness, Tracys final burst of compassion for Roger, who has been nothing but horrible to her throughout, also seems unmotivated  as does Tracys belated share about the adolescent trauma that has made her so hateful.

Despite the fact that his narrative takes shortcuts and hits obvious snags, Pattersons play is an exemplar of rudeness whose near-surreal vulgarity elicits torrents of laughter from his gobsmacked audience. Director Chris Fields and his superlative performers do full justice to their deliciously uncouth material, which is not for the prim. They have more fun than the law allows  and so do we.

-------------------------------------------

One of the Nice Ones

Where: Atwater Village Theatre, 3269 Casitas Ave., Los Angeles

When: 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 4 and 7 p.m. Sundays. Ends Aug. 21.

Tickets: $30

Running time: 1 hour, 35 minutes

Info: (310) 307-3753, www.EchoTheaterCompany.com.

Follow The Times arts team @culturemonster.

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James Rolleston, who at age 11 starred in the hit New Zealand film Boy, has been seriously injured in a car crash, according to media outlets in his home country.

He and another 19-year-old were in a car that hit a bridge in Opotiki, southeast of Auckland on the Bay of Plenty on the countrys north island, around 10:30 p.m. local time Tuesday, according to the New Zealand Herald. Rolleston had to be cut free from the vehicle, the paper said.

The actor, also known for his work in The Dark Horse and The Dead Lands, was stabilized at the scene by a paramedic and airlifted to Tauranga Hospital, Radio New Zealand reported.

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Rolleston was awake and surrounded by family on Wednesday morning and responding to all the things he needs to respond to, his agent told the Herald.

The other person in the car reportedly had minor injuries. It was unclear whether Rolleston was the driver or passenger.

Follow Christie DZurilla on Twitter @theCDZ.

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Archie, the 77-year-old comic whose overriding plot line hinged on which milkshake-sipping Riverdale teen (Veronica or Betty) the titular character would take to prom, is being updated as a noir live-action series.

Call it Darchie, jokes Cole Sprouse, who plays series narrator, budding journalist and hometown sleuth Jughead Jones.

Officially titled Riverdale, the CW series premiered its pilot at this years San Diego Comic-Con to pretty positive reviews from the crowd and critics. But if youre looking for more information (a trailer, a few stills) you wont find any.

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Riverdale is shrouded in the same moody fog of mystery that the noir series pumps onto their teenage-laden set. But does this mean that every time Jughead dines out on burgers, theyll taste of suspense and mystery? Like the series, its all a mystery, but at least hell still have his characters signature crown-shaped whoopee cap, which Sprouse revealed at the LA Times Comic-Con video suite with the rest of the Riverdale cast.

So whats the modern day Riverdale look like? It has no ZIP Code, jokes Luke Perry, former 90210 actor, now cast as Archies father, Fred Andrews.

Its not as bright and happy as the comic books, warns Lili Reinhart, who plays Betty Cooper.

Bettys mother is giving her Adderall! Camila Mendes chimes in, perfectly stoking the frenemies fire that is building between Mendes character, Veronica Lodge, and longtime series combatant Betty. The rivalry has been set.

Ashleigh Murray, left, Cole Sprouse, Camilia Mendes, Luke Perry, Lili Reinhart, KJ Apa, Madelaine Petsch of Riverdale. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times )

Sprouse continues, embracing his role as series storyteller, Its important to clarify that this is just a version of Riverdale. This is not the modern Riverdale. This is our interpretation of it. Archie has a ton of universes, and where we fit in is a little more film noir, dark kind of take, a little more like the movie Brick. Its a dark, brooding, understanding of Archie and the town of Riverdale.

To get specific, the series pulls from the recently rebooted Archie comics by writer Mark Waid and Saga artist Fiona Staples. Waids Archie is more like a human teen who plays the guitar and hangs around with his hipster-looking bestie Jughead and less like a bow-tie wearing, 1950s representation of proper teen values.

But you still laugh, dont worry, assures actress Madelaine Petsch, who plays classic comic book redhead Cheryl Blossom, the self-proclaimed head mean girl of Riverdale.

Other characters who will be populating Riverdale High include Ashleigh Murray as Josie McCoy, leader of the Josie and the Pussycats band. And yes, they will be wearing cat ears of some kind, but Murray wouldnt spill any detail except that her character is motivated: Josie is very determined to succeed, shes like the Beyonce in the tiny pool of water.

The high school melodrama (even with the noir bent) should come naturally to actor Perry, who spent his 20s playing West Beverly Hills High Schools heartthrob Dylan McKay. But this time Perry returns to television not as the freewheeling, leather-jacketed bad boy but as father figure.

Were not the happy all-American family, Perry explains. Archies parents are separated, he lives with his dad. Were the working-class side of Riverdale. Were the blue-collar guys. Andrews construction. Im a construction worker and its me and my boy, and were going to figure it out together, and its kind of neat because traditionally in the comics, Archie came from a happy family, you know everything was always great and apple pie in the window and all that stuff, and it aint like that here.

But despite the vacant windowsills in this new dark and foggy Riverdale, theres still plenty of room for the classic comic. We have Ms. Grundy, Perry says.
On a night when Bill Clinton was the true star of the Democratic National Convention  giving a 40-minute speech about his wife's merits  celebrities almost seemed unnecessary.

And yet Hollywood turned out in force on Tuesday for the second day of the DNC, which was emceed by actress Elizabeth Banks. After mocking Donald Trump's entrance at the Republican National Convention  walking out amid fog and giving herself a slow clap  Banks proceeded to introduce "Scandal" star Tony Goldwyn, "Rise Up" crooner Andra Day, Alicia Keys and a slew of actresses: Meryl Streep, Debra Messing, Erika Alexander, America Ferrera and Lena Dunham.

The latter two young stars walked out together, making light of the fact that many viewers think celebrities shouldn't comment on politics.

"We know what you're all thinking: Why should you care what some television celebrity has to say about politics?" said Dunham, the creator of HBO's "Girls."

"And we feel the same way," responded Ferrera, who is on NBC's "Superstore." "But he is the Republican nominee, so we have to talk about it."

Watch Lena Dunham and America Ferrera speak on Day 2 of the DNC.

The dig, of course, was directed at Donald Trump, who for years hosted NBC's reality show "The Apprentice." And Ferrera has been vocal about the fact that she is bothered by the idea she shouldn't enter the political fray because she's an actress. On her Instagram account over the weekend, the 32-year-old implored the public: "Please stop telling me to shut up because I'm an actor. I am an American, and like everyone else, there's a lot at stake for me in this election. I will use my platform and encourage you to use yours."

At the DNC, the actresses  who stumped together for Hillary Clinton at an event in Los Angeles this spring  went after Trump aggressively, drawing upon personal anecdotes. Ferrera spoke about how she was the child of Honduran immigrants, educated in a public school where she often relied on free meals "to get through the school day."

Day Two of the Democratic National Convention has a theme: girl power 

The 30-year-old Dunham, meanwhile, referred to herself as a "pro-choice feminist sexual assault survivor with a chronic reproductive illness"  she suffers from endometriosis  saying she feared Trump's rhetoric would take women "back to a time when we were meant to be beautiful and silent." She also poked fun at her own looks, noting that Trump would probably not find her attractive: "According to Donald Trump, my body is probably, like, a 2."

Speaking of looks, even though Meryl Streep delivered a passionate endorsement for Clinton at the end of the evening, she was still subject to snarking from the online Fashion Police. The 67-year-old walked onto the stage in an American flag dress designed by Catherine Malandrino that  OMG!  she's actually worn before.

https://twitter.com/Booth/status/758136614648356865

The dress didn't win rave reviews, and yet shortly after her speech it was apparently sold out online:

Full convention coverage 

https://twitter.com/StephLauren/status/758136220098723840

Ultimately, however, Streep's words seemed to stick with the audience more than her fashion choice. She spoke of the "grit" of Deborah Sampson, a woman who served in George Washington's continental army disguised as a man so that she could fight for her country.

"What does it take to be the first female anything? It takes grit, and it takes grace," said the Oscar winner. "Hillary Clinton has taken some fire over 40 years of her fight for families and children. How does she do it? That's what I want to know. Where does she get her grit and grace?"

Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, Fergie and Chloe Grace Moretz are still slated to take the stage later this week, so check back for more DNC updates.

Find me on Twitter @AmyKinLA

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Michelle Obama sported waves in her hair Monday as she made waves with her speech supporting Hillary Clinton during the opening night of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia.

Created by longtime hairstylist Johnny Wright, the First Ladys hairdo tumbled slightly below her shoulders with side-swept bangs and loose curls. It was an evolution of a look that premiered at the State of the Union address earlier this year.

I may have made it a little more piece-y [Monday]. Its one of my favorite styles to do. It has an effortless feel to it, Wright said. It has class. It gives you a little bit of everything all in one, and she is able to tell several stories when it comes to her look.

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Compared to the hairstyles Wright gave Obama for the conventions in 2008 and 2012, the latest convention coif was longer. She paired the hairdo with a cobalt blue Christian Siriano dress and statement earrings.

It has grown a tremendous amount over the past eight years. One thing that contributed to that was us going natural and moving away from chemicals, Wright said of Obamas lengthy hair. I have felt that, for a women with her schedule thats getting her hair done quite often, its better when its healthier, and its healthier when its natural. Because of that, its been able to grow out longer with the natural hair instead of relaxer.

Wright gravitates to bangs on Obama because he believes theyre a flattering accent to her face. He doesnt follow trends or aim to generate them when styling her hair, bangs or no bangs. Instead, he commented he considers the overall silhouette more than jumping on fads.

I love the bangs. The very first time I cut the bangs was right after the second campaign. The campaign year was so intense. We were all over the country, and her hair took a beating from blow-drying. Because you reach for the front when you start styling the hair  at least I do  that was the most damaged part. A lot of people were thinking she wanted to start a trend, and it took flight, Wright said. I remember being in the salon a couple of weeks after the second inauguration when she showed her bangs, and I had about five clients wanting bangs.

A novice at political plaits during the convention eight years ago, Wrights experience is very different at the current convention. Back in 2008, I remember being very overwhelmed being a part of the political world. I came from a celebrity background. I was backstage at the Oscars and the Grammys, but the political world is 100% different. I was afraid I wasnt going to do the right thing, he recounted. I did take a moment [Monday] to reflect on that time. Eight years later, my nerves are not an issue at all. Its no pressure to make her look a certain way because I pretty much have mastered her look in my mind.

On Monday evening, Wright was backstage while Obama addressed the crowd. I wanted to go to the audience and watch it with everybody, but it happened so quickly, and I didnt want to miss any of it, he said. I was teary-eyed. It was such a great speech. I thought she made the case for Hillary.

Whether its Bill Clinton or Melania Trump who becomes first spouse, Wright is exiting Washington, D.C., when the Obama administration ends. Hes most likely returning to Los Angeles, where he lived prior to relocating to the capital. Wright said, It will be bittersweet but more sweet than bitter. There will be a little bit of missing it, but Im very excited to do whatever is next in my life and move on to other things.
In a small storefront on Union Avenue and West 23rd Street in South Los Angeles sits Everytable, a new grab-and-go restaurant that opens July 30.

Inside, dozens of meals prepared by chef Craig Hopson  who a few years ago was cooking at the lauded New York City restaurant Le Cirque  fill the shelves, waiting to be microwaved. Theres a Jamaican jerk chicken dish, made with coconut rice, beans, kale and plantains; a bowl of spaghetti squash and turkey-quinoa meatballs, designed to be a kids meal; and a Puebla chicken tinga, a version of the classic Mexican dish made with chipotle sauce, a blend of grains and chayote-roasted onions and peppers.

At the new restaurant, each of these dishes is priced around $4. And when Everytable opens in downtown L.A. later this summer, these same bowls will cost around $8. This is the Everytable model.

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Everytable is a new concept designed to feed every community. Diners can walk in, grab a prepared meal and either heat it up with available microwaves and eat it at the restaurant, or take it away to eat at home. Everything is priced to be affordable to everyone, regardless of income.

There are plans to open an Everytable in Boyle Heights, Inglewood, Compton, Santa Monica, West Hollywood and other L.A. neighborhoods.

The restaurant is opening in the middle of a growing effort to bring accessible, healthful food and food education to low-income areas of Los Angeles. Its an idea thats been gaining momentum, with the opening of Locol, Roy Choi and Daniel Pattersons affordable fast-food restaurant in Watts, where the two chefs hire from the surrounding community to staff the restaurant.

Started by business partners Sam Polk, an ex-Wall Street hedge fund trader, and David Foster, a former private equity executive, Everytable uses a variable pricing model. Translation: Food will be priced based on the neighborhood.

Its a model the two came up with while working for Polks organization Groceryships, a six-month program that provides food education, temporary financial support and resources for low-income families. Foster was volunteering for Groceryships, which started in 2013, when he decided to quit his day job and start Everytable with Polk. The two began working on the idea last year.

David Foster, left, and Sam Polk, are the founders of Everytable. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times )

When were working on the Groceryships applications, theres always something like a single mom making around $1,200 a month, spending $750 on rent with four kids, said Polk, who added there are 150 people on the wait list to get into the program. For that mom, theres a huge difference between a meal that costs $3.50 and one that costs $5. On the Westside or downtown or Pasadena, people are used to paying $14 at Tender Greens for a salad and $9 for green juices. So food is sold according to the neighborhood we are in to make sure its truly affordable in every community.

Polk said he uses ZIP Code-level per capita income data (its available to the public with an online census search) to determine neighborhood pricing. He and Foster research what the average income is in a neighborhood, then price dishes accordingly, in an attempt to make them affordable.

What weve tried to implement is delivering great value wherever we are, Foster said. So even though the pricing will be different between here and downtown, the price is going to be lower than whatever else is in that neighborhood.

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The $3.95 salads served at the South L.A. location and the $8 salads coming soon to the downtown L.A. location will be made exactly the same way, with the same ingredients (organic when available and sourced as much as possible from local farms), in the same central kitchen, where all Everytable meals are made. Foster and Polk are leasing a space in Redondo Beach, but the two have plans to move into a larger space in South L.A. later this year.

Funding for Everytable comes from more than 50 investors, including Toms Social Entrepreneurship Fund (yes, its associated with the shoe company) and Lerer Hippeau Ventures, a technology venture capital firm based in New York City.

Can you produce the same meals but make sure that low-income people have access to the same meals that wealthy people do? said Robert Egger, founder of L.A. Kitchen, a nonprofit that runs a culinary job-training program in Los Angeles for former inmates and those leaving the foster care system. Egger said he has served as an unofficial advisor to Polk for years. I just think Sam and the Everytable model is one of the most exciting experiments of food democracy in L.A. and in America.

A selection of grab-and-go food is seen at Everytable in South Los Angeles. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times )

Polk and Foster keep prices down with grab-and-go items and a central kitchen model by eliminating the need for a waitstaff or kitchen space at each location. Two employees will staff the store, guests will heat their own food with available microwaves and seat themselves.

If you walk into Chipotle, what youll see is a 2,500-square-foot space, 15 employees, a fully built-out commercial kitchen, all of which is why they will never sell a $4 burrito, Polk said. If we package the food in to-go containers, then we can open storefronts that are 500 to 700 square feet, two employees, so we can cut out a lot of the excess cost with the model and pass that onto consumers.

The Everytable space in South L.A. may be small, with an area for heating food and a couple of tables, but Foster and Polk said they really paid attention to the design  by the Gensler architect firm which includes bright yellow and orange colors. (The location used to be the Groceryships office.) With modern, minimal furniture, clean lines and bold lettering on the walls spelling out the restaurants mission, It looks like a restaurant you might find in Silver Lake or Venice Beach.

We really wanted customers to have this incredible experience where the food is delicious, but also the environment was beautiful and showed a tremendous amount of respect for the customers, Polk said. And the menu has really been created as a way to show respect to various cultures and communities within Los Angeles.

Hopson, the chef, worked with some of the families enrolled in the Groceryships program to come up with the menu, which includes a pozole with baked tortilla chips ($3.95), Yucatan chili with chickpeas and ancho chile ($3.95) and a Vietnamese chicken salad with mung bean noodles and lemongrass chicken ($3.95).

A team of about 15 people prepare the food for Everytable, including Hopson and culinary director Johnny Yoo of A-Frame, Chois Hawaiian soul food restaurant in Culver City.

They are all hired from the surrounding community, and a lot of them come through Groceryships or other nonprofits, Polk said.

The barbecue picnic salad from Everytable comes with barbecue chicken salad, baked beans, coleslaw, whole wheat corn bread, bread-and-butter pickles and a deviled egg, for $3.95 in South L.A. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times )

The idea of hiring within the community is something familiar to Egger. His organization, L.A. Kitchen, gives people the culinary skills they need to find jobs, then helps them actually find the jobs. Its part of a larger effort to bring healthful food to more communities and get the people living there involved in the selection process.

Weve got a generation raised on the Food Channel, and even amongst poor populations, there is a heightened awareness of nutrition and a greater demand for access, said Egger, who also credits the Affordable Care Act with helping to bring nutrition awareness to more people. More doctors are talking about fruit and vegetables. While food-service professionals want to innovate within our own field, now our innovation is met by an enthusiastic consumer base that wasnt around before.

Polk and Foster also have a connection to Father Greg Boyle, who founded Homeboy Industries, an organization that provides training to former gang members and previously incarcerated men and women. Boyle helped launch Polks Groceryships by running its pilot program out of Homeboy Industries in 2013.

For Polk and Foster, the Everytable location in South L.A. is the beginning. Because each restaurant is for-profit, Polk and Foster are aiming to raise enough capital to open more locations.

Were hoping to get four locations open by the end of the year, Foster said. And then hopefully 10-plus locations by the end of 2017.

The second Everytable, opening later this year, will be at 700 S. Flower St. in downtown.

Everytable is having its grand opening party from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, July 30, with free meals, face painting and a bounce house. 1101 W. 23rd St., Los Angeles, (213) 973-5095, www.everytable.com.

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Saison means season in French, as the beer style of that name originated in the farmhouses along the border of France and Belgium at a time when the warming days of spring meant an end to a winter of brewing. (Without refrigeration, beer made in warm weather spoils quickly). Before their attention turned to the work in the fields, the farmer-brewers would craft one last batch of beer to last through the harvest  these farmhouse ales were a light, refreshing and restorative beverage shared with the farm crew through the summer.

In America, where craft brewers have turned to the farmhouse styles to showcase their creative impulses, todays saisons are a blend of tradition and ingenuity. Wildly diverse, saisons can be made simply with malt, hops and yeast  most often particularly aromatic strains of yeast that saturate the brews with fruity and spicy flavors  or they can feature additions of spices, fruits or even wild yeasts and bacteria.

But the variety of interpretations available from local craft breweries or imported, mostly from Belgium, have one thing in common: They were made to quench summer thirst and to accompany meals enjoyed in the open air. Be it an evening at the Hollywood Bowl, a languid afternoon spent poolside or an outdoor barbecue, saisons are an astute choice for both beer lovers and for those who may yet become so.

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Saison Duponts Vieille Provision (Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times )

Brasserie Dupont  Saison Dupont

Saison Dupont is the yardstick that other saisons are judged against; its been a popular Belgian import for nearly 30 years, and its credited with inspiring hundreds of imitations from American craft brewers. Brewed at Brasserie Dupont in the Hainaut province just 10 miles from the French border, the hazy golden ale balances a refreshing hoppy bite with the complex fermentation character thats the signature of saison beers. Expect notes of black pepper and pear, with a dry finish and lively carbonation. This saison is very versatile with food  at home at a backyard party, a picnic with cheese and charcuterie, or at brunch, where it can even sub for the Champagne in your mimosa. A variation labeled Vieille Provision features an additional dose of hops. Both versions are widely available in 750-ml corked bottles for around $12 at beer retailers such as BevMo, Total Wine and sometimes even the corner liquor store.

Logsdon Farmhouse Ales  Seizoen Bretta

Founded in 2009, this all-organic brewery on a 10-acre farm in Hood River, Ore., produces an assertive saison that mirrors the sprightly flavors of Dupont. Seizoen Bretta  thats the Flemish spelling of saison  is conditioned with the wild yeast brettanomyces for further complexity. The brett accentuates the dry finish, adds even more effervescence, and creates a range of earthy, even musty aromas. The hint of funk is subtle, and the brew is unchallenging  though at 8% alcohol its firmly on the potent end of the saison spectrum. Pour Seizoen Bretta carefully into a stemmed tulip and the voluminous cap of foam perched atop the glass will catch the eye even before the aroma finds your nostrils. 750-ml wax-dipped bottles are available at K & L Wines in Hollywood for about $12.

Logsdon Farmhouse Ale (Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times )

The Lost Abbey  Carnevale

Carnevale is released each year around Lent by San Diegos preeminent crafter of Belgian-inspired beers, the Lost Abbey in San Marcos. The light and hoppy saison blends the citrus and fruit aromas of American hops with an earthy depth provided by a dose of brettanomyces introduced at bottling time. This brett bottle conditioning means the beer will evolve month to month, and where a fresh bottle opened in spring is bright and hoppy, by midsummer the citrus and stone fruit impressions fade and the brett character becomes more prominent. Off-dry and spritzy, Carnevale is a perfect match for lighter summer food such as salads and fresh cheeses. The 750-ml corked bottles are less than $10 and available at Total Wine and many Whole Foods locations.

Brouwerij West  Dog Ate My Homework

Adding fruit to beer has lost its stigma and is now one of the hippest trends in craft brewing, and Brouwerij West  the Belgian-inspired brewery that opened in San Pedro earlier this year  is no stranger to either fruited beers or to the saison style. The tap list at the Port of Los Angeles tasting room is regularly stacked with farmhouse styles, and Dog Ate My Homework adds a gluttonous amount of blackberry puree and concentrate to a light and grainy base ale. The result is a purple-hued glass that is neither sweet nor tart but that still tastes richly of berries. Available on draft for $7 and in 750-ml bottles for $14 at Brouwerij West in San Pedro.

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Jonathan Gold reviews Lasa, a temporary Filipino restaurant with long-range ambitions
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
Baku, Azerbaijan, July 27

By Anvar Mammadov - Trend:

Aflatun Mammadov has been appointed head of the Main Department on Analysis and Control over Tax Risks of Azerbaijans Ministry of Taxes, said the ministrys website.

This position has remained vacant since Ilkin Veliyev, who was holding this position, was appointed new deputy minister of taxes in accordance with the decree of Azerbaijans President Ilham Aliyev.

Earlier, Aflatun Mammadov served as deputy head of this department, the ministry told Trend July 27.

---

Follow the author on Twitter: @Anvar_Mammadov
Bernie Sanders hasnt grown much fonder of the media

So what did Bernie Sanders make of all the booing on his behalf Monday night?

Give his supporters time, Sanders told reporters at a Bloomberg Politics breakfast Tuesday. Most have never been involved in politics before. They are still working their way through the stages of grief.

We have beautiful supporters, passionate supporters, he said. He figured some 90% of the delegates representing him had never been to a convention before.

Sanders reiterated that he is going to campaign aggressively for Hillary Clinton. But dont expect him to stay a committed Democrat after that. He ran for the Senate as an independent, he said, and he will be serving out his term as one.

The senator also hasnt grown any more fond of the media after a year in which he was in the headlines and cable news spotlight daily.

I think you have a right to ask the question, dumb that it may be, he said  kind of joking, but kind of not  to a reporter who asked whether Sanders feels he can trust Clinton. Sanders said reporters should have been asking about climate change and healthcare. You are asking me about trust, so we can have a big article about controversy.

Did anybody ask me about climate change? he said. Is it of some significance to anyone at this table?

The senator also had some thoughts about the conspicuous display of special-interest money throughout the Democratic convention.

It should be an embarrassment, Sanders said. Then he looked around the posh neoclassical conference room where he he was breakfasting with reporters. Who is sponsoring this?

Moderator Al Hunt joked that one of his colleagues was picking up the tab. Then he decided best to be clear. We are, by the way senator  to be serious  we dont have any outside funder, Hunt said.
What President Obama says scares him about Trump

President Obama says it isnt just the idea of Donald Trumps finger on the nuclear button that he finds scary.

I set aside the nuclear codes, he said in an interview broadcast on NBCs Today Show on Wednesday. What I think is scary is a president who doesnt know their stuff and doesnt seem to have an interest in learning what they dont know.

As Obama prepares to address the Democratic National Convention tonight, he warned in the interview that Trump could win in November.

Ive seen all kinds of crazy stuff happen, he said, expressing concerns that voters might get complacent.

Obama also offered his thoughts about the FBI investigation into Hillary Clintons email server and talked about why Democrats are projecting a theme of optimism at their convention.

Anybody who goes into campaigns not running scared can end up losing, Obama said. So my advice to Democrats-- I dont have to give this advice to Hillary Clinton, because she already knows it -- is you stay worried until all those votes are cast and counted because you know, one of the dangers in an election like this is that people dont take the challenge seriously. They stay home. And we end up getting the unexpected.

Obama, a skilled campaigner who has proven particularly effective at prodding Trump, offered his assessment of why the prospect of him on the Oval Office should frighten Americans. If you listen to any press conference hes given, or listen to any of those debates, basic knowledge about the world or what a nuclear triad is or where various countries are or, you know, the difference between Sunni and Shia in the Muslim world -- those are things that he doesnt know and hasnt seemed to spend a lot of time trying to find out about.

On Clintons email troubles, Obama said FBI director James Comey was comprehensive, unusually so, about how they arrived at their decision to advise against an indictment. He said Clinton had acknowledged she made mistakes and that demands she be put in jail are irrational.

Folks are rough on Hillary Clinton in ways that even as somebody who, Ive had my share of, you know, getting whacked in the public eye, Im surprised by sometimes. And I dont think its fair, he said.

In his speech Wednesday night, Obama said, he will strike an optimistic note, even as he acknowledged his plan to change the political tenor of Washington had come up short.

Watch the interview below >>
It's been 35 years since John Hinckley Jr. nearly killed President Ronald Reagan in a deranged attempt to impress actress Jodie Foster. In that time, the troubled would-be assassin has grown fond of art classes, begun volunteering at a local library and taken time to care for a small colony of cats living on the grounds of the hospital where he's spent the last three decades.

Here is some background on Hinckley's life before and after the assassination attempt.

PHOTOS: Assassination attempt on President Reagan

A wandering young man

Hinckley was born in 1956 in Evergreen, Colo., the son of a wealthy Denver oil executive. According to testimony given by his family at trial, the young Hinckley struggled to find a steady job or remain focused on schoolwork, and that restlessness led to a falling out between father and son less than a month before the shootings.

At Hinckley's 1982 trial, his mother described him as a reserved man with "no direction in his life." He attended classes at Texas Tech University in the late 1970s, but often wrote home and called his mother to talk about the severe depression he was feeling at college.

Hinckley, who aspired to be a writer or musician, dropped out of school on more than one occasion and struggled to maintain friendships, relatives said.

After he returned to Colorado in 1980, Hinckley's family pleaded for him to be placed in a mental facility, but the hometown psychiatrist who had been treating him advised against it.

The assassination attempt

Hinckley began to unravel after an encounter with his father at a Colorado airport in March 1981, less than a month before the shooting. As Hinckley returned from a trip to New York, he was met by his disappointed father, who told his son the family could no longer support him financially.

Weeks later, on March 30, Hinckley would step out of a crowd outside the Hilton Hotel in Washington, D.C., and open fire with a six-shot revolver as the president left a speaking engagement. Though he was not shot directly, Reagan was seriously wounded by a ricocheting bullet. A police officer and Secret Service agent also were struck by gunfire.

Reagan's press secretary, James Brady, suffered the most serious injuries when a bullet passed through his forehead and pierced the right side of his brain. Brady, who went on to become one of the leading voices for gun control in the U.S., suffered partial paralysis and permanently slurred speech as a result of his injuries.

Brady died last year, and local prosecutors ruled his killing a homicide, but Hinckley will not face additional charges in Brady's death.

Investigators later determined that the assassination attempt was a bizarre gambit to attract the affections of actress Jodie Foster. Hinckley had called Foster several times and written letters to her while she was a student at Yale University. He also penned an unsent letter to Foster in 1981, claiming he would try to win her affection by attempting to kill Reagan.

James Brady, press secretary to President Reagan, was left partly paralyzed by the gunfire that also wounded Reagan in 1981. ( Susan Walsh / Associated Press) (Test)

Life at St. Elizabeths

Hinckley was found not guilty by reason of insanity in 1982 after a jury agreed with defense attorneys' claims that he could not understand right from wrong when he shot Reagan. Hinckley was ordered to undergo treatment at St. Elizabeths Hospital in Washington, D.C. His diagnoses included schizotypal and narcissistic personality disorders and major depression.

His early years at St. Elizabeths were marked by a series of bizarre incidents. The government monitored Hinckley's mail until 1984, intercepting one series of exchanges in which a Chicago college student offered to kill Foster on his behalf.

Hinckley also attempted to correspond with serial killers Ted Bundy and Charles Manson and struck up a romance with a female patient who had been found not guilty of her daughter's slaying by reason of insanity. The two were engaged, but the woman was later released from the hospital.

In recent years, however, Hinckley has shown fewer and fewer symptoms of the illness that supposedly led him to carry out the attack on Reagan. Starting in 2006, Hinckley has been allowed to leave the hospital for up to 10 days at a time. He has visited his mother's Virginia home, where he often performed chores or played guitar. He also has been allowed to visit shops in and around Williamsburg, Va.

Hinckley has rarely been punished for abnormal behavior or for lying to his doctors in recent years, court documents show.

Not the first time

Hinckley is one of three would-be assassins who were deemed insane after making an attempt on a president's life.

Richard Lawrence, considered to be the first person to attempt to kill a sitting U.S. president, also was found to be insane after attempting to shoot Andrew Jackson in 1835. Lawrence's guns misfired.

Lawrence was in mental institutions until he died in 1861. He was one of the initial patients at St. Elizabeths Hospital, the facility where Hinckley resides, after it opened in 1855 and spent the rest of his life there, according to the Washington Post.

John F. Schrank, who was arrested after shooting former President Theodore Roosevelt, who refused treatment until after he delivered a 50-page speech, with a bullet still in his chest, in 1912. Schrank was also deemed insane and committed to an institution until he died 30 years later.

Release from the hospital

On Wednesday, Judge Paul L. Friedman ruled that Hinckley was ready to live in the community and would be allowed to leave the hospital to live full-time at his mothers home in Virginia.

Doctors have said for years that the now 61-year-old Hinckley is no longer plagued by the mental illness that drove him to shoot Reagan.

Follow @JamesQueallyLAT for breaking news
When it comes to combating the nations opioid epidemic, politicians of all stripes say they are fully committed.

President Obama wants to spend a billion dollars on new treatment programs. Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump talk about the ravages of addiction and the need for solutions. And Congress earlier this month passed a package of legislation to prevent overdoses, bolster law enforcement and improve recovery programs.

But this spring, with little attention and virtually no public opposition, lawmakers approved and the president signed a new law that makes it more difficult for government to take action against a key player in the crisis: the pharmaceutical industry.

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The law allows companies accused of failing to report suspicious orders of dangerous drugs to submit a corrective action plan to persuade the Drug Enforcement Administration to postpone or abandon proceedings against them. The law also raises the bar for the DEA to temporarily suspend their licenses.

The measure was backed by manufacturers, wholesalers and pharmacy chains, including some targeted by the DEA in recent years for not doing enough to keep drugs from addicts and drug dealers.

Supporters maintain that the law, the Ensuring Patient Access and Effective Drug Enforcement Act of 2016, keeps medication available for legitimate patients and will encourage cooperation between industry and law enforcement.

Critics say it takes pressure off companies to detect and report drugs flowing to the black market. The top DEA official for regulation of pharmaceutical firms left the agency last fall, in part, he said, because of a bitter dispute with members of Congress over his view that the bill was misguided and would worsen the epidemic.

They are taking the word of industry rather than the governments expert in diversion control, said Joseph Rannazzisi, who stepped down in October after nearly a decade as DEA deputy assistant administrator.

A Los Angeles Times investigation published earlier this month revealed that drug maker Purdue Pharma, which has reaped more than $31 billion from the painkiller OxyContin, collected extensive evidence suggesting illegal trafficking of its drug and, in many cases, did not share the information with law enforcement or cut off the flow of pills.

A Times Investigation: More than 1 million OxyContin pills ended up in the hands of criminals and addicts. What the drugmaker knew 

One drug ring that Purdue monitored was operating for several years in the district of Rep. Judy Chu (D-Monterey Park). Chu co-sponsored the bill in the House. She has received more than $31,000 in contributions from the pharmaceutical industry, according to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics.

A spokesman said Chu was unavailable for an interview. In a statement, she said she was deeply concerned about the lack of reporting by Purdue, but believed the new law would result in the guidance needed to end the prescription drug epidemic.

More than 194,000 people have died since 1999 from overdoses involving opioid painkillers, and abuse of the drugs has contributed to a national resurgence in addiction to heroin, another opiate.

The new law does not alter the agencys ability to pursue criminal charges or civil penalties. But it provides a way for companies to try to avoid the DEAs administrative penalties, which can include the loss or suspension of a federal license, known as a registration, that allows them to make, sell or dispense controlled substances.

 Heres how a single L.A. drug ring pumped more than a million Oxy pills onto the black market.

The push for a new law followed action the DEA took in 2012 against a major national wholesaler, Cardinal Health Inc., over millions of painkillers supplied to two CVS pharmacies in Sanford, Fla. Data showed enough pills flowing to the small city for every man, woman and child to have 59 doses, according to court records. One CVS pharmacist described her oxycodone customers as shady and told DEA agents she had to set a daily limit on opioid prescriptions to ensure there would be enough for real pain patients, the records stated.

The DEA accused Cardinal and CVS of failing to maintain effective controls against diversion as required by the federal Controlled Substances Act. Cardinal was banned from shipping prescription drugs from a Florida facility for two years and CVS paid a $22-million settlement.

In the wake of the investigation, Cardinal and CVS, along with many others in the industry, began lobbying for the new law, which changes parts of the Controlled Substances Act. It allows companies accused of violations to submit a corrective action plan that addresses the DEA allegations before the DEA decides on any enforcement action. Federal officials must consider the plan in deciding whether to move forward with enforcement action or stop or postpone it.

A Times Investigation: You want a description of hell? Oxycontins 12-hour problem 

Under the new law, companies have little incentive to take steps to prevent abuse of their drug  unless and until the DEA accuses them of violating the law, said Carmen Catizone, executive director of the National Assn. of Boards of Pharmacy.

Our concern at this point is we have 40 people a day dying of opioid abuse, he said We think the bill goes way too far.

D. Linden Barber, a former DEA lawyer who now represents manufacturers and wholesalers, said the law still gives the DEA the option of revoking a companys license.

The law doesnt require the agency to say, OK, Im walking away. It just says, consider it, he said.

Another part of the law imposes a higher standard for suspending licenses temporarily while awaiting court approval. Previously, the DEA could shut companies, pharmacies and doctors down if it determined there was an imminent danger to the public. The new law defines that danger as a substantial likelihood of an immediate threat of death, serious bodily harm or drug abuse.

Our concern at this point is we have 40 people a day dying of opioid abuse. We think the bill goes way too far.  Carmen Catizone, executive director of the National Assn. of Boards of Pharmacy

Former DEA official Rannazzisi said the change offered total protection against temporary suspension for manufacturers and wholesalers. It often takes weeks for drugs to get through the supply chain from manufacturer to distributor to pharmacy, making it difficult for the DEA to argue that a failure by those companies to report and reject suspicious orders constituted an immediate threat, he said.

Barber, the industry lawyer, said the change prevented the agency from shutting down companies for problems employees had already identified and fixed, something he said has occurred in the past.

The fact that someone did something wrong, realized it was wrong, took action to correct it  that doesnt give the agency the right to come in four to six months later and seek a suspension, he said.

The bill encountered little resistance in either the House or the Senate, and at hearings on the legislation, some lawmakers criticized the DEA for being overly aggressive with drug companies. At hearings in 2014, Rep. Michael Burgess (R-Texas) accused the DEA of bullying, aggressive and narrow-minded tactics and Rep. Tom Marino (R-Pa.) told the head of the DEA to seek collaboration with legitimate companies that want to do the right thing.

A Times Investigation: How black-market OxyContin spurred a towns descent into crime, addiction and heartbreak 

Big fines make headlines, but that is all they do: Press releases do not save lives, Marino said.

One current DEA official who spoke on the condition of anonymity said the agency did not consider the new law necessary, but recognized it had strong political support and did not oppose it publicly.

Behind closed doors, discussions between congressional staffers and Rannazzisi about the proposed law became so heated that Marino and another sponsor of the bill sent a letter to the Justice Department asking for an investigation into what they alleged was an attempt to intimidate the United States Congress.

Rannazzisi said he merely was expressing his concerns about the bills impact.

I said, Well, theres thousands of people dying of opioid overdoses and were investigating people and this bill is going to provide protection for the people we are investigating, he said. I dont know how they felt that was a threat.

Marino, who has received $136,000 in campaign contributions from the pharmaceutical industry since 2011, declined to be interviewed. In a statement, he said the law doesnt impede the DEAs enforcement ability.

Rather, it forces the DEA to focus on bad actors, collaborate for better diversion control results and allows patients  often suffering from cancer  to access medication they need without delay, he said.

Several registrants accused of violating the Controlled Substances Act have already submitted corrective action plans, according to testimony at a June Senate hearing.

harriet.ryan@latimes.com

kim.christensen@latimes.com

Twitter: @latimesharriet and @kchristensenLAT

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The gunmen stood in front of a group of people partying outside of the Bakersfield home and sprayed bullets.

Fourteen people were shot. Not one died.

But in defiance of what seem to be astronomical odds, 500 feet to the south, a man was killed by a stray bullet. Kern County sheriffs spokesman Ray Pruitt said investigators believe that bullet was fired by someone at the party who was shooting back at the attackers.

The victim of the errant bullet, who has yet to be identified, was found dead three days after the July 16 shooting in the 600 block of Stephens Drive, Pruitt said.

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The shooting occurred about 1 a.m. when a group of people were told to leave a house party and then returned with guns, he said. Authorities said the suspects were three males ages 16 to 19. At least two of them were armed with semiautomatic handguns.

Investigators determined the three would have been facing north when they opened fire on a huge crowd outside the home, Pruitt said. At least one person in that crowd pulled out a gun and shot back  aiming south, he said.

See the most-read stories in Local News this hour 

It appears a stray bullet from the return fire went through the slain mans apartment door and struck him, Pruitt said.

Cars and homes in the neighborhood were riddled with bullets and two people were critically injured  but the man appears to be the only person who died, officials said.

Pruitt said the party was initiated by a girl who lives at the home and was given permission to throw a party by her parents. She promoted the event on social media.

At some point, people who were not invited showed up, he said. The party swelled to at least 150 revelers and got out of control, Pruitt added.

Authorities believe a verbal confrontation took place between two groups in the backyard of the house, and several people were told to leave the party.

They did leave, and we believe it was those individuals who left the party that came back and opened fire on the crowd, Pruitt said, adding that investigators believe the shooting was gang-related.

The Sheriffs Department said the incident was initially believed to be a drive-by shooting, but Pruitt said investigators now believe the three males got out of a vehicle, walked up to the crowd outside the home and opened fire before fleeing in the vehicle.

Witnesses told the Bakersfield Californian that the injured included a 13-year-old and that 30 rounds were fired.

We just heard screaming, Julie Burton told the paper, adding that the incident felt like the OK Corral.

No arrests have been made and there was no detailed description of the gunmen, Pruitt said.

For breaking California news, follow @JosephSerna on Twitter.

Times staff writer Matt Stevens contributed to this report.

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A Canadian woman traveling through Central California was arrested after a police dog found $2-million worth of heroin in her pickup truck, police said.

Kathleen Landry, 63, was stopped by a drug interdiction officer and his narcotics-sniffing dog, Cash, on a traffic violation while she was driving her Nissan Titan north on Highway 99 in Modesto, according to Heather Graves, spokeswoman for the Modesto Police Department.

As Cash sniffed around the truck, he detected the smell of drugs.

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So the officer got a warrant to search the truck. Inside, he and other drug investigators found 83 pounds of heroin.

Police declined to provide details about where the drugs had been stored or whether Landry was delivering the heroin from Canada.

Landry was arrested on suspicion of possessing a controlled substance for sales and transporting the drugs.

veronica.rocha@latimes.com

For breaking news in California, follow VeronicaRochaLA on Twitter.
A federal jury in downtown Los Angeles on Tuesday convicted two men of being the Cowboy Gun Bandits, a pair of gunmen who authorities believe committed more than 30 armed robberies in three months in Southern California.

At their sentencing Nov. 14, Dominic Dorsey, 48, and Reginald Bailey, 71, face a minimum of 107 years and up to life in prison, a spokesman for the U.S. attorneys office said.

The Cowboy Gun Bandits were known for terrorizing clerks and grabbing what little cash was in the register during a crime rampage in fall 2013.

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One of the two men wielded a long-barreled Colt six-shooter like a character out of the Old West.

They wore black masks, black hoodies, black gloves and dark-colored pants. They moved fast and never left behind clothing fibers, DNA or fingerprints that experts could analyze.

In just three months, authorities estimate, they committed robberies from Los Angeles to Fresno. They rarely made off with more than a few hundred dollars.

But on Nov. 5, 2013, they had their big score.

The pair walked into a Citibank in Glendale about 9 a.m. and ordered all the bank customers and employees to the ground at gunpoint. They emptied the tellers drawers and made off with more than $55,000 in cash. The robberies stopped after that.

Using witness statements and DMV and cellphone records, investigators sharpened their initially fuzzy outline of the suspects.

In June 2014, Dorsey and Bailey were arrested and booked on multiple gun and robbery charges. They were formally accused in only a fraction of their suspected crimes.

They were planning on moving up from liquor stores to a bank, Assistant U.S. Atty. Joseph Axelrad told a jury in a downtown federal courtroom last week. They were good, but they did make mistakes, and thats how they got caught.

Prosecutors admitted that the case was almost entirely circumstantial.

When Dorsey and Bailey were arrested, authorities didnt find the black hoodies, dark pants, shoes or even the money associated with the robberies.

A search of the mens homes and cars didnt turn up the gun used in the crimes, believed to be an 1873 Colt revolver.

But evidence presented at the trial showed the mens cellphones were within miles of each of the robbery locations hours before and after each of the crimes. Investigators said the men turned off their phones during each robbery, leaving a hole in their whereabouts.

In video from one of the robberies, Dorsey is seen getting out of the passenger side of a car stopped at a gas station pump, then going inside the market and making a small purchase as a regular customer.

He then got back into the car, which drove off. Less than 10 minutes later, the gas station was robbed. That was Bailey, prosecutors said.

The car used that day also matched one seen at many of the other robberies. One witness was able to give the last three numbers on the license plate, and records narrowed it down to a single black Nissan in the Los Angeles area. That car belonged to Dorseys wife.

Then less than three weeks after the Citibank holdup, Dorsey made a $9,000 cash deposit on a new Mercedes-Benz. He listed Bailey, whom he identified as his uncle, as his emergency contact.

A closer look at Bailey turned up a host of clues linking him to the crimes, prosecutors told the jury.

Security video from the bank robbery showed that one of the robbers who matched Baileys height and build also walked with a similar limp and appeared to be missing his left ring finger when he was fleeing with the bags of money.

Bailey has only four fingers on his left hand. When authorities arrested him, they found in his apartment black gloves in his backpack and a blue bandanna similar to one worn during one of the robberies.

joseph.serna@latimes.com

For breaking California news, follow @JosephSerna on Twitter.

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A San Francisco police officer has been arrested on suspicion of assembling his own illegal AR-15-style assault rifle, officials announced Wednesday.

Officer Thomas Abrahamsen, an 18-year veteran of the department, surrendered to authorities Tuesday and was booked and will face two felony weapons charges, San Francisco police said in a statement.

Abrahamsen, 50, is accused of violating a state law against assembling an assault rifle or weapon capable of firing a large .50-caliber BMG bullet.

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Under a law approved by Gov. Jerry Brown on July 1, rifles with a bullet button that allows for a clip to be dropped with the press of a button and quickly replaced were banned. The law Abrahamsen was charged with violating would include an AR-15-style rifle modified with a bullet button or any weapon that fired the large BMG bullet.

The departments Internal Affairs division had been investigating Abrahamsen since last summer, officials said.

In the spirit of the Not on My Watch initiative, Department members will continue to hold each other accountable and will act swiftly to report any behavior that might bring dishonor to the Police Department, acting Police Chief Toney Chaplin said.

The Not on My Watch initiative was launched by the previous police chief after the department was rocked by a series of scandals, including revelations that dozens of officers had exchanged text messages loaded with homophobic and racist language discussing the communities they served.

Several officers have been fired or resigned over the last 18 months because of the discoveries.

Abrahamsen is on unpaid leave and being held on $150,000 bail. Jail records show his arraignment is scheduled for Wednesday afternoon.

For breaking California news, follow @JosephSerna on Twitter.

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UPDATES:

2:10 p.m.: This article was updated with details of the accusations against Abrahamsen.

This article was originally published at 10:40 a.m.
Customs officers at Los Angeles International Airport found more than 11 pounds of methamphetamine in the lining of a womans suitcase who had just arrived from Mexico, authorities announced Wednesday.

The passenger, a 27-year-old woman from San Ysidro, had arrived from Guadalajara on July 18 and was stopped for a secondary inspection due to her nervous behavior, officials with the U.S. Customs and Border Protection said in a news release.

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See the most-read stories in Local News this hour 

Inspectors who opened up her suitcase noticed an odd smell and found a false compartment that hid tape-wrapped packages of crystal meth worth about $160,000, officials said. The packages weighed about 11  pounds.

Once again, the training, expertise and commitment of our LAX CBP Officers prevented dangerous narcotics from entering and harming our community, CBP Los Angeles Area Port Director Mitchell Merriam said in a statement.

The agency seizes more than 9,000 pounds of drugs daily at the nations 328 international points of entry, authorities said. The woman was arrested and turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

For breaking California news, follow @JosephSerna on Twitter.

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Baku, Azerbaijan, July 27



By Rufiz Hafizoglu - Trend:

A meeting of the Turkish Supreme Military Council will be held in the country July 28, the Turkish TRT Haber TV channel reported July 28.

According to the message, Binali Yildirim, Turkish prime minister, and Hulusi Akar, chief of General Staff of the countrys armed forces, will attend the meeting.

A military coup attempt and reforms in the Turkish security structures will be the main topics of the meeting, the message said.

This will be the first meeting of the Supreme Military Council after the coup attempt in Turkey, the message said.

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.



Turkeys President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that the death toll as a result of the military coup attempt stood at 246 people excluding the coup plotters and over 2,000 people were wounded.



President Erdogan declared a three-month state of emergency in the country on July 20.

---

Follow the author on Twitter: @rhafizoglu
The last time anyone counted, there were 700,000 street trees in the city of Los Angeles. That was more than two decades ago.

Now, after four years of punishing drought, the city badly needs a fix on the condition of its urban forest.

But doing that the old way  by sending out tree counters with clipboards  would cost about $3 million, money thats already committed elsewhere.

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So the city Bureau of Street Services has called on Caltech for help. And Caltech has called on Google.

Pietro Perona, an academic who hopes to become one of the worlds most prolific urban tree counters, has developed a method using Google Earth and Google Street View to let a computer do the counting.

For Mayor Eric Garcetti, a partnership with Caltech offers a potential example of his campaign promise to apply smart technology to the citys nagging problems.

Theres just one hitch: Googles terms of service allow academics free use of the companys vast library of images, but not cities. The city has been in negotiations with Google for more than two months. In an email, Google said it had no comment on the negotiations.

In the meantime, Perona, whose specialty as Caltechs Allen E. Puckett Professor of Electrical Engineering is making machines see, is busy teaching his computers to see all sorts of things.

Perona works with global communities that post digital images of things online. He renders the images into geometric algorithms stored in what he calls a visipedia.

Theoretically, once he has trained a computer to see birds, anyone could upload a picture to a website that would determine its species.

One day, everything under the sun will be in a visipedia, reptiles and mushrooms included.

Peronas tree project is a panoramic version of that technology.

Using the downloaded satellite view, Perona is teaching computers to record the latitudes and longitudes of shades and shapes that look like trees.

He then matches those coordinates to an image on Street View.

The computer examines the closeup to confirm the presence of a tree and judge its variety.

It takes a human years to learn the taxonomy of trees, Perona said. And it would take dozens of humans months to apply that knowledge to the citys trees.

But a bank of computers could do it overnight, Perona said.

Thirty-two CPUs. Sixteen square miles for one CPU, Perona said.

Perona has tested the methodology in a section of Pasadena where the city recently commissioned a sidewalk survey. By comparing the results to the known inventory, he determined that the computer was about 80% accurate.

As an academic, Perona wants his algorithms to recognize every tree variety. But that may never be practical.

Thats because tree varieties are not spread evenly. There are about 600 varieties in Los Angeles, and a third of them have fewer than 100 specimens.

The corollary is that only 85 varieties make up 90% of all trees. Teaching the computer to identify those could be a big help to the city.

The initial benefit will be the macro picture, said Greg Good, Garcettis executive officer for city services.

Its important to understand where the gaps are in terms of canopy, Good said. We want to use this inventory to identify storm water capture opportunities, ameliorate urban heat island impacts.

Its also valuable that, unlike a human count, the survey can be easily replicated and will get better with time.

We will have inspectors going out for the next 20 years validating and correcting the data from this model, he said.

The hard part is training the first computer.

The instruction is a very hands-on human affair. Someone has to pore over samples of the Google images and grade the computer. Is it actually a tree, or a lamppost? Is it oak, as the computer judged, or something else?

Perona is getting help from the TreePeople, whose founder, Andy Lipkis, introduced him to the city. TreePeople volunteers are examining samples to find any that are misidentified. Perona then tweaks the algorithm to make the computer see better.

The roadblock with Google prevents him from giving the city what he has done so far.

Good is optimistic there will be a deal.

Google from the outset has been exceedingly supporting, Good said. We are very excited about the idea of this tripartite partnership.

But just in case, the mayors office is also pursuing other options, he said.

One would be to piggyback trees on the old-fashioned human count of all the citys sidewalks that will be required by the settlement of a lawsuit.

Either way, Perona will keep counting. Hes also seeking federal funding to continue his research. If a deal is worked out, Los Angeles will pay Caltech only for programming done specifically for the city. The research would be for the benefit of all.

If its successful, it benefits all the cities in the U.S. and the world, he said.

doug.smith@latimes.com

Twitter: @LATdoug

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A hotly debated plan to turn a Hollywood apartment building into a hotel was abruptly scuttled Wednesday in the face of stiff opposition from the local lawmaker who represents the area.

But the future of the Villa Carlotta remains unclear, leaving it in doubt whether former tenants will have any right to return.

The storied Franklin Avenue building has been the center of protests by tenant activists since a new owner bought it and started planning to convert it into a boutique hotel.

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Tenants have already been ejected under the Ellis Act, which allows landlords to boot residents from buildings that fall under rent control if the property is being taken off the rental market.

But activists vowed to stop the hotel plans, arguing that Hollywood needs to spare housing amid surging rents. During his campaign last year, City Councilman David Ryu promised to oppose turning the building into a hotel and signed a pledge to oppose a zoning change or any conversion of use for the building.

Tenant activists had planned to voice their concerns at a city hearing Wednesday on the conversion plans. Instead, the building developer announced that the hotel plans had been withdrawn.

As stewards of this beloved local treasure, we appreciate the importance of Villa Carlotta to its neighbors and the Hollywood community, as well as its place in Los Angeles history, Gidi Cohen, chief executive of the development company CGI, said in a joint statement issued by Ryu and the company. We intend to honor and celebrate that legacy by meticulously working to return the building to its original grandeur.

Ryu Chief of Staff Sarah Dusseault said the decision was reached because the councilman had continued to oppose the hotel conversion. She praised CGI for being open and collaborative.

The company said the building would be renovated over the next year but that its future use was yet undetermined. Tenant advocates said it remains unclear whether the former tenants will have a right to return since that hinges on what the building owner ultimately decides to do instead.

Activists nonetheless heralded the decision as a victory. The tenants are still out  but what it means for other tenants is that the city is not going to automatically approve rezoning and changes  to benefit developers that have evicted tenants, said Walt Senterfitt of the L.A. Tenants Union.

Former Villa Carlotta resident Melanie Hughes said that it feels like a win  for today.

Tenant activists recently lost another fight against converting a Hollywood apartment building into a hotel, this one on Cherokee Avenue. That part of Hollywood is represented by Councilman Mitch OFarrell, whose staff said he didnt support the plan but that there was no legal basis to grant an appeal against it.

The big difference  is that we had a councilman who was responsive and represented his community, said Sylvie Shain, a former Villa Carlotta resident who opposed the Cherokee plans. Shain argued that the city reaction to such plans shouldnt hinge on where someone lives and who represents them on the council.

Dusseault said Ryu wants to ensure that the Villa Carlotta site is used as housing. Residents had also raised concerns about how a hotel would affect traffic and parking, she said.

emily.alpert@latimes.com

Follow me on Twitter at @LATimesEmily

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A woman who was arrested with a man in connection with the kidnapping of a Northern California family was released Wednesday after police discovered she also was a victim and had been abducted at gunpoint.

Aundrea Elizabeth Maes, 19, had been arrested with Edwin Enoc Lara, 31, Tuesday night following a pursuit with speeds reaching 100 mph in Corning, Calif., authorities said. The pair had been wanted in connection with the shooting of a man at a hotel and the kidnapping of a family.

As detectives began interviewing Maes, they discovered she was a kidnapping victim from Salem, Ore., according to the Yreka Police Department.

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Maes uncle told KGW-TV in Oregon that Lara kidnapped his niece at gunpoint about 8:45 p.m. when she was getting off work. He jumped into her car and then took her on a crime rampage in Northern California, he said.

Lara, a college security guard, is suspected in the disappearance of a 23-year-old Bend, Ore., woman, the Oregonian reported. Kaylee Sawyer was reported missing Sunday, and authorities think they know where her body is. Laras police officer wife reported him to authorities.

Once Lara crossed into California on Tuesday, Yreka police said a string of violent crimes occurred within hours, shaking their city.

At 5 a.m., police responding to the Super 8 Motel on Montague Road, found a man who had been shot in the stomach, police said. He was taken to a hospital and was in stable condition Wednesday.

About five minutes later, a man calling from a Mobil gas station less than a block from the motel reported that his car had been taken with his family inside.

Siskiyou County sheriffs deputies and officers from Yreka and the California Highway Patrol began to search for the car and the missing family of three.

Almost 40 minutes later, police got a call from the mans family. They had been dropped on Interstate 5 north of Weed, Calif. The family was not harmed.

Information about Laras whereabouts began pouring into the police department.

A cellphone pinged off a cell tower at 6:18 a.m. showing Lara possibly was on the same highway, just north of Redding, police said. Yreka police immediately notified law enforcement agencies in the area.

Less than an hour later, CHP spotted Lara in the stolen vehicle and tried to stop him. But he drove off and engaged police in a high-speed chase that went on for about 10 miles before he finally stopped, the CHP said.

Lara and Maes were taken into custody on suspicion of attempted murder, kidnapping and carjacking burglary, police said.

Soon after, police discovered Lara was wanted in connection with the Oregon death.

veronica.rocha@latimes.com

For breaking news in California, follow VeronicaRochaLA on Twitter.

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Jeh Johnson frowned. Cemetery groundskeepers had cut down a broad magnolia tree that once sheltered his grandfathers grave from the sun. Lichen pockmarked the granite headstone.

We got to get this stuff off, he said, pointing to the mottled slab. Chiseled on it is the name of Charles S. Johnson, a distinguished sociologist who was president of Fisk University after World War II, when it was a haven for black intellectuals in the Jim Crow-era South.

The secretary of Homeland Security was in Nashville on business. But he asked his security detail to stop at his family plot in Greenwood Cemetery, a nearly all-black burial ground that remains a vestige of the citys color line.

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Johnsons department is a key part of U.S. counter-terrorism efforts, and his grandfather has become a powerful personal touchstone for him as he juggles competing demands for national security and personal privacy, for government surveillance and civil liberties.

Johnsons grandfather was a target of the communist witch hunts of the postwar era. In 1949 he was called before the House Un-American Activities Committee, which investigated allegations of disloyalty and subversive activities.

The black college president was asked if he was then or had ever been a member of the Communist Party. He wasnt and he hadnt. The FBI investigated him but found nothing.

The family kept silent for decades about how the humiliations of the Red Scare touched them. Jeh Johnson only learned of his grandfathers tribulation last fall while researching a speech.

Basically in the late 40s and early 50s, if you were a black intellectual with a PhD, you were also suspected of being a communist, Johnson said.

Basically in the late 40s and early 50s, if you were a black intellectual with a PhD, you were also suspected of being a communist.  Jeh Johnson

Now Johnson sees uncomfortable parallels to the animus and distrust that many Muslim Americans face for the terrorist actions of a few.

We always risk a fundamental misunderstanding of who is an individual of suspicion and who should be subject to government surveillance, Johnson said.

The issue is resonant because Donald Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, has made suspicion of Muslims a centerpiece of his campaign.

Trump has not only called for banning all foreign Muslims from entering the United States. After a gunman who pledged loyalty to Islamic State killed 49 people on June 12 in Orlando, Fla., he said that many American Muslims and mosques knowingly protect terrorists.

Court records show that since the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, Muslim clerics, family members, friends and others have repeatedly called the FBI to report suspicions, or have agreed to work as informants.

In fact, a member of Orlando gunman Omar Mateens mosque had told FBI agents the security guard was a fan of jihadist videos. The FBI dropped the case after interviewing Mateen. Two years later, he attacked the Pulse nightclub in Orlando.

Johnson has voiced strong support for police after gunmen killed eight officers and wounded a dozen others this month in Dallas and Baton Rouge. But he also says he understands how a rash of police shootings of unarmed black men in several communities has sparked public outrage.

Ive had my share of unpleasant encounters with law enforcement when I was much younger, he said on CNN this month. But, he added, incidents of profiling, of excessive force, are not a reflection of the larger law enforcement community.... I think we have to remember that, especially now that tensions are so high.

Mayor Bill de Blasio and Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson before a press conference on the recent police shootings across the country at One Police Plaza on July 8, 2016 in New York City. (Photo by Kena Betancur/Getty Images )

Johnson travels every few months to meet Muslim leaders around the country, usually in private. He asks them to help authorities identify potential threats in their communities, and he often describes his grandfathers torment to show he understands how innocent people can be harmed when fear, fueled by politics, sweeps the nation.

This is not an effort to enable us to spy in mosques, Johnson said. The U.S. government cannot and should not be everywhere, and so it is incumbent on community leaders, neighbors and others to help us in these efforts.

Its a carefully calibrated appeal, and it doesnt always work.

On May 3, Johnson made his pitch to about 30 Muslim clerics and community leaders in a drab conference room in Philadelphia. He sought their help battling extremist calls to violence, asking them to report loved ones and friends who might try to join Islamic State or even launch their own attacks.

Why single out Muslims, a cleric from a mosque in West Philadelphia objected. What about the non-Muslim gunmen who have attacked U.S. schools, churches and movie theaters?

Johnson nodded, and told them that his wife, Susan, had received emails from a neighbor in Montclair, N.J., where they have a house. The neighbor warned that hed seen a Muslim-looking person riding a bicycle on their street.

My wife responded, Thank you very much. Thats my son. Hes home from college. Thank you for your interest in national security, Johnson told them.

The group laughed  but kept pressing.

A woman in a yellow and green headscarf said authorities had visited the home of a local 14-year-old after he searched Islamic State on a high school computer. A man said his 4-year-old son, Abdullah, was questioned at an airport checkpoint because the childs name was similar to someone on the terrorist watch list.

As an African American whose ancestors were the subject of discrimination in law and in fact, I appreciate and understand, I think, the discrimination you face, Johnson said.

As an African American whose ancestors were the subject of discrimination in law and in fact, I appreciate and understand the discrimination you face.

Sometimes Johnson reaches deeper into his family history.

His great-grandfather, Charles H. Johnson, was born into slavery in 1860, was freed three years later with the Emancipation Proclamation, graduated college by 23 and spent 42 years as a Baptist minister in Bristol, Va.

When youre the Baptist preacher in a black community in southwest Virginia [at that time], very often you were the preacher, you were the therapist, you were the marriage counselor, you were the estate planner, and every once in a while you had to break up a lynching, he said.

Johnsons grandfather grew up in the preachers house, surrounded by books and Bibles and the threat of mob violence that governed race relations in the post-Reconstruction South.

He would go on to earn a doctorate in sociology and spend his life writing about race in America. During World War I, he served as a volunteer in a segregated infantry unit that battled through France and Belgium.

After the war, he finished his studies at the University of Chicago and survived the 1919 race riots that left 38 people dead. He wrote an influential sociological study of the riots that closely examined race relations in Chicago.

His report helped lay an academic foundation for future integration policies and propelled Johnson to prominence among sociologists and in black intellectual circles.

Jeh Johnson, secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, waits to swear in immigrants during a naturalization ceremony in New York. (Drew Angerer / Getty Images )

Working at the National Urban League in New York City in the 1920s, he organized dinners that introduced white publishers and critics to emerging black writers.

One of his events, in March 1924, was attended by Eugene ONeill, H.L. Mencken, and W.E.B. Du Bois, among others, and is considered by some scholars as the coming-out party of the Harlem Renaissance.

Jeh Johnsons first name honors a tribal chief who helped his grandfather during a visit to Liberia for the League of Nations in 1930. He was investigating a government-sanctioned slave trade.

Johnson, 58, never met his grandfather, who died of a heart attack in 1956 at age 63. A friend at the time blamed his death on the strain from a single decision he made following years of anti-communist badgering.

Charles Johnson had caved to pressure a few months earlier to fire a white mathematics professor and civil rights activist named Lee Lorch, who would not deny being a communist.

Johnson had stood by Lorch for five years. He finally concluded that keeping Lorch on the faculty at Fisk put the universitys future in jeopardy.

Jeh Johnson thinks often about his grandfathers choice between bad options, like the dilemmas he sometimes faces in trying to prevent terrorist attacks.

When you are in a leadership role concerning a very difficult, emotional, polarizing issue, you can rarely occupy a purist position, he said.

In my grandfathers case he decided he had to do what he thought was right for the school, he said. So I totally understand that and I can appreciate how stressful it was.

Two days after his visit to Nashville, Johnson got an email from a funeral director he had met at the cemetery.

Thank you for all you do for me and the country, the message read. Attached were four photos of his grandfathers headstone, freshly cleaned, the blurred letters made clear again.

brian.bennett@latimes.com

Follow me on Twitter @ByBrianBennett

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As the Mothers of the Movement came on stage to talk about the deaths of their children and endorse Hillary Clinton at the Democratic National Convention, chants emerged from the crowd: Black lives matter!

Geneva Reed-Veal, standing in a half circle with eight other black mothers, attempted to quiet the audience.

Give me two moments to tell you how good God is. Give me a moment to say thank you, said Reed-Veal, whose 28-year-old daughter, Sandra Bland, died in jail after being pulled over for a traffic stop in 2015. We are not standing here because hes not good. We are standing here because hes great.

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What followed was one of the most powerful moments of Tuesdays convention, as the mothers held back tears to speak about the deaths that ignited a national debate about police reform and race relations.

So many of our children gone but not forgotten, Reed-Veal said. Im here with Hillary Clinton because she is a leader and a mother who will say our childrens names. Hillary knows that when a young black life is cut short, its not just a personal loss. It is a national loss. It is a loss that diminishes all of us.

The short speeches, which followed a video of Hillary Clinton meeting and praying with the mothers, who have joined her at campaign events across the country, gave the Black Lives Matter movement one of its highest-profile moments. Officially, Black Lives Matter has not endorsed a presidential candidate, but the women are among the movements best-known names.

The deaths have spurred hundreds of demonstrations across the U.S. over the last four years and raised the pressure on both major political parties to deal with the issue of gun violence and racial disparities.

Full convention coverage 

 Mothers of African Americans killed by gun violence speak at the Democratic National Convention. More coverage at latimes.com/trailguide

You dont stop being a parent when your child dies, said Lucia McBath, whose 17-year-old son, Jordan Davis, was shot and killed in Jacksonville, Fla., in 2012. I am still Jordan Davis mother. His life ended the day he was shot and killed for playing loud music. But my job as his mother didnt.

Hillary Clinton isnt afraid to say black lives matter, she said. She isnt afraid to sit at a table with grieving mothers and bear the full force of our anguish. She doesnt build walls around her heart. Not only did she listen to our problems, she invited us to become part of the solution.

The segment provided a window into how the Clinton campaign is responding to pressure to address race relations and police reform while acknowledging the dangers police officers face after a series of deadly shootings around the country.

Pittsburgh Police Chief Cameron McLay, who has been praised for his handling of protests in his city, introduced the mothers after saying Americans should respect and support our police officers while at the same time pushing for these important criminal justice reforms.

Sybrina Fulton, the mother of Trayvon Martin, said that while she didnt want this spotlight she would do everything she could to focus some of that light on a path out of this darkness.

Fulton praised Clinton for having courage to lead the fight for common-sense gun legislation and a plan to repair the divide that so often exists between law enforcement and the communities they serve.

 Day Two of the Democratic National Convention in less than 3 minutes. Full coverage at latimes.com/trailguide

The speakers included:

Fulton, the mother of 17-year-old Martin, who died after being shot by neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman on Feb. 26, 2012, in Sanford, Fla. A jury acquitted Zimmerman of all charges related to Martins death on July 13, 2013.

Lezley McSpadden, the mother of 18-year-old Michael Brown, who was shot by Darren Wilson, a white Ferguson, Mo., police officer on Aug. 9, 2014. The shooting caused days of unrest in the St. Louis suburb, raising questions about police use of military equipment and bringing scrutiny to the issue of racial disparities between police and the communities where they work. On November 21, 2014, a grand jury decided not to indict Wilson in Browns death.

See the most-read stories in National News this hour >>

Gwen Carr, the mother of 43-year-old Eric Garner, who died after a police officer put him a chokehold in Staten Island, N.Y., on July 17, 2014. In a bystander video that went viral, Garner can be heard repeatedly saying, I cant breathe, while being restrained by police. The phrase became a protest mantra, especially after a jury decided to not indict the officer, Daniel Pantaleo, on Dec. 13, 2014. The Department of Justice is currently investigating the case.

Reed-Veal, the mother of 28-year-old Bland, who was found hanged with a trash bag in a Waller County, Texas, jail on July 13, 2015. Three days before, Bland was stopped for a traffic violation and got into an argument with the state trooper who stopped her, resulting in her arrest. After a dash-cam video was released, a Bland family lawyer argued that the officer did not have probable cause for the stop. Family members disputed a medical examiners ruling that her death was a suicide. In December 2015, a grand jury decided not to indict her jailers in connection with Blands death. The trooper is facing a misdemeanor charge.

Lucia McBath, mother of 17-year-old Jordan Davis, who was shot by Michael Dunn in Jacksonville, Fla., on Nov. 12, 2012. The shooting occurred after Dunn, who is white, complained that the music Davis and his friends were playing in their car was too loud, and an argument ensued. After a first trial ended in a mistrial, Dunn, a software developer, was found guilty of first-degree murder.

Maria Hamilton, the mother of Dontre Hamilton, who was fatally shot by a white police officer in Milwaukee on April 30, 2014. Protests ensued after charges were not brought against the officer, Christopher Manney.

Cleopatra Pendleton-Cowley, the mother of 15-year-old Hadiya Pendleton, who was shot by two gang members in a Chicago park on Jan. 29, 2013. The shooters were arrested and charged with first-degree murder, and First Lady Michelle Obama attended Pendletons funeral.

Annette Nance-Holt, the mother of 16-year-old Blair Holt, who died on a Chicago Transit Authority bus in May 2007 after trying to shield a friend from a gang members shots.

Wanda Johnson, the mother of 22-year-old Oscar Grant, who died after being shot by a white Bay Area Rapid Transit officer on New Years Day in 2009. The officer, Johannes Mehserle, was convicted of involuntary manslaughter and sentenced to two years in prison in 2010. Mehserle received credit for time already served and was released on June 13, 2011.

Notably absent was Samaria Rice, the mother of 12-year-old Tamir Rice, who died in November 2014 after being shot by police in Cleveland while he played in a park with a replica pellet gun. Rice has declined to endorse Clinton or Trump.

No candidate is speaking my language about police reform, Samaria Rice recently told Fusion, saying she wants a lot on the table, not a little bit of talk, a lot of talk about police brutality, police accountability, making new policies, taking some away, and just reforming the whole system.

She has also been critical of President Obama.

He may mention something about it, but hes not really going to go into details about it and hold the government responsible for killing innocent people, she said in the same interview, echoing similar criticisms from some activists.

Even before their speeches, the appearance of the Mothers of the Movement had caused controversy. The Philadelphia Fraternal Order of Police said its members were shocked and saddened that widows of fallen police officers were not included in the lineup.

It is 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, the police group said in a statement.

The mothers arent strangers to the campaign trail. Several have been featured in a Clinton TV ad that aired in Chicago and St. Louis and the campaign has also covered their airfares to Democratic debates.

Not all the family members of black Americans who have died in high-profile police-involved incidents have been Clinton supporters. Erica Garner, the daughter of Eric Garner, has been a strong supporter of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders.

Still, Tuesdays group represented one of the strongest lineups of black activists involved in any recent presidential campaign campaign.

We must bring awareness. Dont wait until tragedy knocks on your door, Carr said in a recent ABC News segment on her support of Clinton, which also addressed violence against police.

This is a bad time to be a good cop in this country, Reed-Veal said in the same segment. OK? We need to remember they have lives too.

jaweed.kaleem@latimes.com

Jaweed Kaleem is The Times national race and justice correspondent. Follow him on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

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This article was originally published at 4:40 p.m.
The Democratic National Convention gave a stage to prominent civil rights activists and black Americans on Wednesday night in remarks focused on diversity, the Flint, Mich., water crisis and gun violence.

Although Black Lives Matter figures  such as the Mothers of the Movement, who spoke Tuesday in emotional speeches about their children, many of whom died in police shootings  werent highlighted, the lineup of speakers Wednesday sent a strong message about the role Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton sees race, religion and civil rights playing if she becomes president.

They also sent a message to Republican nominee Donald Trump, whose supporters are overwhelmingly white.

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You want to know why your polling numbers are so dismal among African Americans? I will tell you, said Rep. G.K. Butterfield of North Carolina, one of six representatives from the Congressional Black Caucus who took the stage together early in the night.

We know you have gotten rich through your business, but we also know your wealth has grown at the expense of other people, Butterfield, the caucus chairman, said.

Black lives matter! chants erupt at the convention. 

One by one, the representatives made their case for Clinton, often bashing Trumps relationship to African Americans.

We know you have no plan to address issues directly affecting African Americans, Butterfield said, citing voting rights, gun violence and the struggles of historically black colleges and universities.

Rep. Andre Carson of Indiana said Trump had insulted him not only as a black man but as a Muslim.

I stand here ... as a young African American Muslim and former police officer, said Carson, 41, one of two Muslims in Congress. Millions of good-hearted Muslims and African Americans like me have watched the deep-seated hatred of the past once again become mainstream.

In an earlier segment of the night on Our America, Debbie Almontaser, a Muslim American schoolteacher who was forced to resign from her post at an Arabic-language-themed middle school in Brooklyn, N.Y., after accusations that she was an extremist, gave a nod toward her work as an interfaith activist and threw her support behind Clinton.

Later, Flint Mayor Karen Weaver, whose poor, majority-black city became a national flashpoint after reports of residents becoming ill from its poisoned water supply, talked after a video that showed Clinton praying with black residents in church.

Hillary said, I will do everything to help you get back up,  she said, adding that the lead poisoning city residents have suffered has become a national crisis, not just a Flint crisis.

Saying that the black vote is crucial to the presidential election, the Rev. Jesse Jackson gave wide-ranging remarks that, in typical Jackson fashion, sounded like a cross between a political speech and a short but fiery sermon.

Stop insulting Hispanics; stop insulting Muslims now! the veteran civil rights leader said, adding that it is healing time; it is hope time!

The onetime presidential candidate spoke out against gun violence and for womens rights, and called on Americans to come together in the midst of a stormy season of violent campaign rhetoric.

There is a tug of war for Americans soul, Jackson said.

Clinton, he said, is the answer.

After a series of racially charged shootings of black men by police and shootings targeting police this month, former Philadelphia Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey also addressed Democrats, calling for better relations between police and the communities they serve.

The bond between law enforcement and communities are frayed, but we cant play to Americans worst fears, he said. We need to champion our greatest hopes. Hillary will. Shell bring police and communities together.

Later, the two survivors of a white supremacists shooting at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal church in Charleston, S.C., Felicia Sanders and Polly Sheppard, shared words with thousands gathered at Philadelphias Wells Fargo Center.

Hate destroys those who harbor it. I refuse to let hate destroy me, said Sanders, whose son, Tywanza Sanders, died in the shooting that killed nine black churchgoers gathered for Bible study on June 17, 2015.

The shooter in Charleston had hate in his heart. The shooter in Orlando had hate in his heart. And the shooter in Dallas did too, Sheppard said, applauding Clinton for speaking out about racism after the shooting.

As Scripture says, love never fails. And I choose love.

jaweed.kaleem@latimes.com

Jaweed Kaleem is The Times national race and justice correspondent. Follow him on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

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6 p.m.: The story was updated with comments by Philadelphias former police commissioner and survivors of the 2015 church shooting in Charleston, S.C.

5:50 p.m.: The story was updated with quotes and speeches.

The story was originally posted at 2:55 p.m.
Baku, Azerbaijan, July 27

By Elena Kosolapova - Trend:

The World Bank is raising its 2016 forecast for crude oil prices to $43 per barrel from $41 per barrel due to supply outages and robust demand in the second quarter, the bank said in its July Commodity Markets Outlook.

We expect slightly higher oil prices for the second half of 2016 as oil market oversupply diminishes, said John Baffes, Senior Economist and lead author of the Commodities Markets Outlook.

However, inventories remain very large and will take some time to be drawn down, said the report.

The bank noted that oil prices jumped 37 percent in the second quarter of 2016 due to disruptions to supply, particularly wildfires in Canada and sabotage of oil infrastructure in Nigeria.

The revised forecast appears in the World Banks latest Commodities Markets Outlook and takes into account a recent softening of demand and the recovery of some disrupted supply, the bank said.

Despite the recovery of oil and many other commodity prices in the second quarter of 2016, most commodity indexes tracked by the World Bank are expected to decline this year, according to the WB.

This trend is due to persistently elevated supplies, and in the case of industrial commodities  which include energy, metals, and agricultural raw materials - weak growth prospects in emerging market and developing economies. However, most of the declines are projected to be smaller than expected in the April outlook.

Energy prices, which include oil, natural gas and coal, are due to fall 16.4 percent in 2016, a more gradual decline than the 19.3 percent drop anticipated in April.

Non-energy commodities, such as metals and minerals, agriculture, and fertilizers, are expected to ease 3.7 percent this year, a more moderate contraction than the 5.1 percent retrenchment forecast in the previous outlook.

Average oil price hit $50.75 per bbl in 2015 compared to $96.24 per bbl in 2014, according to the WB.

Edited by SI

Follow the author on Twitter:@E_Kosolapova
Baku, Azerbaijan, July 27



By Maksim Tsurkov  Trend:



The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is looking to support financially the development of the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), which is to bring Azerbaijani gas across the Balkans and on to Italy, said EBRD President Suma Chakrabarti.



Chakrabarti made the remarks during a meeting with Albanias Prime Minister Edi Rama, Associated Press reported.



The EBRD president said that the TAP pipeline project is of great interest as it will help the regions energy security and is deemed environmentally sustainable.



In the energy sector, the EBRD is well aware of the need to secure energy for Europe which is affordable and acceptable from the point of view of climate change, noted Chakrabarti. In this context, we are positive about the Trans Adriatic Pipeline, a project that develops the three characteristics of energy security, energy access and environmental sustainability.



The EBRD also confirmed it has started negotiations for 500 million euros in direct financing and plans to attract up to 1 billion euros from a syndicate of commercial banks, said the report.



Riccardo Puliti, the EBRDs energy and natural resources head, said negotiations started in April and may take 12 to 15 months.



The bank is analyzing the technical, economic, financial, social, environmental terms and more to see if they are consistent with its policies, said Puliti. We expect that process is over in April next year.



TAP project envisages transportation of gas from Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz gas and condensate field to the EU countries.

---

Follow the author on Twitter: @MaksimTsurkov
Baku, Azerbaijan, July 27

By Elena Kosolapova, Aygun Badalova - Trend:

The European Commission is following and implementing the Ashgabat declaration from 2015 on energy cooperation with Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan and Turkey, a source in the European Commission told Trend.

Within the implementation of this declaration the parties earlier established a Working Group at the level of deputy ministers or equivalent in charge of energy sphere in the view of considering organizational, legal, commercial, technical and other issues, related to natural gas supply from Turkmenistan to Europe.

Turkmenistan, according to BP, has the fourth largest proved gas reserves in the world - 17.5 trillion cubic meters. Currently the country produces about 75 billion cubic meters of gas per year, and plans to increase production to 230 billion cubic meters by 2030, most of which will be exported.

Earlier, a source close to the negotiations on the Trans-Caspian pipeline, which would allow Turkmen gas supplies to Europe, told Trend that Turkmenistan plans to hold a summit of heads of Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan and Turkey by late 2016, where the prospects of the gas pipeline construction will be discussed.

I understand that its the parties intention to convene another Working Group meeting this year, the source in the European Commission said.

Meanwhile the no date for this meeting has been set yet, according to the source.

The Trans-Caspian Gas Pipeline Project involving laying of a 300-km gas pipeline along the bottom of the Caspian Sea to the coast of Azerbaijan, is optimal for the delivery of Turkmen energy resources to the European market. Further, Turkmen gas can be transported to Turkey which has mutual borders with European countries.

The project may be implemented as a part of huge Southern Gas Corridor project designed to transport gas from the Caspian region to European countries.

The negotiations on the Trans-Caspian gas pipeline among the EU, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan began in September 2011.

Edited by SI

Follow the author on Twitter:@E_Kosolapova
Gov. Jerry Brown doesnt shy away from big solutions to the problems that ail California. A multibillion-dollar bullet train to transport Californians from north to south. Two giant tunnels beneath the Sacramento-San-Joaquin Delta to help move precious water around the state. The most aggressive climate change laws in the nation.

His latest ambitious undertaking is to build a regional electricity market linking utilities in 11 Western states into a massive electrical grid that could make power more reliable, less expensive and greener. This giant grid would allow California to sell the excess solar power it expects to generate in coming years to states such as Utah to help them kick their coal-burning habits. The big skies over the American West would be clearer and cleaner. Everyone wins, at least thats the pitch.

Its a promising idea that energy experts say is the best-option future for the currently power-balkanized West. But this grand plan is still so new that its not yet fully thought out  which is a problem because it has been moving forward at breakneck speed despite warnings from environmentalists, legislative leaders and consumer advocates to slow down.

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Its been barely a year since the regional power market idea surfaced in Senate Bill 350, the landmark climate change law mandating that 50% of Californias power come from renewable sources by 2030. Among other things, the bill directed the quasi-governmental agency that manages the flow of electricity through most of the state  the California Independent System Operator, or Cal-ISO  to study the feasibility of developing a regional market for electricity. The study was released this month, showing modest benefits in the form of slightly lower electricity rates and cleaner air. But even before the study was released, pressure was building to get approval for the next step before the Legislature adjourns the session next month.

Whoa. Compared with the glacial movement of most massive government projects, this one is moving at the speed of light. So fast that many people, including some lawmakers, some consumer groups that focus on utilities, and the Sierra Club feel that their questions have been brushed aside by Browns energy officials and Cal-ISO. For instance, what does it mean for California to disband Cal-ISO and replace it with a regional commission that would include representatives from states that dont share Californias strict carbon-reducing goals? Would partnering with the coal-heavy utility PacifiCorp, which serves Utah, Wyoming and other Western states, truly result in that utility reducing its coal portfolio  or would it provide markets and incentives for PacifiCorp to continue producing dirty power, as some fear? Is it possible that municipal utilities such as the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power might be swept into the regional market against their will, as they worry might happen? Are the other states in the region on board with Californias grand plan?

Answers must be forthcoming before the Legislature approves dissolving Cal-ISO and replacing it with a regional board to oversee the new, multi-state grid. A little background: Cal-ISOs job is to manage the flow of energy through most of Californias high-voltage power lines so that participating utilities have the power where they need it, when they need it. It is nonprofit, independent and designed to be impartial to any of the participants, which include the three large private investor-owned utilities in California  Southern California Edison, San Diego Gas & Electric and Pacific Gas & Electric.

PacifiCorp, which serves much of Utah, and parts of Wyoming, Idaho, Oregon, Washington and California, and which derives about 60% of its power from coal, would be added to the grid under the proposal. But PacifiCorp executives say they will not be able to partner with the California utilities without approval from regulators in the states they serve. And those states have indicated they wont participate if California runs the operation on its own. Reasonable, but whats the guarantee that if California gives up some control of its transmission grid it might not end up undermining its own climate change policy? As of yet, there isnt one.

The big grid idea might ultimately be one of the great legacies of Browns fourth and final term. It could be great for air quality and for ratepayers  if its done right. But theres no reason to rush into it. California is still on track to reach the required 50% of renewable power by 2030, though a regional market might make it a cheaper to get there. Other states have already shown interest in joining the regional market once California gets it going.

But theres every reason to move deliberately, starting with fact that Californians are still skeptical of state lawmakers ability to make wise power policy after the disastrous electricity crisis of 2000. Slamming through a proposal that many informed people feel has not been properly vetted wont improve the publics trust.

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After 44 years in politics, Bernie Sanders has finally taken the plunge. Hes a regular Democrat now.

Of course, he doesnt quite want to admit it. I was elected as an independent, so Ill stay [in the Senate] two more years as an independent, he told reporters Tuesday. Indeed, he still wishes it were possible to organize an independent leftist party in the United States, the way European countries do. We dont have that, he said a little mournfully.

But after decades of agitation as an outsider, hes decided the best way to pursue his political revolution is to campaign for a ticket he doesnt like very much. And thats pretty much the definition of a party regular: Someone who works for candidates he disagrees with  as long as they carry the right label and the disagreements arent too wide.

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Sanders didnt merely endorse Hillary Clinton in his stem-winding speech at the Democratic National Convention on Monday evening; he endorsed her wholeheartedly.

I am proud to stand with Hillary Clinton, he said. Any objective observer will conclude that  based on her ideas and her leadership  Hillary Clinton must become the next president of the United States.

He pleaded with his die-hard supporters to join him, and he promised to work not only for the presidential ticket, but also for Democrats running for Congress, state legislatures and local offices.

I support Democrats, he said.

His main role, he added, will be to make the Democratic Party a 50-state party.

Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta said hes delighted that Sanders is on the team. He can go campaign for us in any of the battleground states, Podesta said, noting that Sanders had energized millions of young voters who still havent warmed to the nominee. Sanders could be especially helpful in the swing states he won during the primaries, such as New Hampshire and Wisconsin.

Sanders has supported Democratic presidential candidates before, going back to Walter Mondale in 1984. But that was mostly a low-key affair in his home state of Vermont. This time, hes talking about a much more visible national role, closely coordinated with Clintons campaign.

Sanders is also launching a new organization, Our Revolution, to continue pushing the Democratic Party to the left. But itll be a little less revolutionary than it sounds. Its heart will be a very traditional political activity: fundraising. Thats right: Sanders will put his enormous list of donors to work for Democrats  OK, progressive Democrats  at every level around the country.

For decades, leftists in American politics have had a prickly relationship with the Democrats  sometimes working within the party (as in the 1972 George McGovern campaign), sometimes breaking with it, sometimes forming third parties or independent organizing committees.

Sanders is a part of that history; when he began running for office, in 1972, it was as a candidate of Vermonts almost-forgotten Liberty Union Party. He regularly denounced Democrats as sellouts to a corrupt political system. Even as a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, he was initially reluctant to embrace the party label.

But Sanders isnt really betraying his past, or his supporters. Hes willing to join the dark side now because its not so dark (to progressives) anymore; in fact, its downright hospitable for small-d democratic socialists.

Democratic voters arent what they used to be: In 2000, the Pew Research Center reported recently, only 27% of Democratic voters described themselves as liberal; now that number is 41%.

Case in point: the first President Clinton, Bill, was a champion of business-friendly free trade agreements like NAFTA. If theres a second President Clinton, shell be a self-proclaimed skeptic on trade.

In other words, just as the Republican Party has become more conservative, so too have the Democrats become more progressive. (Sanders success is proof of that.)

The party apparatus isnt what it used to be, either. Sanders was right when he said the Democratic Party platform is the most progressive one ever. He and his supporters were able to push Clinton to the left on several major issues: a pledge to make public universities tuition-free for most students, a promise to raise Social Security benefits, and opposition to the current version of President Obamas proposed trade agreement with Asia, the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

Sanders didnt win the nomination; he didnt even come very close. But over the course of the competition, he became a Democrat  functionally, if not yet in his own self-image. More important, the Democratic Party became more like him.

doyle.mcmanus@latimes.com

Twitter: @DoyleMcManus

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On the historic night when a woman was officially nominated for the presidency at the Democratic National Convention, this crazy campaign brought another, far less important, but still singular, development: Protesters invaded the media headquarters next door to the convention hall. And these were not mere interlopers who sneaked through security; they were credential-wearing delegates who had just cast their roll call votes for Bernie Sanders.

Police briefly closed off the media tent, leaving many working reporters stranded out in the afternoon heat until the two dozen or so protesters were moved outside themselves. Then a real press scrum ensued, with the renegade delegates giving impassioned interviews to the corporate media they claim to despise. Their complaints were numerous, starting with how their attempts to bring new issues to the floor of the convention had been shut down. Apparently, the lengthy process of developing the party platform in which the views of the Sanders faction were well and successfully represented was not enough for them. They wanted to start a new debate in front of the full convention, which was never going to happen because the folks running the show were not inclined to waste valuable TV time on a lengthy, free-for-all debate. There were celebrities to bring to the stage, after all.

1 / 51 la-1491523602-y7ephyarj1-snap-image (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 2 / 51 la-1491368625-0bgh58ihw8-snap-image (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 3 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 4 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 5 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon (David Horsey / Los angeles Times) 6 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 7 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 8 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 9 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 10 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon. (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 11 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 12 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 13 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 14 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 15 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 16 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon. (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 17 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 18 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 19 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 20 / 51 Trump inspires millions to take to the streets -- to oppose him. (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 21 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 22 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 23 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon. (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 24 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 25 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 26 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon. (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 27 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 28 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 29 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 30 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 31 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 32 / 51 Cartoon caption contest winner at the DENT conference in Sun Valley, Idaho: Jon Duval, executive director of the Ketchum Community Development Corporation. (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 33 / 51 Old radicals and big media descend on Selma (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 34 / 51 Horsey imagined the creation of the Ann Coulter phenomenon in this cartoon from 2007. (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 35 / 51 This David Horsey drawing is a reconfiguration of a cartoon he first published in 2006. (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 36 / 51 Donald Sterling, owner of the L.A. Clippers, should give Cliven Bundy a call. After Sterling loses his NBA franchise and the deadbeat Nevada rancher loses his cattle, the two old racists will both need a buddy. Maybe they can team up together and open an all-white rodeo. (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 37 / 51 Besides sending a chill up the spine of the international community, Vladimir Putin has accomplished one other thing by seizing Crimea and threatening the rest of Ukraine: Putin has brought back the bear. (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 38 / 51 The right-wing insurrection at the Bundy ranch in Bunkerville, Nev., has taken another weird turn with new revelations about the family history of Cliven Bundy. (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 39 / 51 See full story (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 40 / 51 See full story (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 41 / 51 See full story (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 42 / 51 See full story (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 43 / 51 See full story (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 44 / 51 See full story (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 45 / 51 David Horsey / Los Angeles Times (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 46 / 51 See full story (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 47 / 51 See full story (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 48 / 51 See full story (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 49 / 51 See full story (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 50 / 51 See full story (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 51 / 51 See full story (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times)

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One Sanders delegate from Washington was upset that the crew from her state was seated toward the back of the hall, making it impossible for anyone to hear her faint voice of protest  as if the seating plan were somehow devised to punish her personally. Other angry delegates who also felt their voices had been ignored stood outside the media tent with their mouths taped shut. One of them held his cellphone out for reporters to see. The phone displayed a message: Rural gay voices are silenced by the political establishment and the religious establishment. No doubt there might be validity to the mans concern, but ironically, with a horde of media surrounding him and ready to listen, he had silenced himself with duct tape.

There was much emotional pleading for the convention to choose Bernie. It did not faze these earnest folks that, thanks to the ballots that had been cast just minutes before, that possibility was now closed. They wanted a do-over. They demanded it, in fact, because, by golly, it just wasnt fair. More irony: These people who appear convinced the Democratic Party is a corrupt tool of corporate interests expressed shock that a purer kind of democracy had not been allowed to prevail. Of course, their definition of democracy was not Hillary got the most votes, so she wins; it appeared to be we get to keep talking until we get our way.

Judging by some of the comments, many of these delegates had never before watched a political convention and had no idea how these things operate. Maybe they thought there would be lots of small group discussions and chances to share their feelings. There was anger that the convention had been all about Hillary Clinton (imagine, a convention being focused on the nominee!). One protester was irate that Sanders was the last person to speak on Monday night, as if that were a punishment, rather than being the starring spot in the evenings lineup.

After about an hour at the center of attention, a group of the dissident delegates decided it was time to leave and go join a protest downtown. In a call-and-response chorus, they collectively said, We will no longer participate in this media sideshow  which is a bit like a bunch of clowns and acrobats declaring their disgust at being part of a circus.

Now, the interesting thing to contemplate is what happens Thursday night. Hillary Clinton will be giving her acceptance speech and it sure looks as if there is a very good chance she will be interrupted by protesters, just as Donald Trump was interrupted during his big convention moment last week. Hecklers at the Republican convention were quickly escorted from the hall. Hillarys hecklers, however, are likely to be actual delegates who cannot be whisked away.

They may not be real Democrats. They may have no intention of voting for the partys nominee. In their zeal and immaturity, they may not follow the gracious example of Sanders, the man they claim to admire so much. But they got chosen to be here and, whether one thinks they are brave revolutionaries or spoiled brats, they can disrupt the Clinton campaigns carefully designed program and no one can make them behave.

David.Horsey@latimes.com

Follow me at @davidhorsey on Twitter

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Baku, Azerbaijan, July 27

By Maksim Tsurkov  Trend:

Hanafi Talib has been appointed the new head of Malaysias oil and gas company Petronas in Azerbaijan.

Azerbaijans Energy Ministry said July 27 that Hanafi Talib was presented to Azerbaijans Energy Minister Natig Aliyev at the meeting with the delegation headed by Malaysias Ambassador to Azerbaijan Dato Roslan Tan Sri Abdul Rahman.

During the meeting, Hanafi Talib expressed satisfaction with the current level of cooperation between Azerbaijan and Malaysia, including in the energy sector.

Natig Aliyev highly appreciated Petronas participation in major oil and gas projects and noted the importance of strengthening the close cooperation between Petronas and Azerbaijans state oil company SOCAR for the two countries relations.

Despite the sharp decline in oil prices on global markets, Azerbaijan is successfully implementing oil and gas projects, carrying out all international obligations, and there is a favorable investment climate, said Aliyev. There is great potential for expansion of Petronas activities in the Azerbaijani sector of Caspian Sea.

The minister also noted that Azerbaijan will provide necessary assistance in future activities of the new leadership of Petronas in the country.

The possibility of Turkmen gas access to European markets and the implementation of the Trans-Caspian gas pipeline project were also discussed during the meeting.

Petronas owns a 15.5-percent stake in the development project of Azerbaijans Shah Deniz gas field and in the South Caucasus gas pipeline project.

---

Follow the author on Twitter: @MaksimTsurkov
The Democratic National Convention made history on Tuesday.

The roll call was taken, and the decision was finalized: Hillary Clinton would become the first female candidate for president of a major political party.

Later in the evening, her husband, Bill Clinton, spoke glowingly of her record of service and their history together. But there were a lot of smaller moments you might have missed if you only tuned in for prime time. Here are a few of them:

Brotherly love for Sanders

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During the roll call, British Green Party politician Larry Sanders spoke on behalf of Democrats Abroad. He took the opportunity to talk about his parents, and how proud they would be of their son, who is his brother: Bernie Sanders.

They loved the New Deal of Franklin Roosevelt, and would be especially proud that Bernard is renewing that vision, he said, fighting back tears. It is with enormous pride that I cast my vote for Bernie Sanders.

 Larry Sanders casts his delegate vote for his brother at the Democratic National Convention. More coverage at latimes.com/trailguide

Elizabeth Banks makes an evocative entrance

Elizabeth Banks mocked Donald Trumps RNC entrance. The actress, producer and director aped his fog-lit appearance, complete with Queens We Are the Champions blaring over the loudspeakers.

The Trump campaign is so hard up for money that I just bought that fog machine on EBay for thirty bucks, she joked.

Full convention coverage 

 Elizabeth Banks enters the stage at the Democratic National Convention. More coverage at latimes.com/trailguide

Black Lives Matter on the big stage

Members of the Mothers of the Movement gathered onstage, a group including the mothers of Trayvon Martin, Jordan Davis, Eric Garner and other African Americans who died in incidents connected to police or gun violence.

I am here with Hillary Clinton tonight because she is a leader and a mother who will say our childrens names, said Geneva Reed-Veal, mother of Sandra Bland, who died in a Texas jail after her arrest during a traffic stop.

David Banks, the president and CEO of the Eagle Academy Foundation, spoke about Hillary Clintons work to improve the lives of young men of color.

 Mothers of African Americans killed by gun violence speak at the Democratic National Convention. More coverage at latimes.com/trailguide

Im with Hillary Clinton because she has been with us, he told the audience.

Students from Eagle Academy closed the speech by performing the poem Invictus.

 Day Two of the Democratic National Convention in less than 3 minutes. Full coverage at latimes.com/trailguide

Howard Dean gets fired up

Former presidential candidate Howard Dean spoke about healthcare, hammering Trumps yuge replacement for Obamacare, and Republican vice presidential nominee Mike Pences voting record. He finished his turn at the podium with a throwback to the 2004 campaign, when he punctuated a speech in Iowa with a loud hyaghhhh! He stopped short of uttering the iconic Dean scream, but only just.

SIGN UP for our free Essential Politics newsletter 

 Howard Dean, former Democratic National Committee chairman and former Vermont governor, speaks at the Democratic National Convention. More coverage at latimes.com/trailguide

The DNC continues Wednesday night with speeches from President Obama and Vice President Joe Biden. Follow along with our coverage at latimes.com/trailguide.

jessica.roy@latimes.com

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He is his wifes best advocate, most ardent defender and biggest fan.

On Tuesday night, former President Bill Clintons job was to convince the American people that if they only knew his wife the way he does, they would not hesitate to put her back in the White House, this time as commander in chief.

He was charming and loving, wonky and passionate as he spoke of Hillary Clinton as a social-justice-minded law student, as a young wife, mother and public servant. Did he electrify his audience, as he did in 2012, when he gave a moving speech about Barack Obamas first term?

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Not exactly. In fact, in some ways, the middle part of his remarks teetered close enough to a policy slog that it brought to mind his convention appearance in 1988, when he delivered a talk so leaden that his national political aspirations seemed imperiled. (They were not.)

He did get off to a promising, and poetic, start: In the spring of 1971, I met a girl.

It was a lovely way to begin a tribute to the woman who has been with him in good times and bad times, through joy and heartbreak.

People think they know everything there is to know about Hillary Clinton, but as her husband recited her early resume in almost granular detail, it became clear that her passion for children and the underprivileged has animated her life.

Her dedication to these issues, he said, began when her youth pastor took her to see Martin Luther King Jr. in Chicago, then blossomed when she went to work for Marian Wright Edelman at the Childrens Defense Fund, and has never wavered.

In a pointed allusion to Republican nominee Donald Trump, who mocked a disabled reporter in a speech last year, he said that a young Hillary worked on a project that culminated with federal legislation giving disabled children equal access to public education.

She never made fun of people with disabilities, he said. She tried to empower them based on their abilities.

The noise around Hillary  her private email server, the controversy over the attack in Benghazi, Libya  has often obscured her accomplishments. A favorite Republican talking point is that she accomplished nothing in her tenure as secretary of State. Not if you ask her husband.

As secretary of State, she worked hard to get strong sanctions against Irans nuclear program.

She flew all night long from Cambodia to the Middle East to get a cease-fire that would avoid a full-out shooting war between Hamas and Israel in Gaza to protect the peace of the region. She backed President Obamas decision to go after Osama bin Laden.

One of Hillary Clintons greatest challenges is to get voters to see her as more real, more human and, yes, more likeable. That is where a husband comes in handy.

Who else but a spouse could tell a sentimental story about dropping their only child, Chelsea, off at Stanford University and having to pry Hillary away.

Ill never forget moving her into her dorm room at Stanford, he said. It would have been a great little reality flick. There I was in a trance just staring out the window trying not to cry, and there was Hillary on her hands and knees desperately looking for one more drawer to put that liner paper in.

He repeatedly called his wife the real one, making a pointed comparison to the cartoon alternative that Republicans have created of her.

Good for you, he told delegates in Philadelphia, because earlier today, you nominated the real one.

By the end of his speech, the old Bill Clinton, the gifted orator and veteran of 10 conventions, had returned. He made a soaring appeal to groups alienated by the GOPs tough rhetoric  immigrants, Muslims and African Americans who are disillusioned and afraid.

Hillary will make us stronger together, said the former president-turned-political spouse. You know it because shes spent a lifetime doing it.

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11:05 p.m.: Updated throughout.

This article was first published at 9:25 p.m.
President Obama forcefully made the case Wednesday that Hillary Clinton has the tenacity, heart and temperament to guide the nation as commander in chief, while painting Donald Trump as a candidate of cynicism and fear unfit for the office.

There has never been a man or a woman more qualified to be president than his former secretary of State, Obama declared in his Democratic convention address on a night that also introduced the nation to Clintons running mate, Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine, who stressed as well that Trump was too risky a gamble.

Our nation is too great to put it in the hands of a slick-talking, empty-promising, self-promoting, one-man wrecking crew, Kaine said.

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In making his case, Obama offered a perspective few else could: experience in the Oval Office.

Until youve sat at that desk, you dont know what its like to manage a global crisis or send young people to war. But Hillarys been in the room; shes been part of those decisions, he said. Even in the middle of crisis, she listens to people, and keeps her cool, and treats everybody with respect.

Obamas active role in the race to succeed him has little recent precedent. He is driven in part by the preservation of his own legacy, much of which rests on whether his successor preserves his administrations actions on climate, foreign policy and other major issues.

Obama dismissed Trump as unworthy of the presidency, saying he wasnt a plans guy, or a facts guy.

Hes just offering slogans, and hes offering fear. Hes betting that if he scares enough people, he might score just enough votes to win this election, he said. That is another bet that Donald Trump will lose.

And he targeted Trumps signature promise to make America great again.

America is already great. America is already strong. And I promise you, our strength, our greatness, does not depend on Donald Trump, he said.

Obamas and Kaines arguments fit neatly into the bigger case Democrats made on the conventions third night for Clinton over Trump.

But the most powerful evidence may have come from Trump himself. Earlier Wednesday, he encouraged Russian operatives to hack Clintons personal emails, a stunning claim from a figure who has long tested credulity and the limits of political discourse.

Russia, if youre listening, I hope youll be able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing, he said, referring to deleted emails from the private account Clinton used as secretary of State. I think youll probably be rewarded mightily by our press.

Clintons campaign called it the first time a presidential candidate has actively encouraged a foreign power to conduct espionage against his political opponent.

This has gone from being a matter of curiosity, and a matter of politics, to being a national security issue, senior policy advisor Jake Sullivan said.

Former Defense secretary and CIA director Leon E. Panetta said earlier Wednesday to the convention audience that Trump once again took Russias side.

It is inconceivable to me that any presidential candidate would be this irresponsible, he said.

Trumps own running mate appeared to try to temper the nominees assertion. Indiana Gov. Mike Pence said that if it were proved that Russia was behind another hack into Democratic National Committee emails, with an intent to influence U.S. elections, I can assure you both parties and the United States government will ensure there are serious consequences.

 What you missed on the third day of the Democratic National Convention. More coverage at latimes.com/trailguide. See other Democratic roundups here and catch up on the Republian convention here.

Follow live coverage of the Democratic National Convention 

And in his largely autobiographical speech, Kaine took up the running mates customary role of attacking the opposition with gusto, contrasting Clintons detail-laden policy agenda with what he cast as Trumps vague promises.

He says, Believe me, Kaine scoffed. Well, his creditors, his contractors, his laid-off employees, his ripped-off students did just that, and they all got hurt. Folks, you cannot believe one word that comes out of Donald Trumps mouth.

Vice President Joe Biden delivered a similar rebuke, saying that no nominee has ever known less or been less prepared to deal with our national security.

Clintons strongest case for her election has been built on the contrast with her rival, though Democrats have sought to use this weeks convention to positively portray their nominee and the historic nature of her candidacy. Her campaign has sought to portray Trump as erratic and running for president in a self-interested pursuit of greater wealth and fame.

Obama argued that Clinton will be steady and calm where Trump is unpredictable  another way of saying that he fails the commander-in-chief and chief-executive tests.

Biden, who has worked with Clinton for decades, also sought to undercut Trumps appeal as a champion for the economically distressed in a speech that followed a tribute to his decades of service in the Senate and partnership with Obama.

This guy doesnt have a clue about the middle class. Not a clue, Biden said of Trump. Actually, he has no clue, period.

The billionaire was alternately described as a carnival barker, an egomaniac and a hateful con man, in the words of Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada.

Its time to put a bully racist in his place, said former Maryland Gov. Martin OMalley, who lost to Clinton in the primaries.

Gov. Jerry Brown took aim at Trumps past suggestion that the warming of the planet was a hoax.

Trump is a fraud, he said.

And former New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, whos been a Republican, Democrat and independent, hit Trump where it hurts: in his business portfolio.

Trump says he wants to run the nation like he runs his business, Bloomberg said. God help us.

Obama drove home the idea in the evenings finale, tearing down Trump while endorsing Clinton as the fierce former rival who later became one of his most important and trusted advisors.

Recognizing that the convention is traditionally a moment when voter sentiments can shift dramatically, he wanted to focus on Clinton rather than his own administration.

Obama sees himself as a witness who can describe her in action, especially from the perspective of someone who once fought her himself for the office.

I came to realize that her unbelievable work ethic wasnt for praise or attention  that she was in this for everyone who needs a champion, he said. I understood that after all these years, she has never forgotten just who shes fighting for.

Like former President Clinton the night before, Obama sought to convey a portrait of a woman he knew to be far different than her public perception, accused by her critics of everything you can imagine  and some things you cant.

Shes been there for us  even if we havent always noticed, he said, as he urged wayward Democrats in particular to put aside their reservations.

Youve got to get in the arena with her, because democracy isnt a spectator sport, he said. America isnt about yes he will. Its about yes we can.

Obama, after eight years tempered by trial at home and abroad, said he was ready to pass the baton. And after a final call to his supporters to carry her the same way that you carried me, Clinton joined him on stage and offered a warm embrace.

The White House worked closely with Clintons campaign to prepare for the presidents role. White House aides say they have largely deferred to her team in Brooklyn, N.Y., trusting some of the same officials now working for her who also helped guide Obama twice to victory.

As the first lady sought to do in her convention address Monday, Obama also intended to focus on what unites the country  a coda 12 years to the day of the Democratic convention speech that launched his career in national politics when he declared that there were no red states or blue states, but one United States of America.

Memoli and Barabak reported from Philadelphia and Parsons from Washington.

For more 2016 campaign coverage, follow @mikememoli and @cparsons on Twitter

Hillary Clinton might have more all-star wattage behind her than any presidential nominee ever has

Bill Clinton introduces the real Hillary

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UPDATES:

8:50 p.m.: This story was updated with Clintons appearance.

8:30 p.m.: The story was updated with comments from President Obama.

7:30 p.m.: The story was updated with comments from Vice President Joe Biden and Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine.

6:05 p.m.: The story was updated with comments from Gov. Jerry Brown.

4:50 p.m.: The story was updated with details on convention floor speeches.

3:55 p.m.: The story was updated with Obamas prepared remarks.

The story was originally published at 1:15 p.m.
A night Hillary Clintons campaign designed to showcase her many years of involvement in social justice causes hit an emotional high point Tuesday with an appearance by a group of women whose sons or daughters were victims of gun violence or encounters with law enforcement.

The Mothers of the Movement, as the eight women call themselves, provided one of the starkest contrasts between the two party conventions.

Republican nominee Donald Trump focused repeatedly on law and order, and his convention featured repeated calls of blue lives matter. The Democrats put a spotlight on the complex issues of urban violence, easy access to guns and the accusation that systemic racism has warped the criminal justice system.

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In their remarks, the mothers portrayed Clinton as an ally in their movement.

I didnt want this spotlight, said Sybrina Fulton, whose 17-year-old son, Trayvon Martin, was shot and killed by a Neighborhood Watch member in an act that sparked a national debate over Floridas stand-your-ground law, which allows use of lethal force in some circumstances.

She praised Clinton for having compassion and understanding to support grieving mothers, courage to fight for gun safety legislation, and a plan to repair the divide between law enforcement and the communities they serve.

This is not about being politically correct. This is about saving our children, she said.

Hillary Clinton isnt afraid to say black lives matter, said Lucia McBath. She doesnt build walls around her heart. Not only did she listen to our problems, she invited us to become part of the solution.

McBaths 17-year-old son, Jordan Davis, was shot by Michael Dunn in Jacksonville, Fla., on Nov. 12, 2012, after an argument over whether Davis and his friends were playing music too loudly. Dunn, a white software developer, ultimately was found guilty of first-degree murder.

The decision to invite the mothers provided a way for Clintons campaign to associate itself with the Black Lives Matter movement in a way that featured less politically charged personalities than some of its youthful champions.

Still, the mothers appearance has caused controversy. The Philadelphia Fraternal Order of Police said its members were shocked and saddened that widows of fallen police officers were not included in the lineup.

Democrats responded that there was no conflict between honoring the majority of police officers while putting a spotlight on victims of police misconduct.

Former Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr. said from the podium that black lives matter, but also talked about his brother who served as a police officer.

There is no tension between protecting those who valiantly risk their lives to serve ... and ensuring that everyone is treated fairly by police, Holder said.

Presenting the mothers on the same night that Bill Clinton spoke was also a way to potentially associate him with the movements goals and defuse a point of tension within the Democratic coalition.

The former president has clashed publicly with Black Lives Matters protesters at a couple of campaign events after they challenged him over the anti-crime bill he signed in 1994, which they blame for the sharp increase in incarceration rates of young black men.

Experts have argued over how much impact the Clinton-era crime law had on incarceration, noting that much of the increase took place years before the law passed.

But the law has become a potent symbol, and the tension over it has made some Democrats worry that younger black voters might not turn out to cast ballots for her in November at the high levels that the Democrats need for victory.

While Hillary Clinton has embraced some of the causes championed by Black Lives Matter and has tried to break with the legacy of the 1990s on criminal justice issues, neither she nor the movement have fully embraced each other.

The relationship she has forged with the mothers has played a significant role in her effort to communicate her criminal justice policies.

Two weeks ago, she appeared at a historically black church in Philadelphia with one of the women, Tanya Brown-Dickerson. Clinton spoke at the church in the aftermath of the deaths of two more black men in policed-involved shootings and the lethal rampage directed at Dallas police officers patrolling a Black Lives Matter demonstration.

People are crying out for criminal justice reform, Clinton said at the church. Families are being torn apart by excessive incarceration. Young people are being threatened and humiliated by racial profiling.

DeRay Mckesson, one of the leaders of Black Lives Matter who is attending the convention here, noted that movement activists have met with Clinton. He welcomed what he called a Democratic Party platform more progressive and inclusive than even I thought it would be.

McKesson said he worried that Clinton was taking young voters for granted, and he would not say whether he would have preferred a larger role for himself or for his movement, rather than the exclusive focus on the mothers.

But Trump cannot be president. And this is not an election about the lesser of two evils, he said. On one side there is a candidate who is openly racist and bigoted. And then theres a candidate that people have concerns about, he said.

The tension reflects the difference between elected officials and activist movements for social change, said Benjamin Jealous, former president of the NAACP.

Movements are always misunderstood by people in our country. And yet all of us should be grateful for the work movements do to make all of our lives better. he said. The reality is that everybodys life will be safer when black lives matter, too.

Asked if there was a need for Black Lives Matter to mature politically, he responded: I think theres room to mature right at the top of the Republican ticket.

michael.memoli@latimes.com

For more 2016 campaign coverage, follow @mikememoli on Twitter

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The sweeping Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact was once seen as a rare bipartisan initiative that a Republican-led Congress and President Obama might actually be able to push through in an unruly election year.

But that was before the rollicking 2016 presidential campaign turned globalization into a potent symbol of job loss and wage stagnation.

Now the 12-nation trade pact  once hoped to be a capstone of Obama second term  appears all but dead as both Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump promise to scrap it and negotiate a better one.

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I think this is in the rear view mirror now.  Gene Sperling, former director of the White House National Economic Council

I think this is in the rear view mirror now, said Gene Sperling, former director of the White House National Economic Council, at an event Wednesday sponsored by the Atlantic at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia.

One of the final blows came Tuesday when Virginias Democratic Gov. Terry McAuliffe, a longtime Clinton ally, suggested that even though Clinton had reversed her support for the pact amid heavy opposition from unions and supporters of primary rival Sen. Bernie Sanders, she might find a way to revive the TPP, if elected.

That inadvertently revived concerns among Clintons critics about her credibility and forced the campaign to reiterate her opposition.

She doesnt support TPP now; she is not going to support TPP after the election, campaign manager Robby Mook said Wednesday. McAuliffe, too, quickly walked back his comments.

But the renewed attention to the sensitive issue gave Trump another chance to attack Clinton and ensured that if she ever tried to change her position again on the pact, the political costs would be far higher.

The Obama administration hopes an opening still exists for Congress to give final passage to the deal after the November election in a lame-duck session.

But Republicans, including House Speaker Paul D. Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell  both advocates of free trade  have casts doubts about a lame-duck vote.

The turn of events has been swift and decisive, and an unlikely outcome from barely a year ago when lawmakers of both parties joined forces in an unusual partnership to open a new era of trade relations.

At the time, Republican and Democratic leaders envisioned the trade deal not only as a needed economic boost but a strategic geo-political move to gather Pacific allies away from the powerful orbit of China.

America is back in the trade business, McConnell said last year in an optimistic moment as the Senate advanced legislation to fast-track the eventual deal.

Republicans and their allies in the business community have traditionally promoted trade deals while Democrats, though wary, were willing this time to back Obamas second-term priority, especially with bolstered protections for labor and the environment.

But on the presidential campaign trail, another narrative was gaining popular support.

TRAIL GUIDE: All the latest news on the 2016 presidential campaign 

Trump launched a tirade against manufacturers like Carrier and Nabisco, which had moved their operations abroad, turning trade into one of his signature issues.

Trumps message shocked fellow Republicans. But it resonated deeply with white, working-class voters  many in former Democratic strongholds in Rust Belt states. He railed against former President Clintons role in passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement.

On the Democratic side, Sanders took a similarly populist attack from the left, which had already grown skeptical of NAFTA and other previous trade pacts. It left Clinton with almost no other option than to abandon the deal she had once promoted as Obamas secretary of State.

Theres just been a bigger political earthquake this year, said Edward Alden, senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations who has studied trade issues for 25 years.

In the past, the governments desire to pursue free trade for geopolitical reasons and the business communitys economic motivations were always enough to overcome the other interests, he said. That is no longer true, and that is a big change  and leads to a whole lot of questions about what happens next.

Negotiating a new deal is no easy task  the Pacific deal has been eight years in the making, and most observers believe all sides would essentially have to start from scratch.

Cracks of dissent had already begun to show in November, when the 12 nations formally announced their agreement. Almost immediately key Republican supporters such as Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) began to voice doubts about the final terms.

That chasm has only deepened as the campaign trail rhetoric intensified.

But Robert Scott, who has been following trade issues for years at the liberal-leaning Economic Policy Institute and opposes the deal, said the endgame remains to be determined.

I dont think its over until its over, he said.

Staff writers David Lauter and Evan Halper in Philadelphia contributed to this story.

lisa.mascaro@latimes.com

Twitter: @LisaMascaro

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Your Essential Politics guide to Day 3 of the Democratic National Convention

Donald Trump invites Russia to hack into Clintons emails, an extraordinary step for a presidential nominee
Donald Trump dared a foreign government to commit espionage on the U.S. to hurt his rival on Wednesday, smashing yet another taboo in American political discourse and behavior.

Russia, if youre listening, I hope youll be able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing, he said, referring to deleted emails from the private account Hillary Clinton used as secretary of State. I think youll probably be rewarded mightily by our press.

Trump made the taunt during a lengthy and unusual news conference in Doral, Fla., in which he also suggested the Geneva Convention treaties protecting prisoners of war are outdated, told a reporter asking a question to be quiet and said the fact that the Democratic National Committee may have been hacked was because foreign leaders lack respect for the U.S. government.

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He also called President Obama the most ignorant president in our history, alleged that Russian President Vladimir Putin had disparaged Obama with the n-word and inaccurately paraphrased Obama speaking in a stereotype of African American dialect.

His views of the world, as he says, dont jive, Trump said. Obama had recently used the word jibe in contrasting his views with Trumps.

Trump was hoping to use the news conference to deride Democrats for failing to focus on Islamic State during their nominating convention this week and Clinton for holding no news conferences in nearly a year.

The comments urging Russia to hack Clinton immediately drew widespread attention because they lend the impression that Trump is actively encouraging another country to commit a crime against the U.S. to directly affect the presidential election. If the emails are hacked and Trump wins, it also could make him appear beholden to foreign interests.

The unprecedented comments in a campaign that has pushed multiple boundaries came after days of increased interest in Trumps relationship with Russia, his statements that he might renege on U.S. commitments to defend NATO allies against Russian aggression and his frequently espoused admiration for Putin.

This undoubtedly sends a message to Russia that Trump is, at best, a fan, and at worst, manipulable and a bit of a loose cannon, said Olga Oliker, director of the Russia and Eurasia program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Russia will look at this, whether its political theater or not, as [confirmation] that Trump would be better for them than Clinton, who would take a measured approach and discourage things that run counter to U.S. interests.

Trumps comments probably did not meet the standard for criminal incitement but showed poor judgment, said Susan Hennessey, a national security and governance fellow at the Brookings Institution.

Someone who is asking to be elected to the presidency should be more respectful of this nations institutions, said Hennessey, a former lawyer for the National Security Agency.

State Department spokesman John Kirby refused to comment, saying that the nations diplomats were staying out of politics.

Allies of Trump, including former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, asserted that the candidate was joking. But Trump, given the chance to clarify while he was still in front of reporters, did not back down when asked whether it concerned him that another government may have Clintons emails.

No, it gives me no pause, he said, adding that what gives him pause is Clintons destruction of the messages.

If Russia or China or any other country has those emails, Ive got to be honest with you, Id love to see them, he added.

Shortly after the news conference, Trump tweaked his position further on Twitter, suggesting that any hacked emails should be shared with law enforcement rather than him or the public: If Russia or any other country or person has Hillary Clintons 33,000 illegally deleted emails, perhaps they should share them with the FBI!

Experts suspect that Russian agents are behind the hack and release of Democratic Party officials emails last week that showed party leaders discussing ways to undermine Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders primary campaign against Clinton. The Democratic Party is supposed to be neutral, and the revelations in the emails  including discussions about using Sanders faith against him  led to the abrupt resignation of Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida as party chairwoman. The emails also showed details of the high-level access given to the partys biggest donors.

Trump has been actively promoting the issue in making the case that Clinton rigged the system in her favor. But the Trump campaign seemed well aware of the potential for damage in his latest comments, quickly issuing a follow-up statement from Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, his running mate, that called on punishment for the hackers.

If it is Russia and they are interfering in our elections, I can assure you both parties and the United States government will ensure there are serious consequences, Pence said. That said, the Democrats [are] singularly focusing on who might be behind it and not addressing the basic fact that theyve been exposed as a party who not only rigs the government, but rigs elections while literally accepting cash for federal appointments is outrageous.

Campaign staffers also contended to reporters that Trumps initial statements had been mischaracterized, that Trump was not actively soliciting cyber theft, but was instead urging Russia to give the emails to law enforcement.

Democrats, who have been on the defensive about the content of the emails, as well as Clintons use of a private server on which she sent sensitive information, quickly seized on Trumps comments as evidence in their argument that he lacks the temperament and judgment to lead the country.

Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Burbank), the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, called it staggeringly poor judgment even for him and breathtakingly irresponsible in a statement.

What Donald Trump did today needs to be examined not through a political lens, but this is a national security issue now, Robby Mook, Clintons campaign manager, said during a Democratic convention lunch in Philadelphia hosted by the Wall Street Journal.

But asked whether he was proposing a criminal investigation, Mook said he was not.

Trump often has praised Putin and has claimed to have met him, but on Wednesday he denied that they have met. He also denied that he has financial interests in the country, but declined, again, to release his tax returns, citing an audit.

Times staff writer Evan Halper in Philadelphia contributed to this report.

Twitter: @noahbierman, @tracykwilkinson

Hillary Clinton might have more all-star wattage behind her than any presidential nominee ever has

How the Democratic and Republican party platforms stack up on climate change, Iran and more key issues

Black Lives Matter playing a prominent role at Democratic convention

UPDATES:

2:55 p.m.: This article was updated with reaction to Trumps comments.

This article was originally published at 11:30 a.m.
Im Christina Bellantoni, here with your Essential Politics guide to the Democratic National Convention.

Tonights theme is Working Together, and the aim is to trumpet the Obama administration while allowing the outgoing president to pass the torch. It also will be Tim Kaines big-time debut on the national stage.

President Obama and Vice President Biden, two of Hillary Clintons most powerful and charismatic surrogates, will likely prod Donald Trump as they make the case for the party nominee.

Obama has changed his tune and suggested in an interview on NBC airing today that Trump could win the presidency. Anything is possible, Obama told NBCs Savannah Guthrie. In February, the president had said he believed Trump will not be president. Will that message come through in his prime-time speech tonight?

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Hell talk a little bit about what he has tried to achieve, what kind of country he has tried to build, but put that in the context of why he thinks shes the right choice, Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta previewed.

Halfway into the Democratic confab, Cathleen Decker sees that the presidential contest has become a battle between feelings and facts.

Below is our quick look at what happened on Day 2. Or, check out the video version. Well have you covered with a gavel-to-gavel livestream that will go live here at 1 p.m. Pacific. and robust live coverage round-the-clock on Trail Guide. Well also cover Trumps planned Reddit Ask Me Anything. Dont miss a moment.

Ill present the best of the rest with a series of headlines.

 Day Two of the Democratic National Convention in less than 3 minutes. Full coverage at latimes.com/trailguide

YOUR GUIDE TO CONVENTION NEWS

 Best moments from Day 2

 Clinton makes a cameo on historic day

 Bill Clinton introduces the real Hillary Clinton

 Part moving tribute, part policy slog: Bill Clinton pays homage to his wife

 A long-awaited moment for a woman born before women could vote

 Larry Sanders emotionally casts roll call vote for his brother Bernie

 Voices from the floor: Needles, Ca. woman: Finally

 Californias delegation is front-and-center. See the photo of the floor and watch the video

 Madeleine Albright says Trump is undermining fight against ISIS

 Watch Albrights full speech

 ISIS convention mentions rise after GOP complains terrorism is being ignored

 How the Democratic and Republican party platforms stack up on the issues

 Gabby Giffords and John Lewis talk about gun violence

 Terry McAuliffes TPP comments do Clinton no favors

 What will it take to get voters to trust Clinton? Campaign chair John Podesta has a plan

 Sanders tells California delegates its easy to boo but harder to stop Trump

 Charts: Why Bill Clinton is still one of the most popular ex-presidents

 The Republican response to the Democratic National Convention

YOUR GUIDE TO CONVENTION SPEECHES

 Watch: Hillary Clintons celebrity supporters sing Fight Song

 Watch the moment Clinton became the nominee, thanks to Bernie Sanders

 Once lured to L.A. by human traffickers, human rights advocate Ima Matul tells her story at DNC

 Mothers of the Movement at the DNC will give Black Lives Matter one of its biggest platforms yet and watch the video

 Why Tamir Rices mother is missing from the stage

 Eric Holder: America is already great

YOUR CONVENTION PROTEST GUIDE

 I went to another protest. With no Sanders supporters here, it was a jolt

 Bernie Sanders supporters launched protest after Hillary Clinton was named the nominee

 4 people arrested after trying to enter Secret Service-protected area outside the DNC

YOUR CONVENTION BINGO CARD

From First Lad references to the woman card, we have you covered.

RACIALLY DIVISIVE AD POPS IN SAN BERNARDINO RACE

A political committee funded by oil companies has launched ads on the Internet attacking state Sen. Connie Leyva of Chino for opposing the reelection of fellow Democrat Cheryl Brown of San Bernardino, questioning Levyas party loyalty.

A spokesman for Leyva called the ads racially divisive and reprehensible.

THE SMALL SOLUTION TO THE STATES HOUSING CRISIS

State lawmakers and interest groups continue to battle it out over Gov. Jerry Browns plan to streamline approval for housing that reserves units for low-income Californians. But a package of bills pending in the Legislature is aiming to address the states housing shortage in a smaller way, Liam Dillon and Andrew Khouri report. These bills want to make it easier for homeowners to add a secondary unit in their backyards or convert their garages to new housing, something that could make a big difference in cities with lots of existing barriers like Los Angeles.

For non-convention California headlines, keep an eye on our Essential Politics news feed.

WATCH THE CONVENTION WITH THE L.A. TIMES

Join me, Sacramento bureau chief John Myers and columnist Robin Abcarian at a free convention watch party on Thursday in downtown Los Angeles. The free event runs from 6 to 9 p.m. Pacific, and we will be playing bingo. RSVP here.

TODAYS ESSENTIALS

 Campaigning in Charlotte, N.C., Trump said Clinton is dangerous for veterans.

 Californias acting governor actually had serious business to attend to Tuesday.

 Who will win the November election? Give our Electoral College map a spin.

LOGISTICS

Miss yesterdays newsletter? Here you go. Did someone forward you this? Sign up here to get Essential Politics in your inbox daily. And keep an eye on our politics page throughout the day for the latest and greatest. And are you following us on Twitter at @latimespolitics?

Please send thoughts, concerns and news tips to politics@latimes.com.
Your mother told you early and often not to stick your finger up there. But scientists say they have reached into the human nose and picked out something really special  a potential new medicine to combat the dreaded MRSA bacteria.

If the authors of a new report have their way, teams of researchers will soon be hunting for new medicines in all kinds of other orifices of the human body, as well as deep inside the squishy confines of the gut.

Meanwhile, a team of German bacteriologists has found that the human nostril is home to a bacterium producing a compound capable of killing several variants of the disease-causing Staphylococcus aureus. Among the staph infections the newly discovered agent can vanquish: methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), the hospital acquired infection that kills more than 11,000 U.S. patients a year and sickens another 80,500.

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The nasal resident with such superpowers is called Staphylococcus lugdunensis. In a study published in the journal Nature on Wednesday, researchers said S. lugdunensis produces lugdunin, a new class of antibiotic that not only drives down the replication of S. aureus, but does not send S. aureus into a frenzy of effort aimed at resisting lugdunins antibiotic action.

It was totally unexpected to find a human-associated bacteria to produce an antibiotic.  Andreas Peschel, bacteriologist at the University of Tubingen

If borne out in further studies, those claims would make lugdunin a remarkable discovery. Its been nearly 30 years since scientists have found a new class of antibiotic. And within a few years of most new antibiotics introduction  often within mere months the disease-causing bacteria theyre meant to vanquish have begun to develop resistance.

When they applied lugdunin to the skin lesion of mice who had been infected with S. aureus, bacteriologists from the University of Tubingen observed dramatic reductions in the lesions colonization with the pathogen.

Some mice saw their lesions clear completely, and the scientists observed that lugdunin penetrated the most superficial layers of diseased tissue and acted on deeper layers to clear the infection.

Many questions remain, the authors acknowledged. Not least among them is whether lugdunin, or the Staphylococcus bacterium that produces it, could itself cause disease.

That said, the fact that the novel compound was being produced by bacteria living inside the human nose is a surprising development, and suggests a largely untapped landscape for antibiotic discovery efforts. Ever since penicillin was discovered in 1928, microbiologists have traditionally looked in the soil, where bacteria live and thrive in virtually limitless variety.

It was totally unexpected to find a human-associated bacteria to produce an antibiotic, said Andreas Peschel, a bacteriologist at the University of Tubingen in Germany and one of the Nature studys co-authors.

It makes perfect sense, actually. Many of the bacteria that make us sick are already present in our guts, mouths, noses or genitalia. One of the reasons they dont sicken us is because these tracts are vast breeding grounds for competing bacteria. In this survival-of-the fittest world, every trouble-making bacterium probably has a close neighbor busily plotting its downfall, or at least keeping it in check.

In a bid to speed the discovery of new antimicrobial medicines, the discoverers of Staphylococcus lugdunensis went knocking on those neighbors doors to see how they were doing that.

To find lugdunin, the authors of the new research plumbed the human nasal cavity for 90 different samples of Staphylococcus, including a variety of different species from that family. Then they tested each to see if it would inhibit the growth of S. aureus.

Noting that one-in-three humans is colonized by S. aureus bacteria, Peschel called the nose an ecosystem of, like, 50 different bacteria species. Individuals carry widely different constellations of those bacteria, and Peschel said that his teams study of this fecund microbiotic jungle is also leading to new insights about how disease-causing bacteria are kept in check in healthy people.

See the most-read stories in Science this hour 

Peschel also said there may be more antibiotic compounds to be discovered in there, and his team continues to explore other potential antibiotic compounds.

In a commentary published by Nature, Kim Lewis and Philip Strandwitz of Northeastern Universitys Antimicrobial Discovery Center lauded the effort to find unrecognized antibiotic compounds right under our nose.

Genetic studies suggest the human microbiome might be a rich source of disease-fighting medicines, they wrote, since many gene clusters have been found to encode enzymes linked to antibiotic production.

Only a few such antibiotics have been characterized in the laboratory, they wrote. The current study fills this gap.

While it may take years for lugdunin to be tested in humans, the University of Tubingen has filed for commercial rights to the discovery. While the team continues to hunt for new antibiotics compounds residing inside the human body, its members expressed hope that some drug company would support lugdunins development for the antibiotic market.

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Tashkent, Uzbekistan, July 27

By Demir Azizov Trend:

A meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Member States of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) will be held in Tashkent on October 18-19, Abdulaziz Kamilov, Uzbek foreign minister, said.

"The 43rd session of the OIC Council of Foreign Ministers will be held in Tashkent on October 18-19, 2016, Kamilov added. The Uzbek side is actively preparing for this important event to ensure its effectiveness and open new prospects of cooperation."

A decision on Uzbekistans chairmanship in the organization in 2016 was made at a meeting of the OIC Council of Foreign Ministers in Kuwait in May 2015.



"During its chairmanship, Uzbekistan will stand for strengthening the role of the OIC as an effective and authoritative forum of Muslim countries by focusing on strengthening the cultural and humanitarian potential of our organization," Kamilov added.

The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) was established in September of 1969 to ensure Islamic solidarity in social, economic and political spheres. The organization has 57 member states.

Uzbekistan became an OIC member in 1996.
Scientists say a tiny endangered fish found in lagoons and streams along the California coast belongs to two separate species.

The tidewater goby, a 2-inch translucent fish, survives in relatively isolated populations from Del Norte County down to San Diego. The fish spend most of their lives in the same puddles, rarely traveling far from where they spawned.

The southernmost groups, cut off from the north by the rocky headlands of Palos Verdes, show the distinctive genetic and physical characteristics of a new species, which is described by scientists from the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County and UCLA in a paper published Wednesday in PLOS One.

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The southern tidewater goby lives in only a few spots at Camp Pendleton, making the designation as its own species a critical one for its conservation, said David Jacobs, a biologist and geologist at UCLA who helped identify the species with the museums Camm Swift.

This [new] species is very, very highly endangered, Jacobs said. It can go away in the blink of an eye.

The tidewater gobys survival is linked to the existence of lagoons, which are threatened by coastal development and the ongoing drought, Jacobs said.

Its not a coincidence these things are now only on Pendleton, Jacobs said.

During the summer months, ocean-bound streams dry up and form lagoons and ponds along the coast. Its in these puddles that male gobies dig burrows in the sand, where theyll protect their eggs. Females put on colorful display rituals near the entrance of the burrows to compete for males.

By the time goby larvae grow, winter rains may open the ponds and lagoons to the sea. This sometimes allows the fish to find new streams along the coast.

But if the gobies do travel, its only for short distances  and if nothing blocks their way.

About a million years ago, however, the Palos Verdes cliffs rose from the sea and divided the tidewater gobies potential range in two. Since then, the groups have been left to evolve in isolation from one other.

See the most-read stories in Science this hour 

The fish that live north of Los Angeles County keep the original species name, Eucyclogobius newberryi.

The southern tidewater goby (Eucyclogobius kristinae) has fewer rays on their fins and more neuromasts  organs that allow fish to sense movement in the water. The researchers noticed the differences by examining 145 preserved specimens from the natural history museums collection.

The new species has been found in nine lagoons in northern San Diego County over the past 30 years. As of last winter, scientists could find the fish only at Camp Pendleton.

The southern tidewater gobys true historic range is difficult to measure, Jacobs said.

Tidewater gobies were first described as a species in the San Francisco Bay Area in 1856. By the time the fish were collected south of Los Angeles in 1939, the coastline had been reshaped by oil production. Swift and Jacobs infer the southern tidewater gobys historic range stretches as far north as San Pedro.

Swift, Jacobs and colleagues first suggested the northern and southern fishes belonged to two distinct species in a 2009 study that found significant genetic differences between the groups.

E. kristinae is named after the late Kristina Louie, who co-authored the genetic study of the southern tidewater goby as one of Jacobs doctoral students. Louie died in 2004 shortly after earning her PhD.

Last winter, Jacobs lab, along with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Camp Pendleton and the Santa Monica Pier and Birch aquariums, captured and temporarily housed gobies in case flooding from El Nino storms washed away their habitat.

Jacobs said his team is looking to reintroduce the southern tidewater goby in additional locations around their historic range.

With a little bit of effort and thought, the people of Orange and San Diego counties can coexist with this thing with very little effort, Jacobs said.

Follow me on Twitter seangreene89 and like Los Angeles Times Science on Facebook.

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Burbank police leaders were praised this month for implementing a series of reforms in recent years that one City Council member said averted the Burbank Police Department from federal oversight.

During a series of presentations during a recent joint meeting of the Burbank City Council and Police Commission, police officials pointed to several achievements reached since Burbank Police Chief Scott LaChasse took the helm six years ago, including a more detailed internal review of uses of force, a more accessible complaint procedure for the public and increased diversity on the police force.

Its clear to me that we avoided a consent decree six years ago, said Councilwoman Emily Gabel-Luddy, referring to a time when the agency was reeling from allegations of police brutality as well as racism and sexual harassment within its ranks.

The discussion came on the heels of a deadly attack in Dallas, Texas, that claimed the lives of five police officers, along with unrest nationwide that followed the fatal shootings of two black men amidst an ongoing national debate centered around police reform.

In Burbank, reform efforts included establishment of a critical-incident review board, made up of a group of top cops who meet monthly to evaluate uses of force and pursuits.

We review, we evaluate, we make recommendations, said Deputy Chief Mike Albanese. Its during that process where we try to identify if theres a training need, a training component, if theres an equipment need.

Also several years ago, the agency  which officials said is one of 15 in California accredited by the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies  hired the Office of Independent Review to evaluate and give feedback about force incidents, internal affairs investigations and bias policing cases.

When theres an officer-involved shooting, we get a call, and within a week or two, we get briefed on the preliminary information that has come out from the investigation, said the groups chief attorney, Mike Gennaco. This real-time involvement allows us to have more of an imprint in the decision-making process instead of an after-the-fact review when nothing can be done at that point but criticize.

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FOR THE RECORD

8:44 p.m.: An earlier version of this article misspelled the last name of Mike Gennaco, chief attorney of the Office of Independent Review.

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Officials have updated policies centered around uses of force, as well as vehicle and foot pursuits, though some in the agency feel the new policies are overly restrictive and convoluted.

Gennaco chalked that up to a yearning among veteran officers to retain the good old days, when police were expected to simply chase bad guys and take them to jail.

I dont see a way in which progressive policing can be responsive to the modern-day community and the expectations of our community by going back to the old way, he said. It is not a smart way of policing to chase at all costs.

Since 2009, the Burbank department has also increased hiring minority and women officers, together, by 26%, department statistics show.

That includes two more Latino officers, bringing the total to 35, four more black officers for a total of nine, three more Asian officers, raising the total to eight, two more Armenian officers, bringing the total to seven, and five more women, bringing the total to 18.

"[The number of Armenians] is a number were working very hard on, said Burbank Police Lt. Eric Deroian, who oversees recruiting. In a city where we have quite possibly up to 20% of the population Armenian, wed like to see those numbers increase.

As city and police officials begin drafting a new strategic plan, they reopened the debate about equipping officers with body cameras, a proposal the city nixed last year due to the steep price tag, as well as concerns about the still-developing technology.

I know theres a price tag attached to it, but its just direction we have to make the commitment to go, LaChasse said, noting that officers currently have audio recorders on their belts to capture interactions with the public. When we first got here, there were no types of recordation at all.

The department, however, is not without blemishes.

A recent police union-administered survey revealed that about 75% of the 118 sworn officers who participated felt that morale at the agency was low or extremely low.

Staffing shortages, fewer opportunities for job growth and a perception of bias in promotions and policy enforcement were contributing factors. According to the survey, one member called the department a depressing place to work, while another wrote that pretty much everyone dreads going to work.

The joint meeting was put on the books after a police commissioner sought the authority to investigate an email scandal involving the agencys former deputy chief Tom Angel, who forwarded emails from his work account in 2012 and 2013 that mocked Muslims, Latinos and others.

The Burbank Police Officers Assn. board of directors criticized the agencys response to the discovery of the emails, raising concerns that Angels emails werent properly investigated, as the offenses apparently were not reported to the management services director, nor to Gennaco.

At the meeting, the emails were only briefly mentioned, with LaChasse noting that a lieutenant recently met with representatives of the Burbank Islamic Center.

Gennacos team, which is expected to deliver an annual audit of the department in the coming weeks, is reviewing the incident.

--

Alene Tchekmedyian, alene.tchekmedyian@latimes.com

Twitter: @atchek
Burbank police seized roughly 12 pounds of marijuana early Friday morning during a traffic stop of a stolen vehicle, police said.

Shortly after 3 a.m., police were alerted by their automated license plate reader that a car on Hollywood Way and Magnolia Boulevard was stolen, according to Burbank Police Sgt. Claudio Losacco.

The passenger, Daniel Hawkins, 32, allegedly failed to return the rental car, which was due back on May 19. After unsuccessfully trying to reach him, the company on July 15 reported the car stolen to police in Redlands.

In the car, police reportedly found the drugs, which Hawkins said belonged to him, as well as a significant amount of cash, Losacco said.

The driver, a 30-year-old woman, was detained at the scene and released.

Hawkins was arrested on suspicion of vehicle theft and transportation of marijuana.

--

Alene Tchekmedyian, alene.tchekmedyian@latimes.com

Twitter: @atchek
Some of Burbank schools oldest phone systems, dating back to pre-millennial times, will be replaced with a new high-tech system, following the Burbank school boards approval Thursday night.

As the school district continues to update its technological infrastructure, staff recommended the board approve a $1.4-million phone system, one that will take crews about two years to install campus by campus.

Elementary schools such as Edison and Stevenson, whose phone systems date to the 1990s, will be among the first to make the switch.

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Instead of carrying calls over digital or analog phone lines, the new system will carry them over the Internet, so employees across the district will be able to pick up calls to their work lines remotely on their personal phones.

Teachers and staff can also conduct video calls.

But should an emergency restrict Internet access, each school will still have access to four analog phone lines, said Roberto Jurado, assistant director of information technology for Burbank Unified.

For other school-related emergencies, the new system comes with greater perks than the current one, Jurado said.

Should a teacher call 911, responders will determine from which classroom the call was made, instead of seeing only the schools address, which is the extent of location information the responders receive currently.

Its a very powerful system, and we think it would greatly benefit the district, Jurado said.

School board President Larry Applebaum asked that staff consider selling the current system, instead of sending parts off to be recycled through an e-waste program.

There is a very robust resale market, he said.

The $1.4 million will be paid for using a combination of the school districts general fund and its Measure S bond, and school officials expect about $500,000 in savings during the next decade, according to a district report.

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Kelly Corrigan, kelly.corrigan@latimes.com

Twitter: @kellymcorrigan
A 3-D printer in a UC Irvine research lab creates an object shaped like a key. With the machines every precise movement, a sound is made.

UCI researchers decided to record those sounds and found that by processing the acoustic signals alone, they could reprint the key nearly exactly.

The key is small, but the implication is huge, said Mohammad Al Faruque, director of UCIs Advanced Integrated Cyber-Physical Systems Lab. It means that valuable processing information can be lost to hackers who, for example, might capture audio from the printing process to make parts for cars and planes.

For a company, the prototyping stage is critical and you dont want that information to be leaked, said Sujit Rokka-Chhetri, a student on the research team. Because of that, its important to find these ways that information can be breached.

Since last summer, Al Faruque and a group of graduate students at UCI have studied 3-D printing and how the machines emanations can reveal sensitive information.

3-D printing systems produce objects using a source code, which contains information the printer can use to build the layers of the object.

Though strong encryption can protect the code from being stolen, in a 3-D printer, there are a lot of emissions in the form of sound and vibrations, Al Faruque said. The question was: Does all of this energy have a footprint, and by having that, can we access the system?

During its research, the team had a 3-D printer create a key out of polymer plastic.

An earlier attempt to make a 3-D printed key. (Kevin Chang / Daily Pilot)

The researchers used an audio recorder to capture the sounds of the printer as it shifted back and forth to make the object.

With sound, we can understand what direction the printer is moving and at what speed, Al Faruque said.

Using an information processing algorithm, the team was able to use only the sounds to produce the code needed to print almost the exact same key.

According to Al Faruque, a device as common as an iPhone could record the sounds made by a 3-D printer.

Though sounds can leak processing information, trying to build a silent printing system wouldnt be the smartest or most cost-efficient solution, the team believes.

An audio recorder notes sounds emitted by a basic 3-D printer in the Advanced Integrated Cyber-Physical Systems Lab at UC Irvine. At left are printed key shapes. (Kevin Chang / Daily Pilot)

The researchers plan to look into other ways information can be protected.

You could write the code in such a way where people would get confused if they tried to access it or make it so that the sound is disguised, Rokka-Chhetri said. Somehow, you can try to hide the information.

Al Faruque and Rokka-Chhetri will travel to Vienna, Austria, in April to present their teams findings at the International Conference on Cyber-Physical Systems, a gathering of professionals from engineering, mechanical and related disciplines.
Segerstrom Daniels to receive philanthropy award

Sandy Segerstrom Daniels of Newport Coast will be among Orange County honorees on National Philanthropy Day next month.

Daniels, founder of the Festival of Children and the Festival of Children Foundation, will receive the Legacy Award at the 30th annual National Philanthropy Day awards luncheon produced by the Orange County chapter of the Association of Fundraising Professionals on Nov. 19 at Hotel Irvine. Daniels also is managing partner of C.J. Segerstrom & Sons, which owns and operates South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa.

The annual monthlong Festival of Children showcases nonprofit organizations that serve children and families. In 2003, with the launch of the Festival of Children Foundation, Daniels was instrumental in September being designated as National Child Awareness Month.

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Newport Beach park to get new coral tree

A new coral tree will be planted Monday morning in Ensign View Park in Newport Beach, replacing a 70-year-old coral tree that the city removed last month after it split in half because of age and internal decay.

The new tree is expected to grow to nearly 20 feet tall. Arbor Real Estate donated $3,000 toward the purchase of the tree.

The planting ceremony will begin at 10:30 a.m. at the park, 2501 Cliff View Drive.

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Gathering Monday will review 2015 OC Fair

The OC Fair & Event Center in Costa Mesa will have an open house on Monday to discuss this past summers Orange County Fair.

The meeting will be held from 6:30 to 8 p.m. at the fairgrounds administration building, 88 Fair Drive.

Guests can give their thoughts about the new ambassador program, in which fair employees patrolled the College Park and Mesa del Mar neighborhoods to look for problems such as illegal parking and trash.

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Newport-Mesa to hold College & Career Night

The Newport-Mesa Unified School Districts annual College & Career Night on Wednesday will include more than 170 college booths and 34 career demonstrations.

The event will be held from 6:30 to 9 p.m. at the OC Fair & Event Center, 88 Fair Drive, Costa Mesa.

Admission and parking are free. Visitors are advised to enter Gate 4 off Arlington Drive.

The event is open only to Newport-Mesa students. For more information, call (714) 424-5004.

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Pacific Symphony receives Bank of America grant

The Pacific Symphony recently received a $40,000 grant from the Bank of America Charitable Foundation.

We are both honored and grateful to the Bank of America Charitable Foundation for recognizing Pacific Symphony with this grant, symphony President John Forsyte said in a statement. Service to the local community is a hallmark of our organization. Through our education and community engagement programs, we offer a rich array of outreach initiatives that provide learning and enrichment opportunities for local residents. These help to build a lifelong appreciation for music while welcoming new and diverse populations to symphonic music.

The symphony performs at the Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa and at Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre.

*

Newport man educates in Paraguay

Newport Coast resident Greg Duncan recently traveled to Paraguay to train thousands of people on success principles, according to a news release.

Duncan went to the South American country from Aug. 29 to Sept. 2 at the invitation of its president, Horacio Cartes, through a training initiative of the John Maxwell Leadership Foundation, founded by author and speaker John Maxwell.

Over the years, Greg has become a trusted friend who Ive seen add value to my life and so many others lives, Maxwell said in a statement. He is an extremely effective communicator with a remarkable track record of leading people, both one-on-one and in large group settings. Im grateful for the support and expertise he provides my entire team and the people we are reaching.

In a statement, Duncan said: Empower people, let them know that they have all that it takes to succeed and give them the tools that will enable them to pass on the same success DNA to others. Whats exciting about the opportunity in Paraguay is were talking about being able to impact an entire country.

 From staff reports
Its an issue that for years has caused headaches for homeowners along the Balboa Peninsula, but now a plan by the city of Newport Beach looks to be moving the challenge of beachfront encroachments toward a resolution.

Encroachments typically are grass or other plants but sometimes consist of walkways, patio furniture and yard adornments that in some cases extend up to 65 feet beyond the property line and onto the beach.

The City Council voted unanimously Tuesday night to approve a plan to allow 66 properties with beach encroachments between 1400 E. Ocean Front and the Wedge in the Peninsula Point community to keep those that are up to 15 feet onto the public right of way.

Encroachments past 15 feet would be removed in stages over a three-year period, city staff said.

The California Coastal Commission will have to sign off on the plan before any encroachments can be removed, said Newport Beach Community Development Director Kim Brandt.

The city would put up the money to remove encroachments past 15 feet and the homeowners would pay reimbursement. The total cost of the removal and maintenance is estimated at $210,000.

Its not clear how long many of the encroachments have been in place, but some estimate they have been around since at least the 1960s.

Jim McGee, a lawyer who represents Peninsula Point homeowners, said the residents strongly favor the citys plan.

We look forward to working with the city to seek Coastal Commission approval, he said. While its never easy to get Coastal Commission approval, we feel confident that a unified approach with the city and homeowners will enhance the outcome.

Encroachments along the beach came to the forefront in 2012 when the Coastal Commission issued notices of violation to 15 properties along East Ocean Front on Peninsula Point whose landscaping had crept onto the public beach in violation of the state Coastal Act.

An additional 43 properties were identified as having encroached on public property, but the commission agreed to hold off on sending violation notices to those owners after the city indicated it was working on a more comprehensive solution to the issue.

Under the plan, homeowners who want to keep their 15-foot encroachments would have to pay an annual fee that would help fund beach access improvements. The exact cost hasnt been determined, but it could range from $728 to $3,656 annually, depending on the depth of the encroachment, according to city staff.

Staff suggested the council wait to adopt a set fee for encroachments until the Coastal Commission has weighed in on the issue.

Encroachment fees could help pay for the Balboa Peninsula shuttle that is expected to be running next summer. The money also could be spent on improving the boardwalk transition at E Street to Ocean Boulevard, improving pedestrian and bicycle access in McFadden Square, additional parking on the peninsula, improving beach access for the disabled, safety improvements to the boardwalk or additional lifeguards on the beach, according to Brandt.

This is a range of menu options that could be considered by the City Council at a later date, Brandt said.
Vanguard University is reaching beyond seas and borders to work with partners in the Ministry of Higher Education in Iraq in hopes that the cross-continental collaboration will help increase the number of women in leadership roles at Iraqi universities.

As part of the project, six Iraqi scholars arrived last week at the private Christian university in Costa Mesa so Vanguards faculty and staff could share research and resources to help develop a working group in the Ministry of Higher Education consisting of males and females.

We have women as deans, but we do not have university presidents or chancellors [who are women], said Fouad Kasim Mohammad, the ministrys deputy for scientific research affairs. The most important thing for us is to gain access to the experience with women in higher education. Its a new area for us, and by cooperating with Vanguard we can hopefully gain some experience.

Sandra Morgan, director of Vanguards Global Center for Women and Justice, said: It is important that members of the working group represent Iraqi geographic, ethnic and religious diversity. As the project moves to the next level, it will foster building opportunities for professional and leadership development ... for women academics aspiring to serve as provosts, deans and presidents.

The collaboration began after Morgan participated in discussions last fall with IREX, a Washington D.C.-based international nonprofit, to secure a State Department grant to pursue the project.

Morgan is no stranger to the educational scene in Iraq, having visited the Kurdistan region in 2009 to speak at multiple conferences and universities as part of a womens rights delegation. She recently completed a British Council grant project with Iraqs University of Duhok to try to increase courses for womens studies.

Women are involved in higher education there, but they are underrepresented in leadership roles, Morgan said. My goal is to equip and empower these ... members of a sustainable working group. I get to be their guide and provide a safe place to practice skills and models for them and to see the outcomes for their community.

The Iraqi scholars  ministry representatives and faculty members from Iraqi universities  were welcomed with a reception Thursday afternoon at Vanguard attended by university, county and state dignitaries.

We want to make changes in the attitude toward women, Sahira Salman, a Ministry of Higher Education representative, said at the reception. There are certain things a leader should know. We want the right information and to know the experience here to transfer it to the universities in Iraq.

During their visit to Costa Mesa, which ends Saturday, the scholars are taking part in job shadowing with Vanguard educational leaders and discussions on embracing diversity in the academic field.

Before coming to the United States, they participated in twice-monthly professional development webinars led by Morgan, beginning in March. The next webinar is scheduled for late August.

Morgan said the team will leave Vanguard with a framework for planning the working groups growth and stability.

From a personal perspective, I have seen that theres an amazing chemistry when you get Orange County people and guests from around the world together, Morgan said. The preconceived ideas, stereotypes and bias just fall and it creates the opportunity to have a general dialogue, respect and an opportunity of building bridges for peace.
With its walls covered with punk-rock posters and reggae music blaring, Epic Taco Shop is like a typical spot in hip Echo Park or Silver Lake, but its actually been a part of Montrose since opening this month.

Owner Michael Ruiz, a local resident for more than a decade, said he wanted to try a different approach from the small-town vibe for which the community is known.

I personally wanted some other stuff, some younger energy, something maybe not as classic, he said.

There are tables and chairs, but grub can be ordered to go. Ruiz said he wanted the take-out element to set him apart from other Mexican eateries in the area, which are traditional sit-down restaurants.

It also has a much smaller menu; there are tacos and only tacos.

Right now, the focus is just on the few items that we have, so we can really stand behind everything, Ruiz said.

1 / 6 The carne asada taco, front, and a shredded beef taco from Epic Taco Shop, a new restaurant that opened Jan. 6 in Montrose. (Raul Roa / Staff Photographer) 2 / 6 The salmon poke taco at Epic Taco Shop in Montrose. The restaurant opened Jan. 6. (Raul Roa / Staff Photographer) 3 / 6 Epic Taco Shop in Montrose offers a trio of sauces, including their TNT salsa, the milder salsa verde and the salsa roja. (Raul Roa / Staff Photographer) 4 / 6 The spicy pork belly taco at Epic Taco Shop in Montrose. The restaurant opened Jan. 6. (Raul Roa / Staff Photographer) 5 / 6 Natalie Haggar of Epic Taco Shop displays shredded beef tacos, left, and carne asada tacos at the restaurant, which opened in Montrose on Jan. 6. (Raul Roa / Staff Photographer) 6 / 6 The shredded beef taco at Epic Taco Shop, which opened in Montrose on Jan. 6. (Raul Roa / Staff Photographer)

He describes his taco lineup as anything but traditional, with a blend of styles hailing from different parts of Southern California.

Popular choices, so far, include the pork belly carnitas and salmon poke taco. More traditional fare such as carne asada is also available, and everything can be ordered off a chalkboard hanging on a wall.

Ruizs personal favorite: the shredded beef and pickle taco.

Most people are shocked by the pickle, but it gives a little extra crunch and a nice little bit of acidity, he said.

Everything  including the traditional salsa roja and salsa verde as well as a specially-made TNT sauce for heat seekers  is prepped on-site by a four-person staff.

Melinda Clarke, executive director of the Montrose Chamber of Commerce, said the shopping park has been in need of a place for scoring street tacos, ones that have a no-holds-barred approach with creative ingredients.

Everybody has been waiting for tacos like [Ruiz] has. Were absolutely excited to have him in town, she said.

Ruiz is a classically trained chef who grew up in the restaurant business. His family ran the Mexican restaurant El Faro in Whittier for 35 years.

When not at Epic Taco Shop, hes an executive chef at Preux and Proper in downtown Los Angeles.

In addition to the posters on the walls, youngsters can contribute to the decorations by using in-store crayons to color on a picture of a Day of the Dead skull that can be hung on a wall.

For now, Epic Taco Shops hours are from noon to 8 p.m., Wednesday through Sunday.

Ruiz said he views his business as a concept thats trying to modernize Montrose.

I just want to give some other options, he said. "[Epic Taco Shop] is mostly takeout, so the idea was to have more [take-out options] in the neighborhood like us.

Epic Taco Shop is located at 3527 N. Verdugo Road.

--

Arin Mikailian, arin.mikailian@latimes.com

Twitter: @ArinMikailian
Glendale firefighters rescued two dehydrated hikers, one of which was taken to the hospital due to heatstroke, in Brand Park on Tuesday afternoon, officials said.

Shortly after 1:30 p.m., authorities responded to a report of a hiker who needed medical care, according to Glendale Fire spokeswoman Brandy Villanueva.

Police and fire officials were guided to the women, both in their 20s, by the police helicopter, after which firefighters hiked about 100 yards up a trail behind the Brand Library to find them.

Firefighters helped one hiker walk down the trail, while the other was carried down before she was taken to the hospital.

Glendale fire officials reminded hikers to bring water, a flashlight or headlamp, a light snack and a charged cell phone, and to stay on trails to avoid getting lost.

--

Alene Tchekmedyian, alene.tchekmedyian@latimes.com

Twitter: @atchek
Baku, Azerbaijan, July 27



By Khalid Kazimov  Trend:



Irans Guardian Council has dismissed media reports on the date of the next presidential elections in 2017.



Accoring to the council's message, Abbas Ali Kadkhodaei, the spokesman of the Guardian Council did not reveal any details about the next presidential elections in interviews, IRNA news agency reported.



Earlier today, several Iranian media outlets quoted Abbas Ali Kadkhodaei that the next round of presidential elections will be held on 19 May 2017.



Irans Guardian Council is a constitutional watchdog body and vets laws as well as election candidates.
Ruth Paugh Moore has lived on the same street in the Verdugo Woodlands nearly all of her life.

Her mother purchased a lot on the street while she was still a single woman. Then she married. She and her husband built a house and when their daughter was born, they brought her home to their house on that street.

But lets start over: Moores mother, Lulu Forbis, come out from Indiana and worked for Wells Fargo. Glendale was booming and F.P. Newport was opening up a new subdivision called Verdugo Woodlands. One day, in 1911, Forbis and a co-worker took the streetcar up to the Woodlands.

He had these picnics in Verdugo Park and then took people on a tour of the dirt streets, Moore said in a recent interview at her home. His office was at the north end of the park.

By the time Forbis returned home, she owned half an acre of land at a cost of $1,100.

In 1916, she married Fred Paugh, also from Indiana, and they built a wood-frame house on the lot.

They bought the lumber from Litchfield on a handshake. My dad had trained as a carpenter in his youth, Moore said.

Daughter Ruth was born four years later, in the Glendale Sanitarium, when it was at the beautiful old Victorian hotel on Broadway, Moore said.

She started kindergarten at Doran Street School, (later renamed R.D. White). In the middle of her second-grade year, Verdugo Woodlands Elementary opened. Now, she could walk to school.

The Woodlands neighborhood was so sparsely settled that there were no other children around, so she walked with a woman who worked for her mother. They crossed Colina Drive, where Newports office still stood, then crossed the Verdugo Wash on a wooden footbridge. She remembers winters so cold that there was frost all along the bridge railing.

When she was young, Moore said, there were only 16 houses between Verdugo Park and the new Oakmont Country Club, which opened in the early 1920s.

Each year, wild poppies bloomed all around their house and up the hill.

There was a golden carpet every spring, Moore said.

A neighbor often took young Moore for long walks. Newport had placed wooden park benches on a knoll just above Glorietta Avenue, and this spot became a frequent destination.

By the time she entered Wilson Intermediate, a school bus was picking up students on what was then called Canada Road. It was still a dirt road in those days, Moore added. The bus route went all the way up to Sunland and Tujunga.

She was a student at Wilson when the Verdugo Wash flooded on New Years Eve 1933 and took out several houses, leaving the dirt roads a torrent of mud.

I was at my aunt and uncles in Hollywood. The phone was out, Moore said.

My uncle had an Auburn (automobile) with a cloth top, she added. The next morning, her mother was out looking at the damage and saw an Auburn with a cloth top buried in the mud. She was terrified that they had tried to bring her home and had gotten stuck. As it turned out, Moore had stayed overnight and came home safely on New Years Day.

Moore attended Glendale Junior College and then moved out and went to work. Later, after she married Art Moore, they moved back. Now they live in a house next door to the one her mother and father built on that small street in the Verdugo Woodlands.

--

Readers Write:

An email from Marie Fish: Thank you for your article on Billys. I remember going there as a kid and seeing the owner move very quickly through the restaurant checking things out. My father cleaned the windows at the restaurant and liked the owner. It is a great loss for Glendale.

--

Email from Sue Curzon: Laurel Patric forwarded to me your excellent article on Christy Vasquez. I read with pleasure about Christys pivotal role in the founding of the Friends of the Glendale Public Library. Christy, the founding committee, and all the people subsequently who have made the Friends such a vibrant group are a testament to the exceptional contribution that private citizens can make to important public services  like our libraries. (Note: Sue Curzon was director of Glendale Libraries when Vasquez formed the Friends of the Glendale Public Library in 1990.)

--

KATHERINE YAMADA can be reached at katherineyamada@gmail.com or by mail at Verdugo Views, c/o News-Press, 202 W. First St., Los Angeles, CA 90012. Please include your name, address and phone number.
Three local men will officially become part of surfing history Friday when they are inducted into the Surfers Hall of Fame in Huntington Beach.

Ryan Turner, Shawn Stussy and Blaine Sumo Sato will leave their handprints and footprints in wet cement on historical Main Street during a ceremony starting at 9:30 a.m. in front of Huntington Surf & Sport.

Since 1997, the Surfers Hall of Fame has paid tribute to people who have made their mark on the surfing world, including Jack ONeill, Bob Hurley and Kelly Slater.

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We are extremely stoked and honored to induct these three Huntington surf legends, said Surfers Hall of Fame founder Aaron Pai in a news release, referring to Turner, Stussy and Sato.

Turner, whose family owns the Sugar Shack restaurant on Main Street, is one of 10 backside barrel riders in the world. He has competed in places like Australia, Hawaii, Mexico and Indonesia.

His brother, filmmaker Timmy Turner, was inducted into the Surfers Hall of Fame in 2014.

Pai described Turner as the best unknown surfer in the world and a low-key, big-wave charger, one of the greatest to come from our town of Huntington.

Stussy, founder of apparel brand Stussy Inc., began surfing in Huntington Beach in the late 1960s just as the sport was gaining recognition in music and movies, the release said. By 13, he began designing his own boards, eventually working for shaper Chuck Dent in Huntington Beach and Russell Surfboard in Newport Beach before launching his own clothing business in 1980.

Sato, a longtime surfer, founded H20 Community Church in the city with pro surfer Brad Ettinger and his family in 2011.

He said he often leads services at his home, a setting where people who are uncomfortable in a traditional church can feel comfortable, Diane Sato, the pastors wife, has been quoted as saying.

Sato also serves as the chaplain for the citys Marine Safety Division.
The Glendale Community College Welcome Faire for students attending the school in the fall semester will be held from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Aug. 26.

There will be workshops, student panels, student services booths, campus tours, free lunch, music, prizes and giveaways. Students will also be able to purchase their books, parking permits and student identification photos.

RSVP online at glendale.edu/welcomefaire. Check-in is in front of the auditorium.

The college is located at 1500 N. Verdugo Road.

Registration for the fall semester continues through Aug. 26. Open courses can be found at www.glendale.edu/schedules. The fall semester begins Aug. 29.

Questions about applying and registering can be answered on the colleges live chat. Click the Live Chat button found on the Glendale Community College homepage at glendale.edu.

For information about tuition-free, noncredit programs offered at the Garfield campus, go to glendale.edu/ce.

Open auditions for Elephants Graveyard

Open auditions for the Glendale Community Colleges fall production of George Brants Elephants Graveyard will be held at 7 p.m. on Wednesday and Thursday in the auditorium.

Those who plan to audition only need to pick one of the dates. Actors will read sides from the play. Those selected to perform in the production are required to take two theater arts courses. Stage managers and technical operators are also needed for the production.

Those interested in behind-the-scenes roles should call (818) 240-1000, Ext. 5635 or 3044. Crew members must enroll in a technical theater course.

Elephants Graveyard, will run Oct. 27 through Nov. 6. For additional information about the auditions or the theater arts department, go to glendale.edu/theatre or call (818) 240-1000, ext. 5618.

Auditions for the spring production of Anton Chekhovs The Cherry Orchard will be held in November.

Lip-reading course offered

A free lip-reading course is offered by Glendale Community Colleges Center for Students with Disabilities will begin on Aug. 29.

The class meets Mondays and Thursdays from 9:30 to 11 a.m. at the Glendale Adult Recreation Center, 201 E. Colorado St. through Dec. 5.

Registration can be done online at glendale.edu/apply. Students are encouraged to bring a copy of their latest audiogram to class.

The course is designed to improve communication skills for those who are hearing impaired by recognizing visible sounds on the lips. The anatomy of the ear and the hearing process will be discussed, and interpretation of an audiogram will be explained.

Speech therapist Stela Fejtek will be the instructor. She holds a masters degree in communicative disorders from California State University, Northridge. She is a learning disabilities specialist at the college with extensive experience in aural rehabilitation.

Additional information may be obtained by contacting the instructor at sfejtek@glendale.edu or calling (818) 240-1000, Ext. 5413.
Most days, Im ready to whine about how national brands are crowding out mom-and-pop operations and homogenizing the flavor of travel everywhere. Not today.

Today Im warning about unhomogenized hotels.

Why? Because in the last two months, Ive stayed at two Marriott properties that I expected to deliver matching experiences. They didnt.

Part 1 took place at the Marriott SpringHill Suites at Lake Buena Vista in Orlando, Fla., where my family and I spent several days in early July.

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SpringHill Suites, launched in 1998, is in Marriotts upper-moderate tier of lodgings -- fancier than a Fairfield Inn, plainer than a Renaissance Hotel.

All offer free WiFi and free hot breakfasts, and both of the hotels I visited had pools. There are more than 340 SpringHill Suites locations worldwide (most run by franchisees), with an additional 140-some in the pipeline.

But since our first destination was a SpringHill Suites in the kid-intensive heart of Floridas theme park belt, in the heat of early summer, we expected that the experience would be more basic than fancy.

When we arrived and found the nearest restaurant across the street (not on-site), we werent surprised. I was struck by the basic nature of the lobby, which was all tiled floors and kid-proof furniture. The entry halls echoed like public restrooms, and every time I turned a corner, I half-expected to find a urinal waiting. (Here and there, I also caught the scent of tobacco  not uncommon in mass-market hotels with large numbers of international guests.)

Upstairs, there were no rooms with two queen beds (only with two double beds), so we settled for one king bed and a fold-out sofa  which seemed to fill most of the floor space in our suite. (Later, I called Marriott and learned that the hotel was built in 2005 and that the room was 355 square feet.)

To reach the bathroom from the front door, you had to follow a narrow, zigzag path around the furniture. There was a fridge, happily, and all the mechanical stuff worked, but even allowing for the fold-out couch, the shape of the room and its features felt awkward, as if poorly translated from the language of Business Travel to that of Family Vacation.

But none of these elements was a shock, because we didnt expect any better. We had booked in as a part of a big block of rooms, and we had an average nightly rate of $139, which seemed reasonable in a theme park neighborhood during summer vacation.

Three weeks later, we arrived at the Marriott SpringHill Suites in Atascadero (opened 2015), in the Paso Robles wine country of San Luis Obispo County.

The location was exactly right for us, and the areas hotels were getting ready to jack up prices for the annual California Mid State Fair, so we figured wed accept a meh hotel as a necessary part of the trip. We paid $179 per night, and I braced myself for more public-restroom lobby acoustics.

Then we arrived and the angels sang. Clever landscaping. Stylish lobby. Restaurant on-site. I later learned that our guest room was 345 square feet  slightly smaller than the Orlando room  but it had space for two queen beds, an ingenious desk set-up and a pleasing, sensible arrangement of bathroom and closet with frosted glass doors and separate spaces and sinks for the toilet and shower.

This room resembled our Florida room the way moonlight resembles the bulb in the back of your refrigerator.

Why? Marriott spokeswoman Lindsey Pfrommer says the key is the 10-year age difference between the properties. As a brand, SpringHill Suites properties undergo renovations a maximum of every 12 years, Pfrommer wrote me in an email. The Orlando property, she added, will likely undergo a big renovation in the next year or so.

As for the SpringHill brand as a whole, Pfrommer reports, the company aims for amenities and services to match up across all properties, but customer feedback leads to changes over time. For instance, she said, older SpringHill Suites properties dont have bars, but going forward, every new one, and every major renovation, will feature a bar. (Given the revenue bars can generate, Im surprised that didnt happen sooner.)

By the way, I understand that absolute uniformity is impossible. In fact, in late May, I stumbled into a similar situation with Aloft hotels (which occupy roughly the same spot in the Starwood brand-family pecking order that SpringHIll occupies in Marriotts).

One Aloft was in downtown Manhattan, near Wall Street (opened in 2015). The other was uptown at 124th Street in Harlem, opened in 2010. The bedrooms were largely interchangeable, and the staff was helpful in both locations.

But the lobby in Harlem was bigger and more welcoming, with a pool table and a long counter where business people could hang out with their laptops.

On paper, these hotels were interchangeable (and that week, both were priced between $250 and $260). But in person, Harlem suited me far better.

So, fellow travelers, even when you think youre lining up a night without surprises, you cannot rest. Even if the name is the same, plenty of variables remain. Scour the website, and ask questions  and you may want to ask them of the hotel front desk, rather than a centralized reservations agent in some other city.

The good news for me, with both Marriott and Starwood, is that I happened to visit the superior hotels second, not first. But for every traveler who gets happily surprised like me, theres another one getting let down.

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The Transportation Security Administration will tell you: If you want a better security check experience at the airport, join the agencys Precheck program. Starting Tuesday, a pop-up office at the Los Angeles Airport Marriott hotel will help process folks who enroll in the program thats designed to get you through security lines more quickly.

Th enrollment center will be open for five days  from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday, and 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday through Saturday. (Saturday is the last day it will be open.)

But you cant walk in and expect to get an appointment. To get started, fill out an online application and schedule an appointment at the hotel at 5855 W. Century Blvd., Los Angeles. It costs $85 to join Precheck.

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The temporary center will allow folks to book more than 1,000 appointments during its short run, according to a release from IdentoGO, a company contracted by TSA to process Precheck applicants.

Of course, you can always set up appointments at offices in Terminals 1 and 6 at Los Angeles International Airport and at other locations around Southern California. To find a processing center near you, go to the TSAs Find an Enrollment Center website and enter your ZIP Code.

The Precheck program allows air travelers going through security checkpoints to leave their belts and shoes on, and leave laptops and liquids in their carry-on bags.

Temporary centers are opening around the country to keep up with demand, according to the IdentoGO statement.

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TSA and American Airlines to launch new checkpoints to cut wait times up to 30%

Some tips to help TSA avoid confusion in the PreCheck line
As other Tokyo office workers poured into restaurants and bars at quitting time one recent evening, Kohei Matsushita went to the eighth floor of a high-rise for an unusual after-hours activity: learning how to assemble his own Geiger counter from a kit.

Hunched over a circuit board, the 37-year-old practiced his soldering technique as Joe Moross, a former L.A. resident with a background in radiation detection, explained how to fit together about $500 worth of components  including a sensor, circuit board, digital display, GPS module, battery and case.



For the record: An earlier version and a correction of this article gave the wrong location for an eco-farm retreat in regard to the Fukushima nuclear power plant. The retreat, in Iitate, is about 20 miles northwest of the power plant.

My family has a house near a nuclear power plant, Matsushita said, explaining his motivation. I want to take this there and collect data, and contribute to this pool of information.

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This pool is a stunning set of data  50 million readings and counting, all logged and mapped on a website anyone can see  collected by volunteers with self-built equipment. Known as Safecast, the group was founded just days after the massive earthquake, tsunami and nuclear meltdown that shocked Japan in March 2011.

Though the immediate threat of radiation from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant has waned, interest in Safecasts data has not. The organization, which takes no position on nuclear power, is supported by foundations, grants and individual donations.

 Volunteers from Safecast teach people how to build geiger counters that are networked together to give them access to realtime data about radiation levels remaining after the 2011 Fukushima nuclear power plant melted down as a result of an earthquak

Part of the growing movement known as citizen science, the idea is to give people the knowledge and the tools to better understand their environment, and make more informed decisions based on accurate information.

Trust in both nuclear power plant operators and the government has not fully recovered since the disaster. As authorities push ahead with the contentious process of restarting dozens of nuclear reactors taken off-line in wake of the disaster, Japanese like Matsushita say a network of monitors controlled by ordinary people could serve as an early warning system in the event of another disaster.

Meanwhile, as Prime Minister Shinzo Abes administration continues with its extensive effort to decontaminate areas around Fukushima Daiichi and reopen evacuated towns and villages, potential returnees say they want a way to verify official numbers that indicate radiation really has dropped to safe levels.

They want people to come back, but theres no decontamination in the forest areas and those cover 75% of this village, says retired engineer Nobuyoshi Ito, 72, who in 2010 opened an eco-farm retreat in Iitate, about 20 miles northwest of the nuclear power plant. Recently, he had Safecast install a radiation monitor at the retreat, which is still in a restricted zone. We have to check ourselves.

++

Joe Moross straps a GPS-enabled Geiger counter the size of a small brick to the back window of his red station wagon on the outskirts of Tokyo and begins a 16-hour day driving north through the most contaminated areas around the Fukushima nuclear plant. In the last five years, he calculates hes driven 90,000 miles gathering data for Safecast.

Joe Moross has driven 90,000 miles gathering data for Safecast. A Geiger counter equipped with a GPS module hangs from the back window of his station wagon. (Julie Makinen / Los Angeles Times )

Through a Bluetooth connection, he can monitor the Geiger counters readings on his cellphone as he goes. But he also keeps a mental log of more qualitative signs of the regions transformation.

That 7-Eleven reopened in 2014, he notes as he nears the town of Tomioka. That Family Mart came back in 2015. In the town of Naraha, he gasps. Thats the first rice growing in the fields here in five years!

Along the way, he passes several dozen fixed-point radiation monitors installed by the government along the roadsides. Their solar-powered, digital displays provide readouts in microsieverts per hour (Sv/hr); todays show relatively low readings from 0.1 to 3.8 between the towns of Hirono and Minamisoma. That is less than what one would be exposed to on a long flight, although that exposure lasts only as long as the flight.

A roadside sign installed by the Japanese government south of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant displays radiation readings. (Julie Makinen / Los Angeles Times )

Moross much more granular, mobile data, recorded every five seconds and uploaded to the Web the next day, generally matches the government signs, though when passing near the Fukushima plant, Moross counter produces readings above 4 Sv/hr. (Not long after the disaster, Safecast found readings higher than 30 in the region).

In the town of Iwaki, Moross drops in on Brett Waterman, a 51-year-old Australian whos been teaching English in the area for 11 years and was having some technical issues with a Safecast monitor.

Like most people, I knew nothing about radiation when the disaster hit, says Waterman, who acquired an early Safecast Geiger counter through Kickstarter and has since upgraded to more sophisticated models as the group has refined its designs. Waterman says the data indicate Iwaki is now safe, but its important to keep generating frequent readings to provide a reference of whats normal in case circumstances change.

Safecast holds regular sessions for adults to teach them to assemble their own devices and is planning a kids workshop as well. Plans and directions for building the devices are also available online for free. Organizers say that people who build their own monitors are much more motivated to use them.

If they just buy one, they may use it once, throw it in a drawer and never upload any data, says Moross. If they make it themselves, theyre more invested.

++

Safecasts tiny Tokyo office feels like a combination tech start-up, old-school shop class, and comedy club for middle-aged expats. As Moross inspects Matsushitas soldering progress, English teacher Jonathan Wilder, 59, is busy gathering switches, resistors, batteries, and sensors and parceling them out into plastic bags that will become kits for Safecasts current workhorse Geiger counter, known as the bGeigie Nano.

Moross and Wilder trade jokes as Azby Brown, 60, an expert on traditional Japanese architecture, sits at another table typing up news for the groups blog; he has just led Safecasts efforts to publish its first scientific paper, in the Journal of Radiological Protection. Pieter Franken, a Dutch expatriate and chief technology officer for a large securities firm, looks over some materials for the groups upcoming kids workshop.

Safecast is an interesting social experiment, in a fairly anarchistic kind of way, says Franken, one of the groups founders. It taps into trends including maker-spaces, the Internet of things and even artists. We attract people who want to break out of the traditional way of solving problems.

Safecast grew out of an email conversation among Franken, L.A.-based tech entrepreneur Sean Bonner and MIT Media Lab director Joichi Joi Ito immediately after the March 11, 2011, disaster. As the Fukushima crisis unfolded, Safecasts effort to produce and distribute Geiger counters and collect data snowballed, drawing in more expertise and volunteers. The group has successively iterated smaller and smaller Geiger counters with more functionality for data collection.

In the last five years, Safecast volunteers have taken radiation readings all over the world, from Brisbane, Australia, to Santa Monica. The group is also working on monitoring air quality in Los Angeles and elsewhere; recently, volunteers took methane readings around Porter Ranch during the gas leak there. Now, Safecast is trying to figure out how to depict that kind of data meaningfully online.

Moross says the potential applications for citizen-based environmental monitoring are vast, pointing to incidents such as the recent scandal over the lead-tainted water supply in Flint, Mich., as an example of where deeper community-based scientific knowledge could have improved debate and policymaking.

Flint and Fukushima have parallels, says Moross. Democracy should start from facts, and we need to give citizens facts to understand whats happening.

Safecast has taken heat from both pro- and anti-nuclear activists, Brown says. But if people spend some time with us, they find we are valuable. Even Japans postal service has cooperated with Safecast, putting its monitors on carriers motorbikes in some towns and gathering data.

Safecasts goal now is, essentially, base-lining the world, says Franken, crowdsourcing environmental data from every corner of the Earth.

We should start with measuring our environments, he says. Then we can talk about things like global warming and air pollution; from there, activism can start. Once you know, for example, that your street is polluted, you can start to make a change. Thats where we can make a difference.

julie.makinen@latimes.com

Follow me on Twitter @JulieMakLAT.
Investing in female entrepreneurs is not just about checking off a box on gender equality. It is about facilitating significant global economic gains by investing in an underserved and underrepresented talent pool.

Womens participation in the global economy is fundamental to sustained economic growth, and men need to lend more support  and capital  to achieve this future. This is particularly apparent in many emerging markets, where the economic empowerment of women remains a concept, rather than a reality.

The only thing harder than being an entrepreneur is being a female entrepreneur. Despite all the blood, sweat and tears that founders pour into their start-ups, statistics indicate that female entrepreneurs still start their companies with 50% less capital than their male counterparts.

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This needs to change, not only because gender parity is essential, but because whats good for female entrepreneurs is good for the global economy.

A recent Boston Consulting Group report shows women control about $39.6 trillion (about 30%) of the worlds wealth, and by 2020, they have the potential to control over $72 trillion globally.

Susan Feldman, right, chief executive of One Kings Lane, hosts a gathering in April 2013 at her Hollywood home for female start-up founders and venture capitalists. (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times )

This trend depicts a clear picture: The appetite and justification is there for women to gain more financial and economic power. We just need to mirror that change within the small- and medium-enterprise sector by encouraging business leaders to capitalize on the potential of female entrepreneurs around the world.

For many women in business, the future remains grim. Although women continue to lead the way in launching start-ups, those in the United States receive only about 7% of venture capital funding, 5% of federal contracts and 5% of conventional loans. This pattern is indicative of a much larger global issue: Female entrepreneurs are marginalized.

If we deny women the opportunity to fulfill their economic potential  meaning we exclude half the worlds population  the global economy will continue to suffer. It is vital to foster supportive ecosystems that embrace and capitalize on the economic potential of women. Both men and women are essential to cultivating this environment.

Men for women entrepreneurs

Mara Foundation, a pan-African social enterprise set up to support young and ambitious entrepreneurs in Africa, was born out of my own experience of starting a business at age 15.

Over the years, we have made great strides in developing the next generation of entrepreneurs and business leaders.

Because I was fortunate enough to have strong female role models in my life (my mother and two sisters), I am acutely aware of the positive impact women can have on communities. Consequently, Mara Women, a subset of the Mara Foundation, aims to provide advocacy and mentorship to female entrepreneurs on the African continent.

Since 2014, the Mara Foundation has partnered with U.N. Women to support strong female role models, believing that when women hold leadership roles in organizations, they can make significant contributions to economic growth and pave a path for the next generation of female leaders and mentors.

The Mara Foundation also has launched a mentorship platform, Mara Mentor, that seeks to facilitate relationships between entrepreneurs and business leaders.

Integrating these two platforms assists entrepreneurs globally in connecting with leaders from many fields, including policymakers, investors and social change-makers. Female entrepreneurs now have a virtual home where they are able to convene and develop the tools to overcome the challenges of gender inequality.

Female leaders investing in female entrepreneurs

In addition to mens support, female entrepreneurs need the guidance of other female leaders.

One of the major reasons female entrepreneurs receive significantly less funding from male-led ventures is because of bias. Most venture capitalists are men, and because of approachability and commonalities, they find it easier to invest in other men.

The simple way to rectify this issue is by encouraging women to position themselves on the funding side of the equation.

However, to increase the number of female investors, those women must mentor the next generation. By increasing the visibility of women in leadership positions, other women can be inspired to take bold steps toward sustaining meaningful change within the private and public sectors.

The advice and support that mentors provide budding entrepreneurs is invaluable.

For instance, Randi Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Zuckerberg Media and editor-in-chief of Dot Complicated, is one of the original Mara Mentors and is acutely aware of the power of mentorship. If you are a woman, help foster the talents of other women so that eventually those barriers will be so broken, they no longer exist, she says.

Mobilizing strong female role models is critical to ensuring we establish a new generation of female entrepreneurs.

Future impact of female entrepreneurs

We all have a responsibility to support female entrepreneurs  whether its through advocating for gender equality in the workplace, or using our own purchasing power to support female-owned businesses. What is beneficial to female entrepreneurs is beneficial to the global economy.

As Margaret Thatcher once said, If you want anything said, ask a man; if you want anything done, ask a woman.

Ashish J. Thakkar is chairman of the U.N. Foundation Global Entrepreneurs Council and founder of Mara Group and Mara Foundation, a social enterprise set up to support young entrepreneurs in Africa. He is the author of The Lion Awakes: Adventures in Africas Economic Miracle.
All material is subject to strictly enforced copyright terms & conditions and cannot be repurposed or reproduced.  19882022 Latin American Financial Publications Inc.
Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine beamed from ear-to-ear, hands folded as he awaited his introduction to some 5,000 Floridians last Saturday.

This would be Kaine's debut to a world outside Virginia, where the affable Democratic vice presidential nominee ascended from city councilman to mayor to moderate governor to one of the state's sitting senators. Party presidential nominee Hillary Clinton hand-picked Kaine for his sway in the battleground state, and because his bilingualism may track well with an ever-growing Latino population.

"Bienvenidos a todos en nuestro pais, proque somos Americans todos," Kaine told the pro-Hillary crowd gathered at predominately Hispanic Florida International University. It translates to "Welcome to everyone in our country, because we are all American." Kaine went on to convey three of his values: "Fe, familia, y trabajo," which means "Faith, family, and work."

Lawmakers consider Kaine boring; a humdrum selection without Bernie Sanders' devout following or Elizabeth Warren's progressive agenda. Those outside the Old Dominion State may only recognize Kaine for his composure following the 2007 Virginia Tech massacre, which was the country's biggest mass shooting up until then.

Still, there is a lot for Latinos to like about Kaine, aside from the expert harmonica skills he will reportedly show off along the campaign trail.

He governs a state with just over one percent of the United States' Latino population, but advocates for a pathway for citizenship for the 11 million undocumented individuals. Kaine previously said comprehensive immigration reform would include a fine and stricter border security, thought it may change under a Clinton presidency.

Here's a look at three ways Kaine has already embraced the Latino community.

Volunteering In Honduras

Kaine became a fluent Spanish-speaker following a missionary trip to Honduras in the early 1980s. Then a Harvard Law School student, he took a break from academics to volunteer with the Jesuit Volunteer Corps which aided poor communities across Central America.

He later recalled how the trip opened his eyes to Latin America's overwhelming poverty, and how it shaped his humanitarian beliefs.

"When I look back at times when I thought I was really on top of things I see how naive I've been many times, placing stock in things that strike me as very unimportant now," Kaine told The Virginian-Pilot.

A Spanish-Language Speech to the Senate

In 2013, Kaine became the first senator ever to give a full congressional speech entirely in Spanish. The 13-minute speech was in support of the bipartisan "Gang of Eight" bill that would have provided permanent residence to undocumented immigrants, among other pro-immigration reform measures.

"I think it is appropriate that I spend a few minutes explaining the bill in Spanish, a language that has been spoken in this country since Spanish missionaries founded St. Augustine, Florida in 1565," Kaine told the Senate. "Spanish is also spoken by almost 40 million Americans who have a lot at stake in the outcome of this debate."

Listening to Virginia's Latinos

While Clinton and the Republican ticket of Donald Trump and Mike Pence talk about reaching out to Latinos, only Kaine made it a priority well before the 2016 presidential race.

In 2006, Kaine appointed Latino activist Walter Tejada to head Virginia's Urban Policy Task Force aimed at identifying challenges minorities faced. This may pay off in the general election when approximately 290,000 Virginia Latinos adults are eligible to vote, along with 13 million others across the country.
Two members of an armed group, which has earlier seized the police building in Yerevan, surrendered after a gunfight with police, head of Information and Public Relations of the Police of Armenia Ashot Aharonian said Wednesday.

"Two members of the armed group which seized the police building in Yerevan Gagik Egiazaryan and Aram Akopyan have surrendered to police," Aharonian posted in his official Facebook account adding that there was a gunfight in the building and "as a result [of a gunfight] a police officer and Pavel Manukyan and his son Aram [both members of the armed group] were wounded."

All three have been transferred to the hospital. The gunfight is now over and the complete surrender negotiations continue.

On July 17, an armed group took several police officers hostage at a police station in the Erebuni district of Yerevan, demanding the release of Jirair Sefilian, an opposition politician and founder of the New Armenia Public Salvation Front.
More than 240 hours have passed since the incident in Yerevans Khorentasi street, where the armed group has seized the Armenian police regiment. However, yesterday evening and at night heated incidents took place there, news.am reported.

The police had issued a statement warning the protestors to change the place of their rally from Khorentasi street. However, the rally took place there. Alec Yenikomshian, Heritage Party Leader Raffi Hovannisian, President of the Union for National Self-Determination (UNSD), songwriter Ruben Hakhverdyan, political analyst Andrias ghukasyan, Heritage Party member Savit Sansaryan, Hayazn Party representative Armen Hovhannisyan and Gyumris Aparez Journalists Club President Levon Barseghyan spoke at the rally. Afterwards the protestors gathered in Khorentsi street launched a march along Yerevan streets to the police and National Security Service buildings.

The number of the police was unprecedentedly large in the street. Later spokesperson for the police, Ashot Aharonyan, wrote on his Facebook page that a shootout had taken place, as a result of which a law enforcement officer, as well as the Sasna Tsrer armed group members Pavel Manukyan and his son Aram were wounded. All three have been hospitalized.

The shootout has stopped at the moment; negotiations are underway for completing the process of the surrender of the armed group members, Aharonyan wrote.

For its part, Sansa Tsrer armed group announced that the police attacked the territory of the regiment; Pavel Manukyan, Aram Manukyan, Gevorg Iritsyan and probably other members of the group have been wounded. The police have taken Pavel, Aram, Gagik Yeghiazaryan and one more member of the group.

At night the police detained numerous citizens in Khorenatsi street. Gyumris Asparez Journalists Club President Levon Barseghyan is among them. The task force police officers have torn away the poster installed in the street, which required Serzh Sargsyans resignation.

Later Yerevans Erebuni hospital representatives informed that Pavel Manukyan and his son have been operated on. Their condition is critical, their life being endangered.
Baku. Azerbaijan. July 27

By Elena Kosolapova- Trend:

The U.S. Embassy in Yerevan informs U.S. citizens that various social media outlets are calling for daily protests for the foreseeable future in Yerevan at or around Freedom Square and in the Erebuni District beginning in the evenings. These protests are in response to the armed attack on the Armenian Police Yerevan City Patrol Regiment Building and subsequent release of hostages.

Additional protests should be expected for the foreseeable future in the following locations in Yerevan: Freedom Square, Republic Square, Mashtots Ave, Amiryan Street, Northern Ave, and Khorenatsi Street. Expect a heavy police presence throughout the country in response to any protests. Roads and any surrounding areas will likely be congested. Recent protests have seen more than 3,000 people.

"Even demonstrations intended to be peaceful can turn confrontational and escalate into violence. You should avoid areas of demonstrations, and exercise caution if in the vicinity of any large gatherings, protests, or demonstrations"- said embassy in a message.
Baku, Azerbaijan, July 27



Trend:



The doctors who were requested by the gunmen to assist the wounded in the headquarters of the police and in Yerevan, were taken hostage, an official representative of the Armenian police said, TASS reported July 27.



Currently, the law enforcement officers are taking measures to release the doctors through negotiations," the representative said.



The 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 opposition Armenian civil initiative Founding Parliament Zhirayr Sefilyan.
A driver lost control just after 7 a.m. Tuesday on Interstate 78 East in Allentown and slammed into a barrier in the center median, debris from his minivan damaging an SUV, Pennsylvania State Police report.

A Pennsylvania State Police car protects traffic from a damaged Jersey barrier after a crash just after 7 a.m. Tuesday on Interstate 78 in Allentown. (PennDOT traffic camera)

Said Awadallah, 30, of Coplay, was in a 2004 Chevrolet Venture in the center lane near Lehigh Street when he crossed into the left lane, then the fog line before hitting the concrete barrier, police said.

Flying debris from the crash struck a 2013 Nissan Rogue driven in the center lane by Miranda A. Futrell, 52, of Macungie, police said.

Awadallah was taken by Cetronia Ambulance to Lehigh Valley Hospital in Salisbury Township, police said. Futrell was not hurt, police said.

A patient logistics employee on Wednesday morning at the hospital wouldn't provide Awadallah's medical condition, only saying he was stable.

Awadallah will be cited with failing to stay in his lane, police said.

Tony Rhodin may be reached at arhodin@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @TonyRhodin. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
Running a power line over someone's yard -- something known as back-lot construction -- isn't necessarily the most effective way to get electricity to customers, a Met-Ed spokesman said Wednesday.

A Williams Township man, Thomas Poynton Jr., and one of his dogs were killed Tuesday morning when a suspended high-voltage line came down in his backyard, apparently charging the ground and electrocuting them, authorities have said.

Tom Poynton Jr., 32, was a Wilson Area High School graduate and taught in the Palisades School District. (Courtesy photo | For lehighvalleylive.com)

Northampton County Coroner Zachary Lysek is expecting to announce the official cause and manner of Poynton's death Thursday. Pennsylvania State Police at Belfast, who are investigating with Lysek and the Williams Township Fire Department, had nothing new to release Wednesday morning, a trooper said.

Met-Ed spokesman Scott Surgeoner also said there was nothing new to provide on the company's probe into the fatality, which happened on Poynton's property next to a Met-Ed substation.

But Surgeoner spoke in some detail about the dangers posed by downed wires.

While running lines over neighborhood backyards is not uncommon, it's not necessarily the best way to transmit electricity, Surgeoner said.

"It's much simpler along the street," he said.

With back-lot work, crews often must abandon their bucket trucks on the street and do more work by hand, including climbing the poles, he said.

There were wires running along the street and through the backyard at Poynton's home at 250 Royal Manor Road. The electric wire fell in the backyard -- officials still aren't sure why -- but Poynton wasn't near it when he was killed, officials said.

That's not a surprise, Surgeoner said. Electricity always wants to go to the ground, he said. It's why ground rods are buried when a home's service is added, he said.

When you add potentially soggy soil from Monday's torrential storms, it creates a situation where the ground can become "charged" with electricity, officials said.

"Water and electricity are not a good mix," Surgeoner said.

"When it falls and it's still energized, all the electricity is trying to run to ground," he said of the wire.

A radius around the wire "does have current running through it," he said. "It's our key message: Stay away from downed wires."

But what that message really means is don't go anywhere near the wire, because the ground can kill you.

"You never know how far that electricity" extends, he said.

It's similar if a wire falls on a metal guardrail during a crash, Surgeoner said. That safety device is constructed in a similar manner to a power line, he added. It can carry current for miles.

"Highly trained and highly skilled" Met-Ed crews carry instruments that can determine the current in the ground, Surgeoner said. On Tuesday, such a ruling kept firefighters from attacking a fire sparked in Poynton's home. Firefighters were initially held back to avoid any other injuries.

"Our guys determined a safe distance," Surgeoner said.

Once the breakers were opened at the adjacent substation, the electricity would have dissipated in seconds, Surgeoner said. But up to that point, the wire was live with 34.5 kilovolts of electricity, far more than enters a home from a transformer on a pole, because it was still directly connected to the substation, Surgeoner said.

Power was cut to 1,400 people, he said. The lights were back in about two hours for half the customers as power was rerouted from other facilities, he said. The rest were back by 2:30 p.m. when the substation came back on line, he said.

Met-Ed crews recovered the line from the ground behind the ranch-style home where Poynton lived with his wife and 2-year-old daughter. They decided what part was good and what part wasn't, replaced the damaged part and put it back up, Surgeroner said.

"Today it's carrying electricity," he said.

He wouldn't comment when asked if the company would eventually remove the line. He said it was "far too early" to make such a determination.

The power company is offering its assistance to investigators; at one point Tuesday, a company bucket truck lifted Lysek up to where the wire connects to the substation so he could inspect it. Lysek said it was part of a thorough investigation.

"We were glad to help him," Surgeoner said.

When asked about any potential lawsuit against Met-Ed, Surgeoner offered this:

"This is a very tragic event," he said. "Our thoughts and prayers are with the family and friends. We continue to investigate."

Tony Rhodin may be reached at arhodin@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @TonyRhodin. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
A Lehigh County attorney awaiting trial for allegedly trying to run down a neighbor with his car tried the same crime with the same victim on Tuesday night, according to police.

Robert Creem, 69, of the 1500 block of Alta Drive in Whitehall Township, has been free on bail in the May 31 incident at his condo complex.

At a bail hearing on Tuesday in Lehigh County Court, the victim testified about Creem returning to the Whitehall Estates complex since his arrest even though he was ordered to stay away, police said.

Just hours after that hearing, Creem not only returned to the complex again, but he tried to run down the same victim again, according to Whitehall Township police.

Creem sped up to about 60 mph in the parking lot and tried to run down neighbor Dale Stickel, leading Stickel to jump out of the way, police said. A witness corroborated the account, police said.

Creem reportedly stopped his car and told Stickel, "You're dead. I'm putting a contract on your head," before fleeing.

As of Wednesday afternoon, Creem was not yet in police custody. Whitehall Township police filed new charges against Creem stemming from Tuesday's incident: two counts of aggravated assault, as well as single counts of retaliation against a witness, reckless endangerment, making terroristic threats and simple assault.

The police department refused to comment on the newest case.

"My client is fairly ill and is at a local hospital for observation," defense attorney David Vaida said Wednesday afternoon.

Vaida said he was aware of the new charges, but had not yet seen the affidavit.

Police said on May 31, Creem was driving through the parking lot when he tried to run down Stickel, as Stickel was walking a neighbor's cat in a grassy area. After missing Stickel once, Creem turned around and tried to run him down again, according to police.

Creem then drove off, but was later found by police and arrested.

At a hearing in June, Vaida said Creem planned to stay with his brother in Connecticut if he was released, and would have no contact with the victim.

Witnesses testified on Tuesday that Creem has repeatedly returned to the condo complex.

Vaida previously said there were "issues" between Creem and Stickel that led to the parking lot encounter, but did not elaborate.

Sarah Cassi may be reached at scassi@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow her on Twitter @SarahCassi. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
While John Cramsey remains in a New Jersey jail following a Holland Tunnel stop that drew headlines, thieves hit his Lehigh County gun range sometime in the past week.

Pennsylvania State Police said burglars broke into Higher Ground Tactical gun range on Chestnut Street in Lower Milford Township, sometime between 2 p.m. July 19 and 11:20 a.m. Tuesday.

The thieves took merchandise, including clothing, targets and firearm accessories, troopers said.

Anyone with information about the crime is asked to call the Fogelsville barracks at 610-395-1438.

Cramsey, Dean Smith and Kimberly Arendt were arrested June 21 at the Holland Tunnel in New Jersey. In a Facebook post before the arrest, Cramsey said the trio was on their way to help a 16-year-old girl they believed was in trouble after a friend overdosed in New York City.

Police said they found a cache of weapons and marijuana after they stopped Cramsey's truck for a cracked windshield. The group's attorneys have questioned the validity of the stop and vehicle search, and say the vehicle's large bulls eye and other markings led police to believe the occupants were gun rights advocates who might be armed.

Cramsey, of Upper Milford Township; Smith, 53, also of Upper Milford; and Arndt, 29, of Lehighton, Pa., are charged with transporting an assault rifle with high capacity magazines, a 12-gauge shotgun and five handguns.

New Jersey prosecutors are preparing to present their case to a grand jury.

Sarah Cassi may be reached at scassi@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow her on Twitter @SarahCassi. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
Greenwich Township police chief has disciplinary hearing

Greenwich Township police Chief Richard Hummer, far right, attends a disciplinary hearing in February 2015.

(lehighvalleylive.com file photo)

A tumultuous time for the Greenwich Township police force could soon be drawing to a close.

Richard Hummer (lehighvalleylive.com file photo)

Former Chief Richard Hummer -- who was fired last year by a township committee that has since mostly been replaced -- would be reinstated in a settlement that could be approved as soon as this week, according to attorneys involved.

"We are optimistic that the matter will be resolved ... very shortly," Hummer's attorney, Lawrence Y. Bitterman, said Tuesday.

Hummer, now employed in the Washington Township Police Department, was fired last summer after a series of public disciplinary hearings. He started as a Greenwich Township patrolman in 2003 and became chief in 2013.

Hummer has long sought reinstatement, including in a lawsuit filed in May against the township and three officials who have since resigned.

A township-commissioned investigation said Hummer's department lacked leadership and accountability. A later report from a county prosecutor monitor within the department said any problems were the result of poor communication, not the chief's fault.

Mayor Will Spencer -- who was not on the committee during the proceedings against the chief -- on Tuesday deferred comment to township labor attorney Jim Pfeiffer, who could not immediately be reached for comment.

Doug Steinhardt, who is representing the former chief in the litigation against the township, said a vote could come as soon as a township committee meeting Thursday.

"Everything is pending on every side ... until there is essentially the final handshake," Steinhardt said. "Now it's just waiting on the governing body to act."

Further details of the proposed settlement were not disclosed.

Steve Novak may be reached at snovak@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @type2supernovak and Facebook. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
A social media posting led police to charge a teenager with burglary at Hatchery Hill School, Hackettstown police said.

Police on Wednesday arrested the 17-year-old Mansfield Township boy, whose name was not released because he is a juvenile.

Police said the boy entered the elementary school at 398 Fifth Ave. through a roof hatch between 7 a.m. to 7:30 a.m. Tuesday and set off a motion alarm. The school was closed and no one was in the building, according to police.

Police said the boy then fled through a back door.

A social media tip alerted police to the teen responsible for the crime, police said. Nothing was stolen from the school, they said.

The teen was charged with third-degree burglary and fourth-degree criminal trespassing. He was released pending a court appearance.

The Hackettstown Police Department praised the public in coming forward with information that led to the arrest.

Pamela Sroka-Holzmann may be reached at pholzmann@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow her on Twitter @pamholzmann. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
It's time to focus on Friday.

Why? Because the high temperature is forecast by the National Weather Service to be 85 degrees in the Lehigh Valley and northwest New Jersey.

There will be clouds, there could be storms, but the heat wave that began July 14 should be over, according to the forecast.

"Definitely the hottest portion of this stretch has already occurred," meteorologist Rob Reale said from WeatherWorks headquarters in Hackettstown.

But with forecast highs of 92 on Wednesday and 93 on Thursday, it will still be steamy.

The sunrise on July 27, 2016, rivals recent sunsets in Easton as another hot day gets underway. (Tony Rhodin | For lehighvalleylive.com)

Once Friday arrives, high temperatures should be closer to average in the mid-80s. That should last well into next week, Reale said.

That doesn't mean we're done with the 90s, he said.

"It still is summer," he said.

But those days will be sporadic, not nearly as prolonged as the most recent onslaught.

Date High temperature

July 14 94

July 15 92

July 16 92

July 17 91

July 18 93

July 19 85

July 20 84

July 21 90

July 22 96

July 23 96

July 24 95

July 25 95

July 26 89

As measured at Lehigh Valley International Airport.

"I think this change of air mass comes with ... clouds, showers and storms," Reale said.

And while there will be the chance of severe weather, it shouldn't be as likely as recent dangerous storms, one that spawned an F0 tornado in Warren County, Reale said.

The high pressure that dominated local weather for the past few weeks is moving away, to be replaced by a more "troughy" pattern more associated with low pressure, he said.

The added clouds should keep temperatures down, he said.

For the two days before Friday, there will be one positive in the 90-plus-degree temperatures -- the humidity will be low, Reale said, making it not feel quite so miserable.

Tony Rhodin may be reached at arhodin@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @TonyRhodin. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
Baku, Azerbaijan, July 27

Trend:

Over 60 people suspected of illegal arms possession, were detained in Yerevan July 26 by police near the building of police station seized by an armed group, RIA Novosti reported July 27 citing the press service of Armenian police.

The report said also that one of the detainees had a homemade gun.

He has been detained and an investigation is being carried out, said the press service. Other detainees have been released.

The 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 opposition Armenian civil initiative Founding Parliament Zhirayr Sefilyan.
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Barber and Leicester City fan Naji Nagy is refusing to cut ties with N'Golo Kante despite his move to Chelsea.

The 30-year-old hairdresser, who runs a salon in Leicester, will continue to style Kante's hair after his 32 million transfer to the capital.

Naji, who had a season ticket at the King Power Stadium last season, said: "I have been cutting his hair since he came to Leicester.

"He has become more than a customer, he is a friend, more than that even.

"I am sad he has made the move to Chelsea but these things happen in life.

"He told me it all happened while he was away at Euro 2016. Maybe it was an offer he could not refuse."

Naji, who runs the Suez Canal Hairstylz salon in St Matthew's, will carry on making sure Kante's hair looks good.

He said: "We talked about it and agreed I will go down to London to continue styling his hair.

"He is lovely man and I wish him all the best with his new club.

"N'Golo gave his all for Leicester City and I am sure our fans will respect that and him."

Naji has supported the Foxes since he arrived in this country in 2005 from Africa to live with his older brother, Ahmed.

He started to cut Kante's hair after they bumped into each other at a local mosque.

Naji also cuts the hair of city superstar Riyad Mahrez.

The Foxes fan who often goes to games with a City logo on the front of his white Muslim jubba robe, said: "I hope Riyad stays.

"I go to his house to cut his hair because he would be mobbed if he came here.

"We don't talk about transfer speculation. I think he just wants to relax and talk about other stuff."

Naji, a qualified level 4 county FA referee, said the Riyad haircut is the favourite with his customers.

He said: "Everyone wants to look like Riyad. He's the man for them."

Naji also used to cut the hair of young striker Joe Dodoo, who recently moved to Rangers from City.

Nagi said: "If Joe pays me to travel to Glasgow then I will carry on doing his hair too."

Nagi is hoping that Mahrez does not make it a hat-trick of his customers moving away from the King Power Stadium.

He said: "I think the club has bought well but we must keep Riyad.

"He got me tickets for the City game against Barcelona in Sweden next week.

"If Riyad moves and wants me to continue cutting his hair I will - even if he goes to Barcelona."
Water problems, banjaxed pipes, people dodging the big issue and politicians demanding answers in the Dail. The more things change the more they stay the same, right?

Youd forget about the crisis in Naas 25 years ago, when raw sewage got into the water supply and made half the town ill.

It was so bad back in 1991 that Sky News dispatched a van to Kildare with a satellite transmitter stuck to the roof. It was parked at the top of the road in Lakelands outside Teresa Scanlons house. Reporters interviewed the then local councillor while she stood on her doorstep.

In the CBS, Brother Wright came on the intercom telling students NOT to drink the tap water. Not under any circumstances, he warned.

As soon as that particular broadcast finished there was a stampede for the toilet. You couldnt get near the long metal urinal with so many students queuing to drink from the sink.

Within 20 minutes the corridor hummed with the smell of vomit. Soon it formed like sludge on the tiles.

So it wasnt long before Brother Wright was back on the intercom again saying he was going to have to close the school and send everyone home. Even the really ill saw their spirits raised temporarily by this news.

More than 2,500 locals were affected.

Households brushed their teeth using boiled water and hardware stores did a run on those big storage drums.

No one drank bottled water back then, only fizzy Ballygowan for pioneers who strayed into the pub by accident.

Sure you'd have to be some kind of lunatic to pay for drinking water with a zillion litres of the stuff for free up in Pouliphouca Reservoir!

Doctor Keoghs waiting room was out the door. Local pharmacies enjoyed something of a boom. Fruit juice sales skyrocketed in Superquinn.

But all this shouldnt take from the seriousness of the crisis.

People ended up in hospital and it was determined that a sewer was located right next to a water supply pipe close to the Sundays Well housing estate.

Alan Dukes was a local TD then. From the opposition benches in the Dail he called for a public enquiry.

On the national scene this matter may seem to be something of an anti-climax, he said. But for the people of Naas it is very much one of current and ongoing concern. Twenty six people were hospitalized. Symptoms continue to manifest themselves. The House will clearly see that this is a very worrying occurrence. We need a public enquiry...

Ger Connolly, the Minister for State at the Department of the Environment said in his reply  ... The Government have also pledged substantial ongoing support for new and improved water supply systems. The environment action programme indicated an expenditure programme of 300 million for this purpose during the nineties. This level of investment has been maintained to date.

Looking back, and knowing what we now know about the state of the Irish water supply, it would be tough to argue that this

investment was sufficient.

The government of the time spoke about an emergency response. But the subtotal of this seemed to be the dispatch of a senior engineer to Naas.

The legacy of it all was that like many issues of national concern - this was just one more that came and went, now consigned to the history books.

This was no great political career builder. Alan Dukes didnt become Taoiseach and, probably, it didnt cost anyone their career either.

To complete the political exchange of the time Minister Connolly said: I can assure the Deputy that when the final report is received we will take whatever action is needed in this important matter."

Alan Dukes: Will the Minister publish the report?

Ger Connolly: I cannot say, but I will take the necessary action.

... Such was life in the eye of the 1991 water contamination crisis.

People just boiled water for a long long time after.

And no one drank from the CBS sinks ever again.

Robert Mulhern is a London-based journalist contracted to RTE Radio's multi-award-winning Doc On One programme
Over 15 of Ireland's unique and hugely significant Heritage Barges "The Big Boats" are touring the Shannon Blueway, Lough Allen and the North Shannon from 23rd July- 6th August. Organised by the Heritage Boat Association, a programme of public events and activities is planned in conjunction with Waterways Ireland and the communities of Drumshanbo and Leitrim Village.

The first activity in the programme is taking place on Friday 29th July 10.30am as a cargo of coal is delivered by miners from the Arigna mines to a fleet of 12 Heritage cargo boats waiting at Drumshanbo lock on the Lough Allen Canal. The public will be able to watch the loading and walk the Shannon Blueway, from Drumleague Lock to Battlebridge lock with the boats as they travel along the canal to Acres Lake.

Walkers can also join with the boats at Drumhauver Bridge or Drumleague Lock from 11.30am and walk the rest of the way to Battle Bridge with the 'Big Boats'.

On Saturday 30th July, Leitrim Village will host the boats with a festival of music and fun. The public are invited to come along and learn about the Heritage Boats. These canal boats are the same commercial barges that once carried cargos all across the inland waterways of Ireland. Activities begin at 2pm with talks in Leitrim Village Community Centre and will be followed by a music and a free BBQ sponsored by the Barge Steakhouse. Visitor can come to look at the boats at the apartment marina north of Leitrim Village bridge.

The Heritage Boat Association is celebrating the North Shannon navigations and in particular the Lough Allen Canal which was built almost 200 years ago to carry the Arigna coal to the main Shannon navigation. They were indeed the juggernauts of their day and the canals were the highways on which the commerce of the nation depended The skippers and crews of the Heritage Boats are particularly interested in meeting with families who would have had friends or relations who worked on the navigation when it was a commercial waterway.

Full details of the trip and the Heritage Boat Association are available on the website: www.heritageboatassociation.ie
Armenian police detain citizens who are attending the demonstration at Khorenatsi street, news.am reported. The police requires IDs from citizens and urge them to leave the area. There has recently been detained a civil activist Vardges Gaspari , who came to Khorenatsi street with posters .

Earlier it was reported, that today, on July 27 , at 7:00 pm there will be hold a demonstration at Khorenatsi Street.

Last night police spokesman Ashot Aharonian wrote on his facebook page that a shootout took place between the police and Sasna Tserer members, due to which one policeman, Pavel Manukyan and his son are injured , whereas Gagik Yeghiazaryan and Aram Hakobyan from the Sasna Tserer were handed to the police. The injured were taken to the hospital .
In an article for the Huffington Post, Tim Farron has slammed Theresa May for scrapping the post of Minister for Refugees, a post which was only established by David Cameron last September to make it look like he was doing something.

The minister, amongst other things, oversaw the implementation of Britains commitment to take 20,000 Syrian refugees from the region and an additional 3,000 vulnerable refugee children from the Middle East over the course of this Parliament. This process was already moving at a snails pace  by the end of March of this year only 1,602 people had been resettled in the UK. Now, with no one holding the ball on this issue you have to wonder how anyone can remain optimistic that we will hit this target.

Arguably this role is more important than ever with the Governments recent announcement launching a community sponsorship scheme enabling community groups to take on the role of supporting resettled refugees in the UK. Again, this scheme will run across the Home Office, Department for Communities and Local Government and the Department for International Development not to mention the hopefully hundreds of charities and faith group and businesses that will be involved. This is a welcome initiative, something my party has been calling for the UK to implement for a long time to allow generous communities to help where they can, but without leadership and an accountable head that can work across the Government departments it is being set up to fail.

The refugee crisis is not going away and the Liberal Democrats will continue to hold the Government to account over their inaction
When Theresa May suggested that businesses ought to set up workers councils, she was said by many commentators to be moving to the centre ground, perhaps to hoover up centrist voters put off by Labours leftwards drift. Whatever the political motivations, it is an extremely interesting idea. Is it one that liberals should support? Absolutely, because it can help people take back control  in a meaningful way.

A lesson from the EU referendum was that many people are dissatisfied with the economic system. The slogan Take Back Control was vague to the point of meaninglessness, but psychologically potent for people who perceive their work to be meaningless. There could be no greater symbol of a loss of control than a zero-hours contract. Modern capitalism leaves many people feeling that their lives are controlled by uncaring bosses.

Arguably the reason many of the regions which received most in EU funding votes Leave was also because they resent being the recipients of charity. All those shiny buildings with the EU flag on them were glaring symbols of peoples inability to help themselves. Their lack of control.

Workers councils would be a great way for people to take back control of their lives, by giving them a say in their places of work. It might also make them better businesses. In Germany, where workers councils have been legally required in certain businesses since 1952, 43% of all employees in the West of the country and 35% in the East work in businesses with them. In businesses with over 500 employees, the figures rises to 89% across the country.

There are lots of reasons that Germanys economy is flourishing, but one is that workers councils press for long-term planning, which makes firms more risk-averse. This makes them more able to weather downturns, so that they lay off fewer workers in tough times. Indeed, employment trumps profits in many cases. Workers might feel that have more of a say over how the businesses they work in are run.

Some might argue that such government forcing firms to create workers councils would be illiberal. Existing shareholders would naturally protest that their power was being watered down, and that the businesses they own might are fundamentally being changed.

The solution? Rather than trying to retrofit old companies, government could look at new businesses. The government is involved in all sorts of programmes to create new clusters, such as the Catapult scheme. Why not encourage the founders of those businesses  the world-beating British firms of the future  to adopt a philosophy that values employees? It is easy to imagine a policy that would nudge business creators to embed other aims into their businesses, for example by giving tax breaks to those who have workers councils.

For decades business the Anglo-Saxon model of business has prioritised profit above all else, adopting the spurious idea that a businesss only aim is to maximise shareholder value. The free market should not be impeded, goes the argument. Weve seen where that gets you. Now could be a good time to us to take back control of our economy.

* Jeremy Hazlehurst is a journalist who writes for the FT and Management Today. He recently joined the Liberal Democrats.
LIMERICK is to get a big jobs boost, with a firm which hosts some of the worlds top web sites set to open a customer service hub here.

The Limerick Chronicle can reveal that WP Engine, an IT company which provides services tailored to WordPress  a system which powers one in four web sites online  is finalising plans to open an office in the city centre to serve its markets in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Up to 50 people will be initially employed, it is understood, but it is anticipated this number will grow steadily.

WP Engine, which is headquartered in Texas, USA, has already started advertising for customer support technicians to work in the heart of Limerick.

Although a location has yet to be disclosed, the company has stated the technicians it will employ are the superheroes within our organisation, making a heroic impact on our customers businesses and lives 24/7.

The news  which is expected to be confirmed in the coming months  has been hailed by a source close to the project as another significant step in the right direction for the IT sector in Limerick.

It is understood the roles will be supported by IDA Ireland.

The announcement will be significant due to the fact we have obviously had Uber confirmed in the last 12 months. We are coming up to the one year anniversary of this. Traditionally, we do not have a large amount of companies in the IT sector, the source added.

The roles in WP Engine  which has over 40,000 customers globally  are for people with one to two years experience working in technical support of customer service, plus those with a basic knowledge of WordPress, and other related IT skills.

WordPress powers one in every four web sites on the internet, nearly 60 million in all, with 100,000 more coming on stream each day.

Currently, WP Engine employs 313 people across the American cities of Austin, San Francisco, San Antonio, plus London in Britain.

The IDAs manager in the Mid-West Niall OCallaghan declined to comment on this specific announcement when contacted by the Limerick Chronicle.

But he said: Despite many challenges in attracting foreign direct investment companies to the Mid-West region, I am optimistic that the IDA and the work we are doing here in the Mid-West office in delivering our regional strategy aligned to the Action Plan for jobs will pay dividends not only in increased employment numbers in client companies, but also in new announcements in the near future.

WP Engine will become the fourth major firm founded in Austin, Texas to open in Limerick. It will join Dell and Flextronics in Raheen, and General Motors at Limerick councils buildings, Dooradoyle.
TRIBUTES have been paid following the death of one of the best known and respected businessmen in Limerick, Bobby Kennedy.

Aged 86, he was very well known throughout the country and built a major business empire during his long and varied career.

He owned Elm Motors on the Ennis road and developed it into one of the biggest car dealerships in the region.

He was also the owner of Newsoms hardware store in William Street. He founded Irish Credit Bank in the 70s, which was subsequently merged with First Southern Bank.

The late Mr Kennedy also was the proprietor of the Royal George Hotel, and the Glentworth Hotel before he sold those some years back.

He was a lovely man, a pleasure to do business with and I knew him quite well, explained auctioneer Pat Kearney.

I sold the Royal George Hotel for him back a good few years ago. He was very asute, very honourable. You knew where you stood with him. He always knew his facts and he always had it right, added Mr Kearney.

There have also been tributes in legal circles as Mr Kennedys daughter, Isobel, is a current High Court judge while his son, Robert, is a partner at law firm Holmes OMalley Sexton.

Judge Tom ODonnell expressed his condolences at Limerick Circuit Court this Wednesday while Andrew Sexton SC described Mr Kennedy as a well-respected member of the Old Brigade.

The late Mr Kennedys funeral Mass will take place at 12 midday on Thursday at Our Lady of the Rosary Church, Ennis Road with cremation afterwards at Mount Jerome Crematorium.
Baku, Azerbaijan, July 27

Trend:

Another rally has started on Freedom Square in Armenian capital in support of the armed group that seized the police building in Yerevan, RIA Novosti reported.

The 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 opposition Armenian civil initiative Founding Parliament Zhirayr Sefilyan.
A YOUNG man has pleaded guilty to robbery charges relating to a 20-minute violent crime spree during which a 13-year-old boy was told that he would be shot.

Clyde Keogh, aged 20, who has an address at Ballyclough Avenue, Ballinacurra Weston, faces three counts of robbery and one count of attempted robbery relating to incidents which happened on the morning of January 25, last.

When arraigned at Limerick Circuit Court, the defendant admitting robbing mobile phones, each worth hundreds of euro, from three teenagers.

The phones which were taken included a Samsung S3, a Sony Experia and an iPhone 4.

During a brief hearing, the defendant also admitted attempting to rob another teenage student on the same date.

Keogh, who has a number of previous convictions, replied guilty as each of the four charges were put to him by the court registrar.

Previously, Limerick District Court was told the incidents happened at around 8am in the Athlunkard Street and Lee Estate areas of the city.

The father-of-one was arrested a short time after the alarm was raised and has been in custody since as gardai strongly opposed a bail application.

Opposing bail, gardai said it is the State case that Keogh threatened to stab a 15-year-old boy at Athlunkard Street at 7.55am and that around ten minutes later, he threatened to stab another student, who was walking in the same area.

Det Enda Garda Haugh further alleged that a 13-year-old boy was threatened by Keogh that he would be shot if he didnt hand over his mobile phone.

The defendant was extremely intoxicated following his arrest and could not be questioned for several hours.

Following an application from Brian McInerney BL, defending, Judge Tom ODonnell adjourned the matter to October 25 next for sentencing.

On that date, he will hear details of the offences as well as submissions from Mr McInerney.

Each of the robbery charges carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.
Jul 27, 2016, 9 AM

By Donna Houseman

More than 9,100 value changes are recorded for Vol. 5 of the 2017 Scott Standard Postage Stamp Catalogue, which spans countries of the world N-Sam (Samoa), and Nicaragua and Portugal are among the countries in Vol. 5 whose values reflect increases.

Almost 360 value changes for the Central American country of Nicaragua reflect a healthy upward movement for these stamps. The 5-centavo on 1-peso yellow surcharged in black with ornaments on each side of 1901 (Scott 146b) advances from $7 to $30 in unused condition. The double-surcharge variety of the 20c on 2p salmon of the same issue (147b) in used condition moves from $12.50 to $27.50. The 1919 5c on 20c surcharge with type I numerals (Scott 392) jumps from $40 in used condition to $50. The surcharge with type III numerals (392b) advances from $50 used to $55.

Vol. 5 is available for purchase Aug. 1. Order yours today!

As is true for many countries, value changes for Nicaragua stamps issued from 1990 to present show a mix of increases and decreases. Among modern issues, the 1993 sheet of 16 1.50-cordoba stamps featuring butterflyfish (Scott 1962) slides from $10 mint to $8. Value changes also were made among the back-of-the-book issues. The 1980 International Year of the Child sheet of two airmail stamps (C970) has been given a value of $21 in italics, indicating that the sheet is difficult to value accurately. Among the revenue stamps surcharged in 1907 for Official use, the 1p on 2c orange with inverted surcharge skyrockets from $2.50 both unused and used to $14 in both conditions.

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Mostly increases occur among the 100 changes in Portugal. The 2001 set of six stamps commemorating the 200th anniversary of Security Services (Scott 2447-2452) rises slightly from $10 to $12 in mint condition and from $5 to $6 in used condition. The 1898 5-reis Vasco da Gama postage due variety with value and Continente omitted (Scott J1a) rises from $30 mint to $50.

The editors gave the South American country of Paraguay a close inspection this year, focusing on the stamps issued from 1940 to present. This review yielded almost 3,800 value changes. From 1950 to 1999, most of these changes are in a downward direction. Values for stamps issued from 2000 to date remain steady or show some increases. Increases also are found among the Portugal stamps inscribed for use in Azores and Madeira. The Azores 2004 Worldwide Fund for Nature (World Wildlife Fund) horizontal strip of four (Scott 480) jumps from $3 mint to $5.

Many of the 48 value changes in Romania reflect increases. The 1945 set honoring posts and telegraphs (Scott 588-594) jumps from $20.80 both mint and used for the set of seven to $23.30 both ways.

A sprinkling of value changes can be found in New Zealand. Scott 78, the 1898 6-penny green Kiwi stamp, soars from $90 unused to $120. The used value remains at $55. The Ross Dependency 1998 Ice Formations stamps in a block of six (L54a) rise from $11 mint and used to $15 mint and used.

St. Vincent Grenadines received a full line-by-line review. Although most of the almost 1,400 value changes reflect decreases for stamps issued prior to 2002, increases are found among later issues. The 2007 sheet of four stamps issued for the Grenadines island of Bequia to honor Halleys comet (Scott 413) jumps from $6 mint and used to $6.50 both ways. The souvenir sheet from the set (414) rises from $4.50 mint and used to $4.75 in both conditions.

Significant increases are found among the stamps of the island of Mustique. The 2000 $1 sheet of eight showing the Paintings type of 1999 (Scott 2) skyrockets from $6 mint and used to $17.50 in both conditions. The imperforate variety (2i) jumps from $6 mint and used to $27.50 both ways.

The more than 40 value changes in Northern Nigeria reflect increases.

Fifty-eight value changes are scattered throughout Palestinian Authority, with mixed results.

More than 1,000 value changes occur in Pitcairn Islands, with a few scattered increases.

Among the value changes for St. Thomas and Prince Islands is an increase in the value of the 1977 sheet of four stamps featuring paintings by Peter Paul Rubens. The sheet (Scott 473a) goes from $27.50 mint and used to $40 in both conditions. The 2-reis brown newspaper stamp (P13) issued in 1899 moves upward, from $25 unused to $30.

More than 65 value changes were made among the stamps of Pakistan. A mix of increases and decreases are found. The 15-rupee dark green and dark brown (Scott 18) climbs from $65 unused to $90, while the 25r dark violet and blue-violet stamp (19) from the same set is adjusted downward, from $87.50 unused and used to $70 in both conditions.

Almost 100 value changes are sprinkled throughout the Philippines. Most of these changes reflect increases, with a few decreases. Among the surcharged issues of 1879, the 8 centimos on 100 milesimas de peso (Scott 75) jumps from $300 unused to $400. The used value for the 1985 3.50-peso on 4.20p rose, type III, soars from 90 to $3. Other used values within the modern period show increases, with only a few decreases.

A few changes were made to the values of Nyasaland Protectorate stamps. The 1918 4-shilling black and red stamp on chalky paper increases from $45 unused and $85 used to $50 and $90, respectively.

Editorial enhancements for Russia

Several new listings for Russia have been brought over to the 2017 Vol. 5 catalog from the 2016 Scott Classic Specialized Catalogue of Stamps and Covers 1840-1940. A center inverted variety of the 1884 3.50-ruble black and gray stamp is now listed as Scott 39b. Dashes are placed in the unused and used value columns, indicating that the stamp exists in both conditions, but there is insufficient information to establish a value. The 1909-12 1r with center inverted, previously listed as 87e, has been renumbered as 87f. No. 87e has been assigned to a new listing of a vertical pair, imperforate between, valued at $25 unused with a dash in the used column. The center-doubled variety is now listed as 87g.

A type II variety has been added for the 1927 8-kopeck on 7k stamp surcharged in black. Type I has a 2-millimeter space between the lines of the surcharge. Listed as Scott 349c, the type II variety has a 0.7mm space and is valued at $2,750 unused and $140 used. The type II stamp also exists with the surcharge inverted and is listed as 349d and valued at $275 unused in italics. A type II variety also has been added to No. 350 as 350b, valued at $10,500 unused in italics. This stamp with surcharge inverted (350c) is valued at $275 unused (in italics).

To purchase the 2017 Scott catalogs, contact your favorite dealer, or call Amos Media at 1-800-488-5349. Also visit Amos Advantage. For Scott eCatalogues, visit ScottOnline.com.
Baku, Azerbaijan, July 27

Trend:

The armed group that seized a police station in Armenia's capital of Yerevan has released one of the doctors hostage from the police station, Interfax reported July 27.

Earlier, the doctors who were requested by the gunmen to assist the wounded in the headquarters of the police and in Yerevan, were taken hostage.

The 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 opposition Armenian civil initiative Founding Parliament Zhirayr Sefilyan.
Baku, Azerbaijan, July 28

Trend:

Participants of the rally in support of the armed group that seized the police building in Yerevan, have presented to the authorities a number of requirements, RIA Novosti reported.

"We demand from the authorities to release all those detained by the police, from president Serzh Sargsyan - to resign," - said one of the activists.

The protesters gave the authorities time till 00.30 am.

The 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 opposition Armenian civil initiative Founding Parliament Zhirayr Sefilyan.
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Baku, Azerbaijan, July 28

Trend:

The Armenian police received threats relative to possible bombs at Zvartnots international airport in Yerevan and the building of Armenia TV in the north of the country's capital, Panarmenian.am web site reported.

According to Sputnik Armenia, police officers are currently working to detect the explosive at the TV station, aided by trained dogs, rescue workers, firefighters. Several ambulance cars are currently stationed near the building.

The bomb threat that forced to beef up security measures at the airport proved to be a false alarm.
The US Democratic Party has officially nominated former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to be its presidential nominee, despite protests from supporters of Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders.

The roll call vote was conducted on the second day of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, making Clinton the first presidential nominee for a major US political party. She will accept the nomination in a speech on Thursday.

Virginia Senator Tim Kaine will also be officially nominated to be the vice presidential candidate.

The convention brings a bitter primary race to a close. A number of Sanders supporters remained loyal to the Senator up until the very end, reinvigorated by the release of internal DNC emails that showed the ostensibly neutral organization had a systematic bias toward Clinton.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan late Monday railed at Germany for its indifference to the PKK and U.S.-based Gulenist Terror Organization (FETO) members and questioned the European Union's contribution to the anti-terror fight.

Speaking on German state broadcaster ARD Monday night, Erdogan slammed the EU and Germany in particular, on the fight against terrorist organizations. "The PKK runs wild in Germany. [PKK] terrorists display images of the head [of the PKK] in Strasbourg, Brussels, European Parliament and around the European Human Rights building," Erdogan said, asking how the EU helps the counterterror fight this way.

Continuing his staunch criticism of Berlin's insufficient fight against the PKK, Erdogan said that most PKK terrorists have fled to Germany. "Germany lends these [terrorists] very significant support. I gave Chancellor [Angela Merkel] 4,000 documents regarding this. When I asked her about what they have done, she said that the judicial process was continuing," he said, adding that late justice is never justice.

Stressing that PKK terrorists live in Germany, France, Belgium and the Netherlands, Erdogan said these countries do not extradite them despite Turkish intelligence providing necessary information.

Asserting that EU countries will find themselves in grave danger should they further fail to collaborate with Turkey, Erdogan said the world should work together to tackle terrorism.

DEATH PENALTY A DEMAND OF THE PEOPLE

Upon a question regarding the recent debates in Turkey about a possible return of the death penalty for coup plotters, Erdogan said Turkey is a democratic country where the demands of the people are heard.

Dismissing criticism from the EU that threatened Ankara with the suspension of its EU membership bid should Turkey reinstate capital punishment, Erdogan said: "Look, we have been at the door of the EU for 53 years. We abolished the death penalty. What has changed? If you are in a democratic state, who has the say? The people have the say, right? What do the people say? The death penalty."

EU NOT KEEPING PROMISES AS PART OF MIGRANT DEAL

Erdogan also said the EU is failing to keep its promises regarding the migrant deal, adding that Turkey delivers on its side of the bargain.

"I want to say one thing quite clearly: On the refugee issue, we will stand behind our promises," Erdogan asserted.

"What we have promised to date applies. But a question to the Europeans: Have you stuck to your promises?" he asked, saying the EU had failed to provide Turkey with sufficient aid. "The West has unfortunately not been sincere thus far," he said.

On May 4, the European Commission proposed visa-free travel in the Schengen zone for Turkish citizens on the condition that Turkey fulfill the five remaining benchmarks, including measures to prevent corruption, data protection in line with EU standards, cooperation with the EU's Europol law enforcement agency and judicial cooperation on criminal matters with all EU member states.
Baku, Azerbaijan, July 27



By Rufiz Hafizoglu - Trend:



The post of military adviser to the president of Turkey is being abolished following the military coup attempt in the country, Turkish TRT Haber TV channel reported July 27 citing the sources in the countrys presidential administration.



According to the message, moreover, security measures will be strengthened in the presidential palace in Ankara.



The main reason for the abolition of the post of military adviser is the detention of Ali Yazici, chief military advisor to the president of Turkey, involved in the mutiny, after the military coup attempt in the country, the message said.



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.



Turkeys President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that the death toll as a result of the military coup attempt stood at 246 people excluding the coup plotters and over 2,000 people were wounded.



President Erdogan declared a three-month state of emergency in the country on July 20.
Summer heat can be dangerous for pets, but there are a number of steps that owners can take to keep their pets safe when temperatures climb.

Just this week, 14 dogs were found dead in a truck in Ohio after the vehicle's air conditioning unit failed, according to the South Bend Tribune. The dogs' handler was in town for a dog show, and left the animals unattended in the truck for about 2 hours. The incident underscores the need for owners to pay careful attention to their pets during hot weather, said Genny Carlson, executive director of the Humane Society of St. Joseph County, which is investigating the case. [These 7 Foods Cause the Most Pet Deaths]

"This serves as a reminder for people with pets, children and elderly relatives that being in a car without proper ventilation or a working air conditioner can be dangerous, and to take the proper precautions," Carlson told the news outlet cleveland.com.

Here are tips for keeping pets safe this summer:

Don't leave animals unattended in a parked car. On an 85-degree day, temperatures inside a parked car can reach 120 degrees in 30 minutes, according to the Humane Society.

Try to bring pets inside, if possible. Don't leave them in sheds or garages, recommends the Government of Western Australia Department of Health, because these structures can become very hot inside.

If you do need to leave your pets outside, make sure that they have plenty of cold water and shady spots in which to rest, such as under trees or tarps.

Be careful about taking your dog for a walk on a hot day. If you do walk your pet on a hot day, it's best to go in the early morning or evening, according to the Humane Society. You should also walk your dog on grass, because hot asphalt can burn their paws.

Dog owners should be particularly careful about taking certain breeds out in the heat. Flat-faced dogs, such as Pugs and English Bulldogs, can overheat more easily because they can have trouble panting, according to the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Los Angeles (SPCALA). And white-eared dogs may be at increased risk for skin cancer, the Humane Society said.

Put ice cubes in your pet's water, and keep the water out of the sun.

I tems such as a cooling body wrap, vest or mat can also help keep your pet cool outside, according to the Humane Society.

Original article on Live Science.
Biologists separate life into three phases: development, aging and late life. But a growing body of research now suggests that there is a fourth phase immediately preceding death that scientists have dubbed the "death spiral."

Although most of the "death spiral" research has focused on fruit flies, scientists think these studies can offer valuable insight into the last stage of human life as well.

"We believe this is part of the process of, basically, genetically programmed death," Laurence Mueller, chair of the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of California, Irvine, said in an interview with Live Science. [What Are Your Odds of Dying From ]

Expiring fruit flies

Over the past decade, several studies of fruit flies have suggested this spiral toward death can be seen in the drop in reproductive rate (fecundity), according to a review of this research by Mueller and his colleagues, published earlier this year in the journal Biogerontology (opens in new tab). For instance, researchers reporting in 2015 in The Journals of Gerontology found that the first day a female fly laid zero eggs was a significant predictor of death: Indicators of fecundity started to decline about 10 days before young female fruit flies laid zero eggs. The researchers think that whatever leads to the flies' deaths also affects their ability to reproduce in their final days.

In the new review, Mueller said that the timing of this decline matches another previous estimate of the death spiral's duration. Relative to the average life span of a fruit fly, 10 days could be as much as a third of a fly's life, Mueller said. Research from 2002 on Mediterranean fruit flies, called medflies, found that 97 percent of males began lying upside down about 16 days prior to death. In relative terms, this potential indicator of a death spiral is also approximately equal to the timing of the fecundity decline in the fruit flies. [The Science of Death: 10 Tales from the Crypt & Beyond]

In another study, scientists observed fruit flies, nematodes and zebrafish, to see if their intestines exhibited increased leakiness before death. The researchers tested this leakiness, called permeability, by feeding food dye to each animal. If permeability increased, that dye would leak out into the animal's body, and its body would change color  blue in the flies and fish, and fluorescent green in the nematodes. The research, published online March 22 in the journal Scientific Reports (opens in new tab), concluded that this intestinal leakiness was a marker of death in all three species.

A human death spiral?

The hope is that death-spiral research in fruit flies and other organisms could someday tell scientists more about the decline of humans prior to death. [8 Tips for Healthy Aging]

In their review paper, Mueller and his colleagues cited a study from 2008 published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciencesas evidence that people may experience the death spiral as well. In that study, researchers analyzed data collected on the physical and cognitive abilities of 2,262 Danish people, ages 92 to 100, from 1998 to 2005. They found that the physical and cognitive scores of individuals who died within the first two years of the study were significantly lower than the scores of those who were still alive in 2005. The assessments included measures of grip strength, ability to complete daily activities (such as using the toilet and eating) and exams that helped evaluate cognitive impairment.

Basically, Mueller said, a death spiral in people could be the reason we often see a distinct increase in disability just before a person dies. Humans are challenging study subjects for both ethical and biological reasons, but looking at the death spiral in other organisms could give scientists a window into how this works in humans, the researchers said.

According to Mueller, the next step in this research might be to selectively breed the flies to create groups that experience death spirals of different durations.

"Once you create populations that are genetically different in that way, you can ask, 'What genes were changed in order to reduce the length of the death spiral?'" Mueller said. Using that knowledge, researchers could look at the human genome for similar genetic markers; humans are genetically similar to fruit flies, Mueller noted. According to yourgenome.com, a website of the Wellcome Genome Campus, 75 percent of disease-causing genes in humans are also present in fruit flies.

Mueller said the research isn't about stopping or even delaying death. Rather, he sees it as a way to improve people's quality of life when they are reaching the end and potentially save immense amounts of money in end-of-life health care.

"Even if we don't affect when you die, we'd like to make you fully functional up to the day you die," he said.

Original article on Live Science.
Migraines in children have been found to be associated with early stress.

Headaches are uncommon in toddlers. But between the ages of three and seven, around 5% to 50% of children experience headaches of some type. From seven to 15 years, headache prevalence peaks at up to 75%. The vast majority of headaches experienced are tension-type headaches that dont need specific treatment. But a quarter of these troublesome headaches are migraines.

Migraine headaches are the most common type of severe headache. They occur when networks of sensory and regulatory nerves deep in the brain are disordered. The details of exactly how migraines work are not yet fully understood but research in this area has made rapid progress, especially in the last decade.

Many adults who have a lifelong problem with migraines first experience them in childhood or adolescence. Migraine headaches occur in 15% to 18% of children, and the prevalence peaks between the ages of 11 and 13.

These figures are similar in adults. The worst 10% of adult sufferers account for 85% of the overall time lost to headaches. This suggests that if you dont get effectively treated or grow out of your adolescent migraines, they may get progressively worse (opens in new tab).

Much of the risk of having migraines is genetic so it is no surprise that two-thirds of childhood migraine sufferers have a family history of disabling migraine.

What causes childhood migraine?

There are some significant differences between migraines that occur early in life and those that occur later. A clear link between childhood adversity and migraine predisposition throughout life is emerging from current research.

The influence is likely to be complex and is currently poorly understood. It may well be that prolonged exposure of a developing brain to excessive stress causes neuroplastic changes or altered biochemistry that create a migraine-prone brain forever after.

Early onset of migraine symptoms indicates a child is at increased risk of a number of other conditions characterised by severe episodes of symptoms that occur in a cyclical fashion, such as abdominal pain, vertigo and torticollis (where the position of the head or neck is abnormal or asymmetrical). These episodic syndromes are highly distressing and disabling. They may reflect a common disorder of pain processing and are considered variants of migraine.

There are documented associations of early-onset migraine with emotional and behavioural difficulties. Understanding these relationships better will contribute enormously to potential prevention strategies but also perhaps to new treatment approaches.

The most common triggers for childhood migraine are similar to adults: emotional stress, sleep deprivation, skipping food, menstruation and weather.

Hormonal fluctuations during young womens periods are one of the most consistently disabling trigger factors and many sufferers may need oral contraceptives to regulate hormone levels. It seems these common triggers may all increase oxidative stress (chemical not emotional stress) in the brain.

It will no doubt be welcome news that while chocolate remains a common scapegoat in headache causation, the scientific evidence for this belief is thin.

How to treat childhood migraines

Its important to accurately evaluate frequent or severe childhood headaches given these childrens quality of life is severely impaired and the long-term impacts may be substantial.

The doctor needs to thoroughly explore psychological and social factors, which may require tact and time for trust to develop. School absences must be prevented or mitigated so the child does not fall behind her peers either academically or socially. Having a formal plan may help the school accommodate young headache sufferers.

The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners has published recommendations for GPs to use analgesics or migraine drugs (known as triptans) to treat migraine, but to also focus on addressing possible environmental, social, and psychological factors that could be at play.

Treatment of migraines in childhood support the idea that it is virtually a different disorder compared to adults. Thankfully, simple pain relief such as non-steroidal anti-inflammatories (NSAIDs) including aspirin and ibuprofen are more effective than in adults. Allowing the child to sleep if they want to is also very effective.

The triptans  standard drugs for aborting attacks in adults  do not seem to work as well in children. The response to medication becomes more adult-like after puberty.

First-line preventive treatments used in adults, such as propranolol (a heart medication), amitriptyline (an antidepressant) and sodium valproate (usually used to treat epilepsy) have not been thoroughly studied for efficacy in children, though they do appear safe for short- to medium-term use.

Decisions about prevention against frequent, disabling attacks require careful thought and are probably best done in conjunction with a paediatrician or paediatric neurologist. Treatment plans for preventing frequent and severe headaches may need to include input from a multidisciplinary team to ensure triggers are addressed by all available means, not just pharmacological ones.

In general, while migraine remains a lifelong predisposition when it starts in childhood or adolescence, the outlook is pretty positive. From the peak of the mid-teenage years, both the frequency and average severity of acute migraine attacks tends to drop off the older you get until a second peak in the 50s.

For such a common and disruptive condition, it is perhaps a bit surprising we dont know more. Effective early intervention and well-organised diagnosis and treatment of childhood migraines may save severe adult sufferers from decades of underachievement and frustration.

Further reading:

Do kids grow out of childhood asthma?

A snapshot of children's health in Australia

Nightmares and night terrors in kids: when do they stop being normal?

Bed-wetting in older children and young adults is common and treatable

Michael Vagg, Clinical Senior Lecturer at Deakin University School of Medicine & Pain Specialist, Barwon Health

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.
Baku, Azerbaijan, July 27

By Rufiz Hafizoglu - Trend:

Turkey is expanding the fight against the supporters of Fethullah Gulens movement in the countrys energy sphere, the Sabah newspaper reported July 27.

As part of the fight against the movement of Fethullah Gulen, who was involved in the military coup attempt in the country, the Energy Market Regulatory Authority has appealed to all energy companies of the country demanding to dismiss Gulens supporters, according to the report.

Twenty-five employees of the Energy Market Regulatory Authority were earlier dismissed over the military coup attempt in Turkey.

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. Turkeys President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that the death toll as a result of the military coup attempt stood at 246 people excluding the coup plotters and over 2,000 people were wounded.

Erdogan declared a three-month state of emergency in Turkey on July 20.

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Follow the author on Twitter: @rhafizoglu
Lost Treasures

Constructed in the 18th century, the amber room contained mosaics, gemstones, mirrors, carvings gilded with gold, and panels constructed out of almost 1,000 lbs. (450 kilograms) of amber. (Image credit: Public domain, courtesy of Wikicommons)

From the Tenere Tree, hit by a driver in 1973; to the priceless artifacts destroyed by ISIS; to a bulldozed Mayan pyramid, here are 10 treasures the world has recently lost.

Nimrud

An ancient city in Iraq, Nimrud became the capital of the Assyrian Empire during the reign of King Ashurnasirpal II (reign 883 B.C. to 859 B.C.). (Image credit: Public domain, courtesy of Wikipedia)

An ancient city in Iraq, Nimrud became the capital of the Assyrian Empire during the reign of King Ashurnasirpal II (reign 883 B.C. to 859 B.C.). The Assyrian Empire stretched from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean Sea; Ashurnasirpal II's palace was adorned with ivory and stone reliefs, which showed the king hunting, fighting and taking part in religious rituals.

In 2015, the terrorist group ISIS destroyed the city using a combination of explosives and bulldozers. Only a small part of the city mainly the area containing palaces  had been excavated by archaeologists. One of the explorers who excavated at Nimrud in the 19th century was the British archaeologist Austen Henry Layard. Artifacts found during his expedition can be seen in the British Museum in London and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. But any other artifacts and historical objects with stories to tell will remain unknown.

Temples in Palmyra

The temples in Palmyra date back around 2,000 years and featured several massive, finely decorated columns. (Image credit: Public domain, courtesy of Wikicommons)

In May 2015, the terrorist group ISIS captured Palmyra, an ancient city in Syria that holds many archaeological ruins. Over the next eight months, ISIS plundered and destroyed a number of archaeological sites, including ancient temples dedicated to the gods Baalshamin and Bel.

The temples date back around 2,000 years and featured several massive, finely decorated columns. At the time the temples were in use, Palmyra was under Roman control. The city was becoming a hub for trade, bringing the city great wealth.

Peking Man

Homo erectus fossil from Zhoukoudian caves. (Image credit: Copyright Russell L. Ciochon, Univ. of Iowa)

A series of fossils from a hominid species named Homo erectus pekinensis (more popularly known as Peking Man) were excavated in the 1920s and 1930s at Zhoukoudian cave in China. They dated back about half a million years. In 1937, Japanese troops invaded China; in 1941, the fossils were packed into crates in an attempt to ship them to safety in the United States. What happened afterward is unclear, but many scholars believe that the fossils were lost en route to America.

Despite the loss of the fossils, research into Peking Man is ongoing. A new series of excavations was conducted recently at Zhoukoudian cave, revealing that Peking Man was able to use fire, haft spears, work wood and design clothesthat provided protection during cold weather. The clothing and fire skills would have been particularly important, as research also indicates that Peking Man may have arrived in China as early as 780,000 years ago, when China's climate was colder.

Tenere Tree

Before it was destroyed, the Tree of Tenere was an isolated acacia tree located in the Tenere region of the Sahara Desert in modern-day Niger. (Image credit: Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic)

Before it was destroyed, the Tree of Tenere was an isolated acacia tree located in the Tenere region of the Sahara Desert in modern-day Niger. The tree was supposedly the only tree growing for hundreds of miles and was arguably the most isolated tree on Earth. The uniqueness of the tree made it a landmark for people navigating the barren landscape.

The tree's roots ran down to the water table, and although the tree's age is not known, researchers presume that it started growing at a time when the Tenere region was wetter. [What's the World's Oldest Tree?]

The tree met its end in 1973 when a vehicle collided into it. Reports suggest that the driver was drunk, although this claim is unconfirmed. Today, a metal sculpture of the tree stands where the tree once grew.

Buddhas of Bamiyan

The taller Buddha of Bamiyan before (left picture) and after destruction (right). (Image credit: Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported)

Two giant Buddha statues stood in niches that were 180 feet (55 meters) and 125 feet (38 m) high at the Bamiyan Valley in Afghanistan. Dating back more than 1,500 years, they were part of "a large ensemble of Buddhist monasteries, chapels and sanctuaries along the foothills of the valley dating from the 3rd to the 5th century," the UNESCO World Heritage Site listingsays. [Photos of UNESCO World Heritage Sites]

In March 2001, the Buddhas were dynamited and destroyed by the Taliban, which, at the time, controlled most of Afghanistan. The Taliban were pushed out of the region at the end of 2001, and archaeological teams were able to excavate parts of the site that had not been destroyed. A light projection system has been used to recreate the image of the statues in the niches.

The image shows the taller Buddha of Bamiyan before (left) and after destruction (right).

Mar Behnam Monastery

The Virgins Vault (pictured here) dates to the 13th century and contains a series of enigmatic inscriptions written in Syriac and Arabic. Even if you can read the languages the inscriptions dont make any sense if you read them left to right or right to left. To understand them you have to know which inscription follows the other. If you can do this a fantastic image forms... (Image credit: Amir Harrak)

The Mar Behnam Monasteryis located in Iraq near the city of Mosul and dates back to the sixth century A.D. Destroyed by ISIS in 2014, the Christian monastery contained architecture and inscriptions that stretched back over 1,500 years of history.

In the years before ISIS destroyed the monastery, Amir Harrak documented Mar Behnam's inscriptions and architecture. Harrak, a professor of Near and Middle Eastern civilizations at the University of Toronto, is now working with the Canadian Centre for Epigraphic Documentsto digitize the photographs and records of his research.

Pyramid at Nohmul complex

Workers in Belize bulldozed a Mayan pyramid. The Mayans built impressive structures like this Pyramid of Kukulkan in Chichen Itza, Mexico. (Image credit: stock.xchng)

In 2013, a 100-foot-tall (30 meters) pyramid mound was bulldozed at the Nohmul complex, a ceremonial Maya site in Belize that dates back more than 2,000 years. The Associated Pressreported that it was bulldozed to extract crushed rock for a road-building project. The pyramid stood on private land and was protected by Belize laws that prohibit the destruction of ancient sites.

"They were using this for road fill," Jaime Awe, the head of the Belize Institute of Archaeology, told the Associated Press. "These guys knew that this was an ancient structure. It's just bloody laziness."

The Mantle Site

A tantalizing glimpse at the faces of the people of the Mantle site. (Image credit: Owen Jarus)

In both Canada and the United States, pressure to build housing and commercial space have led to the destruction of Native American archaeological sites that date back centuries. The Mantle Site a 500-year-old Native American site in Whitchurch-Stouffville, Ontario, that held almost 100 longhouses  was excavated between 2003 and 2005. Then, the site was paved over to make way for a subdivision.

While the wooden structures of the longhouses were mostly decayed, the artifactsremained, and archaeologists were able to remove them from the site before it was destroyed. The site was located in Ontario, a jurisdiction that has been criticized for having lax heritage protection laws. Those laws were recently changed; if the new laws had been around in 2003, the site might have been saved, according to the archaeologists who excavated there.

Frauenkirche Dresden

The Frauenkirche cathedral in Dresden, Germany, was reconstructed after its destruction. (Image credit: kavalenkava volha / Shutterstock.com)

A fantastic cathedral was constructed in the Baroque style during the 18th century in Dresden, in what is now Germany. Designed by architect George Bahr, the dome of the cathedral weighed 12,000 tons. Work began on the cathedral in 1722, and it took decades to complete; the sheer weight of the dome proved difficult to stabilize.

On the night of Feb. 13-14, 1945, the city of Dresden was subjected to a firebombing campaign by allied bombers meant to destroy German military units, installations, factories and workers' homes. The cathedral's wooden pews and galleries burned in the blaze, and the cathedral was subjected to extreme heat. Within two days, the cathedral had collapsed.

Historians have since argued over whether the bombing of Dresden was necessary. A new cathedral has been constructed, and its parishioners conduct extensive peace and reconciliation work.

Amber Room

Constructed in the 18th century, the amber room contained mosaics, gemstones, mirrors, carvings gilded with gold, and panels constructed out of almost 1,000 lbs. (450 kilograms) of amber. (Image credit: Public domain, courtesy of Wikicommons)

The amber room was located in Catherine Palace(named for the wife of Peter the Great) in Tsarskoe Selo, near St. Petersburg, Russia. Constructed in the 18th century, the room contained mosaics, gemstones, mirrors, carvings gilded with gold, and panels constructed out of almost 1,000 lbs. (450 kilograms) of amber. The room's ornate decoration and beauty are difficult to describe in words.

Tsarskoe Selo was captured by Germany in 1941 during the invasion of Russia. The amber room was disassembled by German forces and transported westward toward Germany. Although archaeologists and historians have proposed many theories as to its whereabouts, the location of the disassembled amber room is still unknown. Today, a recreation of the amber room is located at Catherine Palace.
New clues about the genetics involved in Lou Gehrig's disease are revealed today in two new studies, thanks in large part to donations from the wildly popular Ice Bucket Challenge of 2014.

The findings could one day lead to gene therapy treatments, in which researchers would replace faulty genes in people with the disease, or add new ones to fight the condition, also known as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), the researchers said.

In one study, the researchers looked at the genes of more than 1,000 people who had ALS (and also had the condition in their family), and compared the results to the genes of about 7,300 people without the disorder. [Top 10 Mysterious Diseases]

The results showed about 3 percent of the people with ALS carried a faulty version of a gene called NEK1, making this gene one of the most common genes implicated in contributing to the disease that has been found to date among people with the condition, the researchers said.

"The discovery of NEK1 highlights the value of 'big data' in ALS research," Lucie Bruijn, chief scientist of the ALS Association, who was not involved in the study, said in a statement. "The ALS Ice Bucket Challenge enabled The ALS Association to invest" in maintaining large repositories of samples from people with ALS, to allow research projects that find exactly these types of results, she said.

About 1 in 400 people will be diagnosed with ALS during their lifetime, the researchers said. The degenerative condition affects nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord, often leading to paralysis and deathwithin 2 to 5 years of diagnosis. There is no cure, and few effective treatments, they said.

About 10 percent of ALS cases are genetic, whereas the other 90 percent are sporadic, meaning they occur in people with no family history of the condition.

The researchers also found instances of the faulty NEK1 gene in another group, in the Netherlands. That group of about 13,000 people were diagnosed with the sporadic form of ALS.

It's likely that the NEK1 variations  in people with both the familial and the sporadic forms of the disease  disable the gene, which has many important roles, the researchers said.

For instance, NEK1 helps nerve cells function, and maintains the cytoskeleton that gives nerve cells their shape. The gene also regulates the membranes of mitochondria, the powerhouse of the cells, which provides energy for neurons' activities, including DNA repair.

More ALS genes

In the other study, another ALS research team discovered three different gene variants that are linked to ALS risk. One of the genes, called C21orf2, is associated with a 65 percent increased risk of the disease, the researchers said.

However, it's unclear what C21orf2 does, though it may be related to the internal skeleton and movement of cells, the researchers said. The gene is located on chromosome 21.

During their investigation, the researchers also looked at genetic data from a database called Project MinE, which includes the whole genomes (that is, all of the DNA "letters") of 1,861 people with and without ALS. They replicated their results in two other groups, for a total of more than 41,000 people.

This research identified two genes, called SCFD1 and MOBP, that are associated with increased ASL risk. The MOBP gene codes for proteins found in myelin, a sheath that covers nerves in the central nervous system, according to a 2006 study in the journal Developmental Neuroscience.

Overall, they found that one or two faulty genes could have an enormous impact on a person's risk of developing ALS, which is different from other conditions in which many genes may contribute to a smaller increased risk of a specific disorder.

"Any one of many rare gene variations contributes a large risk for ALS development," study co-author Ammar Al-Chalabi, a professor at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience at King's College London, said in a statement. "This insight is crucial as it affects the types of treatment strategies that might be effective."

Both studies were published online (opens in new tab) Monday (July 25) in the journal Nature Genetics (opens in new tab).

Original article on Live Science.
Baku, Azerbaijan, July 27

By Rufiz Hafizoglu  Trend:

Turkeys consultations with Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan contributed to the normalization of relations with Russia, said Turkeys former Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, NTV channel reported July 27.

Davutoglu said that Turkey needs a rapprochement with Russia.

He believes that Turkey is conducting a right policy with regard to Russia, starting the process of bilateral relations normalization.

Commenting on the Su-24 bomber incident, Davutoglu noted that no matter how developed the relations between Russia and Turkey after the crisis, nevertheless, Ankara acted within the law in the case of violation of the countrys airspace.

Earlier, Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim, commenting on the improvement of relations between Turkey and Russia, thanked Azerbaijan for its contribution to normalization of the relations.

The relations between Russia and Turkey deteriorated after the Su-24 bomber incident in 2015.

On June 27, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan sent a letter of condolences to Putin over the death of Russian Su-24 pilot and expressed regret over the incident.

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Longfords tourism and economic future looks set to be transformed after An Bord Pleanala today gave the go ahead for a 233m leisure resort in Ballymahon.

The board granted planning permission with 21 conditions including that the proposed lodges shall only be used as short-term tourist accommodation and that Biodiversity Action Plan incorporating a Woodland Management Plan shall be submitted. Other conditions include that the requirements of the planning authority in respect of road design shall be determined and complied with in respect of a number of matters.

Another condition imposed states that all traffic, both at construction and operational stages, accessing the site shall not use the Clooncallow Road, Newcastle Road north of the site entrance, Abbeyshrule Road north of the site and Ballymulvey Road (Ballymahon to Newcastle Bridge). The board also ordered that the developer pay 25,000 to the planning authority as a special contribution to allow for the independent monitoring of traffic during construction and during operational stages at Newcastle Bridge, Clooncallow Road and at the entrance to the proposed development. Separately, the company shall pay a financial contribution in respect of public infrastructure and facilities benefiting development in the area to the planning authority.

UK based family holiday provider Center Parcs has vowed to create 1,000 full and part time jobs with the opening of a 395 acre site at Newcastle Wood in 2019.

Those plans have, until now, been forced to take a back seat pending the outcome of an appeal which was lodged with the board in March.

A decision had been expected on Monday, however a spokesperson for the State planning authority insisted the file was still with its officials.

Close to 500 lodges, 20 apartments and a 30,000 sq/m complex, including an indoor swimming pool plaza are just some of the many attractions Center Parcs has lined up for what is to become known as Longford Forest.

It has also predicted delivering 1bn to Irelands gross domestic product (GDP) over the next 20 years.

An Bord Pleanalas decision can be viewed at http://www.pleanala.ie/casenum/246336.htm
By Alan Walsh

Following the decision by An Bord Pleanala to uphold the planning permission granted by Longford County Council for the development of Center Parcs Longford Forest, Center Parcs CEO Martin Dalby says he is looking forward to forging ahead with the 230m project.

Approximately 750 jobs will be created during the construction of Center Parcs Longford Forest at Newcastle Wood near Ballymahon and when operational it will employ up to 1,000 people in permanent jobs.

Commenting on the successful conclusion of the planning process, Martin Dalby, CEO of Center Parcs, said: We warmly welcome approval from An Bord Pleanala to proceed with our plans to develop Center Parcs Longford Forest.

He added, Since we announced our desire to bring the Center Parcs experience to Ireland last April, we have been overwhelmed by the positive support we have received at both local and national level and we are looking forward to forging ahead to bring our plans to fruition.

Mr Dalby said Center Parcs Longford Forest will transform the midlands.

We outlined from day one the transformative impact that Center Parcs Longford Forest will have on the midlands region in both tourism and economic terms.

We will continue to work closely with all stakeholders over the coming years to realise this significant potential and, ultimately, to bring our unique short break experience to life for families throughout Ireland.

Following todays successful conclusion of the planning process, Center Parcs will now move to the procurement phase of the project which will be followed by construction.

Center Parcs is working towards an opening date in 2019.

Center Parcs Longford Forest will create approximately 750 jobs during construction. Once open, the forest holiday village will have capacity for up to 2,500 guests and employ up to 1,000 people in permanent jobs.

Many of these roles are expected to be filled by employees between the ages of 18 and 24, and the majority of employees are likely to live locally and in the surrounding midlands region.

Center Parcs estimates that, when operational, the new holiday village will add approximately 32 million to Irelands GDP per annum.

Center Parcs offers high quality short breaks in a secluded and natural woodland setting.

Center Parcs Longford Forest will epitomise the high quality features for which Center Parcs is renowned, including up to 500 lodges, designed with families and the environment in mind, more than 100 indoor and outdoor activities, a spa, a range of restaurants and cafes and the iconic Subtropical Swimming Paradise, with water rides and fun for all ages.

Over the last 29 years, Center Parcs has exhibited a proven track record of taking commercial woodlands and, through careful forest management, transforming them into areas rich in biodiversity.

Center Parcs Longford Forest will have a dedicated team of Conservation Rangers who will protect and nurture the beautiful woodland.
This mornings confirmation that An Bord Pleanala has given the go-ahead for Center Parcs Longford Forest holiday village at Ballymahon has been warmly welcomed by local politicians and business groups.

Longford Chamber of Commerce President Derek Scanlon said, This is a landmark project for County Longford and will enhance the local community and economy immeasurably.

Mr Scanlon added, We have a large number of hidden tourism gems already in County Longford, not least, the fantastic waterways that are the River Shannon, the River Inny, the Royal Canal, historic and award winning villages such as Ardagh, Newtowncashel and Abbeyshrule, monastic monuments and sites and of course the newly refurbished Cathedral in Longford Town. This exciting new development will be the jewel in the crown for our tourism initiatives.

He thanked the Center Parcs team for choosing Longford and for their dedication to making this project a reality. Mr Scanlon concluded, I must also highly commend the community of Ballymahon and Ballymahon Traders who have warmly welcomed this project and the team from Center Parcs right from the outset. Their hard work in conjunction with the Members and Executive of Longford County Council has led us to this decision today. Longford Abu.

Fianna Fail TD Robert Troy pointed out that the Center Parcs Longford Forest project shows that a co-ordinated effort between local and national agencies alongside cross-party support can deliver vital investment for the Midlands region.

Deputy Troy outlined, Longford County Council and Coillte are to be commended for their efforts in advancing this project, something which has been acknowledged by Center Parcs CEO Mr Martin Dalby. Fianna Fail has been a long supporter of this proposal. I welcome the comments made by Mr Dalby today that he intends on proceeding with the project without delay.

He concluded, We will continue to work to ensure investment is continued for the Midlands region in the years ahead.

Independent Alliance TD Kevin Boxer Moran said todays news represents a major vote of confidence in county Longford. I wish Center Parcs every good wish as they now set about bringing their Longford Forest project to fruition. I look forward to seeing construction beginning as soon as possible.

Deputy Moran continued, My sincere hope is that this mornings news will deliver a permanent boost to the local economy that will be self-sustaining for decades to come. This investment is equivalent to an Intel or Google coming to the midlands.

Fine Gael Deputy Peter Burke stressed the importance of having sufficient training in place for the local workforce, to ensure that as many of the 750 jobs (during construction) and the 1,000 permanent jobs (when Center Parcs Longford Forest opens in 2019) as possible, stay locally.

Deputy Burke added, We need to take full advantage of this once in a lifetime opportunity for Longford and the Midlands. As the Government TD for Longford, I will be working hard to ensure that Government provides maximum support for this development and all the advantages it will hopefully bring.

Labour Deputy Willie Penrose Deputy Penrose said it is a red letter day for Longford and the wider Midlands region.

Deputy Penrose remarked, Center Parcs Longford Forest can become a magnificent jewel in the crown for the tourism sector.

He added, The potential economic impact is huge and it will boost investment across Longford and Westmeath, and will be transformative from the perspective of employment opportunities economic activity and spin off opportunities.

I compliment everyone concerned who put their shoulders to the wheel so as to secure this huge project for the Ballymahon area. Having witnessed first-hand how Center Parcs operates in England, I am confident that Longford Forest will be a great success.
Baku, Azerbaijan, July 27

By Orkhan Quluzade - Trend:

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has received Hulusi Akar, chief of general staff of the countrys armed forces, and Binali Yildirim, the countrys prime minister, Turkish Haber 7 newspaper wrote July 27.

According to the newspaper, the meeting was devoted to the session of Turkey's Supreme Military Council, to be held July 28.

A military coup attempt and reforms in the Turkish security structures will be the main topics of the session, the message said.

This will be the first session of the Supreme Military Council after the coup attempt in Turkey, the message said.

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.

Turkeys President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that the death toll as a result of the military coup attempt stood at 246 people excluding the coup plotters and over 2,000 people were wounded.

President Erdogan declared a three-month state of emergency in the country on July 20.
Baku, Azerbaijan, July 27

By Rufiz Hafizoglu - Trend:

The investigation and the testimony of the arrested generals involved in the coup attempt in Turkey has revealed that Ali Yazici, adviser to Turkeys President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, stands behind the assassination attempt on the president, the Sabah newspaper reported July 27.

Yazici gave information about Erdogans location to the servicemen who bombed the hotel where the president was staying.

Reportedly, Yazici was paying 20 percent of his salary to the organization of Fethullah Gulen each month as support to his movement.

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. Turkeys President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that the death toll as a result of the military coup attempt stood at 246 people excluding the coup plotters and over 2,000 people were wounded.

Erdogan declared a three-month state of emergency in Turkey on July 20.

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Follow the author on Twitter: @rhafizoglu
Baku, Azerbaijan, July 27

By Rufiz Hafizoglu  Trend:

Turkey has dismissed 1,180 employees of the countrys Ministry of Labor and Social Security as part of the fight against the movement of Fethullah Gulen, Milliyet newspaper reported July 27.

It is expected that the number of dismissed people will rise.

Turkey is carrying out cleansing in almost all state institutions after the attempted coup in the country.

According to Turkeys Interior Ministry, 15,846 people were detained on July 27, 10,000 of which are servicemen. Meanwhile, 8,133 of them were arrested.

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.

Turkeys President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that the death toll as a result of the military coup attempt stood at 246 people excluding the coup plotters and over 2,000 people were wounded.

President Erdogan declared a three-month state of emergency in the country on July 20.

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Follow the author on Twitter: @rhafizoglu
Baku, Azerbaijan, July 27

By Rufiz Hafizoglu - Trend:

Displaying Turkish flag in rallies in support of Turkish government following the military coup attempt in this country has been banned in Austrias Wiener Neustadt city.

The local authorities have also banned hanging Turkish flags from balconies, or flying them on cars.

Reportedly, the local authorities have also made a statement saying that Turks, who dont want to obey local laws, can leave the city.

Over 250,000 Turks reside in Austria, according to the official data.

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. Turkeys President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that the death toll as a result of the military coup attempt stood at 246 people excluding the coup plotters and over 2,000 people were wounded.

Erdogan declared a three-month state of emergency in Turkey on July 20.

---

Follow the author on Twitter: @rhafizoglu
Saleh Noh Mohamed, a former Somali MP, as seen at a Shabaab event in 2013

Shabaab claimed that Saleh Noh Mohamed, a former Somali Member of Parliament (MP) who defected to Shabaab in 2010, took part in yesterdays suicide attack near an African Union (AU) base at the Mogadishu airport. The attack left 13 people dead and wounded 19 others wounded.

On the Shahada News (a Shabaab outlet) Telegram account, the jihadist group said that Saleh Noh was one of the suicide bombers that targeted a base in Mogadishu. He was formerly a deputy in parliament. Radio Andalus, one of Shabaabs radio stations and media outlets in Somalia, later confirmed this report saying that Noh was one of the drivers of yesterdays double suicide car bombing on the AU base.

Noh was originally an MP in the Transitional National Government and its successor the Transitional Federal Government of Somalia from 2000 to 2010, according to Somali media. However, in 2010, he publicly defected to Shabaab citing the governments failure to enact Sharia as his reason. Shabaab also released a photo of Noh (seen above) at a Sharia school ran by the al Qaeda branch in 2013.

Shabaab continues to demonstrate that, despite a large presence of African Union forces, it retains the ability to strike high-security areas. Since 2014, Shabaab has attacked the parliament, the presidents compound, and a high security intelligence headquarters, as well as numerous hotels where government officials meet. In June 2013, a Shabaab team struck at the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) compound in Mogadishu; several UNDP employees were killed and the jihadist group briefly took over the compound. And in 2010, Shabaab was able to launch a suicide assault on an African Union medical clinic in the Mogadishu airport.

Bill Roggio is a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and the Editor of The Long War Journal. Caleb Weiss is a research analyst at FDD's Long War Journal and a senior analyst at the Bridgeway Foundation, where he focuses on the spread of the Islamic State in Central Africa.

Are you a dedicated reader of FDD's Long War Journal? Has our research benefitted you or your team over the years? Support our independent reporting and analysis today by considering a one-time or monthly donation. Thanks for reading! You can make a tax-deductible donation here.
The Islamic States Amaq News Agency has released a video purportedly featuring the two terrorists responsible for attacking a church in Normandy, France yesterday. The assailants killed an elderly priest during a morning mass in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, took several people hostage, and were then gunned down by police.

A screen shot of the jihadists shown in Amaqs video can be seen above. One of the two, identified as Abu Jalil al Hanafi, bows his head as he swears bayah (an oath of allegiance) to Abu Bakr al Baghdadi. Abu Jalil uses the honorific Emir ul-Muminin, or Emir of the Faithful, for Baghdadi. This title is usually reserved for the caliph.

Abu Jalils pledge of fealty, which he delivers on behalf of himself and his comrade, Abu Omar, contains the standard formulation used by Islamic State followers around the globe. He promises to obey Baghdadi in almost all circumstances.

Amaq has now released three similar videos in the span of ten days.

On July 18, a teenager attacked a train in Wurzburg, Germany, seriously injuring some of the passengers on board. Amaq posted a video of the terrorist, who was identified as Muhammad Riyad. While brandishing a knife, Riyad called on all Muslims to swear allegiance to Baghdadi, arguing that the caliphate has been resurrected in Iraq, Syria and elsewhere. [See LWJ report, Teenager who terrorized German train appears in Islamic State video.]

Then, on July 24, a suicide bomber detonated his explosive device outside a music festival in Ansbach, Germany. In a video released on July 26, Amaq said the bombers name was Mohammad Daleel. Just like Abu Jalil and Muhammad Riyad, Daleel swore allegiance to Baghdadi in his short clip. [See LWJ report, Attacks in France and Germany claimed by Islamic State propaganda arm.]

The three releases by Amaq demonstrate that Islamic State loyalists are able to get their videos into the propaganda outfits hands prior to their chosen day of terror. This requires at least some level of coordination, even if only over the internet.

An Naba magazine, which is also part of the Islamic States media machine, released a profile of Daleel within hours of Amaqs video. According to Nabas biography, Daleel (also known as Abu Yusuf al Karar) was a veteran of the jihad in Syria. He originally joined the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI), the precursor to the current Islamic State, and then migrated back to Aleppo.

Daleel allegedly fought against the Nusayri regime, meaning forces loyal to Bashar al Assads government. (Nusayri is a derogatory term for Alawites.) He joined Al Nusrah Front, which was originally an arm of the ISI before it broke off and became its own branch of al Qaeda. However, Daleel was wounded and left Syria for treatment.

After the so-called caliphate was declared, according to Naba, Daleel attempted to make his way back to Syria to rejoin the jihad. His attempts to reach Syria failed, so Daleel decided to strike inside Germany. Naba indicates that Daleel planned his deed for months and was in contact with another, unnamed Islamic State soldier, who assisted Daleel.

It appears that both Daleel and at least one of the two attackers in Normandy were prevented from joining the Islamic State in Syria after the groups caliphate declaration in the summer of 2014.

French authorities have identified one of the terrorists in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray as a 19 year-old named Adel Kermiche. He may be the young man known as Abu Jalil al Hanafi in Amaqs video. Kermiche reportedly tried to join the Islamic State in Syria twice, but failed. The Wall Street Journal reported that Kermiche served 10 months in prison for his attempted travels, but was released in March 2016 on condition he wear an electronic monitoring bracelet, over the objections of prosecutors who still viewed him as a risk.

The Islamic State has repeatedly called on its members and supporters to carry out attacks in the West if they are prevented from migrating to the lands of the caliphate.

In May of this year, Islamic State spokesman Abu Muhammad al Adnani told followers that if foreign governments have shut the door of hijrah [migration] in your faces, then they should open the door of jihad in theirs, meaning in the West.

Make your deed a source of their regret, Adnani continued. Truly, the smallest act you do in their lands is more beloved to us than the biggest act done here; it is more effective for us and more harmful to them.

If one of you wishes and strives to reach the lands of the Islamic State, Adnani told his audience, then each of us wishes to be in your place to make examples of the crusaders, day and night, scaring them and terrorizing them, until every neighbor fears his neighbor.

Adnani told jihadists that they should not make light of throwing a stone at a crusader in his land, nor should they underestimate any deed, as its consequences are great for the mujahidin and its effect is noxious to the disbelievers.

Thus far, the available evidence suggests that some of the recent attacks in Europe were carried out by men who heeded Adnanis advice. Amaq claimed that the operation[s] in both Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, France and Ansbach, Germany were executed in response to calls to target nations in the coalition fighting the Islamic State.

Thomas Joscelyn is a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and the Senior Editor for FDD's Long War Journal.

Are you a dedicated reader of FDD's Long War Journal? Has our research benefitted you or your team over the years? Support our independent reporting and analysis today by considering a one-time or monthly donation. Thanks for reading! You can make a tax-deductible donation here.
Baku, Azerbaijan, July 27

By Rufiz Hafizoglu - Trend:

Removing the supporters of Fethullah Gulen from the armed forces is a priority for Turkey, said the countrys Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus in an interview with TGRT TV channel.

He noted that reforms are expected in Turkish armed forces.

The Gendarmerie and Coast Guard will subordinate to the Interior Ministry as part of these reforms, added Kurtulmus.

Protecting the country, but not planning military coups should be the purpose of Turkish armed forces, said the deputy prime minister.

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. Turkeys President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that the death toll as a result of the military coup attempt stood at 246 people excluding the coup plotters and over 2,000 people were wounded.

Erdogan declared a three-month state of emergency in Turkey on July 20.

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Follow the author on Twitter: @rhafizoglu
Adult Summer Camp at The Ritz-Carlton, Bachelor Gulch

Naturalist Activities



Daily Guided Hike  Experience the majestic views from Bachelor Gulch while learning fascinating facts about the plants and animals that thrive during Colorado's beautiful summer months. Along the way, there will be plenty of opportunities to capture the experience with stunning photos. Offered daily from 10:00  11:30 a.m.

 Experience the majestic views from Bachelor Gulch while learning fascinating facts about the plants and animals that thrive during Colorado's beautiful summer months. Along the way, there will be plenty of opportunities to capture the experience with stunning photos. Offered daily from 10:00  11:30 a.m.

Whiskey and Woodburning  Guests can create a one-of-a-kind souvenir of their trip by using a wood burning tool to etch a unique design into their choice of a wooden cheese board or coaster set. Offered Friday 5:00  6:00 p.m. $25 per person; includes signature whiskey drink

 Guests can create a one-of-a-kind souvenir of their trip by using a wood burning tool to etch a unique design into their choice of a wooden cheese board or coaster set. Offered Friday 5:00  6:00 p.m. $25 per person; includes signature whiskey drink

Painting and Pinot  Inspired by the majestic surrounding Rockies, guests can spend the afternoon sipping wine and painting a rustic masterpiece by following step-by-step instructions. Offered Saturday from 5:00  6:30 p.m. $25 per person; includes glass of wine

 Inspired by the majestic surrounding Rockies, guests can spend the afternoon sipping wine and painting a rustic masterpiece by following step-by-step instructions. Offered Saturday from 5:00  6:30 p.m. $25 per person; includes glass of wine

Art in Nature  Celebrate the beauty that surrounds the resort by crafting a masterpiece souvenir inspired by the great outdoors. Experiment with watercolors, photo-sensitive paper, and much more. Offered Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 2:00  3:00 p.m.

 Celebrate the beauty that surrounds the resort by crafting a masterpiece souvenir inspired by the great outdoors. Experiment with watercolors, photo-sensitive paper, and much more. Offered Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 2:00  3:00 p.m.

Nature Concierge Table  Chat with one of the knowledgeable naturalists about trails, wildlife sightings, and more. Or, stop by to learn about the mountain plants and animals through fun, hands-on activities. Offered Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday from 8:30  9:30 a.m.

 Chat with one of the knowledgeable naturalists about trails, wildlife sightings, and more. Or, stop by to learn about the mountain plants and animals through fun, hands-on activities. Offered Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday from 8:30  9:30 a.m.

Birdwatching  Wake up with a cup of freshly brewed coffee and take in the amazing sights and sounds of Bachelor Gulch's amazing avian life. Offered Sunday from 7:30  8:30 a.m.

Wake up with a cup of freshly brewed coffee and take in the amazing sights and sounds of Bachelor Gulch's amazing avian life. Offered Sunday from 7:30  8:30 a.m.

Lawn Games Challenge  Enjoy nostalgic games such as a two-person team challenge like disc golf toss, ladder ball, horseshoes, and more. The top scorers will win a prize. Offered Saturday from 1:00  2:00 p.m.

 Enjoy nostalgic games such as a two-person team challenge like disc golf toss, ladder ball, horseshoes, and more. The top scorers will win a prize. Offered Saturday from 1:00  2:00 p.m.

Fire Building and S'mores  Learn different techniques for building and starting a fire. Then, assist a naturalist as she lights the fire pit for the evening and indulge in a sweet gourmet s'more! Offered Friday at 7:00 p.m.



Anderson's Cabin

Putting a fun and lively spin on classic kids camp activities, The Ritz-Carlton, Bachelor Gulch is offering adult guests the chance to embrace their inner child and relive the joys of summer camp as a grown-up.From Whiskey and Woodburning or Painting and Pinot arts & crafts classes, to adult-friendly treasure hunt expeditions, educational hikes, and intimate dinners in a historic event space, guests can try out different experiences each day throughout their stay, and create lasting memories of their mini summer camp getaway.Led by the resort's expert Resident Naturalists, guests can learn about and explore the breathtaking scenery that surrounds The Ritz-Carlton, Bachelor Gulch. Offerings include:Those wishing for a private naturalist experience can select from a range of offerings, from Guided Hikes and Treasure Hunt Expeditions, to Canine Adventure Hikes and Sunset Strolls followed by stargazing.All private guided hikes are available at a cost of $160 for up to 4 guests and $25 for each additional guest. Hikes are typically two hours in length but can be tailored to fit guests' needs and preferences.After the summer camp fun has come to an end for the day, adults can host their own private dinners or intimate gatherings in the newest event space at The Ritz-Carlton, Bachelor Gulch, Anderson's Cabin  a rustic one-room cabin that was previously home to one of Bachelor Gulch's original settlers in the 1900s. Nestled between the Aspen trees above the resort, Anderson's Cabin is available for guests to reserve daily for private gatherings and gourmet dining experiences. The cabin can accommodate up to 50 guests in the summer and features a selection of gourmet Rocky Mountain menu offerings. Guests can enjoy the lush meadow just steps outside the cabin, and at night, gather around the campfire and listen to stories about the history of Bachelor Gulch told by the resort's Resident Naturalists.To secure a reservation at Anderson's Cabin, as well as learn more about menu offerings, contact Victoria Raeburn in Catering Sales at The Ritz-Carlton, Bachelor Gulch by phone at (970) 343-1028 or by email at victoria.raeburn@ritzcarlton.com For more information on The Ritz-Carlton, Bachelor Gulch, visit www.ritzcarlton.com/en/hotels/colorado/bachelor-gulch or follow the resort on Facebook: www.facebook.com/ritzcarltonbachelorgulch and join the conversation using #RCMemories.
Baku, Azerbaijan, July 27

Trend:

Chief of General Staff of Turkish Armed Forces Hulusi Akar has demanded Fethullah Gulens extradition from USA during phone conversation with his American colleague July 27, Haber 7 reported.

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.

Turkeys President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that the death toll as a result of the military coup attempt stood at 246 people excluding the coup plotters and over 2,000 people were wounded.

President Erdogan declared a three-month state of emergency in the country on July 20.
Celebrate the 20th Anniversary of the New France Festival in QuAbec City from August 3-7

July 27, 2016

The festival will feature over 400 shows, with 200 artists performing in Old Quebec, mainly at the Fortifications of Quebec National Historic Site, which is designated UNESCO World Heritage Site.



The New France Festival welcomes over 200,000 visitors each year to rejoice in gastronomical activities, historic reenactments, and take part in historic lectures, showcasing with humor the 17th and 18th century period when Quebec was a French colony.



Highlights include:



 Flavor's Market for foodies: Themed gourmet experiences, barbecues and local produce will be available for food lovers at the Flavor's Market. Visitors will get a chance to sample food delicacies inspired from Huron-Wendat, the Celtic era and Acadia;



 Music shows at the TD Stage for music lovers: Music is a major part of the festival, with a variety of concerts every night. This year visitors can enjoy performances by Sally Folk, Nicolas Pellerin et les Grands Hurleurs- proud winners of two Traditional Album of the Year, Felix Awards, La Volee D'Castors and many others. Further, Acadia and Senegal will perform during the International Francophonie Day celebrations on August 5th. From Acadia, visitors can enjoy performances by Joseph Edgar, Annie Blanchard and Arthur Comeau;



 The Opening Day parade- August 3, 7 pm - The Opening Day parade will feature a historical version of New France float, composed of ships on wheels. These new structures will march alongside the traditional Giants  a parade of giant effigies.Visitors can rent period costumes in town and participate in the parade along with locals.








Experience Egypt, From the Pyramids to the Nile

Offering the same standard of service A&K is known for, Essential Egypt: The Pyramids & a Nile River Cruise offers exceptional value and includes expert Egyptologist guides at the Pyramids and the Sphinx, the Egyptian Museum of Antiquities, and the temples along the Nile on a threenight cruise from Aswan to Luxor aboard the award-winning Sun Boat IV.' Solo travellers save up to $595 with no single supplement on select cabin categories.Limited to a small group of no more than 24 guests, Essential Egypt: The Pyramids & a Nile River Cruise features the following: The treasures of Tutankhamun and the Mummy Room at the Egyptian Museum of Antiquities with artifacts dating back to 4000 BC explained by your expert local guide The Giza Plateau, home to the Great Sphinx and ancient pyramids, including the Great Pyramid of Cheops, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Sites along the Nile including the Valley of the Kings, home to the tomb of King Tutankhamun; the Temple of Kom Ombo, dedicated to the crocodile-god Sobek; the Temple of Horus at Edfu; the strikingly graceful Temple of Luxor and the sprawling Temple of Karnak. Cruise on a local boat to the majestic Philae Temple on the island of Agilika. On board Sun Boat IV, get a taste of local cuisine during an Egyptian cooking lesson and attend a festive Egyptian Night costume party and dinner, featuring live music and the chance to wear a traditional Egyptian galabeyya. Accommodations include 3 nights in Cairo at Fairmont Nile City and 3 nights aboard Sun Boat IV from Aswan to Luxor An expert local guide in Cairo and a certified Egyptologist throughout the cruise No single supplement on Nile Deck and Main Deck cabins Six nights priced from $2,495 per person, double occupancy; Internal Air: $355Discover the highlights of Egypt with A&K at an unbeatable price at, call 800 554 7094 to speak with a travel consultant or contact your travel professional.Pricing is per person, double occupancy
The head of the UN on Wednesday expressed solidarity with the government and people of Turkey during a telephone call with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu regarding a recent coup attempt, Anadolu reported.



In a statement from the global body, Ban Ki-moon also offered sympathies to the families of the victims of the overthrow attempt and sought an update on investigations and measures to hold those responsible to account.



Ban recognized "the extraordinary circumstances prevailing in the country following the coup attempt", but "expressed his expectation that Turkey adhere to its international human rights obligations, upholding fundamental rights and universal principles," the statement said.



"Heartened by the government and opposition rallying around upholding the republic, the Secretary-General trusts that the government and people of Turkey will transform this moment of uncertainty into a moment of unity, preserving Turkey's democracy," it added.

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.

Turkeys President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that the death toll as a result of the military coup attempt stood at 246 people excluding the coup plotters and over 2,000 people were wounded.

President Erdogan declared a three-month state of emergency in the country on July 20.




Two months ago, I promised to give you the lowdown on my favorite iOS language learning app. But there was a catch: at the time, I didnt know which one to pick. So, I spent hours researching iOS language apps, both free and paid, before deciding on three to take for a spin: Duolingo, which is free to use, plus Babbel and Rosetta Stone, both of which come with a brief trial period, but require a monthly subscription thereafter. I dedicated myself to using each app for 20 minutes a day, on my iPhone or iPad, for two months, with the intention of uncovering which one I liked the most or at the very least, which one ticked me off the least.

And here we are.

Honorable Mention: Babbel

Initially, Babbel sounded great: a language-learning app that teaches you between 2,000 to 3,000 words for each language it offers, audio clips from native language speakers, and a constantly evolving database of words to review that grows as you progress through each stage. But the app has enough frustrating quirks that, after two months of use, I cant recommend it. Babbel doesnt do anything terribly wrong. Rather, its faults can be found in 1,000 little irritants spread throughout the app.

Babbels confusing, disjointed visuals make it a hard app to love.

Instead of using mission-specific illustrations or photos that speak to the lesson being taught like Duolingo or Rosetta Stone do, Babbel seems to rely on stock photos which sometimes, sort of, have something to do with the word or phrase the app is trying to drive into your skull. One will in black and white, the next in color or even run through an filter that smacks of Instagram. It makes for a jarring visual experience. The disjointed feel of Babbels user interface carries on throughout the app. While each learning module us introduced by a slick splash screen, the educational components within lack the sort of design quality I would expect from an app that demands a $13 monthly subscription. To be blunt, Babbel feels unpolished.

Beyond this, I found that the Babbel was occasionally slow to respond to my answers, no matter the speed of my internet connectionor the fact that lesson modules need to be downloaded to your iOS device. And frustratingly, audio would frequently cut out half way through a new word or phrase being conveyed to me. Worst of all, I found that phrases I intentionally fudged to test the apps ability to judge my verbal skills would be accepted as correctly pronounced.

If I wasnt bound by the two-month test period Id set for myself to vet the app, I wouldnt have continued on with using Babbel beyond, maybe, a few weeks.

Runner-up: Duolingo

Duolingos greatest assets are its colorful design, charm, and the gentle way that the app reintroduces you to new words, phrases, and grammar that have caused you difficulty in past lessons. Unlike Babbel, it offers a consistent user interface that makes learning mostly easy throughout the apps various modules. A respectable variety of different quizzes and learning games proved adequate to keep me interested and happy to open the app on a daily basis. However, over the course of my two months with the Duolingo, I found that there was one thing about it that made me a little mental: Its lack of instructions.

Duolingo creates a friendly learning environment, but can be short on instructions and visual prompts.

On more than one occasion, I stumbled across features that the app didnt bother to fill me in on. For example, a few weeks into using it, I was surprised to find that tapping a word in a sentence sometimes provided a drop down menu with clues to its meaning. At other times a tap lets you hear what the word sounds like when spoken by a native speaker. Having that pointed out to me early on, or having a substantial visual prompt to encourage touching the words I was working with on my iPads display could have made for a smoother learning experience.

Another example of the apps lack of instructions came up when I was asked to speak a Spanish word or phrase to vet my pronunciation. There was no prompt detailing how to start or stop recording. So, I had to figure it out on my own, which took me a couple of minutes. Not cool.

Its also worth mentioning that, overall, Duolingo lacks the depth of features that our first place winner provides. But hey, its a free app. When you weigh its non-existent cost and the large amount of educational value it provides against the few problems I had with it, Duolingo is still pretty great. If youre on a tight budget or only looking to pick up some new words or phrases before a trip abroad, I recommend checking it out.

Winner: Rosetta Stone

With its excellent user interface, clear instructions, wide variety of games and challenges, and the ability to call upon a native speaker for a little one-on-one tutoring if you get stuck during your education, Rosetta Stone has got it going on. Simply put, it has a feature set that neither Duolingo or Babbel can match.

In a departure from what I experienced with Babbel, Rosetta Stone used photos to teach a new word or phrase that are mission-specific and speak to the situation at hand. Not having to struggle with a vague connection between a photo and the word associated with it was like a breath of fresh air. That said, Rosetta Stone doesnt always make it easy. You might, for example, be asked where a woman in a photo is going. The only way to figure out the answer is to look at what hes holding or wearing. In this case, she was standing in the street with a plane ticket in her hand. Boom: airport. In another scenario, a lost traveller looks at a signs in a city with a puzzled expression on her face. I had to guess that she needed a map. By providing a context and then forcing me to figure out a response, Rosetta Stone had me earn my education, making it all the more rewarding when I got a correct answer.

Rosetta Stone lets you scale its difficulty to match your verbal abilities.

I also liked that, with its adjustable speech recognition engine, I was able to tweak the app to reflect the level of pronunciation that my mouth was capable of expressing. Cant roll an R to save your life? No problemRosetta Stone will forgive your untalented tongue. This combination of a well-thought-out UI, difficult but surmountable challenges, and an understanding that not everyone will be able to blather away like a native speaker of the language theyre learning kept me coming back for more.

While its $200 annual subscription fee is steep, if youre serious about learning a language, Rosetta Stone is well worth your money.

Next time: Ill share my thoughts on Amazons latest e-reader, the Kindle Oasis.
Another quarter brings with it Apple financial resultsnearly $8 billion in profit this time, despite a whole lot of tough year-over-year sales and revenue comparisons. But as a part of the results we also get the chance to hear directly from Apples executives, in the quarterly ritual of the conference call with analysts. Theres always good stuff to be gleaned from this call, and this quarter was no exception. Heres what we learned.

Optimism about the iPhone buying cycle

Combine the changes to the way people buy smartphones (especially in the United States) with the sales fall-off from the iPhone 6 to the iPhone 6s, and a lot of people are worried that the buying cycle of the iPhone is going to be elongated. In other words, while your average smartphone buyer might have purchased a new phone every two years in the past, maybe that person will now stick with their old phone for three or four years. If thats true, thats going to result in reduced sales for Appleand that will have a huge impact on Apples botom line.

Ever the optimist, Apple CEO Tim Cook says he doesnt think thats going to happen. He cited the new trend toward plans that supply customers with a new phone after a certain amount of timeincluding Apples own, which provides a new iPhone every year. Other have an 18-month clock, some have a 24-month clock, and there are even some that have a 30-month clock, Cook said. Well see more of those this coming fall.

Jason Snell

But Cook had to admit that for some users, the fact that the cost of smartphone hardware is no longer hidden inside a customers phone bill might lead them not to upgrade. Some of that can be a shock for people who are used to paying $199 for their smartphonethey come back in and they pay less for their service but more for their smartphone.

Overall, for Apple, Cook says hes very optimistic. On this point, I think hes got it right: Some people will no doubt change from a two-year cycle to one thats longer in duration. But other people will opt for new plans that give them a new phone every year, and others will stick with the familiar every-other-year cycle. While there might be a major change in phone replacement rates, it seems most likely that things will remain pretty close to what they are today.

Apples high on AI and AR

Cook took time during the conference call to praise two technologies commonly referred to with two-letter acronyms: AI (artificial intelligence) and AR (augmented reality).

For Apple today, AI means Siribut it also means a technology that keeps people attached to their iPhones. As the phone becomes more and more your assistant, youre not going to leave without it, Cook said.

Apple has a lot of competition in this space, most notably Google, which is well known for its prowess in cloud-based services. But I suspect Cook was taking a shot at Google when he said, The deployment of AI technology is something we will excel at because of our focus on user experience. In other words, Google will tell you a lot about its machine learning, but Apple will give you AI that youll actually want to use.

No comment on whether thats realistic or notthese days Im inclined to say that Apples abilities on this front are actually underestimatedbut its interesting to see the confidence there.

On to augmented reality. Analyst Gene Munster asked Tim Cook about the success of Pokemon Go, which uses a light sprinkling of AR (the app uses your phones camera to place the titular monsters in the real world around you). Cook managed to call them Pokey mans, earning the ire of poke-pedants everywhere, but his statements about AR were fascinating.

AR can be really great, and we have been and continue to invest a lot in this, Cook said. We are high on AR for the long run, we think theres great things for customers and a great commercial opportunity. it will be huge. There have been reports about Apple doing research into virtual-reality stuff, but this is an admission of investment into the augmented-reality space by Apple. Thats an interesting tidbit for a category in which Microsoft has made most of the noise up to now with the HoloLens project.

Apples investing a lot in R&D

You can look at the numbers and see it. Its right there. Apple is spending a whole lot on research and development, and that number keeps growing. This is famously not a company that throws money at pie-in-the-sky research products, so we have to expect that this is money going to things like VR or AR, as well as Project Titan, the rumored Apple car.

We do continue to invest significantly in R&D, Cook said. The growth rates are still large on a year over year basis. The products that are in R&D, there is quite a bit of investment in there for products and services that are not currently shipping or derivations of what is currently shipping. So I dont want to talk about the exact split of it, but you can look at the growth rate and conclude that theres a lot of stuff that were doing beyond the current products.

In other words, Apples spending a lot of money on entirely new products.

The iPhone SE is still a hit

As was suggested during last quarters call, the iPhone SE is the Little Smartphone That Could. Apple doesnt break out sales by individual model, but its clear that the iPhone SE continues to sell well.

I really like what Ive seen with the iPhone SE, and the fact that its opening the door to customers that we werent reaching before, and likely convincing some people to upgrade that wanted a smaller form factor, Cook said.

Or, as Apple CFO Luca Maestri put it: The iPhone SE is doing exactly what it was intended [bringing] a higher rate of new-to-iPhone customers and we see a higher rate of previous iPhone owners that really prefer the four-inch form factor. We have not seen clear evidence of cannibalization from iPhone 6s or 6s Plus.

Some people just want to buy a smaller phone. This is actually a big advantage Apple has right now in the phone market, because most Android phones skew quite large. People in the market for a good, small phone will look carefully at the iPhone SE.

The iPad may have turned the corner?

The decline in iPad unit sales thats been going on for a couple of years has slowed for the third straight quarter. The average selling price of the iPad actually went up, leading to the first year-over-year growth in iPad revenue in 10 quarters. Thats no doubt thanks to the introduction of the 9.7-inch iPad Pro, which is more expensive than the iPad Air 2. Cook said that half of iPad Pro purchases are being made for work.

Apple

The question is, where does the iPad go from here? The 9.7-inch iPad Pro is the new flagship of the iPad line, and its introduction only slightly changed iPad sales figures. Then again, when you look back to the iPads largest quarterthe one coinciding with the 2013 holidaysyou realize that those iPads are all nearly three years old. When will they be upgrading?

Its hard to guess where the iPad is going. The numbers arent strong, but theyre headed in a better direction than theyve been in ages. Maybe its something to build on.
In this case, the plaintiff has produced since 1989 the well-known TV-series The Simpsons which has been shown in German-speaking countries since mid-1994 and in which beer under the fictitious name Duff is consumed. The producer owns EU trade mark number 8351091 for the word Duff for beer (application date June 9 2009 and registered on March 26 2014).

The defendant is a German company selling among other goods beverages and is also the owner of a registered German mark Duff Beer (word) with a priority of January 12 1999 registered for beer on June 8 1999. An Austrian brewery produced the beer for the defendant and filled it in cans with the inscription Duff which were shipped to Germany. An infringement suit against the Austrian producer has already ended with a settlement. The plaintiff had also filed an invalidity action against the owner of the German trade mark, which was finally rejected by the German Supreme Court in December 2012.

On November 19 2014 the plaintiff sued the German defendant in Austria (as the place of infringement according to Article 97 (5) CTMR) for infringement since the settlement with the Austrian brewery does not mean that the German company will now refrain from further infringements in Austria. The defendant answered with the filing of a counterclaim for a declaration of invalidity of the plaintiff's EUTM.

The plaintiff also asked for a preliminary injunction to stop any further use of signs such as Duff or Duff Beer or similar signs for beer in Austria and any promotion or advertisement for them. The preliminary action went up to the Supreme Court of Austria. In this action the defendant brought forward that in view of its older German trade mark it had the better rights and the plaintiff's EUTM is invalid. The Supreme Court found that although a counterclaim for invalidity is only to be heard in the main infringement action, a defence based on an older right is also possible in an interlocutory injunction proceeding. Whether an older right is present here is to be judged according to the CTMR according to which also a German older right can be cited in proceedings in Austria as possibly invalidating the EUTM giving rights in Austria. That must also be true when the Austrian Community Courts have only territorially limited authority according to Article 97 (5) CTMR. The older German mark has also to be presumed to be valid on the basis of the decision of the German Supreme Court.

The plaintiff did want to rely on the fact that even when his EUTM would be declared invalid because of the German older right he would ask for conversion of it into a national mark for Austria and for his claim it does not matter whether the interdiction is based on an EUTM or on an Austrian mark flowing from it with identical priority. The Austrian Supreme Court replied that this idea is false  the national mark created by conversion does not retroactively replace the EUTM. The EUTM would be declared invalid ex tunc while a request for conversion leads to a new national trade mark application which yet had to be registered. And any rights given by an Austrian trade mark clearly start only with the registration date: here that means in the future. Therefore, on the basis of this EUTM the request for an interlocutory injunction has to be denied.

Apparently The Simpsons could not envisage their Duff beer to be a thing of the real world. When the German company took the opportunity to market real Duff beer about 1999 the producer of The Simpsons started fighting. The German company from the beginning realised that they needed trade mark protection while The Simpsons thought that they could do without. Only 10 years later and having lost their actions in the lower courts in Germany they accepted the necessity of trade mark protection and filed for the then vulnerable EUTM. This not only shows the importance of timely trade mark protection but also that it is unwise to base an infringement action (at least alone) on a trade mark right when one knows that at the end it cannot be upheld.

Helmut Sonn

SONN & PARTNER PatentanwalteRiemergasse 14A-1010 Vienna, AustriaTel: +43 1 512 84 05Fax: +43 1 512 98 05office@sonn.atwww.sonn.at
Several judgments have been rendered on the scope of granting registration of patent term extension (PTE). Now a judgment regarding the scope of the extended patent right has been rendered for the first time.

Summary of the case

Debiopharm International SA, the plaintiff, owns a patent for an invention titled "Pharmaceutically stable oxaliplatinum preparation". Debiopharm was granted registrations of PTE for the patent based on approvals provided in the Pharmaceutical Affairs Law for "ELPLAT I.V. Infusion Solution" which is oxaliplatin (equal to oxaliplatinum) preparations.

Towa Pharmaceutical Co, Ltd, the defendant, manufactured and sold generic drugs of ELPLAT. Debiopharm sought injunction of manufacturing, etc of the defendant's products alleging that the effect of the extended patent right covers the manufacturing and selling of those products.

Issues

Patent Act Article 68-2 provides that the extended patent right shall not be effective against any act other than the practising of the patented invention for the product which was the subject of the disposition which constituted the reason for the registration of extension (where the specific usage of the product is prescribed by the disposition, the product used for that usage).

Though the effectiveness/efficacy and dosage/administration of the defendant's products are the same as those of ELPLAT, the ingredients are different in that the defendant's products add concentrated glycerin as an additive. Therefore, whether the defendant's products fell under "the product [used for that usage]" became an issue.

Judgment of March 30 2016, Tokyo District Court

The Tokyo District Court (Presiding Judge Shimasue) quoted a purpose of PTE which the Supreme Court and the IP High Court held in the Avastin case and dismissed the claim of Debiopharm.

(1) The effect of the extended patent right: The extended patent right only covers the practising of "the product [used for that usage]" in principle.

However, even though an object product is different from "the product [used for that usage]", it is reasonable to deem that the extended patent right covers the practising of such a product as an equivalent or a substantially identical product of "the product [used for that usage]", where the differences are addition, removal and conversion, etc of well-known art and conventionally used means that do not produce any new effects.

(2) In a case where disposition is an approval for a medicine provided in the Pharmaceutical and Medical Device Act, "dosage, administration, effectiveness and efficacy", which identify "usage" of the medicine, are inevitably examined. Therefore, the approval falls under "where the specific usage of the product is prescribed by the disposition" in Patent Act Article 68-2 within bracket and it is necessary to identify "product" and "usage" for examining the scope of the extended patent right.

In a case of a patented invention for an ingredient of a medicine, the extended patent right covers the practising of the patented invention identified by "ingredient (not limited to active ingredient) and quantity" as "product" and identified by "effectiveness/efficacy" and "dosage/administration" as "usage".

(3) "The product used for that usage" in this case: The medicine that is the object of the disposition is ELPLAT; therefore "the product used for that usage" is the formulation which includes only "oxaliplatin" and "water for injection" and does not include other ingredients.

The ingredients of the defendant's products include "concentrated glycerin" as an additive other than "oxaliplatin" and "water". The defendant's products differ from "the product used for that usage" in its "ingredients". Therefore, the defendant's products do not fall under "the product used for that usage".

(4) Whether the defendant's products fall under an equivalent or a substantially identical product of "the product used for that usage": If the characteristic part of the invention is only ingredients of medicine such as an invention regarding novel compound or medical use of a specific compound, a product that only differs in ingredient other than active ingredient and has bioequivalence may fall under an equivalent or a substantially identical product of "the product used for that usage" because that difference often falls under addition, etc of well-known art and conventionally used means that do not produce any new effect. Meanwhile, if the characteristic part of the invention is the whole ingredients of a medicine such as an invention regarding formulation, a product which only differs in ingredient other than active ingredient and has bioequivalence sometimes does not fall under a substantially identical product because that difference sometimes does not fall under addition, etc of well-known art and conventionally used means and sometimes produces a new effect.

In this case, oxaliplatinum had been well-known as a substance and in usage as an anti-cancer drug. Therefore, the invention is not characteristic only in active ingredients of the medicine but in all the ingredients of a medicine.

Adding concentrated glycerin to oxaliplatin aqueous solution may not fall under addition etc of well-known art and conventionally used means at the time of starting test necessary for obtaining a disposition for the defendant's products. Instead, it may produce a new effect which added glycerin inhibits decomposition of oxalipratin.

Therefore, the defendant's products do not fall under an equivalent or a substantially identical product of "the product used for that usage".

Practical tips

This is the first judgment that rendered a concrete ruling regarding the scope of the extended patent right as not dictum but ratio decidendi. This judgment specifically ruled on the criteria of an equivalent or a substantially identical product.

According to this judgment, the scope of the extended patent right often covers accused products regarding an invention whose characteristic part is only ingredients of medicine (a substance patent or a use patent etc) and does not often cover them regarding an invention whose characteristic part is the whole ingredients of a medicine (a formulation patent etc).

However, there seems to be not so many cases where a scope of the former patent right becomes an issue when generic drugs enter into a market because the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare is supposed not to grant approval for generic drugs when a product patent or a use patent exists. Meanwhile, in the latter case, there is a possibility that generic drugs avoid an effect of the extended patent right by changing an additive of the generic drugs and making into a formulation which shows a new effect. It had been expected that the Avastin Supreme Court's judgment results in the situation that the scope of granting registration of PTE becomes broader whereas the scope of the extended patent right becomes narrower. This expectation has come true.

Attention must be paid to the IP High Court judgment.

Takanori Abe Michiko Kinoshita

ABE & PartnersMatsushita IMP Building1-3-7, Shiromi, Chuo-ku, Osaka, 540-0001, JapanTel: +81 6 6949 1496Fax: +81 6 6949 1487abe@abe-law.comwww.abe-law.com
The abolition of the 10-day rule is sensible, but any further reform should target outdated kinks in the old paper-based system, attorneys say
Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala Police Chief Loknath Behra on last day ordered a probe into Kodiyeri's Payyanur speech in which the party leader allegedly incited cadres to violence. Behra designated a special team to examine the full speech of Kodiyeri. The police will examine the video clippings of the speech and whether to proceed further on the issue.

If necessary, case will be registered against Kodiyeri, police said. While addressing a rally at Kannur, the party Secretary allegedly urged the party workers to not stand as mere spectators in front of the political rivals.
Karachi: The husband of a British beauty therapist who died in Pakistan alleged that she was a victim of honour killing for marrying outside her family. Samia Sahid hailing from Pakistan died while visiting relatives in the ancestral home in Punjab. Later she was buried there.



Her husband Saed Mukhtair alleged that his wife was killed since his wife's parents were not happy with their relation. Her family refused their marriage since he was an outsider.

Followed by the allegation , the British labour party MP Naz Shah also demanded a re-autopsy in the issue. Earlier this month internet sensation and Pakistani model Qandeel Baloch was strangled to death by her brother for the honour of the family.
Baku, Azerbaijan, July 28

Trend:

The Turkish military dismissed 1684 soldiers over their links to the Gulenist Terrorist Organization (FETO), Daily Sabah reported.

In the land forces command, 87 generals, 726 commissioned officers, and 256 sergeants were dismissed.

In the air forces command, 30 generals, 314 commissioned officers, and 117 sergeants were dismissed while 32 admirals, 59 commissioned officers and 63 sergeants were dismissed from the naval forces command.

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.

Turkeys President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that the death toll as a result of the military coup attempt stood at 246 people excluding the coup plotters and over 2,000 people were wounded.

President Erdogan declared a three-month state of emergency in the country on July 20.
The Tanzania Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture (TCCIA) was established in 1988. It was initiated with the support of the Tanzanian Government to strengthen the private sector. The establishment of the TCCIA was an important step in moving on from a centralized, planned economy towards a more open, mixed economy giving full scope to privately owned enterprises and farms. TCCIA has opened regional offices in all 21 regions of mainland Tanzania and over 90 district centres, which are autonomous in their operational activities.

Interview with Peter Chisawillo, President of Tanzania Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture (TCCIA)

Your stated vision at the TCCIA is to become the most preferred role model business member based organization in Tanzania. Could you start by outlining and explaining to our audience how the TCCIA provides value to its members and the business community more widely; for instance by providing demand-driven advocacy, business intermediary services and how this feeds through to the wider Tanzanian economy? How can your organisation best come to my aid as a potential foreign investor?

Membership of the Tanzanian Chamber of Commerce and Industry is voluntary, so whoever joins as a member has to really appreciate its value. In this respect there are several aspects worth mentioning. Firstly, what can the Chamber do for a business? It can help improve competitiveness and offer access to markets, access to technology, access to finance and other aspects strictly within the realm of the company itself. Secondly, the Chamber addresses sectorial aspects of the business, in terms of identifying barriers to growth: is it a question of regulation, infrastructure, skills or related issues? And that's where the Chamber is able to offer solutions, whether by engaging with the government, through collective investments  such as where we find ourselves now: we are at the offices of TCCIA Investment Company Limited, which is one of the Chamber's initiatives to bring together investment from its members , so as to enable them to participate effectively in the country's economy.

We were the first business organisation. Every other organisation that we see today actually evolved out of the TCCIA.

It may also have to do with issues requiring engagement with regard to policy, laws, rules or regulations. More critically, this aspect is location-specific, in view of local government authorities. Each local government has its own challenges that need to be addressed. We are talking about 26 regions, but also over a hundred districts. Therefore, in order to address location-specific issues, our outreach extends to the district level. We therefore have District Chambers and these in turn form the Regional Chambers for each region. The regions then come together to form the National Chamber. That is our structure.

As you have said, the TCCIA is therefore an umbrella private-sector, business member-based organisation, which aims to provide support to its members, largely SMEs. My question is really: how important a step was the establishment of the TTCIA in moving on from what was a centrally-planned economy towards a more open and nowadays more mixed economy? How integral a role did the TCCIA play in that process?

The TCCIA was essentially the country's foremost member-based business organisation, in transitioning from a centrally-planned economy to a market-driven economy.

When did that process really kick in?

It took shape between 1980 and 1985. We established the TTCIA in 1988. Nobody then really knew how to go about creating the conditions for a market-driven economy, whether in the government or even the private sector. The relationship between government and the private sector was basically hostile. Somehow, someone had to say something about what was required for an efficient and effective private sector as an engine for economic growth. Even the realisation that the private sector has to become the engine for economic growth took a good deal of time for people in government to come to terms with.

So there was ideological resistance?

You could call it that. A shift in mind-set was certainly required. As a result, the private sector had to engage the government and convince it that the policy in place had a specific impact on the private sector, and if the government's aim was to create a vibrant private sector, then certain changes were necessary. This shift in policy involved everything from tax regimes to property and land policies, covering quite a wide spectrum of issues. The government then had to understand that investments were critical, and that somehow you had to create a regime that attracts investment, both in local and external terms. Understandably, engagement with the government went on and on...

But the TCCIA was really instrumental in this?

The struggle in the past was to really get everybody to understand that the private sector is key to economic development.

Yes, certainly instrumental, because we were the first business organisation. Every other organisation that we see today actually evolved out of the TCCIA. Eventually, there were the industrialists under the CTI who sought more focus on industry. We believed we could not afford a split among business associations, and that we needed to consolidate our position, in order to at least speak to the government with one voice. This is how we eventually formed the Tanzania Private Sector Foundation. But the nucleus was the TCCIA.

So the TCCIA continues to play a vitally important role?

The struggle in the past, as it remains today, although it has shifted significantly, was to really get everybody to understand that the private sector is key to economic development.

I imagine this involved overcoming institutional resistance?

Yes, during the Socialist period, anyone associated with business was negatively perceived. It really did take a lot of time to transform things on that front. Once it was accepted, the mechanisms for actually running a private sector-led economy had to be put in place. This is why engagement between the government and the private sector became critical.

How does the TCCIA keep chamber members and the business community updated with the latest economic developments, the latest regulatory environment, the business opportunities, the facilities you offer and the relevant business contacts that may be useful to them?

I will talk a little about this aspect of information exchange, collation and distribution to our members. We realised very early on, perhaps 10 years ago, that information was critical to our members: information regarding technology, markets, business opportunities and links with other businesses outside this country. Therefore, we set out to establish business information centres across the country. Each regional chamber was equipped with computers and internet access, at a time when the internet was not as widespread as it is today. It was quite unique then.

Did you have to build this infrastructure?

Yes, we had to build this infrastructure across the country, which allowed people to go to these business information centres and obtain whatever information they needed. That was the major component then, but in view of technological change, our delivery mechanisms also had to evolve, in order to accommodate new developments. This means we now post a good deal of content on our website, we use groups, including WhatsApp groups and all the social media available.

You really seem to have seized this change.

Yes, we have decisively grabbed the ICT component, which was one aspect; the other aspect being the building up of a core of expertise within the TCCIA.

In terms of institutional capacity?

Indeed, the institutional capacity that would in fact leverage ICTs to come up with products that would be of service to our members. For example, we designed a system to address Non-Tariff Barriers, using SMS messaging. If a driver at the border is faced with a problem, then they can simply SMS a number, and this information is forwarded to a set of officials able to handle the issue, including the Chamber itself.

Do you have a task force that regulates and polices the NTBs?

Yes, we are part of the national task-force, but we are also involved in the day-to-day monitoring of the information that comes in via SMS, in order to at least ensure the right officials are called upon to address the issues that arise.

It's interesting that you bring this up. I wanted to ask you to perhaps play 'devil's advocate' a little bit and tell me what in your view are the top five Non-Tariff Barriers in Tanzania that restrict trade, in areas such as transport, clearing and forwarding, administrative customs procedures, any technical barriers to trade, government participation in restrictions or any other procedural problems that you feel are really hampering the ability of FDI to flourish?

There are issues to do with actual Non-Tariff Barriers, and there are issues to do with perceptions of Non-Tariff Barriers, and you will mostly find  even when talking to our partners in Kenya, Uganda and other countries within the broader region  there is a perception that roadblocks are a real problem. But much has been done in this respect, because there were once quite a number of roadblocks along the transit routes to neighbouring countries, but this issue has now largely been addressed.

There is also the issue of consistency in standards, for instance involving someone going to another country with a product from Tanzania, but where the certificate is rejected. This is another aspect that needs to be addressed.

So would you say more standardised best practices are needed?

Yes, precisely.
Two Turkish police officers were martyred and 11 others were wounded in an attack in Turkeys southeastern province of Hakkari, CNN Turk reported.

Three soldiers were martyred and one other was wounded in a PKK roadside bomb attack in Turkey's southeastern Siirt province on Wednesday, a security source said.

An operation to arrest the PKK terrorists is still underway in the region, the source added.

The PKK -- listed as a terrorist organization also by the U.S. and the EU -- resumed its 30-year armed campaign against the Turkish state in July 2015.

Since then, nearly 600 security personnel, including troops, police officers and village guards have been martyred and more than 5,000 PKK terrorists killed in operations across Turkey and northern Iraq.
Ferry operations are extremely complex with a combination of inputs that will all impact the ferrys ability to deliver effective operational capability  the asset itself forms only a small part of a system for transporting people and vehicles between two points. All inputs to the ferry transportation system need to be considered to deliver the systems capability and ensure the service is successful. Too much emphasis is often placed on the acquisition of a ferry, rather than on the remaining operational inputs, resulting in an ineffective, inefficient and unsuccessful operation. Only by robust management of all of the capability inputs can an operation be effectively maintained.

To develop a better understanding of the inputs to capability, lessons can be taken from organizations which operate complex systems, such as the defense forces. There are a range of available frameworks that define inputs to maritime system capability which may include the following elements: personnel, logistics, equipment, infrastructure, policies and procedures, organization and training.

Each of these elements forms part of a capability. The physical asset, in this case a ferry, is just one of the seven inputs that needs to be considered.

Although significant investment is made in equipment, when considering the through life costs of vessel ownership, the remaining capability elements, as shown in Figure 1, represent a large portion of the overall investment. As such, greater emphasis should be placed on this.

Beyond equipment, the operational coverage of capability elements includes issues relating to recruitment, retention, training and development of people; spares, administrative and training supplies; systems and infrastructure put in place to support an operation, such as transport; procedures and processes, security, command and responsibilities; those parts of the organizational structure which undertake critical tasks, other than operation and maintenance of the asset; buildings, docks, maintenance facilities, training facilities and wharves; and the maintenance of competency of the organization.

Throughout the lifecycle of a ferry, a comprehensive understanding of associated costs is crucial for business planning and reporting. For this reason, its important for stakeholders to duly consider the capability elements aforementioned at all stages of the ferrys lifecycle. Taking the time to understand these elements at the beginning of a project will allow organizations to manage the costs effectively throughout. However, if there are major changes in capability this may trigger the need for a review.

A capability upgrade can not only trigger substantial, physical modifications to a ferry, it can mean additional, hidden costs related to the other capability elements, which in turn can become significant if not addressed and managed accordingly.

As an example, consider a ferry modification which has resulted in an additional five meters being added to its length to allow an extra 20 passengers to be transported. The costs associated with such a modification should not just centre on the physical asset itself  organizations must look at all of the capability elements and the impact of such a modification.

Considerations of associated cost issues could include crew numbers and ensuring competencies are sufficient in light of the upgrade; making sure adequate spares are available; other systems which may be affected by the upgrade (i.e. portable water capacity); whether sufficient wharf space is available; if there will be an increase in berthing fees; ensuring the maintenance facilities being used have capacity to deal with a larger vessel.

In addition to a capability upgrade, an assessment of capability elements is also critical when investigating the potential to extend the life of an asset. Although there may not be a change in the ferrys capability, understanding the costs for a life extension period is important, given that any business case made at project inception has been made with an assumption of ferry life. If this assumption changes, it is then necessary to assess the capability elements to help validate whether or not there is a strong business case for life extension and identify the costs of doing so.

Life extension studies are best used as part of the decision making process when considering a vessels future, as it nears the end of its service life. Organizations will be looking at two options: to dispose of a vessel at its designated end of service date and replace with a new capability or, extend the life of the current vessel and delay the purchase of a new capability.

In most cases, this decision will simply be down to whether or not it is more cost effective to carry out a replacement project or invest resources into a heightened maintenance regime or major upgrade  it will not remove the need for eventual replacement. Regardless of the decision, consideration of all capability elements is crucial in developing an accurate picture of costs.

There are a range of similar approaches used by organizations around the world which could be considered suitable depending on the operation in question. Whether it is in consideration of capability upgrade, life extension or in gaining an initial understanding of the cost of ownership of a ferry, it is recommended that a holistic approach is taken to defining the operation, extending well beyond the acquisition of the asset.



BMT Design & Technology Pty Ltd (BMT) has recently completed a design project for the South Australian Governments Department of Planning, Transport and Infrastructure (DPTI). Working in partnership with the DPTI, BMT has developed a replacement design for ferries that operate on the River Murray, the third longest navigable river in the world, after the Amazon and Nile.

The steel hull, built by local firm Bowhill Engineering, was fit out by the Departments Morgan dockyard. The first ferry has now gone into service in Lyrup with another three scheduled for completion by July 2016, 2017 and 2018 respectively. These ferries are heavily relied upon by the local communities for safe passage across the River Murray. BMT delivered a robust design, a critical factor for a service that operates 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

The team at BMT provided structural engineering and naval architecture services to deliver a detailed design which aligned with the customer requirements. BMT also carried out condition surveys on a further four timber hulled ferries which were nearing end of life. Following the surveys, the Department applied weight restrictions to help maintain the longevity of these ferries for safe operation until they are replaced. Constructed of steel and 22m long, these cable driven ferries can take two lanes of cars or trucks of up to 50 metric tons, or a maximum of 70 passengers.
The Fishing Company of Alaska, based in Renton, owns the 238-foot Alaska Juris that started sinking in the Bering Sea shortly before noon on Tuesday, says a report in Seattle Times.

Forty-six crewmen from the Seattle-based fishing vessel Alaska Juris have been rescued from lifeboats near the Aleutians, but the fate of their trawler is unclear.

There were no reports of any injuries as the crew members were transferred from life rafts to the merchant ships, in a fairly calm seas, Coast Guard Petty Officer Lauren Steenson said.

Shortly after 9 p.m. Juneau time, the U.S. Coast Guard reported that the cargo ships Spar Canis and Vienna Express had successfully plucked the trawler's crew from the ocean with the assistance of aircraft from Coast Guard Air Station Kodiak.

The Good Samaritan ships Spar Canis and the Vienna Express rushed to the scene in response to a Coast Guard's emergency broadcast for help, as did two other merchant vessels, says AP.

Two others civilian ships and a Coast Guard cutter were en route. The Coast Guard is also sending two helicopters, and it has a military transport plane in the vicinity.
Bored with palm-fringed beaches and turquoise seas? Then the gigantic oil platforms of the North Sea beckon. The first ever "rig-spotting" cruise just ended off the coast of Norway, and those onboard the four-day trip said it was jawdropping.



"I couldn't believe that these big buildings could be made," said passenger Kari Somme, 86, after seeing Statoil's Troll A platform - the heaviest structure ever moved by mankind - towering 200 metres (650 feet) above the surface of the sea.



"It's just wonderful, just wonderful. I was so excited because I didn't know much about it. So when I came here and we went from rig to rig, or platform to platform, I was amazed," she said.



The North Sea is usually known for its cold and storms.



The group of 120 tourists, all Norwegians except for a German and a Swedish couple, paid between 6,000 crowns and 30,000 crowns ($700-$3,500) for four days on board the high tech offshore vessel Edda Fides.



The trip was organised by Edda Accommodation, a firm that provides housing for oil workers working offshore. It was looking for new ways to drum up business: oil firms are cutting costs to cope with a 60-percent drop in the price of oil since mid-2014.



"There was little activity, so we used our creativity to come up with ideas. We organised this trip in six weeks," Bjoern Erik Julseth, the hotel manager on board, told Reuters by phone.



The group toured oil installations at the Troll, Balder or Ringhorn fields. Right after this ended, a second tour departed for a trip further north to the fields of the Norwegian Sea.



Many were curious to see Norway's oil production first hand. Oil brought wealth to a once-poor country of 4.2 million within a generation, and is still its top industry. But the bulk of the work is unseen as it takes place offshore.



"Every Norwegian knows that the oil has brought us wealth and welfare that can't be compared to nothing or to no one," said passenger Arnt Even Boe, a journalist.



The tourists were not allowed to board the rigs for security reasons, but the offshore workers seemed thrilled to get visitors.



"Some of them fired flares or used water canons to welcome us ... We even had a rescue helicopter, with one worker dangling above us," said Julseth, adding that the company would now evaluate whether to do another cruise tour again.



Passenger Nils Olav Nergaard brought his drone on the trip and said it had been "a real adventure".



"To be a part of a high-tech offshore vessel, almost as a crew, and get the experience to go to the oil platforms and see them for real, that was very amazing," Nergaard said.



Writing by Gwladys Fouche
Former top military official gets life sentence for accepting bribes. (Photo : Getty Images)

A former senior official of the People's Liberation Army undergone investigation was sentenced to life imprisonment after he was found guilty of accepting bribes.



On Monday, former top general Guo Boxiong was sentenced to spend the rest of his life in prison for graft practices, making him the topmost official to receive capital punishment.



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Guo's Sentence



According to the South China Morning Post, Guo served as vice-chairman of the Central Military Commission for a decade from 2002 to 2012.



During his tenure, he oversaw daily operations of the powerful commission.



Three years following his retirement, he was expelled from the Communist Party of China (CPC) after his name was dragged into a corruption case that was part of Chinese President Xi Jinping's crackdown on "tigers" and "flies."



According to China Daily, Guo was accused of accepting "bribes personally and in collusion with others" for using his position to help others rise into the ranks and get reassigned to certain places.



A previous report from the SCMP revealed that the Guo received as much as $12.3 million worth of bribes.



He pleaded guilty of all the charges and decided not to appeal. His personal assets and ill-gotten wealth were seized since by the State treasury. His trial was kept confidential because it covered some "military secrets."



Aside from spending life in prison, he was also stripped of his rank as general, per a court statement cited by the China Daily.



The court assured that Guo's rights were "fully protected" and that he enjoyed the company of his legal counsel during the course of the trial.



"We fully protected his rights, sending the indictment and telling him his litigation rights and duties after the case was filed on May 3. His lawyer was allowed to meet with him and look up materials for the case," a court statement stated.



Corruption Crackdown



Aside from Guo, many others were probed for corruption, most of whom have been found guilty of the crime.



Earlier this month, the former deputy head of the 12th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) Ling Jihua also received life sentence after he admitted to accepting bribes worth $11.6 million.



"I accept all the charges and submit to the judgment. Today's trial will be engraved in my memory," the Xinhua News Agency quoted him saying during his final statement in court.



Meanwhile, Chinese political analyst Zhang Lifan believes that the sentencing of the high-ranking military official is a show of force by the CPC ahead of the annual Beidaihe meeting.






Taiwanese investigators continue to search for information in the scene of the explosion in Taoyuan that killed 26 people. (Photo : Getty Images)

Five bottles filled with gasoline was found to be inside the tourist bus that exploded in Taiwan last July 19. Twenty-four mainland tourists, a tour guide and a driver were killed in the incident.



According to the police report, the front section of the bus crashed into a guardrail along the Number 2 Highway and a few minutes from the airport. The tour group came from Liaoning Province.



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Prosecutors from the Taoyuan District Prosecutors Office found shards of bottle glass after the explosion and concluded that there were five bottles in the bus. It is still unknown why the bottles filled were filled with gasoline because the bus runs on diesel.



Other bus drivers believe that the gasoline was used to scrape off gum from the bus seats and marks on the walls. However, they still think five bottles is too much for that purpose.



"It is not entirely unreasonable," a driver said, "but still an unusually large amount for such a need."



Investigators were also troubled by the jammed bus door, which should have been opened when the smoke was blowing out. However, instead of stopping, the bus ran for another kilometer and a half.



There was another door beside the driver's side that failed to open, and there is still no clue what caused the jam.



Bodies were found at the emergency exit which signified that passengers tried to escape while the bus was ablaze.



The bus explosion raised suspicion that it might be connected on the ongoing tension between Taiwan and China. However, both the Taiwan Office and the Mainland Affairs Council in Beijing showed support for the victims.



Taiwan spokesman Tung Chen-yuan said in a press conference, "Authorities here will do all they can to assist the families of the victims."


STUART  A judge in Patrick County Circuit Court on Monday ordered that Travis Dylan Hazelwood remain committed in a state mental hospital for treatment for another year. In March, Hazelwood was found not guilty by reason of insanity (NGRI) of the first-degree murder of Larry Gilliam of Claudville in 2014 and use of a firearm in committing a felony.

Judge Martin F. Clark Jr. scheduled the next mental review hearing in Patrick County Circuit Court on July 24, 2017, at 9 a.m.

According to a summary of the commonwealths evidence that Patrick County Commonwealths Attorney Stephanie Vipperman read in court in March 2016, on Dec. 31, 2014, at 10:54 a.m., Brian Hazelwood (defendants father) called 911 to report that Larry Gilliam had been shot near 70 Boaz Lane (in Patrick Springs). Travis Hazelwood had been rabbit hunting with Gilliam, Brian Hazelwood, David Knowles and William Collins (Travis Hazelwoods grandfather).

Travis Hazelwood told officers that he shot Gilliam in the back from about 10-15 feet away, that he shot him on purpose and that he meant to kill him, according to the summary of evidence. Officers found spent 16-gauge shotgun shells in Travis Hazelwoods pockets. Knowles and Brian Hazelwood took the 16-gauge shotgun from Travis Hazelwood.

According to a psychiatric report that was introduced into evidence Monday, Hazelwood shot Gilliam in the back, killing him, based on delusional beliefs about Gilliam that included Gilliam having a bomb in Hazelwoods grandfathers home and trying to take the property from his grandfather.

Dr. Jennifer Melerski, psychologist for the defense, and Dr. Leigh Hagan, psychologist for the commonwealth, both diagnosed Hazelwood with schizophrenia, according to the summary of commonwealths evidence presented in March.

According to a report by psychologist Dr. David Rawls, who did an evaluation interview of Hazelwood at Central State Hospital on May 4, 2016, Drs. Melerski and Hagan previously documented that Hazelwood "began to show changes after a woman was killed in an automobile accident in which he was speeding and she pulled out in front of him. Over the course of intervening months, he became isolated socially and from family. He talked about the radio and TV communicating messages to him. He made some nonsensical statements. He began to show lack of care for hygiene and self-care in general. He was not eating properly.

"He talked about thoughts being taken from his brain and others inserted. He reported hearing voices telling him to do things that he typically resisted. He talked about believing the victim had been caught with guns and bombs and that he owned the home in which his grandfather lived. Although his account changed at times, he shot the victim  based on delusional beliefs about the victim."

After his arrest, Hazelwood exhibited symptoms of psychosis and was treated with antipsychotic medication and medication to facilitate sleep," Rawls reported. During the interview, Hazelwood did not report experiencing auditory hallucinations, did not voice any delusional beliefs, but negative symptoms of schizophrenia were most notable. Those symptoms included little change in facial expression, little change in voice inflection no matter the content of communication, and, "most notable, poverty of content in his statements and extremely limited insight," Rawls report stated.

According to the Encyclopedia of Mental Disorders, auditory hallucinations are false perceptions of sound, music, noises or voices; and negative symptoms are thoughts, feelings or behaviors normally present that are absent or diminished in a person with a mental disorder. Poverty of content occurs "when the information or concepts that the individual is attempting to convey cannot be understood because of limitations in the method of communicating."

Rawls found no indication that active symptoms such as delusions and hallucinations remain but that negative symptoms are prominent.

Prominent risk factors for Hazelwood include "presence of mental illness symptoms, lack of insight, abuse of marijuana, lack of structure to his day and aggressive behavior when active symptoms of schizophrenia are present. Otherwise, there is no indication that aggression has been a significant problem for him. In fact, prior to developing symptoms, he enjoyed people, was active and was outgoing," Rawls found.

He added that during the interview, Hazelwood was unable to give any early warning signs of developing a psychotic episode, other than to say that he paces a lot. Hazelwood stated his diagnosis is schizophrenia but could not describe his symptoms, and his statements indicated emotional detachment from the incident and the psychiatric disorder.

Rawls wrote: "Marijuana abuse can be monitored by urine screens and activities can be scheduled to minimize risk associated with these factors. He has interested family and a place to live, which are essential upon eventual release. However, insight involves appreciating the nature of the disorder, the symptoms experienced by the individual and the relationship between symptoms and the actions that led to the NGRI offense. Without this insight, it is not possible to manage risk because symptoms could be present without being readily apparent and would increase the probability of engaging in behavior that risks bodily injury."

"Insight is essential because it makes it important to him that he learn about the disorder, his symptoms, his early warning signs and effective strategies for managing the disorder by working with treatment providers and family. In other words, risk becomes manageable," Rawls added.

He found that Hazelwood currently poses significant risk to others in the foreseeable future without hospitalization.

As for the likelihood of being controlled on an outpatient basis, Rawls found that Hazelwood has followed rules while a patient in the Central State Hospital and his statements indicate he pays attention in group sessions. However, it is not clear he has sufficient insight to enable adequate control of his symptoms and thereby his actions.

Rawls found that Hazelwood meets all criteria for commitment, that symptoms of his mental illness remain active although in partial remission, and that risk remains poorly managed due to lack of insight. "True management of the symptoms that could increase risk cannot be predicted."

Rawls expects that in the controlled setting of a hospital, Hazelwood will acquire insight and become active in working with treatment providers to manage future emergence of symptoms and risk. "The process can be slower with negative symptoms and risk, but his inclination to work with others, pay attention and remember information will likely assist him in moving toward internalization of insight and investment in managing symptoms and risk," Rawls stated.

"Although difficult to treat, it is possible that alternatives to his present medication regimen will be considered that might lead to reduction in negative symptoms. Clearly his risk profile indicates that he can be managed in a less restrictive setting than the maximum security forensic unit at Central State Hospital," Rawls said.

He noted he does not believe Hazelwood can be managed adequately with supervision and treatment on an outpatient basis at this time.

Another court document shows that the Piedmont Community Services Board is of the opinion that Hazelwood does not appear to be an appropriate candidate for conditional release at this time. As of June 1, when he was evaluated, he continued to isolate himself much of the time, showed minimal participation in his treatment, reported sleep difficulties and showed little emotion.

It added: "Although he is not hearing voices, he cannot explain how he feels. He has very little insight as he is not sure why there is improvement with his treatment and he does not realize the significance of his medications. When asked the question, Are they (medications) important? His response was probably. When he was asked the question about services and being involved in case management, PACT (Patient Aligned Care Team) and outpatient therapy, his response included kinda and maybe."

"Lastly, Mr. Hazelwood does not know nor can he explain what triggered his NGRI offense. Therefore, it is our recommendation that Mr. Hazelwood is not ready to be released into a community where emotions are still simmering and may present a safety concern for Mr. Hazelwood," the PCS Board found.

A report by the Forensic Review Panel said Hazelwood "continues to be reluctant to disclose or acknowledge when he is experiencing symptoms of his mental illness. As a result, it is difficult to determine the extent of his mental illness, to identify risks, identify appropriate risk management strategies and assess the effectiveness of treatment interventions. Mr. Hazelwood lacks insight into his need for ongoing treatment while in the community, stating that he would maybe or likely need mental health treatment while in the community, suggesting that sustained involvement with treatment may be a challenge for Mr. Hazelwood.

"In order to determine whether the reduction in the symptoms of Mr. Hazelwoods mental illness is robust and sustainable, and to assist him with gaining the insight required to effectively manage his illness in the community, Mr. Hazelwood would benefit from continued inpatient treatment and gradual reintegration into the community. Therefore, the Forensic Review Panel is of the opinion that Mr. Hazelwood is not an appropriate candidate for conditional release at this time and would be best served by continued hospitalization and gradual preparation for release."

Gilliam was 63 and of Claudville. Hazelwood, of Patrick Springs, was 19 at the time of the incident and is now 21.
MARTINSVILLE - National security concerns Megan Edwards, specifically the seeming lack of it. The 21-year-old, who attends school at Mary Baldwin University, said that issue is key for her, when it comes time to choose a presidential candidate to support.

"When the U.S is strong at home, that is when we have the strongest impact overseas," Edwards said. "National security doesnt mean just enforcing a heavier military presence; to me it also means ensuring that all U.S. citizens are strong economically and academically. We are only as strong as our weakest link."

Edwards said she hasnt made her mind up yet, but listens to what each of the candidates say. Thats where all the campaigns face a challenge, attempting to not just determine what younger voters care about, but explaining why their platform is the best to handle those issues. In the 2012 presidential election, only 57.5 percent of eligible voters came out to cast a ballot. With current polls showing the campaigns neck and neck, every vote counts and both parties want younger voters on their side.

That includes people like Army reservist and college student Maddison Bowen. For her, voting is more than just something to do. The decisions made impact her directly.

"One of the most important issues for me is national security," Bowen explained. "I am a reservist. Seeing this nation take threats, and the craziness going on around the world, I need to know that this land is safe. I need to know that I and my brothers and sisters in arms are able to complete their duties. National security is what matters most to me right now."

Social issues seem to be another major concern for millennials this election, with issues such as LGBTQ rights and the Black Lives Matter movement at the forefront. For rising Mary Baldwin senior Tiffany Henson, its about more than just gender or race.

"I think that the most important thing to me this election is where the candidates stand when it comes to equality and rights. Not just racial or gender equality, but equality and rights for all Americans," Henson said. "I think this country has a problem keeping everyone included and respected, but we are all valuable members of society. In order to get us out of any kind of rut, everyone should be able to do their part, and we should offer compassion to help push them along. Were all people after all."

Melissa Fulton spends her days right now knocking on doors in Washington D.C., talking to people on behalf of the Human Rights Campaign. The 22-year-old wants to see a new level of consciousness from the next president.

"I think the most important thing to me in this election is social consciousness," Fulton said. "I want leaders of this country to sincerely try to understand and seek out the best possible solutions to the problems we face in this all-too-problematic world. I also want leaders who understand that the peoples safety, protection and freedom is ultimately theirs as well," said Fulton.

Traditionally, its hard to get younger voters to turn out on Election Day. In recent years, its been hard to get anyone to turn out. Even in 2008, with one of the largest turnouts reported, only 62.3 percent cast a ballot nationwide. In Virginia, 71 percent of voters came out in 2012, compared with 74 percent just four years earlier.

Lydia Wossum-Fisher believes the next president needs to know what is and isnt worth fighting for.

"I think a major point for me is gaining a leader that picks and chooses his or her battles. One who isnt unnecessarily insulting others or burning bridges, but is inclusive of this nation," Wossum-Fisher said. "I do want them to take a stand and fight, but for the right causes, that are in the best interest for all of us as a whole, rather than select individuals. Its important as a leader to put forth a strong, positive image, and not to get pulled down into the muck (or, at least, to avoid it as much as possible)."

Parents of the next generation, "Generation Z" are also weighing in on this election, with the belief that the next four years will greatly impact their childs future. Bassett resident Robert Stewart is the father to a thirteen year daughter and he is counting on the next president to secure the workforce for her.

"We have got to put young people back to work so they can have self-confidence and take pride in their country and community," Stewart said. "In November, we have two choices. We stay the course we have been or we try something different. If you continue to the same, you will always get the same result," said Stewart.
MARTINSVILLE  An annual neighborhood-oriented crime-fighting event will be held next week in the city.

National Night Out will be held from 6-8 p.m. next Tuesday at three locations: First Baptist Church of East Martinsville off East Church Street, McCabe Memorial Baptist Church on Clearview Drive and Agape Bible Christian Fellowship near the corner of East Market Street and Cleveland Avenue.

Martinsville City Council on Tuesday issued a proclamation setting the date for the event.

"Its one of my favorite (community) events," said Councilwoman Sharon Brooks Hodge.

"There will be something for everybody" to enjoy, including food and childrens activities, said Officer Coretha Gravely, who heads the Martinsville Police Departments community-policing unit.

Henry County residents as well as Martinsville residents are invited to join in the festivities, Gravely said.

National Night Out is sponsored by the National Association of Town Watch and observed in cities worldwide. It is aimed to curb crime and illegal drug use by helping residents and police get to know each other in a friendly way.

The more that people know police and trust them, the more likely they are to report negative situations they see occurring in their neighborhoods, officials have said.

"It is essential that all citizens of Martinsville be aware of the importance of crime prevention programs and (the) impact that their participation in Neighborhood Watch groups and their community can have on reducing crime, drugs and violence in Martinsville," Hodge said, reading from the proclamation.

Approximately 20 members of local Neighborhood Watch groups gathered with police officers in the council chambers at the municipal building on West Church Street to witness the proclamation being issued.

"We would not have had the success in this community that weve had (in fighting crime) without you," Police Chief Sean Dunn told the members. Councilman Mark Stroud made a similar comment.

It has become "safer for our neighborhoods, safer for our children" in the city, Gravely added.

More coverage of Tuesdays council meeting will be in the Martinsville Bulletin on Thursday.
An item in the collection at Reynolds Homestead has been nominated for the Virginias Top 10 Endangered Artifacts program.

It is Hardin Reynolds business trunk. Reynolds Homestead has nominated the trunk for the campaign, which showcases the importance of Virginias diverse history, heritage, and culture and the role that artifacts play in telling those stories.

Supporters can vote for the trunk Aug. 1-22 by visiting www.vatop10artifacts.org. Nominations will be reviewed by an independent panel of collections and conservation experts, and Top 10 honorees, as well as a "Peoples Choice" honoree, will be announced in September, just ahead of Octobers National Arts and Humanities Month.

This campaign from the Virginia Association of Museums (VAM) is designed to create awareness of the importance of preserving artifacts in the care of museums, libraries, archives and historic houses throughout VirginiaCollecting institutions from across Virginia have nominated items that they believe tell a significant story and deserve to be recognized on this prestigious "Top 10 List." These items may be ones that are currently being conserved, have a conservation plan, or are simply in need of conservation.

The public voting will be considered by the panel as they make their final selections. "Conservation is a vital component of our mission, and Virginias Top 10 campaign offers an interactive opportunity for supporters of Reynolds Homestead to become engaged in bringing the importance of this mission into the public spotlight," said Lisa Martin, senior program manager.

In her dedication speech on the opening day of the Reynolds Homestead, Nancy Susan Reynolds explained the value of this piece of history:

"One attic yielded a treasure which must not be omitted, a small weather-beaten trunk which contained the legal papers of Judge Andrew Murray Lybrook, the son-in-law of Hardin and Nancy Jane, and, most remarkable of all, many business papers of Hardin W. Reynolds. For whatever it may be worth, this history of the Reynolds family would not have been possible without the contents of this strangely shaped little trunk which so appropriately sits now in the room where Hardin once laboriously prepared his accounts."

Donations for the conservation and preservation of the trunk are being accepted. Checks should be made payable to Treasurer of Virginia Tech, with the notation "Trunk Preservation," and mailed to the Reynolds Homestead, 463 Homestead Lane, Critz, Va., 24082.
The Henry County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday evening approved a resolution asking the Virginia Commonwealth Transportation Board (CTB) to consider repurposing an $8.5 million earmark.

The resolution, which the board unanimously approved at its 6 p.m. meeting, asks CTB to repurpose the earmark  originally set aside for the construction of Interstate 73  to instead be used on the planning and construction of a connector road from Patriot Centre at Beaver Creek industrial park to the Route 58 bypass.

The resolution adds that the connector road should be constructed "in or near the already approved alternate corridor for the future Interstate 73." The resolution also states that the board is willing to donate any needed right-of-way for the construction of the road within the 1,200 acres of county-owned land adjacent to Patriot Centre.

Finally, the resolution states that the county plans to submit an application for the connector road to the Virginia Department of Transportations (VDOT) 2016 Smart Scale Program, formerly known as the H.B. 2 program, which grades road projects based on a number of different metrics.

The resolution was requested at the boards 3 p.m. meeting by Skip Ressel, who is President of the I-73 Committee of Martinsville and Henry County. Ressel also has requested the resolution at previous supervisors meetings.

Ressel told the board that time was of the essence, as the CTB will be meeting Thursday. The CTB also will be meeting in September, and according to Ressel, the fate of the $8.5 million earmark will be decided by the CTB at one of those two meetings.

Ressel also asked the board to include language in the resolution requesting that the road be scored under the Smart Scale Program, as all projects need to be submitted to that program before September in order to be scored this year.

Iriswood District Supervisor Milton Kendall requested that county staff draft the resolution prior to the boards 6 p.m. meeting, and the board unanimously approved the resolution at that meeting.

During the matters presented by the public portion of the 6 p.m. meeting, Martinsville Henry County NAACP President Naomi Hodge-Muse voiced concerns regarding the proposed connector route, including that it would run too close to city reservoir and to the Laurel Park area, causing negative impacts to both.

Following the meetings, Ressel said that he was pleased with the resolution, though he did wish that it had been approved earlier.
George Wong's vast collection of Italian art is displayed in Beijing. (Photo : Getty Images)

George Wong, a businessman from Hong Kong, is displaying his collection of contemporary Italian art in Beijing. The exhibition is called "Challenging BeautyInsights of Italian Contemporary Art."



The pieces cover four phases, from "poor art," avante-garde art to modern art of the 1980s. There are 47 paintings in total.



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"It showcases the development of Italian contemporary art after World War II. And it also bears the distinctive personality and preferences of the collector," said the curator Lorand Hegyi.



Wong is the President of the Parkview Green Group and has been an avid collector of Italian art for many years. Some pieces are hard to find.



Hegyi commented, "Even for Italian collectors, it's not easy to amass such a comprehensive collection of Italian art."



Most of the pieces are from the "arte povera" or "poor art" movement which was popular during the 1960s and 1970s. The artists who were prominent during this period are Giuseppe Penone, Michelangelo Pistoletto and Mario Merz.



Wong started collecting Chinese contemporary art and then moved on with Italian art. He is not like other billionaires who only collect art from famous artists. He collects pieces that he can connect with.



"I used to think that Chinese contemporary art is amazing when I started collecting it," Wong said. "But when I went to Italy, the art there made a deep impression on me. The art there is deeply integrated with daily life."



Marina Paris, an emerging artist in the current era, is one of the artists being shown in the exhibition. This is the first time that her work is being displayed in China.



Wong acquired her photos of old houses in Rome and asked her to take photos of abandoned houses in China.



The exhibit will run until Oct. 15 at the Parkview Green Museum in Beijing and is open daily.


As I listened to the GOP convention in Cleveland, all I heard was rage, doom and gloom. When I heard the GOPs candidate Donald J. Trump speak, it was the most frightening speech I think Ive ever heard by someone running for president. He portrayed America as this dark place full of crime, terrorism and fear and guess who is going to take care of it all by himself. He spoke of three groups with his divisive rhetoric. Those were Hispanics, Mexicans and African-Amer-cans. Donald has made bigotry and racism his campaign, mostly against Hispanics and Mexicans. When he speaks of immigration, if these were white immigrants, I feel he would not be saying what he is saying. When I heard Trumps speech, I wondered was this a speech to become a president or a dictator? Jesus says "I am the light of the world" in John 8:12. In 1 John 4:8, it says "whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love."

Tyrone Wooding

Martinsville

Time for a change

I am amazed there are Democrats and even a few Independents, still considering voting for the only presumptive nominee of a major political party ever to be under criminal investigation by the FBI. How anyone with any self-respect could endorse Hillary Clinton is beyond my comprehension.

Crooked Hillary is a pathological liar. It seems the lady cannot tell the truth. She lied about being under fire in Bosnia, lied about the Benghazi affair, lied about her emails. Even going back to her part in the Whitewater investigation, her superiors described her conduct as "unethical" and "dishonest."

In addition to that, when asked to name of accomplishment of Crooked Hillary, after over 30 years in the public eye, most voters can not name one. Even Jim Webb, who ran against Hillary in the Democratic primary, refuses to support her and has in fact endorsed Donald Trump. Thousands of blue collar Democrats are also backing Trump.

I know that Michael Elder, in his July 5 letter, said that Trump believed "Muslims, blacks, Hispanics and homosexuals are the problem with America. They are stealing the American Dream, destroying the moral values of this country and looking for handouts." I do not for one minute believe that and Donald Trump certainly does not believe that. Trump is the leader that we need. He will bring this country together and make America great again! Vote Trump on November 8.

Joel Cannaday

Bassett
The European debt crisis of 2009 marks a decisive turning point in the history of European capitalism. Across the continent, the economic, diplomatic and political situation is characterised by uncertainty, instability and collapse. Everywhere, contradictions which had built up under the surface for decades have exploded onto the scene.

This historic crisis of European capitalism expresses itself most graphically in the existential crisis of the European Union. Set up in order to overcome the natural limits of the bourgeois nation state, the European Project now has gone into reverse, with protectionist and nationalist tendencies gaining ground in every European country.

All of the driving factors which had hitherto pushed European integration forward have now turned into their opposite. The Single Market, free movement and the single currency, which in the past had brought great profits for the capitalists of Europe, have now become a gigantic fetter which threatens to drag all European nations into a seemingly never-ending crisis. All of the old divisions have re-emerged with renewed force.

In this context, the result of the recent referendum on EU-membership in the UK has sent shockwaves across Europe and the world. The decision to leave the EU, with of 52% of the vote, was a shattering blow to the stability and confidence of the EU and its institutions. Now, the prospect of the further referenda in other member states and even founding members has been raised.

This throws up a number of questions for Marxists, not just in terms of our perspectives for the class struggle in Europe, but also theoretical questions on the nature of the EU and the attitude of Marxists to the idea of European integration. It has never been more important to re-visit these questions from the standpoint of Marxist theory as it is with these ideas alone that we can orientate ourselves in the heavy political squalls to come.

Introductory reading

The crisis in Europe - Part one: 2016 - another year of European austerity by Josh Holroyd

The crisis in Europe - Part two: Fortress Europe under siege by Josh Holroyd

The crisis in Europe - Part three: What is the EU and where is it going? by Josh Holroyd

- A summary of the main elements of the European crisis, and its implications for the EU, our recent series of articles on Europe in Crisis is recommended. The articles cover the European economy, the ongoing migrant crisis and finally the prospects for future European integration under capitalism. Written in the beginning of this 2016, they are a useful introduction to the European crisis and the question of European integration.

The Class Nature of the European Union

Socialist answer to the EEC by Ted Grant

Capitalist Common Market  No! For a Socialist United States of Europe by Ted Grant

- These two texts written in the 1970's deal with the character of the Common Market and the question of the UK's accession to it.

A Socialist alternative to the European Union by Alan Woods

- A key text dealing on the character and future of the EU as it was preparing the monetary union. Written in 1997 it traces the inherent contradictions of the EU while correctly predicting the monetary union to eventually "...break down amidst mutual recriminations..."

The slogan of a Socialist United States of Europe

On the Slogan for a United States of Europe by V. I. Lenin

The Programme of Peace by Leon Trotsky

- The slogan, for a Socialist United States of Europe is a common thread which binds together all of our material on the question of the EU. It is not possible to have an independent class position without it. But this slogan was not first used in the debates surrounding the UKs accession to the Common Market, nor did it emerge along with the European Coal and Steel Community in 1951. In fact, it evolved out of discussions and debates held between the internationalists during the First World War.

Whilst the workers of Europe and its colonies were being forced to murder one another, Lenin and Trotsky considered the demand for a United States of Europe - without monarchies, standing armies and secret diplomacy. It is in Lenins 1915 article on this question that we encounter his famous statement that a United States of Europe, under capitalism, is either impossible or reactionary. Further, in Trotskys The Program of Peace, revised and republished in 1917, he argues that the democratic unification of Europe can only be achieved by revolutionary means, which would in turn transfer the power only to the proletariat.

Is The Time Ripe For The Slogan: The United States Of Europe? by Leon Trotsky

Re-visiting the question of the United States of Europe in the wake of the war and the creation of the Soviet Union, Trotsky once again put forward the slogan of a United States of Europe in his 1923 article, Is the Time Ripe for the Slogan: The United States of Europe published in Pravda. Again, Trotsky emphasises the revolutionary significance of the demand for the democratic unification of Europe but this time with an even clearer class content, asserting that the demand for a United States of Europe cannot be isolated from the demand for a Workers Government.

National Question [in Europe] by Ted Grant

Ted Grant would take up the slogan for a Socialist United States of Europe, in a draft document prepared in 1944, as the only means of ensuring the self-determination of subjugated nationalities after the defeat of German imperialism in the Second World War. This stands in stark contrast to the Schumann Declaration of 1950, which set out the aims of the capitalist unification of Europe, including the development of the African continent.

Free Trade & Imperialism

Marxists looking to delve deeper into the broader questions which underpin our analysis of the European Union should also study Marx and Engels works on the question of Free Trade and, most importantly, what attitude workers should take to it.

On the Question of Free Trade by Karl Marx

- In his speech on Free Trade, delivered to the Brussels Democratic Congress in 1848, Marx exposes the hypocritical and predatory nature of Free Trade from the point of view of the working class, but goes on to reject the alternative of Protectionism, stating, One may declare oneself an enemy of the constitutional regime without declaring oneself a friend of the ancient regime. Finally, he comes out in favour of Free Trade in the revolutionary sense that in developing the antagonism between capital and labour, it thereby hastens the social revolution. Here we see an independent class alternative being put to two equally exploitative bourgeois camps, which can still assist us today, long after the doctrine of Free Trade has ceased to play any progressive or revolutionary role.

The Free Trade Congress at Brussels by Friedrich Engels

- Engels's report of the Free Trade Congress in Brussels, where Marx himself could not comment, where he comments on various arguments put forward by bourgeois advocates regarding free trade. This marks the beginnnings of Marx and Engels's developing their independent working class position.

On the Question of Free Trade (not the same as above) by Friedrich Engels

- In On the Question of Free Trade, Engels develops the arguments put forward by Marx in the light of the rapid economic development seen in Europe in the period following the revolutionary wave of 1848. As well as explaining that neither Free Trade nor Protectionism will delay the expected social catastrophe, Engels traces the development of rings or trusts, used to fix prices and avoid unnecessary competition, an essential feature of modern imperialism and the model for the first ever incarnation of the EU, the European Coal and Steel Community.

Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism by V. I. Lenin

- Written at the height of the First World War, fought for the redivision of the globe between the European powers, Lenins masterpiece identifies the fundamental elements which would come to define world history over the following century: The transition from free trade to monopoly, the extreme concentration of wealth and the domination of finance capitalism, the crushing of the right of self-determination under the weight of the world market - all of these features can clearly be found at the heart of the EU today.
SPRINGFIELD -- Bill Cosby's lawyers argued Tuesday in federal court here that the comedian's homeowner's insurance policy should pay to defend him from defamation suits brought by women who say Cosby sexually abused them over decades.

The women, six of of whom have federal lawsuits pending here in Springfield, say Cosby harmed their reputations by denying the abuse and calling them lairs for making their allegations public.

The insurer, AIG Property Casualty Co., said Cosby's insurance policies exclude covering him or paying for him to defend himself against personal injury arising out of any sexual molestation, misconduct or harassment.

But Francis D. Dibble Jr. of the Springfield law firm Bulkley Richardson & Gelinas said the lawsuits are not alleging damages resulting from sexual misconduct either real or alleged. The injuries the women allege are injuries of reputation because Cosby and his lawyers and spokespeople denied the abuse allegations against him, Dibble said. The lawsuits are defamation suits and are thus covered by the homeowner's liability policy, he said.

But AIG's lawyer, Rebecca R. Weinreich of the Los Angeles firm Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith, said the defamation cases are linked to the allegations of sexual misconduct. Everything connected with the case, from the allegations made by the women to Cosby's denials and the women's lawsuits, relates back to the allegations of sexual misconduct, she said.

"Everything here arises from sexual assault," Weinreich said.

Much of the back and forth during the hour-long hearing Tuesday centered on the legal meaning of the phrase "arising out of".

U.S. District Judge Mark G. Mastroianni said he would take the arguments presented Tuesday under advisement and rule at a later date.

The women suing Cosby in Springfield federal court say he abused them decades ago, in many cases when they were aspiring performers and he was already famous as a stand-up comedian and star of TV's "I Spy".

For example, one woman, Katherine Mae "Kathy" McKee, she said she met Cosby in 1964, when she was working an aspiring actress and as a showgirl in Las Vegas.

The abuse was so long ago, the women were barred by statutes of limitations from suing for the abuse they say they suffered at Cosby's hands.

In November, a California judge ruled that AIG does have a duty to defend Cosby, according to court papers.

Cosby, 79, owns a home in Shelburne with is wife Camille and claims residency in Massachusetts.

He faces civil lawsuits from a dozen accusers, including the six suing in federal court in Springfield. He also faces criminal charges in a Philadelphia suburb.

Cosby has denied wrongdoing.
The Boston Globe has been sued by one of its distributors, which claims the media organization breached an exclusivity contract by allowing another company to deliver papers.

In the suit filed Suffolk Superior Court in Boston, Wellington News Agency of Stoneham claims that the Globe gave Publishers Circulation Fulfillment the right to deliver within 16 zip codes in Boston and Cambridge -- areas that contractually belonged to Wellington, according to the Boston Business Journal.

Wellington's suit alleges that it is supposed to be the only Globe distributor in that market, the Journal reports. It also notes that Publishers Circulation Fulfillment is a subcontractor.

In this June 8, 2009 file photo, workers walk past the front of The Boston Globe building in the Dorchester neighborhood of Boston.

Wellington learned of the Globe using Publishers Circulation Fulfillment's services when the publication was having major delivery problems in 2015, the Journal said. Wellington was allegedly not told that the subcontractor was also delivering papers in several Boston and Cambridge neighborhoods.

The lawsuit alleges the Globe -- under the leadership of two owners -- still promised Wellington that it was the only distributor in those areas.

The Globe switched from Publishers Circulation Fulfillment to another distributor, ACI Media Group, in late 2015, according to the Journal. But by early January, the Globe re-hired PCP following tens of thousands of missed and late deliveries -- a situation so bad that reporters helped take papers to subscribers.

Wellington's lawyer told the Journal that the amount of money at stake is "very significant."
The tall buildings of Chengdu financial district are seen in the background of the photo of the downtown area. (Photo : Getty Images)

The private equity industry in Chengdu has seen an increasing growth since it was established in 2009 by the Chengdu government and China Development Bank with the starting capital of 1.5 billion yuan, the South China Morning Post reported.



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Only a few big venture capital firms were based in the city six years ago but as the national players and companies from emerging industries joined, the fund of funds now has built a combined asset of 6 billion yuan, as of March this year.



Wu Zhong, general manager of Yinke Venture Capital said that most of the companies that first operated in Chengdu during the early years have no functioning office or staff. But now, venture capitalists come in numbers, take up prime office spaces and live in executive residences.



Wu said he is confident of Chengdu's economy as there are sufficient numbers of startups.



Wu explained that his company, unlike the local government's fund of funds, does not require an investment in local firms. However, in the early years, it required its general partners to invest but the "non-market oriented" approach did not work, he added.



"If the project is really good, general partners certainly will invest. If not, how can you demand them to invest?" Wu said.



According to the report, those who invest in the fund of funds are required to participate actively in local fairs and must be incorporated locally, maintain local offices with staff.



"We are bullish on Chengdu's economy, and there are enough promising startups. The question is whether they can effectively spot them. This is why we require them to operate locally," Wu said.



Chengdu Detong-YInke Capital Fund, managed by Detong Capital, leads other eight other yuan-denominated funds which posted an annual growth of more than 50 per cent since it was founded in 2010.



The fund's general manager Li Nong said that they will stay in Chengdu as he saw some opportunities in the agri-tech, defense, and high-end manufacturing sectors.



"I'm committed to spotting 'original' unicorn companies. If the company is in Beijing and Shanghai, it will immediately be pursued by numerous funds. But here we get the opportunity," Li said.



Li said it is possible for Chengdu to become a private equity center before it becomes a true financial hub. "Private equity is special because despite its small scale, it's extremely active and can stimulate the whole system," Li added.


NORTH ADAMS - Mary Hastings, a development executive with roots in the Northern Berkshires, joins Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts (MCLA) this month as Vice President for Institutional Advancement.

"I am extraordinarily excited to join MCLA, as I have seen the College praised and recognized for its excellence, which is a credit to the vision and energy of the board, faculty, administration and entire MCLA community," Hastings said.

According to MCLA President James F. Birge, Hastings brings substantial experience in fundraising and development strategy to MCLA.

"Mary's experience in development and expertise in fundraising make her ideally suited for this position," Birge said. "I'm excited to work with her in her new role as she leads and enriches the work of the Office for Institutional Advancement."

Before serving as executive director of the American London Symphony Orchestra Foundation, Hastings was the acting chief development officer for The Boys' Club of New York; director of development for The New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music and The New School for Drama; director of special events for The Foundation for Jewish Culture and director of education and community outreach at the Bloomingdale School of Music.

Hastings grew up in Williamstown. That experience provides her with years of perspective into the College's growth over the years. The accolades that MCLA has received in recent years, she said, put the College in an excellent position for further development and recognition.

"MCLA doesn't stand still. I'm fortunate to have watched from afar the growth and advancements it has made in the quality education that it delivers, one that values the region's resources, and one that understands that students can make choices with their education," Hastings said.

Hastings also is deeply familiar with values and principles in higher education as she has served on the faculty of Queens College and Hunter College. A professional trumpeter, she continues to teach trumpet, and is an active Broadway and classical music performer.
amazing kreskin.jpg

The Amazing Kreskin

Could The Amazing Kreskin tell you your Social Security number, license plate number, street address from 20 years ago or your dog's name?

You just might find out when Kreskin is at the Hu Ke Lau for one daytime performance on Aug. 9. Doors open at 11:30 a.m.; show time is 1:30 p.m.

For 50 years, the mentalist has been telling people things about themselves that only they or a close friend could possibly know.

He has been a guest on Johnny Carson and Merv Griffin shows and been a guest on shows with hosts including Howard Stern, David Letterman, Regis and Kathy Lee.

Kreskin also has performed throughout the world.

"During the past 50 years, Kreskin has had a television series, his own board game by Milton Bradley, 20 published books and a major motion picture inspired by his work," noted Anthony F. Manzi, president of Music Tribute Productions Inc. "With a showman's flair, a comedian's wit and the capacities of a bona fide mentalist or thought reader, The Amazing Kreskin has, for six decades, dramatized the unique facets of the human mind -- his own. His very name has become an integral part of pop culture throughout the world. Nobody in the world does what he does! How many performers let the audience hide his paycheck which if he can't find it he forfeits his fee?"

IF YOU GO

Event:

The Amazing Kreskin

When:

Aug. 9

Where:

Hu Ke Lau, Chicopee

Tickets: For more information: Call 413-593-5222

Manzi and Mike Egan -- of the Travel Group Inc . -- made it possible for Kreskin to perform in Western Massachusetts.

According to Manzi, Kreskin offers $1 million to anyone who can prove that he uses secret assistants in the audience or electronic devices to perform his mentalist effects.

Asked why people desire to be "amazed," he replied, "That's an answer that is dependent on each individual you ask. Kreskin amazes people because he tells people things about themselves that only they could possibly know. Their old street address from 20 year ago, their dog's name when they were kids etc. etc. It's amazing how he knows that."

Tickets for the event are $59 per person for a meal of triple lobsters beginning at noon and the show; $29 per person for the show only.

Tickets can be purchased at the Hu Je Lau in advance, which is recommended, or at the door on the day of show.

For more information, call 413-593-5222.
Police-Academy.jpg

Former President Bill Clinton recalled his courtship and life with Hillary Clinton at the Democratic National Convention on Tuesday night, but one anecdote set social media on fire.

The former president recalled his wife's reaction to his decision to watch the "Police Academy" movies back-to-back with their daughter.

"We rarely disagreed on parenting, though she thought I'd gone a bit far when I took time off to watch all six 'Police Academy' movies with Chelsea," he said.

Six of the low-brow comedies were shot during the 1980s. The seventh was filmed in 1994 and none were beloved by critics.

Bill Clinton's movie taste was called into question on Twitter.

The most troubling part of Bill Clinton's speech is that he said he watched all six Police Academy movies back to back.  Chris Gethard (@ChrisGethard) July 27, 2016

"We watched all six Police Academy movies, back to back." Clearly, Clinton really did write this speech himself.  Alex Wagner (@alexwagner) July 27, 2016

If the result of this is a reboot of Police Academy, I'm going to be pissed.  Douglas Dowland (@profdgd) July 27, 2016

Great time to issue the Police Academy box set. Hurry!  Mark Fiore (@MarkFiore) July 27, 2016

I saw those six POLICE ACADEMY movies IN THE THEATER and nobody's asking me to give a speech tonight.  Peter Avellino (@PeterAPeel) July 27, 2016

I'll have to check with experts, but this may be the first time a convention speaker name-checked the Police Academy movies. #DemsInPhilly  David Corn (@DavidCornDC) July 27, 2016

I love that Police Academy is trending.



That's all.  Tom {Hyrule!} (@HylianTom) July 27, 2016
Thirty years ago this week, gasoline prices were dropping to their lowest levels in years with most stations reporting a drop of twelve cents a gallon during the past month. A sample of prices were 77 cents a gallon for regular "leaded" gasoline, 82 cents for unleaded and 97 cents for super-unleaded. Prices were expected to continue to drop.

Twenty years earlier, President Johnson, during an address to paratroopers training at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, appealed for greater support from the American public for the fighting men in Vietnam.

These are some of the headlines you'll see from Page 1 of The Republican and its predecessors over the past fifty years for the week of July 24 - July 30. Each week I'll put together a slideshow of Page 1 images from selected years over the course of that week. We're starting with a look back at one, five, thirty, forty and fifty years ago, with Page 1s from each day of the week for those years.

The slideshow for July 24 - July 30 is embedded at the top of this article.

From the July 27, 1966 edition of The Springfield Union

We'll also find some humor printed out on page one over the years. In 1966 'Dennis The Menace' could be found on the bottom of page one six days a week.

Five years ago a story about the opening of the hookah cafe Petra in downtown Springfield. Owner Yazan Al-asad felt that this area was ripe for this growing trend. Petra was scheduled to open September 1st.

And a year ago the group promoting Boston as a site for the summer Olympics withdrew its bid after finding tepid support from Boston voters and Massachusetts residents as a whole.

You'll find with looking through the slideshow, that while many stories come and go, many of the issues and topics that affected lives in the past, continue to have an impact on our lives today.

Copies of these and other stories can be found in the online archives. Links to the archives are at the bottom of the page at www.masslive.com/republican

The historic archive includes stories prior to 1989, and the Newsbank archive covers 1988 through the present day.


At least 19 people were killed in a stabbing attack at a care facility for the disabled near Tokyo, Japan. (Photo : YouTube/Arirang News)

At least 19 people were killed in a knife attack at a facility for the disabled in Sagamihara, 25 miles southwest of Tokyo, Japan. The stabbing spree also wounded 26 other people.



According to CNN, the attacker was a former employee at the Tsukui Yamayurien facility. Satoshi Uematsu, who worked at the facility from 2012 until February this year, broke in through a window at around 2 am on July 26.



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Tsukui Yamayurien is a 7.5-acre facility located in the small mountain town of Sagamihara in the Kanagawa Prefecture. It is home to 149 residents, under a third of whom are elderly. The facility also has a total of 222 employees, but only nine of them, including one security guard, were on duty when Uematsu got inside.



The news agency noted that it was unclear what sort of work the 26-year-old Uematsu did in the facility and whether he resigned or was fired from his job. He had reportedly trained to be a teacher and his former colleagues attested that he was personable and polite.



A Sagamihara official told Reuters that Uematsu, who lives near the facility, was committed to a hospital after expressing a "willingness to euthanize" the severely disabled. Uematsu had reportedly written letters in February wherein he said that he could "obliterate 470 disabled people." He had indicated that he would kill 260 severely disabled individuals at two areas in the facility during the night, but that he would not hurt any of the staff.



The CNN report added that the suspect had delivered a letter to the Japanese legislature in which he outlined a society in which euthanasia of disabled people was accepted. Uematsu had personally handed the letter to staff at the residence of Tadanori Oshima, the Chairman of the Lower House.



Uematsu was freed in March after doctors found that he had improved.



The attack on Tuesday took place while the victims were sleeping. Of those who were killed, 10 were women and nine were men, with age ranging from 18 to 70. Out of the injured, 13 were severely hurt, 10 suffered moderate injuries, and three sustained minor injuries.



Local police said that an employee of the facility made the call and reported the attack. A bloodstained Uematsu turned himself in at the Sagamihara police station at around 3 a.m. carrying his weapon.



The incident, according to authorities, is Japan's worst mass killing since World War II.



Here is a video of a report regarding the stabbing attack:






Study revealed that booze is a direct cause of some types of cancer. (Photo : Twitter/@FollowtheLala)

Health professionals want to put warning labels on alcoholic drinks after a study revealed that booze is a direct cause of some types of cancer. The experts reviewed various data, including one from the World Cancer Research Fund, and discovered that drinking alcohol can lead to cancers of the liver, colon, esophagus, larynx, rectum, breast and oropharynx.



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In the study that was published on the Journal of Society for the Study of Addiction, researchers stated that even if the amount of alcohol consumed is minimal, the chance of getting cancer is still high.



"The highest risks are associated with the heaviest drinking but a considerable burden is experienced by drinkers with low to moderate consumption," The Guardian quoted Jennie Connor, a researcher from the Department of Preventive and Social Medicine of New Zealand's the University of Otago, as saying.



The researcher stressed that there is really no safe level for drinking alcohol because it can cause cancer no matter how little a person drinks. Likewise, drinking about 50 grams of alcoholic beverage or six ounces of wine a day can increase the drinker's risk of developing cancers of the oropharynx, larynx or esophagus by four to seven times higher.



Aside from the mentioned forms of cancer, Connor said that drinkers are also in danger of getting prostate, skin or pancreatic cancer. Nevertheless, scientists cannot really pinpoint the exact reason on why drinking alcohol can lead to cancer.



The researchers surmised that it could be due to the acetaldehyde which develops when alcohol breaks down. The compound dilapidates the DNA of cells in the liver, mouth, throat and esophagus, thus cancer may result from the damage.



However, Dr. Sam Zakhari, senior vice president of Science at the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States, Washington, DC, refuted the claims of Connor which says that even moderate consumption of alcohol is dangerous.



Dr. Zakhari believes that the research does not accurately show the contents of the latest research. "To declare that alcohol definitively causes cancer-based upon cherry-picked epidemiology articles lacks scientific credibility," he stated in a press release.



In support to Dr. Zakhari, chief executive of the Spirits New Zealand, Robert Brewer, explained that it cannot be denied that a string of health issues can result from heavy drinking, and cancer is one them. However, he reiterated that moderate drinking is actually beneficial to living a healthy life.



Watch the clip which explains the risk of cancer due to alcohol consumption:






Naked Woman in Dali (Photo : Weibo)

Because of male fascination for unclothed female bodies, while two blonde Russian women were brawling half-naked inside a taxi in China, a man did not attempt to stop the catfight. Instead, he filmed the fight and even took a shot of himself while the hair pulling was going on. He then posted the images on LiveLeak.



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Similarly, a male driver betrayed the trust of his female Chinese employer when he secretly took shots of the woman and posted the nude photos online. Daily Star reported that the woman did a naked pictorial on Haishe Park in Erhai Lake, a scenic spot in Dali. They it early in the morning in the hope the locals are not yet up while she poses without clothes in the popular tourist destination in Yunnan Province.



The official photographer was apparently the male partner of the woman. However, unknown to the two, while they were taking artistic shots, the driver was also surreptitiously recording the pictorial on his own device. Unknown to his boss, the sneaky driver sent the photo to his family members, who, in turn, reposted it in social media sites such as Weibo.



The photos had gone viral with thousands of views, reported Daily Mail. According to Chongqing Morning Post, the woman is a part-time model. But some netizens who saw her leaked photos said she is an art student at a Yunnan college. She had the naked pictorial as part of an art portfolio she was coming up with.



The incident sparked an online argument whose fault the leak was  the devious driver or the clueless naked model?


If youre considering seeking funding to either launch or grow your business, angel investors are one potential source of financing worth considering. But realize: angel investors get pitched every day, and turn down 90 percent of the startups that approach them. What can you do to put yourself in the best light possible to increase your chances of getting funded?

by Melinda Emerson

Full Story: http://smallbiztrends.com/2016/07/how-to-get-angel-investors.html
Severe Drought Major Factor In Steep Rise In Beef Prices (Photo : Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

At least 12 people got sick due to E. coli (Escherichia coli) outbreak in New Hampshire. These people have the same strain of the bacteria. Health officials tracked the source and stated that the outbreak was caused by ground beef.



Authorities stated that 12 people got infected of the same strain of E. coli since June after eating ground beef. It is said that the patients ate at several different places, so the officials are now trying to tract the main source of the bacteria, as reported by Boston CBS.



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Marcella Bobinsky, Acting Director of DPHS said in a statement that the Division of Public Health Services along with their federal partners is investigating to find the source of the ground beef that causes the E. coli outbreak. "Ground beef is a known source of E. coli and it is important for people to avoid eating under-cooked ground beef whether at home or at a restaurant," Bobinsky added.



The bacteria strain that made people in New Hampshire ill is known as Escherichia coli O157:H7. It causes bloody stool, stomach cramps, diarrhea and vomiting. The patient gets better in five to seven days in most cases but, it can be severe or life-threatening especially to elderly or young children because of the possible complication called hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS), according to Nature World News.



Anti-diarrheal drugs are not advisable to be taken by a patient with E. coli infection as these drugs only slow down the digestive system and prevent the body from getting the toxins out. It is best to take more fluids to avoid dehydration and fatigue and take lots of rest.



The outbreak does not possess any risk to New Hampshire residents, said the state's health officials. However, they recommend that people should follow the food safety practices. They advised consumer to wash hands, counters and cooking utensils if they touched raw meat to prevent cross contamination. Make sure that the meat is properly cooked by using a thermometer. Ground beef should be at least 160F or 70C to say that it is properly cooked.



DPHS, along with the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is now working to know where the contaminated beef came from. USDA is regulates the safety of meat in the US.






Tesla's Gigafactory 1 (Photo : Twitter)

Tesla has doubled the workers on its $5 billion state-of-the-art Gigafactory it is building in the country's largest industrial park located in the Nevada desert. It is trying to finish construction before the launch of its Model 3 electric car. The $33,000 e-car is set to be a more affordable electric vehicle (EV) than its Model S sedan and Model X SUV. A labor force of about 1,000 workers is keeping up construction of the factory for lithium-ion battery cells seven days a week.



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The Wall Street Journal first reported the news. Tesla hopes to finish the big factory's construction by early 2017.



The company has been completing the factory in construction phases. It will be able to manufacture lithium batteries before electric cars.



Tesla officially opened the new Gigafactory on July 26, Tuesday. Construction started about two years ago and is about 14 percent finished.



In fact, the factory is already producing battery packs. However, the company must purchase the lithium-ion cells from Japanese electronics giant Panasonic.



Gigafactory 1 will be one of the largest buildings in the world when it is finished. It will be about 10 million square feet (929,000 square meters).



Tesla's new factory could nearly double global production of lithium-ion batteries. The company claims it will also reduce the cost of lithium batteries by over one-third.



Tesla hopes to focus its business on producing affordable all-electric cars, pickup trucks, and semi-trucks. The California-based company also operates solar energy storage company Tesla Powerwall, which produces eco-friendly energy for homes and business.



Last month Tesla CEO Elon Musk released part two of the company's "Master Plan." It included some business strategies for the next several years.



Musk explained that the future of green energy is the ability to quickly scale up production runs. That explains why Tesla is focusing on Gigafactory 1 in order to make the factory into a product itself, according to CNBC. Tesla admitted that it has recently had problems meeting consumer demand.



The company hopes to produce 500,000 EVs per year by 2018, which is two years earlier than the original schedule.



In related news, industry reaction to Tesla's Master Plan has been mixed. The business plan included ideas such as car-sharing for fully autonomous vehicles (AV).



Some analysts argued the plans were unspectacular compared to other companies' plans for EVs and AVs. Others questioned if the company could reach its goals and earn profits for Tesla shareholders, according to Green Car Reports.



Here's a video on Tesla's Master Plan:






KickassTorrents blocked by Chrome, Safari and Firefox as phishing website. (Photo : YouTube/Torrents)

Last week, the United States government brought down KickassTorrents (KAT) after its owner was arrested in Poland. The move has spurred traffic increase for other torrent downloading websites, with Extra Torrent experiencing a 300 percent uptick.



KAT was shut down after its founder made several mistakes that allowed federal agents to track him down and seize his website. Prior to the shutdown, KickassTorrents operated in 30 languages and had over 50 million unique viewers per month. The website was approximated at $72 million.



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Following the shutdown, users have shifted to other major torrent downloading websites. Besides Extra Torrent that has seen a 300 percent increase in traffic, The Pirate Bay (TPB) is a major beneficiary of the take down, according to Torrent Freak.



KAT was the 69th most-viewed site on the internet before it was brought down by authorities. As a result, there are many pirates ready to board a new ship in the torrent sphere.



Apart from a few recent issues that saw TPB pulled down for several weeks, the website has been a steady stronghold of illegal torrents for those carefree about copyright policies. Speaking with the same publication, one TPB employee said they would readily welcome KickassTorrents users.



"When both TPB and its forum went down, we had overwhelming support from KAT users on their forum, and our staff was able to keep the communities updated on important news and announcements thanks to the help and messages of support we received," the employee said.



According to the source, giving in return is only right and TPB hopes KAT staff will keep them informed of any official announcements so that they can help to disseminate the information. On the other hand, the torrent community is still defiant amid continued persecution.



For the community, illegal torrent downloading is mere ideology and a steadfast dedication to open information as opposed to a crime, as reported by Pirate Party, which among other things, warns about the infringement of copyright.



The operator of Extra Torrent, which has enjoyed a fast increase in traffic in the past few days - identified as SaM - is optimistic that the KickassTorrents and torrent community will make a comeback. Watch the footage below for more information on KAT.






The man's family claim he had been tortured to death in prison by German police officers

Egypt's foreign ministry said it is carrying out an inquiry in the death of an Egyptian national ''while in custody'' in Germany and has demanded a swift probe by German authorities into the reported incident.

The Egyptian embassy in Berlin has contacted officials in the German federal government requesting "clarification" into reports by Egyptian media and the man's family suggesting he was tortured to death by German police last June, the ministry said in a statement on Tuesday.

The death of Mohammed Abdel Fattah, 22, was first reported by the mans father during an interview with an Egyptian TV channel.

The father claimed that his son had been tortured to death by German police officers while in custody in the western German city of Essen, adding that Egyptian authorities were not informed of the situation.

Abdel Fattah's father said his son carried an Italian residency, and that he was informed of his son's arrest and death by friends in Germany.

The foreign ministry summoned Abdel Fattah's family on Tuesday to examine the deceased's official papers and most recent correspondence to take the necessary legal measures.

The embassy in Berlin had sent an official memorandum to the German foreign ministry to seek information about the circumstance syrrounding the death of the Egyptian national, the ministry said.

The embassy has also inquired from the German side why Cairo had not been informed of the incident.

The Egyptian consulate in Frankfurt said that local German authorities told Egyptian officials that Abdel Fattah was previously arrested, and had opened an official probe into his death.

The German officials also vowed to provide a formal written report to Cairo on their findings, the ministry said in the statement.

*Correction: A previous version of this report indicated that Mohamed Abdel Fattah held Italian nationality. The deceased is believed to have only held an Italian residency.

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Extremist militants in parts of North Sinai have been waging an insurgency against the state, mainly targeting army and police officers

Three civilians were killed on Wednesday in a roadside bomb in North Sinai, state news agency MENA reported.

A bomb planted on the side of a highway south of the provincial capital of Al-Arish caused the deaths.

Extremists have been waging an insurgency in the northern part of the Sinai Peninsula that has mainly targeted policeman and soldiers in bombings and ambushes.

The military have spearheaded an extensive campaign to crush militants in the region that borders Israel and the Palestinian Gaza Strip, which has killed hundreds of militants.

The army said it had killed 88 extremists in the third phase of its 'Right of the Martyr' campaign in May, and that another 22 were killed in a multi-day operation early last month.

On Sunday, a gunman shot dead a police officer in North Sinai in an attack claimed by the Egyptian affiliate of the Islamic State militant group.

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Related Cairo demands swift probe into alleged torture to death of Egyptian in German custody

There is no evidence that the recent death of an Egyptian national in Germany was a result of a criminal act, the German Embassy in Cairo said on Wednesday.

The embassy said that routine investigations conducted by the German general prosecutor into the death of an allegedly hospitalised Egyptian citizen last June in the western German city of Essen were still ongoing.

Cairo has demanded a swift probe by German authorities into the incident, saying that its envoy in Berlin has requested "official clarification" of the incident following reports by local media.

The embassy affirmed that the German foreign minister and involved authorities in Germany's North Rhine-Westphalia were in direct contact with Egypt's envoy in Berlin regarding the incident.

The statement by the German embassy comes one day after Egypt's foreign ministry said it is carrying out an inquiry into the death of 22-year-old Egyptian Mohamed Abdel-Fattah "while in custody in Germany".

The statement by the German embassy did not refer to any apprehension by police of Abdel-Fattah, only saying he died in a hospital in Assens.

However, according to Egypt's consulate in Frankfurt, local German authorities told the Egyptian side Abdel-Fattah had been previously stopped by local police, and that an official probe was opened.

The death of Abdel-Fattah was first reported by the mans father during an interview on an Egyptian TV channel.

The father said that his son had been tortured to death by German police officers in the western German city of Essen, claiming Egyptian authorities were never informed of his arrest..

Abdel Fattah's father said his son held Italian residency, and frequently traveled between Germany, France, and Italy for business.

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Saudi Arabia on Wednesday condemned "in the strongest terms" the attack on a church in France that saw a priest killed by Islamic State group followers.

"This cowardly terrorist act is rejected by Islam which necessitates protecting places of worship and prohibits violating their sacredness," said the statement published on the official SPA news agency.

Ultra-conservative Saudi Arabia, a member of the US-led coalition fighting IS group in Syria and Iraq, bans churches and all other non-Muslim places of worship.

Two attackers stormed the church in the northern town of Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray during morning mass on Tuesday, slitting the throat of an 86-year-old priest and leaving a worshipper with serious injuries.

IS group said the attack was carried out by its "soldiers".

The United Arab Emirates also condemned the attack in France which it said only aims to "spread sedition and fuel hatred."

"This shocking crime reveals the lowness of its perpetrators and those behind them," the UAE said, urging world countries to "work decisively and without hesitation to confront terrorism in all its forms."

Neighbouring Gulf states Bahrain, Kuwait, and Qatar have issued similar statements condemning the attack.

The assault comes less than two weeks after a man ploughed a truck into a crowd in the Riviera city of Nice, killing 84 people and injuring over 300.

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by Steffan Berelowitz , Columnist, July 25, 2016

Baby boomers were once the most coveted demographic group for the hospitality industry, but in recent years millennials have become the largest age group in the US with one of the strongest purchasing power. There are now over 83 million Americans in the millennial age range and they represent an enticing, yet challenging, effort for hotel marketers.

The average hotel booking experience is vastly different for millennials than for their older counterparts. This leads hospitality organizations to find new ways to market to this new generation as outdated techniques have fallen on deaf ears. Millennials are remarkably adept at using mobile technology, which allows them instant access to almost any information that exists. They have grown up in a culture where the expectation for on-demand services is constant. Savvy hotel marketers can use these traits to their advantage in order to present a compelling message to millennials.

Spontaneity over planning

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On average, it has been reported that the booking window for a millennial traveler is 75 days, or significantly shorter than the 93-day period that was the standard for older generations. They are much more likely to book something on the fly when presented with a promotion. In all, approximately 20% of millennials browse the web exclusively on their mobile device, meaning hotel companies must have a user-friendly and streamlined mobile site in order to stay competitive.

Industry giants such as Starwood and Hilton have recently made a big push to enhance their mobile app experience, but companies don't have to break the bank on fancy app development to woo digitally savvy customers. Whats paramount is the experience and accessibility of the browsing and booking experiences through mobile websites; seamless, simple, and secure are the key attributes. Creating an easy to use, value-added mobile experience for the consumer is a way to stand out from the crowd and motivate customers to purchase.

Engaging, authentic experiences

Long gone are the days when a clean room and a competitive rate were all you needed to survive. Most millennials are looking for more when deciding where to book, and they typically dont mind paying a premium for it. They are most interested in authentic experiences that make their stay unique. In order to influence booking decisions, these experiences and other unique amenities can be advertised in a more prominent manner than relying on low rates to draw in the consumer.

Business travel that isnt only about work

According to a report from Expedia in 2013, travelers under 30 take 4.7 business trips per year and 4.2 leisure trips per year, which is more than those in either of the older age groups. During these trips, business travelers arent content with staying confined to their hotel room during down time. These customers are increasingly looking for hotels to provide opportunities to socialize and network. Hotels should engage with these customers by suggesting unique shared spaced or activities where they can relax and network.

The primacy of peer review

Due to the over-saturation of advertisements during their youth, millennials have become hardened and hard to reach, which leads them to trust peer reviews as a trusted voice. Younger consumers check an average of 10.2 sites before making their decision to book, leaving them with numerous opportunities to be influenced by both positive and negative information. This digital word-of-mouth is often the defining factor in a millennial making the decision to book a room, so hotel marketers must carefully monitor their social media presence and actively respond to both rave reviews and disappointing experiences.

Additionally, having your customers leave feedback on popular social review sites can be beneficial for your brand. In fact, these reviews can boost your SEO performance. Also, placing a badge from a trusted entity like TripAdvisor or Yelp on your website will make your brand more trustworthy to visitors who haven't had exposure to your brand.

While it is vital to have positive reviews about the quality of your guests' experiences, its important to remember that millennial habits are fluid. Having a multi-platform experience is necessary to reach such a lucrative consumer. The industry is quickly moving towards an integrated model and if hotels dont evolve with the times then they will find themselves missing out on a huge profitable market.

Editor's note: This originally appeared on April 11, 2016, in Marketing:Travel.
The blockbuster $4.8 billion sale of Yahoos core assets to Verizon Communications, announced on Monday, could generate deep shifts on the global advertising industrys playing field. Verizon plans to merge the Yahoo assets with AOL, which the company bought in 2015.

AOL head Tim Armstrong will spearhead the integration of the two companies along with Verizon EVP Marni Walden, a process that is sure to be tedious and lengthy.

The newly bolstered telecom giant hopes to compete with Google and Facebook in an industry where scale is imperative.

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Yahoo brings with it an audience of 1 billion active worldwide users -- including 600 million active mobile users, a host of influential consumer brand partnerships, a powerful programmatic advertising and data platform and a robust editorial team.

Rivaling Facebook and Google is no easy task. Effectively integrating the myriad businesses will be paramount.

The benefits from the deal to both Yahoo/AOL and to the advertising industry are many, Jay Friedman, Goodway Group's COO explained to Real-Time Daily via email: This is the best outcome marketers could have hoped for in the industry. This acquisition puts AOL on solid ground as the third platform CMOs must take a meeting with behind Google and Facebook.

"Balance of power is good. If AOL keeps an open ecosystem, they stand a very good chance of taking budget from Facebook and Google. Verizon/AOL/Yahoo now boasts a stack with as much reach and more O&O [owned and operated] inventory as Google and Facebook.

Verizon will have to address the SMB (small- and medium-sized business) self-service abilities that the two incumbent ad giants offer, Friedman added. Tackling the self-serve offerings is a must to sandwich the market with Fortune 100 plus the SMB market, continued Friedman.

This could be good news for publishers, too.

The industry will benefit as a whole from this deal, Rich Sutton, CRO, Trusted Media Brands, told Real-Time Daily via email. While Yahoo Finance and other Yahoo verticals are large in MUVs [monthly unique visitors], all are aggregators and curators of content -- not creators of content. Therefore, brands that are storytellers will win. With that said, brands and publishers that want to get their content distributed will now have the opportunity to, and it wont just be about Facebook Instant Articles.

Yahoo also promises to bring with it a likeability that is not usually associated with telecom companies.

For all the wobbliness of Yahoos brand identity, the Yahoo brand still hold a lot of consumer affinity. Consumers LIKE the Yahoo brand, explains Shar VanBoskirk, Forrester's vice president and principal analyst. Depending on how Verizon plans to leverage that, it could be a nice boost in an industry like telecom where most subscribers disdain even the providers they are quite loyal to."
by Karlene Lukovitz @KLmarketdaily, July 26, 2016

Subway and the Coca-Cola Company are partnering on a clean-water cause marketing campaign.

For every bottle of Coca-Colas Dasani water sold in 2,200 U.S. participating Subways by Aug. 31, Subway will donate 30 cents (up to $125,000 total) to World Vision.

The donations will be used by World Vision  a Christian humanitarian organization that is the largest non-governmental supplier of clean water around the world  to work with partners in Kenya to construct a solar-powered water system providing clean water for 1,600-plus people. A 30-cent contribution is enough to supply clean drinking water to one person for one month, according to Subway.

The new water system will be located near a Coca-Cola Ekocenter within an area development project being operated by World Vision.

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Subway has posted a video explaining the program on YouTube, in addition to social media postings about the effort.

Donations can also be made through www.freshwater4all.com, a dedicated Subway-branded site that also explains the program, and offers a running tally of donations (more than $38,000 in the first 24 hours).

Donors are being encouraged to tweet their participation using #igavecleanwater.
by Philip Rosenstein , Staff Writer, July 27, 2016

Democrats made history yesterday evening in Philadelphia.

The Democratic National Convention, held in the city of brotherly love, nominated the first woman to top the general election ballot of a major political party in the United States. While Monday night focused on unity and gave the progressive voice a powerful microphone, last night was all about Hillary Clinton.

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders made a last inspiring show of unity by officially moving during the roll call vote that Hillary Clinton be nominated as the Democratic nominee for President of the United States. He mirrored Hillary Clintons move during the 2008 convention when she did the same for then-Illinois Sen. Barack Obama.

The theme of day two was A Lifetime of Fighting for Children and Families.

A strong show of support for the African American community and a show of solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement, noticeably absent from the RNC last week, was a poignant part of the speaker lineup.

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Mothers of the Movement, a group of women who have had children murdered in high-profile cases, spoke to the convention about why they are voting for Hillary Clinton in November. The mothers of Trayvon Martin, Sandra Bland, Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Jordan Davis, Dontre Hamilton and Hadiya Pendleton were present.

I am here with Hillary Clinton tonight, because she knows that when a young black life is cut short, its not just a loss, its a personal loss, its a national loss, its a loss that diminishes all of us, Sandra Blands mother, Geneva Reed-Veal told convention delegates.

In addition, Pittsburgh Police Chief Cameron McKay, speaking for both law enforcement and improved policy, noted: "We can support our police officers while at the same time making criminal-justice reforms."

The most revealing and touching speech of the night was given by President Bill Clinton.

President Clinton has been accused throughout the 2016 cycle of going dangerously off-script and engaging in scandal-creating meetings, such as a social meet with U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch before the outcome of Secretary Clintons FBI email probe had been made public.

Clinton went off-script last night as well, but in the most human and candid way. He spoke of the story of his life with Hillary, beyond politics and within.

When remembering the first time they met, Bill Clinton showed the United States the straightforward and self-assured woman Hillary Clinton has always been: She walked the whole length of the library, came up to me and said, 'Look, if youre going to keep staring at me and now Im staring back, we at least ought to know each others name. Im Hillary Rodham, who are you?' 

The theme of his speech might as well have been, The best change maker I know. You could drop her in any trouble spot, pick one, come back in a month and somehow  she will have made it better. Thats just who she is.
The Hill, Wednesday, July 27, 2016 11:37 AM

GOP nominee for president of the United States Donald Trump has refused to release his tax returns. His argument is that he is in the middle of an audit and will release them once the audit is completed. Fox News contributor George Will suggested another reason to Bret Baier: Perhaps one more reason why were not seeing his tax returns -- because he is deeply involved in dealing with Russian oligarchs and others.

Read the whole story at The Hill 
by John Motavalli , Columnist, July 27, 2016

Can you tell by someones music taste what kind of car they would buy? Is it best to advertise to music fans ears or eyes? How about advertising to listeners in the shower?

Spotify, one of the top music sites, last week announced a partnership with AppNexus, Rubicon Project and The Trade Desk that will enable highly targeted Deal ID/PMP audio ads to serve to the 70-million, mostly young users of Spotify Free. Clients can use 15- or 30-second audio spots, and use first-party data to target by music genre, age, gender, playlist choices and various other demographic factors. Spotify had previously been offering a programmatic solution based on display ads and video spots.

This makes sense because, if I base it on how I use Pandora and Spotify, visuals are not the point. Who looks at Pandora when youre playing it, especially on a PC? Spotify has display ads from the likes of clients like Aetna but, as they explain, watching Spotify isnt really what people are doing. AppNexus quotes Nielsen estimating that 79% of audio consumption takes place while people are engaged in activities that make it impossible for them to engage with visual media. That leaves an enticing possibility, but lets leave salacious thoughts out of this story.

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Although Spotify didnt want to release client names, I heard a :15 Sam Adams beer spot, which seemed like the right length for this type of ad. Another ad was for the travel service Kayak. The ads I heard were spoken word, and avoided the shouting intensity of many radio ads, which is why I stopped listening to commercial radio, not to mention the podcasts with 15 spots in a row that make much of them unlistenable. I also heard local Florida targeting, a spot for Jacksonville State University. I grooved to Spotifys Pop Chillout, which played a lot of songs I like. Because of Spotify, I now know and love The Brinks and Arizonas I Was Wrong.

Spotify Says It Will Avoid Ad Overkill

Les Hollander, global head of audio monetization at Spotify, told me his service is 90% subscription supported; advertising accounts for the other 10%. But 70% of its audience listens to the free service, so currently 30% of the audience is paying most of the bills at Spotify. The plan is for that to change. Spotify wants to avoid ad overkill, with Hollander noting that that the audio ad load will be lower than that of other publishers. I heard an ad after about five songs, which is a lot less than any radio station, and it was just one :15 spot. No clutter here, not yet.

Maybe Spotify doesnt know as much about you as Google does, but it knows things Google doesnt. I suppose we should have known this when the shower radio was invented, but a lot of people listen to music in the shower. According to Hollander, a breathtaking 800,000 Spotify listeners have created shower playlists. And while theyre powering those up, its a perfect opportunity for bath product advertisers to hit them where they bathe. There are also a lot of "barbecue" playlists? Steak sauce ads would come to mind.

According to company data, 80% of Spotifys users wield a mobile device. And this ad opportunity is aimed straight at the radio audience, or what used to be the radio audience.

While radio listening activity overindexes in the morning, Spotify listening builds steadily throughout the day, peaking in the afternoon and early evening, the company asserts. Spotify claims that its average cross-platform users average 148 minutes of listening per day.

Spotifys Hollander notes that many people now just listen to radio in the car. When was the last time you saw a boombox? he asks. While Spotify, Pandora and other such services are carried around with mobile devices throughout listeners days.

How reliable is someones music taste in targeting potential clients? Notwithstanding that politicians like Donald Trump and George Bush keep using songs that the artists dont approve of, its difficult to predict what music turns somebody on. But combine that with detailed demographics, and you have something interesting
by Wendy Davis @wendyndavis, July 27, 2016

Siding against Yahoo, a federal judge in Illinois has rejected the company's bid to throw out a class-action lawsuit accusing it of sending unsolicited SMS messages to some Sprint customers, court records reveal.

U.S. District Court Judge Manish Shah in Illinois entered an order on Monday denying Yahoo's request to dismiss the lawsuit. Shah hasn't issued a written opinion spelling out his reasons.

The legal dispute dates to 2014, when Sprint customer Rachel Johnson sued Yahoo (soon to be acquired by Verizon) for allegedly violating the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, which prohibits companies from using automated dialers to text people without their consent. The battle centers on a Yahoo Messenger feature that converts instant messages into text messages. Johnson alleged in court papers that she received at least two messages through that feature. One of the messages came from other users, while the other -- a "Welcome" message from Yahoo -- explained the first one. The lawsuit deals only with the "Welcome" message.

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Shah previously ruled that Johnson could proceed with a class-action on behalf of Sprint users who received the messages.

Last month, Yahoo asked Shah to reconsider that ruling in light of the U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision involving the data broker Spokeo. The Supreme Court ruled in the matter that an Illinois resident couldn't proceed with allegations that Spokeo displayed incorrect information unless he could show the errors caused a "concrete" injury.

Yahoo said that decision also prevents Johnson from proceeding with her case, arguing she wasn't harmed by the messages.

"There was no incremental charge for the receipt of any text, including the Welcome Message -- neither the subscriber nor Johnson was charged for Johnsons receipt of the Welcome Message," Yahoo wrote in its court papers. The company added that the phone belonged to Johnson's employer, who had a plan that allowed unlimited text messages.

It's not yet clear whether Shah will issue a written opinion explaining why he ruled against Yahoo.
by Wendy Davis , Staff Writer @wendyndavis, July 27, 2016

Manhattan dentist Nima Dayani is hardly the only health care professional to receive bad reviews online. But he may well be one of the only ones to sue five separate patients for panning him on the Web.

Now, Yelp is warning Dayani's future patients about his lawsuits. Visitors to Yelp's page for Dayani are now greeted with the following message: "Consumer Alert: Questionable Legal Threats."

Yelp adds: "This business may be trying to abuse the legal system in an effort to stifle free speech, including issuing questionable legal threats against reviewers. As a reminder, reviewers who share their experiences have a First Amendment right to express their opinions on Yelp."

The five lawsuits, all filed in the last four years, along with Yelp's warning, came to light on Monday.

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Yelp has placed similar warnings on its page for two other businesses: the Dallas-based pet-sitting service Prestigious Pets, and Superior Moving & Storage in Pompano Beach, Florida.

Prestigious Pets is suing a Texas couple for $1 million for writing that the company overfed their pet goldfish. Prestigious Pets says its contracts with consumers contain non-disparagement clauses that prohibit negative reviews. (Congress currently is considering legislation that would prevent companies from requiring customers to sign non-disparagement agreements.)

Superior Moving and Storage also is suing a consumer who posted a one-star review on Yelp.

Earlier this week, Yelp Senior Vice President Vince Sollitto said in a blog post that the alerts are intended to serve as a warning to consumers.

"Consumers dont necessarily know that these threats are sometimes empty or meritless (and often both!), so the threat of legal action is enough to scare them into silence. We dont think thats right," Solitto writes.

Of course, the alerts aren't just a warning to consumers: They also serve to tell business owners that suing customers might result in the kind of bad publicity that could scare off new patrons. Whether that discourages companies from bringing new cases against consumers remains to be seen.
-A double bomb attack killed 31 people in the Kurdish-majority city of Qamishli in northeastern Syria on Wednesday, Syrian state television reported.

In a breaking news alert, it said rescue workers were still retrieving victims of the blasts, and that at least 170 people had also been wounded.

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by Ben Frederick @mp_benfred, July 27, 2016

Mobile wallets pushed SMS/text messaging in the top four channels for sales and offers millennials prefer, alongside email, Web sites, and apps, according to data form a new survey by Urban Airship, a mobile engagement/wallet marketing company.

The company surveyed 1,000 US and 1,000 UK consumers on their mobile wallet habits, attitudes and expectations.

Of all the places that users can receive marketing messaging, mobile wallets (like Apple Pay, Android Pay, Samsung Pay, etc.) appear to be the most logical.

Companies dont have to build a full app if they want to give out offers, consumers are already invested in the offers theyve gotten and are receptive to updates on the status of their coupon.

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Payments are only one half of what mobile wallets are capable of, says Corey Gault, Urban Airships director of communications, nonpayment capabilities include loyalty programs, push messaging, and digital coupons.

Mobile wallets are joining decades-old communication formats, says Judy Chan, senior product marketing manager, mobile marketing at Urban Airship. While the vast majority of consumers feel positively about brands that offer rewards cards, most said that a mobile rewards card was expected.

Most consumers (54%) have now used mobile wallets, with 30% of respondents claiming to have used them in the past week.

In addition to the survey, the company has also released a new product called Reach, which supports large-scale wallet engagement campaigns. Publishers like Politico Europe were able to put out an EU referendum tracker, in the form of a mobile wallet card, to monitor the Brexit vote.

"We were able to plan, develop and market the entire mobile wallet pass strategy and execution in a few weeks. In seven days leading up to and through the vote, we built a base of 10,000 engaged pass users, stated Kate Day, Politicos editorial director for growth.
Whether in your handbag, a drawer at home, or your desk at work, chances are you have acetaminophen on hand, just in case headache or back pain strikes. It is the most widely used pain relief medication in the United States, and it is also considered one of the safest. But recently, its perceived safety has come into question. Share on Pinterest Around 23 percent of Americans use a medication containing acetaminophen each week. Acetaminophen, also known as paracetamol or APAP, is a drug commonly used to alleviate mild to moderate pain and reduce fever. It is present in more than 600 over-the-counter (OTC) and prescription medications, including Tylenol and Vicodin. Headache, muscle aches, back pain, toothache, colds, menstrual pain, and arthritis are among the numerous conditions acetaminophen is used for. According to the Consumer Healthcare Products Association (CHPA), each week, around 23 percent of adults in the U.S.  or 52 million Americans  use a medication containing acetaminophen. At recommended doses, acetaminophen is considered one of the safest OTC medications. Unlike other common pain relievers, such as nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), acetaminophen does not raise the risk of stomach or heart problems, making it a go-to medication for people who are unable to tolerate NSAIDs. What is more, healthcare providers consider acetaminophen as one of the few pain relievers that is generally safe to use during pregnancy; a 2010 study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found the drug causes no increased risk of major birth defects when used in the first trimester of pregnancy. But, as with all medications, there are risks, and researchers are finding that the risks of acetaminophen use may be more serious than we realize. Last year, a review published in Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases concluded that the possible risks of acetaminophen have been underestimated, with some studies suggesting the drug could raise the risk of cardiovascular events and mortality. In this spotlight, we take a look at some of the well-established risks of acetaminophen use, as well as some that may come as a surprise.

Acetaminophen overdose and liver damage Liver damage is perhaps the most well-known risk of acetaminophen use, and such damage can arise through overdosing on the drug. After taking acetaminophen, most of the drug is metabolized by the liver and excreted through urination. However, some of the drug is converted into a toxic metabolite that can harm liver cells. Taking too much acetaminophen raises the risk of liver damage, and in severe cases, it can lead to death. According to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), between 1998-2003, acetaminophen was the leading cause of acute liver failure in the U.S. , and almost half of liver failure cases during this period were a result of accidental overdose. Furthermore, the FDA state that, during the 1990s, unintentional acetaminophen overdose was responsible for around 56,000 emergency department visits, 26,000 hospitalizations, and 458 deaths each year. Because acetaminophen is present in such a wide range of OTC and prescription drugs at varying doses, it can be quite easy to accidentally take too much, particularly if using multiple acetaminophen-containing medications at once. Current guidelines recommend taking no more than 4,000 milligrams of acetaminophen daily. Considering a single Extra Strength Tylenol tablet contains 500 milligrams, it is easy to see how one may accidentally overdose on the drug. What is more, acetaminophen-induced liver damage occurs slowly, often going unnoticed until it is too late, so people may think that taking a little extra acetaminophen than recommended is posing no harm. With this in mind, in 2011, the FDA asked prescription drug manufacturers to voluntarily limit the amount of acetaminophen in each tablet or capsule to no more than 325 milligrams , in order to reduce consumers risk of accidental overdose. As of 2014, the organization reported that just half of prescription drug manufacturers had voluntarily complied with the request, prompting them to launch proceedings to withdraw approval of prescription combination drugs containing more than 350 milligrams. Additionally, the FDA recommend that healthcare providers consider prescribing combination drugs containing less than 350 milligrams of acetaminophen per dose.

Severe skin allergies and blood cancers A number of studies have associated acetaminophen use with severe skin allergies, and the FDA Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS) revealed that between 1969-2012, 107 such cases occurred in the U.S., resulting in 67 hospitalizations and 12 deaths. Share on Pinterest In rare cases, acetaminophen can cause severe skin reactions. As such, in 2013, the FDA issued a warning that acetaminophen use, in rare cases, can cause a number of potentially fatal skin reactions, including Stevens-Johnson syndrome (SJS) and toxic epidermal necrolysis (TEN). FDAs actions should be viewed within the context of the millions who, over generations, have benefited from acetaminophen, said Dr. Sharon Hertz, deputy director of FDAs Division of Anesthesia, Analgesia and Addiction. Nonetheless, given the severity of the risk, it is important for patients and healthcare providers to be aware of it. In 2011, a study published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology uncovered a link between regular acetaminophen use and increased risk of certain blood cancers. The study, which reviewed the painkiller use of more than 64,000 men and women aged 50-76, found that individuals who used acetaminophen four or more times a week for at least 4 years were at a twofold risk of some blood cancers, including lymphoma and leukemia. However, study co-author Emily White, of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, WA, noted that the risk of such cancers was still small among regular, long-term acetaminophen users, at around 2 percent over a 10-year period.

Autism, ADHD, and asthma Despite acetaminophen use during pregnancy being considered generally safe, a number of studies have suggested this may not be the case. In February this year, a study that found expectant mothers who used acetaminophen were more likely to have children who developed asthma by the age of 3 years. The researchers  including Dr. Maria Magnus of the Norwegian Institute of Public Health in Oslo, Norway  say the findings are of public health importance, uncovering the possible adverse effects of acetaminophen use in pregnancy. However, they say the results do not warrant changes to current acetaminophen recommendations for use during pregnancy, which state that pregnant women should consult with their doctor prior to using the drug. But asthma is not the only risk that may arise with acetaminophen use in pregnancy. Earlier this month, MNT reported on a study that uncovered a link between prenatal exposure to acetaminophen, autism, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). From an analysis of more than 2,600 pregnancy women, the researchers found that women who used acetaminophen in the first 32 weeks of pregnancy were 30 percent more likely to have offspring with attention impairments at the age of 5, which are often seen in children with autism or ADHD. Additionally, the researchers  including study co-author Jordi Julvez of the Center for Research in Environmental Epidemiology (CREAL) in Barcelona, Spain  found that boys prenatally exposed to the drug were more likely to have clinical symptoms of autism. Taking to MNT, Julvez said he believes doctors need to better inform patients  particularly expectant mothers  about the potential risks associated with acetaminophen use. We need to tell them this possibility [of developmental problems in offspring] and to be cautious on its use, maybe taking the least possible dose and also only when it is strictly necessary, he told us.
Dutch men and Latvian women are the tallest on the planet, according to the largest ever study of height around the world.

The research, led by scientists from Imperial College London and using data from most countries in the world, tracked height among young adult men and women between 1914 and 2014.

Among the findings, published in the journal eLife, the research revealed South Korean women and Iranian men have shown the biggest increases in height over the past 100 years. Iranian men have increased by an average of 16.5cm, and South Korean women by 20.2cm.

The height of men and women in the UK has increased by around 11cm over the past century. By comparison, the height of men and women in the USA has increased by 6cm and 5cm, while the height of Chinese men and women has increased by around 11cm and 10cm.

The research also revealed once-tall USA had declined from third tallest men and fourth tallest women in the world in 1914 to 37th and 42nd place respectively in 2014. Overall, the top ten tallest nations in 2014 for men and women were dominated by European countries, and featured no English-speaking nation. UK women improved from 57th to 38th place over a century, while men had improved slightly from 36th to 31st place.

The researchers also found that some countries have stopped growing over the past 30 to 40 years, despite showing initial increases in the beginning of the century of study. The USA was one of the first high-income countries to plateau, and other countries that have seen similar patterns include the UK, Finland, and Japan. By contrast, Spain and Italy and many countries in Latin America and East Asia are still increasing in height.

Furthermore, some countries, particularly those in sub-Saharan Africa, North Africa and the Middle East have even seen a decline in average height over the past 30 to 40 years.

How tall we grow is strongly influenced by nutrition and environmental factors, although an individual's genetic factors may also play a role. Children and adolescents who are better nourished and live in better environments tend to be taller, and height may even be influenced by a mother's health and nutrition during pregnancy. It has lifelong consequences for health and even education and earnings. Some research suggests people who are taller tend to live longer, gain a better education and even earn more. However, being tall may carry some health risks, as studies have linked height to a greater risk of certain cancers including ovarian and prostate.

Professor Majid Ezzati from the School of Public Health at Imperial who led the research said: "This study gives us a picture of the health of nations over the past century, and reveals the average height of some nations may even be shrinking while others continue to grow taller. This confirms we urgently need to address children and adolescents' environment and nutrition on a global scale, and ensure we're giving the world's children the best possible start in life."

He added: "Our study also shows the English-speaking world, especially the USA, is falling behind other high-income nations in Europe and Asia Pacific. Together with the poor performance of these countries in terms of obesity, this emphasises the need for more effective policies towards healthy nutrition throughout life."

Mary De Silva, Head of Population, Environment and Health at the Wellcome Trust, who co-funded the study, said: "This is a unique analysis that shows the real power of combining a hundred years of population data sources that span the globe. The most striking finding is that despite the huge increases in height seen in some countries, there is still a considerable gap between the shortest and tallest countries. More research is needed to understand the reasons for this gap and to help devise ways of reducing the disparities in health that still persist globally."

The research team, which included almost 800 scientists and was in collaboration with the World Health Organization, used data from a wide range of sources, including military conscription data, health and nutrition population surveys, and epidemiological studies. They used these to generate height information for 18-year- olds in 1914 (who were born in 1896) through to 18-year- olds in 2014 (who were born in 1996).

Among the findings the team found that:

Dutch men are the tallest on the planet, with an average height of 182.5cm. Latvian women are the tallest on the planet, with an average height of 170cm.

The top four tallest countries for men are the Netherlands, Belgium, Estonia and Latvia. The top four tallest countries for women are Latvia, the Netherlands, Estonia and the Czech Republic.

Men from East Timor were the smallest in the world in 2014, with an average height of 160cm. Women from Guatemala were the smallest in 2014 with an average height of 149cm.

The difference between the tallest and shortest countries in the world in 2014 was about 23cm for men - an increase of 4cm on the height gap in 1914. The height difference between the world's tallest and shortest countries for women has remained the same across the century, at about 20cm.

The height difference between men and women has on average remained largely unchanged over 100 years - the average height gap was about 11cmin 1914 and 12cmin 2014.

The average height of young men and women has decreased by as much as 5cm in the last 40 years in some countries in Sub-Saharan Africa such as Sierra Leone, Uganda and Rwanda.

Australian men in 2014 were the only non-European nationality in the top 25 tallest in the world.

In East Asia, South Korean and Chinese men and women are now taller than their Japanese counterparts.

Adult height plateaued in South Asian countries like Bangladesh and India at around 5-10 cm shorter than in East Asian countries such as Japan and South Korea.

The smallest adult men in 1914 were found in Laos, where the average male height was 153cm, a similar height to a well-nourished 12-year- old boy living today. In 1914 the smallest women were found in Guatemala, where the average female height was 140cm, a similar height to a well-nourished 10-year- old girl.

The nations with the tallest men in 2014 (1914 ranking in brackets):

Netherlands (12) Belgium (33) Estonia (4) Latvia (13) Denmark (9) Bosnia and Herzegovina (19) Croatia (22) Serbia (30) Iceland (6) Czech republic (24)

The nations with the tallest women in 2014 (1914 ranking in brackets):

Latvia (28) Netherlands (38) Estonia (16) Czech Republic (69) Serbia (93) Slovakia (26) Denmark (11) Lithuania (41) Belarus (42) Ukraine (43)

The research was funded by the Wellcome Trust and Grand Challenges Canada.

Article: A century of trends in adult human height, NCD Risk Factor Collaboration (NCD-RisC), eLife, doi: 10.7554/eLife.13410, published 25 July 2016.
Three weeks after the scientific world marked the 20th anniversary of the birth of Dolly the sheep, new research, published by The University of Nottingham in the academic journal Nature Communications, has shown that four clones derived from the same cell line - genomic copies of Dolly - reached their 8th birthdays in good health.

Nottingham's Dollies - Debbie, Denise, Dianna and Daisy - have just celebrated their 9th birthdays and along with nine other clones they are part of a unique flock of cloned sheep under the care of Professor Kevin Sinclair, an expert in developmental biology, in the School of Biosciences.

The research - 'Healthy ageing of cloned sheep' - is the first detailed and comprehensive assessment of age-related non-communicable disease in cloned offspring. Published 26 July 2016, it shows that at between seven to nine years of age (60 to 70 in human years) these cloned sheep were showing no long-term detrimental health effects.

Dolly made history as the first animal to be cloned from an adult cell using a technique known as somatic-cell nuclear transfer (SCNT). The late, Professor Keith Campbell was instrumental in this pioneering work. In 1999 he joined The University of Nottingham where he continued his research in reproductive biology until his death in 2012. The flock of clones are his legacy to the University.

This latest study was led by Professor Kevin Sinclair, a close colleague of Professor Campbell's.

Professor Sinclair said: "Despite technological advances in recent years' efficiency of SCNT remains low but there are several groups across the world working on this problem at present and there is reason to be optimistic that there will be significant improvements in future. These improvements will stem from a better understanding of the underlying biology related to the earliest stages of mammalian development. In turn this could lead to the realistic prospect of using SCNT to generate stem cells for therapeutic purposes in humans as well as generating transgenic animals that are healthy, fertile and productive. However, if these biotechnologies are going to be used in future we need to continue to test their safety."

Nottingham's cloned offspring

Nottingham's oldest clone was born in July 2006. The four Finn-Dorset clones - 'the Dollies' - were born in July 2007. A female Lleyn clone was born in August 2007 along with a second clone (breed unknown). In June 2008 six more Lleyn ewes were born.

These animals originated from studies undertaken by Professor Campbell between 2005 and 2007 which sought to improve the efficiency of SCNT. The four Finn Dorsets were derived from the mammary gland cell line that led to the birth of Dolly. The other clones came from fetal fibroblasts.

Detailed health assessments - including x-ray and MRI

Longevity and healthy ageing among SCNT clones have long been contentious issues and much was made of Dolly having to undergo treatment for osteoarthritis some time prior to her death in 2003 at six years old.

During 2015 Nottingham's cloned sheep underwent a series of comprehensive assessments for non-communicable diseases including obesity, hypertension and osteoarthritis - three major comorbidities in aged human populations. The examinations included the use of anaesthesia to carry out x-rays and MRI scans.

The research was carried out under the authority of the United Kingdom Animal (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 with approval from The University of Nottingham Animal Welfare and Ethical Review Board.

The flock was tested for glucose tolerance and insulin sensitivity. They underwent radio-telemetric assessments to check their heart rate and blood pressure. They had a full musculoskeletal examination carried out by Dr Sandra Corr, a veterinary orthopaedic specialist from the University's School of Veterinary Medicine and Science and a co-author of this research.

Radiological examinations of all main joints were followed by MRI scans of their knees, the joint most affected by osteoarthritis in Dolly. Their health was compared with a group of naturally bred six-year-old sheep living under similar conditions at the University.

No major health issues

Professor Sinclair said: "Healthy ageing of SCNT clones has never been properly investigated. There have been no detailed studies of their health. One of the concerns in the early days was that cloned offspring were ageing prematurely and Dolly was diagnosed with osteoarthritis at the age of around five, so clearly this was a relevant area to investigate. Following our detailed assessments of glucose tolerance, insulin sensitivity, blood pressure and musculoskeletal investigations we found that our clones, considering their age, were at the time of our research healthy."

Despite their advanced age the cloned sheep - including the four Dollies - were showing no signs of diabetes, high blood pressure, or clinical degenerative-joint disease. Although some of the animals were showing radiographic evidence of mild, and in Debbie's case, moderate osteoarthritis none of the animals were lame and none required treatment for osteoarthritis.

No detrimental long-term adverse effects of SCNT

There is still a long way to go before SCNT is perfected. However, this research has shown that cloned animals can live long and healthy lives.

Professor Sinclair said: "It is well established that prior to conception and in the early stages of pregnancy during natural or assisted reproduction subtle chemical changes can affect the human genome leading to development and late-onset chronic diseases. Given that SCNT requires the use of assisted reproductive procedures it is important to establish if similar diseases or disorders exist in apparently healthy aged cloned offspring."
As cases of ADHD continue to rise among U.S. children, pediatricians at busy community practices are getting a much-needed assist from a web-based technology to improve the quality of ADHD care and patient outcomes.

According to a multi-institutional study published online in Pediatrics, a new web-based software program is helping reduce ADHD behavioral symptoms in children receiving care at community pediatric practices by coordinating care and ensuring patients get the most effective ADHD medications.

This is important for children with ADHD who rely on extremely busy community based pediatric practices where ADHD care is often poor - especially in the areas of medication management and monitoring, according to Jeffery Epstein, PhD, the study's principal investigator and director of the Center for ADHD at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center.

"Our data show the software not only helped improve the quality of medication care received by children treated at community based pediatric practices, but it also improved treatment outcomes for these children," Epstein said. "As a result of the improved quality of ADHD care, children treated by pediatricians using this new technology had significantly less ADHD symptoms than children treated by pediatricians who were not given access to this web-based technology."

The ADHD care quality improvement (QI) software was developed by Epstein and research colleagues at Cincinnati Children's. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has selected this software for use in pediatric practices that are participating in a five-state QI learning collaborative to improve care for children with ADHD.

Available through a web-based portal, the software helps community practices collect, score and interpret reports from parents and teachers regarding children's ADHD symptoms - allowing pediatricians to better gauge whether medications are working with their patients.

Providers at community practices can customize the schedule of collection of these ratings for each patient. When ratings are completed, automated algorithms score and interpret data. Physicians then receive text and graphs charting patient response to medication and other related information, allowing them to determine if ADHD symptoms are improving in response to the prescribed medication and dosage.

The current study involved a randomized clinical trial coordinated through Cincinnati Children's and Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, where study co-author Kelly Kelleher, MD, serves as director of the Center for Innovation in Pediatric Practice.

The trial was conducted at 50 community based pediatric practices involving 199 providers. The providers were randomized to either provide ADHD care using the technology assisted QI intervention or without the intervention.

A total of 373 children with ADHD included in study were prescribed ADHD medications for their condition (165 children at practices using the software intervention and 208 at control practices not using the software). A standard rating scale (the Vanderbilt ADHD Parent Rating Scale) was used before and following treatment to rate ADHD symptoms.

Medicated children cared for at control practices (which did not use the software) experienced an average 10.19-point reduction on the parent-rated scale of symptoms. Children at pediatric practices using the technology based intervention experienced an average symptom reduction of 13.19 points.

Compared to children at practices not using the technology, children cared for at practices with the technology had significantly more treatment contacts with clinical staff and a greater number of parent and teacher ratings to monitor the effectiveness of medications. Researchers said that treatment effectiveness and outcomes were more quickly assessed at practices using the software.

Researchers report that the study's community based nature led to some limitations involving the consistency of data collection - making it difficult to generalize the data to all community practices and providers, according to the authors. The study also focused only on the primary outcome of ADHD symptoms. It did not evaluate functional impairments (such as school performance), which are often why families seek treatment for ADHD.

Epstein said that future goals for this intervention include extending the software's use to facilitate behavioral treatment. Researchers also want to explore strategies for expanding use of the technology to include all patients with ADHD (including integrating its use with electronic health records, pay for performance initiatives, etc.) and patients with other pediatric mental disorders.

Funding support came from the National Institute of Mental Health (R01 MH083665, K24MH064478, K23MH083027), and the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences of the National Institutes (UL1 TR000077).

The software has been licensed by Cincinnati Children's to IXICO Technologies Inc. for further development and transition into the patient care environment.

Article: Impact of a Web-Portal Intervention on Community ADHD Care and Outcomes, Jeffery N. Epstein, Kelly J. Kelleher, Rebecca Baum, William B. Brinkman, James Peugh, William Gardner, Phil Lichtenstein, Joshua M. Langberg, Pediatrics, doi: 10.1542/peds.2015-4240, published online 26 July 2016.
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Dr Padmapriya Darsini, Senior Scientist, National Institute for Research sustain and increase the gains we have made in the fight against TB, we need a more political commitment to reach SDGs by reducing TB deaths in PLHIV. It takes very long for research findings to reflect in a use of research findings for public health, we will be able to better control TB and HIV.Although India has made a lot of progress, we still have a long way to go. If we get back the political commitment and the funding to the level when we started initially, things will improve. There should be also more linkages between the government and private sector. This would ease Nomampondo Barnabas, Civil Society Liaison Officer, International Union Against TB and Lung Disease (The Union): "As I have been living with both the diseases, I speak on behalf of both of them. We cannot afford to lose the gains in the fight against HIV and TB. I have been living with HIV since 1997, and was diagnosed with TB in 2006. But I am alive today. When we talk of responses and programs, we look at the figures and often forget the human faces behind them.Sometimes we tend to work in silos, dealing with one epidemic at a time. This must stop. There is a need for integration. We also need to work closely with the religious and long way in the last decade and having TB 2016 as an integral part of the 21st International AIDS conference bears testimony to it. Even though 6 million deaths of PLHIV due to TB have been averted since 2004, TB is still the leading killer of PLHIV. SDGs give us a unique opportunity of working together with TB and HIV. Eliminating TB disease in PLHIV should be the starting point.According to the WHO guidelines, the minimum expectation from TB and HIV programs is to provide integrated TB and HIV services to people who need them; and governments will have to brace up their efforts. We need to find ways to harmonize our work and synergize our efforts, as well as increase our efficiencies. We have to look at the patient in a holistic manner. Else we will not be able to achieve SDGs.Currently, we can diagnose only half of the PLHIV with TB. It is very important to get this unidentified population into healthcare systems. One way to do this is to promote integrated community-based activities. We will have to raise awareness of community health workers, healthcare workers and community members, to be always suspicious of the other disease when they are dealing with one. Diagnosis of HIV as well as TB has to be scaled up as it will help us detect the remaining 50% of HIV-associated TB cases.CSOs should come forward to reinforce the public health importance of interaction between HIV, TB, and NCDs and to ensure that governments take their responsibility seriously and integrate the WHO recommendations in Dr Christopher Zishiri, Country Director (Zimbabwe), International Union Zimbabwe is largely driven by HIV. Our intervention plans are based on the integration of HIV-TB services. The intervention is a one stop shop like a supermarket. We did a pilot in 2008 to see the feasibility of decentralization of services in 3 high burden sites, which gave very encouraging results regarding anti retroviral therapy (ART) uptake. Currently, we are replicating this strategy in 23 more clinics. Due to integration, uptake of TB-HIV services has increased from 74% to 94%. Use of GeneXpert has reduced turn around time in diagnosis from 1 week rolled out in the whole country.USAID. But we are engaging with our Parliamentarians in a big way to garner political support to increase government funding for taking Amy Israel, Programme Director for Lilly's Global Health Programs: Africa and the Lilly Non-Communicable Diseases (NCD) partnership focuses on Brazil, Mexico, India and South Africa. We are trying to improve treatment outcomes closer to the primary care or community care through an operational framework called Research Report Advocate. Every model we support has research generated data based report that we advocate.South Africa is one of the very high TB burdens of, HIV, diabetes, and hypertension. We are developing a model of integrated person-centric care in which a person will have to go to just one clinic (and not 3 or 4) to be taken care of these diseases.There is a need for linkages between public and private sector. In India, many people go to the private sector as their first point of care, regardless of their economic status. So we are engaging with private pharmacists and some private hospitals for TB and diabetes care, and have seen treatment adherence rates increase to 95% in TB.CSOs will have to work with local, provincial and national governments for implementing bi-directional screening of people for TB and diabetes. We are working with school children in Brazil, helping them and their parents to take better care of their type 1 diabetes. Schools offer good Thankfully today ART has made it possible for PLHIV to live normally. It is also possible to treat and cure TB. However, we need to remember that there are other co-morbidities of NCDs that people with TB and HIV may have to deal with. So we will have to deal with the entire gamut of diseases that may act as obstacles to our goal of eliminating TB and HIV. It is prudent to remind ourselves of promises made by the governments for sustainable development by committing to achieve SDGs by 2030 - not just to end TB and HIV but also to reduce mortality associated with NCDs by one-third by 2030 - among other promises for integrated development.Source: Medindia
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The treatment involves exposing milk to low heat and pressure variation for short increments. The team found that heating milk stored at 4 C (39 F) by 10 C (18 F) for less than a second removed more than 99% of the bacteria still remaining after pasteurization, meaning there is less bacteria to grow inside the carton, which lets the milk last longer.To test the low temperature, short time (LTST) method, tiny droplets of pasteurized milk containing Lactobacillus and Pseudomonas bacteria were sprayed into a novel heated and pressurized chamber. Temperatures in the chamber were rapidly increased and decreased but remained under the 70 C (158 F) threshold used in pasteurization to better preserve the quality of the milk. After the process, the team reported that no detectable bacteria remained and the shelf life of the treated milk was extended to as long as 63 days. Taste testing revealed that milk run through the new process did not produce detectable differences in color, smell or taste compared to typical pasteurized milk."With the treatment, you're taking out almost everything," says Applegate. "Whatever does survive is at such a low level that it takes much longer for it to multiply to a point at which it damages the quality of the milk."A key component of the process is the pressurized chamber developed by Millisecond Technologies of New York, which funded the Purdue study along with Agricultural Research Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Center for Food Safety Engineering at Purdue.Another benefit of the system, which has been patented, is it requires the same amount of heat as the standard pasteurization process, so it could be applied without making any extra energy demands.The team is hopeful that the new process will reduce wasted milk and allow the product to be transported to more distant locations and last longer once it arrives. A possible next step could be to test the process on unpasteurized milk to see if it might work as a standalone treatment. If it proved successful, the process would have the potential to reduce energy and time expended in pasteurization.Source: Medindia
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"We now have genetic signatures that can strongly predict education, height, BMI and heart disease," said Conley, the Henry Putnam University Professor in Sociology. "So, we used data on Americans born from the 1920s to the 1950s to examine how predictive genes were in these areas. What we found were these significant trends in the role of genetics, upward for BMI and height and downward for education and heart disease."The research is detailed in an article titled "Changing Polygenic Penetrance on Phenotypes in the 20th Century Among Adults in the US Population" published online in the journal. Conley co-authored this study with Thomas Laidley of New York University, Jason Boardman of the University of Colorado-Boulder and Benjamin Domingue of Stanford University.The researchers utilized demographic data and genetic information on nearly 9,000 Americans born between about 1920 and 1955 that was collected as part of the Health and Retirement Study, which began tracking a representative sample of older Americans in 1992.They compared a million different DNA markers for each participant against genetic signatures that highlight parts of the genome known to affect outcomes such as height, BMI, education and heart disease. By tracking how closely the participants' outcomes matched their genetic predisposition, a picture emerged of how the significance of genes changed over the 20th century."It has only recently become possible to use DNA to (partially) predict outcomes such as height, BMI, heart disease and educational attainment," said Daniel Benjamin, an associate professor of economics at the University of Southern California whose research incorporates genetic data into economics research but wasn't involved in this study. "This paper is one of the first to use these methods to examine how the effects of genes have changed in the U.S. over the 20th century. It helps shed light on the complex interplay of genes and environments in shaping people's outcomes."Conley said it wasn't surprising to find that the role of genes in determining height and BMI increased, as food scarcity became a less prevalent environmental impact on such outcomes."If you were born in the Great Depression, no one had enough food and it didn't matter what your genotypic weight would be because everyone was restrained," Conley said. "Today, average weight has gone up, but the effect of your genetic signature in predicting your weight is also more powerful in recent birth cohorts."The same increase in the availability of food, much of it unhealthful, may contribute to the decreasing importance of genes in occurrence of heart disease, Conley said.The reasons genes played less of a role in educational outcomes over time are less clear, Conley said. One possibility is that the increase in educational opportunities over the 20th century may have lessened the need for people to have strong genetic predisposition to succeed academically, he said.Conley said the education finding rebuts the idea, popularized by the 1994 book "The Bell Curve," that achievement in modern society is mostly dependent on innate ability."We asked if the genetic signature for cognitive ability and educational attainment predict better now or in the past. It predicted better in the past, so it's going in the opposite direction of what 'The Bell Curve' argued," Conley said.This research fits into Conley's broader research portfolio, which focuses in part on the intersection of genes and the environment. Work in this area is the focus of a book by Conley and Jason Fletcher of the University of Wisconsin-Madison titled "The Genome Factor: What the Social Science Genomics Revolution Reveals about Ourselves, Our History, and the Future," which will be published early in 2017."We're all responding differently to environmental influences and shocks happening to us all the time in society, but we haven't had any idea who was going to respond how," Conley said. "Now we're uncovering the genetic tools needed to answer those questions."Source: Eurekalert
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A University of Colorado Cancer Center study compared outcomes of leukemia patients receiving bone marrow transplants from 2009-2014, finding that three years post transplant, the incidence of severe chronic graft-versus-host disease was 44% in patients who had received transplants from matched, unrelated donors (MUD) and 8% in patients who had received umbilical cord blood transplants (CBT). Patients who received CBT were also more likely to no longer need immunosuppression and less likely to experience late infections and hospitalizations. There was no difference in overall survival between these two techniques. Results are published in the journal"When you do an allogeneic transplant - when someone else is the donor - the new blood system has the potential to attack the patient. This is graft-versus-host disease, which can be debilitating and even fatal. Our results show that, long term, receiving a cord blood transplant is less likely than receiving a transplant from an unrelated, matched donor to result in graft-versus-host disease," says Jonathan Gutman, investigator at the CU Cancer Center and Clinical Director of Allogeneic Stem Cell Transplantation at University of Colorado Hospital."Historically, doctors have reserved cord blood for patients without a match," Gutman says.However, this flow of preference is increasingly questioned as data including the current study demonstrate that cord blood may be equal to or better than transplant from a matched, unrelated donor."A lot of centers reserved cord blood transplants for their worst cases, and so it got an early reputation for being less successful. It also costs a bit more - it takes cord blood cells a little longer to get going and so patients need to be supported a little longer. However, when you look past the first 100 days - a point at which many centers stop collecting data - there is clear evidence that cord blood outperforms cells from matched, unrelated donors," Gutman says.Gutman also points out that bone marrow transplants require art as well as science. Centers like University of Colorado Hospital that are especially experienced with cord blood transplant have evolved systems to best support patients and optimize all transplant related issues, potentially leading to better outcomes than less experienced centers using similar treatment.The current study, specifically, compared 51 consecutive patients receiving CBT with 57 consecutive patients receiving MUD. At three years post transplant, in addition to he above difference in severe chronic graft-versus-host disease (cGVHD), overall rates of cGVHD were 68% following MUD and 32% following CBT. Again at three years, patients receiving CBT had been off immunosuppression since a median 268 days from transplant; patients receiving MUD had not ceased immunosuppression to a degree that allowed researchers to determine the median."As a result, we have chosen to use cord blood as our first choice in cases where a matched, related donor is unavailable," Gutman says.Source: Newswise
A huge car bombing struck a crowd in a predominantly Kurdish town in northern Syria on Wednesday, killing 22 people and wounding dozens more, state-run Syrian TV reported.



The TV said the car blew up on the western edge of the town of Qamishli, near the Turkish border. Qamishli is mainly controlled by Kurds but Syrian government forces are present and control the town's airport.

The Islamic State group, in a statement published by the IS-linked Aamaq news agency, claimed responsibility for what it said was a truck bombing that struck a complex of Kurdish offices in Qamishli. The extremist group has carried out several bombings in Kurdish areas in Syria in the past.

The predominantly Kurdish U.S.-backed Syria Democratic Forces have been the main force fighting IS in northern Syria, capturing significant territory from the extremists over the past two years.

Wednesday's explosion came as U.S.-backed Kurdish forces pressed ahead with their offensive on the IS group-held town of Manbij also in northern Syria, further east.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the explosion targeted a center of the local Kurdish police and a nearby government building.

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The Palestinian Safa news agency has reported that wives of senior Hamas officials have completed a course of self-defense training, including weapons training with handguns and Kalashnikov rifles. The course graduation ceremony took place July 24, 2016, in the Khan Yunis area.

According to the report, "the head of the security and defense apparatus in the [Gaza] Strip, Gen. Bahjat Abu Sultan, said that his apparatus was tasked with instructing and training members of the various entourages [of [senior officials]... and that this time, the training was intended for [these officials'] inner circle."

The report said that according to Gen. Abu Sultan, the course participants included "daughters [and wives] of officials, ministers, deputy ministers, and security forces commanders [in the Gaza Strip], who were given theoretical and practical instruction, and underwent [field] training as well." The theoretical instruction, he said, dealt with inculcating security awareness regarding the infiltration of possible collaborators with Israel in the ranks of Hamas and regarding the political and social situation in the Gaza Strip, and awareness of the need to protect officials and their homes against damage by the enemy.

Gen. Abu Sultan added, according to the report: "The field training, which was aimed at preparing them to defend themselves [and to cope with] the genuine danger that these officials and their homes will be targeted by the enemies, lasted for 40 hours, over eight days."[1]



Weapons training during the course. (Image: Facebook.com/5br.3ajel1, July 24, 2016)

The website of the Hamas radio network Sawt Al-Aqsa (Alaqsavoice) noted: "This course has become a pressing social need due to the circumstances, and some 40 daughters and wives of esteemed officials participated in it... The course was conducted under the supervision of female instructors and experts from the security and defense [apparatus]." The website cited two participants' praise for the training: "Young Maryam Al-Bardawil expressed her happiness at the various things she had learned, and called for increasing the number of such courses. Young Khawla Al-Katri praised the course and its content, specifically the weapons training, and said that this had broken the barrier of fear for the participants."[2]



Weapons training during the course (Image: Facebook.com/5br.3ajel1, July 24, 2016)



(Image: alresalah.ps/ar, July 24, 2016)

The Jerusalem-based Palestinian newspaper Al-Bayader Al-Siyasi reported that according to Gen. Abu Sultan, the training had highlighted the importance of the role of women in all areas of life, and that the security and defense apparatus is also planning a special course for sons of senior officials. The training, he added, was strictly gender-segregated.

Gen. 'Abd Al-Karim Al-Sha'er, director of the instruction department of the security and defense apparatus, explained that the training for the women had included "[Israeli] methods of causing [Palestinians to collaborate with Israel] and how to protect oneself from them; securing houses; cyber-security; dealing with suspicious objects; psychological warfare; first aid; weapon assembly, disassembly, and use; [and] visiting an exhibit of various explosive devices in order to recognize suspicious objects and different types of explosives."[3]



Visiting an explosive device exhibit (Image: Spf.moi.gov.ps, July 21, 2016)

Reports on the special course for the wives and daughters of Hamas officials, as well as photos of the course activities, appeared also on social media, such as the "Breaking News from Gaza" Facebook page. [4] The reports sparked mocking responses from many users, especially from Gazans. They condemned the discrimination against various echelons of Palestinian society and demanded that their own wives and daughters receive the same training, and that it not be restricted to the wives and daughters of senior Hamas officials. The following are some examples of responses by Gazans:

Nadia Abu Sha'ban wrote: "That's ok, the one to blame is my father. Had he become an official, my mother would have been taking a firearms course right now."[5]



Nadia's post

Asmahan Omar replied: "I have no words. It really is a joke. Allah help us."[6]

Other users also stressed the discriminatory character of the course and expressed anger at Hamas. Lamiaa 'Awad wrote: "When they got rich and became [important] people, they [felt the] need to defend themselves, and the rest of the people can go to hell..."[7]



Lamiaa' s post

Mohamed Rajab wrote: "And the rest of the people are sons of dogs that do not have the right to defend themselves or carry arms. The lives of the officials' wives and daughters are dear to them, while our lives are cheap. Damn the officials. They are the ones who have brought disaster upon the country. They live in comfort while the people curse [the day they were born]..."[8] Zaki Bolbol from Gaza wrote: "Why only the officials' wives and daughters? I hope you don't say it's because they are preparing for [an attack by] the Jews, because when the moment comes we will not find any of them aboveground. They will go underground and leave the people to die. After the war they will come out of their holes, shoot [in the air] and chant victory slogans..."[9]

Endnotes:
The Federation Council's Foreign Affairs Committee chair, Senator Konstantin Kosachev, tells the Russian media outlet Lenta.ru that the European countries are prepared to abandon sanctions against Russia, and their economic interests force them to seriously consider recognizing Crimea as Russian territory.

Below are excerpts of Kosachev's interview:[1]



Senator Konstantin Kosachev (Source: Sputniknews.com)

'If We Get Entangled In An Arms Race, It Will Be The Second Edition Of The Cold War'

Q: "What should we expect after the NATO summit...?"[2]

Kosachev: "I have no doubts that NATO is going to introduce additional contingents into the Baltic States and Poland. It is being done in order to justify the existence of this organization. The U.S., the major source of finance for the bloc, realizes that NATO has lost its raison d'etre following the USSR's collapse. It is not easy to keep your allies in check all the time, you need an enemy for that; and Russia was the one selected to be that enemy, rather than, say, international terrorism.

"Although the character of the threats changed a long time ago, the U.S. continues to scare NATO members with [the chimera of an] 'aggressive Russia aiming to occupy Poland and the Baltics'. It is hard to keep the Poles and the Baltic peoples in submission [merely] with the threat of a migration crisis or global warming.

"At the same time, NATO, in fact, turns a blind eye to such serious problems as counter-terrorism, the threat of proliferation of mass destruction weapons, migration. It happens because NATO wants to be the only leader, but in order to liquidate terrorism the efforts of all countries are needed, including those outside the bloc."

Q: "In what specific decisions has this [NATO attitude] been reflected recently?"

Kosachev: "For example, because of the disagreements on Ukraine they cancel cooperation with Moscow in all areas, including terrorism. The explanation is simple: figuratively speaking, NATO members want to fly first class themselves (to ensure their own safety), put their allies in business class, and send all the rest to the rear. They refuse to understand that at this moment, a bomb may already be ticking in the hold, which will tear the plane to pieces, no matter who is sitting where.

"They are living under the illusion that they have solved their problems thanks to NATO and nothing threatens them now. An absolutely irresponsible position!

"For example, any disagreements with Russia about Ukraine will seem so trivial if terrorists, God forbid, seize power in a country that possesses weapons of mass destruction. Unfortunately, such a situation is easily imaginable, if you look at Pakistan, neighboring the unstable Afghanistan and possessing nuclear weapons. This scenario is a nightmare for the entire world. In order to avoid it, we must cooperate with each other, first, on issues of counter-terrorism, and secondly, on a nuclear weapons non-proliferation regime. But so far, this is not happening."

Q: "In case NATO gets more active in the Baltic States, what can Russia do?"

Kosachev: "On the political level, we are trying to meet the aggressive actions of NATO in the Baltic region with offers of constructive cooperation. If we get entangled in an arms race, it will be the second edition of the Cold War. I am not sure that we will survive it a second time.

"We must not give up or give in to despair; we must keep looking for points and ideas that would be interesting, including for our potential partners in NATO..."

'The Bigger The Breach In Relations Between Kiev And Moscow, The More The West Is Responsible For The Situation In Ukraine'



Despite the West's push for sanctions, Mother Russia cuddles her cub, Crimea. (Source: Vitaly Podvitsky, Ria.ru, March 16, 2016)

Q: "Do you have a feeling that Europe is moving in a different direction than the U.S. with regards to Crimea? Several Italian regions simultaneously adopted resolutions calling for the removal of sanctions and recognition of Crimea. Are things really underway?"

Kosachev: "The situation with Crimea is dynamic. I want to emphasize that the external pressure on Russia is now mostly applied in connection with the south-east of Ukraine. Crimea has taken a back seat, and the West now connects the lifting of sanctions exclusively with the implementation of the Minsk agreements. But it does not mean that when the terms of the agreements are implemented, the Europeans won't backtrack on the issue of Crimea. This means that change in any direction is possible."

Q: "Then what motivates the Italians in this way?"

Kosachev: "If we speak about the latest steps by regional parliaments in Italy [adopting resolutions on recognizing the status of Crimea - Lenta.ru addition],[3] here we can see an economic influence, to a large extent: the more developed industrial regions in the north of Italy sustain losses due to the sanctions. And Italians realize that if sanctions depend on Crimea, it will be a never-ending story. Because, the issue of Crimea is closed, in contrast with the Donbass [in Ukraine]. The Crimeans have made a clear choice. Now all that remains for us is to hope for the common sense of the Western politicians."



Sanctions have a boomerang effect on the EU. (Source: Sharzhipero.ru)

Q: "That mean, a chance still exists that Crimea will be recognized as Russian?"

Kosachev: "Let us recall - when it started it was out of control, but currently many politicians, with the exception of terminal Russophobes, see the situation differently. The status of Crimea, in my opinion, has every chance to be accepted by the international community. Look what has happened with North Cyprus: even though a military occupation indeed occurred there, the situation with this controversial territory does not affect Turkey's international relations. I think that it will develop in a similar way with Crimea sooner or later. But that's the very least. We, of course, will strive towards full-fledged recognition of Crimea's new status as an integral part of Russian Federation."

Q: "Don't you think that Europe is beginning to tire of Ukraine? There are proposals to impose sanctions on Kiev as well."

Kosachev: "Yes. There is a feeling that the West is gradually coming to realize the mistake of imposing responsibility for compliance with the Minsk agreements on Russia alone. It's a loophole as far as their implementation is concerned, and the Ukrainians are happy to use it. I will explain why. It is in the interests of the West that the Minsk agreements be implemented, and the sanctions lifted from Russia. Russia's interests are ultimately the same.

"But Ukraine takes a different view of events. It appears to want the implementation of the agreements; it wants the south-east to return to the unified Ukrainian state. But at the same time it is interested in having anti-Russian sanctions maintained interminably. To Ukraine, compliance with the Minsk agreements and removal of sanctions, on the one hand, and non-compliance and renewal of sanctions, on the other, both have their pros and cons. That's why it can play this game for a long time, disregarding the fact that people continue to suffer and die as a result.

"At the same time, the situation in Ukraine is deteriorating. Under the current regime, Ukraine hasn't been able to demonstrate any tangible achievements either in politics, the economy, or the social sphere. Its only real achievement, from the point of view of the Western countries supporting Ukraine, is its progress in anti-Russian rhetoric. But the bigger the breach in relations between Kiev and Moscow, the more the West is responsible for the situation in Ukraine, including financial responsibility. And the West is beginning to understand this. Better late than never..."

Endnotes:
No trip to Mumbai is ever complete without an indulgence in Vada Pavs. Period! One simply does not come away without trying these out. And to be honest, its an insult to the delicacy and it doesnt deserve it! So, if youre planning to move to Mumbai, have just moved to Mumbai, or are visiting Mumbai in the near future, heres where you should go to try some of the best Vada Pavs in the city.

1. Ashok Vada Pav

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In service for about 35 years now, Ashok Thakur makes the batter and chutney with almost 40 ingredients. And whats worth marvelling is that the taste has remained the same for all these years. His outlet is famous for the chura overloaded between the Vada and Pav. And he happens to be a favourite with celebrities like Sushmita Sen and Madhuri Dixit!

Price: Rs. 15  20

Location: Off Cadel Road, Kirti College Lane, Prabhadevi, Mumbai-400028

2. Anand Vada Pav

 Ishita Bhojwani

The Hot and Spicy Vada Pav at Anands is considered to be one of the best in Mumbai. Particularly thronged by students from Mithibai as the famous Vada Pav wala near their college, Anand has managed to sustain the business for years now. You should try the grilled and schezwan Vada Pavs here.

Price: Rs. 20  50/-

Location: Opposite Mithibai College, Vile Parle West, Mumbai-400056

3. Aram Vada Pav

 Ishita Bhojwani

Known for its 70-year-old legacy, these guys are famous for their filling of onions and chillies in the Vada Pavs. Aram is the one of the most authentic sellers around the CST (Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus) Area. Legendary politicos like Rajiv Gandhi and Bal Thackeray have been regulars here at one.

Price: Rs. 15/-

Location: Capital Cinema Building, Opposite CST Station, South Mumbai-400001

4. Graduate Vada Pav

 Zomato

They have been in the business for around 17 years, with a variety of chutneys being their USPthe tamarind, chilli, coconut and garlic, to be precise. Graduate has become a favourite with the people. The owners have deliberately refused from opening a proper shop because they want to continue to serve the fast-paced Mumbaikars, who are always in a rush.

Price: Rs. 15/-

Location: Outside Byculla (West) station, South Mumbai-400008

5. Samrat Vada Pav

 Ishita Bhojwani

In the heart of the citys western suburbs, Samrat is known for its Vada Pavs, bhajiyas and samosas. The signature Vada Pav consists of chopped coconut pieces, which is everyones favorite, and the Schezwan Vada Pav.

Price: Rs. 15/-

Location: Nehru Road, Parleshwar, Vile Parle East, Mumbai-400057

6. Shivaji Vada Pav

 Ishita Bhojwani

One of Anand Vada Pavs direct competitors is 35-year-old Shivaji Vada Pav, an award-winning stall. They serve around 1,000 vada pavs on a daily basis. Their sandwiches and dosas too are popular among customers. But the Vada Pavs take the prize for us. The owner, Mr. Nainar, has seen the business grow from a mere 1-rupee per plate to Rs.15.

Price: Rs. 15/-

Location: Outside Mithibai college, Vile Parle West, Mumbai 400056

7. Goli Vada Pav

 Zomato

Goli has become one of the most famous fast-food snack chains that started with the idea of making innovations with the Mumbai-style Vada Pav. Besides trying the classic ones, youll be sure to salivate over their Cheese Vada Pav and the Aloo Tikki Vada Pav.

Price: Rs. 15  35/-

Location: Across the city.

8. Gajanan Vada Pav

 Zomato

Started in 1978, it has remained one of the most famous joints in Thane. While Gajanan sticks to the traditional Vada Pav, what makes it different is their chutney which is a mix of besan and chillies, in a thick batter that really makes all the difference in the world!

Price: Rs. 13/-

Location: Chhatrapati Sambhaji Rd, Thane West, Thane, Maharashtra 400602

9. Babu Vada Pav

 Ishita Bhojwani

Based out of a non-fussy canteen that dates back to over 50 years, Babu Vada Pav is the go-to place for everyone around Vile Parle east. They serve piping hot Vada Pavs with various chutney selections to choose from.

Price: Rs. 15/-

Location: Hanuman Road, Vileparle East, Mumbai 400057

10. Mangesh Vada Pav

 Zomato

Mangesh Pandits Vada Pavs have been teasing their customers taste buds for over 2 decades now. Pay them one visit and youll see why. They are especially known for their meetha chutney which is made with jaggery, dates, and green chillies. Served alongside the Vada Pav, it tastes so divine that you just cannot stop at one helping!

Price: Rs. 15/-

Location: Opp Gopal Krishna Hotel, Kasturba Cross Road Number 3, Chinchpada, Borivali East, Mumbai 400066

11. Shree Durga Snacks

 Zomato

Shree Durga Snacks keeps it simple. Instead of innovating too much like their contemporaries, they refrain from trying too much with the original flavors. What you get here is the authentic Vada Pav in its absolute originality. And trust me when I say they are some of the most deliciously crispy vadas you will ever taste. It is served with a spicy garlic powder between the pav.

Price: Rs. 13/-

Location: 5, Rajput Building, Opposite Janata Bank, Gokhale Rd, Naupada, Shivaji Nagar, Thane West, Thane, Maharashtra 400602

12. Jai Maharashtra Vada Pav

 YummyStreetFood

Dishing out delicious and fresh Vada Pavs since 1966, this stall, located near Andheri Apna Bazaar, sells over 1000 Vada Pavs on a daily basis. They have even been featured by a host of famous chef in their YouTube videos.

Price: Rs. 15/-

Location: 8/B, JP Rd, Azad Nagar, Andheri West, Mumbai 400053
Spain's Interior Ministry says police have arrested two Moroccan brothers suspected of sending money to finance the armed Islamic State group.

A ministry statement said the two sent unspecified amounts of money to the Islamic State group's financial managers using false identities linked to the organization.

It said the group used the remittances to transport militants from different locations.

The ministry said the brothers, aged 33 and 22, were arrested Wednesday in the northeastern city of Girona.

It said a third brother had formed part of the cell but is believed to have died after travelling with his wife and two children to join IS in Syria.

Spanish police have arrested dozens of suspected pro-militants in recent years.

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Bahrain's top Shia cleric went on trial Wednesday on charges of illegal fund raising and money laundering, judicial sources said, just weeks after the Sunni-ruled kingdom revoked his citizenship.

Sheikh Isa Qassim is accused of collecting funds illegally and has deposited more than $10 million in his private bank accounts, attorney general Haroun al-Zayani said in a statement on the official BNA news agency.

Qassim, considered the spiritual leader of the majority Shia community in Bahrain, allegedly kept other amounts in cash to avoid legal controls, said the statement, accusing him of hiding the source of the money.

Authorities also accused him of purchasing properties worth more than one million dinar ($2.65 million) in an attempt to legitimise the funds.

Two of his aides, Sheikh Hussein Mahrus and Mirza al-Obaidli, are also on trial in the same case.

The three defendants did not appear in court for the hearing, held amid tight security, witnesses said.

The next hearing will be on August 14.

On June 20, Bahrain said it had revoked Qassim's citizenship, accusing him of sowing sectarian divisions.

Since then dozens of Shiites have staged a sit-in outside his home in the village of Diraz, which authorities have cordoned off.

The move against Qassim prompted criticism from Bahrain's Western allies as well as its foe Iran, which the kingdom accuses of fuelling unrest among its Shia community.

Bahrain has been shaken by unrest since security forces crushed Shiite-led protests demanding a constitutional monarchy and an elected prime minister in 2011.

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A bomb explosion on Wednesday in an open market in Yemen's oasis city of Marib killed seven people and wounded 18, security and medical sources said.

The blast targeted a market selling qat, the mild narcotic leaf popular in the Arabian Peninsula country, a security official in Marib said.

A medical source at the city's public hospital confirmed the toll.

Forces loyal to President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi control Marib, which is east of Yemen's rebel-held capital Sanaa.

The province of Marib has seen fierce battles between Hadi loyalists and Shia Huothi rebels and their allies, who continue to control northern parts of the governorate.

A Saudi-led coalition which intervened in March last year against the Iran-backed rebels has forces based in Marib province to support the loyalists.

More than 6,400 Yemenis, most of them civilians, have been killed since last March, and the fighting has driven 2.8 million people from their homes.

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It is with feelings of particular joy that I am here among you, just three months after my recent visit to Cyprus, this past April. At the same time, it is a special honor to be representing the Greek government at the opening ceremony of the 26th Meeting of the Central Council of the Organizations of Overseas Cypriots and to convey to all of you the heartfelt patriotic greetings of the Prime Minister of Greece, Alexis Tsipras, and Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias.



Throughout the world, Cypriot Hellenism is a pillar of global Hellenism. In the countries where you live, you are all passionately active regarding national issues and you are distinguished for your creativity and hard work.



I believe that optimum utilization of the dynamic of our Diaspora, to the benefit of our national rights and goals, as well as the effective meeting of the needs of overseas Cypriots and Greeks, render imperative the shaping and promotion of as unified a strategy as possible for our two states.



It is precisely this need that the Memorandum of Cooperation signed by Greece and Cyprus and our two competent Services for diaspora issues  an MoU activated during our recent meetings  is called upon to meet.



At this point I think it would be useful to refer briefly to four special issues of pivotal importance; issues that we are ready to move ahead on immediately in specific sectors.



More specifically, ahead of the upcoming vote on the law establishing World Greek Language Day, we think that Cyprus has a special place in the related actions we are planning to develop jointly. Subsequently, the new draft law on the reform of the operating framework and role of the World Council of Hellenes Abroad (SAE) will be promoted in the immediately coming time, following substantial consultations with institutional agencies in Greece and the agencies of overseas Hellenism. Moreover, the Greek Foreign Ministry is collaborating with the co-competent Ministry of Education on the drawing up of a new draft law on Greek-language education in third countries. Among our priorities is our responding to the special circumstances and needs of our cooperation with Cyprus in this sensitive area. Finally, a major goal served by the activation of our bilateral Memorandum of Understanding is the effort to connect the old and new diasporas through the setting up of an academic council of scientists on a global scale. At the same time, we are considering proposals for cooperation in the sectors of culture, tertiary education, communication, tourism, public television and entrepreneurship.



Dear Friends,



July is a highly charged month for Cypriots and Greeks everywhere, with the anniversary of the criminal coup and the illegal Turkish military invasion.



Forty-two years after the illegal invasion that led to the ongoing Turkish occupation of over a third of the territory of the Republic of Cyprus, I want to assure you that we will never accept the consequences of the Turkish attack. Rather, we will continue, until the final positive outcome, our just and peaceful struggle for the end of this unacceptable ongoing and blatant violation of international legality.



The immediate ending of the Turkish occupation and the finding of a comprehensive agreed solution to the whole issue, based on the resolutions of the UN Security Council and the implementation of the community acquis, is a top national priority of our foreign policy.



Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias has repeatedly stressed  and we believe that it has now been made clear in every direction  that an agreed solution on the Cyprus issue is not possible without the full withdrawal of Turkish occupation forces and the elimination of the anachronistic system of guarantees.



Despite the disappointments of the past and the continuing difficulties, the bicommunal dialogue, under the aegis of the UN Secretary General, is the only universally accepted path to the resolution of the Cyprus issue. As all of you know, the Greek and Cypriot governments are in ongoing communication.



Dear Friends,



The unstable and fast-shifting international environment does not allow for complacency or bombast. On the other hand, we must not be overcome by fear syndromes; we must have faith in the justness of our arguments and our power, and we must capitalize on the experience we have accrued.



In the joint national effort, we need your dynamism, your proposals and your active support, as well as that of the whole of overseas Hellenism. I particularly admire overseas Cypriot Hellenisms temerity, unity of purpose and good organization, as well as the close relationship maintained by overseas Cypriot Hellenism with the culture and customs of our heroic Cyprus.



Allow me to thank you once again for the invitation and the opportunity to share these thoughts with you. I would like to congratulate the organizers and wish you every success in your proceedings and, mainly, express my wish that your next conference be on the subject of the day after in the free and reunited Cyprus of our hearts.



Thank you.
Morocco will retry 24 civilians convicted of killing members of the security forces during clashes in Western Sahara in 2010, a victory for human rights campaigners who say allegations they were forced to confess were never addressed.

The cassation court on Wednesday ordered a retrial in a civilian court for the defendants who were jailed for between 20 years and life by a military court in 2013, Mohamed Sebbar, head of the National Human Rights Council, said. Morocco outlawed military trials for civilians in 2014.

Two lawyers confirmed the news, which comes as Morocco negotiates with the United Nations about the return of members of its Western Sahara mission expelled from the country after U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon described Morocco's 1975 annexation of the territory as an "occupation".

Moroccan authorities say 13 people were killed - 10 security officers, a firefighter and two civilians - and dozens injured on Nov. 8, 2010 when authorities dismantled a camp where thousands of Western Saharans, known as Sahrawis, were protesting.

The camp had been set up to protest against unemployment.

Morocco annexed Western Sahara in 1975, when former colonial power Spain withdrew and says the territory should come under its sovereignty, while the exiled Polisario Front says Western Sahara is an independent state.

U.S.-based Human Rights Watch has said the defendants, who include several advocates of human rights and independence for Western Sahara, had been jailed by the military without any investigation into allegations their confessions were extracted under torture.

Western Sahara is a sparsely populated tract of desert about the size of Britain, with rich fishing grounds off its coast and reserves of phosphates.Morocco will retry 24 civilians convicted of killing members of the security forces during clashes in Western Sahara in 2010, a victory for human rights campaigners who say allegations they were forced to confess were never addressed.

The cassation court on Wednesday ordered a retrial in a civilian court for the defendants who were jailed for between 20 years and life by a military court in 2013, Mohamed Sebbar, head of the National Human Rights Council, said. Morocco outlawed military trials for civilians in 2014.

Two lawyers confirmed the news, which comes as Morocco negotiates with the United Nations about the return of members of its Western Sahara mission expelled from the country after U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon described Morocco's 1975 annexation of the territory as an "occupation".

Moroccan authorities say 13 people were killed - 10 security officers, a firefighter and two civilians - and dozens injured on Nov. 8, 2010 when authorities dismantled a camp where thousands of Western Saharans, known as Sahrawis, were protesting.

The camp had been set up to protest against unemployment.

Morocco annexed Western Sahara in 1975, when former colonial power Spain withdrew and says the territory should come under its sovereignty, while the exiled Polisario Front says Western Sahara is an independent state.

U.S.-based Human Rights Watch has said the defendants, who include several advocates of human rights and independence for Western Sahara, had been jailed by the military without any investigation into allegations their confessions were extracted under torture.

Western Sahara is a sparsely populated tract of desert about the size of Britain, with rich fishing grounds off its coast and reserves of phosphates.

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Syrian government forces and their allies seized territory from rebels outside Damascus, encroaching on a pocket of insurgent-held land east of the capital, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and state media reported on Wednesday.

The advance took place overnight near the town of Hosh al-Fara area in the Eastern Ghouta suburb, the British-based monitoring group said.

Quoting a military source, Syrian state news agency SANA said government and allied forces took control of a farming area south-east of Hosh al-Fara during the day on Wednesday.

Fighting around the capital has intensified according to the Observatory, and government forces have stepped up their bombardment of rebel-held areas. A rare bout of rebel mortar fire on government-controlled central Damascus on Sunday killed several people.

Government forces and allies including Lebanese Hezbollah fighters seized an extensive area southeast of Damascus from rebels in May, closing off a pocket under insurgent control in Eastern Ghouta, and have since advanced, compromising a supply route into opposition territory.

The Observatory said on Wednesday the areas taken overnight represented an important base for the Jaish al-Islam rebel group, which controls much of Eastern Ghouta.

Jaish al-Islam denied there had been significant government advances in the area, but said there were large government attacks taking place.

"It is not true, but the regime is waging a very big attack," spokesman Islam Alloush said.

The Observatory said government helicopters had dropped dozens of barrel bombs on Douma on Monday, and jets had carried out air strikes on Daraya, another besieged area in Damascus's southwestern suburbs.

Fighting continues across much of Syria after diplomatic efforts to end the five-year conflict failed earlier this year. The United Nations says it hopes to convene fresh peace talks in next month.

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Morocco on Wednesday announced the arrests of 52 suspects planning to set up a branch of the Islamic State militant group and carry out attacks in the North African country.

The suspects have been detained and will go on trial once an investigation has been completed, the interior ministry said.

"The arrested individuals planned to set up a vilayet (province) in Morocco affiliated to Daesh," it said, using an Arabic acronym for the IS group.

It said the arrests had foiled "terrorist plots at a very advanced stage of preparation on prisons, security establishments, festivals and leisure centres in several cities of Morocco, apart from assassinations of security officials, soldiers and tourists".

The suspects had been using social media to drum up propaganda for the IS group and to enroll young recruits to join up and travel to conflict zones, the ministry said.

It said raids on homes had unearthed documents on the fabrication and use of explosives and firearms, as well as books inciting suicide attacks.

Rabat says 159 "terrorist cells" have been busted since 2002, including 38 over the past three years with ties to militants in Iraq and Syria.

A study by the US-based Soufan Group said last December that at least 1,200 Moroccans had travelled to fight alongside IS in Iraq and Syria in the previous 18 months.

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A mortar attack south of Baghdad at a camp for people displaced from the war with Islamic State killed four children and a woman on Wednesday, while a separate suicide bombing in a northern district killed a policeman, security sources said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for either attack. The ultra-hardline Sunni Muslim militants of Islamic State regularly bomb security forces and civilian areas in the capital. Mortar attacks are less frequent in the city of four million where many armed groups operate.

Three mortar shells landed inside Al Salam camp, one falling in the centre and two others in a market area, a statement from the U.N. refugee agency, which operates there, said.

It was the third such attack on the camp in as many months, including one in early July which killed four people, the statement added.

Al Salam is the largest camp for displaced people in Baghdad, serving civilians who fled violence in Salahuddin province north of the capital and Anbar province to the west.

Islamic State, which seized a third of Iraqi territory in 2014, has been kicked out of more than half of that land by U.S.-backed Iraqi forces over the past two years.

The authorities say several hundred thousand people have returned to their homes, but more than 3.4 million people across the country are still displaced, most of them Sunnis.

The war with Islamic State has exacerbated Iraq's sectarian conflict, mostly between the Sunni minority and the Shia majority, that emerged after the U.S.-led invasion in 2003 which toppled Saddam Hussein, a Sunni.

Separately on Wednesday, a suicide bomber detonated his explosives-filled vest after policemen tried to stop him from entering a crowded market in the predominately Shia Muslim district of Shulaa, police said. One policeman was killed and a passerby was wounded.

The authorities have come under pressure to improve security after a bombing earlier this month in central Baghdad killed 292 people, one of the largest attacks of its kind.

Islamic State group has stepped up bombings inside major population centres despite setbacks on the battlefield. The government wants to retake Mosul, the largest city still under the militants' control anywhere in its self-declare caliphate spanning large parts of neighbouring Syria, by the end of the year.

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French religious leaders on Wednesday called for authorities to boost security at places of worship after militants killed a priest in a Normandy church.

"We deeply desire that our places of worship are the subject of greater (security) focus, a sustained focus," said French Muslim leader Dalil Boubakeur, after meeting with President Francois Hollande.

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Pabst Brewing Co. says Stroh's Bohemian-style Pilsner will be made at Brew Detroit in the city's Corktown neighborhood and on sale starting Aug. 22 at Michigan restaurants, bars and stores.

Stroh made beer in Detroit for more than a century until the 1980s, when the city's Stroh Brewery closed. It's been made since out of state. The business was sold in 1999.
That's when actress Allison Semmes, who plays Diana Ross, goes off script to ask a member of the audience to join her onstage to sing "Reach Out and Touch."

The good-natured Semmes, who has played Ross for 2 years on tour, has seen audience members do everything from giving her suggestion a chilly reception to folks running up the aisle to the stage, screaming.

"You never know what you're going to get," said the Chicago native. "Honestly, you feed off that energy. It's kind of like improv. Every night is different."

Semmes has been lifted up into the air by an overeager fan and she's had a feather boa wrapped around her. Sometimes patrons refuse to leave the stage or want to clamber up onstage with their drinks. Other times, it's very clear they've had way too much to drink.

"I always think, 'What would Diana do in this moment?' And there's plenty of footage of her doing 'Reach Out and Touch' and she's playful and she likes to poke fun and she likes to flirt with the crowd. So I just play along," she said.

The song-heavy story of Motown Record's tumultuous history won't last long on Broadway  it closes Sunday  but it has been an important show for Semmes. It was her first big part and helped her fulfill the dream of singing onstage with Stevie Wonder.

Semmes studied opera at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign before trying her luck in New York, graduating from New York University and snagging a part in "The Book of Mormon." She was then hired as an ensemble member and understudy for Ross in "Motown"  going on twice as the diva  before starting a long national tour as Ross, maturing into the role.

"Before, I was just extremely careful and extremely conscious with every single choice that I made, making sure that it captured her essence. But as I've done the show and lived in the role, I've found similarities that we have  Diana and myself," she said.

The show traces the life of Motown Records founder Berry Gordy, who wrote the musical's story, and examines how Gordy helped start the careers of Ross, Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder, Smokey Robinson, Marvin Gaye and many more. The dozens of songs include "War," ''What's Going On" ''Sign, Sealed, Delivered," ''My Girl" and "Dancing in the Streets."

Chester Gregory, who plays Gordy, became friends with Semmes two years before they joined the show. They would send each other messages in which they sang to each other. Then they met up again on the tour

"Now we're onstage doing what we did as friends just for fun but now we get paid to do it," he said. "We get to meet, we get to fall in love, we get to break up, we get to handle business together, all in the context of Berry and Diana."

One of the biggest nights on the tour was in Detroit, when Semmes and Gregory led the cast in Motown Records' hometown. She got a chance to meet some of the artists, including Wonder. They kept in touch, and when the tour rolled into Toronto, she found out Wonder was also in town for a concert. So she reached out and joined him onstage.

"I first met Stevie Wonder  wow. I can't believe I'm saying this. That's insane just saying that," said Semmes, laughing. "It was amazing. He's a musical legend and to be close to him and to share a stage with him  I'm never going to forget that."

One person who hasn't seen her portray Ross is Ross herself, who came to the opening on Broadway but has kept her distance from the show since then. Semmes isn't sure she could handle it if one night she reached out and touched Ross.

"I think I'd rather not. I think it would be absolutely too much pressure," she said, laughing.
BAD AXE  A number of projects are nearing the finish line at one school district with the assistance of a multimillion-dollar technology bond, according to the superintendent.

In May, Bad Axe voters approved a $4.2 million technology bond for the Bad Axe School District, with plans to upgrade many out-of-date technologies and equipment.

At a special meeting in June, the board approved $218,876 in upgrades, taken on by Hi-Tech.

The district has been busy since then, putting the plans into action.

Bad Axe Superintendent Greg Newland briefed board members with project updates at Mondays school board meeting.

As far as our roof project, that has wrapped up, Newland told the board. During the inspection last week, everything came back satisfactory.

Renovations on the new gym floor have finished, Newland said, and the gym will be open sometime next week.

Ive heard nothing but positive comments on the design of the court, Newland added.

Other projects expected to wrap up within the next week include:

 Installing new audio and visual equipment for 10 information kiosk centers throughout the district.

 New cabling in the high school media center and online learning room.

 A new backup system.

Newland also shined some light on the 60 new computers that will be split between the online learning room and media center.

We received a message late last week and they should all arrive within the week, he said.

Looking ahead, the superintendent said if everything goes as planned, the district is in great shape to have the projects finished before school starts.

We really havent hit any big snags on any of these projects, he said. Were moving along, staying on time and theres really no concerns at this point.

In other business, the board approved the following items for the upcoming school year:

 Fall coaches

 The following depositories: Bay Port State Bank, Chemical Bank-Bay Area, Independent Bank, Michigan Liquid Asset Fund, Northstar Bank, Talmer Bank & Trust, Thumb National Bank & Trust, and Team One Credit Union

 The school board, along with the superintendent, will be the authorized signatures.

 Newland as the chief financial officer will make transactions as outlined in the authorized signature letter.

The board will meet next at 7:15 p.m. Aug. 22.
To the editor:

I would like to submit a letter of support for Sheriff Kelly Hanson.

I spent over 30 years working on Lake Huron with the U.S. Coast Guard and numerous sheriffs marine departments  from Port Huron to Alpena. Cooperation among resources was essential to aid in search and rescue cases.

Sheriff Hanson has developed a very impressive marine department of well-trained individuals and obtained equipment necessary to assist them in their objectives. I would judge it to be one of the most advanced marine rescue divisions in the state of Michigan.

The deputies look after our local boaters and those visiting our shoreline harbors.

Fred Davis

Port Austin
President Barack Obama is refusing to rule out the possibility that Russia is trying to sway the US presidential election in favor of Donald Trump.

"Anything is possible," Obama told NBC News in interview due to air Wednesday -- the furthest the US government has gone in pointing the finger at Russia for a vast leak of Democratic National Committee emails. Russia denies involvement.

Obama said the FBI continues to probe the leak that showed apparent bias toward Hillary Clinton over rival Bernie Sanders.

The leak was a howling embarrassment for the Democrats at their convention this week in Philadelphia. The Clinton campaign says cyber-experts it has hired have suggested Russia was to blame and its goal was to help the Republican presidential candidate Trump.

Obama said he could not speak to the precise motive of the hack or subsequent leak but is aware of Trump's comments about Russia.

"Donald Trump has repeatedly expressed admiration for Vladimir Putin," Obama said in an excerpt of an interview that will air in full on Wednesday.

"And I think that Trump's gotten pretty favorable coverage back in Russia."

He added: "What we do know is that the Russians hack our systems. Not just government systems, but private systems."

Security firm CrowdStrike revealed that when it responded in April to a suspected breach of DNC systems, the company identified "two sophisticated adversaries" whom it linked to Russian intelligence.

The Washington Post reported that the hackers stole data including a trove of opposition research on Trump.

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A year after a terror-motivated mass shooting in Chattanooga, Tennessee, left four Marines and a sailor dead, the Marine Corps has begun the process of shoring up recruiting centers against the prospect of similar attacks in the future.

The Corps published a solicitation this month for bullet-resistant cubicle covers for each of roughly 1,500 Marine Corps recruiting centers nationwide.

These panels will be certified at Level 8 or above on the Underwriters Laboratory scale of bullet resistance, capable of withstanding five shots from a 7.62mm rifle lead-core full-metal copper jacket military ball, according to the solicitation. That's a level of protection far exceeding what many banks and credit unions use for bullet-resistant dividers.

While the initial amount of the solicitation is not specified, Marine Corps Recruiting Command spokesman Jim Edwards said the initial Marine Corps budget for purchase of the panels is $2 million.

"Since the attack in Chattanooga  the review and implementation of force protection measures has been an enduring endeavor for the Marine Corps, Department of Defense, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and the other service branches," Edwards told Military.com in an email.

A Marine Corps recruiting center in Chattanooga was one of two locations on which gunman Muhammad Youssef Abdulazeez opened fire on July 16, 2015. Only seven people were in the center at the time; one, Marine recruiter Sgt. Demonte Cheeley, was wounded in the leg but survived. Cheeley would later receive a Purple Heart medal.

Abdulazeez then traveled to a Navy Reserve center, where he killed four Marines and fatally wounded a sailor.

Edwards said the bullet-resistant panels are only one element of the Corps' plan to protect recruiters against future attacks.

"The Marine Corps is pursuing numerous comprehensive lines of effort that will increasingly serve to protect our Marines in communities throughout the nation," Edwards said. "The installation of bullet resisting panels is just one of many efforts; other examples include upgrades to recruiting facility security, concealment, observation, communications, training, and egress options."

In March, Marine Corps Commandant Gen. Robert Neller told lawmakers on the Senate Appropriations Committee he estimated the total cost of adding protection to recruiting centers and training personnel would come to $44 million.

"It's going to take us some time to get to that; that's where we are," he said.

According to contracting documents, companies have until Aug. 11 to submit proposals to complete the work. The panels will be installed nationwide before the end of 2019.

While officials have agreed on a need to move forward with increased security measures for recruiting centers, the military has dithered over whether to arm recruiting personnel for self-defense. While the Marine Corps maintains it does not want to arm its recruiters, the Navy announced this month that it was in the process of installing armed sailors at its own recruiting offices.

"Our more than 1,500 Marine recruiting facilities (of varying design, ownership and management) across the nation require somewhat complex and unique contracting solutions in order to achieve full implementation, which will take time," Edwards said. "However, our leadership is fully engaged and our mission and Marines remain the priority."

-- Hope Hodge Seck can be reached at hope.seck@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at@HopeSeck.
Despite Flipping in Surf 4 Times in a Year, Marines Say New ACV Is the Future of Amphibious Warfare

Some Marine veterans familiar with the vehicle and its operations have worried about the reliability of the ACV.
The commander of Marine units across the Middle East sees opportunities for the Corps to take on more missions in the region that would typically be tasks for special operations forces.

In a recent interview with Military.com, Lt. Gen. William Beydler, commander of Marine Corps Central Command, said there were multiple traditional special operations mission sets that competent Marines could take on, freeing up the forces for more specialized undertakings.

"I'm not for a moment suggesting that Marine capabilities and SOF capabilities are the same, that's not my point, but I do think, and I think that SOF would agree, that some of the missions they're executing now could be executed by well-trained and disciplined general purpose forces like U.S. Marines," Beydler said.

Marines maintain a constant presence in the Middle East between Special Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force Crisis Response-Central Command, a roughly 2,300-man unit that operates across six Middle Eastern countries with an emphasis on supporting the fight against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, or ISIS.

They also operate consistently in the region off amphibious ships attached to Marine Expeditionary Units, or MEUs, that routinely provide presence in the Persian Gulf.

Beydler, who assumed the command in October 2015, said these Marines could take on quick-response force operations, security missions, maritime and land raids, and ship visit-board-search-seizure operations, all of which Marines train to do as part of the MEU pre-deployment workup.

"There's a range of things Marines are especially well trained to do -- they can offer up capabilities that might free SOF forces to do other things," Beydler said. "We're not trying to encroach on what they do, but we think that we can be better utilized at times and free them up to do even more than SOF does right now."

Beydler said the Marine Corps was already stepping into some of these roles, though he demurred from specifics.

In one instance that may illustrate this utilization of conventional troops, Reuters reported in May that "a very small number" of U.S. forces were deployed into Yemen to provide intelligence support in response to a United Arab Emirates request for aid in the country's fight against Al Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula.

While the Defense Department did not identify the service to which these troops belonged, officials told Reuters that the amphibious assault ship Boxer -- part of the deployed 13th MEU -- had been positioned off the coast of Yemen to provide medical facilities as needed.

In a January fragmentary order, Marine Corps Commandant Gen. Robert Neller emphasized his desire to see Marines operate more closely with SOF troops and develop a deeply collaborative working relationship.

To this end, six-man special operations forces liaison elements, or SOFLEs, began to deploy with MEUs in 2015 to improve communication between Marines and SOF forces downrange and coordinate efforts. Beydler said professional rapport had increased as a result of these small liaison teams.

"A part of this is again developing professional relationships, developing professional respect and having SOF appreciate that which Marines can do," he said.

Currently, he said, the Marine Corps is considering creating SOFLEs for the Marines' land-based Middle East task force. While there is no timeline to test out the creation of new liaison elements, Beydler said the unit informally looks for opportunities to coordinate with special ops in this fashion.

"I think that we've valued the SOFLEs at the MEU level," he said. "We'll continue to work with SOF to see if we can't have more of these liaisons, more of those touch points."

-- Hope Hodge Seck can be reached at hope.seck@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at @HopeSeck.
A $596 million lawsuit claims that the U.S. Navy has engaged in software piracy. The suit against the U.S. Government, filed by Bitmanagement Software, alleges that the Navy copied and installed the company's virtual reality software on hundreds of thousands of computers for which it does not have a license. In 2011 and 2012 Bitmanagement agreed to license its BS Contact Geo software to the Navy on "a limited and experimental" basis, according to court documents. The Navy was authorized to install the software on just 38 computers for testing, trial runs and integration with other Navy systems, the documents say. To facilitate testing and "in preparation for the large scale licensing desired by the Navy" Bitmanagement removed the control mechanism that tracked and limited use of the software. The Navy decided that it would deploy the software on a larger scale and began negotiations for the purchase of "numerous" additional licenses, according to the suit, which was filed July 15. "While those negotiations were ongoing, however, and without Bitmanagment's advance knowledge or consent, the Navy installed BS Contact Geo software onto hundreds of thousands of computers," the documents say. "Bitmanagement did not license or otherwise authorize these uses of its software, and the Navy has never compensated Bitmanagement for these uses of Bitmanagement's software."

The lawsuit alleges that the software has been deployed on at least 558,466 Navy computers and says it is likely that unauthorized copying has taken place on an even larger scale. BS Contact Geo enables the visualization of geographic information, according to Berg, Germany-based Bitmanagement. The software lets users visualize a "virtual military base," according to court documents. "It is extremely concerning to us that the Navy duplicated and deployed our proprietary commercial computer software without first agreeing to a software license agreement," said Bitmanagement, in a statement emailed to FoxNews.com. "We regret that it became necessary to initiate legal action in order to preserve our right to be paid for our software. Nonetheless, we will continue to seek a mutually beneficial resolution that both compensates us for our software while supporting the operations of our valued customer." "Due to this case being an open litigation, it would be inappropriate for the Navy to provide comment on its proceedings at this time," a Navy spokesman told FoxNews.com. The Department of Justice has not yet responded to a request for comment on this story from FoxNews.com.
U.S. troops have gone forward with Iraqi forces for the first time on the battalion level in a prelude to the expected assignment of more troops closer to the front lines in the effort to retake Mosul, a U.S. military spokesman said Wednesday.

The small team of about 10 U.S. engineers advised the Iraqis on building a floating bridge across the Tigris about 40 miles southeast of Mosul to connect the forward base at Makhmour to the Qayyarah West airstrip newly wrested from ISIS.

The deployment occurred around July 20, and the engineers have since withdrawn to Makhmour, said Army Col. Chris Garver, spokesman for Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve.

U.S. advisers had previously been limited to the division level, and the bridge-building mission was the "first U.S. advise and assist mission at lower level with the Iraqi army," Garver said in a briefing to the Pentagon from Baghdad.

The engineers worked with the Iraqis for a few hours each day before returning to Makhmour, Garver said. "It was short-duration, high-payoff," he said of the engineers' work in building the bridge expected to be a key supply route for the push on Mosul, the last main stronghold in Iraq for the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.

The bridge was the second built by the Iraqi Security Forces with the aid of U.S. engineers. The first was a pontoon bridge over a tributary of the Euphrates River in Anbar province that was vital to the successful effort to retake Ramadi last December.

Garver said the U.S. has built an artificial lake at the al-Tanf base in Anbar province to train the Iraqis in bridge building, which will be necessary to gain entry to Mosul.

President Obama last month authorized sending an additional 560 U.S. troops to Iraq, with most of them to be deployed to Qayyarah West, which Defense Secretary Ashton Carter has described as a "springboard" for the Mosul offensive. Garver said the troops have yet to arrive.

Carter was in Fort Bragg, North Carolina, on Wednesday to meet with Army Lt. Gen. Stephen J. Townsend and troops of his XVIII Airborne Corps on the push to retake Mosul and Raqqa, the self-proclaimed ISIS capital in Syria, and the aftermath of those campaigns.

Townsend, a veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan, has been chosen to replace Army Lt. Gen. Sean MacFarland later this summer as commander of Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve in Iraq and Syria. The headquarters group from XVIII Corps will replace MacFarland's III Corps.

"We've got big shoes to fill, but we're ready to do it," Townsend said. Carter called Townsend and his troops "more than up to the task."

"It ain't gonna be over," Carter said, when Mosul and Raqqa fall in what he has repeatedly called an "accelerated campaign" to retake the two cities. He warned that ISIS would remain a potent threat and said that one of Townsend's main tasks would be overseeing the stabilization of territory retaken from ISIS.

"Even when we win this fight," the stabilization work must continue "so the gains are irreversible," Carter said. Political and economic progress "cannot be allowed to lag behind our military progress," he said.

Along those lines, Carter and Secretary of State John Kerry met last week with the defense and foreign ministers of more than 60 nations in the anti-ISIS coalition on the way forward after Raqqa and Mosul. Kerry said the ministers had pledged about $2.6 billion toward Iraq reconstruction efforts.

-- Richard Sisk can be reached at Richard.Sisk@Military.com.
Depending on your PT test, the order of swimming may best be determined by where it is in the order of events of that test.
Israeli forces fired anti-tank missiles at a house in the occupied West Bank after a shootout overnight, killing a Hamas member accused of a deadly attack on a rabbi, authorities said Wednesday.

Several other people were arrested in the hours-long raid in the village of Surif, near Hebron.

Military footage showed a house being hit with an anti-tank missile then further demolished with an earthmover.

The military said the Israeli troops surrounded the house where the Hamas member was hiding out and exchanged fire with him.

Afterwards, the house was struck with anti-tank missiles and the militant's body was found inside. He was identified as Mohamed Fakih, 29, and Hamas hailed him as a "martyr".

"After extensive research, we found the hideout of the Hamas member who killed Michael Mark," Colonel Roman Gofman, commander of the brigade that led the operation, said in a video distributed by the occupation forces.

"We besieged the house and exchanges of fire took place after he opened fire at the soldiers. We responded and Fakih was killed in battle. His house was destroyed on him."

Soldiers carried away Fakih's body and arrested three people, who were led away with their eyes covered and loaded into military vehicles, an AFP photographer witnessed.

The official Palestinian news agency reported five people were arrested and said several villagers were injured, with Palestinian ambulances denied access to the site by Israeli forces.

The Israeli occupation forces reported three arrests over the course of the investigation that began after the July 1 attack that killed the rabbi.

It called them part of a cell "affiliated with Hamas", the Islamist movement that runs the Gaza Strip and which has a strong presence in parts of the occupied West Bank, particularly Hebron.

The July 1 attack saw a car targeted by gunfire south of Hebron, leading to a crash that killed Mark and wounded three family members.

It was among a series of attacks in the Hebron area at the time, including a June 30 stabbing by a Palestinian in the Israeli settlement of Kiryat Arba that killed a 13-year-old girl.

Hebron is the scene of frequent tensions in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Several hundred Israeli settlers live in the heart of the city under heavy military guard of the occupation forces among around 200,000 Palestinians.

Fakih had served time in Israeli jail for links to the Islamic Jihad movement and joined Hamas while in prison, according to Israel's Shin Bet security service.

It issued a statement saying a Palestinian security official was arrested earlier this month on suspicion of driving Fakih to the scene of the rabbi attack.

Fakih's brother and cousin were also held on suspicion of helping him to hide after the attack, the statement added.

Hamas said in a statement it "hails the Al-Qassam martyr Mohamed Fakih, who was martyred after a gun battle that lasted more than seven hours with occupation forces in Surif."

The Al-Qassam Brigades are Hamas's armed wing.

Violence in the Palestinian territories and Israel since October has killed at least 218 Palestinians, 34 Israelis, two Americans, an Eritrean and a Sudanese, according to an AFP count.

*The tory was edited by Ahram Online

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Joel Sherman of the New York Post walks readers through the winding process the Cubs took to reach an agreement on an Aroldis Chapman trade with the Yankees. Per Sherman, the Cubs never wanted to pursue a rental pitcher but werent able to convince the Yankees to back down from their demand of Kyle Schwarber. Chicago then turned to the Royals, only to find the asking price on Wade Davis to be even higher than the asking price on Miller. The Cubs werent willing to deal from their big league roster to upgrade the pen but were willing to deal from their infield depth, parting with Class-A shortstop Gleyber Torres largely because of the presence of both Addison Russell and Javier Baez on the Major League roster. (Notably, Chicago also dealt from its first base depth in moving Dan Vogelbach for another left-handed reliever: Seattles Mike Montgomery.) Sherman adds that owner Hal Steinbrenner still wants to win in 2016 despite approving the Chapman swap, which calls into question whether the club would entertain even an overwhelming offer for Miller.

A few notes on the pitching market
Two men have been arrested in connection with the murder of Denis Donaldson, a former British secret service agent shot dead in 2006, Irish police said on Wednesday.

Donaldson was a former senior party official in Sinn Fein, formerly the political wing of the IRA, who in the months before his murder was outed as having spent 20 years spying on the movement for British intelligence.

Investigators did not name those arrested but said one is in his 40s and the other in his 70s. They were remanded in custody on Wednesday and can be held for up to 72 hours, police said.

Detectives appealed for anyone with information about the case to come forward.

"Both men were arrested in the Donegal area on July 26, 2016, and are currently being detained at Letterkenny police station," police told AFP by email.

Donaldson's body was found in April 2006 in the home where he lived alone, without water or electricity, in the rural village of Glenties in north west Ireland.

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A Syrian with suspected links to the Islamic State group who blew himself up outside a German music festival was in contact with another person "who influenced the attack" immediately beforehand, authorities said Wednesday.

The 27-year-old failed asylum-seeker, who wounded 15 people at a nearby cafe late Sunday when he was refused access to the festival venue, had been speaking to an unknown person in an "intensive" online chat, Bavaria state interior minister Joachim Herrmann said.

"Apparently he had direct contact with someone who had significant influence on the way the attack played out," Herrmann was quoted by DPA news agency as saying on the sidelines of a state government meeting.

"The chat ended immediately before the attack."

Herrmann said it was not immediately clear whether the unknown person had contact with Islamic State militants, where the chat participant was, or how long the two had been in contact.

Herrmann revealed on Monday that the attacker had made a video pledging allegiance to IS group leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi that was found on his smartphone.

IS group later said via the militant-linked Amaq news agency that the attacker "was a soldier of the Islamic State" who had acted "in response to calls to target nations in the coalition fighting" the extremists.

The assailant, who came to Germany two years ago but had his asylum claim rejected after a year, had tried to kill himself twice in the past and had spent time in a psychiatric clinic, authorities said.

Germany was already reeling after nine people were killed in a shopping centre shooting spree in Munich on Friday and four passengers on a train and a passer-by were wounded in an axe attack in Wuerzburg on July 18.

IS group also claimed the axe rampage.

All three brutal incidents were in Bavaria, the southern state which has been a portal for tens of thousands of refugees under Chancellor Angela Merkel's liberal asylum policy.

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The United Nations expressed alarm Wednesday at the looming execution of 14 drug convicts in Indonesia, urging Jakarta to put an end to the "unjust" practice of capital punishment.

A group of drug convicts including foreigners have been given notice of their executions and could be put to death as early as Friday.

Attorney-General Muhammad Prasetyo said Wednesday that 14 people -- including prisoners from Nigeria, Pakistan, India and Zimbabwe -- had been put in isolation and would be executed this week.

Rights groups and governments have been voicing concern in recent days, and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein expressed alarm at the planned executions.

"The increasing use of the death penalty in Indonesia is terribly worrying, and I urge the government to immediately end this practice which is unjust and incompatible with human rights," he said in a statement.

"The death penalty is not an effective deterrent relative to other forms of punishment nor does it protect people from drug abuse."

He said that under international law, in countries which have not abolished the death penalty, it may only be used for "the most serious crimes" -- which has been interpreted to mean only crimes involving intentional killing.

Family members and embassy officials visited the condemned prisoners Wednesday on Nusakambangan island, home to a high-security prison where Indonesia conducts executions.

Indonesia -- which has some of the world's toughest anti-drugs laws -- executed 14 drug convicts, mostly foreigners, in two batches last year.

Activists intensified pressure on President Joko Widodo this week, with Amnesty International saying the executions would put his government "on the wrong side of history".

Indonesia last carried out executions in April 2015 when it put to death eight convicts, including two Australians and a Brazilian, sparking international outrage.

Lawyers for some of the condemned inmates have been making last-minute bids to save their clients from the firing squad.

A letter from Indonesian convict Merri Utami to Widodo asking for clemency was sent on Tuesday. Activists lobbying on behalf of Pakistani prisoner Zulfiqar Ali said they would also consider making a final appeal for clemency, despite alleging their 52-year-old client was tortured into confessing and should not have been convicted.

"We've seen how Indonesia's legal system is full of flaws. (Widodo) can actually put a moratorium on executions, he has the right to do so," said Al Araf, the director of Indonesian rights group Imparsial.

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Artist Ai Weiwei has reproduced scenes of his incarceration for a new art installation, a series of almost life-size dioramas - encased in steel boxes - showing his life in jail.

Visitors to the exhibition, in a cathedral in central Spain, have to peer through peep-holes in the stark, grey boxes to see the 3D scenes, which show Ai watched by two uniformed guards as he eats, sleeps, showers and uses the toilet in his tiny cell.

Ai, one of China's most high-profile artists and political activists, was jailed for 81 days on charges of tax evasion in 2011. China confiscated his passport, only returning it in July last year.

His installation, "S.A.C.R.E.D.", is a highlight of a series of events under the title "The Poetry of Freedom" taking place across Spain to mark the 400th anniversary of the death of Miguel de Cervantes.

The Spanish writer was held as a slave in Algiers for five years in the late 16th century and spent months in jail in Spain later in life for bookkeeping discrepancies, where he is thought to have conceived the idea for his masterpiece "Don Quixote".

A quote from that novel, about a middle-aged gentleman obsessed by ideals of chivalry who travels central Spain with his loyal squire Sancho Panza, adorns the wall of the Cuenca exhibition: "Freedom, Sancho, is one of the most precious gifts that heaven has ever given man."

The exhibition, at the 12th century cathedral in the fortified medieval city of Cuenca, opens on July 26 and runs until Nov. 6.

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The government will not renew mining permits for jade and gems when they expire and will only consider issuing new permits once by-laws to the Myanmar Gemstones Law have been passed, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Conservation said yesterday.





The ministry wants to change the rules governing gemstone production, said U Thet Khaing, deputy director of the Licence and Registry Department under state-owned Myanmar Gems Enterprise.

There are a lot of reasons why we are suspending licence extensions, but the main one is to change the rules and regulations, he said.

The move follows a series of disastrous landslides that have killed several hundred workers, as well as reports about the wholesale looting of the countrys natural mineral wealth for the benefit of a few.

Myanmar has come under significant pressure from activist groups, environmentalists and foreign governments to clean up the vastly lucrative industry, which remains under US sanctions.

The suspension will not only cover the jade mines in Hpakant but gemstone quarries across the country, according to a ministry announcement.

Ministry data shows 420 mining permits will expire this month in Kachin and Shan states and Mandalay and Sagaing regions, in mining areas such as Hpakant, Hkamti, Mogok and Mong Shu.





Companies can continue to dig until their licence expires and it will take until 2021 before all the permits for 19,000 blocks across the country have run their course, according to information provided by U Thet Khaing.

Gems and jewellery entrepreneurs yesterday criticized the decision, on the grounds that the suspension will hurt small time traders and put itinerant miners out of work.

U Kyaw Kyaw Oo, executive member of the Myanmar Gems and Jewellery Entrepreneurs Association, told The Myanmar Times that the government should reconsider its announcement or risk damaging the entire industry.

This is not the first time [a suspension has been put in place]. The previous government did a similar thing between 2012 and 2014, he said.

A lot of jade hunters flocked to the land around the mines [in Kachin States Hpakant] at that time and squatted there, which led the government to repeal its decision. The new government should learn from this incident.

A damning report by advocacy group Global Witness last year said the negative impact of mines on local communities could not be overstated, citing fatally dangerous conditions, endemic drugs and prostitution.

The elites cream off vast profits while local people suffer terrible abuses and see their natural inheritance ripped out from beneath their feet, the report said, putting the value of the jade industry at US$31 billion in 2014-15 alone, while government figures for 2013-14 put the trade at barely $1 billion.

U Kyaw Kyaw Oo believes the government is suspending production to prevent illegal mining and the unlawful export of jade and gemstones to China. Much of Myanmars jade is smuggled to China directly from the mines, while local dealers in markets such as Mandalay say they no longer see any profits.

The government should prevent illegal gems and jewellery production, but I dont understand why it wants to stop all production, he said.

U Yone Mu, chair of the association, said unemployment will rise because of the suspension, adding that the association is worried about the negative impact on the industry if production rates fall.

Decorative gemstones from other countries will take the place of our own gems and jewellery in our markets. This will mostly be a challenge for small entrepreneurs. The government shouldnt do it, he said.

However, environmentalists welcomed the announcement and said they supported the suspension of new mining permits.

Good!! Its pretty good! It is important to protect the countrys environment, said Myanmar Alliance for Transparency and Accountability spokesperson U Win Myo Thu by email. Civil society groups have asked the government for many years to stop companies mining for jade.

They typically single out Hpakant and Lone Kin jade mining areas because of fears over excessive degradation of the local environment and over-digging, excessive use of machinery, and the deaths of hundreds of jade scavengers in landslides caused by the collapse of tailings piles.
Tax receipts in the second half of last financial year fell below the governments target, parliament heard on July 25. Fresh back from recess, Pyithu Hluttaw will be concentrating on budget-related matters as it enters its second session.





The government has said it will prioritise tax reform, in the hope of lifting Myanmar from the bottom rung of tax collection rates worldwide.

The Internal Revenue Department has made clear that it will support this goal by tackling corruption within its own ranks.

U Aung Min, deputy chair of the Public Accounts Joint Committee, presented the committees tax revenue findings for the second half of the 2015-16 fiscal year, which fell slightly short of expectations.

He attributed the shortfall to the governments failure to collect all the necessary taxes in the public and private sectors, and called for remedies to ensure better collection.

U Maung Maung Win, the deputy minister for planning and finance, said only 90.75 percent of the taxation target for the six-month period within his jurisdiction had been met, which is K3.956 billion out of K4.359 billion expected.

The Ministry of Commerce managed a 93.14pc success rate, having collected K3.033 billion out of K3.256 billion over the second six months of the year.

The overall success rate was only 83.68pc, yielding K923.259 billion of the K1103.361 billion target, the Pyidaungsu Hluttaw heard yesterday.





In some cases revenue exceeded targets, including in the following tax categories: commercial, state lottery, transportation, stamp duty, land, water and dams, forestry products, metals, lakes, jewellery, and electricity generation, parliament heard.

The areas in which tax fell below the target were liquor, import licences, income, customs duty, rubber, oil and natural gas extraction, and communications services.

MPs wishing to debate the committees report were asked to register with the Pyidaungsu Hluttaw director general by today.

Translation by Khant Lin Oo
David Bockino first visited Myanmar in 2005 on a one-hour, carefully coordinated tourist tour of Tachileik in Shan State. He describes unremarkable photo ops and run-down buildings, quoting travel writer Paul Theroux in saying that nothing happens in Burma, but then nothing is expected to happen.





A lot has changed in the 11 years since, and the author and professor from Elon University in the United States returned to Myanmar in 2015 to document the transformation in a Kindle Single release, Greetings from Myanmar: Exploring the Price of Progress in One of the Last Countries Earth to Open for Business, which has since become the second-best-selling Myanmar travel guide on Amazon. He spoke with The Myanmar Times to discuss his trip and the book it produced.

What drew you to Myanmar as a traveller?

Two things. The first was when Myanmar started popping up on so many travel-related Best Of lists. In 2014, for example, the European Council of Tourism and Trade named the country the Worlds Best Tourist Destination. A year later, a popular US travel magazine named the country its Destination of the Year. I thought this was remarkable  when I first visited Myanmar over 10 years ago, visiting the country was still seen as a travelling badge of honour, a peek behind the curtain of an isolated, frozen-in-time country, like getting a glimpse of North Korea or Cuba. Sure, people did it, especially backpackers, but it was one of those off-the-beaten-path destinations, one you could brag about to your friends back home. The transition from that to Destination of the Year seemed incredible and I wanted to learn more.

The second reason was the relative lack of knowledge about the country, especially in the West. There are tons of books about China, plenty of discussion on India  but the conversation surrounding Myanmar was/is significantly less. And so when the team at Kindle Singles gave me the opportunity to introduce Myanmar to a new audience during a time of great political and economic transition, I jumped at it.

What do you find the price of progress to be, and who do you think is paying it?

This is a complicated question and readers will notice that I come to very few conclusions. That was intentional  I dont think many of the issues associated with Myanmars rapid growth are black and white. Ill give you one example. Bagan, rightly so, has quickly become of the worlds great archaeological destinations. A quick perusal of online reviews describes it as mesmerising, unforgettable and magical. This type of chatter brings more people, and more people means more money will be spent on hotels, restaurants, souvenirs, etc. Thats good for the Myanmar economy. But on the other side of the aisle are the archaeologists and historians (who are, admittedly, mostly Western) who claim that Bagans restoration  which clearly was an impetus to increased visitors  was conducted with little regard for historical preservation or accuracy. One scholar has called the site an incongruous spectacle of faux antique temples, another says that Bagan verges on Disneyfication. So is Bagans rise in popularity, which itself was a result of accelerated renovation, good or bad? Thats for the reader to decide.





What stood out to you most about travelling in Myanmar?

Thats easy: the stories of the people I spoke to. For my Single, I tried to follow the blueprint of the author Rory MacLean in his book Under the Dragon, by using conversations with individual Burmese to highlight larger themes and concepts. My most memorable conversation in Bagan, for instance, was with a painter who had worked at one of the smaller temples for nearly 13 years. A few years ago, he was lucky to sell one or two paintings a day. But these days, during the high season at least, he might be able to sell four or five. That means an extra K8000 or K10,000 a day, which translates to a few extra days off a month. And he couldnt care less what the temples looked like, whether the renovations were historically accurate. He just wanted more time to spend with his young son.

I spent nearly three weeks travelling around Myanmar talking to people like this painter. I went to some of the more popular tourist destinations such as Yangon, Bagan and Mandalay, as well as some of the less popular ones, such as Meiktila and Loikaw. In the end, my hope is that people learn a thing or two about the country and read Greetings from Myanmar not in isolation but as a starting point to explore what I feel is a truly fascinating place.

What were some of your favourite moments from your trip?

Bagan is obviously an amazing place and riding my electric scooter through the temples at 5am without a single person in sight will be an experience I wont soon forget. But my favourite part of Myanmar was something I experienced everywhere I went  the teashops. To me, nothing is better than sitting on the side of a road for an hour or two  in Loikaw or Pyin Oo Lwin or Yangon or Taungyyi  sipping hot milk tea and eating noodles. I could do it every day. And I pretty much did.

What did you read before coming to Myanmar?

Many of the usual suspects  The River of Lost Footsteps by Thant Myint-U, Finding George Orwell in Burma by Emma Larkin, From the Land of Green Ghosts by Pascal Khoo Thwe. But Ill give one lesser known recommendation  Archibald Colquhouns Burma and the Burmans: Or, The Best Unopened Market in the World, a short book written back in the late 19th century. Its a very compelling read that, in some ways, could have been written in the past five years.

By the way, the Single does include a bibliography of some of the works I used to compile the piece  so if someone finishes Greetings from Myanmar and wants to learn more about the country, thats probably a good place to start.

A lot of people talk about Myanmar in terms of a window closing. Get here before it all changes, they say. How long do you think Myanmar will retain its frontier appeal before becoming just another Thailand or Cambodia?

Thats an interesting question, especially as it relates to the tourism side. Many of the articles I read touting Myanmar as the Destination of the Year explicitly recommended visiting the country before everyone else goes. Its a counter-intuitive idea, one that supposedly plays into our collective fascination of travelling off the beaten path. Personally, I think its all a bit silly. Will Myanmar be any less interesting as a destination in five or 10 years when there are 5 million international visitors instead of 2 or 3?

How about this for some perspective: I recently returned from my first trip to Japan, a country thats nearly half the size of Myanmar but received over four times as many visitors in 2014. I loved every second of it, especially Tokyo, which by most measures seems to be the most visited and crowded city in the country. Id go back tomorrow if I could. And so to me, the appeal of visiting Myanmar  a country with stunning natural beauty, generous people and rich cultural traditions  wont go away any time soon.
Calls for unity and the absence of some key players marked the opening day of an ethnic summit in Kachin States Mai Ja Yang.





The deputy leader of the Kachin Independence Army, General NBan La, told attendees yesterday that building a federal Union and unity among Myanmars many ethnic armed groups are important for the peace process.

Ethnic armed groups including both signatories and non-signatories to the so-called nationwide ceasefire agreement are meeting this week along with civil society groups and political parties to discuss an upcoming peace meeting being dubbed the 21st-century Panglong Conference, which is slated for late August.

Despite the diverse nature of the gathered stakeholders and their varied interests, Gen NBan La said it was important to build unity in diversity.

In this current situation and political environment, building unity among us  the ethnic people  is very important. Thats why, despite our diverse nature, we should explore a way forward that will unify us. The essence of this plenary meeting of ethnic armed organisations is an effort to build stronger unity among ethnic people, said Gen NBan La.

But even as scores of representatives for ethnic armed groups gathered for the four-day meeting in Mai Ja Yang, a sleepy town on the border with China that is controlled by the KIA, rifts were evident.

The meeting does not have the Tatmadaws blessing, and four ethnic armed groups declined invitations, including the United Wa State Army  the countrys most powerful non-state armed force  and two groups that have engaged in active hostilities with the military in the last year.





Speaking on behalf of military Commander-in-Chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, a senior Tatmadaw official told a press conference on July 20 that the Mai Ja Yang summit should be not held, while adding that the military would not prevent it from happening. At a meeting with NCA signatories about three weeks earlier, Snr Gen Min Aung Hlaing was quoted as expressing concern that the Mai Ja Yang summit would serve as a gathering to build power among ethnic armed groups.

Khu Oo Reh, chair of the convening committee for the summit, played down that speculation.

The objective of this plenary meeting is preparatory talks for the 21st-century Panglong Conference. Another reason why we are holding this summit is to find common ground among the ethnic armed organisations for building a federal democratic Union in the future, he said yesterday.

Absentees included the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army, which waged a fierce campaign against the Tatmadaw in the Kokang Special Region last year, and the Taang National Liberation Army. In addition to sporadic fighting with the Tatmadaw over the past year, the TNLA has clashed with the Shan State Army-South. It and its political wing, the Restoration Council of Shan State, are in Mai Ja Yang this week, one reason for the TNLAs absence.

As we have been fighting, we cannot attend if they are invited to the meeting, TNLA foreign relations officer Tar Pan La told The Myanmar Times.

Furthermore, conditions were not favourable for his group, he said.

The government has already announced that we must surrender our arms if we want to join the peace process and the groups attending the summit have good relations with the government. So, we are concerned that all-inclusivity would be abandoned, he said.

Another less prominent ethnic armed group, the Nationalist Socialist Council of Nagaland-Khaplang, was also a no-show at this weeks summit.

Meeting minutes

One expected outcome of the Mai Ja Yang meeting is the drafting of a consensus paper on participating ethnic armed groups vision for the principles of Panglong, laying out basic doctrine for a constitution that guarantees the establishment of a federal democratic Union; covers policies regarding security and defence issues; and reviews the political dialogue framework.

It is very important for us, the ethnic people, to have common principles for the implementation of a federal Union, Gen NBan La said. I hope we will find common ground on this issue through dialogue in the plenary meeting. I would also welcome suggestions on how we could practically turn those common principles into action and implementation.

He said failure to honour the terms laid out in the 1947 Panglong Agreement  the inspiration for Augusts conference of the same name  had led the country into decades of internal conflict as ethnic minority groups took up arms to claim the rights they had been promised.

The main point of the treaty was building a new state by cooperation between the frontier areas and [then-]Burma proper. There were preconditions set for state-building. It was the building of a nation that grants equality among nationalities and autonomy or self-determination, he added.

The original Panglong Agreement was signed by majority Bamar leader Bogyoke Aung San and ethnic Kachin, Shan and Chin leaders on the eve of independence from British colonial rule. The accord guaranteed full autonomy for then-Burmas frontier areas. With the assassination of Bogyoke Aung San later that year and political turmoil culminating in a 1962 coup, however, the principles were ignored by successive military governments.

Vijay Nambiar, special adviser on Myanmar to the UN secretary general, is also in Mai Ja Yang to observe this weeks talks, and yesterday offered the world bodys continued support for the peace process.

We, as a group, the international community as well as the ethnic armed organisations and the ethnic groups in general, as well as the government, look forward to building trust and confidence in the future, he said.

The United Nations will stand by the ethnic armed organisations and the ethnic groups here assembled today as well as the government of Myanmar in building such a strong, unified future for the country.

As Myanmars biggest neighbour, China will continue to monitor Myanmars internal peace process and support the negotiations, said Sun Guoxiang, special envoy on Asian affairs for the Chinese foreign ministry, who is attending the summit as an observer as well.

Despite the change in government, the relationship between our countries and our foreign policy toward Myanmar will not change, he said.

He said Chinas development agenda for Myanmar included the peace process, with his government having committed US$3 million in support for the Joint Ceasefire Monitoring Committee, which was set up last year.

Representatives from the United Nationalities Alliance and the Nationalities Brotherhood Federation, two alliances of ethnic political parties, are also on hand this week.

The government has invited NCA signatories and non-signatories to review the framework for political dialogue in early August, and intends to convene the 21st-century Panglong Conference by the end of the month.
As the Tatmadaw launches a rare court martial against soldiers involved in killing civilians in Shan State, the Myanmar National Human Rights Commission is urging a review of another murder case, that of two Kachin teachers killed last year.





The two volunteers were raped and murdered in Muse township, northern Shan State, where they were teaching children at Kaung Khar village whose education had been disrupted by fighting. The killers have never been brought to justice. Local NGOs blamed the Tatmadaw for derailing the investigative and legal process in order to avoid culpability for crimes against the ethnic minority women.

The national human rights commission sent a letter to the Ministry of Home Affairs requesting a trial of the suspects in a civilian court, according to a July 25 statement.

The investigating police narrowed the suspects down to a Bamar couple, aged 44 and 41, who lived in Kaung Khar village but have since disappeared. Two other villagers were also suspected of being accomplices in the case. Many believe the locals were scapegoated to protect the true perpetrators.

The Kachin Baptist Convention (KBC) has long argued that evidence points to the involvement of the commander and soldiers of the 503rd Light Infantry Regiment. The soldiers had established a temporary base in Khaung Khar village, about 100 metres (330 feet) from where the incident occurred, two days before the two teachers were found dead. An army-issue belt and boot-prints were allegedly found at the scene of the crime.

U Sit Myaing, vice chair of the MNHRC, said the Ministry of Home Affairs has not responded to the request yet, and expressed disappointment that the legal proceedings have dragged on for so long without progress.

The authorities told us that they cannot arrest the suspects because they are in an ethnic armed groups territory. There is no rule of law there, so they say it will be difficult to arrest them, he said.

The KBC submitted a letter in June asking President U Htin Kyaw to take up the case, arguing that the families of the victims should not be made to wait for justice any longer.





Reverend Samson Hkalam, general secretary of the KBC, said in June that the convention plans on suing the commander and soldiers of the 503rd Light Infantry Regiment. In May, the Lashio police interviewed the head of the suspected military column, but did not allow activists, individuals or organisations to be present during the questioning. The results of the interrogation were not made punlic.

The KBC said it has long applied pressure to Muse police and the Northeast Regional Command for permission to interview the head of the military column, Major Aung Phyo Myint. The request was repeatedly denied.

Muse township Police Major Soe Than said the KBC has already been informed that the investigating authorities wish to question the four villagers suspected in the case, but are blocked from doing so because they have taken refuge in KIO-controlled territory.

The two female volunteers, Maran Lu Ra, 20, and Tangbau Hkwan Nan Tsin, 21, were working for the KBC in Kaung Khar village teaching refugee children. On January 19, 2015, their naked bodies were found with stab wounds and head injuries after villagers reported hearing screams in the night.
Hundreds of young people from ethnic minorities across the country gathered at historic Panglong town for a major youth conference last night, despite attempts by authorities to suspend the event.





As late as 5pm yesterday, uncertainty remained as to whether the Ethnic Youth Conference would be allowed to go ahead. A last-minute missive from the Shan State governments Minister for Bamar Affairs U Aung Than Maung had arrived yesterday morning telling organisers to halt proceedings.

Final permission greenlighting the conference was not secured until less than two hours before a launch celebration scheduled for 7pm.

The event coincides with a crucial meeting of ethnic armed group leaders a Mai Ja Yang in Kachin State ahead of next months cornerstone national peace meeting, which has been dubbed the 21st-century Panglong Conference. The modern iteration follows in the footsteps of the lauded deal reached between Daw Aung San Suu Kyis father, Bogyoke Aung San, and ethnic leaders nearly seven decades ago.

Amid the confusion over yesterdays suspension order, it was unclear whether the directive had come from the Union level, or whether it was enforced by the states chief minister.

Union-level peace negotiators told The Myanmar Times yesterday that they were unaware of the suspension order until the youth organisers called asking for an explanation and assistance.

But deputy director general for the Presidents Office U Zaw Htay pinned the decision on a state-level recommendation.

The state government sent a letter to the Union government with the suggestion that the youth conference should be suspended. After discussions among the ministries, the Union government agreed, he said. This youth event could have consequences for the 21st-century Panglong Conference, which the government aims to hold before the end of August.





When pressed about what kind of consequences he meant, U Zaw Htay said only that the Panglong Conference has its own procedures and plans in place to incorporate civil society groups, and those plans should not be disrupted.

Actually, if they had an idea [to hold the youth conference] they should have discussed it first with the committee for the CSO Peace Forum, but they didnt. They went and did their conference themselves, he said. It might be waste of time as the government will not take into account their recommendations because it already has plans for the participation of civil society groups in the peace process, U Zaw Htay said.

Regardless of the suspension order, however, throughout the day youth organisers vowed they would go ahead with their gathering even without permission.

We got a letter from the state government this morning telling us to suspend our meeting, we are currently in negotiations with them, but whatever happens we will go ahead, Sai Aung Myint Oo, a committee member of the National Ethnic Youth Conference, said yesterday morning.

By that time around 300 youth had already gathered at the conference site, right next to the memorial for the historic Panglong agreement.

A further 500 young people were estimated to be on their way for the event, which officially begins today, and will run over a five-day period.

Salai Aung Lin, from Chin Youth, one of the conferences facilitators, said, It must go ahead. It would be a disaster if it didnt. Seven or eight hundred young people are attending, and they are so enthusiastic. He added that it had been very costly to arrange the event.

As he was speaking to The Myanmar Times just after 5pm, Mai Mai, a well-known Kachin youth activist, gave the shout that permission had been granted.

Event organisers said they believed they had always had the support of the Shan State government. Chief Minister U Linn Htut is due to give a speech at 10am today, according to a timetable on display at the event site.

Veteran Kachin activist Khon Ja, who was helping support the event, said the call for suspension had likely been due to a mix-up and lack of clear authority.

She suggested the decision to give permission should have been made at state level, but as the states chief minister had been away on business, the Bamar ethnic minister had passed the request for permission on to the Union government. However, most senior government leaders were also unavailable, including Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, who was in Laos. The activist said it was the Union government representatives who had urged the state government to postpone the event.

Khon Ja praised the youth leaders for their efforts in the face of uncertainty. Everyone has been working like a dog. So much energy. I am glad Im working with young people on this, not old people!

She added that this major ethnic youth conference had been in the works since 2012, and that the timing in relation to the Mai Ja Yang summit had been a coincidence.

Additional reporting by Ei Ei Toe Lwin
Debating the National Health Policy in the Pyithu Hluttaw yesterday, most members of parliament advocated for adding more public health staff around the country, particularly in rural areas.





Dr Aye Zin Latt, a National League for Democracy MP for Sagaing Region, submitted the proposal in the first regular session.

Daw San San Ei, an NLD MP for Kachin States Mohnyin township, said the death toll for infants and mothers is increasing in rural areas because of insufficient health staffing and inadequate medicine.

She suggested that the government open more rural-based pharmacies and assign more midwives and general health staff.

U Maung Maung, another NLD MP, from Htigyaing township in Sagaing Region, said improved health education is needed.

I run a hardware shop. One day, a girl came in and bought a yellow powder used for polishing furniture, he said. When I asked her why she needed to buy it, she said she was going to use it to make pork sticker. She wanted to use the polish to colour food.

Daw Wint War Tun, an NLD MP for Kayahs Shardaw township, said remote areas of her state are especially in need of healthcare services.





The services cover the urban areas while neglecting the rural areas, said Daw Khin Saw Wai, an Arakan National Party MP for Rathedaung township in Rakhine State.

Because of the lay of the land, three or four villages cannot have a midwife, she said. It means we are neglecting mothers from rural areas who cannot go to urban areas for medical treatment.

One-third of the countrys children under five years old are malnourished, said Dr Aung Khin, an NLD MP from Mandalay Regions Pyin Oo Lwin township. About 29 percent do not meet the standard height for children their age. The malnourishment leads to physical and developmental issues when they grow up, he said.

Staffing of the countrys health sector is just over 40pc of what it should be, he said.

U Thet Naung from Lahe township in Sagaing Region said health workers salaries need to be increased.

In his township, only 26 health workers are assigned to a department that should have a staff of 94.

They say they are thrown away into the distant areas, he said, explaining how health workers respond when they are assigned to the township.

Responding to the MPs, Union Minister for Health and Sport U Myint Htwe said that in two months 2000 doctors and medical staff will be assigned to meet the needs of the hospitals.

However, the deputy director of the medical care department has previously admitted to The Myanmar Times that the ministry is direly short on doctors. The new recruits barely begin to staunch the vacancies, with 2000 to 3000 new doctors needed annually just to fill the gaps.

According to the World Health Organization, Myanmar has just six doctors for every 10,000 people, with a rural and urban disparity exacerbating the shortage outside of city centres. According to a parliamentary session last month, only 37,710 medical officers and staff serve the entire countrys 51 million people.

Parliaments debate on the National Health Policy is scheduled to continue today.

Translation by Thiri Min Htun
The launch event will feature an artwork exhibition and book signing by the artists

Kawkab El Rasameen and Koshk Comics will release the second issue (Issue#1) of Garage collective comic magazine on 6 August.

The event will involve a special exhibition for the artwork of participating artists, as well as a book signing.

Kawkab El-Rasameen is a project run by twin brothers Haitham and Mohamed Raafat El-Seht, also known as Twins Cartoon, in an effort to bring together amateur and professional artists and help organise and launch projects.

They launched the first issue of Garage (Issue #0) last year at Rawabet Theatre, showcasing a number of Egyptian and Arab artists, aiming to develop the comic scene in Egypt.

We tend to always look to foreign publications, while we have so much to show here in the region. Our vision of Garage is an Arabic magazine, reflecting social life in the different countries, Raafat says.

Twins Cartoon were also part of the team behind Cairo Comix Festival last September, Egypts first large-scale comics event, and were comic experts in BECA Comics Week, a 2014 gathering at the French Institute bringing illustrators from Egypt, Germany and France to support and strengthen the experience of local artists.

Programme:

Saturday 6 August, 6pm

Fountain Area, American University in Cairo, Tahrir Square, Downtown, Cairo

For more arts and culture news and updates, follow Ahram Online Arts and Culture on Twitter at @AhramOnlineArts and on Facebook at Ahram Online: Arts & Culture

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Twenty-six members of the sales staff at a Vivo smartphone service centre in Bago Regions Pyay township sat outside the companys office in protest yesterday, demanding overtime pay, paid holidays and mutually agreed contracts.





The Chinese manager gave us a contract and asked us to sign it within a minute, said Ko Myo Swe Oo, a Vivo salesperson. We asked him for a moment to think about it but the manager asked us to quit because we did not sign.

In response, the 26 salespeople decided to stage the sit-in  or rather sit-out  protest that began the night of July 25 and continued yesterday.

Ko Myo Swe Oo, who has worked at the store for more than a year, said the disgruntled employees have been trying to arrange a meeting between workers, the employer and labour officials to nail down a contract.

We havent signed any employment contracts yet, he said. They have been talking about contracts for a while but they have not written [a new] one until now. The contract the manager asked us to sign is one-sided and only for their own interests.

Sales staffers work 12 hours every day without being paid overtime, he said. They do not get time off on holidays or weekends, he added, and if they miss one day of work they are docked three days wages.

The Township Labour Administration Department has promised to resolve the dispute, Vivo sales staffers said, and labour officials have arranged to mediate a meeting between the workers and the employer today.





The Myanmar Times called the department and the Vivo offices in Pyay township yesterday but neither were available for comment.

According to labour laws, employers and workers must sign a contract that is mutually agreed upon, and any changes to the terms or company rules and policies must be made in the presence of a labour official.
The governments clear commitment to building a federal democratic union is an asset to the peace process and of benefit to ethnic armed organisations, said Karen National Union vice chair Pado Naw Zipporah Sein in her opening remarks on the second day of the Mai Ja Yang summit.





Ethnic armed groups who had signed last Octobers Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement, as well as those that did not sign, are attending the Mai Ja Yang summit, along with civil society organisations and political parties. The aim of the meeting is to prepare for the 21st-century Panglong Conference and to find common ground for a future federal Union.

The governments commitment to a federal union is an advantage for us. No matter what kind of union the government has in mind, we already have a clear idea of the kind of federal union we want to build in the future, said Pado Naw Zipporah Sein, who chaired todays meeting.

In his inaugural speech, President U Htin Kyaw said national reconciliation, the peace process, the framing of a constitution that would lead to the building of a federal democratic union, and raising the socioeconomic level of the citizens were his governments top priorities.

Pado Naw Zipporah Sein said a draft of the form of a federal union had been drawn up for submission and review. We can exchange views and reach consensus on the basic federal principles for the future building of a federal democratic union drawn up by the Federal Constitution Drafting and Coordinating Committee (FCDCC) and the proposals made by the United Nationalities Federal Council in 2015, she said. The discussion is on todays agenda.

She said the armed ethnic organisations goals of signing the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement and attending the political dialogue had not been met. Contrary to the principles set forth at the Laiza and Law Khee Lar summits, the previous government discriminated against some armed ethnic organisations and fighting has persisted, she said.

She said the delay made hampered the armed ethnic organisations search for unity. Despite the armed groups position that all the groups should sign the NCA, only 15 groups were invited to the signing last year, not including groups actually fighting the Tatmadaw.

Of those 15 groups, only eight chose to sign the NCA, while the rest refused. And even as the signing ceremony took place, fighting flared in northern Shan State between the Tatmadaw and the Shan State Progressive Party.





The Restoration Council of Shan State, a signatory to the NCA, and the Taang National Liberation Army, a non-signatory, have been fighting each other in northern Shan State since last November, driving thousands of civilians from their homes.

Pado Naw Zipporah Sein said it was important for the armed ethnic groups to strengthen their unity in advance of the peace process.

The 21st- century Panglong Conference has paved the way for us to walk together in unity, she said.

Though invited, the Kokang group, also known as the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army, the Taang National Liberation Army and the United Wa State Army are absent from the Mai Ja Yang summit. Khu Oo Reh, chair of the convening committee for the summit and vice chair of the Karenni National Progressive Party, told a press conference yesterday that the Wa had already arranged a meeting at the same time with state counsellor, and the other two groups had said they would join the later stages of the peace process.
Five alleged drug users were arrested and narcotics paraphernalia was seized this week after more than 350 police officers conducted a sweep of 13 targets in Mandalay district, according to Police Lieutenant Colonel U Han Tun from the Mandalay Region Police Force.





At a press conference yesterday, he said the arrests had been made the day prior, with the raids ordered as part of the governments 100-day plan.

Only drug users were caught. This is not a perfect outcome. We want to capture the sellers. Some sellers have moved from their homes at four places at Pyigyitagun township, he said.

Lt Col U Han Tun called on the public for help in apprehending narcotics dealers.

The four males and one female were arrested in Aung Myay Tharzan township and will be charged with drug possession.

Translation by Khant Lin Oo
Farmers in Pyin Oo Lwin, Mandalay Region, have taken demands for the return of their land to President U Htin Kyaw. They say the fields seized for the 2008 Yadanarpon new town project near their homes in Thone Taung village are now unused and should be given back to them.





The president has reportedly acknowledged receipt of their protest.

Most of the land was planted with coffee trees, perennial plants, mandarin orange plants and teak, the farmers said at a press conference this month.

Since 1998, we worked on the lands under a contract with the Department of Forestry, said farmer U Soe Tint. After we were permitted to establish a community forest on 30 acres [12 hectares] in the Sakan Gyi Forest Reserve under the Forestry Law, we planted more than 7000 orange plants, teak and other perennial trees. When the orange plants blossomed and the perennial trees were ready for use, the department told us to move as these lands were included in Yadanarpon Cyber City Project area.

We invested more than K600 million [US$508,000], but we were paid only K50 million as crop compensation, shared out between us. We lost a lot. Now we see no activity at the project site. They should return the land to its original owners, he told reporters.

Many perennial trees were destroyed when the project started, the farmers said.

The farmers said they were asked to clear forests for free and cultivate teak, pine and eucalyptus plantations under the previous government, before they were permitted to establish a community forest.





Big trees cant grow on this kind of land. We got permission to establish a 30-year community forest in 2004 by paying taxes. The forestry department helped us take care of the plants as well as springs in the forest, said U Myint Aung, who lives in Thone Taung village.

The new town project is not state-run, but private companies have constructed buildings. Now the land is abandoned and the springs are damaged, he added.

Mandalay Region Chief Minister U Zaw Myint Maung said earlier this month that the regional government would form an investigation committee on seized land that would work with its Union-level counterpart. He said they had received more than 500 complaints about land problems.

Some date back to 1965. Under our policy, we wont consider any complaint before 1988, though farmers can still submit claims for their losses, he said.

Theres a lot of unused land left over from projects, which I think should be returned to its original owners under the 2012 Farmland Law. That would put an end to protests and court cases, said U Zaw Myint Maung.

Translation by Zar Zar Soe
While the new government has complained their hands are tied with spending patterns set by the previous administration, the chances of a major budgetary overhaul were all but eclipsed by the submission of the amended appropriations bill this week.





The revised Union budget for 2016-17 was submitted to the Pyi-daungsu Hluttaw on July 25 with minimal alterations.

Under the newer version, the biggest shift is the accommodation of the governments decision to reduce the number of ministries from 33 to 21. But according to U Kyaw Win, Union minister for planning and finance, the reduction only saves 2 percent of the K23.6 trillion (US$20 billion) budget.

The savings are now slated to fund the two new ministries  the Ministry of Ethnic Affairs and the Ministry of the State Counsellor. The budget deficit will dip slightly, to K3.76 trillion from the previous estimate of K3.9 trillion.

The 2016 budget was approved in January by a parliament then-dominated by the outgoing Union Solidarity and Development Party. While the incoming parliament, with its overwhelming National League for Democracy majority, refrained from amending the budget in the last parliament, the Speaker had said budgetary amendment would be prioritised in the current session, which opened on July 25.

Last April, former Speaker Thura U Shwe Mann recommended wide-ranging amendments to several laws, including the budget law which, he said, had been adopted in haste, with few reductions being applied to initial budget estimates. For instance, the defence ministrys request for K1.24479 trillion sailed through unscathed. The former Speaker was acting in his capacity as the chair of the Commission for the Assessment of Legal Affairs and Special Issues set up by the incoming government to propose changes to laws passed by its predecessor.

U Bo Gyi, a member of the Public Accounts Committee, told The Myanmar Times on July 25 that 17 teams had been set up to review ministerial budgets, while other members suggested that ministries borrowing might be reduced.

Accounts committee member Sai Thiha Kyaw said there would in fact be little change. The law cannot be changed much. The amendments relate mainly to reflecting the reduction in the number of ministers [from 36 to 18], so that the names of the ministries will be changed, as well as the lending restrictions. Nothing much else is changed.





Amendments proposed by the 17 teams will be submitted to the Public Accounts Committee on August 2. After about a week to consider the changes, the committee will refer them to the Pyidaungsu Hluttaw, said U Bo Gyi.

Despite a pledge made by President U Htin Kyaw last month to increase public spending on education, health and social security starting this fiscal year with revisions to the budget, significant changes appear unlikely.

U Kyaw Win said tax revenues from the Ministry of Commerce and the Ministry of Hotels and Tourism are forecast to increase by K762 million and K225 million respectively. Further, a 5pc commercial tax on mobile phones collected by the Internal Revenue Department is expected to generate K7.5 billion. The extra tax income has been slated for use in the perennially underfunded education sector. But the modicum of an increase falls far short of the seismic shift needed to achieve the NLDs ambitious plan to provide universal, free education and an expansion of teacher training programs.

The 5pc tax on mobile phones has been set to use in sectors which will benefit the public in a direct way. First of all, we will use them in the education sector, U Kyaw Win said.

There were no changes to a request from the Ministry of Home Affairs to boost security through building fences on the borders with India and Bangladesh. The projects are slated to cost K1.061 billion and K432 billion respectively.

The amendment does alter how much the Myanmar Central Bank can lend. In the original law, the loans cannot be more than K4.5 trillion, but under the amended law the amount is now not more than K5 trillion.

We have to amend the total amount of money the Central Bank can lend to conform with the current situation because the Pyidaungsu Hluttaw has already approved that the Union government will borrow K500 billion from the Central Bank as an agricultural loan, U Kyaw Win said.

Pyithu Hluttaw MP U Ba Shein (Arakan National Party, Kyaukphyu) said he had anticipated larger changes to the budget, and a more contentious debate. When I heard that the budget law will be amended I was curious. In reality, what they have altered is not unusual. The amendments are just to accommodate reducing the number of ministries, he said.

Other MPs suggested that the amendments to the budget are not so drastic and not hotly debated because most of the MPs do not have experience setting budgets.

Parliamentarians still have time to make a last-minute shift before submitting reports to the Pyidaungsu Hluttaws Public Account Joint Committee, which will report back to the hluttaw after collecting all input.

Translation by Zar Zar Soe, Thiri Min Htun and San Layy
Continued failure to address the South China Sea issue is not just a short-term failure  it now represents a significant and ongoing risk to the Southeast Asian blocs health. The regional organisation should seek treatment, and stat.





The just-concluded meeting of ASEAN foreign ministers in Vientiane, Laos PDR, looked like it was going to be a high-profile failure. The fear was that the meeting would repeat the 2012 experience of being unable to produce a final communique in the face of Cambodias insistence that nothing be said that criticised China over the South China Sea.

Four years later, ASEAN may have avoided such a public display of disunity but the released communique, together with a joint statement between ASEAN and China on the South China Sea, suggest that nothing has been resolved.

The joint statement is an insipid document that does nothing to address the cause of the flaring tensions in the region. It is full of bland endorsements of the international legal principles that many have shown a flagrant disinterest in and calls for handling differences in a constructive manner. If the word constructive in this context is intended to cover the building of military landing strips, the placing of advanced weapons systems and aggressive military posturing, then even given ASEANs ability to obfuscate this is a linguistic feat to marvel at.

The communique certainly contains more words on the South China Sea than does the joint statement, a whole eight paragraphs, but it is just as damning. Paragraph 174 notes that only some ministers were concerned about ongoing issues (for which read: not the Cambodians). No mention was made of the recent Permanent Court of Arbitrations ruling on the South China Sea, which had so decisively rejected Chinas claims in the region in favour of the Philippines.

Instead all states were called upon to work together to both implement the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea and work toward building a Code of Conduct to better manage affairs. These are laudable in themselves but hardly helpful given the Declaration was agreed in 2002 and has conspicuously failed to curtail regional tensions and any Code of Conduct would seriously curtail Chinas freedom of action in the region, which is completely unimaginable at this stage.

ASEANs continued failure to address the South China Sea in anything approaching an effective manner is not only a short-term failure  it now represents a significant and ongoing risk to ASEANs health. This challenge will not take the form of a heart attack, a sudden and existential shock to the system. Instead it is an ulcer, a constant pain in the guts that threatens, slowly but inexorably, to flood the system with bile. This challenge takes two forms.

First, ASEAN from 1967 has always been about protecting the sovereignty of its members from the encroachment of great powers  as Alice Ba has memorably put it the regional resilience of Southeast Asia. ASEAN was founded in the belief of regional self-determination  in the wake of colonialism and amid the Cold War it was a call to ensure that Southeast Asian states remained in the driving seat of Southeast Asian affairs.





Today, with ASEAN member Cambodia serving as a surrogate for China against the interests of other ASEAN members, it no longer seems to be that the organisation serves the interests of the region.

Failure in the South China Sea to offer even the most tepid of support for member states claims against a rising China, especially the more moderate of those claims, strikes at the heart of what ASEAN was designed to achieve. If ASEAN cannot talk of member states sovereign claims against external great powers, what is the value of ASEAN to those members?

Second, ASEANs own quest for centrality in Asia-Pacific security is revealed to be a fruitless quest when there is so much reason to question even ASEANs relevance to the most pressing of regional security issues. ASEAN has always sought to spread the norms of consensus decision-making that it is supposed to follow internally across the Asia-Pacific as a way to exert some sort of pacifying effect on the great powers of the region. Yet if those same norms are now preventing ASEANs ability to engage in a meaningful way with China, in what way can they be said to be positive and worthy of others following?

The South China Sea issue, then, is not an external threat to ASEAN, but an internal health risk  a sore that if not addressed will continue to leach its poison into the regional organisation and the faith that its members have in it.

The challenge is not a superficial one. It is not about whether ASEAN will unite in defence of an American-designed international order as was the wish of US President Barack Obama at the Sunnylands Summit or whether it will continue to forge its own path.

The challenge is about whether ASEAN can continue to be valued by its members for the reasons it was created  whether it has the strength of purpose to defend its members from external interference, whether it can continue as a vehicle for regional self-determination rather than a generator of regional discord, and whether it can choose centrality over irrelevance.

As with any health risk, this challenge needs to be confronted sooner rather than later and with a coherent, measured response, not a random assortment of lowest common denominator actions. I fear that the prognosis has just deteriorated.

 New Mandala

Mathew Davies is head of the Department of International Relations in the ANU Coral Bell School of Asia Pacific Affairs.
As much as it demands transparency and accountability from its member states, the United Nations has not always been very good at providing them itself. Now more than ever, the UN needs to bring more of its backroom dealings into the light  and it can start with the process for selecting its leader.





The 15 members of the United Nations Security Council took their first straw poll last week to pick the UNs new secretary general. But they wont tell the world the results, much less how any of them voted.

Thats one of many ways in which the UN needs to improve the way it selects the secretary general. The process has been basically unchanged for 70 years. With the blessing of its five permanent members, the Security Council presents one candidate to the General Assembly, which approves him (and so far they have all been men).

Its a long way from 1946. The UN now has to deal with crises that require cooperation among a much wider range of actors  not just states, but global corporations, philanthropists and networked activists. The UNs future legitimacy and effectiveness depend on giving these new players more of a voice, especially with social media acting as a kind of global watchdog.

The required changes to the UNs rules wouldnt necessarily trespass on the prerogatives of the five permanent members of the Security Council (refresher: the US, China, Russia, the UK and France). And lets be realistic: Without the disproportionate influence granted to them by their veto power, the P-5 inevitably would have let the UN go the way of the League of Nations.

But nothing prevents the UN from releasing straw poll results (more will follow) without identifying how individual countries voted. After all, the UN for the first time this year held open hearings and debates among the candidates, a welcome change that has usefully sharpened the distinctions among them.

Even better would be for the General Assembly to request, and the Security Council to present, a choice of candidates  something that UN elders have proposed. Of the 12 candidates in the running, including several former prime and foreign ministers, eight have high-level UN experience, eight are from Eastern Europe and six are women.

Another smart break from the past would be to extend the secretary generals term to seven years from five, with no option of renewal. This would cut back on the re-election politicking that trades high-level UN positions for votes. It would give the secretary general more time to launch difficult institutional reforms and strengthen his or her independence  which is all the more critical given the crisis of relevance facing the Security Council.





Finding the ideal blend of diplomat, politician, manager and moral champion is not easy. Making the process more open can only help.

 Bloomberg Views
[July 27, 2016] Radial Hiring 1,000 Workers in Groveport, Ohio to Help Leading Retailers Win this Holiday Season

GROVEPORT, Ohio, July 27, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Radial announced today its plan to hire an additional 1,000 workers in Groveport, Ohio to support the drastic increase in customer demand seen within the ecommerce industry. Radial will hire holiday and year-round support to help retailers and brands meet their customers' needs while delivering a seamless shopping experience. Radial operates a fulfillment center in Groveport which is in need of workers to help support its retail clients. Through peak season and everyday interactions, 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 learnmore about job openings in Groveport, 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 Robyn Jordan, Senior Director, North American Operations, 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] Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160711/388554LOGO To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/radial-hiring-1000-workers-in-groveport-ohio-to-help-leading-retailers-win-this-holiday-season-300304810.html SOURCE Radial

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After years of work, the Danish Egyptian Dialogue Institute launched on Tuesday the Sanduq El-Dunia

Part of a network of "walls" documenting in images the memory of the city, the Danish-Egyptian Dialogue Institute's (DEDI) Sanduq El-Dunia hosts a collection of personal and public images showing Cairo's daily life and landscape, its memory and heritage.

It is the third installation of its kind -- originally pioneered by the Museum of Copenhagen -- developed and designed by Gibson International and Spild af Tid/Waste of Time.

The original The Wall in Copenhagen, a 12 metre long, two metre high installation, first introduced Sanduq El-Dunia in 2013 when it replaced the thousands of images representing Copenhagen with images from Cairo instead.

Cairo's Sanduq El-Dunia is now a 75 inch touchscreen installation of its own through which viewers are able to navigate a large archive of images or upload their own photos.

"Its a project for Cairenes more than anyone else" said Omniya Abdel Barr at the opening event in Emir Taz Palace in Old Cairo.

"It is for those who know the city's detailsit is for those wishing to maintain the city's memories," she said. "Share with us what Cairo is for you and what memory you would like to have saved."

The collection of images already displayed by Sanduq El-Dunia took around a year and a half to compile, according to Barr, with images dating back to the 1930s up until the present day.

In addition to individual contributions, DEDI cooperated with other associations including Women and Memory and CULTNAT (the Centre for Documentation of Cultural and Natural Heritage) to bring the collection of images together.

Sanduq El-Dunia will be touring Cairo, as the interactive installation is set to be be displayed in several cultural venues as well as heritage sites.

"At first the idea was for Sanduq El-Dunia to be as big as the one in Copenhagen and similarly installed in a public place accessible to all people" said DEDI's programme officer Lamma Attia. However, she explains that that proved difficult when applied in Cairo.

The important thing now, said Attia, is that in Cairo it tours areas accessible to the audience. "It is not meant to be an elite's project," she remarked, emphasizing that the project will not be limited to private displays and its accsess has to be free of charge.

The idea of creating Sanduq El-Dunia arose in 2011 with Egypt's 25 January revolution, influenced by the images and stories emerging from Tahrir Square and the idea that "culture is for all".

Its mission, according to DEDI, is to "democratize the production of a collective memory, history and knowledge".

Sanduq El-Dunia should then, as a second step, tour other cities in Egypt.

In addition to the installation, Sanduq El-Dunia has also set up a website through which individuals can post their own memories of Cairo.

For more arts and culture news and updates, follow Ahram Online Arts and Culture on Twitter at @AhramOnlineArts and on Facebook at Ahram Online: Arts & Culture

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Kisa Gbekle

27.07.2016 LISTEN

Actress Kisa Gbekle has asked movie industry stakeholders to exercise some caution about how they go around saying that the English-speaking movie industry has collapsed.

According to her, that could deter individual investors who want to invest into the movie industry.

Speaking in an interview with NEWS-ONE, she said that part of the movie industry can't be dead when producers are still shooting.

Yes, the industry is facing challenges and we acknowledge that. But people are trying to do something. People are still shooting. I heard people are not really buying the movies. So basically most of our producers shoot for the cinemas and internet. That doesn't mean nothing is happening. Yes, the industry has its challenges same way other industries have their challenges but they don't go out thereto say their industries are dead.

Kisa continued that so long as producers are shooting, it is enough reason to say the industry is alive. It can't collapse, she reiterated.

Talks about a collapsed industry won't do us any good. Rather, we should come up with good ideas to resolve the various challenges facing the industry, she added.

We need to appreciate our own. We need unity in the industry. Individual producers can collaborate and do bigger projects. Let's come together and find solutions to how we can win back our movie audiences, who they say are not buying the movies anymore. We should know what their complaints are. See, it goes beyond making blanket statements that the industry is collapsed. We should respect talent; I mean we should appreciate talent and give chance to those who deserve it, including new talents and old faces. The media also has a role to play in this, she said about possible solutions to make things right.

Various statements have in the past been made about the status of Ghana's English-speaking movie industry. While others say it is dead, some say it is struggling and it's on a limping leg.

But, Kisa thinks that's not a possible solution to save the industry.

By Francis Addo (Twitter: @fdee50 Email: [email protected] )
One of the toughest jobs at the White House is the position of Chief of Staff.

The Chief of Staff, among other things, supervises the work of government appointees.

Watch intimate interactions with former Chiefs of Staff along with two former U.S Presidents behind the closed doors of the Oval office and in a documentary titled The Presidents Gatekeepers.

The Presidents Gatekeepers shows later tonight at 7pm on TV XYZ on your multiTV Digi box and on your DTT digital TV.

The Chief Operating Officer of TV XYZ Bernie Anti in an interview with Citi News says the documentary will provide a lot of information on the role of the U.S Chief of Staff at the White House.

It's a documentary about some former chiefs of staff of the United States of America. It talks about the challenges, the opportunities, the strength and power that the Chief of Staff wields. It delves into the issues that are not known to the public. So this documentary seeks to reveal a lot of things from the Office of the Chief of Staff. It is very entertaining and his role in decision-making will be made known. This is just a preview to the many things we will produce for our viewers, he said.

He added that the documentary was part of the activities scheduled for the station's test transmission.



By: Franklin Badu Jr/citifmonline.com/Ghana
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The engagement of artists in addressing issues pertaining to open defecation through visual arts was launched today at the Alliance Francaise of Accra. Mr. Kweku Quansah, Director of the Environmental Health and Sanitation Directorate of the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development (MoLG) launched the event, in the presence of more than 50 artists whose medium of art included painting, sculpture, photography and videography. He said I am extremely happy that the artists responded to this call to participate in such an important endeavour. It is important to challenge the social and cultural norms and artists can play a critical role in contributing to the elimination of open defecation through visual arts. This is a great value addition to the Government programme on the elimination of open defecation.

Esse Dabla, Cultural Officer at the Alliance Francaise of Accra welcomed the participants and said After the successful collaboration on the Wash Wana Hands song and video clip last year, we are very happy that UNICEF is supporting the Alliance Francaise on this programme. The Alliance Francaise is also very proud to embark on this new exciting adventure with local artists.

The programme is intentionally named Lets talk sh*t with the purpose of generating attention on the matters using colloquial words. Susan Namondo Ngongi, UNICEF Representative said We should not be ashamed of using the word sh*t. What is shocking is the fact that 5 million Ghanaians are defecating in the open and that 43% of schools are not equipped with proper sanitation or even do not have water! While the title of the programme may sound shocking to some people, it is expected to generate attention and initiate a dialogue on the issue.

Fabrice Laurentin, Communication for Development (C4D) Officer at UNICEF introduced the objectives and themes of the programme and discussed the specific roles of the Ministry of Local Government, the Alliance Francaise and UNICEF in terms of this collaboration. He said it is expected that this collaboration will demonstrate that visual art can contribute to arouse critical thinking and place this issue in the public sphere and hopefully create a buzz.

Nana Osei Kwadwo, Project Manager at the Alliance Francaise for the Lets talk sh*t intervention presented the schedule of the programme as well as explained that among the submissions received by the artists, only the best 20 projects will be commissioned. He also said that a series of exhibitions will take place at the Alliance Francaise in September and will then tour selected regions affected by open defecation, in the presence of the artists so that a dialogue can directly be generated with community members. He added that visual artists in Ghana are usually not seen as agents of change but rather as people who produce aesthetic artwork only.

This programme provides the artist community with a great opportunity to show that their role is not about decoration or beauty but about engaging on social issues.

As the next step, the artists will have to submit their proposals by 3rd of August.
United Nations (United States) (AFP) - The UN Security Council said Tuesday that more UN staff must return to the peace mission in Western Sahara after Morocco allowed a first group of 25 staffers back at their posts.

Morocco expelled dozens of UN personnel in March in angry retaliation for UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's use of the term "occupation" to describe the status of Western Sahara.

The council adopted a resolution in April demanding that the mission known as MINURSO return to "full functionality" and gave Morocco three months to reach the goal.

Following a closed-door council meeting, Japanese Ambassador Koro Bessho, who holds the council presidency, said: "We have not reached that goal of full functionality. Moves are certainly needed."

Council members hope that the mission will be fully restored "as soon as possible," he added.

Rabat's decision to send about 75 staffers home crippled the mission's work to help maintain a 1991 ceasefire in the disputed territory.

Morocco this month allowed 25 UN staffers to return to Laayoune, where MINURSO is headquartered, but the United Nations is demanding that the staffing level be fully restored.

Morocco's Ambassador Omar Hilale told reporters after the council meeting that the "crisis is over", adding that "25 are already back, the rest will be back."

He declined however to give figures or a timetable for the returning staff.

French Ambassador Francois Delattre said there had been progress in resolving the dispute.

The Algerian-backed Polisario Front, which has long campaigned for a referendum on self-rule, said it expected more staff to return in the coming weeks.

The Polisario Front's UN representative, Ahmed Boukhari, however accused Morocco of blocking attempts by the United Nations to re-launch negotiations on settling the 40-year conflict.

The UN envoy for Western Sahara, Christopher Ross, has been trying for weeks to set a date for a visit to the region, but no firm date has been announced.

"The Moroccan door is closed to Mister Ross," Boukhari said.

Council members stressed the importance of resuming negotiations on a "political solution that will provide for the self-determination of the people of Western Sahara," added the Japanese ambassador.

Morocco maintains that Western Sahara is an integral part of the kingdom despite UN resolutions that task MINURSO with organizing a referendum on self-determination.

MINURSO was established in 1991 after a ceasefire ended a war that broke out when Morocco sent troops to the former Spanish territory in 1975 and fought Sahrawi rebels of the Polisario Front.
The New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the Ashanti Region has called on the Electoral Commission (EC) to extend the period of re-registration of persons whose names have been deleted from the voters' register, because they got onto the electoral roll using the NHIS card ahead of the 2012 polls.

The EC has revealed that only 14,801 persons of the 56,000, whose names were deleted from the voters' register, have re-registered in the ongoing voters' register exhibition exercise.

The low turnout has been partly blamed on the supposed poor publicity of the re-registration exercise.

Addressing the press on Monday, the Ashanti Regional Secretary of the NPP, Sam Pyne, expressed fears that this would leave a significant number of people disenfranchised by the time the 10-day period is over.

He complained that the EC never came out to give education on the time frame because when they announced that they were going to do the exhibition, they said 21 days.

Mr. Pyne feels this has contributed to the low re-registration rate since the exercise commenced.

A lot of people thought that even if you were going to re-register, it is going to be within the 21 days therefore a lot of people have slowed down in even going to do the registration, meanwhile they are doing it to for 10-days, and this is the eighth day.

These are the concerns for which Mr. Pyne relayed the concern of the NPP saying We as a political party are calling on the Electoral Commission to extend the registration period for the re-registration, so those affected can get their names back on the register.

He also indicated that the party would be satisfied with the re-registration process running concurrently with the 21-day exhibition process.

Voter mistakenly deleted backs calls for extension

Also speaking on Eyewitness News on Tuesday, a Ghanaian citizen, who gave his name as Jefferson, narrated to Richard Sky, how his name was deleted although he did not register with an NHIS card.

Jefferson however narrated that, when he went to check his name, he was told that he wasn't the only person whose name had been mistaken deleted.

According to him, he was however asked to go through a process to re-register, which he did and has been given a new voters' ID card. Jefferson however believes there may be many more people who may have suffered a similar fate, hence the need for an extension of the period for re-registration.

EC fears disenfranchisement

With the deadline for the end of the re-registration two days away, the Head of Communications at the EC, Eric Dzakpasu, has publicly expressed fears that most of the deleted registrants could be disenfranchised if the situation does not improve.

As at the close of work yesterday [Monday], out of the 56,762 names deleted, only 14,801 had re-registered, Mr. Dzakpasu revealed.

He lamented that, the people are not coming. We are expecting them to come in their numbers so that we can get most of them registered so that they can vote, but they are not coming as we expect them to come.

-citifmonline
In South Sudan thousands of people have fled the recent hostilities between rival political factions. These new outbreaks of violence have compounded the already considerable humanitarian needs in the country. Switzerland has decided to provide an additional CHF 2 million to alleviate the suffering of the local population.

Switzerland is concerned about the fate of the civilian population of South Sudan following the outbreak of hostilities at the beginning of July 2016 in the capital Juba and other parts of the country. The Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) will release CHF 2 million to help the victims of this new wave of violence.

Half of this amount will be channelled to the South Sudan Common Humanitarian Fund, to which Switzerland has been contributing since 2014. The funds will help finance the operations in the SDC's three priority sectors in this country: food security, water and the protection of civilians. The other million will be allotted to the World Food Programme (WFP) to assist efforts to fight food insecurity, which is affecting over four million people in the country.

This new outbreak of violence is exacerbating the already dramatic humanitarian situation. South Sudan suffers from extreme poverty and a civil war, which has been undermining it since December 2013.

South Sudan, which is the world's youngest state, is one of the priority intervention zones of Swiss Humanitarian Aid, whose budget for this country in 2016 amounted to approximately CHF 18 million before this new contribution.

South Sudan is also a priority country of the FDFA's Human Security Division (HSD), which has been working to implement the peace agreement concluded in August 2015. The HSD is also involved in the reconciliation efforts and in strengthening local government in collaboration with the traditional authorities. The budget for its peace promotion activities totals about CHF 1 million per year.
The UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) is meeting in Geneva from 2 to 26 August to review the following countries on these dates: Greece (3-4 Aug); UK (4-5 Aug); Paraguay (8-9 Aug); South Africa (9-10 Aug); Lebanon (10-11 Aug); Ukraine (11-12 Aug); Sri Lanka (15-16 Aug); Pakistan (16-17 Aug).

The above are among the 177 States Parties to the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. They are required to submit regular reports to the Committee, which is composed of 18 international independent experts. CERD will also hear from NGOs and national human rights institutions.

The public review of each State runs from 15:00 to 18:00 and then from 10:00 to 13:00 the following day. Live webcasts of the public sessions can be viewed at http://webtv.un.org/

More information including the States submitted reports, lists of issues, and information from civil society can be found here: http://APO.af/8fOpcP

The Committee has tentatively scheduled a press conference at the Palais des Nations in Geneva at 13:30 on Friday 26 August to discuss its findings, officially known as concluding observations. These will be published on 26 August here: http://APO.af/8fOpcP
Born in 1942, Khan went on to become one of Egypt's most renowned and respected directors tackling important social and political issues

Egypt bid farewell to renowned director Mohamed Khan at his funeral on Tuesday at Zahraa El-Maadi.

The iconic Egyptian director Mohamed Khan died on Tuesday morning at a hospital in the upscale Cairo district of Maadi following a sudden health crisis.

Khans wife and writer Wessam Soliman, his daughter Nadine, as well as his family members and friends from within and outside the art scene, were present at the service.

Among those who attended the funeral were actor Khaled El-Nabawy, director Yousry Nasrallah, director Khairy Beshra, broadcaster Mahmoud Saad, and actor Sameh El-Seriety, who was among those who took part in burying Khan.

Born in Cairo in 1942 to an Egyptian mother and a Pakistani father, Khan was educated in Britain before beginning his film career in the Egyptian capital in the 1960s as a scriptwriter to go on to become one of Egypts most prominent directors.

Khan belonged to a generation of neorealist filmmakers that represented a hallmark in Egyptian cinema with his movies tackling social issues that often revolved around female central characters.

Among the most acclaimed films of Khan's two dozen motion picture productions are: ElHarreef (The Street Player, 1984), Zawgat Ragol Mohem (The Wife of an Important Man, 1987) and Ahlam Hind wa Camilia (Dreams of Hind and Camilia, 1988) which were named among the "100 Greatest Arab Films of all time" by the Dubai International Film Festival.

His latest (Before the Summer Crowds), premiered in Egypt at the 5th Luxor African Film Festival (LAFF).

In December 2015, Khan released a book titled Journey of a Director (Mokhreg Aala Al Tareeq), which comprises a selection of his articles between 1990 and 2014 published in different newspapers such as Al-Hayat, Al-Qabas and Al-Tahrir.

Khan acquired Egyptian nationality by a presidential decree in March 2014.

For more arts and culture news and updates, follow Ahram Online Arts and Culture on Twitter at @AhramOnlineArts and on Facebook at Ahram Online: Arts & Culture

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What happened at Tema on Monday, where a young police lance corporal booked AK47 assault rifle to go and kill his two children, the mother in-law and subsequently killed himself instead of numerous hardened criminals on our streets is one of several predisposition factors of people likely to have psychological and emotional problems in the police that got triggered. It could be combined factors of psychological and emotional stress from both home and workplace that triggered such an unfortunate incident. A simple referral to see a psychologist could have helped matters to avert such an unfortunate incident.

Some of us have been advocating that police officers must be made to see psychologists once or twice a year considering the nature of our work and the stress that comes with it. We must constantly be assessed by these experts whether we are in the right frame of mind to carry guns around or perform certain duties.

Life in the police is a difficult one since one is always under constant pressure performing various forms of duties coupled with intimidation one has to bear from certain commanders or senior officers. The consequences are dire ones if a police officer comes home to meet a troublesome wife, husband or children. The story of the young police lance corporal might not be too different.

This is a young man whom the wife said that he has had a sudden change in behaviour in the last few months. What caused the change? Did somebody try to find out? This is a police officer who according to the wife, threatened to kill her and the case was reported to Domestic Violence and Victim Support Unit (DOVVSU). This is a police officer whom it has been reported that he has been abusing the wife constantly lately. Couldn't that be a suspected psychological and emotional problems? I am very sure he was being investigated like a criminal when the case was reported at DOVVSU but what lacked was probably a recommendation that the police officer be made to see a psychologist to see whether he was psychologically balanced and emotionally stable.

All these while that the young police officer was being investigated for assault and threats on the life of the wife, his commanders and colleagues officers were probably looking on for the young police officer to solve his own problems up to a point where he felt he must end it all by taking the lives of some innocent people as well as his own. No psychologically balanced and emotionally stable person goes about killing others and himself. He was certainly troubled with issues.

This young man after booking the rifle could have turned it on his unsuspecting colleagues and kill them or he could have gone to the street to start massacre innocent people and this could have been disastrous for the police administration. Isn't it? One always asks what management support systems has been put in place to curb some of these issues? I guess it's a rhetorical question.

We are practicing command or "do before complain" form of policing where the ultimate goal for the commander or the senior officer is the completion of the task irrespective of the emotional or psychological state of the person who is doing the task. Importance is laid on the work more than the human being who is doing the work and some of the accumulated effects are what triggered at Tema on Monday.

The police service lacks management support systems which can solve psychological and emotional stress but rather has systems that can worsen psychological and emotional stress of its personnel since they are constantly threatened with dismisal, disciplinary actions, insulted and always shouted upon in public by their commanders or senior officers. This has created a relationship gap between senior officers and junior officers which is not helping effective policing in anyway. It threatens the safety of the society we are policing.

The sun has set upon Captain Glover form of policing where senior police officers think they must intimidate their subordinates to remain fearful and effective. We have gone passed that age. We are now in the era where personnel management is key and strategic to the success of the organisations which the police service is of no exception. Human resource is the the only active resource in organization which can put all factors of production together to maximise production and the same can be said of police officer. Our guns cannot be shot by themselves, our vehicles cannot be driven by themselves unless they are employed by humans who are police officers that is why it is very needful to ensure that the police officer is sound in mind and emotionally stable.

The dawn is on us where senior police officers must not only be commanders but personnel management as well. Dynamism, effectiveness and success of senior police officers should not only be measured by rate of crime reduction under his or her area of command but how he managed the personnel under his command to achieve that feat.

We have come to the age where doors of commanders or senior officers must be opened to personnel with peculiar problems. The era where there is a bonding relationship between the senior officer and his or her subordinate for the sake of effective policing. We are in era of let's share our problems as police officers since it is said that problem shared is problem solved. The senior police officer must be friendly, fair and firm to take care of some these issues. Senior officers or the commanders must not only command but should also be personnel management officers seeking to correct psychological and emotional stress of police officers serving under them.

We are likely to have more of police officers booking rifles to go home to wipe out their family members just as it happened in Tema or situations where personnel who have endured constant pressures from their commanders or senior officers will take guns and turn on them and start to kill them.

We will have situations where police officers who are supposed to protect lives and properties will rather turn to take lives and destroy properties because we have laid much emphasis on command or " do before complain" form of policing more than personnel management form of policing. The two must go hand in hand for effective policing for a safer society.

What happened at Tema is clear sign of lack of personnel management and support systems in police service and a lesson for us all to learn both junior officers and senior officers. Problem shared is problem solved so we must always be in position to lend a shoulder to people going through some psychological trauma and emotional instabilities.

It should not always be go to duty or face a "charge". Abnormal behaviours must be investigated. There should be management support systems and programmes to intervene in some of these cases. What surprises me is the fact that most of the senior officers or the commanders we have in the police have backgrounds in psychology yet these are happening.

Ahanta Apemenyimheneba Kwofie III

(Daniel Kwofie) /Peki-vr

[email protected]

#Ahantadiaries2016
27.07.2016 LISTEN

The parliamentary nominee of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the Tamale North Constituency, has apologized to the Ghana Education Service (GES), for comments he made while he addressing students in the Northern Region on Monday.

Alhassan Suhuyini admitted that, some comments he made on the platform were political in nature and were against the GES codes.

In a Facebook post on Tuesday, Suhuyini said: I apologize to the Northern School of business , the Ghana education service and to the District chief executive and the officers of the national disaster management organisation. The Northern School of business and GES because parts of my address to the students during the presentation of disaster items ventured into politics which is against the GES codes.

Suhuyini was addressing students of the Northern School of Business (NOBISCO), where he presented relief items to victims of an inferno which recently gutted the Gbewaa Boys dormitory.

The items comprised roofing sheets, mattresses, branded exercise books, blankets, buckets and mosquito nets.

Suhuyini urges voters to support Mahama

Mr. Suhuyini, whiles speaking on that platform, made comments deemed ethnocentric.

The host of Radio Gold's 'Alhaji & Alhaji' show called on voters in the region to turn out in their numbers to vote for the President Mahama on election day .

When a Voltarian stood to be President the whole of Volta Region voted for him until he stopped being President. Jerry John Rawlings and when Ashanti man stood to be President the whole of Ashanti Region rallied behind him until he stopped to become President, President Kufour, he said.

When Professor Atta Mills decided to run for President the whole of central region, his home region, voted massively for him before he could win in 2008, and do you know the sad news? When John Mahama from the northern region decided to be President in 2012, the NDC in northern region lost 11 constituencies.

For the first time in the history of this country in the fourth Republic, we had a President who won to be President without the support of his home region.

Below is Suhuyinis Facebook post:





By: Edwin Kwakofi/citifmonline.com/Ghana


Details are emerging about the motive behind the brutal murder of the mother-in-law and two children by Lance Corporal Winfred Dodzie Amuzu, a 32-year-old policeman attached to the Rapid Deployment Force (RDF) Unit of the Tema Regional Police Command.

He purportedly committed suicide after the heinous act.

The incident, which occurred in a semi-detached uncompleted building at Kufuor Estate located between the Devtraco Courts Estate and the Affordable Housing, near Kpone in Tema, has become talk of the entire community.

The two boys were identified as Elikem Amuzu, one year and 7 months old and 3-month-old Holali Amuzu, and their grandmother, Mary Quarshie, 62.

Rafa Iddrisu, a 29-year-old trader, who is Amuzu's wife, had gone to Ashaiman to visit a relative before the horror was visited on her family.



Extra-Marital Affairs

According to police investigations, the man suspected his wife of having extra-marital affairs and believed the woman and her mother were 'witches' who had retarded his progress in life.

Before the dastardly act on Monday evening, DAILY GUIDE gathered that the relationship had been strained because the Lance Corporal had been threatening his wife with murder.

The policeman reportedly abused his wife on several occasions and complaints were lodged with the Domestic Violence and Victim Support Unit (DOVVSU) of the Ghana Police Service oftentimes.

A couple of months ago, DAILY GUIDE chanced on the couple at the regional DOVVSU office in heated exchanges, where the man openly stated that the children of the woman were not his biological kids.

It took the intervention of some DOVVSU officials and colleagues of the same RDF to calm tempers.



Blow By Blow



The policeman was said to have been monitoring his wife and the children since last week after they had relocated.

He made his first entrance to the house over the weekend where he met the children, mother-in-law and the wife and interacted with them.

He reportedly returned on Monday in uniform at about 3:30 pm to harass the woman. A scuffle ensued before he left for work to book for the rifle he allegedly used to murder the family members.

Lance Corporal Amuzu returned in the evening after the booking at the Special Weapons and Tactical (SWAT) Unit of the command for duty. But he was said to have sidetracked to the house.

He reportedly met the mother-in-law bathing the 3-month-old baby boy in a bedroom and opened fire on the woman without any provocation before firing the baby in the basin.

He allegedly moved to another bedroom where he spotted his first child sleeping and also shot him dead before shooting himself in the chest.



Wife's Account



The wife of the deceased officer, in an interview with DAILY GUIDE, noted that about seven months ago when they were residing at the same police barracks at Kpone, she started having marital problems with her husband and reported the case to the Tema DOVVSU.

According to her, the late husband often assaulted her and once threatened to kill her with a knife and a screw driver after accusing her of having extra-marital affairs and working spiritually against him.

He said I was bewitching him, which caused him to experience some burning sensation like a burning rubber on his hand, Rafa Iddrisu disclosed.

She claimed that the DOVVSU officers advised them to live at separate places, adding that the late husband was asked to provide shelter for her and the children but he said he needed time to raise money for rent.

So I decided to go and look for an uncompleted room behind DEVTRACO where my children and I were staying. Some residents of the area gave details of my location to my husband who came and asked the owner of the house to eject us and the owner also did that.

I informed my pastor about the ejection and he asked a member of the church to help me with accommodation. An elder of the church was able to help us with an apartment where the incident occurred, sobbing Rafa Iddrisu recalled.

When I returned from Ashaiman, I saw plenty cars around the house so I enquired from a neighbour, who asked me to run to my house because there was something happening there. I rushed to the house only to see the police conveying my mother into a car. I rushed inside and saw my children also dead with my husband, wife of the late Amuzu narrated with tears.

Elder Joseph Akwesi Quansah, the caretaker of the house in which the heinous crime was perpetrated, explained to DAILY GUIDE that he gave the woman and her family shelter upon a request by their pastor last Thursday.

According to him, he travelled to his village in the Brong-Ahafo Region and upon his return, he received a distress call from his wife about the incident.

I rushed home but some residents asked me not to enter the house because they had heard some shots there, he pointed out.

The caretaker said he immediately lodged a complaint with the DEVTRACO Police Station and personnel stormed the house and they found the lifeless bodies of the children, the mother of his church member and the policeman.

Some residents, who spoke with DAILY GUIDE, noted that they spotted the policeman with his helmet in his hand gallivanting in the area which raised much suspicion, until the incident took place.

Meanwhile, the Homicide Unit of the Tema Regional Police Command has taken over investigation into the matter.

From Vincent Kubi, Tema
Charles Pouzing with Amoateng

27.07.2016 LISTEN

Eric Amoateng, former New Patriotic Party (NPP) Member of Parliament (MP) for Nkoranza North, yesterday walked a free man when an Accra circuit court acquitted and discharged him over a charge of possessing a fake Ghanaian passport.

The court, presided over by Ellen Vivian Amoah, held that the prosecution failed to prove the Mens Rea (criminal intent) of the accused person in the case.



Unproved Mens Rea

According to the high court judge sitting with additional responsibility as a circuit court judge, the prosecution could not prove that Amoateng knew he was in possession of a fake passport.

Justice Amoah stated that although the prosecution witnesses argued that the passport of the former MP had been altered and that it was purportedly not signed by the officer designated to do so, they could not determine that by just looking at it.

In the view of the high court judge, in law when doubt rears its head, it inures to the benefit of the accused, adding that The accused is acquitted and discharged.



'I'm Free'

Amoateng, spotting a brown suit with a stripped light blue long-sleeved shirt and a flying tie to match, beaming with smiles, stepped out of the dock yelling, I' m freeeee!.

The trial, which drew about five prosecution witnesses, had travelled since the arrest of Amoateng in 2014 by security officials on arrival from the United States on board Delta Airlines.

The accused  a teacher and farmer  spent over seven years in the United States of America (USA) where he was jailed in connection with heroin-related offences.

In Ghana, Amoateng was charged with possessing a forged passport which had the number of a passport issued to a lady.

The passport Amoateng used in flying back to Ghana was originally issued to one Barbara Inkoom with No. H2347080.

The travel document was issued in Accra on February 23, 2009, according to sources, at the time the former MP had been incarcerated.

The accused, who denied any wrongdoing, was represented by Charles Pouzuing.



Background

The facts of the case as presented by the then DSP Aidan Dery, are that the accused person is the former MP for Nkoranza who on December 9, 2005 went to the United States of America.

He said on December 11, 2005 Amoateng was arrested and tried in connection with some heroine business and sentenced to ten years in the US.

According to him, on August 7, 2014 the suspect returned to Ghana on Delta Airlines using passport number H 22347080.

The police officer said investigations revealed that the passport was issued to a certain lady called Barbara in 2009 at the time he was in prison and had its bio-data tampered with, adding that it was therefore a forged one.

By Jeffrey De-Graft Johnson

[email protected]
A member of the Amsterdam Branch of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), John Vianney Kuubaea has called on former President John Rawlings to campaign for the New Patriotic Party (NPP) presidential candidate Nana Akufo-Addo ahead of the 2016 general elections.

Mr. Kuubaea shares similar sentiments with Mr Rawlings, who believes his party- the NDC and its presidential candidate, President Mahama have disappointed Ghanaians and must therefore be voted out of power.

In a statement, a copy of which he posted on his Facebook wall, Vianney said, it is dreadful to think of another four years under this NDC government and President Rawlings must therefore do the most patriotic thing of campaigning for Nana Addo to win the elections come December.

That, he said, was because Ghana deserves better than offered. And this season requires a leader like Nana Addo.

He stressed that President Rawlings must openly campaign for Nana Addo to be president in the upcoming elections.

Campaigning for the opposition leader to be president would be the most patriotic thing to do under the circumstances because the timing requires a new leader for the nation.

Vianney, a die-hard Rawlings supporter, insisted that Nana Addo must be supported by all well-meaning Ghanaians, especially President Rawlings since the defeat of the NDC will be a blessing not only to the nation but the party he founded after which he got ostracised.

For him, This will give the party the greatest opportunity yet to reorganise and project more credible persons for leadership in the 2020 elections.

President Rawlings has taught me positive defiance. And if there is any moment to be positively defiant, then it is now for Ghana First. To be partisan at this material moment even in the face of failed leadership by the NDC will amount to ignoring the concerns of the suffering masses, he emphasized.

According to him, Nana Addo proved his worth even more after the 2012 general elections by opting for the courts, when he could use other options.

We know most conflicts in Africa to be electoral related. But he spared us that ordeal. In fact in some countries the reasons for the conflicts are not as cogent as was presented in our Supreme Court by Nana and his party.

But in the wisdom of our jurisprudence, the ruling went against him and that ended the matter. Nana, a lawyer and of good standing, understands this game very well. He equally believes in the rule of law. All this we have taken for granted as a nation, he noted.

He said for Nana to be nominated three times consecutively to lead a big party like the NPP cannot be sheer luck on his part. For the voice of the people is said to be the voice of God. He therefore deserves our attention in the upcoming elections.

And for this noble act by a noble man like Nana Addo, Ghanaians must see in him our best chances of going forward than in John Mahama, I am for Nana anyway.

By Charles Takyi-Boadu
As part of its effort to better the lot of people in deprived communities, the Islamic Council for Development and Humanitarian Services (ICODEHS) has built and commissioned nine mosques, a clinic, a borehole, and two wells in Upper West and East, Northern, Ashanti, Volta and Brong Ahafo Regions.

To this end a clinic, three classroom block and an office block were built at Malshegu in the Northern Region, while a borehole was built at Amanteng in the Brong Ahafo Region. Two wells were also dug for the people of Asawase New Site and Asawase in the Ashanti region.

Two classroom blocks were also built at Bullu in the Upper West Region. According to ICODEHS official sources, nine mosques were built in Hamile Colours of School Halimboi Community, Kanton Senior High School and Manwe all in the Upper West Region, Maa in the Northern Region with mosques Chocosi in Kuguri-Naatiga, Gonzesse in the Upper East and a mosque in Okuma in the Volta Region and a mosque at Amanteng in Brong Ahafo Region.

ICODEHS also donated twenty sewing machines to ladies who have completed studies sewing in Wa in the Upper West Region. Islamic books and Quran were also distributed by ICODEHS to 20 mosques in Kumasi to promote the regular reading in the mosques.

Sheikh Mustapha Ibrahim Chairman of ICODEHS told newsmen that the mosque and school projects were executed to help improve education of children while the mosques were built to provide decent places of warship for large number of people. He said his organization will continue to dig wells and boreholes in all deprived communities to help provide potable water to the people adding the clinics being built is meant to bring health centers at the door steps of the people

Sam 3199

Sam 3210
Former Presidential Advisor, Ato Ahwoi, is the latest casualty of the Montie FM contempt case, having been found guilty of criminal contempt.

As Director of the Network Broadcasting Company (NBC), operators of Montie FM, Mr. Ahwoi made his first appearance in court Wednesday.

He was absent at the first two sittings. His lawyer had explained that he was out of the country after the presiding judge Sophia Akuffo insisted that all Directors of Montie FM appear in court.

Ato Ahwoi in his plea Wednesday, told the court he was liable with an explanation. But after stating that the NBC began in 1995 and operates Radio Gold, Gold TV and Montie FM, the presiding judge Sophia Akuffo asked him to cut to the chase.

He mentioned Kwami Sefa Kayi, Randy Abbey amongst others as some of the celebrated journalists that passed through Radio Gold one of their flagships.

Mr Ahwoi related his own experience of having been called gay on a radio station.

But Justice Akuffo, apparently not in the mood for stories, insisted that he offers the explanation.

Mr Ahwoi told the court the host of the radio show was interdicted and the panelists were banned when the contemptuous comments were made and the directors became aware of it.

He said delayed broadcast equipment have been procured and will be installed in three weeks' time.

He apologised for the comments.

Justice Sophia Akuffo said Mr. Ato Ahwoi was convicted "of all the charges just like the others."

Two radio panelists - Alistair Nelson and Godwin Ako Gunn - and host a radio programme, Salifu Maase, alias Mugabe, were summoned by the Supreme Court after they threatened justices of the Supreme Court with death.

The Court was hearing a case brought by two politicians - Abu Ramadan and Evans Nimako - challenging the validity of the voters' register.

The radio commentators were not happy with comments made by some justices sitting on the case.

They threatened to deal with the judges whom they accused of wanting to create chaos in the country.

The comments earned them summons from the Supreme Court.

Mr. Ato Ahwoi, a director of the company was out of the jurisdiction when the case was first called.

In Court Wednesday, he pleaded liable with an explanation. He condemned the comments of the two panelists and told the Court that the company had interdicted Salifu Maase and banned Alistair and Ako Gunn as well as procured delayed broadcast equipment to check excesses in the future.

The Court didn't find these to be enough.

It sentenced Salifu Maase, Ako Gunn and Alistair Nelson to four months' imprisonment with a fine of 10,000 cedis each.

A Director of the company and stalwart of the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC), Harry Zakour, is to pay a fine of 30,000 cedis to be paid latest by Thursday, July 28, 1016.

The Network Broadcasting Company has been ordered to bring to court, policies and framework that show that all of its stations will no longer be used to make contemptuous comments.
Very soon we have come to it again as country and people as we head towards the general elections. Stakes are very high for the politicians as well as the ordinary Ghanaian which the police officer is of no exception. Come December 7 2016, we will go to the polls to elect our president and members of parliament and as a result of that, many political leaders have started talking big on various platforms.

As a Ghanaian first before a police officer, I have been listening keenly to some of the politicians so that just in case one of them might convince me to vote for him or her but it appears none of them is impressing me enough to win my vote. All the campaign messages I have heard so far are very uninspiring based on my needs as a Ghanaian and a police officer. I have just one vote and who knows whether it is my vote that will determine the winner or not since one needs 50% plus one vote to afford one touch victory in the case of presidential?

Come this December, my vote is just one like any other Ghanaian and that vote is the full implementation of Police Service Regulations 2012 popularly known as the C.I 76. As a young police officer who wants to vote based on issues other than party affiliations, sentiments or on tribal lines, my presidential vote as well as parliamentary vote is the full implementation of the C.I 76 and nothing else. That is the only thing I want to see on the ballot paper come December 7 2016.

As the elections draw close and closer, the ordinary police officer will not rest. He will be at various political campaign grounds to ensure that the politician preaches his political gospel and make promises to the masses without even having the police officer who is making the atmosphere conducive for his political activities in mind. During this electioneering season, some police officers may even lose their lives in effort to make situations safer for the politicians to have smooth atmosphere to run their campaigns. Some will sustain irreparable damages and injuries but they will go home to become burdens on their families. I still remember how I was nearly killed in 2008 at a polling station in the Eastern Region just because I was trying to protect a stubborn polling agent. It still scares me especially this year that our political parties seem to have unresolved disputes on the electoral roll.

Some police officers will die for politicians to win power only to go and sit on radio and TV stations and reward the police officer with insults. He meets the police officer at the barrier and calls him or her corrupt when he perfectly knows that the C.I 76 which is supposed to bring improvements in the life of the ordinary police officer is not fully implemented. Currently it is only the punitive aspects in the C.I 76 which are being enforced effectively compared to other lucrative welfare provisions specified in the same C.I 76. Many police officers are being dismissed, reduced in ranks and some are facing disciplinary enquiries using the C.I 76 as the basis but on welfare situations, the police officer is left to his fate and mercies of God. How can a single document receive partial implementation? It is only here in Ghana and nowhere else. It is only here in Ghana that less is giving to police officers but much and much more is expected from them including their lives.

I have heard many of the politicians making promises to other professional bodies and I always ask what about us? Is it because we do not demonstrate or embark on strikes or what? In some jurisdictions, it is grace and honour to serve your country in the police but here in Ghana you sometimes wonder whether it is a curse to swear an oath to serve your country as a police officer?

Here we are after 4 good years of passing the C.I 76 after it went through the legislative mill of our august parliament and received presidential ascent, all that the ordinary police officer hears is we are working on the full implementation of the C.I 76 just as it has always been in all cases that concern the welfare of the police officer. They keep working on it till there is a change of government then they go home and another group comes and start to say we are working on it till they also go home. Then it becomes the story that ends "and so are the days of our lives in the police with a tattered penury". Single document is taking the powers that be more than four years to implement it? It's sad. Meanwhile, within these four years many police officers have been dismissed based on the punitive prescriptions of the C.I 76. Is it fair? It is a very sad situation for an ordinary police officer like me who has chosen to serve my country as a police officer.

We recently had a situation where members of Ghana Medical Association embarked on industrial action using the police C.I 76 as the basis. We quickly heard from the political divides, people offering the best solutions to curb the problem of the doctors. We heard the number of times crunch meetings were held to resolve the industrial actions the Doctors embarked on. They defied the fact that they are part of essential services and embarked on industrial action and they were given prompt attention but what happens to the police officer always remains rhetorical question as far his welfare is concerned. No one answers it. We will be here and see the wishes of the doctors fulfilled whilst that of the police officer will be a mirage simply because he or she is not in position to demonstrate or embark on strikes. What a country called Ghana?

During the special voting, many of my colleagues will line up to go and vote. How I wish my colleagues will vote for the full implementation of the C.I 76 other than party and tribal lines. Full implementation of the C.I 76 is the life and blood of the ordinary police officer. The C.I 76 is an insurance cover for the police officer and his or her family. The C.I 76 rewards hardworking police officers that is why my vote is meant for it.

Come December 2016 and beyond, whether I am in the police service or dismissed for being vociferous on the full implementation of the C.I 76, I want to see a police service where police officers across the length and breadth of the country are picked by police vehicles to their duty points beyond one kilometer as stipulates by the C.I 76. The working hours of the police officer is reduced to 8 hours and if there is the need for a police officer to work beyond 8 hours, he or her should be paid adequate monetary compensation just as the C.I 76 claims.

I want to see a police service where the police officer on leave receives leave allowance just as it written black and white in the C.I 76. I want to see a better police service where wives, husbands and children of deceased police officers who died in active service are being taken care of as the C.I 76 says. I want to see children of deceased or incapacitated police officer being awarded scholarships just as the C.I 76 claims. I want to see police service where police officers who became incapacitated as a result of duty calls are flew abroad for special treatments and care just as it is in the C.I 76.

I want to see a police service where promotions of police officers who are in good standing do not last beyond four years since the C.I 76 says so. I want to see a police service where there is reflective strategic solutions to the killings and violent deaths of police officers which come as a result of their work. I want to see a police service where there is a regular supply of uniforms, boots, beret and caps and needed accoutrements to enhance efficient policing. I want see a police service where police officers are given everything prescribed by the C.I 76 and of course I want to also see a police service where discipline is the hallmark. That is what is likely to attract my vote as a police officer serving mother Ghana at the peril of my life with sweat and blood.

I am just one police officer but my vote really matters. Who knows other police officers will also decide to vote for the full implementation of the C.I 76 after reading this piece of mine since it is for overall benefits for all police officers?

After voting for the full implementation of the C.I 76, vote for peace too. A better police service for the police officer and the ordinary Ghanaian is the utopia I am dreaming for. My vote is still open as I am waiting patiently for the one who can convince me before I caste it.

Oh it's just a soliloquy and personal conversation. Just talking aloud to myself but in case you are eavesdropping, then so be it.

For God and country.

Ahanta Apemenyimheneba Kwofie III

(Daniel Kwofie)/Peki-vr

[email protected]

#Ahantadiaries2016_07_27
The opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) is targeting the Kumbungu Parliamentary seat in the Northern Region.

Through a bi-election in 2012, the Kumbungu seat is currently occupied by Amadu Moses Yahaya on the ticket of the Convention Peoples Party (CPP).

The NPP's Parliamentary candidate there says he is in the 2016 Parliamentary race as a game changer.

Iddrisu Muqtar Dems told Citi News the governing NDC's Ras Mubarak is unpopular in the constituency, hence his assurance to win the seat.

As a social development specialist and a teacher, Iddrisu Muqtar Dems urged the electorate there to reject votes buying politicians.

He however pinpointed lack of resources as one of the factors affecting his campaign activities.

Iddrisu Muqtar Dems took a swipe at the Mahama led NDC administration of neglecting the

Kumbungu constituency on the transformational agenda.

According to him, the Kumbungu district which was carved out of the Tolon/Kumbungu district is lacking infrastructural development.

He mentioned bad road network, inadequate classroom blocks and a district assembly complex among others to buttress his point.

The NDC has since 1992 enjoyed electoral monopoly over the Kumbungu seat.

The CPP's incumbent MP, Hon. Amadu Moses Yahaya won the seat through a bi-election in 2012.

The NPP which can boast of 10 out of 31 constituencies in the Northern Region targets the Kumbungu seat at the 2016 polls.



By: Abdul Karim Naatogmah/citifmonline.com/Ghana
27.07.2016 LISTEN

A few weeks ago, there was an interesting discussion on ghanaweb following Charles Agbenus article in which he castigated all Ghanaians who regard themselves as not being northerners for looking down on people of northern extraction in Ghana. Agbenus article was a politically motivated one but the issues it raised concern us all as Ghanaians and the way we think of each other.

One of the points of contention in Agbenus article had to do with the true meaning, or otherwise, of the Twi terms PEPENI and NTAFUO. This follows another ghanaweb columnist, Kofi Atas argument that the two terms did not, originally, have any negative connotations. Kofi Ata had written an article in which he said his mother had told him that PEPENI came about as a result of Akans who perceived Northerners who had come south in search of employment as people who were truthful and did things pepeepe (exactly or fairly). He added that they were referred to as NTAFUO because they always moved in pairs like twins.

Many commentators saw this explanation as very illuminating. This led to a rejoinder to Agbenus article that appeared the day after. Kofi Atas explanation of how the two terms came about was, indeed, interesting. But it had a few problems. In the first place, there was no way of establishing the fact that what Kofi Atas mother told him (Kofi Ata) constituted the unvarnished truth and was, indeed, how the terms came about. Other commentators said their mothers and grandmothers told them different stories. Some said PEPENI came about because these migrants were perceived as miserly (pepeefuo) and they were called NTAFUO because they bought similar items in the market as you would buy similar dresses for twins. What this shows is that it is only a properly conducted research work that can establish the correct etymology of the terms. The only thing we can be sure of is what their current usages denote in Ghanaian society.

Another fact is that no matter how the terms originated, they came about as nicknames for a group of people who never called themselves by those names. These people, having lived long in their new areas, came to know the names by which their hosts called them. They either did not like these names or did not care. Then there is this thing about nicknames. Even though they can be given to denote positive traits, they are most often given to denote negative traits.

Agbenu Charles also equated the terms pepeni and ntafuo with what he termed as their equivalents in the other major Ghanaian languages. He said the Ewes call Northerners dzogbedzitor and the Gas say senu. The Ewe commentators went up in arms against Agbenu arguing that the Ewe term was not equivalent to the Akan terms. They said the Ewe term only denotes people who come from the grasslands or Sahara or a dry place and no abusive connotations are involved.

The Akans have a word for Northerners that can be said to be neutral: ESREMFUO (ESREMNI singular). The literal meaning is the same as the Ewe equivalent: people from the grasslands. Nobody who uses the term esremfuo can be accused of trying to look down on people from the North unless the person intentionally gives it a twist that makes it so.

The Ga term for Northerners, Sanu is said to be the shortened form of the Hausa greeting: Sanu kede? (How are you?) It is not, exactly, neutral.

The thing to be noted here is that any term used to denote some other people as different from us can, very easily, degenerate to a notion of different and inferior. This is often so when it is the dominant and more powerful group that is marking the difference. That is why people have fought segregation (separate development) everywhere. And that also explains why the whites who come to live among us in Ghana do not quite like it when we call them obroni, blofo or yevu until they come to realise that we do not mean anything offensive by those terms. Even so, the supposed original meanings of the terms may not exactly be complimentary to the white man. The Twi term obroni begun as two words (a)bro ni (wicked man) and the Ewe term a-yevu means a cunning dog the one who feigns niceness and bites you, as Yaa Gyasi puts it in her much praised debut novel (HOMEGOING). I have not been able to find out how the Ga blofo came about. But, as with PEPENI and NTAFUO, the true origins of all these terms may have been lost.

There are other terms we all use to refer to each other whether for good or for bad. In Kumasi, there is Anwona. This is a corruption of the correct pronunciation of Anlo which is beyond most Twi speakers. The nw is a nasal sound as in the Twi anwanwado (amazing love). It has no negative connotations

The Ewes call all Twi speakers eblutorwo. I have not been able to find out how this term came about. It seems the Ewes themselves dont quite know how they came to call all Akans eblutorwo. If you ask any Ewe if the term is derogatory, they are quick to say it is not. But, again, from the contention of denoting otherness explained above, any term a people use to denote another people can easily degenerate to the regard of those other people as inferior. But, surely, Ewes do not regard Akans as inferior! Or, do they?

Eblutorwor seems to be the counterpart of ayigbefuo which many Akans will tell you is not derogatory. Ga legend has it that when they were migrating to the present day Ghana, the chief who had the royal stool in his keeping lost his way and gradually settled in what is now Anecho in present day Togo. When the Gas realised this, they sent emissaries to the lost tribe to retrieve the stool. But the chief of the lost tribe, known as Ayi, refused to hand over the stool. The emissaries came back to report this as Ayi gbe (gbe being the Ewe word for refuse). They said Ayi said megbe (I refuse).

The combination of Ayi and megbe came to be used to refer to Ewes as ayigbe. Since the chief refused to hand over something that did not, technically, belong to him, he was said to have stolen it. This gave rise to ayigbe dzulor  a negative epithet that clouds all Ewes in the imagination of some non-Ewes. Whether this story is true or not, today, Akans join Gas to call Ewes ayigbe. Indeed, and one is more likely to hear ayigbeni or ayigbefuo than ayigbenyo. Perhaps it may be that the Akans, finding it almost impossible to correctly pronounce the word Ewe, took to the relatively easier to pronounce ayigbe even though the sound produced by gb, common in many West African languages, does not naturally occur in Twi.

Today, it is more politically correct to refer to the people of the Volta Region as Voltarians in an effort to prevent the mistake of regarding all citizens of the region as Ewes when only about half the population are Ewes. The term also clouds the myriad differences among the Ewes just like PEPEFUO and NTAFUO disregard all the differences among the peoples of the three northern regions of Ghana. The use of the term Anlo-Ewe to refer to the coastal Ewes does seem to be of recent origin and employed mainly by non-Ewes. The Anlos call themselves ANLOS (nothing more) and their fellow Ewes also call them ANLOS (nothing more). Even so, there are still many Akans who think Ewes are a homogeneous group all of who eat akple and fetri-detsi. But many Ewes are aware of the broader differences among the Akans  Asante and Fante in particular but also and Kwahu and Akuapem.

An instance of the majority laying claim to what is normal can be found for the term that Akans have for minority (?) languages they do not understand. The people who speak them are said to potor and the languages known as potorkasa. Some people say the term is not derogatory and refers to all non-Twi languages including even English. Others say there is a derogatory tinge to it as it originally referred to Northerners who had come to Ashantiland and who spoke poor Twi wonmo potor kasa no.

There is an Ewe equivalent, especially among the mid-Volta Ewes. The speakers of the minority languages there (Likpe, Buem, Akpafu, etc) are called fiafialawo. These people do not speak: they fia. The Ewe term is somewhat derogatory and is not used for major languages like Twi, Ga or English. There is a historical example in the ancient world. The Roman and Hellenic civilisations regarded non-Greek languages as unintelligible. They sounded baaa baaa to civilized ears. This is how non-civilized tribes became known as Barbarians!

There are other prejudices the various ethnic groups hold of each other. Akans think Ewes like juju, they have low self-confidence, and they are envious of Akans. Ewes think Akans (especially Asantes) like money too much and like to boast of it. But the Asantes think it is the Kwahus who worship money and will do anything for it. Ewes frown on the display of wealth and will prefer the rich to keep a low profile.

Akans say Ewes hide their wealth because they are afraid of being jujued by their fellows. The two prejudices fit each other and give rise to some cyclical reasoning. If Ewes dislike the way Akans boast of, and flaunt, their wealth, it stands to reason that they (Ewes) should keep a low profile with their wealth. And if the Akan prejudice about Ewes is that the latter like juju, then the only reason why the Ewe person will not flaunt his wealth is the fear of being done in. Of course, times have changed. Everyone likes material wealth and wants to boast of it when attained. Who lights a lamp and puts it under a bed?

Prejudices, psychologists tell us, are ready made schemas we employ to meet what we do not know. They are normal to the human race and found in all societies. Since they are often formed prior to any supporting evidence, they can lead us astray. It is when we base our behaviour on them that things can go wrong. And using them for political advantage can be detrimental to the effort of building a strong nation that benefits all of us.

Columnist: Stephen Atta Owusu

Author: Dark Faces at Crossroads.

Email: [email protected]

I want to express my deepest sense of gratitude to my Ewe friend who provided immense information on the Ewes during the writing of this piece.
By Belinda Ayamgha, GNA

Accra, July 26, GNA - Minister of Finance, Seth Terkper has urged Ghanaians to give full support to the government's Sinking Fund, Buy Back, Debt Service Reserve and Amortization policies.

He said they are healthier ways of financing development over a sustainably long time on the capital market.

He said the implementation of these policies would help avoid significant 'roll-over' risks in the future.

Delivering the Mid-Year Review of the Budget and Economic Policy in Parliament, he said this mode of financing is the practice in Middle- Income and Advanced countries.

'Accordingly, the FAA's Sinking Fund provisions are being enhanced in the proposed PFM Bill that is currently before this House,' he stated.

Parliament approved the setting up of a Sinking Fund in 2015, from funds above the Cap on the Public Revenue Management Act Stabilisation Fund, aimed at periodically redeeming the country's external and domestic debt, especially current bullet loans and had accumulated about $ 100.0 million as at April 2016.

Mr Terkper said government, under Eurobond "buy-back" programme-repurchase of outstanding bonds under favourable market conditions, had used a portion of the Sinking Fund proceeds to redeem $ 30.0 million of the Sovereign Bond issued in 2007, incrementally from the markets, leaving about $ 500.0 million to be redeemed by October 2017.

In order to redeem the outstanding amount, the minister proposed some measures to be undertaken.

These include raising funds from Capital markets, if favourable, and using part of the proceeds to redeem the Bond, as stated in the 2016 Budget; or dedicating the balance of the Sinking Fund, as buffer, in a programme to redeem the Bond, if markets are not favourable.

He also proposed to boost the buffer by using part of the $ 233.5 million of the remaining balance of the 2015 Bond proceeds (which is wholly dedicated for refinancing our debt); and increase the buffer even more by reviewing the cap on the Stabilisation Fund to $ 100.0 million to enhance the flows into the Sinking Fund.

'In line with proposals approved by this House, the excess amount over the Cap will be transferred into the Sinking Fund and Contingency Fund, with a portion remaining to increase Stabilization Fund' he said.

He said the short-term target was the 2017 Bond while the medium term focus is to use the Sinking Fund to manage all domestic and external Bonds and not to wait for them to mature before seeking to refinance them.

The ministry also recommended the extension of the 2016 bond issuance advisers to 2017, informed by the risk posed by a likely unsuccessful roll-over or buy-back of the 2007 Bondand further by follow up events in 2017, post-election Budget presentation, and assured investors of Ghana's commitment to the markets, despite political events in the country.

GNA
Nairobi (AFP) - Young supporters of Burundi's ruling CNDD-FDD party have raped women with perceived links to political opponents ever since unrest began to flare there in 2015, Human Rights Watch said Wednesday.

The party's "Imbonerakure" youth wing -- whose name means "The Watchmen" -- has long been accused of using barbaric methods to achieve political ends on behalf of President Pierre Nkurunziza's regime.

"Attackers from Burundi's ruling party youth league tied up, brutally beat, and gang-raped women, often with their children nearby," said Skye Wheeler, women's rights emergencies researcher at Human Rights Watch.

"Many of the women have suffered long-term physical and psychological consequences," Wheeler added.

Nkurunziza's controversial but ultimately successful bid for a third term last year triggered a deadly crisis that has left more than 500 people dead and driven around 270,000 to leave the country.

Several hundred women have reported rapes since then, according to the UN, with the true figures believed to be much higher.

Willy Nyamitwe, a presidential spokesman, said in a series of tweets that the Human Rights Watch publication was "full of errors" and designed to "demonise" his party's youth wing.

"The Imbonerakure are not a gang of rapists. The stigmatisation of @HRW is dangerous and puts their credibility into question," he posted.

Human Rights Watch interviewed more than 70 rape victims in the Nduta refugee camp in western Tanzania who said they had fled following attacks by Imbonerakure.

Testimony revealed the rapes appeared to be motivated by the women's husbands' political affiliations with opposition groups, who were also harassed, beaten and even killed.

"Men armed with guns, sticks, or knives have raped women during attacks on their homes, most often at night," the rights group said, resulting in unwanted pregnancies and the spread of sexually transmitted diseases.

Victims either recognised Imbonerakure foot soldiers, who often control entire towns and villages, or were told that their partner's support for opposition parties was the reason they had been targeted as they were assaulted.

Some women described being raped close to the Tanzania border by men believed to be Imbonerakure, who then "ordered the victims to return home, or verbally harassed them for attempting to leave."

The UN Security Council is under pressure to take action in Burundi, where the descent into violence has raised fears of mass atrocities, similar to those that convulsed neighbouring Rwanda in 1994.

France has presented a draft resolution to the UN Security Council that calls for deploying up to 228 UN police to Burundi to monitor human rights and help quell violence.

Nyamitwe further accused the rights group of being under the orders of "those who are fighting to get their police project passed," a clear reference to France.
Airtel Ghana, through its Airtel Premier sub-brand and Airtel Rewardz, the biggest loyalty programme in the telecommunication industry have announced a partnership with one of Africas leading airlines, Kenya Airways, to reward customers with up to 15% discount on airfares effectiveJuly 1, 2016.

The partnership is designed to give Airtel Premier as well as gold and silver tier Airtel Rewardz customers, exclusive discounted offers on airfares to cater to their aviation needs and reward them for their loyalty. The delectable offer applies to Kenya Airways tickets to any destination.

Speaking to the partnership, Frank Djan, Head of Customer Experience at Airtel said As the foremost sub-brand dedicated to serving the telecom and lifestyle needs of high value customers, we are delighted to partner with Kenya Airways, one of Africas leading airlines, to offer Airtel customers discounts on airfares to enrich their lives and cater to their travelling needs. Through this partnership, customers travelling on Kenya Airways to various destinations stand to benefit from discounted fares of up to 15%.

This partnership allows our Premier, Gold and Silver Tiered Airtel Rewards customers the opportunity to benefit from this exclusive offer to all destinations on Kenya Airways. To access this unique benefit, customers should simply send an email to [email protected] or call 303 and we will take care of the rest.

He continued At Airtel, we differentiate ourselves by going beyond providing telecom solutions to offering a complete suite of services that meets the lifestyle needs of our cherished customers, which is why we remain the industry leader in providing exclusive offers, and reward schemes to delight our customers. This is yet another reason to switch to Airtel, if you are not yet on the Smartphone Network.

Commenting on the partnership on behalf of Kenya Airways,Rose Kiseli, Area Manager West Africa Anglophone said, Kenya Airways is delighted to partner Airtel Premier to make available this exclusive offer to Airtel customers travelling from Accra to over 53 Kenya Airways destinations across the world. We are especially delighted to fly Airtel customers travelling from Accra to any of our 42 destinations on the African continent with more than 500 weekly connections within the continent via our world class hub, The Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi. Together with Airtel, we will give customers a truly exceptional experience on our Airline.

In addition to the discounted fares, Airtel Premier customers also enjoy exclusive access to over 700 VIP airport lounges across the world via Priority Pass including the Adinkra Lounge  which offers free access to Airtels Wi-Fi services and other exciting treats whilst they wait or transit through flights. Airtel continues to partner with several benefit partners across the world to bring a world of excitement to its customers.

Airtel Premier is a sub-brand of Airtel Ghana which provides unparalleled telecom and lifestyle services for high value customers. Airtel Premier has been at the forefront of introducing bespoke services to delight customers including discounts on hotels, automobiles, restaurants, free spa treatments, automatic enrollment onto Airtel Rewardz, birthday treats and access to Airtel sponsored events all year round.

Airtel is the telecom industrys leader in data and digital innovation.

About Bharti Airtel:

Bharti Airtel Limited is a leading global telecommunications company with operations in 19 countries across Asia and Africa. Headquartered in New Delhi, India, the company ranks amongst the top 3 mobile service providers globally in terms of subscribers.

In India, the company's product offerings include 2G, 3G and 4G wireless services, mobile commerce, fixed line services, high speed DSL broadband, IPTV, DTH, enterprise services including national & international long distance services to carriers. In the rest of the geographies, it offers 2G, 3G and 4G wireless services and mobile commerce. Bharti Airtel had over 361 million customers across its operations at the end of May 2016. To know more please visit, www.airtel.com

About Airtel in Africa

Airtel is driven by the vision of providing affordable and innovative mobile services to all. Airtel has 17 operations in Africa: Burkina Faso, Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Madagascar, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia. Airtel International is a Bharti Airtel company. For more information, please visit www.airtel.com , or like the Airtel Ghana Facebook page via www.facebook.com/airtelgh or follow us on Twitter via the handle @airtelghana.
A lawyer for the governing National Democratic Congress is incensed by the four month jail term handed a host and two panelists of an Accra based radio station Montie FM.

Chris Ackumey told Joy News the judges were not only "capricious" but were "unfair" in throwing Alistair Nelson, Gordon Ako-Gunn, and Salifu Maase into prison for that long and for demanding 30,000 cedis each from owners of the station.

He was particularly sad that the man who attempted to kill the president in the past; the MP who asked Ashantis to kill Gas and Ewes were both freed by the judges only for them to throw the Montie gang into jail.

"The life of a judge is not more important than any other individual," he stated adding if the perpetrators of those crime were freed by the judges then they were harsh and unfair in the sentences they handed the contemnors.

He said what happened at the Supreme Court, Wednesday, fell short of the fair trial Ghana's constitution espouses.

Background

The host of the Pampaso political program on Montie FM, Salifu Maase popularly known as Mugabe together with his two panelists Ako Gunn and Alistair Nelson were hauled before the Supreme Court for contempt after they threatened to kill judges sitting on a case brought against the Electoral Commission.

They pleaded guilty as charged and were sentenced to four months jail term in addition to a 10,000 cedis fine each.

The directors and owners of the station were not left out of the contempt charge.

Edward Addo, Ato Ahwoi and Kwesi Kyei Atuah and Harry Zakour all of whom pleaded guilty were spared the torture a jail sentence may bring to them and their families but must pay the court 30,000 cedis each by close of day tomorrow or be jailed.

The judges said they took into consideration the mitigating pleas by counsel for the contemnors but at the same time needed to hand a punitive measure that will be deterrent enough to check the state of recklessness and irresponsibility in the media.

The verdict by the court has triggered mixed reaction from members of the public. Whilst a good number of people applaud the verdict, others have described it as harsh.

Perhaps the most vehement criticism against the Supreme Court judges is the one from Chris Ackumey who is convinced the judges were harsh and unfair to the Montie contemnors.

He said it was perverse for the contemnors to appear before the same court and against the same judges against whom the contemptuous comments were made.

He would rather the case is investigated by the police or prosecuted by the Attorney General and handled in a different court other than the Supreme Court.

The former Executive Director of the Media Foundation West Africa Prof Kwame Karikari in his comment on the issue advised the media to begin self regulate or risk having the court to regulate its activities.

Story by Ghana|Myjoyonline.com|Nathan Gadugah
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business Dr Reddy's tanks 10% on slew of downgrades & target cut post Q1 Decline in volume growth, particularly in the US market, loss of business in Venezuela, price erosion and delayed launches due to warning letters impacted its performance in April-June quarter.
Al-Azhar says the decision to issue identical government-written scripts of Friday sermons would abolish religious discourse and narrow the intellect of preachers

Egypt's top Muslim body Al-Azhar has challenged a recent decision by the government that requires preachers to read out standardised pre-written sermons, saying it unanimously rejects it.

The Council of Senior Scholars, headed by Al-Azhar's Grand Imam Sheikh Ahmed Al-Tayeb, said the latest move amounts to "freezing religious discourse."

The endowments ministry announced two weeks ago that Muslim clerics would be required to read from the same pre-written script during the weekly sermon at Friday prayers, a move aimed at pushing moderate Islamic ideology and combat extremism.

But opposition to the new move by the Muslim council could stand in the way of its implementation.

The council said in a statement on Tuesday that the objective of crushing radical views can rather be achieved through improving the potential of Muslim clerics.

"Imams need serious training and knowledge...so they can be able to confront radical and anomalous ideas through knowledge and the correct intellect."

The Ministry of Religious Endowments has since 2014 been setting topics for weekly sermons delivered during Friday prayers across the country.

But the council said the latest decision of relying on an identical script would in time make imams' thoughts shallow and make them unable to discuss and scrutinise radical views or have the influence to warn people away from them.

Under the Egyptian constitution, the 1000-year-old seat of Islamic learning Al-Azhar is in charge of regulating Islamic preaching and Dawa. The endowments ministry is responsible for administering mosques and Islamic centres.

The chief of Al-Azhar's Islamic Research complex, Mohy Al-Din Afifi, said on Tuesday there is no "sensitivity" between the Islamic body and the ministry but highlighted they have yet to "coordinate with earth other" on the mater.

He argued that the standardised script could open the door to underground preaching--which is believed to have helped spread radical views.

The government's new decision earlier this month has already sparked outcry amongst many clerics who say scripted sermons would waste imam's talents and fail to cater to different communities.

The move comes against the backdrop of repeated calls by Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi to renew Muslim religious discourse. He blames "outdated religious discourse" for holding back Egypt and says radicalised thinking has become a source of destruction for the rest of the world.

The endowments minister said he would not backtrack on its decision, adding that the government-issued sermons would only be a "guideline" until a final endorsement of the move by a committee of state-hired scholars.

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(Beijing) - Profits of industrial companies in China rose 6.2 percent to almost 3 trillion yuan, or US$450 billion, in the first half of 2016 from a year earlier, recovering from a 0.7 percent contraction in the same period in 2015, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said.

The pace of profit growth has edged up. In June alone, industrial companies reported a 5.1 percent growth in revenue compared to last June, while the figure in May rose 3.7 percent, NBS data released on June 27 showed.

There have been some positive changes, NBS official He Ping said in a statement accompanying the data. Besides an uptick in the pace of growth, He pointed out that costs, unsold inventory and liabilities have all reduced.

In June, the cost of earning every 100 yuan fell 0.11 yuan year on year to 86.02 yuan. The number of goods remaining unsold in warehouses decreased by 1.9 percent as of the end of June compared to the first half of 2015. The debt-to-asset ratio of industrial companies fell by over half a percentage point to 56.6 percent, NBS figures showed. The data only covers enterprises with annual revenue of over 20 million yuan from their main operations, the bureau said.

Overall profits in manufacturing rose 12 percent, compared to figures in the first half of 2015, fueled by strong performance from domestic mobile handset makers. Profits of telecom device manufacturers jumped 19.5 percent from January to June compared to the same period last year.

However, profits in sectors plagued by overcapacity and a fall in global commodity prices fell sharply. For example, the mining sector saw its profits drop by over 83 percent from January to June, the bureau said.

Earnings from petroleum and natural gas exploration was among the worst affected, declining 161.7 percent year on year in the first six months, while profits from coal mining slipped by 38.5 percent from a year earlier.

China plans to cut steel and coal capacity by 45 million tons and 280 million tons respectively, and to retrain 880,000 employees in these two sectors this year, Xu Shaoshi, an official from the National Development and Reform Commission, the country's top economic planner, said in June. About 15 percent of the total workforce in these two sectors, or 1.8 million people, would be laid off as excess production facilities are shut down, minister of human resources and social security Yin Weimin estimated.

The central government has set aside nearly 28 billion yuan to help local governments pay for closures linked to trimming overcapacity in the steel and coal sectors this year.

Meanwhile, Chinese industrial firms' debt at the end of June was 0.6 percent lower than last June.

Profits of state-owned industrial firms fell 8 percent in the first six months of 2016, while the bottom lines of privately-owned companies and those backed by investors outside the mainland grew 8.8 percent and 5 percent respectively.

Performance data from state-owned enterprises in China have long shown that they are using capital far less efficiently than their private business counterparts. Faced with low profitability, the government has pushed for SOE reforms that include merging underperforming entities, cutting salaries, encouraging employees to become shareholders and corporate restructuring.
July 27, 2016

Syria And The DNC Hack - How Beliefs Turn Into Dangerous Policies

Two examples came up today of people who seem to cope easily with contradicting beliefs.

A well known pro-Syrian rebels dude posted these two tweets within 15 minutes of each other:

6:31 AM - 27 Jul 2016 - Hasan Sari Verified account @HasanSari7 300,000+ civilians in E. Aleppo (40klm) under bombardment & will be starving in 2 weeks as Castillo road cut. Bad.

6:44 AM - 27 Jul 2016- Hasan Sari Verified account @HasanSari7 Out of 300k residents in Eastern Aleppo 30-40k remained there.

300,000 people are under bombardment in an area where - says the same person - only 30,000 people remain.

The 30,000 number is about correct. In March 2015 Martin Chulov of the Guardian visited east Aleppo and estimated that some 40,000 were still living there. He has since re-confirmed that 2015 observation but the number it must have shrunk since. There has been no running water there for a long time and no electricity. Only fighters and their immediate families are left in east-Aleppo. The current estimate is some 5,000 fighters and 20-25,000 civilians. They have, according to multiple sources, food and medical supplies for about three month.

The area is completely closed off though people on foot can leave through checkpoints. The Syrian government sent SMS to invite everyone in the area, civilians and fighters, to get out without trouble. This is all well known to "western" journalists but will not hinder them to daily offer dozens of harrowing accounts of the 300,000 starving children in east-Aleppo and the 286 hospitals that just now were bombed to rubble.

Here is another example of contradicting beliefs in the news. NBCnews headlines: Why Experts Are Sure Russia Hacked the DNC Emails.

Many U.S. officials and cyber security experts in and out of government are convinced that state-sponsored Russian hackers are the ones who stole 20,000 emails from the Democratic National Committee and leaked them to the public just in time to disrupt the Democrats' national convention in Philadelphia. Here's why the experts are so confident the Russians did it: [... innuendo and marketing talk from cyber snakeoil dealers ...]

Then follows this paragraph:

Like other cyber-experts, however, [retired four-star Adm. James] Stavridis said definitively proving such connections is virtually impossible. "I don't know the answer to that and I'm not sure anyone knows the answer to that except for a few individuals in the Kremlin."

So experts are "sure", says the piece, while the quoted expert and his colleagues say there is no way to be sure. How does that compute?

It may be plausible that Russian and other governments' services have sniffed off the DNC email servers. It would have been a regular part of their their job. The U.S. does the same and more, says former Bush administration lawyer Jack Goldsmith. But there is no evidence at all, as in zero, that some Russian government service did so. There is no evidence at all that some Russian directly or indirectly gave the hacked DNC emails to Wikileaks. The alleged proof does not make sense. The culprits could be anyone with the relevant resources.

The case is probably like the Sony hack which the U.S. government and Sony stitched to North Korea while the real experts said it was an insider attack.

But the media has orders to promote Clinton for president and to damn Trump, as well as Putin, wherever it can. Thus Trump is Putin and Putin personally hacked the DNC email servers. What DNC or Clinton crimes were documented in those emails is not of interest and does not matter at all.

For believers in their mission, be it damning the Syrian president Assad or promoting Hillary for U.S. president, any contradiction only confirms their faith.

This is hard to swallow for observers outside of such faith. One can smile and accept such contradictions as funny phenomena. But they can be dangerous when they build upon each other and create their own reality:

Every time a claim of attribution is made  right or wrong  it becomes part of a permanent record; an un-verifiable provenance that is built upon by the next security researcher or startup who wants to grab a headline, and by the one after him, and the one after her. The most sensational of those claims are almost assured of international media attention, and if they align with U.S. policy interests, they rapidly move from unverified theory to fact.

For hawks it will follow from such facts that one has to bomb Russia. This for a harmless, routine hack Russia has likely nothing to do with. Or that Assad must be assassinated and the Syrian people deliver to Jihadis because of some fake number.

This is why such contradictions must be dragged into the light and exposed as the nonsense they are.

Posted by b on July 27, 2016 at 18:47 UTC | Permalink

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The Morgan Hill City Council will consider placing two measures on the November election ballot at their July 27 meeting, but some observers say the noticing of the public hearing items could have been more upfront to the citizens.

City officials said they corrected one of the complaints by clarifying the agenda description in the name of openness and transparency, a move that a Brown Act expert said is exactly what governments should be encouraged to do.

Specifically, item 12 on the agenda relates to a possible revenue measure, mainly for street repairs and improvements, in the form of a local sales tax or $38 million general obligation bond.

Item 13 recommends the council approve a ballot measure asking voters to renew the Residential Development Control System, which currently expires in 2020 with a city population cap of 48,000 for that year.

When the agenda was released to the public July 22, neither title of the two items mentioned a possible ballot measure. Anyone interested in the agenda and unfamiliar with recent council discussions would have to read a list of recommended actions following each title to learn the council might vote to place the measures on the ballot.

Item 12 was titled Report on quality of life survey results, with discussion of a possible revenue measure on the Nov. 8 ballot listed as among the recommended actions. The staff report for this item in fact does not advise the council to approve such a measure, but cites recent public opinion research that indicates Morgan Hill voters are unlikely to support a new funding source for city services.

Item 13 was titled Morgan Hill 2035 Project: Environmental Impact Report (EIR); General Plan Update; and Residential Development Control System (RDCS) update. Adoption of a measure to place on the November ballot is buried within recommendation number three of the agenda item.

That irked Morgan Hill resident Chris Monack, who emailed council members and city staff to express his frustration with the vague titles. He suggested that failing to provide details of the possible passage of a bond measure within the agenda item description is inconsistent with the Brown Act, a state law that ensures openness of public meetings and records.

(If) someone looked at the agenda titles to find reference to the ordinance, they wouldnt find any, Monack said by email. They would have to know specifically where to look.

City officials agreed with Monacks complaint about the vagueness, at least for the item 12 revenue measure. They released an amended agenda July 25, with a new title: Report on quality of life survey and consideration of a sales tax and/or general obligation bond November 2016 ballot measure(s).

We are revising the agenda to say that, even though its a little late, Mayor Steve Tate said. We are very widely publicizing the fact its a ballot consideration as well.

But that doesnt appease Monack, who argues the new agenda did not meet the Brown Acts minimum timing requirement for public notices. The act says public meeting agendas must be posted to the public at least 72 hours prior to the scheduled meeting.

A Brown Act expert contacted by the Times said the city is probably not guilty of violating its noticing requirements, but could have been clearer from the get-go. The Brown Act recommends that public government meeting agenda items should include a brief description generally not to exceed 20 words, according to Nikki Moore, Legal Counsel for the California Newspapers Publishers Association.

The description of items 12 and 13 on the July 27 agenda each tally in at more than 75 words, including the list of recommended actions for each items.

I think its a little bit unclear on the front end that they could be taking a vote, and they could do a better job describing what theyre planning to do, Moore said. For the regular citizen reading this they might not know what action might be taken. (Item 12) would be well served to be more specific what theyre actually intending to do, which is sort of buried in the recommended actions.

Moore added that the reposting of the amended agenda does not seem to violate the Brown Acts 72-hour minimum either, and in fact Theres a public interest in encouraging government to fix their mistakes.

She added, The recommendation portion does put the public on notice of what the title says so the clarification does not change anything, and does not require that the (council) put over the item for discussion at a properly noticed meeting.

If the amended title was significantly different from the original agenda posting, that could constitute a Brown Act violation and the council would have to delay discussion, Moore added.

Even if there was no Brown Act violation, the way the agenda items were written is ethically questionable and irresponsible to the community, Monack added. He plans to publicly object to the noticing of the July 27 meeting.

City staff compiles each council meeting agenda, which is approved by City Manager Steve Rymer before it is released to the public.

Rymer added that he agreed that Monack had a good point about the lack of clarity in the title of item 12. The original title posted July 22, which had no mention of a possible vote on bond or sales tax measure, was based on previous discussions about ongoing public opinion research conducted by consultants Godbe Research and The Lew Edwards Group, he added. The consultants were hired by the council last year to conduct research on local voters priorities for their city government, and to gauge their interest in taxing themselves to augment city services.

The city wasnt trying to hide anything, Rymer assured. On the contrary, in addition to circulating the agenda, city staff have also sent out email blasts in advance of the July 27 meeting, prominently notifying recipients of the two possible ballot measures under consideration.

I think our track record speaks for itself, Rymer said. We are very open and transparent. The law requires it, and the council expects it.

Among other items, the Morgan Hill City Council July 27 will consider placing either a general obligation bond or sales tax on the November ballot (item 12 on the agenda). The elected officials will also consider placing a measure asking voters to renew the Residential Development Control Systemwhich currently expires in 2020on the Nov. 8 ballot (item 13 on the agenda). Public opinion research consultants The Lew Edwards Group and Godbe Researchwho were hired by the council last year to conduct surveys of likely Morgan Hill votersrecommend placing only the RDCS measure on the ballot, and not pursuing a revenue measure for November 2016 due to a lack of support among survey respondents. The meeting will start 7 p.m. July 27 at council chambers, 17555 Peak Ave.
(Beijing)  Bridging the "regional divide" that separates affluent and less affluent areas is a main goal as the central government revives a stalled effort to form a nationwide pension system.

The State Council, China's cabinet, laid the groundwork for a unified, public pension system as part of an economic and social development strategy embedded in the 13th Five-Year Plan, which took effect this year.

Beijing wants to put what are now dozens of regional funds run by provincial, city and even county governments under one roof by 2020.

As a first step, officials with the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security are now drafting nationwide pension system regulations that should be completed by the end of the year, according to academics involved in the process who asked to remain anonymous.

After the rulebook is written, analysts say, central government authorities will have to fight to get the plan off the ground.

In 2011, a similar proposal included in the 12th Five-Year Plan stalled due to resistance from local governments on the rich side of the regional divide. Analysts say overcoming that still-intense resistance today will require firm resolve.

Even central government authorities do not necessarily see eye-to-eye when discussing the best way to structure a national pension fund, according to Yang Yansui, director of the Social Security Research Center at Tsinghua University in Beijing.

Through regional pension schemes, some 2.7 trillion yuan was collected from workers and 2.3 trillion yuan paid to retirees last year across the country, according to the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security. Total savings at the end of last year amounted to 3.4 trillion yuan, the ministry said.

The ministry's figures have been questioned in the past by academics who say the data overlooks an unspoken fact that local authorities often dip into pension funds for government project financing.

Nevertheless, a public plan that covers all workers in China would take in funds from a huge swathe of the nation's working-age population. According to ministry data released last year, pension payments were received from about 255 million workers in 2014, up 5.6 percent from the previous year.

Clashing Views

Social security ministry officials favor a nationwide scheme as a way to promote sustainability and bridge the wealth gap, which principally separates provinces and cities in China's prosperous east from those in rural central and thinly populated western provinces, Yang said.

But the social security ministry's counterparts at the Ministry of Finance fear a nationwide system might overburden the central government with financial responsibilities as the nation's population ages, she said.

Yang said the finance ministry's position has found few friends in affluent areas such as southeastern Guangdong Province, where local officials have shown little interest in a national plan.

Migrant factory workers from poor provinces have for decades paid into the pension system in Guangdong, where the government was sitting on a 77 billion yuan pension surplus in 2014, according to the social security ministry. But depressed areas such as Heilongjiang Province in the country's northeast and the northwestern Ningxia region have reported local pension fund shortages.

Heilongjiang's pension system was running a 10.6 billion yuan deficit at the end of 2014, according to a report by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, a government think-tank in Beijing. It was one of the seven regions that have seen pension payouts exceed collections.

One reason for the gap is that migrant workers must pay into the regional systems where they are employed but are only eligible for full retirement benefits through pension plans in their home provinces. Thus, migrant workers may only have a portion of their pension contributions transferred home from provinces where they work.

Moreover, pension fund officials in poor provinces have little incentive to support returning migrant workers who come home to retire.

Li Zheng, a professor of public management at Renmin University in Beijing, said some returnees may not be welcomed at home because they "did not pay much into the local pension fund." The current pension system thus fails to support China's labor dynamics, she argued.

"To tie a person's pension plan to one place undermines the free flow of labor, which is critically important to China," Li said.

In addition, regional pension fund deficits in some regions have been amplified by the need to pay elderly retirees who contributed little or nothing before China's pension system was launched in the early 1990s.

No pension plan existed before the State Council in 1991 ordered private sector employers to set aside a portion of each worker's salary for a government-sanctioned pension plan.

Today's pension plans vary slightly from one region to another. In the capital Beijing, for example, every non-government employer contributes 20 percent of each worker's base salary into a general account. And 8 percent of each worker's pay goes toward the fund through a personal account.

Government employees including school and hospital workers were not covered by pension funds before this year, when officials scrapped an old system through which government retirees received payments directly from public coffers. In some cases, retiree support was the responsibility of small government entities, such as counties.

A national pension system should link a worker's contributions to his or her retirement payments, said Zheng Bingwen, director of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences' World Social Security Institute. Such a connection can serve as an incentive for a worker to support the pension system.

A strong pay in-pay out connection would also prevent pension misuse, Zheng said. "A pension scheme can be compared to making a bank deposit," he said. "Do we really need to worry that depositors will take advantage of the bank?"

An even more pressing matter for the supervisors of any future, national pension system, Zheng said, would be the need to make sure that the fund is financially sound.

The system's supervisors could protect the fund by, for example, changing the rules that cover the self-employed, Zheng said. Currently, the self-employed have little incentive to contribute past a mandatory 15-year period for inputs, since their subsequent contributions will have little impact on how much they receive during retirement.

In the period before a nationwide system takes effect, though, Zheng thinks China should create a mechanism through which regional governments with surplus funds can transfer some of that money every year into a national fund that's accessible to regions with deficits.

Questions linger over how national authorities intend to address the resistance to change that's common among government officials in wealthy provinces  and bring them on board.

In fact, though, Zheng said the central government could set up a unified pension system in one step and force regional authorities to hand over any surplus cash. Also, he said, they could draw up a nationwide schedule for worker payments and retiree benefits that each region would be required to follow.

In Yang's opinion, the future of the national pension system plan hangs on Beijing's political resolve.

"It all comes down to whether authorities have the political will to overcome vested interests and reform the pension system in order to achieve long-term sustainability," she said.

(Rewritten by Li Rongde)
Mika Kubunavanuas normal approach to investing is to buy and hold. But more recently hes taken a more active stance with his ISA funds.

He says: Ive been investing for about six years, since the birth of our first child, so some funds were due a review.

Kubunavanua made some adjustments ahead of the EU Referendum, as he and his wife decided they wanted a less risk in their portfolio to mitigate the risks associated with the potential Brexit result.

He decided to sell his holding in Aberdeen Asia Pacific Equity, and invest instead in Threadneedle Dollar Bond Fund, Blackrock Gold & General and Church House Tenax Absolute Return Strategies.

He says: Weve held the Aberdeen Asia Pacific fund for a long time and to start with it performed brilliantly. But over the past three years it has come off the boil. Wed been hoping it would have a return to form but this hasnt happened yet, so this seemed an optimum time to realign our portfolio.

This fund has a three-star rating from Morningstar, but analyst Mark Laidlaw says there are headwinds here. These headwinds include capacity issues and the fact that the previous manager Hugo Young have moved to a broader role within the company.

However, Laidlaw pointed out that the fund still boasts a well-resourced and strong investment team led by veteran manager Flavia Cheong. For this reason it has kept the fund's Morningstar Analyst Rating of Silver.

BlackRock Gold & General has a four star relative performance rating from Morningstar, and its manager, Evy Hambro has a coveted Gold rating. Analysts said: This fund remains a strong offering for investors seeking mainstream gold and precious-metals equity exposure in a risk-controlled manner.

Although Kubunavanua has only been investing for six years, his wife, who works in financial services, has invested in ISA for over a decade. They both also have pensions through their work and invest into a Junior ISA for each of their children  aged two and six.

Balancing the Portfolio Risk

The switch from Asian equity funds to precious metal and absolute return funds does not mean they have de-risked their investments completely.

He says: We have kept our holdings in Rathbone Global Opportunities, Polar Capital Healthcare Opportunities, Stewart Investors Asia Pacific Leaders and Woodford Equity Income.

The couple used the fallout after the Brexit vote to buy some European funds, including Jupiter European and BlackRock European Absolute Alpha.

Our favourite fund at the moment is this Rathbone Global Opportunities fund. Its where the kids Junior ISA money is held and we both have it in our ISAs and pension. It's a great fund that covers a lot of options for us and just delivers nice consistent returns year in year out, Kubunavanua said.

This Rathbone fund has a five-star rating from Morningstar, reflecting its outperformance relative to peers. Its manager, James Thomson, who has been with fund since its launch in 2001, has a Silver rating.

Another strong performer has been Threadneedle European Select. Kubunavanua says his wife holds this fund in her pension and it has doubled in value over the past five years. This is another five-star rated fund, with the manager David Dudding holding a Bronze Morningstar analyst rating.

Funds that have Not Delivered

It has not all been plain sailing however. Kubunavanua invested in JPM Natural Resources just when commodity prices start falling. Despite a more recent rally, he says he has still made a loss on this fund, but is holding it for the time being in his portfolio.

The couple manage their investments through Chelsea Financial Services, and make annual lump sum payments into their ISA.

Luckily both of our employers contribute a decent amount to our pensions so we don't need to add more to our pensions ourselves, they added.

Alternative Investments for Further Growth

Kubunavanua has invested one VCT in the past and have one direct shareholding Pantheon Resources (PANR), an oil and gas exploration company. But he points out that this has been extremely volatile so they are sticking with funds for now.

The couple hope that if these investments continue to grow they will be able to retire between the age of 60 and 65, although Kubunavanua, who is 36, says this will depend on what their saving pots look like nearer the time.

He adds: We've contemplated buy-to-let a couple of times but the time and effort needed to maintain the properties and make sure they are rented all the time just puts us off  we have little enough free time as it is. And if we paid a company to manage it for us, we'd struggle to make any decent money. So we've never gone ahead and done it. Investment seems like a more straightforward way to make our money work for us.
China is a bigger threat to the global economy than Brexit, according to Gareth Lewis, chief investment officer at Tilney Investment Management.

We expect the Chinese currency devaluation to continue driving global deflation, Lewis told reporters at a briefing in London this week, predicting that the currency will devalue through 2017.

Extreme capital misallocation is the main driver behind the devaluation, Lewis said. Since the banking crisis in 2008, Chinese bank debt increased from $2.1 trillion to $28.2 trillion; greater than the debt levels built by the US banking system in the whole 20th century. Lewis believes that kind of credit growth is unsustainable and both the magnitude and speed of investment suggests capital misallocation.

Another problem China facing is that too much of the capital is state-directed. State-owned companies allocated cash limits the efficiency of the investment process. Without private sector investment China will struggle to create a sustainable long-term economic model. Lewis says the Chinese government agenda currently focuses too much on keeping up its GDP growth above 6.5% and employment growth high.

Long Term Structural Concerns

Other professional investors share the same concerns over Chinas long term prospects. Will Ballard, head of emerging market and Asia Pacific equities at Aviva Investors, agrees, saying that China has long term structural concerns.

Were paying close attention to market liquidity conditions, global funding stresses and capital flows in China, Richard Turnill, BlackRocks global chief investment strategist pitched in.

Lewis continued: The truth is Chinas economy with its size, probably needs only to grow 3.5 or 4% to be a well-balanced economy. The transition from where it was to a balanced level will be painful, but I think China as a dominated power on the global economy is not going away.

Concerns were also raised over the record level of Chinas share of global exports. Chinas proportion of global exports rose to 13.8% in 2015 from 12.3% in 2014, according to data from the United Nations Conference on Trade and Employment, the highest level any country has been since the US in 1968.

While Chinas share of global exports is at a record level, world trade is declining, leaving a question as to where their exports will go. This will swamp the global market with excess inventory that could trigger global deflation, Lewis warned.

With all these issues combined, China poses as a bigger challenge than Brexit to the global economy he argues.

While a Chinese hard landing is by no means guaranteed, the risks are growing, Lewis said.

There is a risk that the Chinese government will resist necessary reforms, burying their problems for this year, and setting a much lower GDP target the earliest second half of 2017, or even the year after.

Asia Growth Still Attractive to Investors

Despite many negative headlines about Chinas growth and its currency, Asia as a whole is achieving much faster rates of economic growth than rest of the world.

Brexit itself is not a reason to turn your attention to Asia. Asia is not perfect by any means, but it seems to me to still be on the right track, said Robert Horrocks, chief investment officer at Matthews Asia.

Using Morningstar Fund Screener, we found top rated funds that offer exposure to Asia. The Gold Rated First State Asia Equity Plus Fund offered exposure to Asia ex-Japan equities with a 20% return year to date. Gold Rated Schroder Asian Opportunities also offers the same exposure with a 21.3% return year to date. Silver Rated Aberdeen Asia Pacific and Japan Equity also delivers 20% return year to date with an exposure to Asia Pacific region, including Japan.
A Chinese property tycoon who supposedly left the mainland in connection with a banking scandal (involving allegedly irregular loans discovered via a nationwide audit) is said to be at the centre of more than half a billion dollars in property deals across British Columbia, according to various testimonies.



As reported by Sam Cooper for The Province, Sun Commercial Real Estate founder Kevin Sun has purchased and sold over $500 million in B.C. properties, as well as raised in excess of $200 million from investors.



Representatives of Sun Commercial maintained that Kevin Sunwho has also gone by the aliases Hong Sun, Hong Wei Sun, Kevin Lin, and Sun Hongweiwas not connected to the massive scandal involving the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China.



As far as my client knows, there are no Chinese police warrants in China for Kevin Sun (under that or any other name) nor are there any RCMP files in relation to same, Sun Commercial lawyer James Carpick wrote in an email.



Mr. Sun is not a director, officer, employee or shareholder of my client, Carpick added.



Despite having founded Sun Commercial, Kevin Sun remained an elusive personality, having never consented interviews and appearing in only one public picture (dates September 2015) ever since he set foot in B.C. The picture was removed from Sun Commercial vice president Julia Laus social media accounts when regulators initiated a review of the company in connection with a January 2016 investigative report.



Kevin Sun has been here for a while, a Chinese community leader said. He is pretty good at staying out of the spotlight.



Sun arrived in Vancouver at around 2001 or 2002, according to anonymous sources closely associated with the man. Subsequently, Kevin Sun and his spouse Ling Lin were sued by HSBC Bank Canada on grounds of allegedly defaulting on a $3.2-million mortgage for Suns $9.5-million gated mansion in Richmond.



No records exist of Sun transferring enormous sums from the mainland to Canada. Existing Chinese regulations cap the amount that nationals can transfer abroad per year to $50,000.


The Crown Corporation reports an increase in worrying conditions in Canadas housing market, and rings the warning bell for overvaluation in many cities.For Canada overall, we now detect strong evidence of overvaluation. As a result, our overall assessment has moved from weak to moderate since the last report, Bob Dugan, CMHCs chief economist, said. Moreover, the greater range of evidence of problematic conditions in Vancouver has led us to conclude that there is now strong evidence of problematic conditions in our overall assessment of the Vancouver housing market.CMHC now believes overbuilding currently plagues seven markets, including; Calgary, Saskatoon, Regina, Winnipeg, Ottawa, Moncton, and St. Johns.It has also identified overvaluation in nine markets. Those include; Edmonton, Calgary, Regina, Montreal (which CMHC argues there is moderate evidence of overvaluation) and Vancouver, Saskatoon, Hamilton, Toronto, and Quebec (where there is strong evidence).Right now we're seeing moderate evidence of overheating and price acceleration in Vancouver because supply is not keeping pace with demand, Robyn Adamache, principal market analyst, Vancouver with CMHC, said. We're also continuing to see strong evidence of overvaluation mainly because single detached home prices are higher than those supported by economic fundamentals.In Canada, overall, CMHC now believes there is strong evidence of overvaluation  up from moderate evidence in last quarters report.However, its overall assessment for the country is that there is moderate evidence of problematic conditions.Driving the increased level of evidence has been increasing growth in housing prices that have pushed house prices to levels that exceed the fundamentals supporting the housing market. These fundamental factors include changes in income and population, CMHC said in its report. Prices have increased relative to fundamentals in Toronto and Vancouver, and are increasing rapidly in some other parts of Ontario and British Columbia. This pattern is not reflected in many other provinces, however.To read the full report, click here
One leading industry economist weighs in on the concerns around Vancouvers pending tax on foreign buyers.Non-resident purchases of real estate in Vancouver will now have to pay an additional 15% land transfer tax. The decision has divided the industry -- with many claiming such a move is overdue, and others arguing it will have little to no impact.Dr. Sherry Cooper, chief economist of Dominion Lending Centres , weighs in on some of the prevailing concerns.One concern is enforcement. The new tax, which is quite hefty, amounting to $300,000 on a $2 million property, could be difficult to enforce as foreign buyers might circumvent the tax by having Canadian residents buy on their behalf, Cooper said in her latest commentary. It is suspected that many foreigners already buy properties through local residents. B.C. said it would introduce measures to prevent foreign buyers from bending the rules and threatened stiff fines  $100,000 for individuals and $200,000 for corporations  for those who dont comply.The new tax will go into effect August 2 and will apply to buyers who are neither Canadian citizens nor non-residents.However, many argue the tax will be skirted by many.Another issue is effectiveness. Other jurisdictions have introduced measures to limit or reduce foreign real estate investment, but the impact of these measures is uncertain. We don't know just how price sensitive foreign investors might be, Cooper said. We do have anecdotal evidence that some foreign purchasers have driven up residential real estate prices very rapidly, especially in multiple-bidding situations, with little concern for inherent value. It is doubtful that the new transfer tax, even at 15%, will render housing dramatically more affordable in the Greater Vancouver region.Many industry stakeholders have also voiced concerns that this new tax will encourage additional foreign money to flow into Toronto.It remains to be seen if Ontarios government will take its own action.
A Florida-based mortgage company is cutting more than 130 jobs at offices in Texas and North Carolina.



Ditech Financial, the lending company behind the iconic Lost another loan to Ditech! commercials of the 1990s, relaunched in 2014 with plans to set up correspondent, retail and consumer-direct lending channels.



But since then, the companys focus has shifted several times, with announced plans to shut down its distributed retail lending channel, focus on its correspondent and consumer-direct channels, or open a new wholesale channel, according to a HousingWire report.



And now the company is showing scores of employees the door. It has announced plans to lay off 78 employees in San Antonio, according to a report by the San Antonio Business Journal. And HousingWire reports that Ditech is pink-slipping about 60 employees at its Greensboro, N.C., office.



The layoffs in San Antonio  mostly debt collectors  are the result of a rebounding housing market, according to the Business Journal.

Over the past several years, the mortgage industry has shifted to a more normalized market, as defaults across the industry continue to decline, Courtney Thompson, assistant general counsel for Ditech parent company Walter Investment Management Corp., told the Business Journal.



The company would not confirm specifics about the Greensboro layoffs, according to HousingWire.


Eric Gay

DALLAS (AP)  Texas leads the nation in the number of law enforcement officers killed with 14 this year, including five recent slayings in Dallas.

The National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund reported Tuesday that Texas surpassed its U.S.-leading total of 12 deaths last year.
DALLAS (AP)  The group that organized a demonstration in Dallas that ended when a gunman ambushed police is planning a silent march to protest police treatment of blacks.

Next Generation Action Network founder Dominique Alexander said Tuesday that the march on Friday night is intended to "keep the pressure on" Dallas police to respond to protesters' demands for changes.
SAN ANTONIO (AP)  A fugitive charged in Texas with trying to launder suspected drug money by backing Hollywood movies has been extradited from Mexico.

U.S. prosecutors say Mauricio Sanchez Garza and others conspired to steal, by force, a religious-themed script and invest in the film.
Some government officials and politicians are ...
California State Capitol View Photos

Sacramento, CA  Voters may have the final say on a string of laws regulating gun use  but it may be a long shot as there is limited time to gather the signatures needed.

The laws involved expand background checks for ammunition purchases and attempt to curb rapid-reloading firearms by outlawing the bullet button. The device replaces the magazine release with a block forcing the user to remove the magazine with a tool instead of their finger.

The same person, Barry Bahrami of Carlsbad, submitted all the petitions in hopes of getting enough signatures for the November 2018 ballot. In all, each of the six petitions must garner 365,000 signatures. A tall order with just two months left to gather them, as the deadline to submit the signatures to county election officials is September 29, 2016.

Firearms Policy Coalition officials call the petition drives an improbable undertaking as the campaign has no known financial backers.
POST - Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association Special Ranger Dean Bohannon is seeking information on the theft of five saddles, four ATVs, a shop welder and assorted tools from the Drew Kirkpatrick Ranch headquarters located south of Post on Hwy 669.

According to Bohannon, the theft occurred between 7 p.m. Sunday, July 24, and 7:30 a.m. Monday, July 25.
COLLEGE STATION - New growth from spring and early summer rains are causing wildfire concern as summer heat and dry conditions have turned much of Texas into a tinderbox.

Dr. Andy Vestal, Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service director for emergency management programs at Texas A&M University in College Station, said spring and early summer rains did wonders for producers around much of the state to promote significant growth of range grasses and other plants. However, the normal mid-summer dry down has accelerated statewide since July 1, especially with 100-degree temperatures in most regions.

The drying effect has left forages, grasses and woody material on the ground as potential fuel for wildfires, he said.

The potential for these to be ignited by dry lightning or a spark from outdoor work, such as welding, or by someone who didnt take the proper precautions with a burn pile or while grilling, is something people need to be aware of, Vestal said. It can be especially dangerous when this dry situation is combined with elevated wind velocity.

Landowners should be aware of and adhere to local regulations on outdoor burning and prescribed fire planning, Vestal said. County commissioners implement burn bans as appropriate based on information they gather from the Texas A&M Forest Service, local fire officials and weather conditions.

The Texas A&M Forest Service Outdoor Burn Ban map showed 87 counties had implemented bans. The Forest Services July 25 Fire Danger Forecast showed most of the state with a moderate level of danger. The El Paso area in West Texas and a few counties in the Rio Grande Valley were under a high fire potential forecast, with a very small area in that region under a very high level.

Vestal said conditions are expected to worsen throughout the summer and may last for some time as forecasts for the state are calling for a change in weather patterns that will bring less precipitation than the previous 12 months.

Vestals rule of thumb, when a burn ban is not in effect, is to ignite debris for a controlled burn of brush or debris during the pre-dawn and early morning hours to avoid winds and utilize remaining dew moisture as another level of control. Fires should never be left unattended, and landowners should always have available water or firefighting tools to maintain and control the spread of flames.

When conditions are dry and winds are elevated there is no doubt a single spark could ignite a wildfire situation, he said.

Vestal said the Texas A&M Forest Services Wildfire Risk Assessment Portal, https://www.texaswildfirerisk.com, is a good resource when planning outdoor burns or to check on potential wildfire conditions in various regions. The site also gives tips and recommendations on everything from proactively landscaping to protect structures from wildfires to proper ways to a controlled fire and how to be ready in case flames spread.

AgriLife Extension district reporters compiled the following summaries:

SOUTH PLAINS: Counties experienced extremely hot, dry weather conditions which have affected topsoil and subsoil moisture levels. Producers were irrigating. Cotton was really hit hard by high temperatures. Several fields have already reached physiological cut-out at five or fewer nodes above first position white flower. Cotton in Dawson County was having a hard time holding fruit and making bolls. Dryland cotton could be in trouble if a soaking rain does not arrive soon, and irrigation on fields was struggling to keep up with water demands. Grain sorghum and corn were both highly variable in how they have taken the heat. Some hail damage to corn and cotton fields was reported in very isolated areas. Peanuts were generally doing okay. The heat hampered some pegs from penetrating soil and forming pods. Pastures, rangeland and wheat needed moisture. Sugarcane aphids were found in grain sorghum fields in very low numbers. Grass growth from early summer rains was drying out and was becoming a potential wildfire hazard.

PANHANDLE: Hot, dry and windy conditions continued in the district. Soil moisture levels were mostly short. Rain was needed throughout the region. Conditions were stressing crops. Recent rains helped cotton fields in Collingsworth County mature quickly. Many of the acres were setting bolls, and heat unit accumulation was pushing the crop forward at a rapid pace. Pastures were beginning to decline due to excessive heat and limited moisture. Corn was pollinating and in peak water demand. Irrigation was active in corn, sorghum, cotton and soybean fields where available. Some corn acres may be abandoned unless producers divert water to fields. Grasshoppers continued to cause damage. Some spider mites appeared in corn. Ranges continued to decline from lack of moisture. Supplemental feeding will likely begin soon if drought conditions continue. Fire danger was high. Grain sorghum was doing OK but will need water soon. Sunflowers were in the four-leaf stage. Insect problems were still light. A few aerial applicators sprayed insecticide on corn. Fly control on cattle continued. Range and pasture conditions varied from poor to fair with most reporting good. Cattle were in good condition.
Some of you may recognize this article. It is an article I wrote last year and I have actually be asked about it recently so I promised I would share it again, so here it is.

I dont know about you but in my experience, I have spoken to many people who believe they are a bad person because of a mistake or mistakes they have made in the past. If you or someone you know feels/thinks like this, I am pleased to tell you that you are wrong. Before you think, or even say out loud, that I do not know what Im talking about because your mistake is different, I am here to tell you, you are still wrong.

I do not pretend to know the mistakes everyone has ever made in their entire life, but I do not need to. God did not make us perfect and because we are not perfect, we are going to make mistakes. Think of it from a learning standpoint. If we were born with all of the knowledge we would ever need, then we would not need to learn anything else and we could apply our infinite knowledge to every aspect of our life because we know everything and because we know everything we would not need a doctor, a therapist, an accountant, etc. Does that seem reasonable? Think of how impossible it would be to know everything. From the day we are born, we learn and grow until the day we die and through that lifetime of learning, we have to make mistakes in order to learn what we need to live this life. What we need to know is not restricted to book knowledge (i.e. math, English, social studies, science, spelling, etc.) because there is more to life than just the knowledge that comes from books.

We need to learn our spirituality, social skills, how to behave in several different situations, what is right and what is wrong, how to take care of ourselves physically, emotionally, mentally, etc., what we want in a partner and in a relationship, what kind of person we are and just plain old common sense! Yes, all of these things are in books, but books do not necessarily teach you application. There is a lot of knowledge that comes from experiences in life that is more important than book knowledge. Like I said earlier, our entire life is comprised of learning and hopefully we never stop. So, because we spend our lifetime learning, we have to make mistakes in order to learn from them.

I am going to share a few quotes about mistakes with you that I found on the internet:

Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new. -- Albert Einstein~

All men make mistakes, but a good man yields when he knows his course is wrong, and repairs the evil. The only crime is pride. -- Sophocles~

One mistake does not have to rule a person's entire life. -- Joyce Meyer~

Mistakes are common and it is something we do on a daily basis; however, some people hold on to them and judge themselves according to their mistakes. What they need to realize is mistakes are an action we take because we either misjudged or did not have the information we should have had before taking action or maybe we were just downright impulsive! One very important point these quotes make is we have to correct our behavior once we realize it is wrong and learn from the mistakes we made, but then forgive ourselves and move on.

Its not the mistakes you made, its what you learn from them and how you correct them.

Take Care and God Bless.

JoAnn Rey is a Licensed Professional Counselor. Email joann_rey70@yahoo.com
Soon after arriving in Cleveland for the Republican National Convention, Connecticuts delegation found itself in a precarious position.



Hailing from perhaps the bluest state in the nation, the Connecticut GOP contingent  largely a moderate bunch  was asked to vote on the very conservative 2016 Republican Party platform.



Hailed by Christian conservatives, the platform opposes same-sex marriage and abortion, with no exception for rape or incest.



Also, it calls for women to be barred from military combat, for the Bible to be taught in public high schools, and demands that lawmakers use religion as a guide when legislating.



GOP presidential nominee Donald Trumps campaign promise to build a wall along the U.S. border with Mexico also made it into the platform.



The 66-page document, intended to guide the partys policymaking for the next four years, was passed with a voice vote.



Leading up to the convention, some Republican delegates from Connecticut indicated their unease with the rigid platform.



I have serious reservations about it, state House Republican Leader Themis Klarides, one of 28 Connecticut delegates to the convention, told the Connecticut Mirror. She said the platform does not reflect her view of the GOP as a big tent party.



Republican delegates from Connecticut, Rep. John Frey of Ridgefield and Rep. Anthony DAmelio of Waterbury, told the Mirror they too were uncomfortable with the platform language regarding social issues.



Another delegate, J.R. Romano, the head of the Connecticut Republican Party, also doesnt appear to be thrilled with the GOP platform, saying it doesnt define candidates, nor is it binding.



With Trump, a man who has shown no sign of wishing to debate the culture wars, as its standard-bearer, the GOP had a chance this year to soften its stance on abortion and the LGBT community.



Instead, the party lurched hard to the right.



Connecticut Republicans have good reason to be disappointed.






No one is above the law.



How many times have we heard that old adage since we threw off the yoke of royalty, back in 1776? In the subsequent 240 years we havent had much trouble with rulers who figure the rules dont apply to them. Richard M. Nixon was one, and he learned the hard way. So did John G. Rowland.



Recently we have seen, in some video discovered by the Hartford Courant, our governor, Dannel P. Malloy, bypassing security at Bradley International Airport last Nov. 27. He and Mrs. Malloy are seeing their son off to California after a Thanksgiving visit, but before the son goes through the standard security drill that the rest of us have to endure before every flight, he is relieved of a red backpack, which his dad then carries through a non-public corridor and emerges in the departure area. The son is then seen carrying the backpack again.



What was in that backpack? Probably nothing to be concerned about. What harm was done? Not much. Unless you consider that a planeload of people flew across the country not knowing there was one uninspected piece of luggage on board, courtesy of the governor of Connecticut. And unless you consider that part of the reason we have to go through all these calisthenics at the airport is as security theater  a public display of the idea that, again, no one is above the law.



Some years back, after having served two terms as vice president of the United States, Al Gore was singled out  more than once, but supposedly at random  for special scrutiny at an airport. He handled the situation with aplomb because, after all, no one is above the law.



Malloy has been a long time and staunch supporter of Hillary Clintons bid for the presidency; so staunch, in fact, that his name has been bandied about for a significant position in her Administration, should she win. His national profile has been rising.



But, after weathering the challenge from Bernie Sanders, Clinton is looking to enhance her credibility as a progressive, and hiring the guy who fired 1,000 unionized state employees, and who cut services to the blind and the mentally impaired, may not seem such a good bet. Then theres the new investigation into the funding of Malloys 2014 re-election campaign. His high-handed security stunt at Bradley may have been the last straw.



The way these things work, theres little doubt that a new Clinton Administration would feel the need to offer Malloy something for his efforts and his loyalty. Hes on the list. But with all the service cuts and all the layoffs  and now Bradleygate  his star may be sinking.






Perhaps chagrined by the acerbic public display of animosity at last weeks board meeting, San Franciscos supervisors played nice on Tuesday, and announced they had reached agreements on several proposed ballot measures that were in jeopardy because the progressive and moderate blocs were too mad at each other to compromise.

There was a little nudging along the way, as board President London Breed started the meeting by admonishing her colleagues that they were prohibited from acting in a manner unworthy or unbecoming of a supervisor. The tenor throughout Tuesdays meeting was markedly different from last week, when the supervisors traded accusations of extortion and underhanded politics.

Public advocate deal

While hard feelings linger privately, the supervisors were able to reach consensus on several proposed November ballot measures, including requiring the city to take responsibility for street trees to establishing an office of public advocate.

Key to the goodwill was a last-minute deal on the measure that sparked last weeks meltdown  Supervisor Malia Cohens proposal to create a Department of Police Accountability, which would have the authority to audit Police Department policies.

Last week, the progressives refused to put it on the ballot as a stand-alone measure and, over Cohens objections, folded it into Supervisor David Campos proposed ballot measure to create a public advocate office, which Cohen and the other moderates oppose.

Cohen angrily accused the progressives of playing politics with the lives of black and brown people simply out of political retribution because, over their objections, she had sought to amend the public advocate proposal to require elected officials to sit out one term  four years  before running for the office. The progressives retorted that they were making her measure stronger by making the Department of Police Accountability independent of the mayor.

Campos caveat

But over the last week, as African American groups criticized merging the measures, the progressives changed their position. On Tuesday, Campos proposed allowing Cohens measure to go on the ballot by itself, with the caveat that the public advocate would appoint the departments director.

I know that it has been a very tense time for the last few days, Campos said. I am happy that both measures are moving forward. I think it really gives voters in San Francisco an opportunity to make a choice.

Cohen also lauded the compromise. What you heard today is a willingness to bridge a gap that occurred last week, she said.

The moderates and progressives also reached an agreement on a measure to return tree maintenance to the city  its now the responsibility of property owners. While all the supervisors supported the idea, they have wrangled on the best way to pay for it.

Scott Wiener proposed a parcel tax. John Avalos wanted a bundled Charter amendment and carbon tax designed to bring in enough money to care for the trees. Norman Yee wanted to transfer maintenance much sooner, but without earmarked funding.

City to pay for trees

In the end, none of those proposals won out. Instead, the supervisors agreed that the city would pay for tree maintenance by using new anticipated revenues, including money from a proposed transfer tax on properties worth more than $5 million. The measure will still go on the ballot because it mandates a $19 million set-aside to ensure that the city always allocates the funding.

In an unusual love fest, Wiener thanked Avalos  with whom he often clashes  for his partnership and his creative thinking in reaching a compromise.

Avalos returned the nod. We often dont see eye to eye on issues, Avalos said of Wiener. But trees, he said, are an issue that can unite this Board of Supervisors.

Emily Green is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: egreen@sfchronicle.com

Twitter: @emilytgreen
Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants is investigating a data breach affecting its customers credit and debit cards.

The chain, which is based in San Francisco but owned by Intercontinental Hotels Group, said that it was recently made aware of unauthorized charges on cards used at its hotels.

Its unclear how many people or which of its 62 hotels were affected.

We recommend that individuals closely monitor their payment card account statements, a spokeswoman said in an email. If there are unauthorized charges, individuals should immediately notify their bank.

Brian Krebs, who runs the security news site KrebsOnSecurity, initially reported the possible breach.

Earnings

Gilead shares

fall on outlook

Gilead Sciences fell the most in almost three months after the company cut its product sales forecast for 2016 and reported lower-than-expected quarterly sales for its hepatitis C drugs.

Shares of Foster Citys Gilead fell 8.5 percent to close at $81.05 Tuesday. The drop came in the wake of the biotech companys earnings report Monday. Although profit topped analysts estimates, the companys outlook disappointed Wall Street.

Net product sales will be $29.5 billion to $30.5 billion for the year, it said, down from a previous outlook of $30 billion to $31 billion. The company also expects to spend more on research and development this year.

The drugmakers hepatitis C pills, Sovaldi and Harvoni, brought in $3.92 billion, missing the $4.06 billion average of projections.

Smartphones

Security focus

for BlackBerry

BlackBerry unveiled its latest smartphone, a security-focused touch-screen Android device that it hopes will make the companys money-losing handset business profitable.

At $299, the DTEK50 is priced for midmarket users, cutting in half the original retail cost of BlackBerrys first Android phone, the Priv, which the company admits was too expensive to appeal to a broad audience. Advance orders are being accepted for the DTEK50 in the U.S., Canada and Western Europe, BlackBerry said Tuesday.

The DTEK50 is designed for people who demand a stronger sense of security with their mobile phones, either because they fear for their privacy in a world of hackers and data leaks or because their employers require it.

Restaurants

Zagat revamps

ratings in guide

Zagat, the restaurant guide known for including quotes from customers, is getting rid of its classic 30-point rating scale in favor of a more streamlined system that will incorporate Google Maps and Search into a redesigned, more personal mobile app.

From now on, reviews will be based on a five-tier system, ranking restaurants on a scale from poor to perfection, instead of asking diners to differentiate between a rating of 21 or 22 in multiple categories. The new app, which will be available first on Apples iOS, will have a sleeker design that reflects the sparse simplicity of Google, which bought the dining guide in 2011 for $151 million. The changes will also put Zagat in line with competing digital reviewers like Yelp and TripAdvisor.

We thought it was time to cook up an update to our iOS app to provide our foodie fans with the freshest, most relevant content  while on the go, according to a Zagat blog post Tuesday.

The guide started in New York as a newsletter more than 35 years ago.

Economy

Mixed feelings

by consumers

American consumers are feeling confident about current economic conditions but are a bit warier about the future.

The Conference Board said Tuesday that its consumer confidence index was essentially unchanged in July, dipping to 97.3 from a revised 97.4 in June. The business groups index includes consumers assessment of the economy now and what they expect over the next six months. Their view of todays economy rose to the highest level since September, but their outlook slipped.

The survey was the first to measure sentiment since Britain voted June 23 to leave the European Union. That vote rattled financial markets but doesnt appear to have bothered American consumers much.

The share of consumers saying jobs were hard to get fell to 22.3 percent, lowest since August.

The fact that the index was virtually unchanged reaffirms a degree of resilience on the part of consumers, said Jim Baird, chief investment officer at Plante Moran Financial Advisors.

Gas prices continued to fall, and retail sales posted a healthy 0.6 percent increase in June.

Chipmakers

Analog will

buy Linear

Analog Devices says its buying fellow chipmaker Linear Technology of Milpitas for roughly $14.8 billion.

Analog Devices said Tuesday that its offer is worth about $60 per share, 24 percent more than Linears closing price Monday. The Norwood, Mass., company is offering $46 in cash and 0.2321 of an Analog Device share for each Linear share.

Analog Devices says the combined company will have annual revenue of about $5 billion and hopes to reach $150 million in cost savings 18 months after the deal closes.

It plans to issue new stock and long-term debt to fund the purchase.

The transaction has been approved by the boards of both companies and is expected to close in mid-2017.

Discrimination

Qualcomm

to settle suit

Qualcomm has agreed to pay $19.5 million to settle a gender discrimination class-action lawsuit involving 3,300 women who alleged they were denied equal pay and job opportunities to their male counterparts.

The settlement reached Tuesday also stipulates that the San Diego chipmaker implement policy changes and programs to better promote female employees working in the field of science, technology, engineering and mathematics, known as STEM.

Qualcomm Technologies said that it has strong defenses to the claims but agreed to make improvements.

The womens lawyers say the changes could turn Qualcomm into a model in the male-dominated tech industry.

The company agreed to the settlement before the lawsuit was to be filed in court Tuesday. The settlement is still subject to court approval.

Chronicle News Services
MICHAEL STRAVATO /New York Times

The effect of low oil prices on the Texas energy industry continued to pull down the states economic activity in May, Comerica Bank said Wednesday in its monthly index report.

The Texas economy is still feeling the weight of the reset in the energy sector, but that weight will gradually diminish going forward, said Robert Dye, chief economist of the Dallas-based bank.
A 32-year-old East Bay man died shortly after trying to run away from Pittsburg police officers who chased him into a house and shot him with a stun gun when he fought with them Tuesday, officials said.

Three police officers tried to stop Humberto Martinez after an unspecified traffic violation at about 2:30 p.m., but he drove away and ran inside a garage on the 4200 block of Hillview Drive, near Buchanan Park and Highlands Elementary School, said Capt. Ron Raman.

Martinez, who has addresses listed in Bay Point and Pittsburg, got into the house through a partially open garage door, Raman said. He had previously lived in the residence and knew the people living there, police said.

Inside the garage, two officers tried to grab Martinez, but he broke free and ran inside the kitchen, Raman said. For the next several minutes, the man fought with officers and bit one of them on the hands, causing the skin to tear. As they wrestled on the ground, an officer used a Taser on Martinez, which Raman said wasnt effective in getting him to stop resisting.

Hes a relatively big person, Raman said. He was actively fighting with police officers.

The officers called for help, and six cops ultimately went to the scene. The original two stepped back to catch their breath and secure the house, Raman said. The other officers were able to handcuff Martinez, who suddenly became unresponsive.

Raman said the officers immediately took off the handcuffs, initiated cardiopulmonary resuscitation and used an automatic external defibrillator they had on hand. The resuscitation efforts were initially successful, Raman said, and paramedics drove him to a nearby hospital, where he was pronounced dead about an hour later.

Police noted that Martinez had a lengthy criminal history, an outstanding felony warrant for drug offenses and was on probation. He was previously arrested for assault, weapons violations and possessing controlled substances.

Asked if it appeared Martinez was under the influence of drugs, Raman said, Its not normal for people to run and actively fight with police officers. The results of an autopsy are pending, he added.

Raman said the accounts given by police were corroborated by certain items at the scene, body-worn police camera footage and independent witnesses.

In keeping with standard protocol, the officers involved were placed on three days of administrative leave. The Contra Costa County district attorneys office is investigating the death in conjunction with the Police Department.

Kimberly Veklerov is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: kveklerov@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @kveklerov
Ron Chapple / Getty Images / / Getty Images

A 16-hour standoff between police and a 13-year-old autistic boy armed with a knife and barricaded in the garage of a San Francisco home ended Tuesday afternoon when officers shot the teen with a nonlethal bean-bag gun and rushed in to detain him, officials said.

Around 1 p.m., police shot the boy with bean-bag rounds and he was taken to a hospital and treated for injuries, said Officer Giselle Talkoff, a San Francisco police spokeswoman. His condition was not immediately released.
Clay Enos, HO / TNS

Hunt for the Wilderpeople: Odd-couple pairing of a defiant city kid (Julian Dennison) and his crusty uncle (Sam Neill) on the run in New Zealand has been getting outstanding reviews (99 Tomatometer score) since its limited release in June.

The Innocents: French-Polish film set in the aftermath of World War II has bee rescheduled for a second time.
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H-E-B announced the finalists for its annual food search contest on Wednesday, including two from the San Antonio area: Ancho and Morita-Smokey Tamarind Sauce by Humble House Foods and the Original Olive Leaf Tea from Sandy Oaks Olive Orchard in Elmendorf.

The third annual H-E-B Primo Picks Quest for Texas Best contest program searches for products from Texas natives that H-E-B can add to its Primo Picks Brand.

Luis Morales, who co-owns Humble House Foods with his wife, said the hot sauce is like salsa with a twist. It comes in a plastic bottle, like Sriracha, but its barbecue-like flavor compliments everything from Mexican to Indian food.

Its not like other hot sauces, Morales said. (H-E-B) really liked the packaging, and the flavor profile they really love.

Sandy Winokur, who runs the Sandy Oaks Olive Orchard in Elmendorf, started serving olive leaf tea at the orchards restaurant in 2013. Now, she says the number of customers who order the beverage has tripled.

Winokur expressed excitement at getting her products into the spotlight.

I think its tremendous publicity, she said. It gets our name out there.

H-E-Bs goal with the contest is to get Texas products onto store shelves. Business development managers judged products from 475 applicants across the state over the course of two rounds to whittle down the field to 25 finalists. From Aug. 10 through 11, the finalists will present their products to a panel of judges at the Houston Food Bank.

Four awards are given, a grand prize and a first through third place. All four get their products on H-E-B shelves as a Primo Pick as well as cash awards of $25,000 to $10,000.

Quest for Texas Best is a phenomenal opportunity for Texans to get their products on H-E-B store shelves, and for all to explore and enjoy locally sourced products, said James Harris, H-E-Bs director of diversity and inclusion and supplier siversity, in a news release. After all, Texas is home to smart, inventive food entrepreneurs, further advancing our national reputation as a foodie state.

ebustillos@express-news.net
Courtesy Cooper's Meat Market

Cooper's Meat Market, 6002 Broadway, has announced they now carry Native American Beef.

The Native American Beef brand partners with American Indian ranchers who maintain traditional practices and produce beef that is grass-fed and hormone free. Cooper's currently carries tenderloin and New York Strip.
COURTESY/COURTESY OF INSTITUTE OF TEXAN C

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One of San Antonio's beloved restaurants, Hsiu Yu, is closing later this year.

"My parents are retiring," said Charlin Yu, daughter of owners Hsiu and John Yu. "I thought about taking over the restaurant, but it's too much for just me."

The restaurant opened in 1983, but its history goes back to Taiwan, where both John and Hsiu Yu grew up.

John Yu emigrated to New York City in 1971 after earning his culinary degree in Taiwan and moved to San Antonio in 1974. Hsiu Yu left Taiwan for the United States in 1971, learned English by watching Sesame Street and met John in 1978.

They married a year later and opened their restaurant Oct. 17, 1983.

The last day for business will be Dec. 23.

"It's bittersweet," Charlin Yu said. "I grew up here. This is more my home than my home."
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Big Thicket National Preserve will be hosting a celebration honoring the park's 100th birthday.

The celebration, which will include a screening of "National Parks of Texas: In Contact with Beauty," will be held on Thursday, Aug. 25 fro noon to 2 p.m.

The featured documentary includes footage of all the national park sites in Texas and prominently features Big Thicket.

Big Thicket National Preserve has been running several ongoing projects during this year including: the planting of 100,000 long leaf pine trees, a social media photo contest, volunteer clean-up efforts, and a special participation patch for visitor who hike, bike, or paddle 100 miles in the preserve.

This Centennial Celebration event is free and open to the public. The Big Thicket Visitor Center is located at 6102 FM 420, Kountze, TX 77625. For more information, contact park staff at 409-951-6700.
Nick Ut/Associated Press

If the word Manson was not attached to Leslie, she would have been out 20 years ago, attorney Rich Pfeiffer told me about his client, convicted Manson family killer Leslie Van Houten, who is serving a life sentence for her role in two 1969 murders. On Friday, Gov. Jerry Brown reversed a parole board recommendation to parole Van Houten, 66, because she is remorseful, has accepted responsibility for her crimes and no longer poses a danger to society. As our Supreme Court has acknowledged, Brown wrote, in rare circumstances a crime is so atrocious that it provides evidence of current dangerousness by itself.

To people my age, Charles Manson, now 81, is best remembered as the deranged cult leader who led followers to kill five people, including pregnant actress Sharon Tate, at the Los Angeles home she rented with her husband, director Roman Polanski, in August 1969 The next night, Manson brought Van Houten and others to the home of Leno and Rosemary LaBianca, who later were found dead with the words Death to pigs and Rise scrawled in blood on their walls. These killings were brutal, premeditated acts of terrorism designed to spark Mansons envisioned race war between black and white. Manson called the coming war Helter Skelter.
Days after a street brawl outside a Dairy Queen in South Texas went viral on social media, police are searching for a suspect in a theft that may have occurred during that time.

Multiple women in dresses and men in more casual attire were seen fighting outside a Dairy Queen in Corpus Christi late Friday night. At one point in the now-viral video someone falls to the ground, and the crowd continues punching and kicking the hapless individual.
Guests of a San Antonio hotel who had steamy pictures on their personal online accounts might have had someone looking at them over their shoulders, figuratively speaking.

Videos and photos of people engaged in apparently consensual sex acts  found on computer equipment seized by FBI agents conducting a child porn investigation  are believed to come from online accounts of guests at the Crowne Plaza hotel, prosecutors told a judge here Tuesday.
Former Fredericksburg police officer Linda Lively has avoided jail time under a plea deal on two counts of evidence tampering she faced over the disappearance of drugs from the departments evidence room.

Prosecutor Steve Wadsworth said Lively, who became an evidence room technician after retiring from the agency as a lieutenant in 2014, pleaded no contest last month to one of the charges and was sentenced to 10 years probation and a $500 fine.
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"How can we tell you two apart?" is the belabored question thrown at Julian and Joaquin Castro time and time again.

"He says I'm one minute uglier than he is," Julian, the older twin, jokingly responds, over and over and over and over again.

Sometimes he switches it up, like on Tuesday morning, for example. Instead of saying he was one minute uglier than his brother, a second-term congressman, he said he was "a little bit uglier."

A June 2015 Washington Post article is devoted to figuring out which twin is which, among other things.The headline reads: "Julian Castro on family dynasties and how to tell him and his twin brother apart."

In the article, the elder brother discusses a possible run as Hillary Clinton's vice president, a thought in its infancy at the time.

RELATED: San Antonio's Castro twins celebrate birthday in style

Telling him and his twin apart was JUST as important as running for vice president and making cities good places for everyone.

When asked the evergreen, ever-important "How can we tell you and Joaquin apart?"

The Housing Secretary replied, "Look for his congressional [lapel] pin. He wears it most of the time."

Wait, where's the joke! We need the joke!

"He also says I'm a minute uglier than he is, but I'll let everyone be their own judge."

Oh okay, phew. He said it. It's like an interview cannot begin until the joke is made.

RELATED: Joaquin Castro considering a run against Ted Cruz in 2018, Cruz fires back

After an extensive Google search, it appears the first time the joke appeared, at least publicly  this could feasibly date back to the twin's time at Jefferson High School on the West Side  was 2005.

During an interview with CNN anchor Soledad O'Brien, Joaquin Castro brings up how to tell him and his brother apart, unprompted.

"And Soledad, just for the record, just for the record, there is a very easy way to tell Julian and I apart. I don't know if you've noticed," he said.

Soledad said, "No."

"He's one minute uglier than I am," Joaquin Castro replied.

Now, no "(laughs)" are recorded in the transcript, but I'm sure the joke was a hit! Why else would they still be using it 11 years later?

RELEASED: Cable interviews, fan selfies: Castro brothers are celebrities at Democratic National Convention

Last year, on National Siblings Day April 10, Joaquin Castro tweeted a photo of him with his twin saying, "Happy #NationalSiblingsDay! Especially to my brother, @JulianCastro for being born one minute uglier than me!"

Here's just a few times the twins have used the joke:

But that is just a select few instances if you google "Julian Castro 'uglier than he is'" 1,090 results pop up.

The brothers, born Sept. 16, 1974, are nearing their 42nd birthday. Meaning they've been surrounded by people wondering how to tell them apart for half a century! If I had a twin, I imagine we'd come up with some sort of blanket response too. But the joke seems to work for the duo -- they were celebrity-like at the Democratic National Convention this week, with many wishing Julian Castro was chosen as Clinton's running mate.

And if you're in need of some real tips on how to tell the two apart, we compiled a list for you: Julian or Joaquin: How to tell them apart.

kbradshaw@express-news.net

Twitter: @KBrad5
SAN ANTONIO  A 26-year-old man was arrested Tuesday for allegedly performing oral sex on a 7-year-old male neighbor, according to arrest documents.

Aaron Ray Decker was charged with a first-degree felony of aggravated sexual assault of a child and is being held on a $75,000 bond.

RELATED: Affidavit: San Antonio-area minister arrested for sexually assaulting 16-year-old

Decker allegedly engaged in sexual activity with the child on Sunday, when the child was at his home.

Decker volunteered to give a statement to police regarding the incident, according to an arrest affidavit.

Decker told police he and the boy went to bed  the boy slept on an air mattress in the living room and Decker in a recliner, the affidavit said.

RELATED: San Antonio man serving 135 years for child porn gets life sentences for sex assault of 2 children

Decker said at one point he and the boy were going to play a game that his mother already knew about and said it was OK. That game ultimately involved Decker allegedly performing oral sex on the boy, according to the affidavit.

The childs mother said she had only known the suspect for about six months prior to the incident, but never knew his name.

RELATED: South Texas priest accused of raping child set for September trial

The affidavit does not explain why the boy was at the mans home.

If convicted, Decker faces five to 99 years in prison.

twhite@mysa.com

Twitter: @tylerlwhite
SAN ANTONIO  Bexar County Sheriffs deputies arrested a 26-year-old man Tuesday and seized a large haul of illegal drugs, ranging from marijuana to heroin on the Northwest Side.

Dionicio Moreno was charged with felony possession of marijuana between 50 and 2,000 pounds and two counts of possession of a controlled substance, according to a news release issued by the Bexar County Sheriff's Office Wednesday.
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SAN ANTONIO  A 39-year-old man wanted in connection to the shooting death of a mother of six was arrested without incident Wednesday afternoon, according to the U.S. Marshals Service.

James Edward Striblin was taken into custody at a convenience store near the corner of Walters and Houston Streets, said spokesman Chris Bozeman.

RELATED: SAPD: Woman shot, killed while shielding woman from gunfire outside Northwest Side apartment

Striblin was brought to the Bexar County Central Magistrates Office and turned over to San Antonio police, which was originally investigating the homicide, Bozeman said.

Striblin is a suspect in the shooting death of Margarita Natividad, 28, who shielded another woman from gunfire in an early morning shooting at an apartment complex last Friday.

Police are also looking for Priscilla Daniella Cueva, 30, who is a person of interest and was last believed to have been with Striblin. A previous report suggests she may be in danger.

RELATED: SAPD searching for suspect in killing of Margarita Natividad and woman who may be in danger

Natividad was shot at about 4 a.m. Friday in the 4000 block of Medical Drive at the Charles Andrews apartments by a male suspect with a long gun, according to previous reports.

Natividad and the suspects involved reportedly got into a fight outside the apartments, which is when Natividad stood in front of another woman before being shot, the earlier report said.

It is unclear whether Cueva was the woman being shielded by Nativadad.

RELATED: 4 suicides in less than 4 weeks: Bexar County officials confirm latest death at jail

A GoFundMe page was set up to cover the cost of a funeral for the Natividad, who is described as a loving mother of six kids.

She was a beautiful, young and smart lady, the GoFundMe page, organized by Arianna Santana, said.

twhite@mysa.com

Twitter: @tylerlwhite
Central Texas police arrested 19 men and women for their alleged involvement in a prostitution operation during a two-day sex sting in the Killeen-Fort Hood area.

RELATED: Wife of teacher alerts police to husband's alleged sexual relationship with student

Members of the Killeen Police Department's Organized Crime Unit conducted a city-wide investigation into prostitution on July 22-23 after receiving complaints and several tips from citizens in the area, officials said in a release.

RELATED: Married Texas junior high teacher impregnated 15-year-old student

According to a KPD release, 17 of the 19 arrested were charged with prostitution while two others were charged with drug- and weapons-related charges. Ahmad Turner was charged with delivery of a controlled substance and unlawful carry of a weapon and Kenneth Niece was charged with possession of a controlled substance.

According to KWXT, police used the website BackPage.com to get in contact with both the alleged prostitutes and handlers, and then conducted undercover stings over a period of two days.

Twitter: @SalDGuerrero
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The internet cried out after former President Bill Clinton was featured on dozens of newspaper front pages Wednesday, a day after Hillary Clinton was officially selected as the Democratic nominee for president, the first woman to do so.

At the 2016 Democratic National Convention, Hillary Clinton, appeared on screen from New York to speak to attendees and those watching at home. A collage of photos of all 44 presidents, all men, was broken, like a glass ceiling, before she spoke.

"I can't believe we just put the biggest crack in that glass ceiling yet," she told the crowd. "This is really your victory. This is really your night."

But on Wednesday morning, it was Bill, not Hillary, who was splashed across newspapers front pages. People took to Twitter expressing their frustration that even if a woman can get the nomination of a major political party, she couldn't be on the front page.

However, most critics  some claiming sexism was a factor  overlooked that the timing of the speech surpassed print deadlines for newspapers, one of two main reasons for the choice of photos.

And, as San Antonio Express-News photo editors, who also ran a lead image of Bill Clinton  with a secondary image of Hillary  explained, the Democratic nominee appeared on screen, rather than in person (as is tradition), which played into the decision.

RELATED: Hillary Clinton Tells Democrats: 'We Just Put the Biggest Crack in That Glass Ceiling Yet'

A photo of a candidate on a screen, rather than the night's keynote speaker who rallied the crowd, doesn't accurately capture the moment, they said, adding that illustrating the second-night convention coverage with a keynote rather than the nominee is nothing new.

Hillary Clinton will be prominently featured on Friday's front page, after she appears in person to speak Thursday night, the editors said.

RELATED: Hillary Clinton shatters glass in dramatic DNC video

Wall Street Journal reporter Byron Tau explained to an upset Twitter user, that the reason Hillary Clinton did not make most front pages was simply due to deadlines. Hillary Clinton spoke too late, and newspapers had to use a photo of Bill. He also pointed out that when Donald Trump was officially voted the Republican nominee for president last week, images of his family appeared on the front page.

The Chicago Tribune was one of the first newspapers to be criticized on Twitter for their front page that featured a photo of Bill Clinton.

Click through the slideshow to see how newspapers handled Hillary Clinton's late-night speech and how the internet reacted.

The New York Times used a photo of the crowd to commemorate the historic night, while some, like the Austin American-Statesman, did not include a photo from the convention.

The San Antonio Express-News and Houston Chronicle both printed images of Bill Clinton. The Fort Worth Star-Telegram used a photo of the crowd as their main front page art with a smaller photo of Hillary Clinton next to an article. The Dallas Morning News used a photo of Hillary Clinton appearing on the big screen during the convention with the headline "Shattered ceiling."

RELATED: The Clintons left footprints around San Antonio and Austin as a young couple in 1972

But nonetheless, Hillary Clinton has made her mark. Speaking directly to young girls at home, she said, "I may become the first woman president, but one of you is next."

Digital News Editor Kolten Parker contributed to this report.

kbradshaw@express-news.net

Twitter: @kbrad5
Right after the Sept. 11 attacks, I ran into Hillary Clinton outside an armory in Manhattan that served as a sort of clearing house for tragedy, where people brought pictures of the missing and checked for information.

For all her intensity about the city, she was operating in a new space. For the moment, no one really cared that she was a senator whod gotten elected from a state shed never lived in, the survivor of the best-known political sex scandal in American history, the former first lady who ran for office while her husband was still president.

When Clinton accepts the nomination for president later this week in Philadelphia, well be talking about her as the first woman to get a crack at running the country. But shed also be one of the most famous people ever to get the honor. Were watching a very familiar face making a brand-new mark on history.

In 2000, when she first ran for the Senate, the fact that New York had never sent a woman to the Senate was an afterthought, given all the other stuff there was to consider. It didnt begin well. She had trouble with the carpetbagging issue.

Then she turned everything around. Went on an endless listening tour of such anti-glamorous, earnest wonkiness that reporters who trailed after her from town to town began to develop nervous tics and drinking issues.

But it was the perfect strategy. By the end, she had worn down her aura of outsiderdom.

The thing I remember most about those trips from Oneonta to Cooperstown to Horseheads  besides the tedium  was the intense reaction she got from middle-aged women, who yelled and waved and begged for autographs. They were the ones who remembered what it was like when the newspapers had separate help wanted columns for men and women.

And there was something else. Hillary Clinton represented the possibility of a second act. The country was full of women who had come of age with the womens revolution, who had tried to have it all, raising children while having good  but maybe not spectacular  careers. Now there was the about-to-retire first lady, in her new persona, suggesting they might be able to start a whole new episode in life.

When the campaign was over, Clinton was in fact elected the first woman senator from New York. Even when she ran for president in 2008, she didnt usually make it a specific campaign theme. But gender was on her mind.

Over the last eight years, Clinton has grown more comfortable stressing the idea of becoming the first woman to serve as president. She thinks it really came into focus after she lost in 2008 and made that speech about putting 18 million cracks in the glass ceiling.

Because this is a story about Hillary Clinton, you know this upbeat resolution is going to be followed by a problem. Young women are not universally crazy about the first-woman thing. Some just see her as an imperfect candidate. For others, its because the whole gender thing seems like yesterdays news.

You can argue the pros and cons of Hillary Clintons character, or her potential to change the nation, or her position on trade policy. But you can never take away the fact that she was the one who made the idea of a woman becoming president so normal that many young women are bored by it.

Clinton comes out of a very specific zone of U.S. high school culture in the middle of the 20th century  the girls behind the homecoming float-building committee. She drew a terrible straw in 2008, when she had to run against a guy who was not only a making-history candidate himself, but also clearly a member of the prom king sector.

Now shes pitted against the rich kid who throws wild parties when his parents are out of town.

When she was still secretary of state, I asked Clinton about another presidential campaign and she waved the idea aside. Her future plans, she said, involved sleeping and exercising and traveling for fun. It sounds so ordinary, but I havent done it for 20 years. I would like to see whether I can get untired, she said. She may never find out.

Gail Collins writes a column for the New York Times.
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Following last weeks Republican calamity in Cleveland, the Democratic National Convention rolled into Philadelphia on Monday with big opportunities and big challenges.

Many Democrats will come with enthusiasm, but also with reservations.

Unlike the Republican Conventions speaker lineup, which was backfilled with Donald Trumps children because there were so few party heavyweights to anchor it, the Democratic Convention will have a litany of A-listers: The president, the first lady, Bernie Sanders and former President Bill Clinton among them.

These speakers will paint a vastly different picture of the country and its future than the unremittingly dark and dangerous one portrayed by the Republicans.

There will also likely be less acrimony in Philadelphia, as the Democrats review the failed stagecraft of Cleveland and work hard not to replicate it.

But all is not roses for the Democrats.

The presidential nominee, Hillary Clinton, has a battered image  partly due to a concerted effort by Republicans to batter it, and partly the result of her own poor choices. Two-thirds of registered voters dont believe that shes honest and trustworthy, and trustworthiness is one of those attributes that tends to be difficult to quickly and easily alter.

Clintons honesty numbers are even worse than Trumps, but not by much. They both have some unbelievable negatives, as the New York Times reported earlier this month.

But being about as bad as Trump is hardly a good thing. Trump is a horrible candidate who shouldnt have a shot, but in this race he does. Although Clinton remains the favorite to win in November, the race is too close for comfort.

Too many voters find themselves in the worst possible position: They have a choice between a Republican of whom they are frightened and disgusted and a Democrat of whom they are leery and unenthused.

Last week Clinton had a chance to shake up the race with her vice-presidential pick, but instead she chose the safer route, choosing the Democratic centrist Tim Kaine.

Kaine has his virtues  he is solid and affable, a solid liberal from the crucial state of Virginia  but this is not the sort of pick that taps into the progressive populism sweeping the party or its expansive diversity.

Kaine reinforces Clintons steady hand message, but that is a message, however valid and necessary, thats completely devoid of sizzle.

Trump is campaigning on fear, change and winning, all intense and even seductive ideas, even though his proposals are insular, unrealistic or hollow. Steady just doesnt have the same emotional appeal. Ive been around long enough to know that this sort of visceral sensibility can swing elections.

The Democrats also have to deal with the resurgent idea of a primary process and party apparatus that favored Clinton and wasnt completely fair to Sanders.

This was reignited in the conversation last week when WikiLeaks released nearly 20,000 internal emails from the Democratic National Committee in which some officers expressed antipathy and outright hostility to Sanders and his candidacy.

No matter whom one supported during the primaries, or even what party one aligns with, this should turn the stomach. This kind of collusion is precisely what is poisoning faith in our politics.

Debbie Wasserman Schultz agreed to step down from her role at the conclusion of the convention. But the injury is already inflicted.

These leaks further damage an already damaged faith in the Democratic nominating process.

What are those Democratic voters supposed to do who dont trust the candidate, the party or the process, even if they view The Donald as the Devil?

This is one of the conventions conundrums.

Charles Blow writes a column for the New York Times.
With Thomas Hobbes now firmly in charge of Republican messaging  the world is a dark, Darwinian bloodbath, unless we turn over power to a strong ruler who will protect us  Hillary Clinton has a number of rhetorical and ideological gaps she could fill in Philadelphia.

She might, for example, use some self-effacing humor, in contrast to Donald Trumps thin-skinned egotism. She could tell some stories of immigrant contribution and success, rather than stories about immigrants murdering children. She might try a little aspiration, a little magnanimity, a little confidence in the American spirit  all on extended vacation in Trumps GOP.

And she could talk about the way religious values should inform our public life  a task that the Republican Party has largely abandoned.

It is, perhaps, to Trumps credit that in Cleveland he did not pretend to beliefs he does not possess. But his convention speech was almost entirely secular. Larger religious themes that often inform American public rhetoric  human dignity, social justice, the possibility of redemption  were absent.

This is one reason many of us found the GOP convention so disorienting and disturbing. Trump has cut the party off from its religious, ethical and moral moorings. He appeals almost exclusively to anger at perceived wrongs and to feelings of economic distress.

This may be Trumps best political strategy. For him to win in November, he must turn out millions of secular, blue-collar, economic populists  the type of voters Ross Perot once motivated  who have never participated in politics before. Trumps appeal to anger against immigration, trade, multiculturalism and political correctness is well suited to his target audience.

But Trumps approach does leave Democrats with an opening on religion. Clintons choice of Tim Kaine as her running mate is effective counterprogramming. Republican senators I talked with describe Kaine as very bright, genuinely nice, and unfailingly courteous and positive. But he is also known as faith-oriented and a deeply spiritual guy. Kaine is not only fluent in Spanish; he speaks the language of Catholic social thought, in the dialect of Pope Francis.

There is reason to think that Catholics  who often have a positive view of immigration  might be open to Democratic outreach. In 2012, President Obama won the Catholic vote narrowly, 50 percent to 48 percent. A recent poll had Clinton beating Trump among Catholics 56 percent to 39 percent. And it is not just Latino Catholics who have found Trumps message off-putting.

More Catholics might support Clinton, especially if she can find some comfortable religious language, emerging from her United Methodist tradition. This does matter to her, says a longtime associate. But it is a root canal for her to talk about it.

Clinton has a number of pressing problems that her Philadelphia convention speech must address. Her reputation for honesty and trustworthiness is in tatters. Her appeal to younger voters is often lame and feeble.

But at least some of these challenges would be addressed if she and her speechwriters find a way to talk about the Christian (and broadly religious) ideal of the common good.

We are tied together in the single garment of destiny, caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, said Martin Luther King Jr. Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly. For some strange reason I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be.  This is the way Gods universe is made.

It is one of the great tragedies of 2016  and perhaps an opportunity for Clinton  that Republicans have ceded the ground of faith without a fight.

michaelgerson@washpost.com
In inviting a foreign power to hack and release emails from Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump has crossed a line that even his nativist, isolationist, sexist and racist statements to date had not come close to approaching.

He essentially stated outright approval for cyberattack by a rival foreign power, Russia.

Starting the controversy were emails shared between top Democratic National Committee officials, released by the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks, that present a damning portrait of DNC leadership, notably U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz.

In response, she resigned as head of the DNC.

The documents have already roiled domestic politics. But Trumps statement injects another element.

The content of the now infamous DNC emails in this political season has overshadowed the real, more dangerous issue  that Russia was the source of the leaks on the eve of the partys convention. If true, this would represent an intolerable intrusion into American elections by a foreign power.

And that seems perfectly OK with Trump.

Russia, if youre listening, I hope youre able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing, Trump said Wednesday. I think you will be rewarded mightily by our press.

He is referring to emails that Clinton said were personal and that she did not produce for an FBI investigation into her use of a private server while she was secretary of state.

Trump is seeking to channel GOP frustration with the failure of the Justice Department to criminally prosecute Clinton for her use of the private server.

The FBI director recommended against prosecution, noting there was no criminal intent while making clear that her actions were careless and shouldnt have happened.

We agree on all those points and still find Trumps invitation for a rival foreign power to intrude on U.S. elections as far more careless.

His statement indicates a temperament, lack of judgment and mindset that will be dangerous to U.S. interests if he were ever to become president.

In the emails released so far, DNC officials clearly show favoritism to Clinton. In the documents, party officials openly dismiss Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who pushed Clinton in a bruising and long campaign.

The emails also show officials conspiring about how to use Sanders religious views against him in Southern states, a particularly disgusting tactic.

The DNC is supposed to be neutral in a primary fight, but with Wasserman Schultz that appears to be a facade.

It should go without saying, but voters and candidates deserve an impartial primary process, and while many of these emails were sent after the Democratic primary was, for all intents and purposes, settled, it has understandably strengthened the belief among Sanders supporters that they were hindered by the party.

These emails were highly troubling revelations as a matter of domestic politics. They are not, in and of themselves, however, a matter of national security. Who did the hacking is.

Consensus grows that Russia hacked DNC  and, possibly, Clinton  emails.

Trump has dismissed notions that Russia was behind the hacking. He essentially labeled it conspiracy theory  this coming from a conspiracy theorist on the presidents birthplace and on Clintons role in the death of a presidential aide, and his linking of Texas Sen. Ted Cruzs father to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

The Republican National Convention last week told Americans to be very afraid. Trump elaborated on a dystopian view of the country  which has been present throughout his campaign  as a dark and dangerous place.

He said he alone can save the nation.

This view is at odds with the facts, but now he has interjected another fact. There is plenty of cause to be very afraid should he get elected.
I have to laugh at all the yelling at the Republican National Convention about how Hillary Clinton lies and how the veterans deserve better. Apparently, some have forgotten that George W. Bush and Dick Cheney lied to America about WMD and other matters to get our military into a war that was supposed to last nine months.

How quickly the Republicans forget their own lies.

Gene Elder

Party of one

Re: Cruz offers no endorsement of Trump and draws jeers, front page, Thursday:

What a sore loser. They talk about attacks on Ted Cruzs family? Ask Sarah Palin about attacks on her family. I didnt see her whine about it after she lost.

Cruz seems to think Trump will quit and The Great Cruz will save the day. Are we sure he is a Republican or just the Cruz Party of one?

Anita Gardner, Mountain Home

Avoid this union

So the rap against Hillary Clinton is that shes untrustworthy. Compared to Mother Teresa, sure. But Donald Trump?

I can think of two whoppers Donald mightve told, in a church, in front of witnesses. Unless, of course, great negotiator that he is, he persuaded both Ivana and Marla to agree that instead of Till death do us part, he got to say, Till I find someone hotter.

Walk down the aisle with him, voter, and youre looking to get burned.

Carl Olson

Activist playbook

Re: Yearning for an America that never really existed, Lionel Sosa, Opinion, July 17:

Mr. Sosa, your accomplishments in the advertising world are truly award-winning, but your comments are flawed by your intense Hispanic obsession. You are not the first Hispanic American to comment about the Ozzie and Harriet days when everyone was white, heterosexual and Christian. They must be part of the activist playbook.

You are incorrect on the Donald Trump I want my country back platform. Trump is reflecting what Americans in both parties are feelings. They are not looking for Ozzie and Harriet. You might want to be intellectually honest by filtering out your obvious Hispanic leaning. You are not writing an ad. We are looking for honest people on both sides.

You seem to think the only thing wrong with Trump is that he is not Hispanic or Democrat. I hope that when you get to heaven, you are greeted by Harry Truman. He will likely re-educate you regarding what the Democratic Party and the rest of us need.

Larry Stewart

Control invaders

When France sneezes, Europe catches cold, the first chancellor of the Austrian Empire, Prince Klemens Wenzel von Metternich, said in the mid-19th century.

Though he was referring to the plethora of revolutions in France that later spread to much of Europe, his words are probably as salient today as they were then. Witness the exit of the United Kingdom from the European Union, the buildup of NATO troops in Eastern Europe, particularly in Poland and the Baltic republics, and the isolationist fervor gripping much of Europe.

Yes, Europe is reeling from the terrorist attacks in France and Belgium. The new, 21st century invaders are not the hordes of old but rather immigrants from predominantly Islamic countries who have not assimilated into the European culture. That these people should be kicked out of Europe is logistically, politically and humanely ridiculous, but the Europeans and, particularly the French, may do what the Dutch have done for centuries: learn to control the enemy. The Dutch have hosted the uninvited for centuries (i.e., Spanish, French, German) but have learned how to control them while maintaining their national sovereignty. Life appears relatively peaceful in the Netherlands right now.

Jamie Blount

Fear of self

When we all start seeing our national flag flying at half-staff on a weekly basis, we need to wake up and stop the madness.

I have hunted for 50 years, everything from doves to elk, and I never needed anything even resembling an assault rifle. Anyone having to own that type of weapon should be suspect in the sanity department. We threw the British out of America with muskets, and it took several years. With assault rifles, it would have been over in a week. Are we afraid of ourselves? I do wonder.

Al Blomberg, Converse

Vicious rhetoric

Re: Divisive words make Patrick a hypocrite, Brian Chasnoff, July 16:

This column was well written. Through his showdown with President Barack Obama, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick revealed once again that his words lack leadership or moral character. At a time when the country is mourning the loss of black citizens and police officers alike, we look for leaders who inspire hope and ways in which we can strengthen our relationship with one another.

Patrick used the town hall meeting and grieving public to feather his political ambitions. Sadly, we have seen often that Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick exists in a vacuum and is not above using vicious rhetoric in an effort to appeal to his fearful base.

Nancy Draves

Preventable deaths

Its tragic that all these police shootings have taken place over the years, but I firmly believe that none of them would have happened if the person shot had fully complied with the officers commands.

Rick Davis

Words matter

There is so much negativity in the media, such as the use of the word protest when people gather. If words like love march or care gathering were used instead, there might be a more positive attitude among citizens.

Liz Trainor
Re: Wasserman Schultz giving up her DNC post, Politics, Monday:

Looking at the front page of the paper, I expected to see a story about Debbie Wasserman Schultz resigning her position on the eve of the Democratic National Convention. Now thats togetherness! But, no, that story was relegated to Page A7.

During the Republican convention, all we saw on the front page were stories about Ted Cruz and disunity and protesters. Now we are treated to the media lovefest at the Democratic convention on Page One and that the Democratic convention will be such a contrast to the Republicans. Give me a break!

More email trouble for the Democrats, from an email server threatening national security to making fun of peoples names and targeting Bernie Sanders religion in Southern states. So much for equality in the Democratic Party and their much-talked-about values.

Phil Ferro

Reasonable actions

Re: Bias afflicts us all, Geary Reamey, Opinion, Sunday:

This commentary is either an excellent example of liberal idealism or incredible naivete.

If law enforcement officials, or ordinary citizens, do not use some degree of profiling, we would forever walk through dangerous neighborhoods or through life wearing a blindfold, never seeing impending threats or dangers, or taking reasonable actions to protect ourselves or our loved ones!

Ron Jenkins

Pain of addiction

Re: Community can prevent overdose deaths, Barbara Suarez, Other Views, July 21:

Thank you, Barbara Suarez, for your advocacy and personal honesty in honor of families still struggling with a loved ones addiction.

When a community member is willing to open up and advocate ways to address this community epidemic instead of degrade or ignore this issue, which impacts so many silently, you open the opportunity for one more person to ask for help.

Rise Recovery is in San Antonio to provide affordable, accessible, bilingual and compassionate treatment to youth and their families, offering guidance at any stage at no cost to them. More help, and more voices like yours, are desperately needed.

Evita Morin, executive director, Rise Recovery

Apocalyptic view

In his nomination acceptance speech, Donald Trump gave the world a glance at his apocalyptic view of our nation. He was preaching doom and damnation, selflessly offering himself as the chosen one who can keep the country from perishing.

Any thinking person who believes this as gospel better think again. He wants to throw out our president, portraying him as the devil.

But I recall reading somewhere that when one casts out a devil, it will be replaced by one thats worse!

Jan Van den Hende

Vetting immigrants

Re: Yearning for an America that never really existed, Lionel Sosa, Opinion, July 17:

Lionel Sosa overlooked some salient facts in criticizing those who dont like whats happening in the country and the world today.

Many of the British who voted to leave the EU were simply fed up with 40,000 bureaucrats creating rules and regulations that overrode British laws.

As for Americans concerns about immigration, we face a very different situation today than existed in our early days as a nation. We had specific needs 250 years ago, and we knew whom we were admitting, and why. Federal law enforcement officials today have testified they cannot properly vet thousands of refugees from the turbulent Middle East.

Earlier immigrants came to be Americans and were assimilated into our society. Many entering today, legally and illegally, want to convert America  or at least pieces of it  to their own culture and laws.

Why do so many younger Americans not care? A big reason is that our public education system has been in progressive hands for decades, and many younger Americans have no understanding of the uniqueness of America, or how it happened, or why its preservation is absolutely essential to the free world.

John E. Clark

Duncans good name

Re: Duncan cries foul over photo, Business, July 19:

Tim Duncans image and good name are valuable property, which makes Robert Elder a thief as well as a liar. If the allegations are true, I am stunned that Keller Williams, which I had thought was a reputable company, would allow its agent to engage in such slimy practices.

If Texas real estate oversight board can revoke licenses due to fraudulent tactics, then the two photos you posted should provide ample evidence for it to take that action.

Nancy Strehlow

Two-faced Patrick

Re: A difficult week in Texas, State, July 14:

Lt. Gov. Dan Patricks bald-faced prejudice during a Fox News interview requires response. His smug remark that demonstrators were hypocrites for fleeing gunfire in Dallas is deliberate hate talk, gross ignorance or both.

If he cared about all Texans, Patrick would know that this was a peaceful demonstration involving people of different ethnicities. It was a nonviolent protest against some police officers overreach in shooting unarmed citizens, an overtly peaceful display of Dallasites solidarity against official oppression of minorities.

For 37 years, I taught history to college students majoring in criminal justice. Pursuing careers as municipal, county, state and federal law enforcement officers, these brave young men and women swear to protect and defend our communities. I appreciate their selfless service and ask for their protection.

It is incredible Patrick spouted nonsensical falsehoods. Unarmed civilians should remove themselves from violent situations, and peace officers are the first to guide civilians away from gunfire. I doubt the sanctimonious Patrick would rush an active shooter.

The tea party darling is often photographed with clasped hands praying with Austin cronies. He constantly exhibits prejudiced attitudes toward minorities, poor people and women while demonstrating a false veneer of Christianity. His sneering two-facedness shows Patrick is a shameless bigot.

Carlos Valle Jr.
In inviting a foreign power to hack and release emails from Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump has crossed a line that even his nativist, isolationist, sexist and racist statements to date had not come close to approaching.

He essentially stated outright approval for cyberattack by a rival foreign power, Russia.

Lock her up seemed to be the mantra of the Republican National Convention last week. If a President Trump had made these statements, Americans might be forgiven for wanting to substitute that her for a him.

That a presidential wannabe makes this statement simply indicates Trumps unfitness for office, as if the nation needed further proof. Trump claims that keeping America safe is his strength, but his statements on Russian hacking shows a blatant disregard for national security.

The content of the now infamous Democratic National Committee emails in this political season has overshadowed the real, more dangerous issue  that Russia was the author of the leaks on the eve of the partys convention. If true, this would represent an intolerable intrusion into American elections by a foreign power.

It is a concept lost on Trump. He even declined to urge Putin to stay out of U.S. politics.

Fueling a not-as-outlandish-as-it-sounds theory that Russia favors a Trump presidency are the candidates stated admiration for strongman Vladimir Putin, his suggestion that, as president, he might not honor NATO commitments should Putin invade the Baltic countries and his business ties with Russia.

Now add this to the fire:

Russia, if youre listening, I hope youre able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing, Trump said Wednesday. I think you will be rewarded mightily by our press.

This comes as consensus grows that Russia hacked DNC  and possibly, Clinton  emails. Those DNC emails caused the resignation of chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Shultz. They revealed a pro-Clinton bias and a desire to conspire against rival Bernie Sanders. The DNC is supposed to be neutral before the nominee is officially named.

These were bothersome revelations as a matter of domestic politics. They are not, in and of themselves, however, a matter of national security. Who did the hacking is.

Trump has dismissed notions that Russia was behind the hacking. He essentially labeled it conspiracy theory  this coming from a conspiracy theorist on the presidents birthplace, on Clintons role in the death of an aide and linking Texas Sen. Ted Cruzs father to the assassination of John F. Kennedy.

Trump is seeking to channel GOP frustration with the failure of the Justice Department to criminally prosecute Clinton for her use of a private server while she was secretary of state. The FBI director recommended against prosecution, noting there was no criminal intent but also making clear that her actions were careless and shouldnt have happened.

We agree on all those points and still find Trumps invitation for a rival foreign power to intrude on U.S. elections as far more careless. His statement indicates a temperament, lack of judgment and mindset that will be dangerous to U.S. interests if he were ever to become president.

Trumps convention last week told Americans to be very afraid. He elaborated on a dystopian view of the country  present throughout his campaign  as a dark and dangerous place. He said he alone can save the nation.

This view is at odds with the facts, but now he has interjected another fact. There is plenty of cause to be very afraid that he gets elected.
It would be his last Christmas on earth, he knew it, the family knew it, yet he had made it clear to them that he wanted this Christmas to be just like every Christmas. Harold had been diagnosed with a rather aggressive cancer in August, he was receiving chemotherapy, but the oncologist told him it was palliative chemo, it would help keep him comfortable but it wouldnt put the brakes on the cancer at all.

Harold had asked the oncologist, How long do I have? and received the response, Less than six months. As Harold pondered the response he counted on his fingers, Lets see  August, September, October, November, December, thats five months, I might just make it to Christmas.

That became his goal. He told his wife and kids that he wanted Christmas to be just like it always had been. He didnt want a lot of boo-hooing; he just wanted everything to be like it always had been. Christmas had always been one of the familys best times. But as much as Harold wanted everything to be just like it always had been  it wasnt.

It isnt that the family didnt go out on the last weekend of November and cut down their tree and bring it home  they did. It wasnt that the tree looked better out in the woods than it did in the living room  as always  it did. Thats the way it was every year; they always had to put the tree in the corner because there was always a side of the tree that had a bald spot. Carol, Harolds wife, had baked everyones favorite cookie, just like she had for the last twenty-five years. And the plans for the Christmas Eve sleepover at the house were all made. Each year in November, the same day they cut the tree, Harold would get all the grandkids together and they would have a lottery to determine where each of them would sleep on Christmas Eve. The lottery started about five years ago when the grandchildren began squabbling over who got to sleep in the bedroom connected to the living room and who would sleep in the bedroom in the basement. Everyone wanted to be in the room closest to the tree. The basement room was just too far from all the Christmas Morning action. Grandpas lottery at least gave each of the grand kids the hope that they had a chance at the special room every Christmas.

But no matter how much nothing changed, everything was different. Never before had Christmas approached with such a cloud over the day. As much as everyone was trying to make things just the way they had been, things were not the way they had always been and this was making everyone crazy.

One day early in December Sam, the youngest grandson who was ten years old announced that he didnt want to have Christmas at Grandpas house this year. He wanted to have Christmas at his own house. When pressed as to why he gave voice to what everyone else was thinking but afraid to say. He said, Because it wont be the same. Im too sad to try to pretend that everything is fine.

That evening Sams mom called Grandpa and shared what Sam had said. Harold thanked his daughter for sharing it and said he would get back to her after he had some time to talk to Carol. After the phone call Harold and Carol had a long talk. It was the first time since August that Harold allowed any conversation about his cancer and the prognosis. He hadnt realized that his desire to have one last Christmas like all the others was having such a deep impact on the family.

It was tow and one half weeks till Christmas and Harold decided that he had better take the lead in helping his family deal with what was happening. He called all the kids and invited them over for dinner on Sunday and told them it was very important that they all be there and everyone made being there a priority. After dinner Grandpa asked everyone to come into the living room. The living room was crowded, Grandpa satin his favorite chair by the window and everyone else found a spot. The air was thick with apprehension, what did Grandpa want to share?

After everyone was settled Harold began, I want to apologize for my selfishness. It has been selfish of me to not allow our family to talk about my cancer and the fact that I will die in just a short time. I hope you will forgive me. The murmur of we forgive you swept around the room. I want to thank Sam for being courageous enough to express his real feelings. Sam, you helped me realize how wrong I was and that it is high time we deal with what is happening to me together. Thank you Sam. Sam crawled into Grandpas lap and buried his face in his chest. His eyes were full of tears.

Harold continued, I have cancer, the doctor figures I had about six months back in August. Four of those months are already gone and I can feel the cancer at work in my body. I can imagine you see it too. Christmas will not be the same this year and it cant be; it was foolish of me to think that it would. I would very much like to spend my last Christmas on earth with all of you here in this home where we have so many wonderful memories. I know this will be hard for all of us. I want you to have my blessing to feel whatever you feel and to be open about your feelings. If we need to cry, then lets cry. If as we share the time we experience laughter and joy, then lets express it well. I just want to be together and I want it to be real, these last four months of pretending that nothing was wrong has been hard on all of us. Im really sorry I asked that of all of you.

Harold went on, This year I would like to change our tradition in one way. Christmas morning after breakfast and after we read the Christmas story from the Bible, I want to give each of you a special blessing. I will write them down and give them to you so that you will have them after I am gone. This will be my gift to you this Christmas. Im sure Grandma will have some presents for each of you as well.

The next few weeks were hard, but not nearly as hard as the four previous months. There was a lot of crying but also a lot of laughing. The kids stopped by more often, Harolds condition worsened noticeably and it was necessary to move a hospital bed into the bedroom just off the living room. Palliative care nurses and home care workers began to come and go with frequency, Helping Carol take care of Harolds needs and giving Carol the space to grieve. Christmas arrived and with it all the grandkids. The lottery had fallen to Sam this year to spend this Christmas Eve in the bedroom off the living room. Although the bed that was normally there had been moved to the basement and the hospital bed that Grandpa used was in that room, Sam brought his sleeping bag and spread it out on the floor. In fact, before the lights went out, there were six sleeping bags spread out around Grandpas bed and before anyone went to sleep there were stories of summer vacations and camping trips and they all laughed till they cried when Grandpa told the story of how he caught the rubber boot filled with mud.

Christmas morning came, Grandpa shared his blessings with each member of the family (that year it was the best gift that anyone received). There were tears and smiles and hugs and laughter. Harold was wiped out by 3 p.m. and everyone decided to head home and give Grandpa a rest. That afternoon Harold fell asleep with a smile on his face and he never woke up again.

For all those facing Christmas this year knowing it will be your last on earth; be real, feel and share your feelings together and find a special way to bless each other. God Bless you and Merry Christmas.
Posted on 07/27/2016, 11:00 am, by mySteinbach

Ted Falk, Member of Parliament for Provencher, is pleased with Government of Canada funding for three new infrastructure projects in Southeastern Manitoba through the Clean Water and Wastewater Fund (CWWF).

The Village of St-Pierre-Jolys will receive federal funding of $1,500,000 for its lagoon expansion. The Municipality of Emerson-Franklin will receive federal funding of $1,750,000 for the Arnaud and area potable water supply project and St. Malo Provincial Park will receive federal funding of $325,000 for a water treatment plant.

Investments in local public infrastructure strengthens communities and improves the quality of life for residents of Provencher, said MP Falk. These new projects will have long-term, positive impacts on St-Pierre-Jolys, Arnaud and St. Malo and will take much of the financial burden off of local residents.

Infrastructure Canada launched the CWWF to provide communities with more reliable water and wastewater systems so that both drinking water and effluent meet legislated standards. This Fund will improve the safety and quality of water for Canadian families, while supporting a clean economy.
WASHINGTON  This week the Partnership for a Healthier America (PHA), which works with the private sector and PHA Honorary Chair First Lady Michelle Obama to make healthier choices easier, announced that Kwik Trip raised $65,000 during its 2016 coin canister campaign in support of PHAs mission to help solve the nations childhood obesity crisis.

Throughout the month of June, all 491 Kwik Trip locations throughout Wisconsin, Minnesota and Iowa urged communities to support PHAs work with the placement of canisters at every checkout lane. Now in its third year, this campaign has raised $180,000 since 2014 to help invest in healthier futures for our nations children.

Consumer demand for healthier food is on the rise, said PHA CEO Lawrence A. Soler. This campaignand Kwik Trip's commitment to meeting their customers growing needsis affirmation that the healthy choice can be the easy choice for busy parents and families.

Since first teaming up with PHA in 2014, Kwik Trip has made a number of advancements to make healthier choices more convenient and accessible for their guests through their EatSmart program, as well as becoming the first convenience store to offer a PHA-approved combo meal. Building upon these efforts as a part of its new commitment to PHA, by June 2017 Kwik Trip will offer an expanded stock of healthier options, including healthier packaged foods like nuts and granola bars throughout the store, and will increase healthier options in the checkout area.

Kwik Trip is proud to [team up] with the Partnership for a Healthier America and assist them in their efforts to help eliminate childhood obesity, said Dave Ring, Kwik Trips community relations manager. We are grateful for the generosity of our coworkers and guests in support of our continued mission to provide healthier food options and make a positive difference in the lives of the people and communities we are fortunate to serve.

To find out more about Kwik Trips commitment to making healthier choices easier, visit their website.
BOULDER, Colo.  Craft brewers are still growing, according to new mid-year data released this week by the Brewers Association.

While the craft brewing industry is entering a period of maturation, most markets are not near saturation, said Bart Watson, chief economist of the Brewers Association, in a video released by the association. As crafts base gets larger, as with any industry, it becomes more difficult for it to grow at the same percentage rate. Yet there is still tremendous dynamism reflected in 8% growth for craft. Production growth of small and independent craft brewers continues to be one of the main bright spots for domestic beer in the U.S. Even in a more competitive market, for the vast majority of small and independent brewers, opportunities still exist. (View the full video here.)

As of June 30, a record high of 4,656 breweries were operating in the U.S., an increase of 917 breweries over the same time period of the previous year. Additionally, there were approximately 2,200 breweries in planning. Craft brewers currently employ an estimated 121,843 full-time and part-time workers in a variety of roles including many manufacturing jobs, all of which contribute significantly to the U.S. economy.

The opening rate compared to closing rate for breweries remains incredibly strong, with an historic number of breweries operating in the United States, Watson added. As long as there is growing consumer demand, beer lovers thirst will continue to advance the category of craft brewed beer from small and independent producers.

An American craft brewer is defined as small, independent or traditional:

Small: Annual production of 6 million barrels of beer or less (approximately 3% of U.S. annual sales). Beer production is attributed to the rules of alternating proprietorships.

Annual production of 6 million barrels of beer or less (approximately 3% of U.S. annual sales). Beer production is attributed to the rules of alternating proprietorships. Independent: Less than 25% of the craft brewery is owned or controlled (or equivalent economic interest) by an alcoholic beverage industry member that is not itself a craft brewer.

Less than 25% of the craft brewery is owned or controlled (or equivalent economic interest) by an alcoholic beverage industry member that is not itself a craft brewer. Traditional: A brewer that has a majority of its total beverage alcohol volume in beers whose flavor derives from traditional or innovative brewing ingredients and their fermentation. Flavored malt beverages (FMBs) are not considered beers.

The Brewers Association is the not-for-profit trade association dedicated to small and independent American brewers, their beers and the community of brewing enthusiasts.
The European tendency to wait until the last minute may prove to be too late.

The Financial Times warns today that the big Italian bank domino that observers have been watching most closely, Monte dei Paschi di Siena, will go critical this Friday if (more likely when) it fails the bank stress test. The non-trival problem is that implosion would be so large as to exhaust what is left of Italys rescue funds. Yet the ECB and European competition authorities have so far refused to give Italy a waiver under the new banking rules so that it can avoid subjecting small savers who were duped into buying bank bonds to bail-ins. Prime Minister Renzi has had a good bank/bad bank resolution plan ready to go since early this year, but using state funds to support such an approach as an alternative to bail-ins is verboten under the news rules.

So how are the Italians proposing to finesse this mess? A private sector rescue. That means having the less sick banks prop up the really diseased Monte dei Paschi. The net effect is to increase systemic risk, since it knits the banks together even more than before. We saw a variant of that in the US financial crisis, when bank regulators had the barmy idea of encouraging banks to buy other banks subordinated instruments, creating a major impediment to resolving mid and larger sized banks, since wiping out those instruments would produce losses at other banks, potentially a cascade of failures.

However, the healthier banks have nixed a straight-up equity purchase. As youll see, the latest plan looks unworkable, since it calls for more fresh capital via a rights issue. And who pray tell will stump up for that?

From the Financial Times:

Italy was last night racing to secure a privately backed bailout of Monte dei Paschi di Siena, the most exposed of the countrys troubled lenders, including a plan to raise 5bn of fresh capital so as to avert nationalisation, according to bankers and European officials. People directly involved in the Monte Paschi discussions say they are aiming for a private rescue of the bank to be announced before the stress test results are published after US markets close on Friday. But they admit that the negotiations could go down to the wire or run into or beyond the weekend. This raises the prospect of shares in Monte Paschi and other Italian banks coming under renewed pressure when markets reopen on Monday, which many fear could prove lethal. Any such rescue would be under EU rules, which would mean a so-called bail-in, where junior Monte Paschi bonds would be converted to shares, and compensation given to retail investors The privately backed plan, which is still under discussion and could change, would involve a multi-layered deal to rid Monte Paschi of 10bn of net non-performing loans and recapitalisation worth up to 5bn, say people involved in the talks. Instead, Intesa Sanpaolo and UniCredit have agreed to put an additional 160m into Atlante, a privately backed fund, alongside pension funds and CDP, the state bank, to put a total of about 3bn into Monte Paschi bad loans. To clean up the lender, at least 10bn of its NPLs would be spun off into a special purpose vehicle. This would then be securitised, with shareholders taking the more risky junior tranche of debt and Atlante taking the mezzanine tranche. The least-risky senior tranche would be backed up to 7bn of bridge loans from a pool of banks likely to include JPMorgan of the US and Mediobanca, the Italian investment bank. The longer term aim would be for the senior tranche to be guaranteed by a government-backed scheme, known by the acronym GACS. To boost its capital, Monte Paschi would launch a rights issue of up to 5bn, its third in three years and worth more than five times its current market value. However, analysts believe this fund raising would be difficult given the banks reputation for scorching investors capital.

Mind you, Italian banks are full of bad loans. Italy was seeking authorization to use 40 billion in state funds to rescue its banks. An analyst cited in the Financial Times piece thinks it will take a mere 30 billion. Either way, even if the authorities manage to cobble together a scheme to keep Monte dei Paschi going, the bank failing its stress test would put even more pressure on Italian banks and Eurobanks seen as fragile, such as Deutsche Bank.

The plan in Italy seemed to be to try to hold the banking system together until the constitutional referendum in October. Renzi earlier said hed resign if it failed but recently hes tried retreating from that position. Commentators believe that if Italy were forced to resort to a bank bail-in, voters would take their revenge on Renzi in the polling booth. If his referendum failed, Renzis government may fall regardless. The pro-exit Five Star movement is the leading party in Italy right now, and it has promised it would have a referendum on leaving the Eurozone. So the political and economic stakes are extremely high.

The death watch over Monte dei Paschi has a Lehman-esqe feel. The powers that be were hoping they could hold off a financial crisis until after a key election, yet they were also deeply committed to not doing any bailouts. The Europeans may be about to learn that their kick the can down the road strategy has taken them to the brink of a precipice.
Yves here. I hope you dont mind the double helping on Russia-related topics today, but thats how the news broke.

One has to infer that Erdogan is furious that the US has not turned over the exiled cleric Fethullah Gulen, who Erdogan has depicted as the mastermind of the failed coup, and is giving us the biggest poke in the eye he can come up with. This one is awfully big if Erdogan follows through with more cooperation with Russia. And this may tie into the increased demonization of Putin of late. Ive only been following the various theorizing as to whether the US was behind the coup. I doubt it, and the Russians appear to doubt it. Per Helmer by an earlier e-mail:

This is the best Russian account so far, and it shows evidence of Russian military monitoring of communications during the coup: http://vz.ru/world/2016/7/16/821900.html The gist is important  if the coup plotters and participants were confused about what they wanted to achieve, except for removing Erdogan, why wasnt his aircraft shot down? Answer from the Russian side: there was no command and control of the various ground and air units engaged  they couldnt talk to one another, and couldnt coordinate. By failing to strike Erdogan first, they allowed him time to mobilize his party apparatus and the mosques. Once they moved people into the streets, the soldiers inside the tanks couldnt act. You can see from SecState Kerrys hesitant, non-committal statement from Moscow on Friday evening, Moscow time, in favour of security and stability that he and Washington werent sure how many of their assets were engaged, and on whose side. It took hours for Obama to come out in favour of democracy  thats to say, the winning side. By then Erdogan had decided some of the plotters were on the US side. It is clear this is so from the attempt by General Van to seek asylum from the US at Incirlik; imagine how many hours it took for Washington to say no, and hand him over. That this was a CIA plot is not how the Russian intell is reading, for the moment. That there may have been CIA assets engaged in the plot as it unfolded looks likely  and Erdogan is going to exploit that. So far, the Greek intell version, based on what the asylum seeking officers are saying and other methods, isnt out in the open, and Im waiting for my friends to let me know. The Israeli versions are also contradictory and confused because thats how its been. If one must keep score, its essential to know which goalposts you consider yours. From this perspective, the outcome is the best possible one for those who consider Turkey to be an irredentist enemy to Europe, to Greece and Cyprus in particular. The outcome is a score against the Nuland schemes; against the Merkel refugee scheme; against US schemes to overthrow Assad.

By John Helmer, the longest continuously serving foreign correspondent in Russia, and the only western journalist to direct his own bureau independent of single national or commercial ties. Helmer has also been a professor of political science, and an advisor to government heads in Greece, the United States, and Asia. He is the first and only member of a US presidential administration (Jimmy Carter) to establish himself in Russia. Originally published at Dances with Bears

On August 9, in St. Petersburg, Russias President Vladimir Putin will meet Turkeys President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The moment is revolutionary. There has not been a comparable political turning-point in the 67 years since the establishment of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO); not in the century since the Ottoman Empire sided with Germany against Russia in World War I; nor in the two centuries since Ottoman Sultan Mahmud II and the Russian Tsar Alexander I aligned against Napoleon and the British.

Russian sources say they are sure the Russian secret services did not warn Erdogan or help his forces prevail in the July 15-16 coup against him. After Erdogan began his counter-coup, and in the fight still continuing between Erdogans Islamic forces and the regular Turkish military, the sources add, there has been, and there will be, Russian help. It is more for the future, they explain, than for last weeks outcome that Turkish deputy prime minister Mehmet Simsek told his counterpart Arkady Dvorkovich in Moscow on Tuesday: I would like to thank you for support regarding recent events in Turkey, for supporting democracy and the Turkish government.

The Russian sources say it is already agreed the two sides will pay a soon-to-be settled price in two-way trade; gas, nuclear and other energy projects; plus tourism. Much more is at stake, though, one of the sources adds. Putin and his advisors believe Erdogan is still in danger. They support him now for the opportunity to reorganize the relationship with Turkey. They mean to secure Russia from encirclement on the southern frontier and the Black Sea, dismemberment of the Caucasus, and attack on the Kremlin by its enemies. Right now, as Europe collapses, the enemy is the US with NATO in support. If Turkey breaks with the US, NATO is a paraplegic. We shall see how Putin and Erdogan choose to portray the new Rome*, the new Byzantium* next Tuesday.

The new alliance agenda was formalized at a Security Council meeting on Monday afternoon. The Kremlin announced: The President briefed the permanent members of the Security Council on his recent telephone conversations with President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu in the context of preparations for the visit by the President of Turkey to Russia scheduled for early August.

Omitted were the military and intelligence briefings Putin received from Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) chief, Mikhail Fradkov; the deputy director of the council, Rashid Nurgaliyev; and the head of the Federal Security Service (FSB), Alexander Bortnikov.

Left to right: Shoigu, Fradkov, Nurgaliyev, and Bortnikov.

Source: http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/52583

Russian sources dismiss the foreign press narrative of last weeks military coup attempt suggesting Arab and Israeli foreknowledge of the coup. Plotting, bribing, and wishful thinking there were, one of the sources comments. But knowing and participating  thats not what happened.

In an analysis of the military operations in Istanbul and Ankara, Yevgeny Krutikov, correspondent of Vzglyad in Moscow, has reported there was no coordination between the Turkish Army, Navy and Air Force; poor command and control within each of the services; and inadequate troops and firepower on the streets to combat the turnout in Erdogans favour.

There were simply not enough rebels. There was no chain of command. The capture units for important facilities consisted of a maximum of 10 people under the command of officers from captains rank to lieutenant colonel. Among the insurgency leadership there wasnt anyone above the rank of colonel. The entire [rebel] company has done what it could. To try to seize power in a highly militarized countrys forces [you need] more than a tank battalion and a pair of helicopters. For bigger divisions they [rebels] just could not give any orders  without bumping into the requirement they answer a reasonable question: who are you anyway?

Did the Russian intelligence services help Erdogan? Thats unreal,according to Krutikov. There was no agreement at all between the Russian and Turkish intelligence services. Besides, all contacts were frozen after the downing of the Russian aircraft [SU-24]. Radio signals of the manoeuvres of the coups armed forces were monitored by our military troops. There is a little likelihood this information was transmitted to the Turkish special services.

Russian sources are non-committal on what role US military and intelligence agencies played during the July 15 events at the Incirlik airbase and elsewhere to encourage, or not to discourage, the attempt at overthrowing Erdogan. What is certain now, as Erdogan tries to mop up, according to Greek and Cypriot analysts, is that Turkey has turned against the US and the NATO alliance. Turkey is now moving away from western dependence, says a well-informed region source who asks not to be identified. This makes sense geopolitically because the west has lost control in the Middle East. Other close western allies in the region, like Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Israel, are becoming autonomous, in the sense that they dont obey the US. This is because the US can no longer act as a hegemon. Washington cant dictate, or even recommend solutions to conflicts or rivalries, like Iraq, Syria, Libya, or Palestine. Now, with or without direct US involvement in the Turkish coup, Erdogan sees his chance to make Turkey more autonomous, so he is taking it.

Russian sources agree. Referring to Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland (right), whose plan of attack against Russia in Ukraine, Turkey, Syria, and Cyprus have been reported here and here, a Moscow source concludes: The Nuland plots have all failed. The US can no longer talk to the Turks. Losing Turkey to Erdogan and his Islamists also means the US can dictate no longer in the region. You cant expect the Americans will take it lying down. Theres no government in Washington right now. But if Clinton wins, there will be a US fight-back. It will be too late.

As French princesses and Nuland have publicly suggested, revolutions require cakes, or at least cookies. The short-term payoffs to Erdogans business constituents, and Putins, were tabled swiftly at the July 26 meeting between Dvorkovich and Simsek (below,left, right); and at the following meeting between Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak and Turkish Economic and Energy Ministers, Nihat Zeybekci and Berat Albayrak. Details of their talks can be read here.



Dvorkovich at extreme left; Simsek at right. Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wfH20H1Ugc

Military sources believe Erdogans position is still far from assured. The numbers and the spread of the purges tell you this is a continuous coup, which could turn into ethnic or communal revolts at any time, or civil war. Russia is positioning itself, as it did in the past, in favour of the stability of the Turkish state  right now this means Erdogan. The Kremlin is against breakup. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, a weak Turkey meant to Moscow that Russias enemies gained control of the vital Russian interests of the time, such as the Straits.

Greek, Cypriot and Russian sources questioned about the current course of events say the principal Russian objectives are obvious. Erdogan should stop the export of jihadis, ISIS, and sedition towards the Russian Caucasus in the form of the Chechens. He must also stop his regime-changing tactics in Syria, and not less in the Balkans and in Central Asia. The sources believe that in his current predicament Erogan is a better bet for the Kremlin than the Turkish military, or the so-called Kemalist or Gulenist political groups, encouraged by the US. If the pro-American or NATO elements can be uprooted and destroyed, Russia is bound to feel more secure  so long as Erdogans Sunni Islamic orientation will make its peace with Russia, as the Shiites of Iran and Iraq are doing.

According to a Russian military historian, Putin today cant be different from the Tsar [Nicholas II] in 1914. Unpredictability and instability in Turkey are threats to Russia, because they let more powerful enemies in. For a western historians conclusion on the same point, read this.

Political economists in Moscow see the reciprocal benefit for Moscow and Ankara if the South Stream (aka Turkish Stream) gas pipeline project can be revived. Gazprom will assure the sale of larger volumes of gas south and westwards; Turkey can benefit from becoming an energy hub, not only for Russian gas, but also for new flows from Israel, perhaps Lebanon, potentially even Cyprus.

A well-known Cypriot analyst observes: Yes, Cyprus is better off, though the situation around us is tragic. At least, hegemony, western hegemony, is finished. This is good because a large part of the [Cyprus] problem came from that [Anglo-American] hegemony and its efforts to maintain itself. Their subversion of Arab modernization has been the greatest crime of the end of the 20th and the beginning of the 21st century.

Back to Cyprus  with multiple guarantees, not only from the west, and with Turkey more autonomous, and no longer the pawn of anybody, the guarantees for [reunified] Cyprus will be more realistic. They will reflect the real balance of power geographically, and also of the future.

There is regional support for Putins rapprochement with Erdogan, even among the bitterest historical enemies of the Turks. They view the Kremlin as a more reliable curb on Turkish military adventures and expansion than the Americans, British or NATO have proved to be. Says the Cypriot analyst: Natural gas is the future of Cyprus for all political wings. But moving the economy right now are tourism, and the increasing role of Russian capital, and also the small but growing Russian community. Russia has multiple roles to play in Cyprus. It is probably the force that appeals to the broadest cross-section of the people  to the masses on the left; lately to the centre, and to a section of the religious right, after almost a century, though they arent an autonomous force themselves yet. If now Russia becomes friends with Turkey, then we may even have Turkish Cypriot friends.
Making terahertz lasers more powerful (Nanowerk News) Researchers have nearly doubled the continuous output power of a type of laser, called a terahertz quantum cascade laser, with potential applications in medical imaging, airport security and more. Increasing the continuous output power of these lasers is an important step toward increasing the range of practical applications. The researchers report their results in the journal AIP Advances ("High-power terahertz quantum cascade lasers with ~0.23 W in continuous wave mode").

This is a scanning electron microscope image of the terahertz quantum cascade laser. (Image: Wang, et al/AIP Advances)

Terahertz radiation sits between microwaves and infrared light on the electromagnetic spectrum. It is relatively low-energy and can penetrate materials such as clothing, wood, plastic and ceramics. The unique qualitites of terahertz radiation make it an attractive candidiate for imaging, but the ability to produce and control terahertz waves has lagged behind technology for radio, microwave and visible light.

Recently, scientists have made rapid progress on a technology to produce terahertz light called a quantum cascade laser or QCL. Quantum cascade lasers are made from thin layers of material. The thin layers give the laser the valuble property of tunability, meaning the laser can be designed to emit at a chosen wavelength. The output power of terahertz QCLs is also relatively high compared to other terahertz sources, said Xuemin Wang, a researcher in the China Academy of Engineering Physics and first author on the new paper.

Wang and his colleagues' work focuses on even further increasing the output power of terahertz quantum cascade lasers, especially in the mode in which the laser output power is continuous. "In engineering, biomechanics and medical science, the applications require continuous wave mode," Wang said.

By optimizing the material growth and manufacturing process for terahertz QCLs, Wang and his team made a laser with a record output power of up to 230 milliwatts in continuous wave mode. The previous record was 138 milliwatts.

Wang said the new 230 milliwatt laser could be used in air, a challenge for lower-powered lasers since particles in the air can scatter or absorb the laser light before it reaches its target.

The increase demonstrates that the team's method of precisely controlling the growth of the laser's layers can increase output power, Wang said, and he is hopeful that future improvements could bring the continuous power above 1 watt. The 1 watt level has been reached in terahertz QCLs in pulsed wave mode.
'It just flipped': Busch details final season with Joe Gibbs Racing in 'Race for the Championship' In the latest episode of USA Network's "Race for the Championship," Busch describes the change at JGR and is introduced with a new team.
The brutal mass killings committed at a facility for the disabled in Japan illustrates the difficulties that even nations with low crime rates, strict gun control and restrictive immigration policies face in trying to prevent attacks from seemingly deranged individuals.

Japanese authorities say they are investigating the motive of the lone knife-wielding attacker who broke into the Tsukui Yamayuri-En facility for disabled people early Tuesday, killing 19 residents and wounding dozens more.But they have ruled out terrorism as the cause.

"We received information from the police that there is no evidence of the attacker being related to Islamic State," said Yoshihide Suga, the Japanese governments spokesman and Chief Cabinet Secretary.

Police in Sagamihara City, Kanagawa Prefecture, about 40 kilometers southwest of Tokyo, have arrested Satoshi Uematsu, a 26-year-old former employee at the facility, Japanese media reported.

Uematsu, wearing a black tee shirt reportedly turned himself into the police and the Asahi Shimbun newspaper said he told police, "I want to get rid of the disabled from this world." The Japanese state broadcaster NHK reported that police recovered a bag with several knives, at least one stained with blood.

News of the mass killings has shocked the nation. The facility cares for more than 150 people with a range of disabilities."I just want to know why this happened, the cause of it. It is something that could happen anywhere, and these cases always have to do with human relationships," said Naomi Takano, who lives nearby.
Walter Investment Management Corp. subsidiary Ditech Financial plans to lay off more than 100 employees in North Carolina and Texas following declines in defaults across the country.

Ditech filed a notice with the North Carolina Department of Commerce last Friday noting that it will lay off 65 employees in Greensboro, citing an office closure as the reason. Ditech also plans to shutter an office in San Antonio, laying off 78 employees in the process, according to a report from San Antonio Business Journal that referenced a letter the publication obtained.

A spokeswoman for Ditech confirmed that layoffs were happening, but declined to provide specifics. A statement from the company noted that Ditech decided "to consolidate some servicing and technology functions" at its larger worksites for improved efficiency. The company also said that it has reconfigured its collections and loss mitigation roles.

"Over the past several years the mortgage industry has shifted to a more 'normalized' market, as defaults across the industry continue to decline," the statement read. "This shift in the market environment led us to re-evaluate our operating model."

The layoffs come on the heels of other changes Ditech has made in the face of changing market dynamics.

The company announced it would relaunch a wholesale lending channel earlier in July, and in May it set plans to convert a servicing operation in St. Louis to originate loans. Ditech also signaled in January that it would exit the distributed retail mortgage production channel.
Health officials in Spain say a woman has given birth to a baby with the microcephaly birth defect associated with the Zika virus -- the first birth of its kind in Europe.

Officials say the woman had been diagnosed with the Zika virus in May, and had decided to keep the baby.

Doctors in Barcelona say the baby's vital signs are "normal and stable," and the infant did not require any resuscitation. They say initial tests confirm the baby's head circumference is smaller than normal and that it has microcephaly.

The mother contracted the Zika virus while traveling earlier this year to South America. While hundreds of people in Europe are known to have contracted Zika, mostly after traveling to infected countries, this is the first European birth of a baby born with microcephaly associated with the virus.
Former North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's fourth wife Kim Ok was purged and sent to a prison camp less than a year after her stepson Kim Jong-un took power, Radio Free Asia reported Tuesday.

A Chinese businessman who visited Pyongyang recently told the radio station he heard from a senior Workers Party official that Kim Ok (52) had been sent off to a camp for political prisoners with her parents and siblings.

The last straw was apparently the arrogant attitude of her younger brother Kim Kyun.

"Kim Kyun acted high-handedly and tyrannically as his sister was Kim Jong-il's favorite after Kim Jong-un's mother Ko Yong-hui died in 2004," RFA said.

Kim Kyun was appointed first vice president of Kim Il-sung University in February 2011 but abruptly resigned from his post in October 2013.

Quoting another source, RFA said Kim Ok was always bound to be purged after Kim Jong-un took power, given that Kim Jong-il also disappeared his father Kim Il-sung's second wife when the nation founder died in 1994.

Kim Jong-un had no reason to protect Kim Ok, who he may have felt took his mothers place, a source said.

Kim Ok studied piano at Pyongyang University of Music and Dance and became a secretary to Kim Jong-il in 1980.

She was seen on several occasions with Kim Jong-un until October 2012 but then disappeared from the radar.


Kills cancer and reduces radiation side effects

All-around immune booster

(NaturalNews) Frankincense is a powerful medicinal oil that can not only boost the immune system but also kill cancer cells, a number of studies have shown.One of the most significant recent studies was conducted by researchers from the University of Leicester, England, in 2013. The researchers found that the naturally occurring frankincense compound acetyl-11-keto-beta-boswellic acid (AKBA) targeted and destroyed ovarian cancer cells. The findings were particularly significant because they showed that AKBA had this effect even in late-stage ovarian cancer patients, not just in laboratory trials performed on isolated cells."Frankincense is taken by many people with no known side effects," lead researcher Kamla Al-Salmani said. This finding has enormous potential to be taken to a clinical trial in the future and developed into an additional treatment for ovarian cancer."The Leicester findings build on a large and still growing body of evidence that frankincense and its compounds have powerful immune-boosting and cancer-fighting benefits.A study published inin 2009, for example, found that the herbal form of frankincense triggered death in bladder cancer cells by activating several different cellular pathways. Another study, conducted by researchers from Nihon University in Tokyo and published in, showed that several chemical components of frankincense were able to kill three separate human neuroblastoma cell lines. The same study also found that frankincense inhibited the growth of Epstein-Barr virus.Neuroblastoma is a type of cancer that forms in nerve cells and primarily affects young children. Other studies have shown that frankincense and its components can kill cancers of the brain, breast, colon, pancreas, prostate and stomach.Frankincense may also help mitigate the often-debilitating side effects of cancer treatment. One study, published in the journalin 2011, was performed on brain cancer patients experiencing cerebral edema (swelling) as a side effect of radiation therapy. The researchers found that 60 percent of participants given frankincense experienced a 75 percent reduction in cerebral swelling, a potent enough result for the authors to recommend frankincense as a potential alternative to steroids, the current favored treatment. Side effects of steroids can include headaches, blurred vision and migraines.Frankincense's cancer-fighting benefits seem to come, in part, from its potent effects on the immune system. One study, conducted by researchers from Baylor University Medical Center, found that acts upon the expression of genes that help regulate the immune system, leading to cancer cell death. Another study, published in, found that mice given frankincense exhibited increases in several key markers of immune function, primarily levels of white blood cells (lymphocytes) and anti-inflammatory activity.Numerous studies have confirmed frankincense as a powerful anti-inflammatory. This, along with its other immune-boosting properties, may in part explain its usefulness in fighting infection and in treating autoimmune conditions such as asthma, rheumatoid arthritis and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).Frankincense can also be used to heal skin, including from acne and scarring, and can reduce anxiety levels.If you wish to incorporate frankincense as a regular natural health booster, it can be taken as an undiluted essential oil on the skin or as a few drops under the tongue. It can also be diffused and breathed in for respiratory conditions. Frankincense can also be purchased and consumed in powdered capsule form.There are numerous species of frankincense, includingand. All three of these species have shown powerful anti-cancer effects in scientific tests., native to east Africa, has been the species most heavily studied., also known as "sacred frankincense," was until recently restricted to use by the Saudi royal household, and could only be purchased in Oman. Recently, however, a distillery opened up in Oman to produce essential oil offor public sale.
New plan not expected to change much

9 out of 10 environmental discrimination complaints dismissed

(NaturalNews) The fact that it took 12 years for the EPA to resolve an investigation into pesticide use near a high school in California should come as no surprise to those who are familiar with the agency's complete inability to actually protect people and the environment.The EPA has received more than 300 complaints stating that environmental regulations discriminate against minority communities, but they have never formally found any violations of civil rights.The Center for Public Integrity reports that not one of the eight complaints made in Oregon since 1996 have even been investigated. They also discovered that the agency takes an average of 350 days to decide whether or not to launch an investigation into a case  that's nearly a year!In fact, the EPA only made its first preliminary finding of discrimination five years ago. In that case, seven parents had filed an official complaint in the state of California claiming that the dangerous pesticide methyl bromide was being used more heavily in an area near a high school that has a high population of Latino students. Methyl bromide has been linked with kidney and lung damage, in addition to neurological effects.A settlement was negotiated, and the California Department of Pesticide Regulation placed an air monitor near the school in exchange for not admitting any wrongdoing.It had taken the agency 12 years to resolve the case, and in the meantime the 1989 Montreal Protocol had banned the use of methyl bromide, and it had been replaced by other toxic pesticides correspondent Sarah Tory said: "During the time the EPA took to investigate the impacts of methyl bromide, the pesticide had been phased out, and it had been replaced by a new pesticide called methyl iodide. Methyl iodide is also linked to numerous health problems, and the EPA knew this but didn't account for it in their investigation."An appeals court has since sided with the original ruling.The EPA is trying to make up for its past misdeeds with a new initiative that aims to bring environmental justice to what it calls "overburdened communities." However, many observers feel that this is unlikely to make much of a difference.The plan, which is known as EJ 2020, says the agency is going to make "a visible difference in environmentally overburdened, underserved, and economically distressed communities," by using a mapping tool that will show regulators the communities with excessive pollution, among other measures.However, critics point out that the plan does not do much in the way of strengthening one highly effective tool for dealing with environmental racism, and that is Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Under that provision, the EPA has the authority to make sure that any agencies that receive funding from it, such as the California Department of Pesticide Regulation, do not act in any manner that is discriminatory.Investigations carried out by the Center for Public Integrity show that the EPA's Office of Civil Rights has actually dismissed 90 percent of claims of environmental discrimination , and has never formally found a violation of Title VI in its 23 years in existence.The EPA has apparently been making a habit of dragging its feet in such situations. Last July, the agency was sued by communities in five different states for its failure to complete investigations that have been going on for more than a decade. The lawsuit says that the EPA's "pattern and practice of unreasonable delay" has resulted in residents being forced to endure pollution from oil refineries, power plants and landfills.It's no secret that the EPA is incompetent at best, and downright dangerous at worst, and this story is yet another example of why the agency is in serious need of an overhaul.
There's a body of research showing that painkiller abuse and overdose are lower in states with medical marijuana laws. These studies have generally assumed that when medical marijuana is available, pain patients are increasingly choosing pot over powerful and deadly prescription narcotics. But that's always been just an assumption. [3]



Now a new study, released in the journal Health Affairs, validates these findings by providing clear evidence of a missing link in the causal chain running from medical marijuana to falling overdoses. Ashley and W. David Bradford, a daughter-father pair of researchers at the University of Georgia, scoured the database of all prescription drugs paid for under Medicare Part D from 2010 to 2013. [4]



They found that, in the 17 states with a medical-marijuana law in place by 2013, prescriptions for painkillers and other classes of drugs fell sharply compared with states that did not have a medical-marijuana law. The drops were quite significant: In medical-marijuana states, the average doctor prescribed 265 fewer doses of antidepressants each year, 486 fewer doses of seizure medication, 541 fewer anti-nausea doses and 562 fewer doses of anti-anxiety medication.







But most strikingly, the typical physician in a medical-marijuana state prescribed 1,826 fewer doses of painkillers in a given year.



The tanking numbers for painkiller prescriptions in medical marijuana states are likely to cause some concern among pharmaceutical companies. These companies have long been at the forefront of opposition to marijuana reform, funding research by anti-pot academics and funneling dollars to groups, such as the Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America, that oppose marijuana legalization. [5], [6]



Pharmaceutical companies have also lobbied federal agencies directly to prevent the liberalization of marijuana laws. In one case, recently uncovered by the office of Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), the Department of Health and Human Services recommended that naturally derived THC, the main psychoactive component of marijuana, be moved from Schedule 1 to Schedule 3 of the Controlled Substances Act  a less restrictive category that would acknowledge the drug's medical use and make it easier to research and prescribe. Several months after HHS submitted its recommendation, at least one drug company that manufactures a synthetic version of THC  which would presumably have to compete with any natural derivatives  wrote to the Drug Enforcement Administration to express opposition to rescheduling natural THC, citing "the abuse potential in terms of the need to grow and cultivate substantial crops of marijuana in the United States." [7], [8], [9]



The DEA ultimately rejected the HHS recommendation without explanation. [10]



In what may be the most concerning finding for the pharmaceutical industry, the Bradfords took their analysis a step further by estimating the cost savings to Medicare from the decreased prescribing. They found that about $165 million was saved in the 17 medical marijuana states in 2013. In a back-of-the-envelope calculation, the estimated annual Medicare prescription savings would be nearly half a billion dollars if all 50 states were to implement similar programs.



One limitation of the study is that it only looks at Medicare Part D spending, which applies only to seniors. Previous studies have shown that seniors are among the most reluctant medical-marijuana users, so the net effect of medical marijuana for all prescription patients may be even greater.



The officer asked Wilson to step out of the car. Wilson complied. The officer leaned in over the driver's seat, looked around, then called to his partner; in the report Officer Duc Nguyen later filed, he wrote that he saw a needle in the car's ceiling lining. Albritton didn't know what he was talking about. Before she could protest, Officer David Helms had come around to her window and was asking for consent to search the car. If Albritton refused, Helms said, he would call for a drug-sniffing dog. Albritton agreed to the full search and waited nervously outside the car.



Helms spotted a white crumb on the floor. In the report, Nguyen wrote that the officers believed the crumb was crack cocaine. They handcuffed Wilson and Albritton and stood them in front of the patrol car, its lights still flashing. They were on display for rush-hour traffic, criminal suspects sweating through their clothes in the 93-degree heat.



At the police academy four years earlier, Helms was taught that to make a drug arrest on the street, an officer needed to conduct an elementary chemical test, right then and there. It's what cops routinely do across the country every day while making thousands upon thousands of drug arrests. Helms popped the trunk of his patrol car, pulled out a small plastic pouch that contained a vial of pink liquid and returned to Albritton. He opened the lid on the vial and dropped a tiny piece of the crumb into the liquid. If the liquid remained pink, that would rule out the presence of cocaine. If it turned blue, then Albritton, as the owner of the car, could become a felony defendant.



Helms waved the vial in front of her face and said, "You're busted."



Albritton was booked into the Harris County jail at 3:37 a.m., nine hours after she was arrested. Wilson had been detained for driving without a license but would soon be released. Albritton was charged with felony drug possession and faced a much longer ordeal. Already, she was terrified as she thought about her family. Albritton was raised in a speck of a town called Marion at the northern edge of Louisiana. Her father still drove lumber trucks there; her mother had worked as a pharmacy technician until she died of colon cancer. Albritton was 15 then. She went through two unexpected pregnancies, the first at age 16, and two ill-fated marriages. But she had also pieced together a steady livelihood managing apartment complexes, and when her younger son was born disabled, she worked relentlessly to care for him. Now their future was almost certainly shattered.



She heard her name called and stepped forward to the reinforced window. A tall man with thinning hair and wire-rim glasses approached and introduced himself as Dan Richardson, her court-appointed defense attorney.



Richardson told Albritton that she was going to be charged with possession of a controlled substance, crack cocaine, at an arraignment that morning. Albritton recalls him explaining that this was a felony, and the maximum penalty was two years in state prison. She doesn't remember him asking her what actually happened, or if she believed she was innocent. Instead, she recalls, he said that the prosecutor had already offered a deal for much less than two years. If she pleaded guilty, she would receive a 45-day sentence in the county jail, and most likely serve only half that.



Albritton told Richardson that the police were mistaken; she was innocent. But Richardson, she says, was unswayed. The police had found crack in her car. The test proved it. She could spend a few weeks in jail or two years in prison. In despair, Albritton agreed to the deal.



Police officers arrest more than 1.2 million people a year in the United States on charges of illegal drug possession. Field tests like the one Officer Helms used in front of Amy Albritton help them move quickly from suspicion to conviction. But the kits  which cost about $2 each and have changed little since 1973  are far from reliable. [15]



The field tests seem simple, but a lot can go wrong. Some tests, including the one the Houston police officers used to analyze the crumb on the floor of Albritton's car, use a single tube of a chemical called cobalt thiocyanate, which turns blue when it is exposed to cocaine. But cobalt thiocyanate also turns blue when it is exposed to more than 80 other compounds, including methadone, certain acne medications and several common household cleaners.



There are no established error rates for the field tests, in part because their accuracy varies so widely depending on who is using them and how. In Las Vegas, authorities re-examined a sampling of cocaine field tests conducted between 2010 and 2013 and found that 33 percent of them were false positives. Data from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement lab system show that 21 percent of evidence that the police listed as methamphetamine after identifying it was not methamphetamine, and half of those false positives were not any kind of illegal drug at all. In one notable Florida episode, Hillsborough County sheriff's deputies produced 15 false positives for methamphetamine in the first seven months of 2014. When we examined the department's records, they showed that officers, faced with somewhat ambiguous directions on the pouches, had simply misunderstood which colors indicated a positive result.



By 1978, the Department of Justice had determined that field tests "should not be used for evidential purposes," and the field tests in use today remain inadmissible at trial in nearly every jurisdiction; instead, prosecutors must present a secondary lab test using more reliable methods.



But this has proved to be a meaningless prohibition. Most drug cases in the United States are decided well before they reach trial, by the far more informal process of plea bargaining.



(NaturalNews) From the post: Federal Judge of 17 Years Repents  Compares Damage Done by "War on Drugs" to Destruction of World War II [1]Whenever an irrational and inhumane law remains on the books far longer than any thinking person would consider appropriate, there's usually one reason behind it:Unsurprisingly, the continued federal prohibition on marijuana and its absurd classification as a Schedule 1 drug is no exception. Thankfully, a recent study published in the journal Health Affairs shows us exactly why pharmaceutical companies are one of the leading voices against medical marijuana. It has nothing to do with healthcare and everything to do with corporate greed.So is it a war on drugs, or a war on cheap medicine . Decide for yourself.The Washington Post reports: [2]Yes, this DEA...DEA Agents Caught Having Drug Cartel Funded Prostitute Sex Parties Received Slap on the Wrist; None Fired [11]The DEA Strikes Again  Agents Seize Man's Life Savings Under Civil Asset Forfeiture Without Charges [12]DEA Agents Wrongly Jailed Student for 5 Days Without Food or Water Until He Had to Drink Own Urine; Nobody Fired [13]Naturally, any sane society would immediately declassify marijuana as a Schedule 1 drug. Unfortunately, we do not live in a sane society.Meanwhile, since we're already on the topic of the disastrously idiotic "war on drugs," let's examine another egregious example of how it's abused in order to unnecessarily ruin countless lives across America.What follows are excerpts from a recent New York Times article covering "$2 Roadside Drug Tests" (I strongly suggest reading the entire thing): [14]Prepare to be outraged.Think about the insanity of this. 1.2 million people...This is beyond unethical since there's no actual victim in the case of drug possession. If there's no victim, how can there be a crime? It's preposterous....Read more at: http://libertyblitzkrieg.com Sources:[1] http://libertyblitzkrieg.com [2] www.washingtonpost.com [3] www.washingtonpost.com [4] http://content.healthaffairs.org/content/35/7/1230 [5] http://content.healthaffairs.org/content/35/7/1230 [6] http://www.ibtimes.com [7] www.gillibrand.senate.gov [8] http://www.washingtonpost.com [9] http://www.washingtonpost.com [10] http://www.washingtonpost.com [11] http://libertyblitzkrieg.com [12] http://libertyblitzkrieg.com [13] http://libertyblitzkrieg.com [14] http://www.nytimes.com [15] http://www.drugwarfacts.org/cms/Crime#sthash.5hU4P4f0.3xa4mmo0.dpbs
Baton Rouge killer took Lunesta and Ativan, psychotropic pharmaceuticals tied to homicidal ideation

(NaturalNews) The murderous rampage that recently took place in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where three officers were gunned down, was triggered by swift, violent, chemical changes in the shooter's brain. After the rampage, investigators learned that the shooter, Gavin Long, was taking multiple mind-altering prescription drugs to cope with PTSD. The scene played out in horror. The drugs drove him over the brink, subduing his mind and propelling him toward senseless rage.Gavin Long was an honorably discharged Marine, but the medical care he received was not honorable in any way. Gavin Long got no real help for his PTSD. Instead, he was subjected to the violent side effects of the prescription psychotropic drugs, Lunesta and Ativan . This is one of the ways America's veterans and soldiers are being destroyed from the inside out. They are not given real time to cope, reflect and heal from the sights and harsh realities of war. They are quickly turned into subjects of medical experimentation when they get home, as mind altering drugs continue punishing their brains on a chemical level.These drugs are the greatest danger to American soldiers, police officers and citizens, because of their documented, cruel and inhumane side effects. At the end of the day, a killer pulls the trigger, butThis is largely because of the drugs he is told to take, which include a long list of egregious, punishing side effects. The side effects are listed in plain view for doctors and patients to reject, but both parties continue to believe in the medication, as if they are caught up in some sadistic illusion.The overlapping side effects of Lunesta and Ativan alone include the initiation of aggressive behavior, agitation, sudden changes in behavior, hallucinations, suicidal thoughts and homicidal ideation. It is unbelievable that these drugs are even considered medications.Never before has American society seen such insane acts of violence as it has in the past two decades. Something sinister is damaging the minds of those who are already trying to cope with psychological problems. Something sinister is pushing their brains past the tipping point. The evidence is there, and the side effects are listed. Why isn't this medical travesty addressed after these shooters go off with no rhyme or reason? The triggers are being pulled in these killers' minds through a process of chemical changes that are initiated by pharmaceutical psychotropic drugs . Could it be any more obvious?Like ammunition going off in the brain, these prescription drugs create homicidal thoughts, sharpening violent impulses. On his 29th birthday, with no regard for life and with no dignity, Gavin Long took down three police officers before being taken out himself.What the mainstream media fails to report, time and time again, is the shooters' dependence on psychotropic drugs and how they create the most awful environment within patients' minds, propelling them to act on violent beliefs and impulses. Gavin Long joins a growing list of killers who were hooked on psychotropic "medications" prior to their rampages. The shooter in Orlando was also on psychotropic drugs, furthering the sickening trend of prescription drug-induced violence.There have been at least 134 drug regulatory agency warnings from 11 countries, decrying the dangerous side effects of psychotropic drugs. Over 150 studies from 17 different countries point out the violent dangers of antidepressants, which include delusions, self inflicted harm, hostility toward others and homicidal ideation.Knowing this, why has the use of these drugs skyrocketed by 400 percent since 1988? Why are 11 percent of all Americans, 12 years and over, on some kind of psychotropic drug today?Why aren't we going after and banning every single dose of these "medications" that propel violence and murder? Shouldn't these pills be forbidden, rounded up, locked into a vault, buried deep within the Earth and melted down into magma?
White people are not the enemy: "Progressive" politicians are the real enemy

Black Haitian lives really don't matter at all to Bill and Hillary Clinton

(NaturalNews) I've just released a new video detailing the pattern of systemic violence against black people in America. And guess what? It's not a video about cops. No,, not kinetic violence.In this video, shown below, I explain how both government and industry deliberately target black Americans for mass poisoning and profit exploitation. In this short interview, you'll learn some truly shocking facts about violence against African-Americans that are never discussed anywhere in the mainstream media.Why bring all this into the conversation? As you know, I am strongly opposed to Black Lives Matter-inspired violence like we've seen with recent police shootings. Yet we cannot have a real conversation about theunless we honestly confront all the vectors of violence being committed against African-Americans right now. Many of those vectors are invisible and silent, making it easy for the rest of the population to pretend they don't exist at all.Notably, most of the chemical violence committed against black people is. In other words, it's not "white people" who are targeting black people, but rather the government itself (Obama administration and people like Hillary Clinton) who are running the government that systematically tolerates the chemical destruction of black lives.Even worse, if Hillary Clinton gets elected, this cycle of chemical violence against black people will only worsen. We will see more destruction of lives because Clinton is pro vaccine, pro GMO, pro fracking, pro big banksters, pro cancer industry and strongly in favor of every sector of government and private industry that preys upon the pain and suffering of black Americans (the disease industry, the abortion industry, the cancer industry, the credit card industry, etc.).That's why every black person in America today should vote against Hillary Clinton in the coming election.. Democrats simply EXPLOIT black lives for their votes, then they abandon black people until the next election rolls around. Click here to watch my video on YouTube or view it here:From Breitbart.com Continue reading at Breitbart.com
The scientific world just celebrated Viking's 40th year anniversary as the first lander to arrive on Mars. In line with that, the agency plans to digitize all the data gathered by Viking for easier access to valuable information gathered 40 years ago.

Biological Data from #NASA's #Viking landers is about to be digitized for future generations | #PhysOrg https://t.co/EzlyX7Fohl  Gene J. Mikulka (@genejm29) July 21, 2016

Viking's success marked the first planetary exploration attempt of mankind to their nearest neighborhood planet. And because of that, the mission provided significant knowledge about the red planet that is still useful to scientists until today. Today, the data are finally being digitized so it can be of use to future studies.

Originally, the Viking lander data was stored on microfilms, although it stored data successfully, over time, they are bound to be altered by elements and due to technological advancement, the use of microfilm is almost obsolete.

"At one time, microfilm was the archive thing of the future," David Williams, a planetary curation scientist at NASA's Space Science Data Coordinated Archive said in a statement published by the Smithsonian. "But people quickly turned to digitizing 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," Williams added.

Some of the data stored in microfilms weren't even seen for 20 years and digitizing them will provide a faster access to valuable data collected by the mission. Some years ago, some scientists required data stored on the microfilms and they realized the difficulty in searching for the data physically to find the required information.

In this day and age, mostly everything is done through a computer and it also time to digitize and preserve data collected by the Viking lander. Part of the data collected by the Viking missions is the high-resolution images of the Martian surface, according to NASA.

The Viking mission and the data gathered paved the way for the revelation of more information about the composition of the Martial soil and its atmosphere, that, 40 years later, are still vital in NASA's upcoming Journey to Mars.
A new startup company aims to make reliable cellphone communications in space.

Audacy, a California-based space startup company, aims to provide spacecraft operators with continuous communications access to their satellite data while in orbit.

In August, the company seeks to close a Series A funding round of about $15 million to start the construction of three satellites and two ground stations to built in the San Francisco Bay Area and Southeast Asia, Space.com reports.

Audacy targets to raise four rounds of funding to build the Earth stations and launch the satellites by 2019. According to Audacy representatives, the plan will cost about $750 million, $250 million of which will be sourced from funding and $500 more in government-backed debt.

Audacy's three satellites could support about 2,000 tiny cubesats working simultaneously anywhere in Earth orbit. According to Audacy's website, the company could provide speeds of up to 2 Gbps and a coverage of up to 22,000 km altitude from Earth. The base service level could also support up to 1,000 simultaneous users ranging from 35 kbps to 50 Mbps, while premium service allows up to 12 simultaneous users with data of up to 4 Gbps.

According to a report from Space.com, Audacy's infrastructure could also support missions to the moon.

Audacy CEO Ralph Ewig told Space.com that the capacity could allow Earth-observation companies send back data to customers, help spacecraft-launching firms monitor their rockets or help internet service providers keep track of satellites.

"There will be a large number of LEO [low Earth orbit] spacecraft in the next couple of years," Ewig said in an interview with Space.com.

During the time he was working as mission operations engineer for SpaceX in 2010, Ewig thought of creating an alternative for the TDRSS communications used by SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft. According to Ewig, TDRSS lacks the capacity to support hundreds of new launch providers.

Ewig founded Audacy about 18 months ago with his associates James Spicer and Sam Avery. In August 2015, the company was able to raise $2 million in seed funding from several investors.
China has cooled toward South Korea since Seoul agreed to let the U.S. station a Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense battery here.

Signs of a growing peeve include reports that Beijing is questioning the quality of South Korean cosmetics, which are extremely popular among Chinese consumers, and rumors that China has returned to repatriating North Korean defectors.

State media reported that a growing number of South Korean cosmetics products are failing quality tests or are being illegally imported. Xinhua said imports of South Korean cosmetics have surged in the first half of this year, but in seven cases they failed to spot checks at the border.

A customs official said the products that failed the spot checks usually contain ingredients prohibited by the Chinese government.

Xinhua said some South Korean businesses are selling counterfeit or substandard products in China, such as mask packs that allegedly contain banned preservatives, mostly by mail order or online.

CCTV on Tuesday reported extensively on a crackdown on South Korean cosmetics that were smuggled through Dalian port. A smuggler who was arrested says on camera, "Chinese tourists who visit South Korea buy cosmetics products in Myeong-dong [Seoul's famous shopping district], but these products can't be trusted."

And South Korean groups helping North Korean defectors in China claim that Chinese security forces are arresting and repatriating defectors again.

Activist Kwon Na-hyun said a 28-year-old North Korean woman who had been living in China's Liaoning Province was arrested on Monday and taken to the border with North Korea. "She is facing repatriation back to North Korea," he said. The woman is apparently from Chongjin in North Korea's Hamgyong Province.

Two other North Korean women who were living in Jilin Province were also arrested recently, according to Lee Myeong-ok, another activist. Lee added there are rampant signs of a crackdown on North Korean defectors in Yanbian, which is home to a large ethnic Korean group.


Major developments on artificially intelligent machines could enable them to mimic human feelings, scientists say.

During an artificial intelligence conference in New York last week, Alexi Samsonovich, a professor in the Cybernetics Department of the National Research Nuclear University, announced the development of machines capable of feeling and understanding human emotions, and learning these emotions on their own.

"We are on the verge of a breakthrough that was discussed since the fifties of the previous century," Samsonovich said.

Artificially intelligent machines have been interacting with humans since its early days. Some could engage in conversations with humans, and some could even defeat humans in combat games. However, AIs are still lacking in terms of the capacity to feel human emotions.

At this, Samsonovich proposed a multi-part test during the convention, PopSci.com reports.

The test would involve a human and a machine interacting in the virtual world disguised as avatars. Both human and machine would play games that involve teamwork, trust, betrayal and various forms of social communications. The test is inspired by the Turing test developed during the 1950s.

"Virtual agents and robots should be human-like so that humans could trust them and cooperate with them as with their equals. Therefore, artificial intelligence must be socially and emotionally responsive and able to think and learn like humans," Samsonovich said in a press release.

"And that implies such mechanisms as narrative thinking, autonomous goal setting, creative reinterpreting, active learning, and the ability to generate emotions and maintain interpersonal relationships."

According to Samsonovich, the development does not necessarily involve consciousness. AI emotions would be "limited to behavior, internal organization of the system and its internal dynamics."

The developments would require additional funding from the government, Samsonovich said. Over the next 18 months, Samsonovich and his team are looking to develop Virtual Actor, an AI that could create goals, make plans, and build social relationships with people.
"Awesome time to be alive."

That was the sentiment from one person watching history take place at the Democratic National Convention, as Hillary Clinton became the first woman to be nominated for U.S. president by a major political party. And it was a common feeling Tuesday night in the Bay Area.

Steve Erdahl of Pinole, watching former President Bill Clinton address delegates on behalf of his wife in Philadelphia, says hes excited to witness history.

"First we had Obama, now we have Clinton," Erdahl said. "Gender is no longer an issue in America."

That's debatable, according to NBC Bay Area political analyst Larry Gerston, who has studied the issue for years.

"Its just one more time; Americans historically thought it's not appropriate for a woman," Gerston said of the presidency. "That's no longer the case."

Now that Clintons nomination is in the history books, restaurant owner Derreck Johnson says hes hoping she will make it to the White House. He met the former secretary of state a month and a half ago while she made a campaign stop at his restaurant in Jack London Square.

Johnson believes eight years of an African-American president and the possibility of a woman president will help the struggling middle class.

"I think they are in tune with the needs of the everyday working person at least from our conversation," he said. "She seems sincere about that."
A Spare the Air alert has been issued for the Bay Area for Thursday because smog is forecast to be at unhealthy levels, regional air quality officials said.

The alert from the Bay Area Air Quality Management District is the fourth in a row and the 12th this summer season.

Smog from motor vehicles combined with smoke from the Soberanes Fire in Monterey County is expected to present heightened impacts to residents in the region, district spokesman Tom Flannigan said.

Persistent high temperatures and light winds will enhance that impact.

The elderly, young children and people with lung and heart conditions are especially vulnerable to smog, Flannigan said. Those especially susceptible will feel the effects right away on Spare the Air days, he said.

Air quality experts are asking residents across the Bay Area to find another way to travel such as carpooling, taking transit, walking, biking or driving an electric vehicle. Driving less or driving an electric vehicle are the most effective ways to reduce smog, air district officials said.

Residents should limit outdoor activities to the early morning or late evening hours when the level of smog is lower, according to the district. Smog can cause throat irritation, congestion and chest pain, trigger asthma, inflame the lining of the lungs and worsen bronchitis and emphysema.

Residents are more likely to adopt modes of transportation other than driving alone when their employers encourage them, air district officials said. Employers with 50 or more full-time employees are required to offer commuter benefits to their workers.

Fire officials are also urging Bay Area residents to watch out for strong and hazardous rip currents and large shore breaks at local beaches. The National Weather Service may have issued an excessive-heat warning for a vast swath of California, but ocean water is still cold, and poses a high hypothermia risk, officials warned.

Separately, operators of California's power grid have issued a so-called Flex Alert calling for energy conservation due to high temperatures in the state.

The California Independent System Operator is asking consumers to conserve electricity Wednesday and Thursday, especially during the peak demand period between 2 p.m. and 9 p.m.

Cal-ISO says electricity supplies are expected to be tight due to use of air conditioners, power plant outages and reductions in transmission line import capacity due to high temperatures in neighboring states.

Residents can find out when a Spare the Air Alert is in effect by registering for email alerts at www.sparetheair.org, calling (800) HELP-AIR, downloading the Spare the Air smartphone app or checking Spare the Air on Facebook or Twitter.
The operator of a bulldozer was killed when it rolled over during the fight against a wildfire near Big Sur that has scorched nearly 24,000 acres and destroyed 36 homes and two outbuildings, California fire officials said Wednesday.

Another operator escaped injury when a second bulldozer rolled over and sustained minor damage, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

The name and age of the operator who was killed was not immediately available.

The death occurred as firefighters worked around the clock against the Soberanes blaze near a scenic stretch of the California coast, where smoke and the threat of flames forced the closure of state parks near Big Sur, a popular tourist area.

"We need to reflect, make sure we're safe," Cal Fire Capt. Lucas Spelman said as firefighters mourned the loss of one of their own. "Our hearts go out to his family."

Cal Fire held a community meeting Wednesday night, the second such meeting in the past week. There, resident Don Curry said his cabin was one of the first homes consumed by the blaze.

"That was my home," he said. "So I lost everything I own."

Curry shot video of the fire when it was approaching and narrated.

"These are like 300-foot flames," he says in the video. "I'm kind of shaking."

During the meeting, people were consoling ewach other, and there was a moment of silence for the firefighter who lost his life.

Cal Fire also got plenty of questions from evacuees wondering when they'll be allowed to go home.

The Soberanes fire started Friday north of Big Sur and was just 10 percent contained Wednesday. By Tuesday, residents of 300 homes had been ordered to evacuate and on Wednesday afternoon, Cal Fire officials expanded their order to include a larger area.

The Cal Fire response to the blaze, which has ravaged 23,568 acres and is threatening at least 2,000 structures, includes 3,079 firefighters, 306 fire engines, 14 helicopters, six air tankers, 60 dozers and 19 water tenders, officials said.

High temperatures Wednesday were accompanied with lower humidity, making the fire difficult to contain.

Also, dense fog grounded 10 helicopters  as has been the case for the past three days  that were on scene to make badly-needed water drops. Cal Fire officials said they were hoping for "good, clean air," so ground crews battling the flames amid the dry and rugged terrain could get a break.

In some cases, Spelman said, crews have been forced to hike up three miles to reach the fire's edge.

"We're starting to get into fatigue stage, so we're starting to watch the firefighters," he said.

Soberanes Fire Spreads, Impacts Air Quality

On Wednesday, some area residents admitted that they, too, were feeling weary.

Tom Huntington, whose house is south of Monterey, said, "We're not rich people. We couldn't start over. We would have to live in a tent or something."

He said his art studio went up in flames in 2007. This time, Huntington was able to grab a few pieces of art before flames ripped through his neighborhood in Palo Colorado Canyon.

"How can you sleep?" he asked. "It will be OK. No, it might not be OK. You know?"

Huntington was told that his house is still standing, but some of his neighbors weren't so lucky.

"I'm feeling weepy, like I could cry, but I don't want to," he admitted.

Other homeowners said they were just hoping for the best.

"Everything is tinder dry," said Carmel Valley resident Roberta Troxell, who has "documents and pictures and all of those things that I can just grab and go."

Troxell said also that it's important to "always have enough dog food."

The Soberanes fire could crest a ridge and make a run toward campgrounds, lodges and redwoods closer to the shore, officials said, noting that their main objective on Wednesday was to keep the blaze from heading west  toward Carmel Valley.

Pacific Coast Highway remained open Wednesday, but its signature views were marred by a dark haze.

"We wanted to see more of the ocean," said Phoenix-area tourist Jim Newby, who drove along the highway with his family Tuesday. "We didn't see a whole lot of it unfortunately, and it's a beautiful, beautiful stretch."

Cal Fire officials said Wednesday that a male bulldoze operator was killed by the Soberanes Fire in Monterey County. His identity has not yet been released. Sharon Katsuda reports.

The Big Sur closures were put into place for parks that draw 7,500 visitors a day from around the world for their dramatic vistas of ocean and mountains.

Eight hikers were rescued near the Soberanes fire lines Tuesday after spending days wandering smoky trails with little water or food. No serious injuries were reported.

Acting Gov. Tom Torlakson, substituting for Gov. Jerry Brown who is at the Democratic National Convention with other top state officials, declared a state of emergency for both fires on Tuesday night. The move frees up funding and relaxes regulations to help with the firefight and recovery.

Cots and warm meals are available for evacuees at the Red Cross shelter, located in Carmel Middle School at 4380 Carmel Valley Road in Carmel-by-the-Sea.

"A lot of people just need to talk," Red Cross volunteer Jenni Craig said. "So that's what we're here for, too."

As families are forced to evacuate, some pets have been left behind in the area affected by the Soberanes fire. Specially trained workers with the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals for Monterey County have gone behind the fire lines to rescue more than 30 animals. The animals are now staying at a shelter while their owners wait for word about the condition of their homes.

The SPCA is seeking cash donations, small bags of pet food and cat litter at the evacuation center and its shelter at 1002 Monterey Salinas Highway in Salinas.

Anyone affected by the fire who needs help with pets or large animals can call the SPCA at 831-373-2631.

For the latest on the Soberanes fire, visit the Cal Fire website.

Evacuation orders are in place for the following areas:

Robinson Canyon Road from San Clemente Trail to White Rock Gun Club

Area south of San Clemente Trail, from Robinson Canyon road to the Rancho San Clemente Gate House, to include the Arroyo Sequoia Road

Palo Colorado

A portion of Santa Lucia Preserve on San Carlos Road between Canter Run and Garza Trail

Old Coast Road

Corona Road, east of Highway 1

Riley Ranch Road, east of Highway 1

Bixby Creek Road from Highway 1 south to Mesa

Garrapatos Road

Weston Ridge Road

Evacuation warnings are in place in the following areas:
Following a documented rise in occurences, A $6 million grant has been given to a team of researchers studying leukemia in children.

The environmental Protection Agency and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences handed down the award, which will fund four years of dedicated study at the Berkeley-based Center for Integrative Research on Childhood Leukemia and the Environment (CIRCLE).

The university said in a statement that the incidences of the disease have risen a whopping 35 percent since 1975, and it continues to be a leading cause of childhood mortality in developing countries. Leukemia also accounts for one out of every three cancers in minors, according to cancer.org.

Our goal is to identify the causes of childhood leukemia and to support prevention efforts by educating health practitioners, families and public health organizations on risk factors for leukemia, sai Catherine Metayer, a professor of epidemiology with UC Berkeleys School of Public Health and the director of CIRCLE.

She told UC Berkeley's news service that the rise in leukemia suggests that environmental causes may be to blame.

Read more over on UC Berkeley's newsite.
A former employee of the popular East Bay T-shirt shop Oaklandish has filed a lawsuit saying she was the victim of repeated sexual harassment.

Raisa Yavney filed the lawsuit against the Oakland company, claiming harassment, retaliation and negligence. She claims several coworkers made repeated unwanted sexual advances and commonly used homophobic slurs, even after she asked them to stop.

"It wasn't taken seriously because that's kind of was just how it is," Yavney said.

Yavney, who self identifies as queer, said she reported the harassment to her boss several times. Her boss later encouraged the so-called ring leader to apologize privately, Yavney said.

"He responded. 'That's just how it is around here,'" Yavney said.

Yavney quit soon after and now is hoping her case will help other employees at the company she used to love.

"I'm hoping this will be sort of a wake up call for them," Yavney said.

A trial date has been set for February.

Several attempts to reach out to Oaklandish for comment were not returned.
A priest was "assassinated" and another person gravely wounded when two knife-wielding attackers linked to ISIS took several nuns and worshippers hostage during morning Mass at a church in northern France early Tuesday, NBC News reported.

A nun who was in the church said the victim, identified as 84-year-old Father Jacques Hamel, was forced to the ground before his throat was slit.

The siege ended when the attackers were shot dead by police.

Paris prosecutor Francois Molins identified one of the attackers as Adel Kermiche, who'd been caught trying to reach Syria, base of operations for ISIS, twice last year. The second attacker has not been identified.

Investigators found two fake bombs and three knives. One of the attackers wore a "false explosive belt" and another three knives, Molins said. The other attacker carried a pressure cooker  a device that terrorists have used to make bombs  wrapped in aluminum.
According to a study presented at the European Science Open Forum in Manchester, U.K. on Monday, the average Korean woman was just 142.2 cm tall in 1914 but now, a century later, measures 162.3 cm.

The average Korean woman is 20.1 cm taller than 100 years ago, the biggest increase in height of any country in the world.

Japanese women grew by the second biggest margin of 16 cm, followed by Czechs with 15.7 cm.

Korean men also grew from 159.8 cm in 1914 to 174.9 cm two years ago, the third biggest increase after Iran (16.5 cm) and Greenland (15.4 cm).

The study was conducted by some 800 health experts from around the world and the World Health Organization, who gathered 1,500 different types of data on 18.6 million adults from 200 countries and compared them to the same data in 1914.

Koreans are 3 to 4 cm taller than people in China and Japan. The main reason for the growth spurt has been nutrition and improving health conditions on top of genetic factors, according to researchers.

The country with the tallest men is the Netherlands at a strapping 182.5 cm, while Latvia has the tallest women at 169.8 cm. East Timor has the shortest men (159.8 cm) and Guatemala the shortest women (149.4 cm).

Overall, people in Asia and the Middle East grew by the largest margin, but there was no very marked change in the U.S., Canada and Northern Europe.

Height increases in the U.S. came to a standstill in the 1970s and started to go backward in the 2000s, according to the study.


Authorities in Pakistan are investigating the death of a British woman suspected to be an honor killing, police told NBC News on Wednesday.

Samia Shahids husband, Syed Mukhtar, Kazim claims she was murdered because of her marriage to him. Shahid was visiting her estranged parents in northeastern Pakistan, where she died on July 20.

Police are investigating Shahids father and a cousin in her death, and told NBC News they are also looking for her former husband.

A mark was spotted on her neck after her death, and police said there was foaming from her mouth, but that could be normal. The family, according to police, say Shahid fell ill and just died. A final forensic report hasnt been released yet.

Shahids death has become a high-profile investigation in Pakistan. Interior Minister Nisar Ali Khan on Wednesday promised a "transparent and swift probe" into the case.
Businessman Chris Kennedy stoked further speculation about a possible gubernatorial run after slamming Gov. Bruce Rauner during a breakfast at the Democratic National Convention Tuesday.

Kennedy, who is the son of former Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, addressed the Illinois delegation Tuesday morning, ripping Rauners beleaguered Turnaround Agenda.

This governors so-called Turnaround Agenda is another form of misdirection, part of the narrative that government doesnt work so hes going to have to privatize it, Kennedy said. The suffering and chaos that he has unleashed on the people of Illinois needs to end."

Kennedy touted his business acumen throughout the speech. He previously served as president of Chicagos Merchandise Mart before selling his ownership stake in 2012 and starting a grocery nonprofit, Top Box Foods.

He noted that relocating businesses arent concerned with key components of Rauners agenda, like redistricting, tort reform, right to work or prevailing wage.

After the speech, Kennedy was followed by a cluster of reporters asking if he would run for governor in 2018. Kennedy did not respond to the questions.

According to the Chicago Tribune, House Speaker Mike Madigan said Kennedy would be an excellent candidate" for governor Tuesday, citing his business experience and family history.

At the beginning of his speech, Kennedy thanked Madigan for inviting him to address the delegation. Madigan, who serves as the Democratic Party chairman, explained that Kennedy sought out the invitation. The speaker also said he has met with Kennedy about a potential gubernatorial bid.

Sources told NBC Chicago last month that Kennedy was making the rounds for a possible campaign.

Over the course of the first two days of the DNC, there has been a considerable amount of speculation about which Illinois Democrat will take on Rauner in 2018.

On Monday, Sen. Dick Durbin deflected questions about a possible bid, while House Speaker Mike Madigan called Durbin uniquely qualified for the role. Madigan noted that he and Durbin talked about the prospect as recently as a few months ago.

The speakers daughter, Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan, has also been considered a potential pick for Democrats. According to the Tribune, Madigan said Illinois would not be well served by having a governor and speaker of the House from the same family Monday. She added that she never planned to run if that would be the case."

Chicago Ald. Ed Burke speculated Monday about Durbin potentially leaving the Senate if Democrats are able to regain the majority in the fall, the Tribune reports. He also called Valerie Jarrett an exciting possibility for a gubernatorial candidate. Jarett has been a longtime advisor to President Barack Obama.

Additionally, State Sen. Kwame Raoul, who occupied Obamas old seat, said that he would be interested in a gubernatorial bid Monday.
Sen. Mark Kirks campaign released a Snapchat filter this week that ties his opponent, Rep. Tammy Duckworth, to incarcerated former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

Blagojevich appointed Duckworth as the Director of the Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs in 2006, shortly after she lost to Rep. Peter Roskam in her first Congressional bid. The Kirk campaign has repeatedly tried to link Duckworth and Blagojevich.

The filter features an animation of Duckworth and Blagojevich holding a sign.

Blagojevich + Tammy, the filter reads. Costing taxpayers since 2006.

The Kirk campaign claimed they are working to integrate new social media platforms into their strategy.

We are committed to running the most technologically advanced campaign that is strong on fundamentals, Kirk spokesman Kevin Artl said in a statement. Not only are we delivering our message via the latest social mediums, we are also crushing Duckworth on the ground game with a team that has already knocked on over 100,000 doors and made over 1 million phone calls to Illinois voters.

Duckworths campaign scoffed at the filter.

Republican Mark Kirk is getting desperate to hide his record of kowtowing to Wall Street and Washington lobbyists at the expense of Illinois families, Democratic Party of Illinois spokesman Sean Savett said in a statement. If Kirk spent half as much time traveling the state of Illinois as Tammy has, he would know Illinois voters would rather talk about how hes rubber-stamped bad trade deals, protected tax breaks for outsourcing, and tried to turn Medicare into a voucher system."

Kirk and Duckworth remain locked in one of the nation's most highly-contested Senate races.

Meanwhile, one of Kirk's allies is pushing to get two other candidates kicked off the ticket, the Chicago Tribune reports.

Michael Bigger, a Republican state central committeeman for the 18th Congressional District and Stark County Republican chairman, filed objections against Chad Koppie and Eric Conklin this month. Koppie represents the Constitution Party, while Conklin filed as an independent.

Neither campaign was willing to comment on the petitions. However, according to an unnamed GOP insider, both sets of petitions were tens of thousands of signatures short.
President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama have chosen Chicago's historic Jackson Park as the site for the Obama Presidential Center, a source familiar with the process confirmed to NBC News.

An official announcement on the decision is expected to be made in the coming days.

The center was expected to be located in one of two parks on the city's South Side. It will be home to Obama's archives and a museum about his presidency, and is expected to be completed in 2020 or 2021.



The Barack Obama Foundation announced last year that Chicago would house the future library, capping an intense campaign for the library.



The city of Chicago was instrumental in demonstrating to the President and First Lady the advantages of locating the future Obama Presidential Center in the city, and the University of Chicago brought to life the broad potential and vital energy of the South Side, foundation chairman Martin Nesbitt said in a statement.



Mayor Rahm Emanuel called the project a "unique opportunity" for Chicago and advocated aggressively for the selection.



"It can be on the South Side. It can be on the West Side, but it cannot be on the Upper West Side of Manhattan," said Emanuel, Obama's former White House chief of staff, while campaigning for a second term at City Hall.

The foundation recently announced that the New York architects behind the nearby University of Chicago's Logan Center for the Arts would partner with a Chicago firm in designing the center.
The Downers Grove Police Department released an incident report filed by former state Rep. Ron Sandack, who told the department that he was the victim of an internet scam earlier this month. Sandack resigned Sunday, citing "cyber security issues."

The report was obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times through a Freedom of Information Act request. However, most of the information in the report has been blacked out. Because of the redactions, little can be gleaned about the former Rauner allys report.

Sandack, who was up for reelection in the fall, met with a Downers Grove police officer on July 14, according to the report. He told the officer that the incident began on July 7. Aside from that, not much else is revealed.

The Downers Grove Police Department told the Sun-Times that disclosing further information would obstruct an ongoing criminal investigation.

On Monday, Sandack told the Chicago Tribune that he resigned after fake social media account set up in his name started cropping up in recent weeks. Sandack was an avid user of Facebook and Twitter during his time in the general assemblies.

Sandack told the Tribune that politics has gotten too ugly, expressing concern for his family.

Sandack did not immediately respond to request for comment.
Cook County President Toni Preckwinkle sat next to former President Bill Clinton during the first night of the Democratic National Convention Monday.

Preckwinkle was asked to sit with Clinton in his skybox shortly after arriving at the DNC Monday. The two watched First Lady Michelle Obamas speech together Monday night.

Im very grateful that I had the opportunity to sit with President Clinton, Preckwinkle told Ward Room Tuesday. It was an amazing evening last night."

In March, Preckwinkle appeared alongside Clinton at a polling place in her Chicago precinct on Illinois primary Election Day. She said she looks forward to the former Presidents headlining speech at the DNC Tuesday.

"At the last convention, he gave one of the best speeches Ive ever heard in my life, Preckwinkle said.

After Preckwinkles appearance with Clinton Monday, rumors about a potential mayoral run intensified. In response, Preckwinkle claimed that Chicago Tribune Reporter John Kass, who speculated about the Clintons backing Preckwinkle in the 2019 Chicago mayoral election, has a vivid imagination.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel has faced increased scrutiny in the wake of the Laquan McDonald controversy. McDonald was shot and killed by Chicago police officer Jason Van Dyke in October of 2014. After dash-cam footage of the incident was released in November of last year, there was a large public outcry for Emanuel's resignation.

In March, Chicago Magazine released their "Power 50" issue with Preckwinkle at the top of the list. Emanuel ranked second.
A Chicago woman says the FBI erroneously raided her house and left with no explanation after they didn't find who they were looking for.

Rachel Rodriguez said SWAT team members broke through the door of her home on the Far South Side of the city in the 9700 block of South Avenue M. when she asked for a warrant.

"They were banging at first and they said 'put your hands up,'" Rodriguez said. "I was frightened cause I didn't know if they were going to shoot me or not."

Chicago Police officials said they have no record of the raid. An FBI spokesperson said Rodriguez can file a claim to be reviewed by the bureau's legal authorities.

Rodriguez said she was home with her fiance when the officers stormed in searching for a man.

"They got inside, they had us sit down on the floor, they pointed guns at us," she said. "They were looking for a guy, I don't even know his name, I don't even know this guy."

Tuesday morning the FBI conducted a number of raids on homes on the Far South Side in connection with an investigation that yielded more than 30 arrests of Latin King gang members. Charges in the sweep varied from racketeering, conspiracy, assault and attempted murder.

Rodriguez said the officers left with little explanation.

"They just left, they said they didn't find the guy, the guy's not here," she said. "I almost had a panic attack, I was crying ... I want to know why my house, and I'm hoping not just cause I'm Latino."

She said an apology would be nice.
An Amazon packing and shipping facility is in the planning stages and will be located in Romeoville and will employ more than 600 people, the village announced in a press release Wednesday.

"We are excited to add this new fulfillment center in Romeoville," Akash Chauhan, vice president of Amazon's North America operations said in the release. "Expanding our footprint in Illinois brings hundreds and hundreds of full-time jobs with competitive pay and great benefits starting on day one to the state."

The building where the facility will be located is currently being modernized and officials said it should be operational by Oct. 1.

Amazon is currently hiring for "associate roles" at the Romeoville facility, officials said.

"We are pleased to welcome Amazon to Romeoville. We have very few vacancies, so we were fortunate that they found an existing building that met their needs," said Mayor John Noak in the press release. "Amazon continues to have a major impact on our regional economy. We look forward to this partnership, as e-commerce is an important sector in our future growth."
A Cook County Jail inmate awaiting trial for rape and kidnapping has been charged with sexually assaulting a cellmate, the Chicago Sun-Times is reporting.

Gerrod Greer, of Gary, Ind., attacked the man while the pair were in custody together in late April, Assistant States Attorney Liam Reardon told Judge Laura Sullivan on Tuesday.

The victim, 27, had been rejecting advances Greer had been making to him when they were in their cell alone.

But later that evening, Greer, 27, woke the then-sleeping man up and asked that he perform a sex act on him, Reardon said.

The victim, who had been sleeping on the lower bunk, eventually complied because Greer threatened to beat him if he refused, Reardon said.

Greer allegedly continued to rape the man.

The next morning, when the men were allowed to leave their cell, the victim told a sheriffs deputy what had happened.

Both men were then sent to Cermak Health Services, where a rape kit was taken, Reardon said.

Test results showed Greers DNA matched DNA found on the victim, Reardon said.

Sullivan ordered Greer held in lieu of $500,000 bail for criminal sexual assault.

Greer was already in jail for a rape and kidnapping case that is pending at the Markham Courthouse.

In that incident, he was charged with aggravated criminal sexual assault, aggravated kidnapping, aggravated criminal sexual abuse, aggravated battery and unlawful restraint, according to court records.
A thief known as the creeper ghost is believed to be responsible for a rash of home burglaries in Chicago after a resident captured chilling footage showing a man moving through a home with the owners still inside, going virtually undetected.

Several thefts, home invasions and robberies have been reported in the citys Bucktown neighborhood over the past few weeks. The incidents have happened in the early morning hours near Armitage and Damen, according to residents in the Bucktown Neighborhood Watch.

One victim caught an intruder on camera in footage he says is the stuff of horror movies.

The video shows a hooded intruder sitting outside the homeowners bedroom for several minutes, lurking over Jack Mackercher and his girlfriend, who had fallen asleep on the couch.

Basically came in my room, Mackercher said. Didnt try any other rooms. Tried to look in my office, but he looks down on us multiple times on the couch, leaning against the wall, looking at the TV.

Not even the couples dogs woke during the burgalry.

It wasnt until the next day they realized a purse was missing. They watched their security footage to trace their movements and saw the frightening scene.

We see a figure creep in, figure creep back out, Mackercher said.

The couple later saw on social media that numerous other residents caught a man matching the same description trying to open several doors before breaking into homes and stealing goods.

They have videos in the neighborhood of him going to every single door, Mackercher said.

Residents have decided to begin walking patrols up and down the streets.

These guys know that we dont have enough police on our streets at these hours, said Steve Jensen, president of the Bucktown Community Organization.

Chicago police confirmed there have been reports of burglaries in the area, but no one was in custody as of Tuesday evening.
Most of the newly issued arrest warrants were targeted at journalists allegedly affiliated with the U.S.-based Muslim cleric whom the Erdogan government claims was the mastermind of the attempt to overturn failed coup earlier this month.

Wednesday's developments are likely to increase concern among rights groups and Turkey's Western allies about the extent of the purge President Erdogan has ordered in the aftermath of the coup attempt on July 15-16.

State-run and private news outlets in Turkey reported 45 daily newspapers have been ordered to shut down, along with three news agencies and 16 television companies. Arrest warrants were issued earlier for 42 individual journalists, 16 of whom are already in custody.

At least one journalist was taken into custody and arrest warrants were issued for nearly 50 former members of the editorial staff of the country's largest daily, Zaman. The U.S. State Department said such moves against news media represent a "troubling trend."

Turkey announced the dismissal of more than 2,400 military personnel Wednesday and shut down scores of media outlets in what appeared to be a widening crackdown following the failed coup against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government.

Zaman, which was placed under state control four months ago, had been closely connected with the movement led by U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen. Since March the newspaper has taken a strongly pro-government stance in its reporting.

The crackdown on journalists comes as part of a wider purge of government officials and academic leaders following the coup, which left nearly 300 people dead.

A Turkish-American association has expressed deep concerns about events in Turkeys universities and mass suspension of faculty deans, and has urged government leaders to elevate democracy and academic freedom in the country.

In a statement posted Wednesday on its website, the Turkish-American Scientists and Scholars Association (TASSA) said it is very worried about "the long-term adverse impact that recent events might have on higher education, academic freedom, and scientific advancement in Turkey." The group said it hopes "normalcy is achieved very soon" and that "the deans are reinstated."

The scholars' reaction followed a statement by the Council of Higher Education of Turkey which said that decisions limiting the fundamental rights and liberties are made in case of state of emergency. The Council said it agrees with rectors who asked the deans to step aside temporarily, during investigations into the coup.

"It is very likely most of the universities will be able to reinstate their deans back to their duties once the review process is completed," the statement said.

Turkish media reported last week that the country's higher education board demanded the resignations of 1,577 university deans, while the education ministry had fired 15,200 teachers across the country.

Authorities at the interior ministry dismissed nearly 9,000 employees, it has been reported, and the finance ministry fired 1,500 people. Hundreds more were fired in the religious affairs directorate, the family and social policy ministry and the prime minister's office.

In total, about 10,000 Turkish officials have been detained and another 50,000 have been suspended in less than two weeks.

Some material for this report came from AP, AFP and Reuters.
A young mother was killed in a drive-by shooting early Wednesday on Chicagos South Side.

Africa Base, 23, was outside of her new apartment near 88th Street and Burley Avenue just after midnight when authorities say she was gunned down by a shooter in a black SUV.

Bases mother, Sheila Jones, told NBC 5 that her daughter had just moved into a new apartment after their family home burned down in a fire Monday.

She was not even there two hours, Jones said.

Base, a mother of two, was transported to Northwestern Memorial Hospital in critical condition before being pronounced dead hours later Wednesday morning. Meanwhile, her family is left shattered by grief.

"My babys gone, my house is gone. Jones says, sobbing. Im not that strong. I can't handle this."

She leaves behind a 2-year-old daughter and a son, whose fifth birthday was Wednesday. A day that will now always be remembered as the day his mother was killed.

The family gathered in mourning to hold each other up following another unthinkable loss; a string of tragedy in just three days.

She was a working woman, she just worked and tried to take care of her kids, said Bases grandmother, Betty Davis. Thats all she was trying to do.

Chicago police say they are investigating if Base had any gang ties, but her family insists she was an innocent victim.

They are just shooting to be shooting, Davis said. Shooting innocent people. And if black lives matter, it would matter to them!
Multiple bomb threats around the city of Hartford Wednesday were false, according to Hartford Police Deputy Chief Brian Foley.

Foley tweeted Wednesday afternoon that crime analysts were investigating at municipal buildings around the city, including police and fire headquarters on High Street. No one was evacuated when preliminary investigation suggested the threats were fake.

Later Wednesday Foley tweeted that the threats were confirmed fake and that they were related to an ongoing investigation in Bristol.

Hartford police and Bristol police are investigating.
Officials are asking people not to swim at West Haven beaches after sewage and black algae appeared in the water on Wednesday.

Beachgoers saw a "large, dark area" across a mile-long stretch in the water heading toward land around 2 p.m., West Haven Fire Department Chief Robert Schwartz said.

Responding firefighters said the dark area, spanning from Oak Street and Savin Rock, appeared to be sewage and black algae.

Crews are investigating, but said black algae can develop when it's very hot and a boat might have discharged the sewage.

West Haven Health Department, DEEP and the U.S. Coast Guard are asking people to stay out of the water as they investigate and execute tests.
South Windsor police are warning residents about an inheritance mail scam.

Police said a resident received a letter in the mail with a TD Bank logo claiming that a distant relative had died, leaving millions in an unclaimed bank account in Canada. The letter stated that the recipient is eligible for half the funds after paying taxes and fees to get the money out of the country.

According to police, this is a scam and recipients should never send back personal information or money. Police remind residents that divulging personal information could lead to identity theft.

Police said it is unclear how the sender chooses who to send the letters to and they encourage anyone who receives this type of letter to throw it away.
Some Litchfield homeowners are not happy about a gun club shooting range that the town has already shut down and say the sound of gunfire is crackling through the neighborhood again, despite a cease-and-desist order.

The order was issued on the gun club/shooting range in January 2015 and neighbors said all was quiet for about a year, but the shooting recently started back up.

We had a cease-and-desist order issued by the town of Litchfield which makes this gun club no longer a gun club, but unfortunately there has been a lot of activity that sounds and looks like a gun club," said Margaret Deakin, a resident of McBride Road.

The NBC Connecticut Troubleshooters first met the group in 2014, when there was tension between residents and the owner of the Northfield Reserve Land Trust, which was formerly known as the Northfield Gun Range.

When the longtime skeet and trap club opened to high-powered weapons training for public and private practice shooting; residents complained about the shooting going on all day.

Neighbors said it stopped after the cease and desist was issued. In March, the Litchfield Superior Court issued a ruling supporting the zoning board's action, but neighbors said shooting has gone on again more than a dozen times since Memorial Day.

Residents complained to the town and, according to a June 3 legal opinion from the town's planning and zoning attorney, Frank Stack Sr., the owner of Happy Acres farm, violated the cease-and-desist order by allowing shooting on his 43-acre property on Memorial Day weekend.

Neighbors said its happened on weekends in June as well.

Laurie Battick said the shooting impacts her husband, John, a Korean War veteran.

It upsets him too. He was in the war and it just brings back memories, she said.

What Id like to see done is they enforce the cease-and-desist order the town placed on the property, that it can't be used as a shooting range any longer. He lost all his appeals in court and Id like to see it all enforced," she added.

Attorney Jim Steck represents several of the homeowners and said his clients feel the spirit and letter of that cease-and-desist order are being violated with multiple people and multiple instances and semi-automatic weapons are constant.'

Several people packed the planning and zoning meeting in Litchfield on Monday night and several McBride Road residents said Frank Stack Sr. and his son are violating a cease-and-desist order the town issued in January 2015. They halted operations of their so-called gun club-shooting range, but neighbors said they started up again in May and want a court-issued injunction.

Its more about compliance and he fails to comply. Anyone has the right to shoot on their property, can't bring in guys 10-15 a clip and blow off ammo," Deering said.

On Monday evening, town officials went on a fact-finding mission and spoke with both sides.

I think, at this point in time, we're being harassed. We have complied with every legal form of the court decision, Frank Stack Sr. said.

"This is not being operated as a commercial range, My son enjoys shooting, he's the person who shoots there. There's a difference between commercial and private shooting range and Im shooting privately with friends," Frank Stack Jr. said.

Prior to the cease and desist, law enforcement and members of the military had fired their weapons there, but not anymore, according to the Stacks.

When asked if they are violating the cease and desist order, the Stacks said, Absolutely not, put me on camera, absolutely not.

Both sides claim they are being harassed, and both sides deny.
Toxic levels of lead have been found in drinking water at state-funded homes for disabled Texans, but their residents went untested for lead poisoning until a month after the lead was found.

Lead levels in blood usually drop by at least half after two to four weeks and by as much as 75 percent if pure water is substituted, The Dallas Morning News reported.

Residents at the state homes have been drinking bottled water since early May, the newspaper reported.

Of the 548 state home residents tested for lead exposure, 96 percent fell below two micrograms of lead per deciliter, or one-10th of a liter, of blood.

However, 14 residents showed between two and four micrograms per deciliter and seven had between five and 10 micrograms per deciliter, the newspaper reported.

A lead level of five micrograms or more per deciliter of blood is regarded as elevated, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

If a lead level in blood was five micrograms per deciliter when the switch was made to bottled water, it could be as low as 1.25 micrograms per deciliter a month later, said Marc Edwards, a Virginia Tech civil and environmental engineering professor who led a research team that studied the drinking water in Flint, Michigan, where lead contamination was widespread.

"The general idea of measuring everyone's blood from a month to a year after the harmful exposure has occurred is, unfortunately, a fairly standard practice employed by government agencies to downplay lead exposures occurring in public places. Claiming or implying that good blood-lead results a month after the last exposure could have occurred means that no one was hurt? That is just false," he told the newspaper.

Officials with the Texas Department of Aging and Disability Services, which operates the state homes, are "confident that the results of the blood tests are accurate," agency spokeswoman Cecilia Cavuto told the newspaper.

The newspaper reported in May that the water at state-supported Living Centers in Brenham, El Paso and San Angelo contained high lead levels. The state agency began providing residents with bottled water a week later for drinking, cooking and brushing their teeth.

Extended exposure to high lead levels can cause brain damage, kidney and nervous system failure, and death. The National Toxicology Program in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has reported that lead levels in blood of less than five micrograms per deciliter "are associated with adverse health effects in children and adults."
Fort Worth police say a 16-year-old boy was rushed to a hospital in fair condition Wednesday after an accidental shooting.[[388466572,R]]

Officers were called just after 3 p.m. to a residence in the 3600 block of Hulen Park Circle.

Police said the 16-year-old and his 17-year-old friend claimed to have found a gun in a creek earlier in the morning, and they were in a garage handling the weapon when it fired, striking the 16-year-old in the chest.

The bullet went through, exited and lodged into a wall, police said.

The teen was alert and talking when he was transported by MedStar to John Peter Smith Hospital.

Police said the investigation at this point indicates the shooting was accidental.

Additional information has not yet been released.
A growing push for improved police pay and manpower is under way after the July 7 ambush that killed five police officers in Dallas.

"I think there's renewed commitment to making that happen," said Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings.

The push could be helped by the 10 percent increase in certified Dallas city and county tax values released Tuesday.

The increases put many taxpayers in line for higher tax bills depending on the rates local government leaders set in the next two months.

"I think it's great news that this city is growing," said Rawlings. "It says that we're doing something right. Now we have to keep doing those things right in the future."

Some elected leaders are pushing for rate cuts to offset rising values for taxpayers while other leaders want the extra tax money used to improve services.

"We've seen very clearly what police do for us, and it is definitely time to figure out what we do for police," said Dallas Councilman Phil Kingston. "I think that that translates politically into increasing rookie and young officer pay."

Last week eight of the nine Fort Worth officers to graduate from a transferring officer class were former Dallas police officers.

"We do need more officers. We also have a lot of baby boomers who are retiring, so it's kind of a perfect storm," Councilman Erik Wilson said.

Police must compete with other Dallas citizen service demands including neglected streets, the No. 1 resident complaint, according to Dallas leaders.

"We've fallen behind on our street maintenance and unfortunately we have to pay the price for that," Wilson said.

The Dallas city manager is working on a budget plan to present for City Council debate next month. Several members have said they want tax rate reduction included.

"I think we're going to try to be as responsible as we can with the money that comes in," Kingston said.

Taxpayers and local government leaders across North Texas are facing the same debate over property value increases.

The overall certified tax value increase posted Tuesday for Collin County was 12.34 percent. Tarrant County reported a preliminary value increase of 19 percent earlier this year before appraisal protests were completed.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump encouraged Russia to meddle in American politics Wednesday, with a stunning recommendation to uncover and make public hacked emails that might damage his opponent, Hillary Clinton.

Shortly after Trump's remarks, his running mate, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, took a different tact and warned of "serious consequences" if Russia interfered in the election.

The developments came as Democrats met on the third day of their presidential convention in Philadelphia, where Clinton will claim the party's nomination Thursday night.

Trump's extraordinary comments raised the specter of whether he was condoning foreign government hacking of U.S. computers and the public release of information stolen from political adversaries  actions that are at least publicly frowned upon across the globe.

"I will tell you this. Russia, if you're listening, I hope you're able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing," Trump said. He was referring to emails on Clinton's private email server that she deleted because she said they were private before she turned other messages over to the State Department. The FBI declined to prosecute Clinton over her email practices but its director said she had been "extremely careless" handling classified materials.

The Clinton campaign called Trump's statement the "first time that a major presidential candidate has actively encouraged a foreign power to conduct espionage against a political opponent."

At a press conference in Doral, Florida, after Trump's initial remarks, he was asked whether he had any pause about asking a foreign government to hack into computers in the United States. Trump did not directly respond except to say, "That's up to the president. Let the president talk to them."

He later added: "If Russia or China or any other country has those emails, I mean, to be honest with you, I'd love to see them."

Later, Pence said in a statement there should be "serious consequences" if Russia is found to be interfering in the U.S. electoral process.

The exchange occurred after President Barack Obama identified Russia as almost certainly responsible for hacking the Democratic National Committee. WikiLeaks published on its website last week more than 19,000 internal emails stolen from the DNC earlier this year. The emails showed DNC staffers actively supporting Clinton when they were publicly promising to remain neutral during the primary elections between Clinton and rival candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders.

The head of the DNC, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, resigned over the disclosures, which disrupted this week's convention.

Trump cast doubt on whether Russia was behind that hack. He said blaming Russia was deflecting attention from the embarrassing material in the emails.

"Russia has no respect for our country, if it is Russia," Trump said. "It could be China. It could be someone sitting in his bedroom. It's probably not Russia. Nobody knows if it's Russia."

Obama traditionally avoids commenting on active FBI investigations, but he told NBC News on Tuesday that outside experts have blamed Russia for the leak. Obama also appeared to embrace the notion that President Vladimir Putin might have been responsible because of what he described as Trump's affinity for Putin. Trump said he has no relationship to Putin.

In Moscow on Wednesday, Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said Russia would never interfere in another country's election.

"What the motives were in terms of the leaks, all that, I can't say directly," Obama said. "What I do know is that Donald Trump has repeatedly expressed admiration for Vladimir Putin."

Obama said he was basing his assessment on Trump's own comments and the fact that Trump has "gotten pretty favorable coverage back in Russia." He added that the U.S. knows that "Russians hack our systems  not just government systems, but private systems."

Mike McFaul, who served under Obama as the U.S. ambassador to Russia, told NBC News he was surprised by Trump's comments.

"I just find it deeply troubling, that any American, let alone running for president of the United States, would encourage Russian espionage. That's just unprecedented to me," McFaul said.

House Speaker Paul Ryan, a Republican, was among those who distanced himself from his party's presidential nominee's remarks.

"Russia is a global menace led by a devious thug," said his spokesman Brenan Buck. "Putin should stay out of this election."

Trump campaign's senior communications adviser, Jason Miller, told NBC News after the press conference that the candidate wasn't "calling on anyone to intervene or anything of the sort."

"I think it's also important here to not let Hillary off the hook for why we're even having this talk," Miller also said.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, meanwhile, said his organization would not disclose who provided it with the stolen material. WikiLeaks said on Twitter that it timed its publication of the emails  days before the Democratic convention was starting  "when our verification, research and formatting process was complete and on a day likely to generate interest." On Tuesday, Assange said on CNN that "a lot more" material was coming but provided no details.

Trump's scattershot press conference Wednesday also included a pledge to raise the federal minimum wage to at least $10, a promise to soon release a list of countries from which immigrants would need to be subject of "extreme vetting," and a mistaken reference to Tim Kaine, Clinton's new running mate, as being from New Jersey, not Virginia.

Trump also reacted to former President Bill Clinton's convention speech from a night earlier.

He left out the most interesting chapter, Trump said. I wont get into that.

In addressing the development that prosecutors have dropped all remaining charges against three Baltimore police officers in the death of Freddie Gray, Trump said that Baltimore City State Attorney Marilyn Mosby should "prosecute herself."

And Trump said that John Hinckley Jr., President Ronald Reagan's would-be assassin, "should not have been freed." Trump, who first referred to Hinckley as David, corrected himself after a reporter noted the error.
No surprise here: Bernie Sanders got his brother's vote at the Democratic National Convention Tuesday, and Larry Sanders said he cast that vote with "enormous pride."

Larry Sanders, who lives in Britain, addressed the convention during the roll call of states, speaking as a member of the Americans Abroad delegation.

He appeared to be emotional  and said the Sanders brothers' late parents would have been proud of the Vermont senator's accomplishments.

Video of the presidential candidate showed him attempting to hold back tears as he watched the speech from his seat.

It was a touching moment on the way to Hillary Clinton's historic nomination for president on the convention's second day  she accepted the party's nominated to become the first female presidential nominee for a major party.

Sanders was also nominated, but he did not have enough delegates to win the roll call vote. The senator concluded the vote by asking the convention to nominate Clinton by acclamation. The delegates did so, to wild cheers inside the Wells Fargo Center.
Members of the Texas delegation to the Democratic National Convention invited Bernie Sanders supporters to be recognized during a meeting Tuesday morning as a show of unity.

But with eight words, one Sanders delegate created an uproar.

"We are currently condemning our current presumptive nominee," said Russell Lytle, a Denton County delegate.

Delegates yelled at him to get off the stage.

Sanders' Texas director, Jacob Limon, tried to get control, but it took some time.

"I understand their position. I was there in '08. My heart got ripped out too, but I did what my leader Hillary Clinton told us to do. We voted for Obama," said a Clinton delegate.

Other Sanders supporters were angry too, saying that Russell Lytle went rogue and did not represent their feelings.

"I am a diehard Bernie person. I stepped off the stage when I heard that. That is the kind of stuff that is unnecessary in politics," said Alec Mondello, a Clinton supporter.

Lytle quickly left the room after the chaos. Outside, he apologized to the delegation.

"I hope they forgive my word choice, my horrible word choice this morning," said Lytle.

Lytle said time will tell if his word choice was counterproductive.

"We can only tell that after discussions with our fellow democrats," he added.

Later in the day, Lytle issued a statement apologizing, and he voluntarily withdrew his convention credentials.
Hundreds of animals evacuated during the Sand Fire north of Los Angeles are returning home.

The Wildlife Waystation in Sylmar plans to welcome back lions, tigers, bears, hyenas, cougars and other animals as firefighters gain ground on the fast-moving brush fire that began Friday near the 14 Freeway in the Santa Clarita Valley. The Waystation will likely reopen Monday.

"There was a period of time when I actually thought that there would be no facility standing," Martine Colette, the Waystation's founder, said. "The very thought of having these animals burned was unbelievably frightening."

In 24 hours, she and her staff moved 300 animals to safety.

Community members showed up Saturday to help move animals from the 160-acre sanctuary at 14831 Little Tujunga Canyon Road. Spokesman Jerry Brown said all the animals still at the sanctuary and those taken to warehouses to wait out the fire were safe.

Another famed wildlife sanctuary in the area, the Shambala Preserve run by actress Tippi Hedren, was not evacuated, although Hedren called the fire "demonic".

More than 830 animals were evacuated to area shelters as of Tuesday, according to the Los Angeles County Department of Animal Care and Control. They included 377 horses, 157 goats, 117 chickens and 34 pigs. Llamas, mules, sheep, rabbits, turkeys and donkeys also were temporarily displaced by the 58-square-mile fire that chewed through about 10,000 acres per day during the weekend.

Smaller animals, like dogs, cats, guinea pigs and hamsters, also were taken in at shelters in what DACC Deputy Director Aaron Reyes described as the "largest emergency situation involving the most animals" in recent memory. Reyes said animals were "slowly but surely" making their way back to their owners.

At least 18 homes burned in the fire, which grew to more than 58 square miles. Containment was at 40 percent on Wednesday.

One death, a 67-year-old man visiting a friend, was reported in the fire zone.
A couple has bought a storied "murder house" that has been the subject of urban myth and a dark chapter in Los Angeles history for decades.

The house that sold is the four-bedroom mansion at 2475 Glendower Place in Los Feliz where Dr. Harold N. Perelson bludgeoned his wife to death with a hammer and attacked his 18-year-old daughter before killing himself "in a frenzy that he himself likened to a nightmare," the Los Angeles Times wrote on Dec. 7, 1959.

Nancy Sanborn, the realtor of the property, said Tuesday that a couple purchased the home for nearly $2.3 million in a probate sale last month. She did not name the couple, only saying that they really wanted to buy the house.

As far as the local lore that comes attached to the place, she said, "It's not a haunted house. It's urban legend that people have been having fun with for years."

"It's kinda like the alligators in the sewers of New York," she said.

Jeff Maysh, an LA-based journalist who wrote a history of the house on Medium.com and sold the story to an LA production company that plans to make a horror film, was incredulous.

"This really demonstrates how nuts the Los Angeles real estate market is right now," he said in an email. "Someone has paid over two million dollars for the city's most notorious private residence, a home that took the crown after the Manson 'murder house' was demolished on Cielo Drive."

The ad on realtor.com listed the 5,050-square-foot Spanish Revival nestled on a hill. It has a grand entrance, step-down living room, ballroom, library and serene views.

The "murder house" has become the center of morbid fascination, sparking ghost hunters to ruminate about it online.

"People into weird, creepy stuff would know about it," LA history blogger Kim Cooper said. "There's no justice. That's what makes it so weird and mysterious."

A Los Angeles Times article documents the killing under the headline, "Doctor Kills Wife and Self in Frenzy of 'Nightmare.'"

Perelson, 50, killed his wife while she slept, then attacked his daughter, the article said. She survived. Two other children, Debbie, 11 and Joel, 13, were not hurt.

When Debbie woke to the sounds and confronted her father, Perelson told her, "Go back to bed; this is a nightmare," The Times wrote, citing police.

Nobody knows what set Perelson off, but detectives at the time said they found paperwork suggesting he was having financial problems.

The dark history of the house took on a life of its own.

After the Perelsons, another family bought the home in probate in the early 1960s. When they died, the son inherited it from his parents but he didn't live there. The last owner died last year and the home went to probate again. The house went up for sale last week, said Sanborn.

Some claim they've seen the ghost of Dr. Perelson.

"The house is a sinister character in my story," said Maysh. "It's a building that has secrets which kind of gives it a personality. LA is a town based on secrets. Everyone wants to know what's behind closed doors."
The home belonging to an accomplished music composer who cares for her Alzheimer's-stricken husband, is now part of the charred remains and devastation caused by the Sand Fire.

Jan Sanborn and her husband Loren Jane lost their Santa Clarita home of 18 years in the destruction of the Sand Fire, which had burned more than 37,000 acres and was only 25 percent contained on Tuesday.

Sanborn is a Christian music recording artist and educator at Cal State University Northridge. She and Jane escaped from their home on Little Tujunga Canyon Road Friday before the flames reached it.

"We got the call at midnight. We were sound asleep. We grabbed the dog, the clothes on our back, a couple of documents, and ran," Sanborn said.

Sanborn now speaks for her husband who lives with Alzheimer's disease and is non-verbal.

Forever perished in the fire were memories and keepsakes the couple accumulated, like Jane's scrapbooks which documented moments in his illustrious 50 years of working as a Hollywood stuntman.

"He was Steve McQueen's double his whole career. He was a stuntman for 50 years and founded the stunt man's association," Sanborn said.

Sanborn and Jane did not have homeowner's insurance when their house was destroyed by the fire. The two are currently staying with friends in Los Angeles.

Despite the loss, Sanborn said she and her husband will look forward in faith one day at a time.

"Focus on the positive, and with a great deal of thankfulness, because we do have a lot to be thankful for. We got out and we can start over."

Friends have set up a GoFundMe account for anyone who wants to help the couple.
The hot weather isn't just creating fire conditions in the foothills  it's also contributing to fires in residential neighborhoods.

At least five transformer fires have been reported this month in San Bernardino County, firefighters said. One fire Tuesday night on Lancewood St. melted the front of an SUV.

Firefighters said the fire started in an underground vault holding a power transformer. Luis Soto saw the flames shooting up from the sidewalk outside his house and called Rialto firefighters. Once they arrived, they had to wait to put out the fire until SoCal Edison cleared the scene.

"The thing with electricity is that often times you can't see it," Rialto firefighter Jake Ploehn said. "We stay back and we contact Edison. They confirm to us that the electricity is out and it's de-energized."

Fires like these are particularly dangerous, because the combination of electricity and flames can cause explosions.

SoCal Edison said the recent heat wave is pushing transformers to the limit.

"It's the same as running your car at a very high rate of speed day after day, after day," SoCal Edison spokesman Robert Villegas said. "Eventually you'll get some overheating."

Edison officials are asking people to do their best to conserve energy and avoid overtaxing the already hot transformers.

If you see a fire that seems to come from a transformer, firefighters said you should not try to put it out yourself, even if it's destroying your property. You shouldn't spray water on it either  if the electricity is live, it could travel through the water and electrocute you.

"You don't expect that to happen in front of your house," Soto said. "Just call 911 and get away."
On a night awash in history, Hillary Clinton triumphantly became the first woman to lead a major American political party toward the White House, breaking through a barrier that painfully eluded her eight years ago.

She put an electrifying cap on the Democratic convention's second night, appearing by video from New York and declaring to cheering delegates, "We just put the biggest crack in that glass ceiling yet."

Minutes earlier, former President Bill Clinton took on the role of devoted political spouse, declaring his wife an impassioned "change-maker" as he served as character witness. He traced their more than 40-year political and personal partnership in deep detail.

"She has been around a long time," he acknowledged. Casting her experience as an attribute, he added, "She's been worth every single year she's put into making people's lives better."

For a man more accustomed to delivering policy-packed stem-winders, Clinton's heartfelt address underscored the historic night for Democrats, and the nation. If she wins in November, the Clintons would also be the first married couple to each serve as president.

She will take on Donald Trump, who won the Republican nomination a week ago. Trump, who campaigned Tuesday in North Carolina, mocked the former president's speech in advance, calling him "over-rated."

At Trump's convention last week, Clinton was the target of blistering criticism of her character and judgment, a sharp contrast to the warm and passionate woman described by her husband. Seeking to explain the vastly different perceptions of his wife, Clinton said simply, "One is real, the other is made up."

The former president took voters back to a time before an affair with an intern led to his impeachment  and to intense public scrutiny of the first couple's marriage. While her aides believe his past transgressions are old news to voters, they have flared up anew at times during the campaign, with Trump often leading the charge.

Bill Clinton headlined the second night of the Democratic convention, a jubilant celebration of her formal nomination for president. In an important move for party unity, her primary rival Bernie Sanders helped make it official when the roll call got to his home state of Vermont, prompting delegates to erupt in cheers. It was a striking parallel to the role Clinton played eight years ago when she stepped to the microphone on the convention floor in Denver in support of her former rival, Barack Obama.

This time, Clinton shattered the glass ceiling she couldn't crack in 2008.

She leads a party still grappling with divisions. Moments after Clinton claimed the nomination, a group of Sanders supporters left the convention and headed to a media tent to protest what they said was their being shut out of the party. At the same time, protesters who had spent the day marching in the hot sun began facing off with police.

Trump cheered the disruptions from the campaign trail. In North Carolina, he told a convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars that, "our politicians have totally failed you."

Indeed, Clinton's long political resume  secretary of state, senator, first lady  has sometimes seemed an odd fit for an electorate deeply frustrated with Washington and eager to rally around unconventional candidates like Trump and Sanders. Many voters have questions about her character and trustworthiness, suggesting she's used her access to power to her personal advantage.

President Clinton spoke after three hours of testimonials from lawmakers, advocates, celebrities and citizens who argued otherwise. Each took the stage to vouch for her commitment to working on health care, children's issues and gun control.

"Hillary Clinton has the passion and understanding to support grieving mothers," said Sybrina Fulton, whose son Trayvon Martin was killed in 2012. "She has the courage to lead the fight for commonsense gun legislation."

The significant time devoted to the testimonials underscored the campaign's concerns about how voters view Clinton. Public polls consistently show that a majority of Americans don't believe she is honest and trustworthy. That perception that was reinforced after the FBI director's scathing assessment of her controversial email use as secretary of state, even though the Justice Department did not pursue charges.

President Clinton complicated the email controversy last month when he met privately with Attorney General Loretta Lynch in the midst of the FBI investigation. Republicans cast the meeting as a sign that the Clintons play by different rules, while Democrats bemoaned that at the very least, it left that impression.

The former president has campaigned frequently for his wife during the White House race, but mostly in smaller cities and towns, part of an effort by the campaign to keep him in a more behind-the-scenes role. His convention address was his highest profile appearance of the campaign.

Clinton's landmark achievement saturated the roll call with emotion and symbols of women's long struggle to break through political barriers. Jerry Emmett, a 102-year-old woman born before women had the right to vote, cast the ballots for Arizona.

Martha McKenna, a Clinton delegate from Maryland, said the night felt like a celebration for Sanders' campaign as well as Clinton's. She added, "The idea that I'm going to be here when the first woman president is nominated is overwhelming."

The Democratic convention drew the party's biggest stars to sweltering Philadelphia for the week-long event. On Monday night, first lady Michelle Obama made an impassioned case for Clinton as the only candidate in the presidential race worthy of being a role model for the nation's children. President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden will speak Wednesday, along with Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine, Clinton's new running mate.

AP writers Kathleen Hennessey, Kathleen Ronayne, Ken Thomas and Matthew Daly contributed to this report.
President Barack Obama joined a chorus of Democrats at the party's convention imploring voters to elect Hillary Clinton, casting her as a candidate who believes in the nation's future and warning against the pessimism of Republican Donald Trump.

"America is already great. America is already strong," he declared to cheering delegates. "And I promise you, our strength, our greatness, does not depend on Donald Trump."

For Democrats, the night was steeped in symbolism, the passing of the baton from a barrier-breaking president to a candidate trying to make history herself. Obama robustly vouched for Clinton's readiness to be commander in chief, saying "no matter how daunting the odds, no matter how much people try to knock her down, she never, ever quits."

Wednesday night's lineup at the Democratic National Convention was aimed at emphasizing Clinton's national security credentials, a shift from two nights focused more on re-introducing her to voters as a champion for women's issues, children and families. Democrats spent little time discussing terrorism or the Islamic State group this week, though there was significantly more focus on those threats Wednesday.

Clinton's running mate, Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine, introduced himself to the nation as a formidable foil to Republican nominee Donald Trump.

"Donald Trump has a passion," he said. "It's himself."

"Believe me!" he exclaimed over and over, imitating Trump's tone as he ridiculed a list of the Republican's promises.

Though Obama has six months left in office, his address Wednesday had the feeling of a political transition. He was emotional as he thanked Americans for sustaining him through difficult stretches.

"Tonight, I ask you to do for Hillary Clinton what you did for me," he said. "I ask you to carry her the same way you carried me."

Obama's robust support for Clinton, his political foe-turned-friend, is also driven by deep concern that Trump might win in November and unravel the president's eight years in office.

The Trump campaign said in a statement that the night's speeches were full of empty rhetoric that offered no solutions for the country.

"Instead of dealing with reality, they spoke in cheap, petty terms beneath the dignity of a convention. Their entire message could be summed up as: things are perfect, let's not change a single thing," the statement said.

Trump fueled controversy earlier Wednesday when he encouraged Russia to meddle in the presidential campaign. On the heels of reports that Russia may have hacked Democratic Party emails, Trump said, "Russia, if you're listening," it would be desirable to see Moscow find and publish the thousands of emails Clinton says she deleted during her years as secretary of state.

The convention's third night was also a time for Democrats to celebrate Obama's legacy. Vice President Joe Biden, who decided against running for president this year after the death of his son, called it a "bittersweet moment."

A son of Scranton, Pennsylvania, Biden appealed directly to the working class white voters who have been drawn to Trump's populism, warning them against falling for false promises and exploitation of Americans' anxieties.

"This guy doesn't have a clue about the middle class," he declared.

Kaine picked up the traditional attacking role of the presidential ticket's No. 2. With folksy charm, he tore into Trump, mocking his pledges to build a wall along the Mexican border, asking why he has not released his tax returns and slamming his business record, including the now-defunct Trump University.

"Folks, you cannot believe one word that comes out of Donald Trump's mouth," Kaine said. "Our nation is too great to put it in the hands of slick-talking, empty-promising, self-promoting, one-man wrecking crew."

Liberals, particularly those who supported Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, have grumbled about Kaine being on the ticket, particularly because of his support for "fast track" approval of the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact. Several delegates held up anti-TPP signs as he spoke.

In a move aimed at broadening Clinton's appeal, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg  an independent who considered launching a third party bid for president  endorsed the Democratic nominee. A billionaire businessman himself, Bloomberg took aim at Trump's bankruptcies, reliance on foreign factories and other economic experience: "The richest thing about Donald Trump is his hypocrisy."

President Bill Clinton, filling the role of devoted political spouse, joined the crowd packed to the arena rafters in cheering the attacks on Trump.

Clinton's campaign believes Trump's unorthodox candidacy will turn off moderate Republicans, particularly women, who worry he's too unpredictable to take the helm in a turbulent world. They recognize that Republicans, as well as many Democrats, have questions about Clinton's character but hope to ease those concerns.

Still, the core of Clinton's strategy is putting back together Obama's winning White House coalition. In both his campaigns, Obama carried more than 90 percent of black voters, the overwhelming majority of Hispanics, and more than half of young people and women.

That coalition was vividly on display in the first two nights of the convention in Philadelphia. Women lawmakers were prominently featured, along with young activists, immigrants, and mothers whose black children were victims of gun violence or killed during encounters with law enforcement.

Gun violence continued as a theme Wednesday night as families of mass shooting victims took the stage. Delegates rose in an emotional standing ovation for the mother of one of the victims in last month's Orlando nightclub shooting, who asked why "commonsense" gun policies weren't in place when her son died.

"I never want you to ask that question about your child," Christine Leinonen said.

Capping the somber section of the program focused on gun violence, a group of Broadway singers performed a rousing rendition of "What the World Needs Now Is Love," as the audience sang and swayed in unison.

Clinton's convention has been awash in history, with energized delegates celebrating her formal nomination as the first woman to ever lead a major political party in the general election. Some supporters of Sanders, her primary opponent, continued to voice their displeasure.

But Sanders, meeting with New England delegates, said, "As of yesterday, I guess, officially our campaign ended."

AP writers Kathleen Hennessey and Ken Thomas contributed to this report.
Julianne Moore, Bryan Cranston, Kerry Washington, Mark Ruffalo, Neil Patrick Harris, Lena Dunham, Russell Simmons, Shonda Rhimes, and Macklemore are among more than 100 celebrities joining a campaign to urge Americans to deny Donald Trump the White House.

The campaign is part of MoveOn.org Political Action's #UnitedAgainstHate campaign.

"We believe it is our responsibility to use our platforms to bring attention to the dangers of a Trump presidency, and to the real and present threats of his candidacy," says an open letter signed by the celebrities.

"Donald Trump wants to take our country back to a time when fear excused violence, when greed fueled discrimination, and when the state wrote prejudice against marginalized communities into law .... Some of us come from the groups Trump has attacked. Some of us don't. But as history has shown, it's often only a matter of time before the 'other' becomes me."

Among the communities it says Trump has attacked are: Mexican and Latino people, black people, LGBTQ people, women and their health care providers, Asians, refugees, people with disabilities, working class people, American prisoners of war, and others.

"We call upon every American to join us," the letter says, "to stand together on the right side of history, to use the power of our voice and the power of our vote to defeat Donald Trump and the hateful ideology he represents."

Host Seth Meyers asks Lenny Kravitz if theres any truth behind the story that Bill Clinton called Kravitz at home. Kravtiz did in fact receive a call from Clinton, even though the two hadnt been personally acquainted. At the time, Bill Clinton was president and he asked Kravitz to play at that years Democratic National Convention.
Authorities say a 19-year-old Florida Panhandle woman was arrested after a child she was caring for spent several hours inside a hot car and died.

The Pensacola News Journal reports surveillance video showed the 3-year-old boy getting into a vehicle parked in the driveway of a home in Navarre on Friday.

Santa Rosa Sheriff's officials say a resident found the boy about three hours later. He was taken to a hospital and placed on a ventilator, but died.

One of the home's residents told investigators Montana Jackson was caring for the boy. She was arrested on child neglect charges. Officials say the charges may be upgraded to aggravated manslaughter.

The boy's name hasn't been released. Jackson is in jail.

Records don't indicate whether she has a lawyer.
Things got heated at a community meeting in North Miami Tuesday night as emotions flared over the recent shooting at the hands of a police officer.

Councilman Phillippe Bien-Aime invited residents to speak, and they had a lot to share.

"That's a stain on this city that will go down in history," one speaker said.

Many said they are embarrassed and upset over the July 18 shooting of Charles Kinsey, who was unarmed and lying on his back complying with police in cell phone video of the incident.

Officers were responding to reports that a man had a gun on Northeast 14th Street. Officer Johnathan Aledda fired two shots at Kinsey, hitting him once.

Kinsey was caring for a 26-year-old autistic man who lived nearby.

"How did the officer not get close enough to see that person was holding a truck? And you said you miss? You're supposed to be trained, that doesn't make any sense," resident Jemmys Pierre said.

The city told NBC 6 a 90-day plan is in place for crisis prevention training with an emphasis on autism. Some are saying it's too little, too late.

"Why is it now after something happen and you want to train them, was it supposed to be before or after?" Santay Etienne said.

City officials couldn't answer specific questions on the case, which has been turned over to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, but the city clerk did speak Tuesday.

"We won't try to justify what happened, we won't sweep anything under the rug. Justice will be served," Michael Etienne said.

The FDLE said it will take 6 to 8 weeks to finalize their investigation. Another meeting will be held Wednesday between community leaders and the city manager and police chief.
Hollywood in California is hosting a benefit for the Pulse nightclub in Florida, where a gunman killed 49 patrons and injured 53 people last month.

A spokeswoman for Pulse in Orlando said Tuesday that the benefit will be held Aug. 19 at the NeueHouse Hollywood in Los Angeles.

Sara Brady says Los Angeles was picked for its proximity to performers and artists, who will be named at a later time.

The money raised will benefit the onePulse Foundation, which was formed by Pulse owner Barbara Poma to financially help employees.

The club will reportedly also be the site of a new, permanent memorial being built from donations to that non-profit charity, created after the mass shooting, the worst in modern U.S. history.

State filings show plans to use money donated for the planning and construction of a memorial at the existing site of the club as well as any other sites they deem relevant.

Despite that filing, Poma told NBC affiliate WESH-TV that the future of the club is unknown, labeling a social media post announcing a memorial as "prematurely posted."
Being bilingual can be a big plus, especially in South Florida. But one Miami man says his use of both English and Spanish led to a mistake that got his bank account frozen.

And when he couldnt convince his bank to quickly fix the problem he turned to the NBC 6 Responds team.

Peter Fernandez says the confusion all started over his name. Hes used the name Peter as he built his 40-year musical career. His legal name is Pedro Fernandez.

"My teachers in elementary school started calling me Peter right off the bat and it stuck so when I started to apply for bank accounts and stuff like that, I filled it out Peter Fernandez," said Fernandez.

And for more than 20 years he says hes signed his name as both Peter and Pedro and never thought twice about it, until a phone call a few weeks ago.

"One of my tenants says I couldnt deposit your rent check Mr. Fernandez because they said your account was frozen. I said, 'what'?!"

Frozen apparently because of a fraud alert on his bank account. He believes it was triggered when he wrote a check to himself payabale to Pedro Fernandez and deposited it into his Wells Fargo account that is under Peter Fernandez.

He figured since his bankers knew him well, too, a trip to local branches and phone calls could easily clear up the misunderstanding over his name.

"I mean for somebody not to know Peter and Pedro is the same thing in South Florida, its somebody that doesnt get out much," Fernandez said. "Youre living under a rock."

But he says his bigger frustration was not being able to fix the problem despite numerous calls and visits to local bank branches. Not knowing what else to do, he called NBC 6 Responds. We reached out to Wells Fargo.

"Anytime you get your account frozen and you cant get access to your funds and your money that never feels good in the short run," says Wells Fargo Vice-President Christopher Catania.

Catania said he couldnt comment on the specifics of this case but explained that their security measures and fraud department have been put in place to protect their customers from fast moving fraudsters.

"When I tell you they act quick, Ive seen situations to where within thirty-minute time frames theyll go to multiple banks trying to do the same exact fraud that occurred in the first instance, they move quickly, said Catania.

Turns out, thieves arent the only ones who move quickly. A day after we reached out to Wells Fargo, the bank fixed Peters problems.

"They expedited the thing and instead of taking two weeks it took one," said Fernandez.

Peter says the freeze on his account caused him an unnecessary headache but now hes relieved it didnt all end on a sour note.

Wells Fargo says the best way to prevent something like this is making sure checks are written to your legal name and that you inform your financial institution of any nicknames and aliases.
A postal worker was hospitalized Tuesday after being attacked by a dog in Miami.

The postal worker was bitten on the hand and arm by the dog while she was delivering mail in the 2100 block of Southwest 24th Terrace in Miami.

Witnesses came to the worker's aid and were able to get the dog away from her.

According to Miami Police, the postal worker was transported to Jackson Ryder Trauma with serious injuries.

No one else was hurt. No further details have been released.
Two South Florida residents were arrested after allegedly threatening to leak sexually explicit photos of social media star "YesJulz" if the South Beach model didn't paid them thousands of dollars.

Hencha Voigt, 28, and 33-year-old Wesley Victor were taken into custody Friday on charges of extortion.

According to police, the duo contacted Julieanna Goddard, who was crowned the queen of Snapchat by The New York Times earlier this year, and claimed to have X-rated photos and videos of her.

Victor sent Goddard several pictures as proof and gave her 24 hours to pay them $18,000, saying they would publish the pictures and videos on social media if she didn't pay, Miami Beach Police said.

Voigt and Victor were waiting in a car on Miami Beach when they were approached by authorities. Investigators found the phone they believed was used for the extortion. Voigt, who is also a model, admitted to the crime while Victors attorney denies his client had any involvement.

"At this time this is only an allegation and we're waiting for our day in court so we could clear Mr. Victor of all these charges," attorney Zeljka Bozanic said. "I don't have any evidence at this point, I don't have anything that the police is able to link my client to this crime. And from my understanding, all they have is a cell phone that was recovered from a car that does not belong to my client."

YesJulz has acrued a social media base including over 300,000 viewers on Snapchat, nearly 390,000 on Instagram and 127,000 on Twitter. Goddard's popularity has landed marketing deals with both Puma and Red Bull, and the socialite has been seen partying with celebrities like LeBron James and French Montana.
A judge on Wednesday dismissed a manslaughter charge against a Florida deputy who claimed self-defense in the 2013 fatal shooting of a 33-year-old black man carrying what turned out to be an air rifle.

Circuit Judge Michael Usan ruled in favor of suspended Deputy Peter Peraza of the Broward Sheriff's Office under Florida's "Stand Your Ground" self-defense law that eliminates a requirement to retreat _ for civilians and law enforcement officers, the judge said _ when facing a dire threat.

The now-dismissed manslaughter charge carries a potential 30-year prison sentence. Prosecutors immediately said the decision will be appealed.

Peraza, 37, who identifies himself as a white Hispanic, testified during a hearing that Jermaine McBean initially refused commands from him and other deputies to drop the authentic-looking weapon and then turned and pointed it toward the deputies in July 2013. Peraza fired three shots, killing him.

"I've never been so scared in my life," Peraza testified.

In his 36-page order, the judge called the shooting a "tragedy" and noted the ongoing national debate involving the shootings by police officers of black people and the hostility and threats sometimes directed at police.

But Usan said that debate has "no place in this courtroom concerning this case" and said Peraza's use of deadly force was justified under Florida law.

"This case involves the tragic death of one man and the liberty of another. To allow the conflicting agenda of supporters of either side to invade this legal process would be a far greater injustice," he said.

Peraza attorney Eric Schwartzreich praised the decision and said the deputy should never have been charged.

"All police officers should feel confident that, in this dangerous day and age, they can now protect and serve without fear of being indicted," said Schwartzreich, who represents Peraza along with attorney Anthony Bruno. "Regardless, this case is a tragedy all around. This case was never about race; it was about self-defense."

Schwartzreich told NBC 6 this could be the first time "stand your ground has been used and successfully won in an on-duty police officer shooting."

McBean family attorney David Schoen said he will continue to pursue a federal civil rights lawsuit against the sheriff's office over the shooting.

"It is (a) complete travesty and miscarriage of justice," Schoen said of the ruling. "It should have been impossible for any judge to take this case away from a jury."

A spokesman for State Attorney Michael Satz said in an email that the ruling will be appealed. Satz's office added in a statement that the "Stand Your Ground" defense should not apply in a law enforcement case.

"While there is conflicting evidence, we feel a jury should resolve those conflicts. We believe that the facts of the case do not support that this was a justifiable shooting," the statement said.

Amid national debate over police tactics involving minorities, Peraza was the first Florida law enforcement officer in three decades charged with a crime for an on-duty shooting.

On June 1, fired Palm Beach Gardens officer Nouman Raja was charged with manslaughter and attempted first-degree murder for killing stranded motorist and musician Corey Jones, who was black, while Jones waited for a tow truck. Raja, of South Asian descent, has pleaded not guilty.

Witnesses during the Peraza hearing described how 911 callers were reporting a man carrying a rifle, possibly a shotgun, down a busy street in broad daylight. In previous hearings, McBean has been described as being bipolar and recently recovering from a serious mental episode. He had just purchased the air rifle at a nearby pawn shop.

Peraza testified that McBean initially was carrying the camouflage-designed rifle like a cane, and then put it across his shoulders behind his neck in a common military style as he approached his apartment complex, where families with children crowded a pool area. Suddenly, he said, McBean turned and pointed the gun at the officers.

"Completely defenseless, you have all these women and children in the pool area trying to enjoy their day," Peraza testified. "I don't know if my heart can race any faster and my fear level can go any higher."

Peraza also testified he did not see earbuds in McBean's ears before the shooting. McBean's family says he likely did not hear police commands to drop the rifle because he was listening to music.

Broward Sheriff Scott Israel did not comment directly on the judge's decision but said he hoped the local community would be able to heal.

"A life was lost, and this is a tragedy no matter how you look at it," Israel said. "I pray for God to comfort all those affected and for our community to begin to heal and find peace."

Broward County Police Benevolent Association President Jeff Marano said he was pleased with the judge's decision.

"We are very pleased at the decision handed down by Judge Usan this morning. All we asked was that he follow the rule of law, and he did," Marano said in a statement. "We have said from the outset this was a justifiable shooting and the Judges ruling confirms that fact."

Others, including brother Andrew McBean, argued the case wasn't fair.

"Jermaine died and the police lied about it, and they continue to do it," Andrew McBean said. "That sets a precedent definitely for the state of Florida of when 'Stand Your Ground' can be used. If you open the door to 'Stand Your Ground,' every little shooting can easily be called Stand Your Ground.'"
President Ronald Reagan's would-be assassin will live full-time outside a mental hospital for the first time in over 35 years, NBC News reports.

A federal judge on Wednesday granted John Hinckley Jr. permission to live with his elderly mother in Williamsburg, Virginia.

Hinckley, now 61, must live with his mother for at least the first full year, Judge Paul Friedman ruled. After that, he can live in a separate home alone or with roommates, provided that members of his treatment team approve.

Friedman said he is confident Hinckley's family can continue to pay for Hinckley's treatment and care. Hinckley will be able to apply for government benefits once he becomes a resident of Virginia.

Hinckley's freedom has been incrementally expanded since 2003, when he began leaving St. Elizabeth's hospital for daylong visits with his family.

Hinckley now spends 17 days a month at his mother's home.

While outside the hospital, Hinckley has had to comply with a series of restrictions, and a number of those will continue now that he will be living full time in the community. He will have to attend individual and group therapy sessions and is barred from talking to the media. He can drive, but there are restrictions on how far he can travel. The Secret Service also periodically follows him.

Prosecutors had consistently opposed Hinckley's efforts to gain more freedom, citing what they called a history of deceptive behavior. In July 2011, prosecutors said, Hinckley was supposed to go see a movie and instead went to a Barnes & Noble store, where Secret Service agents saw him looking at shelves that contained books about Reagan and the assassination attempt.

But on Wednesday, Reagan's son Michael Reagan defended Hinckley's release, saying his father forgave Hinckley for the attack and others should do the same.

My father did more than say the Lords Prayer He lived it in forgiving John Hinkley Jr...Maybe we should do the same....Mike Reagan  Michael Reagan (@ReaganWorld) July 27, 2016

However, the foundation honoring Reagan's legacy says it "strongly opposes" Hinckley's release.

The Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute issued a statement Wednesday that read, in part, "Contrary to the judge's decision, we believe John Hinckley is still a threat to others and we strongly oppose his release."

Reagan's daughter Patti Davis agrees. In a statement published on her website Wednesday, Davis wrote that while she has forgiven her father's would-be assasin, she believes he should remain locked up.

"I too believe in forgiveness. But forgiving someone in your heart doesn't mean that you let them loose in Virginia to pursue whatever dark agendas they may still hold dear," Davis said.

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump also called it a "mistake" to release Hinckley, whom he misidentified as "David Hinckley."

A former Secret Service agent who took Hinckley into custody after Hinckley shot Reagan called his release disappointing.

Danny Spriggs, who now works for The Associated Press, called the shooting the most "horrific incident" of his career. Spriggs said he believes Hinckley should remain under close scrutiny in a mental institution.

Doctors have said for many years that Hinckley, who was found not guilty by reason of insanity for the shooting, is no longer impaired by mental illness.

Hinckley, then 25, shot Reagan on March 30, 1981 outside the Washington Hilton, northeast of Dupont Circle. He was trying to impress actress Jodie Foster, then 18, whom he stalked during her freshman year at Yale University.

Reagan was hit in the chest and hospitalized for 12 days. Press Secretary James Brady and two others also were wounded in the shooting.

Brady, who was shot in the head, died 33 years later of complications from the assassination attempt, but federal prosecutors decided not to press charges.

While living with his mother, Hinckley will be required to return to Washington once a month for doctors to check on his mental state and his compliance with the conditions of his leave, Friedman ruled.

He also will be barred from speaking to the media or from trying to contact Foster, all relatives of Reagan and Brady or the other two victims, police officer Thomas Delahanty and Secret Service agent Timothy McCarthy, and their families.

Hinckley's mother, Joann, is 90 years old. His father died in 2008.

Hinckley's attorney, Barry William Levine, released a statement Wednesday saying in part, "Mr. Hinckley recognizes that what he did was horrific. But it's crucial to understand that what he did was not an act of evil. It was an act caused by mental illness, an illness from which he no longer suffers. He is profoundly sorry for what he did 35 years ago and he wishes he could take back that day, but he can't. And he has lived for decades recognizing the pain he caused his victims, their families, and the nation."

Levine said the court "decisively" found that Hinckley is not dangerous under the terms of convalescent leave.

"This should give great comfort to a concerned citizenry that the mental health system and the judicial system worked and worked well," he said in the statement.

William Miller, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office in Washington, said the office is reviewing the ruling and has no comment.
A Kenyan half-brother of President Barack Obama said Tuesday he supports Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and not the candidate his brother has endorsed, Hillary Clinton.

Malik Obama told The Associated Press he thinks Trump has a lot of energy and is very straightforward.

"Clinton is not honest because she says that she did not reveal any classified information, and she did. And I don't see that kind of person being the president of the United States," he said.

Also, "I do not support same-sex marriage," he said. "I am Muslim, it's something God would not approve. The Republican Party doesn't stand for that."

Malik Obama also expressed disappointment that his half-brother hasn't done more to support his Kenyan family and the country. The president's father was Kenyan.

"I am upset and disillusioned. When he became president there was a lot of excitement and there was a lot of hope that he would do many things for us and the country," he said. "I don't think he has accomplished that."

Trump has tweeted his surprise at Malik Obama's stance: "Was probably treated badly by president - like everybody else!"

Malik Obama, 58, stirred up controversy in 2010 when he took a teenager as his third wife. He ran for governor in his home county of Siaya in 2013 and lost by a landslide. He was unhappy that his half-brother did not endorse him.

The father of President Obama and Malik Obama died in a car crash in 1982, leaving three wives, six sons and a daughter. All his children except Malik and the youngest, George Obama, live in Britain or the United States.
Democrat Hillary Clinton made history Tuesday night when she became the first woman to be nominated for president by a major party.

Other women, including Democrat Shirley Chisholm, have sought a major party nomination. And others have made third-party runs.

But after defeating U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, Clinton shattered a glass ceiling.

Supporters took to social media to applaud Clinton for her achievement.
A new 911 center will be built to help better serve Nebraska's fourth biggest city.

To foot the construction cost, Grand Islanders can expect to see a phone tax increase to 5 percent, starting Sept. 1.

The city council unanimously approved the recommendation on Tuesday for the $3.1 million facility to be built on Fonner Park Road, on city-owned land near Fire Station 1. Members also approved the 2 percent phone tax increase to pay for construction costs.

"Most of the time we can handle it, but there are times that we are short either with personnel or units available to handle call volume," dispatcher, Grady Higgins, said about the day-to-day routine monitoring the radio and answering calls in the current 911 center in the city hall basement.

Director of emergency management, Jon Rosenlund, said it will be more spacious and could suit the city's needs if the population were to triple to 150,000 people.

The current alternate space to be used for emergencies in times of high call volumes is set in the closet of a multi-purpose room.

"The telephone system that we have down there is not 911 capable," Rosenlund said. "We can receive the phone calls but we wouldn't be able to map them. We wouldn't have an address, there is no recording capability. There's limited radio capability there as well as a space need."

He said the new 11,000 square-foot building would not require adding staff. They'd only add personnel and work stations as call volume increases.

Rosenlund states right now they can respond to the city's average of 36,000 emergency calls per year, plus an additional 35,000 calls that are non-emergencies. But, it's necessary to plan for growth.

"It would extremely enhance our capabilities of being able to expand [and] bring in personnel when we have high volume calls and unable to get the staffing to be able to do it," Higgins added.

Rosenlund said the department adds staff about every five to six years.

"This facility is going to allow us to bridge that gap when we move out of legacy 911 technology into next generation 911 phone systems," Rosenlund stated.

This type of occupation tax hasn't been used often in the cityand this could be a good use for it because the phone calls directly generate the workload and could provide a stable revenue source for the construction bond over the long term, approximately $330,000, he said.

The 2 percent phone tax increase will sunset at the end of its 20-year bond term.
What to Know The Funtown Pier at Seaside Park was destroyed in a massive blaze in September 2013

The property owner says he won't rebuild the pier, citing economic viability concerns over the borough's 100-feet ride height limit

The mayor says he hopes the pier will be rebuilt in some form or another

The famed Jersey Shore amusement park destroyed in a massive blaze three years ago won't be rebuilt, the property owner has decided.

The Seaside Park planning board voted Tuesday night to not allow rides taller than 100 feet to be built on the destroyed Funtown Pier, the Lavallette-Seaside & Ortley Beach Shorebeat reports.

Thrill rides that short simply wouldn't interest the public, an attorney for the property owner said. A rebuilt pier would have to feature thrill rides up to 300 feet high in order to be economically viable.

"A big concern is that these limits do not allow for construction of attractions that today's public will find appealing," Stephan Leone told NBC 4 New York.

Seaside Park residents have been vocal about their displeasure with the proposal. They've said they prefer to keep the boardwalk attractions and amusement parks to neighboring Seaside Heights, and that their borough should "strive to be a family resort with beautiful beaches and peace and quiet," according to one woman, the Shorebeat reports.

Mayor Robert W. Matthies said at the meeting he believes the pier may be rebuilt in one form or another.

"It's hard to believe someone is going to walk away from this space," he said, the Shorebeat reports.

The community had just started to bounce back from Sandy when the fire devastated the pier and boardwalk in September 2013. It started near Kohr's Frozen Custard Shop underneath the boardwalk and quickly devoured most of the boardwalk and the businesses on it.

Funtown Pier was built over 50 years ago.
The New York City man whose cellphone video captured the fatal police chokehold of unarmed black man Eric Garner is suing the city for $10 million over a drug arrest that he says was police retaliation.

Ramsey Orta was arrested last June after authorities say he sold an undercover officer $40 worth of the party drug known as Molly. The charges were later dropped.

Lawyer Andrew Plasse tells the Daily News Orta feels he was "unjustly singled out for arrest." The lawsuit filed Tuesday in Manhattan Supreme Court claims it was an effort by the NYPD to "discredit" Orta's video.

The July 17, 2014 video showed Garner calling out "I can't breathe" as New York City police officers pinned him down, one holding him in an apparent chokehold, after the 43-year-old man was stopped for selling loose untaxed cigarettes. In the video, Garner tells officers to leave him alone and refuses to be handcuffed.

Officer Daniel Pantaleo is seen putting Garner in an apparent chokehold, which is banned under NYPD policy, as he was taken to the ground. Garner, who was heavyset and had asthma, was later pronounced dead at a hospital. The medical examiner's office later ruled Garner's death a homicide. His dying words, immortalized by the footage, became a rallying cry at protests nationwide over police killings of black men amid a nationwide debate over police use of force.

A New York grand jury declined to indict Pantaleo in 2014 and he remains on desk duty while police officials await the outcome of an ongoing federal civil rights probe. Pantaleo's attorney has maintained his client didn't violate Garner's civil rights and that he was performing his duties, which he was trained to do.

The city Law Department says it will review the complaint.
A newborn girl with a rare heart condition had to be taken to three different hospitals before she was finally able to get care from a surgeon at New York's Columbia Presbyterian Hospital.

Baby girl Navy Caroline Dumont, born to navy man dad Jeremiah and mom Kristen last weekend, was just minutes from leaving the hospital in the upstate New York town of Malone last weekend when one last test sent her parents into panic.

"They just said they found an anamoly, and had to immediately transfer to another hospital," said Kristen Dumont. "It kind of felt like the world was crashing down around you."

Doctors discovered total anomalous pulmonary venous return, a rare heart defect that affects blood oxygen flow.

"When you walk in and see a two-day-old baby girl with tubes in her nose," said Jeremiah, crying as she recalled the image.

Navy was rushed to Burlington, Vermont, in search of a surgeon. Ultimately, Boston Medical Center sent a life-flight to bring her to Columbia Presbyterian.

Kristen and Jeremiah left Burlington with only $100. They arrived in New York with no place to stay and no change of clothes. But they do have hope.

Doctors are aiming to perform open-heart surgery on Navy next week. But she wouldn't be in New York had their hospital in Malone not started testing for the condition just recently.

"It's a small hospital, but they caught it. They saved my baby girl's life," said Jeremiah.

Back in their small hometown of 6,000, Malone neighbors are rallying to raise money through a GoFundMe page and even a chairty softball game.

As for the name Navy, her dad wears it with pride.

"She's definitely living up to the name. You can't sink the U.S. Navy and you can't sink her, she's an absolute fighter."
Police are searching for a man who stole soap and canned peanuts from a Bronx dollar store and threatened to shoot and stab employees when they confronted him.

The man targeted a Family Dollar on Sound View Avenue in Clason Point back in May, according to police.

In the first robbery, an employee saw the man grabbing soap from shelves and putting them in a black garbage bag. When she confronted him, the man told her he would shoot her with a gun.

The next day, the man returned to the Family Dollar and started putting canned peanuts in his jacket. When he was confronted by another employee, he told him that he had a knife and would stab him, police said.

The man took off with the soap and canned peanuts. Police released surveillance video of him. They said he appears to be in his mid 30s to mid 40s.

The NYPD asks anyone with information to call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS.
As Virginia delegates root for Sen. Tim Kaine at the Democratic National Convention, they also are poking good-natured fun at a distinctive part of his face -- his left eyebrow.

Virginia delegates cheered on the senator carrying vivid orange signs bearing a smiley face with the left eyebrow cocked, just like Kaine's.

Delegate Vivian Paige explained.

"Tim Kaine gave us these in 2008, at the convention. He was governor at that point," she said.

Kaine's eyebrow first rose to national prominence in 2006, when the newly sworn-in governor delivered the State of the Union response. His arched eyebrow grabbed attention. Not all of it was positive.

"... That eyebrow is too distracting for the party to ever put him on national television again," political blogger Brendan Nyhan commented at the time.

His fans in Virginia said they have observed the eyebrow over the years.

"When he talks, his little eyebrow goes up on one side, so it's a little joke, but he goes along with it. He loves it. He's a good guy," delegate Susan Rowland said.

Kaine himself made the first buttons with the arched eyebrow smiley face, passing them out to Virginia delegates when he spoke at the 2008 convention.

"He's a fun-loving, down-to-earth, everybody-loves-him kind of guy," Paige said. "So, this is him poking fun at himself, and he's pretty good at that."

At the convention this week, delegates may find their vintage buttons now are a hot commodity. But Paige says she will not give hers up.

"Let's just say I would make a few bucks if I wanted to sell it. But I'm not about to sell it. Not now," she said.
A teenage victim of a South Philadelphia shootout that sent people diving for cover is apparently a suspect in the armed carjacking of a Philadelphia Police officers daughter just about 24 hours earlier.

Two groups began shooting at each other just before 11 p.m. Tuesday in the area of 5th and Moore streets, said Philadelphia Police.

Multiple gunmen fired at least three dozen shots, leaving a 17-year-old boy shot in the abdomen and 27- and 40-year-old men shot in the legs. Doctors at Jefferson Hospital treated all three in stable condition. The teen underwent surgery.

Some of the stray bullets struck parked vehicles and one struck a home nearby causing residents inside to hit the floor, said Philadelphia Police Chief Inspector Scott Small.

"Luckily none of the occupants of that house were struck by gunfire," said Small.

Around the same time that the boy arrived at Jefferson for treatment, the woman who was carjacked nearby under Interstate 95 less than 24 hours earlier was picking out the 17-year-old boys photo from a lineup, said police.

Two armed teens on bicycles carjacked the woman than drove off to Southwest Philly before crashing into multiple cars and running off. No word yet, if police have a second suspect in the carjacking. [[388242002, C]]

As for Tuesday night's shootout, the 17-year-old boy appears to also be a shooter or with one of the shooters, said Small.

Anyone with information on the incident is asked to contact Philadelphia Police.
In three months, Laurie Cestnick started a Facebook group and turned it into a Bernie Sanders social media machine 33,000 members strong.

Thousands who joined the online conversation at "Occupy DNC Convention July 2016" pledged to join Cestnick for a week in Philadelphia protesting what many perceived as a subversion of the primary election process in order to hand Hillary Clinton the nomination.

Its hard to tell exactly how many protesters descended on Philadelphia this week, but local law enforcement said a rough estimate was 5,000. Thats the total for many groups, not just Cestnicks Facebook collective. She admitted shed do things differently next time, though she called the overall effect a success.

"If we ever do it again, we would organize more quickly, more efficiently," said Cestnick, a petite, blonde-haired neuroscientist from outside Boston In an interview Wednesday during a protest. "Imagine how many people we could have reached if we had started this a year ago.

She also conceded that she trusted too many other protest organizers in her first go as an agitant.

"Its tough trying to organize all this," she said. "Its hard to know where everyone came from. Dont work with people you question.

The fervent Bernie Sanders supporter, who has appeared on CNN to argue what she believes to be several instances of voter fraud during the primaries, so far has spent the convention taking part in protests. Those have been mostly in Center City where she and other protest organizers felt their message would be most heard.

Her considerable success in corralling so many people into one forum had the feel of an experiment in transforming social media into political action.

NBC10 | Brian X. McCrone

The results are hard to measure at this point, but Cestnicks fellow organizer Brianna Jones, a Mount Airy woman who led a coalition called the DNC Action Committee, was somewhat skeptical leading up to the DNC about a Facebook groups turnout capacity.

In an interview the week before the election, Jones pointed to expectations most people have in turnouts from evites to parties. She cautioned against putting too much optimism in promises made on Facebook.

Cestnick said she didnt have a good feel for how many turned out who were members of her Occupy DNC group. But she remained in high spirits Wednesday afternoon at the protest she helped organize with another group, Black Men for Bernie, on the Thomas Paine Plaza outside the City of Philadelphias Municipal Services Building.

More than a thousand people appeared to rally at that gathering, including dozens of Bernie Sanders delegates who took a stage built on the plaza to demand the Democratic Party reform its selection process -- and build an even more progressive platform.

Cestnicks boyfriend, Jim Kelly, who works for a beer distributor in the Boston area, said organizing transportation, lodging, and then ultimately protests became a nearly full-time job.

His girlfriends effort did have one very tangible effect.

He used to be a Republican, Cestnick said, smiling as she sat with Kelly on the side of a protest stage.

I was, I was a conflicted Republican, Kelly said. But no more.
Police in Philadelphia say that a 34-year-old man has been charged in a hit-and-run crash that left a 40-year-old mother dead and six other people injured, including her husband and young son.

The Philadelphia Inquirer reports charges against George McGoldrick include involuntary manslaughter and drunken driving in the crash that killed Suryani Tjung on Friday night.

Police say he ran from the scene after crashing into another vehicle and three pedestrians, killing a mother and wounding several others. Police say he was drunk at the time.

It was around 8:30 p.m. when the white Toyota Avalon, driven by McGoldrick, sped westbound along Jackson Street near 21st and slammed into a minivan, carrying a man and three kids, at the intersection, police said.[[388041082, C]]

The Avalon then careened out of control onto the sidewalk where three people were standing, killing 40-year-old Suryani Tjung and injuring her husband and 2-year-old son.

The Toyota hit the minivan with such force that the car's driver's side door lodged onto the green van's fender, breaking away from the sedan.

The car traveled another block to Snyder Avenue, where the driver jumped out and ran home. Police said a family member called 911 after McGoldrick told them about the crash.

In all, seven people were hurt, police said.[[388001002, C]]

Tjung, who was from the neighborhood, was left in extremely critical condition after the crash. She was rushed to Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, but could not be saved, police said.

The husband and their son as well as four people from the minivan were treated at Jefferson for minor injuries.

Police didn't immediately identify a 28-year-old woman who was with McGoldrick. They say McGoldrick was arrested after a family member he told about the crash contacted police.
Dozens of Bernie Sanders delegates walked out of the Democratic National Convention Tuesday night following Hillary Clinton's nomination for president, and many promised to leave the political party in protest.

Vincent Venditti, a Georgia delegate pledged to Sanders, said outside Philadelphia's Wells Fargo Center that he considers himself a political independent effective immediately.[[388324462,C]]

Their protest and exodus is in line with what hundreds of protesters had been saying outside the convention's security perimeter. Many said Hillary Clinton's nomination as the Democratic candidate for president would prompt them to quit the party.

"They know where to find me," Venditti said, noting that he would consider returning to the party if Clinton's candidacy was abandoned.

The group held a sit-in at a tent for journalists, some with tape over their mouths. It dispersed after about an hour, but the protesters' point was made.

The Democratic Party and their convention have been roiled by an email controversy. Hacked emails published by Wikileaks appeared to show some in the Democratic National Committee favoring Hillary Clinton, a charge leveled throughout the presidential primaries but which party leader Debbie Wasserman Schultz had denied.

But the email scandal led to her ouster on Monday  she had been supposed to gavel in the convention on Monday, but did not do so. Even Sanders was booed at an event Monday, when he told supporters it was in the country's best interest to elect Clinton president.
Pennsylvanias delegation to the Democratic National Convention didnt get to hear from a premiere speaker as first anticipated.

Former presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, D-Vt., canceled his appearance at the breakfast at the Double Tree Hotel on Broad street Wednesday morning.

It wasnt immediately clear why Sanders spurned the Keystone State Delegates. [[388177812, C]]

He did keep a speaking engagement with delegates from New England (his home state of Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine) and Texas, however.

Media gathered at the Pennsylvania Delegation's breakfast were told to expect actor Danny Glover to speak but also also failed to appear.
With mothers of police violence victims on the stage and anti-gun protesters in the streets, Hillary Clinton and Democrats are giving gun control and efforts to curb police violence a starring role at their summer convention.

A group of women who have lost children to gun violence or after contact with police took the stage to applause and chants of "black lives matter" on Tuesday at the Democratic National Convention. Known as the Mothers of the Movement, the group includes Sybrina Fulton, whose 17-year-old son Trayvon Martin was killed by a neighborhood watch volunteer in 2012.

"Hillary Clinton has the compassion and understanding to support grieving mothers," Fulton said. "She has the courage to lead the fight for common sense gun legislation."

Also taking the stage Tuesday were former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and Pittsburgh Chief of Police Cameron McLay, who said it is possible "to respect and support our police while at the same time pushing for these important criminal justice reforms."

Clinton has made gun safety one of the foundations of her presidential campaign, vowing to overcome the legendary resistance of gun-rights advocates and their GOP allies to push for expanded criminal background checks and a renewal of a ban on assault weapons.

Her search for a breakthrough comes as Donald Trump has repeatedly touted the benefits of access to firearms as a way to counter to acts of violence. The Republican nominee promoted a law-and-order message at his convention, where speakers routinely expressed solidarity with police officers and decried the recent slayings of officers in Dallas and Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Yet Democrats view the recent spate of mass shootings and police-involved killings as turning the tide in favor of new restrictions on firearms and a catalyst for criminal justice reform.

"This is the moment," said Melissa Mark-Viverito, the speaker of the city council in New York.

Indeed, Americans increasingly favor tougher gun laws by margins that have grown after the spate of recent mass shootings, according to a recent Associated Press-GfK poll. Almost two-thirds say they support stricter laws, with majorities favoring nationwide bans on the sale of semi-automatic assault weapons such as the AR-15 and on the sale of high-capacity magazines holding 10 or more bullets.

Both conventions have coincided with a wrenching period of violence and unrest, both in the United States and around the world. Last month, a gunman opened fire in a crowded gay dance club in Orlando, Florida, killing 49 people and injuring dozens more in the worst mass shooting in U.S. history.

Still, despite a spate of high-profile shootings in recent years, including the 2012 slaying of 20 first graders and six adults at a Connecticut school and the murder of 9 African-American church members at a Charleston church last year, Democrats have largely failed in their efforts to change federal gun laws.

In the recent AP-GfK poll, less than half of Americans said they believe gun laws will get tougher in the coming year. But advocates for gun control say the political landscape has changed dramatically since the 1990s, when then-President Bill Clinton blamed heavy losses in the 1994 mid-term elections in part to a public backlash against the ban on certain military-style weapons. That ban expired after 10 years and has not been renewed.

"It's clearly not 1994 anymore," said Mark Kelly, the husband of former Arizona Democratic Rep. Gabby Giffords, who was seriously wounded in a 2011 shooting in Tucson that left six people dead.

Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., said the shifting landscape is the result of several factors: Shootings such as the Sandy Hook school massacre in 2012, renewed concerns over terrorism and high-profile killings of black men in several cities.

"For the first time, this is a winning issue in the general election," Murphy said.

Associated Press writer Dake Kang contributed to this report.
Police in a South Jersey community alerted residents Wednesday morning after a large snake got away from them.

Paulsboro Police were sent to the 200 block of E Jefferson Street Tuesday night for the "report of a large snake under a porch," the department posted on Facebook.

By the time animal control showed up the snake  it appeared to be about a 60-pound boa constrictor measuring around 10 to 12 feet long  had escaped into a hole in the ground but not before a photo was snapped of the large reptile, said police.

Boas arent venomous but they can cause harm to people and pets by cutting off the blood supply, according to National Geographic. [[388512741, C]]

Paulsboro Police reported Wednesday night the snake was caught and returned to its owner.
San Diego County Sheriffs Department (SDSO) officials confirmed Wednesday that a man suspected in the mysterious, high-profile slayings of three San Diegans has been hospitalized.

SDSO media relations director Jan Caldwell told NBC 7 Investigates that Carlo Mercado, 31, had been transported from San Diego Central Jail in downtown San Diego Tuesday afternoon to UC Medical Center.

Caldwell said Mercado, along with his cellmate, Abel Martinez, 52, were observed by deputies to be in "medical distress" at around 12:30 p.m. Tuesday.

NBC 7's source close to the investigation believes the inmates overdosed.

Further details on Mercado's transport and current condition were not immediately released. Caldwell said both Mercado and Martinez were undergoing treatment as of Wednesday afternoon.

"An investigation is being conducted by the San Diego Sheriff's Department Homicide Unit and Detentions Investigative Unit into the circumstances surrounding this incident, and no further details are available at this time," Caldwell told NBC 7.

NBC 7 Investigates reached out to Mercado's attorney, Jane Kinsey, but she said she had no comment on this development involving her client.

Mercado is accused of killing brothers Salvatore Sal Belvedere, 22, and Gianni Belvedere, 24, and Giannis fiancee, Ilona Flint, 22.

The killings began with a shooting on Christmas Eve 2013 in the parking lot of Westfield Mission Valley mall.

Last week, a judge ruled Mercado would stand trial in the triple homicide case, with his trial set to begin on April 3, 2017.

In February 2016, Mercado pleaded not guilty to the slayings.

At that time, San Diego County Deputy District Attorney Brian Erickson said the District Attorneys office would seek the death penalty if Mercados trial moved forward and if he is convicted.

Over the past two-and-a-half years the triple homicide case has seen many twists and turns.

Prosecutors have said it does not appear Mercado was in any way connected to the victims and that the killings are believed to have been random, or perhaps the result of some type of road rage incident. The killings do not appear to have been a hit, as has been speculated, prosecutors said in February.

Still, the motive for the slayings remains shrouded in mystery.

Several months ago, Mercados defense attorney Gary Gibson said he was disappointed with the DAs decision to pursue the death penalty in this case given Mercados history of mental illness. Gibson said his client is a deeply damaged individual with significant mental health issues. However, Erickson argued Mercados mental state is directly linked to the case, which includes depression based on his situation.

Gibson said the case will be difficult to prove at trial because prosecutors are struggling to pin down a motive.

On Dec. 24, 2013 Flint and Sal were found critically shot inside their car parked outside a Macys department store at Westfield Mission Valley mall in San Diegos Mission Valley area. Flint, who called 911 to report the shooting and their location, died at the scene. Sal was hospitalized and died a few days later.

Flints fiance and Sals brother, Gianni, went missing around the same time of the Christmas Eve killings. On Jan. 17, 2014 police found Giannis badly decomposed body stuffed into the trunk of his own car parked at a shopping center in Riverside, California, more than 100 miles away from San Diego. He, too, had been shot to death.

For six months, police reported no breaks in the baffling triple homicide case.

On June 20, 2014 the San Diego Police Department confirmed officers had arrested Mercado as the suspect in the three slayings. Mercado pleaded not guilty to three counts of first-degree murder.

At a pretrial in early September 2014, DNA evidence emerged linking Mercado to Giannis car and the bloody Riverside crime scene, while ballistics evidence linked a gun registered in Mercados name to the deadly shootings of Flint, Sal and Gianni. Prosecutors also presented evidence found on Mercado's phone and computers.

Also in early September 2014, search warrants obtained by NBC 7 revealed the exhaustive investigation into the triple homicide case, but no clear motive for the killings.

In December 2014 the families of the three victims filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Westfield, LLC, accusing the Mission Valley mall of negligence in the deaths of Flint and the Belvedere brothers, claiming the mall failed to provide sufficient lighting and monitoring security cameras in the area to keep patrons safe. That lawsuit also listed Mercado as a defendant, accusing him of malice and oppression in the killings.

On Nov. 3, 2014 a San Diego judge ruled Mercado was not competent to stand trial in the triple killings, and ordered he be treated at Patton State Hospital for three years until he was found competent to assist in his own defense.

That ruling came after reports submitted by two psychiatrists and one psychologist diagnosed Mercado as schizophrenic, psychotic and suffering from catatonic depression, Mercados attorney said at the time.

In September 2015, Mercado was returned to San Diego Central Jail after evaluators from Patton State Hospital found him competent to stand trial. The defense then requested a competency trial for Mercado.

On Dec. 14, 2015 a judge ruled Mercado was competent to stand trial.

When Mercados trial date was set last week, a judge also ordered Mercado to appear in court this October for a status conference.

With his hospitalization, it is unclear if the timeline of his upcoming court proceedings will change.

Meanwhile, Mercado's cellmate, Martinez, is also accused of murder.

Martinez was convicted last month in the shooting his ex-girlfriend, Leila Farmer, and her boyfriend, Eufracio Alberto Enriquez, in March 2014 at a home in Dehesa Valley near Alpine. Enriquez died in the shooting.

Inmate records indicate Martinez was scheduled to appear in court this Friday. As of Thursday, his court appearance had been postponed, with no date set just yet, the Deputy District Attorney's office told NBC 7.

NBC 7 reached out to Martinez's attorney, Thomas Bahr, on Wednesday. Bahr said he had no comment.
Twenty thousand people were evacuated over the weekend when fire threatened homes in Los Angeles County.

The so-called Sand Fire in Santa Clarita has scorched nearly 60 square miles since it started on Friday, July 22. Eighteen homes were destroyed and one person was killed.

As of Wednesday, firefighters say they have the fire 40 percent contained.

On Monday, Los Angeles fire officials said residents could return to their homes after spending the weekend elsewhere.

NBCLA reports those evacuated may be eligible to file a claim for financial help if they were forced to stay in a hotel because of a mandatory evacuation.

In fact, according to this report, many people are paying for whats called additional living expense (ALE) coverage and arent aware.

See the NBCLA report here.

For more information on ALE coverage, see the Department of Insurance's earthquake insurance and Residential Property Claims Guide at insurance.ca.gov.
Seven local World War II veterans were among the ten veterans awarded the highest honor by the Government of France on Tuesday.

The National Order of The Legion of Honor in the rank of Chevalier (Knight) is the highest honor given by France to citizens and foreign nationals.

The private ceremony was held at 11 a.m. Tuesday at the Veterans Museum and Memorial Center in Balboa Park.

Among the recipients was Private First Class Raymond L. Deming from San Marcos. Deming has been awarded the Bronze Star Medal, the Combat Infantryman Badge, the EAME Campaign Medal with three battle stars, the Army of Occupation Medal and the World War II Victory Medal.

I was a radio operator with the infantry in the battle of Strasburg. I was associated with the French First Army, Deming told NBC 7.

Deming said he was so honored to be at the ceremony and thanked the young men and women who serve in the armed forces today.

The following is a list of recipients:
The family of a father and son shot and killed in Golden Hill five years ago said they are relieved to hear justice will soon be served for their loved ones.

Marlon Johnson was arrested for the 2011 deaths of Keith Butler, 30, and Darryl Hunter, 49, San Diego Police Lt. Scott Wahl confirmed to NBC 7 San Diego Tuesday.

Johnson was taken into custody on July 25 at 2:30 p.m. by members of the Arkansas Fugitive Task force, U.S. Marshals and the San Diego Fugitive Task force after the San Diego District Attorneys office Cold Case team issued a warrant.

Butler and his father were found by San Diego police on January 9, 2011 near 30th and C Streets. Hunter was found lying in the street across from Millers Market. His son was found in a nearby apartment. Both victims were taken to a hospital where they later died.

Authorities did not provide a motive, something that still makes it difficult for family members to come to terms with their loved ones' deaths.

"It's been a battle," said Lori Williamson, Hunter's sister. "Just a battle, up and down, not really knowing why this was done."

"Even though they caught the person, I still want to know why," said Patricia Flournoy, Darryl's sister.

In a way, though, the arrest provides a sense of closure for family members, years after the case went cold.

"I feel a sense of relief, but I still want to know why, even though we may never get the answer," Flournoy said.

Michelle Hunter was a teenager when she found out her father and brother had been shot and killed.

Police say the men had been visiting Butler's girlfriend at her apartment when the father decided to leave and Butler walked him to a bus stop.

Police say gunshots were heard about 20 minutes later, and the son ran back to the apartment, where he told his girlfriend to call 911 and then collapsed.

Michel'le said she was home when she first found out - and what helped her the most in the days and months after were her family's support. Now, she's happy justice will be served for her father and brother's deaths.

"I can't wake up to good morning texts from my dad anymore, or having my brother call me at random," she said. "But to know that there is justice being served, I am happy."

For other family members: mixed emotions.

"I never knew what was going on, why they were shooting at him," said Lamar Hunter, Darryl's brother. "I didn't know nothing."

Johnson will be extradited to San Diego, where he will be charged with two counts of first degree murder.

The family members expressed their gratitude to the officers for finding the man accused of killing their loved ones.

"I thought they would never catch this person, ever," said Flournoy. "I'm thankful that they did not give up, I'm thankful that justice is served, I'm thankful for that."

"This means that there's justice," said Michel'le. "I'm so happy now."

Anyone with information regarding this incident is asked to call the Homicide Unit at (619) 531-2293 or Crime Stoppers at (888) 580-8477.
A new Dunkin Donuts shop  complete with a full-service drive-thru window  is set to open soon in National City, creating dozens of new jobs for locals.

Part of the popular chain of eateries headquartered in Massachusetts, this new Dunkin Donuts store is located at East Plaza Boulevard and Interstate 805, and is highly visible from the freeway.

Boardwalk Development, Inc., signed a lease with Dunkin' Donuts to create the new restaurant. The site is currently under construction.

Ron Bamberger, president of Boardwalk Development, Inc., told NBC 7 on Wednesday that they hope to open the location by mid-September.

He said the store plans to host a grand opening celebration when it officially opens for business this fall.

Bamberger said the shop's proximity to the freeway is a substantial benefit and will be convenient for morning commuters who want to pop in and out of the location quickly as they grab a doughnut on their way to work.

Bamberger said the business is on the morning side of the freeway -- the side of the street where the bulk of morning rush hour traffic occurs.

"The expectations are that it will be a very busy location," said Bamberger.

According to Sonya Modi, public relations specialist from Havas Formula, the company representing the project, this store will be the second Dunkin Donuts drive-thru in San Diego County.

The first Dunkin Donuts drive-thru is in Ramona, though that location is a Dunkin Donuts and Baskin-Robbins combo store, so this National City shop will be the first freestanding local Dunkin Donuts drive-thru in San Diego County.

Modi said the National City location is expected to create about 100 new jobs for local residents. Hiring information will be released soon and job-seekers who are interested in working there will be able to find job listings on the website, SnagaJob.

The restaurant plans to host a job fair on Aug. 11. Job seekers interested in more details can call (619) 560-1189 or visit the location that day.

Bamberger said positions will include front and back-of-the-house, as well as management. He said banners with hiring information are currently posted around the development site.

The new restaurant is locally owned and operated by a disabled U.S. veteran who lives in San Diego County, Modi said.

Two years ago, Dunkin Donuts announced it planned to open its first traditional restaurants in California over the coming years. This plan included 14 restaurants San Diego County, with the first opening in 2016.

Modi told NBC 7 that after the National City location opens, there are two other San Diego County Dunkin Donuts slated to open this year: one in El Cajon and the other at Naval Air Station North Island.

Currently, San Diego County is home to four Dunkin Donuts locations: an outpost at the Embassy Suites Hotel in downtown San Diego (601 Pacific Highway); a shop at Naval Medical Center San Diegos Building 1 (34800 Bob Wilson Dr.); a shop at MCAS Miramars Building 5305; and the Ramona Dunkin Donuts/Baskin-Robbins location (1410 Main St.)

Dunkin' Donuts was founded in 1950 by Bill Rosenberg in Quincy, Massachusetts. Today, the company has a cult following as the world's leading baked goods and coffee chain, serving more than 3 million customers daily and selling 52 varieties of doughnuts.
San Diegans celebrated history Tuesday as Hillary Clinton clinched the Democratic nomination for president of the United States, happy to see a woman run for the office.

At the Democratic National Convention's roll call, Clinton officially became the party's nominee. California Gov. Jerry Brown announced 221 votes for Sanders and 330 votes for Clinton.

Clinton is the first woman in history to lead a major party in the race for the White House.

"I think it's about time a woman's elected for president," said Clinton supporter and San Diego voter Lillian.

Robin Burns, an undecided voter, said many voters have seen the negative associated with Clinton, from Benghazi to her emails. But, "I would really love to see a woman as president, I really would," Burns said.

But other San Diegans expressed doubt Hillary was the right person for the job, saying it was a bittersweet moment.

"I do think it is a great thing that weve moved forward enough in the history of our country that a woman is a nominee for president," said Samantha Pennington, a Donald Trump supporter. "Do I think everybody's ready for it? No. But I do believe that it is a good thing that weve moved forward to that point."

Pennington said she thought the election was about choosing the lesser of two evils, and that was why she was supporting Trump.

Milena, a San Diego voter, said she was happy to see a woman running as a major party's nominee.

"I dont want to vote for someone just because shes a woman," said Milena. "I wish there was someone that I agreed with more and supported moreIm still of course glad its a woman."

Bernie Sanders supporter Margarita Huddleston, 80, said she was glad to see the country moving forward, even if she was still questioning some of the things Clinton had done in the past.

"The progress that America has done, its just so wonderful and may we continue to encourage our young girls," she said.
The prospect of a local sales tax on legalized marijuana was left up in the air Tuesday at San Diego's city hall.

Councilmembers were scheduled to vote on sending it to the November ballot -- but put off a decision for further study.

Council sources told NBC 7, there's been no breakdown in lawmaking machinery, its just that members just want to put more "eyes" on the measures language, so nothing's left to chance.

A deadline of August 12 looms for qualifying Council-generated issues for the general election.

The pot-sales tax hinges on California voters approving "adult use" of cannabis, by way of Proposition 64.

Right now 16 of the state's cities impose sales taxes on medicinal marijuana, ranging from six to 15 percent.

In the Bay Area, San Jose is reportedly collecting about $3 million a year from its dispensaries.

Prop. 64 would exempt medically prescribed cannabis sales.

If adult-use, or so-called "recreational" marijuana is legalized, San Diego's proposed tax would start at five percent for two years and float to eight percent thereafter -- with Council leeway to charge up to 15 percent later on.

Four medicinal dispensaries have permits to operate in San Diego and they're pushing for Council action to subject future adult-use sales to outlets facing the same regulatory framework if Prop. 64 passes.

There's still a big concern about "black-marketeers" undercutting the legitimately established businesses.

But for anti-drug activists, the whole idea of legalization and taxation of the proceeds sends the wrong message.

Prop. 64 needs to go down. We need to send a message that we're done with drug dealers, done with the harms that it's doing in society, says Pacific Beach resident Scott Chipman, an activist with San Diegans for Safe Neighborhoods.

We want to protect our kids from these bad messages and keep our roads and streets and communities and our schools safe," Chipman added in an interview Tuesday.

The proposed city pot-tax measure will come back to the Council for ballot consideration on Monday.

If Prop. 64 is approved in November, the state's tax rate on medicinal marijuana would be 15 percent.
A Carlsbad man is behind a movement to overturn six recent laws expanding background checks and attempting to curb rapid-reloading firearms.

Barry Bahrami submitted the petitions for the November 2018 ballot. He did not return phone or email messages Tuesday, the Associated Press reported.

But the effort is a long shot as 365,000 signatures are needed on each of six separate petitions by Sept. 29, just two months from now.

Craig DeLuz of the Firearms Policy Coalition says it's an improbable undertaking. The campaign has no known financial backers.

Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown signed bills earlier this month requiring ammunition retailers to be licensed and conduct background checks. The laws also mandate background checks to lend guns and outlaw "bullet buttons" developed in response to California's ban on assault weapons.
What to Know A meeting is planned between police and workers at a Virginia restaurant after a cook there allegedly refused to serve a police officer.

"I ain't serving that," a cook at Noodles & Company reportedly said.

A sign expressing support for police officers was posted in the window of the restaurant Tuesday evening.

Police officers will meet with employees of a restaurant in Northern Virginia after a cook there allegedly refused to serve a police officer in uniform.

Members of the Alexandria Police Department likely will meet with employees of the Noodles & Company restaurant on Duke Street next week, a police department representative said. The intention of the meeting is to continue dialogue about concerns.

A female police officer working the evening shift stopped by Noodles & Company Monday night, a representative of the local police union said.

As the officer stood in line, a cook exited the kitchen, approached the cashier and pointed at the officer, Alexandria Committee of Police Vice President Peter Feltham said he was told.

"Youve got to take me off the line, I aint serving that," the cook allegedly said.

The officer realized what was happening and rather than making an incident of it, the officer just left the business, Feltham said.

An Alexandria Police Officer says a cook at a popular restaurant refused to cook for her. Northern Virginia Bureau Reporter David Culver reports.

Alexandria Police Chief Earl Cook and a representative of the Alexandria Police Union met with restaurant management on Tuesday.

These are very difficult times right now in our relations with everyone, and to have one of my officers treated in that manner unnecessarily, your first response is anger, Cook said. Then you calm down a bit and say, lets just find out what happened.

Noodles & Company told News4 the company does not tolerate any form of discrimination. The restaurant said managers reached out to the officer but have not spoken with her yet.

The restaurant said it is interviewing the employees allegedly involved.

We will continue to look into the situation and will take the appropriate actions at the conclusion of this review, Noodles & Company said in a statement.

A sign with this message was posted in the window of the restaurant Tuesday evening: "We are proud to support our local police officers and public safety personnel."
A Virginia man is accused of selling cancer patients a fake "miracle cure" for thousands of dollars and discouraging them from seeking other treatment, according to police in Manassas.

Peter Adeniji, 67, posed as a medical professional and operated a fraudulent business on Forest Pine Circle, investigators said. They said he charged cancer patients $1,200 for one dose of an herbal mixture Adeniji promised would cure them from cancer.

Adeniji was arrested at his home in Manassas on Monday. He was previously charged and convicted for selling fake treatments in other parts of Virginia, according to The Washington Post. Two cancer patients who obtained treatments from Adeniji later died, the Post reported.

Police believe there are more victims in the community, across the country and internationally.

"In this particular case, knowing that Adeniji was discouraging other treatment options was sort of a red flag that we hope others are aware of and if something seems too good to be true, it probably is," said police spokeswoman Adrienne Helms.

Information on an attorney for Adeniji was not immediately available. He was being held Tuesday without bail, according to The Washington Post.

Anyone with information about this case should contact the Manassas City police.
It's a familiar story: an unarmed black male killed at the hands of a white law enforcement officer. But it didn't take place in Baton Rouge, Minneapolis, or any of the other cities most recently at the center of discussions about police use of force and race.

William Chapman II died last year in Portsmouth, Virginia, a majority-black city of 100,000 that while not in the spotlight, has been deeply ensconced in such discussions.

For many black leaders there, former Officer Stephen Rankin's rare trial on first-degree murder charges, scheduled to start with jury selection Wednesday, will be nothing less than a referendum on a criminal justice system they say often fails to hold police accountable.

"The criminal justice system is hell-bent on favoring those in law enforcement,'' said James Boyd, president of Portsmouth's NAACP chapter. "We see these violent injustices happening time and again without any sense of accountability. This trial has implications for every citizen, but specifically for every black American in this country.''

Rankin's attorneys argue that Chapman's shooting was justified, and should not be judged in the context of other pending cases elsewhere in the country.

"The factual scenario is so totally different than what has happened in Baton Rouge and Minneapolis and with Michael Brown (in Ferguson, Missouri),'' attorney James Broccoletti said. "I don't think it would matter if this individual were black, red, purple or orange. It was the conduct of the person that generated the response.''

Rankin shot Chapman, 18, after responding to a shoplifting call outside a Wal-Mart last year. Witnesses say a struggle ensued. Unlike in Baton Rouge and Minneapolis, however, no witness cellphone video is available to shed any light on the circumstances. In Rankin's case, the only footage is an incomplete video from his stun gun that doesn't show the actual shooting. Rankin was fired by Portsmouth's city manager after his indictment.

Chapman's death marked the second time Rankin killed someone while on duty. He was cleared of any wrongdoing from the first shooting in 2011. In that case, he fired 11 times at a white burglary suspect he said charged at him with his hands reaching into his waistband.

In court documents, prosecutors allege Rankin killed Chapman "willfully, deliberately and with premeditation.'' Chapman's body was delivered to the medical examiner with handcuffs still bound behind his back, according to news reports at the time.

But some witnesses said Chapman was combative; one said he knocked away Rankin's stun gun, according to the reports.

Sallie Chapman, the teen's mother, told The Associated Press he did not have a confrontational nature.

"Please look past his badge,'' she said of Rankin. "Please look past his uniform. And convict this man of murder.''

The trial is scheduled at a time of intense scrutiny over police officers' use of force, and both the prosecution and defense expressed concerns about how to maintain an impartial jury. Despite those concerns, a judge ruled Tuesday that the trial would proceed.

Rankin's attorneys said demonstrations in favor of the officer's conviction are planned and that jurors could be influenced by them as they enter the courthouse. At the same time, Portsmouth's prosecutor has told the judge that a heavy presence of uniformed officers supporting Rankin could have a "chilling effect'' on the jury. In addition to following numerous incidents of black men dying in police custody, the trial comes in the wake of recent fatal attacks on officers in Dallas and Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

On-duty officers kill suspects about 1,000 times a year, according to Philip Stinson, a criminal justice professor at Bowling Green State University in Ohio. But only 74 have been charged since 2005, 18 of them in 2015 alone, he said. Stinson said it will be years before he can say if the increase last year is a statistical anomaly or a trend buoyed by witness cellphone videos.

Of those officers arrested, 31 were charged with murder and several, including Rankin, with first-degree murder, he said. Thus far, 24 of the cases against officers have ended in convictions and 24 have not. The rest are pending.

"Juries are very reluctant to convict an officer because they all recognize that policing is difficult and violent,'' Stinson said.

The Virginian-Pilot newspaper recently reported that 37 people have died from shootings by police in the Hampton Roads region since 2010, 25 of them black. Two of the shootings led to criminal charges against the officers, one of whom is Rankin.

Recent protests over shootings by police in Louisiana and Minnesota shut down a major highway in Portsmouth, and a white city councilman responded by calling the demonstrators "thugs'' on social media. That same night, however, an image of a black highway protester hugging a white police officer went viral, easing some of the tension. The councilman apologized the following day.

JaPharii Jones, a local black activist from nearby Hampton, Virginia, said the hug was "an awesome'' moment. But he said a guilty verdict in the Rankin trial would be far more impactful in a region where he said "you can sneeze and you can get shot'' by police.

Ed Schardein, a retired captain from Portsmouth, said the charges against Rankin do not reflect the department or the nation's officers.

Schardein said Portsmouth's force is well-trained and professional. And because of a relatively high crime rate, he said the officers are used to handling high-stress situations without prematurely drawing their guns.

"Conviction or no conviction, I would hope that it's based on the facts, and not the perception that there is an issue among policing,'' Schardein said.
First lady Michelle Obama's reference to the White House being built by slaves prompted a lot of conversation about the history of the White House.

During her 2016 Democratic National Convention speech Monday night, Obama referenced the history and progress of African Americans in the nation.

"I wake up every morning in a house that was built by slaves," she said. "And I watch my daughters, two beautiful, intelligent, black young women, playing with their dogs on the White House lawn."

After her speech, many viewers turned to research whether the first lady's statements were factual.

The website for a nonprofit that documents the history of the White House was slammed with people looking for more background on the slavery reference.

"We've seen more than a double increase spike in our traffic in the last 24 hours, and that occurred similarly when she mentioned it back in June," said Lara Kline, vice president of marketing and communications for the White House Historical Association.

The White House is a well-known symbol of American liberty and pride. But historians also find that the heralded buildings history is marked by the role of slaves.

The White House Historical Association reports on its website enslaved African Americans were a part of the workforce that built the White House.

When construction began in 1792, after an attempt to recruit laborers from Europe did not yield well, commissioners rented African American slaves from slave owners to do the work, alongside various paid laborers and artisans.

Historians have researched the issue and found that the White House was actually built by enslaved and non-enslaved individuals, Kline said. Both black and white individuals contributed to the building of the White House.

The first lady previously was quoted saying she wakes up in a house built by slaves when she gave the commencement address at City College of New York in June.
Ninety-six years after women won the right to vote, Hillary Clinton became the Democratic Party's nominee for president on Tuesday, the first woman to represent a major political party.

"When women succeed, America succeeds," said U.S. Rep. Nancy Pelosi. Pelosi became the first woman to serve as speaker of the House of Representatives in 2007 and served in that role until 2011.

Here was that historical moment and others on the second day of the Democratic National Convention.

History Is Made

Democrats formally nominated Hillary Clinton for the presidency Tuesday evening, the first major political party to choose a woman as its candidate.

Her nomination ends two hard-fought primaries for her, the first of which she lost to President Barack Obama eight years ago.

The former secretary of state, New York senator and first lady sparks intense loyalty among her backers but also intense dislike, a legacy of the scandals that have plagued her long career.

Her name was placed in nomination in the afternoon by civil rights icon John Lewis, the congressman from Georgia, and Maryland Sen. Barbara Mikulski, the longest-serving woman in Congress.

"Eight years ago, our party, the Democratic Party, nominated and elected the first person of color to ever serve in the White House not just for one term, but two terms," Lewis said. "Tonight, tonight, on this night, we will shatter that glass ceiling again."

[NATL] A Look Inside the 2016 Democratic National Convention

Mikulski, who will retire this year, said, "On behalf of all the women who've broken down barriers for others, and with an eye toward the barriers ahead, I proudly place Hillary Clinton's name in nomination to be the next president."

South Dakota put her over the top in votes.

See the moment where a tearful Larry Sanders cast his delegate vote for his brother, Bernie, at the Democratic National Convention on Tuesday.

The last state to cast its votes was Vermont, the home of her rival this year, Sen. Bernie Sanders. He said: "I move that Hillary Clinton be selected as the nominee of the Democratic Party for president of the United States."

"The Best Darn Change-Maker"

Former President Bill Clinton described his wife to the Democratic National Convention as the "best darn change-maker I have even known," a woman uniquely qualified to be president. But first he started with the story of how they met as students at Yale Law school.

"She walked the whole length of the library, came up to me and said, 'If you're going to keep staring at me'  and now I'm staring back  'we at least ought to know each other's name. I'm Hillary Rodham. Who are you?'"

President Bill Clinton at the 2016 Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia on Tuesday, July 26, 2016.

He said he later asked her to walk with him to an art museum.

"We've been walking and talking and laughing together ever since," he said. "And we've done it in good times and bad, through joy and heartbreak.  We've built up a lifetime of memories."

Clinton's speech re-introduced his wife to Americans, detailing her legacy of work on behalf of civil rights, children and families. He talked of her starting a legal aid clinic in Arkansas, getting expanded health care for children after the first attempt at health reform failed, registering voters in Texas and serving as U.S. senator from New York and then secretary of state.

"Hillary will make us stronger together," he said. "You know it because she spent a lifetime doing it."

He said that Hillary Clinton worked with people with disabilities, helping to ensure they had equal access to education.

"She never made fun of people with disabilities," he said, a reference to the Republican nominee Donald Trump, who has been accused of mocking a reporter who is disabled. "She tried to empower them."

Bill Clinton asked: How does the woman he talked about square with the one described by the Republicans?

"One is real, the other is made up," he said.

If you're a hard working immigrant who obeys the law and loves the United States, choose immigration reform over a candidate who wants to send you back, he said. If you're a Muslim who loves the country and freedom and hates terrorism, stay here and help the United States win, he said.

"If you're a young African American disillusioned and afraid, we saw in Dallas how great our police officers can be, help us build a future where nobody's afraid to walk outside," he said.

At the end of the day's session, Hillary Clinton appeared by satellite and told the audience, "I can't believe we just put the biggest crack in that glass ceiling yet."

"And if there are any little girls out there who stayed up late to watch, let me just say: 'I may become the first woman president, but one of you is next.'"

Bernie or Bust? Bust, says Bernie

Earlier, Sanders worked to rein in his backers. A day after they jeered Clinton and protested the leaked emails that showed party officials working to torpedo his candidacy, the senator from Vermont worked to tamp down his die-hard fans determination to keep fighting for him. On the second day of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, he made the rounds of the state delegations and urged support for his former rival. Donald Trump needs to be stopped, he said.

"It's easy to boo," he told delegates from California. "But it is harder to look your kids in the face who will be living under a Donald Trump presidency."

Not all of his backers listened. Dozens of his delegates walked out of the convention, held a sit-in and pledged to leave the Democratic party in protest. They claimed that their votes had been stolen by the Democratic National Committee.

Black Lives Matter

A half-dozen women whose children were killed by violence, Mothers of the Movement, endorsed Clinton as a leader who would bring about change and who would support needed gun legislation.

Lucia McBath, mother of Jordan Davis who was shot at gas station in Jacksonville, Florida in 2012 for playing loud music, praised Hillary Clinton for sitting down with mothers who have lost children to gun violence. She also praised police officers for the hard work they do.

Geneva Reed-Veal, the mother of Sandra Bland, pulled over in a traffic stop in Texas and later found hanging in a jail cell, said Clinton would lead the country to restoration and change.

"She knows that when a young, black life is cut short, it's not just a loss, it's a personal loss," said Reed-Veal, who has said she does not believe her daughter killed herself. "It is a national loss. It is a loss that diminishes all of us. What a blessing tonight to be standing here, so that Sandy can still speak through her mama."

The Texas trooper who stopped Bland was fired earlier this year.

Lucia McBath, whose son Jordan Davis was shot to death in Florida in a dispute over loud music, called the majority of police officers good people doing a good job. She urged building a future where police officers and communities worked together to keep children like her son safe.

"Hillary Clinton isn't afraid to say that black lives matter," McBath said. "She isn't afraid to sit at a table with grieving mothers and bear the full force of our anguish. She doesn't build walls around her heart."

The man who killed her son, Michael Dunn, was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison without parole.

Joining them was Sybrina Fulton, the mother of Trayvon Martin, killed by George Zimmerman, a neighborhood volunteer. Zimmerman was found not guilty of Martin's death.

"Hillary Clinton has the compassion and understanding to support grieving mothers," Fulton said. "She has the courage to lead the fight for common-sense gun legislation."

Love Trumps Hate

Actresses Lena Dunham and America Ferrera had some pointed jokes for Trump.

Dunham: "According to Donald Trump my body is probably like a '2.'"

Ferrera: "And according to Donald Trump Im probably a rapist."

Dunham: "But America you're not Mexican."

Ferrera: "And President Obama isn't Kenyan, Lena. But that doesn't stop Donald."

"Love trumps hate," they concluded at the end of their speech.
Police in Manchester, New Hampshire, have arrested two man accused of possessing dangerous weapons following a report of shots fired and a fight.

Police first responded to Union and Auburn Streets just after midnight Wednesday for the report of shots fired and then four blocks down at Union and Grove Streets for the reported fight.

Callers reported four males were involved in a fight and one of them was armed with a knife.

Officers found two men with matching descriptions, 25-year-old Michael Hughes and 23-year-old Laronn Massey, both of Manchester.

Police say Hughes was carrying a stolen firearm out of Weare and was charged with Possession/Receiving Stolen Property (Firearm) and Carrying a Concealed Firearm Without a Permit.

Massey, who had a machete hidden in a sheath in pang leg, was charged with Convicted Felon in Possession of a Deadly Weapon.

Both are set to appear in court Wednesday.
A bicyclist was critically injured after being struck by a car on Route 1 in South Kingstown, Rhode Island Wednesday morning.

Authorities say an 88-year-old woman struck the 22-year-old bicyclist near Jerry Brown Farm Road, according to necn affiliate WJAR.

The victim was taken to Rhode Island Hospital.

The crash remains under investigation.
The mother of a 7-year-old boy who drowned after wandering away unnoticed from a city-run summer camp at a Boston beach on Tuesday is speaking publicly for the first time about her son's death, and the community center's director is on paid leave as the city conducts a review into drop-in centers.

"He was happy, he was lovable. Everybody knew who he was," Missy Willis, the mother of Kyzr Willis, told necn Wednesday in an interview in the area of her home. "At the end of the day, you could have took my life. You could have took mine. He only experienced seven years. I had 32. I did mine. I did what I had to do. You could have took mine."

Kyzr was last seen around 2 p.m. Tuesday near the L Street Bathhouse at Carson Beach in the city's South Boston neighborhood. He was attending a day camp at the Curley Community Center, which includes the bathhouse, police said.

"Right away we deployed officers from around the city looking for the young child," Boston Police Commissioner William Evans said. "We checked the water, we checked the shoreline, we were out in neighborhoods, we checked the area around his home in Dorchester. We searched the best we could."

Police found the boy's body around 7 p.m. Family and friends who had rushed to Carson Beach when they heard that the child was missing broke down in tears.

Police are still trying to determine how the boy slipped away from the camp, which is run by the Boston Centers for Youth and Families.

"We'll conduct a thorough investigation, but right now, let's all pray for the family," Evans said. "They're going through something that I don't think anyone here wants to go through."

Walsh stopped by the Curley Community Center on Wednesday morning upon returning to Boston from the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia.

He spoke with members of the media and said, "my heart goes out to the family, it breaks for the family."

The city's so-called "drop-in centers," such as the one Kyzr was at, will be reviewed, Walsh announced Wednesday afternoon after the Curley Community Center's director was placed on paid leave. Dan Monahan, who the mayor's office says has worked with children for 25 years, will step in as acting director Thursday.

Will Morales, commissioner of Boston Centers for Youth & Families, released a statement on Wednesday saying "The entire BCYF community is absolutely heartbroken on the loss of Kyzr Willis and our deepest sympathies go out to this young boy's family. BCYF will work closely with the Boston Police Department throughout the investigation."

Quincy Police, state police and the U.S. Coast Guard all assisted in Tuesday's search.

The L Street Bathhouse will remain closed until further notice as police continue to investigate. Walsh said it could reopen as early as Thursday.

Carson Beach is a public beach located in the area of 1663 Columbia Ave. and maintained by the state.
An Everett, Massachusetts police officer who shot and killed a man who charged at him with a knife has been cleared of wrongdoing.

The Middlesex district attorney's office on Wednesday released the results of its investigation into the April 21 shooting death of 48-year-old Mario Mejia-Martinez by Officer Joseph Pepicelli.

The report concludes that Pepicelli "was in imminent danger and apprehension of being stabbed and killed" and therefore was justified in his use of force.

Police responded to a 911 report of a man who was harassing pedestrians. Investigators say Mejia-Martinez drew a knife, ignored multiple commands to drop his weapon and charged the officer.

The investigation included interviews of all responding police officers and witnesses; examination of ballistic evidence; review of radio transmissions; surveillance videos; and the medical examiner's findings.
A long stretch of hot, dry weather is making Maine farmers sweat, worried about the condition of their crops during one of the worst droughts in years.

Much of New England is experiencing a drought, and in York County, Maine, ground water levels for the month of July are the lowest since 1989, according to the US Geological Survey.

"It seems pretty unusual," said Stacy Grant, of Grant's Farm in Saco. "The lack of rain and the dryness is not good."

On Grant's Farm, the drought has not impacted the quality of the crops.

"We are doing okay, and it's 100 percent because of our pivot irrigation system," said Grant.

But it has been an added expense. The pump system for the irrigation runs on diesel fuel. The farm pumps water from a pond on the property, and so far, they have had to remove 8 million gallons of water for the crops.

At blueberry farm Libby & Son in Limerick, Maine, it's a similar situation: a drip irrigation system has kept crops in good condition, but farmers are still concerned.

"We're worried, there's a limit to how much water you can pump," said Aaron Libby, owner of the farm.

The farmers said the quick, and strong thunderstorms this month have not brought the kind of rain they need to really get into the soil and improve drought conditions.

Smaller operations, without irrigation systems, are struggling. According to the owner of Dragonfly Meadow Blueberry Farm in Arundel, some patches of the blueberry farm haven't been able to grow any berries this year.
A former police chief in Marlow, New Hampshire suspected in a 1978 murder is due before a judge Wednesday on charges that he sexually assaulted an underage victim.

Robert Chambers, 64, of Swanzey is accused of abusing the underage victim between 1994 and 2000. He is set to appear in court Wednesday afternoon.

In 1978, Chambers was arrested, but not indicted in the murder of a friend.

Chambers went on to marry that friend's wife.

The body was found ten years later in Chambers' yard when he was serving as police chief.

The case remains open to this day.
Heat continues in New England today, and while some immediate coastal locales may fall just shy of 90 degrees  and Boston will ride the line at either 89 or 90 degrees, most communities extend the ongoing heat wave, today marking the seventh day in a row of 90 degree or hotter maximum temperatures.

Though the bulk of our region will be storm-free today, a few afternoon showers will pop up in Northern Maine as an energetic disturbance moves through the sky from Canada. A quiet night tonight will lend itself to a bit of patchy fog before a slow-moving cold front sags southward out of Canada on Thursday, bringing scattered showers and thunder to Northern New England during the afternoon, and perhaps a storm to the interior of Southern New England Thursday evening.

That same cold front settles farther south on Friday, focusing showers and perhaps a few thunderstorms in Southern New England, but there's still uncertainty on just how much rain the drought-parched area sees, and we're not overly excited about big rain totals - nonetheless, just opening the window to some showers is a positive step.

Regardless, showers are gone by Saturday with temperatures in the 80s, and those warm-but-not-hot high temperatures will continue into next week after a few Sunday storms. By the end of the exclusive Early Warning Weather 10-day, temperatures may return to 90 degrees.

Meanwhile, much of the region is experiencing a drought. Click here to see if there are water restrictions in your town.
A New York City man who admitted to trafficking heroin in Maine is headed to prison.

The Kennebec Journal reports that 28-year-old Kendell Cagle of Manhattan was sentenced Tuesday in Augusta to seven years behind bars. Cagle pleaded guilty to one count of aggravated trafficking in heroin in June.

Prosecutors say investigators learned in December 2015 and January that drug traffickers from New York were moving large amounts of heroin and cocaine base from an Oakland apartment. Cagle was arrested on Jan. 21.

Co-defendant Shayna Shaw-Jenney pleaded guilty in the case and was sentenced to one year behind bars.

Prosecutors say Cagle was convicted in New York in 2013 of selling narcotics.
A man from Plymouth, Massachusetts, said his wife is still in shock, a day after she was carjacked in the parking lot of a popular grocery store.

"She is unhappy, she doesn't want to go out of the house right now, so I have been trying to keep her going," Robert Webb said.

According to Webb, his wife was sitting in their car outside of Stop & Shop when a man ran up and said Webb was suffering a heart attack inside the store.

Webb said his wife believed it because he previously had two heart attacks. He said the man then grabbed his wife's keys, jumped into the car, and took off.

Plymouth Police started chasing the man and area police agencies joined in. The man eventually crashed into a house in Taunton, but not before leading officers on a 30-mile chase.

"Having been a police officer myself for 32 years and having gone to these calls, and then it happens to you, it is kind of tough," Webb said.

Anthony Loto, 26, made his first court appearance Tuesday. His father was in court and told the judge he feared Loto could harm himself. According to prosecutors, Loto walked from a drug treatment center to the grocery store. They said he told paramedics he did what he did because no one would give him a ride home.

The judge ordered Loto undergo an evaluation. Loto is being held on $500,000 cash bail.

"Be aware of what's around you I guess," Webb said. "She was sitting in the car with the engine running because it was hot, and I was just running in to get something, and bingo!"
A New Hampshire firefighter has died while battling a brush fire in Lyme.

Officials said Charles Waterbury suffered a medical emergency when he was battling the fire on Sunday. Waterbury, a 10-year veteran of the Oxford Fire Department, was treated at the scene then transported at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center where he was pronounced dead.

The New Hampshire Chief Medical Examiner's Office said that an autopsy determined the cause of Waterbury's death was natural causes due to heart disease.

Waterbury leaves behind a daughter, grandchild, parents, and two siblings.

His funeral has been schedule for Saturday, July 30 at 11 a.m. in Oxford.
Authorities in Maine are searching for the driver behind a hit-and-run that pushed an empty, parked car into a river in Alfred.

State police say a trooper responded to the scene on Swetts Bridge Road just before 6 p.m. Tuesday.

The owner of the car that was in the river told police that a large, black SUV struck his parked car, pushing it into the river, and then left the scene.

Police say there should be damage to the front of the SUV, and anyone with information is asked to call 207-657-3030 for Trooper Benjamin Smith of Troop A.
A standoff at a strip mall in Mashpee, Massachusetts, ended peacefully on Wednesday evening, police say.

A SWAT team had been at the scene of what police were calling an "ongoing situation" for hours.

Just after 12 p.m., officers responded to Audio Video Solutions Incorporated at the strip mall on Route 28 for a well-being check for a despondent man.

Police said the man had barricaded himself inside the store with numerous weapons, including high-powered rifles.

The SWAT team and crisis negotiators were brought in to assist.

Police said at one point, the 41-year-old Falmouth man fire a round inside the store. He allegedly told police that he was armed with an AR-15 rifle with more than 1,000 rounds of ammunition.

At about 7:30 p.m., negotiators were able to convince the man to surrender peacefully. He was taken into custody without further incident and transported to Falmouth Hospital for a psychological evaluation.
In the second of four New Hampshire primary debates sponsored by necn, the four Republican gubernatorial candidates met face to face on Wednesday for what turned out to be a contentious debate.

They debated issues from infrastructure, to Planned Parenthood, and the state economy.

State Representative Frank Edelblut said as a businessman and father of seven, his biggest advantage in this race is that he's not a career politician.

"I'm a problem solving business guy and that's why you should vote for me," Edelblut said after the hour-long debate.

Ted Gatsas said as the Mayor of the state's largest city, his experience makes him the best choice for the corner office.

"I have the leadership and the trust and the experience to be governor in this state," Gatsas told necn. "I will bring things to Concord and get things done."

But Executive Councilor and CEO of Waterville Valley Resort Chris Sununu said he's got the experience that matters.

"I'm the only candidate that brings real experience into the corner office and can create policies as a stakeholder," Sununu said. "That's what people want, a governor that actually lives by the rules of everyone else."

Senator Jeanie Forrester said what New Hampshire needs is true conservative change and she promises to see that through.

"Pro-life, pro Second Amendment, limited government, personal responsibility," Forrester said. "I am a tested, true conservative that we need in the corner office."

A hot topic that divided the four candidates was the decriminalization of small amounts of recreational marijuana. Gatsas and Forrester said they strictly oppose it, while Edelblut and Sununu said they'd support the idea.

When it came to questions about supporting their party's presidential nominee, WGIR host Jack Heath forced direct answers from all the candidates.

"Let me go around one more time," Heath said after candidates deflected the first question. "Senator Forrester do you endorse Donald Trump?"

All four eventually said they would, in fact, endorse Trump for President of the United States.

In two weeks, the democratic gubernatorial candidates will fill the seats at the WGIR studio in Manchester.

You can catch that debate on necn August 10.
Churches welcome Norfolk decision on refugees



Councillors voted overwhelmingly to accept Syrian refugees to Norfolk at a meeting on July 25, after much pressure and lobbing from local people.

Norfolks councils pledged last year to resettle 50 refugees fleeing the war in Syria. However this promise had not been progressed months later, due to lack of organisation and release of funding from central government.On Monday July 25 the decision to finally accept the refugees was agreed at a meeting at Norfolk County Council with the vote carried by 64 votes to six with one abstention.The scheme is part of the five year government initiative to accept up to 20,000 Syrian refugees nationally from camps in Syria. Survivors of torture and violence, women and children at risk and those in medical need are given priority.Local church members and leaders have lobbied local councils for months to act on the promises they made for Norfolk to be a sanctuary for a small number of Syrian refugees. Public marches and meetings have been held and members of the Christian community are able to prepare for the refugees arrival.said: "I am glad to learn that Norfolk will welcome some Syrian refugees. Those who have known persecution and been displaced from their homes and countries have found a haven in Norfolk in past times. It is good that this tradition continues. I am sure many local people will do what they can to support the Syrian families when they arrive."The Bishop of Norwichs fund has received several thousands of pounds in donations already to assist the cost of housing and supporting the refugees.Churches and other faith groups and voluntary organisations have shown a united front in favour of welcoming the Syrians and in their desire to offer support as they settle into Norfolk.
Yes, Belgium. Every time you read a story or visit a website devoted to worldwide IPv6 adoption rates, sitting atop the list of highest achievers is Belgium, otherwise better known for chocolate, waffles, beer and diamonds. Google, for example, has worldwide IPv6 adoption at about 12%, Belgium leading at 45%.

For an explanation I turned to Eric Vyncke, co-chair of Belgiums IPv6 Council. I emailed him a half-dozen questions about technology and culture and such that essentially could have been boiled down to one: Why Belgium? Here is his reply:

Regarding the success of Belgium, I am also a little unsure (as to) THE reason for being number one, I see a couple (without any priority order): A small and dense country -- 11 million people -- and the longest distance is only about 150 miles. So, usually the broadband (cable or xDSL) is everywhere.

Except for the 'incumbent' ISP (Proximus ex-Belgacom, mainly xDSL), the other ones (mainly cable) were running short of IPv4 addresses.

There is a 'secret' (memorandum of understanding) between the ISP Association, cyber police, regulators, minister of economic affairs (one ISP contract must be comparable with others) to limit the sharing of 1 IPv4 address to a maximum of 16 subscribers; this put a big constraint on NAT/CGN.

The culture in Belgium is also a mix of German and Latin culture, this means that we usually can see the long term and that we do not care too much about processes.

The 3 major ISPs met during the IPv6 Council meetings and began to share experience and roadmap => nothing beats emulation :-).

And all members of the IPv6 Council are in the same generation (between 35-55), with supportive management, and ready to take risk and push the 'message' to others.

Finally, I asked Vyncke if there is any recognition of Belgiums lofty IPv6 status among the countrys general population.

Besides technical people, nearly nobody in Belgium knows that we are number 1 for now (because the mobile ISPs are very, very late).

That should change. Be proud, Belgians. Be proud.
Readers relishing Cao Wenxuan's latest novel

From:chinadaily.com.cn | 2016-07-27 10:19

Chinese author Cao Wenxuan recently releases his new novel, The Eye of the Dragonfly. Photos provided to China Daily

Oceane, a French girl, met Du Meixi, a Chinese sailor, at a cafe in Marseilles in 1925 and followed him to Shanghai to inherit his family's silk business nearly 15 years later.

But as war and hunger invaded their lives, the couple tried to deal with the situation with as much dignity as possible, finally departing during the "cultural revolution" (1966-76).

This is from The Eye of the Dragonfly, a novel by Cao Wenxuan, who is the first winner of the Hans Christian Andersen Award from China. The novel debuted in People's Literature magazine in June and was published more recently as an individual book by Phoenix Juvenile and Children's Publishing.

The story has been in the author's mind for long.

The market reacted zealously to Cao's new work. More than 600 copies of the magazine signed by the author were booked within a month, editors from People's Literature say.

"I'm a bit overwhelmed with the many interviews and events since returning from Bologna (the Italian city where the international award for children's literature was announced), but I'm trying to fulfill some of the appointments I made before that trip," Cao says.

Oceane's granddaughter A Mei is featured as the main character in the novel. To her, granny is a "typical Shanghai-style elegant elderly lady who speaks and even bargains in the local dialect, but once she smiles, she returns to being a French lady".

"Cao's work shows that children's perspectives are not shallow, and that they experience the same cruelty, fear and depth of life as us (adults)," says Eric Abrahamsen, editor of Pathlight, the magazine's English version.

The story, spanning some 40 years, begins in the French port city and moves to Shanghai, where it is largely set, and later to Yibin, a riverside town along the Yangtze River in Southwest China's Sichuan province.

The book cover of The Eye of the Dragonfly.

Cao looks at the historical turmoil and its influences with his signature language - peaceful, melancholy and beautiful.

"Cao has created many 'Chinese stories'. This time, the Chinese story is about an expat French lady and her homesickness, which is refreshing," says Xu Zechen, a writer and editor at People's Literature.

The eyes of the dragonfly are two antique glass beads that are passed down from A Mei's ancestors. Her granny loses them, regains them and leaves them to A Mei before she commits suicide. Before that, the grandfather takes A Mei to seek a bottle of perfume for Oceane, and is accused of spying and gets beaten. The tragedies weave a powerful narrative.

"My own childhood was filled with miseries and memories of hunger, so I hope to provide young readers an understanding of how to treat miseries," says Cao. "Many hardships the country has gone through are where its power and fortune lie. Smart writers should know how to utilize the resources."

Although Cao has tried many themes, morality, the appreciation of beauty and compassion have remained the three main areas of his writing. His works are recommended in Chinese schools for the use of language.

Late last month, the Cao Wenxuan Literature and Art Center under the China Publishing Corp held a seminar to explore the IP potential of his works, intending to create TV, film, game and even stage adaptations of his works, and to seek more opportunities of international cooperation. Cao's work Bronze and Sunflower is to be turned into a stage play, while The Iron Mark is to be adapted into an animation film.

Cao says he's focusing on finishing a novel as a gift to himself for the Andersen Award that he will receive in New Zealand in August.

The new novel's story is based on rural children whose parents are pursuing jobs away from home. Government figures suggest there are more than 60 million "left-behind" children in China.

Cao's upcoming book tells of a young boy's adventures along with his younger sister, a goose and a sheep as they look for their missing grandma who suffers from Alzheimer's disease.
Looking east

From:chinadaily.com.cn | 2016-07-27 10:20

Gideon Rachman says that because of its sheer size, it is China that began to shift the whole axis of the global economy. NICK J.B. More / For China Daily

British scribe Gideon Rachman writes a new book to tell the West about the shift in the balance of power, Andrew Moody reports.

Gideon Rachman believes the balance of world power is now inexorably tilting eastward.

In his new book, Easternisation, to be published in August, the journalist argues this could be a pivotal point in history.

This rise in Asia started with Japan and South Korea and then moved to South East Asia but the real transformative event was when China joined the process of rapid industrialization, he says.

"Because of its sheer size China began to shift the whole axis of the global economy," Rachman, who has been chief foreign affairs commentator for the Financial Times for the past decade, tells China Daily in his office in London.

The Asian domination is an almost inevitable trend and would have happened much quicker if it hadn't been for the 20th-century rise of the United States, he believes.

Rachman, 53, felt the need to write the book because many in the West still do not acknowledge the shift in the global balance.

"There is an element of denial in the West about what is happening. I actually get two different reactions to the book though. The first is that there is nothing new in a sort of "rise of Asia book" since people have been going on about it for 20 years. The second acknowledges the trend but says it is all a bit of an exaggeration," he says.

The author says during the writing of the book his own perspective also changed.

The new book examines the rise of Asia.

"I started with a relatively crude view that there would be some sort of transfer of power to Asia. Although in broad terms that remains true, there were a couple of things that made me qualify that picture a bit.

"Firstly, there is no East in the way that there is a West. If you talk about the West, there is a Western alliance called NATO that links the Europeans and the Americans. Asia, on the other hand, is actually very divided."

One of the questions Rachman addresses in the book is why the West ever became dominant in the first place when China at the height of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) seemed unassailable.

"As the Chinese will always remind you, China was the world's largest economy and the dominant civilization. If you look at the big-civilization histories, there was a period when it was not at all obvious that Europe was going to be the dominant culture," he says.

"You had a very flourishing Islamic culture as well as a dominant Chinese empire. It is really only with the European imperial age, which emerges for complicated reasons but largely because of a technological and war-fighting edge as well as the ability to develop markets that got them ahead," he adds.

Rachman, who recently was awarded this year's Orwell Prize for journalism, dates the beginning of Western dominance to the end of the 15th century with the arrival of Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama in Asia. But the domination began to drain away after the end of World War I because of the weakening of Europe and the rise of the US.

Rachman was born and brought up in London but his parents were South African of Polish and Lithuanian-Jewish descent.

After studying history at Cambridge, Rachman joined the BBC World Service before going off to freelance in the US. He joined The Economist in 1990, where he had various roles, including spells in Bangkok and Brussels. He moved to FT in 2006, where he now has a roving global brief.

Easternisation is Rachman's first book after his Zero-Sum World was published six years ago. It also partly examined whether in the wake of the financial crisis, the West had become vulnerable to a rising Asia.

It is likely to prove timely with the renewed focus on the South China Sea. US President Barack Obama has already made clear where his country's foreign policy priorities lie.

"It doesn't make sense for America to spend 90 percent of its time worrying about the Arab world or even Europe now. The 21st century is clearly going to be in economic and, increasingly, in geopolitical terms about Asia and America," says the author.

Rachman believes that despite those who argue otherwise, the rise of China is now a permanent geopolitical feature.

"You get these recurring debates in the West, where you hear people saying, "Well, surely this is not going to go on forever and the whole thing will blow over." It is clearly not going to be the case. You have only got to look at the development of the West which went through periods of massive turbulence. Just look at the American Civil war and the military defeats of Japan and Germany (after World War II)," he says.

"China has somehow figured out how to do industrial development and achieve rapid economic growth and that doesn't necessarily disappear."
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.
Champaign County Sheriff's Chief Deputy Allen Jones holds a press conference to discuss shots fired at Champaign County Sheriff's deputies during the early hours of Tuesday in Urbana. The conference was held at the Champaign County sheriff's office in Urbana on Tuesday, July 26, 2016.
Our County Editor

Dave Hinton is editor of The News-Gazette's Our County section and former editor of the Rantoul Press. He can be reached at dhinton@news-gazette.com.
Stunning performance brings Genghis Khan to life

From:chinadaily.com.cn | 2016-07-27 10:20

The equestrian show Forever Genghis Khan, staged by performers from Mongolia in a natural setting, tells the story of the king's rise. Provided to China Daily

Some 800 years ago, Genghis Khan united most of the Mongolian tribes with his then invincible cavalry.

Nowadays, Forever Genghis Khan, an equestrian show in a natural setting, is performed by some 50 horsemen from Mongolia.

The show is staged at the Shenquan ecological tourist site in Togtoh county, about 90 kilometers southwest of Hohhot, the capital of the Inner Mongolia autonomous region.

Amid the neighing of horses, the clanging of swords and axes and the yelling of soldiers, the 50-minute performance, which comprises six acts, tells the story of the rise of Genghis Khan.

The show opens with the childhood friendship between Temujin, later acknowledged as Genghis Khan, and his chief rival Jamukha. The boys play together, and both dream of becoming the ruler of the Mongolian steppe.

When the two boys grow up, they both become the leaders of their tribes. When Temujin's wife is kidnapped by an enemy, Jamukha helps Temujin.

But the friendship between the two young men starts to break when Temujin is chosen to become the Khan, and battles ensue.

During a key battle, Jamukha is betrayed by his followers, and is captured by Temujin.

[Photo Provided to China Daily]

Although Temujin offers to renew his friendship with Jamukha, the latter asks for death, saying there is room for only one sun in the sky, and one lord for Mongolia.

"We performed the show in Jeju island in South Korea from 2008 to 2012," says Uurtsaikh, 39, who is the head of the equestrian team Khaadiin Khaan, which means king of kings.

Together with other Mongolian horsemen, Uurtsaikh and his team performed for Chinese President Xi Jinping, during his state visit to Mongolia in 2014, and received high praise from Xi.

The following July, Uurtsaikh's team was invited to perform in Hohhot.

Chen Jun, the manager of the Shenquan ecological park, then watched the performance and was also impressed by the team's equine prowess.

After negotiations, Chen introduced the performance to the park.

"The show promotes a cultural exchange between China and Mongolia," says Chen. "And we are trying to find more opportunities for the show."

[Photo Provided to China Daily]

In order to showcase authentic Mongolian culture, all the props and costumes are from Mongolia.

However, the horses used in the performance are from Inner Mongolia, so the riders had to spend weeks to get familiar with the animals before the show was launched in China.

"The most important thing about the performance is that the man and the horse should be one," says Uurtsaikh.

Though the performers are between 17 and 27 years old, some of them have more than 10 years experience of horseback acrobatics.

The show is performed twice daily between May to October.

Meanwhile, Chen and Uurtsaikh hope to take the performance to the southern provinces of China.

As for other plans, Uurtsaikh says: "We will put on a new show this September, featuring the historic Battle of the Thirteen Sides between Temujin and Jamukha."

In that battle, Temujin and Jamukha organize their troops and allies into 13 groups.

Speaking of the crowd response to the show, Uurtsaikh says: "In South Korea, Mongolia and China, the audiences are different, but the response of applause is the same. "And that's what encourages us the most."
Columnist

Tom Kacich is a columnist and the author of Tom's Mailbag at The News-Gazette. His column appears Sundays. His email is tkacich@news-gazette.com, and you can follow him on Twitter (@tkacich).
One of Editor & Publishers 10 That Do It Right 2021
Despite societal perceptions that older adults' love lives are ancient history, many seniors are anything but retired from sex, a new study suggests.

Many seniors consider sexual activity essential to their well-being, happiness and quality of life. And some of these vivacious seniors are finding their golden years to be an optimal time for exploring new dimensions of their sexuality, said researcher Liza Berdychevsky, a professor of recreation, sport and tourism at the University of Illinois.

Berdychevsky and co-author Galit Nimrod of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel, examined the importance of and constraints on sexuality in older adulthood - as well as people's strategies for staying sexually active throughout their later years. The researchers analyzed a full year of conversations about sex that occurred on 14 leading online communities that target people age 50 and over. The study sample included English-speaking websites based in Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom and the U.S.

Older adults' discussions of their experiences and perspectives about sexual matters were wide-ranging and diverse. While some seniors were content with retiring from sex, many others emphasized that they "remained sexually able, interested and active," the researchers found.

"Although some older adults reported abstaining from sexual activity due to health conditions or loss of interest, others refused to renounce sexual activity. Their health problems or society's ageist stereotypes that portray seniors as asexual were not going to become excuses to give up on life - or sex," Berdychevsky said.

A sense of impending mortality inspired some older adults to cast aside sexual inhibitions or stereotypes that constrained their behavior when they were younger and to begin exploring new activities or aspects of their sexuality, according to the study.

Rather than diminishing with age, some seniors' libidos caught fire and sexual activity took on greater importance with their abundance of leisure time in later life. For these seniors, their sexual explorations affirmed their ongoing engagement with life and continuing personal growth, Berdychevsky said.

While people may have greater opportunity and perceived freedom to explore their sexuality later in life and might benefit the most from it, they also are confronted with numerous cultural, social, psychological and biological constraints, Berdychevsky said.

"But not everybody perceived these constraints as verdicts. Many seniors were willing to negotiate these constraints, resist them and find various cognitive and behavioral strategies to continue having sex," Berdychevsky said.

Ageist stereotypes that older adults are - or should be - asexual frequently encroached on seniors' sex lives. In the online forums, some seniors recounted incidents of health care workers dismissing their concerns about their sexual health or functioning. Likewise, some seniors reported that their lifestyles elicited disapproval from their adult children or staff members in their living facilities, Berdychevsky said.

How to continue enjoying one's sexuality after the loss of a spouse or partner and the risks associated with dating and sexual relationships in later life were popular discussion topics. While some seniors swapped advice about finding new partners and trying new sexual activities such as sex toys, less progressive older adults wrote that embarrassment and fear of social stigma prevented them from trying these activities.

Although health conditions sometimes constrained older adults' physical abilities, their willingness to reappraise and adapt their sexual activities - rather than surrender to their physical limitations - determined whether they continued to enjoy fulfilling sex lives, the researchers concluded in the paper, published in the journal Leisure Sciences.

Learning to appreciate what they had - whether it was enjoying foreplay in lieu of intercourse, focusing on quality instead of quantity, or finding mental richness and life experience as arousing as a youthful physique - enabled some older adults to adjust their sexual expectations to the realities of aging and their health conditions, Berdychevsky said.

Like other leisure pursuits, sexual activity served as an important adjustment strategy, helping some seniors cope with life transitions such as ending their careers and moving into retirement communities or health care facilities, the researchers wrote.

Other seniors, however, indicated they were happy to forgo sex, the researchers found. Youth-oriented depictions of "positive" or "successful" aging that implied ongoing sexual activity, which are used frequently in marketing sex-enhancement products, were distressing to these seniors and perceived as sensationalistic.

"These stereotypes caused performance anxiety in some older men, and some older women believed that both partners should have a say in whether sex enhancement drugs are prescribed," Berdychevsky said.

Sexual education programming that addresses the variety of physical and psychosocial risks that sexually active older adults face is much needed, according to the researchers. Likewise, health care providers and residential facility staff members must be encouraged to shed ageist stereotypes about older adults' sexuality, respect their rights to privacy and sexual activity, and be sensitive to their concerns.
Currently, there is no effective method to predict the prognosis of chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients. Tomonori Kimura and Yoshitaka Isaka, researchers in Department of Nephrology, Osaka University, found that measuring D-amino acids, which present only trace in human, provides prognostic information of CKD. The present discovery would facilitate CKD treatment and thus improve the prognosis of CKD, and may also lead to the further discovery of novel therapy. The potential application is not limited to kidney diseases: the disease context ranges to life style-related diseases such as diabetes mellitus and hypertension, as well as lethal diseases including cardiovascular diseases.

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a critical health problem. CKD patients are highly-prevalent throughout the world, and the number of end-stage kidney disease (ESKD) patients, who need to receive cost-prohibitive kidney replacement therapy, is increasing year by year. Additionally, the risk of cardiovascular diseases and death increases with the progression of CKD stages. In Japan, the number of ESKD patients receiving kidney replacement therapy is over 320,000, including 30,000 patients who start it every year. Moreover, it was estimated that about 10% of Japanese population have CKD. Thus, it is critical to prevent CKD patients from the progression to ESKD, however, there is no effective methods to predict the progression of CKD.

On the other hand, D-amino acids, the enantiomers of L-amino acids, are increasingly recognized as potential biomarkers in several diseases. Although the amounts of D-amino acids are usually very trace in human and their existence have been overlooked, recent technological advancement enables us to measure D-amino acids simultaneously with high sensitivity at fentomole levels. The research group from Osaka and Kyushu University searched for prognostic biomarkers of CKD through a chiral amino acid metabolic profiling.

The research group measured D-amino acids in blood from CKD patients by applying micro-two-dimensional HPLC (2D-HPLC) system developed by Kenji Hamase, Department of Pharmaceutical Science, Kyushu University, and followed their prognoses. 16 out of 21 D-amino acids were detected in blood from CKD patients. Further analyses revealed that D-Serine and D-Asparagine were associated with the progression of CKD; the risk of progression to ESKD was elevated from 2- to 4- fold in those with higher levels of those D-amino acids.

The results of present study will provide the novel method to the clinician which can identify CKD patients at high-risk for progression to ESKD. The information of D-amino acids would enable to select the best treatment for individual person, as well as the discovery of novel therapy. This method is also applicable to such diseases as life style-associated diseases (diabetes mellitus and hypertension) and cardiovascular diseases, as the prognoses of these diseases are strongly influenced by CKD progression.
NUS study uncovers novel genetic alterations contributing to development of leukemia

Findings from the international study involving about 220 newly diagnosed and relapse patient samples pave the way for development of new therapies

A study led by a team of scientists from the Cancer Science Institute of Singapore (CSI Singapore) at the National University of Singapore (NUS) has identified new genetic alterations contributing to the onset of Acute Promyelocytic Leukemia (APL). APL is a subtype of Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML), where there is an abnormal accumulation of immature white blood cells called promyelocytes.

The team, led by Prof H. Phillip Koeffler, Senior Principal Investigator at CSI Singapore, conducted a study to uncover the mutational landscape of APL, both at primary disease and post-therapy relapse. This study, an international collaboration and also the largest of its kind to date, involved about 220 patient samples from newly-diagnosed and relapse APL cases from countries such as Singapore, Germany, India, United States, and Taiwan.

The findings of the study, first published online in the journal Leukemia in April 2016, will pave the way for improved diagnosis and treatment of APL.

Mutations in new and relapse APL cases

Dr Vikas Madan, Research Scientist at CSI Singapore and first author of the study said, "Patients generally respond well to all-trans retinoic acid (ATRA) and arsenic trioxide (ATO) therapy, which is the preferred mode of treatment for APL. However, a considerable proportion of patients either do not respond to standard therapies or relapse following treatment. While chromosomal alteration leading to fusion of PML and RARA genes is a well-known genetic event in APL, studies have also suggested that other genetic abnormalities, together with PML-RARA oncogene, also contribute to development of APL. Hence, uncovering the complete molecular profile of the disease will be valuable."

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Currently, most genomic studies on AML only focused on new cases, and few studies have been conducted on APL. The team's study comprised both newly-diagnosed and relapse APL cases to identify driver mutations which arise in post-therapy relapse in order to gain a better understanding of the disease progression.

The team identified several secondary genetic mutations in new APL cases, including novel mutations identified in APL. Specifically, the team's study showed mutations in genes ARID1A and ARID1B, which are members of a chromatin remodelling complex, for the first time. The mutations of these closely related members indicate dysregulation of epigenetic machinery in APL and these novel mutations provide a subset of previously uncharacterised genes in leukemogenesis.

In relapse cases, the team also discovered a different set of gene alterations which were not observed in newly diagnosed cases. Most prominently, mutation of genes RARA and PML were found to be exclusive to relapse cases. Strikingly, the study also showed that these alterations were largely acquired in two distinct patient groups, those treated at initial diagnosis with ATRA and ATO-based therapy, respectively.

"Our comprehensive study on the mutational landscape in a large cohort of primary and relapse APL cases has enabled us to establish the molecular roadmap for APL, which is distinct from other subtypes of AML. With an enhanced knowledge of the disease biology, we will be conducting further research to uncover the consequences of the novel mutations discovered, with an eventual goal of developing improved and targeted therapeutics," said Prof Koeffler.
Prof. Stephen Holgate THOUGHT LEADERS SERIES ...insight from the worlds leading experts

How many people are thought to be living with lung disease and why are many people unaware of their poor lung health?

In our latest report  The Battle for Breath  the impact of lung disease in the UK, figures suggest that 1 in 5 (around 12.7 million) have been diagnosed with a lung condition in the UK. If youre over the age of 70, this rises to 1 in 3.

 British Lung Foundation

Poor lung health can sometimes come on gradually and people adjust their life around it. For example, a key sign of lung disease is increasing breathlessness. Anecdotal evidence suggests that people tend to modify their behavior and adjust to their breathlessness rather than getting medical advice. They may stop doing something they normally do and just accept the breathlessness as normal.

Breathlessness is different to pain for example where people usually do seek help. Breathlessness is a symptom that normally only comes on with exertion, so people sometimes start doing less instead of seeking advice.

The point is people dont know when theyve crossed the line between whats normal and whats abnormal. The British Lung Foundations questionnaire enables people to determine this through a small number of questions.

 British Lung Foundation

Can you please outline the online breath test the British Lung Foundation are running to raise awareness of lung health. How does the test work?

Listen to your lungs is the BLFs public health campaign to find the millions of people who are living with undiagnosed lung disease. The campaign will encourage people not to ignore feeling breathless doing everyday tasks and to take a simple online breath test to see if they might need to see a GP.

People are asked to answer ten questions based around the Medical Research Council breathlessness scale. This test will support the campaign by helping people decide if they need to see a GP. The aim is to reassure people who don't have a problem and guide those with significant breathlessness to make an appointment with their GP. To take the breath test visit: www.blf.org.uk/breathtest

Listen to your lungs supports the launch of Public Health Englands national Be Clear on Cancer campaign on 14 July, raising awareness of persistent cough and inappropriate breathlessness as possible symptoms of lung disease, including lung cancer, and heart disease.

 British Lung Foundation

Where can people access the test and what feedback does it give?

The breath test is online here: www.blf.org.uk/breathtest

The test provides an overview of a persons general health and wellbeing. If a person scores 1 or above they are advised to visit their GP and given some pointers in helping to improve their health, for example taking more exercise, giving up smoking and losing weight.

Why was the test recently launched at the House of Commons?

This launch forms the basis of our parliamentary campaign to increase awareness of lung disease in the UK among our policy and public officials. We launched with support from the Public Health for England Minister, Jane Ellison MP, the Chair of All Party Parliamentary on Respiratory health, Stephen McPartland.

 British Lung Foundation

What impact do you hope the test will have?

We hope to have at least 100,000 people taking the test and following the advice to improve their lung health. This may increase the number of people diagnosed with lung conditions and provides a prevention and early diagnosis focus.

Who should take the test?

Anyone who feels breathless doing everyday tasks. Lung disease does not discriminate and could develop in any age, socio-economic group and race.

A child can have asthma for example, they may get breathless and wake up at night or when they exercise. Cancer, emphysema, pulmonary fibrosis, bronchiectasis, pulmonary hypertension are among many other lung conditions which may present as breathlessness.

 British Lung Foundation

Getting people to the GP in the first instance is crucial. It is also important to raise awareness amongst healthcare professionals too to make sure that when people raise concerns about breathlessness, they investigate further for an underlying lung disease.

Have healthcare professionals been informed about the test?

Yes, the British Lung Foundation have sent breathlessness packs to every GP practice in the UK. Well also be working with healthcare professional organizations later in the year to help raise awareness.

 British Lung Foundation

What signs of lung disease should people be concerned about?

There are many signs of lung disease, the main ones are breathlessness and cough that lasts over 3 weeks and doesnt improve after medication or significant breathlessness doing everyday tasks.

How can people know whats normal versus abnormal?

Its abnormal when people experience breathlessness on doing normal daily activities. Each person has their own normal daily routine.

Instead of cutting back their activity due to the breathlessness they should visit their doctor.

How can people differentiate between declining lung function from normal aging and lung disease?

Declining lung function due to ageing happens very gradually to us all over many years. In this Campaign of increasing awareness, were talking about changes that can happen gradually but more severely or much more quickly over weeks or months for example.

 British Lung Foundation

Should an individual visit their GP if they experience breathlessness when carrying out a normal, everyday activity?

That depends on how active they are. We would advise them to take the breath test first, it will tell them if they need to be worried or make an appointment with their GP.

Where can readers find more information on the online lung test and lung health?

Visit: www.blf.org.uk details of the campaign and our statistic on lung health are available to view.

Can you please outline how youre working with Public Health England?

Public Health England want to increase the diagnosis of lung disease as well so they are launching their own initiative on breathlessness, which includes breathlessness as a potential symptom of lung and heart disease as well as cancer. It is rare that breathlessness is a sole symptom of lung cancer; other symptoms include cough and weight loss.

 British Lung Foundation

Where can readers find more information?

Visit our website: www.blf.org.uk

The British Lung Foundation also have a helpline: 03000 030 555

Well also be providing details on our social media pages through Facebook and Twitter.

About Professor Stephen Holgate

Professor Stephen Holgate is Medical Research Council (MRC) Clinical Professor of Immunopharmacology at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Southampton, UK.

Stephen spent two years at Harvard Medical School to acquire skills in allergic disease mechanisms. On returning to Southampton, Stephen set up a research group focused on the mechanisms of asthma.

He is a past president of the British Society of Allergy and Clinical Immunology and British Thoracic Society.
Two studies involving University of Waterloo researchers presented this week at the 2016 Alzheimer's Association International Conference (AAIC) in Toronto highlight a new diagnostic tool that can identify Alzheimer's disease long before the onset of symptoms as well as the increasing prevalence of Alzheimer's disease in Ontario.

Window to the brain

Alzheimer's disease is notoriously difficult to diagnose and nearly impossible to catch early. This could soon change with a new type of non-invasive eye scan developed and patented by Professor Melanie Campbell. It uses polarized light to highlight deposits called amyloid proteins found at the back of patients' retinas decades before they experience cognitive decline.

"Polarization imaging is promising for noninvasive imaging of retinal amyloid deposits as a biomarker of Alzheimer's," said Campbell, from Waterloo's Department of Physics and Astronomy. "The ability to detect amyloid deposits in the retina prior to disease symptoms may be an essential tool for the development of preventative strategies for Alzheimer's and other dementias."

In order to diagnose Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia, doctors currently rely on either a combination of late-stage symptoms and expensive positron emission tomography (PET) brain scans or tests on the brain after death. The new method would give a less expensive, more available alternative to PET.

Campbell's research, in collaboration with colleagues at the University of Waterloo, UBC, Vivocore Inc, InterVivo Solutions, and the University of Rochester and Massachusetts General Hospital, establishes her diagnostic method's proof of concept in both human and an animal model. She shows polarized light scans are as sensitive as other more established methods and can be done cost-effectively without using irritating dyes, making it potentially useful as an in-office screening tool.

"Amyloid proteins are made up of protein fibres with different refractive indices along and across the fibres," said Campbell, also a professor in the School of Optometry and Vision Science. "They light up the same way as when scotch tape is placed between two polarizing filters. While other researchers thought that a dye was needed to make the protein visible, we were able to achieve the same results using optics and additional computer processing."

Amyloid beta protein deposits in the brain have been proven to be present in patients decades before they experience symptoms of the disease. Although the reasons this protein appears are still being debated, the fact that it also deposits in the retina, an extension of the brain, means these deposits can be used as a biomarker for diagnosing Alzheimer's disease long before symptoms appear.

"Early diagnosis is important, especially since treatment options are more limited later in the disease," said Campbell. "Widely available, inexpensive, early detection of amyloid would help researchers develop more effective treatments before the onset of symptoms."

The Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada funded Campbell's research. She has just received more than $800,000 in funding through a Collaborative Health Research Projects grant to build prototype instruments and start clinical testing soon on patients in collaboration with researchers at UBC Hospital, the Lawson Health Research Institute in London, Ontario and Institut Universitaire de Geriatrie de Montreal.

Campbell is the director of the Guelph-Waterloo Physics Institute as well as a member of the Waterloo Institute of Nanotechnology and the Centre for Bioengineering and Biotechnology.

Increased prevalence of Alzheimer's

According to a report co-authored by Professor Colleen Maxwell of Waterloo's School of Pharmacy, also presented at AAIC, the prevalence of Alzheimer's and other dementias rose more than 18 per cent in patients over 65 across Ontario over eight years, from 2004/05 to 2012/13. The study, which tracked prevalence, incidence and costs of dementias through Ontario health administrative data, was a collaborative effort with colleagues at the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES), the Ontario Brain Institute and the University of Toronto.

"The increasing prevalence in Alzheimer's disease and other dementias is not unique or surprising," said Maxwell, also a professor in the School of Public Health and Health Systems at Waterloo. "The overall population is aging. This, along with greater awareness and earlier detection of dementia and improvements in the care of persons with dementia, may account for the increase in prevalence."

The team hopes to expand their study to explore ongoing trends in prevalence and incidence and to include other important data sources including information on patients' quality of life and other health care use and costs.
News18  Blogs  India

Why Are Kashmiris so Ungrateful?

Kashmiri protesters throw stones at security forces. (Image for representation only. Picture courtesy: Getty images)

Paradise lost was the first book I read in college when I came to Delhi from Kashmir, it was almost 9 years ago.



Milton meant so much when he wrote it but Kashmiris understand the title all too well, to them it means the loss of home, the loss of dignity and the loss of basic human rights. Why are Kashmiris so ungrateful? Is a question that is asked way too many times! Lets leave aside all emotions and pseudo nationalistic sentiments.



Lets just dwell on facts, Kashmir was promised a plebiscite but that never happened, Kashmir is tagged as integral part of India but its thought of as an unmanned land .What is again factually correct is that Kashmiris make Kashmir, those who say that people who have a problem with India should go to Pakistan make no sense.



Why would anybody leave their home? Dignity, safety and right to decide for themselves is what they want in their home.



Lets talk about why Asif is so ungrateful, he even goes to the extent to saying that he will pick an AK-47!A terrorist in the making for sure, someone we should all dread, hate and even pray for his execution.



After all he is anti-national and so vocal in his threats but you see Asif is just 8 years old. Asif, this 8 year old Asif was walking with his friend when he felt like something hit him.



Remember Asif is just a child, a child who was too scared to look at what hit him, an 8 year old boy who covered his face with his hands only to find them drenched in blood, his blood.



Imagine his horror when he could not open one of his eyes or maybe he could, it didnt matter he couldnt see from it any more. When this young boy cries in pain and cannot move his left shoulder does it still seem so strange that he would want to carry an AK47 on his shoulder and avenge this pain .Its the most natural instinct, no one taught him to be ungrateful or have violent thoughts.



When the TRP driven TV channels talk about the "traitors" who are out on the streets protesting against their motherland, the loss of their lives seems so obvious and even a little deserving, doesnt it? So 14 year old Insha who has a hundred pellet marks over her face and whose right eye came out and has zero chances of recovery in left eye, kind of deserved it.



She shouldnt have been out in the first place, at this point it doesnt even matter if she was one of the protesters or someone who had just stepped out. What if i tell you Insha had not even steeped out that she was inside her house on the first floor,when security forces opened fire inside their home and she fell on the ground.



Doesn't that make Insha's only crime being a kashmiri? She lost her vision, her face and neck are like a wire mesh full of holes, she doesn't have much to be grateful for does she?



Self-proclaimed Nationalistic and patriotic channels have made 50 deaths and 100 blind people and 3500 injured seem so worthless, like they were bound to die and got what they deserved.



Shouldnt the lives of people of the integral part of India be deemed important? Shouldnt they have the right to protest? The whole country came out to protest for Nirbhaya, as it should have but why were people protesting for the brutal rape and murder of Asiya and Nelofar shot at?



Shooting at protesters is taken for granted especially since the "non -lethal" pellet guns that have been lethal to hundreds were recognized as an ideal way to curb protests.



No other protester is dealt the way that even a Kashmiri by stander is dealt with or even a Kashmiri child looking out form his window is dealt with.



Nobody cares about the real story, nobody asks why they are so against a country that holds pride in calling the state its crown but everybody has an opinion about it.



Facts dont matter, lives dont matter, its about pride, ego and of course about how sections of the media and even the officials make it about an ego tussle with Pakistan.



This tussle is all that people care about the cries of Kashmirs fades away and gets lost in the cross border blame games and accusations.



The race for TRP and its consequences are repeated so often now that the real implications seem to be lost. Yes we know that dramatization and yelling gets you attention and add slogans of patriotism to it and you are a star.



Unfortunately a star people many a times end up listening to, the distorted truths and yelling cause so much harm to the morale and sentiments of people who start believing that these self-proclaimed reformists are somehow the representatives of people across the country.



Which makes them believe that all these people think that Kashmiris have no gratitude and deserve to die.



What the nation really wants to know and should know is the truth, both sides of the story. Thats the most basic fundamental of journalism isnt it? Irresponsible sloganeering of patriotism can be dangerous, the splendid pro India and anti-protests interview by a new channel in Gurez Kashmir, is an example of that.



In this interview an old man went on and on about how happy he is with India and that nobody in Gurez has anything to do with the protests. As soon as the interview was out the streets of Gurez echoed with the same slogans that were being heard in Srinagar.



Which means that the race for TRP led to protests in a place that had till now been peaceful and infuriated the sentiments of the people even more. The status of a young Kashmir has captured it well.



"Channels like are trying out a new mindless tactic. The good bad Kashmiri tactic. (Although Gurez already answered and made it clear what the truth is) Now let us assume their theory to be correct that most of the Kashmiri's love India and take pride in it.



The ones asking for azadi are paid agents, or brainwashed unintelligent people, then for the Indian state doesn't a #plebiscite become even more important. Their only chance to let their 'good' Kashmiri live peacefully forever and shut the 'bad' kashmiri up forever.



Btw #News are the 'bad' Kashmiris so large in number that India requires 7 lakh armed personnel to control them.



Lets talk about the basics of a democracy forget about the right to protest or hold demonstrations, along with a complete restrictions on civilian movements there has been an e -curfew for the past 18 days, mobile networks are down too.



Student's studying elsewhere are frantically sending mails to newspapers and appealing to the government to restore mobiles so that they can get in touch with their families but all in vain.



Thousands of weddings have been canceled, people who live on a daily income have nothing, hospitals were so over crowded that volunteers set up langars but they were harassed too, ambulances ferrying people were stopped, drivers beaten by the police and CRPF. What is worse than banning newspapers in a democratic set up? But that was something that also happened for 4-5 days.



AFSPA, human right violations which include countless number of deaths, rapes, disappearances and have led to countless victims-widows, half mothers and half widows remains and so does the ungratefulness of Kashmiris.


Volkswagen AG's $14.7 billion settlement of its U.S. diesel emissions cheating scandal cleared another legal hurdle as a federal judge gave the automaker preliminary approval to buy back up to 475,000 vehicles.



U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer in San Francisco set an October 18 hearing for final approval. Preliminary approval means Volkswagen will soon enable owners of the 2.0-litre diesel-powered vehicles to access a website to learn how much they are eligible to receive.



The settlement, announced in June, centres around the largest-ever automotive buy-back offer in the United States. Coupled with possible vehicle repairs and payments to governmental agencies, that component of the settlement carries a $10 billion price tag.



Volkswagen (VW) said it continues to work with regulators to get fix approvals. VW told dealers last week that a planned fix could consist of software upgrades and some new catalytic converters.



Volkswagen also plans to offer a new proposal to fix 85,000 polluting 3.0-litre vehicles after regulators rejected an earlier plan, a Justice Department lawyer said. Earlier this month, the California Air Resources Board rejected as insufficient a plan to fix the vehicles, which include VW and Audi luxury cars from model years 2009-2016.



At the hearing, Justice Department lawyer Joshua Van Eaton said the German automaker had been meeting with regulators in recent weeks and planned to offer a new fix proposal in August.



Breyer said he wants another update on the 3.0-litre vehicle talks at an August 25 hearing.



VW plans to hire between 250 to 300 people in Michigan to process settlement claims and will be overseen full-time by 40 VW Group of America employees. If needed VW could double the number of people it is hiring to process claims, said VW lawyer Sharon Nelles. VW is contracting for storage space to house vehicles it repurchases, she said.



VW admitted in September that it installed secret software that allowed U.S. vehicles to emit up to 40 times legally allowable pollution.



Under the Justice Department deal, VW will provide $2 billion over 10 years to fund programs to promote construction of electric vehicle charging infrastructure and development of zero-emission ride-sharing fleets and other efforts. VW also agreed to put up $2.7 billion over three years to enable government and tribal agencies to replace old buses or to fund infrastructure to reduce diesel emissions. Separately, VW reached a settlement with 44 U.S. states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico that will cost at least $600 million, bringing the total to as much as $15.3 billion.
Scientist, president, mentor - Dr APJ Abdul Kalam is remembered for his contributions to the country in many roles.Popularly remembered as 'People's President' and 'Missile Man', Dr Kalam's demise on July 27, 2015 left the nation in shock and pain.The humble president was a great scientist, an inspiring leader, and above anything else, he was a simple and a very strong human being. His speeches and interactions, particularly with students, inspired millions. His quotes and lectures motivated, encouraged and inspired the youth to strive to fulfill their dreams. And by sharing his experiences with young minds, he would ignite the wings of fire among them to work hard and achieve their dreams.His death left a void in the lives of everyone he had touched with his simplicity and warmth.Conferred with India's highest civilian honour Bharat Ratna, Dr Kalam was instrumental in India's civilian space program and military missile development efforts. He also played a pivotal organizational and political role in India's Pokhran-II nuclear tests in 1998.Today on his first death anniversary, we take a look at some of his inspiring quotes:He was one of the greatest visionary leaders India has ever had. And he always had his opinion on any topic - be it religion, sports, leadership, corruption, science or the death penalty.His words will forever be etched in the hearts of the millions who admire him.
New Delhi: While addressing the problem of call drops, Telecom Minister Manoj Sinha said in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday that there would be positive results in the next three to four months.



Sinha said the government was committed to getting rid of the "taint". He said he had a meeting with telecom operators two days ago, during which instructions were given to improve the situation on call drops front.



"We will resolve the problem of call drops. In next three-four months we will see some positive results," he said during Question Hour.



Sinha said the telecom operators will invest around Rs 20,000 crore to improve their infrastructure and install one-lakh base transceiver stations (BTS) to offer better services

to customers.



Replying to a supplementary, Sinha said the Telecom Ministry is in touch with the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) to ensure enhancement of the validity of mobile and mobile data from present 90 days to 365 days.



"For making provision of longer validity (365 days) of mobile internet plans, as opposed to the current validity period of (maximum) 90 days, the TRAI has released 'Draft Telecom Consumers Protection (Tenth Amendment) Regulations 2016 on July 5, seeking comments of stakeholders," he said.
Chennai: Two days after a 65th incident of glass panel collapse was reported at the Chennai International Airport on Monday, the Airport Authority of India (AAI) dismissed them as 'normal' and cases of 'media hype'.



Responding to a complaint sent to the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) on the rising incidents of glass panel collapse at the government-run airport, in-charge chairman of the AAI S Raheja has said the spontaneous breakage of glass panel is because of nickel sulphate inclusion, which is a normal phenomena and very much within the industrial norms.







The letter further goes on to say, "...it is only a media hype which has created this kind of image on the falling of glasses. It is reiterated that none of the passengers/visitors were injured in the falling of glass incidents."



Brushing aside the incidents as minor, the AAI describes the breaking of glasses as accidents. It says the injuries that are mentioned in (NHRC) report were caused due to accidental breakage of the glasses in which the individuals sustained minor injuries.



Glass panels and sections of the false ceiling have collapsed with a bizarre frequency at the domestic and international terminals of the Chennai Airport. The union government and the Airports Authority of India, which run the airport, have been asked to clarify its stand on the issue.
New Delhi: Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat on Tuesday pitched for spread of compassion as he said practising the value offers solution to many present-day concerns like extremism of all forms, materialism and self-centredness among people.



"We need to understand what is at the core of our religious traditions. Satya (truth) and shuchita (piousness) are at its core and both are not possible without compassion. Hence, we will have to begin with compassion," Bhagwat said.



"The imbalance, extremism after the destruction of religion, competition with each other, the rampant rise in self-centredness...all these we can fight by practicing compassion and truth...To be able to do that, we should practise compassion," he said during launch of a book titled Compassion in 4 Dharmic Traditions.



The event was attended by BJP veteran LK Advani and Union Minister for Science, Technology and Earth Sciences Harsh Vardhan.



Bhagwat said, "Whatever is happening" in the world at present is due to absence of compassion, without which, "religion cannot exist".



"There are many people...who worship in different ways, are believers of different faiths, follow different eating habits, speak different languages, and we should ensure that all are happy.



"What develops all, produces happiness, peace all the time, does not go against welfare is dharma (religion). The existence of religion is impossible without compassion," he said.



Advani, who called Bhagwat a 'mahapurush', suggested that no religion permits criticism of the other and stressed that "one who does not perceive as wrong religion-based ideologies is the one who accepts other religions too".



The former deputy prime minister also said the work of the author Ved Nanda showed how there are commonalities in religions like Hinduism, Jainism, Sikhism and Buddhism when it comes to compassion.
Uttarakhand Chief Minister Harish Rawat on Wednesday confirmed reports of an incursion by Chinese troops in the Chamoli area of the state.



"It's a matter of concern. Our border has been peaceful. We have ordered to increase vigilance. I am sure the Centre will take cognizance of the issue," Rawat told ANI.



The Uttarakhand CM said it was a relief that the Chinese forces did not reach an important canal in that area.



Union minister of state for Home Kiren Rijiju said the Centre will seek a report.



Sources said the Indo Tibetan Border Police has sent a report to the home ministry saying there was incursion in Barahoti near Chamoli.



According to the report, a platoon of Chinese soldiers were sighted for a few hours inside disputed territory that India claims as its own. The troops withdrew after a few hours.



Uttarakhand shares a 350 km boundary with China, and last year the word 'China' was seen scribbled on a rock in Mana Pass.


Ahmedabad: In the wake of brutal thrashing of Dalits in Una, at least 1,000 people from the community in Banaskantha district have so far expressed their desire to convert to Buddhism, stating that there was no point in continuing with Hinduism, if they are not treated as equals.



These Dalit community members have even filled up the forms giving their consent for the religious conversion, which will soon be submitted to the government authorities.



Meanwhile, various Dalit rights organisations have announced to organise a mass gathering of the community in Ahmedabad on July 31 to decide the road map of their movement.



"Dalits across the state are deeply pained by the recent incident in Una. It shows that we are still subjected to discrimination and various atrocities in the name of caste, religion and profession. Thus, several Dalits from Banaskantha have expressed their desire to covert to Buddhism," local Dalit leader and BDS secretary Dinesh Makwana said.



"In the last three days, thousands of Dalits took part in the protest rallies here. During our meetings, we came to the conclusion that there is no meaning in practising Hinduism if we are not treated as equal. Thus, we have distributed forms among Dalits, who wish to convert. So far, around 1,000 such forms have been submitted back to us," Makwana said.



Conversion in Gujarat is governed by the Gujarat Freedom of Religion Act, which came into force in 2008.



According to the Act, it is mandatory for a person, who wants to convert, to take permission from the district collector by submitting an application with a prescribed form.



According to Makwana, these forms, given to BDS by around 1,000 Dalits, will be submitted to the Collector soon.



"We expect that some more Dalits will join our movement and fill up their forms for conversion. After collecting all such forms, we will decide a date to submit it to the Collector," added Makwana.



On July 11, some Dalit youths from Mota Samadhiyala village in Una taluka of Gir-Somnath district were flogged by cow protection vigilantes when these Dalits were skinning a dead cow. The accused thrashed them alleging that they had killed the cow. After a video of the incident went viral, it sparked off violent protests across Gujarat.



Meanwhile, talking about the planned mass gathering on July 31 in Ahmedabad, Jignesh Mewani of Una Dalit Atyachar Ladal Samiti, said, "We have sought permission from the administration to organise a mass gathering of Dalits on July 31 near collector office. Even if they don't give permission, thousands of Dalits will converge on that day. Dalits will decide the future road map of our agitation during this convention."



"To make this government understand the importance of Dalits, we have asked more than 1 lakh cleaning staff (safai kamdars) of various civic bodies to stay away from their work for at least on week. We also want agriculture land for Dalits, as they no longer want to continue their profession of skinning dead animals," Mewani added.
New Delhi: The Indian Railways has taken necessary steps to prevent the theft of food grains, Minister of State for Railways Rajen Gohain said in a written reply in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday. As a result, cases of theft from trains stationed in yards, have decreased from 41 in 2013 to 38 each in 2014 and 2015.



He said Railway Protection Force (RPF) personnel are deployed round-the-clock to prevent the theft of goods and railway property from vulnerable yards.



Based on intelligence, raids are also conducted on those procuring stolen railway property, in coordination with local police, and the arrested are prosecuted under provisions of the Railway Property (Unlawful Possession) Act, he said.



Railways is maintaining close coordination with local police and Government Railway Police (GRP) to prevent theft from yards, he said.
New Delhi: The allocation process of coal blocks and 2G spectrum was "tampered with" leading to ineligible people becoming beneficiaries and this has been "universally accepted", Central Vigilance Commissioner K V Chowdary said on the alleged scams under the UPA on Wednesday.



"If we look at two most controversial matters of recent times  allocation of spectrum and allocation of coal  as of today there has not been a conclusive proof of X giving money to Y. The matter is under trial. What has been universally accepted is that the process was tampered with," he said at a function in the capital.



Tampered processes led to ineligible people getting the allocation and the more eligible people missing the opportunity, Chowdary told PTI. CBI is looking into allegations of corruption in allocation of second generation (2G) spectrum to telecom companies, besides coal block allocation.



He said it is essential that all conditions are laid down properly in the tender documents and tendering processes are transparent.



Chowdary was speaking at the '10th public procurement summit on enhancing transparency, efficiency and accountability', organised by industry body Assocham.



He said about 30 per cent of India's Gross Domestic Product (GDP), which is about Rs 25 lakh crore, comes out of tendering of goods and services being procured by the government.



The CVC noted that tendering processes in a few cases take one to three years which need to be cut down. He said there was a need to apply certain checks on the issue of L-1 or a lowest bidder in any tendering process. "By and large, it is believed that L-1 is the best. But there may be several other issues," he said, suggesting that the authorities need to look at other aspects of this provision.



Chowdary said that the Commission is in the process of finalising a discussion paper to look into all the aspects of tendering and recommend a comprehensive guidelines.
She started that fast alone, almost unnoticed, but soon became the face of an entire movement against the dreaded Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA).



Nearly six years later, just as abruptly as the way she started it , she took the decision to end her fast. Core members of her team, the civil society of Imphal and journalists were all taken by surprise, probably that's how it was supposed to have been.



As Kishalay Bhatacharya, a senior journalist from the region, points out - in November 2000, after the Malom Massacre, where ten civilians were killed at a bus stop allegedly by Assam Rifles soldiers, she came home early one day.



Irom told her mother to serve her a meal, and after eating that she said this was going to be her last meal in sometime now. She then took a bus and reached Malom and vowed not to eat, drink, comb her hair or look at a mirror until AFSPA was repealed.



From there on, the protest grew in strength to a time when there were thousands of women on a relay hunger strike with her. She refused to be fed and the police took her in custody.



Worried that her death might make things go out of control, the state started force-feeding her in custody. A practice which continues to this very date.



16 years later when she decided to break her fast, it is difficult to imagine what she has been going through.



As Chitra Ahanthem, an Imphal-based journalist points out: "The standard greeting in Imphal when we meet someone is to ask, "Have you eaten?". Whenever Iche (Irom Sharmila) asked that, I squirmed with the guilt of knowing that her journey against AFSPA has been uniquely passionate and deeply personal.



After August 9, I will finally get to ask her "chaak chaarabra Iche?" (Have you eaten, Iche?)'.



But not everybody is happy with her decision. Irom Singhajit, elder brother of Irom Chanu Sharmila told Imphal Free Press that she is welcome to carry out any decision she makes.



"If she wants to end her fast, enter politics or even enter wedlock, it is her decision. As for my opinion on her decision to enter politics, I have no prior knowledge, and it was not discussed with me," he said.



But rued that this was not the decision that their mother desired. He goes on to blame Irom's fiance Desmond Coutinho, a British citizen of Goan origin, for this decison, even alleging that Coutinho could be an agent of Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), who was sent to divert the course of Sharmilas movement.



( Link here : http://ifp.co.in/page/items/33416/sharmila-is-free-to-decide-on-her-course-of-action)



It is important to note that Irom's relationship with her brother worsened after 2011, when she first met Desmond Coutinho. A year before that ,Coutinho had written to her, impressed by reading about her. Soon the correspondences increased and love bloomed.



I first met Irom when she came to Delhi for her court appearances. She loved coming to Delhi, as it helped her propagate her thoughts to the world



at large. In all the 4-5 odd interviews I did with her, two things were very clear. One was her dedication to the cause for which she took this



enormous step and the second, her dislike at being made a symbol or deity. She would often say she is a normal human being who enjoys things that normal people do. A statement which exemplifies the supreme sacrifice.



But she had begun to realise that her movement was losing steam. Last year when she was released for those customary 48 hours, less than 100 people had gathered at her protest venue.



Probably somewhere she felt cheated. Here she was on a hunger strike for over 15 years, and on her release there were hardly any crowds to support her through this.



Babloo Loitongbam, one of Imphal's most respected Human Rights activist said she had been hinting about a change in strategy in her fight against AFSPA.



As she decides to contest election, this could be the next big game changer. She has now decided to become a law maker to repeal a law.



But it needs to be seen how this would play out in the socio-political sphere of Manipur.



The tectonic shift is unmistakable, but several questions loom large at this point.Would the civil society back her unequivocally in this fight? Would she be the only one contesting elections or would some of her supporters contest too? How would mainstream political parties react to this?



And last, but not the least, what would the various underground groups who latched on to her for moral support do now?
Bengaluru: State BJP president and former chief minister B S Yeddyurappas government employee nephew has created a controversy by participating and being felicitated at a party event.



Aravind, an assistant director rank officer in the state government, attended a BJP event in Mandya two days ago, leading to a controversy over how a serving employee can participate in a political event. He was seen donning a shawl with the BJP lotus symbol, participating in a taluk-level event of the party. He is currently working with the Karnataka Milk Federation and the government is considering disciplinary action against him in the coming days.



Reacting to this H S Mahadev Prasad, Cooperation Minister said, Whatever it is, being a government employee he cannot participate in a political function. We will issue a memo, wait for his reply and take action.



Yeddyurappa, meanwhile, said he was not aware any such incident.
Mumbai: Superstar Salman Khan's brand Being Human will enter the jewellery industry from next month, said his sister Arpita Khan.



Present at an event for the Retail Jeweller India Awards 2016, Arpita said: "I'm here because we are launching Being Human jewellery next month and that's really close to our hearts. So I decided to come out and support this as well."



Actor Esha Deol and director Divya Khosla Kumar were also part of the event as jury members on the awards panel.



Arpita added: "The Being Human jewellery basically is affordable to all the consumers. It's 70 per cent ladies' collection and 30 per cent the men's. It basically is based around the values of the brand, which is share, care, love and joy."



Being Human brand consists of its clothing line, as seen with Salman wearing T-Shirts from the brand. The brand also has a charitable foundation and a percentage of the profits from the clothing line goes into the charitable causes of the foundation such as education and healthcare of the underprivileged.



About Salman recently getting acquitted in the case against him for the 1998 killing of protected antelopes or chinkara, Arpita said: "I would just like to thank his fans and his well-wishers and that's about it."




The Income Tax department on Wednesday conducted searches on the premises of AAP MLA Kartar Singh Tanwar on charges of alleged tax evasion after it received "actionable inputs" with regard to the MLA's transactions.



The searches were carried out on at least three premises of the Chhatarpur MLA in the national capital by teams having 40 income tax and police officials.



Tanwar who had been a BJP councillor had defected to AAP in 2014. Meanwhile, AAP workers gathered at MLA Tanwar's house protesting against the raids.



The party termed the development as "political vendetta" by the Centre against AAP MLAs.







Reacting to the development, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said, "Modiji you deploy, the CBI, Delhi Police, IB, ED and Income Tax, but we will keep on with our work."



AAP leader Ashish Khetan compared the Centre's actions as an undeclared emergency. "I dont think the Modi government has spared any agency in the country which has not gone after the AAP government. There are big scams, where congress was involved but all the scam-tainted people are roaming free." Khetan said.



Senior AAP leader Ashutosh said Singh's residence was gheraoed as if Singh was a terrorist. He also accused the Delhi Police of "misbehaving" with arrested AAP MLA Amanatullah Khan's wife.



Eleven AAP MLAs have been arrested in different cases since the party came to power in Delhi for a second time in February last year.



Earlier, Delhi Police arrested Okhla MLA Amanatullah Khan in connection with allegations by a woman that he had tried to mow her down with his car.



Mehrauli MLA Naresh Yadav too was arrested by Punjab Police in connection with the alleged Malerkotla sacrilege incident.



"NDMC vide-chairman Karan Singh Tanwar was never arrested by the Delhi Police in the MM Khan murder case while R P Singh, a former BJP MLA who was accused of assaulting a DJB engineer, was never summoned," Chadha said.



He claimed, "Of the 78 ministers in the Narendra Modi government Cabinet, 14 face criminal charges. Of the 282 BJP MPs, 98 have criminals charges."
My message for AAP volunteers and common man of Indiahttps://t.co/3T5PuO1TpX via @youtube  Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) July 27, 2016

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of being frustrated to the extent that he could get him killed.Kejriwal's statement put out on Twitter through a video message came in the backdrop of two of his MLA s being arrested in different cases in the past two days."Is the country in safe hands with Modi as the head? Modi is so frustrated... He can get me killed as well," he said in a video released on YouTube."I am telling all you MLAs that going to jail is a small thing. Get ready to even die," Kejriwal added and requested all MLAs and leaders to stay united.BJP spokesperson GVL Narsimha Rao reacted sharply to Kejriwal's accusations and asked whether the Delhi CM was in his right mind."This only shows the frustration of the AAP leader." Rao told CNN News18.About 11 of Kejriwal's MLAs have been arrested in different cases across the country in the past one year.
Apple CEO Tim Cook has said the tech giant is "looking forward" to setting up retail stores in India to tap into the booming smartphone market here."India is now one of our fastest growing markets. In the first three quarters of this fiscal year, our iPhone sales in India were up 51 per cent year-on-year," Apple CEO Tim Cook said on an investor call.He added the company has announced setting up of a design and development accelerator to support Indian developers creating innovative applications for iOS and opened a new office in Hyderabad to accelerate maps development."We're looking forward to opening retail stores in India down the road, and we see huge potential for that vibrant country," he said without disclosing further details. Cook, who visited India in May, had discussed issues including manufacturing and setting up retail stores in the country with Prime Minister Narendra Modi."On a personal note, during the past quarter I visited China and India, and I am very encouraged about our growth prospects in those countries," he said.Recently the government issued new norms allowing single-brand retail trading and exemption from local sourcing for 'state-of-the-art' and "cutting edge" technology with a waiver for three years, and the option to extend it for five years.Sources had said Apple may have to submit a fresh application for the same.The Cupertino-based tech giant had yesterday reported its revenues rising to $42.4 billion in the third quarter, driven by markets including India, Russia, Brazil, Turkey and Canada.
More horrifying details emerged Wednesday about an attack on a French village church even as the country's main religious leaders sent a message of unity and solidarity after meeting with President Francois Hollande in Paris.



Two attackers took five hostages Tuesday at the church in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray in northwest France and slit the throat of the elderly priest saying morning Mass. A nun at the Mass slipped out to raise the alarm and both attackers, one of them a local man, were then killed by police outside the church.



Emotions in France that were raw after a July 14 truck attack in Nice that killed 84 people became more frazzled after the church in Normandy was attacked. Both deadly attacks were claimed by the Islamic State group.



With the attack threat for the country ranked extremely high, Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said France is working to protect 56 remaining summer events and may consider cancelling some. Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said 4,000 members of the Sentinel military force will patrol Paris, while 6,000 will patrol in the provinces. They are being bolstered by tens of thousands of police and reservists.



One of the hostages at the church, an 86-year-old woman, said Wednesday that the attackers had handed her husband Guy a cellphone and demanded that he take photos or video of the priest  85-year-old Rev. Jacques Hamel  after he was slain. Her husband was then slashed in four places by the attackers and is now hospitalized with serious injuries.



The woman, identified only as Jeanine, told RMC radio that her husband played dead to stay alive. Two nuns were held hostage along with the couple and the priest.



"The terrorists held me with a revolver at my neck," she said, adding it was not clear to her now whether the weapon was real or fake. "He (the priest) fell down looking upwards, toward us."



The Paris prosecutor, Francois Molins, said the two attackers had knives and fake explosives  one a phony suicide belt covered in tin foil. He identified one of the attackers as Adel Kermiche, a 19-year-old who grew up in the town and tried to travel to Syria twice last year using family members' identity documents.



Kermiche was detained outside France, sent home, handed preliminary terrorism charges and placed under house arrest with a tracking bracelet, allowing him free movement within the region for four hours a day, Molins said.



A police official told The Associated Press that the bracelet was deactivated during those four hours, allowing Kermiche to leave the family home without raising alarms. The official was not publicly authorized to speak about the case.



The prosecutor's office said Wednesday the second attacker has not been formally identified. In addition, police detained a 16-year-old whom Molins said was the younger brother of a young man who traveled to the Syria-Iraq zone of the Islamic State group carrying Kermiche's ID. He was still being questioned Wednesday.



Hollande, meanwhile, presided over a defense council and Cabinet meeting in Paris after speaking with Roman Catholic, Orthodox, Muslim and Jewish leaders.



The archbishop of Paris, Cardinal Andre Vingt-Trois, called on Catholics to "overcome hatred that comes in their heart" and not to allow the Islamic State group "to set children of the same family upon each other."



The rector of the main Paris mosque, Dalil Boubakeur, said France's Muslims must push for better training of Muslim clerics and urged that reforming French Muslim institutions be put on the agenda. He did not elaborate.



Pope Francis, visiting Krakow, Poland, for World Youth Day celebrations, said of the slaying of the priest, "It's war, we don't have to be afraid to say this."



He then clarified to say, "I am not speaking of a war of religions. Religions don't want war. The others want war."



In the town of Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, young and old were stunned by the attack.



An 18-year-old neighbor said he had seen Kermiche just three days earlier in nearby Rouen wearing a long Islamic robe.



When he heard about the church attack, "I knew it was him, I was sure," the young man told the AP, identifying himself only as Redwan. He said Kermiche had told him and others about his efforts to get to Syria and "he was saying we should go there and fight for our brothers."



"We were saying that is not good. And he was replying that France is the land of unbelievers," Redwan said.



Candles were placed in front of the town hall as residents called for unity.



"We are scared," said Mulas Arbanu. "(But) be we Christians, Muslims, anything, we have to be together."



Another resident, Said Aid Lahcen, had met the slain priest.



"From the moment when you touch a religion, you attack the nation, and you attack a people. We must not get into divergences, but stay united as we were before," he said.
Margi, Nancy and I picked a hot day last week to paddle and splash in the James, the perfect place to be in this heat.

We were greeted by a handful of great blue herons, a great egret, two belted kingfishers and a couple of indistinguishable ducks. They all converged in one particularly good fishing hole.

At the rock outcropping we chose as a place to haul ourselves in and out of kayaks, I spotted a tiny water snake and an imperial moth  a large yellow and brown moth I hadnt seen since childhood.

The water temperature was perfect and the river like glass in the broad, flat section of the James just north of Snowden Dam.

If youve never had the chance to paddle or would like to learn more about the river, the James River Association (JRA) is offering interpretive paddles in Lynchburg on Aug. 2 and Sept. 6 from 6 to 8 p.m.

These three-mile paddles leave from River Edge Park on the Amherst County side of the James. JRA will provide canoes and transportation for folks interested in seeing wildlife and learning more about the ecological and historical aspects of the river.

Rob Campbell, JRAs Upper James community conservationist, will discuss riparian zones, sewage treatment and runoff, as well as how much the water quality has improved in recent years. He will also encourage lots of questions.

Most people, he said, are most interested in wildlife.

On my paddles downstream from Lynchburg, Ive been fortunate to see bald eagles and osprey on the winged prowl for fish, while herons do their hunting from stilt-like legs.

Kingfishers laugh as you float through their territory, often skimming the tree line beside you. Ive even spotted wild turkey on the riverbanks, as well as a mink.

If the water is clear enough and you have eagle eyes, you can watch schools of large fish in deep holes.

Careful observers can also see turtles basking in the sunshine on partially submerged logs.

Dozens of mating damsel flies often land on you and your boat, while dragonflies flit by.

The paddles are $10 per person and you can register by searching online for the James River Association interpretive paddle series or visiting the JRA website.

If running and tubing are more your style, JRAs annual Splash and Dash is also coming soon. On Aug. 6 at 3 p.m., participants will gather at Percivals Island for a two-mile fun run, followed by a short tube float alongside the island.

A fundraiser for JRA, the event costs $25 per person. Children as young as 10 can participate but everyone under 18 must bring their own life jackets. And you have to be willing to get your running shoes muddy. Its never a good idea to get in the river barefooted.

Ive helped with check-in for two of these events and people always emerge from the river with smiles on their faces. You dont have to be a serious runner to enjoy this family-friendly event. Visit jrava.org to register.
BEDFORD  Renovations and relocations may soon be underway with three Bedford County buildings.

The former Bedford County Nursing Home, the County Administration building and Department of Social Services building may soon undergo renovations, and the Bedford County Cooperative Extension may move to a new home  with Parks and Recreation.

During a Bedford County Board of Supervisors work session Monday night, the board reached a consensus to perform a space needs analysis on the County Administration building and for staff to seek proposals for architectural and engineering services for the old nursing home.

Supervisors Bill Thomasson and Curry Martin were absent.

County Administrator Carl Boggess said either county administration or social services are going to need a new building because the administration building is deteriorating andtheDepartment of Social Services building has reached capacity.

If you build a new county administration building and this building was totally vacant you could do a more efficient renovation and if you dealt with some of those issues you could reuse this building or you may say its too far gone it needs to be demolished, he said. You could renovate this building; the cost would be less if it were totally empty.

Sheldon Cash, director of public works, said the county administrations floor joists need repairing and reinforcing on the top floor and west wing, and occupying the building during repairs would be difficult.

Those repairs are challenging because of the duct work, sprinkler lines, electrical lines, everything thats going on behind the scenes in this building, he said. Its hard to be able to get a way in there to repair those broken floor joists.

Boggess said the growth of DSS likely will to continue and he estimates construction of a new home for the agency at $7.9 million to $8.4 million.

Renovations to the old nursing home off Falling Creek Road could cost between $3.7 million and $4 million as opposed to $5.1 million to $5.7 million to construct a new building.

Once a 56-bed nursing home, the building houses the countys parks and recreation department. The department is not using the entire building so the county plans to move the Bedford County Cooperative Extension office into the vacant space.

Scott Baker, extension agent, said his staff could move offices in 12 to 15 months.

I think there are a lot of positives about it, he said. We do have similar programs and clienteles so it could be a nice partnership there being co-located.

Jeremy Lucas, of Master Engineers and Design, Inc., said renovation challenges at parks and recreation include interior wall modifications. To maximize available square footages, many interior walls must be removed, he said.

He added the building is structurally sound and renovation can be phased to allow the parks and recreation to continue using the building during construction.

The rehabilitation would include a roof replacement, mechanical, plumbing, new windows and interior demolition.

Speaking at the public works committee on July 8, Sheldon Cash said staff has divided the work into two phases  phase one for the old nursing home and phase two for the county administration and department of social services building. The money will come from the General Fund.
BEDFORD  On a scorching Tuesday, more than 100 children from Southwest Virginia area got a boatload of new opportunities  and a break from the heat thanks to a Wake the World event at Smith Mountain Lake.

As a result of the work of two lake residents and about 100 volunteers, children from three organizations had a day packed full of free food and fun on the water as part of the third annual Wake the World day.

According to Ken Hayes, who helped organize the event, about 110 children from the Roanoke Valley Boys & Girls Club, Intercept Youth Services community homes and HopeTree Family Services participated in the event.

Throughout the day, children clad in bright yellow life jackets piled onto 23 boats owned by Smith Mountain Lake residents and others on their way to getting out on the water to go surfing, wakeboarding, tubing and swimming.

Its a great event. It gives a lot [of] kids that normally wouldnt have exposure to the lake exposure, said Waller Perrow, a Lynchburg resident and owner of Wallers restaurant, which provided lunch. I love seeing all the smiling faces, getting to bring them lunch and [seeing them] getting to have fun out on the water.

Tuesdays watersports-centered event gave children the chance to experience new activities, and to see how many people really care about them, Hayes said.

Many of the children who attended are underprivileged or have behavioral, emotional or developmental needs, coordinators said. Some children also are in foster care.

[We hope we can] just get kids to understand that life might be stacked against them, but you dont have to stay there, Hayes said.

According to Chris Pechtler, who helped organize the event and manages Crazy Horse Marina, while some children may not have come in with the perfect demeanor, most left with a smile.

When they come in in the morning, they have one attitude, he said. When they come in at lunch, [attitudes are] little bit different, and when they come in at dinner, theyre completely different kids.

Being out on the water was the highlight of the day for most children, including those like 10-year-old Mariah Mitchell who originally was scared to venture outside their comfort zone.

They let us be ourselves, 10-year-old Breanna Shilling said.

Adults and children alike realized how much they had grown from the time they arrived at the Marina in the morning to the time they left.

Groups that didnt even want to go out on the water, all of a sudden they want to go out on the water and started having fun, Hayes said.

In addition to spending hours out on the water, children also got to take in a Jet Ski show, test their skills on an inflatable obstacle course on the lake and enjoy a light breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Hayes said though Tuesdays event is one of a long lineup of similar watersports events through Wake the World, an international nonprofit organization, all resources were donated by locals.

This year, it took Hayes and Pechtler about two months to get all the details in order, and theyve sacrificed more than just time to make sure the Wake the World event was a success.

Hayes shut down his watersports shop, Smith Mountain Wake, for the day. He gave up the chance to bring in business in the middle of summer.

Pechtler, whos been volunteering at Wake the World events for seven years, skipped his duties managing the Marina to serve the children  whether it was getting them to the right place or taking out the trash Tuesday.

With a clear understanding of the impact theyre able to make in just one day, the two dont plan to stop any time soon.

It makes me feel good that all the effort thats going on, people appreciate it, and the kids loved it, Hayes said.

The children agreed.

Eleven-year-old Auron Drummond said on a scale of how enjoyable Tuesday was, its 1 million out of 100,000.

This was probably the best day of summer weve had, Mariah said.

Added 11-year-old Elizabeth Kelley: I cant even put into words how awesome it is.
Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., returned to his Virginia roots Wednesday in vice presidential candidate mode  flanked by Secret Service, trailed by national press and ready to attack Donald Trump.

Kaine entered a ballroom to a rousing welcome from the Virginia delegation at its breakfast. After spinning some political anecdotes, he quickly pivoted to the election, praising Hillary Clinton and delivering his most forceful rhetoric to date on the Republican presidential nominee's fitness for office.

What an opportunity to make history, he told the enthusiastic crowd, who unlike previous mornings in Philadelphia, seemed more riveted to the speaker than to than to their bacon and eggs.

Kaine thanked Gov. Terry McAuliffe, who advocated strongly for his selection in conversations with Hillary Clinton and Bill Clinton.

I wouldnt be the nominee if it werent for him, he said of McAuliffe.

Kaine praised Hillary Clintons qualifications as a candidate, and her historic role as potentially the first woman president. He said she would open up who we are as a nation, grow the economy and that she has the right ideas about how to be strong in the world.

Then it was on to Trump.

The most foolish thing you can do is to shed the alliances we have in the worldand Donald Trump is a one-man wrecking crew when it comes to the alliances, said Kaine, referring to Trumps stand on NATO and posture toward Russia and Vladimir Putin, whom Kaine called a Big Bad Wolf.

Kaine, a former civil rights attorney, said the most important thing to him about the election is that its a civil rights election.

He talked about Trump making fun of people with disabilitiesusing demeaning and offensive language when he talks about women, saying Trump offends women every time he opens his mouth.

He said Trump trash talks new Americans, trash talks Mexicanshe talks about anybody of a Latino background as if theyre a second-class citizen. Hey, we dont have any second-class citizens in this country. Were all first-class citizens.

Pivoting to the military, he referenced Trumps characterization of the American military as a disaster, questioning how someone who thinks that could be commander in chief.

He said Trump has used every trick and dodge he can to avoid paying taxes, and thats why hes not giving up his tax returns, noting that tax dollars fund programs that support veterans.

Kaine said the election is about whether to build a community of respect, or whether we decide that a politics of division, that sadly, we know held Virginia back, and our nation back for a very long time, is back in vogue and we start doing it again.

We say were a commonwealth, Kaine continued. Weve got to live like a commonwealth.

Perhaps the most emotional moment of Kaine's time with the delegation came at the end of his remarks. Kaine turned quiet and spoke about Joe Montano, 47, a Senate staffer from Manassas who died suddenly late last week after accompanying Kaine on events in Northern Virginia.
After all these years, Gregg Allman still loves to move fast.

He was late for a phone call last week, but apologized and offered his reason.

I had to go pick up a new car, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member said from his home in Georgia.

What type of car? A 707 horsepower Dodge Challenger Hellcat, with the type of sudden speed that will throw you in the back seat, he said. I just love that thrill. Always have.

I like American cars, American food, American women, American music, he added with a big laugh.

He will bring his band and his brand of American music, including his work with the Allman Brothers Band, to the FloydFest main stage on Saturday night. What is the act performing right before his? Warren Haynes, with his Ashes & Dust project. There is a good chance that the pair, who played together for many years in the Allman Brothers, are going to jam together that night, Allman said.

Oh, no doubt, man, Allman said. Ive always loved that guy. Really have. [But] we havent planned anything, you know.

The focus will be chiefly on Allman and his own nine-piece band. The Allman Brothers Band itself played what was apparently their final show in 2014. Allman said he has spent seven years gathering just the right personnel for his own act. It includes longtime ABB percussionist Marc Quinones, whose joining really put the fire in the band, Allman said.

The group plays many of the songs that Allman wrote for the Allman Brothers, but theyre totally rearranged, he said. That is much in evidence on the acts recent Gregg Allman Live: Back to Macon, GA.

Theyre played exactly like I wrote em, he said. When I would write a song for the Brothers, I would bring it to em in skeletal form, and they would put their own expertise on them. I was not the type to come in and say, well you play this, and you play that, and you play this. Theyd probably say, well, you play your own ass out of here, you know.

There is, however plenty of creative collaboration in this band, he said, and a ton of talent.

First of all, youve gotta think, Im not gonna take a step down from the Brothers, he said. If Im still going to play, at the age of 68, its going to have to really blow my dress up, you know what I mean? Its really gotta knock me out, and these guys do ... Ive got some incredible musicians.

This version of the Gregg Allman Band has nearly completed its first studio album, Southern Blood.

I have a couple more master vocals to put down and it will be finished, he said. Beyond the title, he declined to give away much information on the disc.

It will have horns, though. He has three horn players in the band, on baritone sax, tenor sax and trumpet  they write and play charts that Allman said he can trust. That array of horns is important to Allman, who said: Thats when it starts sounding like [Stax Records section] The Memphis Horns.

So if he has a horn section in the band, and the band plays his ABB songs the way he wrote them to sound, were the Allman Brothers meant to be a horn band? That brings an interesting, if sort of rambling answer that involved his brother, the late Duane Allman, founder of the band that put Gregg into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

That was pretty much the direction me and my brother were going, he said. Of course, he put the Allman Brothers together. I was the last to get there. I dont know if thats a compliment or what, he added with a laugh.

The Southern-bred brothers had gotten a short-lived record deal and were living in Los Angeles before Duane headed for Muscle Shoals, Alabama, where he made his name on soul music sessions. Gregg had stayed behind, but decided to head back for Jacksonville, Florida, in 1969, where the new band was forming. He hitchhiked, because he knew that Duane did not have money for a ticket.

I got there, and finally, after 11 months of being away from my brother, finally I belonged somewhere, man. You get a songwriter happy, and he cant find enough paper. You get inspired.

Gregg Allmans songwriting output with the ABB included Whipping Post, Midnight Rider, Dreams and many other classics. Leading his own projects, he wrote such numbers as Queen of Hearts and Im No Angel.

Along the way, the band lived a typical lifestyle for rockers, with drugs, booze and other intrigues, splitting it up by the mid-1970s. By then, both Duane Allman and bassist Berry Oakley had been killed in motorcycle crashes. Gregg Allman was left with some nasty habits that would eventually cost him his liver, but he said that come November he will have been sober for 21 years.

Its just a matter of climbing Fools Hill, and we all have to do it, he said. Im not sure why I got so hooked on drinking, but I drank for a long time and had to have a liver transplant on account of it. But I dont know [why]. That will probably puzzle me for the rest of my days. Something was bothering me, thats for sure. And its obviously not bothering me anymore, or I just got sick and tired of being sick and tired.

These days, he flirts with danger from behind the wheel of whatever muscle car is throwing him in the back seat. There are lots of places to wind it out near his south Georgia home, he said.

Plus the cops, most of em are my age, he said. One of em stopped me once and said, When the hell are you gonna make another record, man? I said, I was on my way, bro. Thats why Im goin so fast. 
A customer decline after a paid parking pilot began at Lynchburg Community Market is cutting into some vendors profits.

While market visitation still booms on Saturdays when food producers fill stalls inside and out, vendors said it has slowed on weekdays when the customer base is primarily people picking up a quick bite.

Vendors relying on lunch traffic seem to be most impacted by the drop off after May when the city began using pay stations at the market parking lot and the 1200 block of Main Street that borders it.

People are afraid to park there and pay, so they dont come, Manuel Navarro, owner of Philippine Delight inside the market building, said. We lost a lot of customers.

Navarro said his sales dove about 40 percent after meters went in. Most of the drop happened in a short period of time, he said.

City parking ambassadors began with orders to issue only warning citations for expired meters. On Monday, they began issuing $20 fines, according to a city news release.

Lynchburg parking authority votes to change fees at certain locations Customers at the Lynchburg Community Market can expect to see lower rates at the markets pa

The pilot program  in effect Monday through Saturday from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m.  does not yet have an end date, but is scheduled for review in January.

There is a very small minority that has said they are going to find something thats wrong with it, and thats kind of what Im working through right now, City Parking Manager Dave Malewitz said. They dont see the benefit of it whatsoever.

Malewitz said the paid metered program originally came from downtown vendors hoping for more visitors rotating in and out. The first merchants supporting changes to the parking situation were from brick and mortar stores but some vendors within the market joined in, he said. The city held several open meetings on the topic.

Parking pilot downtown debut yields mixed reviews The first day of the downtown parking pilot program netted about 30 warning violations, acco

The need to address a tight downtown parking situation, and the pushback to paid meters, is symptomatic of Lynchburgs continuing growth as a city.

I would definitely say its growing pains. Were doing revitalization. Were getting people here. Were trying new things that are going to help us get into that next level of being a bigger city, Malewitz said.

Lorraine Bakery owner Steve Hackman sees the bright side.

What it has done is finally cleared the lot of people who just use it as their personal parking lot, Hackman said, calling the cut in traffic a bump in the road with a long term benefit.

He hasnt seen a drop in business, though, possibly because his specialty baked goods have little competition in the city. The market shop does about 80 percent of its business on Saturdays when market traffic remains steady.

Vendors have said the problem is a mixture of customers adamantly against the principle of paid parking they are accustomed to having for free, using new technology and the idea of change.

Ive been on Main Street a long time. Every time they do something to parking it makes a difference, said Gay Harris, who manages Pride of Virginia, which sells meat and a variety of specialty items. Any time you change, it will make a difference.

Some vendors saw a slight bump after the city extended the free parking period from 30 minutes to an hour last week. Parkers still must log their time into the meter, and begin paying at the second hour.

Harris and some other vendors expect business to improve after an adjustment period.

It still hasnt picked up in the mornings like it was, Harris said. Maybe its just going to take time. I dont know.
Increase in Tobago hospital patients

He noted that about 55,000 people were treated at the facility each year.

When we look at patients accessing primary care, there has been an increase. That increase we have to ask ourselves: how does that translate into that ambit of wellness? There are more patients requiring support services, for example renal failure.

How do we move from a society that really looks at the lack of health into something that must be treated at the hospital level, and when you are at that stage the disease has already progressed? Duke queried.

He was speaking during a news conference at the Health Ministrys head office in Port-of-Spain.

Duke said they were implementing the Healthy Homes/ Healthy Families Project under the Division of Social Health and Services where workers were charged with going into every home in Tobago. Early health education and intervention is where we, in Tobago, have major commitment.

There are some cultural practices that do not promote good health.

The aim is not to just get the data that is necessary, but also account for everyone living in that home. Forum for wellness and prevention must be a part of their approach in healthcare, he said.
EFCL: 210 repair jobs available

It is alleged that Gill shot his son who later succumbed to his injuries at the San Fernando General Hospital .

Yesterday, following deliberations, the foreman of the jury told Justice Wilson that they were unable to reach a verdict. The judge then informed the accused man said, The jury has not been able to reach a verdict, as such I would have to order a retrial. Justice Wilson also thanked the jurors for their service and discharged them. She announced that the matter would be placed on the next cause list hearing. The States case was presented by attorneys Hema Soondarsingh and Kimberly Gunness. In a previous hearing, Soondarsingh said that James had visited a weed field in Moruga on May 27, 2007, where he was shot .

Soondarsingh told the court that James common-law wife Kathy Ann Andrews was liming with a group of people when they all heard a loud explosion. Subsequently Kathy Ann received a call me request from her common-law husband. She then telephoned him (James) who said, Run, come quick...somebody shoot meh. Soondarsingh said when Kathy Ann reached in the vicinity where her husband was, he told her something else. Gill was represented by attorney Selwyn Mohammed .
US: We See

No Signs

Putin Will

Use Dirty Bomb
(Newser)  When researchers grew concerned about underground anomalies detected near the Mayan ruins of Palenque in Mexico, they began a dig to figure out whether the pyramid was in danger of collapse. This week, researchers announced that what they found was no anomaly but rather a small canal system, reports the AP. They now think the tomb of the ancient ruler Pakal was built atop a natural spring about 700 AD, with tunnels that directed water to the esplanade in front of the temple in the hope of giving Pakal's spirit a way into the underworld. In fact, an engraving at the site reads that the dead gain entrance to the underworld in such a manner via the god Chaac, who will "will guide the dead toward the underworld by submerging [them]."

The site previously gained fame when author Erich von Daniken posited in his 1968 book Chariots of the Gods? that Pakal looked like an astronaut at the helm of a spaceship on a carved stone sarcophagus. But archaeologist Arnoldo Gonzalez says the dig has turned up "nothing to do with spaceships" and that the "flames" of the so-called spaceship engine in fact depict the Mayan "Tree of Life." The main underground tunnel is only two feet wide and two feet tall, and thus too small to crawl through, but the team is exploring it via robotic devices. AFP reports that water was still running through it, so the source is likely a spring, though it has not been found. Also possible is that the tunnels were part of a water-supply system built before the temple. (Mayans may have had a "drought cult.")
(Newser)  Tuesday night marked the 10th time Bill Clinton had addressed a Democratic National Conventionbut it was the first time Bill, or anybody, had made a speech as the husband of the nominee. The Wells Fargo Center seemed completely absorbed as Bill recounted the early years of his life with Hillary, including how she turned down his early proposals. He mixed personal details and praise of Hillary as a wife and "best friend" with glowing descriptions of her public service from the early '70s to the present. Five of his best lines:



"In the spring of 1971, I met a girl," Bill began, describing how he met Hillary at Yale Law School and eventually persuaded her to go on a walk with him. "We've been walking and talking and laughing together ever since."

"Hillary opened my eyes to a whole new world of public service by private citizens," Bill said, describing her early work registering voters in Texas and dealing with children's issues in the South.

" She's a natural leader, a good organizer," Bill said, "and she's the best darn changemaker I've ever met in my entire life ." He went on to describe Hillary as a "changemaker" several more times.

She's a natural leader, a good organizer," Bill said, "and ." He went on to describe Hillary as a "changemaker" several more times. " Speeches like this are fun. Actually doing the work is hard ," Bill said. "People say we need change. She's been around a long time. She sure has. And she's sure been worth every single minute she put in to making things better."

," Bill said. "People say we need change. She's been around a long time. She sure has. And she's sure been worth every single minute she put in to making things better." "Hillary will make us stronger together. You know it, because she spent a lifetime doing it," Bill told the crowd. "I hope you will do it. I hope you will elect her."

He concluded his remarks by saying: "Those of us who have more yesterdays than tomorrows tend to think more about our children and grandchildrenThe reason you should elect her is that in the greatest country on Earth, we have always been about tomorrow. Your children and grandchildren will bless you if you do." (Read more Election 2016 stories.)
(Newser)  In a twist that's strange even by 2016 standards, there is mounting evidence that Julian Assange and Vladimir Putin have been working together to undermine Hillary Clinton. Assange, a longtime Clinton critic, declared last month that "upcoming leaks" would damage the "liberal war hawk." At the time, he was widely assumed to be talking about emails from her private server, but it now appears he was talking about the Democratic National Committee emails that WikiLeaks released on Friday, the New York Times reports. Assange admits that the release, which worsened Democratic discord and caused the resignation of DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz, was timed to coincide with the Democratic convention. A roundup of developments:



Most cybersecurity experts believe Russia was behind the DNC hack. NBC News spoke to experts who explained why Vladimir Putin hates Clinton "with such a passion that he wants to embarrass her personally and undermineif not derailher presidential campaign."

In an interview with Democracy Now, Assange discusses the DNC leak and says news that Wasserman Schultz will have a role in the Clinton campaign signals "that if you act in a corrupt way that benefits Hillary Clinton, you will be taken care of." He says he won't reveal the source of the leaked emails, but he notes the DNC has "been hacked dozens and dozens of times."

In an interview with NBC News, Assange says people should be focusing on the leak, not the source. "The real story is what these emails contain, and they show collusion at the very top of the Democratic Party" to derail Bernie Sanders' campaign, he says.

The Clinton campaign has claimed the emails were leaked to help Donald Trump. The Washington Post spoke to Sanders, who called the leak, and Trump's past praise of Putin, an "issue of concern."

Reuters spoke to intelligence sources who say the DNC hack might not be motivated by dislike of Clinton or a desire to help Trump, but by Putin's desire to push back against what he sees as "encirclement" by the West. One source described Putin's attitude as a "hangover" from his KGB days.

(Read more Julian Assange stories.)
(Newser)  Randy Bilyeu thought he knew where Forrest Fenn's treasure was. But instead of being the first to find the $2 million haul of jewels believed to be buried somewhere in New Mexico, he ended up being its first victim. Police confirmed Tuesday that the remains of the 54-year-old grandfather from Colorado, who disappeared in January, were discovered along the Rio Grande west of Santa Fe by a US Army Corps of Engineers crew working in the area, the AP reports. Bilyeu, who quit his job in 2014 to search for the treasure, told a friend in early January that he had finally figured out its location, 5280.com reported in an in-depth look at the disappearance earlier this month. But Fenn, who says the clues to the location are in a cryptic poem in his 2010 memoir, says the treasure is in the Rocky Mountains, not Frijoles Canyon, where Bilyeu thought the treasure chest could be found.

Bilyeu was reported missing on Jan. 14, more than a week after he bought a raft and set out on his final search. His raft and dog were found the day after he was reported missing, but searchers, including family members, treasure hunters, and the 85-year-old Fenn, who chartered a helicopter to search the river for three days, could find no other trace of him. Linda Bilyeu, Bilyeu's ex-wife, tells the Albuquerque Journal that she now believes the father of her two daughters died looking for something that doesn't exist. "We're disappointed that he lost his life because of a treasure hunt," she says. "There's no treasureit's not real. He lost his life for a hoax." Fenn says the treasure is real, and searchers should remember that it is hidden in a place that he was able to get to when he was 80 years old. (Last year, Fenn said the treasure hunt was "out of control")
(Newser)  Long before Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth, Louis and Judith Friedman were traveling the world, discussing environmental issues. Their advocacy came to an end Tuesday when the couplewho once gave Mikhail Gorbachev a solar-powered watchwere found dead in their Connecticut home by an attorney who dropped by for a planned appointment, reports the Hartford Courant. Police won't say how the couple diedthe official causes of death are to be released Wednesday, per Fox 61but "evidence indicates the deaths were apparent suicides," says a police chief. Friends say both suffered from health issues. Louis, 81, was typically housebound by knee and heart problems, while Judith, 80, had just retired from the People's Action for Clean Energy partly over medical concerns.

The couple started speaking out about environmental issues some 25 years ago and their house in Canton"an energy-efficient marvel," per the Courantwas among the first in Connecticut to use solar panels. The Friedmans eventually traveled Europe and Asia advocating for environmental issues and world peace for Washington-based groups EarthKind and Promoting Enduring Peace. After the Chernobyl disaster, Louis Friedman even raised money for victims and organized tours to stress the importance of clean energy. "We've had many people tell us that what we do is too intense and depressing," Louis told the New York Times in 1992. "Well, if anything, we feel invigorated." As one friend puts it, "they set an example for all of us." Says another: "They were awesome, they were just rocks, solid rocks. They lived what they believed. They walked their talk." (Read more Connecticut stories.)
(Newser)  Parents of newborns with rare genetic conditions used to hear that severe birth defects were "incompatible with life." Support groups and social media showing the exceptions have changed the landscapeand so has mounting research suggesting not all such babies will die, the AP reports. The latest study focuses on trisomy 13 and trisomy 18, genetic conditions involving extra copies of certain chromosomes that typically cause mental impairment, facial and organ abnormalities, and other issues. A study published Tuesday in JAMA that includes two decades of data from Ontario, Canada, illustrates how rare the conditions are and how even though most babies still dieof the 428 babies born, only 65 (less than 20%) lived for at least a year; 29 survived at least 10 yearsthere's little previous research on these kids surviving that long, and the new results suggest the birth defects aren't always as lethal as doctors have said. But online images of smiling kids with the conditions have given what some say is "false hope" to parents, causing them to seek aggressive and costly surgeries to correct organ abnormalities.

In the study, about 70% of the 76 infants who had surgery lived for one year afterwardbut whether surgery prolongs survival is unclear, says Dr. Katherine Nelson, the study's lead author. A separate study from nine states found five-year survival rates of 10% to 12% for trisomy 13 and 18 kids, with the highest rates in those who had aggressive treatment, according to recent research in the American Journal of Medical Genetics. Despite the survival of some, an editorial accompanying the Canadian study says it is "ethically justifiable" to let some infants die, with parents' values driving the decisions. When Jared Hiner's daughter Kamdyn was born, doctors told him her chances of living past age 2 were bleakbut Kamdyn is now 14, mentally and physically delayed, but attending school and able to interact with her family. No one talks much about her future, but for the moment, "she's doing fantastic," her dad says. "I don't think [social media sites give] false hope. I think it's more realistic hope that, 'Hey, we can live with this,'" even when the future is uncertain. (Read more discoveries stories.)
(Newser)  Witnesses say two soldiers were only trying to protect a woman from her attacker when they were fatally shot at a South Carolina bar shortly before midnight on Saturday. Friends and family say they wouldn't have had it any other way. Charles Judge Jr. and Jonathon Prins intervened after seeing a man with a gun "kicking and hitting" a woman outside Chapin's Frayed Knot Bar & Grill, the owner tells the Army Times. Judge and Prins had "their hands up trying to talk to him" when they were shot "in cold blood," he adds. Judge, a father of two, was shot twice in the torso. Prins, a father of three, was shot three times in the torso and neck, reports the State. The shooter then fled the scene, leaving the woman uninjured, witnesses say. Joseph Mills, 25, was arrested Sunday and charged with two counts of murder.

But "knowing [Judge], if he knew what the outcome was going to be, he would have done the same thing," his brother-in-law says of the 40-year-old Iraq war veteran and engineering instructor with the SC National Guard. "He'd do it 100 times again," adds his supervisor. "He's a hero." Prins likewise "had the instinct to protect the weak instilled into him over the last 10 years of service," a colleague says of the 29-year-old drill sergeant at Fort Jackson, who'd been on two tours in Afghanistan and one in Iraq, per the Midlands Anchor. His death "is a testament to his bravery and his selfless service." In court on Monday, Mills said he was "very sorry about what happened," per NBC News. "I never meant for it to happen like that. I was being lynched by eight people because I was chasing a girl who grabbed drugs off the seat and took off running." (Read more South Carolina stories.)
(Newser)  Malawi police on Tuesday arrested a man who said he was hired by families to have sex with more than 100 young women, including children, in what was described as ritual cleansing. President Peter Mutharika ordered the arrest of Eric Aniva, who told local and international media he had been paid to have sex with young girls. Aniva also told the media he was HIV-positive. Aniva was charged with multiple cases of defilement, Malawi Police Inspector General Lexten Kachama told the AP. "Out of the many women he had sex with, most of them were under-aged children," Kachama said.

In interviews, Aniva claimed to be a paid sex worker, known as a "hyena," hired by families and village elders in southern Malawi to have sex with young girls once they reach puberty as a form of ritual cleansing. In a statement, Malawi's president said it is unacceptable to commit such violations under the guise of culture. Mutharika said that since the accused said Aniva does not use protection in "his evil acts," he should be investigated for exposing young girls to HIV and "further be charged accordingly." The president also ordered police to investigate all men and parents involved in what he called "this shocking malpractice." A Malawi human rights lawyer, Chrispine Sibande, commended the arrest, but said that it is not enough. "The practice is very rampant in some of parts of the country." (Read more Malawi stories.)
(Newser)  The man who shot Ronald Reagan will soon be a free man. A federal judge has ruled that John Hinckley Jr., now 61, poses no risk to society and can live permanently with his mother in Williamsburg, Va., reports the Washington Post. It could happen as early as next month. Hinckley was found not guilty by reason of insanity after the 1981 shooting that wounded the president and three others, and he has spent most of that time as a patient at St. Elizabeth's psychiatric hospital in DC. In recent years, he's been allowed to live at his 90-year-old mother at her home under supervised conditions for up to 17 days a month.

Hinckley still will be subject to certain conditions under this more permanent leave, and if he violates them, he'll go back to St. Elizabeth's, notes the Post. Among them: He can't go outside of a 50-mile radius of Williamsburg or use social media. Nor can he talk to the media, reports CBS News. The Washingtonian recently provided a snapshot of what his life is now like, at least while he's at his mother's house, and it includes lots of stray cats. (Last year, Hinckley escaped homicide charges in the death of James Brady, who was seriously wounded in the shooting.)
(Newser)  A Wisconsin state appeals court ruled Wednesday that two girls accused of trying to kill their classmate in an attempt to please the fictional horror character "Slender Man" should be tried as adults. The 2nd District Appeals court, in a pair of rulings, affirmed a lower court's determination that it was reasonable to try Anissa Weier and Morgan Geyser as adults. The girls could appeal the rulings to the Wisconsin Supreme Court, reports the AP. Anissa and Morgan were 12 years old in 2014 when investigators say they lured 12-year-old Payton Leutner to a park in Waukesha, about 20 miles west of Milwaukee.

Authorities say the girls stabbed Payton 19 times in an attempted sacrifice to the "Slender Man," who is said to live in a mansion in a forest; authorities say the girls hoped to live in that fictional home after the attack. Payton was left for dead but managed to crawl from a wooded area where she was discovered by a bicyclist. The appeals court said in its Wednesday ruling that the Waukesha County Circuit Court properly examined the fact and rationally determined that the girls should be tried as adults. They're charged with attempted first-degree intentional homicide and convictions could send them to prison for up to 65 years. As juveniles, they could be incarcerated for up to three years and then supervised until age 18. (Read more Slender Man stories.)
(Newser)  Rumors swirling that Donald Trump may have teamed up with Vladimir Putin to take down Hillary Clinton are just thatrumors, says the Republican nominee. "I don't know anything about it  It's ridiculous," Trump tells CBS News. "I mean I have nothing to do with Russia. I don't have any jobs in Russia. I'm all over the world but we're not involved in Russia." Responding to queries about whether he's receiving funds from Russia or Putin, Trump adds, "I never met Putin, I have nothing to do with Russia whatsoever." Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort backs up that position, though he says Trump won't be releasing his taxes as proof.

"Trump has said that his taxes are under audit and he will not be releasing them," he tells CBS This Morning. "It has nothing to do with Russia." Though Trump hasn't put a date on a potential release, Manafort's comments suggest voters won't get a look before the election, notes a post at MSNBC. As for the allegations of ties to Russia, conservative columnist George Will has asserted that Trump "is deeply involved in dealing with Russia oligarchs," notes the Hill. Manafort denied that in his interview. (Read more Donald Trump stories.)
(Newser)  Donald Trump had one of his most buzzworthy news conferences yet on Wednesday, fielding questions on Israel, immigration, and the recent police shooting deaths of two black men to Florida's algae problem. But the "most colorful" parts, per the Miami Herald, came when Trump tried to tie together Hillary Clinton's email issues, hacked DNC emails released Friday by WikiLeaks, and Russia, which the Clinton camp says was behind the DNC hack to bolster Trump (an assessment experts have said looks likely, per Politico). "Russia, if you're listening, I hope you're able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing," Trump said, posting a similar tweet a short time later. "I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press. When an NBC reporter prodded Trump on whether he was asking the US' one-time biggest foe to hack Clinton, Trump replied, "That's up to the president" before telling her to "be quiet," per the New York Times.

Some on Twitter asked if Trump's requestwhich the Times called "an extraordinary moment"amounted to treason, and reaction from Clinton's side was swift. "This has to be the first time that a major presidential candidate has actively encouraged a foreign power to conduct espionage against his political opponent," adviser Jake Sullivan says. "That's not hyperbole, those are just the facts. This has gone from being a matter of curiosity, and a matter of politics, to being a national security issue." VP nominee Mike Pence helped Trump double down, adding that Democrats are hyperfocusing on the source rather than "the basic fact that they've been exposed as a party" that "rigs" elections. Politico lists other Trump lines from the presser, including remarks about "sleazeball" and "pervert" Anthony Weiner, noting, "I don't know who Putin is. He said one nice thing about me.  I never met Putin." (Read more Donald Trump stories.)
(Newser)  A Wisconsin police officer has resigned after it was revealed last month that he had sex 98 times while on duty and spent four to six hours per work day on personal calls using his Hudson Police Department phone, the Hudson Star-Observer reports. Back in April, a woman filed a complaint against officer John Worden, claiming the two had been seeing each other romantically for weeks while Worden was on duty. According to WSAU, the relationship had ended and the woman was thinking about filing a restraining order against Worden. The police department launched an internal investigation into Worden, who claimed the woman was stalking him. The investigation revealed something quite different.

In addition to nearly 100 instances of on-the-job sexwhich the woman claimed regularly happened inside Worden's police SUVand improper use of his department phone, the investigation found Worden falsified his work logs 146 times, lied to his supervisor, and didn't meet performance expectations (the department's, not the woman's). This behavior apparently affected his police work, as Worden only made 27 arrests and gave 25 tickets in the entirety of 2015 while earning $63,000. Worden resigned May 3 after eight years with the department and believes he'll never work in law enforcement again. "I screwed up," he tells the Star-Observer. "It's ruined my life." But he says it's unfair that someone went to the media with the details of his resignation. (Read more police misconduct stories.)
(Newser)  A father drowned Monday along the North Carolina coast trying to save his three daughters, WJHL reports. Rick Brown's girls were caught in a rip current off Shackleford Banks, and the 35-year-old Piney Flats, Tenn., man was unable to get back to shore on his own after trying to retrieve them. The girls were ultimately rescued by a boater. An off-duty paramedic in a nearby boat came to Brown's aid and started CPR, but Brown went into cardiac arrest and was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital. His employer said the Brown family had been vacationing in Emerald Isle, report WNCN.

Meanwhile, about 100 miles away in North Carolina's Wrightsville Beach, a 58-year-old swimmer is missing. Chuck Kuebler set off from his home around 7:45am Tuesday and never returned. One beachgoer saw a swimmer during the 8am hour, but it's unclear if it was Kuebler, who was wearing black trunks with a yellow stripe. Some of his items were found on the strand near a beach access point. A search is underway, Star News Online reports. (Read more North Carolina stories.)
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Ahmedabad:

Over 1,000 people from Dalit community have expressed their desire to convert to Buddhism after the Una incident. Disheartened after the brutal thrashing of Dalits in Una, these residents of Banaskantha district stated that there was no point in continuing with Hinduism, if they are not treated as equals.

These Dalit community members have even filled up the forms giving their consent for the religious conversion, which will soon be submitted to the government authorities.

Meanwhile, various dalit rights organisations have announced to organise a mass gathering of the community here on July 31 to decide the road map of their movement.

Dalits across the state are deeply pained by the recent incident in Una. It shows that we are still subjected to discrimination and various atrocities in the name of caste, religion and profession. Thus, several dalits from Banaskantha have expressed their desire to covert to Buddhism, local dalit leader and BDS secretary Dinesh Makwana said.

In the last three days, thousands of dalits took part in the protest rallies here. During our meetings, we came to the conclusion that there is no meaning in practicing Hinduism if we are not treated as equal. Thus, we have distributed forms among dalits, who wish to convert. So far, around 1,000 such forms have been submitted back to us, Makwana said.Conversion in Gujarat is governed by the Gujarat Freedom of Religion Act, which came into force in 2008.

According to the Act, it is mandatory for a person, who wants to convert, to take permission from the district collector by submitting an application with a prescribed form.According to Makwana, these forms, given to BDS by around 1,000 dalits, will be submitted to the Collector soon.

We expect that some more dalits will join our movement and fill up their forms for conversion. After collecting all such forms, we will decide a date to submit it to the Collector, added Makwana.

On July 11, some Dalit youths from Mota Samadhiyala village in Una taluka of Gir-Somnath district were flogged by cow protection vigilantes when these dalits were skinning a dead cow. The accused thrashed them alleging that they had killed the cow. After a video of the incident went viral, it sparked off violent protests across Gujarat.

Meanwhile, talking about the planned mass gathering on July 31 in Ahmedabad, Jignesh Mewani of Una Dalit Atyachar Ladal Samiti, said, We have sought permission from the administration to organise a mass gathering of dalits on July 31 near collector office. Even if they dont give permission, thousands of dalits will converge here on that day. Dalits will decide the future road map of our agitation during this convention.

To make this government understand the importance of dalits, we have asked more than 1 lakh cleaning staff (safai kamdars) of various civic bodies to stay away from their work for at least on week. We also want agriculture land for dalits, as they no longer want to continue their profession of skinning dead animals, Mewani added.

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Philadelphia:

Democratic Party is all set to announce an Indian-American as one of the emerging leaders within the party. Indian-American Raja Krishnamoorthi, a Democratic Congressional candidate from Illinois, is among only two Congressional candidates to have been invited on to the stage of ongoing democratic National Convention here as the partys rising star or emerging leader.

Stephanie Murphy from Florida is the other Congressional candidate to be recognised by the Democratic party in this category.Having won the Democratic Partys Congressional primary in Illinois on March 16, Krishnamoorthi faces Peter DiCianni of the Republican party who ran unopposed during the primary.

He has raised a whopping USD 1.6 million more than his opponents and is considered to be a heavy favourite.If elected, he would join Ami Bera in the US House of Representatives in the next Congress beginning January 2017.

Bera, meanwhile, is seeking his third-term in the November general elections.Krishnamoorthi has the distinction of being endorsed by US President Barack Obama.

I know hell fight hard in Congress to create more good jobs, empower more Americans to start businesses, and help working families afford to put their children through college, Obama said in his endorsement last month.

He has also been endorsed by other top Democratic leaders including Nancy Pelosi, the former Speaker of the US House of Representatives.Krishnamoorthi previously was the policy director and a senior advisor for Barack Obamas 2004 US Senate campaign, and also served as an advisor to Obamas 2008 Presidential campaign.

He served as Deputy Treasurer of Illinois from 2007-2009 under Illinois Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias, and in 2010 ran for the Democratic nomination for Illinois State Comptroller, losing to David E.

Miller by less than one percent of the vote.Born in New Delhi on July 19, 1973, his parents immigrated to Buffalo New York when he was three months old.Krishnamurthy currently serves as president of Sivananthan Labs and Episolar Inc, small businesses that develop and sell products in the national security and renewable energy industries.

He is a co-founder of InSPIRE, a non-profit organisation that provides training to Illinois students and veterans in solar technology, and was formerly Vice-Chairman of the Illinois Innovation Council, whose mission is to promote innovative technologies that support economic growth and job creation in Illinois.

The eighth Congressional district has a strong presence of Asian-Americans with a sizable population of Indian-Americans.

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New Delhi:

Union Ministers Venkaiah Naidu and Manohar Parrikar unveiled a life-size statue of Dr APJ Abdul Kalam in Rameswaram on his first death anniversary on Wednesday. The statue was unveiled at Peikarumbu, his burial site in Rameswaram Island. The Ministry of Defence has planned a host of events on the former presidents death anniversary.



The inauguration of an exhibition named Mission of Life depicting the life of Kalam and his achievements towards nation building will also take place later in the day.

Dr Kalam passed away last year while delivering a lecture at the IIM-Shillong in Meghalaya due to cardiac arrest. A lecture series has been organised by IIM-Shillong.

Institute director Amitabha De said, Dr Kalams legacy is to make the planet more livable, not only for the present, but for future generations as well. To pay our respects to the legend, we would name the auditorium in our new campus after the former president with a life-size statue of him to be placed outside it.

In 1997, Kalam was awarded the Bharat Ratna, Indias highest civilian honour.

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New Delhi :

Another Aam Aadami Party leader has landed in trouble. Income Tax officials today raided the residence of AAP MLA Kartar Singh Tanwar.

According to reports, the IT officials reached Singh's residence at 8:30 am and the raid is still on.

Sources said I-T sleuths reached Tanwar's premises and locked them down. Tanwar is AAP MLA from Chhatarpur.

Arvind Kejriwal-led party has been under constant fire as its leaders have been booked in a series of offences in past few days. AAP partys Okhla MLA Amantullah Khan in under police custody for allegedly molesting a woman in his residence. Another party leader Naresh Yadav was also arrested in Punjab last week for allegedly desecrating Sikh holy book in Amritsar district.



AAP Party has accused BJP led Union Government of running a smear campaign against the ruling party in National Capital. Partys another MLA Dilip Pandey today took to twitter to express his resentment. "Modiji had unleashed CBI, ACB, DP (Delhi Police) earlier, now IT (Income Tax) too. AAP won't bow down, won't bend," tweeted Pandey.

Disheartend by past performnce, ModiJi seems to b improvng hs strike rate nw. Almst an AAP MLA everyday, to keep democratic principles awayY  Dilip K. Pandey (@dilipkpandey) July 27, 2016

Disheartend by past performnce, ModiJi seems to b improvng hs strike rate nw. Almst an AAP MLA everyday, to keep democratic principles awayY  Dilip K. Pandey (@dilipkpandey) July 27, 2016

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Bhopal:

Two weeks after four Dalit men were stripped and beaten with sticks for allegedly transporting beef in Gujarat, another similar incident has been reported from Mandsaur in Madhya Pradesh. This time, two women were slapped and kicked by a mob led by cow vigilantes at a railway station in Madhya Pradesh on Tuesday for allegedly carrying beef.

The incident was also filmed by one of the onlookers, who did not come forward for help. The policemen in the video are seen making half-hearted attempts to control the crowd.

According to the police, they were at the railway station to arrest the women after a tip off about them carrying a large quantity of beef to sell. Even after the two women were caught by police, a crowd gathered at the railway station assaulted them.



The people in the crowd, who slapped the women, are heard screaming "Gau Mata Ki Jai (Hail holy cow)" in the video. According to police sources, 30 kg of meat was recovered from the women. However, after examining, a local doctor pronounced it buffalo meat, not beef, claim the police.



While the women have been charged as they did not have a permit to sell meat, no action has been taken against the those who assaulted them. State home minister Bhupendra Singh said: "No can take law in their own hands. A probe will be conducted."

Meanwhile, the issue was raised in Rajya Sabha on Wednesday.

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Udaipur:

Hardik Patel, Gujarati quota stir leader, has expressed fear that he might be killed in a fake encounter in Rajasthan, where he is staying.

The police have confined me and I fear that I could be killed in a fake encounter while being termed a terrorist. Probably, the home minister of Rajasthan is acting (against me) at the behest of BJP president Amit Shah, he told reports last evening.

The 22-year-old leader said the Gujarat High Court has directed him to not enter the state for the next six months but the police has not allowed him to move out of the place where he is staying here in Rajasthan.

Patel also said he would support the communities which have raised reservation demands in Rajasthan.

The demand for reservation has also been raised in TSP area in Rajasthan and by Gujjars and Rajputs as well and if necessary I will stand by them, he said.

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Paris:

French President Francois Hollande today rejected opposition calls to further harden anti-terrorism legislation after the countrys second jihadist attack in two weeks. Restricting our freedoms will not make the fight against terrorism more effective, he said, adding that changes made to legislation already gave authorities sufficient capacity to act.



He was speaking after two jihadists attacked a church in a Normandy town, killing an elderly Catholic priest by slitting his throat, and severely injuring another person. Hollandes predecessor and opposition Chief Nicolas Sarkozy earlier called for the government to thoroughly change the strategy of our counterattack.



Our enemy has no taboos, no limits, no morals, no borders, he said, asking the government to adopt proposals made by his right-wing Republicans party.



The opposition wants anyone suspect of being radicalised to be placed in detention and to prevent convicted terrorists from being released from prison after having served time, if they are still considered dangerous.



The Republicans also wants to make it a criminal offence to have spent time in the field of terrorist operations, namely Syria and Iraq. However those returning from jihad are already charges with criminal conspiracy with a terrorist enterprise.



The government is using all human and material means to fight this threat, with a mobilisation of police, gendarmes and soldiers never before seen in the Fifth Republic, said Hollande.



The president has urged unity in a country poisoned by bitter political blame-trading over security failings after a Tunisian national mowed down a crowd celebrating Bastille Day on July 14, killing 84.



What the terrorists want is to divide us, separate us, to tear us apart. We must avoid one-upmanship, arguments, conflation, suspicions, he said. This war will be long. Our democracy is the target, and it will be our shield. Let us stand together. We will win this war.

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New Delhi:

Uttarakhand Chief Minister Harish Rawat on Wednesday confirmed that Chinese troops have infiltrated in Chamoli district. However, Rawat said that the troops did not touch an important canal in the area. Good thing is the Chinese have not touched an important canal there, Harish Rawat told ANI.

He said he was assured that the centre will take note of the issue. I am sure central government will take required cognizance of the issue, he was quoted as saying by ANI.

Minister of State for Home Affairs, Kiren Rijiju said, We have to check whether this incident was intrusion or not, only then can any action be taken.

This is not the first time that a report of Chinese incursion in Uttarakhand has emerged as similar attempts have been made in the past on several occasions. The state shares a 350 kilometer long boundary with China.

In August last year, the Chinese troops had entered Chamolis Bara Hoti area near the Indo-China border in Uttarakhand.

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New Delhi:

Apple CEO Tim Cook has said the tech giant is looking forward to setting up retail stores in India to tap into the booming smartphone market here.



India is now one of our fastest growing markets. In the first three quarters of this fiscal year, our iPhone sales in India were up 51 per cent year-on-year, Apple CEO Tim Cook said on an investor call.



He added the company has announced setting up of a design and development accelerator to support Indian developers creating innovative applications for iOS and opened a new office in Hyderabad to accelerate maps development.



Were looking forward to opening retail stores in India down the road, and we see huge potential for that vibrant country, he said without disclosing further details.



Cook, who visited India in May, had discussed issues including manufacturing and setting up retail stores in the country with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.



On a personal note, during the past quarter I visited China and India, and I am very encouraged about our growth prospects in those countries, he said.



Recently the government issued new norms allowing single-brand retail trading and exemption from local sourcing for state-of-the-art and cutting edge technology with a waiver for three years, and the option to extend it for five years.



Sources had said Apple may have to submit a fresh application for the same. The Cupertino-based tech giant had yesterday reported its revenues rising to USD 42.4 billion in the third quarter, driven by markets including India, Russia, Brazil, Turkey and Canada.
New Delhi:

One of the interesting findings suggest that two tribal communities of the Andaman Islands, Jarawas and Onges, may have evolved from an unidentified human ancestor. The latest genetic analysis done by a joint team of Indian and Spanish scientists has suggested this. However, this claim is not yet supported by any fossil evidence but is sensational as it will add a fresh, unknown branch to human ancestry.



The discovery was made by scientists at the National Institute of Bio-Medical Genetics (NIBMG), Kalyani, West Bengal, in association with those from the Pompeu Fabra University, Barcelona, Spain. Scientists analyzed ten genetic samples derived from Jarawas and Onges in the Andamans along with 60 samples drawn from different ethnic groups across India.

The finding is published in the scientific journal Nature Genetics.



Around 400,000 years ago, an ancestor of modern humans arose in Africa and migrated west towards Europe and east towards China and India. Those who went west evolved into the Neanderthals whereas those who migrated east developed into the Denisovans.



In the meantime, ancestral humans continued to evolve in Africa and about 50,000 years ago modern humans also started spreading out of Africa. Subsequently, they encountered earlier species like Neanderthals and Denisovans and interbred with them. All this shuffled up the genomes significantly but the modern technology can bring out the intermixing. The research team has done the same.



Besides, research by different scientists earlier showed that most people outside Africa derived 1 to 4% of their genetic material from Neanderthals, except in communities in Pacific Islands and Australian aborigines. They have up to 6% genetic contribution from Denisovans.



Furthermore, other aspects of the NIBMG's research show that the Andamanese are closer to Indians in their genetic makeup and likely came in the same wave of migration from Africa as others in the region.



The study also mentioned that the short stature of the Jarawas and Onges is likely due to natural selection and not just because their founders were short.

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New Delhi:

Delhi Police crime branch has arrested Ramesh Bhardwaj in connection with Aam Aadmi Party worker Soni's death case.



Soni 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.



Condemning the tragic death of woman activist, NCW had also raised demand of 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 mentioned.



(With PTI inputs)

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Qamishli:

Islamic State has claimed responsibility for twin bombing at a predominantly Kurdish town in northern Syria on Wednesday, killing 44 people and wounding dozens more.



Media reports said a truck loaded with large quantities of explosives blew up on the western edge of the town of Qamishli, followed by an explosives-packed motorcycle a few minutes later in the same area.



The blasts caused massive damage in the area and rescue teams were working to recover victims from under the rubble, the SANA news agency said.



Qamishli, near the Turkish border, is mainly controlled by Kurds but Syrian government forces are present and control the town's airport.



Syrian state TV broadcast footage showing people running away from a mushroom of gray smoke rising over the town and others running amid wrecked or burnt cars.



Qamishli resident Suleiman Youssef, a writer, told The Associated Press by telephone that he heard the first explosion from few miles away. He said the blasts levelled several buildings to the ground and many people were trapped under the rubble.



"Most of the buildings at the scene of the explosion have been heavily damaged because of the strength of the blast," he said.



The Islamic State group, in a statement published by the IS-linked Aamaq news agency, said it carried out the attack in Qamishli, describing it as a truck bombing that struck a complex of Kurdish offices. The extremist group has carried out several bombings in Kurdish areas in Syria in the past.



The predominantly Kurdish US-backed Syria Democratic Forces have been the main force fighting IS in northern Syria, capturing significant territory from the extremists over the past two years.



Today's explosion came as US-backed Kurdish forces pressed ahead with their offensive to take the IS-held town of Manbij, also in northern Syria but further to the east of Qamishli.

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Vijayawada:

Andhra Pradesh government has requested the Centre to release the long pending Rs 7,269.46 crore central sales tax compensation to the state. State Finance Minister Yanamala Ramakrishnudu made this plea to Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley at the Empowered Committee meeting of Finance Ministers in New Delhi, a press release from the state's Information and Public Relations Department said.

Andhra Pradesh is scheduled to get Rs 935.74 crore for 2012-13 fiscal year, Rs 2,247.98 crore for 2013-14 and Rs 618.19 crore till June in 2014-15 fiscal before the bifurcation of the state.

"Andhra Pradesh's share of CST compensation before the bifurcation (in June 2014) is Rs 3,801.92 crore. "Post-bifurcation, we have to get Rs 1,467.54 crore (July 2014 to March 2015) and approximately Rs 2,000 crore in 2015-16," Yanamala said.

"The Union Finance Minister promised to release the first of the two instalments for 2012-13 shortly. We have requested him to release the balance amount also at the earliest," Yanamala added.

At the Empowered Committee meeting, Andhra Pradesh pointed out that Clause 19 of the 122nd Constitution Amendment Bill (for GST), passed by the Lok Sabha, raised doubts that the states might not be compensated for the revenue losses for five years. "Hence it should be modified such that Parliament passes a law providing compensation for minimum five years.

"States have a bad experience in getting CST compensation promptly from the Centre. We insist that the compensation for revenue loss due to introduction of GST shall be granted in a time-bound manner every month or at least once in a quarter. "Otherwise, it will have a huge impact on the ways and means position of the state government," said Yanamala.

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New Delhi:

Magistrates cannot ask the police to investigate a private criminal defamation complaint as it is the complainant who needs to prove the case, the Supreme Court today said while prima facie finding fault with a lower court order asking Maharashtra cops to probe the defamation case against Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi.



Gandhi, facing a defamation complaint for his remarks allegedly accusing RSS for assassination of Mahatma Gandhi, has sought its quashing from the apex court which had observed that the leader should not have resorted to collective denunciation of an organisation (RSS) and will have to face trial if he does not express regret.



A bench of Justices Dipak Misra and R F Nariman, at the outset, referred to an earlier judgement delivered on a batch of pleas, including the one filed by BJP leader Subramanian Swamy and Gandhi each, challenging the constitutional validity of penal defamation law and said that police cannot be asked by judicial magistrates to probe a private defamation complaint.



It also prima facie found fault with the order of the Maharashtra lower court asking the police to inquire into the allegations against Gandhi and said that instead of quashing the case, it may remand the matter back to the lower court.



We have said in the Subramanium Swamy case that the police has no role in private criminal complaints...whatever has to be established, it has to be established by the man (complainant) himself. The magistrates cannot call for a report from the police, the bench said.



It asked senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for the Congress leader, to read relevant portions of the judgemnent, penned by Justice Misra, in the Subramanian Swamy case, dealing with the power of police and magistrates in criminal defamation cases.



Police has no role in criminal defamation. It cannot lodge an FIR and a Magistrate cannot seek a inquiry report from police under sections 156 (3) and 202 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. The Magistrate has to himself make inquiry into the allegations...this is altogether a different process, it said.



The bench then deferred the hearing to August 23 and asked the counsel for both sides including senior advocate U R Lalit to address it on legal proposition with regard to power of magistrates and police in such cases.

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New Delhi:

The NDA government has given highest priority to provide help and assistance to distressed Indians abroad, including those who are defrauded in marriage, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said in Lok Sabha today.



Swaraj said her Ministry has been receiving petitions from Indian women stating that their non-resident Indian spouse has hidden the fact that he is already married or has a partner.



She said such complaints pertain to abandonment of the Indian women either in India or in the foreign country by the NRI spouse after the marriage. Since the NRI spouse resides outside India, following legal and other constraints are faced while addressing this complex issue, she said.



Swaraj said inspite of all these constrains, the External Affairs Ministry is taking various steps to provide assistance to the aggrieved women. Our government has given highest priority to provide help and assistance to distressed Indians abroad, irrespective of their castes, creed and religion, she said in reply to a supplementary related to community-wise break-up of distressed Indians.



The Minister said since the launch of her Ministrys grievance redressal portal MADAD on February 2015, as many as 246 grievances under marital dispute category have been received of which 172 have been addressed.



Since January 2016, the External Affairs Ministry has received another 362 petitions by post and email related to NRI marriages of which 344 have been addressed, she said.

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New Delhi:

CBSE Class 10th and 12th Supplementary Results 2016 is likely to be declared soon. The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) is expected to announce the Supplementary results on its official website cbseresults.nic.in in the third week of August.



CBSE said in its official notification said that, The result of the Class 10th and Class 12th Supplementary Examination 2016 is likely to be declared in the third week of August, 2016. This is only a probable date for declaration of result. No enquiries about the actual date of declaration of result will be attended to.



The CBSE Class 10 Supplementary Examination 2016 was held on July 16 to July 23, 2016. Moreover practical examination was also held for the students who had failed the practical exam. Similarly, the Class 12th Supplementary Examination 2016 for all subjects was also held on July 16, 2016. The CBSE said the results of Class 12th Supplementary Examination 2016 will be declared in second week of August.



CBSE conducts Supplementary exams for Class 10th as well as Class 10th every year for the candidates who fail in the annual examination conducted in the month of February/March. As per the CBSE rules, a student failing in one of the five subjects of external examination is placed in Compartment in that subject provided he or she qualifies in all the subjects of internal valuation.



Subsequently, the student may reappear at the Supplementary examination held in July the same year and may avail second chance in March/April and third chance in July of next year. The candidate will be declared PASS only if he or she qualifies the supplementary subjects.



The candidates practical marks/internal assessment marks obtained in the Main examination will be carried over till the third chance of class X or XII supplementary examination.

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New Delhi:

To upgrade Sri Lankas communications system India has approved a USD 318 million loan for it. The money will be used to improve the signal system from Maho to Anuradhapura in the north central province and from Anuradhapura to Omanthai in the north, said ayantha Karunathilake Sri Lankan government spokesman and minister.

The money will also be used to buy six power sets with air-conditioned carriages, 10 engines and 160 carriages, 30 wagons with oil tanks and 20 container carrying wagons.

The Cabinet had approved a proposal by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe to enter into an agreement with Exim Bank of India for the loan. Earlier also India has given loans of about USD 996 million to develop Sri Lanka's railway service.

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New Delhi:

Just days after she said that her fiance was cheating on her,L indsay Lohan has reportedly called off her engagement with businessman Egor Tarabasov.

Earlier, the actress had shared some posts on Instagram, Snapchat and Twitter accusing her fiance of cheating on her when he didn't return home after a night of partying.

They are taking a break, she didn't want him trespassing in her apartment, but he went in and took all his possessions, a source close to Lohan said.

The actress moved to London in 2014 following difficult times in the US and managed to start a new life, and friends are worried about her going off the rails again now she's not with Tarabasov, 23.

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Lucknow:

BSP supremo Mayawati on Wednesday suspended two rebel MLAs Romi Sahni and Brijesh Verma from Pallia and Bilgram Mallawan seat of Hardoi district respectively.



The party cracked the whip on Palia MLA Romi Sahni and Mallawan MLA Brijesh Verma "taking a serious note of the baseless allegations and indiscipline" and suspended them with immediate effect.



The duo MLAs have been suspended over charges of "indiscipline" and "anti-party activities". The decision on the leaders came after a meeting was held at party headquarter's in Lucknow.



"They have been suspended and directed not to take part in any party programme," state BSP chief Ram Achal Rajbhar said in a press release.



MLAs Romi Sahni and Brijesh Verma on Wednesday criticised party workers for sloganeering against expelled BJP leader Dayashankar Singh's family and accused the party leadership of demanding "huge sums" for allotting tickets for the 2017 UP Assembly polls.



"We condemn Singh's remarks against BSP chief Mayawati and also oppose the slogans raised during the BSP protest...his 12-year-old daughter cannot be punished for what Singh has said...our sympathy is with the family," Sahni and Verma, the MLAs from Palia and Mallawan respectively, told reporters in Lucknow.

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New Delhi:

Aam Aadmi Party MLA Amanatullah Khan on Wednesday moved a session court in Delhi seeking bail. He has been arrested for allegedly threatening a woman after she had visited his residence to raise the issue of power cuts.



The Okhla MLA, who is in judicial custody, moved the bail plea before an Additional Sessions Judge who has fixed the matter for hearing on Thursday.



The legislator had been denied the relief by a magisterial court yesterday on the ground that he might influence witnesses and hamper investigation if released.



Khans bail application, filed through advocate Madan Lal, contended that he is innocent and is an MLA who has to serve society/public.



His counsel said Khan is a responsible man and he is ready to abide by whatever conditions the court would impose and that no purpose would be served by keeping him in jail.



The MLA, who was produced before a duty magistrate last evening, was sent to Tihar jail for 14 days after the police sought the same submitting that the complainant was constantly being threatened and harassed at the behest of the accused.



Khan was first detained for questioning and then arrested on July 24, a day after he alleged in a press conference that the woman was pressurised by the police into giving a false statement against him.



According to the police, on July 22, the woman had recorded her statement before a magistrate under Section 164 of the CrPC alleging that when she was returning from the MLAs residence, a vehicle, in which Khan was sitting, tried mowing her down.



She also claimed that a motorcycle tried to run over her when she was on her way to the court to record the statement.



Prior to that, she had on July 19 filed a complaint with police alleging that at the AAP MLAs residence in Jamia Nagar, a youth had on July 10 abused her and threatened that she would be killed if she did not stop politicising the matter.



The woman, a resident of Jasola, had said that she had telephoned Khan on July 10 and later went to his Batla House residence to raise the issue of power cuts with him after which she was allegedly threatened by the youth.



An FIR was subsequently registered in this regard under sections 506 (criminal intimidation) and 509 (word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman) of the IPC.



After her statement to the magistrate, Section 308 (Attempt to commit culpable homicide) of IPC was added to the FIR.



Khan had, however, said he did not even know if the woman came to his residence.

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New Delhi:

The man who was driving the jeep used by Bollywood star Salman Khan during an alleged deer hunt in Rajasthan in 1998 today stuck to his claim that the actor had shot the animal.

The statement by Harish Dulani, who was reported to be missing, came two days after the 50-year-old actor was acquitted by the Rajasthan High Court in two cases related to poaching of Chinkaras in Jodhpur in 1998.

Dulani also maintained that he was not absconding but was only under fear due to threats.

I stick to the statement I made before the magistrate 18 years ago that Salman got off the car and shot the deer. I was not absconding but I was scared due to several threats received by me and my father, he told a National channel.

Due to fear I went away to my relatives place in Jodhpur. We had asked for protection but did not get it. If I had police protection, I could have given a statement. That was what I always intended, he added.

The high court had held that the pellets recovered from the Chinkaras were not fired from Khans licensed gun. Dulani, the prosecutions only witness in the poaching cases, was reported missing since 2002, which weakened the prosecutions case against the movie star.

The driver also said that he has been punished for being Salmans driver. I have been punished for being Salmans driver. I am living my life in fear, he said. Khan was jailed in 2007 for nearly a week for shooting an endangered Chinkara(gazelle) in 1998.

While arguing the case in the high court, Khans lawyer had contended that the actor had been falsely framed in these cases, merely on the statements of Dulani, the driver of the vehicle, which was allegedly used in poaching in both these cases.

The lawyer argued that Dulani was never available to them for cross-examination and hence his statements could not be relied upon in the conviction of Khan.

He had also contended that both the cases have been built on circumstantial evidences and there was no eye-witness or any material evidence against Salman.

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London:

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday spoke to newly elected PM Theresa May over the phone to congratulate her on assumption of office. He also mentioned how India is looking forward for "stronger and closer" bilateral ties, including trade and defence.



During the telephonic conversation yesterday, Modi also appreciated the UK's consistent support to India in various global fora, the MEA spokesperson said today.



Thanking Prime Minister Modi, May said she looked forward to working closely with him for developing stronger bilateral ties and enhancing cooperation in tackling pressing global challenges.



Modi also recalled his memorable visit to the UK last November.



A statement from Downing Street in London said that trade and investment formed the central feature of the discussions between the two leaders during their conversation.



"Trade and investment featured strongly in the conversation with Prime Minister Modi who expressed his hope that the relationship would become even stronger and closer in the future, particularly given the shared values and common interest," the statement said.



May took over after the resignation of David Cameron following the UK's vote to leave the European Union (EU) in a referendum on June 23.



She sought to highlight London and the UK's continued importance within the India-UK relationship during her first official conversation with Modi.



"The Prime Minister [May] pointed out that the launch next month of the first rupee-denominated bond in London is a concrete example of our close and growing economic cooperation and underlines that the city remains a global hub for innovative finance," Downing Street said.



"The Prime Minister also emphasised the UK's continued commitment to our defence and security partnership and support for India's increasing role in international fora. Finally, both welcomed the valuable contribution of the Indian diaspora to the UK," the statement added.

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New Delhi:

Amid the continuing unrest in Kashmir, India today asked Pakistan to stop cross border terror activities and asserted it will take all necessary steps to safeguard national security and territorial integrity.

The government told Parliament that terrorism emanating from territories under Pakistans control remained Indias core concern and that the Pathankot attack and strikes in various places in Kashmir have highlighted the continued threat of cross border terrorism and infiltration.

In response to Pakistans recent statements in support of known terrorists killed in India, Government has asked Pakistan to stop all terrorism and anti-India activities in Pakistan or territories under its control, Minister of State for External Affairs V K Singh, said replying to a question in Lok Sabha.

He said Pakistan has been told that it cannot be in denial on the impact of terrorism on the bilateral ties, and it must expeditiously bring to justice all those guilty of Mumbai terror attack as well as of the Pathankot strike.

The Minister said the government remained continuously vigilant and firm in its resolve to take all necessary steps to effectively safeguard Indias security and territorial integrity.

Singh said Pakistan has been in illegal and forcible occupation of approximately 78,000 sq kms of Indian territory in Jammu and Kashmir.

China continues to be in illegal occupation of approximately 38,000 sq kms in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir. In addition, under the so-called Sino-Pakistan Boundary Agreement of 1963, Pakistan illegally ceded 5180 sq kms of Indian territory in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir to China, he said.

About infrastructure projects being implemented by China in PoK, he said the government was aware about it. Government keeps a constant watch on all developments having a bearing on Indias national interest and takes all necessary measures to safeguard it.

Replying to a separate question, Singh said the government was aware of reports that the Tibet Military Commands political rank will be elevated by China to one level higher than its counterpart provincial-level military commands, and that it will come directly under the leadership of Peoples Liberation Army (PLA).

Government is also aware of infrastructural development in the border areas on the Chinese side. Government has seen media reports, which are not authenticated, that China plans to extend its rail link to Nepal which might involve building a tunnel under Mount Everest.

Government keeps a constant watch on all developments having a bearing on Indias security and takes all necessary measures to safeguard it, he said.

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Coup attempt in Turkey raised concerns over safety and security of U.S. nuclear stockpile in country

(NationalSecurity.news) Most of the news about the recent coup attempt in Turkey focused on political ramifications and leadership moving forward, but relatively little coverage was given to what could have been a disaster had the coup succeeded: The vulnerability of the stockpile of U.S. nuclear weapons in eastern Europe, the largest on the continent.

As reported by the New Yorker, the weapons are stored at the Incirlik Airbase, in southeastern Turkey, and is NATOs largest nuclear weapons storage facility. On Saturday morning after the coup began, the U.S. Embassy in Ankara issued an Emergency Message for U.S. Citizens, warning that power had been cut to Incirlik that that local authorities are denying movements on to and off of the base.

Personnel at the base switched over to backup generators for power. U.S. warplanes stationed there were not permitted from taking off or landing. The security threat level was raised to FPCON DELTA, the highest state of alert, which is usually declared after a terrorist attack or when one is believed imminent.

On Sunday, the base commander, Gen. Bekir Ercan Van, and nine other Turkish officers at Incirlik were detained for allegedly supporting the coup. As of July 18, American flights had resumed at the base, but the power was still cut off.

The director of the Nuclear Information Project at the Federation of American Scientists, Hans M. Kristensen, told the New Yorker that the underground vaults at Incirlik contain around 50 B-61 hydrogen bombs, which is greater than 25 percent of the nuclear weapons in the NATO stockpile. The nuclear yield of each bomb can be adjusted to suit the particular mission for which it would be deployed.

The Hiroshima atomic bomb and an explosive force equal to around 15 kilotons of TNT; by comparison, the yield of a B-61 can be dialed up and adjusted from between 0.3 kilotons and 170 kilotons.

The airbase was built by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers after World War II. When Turkey joined NATO in 1952, it became a critical airbase during the Cold War. As for the nuclear weapons stored there, the stockpile has been reduced in recent decades, first under President George H. W. Bush and again under his son, George W. Bush. Besides Incirlik, nuclear bombs are also stored at bases in Italy, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands.

But the security of the weapons is a legitimate concern, especially during a coup attempt but really, anytime, as the New Yorker reported:

In 2010, peace activists climbed over a fence at the Kleine Brogel Airbase, in Belgium, cut through a second fence, entered a hardened shelter containing nuclear-weapon vaults, placed anti-nuclear stickers on the walls, wandered the base for an hour, and posted a video of the intrusion on YouTube. The video showed that the Belgian soldier who finally confronted them was carrying an unloaded rifle.

With the right tools and training, and a couple hours time, a person could open one of the storage vaults, remove a weapon and bypass the PAL inside of it. In seconds, an explosive device could be placed atop the weapon, destroying it and releasing a lethal cloud of radiation.

For that and other reasons, including the war in neighboring Syria, security at Incirlik has been upgraded recently. A major upgrade in the perimeter fence around the nuclear weapons storage area has been completed. Due to the bases proximity to Syria  about 70 miles  and an uptick in terrorist incidents in Turkey, the U.S. military issued an ordered departure of all family members of American forces on the base. Currently, about 2,000 troops remain there.

Image: U.S. Air Force.

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Obama has put in place the mechanisms to transform America from a constitutional republic into a socialist pit of chaos and economic calamity

(Bugout.news) Upon leaving office, President Obama has committed to doing something that every other president in modern history did not do and would never have done: Remain in Washington, D.C. Most presidents cant wait to get out of what they and their families consider a prison of sorts, but not Obama. He wants to stay.

He says that is because he does not want to take his daughters out of the very private, exclusive Sidwell Friends school they are currently attending. Other presidents have taken their kids out of D.C. private schools when their terms ended. But not Obama.

So whats the real reason Obama doesnt want to leave? Simple. He wants to stay to ensure that his legacy of destroying and disassembling one institution after another isnt undone by a President Trump  or, if she wins, he will team up with a President Hillary Clinton (who literally owes him for her freedom) to solidify and complete his transformation from a constitutional republic to some authoritarian socialist hellhole that will resemble Venezuela on steroids.

Obama knows he will continue to be the face of the Left-wing transition of America that he began. The sycophantic media adore him and will regularly turn to him for comment on any policy change that Trump attempts, or any policy continuation that Clinton perpetuates. The fix is in, and Obama is positioning himself to continue leading the charge.

Consider: Obama has already begun assembling, financing and training a massive army of agitators who will stage non-stop protests of imagined outrages.

In November 2015, Hoover Institute media fellow, author and investigative reporter Paul Sperry noted in a column for the New York Post Obama was bankrolling a cadre of trained Alinskyites to carry on the rioting, looting and protests that have been a mainstay of his presidency. It is precisely what our community organizer-in-chief sought from his first day in office, and it will only get worse from here out.

Sperry notes:

The senseless protests were seeing break out on the campuses of the University of Missouri, Yale and other colleges, as well as on bridges and highway overpasses and outside police stations, are precisely the kind of thing Obama was trained to organize while attending leftist agitation schools founded by Chicago communist Saul Alinsky. He learned to a fare-thee-well how to rub raw the sores of discontent.

One of Obamas vehicles for change is a little-known but well-financed group called Organizing for Action, or OfA, which will endure after he leaves office. Formerly Obama For America, the group has trained in excess of 10,000 leftist organizers who, in turn, have trained at least 2 million more youths in the art of Alinsky-type street tactics. The group  a 501c4 non-profit that can rake in unlimited contributions, has been regularly holding organizing summits on the campuses of American colleges.

Using social media they mobilize flash mobs against biased cops, climate-change deniers, Wall Street predators and gun extremists. They also rally against conservative opponents of gay marriage, LGBT rights, abortion and illegal alien amnesty, Sperry notes.

Obama has also trained hundreds of thousands of junior agitators and organizers via AmeriCorps, a Clinton-era youth program that Obama has greatly expanded.

In short, Obama has been encouraging and fomenting the nonstop civil unrest that is exhausting our nation and keeping us riled up with short fuses. Whats worse, todays protests have nothing in common with the legitimate gripes of the 1960s; most issues today  racist cops, white privilege, gender pay gaps, and living wages  are fabricated, breathed to life by agitators and Left-wing Che Guevara wannabes who use the unrest to further their own agendas and solidify political power.

This is the volatile situation we are currently in. And its only building. It will have real consequences, as Sperry notes:

Chronic social irritation can do lasting damage to the fabric of a nation. By falsely accusing people of racism . . . or sexism . . . or homophobia . . . or Islamophobia  or whatever other ism or phobia they come up with next  these agitators are creating angst and hatred in peoples hearts that wasnt there previously. But maybe thats the objective. As Alinsky advised Obama and other young radicals: A revolutionary organizer must shake up the prevailing patterns of lives  agitate, create disenchantment and discontent with the current values [until] masses of people have reached the point of disillusionment with past ways and values. . . . The time is then ripe for revolution.

Far too many Americans dont want to believe they actually helped elect a man president who wants to rip out the heart of the country, tear down its institutions and destroy its social fabric, but thats precisely what Obama is doing. And hes doing it right before our eyes. Its been his goal from the moment he entered politics.

The why is less clear  it has to be something more than simply, Obama hates America. He surely does; no one who loves their country wants to see it suffer and torn asunder. But there must be a goal, and as Sperry notes, it could just be a permanent change of our founding governmental system.

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Budget cutting is one thing at the state level these days, but for Dan Bolognani, chairman of the Western Connecticut Convention and Visitors Bureau, its beyond ridiculous.

We were certain that we would be in for additional cuts to our budget, just like every other state agency and program, he said. But to wake up on July 1 and find out we were losing 100 percent of our budget  we just werent ready for that.

Gone is the bureaus $420,000 allocation from the state, leaving it with the roughly $80,000 it makes from donations and, primarily, from selling ads in its Unwind brochure and on its website. Theres no way thats enough for us to sustain ourselves, he said.

Gone too are the bureaus four employees, laid off as of July 15. While the bureau is still eking out an existence by providing marketing and advertising promoting tourism around the region using data accumulated through the spring, there is no manpower left to provide updates and list new events, much less provide the assistance to the small businesses that are not big enough to be players on a statewide or even regional basis, Bolognani said.

Those are the lodging establishments, restaurants and smaller attractions that rely on the bureau to be their marketing department, he explained. We assist them in a number of ways, including serving as an intermediary to the State Office of Tourism. Were here to provide the sort of local boots on the ground services that the Connecticut Office of Tourism doesnt have the manpower for  its not their job and it shouldnt be their job.

That the elimination of funds coincides with the tourism industrys peak season certainly doesnt help matters, he added.

This is just devastating, said state Rep. Fred Camillo, R-Greenwich, when informed of the situation. It is incumbent upon us to press the point, which is the old business adage: You have to spend money to make money. The money spent (on promoting tourism) has produced a significant return for taxpayers.

A member of the General Assemblys Tourism Caucus, Camillo said that tourism represents a 3-to-1 rate of return on dollars spent. I heard it was 7-to-1 about four years ago, and have been told it was once 25- to 30-1.

The caucus was formed in April and is co-chaired by state Sen. Paul Formica, R-East Lyme, and Rep. Diana Urban, D-North Stonington, who have been vocal about tourisms importance to the states economy.

Connecticut tourism is about jobs and economic vitality, Formica said at the groups inaugural meeting on April 5. Having these open and frank discussions will help us to craft thoughtful policies which boost the state tourism industry.

Camillo said the caucus had met recently with Office of Policy and Management Secretary Benjamin Barnes to protest the statewide cutting of the tourism budget from $15 million to $6.5 million, as well as the additional 1 percent later cut that included the 100 percent divestiture of the Western Connecticut budget.

Barnes didnt provide specifics but said in words and mannerisms that he too believes that tourism money spent does have a significant return for us, Camillo said. He agreed with the general feeling of the caucus that its better to have that money spent than not.

He hears all the time from people wanting money to be restored, Camillo added, but he does understand.

The budget passed by the General Assembly was balanced in part by granting to OPM the authority to do budget holdbacks, noted Gian-Carl Casa, OPMs undersecretary for legislative affairs. Without those holdbacks the budget would not be in balance. This means we must make many difficult but necessary decisions as we work to get Connecticut back to fiscal health.

The state provides centralized, statewide marketing and tourism services, including online resources for the public, through the Department of Economic and Community Development, Casa continued. Regional tourism districts augment those efforts. Local entities are free to support their regional districts if they believe such augmented services are necessary.

But the buck wont stop there, Camillo said.

My take is that we need to step it up as legislators. A lot of the time if you dont make a lot of noise, it just goes away. (Formica and Urban) are on it. We will be meeting shortly, in the next couple of weeks, to formulate further plans to work with the governors office to get some of those cuts restored.

Bolognani said he hopes some sort of alternative plan can be implemented really soon. Now is when tourists are looking for some of that local flavor, that local scene, that we can help them find.

Bolognani said he too has calls in to discuss with both the OPM and the State Office of Tourism to examine ways we can increase our role in statewide tourism, secure more robust private funding through marketing schemes and make the regional bureaus more efficient and effective.

He added that he hopes such talks will take place over the next two weeks; otherwise, he said, We will have to continue the shutting down process, closing offices and files, and putting our equipment and other materials into storage.

Kevin Zimmerman writes for the Fairfield County Business Journal. For more, go to www.westfaironline.com.
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BRIDGEPORT  The theft of a radioactive device didnt lead police to a nefarious plot, but rather to the counter of a pawn shop.

The device, known as a Troxler gauge, is used to measure soil density and is worth about $7,000, according to officials. It went missing from the trunk of a vehicle in front of a Douglas Street home around 7 a.m. Tuesday.

The trunk had been broken into, and chains securing the gauge had been cut, officials said.

The Bridgeport Police Department reached pawn shops across the city, and an alert worker at East Coast Pawn on Glenwood Avenue called around 4:15 p.m., saying he believed a man had just brought in the stolen nuclear density gauge.

A short time later, police arrested a man identified as Carlos Hernandez, 28, of Noble Avenue, Bridgeport, as he left the pawn shop. Hernandez was charged with larceny in the second degree and credit card fraud.

Combining resources

Pawn shop clients found a parking lot full of police vehicles and television news cameras. They were turned away as employees looked on while state radiation officials scanned the business.

After the gauge was reported missing  the vehicle itself was not stolen  State Police and the FBI joined in the investigation, according to Bridgeport Police Capt. Brian Fitzgerald.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission was also notified of the theft, according to city spokesman Av Harris.

More Information Nuclear density gauges What is this device used for? The device measures the density and moisture content of soil, asphalt and other material used for the base of construction projects. Is it radioactive? Yes. The device contains very small amounts of radioactive material, cesium 137 and americium 241 inside a ceramic pellet that is encapsulated in a lead and tungsten capsule the size of a pencil eraser. How does it work? The gauge measures the radiation reflected back from the soil from the two different radioactive elements. Can it make someone sick? If an inexperienced user handled the device in a way that the radioactive elements were no longer shielded, the person could become ill. Why would someone steal a nuclear density gauge? Thieves are usually after the vehicle that transports the device, or they mistake the gauge for a conventional power tool. Can it be used in a terrorist attack? In theory, yes, to make a radiological dispersal device, sometimes called a "dirty bomb,'' but in most instances the conventional explosive used would be more lethal than the radiation. Source: American Portable Nuclear Gauge Association See More Collapse

Even Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, in Philadelphia for the Democratic National Convention, was briefed on the incident.

State and local police suggested it was a simple theft, not a conscious plot to obtain nuclear material.

It looks attractive (to thieves), said Jeff Semancik, state radiation supervisor at the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection.

But the theft was a serious matter.

The device is used to measure the compaction of soil in road construction projects. A special license is required to operate it, according to an information sheet by the American Portable Nuclear Gauge Association. The association notes that the device, in theory, could be used in making a dirty bomb that would dispense radiation into the air.

A controlled instrument

Maureen Conley, a spokeswoman for the NRC, said her agency issues licenses for the devices.

If a licensee loses control of the device, they are required to notify us within 15 minutes to an hour, she said.

The devices owner, HAKS Material Testing Group, notified the NRC of the theft from a company technicians vehicle, NRC spokesman Neil Sheehan said.

We are following up on the theft and that will include sending an NRC inspector to the companys offices on Thursday, he said.

HAKS, a New York-based engineering firm, has a Bridgeport office at 36 River St., near the Lindley Street job site for the Route 8-25 bridge construction project.

Douglas Street, a short street of mostly single-family houses off Chopsey Hill Road, is also near the Route 8-25 project.

The device contains small amounts of cesium-137 and americium-241, Sheehan said.

The gauge makes its measurements by projecting the radiation from the two radioactive sources into the ground, and then displaying the reflected radiation on a dial on its top, he said.

When properly used, he said, the gauge presents no hazard to the public.

However, Sheehan said, any attempt to tamper with the radioactive sources in the device could subject the person to radiation exposure.

Semancik, the DEEP official, confirmed that the pawn shop was clear of any excessive radiation. While the device was removed from its box, he said, it wasnt tampered with, and its radioactive components were unharmed.
The police released Ramachandra Bharati, Nanda Kumar and Simhayaji Swamy following the order by the Anti-Corruption Bureau Court judge.
(All amounts in US$ unless otherwise specified)

VANCOUVER, July 26, 2016 /CNW/ - Capstone Mining Corp. ("Capstone" or the "Company") (TSX: CS) today announced its financial results for the three and six months ended June 30, 2016. Operating cash flow before changes in working capital (1) was $21.6 million or $0.06 per share, with a net loss of $13.4 million and an adjusted net loss of $7.5 million after adjusting for certain non-cash and non-recurring charges. Copper production for the quarter totalled 28,157 tonnes (27,200 tonnes of payable copper) at a C1 cash cost (1) of $1.51 per payable pound produced with copper sales for the quarter of 22,549 tonnes at a C1 cash cost (1) of $1.66 per payable pound sold.

Capstone will hold a conference call and webcast on Wednesday, July 27, 2016 at 11:30 a.m. Eastern time (8:30 a.m. Pacific time) to discuss these results; call-in details and information on associated slides are provided at the end of this release. This release should be read in conjunction with Capstone's consolidated financial statements and management's discussion and analysis ("MD&A") for the quarter ended June 30, 2016, which are available on Capstone's website at http://capstonemining.com/investors/financial-reporting/default.aspx and on SEDAR. An updated corporate presentation, including results to June 30, 2016, in addition to the Q2 2016 webcast slides, will also be available at http://capstonemining.com/investors/events-and-presentations/default.aspx.

Overview

















Q2 2016 Q2 2015 2016 YTD 2015 YTD Revenue ($ millions)



100.2 112.5 226.5 215.4













Copper produced (tonnes)



28,157 21,100 52,704 44,777













Payable copper produced (tonnes)



27,200 20,367 50,900 43,220 C1 cash cost per payable pound produced (1) ($/lb)



1.51 2.22 1.61 2.09 All-in sustaining cost per payable pound produced (1) ($/lb)



1.91 2.69 2.06 2.54 All-in cost per payable pound produced (1) ($/lb)



1.92 2.98 2.07 2.99 Fully-loaded all-in cost per payable pound produced (1) ($/lb)



2.01 2.92 2.19 3.01













Copper sold (tonnes)



22,549 20,473 50,534 40,555 Realized copper price per pound sold ($/lb)*



2.21 2.67 2.20 2.57 Adjusted realized copper price per pound sold ($/lb) **



2.21 2.67 2.28 2.57 C1 cash cost per payable pound sold (1) ($/lb)



1.66 2.09 1.72 1.99 All-in sustaining cost per payable pound sold (1) ($/lb)



2.13 2.56 2.17 2.46 All-in cost per payable pound sold (1) ($/lb)



2.15 2.84 2.19 2.95 Fully-loaded all-in cost per payable pound sold (1) ($/lb)



2.26 2.78 2.30 2.97













Net income (loss) ($ millions)



(13.4) 1.3 (26.2) (16.0) Net income (loss) per common share ($)



(0.03) 0.00 (0.07) (0.04)













Adjusted net income (loss) (1) ($ millions)



(7.5) 1.3 (9.0) (7.6) Adjusted net income (loss) (1) per common share ($)



(0.02) 0.00 (0.02) (0.02)













EBITDA (1) ($ millions)



13.0 26.4 41.4 39.1













Operating cash flow before changes in working capital (1) ($ millions)



21.6 21.8 40.5 38.3 Operating cash flow before changes in working capital per common share (1) ($)



0.06 0.06 0.11 0.10













Cash and cash equivalents ($ millions)



100.2 97.6 100.2 97.6 Net debt (1) ($ millions)



243.9 202.0 243.9 202.0

* Q2 2016 includes a negative provisional pricing adjustment of $5.8 million (2015  negative $0.9 million) related to prior shipments, equivalent to $(0.12) per pound (2015  $(0.02) per pound) of copper sold during the quarter. 2016 YTD includes a negative provisional pricing adjustment of $11.5 million (2015  negative $13.6 million) related to prior shipments, equivalent to $(0.10) per pound (2015  ($0.15) per pound) of copper sold during the six month period. The Q2 2016 and 2016 YTD negative provisional pricing adjustments were predominantly related to assay adjustments. The Q2 2016 figure of ($5.8 million) is broken down as $0.1 million related to price adjustments and ($5.9 million) related to assay adjustments. This translates into adjustments of ($0.00) and ($0.12) respectively on a per pound sold basis. The YTD Q2 2016 figure of ($11.5 million) broken down as ($0.2 million) related to price adjustments and ($11.3 million) related to assay adjustments. This translates into adjustments of ($0.00) and ($0.10) respectively on a per pound sold basis. ** Q2 2016 Adjusted realized copper price includes the realized gain of $0.2 million related to maturing forward contracts (2015  nil). 2016 YTD Adjusted realized copper price includes the realized gain of $9.8 million related to the put contracts the Company exercised and maturing forward contracts (2015  nil).

"Operational performance in the second quarter was strong, with record setting production," said Darren Pylot, President and CEO of Capstone. "Costs trended down from the first quarter and our focus on operating efficiencies across the Company resulted in both C1 cash costs (1) and all-in costs (1) coming in better than planned."

"Operating cash flow for the quarter was $21.6 million and the short term price fixing and hedging we did earlier this year protected our financial position and liquidity through the volatile commodity price environment in the first half of the year," continued Mr. Pylot.

"Improved mill reliability and consistency at Pinto Valley has demonstrated its upside potential and Minto is set up to access the high grades at Minto North, positioning us well for strong second half performance."

Financial Highlights for the Three Months Ended June 30, 2016

Net loss of $13.4 million or $0.03 per common share which included: Earnings from mining operations of $2.8 million , Production costs included a $6.4 million non-cash charge related to the write-down of inventory at Minto , Share-based compensation expense of $3.1 million , driven primarily by an increase in Capstone's share price and the effect this has on the share unit liabilities, $1.4 million in current and deferred tax expense.

or per common share which included: Working capital decreased marginally to $160.6 million at June 30, 2016 from $163.4 million at March 31 , 2016.

Financial Highlights for the Six Months Ended June 30, 2016

Net loss of $26.2 million or $0.07 per common share which included: Earnings from mining operations of $4.8 million , Production costs included a $7.9 million non-cash charge related to the write-down of inventory at Minto and Pinto Valley, Share-based compensation expense of $5.5 million , driven primarily by an increase in Capstone's share price and the effect this has on the share unit liabilities, A gain on commodity derivatives of $3.2 million , comprising $1.7 million on new copper forward contracts and $1.5 million on $2.60 copper puts, which expired in February 2016 , $4.3 million in current and deferred tax expense.

or per common share which included: Working capital decreased marginally to $160.6 million at June 30, 2016 from $162.4 million at December 31 , 2015.

Production and Additional Highlights for the Three and Six Months Ended June 30, 2016

Pinto Valley Mine:

Produced 18,776 tonnes of copper in concentrates and cathode during Q2 2016 at a C1 cash cost (1) of $1.45 per pound of payable copper produced, setting a quarterly production record.

of per pound of payable copper produced, setting a quarterly production record. Produced 35,141 tonnes of copper in concentrates and cathode during 2016 YTD at a C1 cash cost (1) of $1.54 per pound of payable copper produced.

of per pound of payable copper produced. During Q2 2016, mill throughput continued above plan, setting a third consecutive quarterly record of 55,667 tonnes per day and contributing to lower costs on a per pound basis.

With the mill operating at steady state and above plan since September 2015 , the primary focus at Pinto Valley has been on optimizing operations. A consideration for any potential further increase in mill throughput is the availability of additional water. Capstone's goal is to determine the surplus water that would potentially be available to consider low-cost expansion opportunities in the range of 10% beyond the mill throughput level currently contemplated in the PV3 pre-feasibility study ("PFS").

Cozamin Mine:

Produced 3,288 tonnes of copper in concentrates during Q2 2016 at a C1 cash cost (1) of $1.52 per pound of payable copper produced.

of per pound of payable copper produced. Produced 6,948 tonnes of copper in concentrates during 2016 YTD at a C1 cash cost (1) of $1.51 per pound of payable copper produced.

of per pound of payable copper produced. At Cozamin, production continued to be challenged by a shortfall in mine development. The mine underwent a reorganization in the quarter and a number of additional process improvements and training resources were implemented with mine development rates consistently improving.

Minto Mine:

Produced 6,093 tonnes of copper in concentrates during Q2 2016 at a C1 cash cost (1) of $1.70 per pound of payable copper produced, which excluded $0.01 per pound of cost allocated to stockpile.

of per pound of payable copper produced, which excluded per pound of cost allocated to stockpile. Produced 10,615 tonnes of copper in concentrates during 2016 YTD at a C1 cash cost (1) of $1.91 per pound of payable copper produced, which included $0.01 per pound of cost allocated from stockpile that was spent in prior periods, bringing the actual cash expended during 2016 YTD to $1.90 per pound of payable copper produced.

of per pound of payable copper produced, which included per pound of cost allocated from stockpile that was spent in prior periods, bringing the actual cash expended during 2016 YTD to per pound of payable copper produced. Minto production was better than planned, led by strong mill throughput and recoveries. Mining continues to advance in the Minto North pit, with copper grades above 2% reaching the mill by early June, resulting in significantly higher production planned for the second half of the year. Underground mining continued through the second quarter and is planned to extend into Q3, to take advantage of high-grade underground ore.

Operating Outlook

Capstone's 2016 guidance to produce 108,000 tonnes (5%) of copper from its Pinto Valley, Cozamin and Minto mines at a C1 cash cost (1) of $1.45 to $1.55 per pound of payable copper produced, an all-in cost (1) of $1.90 to $2.00 per pound of payable copper produced and a fully-loaded all-in cost (1) of $2.05 to $2.15 per pound of payable copper produced remains unchanged. However, the production distribution by mine is expected to be different than originally guided, with outperformance at Pinto Valley and Minto expected to make up for an anticipated shortfall at Cozamin for the year. Pinto Valley guidance is being increased to 66,000 tonnes of copper, Minto guidance is being increased to 28,000 tonnes of copper and Cozamin guidance is being reduced to 14,000 tonnes of copper, all 5%. Lower costs at Pinto Valley and Minto are expected to offset higher unit costs at Cozamin so consolidated cost guidance has not changed.

Conference Call and Webcast Details Date: Wednesday, July 27, 2016 Time: 11:30 am Eastern Time (8:30 am Pacific Time) Dial in: North America: 1-888-390-0546, International: +416-764-8688 Webcast: http://event.on24.com/r.htm?e=1186432&s=1&k=A468B7DF9F7C38CB231D23E4E75DC74B Replay: North America: 1-888-390-0541, International: +416-764-8677 Replay Passcode: 301819#

The conference call replay will be available until Wednesday, August 3, 2016. The conference call audio and transcript will be available on Capstone's website within 48 hours of the call at http://capstonemining.com/investors/events-and-presentations/default.aspx.

About Capstone Mining Corp.

Capstone Mining Corp. is a Canadian base metals mining company, focused on copper. We are committed to the responsible development of our assets and the environments in which we operate. Our three producing mines are the Pinto Valley copper mine located in Arizona, US, the Cozamin copper-silver mine in Zacatecas State, Mexico and the Minto copper mine in Yukon, Canada. In addition, Capstone has two development projects; the large scale 70% owned copper-iron Santo Domingo project in Region III, Chile, in partnership with Korea Resources Corporation, and the 100% owned Kutcho copper-zinc project in British Columbia, Canada, as well as exploration properties in Chile and US. Capstone's strategy is to focus on the optimization of operations and assets in politically stable, mining-friendly regions, centred in the Americas. Our headquarters are in Vancouver, Canada and we are listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX). Further information is available at www.capstonemining.com.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Information

This document may contain "forward-looking information" within the meaning of Canadian securities legislation and "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (collectively, "forward-looking statements"). These forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this document and Capstone does not intend, and does not assume any obligation, to update these forward-looking statements, except as required under applicable securities legislation.

Forward-looking statements relate to future events or future performance and reflect our expectations or beliefs regarding future events. Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements with respect to the estimation of mineral resources and mineral reserves, the realization of mineral reserve estimates, the timing and amount of estimated future production, costs of production and capital expenditures, the success of our mining operations, environmental risks, unanticipated reclamation expenses and title disputes. In certain cases, forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as "plans", "expects", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates", "believes" or variations of such words and phrases, or statements that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will be taken", "occur" or "be achieved" or the negative of these terms or comparable terminology. In this document certain forward-looking statements are identified by words including "guidance", "anticipated", "planned", "potential", "positioning" and "expected". By their very nature, forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause our actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Such factors include, amongst others, risks related to inherent hazards associated with mining operations, assumptions related to geotechnical condition of tailings facilities, future prices of copper and other metals, compliance with financial covenants, surety bonding, our ability to raise capital, counterparty risks associated with sales of our metals, use of financial derivative instruments and associated counterparty risks, foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations, changes in general economic conditions, accuracy of mineral resource and mineral reserve estimates, operating in foreign jurisdictions with risk of changes to governmental regulation, compliance with governmental regulations, compliance with environmental laws and regulations, reliance on approvals, licences and permits from governmental authorities, impact of climatic conditions on our Pinto Valley, Cozamin and Minto operations, aboriginal title claims and rights to consultation and accommodation, land reclamation and mine closure obligations, uncertainties and risks related to the potential development of the Santo Domingo Project, increased operating and capital costs, challenges to title to our mineral properties, dependence on key management personnel, potential conflicts of interest involving our directors and officers, corruption and bribery, limitations inherent in our insurance coverage, labour relations, increasing energy prices, competition in the mining industry, risks associated with joint venture partners, our ability to integrate new acquisitions into our operations, cybersecurity threats and other risks of the mining industry as well as those factors detailed from time to time in the Company's interim and annual financial statements and management's discussion and analysis of those statements, all of which are filed and available for review under the Company's profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause our actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from those described in our forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause our results, performance or achievements not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that our forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate, as our actual results, performance or achievements could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on our forward-looking statements.

National Instrument 43-101 Compliance

Unless otherwise indicated, Capstone has prepared the technical information in this news release ("Technical Information") based on information contained in the technical reports, news releases and MD&A's (collectively the "Disclosure Documents") available under Capstone Mining Corp.'s company profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Each Disclosure Document was prepared by, or under the supervision of, a qualified person (a "Qualified Person") as defined in National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects of the Canadian Securities Administrators ("NI 43-101"). Readers are encouraged to review the full text of the Disclosure Documents which qualifies the Technical Information. Readers are advised that mineral resources that are not mineral reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability. The Disclosure Documents are each intended to be read as a whole, and sections should not be read or relied upon out of context. The Technical Information is subject to the assumptions and qualifications contained in the Disclosure Documents.

The technical information in this news release ("Technical Information") was prepared by, or under the supervision of, a qualified person (a "Qualified Person") as defined in National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects of the Canadian Securities Administrators ("NI 43-101"). The disclosure of the Technical Information contained in this news release has been reviewed and approved by Gregg Bush, P. Eng., Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer. Technical Information related to mineral exploration activities has been reviewed and approved by Brad Mercer, P. Geol., Senior Vice President, Exploration. Both are Qualified Persons under NI 43-101.

Alternative Performance Measures

The items marked with a "(1)" are alternative performance measures and readers should refer to Alternative Performance Measures in the Company's Consolidated Management's Discussion and Analysis for the quarter ended June 30, 2016 as filed on SEDAR and as available on the Company's website.

Cautionary Note to United States Investors

This news release contains disclosure that has been prepared in accordance with the requirements of Canadian securities laws, which differ from the requirements of US securities laws. Without limiting the foregoing, this news release may refer to technical reports that use the terms "indicated" and "inferred" resources. US investors are cautioned that, while such terms are recognized and required by Canadian securities laws, the SEC does not recognize them. Under US standards, mineralization may not be classified as a "reserve" unless the determination has been made that the mineralization could be economically and legally produced or extracted at the time the reserve determination is made. US investors are cautioned not to assume that all or any part of indicated resources will ever be converted into reserves. US investors should also understand that "inferred resources" have a great amount of uncertainty as to their existence and as to whether they can be mined legally or economically. It cannot be assumed that all or any part of "inferred resources" will ever be upgraded to a higher category. Therefore, US investors are also cautioned not to assume that all or any part of inferred resources exist, or that they can be mined legally or economically. Accordingly, information concerning descriptions of mineralization and resources contained in this news release may not be comparable to information made public by US companies subject to the reporting and disclosure requirements of the SEC.

(1) This is an alternative performance measure; please see "Alternative Performance Measures" at the end of this release.

SOURCE Capstone Mining Corp.

For further information: Cindy Burnett, VP, Investor Relations and Communications, 604-637-8157, [email protected]
CALGARY, July 26, 2016 /CNW/ - Cervus Equipment Corp. ("Cervus") (TSX: CVL) today announced that it will host its second quarter 2016 results conference call on August 11, 2016 at 11:00 a.m. Eastern Time. The Company intends to disclose its financial results after markets close on August 10, 2016.

President and CEO, Graham Drake, and CFO, Randy Muth, will discuss Cervus's financial and operating results for the quarter ended June 30, 2016, and then take questions from securities analysts and institutional shareholders.

Interested parties may access the conference call by dialling (647) 427-7450 or 1-888-231-8191. Please connect approximately 10 minutes prior to the beginning of the call. The conference call will be archived for replay until Thursday, August 18, 2016 at midnight. To access the archived conference call, dial (416) 849-0833 or 1-855-859-2056 and enter the reservation number 53975057 followed by the number sign.

A live audio webcast of the conference call will be available at: http://event.on24.com/r.htm?e=1230503&s=1&k=3521AFD68B81C9485FCDB641E1819AD3

Please connect at least 15 minutes prior to the conference call to ensure adequate time for any software download that may be required to join the webcast. The webcast will be archived at the above website for 90 days.

About Cervus Equipment Corporation

Cervus acquires and operates authorized agricultural, construction, materials handling and transportation equipment dealerships. The Company has interests in 72 dealerships in Canada, New Zealand, and Australia. The primary equipment brands represented by Cervus include John Deere agricultural equipment; Bobcat and JCB construction equipment; Clark, Sellick and Doosan material handling equipment; and Peterbilt transportation equipment. The common shares of Cervus are listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange and trade under the symbol "CVL".

SOURCE Cervus Equipment Corp.

For further information: Graham Drake - President & CEO, (403) 567-2095, [email protected]; Randy Muth - Chief Financial Officer, (403) 567-2097, [email protected]
TORONTO, July 26, 2016 /CNW/ - DH Corporation (TSX:DH) ("D+H" or the "Company"), a leading provider of technology solutions to domestic and global financial institutions, reported its financial results for the three and six months ended June 30, 2016.

"Our Q2 results reflected strength in most of our key business solutions, offset by the ongoing impact of lower LaserPro renewals in 2016. In the quarter we were pleased with the ongoing growth in our cash from operating activities, part of which we used to continue to repay debt. We also announced changes to how we are organizing ourselves to operate more effectively on a global scale. We expect these changes to enhance our go to market capabilities as well as to provide us with greater operating efficiencies," said Gerrard Schmid, "The global realignment is just one component of our strategy to streamline and improve the long term growth of our business. We are also focused on continuing to invest in, and optimize, our product portfolio while enhancing our risk posture."

Second Quarter 2016 Highlights

Revenues increased 14% in the second quarter to $424 million compared with $372 million in the same quarter in the prior year. Adjusted revenues (1) totalled $425 million in the second quarter, an increase of $50 million or 13% over the same quarter in the prior year. The Revenues and Adjusted revenue increases include the impact of the Fundtech acquisition (operating as GTBS) on April 30, 2015 , foreign exchange and organic growth.





compared with in the same quarter in the prior year. Adjusted revenues totalled in the second quarter, an increase of or 13% over the same quarter in the prior year. The Revenues and Adjusted revenue increases include the impact of the Fundtech acquisition (operating as GTBS) on , foreign exchange and organic growth. Organic growth in the quarter for the GTBS segment totalled 6.7% on a proforma constant currency basis; in the L&IC segment, the integrated core business organic growth totalled 8.5% in U.S. dollars, which was offset by a 7.5% decrease, in U.S. dollars in lending which is primarily due to the LaserPro renewal cycle. In the Canadian segment we realized organic growth of 5.5%.





EBITDA (1) increased 10% to $95 million in the second quarter of 2016. The increase in EBITDA reflects the operating segment results including the GTBS acquisition offset by expenses related to the realignment of global operations totalling $22 million in the quarter.





increased 10% to in the second quarter of 2016. The increase in EBITDA reflects the operating segment results including the GTBS acquisition offset by expenses related to the realignment of global operations totalling in the quarter. Adjusted EBITDA (1) increased 6% to $117 million (27.4% margin) in the second quarter, from $110 million (29.4% margin) in the same period in the prior year. Adjusted EBITDA removes the impact of acquisition-related and restructuring-related expenses and other items. The Adjusted EBITDA margin reflects the inclusion of the GTBS segment which historically has lower margins than the existing D+H business, the change in sales mix in both our L&IC and Canadian segments, and timing of other items.





increased 6% to (27.4% margin) in the second quarter, from (29.4% margin) in the same period in the prior year. Adjusted EBITDA removes the impact of acquisition-related and restructuring-related expenses and other items. The Adjusted EBITDA margin reflects the inclusion of the GTBS segment which historically has lower margins than the existing D+H business, the change in sales mix in both our L&IC and Canadian segments, and timing of other items. Consolidated net income of $5 million ( $0.05 per share, basic and diluted) in the second quarter decreased as compared to $6 million ( $0.06 per share, basic and diluted) in the prior year. The decrease is primarily due to the increase in amortization of intangible assets, partially offset by increases in EBITDA and income taxes recovery.





( per share, basic and diluted) in the second quarter decreased as compared to ( per share, basic and diluted) in the prior year. The decrease is primarily due to the increase in amortization of intangible assets, partially offset by increases in EBITDA and income taxes recovery. Adjusted net income (1) decreased 1% to $59 million in the second quarter from $60 million in the same period in the prior year primarily reflecting an increase in EBITDA and income taxes recovery, offset by an increase in amortization on non-acquisition intangible assets. Adjusted net income per share (1) was $0.55 (106.8 million weighted average shares outstanding) in the second quarter compared to $0.60 (99.5 million weighted average shares outstanding) in the same period in the prior year as a result of higher shares outstanding and the decrease in Adjusted net income of $0.7 million .





decreased 1% to in the second quarter from in the same period in the prior year primarily reflecting an increase in EBITDA and income taxes recovery, offset by an increase in amortization on non-acquisition intangible assets. Adjusted net income per share was (106.8 million weighted average shares outstanding) in the second quarter compared to (99.5 million weighted average shares outstanding) in the same period in the prior year as a result of higher shares outstanding and the decrease in Adjusted net income of . Net cash from operating activities increased by 7% in the second quarter, to $55 million from $52 million in the same period in prior year. Adjusted net cash from operating activities (1) increased by 12% in the second quarter, to $80 million from $71 million in the same period in prior year.





from in the same period in prior year. Adjusted net cash from operating activities increased by 12% in the second quarter, to from in the same period in prior year. Loans, borrowings and convertible debentures totalled $1.9 billion at June 30, 2016 as compared to $2.1 billion at December 31, 2015 , and $2.0 billion at June 30, 2015 .





at as compared to at , and at . The Total Net Funded Debt to EBITDA(1) ratio was 2.998x at June 30, 2016 , compared to 3.451x following the closing of the acquisition of Fundtech on April 30, 2015 , and 3.185x at December 31, 2015 . The Company repaid $10 million of debt during the second quarter of 2016 and a total of $80 million since the acquisition of Fundtech.

Strategic and Operating Realignment

D+H is evolving the organization of its business to pursue its long term vision and strategy to operate on a global scale in lending and payments including operating its key functions and business processes globally to benefit from standardization, scale and increased efficiencies.

The Company has realigned the organization, in which expected gross savings of approximately $53 million are offset by investments in new positions, for an estimated net savings of $25 million in annualized compensation and related cost savings. Net savings are expected starting in the middle of the third quarter. The restructuring-related expenses are estimated to be between $30 million and $32 million, and will be recognized primarily in 2016. Restructuring-related expenses totaling $22.0 million and $28.8 million have been recorded in the second quarter and year-to-date in 2016. These expenses include severance costs, consulting and professional fees, financial systems and other realignment costs. During 2016 the Company expects to achieve net savings of approximately $19 million of which 30% has been realized through the end of the second quarter.

The transition to the new operating model is underway. The Company will continue to manage and report financial results for GTBS, L&IC and Canada through the end of 2016. We will begin reporting under our new business segments commencing in the first quarter of 2017 with the comparable information for the first quarter of 2016. Refer to the MD&A for the three and six months ended June 30, 2016 for additional information.

Second Quarter and Year to Date 2016 Results

The selected financial information included in this press release is qualified in its entirety by, and should be read together with the unaudited condensed interim consolidated financial statements and the MD&A for the three and six months ended June 30, 2016, which can be found at dh.com and in the disclosure documents filed by the Company with the securities regulatory authorities at sedar.com.

Selected Consolidated Financial Information 2 Three months ended June 30 Six months ended June 30 (C$ millions unless otherwise indicated, unaudited) 2016 2015 2016 2015 Revenues







Revenues $ 424.2 $ 372.4 $ 836.3 $ 667.4

Add: Acquisition accounting adjustments 1.2 2.8 3.2 4.3 Adjusted revenues1 $ 425.3 $ 375.2 $ 839.5 $ 671.7 EBITDA1







EBITDA1 $ 95.1 $ 86.4 $ 187.4 $ 180.3

Add: Acquisition accounting adjustments (0.7) 0.2 (1.3) (0.7)

Add: Acquisition-related and other charges 2.2 19.2 7.9 28.7

Add: Realignment of global operations and related restructuring expenses 22.0  28.8 

Add: Foreign exchange (gain) / loss (2.1) 4.4 (3.2) (11.1) Adjusted EBITDA1 $ 116.5 $ 110.2 $ 219.5 $ 197.1 Adjusted EBITDA margin1 27.4% 29.4% 26.1% 29.3% Net Income







Net income $ 5.4 $ 6.0 $ 10.2 $ 40.0

Add: Non-cash items 52.7 57.1 109.5 73.6

Add: Acquisition-related and other charges 2.2 19.2 7.9 28.7

Add: Realignment of global operations and related restructuring expenses,

including depreciation and amortization 22.2  28.9 

Add: Tax effect of above adjustments (23.6) (22.7) (52.1) (35.3) Adjusted net income1 $ 58.9 $ 59.6 $ 104.4 $ 107.0 Net income per share, basic and diluted (C$) $ 0.05 $ 0.06 $ 0.10 $ 0.43 Adjusted net income per share, basic1 (C$) $ 0.55 $ 0.60 $ 0.98 $ 1.15 Liquidity







Net cash from operating activities $ 55.4 $ 51.9 $ 110.1 $ 61.7

Add: Acquisition-related and other charges 2.2 19.2 7.9 28.7

Add: Realignment of global operations and related restructuring expenses 22.0  28.8  Adjusted net cash from operating activities1 $ 79.6 $ 71.1 $ 146.8 $ 90.4 Uses of Adjusted net cash from operating activities1:











Capital expenditures (22.7) (17.2) (43.7) (44.8)

Dividends (32.6) (24.6) (57.4) (45.1) Adjusted net cash from operating activities after capital expenditures and cash

dividends1 $ 24.2 $ 29.4 $ 45.7 $ 0.4

Net debt repayment (10.0)  (30.0)  Adjusted net cash from operating activities after capital expenditures, cash

dividends and net debt repayment1 $ 14.2 $ 29.4 $ 15.7 $ 0.4

Revenues and Adjusted revenues by service area for the three and six months ended June 30, 2016.

Revenues and Adjusted revenues by Service Area1,2

Three months ended June 30 Six months ended June 30 (C$ millions unaudited)

2016 2015 2016 2015 Revenues by service area









Lending solutions

$ 178.7 $ 172.1 $ 343.3 $ 330.2 Global transaction banking solutions

90.4 55.1 184.5 55.1 Payments solutions

82.5 81.3 162.1 155.1 Integrated core solutions

72.6 63.9 146.3 127.1 Total revenues

$ 424.2 $ 372.4 $ 836.3 $ 667.4 Adjusted revenues1 by service area









Lending solutions

$ 179.4 $ 173.2 $ 344.8 $ 332.7 Global transaction banking solutions

90.7 56.6 185.9 56.6 Payments solutions

82.5 81.3 162.1 155.1 Integrated core solutions

72.7 64.0 146.6 127.4 Total Adjusted revenues1

$ 425.3 $ 375.2 $ 839.5 $ 671.7

Results by segment for the three and six months ended June 30, 2016.

Results by Segment 2 Three months ended June 30 (C$ millions unless

otherwise indicated,

unaudited) GTBS L&IC Canada Corporate Consolidated

2016 2015 2016 2015 2016 2015 2016 2015 2016 2015 Revenues $ 90.4 $ 55.1 $ 146.7 $ 139.8 $ 187.1 $ 177.4   $ 424.2 $ 372.4 Expenses 70.8 43.9 100.2 94.0 135.9 124.5 $ 22.1 $ 23.7 329.1 286.0 EBITDA1 $ 19.5 $ 11.2 $ 46.5 $ 45.9 $ 51.3 $ 52.9 $ (22.1) $ (23.7) $ 95.1 $ 86.4 EBITDA margin1 21.6% 20.4% 31.7% 32.8% 27.4% 29.8%   22.4% 23.2% Adjusted revenues1 $ 90.7 $ 56.6 $ 147.5 $ 141.2 $ 187.1 $ 177.4   $ 425.3 $ 375.2 Adjusted EBITDA1 $ 19.6 $ 12.3 $ 45.6 $ 45.0 $ 51.3 $ 52.9   $ 116.5 $ 110.2 Adjusted EBITDA margin1 21.6% 21.7% 30.9% 31.9% 27.4% 29.8%   27.4% 29.4%

Results by Segment 2 Six months ended June 30 (C$ millions unless

otherwise indicated,

unaudited) GTBS L&IC Canada Corporate Consolidated

2016 2015 2016 2015 2016 2015 2016 2015 2016 2015 Revenues $ 184.5 $ 55.1 $ 295.3 $ 277.6 $ 356.5 $ 334.7   $ 836.3 $ 667.4 Expenses 143.3 43.9 206.8 183.3 265.4 242.4 $ 33.4 $ 17.5 649.0 487.1 EBITDA1 $ 41.2 $ 11.2 $ 88.5 $ 94.3 $ 91.0 $ 92.4 $ (33.4) $ (17.5) $ 187.4 $ 180.3 EBITDA margin1 22.3% 20.4% 30.0% 34.0% 25.5% 27.6%   22.4% 27.0% Adjusted revenues1 $ 185.9 $ 56.6 $ 297.1 $ 280.4 $ 356.5 $ 334.7   $ 839.5 $ 671.7 Adjusted EBITDA1 $ 41.7 $ 12.3 $ 86.8 $ 92.5 $ 91.0 $ 92.4   $ 219.5 $ 197.1 Adjusted EBITDA margin1 22.4% 21.7% 29.2% 33.0% 25.5% 27.6%   26.1% 29.3%

Segment results in U.S. dollars for the three and six months ended June 30, 2016.

Revenues, Adjusted revenues1 and Adjusted EBITDA1 by Segment in U.S. dollars 2 Three months ended June 30 Six months ended June 30 (US$ millions except where noted, unaudited) 2016 2015 2016 2015 GTBS Segment Revenues, Adjusted revenues1 and Adjusted EBITDA1









GTBS Segment revenues 3 $ 70.1 $ 44.8 $ 139.1 $ 44.8

GTBS Segment Adjusted revenues 1,3 $ 70.4 $ 46.0 $ 140.2 $ 46.0

GTBS Segment Adjusted EBITDA 1,3 $ 15.2 $ 10.0 $ 31.7 $ 10.0

GTBS Segment Adjusted EBITDA margin 1,3

21.6%

21.6%

22.6%

21.6% L&IC Segment revenues









Lending solutions $ 57.5 $ 61.8 $ 112.2 $ 121.8

Integrated core solutions

56.4

52.0

110.1

102.9

Total L&IC Segment revenues $ 113.9 $ 113.7 $ 222.2 $ 224.7 L&IC Segment Adjusted revenues1 and Adjusted EBITDA1









Lending solutions $ 58.0 $ 62.7 $ 113.3 $ 123.9

Integrated core solutions

56.5

52.1

110.3

103.1

Total L&IC Segment Adjusted revenues1 $ 114.5 $ 114.8 $ 223.6 $ 227.0 L&IC Segment Adjusted EBITDA 1 $ 35.4 $ 36.6 $ 65.5 $ 74.9 L&IC Segment Adjusted EBITDA margin 1 30.9% 31.9% 29.3% 33.0%

1 Non-IFRS measure. See the "Use of Non-IFRS Financial Information" section of this press release for further details. 2 Totals may not add due to rounding. 3 Reported results for GTBS begin as of closing of the acquisition of Fundtech on April 30, 2015 and include the period from April 30, 2015 through June 30, 2015

Dividend

DH Corporation today announced that its Board of Directors has declared a quarterly dividend of $0.32 per common share payable on September 30, 2016 to shareholders of record at the close of business on September 16, 2016. The dividend is an eligible dividend for Canadian income tax purposes.

Outlook

In the second half of 2016, the Company intends to continue with the strategy outlined under Section 3.1 of the MD&A for the three and six months ended June 30, 2016. In addition, the Company will focus on the following initiatives:

Disciplined and strategic focus on organic revenue growth;





Enhancing capabilities in software engineering and product management, including employing agile development practices across our main product groups;





Optimize our products by increasing investment in innovation and next generation financial technologies and rationalizing certain products;





Evolving our business model and strategic capabilities to more effectively manage a global business;





Reducing operating costs while increasing operating effectiveness;





Continuing to strengthen our risk management practices and regulatory compliance capabilities; and





Continuing to reduce leverage.

Although the Company continues to include acquisitions as part of its long-term growth and diversification strategy, the focus in the near term will be the implementation of the operating model to advance our global strategy, cross-selling, reduction of financial leverage and operating effectiveness.

In the second quarter the Company noted an increasing focus from global financial institutions on the macro economic conditions globally. In certain markets, financial institutions are also assessing the potential impact of the exit of the United Kingdom from the European Union as well as the implications of certain regulatory ring-fencing requirements. In the United States and Canada, while the economic outlook is mixed, we see no new changes that impact our current business in these markets. See below for further discussion on our outlook by segment.

For further information on management's outlook by segment for 2016, please refer to section 3 of the MD&A for the three and six months ended June 30, 2016.

MANAGEMENT CONFERENCE CALL AND WEBCAST

Teleconference:

A conference call to review these financial results, including a presentation, will take place at 10:00 a.m. (EDT) on Wednesday, July 27, 2016 hosted by Chief Executive Officer Gerrard Schmid and Chief Financial Officer Karen H. Weaver. To access the call, please dial 647-427-7450 (Local/Int'l) or 1-888-231-8191 (toll-free within North America). A replay of the call will also be available until August 3, 2016 by dialing 416-849-0833 (Local/Int'l) or 1-855-859-2056 (toll-free within North America), with Encore Password 46599410.

Webcast:

The conference call will also be webcast at http://event.on24.com/r.htm?e=1221708&s=1&k=85A5BBB8DBC0C4E4B442A952C9DC0A66 and will be archived for 90 days after the call. The link to the webcast and an accompanying slide presentation will be posted in the Investors section of the D+H website under Events and Presentations at http://www.dh.com/investors/events-and-presentations/conference-calls.

ABOUT D+H

D+H (TSX: DH) is a leading financial technology provider that the world's financial institutions rely on every day to help them grow and succeed. Our global payments, lending, and financial 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 5,400 employees worldwide who are passionate about partnering with clients to create forward-thinking solutions that fit their needs. With annual revenues in excess of $1.5 billion, D+H is recognized as one of the world's top FinTech companies on IDC Financial Insights FinTech Rankings and American Banker's FinTech Forward rankings. For more information, visit dh.com

USE OF NON-IFRS FINANCIAL INFORMATION

D+H's financial results are prepared in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards ("IFRS"). D+H reports several non-IFRS financial measures, including "Adjusted revenues", "Constant Currency", "Proforma Adjusted Revenues", "EBITDA", "EBITDA margin" (EBITDA divided by revenues), "Adjusted EBITDA", "Adjusted EBITDA margin" (Adjusted EBITDA divided by Adjusted revenues), "Adjusted net income", "Adjusted net income per share" and "Adjusted net cash from operating activities". D+H also reports "Debt to EBITDA ratio", which is also not a defined term under IFRS. See "Non-IFRS financial measures and key performance indicators" in D+H's MD&A for the three and six months ended June 30, 2016 for a more complete description of these terms and for reconciliations to their most directly comparable IFRS measure, where applicable. Any non-IFRS financial measures should be considered in context with the IFRS financial statement presentation and should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for IFRS revenues, net income or cash flows. Furthermore, D+H's financial measures may be calculated differently from similarly titled financial measures of other companies.

CAUTION CONCERNING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This press release contains certain statements that constitute forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities laws ("forward-looking statements"). Statements concerning D+H's objectives, goals, strategies, priorities, intentions, plans, beliefs, expectations and estimates, and the business, operations, financial performance and condition of D+H are forward-looking statements. The words "believe", "expect", "anticipate", "estimate", "intend", "may", "will", "would", "could", "should", "continue", "goal", "objective", and similar expressions and the negative of such expressions are intended to identify forward- looking statements, although not all forward-looking statements contain these identifying words.

A comprehensive discussion of the risks that impact D+H can be found on the Company's most recently filed Annual Information Form and the most recently filed annual MD&A for the year ended December 31, 2015, available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Risks and uncertainties related to the Company have not significantly changed since the filing of the 2015 Annual Information Form and the 2015 annual MD&A.

Given these uncertainties, readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements. The documents referred to herein also identify additional factors that could affect the operating results and performance of the Company. Forward-looking statements are based on management's current plans, estimates, projections, beliefs and opinions, and D+H does not undertake any obligation to update forward-looking statements should assumptions related to these plans, estimates, projections, beliefs and opinions change except as required by applicable securities laws.

D+H has also made certain macroeconomic and general industry assumptions in the preparation of such forward-looking statements. While D+H considers these factors and assumptions to be reasonable based on information available at that time, there can be no assurance that actual results will be consistent with these forward-looking statements.

Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause D+H's actual results, performance or achievements, or developments in its industry, to differ materially from the anticipated results, performance, achievements or developments expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements.

All of the forward-looking statements made in this press release are qualified by these cautionary statements and other cautionary statements or factors contained herein and there can be no assurance that the actual results or developments will be realized or, even if substantially realized, that they will have the expected consequences to, or effects on, the Company.

REGULATORY FILINGS AND ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

DH Corporation is listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol DH. Further information can be found at dh.com and in the disclosure documents filed by DH Corporation with the securities regulatory authorities at sedar.com.

SOURCE DH Corporation

For further information: Karen H. Weaver, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, D+H, Anthony Gerstein, Head, Investor Relations, D+H [email protected] or visit our website at dh.com
Highlights Q2-2016

Net operating income per share of $0.83 despite a $0.97 loss from the Fort McMurray wildfires

of despite a loss from the wildfires Combined ratio of 99.2% , as losses from the Fort McMurray wildfires (8.8 points) offset strong underlying underwriting performance

, as losses from the wildfires (8.8 points) offset strong underlying underwriting performance Solid premium growth of 5%, led by personal lines

of 5%, led by personal lines Operating ROE of 14.6% with $857 million of total excess capital

TORONTO, July 27, 2016 /CNW/ -

Charles Brindamour, Chief Executive Officer, said:

"We delivered $114 million in net operating income despite the $127 million impact from the Fort McMurray wildfires, the costliest insured catastrophe in Canadian history. This is a strong testament to the resilience of our operations across the country and our ability to support our customers in good times and in bad. Our catastrophe response is well underway in Fort McMurray and we remain committed to helping our customers get back on track."



Consolidated Highlights

(in millions of dollars except as otherwise noted) Q2-2016 Q2-2015 Change YTD 2016 YTD 2015 Change Direct Premiums Written1 2,458 2,344 5% 4,139 3,919 6% Underwriting income1 16 158 (142) 161 276 (115) Combined ratio 99.2% 91.6% 7.6 pts 95.8% 92.5% 3.3 pts Net investment income 104 104 - 208 209 (1) Net distribution income 43 34 9 57 54 3 Net operating income1 114 210 (96) 311 396 (85) Net income 93 199 (106) 245 377 (132) Earnings per share (in dollars) 0.67 1.47 (54)% 1.78 2.79 (36)% Net operating income per share (in dollars)1 0.83 1.56 (47)% 2.29 2.93 (22)% Operating ROE for the last 12 months1 14.6% 16.8% (2.2) pts





Book value per share (in dollars) 40.57 39.23 3%





Total excess capital 857 564 293





MCT 212% 200% 12.0 pts





Debt-to-capital ratio 19.3% 16.8% 2.5 pts























(1) This is a non-IFRS financial measure, which does not have a standardized meaning prescribed by IFRS and may not becomparable to similar measures used by other

companies in the Company's industry. Please refer to Section 14  Non-IFRS financial measures in the Management's Discussion and Analysis for further details.

Industry Outlook

The Company expects that industry premiums will grow at a low single-digit rate. In personal auto , the Company expects normal claims cost inflation will lead to moderate rate increases in all markets. In personal property , the Company expects the current firm market conditions to continue, as companies adjust to changing weather patterns. While commercial lines remain competitive, the Company believes that continued low interest rates and elevated loss ratios of the past years support firm market conditions.

, the Company expects normal claims cost inflation will lead to moderate rate increases in all markets. In , the Company expects the current firm market conditions to continue, as companies adjust to changing weather patterns. While remain competitive, the Company believes that continued low interest rates and elevated loss ratios of the past years support firm market conditions. Overall, the industry's ROE is expected to remain around its long-term average of 10%.

Dividend

The Board of Directors approved a quarterly dividend of $0.58 per share on the Company's outstanding common shares. The Board also approved a quarterly dividend of 26.25 cents per share on the Company's Class A Series 1 and Class A Series 3 preferred shares. The dividends are payable on September 30, 2016 to shareholders of record on September 15, 2016 .

Normal Course Issuer Bid

As at June 30, 2016 , the Company had repurchased and cancelled 370,500 shares for approximately $32 million under its normal course issuer bid ("NCIB"). The NCIB allows for the purchase, for cancellation, of up to 6,577,156 common shares until February 11, 2017 , representing approximately 5% of the Company's issued and outstanding common shares as at February 1, 2016 .

Underwriting

Solid premium growth of 5% was driven by personal lines, as customers responded positively to new product offerings, improved digital experiences, distribution and branding initiatives. In commercial lines, growth was dampened by the slowdown of the Alberta economy. For the first half of 2016, the Company delivered solid premium growth of 6%.

of 5% was driven by personal lines, as customers responded positively to new product offerings, improved digital experiences, distribution and branding initiatives. In commercial lines, growth was dampened by the slowdown of the economy. For the first half of 2016, the Company delivered solid premium growth of 6%. Underwriting income was $16 million , despite absorbing a $173 million impact from the Fort McMurray wildfires. For the first half of 2016, the Company generated $161 million of underwriting income, lower by $115 million from last year, as improved underlying results were more than offset by the Fort McMurray catastrophe. For further details on the Company's efforts, please refer to Section 7.1 Fort McMurray wildfires in the Management's Discussion and Analysis.

was , despite absorbing a impact from the wildfires. For the first half of 2016, the Company generated of underwriting income, lower by from last year, as improved underlying results were more than offset by the catastrophe. For further details on the Company's efforts, please refer to Section 7.1 in the Management's Discussion and Analysis. Overall, the Company delivered a combined ratio of 99.2%, including 8.8 points of Fort McMurray catastrophe losses. Most of the losses were incurred in the property lines with a small portion in the auto lines. Excluding this catastrophe, the combined ratio was 90.4% on strong performance in property lines and commercial auto. Similar factors drove a combined ratio of 95.8% for the first half of 2016, which included 4.4 points of losses from the Fort McMurray wildfires.

Line of Business Q2 2016

Personal auto premiums grew 6% on the Company's telematics offer, improved, digital experiences, distribution and branding initiatives. The combined ratio of 97.6% was impacted by a mild increase in claims frequency and severity, while earned rates were flat in the quarter. The resulting underwriting income was $23 million compared to $85 million last year.

premiums grew 6% on the Company's telematics offer, improved, digital experiences, distribution and branding initiatives. The combined ratio of 97.6% was impacted by a mild increase in claims frequency and severity, while earned rates were flat in the quarter. The resulting underwriting income was compared to last year. Personal property premiums grew 9%, as growth initiatives were supported by favourable market conditions. The combined ratio was 106.7%, including 24.7 points of losses from the Fort McMurray wildfires. This resulted in an underwriting loss of $30 million compared to income of $31 million last year. Excluding this catastrophe, the combined ratio of 82.0% was very strong due to milder weather in Atlantic Canada , lower claims frequency and the effectiveness of the Company's profitability actions. On a year-to-date basis, the combined ratio of 94.7%, including Fort McMurray , was in line with our target to operate at 95% or better, even with elevated catastrophe losses.

premiums grew 9%, as growth initiatives were supported by favourable market conditions. The combined ratio was 106.7%, including 24.7 points of losses from the wildfires. This resulted in an underwriting loss of compared to income of last year. Excluding this catastrophe, the combined ratio of 82.0% was very strong due to milder weather in , lower claims frequency and the effectiveness of the Company's profitability actions. On a year-to-date basis, the combined ratio of 94.7%, including , was in line with our target to operate at 95% or better, even with elevated catastrophe losses. Commercial P&C premiums declined slightly as rate increases were offset by headwinds from the Alberta economy. The combined ratio was 98.2%, including 10.7 points of losses from the Fort McMurray wildfires. This resulted in an underwriting income of $7 million compared to $33 million last year. Excluding this catastrophe, the combined ratio of 87.5% was strong, driven by lower large losses.

premiums declined slightly as rate increases were offset by headwinds from the economy. The combined ratio was 98.2%, including 10.7 points of losses from the wildfires. This resulted in an underwriting income of compared to last year. Excluding this catastrophe, the combined ratio of 87.5% was strong, driven by lower large losses. Commercial auto premiums grew slightly as rate actions were offset by headwinds from the Alberta economy. The combined ratio improved substantially to 90.3%, driven by profitability actions and favourable prior year development. This resulted in an underwriting income of $16 million compared to $9 million last year.

Investments

Net investment income of $104 million was unchanged for the quarter. Net investment gains of $28 million were driven by higher bond prices and more favourable equity markets. For the first half of 2016, the Company delivered net investment income of $208 million , largely unchanged from the prior year. Net investment gains of $8 million were driven by higher bond prices offset by challenging equity markets at the start of the year.

Distribution

Net distribution income of $43 million was $9 million higher than last year due to growth in our broker network and improved profitability. Similar factors drove an increase in net distribution income to $57 million for the first half of 2016.

Net Income

Net operating income of $114 million , or $0.83 per share, was lower by 46% compared to last year, impacted by the Fort McMurray catastrophe. Excluding this catastrophe, net operating income per share would have increased by 15% year-over-year driven by higher underwriting and distribution income. For the first half of 2016, net operating income was $311 million .

of , or per share, was lower by 46% compared to last year, impacted by the catastrophe. Excluding this catastrophe, net operating income per share would have increased by 15% year-over-year driven by higher underwriting and distribution income. For the first half of 2016, net operating income was . Earnings per share of $0.67 were lower by 54% compared to last year, impacted by the Fort McMurray catastrophe. For the first half of 2016, earnings per share were $1.78 .

Balance Sheet

The Company ended the quarter in a very strong financial position, with an estimated MCT of 212% and $857 million in total excess capital . The Company's book value per share was $40.57 , an increase of 3% from a year ago.

. The Company's book value per share was , an increase of 3% from a year ago. The Company's debt-to-capital ratio was 19.3% at June 30, 2016 , close to the Company's target level of 20%.

at , close to the Company's target level of 20%. The operating ROE for the last 12 months remains healthy at 14.6%.

Analysts' Estimates

The average estimate of earnings per share and net operating income per share for the quarter among the analysts who follow the Company was $0.55 and $0.62 , respectively.

Management's Discussion and Analysis (MD&A) and Consolidated Financial Statements

This Press Release, which was approved by the Company's Board of Directors on the Audit Committee's recommendation, should be read in conjunction with the Q2-2016 MD&A as well as the Q2-2016 Consolidated Financial Statements, which are available on the Company's website at www.intactfc.com and later today on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.

For the definitions of measures and other insurance-related terms used in this Press Release, please refer to the MD&A and to the glossary available in the "Investor Relations" section of the Company's web site at www.intactfc.com

Conference Call

Intact Financial Corporation will host a conference call to review its earnings results later today at 11:00 a.m. ET. To listen to the call via live audio webcast and to view the Company's Financial Statements, MD&A, presentation slides, the Supplementary financial information and other information not included in this press release, visit the Company's website at www.intactfc.com and link to "Investor Relations".

The conference call is also available by dialing (647) 427-7450 or 1 (888) 231-8191 (toll-free in North America). Please call 10 minutes before the start of the call. A replay of the call will be available later today at 2:00 p.m. ET until midnight on August 3. To listen to the replay, call 1 (855) 859-2056, passcode 42274084. A transcript of the call will also be available on Intact Financial Corporation's website.

About Intact Financial Corporation

Intact Financial Corporation (TSX: IFC) is the largest provider of property and casualty insurance in Canada with close to $8.0 billion in premiums. Supported by over 12,000 employees, the Company insures more than five million individuals and businesses through its insurance subsidiaries and is the largest private sector provider of P&C insurance in British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland & Labrador. The Company distributes insurance under the Intact Insurance brand through a wide network of brokers, including its wholly owned subsidiary, BrokerLink, and directly to consumers through belairdirect.

Forward-Looking Statements

Certain statements made in this news release are forward-looking statements. These statements include, without limitation, statements relating to the evaluation of losses relating to the Fort McMurray wildfires, the outlook for the property and casualty insurance industry in Canada, the Company's business outlook and the Company's growth prospects. All such forward-looking statements are made pursuant to the 'safe harbour' provisions of applicable Canadian securities laws.

Forward-looking statements, by their very nature, are subject to inherent risks and uncertainties and are based on several assumptions, both general and specific, which give rise to the possibility that actual results or events could differ materially from our expectations expressed in or implied by such forward-looking statements as a result of various factors, including those discussed in the Company's most recently filed Annual Information Form and annual MD&A. As a result, we cannot guarantee that any forward-looking statement will materialize and we caution you against relying on any of these forward-looking statements. Except as may be required by Canadian securities laws, we do not undertake any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements contained in this news release, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Please read the cautionary note at the beginning of the MD&A.

SOURCE Intact Financial Corporation

PDF available at: http://stream1.newswire.ca/media/2016/07/27/20160727_C1766_PDF_EN_742387.pdf

For further information: Media Inquiries: Stephanie Sorensen, Director, External Communications, 1 (416) 344-8027, [email protected]; Investor Inquiries: Samantha Cheung, Vice President, Investor Relations, 1 (416) 344-8004, [email protected]
(All dollar amounts are in U.S. dollars unless otherwise indicated. This release should be read in conjunction with the Company's audited Financial Statements for the quarter ended June 30, 2016 and the Management's Discussion and Analysis report found on the Company's website or on SEDAR).

TORONTO, July 26, 2016 /CNW/ - LeadFX Inc. (the "Company" or "LeadFX") (TSX: LFX) today reported results for the three and six months ended June 30, 2016. In the second quarter, we realized a net loss of $2.5 million or $0.06 per share compared to a net loss of $6.8 million or $0.64 per share for the second quarter of 2015. The net loss realized in the second quarter of 2016 is 63% lower when compared to the same period in 2015 as a result of continued cost management and a consumable inventory write-down of $2.3 million in the second quarter of 2015 owing to lower realized re-sale prices achieved.

SECOND QUARTER HIGHLIGHTS

Operational

The Paroo Station mine has been on care and maintenance since January 2015. A minimum complement of care and maintenance staff is at the mine site full-time to maintain the site in a restart ready state.





Preliminary planning has commenced in relation to the requirements for a potential restart of operations at the Paroo Station mine. Ultimately, a decision to restart the Paroo Station mine will be dependent on several factors including securing the necessary financing. We are in advanced negotiations with an interested party to provide restart financing subject to various conditions being met.

Financial

Gross loss of $1.1 million and a net loss of $2.5 million for the second quarter.





and a net loss of for the second quarter. Cash used in operations of $1.4 million for the second quarter.





for the second quarter. The maturity date and forbearance period of the Bridging Facility was extended to June 30, 2017 . On July 15, 2016 , the Bridging Facility was assigned by Enirgi Group Corporation ("Enirgi Group") to Sentient Global Resources Fund IV, L.P. ("Sentient") and on July 19, 2016 , the outstanding principal and accrued interest under the Bridging Facility was converted from Canadian dollars to United States dollars.





. On , the Bridging Facility was assigned by Enirgi Group Corporation ("Enirgi Group") to Sentient Global Resources Fund IV, L.P. ("Sentient") and on , the outstanding principal and accrued interest under the Bridging Facility was converted from Canadian dollars to dollars. Lead FX successfully negotiated a $2.5 million unsecured promissory grid note dated April 22, 2016 issued by Lead FX to Sentient (the "Promissory Note"). No interest is payable on the principal amount of the Promissory Note, which must be repaid on June 30, 2017 .





successfully negotiated a unsecured promissory grid note dated issued by Lead to Sentient (the "Promissory Note"). No interest is payable on the principal amount of the Promissory Note, which must be repaid on . The Paroo Station mine is on full care and maintenance and as a result, additional financing will be required to meet our strategic growth plans, ongoing costs and loan commitments. We are currently in discussions with a number of interested parties regarding potential general financing options for the Company.

Outlook

Preliminary planning has commenced in relation to the requirements for a potential restart of operations at the Paroo Station mine. A decision to restart the Paroo Station mine will be dependent on a sustained improvement in LME lead prices supported by positive market fundamentals, favourable foreign exchange rates and treatment charges as well as securing the necessary financing to restart operations. Given the Company's current debt obligations and an estimated mine life of approximately four years based on current Mineral Reserves, management continues to focus not only on funding requirements but on an overall strategic review of the Paroo Station mine and its operations in light of the foregoing factors. A small restart team has been retained to allow a rapid restart of operations if the decision to proceed is taken.

We continue to investigate opportunities to save on treatment charges, transportation costs and other costs in order to allow us to identify the appropriate set of economic conditions that would support a restart of operations at the Paroo Station mine. The reduction in prices for iron ore, oil and gas has led to a significant reduction in mining and development activity within the State of Western Australia ("the State") which has in turn lowered demand for skilled labour and mining contractor services reducing the cost of operating a mine in the State. We continue to monitor economic activity within the State and are assessing the impact of lower costs on the Paroo Station mine and whether the right conditions exist that would lead us to restart the Paroo Station mine in light of the current LME (as defined below) lead prices, subject to the availability of financing.

In June 2016, the Company made final submissions to regulators in Western Australia with respect to changing certain operating conditions. The changes are aimed to help ensure continuity of mining operations at the Paroo Station mine following a restart. In particular, the Company is seeking (i) increased access to the remaining ore on the Magellan Hill deposit, (ii) an extension of the period of time permitted to export product from the Port of Fremantle, and (iii) a modification of the transport route financial assurance bond to levels in-line with the likely worse-case scenario cost. These applications remain under consideration by the Western Australian regulators.

FINANCIAL AND OPERATING HIGHLIGHTS

Summary financial and operating highlights:



Three months ended June 30 Six months ended June 30

2016 2015 2016 2015 (in thousands of United States dollars, except per share amounts) $ $ $ $ Financial Highlights







Revenue(1) - 750 - 27,163 Gross loss (1,119) (3,271) (2,123) (4,945) Net loss and comprehensive loss (2,534) (6,804) (6,608) (9,196) Basic and diluted loss per share (0.06) (0.64) (0.17) (0.86) Cash flow (used in) provided by operating activities (1,355) (1,254) (2,197) 387















June 30, 2016 December 31, 2015 Total assets



71,616 71,736





(1) During the first quarter of 2015, the Paroo Station mine transitioned to care and maintenance due to depressed London Metal Exchange ("LME") lead prices and increased treatment charges. Mining operations ceased in January and milling operations ceased in early February. Final shipments of lead concentrate left the Fremantle port in March 2015. Final adjustments to provisionally priced sales in March 2015 resulted in an additional $0.8 million of revenue in the second quarter of 2015.

Price of Lead

During the second quarter of 2016 the LME Cash Settlement Lead Price averaged $1,719 per tonne compared to $1,942 per tonne in the same period in 2015. During the first quarter of 2016, the LME Cash Settlement Lead Price averaged $1,744 per tonne compared to $1,806 per tonne in the same period in 2015. The LME lead price continues to be impacted by a soft demand for lead in China, excess supply in the United States and weaker market fundamentals affecting commodities in general.

LIQUIDITY AND FINANCIAL CONDITION

Statement of Cash Flows





Three months ended June 30 Six months ended June 30 (in thousands of United States dollars) 2016 2015 2016 2015 Cash flows from operating activities (1,355) (1,254) (2,197) 387 Cash flows from investing activities 7 3,866 7 3,379 Cash flows from financing activities 2,483 (3,860) 2,460 (4,579) Effect of exchange rate changes on cash and cash equivalents 35 (27) 43 (238) Net change in cash and cash equivalents 1,170 (1,275) 313 (1,051)

Operating activities

Cash used in operating activities in the current period were broadly consistent (increasing $0.1 million or 8%) compared to the second quarter of 2015. Cash flows in both periods were negative as a result of costs incurred while the Paroo Station mine is on care and maintenance.

Cash used in operating activities for the six months ended June 30, 2016 was $2.2 million while maintaining the Paroo Station mine in care and maintenance throughout the period compared to cash generated from operations of $0.4 million in the six months ended June 30, 2015 as a result milling high grade inventory on hand and collecting outstanding receivables before being transitioned into care and maintenance.

Investing activities

There have been no investing activities during the three and six months ended June 30, 2016 apart from interest received on restricted cash pertaining to bank guarantees for gas supply contracts. Investing activities in the same period in 2015 primarily relate to additions to property, plant and equipment.

Financing activities

Financing activities for the three and six months ended June 30, 2016 relate to the receipt of $2.5 million from the Promissory Note offset by finance lease payments.

Capital Resources, Liquidity and Working Capital Requirements

As at June 30, 2016, the Company had a working capital deficit of $15.2 million which includes $7.8 million (C$10.2 million) owing to Enirgi Group (since assigned to Sentient) under the Bridging Facility which has a maturity date of June 30, 2017 and $2.3 million owing to Sentient under the Promisory Note which has a maturity date of June 30, 2017. Neither the Paroo Station mine, the Chief properties nor the North 67 properties are operational or generating revenue.

The Company's ability to continue as a going concern is dependent on a number of factors including but not limited to the Company's ability to either (i) refinance the Bridging Facility, (ii) raise additional funds to meet its debts and obligations as they fall due, or (iii) undertake further transactions which may realize the value of the Company and its assets. The Company will need to undertake at least one of these aforementioned actions in order to service its working capital deficiency, meet its commitments to lenders, meet the costs of care and maintenance, meet the costs of any potential future restart of the Paroo Station mine and meet the costs of bringing the Company's mineral projects into production. The amount of any funding requirement will be contingent on several factors including, but not limited to, the nature of any refinancing of the Bridging Facility, the nature of any additional transactions undertaken by the Company, the outcome of further negotiations with the Company's lenders, the costs and duration of care and maintenance, the timing and cost of any potential future restart of operations at the Paroo Station mine and the cost of bringing the Company's mineral projects into production.

There is no guarantee or assurance that the Company will be able to (i) refinance the Bridging Facility, (ii) be able to secure sufficient financing to fund its commitments to its lenders, the costs of ongoing care and maintenance, the costs of any potential future restart of operations or the costs of bringing its mineral projects into production or (iii) complete any further transactions. If the Company is unable to obtain sufficient funds or repay debts from either one or more of these actions, it could affect its ability to continue as a going concern. A decision to restart the Paroo Station mine will be contingent on several factors including, but not limited to, a sustained recovery in the LME lead price, a reduction in treatment charges and a favorable USD:AUD foreign exchange rate. A decision to commence development of the Company's mineral projects will be contingent on several factors including, but not limited to, commodity prices, the projected cost to develop these projects and obtaining funding to finance these costs.

These material uncertainties create significant doubt as to the Company's ability to continue as a going concern. As at June 30, 2016 the second quarter 2016 financial statements do not reflect any adjustments to carrying values of assets and liabilities and the reported expenses and balance sheet classifications that would be necessary should the going concern assumption be inappropriate.

Shares issued and outstanding

As of the date hereof, there were approximately 38.3 million common shares of LeadFX issued and outstanding. In addition, options exercisable for a maximum aggregate of approximately 0.1 million common shares were outstanding.

Enirgi Group, its subsidiaries and joint ventures are each a "related party" to LeadFX by virtue of Enirgi Group and LeadFX being owned by the same parent. As at June 30, 2016, The Sentient Group of Global Resource Funds held 85.1% of the issued and outstanding shares of LeadFX. Previously, Enirgi Group, a wholly owned subsidiary of Sentient, owned 85.1% of the issued and oustanding shares of LeadFX. On March 24, 2016, shares of LeadFX held by Enirgi Group were transferred to The Sentient Group of Global Resource Funds.

Management's Discussion and Analysis and Consolidated Financial Statements

LeadFX's audited financial statements and MD&A for the three and six months ended June 30, 2016 will be filed today and will be available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com and on the Company's website at www.leadfxinc.com.

About LeadFX

LeadFX is a Canadian-based mining company focused on the development of lead-silver projects located in stable jurisdictions. Our current portfolio includes a restart-ready lead operation in Western Australia and a development project in Utah, USA. The Company is developing opportunities at its new properties in North America to underpin future cash flow and growth. LeadFX trades under the symbol "LFX" on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

Forward-Looking Statements

Certain statements contained in this news release are forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities laws. All statements included herein (other than statements of historical facts) which address activities, events or developments that management anticipates will or may occur in the future are forward-looking statements, including statements as to the following: the timing and length of care and maintenance at the Paroo Station mine and future sales, future targets and estimates for production and sales, the receipt of required additional financing to restart and operate the Paroo Station mine, statements relating to the business and future activities of, and developments related to LeadFX and its subsidiaries, including the development of water, lead, silver, industrial minerals and aggregates assets, future business acquisitions, future lead production, the Company's ability to meet its working capital needs and debt repayments in the near term, the circumstances or timing and costs surrounding a restart of the Paroo Station mine, forbearance by Sentient pursuant to the Bridging Facility, projections with respect to cash flows and working capital, the cost and timing for completion of capital projects necessary for any future operations, the Company's ability to comply with the transportation and operating conditions for the Paroo Station mine, capital expenditures, operating costs, cash costs, Mineral Resources, Mineral Reserves, life of mine, recovery rates, grades and prices, business strategies and measures to implement such strategies, competitive strengths, estimated goals and plans for LeadFX's future business operations, commodity prices outlook and other such matters. Forward-looking statements are often, but not always, identified by the use of words such as ''seek'', ''anticipate'', ''contemplate'', ''target'', ''believe'', ''plan'', ''estimate'', ''expect'', and ''intend'' and statements that an event or result ''may'', ''will'', ''can'', ''should'', ''could'' or ''might'' occur or be achieved and other similar expressions. These statements are based upon certain reasonable factors, assumptions and analyses made by management in light of its experience and perception of historical trends, current conditions and expected future developments, as well as other factors management believes are appropriate in the circumstances. However, whether actual results and developments will conform with management's expectations is subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, including factors underlying management's assumptions, such as, expected concentrate sales when in operations, the costs and other capital expenditures required to maintain operations and transportation, the timing, need and ability to raise any additional financing and the risks relating to ramping up mining and milling throughput and operations, funding requirements, operations being placed on care and maintenance, the restart of mining and milling operations, matters relating to regulatory compliance and approvals, shareholder dilution, matters relating to public opinion, presence of a majority shareholder and management services agreements with Enirgi Group , matters related to the Esperance settlement and shipments through the Port of Fremantle, regulatory proceedings and litigation and general operating risks such as metal price volatility, lead carbonate concentrate treatment charges, exchange rates, the fact that the Company has a single producing mineral property, health and safety, environmental factors, mining risks, metallurgy, labour and employment regulations, government regulations, insurance, dependence on key personnel, constraints on cash distribution from the Paroo Station mine, the nature of mineral exploration and development and common share price volatility.

Additional factors and considerations are discussed in the Company's 2015 AIF and elsewhere in other documents filed from time to time by LeadFX with Canadian securities regulatory authorities and available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. While LeadFX considers these assumptions to be reasonable based on information currently available to it, they may prove to be incorrect. While LeadFX considers these assumptions to be reasonable based on information currently available to it, they may prove to be incorrect. These factors may cause the actual results of the Company to differ materially from those discussed in the forward-looking statements, and there can be no assurance that the actual results or developments anticipated by management will be realized or, even if substantially realized, that they will have the expected results on the Company. Undue importance should not be placed on forward-looking information nor should reliance be placed upon this information as of any other date. Except as required by law, while it may elect to, LeadFX is under no obligation and does not undertake to update this information at any particular time.

SOURCE LeadFX Inc.

For further information: LeadFX Inc., Jessica Helm, VP, Corporate Communications and Investor Relations, Suite 3001, 1 Adelaide Street East, Toronto, Ontario M5C 2V9, (416) 867 9298, Email: [email protected]
BRAMPTON, ON, July 27, 2016 /CNW/ - Loblaw Companies Limited (TSX: L) ("Loblaw" or the "Company") today announced its unaudited financial results for the second quarter ended June 18, 2016. The Company's 2016 Second Quarter Report to Shareholders will be available in the Investors section of the Company's website at loblaw.ca and will be filed with SEDAR and available at sedar.com.

"Operating earnings grew in the second quarter of 2016, as we achieved improved same-store sales growth and maintained stable gross margins," said Galen G. Weston, Executive Chairman and President, Loblaw Companies Limited.

"Sales performance in Drug Retail remained strong in the quarter. In an increasingly competitive Food Retail environment, our initiatives are beginning to put money back in the pockets of Canadians."

2016 SECOND QUARTER HIGHLIGHTS

Revenue was $10,731 million , an increase of $196 million , or 1.9%, compared to the second quarter of 2015.

, an increase of , or 1.9%, compared to the second quarter of 2015. Retail segment sales were $10,494 million , an increase of $176 million , or 1.7%, compared to the second quarter of 2015. Food retail (Loblaw) same-store sales growth was 0.7%, excluding gas bar; Drug retail (Shoppers Drug Mart) same-store sales growth was 4.0%, with same-store pharmacy sales increasing by 3.6% and same-store front store sales increasing by 4.3%; and The timing of Easter had a negative impact of 1.0% in the second quarter on both Food retail same-store sales and Drug retail same-store sales.

, an increase of , or 1.7%, compared to the second quarter of 2015. Adjusted EBITDA (2) was $924 million , an increase of $67 million , or 7.8%, compared to the second quarter of 2015.

was , an increase of , or 7.8%, compared to the second quarter of 2015. Adjusted net earnings available to common shareholders of the Company (2) were $412 million , an increase of $62 million , or 17.7%, compared to the second quarter of 2015. Adjusted diluted net earnings per common share (2) were $1.01 , an increase of $0.17 , or 20.2%, compared to the second quarter of 2015.

were , an increase of , or 17.7%, compared to the second quarter of 2015. Adjusted diluted net earnings per common share were , an increase of , or 20.2%, compared to the second quarter of 2015. Net earnings available to common shareholders of the Company were $158 million , a decrease of $27 million , or 14.6%, compared to the second quarter of 2015. Diluted net earnings per common share were $0.39 , a decrease of $0.05 , or 11.4%, compared to the second quarter of 2015.

, a decrease of , or 14.6%, compared to the second quarter of 2015. Diluted net earnings per common share were , a decrease of , or 11.4%, compared to the second quarter of 2015. The Company realized approximately $83 million of net synergies in the quarter, an incremental $30 million compared to the second quarter of 2015. As a result, the Company has achieved its annualized synergies target of $300 million since the acquisition of Shoppers Drug Mart.

of net synergies in the quarter, an incremental compared to the second quarter of 2015. As a result, the Company has achieved its annualized synergies target of since the acquisition of Shoppers Drug Mart. The Company repurchased 2.0 million shares for cancellation at a cost of $132 million .

See "News Release Endnotes" at the back of this News Release.

CONSOLIDATED RESULTS OF OPERATIONS































For the periods ended June 18, 2016 and June 20, 2015

2016

2015







2016

2015





(millions of Canadian dollars except where otherwise indicated) (12 weeks) (12 weeks) $ Change % Change (24 weeks) (24 weeks) $ Change % Change Revenue $ 10,731 $ 10,535 $ 196 1.9% $ 21,112 $ 20,583 $ 529 2.6% Adjusted EBITDA(2)

924

857

67 7.8%

1,753

1,646

107 6.5% Adjusted EBITDA margin(2)

8.6%

8.1%







8.3%

8.0%





Net earnings attributable to shareholders of the Company $ 161 $ 185 $ (24) (13.0)% $ 357 $ 331 $ 26 7.9% Net earnings available to common shareholders of the Company(i)

158

185

(27) (14.6)%

351

331

20 6.0% Adjusted net earnings available to common shareholders of the Company(2)

412

350

62 17.7%

750

651

99 15.2% Diluted net earnings per common share ($) $ 0.39 $ 0.44 $ (0.05) (11.4)% $ 0.85 $ 0.79 $ 0.06 7.6% Adjusted diluted net earnings per common share(2) ($)

1.01

0.84

0.17 20.2%

1.82

1.56

0.26 16.7% Diluted weighted average common

shares outstanding (millions)

409.9

416.7







411.5

416.7









































(i) Net earnings available to common shareholders of the Company are net earnings attributable to shareholders of the Company net of dividends declared on the Company's Second Preferred Shares, Series B.





Adjusted net earnings available to common shareholders of the Company(2) in the second quarter of 2016 were $412 million ($1.01 per common share), an increase of $62 million ($0.17 per common share) compared to the second quarter of 2015, primarily due to the following:

improved performance in the Retail segment, which included achieving positive same-store sales, maintaining a stable gross margin, and delivering operational efficiencies in selling, general and administrative expenses ("SG&A");

the positive contribution from incremental net synergies of $30 million ;

; improved performance in the Financial Services segment, driven by the growth in credit card receivables and Mobile Shop sales;

the favourable impact of a decrease in depreciation and amortization of $22 million as a result of a change in the estimated useful life of certain equipment and fixtures; partially offset by

as a result of a change in the estimated useful life of certain equipment and fixtures; partially offset by an impact of an increase in the adjusted income tax rate (2) primarily due to an increase in the Alberta statutory corporate income tax rate and an increase in certain other non-deductible items.

Net earnings available to common shareholders of the Company in the second quarter of 2016 were $158 million ($0.39 per common share), a decrease of $27 million ($0.05 per common share) compared to the second quarter of 2015. Despite of the impact of the items described above, the decrease in net earnings available to common shareholders of the Company included the year-over-year impact of the following significant items:

the unfavourable impact of an increase in net interest expense and other financing charges, primarily due to the fair value adjustment to the Trust Unit Liability of $141 million ( $0.34 per common share); partially offset by

( per common share); partially offset by a prior year charge related to a statutory corporate income tax rate change of $38 million ( $0.09 per common share); and

( per common share); and the favourable impact of a decrease in restructuring and other related costs of $11 million ( $0.01 per common share).

REPORTABLE OPERATING SEGMENTS

Retail Segment



















For the periods ended June 18, 2016 and June 20, 2015 2016 2015



2016 2015



(millions of Canadian dollars except where otherwise indicated) (12 weeks) (12 weeks) $ Change % Change (24 weeks) (24 weeks) $ Change % Change Sales $ 10,494 $ 10,318 $ 176 1.7% $ 20,648 $ 20,148 $ 500 2.5% Gross profit 2,811 2,711 100 3.7% 5,587 5,335 252 4.7% Adjusted gross profit(2) 2,826 2,719 107 3.9% 5,603 5,343 260 4.9% Adjusted gross profit %(2) 26.9% 26.4%



27.1% 26.5%



Adjusted EBITDA(2) $ 875 $ 814 $ 61 7.5% $ 1,655 $ 1,553 102 6.6% Adjusted EBITDA margin(2) 8.3% 7.9%



8.0% 7.7%



Depreciation and amortization $ 339 $ 364 $ (25) (6.9)% $ 701 $ 728 (27) (3.7)%















































For the periods ended June 18, 2016 and June 20, 2015

2016

2015

2016

2015 (millions of Canadian dollars except where otherwise indicated)

(12 weeks)

(12 weeks)

(24 weeks)

(24 weeks)

Sales Same-store

sales Sales Same-store

sales Sales Same-store

sales Sales Same-store

sales Food retail $ 7,718 0.4% $ 7,629 2.1% $ 15,108 1.2% $ 14,863 2.0% Drug retail 2,776 4.0% 2,689 3.8% 5,540 5.1% 5,285 3.4%

Pharmacy 1,324 3.6% 1,274 3.9% 2,637 3.9% 2,531 3.7%

Front Store 1,452 4.3% 1,415 3.7% 2,903 6.3% 2,754 3.2%



















Overall Retail Segment Performance Adjusted EBITDA(2) improved by $61 million in the second quarter of 2016 primarily driven by higher sales, incremental net synergies, and improvements in SG&A as a percentage of sales.

Sales Retail segment sales were $10,494 million in the second quarter of 2016 compared to $10,318 million in the second quarter of 2015, an increase of $176 million, primarily due to the following factors:

Food retail same-store sales growth was 0.7% (2015  3.3% (5) ) for the quarter, after excluding gas bar (0.3%). Including gas bar, Food retail same-store sales growth was 0.4% (2015  2.1%). The timing of Easter had a negative impact of approximately 1.0%.

) for the quarter, after excluding gas bar (0.3%). Including gas bar, Food retail same-store sales growth was 0.4% (2015  2.1%). The timing of Easter had a negative impact of approximately 1.0%. The Company's Food retail average quarterly internal food price index was slightly lower than (2015  higher than) the average quarterly national food price inflation of 1.8% (2015  3.9%), as measured by The Consumer Price Index for Food Purchased from Stores ("CPI"). CPI does not necessarily reflect the effect of inflation on the specific mix of goods sold in the Company's stores.

Drug retail sales were comprised of pharmacy same-store sales growth of 3.6% (2015  3.9%) and front store same-store sales growth of 4.3% (2015  3.7%). The timing of Easter had a negative impact on same-store sales of approximately 1.0%.

In the last 12 months, Retail net square footage decreased by 0.4 million square feet, or 0.6%, primarily driven by the Company's store closure plan announced in 2015.

The Company's store closure plan announced in 2015 had a negative impact on sales of approximately $75 million .

Adjusted gross profit(2), adjusted gross profit percentage(2) and adjusted EBITDA(2) in the second quarter of 2016 included the impacts of the consolidation of franchises in the quarter, as set out in "Other Retail Business Matters".

Adjusted Gross Profit(2) Adjusted gross profit(2) was $2,826 million in the second quarter of 2016 compared to $2,719 million in the second quarter of 2015. Adjusted gross profit percentage(2) of 26.9% increased by 50 basis points compared to the second quarter of 2015. Excluding the consolidation of franchises, the adjusted gross profit percentage(2) was 26.4%, an increase of 10 basis points compared to the second quarter of 2015, driven by the achievement of operational synergies and strong Drug retail front store margins, partially offset by Food retail promotional investment.

Adjusted EBITDA(2) Adjusted EBITDA(2) was $875 million in the second quarter of 2016 compared to $814 million in the second quarter of 2015, an increase of $61 million, or 7.5%, driven by the increase in adjusted gross profit(2) described above, partially offset by an increase in SG&A of $46 million. SG&A as a percentage of sales was 18.6%, an increase of 10 basis points compared to the second quarter of 2015. Excluding the consolidation of franchises, SG&A as a percentage of sales was 18.0%, an improvement of 40 basis points compared to the second quarter of 2015, driven by the positive impact of the Company's store closure plan announced in 2015 and operational efficiencies in retail stores.

Depreciation and Amortization Depreciation and amortization was $339 million in the second quarter of 2016, a decrease of $25 million compared to the second quarter of 2015. Excluding the impact of the amortization of intangible assets related to the acquisition of Shoppers Drug Mart Corporation ("Shoppers Drug Mart") of $123 million (2015  $124 million), depreciation and amortization decreased by $24 million, primarily attributable to a change in the estimated useful life of certain equipment and fixtures.

Other Retail Business Matters

Gas Bar Network In the second quarter of 2016, the Company began engaging with potential buyers for the sale of its gas bar operations. The gas bar network is comprised of approximately 200 retail fuel sites. On an annual basis, the gas bar operations sell approximately 1,700 million litres of gas and generate sales of approximately $1,600 million.

Consolidation of Franchises The Company has more than 500 franchise stores in its network. As of the end of the second quarter of 2016, 132 of these stores were consolidated for accounting purposes under a new, simplified franchise agreement ("Franchise Agreement") implemented in 2015.

The Company will convert franchises to the Franchise Agreement as existing agreements expire, at the end of which all franchises will be consolidated. The following table presents the franchises consolidated in the second quarter of 2016 and year-to-date, and the total impact of the consolidated franchises:















2016 2015 2016

2015 (millions of Canadian dollars unless where otherwise indicated)

(12 weeks) (12 weeks) (24 weeks) (24 weeks) Number of Consolidated Franchise stores, beginning of period

115 

85

 Add: Number of Consolidated Franchise stores in the period

17 16

47

16 Number of Consolidated Franchise stores, end of period

132 16

132

16















Sales

$ 75 $ 5 $ 139 $

5 Gross Profit

75 5

134

5 Adjusted gross profit(2)

75 5

134

5 Adjusted EBITDA(2)

(1) (2)

(7)

(2) Depreciation and amortization

4 

8

 Net income (loss) attributable to Non-Controlling Interest

(5) 1

(14)

1













































Retail Locations in Fort McMurray In the second quarter of 2016, 10 retail locations in Fort McMurray were impacted by a wildfire that caused an evacuation of the city. During the second quarter of 2016, the Company recognized a charge of approximately $12 million related to inventory losses, site clean-up and restoration costs at these locations. An insurance claim is in progress and proceeds are expected to be recorded as the claim progresses.

The Company estimates the financial impact to the Company's results in the second quarter of 2016 from the temporary closure of these retail locations as follows: a decrease in sales of approximately $25 million and a decrease in adjusted EBITDA(2) of approximately $6 million. The Company maintains business interruption insurance and expects that certain losses will be recoverable under this insurance coverage.

Restructuring and Other Related Costs In the second quarter of 2016, the Company recorded an additional charge related to store closures of approximately $43 million. This amount was primarily related to the closure of the remaining Joe Fresh retail location in the U.S.

Drug Retail Ancillary Assets In 2015, the Company began actively marketing the sale of certain assets of the Shoppers Drug Mart ancillary healthcare business and recorded asset impairments on these assets and other related restructuring charges. In the second quarter of 2016, the Company signed agreements for the sale of a portion of these assets, and ceased actively marketing the remaining assets and restructured the remaining assets as part of ongoing operations. As a result, the Company recorded a charge of $4 million related to inventory impairment and reversals of $8 million of previous asset impairments and other related restructuring charges in the second quarter of 2016.

Financial Services Segment(3)





















For the periods ended June 18, 2016 and June 20, 2015

2016 2015



2016 2015



(millions of Canadian dollars except where otherwise indicated)

(12 weeks) (12 weeks) $ Change % Change (24 weeks) (24 weeks) $ Change % Change Revenue

$ 214 $ 199 $ 15 7.5% $ 421 $ 398 $ 23 5.8% Adjusted EBITDA(2)

44 38 6 15.8% 88 83 5 6.0% Earnings before income taxes

29 22 7 31.8% 57 50 7 14.0%

























































As at As at



(millions of Canadian dollars except where otherwise indicated)

June 18, 2016 June 20, 2015 $ Change % Change Average quarterly net credit card receivables

$ 2,717 $ 2,585 $ 132 5.1% Credit card receivables

2,767 2,647 120 4.5% Allowance for credit card receivables

52 48 4 8.3% Annualized yield on average quarterly gross credit card receivables

13.6% 13.7%



Annualized credit loss rate on average quarterly gross credit card receivables

4.5% 4.7%

















































Earnings Before Income Taxes Earnings before income taxes were $29 million in the second quarter of 2016, an increase of $7 million compared to the second quarter of 2015, primarily driven by:

higher interest and net interchange income attributable to growth in credit card receivables; and

higher Mobile Shop sales; partially offset by

higher costs associated with higher transaction volumes in the Financial Services loyalty program.

Credit Card Receivables As at June 18, 2016, credit card receivables were $2,767 million, an increase of $120 million compared to June 20, 2015. This increase was primarily driven by growth in the active customer base as a result of continued investments in customer acquisition, marketing and product initiatives. As at June 18, 2016, the allowance for credit card receivables was $52 million, an increase of $4 million compared to June 20, 2015 due to the growth in the credit card receivables portfolio.

Choice Properties Segment(3)





















For the periods ended June 18, 2016 and June 20, 2015

2016 2015



2016 2015



(millions of Canadian dollars except where otherwise indicated)

(12 weeks) (12 weeks) $ Change % Change (24 weeks) (24 weeks) $ Change % Change Revenue

$ 198 $ 183 $ 15 8.2% $ 390 $ 365 $ 25 6.8% Adjusted EBITDA(2)

111 115 (4) (3.5)% 247 242 5 2.1% Net interest expense and other financing charges

671 (75) 746 994.7% 939 264 675 255.7% Adjusted funds from operations(2)

83 77 6 7.8% 166 152 14 9.2%









































Adjusted EBITDA(2) Adjusted EBITDA(2) was $111 million in the second quarter of 2016, a decrease of $4 million compared to the second quarter of 2015, primarily driven by:

the change in fair value adjustment on investment properties; and

the change in fair value on unit-based compensation; partially offset by

higher contributions from property operations.

Net Interest Expense and Other Financing Charges Net interest expense and other financing charges were $671 million in the second quarter of 2016, an increase of $746 million compared to the second quarter of 2015, primarily driven by the change in fair value adjustment on Class B Limited Partnership units.

Adjusted Funds from Operations(2) Adjusted funds from operations(2) were $83 million in the second quarter of 2016, an increase of $6 million compared to the second quarter of 2015, primarily driven by higher contributions from property operations.

Other Matters In the second quarter of 2016, Choice Properties Real Estate Investment Trust ("Choice Properties") acquired ten investment properties from the Company for a purchase price of approximately $117 million, excluding acquisition costs, which was fully settled in cash.

Subsequent to the end of the second quarter of 2016, Choice Properties announced an increase in its annual distribution per unit of 6.0% to $0.71 per unit, effective for unitholders of record on July 29, 2016, distribution payable on August 15, 2016.

DECLARATION OF DIVIDENDS

Subsequent to the end of the second quarter of 2016, the Board of Directors declared a quarterly dividend on Common Shares and Second Preferred Shares, Series B.

Common Shares $0.26 per common share, payable on October 1, 2016 to shareholders of record on September 15, 2016



Second Preferred Shares, Series B $0.33 per share, payable on September 30, 2016 to shareholders of record on September 15, 2016





OUTLOOK(4)

Loblaw remains focused on its strategic framework, delivering the best in food, best in health and beauty, operational excellence and growth. This strategic framework is supported by a financial strategy of maintaining a stable trading environment that targets positive same-store sales and stable gross margin; surfacing efficiencies; delivering synergies as a result of its acquisition of Shoppers Drug Mart; and returning capital to shareholders. In 2016, the Company expects to:

deliver positive same-store sales and stable gross margin in its Retail segment in a highly competitive grocery market and with continued negative pressure from healthcare reform;

grow adjusted net earnings;

invest approximately $1.3 billion in capital expenditures, including $1.0 billion in its Retail segment; and

in capital expenditures, including in its Retail segment; and return capital to shareholders by allocating a significant portion of free cash flow to share repurchases.

NON-GAAP FINANCIAL MEASURES

The Company uses the following non-GAAP financial measures: Retail segment adjusted gross profit, Retail segment adjusted gross profit percentage, EBITDA, adjusted EBITDA, adjusted EBITDA margin, adjusted net interest expense and other financing charges, adjusted income taxes, adjusted income tax rate, adjusted net earnings, adjusted diluted net earnings per common share, and with respect to Choice Properties: adjusted funds from operations. The Company believes these non-GAAP financial measures provide useful information to both management and investors in measuring the financial performance and financial condition of the Company for the reasons outlined below.

Management uses these and other non-GAAP financial measures to exclude the impact of certain expenses and income that must be recognized under GAAP when analyzing underlying consolidated and segment operating performance, as the excluded items are not necessarily reflective of the Company's underlying operating performance and make comparisons of underlying financial performance between periods difficult. The Company excludes additional items if it believes doing so would result in a more effective analysis of underlying operating performance. The exclusion of certain items does not imply that they are non-recurring.

These measures do not have a standardized meaning prescribed by GAAP and therefore they may not be comparable to similarly titled measures presented by other publicly traded companies and should not be construed as an alternative to other financial measures determined in accordance with GAAP.

For details on the nature of items excluded in the calculation of any of the non-GAAP financial measures detailed below see the "Non-GAAP Financial Measures" section of the Company's 2016 Second Quarter Report to Shareholders.

Retail Segment Adjusted Gross Profit and Retail Segment Adjusted Gross Profit Percentage The following table reconciles the Retail segment adjusted gross profit to Retail segment gross profit. Retail segment adjusted gross profit percentage is calculated as adjusted Retail segment gross profit divided by Retail segment sales. The Company believes that Retail segment adjusted gross profit is useful in assessing the Retail segment's underlying operating performance and in making decisions regarding the ongoing operations of the business.













For the periods ended June 18, 2016 and June 20, 2015

2016 2015 2016 2015 (millions of Canadian dollars)

(12 weeks) (12 weeks) (24 weeks) (24 weeks) Retail segment gross profit

$ 2,811 $ 2,711 $ 5,587 $ 5,335 Add impact of the following:











Charges related to retail locations in Fort McMurray

9  9 

Net impairment reversals related to Drug retail ancillary assets

4  4 

Restructuring and other related costs

2  3 

Charge related to apparel inventory

 8  8 Retail segment adjusted gross profit

$ 2,826 $ 2,719 $ 5,603 $ 5,343

























The following describes the new adjusting items in the second quarter of 2016:

Charges related to retail locations in Fort McMurray In the second quarter of 2016, 10 retail locations in Fort McMurray were impacted by the wildfire that caused the evacuation of the city. The Company recognized charges related to the inventory losses, site clean-up and other restoration costs as set out in "Other Retail Business Matters".

Net impairment reversals related to Drug retail ancillary assets In the second quarter of 2016, the Company ceased actively marketing the remaining assets in certain Drug retail ancillary operations that were previously marketed for sale, as set out in "Other Retail Business Matters".

EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA Margin The following tables reconcile earnings before income taxes, net interest expense and other financing charges and depreciation and amortization ("EBITDA"), adjusted EBITDA and adjusted operating income to operating income, which is reconciled to GAAP net earnings measures reported in the unaudited interim period condensed consolidated statements of earnings for the periods ended June 18, 2016 and June 20, 2015. The Company believes that adjusted EBITDA is useful in assessing the performance of its ongoing operations and its ability to generate cash flows to fund its cash requirements, including the Company's capital investment program.

Adjusted EBITDA margin is calculated as adjusted EBITDA divided by revenue.





































2016







2015











(12 weeks)







(12 weeks) (millions of Canadian dollars)

Retail Financial Services(3) Choice Properties(3) Consolidation and Eliminations Consolidated Retail Financial Services(3) Choice Properties(3) Consolidation and Eliminations Consolidated Net earnings attributable to



























shareholders of the Company











$ 161







$ 185 Add (deduct) impact of the following:























Non-Controlling Interests









(5)







1

Net interest expense and



























other financing charges











236







106

Income taxes









125







121 Operating income

$ 475 $ 41 $ 111 $ (110) $ 517 $ 375 $ 36

$ 115 $ (113) $ 413 Depreciation and amortization

339 3  4 346 364 2

 3 369 EBITDA

$ 814 $ 44 $ 111 $ (106) $ 863 $ 739 $ 38

$ 115 $ (110) $ 782 Operating income

$ 475 $ 41 $ 111 $ (110) $ 517 $ 375 $ 36

$ 115 $ (113) $ 413 Add (deduct) impact of the following:

























Amortization of intangible



























assets acquired with



























Shoppers Drug Mart

123    123 124 

  124

Restructuring and other



























related costs

43    43 54 

  54

Charges related to retail



























locations in Fort McMurray

12    12  

  

Fair value adjustment on fuel



























and foreign currency



























contracts

10    10 9 

  9

Net impairment reversals



























related to Drug retail



























ancillary assets

(4)    (4)  

  

Charge related to apparel



























inventory

     8 

  8

Fixed asset and other related



























impairments, net of



























recoveries

     4 

  4 Adjusted operating income

$ 659 $ 41 $ 111 $ (110) $ 701 $ 574 $ 36

$ 115 $ (113) $ 612 Depreciation and amortization

339 3  4 346 364 2

 3 369 Less: Amortization of intangible

























assets acquired with

























Shoppers Drug Mart

(123)    (123) (124) 

  (124) Adjusted EBITDA

$ 875 $ 44 $ 111 $ (106) $ 924 $ 814 $ 38

$ 115 $ (110) $ 857

























































































2016







2015











(24 weeks)







(24 weeks) (millions of Canadian dollars)

Retail Financial Services(3) Choice Properties(3) Consolidation and Eliminations Consolidated Retail Financial Services(3) Choice Properties(3) Consolidation and Eliminations Consolidated Net earnings attributable to



























shareholders of the Company









$ 357







$ 331 Add (deduct) impact of the following:























Non-Controlling Interests









(14)







1

Net interest expense and other

























financing charges









393







298

Income taxes









217







197 Operating income

$ 868 $ 82 $ 247 $ (244) $ 953 $ 745 $ 78 $ 242 $ (238) $ 827 Depreciation and amortization

701 6  7 714 728 5  6 739 EBITDA

$ 1,569 $ 88 $ 247 $ (237) $ 1,667 $ 1,473 $ 83 $ 242 $ (232) $ 1,566 Operating income

$ 868 $ 82 $ 247 $ (244) $ 953 $ 745 $ 78 $ 242 $ (238) $ 827 Add (deduct) impact of the following:























Amortization of intangible

























assets acquired with

























Shoppers Drug Mart

247    247 248    248

Restructuring and other

























related costs

44    44 66    66

Fair value adjustment on fuel

























and foreign currency

























contracts

20    20 (3)    (3)

Charges related to retail

























locations in Fort McMurray

12    12     

Prior year tax assessment

10    10     

Net impairment reversals

























related to Drug retail

























ancillary assets

(4)    (4)     

Fixed asset and other related

























impairments, net of

























recoveries

2    2 7    7

Pension annuities and buy-outs

2    2     

Charge related to apparel

























inventory

     8    8

Shoppers Drug Mart

























acquisition-related cost, net

























of impact from divestitures

     2    2 Adjusted operating income

$ 1,201 $ 82 $ 247 $ (244) $ 1,286 $ 1,073 $ 78 $ 242 $ (238) $ 1,155 Depreciation and amortization

701 6  7 714 728 5  6 739 Less: Amortization of intangible























assets acquired with























Shoppers Drug Mart

(247)    (247) (248)    (248) Adjusted EBITDA

$ 1,655 $ 88 $ 247 $ (237) $ 1,753 $ 1,553 $ 83 $ 242 $ (232) $ 1,646

















































Adjusted Net Interest Expense and Other Financing Charges The following table reconciles adjusted net interest expense and other financing charges to net interest expense and other financing charges in the unaudited interim period condensed consolidated statements of earnings for the periods ended June 18, 2016 and June 20, 2015. The Company believes that adjusted net interest expense and other financing charges is useful in assessing the Company's underlying financial performance and in making decisions regarding the financial operations of the business.

































2016



2015



2016



2015 (millions of Canadian dollars)



(12 weeks)



(12 weeks)



(24 weeks)



(24 weeks) Net interest expense and other financing charges

$ 236

$ 106

$ 393

$ 298 Add (deduct) impact of the following:

























Fair value adjustment to the Trust Unit Liability



(108)



33



(140)



(25)

Accelerated amortization of deferred financing costs







(8)







(11) Adjusted net interest expense and other financing charges

$ 128

$ 131

$ 253

$ 262





















































Adjusted Income Taxes and Adjusted Income Tax Rate The Company believes adjusted income taxes is useful in assessing the underlying operating performance and in making decisions regarding the ongoing operations of its business.



































For the periods ended June 18, 2016 and June 20, 2015



2016





2015





2016





2015

(millions of Canadian dollars except where otherwise indicated)



(12 weeks)





(12 weeks)





(24 weeks)





(24 weeks)

Adjusted operating income(i)

$ 701



$ 612



$ 1,286



$ 1,155

Adjusted net interest expense and other financing charges(i)



128





131





253





262

Adjusted earnings before taxes

$ 573



$ 481



$ 1,033



$ 893

Income taxes

$ 125



$ 121



$ 217



$ 197

Add (deduct) impact of the following:

































Tax impact of items included in adjusted earnings before taxes(ii)



38





47





77





82



Statutory corporate income tax rate change









(38)





(3)





(38)

Adjusted income taxes

$ 163



$ 130



$ 291



$ 241

Effective tax rate



44.5 %



39.4 %



38.8 %



37.2 % Adjusted income tax rate



28.4 %



27.0 %



28.2 %



27.0 %





































































(i) See reconciliations of adjusted operating income and adjusted net interest expense and other financing charges above. (ii) See the EBITDA, adjusted EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA margin table and the adjusted net interest expense and other financing charges table above for a complete list of items included in adjusted earnings before taxes.





Adjusted income tax rate is calculated as adjusted income taxes divided by the sum of adjusted operating income less adjusted net interest expense and other financing charges.

Adjusted Net Earnings and Adjusted Diluted Net Earnings Per Common Share The Company believes adjusted net earnings and adjusted diluted net earnings per common share are useful in assessing the Company's underlying operating performance and in making decisions regarding the ongoing operations of its business.

The following table reconciles adjusted diluted net earnings per common share to GAAP diluted net earnings per common share as reported for the periods ended June 18, 2016 and June 20, 2015:

































2016



2015



2016



2015 ($ except where otherwise indicated)



(12 weeks)



(12 weeks)



(24 weeks)



(24 weeks) Diluted weighted average common shares outstanding (millions)



409.9



416.7



411.5



416.7

























Net earnings attributable to shareholders of the Company (millions of Canadian dollars)

$ 161

$ 185

$ 357

$ 331 Less: Prescribed dividends on preferred shares in share capital (millions of Canadian dollars)



(3)







(6)



 Net earnings available to common shareholders of the Company (millions of Canadian dollars)

$ 158

$ 185

$ 351

$ 331

























Diluted net earnings per common share

$ 0.39

$ 0.44

$ 0.85

$ 0.79 Add (deduct) impact of the following:

























Fair value adjustment to the Trust Unit Liability(i)



0.26



(0.08)



0.34



0.06

Amortization of intangible assets acquired with Shoppers Drug Mart



0.23



0.23



0.45



0.44

Restructuring and other related costs



0.10



0.11



0.10



0.14

Fair value adjustment on fuel and foreign currency contracts



0.02



0.02



0.04





Charges related to retail locations in Fort McMurray



0.02







0.02





Net impairment reversals related to Drug retail ancillary assets



(0.01)







(0.01)





Statutory corporate income tax rate change







0.09



0.01



0.09

Fixed asset and other related impairments, net of recoveries







0.01







0.01

Charge related to apparel inventory







0.01







0.01

Accelerated amortization of deferred financing costs







0.01







0.02

Prior year tax assessment











0.02



 Adjusted diluted net earnings per common share

$ 1.01

$ 0.84

$ 1.82

$ 1.56 Adjusted net earnings attributable to shareholders of the Company (millions of Canadian dollars)

$ 415

$ 350

$ 756

$ 651 Less: Prescribed dividends on preferred shares in share capital (millions of Canadian dollars)



(3)







(6)



 Adjusted net earnings available to common shareholders of the Company (millions of Canadian dollars)

$ 412

$ 350

$ 750

$ 651





















































(i) Gains or losses related to the fair value adjustment to the Trust Unit Liability are not subject to tax.





Choice Properties' Adjusted Funds from Operations The following table reconciles Choice Properties' adjusted funds from operations to GAAP measures for the periods ended June 18, 2016 and June 20, 2015. The Company believes adjusted funds from operations is useful in measuring economic performance and is indicative of Choice Properties' ability to pay distributions.





































2016



2015



2016



2015 (millions of Canadian dollars)



(12 weeks)



(12 weeks)



(24 weeks)



(24 weeks) Net income (loss)

$ (560)

$ 189

$ (692)

$ (22)

Fair value adjustments on Class B Limited Partnership units



580



(160)



761



94

Fair value adjustments on investment properties



23



16



37



17

Fair value adjustments on unit-based compensation



4







5





Fair value adjustments of investment property held in equity accounted joint venture











(14)





Distributions on Class B Limited Partnership units



53



50



106



100

Internal expenses for leasing



2



1



2



1 Funds from Operations

$ 102

$ 96

$ 205

$ 190

Straight-line rental revenue



(10)



(9)



(19)



(18)

Amortization of finance charges



1



(1)







(1)

Unit-based compensation expense



1



1



2



1

Sustaining property and leasing capital expenditures, normalized(i)



(11)



(10)



(22)



(20) Adjusted Funds from Operations

$ 83

$ 77

$ 166

$ 152

























































(i) Seasonality impacts the timing of capital expenditures. The adjusted funds from operations calculation has been adjusted for this factor to make the quarters more comparable.





SEGMENT INFORMATION

The Company has three reportable operating segments with all material operations carried out in Canada:

The Retail segment consists primarily of corporate and franchise-owned retail food and Associate-owned drug stores, and includes in-store pharmacies and other health and beauty products, gas bars and apparel and other general merchandise. This segment is comprised of several operating segments that are aggregated primarily due to similarities in the nature of products and services offered for sale in the retail operations and the customer base;

The Financial Services segment provides credit card services, loyalty programs, insurance brokerage services, personal banking services provided by a major Canadian chartered bank, deposit taking services and telecommunication services; and

The Choice Properties segment owns and leases income-producing commercial properties. The Choice Properties segment information presented below reflects the accounting policies of Choice Properties, which may differ from those of the consolidated Company. Differences in policies are eliminated in Consolidation and Eliminations.

The Company's chief operating decision maker evaluates segment performance on the basis of adjusted EBITDA(2) and adjusted operating income(2), as reported to internal management, on a periodic basis.

Information for each reportable operating segment is included below:















June 18, 2016

June 20, 2015



(12 weeks)

(12 weeks) (millions of Canadian dollars)

Retail

Financial

Services(3)

Choice

Properties(3)

Consolidation

and

Eliminations(i)

Total

Retail

Financial

Services(3)

Choice

Properties(3)

Consolidation

and

Eliminations(i)

Total Revenue(ii)

$ 10,494

$ 214

$ 198

$ (175)

$ 10,731

$ 10,318

$ 199

$ 183

$ (165)

$ 10,535 EBITDA(iii)

$ 814

$ 44

$ 111

$ (106)

$ 863

$ 739

$ 38

$ 115

$ (110)

$ 782 Adjusting Items(iii)

61







61

75







75 Adjusted EBITDA(iii)

$ 875

$ 44

$ 111

$ (106)

$ 924

$ 814

$ 38

$ 115

$ (110)

$ 857 Depreciation and Amortization(iv)

216

3



4

223

240

2



3

245 Adjusted Operating Income(iii)

$ 659

$ 41

$ 111

$ (110)

$ 701

$ 574

$ 36

$ 115

$ (113)

$ 612 Net interest expense and





























































other financing charges

$ 79

$ 12

$ 671

$ (526)

$ 236

$ 91

$ 14

$ (75)

$ 76

$ 106





















































































(i) Consolidation and Eliminations includes the following items:

Revenue includes the elimination of $129 million (2015  $124 million) of rental revenue and $46 million (2015  $41 million) of cost recovery recognized by Choice Properties, generated from the Retail segment.

Adjusted operating income includes the elimination of the $129 million (2015  $124 million) impact of rental revenue described above; the elimination of a $23 million loss (2015  $16 million loss) recognized by Choice Properties related to the fair value adjustments on investment properties, which are classified as Fixed Assets or Investment Properties by the Company and measured at cost; the recognition of $4 million (2015  $3 million) of depreciation expense for certain investment properties recorded by Choice Properties; and the elimination of intercompany charges of $2 million in 2015.

Net interest expense and other financing charges includes the elimination of $65 million (2015  $62 million) of interest expense included in Choice Properties related to debt owing to the Company and a $580 million fair value loss (2015  gain of $160 million) recognized by Choice Properties on Class B Limited Partnership units held by the Company. Net interest and other financing charges also includes Unit distributions to external unitholders of $11 million (2015  $11 million), which excludes distributions paid to the Company and a $108 million fair value loss (2015  $33 million gain) on the Company's Trust Unit Liability. (ii) Included in Financial Services revenue is $93 million (2015  $89 million) of interest income. (iii) Certain items are excluded from EBITDA(2) to derive adjusted EBITDA(2). Adjusted EBITDA(2) is used internally by management when analyzing segment underlying performance. (iv) Depreciation and amortization for the calculation of adjusted EBITDA(2) excludes $123 million (2015  $124 million) of amortization of intangible assets acquired with Shoppers Drug Mart.



















June 18, 2016

June 20, 2015



(24 weeks)

(24 weeks) (millions of Canadian dollars)

Retail

Financial

Services(3)

Choice

Properties(3)

Consolidation

and

Eliminations(i)

Total

Retail

Financial

Services(3)

Choice

Properties(3)

Consolidation

and

Eliminations(i)

Total Revenue(ii)

$ 20,648

$ 421

$ 390

$ (347)

$ 21,112

$ 20,148

$ 398

$ 365

$ (328)

$ 20,583 EBITDA(iii)

$ 1,569

$ 88

$ 247

$ (237)

$ 1,667

$ 1,473

$ 83

$ 242

$ (232)

$ 1,566 Adjusting Items(iii)

86







86

80







80 Adjusted EBITDA(iii)

$ 1,655

$ 88

$ 247

$ (237)

$ 1,753

$ 1,553

$ 83

$ 242

$ (232)

$ 1,646 Depreciation and Amortization(iv)

454

6



7

467

480

5



6

491 Adjusted Operating Income(iii)

$ 1,201

$ 82

$ 247

$ (244)

$ 1,286

$ 1,073

$ 78

$ 242

$ (238)

$ 1,155 Net interest expense and





























































other financing charges

$ 157

$ 25

$ 939

$ (728)

$ 393

$ 177

$ 28

$ 264

$ (171)

$ 298

















































































(i) Consolidation and Eliminations includes the following items:

Revenue includes the elimination of $257 million (2015  $247 million) of rental revenue and $90 million (2015  $81 million) of cost recovery recognized by Choice Properties, generated from the Retail segment.

Adjusted operating income includes the elimination of the $257 million (2015  $247 million) impact of rental revenue described above; the elimination of a $37 million loss (2015  $17 million loss) recognized by Choice Properties related to the fair value adjustments on investment properties, which are classified as Fixed Assets or Investment Properties by the Company and measured at cost; the elimination of a $14 million gain (2015  nil) recognized by Choice Properties related to the fair value adjustments on investment properties in the joint venture; $7 million (2015  $6 million) of depreciation expense for certain investment properties recorded by Choice Properties; and the elimination of intercompany charges of $3 million (2015  $2 million).

Net interest expense and other financing charges includes the elimination of $130 million (2015  $124 million) of interest expense included in Choice Properties related to debt owing to the Company and a $761 million fair value loss (2015  loss of $94 million) recognized by Choice Properties on Class B Limited Partnership units held by the Company. Net interest and other financing charges also includes Unit distributions to external unitholders of $23 million (2015  $22 million), which excludes distributions paid to the Company and a $140 million fair value loss (2015  loss of $25 million) on the Company's Trust Unit Liability. (ii) Included in Financial Services revenue is $189 million (2015  $181 million) of interest income. (iii) Certain items are excluded from EBITDA(2) to derive adjusted EBITDA(2). Adjusted EBITDA(2) is used internally by management when analyzing segment underlying performance. (iv) Depreciation and amortization for the calculation of adjusted EBITDA(2) excludes $247 million (2015  $248 million) of amortization of intangible assets acquired with Shoppers Drug Mart.





FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This News Release contains forward-looking statements about the Company's objectives, plans, goals, aspirations, strategies, financial condition, results of operations, cash flows, performance, prospects, opportunities and legal and regulatory matters. Specific forward-looking statements in this News Release include, but are not limited to, statements with respect to the Company's anticipated future results, events and plans, synergies and other benefits associated with the acquisition of Shoppers Drug Mart, anticipated insurance proceeds related to the Fort McMurray wildfire, future liquidity, planned capital investments, and status and impact of information technology ("IT") systems implementation. These specific forward-looking statements are contained throughout this News Release including, without limitation, in the "Outlook" section of this News Release. Forward-looking statements are typically identified by words such as "expect", "anticipate", "believe", "foresee", "could", "estimate", "goal", "intend", "plan", "seek", "strive", "will", "may" and "should" and similar expressions, as they relate to the Company and its management.

Forward-looking statements reflect the Company's current estimates, beliefs and assumptions, which are based on management's perception of historical trends, current conditions and expected future developments, as well as other factors it believes are appropriate in the circumstances. The Company's expectation of operating and financial performance in 2016 is based on certain assumptions including assumptions about anticipated cost savings, operating efficiencies and continued growth from current initiatives. The Company's estimates, beliefs and assumptions are inherently subject to significant business, economic, competitive and other uncertainties and contingencies regarding future events, and as such, are subject to change. The Company can give no assurance that such estimates, beliefs and assumptions will prove to be correct.

Numerous risks and uncertainties could cause the Company's actual results to differ materially from those expressed, implied or projected in the forward-looking statements, including those described in Section 12 "Enterprise Risks and Risk Management" of the Management Discussion and Analysis in the 2015 Annual Report  Financial Review ("2015 Annual Report") and the Company's 2015 Annual Information Form ("AIF") (for the year ended January 2, 2016). Such risks and uncertainties include:

changes to the regulation of generic prescription drug prices, the reduction of reimbursements under public drug benefit plans and the elimination or reduction of professional allowances paid by drug manufacturers;

the inability of the Company's IT infrastructure to support the requirements of the Company's business, or the occurrence of any internal or external security breaches, denial of service attacks, viruses, worms and other known or unknown cybersecurity or data breaches;

failure to realize benefits from investments in the Company's new IT systems;

the inability of the Company to manage inventory to minimize the impact of obsolete or excess inventory and to control shrink;

failure to realize the anticipated strategic benefits associated with the acquisition of Shoppers Drug Mart;

public health events including those related to food or drug safety;

failure to realize anticipated results, including revenue growth, anticipated cost savings or operating efficiencies associated with the Company's major initiatives, including those from restructuring;

failure by the Company's franchisees or Shoppers Drug Mart licensees ("Associates") to operate in accordance with prescribed procedures or standards, or disruptions to the Company's relationship with its franchisees or Associates;

failure to achieve desired results in labour negotiations, including the terms of future collective bargaining agreements, which could lead to work stoppages;

changes in the Company's income, capital, commodity, property and other tax and regulatory liabilities, including changes in tax laws, regulations or future assessments;

reliance on the performance and retention of third party service providers, including those associated with the Company's supply chain and apparel business;

issues with vendors in both advanced and developing markets;

the risk that the Company would experience a financial loss if its counterparties fail to meet their obligations in accordance with the terms and conditions of their contracts with the Company;

failure to merchandise effectively or in a manner that is responsive to customer demand;

heightened competition, whether from current competitors or new entrants to the marketplace;

changes in economic conditions, including economic recession or changes in the rate of inflation or deflation, employment rates, interest rates, currency exchange rates or derivative and commodity prices;

the impact of potential environmental liabilities; and

the inability of the Company to collect on or fund its credit card receivables.

This is not an exhaustive list of the factors that may affect the Company's forward-looking statements. Other risks and uncertainties not presently known to the Company or that the Company presently believes are not material could also cause actual results or events to differ materially from those expressed in its forward-looking statements. Additional risks and uncertainties are discussed in the Company's materials filed with the Canadian securities regulatory authorities ("securities regulators") from time to time, including, without limitation, the section entitled "Risks" in the Company's 2015 AIF (for the year ended January 2, 2016). Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which reflect the Company's expectations only as of the date of this News Release. Except as required by law, the Company does not undertake to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

CORPORATE PROFILE

2015 Annual Report and 2016 Second Quarter Report to Shareholders

The Company's 2015 Annual Report and 2016 Second Quarter Report to Shareholders are available in the "Investors" section of the Company's website at loblaw.ca and on sedar.com.

Additional financial information has been filed electronically with various securities regulators in Canada through the System for Electronic Document Analysis and Retrieval (SEDAR) and with the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI) as the primary regulator for the Company's subsidiary, President's Choice Bank. The Company holds an analyst call shortly following the release of its quarterly results. These calls are archived in the "Investors" section of the Company's website at loblaw.ca.

Conference Call and Webcast

Loblaw Companies Limited will host a conference call as well as an audio webcast on July 27, 2016 at 10:00 a.m. (EDT).

To access via tele-conference, please dial (416) 204-9271. The playback will be made available approximately two hours after the event at (647) 436-0148, access code: 5576243. To access via audio webcast, please go to the "Investors" section of loblaw.ca. Pre-registration will be available.

Full details about the conference call and webcast are available on the Loblaw Companies Limited website at loblaw.ca.



News Release Endnotes (1) This News Release contains forward-looking information. See "Forward-Looking Statements" section of this News Release for a discussion of material factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the forecasts and projections herein and of the material factors and assumptions that were used when making these statements. This News Release should be read in conjunction with Loblaw Companies Limited's filings with securities regulators made from time to time, all of which can be found at sedar.com and at loblaw.ca. (2) See "Non-GAAP Financial Measures" section of this News Release. (3) The results for the Financial Services and Choice Properties segments are for the periods ended June 30, 2016 and June 30, 2015, consistent with the segments' fiscal calendars. Adjustments to align Financial Services' and Choice Properties' results to June 18, 2016 and June 20, 2015 are included in Consolidation and Eliminations. See the "Non-GAAP Financial Measures" and the "Segment Information" sections of this News Release. (4) To be read in conjunction with the "Forward-Looking Statements" section of this News Release. (5) 2015 comparative Food retail same-store sales growth also excludes the negative impact of a change in distribution model by a tobacco supplier, which had no impact in the current period.









SOURCE Loblaw Companies Limited

For further information: Investor Relations: Investor inquiries, contact: Sophia Bisoukis, Vice President, Investor Relations, (905) 861-2436, [email protected]; Media inquiries, contact: Kevin Groh, Vice President, Corporate Affairs and Communication, (905) 861-2437, [email protected]
VANCOUVER, July 27, 2016 /CNW/ - Polaris Materials Corporation ("Polaris" or the "Company") (TSX:PLS) plans to release second quarter 2016 results on Tuesday, August 9, 2016 after the close of trading on the TSX. The results will be available on SEDAR (www.sedar.com) and also on the company's web site at www.polarismaterials.com. In conjunction with the release, Polaris has scheduled an investor conference call which will be held on Wednesday, August 10, 2016 at 11:00am Eastern time (8:00am Pacific time).

Conference Call and Webcast Details

Details to access the call live are as follows:

Via telephone, toll free, by calling 1-888-390-0546 in North America or +1-416-764-8688 in Toronto .

or +1-416-764-8688 in . Via webcast at: http://goo.gl/rfRAqK

The webcast will be archived for 14 days following the call at the above-noted link. The conference call will also be recorded and available for replay until Wednesday, August 24, 2016. To access the replay, dial 1-888-390-0541 or +1-416-764-8677 and use Playback Passcode 416406# to hear the recording.

About Polaris Materials Corporation:

Polaris Materials Corporation is engaged in the development and operation of construction aggregate quarries in Canada to supply distribution facilities in the United States through coastal shipping. The Company's active construction aggregate interests consist of its Orca Sand and Gravel Quarry in British Columbia and two associated receiving terminals in Richmond and Long Beach, California. The Company also owns the Black Bear Project located in close proximity to the Orca Quarry, and a controlling interest in the Eagle Rock Quarry Project, located on the south coast of Vancouver Island.

For further information, please contact:

Nicholas Van Dyk

Vice President, Investor Relations and Corporate Development

Polaris Materials Corporation

Tel: (604) 915-5000 Ext. 111

[email protected]

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward Looking Statements

This press release contains "forward-looking statements" and "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable securities laws. These statements and information appear in this document and include estimates, forecasts, information and statements as to management's expectations with respect to, among other things, the future financial or operating performance of the Company, including increases in gross margins, increases in sales volumes (including in the Long Beach market), shipments and selling prices, costs of production, capital and operating expenditures, requirements for additional capital, government regulation of quarrying operations, environmental risks, reclamation expenses, and title disputes, the Canadian dollar compared to the US dollar, increases in Californian construction activity and US infrastructure funding, statements regarding potential new customers and the development of Black Bear. Often, but not always, forward-looking statements and information can be identified by the use of words such as "may", "will", "should", "plans", "expects", "intends", "anticipates", "believes", "budget", and "scheduled" or the negative thereof or variations thereon or similar terminology. Forward-looking statements and information are necessarily based upon a number of estimates and assumptions that, while considered reasonable by management, are inherently subject to significant business, economic and competitive uncertainties and contingencies. Readers are cautioned that any such forward-looking statements and information are not guarantees and there can be no assurance that such statements and information will prove to be accurate and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the Company's expectations are disclosed in the Company's continuous disclosure documents which are filed with Canadian regulators on SEDAR (www.sedar.com), including under the heading "Risks and Uncertainties" in the Company's Annual Report and under the heading "Risk Factors" in the Company's Annual Information Form. Such factors include, amongst others, the effects of general economic conditions, changing foreign exchange rates and actions by government authorities, uncertainties associated with legal proceedings and negotiations, industry supply levels, competitive pricing pressures, mineral resource and reserve estimates and the timing and development of the Black Bear project. The Company expressly disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements and information whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable law. All written and oral forward-looking statements and information attributable to us or persons acting on our behalf are expressly qualified in their entirety by the foregoing cautionary statements.

SOURCE Polaris Materials Corporation

For further information: Nicholas Van Dyk, Vice President, Investor Relations and Corporate Development, Polaris Materials Corporation, Tel: (604) 915-5000 Ext. 111, [email protected]
VANCOUVER, July 26, 2016 /CNW/ - Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers Incorporated (NYSE andTSX: RBA), the world's largest industrial auctioneer, invites interested parties to participate in its second quarter 2016 earnings conference call, occurring on Tuesday, August 9, 2016 at 11:00 am Eastern time / 8:00 am Pacific time / 4:00 pm BST. During the call company executives will discuss Ritchie Bros.' earning results and answer questions from analysts and institutional investors. The Company's second quarter 2016 earnings results will be released after NYSE and TSX markets close the day prior, on August 8, 2016.

Analysts and institutional investors may participate via conference call, using the following dial-in information:

1-888-231-8191 (toll-free North America )

) 0-800-051-7107 (toll-free UK)

1-647-427-7450 ( Toronto & overseas long-distance)

Please ask to participate in Ritchie Bros.' second quarter 2016 earnings conference call, and quote conference ID

56298129 if prompted.

Media and other interested parties may listen to the conference call via webcast, by selecting the second quarter 2016 earnings call webcast link at www.rbauction.com/investors.

Please note that there will be presentation slides accompanying the earnings call. The slides will be displayed live on the webcast, and will be available to download via the webcast player or at www.rbauction.com/investors the morning of the call.

A replay of the conference call can be accessed after 2:00 pm Eastern / 11:00 am Pacific time / 7:00 pm BST until September 6, 2016 at 416-849-0833 or 1-855-859-2056 (using passcode 56298129#).

About Ritchie Bros.

Established in 1958, Ritchie Bros. (NYSE andTSX: RBA) is the world's largest industrial auctioneer, and one of the world's largest sellers of used equipment for the construction, transportation, agriculture, energy, mining, forestry and other industries. Ritchie Bros.TM asset management and disposition solutions include live unreserved public auctions with on-site and online bidding; EquipmentOneTM, an online auction marketplace; MascusTM, a global online equipment listing service; private negotiated sales through Ritchie Bros. Private Treaty; and a range of ancillary services, including financing and leasing through Ritchie Bros. Financial Services. Ritchie Bros. has operations in 19 countries, including 44 auction sites worldwide. Learn more at rbauction.com, EquipmentOne.com, mascus.com, rbauction.com/privatetreaty and rbauction.com/financing.

SOURCE Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers

For further information: Jamie Kokoska, Director, Investor Relations, Phone: 1.778.331.5219, [email protected]
The Bayelsa governorship election tribunal sitting in Abuja has upheld the election of Seriake Dickson, incumbent governor of Bayelsa stat...

The Bayelsa governorship election tribunal sitting in Abuja has upheld the election of Seriake Dickson, incumbent governor of Bayelsa state.Timipre Sylva of the All Progressives Congress (APC) had challenged the victory of Dickson after losing the governorship election last year.The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared Dickson, winner of the election, announcing that he polled 134,998 votes to defeat Sylva, a former governor of the state, who scored 86,852 votes to place second.Sylva had asked the tribunal to declare him the duly elected as governor, after tendering the evidence of a video showing electoral malpractice allegedly perpetrated by the Dickson and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).After the judgement, Felix Okoroti, counsel to Sylva, told journalists that he would discuss with his client on the next line of action.On his part, counsel to Dickson, Aliu Umar praised the tribunal for its judgement on the matter.
If Russia or any other country or person has Hillary Clinton's 33,000 illegally deleted emails, perhaps they should share them with...

If Russia or any other country or person has Hillary Clinton's 33,000 illegally deleted emails, perhaps they should share them with the FBI!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 27, 2016

Donald Trump on Wednesday said he hopes Hillary Clintons deleted emails have fallen into the hands of Russian hackers.If they hacked, they probably have her 33,000 emails. I hope they do, Trump said at a press conference at his resort in Doral, Florida.The Republican presidential nominee was referring to the widely held suspicion that Russia is responsible for hacking the Democratic National Committees servers, resulting in the leak of tens of thousands of emails just days before the partys nominating convention in Philadelphia.Trump said that he hoped the hackers had also accessed Clintons private email servers. They probably have her 33,000 emails that she lost and deleted.Trump then addressed the rogue nation directly, saying Russia, if youre listening, I hope youre able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing.By actively hoping that American servers were hacked by another nation, Trump broke an unwritten but cardinal rule of American public office: You dont root against the United States, even when your political opponent is in power.Regardless of party or platform, American public officials are expected to champion U.S. interests and defend U.S. national security. Trump seemed to do the opposite Wednesday.Within moments of Trumps press conference, his running mate, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence (R), released a statement distancing himself from the nominees words. If it is Russia and they are interfering in our elections, I can assure you both parties and the United States government will ensure there are serious consequences, Pence said.I find those kinds of comments to be totally outrageous, Leon Panetta, a former secretary of defense and director of central intelligence in the Obama administration, said of Trumps comments. Youve got now a presidential candidate who is in fact asking the Russians to engage in American politics. I just think that is beyond the pale.Panetta, who has endorsed Clinton, said this kind of statement only reflects the fact that [Trump] truly is not qualified to be president of the United States.Trump, however, doubled down on his demand for Clintons emails in a tweet shortly after the press conference.The 33,000 number refers to emails that Clinton said she and her staff deleted from her servers because they contained personal and private information, including correspondence about her daughter Chelsea Clintons wedding.Earlier this year, FBI Director James Comey said an exhaustive investigation into Clintons use of a private email server during her tenure as secretary of state revealed that she and her staff were extremely careless in their handling of documents. But he recommend to the Department of Justice that no charges were appropriate.House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) also pushed back against Trumps hope that Russia successfully penetrates U.S. servers. Russia is a global menace led by a devious thug. Putin should stay out of this election, Brendan Buck, Ryans spokesman, told BuzzFeed News.Trump declined to say whether or not Putin should stay out of U.S. elections, telling the assembled press Wednesday, Im not going to tell Putin what to do. Why should I tell Putin what to do?Clintons campaign was also quick to respond to Trumps press conference.This has to be the first time that a major presidential candidate has actively encouraged a foreign power to conduct espionage against his political opponent, Clinton adviser Jake Sullivan said Wednesday. This has gone from being a matter of curiosity, and a matter of politics, to being a national security issue.
Ogun State Government has confirmed the adoption of a nine-year-old minor, Master Korede Taiwo, who was chained for weeks by his father...

Wife of Ogun state governor and Korede

Ogun State Government has confirmed the adoption of a nine-year-old minor, Master Korede Taiwo, who was chained for weeks by his father for stealing in Ado-Odo/Ota Local Government area.The boy, who was rescued by the Nigeria Civil Defence Corp and the Police, has since been admitted into the Federal Medical Centre in Abeokuta.Speaking during a visit to the boy at the hospital, the governors wife, Mrs. Olufunso Amosun, expressed satisfaction over the health of the child whom was recuperating.She noted that the state would take up the responsibility and educate the child by sponsoring his education.I am happy to see him active and responding to treatment and with the way things are, he would soon be discharged from the hospital. The state government has taken full responsibility and would ensure his safety and his education, she said.Amosuns wife condemned the maltreatment meted out to the boy by his father and urged parents to take good care of their children by providing for them to avoid a situation that could lead them into stealing and other vices.Mrs. Amosun said the Presidents wife, Aisha Buhari, was also interested in the welfare and speedy rehabilitation of the boy.It is reassuring that the boy is doing well despite all what he was subjected to. We were worried that we will see a dejected and withdrawn child, but we are seeing Korede that is active with his mind alert.Although, he looked smaller than what a child of his age should be, but he is recuperating very fast. The state government has taken a proactive step to address the issue.The mother of the nation has followed the case when it first broke and she is still following it. She (Aisha Buhari) is very passionate about it. She wants to know the boys condition and compassionate about the case, Mrs. Amosun said.Commissioner for Health, Dr. Babatunde Ipaye noted that the government would give the child the best in the areas of medical and social support.He explained that the boy would still be at the hospital for another week to enable him recuperate fully.The commissioner said Korede was strong and willing to come out of his health situation.Head of Department of Paediatric, Federal Medical Centre, Abeokuta Dr. Morufat Ogundeyi said the boy was admitted for child abuse and chronic malnutrition.She added that the boy would be investigated to know if he has any other infection.Mrs. Ogundeyi said Korede needs special care and rehabilitation to help him develop and interact well with other children.She added that the child was mentally alert and if given opportunity, he would do well like any normal child of his age.Commissioner for Justice Dr. Olumide Ayeni said the administration has zero-tolerance for all forms of abuse and would take positive steps to ensure such situation was curbed.He noted that the case had been taken take over in line with due process, adding that the culprit would be brought to book.During Amosuns visit, Taiwo passionately begged her not to allow anybody to return him to his fathers house.Korede, who spoke in Yoruba from his hospital bed, said he could not trust his torturers not to repeat the same act on him in future, if sent back to live in his fathers house.He could barely speak due to exhaustion and starvation following weeks of torture by his father and stepmother.Mrs. Amosun strained her ears to hear him clearly when she visited the boy.Korede was chained for over a month by his father who is in charge of Key of Joy parish of the Celestial Church of Christ, Ajinwo, Ota area of the state.The Anti-Human Trafficking unit of the state Police Command handed the boy over to the officials of Ministry Women Affairs and Social Development, Abeokuta, who took him to FMC on Monday.
The Enugu State Police Command, Tuesday, confirmed the arrested of an 18-year-old girl, Okike Ezinne from Isu Mbaneze in Ohaozara Local Go...

The Enugu State Police Command, Tuesday, confirmed the arrested of an 18-year-old girl, Okike Ezinne from Isu Mbaneze in Ohaozara Local Government Area of Ebonyi State for allegedly selling her one year and six months old baby.The teenage mother sold her baby identified as little Chisom Raphael for N300,000 (Three hundred thousand naira.)According the spokesman of the police in Enugu State, SP Ebere Amaraizu, Ezinne blamed her bosom friend for tricking her into selling off her baby.Amaraizu disclosed in the statement that the girl had the baby out of wedlock and decided to keep it but was reportedly tricked to sell off the baby by her friend, one Promise Godwin, a 20-year old single mother.He said that the suspect narrated that when things were no longer going smoothly for her at home, her bosom friend identified as one Promise Godwin, also from Isu Mbaneze Ohazara Local Government Area of Ebonyi State approached her to come to Enugu with the child with a promise that somebody was going to take care of Ezinne and little Chisom Raphael.According to Ezinne, she later joined the friend in Enugu where she secured an accommodation at Coal Camp axis but later found out that the friend has abandoned her husband and was into commercial sex work at Four corners junction, Enugu to make ends meet.
Members of the Movement for the Actualisation of Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) (a.k.a BIM), Rivers -South Zone, have condemned the ...

Members of the Movement for the Actualisation of Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) (a.k.a BIM), Rivers -South Zone, have condemned the incessant destruction of oil pipelines in the Niger Delta by the new militants group, The Avengers.They also denied a newspaper report credited to an ex-member of the group, Uchenna Madu, that MASSOB is one of the supporters of the Avengers.In a statement in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, by the Zonal Leader, Mr. Sunday Kalu Amuzie, described Madus claim as bogus, malicious and baseless.Signed by the Zones Director for Information, Mrs Divine Mercy Adiele, Amuzies statement alleged that Madu is no longer a member of MASSOB having been expelled two years ago for misconduct. He no longer participates in the activities of MASSOB and, as result, lacks the knowledge of what the group is doing, Amuzie said.The Zonal leader insisted that MASSOB is a non-violent group, led by a responsible and law abiding patriot, Raph Uwazurike, a lawyer, who does not wish and would not want to win his campaign for an independent state of Biafra through any violence means.He urged the public to disregard Madus statement.He said: MASSOB has no hand in any form of violence and remains committed to non-violence agitation, which we are known for.Mr. Madu was expelled from MASSOB in 2014 for misconduct and has since then stopped attending MASSOB meetings and gatherings, meaning that he no longer participate in the activities of MASSOB and therefore do not know what is going on in MASSOB.Instead his statement published on The Sun newspaper recently that he and his accomplice are working hand- in-hand with the Avengers, gave him away, confirmed that he is part and parcel of the Avenger group and supports their activities.MASSOB is a responsible and none violent group, being led by a responsible and peaceful person, is peacefully seeking for an Independent and Sovereign state, does not support violence and as a result does not support the activities of the Avengers, and the wanton destruction of properties, especially the oil pipelines. We condemn it in its entirety and will not support destruction.We therefore call on our members in Rivers State and all Biafrans across the world, to remain loyal, committed and firm with the vision of our Leader, Dr. Raph Uwazurike, in his efforts to actualise Biafra on a non-violent approach.
International business magazine, The Economist has described Nigeria as Africa's most Famously corrupt country and that Nigeria may th...

International business magazine, The Economist has described Nigeria as Africa's most Famously corrupt country and that Nigeria may through its fight against corruption, teach others about transparency.The article titled How Nigeria is fighting corruption examines the anti-corruption fight of President BuhariRead the full article titled below"Nigerians know what to expect when they approach police checkpoints. How can you appreciate me? ask officers, AK-47s dangling languidly from their shoulders. Happy weekend! say security guards from the early hours of Friday morning.Or simply: What do you have for me? Nigeria, as David Cameron, Britains former prime minister, pointed out, is fantastically corrupt. In Transparency Internationals Corruption Perceptions Index, it is 31st from the bottom. Nigerias president, Muhammadu Buhari, a former military ruler, wants to change this. How is he doing? Few doubt Mr Buharis intent. But the task he has set himself is Herculean.Successive military and civilian governments have siphoned money from the vast revenues of their oil industry. Many locals think the problem reached unprecedented heights under the previous administration of Goodluck Jonathan. In March an official audit found that the state-owned oil company withheld over $25 billion from the public purse between 2011 and 2015. Meanwhile cartels involving government officials, militants and oil employees stole tens of thousands of barrels of crude each day. A savings account was drained, although oil prices were high for most Mr Jonathans tenure. And money which was supposed to arm soldiers against Boko Haram insurgents was squandered: the vice-president recently estimated that the previous regime diverted $15 billion through dodgy arms contracts. Since Mr Buhari came to power in May 2015, dozens of public officials and their cronies have been arrested by a beefed-up Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). The most famous of those, the former national security adviser Sambo Dasuki, is charged with dishing out $2 billion worth of fake contracts for helicopters, aeroplanes and ammunition.Under new management, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation has grown slightly less opaque: it now publishes monthly financial reports. Shady swap contracts which trade crude oil for refined petrol have been renegotiated and the worst of the last regimes oil deals are under scrutiny. The chairman of one local company, Atlantic Energy, was arrested last year, shortly after the ex-petroleum minister was arrested in London. In all, the government claims to be recovering about $10 billion of stolen assets (though most of those will be tied up in court for years). It has also cancelled a fuel-subsidy racket which, at its peak, cost Nigerians $14 billion a year.Mr Buharis government has been learning from other crusading countries, such as Georgia. But not everyone is impressed. His political opponents, who ruled Nigeria for 16 years until 2015, call the campaign a witch-hunt. There are reasons to doubt the capacity of the anti-corruption agencyand of the courtsto hold the powerful to account. The EFCC is yet to send down any of its most influential adversaries, though it is splurging on training for prosecutors. Most government agencies, including the one that collects taxes, do not make their budgets public. Nor do most state and local governments, which suck up about half of public revenues. In an effort to fix this, a tenacious finance minister, Kemi Adeosun, has told skint governors that they must make their finances public before they receive a second federal bailout. She has struck thousands of ghost workers off the public payroll. Her treasury single account may be the biggest coup of all. It replaced a labyrinth of government piggy banks, giving Nigeria more control of its earnings. Financiers reckon that it could serve as a lesson to others in West Africa as well. The continents most famously corrupt country might yet teach others a thing or two about transparency.
The accusation that moles within the All Progressives Congress (APC) are out for the jugular of office holders from the north is one that ...

The accusation that moles within the All Progressives Congress (APC) are out for the jugular of office holders from the north is one that should be taken with all sense of seriousness. If true, and nothing has suggested the contrary, it implies the country can again be forced into a period of political stagnation.Recent attacks targeting these public office holders have all the hallmark of being sponsored and the south-west unfortunately is the direction that the accusing fingers are pointing. Pundits had suggested that there is a measure of bitterness simmering in the collective cauldron that is the Yoruba interest. There is disaffection over the sharing of the spoil of office that came with routing the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) government of former President Goodluck Jonathan.That politicians from the south-west could be persistent in ignoring the lessons of history should be a source of worry to them and should equally prompt other Nigerians to remind them of what they desperately want to wish away. This very attitude of bossing coalition partners was responsible for the collapse of alliances across the provinces in post-independence politics. It contributed to the truncation of the first, second and third republics to usher in military rule at those various times. As things stand, it is gradually threatening national cohesion as old wounds are being grazed and exposed.This is precisely why it is inconceivable that the desperation of these APC moles is allowed to run riot and is now threatening to place the APC on the destructive path that was the undoing of the PDP, which began the process that landed us in the current mess. If the appointees of an APC president are rubbished daily it then says a lot about the party that it may not be different from what it has replaced anyway. Much as those running the racket may be smirking at their supposed success at tarnishing Mr Presidents aides from the north, the action is nothing short of shooting themselves in the foot so long as they continue to remain in the APC. Leaving the party is equally not an option as the last general elections have proven that the era of regional political parties is over. And who will go into alliance with a region if it has repeatedly proven itself as unreliable in working with other ethnic groups and political blocks?It is understandable that a lot of horse trading went on to produce the tsunami that swept the PDP out of power at the federal level. It is also true that the law of natural justice and morals anticipate that those that contributed to the success of the APC would derive benefits by way of having appointments zoned to them. What is inconceivable however is for one geo-political zone out of the six in the country to attempt taking it all. The APC won in more than one geo-political zone of course. So, these hawks from the south west who think destroying people from the north will bury the party before its time are being uncharitable by placing their parochial interest ahead of the future of democracy and stability in Nigeria.The development portrays the kind of greed that is as despicable as it is selfish. The APC must therefore begin to define the alliance that brought the government on board in the interest of the common masses and not those selfish persons whose only business is to grab major stakes in every segment of the nation's socio-political landscape. Had the deliberate efforts to sabotage the government to prove the points of these south-west leaders been limited to the realm of politics it would have been slightly tolerable even though unpalatable. But they have instead intruded even into professional sphere to begin mudslinging military officers simply to undermine President Buhari, hound his loyal appointees out of office and have their ethnic stocks step into those positions. This cannot be allowed to stand for any reason.Any voice of reason left in the south-west must prevail in letting the desperate clique see past their nose tips and realise that this is no time to be clannish but to be nationalistic. The concerted campaign against people from the north is being exploited by separatists who are using it to their advantage in calling for a breakup of the country. It is being exploited by those who would rather see Nigeria continue to remain in the throes of terrorism. No one knows what other groups or soldiers of fortune would find opportunities in the political sabotage being run by the APC moles. Even if these other potential fallouts are later managed there is still the strong prospect that some people would rue the choices of today when the general elections hold in 2019.One fact that is being overlooked by the other parts of the country is that the north has remained a big brother to all despite the continuous attempt to demonize its sons and daughters. On the surface this looks like a good thing but this is a mark of ingratitude that should be discouraged if we (Yoruba) don't want the Igbos and the ethnic nationalities in the south-south to overtake us in the party hierarchy. If this happens where will the Yoruba find the voice to make demands in 2019?A lot of damages have been done but it has not become a disaster yet. It will become disastrous if the attacks coming from the region are not halted.Those pulling the strings of this campaign of calumny against the north should stop now. They should instead get busy with ventures that actually add value to the nation like supporting Mr Presidents anti-corruption fight. They can also pitch in with efforts at reversing the damage their bellyaching has done to the anti-terror war.In the meantime, I further suggest that they prevail on persons of south-west extraction holding public or political office to shape up and justify their appointments with excellent performance in office as this is what would market the region as the place to shop for brains when competence is needed. Competence has been a crucial factor in the appointments made under President Buharis administration and I daresay this is what south-west leaders should promote instead of undermining the same government they helped install. The least they can do at this point is to work for the much needed unity that will move the country forward.Abiodun a public affairs analyst contributed this piece from Ibadan, Oyo State.
NEWARK -- A planned class action settlement between residents of the destroyed Avalon at Edgewater apartment complex and its owners, scheduled for court action Monday, will be delayed as residents who have separate lawsuits seek to intervene in the case.

Barry Epstein, whose firm represents residents of 47 units of the complex that burned to the ground Jan. 21, 2015, said he is asking the court to intervene in the class action in part because the settlement would not cover all his clients' losses.

"I don't consider this a meaningful resolution," he said. "It's not offering them anything they didn't have a year and a half ago."

Around 500 people in 240 units lost their residences in the fire, which was accidentally started by maintenance workers using a blowtorch.

Epstein's firm filed a motion this month to intervene in the class action case, which is a combination of complaints filed into one in federal court.

The class action, proposed for former residents with property owner AvalonBay Communities, Inc., was scheduled to go before the court Monday for preliminary approval. A judge's approval is needed to certify the class action and the settlement.

Instead, U.S. Magistrate Judge Joseph A. Dickson scheduled Monday as the deadline for Epstein to file papers arguing why his clients should be allowed to get involved.

Lawyers for the proposed class action members are opposing the bid to intervene, saying it would only prolong the difficulties the former residents have faced since the five-alarm fire.

Besides, they said in a court filing, former residents will be able to choose to join the class or stay out and continue their individual lawsuits.

A court already has once dismissed Epstein's bid to intervene as moot, once the settlement was reached with AvalonBay, it says.

But Epstein said he is concerned because his firm was not copied on some records filed in the case, which could affect his clients.

He also said the terms of the settlement, while not capped, do not cover all his clients' needs.

The former residents Epstein's firm represents in 20 separate state court lawsuits don't have entirely similar losses, he said. According to the motion to intervene, those former residents "seek to recover damages beyond those accounted for in the proposed settlement, including... emotional distress damages, full loss of property interests, full displacement costs, full attorneys' fees, treble damages under the New Jersey Consumer Fraud Act, breach of contract and punitive damages."

Bruce Greenberg, representing the proposed class action members, said his clients' case "was always about personal property and never was about emotional distress."

In court papers, lawyers for the proposed class members said the residents who filed individual lawsuits had opportunities to join the settlement discussions as they were happening. Those residents should not be allowed to delay the settlement process, they said, because the state cases "remain stalled."

If approved, the class action settlement would allow former residents to file a claim form to be reviewed by an independent adjuster who would make the final decision about how much each family would receive from AvalonBay, court records say. The amount available to each member would not be capped and would provide "full recovery for all losses suffered in the fire," they said.

Lawyers for the potential class members would be paid "substantially less" than what they have billed in the case, they said.

Those who stay in the class action, if it is approved by the court, would give up any further claims against AvalonBay for the fire, court records say.

Ronald Giller, a lawyer representing AvalonBay, was not immediately available for comment.

Tim Darragh may be reached at tdarragh@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @timdarragh. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
BERGENFIELD -- Environmentalists have long tried to stop trains carrying crude oil from passing through Bergen County, fearing what could happen if they crash.

But in the past few months, another force has slowed down oil train traffic in the county: the market.

A drop in oil prices has cut the number of oil trains traveling through densely populated Bergen County to as little as five a week, officials from CSX, the company that operates the trains in Bergen, said. That's down from as many as 30 a week in 2014.

"Crude oil really has dropped off for CSX and the other railroads, and a lot of that has to do with market forces," Maurice O'Connell, a vice president for the company, said in Bergenfield Monday.

Residents along the CSX-owned River Line, which runs through several Bergen County towns en route to Philadelphia, may not have noticed the dropoff, since oil trains make up only about 2 percent of CSX traffic, Rob Doolittle, a spokesman for the company, said.

CSX ships the crude oil from the Bakken fields of North Dakota to refineries in the New Jersey and Philadelphia area and to the Virgina coast, Doolittle said.

Shipments from the fields boomed in in 2013 and 2014, raising concerns about what would happen if the trains carrying the volatile Bakken oil crashed. Those fears came to a head in 2013, when a train carrying Bakken oil crashed in Lac-Megantic, Quebec, causing an explosion killed 47 people.

Doolitle said CSX has worked with local officials and emergency responders to make sure they are prepared in case of an accident.

"Rail is probably the safest way to move products like this in the first place, but we have worked hard to make it even safer," he said.

The amount of crude oil shipped by rail peaked in October 2014, when more than 13.8 million barrels were shipped from the Midwest to the East Coast. That number has since dropped sharply along with oil prices, to 4.4 million barrels in April, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, a low not reached since 2013.

Traffic has slowed to a crawl at the Enbridge Energy Partners' crude rail terminal in Philiadelphia, Reuters reported. The terminal has the capacity to process 90,000 barrels a day.

Rail executives have said the decline may be permanent because cheaper pipelines have reached North Dakota and other shale regions, the Wall Street Journal reported. Regulations after the crashes in Quebec and other areas have also made rail shipping more costly.

Paula Rogovin, a co-founder of the Coalition to Ban Unsafe Oil Trains, said she has not noticed a dropoff. One of the problems opponents of the oil trains have is that the state doesn't reveal to local officials how many trains come into the state, or when.

"It would take some of us standing by the tracks," she said.

Even then, they can only look for a hazardous materials logo on the cars, and can't tell whether Bakken crude is inside.

Mayor Norman Schmelz attended a safety meeting with CSX and Federal Railroad Administration officials in Bergenfield on Monday. He said a reduction in oil train traffic wouldn't soothe residents' fears of a crash.

"We used to see 10 a day and I think that number has significantly dropped, which is good," he said. "But it only takes one, unfortunately."

Myles Ma may be reached at mma@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @MylesMaNJ. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
HACKENSACK -- The circus will soon no longer come to town in Bergen County with tigers, snakes, kangaroos and elephants in tow.

The Bergen County freeholders are expected to approve a local ordinance Wednesday that would ban traveling shows featuring wild or exotic animals on county property.

The ordinance was approved on first reading earlier this month, and if passed Wednesday afternoon it will become a law. It would prohibit any events where "the animals have no permanent residence or are removed from their permanent residence for a period of more than 18 hours at a time for the purpose of performance or exhibition."

The are a few exemption, one being zoos.

The League of Humane Voters, which protested local circus events for years, has actively supported the ban.

Craig McCarthy may be reached at CMcCarthy@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @createcraig. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
PHILADELPHIA -- Shelton Merritt couldn't stand idly by as a female patron at Cavanaugh's River Deck got slapped around.

Xavier Braswell, 23, of Burlington City

Sunday night marked what must have been the third fight 24-year-old Merritt had ever gotten into, his mother said. He paid for it with his life, but his family is pushing through the pain to pay it forward.

"I raised him to have integrity. To be an asset to society and not a liability," Merritt's mother, Maryland resident Alicia Merritt, somberly said Wednesday.

"He was raised with great mannerisms. He was taught to love because he came from a loving family," she said of the slain Lindenwold man, father of a 3-year-old girl and 2009 Williamstown High School honors graduate who received two full college scholarships.

When Merritt goes to lay her slain son to rest next Wednesday, friends and family will call upon residents to lay down firearms as part of a safe surrender plea.

It was shortly before midnight Sunday when two groups got into an altercation at the Penn's Landing bar. It was "Island Vibes" night and about 1,000 people were in attendance. Merritt said friends told her that accused shooter Xavier Braswell, 23, of Burlington City, was roughing up a woman at the club.

"My son stepped in," Merritt said.

So did club security, who escorted the two groups of offending patrons out.

"I taught my son to fight with his hands, not with weapons," Merritt said. "He was not a thug. He was not a street boy. He was not raised that way. He did not carry weapons on him."

Cavanaugh's co-owner Ken Hutchings said his security personnel allegedly overheard one of Braswell's crew talking about going to get a gun and immediately called police.

"We frisk everybody every night," said Hutchings, adding that police were already on the scene and canvassing the area when the shots rang out more than a block away from the club along Callowhill Street.

"I guess his ego got the best of him," Merritt said of the accused shooter.

Merritt, seated three rows back inside a vehicle, never had a chance. One round struck him in the head. The other eight went into his torso. One friend stayed behind to hold the dying man while three more chased after his assailants.

"They just shot my boy," one of the friends told Philly police as he gestured to three suspects fleeing the scene.

Philadelphia police managed to apprehend the alleged gunman and two others, who have yet to be charged. A message left at a Burlington Township address associated Braswell was not returned.

Willingoboro police Lt. Chris Vetter confirmed that his department arrested Braswell back in March on drug and weapons possession charges.

Merritt said she was driving home in the wake of the shooting when nothing short of divine intervention turned into a call to action.

"I was praying to God, 'Please don't let me son die in vain,'" Merritt said. "He did not deserve to die and God told me we have to do better for our young people."

Next Wednesday's service at Antioch Baptist Church will honor a life taken too soon. The logistics are still being worked out, but their goal is steadfast.

"We've got to get these guns off the streets," Merritt said.

Greg Adomaitis may be reached at gadomaitis@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @GregAdomaitis. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
Progresso.jpg

General Mills' Progresso soup plant in Vineland is possibly closing, the company announced. (Don E. Woods | For NJ.com)

VINELAND -- Can't stand the heat? Then close down the soup plant.

Due to the sweltering temperatures, General Mills decided to send the workers home for the week at the Vineland Progresso soup plant. The workers just returned from a long weekend, after being told Thursday that General Mills tentatively decided to close the factory by 2018 -- putting 370 people out of work.

"Our first priority is the health and well-being of our team members," said Kelsey Roemhildt, spokeswoman for General Mills. "Specific decision criteria related to severe weather is based on numerous factors, including the raw temperature, heat (or wind-chill) index, and the quantity of heat generating equipment being utilized at the time of the weather event. Those factors are evaluated by local leadership before a decision is made."

According to the National Weather Service, the week started out with temperatures as high as 94 degrees but the heat index reached as high as 107 degrees in neighboring Millville. Temperatures during the day have continued in the high 80s and lower 90s throughout the week.

Due to the high amounts of heat needed for soup production, Roemhildt said, it is not uncommon for the a plant to close for weather reasons.

The heatwave coincided with General Mills' recent announcement that it is restructuring its supply chain and closing factories in the United States, Brazil and China. Among the tentative closures is the Progresso plant in Vineland.

The official closure of the plant is pending negotiations with the union but, until announced otherwise, the plant is expected to close by 2018 -- affecting 370 jobs.

Local officials and lawmakers announced their desire to find ways to keep Progresso in Vineland or find another company to use the West Elmer Road facility.

General Mills announced the closure decision Thursday morning and sent the workers home for an extended weekend with the plan to return Monday. The plant will now be closed for the week due to the high temperatures.

The workers were sent home Tuesday. The workers were given the entire rest of the week so employees could qualify for unemployment compensation -- a decision that was reached by General Mills and the unions after they conferred together.

The workers will return to their normally scheduled hours next week, according to General Mills.

Don E. Woods may be reached at dwoods@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @donewoods1. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
Does the world change when everyone has a camera?
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.
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PHILADELPHIA (AP)  Breaking a historic barrier, Democrats triumphantly chose Hillary Clinton as their White House nominee Tuesday night, the first woman ever to lead a major political party into the general election.

Delegates erupted in cheers as Clinton's primary rival, Bernie Sanders, helped make it official when the roll call got to his home state of Vermont  an important show of unity for a party trying to heal deep divisions.

"I move that Hillary Clinton be selected as the nominee of the Democratic Party for president of the United States," Sanders declared, asking that it be by acclamation.

It was a striking parallel to the role Clinton played eight years ago when she stepped to the microphone on the convention floor in support of her former rival, Barack Obama.

For Democrats, it was a jubilant start to a night that was to include former President Bill Clinton taking the convention stage to deliver a personal validation for his wife.

The roll call of states was one more opportunity for Sanders supporters to voice their fierce loyalty to the Vermont senator. Sanders sat in the arena soaking in the cheers and waving to the crowd.

But the convention belonged to Clinton, who will take on Republican Donald Trump in November.

Her landmark achievement saturated the roll call with emotion and symbols of women's long struggle to break through political barriers. A 102-year-old woman, born before women had the right to vote, cast the ballots for Arizona.

Martha McKenna, a Clinton delegate from Maryland, said the night felt like a celebration for Sanders' campaign as well as Clinton's. But the mother of two young girls said she was most excited to see Clinton officially named.

"The idea that I'm going to be here when the first woman president is nominated is overwhelming," she said.

Clinton's campaign hoped the night of achievement, personal stories and praise could chip away at the deep distrust many voters, including some Democrats, have of the former secretary of state, senator and first lady. Much of the convention's second night was being devoted to introducing voters to Clinton anew, including three hours of speakers highlighting issues she has championed for years, including health care and advocacy for children and families.

"Tonight we will make history, about 100 years in the making," said Karen Finney, a senior adviser for Clinton's campaign. "What we're really going to focus on tonight is telling that story, and telling her story, talking about the fights of her life."

The stories were being told by a long list of lawmakers, celebrities and advocates. Among those pledging support for Clinton were the "mothers of the movement"  several black women whose children were victims of gun violence. Clinton has met privately with the mothers and held events with them, and they've become an emotional force for her campaign.

Clinton aides believe a focus on policy is another way to rally Sanders' supporters, especially those who threatened to stay home or vote for Republican Trump. While the opening night was interrupted by boos and chants of "Bernie," there were fewer signs of discord Tuesday.

Sanders had implored his supporters to not protest during the convention. Still, several hundred people gathered at Philadelphia's City Hall under a blazing sun Tuesday chanting "Bernie or bust."

Trump cheered the disruptions from the campaign trail. In North Carolina, he told a convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars that, "our politicians have totally failed you."

When Trump mentioned Clinton's name, the group answered with shouts of "Lock her up!" an echo of the chants at last week's Republican convention.

Trump has been a frequent target at the Democratic gathering, where several videos featured his comments about women and the disabled, and tried to discredit the real estate mogul's business record.

First lady Michelle Obama was a star of opening night, making an impassioned case for Clinton as the only candidate in the presidential race worthy of being a role model for the nation's children. President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden will speak Wednesday, along with Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine, Clinton's new running mate.

Bill Clinton had the spotlight Tuesday night. The former president has campaigned frequently for his wife during the White House race, but mostly in smaller cities and towns, part of an effort by the campaign to keep him in a more behind-the-scenes role.

During Hillary Clinton's first presidential campaign in 2008, her husband angered some Democrats with dismissive comments about Obama. He's had flashes of frustration this year, particularly when his own record on trade and law enforcement has been challenged by the party he once led, but has largely stuck to the campaign's messages.

The stakes for him are particularly high following his much-criticized decision to meet privately with Attorney General Loretta Lynch in the middle of the FBI's investigation into his wife's email use at the State Department.

The roll call this year, when each state announced its delegate totals from the primary season, affirmed a nomination Clinton locked up weeks ago.

___

AP writers Kathleen Hennessey, Kathleen Ronayne, Ken Thomas and Matthew Daly in Philadelphia contributed to this report.
Eels forward Manu Ma'u will miss his side's Round 21 clash with the Wests Tigers after he was found guilty of a grade one dangerous throw charge at the NRL judiciary on Wednesday night.

Ma'u was cited for an incident involving Titans playmaker Ash Taylor in Gold Coast's win over Parramatta in Round 20, with two prior non-similar offences in the past two years not helping his cause.

Generally a back-rower, Ma'u had again been named in the centres on Tuesday to cover injuries to Parramatta's backline, with his replacement to be confirmed an hour before kick-off on Saturday night.
Trent Merrin has extended his contract with the Penrith Panthers until the end of the 2020 season the club announced on Wednesday.

"I am honoured and privileged to extend my stay at such a prestigious club," Merrin told PenrithPanthers.com.au.

"From just my short time being at the Panthers I know this is a club heading in the right direction.

"I consider myself extremely fortunate to be able to stay on this journey for another two years and witness the growth of the many talented young players coming through."

Merrin joined the Panthers on a three-year deal ahead the 2016 season.

The NSW and Australian representative forward has played 17 NRL games for the Panthers this year so far, averaging over 150 running metres and 30 tackles per game.

This article first appeared on PenrithPanthers.com.au
A selection of cocktail recipes for cachaca, a sweet, clear liquor that is a signature flavor of Brazil.

A caipirinha at Bulla Gastrobar, a Spanish restaurant and bar in Coral Gables, Florida:

1.5 ounces of cachaca

Half a lime cut into cubes

2 bar spoons of white sugar

In a rocks glass, muddle the lime and sugar until well combined. Add cachaca, then pour into a shaker, add ice and shake vigorously. Pour everything back into original glass so that the contents mix with sugar that was left over in the muddle glass. Once combined, pour into a fresh rocks glass and serve with a lime wedge.

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Bulla's mixologist, Joel Mesa, has created a daiquiri alternative that replaces rum with cachaca and adds mango to infuse the cocktail with more flavor. "The balance between the sweetness and acidity is just gorgeous, much like this very popular part of Ipanema Beach that this is named after  the closest you can get to there without being there," Mesa said in an email.

Mesa's Daiquiri Posto Nove includes:

A thick slice of mango, muddled

1/2 oz. lemon juice

1 oz. simple syrup

1/2 oz. blackberry brandy

1/2 oz. St. Germain elderflower liqueur

1 1/2 oz. cachaca

Add the ingredients to a shaker and shake well. Pour through a strainer into a cocktail glass and garnish with a lime wheel.

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Leblon 's cachaca cocktail database includes the Amazon Acai Sangria:

1 oz. Leblon Cachaca

4 oz. white Zinfandel wine

2 oz. white cranberry juice

1 oz. acai syrup

Combine all the ingredients in a mixing glass, then shake them all together with ice. Pour into a highball glass, then top with lemon-lime soda and garnish with blueberries and lemon.

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Leblon's Amazonia

2 oz. Leblon Cachaca

2 oz. white cranberry juice

1/2 oz. St. Germain elderflower liqueur

1/4 oz. fresh lime juice

4 basil leaves

Champagne, to top

Combine all of the ingredients, except for the Champagne, in a shaker. Shake vigorously with ice and strain over ice into a highball glass. Splash with Champagne and serve.
Michigan City-based Horizon Bank had record earnings in the second quarter and in the first six months of 2016.

The bank, which has been on a buying spree that included the LaPorte Savings Bank, earned $6.3 million in the second quarter, or 52 cents per share. Horizon made $11.7 million, or 96 cents per share, in the first half of the year.

"Horizons 2016 second quarter and year-to-date earnings illustrate, once again, our balanced and diversified revenue streams producing strong results," Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Craig Dwight said.

Core net income, excluding acquisition-related expenses, gain on sale of investment securities and the death benefit on bank owned life insurance, was $7.2 million for the second quarter and $13.0 million for the first six months of 2016, according to the bank. The increase in core net income translated to growth in Horizons core diluted earnings per share for both the second quarter and the first six months of 2016 compared to 2015.

Core net income grew 39 percent year-over-year in the second quarter and 24.1 percent for the first half. Total loans grew 8.1 percent in the second quarter, and non-interest income rose by 24.4 percent.

"The second quarter of 2016 was highlighted by strong contributions from our retail and mortgage warehouse operations, an increase in net interest margin over the linked quarter, fee income growth and continued improvement in asset quality," Dwight said.

Horizon bought banks in Kosciusko and LaPorte, and has reached a merger agreement with CNB Bancorp in Attica. Dwight said that acquisition will strategically position Horizon for further growth.

"The LaPorte Bancorp acquisition is an in-market merger that adds experience and depth to Horizons team and cost saves through consolidation of branch office locations," he said. "The CNB Bancorp merger adds a seasoned banking team in Fountain County, Indiana and is a nice lead into the contiguous growth market of Lafayette, Indiana, home of Purdue University."
LAPORTEIn just a few years, Northwest Indiana roads often portrayed as crumbling will be up to par and maybe even better than those alleged to be paved with gold around Indianapolis.

That was one of the messages conveyed at a meeting Tuesday between the Indiana Department of Transportation and members of Indiana Farm Bureau at INDOT district headquarters in La Porte.

Bob Albertson, chief of staff for INDOT, said a lot of local roads are being fixed and soon the difference should be very noticeable, especially up north and here in the Region.

The roads in this district in three to five years will be as good, if not better, than most roads in the state, said Albertson.

Although viewed by some as a temporary fix, a bill signed by Gov. Mike Pence made $328 million in additional money available for state road and bridge maintenance over two years. For local roads, $684 million was made available.

INDOT officials are optimistic even more road monies will be flowing in coming years due to the emphasis placed by many lawmakers on identifying a more permanent road-funding solution.

Rick Powers, deputy commissioner for INDOTs La Porte district, said northwest Indiana is not shunned as many public officials have alleged when it comes to equal distribution of road money.

For fiscal 2017, $234 million dollars has been earmarked for road projects in the LaPorte District, according to INDOT.

The meeting at LaPorte District headquarters was the fifth out of six meetings to be held with Farm Bureau members around the state to give the organization more of a voice on road funding decisions.

Jay Wood, a spokesman for the Farm Bureau, said the desire to have more influence began in the fall and stems from the states declining infrastructure and the additional money that could start being invested in road and bridges for the long-term.

Those decisions really have an enormous impact on our industry, so the grassroots drive to make that happen became one of our legislative priorities in the spring, said Wood.

Among the concerns of Harold Parker, president of the LaPorte County branch of Farm Bureau, was the proposal for the proposed Great Lakes Basin Rail Line that would run from southeast Wisconsin to Kingsbury, allowing freight trains to circumvent Chicago.

Many people in agriculture are worried about land used for food production being gobbled up by the rail line and the potential for travel delays for farmers.

Parker was told that INDOT has been monitoring the status of the proposal and keeping the governors office informed.
U.S. Steel lost $46 million in the second quarter, its fifth straight quarterly loss, though its flat-rolled segment returned to profitability.

The Pittsburgh-based steelmaker, which has mills in Gary, Portage and East Chicago, reported losing 32 cents per share from April through June. U.S. Steel however declared a dividend of 5 cents per share.

U.S. Steel brought in $313 million in operating cash flow in the first six months of the year, including $200 million in the second quarter.

Our second quarter results improved significantly from the first quarter as our European segment posted its best results since the third quarter of 2008 and our flat-rolled segment returned to profitability, said Mario Longhi, U.S. Steel president and CEO. Our improving cost structure continues to drive increases in our margins and the recent increases in steel prices started to be reflected in our results.

Also, our successful debt offering, continued reductions in working capital and increasing cash generation significantly improved financial flexibility and our cash and liquidity position. While market conditions have improved recently, we remain focused on lowering our break-even point and working closely with our customers to improve our market position and create value for all of our stakeholders.

U.S. Steel said maintenance and outage costs were higher last quarter due to planned and unplanned outages at Gary Works early in the quarter. The flat-rolled segment, which includes U.S. Steels local operations in Northwest Indiana, however made $6 million in the second quarter after losing $188 million in the first quarter.

Profits were boosted by the rising price of steel, which grew from an average of $611 a ton in the first quarter to $642 a ton in the second.

The steelmaker had $2.4 billion worth of liquidity, including $820 million in cash, by the end of June.
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HAMMOND  An East Chicago man faces drug trafficking and firearm possession charges stemming from a March incident with police, U.S. District court records show.

Luis Allen Perez, 26, was arrested Tuesday.

He had a warrant out for his arrest on an unrelated domestic battery charge when police followed his vehicle and attempted to make contact March 10 in Hammond, according to a probable cause affidavit unsealed Tuesday.

As officers approached Perez in the 1000 block of 167th Street earlier this year, he immediately exited his vehicle, locked the doors and began walking away, according to the affidavit.

He told police the car did not belong to him, but a registration check by police proved otherwise, the affidavit stated.

Police noticed a faint marijuana odor coming from the vehicle, and a subsequent K-9 exterior sniff confirmed officers' suspicions. The vehicle was towed for safe keeping until a search warrant was obtained March 15.

Police later found in the car a plastic bag containing suspected marijuana, and a grocery bag containing five additional plastic bags with suspected marijuana weighing about 173 grams including packaging. Police also found a handgun and ammunition.
CROWN POINT  Sheriff John Buncich has suspended five Lake County Jail corrections officers for locking a woman up in the same room with several male inmates last weekend.

Buncich said an investigation determined professional negligence resulted in Elysia M. Jeronimo, 20, of Hammond, being placed with her boyfriend, Richard Campos, 22, of East Chicago, and at least one other male inmate Saturday in a medical area of the jail serving as a temporary holding area.

The sheriff said male and female inmates are always separated in the jail. Jeronimo is in custody awaiting trial on a felony charge she helped Campos escape from the jail last spring.

Buncich said a corrections officer discovered the mistake and removed Jeronimo from the holding area. There was no sexual assault. There was no harm to her at all. We did an exam. She gave a voluntary statement, he said.

Buncich said he ordered an investigation the next day. It was determined that five corrections officers, including two supervisors, were at fault.

He didnt identify the corrections officers, but he said he is suspending them without pay for 15 days and putting them on one year of probation with the department.

Somebody didnt do their job, but they are going to learn the hard way. If they screw up one more time, they are done, Buncich said.

Neither Jeronimo nor her attorney could be reached for comment.

This comes one month after the sheriff disciplined three corrections officers for dereliction of duty for permitting Campos to escape April 30 from the lockup.

Campos walked away from an unsecured section of the jail and into a waiting car brought by Jeronimo. Authorities tracked the couple through their cellphone and arrested them four days later near San Antonio, Texas.

Each is being held on $100,000 bail. Lake Criminal Court Judge Clarence Murray on Tuesday refused a request by Jeronimo to reduce her bail. No trial date has been set.
SCHERERVILLE  Police said Wednesday alcohol use by a pedestrian may have been a factor in a crash Tuesday night on U.S. 30 that sent him to a hospital.

A vehicle was traveling in the right lane of westbound U.S. 30 near Fountain Park Drive about 9 p.m. when it struck the pedestrian, who was crossing from south to north, Patrol Cmdr. Brian Neyhart said.

The area is just west of the busy U.S. 30 and U.S. 41 intersection. Police shut down two westbound lanes of the highway during an investigation.

The pedestrian was taken to Franciscan St. Anthony Health in Crown Point. Police did not have information about his condition as of Wednesday morning, Neyhart said.

Police are not releasing the identity of the pedestrian until a crash report is completed, he said.
CHICAGO  Federal prosecutors on Tuesday announced sweeping charges against dozens of alleged Latin Kings street gang members  including nine in Northwest Indiana accused of using violence to further the gangs operations.

Zachary Fardon, U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, announced new charges Tuesday in Chicago alongside U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Indiana David Capp, Chicago police Superintendent Eddie Johnson, and federal agency heads. Law enforcement officials from Gary and East Chicago also were present.

In all, 26 alleged Latin Kings gang members have been accused in an ongoing investigation into the gangs operations in Northwest Indiana.

Two separate indictments out of Chicago accuse 34 gang members in the citys western suburbs and Southeast Side of using violent means to control territories, distribute drugs and kill rival gang members, according to court documents.

Fardon called the geographical scope of the investigation and indictments breathtaking, saying law enforcement agencies have been working for years to bring charges against dozens of alleged gang members.

During the afternoon news conference at the Everett M. Dirksen U.S. Courthouse in Chicago, Capp called criminal organizations like the Latin Kings a regional problem that requires the blurring of state lines and cooperation from law enforcement.

Weve got defendants from Indiana, to our biggest cities to our smallest farm communities over a four-county area. It is a regional problem, and to address a regional problem, it needs a regional team of law enforcement, Capp said.

Reynaldo Sneaky Robles, 24, of Portage; Nicholas Cali Baez, 22, of Whiting; Antonio Stacks Gamino, 19, of Griffith; Efren Payoso DelAngel, 21, of Hammond; Mark Anthony Slim Toney, 37, of Lake Village; William Dennis Salazar, 40, of Hammond; Darrick Vallodolid, 27, of Hobart; Robert Cowboy Nieto, 42, of Gary; and Peter Pudge Salinas, 30, of Hammond, are accused of taking part in a conspiracy to participate in racketeering activity and to distribute narcotics in Northwest Indiana and elsewhere.

Seventeen alleged members and associates in Northwest Indiana previously were indicted in connection with the investigation.

The indictments allege members of the Latin Kings violently enforce discipline within its ranks, retaliating against rivals and former members to prevent cooperation with law enforcement.

The indictment accuses gang members of various acts of violence, including murder, attempted murder, witness retaliation, sex trafficking, narcotics distribution and assault with dangerous weapons.

The new charges allege, in part, that Latin King gang members are responsible for a deadly shooting in July 2011 in Hammond and another fatal shooting at Estrellas Bar in August 2014 in Hammond.

One listed defendant, Robles, is accused of taking direction July 18, 2011, from Aldon Spooky Perez, who was indicted previously, to shoot and kill Travis Nash, believed to be a rival gang member in Hammond.

After the news conference Tuesday, Gary Deputy Chief Derrick Cannon said the indictments are significant in slowing down the Latin Kings operations in Northwest Indiana and the rest of the Region.

This shows law enforcement is serious about going after violent criminals and actively investigating these gangs, Cannon said.

Capp said just two of the nine gang members indicted from Northwest Indiana have eluded arrest as of Tuesday afternoon.

He offered a warning Tuesday to those alleged gang members still out on the streets.

If you are a member of one of these criminal enterprises, I dont care what side of the border you live and I dont care what side of the border you commit your crimes, we are coming after you and you are next, he said.
GARY  There wasnt any food present in the stomach of a 3-month-old boy when a pathologist performed an autopsy and determined the infant died of dehydration and malnutrition, according to court records.

Kannon McMillans parents, Katherine Holmes, 27, and Jarod T. McMillan, 31, were charged Tuesday with eight counts of neglect of a dependent. Warrants were issued for their arrests.

Police and paramedics were called about 4:50 p.m. July 5 to the 800 block of East 36th Avenue in Gary for an unresponsive child. The boy was taken to Methodist Hospitals Northlake Campus where he was pronounced dead at 5:35 p.m.

The Lake County coroners office determined the boy could have been dead for 12 hours before he was pronounced dead at the hospital. According to the affidavit, there was no food present in his stomach and there was a small amount of stool in his bowel. Kannon did not have any body fat.

The boy had a skin ulceration on his pelvic area when he died, according to court records.

When police searched the home where the couple lived with their six children, including Kannon, they found roaches throughout the Glen Park home. According to the affidavit, there was garbage, clothes and food containers scattered across various rooms. In the rocking seat where Kannon slept, there were stains that appeared to be fecal matter.

Holmes initially told detectives the last time she fed Kannon was on July 3. According to the affidavit, she later told detectives she couldnt remember if she had any contact with her son from July 1 to July 4.

The couple left the children under the care of an uncle on July 5 while they searched for food. At a local food pantry, the couple was told the organization wasnt giving away food. They traveled to where McMillans mother worked so she could take them to buy groceries, according to court records.

When they arrived home, Holmes noticed her infant wasnt breathing. The family then called police.

The uncle told police he didnt feed or change Kannons diaper, according to the affidavit. He said the family had been without food for a few days.

McMillan told detectives that on July 5, he changed the boys diaper and gave him a bottle, according to the affidavit. He estimated that he fed the infant about five times a day, though the boy sometimes didnt drink the formula milk.

Holmes told detectives that the last time she took her son to the doctor was in April when she was told he needed to gain weight.

According to court records, she had put ointment in the past on a rash he had. Another time, she called a doctor because the boy had a high fever and appeared to have had a seizure. Holmes said a doctor told her to put a cold towel on the infant to bring down his temperature, according to the affidavit.

Holmes told detectives she never asked for help because she was scared she would lose her children.

Anyone with information about the incident is asked to call Lake County sheriffs department Detective Kris Adams at (219) 755-3852.
GARY  Police were conducting a welfare check on a woman in the citys Midtown section Wednesday when they discovered she and another individual stabbed to death inside a residence.

A man and woman were found about 11:40 a.m. in the 900 block of West 24th Avenue, according to Gary Police Cpl. Douglas Drummond.

They were designated as John Doe and Jane Doe in a Lake County coroners office news release. Drummond said the names of both victims are being withheld pending notification of family.

The coroners death investigation team was dispatched to the area about noon Wednesday, and the man and woman were pronounced dead at 12:50 p.m. and 12:51 p.m., respectively.

The cause of death in both cases was stab wounds. The manner of death is pending, but police are treating the case as a homicide, Drummond said.

The Gary Police Department, the Lake County Police Department, and the Lake Metro Homicide Unit are investigating.
AUBURN  Although the issue wont be on the Nov. 8 ballot, Republicans are making term limits part of their pitch to voters in races for the Illinois General Assembly.

Gov. Bruce Rauner launched the effort Monday in Chicago and is on a two-day tour of the state to promote the idea, which he wants the General Assembly to vote on during the fall veto session.

Given opposition from House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, its unlikely that a proposed amendment to the Illinois Constitution limiting officials time in office would muster enough support in the Democratic-controlled House and Senate to be put to voters. Even if it did earn the three-fifths majorities needed in each chamber, voters wouldnt weigh in until 2018.

Speaking from a flatbed trailer to a crowd of supporters gathered Tuesday at Niemeyers Circle N Farms in Auburn, about 15 miles south of Springfield, Rauner noted that nearly 80 percent of voters support term limits, a figure supported by a poll from the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute at Southern Illinois University.

He decried court decisions that have blocked referendums on term limits and legislative redistricting reform from the ballot. Cook County judges have ruled on multiple occasions  most recently last week in a case on redistricting  that those efforts have gone beyond the scope allowed for petition-driven initiatives.

Thats why lawmakers need to act, Rauner said.

Speaking to reporters afterward, Rauner dismissed questions about his own ambitions for re-election in 2018, saying, For me, the election is years away, and Im not focused on that at all.

However, while it will be at least that long before voters can have their say on term limits, Rauner said lawmakers must address the issue now.

Time is clicking, he said. We need to send a message. We have to change the culture. When we get this passed, the people of Illinois will have made their voices heard.

State Rep. Avery Bourne, R-Raymond, whos running for the seat she was appointed to in 2015, joined the governor in Auburn and voiced her support for term limits.

Weve seen what happens when we dont have government reforms, Bourne said. We have this long budget stalemate. We have sides who wont speak to each other. We have really entrenched interests who arent being responsive to what our constituents are asking for.

Enacting term limits isnt an issue on which Bourne will be able to distinguish herself from her opponent, however.

Democrat Mike Mathis of Gillespie, the former Macoupin County circuit clerk, also favors them.

I listen to what the constituents have to say, Mathis said. I think its clear that most people would like term limits.

Bourne isnt the only Republican campaigning on the issue.

Shortly after Rauners Monday news conference, Dave Severin of Benton, whos challenging state Rep. John Bradley, D-Marion, and Paul Schimpf of Waterloo, whos running against Democrat Sheila Simon of Carbondale for an open Senate seat, issued statements supporting the governors effort.

Term limits will help put an end to the stranglehold that career politicians have on our state, Schimpf said in a prepared statement.

Simon said she generally doesnt support term limits because I think in some ways they take choices away from voters. She noted that shes running to replace state Sen. Dave Luechtefeld, R-Okawville, whos retiring after more than 20 years in office.

The former lieutenant governor said she supports term limits for legislative leaders because voters dont get a say in their selection.
GARY  Residents will have an opportunity to learn what action is being taken regarding the many plans created for the city over the years at a community forum today.

A prime focus will be the proposal the citys Redevelopment Commission received from MaiaCo LLC, a Chicago-based group that counts former Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley as one of its members. The company earlier this year responded to the commissions request for proposals for a redevelopment partner.

The forum will be held from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. today in the Gary City Hall council chambers, 401 Broadway.

Joe Van Dyk, executive director of the citys redevelopment and planning department, will speak at the forum. He said his presentation will be similar to one he made to council members at a Planning Commission meeting earlier this month. He also will take questions from the audience.

MaiaCo is not scheduled to be represented at the meeting, but Van Dyk said someone from the company will be present at the commissions meeting Friday afternoon.

The MaiaCo proposal would involve the company funding the acquisition of as many as 3,500 parcels in tax sales. Van Dyk said the city would own these parcels, and many would be vacant land. The company would make money when the properties ultimately were sold to developers.

The city still is negotiating with MaiaCo. Gary already has said it doesnt want to work with one of the original members of the group, architect Peter Ellis, after a video in which he talked about tearing down a large part of the city was released on the internet. The MaiaCos proposal has the company receiving 80 percent of profits from the disposition of the land after it recovers its cost. City officials have said they wont agree to such a split.

Van Dyk said he will speak about how the city is working to address all the plans created over the years. Plans like the recently submitted Livable Center Plan 2025 for downtown Gary, Emerson and Horace Mann were produced with neighborhood input.
GRIFFITH  Residents could barely wait to pen their signatures on a petition Tuesday that might enable them to leave Calumet Township.

The event, held in the Central Park gazebo, was scheduled for 6:30 p.m., but people were already coming in to sign before 6 p.m., said Town Council President Rick Ryfa, R-3rd.

As motorists on Broad Street continued to pull over and sign, Councilman Jim Marker, R-1st, watched with satisfaction.

Thats a good message they are sending, he said.

By the official starting time, Clerk-Treasurer George Jerome estimated that up to 200 registered Griffith voters already had signed the petition.

The town needs 1,000 signatures, certified by Jerome, to ask the Lake County Elections Board to schedule a referendum strictly among Griffith voters on whether to leave the township and join another. Ryfa said the plan is to contact the elections board late this week on when it would like to hold the referendum.

Were shooting for late September or early October, he said. A lot of (residents) questions are where are we going to go if we leave the township?

Ryfa said a successful referendum will bring on several public meetings for residents to learn the pros and cons of joining St. John, Ross or North townships.

Well get as much input as possible from our citizens and make the best choice for our town.

Longtime Griffith resident Kathie Furjel Kepchar said she is delighted at the chance to join another township.

I definitely want to leave because weve been paying Calumet Township for such a long time and getting very little back.

Jim Morosin, a 40-year resident, agreed.

This is a very small community, he said. And basically Gary is using all the money from our tax base and we get a very small portion of it back.

The event was attended by Lake County Councilman Dan Dernulc, R-Highland, who was there to offer his support.

The Town Council has now taken things to a point where Griffith can move ahead. You can see there is a lot of interest in the referendum, he said.

The town was anticipating 300 to 400 signatures for Tuesday night, said Councilman Tony Hobson, R-5th.

Safety Commission member Liz Goral said residents will have another chance to sign the petition from 3 to 10 p.m. Friday during the farmers market in the park.

After that, volunteers will go door to door to gather any remaining signatures that are needed, Ryfa said.
GARY  Potentially hundreds of thousands of county taxpayers dollars could go to waste if the City Council decides against granting a zoning variance for an 8-acre site that the Lake County Solid Waste Management District is using as a compost site.

The Gary council will vote on the variance request for the facility in the 3400 block of Chase Street at next weeks meeting.

The facility was established by the Lake County Solid Waste Management District in 2013 under the administration of former Executive Director Jeff Langbehn. Despite being permitted by the Indiana Department of Environmental Management and receiving a stormwater permit from the city, however, officials said it had never received a zoning variance from Gary.

Langbehn was fired in September 2014 after a spending scandal exposed in an investigation by The Times.

New Executive Director John Minear, however, said Tuesday he wasnt blaming anyone but himself for the situation, although he wasnt with the agency when the site was opened.

Some of the Gary council members said they were unaware until recently of the sites existence within city limits. At Tuesdays meeting of the City Councils planning committee at least one council member questioned why a composting site handling leaves from the unincorporated area should be within Gary city limits.

If the site had to be moved, Minear indicated it could potentially cost county taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars. He said the district had spent more than $100,000 at the current site. If the district had to close the site it would have to move the material currently there and relocate to a new site the district would have to purchase and prepare.

Minear at Tuesdays meeting, however, brought up several possible benefits to the council of allowing the site to stay where it currently is. He also noted the district was addressing concerns raised by the citys fire chief, putting in a retention pond to handle stormwater run-off concerns, and has contained any odors on site. Composting of leaves, he noted, does not produce the odors involved with the composting of grass and grass is not composted on the site.

Minear also said the current facility is in a remote area near a police shooting range and away from residential property.

Minear added the district would be willing to handle the citys leaves at the site if desired. Over the next few years, the district said it intends to open two additional Lake County sites, one west of Gary and one near the Crown Point area.

Minear said participants in the citys Summer Youth Program could be hired to work at the compost site as well on other district projects. The district also plans on petitioning the city to let it adopt a section of Chase Street from the levee south to Ridge Road so the district can keep it cleaned from illegal dumping that occurs in the area.

Minear said the district also is interested in creating a rural farming program where residents can grow their own vegetables. District officials said it also could provide an area where vegetables could be grown for the nearby food bank and others in the city.

In addition to leaves, the district is using a small portion of the site for a 120-day experiment in which a local companys discarded frozen fruit and vegetables are composted. Minear said the district will not continue with the project if city and state officials do not approve of it.
Justin Edlen is hoping one day the memory of hitting and killing a bicyclist completely fades from his memory.

Drew Schimdt, 30, of Valparaiso, was killed Tuesday night on U.S. 421 near the Purdue University Northwest campus.

Edlen, 23, of Michigan City, said he was driving home from his job at UPS in Westville when the bicyclist suddenly appeared in front of him.

I cannot get this image out of my head ... Its the worst thing you can ever imagine, Edlen said.

According to LaPorte County police, Edlen was traveling north just after 9 p.m. in his personal vehicle on U.S 421 near County Road 200 South, a few miles north of Westville.

He struck Schmidt, who was pedaling in the same direction.

Were confident, unfortunately, that Mr. Schmidt was in the middle of the northbound lane of that roadway, LaPorte County police Capt. Mike Kellems said.

Kellems said there are no lights on whats a very dark stretch of highway.

Schmidt also was not wearing any reflective clothing and had no lights or reflectors on the bicycle, he said.

Kellems said the investigation shows that Schmidt was possibly riding to his girlfriends residence in New Carlisle.

We dont know why, why that time of night or why that route of travel. That would not be the most direct route to New Carlisle from Valparaiso, Kellems said.

Edlen said hes had trouble sleeping, and that even though it wasnt his fault, he said what happened is weighing heavily on him.

It was just a really difficult night for me and its going to be a difficult rest of my life knowing that I took someone elses life, even though it was a complete accident and it was unavoidable. Its just something Im going to have to live with, he said.
WASHINGTON TOWNSHIP  The Tyrannosaurus Rex was considered the most fearsome predator dinosaur of all time, at least until Donald Trump showed up.

For the first several days of the Porter County Fair, T-Rex roamed again, stalking the steaming fairgrounds during the afternoons looking for helpless prey or possibly a pizza and some deep fried butter balls. Now we really know what caused the dinosaurs to go extinct.

While his roar might strike terror into the hearts of small children, also referred to as T-Rex Chow, it meant something entirely different to Cameron McSheffrey: college tuition.

McSheffrey, 18, was working the summer at the Little Rays Reptile Zoo in Ottawa, which he said is Canadas largest reptile rescue facility. They must be pretty good if they rescued a Tyrannosaurus. A month ago he was told he was about to be a T-Rex for festivals and fairs. Porter County was his third stint in the dinosaur suit.

We work with reptiles, but this is a new thing weve been doing lately, he said of the dinosaur gigs.

It takes him about 10 minutes to don the dinosaur costume, which is not your kids Barney. Its 17 feet long and is a pretty good replica of the original on a slightly smaller scale. Its more like a teenage T-Rex. It can lift its head and open its mouth to emit a threatening roar, wag its head from side to side and also make snorting noises. In other words, hes congressional material.

Anyway, the costume weighs 60 pounds and comes equipped with two battery-powered fans inside to help McSheffrey survive the international sweat fest that is the normal conditions at the fair. He said the first costume weighed 100 pounds, so I think they tried to cram an actual air conditioner in there too.

Picture Jim Carey as Ace Ventura, Pet Detective: When Nature Calls when he was inside a mechanical rhino in the (supposedly) African heat and his fan died. That hasnt happened to McSheffrey yet, but he still has to do a lot of hydrating after each half-hour shift in the suit.

The one thing he cant do very well while in the suit is see. McSheffrey has to walk slightly hunched over to capture what is believed to be the actual stance of the beast with its tail straight out behind him, but he needs a seeing eye dog or velociraptor or something to lead him around.

Jeremy Hunter, also of Little Rays, handles those duties starting with holding the tail as McSheffrey backs out of the trailer after putting on the suit. He moves pretty slow because there are a lot of obstacles for a blind T-Rex to avoid, but he definitely attracts attention.

A lot of people like it, McSheffrey said. They think its neat. Theyve never seen anything like it before.

He wants to work with animals after graduating from college. He certainly knows this one inside and out.

The opinions are those of thewriter.

He can be reached trying to distract the T-Rex by throwing donut burgers in its path at (219) 662-5324 or phil.wieland@nwi.com.
PHILADELPHIA  His own legacy on the line, President Barack Obama implored Americans to elect Hillary Clinton to the White House, casting her as a candidate who believes in the optimism that fuels the nation's democracy and warning against the "deeply pessimistic vision" of Republican Donald Trump.

"America is already great. America is already strong," he declared to cheering delegates Wednesday night at the Democratic convention. "And I promise you, our strength, our greatness, does not depend on Donald Trump."

For Democrats, the night was steeped in symbolism, the passing of the baton from a barrier-breaking president to a candidate trying to make history herself.

Obama urged Americans to summon the hopefulness of his first White House campaign eight years ago, before recession deepened and new terror threats shook voters' sense of security. He robustly vouched for Clinton's readiness to finish the job he started, saying "no matter how daunting the odds, no matter how much people try to knock her down, she never, ever quits."

Earlier Wednesday, Clinton's running mate, Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine, introduced himself to the nation as a formidable foil to Trump in his own right. With folksy charm, he ridiculed Trump's list of promises and imitated one of the GOP candidate's favorite phrases.

"Believe me!" he said mockingly, as the audience boomed back, "No!"

Obama's vigorous support for Clinton is driven in part by deep concern that Republican Trump might win in November and unravel his two terms in office. He warned repeatedly Wednesday that the billionaire businessman is unprepared for the challenges that would await him in the Oval Office.

Trump fueled more controversy Wednesday when he encouraged Russia to meddle in the presidential campaign. On the heels of reports that Russia may have hacked Democratic Party emails, Trump said, "Russia, if you're listening," it would be desirable to see Moscow find and publish the thousands of emails Clinton says she deleted during her years as secretary of state.

Wednesday night's Democratic lineup was aimed at emphasizing Clinton's own national security credentials. It was a significant shift in tone after two nights spent reintroducing Clinton to voters as a champion for children and families, and relishing in her historic nomination as the first woman to lead a major political party into the general election.

The convention's third night was also a time for Democrats to celebrate Obama's legacy. Vice President Joe Biden, who decided against running for president this year after the death of his son, called it a "bittersweet moment."

A son of Scranton, Pennsylvania, Biden appealed directly to the working class white voters who have been drawn to Trump's populism, warning them against falling for false promises and exploitation of Americans' anxieties.

"This guy doesn't have a clue about the middle class," he declared.

Kaine also picked up the traditional attacking role of the presidential ticket's No. 2. He tore into Trump, mocking his pledges to build a wall along the Mexican border, asking why he has not released his tax returns and slamming his business record, including the now-defunct Trump University.

"Folks, you cannot believe one word that comes out of Donald Trump's mouth," Kaine said. "Our nation is too great to put it in the hands of slick-talking, empty-promising, self-promoting, one-man wrecking crew."

Liberals, particularly those who supported Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, have grumbled about Kaine being on the ticket, particularly because of his support for "fast track" approval of the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact. Several delegates held up anti-TPP signs as he spoke.

In a move aimed at broadening Clinton's appeal, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg  an independent who considered launching a third party bid for president  endorsed the Democratic nominee. A billionaire businessman himself, Bloomberg took aim at Trump's bankruptcies, reliance on foreign factories and other economic experience: "The richest thing about Donald Trump is his hypocrisy."

President Bill Clinton, filling the role of devoted political spouse, joined the crowd packed to the arena rafters in cheering the attacks on Trump.

The core of Clinton's strategy is putting back together Obama's winning White House coalition. In both his campaigns, Obama carried more than 90 percent of black voters, the overwhelming majority of Hispanics, and more than half of young people and women.

That coalition was vividly on display in the first two nights of the convention in Philadelphia. Women lawmakers were prominently featured, along with young activists, immigrants, and mothers whose black children were victims of gun violence or killed during encounters with law enforcement.

Gun violence continued as a theme Wednesday night as families of mass shooting victims took the stage. Delegates rose in an emotional standing ovation for the mother of one of the victims in last month's Orlando nightclub shooting, who asked why "commonsense" gun policies weren't in place when her son died.

"I never want you to ask that question about your child," Christine Leinonen said.

Clinton's convention has been awash in history, with energized delegates celebrating her formal nomination as the first woman to ever lead a major political party in the general election. Some supporters of Sanders, her primary opponent, continued to voice their displeasure.

But Sanders, meeting with New England delegates, said, "As of yesterday, I guess, officially our campaign ended."
In a extraordinary moment Wednesday morning, Donald Trump appeared to ask for Russia's help in tracking down Hillary Clinton's missing State Department emails. Michael Scotto filed the following report.



Even for this race, it was a particularly stunning comment: Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump saying he hopes the Russian government hacked Hillary Clinton's emails while she was secretary of state.

"Russia, if you're listening, I hope you're able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing," Trump said.



The comment came as U.S. officials were looking into claims that Russian intelligence agencies hacked into computer servers at the Democratic National Committee in an effort to influence the presidential race.

The Clinton campaign quickly fired back at Trump for suggesting that Russia spy on Clinton's own emails, saying, "This has to be the first time that a major presidential candidate has actively encouraged a foreign power to conduct espionage against his political opponent. That's not hyperbole, those are just the facts. This has gone from being a matter of curiosity, and a matter of politics, to being a national security issue."

Trump and his team later took to Twitter looking to clarify the remarks. A spokesperson said Trump didn't call on anyone to hack Clinton's emails, and Trump tweeted:



If Russia or any other country or person has Hillary Clinton's 33,000 illegally deleted emails, perhaps they should share them with the FBI!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 27, 2016

At the same time, Trump refused to call on Russian President Vladimir Putin to stay out of the election.

"I'm not gonna tell Putin what to do. Why should I tell Putin what to do?" Trump said.



In a statement, his running mate, Indiana Governor Mike Pence, seemed to take a different view, saying, "The FBI will get to the bottom of who is behind the hacking. If it is Russia and they are interfering in our elections, I can assure you both parties and the United States government will ensure there are serious consequences."



Trump has long spoken highly of Putin. On Wednesday, he said if elected, he hoped he and Putin would get along.


WASHINGTON (AP)  Russia may have been behind the leak of hacked Democratic National Committee documents, President Barack Obama said Tuesday in his first public comments on the breach.

Asked whether Moscow was trying to influence the presidential election, Obama said, "Anything's possible."

Obama, who traditionally avoids commenting on active FBI investigations, broke with that protocol and noted that outside experts have blamed Russia for the leak. He leaned heavily into the notion that President Vladimir Putin may have reason to facilitate the attack.

"What the motives were in terms of the leaks, all that  I can't say directly," Obama told NBC News. "What I do know is that Donald Trump has repeatedly expressed admiration for Vladimir Putin."

Obama said he was basing his assessment on Trump's own comments and the fact that the GOP presidential nominee has "gotten pretty favorable coverage back in Russia." He added that the U.S. knows that "Russians hack our systems  not just government systems, but private systems."

The FBI hasn't publicly attributed the attack to Russia, but Democrat Hillary Clinton's campaign has, suggesting the goal was to benefit Trump's campaign. A spokesman for Putin on Tuesday called the allegation "paranoid."

Experts who've followed the leak say they agree that Moscow had a hand in the hack, lending weight to the extraordinary allegation that the Kremlin is trying to tamper with the U.S. presidential contest.

"You're left with all the signs pointing to Moscow," said Matt Tait, a U.K.-based cybersecurity consultant who has put in roughly 20 hours combing through the leaked DNC documents.

Tait and others invoke several categories of evidence. The first was provided by threat intelligence firm CrowdStrike, an Irvine, California, company that was hired by the Democrats to clean out the party's network. It delivered a report last month identifying Russia's intelligence services as being behind two separate electronic break-ins at the DNC. The second category of evidence was provided by electronic fingerprints on some of the documents suggesting the files had been run through Russian language-configured machines.

Most convincing for Tait was evidence that the internet infrastructure tied the DNC hackers to a separate campaign that targeted Germany's parliament last year. In May, Germany's domestic intelligence chief took the unusual step of publicly blaming that attack on Moscow, saying the Kremlin wasn't just spying  it was gearing up for sabotage.

"More than anything else I think (that) really puts to rest the 'Who is this?'" Tait said Tuesday. "It's one thing to say that they were typing stuff in Russian or they were coming from a Russian IP (internet protocol) address or their systems were configured in Russian. It's another thing to say this was being run by the same servers being publicly attributed by German intelligence as being Russian."

Trump tweeted Tuesday that the Democrats were trying to "deflect the horror and stupidity" of the leak, calling the suggestion "crazy!" WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who began publishing thousands of the emails last week, said Monday there's was "no proof" Russia was behind the hack, and on Tuesday told CNN that "a lot more" material was on its way.

Also Tuesday, Senate Judiciary Committee leaders pressed the FBI and Justice Department for details on the investigation, including how and when federal investigators learned of the breach and what action is being taken in response.

Assigning blame in the world of cyberespionage is extraordinarily difficult. Some of the clues uncovered by Tait are easy to forge and attackers routinely use misdirection to lead investigators astray. Others in the field are wary of companies such as CrowdStrike, which may face pressure from clients or investors to spin gripping stories about government hackers with codenames like "Fancy Bear" or "APT28."

"I don't like circumstantial evidence when it comes to blaming a foreign government," said Jeffrey Carr, the chief executive of Taia Global, a threat intelligence company. Carr rejected the idea of tying the DNC attackers to previous breaches based on their tools or their methods, saying it was "like finding a gun that was used in the commission of a crime. Anybody could be pulling the trigger."

So far the only public claim of responsibility for the breach has come from a previously unknown actor calling himself Guccifer 2.0. The self-described lone Romanian hacker has uploaded several tranches of DNC material to a website in the past month and boasted of handing a larger trove to WikiLeaks.

Guccifer 2.0 has not responded to repeated messages from The Associated Press, but doubts about his story are growing. On Tuesday, ThreatConnect, an intelligence firm based in Arlington, Virginia, said it found evidence that the hacker was communicating with journalists via a dedicated virtual private network based out of Russia. Motherboard journalist Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai said the hacker stumbled through an interview over Twitter when quizzed in Romanian last month.

"We showed it to half a dozen Romanians and no one had one iota of a doubt that the person behind the keyboard was not Romanian," Franceschi-Bicchierai said in an email.

Thomas Rid, a cybersecurity expert with King's College London, first identified the common infrastructure linking the DNC and German parliamentary hacks. He said there was a "very high level of confidence" both attacks were the work of the same group and said it was noteworthy that German officials had tied the group to Moscow.
Hillary Clinton makes history on the second day of the Democratic National Convention, becoming the first woman to ever be nominated for president by a major party. Former President Bill Clinton then delivered the night's keynote address. Courtney Gross filed the following report.



In dramatic fashion, with her former rival at the mic, Hillary Clinton secured the nomination of the Democratic Party on Tuesday night in Philadelphia.



"I move that Hillary Clinton be selected as the nominee of the Democratic Party for president of the United States," Bernie Sanders said.

The roll call vote lasted about an hour and a half. State after state, delegate counts were ticked off for Hillary Clinton, with Bernie Sanders trailing not too far behind. Sanders sat in the arena. It was the final moment in a protracted and occassionally bitter primary campaign.



For her home state of New York, Governor Andrew Cuomo took the spotlight.



"And the proud home of the next president of the United States, Hillary Rodham Clinton!" Cuomo said.



Tuesday night in Philadelphia was another reminder the campaign was shifting to the general election. President Bill Clinton stepped into his new role as candidate's spouse. His long legacy took a backseat to his wife's.



"In the spring of 1971, I met a girl," Bill Clinton said.



His job: to humanize Hillary Clinton, telling stories of all the work she has done, detailing her decades of public service.



"For this time, Hillary is uniquely qualified to seize the opportunities and reduce the risk we face, and she is still the best darn change-maker we have ever known," Bill Clinton said.



During the primary, the former president had been somewhat unpredicatable, at times seeming to damage Clinton's campaign. On Tuesday night, he stayed mostly on message, delivering a detailed account of their life together, political and otherwise. He explained how he proposed - three times.



At the end, Hillary herself made her first convention appearance, in a video with an intro that showed every single male president up until now.



In live video msg. from NY to DNC, @HillaryClinton says, "We just put the biggest crack in that glass ceiling yet." pic.twitter.com/6qMCz4uAwX  NY1 News (@NY1) July 27, 2016

"I can't believe we just put the biggest crack in that glass ceiling yet," she said.



She was live from New York.


An East Harlem landlord is facing charges for allegedly trying to force rent-stabilized tenants out of their apartment.



Landlord Ephram Vashovsky is accused of creating hazardous living conditions at 21 East 115th Street to coerce a family of seven to move out.

He's facing 20 criminal charges, including reckless endangerment, coercion and unlawful eviction.



Prosecutors say he enlisted the help of his property manager and another contractor.

The Manhattan DA's office says the men removed walls, shut off the water and heat, and began a campaign to harass the tenants.



"A man only known to the family as Shaun showed up at their apartment, often late at night. He would bang on their door, telling them in substance that he represented the building's owners and that the building's owners wanted them out. Knowing that the tenants were undocumented immigrants from Mexico, he threatened to call immigration authorities and told them that they should leave the apartment in 'the easy way as opposed to the hard way,'" said Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr.



Officials say the Department of Buildings ordered the building vacated in March 2015 because of the dangerous conditions.


Police arrest three men they say stole $5 million in cash, jewelry, and other valuables from two banks.

Michael Mazzara, Charles Kerrigan, and Anthony Mascuzzio are facing bank burglary and conspiracy to commit bank burglary charges.

Officials say in April, they robbed a HSBC Bank branch in Brooklyn by cutting into the top of the bank's vaults from the roof of the building.

The group is also accused of robbing a Maspeth Federal Savings Bank on Woodhaven Boulevard near 64th Road in Rego Park in the same fashion in May.

"The thieves stole not just people's money, but their memories too, what was left at the banks, and on the roofs of the banks looks like something out of a scene of a movie," said U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara.

"These heists reminded me of one of my favorite movies, 'Heat', Rob DeNiro, Al Pacino, the work of a crew that was well-organized, meticulous and elusive to law enforcement, but they weren't meticulous enough, and quite obviously not elusive enough," said Police Commissioner Bill Bratton.

Each of the suspects face up to 20 years in prison if convicted.
The city is making a greater effort to combat the Zika and West Nile viruses.

The Health Department is using trucks to spray pesticide to slow down mosquito breeding around Queens and Staten Island.

Officials say they're targeting areas where they found the type of mosquito that is able carry the viruses.

They emphasize the spraying is preventative and that mosquitoes carrying Zika or West Nile have not been found.

The spraying will take place Thursday night beginning at 10 p.m. and will go until 6 a.m. Friday.

In Queens, parts of College Point, Flushing and Whitestone will be sprayed as well as sections of Annadale, Emerson Hill, and Great Kills on Staten Island.

Officials recommend residents stay indoors during spraying, and bring outdoor equipment and toys inside.
The current meaning, presumably what McCain had in mind, is in a September 2005 Foreign Affairs article titled How to Win in Iraq, by Andrew Krepinevich Jr., with this definition of the oil-spot strategy: Rather than focusing on killing insurgents, they should concentrate on providing security and opportunity to the Iraqi people. . .start by focusing on certain key areas and then, over time, broadening the effort  hence the image of an expanding oil spot. This envisions more U.S. and coalition troops over a long haul.

While oil-spot is an admiring description of a technique, whack-a-mole is a derogation of a different approach. The origin is in the old carnival or arcade game that has a mechanical mole suddenly appear for a player to knock down, which causes another object to appear. The French board game Chass Taupes translates as chase moles. In the U.S. in 1970, the toymaker Bobs Space Racers came up with a tabletop version for kids, dropping the k in whack for legal reasons. Why moles? They are unpopular, making a mess of lawns, but not as fearsome as rats.

First political use I can find is by Samuel Berger, the Clinton administration national-security adviser, who described U.S. policy toward Saddam Hussein, then the president of Iraq, as a little bit like a Whack-a-Mole game at the circus. Changing the old verb pop to the newer bop and interlacing it with whack, Berger told Tyler Marshall of The Los Angeles Times on Dec. 9, 1996 that they bop up and you whack em down, and if they bop up again, you bop em down again.

Cause Celebre

As a former intelligence officer, writes David Ewing of Portsmouth, N.H., I was chagrined by the use  and apparent misuse  of the French term cause celebre in the leaked National Intelligence Estimate to describe what the Iraq conflict represents for Islamic terrorists. It is bad enough for precise analytical drafters to resort to an unfamiliar foreign expression, but even worse to use one that doesnt mean what they think it means.. . .The French word cause in this case means legal suit or action. The N.I.E. drafters evidently thought it meant a cause in the sense of a man with a cause.

We have here an instance of a borrowed foreign phrase that no longer means to the borrower primarily what it means to the lender, that is, the original foreign language. First, to the controversy: the original leak from the top-secret document contained this sentence: The Iraq conflict has become the cause celebre for jihadists, breeding a deep resentment of U.S. involvement in the Muslim world and cultivating supporters for the global jihadist movement. But the very next sentence, which showed the other side of the coin, was not reported until President Bush declassified the key judgments of the estimate: Should jihadists leaving Iraq perceive themselves, and be perceived, to have failed, we judge fewer fighters will be inspired to carry on the fight.
So when I became a food writer, my father and I shared, for the first time, a mutual interest. I would call to ask about recipes and cooking techniques. He would school me on the world of Cantonese cuisine. The first time he visited me in Chicago, I took him to a dim sum restaurant for brunch, and as we ate shrimp dumplings and barbecued pork buns, he explained  gesticulating with his arms like a conductor  how the shiu mais wrapper should caress its filling like a dress on a woman, like petals of a flower, like prongs on a diamond ring. I had never heard him speak with such enthusiasm or eloquence. My father never taught me to swim, or to ride a bike, but he did teach me how to tell a good dim sum restaurant from a great one.

Food became something I could use to engage him and repair our relationship. When we talked on the phone about how to wrap Shanghai water dumplings or braise dong po rou pork belly, 30 minutes would fly by. Then, when the subject turned to anything else: Hows the weather? Plans this weekend? O.K., goodbye.

Its not doing Carpool Karaoke numbers or landing guest appearances by Michelle Obama, but the relative success of my dads cooking videos has been, for me, almost unbelievable. Most people would kill to have these viewer metrics. The videos are earnest and adorably cheese-ball, bearing the production tropes of 80s VHS: There are spinning wipe effects, gratuitous zooms, saccharine background music.

His most-watched recipe, with nearly a quarter-million views, is for Chinkiang-style pork ribs. I remember eating these when I was growing up. He would use a cleaver to chop spare ribs into two-bite cubes, wok-fry them, then sauce them with a viscous glaze of Chinese black vinegar. The result was fatty and sticky and crisp, and I would slurp the meat clean off the bone in one motion. Watching through nearly two dozen more videos, I realized every single dish had been served in my childhood home. Macau-style Portuguese coconut chicken. Pan-fried turnip cake. Sweet-and-sour pork. This time, the wave of nostalgia washed over me: I was 12 again, sitting at the kitchen table, my familys mouths too preoccupied to squabble.

My dad makes enough in each months ad revenues to take my mom out for a nice lunch. Making the clips is a lot of work. The two of them test each recipe a half-dozen times before committing it to film. Dad is behind the camera and editing the footage; its usually my moms hands demonstrating. They dont speak in the videos. They say theyre embarrassed by their spoken English and feel more comfortable using onscreen text, in Chinese and English, for instruction. Writing and translating this adds several more hours of work.

Why? I asked during one of our weekly phone conversations. Do you want a show on the Food Network or something?

You really want to know? my dad asked in Chinese. Your moms great-grandmother used to cook amazing Shanghainese food for her. She would dream about it. But when your mom was finally old enough to ask for the recipes, her great-grandmother had already developed dementia. She couldnt even remember cooking those dishes. The only thing your mom had left was the memory of her taste. Were afraid that if you wanted to eat your childhood dishes, and one day were both no longer around, you wouldnt know how to cook it.
Sandy Pearlman, a producer, lyricist, manager, executive and college professor who was a herald of developments from heavy metal and punk to the digital distribution of music, died on Tuesday in Novato, Calif. He was 72.

He had suffered a debilitating cerebral hemorrhage in December, and died of pneumonia and other complications, Robert Duncan, his longtime friend and conservator, said.

Mr. Pearlman was one of the first serious rock critics, writing and editing for the pioneering rock-culture magazine Crawdaddy. He claimed to have been the first writer to use the phrase heavy metal to describe music.

But he was best known as the producer, manager and lyricist for Blue Oyster Cult. He produced and co-produced albums for the band from 1972-1988. With his longtime business partner Murray Krugman, he produced one of the earliest albums considered to be punk rock, The Dictators Go Girl Crazy! released in 1975, and he produced the second album by the Clash, Give Em Enough Rope, in 1978.
The Democratic National Convention continues with President Obamas follow-up to the rousing Monday night speech by the first lady, Michelle Obama. Jerry Seinfeld puts one of his classic cars on the auction block. And now is the time to watch Narcos, about the rise and reign of Pablo Escobar, if you havent already.

Whats on TV

DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION 5 p.m. on MSNBC; 6 p.m. on Fox Business and Fox News; 7 p.m. on CNN and C-Span; 8 p.m. on PBS; 10 p.m. on ABC, CBS and NBC. Hillary Clinton prepares to accept the Democratic nomination in Philadelphia. On this third night, centered on the theme of Working Together, the speakers include President Obama, Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., Michael R. Bloomberg and Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia. Late-night dispatches include The Daily Show With Trevor Noah, at 11 on Comedy Central; The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, at 11:35 on CBS; Real Time With Bill Maher, at 11 on HBO; and an S.N.L. Weekend Update, at midnight on MSNBC.

TODAY 7 a.m. on NBC. Savannah Guthrie interviews President Obama.

SUITS 9 p.m. on USA. Mike tries to stay safe without breaking any of Danburys unwritten rules, and Rachel butts heads with a fellow student. In Mr. Robot, at 10, Elliot finds a friend in Ray.

CAR MATCHMAKER 9 p.m. on Esquire. Spike Feresten and Jerry Seinfeld visit the Amelia Island Concours dElegance in Florida, where a classic-car aficionado is coveting Mr. Seinfelds 1974 Porsche 911 Carrera 3.0 IROC RSR. But is $1.35 million enough to buy it? And why is Mr. Seinfeld selling 18 of his cars anyway?
Analog Devices agreed on Tuesday to acquire the Linear Technology Corporation for $14.8 billion, accelerating the already brisk consolidation within the semiconductor sector.

Analog Devices intends to buy Linear Technology, of Milpitas, Calif., for about $60 a share in cash and stock, according to a statement issued by the companies. Linear Technologys shareholders would own about 16 percent of the combined company after the deal closes.

This combination of Linear Technology and Analog Devices has the potential to create a combination where one plus one truly exceeds two, said Bob Swanson, executive chairman and co-founder of Linear Technology. Both companies provide technology for the industrial, automotive and communications industries.

Analog chips are useful for transmitting information from the physical world, like sound or light, into the digital world of computing. Cars, streetlights and home sensors are just a few of the devices that need them to function.
Ray Dalio, the billionaire founder of the worlds largest hedge fund, Bridgewater Associates, likes to say that one of his firms core operating principles is radical transparency when it comes to airing employee grievances and concerns.

But one employee said in a complaint earlier this year that the hedge fund was like a cauldron of fear and intimidation.

The employees complaint with the Connecticut Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities, which has not been previously reported, describes an atmosphere of constant surveillance by video and recordings of all meetings  and the presence of patrolling security guards  that silence employees who do not fit the Bridgewater mold.

Hedge funds tend to be a highly secretive bunch, yet even within their universe Bridgewater stands out. The allegations, as well as interviews with seven former employees or people who have done work for the firm and a filing by the National Labor Relations Board, open a window into the inner workings of a $154 billion company that, despite its mammoth size, remains obscure. The firm is governed by Principles  more than 200 of them  set out in a little white book of Mr. Dalios musings on life and business that some on Wall Street have likened to a religious text.
Others have concerns about a proposal to change the name from transsexualism to gender incongruence, a name chosen to try to express a discrepancy between a persons experienced gender identity and their body, said Dr. Reed, who was part of the working group that recommended the changes to W.H.O.

One problem is that incongruence resonates differently in different languages. In English it sounds kind of neutral  my association is with geometry, Dr. Reed said. But in Spanish it sounds very bad, it sounds kind of psychotic.

So, in Spanish, the proposal is gender discordance, which, he said, in English sounds really bad.

Language differences are only part of the issue. The terminology is difficult because nobody likes anything, Dr. Reed said. People have made suggestions that have been all over the map. One of the people at one of the meetings said we could call this happy unicorns dancing by the edge of the stream and thered be an objection to it.

The issue is reminiscent of the change in the way homosexuality was treated in the American bible of psychiatric diagnoses, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, known as the D.S.M. In 1973, the book, published by the American Psychiatric Association, changed the diagnosis of homosexuality to sexual orientation disturbance, and later to ego-dystonic homosexuality before dropping it altogether in 1987.

Transgender identity has changed in the D.S.M. too, classified under sexual deviations in 1968, psychosexual disorders in 1980 and sexual and gender identity disorders in 1994. In the fifth and most recent edition, D.S.M.-5 in 2013, the designation was changed to gender dysphoria, and was defined to apply to only those transgender people who are experiencing distress or dysfunction, said Dr. Jack Drescher, a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst at New York Medical College, who serves on the W.H.O. working group and served on a similar working group for the D.S.M.-5.

Dr. Drescher said he supported removing the diagnosis from the D.S.M. entirely, but he noted that the I.C.D. was different because it has categories for every disease and condition, not just psychiatric ones, and retaining some code for transgender identity might be the only way for some to receive medical care. Inmates, including Chelsea Manning, have received access to hormone treatments partly based on the fact that transgender identity belongs to a medical category, Dr. Drescher said.
Twelve years ago, almost to the day, Barack Obamas flight from Springfield, Ill., landed in Boston around 4 a.m. He paced around the lobby of the Back Bay Hilton, ran into his campaign press secretary, Robert Gibbs, and together they contemplated the keynote speech Obama would deliver to the Democratic National Convention the next night. Sleep was not in the immediate plan for Obama, who was then running to become the only African-American in the United States Senate. He would head out again at 6 a.m. to tape Meet the Press, Face the Nation and Late Edition on CNN. It was not the normal Sunday morning regimen for little-known state lawmakers.

But then, things had become aggressively abnormal for Obama since John Kerry had picked him to be the keynote speaker at his nominating convention. Obama figured this was a moment in time and that the fuss would subside soon enough. Im not someone who takes the hype that seriously, Obama told me when I met him a few hours later.

He was making the rounds of a brunch hosted by the Congressional Black Caucus held aboard a docked cruise ship in Boston Harbor. I was assigned to write an article on Obama, then 42, that same day, and met up with him as he boarded the boat. Obama addressed me as the guy from The Washington Post, my employer at the time. He kept telling me, and the many people that kept rushing up to him, that he was desperate for a nap. I found this somewhat audacious and endearing. He seemed to have somewhere between eight and 12 seconds of political nicety in him for everyone before he would declare what he would rather be doing (I need a nap) and move on.

He was never a natural, draw-energy-from-the-crowd politician like Bill Clinton or even George W. Bush. When we could steal a few seconds, Obama kept emphasizing to me that this was all temporary, that the fuss would all end soon enough. He had some experience with riding small waves of national acclaim, after all, having been named the first African-American editor of The Harvard Law Review several years earlier. After about two weeks, all the stories were written and everyone left me alone, he said.
It seemed like something out of a big-budget heist movie.

Blowtorches were used to cut holes through the roofs of two bank branches in Brooklyn and Queens this spring. Ladders were lowered into the bank vaults, allowing the burglars to have their way with safe deposit boxes.

Oxygen and acetylene tanks were found on the roofs. At the Queens bank, the investigators also found a grinding wheel, a tool to cut through steel or concrete.

In all, the burglars made off with about $5 million in cash and valuables from the two banks.

And then the three men returned to their lives in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn  seemingly unaware that they were already under surveillance.

This is some of the best investigative work Ive seen, William J. Bratton, the New York City police commissioner, said at a news conference on Tuesday announcing the arrests of the three men charged.
In 1993, Anastasia Somoza, 9, put it to the president of the United States that her twin sister, Alba, was getting a raw deal. We go to the same school, but she cant speak, Anastasia said. So because she cant speak, they put her in a special class. But she uses computers to speak and I would like her to be in a regular class, just like me.

From the chair that she used to get around, Anastasia spoke in full sentences unpunctuated by uhs or likes. Her gaze never shifted from the eyes of the man seated next to her, Bill Clinton, new at the president job. He nodded, murmured some nice words, then sent a push from the White House downstream to New York City, where the Somoza family lived.

The parents, Mary Mooney Somoza and Gerardo Somoza, kept pushing, and Alba Somoza joined her sister in general education classes.

On Monday night, Anastasia Somoza, now 33, wheeled herself onto the stage at the convention center in Philadelphia and spoke at the Democratic National Convention with the same clarity and seriousness of purpose seen in public more than two decades earlier. A graduate of Georgetown University and the London School of Economics, Ms. Somoza was there as a delegate for Hillary Clinton. She is working on a project with the Clinton Global Initiative to bring an end to the abandonment of babies with disabilities in China.
Two New York City police officers approached a bearded man on the street in Queens. His fedora and his trench coat had drawn a bystanders attention. But instead of talking, the authorities said, he pulled out a gun and fired three shots. While the officers ducked for cover, the man fled.

Left behind on the sidewalk, officials said, were his hat, his eyeglasses and his beard.

On Tuesday, almost five years after that encounter, prosecutors said the man, Antonio Olmeda, was sentenced to 20 years to life in prison. Mr. Olmeda, 57, pleaded guilty in State Supreme Court in Queens this month to two counts of first-degree attempted murder.

This case underscores the real dangers that police officers face every day on the job, Richard A. Brown, the Queens district attorney, said in a statement.

On Dec. 2, 2011, the authorities said, the two officers approached Mr. Olmeda on 76th Street in Jackson Heights after a bystander pointed him out as suspicious. As the officers questioned him, the authorities said, one of them asked that he remove his hands from his pockets.
Participants in the predawn street festival that precedes the West Indian American Day Parade in Brooklyn will notice a striking change this year: light. Lots of it.

New York City officials on Tuesday announced some changes to the street festival, known as Jouvert, intended to deter acts of violence that have marred the celebrations in recent years, including the 2015 killing of Carey W. Gabay, a lawyer and aide to Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo.

For the first time in Jouverts 22-year history, the Police Department has granted the festival a parade permit and plans to double the number of uniformed officers assigned to the procession and the surrounding neighborhoods in Crown Heights, James P. ONeill, the chief of department, said.

But the biggest change might be the roughly 200 floodlights that will be installed along and near the parade route, an increase from about 40 in previous years.
The Williamsburg neighborhood in Brooklyn has had plenty of incarnations of late: industrial waterfront; hipster hub; a village of expensive high-rises, soon to be christened by the boroughs first Apple store.

Its next chapter is likely to be defined by how it weathers the loss of its main subway line to Manhattan.

After the Metropolitan Transportation Authority announced on Monday that the L line would close between Manhattan and Brooklyn for 18 months starting in 2019, people who live and work in Williamsburg  particularly those in its northern half  have considered logistical concerns over how they will get around. But they have also pondered more existential questions about the future of the constantly changing neighborhood.

For better or for worse, Williamsburg has, for outsiders, come to symbolize Brooklyn itself  a land of heavily tattooed cyclists, farm-to-table restaurants and rowdy music venues, enough so that tourists regularly make the trek from Manhattan. But some say the opening of a local Whole Foods Market on Tuesday, along with the Apple store this month, are signs of the new sanitized Williamsburg.
And so it goes in the first stage of the citywide rollout of these curbside machines that promise swift connections to the internet, phone service and ports for charging cellphones and other devices, all at no cost to the users. With the activation this week of the first units to be installed in Queens, there will be about 300 online, almost all of them in Manhattan.

Along Eighth Avenue in Midtown, some homeless people are camping around the kiosks. Sascha Freudenheim, who runs a consulting firm on West 36th Street, said the way some people were using the kiosks seems completely counter to their purpose. Mr. Freudenheim said he thought they would be used to help people find their way around the city, not serve as gathering spots.

Residents of more residential neighborhoods have complained that the kiosks are too bright, too loud and more attractive to idle squatters than they are to busy passers-by in need of a quick connection. Other New Yorkers are demonstrating their usual skepticism, eyeing the kiosks warily and wondering what the catch is.

Aniya Lee, 16, frequently uses the kiosk at 183rd Street and Creston Avenue in the Bronx, but only to play songs on YouTube on the video screen. She said she did not feel comfortable using the Wi-Fi or connecting her phone to the USB outlet.

For some reason, I dont trust it, she said. Theyre trying to get everyones information.

City officials are hoping that the publics long-term relationship with the tall, slim kiosks settles in somewhere between standoffish and clingy. They admit they did not know what to expect; no other city has tried to create anything quite as extensive as LinkNYC.
The three men were arrested on Tuesday morning; they pleaded not guilty at their arraignment.

John Carman, a lawyer for Mr. Vashovsky, said his client was not the first landlord to be wrongfully accused by a nonpaying tenant with an obvious and substantial reason to make false claims.

Robert Wolf, a lawyer for Mr. Ohana, said in a statement that his client had been cooperative with the citys Investigation Department and is not guilty.

Aaron Twersky, a lawyer for Mr. Cohen, said the citys narrative is not entirely accurate.

While prosecuting landlords for harassing tenants is rare, city and state authorities have been turning to the courts more frequently to crack down on the landlords suspected of wrongdoing. The most prominent example: Steven Croman, whose companies controlled more than 140 Manhattan apartment buildings, was charged in May with 20 felonies.

Mr. Vashovskys companies own at least 26 buildings, mostly in Brooklyn, records show.

In June 2015, a two-story townhouse on Tompkins Avenue in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn partially collapsed after one of Mr. Vashovskys companies, Vasco Ventures, bought it, two neighboring townhouses and a vacant lot, intending to build an apartment complex. The Buildings Department attributed the collapse to the failure to brace a wall during tear-down work.

When another of Mr. Vashovskys companies bought the building at 14 East 125th Street in East Harlem for $1.85 million in February 2013, residents started complaining of rats and lack of heat, and within months, five of the six rent-regulated residents moved out.

But officials said the tactics at 21 East 115th Street in East Harlem were particularly egregious.

After Mr. Vashovsky bought the five-story, 10-unit building for $3 million in May 2014, workers soon began tearing the building apart from the inside out. Even as the outside walls remained, the building inside was gutted almost to its bones  the defendants are accused in court papers of removing all internal walls and floors of all other apartments in the building, creating a risk of falling from a height of five stories and leaving said fall risk exposed behind unlocked doors.
In the West, a homey casserole of slivered potatoes, sour cream and canned mushroom soup is so often served at wakes and memorials that it is commonly known as funeral potatoes. In Pennsylvania Dutch country, the go-to dish is a custard and raisin pastry called funeral pie.

Yet in New York States funeral homes, arcane rules had long forbidden food and drinks. But last week, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, a Democrat, signed a law permitting funeral parlors to serve light refreshments and nonalcoholic drinks, joining 46 other states where the bereaved have the option of crying into their potatoes and pie.

Culturally, we use food as a socializing element in all sorts of circumstances, said Assemblyman Richard N. Gottfried, a Democrat who represents Midtown Manhattan. Mr. Gottfried was a sponsor of the legislation along with State Senator Betty Little, a Republican who represents parts of northern New York. To me, the notion that at a funeral you couldnt get a cup of tea or something to eat to stave off hunger or maintain your blood-sugar level just doesnt make sense, he said.
She also knows full well just how many tools she would have to use to make good on that promise. The causes of the wage gap arent simple; they are myriad and interlocking. One is experience. Women are much more likely than men to leave the work force or reduce their hours, often to care for family members, especially beginning in their early 30s, and thats when the gender wage gap starts to swell. They disrupt their careers and miss out on raises and promotions.

The problem stems from the lack of support in the United States for a parent whos trying to balance work and child rearing, a job that still mostly falls to women. We dont guarantee paid family leave, a benefit just 13 percent of private sector employees get, and child care costs remain high. But when women have paid leave and access to steady, reasonably priced child care, their wages benefit. Mr. Trumps daughter Ivanka stood on the convention stage in Cleveland last week and pointed this out, although given that his campaign has paid men more than women its unclear whether Mr. Trump will follow through on his daughters pledge that he will focus on equal pay.

Men and women also end up in different industries and occupations, and the ones dominated by men pay more. Women still make less in every industry and nearly every job, of course, including the fields where men make up the bulk of the work force. And when women move into a previously male-dominated area, the pay drops. Still, pushing women into the areas that pay better while also trying to raise the pay of the jobs that women already hold is one way to start closing the gap.

Other elements Mrs. Clinton has to take into consideration: Women in unionized workplaces have smaller differences in pay, but unionization rates have been on a steady decline for some time. Women also make up roughly two-thirds of all minimum-wage workers, so their pay would benefit from an increase.
There is nothing new about intelligence services for the United States and Russia hacking each others computer systems or trying to covertly influence other countries domestic politics. In recent years, Mr. Putin has invaded Ukraine, stoking political tensions there and in the Baltic States, and financed right-wing politicians across Europe; during the Cold War, the United States secretly tried to influence elections in Indonesia, Italy, Chile and Poland. What seems new here is the idea that a government would publicly disclose information it got from hacking into the computers of an American political party in order to influence an election.

The Democrats are eager to exploit a Trump-Putin connection. The notion that a foreign power, especially a newly aggressive Russia, might be trying to sway the election is antithetical to democratic principles and Americas interests. As secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, who became the Democratic nominee on Tuesday, tried to create a better working relationship with Russia, on issues like arms control and Iran, but the effort ultimately failed. Mr. Putin could also be retaliating against Mrs. Clinton for real or imagined perfidies; he accused her of meddling in Russias 2011 parliamentary election.
There were more than a few dropped jaws when the Silicon Valley investor Peter Thiel agreed to a prime-time speaking slot on the final night of the Republican National Convention, barely an hour before the acceptance speech of Donald J. Trump. Mr. Trump wants to emboss a big fat T on government, promising huge infrastructure projects, starting with a wall between the United States and Mexico. What was a former Ron Paul supporter and proud libertarian like Mr. Thiel doing on the same stage?

Mr. Thiels endorsement puts him at odds with many Silicon Valley chief executives and investors who oppose Mr. Trump on issues like climate change, same-sex marriage and, of course, immigration (they want more visas available for software engineers). It is easy to depict Mr. Thiel, a co-founder of PayPal, board member at Facebook and influential investor, as an outlier even in the oddball tech world: He believes there will be a cure for death, promotes the construction of floating islands exempt from societys rules and secretly financed a lawsuit to take down Gawker.
Adorned with hand-carved sculptures of Hindu gods and goddesses, the seventh-century stone and wooden temples scattered across northwestern India are marvels from an era when ancient kings ruled the Himalayas.

But if you look carefully youll notice many have tilted pillars, slanted rooftops and warped stone floors. To the average visitor these may seem like wear and tear from centuries of aging, but to archaeoseismologists they are telltale signs of massive earthquakes that once devastated the region.

A pair of researchers from the Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology used the damaged temples to better understand the range and extent of damage caused by a quake that struck a nearby district in 1905 and another that hit a more distant region in 1555. They say the marks imprinted by these disasters provide clues of potential temblors to come.
The historical evidence that terrorist attacks become blueprints for random massacres is slim, Dr. Gould and others said. No one knows precisely what factors prompt people to commit such extreme acts, when the primary motivation is radical ideology. In rare cases where perpetrators survive, even they often do not have a clear sense of what moved them from despair and anger to large-scale murder.

In interviews, they come across as what we call pseudo-terrorists, said J. Kevin Cameron, the director of the Canadian Center for Threat Assessment and Trauma Response, who has consulted on school shootings and other mass killing for almost 20 years. Theyre people with some ax to grind who are fluid  that is, theyre truly at their core struggling with suicide and homicide, and they swing between the two. Today the person is more suicidal; a week later hes more homicidal.

But there is reason to suspect that contagion is a factor, from previous research on violence. Researchers have long known that highly publicized suicides can precede clusters of suicides in the weeks or months afterward, in people already thinking about suicide. The likelihood of such contagion depends on the prominence of the coverage, the detail in the reports about methods, the richness of the portrayals of people affected. In similar fashion, terrorist attacks and mass killings have been exhaustively covered, Dr. Gould said.

The vast majority of people who take their lives kill only themselves, leaving no evidence that they wanted to kill others. But experts suspect that murder-suicides are subject to contagion effects from high-profile cases, though the numbers are too small to establish that statistically. Only about 1 to 2 percent of murder-suicides target random people outside immediate family or friends, said Matthew Nock, a psychologist at Harvard.
ST. PAUL  The police arrested more than two dozen people on Tuesday while trying to reopen the street in front of Gov. Mark Daytons mansion here, where protesters have been demonstrating over the shooting death of a black man by a suburban police officer nearly three weeks ago.

Twenty-six adults were arrested on charges ranging from disorderly conduct to unlawful assembly to public nuisance, Steve Linders, a St. Paul police spokesman said. A juvenile also was arrested, he said.

Police tried several times to reopen Summit Avenue, Linders said. No one was hurt, he added.

Demonstrators have been camping outside the governors residence since July 7, a day after Philando Castile was shot and killed by a St. Anthony police officer during a traffic stop. Castiles girlfriend livestreamed the aftermath of his shooting on Facebook.
PHILADELPHIA  After a turbulent beginning to their convention, Democrats nominated Hillary Clinton for president on Tuesday, making her the first woman to lead a major partys ticket in the United States. They then turned to hear from a lineup of speakers that included Lena Dunham, Madeleine Albright and former President Bill Clinton, the nights main attraction.

Here are the highlights:

 Mr. Clinton delivered a long, personal recounting of Mrs. Clintons life, offering himself up as a witness to her journey from young law student to presidential nominee.

In the spring of 1971, Mr. Clinton began, I met a girl.

His tale stretched from their courtship to the birth of their daughter, Chelsea, and on to her time as secretary of state. He presented Mrs. Clinton as a change maker and contrasted his account with the way Mrs. Clinton was portrayed at last weeks Republican convention. One is real, he said. The other is made up.
PHILADELPHIA  One after another, they have streamed across the stage of the Democratic National Convention, sharing their stories of being insulted, cheated or otherwise wronged by Donald J. Trump:

The widow of an Army sergeant, who said she used $35,000 of her military death benefits to pay for a worthless degree from Trump University. A woman with cerebral palsy who condemned Mr. Trump as someone with hate in his heart.

And a Mexican-American actress, Eva Longoria, who was indignant in defending her heritage. My father isnt a criminal or a rapist, she said. In fact, hes a veteran.

Hillary Clintons convention has been full of soaring tributes to her character and compassion. But perhaps the most important message she and her campaign are trying to deliver this week is a scorching indictment of her Republican opponent as someone who has spared almost no group from insult or injury, be they veterans widows, American Indians, immigrants, Muslims, the disabled or women.

Given Mrs. Clintons own weaknesses with many white voters  especially men and those without college degrees  and a trust deficit she must overcome with a majority of Americans, this is what Democratic coalition building looks like in the era of Mr. Trump.
The past is prologue.

The Republican primary contest was not just tough. It was a battle for the soul of the party, fought to the bitter end, by opponents who feared that Mr. Trump would rupture their movement and betray their ideals. On Wednesday, Mrs. Clintons campaign harvested those angry months for a montage of criticism: a video of attacks on Mr. Trump during the primaries from respected Republican leaders  including Mitt Romney, the partys nominee in 2012, and Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina  describing Mr. Trump as dangerous and unprepared to deal with world affairs. Expect to see more of these clips in the fall.

Are Republican voters in play? Democrats think so.

Along with the videos of Republicans, there were paeans to faith and to the strength of the United States military, contrasting Mr. Trumps remarks about the militarys decline. There was a full-throated endorsement of Mrs. Clinton by former Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg of New York, once a Republican and now an independent, who emphasized his disagreements with the Democrats on education and spending issues. And there was Mr. Obama himself, an unpopular figure in Republican circles, seeking to undermine Mr. Trumps partisan credibility. What we heard in Cleveland last week wasnt particularly Republican  and it sure wasnt conservative, Mr. Obama told a prime-time television audience. Those moments suggested that Mrs. Clinton believes Mr. Trump is toxic or unconventional enough for her to peel off a significant slice of Republican voters.
PHILADELPHIA  Follow along for our coverage of the Democratic National Convention.

Donald J. Trump could not resist making a splashy appearance every night of his convention  emerging onstage as a fog-enshrouded silhouette one night, upstaging a political foe from the stands two nights later.

But as Democrats piled on the accolades for Hillary Clinton here, she was not just offstage, or holed up in a nearby hotel suite. She was at home in Chappaqua, N.Y.

Naturally guarded, unusually private and hard-wired to avoid the boastfulness and hagiography that are so typical of political conventions, Mrs. Clinton has seemed, halfway through this four-day celebration of her life and lifes work, a reluctant star of her prime-time production.

It is not hard to understand, when even her catchiest slogan  Im With Her  has been turned against her by Mr. Trump: Stung by his suggestion that the phrase demonstrated that Mrs. Clintons campaign was overly motivated by her ambitions, her advisers have urged revising it to Shes With Us.
Throughout her speech, the 67-year-old Ms. Streep sought to place Mrs. Clinton, who is 68, in the pantheon of pioneering American women, from Amelia Earhart and Harriet Tubman to Sandra Day OConnor and Geraldine Ferraro. She dwelled the longest on Deborah Sampson, a woman who disguised herself as a man to serve in the Continental Army. Ms. Sampson was shot while serving and removed the musket ball herself to avoid revealing her gender.

The message was not lost on the room  and Ms. Streep made sure of it: Hillary Clinton, she said, has taken some fire over 40 years.

For Ms. Streep, as beloved an actor as there is in Hollywood, the convention was a political coming-out of sorts, in which she publicly endorsed a candidate during a partisan celebration.

But neither her activism nor her embrace of Mrs. Clinton was new.

Like Mrs. Clinton, she grew up in a middle-class household, attended a womens college, participated in campus protests and went to graduate school at Yale. (Mrs. Clinton received a law degree in 1973; Ms. Streep received a masters from the School of Drama in 1975.)

Both, she said in a 2012 speech, had called their mothers from college  collect  insecure about their merit and chances for success.
Eight years later, as Mr. Obama and the veterans of his administration gear up to help Mrs. Clinton get elected in November, there is no better motivation for them than the prospect of a President Trump ordering a similar reversal.

Driven by those fears, the president plans to campaign aggressively for Mrs. Clinton this fall. Aides have largely cleared his calendar in October, and barring new crises, the White House expects Mr. Obama to be on the campaign trail almost daily leading up to Election Day.

Based on what he has said, Mr. Trump would probably use the power of the Oval Office to quickly overturn Mr. Obamas immigration actions, try to unravel the Affordable Care Act, order the Environmental Protection Agency to lift regulations on coal plants established under Mr. Obama, reimpose abortion restrictions at home and abroad, shift the focus of American foreign policy, start building a wall along the border with Mexico and bar entry to the United States from countries with a history of terrorism.

Some of Mr. Obamas closest advisers describe that as their worst nightmare.

Im sure he thinks about that first 100 days the way the rest of us do, Dan Pfeiffer, the presidents former senior adviser, said of Mr. Obama. You wake up every day, and another thing that you and your team worked so hard to do is undone. That would be more painful than the president or any of us can imagine.
In these brief duets, each absolutely individual, man and woman are complicated equals, neither identical nor hostile. What keeps them together is neither sex nor bonhomie; theyre like successful marriages in which both partners sustain different careers. The music, composed by Cameron McCosh for A Dancers World, is intriguing, with marvelous gamelan-like moments.

Each woman, each man here, is a soloist. (Moon begins with a male solo, danced on Tuesday by Anthony Bryant, before Stephanie Amurao enters). When they come together (as in White, when Morgan Lugo frames Julia Eichtens face with his hands), their intimacies are the more striking. Even when the Star man, Nathan Makolandra, holds Rachelle Rafailedes high, he keeps turning her right and left as he slowly bears her offstage. Though shes his prize, he presents her experimentally: Does she look more glorious on this side? On that side? Hes still asking on the way out. All these duets are exploratory, but they dont read like examples of Grahams psychoanalytical approach; they come across more like multifaceted sociological case studies.

The three other works on the program are pleasant, moment by moment, but forgettable over all; and the seeming modernity of their various styles is imposed on a view of humanity more dated, more static, than that of the Graham duos. Best is Justin Pecks Helix, set to music by Esa-Pekka Salonen, a male-female sextet full of dynamic contrasts and coursing energy. Its unfortunate that immediately following the Graham, this dances presentation of male-female couples looks relatively conventional, with men serving as devout partners, secondary to their women, and its music (taped, like everything on the program) feels here like a film score. Mr. Peck is working on striking geometric ideas: The horizontal stage paths of his dancers, sometimes like waves but with plenty of variation in speed and attack, keep the eye refreshed.

Sidi Larbi Cherkaouis Harbor Me, for three men, is a study in nonstop legato flow. Torsos, in particular, maintain a constant current of motion. At first, this kind of physicality is engaging, but soon a kind of preciosity sets in, as gamelike exercises are developed. Here, touch is the point; there, the point is keeping close without touching. Now its the back thats focal, now the hand. Theres plenty of floorwork; a few jumps occur. Things keep changing, but only at a physical level; theres little drama here. Mr. Lugo, Aaron Carr and Robbie Moore do it admirably; the stylistic range of all these dancers is truly remarkable.
CIUDAD REAL, Spain  Jesus Camacho, 28, a schoolteacher, recalled a time in his youth when he refused to read Don Quixote, the most famous work by Miguel de Cervantes. I saw that it was the same size as the Bible, he said, so I got scared.

But in July, Mr. Camacho, who is also a rapper known as Camaccho, found himself enthralled by the themes in that Spanish writers works as he prepared to participate in the Rap in Cervantes competition here. Contestants at the event improvise lyrics based on a phrase or a character from Don Quixote or other works by the author.

In an interview, Mr. Camacho said he had been surprised to discover that Cervantes dealt with many themes that lie at the heart of his own rap compositions. Cervantes tells us that you cant live without having hopes, without dreaming of something beyond your everyday reality  whether things then work out as you hoped or not  and that is exactly what I believe, he said.

Rap in Cervantes is among the more innovative celebrations being held this year to mark the 400th anniversary of the authors death. It is a trans-Atlantic occasion, coordinated between two annual theater events: the Almagro International Festival of Classical Theater in central Spain, and the Festival Internacional Cervantino in Guanajuato in central Mexico. An international competition was held here on July 14, and Guanajuato will repeat it in October, drawing on the same group of six finalists.
Here we meet Nan Shepherd, author of The Living Mountain, about the Cairngorms in Scotland, whose writing focused on the inter-animating relationship of mind and matter. Here is Richard Skelton, expert on the West Pennine Moors in Lancashire, musician, solitary walker, keeper of lost words mourner for his wife, Louise, who died in 2004. His book Landings rests on the wishful notion, Mr. Macfarlane writes, that if a moors memories might somehow be retrieved in full and perfectly preserved, then so might those of a person.

We meet the water lover Roger Deakin, whose Suffolk farmhouse had its own spring-fed moat and who chronicled his swim across Britains lakes and rivers in his book Waterlog. And were introduced to many other writers devoted to the notion that animates Landmarks: that nature, and how we think about, describe and interact with it, is crucial to living.

For a book so self-effacing and respectful of the words of others, Landmarks is wildly ambitious, part outdoor adventure story, part literary criticism, part philosophical disquisition, part linguistic excavation project, part mash note  a celebration of nature, of reading, of writing, of language and of people who love those things as much as the author does. Its an argument for sitting down with a book; its also an argument for going outside and paying attention.

I read Landmarks, in part, on the subway in New York, riding to and from work with the heat seething outside and the awful news of the world piercing even the summer torpor. So much of the language being spoken just now is ugly, brutal and divisive. This book feels like an antidote to that, as startling and interesting and fizzy as the word zugs, which in Exmoor refers to little bog islands, about the size of a bucket, and is one of dozens of unexpected terms compiled in the glossaries that punctuate this book. They read like poetry.

You dont want to think that such a passionate author is shouting into the wind, so its a delight to learn that many people, and not just well-known writers, share his passion for language and land. Hes not the only one determined to rescue lost words. In a tiny corner of Scotland, a man named Finlay MacLeod has compiled a Peat Glossary of words used in three local townships  Shawbost, Shader and Bragar  to describe the moor. A group of researchers has done the same thing for North American topography in Home Ground: A Guide to the American Landscape. A scholar in Qatar who contacts Mr. Macfarlane is, thrillingly, compiling a global glossary of landscape words spanning more than five millenniums and touching on some 140 different languages; so far, its pushing 3,500 pages.
A new type of drug for Alzheimers disease failed to slow the rate of decline in mental ability and daily functioning in its first large clinical trial. There was a hint, though, that it might be effective for certain patients.

The drug, called LMTX, is the first one with its mode of action  trying to undo so-called tau tangles in the brain  to reach the final stage of clinical trials. So the results of the study were eagerly awaited. The initial reaction to the outcome was disappointment, with perhaps a glimmer of hopefulness.

Over all, the patients who received LMTX, which was developed by TauRx Therapeutics, did not have a slower rate of decline in mental ability or daily functioning than those in the control group.

However, the drug did seem to work for the subset of patients  about 15 percent of those in the study  who took LMTX as their only therapy. The other 85 percent of patients took an existing Alzheimers drug in addition to either LMTX or a placebo.
LONDON  Banco Santander of Spain said on Wednesday that its profit declined by nearly half in the second quarter on restructuring charges and a contribution to a fund to help finance bank bail-ins in Europe.

For the three months ended June 30, the lender reported a profit of 1.28 billion euros, or about $1.4 billion. That compared with a profit of 2.54 billion in the second quarter of 2015.

The second quarter included a gain of 227 million on the sale of its stake in Visa Europe. But it also included restructuring costs of 475 million and a charge of 120 million associated with the Single Resolution Fund, which is part of a mechanism intended to shift the burden of rescuing European lenders onto investors, rather than funding bailouts through state aid.

Santanders earnings in Spain, its home market, declined 10 percent to 208 million in the quarter, driven primarily by its contribution to the fund. That compared with 232 million in the second quarter of 2015.
Fresh off helping Verizon buy Yahoo for $4.8 billion, the boutique investment bank LionTree Advisors has added a senior banker to its organization.

The firm has hired Jake Donavan, a high-ranking banker at JPMorgan Chase, as the president of its European operation.

The move is the latest by LionTree as it seeks to capitalize on a number of prominent assignments. The firm, founded by the former UBS senior banker Aryeh Bourkoff four years ago, has played a role in major takeovers like Charter Communicationss acquisition of Time Warner Cable, Starzs sale to Lionsgate and Outerwalls sale to Apollo Global Management.

Since its founding, LionTree has opened offices in London and San Francisco.

Mr. Donavan was promoted in January to head of industry coverage for JPMorgans investment bank in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
Yes, if you break the law, you commit fraud, you should go to jail, said Edward Mills, a policy analyst at FBR Capital Markets. But to the extent that the only folks who get in trouble are the smallest guys that youve generally never heard of, that doesnt help the narrative.

Authorized by Congress during the heat of the financial crisis, the Troubled Asset Relief Program  the official name of the bank industry bailout  was initially granted $700 billion. Ultimately, the government used closer to $500 billion to stabilize the banking system, including injecting capital into troubled banks.

Along with this program, lawmakers called for the creation of two new oversight bodies, the Congressional Oversight Panel, led by Elizabeth Warren, then a professor, and Sigtarp, which was to be the funds inspector general, and gave existing agencies added duties. The congressional panel was dissolved in 2011.

United Commercial Bank found itself stretched after nearly doubling in size during the mid-2000s. Executives, under pressure to help the company avoid reporting a third-quarter loss in 2008, delayed writing down the value of numerous loans on the banks books. Then United Commercial took the federal bailout money before ultimately failing.

Sigtarp was intended to stamp out cases like these where bailout funds were misused.

Ms. Romero previously worked under Neil Barofsky, who earned a tough-cop reputation as the offices first special inspector general. She took over for Mr. Barofsky officially after being confirmed in 2012. Sigtarps mission was to root out fraud and refer cases to prosecutors.

When we built Sigtarp back in 2008-9, it was kind of a dream come true for a couple of federal prosecutors, to get to build a law enforcement agency from scratch that would only focus on complex white-collar investigations, and Sigtarp was built with that focus in mind, Mr. Barofsky said in an email. Christy, who was of course an important part of building that model as our chief of staff, has successfully built upon it, maintained its focus, and it has been a pleasure to watch the agency grow, thrive and succeed under her leadership.

Ms. Romero conceded that proving guilt at the highest levels of Wall Street banks has been difficult, though she noted that Sigtarp had been involved in the investigations that led to some of the largest civil actions against the likes of Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Bank of America.
BRUSSELS  European Union officials, facing the rise of populist movements across the region, opted against hitting Spain and Portugal with sanctions on Wednesday for breaking the blocs rules on government spending.

The refusal to impose fines highlights how the 28-nation bloc is struggling with divergent strains of populist and anti-European forces across a region where one member state, Britain, has already voted to leave. The failure to issue penalties will also raise new questions about whether the European Commission, the executive arm of the European Union, has the political will to enforce its own rules.

Many economists have called on Brussels to ease the fiscal straitjacket, whereby countries face punishment if they run budget deficits beyond 3 percent of gross domestic product, to stimulate spending and to accelerate anemic economic growth across the region.

Nevertheless, the commission faced pressure to act against Spain and Portugal from some lawmakers in countries like Germany and the Netherlands who argue that a common currency needs commonly enforced rules to avoid the sort of sovereign debt crisis that was set off by the discovery of a large hole in Greeces finances.
Forrest E. Mars Jr., a billionaire scion of the reclusive family that satisfied Americas sweet tooth with the Milky Way candy bar and M&Ms and who helped build Mars Inc. into the worlds largest confectionary company, died on Tuesday in Seattle. He was 84.

The company, which he inherited with his brother and sister in 1973, said the cause was a heart attack.

Mr. Mars and his brother, John, were co-presidents of the company, which sold about $1 billion worth of candy when their father turned over control. By the time Forrest Mars Jr. retired from active management in 1999, it was an $18 billion-a-year company selling Snickers, Uncle Bens Rice and Pedigree pet food. Since its acquisition in 2008 of the Wm. Wrigley Jr. Company, the chewing gum manufacturer, Mars reports sales of $35 billion a year and has 80,000 employees worldwide.

Mr. Mars played an early role in the companys global expansion, was group vice president for confectionary operations and became co-president with his brother in 1975 as Mars tapped new markets from Africa to Russia.
As Mr. Wakely described it, his template began with Beat Bugs, which he conceived of as a way to extend the current golden age of television into childrens programming. He created the show and also has directing, writing and producing credits.

I realized that these extraordinary melodies would make sense for children, but also the full level of imagination and visual imagery that the Beatles had in their songs, he said. What is it to go into a strawberry field forever? What would it be like to actually be inside that yellow submarine?

So far, the buzz around Mr. Wakelys shows has centered on the licensing deals he struck to draw on iconic  and closely guarded  song collections in unusually extensive ways. For each show, Mr. Wakely and his team have access to vast catalogs not only for musical performances but also for plot devices and characters, extending the reach of the shows into the songs most fundamental elements.

Mr. Wakely said he chose the music catalogs partly for their storytelling potential, but beyond Beat Bugs he provided scant details. Time Out of Mind, he said, would feature characters from Mr. Dylans songs colliding in 1960s America. The Motown show follows an 8-year-old African-American boy named Ben who discovers magical powers that let him bring graffiti to life.
Those who zombie-walk into Starbucks for a caffeine fix are accustomed to a standard look for the baristas: simple black-and-white clothes under a green apron.

But a new dress code unveiled by the coffee chain on Monday encourages a new sense of individualism, inviting workers to wear fedoras and beanies, to dye their hair and to incorporate accent ties and socks. The range of acceptable colors for shirts expanded to include gray, navy, dark denim and brown.

Were inviting you to bring your personal taste and handcrafted style to work, Starbucks told workers in its new policy. As ambassadors of the Starbucks brand, you should feel proud of your own look as you tie on the green apron.
The chefs Roy Choi and Daniel Patterson, for example, opened LocoL, a fast-food restaurant selling burgers, noodle bowls, sides, sweets, drinks and breakfast items made from fresh ingredients, in Watts, a section of South Los Angeles, last fall. A second location opened in Oakland, Calif., in May, and nothing on either menu costs more than $7.

A Cheeseburg, LocoLs version of a cheeseburger, is made of 70 percent beef and 30 percent grains with a jolt of seaweed to give it umami. The buns were developed by Chad Robertson, the bakery wizard at Tartine, a popular spot in San Francisco, and the $2 sides are items like a vinegary coleslaw or hot flatbread  no mayo in the dressing and no French fries.

In the case of Everytable, which will serve a variety of cuisines, nothing on the menu will cost more than $4.50 at the South L.A. location. More than 40 percent of households in the area, which encompasses some 28 neighborhoods, earn $20,000 a year or less.

David Foster, the other co-founder of Everytable, said the company had made several decisions to make the model work financially. For one, all of the food sold in Everytable stores will be prepared in a central kitchen, eliminating the need for an expensive scratch kitchen on the restaurant premises.

The rent in the downtown location will be more than in South Los Angeles. But because of the central kitchen, the stores can be smaller, 500 to 700 square feet, and need less staff  each Everytable will have just two people working per shift. (The workers will be paid the same wages in both locations.) And ingredients, while fresh and nutritious, will not be exotic  peanuts, not pine nuts, for instance.
You would not have called her camera shy. In more than half-century in the public eye, Betsy Bloomingdale courted photographers, drawing them into her orbit with a come-this-way cocktail of glamour and fizzy good cheer.

When she died last week, Mrs. Bloomingdale was 93. The social doyenne, philanthropist, fashion plate and widow of the department store heir and Diners Club developer Alfred S. Bloomingdale would be remembered as the last of a tribe, adept at elevating the social civilities  entertaining, dressing and the rituals of seeing and being seen  into something of an art.

In everything she did, she had a light touch, said Bob Colacello, her longtime friend and a Vanity Fair contributor. The effervescence that defined her, often masking a formidable perfectionism, helped place her on intimate footing with royalty, corporate titans, show-business luminaries and politicians. Her devoutly chronicled, decades-long friendship with Nancy Reagan won her the sobriquet First Friend.

She had this kind of joie de vivre that made her seem at times very Pollyannaish, Mr. Colacello said. At the same time, she was elegant, he added, like a cross between Babe Paley and Lucille Ball.
Sometimes, it seems, you can judge a book by its cover. And so it should be no surprise that Yuge! 30 Years of Doonesbury on Trump, a recently published book by Garry Trudeau that collects Donald J. Trump-themed newspaper strips (and shows a glaringly stern Mr. Trump, his hair emanating an orange glow, on the cover) from over the years, does not pull any punches.

Mr. Trudeaus introduction sets the tone for his feelings about the G.O.P. presidential candidate, whom he describes as the gold standard for big, honking hubris. Thus this collection comes across as a very opinionated time capsule of Mr. Trumps transformation from New York real estate mogul to presidential candidate, as seen, interpreted and drawn by Mr. Trudeau.

The journey begins Sept. 14, 1987, just after some musings from the real-life Mr. Trump, on the possibility of a presidential bid, and it ends on the campaign trail April 17, 2016, with the cartoon version of the candidate hawking Trump-brand insults.

Mr. Trudeau responded to questions about the book by email this week, including revealing one of his favorite strips, which ran July 26, 1988. It was part of a sequence about the Trump Princess, in which its owner informs the new captain of the 300-foot yachts virtues.
Openings and Events

On Thursday, the East Village lingerie and swimwear mainstay Azaleas NYC will open a West Village branch stocked with independent brands, including a Mikoh neoprene-paneled wet suit ($326) and an Underprotection bralette made from a fabric that comes from banana leaves ($56). At 125 Greenwich Avenue.

The same day, Amanda Hearsts ethical-fashion e-commerce platform, Maison de Mode, will open a weeklong pop-up at the Maiyet store in SoHo. It will feature a do-good edit that includes Halo three-circle earrings in 18-karat recycled gold from the sustainable fine-jewelry label Sandy Leong ($4,020) and a clutch made from vegetable-tanned leather and handwoven Lutindzi grass by Khokho ($545), an accessories line that combines Italian craftsmanship with traditional Swazi weaving techniques. At 16 Crosby Street.

Think cool thoughts Saturday and Sunday at the Artists & Fleas Christmas in July event. It will have an ugly sweater photo booth, a special appearance by Santa and Jacinda Claus, and discounts of up to 25 percent on sweet gifts like a Glitterlimes peppermint bracelet made from real candy encased in resin ($60, originally $65). Shoppers who donate to the Big Brooklyn Holiday Toy Drive will be entered to win prizes including shopping sprees and a grab bag of market finds. At 88 10th Avenue, Chelsea, and 70 North Seventh Street, Brooklyn.

Hitting the Racks

Jenni Kayne has put together a taste of California with a gift box inspired by her prefall collection. It has a selection of seven products, including a Norden Ojai ceramic candle, Los Poblanos lavender sun cream and an Apolis hand-printed bandanna ($316) available at her pop-up out east. At 2 Main Street, Southampton, N.Y.
Even as police departments across the country embraced Taser stun guns over the past 15 years, the New York Police Department kept them out of the hands of almost all officers. Only some sergeants and members of a specially trained unit were issued the handgun-shaped weapons, and regulations required many of them to keep the devices in the trunks of patrol cars.

The restrictions were rooted in the departments troubled history with an earlier generation of stun guns, most notably an episode 30 years ago in which officers in a Queens precinct tortured prisoners with one. More recently, in 2008, an officer with the elite Emergency Services Unit fired a Taser at an emotionally disturbed man on a ledge in Brooklyn. The man fell some 10 feet to his death, and the lieutenant who had given the order to fire the Taser committed suicide eight days later.

Now the Police Department, under different leadership and amid national anger over police killings of unarmed black men, is easing its limits on Tasers, which shoot electrified barbs. Over the last year, the Police Department has trained about 4,000 officers to use the devices, bringing the number of Taser-trained officers to nearly 10,000 on a force of about 36,000. In all, 1,710 Tasers are in circulation, nearly triple the number in 2015. A decade ago, 160 Tasers were in use.

The expansion has occurred as Taser has lobbied in New York to market its products, which include not only stun guns, but also body cameras for police officers. Since 2013, the company has spent more than $300,000 lobbying the Police Department and other city agencies, according to city records.
No one need ask me anymore about how to heal the racial divide in America. No one need inquire about the path forward beyond racial strife. You will not be put at ease by my response.

James Baldwin once said, To be a Negro in this country and to be relatively conscious, is to be in a rage almost all the time. Well, I am now incandescent with rage and at my wits end about how to responsibly aim it and morally marshal it.

I am at the screaming place.

Following three acquittals of officers in the death of Freddie Gray  which was ruled a homicide by the medical examiner!  Baltimore prosecutors on Wednesday dropped all remaining charges against the other officers awaiting trial.

Yet another black mans body broken without anyones being called to account, another soul lingering on the other side of the grave without justice on this side of the living. No officer has been convicted in the deaths of Michael Brown, Eric Garner, John Crawford III, Tanisha Anderson, Tamir Rice, Sandra Bland and dozens more. Indeed, according to Mapping Police Violence, only 10 of the 102 cases in 2015 where an unarmed black person was killed by police resulted in officer(s) being charged with a crime, and only 2 of these deaths (Matthew Ajibade and Eric Harris) resulted in convictions of officers involved.
LONDON  Throughout decades of ferocious rivalry, Iran and Saudi Arabia have, even while backing competing forces across the Middle East, generally maintained one red line: They wouldnt interfere directly in each others domestic security. Policy makers in Riyadh and Tehran have known that backing militant groups among their rivals Shiite minorities in Saudi Arabia or Sunni minorities in Iran could lead to an escalation for which neither country is ready.

But that tacit agreement might be unraveling.

While no hard proof has been presented, in the past month Iran has ratcheted up claims that Saudi Arabia is supporting groups working to overthrow the government in Tehran or to destabilize the country, in particular opening a new front with Kurdish separatists. The Saudis, for their part, say Iran is increasing support for Shiite militants.

Both countries deny the allegations. But given the total breakdown in diplomatic relations since January, and in an increasingly volatile region, it isnt hard to imagine this tension morphing into something much more dangerous: a tit-for-tat exchange of attacks carried out by domestic armed groups. The fact that Irans Sunnis and Saudi Arabias Shiites have suffered periods of widespread arrests and their communities have been largely excluded from political and economic opportunities has created fertile ground for militant groups eager for foreign backing.

Saudi Arabia has long accused Iran of attempting to export its revolutionary ideology. For this reason, the Saudis have tried to dissuade links between its Shiite community and Tehran. The execution in January of Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, a prominent Saudi Shiite cleric who was accused of seeking foreign meddling and inciting violence, was partly motivated by a desire to deter Shiite groups from turning to Iran for support. Weeks later, Saudi Arabia tried 30 Shiites detained in 2013 on charges of espionage for Iran and provoking sectarian divisions.
To the Editor:

Re Beyond Anne Frank: The Dutch Tell Their Full Holocaust Story (Amsterdam Journal, July 18):

The Netherlands is beginning to fully recognize the devastation to its Jewish population at the hands of the Nazis, and the Dutch are to be commended for their efforts. Even 70 years later, we must continue to fill out the Holocaust narrative.

For example, for too long, the story of the Holocaust has been from the perspective of the perpetrators. We owe it to the victims to present their narrative, too. Thats what well be doing at the Amud Aish Memorial Museum: telling the stories of the people who lived  and too often died  during the Holocaust, with special emphasis on the faith-based community whose story has largely been untold.

Jacques Grishaver, a Jewish hidden child born in Amsterdam whom your article featured, reminds us all that we have a responsibility to remember and to never forget.

Holocaust survivors are leaving us. This fact, combined with the rise in anti-Semitism around the world, reminds us that we must work even harder as second, third and fourth generations to ensure that the lessons of the Holocaust continue to guide us.
ATHENS  Military coups have been an integral part of politics through most of the modern history of Greece and Turkey, shaping them domestically and determining relations between them. If war is diplomacy by other means, in these two neighbors and NATO allies, military coups were politics by other means. The recent attempt by military forces to overthrow Turkeys elected government underlines the different course the two countries have taken in the past few decades. What follows may lead them even further apart.

Turkeys president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, appears determined to use the failed coup as an opportunity to wipe out opposition from every quarter, ordering a sweeping purge of the military, the judiciary, the police, academia, the civil service and some journalists.

Before the July 15 mutiny, Mr. Erdogan was already showing increasingly autocratic tendencies: curbing media freedom, cracking down on anti-government demonstrators, flirting with Islamist extremists, cultivating tension with his countrys Kurdish minority, deposing his own prime minister for not being enthusiastic enough in his support, allowing readings of the Quran in the Hagia Sophia museum  formerly the greatest cathedral of eastern Christendom.

Now he has gone further, pushing for the reinstatement of the death penalty (a step that would certainly put an end to Turkeys hopes of joining the European Union, which is fundamentally opposed to capital punishment), and blaming the United States for allegedly supporting the mutiny, while demanding the extradition of a religious leader and former Erdogan ally, Fethullah Gulen, who is in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania.
To the Editor:

Re Democrats Make Clinton Historic Nominee (front page, July 27):

On Tuesday evening, Hillary Clinton was nominated as the first female major-party standard-bearer for president of these United States. As a woman, I am so very proud to witness this most important event.

Given the alternative choice and Mrs. Clintons impressive resume, I believe that she will become our first female president.

The women in our country were given the right to vote less than a hundred years ago. And now this powerful nomination opens the sky for all of us women.

Her husband, the impressive former president, Bill Clinton, articulately presented his wife as a strong, purposeful and humane woman. So maybe he will become the first gentleman. Lets go for that.
Jupiters Great Red Spot is not only big and red. Its also hot.

Using a telescope on Earth, astronomers peered at infrared emissions from Jupiter and found that the temperature of the upper atmosphere, 350 to 600 miles above the giant swirling storm, averages 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit.

That finding, reported on Wednesday in a paper published in the journal Nature, is the latest piece of a puzzle that has been confusing planetary scientists since 1973 when NASAs Pioneer 10 spacecraft flew by and took the first temperature measurements of the solar systems biggest planet.

By their calculations, scientists expected that the warmth of sunlight impinging on Jupiter should heat the upper atmosphere to a cool -100 degrees. Instead, the temperature was about 1,000 degrees.
The new study revealed that coyotes and North American wolves shared a remarkably recent common ancestor. Scientists had previously estimated their ancestor lived a million years ago, but the new study put the figure at just 50,000 years ago.

I could not have put money on it being so recent, Dr. vonHoldt said.

That ancestor gave rise to two species  the predecessor of todays gray wolves and that of todays coyotes  somewhere in Eurasia. Dr. vonHoldt said that the two species then migrated into North America.

There, coyotes evolved into small predators that specialize in taking down smaller prey. Wolves took a different path, relying on their larger size and great speed to prey on moose and other big mammals.

As wolves were killed off in the East, coyotes spread from the Midwestern prairies over the past two centuries to take their place. Surviving wolves interbred with the coyotes, producing hybrid offspring.

Dr. vonHoldt and her colleagues found that the genomes of Eastern wolves that lived in Algonquin Provincial Park in Ontario were half gray wolf and half coyote. Red wolves are even more mixed: Their genomes are 75 percent coyote and only 25 percent wolf.

Some wolf experts were startled by the finding and said it would require further support.

Linda Y. Rutledge, an expert on Eastern wolves, questioned whether the new study was sufficient to reject them as a separate species. Two Algonquin wolves that were part of the new study, she said, lived during a period when hybridization between coyotes and wolves was unusually common.

Theyre potentially not representative at all, she said.

Despite her concerns, Dr. Rutledge joined Dr. vonHoldts lab as a research associate last year to participate in a new study on wolves, called the Canine Ancestry Project. The researchers are pooling their samples of DNA to study up to 100 wolves, coyotes and dogs from every state in the continental United States, as well as in Canadian provinces.
SAN FRANCISCO  The Tor Project, a nonprofit digital privacy group, announced on Wednesday that an internal investigation had confirmed allegations of sexual misconduct against a former employee who was the public face of the organization.

The group, which has risen to prominence at a time of controversy over government surveillance, had been grappling for months with allegations against Jacob Appelbaum, a top figure in the internet privacy debate. Mr. Appelbaum resigned from the Tor Project in May.

The allegations have divided the internet privacy community and have raised questions about management of the project, which promotes the use of software that helps internet users mask their online identities and whereabouts.

One result was the replacement of the groups entire board this month.

On Wednesday, the Tor Project said that a seven-week investigation into the allegations involving Mr. Appelbaum determined they were accurate. Mr. Appelbaum, who is also the only American member of the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks, has denied the allegations and has said they are entirely false.
Who, or what, is really in charge of our destiny? We like to believe that our will, our imagination, our reason are meticulously clicking away, taking hold of the future and shaping it to our desires. But what about that little companion in our pocket we consult so regularly, with its innumerable little helpers that we refer to dozens if not hundreds of times a day, attending to their chirps and beeps and rings as if to a relentless taskmaster?

Golem, a visually dazzling, mind-pinching production from the British company 1927, slyly poses these questions, through a fable that feels both contemporary and ageless, combining live performance and music with sophisticated stop-motion and traditional animation. The production, being presented through Sunday at the Gerald W. Lynch Theater as part of the Lincoln Center Festival, was written and directed by Suzanne Andrade, but equal credit for its seamless ingenuity must go to Paul Barritt, the creator of its kaleidoscopic film, design and animation.

The production is loosely inspired by the Austrian writer Gustav Meyrinks novel The Golem, a dark fantasy largely set in the Prague ghetto which was published serially in 1913 and 1914. A golem is a figure of Jewish legend, a creature made of clay and mystically imbued with life.

[ 1927s dependence on useful but risky technology fits perfectly with the subject matter of Golem ]
VENICE  What do Supreme Court justices do on their summer vacations? For Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg  longtime liberal standard-bearer, recent Donald J. Trump critic  this years answer is: Go to Venice, watch your grandson perform in a production of The Merchant of Venice and preside over a mock appeal of the citys most notorious resident, Shylock.

And so, on Wednesday afternoon, in the monumental 16th-century Scuola Grande di San Rocco, beneath ceiling paintings by Tintoretto, Justice Ginsburg and four other judges, including the United States ambassador to Italy, John R. Phillips, heard arguments on behalf of Shylock and two other characters, before reaching a unanimous ruling.

Id describe it as fun, Justice Ginsburg said of the coming mock appeal in an interview on Tuesday, in which she talked about Venice, which she first visited on her honeymoon in 1954, and Shakespeare, whose work she loves  but not about Mr. Trump, weeks after she said she regretted her remarks criticizing the man who is now the Republican presidential nominee.

The mock appeal began where the play ended: Shylock, the conniving Venetian Jewish moneylender, insists on collecting a pound of flesh from Antonio, who has defaulted on a loan. But a lawyer, actually Portia disguised as a man, finds Shylock guilty of conspiring against Antonio and rules that he must hand over half his property to Antonio and the other half to the state.
Nate I dont really see how they can take it for granted. The state voted a hair more for Barack Obama than the nation as a whole in 2012, but its above average in terms of how much Obama depended on the support of white voters without a degree, who today are the voters abandoning Mrs. Clinton in big numbers. It has far more of those voters than Florida, Virginia, Colorado, Nevada or North Carolina. So if Mr. Trump is going to win this race with a big, narrow push among white working-class voters, then that effect would seem to have a very real chance of manifesting itself in Pennsylvania.

Now, for that same reason, I think its easy to imagine how Clinton could survive a loss in Pennsylvania, with gains in those other states I just mentioned.

But its really only one of the few ways she can lose this race. So why shouldnt they defend it?

I thought it was strange that it wasnt in their original ad campaign.

Toni Right. When you do this mapping exercise, you realize how important Pennsylvania is. (The G.O.P. last won Pennsylvania in 1988.) In a close election, it seems crucial to Trump. Without it, he has to win all of those five swing states we talked about earlier: Ohio, North Carolina, New Hampshire, Iowa, Nevada. Lets assume those will be 50-50 states. If you flip a coin five times and hope to get five straight heads, your odds are just over 3 percent. But thats what Trump would need in this case. [Update: If you add Florida as a coin-flip state, which seems right, that makes it around 1.6 percent.]

Nate And its not just a coin flip. Those five states are really different.

Toni For one thing, Nevada, with a fairly large Hispanic population, is thought to lean to the left. But Im curious about your take on New Hampshire. As you showed in your article Monday, it has plenty of working-class whites. But then consider that its right in the middle of a liberal region. Sure, New Hampshire has a long history of conservatism. But over time, people migrate from neighboring liberal states, like New York and Vermont. And that slowly takes New Hampshire toward the left.

Nate Well, New Hampshire has tended to move slightly to the left. But I think it may be a mistake to assume that Clinton can hold recent levels of Democratic support among white working-class people in the Northeast, even in New England.
Mr. Bentley did not release details of his proposal, which he asserted would raise $225 million annually. He said his plan would direct lottery revenue toward basic services that our state must provide. Mr. Bentley, who has long supported a statewide vote but has also expressed doubts about how far a lottery can go in curing the states financial troubles, was not available for an interview.

It is not clear whether the governor, who has been hobbled in recent months by the threat of impeachment and a furor over the nature of his relationship with a top aide, will be able to muscle his plan through the Republican-controlled Legislature. Indeed, it was not even clear on Wednesday when, exactly, lawmakers would be asked to return to Montgomery, the state capital.

But to critics of gambling, the potential implications of Mr. Bentleys decision were alarming.

Theres the morality aspect of it, but one of my biggest arguments is that its a failed government policy, said Joe Godfrey, the executive director of the Alabama Citizens Action Program, a church-supported group that opposes gambling. It doesnt work.

Mr. Godfrey emailed his supporters soon after Mr. Bentleys announcement, beseeching them to tell legislators to resist the governor, who was a longtime deacon at a Baptist church in Tuscaloosa. But Mr. Godfrey was plainly worried on Wednesday that, with some senior Republicans open to a lottery after years of crunched budgets, the objections of religious groups might hold limited sway.
Since 2014, Judge Friedman has allowed Mr. Hinckley to have 17-day stays in Williamsburg, where he has voluntary jobs doing landscaping at a Unitarian church and working in the library and cafeteria of a psychiatric hospital. He has also taken up bowling, attends lectures and outdoor concerts, and exercises regularly at a community center.

Mr. Hinckley will have restrictions. He will have to work or volunteer at least three days a week, and if he fails to show up, his absence must be reported to the authorities. He must live with his mother for at least the first year and carry a cellphone that tracks his movements.

The judge forbade Mr. Hinckley from speaking to or contacting the news media, and he can drive unaccompanied only within a 30-mile radius of Williamsburg, although he can also drive by himself to monthly hospital appointments in the Washington area.

Mr. Hinckley was once psychotic and depressed. After seeing the 1976 film Taxi Driver, in which a disturbed man plots to assassinate a presidential candidate, he became fixated on Jodie Foster, who played a child prostitute in the film.

Mr. Hinckley began to identify with the main character in the film, Travis Bickle, played by Robert De Niro.

After Ms. Foster entered Yale University, Mr. Hinckley moved to New Haven to be close to her and left notes, letters and poems at her dormitory. Failing to win her affections, Mr. Hinckley stalked President Jimmy Carter and was eventually arrested on firearms charges. After the 1980 election, Mr. Hinckley stalked the newly elected President Reagan in an attempt to impress Ms. Foster.

Image The moment after John W. Hinckley Jr. opened fire on President Ronald Reagan outside the Washington Hilton hotel in 1981. Credit... Michael Evans/The White House, via Reuters

On March 30, 1981, after more unsuccessful trips to New Haven, Mr. Hinckley wrote a letter to Ms. Foster describing his plan to kill Reagan. He waited outside the Washington Hilton Hotel for Reagan to arrive and waved at the president as he went inside to deliver a speech.
A Georgia man who invested his $3 million lottery winnings into a thriving crystal meth business is facing an unexpected return: decades behind bars.

The man, Ronnie Music Jr., 45, scooped up the multimillion dollar top prize in the states instant 100X the Money game in February 2015. He bought the scratch-off ticket from a delicatessen in his hometown, Waycross, in southeast Georgia.

I buy tickets every once in a while, Mr. Music said in a Georgia Lottery statement at the time. I couldnt believe it, and I still dont believe it yet.

But in the months that followed, reality set in. Mr. Music, a maintenance supervisor at the time, told the state lottery authorities he and his wife planned to save a portion of the money.
This more compassionate response has been on display this week at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia. Speakers there have talked about addiction and the need for more accessible treatment, and a call by Senator Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire for all emergency responders to carry naloxone drew applause from the delegates.

Nonprofit organizations began distributing naloxone to drug users in the mid-1990s, but most of the state laws making it more accessible have been enacted only in the last few years. Between this and so-called good Samaritan laws that provide immunity to people who call 911 to report an overdose, the chances are much greater now that someone who overdoses will be saved and given medical attention instead of left for dead or sent to jail.

The federal government still requires a prescription for naloxone, but that is under review by the Food and Drug Administration, which has also approved a Narcan nasal spray that is easier to administer and is growing increasingly popular.

There is no question that the nations death toll from heroin and prescription opioids would be significantly higher without naloxone. Prince, the pop superstar, is just one of those who were saved by it. After he overdosed on Percocet, an opiate painkiller, on his airplane in April, the plane made an emergency landing, and he was revived on the tarmac with naloxone  only to overdose on fentanyl six days later and die when no one was around to administer naloxone.

In 2014, in Maine alone, 208 people died from overdoses. That year, emergency responders saved 829 lives with naloxone. But that was just a fraction of those saved here, as most uses go unreported. In 83 percent of cases, according to a national survey last year by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, naloxone is given by other drug users, the people most likely to be on the scene, not by emergency responders.
WASHINGTON  President Obama and the foundation helping to plot his path after the White House have selected Jackson Park on the South Side of Chicago as the site of his presidential library, ending a debate within his inner circle about the location, a person familiar with the decision said Wednesday.

Mr. Obama and his presidential foundation have been deliberating for months over whether to place the library in Jackson Park, which is on a broad expanse of Lake Michigan and borders the Woodlawn neighborhood, or in the Washington Park neighborhood, which is closer to the Obamas home in Chicago.

Even when the Barack Obama Foundation announced it had selected architects for the project this month  choosing the New York husband-and-wife team of Tod Williams and Billie Tsien  it had still not made its final choice of sites.

The foundation would not comment on the decision on Wednesday, but a person knowledgeable about it confirmed it, speaking on condition of anonymity without authorization to pre-empt the official announcement that is expected within days. It was first reported by The Chicago Tribune.
President Obama defended his legacy and laid out the ways Hillary Clinton would continue it at the Democratic National Convention on Wednesday. Other speakers included Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., Michael R. Bloomberg and Senator Tim Kaine, Mrs. Clintons running mate.

The highlights (or watch live and get our real-time analysis):

 Mr. Obama, in the nights most anticipated speech, offered a defiantly optimistic assessment of Americas future and of the woman who he hopes will lead it. Even as he acknowledged were not done perfecting our union, he said that in his experience, Donald J. Trumps vision of the country as chaotic and in decline rang hollow and would not be rewarded.

The America I know is full of courage, and optimism, and ingenuity, Mr. Obama said, amid searing attacks on Mr. Trump, the Republican nominee. This year, in this election, Im asking you to join me  to reject cynicism, reject fear, to summon whats best in us.
PHILADELPHIA  Twelve years ago Wednesday in Boston, it was Senator John Kerrys presidential convention. But it was Barack Obamas night.

Mr. Obama, then a little-known state senator in Illinois, delivered a 16-minute keynote speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention that set his political career in motion. And this week in Philadelphia, a new generation of Democrats is jockeying for attention. Few will have their careers launched with the rocket-fuel intensity that Mr. Obamas speech provided, but that will not stop them from trying.

On the main stage at the Wells Fargo Center and along the sidelines of the convention, more than a dozen Democratic senators, mayors, governors, cabinet members and state lawmakers are carefully peeking past this years presidential election to 2020 or 2024 as they work ballrooms full of delegates, donors and activists who would be critical to the pursuit of a national campaign.

By tradition, and in deference to the current generation, personal ambitions are largely unspoken here as the Democratic faithful gather to anoint Hillary Clinton and to prepare for battle against Donald J. Trump. Asked about their national prospects in the next decade, most quickly demurred.
PHILADELPHIA  Follow along with our coverage of the Democratic National Convention.

This is not about me, President Obama kept telling his closest advisers in recent weeks as he labored over one of the last major addresses of his presidency.

But he could not avoid the subject. And as he took the stage here Wednesday night to rally Democrats around Hillary Clinton, Mr. Obamas diagnosis of the nations current political failings inevitably called to mind the promise of reconciliation and unity that propelled his improbable rise, but that seems even more out of reach today.

We get frustrated with political gridlock and worry about racial divisions; we are shocked and saddened by the madness of Orlando or Nice, Mr. Obama said. But he added, What I have also seen, more than anything, is what is right with America.
He carries multiple harmonicas in his briefcase. He has played with members of the Dave Matthews Band and the Grateful Dead. And he has been known to show up unannounced at bluegrass jamborees around his home state, Virginia, simply looking to jam.

Meet Tim Kaine, vice-presidential candidate, senator, former governor  and mouth organist.

His time in Virginia has left him steeped in the history of bluegrass and old-time music. Hopping up and down the 330-mile Crooked Road that winds through the heart of bluegrass country in Virginia, he has memorized dozens of standards like Will the Circle Be Unbroken and Man of Constant Sorrow, along with newer songs like Wagon Wheel.

Hes comfortable on stage, said Woody Crenshaw, the former owner of the Floyd Country Store, about an hours drive southwest of Roanoke, Va., where Mr. Kaine has performed numerous times. He has a feel for the old-time music of these mountains.

Mr. Kaine has made music an important part of his political life. He has often sat in at bluegrass open jam sessions while campaigning and in office. During his Senate campaign in 2012, he held a promotional contest, Harmonica With Tim, in which one lucky person would win not just a dinner with Mr. Kaine, but also a one-on-one harmonica lesson. He had a bluegrass band, No Speed Limit, play his inauguration in 2006 (and he hopped onto the stage for a few songs, naturally).
Mr. Trump is no stranger to untruthful journalism and venomous attacks from the liberal media; however, our little girls were not, Mr. Popick wrote in the email, which was provided to The New York Times.

Mr. Popick started the group two and a half years ago. He said his daughter and the other girls were natural performers who could not get enough of being on stage. Theyve had gigs at local sporting events and performed outside the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland last week during the Republican National Convention.

Mr. Popick said he had even reached out to Hillary Clinton about a performance before she declared her intent to run for president.

We were saying to her, shes an accomplished woman and Im sure the girls would love to perform with her, he said. He did not hear back.

After Mr. Trump announced his candidacy last summer, Mr. Popick contacted various members of the campaign staff. He said he asked for $2,500 for the Jan. 13 appearance in Pensacola, but a staff member instead offered a table to sell the groups merchandise outside the event. But when they arrived, there was no table, Mr. Popick said, calling it a breach of contract.

Even so, the campaign asked the group to perform again, he said.

About two weeks later, a campaign staff member called him and asked if the group could perform at an event in Des Moines the next day. Mr. Popick said he agreed it would be huge exposure, so he quickly bought nonstop flight tickets to Chicago for himself; his wife, Debbie; his daughter and two other girls.

But when they landed, planning to make the roughly five-hour drive to Des Moines, Mr. Popick was told that there would be no performance at the event. The group went instead as guests of the campaign, the girls wearing their costumes. Mr. Popick said he was not reimbursed for their travel costs.
HARARE, Zimbabwe  The countrys A.T.M.s have run out of cash. Even the police and the army  linchpins of the governments control  are not getting paid on time.

But as economic protests have multiplied and shut down the capital recently, Vice President Phelekezela Mphoko has enjoyed a special privilege, courtesy of the state: nearly 600 nights in the presidential suite of Zimbabwes most luxurious hotel while his official mansion is being prepared.

The vice presidents extended stay in the Rainbow Towers presidential suite  he checked into the hotel in December 2014, at a taxpayer cost of $1,000 a night, including meals  has drawn regular demonstrations outside the five-star landmark, where visiting dignitaries stay.

But Mr. Mphoko and his wife, Laurinda, would not move out, local news reports said, because they kept rejecting official residences as inadequate, too small or too close to the homes of other government ministers.
HONG KONG  A Chinese court has sentenced an American citizen to more than five years in prison for selling magazines about Chinese politics, in a case that bears striking similarities to Beijings recent, widely denounced detentions of five Hong Kong-based booksellers.

Like the booksellers, the American, James J. Wang, who was sentenced on Tuesday in the southern city of Shenzhen, published gossipy material about political intrigue in mainland China. Mr. Wang, a naturalized American whose Chinese name is Wang Jianmin, was also based in Hong Kong, and was accused of running an illegal business.

He and a colleague, Guo Zhongxiao, who was also sentenced to prison on Tuesday, published and edited two magazines in Hong Kong  Multiple Face and New-Way Monthly  that featured loosely sourced articles about Chinese political leaders, including President Xi Jinping. Mr. Wang and Mr. Guo have been detained since their arrests in May 2014 in Shenzhen, which borders Hong Kong, and both pleaded guilty to the charges in November.

In Hong Kong, a semiautonomous Chinese city that has its own legal system and civil liberties unknown on the mainland under an arrangement called one country, two systems, there is nothing illegal about publishing such material. But the Chinese authorities case appeared to center on the fact that some of the magazines were sold in mainland China, and that Mr. Wang had been in China at the time of his arrest, giving them jurisdiction.
NEW DELHI  One of Indias most prominent human rights activists made a surprising announcement this week, saying she would end a 15-year hunger strike against a law shielding the armed forces from prosecution.

I will end my fast on Aug. 9 and contest elections, the activist, Irom Chanu Sharmila, said on Tuesday outside the courthouse in Imphal, the capital of the northeastern state of Manipur.

The brevity of the announcement belied its import, nowhere more keenly felt than in fractious Manipur, on the border of Myanmar, where multiple insurgencies fighting for independence have been met by heavy military crackdowns.

Ms. Sharmila, 44, has been the face of the fight against the Armed Forces Special Powers Act of 1958, a law that shields the armed forces from prosecution in the state and other conflict-ridden parts of India. Her fasting lent credence to critics of the law, who say it allows widespread human rights abuses and extrajudicial killings.
Theres nothing in the law that specifies what the city is supposed to do after release, said Eiji Yagi, director of the welfare department in Sagamihara. The city officials said they did not know whether he had abided by the conditions of his release.

Theres supposed to be a support plan involving welfare institutions and the community, said Shota Okumiya, a lawyer who has defended criminal suspects with mental illness. But often, he said, theres no budget for it.

In April, Yamayuri-en installed 16 surveillance cameras after the police suggested the facility strengthen its security. On the night of the attack, in which an additional 26 residents were injured, most of them seriously, eight staff members and a security guard were on duty.

The police say Mr. Uematsu was able to restrain several of his sleeping victims with plastic cable ties before he began methodically slitting their throats.

Hours before the attack, a police car drove up to Mr. Uematsus home, a neighbor, Akihiro Hasegawa, 73, said, adding that no one was home at the time. The Japanese media reported on Wednesday that Mr. Uematsus car had been found parked illegally, but it is unlikely the police would have gone to his house to deliver a parking summons. City and prefecture police declined to comment on the police visit.

The authorities said Mr. Uematsu had tested positive for marijuana during his hospitalization. The relationship between cannabis use and psychosis has long been debated, but many experts believe the drug can exacerbate the symptoms of people predisposed to schizophrenia and other mental illnesses.
PARIS  The question troubling France on Wednesday in the wake of the attack by a teenager who aspired to go to Syria, but settled instead for cutting the throat of a priest, is whether the crime was a result of failures by the French government, and what more could have been done to prevent it.

Shock from the attack did not stifle new political accusations, with questions immediately raised about how a perpetrator well known to the authorities was nonetheless left free to kill.

For politicians and much of the public, it was hard to ignore that the crime was committed during a state of emergency that already gives the government added powers to constrain potential terrorists, and that one of the perpetrators was essentially on probation and wearing an electronic bracelet at the time of the attack.

Similar questions and concerns were raised in June, when a man who had served time in prison for having links to terrorist networks and was known to the security services stabbed to death a police officer and his companion in Magnanville, near Paris.
Advocates of restitution objected to three provisions of the law that was upheld on Wednesday.

First, the law does not allow claims by property owners and their relatives who missed the 1988 deadline, even if they had fled abroad to escape anti-Semitic violence or Communist persecution. Second, in pre-1988 cases that have languished, the law gives former property owners or their families only six months  from the date the law takes effect  to assert their claims and another three months to prove their claims, a threshold that could be impossible for many claimants to meet. Finally, the law removes the right of ex-owners to seek the return of large categories of properties, including those used by the government.

The mayor of Warsaw, Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz, who helped craft the legislation, defended it as a transitional solution to a national problem. The biggest sin of the Polish state is that it hasnt passed a law that would resolve the issue of restitution once and for all, she recently told the broadcaster TVN24.

Under Polish law, former owners can bring private restitution claims in Polish courts; some Jewish claimants have been awarded compensation. But the process is difficult, time-consuming and expensive, and few claims have been successful.

The city of Warsaw has long had the practice of appointing a trustee to represent the anonymous heirs of unclaimed property  even if the rightful heirs are all deceased. The practice was costly, and in some cases, property developers abused the legal uncertainty to acquire buildings.

The tribunal ruled that if someone didnt file a restitution claim for 70 years, then it is fair to assume that they have agreed that the ownership of a given property should be passed onto the city of Warsaw, Bartosz Milczarczyk, a spokesman for the mayors office, said in a phone interview on Wednesday. He added: There are numerous buildings in Warsaw that have not been claimed by anyone and they deteriorated. We needed a legal way to prevent that.
KRAKOW, Poland  As he began his first official visit to Poland, Pope Francis on Wednesday said the world is at war, and he challenged the conservative governments of Central and Eastern Europe to soften their resistance to migrants seeking refuge.

The popes visit to the southern Polish city of Krakow to celebrate World Youth Day, a major event on the Roman Catholic calendar, began just a day after the horrific killing of a priest in France.

The priest, the Rev. Jacques Hamel, 85, was celebrating Mass in a small town in Normandy when two men with knives entered the church and slit his throat. The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack.

Francis, 79, was clearly shaken by the attack, and he appeared solemn and pensive as he headed to Poland, the first stop on a trip to Central and Eastern Europe.
ISTANBUL  The Turkish government ordered the closing of more than 100 media outlets on Wednesday, including newspapers, publishing companies and television channels, as part of a sweeping crackdown following a failed military coup this month.

The Turkish authorities ordered the shutdown of 45 newspapers, three news agencies, 16 television channels, 15 magazines and 29 publishers in a decree that was published in the governments official gazette on Wednesday.

Among those ordered to close are the newspaper Zaman and the Cihan News Agency, which had previously been seized by the government over suspicions that it has links to the network of Fethullah Gulen, a Muslim cleric who lives in self-imposed exile in the United States and has been accused of orchestrating the July 15 coup attempt.

Mr. Gulens network has been designated a terrorist organization by Turkey, and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has vowed to purge followers of the movement from state institutions, including the police and the judiciary.
AVDIIVKA, Ukraine  As the afternoon shadows grow long, nocturnal creatures begin to stir. A stray cat rises from a nap, stretches and trots off to hunt. Overhead, swallows swoop and screech in the deepening twilight.

Soon, the human inhabitants of this town in eastern Ukraine set about their evening rituals.

Green-clad soldiers strap on their helmets and load their guns, while white-clad European cease-fire observers pocket their notebooks, climb into their cars and drive away. And then the fighting starts.

This improbable routine between soldiers and monitors with the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe plays out nightly, illustrating the glum quagmire of the Ukraine war, now entering its third year.

I never see them here at night, said Tatyana Petrova, whose apartment looks over a parking lot that is a frequent listening post for the monitors. In the evening, I look out and they are gone, and then the concert starts.
BEIRUT, Lebanon  Dozens of people in a Kurdish-controlled town in northeastern Syria died after an explosion on Wednesday, while a humanitarian crisis in the rebel-held sections of Aleppo, a city in the countrys northwest, intensified.

A truck loaded with explosives blew up on the western edge of the Kurdish-controlled town, Qamishli, on Wednesday morning. There were reports of a second blast a short while later, though the cause was not clear. At least 37 people were killed, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a monitoring group based in Britain.

It was so disturbing, Dawood Dawood, a resident of Qamishli and an official with the Assyrian Democratic Organization, said via Viber, a messaging app. I saw burned cars, at least 10 damaged buildings.

Mr. Dawood said he had rushed to the scene after the truck attack, which occurred on a highway near a Kurdish police station. Mr. Dawood said he thought the second explosion may have been set off by the first.
WASHINGTON  The United States is poring over a vast trove of new intelligence about Islamic State fighters who have flowed into Syria and Iraq and some who then returned to their home countries, information that American officials say could help fight militants on the battlefield and prevent potential plotters from slipping into Europe.

American-backed Syrian Kurdish and Arab militias have seized more than 10,000 documents and 4.5 terabytes of digital data in recent weeks while fighting insurgents in Manbij in northern Syria, near the Turkish border, a major hub for Islamic State fighters entering and leaving Syria, American officials said.

An initial American review of the material offers new clues about foreign fighters, the networks, where theyre from, according to Brett McGurk, President Obamas special envoy for combating the Islamic State. Other officials said the information included the fighters identities, countries of origin, routes into Syria and the illicit networks that recruited and ferried them to the region. Those details are being shared with allies to help stanch the flow of militants.

We want to make sure that all that information is disseminated in a coherent way among our coalition partners, Mr. McGurk said last week, during a meeting of foreign and defense ministers in Washington, so that we can track the networks from the core and all the way to wherever the dots might connect, whether that is in Europe or in North Africa or Southeast Asia.
Almost a decade has passed since the last time Mr. Greengrass and Mr. Damon stepped out in this franchise together, and their return is both welcome and weary. In 2004, when Mr. Greengrass took over the series with The Bourne Supremacy (Doug Liman had directed The Bourne Identity two years before), his approach to action filmmaking felt distinctive and new. Now, his vigorous, rigorous style of shooting and editing  maximum speed and maximum chaos rendered with elegant, sometimes breathtaking coherence  has kind of an old-school, greatest-hits vibe.

Image Tommy Lee Jones, who plays the director of the C.I.A. Credit... Jasin Boland/Universal Pictures

The thrill isnt entirely gone. Its just a little more subdued. Mr. Damon, for his part, is as subdued as ever. Jason Bourne is a uniquely passive action hero, a man who runs on pure survival instinct as he tries to figure out who is after him and why. After so many years and so much running, his existential predicament has become a matter of routine. He knows that he knows some bad stuff  and his pursuers know it, too  but hes not entirely sure what he knows or how he knows it. For him, the resulting confusion is harrowing. For us, its part of the fun, like the insidery frisson of hearing nuggets of spy jargon hissed by unsmiling people in dark suits. Alpha team, I need a sitrep, stat!

The sitrep here is that Bourne, who has been pursuing his Plan B career as a bare-knuckle boxer in the wilds of Greece, is approached by his former colleague and fellow Company renegade, Nicky Parsons (Julia Stiles). She has some information, harvested from a hacker camp in Iceland, concerning past Agency skulduggery involving Bournes father (Gregg Henry, in flashbacks). Nicky and Jason rendezvous in Athens in the middle of a riot, and the globe-trotting chase commences, with Robert Dewey, the director of the C.I.A. (Tommy Lee Jones), and Heather Lee (Alicia Vikander), one of his ambitious underlings, running the show amid the satellite feeds and data displays of suburban Virginia. Their main operational weapon on the ground overseas is a killer known only as the Asset (Vincent Cassel), who harbors a personal grudge against Bourne.

Image Alicia Vikander as a C.I.A. worker in Jason Bourne. Credit... Jasin Boland/Universal Pictures

This is perhaps the most striking feature of Jason Bourne: Virtually all the major characters  good, bad and in-between  work for the same organization, at least on a consulting basis. There are dark whispers about external threats, and invocations of the tension between security and privacy in the digital age, but geopolitics and technology are scaffolding for what is essentially a movie about human resources challenges in a large bureaucracy.
Dame Stella Rimington was the first female director general of MI5, the British security service. She was also the first head of MI5 to be named publicly. (And she is said to be the model for the female M in the James Bond movies, played by Judi Dench.) She subsequently led an effort to increase public openness about the service, which makes it particularly apt that a subplot of Breaking Cover, her ninth novel, involves the new chief of MI6 (the British foreign intelligence service) deciding to hire a public spokesman to commence a new era of transparency. Only greater openness, he believes, can tamp down the spreading protests and alleviate general concern over unwarranted snooping on British citizens.

The spokesman the service wants to hire is an unlikely choice: a civil liberties activist named Jasminder Kapoor. Shes made a name for herself by speaking out against the surveillance state whose extent was revealed by Edward Snowden. Jasminder turns out to be quite moderate, however. She believes that the state security services are working to protect us, though they require vigilant oversight.

Meanwhile, the MI5 case officer Liz Carlyle (the series hero of Rimingtons novels) has been put in charge of counterespionage operations. Carlyle is so alluring that every guy she meets, including the C.I.A. head of station in London, is drawn to her. Her team has detected an increase in communications traffic out of Russia in a pattern reminiscent of the traffic that preceded the polonium poisoning of a former Russian intelligence officer, Alexander Litvinenko, in London in 2006 (Rimingtons novel has it as 2011), very likely the work of the Russian security service, the F.S.B. And the C.I.A. has a source in Russian intelligence who indicates that sleeper agents (illegals) have been activated in England.

Now Liz and her colleagues must try to prevent the assassination of an anti-Putin oligarch in England  and foil an F.S.B. plot to penetrate British intelligence and launch a new cold war. All of this happens against the background of public protests over excessive government snooping. Like Kapoor, Carlyle believes in the importance of secrecy about intelligence operations, of course, but thinks there was also unnecessary secrecy, which could be positively harmful to effectiveness in the modern world.

Rimington tells her story with the crisp authority one would expect of James Bonds M. Although most spy fiction devotees will have figured out who the sleeper agent is long before Liz does, the story careens along energetically, giving us lots of juicy insider-seeming details along the way. (The old boys in MI6 are particularly worked up about moving to open-plan offices, which means giving up their antique furniture and good Persian carpets.) And there are larger concerns  about the abuses of secrecy and the limits of transparency  that are clearly dear to Rimingtons heart as a career intelligence officer.
The orange-and-white paperbacks that Penguin introduced in the 1930s have probably inspired a loyal following for their graphic design enjoyed by no other publisher. Theres even an annual gathering for fans  the Penguin Collectors Societys 43rd is slated for September in Sheffield, Britain. Several glossy books have recounted the publishers visual history; the latest is Classic Penguin: Cover to Cover.

Edited by Paul Buckley, the creative director for Penguin Classics, the book showcases more recent work done to draw new readers to Dostoyevsky, Joyce, Borges, Steinbeck and dozens of others. As the author and visual artist Audrey Niffenegger puts it in a foreword, artists can avoid less obvious ideas when refashioning a classic because the books reputation is a design element. Niffenegger took advantage of that liberty in her own work on the novels of Jane Austen. Erica Jong writes about a recent approach to her novel Fear of Flying that she calls sexy without being vulgar. Jong notes that the books covers have become more discreet since it was first published in 1973, although there are occasional mass-market reprints in which we see navels and bananas.

Speaking of the art of suggestion, the illustrator Malika Favre recounts Buckleys feedback on her initial design for the Kama Sutra: It was too prudish and, apparently, so was I. She reached a point where it became a matter of French pride, and eventually developed a striking solution: two human figures spelling out the books title in various enthusiastic and outlandishly flexible positions.

Quotable

Thats why I didnt write it for so long. I was afraid of her feelings and how shed react. But Im 48, and I didnt want to wait until shed left this earth to feel free.  Ariel Leve, author of the memoir An Abbreviated Life, talking about her mother in an interview with the Guardian
THE DEVILS OF CARDONA

By Matthew Carr

401 pp. Riverhead Books. $27.

Matthew Carr is the respected author of several nonfiction books, among them Blood and Faith: The Purging of Muslim Spain. He has written extensively about terrorism and what he has identified as his lifes work: Ive always been concerned with issues of war and peace and the role of violence in human affairs. In The Devils of Cardona, his debut novel, hes found a story worthy of his personal concerns and characters who embody his preoccupations.

In 1584, a priest in Aragon, Spain, is murdered, his church desecrated, the walls defaced with Arabic words traced in his own blood. Soon after, the province Inquisitor receives a letter threatening to drive all Christians from the region by the same pitiless methods the church uses to force Muslims to convert or die. The author calls himself the Redeemer.

At a time when the Inquisition sees heresy everywhere and . . . hates the Moriscos, the murder and the letter alike threaten stability and require action by the Spanish crown. Licenciado Bernardo Mendoza, a veteran of the wars that expelled the Moors from Granada, now a criminal judge in Valladolid, is assigned to solve the priests murder and bring the killers to justice, including the Redeemer, suspected of being the instigator.

To assist on his mission to the demesne of Cardona in the Pyrenees (close to the French border), Mendoza chooses his recklessly adventurous cousin Luis de Ventura and the loyal Johannes Necker, a stern German constable. Two young soldiers provide escort, and 17-year-old Gabriel, Mendozas ward, is brought along to be his scrivener and to prepare reports for King Philip about the proceedings.
GOOD AS GONE

By Amy Gentry

273 pp. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. $23.

ALL THE MISSING GIRLS

By Megan Miranda

371 pp. Simon & Schuster. $25.

It is a truth universally acknowledged that any thriller hoping to grasp the publishing zeitgeist must have in its title the word gone, the word girl or ideally both, so its hardly surprising that two of the most anticipated summer thrillers are called Good as Gone and All the Missing Girls. Both are first novels in this genre (although Megan Miranda has previously written for the young adult market), and both, on balance, are successful. But they have another, more unusual common denominator: Each makes use of a narrative in reverse motion, a tricky maneuver that runs a considerable risk of irritating, if not outright alienating, the reader.

Good as Gone, by the Austin-based Amy Gentry, takes as its point of departure the all-too-real gone girl Elizabeth Smart, abducted from her own bed by a mysterious man at knife point, her forced march into the unknown witnessed by a younger sister. Gentrys missing child is 13-year-old Julie Whitaker, the elder daughter of a Houston English professor named Anna and her husband, Tom, a tax consultant. Eight years after Julies disappearance, her parents have stopped hoping to get her back and wish only for something to bury, for a story to fill this paralyzing gap in their lives. Their younger daughter, Jane, who spent critical hours on the night in question cowering in a closet, has grown up (or at least gotten older) and departed for college, a mass of rebellion, resentment and caustic self-loathing. Its on the night of her return, after an incomplete freshman year, that a strange and altered version of Julie suddenly appears at their front door.

Who is this young woman, both recognizable and alien? The story she tells is harrowing  years of confinement and rape, human trafficking, life in the fortified compound of a Mexican drug lord, then a terrifying escape and a single-minded trek home  but is it the truth, a wholesale fabrication or some hybrid of both? How relevant, Anna wonders, to the story of this 21-year-old woman who has shown up to replace my missing 13-year-old daughter are a hidden cellphone, a young girls remains discovered in an old house across town and the Julie Fund, which now totals $50,000, the result of many donations over the years? And why is Julie skipping out on her therapist but secretly attending a local megachurch, where the superstar pastor exhorts his flock to forget the past and make it new! (a sentiment the tormented Anna recognizes as Ezra Pounds own modernist cri de coeur).
JUDENSTAAT

By Simone Zelitch

320 pp. Tor/Tom Doherty, $25.99.

When it comes to historical mirrored worlds, an authors success can be measured by the ability to create a story that, despite being preposterous, feels altogether real. Thus Zelitchs novel wonders what might have occurred if World War II had resulted in a Jewish homeland located not in Israel but deep within the wounded heart of Germany. In 1948, she fantasizes, the sovereign nation of Judenstaat came into being, carved out of what was formerly Saxony, home to a million Jews who survived the camps, with more streaming in every day. A founding proclamation states the countrys premise: The very place we faced our death is where well build our lives. One of the young nations spiritual leaders raises a new flag sewn from the uniform worn at Auschwitz: blue-and-white prison stripes and, in the center, a yellow star.

Looking back from the year 1987, a historian named Judit Klemmer has been assigned a Fortieth Anniversary Project for the National Museum, a documentary film intended to celebrate Judenstaats past. At the same time, she is still nursing her grief over the murder of her husband, Hans, the first ethnic German musical conductor of the countrys symphony orchestra, shot three years earlier by an unrepentant Nazi. The novel sets out a double mystery as Judit seeks the truth about the origins of Judenstaat as well as the truth behind Hanss killing. Her quest bears the weight of the collective grief of her people, for whom the shadow of the Churban (Yiddish for the Holocaust) is a day-to-day reality.

Is the novels placement of the Jewish state in Germany rather than Palestine a poke in the eye of history? Judit conducts a freighted journey through the complexities of this imaginary German-Jewish nation, introducing its highly educated intellectuals and the Orthodox black hat denizens of its sordid underbelly. Throughout, a central question dogs both her and the reader: What happens when you lose everything, but have to go on living? Who do you become?

UNDERGROUND AIRLINES

By Ben H. Winters

327 pp. Mulholland/Little, Brown, $26.

In Winterss novel, Lincoln was assassinated early on, in the martyrdom that saved the union and prevented the Civil War. Instead, the secessionists rejoined the United States with the proviso that what were termed the Hard Four  Mississippi, Alabama, the newly combined Carolinas and Louisiana  could legally preserve the institution of slavery. And so, a century onward, millions now toil at forced labor in behemoth corporate-owned mines and factories in those states.
PARADIME

By Alan Glynn

255 pp. Picador. Paper, $16.

Alan Glynns first novel, The Dark Fields, was published in 2001 (and reissued in 2011 as Limitless, to exploit a Bradley Cooper movie tie-in). In a moment that lingers, when the hero-loser-druggy-bro supremo Eddie finally has enough money to leave his 10th Street East Village dump, he movingly concedes, It wasnt just that I was leaving an apartment behind, a place Id been in for six years  I felt at some level that I was leaving myself behind. At its best, Glynns debut was about the frustrating impossibility of ever finding our best selves or holding them for long.

Fifteen years later, Glynns less engaging fifth book, Paradime, is so closely related to Limitless that, read together, they feel like first cousins having sex. Both are about the erasure and re-creation of identity: Eddie gulps a smart drug (a kind of steroid for the intellect) to become a more rapacious, more victorious Eddie. And in Paradime, Danny Lynch, late of Asheville, N.C. (famously, the town Thomas Wolfe couldnt go home to), also living on East 10th Street, is sent to Paradime Capital to stand in for its abiding genius, the visionary tech billionaire Teddy Trager, who is Dannys near-perfect look-alike. The tricky part is, Teddy is seriously dead.

Its a switcheroo engineered by Gideon Logistics, a Machiavellian defense contractor that originally hired Danny to work at a chow hall in Nangarhar Province, Afghanistan. (He wanted the danger-zone money so his girlfriend could repay her student loans.) Unluckily, hes shipped stateside after witnessing a food riot in which Gideon security thugs cave in the heads of two locals with boxes of frozen burger patties. When he complains about the lost salary, they offer him a quality step-up job doing food prep in a fancy Manhattan restaurant, presumably having noted his resemblance to Trager. In this novel, every collision becomes collusion.

Glynn may be making a subversive point about how easy it is for Danny to hoodwink Charlie Rose and other rapturous talking heads based solely on his replicant looks and the Teddy-tells hes mastered from YouTube: sketching equations in the air, for instance, or quoting the one Walt Whitman line everybody knows. Deep. But the emerging cult for Dannys version of Teddy reminds us we are all torn asunder by overlapping desires to sponge up expertise and to be experts ourselves.
I AM NO ONE

By Patrick Flanery

343 pp. Tim Duggan Books. $27.

Borders can be tricky places, the narrator of I Am No One tells us. He is Jeremy OKeefe, a professor of history at New York University, and he knows something about in-betweenness. He has just returned from a decade at Oxford University, where his American accent continually marked him out as an outsider, and he now discovers that the sense of alienation he felt in England has followed him back across the Atlantic. In once-familiar parts of Manhattan he must now look at maps, and his students hear, following his years abroad, something newly British in his diction. If you listen to my vowels, Jeremy protests, lost for a moment in a Beckettian comedy of not-belonging, forced to rely on the very voice that estranges him, theyre entirely American. Its just the phrasing and the emphases, maybe the vocabulary as well, that has drifted from origins.

Patrick Flanery is a California-born novelist who lives in England. In his work to date he has proved himself to be a refreshingly astute observer of ideas of nationhood, exile, censorship and surveillance. His first novel, Absolution, investigated the afterlife of apartheid in South Africa. His second, Fallen Land, concerned a Midwestern family destroyed by an outsiders increasingly creepy intrusions into their home. In I Am No One, the engine of the story is another unwanted arrival: a mysterious box that turns up one day at Jeremys apartment. It bears no return address or postmark, leaving no way of determining where it might have originated, and it contains reams of paper detailing Jeremys online activities. Pretty soon a guy in a ski mask is lingering outside his window. Who is this man who watches me? Jeremy is left to think. Who is the person who tracks my virtual life? Are they one and the same?

Questions of who and why power the plot and give Flanery occasion to slip into his protagonists past in Oxford. Is a beautiful former student named Fadia the cause of all his present trouble? In the New York scenes, characters speak in blocks of rather wooden dialogue, perhaps suggesting something cold and automatic in the city he has returned to, but in the Oxford sections the writing becomes looser and more digressive, capturing Jeremys rising paranoia and swaying perceptions, creating passages that read at times like an attractive crossbreed of Brideshead Revisited and Javier Mariass All Souls. In these pages Flanery seems less concerned with making clear that Jeremy is an Everyman  like anyone else, like you, coming to the end of this page  and takes us instead into the lived specifics of his pedantic and privileged world.
UNDER THE HARROW

By Flynn Berry

219 pp. Penguin Books. Paper, $16.

Flynn Berrys thrilling novel of psychological suspense, Under the Harrow, opens with a young woman riding the train from London to the English countryside. Having been forewarned by a blurb on the back cover, I was expecting a knockoff of Paula Hawkinss The Girl on the Train or another rendition of Gillian Flynns Gone Girl. Ever since those books phenomenal success, any new novel that is at all similar greedily begs comparison. Indeed, Under the Harrow contains similarities that will undoubtedly attract readers  but underneath its hard-driving, page-turning, compulsively readable narrative is a striking, original voice all Berrys own.

When Nora arrives at the station in the remote country town of Marlow, looking forward to the weekend ahead, shes not surprised that her sister, Rachel, isnt there to meet her. Rachels a nurse with an unpredictable schedule. Nora walks to her sisters farmhouse, noting the car in the drive, and assumes Rachel has just come home. But the minute she walks through the door she knows something is not right. Instead of polenta bubbling on the stove and her sisters warm embrace, Nora encounters Rachels beloved German shepherd hanging from the banister, strangled by his leash, rotating eerily. Cautious and wary, Nora climbs the stairs to discover the unthinkable: her sister lying in the hallway in a pool of blood.

There are few leads and virtually no pieces of evidence. Nora, stunned and perplexed but eager to help the police, moves into the Hunters, the only inn in town, a square, cream stone building with black shutters, where she rapidly descends into the dark reality of whats happened. Berry has a keen instinct for plotting and pacing, knowing just what to reveal and how much and when. Static images of time and place contrast with the trauma at hand, infusing the novel with an atmosphere of deepening gloom. When I arrived, she writes, the town was quiet, like the snow had already started. I saw a woman leaving the library with a stack of books. A man looking at cakes in the bakery window. One of the village employees lifting a sheaf of papers from the seat beside him and climbing from his van. People maneuvering their cars through the narrow streets, listening to the forecast. It was like something set down on Rachels house, upending it, while the rest of the town was left untouched. Such precise sentences call to mind Hitchcocks meticulous storyboards and enrich the work with a cinematic scope.

As the investigation progresses we learn of Nora and Rachels deep and complex bond, their inviolable closeness, partially the result of negligent parenting, and of a terrible thing that happened to Rachel back when they were teenagers that has, for each of them, profoundly stunted any chance of true happiness. In the tradition of all great noir thrillers, the incident includes a bad decision made by the ultimate victim and a regretful one made by the one who is spared. Years before, in their childhood town of Snaith, after a night of partying at a friends house, Rachel decides to walk home while Nora chooses to stay and sleep  a decision she will regret for life. Just as the sun is rising, Rachel encounters a man who violently assaults her. The police are notified, but the perpetrator is never found. From that point on the sisters share an obsessive determination to find him: We went to the places our father would go. The tracks. The pubs. Where would a violent man go, where would a monster go. It was hard to know what someone who liked hurting women would also like. Intent in their search, they weed potential suspects from newspapers and even visit some in jail or attend their trials. At one such trial, the girls witness a rape victims interrogation by a defense attorney that ultimately frees the obviously guilty defendant. The bruises didnt mean it wasnt consensual, the defense barrister argued. It might have been rough sex. Although these recollections are conveyed deftly, their effect is somewhat diminished by their TV-drama familiarity. Still, the troubling back story effectively underscores the sisters relationship  a bargain between love and hate, faith and distrust, jealousy and admiration  and allows for the possibility that Rachels murderer is the same man who assaulted her back then.
HYDE PARK, N.Y.

WHAT: A house with three bedrooms and two bathrooms, overlooking the Hudson River

HOW MUCH: $828,000

SIZE: 2,566 square feet

PRICE PER SQUARE FOOT: $323

SETTING: Hyde Park is a town of about 22,000 on the Hudson River, about 90 miles north of New York City. Anchored by a small 19th-century historic district, it is home to the Culinary Institute of America and a short distance from Marist and Vassar colleges.

This house sits on a hill overlooking the Hudson, with more than four acres. A Vanderbilt estate, with more than 200 acres, is nearby, as is the estate and library of Franklin D. Roosevelt, who was born here. Both are open to the public. The Vanderbilt estate connects to woodland and riverfront trails that wind throughout town. Poughkeepsie, about 15 minutes away, has both Amtrak and Metro-North service to New York.

INDOORS: A cedar-and-brick structure with a slate roof and an ornately latticed wraparound porch, the house was built in 1879 and updated about 20 years ago. The interior is almost entirely original, including knotty pine plank floors, paneled wainscoting, plaster crown molding, hand-carved scrollwork and crystal chandeliers.
There are two types of wedding services available on Aero: the Town Hall ceremonies, which cost 500 Danish krone ($75), and the more costly, personalized weddings provided by private agencies. There are four such agencies on the island, and five more in Germany that funnel couples over to the ferry at Svendborg, the most popular departure point. Danish Island Weddings (getmarriedindenmark.com), a family-operated agency, pioneered the wedding business on Aero and has the highest profile, offering full-out frills for fees starting at 990 euros ($1,094).

John Moloney, a former British air force pilot who runs Danish Island Weddings with his wife, Louise, an Aero native, said the spirit of love and celebration never fails to boost his spirits. We see people at the happiest moments of their lives.

At Aeroskobings Aero Kommune Municipal Hall (aeroekommune.dk) where the registry marriage ceremonies are performed, couples recite their vows at a dizzying rate. Often, registrars conduct over 40 ceremonies a day. To keep up with the hectic pace in recent years, the office increased its staff to the current five registrars.

Even the civil ceremony features candlelight and a toast of muscat wine, and the registrars have performed special marriage services when emergency strikes: When one mans mother died and he had to leave, we rushed to the ferry and married him there, said Ms. Ammersboll.
Agatha Redux: The British crime writer Ruth Ware has two best sellers this week  her new novel, The Woman in Cabin 10, enters the hardcover fiction list at No. 4, while her debut, In a Dark, Dark Wood, remains No. 8 on the trade paperback list after nine weeks. (My favorite thing about that book, which centers on an amnesiac and a bachelorette party gone very wrong, was learning that the British call such gatherings hen parties. One London reviewer described the story as the hen party from hell, which makes you think things might end in nuggets and dipping sauce.) Both of Wares novels resemble classic locked-door mysteries: Her first takes place in a remote English country house and her latest on a cruise ship in the North Sea  a horrifying enough prospect for some of us even before the protagonist witnesses a murder and is accused of losing her mind. Unsurprisingly, Ware said last year that she was a big fan of the golden-age mystery writers. I love classic crime, she told NPRs David Greene during her Dark Wood publicity tour. I read a huge amount of it as a kid, you know, Agatha Christie, Josephine Tey, Dorothy L. Sayers, Sherlock Holmes. And I didnt consciously channel that when I was writing. But when I finished and reread the book, I did suddenly realize how much this kind of structure owed to, particularly, Agatha Christie. It wasnt consciously done, but I think the setting, you know, the way its a closed cast of characters  I would say I definitely owe a debt to Christie.

Greene noted that, according to the books promotional materials, Wares real-life bachelorette party had been uneventful.

Yeah, Ware replied. I have to say, my own hen party was quite boring. Well, no, it was lovely. It wasnt boring. But, you know, nobody got murdered.
The head of a Sydney real estate network has labelled Generation Y uncompromising and materialistic, saying they are at fault for cutting themselves out of home ownership.



At a time when housing affordability and home ownership, in particular the comparison between Generation Y and their Baby Boomer parents, is dominating headlines, Malcolm Gunning, principal of Gunning Real Estate said Gen Y are missing out because they aren't prepared to make sacrifices.



There are lots of young people who are complaining that it is too hard to buy in Sydney, however they won't forgo their material possessions, Gunning said.



More and more we are seeing a victim mentality associated with the high cost of property, yet this 'generation selfish' sees wide screen TVs, designer clothes, international holidays and eating out as every day essentials. They simply won't do what is necessary to cut their lifestyle in order to save a deposit.



They also aren't prepared to invest in a stepping stone property, in a less desirable location, they want the Surry Hills pad, right now and won't modify their expectations.



However, the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia Report (HILDA) revealed that entry-level properties are more expensive than ever. The battle of the generations when it comes to home ownership was reignited when the HILDA report revealed this, suggesting that the chances for young Australians of owning a home are falling.



According to the report, the 10th percentile of homes  or the cheapest in the market  had grown 108% in value between 2001 and 2014, compared to a 47% growth for 90th percentile properties at the top of the market.



In addition, the HILDA report showed people aged over 65 are the wealthiest and the 45-to-54-year-old age group holds the largest share of investment properties.



According to Gunning, members of Generation Y residing in Sydney have themselves to blame the most.



While we must recognise that government incentives have been reduced to new properties and the issue of bracket creep is an important one, Sydneysiders are those who have the biggest problem, he said.



Young people in regional areas, who are not bringing home as big a pay packet, are making sacrifices to get into the property market. They recognise that getting onto the property ladder should be a priority and do everything they can to ensure they are saving to get to their end goal.



However, it is worth noting that house prices have risen the most substantially in Sydney. House price data from CoreLogic shows home values in Sydney have been rising for four years, and have increased by a cumulative 59% over this growth cycle. In Melbourne, the second biggest capital city for capital growth, prices have moved 41% higher over the growth cycle to date.



This article is from our sister site Australian Broker by Julia Corderoy.
For years, Gov. Jerry Brown could hide behind the fig leaf of a federal court order in turning tens of thousands of convicts loose in a program he called prison realignment.

Prisons lost almost one-third of their occupants to county jails and streets all around the state. Most of those released or paroled were so-called minor criminals; very few rapists, murderers or armed robbers have won early releases.

This satisfied the courts, which all the way up to the level of the U.S. Supreme Court had upheld an order to reduce prison populations.

Then came the 2014 Proposition 47, which reclassified many previous felonies as misdemeanors carrying far smaller penalties and no three-strikes implications. Felony arrests fell to levels unseen in 50 years. One reason: Thefts below the value of $950 are no longer felonies. Because realignment has caused overcrowding in county jails, most thievery at that level goes unpunished; often perpetrators are not even pursued because of police frustration with the changed rules.

One apparent result  and no, the link has not been proven beyond statistical doubt  is more property crime in many places, while violent crime has remained relatively stable over the last five years. The increase is official; whats unproven is the direct cause-and-effect link to Proposition 47.

All this is not enough for Brown, who has a new initiative before voters, on the November ballot as Proposition 57. This one allows early paroles for legally defined nonviolent prisoners in exchange for certain achievements and good behavior. The governor spent millions of dollars this spring to qualify his measure, mostly from funds he raised but largely did not spend while winning re-election in 2014.

Brown calls his new measure straightforward, saying it will let only judges, and no longer prosecutors, decide which juveniles aged 14 and over to try in adult court. He says it will speed paroles for some nonviolent offenders, while setting up a system of credits allowing inmates earlier releases if they get high school and college degrees while imprisoned, and take charge of their lives.

This measure figures to let loose thousands more inmates.

What Brown has never said, but a spokesman admitted to a reporter while the initiative petitions were still circulating (at about $5 per valid voter signature) is that some persons convicted of crimes like assault with a deadly weapon, soliciting murder, elder or child abuse, arson and human trafficking might get speedier paroles.

No one knows how state parole panels will ever be sure that any prisoner has changed their criminal thinking, or whether crime rates might increase under this new Brown plan.

A close Brown aide said almost all those covered under the new initiative also could be affected by realignment. This has a chance of providing a carrot of early release for them, the aide said. It wont work for everyone. But the alternative is a system offering no incentives for people to straighten themselves out.

Former seminarian Brown couches his measure in moral terms and maintains California still does not have a durable plan to deal with prison overcrowding. His initiative could also save many millions in prison costs.

But at what price? Burglaries are up. Car thefts, too. So is shoplifting. Would other crimes rise with a new flow of inmates leaving prisons? No one knows.

For sure, prosecutors say theyre worried, and not only because this proposition would decrease their authority a bit.

In one blog published by the Association of Deputy District Attorneys, prosecutors called the measure a full-fledged assault on public safety, claiming it would allow parole boards to ignore sentencing enhancements for prior offenses including rape, torture and murder.

The initiative is billed as a humanitarian measure, just as Proposition 47 was when it passed by almost a 3-2 margin. No one knows whether voters this fall will heed some of that measures apparent results.
Earlier this year, California ranked dead last in Chief Executive magazines Best and Worst States for Business survey for the 12th year in a row, and was one of just three states (along with Connecticut and Illinois) to receive an F in Thumbtack.coms 2016 Small Business Friendliness Survey. A new CNBC study adds still more evidence, as if any was needed, of Californias anti-business attitude and policies.

In CNBCs 10th annual Americas Top States for Business study, California ranked dead last among the states in the Business Friendliness category, and 49th in Cost of Doing Business. It also ranked near the bottom (47th) in the Cost of Living category.

The news was not all bad, however. The Golden State was redeemed by high marks in the Technology and Innovation (2nd), Access to Capital (tied for 2nd) and Economy (8th) categories. This performance was enough to lift the states overall score, albeit to a still-disappointing 32nd, five places lower than last years analysis.

CNBC also evaluated states cumulative scores over the past decade. California placed 36th in this analysis, although it did grab the top overall spot for both Technology and Innovation and Access to Capital.

CNBCs Top of the Tops honors for the 10-year period went to Texas, which also topped the Chief Executive and Thumbtack business climate surveys. During this time, it placed first in the Economy and Infrastructure groups, winning both of those categories handily, and also notched top-10 rankings in Technology and Innovation, Business Friendliness and Access to Capital.

Unfortunately, Californias recent economic growth has largely been concentrated in the technology sector, particularly in the Silicon Valley/Bay Area. And while some have tried to knock Texas economic growth by claiming that it is based on menial, low-wage jobs, unlike the supposedly higher-wage jobs created in California, the truth is mostly the complete opposite. Like much of the state, here in Orange County, We are increasing low-value-added, low-paying jobs in a county with housing costs that are unaffordable to most people, Chapman University president and economist James Doti told the Register after the release of the schools most recent economic forecast late last month. Meanwhile, California is bleeding skilled, higher-wage jobs, such as those in manufacturing and business services, to Texas and other states with more favorable business climates.

The secret to Texas success, as Gov. Rick Perry explained to CNBC in 2008, one of the years in which his state topped the list, is: Weve got low taxes, weve got a balanced regulatory climate, weve got a fair legal system and we continue to fund an accountable school system so that we have a good, skilled workforce.

California could learn something from Texas, if only our policymakers could restrain themselves from intervening in our business and personal affairs. Or we could just continue to watch many of our most productive entrepreneurs and workers leave for better opportunities in Texas and other states while California brings up the rear in more business climate surveys.
VIENTIANE, LAOS (AP)  The United States, Japan and Australia have urged China not to construct military outposts and reclaim land in the disputed South China Sea, in a strong show of support for Southeast Asian nations that have territorial disputes with Beijing in the resource-rich area.

A joint statement by the three allies, issued late Monday, ironically fills the vacuum created by Southeast Asias main grouping, which during its meeting of foreign ministers on Sunday failed to take a stand against China because of disunity among themselves.

The ministers expressed their serious concerns over maritime disputes in the South China Sea, said the statement from Secretary of State John Kerry and foreign ministers Fumio Kishida and Julie Bishop. The ministers voiced their strong opposition to any coercive unilateral actions that could alter the status quo and increase tensions.

The three met in Vientiane on the sidelines of a series of meetings organized by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN. The grouping could have leveraged the recent decision by a permanent arbitration panel in The Hague, which ruled in favor of the Philippines in a case it brought against China in their dispute in the South China Sea.

The panel ruled that Chinas claim to almost all of South China Sea was illegal. Implicit in the ruling is that China has no standing in its other disputes with Malaysia, Brunei and Vietnam, which also are ASEAN members.

But ASEAN became split because of Chinas divide-and-rule diplomacy by winning support from Cambodia, and to some extent Laos, which resulted in the grouping issuing a joint statement on the South China Sea that did not mention China by name or the arbitration ruling.

Instead, it fell upon ASEANs allies to rush to their support.

In their joint statement, the ministers of Japan, Australia and the United States also expressed strong support for the rule of law and called on China and the Philippines to abide by the arbitration panels award, which is final and legally binding on both parties.

The ministers stressed that this is a crucial opportunity for the region to uphold the existing rules-based international order and to show respect for international law, they said in one of the strongest and most detailed post-arbitration warnings by the allies against China.

In a clear broadside at China, the statement urged all parties to refrain from unilateral actions that cause permanent physical change to the marine environment  and from such actions as large-scale land reclamation, and the construction of outposts as well as the use of those outposts for military purposes.

China has been rapidly developing reefs and rocky outcrops into islands in the South China Sea, including building air strips capable of landing military aircraft. It claims historic rights to the vast sea, a claim that was rubbished by the arbitration panel, which said the sea is international waters and the rocky outcrops do not constitute sovereign islands that would give states an ownership on the surrounding waters.

For years, China has prevented fishermen from other countries from venturing into the areas it claims, and has made it clear it will not back down despite the arbitration award, which it calls politically motivated, illegal and irrelevant. It has accused countries outside the region  notably the United States, Japan and Australia  of meddling in Southeast Asia and destabilizing the region.

In recent days, Chinas military has staged live-firing exercises in the area and said it would begin regular aerial patrols over the sea. It also has asserted that it will not be deterred from continuing construction of its man-made islands.
It was a battle of Orange County surfers, as Santa Anas Courtney Conlogue went head-to-head with Costa Mesas Meah Collins at the U.S. Open of Surfing on Tuesday morning.

Conlogue is hungry for the world title and wore the coveted yellow jersey that signifies shes the top-ranked woman in the world. Collins herself is hungry, a 16-year-old with dreams to one day join the World Tour, entering the event as a wild card.

But at the end of the heat, it was a more-experienced Conlogue who took the win in the Round 2 heat  but it wasnt without a fight.

The loss wasnt enough to get Collins, 16, down.

Im so happy right now. It is the result I was expecting, she said. Of course I wanted to do better, but my main goal was to get into the event. Being here is amazing and Im so grateful.

Collins is daughter of Richie Collins, who won the U.S. Open in 1989. He gave her some advice before she paddled out.

He was just telling me to stick to my guns and this is my home break, she said. He was just telling me to surf how I always do and go out with my local knowledge.

But Conlogue was also surfing at her home break, and used her experience at the Huntington Beach pier. On one wave, she threw big hacks to spray water behind her board, unfazed as she ended up under the pier and between the concrete pier pilings.

I was pretty fired up, I dont like being in the second round, said Conlogue, who is battling for a world title. She came painfully close last year but ended up in second place.

Conlogue posted up a high 8.0 and a back up 6.17, leaving Collins in the hunt for a least a 8.10 to overtake her opponent. But as the clock ticked down, the waves didnt show up to give her another chance.

I was just keeping my composure, looking for some good waves, Collins said. The only way to beat the number one in the world is the catch the best wave and surf my heart out.

COMING UP

Huntington Beachs Brett Simpson will be in the first heat at 7:30 a.m. Wednesday morning. He fell off the World Tour this year, and his hoping for a repeat of his 2009 and 2010 performance, when he won the U.S. Open of Surfing. A good showing here could help give him momentum to earn points and move up the rankings.

San Clementes Tanner Gudauskas will also surf early Wednesday in heat 21 of round 2 before the women hit the water. Conlogue is up against Laura Enever and Sage Erickson.

Contact the writer: lconnelly@ocregister.com
SYLMAR  Late Monday afternoon, five Orange County firefighters laughed and lounged in the shade of their rig.

The men, normally attached to Orange County Fire Authority stations in Placentia and Yorba Linda, have worked together for more than 20 years. Parked here, in a lot near a church, they range in age from 46 to 61.

Their mission on the Sand Fire at this point felt more camping trip than battle, complete with field-brewed coffee, sack lunches, ghost stories tied to past wildfires (really) and shooting stars.

Battalion Chief Colton Ashby talked about his wife and two children a lot and got emotional: He had missed the send-off of his 11-year-old sons first trip to summer camp because he was here.

Between laughs, they observed the rising smoke columns from the Sand Fire, just two miles away. Their assignment: Study those columns, predict what the fire might do when the columns collapse, and extinguish any hot spots caused by drifting embers.

The odds of something igniting this far from the main fire, given what the winds have been doing and whats already burned, are pretty low, but its possible, so were here, firefighter Ron Roberts said.

At dusk, another 13 OCFA firefighters joined them.

The campy mood quickly changed.

Weve got a new assignment! shouted Roberts, who had a radio rig strapped to his chest.

Lets mount up, said Ashby as he polished off the last of his bottled water. Where are we going?

Two fire trucks and a pickup, with 10 aboard, pushed into the now-pitch darkness of Angeles National Forest to defend an unoccupied stationhouse. Fire command believed flames were racing toward the structure.

You dont want bad things to happen, but you want to be there when they do, Capt. Chris Caswell said. We live for this.

Two and a half hours later, after a hair-raising, 30-mile drive along a narrow, winding mountain road surrounded by sheer cliffs, hot spots and glowing embers, the team arrived at North Fork Station, the unoccupied firefighting outpost.

The fires push had slowed to a crawl and didnt seem to pose an immediate threat to North Fork, so the crew shifted its attention to learning the terrain, developing a plan of attack if flames did indeed reach them, establishing an exit plan, and starting a new pot of coffee.

Shifts were taken on a nearby hilltop, to monitor the fire. Others caught shut-eye, slumped in a truck, against a tree, on a couch at the outpost, which the firefighters were able to enter.

As the orangy sun rose the next morning through thick smoke, they gathered around their rigs. The days first helicopters began making water drops. A gentle breeze offered relief from the constant heat.

Ive wanted to be a firefighter all my life, and there are moments when I feel like I need to pinch myself to make sure Im not dreaming as I do this job, Ashby said. But Im tired, and these guys deserve a rest. Its time to head home.

Two and a half hours later, they arrived at Golden Valley High School, in Santa Clarita, the main command center for all of the Sand Fires firefighters.

Scrambled eggs, waffles, chorizo, oatmeal  their first cooked meal in 24 hours. They had gone on shift at 8 a.m. Monday. It was now 10:28 a.m. Tuesday.

Time to sleep in a hotel, talk to family.

At 8 a.m. Wednesday, these firefighters will be back on duty, heading off somewhere, maybe this time into the thick of the Sand Fire.

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Contact the writer: 714-796-7802 or jsudock@ocregister.com
KRAKOW, Poland  The world is at war, but it is not a war of religions, Pope Francis said Wednesday as he traveled to Poland on his first visit to Central and Eastern Europe in the shadow of the slaying of a priest in France.

The killing of an 85-year-old priest in a Normandy church on Tuesday added to security fears surrounding Francis five-day visit for the World Youth Day celebrations, which were already high due to a string of violent attacks in France and Germany. Polish officials say they have deployed tens of thousands of security officials to cover the event.

Francis spoke to reporters on the papal plane en route from Rome to Poland. Asked about the slaying of the priest, Francis replied: Its war, we dont have to be afraid to say this.

After greeting reporters on his papal plane he returned to the topic to clarify that when he speaks of war, he is speaking of a war of interests, for money, resources, dominion of peoples.

I am not speaking of a war of religions. Religions dont want war. The others want war, Francis said.

Upon arrival at Krakow airport Francis was greeted by Polands President Andrzej Duda, First Lady Agata Kornhauser-Duda and other state officials, and hundreds of faithful who had waited for hours to see him. Prime Minister Beata Szydlo knelt and kissed his papal ring.

After a brief ceremony Francis then traveled in an open car through the city, waving at cheering crowds as he headed to the Wawel Castle for the main welcoming ceremony.

There, President Duda, a Catholic hailing from Krakow, said that Francis is a support, a road sign in life for young people.

The world today badly needs values, it needs faith and good, all of which your Holiness is bringing, Duda said in the presence of hundreds of state and city officials gathered in the castle yard. We are all waiting for your word.

Francis then delivered a speech urging Polish authorities to overcome fear and show compassion to migrants.

It was a message that seemed clearly targeted to leaders of a nation that is deeply Catholic, but which is strongly opposed to accepting migrants, with fears running deep that Muslim arrivals could endanger the nations security and Catholic traditions.

Noting that many Poles have also emigrated from their country, Francis spoke of the need to facilitate their return of any hope to repatriate, and understand the reasons that caused them to leave.

Also needed is a spirit of readiness to welcome those fleeing from wars and hunger, and solidarity with those deprived of their fundamental rights, including the right to profess ones faith in freedom and safety, Francis told them.

Francis spoke of the need for international efforts to resolve the wars forcing so many people to leave their homelands.

This means doing everything possible to alleviate the suffering while tirelessly working with wisdom and constancy for justice and peace, bearing witness in practice to human and Christian values, he said.

In the evening Francis is to appear in the window of the residence of Krakow bishops, where he will be staying, and chat with some among the hundreds of thousands of pilgrims from around the world gathered for the World Youth Day celebrations that will run through Sunday.

Just hours before Francis arrival for the major Catholic event, groups of cheerful young pilgrims were seen in the streets of Krakow.

Relics of St. Mary Magdalene came to the St. Casimir Church from France for the duration of World Youth Day, and were displayed in a case by the altar.

Their presence helps us concentrate on our prayers and brings us closer to God, said Nounella Blanchedent, 22, from the French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe.

She was one of the volunteers helping with security and logistics at the packed church, where a Mass was being held in French for pilgrims from France, Belgium and other countries.

Vanessa Gera in Warsaw contributed to this report.
A shotgun accessory shop recently moved its operations from Costa Mesa to Nevada, citing the states tough gun control laws, high cost of living and worsening traffic.

Mesa Tactical, which opened in 2003, has been operating out of its new Reno, Nev., location since last week. The company left their 135 Baker St. space July 15.

Owner Mitch Barrie said he loves Costa Mesa, but stringent gun control laws have made doing business increasingly problematic.

The California Legislature has been on a rampage with gun control laws, he said. Its gotten increasingly difficult to do business in this climate.

Barrie recounted that in order to show how accessories look on a shotgun, both needed to be shipped to photographers in Arizona or Oregon where it could be assembled and photographed. On his way to trade shows out of state, Barrie packs the guns separate from folding stocks hes designed.

Outside of California, I could just put the thing on, he said. I always made sure I take it off (the firearm) before packing to come back.

Separately, both products are legal, but when attached, it can result in a felony charge.

Mesa Tactical marketing manager Zuly Rivera said the company wants to expand into offering rifle accessories, which would be too troublesome had they stayed in California.

The (gun) laws here are a little more liberal, she said.

Recent mass shootings have intensified the gun control debate, with some calling for stricter measures against assault rifles. Barrie cited assault weapons laws that define the configurations of firearms.

There are a lot of gun owners in California who just put up with it, Barrie said.

The company now operates out of a 10,000 square-foot space around 35 miles north of Lake Tahoe with six employees, who also made the move. At one point, the company had 15 employees, but harsh gun laws made doing business burdensome and some were let go, Rivera said.

They hope to hire more people.

Moving to Reno was better from a lifestyle and financial perspective for him and his employees, Barrie said.

Nicknamed the biggest little city in the world, the city was recently listed as the most affordable city for financially-strapped singles.

Im an outdoorsy guy, he said, referring to the scenic mountains and miles of open space nearby. Im kind of paternalistic with my employees. I think they could probably be able to afford a home out here and the wages they make here are more here.

A Costa Mesa resident for for nearly 30 years, Barrie said he hated to leave but had to do whats best for his business.

I love Costa Mesa. If I could pick it up and drop it in Reno, I would, he said.

Contact the writer: 714-796-2478 or lcasiano@ocregister.com
Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnsons long-shot campaign may have gotten a boost last week when Sen. Ted Cruz declined to endorse fellow Republican Donald Trump. But its uncertain if either of the major candidates would be hurt by a strong Johnson showing in November

Cruzs vote your conscience speech at the Republican convention last week was a backhanded endorsement of his candidacy, Johnson said Tuesday during a meeting with Southern California News Group staff.

You go into a booth and its multiple choice, Johnson said, suggesting Cruz is not going to vote for Trump and hes not going to vote for Hillary (Clinton).

Johnson, a moderate two-term Republican governor of the Democratic state of New Mexico, is running well ahead of the 1 percent of the vote he garnered as the Libertarian nominee in 2012, in large measure because of the historic high unfavorable ratings of Trump and Clinton. Real Clear Politics aggregation of recent major polls shows Johnson at 8.6 percent of the vote.

Some polls show Johnson drawing equally from Republican and Democratic voters. A CNN poll conducted after last weeks GOP convention found him winning 17 percent of the Republican voters disenchanted with Trump and 14 percent of Bernie Sanders supporters.

A Morning Consult poll in May showed Johnson pulling 6 percent of Republicans and 7 percent of Democrats. A Fox poll showed him pulling equally from both major parties.

But Johnson isnt running as a spoiler. He and running mate Bill Weld, another moderate two-term Republican governor of the Democratic state of Massachusetts, say theyre in it to win it. They say theyll have a chance if they can reach 15 percent support in polls used to determine which candidates participate in nationally televised debates.

Johnson says hes the candidate who can get the most done in the White House.

If Hillary or Trump win, (Washington) is going to be more divided and polarized than it is now, Johnson said. The only significant difference in outcomes under the two would probably be Supreme Court appointments, he said.

Theyll go through executive orders and those will end up in the courts, he said. And nothing goes through Congress.  I would appoint Republicans and Democrats, and challenge them to work together.

Where he stands

Johnson embraces basic Libertarian tenets of small government and personal liberty, and emphasizes a balanced budget  which he would achieve by a 20 percent across-the-board federal spending cut, including for the military.

You could target 50 percent of bases outside the U.S. without compromising defense, he said.

He rejects the idea that Libertarians are isolationists  Were non-interventionists  and said he supports the current U.S. strategy toward containing and defeating the Islamic State.

He rejects building an extensive border wall and deporting the estimated 11 million people in the country illegally.

We should make it as easy as possible to come across the border to work, he said. Those in the country without documents should, if they pass a criminal background check, be given work visas, pay taxes and have a path to citizenship, he said.

They are not taking jobs away from us, he said.

He also calls for an end to crony capitalism.

I would not have bailed out the banks, he said. If the banks had been allowed to fail, the system would not have collapsed.

On social issues, he supports legal abortion, LGBT rights and the legalization of marijuana.

Young voters

Johnson is picking up support from Republicans turned off by Trump but wanting a small-government candidate. His backing from some Sanders supporters comes mostly from younger voters.

The Libertarian ideology has always appealed to young people because of its idealism, said Fullerton College political scientist Jodi Balma. Look at the success with young people Ron Paul had in 2012.

But she said many of those young people could return to the Democratic fold with the right encouragement from the party.

Its a long time until November, she said.

Meanwhile, Johnson is doing what he can to get into debates, including suing the Commission on Presidential Debates in a challenge to its candidate-selection criteria. He also wants pollsters to ask voters at the top of their surveys to choose between himself, Clinton and Trump, rather than the usual approach of initially asking participants to choose between the top two candidates and then introducing third-party hopefuls later in the survey.

Lori Cox Han, a Chapman University political scientist, agreed that if Johnson were given the same status in polls as Trump and Clinton, his numbers would likely improve. She also agreed that the threshold for qualifying for a debate is too high.

Even if youre polling 10 percent, thats a significant portion of the population, she said. The current approach promotes a two-party system.

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Contact the writer: mwisckol@ocregister.com
SALEM, Ore.  A small Northern California town was rocked by a shooting, kidnapping and carjacking on Tuesday, all allegedly committed by a man and woman from Oregon who led police on a high-speed chase before they were captured.

The man, Edwin Lara, was fleeing his home state after being implicated Monday in the disappearance of a 23-year-old. Lara was charged with murder Tuesday in the death of Kaylee Sawyer, of Bend, Ore.

The mayhem in the former gold-mining town of Yreka started near dawn Tuesday when a man was shot in the stomach at the Super 8 Motel. The man, who has not been identified, was hospitalized in critical condition, police said.

Five minutes after police got the call about the shooting, another man phoned in from a gas station, saying his car had been taken with his wife and two sons still inside.

The man had come out of the gas station to see his dog running around and his car gone, Yreka Police Chief Brian Bowles told The Associated Press.

Bowles said Lara forced one of the mans sons to drive at gunpoint. The mother and sons were later dropped off at a rest stop.

A California Highway Patrol Officer later saw a car speeding on the interstate about 100 miles away and tried to pull it over, the highway patrol said in a statement. Lara sped away at more than 100 mph. Police from the nearby town of Corning joined in before Lara pulled over and was arrested. A 19-year-old Salem, Oregon woman, Aundrea Elizabeth Maes, was also in the car and was arrested, Yreka police said.

Lara and Maes were booked into jail on charges including attempted murder, kidnapping, carjacking and burglary, Yrekas police department said in a statement. Bowles said investigators were still trying to determine whether Lara or Maes had shot the man at the motel. The relationship between Lara and Maes is not clear.

We have got crime scenes at a motel, a gas station and in Red Bluff more than 100 miles away, Bowles said. Were a small department and stretched beyond our resources right now.

Later Tuesday, Lara was charged in Bend, Oregon, with one count of murder in the killing of Sawyer, Deschutes County District Attorney John Hummel told a news conference. Sawyer was last seen around 1 a.m. Sunday near her apartment, located close to Central Oregon Community College where Lara worked as a security guard.

Bend Police Chief Jim Porter said a body has been found in the county that is believed to be Sawyers. A medical examiner would confirm the identity, he said.

Lara had worked as a part-time public safety officer at Central Oregon Community College since December 2014, said Ron Paradis, executive director of college relations.

Were cooperating with the police as best we can, Paradis said, declining to comment further.

Police in Bend revealed that Laras wife had alerted authorities Monday of his possible involvement in the disappearance of Sawyer. Isabel Ponce-Lara, Laras wife, was recently hired by the Bend Police Department and has been receiving field training, the department said on Tuesday.

Officer Ponce-Lara is not suspected to be involved in the disappearance of Kaylee Sawyer, the department said, adding that she has been cooperative throughout the investigation.

Newspaper reports from 2009 and 2010 list Isabel Ponce-Lara as a student at the community college, and being on the deans list.

Mourners were expected to hold a vigil Tuesday night to remember Sawyer, Hummel said.
Little Liam, a 4-year-old whose prosthetic right leg was stolen Sunday while on a family trip to Crystal Cove, should be walking, running and swimming by the weekend.

The offers to make Liam Brenes a new, free leg flooded in, as did the donations to help with possible associated costs. On Tuesday, the family decided to travel to Palmdale to work with Micheal Metichecchia, owner of Essential Orthotics and Prosthetics  himself an amputee who was touched by Liams story and wanted to help.

(Liam) should have something he can use over the weekend, said the boys father, Frank Brenes. Were completely stoked, were floored by it.

Liam was fitted on Tuesday, and Metichecchia said workers are putting in overtime to get the Rancho Santa Margarita boy not just one, but two new prostheses by the weekend.

We always look for certain ways to give back, Metichecchia said Wednesday morning. We believe that nobody should be denied the ability to walk.

One prosthesis will be for everyday use, the other one he can rough up and take into the water.

I think the whole reason it happened; they were trying to protect his everyday prosthesis, the only one he has, by not taking it in the saltwater, Metichecchia said.

Frank Brenes said he wanted to work with Metichecchia because he is also an amputee and he seemed to genuinely want to help.

He seemed like a great guy, Brenes said. I just got a great vibe from him; he seemed so incredible, so genuine. I was touched by him and his offer. The leg hes making Liam is an even bigger leg than hes ever had. Its crazy, its great.

Metichecchias family-owned business, where his parents also work, allows for a quicker turnaround than some of the bigger hospitals that would have to get through red tape. The company donates prostheses to amputees in the Philippines each year, and are looking for more ways to give back in the United States.

Metichecchia said he was impressed by Liam, an active youngster who loves karate and wants to learn to skateboard and swim.

I think hes an amazing young man. He has so much energy, so positive, Metichecchia said. Hes a strong-souled individual. I think hes going to be fantastic  Im happy we get to be a part of it.

Metichecchia knows firsthand the challenges that amputees face. He had bone cancer at age 14, and as a result his leg broke over and over again. I felt like the glass man, he said.

Five years ago, he couldnt take the constant pain and hospital visits, so he decided to have his right leg amputated  the best decision of his life, he said.

For me, the importance of simply being able to get up and use the restroom without hopping or having mom and dad carry me is crucial, he said. Thats part of what we do, trying to get people back to 100 percent or better.

He said Liams story has had an impact on his employees.

Everyone here is working harder, and its a chain reaction, I suppose, he said. Were hoping some other people will come out of the woodwork that are in need of services.

Liams story has been far reaching, with articles and news accounts around the world. Shark Tank star Robert Herjavec offered to pay for a replacement prosthetic and to set up a VIP trip to Disneyland for Liam. And more than $17,000 has been raised since a friend of the Brenes family set up a Gofundme account.

The family said the money donated was far more than they expected, or needed, and Brenes said anyone who wants a refund on their donation will get their money back.

Anything left over the family hopes to use to send Liam to a camp for amputee children in Big Bear and other activities, or future medical costs. They would also like to donate to Shriners Hospital for Children in Los Angeles.

Contact the writer: lconnelly@ocregister.com
A Santa Ana man made his first appearance in federal court Tuesday afternoon and faces charges after police said he posed as an immigration officer and tried to extort money from a woman.

Federal authorities said Tuesday that 26-year-old Luis Flores-Mendoza was arrested Monday by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. He was arrested earlier and released this month by the Placentia Police Department.

Flores-Mendoza was charged with impersonating a federal officer in a criminal complaint filed last week, according to Thom Mrozek of the U.S. Attorneys Office in Los Angeles. If convicted he faces up to three years in federal prison.

The victim said that on June 6, a man, later identified as Flores-Mendoza went to a restaurant in Anaheim where she worked dressed in a green uniform with a vest, badge and handgun and said he was a federal agent, Capt. Eric Point of the Placentia Police Department said earlier this month.

Prosecutors said Tuesday that the firearm was actually a pellet gun. Flores-Mendoza allegedly gave the woman a letter purportedly from Immigration and Customs Enforcement stating there was a case against her. The complaint says the man told the victim to pay him $5,000 or she and her child would be deported.

The woman reported the incident to authorities and they arrested Flores-Mendoza during a meeting set up for her to pay him the money. At the time he was driving a car equipped with police-style lights and a siren.

Flores-Mendoza was freed on $10,000 bond Tuesday afternoon and was ordered to appear in court Aug. 29.

Were committed to safeguarding the public from scam artists and others who exploit peoples fears for no other reason than to enrich themselves, Joseph Macias, special agent at Homeland Security Investigations Los Angeles office, said in a statement.

Were concerned this defendant may have preyed on others, and were asking anyone who may have been victimized by this individual to come forward.

Federal authorities and the Placentia Police Department are still investigating this case.

Anyone with information about the investigation or who may have been a victim is asked to call the Placentia Police Department or Immigration and Customs Enforcements toll-free tip line 1-866-DHS-2ICE or use the agencys online tip form.

Contact the writer: 714-796-7865 or afausto@ocregister.com
PHILADELPHIA  As California was called to take its place in American political history Tuesday, Gov. Jerry Brown was flanked by Sen. Barbara Boxer and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi.

The state that defies Donald Trump on climate change, immigration reform and the $15-an-hour minimum wage casts for Bernie Sanders 221 votes, Brown said as the DNC conventioneers cheers rose.

And for Hillary Clinton, the next president of the United States, 340 votes!

Behind him, Sandi Cook wept.

Twice before, the 55-year-old Clinton delegate from Los Angeles, an African American woman, has shed tears at moments of history. Once, eight years ago, when Barack Obama was nominated for president and again, in early 2009, when Obama was sworn in as the nations first black president.

Back-to-back, Cook said.

Tuesdays roll call vote was the third.

As state after state shouted out their votes in a process that harkens back to 18th-century politics, the Democratic Party formally made Hillary Clinton  a former first lady, a former U.S. senator and a former secretary of state  the first female nominee for president from a major political party.

And as the roll call vote made history that will last long after 2016, it also offered a glimpse of party unity that might be a factor in November.

Moments after South Dakota cast 15 of its 25 delegates for Clinton, officially putting her over the top, her rival for the job, Sen. Bernie Sanders, stood with his Vermont delegation and offered what he could to end a sometimes bruising campaign and a raw start to the Democratic National Convention.

I move that Hillary Clinton be selected as the nominee for the next president of the United States!

Sanders motion to suspend the rules of the convention, and make Clinton the nominee by acclamation, was seconded. The voice vote was a full-throated, almost-in-unison Aye!

The roar couldve shattered a glass ceiling.

LAYING IT BARE

It wasnt clear, leading up to the roll call vote, that the Democrats were unified.

On Tuesday, outside the arena, Sanders backers were chanting about Clinton being a criminal, despite the FBIs decision to not recommend criminal charges be filed against her for using a private email server that housed sensitive emails while she was secretary of state.

Others complained that not all of Sanders primary votes were counted.

On Monday, Sanders supporters in the California delegation expressed their displeasure to California Secretary of State Alex Padilla, booing his speech and chanting, Count the votes!

Kathy Roemer, who on Tuesday continued to wear her Sanders buttons in the arena, said she still wasnt sure if shed vote for Clinton in November against Trump, who was nominated last week by Republicans in Cleveland.

Shes got a lot of work to do to convince me, Roemer said.

Sanders seemed to be trying to help the doubters along. On Tuesday, when he visited the California delegation at its breakfast, he went through his priorities for reform and change.

And he laid it out bare.

Its easy to boo, Sanders said.

But it is harder to look your kids in the face who would be living under a Donald Trump presidency.

HISTORY MADE

California was Sanders largest delegate haul during the primary season by virtue of its size. And when it came time for Brown to dole out the delegate totals, it wasnt clear how Sanders backers would respond.

But while Sanders backers stood tall and waved signs (Bernie, youre our only hope, one read), Browns announcement for Clintons delegate total drew louder cheers.

Former California Gov. Gray Davis watched from behind where Pelosi stood. He clapped. He smiled. He cheered.

It feels great to be a little part of history, Davis said.

Ive known Hillary for 20 years. She has fought for change her whole life, and shell make a hell of a president.

Behind him, Los Angeles County Democratic Party Chairman Eric Bauman shouted Hillary! Hillary! while he wiped his eyes. Boxer, Pelosi and California Attorney General Kamala Harris all beamed, even as the crush of people around them became chaotic and others with TV cameras, smartphones and digital cameras tried to capture the moment.

Bauman, who has known Clinton since 1991, was a bit overwhelmed.

Ive waited for this moment for years and years, he said.

I think this is such a great thing for America to elect a woman president  one who will be extraordinary and one who will change our world.
LAFAYETTE, LA. (AP)  A Buddhist monk was sentenced Monday to 30 months in prison after pleading guilty to embezzling more than $260,000 from the Louisiana temple he led and gambling most of the money at a casino.

U.S. District Judge Donald Walter also ordered Khang Nguyen Le, 36, of Lafayette, to pay nearly $264,000 in restitution, U.S. Attorney Stephanie Finleys office said in a statement.

Le pleaded guilty in March to one count of wire fraud, a charge that carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Le served as presiding monk of the Vietnamese Buddhist Association of Southwest Louisianas Lafayette temple from 2010 through October 2014, when he stepped down amid the investigation. Les indictment said he lived and worked at the temple and earned a salary of $1,000 per month.

Finleys office said Le, a Vietnamese citizen, may face deportation to Vietnam after his release from prison.

A court filing in March said Le withdrew cash from the temples accounts to fund his frequent gambling trips to LAuberge Casino in Lake Charles.

Le was arrested last September at LaGuardia International Airport in New York after he got off a flight from Dallas and before he could board a flight bound for Toronto.

Le told federal agents he had a gambling problem and said he would spend up to $10,000 playing blackjack during his gambling trips, according to an affidavit filed in support of his arrest.

Le said the church members would frown upon him even going to the casino if they knew, an agent wrote, therefore, Le hid his gambling activity.

Le told investigators that he always went to the casino alone, and congregation members never asked to see bank account statements.
The World Health Organization is moving toward declassifying transgender identity as a mental disorder in its global list of medical conditions, with a new study lending additional support to a proposal that would delete the decades-old designation.

The change, which has so far been approved by each committee that has considered it, is under review for the next edition of the WHO codebook, which classifies diseases and influences the treatment of patients worldwide.

The intention is to reduce barriers to care, said Geoffrey Reed, a psychologist who is coordinating the mental health and behavior disorders section in the upcoming edition of the codebook, called the International Classification of Diseases, or ICD.

Reed, a professor at the National Autonomous University of Mexico and an author of the new study, said the proposal to remove transgender from the mental disorder category was not getting opposition from WHO, suggesting that it appears likely to be included in the new edition. The revised volume would be the first in more than 25 years, and is scheduled to be approved in May 2018.

Removing the mental health label from transgender identity would be a powerful signifier of acceptance, advocates and mental health professionals say.

Its sending a very strong message that the rest of the world is no longer considering it a mental disorder, said Dr. Michael First, a professor of clinical psychiatry at Columbia University and the chief technical consultant to the new edition of the codebook, which is known by its initials and the edition number ICD-11. One of the benefits of moving it out of the mental disorder section is trying to reduce stigma.

Other parts of the proposed change are stirring debate, however. The proposal would not take transgender out of the codebook altogether, but would move it into a newly created category: Conditions related to sexual health.

Many, but not all, advocates favor the idea of keeping transgender in the codebook in some form because the designations are widely used for billing and insurance coverage of medical services and for conducting research on diseases and treatments. But where should it go?

I think there is a bit of a problem with the idea of putting it in a chapter on sexual health because it has nothing to do with sex, said Dr. Griet De Cuypere, a psychiatrist at the Center of Sexology and Gender at University Hospital in Ghent, Belgium, and a board member of the World Professional Association for Transgender Health. If its possible to have it more separately, it would be better.

Others have concerns about a proposal to change the name from transsexualism to gender incongruence, a name chosen to try to express a discrepancy between a persons experienced gender identity and their body, said Reed, who was part of the working group that recommended the changes to WHO.

One problem is that incongruence resonates differently in different languages. In English it sounds kind of neutral  my association is with geometry, Reed said. But in Spanish it sounds very bad, it sounds kind of psychotic.

So, in Spanish, the proposal is gender discordance, which, he said, in English sounds really bad.

Language differences are only part of the issue. The terminology is difficult because nobody likes anything, Reed said. People have made suggestions that have been all over the map. One of the people at one of the meetings said we could call this happy unicorns dancing by the edge of the stream and thered be an objection to it.

The issue is reminiscent of the change in the way homosexuality was treated in the American bible of psychiatric diagnoses, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, known as the DSM. In 1973, the book, published by the American Psychiatric Association, changed the diagnosis of homosexuality to sexual orientation disturbance, and later to ego-dystonic homosexuality before dropping it altogether in 1987.

Transgender identity has changed in the DSM too, classified under sexual deviations in 1968, psychosexual disorders in 1980 and sexual and gender identity disorders in 1994. In the fifth and most recent edition, DSM-5 in 2013, the designation was changed to gender dysphoria, and was defined to apply to only those transgender people who are experiencing distress or dysfunction, said Dr. Jack Drescher, a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst at New York Medical College, who serves on the WHO working group and served on a similar working group for the DSM-5.

Drescher said he supported removing the diagnosis from the DSM entirely, but he noted that the ICD was different because it has categories for every disease and condition, not just psychiatric ones, and retaining some code for transgender identity might be the only way for some to receive medical care. Inmates, including Chelsea Manning, have received access to hormone treatments partly based on the fact that transgender identity belongs to a medical category, Drescher said.

First said he once received a call from the Internal Revenue Service asking him, as an expert, to support the agencys intention to challenge a tax deduction that a transgender woman claimed for gender reassignment surgery. He declined, and said cases like that would be more likely without a diagnostic category.

Karl Surkan, a professor of womens studies at MIT and Temple University, who is transitioning from female to male, agreed. He said some trans people say homosexuality was declassified, so now this is part of our civil rights movement, without understanding that its wildly different.

Surkan said gays, lesbians and bisexuals were not sort of reliant on medical treatment in the same way that the transgender population often is. You need a code to get an insurance company to pay for something.

In a study published Tuesday in Lancet Psychiatry, Reed and co-authors interviewed 250 patients at a clinic that provides transgender health services in Mexico City. They found that while most had felt distress related to their gender identity during adolescence, almost a fifth of them had not. And among those who felt distress or experienced dysfunction at work, home or school, most was attributed to how they were treated  being rejected or violently attacked  rather than to their gender identity itself, the authors reported.

Many had physical health problems, likely a result of living on the margins of society, because their lives followed a slope leading from stigma to sickness, said De Cuypere, who co-wrote a commentary about the study.

Similar studies are being conducted in Brazil, India, Lebanon, South Africa and France.

I would expect to see this kind of stigmatization and violence in all the other countries, said Reed, although he said that in France, the researchers received a slightly more laissez-faire reception.

In France, they said, Just leave us alone, we dont need your stinking classification, Reed said. But they live in a society where access to health care is conceptualized as a right.
MIAMI  Donald Trump has a message for Russia: find Hillary Clintons missing emails. But his running mate, Mike Pence, is sending mixed signals.

In a Miami press conference Wednesday, the Republican presidential nominee said that the 30,000 missing emails from Clintons private email server would reveal some beauties and made an extraordinary plea for a foreign power to locate them.

Russia, if youre listening, I hope youre able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing, Trump said. I think youll be rewarded mightily by our press!

Clintons campaign claims that Russia hacked computers belonging to the Democratic National Committee and released those emails on the eve of the partys convention to benefit Trumps candidacy. The emails, published by WikiLeaks last week, revealed that the DNC favored Clintons candidacy over rival Bernie Sanders, triggering a leadership shakeup within the DNC.

Trump dismissed the claims, saying its not clear who hacked those emails, but the incident is a sign that foreign countries no longer respect the U.S.

If its any foreign country it shows how little respect they have for the United States, said Trump, who added that he was not an email person myself because I believe it can be hacked.

Moments after he took the final question, Pence condemned the possible cyber-espionage, breaking from Trump for the first time since being selected as his vice president.

If it is Russia and they are interfering in our elections, I can assure you both parties and the United States government will ensure there are serious consequences, Pence said in a statement.

Trump, whom Democrats have accused of having cozy ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin, repeatedly declined to condemn the actions of Russia or any other foreign power of trying to intervene in the a U.S. election.

No, it gives me no pause, the celebrity businessman said. If Russia or China or any of those country gets those emails, Ive got to be honest with you, Id love to see them.

The Clinton campaign immediately denounced Trumps call.

This has to be the first time that a major presidential candidate has actively encouraged a foreign power to conduct espionage against his political opponent, senior policy adviser Jake Sullivan said in a statement. Thats not hyperbole, those are just the facts. This has gone from being a matter of curiosity, and a matter of politics, to being a national security issue.

Trump also suggested that Clinton should not receive any security briefings due to the hack that would ensure that word will get out.

Trump has said that he has zero investments in Russia and insisted that his company had not received any significant investments from the country. He also has downplayed his affection for Putin and said he would treat the Russian leader firmly, though he said he wanted to improve relations with Russia. Some Democrats and security experts have said that Trumps proposal to set conditions on NATO allies could risk Russian expansion in Eastern Europe.

President Barack Obama, meanwhile, said anythings possible when asked during an interview whether the Russians could be working to sway the election toward Trump.

Donald Trump has repeatedly expressed admiration for Vladimir Putin, Obama said during the sit-down with NBC News that aired Tuesday. And I think that Trumps gotten pretty favorable coverage back in Russia.
FRESNO  Representatives of California Gov. Jerry Brown and the Obama administration began making their pitch for approval Tuesday to build a pair of massive water tunnels under the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.

They propose building the tunnels  each four stories high and running 35 miles long  to send Sacramento River water south to millions of residents and vast farmland in dry regions of the state. The project is estimated to cost $15.7 billion.

Backers face opposition, however, from delta-area communities and farmers, who fear it will further degrade the hub of Californias water system without producing more water for the drought-parched state.

State and federal officials told regulators at the opening of the hearing in Sacramento that the tunnels would correct design flaws in the water system that have led to the decline of the tiny Delta smelt and Chinook salmon populations and unreliable water deliveries.

Californias water challenges are a top priority to the Obama administration, said Letty Belin, senior counselor to the deputy secretary at the U.S. Department of the Interior.

Now is the time to act, she said. The cost of doing nothing is too great.

To move forward, state and federal officials need approval of the State Water Resources Control Board to take water from the Sacramento River. Officials most prove that drawing water from the Sacramento River wont harm others.

Hearings on the project opened Tuesday and are expected to last months. A second hearing will follow, addressing the projects impact to wildlife and the environment.

Opponents such as state Sen. Cathleen Galgiani, a Democrat from Stockton representing delta residents, said the tunnels will siphon river water needed to dilute pollution in the delta.

She also fears that the project will end up costing taxpayers, despite current plans to make water agencies pay for it. The proposed tunnels lacks comprehensive finance plan, and its a financial risk that California is not prepared to take, Galgiani said.

The delta is fed by two of two big rivers that start high in the northern California mountains. It is the heart of the states water system, providing water to two-thirds of the states residents, 3 million acres of farmland, and wildlife.

State and federal officials in the 1960s re-engineered the delta to pump water from the southern end of the delta to farms and communities as distant as San Diego. The pumps, however, altered the deltas flow, pulling migrating fish off course.

John Laird, secretary of Californias Natural Resources Agency, told regulators that the tunnels would correct the delta flows while also protecting the states water system from an inevitable major earthquake and sea-level rise driven by climate change.

The existing infrastructure does not work well, Laird said. We have debated, litigated and legislated, but our ecosystem and supply problems have only worsened in the last three decades.
HUNTINGTON BEACH  Nate Yeomans isnt just chasing a U.S. Open title this week. He is pursuing a dream that has eluded him for much of his surfing career, one that he hopes one day becomes reality again.

Yeomans of San Clemente wants to be a regular on the World Tour, the ultimate place for professional surfers. He found it a fading fantasy when he couldnt put together a consistent run of outstanding results.

Its a dream, but its what I want to do, Yeomans said after placing second in the QS10,000 mens round 2 at the U.S. Open. If it doesnt happen, its not the end of the day. I have two kids and a wife. Ive done a lot but I still want to get back there personally, give it a go against the worlds best.

Yeomans, 35, is doing just that this week. His second-place finish with a score of 10.33 advanced him into Wednesdays third round, where he will compete against Brazils Adriano de Souza, the reigning WSL Tour Champion.

Yet, if he doesnt emerge a winner this week or even the next round, Yeomans isnt quitting. He didnt give up when he lost his spot on the World Tour. He didnt suspend his career when the sponsorships dried up. He didnt stop surfing when he and his wife started a family. Hes not giving up now.

Obviously I love what I do, Yeomans said. That in itself is plenty of motivation. Ive been doing this a long time.

With family and (a lack of) sponsorships, it was getting harder to get to the contests, you know. It costs money. But at the end of the day, its something I love. I have gotten to travel the world, and if I can string together some big results, I can get back on the CT (Champions Tour.)

Yeomans first qualified for the World Tour in 2010 when the won the Coldwater Classic in Santa Cruz. After a series of lackluster performances, he was cut mid-year and forced back onto the Qualifying Series and lost his main sponsor.

Disappointed but not deterred, Yeomans continued to get into the water, where he continued to find more frustration and failure for the next four years.

Then in 2014, he again won the Coldwater Classic and given a second chance at his dream and another setback. His story read like a movie, a story told in the 2015 documentary titled Innate.

Everyone has their own journey and just because youre not the world champ, doesnt mean your story isnt special, Yeomans said. I still enjoy the heck out of it.

COLAPINTOS BIG DAY

Griffin Colapinto sat in the water and waited for the horn to signal the end of his Round 2 heat.

The San Clemente teen said he wasnt nervous as 2010 U.S. Open finalist Jordy Smith from South Africa caught one more wave that vaulted him into second place, less than one point behind him.

I already had two big scores, so I just needed to stay put and keep those guys off the waves, said Colapinto, who won the heat with a score of 14.17. Smith finished with a score of 13.94.

That was awesome. Im so stoked to have taken that one out. That was kind of a big heat for me so Im stoked, Colapinto said.

NOTES

Kanoe Igarashi posted a score of 17.23 to win his heat by nearly seven points. The Huntington Beach surfer is ranked 21st on the World Tour. 

Leonardo Fioravanti didnt let a few stitches above his left ear stop him from competing in Round 2. But the injury he suffered Saturday didnt help his performance. Fioravanti was eliminated after finishing last in his heat Tuesday.

Fioravanti was hurt during a practice session when his board flew back at him during a botched aerial attempt in Saturdays foggy conditions. He needed 20 stitches to close up a wide gash.

Contact the writer: lconnelly@scng.com
Russian diamond company World of Diamonds has teamed up with Singapore restaurant Ce La Vi to offer a lucky couple the worlds most expensive dining experience, for the decadent price of $2 million. It probably doesnt seem that way, but its actually a bargain!

World of Diamonds recently unveiled a 2.08 carat blue diamond ring with a rose-gold plated platinum band that they named after actress Jane Seymour. It has received interest from a number of parties, including a royal family, but instead of simply auctioning it off to the highest bidder, the Russian company decided to make acquiring the stunning piece of jewelry a truly special event. A rich couple will get to take part in an 8-hour dining experience described as the most expensive in the world, at the end of which they will be handed the Jane Seymour diamond ring.

This is the most expensive dining experience in the world, and the most lavish one possible, Karan Tilani, Director of World of Diamonds Group, said. As a diamond mining group, we recognize that Ce La Vi is a diamond in the sky. [We expect] the response will be beyond overwhelming, but its only two diners who will eventually have the privilege.

Photo: Ce la Vi Restaurant

The event will start off with a 45-minute helicopter ride over Singapore, followed by a short time spent on a luxury cruise. The lucky couple will then be picked up by chauffeur-driven Rolls-Royce and taken to the Ce La Vi restaurant, on the rooftop of the Marina Bay Sands Hotel, where 10,000 fresh roses will be waiting for them. Here they will be able to enjoy a 360-degree view of the city at sunset, as well as an 18-course Modern Asian meal.

Among the expensive culinary items on menu, a World of Diamonds press release mentions fresh Belon oysters with champagne foam, Almas caviar  supposedly the most expensive variety  lamb sweetbread, air-flown Alaska wild salmon, slow cooked pigeon, and apple-wood grilled Mishima sirloin. Paired with these scrumptious dishes will be 44- and 55-year-old vintage wines and a variety of world-class champagnes and bruts.

Photo: World of Diamonds Group

The two diners will be seated on custom-made designer furniture made by The Plush and will be able to eat their food using diamond-studded chopsticks with their names engraved on them. At midnight, they will be presented with the coveted blue diamond ring.

The Jane Seymour is the worlds only jewelry creation named after the award-wining Hollywood actress that isnt pre-owned. Considering this and the fact that diamonds this blue have been known to be auctioned at over $2 million, the worlds most expensive dinner is actually quite a bargain.

Photo: Ce la Vi Restaurant

But getting possession of the ring and enjoying this unique experience isnt as easy as handing over $2 million. World of Diamonds and Ce La Vi have yet to announce the exact criteria by which the lucky couple will be selected, but they did mention that it will have a lot to do with the buyers status (just how influential he/she is), the buyers affinity for blue diamonds, and how he or she plans to flaunt/display piece of jewelry. Also, because WOD Group supplies to luxury design houses and reputable diamond jewelers, we may have to offer our existing clients priority for The Jane Seymour ring, and therefore, priority over the dining experience, Karan Tilani told Forbes. However, we still welcome additional interest globally.

So unless youre rich AND powerful, have at least another blue diamond and are already a current client of World of Diamonds, you probably wont make the cut. Sorry, but hey, theres always Red Lobster, right?
Nestled in the foothills of the Macayo Mountains, in Aragon, Spain, lies a quaint village plagued by a curse so strong that only the Pope can lift it.

Trasmoz was once a bustling settlement with a population of around 10,000 people, but today it numbers only 62 inhabitants, of which only 30 live there permanently. For many, the downfall of Trasmoz has a lot to do with the curse placed on the village by the Catholic Church centuries ago and the stigma associated with witchcraft. Its history is riddled with legends of witches and pagan rituals, and even the ruined castle at its center is said to have been built in a single night by a magician called Mutamin. How many of these stories are true, and how many are simple rumors spread by the Church to justify its actions is left to interpretation.

Photo: Benjamin Clari

Lola Ruiz Diaz, the custodian of Trasmoz Castle says that the rumors of witchcraft practiced in the once prosperous village were started by the occupants of the castle as a ruse. Back in the 13th century, they had started forging fake coins, and to keep the locals from investigating the constant scraping and hammering, they started telling storied about witches and mages rattling chains and forging cauldrons to brew potions in. Their plot worked, and since then, the village of Trasmoz has been seen as a haven for witchcraft.

But while this rumor may have benefited the coin makers, it also gave the Church a reason to exact revenge. In the 13th century, Trasmoz was a thriving community full of iron and silver mines, as well as plentiful wood and water reserves. Unlike its neighbors, it was also a secular settlement, which meant it didnt have to pay dues or taxes to the nearby Monastery of Veruela. This angered the Church, so when rumors of witches practicing pagan rituals started to spread, the bishop of Veruela seized the opportunity to punish the entire village by requesting that the that the archbishop of Tarazona excommunicate it. That meant that residents of Trasmoz were no longer allowed to go to confession or take the holy sacraments at the Catholic church.

Photo: Trasmoz.com

Instead of repenting  the only way to remove the excommunication  the people of Trasmoz continued their dispute with the Monastery of Veruela, which almost ended in open war when the monastery started diverting water from the village instead of paying for it. Pedro Manuel Ximenez de Urrea, the Lord of Trasmoz, took up arms against Veruela, but before actually going to battle, the matter was settled by King Ferdinand II, who decided that Trasmoz had been wronged by the monastery.

The Church never forgot this humiliating defeat, and continued to propagate the rumors of witchcraft being practiced in Trasmoz. In 1511, the abbot of Veruela  with explicit permission from Pope Julius II  cast a powerful curse on the whole village and its descendants, by chanting psalm 108 of the Book of Psalms, the most powerful tool the Church possesses to pronounce a curse. Since the curse had been sanctioned by a Pope, it could only be lifted by one, but to this day, no Pope has done so. Trasmoz also remains the only Spanish community to be excommunicated by the Catholic Church.

Photo: Miguel Rubira Garcia

In the following years, Trasmoz fell into decline. The castle burned in 1520 and remained in ruins for centuries, and after the Jews were expelled from Spain in the 15th Century, the local population dwindled. Today, only 62 sould still live in the village, half of which are permanent residents. Most of the houses are in dire need of repairs and the streets are always empty. There are no schools or shops in the village.

The only upside to the legends of witchcraft associated with Trasmoz is the impact they have had on tourism. Every year, hundreds of tourists visit the tiny Spanish settlement to see this once bustling witch haven, attend the local festival dedicated to witchcraft, and stop by the small witch-themed museum set up in Trasmoz Castle.

Sources: BBC, ABC.es, The Identity of Aragon
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A panel of medical experts said Tuesday that there's too little evidence to determine whether routine full-body screening for skin cancer saves lives.

The federally appointed U.S. Preventive Services Task Force gave the visual screening a rating of "I" - meaning there was insufficient evidence for it to weigh the potential benefits against possible harms - for Americans of average risk. Yet its statement drew immediate pushback, with some physicians saying the outcome might encourage people to skip the awkward ritual of stripping down for an examination by their doctor for melanoma and other skin cancers.

"We make recommendations based on evidence only, not on expert opinion, and we put equal weight on the potential benefits and the harms," said David Grossman, vice chairman of the task force and a senior investigator at Group Health Research Institute. "And we really don't have good evidence on the benefits of screening."

The panel's statement, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, got a thumbs down from the American Academy of Dermatology. "Dermatologists know that skin cancer screenings can save lives," Abel Torres, the organization's president, said in a statement.

"Melanoma accounts for the vast majority of skin cancer deaths, and non-melanoma skin cancers such as basal cell carcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma can have potentially devastating effects, including severe tissue loss, metastasis and death," Torres said.

Skin cancer is the most common cancer in the United States. An estimated 3.3 million adults will be diagnosed this year with basal cell and squamous cell cancers, and more than 76,000 will learn they have melanoma, according to the American Cancer Society. While the first two are rarely fatal, melanoma will cause more than 10,000 deaths in 2016, the group said. Yet all forms are treatable if caught early.

An editorial accompanying the task force's statement said the "I" rating does not mean there is not a benefit from screening but that more research is needed to determine if it should be recommended - and, if so, for whom. Grossman stressed that the statement doesn't apply to people who have skin lesions or any other kind of suspicious growths or to those with an increased risk of cancer or a family history of the disease.

But unnecessary screening could lead to overtreatment, including unneeded biopsies with unwanted side effects, he noted. "If you have a lot of lesions, a fair amount of scarring could occur," he said.

And while it seems "intuitive" that full-body exams would result in cancer being caught early, Grossman said the research suggests that some doctors are much more adept than others at finding lesions.

Robert Smith, vice president for cancer screening at the American Cancer Society, said Americans should always take precautions against skin cancers by minimizing exposure to intense sun and ultraviolet radiation. The prime strategies are protective clothing, sunglasses that block UV rays and broad-spectrum sunscreen with an SPF of 30 or higher. Sunbathing and indoor tanning should be avoided, he said.

The task force's statement didn't deal with self-examination for skin cancer, which it says will be handled in a separate recommendation in the future.

The panel is an independent group of national experts on prevention and evidence-based medicine whose recommendations are designed to provide guidance to primary-care doctors. It assigns each preventive service a letter grade - A, B, C, D or I - based on a review of the research. The task force, which receives no compensation for its work, says its recommendations apply only to people without symptoms of any specific disease.

The skin-cancer screening is the latest preventive service to be hotly debated among experts. Mammograms and prostate screening have been at the center of controversies for years, as physicians try to walk the line between effective screening and potential overtreatment.
Over 30 years and multiple locations, The Bookworm has remained a hangout for Omaha book lovers  a place where bibliophiles gather for advice and camaraderie and, quite often, special guests.

Bookworm owners Phillip and Beth Black said one of their goals since opening the store in the fall of 1986 has been to connect authors with readers. And, my word, have they.

Local authors. Famous authors. Best-sellers, billionaires, powerful politicos, actors, astronauts.

One star-packed week in August 2014 speaks to the quality of guests The Bookworm frequently brings in.

A few weeks before The Bookworm moved from Countryside Village to its current home at 90th Street and West Center Road, the store hosted book signings by future presidential candidate Ben Carson, best-selling mystery writer Louise Penny and Omaha author Rainbow Rowell. At the time, Penny was topping the New York Times best-seller list for hardcover fiction, and Carson was No. 1 on the hardcover nonfiction list. Rowells book Landline was also high on the hardcover fiction list.

We were cruising at the top of the list that week, said Phillip Black.

Over the years other Bookworm guests have included Stephen King, Warren Buffett, Joe Biden, Condoleezza Rice, Henry Winkler, Ted Sorensen, Craig Johnson, David Sedaris, Tom Osborne, Temple Grandin, Jane Smiley, Nicholas Sparks and local author Alex Kava.

Kava said the owners and staff at The Bookworm have been amazing book partners from the very beginning of my career. (The store hosted a book signing for her debut novel, A Perfect Evil, in August 2000, and has hosted one for each book since.)

I call it a partnership because they truly invest in authors, not just books, Kava said. The store has offered a level of dedication, loyalty and friendship that you just dont see very often.

The loyalty extends to less-well-known writers. Local author Ted Wheeler said the store, the last locally owned new-books bookstore in the area, has helped him find new readers.

The Bookworm has its own community of readers and a character that fits the city, Wheeler said.

Nearly two years since its move, the store has continued its mission to connect readers and authors, sometimes some of the most famous writers in the world. In June, the store paired with Kaneko to host an evening with the best-selling horror scribe King.

The owners said the King event was in some ways a culmination of the very special guests theyve brought in over the years. A reminder of all who have visited  and all that have yet to. (Beth Black would love to get Lee Child in the store.)

* * *

We sat down with Phillip and Beth Black, owners of The Bookworm, and Janet Grojean, the stores events coordinator, to hear about some of their most memorable guests.

Stephen King, author of a lot of good, scary books

Janet Grojean: You know, I didnt know what to expect. He was kind, he was gracious, he was funny. When we were working with him before the event he signed books for a little over an hour. He would write and sign for a while and take a little break, and hed tell us a story about his dog. And then hed write a little more, and then hed play his favorite song on his computer. And then hed write a little more, and then hed tell us a story about his wife.

Phillip Black: He was actually very gracious, which was  you know, someone like that can be anything they want to be. We had two policemen in uniform. He just goes up and puts his arm around each of them, stands in the middle while they take a photo.

Beth Black: I love people, but I cant talk to them (laughs). I didnt talk to Stephen King. I cant do that.

Ben Carson , doctor, former presidential hopeful

Events: August 2014, October 2015

Phillip Black: He had people come over way out of state. He had a very loyal following. The second signing was 700-and-something books.

Beth Black: The first time he was here was that last week in August before we moved. And he was not a candidate. He brought his own podium. He would step away, have your picture taken with him and step back. This second time he came, he didnt do it. You could take a photo of him signing your book, but none of that togetherness.

Phillip Black: Actually, Carson basically just initials the books.

Beth Black: (shrugs) Hes a doctor.

Condoleezza Rice, former U.S. Secretary of State

Event: June 2010

Beth Black: She was awesome.

Phillip Black: She was a very interesting person because she seemed to be almost the model of grace and poise. The tidbit here is that Condoleezza signed, like, 500 books in less than an hour. Several years later, when Warren Buffett signed the tap-dancing book (Tap Dancing to Work: Warren Buffett on Practically Everything, 1966-2013, by Carol Loomis), he came into the store. Warren, of course, asked, Whats the record for signing books? How long should it take me to do this? We said Well, Condoleezza Rice did 500 in 45 minutes. So he says I can do that. Start the clock. 

Beth Black: He started to sign, but then he said Did she write her whole name? She did.

Phillip Black: He said Well, Im putting the E. in. So he signed it Warren E. Buffett. 

The World-Herald: Did he beat the record?

Phillip Black: I think he tied it.

Nicholas and Micah Sparks, best-selling author of romance novels and his brother

Event: April 2004

Beth Black: Thats a guest who, if you want somebody that does not appreciate the people ...

Phillip Black: If you want someone who ...

Beth Black: (sighs) He didnt acknowledge anybody who walked into the store. Im sorry, Im not really star-struck.

Phillip Black: People are going through the line and he says Well, you could get my book cheaper at Walmart. 

Beth Black: He said it to the group. That his books are always available at Walmart and Sams. Its just crass.

The World-Herald: Was his brother nicer?

Beth Black: Very much so.

Vice President Joe Biden

Event: No one can remember the date when Biden came, nor could they find records of the date, though it was otherwise a memorable event.

Janet Grojean: I got a kiss on the cheek from Joe Biden.

Beth Black: He was one of my favorites. He had to leave early. He apologized. He wanted to stay and talk to people more. Hes a real people person. He was traveling with his wife (Jill), who teaches English, and she shopped the whole time he was talking.

Phillip Black: She went down to the childrens department.

Beth Black: Oh, my gosh, she bought books, and shes up front paying for them. I said something like So, you didnt want to listen to your husband? She said, I have heard it all before. 

Phillip Black: She was the nicest lady.

Clayton Anderson, Nebraska astronaut

Events: August 2015, December 2015, March 2016

Janet Grojean: Some of the guests we just fall in love with. He was fabulous to work with and inspiring to young and old alike.

Phillip Black: People keep coming to see him.

Beth Black: His message to kids is so very wonderful. Hes a rocket scientist. Hes this really smart guy, but he doesnt talk down to you. He just talks to you.

Ted Sorensen, adviser and speechwriter to President John F. Kennedy

Event: June 2008

Phillip Black (to Beth Black): He brought tears to your eyes.

Beth Black: I was young during all that, but I remember because Kennedy was revered in my house.

Alice Schroeder, author of The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life

Event: October 2008

Phillip Black: She was the only person who ever brought their own hairstylist.

Kurt Andersen, novelist and radio show host, born in Omaha

Event: March 2007

Beth Black: Hes awesome. His mom used to come to the store.

Chuck Hagel, former senator and U.S. Secretary of Defense

Event: March 2008

Phillip Black: Nice guy.

Henry Winkler, actor

Event: May 2007

Janet Grojean: I drove him in my convertible to Lincoln to a speaking event. I had to pick him up and take him to Lincoln for a signing and bring him back to the airport. He ate a Subway sandwich in my car. That was fun.

Craig Johnson, author of the Longmire books

Events: June 2010, May 2012, June 2013, November 2015

Phillip Black: He does a great signing. He knows his fans.

Janet Grojean: Hes one of my favorites. Hes like sitting at a campfire telling stories. I wish we could have an overnight sleepover with him, like with a campfire, some bales of hay and a barbecue and beer. Hes just that kind of guy.

Rainbow Rowell, Omaha author

Events: April 2011, February 2013, September 2013, August 2014, May 2015

Janet Grojean: She could not be easier to work with. Were just fortunate to have so many great (local authors).

Alex Kava, Omaha author

Events: August 2000, August 2002, August 2003, August 2005, October 2008, July 2010, July 2011, July 2012, July 2013, January 2015, August 2015

Phillip Black: She has been here the most.

Beth Black: She comes with every new book. She and I graduated from College of St. Mary. She was at her first signing at The Bookworm. Her books, the language and violence are pretty brutal. But all those sisters from the college are coming to support their alum, and they were, like, Oh, sister! 

Janet Grojean: She gives a whole new spin on the gory details. Shes just this little, petite thing, but shes just deadly.

Phillip Black: Do you know what her big break was? Bill Clinton was in office, and the Clinton family was going on a vacation. Hillary Clinton got off the plane and was carrying a copy of Alex Kavas book.

Beth Black: Cover out.

Phillip Black: So you could obviously see what the book was. And that photograph went all over.

Temple Grandin, professor of animal science and autism spokeswoman

Event: June 2006

Phillip Black: She is very interesting. If you met her on the street you would know there is something a little different about her, the way she talks and carries herself.

Beth Black: She was wonderful to listen to. When she was in the store you basically had three audiences. You had cattle people who came and wanted to hear about the humane treatment of cattle. People who have read her books and just thought she was pretty awesome. And then we had a parent group who was associated with some autistic group locally. And she spoke so that she could be addressing any of the audiences. Her books are like that.

Louise Penny, author of mystery novels

Events: September 2011, August 2014

Janet Grojean: If you havent read her yet, you should.

Phillip Black: Shes Canadian, so she has to be nice. But she is just the most gracious lady. Its much easier to support an author if theyre a nice person.

Beth Black: Its much easier to sell their books. Not to point fingers or name names, but you can tell the people who think what you do is important and the ones who dont.

David Sedaris, humorist

Events: June 2005, June 2008, May 2013

Beth Black: My favorite author ever.

Phillip Black: We had him over at Countryside. We had to block off the parking lot and put chairs and a sound system outside. Luckily, the weather held. David spends time with each and every person. He has this amazing memory. Like, hell see someone again and remember what they talked about two or three years before.

Beth Black: With David, we know were not going to get out of the store until 1 in the morning. And thats OK. He loves to talk.

Phillip Black: People will wait and wait. We told the Market Basket they might want to stay open late. David also shows up an hour before the signing starts. And he goes out and works the crowd. Hell take a little bucket along and say, For a $5 donation, Ill sign your book now, and you wont have to wait. Hes pretty amazing.

Beth Black: He started that kind of thing because he really wanted to smoke, and he could smoke outside.

Janet Grojean: Its like a rock concert.

Phillip Black: Its a happy crowd.

Beth Black: Always.

We sat down with Phillip and Beth Black, owners of The Bookworm, and Janet Grojean, the stores events coordinator, to hear about some of their most memorable guests.

Stephen King, author of a lot of good, scary books

Event: June 2016

Janet Grojean: You know, I didnt know what to expect. He was kind, he was gracious, he was funny. When we were working with him before the event he signed books for a little over an hour. He would write and sign for a while and take a little break, and hed tell us a story about his dog. And then hed write a little more, and then hed play his favorite song on his computer. And then hed write a little more, and then hed tell us a story about his wife.

Phillip Black: He was actually very gracious, which was  you know, someone like that can be anything they want to be. We had two policemen in uniform. He just goes up and puts his arm around each of them, stands in the middle while they take a photo.

Beth Black: I love people, but I cant talk to them (laughs). I didnt talk to Stephen King. I cant do that.

Ben Carson , doctor, former presidential hopeful

Events: August 2014, October 2015

Phillip Black: He had people come over way out of state. He had a very loyal following. The second signing was 700-and-something books.

Beth Black: The first time he was here was that last week in August before we moved. And he was not a candidate. He brought his own podium. He would step away, have your picture taken with him and step back. This second time he came, he didnt do it. You could take a photo of him signing your book, but none of that togetherness.

Phillip Black: Actually, Carson basically just initials the books.

Beth Black: (shrugs) Hes a doctor.

Condoleezza Rice, former U.S. Secretary of State

Event: June 2010

Beth Black: She was awesome.

Phillip Black: She was a very interesting person because she seemed to be almost the model of grace and poise. The tidbit here is that Condoleezza signed, like, 500 books in less than an hour. Several years later, when Warren Buffett signed the tap-dancing book (Tap Dancing to Work: Warren Buffett on Practically Everything, 1966-2013, by Carol Loomis), he came into the store. Warren, of course, asked, Whats the record for signing books? How long should it take me to do this? We said Well, Condoleezza Rice did 500 in 45 minutes. So he says I can do that. Start the clock. 

Beth Black: He started to sign, but then he said Did she write her whole name? She did.

Phillip Black: He said Well, Im putting the E. in. So he signed it Warren E. Buffett. 

The World-Herald: Did he beat the record?

Phillip Black: I think he tied it.

Nicholas and Micah Sparks, best-selling author of romance novels and his brother

Event: April 2004

Beth Black: Thats a guest who, if you want somebody that does not appreciate the people ...

Phillip Black: If you want someone who ...

Beth Black: (sighs) He didnt acknowledge anybody who walked into the store. Im sorry, Im not really star-struck.

Phillip Black: People are going through the line and he says Well, you could get my book cheaper at Walmart. 

Beth Black: He said it to the group. That his books are always available at Walmart and Sams. Its just crass.

The World-Herald: Was his brother nicer?

Beth Black: Very much so.

Vice President Joe Biden

Event: No one can remember the date when Biden came, nor could they find records of the date, though it was otherwise a memorable event.

Janet Grojean: I got a kiss on the cheek from Joe Biden.

Beth Black: He was one of my favorites. He had to leave early. He apologized. He wanted to stay and talk to people more. Hes a real people person. He was traveling with his wife (Jill), who teaches English, and she shopped the whole time he was talking.

Phillip Black: She went down to the childrens department.

Beth Black: Oh, my gosh, she bought books, and shes up front paying for them. I said something like So, you didnt want to listen to your husband? She said, I have heard it all before. 

Phillip Black: She was the nicest lady.

Clayton Anderson, Nebraska astronaut

Events: August 2015, December 2015, March 2016

Janet Grojean: Some of the guests we just fall in love with. He was fabulous to work with and inspiring to young and old alike.

Phillip Black: People keep coming to see him.

Beth Black: His message to kids is so very wonderful. Hes a rocket scientist. Hes this really smart guy, but he doesnt talk down to you. He just talks to you.

Ted Sorensen, adviser and speechwriter to President John F. Kennedy

Event: June 2008

Phillip Black (to Beth Black): He brought tears to your eyes.

Beth Black: I was young during all that, but I remember because Kennedy was revered in my house.

Alice Schroeder, author of The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life

Event: October 2008

Phillip Black: She was the only person who ever brought their own hairstylist.

Kurt Andersen, novelist and radio show host, born in Omaha

Event: March 2007

Beth Black: Hes awesome. His mom used to come to the store.

Chuck Hagel, former senator and U.S. Secretary of Defense

Event: March 2008

Phillip Black: Nice guy.

Henry Winkler, actor

Event: May 2007

Janet Grojean: I drove him in my convertible to Lincoln to a speaking event. I had to pick him up and take him to Lincoln for a signing and bring him back to the airport. He ate a Subway sandwich in my car. That was fun.

Craig Johnson, author of the Longmire books

Events: June 2010, May 2012, June 2013, November 2015

Phillip Black: He does a great signing. He knows his fans.

Janet Grojean: Hes one of my favorites. Hes like sitting at a campfire telling stories. I wish we could have an overnight sleepover with him, like with a campfire, some bales of hay and a barbecue and beer. Hes just that kind of guy.

Rainbow Rowell, Omaha author

Events: April 2011, February 2013, September 2013, August 2014, May 2015

Janet Grojean: She could not be easier to work with. Were just fortunate to have so many great (local authors).

Alex Kava, Omaha author

Events: August 2000, August 2002, August 2003, August 2005, October 2008, July 2010, July 2011, July 2012, July 2013, January 2015, August 2015

Phillip Black: She has been here the most.

Beth Black: She comes with every new book. She and I graduated from College of St. Mary. She was at her first signing at The Bookworm. Her books, the language and violence are pretty brutal. But all those sisters from the college are coming to support their alum, and they were, like, Oh, sister! 

Janet Grojean: She gives a whole new spin on the gory details. Shes just this little, petite thing, but shes just deadly.

Phillip Black: Do you know what her big break was? Bill Clinton was in office, and the Clinton family was going on a vacation. Hillary Clinton got off the plane and was carrying a copy of Alex Kavas book.

Beth Black: Cover out.

Phillip Black: So you could obviously see what the book was. And that photograph went all over.

Temple Grandin, professor of animal science and autism spokeswoman

Event: June 2006

Phillip Black: She is very interesting. If you met her on the street you would know there is something a little different about her, the way she talks and carries herself.

Beth Black: She was wonderful to listen to. When she was in the store you basically had three audiences. You had cattle people who came and wanted to hear about the humane treatment of cattle. People who have read her books and just thought she was pretty awesome. And then we had a parent group who was associated with some autistic group locally. And she spoke so that she could be addressing any of the audiences. Her books are like that.

Louise Penny, author of mystery novels

Events: September 2011, August 2014

Janet Grojean: If you havent read her yet, you should.

Phillip Black: Shes Canadian, so she has to be nice. But she is just the most gracious lady. Its much easier to support an author if theyre a nice person.

Beth Black: Its much easier to sell their books. Not to point fingers or name names, but you can tell the people who think what you do is important and the ones who dont.

David Sedaris, humorist

Events: June 2005, June 2008, May 2013

Beth Black: My favorite author ever.

Phillip Black: We had him over at Countryside. We had to block off the parking lot and put chairs and a sound system outside. Luckily, the weather held. David spends time with each and every person. He has this amazing memory. Like, hell see someone again and remember what they talked about two or three years before.

Beth Black: With David, we know were not going to get out of the store until 1 in the morning. And thats OK. He loves to talk.

Phillip Black: People will wait and wait. We told the Market Basket they might want to stay open late. David also shows up an hour before the signing starts. And he goes out and works the crowd. Hell take a little bucket along and say, For a $5 donation, Ill sign your book now, and you wont have to wait. Hes pretty amazing.

Beth Black: He started that kind of thing because he really wanted to smoke, and he could smoke outside.

Janet Grojean: Its like a rock concert.

Phillip Black: Its a happy crowd.

Beth Black: Always.
The chief executive of Omaha-based advertising agency Bailey Lauerman has left the company.

A company executive on Tuesday confirmed the departure of the ad agencys now-former CEO, Andy Fletcher.

Mary Palu, Bailey Lauermans executive vice president for connections strategy, didnt cite a reason for Fletchers departure but said his leave-taking wasnt related to the recent controversy surrounding one of the firms clients, the Nebraska Tourism Commission.

Fletcher couldnt be immediately reached for comment.

The audit of the Tourism Commission, conducted by the office of State Auditor Charlie Janssen, uncovered multiple financial and accountability problems while the commission was under the watch of former director Kathy McKillip.

The commission, among other things, was faulted for allowing its ad contract with Bailey Lauerman to be overspent by $4.4 million over three years, hiring a speaker for $44,000 to headline a tourism convention for 150 people and paying $18,000 to move an employee 200 miles from Sidney to Kearney.

The commission four years ago became a stand-alone state agency independent of the State Department of Economic Development. It was criticized for getting dozens of free meals from Bailey Lauerman, for improperly reimbursing the ad agency for alcohol and cigarettes and for using McKillips daughter in an advertising campaign.

A staffer in Janssens office said he was unavailable to comment.

Bailey Lauerman produced the Visit Nebraska. Visit Nice campaign last year for the Tourism Commission.

McKillip, who had headed the tourism agency since 2011, was fired by the commissions board in May.

The board has since appointed deputy director Heather Hogue as interim director, while it seeks a new director, Commission Chairman John Chapo of Lincoln said Tuesday. No permanent replacement has been named.

Meanwhile, at Bailey Lauerman, a search to replace Fletcher is in progress, Palu said. Timing, she said, will be based on finding the candidate that is the best fit.

The manager of Bailey Lauermans account with the state left the ad agency in April. Palu has said that his leaving wasnt related to the audit.

Palu said Bailey Lauerman continues to work with the Nebraska Tourism Commission, working closely with the commissioners and staff to help promote tourism for the state.

Chapo confirmed Tuesday that Bailey Lauerman still works with the Tourism Commission, but declined to comment on Fletchers departure.

Fletcher had been the agencys chief executive for four years.

A report in an advertising trade publication Ad Week said Bailey Lauermans board of directors voted to terminate Fletcher. Palu said that wasnt true. There was no vote of the (agencys) board of directors earlier this month calling for Fletchers removal, she aid.

Palu said that Fletcher contributed a great deal during his time as CEO of Bailey Lauerman and that the agency wishes him the best.

Other clients of Bailey Lauerman include Bass Pro Shops, Cuties oranges, Disney, TD Ameritrade and Panda Express.

Contact the writer: 402-444-1142, janice.podsada@owh.com
FREMONT, Neb.  The Fremont City Council approved a redevelopment agreement with Costco spelling out the citys and the companys responsibilities when it comes to building and financing a large poultry processing operation.

The unanimous Tuesday evening vote ended a long series of contentious meetings in which the city has set the table for the project in the face of heated opposition.

One supporter called the vote the end of a long slog.

Despite hours of testimony from opponents over several months, there is a very large, silent majority that thank you for your service, said Fremont resident David Mitchell, an attorney, thanking the council.

Costco wants to build a poultry operation including a hatchery, feed mill and chicken processing facility, to provide chicken for its retail stores. The $300 million plant would employ up to 1,100. Officials say it would pump $1.2 billion annually into the areas economy.

If Costco pursues the project, it would next submit a series of detailed plans for site development and apply for a building permit.

With its votes Tuesday, the City Council approved issuing $13.5 million in indebtedness in the form of a tax-increment financing note. Tax-increment financing is a form of public subsidy used to fund redevelopment costs; the debt would be repaid through tax revenue generated by the development over a period of not more than 15 years. The financing could be used to pay for city fees, streets and utilities, site preparation and acquisition costs.

Costco also plans to apply for tax incentives under the Nebraska Advantage Act, according to the redevelopment agreement.

Under the agreement, the city will extend utilities to the site, with costs paid by Costco, subject to reimbursement from TIF funds. Costco also could get a $2 million economic development incentive from the city to defray these costs.

The council heard criticism from Fremont resident Paul Marsh, who said Fremont got a bad deal in its negotiations over incentives with Costco. Acting City Administrator Brian Newton said the plant would be a good deal for utilities customers, generating $6 million a year in utilities revenue, a 10 percent increase for the city.

Also under the agreement, Costco will apply for $1 million in incentives, to be used for utilities costs, through Fremonts local option economic development plan, the program created under state law to allocate local tax dollars to economic development.

Costco also will get a discount on electricity for five years, of 6 percent to 10 percent.

The city will construct a wastewater lagoon system at the site, funded by Costco, also subject to reimbursement from TIF funds.

Also Tuesday, the City Council approved an agreement with Dodge County, under which the county will contribute $1 million toward roads and other improvements at the development site. The city and county would work together to improve public streets.

Fewer opponents spoke Tuesday than at previous meetings. Laura Krebsbach of Ulysses, a representative of the Oregon-based Socially Responsible Agricultural Project, mentioned the lawsuit filed Monday opposing the citys designation of farmland as blighted, and a request for a judge to halt progress on the plant.

So I find it interesting that youre going to carry on, she told the council.

Plant supporter Kathy Rhea of Rhea Cattle tried to discredit the opponents and called the lawsuit a stall tactic.

Those opposing this must be vegans, racists or extreme environmentalists, she said.

Randy Ruppert, an area resident and leader of opposition group Nebraska Communities United, said after the meeting the opponents are in only the first inning of their campaign.

Meanwhile, Lincoln Premium Poultry, the Georgia company Costco is working with to run its plant, is moving forward under the assumption that the project will advance.

Walt Shafer, a longtime poultry industry executive who is project manager for Lincoln Premium, told The World-Herald that the company has leased office space in Fremont and will open its own office there in August.

He said Lincoln Premium and Costco are continuing due-diligence work, including soil sampling at the proposed plant site, traffic studies and getting bids from equipment manufacturers for plant machinery.

He said Costco may give the project its green light in August. Construction could begin in early 2017. Shafer even has a plant production start date on his calendar: Aug. 20, 2018.

Contact the writer: 402-444-1336, barbara.soderlin@owh.com
Verizon Communications posted wireless subscriber gains Tuesday that missed analysts estimates, adding pressure on Chief Executive Officer Lowell McAdam to outline how the $4.8 billion takeover of Yahoo will help the company augment its maturing phone service business.

The company signed up 615,000 total monthly mobile subscribers in the second quarter, mostly tablet users, and trailed the 785,000 estimate average of analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. New, more lucrative phone customers came to 86,000, short of the 272,000 projected by analysts.

Rather than plunge into a price battle with smaller competitors like T-Mobile US Inc. and Sprint Corp., the nations largest wireless carrier has focused on buying Internet and media companies. McAdam is seeking new revenue from ad sales, an industry where Verizon is a distant No. 3 behind Google and Facebook.

Advertisers are hungry for alternatives as the market expands, McAdam said on an earnings call with analysts Tuesday. Verizon intends to be a significant player in this space.

According to eMarketer, Google and Facebook had a combined 55 percent of the U.S. digital-ad market last year, while a combined Verizon and Yahoo would have had just 6 percent.

The plans to gain more scale in advertising are somewhat tempered by Verizons financial situation. While the company paid down $10 billion in loans last quarter, it still has total debt of $99.7 billion, a federal airwave auction to bid in and a dividend to pay.

Chief Finance Officer Fran Shammo said the road to becoming a significant player wont be through mega deals, but instead via more smaller acquisitions like Yahoo.

I would never say that a company of our size is handcuffed, Shammo said Tuesday. But there is nothing on our radar that is large.

Yahoo will give Verizon millions of online users, including loyal fans of Yahoo Mail, Flickr, Tumblr, Yahoo Finance and Sports, along with some useful digital-ad technology like Flurry and BrightRoll.

Yahoo, I would say, is a small acquisition for a company of our size, but its a strategic acquisition for us, Shammo said. It brings viewers, and more viewers bring more advertising scale. Facebook and Google are the giants but in a market that will be $180 billion in 2020, it doesnt take much share to make a big difference.

Marketers could be drawn by Verizons ability to know where its phone users are, but that might apply only to Verizons customers  not to other Yahoo users around the world. Meanwhile, Facebook and Google already have a lot of that data  Facebook through its social network, and Google through its Android phone system and popular services like maps, email and search.

Like many other major broadband providers, Verizon wants to be more than a dumb pipe that just provides Internet access, Columbia Business School professor Rita McGrath said.

Verizon wants to build a business that can make money off the ever-growing amount of time people spend on their phones. To that end, it has invested in digital-ad businesses and mobile video, including the creation of go90, a video service aimed at millennials.

With its $4.4 billion purchase of AOL last year, Verizon got technology that matches ads with websites like Huffington Post and TechCrunch. With Yahoo, Verizon will get websites, apps and other services used by more than a billion people worldwide each month.

Verizon posted second-quarter earnings, excluding some items, of 94 cents a share, according to a statement from the New York-based company. Analysts predicted 92 cents, the average of estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Sales were $30.5 billion, a 5.3 percent drop from last year and below estimates of $30.7 billion.

This report includes material from the Associated Press.
A 19-year-old man was seriously injured Wednesday morning in a cutting inside a northwest Omaha apartment.

Reports to Douglas County 911 dispatchers said the man and an 18-year-old woman were arguing and fighting around 5:50 a.m. in the apartment near North 100th and Maple Streets.

A caller told dispatchers that the man suffered a cut to his back and that he could feel blood running down his leg.

The injured man was taken to Nebraska Medical Center.
A Nebraska Department of Correctional Services staff member at the Tecumseh State Prison was injured Tuesday in an assault by an inmate.

Officials said the officer was taken to a local medical facility for treatment of non-life-threatening injuries. The officer was later released.

The names of the staff member and the inmate will not be released while an investigation into the case is under way, officials said.

The investigations findings will be turned over to the Johnson County Attorneys Office for possible prosecution, officials said.
In a tense and sometimes emotional meeting, the Metropolitan Community College Board of Governors voted Tuesday night to ask Fred Conley to resign from the board.

The nonbinding resolution also included a clause that censures Conley for conduct inconsistent with and in disregard of his obligations as a member of the Board of Governors if he does not resign.

Conley said after the meeting that he would not resign and that he intends to finish his term, which ends in December. But he said that he might reconsider that position based on new information a Metro attorney provided during the meeting Tuesday.

It certainly gave me pause to think, Conley said.

The vote to ask Conley to resign was 6-4. Four members of the 11-person board  Secretary Kara Eastman, Vice-Chair Roger Garcia, Assistant Secretary Steve Grabowski and Linda McDermitt  had co-sponsored the resolution. They voted yes, as did Michelle Nekuda and Treasurer Brad Ashby.

Phillip Klein, Tim Dempsey and Ron Hug joined Conley in opposing the resolution. James Monahan was absent.

Board members without exception praised Conley for his representation of north Omahas District 2 on the board, while simultaneously asking him to leave the board.

Eastman said that Conley had served north Omaha and the college well and with fervor. But she urged him to resign for the good of the college.

Conley has been under pressure to resign from the Metro board. The U.S. Department of Education has threatened to withhold student aid and other federal funding from Metro if Conley remains on the board. Thats because another federal agency, HUD, issued an order prohibiting the federal government from doing business with Conley or any entity led by him for three years. Conley is suing in federal court to try to overturn the order.

Conley said Tuesday that he did not believe the college was in imminent jeopardy of losing federal funding with him on the board. Would I do anything that would jeopardize $37 million? Conley said. Of course I wouldnt.

Metro administrators have been saying for weeks that Conleys presence is jeopardizing millions in funding, and for days that its already cost the college money. On Tuesday night, Metro President Randy Schmailzl said that the school has been having to reveal Conleys debarment on the colleges grant applications. He said that the National Endowment for the Arts is withholding $60,000 in previously awarded grants and has told Metro not to even bother applying for a $40,000 grant. The college expects more grants and potential grants are at risk.

Metro attorney Robert Cannella told the board that the Department of Education on Monday had said that it could disapprove Metros certification for federal student aid immediately, without an appeal. The colleges only option would be a federal lawsuit to try to get the funding back, which could take years.

Conley said later that came as news to him, and he will research that point further. He had said Monday that he would seriously consider resigning if the Department of Education said in writing that it would halt the colleges funding without an opportunity to appeal.

Metro Executive Vice President Jim Grotrian was among three speakers asking Conley to resign, and for the board to seek his resignation.

His resignation is absolutely necessary to protect the college from further harm and potentially destroying the future of our students, Grotrian said.

Board member Brad Ashby joined other members in praising Conley while urging him to step down.

In the end I have to do the right thing for the college, Ashby said. Im sorry, Fred, to have to put you through this.

Contact the writer: 402-444-1057, christopher.burbach@owh.com
LINCOLN - The Nebraska Latino-American Commission invites Nebraska students to participate in the 10th Annual Hispanic Heritage Month Essay Contest.

The Nebraska Latino-American Commission, a statewide independent government agency serving as a link between the Nebraska State Government and the Latino/a community, is accepting essays in honor of Hispanic Heritage Month, which is from Sept. 15 - Oct. 15.

The contest is open to Nebraska middle and high school students of all ethnicities and backgrounds enrolled in a Nebraska public, private, home school, special purpose or magnet school. Entries are welcome in English or Spanish and must be submitted with an entry form.

For the essay, students are asked to write about civic engagement:

What is the importance of civic engagement among the Latino/a community? Why is it important for Latinos/as to engage in voting, encouraging others to vote, volunteering, taking part in student organizations, knowing and contacting your local elected official, and running for public office?

When writing the essay, students should consider any of the following: What does civic engagement mean to you? How do you participate in civic engagement? Why is it important to contact your local elected official and inform them of your support or opposition to certain issues? How is civic engagement relevant and important to Hispanic Heritage Month? What are the barriers that prevent Latinos/as from becoming engaged in civic purposes, and how can Latinos/as become fully engaged?

Essays will be judged on grammar, content, creativity and understanding of the theme. Content must be original, typed or legibly handwritten and double-spaced. The word length is 250 to 400 words for middle school students and 500 to 700 words for high school students.

The top three winning essays in both middle school and high school categories will be recognized at the Hispanic Heritage Month State Commemoration on Oct. 7 at the State Capitol in Lincoln. The six winners shall receive awards in the form of scholarships, certificates, Amazon Kindles and McDonald's gift cards. In addition, the first place middle and high school winners will be asked to read their essays at the Commemoration, and will have their essays published on McDonald's Hispanic Heritage Month tray liners in October.

For printer-friendly guidelines and entry forms in both English and Spanish, go online to: latinoac.nebraska.gov/. For additional information, call 402-471-2791 or email Jasel.Cantu@Nebraska.gov.
IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP)  An Iowa state crime laboratory analyst has been terminated after posting a rant on Facebook that said she no longer feels safe around black people, her agency said Wednesday.

Amy Pollpeter, a 10-year employee with the Iowa Department of Public Safety, lashed out at the Black Lives Matter movement and African-Americans in general on her Facebook page July 8, one day after a black man shot and killed five officers during a Dallas protest against police brutality. She said the killer was "ONE OF THEM" and that anyone who supported the movement was endorsing the deaths of innocent officers.

"It's interesting until a few years ago, I never really saw the color of a person's skin. They were all just people to me. But BECAUSE OF BLACKS  I now do notice the color of skin  and frankly, I no longer feel safe around them," read the post, first reported by the Des Moines Register.

Pollpeter wrote that blacks have created a more racist environment by seeking "special treatment, special rights, and to be above the law  they want superiority."

"So yes, if I'm on a sidewalk and you are black, I will now move to the other side of the street and will be watching for whether you have a gun. No, I won't shoot you, but I won't trust you either," she wrote. She added that her view was "purely because there aren't a bunch of white people running around (instead of working) rioting, looting stores, and shooting cops. The hatred that blacks are experiencing  they have brought on themselves."

Pollpeter worked in the DNA section at the state crime lab in Ankeny, where she was a forensic biologist. She analyzed crime scene evidence and testified on behalf of the prosecution at some high-profile trials.

The public safety agency said she was placed on administrative leave July 12 and her employment ended Tuesday "in connection with public comments made on a social media site." The department cited its social media policy, which warns employees that any biased posts could be used to impeach their credibility when they testify in court.

Pollpeter confirmed in an email Wednesday that she authored the post, which was removed two weeks ago at the department's request.

"However, it was supposed to be posted only to friends and I do not know how the security setting for that post was changed to public," she wrote in a statement.

She said she disagreed with her firing, calling it possible retaliation for a complaint she filed against a lab supervisor, and added that she is considering legal action.

The department, which includes the Iowa State Patrol and the Division of Criminal Investigation, is overwhelmingly white; an assessment report last year found that 98 percent of its 615 sworn officers were caucasians. But the report also found "no issues regarding biased policing," noting the agency had received few complaints about profiling.

State Rep. Ako Abdul-Samad, a Democrat who has joined Black Lives Matter protests, said he hoped Pollpeter's case would prompt a deeper discussion about race and policing.

"I hope they're not letting her go because of the political climate. I think this is something that we also can use for an educational moment," he said. "If you have some police officers that feel that way, then let's address that. This gives us a chance to eradicate that mindset."
As natural gas filled a Benson home for two days, a voicemail waited on Clara Bender-Rineharts work cellphone alerting her to the potential danger.

Her relatives and friends may never know whether she heard that message.

The property inspector was killed midday Monday when the gas ignited, exploding as she stood in the kitchen. Officials have concluded that her death was the result of an accident.

Natural gas leaking from the gas line of a disconnected clothes dryer was the cause of the blast that occurred about 12:15 p.m. Monday, Omaha fire officials announced Wednesday.

The explosion leveled the home at 3858 N. 65th St. and caused severe damage to others.

Bender-Rinehart, 30, an employee of Certified Property Management, had been inspecting her fourth home Monday.

The Omaha Fire Department completed its investigation Wednesday and released a time line that started with an evicted tenant moving out and ended with the explosion.

On Saturday, Kiwana Toussaint moved out of the house with help from friends, fire officials said in a press release. A clothes dryer was one of the last items removed, investigators said.

The dryer was disconnected from the gas line, but the gas line was not shut off, allowing gas to leak into the home.

Later Saturday, two friends of Toussaints went back to the home to grab a couple of items and told Toussaint that they had smelled natural gas.

Toussaint then left a voicemail on Bender-Rineharts work cellphone late Saturday, but investigators dont know if Bender-Rinehart heard it.

Fire investigators found Bender-Rineharts phone and Omaha police listened to Toussaints voicemail, said Fire Battalion Chief Tim McCaw.

Chief Deputy Douglas County Attorney Brenda Beadle said that because authorities ruled the explosion to be an accident, no charges would be filed.

Mark McDonald, president of NatGas Consulting in Boston, which investigates natural gas explosions, said those removing the dryer most likely would have known the gas was leaking.

Once you disconnect the gas line, youre going to know it, McDonald said. Its going to smell, its going to make a hissing sound.

McDonald is not directly involved in the investigation and offered analysis based on dozens of gas explosion cases his company has investigated.

He said residents should hire a licensed professional to handle appliances connected to gas lines and install a methane detector that would sound even with small amounts of natural gas present.

Likewise, Bender-Rinehart ought to have been able to smell the gas, he said. The air should still have smelled of natural gas if the gas was odorized properly.

The gas would have reached an explosive level, McDonald said.

Omaha fire officials couldnt pinpoint the exact ignition source, but McDonald said it could be anything  a cellphone call, light switch, static electricity or something else.

He said residents should always call the utility company any time they smell gas.

Metropolitan Utilities District officials could have prevented the explosion even if they had been notified Monday, after two days of natural gas leaking, McDonald said, although it would have been difficult.

You basically have a bomb sitting there, he said.

Jeremy Aspen, the president of the management company, said he and another co-worker are sure that Bender-Rinehart knew to call MUD if she smelled gas.

Instructions to leave the property and then call MUD if people smell gas are on the maintenance work order, inspection sheet and property lease, Aspen said.

He said there have been gas problems at properties in the past and that those problems were handled correctly.

Aspen said it would have been preferable if Toussaints call to Bender-Rineharts work cellphone had instead gone through the companys customer service line. That way a call log would have been established and a customer service representative would have handed off the call to MUD.

Aspen believes Bender-Rinehart gave out her personal work number to Toussaint as a way of expediting the process.

Toussaint couldnt be reached for comment Wednesday night.

She was evicted June 22, and Bender-Rinehart unlocked the home Saturday so Toussaint could gather her things.

Toussaint rented the house June 15, 2015, signing a lease for $825 a month, according to Douglas County Court records. She started missing rent payments in December, according to eviction notices filed by Certified Property Management.

The company filed notices in February, citing $2,001 owed; in April, citing $921 owed; and on June 1, citing $623 owed.

The first two filings were dropped, apparently after Toussaint paid the back rent. After the third, the house was locked on June 22.

Aspen said he doesnt have a record of repairs at the house, other than a problem with the garage door in December.

Natural gas fueled the homes furnace, water heater, stove and clothes dryer.

He said the house was rented without a washer or dryer, which means any washer or dryer in the house probably belonged to the tenant.

We didnt have a dryer there, Aspen said.

In the past months, the City of Omaha got involved with the property. Jason Lee, who lives four houses south of the blast site, said the grass would get calf-height and the city would mow it. A code violation sign was also on the door for several weeks to months, he said.

Last weekend, Lee, who had never met Toussaint, said he saw moving trucks at the house.

Aspen said that although disconnecting the gas line from the dryer was the catalyst that led to the blast, he recognizes that there was no malice involved.

To assign blame for an accident probably isnt going to get us any closer to having this resolved in our minds, and of course it doesnt bring Clara back, he said.

Bender-Rineharts husband, Jake Rinehart, expressed a similar sentiment.

This was an accident and our family is not angry and we dont blame anybody for this situation, as tragic as it is, he told the news media Wednesday. It just happens. I only hope that we can all learn from this going forward, not only being more cautious in daily routines but also in the procedures and steps taken to ensure the safety of employees and people we serve.

Contact the writer: 402-444-1068, alia.conley@owh.com

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Click on the pins for more on what neighbors saw, heard and felt as a house exploded at 3858 N. 65th St. on Monday.
Clara Bender-Rinehart, the property inspector who was killed Monday in a home explosion in the Benson area, was remembered by relatives as an outgoing, positive person who strove to provide for her family and wanted to excel in her career.

The relatives spoke to the media Wednesday afternoon outside the home where Bender, 30, and Jake Rinehart were married last year.

The childhood sweethearts had been together for 16 years  since they were in seventh grade. The couple have a son, Dominic.

I knew I wanted to be with her for the rest of my life since Day One, Rinehart said. I want to keep our thoughts and our plans the same and try to give our son the comfort and stability that she wanted to do.

Bender-Rinehart was at 3858 N. 65th St. at midday Monday, inspecting the home after a tenant had been evicted.

After the explosion, she was taken to the hospital in critical condition, but died soon after. Her memorial service will be 11 a.m. Friday at Korisko Larkin Staskiewicz Chapel at 5108 F St.

Her mother, Joyce Reese, said Bender-Rinehart was a miracle child because doctors had told Reese that she couldnt get pregnant again.

I just want everybody to remember Clara as her being the most loving and respected, honest young lady, Reese said.

Much of the recounting was somber, with family members sobbing and hugging one another.

But they laughed when they remembered Bender-Rineharts favorite food  a certain brand of salt and vinegar potato chips. They said she asked her mother to buy her some of the chips from the distributor for a Christmas present because she couldnt find them in Omaha.

Rinehart and Bender worked together at Certified Property Management. Rinehart said she worked hard and learned something new every day.

She was a superpower in all our lives, Rinehart said. That void will never be filled.

Contact the writer: 402-444-1068, alia.conley@owh.com
Sarpy County voters will be asked to consider consolidating two elected offices this fall.

On Tuesday, the Sarpy County Board voted 4-0 to put the consolidation of the Register of Deeds Office with the County Clerks Office on the November ballot. Board member Jim Thompson was absent from the meeting.

The board also had been considering merging the Register of Deeds Office with the Assessors Office.

Several board members voiced support for the consolidation, saying it would save a minimum of $100,000 a year.

Register of Deeds Lloyd Dowding told the board that if a merger is to take place, then he recommends his office be consolidated with the County Clerks Office.

Dowding, 76, has been register of deeds off and on since 1987 and has been continually re-elected since 1994. Dowding said he does not plan to seek re-election.

But Dowding said that while the county might save money on the merger, the average taxpayer wont notice a significant reduction in their property tax bill.

If voters approve the consolidation, a leader of the combined offices would be elected in 2018 and take office in January 2019. The consolidation would happen then.

Sarpy County Clerk Deb Houghtaling said she thought efficiencies could be found between the two offices, but its too early to know how much money could be saved.

But given that both offices keep records, she said she thought the two offices would be a good fit.

Douglas and Lancaster Counties merged their register of deeds and assessors. Those offices were chosen to merge because they both deal with land and property matters.

But by choosing to merge the clerk and the register of deeds, Sarpy County could join dozens of other counties in Nebraska.

Contact the writer: 402-444-1192, emily.nitcher@owh.com
Attorney General Doug Peterson said he will not appeal a judges ruling that overturned a Nebraska commissions decision to let a Colorado company use a well in the Nebraska Panhandle to dispose of salty groundwater and chemical-laden fracking wastewater that result from oil and gas exploration and production.

Judge Derek Weimer said in a ruling released in June that the Nebraska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission had exceeded its authority in April 2015 when it approved a request by Terex Energy Corp., of Broomfield, Colorado. The company wanted permission to dispose of wastewater produced in Colorado and Wyoming.

A petition for the judges review was filed by neighboring landowners Jane Grove and Hughson Flying A Ranch Inc. In court documents, they said theres no Nebraska statute that allows the commission to authorize disposal of the wastewater from other states. The judge agreed.

In a press release, Peterson said that while the Nebraska Attorney Generals Office respectfully disagrees with the decision of the Cheyenne County District Court in the wastewater disposal well case, the state will not file an appeal of that decision.

The applicant for the disposal well, Terex Energy, may still file an appeal of the case.

As much as 10,000 barrels a day of wastewater would have been injected into an old oil well on a ranch in Sioux County. The state already has more than 140 injection wells for such disposal, but the well north of Mitchell would have been the largest.

The project drew objections from environmental groups and nearby landowners who worried that leaks or spills could contaminate the Ogallala Aquifer, which supplies drinking water to about 2 million people in eight states, from South Dakota to Texas, and supports irrigation.
PHILADELPHIA  No chairs were thrown at the Nebraska delegations Tuesday morning breakfast. But the gathering took on a daytime television vibe as featured guest Jerry Springer elicited emotional outpourings.

The famous talk show host and former Democratic mayor of Cincinnati praised Bernie Sanders contributions in moving the party and Hillary Clinton to the left.

But he also had a message for Sanders supporters: Clinton has put up with a great deal over the years while blazing a path for women to succeed.

So a little respect  instead of booing her because we dont like her position, Springer said.

In response, Sanders delegates explained that they have problems with the way the primary campaign was handled. And they suggested that Sanders has not received his due for all that he accomplished.

Im ready to sing kumbaya, but I dont like the arrogance, said Pastor Janet Goodman Banks, a Sanders delegate.

Meanwhile, Sharlette Schwenninger of Elwood, Nebraska, said that she and other Clinton delegates feel that they are being accosted by Sanders backers  even in elevators.

Were coming here because were supporting the candidate who is going to be the nominee, and we cant be out about it because we get confronted everywhere about, How can you possibly support this woman?  Schwenninger said.

As the mutual pleas for respect mounted, one delegate said jokingly: Did you bring your bodyguards with you, Jerry?

OK, before this becomes my show, Springer said, cutting off the back-and-forth.

He told the delegation that its unrealistic to think that the intense feelings from the primaries can simply be switched off.

But he also said that his own observation from the previous nights proceedings was that many speakers had praised Sanders.

And Springer said that while Sanders supporters are correct that Clinton has more friends within the partys inner circle, thats just the way the world works.

You cant run against the establishment candidate, he said, and then be shocked when she has more support in the establishment.

You cant in the real world be surprised that Hillary Clinton would have more clout within the party than Bernie Sanders, Springer said. Theres no logical explanation for it to be any other way. Shes been a lifelong Democrat; her husband was president of the United States. Of course she has more contacts than Bernie. Bernies a socialist running as an independent.

He encouraged the Sanders supporters to keep pushing their issues and work on elections up and down the ballot. Finally, he urged them not to be depressed just because Sanders isnt the partys nominee.

You havent lost, he said. Youve begun a revolution.

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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.
PHILADELPHIA  A bully. A snake-oil salesman. A modern-day Joe McCarthy.

The harsh depictions of Republican nominee Donald Trump make this weeks Democratic National Convention often feel more like a rally against Trump than one in favor of the partys own nominee, Hillary Clinton.

Nebraska and Iowa delegates have heard speaker after speaker this week rip into Trump before a backdrop of Love Trumps Hate signs and anti-Trump videos.

Even on Tuesday evening, when the focus was supposed to be on Clintons merits, the anti-Trump drumbeat continued. After lauding Clinton for what they viewed as her toughness, compassion or sound policies, many speakers then found something to criticize about Trump.

Of course, Democrats can say the other side started it after last weeks Republican National Convention in Cleveland. The program there was at least as critical of Clinton as this weeks event in Philadelphia. In fact, the mere mention of Clintons name sent GOP delegates into chants of lock her up.

Together, it all points to a presidential election that could rank as one of the nastiest on record.

Taking shots at the other party is nothing new, but this years conventions have bumped it up a notch. Thats for good reason, according to Steffen Schmidt, political science professor at Iowa State University.

You have the two least trusted candidates for president in modern history, Schmidt said.

An eye-popping 57 percent of Americans have an unfavorable opinion of Trump, based on Real Clear Politics averages of recent polling. Hillary Clinton is almost as disliked  56 percent of Americans have an unfavorable view of her.

Republicans have trouble touting Trumps qualifications, given that he has never held public office, and Democrats know that Clintons lengthy resume brings its own kind of baggage, Schmidt said.

So for both parties, a lesser-of-two-evils approach seems to be the only way to go.

Theyve got to turn it into a campaign basically to take down their opponent, Schmidt said.

Both sides are trying mightily to do just that.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., in particular, set her sights on Trump, dropping his name dozens of times in her speech Monday  even more than she mentioned Clinton.

She sought to depict Trump as both a dangerous demagogue spreading racial hatred and an empty suit hawking goofy hats.

Trumps entire campaign is just one more late-night Trump infomercial, Warren said. Hand over your money, your jobs, your childrens future, and The Great Trump Hot Air Machine will reveal all the answers.

Last week, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie framed his speech to Republicans as a mock prosecution of Clinton.

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, Christie said.

For both parties, one reason to trash the other guy is to rally base supporters who are shaky in their backing for the nominees. Some of Trumps Republican primary rivals have offered tepid or no support for his candidacy. And while Clinton eventually won the endorsement of rival Bernie Sanders, many of his supporters have refused to go along.

Sanders supporters said they recognize that Trump is being cast as the villain at the Democratic Convention in an effort to bring them into Clintons camp.

The position of the DNC is to ignore the differences between Bernie and Hillary and highlight a common enemy. They think it will help diminish the differences between us, said Rebecca Mueller, 35, a Sanders delegate from Muscatine, Iowa.

Mueller also believes the focus on Trump is aimed at softening Clintons negatives and getting the public and the media to ignore Clintons own record.

I think that theyre going to try and show that for every downside for Hillary, Trump has the same downside but 20 times bigger, said Mueller.

Some Democrats are fine with talking a lot about Trump. They say that the New York real estate developer poses grave risks to America and that the public needs to know about his ideas and his past.

Sean Bagniewski, a pro-Clinton delegate from Des Moines, says its not negative campaigning to show anti-Trump videos that use actual footage of Trump making controversial statements.

Hes an absolute monster, said Bagniewski, 32. He represents an America that none of us grew up in and want.

Having a particularly nasty campaign is likely to drive down turnout, Schmidt said. Depending on which partys voters are most affected, that could determine if vulnerable incumbents such as freshman Reps. David Young, R-Iowa, and Brad Ashford, D-Neb., are tossed out of office.

Asked about the impending mudfest, Clinton delegate Mark Hoeger of Omaha said that unfortunately its easier to engender negative feelings than positive ones.

Thats the sad reality of just the art and science of persuasion, Hoeger said.

But is beating up on Trump really the best argument that Democrats have to make?

Thats the easiest argument to make, he said, laughing. Im not sure its the best argument to make.

And he bemoaned the fact that all this negativity prevents a real discussion of the issues facing the country.

Youre just saying nanny-nanny, poo-poo to the other side and you never get around to actually talking about (each candidates beliefs), Hoeger said. If you reduce it to just Whos the worst? then everybody loses.

* * *

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.
PHILADELPHIA (AP)  Breaking a historic barrier, Hillary Clinton triumphantly captured the Democratic nomination for president Tuesday night, the first woman ever to lead a major political party in the race for the White House.

Delegates erupted in cheers as Clintons primary rival, Bernie Sanders, helped make it official  an important show of unity for a party trying to heal deep divisions.

I move that Hillary Clinton be selected as the nominee of the Democratic Party for president of the United States, Sanders declared, asking that it be by acclamation.

It was a striking parallel to the role Clinton played eight years ago when she stepped to the microphone on the convention floor in Denver in support of her former rival, Barack Obama.

This time, Clinton shattered the glass ceiling she couldnt crack in 2008.

South Dakotas votes delivered the prize that eluded Clinton eight years ago by giving her the 2,383 delegates needed for nomination.

But in a bit of stagecraft to promote the image of Democrats united, an announcement of the tally was delayed until Vermont  which passed on its turn in the alphabetical order  concluded the roll call by casting 22 of its 26 votes for Sanders.

Sanders then rose to his feet, took the delegation microphone and moved that the vote be made unanimous. As his wife, Jane, briefly embraced him, a sea of blue and gold Clinton signs blossomed on the convention floor and delegates, on a voice vote, roared their approval.

The state-by-state balloting, traditionally a chance for local boosterism and some good-natured bragging, briefly turned emotional when Sanders brother, Larry, cast his ballot as a delegate for Democrats living abroad.

A politician in Britain, Larry Sanders voice grew thick as he discussed his parents, their hard life and how proud they would be of Bernard, the candidate for president.

Bernie Sanders teared up as he watched.

Tuesday night wasnt all sweetness and light.

Moments after Clinton claimed the nomination, a group of Sanders supporters left the convention and headed to a media tent to protest that they were being shut out of their party.

Earlier, several hundred gathered at Philadelphias City Hall under a blazing sun chanting Bernie or bust.

Clintons landmark achievement saturated the roll call with emotion and symbols of womens long struggle to break through political barriers. A 102-year-old woman, born before women had the right to vote, cast the ballots for Arizona.

Martha McKenna, a Clinton delegate from Maryland, said the night felt like a celebration for Sanders campaign as well as Clintons.

She added, The idea that Im going to be here when the first woman president is nominated is overwhelming.

Clintons campaign hoped the night of achievement, personal stories and praise could chip away at the deep distrust many voters, including some Democrats, have of the former secretary of state, senator and first lady.

Much of the night was devoted to introducing voters to Clinton anew.

In contrast to Monday, when the mere mention of Clintons name drew a cascade of boos, Sanders supporters seemed more interested Tuesday in delivering one last hurrah for their candidate, cheering lustily when his name was formally placed into nomination.

When it was their turn, Clinton supporters responded in kind.

That less divisive tone was due in no small part to Sanders efforts.

Hours after delivering a wholehearted pro-Clinton speech Monday night, he paid an unexpected breakfast call on the California delegation, a hotbed of resistance to the presumptive Democratic nominee.

As goes California, so goes America, so I know that you know that you have an enormous responsibility, the Vermont senator said, urging resisters to put aside their grievances and rally behind Clinton as he had.

When some began to boo, Sanders raised his voice to be heard.

It is easy to boo, but its harder to look your kids in the face who would be living under Donald Trump, Sanders said of the GOP nominee.

Sanders also confirmed Tuesday that he will return to the Senate as an independent, not a Democrat.

I was elected as an independent so Ill stay two years more as an independent, he told reporters. As the longest-serving independent in congressional history, Sanders had declared himself a Democrat only when he entered the presidential race last year.

This report includes material from the Los Angeles Times and the Washington Post.
PHILADELPHIA - Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump on Wednesday said he hoped that Russia would hack into Hillary Clinton's email server to find "missing" messages and release them to the public.

"Russia, if you're listening I hope you're able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing. I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press," Trump said during a press conference at his Doral resort in south Florida on Wednesday.

"They probably have them. I'd like to have them release. It gives me no pause, if they have them, they have them," Trump added later when asked if his comments were inappropriate. "If Russia or China or any other country has those emails, I mean to be honest with you, I'd love to see them."

His comments came during a free-wheeling and tense news conference with reporters. On several occasions Trump interrupted reporters and accused them of bias. In one instance, he told a female reporter to "be quiet."

The real estate mogul sought throughout the gathering to distance himself from allegations that the Russian government hacked into the Democratic National Committee to benefit his campaign, which Clinton's campaign manager suggested earlier this week.

"It is so farfetched. It's so ridiculous. Honestly I wish I had that power. I'd love to have that power but Russia has no respect for our country," Trump said.

Trump said repeatedly that "I have nothing to do with Russia" and distanced himself from previous positive comments he made about Putin: "I have nothing to do with Russia! I said that Putin has much better leadership qualities than Obama, but who doesn't know that," he said.

The remarks came amid a series of concerted attacks on Trump by top Democrats, previewing some of what they plan to say Wednesday night to tout Hillary Clinton's fitness to serve as commander-in-chief.

President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden and the man who wants to succeed him, Sen. Timothy Kaine, D-Va., began lobbing charges against Trump early Wednesday.

On NBC's "Today" show, Obama sought to raise fears of a Trump presidency. Responding to a question about Trump's electoral chances, Obama said "we don't know" whether the Republican could win the presidency and warned Democrats that "anybody who goes into campaigns not running scared can end up losing."

Biden delivered a blunter assessment, saying that Trump "knows nothing about foreign policy, nor should he, based upon his background. But the thing that bothers me is, I don't see any attempt for him to go out and to get people who really know on the Republican side" to advise him, he told MSNBC's "Morning Joe."

Trump dismissed the attacks on Wednesday, calling Obama "the most ignorant president in our history. His views of the world, as he says, don't jive, and the world is a mess."

During a news conference in Florida, Trump said Obama "will go down as one of the worst presidents in the history of our country. It is a mess. And I believe that Hillary Clinton will be even worse."

On Twitter, Trump called Biden "not very bright."

Kaine spoke Wednesday morning to Virginia Democrats and focused on Trump's rhetoric and his frequently controversial remarks about women, minorities and temporarily banning Muslims from entering the United States.

"Is it too much to ask to have the first woman president rather than someone who offends women every time he opens his mouth?" he said on Wednesday morning.

Kaine, whose Marine son deployed overseas Monday, also said Trump has fought to avoid paying taxes that pay for the military -- a potent message in veterans-rich Virginia.

"Who's funding veterans' programs?" he asked. "Who's funding veterans' services? Folks like you and me, but Donald Trump's too big to have to fund veterans, too big to have to fund our military. . . too big to have to fund the things that make us a great nation."

"I guess that's just for suckers to have to pay for the society we have," he said, as the audience of friends and supporters cheered.

Clearly moved by the support of home state Democrats, Kaine received a standing ovation at the delegation's breakfast as he emphasized the historic nature of Clinton's nomination.

The senator plans focus on Clinton's "plans to keep America safe" on Wednesday, according to a campaign official.

The topic is consistent with the theme that Clinton officials have crafted for a third night of the Democratic National Convention as foreign policy and terrorism have risen to the fore in the 2016 election. Trump has seized on those issues, casting himself as the candidate more focused on keeping the country safe.

The Clinton aide cited Kaine's service on the Senate Armed Services Committee and Foreign Relations Committee and said his speech would also touch on economic issues. The aide spoke on the condition of anonymity to more freely discuss plans for the evening.

Kaine's pick as Clinton's vice presidential running mate drew praise from many quarters, but the former Virginia governor faces a challenge in convincing some progressive groups that he will champion their issues. Longtime watchers of Virginia politics say the question during much of Kaine's career there has actually been whether Kaine is too liberal for their state.

But Sen. Christopher Murphy, D-Conn., who sits alongside Kaine on the foreign relations panel, described the Virginian on Wednesday as "a next-level intellect."

"There's nobody better on that committee to distill these complicated issues into easy, digestible ways," Murphy said in a Washington Post interview in Philadelphia. "I think he's going to bring a readiness and humanity to this role. And all the press he gets about being a nice guy - it's all true."

Other speakers on Wednesday will include Leon Panetta, the former defense secretary and CIA director who served alongside Clinton during Obama's first term, most notably during the military operation that killed terrorist leader Osama bin Laden. Former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg, a Democrat-turned-Republican-turned-independent, plans to endorse Clinton during Wednesday evening's proceedings amid concerns about Trump's fitness for the presidency.

The convention is also poised to double down on Clinton's push to enact tough new gun control laws by featuring families of the victims of the recent Orlando, Florida, nightclub shooting; the daughter of the principal of a Connecticut elementary school who was shot dead in a 2012 shooting; and astronaut Mark Kelly and his wife, former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, the victim of a 2011 assassination attempt. The couple leads a gun safety organization.

The Clinton campaign meanwhile sought to tamp down fresh questions about whether the candidate intends to reverse her opposition to the Trans-Pacific Partnership if she is elected president.

The controversy erupted on Tuesday night, when Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe told a reporter for Politico that Clinton, who is a longtime friend and ally, would support a version of the deal, which is supported by Obama.

But Clinton's campaign chairman, senior aides and prominent supporters quickly corrected the governor saying that Clinton opposes TPP before and after the election.

Speaking on "CBS This Morning," Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., said that McAuliffe was "wrong" to say that Clinton would eventually support the trade deal.

"Well, Terry McAuliffe shouldn't have said what he said," McCaskill said. "Terry McAuliffe made a huge mistake and Terry McAuliffe is wrong."

McAuliffe also clarified his position, blaming a misunderstanding for the gaffe and said that he believed that Clinton would oppose the deal unless her concerns were addressed.

The governor's comments on TPP came as he joined a parade of Clinton supporters from all walks of life - led by her husband, Bill Clinton, whose long, folksy telling of their love story was the evening's capstone - tried to open a window into Hillary Clinton's character and motivations by sharing a medley of personal anecdotes.

(c) 2016, The Washington Post.
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.
U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro says Hillary Clinton has what it takes to keep America safe, whether its at home or abroad.

In contrast, the Texas congressman said, Donald Trump has no experience in foreign policy and would pose a risk to America security.

"We know that allowing Donald Trump into the Oval Office would be dangerous at this time," Castro said.

Castros brother, Julian, also spoke to the Iowa delegation.

He praised Clintons rival, Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, for bringing many new faces into the Democratic Party, adding that the party is committed to expanding opportunities for everybody.

"It has been so amazing watching this convention  to stand and to see how diverse this Democratic Party is," said Julian Castro, who is the U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development.

 Robynn Tysver

* * *

Cory Booker says Sanders made Clinton a better candidate

U.S. Sen. Cory Booker, the rising Democratic star from New Jersey, says he was sitting with former President Bill Clinton in a private box on the night Bernie Sanders addressed the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia.

He said he looked over at Clinton at one point, and he was clapping loud and long for his wifes former rival.

"He was just cheering away like crazy for Bernie Sanders," Booker told the Iowa delegation.

"Its a testimony to (Sanders) that he changed the national conversation and changed our platform and made Hillary better," said Booker.

 Robynn Tysver

* * * * *

Iowa's Sanders supporters get personal apology from DNC

The push is on to try to heal any hard feelings still lingering with Bernie Sanders supporters over the Democratic Partys recent email controversy.

R.T. Rybak, who is a vice chair with the Democratic National Committee, told Iowans Wednesday that mistakes were made. He was referring to the leaked emails that showed some people within the national party favored Hillary Clinton over Sanders during this years primary contests.

"We betrayed your trust and on behalf of all of our vice chairs, were sorry," said Rybak.

"Thank you," one Sanders supporter said.

 Robynn Tysver

* * * * *

VP nominee Tim Kaine admits to wearing spandex

U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., says a key question being asked of voters in this election is a question about time.

Do voters want to go forward, Kaine asked, or do they want to turn the clock back to a time when it was OK to make fun of people with disabilities or to openly treat women with disrespect?

Kaine, who was clearly referring to controversial remarks made by Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, was the surprise guest at Wednesdays Iowa breakfast. He is scheduled to speak at the convention Wednesday night to formally accept his nomination as Hillary Clintons running mate.

Kaine told the Iowans that back in 1996 he rode in the states premier bicycle tour, RAGBRAI.

"I am so happy none of the pictures survived," Kaine said. "Me and spandex is not something I want on the Internet."

 Robynn Tysver

* * * * *

16-year-old environmental activist speaks to Nebraska delegates

Nebraska delegates heard Wednesday from Xiuhtezcatl Martinez, a 16-year-old environmental activist who is not old enough to vote but has spoken at the United Nations.

Martinez talked about the threat of climate change, citing intense wildfires and flooding in his home state of Colorado. He said its important to protect the environment for the next generation, and that Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump threatens progress in that area.

But Martinez also said that keeping Trump out of the White House cant be the only goal in supporting Hillary Clinton now.

"What we must realize is that the political revolution that (Bernie Sanders) created was never just about winning the presidency," he said. "We cant just vote for Hillary so that Donald Trump doesnt become elected. We must hold her accountable to follow through, to pursue the progressive platform and reach the standard that Bernie has set."

 Joseph Morton

* * * * *

Iowa gets the VIP treatment in Philadelphia

Its nice to be a swing state at a national political convention. Just ask the Iowans in Philadelphia.

Each morning, the Iowa delegation receives some of the Democratic conventions biggest stars, while other delegations have to make do with lower-level politicians or party officials.

For example, on Tuesday Bernie Sanders popped into the Iowa breakfast. Wednesday, vice presidential nominee Tim Kaine stopped by, followed by rising Democratic stars Julian and Joaquin Castro.

 Robynn Tysver
Heres the big issue facing Democrats at their national convention in Philadelphia this week:

Right, there isnt one.

Hillary Clinton will finally be crowned the partys presidential nominee, having been snowplowed aside eight years ago by the rookie Illinois senator who thought Canada had a president.

Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia will be nominated as her vice presidential partner. Not exactly Mr. Excitement, the affable, 58-year-old ex-governor could help defrost Clintons chilly, privileged persona.

Delegates will also approve what is likely the most liberal platform in history, not that anyone pays attention to those things, except on presidential debate nights.

No fights, no refusals to endorse, no unpredictable nominee; that makes for pretty boring TV, which is just fine with the Clinton crowd this time.

Playing it safe is Clintons 2016 campaign plan, because she is disliked and is not trusted only a little bit less than her loud GOP opponent is disliked and not trusted. So, on Nov. 8, Americans basically will choose the least disliked candidate.

That pain-in-the-PAC Bernie Sanders has already endorsed Clinton. So he can be discarded. Ah, but wait.

How will Bernies devoted followers receive the new WikiLeaks documents hacked from the Democratic National Committee? The ones that prove the old Vermont socialist was dead-on right in his wild accusations this spring: DNC staff were indeed quietly conspiring against him all along, just as he charged.

This is the Clintons, after all. Everything is rigged in their favor: the State Department Benghazi report, the FBI email and national security probe that found so much damning evidence but no indictment.

Wait, wasnt it old fogy establishment Republicans who were supposed to be rigging their primaries against Donald Trump? That worked out well.

All last week in Cleveland, a battalion of the billionaires friends and children praised him to the highest penthouse floor. Trump accepted the GOP nomination with a very long speech chronicling the stagnant incomes, the racial divisions, the crumbling military, the amateur foreign policy mistakes, the wars, the crime, the cronyism, those speaking fees, the illegal immigration and more American afflictions these past eight years.

That struck flyover country as awful  and just about the right description. And it struck the countrys most prosperous counties living off government in and around the Beltway as way too dark and gloomy. Its good to be living there as economic royalty. Theres no problem that some more government cant solve.

Guess whos out of touch?

Trump is way under-financed, and his loud, undisciplined mouth plays right into the hands of Democrats and their many media friends. But if enough people in a few key states buy his portrait of gloom, they could see the loudmouth outsider as the best vehicle to upset a lot of Washington tables and bureaucrats.

Clinton is trying to have it both ways: We have so many things to fix in this flawed, biased land, and President Barack Obama has done such a marvelous job that much more needs doing.

The country has many more Democrats than Republicans. With that head start and Clinton sidling to the left to attract Sanders supporters, she hopes that her experience as first lady, senator and secretary of state will convince voters they want a third Obama term. And remember, she flew a million miles on a government plane.

Americans have given the same party three consecutive White House terms only once since World War II: two Reagan and one Bush I terms.

Clinton and her supporters have already invested $60 million in unanswered attack ads against Trump, much as Obama weakened Mitt Romney in the 2012 summer.

But world events cant be controlled or predicted. Might another major terrorist event or an ongoing series of lethal lone-wolf attacks like Munich, Dallas, Nice and Orlando tip the balance in the 15 weeks before Election Day?

They could convince a lot of people that the world really is spinning out of control, as Trump described. And that their fear of terrorism and more ineffective government responses outweighs any concern over a Republican candidate who is unpredictable but talks tough and decisively.

The impact of that scenario on Nov. 8 would be, well, unpredictable.
A few days ago national Democrats looked as though they had finally resolved their differences enough to stage a well-scripted convention with a single goal in mind: winning the presidential election.

They had their candidate, her running mate, a big target in Donald Trump and four nights of national attention to make their case to the American people. It would be a soothing contrast to the fractious Republican gathering in Cleveland.

But attendees had barely arrived in Philadelphia when Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz was subjected to boos and jeers at a meeting with delegates from her own state chanting Shame! Shame! Shame!

The uproar stemmed from a mass of internal DNC emails released by WikiLeaks that indicated the officials and staff preferred to have Hillary Clinton win the nomination. Wasserman Schultz was obliged to wear the jacket, announcing that she would step down.

But that wasnt enough to appease Bernie Sanders supporters, who could turn the Clinton coronation into a slugfest.

All this brought to mind the old joke that when Democrats assemble a firing squad, they form a circle. The revelations, however, only validated the anger of Sanders followers, who have complained all along that the party hierarchy had stacked the deck.

Sanders and Republican nominee Trump have shared an indictment of American politics, that the system is rigged  the adjective both used  to protect insiders.

And by buttressing the companion charge that Clinton and her allies will do anything to win, the email episode threatened to alienate a significant number of people who should be voting Democratic.

Those voters might stay home, or they might cast their ballots for Green Party candidate Jill Stein. In a close election, those nonvotes, and Stein votes, could be decisive.

Not that anyone should have been shocked by the content of the emails. The worst was one suggesting that Sanders be asked about his religious beliefs: He (has) skated on saying he has a Jewish heritage. I think I read he is an atheist. Among Wasserman Schultzs choice comments was calling Sanders campaign manager a damn liar. But most of the messages merely proved the DNC is staffed by normal people with normal (if not always endearing) emotions.

In any case, the tilt of party apparatchiks was obvious long before now. The DNC drastically reduced the number of debates compared with 2008, when Barack Obama made the most of his many chances to go toe to toe with Clinton and John Edwards. Two of this campaigns debates were held on Saturday evenings, including one six days before Christmas  timing that virtually guaranteed low viewership, to the advantage of the better-known Clinton.

After a Sanders staffer improperly accessed DNC voter data, the DNC blocked the Sanders campaign from any access, even after the aide was fired. Former Obama adviser David Axelrod said that step suggested the DNC was putting a finger on the scale to help Clinton.

The prospective nominee gave the controversy as wide a berth as she could manage. I dont know anything about these emails, she told Scott Pelley on Sundays 60 Minutes. I havent followed it.

I havent followed it. Um, if you say so.

After this expose and Clintons private server fiasco, Democrats might want to take a break from using email. Picking up the phone or talking face to face is safer these days. Anyone in public life should assume that nothing said online is guaranteed to remain private.

Some Democrats were quick to change the subject, suggesting that the leak may have been the work of Russian hackers, possibly connected to the Kremlin, who hope to elect Trump. I dont think its coincidental that these emails were released on the eve of our convention here, and I think thats disturbing, Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook said.

Maybe theres a plot to be uncovered; the FBI is investigating. But the hackers didnt write the emails. However the information was extracted, it still makes the DNC look diabolical.

More worrisome for Clintons party is that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has promised to publish additional information that will get her indicted.

Democrats may or may not have fun at the convention. But they, and the electorate, probably wont be bored.
Nebraska officials continue to receive sobering news about the current trends for state revenues. Lets look at the latest projections, then at how the University of Nebraska budget provides a key example of the states challenge to be fiscally responsible while striving to meet public needs.

Mike Calvert, director of the Legislative Fiscal Office, told a legislative committee this week that Nebraskas budget for the fiscal year ending in mid-2017 may come up $113.7 million short. Gov. Pete Ricketts has rightly responded by implementing a series of budget stringencies.

Just ahead, the governor and Legislature will need to craft the budget for the next two-year cycle, ending in June 2019. Calvert says current projections indicate revenues over that two-year period will fall $352.7 million short and could potentially approach $600 million.

That means all parties need to be willing to accept sensible compromise on taxing and spending following negotiations next year.

Tax cut proposals should be crafted so they dont throw the budget out of kilter. Organizations need to understand that in most cases the state wont be able to grant the entirety of their funding requests.

The University of Nebraska set the proper example this year when it presented a solid, multi-year capital spending request but later accepted the Legislatures paring down of the plan.

NU had sought $22 million annually for 10 years starting in mid-2019. Lawmakers and Ricketts agreed to make it $11 million annually. That falls well short of the building renovation needs, but NU President Hank Bounds made clear that university officials understand the states fiscal challenge and the need for reasonable compromise.

This will again need to be the approach for NU early next year, when the Legislature begins its deliberations on spending and tax policy.

NUs budget request, approved last week by the Board of Regents, is for $602 million in state support for 2017-18 and $628 million for 2018-19, an annual average increase of about 4 percent.

Given the states fiscal challenge, its doubtful the state can accommodate an increase of that size. Just as NU commendably accepted without protest the states decision on the universitys capital funding, so it will need to do the same as lawmakers decide the upcoming two-year budget.

Which isnt to say Nebraska should make the mistake some other states have made by slashing public university support to an irresponsible level. This is especially clear now that NUs campuses are demonstrating impressive vision and earning national and even international recognition for strategic initiatives, such as biomechanics at the University of Nebraska at Omaha and ag-science innovation at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

One example is a information technology institute UNO is creating on its Scott Campus, building on the impressive success of UNOs College of Information Science and Technology. NU is requesting $1.4 million over two years in state support.

Lawmakers will need to weigh how much can be responsibly devoted to the UNO project, but it is an example of the strategic priorities NU has promoted, with promising results.

Tough budget times require difficult choices. That will be the case just ahead for NU and other Nebraska institutions.

Everyone needs to be prepared for serious compromise to keep the states fiscal house in order.
Judge Merrick Garland has set a record he never sought and one of which no one, certainly not the U.S. Senate, should be proud.

July 19 marked 125 days since President Barack Obama nominated Garland to the U.S. Supreme Court to replace the late Justice Antonin Scalia. The nomination passed the record for delay that the Senate set a century ago with the nomination of Louis Brandeis to the court.

One hundred years ago, with a world in turmoil as a great war raged in Europe, a cultural and political battle unfolded in the U.S. Senate.

In January 1916, an election year, President Woodrow Wilson nominated Brandeis to the Supreme Court. The Brandeis nomination, which portended to put the first Jewish justice on the court, triggered the most intense nomination battle of Americas first century and a half. It took the Senate 125 days between the nomination and the vote for the nomination.

There were many ingredients to the opposition to the Brandeis nomination. Brandeis had distinguished himself as a leading figure in the Progressive movement, a trust-buster challenging the tycoons of his day. But the most toxic ingredient in the effort to derail the nomination was anti-Semitism.

Attacks on Brandeis Jewish heritage were rarely made expressly but were rather thinly veiled as attacks on his character. Harvard President A. Lawrence Lowell, who was known for his advocacy of restrictive immigration policies and for instituting a quota capping the number of Jewish students at Harvard, called Brandeis unscrupulous.

Ultimately, after the unprecedented delay, the Senate did vote 47-22 to confirm Brandeis. He would go on to a remarkable 23 years of service on the court, distinguishing himself as one of the great legal minds of the 20th century and the namesake of the university where I was honored to serve as president.

But the stain of the effort to thwart his accession to the court still reverberates. In the years since, there have been other fights over nominations to the court. In each case, however, no matter how high the level of dissension, hearings were held and a confirmation vote was ultimately taken.

Today marks a new low  the Senate refuses even to hold a hearing on Merrick Garland. I join lawyers and scholars from across the political and legal spectrum in observing that Garland is an exceptionally qualified nominee who, in addition to his 19 years of distinguished service on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, oversaw the Oklahoma City bombing prosecution.

The Senates obstruction will leave an eight-member court into the next term, and the challenges raised thereby are apparent: There were four 4-4 decisions this past term, including United States v. Texas, which leaves in legal limbo the constitutionality of the Deferred Action for Parents of Americans program and the status of millions of American families.

The constitutional responsibility of the Senate to provide advice and consent is clear. In a different but related context, Justice Brandeis made the point powerfully: Our government . . . teaches the whole people by its example. If the government becomes the lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy.

The categorical obstruction of the Garland nomination has created challenges for the court. But in the years to come, the institution whose credibility is most at risk from this obstruction is the U.S. Senate itself.
Uttarakhand government sends report on Chinese incursions

Dehradun

oi-Vicky

Dehradun, July 27: The Uttarakhand state government has sent a report on the Chinese incursions along the Barahoti stretch has been sent to the union government.

Earlier the Chief Minister of Uttarakhand confirmed that Chinese troops had been spotted in the area while adding that this is a matter of serious concern. He also said that the state has asked the centre to increase vigil.

The centre meanwhile has asked the Indo-Tibetan Border Police which mans the China-Indian border to look into the matter and submit a report. Rawat said that the movements were noticed when officials had gone to measure the revenue.

He however also added that the troops had not touched upon an important canal in the area.

Chinese spotted:

Chinese troops were noticed when a team of officials went up to the Line of Actual Control near Barahoti. The Chinese soldiers appeared and signalled to the Indian team to go back. The Chinese were also said to have told the Indian team that the land there belonged to them.

The bone of contention is the 80 sq-km ground which has been a disputed part since the year 1957. Both countries had agreed to sort out the issue through negotiations.

In 1958 China had sent a delegation to India for negotiations and it had been decided that both sides will not send troops into the area. A final settlement is still awaited in this regard. However shepherds from both sides are allowed to enter the ground.

The ITBP too had sent a report to the home ministry about these issues as this is not the first time that such occurrences have taken place. At a Chief Minister's conference it was stated that the Chinese had entered this territory at least 37 times between 2007 and 2012.

OneIndia News

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Story first published: Wednesday, July 27, 2016, 17:04 [IST]
Question Paper leak: Telangana EAMCET - II may be cancelled; CID arrests 4 accused

Hyderabad

oi-Oneindia

By Oneindia Staff Writer

Telangana, July 27: Telangana EAMCET - II may be cancelled as a massive scam in connection with the exam leak was unearthed on Wednesday, July 27.

It has been reported that 69 students got the leaked question papers and scamsters collected Rs 40 lakhs to Rs 70 lakhs from each student.

Four accussed-- Rajagopal Reddy, Vishnu, Tirumal and Ramesh are in the custody of Hyderabad CID and four are absconding.

After a thorough probe, the CID today concluded that Telangana EAMCET - II question paper was leaked from Delhi printing press. The question papers leakage has links with Hyderabad, Bangalore and Delhi.

It is said that a camp was conducted in Bengaluru for 30 students. The paper was allegedly leaked to 30 students. Each candiadte paid Rs 50 lakhs and paid Rs 10 lakhs as advance.

One of the arrested accused, Ramesh worked as broker. The CID is suspecting the involvement of office staff of the Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University's rector Ramana Rao. The CID will submit its report to the Telangana government tommorrow.

The CID sleuths reportedly grilled Venkat Rao and Ramesh, brokers of certain education consultancies from the city, who allegedly contacted several students who appeared for the Eamcet-II offering the leaked question paper.

Cops also grilled three girl students from Bhoopalpally and Parakala in Warangal district, who had achieved significantly better marks in the Eamcet-II when compared to their score in Eamcet-I.

Investigators confronted the brokers with cell phone call recordings handed over to them by the parents of some students. The audio recordings contained the conversation between the brokers and the parents about the paper leak.

Director General of Police (DGP) Anurag Sharma on July 20 ordered a CID inquiry into the TS Eamcet-II paper leakage issue.

Anurag Sharma ordered for a CID inquiry, after Eamcet convenor NV Ramana Rao met him in his office and requested for an inquiry, after allegations of paper leakage were made by some student organisations and parents.

As certificates verification for admissions into MBBS and BDS courses were about to start from July 25, Ramana Rao requested for a quick inquiry into the issue.

Eamcet-II 2016 (held for admissions in MBBS and BDS courses) was held on July 9 for 2,650 MBBS and BDS seats and results were announced on July 13. 50,961 students had appeared for the exam and 47,644 had qualified it.

The issue of leakage came into fore on the basis of the ranks of the 12 students.

OneIndia News
Battle in Jammu and Kashmir now moved online

India

oi-Vicky

Srinagar, July 27: After Facebook decided to crack down by blocking several accounts in Jammu and Kashmir including that of separatist Syed Ali Shah Geelani, a series of hacks have been reported. A group calling itself Cyber Caliphate-black flags have claimed that they are behind these hacks. In their messages they state that they owe allegiance to the ISIS or Daesh.

The hackers broke into the Facebook page of a leading English newspaper in Jammu and Kashmir called Rising Kashmir. Several messages had been posted which included a call for the warriors in Kashmir to come forward promising freedom.

Home Ministry needs to take call on AFSPA withdrawal in J&K: Parrikar

Both the Facebook and Twitter pages of Rising Kashmir were hacked into and a solution is being worked upon now. When one clicks on these pages, it says 'page does not exist' or 'sorry this page is not available'.

Warnings galore

There are several posts which also includes a warning to the Jammu and Kashmir police. "A day will come when we will use knives, cars, buses against the eunuch police of the state," one post stated. Another refers to the media in the state as presstitutes and says that they have sold their conscience for Indian salaries.

With the protests coming down in the Valley, the war appears to have shifted to the online space now.

On Wednesday, morphed pictures of important Indian personalities with pellet marks on their faces was posted by a group called, 'Never forget Pakistan.'

Intelligence agencies are now fighting a new battle to get such content taken off the internet. These posts are meant to provoke to ensure that the Valley burns once again. A dedicated team of the IB is working on the posts relating to Kashmir.

OneIndia News

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Story first published: Wednesday, July 27, 2016, 14:42 [IST]
Even if not contesting 2020 polls, Hillary Clinton will not be entirely out of scene

Hillary Clinton will be sorely missed in 2020 presidential election, says Donald Trump

Hillary Clinton says Julian Assange must 'answer for what he has done'

Donald Trump orders disclassification of documents on interference in 2016 presidential polls

Hillary Clinton retweets own tweet, she put after her 2016 defeat

News flash: Rajya Sabha adjourned till 11 AM, tomorrow

India

oi-Oneindia

By Oneindia Staff Writer

Bengaluru, July 27: Hillary Clinton wins Democratic nomination for president. Meanwhile,massive protests have broken out in Muzzafarabad as the residents of Pakistan occupied Kashmir complain about rigging the recently held elections.

Get all the latest news updates of the day:

7.26 pm: Four army columns deployed to carry out flood relief operations in Bongaigaon, Chirang, Majuli Island & Golaghat of Assam.

7.24 pm: Rajya Sabha adjourned till 11 AM, tomorrow.

7.13 pm: Lok Sabha Committee rejected Bhagwant Mann's appeal to appear before the committee with his lawyer, he has to appear tomorrow by 3 pm.

6.56 pm: State Govt has sent the sanctioned money to the Indian Embassy in Qatar, to appoint lawyers and fight the case in Chennai (TN).

6.53 pm: Test will take place again, Narsingh will go to Rio2016: Father of Narsingh Yadav in Varanasi (UP).

6.30 pm: One naxal killed in an encounter with security forces in Sukma district of Chhattisgarh, one country-made gun and naxal literature recovered.

6.15 pm: Family members of Akhlaq meet Daljeet Chaudhary (ADG, law & order) against Mathura lab report in Lucknow.

6.00 pm: Govt transport employees call off their strike after Government announces 12.5 % wage hike in Karnataka.

5.49 pm: A coach of Chhattisgarh Express derails near Kumhari (Raipur).No casualties reported in Chhattisgarh.

5.43 pm: 2 more people arrested by Himachal Pradesh police in connection with Israeli woman allegedly gang-raped in Manali. Total no of arrests: 5.

5.35 pm: Brahmaputra river flows above danger level following heavy rainfall in the state in Guwahati (Assam).

5.31 pm: A Mannan (Congress) and S Chakraborty (CPM) meet family of Abesh Dasgupta (murdered during a party on July 23) in Kolkata.

5.27 pm: Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi visits AIIMS to meet victims who were injured in Kashmir during protests in Delhi.

5.20 pm: Bus strike ends in Bengaluru.

4.51 pm: However, CBI has not received any response from Mauritius, UAE and Singapore in this regard, says CBI Sources on AgustaWestland.

4.50 pm: Except Italy,CBI awaits complete compliance report of letters rogatory frm Tunisia, British Virgin Islands, UK, Switzerland, says source on Agusta.

4.41 pm: IS claims deadly bombing in Syria's Qamishli.

4.36 pm: Heavy rains hit Rajouri district of J&K.

4.30 pm: FIR has been registered against under Section 328 and 120 B, says HS Doon, DIG,Sonipat on Narsingh Yadav.

4.25 pm: FIR filed based on Narsingh Yadav's complaint. Matter to be probed. Strict action will be taken against culprits: HS Doon, DIG,Sonipat.

4.10 pm: Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah's son has fallen ill and is in hospital in Belgium, but the chief minister is getting no sympathy from his twitter followers.

4.03 pm: Delhi Police Crime Branch arrests Ramesh Bhardwaj in Aam Aadmi Party worker Soni suicide case.

4.02 pm: Narsingh Yadav arrives at National Anti Doping Agency in Delhi for hearing in dope case.

4.00 pm: Heavy rainfall in Shimla (Himachal Pradesh).

3.42 pm: CRPF jawan injured after an IED blast by naxals in Dantewada district of Chhattisgarh.

3.32 pm: Heavy rainfall recorded in Shimla, Mandi, Kangra district :Manmohan Singh, Director, Meteorological department

3.27 pm: I will convey their (KSRTC staff) demands to the CM. However, CM is clear on giving 10% hike: Ramalinga Reddy, Karnataka Transport Minister

3.26 pm: Today, itself the (KSRTC bus) strike should be called off. They are asking for 18% wage hike: K'taka Transport Min.

3.07 pm: Praveen Rana's name has been sent and accepted too: WFI President Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh said on RioOlympics.

3.03 pm: Wrestler Narsingh Yadav failed the second dope test (B Sample), which was taken on July 5th.

3.01 pm: Toll rises to 44 in bomb attack in Syria Kurdish city (source: AFP)

2.54 pm: Itni jaldi jaanch nahi poori hogi, pehle aarop tay honge. Mujhe lagta hai, abhi unka jaana mushkil hai: Vijay Goel

2.52 pm: Will look into it when matter put forward with strong facts: Vijay Goel on suspicion of banned substance mixed in meals of Narsingh Yadav.

2.50 pm: Narsingh Yadav's dope case: Narsingh Yadav's coach Jagmal Singh arrives at National Anti Doping Agency in Delhi for hearing in the case.

2.44 pm: Defamation case against Rahul Gandhi: Hearing in the matter adjourned till August 23rd.

2.43 pm: Kerala nursing student ragging case: Karnataka High court rejects bail plea of two accused.

2.42 pm: Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi to speak on price rise issue in Lok Sabha, tomorrow.

2.41 pm: Magistrates cannot seek inquiry by police in a defamation case.

2.40 pm: Supreme Court observes that there is a procecdural irregularity in the magistgrate seeking a police inquiry into the allegations against Rahul Gandhi in the defamation case.

2.25 pm: My son is innocent, he is a victim of conspiracy.He must go to Rio Olympics: Bhulna Devi,mother of NarsinghYadav

2.22 pm: Coal Scam: Kushal Aggarwal sentenced to two years imprisonment, fined Rs. 5 lakh.

2.18 pm: Coal Scam: Pradeep and Udit Rathi fined Rs. 25 lakh each and sentenced to three years imprisonment. Rathi steel company fined Rs. 50 lakhs.

2.16 pm: Waterlogging in areas of Hyderabad after heavy rainfall.

2.07 pm: Line of actual control not defined,we want to define,China not cooperating:RK Singh on Chinese incursion in Uttarakhand

2.02 pm: Bombs kill 14 in Kurdish city in northeast Syria (source: AFP)

Rameswaram: Sheikh Mydeen, Look-alike of Dr. Kalam pays tribute to him on his first death anniversary. pic.twitter.com/yoCFldyevv  ANI (@ANI_news) July 27, 2016

1.47 pm: Chinese incursion into Uttarakhand: ITBP sent a report about this incident to MHA on July 19th, the date of incursion (Sources)

1.37 pm: 86 year old Dakshayani, who is all set to enter Guinness Records as world's oldest elephant, honoured in Trivandrum.

1.30 pm: Earlier also, one of these women had been caught by police, says BJP MLA Yashpal Sisodia on Mandsaur beef incident.

1.18 pm: Suspect Amir-Ul-Islam's judicial custody extended till August 10th by Ernakulam district court in Jisha murder case.

1.16 pm: Good thing is they (Chinese) have not touched an important canal there, says Harish Rawat on Chinese infiltration in Chamoli.

1.10 pm: Rainfall in parts of Delhi.

1.03 pm: I am sure Central Govt will take required cognizance of the issue: Uttarakhand CM Harish Rawat on Chinese infiltration in Chamoli district

1.02 pm: Rajya Sabha adjourned till 2 pm

1.01 pm: Whenever children see me, they run towards me to have a glimpse. Dr Kalam lives in hearts of children, says Sheikh Mydeen.

12.45 pm: This is a gift given by god to me after which I decided to live like him, says Sheikh Mydeen, Look-alike of Dr Kalam.

12.30 pm: Tamil Nadu Govt files review petition in SC against Constitution bench order in Rajiv Gandhi assassins remission case.

12.26 pm: I don't think any person is allowed to take the place of another, if the original player has failed the dope test, says Sports Minister Vijay Goel.

12.24 pm: In case a player is seriously unwell, then under extraordinary circumstances the concerned agency considers, says Sports Minister Vijay Goel.

12.20 pm: According to preliminary veterinary report, it was buffalo meat and not cow meat, says MP Home Minister Bhupinder Singh.

12.07 pm: SC directs NBCC to verify distance between two illegal towers in Emerald court housing project is as per regulation or not.

11.40 am: MPs stormed the well of the house after BSP Chief Mayawati spoke on Dalit unrest in Rajya Sabha.

MPs stormed the well of the house after BSP Chief Mayawati spoke on Dalit unrest in Rajya Sabha pic.twitter.com/hPIHhq9uwJ  ANI (@ANI_news) July 27, 2016

11.20 am: Uproar in Rajya Sabha, MPs storm the well of the house after BSP Chief Mayawati speaks.

11.10 am: There are no confirmed reports of anything, but there are some objects, ships have been asked to verify: Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar on missing AN-32.

11.02 am: We couldnt wait much, we sent Praveen Rana's name as suggested by the Chief coach: WFI President Brij Bhushan Singh on Narsingh Yadav dope test.

We couldnt wait much, we sent Praveen Rana's name as suggested by the Chief coach: WFI President Brij Bhushan Singh pic.twitter.com/Vm6PPhlHLI  ANI (@ANI_news) July 27, 2016

10.34 am: Its been a year since our beloved Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam left us & created a void that is irreplaceable. My tributes to this great personality.

Its been a year since our beloved Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam left us & created a void that is irreplaceable. My tributes to this great personality.  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) July 27, 2016

10.18 am: Narsingh Yadav files complaint at Sonipat police station saying his food was spiked.

10.05 am: Bezwada Wilson and TM Krishna from India get Ramon Magsaysay Award for 2016.

9.58 am: PM Narendra Modi spoke to UK Prime Minister Theresa May on telephone. He congratulated Prime Minister May on the assumption of her new responsibility.

9.25 am: Mobile phones services resumed, internet mobile services still suspended in J&K.

9.02 am: Delhi CM accepts invitation of Missionaries of Charity to attend Mother Teresa's sainthood ceremony in Rome on Sep 4.

9.00 am: Statue of APJ Abdul Kalam unveiled by Union Ministers Venkaiah Naidu and Manohar Parrikar in Rameshwaram

Statue of APJ Abdul Kalam unveiled by Union Ministers Venkaiah Naidu and Manohar Parrikar in Rameshwaram pic.twitter.com/KIZVkOKqRi  ANI (@ANI_news) July 27, 2016

8.53 am: Bus catches fire on Bengaluru-Pune highway, 3 people burnt alive, 8 severely injured.

8.30 am: Hillary opened my eyes to a whole new world of public service: Bill Clinton speaking at the Democratic convention.

8.07 am: Parveen Rana to replace Narsingh Yadav in 74kg category at the Rio Olympics.

8.00 am: Massive protests have broken out in Muzaffarabad as the residents of Pakistan occupied Kashmir complain about rigging the recently held elections.

Muzaffarabad: Massive protests in PoK as locals complain of rigging during recently held elections pic.twitter.com/qTPuzHOUL5  ANI (@ANI_news) July 27, 2016

OneIndia News
Chandrababu seeks all-party support to AP Reorganisation Bill

India

oi-PTI

Vijayawada, Jul 26: Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu today said it was the responsibility of all political parties in Parliament to undo the injustice done to Andhra Pradesh in the matter of its bifurcation.

"The Bharatiya Janata Party has a larger responsibility in this regard. All parties should come to the rescue of Andhra Pradesh as they had contributed to its bifurcation by supporting the AP Reorganisation Bill (in 2014)," Chandrababu said.

He was referring to the stalemate in Rajya Sabha for the last two days over the private member's bill, moved by Congress member K V P Ramachandra Rao seeking special category status to AP. "I have asked the TDP MPs to do everything to safeguard the interests of the state," he said, stating that his party was hence supporting the private member's bill.

"I want all parties in Parliament to ensure that the AP Reorganisation Act-2014 be implemented in true spirit," Chandrababu said.

"I raised this issue at the Inter-State Council meet on July 16 and reminded the Chief Ministers of all states about the irrational bifurcation. Not only was injustice done to AP but we were insulted. I asked them to undo the injustice as all parties were responsible for the division," the Chief Minister said at a press conference here this afternoon.

He wanted expeditious implementation of all the provisions of Reorganization Act and assurances made by the then Prime Minister on the floor of Rajya Sabha, the most important among them being grant of special category status.

The execution of Polavaram as a national irrigation project, extension of special financial support for construction of new Capital, sanction of railway zone at Visakhapatnam, special package for development of backward regions, provision of tax incentives for rapid industrialisation and release of balance grant to bridge the resource gap were some of the other demands he raised.

PTI

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Story first published: Wednesday, July 27, 2016, 14:06 [IST]
Could Irom Sharmila be BJP's

Mehbooba in Manipur?

India

oi-Vicky

It boggles the mind to even think that Irom Sharmila could join forces with the BJP, doesn't it? But her decision on Tuesday to end her nearly 16-year-long fast has raised many questions and rumours.

One such is that the BJP may have reached out to her and could well be thinking on the lines of replicating the party's model in Jammu & Kashmir, where it allied with the PDP and Mehbooba Mufti, once anathema to the BJP's outlook on the state.

On Tuesday, Sharmila surprised not just the rest of the world but even her own family and close associates by declaring that she was ending her fast and wanted to get married and would contest elections.

The Irom Sharmila story

On November 1, 2000, a Manipuri insurgent group bombed a column of the paramilitary Assam Rifles. The next day, enraged soldiers gunned down 10 innocent civilians, including 18-year-old Sinam Chandramani, a National Child Bravery Award winner, at a bus stand in Malom, Imphal.

Irom Chanu Sharmila, then 28, began her fast on November 4 in protest against the 'Malom Massacre', and demanding that Manipur be rid of the Armed Forces Special Protection Act (AFSPA).

Sharmila, now 44, has not eaten or had water since, and even cleans her teeth with dry cotton to prevent water from entering her body. But she is force-fed a mixture of carbohydrates and proteins through a nasal pipe three times a day by a state that will not accede to her demand but will neither let her die for the cause.

Instead, in what has become an annual routine, she is arrested and charged with trying to commit suicide and then released in a matter of days. Even when she is released, though, she is in confinement in a hospital ward, with not even permission to walk in the open.

In captivity less than a mile from where her mother Irom Ongbi Sakhi lives, mother and daughter have never met in all these years because Sharmila feared that her resolve to carry on her protest would weaken at the sight of her mother.

No one knows what Sharmila's medical condition is currently, but her brother Singhajit had said as far back as 2009 that she had stopped menstruating.

In 1980, when AFSPA was imposed on Manipur, the state had four insurgent groups. Today, there are said to be over 40 groups fighting the state.

Why break fast now?

Sharmila has said she is ending the fast to take up the AFSPA cause politically, as well as because she wanted to get married to her Goan-British boyfriend Desmond Coutinho.

Perhaps she had come to realise that AFSPA had not been withdrawn in the past 16 years nor is it likely to be removed for the foreseeable future. If so, her decision is rational and welcome.

But she has also come in for some criticism. Suhas Chakma of the Asian Centre for Human Rights (ACHR) says her protest achieved little beyond raising awareness about AFSPA. She could have negotiated with the government long ago instead of keeping up the fast for this long. While she was wrong to continue her fast so long, she is now making another mistake by deciding to join politics. Both decisions are errors of judgement, Chakma says.

The fact is, however, while Sharmila and her cause may have become known to the world through her extraordinary protest, it could change nothing on the ground because she was confined to a high-security hospital ward. The decision to end her fast will mean she will be out in the open and will be heard better now.

Fast-forward to politics

Several anti-establishment crusaders who have undertaken hunger strikes have then gone on to take the political route to be better heard.

Sharmila has herself said that her fight so far has been a lonely fight. "I have now decided to wage a war against the AFSPA democratically by becoming a lawmaker", she said.

Will she now contest elections in Manipur next year as an independent? Will she start her own party? Or, will she align with one of the existing parties?

Although at the moment, it appears she will contest as an independent, political parties are set to make a beeline to her home. The BJP is reported to have already reached out to her.

Manipur, a state that the Congress has won thrice consecutively, is important for the BJP's push to take control of all of the north-east.

While getting Sharmila on its side, whether by inducting her into the party or by simply aligning with her, will be quite a coup for the party, it will be a tough act for the BJP to change its position on AFSPA, and especially to do so only in Manipur while leaving it intact in the rest of the north-east and especially in Jammu & Kashmir.

The Manipur elections will be interesting. The Congress has been in power for nearly 15 years, but is now facing its own problems, including anti-incumbency as well as that old party bugbear, rebels. Of the 42 MLAs Congress MLAs in the 60-member House, as many as 27 are said to be keen to shift loyalties to the BJP as elections approach.

Is this a game that Irom Sharmila can or would really want to play?
From Hafiz Saeed to Geelani, everyone wants a piece of Burhan Wani

India

oi-Vicky

Bengaluru, July 27: After Hafiz Saeed, it is Syed Ali Shah Geelani who is desperate to stay relevant in Jammu and Kashmir. In today's circumstance the best way to stay in news is to be associated with Burhan Wani, the Hizbul Mujahideen who has over the past three weeks become an unwanted martyr.

A week after Hafiz Saeed claimed that Burhan Wani had called him before his death, Geelani parroted the same thing. "A few days before his death he had called me and reposed full faith in my leadership," Geelani said in Jammu and Kashmir.

Even Hafiz Saeed claims Burhan Wani was his boy

To analyse this statement, OneIndia asked a senior Home Ministry official for his comment. "His waning leadership is what has led him to make this statement," the officer added.

Everyone wants a piece of Burhan Wani

Ask any local from Jammu and Kashmir or the officials posted there and they would say that the separatists collectively command the support of just 10 per cent of the population. "This is not good enough to win even a local body election. All they can do is collect a bunch of youth, pay them Rs 300 and get them to pelt stones," officers say.

Now with Wani being turned into a martyr, it is expected that each one wants a piece of him. Saeed, whose clout in the Valley is diminishing recently said that Wani had called him before his death. Geelani too, says the same thing.

The fact is that Wani was tracked extensively for nearly a month prior to his death and officers part of the operation say that there were no calls to Saeed or Geelani.

Geelani in fact has become a desperate man in the Valley today.

What Geelani is not telling anyone is that none of the separatists were happy with the meteoric rise of Wani, who became the face of the Hizbul Mujahideen on the internet.

Wani continued to urge the youth to join him and in the bargain took the sheen out of the separatists who were only playing to Pakistan's gallery.

It is in his death that the separatists feel that Kashmir has now got a local face. Hence it is quite obvious that Geelani would go that extra mile to churn a story.

Officers say that one needs to understand that Geelani was conveying that Wani had reposed faith in his leadership. "It is nothing but a desperate attempt to convey that through Wani, Geelani should be the face of the separatists," officials further note.

OneIndia News

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Story first published: Wednesday, July 27, 2016, 11:21 [IST]
Fact Check: Is RBI planning to introduce currency notes with photos of APJ Kalam, Tagore?

Kalam's death has left irreplaceable void: PM Narendra Modi

India

oi-IANS

By Ians English

New Delhi, July 27: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday paid tribute to former President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam on his first death anniversary, saying that his death has created an "irreplaceable" void.

"It's been a year since our beloved Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam left us and created a void that is irreplaceable. My tributes to this great personality," tweeted Modi.

While delivering a lecture at the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Shillong, Kalam collapsed and died due to cardiac arrest on this day last year.

IANS
Siddaramaiah is chief guest at Indo-China Friendship event? I have declined says former CM

Rahul Gandhi invites Siddaramaiah for sprint during Bharat Jodo Yatra and this happens next [watch]

Karnataka CM's son ill, hospitalised in Belgium

India

oi-Shreyas

By H S Shreyas

Bengaluru, July 27: Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah's son Rakesh has fallen ill while on an European tour and has been hospitalised in Belgium, the CM's social media managers tweeted on his official account on Wednesday.

Siddaramaiah's son Rakesh passes away in Belgium

Siddarmaiah is said to have reached out to External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, seeking assistance. His wife and two doctors from Bengaluru are said to have left for Belgium.

There was speculation, however, about exactly what had befallen Rakesh, the controversial son whom Siddaramaiah is said to be keen to bring into politics. While some reports said he was involved in a road accident and was critical, other reports suggested he had a pancreatic ailment.

On Twitter, the CM's social media team only said that Rakesh had fallen ill but was recovering.
Mahadayi row: Tension grips North Karnataka, many organisations call state-wide bandh

India

oi-Shreyas

By H S Shreyas

Bengaluru, July 27: Farmers and members of pro-Kannada outfits hit the streets in many parts of North Karnataka in display of protest against interim order passed by the Mahadayi Tribunal on Wednesday.

The Mahadayi Water Dispute Tribunal rejected Karnataka government's plea that sought diversion of 7.56 TMC of water from Mahadayi basin to Malaprabha River to cater drinking water to the parched districts of North Karnataka.

As soon as the verdict was pronounced at around 2.30 pm, violence broke out in Mumbai-Karnataka region. Farmers and members of pro-Kannada organisations took to roads in Dharwad, Gadag, Bagalkot and Belagavi districts.

[Mahadayi river tribunal verdict goes against Karnataka; favours Goa & Maharashtra]

The police have stepped up security as tension gripped in all towns of these districts. Pro-Kannada organisations and many farmers' organisations have also called for Karnataka bandh on Thursday, July 28.

The farmers are unhappy over the apathy of both the state government and central government in resolving this issue outside the court. From the beginning of this issue, farmers have been consistently demanding amicable settlement outside the court, a demand that was never met.

Besides, all traders and businessmen voluntarily shut their shops in Nargund and Navalgund towns. Farmers vandalised office of the BJP MP Sivakumar Udasi in Gadag.

They also ransacked several government offices, mainly PWD and postal departments. Farmers damaged furniture, doors and window pans. They also made a failed attempted to set ablaze documents from irrigation department.

PHOTOS: Kalasa Banduri Project : Widespread Protest In North Karnataka

To control the mob, police personnel resorted to mild lati-charge. A few farmers sustained injuries too. Deputy Commissioner of Gadag, N S Prasanna Kumar has announced holiday to schools and colleges on Thursday as a precautionary measure.

While farmers blocked Hubbali-Vijayapur national highway in Narhund, Navalgund, Hubballi and Dharwad, the police have beefed up security cover to houses of prominent politicians, including Opposition leader Jagadish Shettar and MP Prahlad Joshi.

The farmers have resolved to intensify the agitation to sort out the issue as soon as possible. "Interim order has disappointed us. Hence movement draw water from Mahadayi will be intensified," said Veeresh Sobaradmath the convener of Kalasa-Banduri Horata Samiti.

He added protesting farmers will seek an intervention of Prime Minister Narendra Modi since opting legal remedy will take long time.

Fearing public backlash, all MPs from Congress and BJP did not appear in Public. Haveri MP Shivakumar Udasi said that all four BJP Lok Sabha members, who are representing the people of Mahadayi river basin, will hold discussion to seek intervention of Narendra Modi to resolve the issue.

OneIndia News
What is Anti-doping bill? Does India really have a doping crisis?

No plans to spend money in dormant PO accounts on schemes: Government

India

oi-PTI

New Delhi, Jul 27 There are no plans to appropriate unclaimed money lying in post office accounts to fund social sector schemes, but the government may consider the issue in future, the Lok Sabha was informed today.

Responding to a supplementary by a BJP member, Communication Minister Manoj Sinha said there are no plans to use such money lying in dormant accounts.

As per rules and laid down laws, the money remains with government till the kith and kin of the account holder are informed about the account, he said. But at the same time, Sinha said in the coming days, government would consider the suggestion.

The response of the Communication Minister came a day after trade unions disrupted a meeting of EPFO trustees protesting against the government's decision to appropriate unclaimed PF money for funding senior citizens' welfare schemes.

Responding to another question, he said the department lacked postal workers but there were plans to redeploy the staff to utilise their services at the 1.50 lakh post offices across the country.

PTI
Should Kashmir be given to Pakistan: Row erupts after this question appears in MP civil service exam

Sites finalised for AIIMS each in Jammu, Kashmir: Govt

India

oi-PTI

New Delhi, Jul 27: The Centre has finalised a site each in Jammu and Kashmir's two divisions for setting up AIIMS in the wake of a row in the state last year with people in Jammu demanding the tertiary care institution be set up in that region.

Two sites have been finalised for setting up AIIMS in Jammu and Kashmir -- one at Vijaypur in Samba district in Jammu region and the other at Awantipora, Pulwama, in Kashmir region, Minister of State for Health Faggan Singh Kulaste told Rajya Sabha in a written reply.

Sufficient fund is available under Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojna (PMSSY) to take up the project, he said.

The Jammu region had in August last year witnessed protests with Congress and National Conference claiming that Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had announced the premier health institute for Jammu in his budget speech but it was being set up in the Valley. Besides, the minister said, an AIIMS is being set up in Nagpur under the scheme.

Curfew lifted from 4 Kashmir districts

Also, "a site at Jalah village, Mouza Sila Sunduri Ghopa, North Guwahati Revenue Circle, has been approved for the establishment of an AIIMS in Assam", he said in a reply to another question.

The minister, however, said the timeline for making it fully operational will be declared at the time of its administrative approval.

PTI

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Story first published: Wednesday, July 27, 2016, 8:27 [IST]
WB seeks GI tag only on Bengal Rasogolla, no conflict with Odisha

India

oi-PTI

Kolkata, Jul 27: Amidst a tussle with Odisha over the origin of the famous sweetmeat 'Rasgulla', West Bengal has clarified that they are not seeking claim over the dessert but only over 'Rasogolla', a particular variety prepared in the state.

Officials of the state science and technology department has clarified that they have sought Geographical Indications (GI) tag only for 'Rasogolla'.

"There is no conflict with Odisha. What we want is to protect the identity of our Rasogolla. Their product is different from ours both in colour, texture, taste, juice content and method of manufacturing," an official told PTI.

Bengal submits application for rosogolla GI tag

In a recent letter to the Geographical Indications Registry office in Chennai, the state department of food processing industries and horticulture said the way the dessert is made in the state is different from that of other states.

"The preparation of light sugar syrup is unique and it contributes towards the taste of Rasogolla. Light syrup adds to the unique mouth-fill characteristic which is traditional in nature and well documented in different books unlike other similar products," the letter said, adding the quality of the dessert from West Bengal is unique.

Even during its original application before the Intellectual Property office last year, the state government had sought the GI tag on what they call it as "Banglar Rasogolla" (Bengal's Rasgulla).

"For example we have Darjeeling Tea and Himachal has Kangra Tea. Both are tea but the taste is different. Both can have GI tags," officials said.

Odisha has claimed that the sweetmeat originated from the Jagannath Temple in Puri, where it is a part of the religious rituals since the 12th century. Odisha calls it 'Pahala Rasgulla'.

In West Bengal, confectioner Nobin Chandra Das is widely known as the one, who created Rasgulla in the 1860s.

PTI
Woman, her two children mowed down by train; Suicide not ruled out

Workshop on Juvenile Justice Act in Rajasthan

India

oi-PTI

Jaipur, Jul 27: Rajasthan State Legal Services Authority (RSLSA) will hold a two-day state level workshop for the stakeholders under Juvenile Justice system to discuss various aspects, issues and changes in Juvenile Justice Act.

The workshop, which will be held at the state Judicial academy in Jodhpur on July 30 and 31st, will be attended by Supreme court judge Anil R Dave, Rajasthan High court judge Navin Sinha, experts from UNICEF and other stakeholders, member secretary of the authority said here today.

The workshop will comprised of panel discussions on child rights- legal framework, children in conflict with law, crime against children, children in need of care and child protection, he said.

PTI
Blacklisting Mahmood blocked by China: The man who raised funds under garb of religion in India

Former Australian PM Kevin Rudd 'qualified' for UN top job

International

oi-IANS

By Ians English

Canberra, July 27: Former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd is "qualified" for the UN secretary-general position, the country's Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop said on Wednesday (July 27).

While Bishop did not explicitly endorse Rudd's candidacy, her comments came after Liberal National Party (LNP) members of parliament said the former prime minister was not qualified for the role, Xinhua news agency reported. [Security Council holds secret poll on next UN chief]

"I believe that as the other candidates are former leaders, former prime ministers, former foreign ministers of their country, then he is qualified to be a candidate," Bishop said.

Support of PM Turnbull's Cabinet key for Rudd

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's Cabinet will meet on Thursday to debate whether the incumbent government will officially nominate Rudd for the post. Without that support, Rudd could not be considered for the role.

At least two high-profile ministers have cast doubt over Rudd's qualifications for the role, with Cabinet Secretary Arthur Sinodinos saying that members of the centre-right LNP would be hesitant to support the former prime minister.

"I'm not spilling any secrets to say there would be a lot of people on our side of politics to say they have reservations about supporting Kevin," Sinodinos said on Monday night.

"The politics of that era are still pretty raw and the idea that he could be on the world stage seeking to overshadow Australia in other ways does grate with some of my colleagues."

Former NZ PM was ahead of Rudd in April poll

An Essential poll taken in April found that twice as many Australians supported former New Zealand prime minister Helen Clark for the UN top job over Rudd.

Rudd served as Australia's prime minister twice: from 2007 to 2010, then from June 2013 until his centre-left Australian Labour Party lost the election in September of the same year.

The first straw poll of the 12 candidates for the vacant UN position resulted in a clear win for former Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Guterres.

IANS
#drug crimes Coast Guard launches investigation team to fight maritime drug crimes The Coast Guard has launched an investigation team dedicated to fighting a sharp increase in maritime drug smuggling, drug use by maritime workers and other drug crimes on the sea,...

#BTS BTS' Jin makes solo debut with 'The Astronaut' Jin, a member of K-pop juggernaut BTS, debuted as a solo artist through a collaborative single with British rock band Coldplay on Friday. The vocalist simultaneously released "T...
Malawi: Allegedly HIV-positive man 'hired to have sex with young women, kids' held

International

oi-Oneindia

By Oneindia Staff Writer

Lilongwe, July 27: Malaiwan President Peter Mutharika has ordered the arrest of Eric Aniva, a HIV-positive man who had been hired by families to have sex with over 100 young women, including children, as part of ritual cleansing.

Mutharika said since Aniva confessed that he did not use protection during his indulgence, he should be probed for exposing girls to the dreaded HIV and be charged "further be charged accordingly", AP said.

Aniva claimed to be a paid sex worker, known as a "hyena", hired by families and elderly villagers to have sex with young girls once they reached puberty.

President Mutharika said such violations under the guise of culture were unacceptable and asked the police to probe all men and parents who are involved in the "shocking malpractice".

Malawai's police inspector General Lexten Kachama said most of the girls with which Aniva had sex were underaged children, the AP report said.

Chrispine Sibande, a human rights lawyer in the south-eastern African nation, praised Mutharika for taking up the initiative but still felt that only arresting Aniva wasn't enough and a broader effort was required to end the "rampant practice", added the AP.

Oneindia News

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Story first published: Wednesday, July 27, 2016, 14:04 [IST]
Pak-held Kashmir, a region terrorised by ISI-Military

International

oi-Vicky

Pakistan-occupied Kashmir is witnessing violent street protests since last week's elections there, with the people of the illegally-occupied territory questioning the authenticity of the elections. Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's party the PML (Nawaz) won 32 of the 42 seats.

As the protests began, Pakistan ordered a clampdown on the media, barring them from reporting from the region.

It's nothing new in PoK, a region that even the Pakistani media and intelligentsia say has one of the world's worst human rights records. As one Muzzafarabad resident said in 2006, "India is our enemy and Pakistan is our friend, but with friends like these, who needs enemies?!"

Is the situation any different today? Shabir Choudhary, a leader in PoK, says it's actually much worse.

This, even as Pakistan accuses India of human rights violations in Jammu & Kashmir and continues to fish in our troubled waters in the state. By doing so, it not only covers the stench of its own human rights violations, it also manages to keep international heat on India.

But it's time now to peep into PoK.

Pakistan occupied Kashmir, which goes by the ironic misnomer Azad Kashmir (and includes Gilgit-Baltistan), has been under Pakistan's control since October 22, 1947. With a population of around 4.5 million, it is spread over some 13,297 kilometres.

Rigged elections in PoK: Massive protests break out

The very first indicator of what life is like in PoK under Pakistani occupation should come from the fact that there is no independent media in PoK. The Azad Kashmir Radio, which operates in the region, is entirely under the control of the Pakistan military and ISI.

Crushing the opposition

Pakistan's atrocities in PoK is not a new phenomenon. Last year, in the run up to elections, several voices were crushed violently by Pakistan. One protest at Kotli was crushed merely because people were demanding electricity in Kotli, which is rich in power generation!

As elections approached, the military went about systematically damaging the houses of the politial opposition in the region in the town of Haveli, leading the head of the Kashmir National Party Shabir Choudhary to expressing fear that Pakistan was out to crush all opposition in PoK.

The atrocities were at an all time high ahead of elections last year.

The nomination of Aftab Ahmed was rejected after he had said he believed in an independent Kashmir and not in the sovereignty of Pakistan over that region. Under the law that governs PoK, every citizen has to believe in the ideology of Pakistan and in Kashmir's accession to it.

India had expressed concern over recent footage appearing in the media that clearly highlighted the atrocities committed by Pakistan in PoK. Brutality was at its peak to quell rebellion and voices of dissent.

Take for instance the case of Shaukat Ali, a Kashmir and a Shia activist. His whereabouts are unknown today, and he is feared to be in the Pakistani military's custody. There are several reports and also a statement by a leader, Amir Humza Qureshi, who says that the human rights violations in PoK

are the worst in the world.

The government in Muzzaffarabad is a mute spectator and a puppet, with instructions to treat the people of PoK as refugees. They are often victims of state-sponsored terrorism.

In the past few years, protesters have been crushed violently for making demands such as better education,

communication and healthcare. In the absence of independent media, these voices have not been heard so far. It is only recently that voices in Mirpur-Muzzaffarabad are being heard. Gilgit-Baltistan continues to remain blacked out.

A large number of persons have gone 'missing' in PoK, thanks to the military-ISI-terror complex. Hundreds of these missing people are believed to be in secret jails, and many more are feared to have been killed.

No tolerance zone

In 2008 Freedom House's World Freedom Report listed PoK's status as "Not Free". Another report by Human Rights Watch said that the military shows no tolerance for dissent and the presence of an elected government is a mere formality.

All aspects of life in PoK are under the control of the army and the military and several incidents of torture to strike down dissent were mentioned in the report, which also noted that there was no instance of the perpetrators of these violations having been prosecuted.

Even during the 2012 earthquake, Human Rights Watch has noted, telephone lines were limited and monitored. Telecom stations in PoK are under the control of a Pakistan army unit called the special communications organisation.

Discrimination

There is also widespread discrimination against people who go from J&K seeking refuge in PoK. They are constantly monitored and often subjected to physical and mental

abuse, even torture.

Several reports have highlighted the fact that military bases are deliberately set up close to civilians areas so that the latter can be monitored. The entire government-military establishment is set up so as to be able to instantly crush any dissent by force.

Violent crushing of protests

While Pakistan cries foul when the Indian army fires pellets at the stone pelters in the Valley, it is quite shocking to note the manner in which dissent is crushed in PoK. The military quotes the Azad Jammu

and Kashmir Interim Constitution.

Under Article 4(7)(2) it is said that no person or party in Azad Jammu and Kashmir shall be permitted

to propagate against, or take part in activities prejudicial or detrimental to, the ideology of the States accession to Pakistan.

This has given the military immense powers and all protests are violently crushed.

In 2005, 10 Shia students were killed by the police, merely to send out a message to potential demonstrators. Similar incidents of wanton violence by the military have been reported in 2006 and 2008.

The European Union had expressed concern that the PoK was being governed by a Ministry of Kashmir Affairs in Islamabad, pointing to the fact that this ministry was completely dominated by Pakistanis.

The powers of this ministry are such that it can dismiss the Prime Minister of PoK. Moreover, the President of Pakistan can summarily dissolve the legislative assembly of PoK. Even judges can be appointed only after the ministry has approved them.

Home of Lashkar-e-Taiba

In Muzzafarabad, the capital of PoK, the lurking danger of the Lashkar-e-Taiba is always imminent. Their primary training camp and launch pad is located here. Ajmal Kasab and the nine others involved in the 26/11 attacks were trained in this camp before being launched into Mumbai.

An Indian IB report states that the Lashkar-e-Taiba houses 43 camps, and there are at least 80-100 terrorists undergoing training at any given time, and these terrorists are exclusively meant for the Pakistani deep state's 'India operations'.

Most worryingly, the report notes that the ISI-Military has unleashed the Lashkar extremists on civilians in PoK. These terrorists are now not only the eyes and ears of the ISI, they even seem to enjoy a free hand in killing dissidents.

OneIndia News

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Story first published: Wednesday, July 27, 2016, 14:15 [IST]
Iran names Esmail Qaani as New Chief of Quds Force number 2 to replace slain Soleimani

New ISIS leader: Iraqi law graduate Al-Salbi steps into shoes of Baghdadi who died during US raid

Two killed in Baghdad suicide bombing

International

oi-IANS

By Ians English

Baghdad, July 27: At least two people were killed and eight injured in a suicide bomb attack targeting policemen in northern Baghdad on Wednesday (July 27).

The bomber who wore an explosive vest blew himself up at a police checkpoint in the predominantly Shia district of Shula, Xinhua news agency reported.

Several policemen were among the injured, a police report said.

The toll could rise further as ambulances and police vehicles continued to evacuate the injured people to nearby hospitals and medical centres, the police said.

A report by UN Assistance Mission for Iraq (Unami) estimated that 662 Iraqis have been killed and 1,457 wounded in acts of terrorism, violence and armed conflict since the Islamic State militant group took control of parts of Iraq in June 2014.

Many blame the current chronic instability and the emergence of extremist groups on the US due to its invasion of Iraq in March 2003.

IANS
Anti-climax in defamation case, Rahul Gandhi off the hook?

New Delhi

oi-Vicky

New Delhi, July 27: The Supreme Court of India on Wednesday pointed towards procedural irregularities in the Rahul Gandhi defamation case pertaining to a statement he made where he held the RSS responsible for Mahatma Gandhi's assassination.

A defamation case had been filed in Maharashtra and on the last date of hearing, the Supreme Court had observed that Rahul Gandhi must face trial if he does not apologise for his remarks. However, on Wednesday when the hearing began a procedural irregularity was pointed out.

Express regret or face trial: SC tells Rahul Gandhi

The Supreme Court held that there is a procedural irregularity in the Magistrate hearing the defamation case ordering a police probe. The court then observed that in this case, the Magistrate had ordered a police inquiry to find out if the allegations were right or not.

The court observed that this was a procedural lapse and in defamation cases a police inquiry cannot be ordered. In cases of defamation, the allegations are to be proven on the basis of the evidence provided by the complainant and the police will have no role in it.

The complainant through his counsel told the court that this is a new proposition and needs to be discussed. The court then ordered both the complainant and Rahul Gandhi to discuss and address this issue on August 23, the next date of hearing.

The court also observed that if it finds that there has been a procedural lapse then it would direct the Magistrate to consider the defamation complaint afresh.

OneIndia News
Central team roped in as dengue cases in Bihar rise to over 5000

Bihar's Gopalganj by-poll to see a tough fight between BJP and RJD

Aurangabad DM reinstates sacked Dalit widow MDM cook

Patna

oi-PTI

Aurangabad (Bihar), July 27: In an exemplary action, the District Magistrate of Bihar's Aurangabad has reinstated a Dalit widow as the midday meal cook at a school and also shared the food prepared by her with the students.

DM Kanwal Tanuj also ordered suspension of school headmaster Govind Kumar Yadav who had sacked the cook after her husband passed away.

Moved by the complaint registered by the hapless woman Urmila Kuwar, Tanuj himself paid a visit to Batura middle school under Rafiganj block here yesterday and ate the midday meal prepared by the woman at the school with other students.

"My humanitarian instinct compelled me to do justice with the woman. Besides, I also wanted to give a strong social message against caste and social ills of distancing from widow to the people," the DM said today.

The school headmaster who had sacked the widow has been expelled and a new headmaster took charge of the school today, he said.

Departmental inquiry has been initiated against the headmaster on instruction from the DM to the district education officer Yaduvansh Ram.

The woman, whose husband died recently was solely dependent on a paltry Rs 1,000 she used to get from cooking the meal at the school.

She was fired on Monday, the DM said quoting from her complaint.

From this meagre income of Rs 1,000 she was feeding four minor children and deprivation of it forced her to petition the DM against the injustice, he added. Tanuj said the students were very happy on return of the cook.

PTI
Pondicherry LT Guv meets PM; seeks support for budget

Puducherry

oi-PTI

Puducherry, July 27: Puducherry Lt Governor Kiran Bedi today met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Delhi and sought support for the territorial budget for fiscal 2016-17.

A Raj Nivas release said she sought support for the budget as proposed by chief minister V Narayanasamy, who is also holding the finance portfolio. Bedi also held discussions with the Union Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu.

The minister assured the Lt Governor of his Ministry's support to start the 'Main line Electrical Multiple Units' between Puducherry and Villupuram and AC chair car services between Puducherry and Chennai within this year.

Prabhu also informed Bedi that his ministry would accord expeditious consideration to start Shatabdi Train services between Puducherry and Chennai early next year, the release said. Bedi also called on the Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh who assured support to Puducherry on matters relating to budget and security.

Rural Development Minister Narendra Singh Tomar told Bedi that he would visit Puducherry in September to review the progress made in Puducherry in the implementation of 'open defecation-free mission.'

CEO of Niti Aayog Amitabh Kant told Bedi that a detailed plan of action for the Union Territory would be developed with focus on improving health and nutrition, education, water management and industries in Puducherry, the release said. The CEO also informed Bedi that he would send an Advance Planning Team to hold talks with key stakeholders in Puducherry before visiting Puducherry in September.

PTI

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Story first published: Wednesday, July 27, 2016, 10:28 [IST]
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by  Alice Monroe



An Aussie-inspired commercial for upstart video camera company 360fly has been deemed too offensive to air by major American TV networks. The advert picks on the Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump's promise of building a wall along the US-Mexico border.

The ad satirizing Donald Trump has been banned from ABC, NBC, CBS, Univision and Comedy Central but you can watch it here on One News Page:

Just A Fly On The Wall - credit: 360fly via YouTube

Boss of the creative agency behind the ad, 180LAs William Gelner, added: The idea of building a wall is so narrow-minded, it deserves to be lampooned.

And its perfect for making the point about the importance of having a bigger perspective, which is the promise of the camera. Essentially, this is just a product demo spot dropped into the middle of a highly charged political issue. The spot demonstrates just how ridiculous and narrow-minded the notion is of building a wall. Broaden out a little  lifes too big for one perspective, he said.

Like it? Share it!
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Bailey McCann, Opalesque New York:

Global hedge fund assets dropped below $3 trillion again  to $2.99 trillion  as investors withdrew $20.7 billion from the industry, according to the June eVestment Hedge Fund Asset Flows report. June redemptions were the largest June since eVestment began tracking monthly flows in 2009.

Long/short equity strategies had the largest aggregate redemptions in June. Performance declines in H1 are likely the primary reason for the elevated outflows.

For the second consecutive month, funds domiciled in Europe experienced elevated redemption pressure. Also for the second consecutive month, the majority of redemptions came from firms located in the UK and from within long/short equity and large managed futures funds.

Asian funds are also under continued redemption pressure. In all, nearly every strategy is seeing redemptions except CTAs. CTA funds have seen their ninth consecutive month of inflows following recent positive performance.

"What made redemptions from the industry in June different than all other months of 2016 was that it was the first month of 2016 when large funds that performed well in 2015 had aggregate redemptions. This is an indication that as redemption pressures from poor 2015 performance appeared to abate in April and May, negative sentiment related to 2016 performance may be rising," wrote report author Peter Laurelli, eVestments vice president and global head of research.......................

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Opalesque Industry Update - Tages Capital, in partnership with Anavon Capital, has announced the launch of the Tages International SICAV - Anavon Global Equity Long/Short UCITS Fund, the second sub-fund of Tages International Funds SICAV, a UCITS-compliant umbrella fund structure domiciled in Luxembourg and regulated by the Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier (CSSF). Anavon is an established, specialist equity manager with an impressive five-year track record in their global long/short equity strategy. The fund is launching with US$ 28 million of institutional capital with follow-on commitments in excess of US$ 30 million. Justin Denham, COO of Anavon Capital LLP said: Anavon is delighted with this partnership to offer the Anavon global long/short equity strategy to UCITS investors. Anavons fundamentally driven research approach is focused on selecting individual stocks to deliver alpha across both our long and short books. The strategy seeks superior risk-adjusted returns with its particular focus on risk management and protecting capital during downturns. With Tages representing one of the most active firms investing in the fast growing UCITS alternatives segment, this fund will broaden our client base and enable us to attract new interest in our strategy. Jamie Kermisch, CEO of Tages Capital said: Tages has been a long-standing investor in Anavons funds and we are pleased to be developing our partnership further. With significant capital invested at launch, we believe that the Anavon Global Equity Long/Short UCITS Fund provides investors with access to a highly experienced team with a strong track record of delivering high quality returns at a lower volatility than the broader global equity market. This has been as demonstrated once again by strong performance relative to its peers so far this year. This fund adds another differentiated strategy to Tagess range of UCITS alternative funds.
Opalesque Industry Update - Can financial intelligence be found in the twitterverse? Specifically, does a vast amount of social media sentiment provide clues to how a stock will perform? A new study by a Johns Hopkins business professor says yes, a strong contemporaneous correlation does exist between the mood of a days worth of tweets about a particular stock and the performance of that stock. Johns Hopkins Carey Business School Assistant Professor Jim Kyung-Soo Liew has made a specialty of examining social media data for possible signals of market behavior. A previous study that he wrote for The Journal of Portfolio Management found a strong link between the mood of Twitter posts and the performance of an initial public offering. From offer price to close on the first trading day, Twitter sentiment mirrors the IPOs performance, whether negative or positive, according to that study, which Liew claimed was the first to look closely at the tweet sentiment-IPO connection. Liew followed his IPO work with a paper that found tweet sentiment could predict post-earnings announcement drift (PEAD) more accurately than traditional prediction methods. (PEAD occurs when a stocks cumulative abnormal returns drift for weeks or months after the announcement of positive earnings.) The latest research paper, forthcoming in The Journal of Portfolio Management, shows that tweet-like posts on the StockTwits financial micro-blogging platform are strongly related over a given day to the behavior of the stock being tweeted about during that day. Liew states that this use of social media to determine stock performance should be added as a sixth factor to the Fama-French five-factor model well known in financial circles as a method for explaining market behavior. Liew and his co-author, Associate Professor Tamas Budavari of the Johns Hopkins Krieger School of Arts and Sciences, were granted access to all StockTwits posts about 15 companies that drew the most Twitter commentary from January 2012 to October 2015: Apple, Facebook, Netflix, Yahoo, Amazon, Google, Disney, and American Airlines among them. People who post on StockTwits can state in their tweets whether they feel positive (bullish) or negative (bearish) about a stock. Mining this data for hints of a link between tweets and stock prices, the researchers said, they discovered a particular intuitive relationship between tweet sentiment and prices over time. Namely, we show that the aggregated daily sentiment matters for equity daily returns. Positive sentiment is associated with positive returns. They cite as a prime example the performance of Apples stock. Between 1,000 and 2,000 StockTwits posts about the technology company were made each day during the 2012-2015 period. The percentage of bullish tweets about the stock stayed high from mid-2013 to about two years later, which corresponded to a nearly continuous increase in the stocks price over that time. The tweets bullish percentage then went into a slight decline, as did the price of Apple shares, apparently buttressing the researchers argument. When Apple does well within the day, participants are tweeting with bullish sentiment, showing that a positive correlation exists between contemporaneous price movements and tweet sentiments, Liew states. Some critics, he acknowledges, say the real-time status of a tweet can make it irrelevant after, say, minutes or hours. But Liew says the research results beg to differ: There appears to exist a strong positive relationship between the daily time-series of aggregated tweet sentiments and their corresponding security returns.
All In With Chris Hayes (MSNBC) hosted a series looking at how climate change is impacting Americans from Alaska to Florida. Hayes has consistently been on the cutting-edge of bringing environmental stories to his audience.

When I tuned in on Friday to catch the interview with Secretary of State John Kerry, terrorism in Bangladesh had bumped the spot. Hayes noted apologetically, "It [climate change] is not happening in real time although it is one of the most important stories of our time."

Coverage of climate disruption is getting short shrift on network news, according to a recent study conducted by Media Matters for America.



(Image by Media Matters for America) Details DMCA



Specifically examined were the nightly evening network news and the Sunday broadcasts.

Climate coverage on ABC, CBS, NBC, and FOX "collectively" fell 5 percent from 2014 to 2015. PBS, examined separately, not only led the group in air-time coverage, they featured the most stories on Pope Francis's environmental encyclical, the Paris Climate Summit, the Keystone Pipeline, and the Clean Power Plan. They were the only newsroom to look at the reduction of methane emissions and the question of what ExxonMobil knew and when they knew it.

ABC had the greatest dip, featuring a mere thirteen minutes of reporting for all of 2015. Although "coverage" for FOX expanded, the analysis showed the reporting slanted to a negative assessment of efforts to respond to climate change.

Media Matters outlined the top subjects that need attention concerning climate change on the national front:

Health

Economy

Security

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Reprinted from Alon Ben-Meir Blog

Now that Iraqi forces, with the support of the international coalition, are gearing up to recapture Mosul -- ISIS's last major stronghold in Iraq -- the question that looms high is what will be the fate of the Iraqi Sunni community following ISIS's inevitable defeat? I maintain that unless the political discussion begins now between the Shiite-dominated Iraqi government and the Sunnis (under the auspices of the US) to determine the fate of the Sunni community, defeating ISIS alone will not end the ongoing Sunni-Shiite civil war in Iraq that has claimed the lives of tens of thousands since 2003.

As long as the Iraqi Sunnis do not know what the future has in store for them, they have no reason to put their lives on the line to fight against ISIS and make all the sacrifices only to benefit the Shiite government in Baghdad, which they reject and despise even more so than ISIS.

The Obama administration should, parallel to the fight against ISIS, immediately start to negotiate the future status of the Sunni Iraqis with the Iraqi government and agree on establishing an autonomous region in their three provinces -- Ninevah, Salahildin, and Diyala -- to run their own affairs along the lines of Kurdish autonomy in the north, with a loose connection to the central government in Baghdad.

For this to succeed, it will be necessary to provide the Sunnis, soon after the defeat of ISIS, with substantial financial aid to build the institutions they need during a transitional period of five to 10 years, including health care facilities, schools, and social services to buttress the foundation for the establishment of such autonomy.

To assume that Iraq will somehow be stitched together following the defeat of ISIS is a gross illusion, as Iraq's de facto partition into three states was ordained immediately following the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

Liberating Mosul from ISIS will be extremely difficult under any circumstances. Indeed, for ISIS, the fight over Mosul is a do-or-die battle and they should be expected to resort to any means at their disposal, however cruel and inhumane, to deny the coalition and Iraqi forces from realizing their objective.

The fight can be expected to be street-to-street and house-to-house, with many thousands of potential civilian casualties while likely destroying much of the city's infrastructure.

The only way to reduce the scale of devastation and bring a gradual end to the Sunni-Shiite civil war in Iraq is to entice the Sunni communities inside and outside Mosul to join the fight. This, however, comes at a price that the central Iraqi government must be prepared to pay, which is negotiating the establishment of an autonomous Sunni region in their three provinces.

The capture of Mosul by ISIS had precipitated the exodus of hundreds of thousands of minorities, including Turkmen, Yazidis, Christians, Shiites, and others. As a result, the Sunni community still constitutes the absolute majority of the population. Due to their concerns over continuing instability, discrimination, and bloodshed, many who fled will not be able or willing to return after the defeat of ISIS.

To that end, as a former top Iraqi official said to me, there is a need for an "urgent comprehensive dialogue between the stakeholders to align [the] political roadmap to the military liberation [of Mosul] roadmap."

Among the more than 700,000 Sunnis currently residing in Mosul, nearly 100,000 are of fighting age who can join the fight against ISIS from inside the city if they see a clear path that would lead them to the establishment of a self-governing entity.

This will not only accelerate the demise of ISIS and potentially reduce the level of death and destruction, but will eventually bring a gradual end to the Sunni-Shiite civil war. The same source stated that "Iraqi officials need to embrace a new culture of dialogue and compromise to project to its constituency its ability to adapt to the needs of its people's welfare."

Having lost their dominance of Iraq to the Shiites in 2003 after 81 years of continuous rule, the Sunnis still refuse to accept what they consider to be a historic travesty. This was further aggravated by eight years of the Shiite government led by Nouri al-Maliki, who abused his power and marginalized, mistreated, and victimized the Sunni community.

Sadly, the mistreatment of the Sunnis continued under the current Abadi government in spite of the fact that the US pressured Abadi to establish a unity government united in their purpose, given the necessity of defeating ISIS as a prerequisite to stabilizing the country.

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We are shifting the focus in our Facebook group, Bernie Sanders: Advice and Strategies to Win, to specifically helping Bernie with achieve his legislative projects. This must take place for our group's efforts to have any real long term effect. If you are a Facebook Friend or Friend of Friend, and want to join our group, I welcome you to do so.

(Of course, things could change rapidly in this convention, and right after it, in the fallout from the convention. For example, I loved the Florida delegates shouting "Shame, Shame, Shame," about Debbie Wasserman Schultz, as she was forced to rapidly exit the stage!)

I envision a kind of legislative project clearing house, in which members can bring up what is important to them in their state, and which might need letters to other US Senators and members of Congress from other states, as in Bernie's effort to Save Oak Flat, a gigantic problem for all Americans in that it would involve the privatization of an entire National Forest to be turned into an ugly enormous copper mine, which still absolutely needs your taking the time to write to both of your Senators in this context.

I have thus far asked OpEdNews readers for help in writing to the Republicans primarily, since they control the Senate Energy Committee, and that is chaired by Alaska's Lisa Murkowski. Asking both of your Senators to join in on Bernie's bill as cosponsors would be a superbly effective strategy at this point, whether they are Republicans or Democrats, and believe me: there is nothing worse that would doom that effort more than just writing to people with whom you feel ideogically comfortable!

We have had an election in essence stolen from us and from Bernie vis-a-vis a few critical primaries (NY, IL, Ohio, Nevada, and Arizona), but just for the moment, and for the purpose of our discussion, please assume that nothing will materialize in efforts to correct those egregiously hijacked primaries.

What does that leave? Bernie's legislative agenda, and if the cheering sections for his campaign, and the strategists and brilliant thinking that went into to get him this far, all could be coalesced into a strong and proactive legislative base, there is almost nothing we cannot accomplish in terms of actualizing Bernie's legislative goals. You have seen his success thus far in terms of the platform; the real battles and Bernie's ideas' fruition are ahead, in the Senate!

To accomplish this will require a very serious focus, good communications, guidance from Bernie and his Senate staff, not his campaign staff, and a clear understanding that we will not allow the good energy and good karma of his brilliant campaign to be dissipated and disassembled by a campaign of having to choose between the lesser of two evils. Some no doubt will want to jump on sincere but losing band wagons like the Green and the Libertarian candidates' little bandwagons, but that will not and cannot be the focus of this group henceforth.

I welcome your feedback regarding this shift, as well as adding members that would be interested in our new focus.

I welcome your posting immediate legislative concerns, like GMO, labeling, TPP and other trade agreements and compacts, "Defense" Spending, Senate Confirmations, etc., as long as they are specific bills with committee assignments, (it is with the Committee assignments in which I see great room for very large effects from our efforts). I am less interested in general areas for soap box grandiloquence and grandstanding, cheering sections, and "preaching to the choir."

We already have a common ground, and that is to advance Bernie Sanders legislative efforts. Truly, a new legislative project exchange, a clearing house of ideas, advice and strategies, and a sounding board with unprecedented power and impact: this is what this group is now dedicated to.

If you don't want to write letters to Senators and Congressmen, or such doesn't fit into your schedule or scheme of things, there is no need to stick around. If you want to communicate directly with me, email is below. I welcome drafts of letters before we publish them and maybe before you send them. You are welcome to publish such letters here also, but we must continually make clear that they are examples to inspire you to write your own, and not templates to be copied: those don't work at all in the US Senate.

We can see how this would in due course result in a great surge of Bernie Sanders legislative accomplishments, plus some highly trained and experienced new liberal Democrat operatives with serious and meaningful successes under their belts, all of which are vitally important in the midterm elections in 2018 and in the next Presidential elections in 2020.

Respectfully,

Stephen Fox

Founder, Bernie Sanders Advice and Strategies to Win

stephen@santafefineart.com


Living with HIV but dying of TB - or NCDs such as diabetes - is unacceptable!

(Image by CNS (Citizen News Service)) Details DMCA



(CNS): At the 2015 United Nations General Assembly, governments committed to achieve SDGs by 2030, one of which is to end AIDS and TB by 2030. If people living with HIV continue to die of TB, we will not only fail to achieve SDGs but also lose gains made in the fights against HIV and TB.

Keeping in mind the crucial interplay of TB, HIV and non-communicable diseases (NCDs), a special session on "Can we afford to lose gains made in fight against HIV and TB? Integrated responses are a must to meet the SDGs by 2030!" was jointly hosted by AIDS Society of India, CNS (Citizen News Service), Lilly MDR TB Partnership, Gujarat AIDS Prevention unit ISRCDE, ARUNA and Vote For Health campaign at the International TB Conference (TB 2016) held just preceding the 21st International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2016) in Durban, South Africa.

The panelists were an eclectic mix from the field of affected communities, researchers, private sector, country representatives, and international public health agencies. Each of these voices is no less important than the other. Hence to be fair, here is a glimpse of their responses (in reverse alphabetical order of their names).

Dr Padmapriya Darsini, Senior Scientist, National Institute for Research in Tuberculosis, Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR): "In order to sustain and increase the gains we have made in the fight against TB, we need more political commitment to reach SDGs by reducing TB deaths in PLHIV. It takes very long for research findings to reflect in a country's programme. So if there is a political commitment for faster use of research findings for public health, we will be able to better control TB and HIV.

Although India has made a lot of progress, we still have a long way to go. If we get back the political commitment and the funding to the level when we started initially, things will improve. There should be also more linkages between the government and private sector. This would ease the resource crunch and help improve our gains in fighting HIV and TB."

Nomampondo Barnabas, Civil Society Liaison Officer, International Union Against TB and Lung Disease (The Union): "As I have been living with both the diseases, I speak on behalf of both of them. We cannot afford to lose the gains in the fight against HIV and TB. I have been living with HIV since 1997, and was diagnosed with TB in 2006. But I am alive today. When we talk of responses and programmes, we look at the figures and often forget the human faces behind them. Sometimes we tend to work in silos, dealing with one epidemic at a time. This must stop. There is need for integration. We also need to work closely with religious and faith based leaders as people do listen to them."

Dr Haileyesus Getahun, WHO Global TB Programme's coordinator of TB/HIV and community engagement unit, and Co-chair of TB 2016: "We have come a long way in the last decade and having TB 2016 as an integral part of the 21st International AIDS conference bears testimony to it. Even though 6 million deaths of PLHIV due to TB have been averted since 2004, TB is still the leading killer of PLHIV. SDGs give us a very unique opportunity of working together for TB and HIV. Eliminating TB disease in PLHIV should be the starting point.

According to the WHO guidelines, the minimum expectation from TB and HIV programmes is to provide integrated TB and HIV services to people who need them; and governments will have to brace up their efforts. We need to find ways to harmonise our work and synergise our efforts, as well as increase our efficiencies. We have to look at the patient in a holistic manner. Else we will not be able to achieve SDGs.

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For the last several days the authorities have taken to shutting down online access from 5 a.m. to 8 a.m. daily, according to Education Ministry spokeswoman Hadeel al-Ameri so as to prevent the answers to tests being available to students before they took their test.

Sound extreme? Perhaps it is. But then the situation in Iraq is pretty extreme. Recently, "security departments were able to arrest some people who were trying to leak the questions and we found out that there were few people in the [Education] Ministry who used to leak these questions," al-Ameri told NBC . Yes, you read that correctly, people in the actual Educational Ministry were selling the results to exams.

And they weren't being coy about it either. When NBC news investigated, they found out that simply joining a Facebook group called "Leaking the Final Central Exams Questions 2015" allowed students to buy the results from anonymous administrators for as little as $9.

It wasn't just the administrators of the educational ministry who were this blase about cheating and corruption. Parents were just as bad. One parent didn't have any trouble telling NBC that she had helped her 12-year-old cheat last year.

"My son is not that clever," she told the news channel matter-of-factly, "His father and I did our best to teach him, but he cannot understand what he's being taught in school. That's why I saw this as a good chance to help my son to pass the exam even though I know it is not legal at all."

Another 16-year-old student who wished to remain unidentified explained how she was able to buy the results for eight of her exams. She paid about $18 dollars per exam, for her eight exams. "They sent me three accurate lists of questions that came in the exams -- chemistry, physics and Islamic studies," she said. "The rest five exams they sent me only three questions out of the six questions."

And she didn't have any problem saying that she would cheat again in the future. "I will do it again," she said. "I want to go to a good college."

Cheating is endemic in Iraq. And that's not that surprising. Lots of tools, such as custom writing services, wikipedia, math tools, and others, are available in the internet today. When asked about corruption in the country, one official readily admitted, "There is no solution," he told the Guardian . "Everybody is corrupt, from the top of society to the bottom. Everyone. Including me. At least I am honest about it," said Mishan al-Jabouri. "I was offered $5m by someone to stop investigating him. I took it, and continued prosecuting him anyway."

With that kind of an attitude is it really surprising that Transparency international rates Iraq a miserable 161 out of 168, with a score of 16 out of 100 in terms of corruption?

It isn't just there that the picture of Iraq looks bleak. Back in the 1970s literacy in the country was widespread, with it close to 100%, with the system rated among one of the finest in the region and even competing on the global stage. Since the first gulf war, back in 1991 however, it has become a real horror story, with the literacy rate plummeting down to 78.1%.

School enrolment is down as well, with the country having 90.8% enrolment back in 1990, while it had dropped to 80.3 by 2000. That difference is even more stark if you realize that if the country would have continued progressing as the rest of the region has (which also hasn't been terribly impressive) the country would now have an enrolment of 100% for both boys and girls.

In part this is because the schools have fallen apart. For example, after the US led invasion in 2003 many vocational schools lost 80% of their equipment, according to a UNESCO report. Other schools have simply ceased to function.

This has made it difficult for children in the rural areas to go to school. Another big reason is that since the country has fallen apart many parents have started to keep their children at home to help in the business.

"Emerging evidence indicates that the third war in three decades - the US-led invasion from 2003 to 2010 - has left behind a dilapidated education system affected by safety concerns, rising costs, and acute shortages of teachers and learning materials," the University of Pittsburgh's M. Najeeb Shafiq wrote in 2012 .

So it would seem the country could use a little bit more help than just turning off the internet before exams. Perhaps it would be a good idea if the government, instead of handing out jobs based on party loyalty, would again start handing out jobs based on capability.

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Oftentimes, we don't know the answer even when it's right in our face.

There has been a torrent of news about fentanyl, the deadly opioid that killed Prince. Our country is awash in this stuff, and it's killing us.

Here's the skeleton narrative: drug manufacturers use opioids to create addictive drugs such as Fentanyl. The FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research evaluates these drugs to make sure they "work correctly and that their health benefits outweigh their known risks". (A quick aside--if Fentanyl is so deadly, how do its benefits outweigh its risks? It kills pain, but aren't there other drugs that do, too? More on this soon.) Pharmaceutical companies then go to work on selling approved drugs to consumers.

Here's the kicker: the hardcore killer, Fentanyl, is a Schedule II drug, meaning doctors can prescribe it through pharmacies. Cannabis, on the other hand, which has never killed a soul, is a Schedule I, right up there with heroin.

This also means it's tough to do research. In order to study cannabis, researchers have to get Schedule I research registration from the DEA and a research license from the state-controlled drugs agency. What's more, they have to get the cannabis from the NIDA (National Institute on Drug Abuse). The stuff from the NIDA is a lot less potent than what is out there right now. Studies on it are limited in relevancy.

It's all coming to a head. Scientists and lawmakers are watching the opioid crisis rage, and calling for the DEA to reclassify cannabis as a Schedule II. If that happens, more research could go into cannabis' potential as a painkiller. It also has anti-nausea and sleep-inducing effects, because cannabis interacts with the body's endocannabinoid system.

The endocannabinoid system helps regulate a variety of functions, including immune function, pain management and sleep. If research proves what we already know about cannabis, and the FDA subsequently approves it for medical use, we could see doctors prescribing it instead of opioids in the future.

Less people would get addicted, less would die. According to a study reported by the Journal of the American Medical Association, states with medical cannabis have experienced lower opioid overdose fatality rates.

But the implications of making cannabis a Schedule II are complex. Right now, twenty-three states have some sort of medical marijuana program in place. The pharmaceutical companies and manufacturers don't have their grubby, gigantic hands in the mix. Once it's a Schedule II, and if the FDA approve it, these companies will scramble to capitalize on it. We could see the price of prescription cannabis skyrocket. We could see drugs with THC in them that don't remotely resemble cannabis sold to poor people for exorbitant prices.

But here's the interesting thing: that doesn't have to be the case, because people can grow this stuff in their backyards. A situation in which the traditional system for prescription drugs applies to cannabis would be a dark one. Big pharma would have to lobby our lawmakers to rig the market, making recreational cannabis illegal across the board, obliterating state dispensaries, and putting the manufacture and sale of cannabis squarely in the hands of the zeitgeist.

This is unlikely to happen because so many states already have medical marijuana. Four states have legalized recreational cannabis. Once it becomes federally legal to prescribe the stuff, manufacturers and pharmaceutical companies will have to compete with the people who are already growing, and the dispensaries that are already selling.

To be clear, I think it's only a matter of time. Cannabis will disrupt the opioid market and the pharmaceutical industry. Along the way, it will be interesting (if that's the right word) to see what kind of tricks the pharma PACs have up their sleeves.

It will be interesting to see what kind of regulation the federal government tries to pass. Will there be a cannabis regulation face-off between the federal government and the states? A scenario of that sort isn't hard to imagine.
Reprinted from Truthdig

PHILADELPHIA -- The parade of useful idiots, the bankrupt liberal class that long ago sold its soul to corporate power, is now led by Sen. Bernie Sanders. His final capitulation, symbolized by his pathetic motion to suspend the roll call, giving Hillary Clinton the Democratic nomination by acclamation, is an abject betrayal of millions of his supporters and his call for a political revolution.

No doubt the Democrats will continue to let Sanders be a member of the Democratic Caucus. No doubt the Democrats will continue to agree not to run a serious candidate against him in Vermont. No doubt Sanders will be given an ample platform and media opportunities to shill for Clinton and the corporate machine. No doubt he will remain a member of the political establishment.

Sanders squandered his most important historical moment. He had a chance, one chance, to take the energy, anger and momentum, walk out the doors of the Wells Fargo Center and into the streets to help build a third-party movement. His call to his delegates to face "reality" and support Clinton was an insulting repudiation of the reality his supporters, mostly young men and young women, had overcome by lifting him from an obscure candidate polling at 12 percent into a serious contender for the nomination. Sanders not only sold out his base, he mocked it. This was a spiritual wound, not a political one. For this he must ask forgiveness.

Whatever resistance happens will happen without him. Whatever political revolution happens will happen without him. Whatever hope we have for a sustainable future will happen without him. Sanders, who once lifted up the yearnings of millions, has become an impediment to change. He took his 30 pieces of silver and joined with a bankrupt liberal establishment on behalf of a candidate who is a tool of Wall Street, a proponent of endless war and an enemy of the working class.

Sanders, like all of the self-identified liberals who are whoring themselves out for the Democrats, will use fear as the primary reason to remain enslaved by the neoliberal assault. And, in return, the corporate state will allow him and the other useful idiots among the 1 percent to have their careers and construct pathetic monuments to themselves.

The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) will be pushed through whether Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton is president. The fracking industry, fossil fuel industry and animal agriculture industry will ravage the ecosystem whether Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton is president. The predatory financial institutions on Wall Street will trash the economy and loot the U.S. Treasury on the way to another economic collapse whether Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton is president. Poor, unarmed people of color will be gunned down in the streets of our cities whether Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton is president. The system of neoslavery in our prisons, where we keep poor men and poor women of color in cages because we have taken from them the possibility of employment, education and dignity, will be maintained whether Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton is president. Millions of undocumented people will be deported whether Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton is president. Austerity programs will cut or abolish public services, further decay the infrastructure and curtail social programs whether Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton is president. Money will replace the vote whether Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton is president. And half the country, which now lives in poverty, will remain in misery whether Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton becomes president.

This is not speculation. We know this because there has been total continuity on every issue, from trade agreements to war to mass deportations, between the Bush administration and the administration of Barack Obama. The problem is not Donald Trump. The problem is capitalism. And this is the beast we are called to fight and slay. Until that is done, nothing of substance will change.

To reduce the political debate, as Sanders and others are doing, to political personalities is political infantilism. We have undergone a corporate coup. Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton will not reverse this coup. They, like Barack Obama, know where the centers of power lie. They serve these centers of power.

Change will come when we have the tenacity, as many Sanders delegates did, to refuse to cooperate, to say no, to no longer participate in the political charade. Change will come when we begin acts of sustained mass civil disobedience. Change will come when the fear the corporate state uses to paralyze us is used by us to paralyze the corporate state.

The Russian writer Alexander Herzen, speaking a century ago to a group of anarchists about how to overthrow the czar, reminded his listeners that it was not their job to save a dying system but to replace it: "We think we are the doctors. We are the disease."

We are here not to reform the system. We are here to overthrow it. And that is the only possibility left to restore our democracy and save our planet. If we fail in this task, if this system of corporate capitalism and globalization is not dismantled, we are doomed. And this is the reality no one wants to speak about.

We will have to be in the political wilderness, perhaps for a decade. But a decade ago Syriza, the party now ruling Greece, was polling at only 4 percent. This is what the Green Party is polling today. We will not bring about systemic change in one or two election cycles. But we can begin to build a counterweight to the corporate state. We can begin to push back.

We must find the courage not to be afraid. We must find the courage to follow our conscience. We must find the courage to defy the corporate forces of death in order to affirm the forces of life.

This will not be easy. The corporate state -- once its vast systems of indoctrination and propaganda do not work to keep us passive, once we are no longer afraid, once we make our own reality rather than accommodating ourselves to the reality imposed upon us -- will employ more direct and coercive forms of control. The reign of terror, the revocation of civil liberties, the indiscriminate violence by the state will no longer be exercised only against poor people of color. The reality endured by our poor sisters and brothers of color, a reality we did not do enough to fight against, will become our own.

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With the Russian President more in the news during the last few weeks than in any entire year, Americans are beginning to pay attention, however the media is not helping them to understand Vladimir Putin./

The latest accusation against the Russian leader - following upon the downing of a Malaysian Airlines passenger jet in 2014, sightings of so-called Russian submarines off the Swedish cost last year and the doping of athletes -- is that internal emails of the supposedly neutral Democratic election committee showing Clinton favoritism were hacked by Russians in order to boost Donald Trump's chances of becoming president.

Americans are being told that Trump is favored by Vladimir Putin, but they are not being told why. The why is simple: Russia lost 27 million people during the Second World War against Nazi Germany (to the US's 500,000). Any Russian president would prefer an American candidate who wants to make deals to one who led NATO right up to Russia's European borders, supposedly to make sure that this country that is three times bigger than the US, covering nine time zones, doesn't invade three tiny Baltic countries who between them are probably no bigger than New Jersey.

Warnings of the danger of nuclear war are ubiquitous in the alternative press, but absent from the mainstream, so most voters are oblivious to the fact that Russia is threatening to use tactical nukes if NATO troops set foot inside the country.

With hundreds of thousands of foreign troops and tanks massed on its border, Russia is accused of 'invading' Ukraine (or Crimea, take your pick). Had Russia invaded Ukraine, it would have reached Kiev in a day, deposing the fascist government brought in by a US-sponsored coup in 2014. As for Crimea, Russia has had a naval base there since the time of Catherine the Great, and it has no intention of letting it fall into fascist hands. Luckily for Crimeans, most of them are ethnic Russians, as are most of the inhabitants of the Donbass, which has set up an alternative to the fascist, Russia-hating government in Kiev.

American voters are being asked to choose between a Hillary determined to start World War III, and a Donald strongly suspected of fascist tendencies. However dangerous a Trump victory would be, it has to be said that it's not Putin's job to save America from itself. His job is to save Russia from a fourth invasion and a nuclear war that would decimate us as well.

American voters have never been told that Russia has repeatedly offered to unite with the US against a two-headed fascism: the Islamist and the Neo-liberal. America's refusal to work with Russia on an equal basis in Syria shows it still wants to be number one, regardless of the consequences.

Next Trump/Putin Part 3
Trump: The Lesser Of Two Evils

It may be difficult, as of today, to understand that Trump, compared to Hillary Clinton, is the lesser evil, but the argument that he is less dangerous than Clinton is strong for the following reasons:

Trump is a huge embarrassment for the country on the world stage, but particularly so for the Republican hierarchy, for if he were allowed to conduct himself in the White House as he has in the past, he would become the "face" of the GOP with every asinine comment and with every foolish move he threatens to make. Trump would remain high profile in the public eye, because he is the kind of repulsive/comical phenomenon that makes for popular "news" in our system where network bottom lines rule. Pundits and news readers would have a blast. Accordingly, he could set the Party back for a generation. While Trump might be free to run roughshod in the environment of the business world and bask there in his image as a gutsy, shoot-from-the-hip gunslinger, the GOP hierarchy, acting in its own self interest, would have every reason to do all in its considerable power to control his conduct when he represents the Party, and the Party would be able to do that. There is no way the Party would allow him to become the fascist dictator so many seem to fear.

On the other hand, nobody has more control of the machinery of the Democratic Party than the Clintons. Given the depth of their connections there is no force anywhere to restrain Hillary and her "first man" husband, once in office. The Clinton team, "Billary", has amassed an unprecedented level of political and financial power not only in the US but also in countries all over the world with their foundation, the Clinton Global Initiative. They carefully manage its image as philanthropic, although there are numerous indicators that they are selling influence.

NAFTA, advanced by Bill Clinton in the nineties, was the kickoff for other corporate-generated trade deals of which is TPP is just the latest. The Clintons as a couple were, and remain, the very faces of neoliberal globalism, and it would be naive to think that she would, once in office, use her authority to undermine a globalist "free trade" philosophy, even if forced during her campaign to yield to a Party Platform plank against TPP. For one thing, she would not feel constrained by such a plank. Moreover, there are certainly other such deals in the hopper that could arise, even if TPP falls. We in the US have short memories.

It was the Clintons during Bill's Administration that killed the protection of Glass-Steagall, thus removing the wall between commercial banks and investment banks and turning Wall Street into a Wild West of convoluted, fraudulent schemes, this leading to a financial collapse that put millions of citizens literally on the curb. The Clintons have taken many millions of dollars in speaking fees from the very power centers she claims now to be willing to "break up". Yeah, sure. That has to have the likes of Lloyd Blankfein and fellow Wall Streeters laughing out loud. "Who pays the piper calls the tune" is as true to today as it was in Aesop's time.

But it is the military issue that most sets Clinton apart from Trump, a fact that is receiving much too little attention. Clinton is very close to the centers of military interests, and during her tenure as Secretary of State we have built up military installations in the Baltic, right up against Russia's border, and have sent a warship into the Black Sea, where Russia has coastline. How does an intelligent US citizen think that Russians would interpret such actions? We have an entire naval fleet in the South China Sea. How can the Chinese fail to interpret that just as we would should we find a fleet of Chinese warships patrolling our West Coast?

Then there's the delicate subject of Israel. Anyone honestly searching for reasons for the hatred of the Arab/Muslim world toward the US is hit smack upside the head with the fact that the creation of the state of Israel, which rose from the ethnic cleansing of native inhabitants, and continues to this day by barbaric occupation, was accomplished through US influence. The whole world (save, apparently, ill-informed Americans) understands this continuing history of "Isramerica" and the degree to which it is behind the terrorism directed toward the West in general and the US in particular. Entire books have been written on Israel's domination of US foreign policy, so when Hillary Clinton promises to raise US-Israeli relations "to the next level" one wonders how that's even possible beyond moving the White House to Tel Aviv.

(Aside: If you have not seen Saturday Night Live's blackballed skit on congressional ass kissing of Israel, it's still available here. It speaks volumes about our "passionate attachment")

In sum, Clinton has given every indication that she is willing to push the country to the brink of nuclear war, whereas Trump, his buffoonery notwithstanding, wants to do business deals. That, in my view, makes him less dangerous than Clinton. So what's a fellow to do? A vote for Jill Stein of the Green Party, I'm told, is a vote for Trump, as it takes a vote away from Hillary. I'm going Green Party.
Bozeman Public Library Announces Partnership with Montana Code Girls

BOZEMAN and MISSOULA, MONTANA  July 25, 2016  Big Sky Code Academy , the leader in immersive coding boot camps across the state of Montana, and Bozeman Public Library and Library Foundation today announced a partnership to bring the Montana Code Girls initiative to Bozemans young girls. Montana Code Girls is a yearlong free afterschool technology program for girls ages 919 that teaches leadership, entrepreneurial and computer programming skills modeled after the international Technovation Challenge .We are excited to partner with Big Sky Code Academy, said Susan Gregory, Director of the Bozeman Public Library. The Librarys newly renovated computer lab is especially suited to host Montana Code Girls, one of the first girlsspecific, statewide programs aimed at engaging young girls in technology.This free afterschool program ensuring that all Bozeman girls have the access and technical support they need to participate aligns perfectly with the Library and Library Foundations missions, added Paula K. Beswick, Director of the Library Foundation.With the number of girls involved in STEM activities dropping off around the age of ten and practical approaches to addressing the pay gap between men and women starting in middle school, programs like Montana Code Girls are designed to engage young girls in impactful programming in a safe and engaging environment.To kick off the program, the Big Sky Code Academy will be holding an information session and MIT App Inventor boot camp on Wednesday, July 27, 2016, at the Bozeman Public Library from 4pm  6pm. The boot camp will feature pitch videos former Montana Code Girls as well as a handson training session on how to build an app. The event is free and open to the public.The partnership with the Library and Library Foundation is a perfect match for Montana Code Girls and our effort to ensure that girls are at the table when it comes to Montana's future workforce development, said Devin B. Holmes, cofounder of Big SkyCode Academy. "As a father of a young daughter myself, I know how critical it is for a program like this to be centrally located and backed by public support like we see here in Bozeman. Girls are hungry for technology, and the Montana Code Girls initiative is really one of the first and only programs like it in the state."For more information about Big Sky Code Academys Montana Code Girls initiative, please visit: http://www.bigskycodeacademy.org/montanacodegirlsAbout Bozeman Public Library and Library FoundationThe Bozeman Public Library provides the community with free, open and equal access to general information on a broad array of topics; resources to promote personal growth and lifelong learning; popular materials to meet cultural and recreational needs; and the training needed to find, evaluate and use information effectively.The Bozeman Public Library Foundation seeks to increase and enhance the quality of services, programs, and community events offered by the Bozeman Public Library, benefiting the residents and communities it serves, while advocating for private and public support of the Library.About Big Sky Code AcademyTMThe Big Sky Code Academy is an accelerated coding boot camp offering online and onsite immersive training for the next generation of programmers. Designed to enable and empower all Montanans, the Academy recently launched two initiatives, Montana Code GirlsTM, and Code4PhilanthropyTM. Montana Code Girls offers events, afterschool programs and summer camps to Montanas girls and young women interested in technology, including sponsoring Montanas Technovation teams, while Code4Philanthropy Fellows attend the Academy at no cost and upon graduation are placed with nonprofits across beautiful Montana for a 12month technology fellowship. To learn more, visit: bigskycodeacademy.orgContactsAmanda K. LarrinagaBig Sky Code Academy 14062008240 amanda@modernentrep.coPaula K. BeswickBozeman Public Library Foundation 4065822426 director@bozemanlibraryfoundation.orgMontana Code Girls offers events and programs to Montanas girls and young women interested in technology. Whether its learning to code through our Montana Technovation Challenge teams (check out the trailer to the right to learn more) or our girls-only weekend coding bootcamps, Montana Code Girls is on a mission to inspire and empower interest in STEM.Big Sky Code Academy400 West Broadway, Suite 101-407Missoula, MT 59802
Medical Tourism Industry is Evolving Due to Availability of Cost-effective Treatments in Emerging Nations

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A market study on the global tourism market, recently published by Transparency Market Research (TMR) estimates this market to rise at an exceptional CAGR of 17.90% over the period from 2013 to 2019 and reach a value US$32.5 bn by the end of the forecast period.The research report, titled Medical Tourism Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast, 2013 - 2019, states that the worldwide medical tourism market attained a value of US$10.5 bn in 2012.Brochure Download:Medical tourism is defined as traveling from one location to another with a purpose to gain medical assistance. Generally, people from developing nations travel to developed countries for medical treatments that are unavailable in their own countries due to poor medical and healthcare infrastructure. However, in recent years, people residing in developed economies have also begun travelling to lesser developed countries in order to gain cost-efficient medical assistance.According to this study, the falling cost of medical procedures in the Philippines, India, Singapore, Thailand, Mexico, Malaysia, Brazil, Turkey, Taiwan, South Korea, Poland, Costa Rica, and Dubai is encouraging people to travel to these countries for their treatment and, in turn, is propelling the global medical tourism market significantly.In addition, the widening range of medical treatments available in these nations, coupled with technical advancements in the field of medical and healthcare, is likely to boost this market greatly during the forecast period, states the market report.In this study, the global medical tourism market is analyzed on the basis of its regional spread. India, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Brazil, Mexico, Turkey, Taiwan, and South Korea are the major medical tourism markets across the world.Thailand has emerged as the most popular destination for cosmetic surgeries among the medical tourists from Western Europe. In 2012, this country had welcomed around 2.5 million foreign patients, accounting for approximately 45% of the overall number of foreign medical tourists arrived in Asia. However, Malaysia is likely to dominate the global medical tourism market in the coming years.Almost 0.7 million patients were treated in this nation in 2012. Analysts expect around 2 mn patients to gain medical assistance in Malaysia by the end of the forecast period, notes the research report.Browse Full Research Report:The report further states that India and Singapore are the most preferred destinations in case of complex medical procedures. India has attracted a large number of patients due to its increasing popularity in the field of cardiac treatments. Costa Rica, Dubai, Poland, and the Philippines have been identified as the prospective countries for medical tourism in this market study.Samitivej Sukhumvit, Raffles Medical Group, Fortis Healthcare Ltd., Apollo Hospitals Enterprise Ltd., Bangkok Hospital Medical Center, Asian Heart Institute, Bumrungrad International Hospital, KPJ Healthcare Berhad, Min-Sheng General Hospital, and Prince Court Medical Center are some of the major organizations operating in the global medical tourism market.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.US Office Contact90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Bioelectronics Market to be Driven by Increasing Prevalence of Several Neural and Cardiac Diseases

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Bioelectronics is an emerging branch of medical science dealing with combined application of the principles of biology and electrical engineering. This is a crucial field in medicine and has led to the development of vital devices such as the artificial pacemaker and the plethora of medical imaging devices that are available today. Since electricity is a major part of the human bodys operating system, the bioelectronics field holds a lot of promise in the coming years.Get Free Sample Research Report:The major tools of bioelectronics are neural networks, bioelectromagnetics, robotics, sensors, etc. Notwithstanding the immense contribution bioelectronics is making to the field of medicine even in its early days, its role in healthcare is expected to grow massively in the coming years, affecting such disparate medical specialties as spinal injuries and vision disorders.Extensive R&D into bioelectronics will also help the rising home health care market by enabling on-site diagnosis with ease. Apart from medical and life sciences research, bioelectronics is also used in environmental monitoring, with demand from the latter expected to increase rapidly in the coming years due to growing acknowledgement of the danger of global warming.The primary driver of the global bioelectronics market is, naturally, rising demand from the health care sector. Due to the increasing prevalence of several neural and cardiac diseases, the demand for bioelectronics devices and technology has shot up. Cancer is another increasingly prevalent disease driving the demand for bioelectronics globally. The higher precision offered by bioelectronics products in comparison with the traditional diagnostics tools is one of the major factors propelling the global bioelectronics market.The rising demand for personalized medicine and home care is also a major driver of the bioelectronics market. Allied to telehealth and telemonitoring technologies, bioelectronics forms a crucial part of the network required to monitor patients in such cases. Sensors developed through bioelectronics research are significantly rising in demand, driving the global bioelectronics market.The high demand for implantable medical devices, including vital devices such as ear implants, gastric implants, and pacemakers, is another factor boosting the expansion prospects of the global bioelectronics industry. Since many of these implants have vital importance to their users or are necessary for their users to carry out day-to-day activities, the demand for these and other implantable devices is expected to rise in the coming years, driving the global bioelectronics market.On the other hand, the lack of high-resolution imaging technology in remote areas and the high cost of advanced bioelectronics products are the two major restraints acting on the bioelectronics market. The resolution of medical imaging devices is a highly researched topic in the modern world and is expected to be steadily improved. The high costs of bioelectronics products could also level out with growing demand in the coming years.Browse Full Research Report:Europe is currently leading the global bioelectronics market, with Asia Pacific and North America following it closely. Europe has been a major hub for bioelectronics and other medical research for several years, and the early adoption and development of bioelectronics products has helped boost the demand for the same. The European market is expected to remain in the lead in the coming years, while North America, and the U.S. in particular, is expected to make rapid progress. Major bioelectronics market players include Bioelectronics Corporation, Danaher Corporation, Medtronics, Roche, Siemens AG, and Beckman Coulters.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a global market intelligence company providing business information reports and services. The companys exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trend analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information.TMRs data repository is continuously updated and revised by a team of research experts so that it always reflects the latest trends and information. With extensive research and analysis capabilities, Transparency Market Research employs rigorous primary and secondary research techniques to develodistinctive data sets and research material for business reports.Contact UsTransparency Market ResearchState Tower,90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Global Bluetooth Beacon Devices Market Research Report 2021

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This report studies Bluetooth Beacon Devices in Global market, especially in North America, Europe, China, Japan, Korea and Taiwan, focuses on top manufacturers in global market, with sales, price, revenue and market share for each manufacturer, coveringPLUS Location Systems (BlueCats)Blue Sense NetworksEstimoteGeneral ElectricGeloGlimworm BeaconsKontakt.ioOnyx BeaconPayPalSensorbergQualcomm (Gimbal)Market Segment by Regions, this report splits Global into several key Region, with production, consumption, revenue, market share and growth rate of Bluetooth Beacon Devices in these regions, from 2011 to 2021 (forecast), likeNorth AmericaChinaEuropeJapanTaiwanKoreaSplit by product type, with production, revenue, price, market share and growth rate of each type, can be divided intoType IType IIType IIISplit by application, this report focuses on consumption, market share and growth rate of Bluetooth Beacon Devices in each application, can be divided intoApplication 1Application 2Application 3Sample Copy Of Report:Table of Contents1 Bluetooth Beacon Devices Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Bluetooth Beacon Devices1.2 Bluetooth Beacon Devices Segment by Types1.2.1 Global Production Market Share of Bluetooth Beacon Devices by Type in 20151.2.2 Type I Overview and Price1.2.2.1 Type I Overview1.2.2.2 Type I Price List in 2015 and 20161.2.3 Type II1.2.3.1 Type I Overview1.2.3.2 Type I Price List in 2015 and 20161.2.4 Type III1.2.4.1 Type I Overview1.2.4.2 Type I Price List in 2015 and 20161.3 Bluetooth Beacon Devices Segment by Application1.3.1 Bluetooth Beacon Devices Consumption Market Share by Application in 20151.3.2 Application 1 and Major Clients (Buyers) List1.3.3 Application 2 and Major Clients (Buyers) List1.3.4 Application 3 and Major Clients (Buyers) List1.4 Bluetooth Beacon Devices Market by Region1.4.1 North America Status and Prospect (2011-2021)1.4.2 China Status and Prospect (2011-2021)1.4.3 Europe Status and Prospect (2011-2021)1.4.4 Japan Status and Prospect (2011-2021)1.4.5 Taiwan Status and Prospect (2011-2021)1.4.6 Korea Status and Prospect (2011-2021)1.5 Global Market Size (Value and Volume) of Bluetooth Beacon Devices (2011-2021)1.5.1 Global Bluetooth Beacon Devices Sales and Revenue (2011-2021)1.5.2 Global Bluetooth Beacon Devices Sales and Growth Rate (2011-2021)1.5.3 Global Bluetooth Beacon Devices Revenue and Growth Rate (2011-2021)2 Global Bluetooth Beacon Devices Market Competition by Manufacturers2.1 Global Bluetooth Beacon Devices Production and Share by Manufacturers (2015 and 2016)2.2 Global Bluetooth Beacon Devices Revenue and Share by Manufacturers (2015 and 2016)2.3 Global Bluetooth Beacon Devices Average Price by Manufacturers (2015 and 2016)2.4 Manufacturers Bluetooth Beacon Devices Manufacturing Base Distribution and Product Type2.5 Competitive Situation and Trends2.5.1 Expansions2.5.2 New Product Launches2.5.3 Acquisitions2.5.4 Other Developments3 Global Bluetooth Beacon Devices Analysis by Region3.1 Global Bluetooth Beacon Devices Production, Revenue and Market Share by Region (2011-2021)3.1.1 Global Bluetooth Beacon Devices Production Market Share by Region (2011-2021)3.1.2 Global Bluetooth Beacon Devices Revenue Market Share by Region (2011-2021)3.2 Global Bluetooth Beacon Devices Consumption by Region (2011-2021)3.3 North America3.3.1 North America Bluetooth Beacon Devices Production, Revenue and Price (2011-2021)3.3.2 North America Bluetooth Beacon Devices Production, Revenue and Growth Rate (2011-2021)3.4 Europe3.4.1 Europe Bluetooth Beacon Devices Production, Revenue and Price (2011-2021)3.4.2 Europe Bluetooth Beacon Devices Production, Revenue and Growth Rate (2011-2021)3.5 China3.5.1 China Bluetooth Beacon Devices Production, Revenue and Price (2011-2021)3.5.2 China Bluetooth Beacon Devices Production, Revenue and Growth Rate (2011-2021)3.6 Japan3.6.1 Japan Bluetooth Beacon Devices Production, Revenue and Price (2011-2021)3.6.2 Japan Bluetooth Beacon Devices Production, Revenue and Growth Rate (2011-2021)3.7 Taiwan3.7.1 Taiwan Bluetooth Beacon Devices Production, Revenue and Price (2011-2021)3.7.2 Taiwan Bluetooth Beacon Devices Production, Revenue and Growth Rate (2011-2021)3.8 Korea3.8.1 Korea Bluetooth Beacon Devices Production, Revenue and Price (2011-2021)3.8.2 Korea Bluetooth Beacon Devices Production, Revenue and Growth Rate (2011-2021)4 Global Bluetooth Beacon Devices Analysis by Type4.1 Global Bluetooth Beacon Devices Production, Revenue, Market Share and Growth Rate by Type (2011-2021)4.1.1 Global Bluetooth Beacon Devices Production and Market Share by Type (2011-2021)4.1.2 Global Bluetooth Beacon Devices Revenue, Market Share and Growth Rate by Type (2011-2021)4.2 Type I Production, Revenue, Price and Growth (2011-2021)4.3 Type II Production, Revenue, Price and Growth (2011-2021)4.4 Type III Production, Revenue, Price and Growth (2011-2021)5 Global Bluetooth Beacon Devices Market Analysis by Application5.1 Global Bluetooth Beacon Devices Consumption and Market Share by Application (2011-2021)5.2 Major Regions Bluetooth Beacon Devices Consumption by Application in 2015 and 20165.2.1 North America Bluetooth Beacon Devices Consumption by Application5.2.2 Europe Bluetooth Beacon Devices Consumption by Application5.2.3 China Bluetooth Beacon Devices Consumption by Application5.2.4 Japan Bluetooth Beacon Devices Consumption by Application5.2.5 Taiwan Bluetooth Beacon Devices Consumption by Application5.2.6 Korea Bluetooth Beacon Devices Consumption by Application5.3 Global Bluetooth Beacon Devices Consumption Growth Rate by Application (2011-2021)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
Travel and Tourism in Colombia Boosted by Rising International Arrivals and Government Funding to Build New Airports

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ALBANY, New York, July, 27, 2016  In 2016, the weak local currency in Colombia will increase the preference for domestic trips over outbound travel, states a report newly added by Market Research Hub to its vast database. It is also expected that the weak peso will continue to boost the growing inbound tourism as well. In 2015, international arrivals increased by 16.3%. In June 2016, an agreement was signed to end the 50-year conflict between FARC rebels and the Colombian government. This is predicted to significantly affect international arrivals, predict the reports authors. These are some of the findings of the report, titled Travel and Tourism in Colombia to 2020.The research says that travel and tourism in Colombia has been enjoying impressive growth over the past few years  8.2% in 2013, 7.4% in 2014, and the aforementioned 16.3% in 2015. Consistent improvements in safety for tourists in Colombia have contributed to the consistent growth. The research report also highlights details about international arrivals, international departures, outbound trips, and inbound trips. As per the findings of the report, in 2015, there were approximately 2.3 million international arrivals in Colombia. By 2020, international arrivals are expected to reach 3.2 million, exhibiting a 6.70% CAGR from 2016 to 2020.Browse Full Report on Travel and Tourism in Colombia:The research also talks about the rising government support that is boosting the travel and tourism sector in Colombia. The Colombian government is planning to exempt all foreign tourists from the sales tax (VAT) of 16% on tourism services. In February 2016, at a tourist fair, the Colombian President, Juan Manuel, announced that a decree had already been prepared declaring the exemption for foreign tourists visiting Colombia and for those availing health tourism packages. This is expected to assist travel and tourism agents in Colombia in increasing the sale of tourist packages.The study then focuses on the major factors expected to restrict the growth of travel and tourism in Colombia. The economic depreciation has adversely affected international departures, thus hampering the travel and tourism sector in Colombia. In 2015, outbound trips fell by 1.3% and expenditure declined by around 0.6%. By 2020, domestic trips in Colombia are expected to reach 32.6 million, exhibiting a 5.70% average annual growth rate from 2016 to 2020.Request for Sample Report with TOC in a PDF Format:As per the report, overcrowding at Colombias biggest airport, El Dorado at Bogota, is the primary challenge for the tourism sector. El Dorado was designed to serve 15 million to 17 million passengers every year. In 2015, with a total of 30 million passengers, the airport registered record-breaking passenger traffic. To ease the congestion of passengers, the Colombian government has invested US$375 mn in building a new airport, El Dorado II, by 2021. This is expected to further propel inbound and outbound trips, thus boosting travel and tourism in Colombia.Market Research HUB (MRH) is a next-generation reseller of research reports and analysis. MRHs expansive collection of market research reports has been carefully curated to help key personnel and decision makers across industry verticals to clearly visualize their operating environment and take strategic steps.MRH functions as an integrated platform for the following products and services: Objective and sound market forecasts, qualitative and quantitative analysis, incisive insight into defining industry trends, and market share estimates. Our reputation lies in delivering value and world-class capabilities to our clients.Contact Us90 State Street,Albany, NY 12207,United StatesToll Free : 866-997-4948 (US-Canada)Tel : +1-518-621-2074Email : sales@marketresearchhub.comWebsite :
Worldwide 3D Bioprinting Market : Recent Industry Trends, Current and Projected Industry Size by 2015 - 2021

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3D bioprinting is a process of creating spatially-controlled cell patterns in 3D, where viability and cell function are conserved within printed construct. The 3D bioprinting industry that is currently at the embryonic stage of generating replacement human tissue has been forecast to be worth billion dollars by 2019. 3D bioprinting at present largely involves the creation of simple tissue structures in lab settings, but is estimated to be scaled up to involve the creation of complete organs for transplants. This technology is expected to be used for more speedy and accurate drug testing, as potential drug compounds could be tested on bioprinted tissue before human trials commenced.3D bioprinting is steadily emerging as an area that is gathering attention from a lot of academicians. Some of the researchers have recently opened start-up firms with aim of commercializing the technology in coming years. A number of start-ups have recently sprung up to build up products based on bioprinting. Some are spin outs from university research. For examples, Aspect Biosystems focused on printing tissue models for toxicity testing TeViDo BioDevices focused on printing breast tissue and SkinPrint focused on developing human skin. The market of 3D bioprinting particularly focuses on the commercial bioprinters and those under development, their applications and the expected future evolution. It is widely predictable that the 3D bioprinting market has great potential. It requires biocompatible materials (bio-ink and bio-paper), software (CAD), hardware (bioprinters); each has the capability to grow into separate niche industries.Thinking about report: Please observe the beneath the hyperlinks to satisfy your necessities; Request for the Report sample :The market at present has 14 industry sponsored bioprinters, focused on variety of commercial applications. The widen supply-demand gap for organ transplants is an unmet need; the ultimate goal of researchers is to be able to create bioprinted organs for organ transplants. The focus of this market is expected to shift from research to commercialization. At this stage, the applications such as tissue engineering (skin and cartilage) and drug testing (skin and cartilage) are expected to be popular.In coming years, 3D bioprinting to be a multi-billion dollar industry owning to early success of bioprinted organ transplants is expected to offer additional boost in subsequent years. The next generation of bioprinters is to offer additional features such as multiple arms and is expected to be comparatively more affordable driving wider adoption. Aspect Biosystems would dramatically cut the cost and time it takes to develop and test the drugs leading to cures for presently incurable diseases and cheaper treatment options. The companies in bioprinting market include SkinPrint that is developing a replacement skin for the burns patients or for those suffering from skin disorders. Aspect Biosystems that is developing printed tissue for drug testing.Request TOC (desk of content material), Figures and Tables of the report:Some of the major players for 3D bioprinting market are Advanced Biomatrix, 3D Biotek, 3D Systems, Avita Medical, Bespoke Innovations, Autodesk, EnvisionTEC, Cyfuse Biomedical, CMC Microsystems, Digilab, United Therapeutics, TeVido BioDevices, DTM, Bio3D Technologies, Helisys Inc. CMC Microsystems, InSphero AG and BD Biosciences among others.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 Food Preservative Market : Value Chain, Dynamics, Regional Outlook and Key Players 2020

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Food preservatives are substances that are added to food to keep it safe and fresh for longer duration of time. The food preservatives are used across beverages, dairy bakery, snacks, meat and sea food during processing and packing to prevent them any bacterial effects. The growth in demand of these food items is expected to be major driver for the food preservative market. Global nature of food sourcing and increasing complexities in the food supply chain have resulted in increasing demand for products and techniques required to prolong the shelf-life of the food product, thus increasing the demand for food preservatives.There are two types of food preservative: natural and artificial. Also, the food preservatives are used for different functions such as antimicrobials, antioxidants, chelating agents and enzyme attackers. Salt, sugar, alcohol, vinegar are some of natural preservatives use in making jams, juices and pickles. Sulphites, Nitrites and Benzoates are three classes of artificial preservatives commonly used in food. Sulphites are used to prevent the growth of bacteria in wine, dried fruits and vegetables in vinegar or brine. Sorbic acid is used in preservation of potato and cheese product. Nitrites are used in meat products such as sausages and hams to protect against the bacterium that can causes botulism. Benzoic acid is more effective against yeasts than against molds and bacteria. It is used as antifungal and antibacterial in low sugar jams, jellies, and condiments.Thinking about report: Please observe the beneath the hyperlinks to satisfy your necessities; Request for the Report sample :North America is the largest market for food preservative, followed by Asia-Pacific and Europe. The Asia-Pacific market is expected to have a higher growth rate during the forecasted period. India is the worlds second largest food producer after China, which shows the potential market for food preservative in Asian country.Preservation techniques for preventing food spoilage have been practiced since ages. Changing lifestyle and increasing trade of food products across the globe have led to the increasing demand for food preservatives. Various government bodies and private industries keep proper regulation to maintain the high standards food quality containing preservatives. Increasing consumer awareness and changing food consumption habit along with increasing population is driving the demand of various segments of food and beverage industry, which in turn, is driving the food preservative market. This growth is also driven by increasing demand for natural food preservatives in developed markets and continued demand for processed food in emerging markets. Sensing the increasing reference of consumers towards the natural food products, certain global companies have started replacing artificial food preservatives with the natural preservatives in their food products. They are further using this to project their product as all-natural food product thus attracting larger consumer interest. Convenience food products and personal care products have further increased the application area for the food preservatives.Request TOC (desk of content material), Figures and Tables of the report:Some of the major players operating in the market are ABF Ingredients Ltd., Ajinomoto Co. Inc, Archer Daniels Midland Company, Albemarle Corporation, Brenntag Inc., Cargill, Incorporated, Celanese Corporation, Edlong Flavors, Jungbunzlauer Ag, Kerry Group, Purac Biochem B.V, Royal Dsm N.V. and Dupont De Nemours & Company.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
Liver Transplantation Market To Increase at Steady Growth Rate

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Liver transplantation or hepatic transplantation is a surgical procedure performed when the liver fails to perform its normal functions such as synthesis of carbohydrates, proteins and fats. The liver is the second most commonly transplanted major organ, after the kidney, so it is clear that liver disease is a common and serious problem. Most liver transplant operations use livers from deceased donors, though a liver may also come from another living person (allograft). There is a significant proportion of demand liver transplantation currently in demand however, only the critically ill patients are given the priority and selection is based on the criticality of requirement.There are several disease conditions responsible for liver transplantations such as:Liver CirrhosisCystic FibrosisHemochromatosisPrimary biliary cirrhosisPrimary sclerosing cholangitisWilsons diseaseLiver transplantation has also been associated with several risk factors such as bleeding, blood clots, anaphylactic reaction, and infection. Other risk factors such as osteopenia, diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and diarrhea are also observed post transplantation. According to the American Liver Foundation every year more than 1,500 people die waiting for a donated liver to become available. However, organ transplantation has also been life saving for thousands of people. It has been studied that almost 6,000 liver transplants are performed annually in the U.S. and this number continues to grow. Currently in the U.S. alone there are almost 17,000 adults and children who have been approved for liver transplantation and are awaiting for the donors to make livers available.Request Free Report Sample@Liver Transplantation Market: Drivers and RestraintsLiver Transplantation market is growing rapidly due to increasing incidence of Hepatitis A, B and C across the globe. Major drivers for the liver transplantation market are treatment advancements, increasing adoption as the most effective modality for the management of end-stage liver disease. Furthermore, increasing favored reimbursement policies is expected to drive the growth of the liver transplantation market in the near future. However adequate number of liver donors, increasing waiting list to get a new liver and length of hospital stay and its cost are the major factors that can hamper the Liver Transplantation market growth over the forecast period.Liver Transplantation Market: SegmentationThe global liver transplantation market is classified on the basis of treatment type, end use and geography.Based on treatment type, global liver transplantation market is segmented into the following:Liver Transplantation SurgeryPost-Surgery Anti-Rejection TreatmentCyclosporineTacrolimusSirolimusPrednisoneAzathioprineMycophenolate MofetilBased on end use, global liver transplantation market is segmented into the following:HospitalsAdult Liver Transplantation CentersAmbulatory Surgical CentersLiver Transplantation Market: OverviewLiver Transplantation market is growing with a significant CAGR due to its high adoption rate as it is an effective modality for the management of end-stage liver disease. Developing countries are growing with a slower CAGR compared to other parts of the world. By end use, hospitals and adult liver transplantation centers segments are expected to account for around 50% share in the global liver transplantation market and the trend is forecast to continue through 2026. Based on treatment type, liver transplantation surgery is expected to register above average CAGR over the forecast period owing surgical techniques and innovations in living related liver transplantations.Request For TOC@Liver Transplantation Market: Region-wise OutlookDepending on geographic region, global liver transplantation market is segmented into seven key regions: North America, South America, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, Asia Pacific Excluding Japan, Japan, and Middle East & Africa. North America leads the market for liver transplantation followed by the European countries. Since, the availability of liver donors is scarce, the market is not yet well established in the developing markets such as India, China and others.Market: Key PlayersKey players in the Stomach Cancer Market include Allosource, Conatus Pharmaceuticals Inc., Digna Biotech, S.L., Dompe Farmaceutici S.p.A., Isogenis, Inc., RedHill Biopharma Ltd., Thompson Surgical, Integra Life sciences and others.Browse Full Report@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, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACT:Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
Market Size of Bronchitis Treatment, Forecast Report 2016-2026

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The chronic bronchitis is defined as the inflammation of the bronchi that lasts for more than 3 months for consecutive 2 years. The bronchi are the tubes which carry air in to the lungs. The major symptom of bronchitis is persistent cough associated with mucus expectoration, headache, nasal congestion, sore throat and fatigue. Risk factors for bronchitis include irritants, chemicals, air pollution and smoke. There are mainly two types of bronchitisacute (short term) and chronic (long term). Acute bronchitis is mainly caused due to viral infection and last for around 10 to 15 days. The first line of treatment for acute bronchitis is symptomatic treatment, however, if the symptoms persists, antimicrobial therapy is advised. Mostly antibacterial such as clarithromycin or azithromycin are administered.The treatment for chronic bronchitis includes bronchodilators and steroids. The bronchodilators such as albuterol (Ventolin, Proventil, Vospire, ProAir), metaporterenol (Alupent), formoterol and salmeterol, helps in relaxation of the smooth muscles of the bronchi which helps in expansion of the inner wall for better airway passage. Moreover, certain steroids are used such as prednisone, methylprednisolone that help in reducing the inflammation consequently helping in reduction of mucus secretion. Sometimes antibiotics are administered especially when there is an exacerbation of chronic bronchitis caused as a result of bacterial infection. Furthermore, PDE4 inhibitors are also being tested for their use in treatment of chronic bronchitis. For instance, Arcapta Neohaler received a FDA approval from NovartisRequest Free Report Sample@Bronchitis Treatment Market: Drivers and RestraintsBronchitis treatment market is driven by sedentary lifestyle, addiction to cigarette smoke and chemical pollutants. Guidelines from the World Health Organization (WHO), stringent regulations to pollutant emission control, adherence to various international protocol such as Montreal Protocol and World Bank Millennium Development Goal is expected to boost overall bronchitis treatment market.Bronchitis Treatment Market: SegmentationBronchitis Treatment Market further segmented into following typesBy Treatment:DrugsOxygen therapyBy Class of Drugs:AntibioticsBronchodilatorsMucolyticsAnti-inflammatory DrugsBy End UserHospitalsClinicsDrug storesBronchitis Treatment Market: OverviewSignificant increase in respiratory disorders along with alarming rise in chemical pollutants is expected to drive the demand for effective bronchitis treatment. The market is expected to witness healthy growth during the forecast period.Request For TOC@Bronchitis Treatment Market: Region- wise OutlookThe global Bronchitis Treatment Market is expected to register significant CAGR during the forecast period. Depending on geographic regions, global Bronchitis Treatment Market is segmented into seven key regions: North America, South America, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, and Asia Pacific excluding Japan, Japan and Middle East & AfricaNorth America dominates the global Bronchitis Treatment Market due to good awareness of healthcare in people and having good health care setup. Europe occupies second place in this market with its new regulations in the major economies. Asia Pacific is expected to witness fastest growth and is expected to gain significant market share over the forecast period.Bronchitis Treatment Market: Key PlayersMajor players of this market includePfizer Inc.GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals LimitedSanofi AventisBoehringer IngelheimDr. Reddys Laboratories LtdBrowse Full Report@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, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACT:Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
CHPTAC Market Dynamics, Segments and Supply Demand 2016-2026

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CHPTAC is an abbreviation of 3-chloro-2-hydroxypropyltrimethyl ammonium chloride. Chemically CHPTAC is known as Liquid Cationic Etherification Agent with a molecular formula C6H15Cl2NO. CHPTAC has a molecular weight of 188.10. CHPTAC is widely used in paper industry, petroleum industry, water treatment industry, commodity chemical industry and others. CHPTAC is a colorless transparent fluid with a PH value between 3.05.0 and a density of 1.16 when stored at 20 C. At room temperature, CHPTAC is 69% water solution and is a liquid cationic etherification agent. CHPTAC is advantageous due to its transparent, odorless with impurity content less than 25PPM. CHPTAC finds its applications in cationisation of starch, synthesis of carnitine sals, quaternisation of guar protein and cellulose.CHPTAC Market: SegmentationThe global CHPTAC market can be segmented on the basis of end-use industry and region. On the basis of end-use industry, the global CHPTAC market can be segmented into paper industry, water treatment industry, textile industry, oil and gas industry, personal care industry, neutraceuticals industry, cosmetics industry and chemical industy. On the basis of region, the global CHPTAC market can be segmented into North America, Latin America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Asia Pacific excluding Japan, Middle East and Africa and Japan.Request Free Report Sample@CHPTAC Market: Drivers and RestraintsRising demand of paper and growth of paper industry is a key factor which is relatively driving the global CHPTAC market. Rapid growth of textile industry and increasing water treatment demands is in turn boosting the growth of global CHPTAC market. Increasing manufacturing costs and rising logistic costs are the key challenges affecting the growth of the global CHPTAC market.CHPTAC Market: Region-Wise OutlookAsia Pacific region is the largest market for CHPTAC in terms of volume. Thailand is noted as the largest market for CHPTAC in Asia Pacific whereas India is the fastest growing market for CHPTAC in terms of volume followed by European countries like France and Germany.Request For TOC@CHPTAC Market: Key PlayersSome of the major companies involved in the production of CHPTAC are The Dow Chemica Company, Samsung Fine Chemicals, Yanzhou Tiancheng Chemicals Co. Ltd., Dongying J&M Chemical Co. Ltd., Chemigate OY, Weifang Greatland Paper and Chemicals Co. Ltd., SKW Quab Chemicals Inc., Sachem Inc., Dongying Guofeng Fine Chemicals Co. Ltd. and others.Browse Full Report@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, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACT:Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
Neuromorphic Chip Market Globally Expected to Drive Growth through 2026

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Neuromorphic chips are inspired from functionality of human brain. Neuromorphic chips are arrangement of transistors installed over a silicon fabrication chip, which helps in reducing memory consumption and power consumption. They are designed in such a manner to create the artificial neural network out of transistor, thus imitating the human brain.Neuromorphic Chip Market: Drivers and RestraintOver the time, demand for neuromorphic chip is expected to grow significantly over the forecast period. Factors which are driving the growth of global neuromorphic chip market are development in the field of data analytics, growth of artificial intelligence and machine learning, miniaturization of integrated circuits, growing sensor market.On the other hand, factors which are restraining the growth of global neuromorphic chip market are slow growth rate of commercialization of applications due to lack of research & development and investment. However, in future innovative applications in the field of automation is expected to create great growth opportunity for the global neuromorphic chip market over the forecast period.Request Free Report Sample@Neuromorphic Chip Market: SegmentationGlobal neuromorphic chip market is segmented on the basis of application, end-user industry and region. On the basis of application, the global neuromorphic chip market can be segmented into speech recognition, signal recognition, image recognition and data mining. Out of these, image recognition application segment is expected to hold highest share of the global neuromorphic chip market by 2016 and it is expected dominate the market throughout the forecast period. However, signal recognition application segment is expected to witness a highest compound annual growth rate over the forecast period of 2016-2026.On the basis of end-user industry, the global neuromorphic chip market can be segmented into consumer industry, medical & healthcare, aerospace, military & defence, industrial, automotive and others. Consumer industry is expected to hold major share of the global neuromorphic chip market by 2016 end and expected to remain dominant throughout the forecast period. Aerospace, military & defence industry is the second largest end-user segment followed by consumer industry. However, remaining industries are expected to adopt neuromorphic chip by 2018.Request For TOC@Neuromorphic Chip Market: Region wise outlookOn the basis of region, the global neuromorphic chip market can be segmented into seven regions which include  North America, Latin America, Asia-Pacific excluding Japan (APEJ), Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa (MEA) and Japan. Further the market is sub-segmented as per the major countries of each region in order to provide better regional analysis of neuromorphic chip market. Out of all these region, Asia-Pacific (APEJ) is expected to hold the largest share of global neuromorphic chip market by 2016 end. However, North America is expected to witness a highest CAGR over the period of forecast. As per our analysis, globally China, South Korea, Germany and U.S. are estimated to be the major markets for neuromorphic chips and they are expected to witness highest compound annual growth rate.Neuromorphic Chip Market: Key PlayersKey players in the global neuromorphic chip market are IBM Corporation, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. and Intel Corporation. These key players are investing heavily on R&D activity in order to develop the superior technology. Apart from them few other players are also included in the report. Key market developments and strategies of market players are also included. For example, In June 2012, Intel Corporation unveils design of its neuromorphic chip. In October 2013, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. introduced Qualcomm Zeroth Processor  a brain inspired computing. In August 2015, IBM created neuromorphic chip which is as powerful as a rodents brain, this system is designed to understand deep-learning algorithms, consumes less electricity and compact in size.Browse Full Report@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, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACT:Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
Inositol Market To Increase at Steady Growth Rate

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Inositol, also named cyclohexane-1,2,3,4,5,6-hexol, is a simple polyol precursor in a second messenger system important in the brain. Inositol is found in fruits, beans, grains, and nuts and is also made by the body. Inositol is a naturally occurring nutrient found in various forms, the most common being myo-inositol.It also holds some promise as an anti-depressant and against some other conditions associated with anxiety such as panic disorders. Inositol is used to promote the growth of bacteria and yeast for use as food additives. This product is also used in the preparation of a variety of vitamin pills and nutritional amino acid infused products.Inositol Market: Drivers & RestraintsDemand for inositol has been on the rise, due to the rapid growth in the food & healthcare industry. The Inositol market is expected to grow drastically. The increase in the scope of clinical research is also driving the market.Request Free Report Sample@According to a survey carried out by Center for Disease Control & Prevention, 31% of men and 32% of women in this world have high cholesterol level. This has been a major factor for the rise in the demand for Inositol globally.Taking too much inositol might make bipolar disorder worse, which has proved to be its major constraint.Inositol Market: SegmentationThe inositol market is segmented on the basis of form and application. On the basis of form, the inositol market is further segmented into; powder & liquid. On the basis of application, the market is segmented into pharmaceuticals, food & beverages, chemical industry, feed additive, and others.Request For TOC@Inositol Market: Region Wise OutlookGeographically, the inositol market is segmented into seven regions which are; North America, Latin America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Japan, Asia Pacific excluding Japan (APEJ), Middle East and Africa (MEA) and Japan. The global production of Inositol is mainly concentrated in the China and Japan. China is the worlds largest producer of inositol in terms of capacity, accounting for over approximately 50% of the global capacity.Inositol Market: Key PlayersSome of the key players across the value chain dominating this market are Zhucheng Haotian Pharm Co., Ltd. , Changzhou Zhonglian Inositol Co., Ltd., Shandong Runde Biotechnology Co., Ltd., Biological Engineering Technology Co., Ltd., Holland & Barrett, Phoenix Herb Company, Mr. Bills Pipe & Tobacco Company, Ronas chemicals ind.co.,ltd., Charles Bowman & Company, T. J. Clark & Company. These companies are developing market strategies such as mergers and acquisitions, joint venture, new product development and expansion to increase their market share in global inositol market.Browse Full Report@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, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACT:Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
Non-Surgical Bio-Implants Market Analysis, Trends, Forecast, 2016-2026

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An implant is a man-made medical device which replaces, supports or enhances a missing, damaged, or existing biological structure, by inserting into the human body cavity. Bio-implants are the prostheses used for regularizing the physiological functions of an individual. Injectable bio-implants are non-surgical treatment options that offer effective restoration, replacement, or modulation of damaged, deregulated or lost physiology. The global continuous increase in life expectancy and decrease in mortality rate have resulted in greater proportion of people aged above 60 years. Geriatric population is growing at a rate higher than any other age group worldwide. This population demands effective, fast and safe treatment for age-related conditions. This has grabbed the attention of non-surgical bio-implants manufacturer to invest into this market and also key players are taking efforts to develop and commercialize cost effective implants which will fulfill demand of geriatric population.Non-Surgical Bio-Implants Market: Drivers and RestraintsRising geriatric population, growing concern for chronic diseases, high level of healthcare awareness, and growing disposable incomes are the major drivers for the growth of non-surgical bio-implants market. In addition, rising application areas mainly medical and aesthetic for biomaterials used in non-surgical bio-implants will accentuate the market growth. In future, technological advancement in bio-implants is expected to have a strong growth in this market. However, bio incompatibility, high treatment cost, time consuming approval processes of implants by regulatory authorities, and reimbursement issues would hinder the growth of non-surgical bio-implants market.Request Free Report Sample@Non-Surgical Bio-Implants Market: SegmentationThe global non-surgical bio-implants market is segmented based on types of non-surgical bio-implants, injectable biomaterials used in bio-implants.Non-surgical bio-implantsViscoaugmentation bio-implantsViscosupplementation bio-implantsInjectable biomaterialsCollagenHyaluronanBiopolymersHydrogelsHydroxyapatiteAlloplastic biomaterialsAcrylic hydrogelNon-Surgical Bio-Implants Market: Market OverviewBy non-surgical bio-implants type, viscoaugmentation and viscosupplementation are the choice of bio-implants among the relatively limited non-surgical bio-implants that are approved in the market. By Injectable biomaterials type, collagen based bio-implants holds prominent share owing to its lower cost and easy availability. Hyaluronan are also commonly used bio-implants with various applications in all areas, like surgical, orthopedic, cosmetics and medical applications.Request For TOC@Non-Surgical Bio-Implants Market: Region-wise OutlookNorth America region has the largest market for non-surgical bio-implants, in terms of revenue due to large number of key players and strong healthcare infrastructure. Europe region is the second largest non-surgical bio-implants market due to technological advancement in the region. In addition, high disposable income and increase in geriatric population in developing countries like India and China, are expected to drive the growth non-surgical bio-implants market in Asia.Non-Surgical Bio-Implants Market: Key playersKey companies operational in non-surgical bio-implants market are Albiorex International, FibroGen, Inc., Kythera Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Moma Therapeutics, Inc., Novatex Bioengineering SA, Anika Therapeutics, Inc., Johnson & Johnson, Fidia Farmaceutici, LCA Pharmaceuticals, Hangzhou Gallop Biological Products Co. Ltd., and others.Browse Full Report@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, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACT:Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
Market Intelligence Report Tumour Ablation Devices, 2016-2026

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Tumours are the groups of abnormal cells that accumulate together and form lumps and grow consistently. Tumour are categorized into noncancerous and cancerous tumours. Precancerous conditions have the potential of developing into cancer. Tumour ablation is a tool utilized to treat cancerous malignancy. Tumour ablation is the process of removing the cancerous cells from the body. Tumour ablation became more useful during 1970s and 1980s due to advances in laparoscopic surgical approach. The most common means for definitive treatment of primary and metastatic focal malignancy, is the evolution of imaging devices during the past two decades and image-guided tumour ablation.Tumour Ablation Devices Market: Drivers & RestraintsIncreasing prevalence and incidences of cancers, technological advances and increasing geriatric population, increasing numbers of hospitals and healthcare awareness are facilitating the growth of global tumour ablation devices market. Additionally, economic pricing, short recovery time, low risk of infection, and minimal hospital stays are increasing the importance of tumour ablation devices.Side effects associated with ablation treatment and limited performance of the devices are the factors restraining the growth of global tumour ablation device market.Request Free Report Sample@Tumour Ablation Devices Market: SegmentationThe global tumour ablation devices market has been classified on the basis of product type, application and end user:On the basis of product type, the tumour ablation devices market is segmented into the followingRadiofrequency ablationLaser ablationHigh intensity focused ultrasound ablationMicrowave ablationCryo ablationBased on application type, the tumour ablation devices market is segmented into the followingLiver Cancerkidney CancerColorectal CancerBone CancerBreast CancerLung CancerProstate CancerOther CancersBased on end use type, the tumour ablation devices market is segmented into the following:Hospitalso 500 and more beds hospitalso 200 to 499 beds hospitalso Less than 200 beds hospitalsAmbulatory Surgical CentersRequest For TOC@Tumour Ablation Devices Market: OverviewThe lung cancer application segment is expected to grow at the highest CAGR in the next five years due to large patient population of lung cancer present across developing and developed regions. This has increased the investment of manufacturers to develop and commercialize innovative lung cancer ablation products. The radiofrequency ablation is widely used technique due to specificity of treating target tissue without causing damage to the surrounding cells. Microwave ablation product segment is expected to grow significantly due to increase in adoption rate of microwave ablation devices by healthcare professionals.Tumour Ablation Devices Market: Region-wise OutlookRegion wise, the global tumour ablation market is classified into regions namely, North America, Latin America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Asia-Pacific, Japan, Middle East and Africa.The global market is expected to be dominated by North America due to factors such as early introduction and adoption of rate of tumour ablation products in the region, trend of replacing older technologies and introducing the new technologies, and increase in private and public funding to develop and commercialize the novel tumour ablation products.The Asia-Pacific market is expected to grow at a higher CAGR in the forecast period due to factors such as large population with the high prevalence of various cancers in the region, government initiatives for developing and modernizing the healthcare infrastructure.Browse Full Report@Tumour Ablation Devices Market: Key PlayersKey players of tumour ablation devices market are Boston Scientific Corporation, St. Jude Medical, Inc., Biotronic NeuroNetwork, LLC, Baylis Medical, biolitec AG, Spectranetics, Esaote SpA, ALPINION MEDICAL SYSTEMS Co., Ltd., Chongqing Haifu Medical Technology Co., Ltd., Koninklijke Philips N.V, Hironic Co., Ltd., Monteris Medical, Inc, EDAP TMS, EYE TECH CARE, NeuWave Medical, Inc, Vison medical, AtriCure, Inc, Galil Medical Inc, ENDOCARE INC, IceCure Medical, Sanarus HealthTronics, Inc, MEDTRONIC, MedWaves, AngioDynamics, Microsulis Medical, Perseon, SympleSurgical Inc. to name a few.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, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACT:Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
Polymerupdate Moves to New Premises, A Step Towards Expansion!

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Mumbai, July 22, 2016  Polymerupdate, the world's fastest growing market intelligence platform for the polymer and petrochemical industry has moved office to a newer and substantially larger premises at Lodha Supremus at Lower Parel in India's financial capital, the vibrant city of Mumbai. The move was prompted by the launch of a second commodity vertical, Metalsupdate, a fast expanding team and a remarkable growth which the company has achieved in the past few years.Mr. Sajjid Mitha, founder of Polymerupdate delivered an encouraging message to staff during the opening of the new office. He said that in this age of rapid change, digitization and mind boggling technological innovation, it is essential to step on the accelerator pedal of constant evolution by developing a global outlook and by keeping the companys operational priorities ahead of the times in an effort to achieve greater milestones and to always ensure complete customer satisfaction.Polymerupdate empowers its subscribers through accurate pricing data and market-moving news. It caters market analysis of industrial polymers and petrochemical commodities including PE, PP, HDPE, LDPE, PS, PVC, feedstock, aromatics, olefins, etc. to a vast base of subscribers across the world.Beyond the real time pricing and daily news service, the companys Asian Weekly Scan and Weekly European Scan segments are immensely popular with readers. Each segment includes a weekly synopsis for all polymers, plant updates, and product wise analysis with graphs for a better understanding of the ever-changing market scenario.An Independent Provider of Information and Benchmark PricesThe companys in-house editorial team of experts, analysts and consultants offer actionable and business critical intelligence to help producers, traders and distributors make informed decisions.Polymerupdates mobile app offers breaking news as it happens, trends in spot and contract prices, expert views of polymers and polymer derivatives for domestic and global markets. This app is available for download on all three platforms iOS, Android, and BlackBerry.The PU team is both proud and excited about the growth the company is experiencing. This move denotes a commitment to continue to build on the success the company has accomplished.Polymerupdates new address is 1001/1002, Lodha Supremus, Opposite The World Towers, Senapati Bapat Marg, Lower Parel (West), Mumbai  400013. The companys phone number: (91-22) 61772000 and email address: info@polymerupdate.com continue to remain the same.Founded in 1999 by a visionary entrepreneur Sajjid Mitha, Polymerupdate is a world-renowned provider of business-critical polymer industry news and real-time price alerts. Its credible and neutral reporting has attracted several thousand of subscribers around the world. Polymerupdate is also a member of The All India Plastic Manufacturers Association (AIPMA) and Organization of Plastic Processors of India (OPPI).Contact Person:Neeraj RawalAddress:Polymerupdate1001, Lodha Supremus, Opp %u2018The World Towers%u2019 Senapati Bapat Marg, Lower Parel (West), Mumbai400013email:neeraj@polymerupdate.comPhone : (91-22) 61772000website :
Bottled Water Market we have included a detailed company & product portfolio of the major industry from 2015- 2020

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Zion Research has published a new report titled Bottled Water (Still, Carbonated, Flavored and Functional Bottled Water) Market: Global Industry Perspective, Comprehensive Analysis, and Forecast, 2014 - 2020. According to the report, the global bottled water market was valued at approximately USD 170.0 billion in 2014 and is expected to reach approximately USD 280.0 billion by 2020, growing at a CAGR of around 8.5% between 2015 and 2020. In terms of volume, global bottled water market stood at around 290.0 billion liters in 2014.Water is an incredibly important aspect of daily lives. Bottled water is a necessary and reliable way to deliver safe drinking water. There are various types of bottled water such as spring water, purified water, mineral water, ground water and others. Bottled water is packaged in plastic or glass bottles. Bottled water can be carbonated or not. Bottled water offers good taste, quality, and convenienceGet free sample research report atThe global bottled water market is mainly driven by increased health awareness and changing consumer life style. The bottled water market is expected to witness rapid growth fueled by strong demand for clean, flavored and hygienic drinking water. Other important factors driving the bottled water market are advancement in user friendly packaging. Strong growth of tourism industry and portability of hygienic bottled water is also expected to trigger demand of bottled water. However, stringent regulations regarding packaging of water and bottled water standards is expected to hamper the growth of the market to some extent. Moreover, easy availability of tap water and rising concerns with regarding increasing plastic waste is expected to present challenge for industry participants.Still, carbonated, flavored and functional bottled water are the key product segments of the bottled water market. The still bottled water product segment held the largest share in the global bottled water market and accounted over 60% share in overall consumption in 2014. However, still bottled water segment is expected to exhibit moderate growth during the forecast period. Carbonated was the second largest segment of the bottled water market in 2014. Carbonated bottled water is expected to witness slight decline in its market share in the years to come. Flavored and functional water segment are also expected to witness rapid growth during the forecast period. Rapid growth of bottled water market can be attributed to rising concern regarding health & wellness.Get Inquiry for buying reportAsia Pacific was the leading regional market for bottled water, with over 30% share of total consumption in 2014. Huge population, strong economical growth, increasing disposable income, coupled with changing lifestyle has been resulted into strong growth of bottled water market in Asia Pacific region. Asia Pacific is expected to remain major regional market for bottled water during the next five years. North America and Europe are expected grow at a moderate pace forecast period. However, North America and Europe are expected to experience decline its market share during the forecast period. Latin America and Middle East are also expected to witness robust growth of bottled water market in the years to come.Some of the key players in the global bottled water market include Coca-Cola Company, PepsiCo, Inc., Nestle Waters, Ajegroup SA, Groupe Danone, CG Roxane, LLC, Fonti Di Vinadio S.P.A., LLC, Icelandic Water Holdings ehf., Suntory Beverage & Food Ltd, HassiaWaters International GmbH & Co. KG, Grupo Vichy Catalan and Hangzhou Wahaha Group Co., Ltd.This report segments the global bottled water market as follows:Global Bottled Water Market: Product Segment AnalysisStillCarbonatedFlavoredFunctionalBrowse the full report atContact US:Joel John3422 SW 15 Street, Suit #8138Deerfield Beach, Florida 33442United StatesToll Free: +1-855-465-4651 (USA-CANADA)Tel: +1-386-310-3803Email: sales@marketresearchstore.comWebsite:
QYResearch:Japan Friction Welding Machine Industry Market Research Report 2016

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Report SummaryThe Japan Friction Welding Machine Industry Market Research Report 2016 is a professional and in-depth study on the current state of the Friction Welding Machine industry.The report provides a basic overview of the industry including definitions, classifications, applications and industry chain structure. The Friction Welding Machine 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 Friction Welding Machine 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 Friction Welding MachineChapter Three Technical Data and Manufacturing Plants AnalysisChapter Four Sales Analysis of Friction Welding Machine by Regions, Product Type, and ApplicationsChapter Five Sales Revenue Analysis of Friction Welding Machine by Regions,Product Type, and ApplicationsChapter Six Analysis of Friction Welding Machine Production, Supply, Sales and Demand Market Status 2010-2016Chapter Seven Analysis of Friction Welding Machine Industry Key ManufacturersChapter Eight Price and Gross Margin AnalysisChapter Nine Marketing Trader or Distributor Analysis of Friction Welding MachineChapter Ten Analysis of Friction Welding Machine Production, Supply, Sales and Demand Development Forecast 2016-2020Chapter Eleven Industry Chain Suppliers of Friction Welding Machine with Contact InformationChapter Twelve New Project Investment Feasibility Analysis of Friction Welding MachineChapter Thirteen Conclusion of the Japan Friction Welding Machine Industry Report 2016The players list(Partly, Players you are interested can also be added)MTIKUKA SystemsThompsonETANITTO SEIKIEugene TechColdwater MachineUS Korea HotLinkLPR GlobalGatwickRelated Reports:Global Industry Market Research Report 2016China Friction Welding Machine Industry Market Research Report 2016Europe Friction Welding Machine Industry Market Research Report 2016United States Friction Welding Machine Industry Market Research Report 2016India Friction Welding Machine 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: 0081-345-704-342 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).Contact : LemonApt 1408 1785 Riverside Drive Ottawa, ON, K1G 3T7 CanadaEmail: lemon@qyresearchglobal.comPhone: 0081-345-704-342 or +86-20-8665 5165Web:
Global Strontium Peroxide 2016 Market Trends, Sales, Supply, Demand, Analysis & Forecast to 2021

Strontium Peroxide

http://www.qyresearchgroup.com/market-analysis/global-strontium-peroxide-market-outlook-2016-2021.html

http://goo.gl/KZObov

Global Strontium Peroxide Industry 2016 Market Size Share Growth Forecast Research and DevelopmentThe Global Strontium Peroxide Industry report gives a comprehensive account of the Global Strontium Peroxide 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 Strontium Peroxide 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 Strontium Peroxide market revenue and its forecasts. The business model strategies of the key firms in the Strontium Peroxide 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 Strontium Peroxide 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 Strontium Peroxide 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 Strontium Peroxide 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 Strontium Peroxide Industry Overview1.1 Strontium Peroxide Definition1.1.1 Strontium Peroxide Definition1.1.2 Product Specifications1.2 Strontium Peroxide Classification1.3 Strontium Peroxide Application Field1.4 Strontium Peroxide Industry Chain Structure1.5 Strontium Peroxide Industry Regional Overview1.6 Strontium Peroxide Industry Policy Analysis1.7 Strontium Peroxide 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. 1-855-465-4651Contact 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
Paclights  A Reliable Company for Procuring LED Flood Lights

http://www.paclights.com/product-tag/led-flood-lights/

Paclights is a well-known company that offers clients with unique range of LED light fixtures, which are UL/ETL and DLC listed. Its LED Flood Lights have received acclaim from widespread client segments worldwide. These illumination variants have proved to be great energy savers for several businesses that desire to use specialty lighting. This variant of LED illumination embodies high-end technology in presenting customers with value additions. The company is environment-friendly in providing clients with modes of lighting that are both, affordable and efficient in effect. The company has a speedy delivery system, for rendering assistance to all its customers in procuring an assortment of LED illuminations.The company has consistently received acclaim for the extensive network it enjoys with major suppliers. It is through this network that Paclights can cater with ease to the requirements of all its customers in selecting high-end LED options without hassles. Its LED Flood Lights are one of the renowned ranges of LED illuminations that have exclusive features that stand out amongst the several versions of LED lighting. These variants are known for their dependability in rendering clients with the most fluent illumination at affordable rates. The company has always implemented an articulate process of manufacturing for churning out the best variants in LED Flood lights. It has adopted high-end practices in incorporating LED chips and LED Drivers, amidst many other performance-centric designs of LED illumination. Paclights has thus rendered its clients with a perfect balance of aesthetics and performance in all its lighting variants. These ranges of LED lights are popular for its attributes of implanting the bestcomponents that do not heat up fast. Thus, these illumination variants are less prone to cracking up. Paclights has presented advanced thermal management technology in its every LED Flood light variant with warranty.LED Flood Lights from Paclights can be sought in FL Series. The company has provided its customers with the choice of selecting LED Flood Lights in accordance with the light beam emission and wattages. Clients have favored the variations that help illumination to glow for a period exceeding 50,000 hours and in 5000K color brightness. Its top-of-the-line lighting variant has a high-end wiring with ballasts. These fixtures function with perfection to give its clients utmost benefit, in providing them with options that are cost-effective and performance-centric.Paclights has never compromised on quality and has been instrumental in rendering customers with the most articulate LED lighting for everyday use. Customers can select their lighting options with a formidable product catalog online. Several businesses have also preferred the retrofit kits and the high-end canopies in LED illumination. Its wall packs and parking lot lights are popular variants of illumination amongst other LED lighting variants. The company has always considered the technicalities of dimensions, wattages and brightness while construing range of LED lighting. VisitPacLights is recognized company in Chico, California. It has range of LED lighting fixtures that are good on aesthetics as well as performance. Each of its lighting variants have added glow to all its LED fixtures that are DLC and UL/ETL listed. The company presents myriad of variants in LED Flood Lights that are reasonably priced.Contact :P.O BOX 928,Chino Hills, CA. 91709United StatesPhone Number: 800-988-6386Fax Number: 800-685-5689Email Id: info@paclights.com
An easy way to learn Spanish  comfortable and cheap from home

www.Costadevalencia.com

Skype connects: Spanish language schools offer online courses.Valencia. To go to Spain to learn Spanish sounds tempting and brings a lot of advantages but is sometimes hard to realize and in todays society not necessary. Most of the time various circumstances e.g. studies, internships, children or work make it hard to combine lesions with vacation. But those are no reasons to give up on learning Spanish!Spanish language schools nowadays offer the opportunity to participate in the lesions via internet. Here it is possible to stay at home and dive in to the Spanish culture for one hour in between household and work. Educated teachers from Valencia will teach language students via Skype. Here the student learns at his own pace and what is important for him. To do so a student just has to enroll, make an appointment and pay. Without costs for traveling or various other complications.The Spanish language school Costa de Valencia offers such courses for reasonable prices. Normally the school is located in Valencia but with those types of courses it does not matter where you are around the world. The best way to learn fast and efficient is to book 10 lesions, which also allows you to save some money.There is a request on those courses from students who did a course here at the school before. Most times they want to improve their language skills further. The courses offered in their home countries are often not as effective as the once here in Valencia. The teachers are also very important, once being here and being taught by one the students know the teachers and have a connection with them. This way the lesion can be more personal and intimate. For those students the Spanish courses via Skype are a good substitute back home to improve the language skills.This type of course is a marvelous opportunity to learn Spanish in an easy and effective manner, without investing too much time and money. Apply now, you cannot miss anything!Since 1995 the language school Costa de Valencia has focused on teaching Spanish to non-native speakers. This language school, which is situated in the heart of Valencia, is a Centro Acreditado of the Instituto Cervantes and a member of many associations.The teaching material, which is used during the lessons, is worked out by a team of well-versed teachers. One of the most important aspects of teaching in this school is the individual involvement of every single student. This way every student has the possibility to speak very much during the language course. Furthermore, both managers place big value the quality of the language lessons and a broadly diversified leisure programme.Costa de Valencia, S.L.Avda. Blasco Ibanez, 66E-46021 ValenciaTel.: (+34) 96 361 03 67Fax: (+34) 96 393 60 49info@costadevalencia.comContact person:Andreas Temer (manager)Andreas@Costadevalencia.com
UK Digital Marketing Firm Wins International Recognition for Technology

Broadplace Advertising

www.broadplace.com

Leatherhead, 27 July 2016: CIOStory magazine group (California, USA) has named Broadplace Advertising as one of the 50 Most Powerful Google Tech Providers 2016. The digital marketing agency, based in Surrey, has been recognised for providing a high level of customer service in the traditional sense (whilst using a lot of very clever technology behind the scenes).Insights and reporting are a regular issue for the majority of small businesses. Broadplaces reporting flexibility (through their CampaignHub technology) provides intervals of both weekly and monthly email reporting which is completely responsive to the device it is viewed on, without attachments or cumbersome spreadsheets to deal with.This allows an advertiser to view KPIs direct in their email, as well as having real-time access to reports and statistics available through their secure client portal.Another widely known weakness in the average business is customer service and feedback, which is incidentally another area of strength for Broadplace, who provide a high level of customer service in a traditional sense where other providers do not. They have taken great steps to incorporate this into their technology as a unique selling point.This differentiates them from the strategy of other providers who do not use technology to improve their customer service, instead relying on either traditional face-to-face account management or phone/helpdesk style support with long waiting times and call centres.Broadplace CEO, Rohit Chugh said Broadplace has created a flat corporate hierarchy to help foster the creation, adoption and iteration of innovative practices ideas and processes. We believe this has encouraged the level of technological advances that have led to this recognition. Were so proud of our local, homegrown talent and their capabilities.Satisfied customers are the tip of the iceberg for Broadplaces achievements in the last year, they can add Google Premier Partner Status, Google Analytics Certified Partner status and they were also placed in the Top 5 EMEA Google Premier Partners for client retention and satisfaction.Broadplace is also a strong investor in young talent - winning a Business Award for People Development in 2014. The company has continued that trend into 2016, with Key Account Handler, Akash Raval (originally employed as an apprentice two years ago), nominated for Account Handler of the Year at the Wirehive100 Awards. The company are nominated for two further awards (Best Use of Search - the whole team and Techie of the Year - Dan Pillay).About Broadplace AdvertisingBroadplace has been managing the online marketing needs of UK businesses since 2005. We are an innovative and continually learning Search Engine Marketing company specialising in PPC management, SEO, Web Design and Content Marketing. We have a great team of over 80 people based in 3 different countries. Our fantastic in-house technology (including CampaignHub and Engage) helps us deliver bespoke and cost-effective solutions for all of our clients.Broadplace AdvertisingConnect HouseKingston RoadLeatherheadSurreyKT22 7LT
World Drone Transponders Market Overview, By MarketIntelReports

http://www.marketintelreports.com/report/win001/drone-transponders-market-shares-strategies-and-forecastsworldwide-2016-to-2022

http://www.marketintelreports.com/pdfdownload.php?id=win001

http://www.marketintelreports.com/purchase.php?id=win001

www.marketintelreports.com

The 2016 study has 268 pages, 92 tables and figures. Worldwide drone transponder markets are poised to achieve significant growth with the need to achieve protected airways.Browse 268 Pages Worldwide Drone Transponder Market Research ReportThe simplest way to protect against mid-air collisions is to require the use of ADS-B transponders on all aircraft. Transponders can turn an uncooperative environment into a cooperative environment. Transponders provide location and positioning information about smart commercial drones. These drones have a computer inside, they are easy to fly, remotely maneuverable, have a camera, and contain sensor logic. Smart drones are evolving computer driven collision avoidance technology making the flying more reliable.The worldwide market for drone transponders is anticipated to start from nothing and reach $2.5 billion worldwide by 2022 growing in response to the need to prevent drone collisions, keep the highways in the sky safe, and manage routing of commercial drones.Remote operation occurs in the context of a workflow and sensors. Cameras are improving dramatically to permit management of video and picture taking that is realistic and detailed. Drone actuators, drone transponders, are needed to support drone package delivery. This is a huge new market that speeds economic development, makes it easier for the middle class to both work, and purchase lifestyle items and food efficiently.Drones based on aerial robotic platform technology can be used to make deliveries to each persons home, landing on the back doorstep, leaving packages in a locked box. The drone package delivery technology has reached a level of maturity that bodes well for market development. Drone systems are mature enough to be at the forefront of aerospace manufacturing.Dronecode is an independently funded software project that harnesses the power of collaborative development. The aim is to fuel innovation across drone industries and ecosystems. Dronecode Foundation is a nonprofit organization working on a common, shared open source platform for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). Dronecode brings together existing and future open source UAV software projects.Request Sample Brochure of Report @APM UAV software platform was developed by 3DRobotics. 1,200 developers are working on Dronecodes six projects focused on maximizing adoption of the projects cost-effective, reliable and technologically advanced UAV software.Micro-Avionix has an ultra-lightweight low cost ADS-B transponder for UAS. Micro-Avionix has developed an ADS-B suitable for UAVs of all sizes to improve flying safety for all. The ping is a family of ultralight weight, low cost, ADS-B transponders.Weights range from 1.5 to 30 grams, delivering a variety of types of performance. The ping2020, for instance, is capable of IN on both 1090ES and 978UAT, and OUT on 978UAT. The products are fully compliant with the minimum performance standards of DO-282B Class A1S. Micro-Avionix has developed an ADS-B suitable for UAVs of all sizes to the ping is among the worlds first families of ultralight weight, low cost, ADS-B transponders.Transponder and sense and avoid technology sponsorship by Sagetech, L-3 Aviation Products, FreeFlight, Micro-Avionix, Google, Trig, DJI, and Intel has been effective. Development by Dronecode application ecosystem provides huge advances in drone real-time sense and avoid behavior. An open source collaboration is expected to accelerate deployable solutions for agile and reliable operation in the national airspace. The open source platform has been adopted by many organizations on the forefront of drone technology: 3DRobotics, Parrot, Qualcomm, Intel, DroneDeploy, Yuneec, Airphrame, and others.With 750,000 users and 500 active developers the open source code initiative represents a compelling community of professionals and enthusiasts is able to support active improvements in control of airspace and improvement in flying safety for all. The alliance has worked on development standardization and software module interoperabilityUse of drone transponders represents a key milestone in provision of value to the airborne package delivery industry. Customized cameras are used to supplement GPS navigation, acting as eyes of the drone, permitting package delivery everywhere. Digital controls will further automate flying, making ease of use and flight stability a reality.New materials and new designs are bringing that transformation forward. By furthering transponder innovation, continued growth is assured.Multiple applications drive market growth, most of all package delivery occurs out of line of sight. Other applications for drone transponders are in consumer photography, lightweight commercial drones for real estate, the military, law enforcement, border control, homeland security, utility infrastructure surveillance, agriculture, aerial mapping, and package delivery.Companies ProfiledMarket Leaders Sagetech L-3 Aviation Products FreeFlight Micro-Avionix Google Trig Avionics DJI IntelMarket Participants Airogistic Amazon Denel Dynamics Dronecode Fortem Garmin IMSAR LLC I-Lap Timing Systems Knorr-Bremse Group / Bendix MarcusUAV MMist Northrop Grumman Rockwell Collins TextronOrder Drone Transponders Market Shares, Strategies, and Forecasts, Worldwide, 2016 to 2022 @About us:MarketIntelReports (MIR) aim to empower our clients to successfully manage and outperform in their business decisions, we do this by providing Premium Market Intelligence, Strategic Insights and Databases from a range of Global Publishers.A group of industry veterans who are well experienced in reputed international consulting firms after identifying the sourcing needs of MNCs for market intelligence, have together started this business savior MarketIntelReports.Contact us:Sales ManagerMayur S.2711 Centerville Road, Suite 400, Wilmington,Delaware,19808United Statessales@marketintelreports.comTelephone: 1-302-261-5343
Polymerupdate is pleased to announce the launch of a new section called - "PU Poll" The definition of an opinion poll is an assessment of public opinion by the questioning of a statistically representative sample. This section will help you to know where prices of polymers are headed in the current highly volatile scenario. The section will also help you gain an insight to where your fellow industry colleagues believe prices will 
The best way to learn a language is to spend some time abroad  which especially in Spain can be much fun! Valencia. A levels  the one thing you work for all those years studying, a certificate that you really merit. Sometimes it seems as if it comes just too soon, and other times it seems so far away; I still have time. There are many reasons to procrastinate, which 
Last month, Meow Village Cat Rescue of Aurora received an unusual call. Could it help find a home for a dead man's five cats?

Finding homes for cats in need is nothing new for the all-volunteer non-profit group, which last year placed more than 750 felines. The unusual parts of this request were that all five cats had to be adopted together, and that the cats had a trust fund that would pay for their food, litter and medical care for the rest of their lives and would pay a small stipend to the adopter.

Jacques Purris, who died in July 2015 at age 79, was "a big animal lover, of all kinds of animals," said Sandy Yaguda, a longtime friend, former business partner and co-trustee of the fund. Yaguda and Purris first bonded in the early 1960s over their love of marine tropical reef fish.

Toward the end of Purris' life, his Northeast Portland residence was home to an aviary of birds, several large tanks of saltwater fish totaling about 2000 gallons, a dog and 10 cats. "He loved those animals so much; it was his passion," said Mary Dunn, the fund's other co-trustee.

Purris found homes for his birds during the last few years of his life as his respiratory problems worsened from the dust and feather debris and he downsized his fish collection as upkeep began to wear on him. He left his remaining fish to a friend and fellow fish lover.

With more health problems setting in, Purris began thinking about what would happen to the rest of his precious pets when he was gone. With no children and his only sibling already dead, he also had no heirs for his assets.

So Purris set up a pet trust.

Leona Helmsley jokes aside, pet trusts are a legally enforceable way more and more people are making sure their animals are cared for after they die. Oregon was among the first states to establish a pet-trust statute. Now, more than 40 states have one.

Purris' trust stated that the cats and dog were to live out the remainder of their lives in his home, with several caretakers feeding them and cleaning the litter boxes.

For the past year, that's where they have been. But the caretakers became concerned that it was not the best life for the pets. The home environment had become unhealthy, the cats were becoming timid and somewhat feral, and four of them had died. A fifth cat has since died as well.

The two trustees and the trust's manager, Earl Hines of Hines Warner Wealth Management, decided it would be better for the animals to move into a home with people. "For them to do well, for any (domesticated) animal to do well, they need human contact," said Yaguda. He said Purris would want for his pets to be happy and healthy even if it meant they didn't remain in his house.

One caretaker adopted the dog. Hines reached out to Meow Village for help finding a home where the cats can remain together.

After health assessments, blood tests and treatment for "horrible dental issues," the five remaining cats are ready to go to a new home, said Leslie Birrenkott, Meow Village's development director.

Meow Village will screen potential adopters and make a recommendation to Hines and the trustees. Birrenkott stressed this is not a commitment someone can make lightly. The cats, which are between 8 and 15 years old, are considered seniors. They need to go to a home with no other pets or children as they are somewhat traumatized from being moved and will need a calm, secure environment.

Meow Village will do routine follow-ups to make sure the cats are being properly cared for.

Birrenkott said the rescue organization is happy to be helping the cats find a home.

"Meow Village deals so much with cats in bad situations who have been abused or abandoned. Then you have someone like Jacques who not only loved and took good care of his cats in life but made arrangements like this for their care after his death. This is so opposite of what we deal with day in and day out that it's so heartwarming."

Anyone interested in adopting the cats can call Meow Village at 971-213-5919 or email meowvillage@comcast.net.
Trump13.JPG

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, right, and his son Donald Trump, Jr., listen last week as Eric Trump addresses delegates at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland.

(AP Photo)

By Ron Hurl

I read with interest Don Sims' essay ("Why this lifelong Republican will vote for Clinton," July 24). While I respect Sims' background and sacrificial service to his country, his reasoning seems very flawed.

I am always concerned when a writer like Sims uses emotionally charged words such as xenophobia, bigotry, racism and sexism to make his point. In contrast, the strong words that he uses to describe Hillary Clinton, such as character, temperament, self-control, sound judgment, intelligence, experience and competency, have actually been used to disqualify her as a candidate.

The word character implies a variety of attributes, including the existence or lack of courage, fortitude, honesty and loyalty, or of good behaviors or habits. On this score, Clinton is sadly lacking as she has lied repeatedly to the American people, FBI operatives and to victims of Benghazi. The "sound judgment" shown in her support of regime change in Iraq and Libya are debatable. Her decision to accept multiple millions of dollars for speechmaking and on behalf of the Clinton Foundation are borderline unethical, especially while serving as the secretary of state. Her intelligence, experience and competency are also called into question over her use of a personal server that put at risk the safety and security of all Americans. Her deletion of 33,000 "personal emails" shows a lack of transparency and an appearance of impropriety.

Meanwhile, what is xenophobia, bigotry, racism and sexism but fear and hatred of strangers or foreigners, hostility towards different social groups, the belief that race determines human traits, and prejudice triggered by a person's gender? The media operates as if repeated use of emotionally charged words make them true.

If you go beneath the surface a little bit, however, you'll find by Trump's actions that none of these words describe him.

Trump employed women and promoted them to positions of authority long before hiring equity appeared on the Democratic agenda. His supposed intolerance toward social groups is more out of respect for the safety and security of all American people -- a trait I particularly respect in light of Fort Hood, Santa Barbara and Orlando. Racism? He considers Ben Carson to be a key adviser, and he has a history of promoting black Americans to positions of authority.

I find it intolerant that a person of moral character, patriotism and altruism is tarred and feathered as a bigot and racist before his body of work is fully explored. Let's stick with the facts before trying to attack a decent American.

How many of these words would have made it into a court of law when prosecuting a defendant?

*

Ron Hurl, who runs an insurance agency in his name, lives in Northeast Portland.
By Kathleen Parker

PHILADELPHIA -- If political conventions tell us anything beyond the predictable, the one held last week in Cleveland and the other going on this week in Philadelphia pose contrasts so stark that one wonders if the two groups hail from the same country. Hint: One of them didn't present a diverse cross-section of America.

Whereas Cleveland's arena was a relatively sparsely populated panorama of predominantly pale faces animated by anger, Philadelphia's is a teeming, multicolored mass of (mostly) joyous celebration. In starkest contrast, Bernie Sanders, unlike Republican runner-up Ted Cruz, handed the baton and a passionate endorsement to his party's nominee.

The Democratic convention managed to wrestle unity from the Sanders crowd while Republicans left their gathering as divided as ever. Not even the storied email scandal -- the hacked Democratic National Committee files released on convention eve, not Clinton's private server -- muted the enthusiasm of delegates.

On opening night, a series of speakers carefully culled from the trove of democratic demographics related personal stories that were lovely and touching, if at times it felt like a group therapy session. Then along came comedian Sarah Silverman, who broke the spell with a little reality therapy, telling the "Sanders or Bust" crowd, "You're being ridiculous."

Did she just say that?

This is what passes for scandal when banal DNC emails make one yearn for the days of gloved burglars with flashlights. Even speculation about Russian intelligence being behind the hack and trying to influence the outcome of the presidential election (really?) pales next to the flesh-and-blood drama of Watergate.

The Russian conspiracy theories, loosely posited by the Clinton campaign and others, go something like this:

Donald Trump has expressed admiration of Vladimir Putin. Trump has recently turned more pro-Russia, suggesting he wouldn't interfere with Russian aggression if NATO members don't pay a fair share for their defense. Oh, and Trump has refused to release tax returns. Might they reveal business associations with certain Russian parties?

Then, too, the hackers, who did not breach the Republican National Committee, according to the FBI, could just be messing around.

Either the Russians have no interest in what Republicans chat about or they don't need to spy because (cue "Bourne Identity" soundtrack) Trump and Putin are already in constant contact. Actually, rumor has it that Trump's hairdo conceals a chip that feeds his thoughts directly into a computer located in an underground silo in remotest Kamchatka, where analysts celebrate the coming New Russian Empire with shots of Trump Vodka.

But I digress.

After Silverman, who was paired with the formerly funny Sen. Al Franken, came a series of heavy hitters, including fellow Sens. Cory Booker, Elizabeth Warren and Sanders with affirming and unifying messages. First lady Michelle Obama, who stole the show, was gracious as she serially insulted Trump without once mentioning his name -- the ultimate putdown.

Contrast this to the direct, full-frontal, name-calling insult-a-thon that has been the Trump campaign. Even winning the nomination failed to improve his mood or personality. Winning has always been Trump's endgame, so why wasn't he happy?

By contrast, there's no reason to imagine that the first woman ever to be nominated to the presidency will maintain a grim expression as Trump did following his nomination. He obviously made a decision to forgo the victor's grin and instead bear the countenance of a general about to enter war. Happy warrior isn't in his repertoire.

Whatever one's political persuasion, objectively, the future belongs to the party that reflects the nation it aspires to lead. This would not be the party whose platform, though not binding, seeks to undo many of the rights -- reproductive choice and same-sex marriage -- that most Americans find acceptable.

The math simply doesn't support a viable Republican Party without a long period of reconstruction following the Trump demolition. This is true if Trump wins or loses.

In the meantime, sentient Americans aren't the only ones worried about what comes next. On Tuesday, I moderated a panel before an international audience hosted by National Democratic Institute. A woman from Africa summarized the sentiments of the larger group with her question. Noting that people around the world depend on the United States to be the shining light for all, she asked: Who is the best to provide the moral leadership of America?

The world awaits our answer.

Kathleen Parker's email address is kathleenparkerwashpost.com.

(c) 2016, Washington Post Writers Group
Giuliana2.JPG

Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, speaking last week before the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, emphasized the defeat of "radical Islam."

(AP Photo)

By Judd Birdsall

If there was one unifying theme to this year's Republican National Convention -- in addition to a seething, "lock her up!" hatred of Hillary Clinton -- it was an unthinking and uncaring Islamophobia. The political party that claims to champion national security and Christian values has lost its mind and forfeited its soul.

I'm careful not to overuse the word "phobia." In the current culture wars, we too readily "phobia-ize" the views of our political opponents. But what the Republican party displayed in Cleveland was textbook phobia: an irrational fear disproportionate to the threat.

As a Christian who served in the Bush and Obama administrations, I watched in dismay.

Numerous convention speakers last week, from a former mayor to a former underwear model, stoked the crowd with excessive fears of "radical Islam" and "Islamic terrorists," while ignoring many more pressing threats to Americans' safety.

Commenting on the convention, comedian Trevor Noah quipped that the event's theme should have been "Make America Fear Again." If the goal of terrorism is to stoke fear and fuel animosity, then Trump's party is extending the impact of ISIS.

A willingness to use the phrase "radical Islam" has become a badge of honor and a test of orthodoxy among many Republicans. In his convention remarks, Rep. Michael McCaul said, "Let's cut through the suffocating political correctness and call the threat what it really is -- the enemy is radical Islam." McCaul also dismissed welcoming Syrian refugees -- those fleeing the enemy -- as a "dangerous liberal agenda."

To their credit, some speakers, including Rudy Giuliani, did try to distinguish between terrorists and ordinary nonviolent Muslims. But the very term "radical Islam" impugns the faith of all 1.6 billion Muslims and it grants religious legitimacy to those who do use Islam to justify terrorism.

How would Christians feel if Muslims insisted on calling Ku Klux Klan members "radical Christians?"

Emile Nakhleh, a senior Islam expert at the CIA during the Bush administration, recently praised President Barack Obama for avoiding using "radical Islam." Nakhleh said, "To Muslims, or for anyone familiar with the many strands of Islam, the phrase connotes a direct link between the mainstream of the Muslim faith and the violent acts of a few."

That connotation is obvious to anyone watching the Trump campaign. As Nakhleh observed, "Trump appears to be recklessly pandering to the uninformed part of the American electorate that does believe in such a connection between the mainstream and the fringe."

In his convention speech, vice presidential nominee Mike Pence promised, "Donald Trump will confront radical Islamic terrorism at its source and destroy the enemies of our freedom."

But that begs the question, what's the "source" of this terrorism that Trump plans to confront? For many Republicans, the answer seems not to be a complex web of socio-economic and geopolitical grievances, but simply Islam itself.

That was certainly the message from far-right Dutch politician Geert Wilders, one of Europe's most notorious Islamophobes. Speaking at a side event connected to the convention last week, Wilders traced a direct line from Muslim immigration to terrorism.

"Islam is the problem," he said, according to Salon. Wilders decried how Europe is "collapsing" and turning into "Eurabia" thanks to its growing Muslim population. "I don't want more Muslims in the Netherlands and I am proud to say that." He implored Americans not to "allow Islam to be planted in your soil."

It's telling that Wilders came to Cleveland to show his support for Trump, as the invited guest of Tennessee state senator Bill Ketron. When asked about Wilders, Ketron said "The only reason he is controversial is that he speaks his mind ... and I agree with his philosophy." That philosophy has rightly been described as xenophobic and neo-fascist, and it deserves no airtime in American politics.

Sadly, inside the convention center, when a Pakistani American leader took the stage to offer a Muslim prayer (a very nonsectarian but highly partisan prayer asking God to provide a president who will "make America great again"), one delegate on the convention floor repeatedly yelled "No Islam!"

Convention speaker and former soap opera actor Antonio Sabato Jr. told ABC News that he was "absolutely" sure Obama is a Muslim. All evidence to the contrary, Sabato claimed, "We had a Muslim president for seven and half years."

It was not long ago that George W. Bush won the Muslim vote in 2000. Throughout his presidency Bush went out of his way to express respect for Islam and to tamp down the swell of anti-Muslim sentiment after the September 11 attacks.

But the election of Barack Hussein Obama -- a black man with an Arabic name and a natural rapport with Muslims -- unleashed that swell of Islamophobia on the right. Even though Obama has used many of the same lines as Bush -- for instance, "We are not at war with Islam" and "Islam is a religion of peace" -- too many Republicans have ignored the calls for respect.

Enter Trump, stage (far) right. From registering American Muslims to banning foreign Muslims, rejecting refugees, reviving waterboarding, and implying Obama is an ISIS sympathizer, Trump's campaign been littered with anti-Muslim pronouncements and policy proposals. And the crowds at his rallies have cheered each new inane, hateful idea. Trump has turned prejudice into an applause line.

The Republican party, in its treatment of Muslims, has lost its mind: An overwhelming amount of research shows that Muslim faith typically has very little to do with the underlying motivations for terrorism. The 2016 Republican platform champions national security, but alienating and antagonizing devout Muslims -- those best situated to discredit extremist narratives -- runs directly counter to America's security interests.

And in its treatment of Muslims, the GOP has lost its soul: The Islamophobia at the Cleveland convention was a betrayal of the "Judeo-Christian heritage" touted in the GOP Platform. At the heart of Judaism and Christianity -- and Islam -- is the command to love God and love neighbor. For Christians, Jesus' parable of the Good Samaritan makes it abundantly clear that our neighbors include those who are ethnically and religiously different.

In contemporary America, Muslims are the new Samaritans.

One need only look to the Bible -- which Trump claims as his favorite book -- to know how our forefathers would tell us to treat the Samaritans among us. And it wasn't what we saw in Cleveland.

(c) 2016, The Washington Post

*

Judd Birdsall is managing director of the Cambridge Institute on Religion & International Studies at Clare College, Cambridge. A former U.S. diplomat, he served in the U.S. State Department's Office of International Religious Freedom and on the Secretary of State's Policy Planning Staff. He wrote this piece for The Washington Post.
Horse Spaying Backlash

A nonprofit group filed suit Tuesday, July 26, 2016, in an attempt to block the U.S. Bureau of Land Management from going forward with research that involves three methods of surgically sterilizing wild mares, some of them pregnant.

(Jamie Francis/The Oregonian/OregonLive/2007)

Advocates for wild horses have sought an injunction to stop researchers from surgically sterilizing more than 200 wild mares at a facility in Hines, Oregon.

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management has said the research slated to begin this summer would help determine whether the three methods to be studied are safe, effective options for controlling the wild horse population.

But the nonprofit group Front Range Equine Rescue describes the procedures as unnecessary and barbaric.

Group President Hilary Wood said in a statement that performing unproven surgeries is contrary to the Bureau of Land Management's congressional mandate to care for wild horses, especially when an existing vaccine works as effective birth control.

The Bureau of Land Management, which has said the vaccine isn't effective enough, did not have an immediate response to the lawsuit, which was filed Monday in Washington, D.C.

Of the three methods, the advocates are most concerned about a procedure that involves removing ovaries from sedated, pregnant mares in various gestational stages. The veterinarian reaches into the mare's abdomen through the vagina to sever and remove the ovaries.

"BLM's intention to engage in the blind excision of mares' ovaries, with the hope that they get it right, is dangerous, inhumane, potentially fatal, and arbitrary and capricious," the lawsuit states.

The decision to carry out the research comes on the heels of the Bureau of Land Management's latest annual population estimate that shows about 67,000 wild horses and burros roaming public lands in 10 Western states.

The agency says that's more than double what it considers healthy for the animals and the rangeland.

-- The Associated Press
Backers of a $3 billion corporate tax measure on the November ballot repeatedly pushed for changes in a Portland State University economic review of the proposal, delaying the report for several months.

Emails, draft reports and other public records obtained by The Oregonian/OregonLive on Tuesday reveal the uncomfortable relationship between university economists and Our Oregon, the union-backed group that drafted the measure and paid for the report.

The report was expected to take four months when commissioned by Our Oregon at a cost of $45,000. It was finally released June 29, some seven months after the economists first submitted a proposed final draft.

The university economists appear to have largely rebuffed requests for substantial changes. They found new tax revenue would add 33,600 government jobs by 2027, but with 13,500 fewer private sector jobs. They also echoed concerns that businesses would raise prices, with the burden falling disproportionately on low and middle income households.

But the tension and back-and-forth testify to the high stakes in a ballot fight that's sharply divided Oregon's political factions and looms as one of the most hard-fought campaigns in state history.

Supporters, including Our Oregon, say billions of dollars in new revenue could transform the state's finances and lift education spending to new heights. But opponents, largely in the state's business community, say the measure will raise costs and drive away jobs by acting as a sales tax.

And reports such as Portland State's have been seen as key in shaping the debate so far.

For example, as the economists prepared a draft report last fall, Our Oregon's research director, Daniel Morris, asked them to add a new factor to their analysis: the additional debt the state could afford to take on if voters approve the new tax.

The assumption that the state might borrow more money, which is typically spent on more construction and infrastructure projects, could create a rosier picture of the tax impacts. That's because the added debt would be tied to additional government spending.

The measure, currently known as Initiative Petition 28 but expected to appear on the ballot as Measure 97, would charge certain C corporations a 2.5 percent tax on their gross annual sales in Oregon above $25 million. This type of tax is known as a gross receipts tax.

Our Oregon's executive director, Ben Unger, also lobbied former state economist Tom Potiowsky and other researchers at the university's Northwest Economic Research Center.

He asked them to include a central political argument for the measure in their findings: that the measure is so different from gross receipts taxes in other states that common downsides would not apply in Oregon.

Unger added his comments to draft versions of the report.

"More needs to be said about how IP 28 is different," Unger wrote on a draft of the report in March. "All the assumptions: regressivity, pyramiding, profit vs. no profit - all of it is different, and it should be highlighted."

Unger, who is not an economist, did not cite research to support his argument, based on the idea that Oregon's tax, unlike broader taxes in other states, would apply only to larger corporations.

Potiowsky pushed back against Unger's claim.

"And IP 28 is not so unique that it would not have any regressivity associated with it," Potiowsky wrote in response to Unger's comment. "Applying [a gross receipts tax] to a narrow group of C corporations does not make regressivity go away."

Potiowsky could not be reached for comment Tuesday, but Mike Paruszkiewicz, a senior economist at the Northwest Economic Research Center, said Our Oregon did not shape the researchers' findings.

"Any influence Our Oregon had was during the contract phase," Paruszkiewicz said. "Any client is allowed to ask us to answer a certain question. ... I can't speak for any influence they wanted to have."

As for the tweaks that did appear in the report, Paruszkiewicz said "any place we changed the language was in response to a valid criticism."

Katherine Driessen, a spokeswoman for Our Oregon and the ballot measure campaign, said the dialog amounted to "a very standard editing process" and "and it was "ultimately up to Tom Potiowsky and his co-workers at NERC to decide Ben has a valid point, Ben doesn't have a valid point."

"We were setting the scope of the work, we were paying for it," Driessen said. "We certainly wanted to make sure the end product was good and accurate."

Unger also tried to shape Potiowsky's public comments on the tax measure, records show.

On March 17, Unger called and emailed Potiowsky after a lobbyist tweeted that Potiowsky, speaking to a group of contractors, had referred to gross receipts taxes in general as "a sales tax on steroids."

"I am pretty sure this is out of context and not accurate, but I think you're going to need to correct [the lobbyist] for the record," Unger wrote to Potiowsky.

Potiowsky wrote back that he did draw the comparison to a sales tax. He said he was answering a question about the corporate tax measure's effects. "As you know better than I, this is nectar for spin doctor bees," Potiowsky wrote.

The next day, Potiowsky confirmed the comment and provided additional context in an email to a reporter. Potiowsky then forwarded that email to Unger. Unger responded that Potiowsky should refrain from speaking to reporters without first checking in with Our Oregon.

"From here on out on this, can you not comment about your statements without checking in?" Unger wrote. "We could've avoided this one with a little more coordination. Sorry this is happening, but I think we can make this a short story if we communicate together."

Potiowsky agreed to check in with Our Oregon before commenting, but wrote in an email that he would not always take the group's advice "and I will speak my mind as my conscious (sic) dictates."

Initially, the university economists declined to work with Our Oregon, citing busy schedules and the likelihood their findings that would resemble a report produced by economists for the Legislature.

Potiowsky later reversed the decision after meeting with Unger, but the reason was unclear in public records.

-- Hillary Borrud

503-294-4034; @hborrud
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A woman in North Texas took on two snakes "mortal combat" style in her kitchen this week, sustaining a bite from one and killing both, according to media reports.

Deborah Burdette, a Wilbarger County resident who lives less than 10 miles from the Oklahoma border, was greeted by a unwelcome visitor of the serpent type in her home Monday as she began her day, according to the Times Record News.

RELATED: Photos capture rattlesnake biting groom during wedding day photoshoot

She said she spotted a "large black snake resting on the counter" and while others may have cowered away, Burdette launched her attack.

"I thought to myself, no one is going to believe this, so I went to get my phone to take a picture," she told the newspaper. "When I got back, it acted like it was coming after me, then it tried to get away by escaping through a hole behind the dishwasher."

The snake wasn't fast enough for the skilled Burdette, who could be nominated as one of the badass women of Texas. (See other hardcore Lone Star lasses in the gallery above)

RELATED: 26 rattlesnakes under this Texas deer blind is the making for a nightmare and a viral Facebook post

The homeowner, who noted she has killed "several" rattlesnakes on her 20-acre property in previous years, said she didn't see any rattles on the serpent and grabbed a hold of it.

"I grabbed the snake to keep it from getting away, and it was very hard to hold onto," the woman told the Times Record News. She said the grabbed a meat cleaver still in its packaging with her free hand, used her teeth to rip open the plastic and then hit the snake on the head to "immobilize" it.

Later that day, as Burdette entered her dim kitchen, she lived out the saying "if it were a snake, it would have bit me."

She told the newspaper she didn't see the second snake lying near the sink and it bit her hand.

RELATED: Terrifyingly huge rattlesnake caught in Abilene

"I killed it and called 911 because, at the time, I didn't know what kind of snake it was," she said in the interview. "But after the EMS arrived, we determined that it was a bull snake."

Burdette consulted with Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, who confirmed the first snake she killed was most likely a poisonous water moccasin.

Since her encounters, Burdette has decided to fill the hole the snakes used to enter he home with Brillo pads and said "the experience has put pressure" on her to keep her large yard mowed.

"I have a healthy respect for snakes  as long as they are outside," she told the Times Record News.

mmendoza@mysa.com

Twitter: @MaddySkye
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Whats easier  pulling a fire truck or beating cancer?

Both may seem to take Herculean efforts, but are doable. The key: A support system.

Thats the message of a symbolic event new this year to Midland Countys Relay For Life, the American Cancer Societys top fundraiser. The annual Relay this year is shortened from the usual 24-hour duration to 15 hours and takes place at the Midland County Fairgrounds from 9 a.m. Saturday to midnight.

So far, 75 teams and nearly 500 participants have raised more than $107,000 for Midland Countys Relay For Life, according to its website, which you can see at http://bit.ly/2apyGtT

The event features many themed laps around the fairgrounds, from superheroes to the 80s, selfies to pajamas, Christmas in July to silly hats.

Sarah Shattuck is a co-captain of one of the teams, the Lifesavers. Shattuck said another captain, Ruth Flowers, brought the idea to others for a fire engine pull. Fire Chief Robert Marks donated Lincoln Townships fire truck for use in the event on Saturday.

I think the fire truck pull will pull some interest into Relay For Life, Shattuck said.

Those 18 and older may register six-person teams to lug the fire truck as far as possible in one minute. Those under 18  there isnt an age limit, but a permission slip from parents is required  may register eight-person teams. Shoes must be worn and waivers signed. Registration is first come first serve. The cost to participate is $10, and organizers say $7 of it goes to the American Cancer Society and $3 is added to a prize pot awarded to the winning team. The pull runs from 1-4 p.m. on Saturday.

A powerlifting team and EMS team are interested in competing, Shattuck said, but thats not to stifle anyone interested in the challenge.

We dont want to discourage anyone from pulling, Shattuck said, adding teams can be co-ed, all men and women, or children  whoever thinks they can pull it. Its all for fun.

Fun, with some flex: she said when the idea was first talked about, organizers werent sure it would be possible for six to eight people to pull the Lincoln Township fire truck  it weighs some 60,000 pounds with water and gear. So they set up a trial run on smooth pavement and went to work. Six of them were able to move the fire truck.

When I saw the truck being pulled with all the gear on it, I was ecstatic, Shattuck said.

The feat signaled a theme central to the Relay event: one person alone couldnt pull the truck, similar to the struggle a person alone faces with cancer. It takes a support system, she said.

Heres a list of activities that seek to add to the fundraising while uniting survivors and everyone else in the community at Saturdays Relay For Life at the Midland County Fairgrounds:

9 a.m.  Opening ceremony and a celebratory cancer survivors lap

1 p.m.  Fire truck pull

2 p.m.  Box car auction highlighting road to recovery program

7 p.m.  Survivor and caregiver celebration

10 p.m.  Touching luminaria ceremony, where candles are lit in honor and memory of locals who have battled cancer

Organizers are asking those planning to attend to not bring pets unless a service animal is needed.
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A three-day camp is helping high school students gain hands-on experience in skilled trades as well as instruction to life skills.

It gives kids a glimpse into what they could do, said Don Johnson, coordinator of career and technical education for the Midland County Educational Service Agency.

The Square One Skilled Trades Camp  a partnership between MCESA, the Greater Michigan Construction Academy and several local companies  introduces the trades of electrician, skilled carpentry, HVAC (heating, ventilating and air conditioning) and welding to participants.

The camp for students entering grades 9 through 12 is taking place through today, with 22 students taking part. An earlier camp to introduce skilled trades for students entering grades 6 through 9 took place July 11-13 and drew 23 students.

Johnson and MCESA Superintendent John Searles said the camps are an outgrowth of the partnership between the agency and GMCA that enables students to make major strides toward being licensed in various trades while still in school by taking classes during the high school day.

They can finish high school about halfway through GMCAs trades program, Johnson said.

He said there has been a nearly tenfold increase in participation of students from Midland County schools in the last four years  from just nine students four years ago to 85 who are signed up this fall.

Searles said partnering with GMCA is a flexible model that allows the program to quickly add trades that are becoming more popular.

It allows us to be nimble and offer exactly what is needed ... The facility is already in place, he said.

Johnson suggested that plumbing could be the next trade added to the program.

Participation in this and other CTE programs throughout the county is expected to grow this fall, as a grant will pay for transportation between schools, removing a key barrier. For example, students from Midland High or Bullock Creek will now have better access to Colemans agriscience program.

On Tuesday, a crew from Consumers Energy showed students the many functions of a bucket truck, a familiar sight when electricity is being restored or is being extended to a new area.

Nate Williams of Consumers human resources and talent acquisition department said his colleagues presentation also emphasized that safety is No. 1.

He said events such as the trades camp are not only a time for students to learn about possible career paths but, for those who are presenting information and doing demonstrations, a great opportunity to guide them in the right path  being a role model.

Williams said he encounters many students who lack confidence, and need to be encouraged to learn how to assert themselves and network.

I feel like its really important, us being here today, he said.

Williams also said events such as the trades camp are important to Consumers, as about 40 percent of the companys employees could retire in the next three to five years.

Elsewhere on the GMCA campus Tuesday afternoon, a volunteer from Three Rivers Construction was showing students the basics of welding. Helping out was Hunter Anderson, who was recently hired by Answer Heating & Cooling of Freeland after going through the skilled trades program.

The program taught me how to be reliable ... how to deal with certain situations and certain people on the job, Anderson said.

Also on Tuesdays schedule was a timed activity in which students were given a pile of wood and challenged to create something.

Aaron Carpenter said the activity was his favorite part so far of the camp. He built a combination shelf-coat rack.

For more information on MCESAs career and technical education program, go to www.midlandesa.org/services/midland-county-cte/

To learn more about GMCA programs, visit www.gmcacademy.org/en-us/home.aspx
Midland City Council heard from three Japanese students who are part of the Sister City partnership with Handa before getting down to business Monday night.

Tina Van Dam, a member of the Sister City Committee, said the relationship between Midland and Handa represents a cross-cultural friendship and understanding that will last through the years. It involves host families and volunteers, as well as sponsors.
Nearly 150 Airmen from the 513th Air Control Group and 552nd Air Control Wing deployed July 17, 2016 from Tinker Air Force Base, Oklahoma, to the Hawaiian Islands to participate in the worlds largest maritime exercise.



Rim of the Pacific 2016, or RIMPAC, has grown to involve 26 nations, more than 40 ships and submarines, more than 200 aircraft and 25,000 personnel. It involves forces in and around the Hawaiian Islands as well as Southern California.



While Tinker-based Airborne Warning and Control System Airmen have supported RIMPAC before, this year marks the first time active-duty and reserve crews have worked together to provide consistent AWACS support to the exercise.



Weve accomplished some fantastic total force integration training, said Maj. Anne Ridlon, a RIMPAC liaison officer assigned to the 970th Airborne Air Control Squadron, the Air Force Reserves only AWACS flying squadron. Although were able to work this closely with the 552nd back home, deploying together to a different location gives us more opportunities.



In the missions flown so far, Ridlon says that RIMPAC has given the aircrews quite a few challenges not seen on a typical training sortie.



Weve had some great link communication training as well as experience for our electronic combat and air weapons officers, she said.



In the next few days, Ridlon said the 513th and 552nd crews are looking forward to working closely with local F-22 Raptors as well as Navy P-3 Orion aircraft as the exercise develops.



Right now were in the phase zero, or crawl phase, of the exercise, said Staff Sgt. Haley Sherman, an intelligence specialist assigned to the 513th Operations Support Squadron. When exercise coordinators determine, RIMPAC will move into phase one and the multinational force will be one step closer to the culmination of the exercise: all-out war against a fictional country.



Keeping the E-3 Sentry aircraft in the air and in the exercise doesnt happen on its own; it takes the work of more than 30 active duty and reserve maintenance Airmen as well as specialized equipment airlifted from Tinker AFB, according to Senior Master Sgt. Alphonzo Glover, an accessories flight chief assigned to the 513th Maintenance Squadron.



I think were doing really well on the maintenance side, he said. Its unique having two detachment commanders and two different flying squadrons here, but communication has been really good.



While the reserve and active duty units each brought the same number of maintenance Airmen, they opted to blend together for the morning and afternoon shifts both to provide the best support as well as practice building new teams.



We wanted to get our maintainers to a point where theyre comfortable no matter who they work with, Glover said. We wont always know the people were deployed with, but well still have the same job to do.
Beverly Pack 16-4

Airman 1st Class Nicholas Novosel, 8th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron crew chief, puts in a solid days work on the F-16 Fighting Falcon with the proof on his hands during Beverly Pack 16-4 at Kunsan Air Base, Republic of Korea, July 25, 2016. The exercise tested Airmen on their ability to survive and operate while under the stress of simulated wartime activities. (U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Ashley L. Gardner/Released)
FLICK FLAK, random thoughts on selfies, cotton balls, the best ice cream, why people are drinking talk so loudly, and other such matters 

How can it be that everyone from the Middle East is named Muhammad, or Omar, or Abir, but in the Bible they are all Middle-Eastern guys named Matthew, Mark, Luke or John? Is someone fudging in translation somewhere?

Is it spelled Leroy, Le Roy or LeRoy?

Central Illinois look-alikes: Scott Seibring, the director of financial aid at Illinois Wesleyan University in Bloomington, and Mike Pence, the new GOP vice-presidential nominee. (Suggested by Seibring's wife, Stacy Seibring ... and then a horde of others).

How long before we get photos of the bride and groom saying I do while the minister stands between them and snaps the selfie?

If Donald Trump wants to "make America great again," why can't he find a candidate -- either party -- that a majority of America likes? Then he'd become an American hero besides.

Three more things that if were all gonna die of something, it might as well be these :

The homemade sweet potato chips at BraiZe.

A jumbo hot dog slathered with Kelleys Stone Ground Mustard and sweet relish at a CornBelters game.

A container of Whiteys butter pecan ice cream at HyVee. (Whiteys is so good, its the reason some go to HyVee).

And, wait ... is it pronounced LEE-roy or La-ROY?

Yet another difference between the sexes: Women buy and use cotton balls. Men, on the other hand, have no idea why anyone would need a cotton ball and get frustrated just trying to get one out of the top of a bottle of aspirin.

For LeBron James to spread out and get comfortable, just how big must his bed be? And his bedroom?

Are police just bad picture takers? Is that why everyone's mug shot is so awful?

Vacation notes

How can it be a complimentary beverage when I just spent $325 for the airline ticket?

At the end of an airline flight, as the plane rolls to a stop but there still are three or four minutes before the doors are opened, dont you love it how everyone instantly springs up so we can all wait much faster that way?

Just how many containers of shampoo, conditioner, cologne, mouthwash, perfume, etc., that were more than 3 ounces must the TSA have confiscated by now? Billions? Trillions? Enough to open a chain of "Too-Much-In-A-Container" stores?

Is it true what they say about Bloomington-Normal, that the wind speed and gas prices are always the highest here?

As one cranky old chauvinist put it the other morn, after the GOP convention, offering his opinion at Coffee Hound that drew a huge round of laughter and/or head shakes: "For the common guy of America, it doesn't matter which of those two wins. So I'll go into the voting ballot trying to decide if I want to look at a 69-year-old grandmother or Melania Trump."

FLOCK FLAK:

"Why does every baseball player drag out every game by re-strapping his batting glove after every pitch? Golfers do not do it. Football players do not do it. Hockey players do not do it. Why baseball?" (Sam Harrod III, Eureka)

"After watching `Americas Funniest Home Videos (on TV for more than 20 years now), Ive come to the conclusion that no man should ever get out of bed without first putting on a cup. Ever. (Connie Haney, Carlock)

"If all these new cars are being built with collision avoidance systems, is that going to put all the crash dummies on the unemployment line?" (Dan Duncan, Bloomington)

Whatever happened to Palm Pilots? Or can you now not even remember them only 10 years later?

Do you think Caroline Kennedy thinks about her dad every time she flies into JFK airport?

Finally, just what ingredient is it in alcohol that makes people talk louder? Ever been in a popular bar at 10 p.m.? You have to be screaming by then to hear yourself.
PHILADELPHIA  A moving night for Democrats Tuesday was especially so for one Bloomington resident.

"I am beyond emotional thinking about my very good friend Hillary Clinton being nominated for the first woman president of the United States," said Patsy Bowles, a delegate for Clinton from Illinois' 18th Congressional District. "I am so very proud of her in this moment of her life and the lives of women and Americans everywhere. This is a wonderful day."

Bowles "was sitting right below my very good longtime friend Betsy Ebeling as she recited the votes for our friend Hillary from the state of Illinois" at this week's Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia.

"It is so exciting to be there representing our friend," added Bowles, who has known Clinton since they were children. "Betsy and I have been interviewed by ABC (and the) Washington Post."

The nomination ended a long, bitter fight between Clinton, a former secretary of state, senator and first lady, and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders for the Democratic nomination. Boos and chants from Sanders supporters overshadowed many of the speeches on the convention's first day Monday.

"I'm so upset with Bernie supporters. So disruptive," Bowles said just after 5 p.m. Eastern time on Monday. "Do they want (Republican presidential nominee Donald) Trump to win?"

Ellen Ross, a Sanders delegate from the 18th District and a May Illinois State University graduate, said Tuesday afternoon "Bernie delegates have made things interesting" at the convention.

"Those delegates and guests not booing seemed annoyed but not too bothered by them most of the night. When they booed (First Lady) Michelle Obama, though, people got heated," Ross said. "They started (shushing) the dissenters. with a few people yelling at them to shut up. This quieted them for the rest of Michelle's speech."

Bowles was among delegates who hoisted "Michelle" signs during Obama's speech, a 15-minute address that commentators have called one of the best in the convention's history.

Ross said Sanders' Monday speech "hasn't done much to quell tension," and "there are rumors going around that many Bernie delegates plan on walking out after Hillary officially is nominated." Those rumors proved to be true.

Just before Monday's speeches started, Bowles said it was "so very hot outside" for the convention and she "had to walk almost a mile and then (through) several checkpoints to get in" to Wells Fargo Center after taking a shuttle.

"The security and volunteer staff here in Philadelphia have been marvelous. So helpful," she added.

Bowles said Monday's musical act before the speeches, 90s rhythm and blues group Boyz II Men, was "a great way to get things going."

Ten current ISU students and Political Science Professor Erik Rankin are also attending the convention as part of a special summer class.
BLOOMINGTON  A cry for help prompted a McLean County deputy to open a storage tub in a rented moving truck Friday, finding two sweaty children as the vehicle traveled on Interstate 55 north of Bloomington.

Samuel Watson, 44, of Michigan, and his sister, Lapiera Watson, 54, of Tennessee, were arrested on initial charges of child endangerment.

Lapiera Watson is the mother of a 5-year-old girl and grandmother of the 2-year-old boy. She and her adult daughter were in the back of the truck driven by Samuel Watson, according to police reports.

Assistant State's Attorney Jacob Harlow clarified the relationships between the children and the suspects on Wednesday, adding that the investigation is ongoing.

The children have been taken into custody by the Department of Children and Family Services. Authorities said the children did not require medical treatment.

Harlow said the matter is under review for formal charges. Both suspects posted $185 to be released on the misdemeanor charges.

Sheriff Jon Sandage said Deputy Jon Albee stopped the southbound truck near Towanda for following too closely and improper lane usage. Samuel Watson agreed to allow the officer and his police dog to search the truck, said the sheriff.

"During the search, the officer heard 'Help me' from inside a plastic tub that contained a small fan," said Sandage.

The children were "very sweaty" but uninjured, said the sheriff. Officers "were very concerned, given the heat that day," he said.

Lapiera Watson told officers the children were put inside the box "to hide them from police" but offered no explanation for her action, said Sandage.

The cargo area included a bed, dresser and small refrigerator, according to police reports. Statements from the Watsons indicate the children may have been placed in the tub after Albee stopped the truck.

The Penske truck was rented on July 6 in Michigan and was due to be returned July 7. The sheriff said the firm was getting ready to report the vehicle as stolen.
BLOOMINGTON  A Colfax man was sentenced to seven years in prison Wednesday for sexually abusing two girls who reported his sexual attacks on them to authorities last year.

Dennis Farney pleaded guilty in May to aggravated criminal sexual abuse of two minors who are now adults in exchange for dismissal of one count of predatory criminal sexual assault and two counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse.

In his remarks to Judge Robert Freitag before the sentence was imposed, the 55-year-old sex offender turned to the two victims in the courtroom and apologized.

"I truly want to apologize for what has happened," said Farney.

Freitag said the accusations that surfaced more than a decade after they were committed "illustrates very clearly that this a very private crime, a very secret crime."

The evidence also shows that Farney's victims "are still suffering greatly from his selfish, despicable behavior," said the judge.

Farney also received a seven-year concurrent term on a second count of sexual abuse.

Assistant State's Attorney Jacob Harlow asked for 10 years for Farney on one count and a concurrent seven years on the second charge, arguing that the single incident of abuse reported by one of the victims and the years of molestation of a second minor girl traumatized the victims in ways that left them emotionally scarred and in need of counseling.

"This is not behind them. This is not past them," Harlow said of the abuse.

Defense lawyer Carey Luckman sought a term of probation for Farney. Luckman argued that Farney is unlikely to commit a similar offense and has been a respected member of the community before the criminal charges were filed.

In a July 7 hearing related to Farney's sentencing, both victims testified about the trauma they have suffered as a result of the abuse from the sex offender with whom they were acquainted.

"I will never, ever forgive you. I wanted you dead. Now I want you to suffer," one of the women told Farney through heavy sobs.

Anger and depression came after years of sexual abuse starting when she was about 10 years old, the second victim told the judge.

"I don't believe he should be out living his life while we're trying to get by, day by day ... it's people like him that make the world unsafe," said the woman.

Three witnesses testified on Farney's behalf.

Brandan Bose, who worked with Farney at a Colfax grain company, called Farney "the kind of guy you look up to. I trust him as far as anyone could trust another person."

Dallas Bose, who served on the local fire department with Farney, called the defendant "number one."

When asked about the charges against Farney, Bose said, "I'm surprised at that part, but I still feel the same way I always have about him."

Such testimonials expressing disbelief at unacceptable conduct are not uncommon in sex cases, noted the judge.
If you think that your liver is the only thing that is in danger when you drink alcohol, then you are wrong. Study says that there are at least six types of cancer that will add up to liver cancer because of this vice.

Based on a report about the statement of Jennie Connor, from the University of Otago in New Zealand, their study suggests that "booze causes cancer of the mouth and throat, larynx, eosophagus, liver, colon, bowel, and breast." The intensity of the disease attacks is directly proportional to the intake of alcohol and also to some abnormalities in the body of the drinker that may have been caused by some other existing disorders or diseases. Connor said that drinking 50 grams of alcohol per day can add up to the risks of mouth cancer up to seven times compared to that of a non-drinker.

According to UK Cancer Research Department, there is no level of regular alcohol consumption thatis safe. UK changed their drinking recommendations for men recently from 21 grams per week to 14 units, which is about the same with the previous recommendation for women. Along with this is the statement that women who drink five units per day are more likely to develop breast cancer than non-drinkers by 40 percent.

Cancer.org explained the process of how alcohol does its work to damage the body and develop cancer. Apparently, alcohol damages body tissues and reacts with the other harmful chemicals inside the body like tobacco smoke. Alcohol also lower the levels of folate and other nutrients. It also raises body levels of estrogen, which depletion can result to breast cancer. Alcohol is also a great culprit to weight gain and of course, obesity.

It is still best to drink water rather than alcohol as the former cleans the body and keep it healthy. If you are into excessive alcohol drinking, try to withdraw from it even gradually before it is too late.
Oh no! Is Kate Middleton feuding with Princess Diana's relatives? Well, latest reports claimed that the Duchess of Cambridge was shocked over Princess Diana's brother Charles Spencer and his third wife Karen Gordon for planning to turn the Spencer family property known as Althorp Estate into a "bed and breakfast."

Kate Middleton Vs. Charles Spencer

In a report by the Globe (via Celeb Dirty Laundry), Kate Middleton was reportedly protecting Princess Diana's legacy from "greedy relatives" by stopping Charles Spencer and Karen Gordon's Althorp plans. In fact, an insider claimed that the Duchess of Cambridge was sick of Gordon's gold-digging stint as the latter has a reputation of liking men with money.

Since Charles Spencer is worth at least $150 million, Karen Gordon is apparently planning to take control of the Spencer fortune. Fortunately, Kate Middleton is making her best efforts to save the Spencers.

Princes William And Harry Disgusted Over Charles Spencer's Plans?

Kate Middleton, however, was not the only one who's horrified over Charles Spencer and Karen Gordon's Althorp plans. As a matter of fact, Duchess Kate's husband Prince William and brother Prince Harry were also "disgusted" with Spencer's plans. A royal source also added that Karen was trying to seduce the Duke of Cambridge by wearing "figure-hugging" clothes.

Pippa Middleton's Wedding Will Be A Disaster?

Meanwhile, Kate Middleton's sister Pippa is reportedly feeling the pressure for her upcoming wedding to James Matthews just a week after their engagement announcement. In another Celeb Dirty Laundry report, Pippa's wedding may become a "royal disaster" if Queen Elizabeth II won't approve the union, especially if the royal family's reputation will be at stake.

"Of course, there's Queen Elizabeth and her opinion," the celebrity gossip site wrote. "History has proven that any event involving the Middletons and the royals ends up in the headlines, and with Pippa Middleton marrying into the Matthews family, Queen Elizabeth has every right to be worried about her family's royal reputation."

America's Cup World Series

In other Kate Middleton-related news, the 34-year-old Duchess recently looked impressive as she flaunted her casual chic outfit when she attended the America's Cup World series with husband Prince William. Huffington Post reported that the mom-of-two even modified her look without even changing her clothes.

At the America's Cup in Portsmouth, Kate Middleton and Prince William also met Sir Ben Ainslie. Ainslie is Britain's most successful sailor and a four-time Olympic gold medalist who won the America's Cup World series. The royal couple awarded him the winning trophy, as per Daily Mail.

Do you think Kate Middleton is really feuding with Princess Diana's relatives? Sound off below and follow Parent Herald for more news and updates.
"Teen Wolf" Season 6 is confirmed to be the last for the MTV drama. The announcement was given at the recently concluded San Diego Comic Con 2016, which made a lot of fans and viewers disappointed. Will former characters from the show return in the upcoming season?

This article contains spoilers. Read on if you want to learn more about the details of this story.

"Teen Wolf" Season 6 spoilers reveal that the upcoming season of the MTV series will serve as its series finale. Carter Matt notes that fans and viewers should brace themselves for a packed season ahead, as the cast and crew recently shared details in the 2016 SDCC.

Aside from the fact that Scott (Tyler Posey), Stiles (Dylan O'Brien) and the rest of the Pack are headed for graduation, they will also face off against new villains in "Teen Wolf" Season 6. It was also hinted during the SDCC that fans and viewers should expect for some more loss.

This led to speculations that Dylan O'Brien's character, Stiles, will die in "Teen Wolf" Season 6. Showrunner Jeff Davis made it clear that Stiles will play a very important role next season with his friends forgetting who he is.

There are also speculations that former characters will return in "Teen Wolf" Season 6, notes TV Fanatic. According to the publication, many fans are looking forward to the return of Tyler Hoechlin as Derek Hale in the final season of the series.

Fans of Allison (Crystal Reed) are also hoping to see her back in "Teen Wolf" Season 6 despite the fact that her character died in the earlier seasons of the show. There are rumors that a "Teen Wolf" spinoff series was in the works and may focus on Reed's other role.

"Teen Wolf" Season 6 air date is on Tuesday, Nov. 15 on MTV.

Do you think Tyler Hoechlin should return in "Teen Wolf" Season 6? Share your thoughts in the comments section below!


The mother of the young man who attempted to shoot Donald Trump in Las Vegas on June 18 is pleading authorities to have her son return to the United Kingdom. Michael Sanford, 20, attacked the Republican candidate during a rally and has been under police custody since then. His mother, Lynne Sanford, is doing everything she can to get her son back.

Huffington Post reports that Michael Sanford suffers from Asperger syndrome and authorities have been keeping an eye on him to dissuade him from suicide. Lynne Sanford's hurdle is getting funds to pay for the legal costs that would free her son in the United States so he could return to Great Britain.

Donald Trump Assassination Attempt: Mom Defends Son Is Not Violent, Does Not Know Trump

Daily Mail reports that Michael Sanford traveled to America without his mother knowing about it and when arrested by the police for his attempt on Donald Trump, he allegedly confessed that he wanted to kill the presidential candidate. He tried to grab a gun from the police at the overcrowded rally.

His mother belied reports that Michael is a violent kid. She is also confused to learn that he's being kept in handcuffs while in custody. "This is not the Michael I know," she said and described Michael as a "sweet, sensitive and calm" person. "He has never mentioned Donald Trump. The reason it is such a shock is because he shows no interest in anything like that," said Lynne Sanford via Telegraph.

Michael Sanford, from Dorking in Surrey, denies Donald Trump rally gun charge https://t.co/mmZBLKGYov pic.twitter.com/1DABjttN8A  delcrookes (@hairydel) July 7, 2016

Donald Trump Assassination Attempt: Michael Sanford 30 Years Prison Time

If convicted, Michael Sanford could be imprisoned for up to 30 years. His mother is worried that he would commit suicide if he realizes what is really happening to him. The 20-year-old was diagnosed with Asperger's at age 13 and he also suffers from anorexia. Michael also escaped a hospital back at home while he was getting treated. Lynne Sanford insists jail time will not help her son, as he must be under psychiatric help.

Michael Sanford is due to face trial on August 22 it the courts in Las Vegas. Meanwhile, Lynne Sanford is planning to crowdfund her son's legal fees on Crowd Justice, per Hereford Times.
TAYLORVILLE, Ill. - Can we teach our children to be open to new experiences? Horse enthusiasts Andra and Morgan Ebert believe children should be armed with the ability to accept change instead of fearing it. This lesson will help young children to be better equipped to handle life's biggest surprises as they grow and mature.

The Eberts' new book Winnie the Mini Horse encourages children to be receptive to new opportunities and to making new friends.

"Change is something everyone experiences," Morgan said. "Our hope is to shine light on the importance of acceptance and adventure."

Winnie, the mini horse, is the newest horse at Andra Ebert's Heartland Mini Hoofs, a miniature horse therapy visitation program. The star of the Eberts' new children's book,Winnie has made trips to nursing homes, hospitals, Alzheimer units, and schools, and many other venues as a therapy horse.

"After spending so much time around horses, we learned a lot about their herd mentality, as well as their fun-loving and gentle nature," Andra said. "Heartland Mini Hoofs has given us the opportunity to create a mini horse family to bring joy to others."

The Eberts continue to travel Illinois with Winnie and their other therapy horses. They hope to not only give back to the community, but to also showcase the immeasurable benefits of therapy horses.

For more information, visit winnietheminihorse.com.

About the author

Andra and Morgan Ebert share a passion for horses of all sizes. After many years of experience in riding and showing large horses, they have entered the world of miniature horses. Andra obtained her bachelor's degree in social work and master's degree in gerontology from University of Illinois, Springfield. She founded Heartland Mini Hoofs, a miniature horse therapy program, in 2014.
Jim and his wife Michelle Duggar were placed under fire as another family hypocrisy is revealed. Jim Duggar and the rest of the "19 Kids and Counting" stars have been actively advocating that they are pro-life, and even mentioned that they are against birth controls. Jim Duggar was then slammed for his hypocrisy after admitting that he and his wife, Michelle Duggar used birth control after they married.

Jim and Michelle Duggar have always been keen about their faith. The family openly stick to their Christian values and even condemn non-Christian ways, including abortion, infidelity, and even birth control.

Jim Duggar may have made sure that he kept his image clean, but her recent revelation disgusted critics as he was shunned for hypocrisy. The family once attend the Pro-Life march earlier this year which gathered negative backlash after Jessica compared abortion to the Holocaust last September after visiting the museum, Daily Mail reports.

"Believe it or not, when we first got married we decided we did not want to have children right away, so Michelle began taking birth control pills, Josh Duggar wrote on his blog as per The Hollywood Gossip. "Three years into our marriage Michelle went off the pill and we had our first child. We talked to a Christian doctor and he explained that the pill could be abortive. However, after one miscarriage, we decided to stop rejecting 'god's gifts.'"

It is still unclear as to whether birth control pills are considered as abortive or not, but most Christians (especially the Fundis) are highly against it. The Duggar family are quite proud of their fundamentalist beliefs which usually caused them to earn backlash from fans.

Earlier this year, Jim and Michelle Duggar was placed on the headlines as their shaky marriage was questioned. Parent Herald then added that their crumbling relationship was caused by their son, Josh Duggar who got caught up in several scandals.
The First Lady Michelle Obama was one of the speakers on the first day of the Democratic National Convention in Pennsylvania. While she's not exactly a politician, her speech on Monday, July 25, has been lauded as one of the best a Democrat has ever made for Hillary Clinton, the presidential candidate of the party.

Michelle Obama made the case for Clinton without even mentioning the Republican opponent Donald Trump in her speech, per Patch. The first lady also knew whom to appeal -- the moms and parents just like her -- and observers noted that she did this in a manner that delivered her message perfectly.

Michelle Obama stated that Hillary Clinton is the candidate who can give America's younger generation a better future. She cited that Clinton is an advocate for children and enumerated how this advocacy has encompassed Clinton's work all these years as a lawyer, first lady and senator.

Michelle Obama also used her own daughters as an example as to why she is supporting Hillary Clinton for president. She said that she wants the kind of leader with good public service for her kids to look up to, and not a president who would answer issues in 140 characters, alluding to Donald Trump's penchant for Twitter arguments, per CNet.

Even Donald Trump is a fan of Michelle Obama's #DemsInPhilly speech https://t.co/G4bmxWB1dw pic.twitter.com/uWhoYoBR6g  Hollywood Reporter (@THR) July 26, 2016

Michelle Obama's speech was powerful because she spoke from the heart, says @FrankBruni https://t.co/xU8tB646RO pic.twitter.com/NsEtXjXR3o  NYT Opinion (@nytopinion) July 26, 2016

She also asked parents to take time to sit with their children while they're watching TV and assess if the person they want the kids to see is a good role model. The call is so much in line with one of Hillary's ads that depicts Donald Trump as bad role model for kids, as Parent Herald previously reported.

Michelle Obama also reminded the public, in the same way she reminds her own girls, of how politics can be cruel, which has been highlighted the past few weeks as campaign fever heats up. "We don't stoop to their level," said the First Lady. "No, our motto is, 'When they go low, we go high.'" Watch the full context of Michelle Obama's speech at the DNC below.
The United States has been grappling with student segregation in its schools. Schools in New York, for instance, are known for separating white students from their colored peers. Despite efforts to desegregate, America found that putting segregated pupils into diverse classrooms also presents problems.

A new report issued by the Government Accountability Office found that highly impoverished K-12 public schools have risen from nine percent to 16 percent from the school years 2000-01 to 2013-14. These schools are majorly attended by black or Hispanic students, with their numbers doubling from 4.1 million to 8.4 million in recent years.

Civil Rights Project researchers from the University of California, Los Angeles found that 74 percent of black students and 80 percent of Latino pupils study in non-white schools. Highly segregated schools, meanwhile, have 38 percent of black students and 43 percent of Latino pupils. These highly segregated schools only have 10 percent of white students.

Benefits Of Student Desegregation

Past studies found that desegregated schools provide important benefits to children such as drop in prejudice, better analytical thinking, increased civic commitment, and improved learning outcomes, the U.S. News & World Report listed. Genevieve Siegel-Hawley, assistant professor at Virginia Commonwealth University School of Education, said children tend to stereotype and generalize less if they interact with kids that have different racial and economic backgrounds than their own.

A study published in 2011 by the National Bureau of Economic Research found that desegregated schools produce students -- even black ones -- with higher educational accomplishments, which means they are likely to have higher salaries when they enter the workforce.

Diverse classrooms affect and shape children's attitudes in their future working conditions. Employers tend to prioritize applicants that can work and excel in diverse environments. Desegregated schools also yield adults with more esteemed professions, better health, and have low chances of being imprisoned, according to The Hechinger Report.

Students Could Suffer In Diverse Environments Too

There's one problem, though. If children aren't exposed to diversity early on in their lives, how are they going to excel in diverse schools and environments? Some school districts are trying to remedy this situation.

Hartford, Connecticut, for instance, has a transfer program that allows city children to study in suburban schools, and vice-versa. This move made almost 50 percent of Hartford students attend desegregated schools.

In New York's Upper West Side, meanwhile, has a plan that redistributes schools based on public-housing development. With this, students of color are given the chance to attend schools majorly attended by whites and with high academic success rates. This plan, however, could put white students in schools that have low-performance rates and turn their learning progress backward.
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Today's report covers the opening commentary from Apple's CEO Tim Cook during their Q3 2016 Financial Conference Call that was held yesterday, July 26, 2016. It's a transcript that Patently Apple has created so that we can be more accurately quote Tim Cook in future reports about company specifics. It's an accurate account that any Apple fan could rely on for facts about Apple's Q3 at any time  and we hope that you enjoy it. Today's report covers the following: Tim Cook on the iPhone SE; on services; on iPad; on Apple Watch; on China and India; on Apple's four platforms; on Siri and Artificial Intelligence; on Privacy / Differential Privacy; and finally on Apple Pay.

Highlights from Apple's Financial Conference Call with Apple's CEO Tim Cook

The following are comments made by Apple's CEO Tim Cook during Apple's fiscal Q3 2016 Financial Conference call.

On the iPhone SE

Last month Patently Apple posted a report titled "Is the Strategy behind Apple's smaller iPhone SE Paying Off?" In that report we noted that "Taiwan Supply Chain Claims that Apple has increased iPhone SE Chip Orders." While it's definitely positive to read about increased orders and web traffic notes, we hope to hear more about the success of the iPhone SE from Apple when they hold their next financial conference call sometime next month. While Apple is unlikely to breakdown the new iPhone sales specifically, Apple's CEO could provide us with colorful commentary on the success of this iPhone entry if it's warranted."

Apple's CEO did exactly that during their Q3 financial conference call yesterday as noted below:

Tim Cook noted that "We had a very successful global launch of iPhone SE and demand outstripped supply throughout the quarter. We brought on additional capacity and were able to achieve supply and demand balance as we entered the September quarter.

At its launch we said that the addition of the iPhone SE to the iPhone lineup placed us in a better position to the meet the needs of customers who love a 4" phone and to attract even more customers into our ecosystem. In both cases that strategy is working.

Our initial sales data tells us that the iPhone SE is popular in both developed and emerging markets and the percentage of iPhone SE sales going to customers who are new to iPhone is greater than we've seen in the first weeks of availability for other iPhones launched in the past several years.

Overall, we added millions of first time smartphone buyers in the June quarter and switchers accounted for the highest percentage of quarterly iPhone sales we've ever measured. In absolute terms, our year-to-date iPhone sales to switchers are the greatest than we've ever seen in any nine month period and our active installed base of iPhones is up strong double digits year over year."

On Services

"We saw tremendous performance from our services businesses which grew 19% to a June quarter record of 6 billion dollars. The Growth was broad based, with App Store revenue was up 37% to a new all-time high in additional to strong increases in music, iCloud and Apple Care. In the last twelve months, our services revenue is up almost 4 billion dollars year-on-year to 23.1 billion and we expect it to be the size of a Fortune 100 company next year.

Most of our terrific services performance during the quarter was filled by our active installed base of devices with installed base related purchases of 10.3 billion dollars accelerating to 29% growth year-on-year."

On iPad

"We had our best iPad compare in 10 quarters with revenue growing 7% thanks to roll out of the 9.7 iPad Pro. We're proud to have the most exciting line-up of tablets and accessories in the world and exceptionally high customer satisfaction and engagement.

Our surveys also show that about half of iPad Pro purchasers are buying them for work. iPad Pro is the ultimate upgrade for existing iPad users and the ultimate replacement device for customers switching from PC notebooks."

On Apple Watch

"Apple Watch continues to be the best selling smartwatch in the world and just this month J.D. Power ranked it highest in customer satisfaction among all smartwatches. With watchOS 3 coming this fall, customers will be able to update their Apple Watches with an enhanced user interface, significantly improved performance and all new fitness and health capabilities including activity sharing. We're just getting started with the Apple Watch and we look forward to even more exciting announcements in this space."

On China

"On a personal note, during the past quarter, I visited China and India and I am very encouraged by our growth prospects in those countries. We remain very optimistic about the long term opportunities in Greater China and we continue to invest there. We opened our forty-first Greater China retail store during the quarter and we also made a one billion dollar investment in Didi Chuxing.

Switchers and first-time smartphone buyers represented the lion's share of our iPhone sales in the quarter and our installed base of iPhones in China has grown 34% over the last year alone.

According to China Mobile, there are more iPhones on their network than any other brand, with iPhone users ranking first in terms of customer loyalty, data usage and [? Not understood]." Yet for overall context, Reuters pointed out yesterday that sales decreased in Greater China by 33% year-on-year and nearly 26% from last quarter.

By far, the largest portion of our global channel inventory reduction was in Greater China so our underlying business there is stronger than our results imply.

We faced some challenges in Greater China as the economic environment has slowed down since the beginning of the year. This is reflected in consumer confidence and retail spending as the Chinese yuan has depreciated by 7% relative to the U.S. dollar since August of last year.

Hong Kong's tourism and retail businesses also continue to be severely impacted by the stronger Hong Kong dollar relative to other Asian currencies.

Combining this backdrop with a tough comparison to last year when revenue grew 112% and the channel inventory reduction this year we're reporting a decline in revenue in the June quarter.

But to keep things in perspective, when we look back on our accomplishments in this segment over the last couple of years, they are truly remarkable. In the first three quarters of this fiscal year our total revenue from Greater China was almost 40 billion dollars up 55% from the same time frame just two years ago while iPhone units were up 47%."

It's clear that the historic growth that came from Apple's iPhone 6 mania two years ago is still affecting sales perception in 2016. That year was an anomaly and so comparisons to it make Apple's current financial performance look anemic when this isn't the case and why Tim Cook added commentary yesterday afternoon about perspective.

The addition of Apple's first phablet, the iPhone 6 Plus, was explosive and without a new product to make up for that new revenue growth, sales appear to be falling when it's really the market adjusting to normal growth patterns for Apple's total iPhone sales.

This is why one of the analysts late yesterday noted that Apple could make up for this drop in margins (due to the iPhone SE) by adding a new higher end iPhone category like the iPhone Pro. Whether that's an actual strategy of Apple's for September is still unknown at this time."

On India

"India is now one of fastest growing markets. In the first three quarters of this fiscal year our iPhone sales in India were up 51% year-on-year. We just launched, we just announced a first of its kind design center and development accelerator to support Indian developers creating innovative applications for iOS and we opened a new office in Hyderabad to accelerate maps development.

We're looking forward to opening retails stores in India down the road and we see huge potential for that vibrant country."

On Apple Platforms

"As we look forward to the fall, we're thrilled by customer's response to the software services that we previewed at our World Wide Developer Conference (WWDC) last month. This was our biggest WWDC ever  and for the first time, we have four innovative Apple platforms for our developer's apps: iOS, macOS, watchOS and tvOS. In fact iOS 10 will be the biggest release ever for iOS.

The momentum for all four platforms shows the strong relationship Apple enjoys with customers throughout their day and wherever they go. Whether it's at home, in their car, at work and everywhere in between the Apple ecosystem is thriving and growing and our new OS releases this fall will take these great experience to a new level.

Customers could look forward to more expressive ways to communicate with messages now with its own app store allowing users to create and share content, make payments, add stickers and more, all without having to leave 'messages' which is now one of the largest messaging services in the world.

With our latest OS releases the unparalleled continuity across Apple devices will become even more powerful. For example, macOS Sierra will sense other devices and use secure protocols to communicate. With an authenticated Apple Watch I can auto-unlock my Mac when I open it without typing a password.

With Universal Clipboard, I can copy and paste text images and even video between my iOS devices and my Mac. And I can automatically access the files on my Mac desktop and documents folder from another Mac, iOS device or even a PC."

On Siri and Artificial Intelligence

"Customers could also look forward to a broader and more intelligent role for Siri which will work with your favorite apps from the App Store so you could add Siri to book a ride with your favorite ride sharing app or send money to someone with Square. There are also beautifully designed apps for music, maps and news, significant enhancements to HomeKit, CarPlay and Health apps building on our strategy to give users a seamless experience for all aspects of their lives.

There's also a major update with macOS Sierra with new features like Siri and Apple Pay that make the Mac smarter and more helpful than ever and even a more stronger continuity features across all Apple devices.

These experiences become more powerful and intuitive as we continue our long history of enriching our products through advanced artificial intelligence (AI). We have focused our AI efforts on features that best enhance the customer experience.

For example, machine learning enables Siri to understand words and the intent behind them. That means that Siri does a better job understanding and even predicting what you want, then delivering the right responses to requests.

To make Siri an even smarter assistant, we're opening the service to our developers and this fall Siri will be available throughout our entire product line.

We're also using machine learning in many other ways across our products and services including recommending songs, apps and news. Machine learning is improving facial and image recognition in photos, predicting word choices while typing in messages and mail and providing context awareness in maps for better directions.

Deep learning within our products even enables them to recognize usage patterns and improve and battery life. And most importantly, we deliver these intelligent services while protecting user's privacy. Most of the AI processing takes place on the device rather than being sent to the cloud."

New Differential Privacy Coming this Fall

"And starting this fall, we'll be using sophisticated technology called "Differential Privacy' enhancing our ability to deliver the kind of services we dream of and customers love without compromising on the individual privacy our customers have come to expect from us."

On Apple Pay

"This fall, we'll also bring Apple Pay to Safari so that users could easily make secure and private purchases when shopping on participating websites. Tens of millions of users from around the world are enjoying Apple Pay today in stores and in apps with estimated monthly active users up more than 450% year-on-year last month.

Leading financial partners tell us that three out of four contactless payments in the U.S. are made with Apple Pay. This is amazing.

There are more than 11 million contactless ready locations in the countries where Apple Pay is available today including 3 million locations now accepting Apple Pay in the United States. With the launch of France, Switzerland and Hong Kong this month, Apple Pay is now live in nine markets including six of our top ten. Adoption outside the U.S. has been explosive with over half of transaction volume now coming from none U.S. markets.

Innovations like these are the kinds of things that only Apple can do. We have an incredible line-up of products in our pipeline and I'm very bullish about our long-term opportunity."

Just a note: Patently Apple's transcript covers all of the main topics that were covered by Tim Cook's opening statement.Tim Cook's statement on continuity and Universal Clipboard are out of sequence to when he actually spoke about them so as to keep his comments in the appropriately group they belong for easier future references.

About Making Comments on our Site: Patently Apple reserves the right to post, dismiss or edit any comments. Comments are reviewed daily from 4am to 7pm PST and sporadically over the weekend.
While some Apple news sites may be 'Surprised' by Xiaomi's new Mi Notebook Air, we've known for close to a year that they were working on such a breakout product as they prepare to enter the U.S. market sometime next year. And we also reported last week that Xiaomi had surprisingly chose Windows 10 for their notebooks instead of staying with Google's operating system Chrome.

Xiaomi is aiming for the enterprise market, especially when they land in the U.S. That will mean that they'll be a force for Microsoft with their aggressive pricing while maintaining a quality build against Apple's MacBook Air for about half the price.

The pricing for the new Mi Notebook Air is a little in question. A popular tech site in India has the smaller Mi notebook with the specifications noted below selling for 3,499 Yuan which converts to roughly $US 549. US tech sites like The Verge and Engadget have different configurations and pricing.

Suffice to say that Xiaomi will likely be out to draw blood by forcing a price war on notebooks for the enterprise as early as sometime next year.

Xiaomi's Mi Notebook Air will be more of a threat to PC OEM's than to Apple's MacBook Air but could eventually appeal to more budget sized businesses if Xiaomi's new smartphones, like the Redmi Pro, adopts Windows 10 next year when Xiaomi invades the U.S. market  Something that we questioned last week.

Apple's CEO said yesterday that the demand for their new iPhone SE, Apple's economical smartphone, outstripped supply throughout the quarter. But for businesses, Xiaomi's latest smartphone called the Redmi Pro comes with a 5.5" OLED display, two backside cameras, 4GB RAM, 128GB ROM and goes for $300. If such a beast sells with Windows 10 next year, it could be a challenger to Android phones and perhaps even the iPhone for businesses that are on a budget. The savings on the new notebooks and smartphones together per employee could add up to a big savings for a small business.

For now it's only a theoretical threat on paper. We'll see what transpires if Xiaomi actually steps into the U.S. market next year. One thing that Xiaomi is likely to fail in is service. Will they only be online? Will they have brick and mortar stores? Only time will tell.

One More Thing: Xiaomi is Failing at Notebooks thus Far



According to DigiTimes today, "Chip orders for notebooks from Huawei Device and Xiaomi have fallen rapidly recently, according to industry sources.

Huawei and Xiaomi have both set their shipment goals at one million notebooks for 2016, which are likely to fail, the sources indicated. Orders placed by the two vendors already fell below 100,000 units each in March, the sources said.

Xiaomi once demanded its contract maker Inventec and other related Taiwan-based components suppliers get ready for monthly orders for as many as 300,000-400,000 notebooks, the sources noted. However, actual orders placed by the China-based firm reach only less than 50,000 units, the sources said. OUCH!

About Making Comments on our Site: Patently Apple reserves the right to post, dismiss or edit any comments.
I wake up every morning in a house that was built by slaves, First Lady Michelle Obama said in her speech on Monday night. The New York Times confirmed that this is truethe White House was indeed constructed via slave labor. Of course, not everyone was moved by her line. Republican television host and well-known conservative Chuck Woolery tweeted this in response:

Text: I would just like to point out a fact. The lashes suffered on the backs of #Slaves were administered by who? Democrats. FACT. #DemsInPhilly

I really cant let that go without a response. Because jeez.

Lets get this out of the way firstDemocrats did indeed administer lashes on the backs of slaves during the antebellum period. No one has denied that (that Ive seen, that is). Whigs also administered lashes on the backs of slaves during the antebellum period. There was no such thing as the Republican Party at that time, just Democrats and Whigs (plus other rotating third party attempts). The Democratic Party was pro-slavery. The Whig Party included more varied voices, resulting in tension that was ultimately the ruin of the party. During the 1850s, the Whig Party splintered over slavery and the Republican Party was formed just before the Civil War out of its debris.

Was the newly formed Republican Party the anti-slavery party? To a point. They became the party of free labor, free soil, free men. But what many may not know is that those things were primarily about white men. Those who proclaimed free labor and free soil were concerned that having to compete with slave labor demeaned white male labor and made white men, well, less than free. In an excellent case study of the wider social conflictits well worth the readhistorian Nicole Etcheson has argued that the battle over Kansas during the 1850s had very little to do with the rights of slaves and everything to do with the rights of white people. Southerners argued that whites property rights guaranteed them the right to bring their slaves into Kansas. Northerners argued that allowing slavery in Kansas would undermine ordinary whites ability to find a job or engage in free labor. Little was said about the rights of slaves.

Then came the Civil War. The Democrats of the South fought to preserve slavery. The Republicans of the North fought to preserve the union. Wait, am I saying the North wasnt fighting to end slavery? Why yes, yes I am. Were clear that antebellum abolitionists were so despised in the North that they saw their meeting halls burned, faced mob attack, and sometimes had to flee the country for their own safety, right? Abolitionism was a severely unpopular minority position. Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves partway through the Civil War as a war measure. Lincoln himself wrote that If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that.

Some Northern soldiers were very impressed by the newly freed slaves they met during the war. These newly freed slaves, often runaways, came by the thousand, frequently taking severe risks in their desire to join the Union forces. In most cases they were assigned grunt labor like digging ditches, but their resolve and their desire for freedom was evident. Unfortunately, the Republican Party ultimately threw these freed blacks under the bus. Why? Because the presidential election of 1876 was contested, and the Democrats offered to give the presidency to the Republican candidate, Rutherford B. Hayes, if Republicans would end Reconstruction, removing all federal troops from the South and by so doing allowing southern whites to restore the old order. And the Republicans took the deal.

Jim Crow didnt descend on the South immediately after the Civil War. Indeed, it wasnt fully in place until the 1890s. The removal of federal troops was a key step in the suppression of African Americans rights and the creation of Jim Crow. That year, 1876, was the year black political representation began its steep decline. In 1874 there were eight black men elected to the House and Senate. In 1876 there were four black men elected to those bodies. In 1878 that number dropped to one, and it never fully recovered. After 1898, there were no black men elected to the House or Senate for three decades. Yes, Jim Crow was implemented by southern Democrats. What they did in the South during these years was horrific. But lets not pretend that the national Republican Party made any real effort to stop it from happening. They didnt. They turned a blind eye and let it happen.

African Americans stood by the Republican Party during those decades nonetheless. For all of Republicans willingness to turn a blind eye to the Souths suppression of African American rights, they were at least not the ones implementing that suppression. There was also a longstanding loyalty to Abraham Lincoln, the Republican president who ultimately freed the slaves, and African Americans often gained more entrance into local Republican politics than the Republicans lack of attention to their rights at the national level might suggest. It was within the Republican Party that African Americans fought for recognition and representation during those decades, and in 1920 they succeeded in adding a plank supporting an anti-lynching bill to the partys platform (it didnt work out).

But this partnership was not to last.

African American loyalties began changing far earlier than many people realize. Have you heard of the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927? Probably not. But even if you have, you may not be aware of the role the politics surrounding this flood played on the loyalties of African American voters. Herbert Hoover lost the northern black vote when he ran for election in 1932 because of his mishandling of refugee camps during the floodthe African American population of the region was moved on top of the Mississippi Rivers levees and then effectively re-enslaved and put to forced laborand his failure to keep promises he subsequently made to African American voters.

Of course, this shift occurred in part because African American voters suddenly found themselves with a workable second option, embodied in Democratic presidential candidate Franklin Delano Roosevelt. FDRs New Deal was far from perfect, but First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt reached out to the nations African American population and ensured that the New Deal didnt completely ignore black Americans needs. This is why the first African American elected to Congress in the twentieth century was Oscar Stanton DePriest, who ran as a Republican and was elected in 1928, but the second African American elected to Congress in the twentieth century was Arthur Wergs Mitchell, who ran as a Democrat in in 1934. Both men were elected in Chicago, and Mitchell unsurprisingly began his political career as a Republican before becoming a Democrat in the midst of the New Deal.

In 1948, Democratic President Harry Truman signed an executive order ending racial segregation in the military. There is disagreement on where to pinpoint the beginning of the Civil Rights movement, but the 1950s saw Brown v. Board of Education, the Montgomery bus boycott, and the beginning of massive (white) resistance to school integration. The Greensboro sit-ins followed in 1960, and the Freedom Riders in 1961. It was Democratic President John F. Kennedy who stepped in to enforce court-ordered desegregation. While the transition took time, by the late-1960s the national Democratic Party was becoming a (sometimes reluctant) champion of African Americans rights while the national Republican Party was going out of its way to reach out to traditionalist whites upset by the Civil Rights movement and the changing status quo.

This is why well-known southern Senator Strom Thurmond switched from Democrat to Republican in 1964. Heck, its why the South switched from Democrat to Republican during those years. The South. In 1968, Republican presidential candidate Richard Nixon ran on a platform of law and order, running on white disenchantment with a Civil Rights movement that was increasingly perceived as dangerous and militant. In fact, Nixon had an explicit southern strategy that involved bringing disenchanted southern whites into the Republican Partya strategy that ultimately succeeded.

The Democratic Partys embrace of diversity over the past fifty years does not appear to be simply a cynical attempt to get votes. This year, the Democratic National Convention was opened by Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, the current mayor of Baltimore and an African American woman. Pictures from the convention are awash with racial diversity, and black men and women hold numerous other positions of power within the Democratic Party. Indeed, African Americans make up such a large share of the Democratic electorate that they often have a significant impact on which candidates are selected in party primaries.

We see this realignment reflected in policy, too. Republicans tend to oppose the Black Lives Matter movement and to support voter ID laws that disproportionately affect voters of color, making it more difficult for them to cast a ballot. Democrats, in contrast, tend to support broadening the electorate in ways that ensure that African Americans are not disenfranchised by leftover Jim Crow measures or strategies. Similarly, it is Democrats who are calling for prison reform while Republicans tend to embrace a tough on crime perspective that, given the racial bias in our policing and justice system, disproportionately effects African Americans.

So, yes, many (perhaps even most) antebellum slaveowners were Democrats. But we are not living in antebellum America. We are living in the presenta present where powerful Republicans suggest that blacks were better off under slavery, a present where prominent Republican leaders can un-ironically tweet lily white pictures of Capitol Hill interns, a present where the policies of the Democratic Party better reflect the issues of most African American voters than do those of the Republican Party.

We also live in a present where individuals like Chuck Woolrey know far less than they should about the reasons behind our national political parties demographic shifts. Lets not pretend that our two-party system is static or unchanging. We may have a two hundred year history of having only two viable political parties at any one time, but what these parties stand for and who they are comprised in has changed dramatically over the years.
US Administration Failed to Enable Iran to Access Its Oil Revenues

07/27/16

Exclusive Interview with Peter Jenkins by Sara Massoumi (source: Iran Review)



Peter Jenkins



One year has passed since Iran and the P5+1 group reached an agreement on Tehran's nuclear program known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA); an agreement, which put an end to more than one decade of tension between the two sides over Irans nuclear program and turned into an important model for peaceful resolution of a difference. Etemad Persian daily journalist, Sara Massoumi has interviewed Amb. Peter Jenkins in this regard and the issues related to it. Peter Jenkins joined the British Diplomatic Service in 1973. Throughout his 33-year career, Amb. Jenkins served on different missions in Vienna, Washington, D.C., Paris, Brasilia and Geneva. From 2001 to 2006, he was the UK Permanent Representative to the International Atomic Energy Agency and UN organizations in Vienna. He retired in 2006, but continues to comment on international political issues, especially Irans nuclear program. Mr. Jenkins contributes to Lobelog.com and other online and print publications worldwide. He has been a vocal advocate of peaceful talks between Iran and the global powers to find a negotiated solution to the nuclear crisis.

In this interview with Sara Massoumi, Amb. Peter Jenkins responded to her questions about Iran and P5+1 commitments under the JCPOA, implementation of the agreement, EU commercial transactions with Iran, survival of the JCPOA, violation of the JCPOA, US presidential race and implementation of the nuclear deal, non-nuclear sanctions, Iran-UK bilateral ties, and Irans regional measures.

Q: Over the past year, the US was the only party that failed to or did not want to fulfill its commitments to remove obstacles for normalization of commerce with Iran. Recently, the Speaker of the House of Representatives has complained that the White House has turned into the Islamic Republics top global lobbying shop. At the moment, do you find Washingtons arguments and elaborations on the nuclear deal offered to banks and financial institutions sufficient? If Iran files a complaint to the Joint Commission, is it possible that the commission issues a verdict in favor of Iran?

A: I realize the importance of European banks re-engaging with Iranian counter-parts. So I am concerned that so far many of them have failed to do so. It is clear that their reluctance is largely due to fear of inadvertently transgressing US laws and regulations and incurring massive fines. It surprises me that the US did not foresee this problem during the JCPOA negotiation and that the administration has been unable to resolve it. It would be unjust, though, as far as I can judge, to fault the administration for lacking the will to resolve it. I think it is the complexity of the problem and Congressional hostility to Iran that are to blame.

More blameworthy is the administration's failure to enable Iran to access previously frozen oil revenues. Easy solutions to this problem have been on hand. The administration has lacked the political will to implement one of them. Perhaps it will find the will after November's US elections. The Joint Commission can be used to discuss and find solutions to implementation issues. These banking issues seem to me ripe for submission to the Joint Commission. Only good can come of that.

Q: You have insisted in an interview once that the JCPOA is a political agreement reached between the sides, not a legal instrument legislated in the countries involved. Dont you think the very non-existence of a legal enforcement guarantee can facilitate the violation of the JCPOA for every government in the next nine years? How big are the political consequences of violating the JCPOA for each of the sides in P5+1 group of countries?

A: Political agreements can be as effective as legally binding agreements. They rely on self-interest and cost/benefit calculations. For the foreseeable future all parties to the JCPOA look to me to have a strong interest in sustaining an agreement that is building confidence in Iran's nuclear intentions, ensuring that Iran's nuclear activities are transparent, enabling Europe to resume normal relations with Iran, and offering economic benefits to Iran.

Allowing or causing the agreement to unravel would jeopardize all these benefits. In addition it would open the door to renewed pressure from Israel and Saudi Arabia for a US assault on Iran.

Q: One of the present concerns among the P5+1 group of countries is the US Presidential elections. Hilary Clinton proclaims herself as the architect of the nuclear sanctions and the toughest Resolution, 1929, was issued during her tenure. On the other hand, she is a democrat and protecting the JCPOA, as a legacy of her fellow democrat, is somewhat her mission too. In the meantime, we should take into account her very close ties with Israeli lobbies. What kind of approach will she eventually adopt toward Iran given these paradoxes of costs and benefits in implementation of the deal?

A: I am concerned by Ms Clinton's uncritical liking for the current Prime Minister of Israel and his right-wing government. I am also concerned by the hawkish nature of her record on foreign policy issues, and I am unsure that she will feel any inclination, still less obligation to protect the legacy of President Obama, from some of whose policies she has sought to distance herself.

So I think that all of us who value the JCPOA have cause to feel concern about the implications of a Clinton presidency. The best hope that I can see is that the non-partisan career professional element in the US national security bureaucracy will succeed in persuading Ms Clinton, if and when she becomes President, that sustaining the JCPOA is in the national interest. One positive thing about her could be that she is not totally indifferent to US national interests. Even so, there is a risk that professional advice will be negated by the hawkish, pro-Israeli political appointees who are likely to surround her.







Q: One of the most controversial issues in Iran is the consequences of the UKs vote to leave the European Union and its impact on the implementation of the JCPOA and Iran-UK bilateral ties. Some say the UKs presence in the EU could serve as a control for the countrys coalition with the next US administration against Iran. Do you agree with such an interpretation? How does the Brexit affect bilateral relations between Tehran and London?

A: It is premature to assume that the UK will withdraw from the EU. It is possible that the 27 will interpret article 50 of the treaty in such a way that withdrawal would cause grave damage to the British economy and that this will cause the British government to reconsider whether withdrawal is in the national interest.

Inany case a withdrawal negotiation is expected to require years, not months, and until it is completed the UK will remain a member of the EU.

UK withdrawal is unlikely to affect the EU position on JCPOA implementation. The EU will continue to have a strong economic and non-proliferation interest in sustaining the agreement.

If at some point, after UK withdrawal, EU and US policies were to diverge in relation to the JCPOA, there is a likelihood that the UK under a Conservative government would be drawn into the US orbit. Under a Labour or coalition government, the US gravitational pull could well be weaker.

Q: After the nuclear deal, the focus of Iranophobia has changed for some regional players and of course for the United States, as they have included Irans regional measures on the agenda. How likely is it that with the new President taking office in the US, anti-Iran non-nuclear sanctions become intensified on the pretext of Irans regional measures? To what extent will this threaten the survival of the nuclear deal? Will the Europeans join the US in doing so even at the cost of breaking the JCPOA?

A: I have to say that the first part of this question is unanswerable at this point. So much will depend on the political complexion of the next Congress, on the identity of the next president, and on the identity of his or her closest advisers. It seems inevitable that there will be pressure for further non-nuclear sanctions, on one pretext or another. But that pressure may not be irresistible if the White House has a will to resist.

The second part of the question is easier. The EU was ready to make an economic sacrifice to deter Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons by imposing sanctions. I have difficulty imagining a non-nuclear concern that would prompt the EU to repeat that sacrifice and put at risk Iranian implementation of the JCPOA.

More By Peter Jenkins:



About Iran Review: Iran Review (www.iranreview.org) is the leading independent, non-governmental and non-partisan website - organization representing scientific and professional approaches towards Iran's political, economic, social, religious, and cultural affairs, its foreign policy, and regional and international issues within the framework of analysis and articles.
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WASHINGTONThat handy health app on your phonethe one with access to your medical history, your doctors name, even your home addressmay be vulnerable to hackers. Technology experts discussed the risks at a House hearing July 14 with the Energy and Commerce subcommittee.

The fast growth of information technologies in the health care sector has outpaced the industrys efforts to safeguard them. A report by IMS Health, a research and service provider for health care professionals, showed that more than 165,000 mobile health (or mHealth) apps were available in 2013. Many of the apps offer access to users electronic health records from doctors or hospitals.

Hackers particularly love the kind of medical information stored in health apps because its harder to change. A stolen credit card number can be cancelled, but medical histories, and the home addresses and Social Security numbers that often go into medical recordsthese things are hard to change and can therefore be sold for a higher price on the black market.

Few privacy policies and no regulation

Health apps are popular, but not very private. One-fifth of mobile devices in the United States have a health app installed. A study in the March issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association in March, however, showed that of 271 apps studied, 81 percent did not have privacy policies. Of the 19 percent (41 apps) that did have privacy policies, only four specified that they would seek permission before sharing data with third parties.

The act of selling of data collected by the apps isnt regulated. Health apps also are not subject to privacy and security regulations in the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).

Nicolas Terry, Indiana University Maurer School of Law Professor and a health care technologies regulation expert, called for Federal regulatory agencies to step in and create patient-information protections for the apps. The most disruptive mobile health apps are those that are patient-facing, Terry explained, referring to apps where information is directly available to users. Such a direct app-patient relationship lacks any professional buffer between the user and the information, he said. As a result, traditional regulation of safety, quality, and confidentiality suffer.

Patient privacy should be well addressed. The selling of this information should be more transparent, said Diane Johnson, director of the Strategic Regulatory at Johnson & Johnson, a multinational medical products and services provider that offers a number of mHealth apps. Johnson and others stressed that for mHealth app users, its a case of buyer beware.

Heres one ray of hope: Data saved in individual devices may be safer than data saved to clouds, said Bettina Experton, president of Humetrix, a health app developer based in Del Mar, California. Users information is highly secure in personal devices, Experton said. Your phone can store securely when its encrypted. Its in your hands and under your control.
WASHINGTONWe already know that law enforcement agencies can hack our phones. But we dont know what they find, how they find it, or even who helps them discover the information. Top cybersecurity experts and lawmakers argued about how much should be revealed at a July 11 meeting of the Congressional Internet Caucus.

Government hacking has already happened. The question of whether it should happen is actually way past the point, said Harley Geiger, director of public policy at Rapid 7, an Internet security company.

Geiger and others cited the FBI-Apple encryption dispute as a troubling example. Apple refused to help the FBI unlock the iPhone belonging to one of the terrorists involved in the December, 2015 attack in San Bernardino, California. The agency sued Apple, then dropped the lawsuit when it used a third party to crack the passcode in the phone instead. The issue of whether law enforcement should be able to take advantage of vulnerabilities remains unresolved, and government hacking is still unregulated.

Phone hacking is not like wire-tapping

Rapid 7s Geiger contended that phone hacking couldnt be lumped with wire-tapping, a longstanding surveillance method. Hacking is fundamentally different from things like traditional wiretaps, Geiger said, in part because of the greater potential for harm. With hacking you need to expect system failures and damages to computers that you are hacking, he pointed out.

Geiger also criticized the FBI for not disclosing the source or methods used to hack into the iPhone, saying the silence may put other iPhones in danger. We think the process needs to be qualified and transparent so that society can have a better understanding and open discussion on what the criteria should be, he said.

Kurt Opsahl, deputy executive director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, agreed. If people dont know about the vulnerabilities, Opsahl cautioned, they cant take precautions. Criminals looking for vulnerabilities might find the backdoors and exploit them, he added.

The official position of the Obama Administration appears cautious. There are federal guidelines for determining whether the government should disclose so-called zero day vulnerabilities to the at-risk companies or individualsor the public generally, In a June paper, cybersecurity experts Ari Schwartz and Rob Knake of the White House National Security Council recommended fixes to those guidelines.

Some individual  decisions must remain classified, they wrote, but the high-level criteria that informs disclosure or retention decisions should be subject to public debate and scrutiny. The authors recommended more transparency. Public and official release of information about the process with clear oversight would increase public confidence in the program, they concluded.

Safety over secrecy

Heather West, senior policy manager of the tech nonprofit Mozilla, said her company wants the information because no matter who found the vulnerabilities, we want to tackle the problem.

West urged user safety over issues of secrecy. At the end of the day, if we can fix this problem, the Internet is safer, she said. Given the user base, that is a huge impact.
Windows 10s free upgrade deadline officially ends July 29. Specifically, your upgrade must be fully completed by the deadline. When we checked on the exact time with Microsoft, however, we learned that some lucky procrastinators will get extra hours to upgrade, thanks to international time zones. Here are the details.

The official deadline for the free upgrade is 11:59 p.m. UTC-10 on Friday, July 29. Time nerds know that UTC stands for Coordinated Universal Time and is the successor to Greenwich Mean Time as the standard for setting clocks and time worldwide. The starting point, UTC-0, includes major cities Accra in Ghana and Dakar in Senegal; Casablanca in Morocco and Lisbon in Portugal; and farther north, Dublin in Ireland and London in the United Kingdom.

You add one hour per UTC time zone moving east over Europe, Africa, and Asia, or subtract hours going west through Greenland and North, Central, and South America, until you hit the midpoint in the Pacific Ocean. New Zealand, Fiji, and the Marshall Islands, plus a far-eastern tip of Russia, sit on the UTC+12 side, while U.S. territories Baker Island and Howland Island sit on the UTC-12 side. Other islands in the area run up to UTC+14. We also have to allow for Daylight Standard Time (DST), which adds yet one more hour in the summer in the United States and many other places. This handy page on Timeanddate.com shows you all the time differences worldwide for this event.

Kiribati wins, Hawaii loses

What this means for the Windows 10 free upgrade is that everyone in UTC-10 gets a pretty raw deal. Hawaii, parts of French Polynesia, Alaskas Aleutian Islands, and other places in that time zone are done at 11:59 p.m. on July 29. The rest of Alaska, however, is in UTC-9 and therefore gets an extra hour, plus one more hour for DSTin short, until 1:59 a.m. Saturday, July 30. The west coast of North Americaincluding the Yukon and British Columbia in Canada; all the westernmost United States including Idaho and Nevada; and Baja California in Mexicofalls into UTC-8 and gets one more hour, until 2:59 a.m. July 30. Move all the way over to UTC-5, which covers the eastern seaboard of the United States, and the actual deadline there will be 05:59 a.m. July 30.

The best places to procrastinate on the Windows 10 free upgrade will be the UTC+12 to UTC+14 regions, with 22 to 24 extra hours. The lucky locales in UTC+12 have until 9:59 p.m. July 30. Kiritmati Island in Kiribati is a UTC+14 grand-prize winner (11:59 p.m. July 30). The biggest losers are U.S. territories Baker Island and Howland Island site on the UTC-12 side, but as theyre uninhabited by people, no one will care that the upgrade ends early there, at 9:59 p.m. on July 29.
Qualcomm has agreed to pay US$19.5 million to settle a gender discrimination class action lawsuit that alleged that women at the company get lower pay and have lesser chances of promotion under its current programs.

The settlement on behalf of a class of about 3,290 female employees was reached before suit was filed, but still requires the filing of a class complaint and a move for preliminary approval of the agreement from a judge in a federal court in California, according to Sanford Heisler, the legal firm representing the women.

The complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California alleges that in Qualcomms U.S. operations, women in science, technology, engineering, and math, known together as STEM, and related roles face discrimination in pay and promotions.

Women hold less than 15 percent of the jobs defined by the company as senior leadership positions, and women in STEM and related positions earn less than their male colleagues that are performing equal or substantially similar work. The pay and promotion discrimination is higher for women with caregiving responsibilities, according to the complaint.

The complaint was initiated by seven female STEM and related employees of Qualcomm, including a current employee.

Qualcomms promotion policies are said to discriminate against women by basing promotions on a sponsorship model, whereby managers, the overwhelming majority of whom are male, must select the subordinates they wish to promote.

There is no system whereby an employee may self-nominate for a promotion, with the exception of lobbying her manager, according to the complaint. The overwhelming majority of managers making promotion decisions are male.

Qualcomm said in a statement Tuesday that it is committed to treating its employees fairly and equitably. While we have strong defenses to the claims, we elected to focus on continuing to make meaningful enhancements to our internal programs and processes that drive equity and a diverse and inclusive workforce which are values that we share and embrace, Christine Trimble, the companys vice president of public affairs, said in the statement.

The company and the women agreed to mediate their dispute in January. Both sides retained skilled labor economists to analyze the class data, according to court records.

Under the settlement, Qualcomm will also take steps to change its policies and practices to help eliminate gender disparities and foster equal employment opportunity going forward, Sanford Heisler said in a statement Tuesday.

The company is also required to hire independent consultants in industrial organizational psychology to provide recommendations on reducing gender disparities. An internal compliance official will ensure the companys implementation and continued compliance with the terms of the settlement.

Class members will get paid from the $19.5 million settlement fund depending on factors such as their pay in the company and their length of employment within the class period. The net amount in the fund after lawyers fees and other allocations will be about $13 million and the average pre-tax recovery for class members is approximately $3,953, according to a court filing.
Real-time bidding is an aspect of digital marketing that can seem overly complex for the average bear, so it was only a matter of time before AI entered the picture. This week, Google brought machine learning into the process to help make it easier.

Tapping some of the same artificial-intelligence technologies that have already appeared in Google Photos and AlphaGo, Smart Bidding is a new capability for conversion-based automated bidding across AdWords and DoubleClick Search to help companies determine their optimal bid for any given campaign or portfolio. It can factor in millions of signals, Google says, and continually refines models of users conversion performance at different bid levels.

Smart Biddings learning capabilities quickly maximize the accuracy of your bidding models to improve how you optimize the long-tail, Anthony Chavez, Googles product management director for search ads, wrote in a blog post explaining the new service. It evaluates patterns in your campaign structure, landing pages, ad text, product information, keyword phrases, and many more [data points] to identify more relevant similarities across bidding items.

Essentially, Smart Bidding tailors bids to each auction across Googles properties and allows buyers to factor in a wide range of contextual signals, including device and location. Focusing on device performance, for instance, advertisers can set separate cost per acquisition (CPA) goals by device. A telecom advertiser whose best leads come in via mobile, for instance, could set a higher target CPA for that platform compared with other devices.

New reporting features, meanwhile, show companies exactly how their bid strategies are performing and flag any issues requiring attention.

Current users of AdWords Smart Bidding include AliExpress, SurveyMonkey, and Capterra, Google says.

Google is trying to maximize effectiveness of search marketing as well as its own revenue, said Greg Sterling, vice president for strategy and insights with the Local Search Association. Bringing machine learning to bear on bidding should advance both objectives.

Google is increasingly in competition with Facebook and other channels, Sterling added, so it needs to continually invest and improve paid search to keep marketers engaged.
U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump has called on Russia to hack his rival Hillary Clintons email.

Russia, if youre listening, I hope youre able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing, he said during a press conference Wednesday. I think youll probably be rewarded mightily by our press.

Trumps remarks came as reporters questioned him about ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Security experts and government officials have suggested Russian hackers were behind a breach at the Democratic National Committee that lead to WikiLeaks publishing unflattering internal campaign emails.

Even as some people blasted Trumps position, he seemed to double down with a tweet: If Russia or any other country or person has Hillary Clintons 33,000 illegally deleted emails, perhaps they should share them with the FBI!

If Russia or any other country or person has Hillary Clintons 33,000 illegally deleted emails, perhaps they should share them with the FBI!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 27, 2016

Republican vice presidential candidate Mike Pence seemed to depart with Trump, however. Pence warned Russia about hacking U.S. political parties.

The FBI will get to the bottom of who is behind the hacking, Pence said in a statement. If it is Russia and they are interfering in our elections, I can assure you both parties and the United States government will ensure there are serious consequences.

During the press conference, Trump denied coordinating with Russians on the email leak. Democrats blaming the Russian government is just a total deflection of the controversy of the emails showing the DNC coordinating with the Clinton campaign during the Democratic primary election, he said.

I know nothing about it, Trump said. Its one of the most far-fetched [allegations] I ever heard.

Trump said he has nothing to do with Putin and has never met the Russian leader. Thats a different story than one he told in a debate last year when he claimed to have met Putin on the set of TV news show 60 Minutes.

I got to know him very well because we were both on 60 Minutes, we were stablemates, Trump said then.

Several people condemned Trumps apparent call on the Russians to hack Clintons server, even as his defenders suggested he was joking.

Will any Trump endorser withdraw his/her endorsement in light of Trump willingness to exploit foreign cyberattacks on political opponents? tweeted Stephen Hayes, senior writer at conservative publication The Weekly Standard.

IT security consultant Kevin Mitnick tweeted: Donald Trump invites Russia to hack Clintons emails. Isnt that aiding and abetting under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act?

Senator Chris Murphy, a Connecticut Democrat, called Trumps comments possibly treasonous during an interview on CNN.

Last week, WikiLeaks published over 19,000 emails taken from the DNC, some of which could potentially weaken support for Clintons campaign.

The breaches added to speculation that Russian hackers may be trying to influence the election. Trump is seen as a favorable candidate for Russia, because of his opposition to NATO and other policies.

The FBI investigated Clinton for using a private server to host official government emails during her time as Secretary of State. During that investigation, she handed over 30,000 emails to U.S. authorities, but also deleted nearly 32,000 others, which she said were of personal nature.

Trump, however, has suggested that Clinton was trying to hide something by deleting the emails. On Wednesday, he added: If they (Russia) hacked, they probably have her 30,000 emails. I hope they do.

The FBI is still investigating the DNC breach, but U.S. intelligence agencies are reportedly confident that the Russian government was involved. Russian officials have flatly denied that assertion.
Theres a new iPhone camera application on the block thats supposed to be better at taking pictures than the one Apple ships with its phones  and its built by Microsoft.

The companys research arm launched Pix, which enhances the photos that users take in a variety of ways, on Wednesday morning. The app is designed to make photos look better and even improves on Apples Live Photos ability to capture scenes that have moving elements in them.

Its part of Microsofts continued push to build applications for platforms beyond those that it controls directly, especially iOS and Android. The free app was built by members of Microsoft Research, and released for free on the iOS App Store.

Microsoft A comparison between photos taken by Microsoft Pix and Apples Stock camera app.

Pix is particularly well-suited to take pictures of people, and is built to make adjustments to a photo on the fly as the scene changes. That way, the exposure of an image should always be tuned to the right conditions. It recognizes faces and uses Microsofts Hyperlapse technology to stabilize video shot with the app, too.

When users press the shutter button, the app will take a burst of photos and then pick out the best ones for final use. That burst is also used to power Pixs Live Image feature, which creates a short moving picture when theres motion in a burst.

Thats an improvement on Apples Live Photos feature, which captures video before and after every photo is taken. Microsoft touts its feature as a way to get the best parts of Apples moving picture functionality without requiring as much storage space and stabilizing the result.
Sgt. 1st Class Shawn Lee Screen, the mobilization noncommissioned officer in charge at the 11th MP Brigade, saved the life of a civilian who was choking while he was at lunch with a contingent of MPs from Taiwan. Screen is from Temecula.

Petty Officer 1st Class James Early is an aviation boatswains mate aboard USS San Diego, currently operating out of Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. He is responsible for the flight deck and fueling evolutions for naval aircraft embarked aboard the ship. Early graduated in 1999 from Lake Elsinore High School and is a native of Wildomar.

Have your own military accomplishment to share? Send items for possible inclusion in the column to community@pressenterprise.com.

Contact the writer: community@pressenterprise.com
Despite loud boos and jeers suggesting otherwise, Raj Singh, a Hillary Clinton delegate from Riverside, believes most of Bernie Sanders delegates at the Democratic National Convention are supporting Clinton.

It seems like theres more unity (on day two of the convention), Singh, a 63-year-old instructor at the UC Riverside business school, said in a telephone interview Tuesday afternoon, July 26. Not as much as Id like to see.

Singh said he thought Sanders Monday night speech, in which he endorsed Clinton, helped to rally his supporters behind the former secretary of state, who will be the first woman in U.S. history to be a presidential nominee from a major political party.

Singh added he was very impressed by New Jersey Sen. Cory Bookers speech.
San Bernardino County Supervisor Curt Hagman, who is chairman of his countys Republican Party, offered the following observations about the Democratic National Convention:

Democrats kicked off Day Two of the Democratic National Convention today in Philadelphia with a message of unity. This, despite a rocky and divisive start to a party convention whose national chair was ousted earlier in the week following an email scandal that showed the odds were always in Hillary Clintons favor at the Democratic National Committee. Hundreds of Democratic delegates supporting Bernie Sanders chanted lock her up today, mirroring shouts from hundreds of delegates at the Republican convention last week.

Hillary Rodham Clinton secured the Democrat nomination for President as supporters cheered and applauded from their seats while speakers advocated for building a stronger America for our families. The much anticipated speech from former President Bill Clinton, aimed at humanizing Hillary by telling a happy yet policy-focused love story about their past 45 years together, was a masterful job by a great story teller. He ended by correctly noting that his story did not square with the Hillary story given at the Republican convention last week and invited everyone to see that his story was the real Hillary and the other one was a caricature.

But the elephant in the room is what Bill Clinton did not say. His fanciful tale of Hillary did not include her crooked land deals in Arkansas, the spectacular failure of the socialized medicine scheme known as Hillarycare in 1993, firing the White House travel staff to replace them with her cronies, her role in covering up for her lecherous husband and attacking Monica Lewinsky and the dozens of other women her husband had affairs with over the decades, the Benghazi disaster and cover up, the rise of ISIS and failure of the Arab Spring on her watch, the Clinton Foundation taking hundreds of millions from foreign governments and corrupt foreign leaders while she was Secretary of State and dozens of other egregious legal and moral quagmires.

The facts are that Bill Clintons Hillary, tonight was the caricature, and Americans are too smart to believe that the most establishment couple in America are now somehow change agents. Talk to any voter on the street and youll hear voter fatigue for the status quo and disdain for politicians paying lip service to progress, while failing to deliver on their promises. We have seen this same sentiment play out in primaries across the nation in this unprecedented election cycle. The voices of the people have been loud and clear  the status quo is not going to meet their needs in 2016 for our nations leadership.

We are at a critical time in the history of our nation. Americans are resilient, and have continued to contribute to the success of our nation despite the failures of leadership in the Obama/Clinton Administration. Democrats focused today on the message of building a strong America for our families. Yet the policies being pushed by their Democratic platform, described as the most progressive in history, will fail miserably to reach that objective and are instead a recipe for weakness and fiscal ruin.

I leave you with one symbolic action that speaks volumes. This convention is heavily scripted and scrutinized. No detail is too small. Yet, in a shockingly embarrassing and revealing snafu, the DNC forgot to display the American flag on their giant made-for-prime-time-television stage!It was only after social media exploded, that staff rushed out to lace American flags on stage.

Millions of veterans followed our flag into battle over Americas 240 years and no one at that convention remembered to display it? Hundreds of thousands of spouses were presented with our flag and the gratitude of the American people at the funerals of their heroic military husbands and wives; and yet, not one person at this convention noticed, until the American people let convention organizers know on Facebook and Twitter. A sad, and not so subtle statement about the priorities of a party whose candidate is running to be our commander in chief.
Whats really going on at the Democratic convention? Several Inland delegates in Philadelphia are writing diaries about their experiences. Diaries have been edited for space and clarity.

Joey Aszterbaum, 41, Hemet; Bernie Sanders delegate:

Last night the DNC held a roll call vote. Against the partys rules, the initial vote included superdelegates. That should be reason enough for another roll call vote.

As expected, Hillary Clinton was nominated.

Immediately, Bernie delegates marched out of the convention center, marched down the halls, outside, and into the press tent. There was then a (mostly) silent sit-in. This was not planned centrally by the delegations. Much like the Bernie campaign, this was done in an ad hoc fashion, through a dispersed, networked people.

Predominant themes were of mourning, frustration at a rigged primary process, and that the party failed to unite behind a candidate that brings people together instead of a candidate that is, despite a massive spending campaign, losing in the polls to Donald Trump. The message was almost universal that delegates and their constituents will not vote for Hillary Clinton.

There was no acknowledgement of disunity by DNC leaders, and, under the direction of the Hillary campaign, filled our seats with a noticeably whiter, taller, able-bodied, and well-dressed delegation of volunteers. (Aszterbaum sent a picture; see above).

The leaders of the party and the Hillary delegates dont understand the social unrest an actions of the Bernie delegates. Many delegates, and even a lawyer for the DNC, dont even know what the TPP is. They seem woefully ignorant of policy and to mostly care about partisan success. They also are unaware of the massive protests taking place outside the steel gates of the Wells Fargo Center and at City Hall.

This morning a protest finally came to the delegates hotel, chanting to stop funding Israel until occupation settlements and disproportionate violence against Palestinians is addressed. Not one penny! Not one dime! No more money for Israels crimes! The Bernie supporters on the platform committee tried to get Palestinian rights in the platform, but committee members appointed by Hillary and ousted DNC chair Debbie Wasserman-Schultz thwarted the effort.

One of the very disturbing qualities of the platform and rules committees are the way in which committee members dont participate in dialogue, but are signaled by Hillary and DNC whips in the back of the room how to vote. One Bernie delegate said that they might as well just appoint cardboard cutouts.

Tonight, Vice President Joe Biden and President Barack Obama will address the DNC. How the various delegations will respond remain to be seen. What is almost certain is that DNC and Clinton staff will continue to suppress dissent and continue to keep the press from the California delegation.
Growing up, saxophonist Dave Koz memorized every lick that David Sanborn played.

Koz went to Sanborns shows, going backstage and meeting his saxophone idol while still a high school student.

I was a blubbering fool, a total geek. I said something like I want to be just like you, and he said Look, there is already a me and you will be best served by being you. The probably the best piece of advice anyone has ever given, Koz said in a recent telephone interview.

Now, the pair will share the stage together on Saturday, July 30, at Thornton Winery in Temecula with stops in Long Beach, Thousand Oaks and San Diego to follow in August.

I want to make sure everything goes great, Koz said. Our first show is Thornton, and while Ive known Dave for many years, this is the first time we will play side-by-side, which is the name of the tour.

Sanborn has always been the big inspiration for Koz.

He is the one person who is the main mentor on the instrument, and he was the guy for me, he said. I cant and wont be able to repay the debt I own him because he just gave me so much.

Koz himself is a beloved musician, logging chart-topping records and enormously successful tours.

I am a performer and I am an entertainer and I am who you see on stage, he said. We do a lot of different things. There is a relationship with the sax with you. Not every time you perform is going to be stellar, but on stage is where I feel most at home. When its a great night, theres no better high. Theres no better feeling of connecting with audience.

One of those resonating moments happened grew from Koz touring with Barry Manilow for two years. The saxophone player started doing a version of Let it Go from Disneys Frozen, which ultimately appeared on his album 25th Century Collaborations.

I could have played one of my songs like the General Hospital theme. I knew I was playing in front of people who didnt know who I was. I needed to give them an anchor, Koz said. I could always tell when I did Let it Go that was the moment, the turning point and after that those people were with me.

That is the same whether or not he is touring in the United States or around the globe.

You cant be oblivious because it is an organic situation we are responding to, he said. You get a humility about that in other countries. We expect them to be like us, but English audiences are different from China from Japan and South Africa.

Koz said he always tries to tour in new places  including Melbourne and Amsterdam this year  and thats how he sees the differences in audience reaction.

There is so much about the synergy between audience and performer and every single night its a work in progress. It changes. I cant put it exactly into words, but its a living breathing organism and that keeps people coming back.

And he is back in Temecula, and with Sanborn by his side, performing some songs that are not part of the normal set list, and one of the reasons why was to push him out of his comfort zone.

The whole expressed purpose is to have a built-in mechanism to get me to do different things. If I was on my own, Id do the same show and people would get tired and not come, Koz said.

Koz also hopes that the tour is a way to say thank you to one of his biggest influences as well.

We havent rehearsed for the tour but the concept is for us to be onstage a lot of the time together. He picked songs of mine and I did the same for him. So this will be a big sax love fest!

Contact the writer: features@pressenterprise.com
Breaking a historic barrier, Democrats triumphantly chose Hillary Clinton as their White House nominee Tuesday night, the first woman to ever lead a major political party into the general election.

Delegates erupted in cheers throughout the roll call of states on the floor of the Democratic convention. It was a jubilant start to a night that was to include former President Bill Clinton taking the convention stage to deliver a personal validation for his wife.

The roll call was one more opportunity for Sanders supporters to voice their fierce loyalty to the Vermont senator. Sanders sat in the arena soaking in the cheers and waving to the crowd.

But the convention belonged to Clinton, who will take on Republican Donald Trump in November.

Her landmark achievement saturated the roll call with emotion and symbols of womens long struggle to break through political barriers. A 102-year-old woman, born before women had the right to vote, cast the ballots for Arizona.

Martha McKenna, a Clinton delegate from Maryland, said the night felt like a celebration for Sanders campaign as well as Clintons. But the mother of two young girls said she was most excited to see Clinton officially named.

The idea that Im going to be here when the first woman president is nominated is overwhelming, she said.

Clintons campaign hoped the night of achievement, personal stories and praise could chip away at the deep distrust many voters, including some Democrats, have of the former secretary of state, senator and first lady. Much of the conventions second night was being devoted to introducing voters to Clinton anew, including three hours of speakers highlighting issues she has championed for years, including health care and advocacy for children and families.

Tonight we will make history, about 100 years in the making, said Karen Finney, a senior adviser for Clintons campaign. What were really going to focus on tonight is telling that story, and telling her story, talking about the fights of her life.

The stories were being told by a long list of lawmakers, celebrities and advocates. Among those pledging support for Clinton were the mothers of the movement  several black women whose children were victims of gun violence. Clinton has met privately with the mothers and held events with them, and theyve become an emotional force for her campaign.

Clinton aides believe a focus on policy is another way to rally Sanders supporters, especially those who threatened to stay home or vote for Republican Trump. While the opening night was interrupted by boos and chants of Bernie, there were fewer signs of discord Tuesday.

Sanders had implored his supporters to not protest during the convention. Still, several hundred people gathered at Philadelphias City Hall under a blazing sun Tuesday chanting Bernie or bust.

Trump cheered the disruptions from the campaign trail. In North Carolina, he told a convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars that, our politicians have totally failed you.

When Trump mentioned Clintons name, the group answered with shouts of Lock her up! an echo of the chants at last weeks Republican convention.

Trump has been a frequent target at the Democratic gathering, where several videos featured his comments about women and the disabled, and tried to discredit the real estate moguls business record.

First lady Michelle Obama was a star of opening night, making an impassioned case for Clinton as the only candidate in the presidential race worthy of being a role model for the nations children. President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden will speak Wednesday, along with Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine, Clintons new running mate.

Bill Clinton had the spotlight Tuesday night. The former president has campaigned frequently for his wife during the White House race, but mostly in smaller cities and towns, part of an effort by the campaign to keep him in a more behind-the-scenes role.

During Hillary Clintons first presidential campaign in 2008, her husband angered some Democrats with dismissive comments about Obama. Hes had flashes of frustration this year, particularly when his own record on trade and law enforcement has been challenged by the party he once led, but has largely stuck to the campaigns messages.

The stakes for him are particularly high following his much-criticized decision to meet privately with Attorney General Loretta Lynch in the middle of the FBIs investigation into his wifes email use at the State Department.

The roll call this year, when each state announced its delegate totals from the primary season, affirmed a nomination Clinton locked up weeks ago.



AP writers Kathleen Hennessey, Kathleen Ronayne, Ken Thomas and Matthew Daly in Philadelphia contributed to this report.
An off-duty officer with the Los Angeles Police Department was fired upon by someone in a passing vehicle in Eastvale on Tuesday and the officer returned fire, said a Riverside County sheriffs spokesman.

It was unclear whether the passing vehicle shot with a firearm or some other gun such as a paintball gun or BB gun.

A report of a vehicle burglary summoned deputies to the 6500 block of Caxton Street about 4:50 a.m., said Deputy Mike Vasquez. There, an LAPD officer told them his vehicle had been burglarized.

Vasquez said it wasnt clear whether it was the officers squad car or personal vehicle.

While the deputies assessed the damage, someone in a passing vehicle fired at the officer, who fired back with a firearm.

Authorities did not know whether the vehicle or anyone inside was hit, because it drove away. Vasquez did not have a description of that vehicle.

He said no one outside was injured.

Investigators from the Jurupa Valley sheriffs station arrived and assumed the investigation, Vasquez said.

Deputies ask anyone with information on the shooting to call the Jurupa Valley sheriffs station at 951-955-2600.
Whats really going on at the Democratic National Convention? Several Inland delegates in Philadelphia are writing diaries about their experiences. Diaries have been edited for space and clarity.

Angelov Farooq, 31, Riverside; Hillary Clinton delegate:

The second day of the Democratic National Convention is based around the historic roll call vote for the first woman to be nominated by a major party for president of the United States.

Sen. Sanders surprised the California delegation at our daily breakfast convening with a speech to encourage further progress on coming together as a party. The passion and convictions of the Sanders delegates that have dedicated themselves throughout the election is evident and understandable. Nobody should feel threatened by intense debates on policy differences that continue beyond the election cycle as these are the virtues of an authentic democracy.

The roll call was conducted with more solidarity than the proceedings of the first day. The gravity of the moment was palpable and Sen. Sanders call to nominate Secretary Clinton by acclimation was the most definitive statement that the party is ready to move forward towards the general election. There were some Sanders delegates in California that decided to walk out of the conventional hall, but the overall sense is that great strides continue to be made together.

The Mothers of the Movement was the emotional climax of the convention. It takes incredible courage to engage in conversations that are so personal and challenging.

President Bill Clintons closing message was so effective because his perspective humanized his wifes approach to public service. His story illuminated that the grind and diligence necessary to be a change maker is not always recognized but it is the most enduring.
An international student accused of rape, who is being expelled from La Sierra University, has won a court decision allowing him to register for fall classes at the school.

The student, who is identified only as John Doe in court documents, is accused of raping a female student who blacked out at a party where some people were drinking and smoking marijuana. The suit, filed May 16, says the school did not provide due process in its proceedings against him.

The case comes in the wake of student demonstrations and a social media campaign, started in April, that criticized the school for the way it has handled cases of sexual assault. Organizers of the movement complained that there was a lack of support for sexual assault victims.

A Sept. 16 court hearing will address the actual merits of John Does case. In the meantime, Riverside County Superior Court Judge John D. Molloy issued a stay allowing the student to register.

Student may go on campus for the purpose of enrollment only, Molloy wrote in the order.

Los Angeles attorney Mark Hathaway is representing the student. He said the school did not allow his client access to evidence against him, nor did it allow him to confront his accuser. The female student in the case is identified only as Jane Roe in court documents.

It would just be nice to have the secret evidence they have, Hathaway said, referring to the university. They are required to comply with California law, which requires them to have a fair hearing, and the fairness includes providing the evidence.

The case is one of a growing number in which male students accused of sexual assault have argued the schools they attend have improperly handled their cases. They have frequently argued they are not presumed innocent until proven guilty.

Corona attorney Kent Hansen said he has been representing La Sierra University for 37 years. He has handled cases of sexual harassment, he said, but not rape. He would not discuss details of the case.

Were defending this case on the merits, Hansen said. We believe its a defensible case.

Hathaway said the off-campus party occurred in April 2015. The female student did not file a police report. But when she told her parents about it in July, they filed a complaint with the school. Sometime later, Hathaway said, his client was contacted.

He was interviewed once in October, he said. May 10, he was told that he was being expelled and would be deported.

The U.S. Department of Education recommends that schools resolve Title IX investigations  which include sexual assaults  within 60 days, unless there are unusual circumstances. In at least one other sexual assault case, the school took nearly eight months to complete the process.

Court documents indicate the student confessed to engaging in sexual contact with his accuser. His account is that she was a willing participant. She has testified that she has no memory of the sexual encounter.

Hathaway said he has worked on similar cases involving such schools as USC, UCLA and Occidental and Claremont McKenna colleges. He said he is surprised at the way La Sierra handled his clients case.

Their policy appears to be fair and discusses rights of appeal and opportunities for the student to respond to an accusation, Hathaway said, but those guidelines were not followed. In practice it really couldnt be any worse. They used secret evidence that they didnt share. They expel an international student, tell him hes going to be deported before they even listen to his appeal.

In court documents, attorney Roland Bainer, Hansens partner, has argued that the suit is premature and should be dismissed since the male student has not exhausted his appeals with the school.

Hathaway did not say whether or not his client was guilty of the rape, only that the handling of the complaint was improper. He said he will make that argument at the September court date.

I expect Judge Molloy will find that La Sierras process was unfair and will remand it back to La Sierra for a fair process, he said, which may or may not change the result.

Contact the writer: mmuckenfuss@pressenterprise.com or 951-368-9595
The Registrar-Generals Department has directed businesses which have not yet updated their records in the new electronic database to comply with the provisions.



A statement signed by Mrs Jemima M. Oware, the Acting Registrar-General and copied to the Ghana News Agency, said on April 15 and April 20, 2015 as well as February 29, 2016, the Department published a statement on its website and the national dailies urging companies to update their records and file their annual reports by June 30, 2016.



It noted that following that directive, some companies had complied whilst a whole lot more are yet to update their records within the new electronic e-register.



As the Registrar of Companies in Ghana, we wish to reiterate that the filing of Annual Returns is mandatory as stated in Section 122 (1 and 2) of the Companies Act, 1963, (Act179), that a Company shall file its Annual Returns 18 months after Incorporation and once, at least in every year thereafter.



Under Section 6 (1) of the Incorporated Private Partnership Act, 1962, once in every year Partners shall deliver to the Registrar for registration a statement in the prescribed form renewing the registration.



We wish to draw the attention of Companies and Partnerships to the penalty regime in the Companies/Partnerships Acts that the Registrar General will now have to enforce, it said.



The statement said per Section 122(7) where a company defaulted in complying with this section, the company was liable to a fine not exceeding 25 penalty units for everyday during which the default continues, the same applies to partnerships whilst that of business names would lapse completely.



It said under section 26 of the Interpretation Act (Act 729) 2009, the imposition of a fine as a penalty for the contravention of a provision in the enactment shall be expressed in terms of a number of penalty units.



The statement said one penalty unit is defined as equivalent to the amount of cedis specified in the Second Schedule to this Act as being equal to GH?12.00.



Businesses/Companies and Partnerships must note that the import of this provision is that they would be paying a penalty in addition to the fees they would be required to pay mandatorily for the filing of their Annual Returns yearly.



By the foregoing definition therefore 25 penalty units would amount to Gh?300.00 for each day that the default continues with effect from Monday August 1, 2016, it said.



The statement said this regime of penalty payment would continue until December 31, 2016 and thereafter when the Department would start the process of striking out the names of companies that had failed to comply with the directive.



We are by this publication commencing the serialisation of the names of Business/Companies and Partnerships which have not yet updated their records in the new electronic database to comply with the provisions as stated above.



Businesses must note that the update of records is free apart from the fees to be paid for renewing the business or filing of Annual Returns for the number of years in default, it said.



The statement said all payments should be made at the Departments on-site Bank, Fidelity Bank Limited and not to any individual.



It said further information and enquiries could be channeled through telephone numbers: 0302-664691/0244619545 and 0244287264.

Source: GNA









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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Constable Wifred Amuzu with the RDF, yesterday killed his young son, his new-born baby, and his mother-in-law, who was bathing the newborn.



According to sources, the woman who had suffered violence in the hands of her man, reported him to his superiors at the police station. Amuzu was detained and locked up for a night and released the next day on bail. He then went straight to his residence at Kufuour Estate located between the Devtraco Estate in Community 25, Tema, and the Affordable Housing near Kpone, when he was released, picked his rifle and killed his whole family. Very sad.









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The Ghana Independent Broadcasters Association (GIBA) has pledged One-Hundred Thousand Ghana Cedis (GHc100,000) worth of broadcast airtime in support of the Electoral Commissions publicity activities.



The gesture, which was announced by the President of the Association Mr. Akwesi Agyemang during the launch of GIBAs Code of Conduct for Responsible Reporting, was in response to an appeal made by the Chairperson of the Electoral Commission, Mrs. Charlotte Osei.



Speaking at the ceremony, Mrs. Charlotte Osei asked the media to consider dedicating more time in support of the Commissions voter education activities.



She said: We believe the democratic process would be greatly enhanced if members of GIBA would grant the Commission more time and attention to engage the voters and educate them better.



Delivering a credible electoral outcome is not only the responsibility of the Electoral Commission. It is indeed a collective responsibility of all Ghanaians; inclusive of the media. The Commissions plans for organizing a successful election would not materialize, if the voting public lacks access to the information that they need in order to make informed choices, she said.



Mrs. Osei congratulated the Association on its initiative to ensure discipline and sanity on the airwaves before, during and after the 2016 general elections.



She expressed the Commissions appreciation to the President and Executive team of GIBA for their support and assured them of a mutually beneficial partnership for a credible and transparent electoral process and outcome.



Below is the full speech delivered by the Chairperson of the EC:



SOLIDARITY MESSAGE BY MRS. CHARLOTTE OSEI, CHAIRPERSON OF THE ELECTORAL COMMISSION GHANA, AT THE LAUNCH OF GIBA CODE OF CONDUCT FOR RESPONSIBLE REPORTING; HELD AT THE COCONUT GROVE REGENCY HOTEL IN ACCRA ON TUESDAY JULY 26, 2016



Mr. Chairman,

Hon. Minister of Communications,

President and Executives of GIBA,

Fellow Commissioners of NMC, NCCE,

Invited Guests,

Ladies and Gentlemen of the Media,

Good morning.



It is a true pleasure and an honour to be invited by your Association to be a witness to this very important ceremony today on behalf of the Electoral Commission of Ghana.



Mr. Chairman, distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen, The Electoral Commission considers this mornings event extremely significant for a number of reasons. First, it is an indication of your Associations desire to improve the quality of communication on the platforms of your members.



Second, it is a confirmation of your Associations interest in facilitating a peaceful political and democratic process during this election year. And thirdly, it is an attempt to self-regulate; to have an established standard against which

performance in the media will be measured. For these reasons, I believe this initiative deserves the highest commendations. Congratulations to you Mr. President and your team.



Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen, It is a fundamental fact that in a democratic society such as ours, and more

particularly in an election year, the media is a critical bridge, connecting the political stakeholders with the voters. Currently, we have 26 registered political parties competing against each other to win the hearts, minds and votes of

Ghanaians to govern. In such a highly competitive environment, the media often becomes the preferred vehicle for the parties to sell their messages. It is therefore not so surprising to tune on the radio and tv and get bombarded with highly charged political discussions from morning to evening. However, none of the parties could achieve its aims of getting the mandate to govern if the voters are not properly educated on how to exercise their political choices. We

believe the democratic process would be greatly enhanced if members of GIBA would grant the Commission more time and attention to engage the voters and educate them better.



Mr. Chairman, Delivering a credible electoral outcome is not only the responsibility of the Electoral Commission. It is indeed a collective responsibility of all Ghanaians; inclusive of the media. The Commissions plans for organizing a successful election would not materialize, if the voting public lacks access to the information that they need in order to make informed choices.



It is the 9th day of the ongoing voters register exhibition exercise and reregistration of the deleted NHIS card registrants. While the Commission is doing all it can to drive enthusiasm among the public to visit their polling stations to check their details and get verified to vote, it is important for the media to consider supporting the Commissions efforts by dedicating more airtime to encouraging registered voters to participate in the exercise.



As my predecessor Dr. Kwadwo Afari-Gyan has said previously, One of the major props of democracy is free media. However, while good journalism brings blessings and joy, bad journalism brings untold hardships and sorrow to countries, groups, and individuals. There is no doubt in my mind that today's programme sets the independent media on the path of good journalism and must be lauded and encouraged by all who care about our country.



The level of influence and control the media has on society was aptly captured by the African-American civil rights activist, Malcom X when he said: the media is the most powerful entity on earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent, and that's power. Because they control the minds of the masses. In the interest of our country and our collective future, we at the Electoral Commission, urge the media, to use this most powerful of weapons with the utmost care and in the collective interest of Ghana.



Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen, Bad journalism anywhere is a threat to peace, political stability and democratic

growth everywhere. Therefore in a highly charged election year such as this, a Code of Conduct of this nature, becomes not only important, but also critical.



It is my understanding that the Code defines exactly what constitutes objectionable journalism material, as well as corruption, and professionalism in the media. We at the Electoral Commission are also very pleased that the Code

of Conduct prohibits hate, incitement and insulting speech; enjoins members to cross-check allegations; and provides specific guidelines for political and election reportage.



Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen,



As earlier hinted, this is another critical year in the history of this country. All over the world, we are known as the oasis of peace and stability in a region which has experienced tremendous strife, civil war and political instability. The ECs

phenomenal role in contributing to this achievement cannot be overemphasized. On each of the six previous occasions, the EC asserted its independence through the organization of free, fair, transparent and credible polls.



Despite our impressive track-record, we are not prepared to be complacent. As a result, we have accepted and are implementing some 8 internal and 27 electoral reforms aimed at making this years elections our best ever. Key

among them is a more transparent and inclusive results transmission and collation process from the polling station to constituency, and from the constituency collation centres to the more open and transparent National Results Collation Centre which will replace the previous strong room concept.



For the first time, we intend to allow television cameras into the National Results Collation Centre to enable journalists to report accurately and fairly on every aspect of the process. We believe this will engender even higher levels of public

confidence in our electoral process.



Mr. Chairman, I wish to state that this mornings exercise would be pointless if this Code is allowed to only decorate the desks of member media houses without any real effort to ensure it impacts on broadcast content. As a result, I wish to conclude by appealing to GIBA to be prepared to enforce the specified sanctions on erring members if any aspect of this code is violated.



It is the only way to ensure discipline and sanity in the media before, during and after the 2016 elections. Together, as very valued partners in the work of the Electoral Commission, let us use the power we have as the media, to build up

our country, to serve the interests of our citizens without fear or favour, to uphold the truth and not to destroy our country.



We commend the leadership and members of GIBA for this very positive and extraordinary milestone we have witnessed today. We wish you well on this journey. God bless GIBA and God bless our homeland Ghana.



Signed and Issued by:

ERIC KOFI DZAKPASU

Head of Communications

Source: Peacefmonline.com









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The Convention Peoples Party (CPP) has reiterated calls for a load-shedding timetable in light of recent, consistent power cuts in many parts of the country.



According to the CPP, it was necessary for the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) to publish a schedule to enable Ghanaians incorporate it into their daily activities.



It would be very necessary that the Electricity Company of Ghana publish a load shedding table because it is going to help people in planning.



One thing that has also contributed to the experiences that we go through as a result of the dumsor is that people cannot tell what time the light will go out, before you know, the light is off. If you wanted to use the light to do some work, it becomes quite difficult, the Communications Director of the CPP, Kadir Abdul Rauf told Citi News.



He believes the timetable is even more necessary as the governments constant assurances that the power crisis would be solved had lulled Ghanaians into a false sense of hope.



From the perspective of the CPP, we know very well that its appearing quite clearly that the government has failed in its promise to solve the dumsor crisis once and for all. Due to the massive failure of the government, the ECG should come out with a schedule and make it public so that people can plan on the basis of that information, he added.



Mahama sitting on timetable





Some workers of the ECG recently stated that a dumsor timetable prepared by the company has had to be shelved after a directive from President John Dramani Mahama.



The timetable for the current load shedding also called dumsor is ready but the president says we should not publish it, they indicated.



NPP wants dumsor timetable



The opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), had earlier demanded that the government release a load shedding timetable immediately.



The NPP, in a statement signed by its Director of Communications, Nana Akomea, said a schedule is needed to allow businesses to plan.



Ghanaians have been suffering a patterned load shedding over the last few months. Governments refusal to acknowledge it and publish a schedule has meant that consumers and industry cannot plan, thus imposing uncertainty on the Ghanaian consumer in the midst of dumsor.



Dumsor is not back



President John Mahama recently acknowledged that there were challenges with power supply in the country but stopped short of declaring that it marked a return to load-shedding.



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, he emphasized.



The Power Ministry and Finance Ministry echoed the presidents comments stating that the current power outages are as a result of temporary difficulties caused by the delay in the supply of light crude among other things.

Source: citifmonline.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Supporters of the two radio panelists who threatened to kill judges of Ghanas apex court have been prevented from entering the premises of the Supreme Court where the two and others are due for sentencing Wednesday.

Heavily armed police personnel and Military Police officers have mounted blocks at the various entrances to the Supreme Court premises located along the J.E. Atta-Mills High Street in Accra Central, Onua FMs Omari Acheampong reports.

The military police officers have also brought to the premises what appears to be sniffing dogs. People are thoroughly searched and made to show prove that they have cases in the Supreme Court or the High Courts in the same compound before they are allowed entry into the premises, our correspondent reports.

Those who have cases at the Supreme Court are again searched before they are allowed entry into the courtroom. Mobile phones of and electronic gadgets of journalists are also taken from them by the security before they are allowed inside the courtroom. Godwin Ako Gunn and Alistair Nelson (both radio panellists), together with radio host Salifu Maase were convicted on July 18 by the Supreme Court after they were found guilty of contempt for threatening to kill the Supreme Court judges during a political talkshow on an Accra-based Montie FM. The court fixed Wednesday July 27 to give its sentence after the three as well as the owners of the radio station were summoned to show cause why they should not be imprisoned for contempt of court.

Although the contemnors pleaded with the court for their unfortunate statements and actions,the court went ahead to convict them and adjourned proceedings to (today) Wednesday to hand down its sentence. Alistair Nelson in his plea for mercy blamed his comments on a disease he called kpokpogbligbli while Maase Salifu, popularly known as Mugabe, apologized for his comments, adding that his producer fell ill on the fateful day the incident happened hence there was no one to hold him in check. Owners of the station, Harry Zakour, Edward Addo, Kwasi Attuah and Kwaky Bram Larbi who were in court, after they failed to appear on July 12, pleaded for mercy and said the act was regretful.

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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President John Dramani Mahama on Tuesday gave the assurance that relations between Ghana and Iran would be extended to other sectors of development apart from trade and commerce.



"The 70-member delegation to Ghana as a follow-up to my visit to Iran in February this year bears testimony to the fact that both countries are ready to strengthen bilateral and other partnerships," he said.



President Mahama gave this assurance when Foreign Affairs Minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif of Iran, called on him at the Flagstaff House, Kanda.



The Foreign Affairs Minister, who is in Ghana as part of his tour of few West African countries, was at the Presidency to announce their readiness to concretise some of the agreements the two countries had signed in President Mahama's visit.



He said apart from trade and commerce that was growing between the two countries, Iran had over the years been pivotal in supporting the quality health needs of Ghanaians through the Iran Clinic in Accra that had helped a lot of residents.



President Mahama called on the Iranian Government to take advantage of the stable Ghanaian economy to invest massively in coming days.



On continental peace and stability, President Mahama encouraged Iran to dialogue with Syria in their peace negotiations in order to make their realm a peaceful territory.



He noted that Ghana is an advocate of peace and would, therefore, lend every support necessary to restore peace to Iran and Syria.



The President said Ghana would also continue to support the international community in its fight against terrorism and oppression.



Mr Zarif, on his part, commended President Mahama for being the first Ghanaian and African sitting President to visit their country after the United Nations lifted sanctions on Iran.



He announced that apart from the support they had previously given Ghana, they would, from this year, add 10 scholarships annually for Ghanaians to study in Iran.



Mr Zarif wished Ghana a successful general election in December.



The delegation would also hold discussions with individual business partners and the entire business community in Ghana to forge partnerships.

Source: GNA









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 Supreme Court of Ghana earlier today sentenced two panellists, Godwin Ako Gunn and Alistair Nelson and the Montie Fms morning host Salifu Mugabe Maase to 4 months in prison.



They are also to pay a fine of Ghc 10,000, or in lieu, spend another month in jail. The owners of the station, which includes Edward Addo, Harry Zakuor, Ato Ahwoi and Kwesi Kyei Atuah were also been fined Ghc 30,000 each.



In spite of their offence of threatening to kill judges of the Supreme Court, which fetched them a contempt charge, Ghanas Minister of Foreign Affairs, Hanna Tetteh has said the judges were unnecessary harsh on the three.



In a post on Facebook, the Foreign Affairs Minister stated that though she does not agree with the actions of the panelists who threatened the judges, there has been previous situations where our esteemed Judges had been attacked and had not responded in the same way.









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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Its the 13th year of miss Malaika Ghana and it returns with a new twist as ladies all across Ghana gear up to be part of the auditions scheduled for Saturday 30th July 2016 at the NAFTI studios in Accra.



For over 13 years, the Miss Malaika Beauty pageant has had many beautiful and intelligent young Ghanaian ladies experience amazing turn around in their lives. The Beautiful and articulate young ladies have changed their lives with Miss Malaika Ghana and won KIA salon cars, over 500, 000.00 GHC cash prizes and International trips to Dubai, South Africa, Egypt and Namibia.



The Search is on for the next Miss Malaika Ghana Beauty queen starting off with the grand Audition is slated for Saturday July 30th 2016 at The NAFTI Studios in Accra.



Ladies who wish to be auditions are expected to be seated by 7:30am in all readiness for the entire audition process as they meet the astute judges. The 13th edition of Miss Malaika Ghana is produced by Charterhouse with support from CHP live.









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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A 21-year-old woman from the Gold Coast has taken to social media to share her frustrating experience of being rejected for a job due to tattoos.

Now, you might already be sighing as youve regressed back to memories of your Nan pinching your cheeks and telling you not to destroy your body because youll never find a job with that shit all over you.

Fair enough, because its ridiculous in this day and age that anyone should be rejected from a job due to tattoos  hell, 1 in 7 Aussies have inked themselves! Theyre far too common to claim tatts are unprofessional attire. But weirdly, some companies still do.

However, this is whole new ballpark  Chontelle was rejected by two airlines, Qantas and Emirates, for roles as a flight attendant due to a tiny tattoo on her ankle.

The fine-drawn tattoo is same size as a 10c piece, and would be easily hidden by makeup, stockings, or socks.

choc berry bomb on a cloudy Wednesday morning w/ a load of grain free Bircher on top ?? ??should have probably gone for some porridge because now im freezinggg!!! ?? @thesourcegoldcoast A photo posted by chontelle ?? (@chontellemcgoldrick) on Apr 12, 2016 at 1:15pm PDT





Chontelle told News Corp,

Both airlines said they wanted to offer me a position but they couldnt, because of my tattoo. They said some cultures and religions find them offensive.

The Fair Work Ombudsman gave a statement about the decision, saying its entirely legal to reject someone for a job due to their appearance:

Physical appearance is not a protected attribute under the Fair Work Act. Under the Fair Work Act 2009, it is unlawful for an employer to discriminate against an employee or prospective employee on the basis of protected attributes such as of race, colour, sex, sexual preference, age, physical or mental disability, marital status, family or carers responsibilities, pregnancy, religion, political opinion, national extraction or social origin.

The airlines allegedly both told Chontelle that she would be able to gain work with them if she got the tattoo removed, which she has now decided to go ahead with.

Source: News Corp.

Photo: Facebook / Chontelle McGoldrick.
Lets not mince words here: Bill OReilly is an asshole. Both onscreen and off, the man is a jagoff of cyclopean proportions. Hes known mostly for having hosted The OReilly Factor on Fox News for the last 1000 years and also a little bit for that time he got recorded flipping the fuck out over a teleprompter issue (WELL DO IT LIVE!).

Being the huge, lumbering dickbutt that he is, he made an incredibly weird attempt at taking the jam out of the donut of First Lady Michelle Obamas goddamn incredible speech in support of Hillary Clinton at the Democratic National Convention.

The address she delivered was personal, moving and, most importantly, not at all plagiarised from anyone else. Particularly lovely was her contrasting the origins of the White House with America having a black president, and what it would mean again to have a woman president:

Today, I wake up every morning in a house that was built by slaves, and I watch my daughters  two beautiful intelligent black young women  play with the dog on the White House lawn. And because of Hillary Clinton, my daughters and all of our sons and daughters now take for granted that a woman can be president of the United States.

Which is lovely right? Youd be insane to try and find some issue with that? Well, theres a fair chance Bill OReilly is insane.

On the Tip Of The Day segment of his show, he decided to fact check the speech  which he did by pointing out that the slaves who built the White House were well-fed:

Slaves that worked there were well fed and had decent lodgings, provided by the Government  which stopped hiring slave labour in 1802, however the Feds did not forbid sub-contractors from hiring slave labour. So Michelle Obama is essentially correct in citing slaves as builders of the white house, but there were others working as well.

Excuse my salty language, but what the fuck kinda point is he trying to make here? Does the fact that they got a few hot meals a day in some way diminish the point that Michelle made? To even try to mitigate something as awful as slavery by pointing out something this asinine is absolutely abhorrent, and deeply, deeply weird.

I have no idea what he could have been trying to achieve with this, other than lessening the impact of her speech  but it sure doesnt. What a dick.

Source and photo: YouTube.
I feel like the Edward Snowden of The Bachelor. An extremely scary woman told me that, Nothing should leave this room!. That it was our responsibility to keep the magic alive. Sorry, but I dont give a shit about the magic.

I decided to apply for Richie Strahans season of The Bachelor in the spirit of you-only-live-onceness. Ive heard that over 25,000 people apply each year, so I had zero hope I would get past the first round.

The application was horrendous; it asked my number of sexual partners, whether there are any sex tapes or jilted lovers floating, why Im single (like I know) and what my bust measurement is.

Somehow, I got a callback.

Spoiler: I am not Cass.

The dress code for the audition was a Sunday session with the ladies. What does that even mean? As a Melburnian, my Sunday session usually involves a kick-on at Revolver wearing the same clothes I put on 36 hours ago.

I arrive at a St Kilda hotel on audition day  the room is full of big-busted, taut-bodied women with the South Yarra look. I instantly feel underdressed. Im from the North side.

Two women walk in and sweetly thank us for coming in, before ripping our relationship history to shreds. Were herded like sheep into a semicircle and one of the women in charge speaks. Introduce yourself, she says behind pursed lips. Give the lady next to you a compliment.

Then one woman is asked to tell a happy story, and another is asked to tell a sad story. Welling up, she tells us about her experience working in a mental health ward, and the tragedy she is faced with every day. The room goes quiet.

Great! Wonderful! the adjudicator cuts through the silence cheerily.

They ask us if our friend won the lottery with a ticket that we had given her, would we expect her to share the winnings? Were told to stand on the side of the room we agree with, then to debate each other. You can tell which women are trying to make an impression on the facilitators.

The next debate is about whether or not Muslim prayer rooms should be introduced into AFL footy grounds. Unnerving tension begins to fill the room as high heels shuffle along the carpet. I creep to the right side of the room  the yes side  as the rest of the group disperses. I assume the question was an attempt to out the xenophobes in the room; whether they wanted to keep or throw them, I have no idea.

There are five women on the negative side, trying to get a word in over each other  to be the most opinionated in the room. One girl on the positive side worked in the AFL and argues how necessary the prayer rooms are. Things get heated.

The adjudicator suddenly and loudly declares that wed now be dancing to Justin Biebers Sorry to ease the tension. Its 9am on Thursday morning, but everyones dancing like weve been Snow White-ing it for 48 hours.

Continuing the dog and pony show, the adjudicator asks us to share a party trick with the group. People are folding tongues in half, licking elbows and hyperextending arms while we all feign amused interest.

Were paired up and two women are pulled to front and asked to compliment each other. There are superficial compliments about dresses and good hair, before the adjudicator asks one to insult the other. The woman fumbles and stutters before spitting out that she doesnt like her accent; people snicker, boo and yell things out at her. The Canadian girl she just verbally attacked stays silent.

Right, the adjudicator scribbles at her clipboard. You? She points to another couple.

I hate that youre tall because Ive always wanted to be tall! one woman says to her partner.

The final thing were asked to do is pick someone in the room that, throughout the day, we felt a good connection with. Its that awkward scramble to avoid being the last kid picked for Oztag. We each explain to the group why we picked our partner and, without a word, the adjudicator leaves the room.

Five minutes later she comes back and announces shell only be taking through one girl out of the 60 there.

Thank you for your time! Please keep watching! She smiles sweetly as she walks over to the contestant shell be taking through to the next round.

Everyone else is deflated and shocked.

We all pat each other on the back and say goodbye. I grab one girls number so we can hang out later.

I felt exhausted from the facade I had put on all day. I was told to my face that the Australian public wouldnt like me enough. There was one girl who had auditioned three years in a row. I couldnt even believe shed want to come back.

The girl I paired with told me how in Big Brother auditions, youre asked to crawl around on the floor like farm animals for half an hour while people watch you behind a one-sided mirror. Then you are asked to sit in a room with thirty people in complete silence for an hour; they just observe you. Theyre clearly just looking for the one particular personality type from each group.

READ MORE How Big Brothers Infamous Turkey Slap Incident Changed Reality TV Forever

And, if the Bachie audition was that big a mind fuck, I couldnt even imagine being on the show for seven weeks. Ill be watching this season from the comfort of my own home, with the knowledge that the people on it all had to lick their elbows in front of a room of total strangers to be there.

Want to apply? Head right here.
Never underestimate exactly how huge this is.

Lisa Singh, an incumbent Labor Senator for Tasmania, has just won re-election in the state after a tense vote count, filling out one of the final two senate seats the island state had left to count and confirm.

A Labor senator winning re-election in Tasmania isnt generally a big story; Tassie is, traditionally, a red state after all. But what is huge is the fact that Singh won this re-election, despite the fact that her own party didnt particularly want her to.

Singh is, by all rights, a relatively young, very popular, and extremely competent senator who first won a senate seat in 2011. After serving her term out, the Double Dissolution election would ordinarily have seemed like a formality. But the Tasmanian Labor Party pulled a fast one on her by bumping her down their senate ticket, all the way to sixth.

Sixth place. For a currently serving elected senator.

That spot, in other states, is more or less an un-winnable position. Why the state party did this is unclear, though speculation suggests that Tasmanian Labors left faction made the push to bump her down; Singh is aligned to the National Left, but not the State left, and thus functions as something more of an independent senator, rather than a party shill.

Fighting the party line is a difficult task, but such is Singhs popularity that a grassroots re-election campaign caught on like gangbusters in Tasmania, with thousands of businesses supporting the Senator with posters in windows, and tireless volunteers working around the clock.

The strategy paid off. On election day, Singhs voters backed her in in droves by preferencing her below the line with their number 1 vote. She got so many first preferences, in fact, that she managed to accumulate 0.8 of a senate voting quote *BY HERSELF*.

But it still required full preferential counting to confirm her re-election, and today, finally, her seat was sealed. Lisa Singh is back in.

Deeply honored by this historic result thats returned me to the @AuSenate Thank you Tasmanians this is your win. #ausvotes #politas  Lisa Singh (@Lisa_Singh) July 27, 2016

In a Facebook post, Senator Singh thanked the people of Tasmania for making themselves well and truly heard.

Im deeply honoured and inspired by the historic result that has returned me to the Australian Senate. This is a victory for thousands of passionate and committed Tasmanians whove made their voices heard. Thank you to the many volunteers and Labor party members that gave their time and commitment to campaign tirelessly for my re-election. And thank you to everyone who took the time to call, email, chat, visit my office, and vote for Labor. I wont be dwelling on this result, but getting straight back to work!

Hell yes, Lisa! Go get em.

Tasmanias other in-dispute seat was also settled today, with Greens incumbent Nick McKim being returned to the Senate as well.

Photo: Senator Lisa Singh/Facebook.
After the pretty shocking Four Corners episode on Monday night about abuse in Northern Territory youth detention centres, and Malcolm Turnbulls announcement of a royal commission, many  especially in the Indigenous community  are making clear that they absolutely knew about these things are were talking about them long before the episode.

Like the Koori Mail, who reported on this in September last year:

This is why we need black media. Front page of @koorimailnews last year when report was first handed down pic.twitter.com/ncWTCCocgH  Amy McQuire (@amymcquire) July 26, 2016

And its not just the NT. Systemic failures in the juvenile detention system have been alleged for absolutely yonks, and now that Four Corners has brought the shocking imagery to the eyes of the general public and forced them to look at it, more allegations are bubbling to the surface.

The ABC reports today that former workers within Queenslands juvenile detention system are claiming that they were sacked for trying to expose the abuse that occurred within the centres they worked at, and that any royal commission ought to expand its remit to include states other than the NT.

Several ex-workers say excessive force was used against children, including once incident in which a child was allegedly put in a headlock and hit in the face with a steel can.

Indigenous barrister Joshua Creamer told the ABC that the royal commission should include other states where such incidents have been reported.

What youre being told and what Im hearing about what happens in Queensland is similar to things Im hearing happening in other states, he said.

So why should we restrict this royal commission to Northern Territory only?

Source: ABC.

Photo: Four Corners.
A heaps of famous names are speaking at the Democratic National Convention currently happening in Philadelphia.

Michelle Obama completely blew everyone away with her speech earlier this week, but today belonged to actresses Lena Dunham and America Ferrera.

While theres plenty of completely valid criticism around Dunhams approach to feminism, the duos Donald Trump-slammin opening bit garnered a hell of a lot of laughs.

Dunham: Hi, Im Lena Dunham and according to Donald Trump, my body is probably, like, a 2. Ferrera: And Im America Ferrera and according to Donald Trump, Im probably a rapist. Dunham: We know what youre all thinking: why should you care what some television celebrity has to say about politics? Ferrera: And we feel the same way. But he is the Republican nominee so we have to talk about it.

Their bit was met with roaring laughter from the crowd, before the pair went on to talk about their experiences and why that led them to vote for Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.

Dunham told the crowd,

I am a pro-choice, feminist, sexual assault survivor with a chronic reproductive illness. Donald Trump and his party think I should be punished for exercising my constitutional rights. His rhetoric about women takes us back to a time when we were meant to be beautiful and silent. Meanwhile, 22 years ago, Hillary Clinton declared that womens rights are human rights.

Ferrera told the audience shes the proud daughter of Honduran immigrants and occasionally needed a free meal to get through the school day. The actress said she is profoundly grateful for the access and opportunities that are given in the United States.

Donald is not making America great again  hes making America hate again. Hillary has spent the last 30 years proving what she sees in us. Not our colour, gender, economic status, but our capacity to grow into thriving adults.

Watch the speech below:

The pair posted an emotional photo of their speech rehearsal, which happened at the same time Hillary was officially announced as the Democratic nominee:

the moment it became real A photo posted by Lena Dunham (@lenadunham) on Jul 26, 2016 at 4:08pm PDT

Meanwhile, some attendees of the DNC are currently losing their minds over the events official Snapchat hyper-millennial geofilter:

This is a snapchat filter that the DNC or an affiliate made. Could Democrats get any more insufferable? So obnoxious pic.twitter.com/j0iIOKOMho  Steve (@steve_boyle) July 26, 2016

This DNC snapchat filter makes me want to commit suicide pic.twitter.com/bkIdkWQa30  POOPCUTIE AT THE DNC (@poopcutie) July 26, 2016

Source: THR.

Photo: Aaron P. Bernstein / Getty.
PHILADELPHIA -- Supporters of Senator Bernie Sanders are planning a fart-in this week in Philadelphia, in an act of protest aimed the Democratic establishment assembled here for this week's Democratic National Convention.

The event is scheduled for Thursday, Day Four of the convention and the day in which Hillary Clinton will formally accept her party's nomination for president. Supporters of Clinton's one-time rival, Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, are planning the act of protest, which involves the mass consumption of beans and intentional flatulence meant to coincide with her coronation.

The event is also meant to protest the party's policy platform and primary process, which many Sanders supporters feel was rigged by party elites.

The fart-in is scheduled for both inside the Wells Fargo Center and outside on the street, with at least some Sanders delegates planning to participate inside the convention hall, and supporters planning to participate outside as well.

Organizers include Cheri Honkala of the Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign, who has been stockpiling tins of beans sent to the organization's Philadelphia headquarters by supporters, the AP reports.

Earlier this month, USA Today reported:

Organizers have not tested varieties to discern the smelliest option, but Honkala says baked beans likely will be preferred and paired with hot dogs at a feeding location in a "Clintonville" camp in northern Philadelphia.

"It's a whimsical way of raising a protest," Dr. Walter H. Tsou, Philly's former health commissioner and a supporter of Sanders, told NBC news.

"There's a lot of things that stink about this whole democratic primary process."
Donald Trump

While Donald Trump will face Hillary Clinton in November, the outspoken Republican nominee for president couldn't help but comment Tuesday night on Twitter.

(AP Photo/Gerry Broome)

While Donald Trump will face Hillary Clinton in November, the outspoken Republican nominee for president couldn't help but offer some jabs Tuesday night on Twitter.

Clinton defeated U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders to become the Democratic Party's nominee for president of the United States. Trump took shots at both Hillary and Sanders following the Democratic National Convention's roll call vote in Philadelphia.

Here's a selection of tweets from Trump:

Bernie's exhausted, he just wants to shut down and go home to bed!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 26, 2016

No matter what Bill Clinton says and no matter how well he says it, the phony media will exclaim it to be incredible. Highly overrated!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 27, 2016

I hate to say it, but the Republican Convention was far more interesting (with a much more beautiful set) than the Democratic Convention!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 27, 2016
PHILADELPHIA -- It's no understatement to say that Pennsylvania's judicial and legal community has had a bad couple of years.

From revelations that attorneys and judges shared offensive and pornographic emails on government computers, leading to a scandal that claimed the jobs of two state Supreme Court justices, and the looming perjury trial of Democratic Attorney General Kathleen Kane of Scranton, there's been no shortage of fodder.

So it might seem counter-intuitive that a member of the embattled Kane's own party might be the guy to clean up the mess.

But that's the argument that Josh Shapiro made to Pennsylvania delegates as Day 3 of the Democratic National Convention opened here Wednesday.

"We have to restore fairness and integrity to our justice system in Pennsylvania," Shapiro, the current chair of Montgomery County's Board of Commissioners said during a breakfast speech at the Doubletree Hotel. "That is the bedrock, the foundation, upon which all the work needs to be done. And it is, now, more than ever, the work that falls to us."

Shapiro, an attorney and also a former state legislator, won a three-way primary in April to emerge as the Democrats' nominee.

He's been tasked with holding onto a seat that Democrats seized in 2012, breaking a four-decade run of Republican control. The GOP nominee, state Sen. John Rafferty, also of Montgomery County, is looking to take it back.

As he did during the primary, Shapiro, who's taken heat for his lack of courtroom experience, struck a populist tone, saying he wanted to be "the people's Attorney General."

Watch the video.
In the end, Bernie Sanders' peace and love movement went away angry on Tuesday night, very angry.

Minutes after his one-time political rival in the race for president clinched the Democratic Party's nomination, supporters of Sanders stormed the gates at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, overpowering officers, scaling a security fence and at times lobbing plastic bottles at a phalanx of assembled lawmen. The activity was enough to draw a spraying of mace but little more.

What had started as a loose collection of Sanders supporters watching that afternoon's roll call vote broadcast live from the convention floor on big screens erected in a nearby park, quickly became a massive and contentious march down a main thoroughfare in this sweltering and increasingly tense American city. This after Sanders lost the delegate count to Clinton -- 1,865 to 2,842 -- that afternoon.

After the vote, irate Sanders supporters marched from the viewing area in FDR Park to the convention hall's fortified security perimeter nearby. There were bullhorns produced, and vows to "lift the gate." At one point the demonstrators succeeded in forcing police back from a secure area that had been off-limits all week.

Overrun, the officers retreated behind the perimeter's fencing. As they attempted to close an opening behind them, protesters worked to force it open. They were ultimately unsuccessful.

Scenes from day 2 of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia. in Philadelphia. Sean Simmers, PennLive.com July 25, 2016

After more than an hour spent there, banging on the gates and waiting for Clinton delegates to exit the arena, the group eventually migrated north on Broad Street, where they met a separate Black Lives Matter march already in progress and already headed toward the convention hall.

The merger, born near the intersection of Broad Street and Oregon, created the largest and most volatile demonstration seen in the city so far this week, with police vastly outnumbered and increasingly the subject of communal anger.

There were skirmishes between members of the crowd at times, and officers were repeatedly shouted down or forced to retreat on their motorcycles and in their vehicles as the hybrid march grew in size, dwarfing the somewhat casual law enforcement presence in the streets.

Throughout the week, officers have chosen a retreat-rather-than-engage approach, likely looking to avoid an ugly spectacle played out on the world's stage. That approach continued during Tuesday's demonstrations as well, and only a handful of arrests were reported or spotted. Almost all involved demonstrators who had scaled the security fence outside the DNC in front of a waiting officers.

Once the hybrid march reached the convention hall gates, it quickly fizzled out, with groups splintering off in different directions.

Only scattered collections of people remained as of 11 p.m., while a sizable yet calmer candlelight vigil -- one marking the "death of democracy" -- continued as of midnight in the park.

But the frenzied activity that touched off hours earlier had revealed deep divisions among the protesters here, divisions that only worsened as the day and demonstrations wore on.

Police push back protestors during a Black Lives Matter march on day 2 of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia. in Philadelphia. Sean Simmers, PennLive.com July 25, 2016

Some Sanders supporters were visibly angered over the aggressive tone of Tuesday's protests after days spent thanking police and extending the olive branch.

At one point, a female Sanders supporter was shoved after confronting a group of masked demonstrators who had burned an American flag in a small fire on the ground outside the Wells Fargo Center's security fence, feet from on-looking officers.

She accused the fire starters of being outside agitators and of "hijacking the [Sanders] movement," before walking away in disgust.

Others called similar shows of force necessary. In doing so, they have revealed a tug-of-war now underway for the soul of the movement itself.

"People are restless. We don't know where we are going and we know fraud has been committed in there [the DNC]," said a marcher from Tennessee who identified herself only as Rosa.

"And I don't say that because I'm a Bernie supporter. I say that because the whole system is corrupt, and a lot of us are waking up."

Even among those protesters disputing each others' tactics, all agreed they were angry.

Jill Stein, Green Party Presidential candidate, meets up with protestors on Broad St. during day 2 of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia. in Philadelphia. Sean Simmers, PennLive.com July 25, 2016

That same sense of resentment is now also fueling the popularity of Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein among a particularly rigid segment of Sanders' base -- one refusing to embrace his former opponent, Hillary Clinton, even with Sanders himself repeatedly urging them to do so.

It was against this backdrop that Stein joined Tuesday evening's hybrid march on Broad Street as it wound its way south toward the convention hall gates. Once it arrived, she addressed the crowd.

"I heard the delegates had walked out [of the convention] and I wanted to support them in the vision of this 'Bernie or bust' campaign that is leading the way forward," she said minutes earlier.

Stein had addressed a similar crowd of supporters that afternoon in a rally outside City Hall, and she was welcomed into the fold Tuesday evening with cheers of "Jill, not Hill," before being swarmed by supporters and members of the media at the gates.

Soon after she finished speaking there, the crowd began to disperse. Some loitered, others walked into the nearby park or headed for the subway.

Calm was restored, but a driving anger remains here. Protesters say it is unlikely to fade anytime soon.

"We tried to believe in it [the system]," the marcher calling herself Rosa said. "But it's a bunch of bullsh--."

Behind her, fellow protesters continued their chants of "Burn it down," directed at the convention hall. But their voices had begun to sound tattered and thin.

They will likely return, however, with more protests scheduled throughout the week and culminating in Clinton's acceptance of the Democratic nomination on Thursday.

"The movement has to keep on moving," one explained.
Mother of the Movement

Sybrina Fulton, Geneva Reed-Veal, Lucy McBath, Gwen Carr, Cleopatra Pendleton, Maria Hamilton, Lezley McSpadden and Wanda Johnson from Mothers of the Movement speak during the second day of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia , Tuesday, July 26, 2016. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

(J. Scott Applewhite)

Philadelphia's police union is upset after relatives of victims of police shootings spoke at the Democratic National Convention Tuesday without anyone representing the families of law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty.

The Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 5 issued a strongly worded statement slamming the presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party.

The speakers -- known as the Mothers of the Movement -- were mothers of black men and women who were the victims of gun violence or police-involved deaths.

The police union said it was "shocked and saddened" by the the speakers' selection.

"It is sad that to win an election Mrs. Clinton must pander to the interests of people who do not know all the facts," the statement said, "while the men and women they seek to destroy are outside protecting the political institutions of this country."

Here's a copy of the full statement:

President John McNesby and the membership of Philadelphia Lodge 5 FOP are shocked and saddened by the planned choice of speakers at the upcoming DNC 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, and "being on duty in blue."

It is 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.
Want to be a protester? There's a class for that.

The Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia has been flooded with protests from a variety of groups. There have been Black Lives Matter protests, immigration protests, environmental ones and, of course, numerous pro-Bernie Sanders marches.

In some cases, the goal is to get arrested. That was the case for the Democracy Spring protest on July 25, in which more than 50 protesters were detained by police and cited for disorderly conduct.

Those protesters were also trained.

Democracy Spring has been hosting free classes on civil disobedience throughout the Democratic National Convention. Held at 7 p.m. nightly at the Arch Street United Methodist Church, the classes include how to escalate and de-escalate a situation as well as what to do if you are arrested. Those attending are also briefed on the next day's protest activities, so that they can join.

Watch the video above to see the class in action.

After going through a course, protesters sign a pledge to be a nonviolent protester. They also provide basic information so that Democracy Spring can keep in touch with them should they be arrested.

Democracy Spring was not the organizer for the protest at the Democratic National Convention after the roll call vote on July 26. During that protest, Sanders' supporters were maced as they climbed barriers and attempted to break into the DNC.

You can learn more about Democracy Spring at democracyspring.org.
For the first time during the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, police maced protesters.

On July 26, 2016 a mass of Bernie Sanders supporters converged on the Wells Fargo Center and the police barricade outside. They banged on fences and climbed makeshift walls in an attempt to get into the convention and protest the nomination of Hillary Clinton.

At one point, some protesters even burned a rumpled American flag. It was an action many other protesters did not agree with.

It was a massive shift from the largely peaceful protests earlier in the week, during which protesters would often shout out "thank you" to police officers.

See scenes from the protest in the video above.

Democracy Spring, one of the many protest groups at the Democratic National Convention, did not plan this specific protest. But they have been hosting protests and marches all week. The group is providing free training for protesters on civil disobedience.
John W. Hinckley Jr. will be a free man in August, more than 35 years after the attempted assassination of then-President Ronald Reagan.

The Washington Post reports that Hinckley, who has been in a government psychiatric hospital since he was 25 years old, poses no threat to the general public.

Hinckley, 61, no longer poses a danger to himself or others and will be freed to live full-time with his mother in Williamsburg, Va., effective as soon as Aug. 5 subject to dozens of temporary treatment and monitoring conditions, U.S. District Judge Paul L Friedman of Washington wrote.

If Hinckley adheres to all restrictions, they could begin to be phased out after 12 to 18 months, removing him from court control for the first time since he was confined to St. Elizabeth's hospital after the shooting, according to the order.

The order limits Hinckley to a 50-mile radius of Williamsburg, Va., requires him to turn over information about his mobile phone and vehicles he will be driving, and bars him from accessing social media, uploading any content or erasing any browser history from his computer.

Hinckley wounded Reagan, along with press secretary James Brady, U.S. Secret Service agent Tim McCarthy and D.C. police officer Thomas Delahanty in 1981 outside of a Washington hotel. Brady was paralyzed as a result of the attack.

After Brady's death in 2014, the Virginia medical examiner's office ruled it a homicide. The office said that the injuries Brady sustained in 1981 led to his death 33 years later. New charges were not brought against Hinckley.
A demonstrator is taken into custody by police after climbing over a barricade near the AT&T Station, Monday, July 25, 2016, in Philadelphia, during the first day of the Democratic National Convention. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)
FILE - In this July 30, 2015 file photo, a blueberry harvester makes its way through a field near Appleton, Maine. The federal government is expected to complete a plan to help the state's wild blueberry industry by buying surplus berries. The purchase could impact prices to consumers. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty, files)
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 
Petrobras to reduce stake in Brazil's gas industry



Petrobras to minimize role in Brazil's natural gas pipelines and LNG terminals

RIO DE JANEIRO

Petroleumworld.com 07 27 2016

State-controlled oil company Petrobras said on Tuesday it plans to scale back its role in Brazil's natural gas industry by selling or sharing control of pipelines and opening its liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals to third parties.

The move by Petroleo Brasileiro SA, as the company is formally known, is part of a wider move to reduce its role in the transport, storage and distribution of natural gas and other fuels, said Jorge Celestino, the company's head of refining and natural gas.

Petrobras is in the middle of a plan to sell about $15 billion of assets by the end of this year to reduce its nearly $130 billion of debt, the largest in the oil industry, and focus investments on giant new offshore oil fields south of Rio de Janeiro, some of the world's largest discoveries in decades.

Brazil is also looking to expand the use of natural gas and the number of players in the gas market. Large amounts of new gas are expected to become available as new offshore fields come on line.

Some companies have been hampered in their ability to exploit new resources or make projects such as power plants viable by Petrobras' dominance of the gas transport system and a lack of clear rules, the IBP, Brazil's oil industry association has said.

"We want to be the main player in the discussion of the new model for the gas industry," Celestino said at a natural gas conference in Rio de Janeiro.






The UK government indefinitely suspended payments worth 3bn from the European Development Fund in a move than is projected to have almost an immediate effect on the British economy. Firms say that they have been told that they would not receive any money from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). ERDF is the EUs tool to promote economic growth and it has to be matched by payments from Member States. There were, however, rumors that the UK Treasury is afraid that it would not be able to continue paying its share.

In response to this move, a number of London-based companies appealed for this decision to be reconsidered in a letter sent to then Chancellor George Osborne. The letter was written by John Spindler, chief executive of non-profit firm Capital Enterprise, and it pointed to the promise of funding for more than 600 tech start-ups in the City. 3.7m was supposed to be distributed to these companies under the scheme called CASTS.

Until last week we were on track to sign the full funding agreement in mid-July, the letter said. So it was with alarm that we heard  that, because of the referendum result, the Department of Communities and Local Government has notified the GLA [Greater London Authority] to inform Capital Enterprise that ERDF projects like CASTS, were to be put on pause for an indefinite period. The letter further urged the UK government to unblock this funding, saying that it is vital for the start-up and tech communities in London. [The referendum] result has created a lot of uncertainty and raised questions for what it means for tech businesses in London, the letter stressed.
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A FORMER Harrisburg city councilman was arrested in Philadelphia this week and charged with stealing Democratic National Convention parking passes, media passes, and food vouchers, according to the District Attorney's Office.

Brad Koplinski is accused of using a press pass from last week's Republican National Convention in Cleveland to enter the Pennsylvania Convention Center last weekend and take an assortment of DNC passes from boxes, according to Cameron Kline, spokesman for the D.A.'s Office.

A staffer noticed that the items were missing "because the passes were numbered," and security footage allegedly shows Koplinski taking them, Kline said.

Koplinski was arrested Sunday morning at 12th and Arch Streets, Kline said. He was charged with burglary, theft, trespassing, and related counts, according to court records, and was free after posting 10 percent of $10,000 bail.

Koplinski, a Democrat, was a Harrisburg councilman from 2007 to 2015 and once ran for lieutenant governor. Attempts to reach him Tuesday afternoon were unsuccessful. Court records say he is being represented by the Defender Association of Philadelphia.

Koplinski told PennLive last week that he had attended the RNC using a friend's credentials. In exchange, he told the website, he agreed to hawk Trump buttons in Cleveland, despite being a proud Democrat.

"Boy, some people will do anything to get into the Republican Convention," Koplinski wrote on his Facebook page, sharing a link to the article.

A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Aug. 8, according to court records.

cpalmer@phillynews.com

215-854-2817

@cs_palmer
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The National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund (NLEOMF) has issued a report saying firearms-related deaths of police officers have spiked nearly 80% in 2016 over the same period in 2015. The report covers the period from Jan. 1 through July 20.

NLEOMF says there have been 32 firearms-related deaths of officers in 2016, an increase of 78 percent over the 18 during the same period in 2015. The 32 firearms-related deaths in 2016 includes 14 officers who were killed in ambushes, an increase of more than 300% for the same period in 2015. In the last month five officers were killed in an ambush in Dallas and another three officers were ambushed and murdered in Baton Rouge, LA.

Overall 67 officers have been killed in the line of duty in 2016, NLEOMF reports. That is an 8% increase over the 62 killed in the same period last year.

Traffic-related incidents were the second leading cause of officer fatalities, with 24 officers killed during the reporting perioda 17 percent decrease over the same period last year (29). Thirteen officers were killed in automobile crashes involving another vehicle; five officers were struck while outside of their vehicle; four officers were killed in motorcycle crashes and two officers were killed in single-vehicle crashes. The two single-vehicle crashes are a 78 percent decrease from nine during the same period last yearan early indication that progress is being made reducing these preventable deaths.

Eleven officers died due to other causes such as job-related illnesses in the first half of 2016, compared to 16 officer deaths during the same time last yeara 31 percent decrease. Heart attacks were the cause of six officer deaths, two officers fell to their death, one officer died in an aircraft crash, one officer was beaten to death and one officer drowned.

Texas led all states with 13 officer fatalities; followed by Louisiana with seven officer deaths. California, Colorado, Florida, Maryland, Michigan, Ohio and Virginia all lost three officers thus far in 2016.

The Memorial Fund is currently constructing the National Law Enforcement Museum, which will help bridge the gap between law enforcement and the communities they serve. The Museum currently hosts discussions and free programming designed to educate the public about law enforcement policies and tactics. When the Museum opens in 2018, it will tackle tough issues our country faces with open dialog amongst law enforcement, civic leaders and the citizenry.

"Each day some 900,000 men and women work to keep our communities safe, and we owe each of them a debt of gratitude, declared NLEOMF President and CEO Craig W. Floyd. All American citizens should be outraged at the number of officers who have been targeted, shot and killed this year. The brutal assassinations of law enforcement officers in Texas and Louisiana shocked our nation and we saw similar ambush attacks on officers in other parts of the country earlier this year. Public safety is a partnership. Thankfully, the vast majority of Americans clearly support and appreciate the vital role law enforcement plays in our society. So, now is the time for all law-abiding citizens to partner with law enforcement in support of safe communities."

A copy of the full report, 2016 Mid-Year Law Enforcement Officer Fatalities Report, is available at www.LawMemorial.org/FatalitiesReport.
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President of the Planned Parenthood Action Fund Cecile Richards rocked the DNC Tuesday night when she said of Hillary Clinton, This isnt just about electing the first woman president, its about electing THIS woman president.

So much for the very offensive dont vote with your vagina argument put forth by Republicans and some alleged Bernie Sanders supporters.

Richards said, Planned Parenthood was founded 100 years ago, giving women the care they need to live their lives and chase their dreams  no limits, no ceilings, and, A century later, an enormous ceiling is coming down.

Each year, millions of women, men, and young people trust Planned Parenthood. And the Planned Parenthood Action Fund trusts Hillary Clinton.

Cecile Richards recalled, As first lady, Hillary declared to the world that, womens rights are human rights.

Richards listed off some of Hillary Clintons experience, She worked with Republicans and Democrats to help create the Childrens Health Insurance Program, which now covers 8 million kids. As Secretary of State, she was a champion for women and girls around the globe.

Richards said Clinton will always stand up for Roe v. Wade and the right of every woman to access a full range of reproductive health care, including abortion, no matter her economic status.

The President of the Planned Parenthood Action Fund told the story about a woman named Dayna Farris Fisher, a mom in Dallas who was diagnosed with breast cancer two years ago. Today, Dayna is cancer-free. She says she couldnt have done it without Vivian, the Planned Parenthood clinician who stuck with her all the way through treatment.

This allowed Richards to neuter another Republican talking point, because when Republicans talk about defunding Planned Parenthood, they suggest they are defunding abortions, when in fact due to the Hyde Amendment, public funds do not pay for abortions. So what they are really talking about defunding is sometimes lifesaving healthcare for women and girls.

Richards explained, When Donald Trump and Mike Pence say theyll defund Planned Parenthood, theyre talking about cutting women like Dayna off from lifesaving care.

Richards told the audience that womens health and rights were at stake this election and on the ballot. She talked about Donald Trumps disturbing worldview, saying, Donald Trump has called women fat pigs and dogs. He wants to punish women for having abortions. And he says pregnancy is an inconvenience for a womans employer.

Well, Donald Trump, come November, women are going to be more than an inconvenience, Richards said to coming cheers, Were going to be the reason youre not elected!

Boom.
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It seems to be overlooked by the media these days, but Donald Trump still hasnt released his tax returns  making him the first GOP nominee since Richard Nixon not to do so.

His opponent, Hillary Clinton, has released the last eight years of her tax returns, showing that she and her husband have paid $43,885,310 in federal taxes since 2007. In 2013 and 2014, the Clintons paid an effective federal tax rate of 35.4 percent and 35.7, respectively.

According to Hillary Clintons website, [The most recently released tax returns] supplement the public release of the familys tax returns from 20002006 during her 2008 campaign, returns from 19921999 disclosed annually during her husbands time in the White House, and prior returns released by her husbands presidential campaign. All told, the Clintons have made their tax returns public for every year dating back to 1977.

Meanwhile, Donald Trump has failed to release any of his tax returns, raising questions about what he might be hiding.

On Monday, conservative columnist George Will raised some new questions about why the Republican nominee doesnt want to disclose this information. Video:

Will said, Perhaps one more reason why were not seeing his tax returns because he is deeply involved in dealing with Russia oligarchs and others. Whether thats good, bad or indifferent its probably the reasonable surmise.

Billionaire Mark Cuban also chimed in on Trumps tax dodges in a series of tweets on Tuesday:

3) its not a tough argument looking at their taxes and fec filings that the Clintons are much smarter business people and negotiators  Mark Cuban (@mcuban) July 26, 2016

5) maybe @realDonaldTrump didnt release his taxes become @HillaryClinton paid more in taxes than @realDonaldTrump made in income ?  Mark Cuban (@mcuban) July 26, 2016

Hopefully, these questions will put renewed pressure on Trump to do what presidential candidates have done for decades and release his tax returns.

If he doesnt, the media and voters should hold him accountable.
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I want to thank you for standing with us and supporting us, and wed like to leave with you what God has given us: strength, love and peace, Sybrina Fulton, mother of Trayvon Martin, said in a moment of profound emotion Tuesday night, during the second session of the DNC.

This isnt about being politically correct. This is about saving our children, Fulton said earlier, making it clear that asking for justice and saving lives is not asking people to be politically correct.

Fulton was speaking as a member of Mothers of the Movement, a group of women who lost their children due to gun violence or police brutality. They banded together at Hillary Clintons suggestion, in order to protect black Americans and reform our criminal justice system.

You dont stop being a mom when your child dies, the mother of Jordan Davis said. Lucy McBath continued, I lived in fear my son would die like this. I even warned him that because he was a young, black man he would meet people who didnt value his life.

I am still Jordan Daviss mother. His life ended the day he was shot and killed for playing loud music. But my job as his mother didnt.

Saying that Hillary Clinton invited the mothers to become a part of the solution, McBath said, Were going to keep building a future where police officers and communities of color work together in mutual respect to keep children like Jordan safe. Because the majority of police officers are good people doing a good job.

Hear that? There was no demonizing of police.

Geneva Reed-Veal, Sandra Blands mother, said, Im here with Hillary Clinton because she is a leader and a mother who will say our childrens names. Hillary knows that when a young black life is cut short, its not just a personal loss. It is a national loss. It is a loss that diminishes all of us.

Reed-Veal could have wallowed in bitterness but instead said it was a blessing to be there, What a blessing to be here tonight, so that Sandy can still speak through her mama. And what a blessing it is for all of us that we have the opportunity, if we seize it, to cast our votes for a president who will help lead us down the path toward restoration and change.

This kind of high-minded spiritual leadership is sorely lacking on the Republican side, which is focused on demonizing Black Lives Matter instead of listening.

This tone of peace and unity was a major difference between this and RNC last week.

The mothers of Sandra Bland, Michael Brown, Jordan Davis, Eric Garner, Oscar Grant, Dontre Hamilton, Blair Holt, Trayvon Martin and Hadiya Pendleton werent trying to lay false blame to demonize, but rather lift up a cause, in a peaceful manner, even in their horrible grief.

The DNC released this video Tuesday night, based on Hillary Clintons suggestion to the moms to be a Constant Drumbeat:

Asked how they could make their voices heard and be most effective, Clinton told the moms, I think you can continue to speak out, but you will be more effective if you do somehow band together, so that its a constant drumbeat.

As to say, look we are citizens, we are mothers, we lost children, Clinton told them during a meeting that was supposed to be 30 minutes long but turned into a 2-hour meeting. This is not only wrong, it is unacceptable, and here are the things that need to happen, to try to prevent this from ever happening again.

Sybrina Fulton, mother of Trayvon Martin said of this meeting with Hillary Clinton, A 30-minute meeting turned into two hours because she listened to us. Nobody else listened to us.

And now these mothers, Sybrina Fulton, Geneva Reed-Veal, Lucy McBath, Gwen Carr, Cleopatra Pendelton, Maria Hamilton, Lezley McSpadden, and Wanda Johnson and more are speaking up with great strength, yet somehow grounded in love and peace. This is the kind of rhetoric our nation needs. Words focused on solutions and ending hate.

I wonder if Republicans who demonize these women and the Black Lives Matter movement have ever listened to the actual words they speak, because they did not urge hate or violence. Quite the opposite.

Apparently they arent shown these women on purpose. Brian Lowry tweeted Tuesday night, Fox News only cable network not covering Black Lives Matter presentation live. OReilly interviewing Karl Rove, goes to commercial.

It makes a person wonder if women in this much grief can be grounded in ending hate, why cant Donald Trump.
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Appearing Wednesday on CNNs At This Hour with Berman and Bolduan, David Gregory reacted to Donald Trumps request of Putin that he hack Hillary Clinton by saying of the former reality star,

Its as if this is a child playing with matches who doesnt understand how badly he and the country can get burned.

And yes, this is really happening. Just to enshrine this moment in history, lets look at exactly what Trump has done, courtesy of NBC Nightly News editor Bradd Jaffy:

What a time to be alive pic.twitter.com/loIz0Bmqpq  Bradd Jaffy (@BraddJaffy) July 27, 2016

Then watch David Gregorys reaction courtesy of Media Matters for America:

JOHN BERMAN (CO-HOST): It is unusual, which is a charitable way of putting it, for a presidential candidate to call on the intelligence services of another nation to hack into American government emails, but thats what Donald Trump just did.



DAVID GREGORY: Ive run out of words to express my shock and how completely beyond the pale that Donald Trump is as a potential leader of the free world, the commander in chief of our country. This was truly beyond the pale. I mean, he is encouraging Russia, which by all accounts was behind the leak of one of our major political parties, to do more, to go beyond, to try to hack into Hillary Clintons server to find missing emails to kind of get in the middle of the scandal. Its as if this is a child playing with matches who doesnt understand how badly he and the country can get burned. Its a very serious thing. And I think that the one thing about Trump is that he is very clear for all to see. He is making very clear what he thinks, how he comes by information, and I think, frankly, the lack of seriousness and the intemperance with which he speaks about important national security matters should certainly give people pause. And I dont think theres anybody who would think that was anything but a fair reading of what weve seen here. Vladimir Putin is dangerous. Hes been dangerous to a Democratic president, to a Republican president, President George W. Bush who thought he had a better relationship with him. And now this nominee of the Republican Party wants a closer relationship with Vladimir Putin which is what he said. And he thinks that he has the ability to have a better relationship. Theres no evidence to believe thats the case.

David Gregory is right. Donald Trump is reckless in word and deed, and a danger to America. Far from making it stronger, he invites our enemies to attack us out of sheer small-minded petulance.

Trump has already lost many Republicans who see him as unstable, with lifelong Republican Daniel Piper referring to Trumps boorish, selfish, puerile, and repulsive character, combined with his prideful ignorance [and] his off-the-cuff policy making.

This is just the latest example of what can only be described as a severe character flaw in Donald Trump. In the wake of allegations that his personal and financial ties to the Russian strongman are too close and the recent Russian hacking of the DNC, this was a horrible mistake on his part.

It will only fan the flames, serving to increase awareness in voters that Donald Trump is not stable enough an individual to occupy the highest office in the land.
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Donald Trump told NBC News correspondent Katy Tur to be quiet during a press conference on Wednesday and impugned her integrity as a journalist by publicly accusing her of trying to save Hillary Clinton by asking him questions.

Offering a stark contrast to the Democratic convention celebrating nominating a woman to be the official candidate for president, Trump once again showed his contempt and disdain for women journalists who dont fawn over him.

Katy Tur tried to ask Trump a follow up question and he replied by impugning her integrity as a journalist and trying to game the ref, Be quiet, I know you want to you know save her (Hillary).

Watch here:

That a person in our government Katy, would delete or get rid of 33,000 emails. That gives me a big problem. After she gets a subpoena. She gets subpoenaed, and she gets rid of 33,000 emails.

This is actually what Donald Trump is accused of doing in a lawsuit, not what Hillary Clinton did. Hillary Clinton did not deliberately try to hide emails or destroy them, according to the FBI investigation.

FBI Director James Comey made a point in his statement to kill another Republican conspiracy about Secretary Hillary Clinton. Comey said they found no evidence that any of the additional work-related emails were intentionally deleted in an effort to conceal them.

Trump continued and this is when he asked Russia to find Hillary Clintons emails, as if he believes they are better than the U.S. and as if he is suddenly okay with the Russians being able to blackmail Hillary Clinton, as he alleged was a problem earlier.

Trump pretty much directed the hackers to find the emails for him, That gives me a problem. Now if Russia or China or any other country has those emails, I mean to be honest with you, Id love to see them.

Katy Tur asked another question giving Trump another opportunity to display his contempt, Katy just said that, many polls show you are winning. Are you Katy Tur of NBC? Its a disguise.

This is the same presser during which Trump responded to Katy Turs question asking if the Geneva Conventions are out of date, I think everythings out of date.

So thats a yes to dangerous clown. Republicans are doing nothing to shut this man down.

Katy Tur was doing her job as a journalist. Donald Trump not only told her to be quiet but then berated her and tried to bully her into silence by accusing her of siding with Hillary Clinton.

We call this gaming the ref, and its an old play for politicians. But Donald Trump has taken this to a new level. Katy Tur is but one in a long line of women journalists who have been subjected to Donald Trumps public contempt. Most memorable was his comment suggesting that Fox News Megyn Kelly was on her period.

Donald Trump likes pretty woman who are cheerleaders for his lies. Women who ask questions, who rebuff his advances, who hold him accountable for reality are treated like he treated Katy Tur today.

This is not presidential behavior.
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Work is set to start on the renovation of Rochester's former priest treatment facility known as The Guest House.

New Brighton-based Meridian Behavioral Health , which bought the facility for $5.1 million in April, has awarded Knutson Construction the contract to remodel the English Tudor-style mansion at 4800 48th St. NE. Financial details of the contract were not released.

Meridian is rechristening the complex as Oakridge Treatment Center. They are converting into a 70-bed men's residential mental health and chemical dependency treatment center on a 90-acre estate. Oakridge is expected to care for both privately and publicly funded clients.

Oakridge will have a wider client reach than the Beauterre Recovery Instituteit opened in Owatonna in January. Meridian purchased the former Daniel C. Gainey Conference Centerfrom the University of St. Thomasand transformed it into a 61-bed residential addiction treatment center that has been described as "spa-like." Treatment costs $975 per day.

Meridian has nearly 8,000 clients annually at its seven residential and 11 outpatient programs in Minnesota. It offers a range of substance abuse and addiction treatment services, including medication-assisted treatment.

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Knutson anticipates completing the renovation of the 47-year-old facility by the end of the year. The project team will be led by senior project manager Derek O'Connor. Knutson will be working with Stillwater-based S2 Enterprises,St. Paul-based Pope Architectsand Crystal-based Steen Engineering.

"Knutson's work on the expansion and remodel of the Oak Ridge Treatment Center will allow Meridian to continue doing what they do best: holistically treating Minnesotans affected by chemical dependency and addiction," said Tom Leimer, Knutson's vice president and general manager in the announcement of the contract.

Meridian Behavioral Health bought the facility from the Guest House, a Michigan-based nonprofit that provides addiction treatment for priests and other Catholic Clergy. The Guest House treated more than 2,000 people at the site from 1969 to 2014, when it closed.
The Rochester Clinic is joining forces with a building trades union to offer direct care for their members.

Starting Aug. 1, local members of the Pipe Trades Services Minnesota union will be able to go to the Rochester Clinic at 3070 Wellner Drive NE for most medical and preventative care.

The Pipe Trades union represents plumbers, pipe fitters, sprinkler fitters, gas fitters and HVAC technicians. Of the 9,000 union members, about 300 are based in the Rochester area.

This new arrangement is an extension of the union's revolutionary PTSMN Welfare fund, which is a self-insured, self-administered health insurance plan.

The PTSMN, under the direction of executive administrator Jim Hynes, launched two health clinics of its own to care for members in the Twin Cities in 2013. Hynes estimated the union was processing and paying $50 million to $60 million in medical claims a year.

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"We looked at those claims and thought there had to be a better way for us to try to serve our participants," he said in a 2014 "Minnesota Medicine" article.

Having their own clinics means members can see a doctor without a deductible or a co-pay. Unlike most medical centers, very little paperwork is required. Patients spend up to an hour with their physician unlike many larger health centers that can rush patients through visits.

Now the new partnership with the 6-year-old Rochester Clinic brings that same service to Pipe Trades members and their families in southeastern Minnesota. Dr. Jengyu Lai, the chief manager of Rochester Clinic, led the creation of the clinic in 2010.

"PTSMN values the practice philosophy of the Rochester Clinic. Both parties believe that every person is unique, so is the treatment; that conservative options should be exhausted before invasive ones are considered; and that interdisciplinary collaboration is the best way to design treatment plans and prevent recurrence," stated union officials in the announcement of the partnership.

Rochester Clinic, which has three physicians, offers family medicine, podiatry and lifestyle medicine with specialty programs in arthritis, wound management and occupational medicine. However, the main service that attracted the Pipe Trades was not treatment, but prevention, said the clinic's chief financial officer Mei Liu.

Liu explained her clinic includes wellness services to help patients be more healthy and avoid chronic conditions. They offer the Complete Health Improvement Program, an evidence-based lifestyle program

She said the voluntary program helps patients be "healthier and reduce their dependence on medication" to improve their quality of life, as well as reduce their medical expenses.

If a PSTMN member needs surgery or more advanced treatment not offered by the Rochester Clinic, the union says the physician will work with the patient as well to best refer them.

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Liu anticipates the Pipe Trades agreement may mean her clinic will need to expand its six-person staff. The Rochester Clinic is preparing for that possibility as it tracks how much patient traffic this arrangement adds to the regular workload.
The Rochester police street crimes unit took two women into custody after a prostitution sting on Monday.

Officers met a 26-year-old woman around 1:10 p.m. at a location in Rochester in response to a Backpage ad placed online. According to the police report, Dontania Danielle Petrie, 26, of Rochester, met with the officer and negotiated a price for a sex act. The two exchanged money.

Petrie then allegedly brought an 18-year-old woman, Brooklyn Mary Holmes, also of Rochester, into the room to perform the act, telling the officer "she was there to train the girl" and teach her how to "prevent being caught by the police."

Petrie left the room, leaving Holmes with the officer, according to the report. Both women were then taken into custody.

Petrie could face charges of promoting prostitution, a felony, and hiring a prostitute in a public place, a gross misdemeanor. The 18-year-old also could face charges of hiring a prostitute in a public place.

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Police also responded to another online ad around 3:30 p.m.

Police met 32-year-old Lindsey Rachael Arf, of Minneapolis, and allegedly negotiated sex acts. The officer took her into custody and she faces charges of engaging in prostitution.
Local growth data paints positive picture of real economy Updated: 2016-07-27 09:16 (Xinhua)

BEIJING - China reported steady economic growth in the first half (H1) of 2016, and a closer look at the performance of different provinces really shines a light on the world's second largest economy.

Some 26 provinces, regions and municipalities have released their H1 GDP data, with the western regions of Chongqing, Tibet and Guizhou all reporting growth rates above 10 percent. Moreover, 21 of the provinces, regions and municipalities saw GDP growth exceeding the country's 6.7 percent for the same period.

Bright spot

Emerging industries become increasingly important to local economies as economic restructuring enhances growth quality.

Chongqing municipality, which has reported eye-catching growth speed for the past ten quarters, shared the fastest growth of 10.6 percent with Tibet in H1.

The added value of the city's ten strategic emerging sectors like new materials, robotics and electronics, grew 24.8 percent in the first half, or 14.6 percentage points higher than the city's industrial growth rate. Still, they have robust growth prospects.

"Although the added value of emerging industries accounts for only 15 percent of the whole industrial added value, their contribution to industrial growth was 28.3 percent," said Zhang Fumin, deputy head of Chongqing Municipal Bureau of Statistics.

The heavily polluted province of Hebei in the north, also made progress in structural reform and posted 6.6 percent growth for the period.

Raw coal output fell by 8.8 percent and the production of glass also dropped by 4.5 percent in the first half, according to Hebei Provincial Bureau of Statistics.

The proportion of the equipment manufacturing sector's added value in Hebei's industrial added value surpassed that of the iron and steel industries for the first time in H1, reaching 25.3 percent, according to an official with the bureau.

Hebei aims to further cut its excessive iron and steel capacity by 17 million tons and 14 million tons respectively this year.

Business startups are booming nationwide, thanks to the "Internet Plus" program, various innovation strategies and administration streamlining.

In the eastern province of Zhejiang, the tertiary sector, led by information-based economy, accounted for 52.09 percent of its GDP in H1. The economy of the developed province grew 7.7 percent in this period.

Dream Town in Hangzhou, the provincial capital of Zhejiang, attracted 680 Internet-based startup programs, 6,400 talented people and more than 80 financial institutions within about one year.

In H1, more than 150,000 new companies were established in Zhejiang, a jump of 35.7 percent year on year.

Internet-based management tools have been widely used in product design, transformation of workshops and robotics, said Chen Ailian, chairman of Wanfeng Auto Holding Group in Zhejiang, a leading aluminum wheel manufacturer.

Falling investment and overcapacity

Official data showed China's fixed-asset investment grew 9 percent in the first half of 2016, down from 9.6 percent in the first five months and 10.7 percent in the first quarter.

More notably, private investment increased 2.8 percent in the first half, down from 3.9 percent in the first five months and 5.7 percent in the first quarter.

Private investment growth varied a lot from province to province in H1.

In Shandong Province, private investment grew 2.4 percent to reach nearly 1.7 trillion yuan in the first half. This is lower than the nation's 2.8 percent.

"Private investment in Shandong focuses on traditional manufacturing industries. But given the big environment of cutting excessive capacities, private investment has been affected a lot," said Liu Bing, head of Shandong Macro-economy Research Institute.

The base figure of private investment in Shandong has been very high and continued rapid growth will be more and more difficult, said Liu.

In contrast, private investment grew 19.6 percent in the southern province of Guangdong in H1, the country's manufacturing hub.

Early restructuring moves have brought new energy to Guangdong's economy and its manufacturing sector is still in good shape, as reflected by strong private investment, said Wang Yiyang, researcher with the Guangdong provincial government development and research center.

China is aiming for 6.5 percent to 7 percent growth in 2016. But it also has to cut overcapacity and ensure job creation, and navigate the weak global economic environment.

A number of provinces such as Sichuan and Hebei have struggled to reduce excessive capacity in iron, steel, cement and glass in 2016.
Man dies in St. Louis County after shed falls on him

DULUTH  A 35-year-old man has died in the Duluth area after a shed he was trying to move fell on him.

The St. Louis County Sheriff's Office says it happened Tuesday night in Fredenberg Township as the man was trying to move the shed.

He was pronounced dead at the scene. His name hasn't been released.

Authorities are still investigating his cause of death.  Associated Press

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1 worker buried in trench collapse dies

MINNETONKA  Officials say one of two construction workers injured in a trench collapse in Minnetonka has died.

The Hennepin County medical examiner's office says 48-year-old Jimmy Scott Klous, of Onamia, died late Monday morning in the emergency room of Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis.

Klous and a co-worker were digging a trench for a road reconstruction project in Minnetonka when the dirt gave way around 10 a.m. Monday.

City spokeswoman Kari Spreeman said Klous was buried for about 20 minutes and was unresponsive when he was rescued. The other man also was taken to HCMC, where Spreeman said he was in "moderate" condition Monday.

The men are contract workers for the city and not city employees.

The OSHA division of the Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry will investigate.  Associated Press

Bluegrass festival to celebrate 40th anniversary

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RICHMOND  A Minnesota bluegrass festival celebrates its 40th anniversary next month.

The Minnesota Bluegrass & Old-Time Music Festival will be held Aug. 11-14 at El Rancho Manana in Richmond.

More than 25 bands are scheduled to perform during the four-day festival. Headliners include Pert Near Sandstone, The Travelin' McCourys, Louisiana's The Revelers, The Clay Hess Band featuring former Ricky Skaggs and Kentucky Thunder lead guitarist Clay Hess, traditionalists The Horsenecks, Seattle's twin brother musicians The Canote Brothers and Minnesota's Monroe Crossing.

The festival also features a marketplace, kids events, workshops and dances.

Advance tickets can be ordered online. Tickets also can be purchased at the gate.  Associated Press

St. Louis County declares state of emergency after storms

MOUNTAIN IRON  A local state of emergency has been declared in St. Louis County after last week's storms downed trees and cut power to tens of thousands.

The Tuesday decision by county commissioners means the county could now receive state disaster relief funding if damages exceed a certain amount, which they are expected to do.

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Cleanup continues in areas hit hardest by last Thursday's severe weather. Areas near Duluth and Ely are among the hardest hit.

The County Assessor's Office will begin sending people into the field next week to assess damage on private property.  Associated Press
Is a group of powerful Rochester business leaders raising money to influence local elections?

A report published Monday on the local website Med City Beat alleged a group of business leaders hopes to raise $200,000 to support local candidates and form a nonprofit 501(c)(4) corporation to keep the sources private. The story attributes the information to an "internal memo" that was "addressed by (businessman Andy) Chafoulias in early July," but provides few details on the document itself or how it was obtained.

Sean Baker of Med City Beat told the Post-Bulletin Tuesday he has no intention of making the document available to the public.

But John Wade, general manager and partner at Clements Chevrolet and Cadillac in Rochester, is among the business leaders named in the story and he said Tuesday that no organization had been formed. "No PAC (political action committee), no (c)(4) and no organization has been formed, contrary to what has been reported," said Wade, who's a past president of the Rochester Area Chamber of Commerce.

Wade did indicate some local business leaders gathered recently to discuss current issues.

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"Specifically, did people gather? Yeah, they do. But it's not just unique to one thing. How they choose to give and how they choose to support, whether that's financial or otherwise, and whether it's candidates or causes, they should be able to do that," he said. "I'll defend everybody's right to do that regardless of their political perspective."

Attorney David Pederson, a partner at local firm Dunlap & Seeger , was named in the Med City Beat story as part of the fundraising group. Contacted Tuesday by the Post-Bulletin, Pederson said he was not at liberty to discuss the issue except to say he was uninvolved.

"I am not involved with any group that's forming anything. There's no entity. There's a lot of misinformation," he said.

Chafoulias, CEO of Titan Development & Investments , and Patrick Sexton, government affairs director for the Southeast Minnesota Association of Realtors , both said by Med City Beat to be involved in the fundraising organization, were unavailable for comment Tuesday.

Rochester City Council Member Michael Wojcik said he has known about the effort for months and has been a target of its actions, which he said include "recruiting candidates to potentially move to wards to run against people and putting together a PAC to put six-figure dollars into winning seats that suit their interests on the city council."

In response to others denying the organization's existence Tuesday, Wojcik replied: "They're all pathological liars. That's my statement on it."

In Facebook messages to the Post-Bulletin, Wojcik said he doesn't have a copy of the document that Med City Beat is referring to but said he's "familiar with it and the event."

"For some time I have known they were targeting Ward 2, Ward 6, and Council President if needed," he said. Wojcik represents the 2nd Ward. "The complete story will include many more sensational details," he said.

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On Facebook, Wojcik has said this week, "Patrick Sexton, John Wade and others are trying to hijack local elections with dark money. I will continue to fight #cronyism and lead with #integrity." In another post, he said, "I am glad to see that this is finally getting the news coverage it deserves. Ladies and gentlemen, this is who is funding many campaigns in Rochester ... this is absolutely sick and if you vote for any of the candidates that are being pushed by this bunch of cronies, you deserve the puppet government that you will get."

Sean Allen, a businessman and neighborhood activist who's challenging City Council President Randy Staver in the Nov. 8 election, said he had not been approached by any political action group.

"Nobody has approached me at all. I have heard rumors; I'd heard rumors about it so I wasn't particularly surprised when I saw the Med City Beat article," Allen said.

On the national level, political fundraising organizations that allow contributors to remain unnamed have taken on a bad reputation, Allen said, and he'd be surprised to see it happen at the local level.

"I just don't think it really fits with where we want to go in Rochester. It doesn't sit with my philosophy of political contributions, that's for sure," he said.

The "bullying" of national politics should not and would not reach Rochester's elections, Wade said.

"This community has proven, almost for its entirety, that we have the ability to come together from all walks of life and all perspectives, to make this a great place to live, work and play," he said. "That's what we're about."
WASECA  A Waseca teenager who planned an attack at his school in 2014 has been released from his probation, and in exchange, he has accepted a felony conviction on his record.

John LaDue made the request last week, and it was granted Tuesday by Judge Joseph Chase. LaDue was allowed to leave the courthouse after the hearing, as he has already served his time.

"John's fulfilled his obligation to society," his attorney, Jeff Johnson, said after the hearing. "He's actually sat one more day than what is required under the law. Regardless of what he does, he understands that he's going to have to live with this, even if he completed 10 years of probation."

LaDue, now 19, pleaded guilty last fall to one count of possessing an explosive device and agreed to up to 10 years of probation to keep a felony off his record.

But he's been at his parents' house since May and has been under probation conditions that include daily check-ins, weekly mental health appointments, monthly appointments with a psychiatrist and other conditions.

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He has said that making appointments has been difficult, and terms of his probation will make it hard for him to go to school to be a pipe fitter. He has said that he now realizes a felony conviction may not hurt his future prospects as much as he once feared and with the internet he wears a "Scarlet letter," Johnson said.

"He's made the decision after staying in the community that no matter how hard he works at this, no matter what he does, he will be viewed the same way," Johnson said.

LaDue was 17 when he was arrested in April 2014 after he was found with bomb-making materials and detailed plans to kill his family then carry out an attack at his school.

Mental health experts had testified that LaDue was diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder and a fixation on violence. A separate evaluation before he was allowed to go to his parents' found he suffered from depression, not autism, and was a low risk.

Waseca County Attorney Brenda Miller said she was concerned about LaDue's choice.

"Nobody will be supervising him; he can just regress back to the behavior he had before," she said last week. "I hope he doesn't. I hope he gets the services he needs. There's no way to verify that."
GRAND RAPIDS  Mike McGinnis has run The Village Bookstore in Grand Rapids for 36 years. When he bought the store in 1980, it was just a small affair on the side of Highway 2. Four years later, he moved it into the newly opened Central Square Mall, becoming one of the first tenants.

The 3,000-square-foot bookshop, just inside the mall's main doors, has served up reading material for generations of locals and yearly waves of tourists. But this year, after three decades in the industry, McGinnis decided to retire.

He planned to downsize and leave the mall behind. He submitted his 60-day notice to mall management and began packing things up.

"At the very last minute, the mall manager came and said: 'Wait, wait, wait! Stop!'" McGinnis remembers.

Jean Healy, the manager of Central Square, couldn't stand to see the store leave. After McGinnis submitted his notice, she began planning. The mall already had lost several tenants, leaving vacant storefronts. She didn't want to see another one, and she knew the bookstore was one of the most beloved shops in the mall.

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"We said, 'We don't want to lose the bookstore. Let's buy it,'" Healy said.

Central Square Mall became the official owner of The Village Bookstore on July 1. The mall already has plans to expand the store and add an additional 1,900 square feet.

The new space will include an expanded children's book section  the most popular section in the store  and more gift merchandise. There will be puzzles to go with the children's books, kitchenware to go with the cookbooks  more items that will help make the store financially viable. The name will be updated to The Village Bookstore & Gifts.

McGinnis said, while the store has a loyal following, the book business was hit hard by the economic downturn and the rise of online shopping.

"It slowed during the recession because it hit the tourist industry and the home-building industry, and now there's the mining industry slump," he said. July and August were once as busy as Christmas, but that hasn't been the case for years.

McGinnis laughed when he thought of his wife's many book clubs (she's in four of them) and how club members will say, "Oh, we can get next month's book cheap on Amazon."

"She goes, 'Wait a minute! I'm right here in the room! I can hear you!'" McGinnis said. Because of online shopping, he has watched his customer base age without new customers coming in.

"It's starting to come back a little now, but I'm 73," he said. "It's time for me to go."

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It's the end of a family endeavor for McGinnis: In his time as owner, all five of his daughters have helped run the store. He's had at least one daughter working there from 1980 until last May.

Since the sale to the mall, he's heard from customers who are relieved the store is staying where it is. Many neighboring towns have lost their bookstores or never had one to begin with.

"We've found we could fill a niche for the community, as well as the tourists. They'd come in time after time and say, 'Boy, we're surprised to see a bookstore like this in a small town,'" McGinnis said.

The mall is happy to keep it that way.
WABASHA  After more than 100 signatures and an hourlong discussion and public forum, the Wabasha County Board of Commissioners voted Tuesday to reject a citizen petition for a further look into the possible environmental impacts of a business looking to move in.

In May of this year, Progressive Ag LLC, an agricultural company that sells materials such as grain, feed and fertilizer, requested permission to build an agronomy center on County Road 25 near Elgin.

After reviewing the request, the Wabasha County Planning Commission sent it to the Wabasha County Board of Commissioners with the unanimous recommendation that the request should be denied.

Worried about the possible effects that the center could have on neighboring residences and businesses, a citizen petition with over 100 signatures was put before the board, requesting that an Environmental Assessment Worksheet be done to assess the environmental impact the center could have before the business request moves any further.

At the meeting on Tuesday to determine whether the petition should be approved, the room was filled with community members ready to express their concerns about the possible agronomy center. About 20 members of the community, many of whom live in close proximity to where the center may be built, spoke at the meeting. The most common concerns voiced throughout the meeting were truck traffic, disruption of peace, how it would affect local businesses and air quality.

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Kevin Krause, Wabasha County zoning administrator, spoke at the meeting to give his recommendation whether or not the board should approve the EAW request based on the environmental evidence laid out in the petition.

Krause said he based his recommendation on the four factors laid out by the Minnesota Administrative Rules concerning EAWs: type, extent and reversibility of environmental impacts; cumulative potential effects; the extent to which the environment effects are subject to mitigation by ongoing public regulatory authority; and the extent to which environmental effects can be anticipated and controlled as a result of other available environmental studies.

"In reviewing the petition, it's my opinion that the petition fails to provide evidence that demonstrates the project to have potential significant environmental effects," Krause said.

After considering Krause's recommendation and the concerns of the public, the Wabasha County Board voted to reject the petition request 4-1 on the decision that the petition did not provide enough evidence to prove an EAW was needed.

Don Springer voted against the resolution to reject the petition, saying he believed he did not have enough information to vote on the agronomy center proposal in the future.

"This kind of information would be helpful to make decisions so that when we do make the decision, we can feel good about the decision we made, whether it's for or against the facility in this spot or how we move forward," Springer said, addressing his fellow board members.

Fred Wescott, owner of Wescott Orchard, spoke at the meeting in favor of the petition, saying his business, about 1,600 feet away from the proposed site of the center, would be greatly affected by a site that produces fertilizer.

"If I had the option of moving my business away from that plant, I would," he said.

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However, Wescott said he was not surprised by the decision of the board.

"I believe the decision was expected because we feel a lot of these decisions have been made prior to the information," Wescott said. "That is one of the big concerns about this project, that it appears that there is an agenda that is being put in place. Our voice is not being heard. There's a lot of people impacted, a lot of businesses impacted, and the right people aren't listening."

Whether the board approves the request made by Progressive Ag LLC will be decided at a later date.
Chinese VP highlights role of youth in global economic growth Updated: 2016-07-27 09:17 (Xinhua)

BEIJING - Chinese Vice President Li Yuanchao on Monday called on young people from G20 to inject vitality into the world economy through entrepreneurship and innovation.

Li told Youth 20 meeting (Y20) delegates at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing that the Chinese government highly valued young people's desire to contribute to global economic governance.

He called on YP to play a positive role in the building of a more just and equitable international order, as well as a more fair and rational global governance system.

The vice president also hoped the Y20 delegates would support friendship among all nations through cultural exchanges and mutual learning.

This year's G20 leaders summit will be held in East China's Hangzhou city in early September. The Y20 is a forum to gather attitudes and suggestions from YP for national leaders.
WINONA  The Winona County Board of Commissioners voted Tuesday to set up the process to establish a half-cent local optional transportation sales tax dedicated to road repair.

The board unanimously approved the schedule and process for implementing the new tax. The schedule includes an Aug. 23 public hearing, preliminary approval of the tax on Sept. 13, notification of the state before Oct. 3 and formal adoption of the tax  to take effect Jan. 1  in December.

"We could start using that money by June 2017, which is road-building season," said Commissioner Marie Kovecsi.

The county's road and bridge committee already has started identifying projects, Kovecsi said.

"What they did was make recommendations to the highway engineer," she said. "None of these can supplant any currently funded projects."

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The county is looking for a new source of money for roads and bridges because the state legislature failed to pass a transportation bill this summer. At the June 14 board meeting, county engineer Dave Kramer noted the county is looking at a $3.5 million to $4.4 million shortfall in road and bridge funding. The half-cent sales tax, which would be collected on all retail sales now is subject to other sales taxes, would generate an estimated $1.68 million in 2017, Kramer said.

Funds would begin to be collected as soon as the tax would take effect in January, Kovecsi said, so the county could have a significant portion of the estimated tax in place by the time it needed to start paying for construction in the summer.

Even if the legislature came back and funded some projects, Kovecsi said there still would be plenty of projects likely not covered by state monies.

"That's assuming we'd be fully funded, which we never are," she said.

Each of the counties surrounding Winona County have either a wheelage tax or a sales tax to fund road projects. Winona County is the only county in Minnesota with a significant retail base that does not benefit from a local optional sales tax.
Brewing a new tea culture Updated: 2016-07-27 09:17 By Emma Gonzalez(China Daily)

An employee of Ten Plus, a tea cafe in Beijing, shows her skill at making Chinese tea. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Casual, cozy spaces spring up to convert youth into Chinese beverage consumers

This summer, Chinese youngsters are rediscovering their culture's time-honored tradition of tea-drinking as a fashionable pastime, as a rising number of businesses modernize the way the beverage is consumed.

Casual spaces for tea lovers to gather and savor the beverage are mushrooming

Last June, health food restaurant chain Element Fresh launched Vital Tea, a 'tea cafe', positioning it as an alternative to coffee shops and tea houses.

"Everybody loves the cafe experience, but not everybody likes coffeecertainly not every day," said Frank Rasche, chief executive of Element Fresh.

The company believes tea consumption outside home has been dominated by either expensive and formal tea houses or cheap and convenient ready-to-drink teas that lack the quality of freshly brewed leaves.

To remedy the situation, the company opened the chain so that tea aficionados could enjoy freshly brewed concoctions in a relaxing environment.

Vital Tea offers a wide selection of fresh herbal and flower teas, tea lattes and carbonated iced teas.

Although the company refused to disclose annual revenue figures, it noted that in less than a year, it was able to open seven stores in Shanghai.

Its expansion plans include 10 new stores in the city this year and several hundred stores in other cities across the country.

"There is no reason why the size of this category in the long term should be less than that of the coffee shop (category)," said Echo Shi, brand manager of Vital Tea.

The tea cafe segment is expected to grow significantly in coming years, supported by a strong tea-drinking culture and new lifestyle habits of the younger generation.

A server demonstrates the special way of pouring freshly brewed Chinese tea. [Photo provided to China Daily]

The China International Tea Cultural Institute estimates there were more than 126,000 tea shops in China last year.

"In the past, Chinese consumers usually had tea at home or office," said Neil Wang, global partner and China president of international consultancy Frost and Sullivan. "Nowadays, a growing number of consumers, particularly young people, prefer to gather and chat over tea at exclusive tea shops."

Entrepeneur Li Hui and his business partner Pu Pengtao co-founded Ten Plus (Shiyiqu in pinyin), a large, quiet tea cafe in Hepingxiqiao in eastern Beijing where customers relax, unwind and sip varieties of Chinese teas.

The tea cafe is decorated with contemporary furniture made by local artists drawing inspiration from traditional Chinese elements. It is an effort to modernize the Chinese tea-drinking ritual.

"We started the business to attract the young generation, to get them involved in this traditional culture, because, nowadays, young people don't like old things such as tea," said Li.

The salon organizes evening tea-tasting parties three times a week. For 50 yuan (around $7.50), customers get the chance to enjoy five to six types of tea. What's more, while at it, they can buy tea-related accessories and books, attend calligraphy classes and take guzheng lessons.

The business is progressing well, and revenue grew 30 percent last year, said Li.

The tea industry revenue is projected to grow at an annualized 7.1 percent to $27.5 billion in 2020, according to business intelligence firm IBIS World.

Tea consumption in China2 million tons in 2015is expected to increase 5 to 8 percent on average annually till 2020, according to Frost and Sullivan.

To make the most of the tea craze, Martin Papp, a US national, set up Papp's Tea in April last year. The Beijing-based company specializes in tea-related services. Its first venture was a contemporary tea cafe for urbanites looking for new drink experiences.

"We wanted to be fun, hip and energetic and show people that even though tea is an ancient drink, it has the potential to be the coolest, most fashionable drink," said Papp.

His idea consisted in serving fun tea blends and to offer rare product varieties to adventure-minded Chinese consumers.

To his surprise, he soon had to reassess his business model to become a supplier of loose tea leaves and teabags to local food enterprises that shared his dream of adopting a modern approach to the drink.

"Our main purpose now is to support other local food-and-beverage brands that want to have a good selection of tea blends," said Papp.

For him, it is only a matter of time before F&B entrepreneurs realize the need to offer casual, comfortable spaces for tea aficionados, just as the new-age coffee shops do.

The company also trains clients so that they could also create their own original and contemporary tea products, including alcoholic tea cocktails.

The tea distributor has already secured a dozen supply contracts from restaurants and cafes in China, including health food restaurant chain Moka Bros and Japanese style diner Hatsune.

The deals have enabled Papp's Tea to generate monthly revenues of 200,000 yuan, and sales are gradually increasing, he said.
I read with interest the July 21 article under the headline "Minnesota prairies see decline in butterfly population" and could not help but feel a sadness for the obvious lack of an environmental ethic brought forward by the writer's insights.

At the same time, one is given to wonder why it would seem, that despite the significant decline in the populations of butterflies and ground-nesting birds, we persist in mowing everything in sight. Consider the plight of the honey bee, eastern meadowlark or ring-necked pheasant, for example. All were once common in this region.

This seemingly thoughtless destruction of those habitats so very necessary for the promotion and maintenance of valuable insects and birds in our environment give cause to ask the question, why?

It would seem so very unnecessary, particularly in light of the tons of herbicides and pesticides we spray and pour on the land, even within the City of Rochester.

Is the gain greater than the loss? I think not, and challenge the city of Rochester and Olmsted County to re-examine their environmental ethic, or lack thereof, in light of so many declining species, once revered by so many.

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Ed Mathwig

Rochester
The majority of Rochester City Council members clearly aren't ready to login regarding municipal broadband Internet services.

After being updated on the potential cost of infrastructure to provide the service  more than $50 million  questions ruled the day. The estimated expense, as well as a prediction that the service could start generating income within four years, stemmed from a Alcatel-Lucent study, which was submitted at little cost to the city.

Rochester Public Utilities staff was tapped to review the findings since the utility company would likely oversee the service, if adopted. Peter Hogan, RPU's director of corporate services, said some of the estimates appeared flexible and more study was needed, which he estimated would take about 18 months and could cost nearly $1 million.

Council members were understandably hesitant to write a check, especially since efforts would also need the approval of RPU's board of directors, but they did indicate support for moving forward in the quest for more answers.

It's the right move. We'd encourage the council and RPU board to make every effort to explore the costs and benefits of installing municipal broadband Internet services as a way of ensuring our community stays effectively connected to the world around it.

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Considering Rochester's economic dependence on science and technology, having access to the highest speeds possible is crucial to the city's future. Unfortunately, existing services lag behind those being offered in other cities, putting Rochester's businesses and residents at a competitive disadvantage.

Where local businesses offer Internet speeds "starting at" 60 megabytes per second and up to 40 Mbps, the proposed city service could shoot past them with a fiberoptic network providing speeds of 1 gigabyte per second, which equals 1,000 megabytes per second. Such speeds are not readily accessible in the current Rochester market, but are found elsewhere.

While we understand the hesitancy among some council members when it comes to pulling the trigger on a service that puts the city in direct competition with existing businesses, we'd argue the city's first priority needs to be serving its constituents as a whole. When the majority is not being provided an essential level of service to remain competitive in business and education, it is time for the city to explore its options.

We understand moving forward won't be a simple task. City Attorney Terry Adkins noted the city will likely need to hold a referendum as a precaution against future legal action. State law says that referendum would need to pass with 65 percent of voters supporting a new utility.

While it might seem like a climb, a recent RPU customer-satisfaction study showed support for researching options, and complaints about the limits of existing service seem to indicate many residents would like added options.

Such a referendum would also show whether needed support exists for a city service, which would offset fears about potential losses seen in Minnesota cities like Monticello.

Many questions and concerns remain, but finding answers is the best way for the city to make sure it is serving the needs of its constituents to the fullest.
We have reached many milestones and witnessed plenty of success stories at the Guam Department of Labor during my current tenure, but I will b Read moreGDOL wants to be a part of your employment solutions
China becomes second-largest investor in foreign property Updated: 2016-07-27 13:23 (chinadaily.com.cn)

Air conditioners sprout from windows in an office building in New York on July 21, 2016. [Photo/IC]

Chinese investors pumped $17 billion into overseas property investment during the first five months, becoming the world's second-largest source of outbound property investment.

The United States retained its top spot with $19 billion, according to a report released by DTZ/Cushman & Wakefield, a global leader in commercial real estate services.

Outbound Investment continued its rapid growth in China, the report said. The total outbound investment from January to May this year has accounted for the 65.6 percent of the total investment of 2015.

The US remained the most attractive destination for Chinese investors thanks to strong dollar appreciation, a recovering US economy and relatively low financing costs.

More than six out of 10 Chinese investments (62.3 percent) totaling $10.6 billion went to the United States over the first five months of the year, according to the report.

Office investments led the way at a 50 percent of all Chinese outbound real estate transactions during the first five months of 2016, up from 40 percent a year earlier.

Top destinations for office investments were Hong Kong and the US, accounting for more than 80 percent of transactions by Chinese investors.

Hotel investment was a hot asset class, receiving $7.1 billion in cross-border Chinese capital during the first five months of 2016 and accounting for a 42 percent share by type of property investment.
I dread a revival of the Clintons in the White House Show. The first time around it was a genre bending affair. To borrow from Polonius, it presented tragedy, comedy, history, pastoral, pastoral-comical, historical-pastoral, tragical-historical, tragical-comical-historical-pastoral. Try to adapt Marxs adage about history repeating itself to that.

Bill Clinton gave us a preview of the revival in his inimitable style last night at the Democratic National Convention (full text and video here). Clintons appearance followed the conventions historic nomination of Hillary as the Dems candidate for president. She had officially vanquished the 74-year-old socialist from Vermont. (Take the rag away from your face, now aint the time for your tears  Bob Dylan.)

Promoting Hillary Clintons presidential candidacy, the Big Dog gave us Love Story with a (radical) twist, or The Paper Chase cum Saul Alinsky. The phoniness was suffocating, another bedtime story for restive children.

The change-maker bit made both for the theme and motif of Clintons speech. What an unattractive neologism. Does Hillary make change? If you gave her $500,000 for one of her $250,000 speeches, she might have made change for you, minus expenses.

Where is Larry David when you need him?

Lets kill the revival. Even those of us who lived through the Clinton administration may have a hard time recalling how acrid the atmosphere was. One of its leading features was the element of pervasive untruth. Reading Michael Isikoffs book Uncovering Clinton, to take just one small example, one begins to understand that everyone around the Clintons, including the journalists who covered them, understood the basics of their marital arrangement, yet remained (and remains) silent about it.

Who are we to judge?

The title of Isikoffs book was a pun. Isikoff was the guy who uncovered the Lewinsky story as a reporter for Newsweek. When Newsweek sat on the story, Matt Drudge blasted it out there on the Drudge Report and undercut the regime of silence. Isikoff was credited with uncovering the scandal, and the title referred in part to his role exposing it.

Uncovering Clinton also referred in part to not covering Clinton. Iksikoff begins the book with an assessment of the knowledge of key players about Clintons behavior and their tacit cooperation with it. (I was subsequently told by a prominent reporter who covered Clintons 1992 presidential campaign what he saw of Clintons way with women in front of others on the campaign trail that year, something I dont believe he mentioned in his own reportage.) Although the names have changed, the Clintons media enablers continue their uncoverage of the Clintons to this day.

The arrangement continues, of course, along with the pervasive falsity in which it is embedded. With the campaign of Hillary Clinton, we get more of the same, in megadoses. No change will be made there. None at all.
The Democrats campaign against Donald Trump consists mostly of branding him a bigot. Thus, they have sent out many emails like this one:

Stop bigotry! No details are necessary.

The Associated Press was once a straightforward, relatively nonpolitical news source, but those days are long gone. Now some of the most hard-core Democratic Party advocacy comes from the AP. Thus, it is no surprise that the AP is trying to advance the Democrats narrative that Trump is a bigot.

On July 22, the AP headlined: Critics: Trump speech signals shift to coded race language. This is an old trickmake a news story out of what critics say. The occasion was Trumps convention acceptance speech. And, of course, talking about coded language allows reporters to impute to politicians things they never said, based on their enemies fantasies.

[S]ome observers say hes turning to code words to gin up racial animosity and fear among Americas white voters.

Is that assertion true? The AP takes no responsibility, it is just what some observers say. Dont hold your breath waiting for an article from the AP about the Democrats ginning up racial animosity and fear among African-Americans. That would actually make a good news story, but you wont be seeing it any time soon.

Trump didnt get on stage and issue a bunch of racial epithets, said Emory University political scientist Andra Gillespie, who watched his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention. We didnt hear the N-word, and we didnt hear other words that may offend many people. But just because he didnt use racial slurs doesnt mean he didnt frame issues in a way that people in racial and ethnic groups find problematic.

What does that mean? I have absolutely no idea. The AP didnt inquire, and doesnt tell us.

Ian Haney Lopez, author of Dog Whistle Politics: How Coded Racial Appeals Have Reinvented Racism and Wrecked the Middle Class, went further, saying Trumps speech surpassed even the coded racial language of Richard Nixon in 1968.

Coded racial language is big on the left, but note that so far, the AP hasnt quoted a single word that Donald Trump actually said. Not one. The AP goes on in the same vein, quoting Trumps far-left critics, but never citing any of Trumps own words. Except for a stray phrase or two, like this:

Some have pointed out that Trumps slogan America First was also the slogan of the America First Committee, an isolationist, anti-Semitic group whose primary goal was to keep the United States from joining Britain in the fight against Nazi Germany. The group opposed the acceptance of shiploads of Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi persecution.

Flawed messaging on Trumps part? Perhaps. But these days, anti-Semitism exists almost exclusively in the Democratic Party, not the Republican. And however the phrase may have been used 80 years ago, today America first is a perfectly straightforward way of expressing the proposition that Americas government should put the interests of its own citizens ahead of all othersa proposition with which the Democratic Party will not argue, but neither will it agree.

There is much more along the same lines; read it for yourself if you like. The next day, July 23, the AP came out with another anti-Trump racial smear: Energized white supremacists cheer Trump convention message. It is more of the same: Trump doesnt actually say anything about race, but we liberals will tell you what he really means.

They dont like to be called white supremacists. The well-dressed men who gathered in Clevelands Ritz-Carlton bar after Donald Trumps speech accepting the Republican nomination for president prefer the term Europeanists, alt-right, or even white nationalists. They are also die-hard Trump supporters.

Sure. And tomorrow, the AP will run a story on how Communists and Socialists are cheering for Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders. They wont do that, of course, because fringe people are of interest only if they support Republicans. Its just another day in the lives of liberal journalists who are devoted to advancing the interests of their party.
The embattled former chairman of House Committee on Appropriation, Abdulmumin Jibrin, has responded to allegations leveled against him by the House of Representatives.

Mr. Jibrin also dismissed the threat of legal action made by the speaker, Yakubu Dogara, against him.

Mr. Dogara had Wednesday issued a seven-day ultimatum to Mr. Jibrin to withdraw allegations of corruption against the speaker.

Mr. Jibrin, removed last week as chairman of the appropriations committee over allegation of breach of trust, said Mr. Dogara was involved in a fraudulent attempt to pad the budget with projects worth about N40 billion.

In his reaction to the threat of legal action, Mr. Jibrin said the speaker wanted to approach court to stall investigation of his allegations by the House.

I know he will rush to court in order to invoke the house rules that matter in court cannot be heard on the floor, said Mr. Jibrin. He failed to realise that the law is not intended to protect corrupt people. It is such a shame.

He vowed not to withdraw the allegations against the Speaker and three others, namely, Deputy Speaker, Lasun Yusuf; Chief Whip, Alhassan Doguwa; and Minority Leader, Leo Ogor.

I have responded to their allegations rather than respond to mine, he is rushing to court. I stand by my allegations and will not withdraw them!

He said plan was afoot to ensure anti-graft agencies investigate the budget scandal rocking the House.

I am happy to announce that my lawyers have officially approached the EFCC and the ICPC towards working out a date for me to personally submit my petition against Speaker Yakubu Dogara, Deputy Speaker, Lasun Yusuf, Whip, Alhassan Doguwa and Minority Leader, Leo Ogor.

Mr. Jibrin also responded to counter allegations of fraud by the House against him.

His full statement:

THREAT OF LEGAL ACTION BY YAKUBU DOGARA AND MY RESPONSE TO THE PRESS CONFERENCE BY HON ABDULRAZAK NAMDAS ACTING ILLEGALLY AND WITHOUT THE CONSENT OF THE HOUSE ON BEHALF OF THE QUARTET OF SPEAKER YAKUBU DOGARA, DEPUTY SPEAKER YUSUF LASUN, HOUSE WHIP ALHASSAN DOGUWA AND MINORITY LEADER LEO OGOR

After going through the press text by Hon Namdas, I had made up my mind not to bother wasting my time responding to a much publicized press conference that turned out an anti climax but for my Hon Colleagues and general public who may fall for such cheap blackmail, I had to respond. All the accusations were a compendium of lies put together by the QUARTET who are desperately looking for something to nail me but cant find anything. Again for the purpose of emphasis I did nothing wrong neither have I abused my office, public trust or corruptly enriched my self. The press statement surely failed to make allegations on me with precision like the specific allegations that I have raised against the QUARTET which they are yet to respond to a single one!

I will respond to the lies they told one after the other and explain other issues I believe my Hon colleagues and the public should know. As I mentioned in the past, I had written a lot on some of these issues especially the 2016 budget which I intend to publish in my personal memoir LIFE AT 40: MY STORY as part of my 40th birthday in September. The memoir when published will give an insight on my life so that the public will understand some of these issues in proper perspective.

Let me also state that the way and manner Hon members of the house, civil society groups, security and anti corruption agencies and the general public handle these issues and allegations will certainly determine if people in different sectors who have the courage to fight corruption, abuse of trust and offices will have the necessary support and encouragement to step up. Just imagine if these QUARTET and their accomplice like Hon Herma Hembe are found guilty and sent to jail. It will be a defining moment and a huge accomplishment for our fight against corruption.

Today, my lawyers have officially approached the EFCC and ICPC towards working out a date for me to submit my petition and brief the agencies. Rather than respond to my allegations, he is threatening me with court action. I stand by my allegations against Speaker Yakubu Dogara and 3 others and I shall neither apologize nor withdraw my statement. I know he will rush to court in order to invoke the house rules that matter in court cannot be heard on the floor of the house. He failed to realize that the rules are not intended to protect corrupt people. It is such a shame.

MY RESPONSE

DISPLAYED IMMATURITY AND LACK TEMPERAMENT, DEALING WITH TOP GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS AMONG OTHER SIMILAR LIES

At the level these matter had gotten to I expected that what ever they will accuse me of should be backed with instances. They failed to cite such instances where I had displayed such qualities.

This is how we have systematically destroyed our institutions because maturity and the right temperament is when you can cover corruption, injustice and abuse of office and public trust and you cannot stand up anywhere you are for the truth without minding whose ox is gored. If that is the definition of maturity to the QUARTET, then I shall gladly remain immature for the rest of my life. I am not new to dealing with highly placed government officials.

They probably failed to research properly about me. With the risk of sounding immodest, I started very in life. I started business at the age of 19. I started meeting a Nigerian president in my mid twenties. I have had an extensive experience over the last two decades in the process building a massive network in both the political, business, academia, traditional, religious, union and civil society among others in Nigeria and beyond. I was prepared for leadership.

COLLATING SENSITIVE GOVERNMENT INFORMATION TO BLACKMAIL AND COMPLAIN OF HARASSMENT

Who did I blackmail? No instances were provided just complete lies. It is a no news that I will have access and insight on a lot of government information both classified and non having served as chairman of the sensitive finance committee of the House and until recently appropriation committee. But because of my family upbringing, experience in life, training and mentorship I have enjoyed all my life, I grew up to be very organized by nature. I document everything that should be documented.

I keep a diary of events. Hardly is there any record regarding my job that I cannot produce and hardly is there anything you will ask that I cannot explain or defend. I thought that should not scare or intimidate any upright leader who has nothing to hide but should attract any leader to utilize such qualities effectively. No, that will not attract Speaker Dogara and his 3 cohorts who are so small minded and prefer to have a small group of mediocres around them. I think they were shocked to realize that I have everything documented.

I did NOT document it to blackmail anyone but just to keep the records as part of my responsibility. However, if the need arises to use such documents to expose corruption and abuse of office, I shall not hesitate to give it out even at the risk of such blackmail and propaganda from the QUARTET

Here again they failed to cite just a single instance. Which agency did I harass? For what? It is my tradition in the House except under such necessary circumstances, I do not see heads of MDAS like the way Speaker Dogara has converted his office and home, and guest houses to center of pilgrimage for head of MDAs. I dont go to government offices except on oversight. I will wait for Speaker Dogara to tell the country who I harassed.

LEADERSHIP LAUNCHED AN INTERNAL INVESTIGATION AND FOUND ME GUILTY

This accusation alone is enough for my colleagues and Nigerians to clearly see the desperation, manipulation, lies, blackmail and the poor quality of leadership of the QUARTET. When was the internal investigation instituted? Who are those that conducted the investigation? How come I only knew I was investigated through your press statement yesterday?

Why wasnt I given fair hearing? Under which house rules was I investigated without my knowledge? Where is the report of the investigation? Isnt this the same speaker Dogara that openly defended our 3 colleagues accused of sexual harassment in the US on the grounds that they were not granted the right to be heard? Now Nigerians can imagine and start seeing the heavy witch hunt that they mounted on me. This is a huge shame and an embarrassment to the Speaker and the 3 other principal officers. I challenge Speaker Yakubu Dogara to answer the questions. This is completely baseless.

DAURA PROJECTS IN 2016

Yes, I take responsibility for this as I will on any matter that I know I am responsible for. I dont know how to lie. I dont need permission or consent of Mr President to put in the budget water scheme, agricultural and rural development projects in Daura.

I have said severally and will repeat, are people of Daura not Nigerians? During the budget process, people come to the House from all over the country to lobby for projects in their constituencies but nobody from Daura including Mr President came to lobby. At a meeting with Mr Speaker and some principal officers, I admit I told him that I have looked at the budget, there was almost no project in Daura.

I reminded him that Mr President will NEVER lobby us for such but he is human and will appreciate if Nigerians in Daura enjoy a bit of the budget so long as what ever projects taken there is not too much compared to other states. I also reminded them that he is twice the Head of this country we should not abuse the fact that by his nature he will never ask. If he is a selfish leader, he can turn Daura to a small London instantly. But he believes in fairness for all. That is why great Africans like Mo Ibrahim instituted the monetary award for African heads of states like Buhari who will not steal under any circumstance. What I did was in tandem to this.

Now you can imagine the quality of leaders like Speaker Yakubu Dogara who wants to turn this against me and set me on collusion with the presidency. It is such a shame that our so called leaders can not appreciate and support such a simple cause.

A man like Mr president who has held every position in the country and twice president without any success to blackmail him, is it the very few projects I put in Daura that will be used to blackmail such a man? When Speaker Dogara and the 3 other principals inserted projects worth over 20billion in their constituencies? God Almighty is with the innocent.



PROJECTS WITHOUT LOCATIONS OR CLEAR DEFINITION

This is a non issue. They are just looking for more flesh to tidy up their blackmail and lies. In EVERY BUDGET YEAR such situations are found. The secretariat work extremely hard during the budget period to insert all items into the budget template. Since this job is done by human beings like us, there are bound to be some errors like the aforesaid and even more. It is such a simple issue and there is a standard way of dealing with it instantly through what we call CORRIGENDUM. It is a correction to any appropriation act. Indeed the first CORRIGENDUM I signed with respect to the 2016 budget was for the projects of Speaker Yakubu Dogara. One of such projects I later discovered was a water project he diverted to his personal farm somewhere in Nasarawa. Both of us have the records.

I FRACTURED RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE TWO ARMS OF GOVERNMENT

This I found very laughable. What did I do and how did I do that? Again, a case of desperate Speaker Dogara looking for something against me. Let me use this window to explain something. After the standing committees of the House forwarded their reports we discovered that over 2000 projects were inserted into the budget by just 10 out of the 96 standing committees of the House.

My self and Sen Goje had to find a balance between the executive submissions and standing committees reports. It was during that period that we met the president. Mr President belongs to all of us. Nobody be it presiding or principal officer has the right to stop any member from seeing the president. Immediately we came out of the villa, i went straight to brief Speaker Dogara.

To say I was shocked with his reaction was an under statement. He went ballistic! And kept shouting, why should you go to the villa, why? I looked at Dogara and remembered the quote Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely. Well, I ignored his selfish reaction and briefed him what we intend to do moving forward. In the following days, we consulted wildly with ministers and got their key inputs. We prepared two scenarios, one to provide a balance between the House submission and that of the executive while the other is to carry largely the standing committees recommendations.

I discussed everything with Mr Speaker and he asked me to stay action to allow him consult with other principal officers. In between he travelled to London. It was from London that he called and instructed me to adopt the committee version. At that point all the great consultative work we did with the ministers became a waste. And I knew he did that deliberately to embarrass me and ensure we fail in the eye of our executive counterparts.

That is how vindictive Speaker Dogara can be. At a meeting of Principal officers of the House, When Mr president returned the budget because he considered insertions by NASS too much, I explained that we had worked out a balanced scenario for the budget with the executive but the Speaker directed that we forward the other version. The Speaker unfortunately tried to deny and the atmosphere became tensed.

The duo of Lasun and Ogar took time to direct that when we go into the executive session that morning, I should talk less to members when I am asked to give my briefing and specifically say nothing about the N40billion they took. I rejected that. I told them my reputation is at stake. At that point everybody in the country was attacking me.

Where on earth will I say I took N40 billion to? Even the best accountant in the world cannot hide such huge sums. Lasun and Ogor almost brought down the roof of the office. I maintained my calm and apologized to Mr Speaker and the rest of them. It was at that meeting that I was asked to stop further comments to the press.

God Almighty is a living witness. We proceeded to the executive session, I briefed my colleagues and told them the truth. Since then Speaker Dogara and the 3 others effectively blocked me from further meetings and briefing sessions and sponsored an extensive internal and external propaganda against me to give my colleagues and the general public the impression that everything about the 2016 budget is Hon Jibrin. That is why many members carried on without the true picture of what transpired and of course their anger towards me.

But since I started opening up, I have received hundred of calls from my colleagues querying why I didnt let them know all these. They will soon realize that I am not alone and members will not allow such serious allegations of corruption to be swept under the carpet. I kept pressure on the Speaker to allow me opportunity to brief my colleagues to no avail.

The insincerity and conspiracy of silence from the few standing committee chairmen that inserted about 2000 projects into the budget and unnecessary movement of huge sums of money didnt help my case. Some of the biggest culprits are chairmen of standing committees on Power Hon Dan Asuquo, Higher education Hon Zakari Mohammed, Water resources Hon Aliyu Pategi, health Hon Chike Okafor, interior Hon Jagaba Adams, FCT Hon Herma Hembe and police affairs Hon Haliru Jika among few others.

So I was taking heat both within the House and outside. It was a very trying moment for me but praise be to God Almighty.

INCREMENT OF SIZE OF BUDGET BY 250 BILLION NAIRA, 4.1 ALLEGATION AND THE KANO FILM VILLAGE PROJECT

There has never been any version of the 2016 budget that was produced with an increased size of 250billion naira. It is an extension of the wicked propaganda and and desperate search for lies and blackmail by Speaker Dogara and the 3 others. If at all there is, let them bring it out.

One Single allegation that I may probably carry on with it and keep explaining for the rest of my life is the 4.1 billion worth of project I allocated to my constituency. When this allegation came out, I was already under instruction by Speaker Dogara to stop talking to the press. I could not respond. By the time it became convenient for me to speak, the tempo had died down.

I decided to simply include it in my 40th birthday memoir to be released in September. There was nothing like projects worth 4.1billion naira in my constituency in any version of the budget. It was a huge blackmail which I only later realized it was instigated by Speaker Dogara and the 3 others. Aside few projects in my constituency, I was more interested in projects that will help not only kano but the whole of Nigeria like the Kano Film Village, Irrigation projects, dams and roads. At the end I succeeded in promoting the Kano film village which has raised unnecessary controversy.

The Kano Film village is designed by the Nigerian Film cooperation NFC Jos to be a world class film village with ultra modern training institute, cinematography center, theater, premiere square, diverse skill acquisition center, male and female hostels, hotel accommodation, 1,500 capacity conference hall, shopping mall, eateries, mini zoo, Nigerian and world culture exhibition center, history and documentation center, clinic and every conventional facilities that are required for a world class film village.

When I saw the proposal of the project and knowing the massive potentials of the Kannywood, I did not hesitate to buy into it for many obvious reasons. It will create massive employment opportunity for our teeming youth, open up sources of revenue for the federal government, boost economic activities in kano which is the 2nd largest commercial city in nigeria, serve as a center to promote our country, culture, people and many more through films.

Today, its a shame we have no standard films on the lives of our founding leaders like Awo, Zik, Balewa, Ahmadu Bello, Aminu kano and the host of others. We do not take advantage of films to promote our good culture and sell every aspect of our country from our economic potentials to tourism attraction.

We dont even care that we dont have documentary and films of our great religious leaders like Oyedepos, kuka, Shiek Gumi, Sheik Dahiru Bauchi and many others. No films on our great traditional leaders and institutions.

If it were in Europe or America, they surely would have commenced films on the great lives of the late Oni of Ife and his highness the late Emir of kano or even their charismatic successors like ours, his Highness Muhammadu Sanusi II.

Do we have to wait for foreigners to make films on our great Gani Fewehinmi, Olusegun Obasanjo or the greatest leader today on the African continent, a natural successor to Nelson Mandela, President Muhammadu Buhari?

Unfortunately, the whole idea was misrepresented with Speaker Dogara playing a clear script behind the scene using a member from kano to oil the misinformation that the center was going to be a dancing club and center for all sorts of negative social activities.

Some of Our religious leaders in kano fell for these lies and commenced protest against the project. A very sad situation.

PROOF OF EVIDENCE AND INACCESSIBILITY AND APPROPRIATION MEMBERS

I have and will provide evidence on all the allegations at the appropriate time. When the secretariat of the appropriation committee was taken away from me twice how much more members of the appropriation committee. I have shortchanged no one. I left the committee in harmony with my members that is why most of them were seated with me when I announced my resignation. A lot of them sympathized with me because they understand very well the dirty game that was played by Dogara. The few occasions when I attempted to open up to members of appropriation committee, I was accused of trying to topple the leadership of the House. It was a very difficult situation.

I had lived life on a fast lane, I have slowed down considerably. Everybody knows my schedules. I try to retire home as early as I can. I avoid late night meetings or unnecessary socializing like frequent parties organized by the Speaker. I keep my weekends for my parents, family, relatives and constituents. I go to work early enough and hardly will you ever find a file lying down on my table unattended. I mind my business as much as I can but they will not let me be. So if anyone is accusing me of inaccessibility, he is not being honest. May be they want me to join the gang of late night plotters.

MY TENURE AS CHAIRMAN FINANCE

As chairman finance, I had a very eventful tenure. I conducted many investigations and left an unblemished record. The committee was vibrant and we recorded so many milestone. I won so many awards both home and abroad and got inducted as fellow into several professional bodies. I have never been accused of corruption or any wrong doing all through my tenure. I lobbied and attracted some projects to my constituency which were executed and some are yet to be paid for by government. The allegations in these regards are not different from all others. Desperate people looking for something to nail me. It is a wild wild goose chase, baseless allegation and arrant nonsense. They should forward what ever they have to the EFCC.

TRADITION OF N40BILLION OUT N100BILLION GOING TO LEADERSHIP

I am not aware of any tradition, rules or decision of the House that grants 40billion out of the 100billion naira constituency funds to the leadership. This is a clear case of fraud and abuse of trust committed by Speaker Yakubu Dogara and the 3 others. This is one question they must answer.

CONCLUSION

I have written so much about the House which will further address these and many other issues to be published in my 40th birthday memoir. Some people may never understand why it is imperative that I fight this to its logical conclusion. It will force an internal reform in the House for the benefit of the country. It will send a strong message to anybody no matter how highly placed you are in the house, if you get involved in corrupt acts or abuse your office, you will face the law. It will also scare corrupt people from attempting to get into the house. And finally, I am 39 and will be 40 in September. I am fairly blessed with everything that a man can ask for from God on earth. I consider myself extremely lucky. All I have left is my integrity. Many people including my colleagues dont know the facts of the issues. I must continue to explain so that all the facts will be laid out. I will never allow anybody to destroy my hard earned integrity especially corrupt people like Speaker Dogara and the 3 others when they fight back.

Finally, I have responded to their allegations within 24hrs, they are yet to respond to mine almost a week after. I am once again calling on all Hon Members of the House of Representatives and the general public to call on Speaker Yakubu Dogara and the 3 others to answer the 20 allegations I have raised against them and reconvene the House immediately to allow for an independent investigation by the House.

Thank you

Hon Abdulmumin Jibrin PhD MBA

APC-Kano

Kiru-Bebeji Federal constituency

Kano
The dreaded Nigeria-based terrorist group, Boko Haram, established links with some international terrorist groups, including Al-Qaeda, the Presidential Fact-Finding Committee on the Abducted Female Students of Government Secondary School, Chibok, has said.

The committee stated this in its report submitted to former President Goodluck Jonathan before he left office.

The 50-page report, which details were never made public, was obtained exclusively by PREMIUM TIMES.

The 27-member panel, chaired by Ibrahim Sabo, a retired brigadier general, was inaugurated by Mr. Jonathan on May 6, 2014, to, among other things find out the circumstances leading to the abduction of the 276 female students of the Government Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State on April 14, 2014 by Boko Haram terrorists.

The establishment of the committee was sequel to claims and counterclaims about the circumstances and the actual number of students abducted by the terrorists.

Before the committee was set up there speculations were that Boko Haram had established ties with other terrorist groups across the world.

For instance, in 2002, the late Osama bin Laden reportedly dispatched his aide to Nigeria to distribute $3 million to Salafi groups and the Boko Haram founder, Mohammed Yusuf, was thought to be a recipient of the money.

By 2006, members of the group were also reported to be training in the Sahel alongside al-Qaeda in Islamic Maghreb.

It is on record that Boko Haram has regional and international links with Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), an Al-Qaeda affiliate, and has cooperated with other terrorist groups, the committee said in its report.

It said a collaborative and cooperative regional approach would be most effective in ensuring that there is no safe haven for terrorists in and around the shores of Nigeria.

It said the approach was adopted 15 years ago by ECOWAS in conflict prevention, resolution and management.

The committee asked the government to involve consultations and collaboration with neighbouring countries, multilateral organisations such as African Union, ECOWAS, United Nations and countries that are already assisting with representatives of most of these organisations in both open and closed-door interactive sessions.

The committee further recommended that Nigeria should use its influence to ensure the rapid operationalisation of the Regional Counter-Terrorism Strategy (RCTS).

Under the prevention of the RCTS, it suggested, Nigeria should as a matter of urgency, establish its early warning mechanism/system in line with the October 24, 2013 Abidjan Declaration of ECOWAS member states.

This will ensure that appropriate social, political, environment and economic indicators are identified, regularly monitored, analysed and reported in a way that elicits action to prevent and/or mitigate threats to peace and security by appropriate authorities, it said.

It further said Nigerian border posts required urgent evaluation and intervention by the federal government.

It stated that with Para-military staff avoiding to serve in states that border other countries, because those posts were access for the insurgents, government may need to consider how to strategically deploy troops and hardware as back-up for border security, without provoking the neighbouring countries.

The committee said it took special note of the Youth Volunteer groups, also known Civilian Joint Task Force, JTF, in the North East region.

It said the positive role of the groups in giving support to the government and the security agencies in the fight against Boko Haram had been lauded by many.

It said the military and other security agencies should be advised to incorporate the local security organisations and vigilantes in the rescue efforts as they are more conversant with the terrain, particularly the Sambisa Forest.

It however warned that care should be taken in ensuring that members are persons of integrity and, in the long run, a lot of thought has to be given to Demobilization, Disarmament, Reintegration and Resettlement.

The Committee also recommended that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs should sensitise the international community on the sensitive issue of Human Rights and Rules of Engagement (ROE) should there be an intention to re-strategise the current counter-terrorism approach, in order to avoid a backlash from the international community.
The United Nations Childrens Education Fund (UNICEF) on Wednesday said 276 communities across the country have been certified open defecation-free.

UNICEF Chief of Field Office, Kaduna, Utpal Moitra made this known in Minna at a mid-year review of 2016 UNICEF State plan for Niger.

Moitra said that about 97, 000 people consisting of 38, 800 males and 58, 200 females have gained access to safe drinking water leading to reduced prevalence of hygiene and water related diseases.

He maintained that though the country accounts for 11 per cent of the global burden of under five infant mortality, there have been concerted efforts by states in collaboration with UNICEF to arrest the trend.

The UNICEF officer commended the Niger government for its strides in Maternal and Child Health care over the past few years, adding that UNICEF was keen on more areas of cooperation with the state.

We have had an excellent journey with the state so far and we are quite impressed with the way the state and UNICEF has worked.

We are happy with the kind of changes that have happened and we have been able to deliver together and we are looking forward to more areas of working together, he added.

He urged the state government to do more toward improving its indices in the areas of water and sanitation and school enrollment.

He noted that the review affords the state and UNICEF the opportunity to work out improved ways of planning and implementing UNICEF supported programs in the state.

We will be looking into states 2017 budget, with the objective that unicef program and plans are integrated into them, he said.

Permanent Secretary of the State Ministry of Budget and Planning, Mohammed Mustapha, reiterated governments commitment toward implementation of donor agency projects.

Mustapha lauded UNICEF and other stakeholders for their unflinching support to the state, particularly in the area of children and maternal well being.

NAN reports that UNICEF works in the areas of education, health, water and sanitation and communication in Niger state.
Two longstanding Nigerian diplomats nominated by President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday failed to recite the countrys anthem and pledge, leaving lawmakers and journalists at a senate hearing in laughter.

The recitals are taught in primary schools across the country, and are performed daily by students throughout their secondary school study.

The two diplomats, Vivian Okeke and Ibrahim Isah, were nominated by President Buhari alongside 45 others as prospective envoys to different countries, where they would promote Nigerias culture, ideals and values.

At a dramatic session Tuesday, members of the Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs, vetting the diplomats qualifications, unexpectedly asked Mrs. Okeke and Mr. Isah to recite the national anthem and pledge.

While Mrs. Okeke mumbled the words of the anthem, Mr. Isah floundered and could not proceed with the pledge after introducing himself.

Mrs. Okeke was later aided by James Manager, a Senate committee member, as she murmured through the second stanza of the anthem.

Both nominees have been in the Nigerias Foreign Service since 1983  already raking in 33 years of experience each.

Mrs. Okeke currently serves at the Nigerian embassy in Washington, United States. In 2013, she was the minister (trade and investment) at the mission. She is from Anambra State.

Mr. Isah, who began his career as Third Secretary in the African Affairs Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, currently serves in Ankara, Turkey, as Charge DAffairs of Nigerian mission in the country.

He had headed the chancery at the Consulate-General of Nigeria in the U.S. and Saudi Arabia, and was also Chief Airport Protocol Officer responsible for seeing off and receiving foreign leaders who visited Nigeria.

Mr. Isah told the screening committee that Nigeria must block foreign goods from entering the country like China to come out recession.

It wasnt the first time a would-be envoy would fail the national anthem test.

In March 2011, Ijoma Bristol failed to recite the anthem and could not also name the capital of Jigawa State during her screening before Jubril Aminu-led Foreign Affairs Committee of seventh Senate.

She was however cleared, with then Senate President, David Mark, saying her case is a case of poor pass.
The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, on Wednesday gave seven-day notice to a former chairman of the House Committee on Appropriation, Abdulmumin Jibrin, to retract and apologise for his recent public pronouncements against him.

Mr. Dogara said Mr. Jibrins publication of a series of libellous materials in the media was done in bad faith and had caused disaffection between Nigerians and the House.

In the letter, which was written and dispatched on behalf of Mr. Dogara by his lawyers, Messrs. Professor Joash Amupitan and Co., the Speaker said Mr. Jibrins failure to comply with his request would have grave legal consequences.

Take notice that in the event of your failure/refusal to comply with the above-mentioned demands within seven (7) days of your receipt of this letter, we have further instructions to institute a suit against you in a court of law.

Copies of the letter were sent to PREMIUM TIMES by Mr. Dogaras spokesman, Turaki Hassan.

Mr. Dogaras attorney said the Speaker had been subjected to public opprobrium, odium, scorn and ridicule following Mr. Jibrins allegations, which were widely circulated in the media.

Consequently, we consider your publication on the matter as not only libellous but made in bad faith; an act of vendetta owing to your recent removal as the Chairman of House Committee on Appropriation, the letter, signed by Joash Amupitan, a principal partner in the firm, said.

Mr. Jibrin had been circulating allegations of budget padding, incompetence and breach of trust against Mr. Dogara since he was removed as chair of the appropriation committee a week ago.

Mr. Jibrins lawyers also wrote to Mr. Dogara on July 22, warning the Speaker to desist from victimising their client.

View copies of Mr. Dogaras letter below:
The Bayelsa State governor, Seriake Dickson, has rejected the Nigerian Armys threat of force if dialogue with militants in the area fails.

Mr. Dickson said that would not be the best way to solve the crisis in the oil-rich region.

The Chief of Army Staff, Tukur Buratai, had on Monday warned that the government would resort to military action if Niger Delta militants refuse to use peaceful means to press for their demands.

A new group, Niger Delta Avengers, has claimed responsibility for multiple attacks on oil and gas installations in the area.

Mr. Dickson advised that ongoing efforts at talks should be sustained.

I have said that the issues in the Niger Delta, the terrain, the historic nature of the issues and challenges are such that military solution may not be the way forward. For us who are products of political system who are at this level, we have a duty to mobilize communal and local leadership; we have a duty to support the work intelligence and security agencies are doing, we have a duty to ensure that issues are better appreciated and that we fill the communication gap.

And where there are issues those issues need be addressed and its also our duty to network like Im doing to ensure that problems that are identified as the root cause of some of these challenges are looked into, he said.

The military solutions as I have always maintained is not the right option, we are hopeful that the ongoing discussions will yield the desired result. I have always been in support of negotiations, of dialogue as the sustainable way forward. Dialogue will bring out the issues and then we will all unite around these common issues to move our country forward, he said.

Mr. Dickson was speaking to journalists on Wednesday after a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari.

He said he and the president exchanged ideas on the way to resolve the issues in the Niger Delta.
At the Bama IDP camp in Borno State where over 300 children reportedly died from malnutrition two months back, feeding is still a major problem for the displaced people there, a delegation from the House of Representatives were told on Tuesday.

PREMIUM TIMES was in Bama when the House joint committee on IDP and Human Rights, led by Sani Zoro, visited the desolate town.

Bama is just 85km from Maiduguri, the Borno state capital, but driving through the poor road network, littered with dozens of military checkposts, took about two hours.

Camped within the compound of the completely destroyed Bama General Hospital, 24,792 IDPs, comprising of 3264 men, 6466 women, and 15141 children, live a life of sorrow and deprivation.

The IDPs resorted to self-help by building makeshift shelters using burnt corrugated iron sheets picked from razed houses in the town. They still have one major problem  hunger.

Upon arrival in Bama, the Reps committee were received by the military command in Bama.

The soldiers told the lawmakers their role in setting up the IDP camp.

The military officers said most of the IDPs in the camp were those that had over time been rescued from captivity of Boko Haram in villages and hamlets around Bama and Gwoza local government areas of Borno state.

Gwoza is about 40km from Bama.

Aid workers like those from the Medicins Sans Frontier (IMF), the State Emergency Management Agency and representatives of the World Food Programme (WFP) were at the crowded camp dishing out medical and feeding support to the inmates and children.

The WFP was mainly supplying its anti malnutrition supplement known as Plumpy Sup to children. Officials handling the programme said every child is given a supply for a month.

The soldiers also organised a remarkable school programme in the camp where about 12,000 children were being taught how to read and write. Most of the children were assembled in the open under a scorching sun as soldiers and volunteer IDPs dished out the best they could offer in knowledge to help the children maintain contact with school life.

PREMIUM TIMES observed that everything in the camp seemed to be going on fine within the limits of available resources, except for food and feeding.

Then suddenly, as the lawmakers spoke to camp officials, the IDPs began a protest after they heard the state government-owned State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) officials informing the federal legislators how they regularly feed the IDPs.

The secretary of SEMA claimed that each of the IDPs received enough food, mostly rice and beans to last them two weeks when they were expected to get another supply.

That claim triggered angry reaction from the IDPs  as both men and women who began to shout lies, lies, lies! One of the IDPs was heard threatening to beat up the SEMA official should the officer continue with what he called useless lies.

The situation almost went out of control before soldiers quickly moved in to control the tense situation.

They provided protection for the lawmakers who had already been encircled by the angry IDPs.

When the leader of the delegation was able to get the ears of the miffed inmates at the camp, he asked some of them to explain the true position of things.

A middle aged IDP, who identified himself as Modu Bukar, said initially when we came to the camp some months ago, feeding was not a big issue because the soldiers provided us with three square meals per day. But since the SEMA moved in to take the feeding programme things went bad. As a matter of fact, they would only give a bag of 50kg rice for 30 to 25 persons to feed with for two weeks. How do they expect us to survive with it for God sake? Even if we are to manage to cook and feed from it once in a day, a bag of rice shared by 30 people would not last three days.

And we will not see the officials again until after two or three weeks. This is not fair. We took our displacement as an ugly phenomenon that have befallen us and we continue to pray to God to help us out of it. But people should understand that before now, we are men and women of means, we have our homes, we have dependents whom we feed and cater for; we had means of survival; so we will certainly not take it when someone will come here and lie to the world that we are fed well or that each person gets a bag of rice. We have tolerated these lies; we wont take it anymore.

Responding to their complaints, the angry lawmakers blamed the camp officials for such insincerity even as they pleaded with the IDPs to be calm as the federal government would further empower the emergency management outfits to provide more feeding, and improved health care facility for them in the camp.

Earlier the Chairman of the House of Representative committee on IDP, Mr. Zoro had picked holes in the manner the IDPs were being managed, the lawmakers however commended the Nigerian military for doing their part effectively by rescuing the large number of IDPs from the liberated territories.

He said the best way towards achieving a lasting solution to the problems of increasing IDPs in camps is the establishment of the Northeast Development Commission.

Even from what we have seen so far, it is clear that the fast-tracking of the process of inaugurating the Northeast Development Commission is the way out, he said.

He said the House of Representative had decided that the headquarters of the commission, when ready, would be sited in Maiduguri, the Borno state capital, which has been the epicentre of the Boko Haram insurgency in the northeast.
Nigeria flags off commercial operation on China-assisted rail project Updated: 2016-07-27 15:55 (Xinhua)

ABUJA - Nigeria marked a symbolic progress of railway service on Tuesday when its first completed standard gauge railway modernization project assisted by China, was open for commercial operation.

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari flagged off the commercial operation of the rail service, linking the capital city Abuja and the northwestern state of Kaduna, following the smooth completion of the railway construction by China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC).

The completed project is part of the railway modernization initiative by the West African superpower which aims at replacing the existing narrow gauge system with the wider standard gauge system, while allowing high-speed train operations on the railway network.

With nine stations and a design speed of 150 km per hour, the Abuja-Kaduna rail line covers a distance of 186.5 km.

Buhari said the train service will provide the much-needed alternative transport link between the nation's capital city and Kaduna State, a corridor of growing labor force which has a huge potential for industries and agricultural activities.

"We are on the threshold of presenting to Nigerians a standard gauge railway train service that will be safe, fast and reliable," the Nigerian leader said.

Transport Minister Rotimi Amaechi said the project, partly funded by the Export-Import Bank of China, is a significant milestone in the history of Nigeria.

According to him, the completion of this project and the commencement of its commercial operation is a turnaround in the country's transport sector, particularly as it contributes to the development of the economy.

In an interview with Xinhua, Yuan Li, the chairman of CCECC, said the completed rail line would ease the traffic congestion between Abuja and Kaduna.
The Kogi State Command of the State Security Service (SSS) said on Wednesday that it had arrested 10 suspected kidnappers .

The state SSS director, Joseph Okpo, told journalists in Lokoja that the suspects were arrested in different parts of the state in the past two weeks.

Mr. Okpo, who spoke while parading four of the suspects, said the suspects were arrested in full military combat uniform last week.

According to him, the suspects are Haruna Saleh, Kabiru Shuaibu, Mumuni Adamu and Tukur Shuaibu.

The SSS director said the suspects were arrested on the Lokoja-Abuja road on their way from Kaduna with the intent to link up with their other accomplices in Obajana area, where they had planned to kidnap some people.

He said the suspects had started making useful statements, adding that the state Police Command had been contacted to investigate the source of the military uniforms.

Mr. Okpo said the suspects, during interrogation, confessed to have carried out six operations between the Ramadan period and the day they were caught.

Investigation has revealed that most of the kidnappers operating in the state are from outside Kogi. The people are taking advantage of the geographical location and the route structure of the state.

Mr. Okpo pledged the commitment of the SSS to cooperate with other security agencies to address the security challenge facing the state .

One of the suspects, Mumuni Adamu, said they bought the military uniforms from a commercial motorcycle operator at the cost of N1,500 a pair.

Mr. Adamu, who claimed to be the leader of the gang, said that he had been living in Obajana for almost six years but got involved in Kidnapping and other criminal activities in 2015.

(NAN)
Gov. Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa State has commended President Muhammadu Buhari for his non-interference in the political processes that played out in Bayelsa during and after last general elections.

Mr. Dickson gave the commendation while answering questions from State House correspondents after a closed door meeting with Mr. Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja on Wednesday.

The governor said his position was contrary to the propaganda and the name-calling that some politicians in Bayelsa and Abuja embarked upon in the course of the political process in his state.

I also want to use this opportunity to appreciate Mr. President for his non-interference in the political processes that played out in Bayelsa in the last general elections.

And as you are also aware, yesterday the Elections Petition Tribunal sitting in Abuja delivered judgment upholding my election and affirming my emergence as a true product of the democratic exercise of rights of our people in the December 5, 2015 and January 9.

Again, I want to use this opportunity to appreciate Mr President for his non-interference contrary to the propaganda and the name dropping that some politicians back home and even in Abuja embarked upon.

There was no name they didnt call, there is no claim that they didnt make but Im telling Nigerians, Im telling Bayelsans to disregard all that propaganda.

The President never had anything to do by way of negatively influencing of the last general elections in Bayelsa and also the outcome of the Tribunal proceedings.

That is important because if our nation must move forward, if our democracy must be strengthened, if our nation must move forward, if our democracy must be strengthened, if our nation must be stable, then institutions must be allowed to grow.

On the destructive activities of the Niger Delta militants, Dickson expressed the hope that the ongoing dialogue with the belligerent groups would ensure the desired peace in the region.

He advised community, political leaders and other stakeholders in the Niger Delta to work together and support security agencies in fostering better understanding of aggrieved individuals and groups in the region.

(NAN)
The Ilaje National Development Initiative (INDI) has thrown its weight behind President Muhammad Buhari for nominating Tokunbo Ajasin as the Ondo State representative on the board of the Niger-Delta Development Commission (NDDC).

The group hailed the Presidents choice saying it underscored egalitarian representation in public affairs in the state and country.

The group, in a statement by its president, Thomas Mogbomerun, said Mr. Ajasins nomination would strengthen the NDDC board.

We know Ajasins antecedent in Nigerias politics as incorruptible and development-focused. We are happy his nomination will bring back the long-departed egalitarian philosophy of governance, Mr. Mogbomerun said.

The group appealed to those opposing Mr. Ajasins nomination to jettison their primordial sentiments and support President Buharis desire to appoint credible people for the good governance of the country.

The group said the word indigene was used only once in the 1999 Constitution in Section 147(3) and it was used in relation with State.

The said section also emphasised the need to balance distribution of powers in accordance with the dictates of federal character principle, the group said.

Consequently, Ajasin deserves the nomination because the two other federal appointments that have come to Ondo State so far were shared between the South and Central Senatorial Districts of the state. Minister of State for Niger Delta, Prof. Daramola is from the Ondo South Senatorial District while our leader, Chief Akinyelure, is from the Central Senatorial District.

Demanding that the nominee for NDDC Board also comes from Ondo South is against fairness and the principle of Federal Character.

The group said beyond the legal premise, the merit of Mr. Ajasins nomination could not be disputed and that that alone was enough reason for every well-meaning citizen of Ondo State to support him.

We believe that Ajasin will represent a detour from previous tradition of nepotism and cronyism that concentrated opportunities from the NDDC in the hands of the privileged few, depriving the masses and even other local government areas like Ese-Odo their due share and opportunities, the group said.
Polish President Andrzej Duda in the courtyard of Krakow's Wawel Castle on Wednesday afternoon officially welcomed Pope Francis, who came to Poland to take part in Roman Catholic festival World Youth Day.

"It is a great honour and joy for me to welcome the Holy Father on behalf of the Republic of Poland, on behalf of all my fellow countrymen, on behalf of guests, of our youth who came here to meet the Holy Father, that I can welcome you on the Polish land, that I can welcome you in Krakow, that I can welcome you at a great and unique spiritual feast on a holiday of great joy that makes World Youth Day," President Duda said in his initial words.

"It is special for us, Poles, that this great event - an event of joy, an event of heart, but above all an event of spirit, is taking place in this city - in the city of Saint John Paul II, of Karol Wojtyla, in Krakow. In the historic capital of Poland, Krakow, which used to be the city of Polish kings, in Krakow at the Wawel Castle where so many of those kings, heroes of our nation, great Poles, great leaders, found their final resting place. Near the Wawel Cathedral at the Royal Castle, in a place that is sacred for Poles, that is a symbol of Poland's great history, also a symbol of repeated rebirth of our nation and its strength which we have drawn from the Christian faith for 1,050 years. For 1,050 years since the baptism of Poland since when we record our history and since when we record the existence of our nation," the president went on.

"Holy Father, I am extremely pleased that this great meeting of youth is taking place in the city of a great Pole, John Paul II. Our Holy Father, who from this city went to the See of Peter to serve not only Krakow as a shepherd, not only Poland, as a cardinal, but to serve as a spiritual leader to the whole world. That this year, on the 1,050th anniversary of Poland's baptism, here in Krakow we are hosting World Youth Day. A meeting whose tradition he started. A meeting that brings together people from all over the world, regardless of their origin, regardless of the language they speak, it joins them in common faith, it joins them in joy, it joins them even in the most difficult moments. It lets them make friends, sometimes even find love, but first of all it lets them find out more about one another, lets them be together, lets them pray and strengthen themselves together," President Duda stressed.

"And I also thank you Holy Father for your arrival. Because Your Holiness' presence is the most precious for them. Because Your Holiness is spiritual support for them, is a beacon, is for them this great joy, hope and love that comes from the Christian religion, is what brings good. Good that today's world needs so much. Your Holiness, Holy Father John Paul II, when he came to us for the first time as a pope in 1979, said the famous words in Warsaw that all Poles have held dear. He said "let your Spirit descend and renew the face of the earth, the face of this land". And so it happened. In 1989 and later the face of the Polish land was renewed through a great political change, through the departure of the government that was hostile towards the Catholic Church and hostile towards faith due to which it often persecuted religious people, persecuted and murdered clergymen in Poland. We have managed to remove this government and Poles gained freedom. But today, looking at the contemporary world, one would like to cry "let your Spirit descend and renew the face of the earth", but not only this Polish land, but the entire earth. Today the earth needs values so much, it needs faith so much, it needs good so much today, or everything that Your Holiness brings with himself," the Polish president said.

"The young people and all of us, Poles, are extremely happy, Holy Father, that you are among us. And we are looking forward to your words," the president concluded. (PAP)
Y20 Summit opens in Shanghai Updated: 2016-07-27 17:30 (Xinhua)

SHANGHAI - The Y20 Summit, a G20-related discussion forum for young people, opened in Shanghai Wednesday.

More than 100 youth delegates aged 18-30 from G20 member states, other countries and international organizations will attend the three-day meeting,themed "Youth Innovation for Our Shared Vision."

Participants will discuss topics such as poverty reduction and common development,innovation and startups, social justice and equality, green lifestyle and sustainable development, as well as global economic governance.

A statement drafted at the conference will be submitted to the preparatory committee of the G20 Summit.

This year's G20 Leaders Summit will be held in East China's Hangzhou city in early September.
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.




PUNE, India, July 27, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

According to a new report "Global Chemical Distribution Market (By Type, By Region): Trends, Opportunities and Forecasts (2016-2021)", rising demand of chemical distribution driven by the surging customer demand for services and reachable supply chain model is driving the global chemical distribution market.

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Chemical distributors supply chemicals from producers to end users for various applications such as manufacturing soap, cosmetic, personal care products, lubricants, and also used in pharmaceutical; and food and beverage industry. Therefore, growing demand by end users and easy access to products result in growth of chemical distribution market. Growing awareness among the consumers related to high value addition products and customer service offerings lead to highly intense competition in global market of chemical distribution.

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Global Chemical Sales, 2014 and 2030 (%)

Chemical Production (excluding pharmaceutical), (in %)

Global Chemical Distribution Market Size, By Type, 2015 (%)

Global Chemical Distribution Market Size, By Type, 2021F (%)

Global Specialty Chemical Distribution Market Size, By Value, 2011-2021F (USD Billion)

Global Specialty Chemical Distribution Market Share, By Region, 2015 (%)

Global Specialty Chemical Distribution Market Share, By Region, 2021 (%)

Global Commodity Chemical Distribution Market Size, By Value, 2011-2021F (USD Billion)

Global Commodity Chemical Distribution Market Share, By Region, 2015 (%)

Global Commodity Chemical Distribution Market Share, By Region, 2021 (%)

Value Supply Chain from chemical producers to processing industries

Global Chemical Distribution Market, By Region, 2015 (%)

Global Chemical Distribution Market, By Region, 2021 (%)

On a related note, the Global Third-party Chemical Distribution Market 2016-2020 report considers the revenue generated from the third party distribution of chemicals to calculate market size in this research. Companies like Brenntag, Univar, HELM, Nexeo Solutions, IMCD, Azelis, Biesterfeld, ICC Chemical, Jebsen & Jessen and Stockmeier Chemie are discussed in this 79 pages report. Questions like what will the market size be in 2020 and what will the growth rate be? What are the key market trends? What are the challenges to market growth? And others are answered via this study available at http://www.reportsnreports.com/reports/604455-global-third-party-chemical-distribution-market-2016-2020.html .

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"Business leaders know that great people drive great business results. But, too many of those same leaders accept the status quo instead of demanding the transformation of their talent acquisition function into a sustainable competitive advantage. We're in business to change that," said Sue Marks, CEO of Cielo. "We appreciate that Everest Group, and their peers in the analyst community, continue to recognize our ability to create customized solutions that deliver real business results for our clients across the globe."

Everest Group's annual PEAK Matrix report evaluated 21 established Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) service providers based on the absolute as well as relative year-on-year movement for specific criteria, including market success, scale, scope, technology capability, delivery footprint and buyer satisfaction. The providers were then categorized into three categories: Leaders, Major Contenders and Aspirants. Leaders, like Cielo, ranked in the 75th percentile for both market success and RPO delivery capability.

"Our assessment shows that Cielo is able to leverage its consultative approach, multi-country capabilities, and appropriate investment in technology and innovation to create value for its clients," said Arkadev Basak, Practice Director, Everest Group. "This is helping it achieve significant market success while positioning well for future."

To request additional details about Everest Group's 2016 Global RPO PEAK Matrix or learn more about Cielo's services, please visit cielotalent.com.

About Cielo

Cielo is the world's leading strategic Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) partner. Under its WE BECOME YOU philosophy, Cielo's dedicated recruitment teams primarily serve clients in the financial services, consumer brands, technology and media, engineering, life sciences and healthcare industries. Cielo's global presence includes 1,400 employees, serving 130 clients across 69 countries in 32 languages. Cielo knows talent is rising  and with it, an organization's opportunity to rise above. For more information, visit cielotalent.com.

Cielo Contact:

Bethany Perkins

bethany.perkins@cielotalent.com

+1 262-439-1443

SOURCE Cielo
PUNE, India, July 27, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

The report "Condensing Unit Market by Type (Air-cooled Condensing Unit, Water-cooled Condensing Unit, and Evaporative Condensing Unit), Application (Industrial Refrigeration, Commercial refrigeration, and others), and by Region - Global Forecast to 2021", published by MarketsandMarkets, The global market is projected to reach USD 23.31 Billion by 2021, at a CAGR of 11.1% from 2016 to 2021.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160303/792302 )



Browse 98 market data Tables and 38 Figures spread through 140 Pages and in-depth TOC on "Condensing Unit Market"

http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/condensing-unit-market-622171.html

Early buyers will receive 10% customization on this report.

High demand for condensing units from the commercial refrigeration industry is expected to drive the growth of this market in the near future.

Industrial refrigeration is the fastest-growing application segment of the global condensing unit market

Industrial refrigeration is projected to be the fastest-growing application segment from 2016 to 2021. Growth in the construction and general manufacturing industries is also projected to drive the demand for condensing units.

Air-cooled condensing unit was the largest segment of the condensing unit market

Based on type, the Condensing Unit Market has been segmented into air-cooled condensing unit, water-cooled condensing unit, and evaporative condensing unit. Air-cooled condensing unit was the largest segment of the market in 2015. The widespread commercial applications, low maintenance & installation cost, and rising water scarcity issues are the key factors driving the growth of the air-cooled condensing unit segment of the condensing unit market.

Make an Inquiry @ http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Enquiry_Before_Buying.asp?id=622171

Asia-Pacific was the largest market for global condensing unit market in 2015

Asia-Pacific was the largest market for condensing units in 2015. Growing industrialization and infrastructure development in the region offer enormous opportunities for the use of high-performance condensing units. The key growth driver of the market is the rising demand from the industrial refrigeration industry. Growth in the construction and general manufacturing industries is also projected to drive the demand for condensing units in this region.

Key players operational in the condensing unit market include Emerson Electric Company, Carrier Commercial Refrigeration, Danfoss, GEA Group, Heatcraft Worldwide Refrigeration, BITZER Kuhlmaschinenbau GmbH, and others.

Browse Related Reports:

Synchronous Condenser Market by Cooling Type (Hydrogen Cooled, Air Cooled, & Water Cooled), by Reactive Power Rating (Up to 100 MVAr, 100-200 MVAr & Above 200 MVAr), by Starting Method, by End User, and by Region - Global Forecast to 2020

http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/synchronous-condenser-market-189197147.html

Refrigerant Market by Type (Fluorocarbon, Inorganics, and Hydrocarbons), and by Application (Domestic, Commercial, Transportation, Industrial, Stationary Air Conditioning, Chillers, and Mobile Air Conditioning) - Global Trends & Forecasts to 2020

http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/refrigerant-market-1082.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.

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Visit MarketsandMarkets Blog @http://www.marketsandmarketsblog.com/market-reports/chemical

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SOURCE MarketsandMarkets
DUBAI, UAE, July 27, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Flytxt, a leading provider of mobile consumer analytics solutions for enterprises announced that it has received the prestigious ISO 27001:2013 certification for its Information Security Management System (ISMS). The company joins an elite group of big data analytics firms with this certification, a process-based standard which mandates specific risk control requirements to maintain the highest levels of data and information security.

Flytxt offers data analytics solutions for enterprises including some of the largest Communication Service Providers (CSPs) and global brands, helping them to derive deeper consumer insights from diverse data streams. Data security and privacy are growing concerns for enterprises, especially CSPs, who are arguably the largest custodians of fast growing consumer data in this digital, connected world.

Prateek Kapadia, CTO, Flytxt said, "Compliance with the latest version of the ISO 27001 standard allows Flytxt to align with its customers' ISMS models and follow modern best-practice recommendations for information risk management techniques and controls. The certification endorses the maturity of Flytxt's risk management processes to match global standards for ensuring the confidentiality, integrity and availability of customer information."

Gaining ISO 27001 certification is a demanding process which requires companies to demonstrate effective implementation of ISMS including documentation and records management, resource security and management, and efficient process control, measurement, and analysis.

About Flytxt:

Flytxt partners with enterprises in their digital transformation journey, enabling them to generate measurable economic value from data through mobile consumer analytics. Flytxt's comprehensive data monetisation solutions help enterprises to personalise customer experience across digital touch points as well as increase revenue, optimise margins, and enhance loyalty. The company's solutions are used by more than 100 customers across 40 countries, analysing data of more than 600 million mobile consumers. Flytxt has consistently delivered 2 to 7% economic impact to its customers with its full solution stack combining technology, packaged analytics, business applications, and enabling services. The company has its headquarters in The Netherlands, corporate office in Dubai and presence in Paris, London, Trivandrum, Mumbai, Singapore, Johannesburg, Nairobi, and Mexico City.

For more information, please visit http://www.flytxt.com

Contact:

Naeem Shaikh

naeem.shaikh@flytxt.com



SOURCE Flytxt
DUBLIN, July 27, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Research and Markets has announced the addition of the "Global Biocides Market Research Report - Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2015-2022" report to their offering.

Global biocides market is segmented based on its types such as metallic compounds, halogen compounds, organosulfurs, organic acids, and phenolics. The application market is segmented as personal care, water treatment, wood preservation, food & beverages, paints & coatings and others. Halogen compounds followed by organic acids are the major types of biocides preferred in the global market. Water treatment is the leading application of global biocides market followed by food & beverages and personal care industries.

Biocides are chemicals that repress or kill microorganisms harmful to humans or animals. These microorganisms like pests, germs, lice, bedbugs, etc can cause damage to human and animal health, natural materials and manufactured materials.

Biocides are used as disinfectants, drinking and waste water treatment, insect repellents, anti-fouling paints, and for other purposes. Biocides are majorly employed in industries like pharmaceuticals, agribusiness, forestry, ship & automotive, manufacturing industry, water treatment plants and more.

North America dominates the global biocides market owing to advance technology and food & beverages and healthcare industries concentration. Asia Pacific and Latin America are the fastest emerging market. China, India, Indonesia, Brazil, South Africa, and Vietnam are expected to be the lucrative markets in the forecast period.

Key Topics Covered:

1. Introduction To The Biocides Market

2. Executive Summary

3. Market Analysis Of Biocides

4. Global Biocides Market Analysis By Types

5. Global Biocides Market Analysis By Application

6. Global Biocides Market Analysis By Region

7. Competitive Landscape Of The Biocides Companies

8. Company Profiles Of Biocides Industry

- AkzoNobel N.V.

- Albemarle Corp.

- Ashland Inc.

- BASF SE

- Baker Hughes Inc.

- Champion Technologies

- Clariant AG

- Cortec Corp.

- FMC Corp.

- GE Water and Process Technologies

- ISP Chemicals Inc.

- Kemira Oyj

- LANXESS AG

- Lonza Group Ltd.

- Lubrizol Corp.

- Nalco Holding Co.

- The Dow Chemical Company

- Thor Specialties Inc.

- Troy Corp.

For more information visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/56hbhl/global_biocides

Media Contact:

Research and Markets

Laura Wood, Senior Manager

press@researchandmarkets.com

For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470

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Related Links

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SOURCE Research and Markets
BUCHAREST, Romania, July 27, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

On July 22nd 2016, both, JSC National Company KazMunayGas (KMG) and KMG International N.V. (KMGI) submitted to the Romanian authorities a Notice of Investment Dispute based on the agreement between the Government of Romania and the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the agreement between the Government of the Kingdom of the Netherlands and the Government of Romania and the Energy Charter Treaty.

The arbitration dispute concerns the treatment applied by the Romanian authorities to the investments performed by KMG and KMGI in their Romanian subsidiaries, namely: Rompetrol S.A. (now Oilfield Exploration Business Solutions S.A., Oilfield), Vega S.A. (Vega), Rompetrol Rafinare S.A. (RRC) and other related Romanian companies.

KazMunayGas Companies' letter to the Government of Romania also details asset freezes totalling more than $2.1 billion and the company's belief that it appears to be the intention of the authorities to seize and nationalize assets that have generated tremendous benefit for the Romanian economy and people. KazMunayGas Companies have already invested around $4 billion (including the acquisition price of the Group by KazMunayGas NC) of spending inside the country with plans to direct billions more in funds to plants, facilities and communities where the Group does business.

Mr Azamat Zhangulov, Senior Vice President of KMG International said today, "We always stand ready to explain to the Government of Romania the need for our investments to be protected as a matter of legal obligation under law. We are committed to continue investment in Romania and building on the significant work we have already done. However, we cannot put further capital at risk unless and until the authorities demonstrate respect for rule of law. If no solution is found, we are compelled to use all legal means to defend our rights and obtain compensation and that includes international arbitration against the State. However, we sincerely hope that an amicable solution can still be found with a view to allow us to continue investments in Romania so as to contribute to Romania's objective of becoming a major energy hub in the Black Sea region."

Further to the submission of the Notice of Investment Dispute, should a settlement between KMG and Romania fail to be reached, the case will be referred to and settled by the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes under World Bank, headquartered in Washington, D.C. or to the Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce, in line with the provisions of the treaties and with KMG companies' envisaged reliefs and measures to be obtained.

SOURCE KMG International
RUEIL-MALMAISON, France, July 27, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

LUCIBEL, specialist in LED lighting solutions, presents the key elements of its 2nd quarter 2016 activity

In MEUR 2nd Quarter 1st Half-year (consolidated IFRS, unaudited) 2016 2015 Change 2016 2015 Change Sales - France 6,3 4,7 + 33,7% 11,2 10,0 + 12,4% As a % of revenues 88% 73% 87% 74% Sales - International 0,9 1,8 - 52,4% 1,7 3,5 - 51,4% As a % of revenues 12% 27% 13% 26% Group revenues 7,2 6,5 +10,1% 12,9 13,5 - 4,2%

In the 2nd quarter of 2016, LUCIBEL achieved a turnover of 7.2 M, up 10% compared to the same period in 2015. This strong performance is mainly due to sales growth in France (+33.7 %), while international sales are falling because of the closure of some of its loss-making activities (commercial subsidiary in Hong-Kong, commercial activities in the UK and Germany).

This very good performance in France limited the decrease in LUCIBEL Group revenue to 4.2% in H1 2016 compared to the same period in 2015 (12.9 M).

Launch of a specific activity related to Energy Savings Certificate (ESCs) scheme

In an ongoing effort to meet all the needs of its clients in terms of LED lighting, LUCIBEL decided, during the first half of 2016, to launch a new activity to help energy suppliers to meet their obligations under the Energy Savings Certificate (ESCs) scheme.

Indeed, the benefit for energy suppliers to fulfil these obligations through LED lighting has been strengthened by the Law of 17 august 2015 on "Energy Transition for Green Growth" that aims at enhancing efforts to improve energy efficiency and tackle energy precariousness.

LUCIBEL succeeded in positioning itself as a regular supplier of a leading provider of energy in France.

During the first half of 2006, 1.4 M of LUCIBEL revenue have been reached thanks to this ESCs scheme and the contracts that have been signed at that time with this provider will generate a minimum turnover of 4.3 M in the 2nd quarter of 2016.

Activity Outlook H2 2016

Given the aforementioned signed contracts, the successful launch of a  warehouse  activity by our subsidiary Cordel, leader in shop lighting, the progressive development of the prescription offer LUXITIS designed and manufactured in Normandy (cf. press release of 23rd March 2016), LUCIBEL expects, in the second half of the year, a strong revenue growth compared to H1 2016.

Frederic GRANOTIER, Chairman and CEO of LUCIBEL, made the following comment:

 The good sales performances and the successful renewal of its product range, coupled with a cost structure now optimized, allows LUCIBEL to confirm its positive EBITDA objective for the year 2016.

The commercial launch, in September 2016 as scheduled, of a high broadband LIFI solution that enables navigating the internet through light will allow LUCIBEL to enter the world of the Internet of Things (IoT) and high value added solutions, which offer promising opportunities .

Next Financial releases

28th September 2016: 1st half-year 2016 results (initial publication date was 11th October 2016)

4th October 2016: 3rd quarter 2016 revenue

4th and 5th October 2016: Mid Cap Event in Paris

About Lucibel:

Lucibel is a French innovative company that designs, manufactures and markets new-generation lighting products and solutions based on LED technology. For more information, please visit company's website at http://www.lucibel.com

Lucibel is listed on Alternext Paris/Ticker: ALUCI/ISIN code: FR0011884378

Lucibel is eligible for PEA, PEA PME and FCPI

Press contact

Lucibel

Laura BARRERE

laura.barrere@lucibel.com



Investors contact

Lucibel

Frederic GRANOTIER

frederic.granotier@lucibel.com



Liquidity provider

Louis Capital Markets

Maxime ABOUJDID/ +33(0)1-53-45-10-71

maboujdid@louiscapital.com



SOURCE Lucibel
PERTH, Australia, July 27, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Australia's crash investigator has revealed to AirlineRatings.com (http://www.airlineratings.com/news.php?s&id=739) that data indicates that MH370 could have been descending at up to 20,000ft (6700m) a minute in the moments just before it smashed into the sea with 239 passengers and crew.

In his first interview after taking over as Chief Commissioner of the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB), Greg Hood told AirlineRatings.com in Perth, Western Australia, that the automated satellite communication with the Boeing 777 in its final minutes showed that its descent increased dramatically from about 5,400ft (1200m) a minute to up to 20,000ft (6700m) a minute.

The big increase suggests that no one was in control of the aircraft, he said.

The exclusive interview with AirlineRatings.com comes after some media outlets have cited a two-year-old FBI report into a flight simulator program on MH370 Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah's home computer to claim that he glided the Boeing 777 in a controlled water landing and that the ATSB is looking in the wrong place.

Mr Hood also told AirlineRatings.com that the FBI report was not new. "We have known about the FBI report for two years and it was widely reported in the media at the time. It is nothing new."

But Mr Hood was emphatic to AirlineRatings.com that the FBI report only "potentially shows planning and possibly intent, but it does not tell us where the aircraft is."

MH370 disappeared in mysterious circumstances on March 8, 2014, after communications from the jetliner were cut during what was supposed to be a routine flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

However Mr Hood is still confident of finding MH370 in the coming months.

AirlineRatings.com Editor-in-Chief Mr Geoffrey Thomas said the ATSB's new revelations "shed a great deal more light on the final tragic moments of MH370."

"It is important that the ATSB, on behalf of the multinational search team, dispel the destructive speculation about what may or may not have happened on MH370," said Mr Thomas.

AirlineRatings.com full interview with Mr Hood is found here: http://www.airlineratings.com/news.php?s&id=739

About AirlineRatings.com;

AirlineRatings.com was established in 2013 and is the world's only safety and product rating website. The website safety rates 450 of the world's largest airlines.

Related Links

http://www.airlineratings.com



SOURCE AirlineRatings.com
MELBOURNE, Australia, July 27, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Integration to be Rolled out Across Victoria's Largest Public Health Service Provider's Network as Part of Wider Digital Transformation Program

Elsevier, a world-leading provider of scientific, technical and medical information products and services, today announced that Monash Health, the largest public health service provider in the state of Victoria, Australia, will integrate Elsevier's Order Sets into its electronic medical record (EMR) system as part of its major digital transformation effort.

The decision to integrate Order Sets into its EMR system will help Monash Health achieve greater operational efficiencies by reducing redundancies and maximizing already limited resources to deliver better outcomes for patients, physicians and other healthcare providers.

"We recognize that we can drive safer and better quality care by providing our healthcare professionals with access to accurate patient records and evidence-based guidelines all in one integrated system," said Associate Professor Ronnie Ptasznik, Chief Medical Information Officer of Monash Health. "This translates to substantial savings both in terms of costs and time that would otherwise be spent searching for the relevant and right information on which to base clinical decisions."

At Monash Health, the first stage of the EMR deployment will involve the critical integration of Order Sets to provide clinical decision support through real-time, evidence-based alerts for clinicians to do "the right thing." Delivering digitized patients' medical records while providing medical staff quick access to evidence-based content from Order Sets will help standardize clinical practice, reduce medical errors and streamline workflows, all of which will ultimately result in better quality care and safer outcomes for patients.

Associate Professor Ptasznik said, "The ability to integrate Order Sets with EMR offers us an optimal cloud-based solution that helps simplify the maintenance, development and management of order sets. This allows for virtual, interactive and real-time collaboration and updating of orders anywhere, even from mobile."

"It's also to our benefit that Order Sets provides quick access to evidence-based content - a crucial criterion for us - that comes from the seamless integration from our subscription to ClinicalKey, which our staff are familiar with. This gives us the confidence that there will be minimal disruption to their workflow with the integration."

ClinicalKey is Elsevier's powerful clinical search engine that delivers fast and accurate answers from a comprehensive database of evidence-based content to support decision making at the point of care.

"Our solutions are designed by clinicians for clinicians, making it intuitive to use, helping providers save time and effort when delivering care," said Dr. Peter Edelstein, Chief Medical Officer of Elsevier. "Order Sets' unique adaptive terminology platform uses each hospital's existing terminology, test names and formulary, which guarantees accuracy and offers a personalized experience."

Apart from existing hospitals across the Monash Health network that will undergo this digital upgrade, the Monash Children's Hospital, which is currently under construction, will also start using Order Sets when the site goes 'live' with the EMR.

Full measures have been put in place to facilitate the smooth and successful implementation of an EMR in Monash Health. "We have a multi-disciplinary EMR Clinical Council that consists of some of the most senior clinicians, and we meet on a monthly basis to discuss how we're going to implement the EMR and to review recently completed work," said Associate Professor Ptasznik. "Clinical engagement is high and we're all very excited for it to happen."

In addition to point-of-care benefits, the digitization of clinical workflows will generate big data that can be harnessed for broader population-health level benefits. Given that Monash Health sees over a million Victoria residents a year, Associate Professor Ptasznik who is also a clinical advisor to the National E-health Transition Authority (soon to be the Australian Digital Health Agency) said: "There is huge potential for us to better predict, prevent and treat diseases by identifying the most effective diagnostic and treatment pathways for this population." This includes the ability to examine relationships between clinical events previously thought as unrelated, and taking advantage of the cumulative experience to learn how others treated similar conditions.

The push to digitize workflows across Monash Health comes at a critical time for the industry given the government's renewed efforts to restructure the My Health Record initiative. With a budget of AUD$156.5 million for the newly-established Australian Digital Health Agency, there is a clear imperative to improve the healthcare infrastructure across the country.

For many hospitals in Australia, crucial information about patients is still being communicated between GPs and hospitals via paper records or faxes despite more than AUD$1 billion being spent on healthcare technology over the past decade. Breakdown in communication during patient handovers is one of the main causes of adverse events related to patient care.

About Elsevier

Elsevier is a world-leading provider of information solutions that enhance the performance of science, health, and technology professionals, empowering them to make better decisions, deliver better care, and sometimes make groundbreaking discoveries that advance the boundaries of knowledge and human progress. Elsevier provides web-based, digital solutions - among them ScienceDirect, Scopus, Elsevier Research Intelligence and ClinicalKey - and publishes over 2,500 journals, including The Lancet and Cell, and more than 35,000 book titles, including a number of iconic reference works. Elsevier is part of RELX Group, a world-leading provider of information and analytics for professional and business customers across industries. http://www.elsevier.com

Media contact

Jason Chan

Director, Corporate Relations, Elsevier

+65 6349 0240

j.chan@elsevier.com



Shefali Srinivas

Asia Pacific Director, Healthcare, WE Communications

+65 6303 8473

shefalis@we-worldwide.com



SOURCE Elsevier
TEL AVIV, Israel, July 27, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Global irrigation leader releases GRI report based on most advanced G4 standard

Netafim, the global leader in smart irrigation solutions for a sustainable future, released today its 2015 Sustainability Report, which demonstrates how its 2020 Sustainability Strategy is aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) recently adopted by the UN. Written in accordance with the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) G4 standard, the world's most advanced sustainability reporting framework, the report highlights numerous Netafim activities that underscore its commitment to several of the 17 SDGs, which were approved in September 2015.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160727/393321LOGO )

(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160727/393320 )

"Sustainability has been a part of Netafim's essence since our establishment in 1965," said Ran Maidan, Netafim CEO. "As the global smart irrigation leader, Netafim is committed to driving mass adoption of smart irrigation solutions to fight scarcity of food, water and land. Offering the most comprehensive and advanced solutions for all crop types and for farmers of all sizes, we are helping the world grow more with less to ensure a sustainable future."

"For years, Netafim has worked tirelessly with our partners in the public and private sectors to advance sustainable agriculture practices and help define ways to achieve global sustainability," said Naty Barak, Netafim's Chief Sustainability Officer. "Our 2015 report demonstrates how our sustainability strategy supports these efforts and is aligned with the UN's Sustainable Development Goals."

"By helping farmers achieve sustainable livelihoods, increasing access to drip irrigation, and conducting our business responsibly, we strive to make smart irrigation solutions the accessible and preferred choice for irrigated crops all over the world," added Rachel Shaul, Netafim's Head of Marketing and External Affairs.

The report highlights a number of recent case studies from across the globe. In one example of action for prosperity, the Company prepared the 2015 launch of a large-scale rice irrigation pilot with India's Tamil Nadu government involving 600 farmers that has increased yields by 20% and decreased water usage by 60%. In another example, Netafim is a majority partner in the Netafim Agricultural Financing Agency (NAFA), which has provided $33 million in loans over three years enabling 23,000 Indian smallholders to install drip systems across 22,000 hectares. Netafim's focus on education for prosperity was evident in a Kenyan project that is part of the USAID-funded Feed the Future Partnering for Innovation program. Netafim has trained 5,000 smallholders in using the company's Family Drip System (FDS) kit, while working with banks to help secure financing and with buyers to help the growers sell their produce.

For more highlights from the report, click here. To download a summary of the report click here, and to download the full report click here.

About Netafim

Netafim is the global leader in smart irrigation solutions for a sustainable future. With 28 subsidiaries, 17 manufacturing plants and 4,300 employees worldwide, Netafim delivers innovative solutions to growers of all sizes, from smallholders to large-scale agricultural producers, in over 110 countries. Founded in 1965, Netafim pioneered the drip revolution, creating a paradigm shift toward low-flow agricultural irrigation. Today, Netafim provides diverse solutions - from state-of-the-art drippers to advanced automated systems - for agriculture, greenhouses, landscaping and mining, accompanied by expert agronomic, technical and operational support. Specializing in end-to-end solutions from the water source to the root zone, Netafim delivers turnkey irrigation and greenhouse projects, supported by engineering, project management and financing services. Netafim's market-leading solutions are helping the world grow more with less. For more information, visit http://www.netafim.com.

Contact:

Rachel Shaul

Head of Corporate Marketing & External Affairs

Tel: +972-52-5014827

Rachel.shaul@netafim.com



SOURCE Netafim
Cross-Cloud Data Migration Tools Eliminate Lock-In; Information Lifecycle Management Tools Further Optimize Cloud Storage Costs; Identity Management Integrations Enable Simple, Secure User Authentication

NEW YORK and PETACH TIKVAH, Israel, July 27, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- CTERA Networks today introduced new cloud data management capabilities that allow enterprise organizations to easily and securely implement comprehensive file service and data protection strategies. The enhancements to the CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform enable IT organizations to migrate data across any data center and cloud infrastructure, optimize storage infrastructure costs through intelligent file management, and simplify user access to enterprise data through new identity management integrations.

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160419/357489LOGO

The CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform enables enterprise IT to protect data and manage files across endpoints, offices, and the cloud  all within the organization's on-premises or virtual on-premises cloud storage. The platform is powered by CTERA's cloud service delivery middleware that IT-as-a-Service (ITaaS) organizations leverage to create, deliver, and manage cloud storage-based services such as enterprise file sync and share (EFSS), in-cloud data protection, endpoint and remote server backup, and office storage modernization.

New enhancements to the CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform include:

Cloud Data Storage Migration: Organizations can now migrate data across cloud storage infrastructure without experiencing system downtime or end user service interruption. By seamlessly migrating data across storage nodes of any type or location, the CTERA Platform enables applications and data to easily and securely flow from one data center to any other data center, helping organizations to avoid vendor and/or platform lock-in, and embrace cloud strategies with confidence.

Information Lifecycle Management: The CTERA Platform leverages information lifecycle management tools from Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) and NetApp StorageGRID to intelligently place files in cloud storage tiers according to their application profile. Long-term archive and backup data can be directed to low cost storage tiers, such as Amazon Web Services's (AWS) Amazon S3-Standard Infrequent Access tier (Standard  IA), while interactive data (EFSS content) can be stored on storage tiers that offer cost-optimized ingress and egress, helping to reduce customers' overall cloud infrastructure investments by 10 to 20 percent.

SAML 2.0 and Support for Leading Single Sign-On (SSO) Utilities: CTERA now supports identity federation over Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML) 2.0 to enable IT organizations to centralize corporate user identity management and provide SSO capabilities for file and backup access. In conjunction with support for this new standard, CTERA has now certified compatibility with leading SSO offerings, including Microsoft ADFS 2.0, Okta, OneLogin, and Ping Identity.

"As customers increasingly migrate their businesses to AWS, they realize the full value of our infrastructure as they reduce operational costs, scale their systems quickly and optimize for their strategic initiatives," said Bill Vass, Vice President of Technology, Amazon Web Services, Inc. "We're working with companies like CTERA to help IT organizations on their journey to secure cloud file services delivery and to intelligently utilize and optimize AWS engineering that enables the greatest levels of application performance and value."

"Organizations with the ability to leverage the right clouds for the right jobs are going to deliver significant business gains as they embrace new models of IT consumption," said Jeff Denworth, SVP Marketing, CTERA. "CTERA's IT-as-a-Service platform addresses multiple enterprise use cases with a single platform designed to help IT organizations become more efficient and enterprise end users become more productive."

Supporting Resources:

About CTERA

CTERA enables enterprise IT to provide secure file services from any cloud. Trusted by the Fortune 100 and leading service providers, the CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform is a private cloud IT-as-a-Service platform for storing, syncing, sharing, protecting and governing data across endpoints, remote offices and servers. To learn more, visit www.ctera.com.

Related Links

http://www.ctera.com



SOURCE CTERA Networks
NEW YORK, July 27, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Safanad (http://safanad.com) a global principal investment firm, is pleased to announce that it has formed a strategic partnership with Workspace Property Trust ("WPT"), led by industry veterans Thomas Rizk and Roger Thomas, to acquire 108 office and flex buildings within five markets in four states from Liberty Property Trust for approximately USD 969 million. The sale is expected to close late in the third quarter of 2016.

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Kamal Bahamdan, Chief Executive Officer and Founder of Safanad commented, "At Safanad, we align ourselves with experienced industry partners through carefully selected investments. We are looking forward to working with Tom, Roger and the rest of the Workspace team who have extensive experience and a distinguished track record of creating value in suburban office markets. We have worked with and known them for over 20 years and this experience gives us great confidence in the future of this platform."

Thomas Rizk, Chief Executive Officer and founding principal of WPT commented, "We are excited about entering into this new relationship with Safanad and this acquisition represents the next step of our strategic plan to build a portfolio of high quality, well-positioned suburban real estate assets."

This portfolio consists of assets in the following markets:

City # of Buildings Square Feet Land (Acres) Arizona 14 1,078,652 18.1 Florida (South) 11 1,136,020 8.6 Florida (Tampa) 34 1,799,568 - Minnesota 19 1,488,832 - Pennsylvania 30 2,075,764 - Total 108 7,578,836 26.7

About Safanad

Safanad (http://www.safanad.com/) is a global principal investment firm that invests in real estate, private equity and public markets. As principal investors, Safanad preserves and grows wealth through a disciplined industry focused investment approach that builds relationships with exceptional management partners and top industry leaders. With offices in New York, Dubai and London, the firm seeks to identify global investment opportunities poised to deliver consistently attractive returns, where the firm's capital and investment expertise support value creation.

For Safanad Media Enquiries: info@safanad.com / +971 4 312 9700

About Workspace Property Trust

Workspace Property Trust (http://www.workspaceproperty.com/) is a privately held, vertically integrated, full service commercial real estate company specializing in the development, management, and operation of office and flex space. Workspace Property Trust is a partnership between Rizk Ventures, Forum Partners, JPM Group, EverWatch Capital, and with the closing of this transaction, Safanad.

For Workspace Property Trust Media Enquiries: +1 212 980 0100

Related Links

http://safanad.com



SOURCE Safanad
WEILHEIM, Germany, July 27, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

The sales has been finalized: Tubesca-Comabi, the market leader for access technology in France, will be sold to the French family-owned company Frenehard & Michaux. The transfer of the company to the buyer is subject to approval by the French antitrust authorities, but is scheduled for September 2016. The new company will have close to 1,000 employees and is expected to generate 160 million euros in revenues.

Tubesca-Comabi is France's market leader for access technology. The company is headquartered in Trevoux Cedex and manufacturers ladders, scaffoldings and special constructions designed especially for the building trade, the general industry and aerospace service companies. The DIY sector is supplied by the Artub brand. Tubesca-Comabi employs approximately 550 individuals and generates around 100 million euros in revenues. The subsidiaries Skyworks in the Netherlands and Tendo in Spain are included in the sale.

Frenehard & Michaux was founded in 1889. Steeped in tradition, this Normandy-based company is also a market leader in France and is specialized in supplying the building industry with attachment and safety products for roofs. With approximately 450 employees spread across eight locations, the company generates revenues of around 60 million euros.

"This acquisition will allow us to offer a comprehensive range of products to ensure work safety at great heights. We can offer every professional involved in the building and industrial sectors a well-rounded portfolio, from access products to equipment that enables work at great heights while maintaining maximum safety, because we are the specialist for all products in this field," says Jacques Frenehard, President of the Frenehard & Michaux Group.

The market leader for access technology and logistics products, ZARGES, was formerly associated with Tubesca-Comabi but will now be operated as an independent company.

Zarges supplies international trade and industry with aluminium products for access technology, special constructions, logistics solutions and transport and storage systems for the healthcare sector. The company generates revenues of around 130 million euros with its close to 760 employees.

Tom Kaiser, CEO of the ZargesTubesca Group, adds: "We are pleased that Tubesca-Comabi and the family-owned company Frenehard & Michaux are able to further expand their market leadership in access technology and fall protection with this excellent range of products and services for the building trade. This makes this transaction a very positive one, also in terms of future prospects for the employees."

Contact:

Tom Kaiser

CEO ZargesTubesca Group

Phone: +49(0)881-687-203

http://www.zarges.com/en/

SOURCE Zarges GmbH
DUBLIN, July 27, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Research and Markets has announced the addition of the "Stomach Cancer Forecast in 17 Major Markets 2016-2026" report to their offering.

This report provides the current incident population for Stomach Cancer across 17 Major Markets (USA, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, UK, Brazil, Japan, India, Mexico, Turkey, Argentina, Australia, Canada, Russian, Saudi Arabia and South Africa) split by gender and 5-year age cohort. Along with the current incidence, the report also contains a disease overview of the risk factors, disease diagnosis and prognosis along with specific variations by geography and ethnicity.

Providing a value-added level of insight, several of the classifications and co-morbidities of Stomach Cancer have been quantified and presented alongside the overall incidence figures. These sub-populations within the main disease are also included at a country level across the 10-year forecast snapshot.

Main features and co-morbidities associated with Stomach Cancer include:

- History of stomach polyps or stomach lymphoma

- Family history of stomach cancer

- Colorectal cancer

- Familial adenomatous polyposis

- BRCA1/BRCA2 mutations

- Megaloblastic (pernicious) anaemia or being blood type A

Key Topics Covered:

1. Introduction

2. Cause of the Disease

3. Risk Factors & Prevention

4. Diagnosis of the Disease

5. Variation by Geography/Ethnicity

6. Disease Prognosis & Clinical Course

7. Key Co-morbid Conditions/ Features Associated with the Disease

8. Methodology for Quantification of Patient Numbers

9. Top-Line Incidence for Stomach Cancer

10. Stages and Grading of Stomach Cancer

11. Abbreviations used in the Report

12. Patient-Based Offering

13. Online Pricing Data and Platforms

14. References

15. Appendix

For more information visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/9rjc8b/stomach_cancer

Media Contact:

Research and Markets

Laura Wood, Senior Manager

press@researchandmarkets.com

For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470

For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630

For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900

U.S. Fax: 646-607-1907

Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716

Related Links

http://www.researchandmarkets.com



SOURCE Research and Markets
"We wanted to create a collection that was playful and risque," says Adam & Eve Marketing Director Chad Davis. "We partnered with Visixtwo of London to design something totally unique something both adamandeve.com customers and adults everywhere could have fun with."

The initial collection of 51 emoticons is available for free for a limited time. Download them now from the Apple iTunes store at https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/naughty-emoji-adam-and-eve/id1136887666?ls=1&mt=8.

About Adam & Eve

Adam & Eve (adamandeve.com) is the nation's preeminent marketer of adult oriented materials, with a broad range of "sex positive" products, including sex toys, vibrators, condoms, lingerie, and erotic movies. Founded in 1970, A&E is privately owned and headquartered in historic Hillsborough, N.C.

About Visixtwo

Visixtwo are London-based, branded emojis and messaging app marketing specialists. The team of four powered the emoji campaigns of some of the world's most recognizable brands. With six billion emojis sent every day, branded emojis can create a unique emotional connection by placing your brand into a conversation between potential consumers.

For more information on the adamandeve.com emoji line or Adam & Eve in general, please contact Katy Zvolerin at 919.644.8100 x 3121 or [email protected].

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SOURCE adamandeve.com

Related Links

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ITASCA, Ill., July 27, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. (NYSE: AJG) today announced the acquisition of Gabor Insurance Services, Inc., including its subsidiary, American Professional Liability Underwriters, headquartered in Miami, Florida. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Founded in 1992, Gabor Insurance Services, Inc. (Gabor) is a managing general agency and excess and surplus lines insurance broker that provides commercial and personal property/casualty insurance products and services to its retail broker clients throughout the Southeastern United States. It specializes in commercial property and professional liability with a focus on architects and engineers, lawyers, healthcare and other professionals. Ronald Gabor, Michael Gabor, Robert Kenney and their associates will operate from their Miami, Sebastian, Boca Raton and Tampa, Florida locations under the direction of Joel Cavaness, President of Risk Placement Services, Inc., a subsidiary of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co.

J. Patrick Gallagher, Jr., Chairman, President and CEO said, "We are always looking for partners that promote product alternatives, expand our sales and service presence and align with our key markets. Gabor's depth of experience, focus on client service and product specializations will be great complements to Risk Placement Services' niche practice capabilities. We are pleased to welcome Ron, Mike, Bob and their team to Risk Placement Services' family of professionals."

Arthur J. Gallagher & Co., an international insurance brokerage and risk management services firm, is headquartered in Itasca, Illinois, has operations in 33 countries and offers client-service capabilities in more than 150 countries around the world through a network of correspondent brokers and consultants.

Investors: Marsha J. Akin Media: Linda J. Collins Director-Investor Relations VP  Corporate Communications 630-285-3501 or [email protected] 630-285-4009 or [email protected]

SOURCE Arthur J. Gallagher & Co.

Related Links

http://www.ajg.com


LOS ANGELES, July 27, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Cortney Shegerian of the Los Angeles-based employment discrimination firm Shegerian & Associates has released a statement regarding The New York Times report on Rudi Bakhtiar, a former news correspondent for Fox News who alleges she was a victim of sexual harassment during her time at the network. Bakhtiar claims her contract was terminated by Fox News chairman Roger Ailes for refusing the advances of another senior co-worker.

"Rudi Bakhtiar is an accomplished news correspondent who has lost out on countless opportunities because of her brave decision to fight back against sexual harassment," Shegerian says. "These allegations bear a striking resemblance to those made by Gretchen Carlson, and if true, prove that sexual harassment is pervasive within the Fox News organization."

"If these allegations are true, Mr. Ailes clearly created a culture where sexual harassment went unpunished, and in fact, was supported through the promotion and termination of employees," Shegerian went on to say. "When those who are in positions of power do not see sexual harassment as a serious issue, it is easy for employees throughout the rest of the organization to follow suit."

"The number of women who have anonymously come forward to corroborate Bakhtiar's story is alarming to say the least," Shegerian says. "This serves as a sad reminder of how many workers are being unfairly treated in the workplace, but are too afraid to come forward because of fear of retribution."

Located in Santa Monica, Shegerian & Associates is a law firm specializing in protecting the rights of employees who have been wronged by their employers. Richly experienced in labor and employment law and possessing an unparalleled success record as litigators, Shegerian & Associates is passionately dedicated to serving the needs of its clients. For more information about the firm, visit www.ShegerianLaw.com.

Located in Los Angeles County, Shegerian & Associates is a law firm specializing in employment law and personal injury litigation. Shegerian & Associates is dedicated to serving the needs of its clients, and has won over 73 jury trials, including over 31 seven and eight figure verdicts. For more information, visit www.ShegerianLaw.com or www.GotFired.com

SOURCE Shegerian & Associates, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.ShegerianLaw.com


DALLAS, July 27, 2016 /PRNewswire/-- Blackhill Partners, an investment bank specializing in complex situations, has completed the reorganization of Black Elk Energy Offshore Operations, LLC, guiding the company through bankruptcy. Blackhill led Black Elk through a complex Chapter 11 proceeding that included more than $1 billion of restructured liabilities and $15 million in structured roll-up debtor-in-possession (DIP) financing.

"Black Elk was a complex bankruptcy involving the largest ever attempted oil and gas decommissioning plan in Chapter 11," said Lance Gurley, Director, Blackhill Partners. "We were able to draw on our significant experience advising distressed operators in the Gulf of Mexico Outer Continental Shelf to guide the plan to consummation."

In approving the bankruptcy plan, Judge Marvin Isgur of the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas, located in Houston, said from the bench: "(The) team just did an extraordinary job so far in the case. I know we're not done, but what (has been) accomplished is really unbelievable," said Judge Isgur. "It's a case that could have been a total disaster and it wasn't. So I just want to compliment (the team). It's a pretty phenomenal result."

In addition to Gurley, Blackhill's Energy Restructuring Team for Black Elk included Jeff Jones, Tripp Ballard and Todd Heinz, who drew on their expertise in onshore and offshore energy restructurings to maximize recoveries for creditors. The Blackhill team coordinated with counsel to Black Elk from Baker & Hostetler's Restructuring and Reorganization group, composed of partners Elizabeth Green, Jorian Rose and Jimmy Parrish.

Black Elk Energy was an independent oil and gas company headquartered in Houston, Texas. The company operated and held interests in properties offshore in the Gulf of Mexico, located within Louisiana and Texas as well as Federal waters, in depths ranging from ten feet up to 3,700 feet.

About Blackhill Partners

Headquartered in Dallas, Texas, Blackhill Partners, LLC is an investment bank specializing in complex situations. Blackhill's professionals have advised Fortune 500 and middle-market companies on over $100 billion of mergers, acquisitions, financings and restructurings across a broad range of industries, with particular depth in energy and industrial businesses. www.blackhillpartners.com

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SOURCE Blackhill Partners, LLC

Related Links

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CHICAGO, July 27, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Revenue increased to $24.8 billion on strong commercial deliveries and services growth

Loss of $0.37 per share (GAAP) and core (non-GAAP)* loss of $0.44 per share reflect $3.23 per share impact related to previously announced 787 R&D reclassification and 747 & Tanker charges

Strong operating cash flow of $3.2 billion ; repurchased 15 million shares for $2.0 billion

Backlog remains robust at $472 billion with nearly 5,700 commercial airplane orders

Cash and marketable securities of $9.3 billion provide strong liquidity

Reaffirmed cash & revenue guidance; EPS reflects reclassification, charges, solid performance & tax







































Table 1. Summary Financial Results

Second Quarter



First Half

(Dollars in Millions, except per share data)

2016 2015 Change 2016 2015 Change















Revenues



$24,755



$24,543

1%



$47,387



$46,692

1%

















GAAP













Earnings/(Loss) From Operations



($419)



$1,683

(125)%



$1,369



$3,702

(63)%

Operating Margin

(1.7)%

6.9%

(8.6) Pts

2.9%

7.9%

(5.0) Pts

Net Earnings/(Loss)



($234)



$1,110

(121)%



$985



$2,446

(60)%

Earnings/(Loss) Per Share



($0.37)



$1.59

(123)%



$1.51



$3.46

(56)%

Operating Cash Flow



$3,234



$3,297

(2)%



$4,465



$3,385

32%

Non-GAAP*













Core Operating Earnings/(Loss)



($488)



$1,713

(128)%



$1,206



$3,845

(69)%

Core Operating Margin

(2.0)%

7.0%

(9.0) Pts

2.5%

8.2%

(5.7) Pts

Core Earnings/(Loss) Per Share



($0.44)



$1.62

(127)%



$1.35



$3.59

(62)%







* Non-GAAP measures. Complete definitions of Boeing's non-GAAP measures are on page 7, "Non-GAAP Measures Disclosures."

The Boeing Company [NYSE: BA] reported second-quarter revenue of $24.8 billion on strong commercial deliveries and services growth (Table 1). GAAP loss per share of $0.37 and core loss per share (non-GAAP)* of $0.44 reflect the previously announced 787 cost reclassification ($1.33 per share) and charges on the 747 program ($1.28 per share) and the KC-46 Tanker program ($0.62 per share), partially offset by solid execution and higher volume.

"The underlying operating performance of the company remains solid with our commercial and defense teams again delivering strong revenues and operating cash flow. Actions taken during the quarter that impacted our earnings were the right, proactive steps to reduce risk and strengthen our position for the future," said Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer Dennis Muilenburg. "Our strong cash generation also supported our ongoing commitment to invest in product innovation and in our people, and return substantial cash to shareholders through stock repurchases and dividends."

"As we look forward to the second half of the year, we anticipate continued strong operating performance across our production and services programs on generally healthy demand for our broad portfolio of market-leading offerings. Our commercial airplane development programs remain on track and we have successfully completed the flight testing required for customer approval of key KC-46 production milestones."

"Overall our teams remain intensely focused on improving productivity and quality, building out our large and diverse backlog, investing in future growth, and delivering increasing value to all of our stakeholders."

GAAP earnings per share guidance for 2016 has been adjusted to between $6.40 and $6.60 from $8.45 and $8.65 and core earnings per share (non-GAAP)* guidance has been adjusted to between $6.10 and $6.30 from $8.15 and $8.35 to reflect the impact of the 787 R&D reclassification and the 747 and Tanker charges, solid performance and tax benefits.

































Table 2. Cash Flow

Second Quarter

First Half (Millions)

2016 2015

2016 2015 Operating Cash Flow



$3,234



$3,297





$4,465



$3,385

Less Additions to Property, Plant & Equipment



($671)



($692)





($1,419)



($1,266)

Free Cash Flow*



$2,563



$2,605





$3,046



$2,119







* Non-GAAP measures. Complete definitions of Boeing's non-GAAP measures are on page 7, "Non-GAAP Measures Disclosures."

Operating cash flow in the quarter was $3.2 billion, largely reflecting commercial airplane production rates and solid operating performance (Table 2). During the quarter, the company repurchased 15.3 million shares for $2.0 billion, leaving $8.5 billion remaining under the current repurchase authorization which is expected to be completed over approximately the next two years. The company also paid $691 million in dividends in the quarter, reflecting an approximately 20 percent increase in dividends per share compared to the same period of the prior year.



















Table 3. Cash, Marketable Securities and Debt Balances

Quarter-End (Billions)

Q2 16 Q1 16 Cash



$8.6



$7.9

Marketable Securities1



$0.7



$0.5

Total



$9.3



$8.4

Debt Balances:





The Boeing Company, net of intercompany loans to BCC



$8.7



$7.6

Boeing Capital, including intercompany loans



$2.3



$2.4

Total Consolidated Debt



$11.0



$10.0







1 Marketable securities consists primarily of time deposits due within one year classified as "short-term investments."

Cash and investments in marketable securities totaled $9.3 billion, up from $8.4 billion at the beginning of the quarter. Debt was $11.0 billion, up from the beginning of the quarter, primarily due to the issuance of new debt (Table 3).

Total company backlog at quarter-end was $472 billion, down from $480 billion at the beginning of the quarter, and included net orders for the quarter of $17 billion.

Segment Results

Commercial Airplanes





































Table 4. Commercial Airplanes

Second Quarter



First Half

(Dollars in Millions)

2016 2015 Change 2016 2015 Change















Commercial Airplanes Deliveries

199

197

1%

375

381

(2)%















Revenues



$17,456



$16,877

3%



$31,855



$32,258

(1)% Earnings/(Loss) from Operations



($973)



$1,206

(181)%



$60



$2,823

(98)% Operating Margin

(5.6)%

7.1%

(12.7) Pts

0.2%

8.8%

(8.6) Pts

Commercial Airplanes second-quarter revenue increased 3 percent to $17.5 billion on higher volume and mix (Table 4). Second-quarter operating margin was negative 5.6 percent, reflecting previously announced R&D reclassification of $1,235 million on the 787 program, a pre-tax charge of $1,188 million on the 747 program, and a pre-tax charge of $354 million on the KC-46 Tanker program. The results also reflect higher planned R&D and solid execution. Second-quarter operating margin excluding the reclassification and charges (non-GAAP)* was 10.3%.

During the quarter, the 787 program reached a 12 per month delivery rate and the company opened the new 777X Composite Wing Center in Everett. The 737 program rolled out the first two 737 MAX production airplanes and has captured over 3,200 orders for the 737 MAX since launch, including an order for 100 737 MAX 200 airplanes from Vietjet during the quarter. The 737 MAX development program is progressing smoothly and entry into service is being accelerated.

Commercial Airplanes booked 152 net orders during the quarter. Backlog remains strong with nearly 5,700 airplanes valued at $417 billion.

Defense, Space & Security







































Table 5. Defense, Space & Security

Second Quarter



First Half

(Dollars in Millions)

2016 2015 Change 2016 2015 Change Revenues1













Boeing Military Aircraft



$2,979



$3,474

(14)%



$6,638



$6,200

7% Network & Space Systems



$1,810



$1,938

(7)%



$3,545



$3,670

(3)% Global Services & Support



$2,385



$2,132

12%



$4,947



$4,383

13% Total BDS Revenues



$7,174



$7,544

(5)%



$15,130



$14,253

6% Earnings from Operations1













Boeing Military Aircraft



$175



$121

45%



$509



$380

34% Network & Space Systems



$153



$151

1%



$301



$318

(5)% Global Services & Support



$265



$274

(3)%



$605



$591

2% Total BDS Earnings from Operations



$593



$546

9%



$1,415



$1,289

10% Operating Margin

8.3%

7.2%

1.1 Pts

9.4%

9.0%

0.4 Pts





1 During the first quarter of 2016, certain programs were realigned between Boeing Military Aircraft and Global Services & Support.

Defense, Space & Security's second-quarter revenue was $7.2 billion. Second-quarter operating margin was 8.3 percent, reflecting the previously announced $219 million pre-tax charge recorded at Boeing Military Aircraft on the KC-46 Tanker program (Table 5).

Boeing Military Aircraft (BMA) second-quarter revenue was $3.0 billion, reflecting lower planned C-17 and Chinook deliveries. Operating margin was 5.9 percent, reflecting the KC-46 Tanker charge. During the quarter, BMA was awarded contracts for 24 Apache and 12 Chinook helicopters.

Network & Space Systems (N&SS) second-quarter revenue was $1.8 billion. Operating margin increased to 8.5 percent, reflecting performance and timing on United Launch Alliance launches.

Global Services & Support (GS&S) second-quarter revenue increased to $2.4 billion, reflecting higher volume in Aircraft Modernization & Sustainment. Operating margin was 11.1 percent largely reflecting contract mix.

Backlog at Defense, Space & Security was $55 billion, of which 37 percent represents orders from international customers.

Additional Financial Information

































Table 6. Additional Financial Information

Second Quarter First Half (Dollars in Millions)

2016 2015 2016 2015 Revenues









Boeing Capital



$84



$115



$148



$201

Unallocated items, eliminations and other



$41



$7



$254



($20)

Earnings from Operations









Boeing Capital



$18



$11



$23



$31

Unallocated pension/postretirement



$69



($30)



$163



($143)

Other unallocated items and eliminations



($126)



($50)



($292)



($298)

Other income, net



$13



$15



$39



$3

Interest and debt expense



($73)



($75)



($146)



($136)

Effective tax rate

51.1%

31.6%

21.9%

31.5%



At quarter-end, Boeing Capital's net portfolio balance was $3 billion, down from the beginning of the quarter. Total pension expense for the second quarter was $463 million, down from $523 million in the same period of the prior year. Other unallocated items and eliminations decreased from the same period in the prior year primarily due to higher deferred compensation expense and elimination of intercompany profit. The effective tax rate for the second quarter was increased from the same period in the prior year primarily due to lower pre-tax income. During the quarter, the company adopted a new accounting standard for share-based compensation payments which resulted in a $54 million tax benefit ($0.08 per share).

Outlook

The company's 2016 updated financial and delivery guidance (Table 7) reflects the impact of the 787 R&D reclassification and the 747 and Tanker charges, solid performance and tax benefits.











Table 7. 2016 Financial Outlook Current

Prior (Dollars in Billions, except per share data) Guidance

Guidance







The Boeing Company





Revenue $93.0 - 95.0

$93.0 - 95.0 GAAP Earnings Per Share $6.40 - 6.60

$8.45 - 8.65 Core Earnings Per Share* $6.10 - 6.30

$8.15 - 8.35 Operating Cash Flow ~$10.0

~$10.0







Commercial Airplanes





Deliveries 740 - 745

740 - 745 Revenue $64.0 - 65.0

$64.0 - 65.0 Operating Margin 4.5% - 5.0

~9.0%







Defense, Space & Security





Revenue





Boeing Military Aircraft ~$12.3

~$12.3 Network & Space Systems ~$7.3

~$7.3 Global Services & Support ~$9.4

~$9.4







Total BDS Revenue $28.5 - 29.5

$28.5 - 29.5







Operating Margin





Boeing Military Aircraft ~9.5%

~10.0% Network & Space Systems ~9.0%

~9.0% Global Services & Support ~12.0%

~11.5%







Total BDS Operating Margin >10.0%

>10.0%







Boeing Capital





Portfolio Size Stable

Stable Revenue ~$0.3

~$0.3 Pre-Tax Earnings ~$0.05

~$0.05







Research & Development ~ $4.8

~ $3.6 Capital Expenditures ~ $2.8

~ $2.8 Pension Expense 1 ~ $2.1

~ $2.1 Effective Tax Rate ~ 23.0%

~ 30.0%





1 Approximately ($0.1) billion is expected to be recorded in unallocated items and eliminations * Non-GAAP measures. Complete definitions of Boeing's non-GAAP measures are on page 7, "Non-GAAP Measures Disclosures."

Non-GAAP Measures Disclosures

We supplement the reporting of our financial information determined under U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) with certain non-GAAP financial information. The non-GAAP financial information presented excludes certain significant items that may not be indicative of, or are unrelated to, results from our ongoing business operations. We believe that these non-GAAP measures provide investors with additional insight into the company's ongoing business performance. These non-GAAP measures should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for the related GAAP measures, and other companies may define such measures differently. We encourage investors to review our financial statements and publicly-filed reports in their entirety and not to rely on any single financial measure. The following definitions are provided:

Core Operating Earnings/(Loss), Core Operating Margin and Core Earnings/(Loss) Per Share

Core operating earnings/(loss) is defined as GAAP earnings/(loss) from operations excluding unallocated pension and post-retirement expense. Core operating margin is defined as core operating earnings/(loss) expressed as a percentage of revenue. Core earnings/(loss) per share is defined as GAAP diluted earnings/(loss) per share excluding the net earnings per share impact of unallocated pension and post-retirement expense. Unallocated pension and post-retirement expense represents the portion of pension and other post-retirement costs that are not recognized by business segments for segment reporting purposes. Pension costs, comprising service and prior service costs computed in accordance with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles in the United States of America (GAAP) are allocated to Commercial Airplanes. Pension costs allocated to BDS segments are computed in accordance with U.S. Government Cost Accounting Standards (CAS), which employ different actuarial assumptions and accounting conventions than GAAP. CAS costs are allocable to government contracts. Other postretirement benefit costs are allocated to all business segments based on CAS, which is generally based on benefits paid. Management uses core operating earnings, core operating margin and core earnings per share for purposes of evaluating and forecasting underlying business performance. Management believes these core earnings measures provide investors additional insights into operational performance as they exclude unallocated pension and post-retirement costs, which primarily represent costs driven by market factors and costs not allocable to government contracts. A reconciliation between the GAAP and non-GAAP measures is provided on page 14.

Commercial Airplanes Operating Margin Excluding the Reclassification and Charges

Commercial Airplanes GAAP operating margin for the three months ended June 30, 2016 includes research and development expense of $1,235 million related to the reclassification of costs associated with two 787 flight test aircraft from program inventory, a reach-forward loss on the 747 program of $1,188 million, and a reach-forward loss recorded at Commercial Airplanes on the KC-46 Tanker program of $354 million. Management uses Commercial Airplanes operating margin excluding the reclassification and charges for the purpose of evaluating underlying business performance for the three months ended June 30, 2016. Management believes that this measure also helps investors assess overall trends in our operational performance and provide additional context for year over year financial results. A reconciliation between the GAAP and non-GAAP measures is provided on page 14.

Free Cash Flow

Free cash flow is defined as GAAP operating cash flow without capital expenditures for property, plant and equipment additions. Management believes free cash flow provides investors with an important perspective on the cash available for shareholders, debt repayment, and acquisitions after making the capital investments required to support ongoing business operations and long term value creation. Free cash flow does not represent the residual cash flow available for discretionary expenditures as it excludes certain mandatory expenditures such as repayment of maturing debt. Management uses free cash flow as a measure to assess both business performance and overall liquidity. Table 2 provides a reconciliation between GAAP operating cash flow and free cash flow.

Caution Concerning Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words such as "may," "should," "expects," "intends," "projects," "plans," "believes," "estimates," "targets," "anticipates," and similar expressions are used to identify these forward-looking statements. Examples of forward-looking statements include statements relating to our future financial condition and operating results, as well as any other statement that does not directly relate to any historical or current fact. Forward-looking statements are based on our current expectations and assumptions, which may not prove to be accurate. These statements are not guarantees and are subject to risks, uncertainties, and changes in circumstances that are difficult to predict. Many factors could cause actual results to differ materially and adversely from these forward-looking statements. Among these factors are risks related to: (1) general conditions in the economy and our industry, including those due to regulatory changes; (2) our reliance on our commercial airline customers; (3) the overall health of our aircraft production system, planned production rate increases across multiple commercial airline programs, our commercial development and derivative aircraft programs, and our aircraft being subject to stringent performance and reliability standards; (4) changing budget and appropriation levels and acquisition priorities of the U.S. government; (5) our dependence on U.S. government contracts; (6) our reliance on fixed-price contracts; (7) our reliance on cost-type contracts; (8) uncertainties concerning contracts that include in-orbit incentive payments; (9) our dependence on our subcontractors and suppliers, as well as the availability of raw materials, (10) changes in accounting estimates; (11) changes in the competitive landscape in our markets; (12) our non-U.S. operations, including sales to non-U.S. customers; (13) potential adverse developments in new or pending litigation and/or government investigations; (14) customer and aircraft concentration in Boeing Capital's customer financing portfolio; (15) changes in our ability to obtain debt on commercially reasonable terms and at competitive rates in order to fund our operations and contractual commitments; (16) realizing the anticipated benefits of mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures/strategic alliances or divestitures; (17) the adequacy of our insurance coverage to cover significant risk exposures; (18) potential business disruptions, including those related to physical security threats, information technology or cyber-attacks, epidemics, sanctions or natural disasters; (19) work stoppages or other labor disruptions; (20) significant changes in discount rates and actual investment return on pension assets; (21) potential environmental liabilities; and (22) threats to the security of our or our customers' information.

Additional information concerning these and other factors can be found in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including our most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and Current Reports on Form 8-K. Any forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date on which it is made, and we assume no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise, except as required by law.

Contact:













Investor Relations:

Troy Lahr or Ben Hackman (312) 544-2140 (312) 544-2140 Communications:

Bernard Choi (312) 544-2002 (312) 544-2002

The Boeing Company and Subsidiaries Consolidated Statements of Operations (Unaudited)



























Six months ended

June 30 Three months ended

June 30 (Dollars in millions, except per share data) 2016

2015

2016

2015

Sales of products

$42,069



$41,408



$22,184



$21,923

Sales of services 5,318

5,284

2,571

2,620

Total revenues 47,387

46,692

24,755

24,543











Cost of products (37,210)

(35,627)

(20,265)

(19,247)

Cost of services (4,180)

(4,186)

(2,044)

(2,086)

Boeing Capital interest expense (32)

(33)

(16)

(17)

Total costs and expenses (41,422)

(39,846)

(22,325)

(21,350)



5,965

6,846

2,430

3,193

Income from operating investments, net 151

129

97

50

General and administrative expense (1,694)

(1,705)

(806)

(760)

Research and development expense, net (3,044)

(1,569)

(2,127)

(800)

(Loss)/gain on dispositions, net (9)

1

(13)





Earnings/(loss) from operations 1,369

3,702

(419)

1,683

Other income, net 39

3

13

15

Interest and debt expense (146)

(136)

(73)

(75)

Earnings/(loss) before income taxes 1,262

3,569

(479)

1,623

Income tax (expense)/benefit (277)

(1,123)

245

(513)

Net earnings/(loss)

$985



$2,446



($234)



$1,110











Basic earnings/(loss) per share

$1.52



$3.50



($0.37)



$1.61











Diluted earnings/(loss) per share

$1.51



$3.46



($0.37)



$1.59











Cash dividends paid per share

$2.18



$1.82



$1.09



$0.91











Weighted average diluted shares (millions) 654.9

706.6

636.3 ** 698.9







** As a result of incurring a net loss for the three months ended June 30, 2016, potential common shares of 6.7 million were excluded from diluted earnings per share.

The Boeing Company and Subsidiaries Consolidated Statements of Financial Position (Unaudited)













(Dollars in millions, except per share data) June 30

2016

December 31

2015

Assets



Cash and cash equivalents

$8,605



$11,302

Short-term and other investments 660

750

Accounts receivable, net 9,809

8,713

Current portion of customer financing, net 251

212

Inventories, net of advances and progress billings 44,182

47,257

Total current assets 63,507

68,234

Customer financing, net 2,909

3,358

Property, plant and equipment, net of accumulated depreciation of $16,641 and $16,286 12,533

12,076

Goodwill 5,128

5,126

Acquired intangible assets, net 2,544

2,657

Deferred income taxes 267

265

Investments 1,312

1,284

Other assets, net of accumulated amortization of $451 and $451 1,409

1,408

Total assets

$89,609



$94,408

Liabilities and equity



Accounts payable

$11,748



$10,800

Accrued liabilities 13,534

14,014

Advances and billings in excess of related costs 23,409

24,364

Short-term debt and current portion of long-term debt 1,168

1,234

Total current liabilities 49,859

50,412

Deferred income taxes 2,422

2,392

Accrued retiree health care 6,586

6,616

Accrued pension plan liability, net 18,200

17,783

Other long-term liabilities 2,048

2,078

Long-term debt 9,847

8,730

Shareholders' equity:



Common stock, par value $5.00  1,200,000,000 shares authorized; 1,012,261,159 shares issued 5,061

5,061

Additional paid-in capital 4,778

4,834

Treasury stock, at cost - 386,402,793 and 345,637,354 shares (34,821)

(29,568)

Retained earnings 38,362

38,756

Accumulated other comprehensive loss (12,795)

(12,748)

Total shareholders' equity 585

6,335

Noncontrolling interests 62

62

Total equity 647

6,397

Total liabilities and equity

$89,609



$94,408



The Boeing Company and Subsidiaries Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows (Unaudited)















Six months ended

June 30 (Dollars in millions) 2016

2015

Cash flows  operating activities:



Net earnings/(loss)

$985



$2,446

Adjustments to reconcile net earnings to net cash provided by operating activities:



Non-cash items 



Share-based plans expense 97

94

Depreciation and amortization 890

912

Investment/asset impairment charges, net 50

74

Customer financing valuation benefit (4)

(5)

Gain/(loss) on dispositions, net 9

(1)

Other charges and credits, net 141

140

Excess tax benefits from share-based payment arrangements



(124)

Changes in assets and liabilities 



Accounts receivable (503)

(313)

Inventories, net of advances and progress billings 3,004

(2,395)

Accounts payable 1,221

888

Accrued liabilities (269)

(177)

Advances and billings in excess of related costs (954)

195

Income taxes receivable, payable and deferred (494)

482

Other long-term liabilities (103)

(17)

Pension and other postretirement plans 181

1,244

Customer financing, net 275

19

Other (61)

(77)

Net cash provided by operating activities 4,465

3,385

Cash flows  investing activities:



Property, plant and equipment additions (1,419)

(1,266)

Property, plant and equipment reductions 13

20

Acquisitions, net of cash acquired



(23)

Contributions to investments (657)

(1,205)

Proceeds from investments 705

2,040

Other 8

22

Net cash used by investing activities (1,350)

(412)

Cash flows  financing activities:



New borrowings 1,323

761

Debt repayments (267)

(846)

Stock options exercised 147

276

Excess tax benefits from share-based payment arrangements



124

Employee taxes on certain share-based payment arrangements (79)

(90)

Common shares repurchased (5,501)

(4,501)

Dividends paid (1,408)

(1,264)

Other (24)





Net cash used by financing activities (5,809)

(5,540)

Effect of exchange rate changes on cash and cash equivalents (3)

(9)

Net decrease in cash and cash equivalents (2,697)

(2,576)

Cash and cash equivalents at beginning of year 11,302

11,733

Cash and cash equivalents at end of period

$8,605



$9,157



The Boeing Company and Subsidiaries Summary of Business Segment Data (Unaudited)



























Six months ended

June 30 Three months ended

June 30 (Dollars in millions) 2016

2015

2016

2015

Revenues:







Commercial Airplanes

$31,855



$32,258



$17,456



$16,877

Defense, Space & Security:







Boeing Military Aircraft 6,638

6,200

2,979

3,474

Network & Space Systems 3,545

3,670

1,810

1,938

Global Services & Support 4,947

4,383

2,385

2,132

Total Defense, Space & Security 15,130

14,253

7,174

7,544

Boeing Capital 148

201

84

115

Unallocated items, eliminations and other 254

(20)

41

7

Total revenues

$47,387



$46,692



$24,755



$24,543

Earnings/(loss) from operations:







Commercial Airplanes

$60



$2,823



($973)



$1,206

Defense, Space & Security:







Boeing Military Aircraft 509

380

175

121

Network & Space Systems 301

318

153

151

Global Services & Support 605

591

265

274

Total Defense, Space & Security 1,415

1,289

593

546

Boeing Capital 23

31

18

11

Segment operating profit/(loss) 1,498

4,143

(362)

1,763

Unallocated items, eliminations and other (129)

(441)

(57)

(80)

Earnings/(loss) from operations 1,369

3,702

(419)

1,683

Other income, net 39

3

13

15

Interest and debt expense (146)

(136)

(73)

(75)

Earnings/(loss) before income taxes 1,262

3,569

(479)

1,623

Income tax (expense)/benefit (277)

(1,123)

245

(513)

Net earnings/(loss)

$985



$2,446



($234)



$1,110











Research and development expense, net:







Commercial Airplanes

$2,548



$1,097



$1,877



$554

Defense, Space & Security 521

474

263

250

Other (25)

(2)

(13)

(4)

Total research and development expense, net

$3,044



$1,569



$2,127



$800











Unallocated items, eliminations and other:







Share-based plans

($41)



($37)



($18)



($16)

Deferred compensation (5)

(48)

(21)

10

Amortization of previously capitalized interest (48)

(49)

(18)

(20)

Eliminations and other unallocated items (198)

(164)

(69)

(24)

Sub-total (included in core operating earnings) (292)

(298)

(126)

(50)

Pension 79

(209)

34

(57)

Postretirement 84

66

35

27

Total unallocated items, eliminations and other

($129)



($441)



($57)



($80)



The Boeing Company and Subsidiaries Operating and Financial Data (Unaudited)



















Deliveries

Six months ended

June 30 Three months ended

June 30 Commercial Airplanes

2016

2015

2016

2015

737

248

249

127

128

747

3

9

2

5

767

5

9

4

4

777

51

50

28

26

787

68

64

38

34

Total

375

381

199

197

Note: Deliveries under operating lease are identified by parentheses.











Defense, Space & Security









Boeing Military Aircraft









AH-64 Apache (New)

15

12

8

6

AH-64 Apache (Remanufactured)

18

23

7

13

C-17 Globemaster III

4

3

1

2

CH-47 Chinook (New)

10

21

7

15

CH-47 Chinook (Renewed)

16

5

7

1

F-15 Models

7

5

3

4

F/A-18 Models

14

20

6

9

P-8 Models

9

6

5

4













Global Services & Support









AEW&C

















C-40A





1





















Network & Space Systems









Commercial and Civil Satellites

1

1



1

Military Satellites

1

1

1

1





































Contractual backlog (Dollars in billions)





June 30

2016

December 31

2015

Commercial Airplanes







$416.6



$431.4

Defense, Space & Security:









Boeing Military Aircraft





22.6

19.9

Network & Space Systems





6.9

7.4

Global Services & Support





16.9

17.9

Total Defense, Space & Security





46.4

45.2

Total contractual backlog







$463.0



$476.6

Unobligated backlog







$9.2



$12.7

Total backlog







$472.2



$489.3

Workforce





158,100

161,400









The Boeing Company and Subsidiaries Reconciliation of Non-GAAP Measures (Unaudited)

The tables provided below reconcile the non-GAAP financial measures core operating earnings, core operating margin, core earnings per share, and Commercial Airplanes operating margin excluding the reclassification and charges with the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures, earnings from operations, operating margin, diluted earnings per share and Commercial Airplanes operating margin. See page 7 of this release for additional information on the use of these non-GAAP financial measures.



























(Dollars in millions, except per share data) Second Quarter First Half Guidance

2016 2015 2016 2015 2016 Revenues

$24,755



$24,543



$47,387



$46,692















GAAP Earnings/(Loss) From Operations

($419)



$1,683



$1,369



$3,702



Increase/(Decrease) in GAAP Earnings From Operations (125%)





(63%)







GAAP Operating Margin (1.7%)

6.9%

2.9%

7.9%















Unallocated Pension (Income)/Expense

($34)



$57



($79)



$209



Unallocated Other Postretirement Benefit Income

($35)



($27)



($84)



($66)



Unallocated Pension and Other Postretirement Benefit (Income)/Expense

($69)



$30



($163)



$143

~($300) Core Operating Earnings/(Loss) (non-GAAP)

($488)



$1,713



$1,206



$3,845



Increase/(Decrease) in Core Operating Earnings (non-GAAP) (128%)





(69%)







Core Operating Margin (non-GAAP) (2.0%)

7.0%

2.5%

8.2%























GAAP Diluted Earnings/(Loss) Per Share

($0.37)



$1.59



$1.51



$3.46

$6.40 - $6.60 Unallocated Pension (Income)/Expense

($0.05)



$0.09



($0.12)



$0.29



Unallocated Postretirement Benefit (Income)/Expense

($0.06)



($0.04)



($0.13)



($0.09)

($0.30) Provision for deferred income taxes on adjustments (1)

$0.04



($0.02)



$0.09



($0.07)



Core Earnings/(Loss) Per Share (non-GAAP)

($0.44)



$1.62



$1.35



$3.59

$6.10 - $6.30











Weighted Average Diluted Shares (millions) 636.3 ** 698.9

654.9

706.6

645 - 650 Increase/(Decrease) in GAAP Earnings Per Share (123%)



(56%)





Increase/(Decrease) in Core Earnings Per Share (non-GAAP) (127%)



(62%)









































Commercial Airplanes Revenues

$17,456









GAAP Commercial Airplanes Earnings/(Loss) from Operations

($973)









GAAP Commercial Airplanes Operating margin (5.6%)





















Cost reclassification of two 787 flight test aircraft

$1,235









Reach-forward loss on 747 program

$1,188









Reach-forward loss at Commercial Airplanes on KC-46 Tanker program

$354









Commercial Airlines Earnings from Operations excluding the reclassification and charges (non-GAAP)

$1,804





















Commercial Airplanes operating margin excluding the reclassification and charges (non-GAAP) 10.3%















(1) The income tax impact is calculated using the tax rate in effect for the non-GAAP adjustments. ** As a result of incurring a net loss for the three months ended June 30, 2016, potential common shares of 6.7 million were excluded from diluted earnings per share.

SOURCE Boeing
NASHVILLE, Tenn., July 27, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Brookdale Senior Living Inc. (NYSE: BKD) today announced that it has entered into an agreement with a third party to sell 44 communities for an aggregate sales price of $252.5 million. The 12-state portfolio comprises 2,453 units, including 1,874 assisted living units and 579 memory care units. The portfolio communities' revenue for the twelve months ended March 31, 2016 was approximately $89 million, and the portfolio's average occupancy for the first quarter of 2016 was 79%.

Andy Smith, Brookdale's President and CEO, said, "We are pleased to continue our portfolio rationalization initiative to simplify our business model and divest communities that do not fit with our strategy. This single transaction divests a diverse group of communities spread across 12 states and minimizes any operational disruption. We expect to use the proceeds of the transaction to primarily repay debt in another step towards deleveraging the balance sheet."

The closing of the disposition transaction, expected by the end of 2016, is subject to the receipt of regulatory approvals and the satisfaction of other customary closing conditions. There can be no assurance that the disposition transaction will close or, if it does, when the closing will occur.

About Brookdale Senior Living

Brookdale Senior Living Inc. is the leading operator of senior living communities throughout the United States. The Company is committed to providing senior living solutions primarily within properties that are designed, purpose-built and operated to provide the highest-quality service, care and living accommodations for residents. Brookdale operates independent living, assisted living, and dementia-care communities and continuing care retirement centers, with approximately 1,114 communities in 47 states and the ability to serve approximately 107,000 residents. Through its ancillary services program, the Company also offers a range of outpatient therapy, home health, personalized living and hospice services. Brookdale's stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol BKD.

Safe Harbor

Certain statements in this press release may constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including all statements regarding our intent or expectations relating to the 44-community disposition, the effect of such disposition on the Company's operations, and the Company's planned use of proceeds from the transaction; and the Company's plans to continue its portfolio rationalization initiative and the effect of such initiative on the Company's operations, performance and financial condition. Actual results could differ materially from those projected. Factors which could cause results to differ include, but are not limited to, the ability of the Company to complete the 44-community divestiture on the currently agreed upon terms or at all, including in respect of the satisfaction of closing conditions, the risk that regulatory approvals are not obtained or are subject to unanticipated conditions, and uncertainties as to the timing of the closing; the Company's ability to identify transactions favorable to the Company and close such transactions as part of its portfolio rationalization initiative; the Company's ability to achieve the expected benefits of such identified transactions within expected time-frames; as well as other risks detailed from time to time in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its Annual Report on Form 10-K and Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q. These forward-looking statements reflect management's views as of the date of this press release, and the Company expressly disclaims any obligation to release publicly any updates or revisions to any of these forward-looking statements to reflect any change in its expectations.

SOURCE Brookdale Senior Living Inc.

Related Links

http://www.brookdaleliving.com


HOUSTON, July 27, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Cabot Oil & Gas Corporation (NYSE: COG) today announced that its Board of Directors declared a regular dividend of two cents ($0.02) per share on the Company's common stock. The dividend will be paid August 24, 2016 to all shareholders of record as of the close of business August 10, 2016.

Cabot Oil & Gas Corporation, headquartered in Houston, Texas, is a leading independent natural gas producer with its entire resource base located in the continental United States. For additional information, visit the Company's homepage at www.cabotog.com.

FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT

Matt Kerin (281) 589-4642

SOURCE Cabot Oil & Gas Corporation

Related Links

http://www.cabotog.com


DOVER, N.J., July 27, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Casio America, Inc. is excited to announce the introduction of its newest Android point of sale (POS) product, the V-R200, for the U.S. and Canadian markets. The V-R200, a successor to Casio's V-R100, will be exhibited and introduced during the RetailNOW show in Casio's booth (#525), which takes place at the Gaylord Palms Resort in Grapevine, TX on August 1-2, 2016.

"Casio is dedicated to providing technology-driven POS systems to its customers, designed to be ideal for a variety of businesses from cafeterias to retail operations," said Lawrence W. Sampey, General Manager of Casio's Systems Products Division. "The V-R200 is newer and faster than the V-R100, all in one affordable and sleek package."

The V-R200 POS terminal operates on flash ROM technology and provides the flexibility and security of the Android platform, without the hassle of expensive and unreliable hard drives or noisy cooling fans. As a successor to the popular and innovative V-R100, Casio's V-R200 offers the same hardware configuration as its predecessor, with a 10.4" adjustable color touch screen, a built-in thermal printer, Ethernet ports and a swivel 2 X 20 customer display. Additional new features exclusive to the V-R200 include:

Faster thermal printer (120mm/sec vs. 70mm/sec)

Newer Android platform

Improved printer paper guide

Improved printer cover (latched rather than completely removable)

External power supply

Increased memory  1GB of RAM

USB port can be used as a Host or Client communications

Casio's V-R200 is an open platform terminal, providing users with the option of either leveraging Casio's standard software (version 4.6.0 and higher) or utilizing a third party application. Casio's standard application is designed for quick service, cafeteria, concession, and retail operations, and includes features such as multiple menu screens and price levels, large item file, modifier windows, historical reporting, customer file for both loyalty and transaction charges, reservation file, and more. It also offers the ability to send reports automatically to an FTP site or to be emailed. On the open platform side of the V-R200, Casio provides a DCL (Device Control Library) to other POS software companies looking to interface their software on the V-R platform. This allows users to leverage a variety of software applications to run on the model, which are designed for a range of businesses.

For additional information on Casio's full portfolio of POS and electronic cash registers, please visit www.Casio.com.

About Casio America, Inc.

Casio America, Inc., Dover, N.J., is the U.S. subsidiary of Casio Computer Co., Ltd., Tokyo, Japan, one of the world's leading manufacturers of consumer electronics and business equipment solutions. Established in 1957, Casio America, Inc. markets calculators, keyboards, digital cameras, mobile presentation devices, disc title and label printers, watches, cash registers and other consumer electronic products. Casio has strived to fulfill its corporate creed of "creativity and contribution" through the introduction of innovative and imaginative products. For more information, visit www.casiousa.com.

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SOURCE Casio America, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.casio.com


MINNETONKA, Minn., July 27, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Center Point Clinical Services, provider of specialty clinical research solutions including the signature Clinical Trials Research Pharmacist (CTRP) service, and Cedarville University School of Pharmacy, announced today the commencement of a specialty pharmacy internship program for students enrolled in the doctor of pharmacy program at the university.

The internship program will afford participating students an opportunity to work with industry veterans to gain practical experience in various aspects of the pharmacy industry including business, research and communications.

"We want to tailor the kind of real-world program that will enable student pharmacists to make an immediate positive impact. As such, we have created an internship where from day one, students will contribute to various company initiatives," said Joe Martinez, CEO, Center Point Clinical Services.

Mr. Martinez continued, "The president of Center Point and I had great mentors back in the day. We are delighted to have the opportunity to pay it forward. We are pleased do so with Cedarville University, a highly respected pharmacy institution in the U.S."

"It is an honor to partner with Center Point Clinical Services and to offer our students important practical experience to complement their academic training. The internship at Center Point is designed to challenge our students with real-life scenarios that will broaden their scope as well as test and strengthen their abilities. We look forward to working with Center Point's experienced and successful team," said Marc A. Sweeney, R.Ph., Pharm.D., M.Div., B.S. Pharm., Dean and Professor of Pharmacy Practice, Cedarville University School of Pharmacy.

About Cedarville University School of Pharmacy

Located in southwest Ohio, Cedarville University is an accredited, Christ-centered, Baptist institution with an enrollment of 3,711 undergraduate, graduate, and online students in more than 100 areas of study. Founded in 1887, Cedarville is recognized nationally for its authentic Christian community, rigorous academic programs, strong graduation and retention rates, accredited professional and health science offerings, and leading student satisfaction ratings. For more information, please visit www.cedarville.edu/pharmacy

About Center Point Clinical Services

Center Point Clinical Services LLC. is a specialty contract research organization (CRO) that helps pharmaceutical, biotech, and medical device companies successfully reach their regulatory and commercialization goals in less time and at a lower cost than competitors. The company offers two premier signature services. The first is the Clinical Trials Research Pharmacist (CTRP) program, which uses only licensed, specially trained pharmacists to communicate with patients. Center Point is the only CRO to offer such a unique and effective service. CTRP has repeatedly demonstrated improved patient retention, medication compliance and overall outcomes in clinical trials. The second service includes a series of practical signature study solutions intended to support regulatory and commercialization goals. These include: real world evidence (RWE) analysis and publications, health economic outcomes and research (HEOR), market access and reimbursement support, industry standard quality metrics data, and scientific publications. For more information please visit www.centerpointclinicalservices.com

Visit our new website: www.centerpointclinicalservices.com

Like us on Facebook.

Follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn

Press Contact:

Marjie Hadad

MH Communications

1-844-287-2877 Ext 9

[email protected]

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SOURCE Center Point Clinical Services

Related Links

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Earnings per share expands by 11.3%

Stock Market Symbols

GIB.A (TSX)

GIB (NYSE)

cgi.com/newsroom

Q3-F2016 year-over-year highlights

Revenue of $2.7 billion , up 4.2%;

, up 4.2%; Bookings of $2.9 billion , up $712.4 million ;

, up ; Backlog of $20.6 billion , up $916.6 million ;

, up ; Adjusted EBIT of $390.5 million , up $19.3 million ;

, up ; Adjusted EBIT margin of 14.6%, up 10 basis points;

Net earnings of $273.8 million , up $16.6 million ;

, up ; Net earnings margin of 10.3%, up 20 basis points;

Diluted EPS of 89 cents , up 11.3%;

, up 11.3%; Cash provided by operating activities of $351.7 million or 13.2% of revenue; and,

or 13.2% of revenue; and, Return on equity of 16.9%.

Note: All figures in Canadian dollars. Q3-F2016 MD&A, interim condensed consolidated financial statements and accompanying notes can be found at cgi.com/investors and have been filed with both SEDAR in Canada and EDGAR in the U.S.

To access the financial statements  click here (PDF)

To access the MD&A - click here (PDF)

MONTREAL, July 27, 2016 /PRNewswire/ - CGI (TSX: GIB.A) (NYSE: GIB) reported fiscal 2016 third quarter revenue of $2.7 billion, up 4.2% compared with the year ago period as foreign exchange fluctuations positively impacted revenue by $93.3 million. On a constant currency basis, revenue grew by 0.6%.

The Company booked $2.9 billion in contract awards, bringing the total bookings over the last twelve months to $11.7 billion or 109.8% of revenue. At the end of June 2016, the Company's backlog of signed orders stood at $20.6 billion, up $916.6 million compared with the same period last year.

Adjusted EBIT increased to $390.5 million in the quarter, up $19.3 million compared with Q3-F2015, while EBIT margin improved to 14.6%.

Net earnings were $273.8 million, up $16.6 million compared with last year, representing a margin of 10.3%. Earnings per share were 89 cents, an increase of 11.3% compared with 80 cents in Q3-F2015.

Cash generated from operating activities was $351.7 million in the quarter, or 13.2% of revenue. Over the last twelve months, the Company has generated $1.4 billion, or $4.40 in cash per diluted share.

During the quarter, net debt was reduced by $278.0 million to $1.6 billion dollars. At the end of June, The Company had $1.8 billion in available cash and unused credit facilities.









In millions of Canadian dollars except earnings per share and where noted





Q3-F2016 Q3-F2015 Revenue 2,667.1 2,559.4 Adjusted EBIT 390.5 371.2 Margin 14.6% 14.5% Net earnings 273.8 257.2 Margin 10.3% 10.1% Earnings per share (diluted) 0.89 0.80 Weighted average number of outstanding shares (diluted) 308,985,991 322,661,908 Net finance costs 18.1 20.8 Net debt 1,648.7 1,791.4 Net debt to capitalization ratio 20.5% 22.7% Cash provided by operating activities 351.7 214.1 Days sales outstanding (DSO) 45 46 Return on invested capital (ROIC) 14.4% 14.8% Return on equity (ROE) 16.9% 18.2% Bookings 2,939.9 2,227.4 Backlog 20,613.6 19,697.0

"Our team delivered very balanced results, with all key performance indicators showing year-over-year improvement," said Michael E. Roach, Chief Executive Officer. "We continue to see growing demand across all of our services and solutions, reinforcing our strategy to be our clients' end-to-end legacy and digital transformation partner of choice. Our transformational outsourcing services enable our clients to reduce their "run" costs to invest in their "change" agenda and leverage our services such as security and automation, all of which are supported by our comprehensive portfolio of IP solutions that accelerate our clients' digital transformation."

Q3-F2016 results conference call

Management will host a conference call this morning at 9:00 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time to discuss results. Participants may access the call by dialing 866-223-7781 or via cgi.com/investors. For those unable to participate on the live call, a podcast and copy of the slides will be archived for download at cgi.com/investors.

About CGI

Founded in 1976, CGI Group Inc. is the fifth largest independent information technology and business process services firm in the world. Approximately 65,000 professionals serve thousands of global clients from offices and delivery centers across the Americas, Europe and Asia Pacific, leveraging a comprehensive portfolio of services, including high-end business and IT consulting, systems integration, application development and maintenance and infrastructure management, as well as 150 IP-based services and solutions. With annual revenue in excess of C$10 billion and an order backlog exceeding C$20 billion, CGI shares are listed on the TSX (GIB.A) and the NYSE (GIB). Website: www.cgi.com.

Non-GAAP financial metrics used in this release: Adjusted EBIT, net debt, net debt to capitalization ratio, bookings, book-to-bill ratio, backlog, DSO, ROIC and ROE.

CGI reports its financial results in accordance with IFRS. However, management believes that these non-GAAP measures provide useful information to investors regarding the Company's financial condition and results of operations as they provide additional measures of its performance. Additional details for these non-GAAP measures can be found on page 2 and 3 of our MD&A which is posted on CGI's website, and filed with SEDAR and EDGAR.

Forward-Looking Statements

All statements in this press release that do not directly and exclusively relate to historical facts constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of that term 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, and are "forward-looking information" within the meaning of Canadian securities laws. These statements and this information represent CGI's intentions, plans, expectations and beliefs, and are subject to risks, uncertainties and other factors, of which many are beyond the control of the Company. These factors could cause actual results to differ materially from such forward-looking statements or forward-looking information. These factors include but are not restricted to: the timing and size of new contracts; acquisitions and other corporate developments; the ability to attract and retain qualified members; market competition in the rapidly evolving IT industry; general economic and business conditions; foreign exchange and other risks identified in the press release, in CGI's annual and quarterly Management's Discussion and Analysis ("MD&A") and in other public disclosure documents filed with the Canadian securities authorities (filed on SEDAR at www.sedar.com) and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (filed on EDGAR at www.sec.gov), as well as assumptions regarding the foregoing. The words "believe", "estimate", "expect", "intend", "anticipate", "foresee", "plan", and similar expressions and variations thereof, identify certain of such forward-looking statements or forward-looking information, which speak only as of the date on which they are made. In particular, statements relating to future performance are forward-looking statements and forward-looking information. CGI disclaims any intention or obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements or forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable law. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements or on this forward-looking information.

SOURCE CGI Group Inc.

Related Links

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Both James M. Theo and Ashley Nelson Van Leer are joining the Chicago office of McDonald Hopkins as associates in the firm's Intellectual Property department. They join a growing national team of more than 30 intellectual property attorneys and professionals who specialize in creating innovative solutions and competitive advantages that help clients build their businesses.

"We are thrilled to have Ashely and James join our Chicago office team as we expand our Intellectual Property group's national practice," said Richard Kessler, managing member of McDonald Hopkins' Chicago office. "Chicago presents a growing market for technology firms. With our deep bench strength and wide-ranging expertise, McDonald Hopkins can provide those firms with the legal counseling and business advisory services they need to grow and succeed."

James M. Theo comes to McDonald Hopkins from Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc., where he served as in-house counsel in the Office of the General Counsel. Theo has extensive experience working on the management, prosecution, and protection of trademarks. He also brings to McDonald Hopkins experience in contract compliance, corporate policy, and litigation. Theo earned a J.D. from Loyola University Chicago School of Law and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. He can be reached at 312.642.3207 or [email protected].

Ashley Nelson Van Leer comes to McDonald Hopkins from Amin Talati & Upadhye, LLC, where she served as an associate attorney in the IP and regulatory boutique's trademark department. Van Leer has extensive experience assisting food, drug, medical device, and cosmetic companies with trademark procurement and licensing. She also brings to McDonald Hopkins experience working on litigation and transactional matters. Van Leer earned a Master of Laws in intellectual property from John Marshal Law School, a J.D. from Texas Wesleyan University School of Law, and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Mississippi. She can be reached at 312.642.4084 or [email protected].

About McDonald Hopkins

Founded in 1930, McDonald Hopkins is a business advisory and advocacy law firm with locations in Chicago, Cleveland, Columbus, Detroit, Miami, and West Palm Beach. The firm's Chicago office opened in 2007 and is located in the 300 North LaSalle building on the Chicago River. Our subsidiary, McDonald Hopkins Government Strategies LLC, is based in Washington, D.C. and led by former Congressman Steven LaTourette. McDonald Hopkins Government Strategies is not a law firm and does not provide legal services. For more information about McDonald Hopkins, visit mcdonaldhopkins.com.

CONTACT:

Deborah W. Kelm

McDonald Hopkins LLC

600 Superior Avenue, East, Suite 2100

Cleveland, Ohio 44114

Phone: 216.348.5733

Email: [email protected]

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SOURCE McDonald Hopkins

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JOHANNESBURG, July 27, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- CMC Networks a global telecommunications carrier serving the data communications needs of carriers and VARS into African and Middle Eastern countries has expanded its NNI and partnership programme reach by finalizing the partnership & interconnect with Ethio Telecom to Provide MPLS Services to our Carrier Base and VNO Clients.

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CMC Networks will be expanding its operations to include the Ethiopia services into Africa and the Middle East.

"We are very excited to announce the partnership and interconnect with Ethio Telecom in Ethiopia and offer seamless connectivity to arguably one of Africa's fastest growing economies," says Grant Walker, CEO, CMC Networks. He also adds, "We look forward to serving data connectivity needs of telecommunications carriers, network integrators and VARS across the Globe into Ethiopia."

CMC Networks is headquartered out of Johannesburg and Mauritius with offices in Durban, Cape Town, London, Dubai, Pakistan and Washington DC.

About CMC Networks

CMC Networks is a Global Telecommunications Carrier, providing services for over 27 years, serving the data communications needs of wholesale carriers and government clients across the globe. CMC Networks owns in excess of 104 global pops which are integrated into other wholesale carrier partner networks in order to deliver a global wholesale footprint to the carrier community. This insures a cost-effective, scalable and resilient network that is committed to the wholesale environment and their respective clients.

CMC Networks has the largest Pan African network spanning across 50 Countries. In addition, CMC Networks has an extensive Middle Eastern (MENA and Western ASIA) network, which is extended via our wholesale partner programme into other regions. The CMC Networks Carrier Interconnect Model enables delivery into the USA, Europe, UAE, India, Asia, and Australia and various African aggregation points. CMC Networks provides its clients the broad portfolio of Carrier Grade Network Solutions including: Ethernet, MPLS, DIA and Private Line Services.

For more information, visit www.cmcnetworks.net

About EthioTelecom

EthioTelecom, previously known as the Ethiopian Telecommunications Corporation (ETC), is an integrated telecommunications services provider in Ethiopia, providing internet and telephone services. Ethio Telecom is owned by the Ethiopian government.

The Ethiopian government has embarked on a massive telecom infrastructure development project worth $1.6bn in 2014. The expansion project is accomplished with three companies: Huawei, ZTE, and Ericsson. According to Ethio Telecom, the expansion project enables it to increase the mobile service capacity to 59m subscribers and to provide Addis Ababa city with fourth-generation (4G) service as well as enable the 3G service across the country. Through this project, Ethio Telecom increase its overall network coverage to 85% across the country.

The Ethiopian government has embarked on a massive telecom infrastructure development project worth $1.6bn in 2014. The expansion project is accomplished with three companies: Huawei, ZTE, and Ericsson. According to Ethio Telecom, the expansion project enables it to increase the mobile service capacity to 59m subscribers and to provide Addis Ababa city with fourth-generation (4G) service as well as enable the 3G service across the country. Through this project, Ethio Telecom increased its overall network coverage to 85% countrywide.

Michael Erotocritou

Vice President of Global Sales & Marketing

[email protected]

Phone: +27 (0)87 825 1631

Cell:+27 (0)76 423 1551

Barry Coetzee

MENA | CMC Networks

[email protected]

Phone: +27 (0)11 5178466

Cell: +27 (0)714632614 or +971 50 6561811

This content was issued through the press release distribution service at Newswire.com. For more info visit: http://www.newswire.com.

SOURCE CMC Networks
CHICAGO, July 27, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- For many nonprofits, a lack of financial resources and access to qualified contractors hampers their ability to repair or improve their facility. In an effort to address these challenges, and to help revitalize low-income homes and communities across the country, Rebuilding Together created Give Back Day, a program that matches corporate sponsors with nonprofit facilities in need, while providing a setting for employees to work together to serve their communities.

On July 27, 2016, CNA's 100 interns will participate in a Give Back Day at YOUth CAN Chicago. This volunteer project is part of CNA's Intern Week, which brings together students from diverse colleges and universities to take part in an array of activities that includes a philanthropic event, panel discussions and presentation of their capstone project results.

"One of the most meaningful aspects of CNA's summer internship is the participants ability to volunteer in the communities where we live and work," said Sarah Pang, Senior Vice President, Corporate Communications and Community Involvement, CNA. "Through the classroom and community involvement, the interns gain an understanding that positive business results and community involvement are both attributes of a successful company. We hope this stays with them throughout their careers in insurance."

YOUth CAN was founded in 1984 as a computer training center, and in the years since has served more than 4,000 students. Today, the center focuses on enriching the academic, cultural and social development of disadvantaged youth through academic assistance and programs in computer technology, art and music. The center also serves veterans' groups and other community organizations.

Earlier this year, CNA partnered with the National Roofing Contractors Association in a Give Back Day at YOUth CAN Chicago to celebrate National Roofing Week and to share the good deeds of the roofing industry.

"We are excited and honored to return to Chicago's Austin neighborhood to once again join with YOUth CAN Chicago in their mission to inspire and support youth and their families to reach their full potential. Our interns and employees are inspired and strengthened through involvement with YOUth CAN Chicago," Pang added.

As you provide the latest news and information, consider including this Give Back Day project benefiting YOUth CAN Chicago in your stories.

WHAT: CNA's enterprise interns participate in Rebuilding Together Give Back Day



WHEN: Wednesday, July 27, 2016

9:00 a.m.  3:00 p.m. CT



WHERE: YOUth CAN Chicago

5090 W. Harrison Street

Chicago, IL 60644



CNA CONTACT: Brandon Davis

Public Relations and Social Responsibility

312-822-5167 or 312-834-6091

[email protected]

To learn more about CNA's commitment to the community, please visit www.cna.com/socialresponsibility. For more information about Rebuilding Together Metro Chicago, please visit www.rebuildingtogether-chi.com.

About CNA

Serving businesses and professionals since 1897, CNA is the country's eighth largest commercial insurance writer and the 14th largest property and casualty company. CNA's insurance products include standard commercial lines, specialty lines, surety, marine and other property and casualty coverages. CNA's services include risk management, information services, underwriting, risk control and claims administration. For more information, please visit CNA at www.cna.com. "CNA" is a service mark registered by CNA Financial Corporation with the United States Patent and Trademark Office. Certain CNA Financial Corporation subsidiaries use the "CNA" service mark in connection with insurance underwriting and claims activities.

Follow CNA (NYSE: CNA) on: Facebook | Twitter | LinkedIn | YouTube

CONTACT:

Brandon Davis, 312-822-5167 / 312-834-6091

Sarah Pang, 312-822-6394 / 312-607-5544

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SOURCE CNA

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MADISON, N.J., July 27, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Coldwell Banker Real Estate LLC, the original Silicon Valley real estate startup founded in 1906, was recently honored with a number of accolades from various organizations for its exceptional content, public relations and marketing campaigns. The real estate giant recently won an Emmy and took home the award for the best designed mobile app from the Best Mobile App Awards. The company also recently received three of the highest honors for extraordinary public relations campaigns, being named a finalist for a Silver Anvil award and winning a PRSA Award of Excellence and a gold SABRE.

"I am very proud of the efforts of the Coldwell Banker marketing group, and to be recognized by such a broad and diverse group of voters is very rewarding," said Sean Blankenship, chief marketing officer for Coldwell Banker Real Estate LLC. "It takes breakthrough content, strategic partnerships and visionary thought leadership to succeed in today's environment. These awards further demonstrate what makes Coldwell Banker a leader in our industry."

LXTV Open House NYC: Winner at the 59th Annual New York Emmy Awards

The Coldwell Banker co-produced "Escape to Saint Martin" episode of LXTV's Open House NYC won an Emmy at the 59th annual New York Emmy Awards. The show featured two segments hosted by Sherrylle DeHaarte, an independent sales associate affiliated with Coldwell Banker Real Estate St. Maarten, Hidden Gems of St. Martin and Villa Little Bay Is Island Living at Its Finest. The program was selected by the New York Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NY NATAS) for its creativity as well as its artistic and technical excellence.

CBx: Platinum Award for Design Winner at the Best Mobile App Awards

CBx was named the Best Designed Mobile App for transforming the way Coldwell Banker affiliated agents engage with home sellers to list their home. The award was given at the Best Mobile App Awards, which recognize the most intuitive, creative and unique mobile interface designs for apps across all mobile platforms, from Android, iPhone, Blackberry and Windows Phones to wearables like Android and Apple Watch. Special attention is paid to mobile apps that focus on user experience and interaction. CBx marries the power of big data with an agent's local expertise to help create a custom listing price that is relevant to the most likely buyer profile in a given community.

Smart Home PR Campaign: Finalist for PRSA Silver Anvil, winner PRSA Award of Excellence

Coldwell Banker Real Estate was named a finalist for a PRSA Silver Anvil Award, and won a PRSA Award of Excellence, for the public relations campaign covering smart home technology. As part of the campaign, Coldwell Banker conducted primary research among real estate sales associates and consumers, established relationships with the biggest names in home technology and drove awareness of smart home technology for real estate professionals, home buyers and home sellers through sponsorship of the 2016 Consumer Electronics Show and the CNET Smart Home in Louisville, Kentucky. The annual award honors organizations that have successfully addressed a contemporary public relations issue with exemplary professional skill, creativity and resourcefulness.

Homes for Dogs Project: Winner of a Holmes Report SABRE and PRSA Big Apple Award

Coldwell Banker Real Estate was awarded a gold SABRE in the "Real Estate & Construction" category at the Holmes Report SABRE Awards for the "Homes for Dogs Project," a campaign to find homes for 20,000 dogs with Adopt-a-Pet.com, North America's largest non-profit pet adoption website. The campaign helped drive more than 10 million online views of the "Home's Best Friend" commercial, which was rated the highest performing advertisement in the real estate category by AceMetrix, a leader in advertising measurement and analytics. The Homes for Dogs project and Coldwell Banker Real Estate also won a PRSA Big Apple Award in the "Marketing Targeted Specifically to Animal Care" category. Both the SABRE and Big Apple Awards recognize superior achievement in PR, branding, reputation and engagement.

About Coldwell Banker Real Estate LLC

Since 1906, the Coldwell Banker organization has been a premier provider of full-service residential and commercial real estate brokerage services. Coldwell Banker Real Estate is the oldest national real estate brand and franchisor in the United States, and today has a global network of approximately 3,000 independently owned and operated franchised broker offices in 47 countries and territories with almost 85,000 affiliated sales professionals. The Coldwell Banker brand is known for creating innovative consumer services as recently seen by taking a leadership role in the smart home space, being the first national real estate brand with an iPad app, the first to augment its website www.coldwellbanker.com for smart phones, the first to create an iPhone application with international listings, the first to develop an iPad application (CBx) to easily bring big data into home listing presentations, and the first to fully harness the power of video in real estate listings, news and information through its Coldwell Banker On LocationSM YouTube channel. Coldwell Banker is a leader in niche markets such as resort, new homes and luxury properties through its Coldwell Banker Previews International marketing program delivering exceptional experiences for all consumers served.

Media inquiries:









Athena Snow Katy Hendricks

Coldwell Banker Real Estate LLC CooperKatz for Coldwell Banker Real Estate LLC

973.407.5590 917.595.3057

[email protected] [email protected]



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SOURCE Coldwell Banker Real Estate LLC

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HARTFORD, Conn., July 27, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Cornerstone Real Estate Advisers, one of the largest global real estate-focused investment managers, today announced the appointment of Joham Tavera as Vice President of Alternative Investments. In this new role, Mr. Tavera will be responsible for the origination of new structured commercial real estate investments, including mezzanine loans, preferred equity, bridge loans and B-notes, primarily in the Western region of the U.S. Mr. Tavera, who joined Cornerstone on July 18, will be based in the San Francisco Bay Area of California and will report to James Henderson, Chief Investment Officer of Alternative Investments. Joham will be replacing JB Gerber who is moving to the London office to assist in expanding the European high yield debt business.

"Joham is a valuable addition to Cornerstone and our Alternative Investments team," said James Henderson, Chief Investment Officer of Alternative Investments at Cornerstone. "We believe his extensive experience in structured real estate investing will help strengthen our capabilities on the West Coast and capture the growing opportunities we are seeing in the high yield real estate structured lending space."

Mr. Tavera brings over 15 years of experience across the domestic and international commercial real estate market. He joins Cornerstone from ACORE Capital, where he worked on the credit and risk management team and supported the launch of a real estate debt fund focused on whole loan and subordinate investment opportunities in the U.S. Previously, he served at BlackRock as Director of Alternatives, Real Estate Debt, and at Bank of America, where he held the role of Vice President in the Commercial Real Estate Group. Mr. Tavera earned an MBA in Finance with an emphasis in International Business from the University of Michigan and a B.A. in Economics from the University of California  Berkeley.

About Cornerstone Real Estate Advisers

Cornerstone Real Estate Advisers LLC, with subsidiary and affiliate offices in the U.S., UK, Europe, and Asia, is one of the largest global real estate-focused investment managers. It provides core and value-added investment and advisory services, including a comprehensive suite of private and public real estate debt, equity and securities expertise and services, to institutional and other qualified investors around the globe. Cornerstone is a member of the MassMutual Financial Group. For more information, visit www.cornerstoneadvisers.com .

SOURCE Cornerstone Real Estate Advisers

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WASHINGTON, July 27, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The attempted military coup in Turkey claimed the lives of 240 and wounded more than 1,400. The attempt, which failed mainly due to the unwavering solidarity of Turkish people for democracy and freedom, surprised people around the world and particularly in Washington. Turkish Heritage Organization (THO) organized a teleconference "Democracy is Under Attack in Turkey" to discuss the recent coup attempt in Turkey, its consequences for Turkey's domestic politics, and implications on U.S. - Turkey relations.

Dr. Michael Reynolds, Professor of Near East Studies at Princeton University, Dr. Joshua Walker, Fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the U.S., and Dr. Gulnur Aybet, Chair of Political Science and International Relations at Bahcesehir University, shared their analysis of the recent coup attempt in Turkey.

Western Media Painting an Inaccurate Picture

Professor Dr. Aybet, who was in Istanbul during the coup attempt and has been speaking to western media sources, indicated that Turks were particularly disappointed with western media's inaccurate depiction of developments and post-coup attempt focus. According to Dr. Aybet, instead of focusing on the solidarity and strength of Turkish citizens and their choice for democratically elected government, western media deliberately focused on criticizing the state of emergency and other precautionary measures that was put in place.

Dr. Aybet said that the western media has been exaggerating and misinterpreting the travel restrictions on academics. She continued to say that considering the state of emergency in France, western fear of Turkey's state of emergency was strange to her, as the decision to expand the administration's powers has little effect on the daily lives of people in Turkey.

Gulen's Extradition is as Much Emotional as it is Legal

Echoing Dr. Aybet's views on western media, Dr. Walker said that the western media has been talking about Turkey as if this was the 1980s. Moving to a central issue in U.S.-Turkey relations, Dr. Walker indicated that the extradition of Fethullah Gulen has been a thorn in the side of Turkish  U.S. relations. According to Dr. Walker, Americans view and explain Gulen's extradition case as a legal matter that will be decided by the judiciary system based on current treaties and laws. However, Turks, who view the extradition as much emotional as legal, find this frustrating. "Most people don't think the U.S. was planning this coup but the average Turk feels that the U.S. housing Gulen shows the U.S. is not helping, and it leads to anti-Americanism," said Dr. Walker.

Dr. Walker argued that it is difficult for Americans to understand the intricate Gulenist network which has infiltrated sectors as diverse as the Ministry of Education, the military, and the judiciary. As a result, the main focus has become the wide ranging purges which were deemed necessary.

Government's Actions Will Determine Turkey's Future

Speaking from Russia, Dr. Reynolds said that in comparison to the U.S. the Russian media has been doing a lot less emotional reporting. Dr. Reynolds said that when compared, the main focus in the U.S. has been the advancement of President Erdogan's personal authority into Turkish politics in the aftermath of July 15 coup attempt instead of the military's attempt to remove Erdogan from power, which is a clear violation of democratic processes for succession of power outlined in Turkey's constitution.

Dr. Reynolds argued that little attention has been paid to this second interpretation in the United States, and that Turkey is rife with non-democratic forces outside the Erdogan administration including the plotters of the July 15th coup-attempt, and Kurdish groups using terrorist tactics to advance their political objectives. With regards to Gulen's involvement, Dr. Reynolds said that recent indicators make his involvement more likely but the evidence had to be examined with the utmost scrutiny.

Dr. Reynolds argued that the coup was worse than any terrorist attack Turkey had experienced. According to Dr. Reynolds, the broader effects of the coup-attempt will be determined by the Turkish government in the coming weeks. "Based on the government's actions during investigations into coup-suspects, Turkey could either experience another step away from institutional democracy towards autocratic rule or could strengthen inclusive democratic values and maintain checks on government power," said Dr. Reynolds.

Turkey's Relations with the U.S. EU and Russia

Dr. Aybet criticized the western governments for being "weak" and "ambivalent" in their responses. Bahcesehir University Political Science and International Relations Department Chair, Dr. Aybet was particularly critical of Secretary of State John Kerry for questioning Turkey's future in NATO. She emphasized the crucial aspects of U.S.-Turkey cooperation including the Syrian conflict, international terrorism, and Incirlik Air Base. With regards to the Incirlik, Dr. Aybet said that Incirlik is a Turkish base that is used by NATO members and she does not foresee any immediate concerns due to the nature of the strategic alliance.

Dr. Walker argued that recent events in Turkey, in addition to Obama's relationship to Erdogan and American domestic political issues, have "unleashed some hurtful stereotypes" about Turkey. According to Dr. Walker as the disconnect between Turks and Americans grows, a new phase of bilateral relations that are based less on rights and shared values and much more on mutually beneficial transactions, similar to the one between Turkey and Israel were going to develop. However, Dr. Walker indicated that the United states will have to get along with Turkey in the long run because of its shared goals in the Middle East. On the strategic importance of the Incirlik Airbase, Dr. Walker said that "it would be a disaster for U.S. to leave Incirlik, which is a strategic glue that keeps turkey and U.S. together."

Echoing Dr. Walker and Dr. Aybet's views on the Incirlik Airbase, Dr. Reynolds said that Incirlik will continue to be very important for the U.S. and besides a potential examination of the procedures affecting the nuclear weapons stationed at the base with NATO, he did not foresee the U.S. leaving the base anytime soon.

Dr. Reynolds said that the immediate response in Washington and western media that labels Turkey as "unreliable ally" should be evaluated with caution especially considering the fact that U.S. is currently openly working (arming and training) with PYD and YPG, an organization that is essentially the same as PKK.

Dr. Reynold also said that while the west portrays President Erdogan as inflexible and highly ideological leader it overlooks the fact that he showed impressive degree of pragmatism and made deals to improve the severely strained relations with Israel and in Russia. Considering these developments, Dr. Reynold said that Turkey and the U.S. has a lot more at stake than either Russia or Israel therefore making a long-term cooperation between the two countries necessary.

The Turkish Heritage Organization (THO) is a non-profit organization founded to promote discussion and dialogue around issues of importance in the U.S.-Turkey bilateral relationship as well as Turkey's role in the international community. Learn more at: http://turkheritage.org/ or on Twitter @TurkHeritage.

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SOURCE Turkish Heritage Organization

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LONDON, July 27, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- This research study analyzes the market for crude oil carriers both in terms of volume (units) and revenue (US$ Bn). The crude oil carriers market has been segmented on the basis of vessel type and geography. In terms of region, the market has been divided into four segments that comprise 10 countries, which are the major players in the global crude oil carriers market. For the research, 2015 has been taken as the base year, while all forecasts have been given for the period from 2016 to 2024. Market data for all the segments has been provided at the regional as well as country-specific level from 2016 to 2024. The report provides a broad competitive analysis of companies engaged in the crude oil shipping business. The report also includes the key market dynamics such as drivers, restraints, and opportunities affecting the global crude oil shipping market. These market dynamics were analyzed in detail and are illustrated in the report with the help of supporting graphs and tables. The report also provides a comprehensive analysis of the global crude oil carriers market with the help of Porter's Five Forces model. This analysis helps in understanding the five major forces that affect the market structure and market profitability. The forces analyzed are bargaining power of buyers, bargaining power of suppliers, threat of new entrants, threat of substitutes, and degree of competition.



The high-level analysis in the report provides detailed insights into the crude oil shipping business globally. There are currently numerous drivers of the market. Some of the most prominent drivers are declining crude oil prices proving to be beneficial for the crude oil carriers market and world economy influencing the demand for crude oil transportation. Market attractiveness analysis was carried out for the crude oil carriers market on the basis of geography. Market attractiveness was estimated on the basis of common parameters that directly impact the crude oil carriers market in different regions. The parameters include shipping costs, government policies, crude oil demand, and applications such as automobile.



Shipping of petroleum liquids such as crude oil comprises many different operations, each of which signifies a potential source of evaporation loss. Crude oil is transported from production facilities to refineries by crude oil carriers, rail tank cars, barges, pipelines, and tank trucks. Coastal tank vessel trades are functioned by crude carriers, tank barges, and product tankers. Crude carriers serve the West Alaska coast crude oil trades. Crude oil carriers are generally referred to as oil tankers, which transport crude oil from one location to another.



The crude oil carriers market was segmented on the basis of vessel type (VLCC/ULCC, Suezmax, Aframax, and Panamax). The crude oil carriers market was analyzed across four geographies: North America, Asia Pacific, Europe, and Rest of the World. Regional data has been provided for each sub-segment of the crude oil carriers market. Key players in the crude oil carriers market include AET Tanker Holdings Sdn Bhd, The National Shipping Company of Saudi Arabia (Bahri), China Shipping Development Corp (CSDC), Dynacom Tankers Management Ltd., Euronav, Frontline Ltd., Maran Tankers Management Inc., National Iranian Tanker Company, NYK line, Ocean Tankers (pte) Ltd., OMAN SHIPPING COMPANY S.A.O.C., Overseas Shipholding Group (OSG), Sovcomflot Group, and Teekay Corporation. The report provides an overview of these companies, followed by their financial details, business strategies, and recent developments.



Crude Oil Carriers Market: By Vessel Type



VLCC/ULCC

Suezmax

Aframax

Panamax

Crude Oil Carriers Market: By Region



North America

U.S.

Rest of North America

Europe

Greece

Belgium

Rest of Europe

Asia Pacific

China

South Korea

Singapore

Japan

Malaysia

Rest of Asia Pacific

Rest of World

Iran

Saudi Arabia

Others

Download the full report: https://www.reportbuyer.com/product/3999349/



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Reportbuyer is a leading industry intelligence solution that provides all market research reports from top publishers

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For more information:

Sarah Smith

Research Advisor at Reportbuyer.com

Email: [email protected]

Tel: +44 208 816 85 48

Website: www.reportbuyer.com

SOURCE ReportBuyer

Related Links

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CHONGQING, China, July 27, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Daqo New Energy Corp. (NYSE: DQ) ("Daqo" or the "Company"), a leading manufacturer of high-quality polysilicon for the global solar PV industry, today announced that it plans to release its unaudited financial results for the Second Quarter of 2016 ended June 30, 2016 before the U.S. markets open on Tuesday, August 9, 2016.

The Company has scheduled a conference call to discuss the results at 8:00 AM U.S. Eastern Time on August 9, 2016. (8:00 PM Beijing / Hong Kong time on the same day).

The dial-in details for the earnings conference call are as follows:

Participant dial in (U.S. Toll Free): +1-888-346-8982 Participant international dial in: +1-412-902-4272 China mainland Toll Free: 4001-201203 China Beijing local dial in: +86-10-5357-3132 Hong Kong Toll Free: 800-905945 Hong Kong local dial in: +852-301-84992

Participants please ask to be joined into the Daqo New Energy Corp. call. Please dial in 10 minutes before the call is scheduled to begin.

You can also listen to the conference call via Webcast through the URL:

http://mms.prnasia.com/DQ/20160809/default.aspx

A replay of the call will be available 1 hour after the conclusion of the conference call through August 16, 2016. The dial in details for the conference call replay are as follows:

U.S. Toll Free: +1-877-344-7529 International dial in: +1-412-317-0088 Canada Toll Free: 855-669-9658 Replay access code: 10090544 To access the replay using an international dial-in number, please select the link below.

https://services.choruscall.com/ccforms/replay.html

Participants will be asked to provide their name and company name upon entering the call.

ABOUT DAQO NEW ENERGY CORP.

Founded in 2008, Daqo New Energy Corp. (NYSE: DQ) is a leading manufacturer of high-purity polysilicon for the global solar PV industry. As one of the world's lowest cost producers of high-purity polysilicon and solar wafers, the Company primarily sells its products to solar cell and solar module manufacturers. The Company has built a manufacturing facility that is technically advanced and highly efficient with a nameplate capacity of 12,150 metric ton in Xinjiang, China. The Company also operates a solar wafer manufacturing facility in Chongqing, China.

For more information about Daqo New Energy, please visit www.dqsolar.com.

For investor and media inquiries, please contact:

Daqo New Energy Corp.

Kevin He

+86-187-1658-5553

[email protected]

SOURCE Daqo New Energy Corp.

Related Links

http://www.dqsolar.com


NEW YORK, July 27, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Revenues totaled $57.7 million in Q2 2016

in Q2 2016 Generated diluted EPS in the second quarter of $0.10 on net income of $4.9 million

on net income of Cash flow from operations totaled $12.2 million and Adjusted EBITDA $16.0 million

and Adjusted EBITDA Launch of all new Dice Careers mobile app leads to markedly higher engagement with the Dice service

Company announces CFO transition

DHI Group, Inc. (NYSE: DHX) ("DHI" or the "Company"), a leading provider of data, insights and employment connections through our specialized services for professional communities in technology and security clearance, financial services, energy, healthcare and hospitality, today reported financial results for the quarter ended June 30, 2016.

"We're pleased overall with the work done to date against our strategic plan focused on continuing to drive value to professionals and employers. While these efforts haven't yet translated into the financial results we expect, we have put in place a number of initiatives in our core brands and our new products that give us confidence in our ability to return the business to profitable growth," said Michael Durney, President and CEO of DHI Group, Inc. "Strategically, DHI will continue to focus on our core talent acquisition brands, candidate pipelining, recruitment marketing and developing new services addressing the evolving needs of the recruitment marketplace."

Q2 2016 Product and Business Highlights

The Global Industry Group (GIG) has implemented its new team structure to achieve greater operating leverage, including refining its marketing approach to afford efficiencies of scale.

eFinancialCareers, on a constant currency basis, saw 6% revenue growth, primarily attributable to increased usage of products and services and higher customer engagement levels. Most of eFinancialCareers' key markets saw continued revenue growth this quarter, with Asia Pacific and Continental Europe particularly strong.

and Continental Europe particularly strong. ClearanceJobs continues to benefit from a heightened demand for security cleared professionals along with higher sales of its pay for performance product, driving revenue up 22% year/year.

Health eCareers revenue rose 8% year/year, primarily driven by stronger sales and usage of core products, new pricing models and favorable market conditions.

The launch of the Dice Careers mobile app which provides tech professionals with tools, including predictive analysis of future salary based on career goals and skill improvements resulted in an 82% year/year jump in new users and higher engagement, enriching our overall data and ability to serve passive candidates.

Q2 2016 Financial Highlights

The following summarizes consolidated financial results for the quarters ended June 30, 2016 and 2015 ($ in millions, except per share data) including the impact with and without Slashdot Media, which the company sold in the first quarter of 2016:





Q2 2016

Q2 2015

YoY % Change

Revenues

$ 57.7



$ 65.8



(12) %

Revenues, excluding Slashdot Media (1)

$ 57.7



$ 61.9



(7) %

Net income (2)

$ 4.9



$ 5.7



(14) %

Diluted earnings per share

$ 0.10



$ 0.11



(9) %

















Adjusted EBITDA (3)

$ 16.0



$ 19.1



(16) %

Adjusted EBITDA margin (4)

27.7 %

29.0 %





(1) Sale of Slashdot Media completed in Q1 2016. (2) No material difference between Net income and Net income, excluding Slashdot Media. (3) No material difference between Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA, excluding Slashdot Media. (4) Adjusted EBITDA margin is computed as Adjusted EBITDA divided by Revenues.

The following summarizes segment Revenues, Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA Margin results for the quarters ended June 30, 2016 and 2015 ($ in millions):





Revenues

Adjusted EBITDA





Q2 2016

Q2 2015

YoY % Change

Q2 2016

Q2 2016 Margin

Q2 2015

Q2 2015 Margin

Tech & Clearance

$ 34.2



$ 35.1



(3) %

$ 16.6



49 %

$ 16.4



47 %

Global Industry Group

16.5



20.3



(19) %

4.2



25 %

5.8



29 %

Healthcare

7.0



6.5



8 %

0.9



13 %

0.9



14 %

Talent Acquisition Brands

57.7



61.9



(7) %

21.7



38 %

23.1



37 %

Corporate









 %

(4.1)



n.m.



(3.3)



n.m.



Talent Acquisition Brands less Corporate

57.7



61.9



(7) %

17.7



31 %

19.9



32 %

Brightmatter Group





0.1



n.m.



(1.7)



n.m.



(0.9)



n.m.

Slashdot Media





3.9



(100) %

0.1



n.m.



0.2



5 %

Total

$ 57.7



$ 65.8



(12) %

$ 16.0



28 %

$ 19.1



29 %







GIG Revenues by Brand



Q2 2016

Q2 2015

YoY % Change eFinancialCareers

$ 9.1

$ 8.9

1 % Rigzone

2.4

5.7

(58) % Hcareers

4.0

4.3

(6) % BioSpace

1.0

1.4

(25) % Global Industry Group

$ 16.5



$ 20.3



(19) %

($ in millions)

June 30, 2016

December 31, 2015

June 30, 2015

YTD 2016 Change

YTD 2015 Change

Deferred revenue (1)

$ 85.9



$ 83.3



$ 86.4



$ 2.6



$ 1.4



Long-Term Debt, net

$ 97.6



$ 99.4



$ 103.1



$ (1.8)



$ (6.0)



Plus: Deferred financing costs

1.4



1.6



1.1



(0.2)



(0.2)



Total principal outstanding

$ 99.0



$ 101.0



$ 104.3



$ (2.0)



$ (6.3)



Less: Cash

29.5



34.1



32.7



(4.6)



5.9



Net debt

$ 69.5



$ 67.0



$ 71.6



$ 2.5



$ (12.1)





(1) The YTD increase in deferred revenue primarily reflects an increase in the Tech & Clearance segment of $3.8 million, partially offset by a decrease in the Global Industry Group, primarily Rigzone.

"This quarter, we saw some solid wins across the organization, in spite of continued headwinds in Energy and foreign currency impacts. In particular, we saw continued revenue growth in healthcare, security clearance and financial services, on a constant currency basis," said John Roberts, CFO. "Despite an overall revenue decline, we continue to generate healthy EBITDA margins, while simultaneously investing to deliver new products and services."

Recent Developments

Effective August 31, 2016, John Roberts, Chief Financial Officer, will leave the Company.

Mr. Roberts has served as CFO of the Company since October 2013 with overall responsibility for the financial organization, including financial planning, corporate development, accounting, financial reporting, investor relations, treasury, internal audit and tax, as well as the Company's legal organization.

"John has played an important role as our Company has evolved, taking over as CFO as I transitioned to the CEO role," said Michael Durney, President and CEO. "He provided a great amount of stability and direction during the transition and I thank him for his financial leadership and the contributions he has made to DHI."

Mr. Roberts will continue to be employed by the Company through August 31 and will assist with the transition of his responsibilities. The Company has begun a process to appoint a successor to Mr. Roberts and a further announcement will be made in due course.

Stock Repurchase Program

During the second quarter of 2016, the Company purchased approximately 1.4 million shares of its common stock at an average cost of $6.95 per share for a total cost of approximately $9.5 million. At June 30, 2016, approximately $25.1 million remained authorized for repurchase under a $50 million plan that expires in December 2016.

Business Outlook

Current Q3 2016 and Full-Year 2016 Business Outlook ($ in millions, except diluted earnings per share) Q3 2016 FY 2016





Revenues $57.5 - $58.5 $233.0 - $237.0





Talent acquisition brands Adjusted EBITDA (1) $21.5 - $22.5 $86.0 - $90.0 Corporate expenses $2.8 - $3.0 $13.0 - $13.5 Talent acquisition brands Adjusted EBITDA less corporate expenses (1) $18.5 - $19.5 $74.0 - $77.0





Brightmatter Group Adjusted EBITDA ($2.0) - ($2.5) ($8.0) - ($9.0) Total Adjusted EBITDA $16.0 - $17.0 $67.0 - $70.0





Depreciation and amortization $4.1 - $4.3 $17.5 - $18.0 Non-cash stock compensation expense $2.5 - $2.6 $10.0 - $10.5 Interest expense, net $0.7 - $0.8 $2.9 - $3.3 Income tax rate 36% - 38% 36% - 38%





Net income $5.4 - $6.0 $22.5 - $24.0





Diluted earnings per share $0.11 - $0.12 $0.44 - $0.47 Diluted share count 50 million 50 million





Estimated yearly change in revenue by segment (in US dollars): Tech & Clearance (4%) - (2%) (2%) - (1%) Global Industry Group:



eFinancialCareers (6%) - (4%) (2%) - 0% Rigzone (57%) - (53%) (54%) - (52%) Hcareers 6% - 9% 4% - 6% BioSpace 0% - 2% (8%) - (6%) Healthcare 8% - 12% 10% - 14%

(1) Talent acquisition brands includes the Company's Tech & Clearance, Global Industry Group, and Healthcare segments

Estimated financial performance for 2016 reflects:

Expectation for negative impact to Revenues from currency fluctuations of roughly $1.0 - $1.5 million in Q3 2016 and $3.0 - $4.0 million for FY 2016 relative to the same periods in the prior year, which primarily is reflected in the Global Industry Group segment.

in Q3 2016 and for FY 2016 relative to the same periods in the prior year, which primarily is reflected in the Global Industry Group segment. Ongoing impact of depressed conditions in the Energy hiring market and strategic business investments primarily in Brightmatter Group.

For the full year, excludes Slashdot Media and disposition related and other costs related to the Company's sale of Slashdot Media and to the organizational changes described in the Q1 2016 Earnings Release.

Conference Call Information

The Company will host a conference call to discuss second quarter results today at 8:30 a.m. Eastern Time. Hosting the call will be Michael Durney, President and Chief Executive Officer, and John Roberts, Chief Financial Officer.

The conference call can be accessed live over the phone by dialing 1-866-777-2509 or for international callers by dialing 1-412-317-5413. Please ask to be joined to the DHI Group, Inc. call. A replay will be available one hour after the call and can be accessed by dialing 1-877-344-7529 or 1-412-317-0088 for international callers; the replay passcode is 10089467. The replay will be available until August 4, 2016.

The call will also be webcast live from the Company's website at www.dhigroupinc.com under the Investor Relations section.

Investor Contact

Courtney Chamberlain

Investor Relations/Public Relations Associate

DHI Group, Inc.

212-448-4181

[email protected]

Media Contact

Rachel Ceccarelli

Director, Corporate Communications

DHI Group, Inc.

212-448-8288

[email protected]

About DHI Group, Inc.

DHI Group, Inc. (NYSE: DHX) is a leading provider of data, insights and employment connections through our specialized services for professional communities including technology and security clearance, financial services, energy, healthcare and hospitality. Our mission is to empower professionals and organizations to compete and win through expert insights and relevant employment connections. Employers and recruiters use our websites and services to source and hire the most qualified professionals in select and highly-skilled occupations, while professionals use our websites and services to find the best employment opportunities in and the most timely news and information about their respective areas of expertise. For over 25 years, we have built our company on providing employers and recruiters with efficient access to high-quality, unique professional communities, and offering the professionals in those communities access to highly-relevant career opportunities, news, tools and information. Today, we serve multiple markets located throughout North America, Europe, the Middle East and the Asia Pacific region.

Notes Regarding the Use of Non-GAAP Financial Measures

The Company has provided certain non-GAAP financial information as additional information for its operating results. These measures are not in accordance with, or an alternative for, generally accepted accounting principles in the United States ("GAAP") and may be different from similarly titled non-GAAP measures reported by other companies. The Company believes that its presentation of non-GAAP measures, such as adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, amortization, non-cash stock based compensation expense, and other non-recurring income or expense ("Adjusted EBITDA"), Adjusted EBITDA excluding Slashdot Media and disposition related and other costs, Revenues excluding Slashdot Media, Net Income excluding Slashdot Media and disposition related and other costs, Free Cash Flow and Net Debt, provides useful information to management and investors regarding certain financial and business trends relating to its financial condition and results of operations. In addition, the Company's management uses these measures for reviewing the financial results of the Company and for budgeting and planning purposes. The Company has provided required reconciliations to the most comparable GAAP measures in the section entitled "Supplemental Information and Non-GAAP Reconciliations."

Adjusted EBITDA

Adjusted EBITDA is a non-GAAP metric used by management to measure operating performance. Management uses Adjusted EBITDA as a performance measure for internal monitoring and planning, including preparation of annual budgets, analyzing investment decisions and evaluating profitability and performance comparisons between us and our competitors. The Company also uses this measure to calculate amounts of performance based compensation under the senior management incentive bonus program. Adjusted EBITDA, as defined in our Credit Agreement, represents net income plus (to the extent deducted in calculating such net income) interest expense, income tax expense, depreciation and amortization, non-cash stock option expenses, losses resulting from certain dispositions outside the ordinary course of business, certain writeoffs in connection with indebtedness, impairment charges with respect to long-lived assets, expenses incurred in connection with an equity offering, extraordinary or non-recurring non-cash expenses or losses, transaction costs in connection with the Credit Agreement up to $250,000, deferred revenues written off in connection with acquisition purchase accounting adjustments, writeoff of non-cash stock compensation expense, and business interruption insurance proceeds, minus (to the extent included in calculating such net income) non-cash income or gains, interest income, and any income or gain resulting from certain dispositions outside the ordinary course of business.

We present Adjusted EBITDA as a supplemental performance measure because we believe that this measure provides our board of directors, management and investors with additional information to measure our performance, provide comparisons from period to period and company to company by excluding potential differences caused by variations in capital structures (affecting interest expense) and tax positions (such as the impact on periods or companies of changes in effective tax rates or net operating losses), and to estimate our value.

We also present Adjusted EBITDA because covenants in our Credit Agreement contain ratios based on this measure. Our Credit Agreement is material to us because it is one of our primary sources of liquidity. If our Adjusted EBITDA were to decline below certain levels, covenants in our Credit Agreement that are based on Adjusted EBITDA may be violated and could cause a default and acceleration of payment obligations under our Credit Agreement.

Adjusted EBITDA is not a measurement of our financial performance under GAAP and should not be considered as an alternative to net income, operating income or any other performance measures derived in accordance with GAAP as a measure of our profitability.

Adjusted EBITDA Excluding Slashdot Media and disposition related and other costs

Adjusted EBITDA excluding Slashdot Media and disposition related and other costs is a non-GAAP metric used by management to measure operating performance. Management uses Adjusted EBITDA excluding Slashdot Media and disposition related and other costs as a measure of our financial performance given our sale of Slashdot Media and disposition related and other costs. Adjusted EBITDA excluding Slashdot Media and disposition related and other costs, represents Adjusted EBITDA defined above, less Slashdot Media EBITDA and disposition related and other costs.

Revenues Excluding Slashdot Media

Revenues excluding Slashdot Media is a non-GAAP metric used by management to measure operating performance. Revenues excluding Slashdot Media represents Revenues as defined above less Slashdot Media revenue. We consider Revenues excluding Slashdot Media to be an important measure to evaluate our financial performance given our sale of Slashdot Media.

Net Income Excluding Slashdot Media and disposition related and other costs

Net Income excluding Slashdot Media is a non-GAAP metric used by management to measure operating performance. Net Income excluding Slashdot Media and disposition related and other costs is defined as Net Income less Slashdot Media Net Income (Loss) and disposition related and other costs. We consider Net Income excluding Slashdot Media and disposition related and other costs to be an important measure of our financial performance given our sale of Slashdot Media and disposition related and other costs.

Free Cash Flow

We define free cash flow as net cash provided by operating activities minus capital expenditures. We believe free cash flow is an important non-GAAP measure as it provides useful cash flow information regarding our ability to service, incur or pay down indebtedness or repurchase our common stock. We use free cash flow as a measure to reflect cash available to service our debt as well as to fund our expenditures. A limitation of using free cash flow versus the GAAP measure of net cash provided by operating activities is that free cash flow does not represent the total increase or decrease in the cash balance from operations for the period since it includes cash used for capital expenditures during the period and is adjusted for acquisition related payments within operating cash flows.

Diluted Earnings per Share Excluding Slashdot Media and disposition related and other costs

Diluted earnings per share excluding Slashdot Media and disposition related and other costs is a non-GAAP metric used by management to measure operating performance. Diluted earnings per share excluding Slashdot Media and disposition related and other costs is defined as diluted earnings per share less impact per share of Slashdot Media and disposition related and other costs. We consider diluted earnings per share excluding Slashdot Media and disposition related and other costs to be an important measure of our financial performance.

Net Debt

Net Debt is defined as total principal outstanding less cash. We consider Net Debt to be an important measure of liquidity and indicator of our ability to meet ongoing obligations. We also use Net Debt, among other measures, in evaluating our choices for capital deployment. Net Debt presented herein is a non-GAAP measure and may not be comparable to similarly titled measures used by other companies.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release and oral statements made from time to time by our representatives contain forward-looking statements. You should not place undue reliance on those statements because they are subject to numerous uncertainties and factors relating to our operations and business environment, all of which are difficult to predict and many of which are beyond our control. Forward-looking statements include information without limitation concerning our possible or assumed future results of operations, including descriptions of our business strategy. These statements often include words such as "may," "will," "should," "believe," "expect," "anticipate," "intend," "plan," "estimate" or similar expressions. These statements are based on assumptions that we have made in light of our experience in the industry as well as our perceptions of historical trends, current conditions, expected future developments and other factors we believe are appropriate under the circumstances. Although we believe that these forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, you should be aware that many factors could affect our actual financial results or results of operations and could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. These factors include, but are not limited to, competition from existing and future competitors in the highly competitive market in which we operate, failure to adapt our business model to keep pace with rapid changes in the recruiting and career services business, failure to maintain and develop our reputation and brand recognition, failure to increase or maintain the number of customers who purchase recruitment packages, cyclicality or downturns in the economy or industries we serve, the uncertainty surrounding the United Kingdom's future departure from the European Union, including uncertainty in respect of the regulation of data protection and data privacy, failure to attract qualified professionals to our websites or grow the number of qualified professionals who use our websites, failure to successfully identify or integrate acquisitions, U.S. and foreign government regulation of the Internet and taxation, our ability to borrow funds under our revolving credit facility or refinance our indebtedness and restrictions on our current and future operations under such indebtedness. These factors and others are discussed in more detail in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, all of which are available on the Investors page of our website at www.dhigroupinc.com, including the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2015, under the headings "Risk Factors," "Forward-Looking Statements" and "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations."

You should keep in mind that any forward-looking statement made by the Company or its representatives herein, or elsewhere, speaks only as of the date on which it is made. New risks and uncertainties come up from time to time, and it is impossible to predict these events or how they may affect us. We have no obligation to update any forward-looking statements after the date hereof, except as required by applicable law.

DHI GROUP, INC. CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF OPERATIONS (Unaudited) (in thousands except per share amounts)





























For the three months ended June 30,

For the six months ended June 30,







2016

2015

2016

2015





















Revenues $ 57,673



$ 65,802



$ 115,959



$ 129,572























Operating expenses:













Cost of revenues 8,079



9,865



16,614



19,490

Product development 6,245



7,055



13,305



14,144

Sales and marketing 18,646



20,527



39,148



41,205

General and administrative 11,508



11,829



22,721



23,101

Depreciation 2,563



2,254



5,161



4,457

Amortization of intangible assets 2,070



3,756



4,536



7,499

Disposition related and other costs 77







3,347









Total operating expenses 49,188



55,286



104,832



109,896

Operating income 8,485



10,516



11,127



19,676

Interest expense (820)



(833)



(1,692)



(1,641)

Other income (expense) (17)



18



(32)



(9)

Income before income taxes 7,648



9,701



9,403



18,026

Income tax expense 2,794



4,023



3,438



7,256

Net income $ 4,854



$ 5,678



$ 5,965



$ 10,770























Basic earnings per share $ 0.10



$ 0.11



$ 0.12



$ 0.21

Diluted earnings per share $ 0.10



$ 0.11



$ 0.12



$ 0.20























Weighted average basic shares outstanding 48,607



51,753



49,034



52,019

Weighted average diluted shares outstanding 49,279



52,965



49,850



53,427















































DHI GROUP, INC. CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF CASH FLOWS (Unaudited) (in thousands)

























For the three months ended June 30,

For the six months ended June 30,





2016

2015

2016

2015 Cash flows from operating activities:













Net income $ 4,854



$ 5,678



$ 5,965



$ 10,770

Adjustments to reconcile net income to net cash flows from operating activities:













Depreciation 2,563



2,254



5,161



4,457

Amortization of intangible assets 2,070



3,756



4,536



7,499

Deferred income taxes 313



(1,242)



229



(1,828)

Amortization of deferred financing costs 81



105



162



209

Stock based compensation 2,806



2,577



6,423



5,080

Change in accrual for unrecognized tax benefits 101



81



115



164

Loss on sale of business 77







639





Changes in operating assets and liabilities:













Accounts receivable 2,490



2,502



4,857



4,829

Prepaid expenses and other assets 336



1,622



(169)



1,127

Accounts payable and accrued expenses (2,771)



351



(4,875)



(3,813)

Income taxes receivable/payable 1,624



3,407



(1,641)



6,330

Deferred revenue (2,299)



(3,398)



3,252



2,033

Other, net (63)



176



(77)



132

Net cash flows from operating activities 12,182



17,869



24,577



36,989

Cash flows from investing activities:













Cash received for sale of business 







2,429





Purchases of fixed assets (3,187)



(2,452)



(5,506)



(4,928)

Net cash flows from investing activities (3,187)



(2,452)



(3,077)



(4,928)

Cash flows from financing activities:













Payments on long-term debt (8,000)



(10,625)



(11,000)



(21,250)

Proceeds from long-term debt 6,000



10,000



9,000



15,000

Payments under stock repurchase plan (8,915)



(12,663)



(22,632)



(21,379)

Payment of acquisition related contingencies 











(3,829)

Proceeds from stock option exercises 



1,852



1,028



5,139

Purchase of treasury stock related to vested restricted stock and

performance stock units (68)



(14)



(2,520)



(1,546)

Excess tax benefit over book expense from stock based compensation 3



1,045



348



1,421

Net cash flows from financing activities (10,980)



(10,405)



(25,776)



(26,444)

Effect of exchange rate changes (1,008)



(316)



(313)



267

Net change in cash for the period (2,993)



4,696



(4,589)



5,884

Cash, beginning of period 32,454



27,965



34,050



26,777

Cash, end of period $ 29,461



$ 32,661



$ 29,461



$ 32,661



DHI GROUP, INC. CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS (Unaudited) (in thousands)











ASSETS June 30, 2016

December 31, 2015 Current assets







Cash $ 29,461



$ 34,050



Accounts receivable, net 41,161



46,380



Income taxes receivable 1,999



916



Prepaid and other current assets 3,362



3,072



Assets held for sale 



4,265





Total current assets 75,983



88,683

Fixed assets, net 15,258



15,255

Acquired intangible assets, net 60,647



65,292

Goodwill 191,964



198,598

Deferred income taxes 278



322

Other assets 650



785





Total assets $ 344,780



$ 368,935

LIABILITIES AND STOCKHOLDERS' EQUITY





Current liabilities







Accounts payable and accrued expenses $ 19,571



$ 23,883



Deferred revenue 85,940



83,316



Income taxes payable 3,561



4,006



Liabilities held for sale 



2,334





Total current liabilities 109,072



113,539

Long-term debt, net 97,598



99,436

Deferred income taxes 11,248



10,849

Accrual for unrecognized tax benefits 3,551



3,436

Other long-term liabilities 2,866



3,062





Total liabilities 224,335



230,322

Total stockholders' equity 120,445



138,613





Total liabilities and stockholders' equity $ 344,780



$ 368,935















Supplemental Information and Non-GAAP Reconciliations

On the pages that follow, the Company has provided certain supplemental information that we believe will assist the reader in assessing our business operations and performance, including certain non-GAAP financial information and required reconciliations to the most comparable GAAP measure. A statement of operations and statement of cash flows for the three and six month periods ended June 30, 2016 and 2015 and a balance sheet as of June 30, 2016 and December 31, 2015 are provided elsewhere in this press release.

DHI GROUP, INC. NON-GAAP SUPPLEMENTAL DATA (Unaudited) (dollars in thousands except per customer data)







































For the three months ended June 30,

For the six months ended June 30,



2016

2015

2016

2015 Reconciliation of Net Income to Adjusted EBITDA:













Net income $ 4,854



$ 5,678



$ 5,965



$ 10,770



Interest expense 820



833



1,692



1,641



Income tax expense 2,794



4,023



3,438



7,256



Depreciation 2,563



2,254



5,161



4,457



Amortization of intangible assets 2,070



3,756



4,536



7,499



Non-cash stock compensation expense 2,806



2,577



5,523



5,080



SeveranceSlashdot Media 







981







Accelerated stock based compensation expenseSlashdot Media 







900







Loss on sale of business 77







639







Other 17



(18)



32



9

Adjusted EBITDA $ 16,001



$ 19,103



$ 28,867



$ 36,712

















Reconciliation of Operating Cash Flows to Adjusted EBITDA:













Net cash provided by operating activities $ 12,182



$ 17,869



$ 24,577



$ 36,989



Interest expense 820



833



1,692



1,641



Amortization of deferred financing costs (81)



(105)



(162)



(209)



Income tax expense 2,794



4,023



3,438



7,256



Deferred income taxes (313)



1,242



(229)



1,828



SeveranceSlashdot Media 







981







Change in accrual for unrecognized tax benefits (101)



(81)



(115)



(164)



Change in accounts receivable (2,490)



(2,502)



(4,857)



(4,829)



Change in deferred revenue 2,299



3,398



(3,252)



(2,033)



Changes in working capital and other 891



(5,574)



6,794



(3,767)

Adjusted EBITDA $ 16,001



$ 19,103



$ 28,867



$ 36,712























































Calculation of Free Cash Flow:













Net cash provided by operating activities $ 12,182



$ 17,869



$ 24,577



$ 36,989

Purchases of fixed assets (3,187)



(2,452)



(5,506)



(4,928)

Free Cash Flow $ 8,995



$ 15,417



$ 19,071



$ 32,061





































Dice Recruitment Package Customers













Beginning of period 7,450



7,800



7,600



7,800

End of period 7,300



7,750



7,300



7,750



















Average for the period (1) 7,350



7,750



7,400



7,800



















Dice Average Monthly Revenue per

Recruitment Package Customer (2) $ 1,124



$ 1,084



$ 1,121



$ 1,080























































(1) Reflects the daily average of recruitment package customers during the period.

(2) Reflects the simple average of each period presented.



























































DHI GROUP, INC.

NON-GAAP SUPPLEMENTAL DATA (CONTINUED)

(Unaudited)













For the three months ended June 30,

For the six months ended June 30,



2016

2015

2016

2015 Revenues $ 57,673



$ 65,802



$ 115,959



$ 129,572

Less Slashdot Media 



3,875



747



7,667

Revenues, excluding Slashdot Media $ 57,673



$ 61,927



$ 115,212



$ 121,905



















Net Income $ 4,854



$ 5,678



$ 5,965



$ 10,770

Exclude Slashdot Media net income (loss) (15)







(1,755)



316

Add back severance related to re-alignment, net of tax 







521





Net Income, excluding Slashdot Media and disposition related and other costs $ 4,869



$ 5,678



$ 8,241



$ 10,454



















Diluted Earnings per Share, excluding Slashdot Media and disposition related and other costs (3) $ 0.10



$ 0.11



$ 0.17



$ 0.20



















Adjusted EBITDA $ 16,001



$ 19,103



$ 28,867



$ 36,712

Exclude Slashdot Media 53



153



(208)



852

Add back severance related to re-alignment 







827





Adjusted EBITDA, excluding Slashdot Media and disposition related and other costs $ 15,948



$ 18,950



$ 29,902



$ 35,860



















Adjusted EBITDA Margin, excluding Slashdot Media and disposition related and other costs (4) 27.7 %

30.6 %

26.0 %

29.4 %



















































Segment Definitions:













Tech & Clearance: Dice, Dice Europe and ClearanceJobs Global Industry Group: eFinancialCareers, Rigzone, Hcareers and BioSpace







Healthcare: Health eCareers Corporate & Other: Corporate related costs, Slashdot Media and Brightmatter

















(3) Diluted Earnings per Share, excluding Slashdot Media and disposition related and other costs, is computed as Net Income, excluding Slashdot Media and disposition related and other costs, divided by weighted average diluted shares outstanding. (4) Adjusted EBITDA margin, excluding Slashdot Media and disposition related and other costs, is computed as Adjusted EBITDA, excluding Slashdot Media and disposition related and other costs, divided by Revenues, excluding Slashdot Media.











SOURCE DHI Group, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.diceholdingsinc.com


PUNE, India, July 27, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

According to a new market research report "Disaster Recovery as a Service Market by Service Type (Backup, Real-Time Replication, Data Security, & Professional Services), Provider (Cloud, Managed, and Telecom & Communications), Deployment, Organization Size, Vertical, & Region - Global Forecast to 2021", published by MarketsandMarkets, the DRaaS market size is estimated to grow from USD 1.68 Billion in 2016 to USD 11.11 Billion by 2021, at an estimated CAGR of 45.9% from 2016 to 2021.

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Browse 65 market data Tables and 57 Figures spread through 185 Pages and in-depth TOC on "Disaster Recovery as a Service Market"

http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/recovery-as-a-service-market-962.html

Early buyers will receive 10% customization on this report.

The key forces driving the DRaaS market are its features of faster recovery, cost-effectiveness, enhanced flexibility, and simple testing. Also, DR services provide automation capabilities that lead to limited utilization of resources and low up-front cost. With the increase in the adoption rate of DR services among Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), DRaaS market is expected to gain major traction during the forecast period.

Backup service is expected to play a key role in the Disaster Recovery as a Service Market

Backup service type is expected to have the largest market share in the services segment of the DRaaS market during the forecast period. The backup service plays a key role in the DRaaS market as it provides cost-effective, automated, reliable, secure, and scalable solutions to the enterprises ensuring business continuity in the event of disaster.

Managed Service Provider (MSP) segment is expected to grow at the highest rate during the forecast period

Among providers, the MSP segment is expected to grow at the highest rate in the DRaaS market during the forecast period. MSPs offer DRaaS services to help organizations offload the burden of data protection and data security, and ensure business continuity in the event of a disaster. They offer remote management and monitoring of IT infrastructure of the end-user under a subscription model. Therefore, enterprises are increasingly opting for MSPs to overcome the challenges of budget constraint and technical expertise as they have specialized human resources, infrastructure, and industry certifications.

North America is expected to contribute the largest market share, Asia-Pacific (APAC) to grow the fastest

North America is expected to hold the largest market share and dominate the Disaster Recovery as a Service Market from 2016 to 2021 due to large investments in cloud-based solutions, early adoption of new and emerging technologies, and high penetration of internet. The APAC region is in the initial growth phase; however, it is the fastest-growing region for the global DRaaS market. The key reasons for the high growth rate in APAC are the explosion of new technologies combined with increasing business needs and increase in the number of organizations adopting DR services.

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The major vendors providing DR services are Amazon Web Services (Seattle, Washington, U.S.); IBM Corporation (Armonk, New York, U.S.); Microsoft Corporation (Redmond, Washington, U.S.); SunGard Availability Services (Wayne, Pennsylvania, U.S.); VMware Inc. (Palo Alto, California, U.S.); Cable & Wireless Communications (London, U.K.); Cisco Systems (San Jose, California, U.S.); HP Enterprises Company (Palo Alto, California, U.S.); iLand Internet Solutions (Houston, Texas, U.S.); NTT Communications Corporation (Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan); TierPoint, LLC (St. Louis, Missouri, U.S.); and Verizon Enterprise Solutions (New York, U.S.).

Browse Related Reports

Cloud Access Security Brokers Market by Solution & Service (Control & Monitoring Cloud Services, Risk & Compliance Management, Data Security, Threat Protection, Professional Services, & Support, Training, and Maintenance Service) - Global Forecast to 2020

http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/cloud-access-security-brokers-market-66648604.html

Cloud Communication Platform Market by Solution and Service (UCC/UCaaS, WebRTC, VoIP, IVR, API, Reporting and Analytics, and Training and Consulting, Support and Maintenance Service, and Managed Services) - Global Forecast to 2021

http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/cloud-communication-platform-market-227618526.html

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.

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Markets and Markets

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SOURCE MarketsandMarkets
SAN FRANCISCO, July 27, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Doppio Group is pleased to announce its official participation in the Infor Partner Network (IPN) Alliance Partner Program. Infor, a leading provider of beautiful business applications specialized by industry and built for the cloud, places value on alliance partners for their thought leadership, industry knowledge and regional expertise.

Rapid growth in the need for expert integration services has pushed Doppio Group to double in size each of the past two years while serving Infor M3 customers across industries and around the world. Doppio's team of 35 functional and technical experts will continue to support platforms and applications such as Infor ION, Infor Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) and Infor Customer Relationship Management (CRM) while focusing on identifying additional integration opportunities for Infor M3 users.

"The purpose of this engagement with Infor is a natural step in aligning our two organizations from the standpoint of sales as well as delivery," stated founder and CEO Erik Kiser. "The goal is to continually improve the way our clients operate through integrating Infor with best in class third party solutions," he added.

Alliance Partners continue to play integral role in Infor CloudSuite and micro-vertical initiatives--

"Doppio brings a great deal of industry expertise to the IPN as well as a strategic advantage for mutual customers in need of cloud enablement and straight-forward integrations," said Dave Jakubowski, senior director, Global Alliances, Infor. "We look forward to growing our relationship with Doppio to help provide our customers with superior technology for years to come."

About Infor

Infor builds beautiful business applications with last mile functionality and scientific insights for select industries delivered as a cloud service. With 14,000 employees and customers in more than 200 countries and territories, Infor automates critical processes for industries including healthcare, manufacturing, fashion, wholesale distribution, hospitality, retail, and public sector. Infor software helps eliminate the need for costly customization through embedded deep industry domain expertise. Headquartered in New York City, Infor is also home to one of the largest creative agencies in Manhattan, Hook & Loop, focused on delivering a user experience that is fun and engaging. Infor deploys its cloud applications primarily on the Amazon Web Services cloud and open source platforms. To learn more about Infor, please visit www.infor.com.

About Doppio Group

Founded in 2013, Doppio Group has expanded operations from North America to Australia, New Zealand, and India. The company has invested in building industry standard integrations to solve common problems among customers. Doppio Group is the leading system integrator for Infor M3 customers worldwide.

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SOURCE Doppio Group

Related Links

http://www.doppiogroup.com


Matthew was treated in 1988 for the life-threatening disease, Fanconi's Anemia, with a groundbreaking transplant performed in Paris, France by Eliane Gluckman M.D, Ph.D. Matthew's doctor was Joanne Kurtzberg, M.D. of Duke University. Hal Broxmeyer, Ph.D, the pioneering scientist who determined that the stem cells in cord blood could be cryopreserved and then used to treat diseases, banked Allison's cord blood for Matthew's transplant. "I am so thankful for Dr. Broxmeyer's discovery and the care given to me by these wonderful scientists and doctors," said Matthew. Matthew is now 32 years old, married, and a father himself thanks to this pioneering medical breakthrough.

Yesterday, Matthew's sister, Allison Farrow, had the joy of giving birth to her first baby. After experiencing firsthand the lifesaving capability of cord blood, it was an easy decision for Allison to save her baby's cord blood. "The choice to store our baby's cord blood with CORD:USE Cord Blood Bank was never even a question. CORD:USE is led and directed by the doctors and scientists that saved my brother's life and changed the future of my entire family," said Allison.

Since that first transplant years ago, more than 35,000 transplants have been performed, and over 70 diseases have been treated with cord blood stem cells. In addition, a great deal of research is currently underway investigating the use of cord blood for the treatment of other diseases and conditions such as Autism, Cerebral Palsy, and Diabetes, to name a few.

About CORD:USE Cord Blood Bank, Inc.

CORD:USE Cord Blood Bank, headquartered in Orlando, Florida, operates both leading high quality public and family cord blood banks. CORD:USE Cord Blood Bank has entered into agreements with hospitals across the country to provide mothers the option to donate their babies' cord blood. CORD:USE Public Cord Blood Bank is one of the highest quality cord blood banks that has been chosen and partially funded by HRSA of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, to help build the National Cord Blood Inventory. CORD:USE Family Cord Blood Bank uses the same highly advanced technologies to protect cord blood as does their public bank. No other family cord blood bank uses the combination of highly advanced technologies utilized by CORD:USE to protect cord blood. For more information, please visit our website www.corduse.com

Contact: Michael Ernst, 1-407-667-3000, [email protected]

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SOURCE CORD:USE Cord Blood Bank

Related Links

http://www.corduse.com


a 6,000-lb. installation of 1966 and 2016 Corvettes (to commemorate the company's 50 th anniversary) set wheel-to-wheel and rotating above the reception area

anniversary) set wheel-to-wheel and rotating above the reception area a 32-foot custom stainless steel slide that connects the two floors

a 1948 Cadillac Fleetwood re-purposed into a beer and coffee bar

130 feet of sliding glass panels that transform the office into an indoor/outdoor workspace

a 150 sq. ft. outdoor projector screen to accommodate movie nights for employees and their families

two 600+ gallon saltwater fish tanks that will be home to 160 fish

frozen yogurt machine with toppings bar, in addition to other complimentary food and beverage options

game room featuring classic video games, Foosball, and air hockey

...and much, much more!

A photo gallery of Edmunds' new EdQuarters can be found at http://www.edmunds.com/about/edmunds-office-culture.html.

"As one of the founding tech companies on Silicon Beach, Edmunds is used to leading the way, and we've continued this tradition by taking a fresh and innovative approach to our new offices," said Edmunds.com Chief Executive Officer Avi Steinlauf. "With cutting-edge designs, immaculate indoor/outdoor spaces, and amenities that you're more likely to find at a luxury resort, we're excited to offer our employees and guests a comfortable environment where they can work, create, think and play."

The new office space is the latest example of Edmunds' commitment to the happiness and well-being of its staff of over 700 employees. The company operates a Results-Only Work Environment (ROWE) which gives all employees the freedom to set their own hours and take the time off they need, as long as they deliver results for the company. Other perks provided to Edmunds' staff include TripCa$h, which reimburses each employee up to $500 in vacation expenses, and Bonusly, a program that empowers employees to recognize each other's work and accomplishments with small spot bonuses.

An expanded list of Edmunds' employee benefits  as well as a list of current job openings  can be found on its careers page at http://www.edmunds.com/careers/.

About Edmunds.com, Inc.

Car shopping destination Edmunds.com serves millions of visitors each month. With Edmunds.com Price Promise, shoppers can buy smarter with instant, upfront prices for cars and trucks currently for sale at 10,000 dealer franchises across the U.S. Shoppers can browse not only dealer inventory, but also vehicle reviews, shopping tips, photos, videos and feature stories on both Edmunds' wired site and on its acclaimed mobile apps. Regarded as one of the best places to work in Southern California, Edmunds.com was also named one of "The World's Top 10 Most Innovative Companies of 2015 in Automotive" by Fast Company. Edmunds welcomes all car-shopping questions on its free Live Help Line at 1-855-782-4711 and [email protected], via text at ED411 and on Twitter and Facebook. The company is based in Santa Monica, Calif. and has a satellite office in downtown Detroit, Mich., but you can find Edmunds from anywhere on YouTube, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Instagram, Google+ and Flipboard.

Contact:

Aaron Lewis

Edmunds.com Corporate Communications

www.Edmunds.com

Media Hotline: 310-309-4900

[email protected]

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SOURCE Edmunds.com

Related Links

http://www.edmunds.com


LOS ANGELES, July 27, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- ELEMIS, the luxury British skincare brand that delivers pioneering, clinically trialed therapies and products for face and body, announces their new Los Angeles flagship location - The Spa at Beverly Wilshire, A Four Seasons Hotel. The spa oasis, known for revitalizing the mind and body, will carry a full ELEMIS menu, treating guests to the brands' world-renowned offerings.

"We are so excited to be launching at The Spa at Beverly Wilshire," says Sean Harrington, President and Co-Founder of ELEMIS. "The spa's commitment to a luxurious and effective experience aligns perfectly with ELEMIS' mission of providing everyone with the best skincare the world has to offer."

Debuting in July 2016, the transformative ELEMIS face and body services at The Spa at Beverly Wilshire are designed to target any and all skincare needs, and the menu includes selections formulated exclusively for the Spa.

Amber & Orchids, A Beverly Wilshire Signature Service ($315) - This lusciously fragrant Sweet Orchid Body Wrap, infused with vanilla and the velvety texture of Monoi Oil, intensely moisturizes thirsty skin. The mood-balancing aromatics are infused into the skin while you are cocooned in a warm wrap. The BIOTEC skincare which is rich in amber increases cell energy for optimum skin repair and protection.

This lusciously fragrant Sweet Orchid Body Wrap, infused with vanilla and the velvety texture of Monoi Oil, intensely moisturizes thirsty skin. The mood-balancing aromatics are infused into the skin while you are cocooned in a warm wrap. The BIOTEC skincare which is rich in amber increases cell energy for optimum skin repair and protection. BIOTEC Indulgence ($495) - A powerfully rejuvenating and supercharged facial, this treatment includes five unique technologies specifically targeted for all aspects of aging and lifestyle concerns. Microcurrent is used for firming and lifting, Galvanic propels high-potent actives deep into the skin and Ultrasonic resurfacing will deep-cleanse and exfoliate the skin. The light therapies include a red light to stimulate collagen and increase cell renewal and blue light to sooth, calm, and reduce inflammation. Lastly, oxygen infusion drives high-potent actives to restore and rebalance the skin. ELEMIS' key active ingredients including padina pevonica, hyaluronic acid and encapsulated vitamin C help deliver immediate results.

A powerfully rejuvenating and supercharged facial, this treatment includes five unique technologies specifically targeted for all aspects of aging and lifestyle concerns. Microcurrent is used for firming and lifting, Galvanic propels high-potent actives deep into the skin and Ultrasonic resurfacing will deep-cleanse and exfoliate the skin. The light therapies include a red light to stimulate collagen and increase cell renewal and blue light to sooth, calm, and reduce inflammation. Lastly, oxygen infusion drives high-potent actives to restore and rebalance the skin. ELEMIS' key active ingredients including padina pevonica, hyaluronic acid and encapsulated vitamin C help deliver immediate results. Travel Recovery Treatment ($315)  For the jet-lagged and out-of-balance, the re-energizing ELEMIS Musclease seaweed wrap detoxifies and de-stresses the body inside and out, easing the mind & lifting the spirit. A combination of the richness of sea plants with a warming blend of Juniper and Pine essential oils reduces aches and pains, muscle tension and fatigue. A warm seaweed mask is applied to the body as you relax with a calming Thai facial and eye massage. A stress-relieving scalp treatment leaves you fully restored.

For the jet-lagged and out-of-balance, the re-energizing ELEMIS Musclease seaweed wrap detoxifies and de-stresses the body inside and out, easing the mind & lifting the spirit. A combination of the richness of sea plants with a warming blend of Juniper and Pine essential oils reduces aches and pains, muscle tension and fatigue. A warm seaweed mask is applied to the body as you relax with a calming Thai facial and eye massage. A stress-relieving scalp treatment leaves you fully restored. Superfood Detox Wrap ($315) - The ELEMIS Superfood Detox treatment is a nutrient-rich wrap that provides powerful detoxification, helping stimulate the elimination process and restore equilibrium. Omega-rich Green Tea seed oil is massaged into the skin, followed by the thousand flower wrap with Chia to eliminate body toxins. A nourishing Green Tea balm, rich in minerals, proteins and omegas  the superfoods of the skin  is the final touch applied with a little extra massage, completely reinvigorating your body.

For more news and information about ELEMIS, visit www.elemis.com and on social channels at @elemisltd on Instagram and @Elemis on Twitter.

About ELEMIS

A British anti-aging skincare brand, ELEMIS' pioneering skincare products and treatments have transformed the frontline of the beauty industry. ELEMIS was launched in 1990 and is headquartered in London. For more information visit www.elemis.com.

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SOURCE ELEMIS

Related Links

http://www.elemis.com/us


AUCKLAND, New Zealand, July 27, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Endace announced that it has joined the Cisco Solution Partner Program as a Solution partner. The Internet of Everything (IoE) continues to bring together people, processes, data and things to enhance the relevancy of network connections. As a member of the Cisco Solution Partner Program, Endace is able to quickly create and deploy solutions to enhance the capabilities, performance and management of the network to capture value in the IoE.

"The Cisco Solution Partner Program enables us to work closely with Cisco and our mutual customers to test and prove our solutions work seamlessly with Cisco solutions, such as the Firepower Management Center console, with Endace's 100% accurate network recording and network visibility products," says Stuart Wilson, CEO of Endace. "This integration streamlines investigative workflows for network security and operations teams and provides easy access to a 100% accurate record of network activity that enables customers to respond quickly and authoritatively to security and data breach events."

The Cisco Solution Partner Program, part of the Cisco Partner Ecosystem, unites Cisco with third-party independent hardware and software vendors to deliver integrated solutions to joint customers. As a Solution Partner, Endace offers a complementary product offering and has started to collaborate with Cisco to meet the needs of joint customers. For more information on Endace, go to https://marketplace.cisco.com/catalog/companies/endace-limited/products/endace-fusion-connector-for-cisco-firesight.

About Endace

For more than 15 years, Endace has provided high-speed, network recording and visibility solutions to monitor and protect some of the world's largest, most complex networks. Customers include global banks, telcos and service providers, media and broadcast companies, health organizations, retailers, e-commerce and web giants, governments and large enterprises. Customers choose Endace technology because it can monitor and capture network traffic with 100% accuracy regardless of network speeds or loads. It can scale to meet the needs of the fastest networks and is built on an open architecture that enables integration with a wide variety of custom, open source and commercial solutions.

www.endace.com

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SOURCE Endace

Related Links

http://www.endace.com


ALPHARETTA, Ga., July 27, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- EndoChoice Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: GI) announced today that it will release its second quarter 2016 financial results on Wednesday, August 3, 2016 after the market closes.

EndoChoice will hold a conference call on Wednesday, August 3, 2016 at 4:30 p.m. ET to discuss the results. The dial-in numbers are (877) 328-5344 for domestic callers and (412) 317-5469 for international callers. A live webcast of the conference call will be available on the investor relations section of the Company's website at http://investor.endochoice.com.

A replay of the call will be available starting on August 3, 2016 through August 10, 2016. To access the replay, dial (877) 344-7529 for domestic callers and (412) 317-0088 for international callers, with the replay access code 10090361. The webcast replay will be available in the investor relations section of the Company's website for 90 days following the completion of the call and a transcript will be posted to the investor relations website.

About EndoChoice:

Based near Atlanta, Georgia, EndoChoice (NYSE: GI) is a medtech company focused on the manufacturing and commercialization of platform technologies including endoscopic imaging systems, devices and infection control products and pathology services for specialists treating a wide range of gastrointestinal conditions, including colon cancer. EndoChoice leverages its direct sales organization to serve more than 2,500 customers in the United States and works with distribution partners in 30 countries. The Company was founded in 2008 and has rapidly developed a broad and innovative product portfolio, which includes the Full Spectrum Endoscopy (Fuse) system. EndoChoice, Fuse, and Full Spectrum Endoscopy are registered trademarks of EndoChoice, Inc.

Company Contact:

David Gill, President & Chief Financial Officer

[email protected]

678-585-1040

Investor Contacts:

Nick Laudico or Zack Kubow

The Ruth Group

646-536-7030 / 7020

[email protected]

[email protected]

SOURCE EndoChoice

Related Links

http://www.endochoice.com


NEW YORK, July 27, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- As the veil was lifted off the second annual #SuiteLife Awards, Experian Marketing Services, the recognized leader in data-driven marketing and cloud-based marketing technology, acknowledged several of the world's premier brands for exceptional marketing campaigns. The second annual #SuiteLife Awards recognized brands that embody the idea of improving the customer experience through data and analytics while driving results for the business.

"Consumers should always be at the forefront as brands develop and implement marketing campaigns. Each program should be able to answer the question: How can I add value to my customers and improve their experience?" said Matt Seeley, president, Global Experian Marketing Suite. "We are proud to recognize these brands as #SuiteLife Award winners and to work with them on a daily basis, because they exemplify what it means to create exceptional customer experiences."

Winners were announced during Experian Marketing Services' 2016 Client Summit in Las Vegas, Nev. During the ceremony, the audience was asked to cast their vote for their favorite campaign. The People's Choice Award went to American Eagle Outfitters, a leading global specialty retailer.

2016 #SuiteLife Awards winners include:

Hilton Worldwide  Best Real-Time Contextual Marketing Campaign

Hilton Worldwide developed a distinctive email marketing program that enabled the organization to provide highly personalized email messages to a large number of its HHonors members, while maintaining a reasonable level of effort and management of email resources.

Pet Supplies Plus  Best Acquisition Campaign

In an effort to increase sales and acquire new customers in underperforming locations, Pet Supplies Plus created a coupon incentive program that helped increase awareness of the brand. Throughout the customer acquisition campaign, Pet Supplies Plus was able to increase store sales by more than 10 percent, and it retained a significant number of customers post-promotional campaign.

Finish Line  Best Cross-Channel Campaign

Finish Line developed a thoughtful, creative cross-channel marketing campaign that engaged customers across various marketing channels, including ecommerce sites, display advertising, paid search, social channels and email, among others. Leveraging email interaction data from Experian Marketing Services, Finish Line retargeted customers and evolved its interaction through email channels and its mobile app. The campaign helped drive significant traffic, conversion, revenue and brand recognition.

The Bon-Ton Stores Inc.  Best Mobile Campaign

As part of the Very Merry Gift Guide campaign, The Bon-Ton Stores Inc. developed an innovative, unique and engaging experience for its most loyal customers. Using Experian Marketing Services, the company developed a mobile strategy that offered customers the opportunity to receive daily SMS/MMS mobile message reminders about its curated and personality-drive holiday gift guides. The mobile campaign exposed a breadth of products and allowed Bon-Ton to provide an added value to customers by helping to find the perfect gift for everyone on their list, through an interactive experience.

MAC Cosmetics  Best Creative Campaign

MAC Cosmetics created a unique, forward-thinking Halloween email marketing campaign that included animated video. Consistent with its focus on artistry and individuality, the email campaign series featured detailed instructional make-up videos, as well as product recommendations to help customers recreate the videos' unique looks.

Neiman Marcus  Best Innovation Campaign

Neiman Marcus was recognized for its in-store technology, the MemoryMirror that bridged the gap between stores and online while simplifying the customer's shopping experience. The technology enables customers to take a 360-degree video of an outfit, allowing the customer to see the item from all angles. By enabling email and social sharing of the video, Neiman Marcus customers can share the look on social media and through email.

GODIVA Chocolatier  Best "Insight to Interaction" Campaign

With the goal of engaging its inactive population, Godiva leveraged Experian's Email Insights to intelligently target the most likely customers to engage without sacrificing brand reputation. The marketing campaign helped grow regular campaign targeting by more than 10 percent.

American Eagle Outfitters  Best "Data for Good" Campaign

As a socially conscientious brand, American Eagle Outfitters has leveraged its email marketing program to support various social topics. The company's lingerie and apparel brand, Aerie, created a campaign that shed light on self-acceptance and body-positivity. Since the marketing campaign was initiated, the brand has been recognized as a strong proponent in the social space and giving back to the community.

"In order to stay ahead of the competition and adapt in today's ever changing environment, brands need to provide customers with a meaningful journey and memorable experience," said Jeffrey Wilks, executive vice president and general Manager, Experian Marketing Suite. "These brands are at the forefront of delivering on that ideology. Through their commitment to innovation and use of data and technology, these brands are able to intelligently interact with their customers and better serve their needs."

More than 1,000 marketers came together for Experian Marketing Services' 2016 Client Summit, where they were able to network and attend breakout sessions to help them take their marketing campaigns to the next level.

Featured speakers included:

Ashley Graham , model, body activist and entrepreneur

, model, body activist and entrepreneur Adam Grant , author of Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World and Give and Take: Why Helping Others Drives Our Success

, author of and Barry Schwartz , author of Why We Work and The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less

, author of and Richard Sherman , All-Pro cornerback for the Seattle Seahawks

, All-Pro cornerback for the Seattle Seahawks Lisa Leslie , former WNBA center and Olympian

, former WNBA center and Olympian Kim Lewis , vice president of omnichannel marketing for Golfsmith

, vice president of omnichannel marketing for Golfsmith Jim Murphy , executive director of marketing technology and operations for Hearst Magazines

, executive director of marketing technology and operations for Hearst Magazines Sal Tripi , AVP of digital operations and compliance for Publishers Clearing House

About Experian Marketing Services

Experian Marketing Services is a leader in data-driven marketing and cloud-based marketing technology. Experian is the only company in the world to offer a comprehensive Marketing Suite that unites customer insights, analytics, data quality and cross-channel marketing technology into a single platform. Backed by the industry's highest-rated client services team and the world's largest consumer database, we provide more than 10,000 brands in more than 30 countries with unique competitive advantages through marketing services and technology. Our extended legacy in data security, management and consumer privacy has earned the trust of organizations and consumers from around the world for more than three decades. For more information, please visit http://www.experian.com/marketing-services.

About Experian

We are the leading global information services company, providing data and analytical tools to our clients around the world. We help businesses to manage credit risk, prevent fraud, target marketing offers and automate decision making. We also help people to check their credit report and credit score and protect against identity theft. In 2015, we were named one of the "World's Most Innovative Companies" by Forbes magazine.

We employ approximately 17,000 people in 37 countries and our corporate headquarters are in Dublin, Ireland, with operational headquarters in Nottingham, UK; California, US; and Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Experian plc is listed on the London Stock Exchange (EXPN) and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 index. Total revenue for the year ended March 31, 2016, was US$4.6 billion.

To find out more about our company, please visit http://www.experianplc.com or watch our documentary, "Inside Experian."

Experian and the Experian marks used herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of Experian Information Solutions, Inc. Other product and company names mentioned herein are the property of their respective owners.

Contact:

Jordan Takeyama

Experian Marketing Services

1 714 830 7561

[email protected]

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20140226/MM73173LOGO-c

SOURCE Experian Marketing Services

Related Links

http://www.experian.com/marketing-services


NEWTON, Mass., July 27, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- The Invest in Others Charitable Foundation is pleased to announce the fifteen financial advisors who were selected as finalists for the 2016 Community Leadership Awards in the categories of Catalyst, Community Service, Global Community Impact, Volunteer of the Year, and Lifetime Achievement.

Now in its tenth year, the Community Leadership Awards program recognizes the charitable work of financial advisors and financial services firms in communities across the country and around the world. Through this flagship program, Invest in Others has presented 43 awards, partnered with over 125 charities, shared hundreds of inspirational stories, and donated over $2 million to causes that financial advisors and firms care so much about.

Financial advisors are nominated by their peers for actively giving back to non-profits to improve their communities and make a difference in the lives of others. Hundreds of nominations were received this year and finalists were selected based on their leadership, dedication, contribution, inspiration, and impact on a non-profit and the community it serves. The designated non-profits of award finalists and winners will receive donations of up to $25,000 from Invest in Others.

By award category, the 2016 finalists are:

Catalyst

Lisette Cooper of Athena Capital Advisors LLC in Lincoln, Mass. for the Boston Youth Sanctuary

of Athena Capital Advisors LLC in for the Boston Youth Sanctuary Janel Huston of Raymond James in Winnetka, Ill. for Children's Oncology Services, Inc.

of in for Children's Oncology Services, Inc. Michael J. Nathanson of The Colony Group in Boston, Mass. for the National Brain Tumor Society

Community Service

Trent Bryson of Bryson Financial in Long Beach, Calif. for the Boys & Girls Clubs of Long Beach

of Bryson Financial in for the Boys & Girls Clubs of Daniel C. Jones of Raymond James in Jenkintown, Pa. for The Buoniconti Fund to Cure Paralysis

of in for The Buoniconti Fund to Cure Paralysis Roy C. Jordan of Northwestern Mutual in Nashville, Tenn. for the Green Hills Family YMCA/YMCA of Middle Tennessee

Global Community Impact

Larry Goff of Triloma Securities, LLC in Winter Park, Fla. for Beauty for Ashes Uganda

of Triloma Securities, LLC in for Beauty for Ashes Uganda Michael Meltzer of Tocqueville Asset Management L.P. in New York City for Maya's Hope Foundation, Inc.

of Tocqueville Asset Management L.P. in for Maya's Hope Foundation, Inc. Steven Tonkinson of Tonkinson Financial in Miami, Fla. for ShelterBox USA

Volunteer of the Year

Mary Lou Arveseth of Financial Network in Draper, Utah for American Foundation for Suicide Prevention-Utah Chapter

of Financial Network in for American Foundation for Suicide Prevention-Utah Chapter Chad Coe of Coe Financial Group in Deerfield, Ill. for Special Kids Network

of Coe Financial Group in for Special Kids Network Ryan Harman of Edward Jones in Hendersonville, N.C. for Project Healing Waters Fly Fishing Inc.

Lifetime Achievement

Gerard Klingman of Klingman & Associates, LLC/ Raymond James in New York City for Best Buddies International

of Klingman & Associates, LLC/ in for Best Buddies International Frank Lento of Merrill Lynch in Paramus, N.J. for the Institute for Educational Achievement

of Merrill Lynch in for the Institute for Educational Achievement Jeffrey Owens of BPG Wealth Management LLC in Clackamas, Ore. for Children's Cancer Association

"This year's finalists are extraordinary. The non-profits they work with represent a range of causes, from medical research to youth development and suicide prevention, and collectively serve more than 4 million people annually. Together, these fifteen advisors have raised over $14 million in the past three years and spend an average of 30 hours per month volunteering to make a difference. These individuals are truly making an impact and we're thrilled to recognize them for it," said Megan McAuley, Executive Director & President of Invest in Others.

Awards will be presented at the tenth annual Invest in Others Community Leadership Awards Gala, a premier event attended by over 500 financial advisors and financial services executives, on September 29, 2016 in New York City. The Presenting Diamond Sponsor of the Gala is Fidelity Investments and Platinum Sponsors are Allianz, LPL Financial, Nuveen Investments, and TD Ameritrade.

About the Invest in Others Charitable Foundation

The Invest in Others Charitable Foundation is a 501(c)(3) non-profit that was founded by the financial services industry to amplify the charitable work of financial advisors and their firms to make a difference in communities across the United States and around the world. To realize our goals, we recognize and reward philanthropy, inspire volunteerism, and inform the investing public about the positive impact made by advisors and their firms in their communities. Today, Invest in Others is the premier, industry wide non-profit dedicated to recognizing, encouraging, and supporting the charitable work of financial advisors and the advisory industry. For more information, visit www.investinothers.org.

Media Contacts:

Jessica Dunham, Director of Marketing and Communications

[email protected]

781.304.4812

SOURCE Invest in Others Charitable Foundation

Related Links

http://www.investinothers.org